Nexus: Heroes Will Rise
by tmb1112
Summary: Universal borders have been erased and beings from thousands of universes now live on the same world: Nexus. In the first Saga of Nexus, Awul was saved, but the mysteries of Nexus remain. Now our heroes sail across the sea to Aebrith to search for lost loved ones and save the world. MCs from DBZ, KH, Soul Eater, FT, Blue Exorcist, Bleach, 7DS, OP, Ben 10, SAO, HxH, and many more!
1. Nexus HWR 1-0 Taken

**Nexus Heroes Will Rise:**

 **A/N Hey everyone! For anyone who clicked this story without first reading Nexus, I suggest reading Nexus first or you'll be confused as to what's going on. (Click on username and scroll down my stories to find Nexus). For those of you who have read through a million words of Nexus, hope you're excited for the new Saga of the story. The group from Awul has just left on their journey to Aebrith, looking for their missing friends and aiming to fight the mysterious King. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, One Piece, DBZ, Akame ga Kill, Game of Thrones, Kingdom Hearts, Hunter x Hunter, Fairly Oddparents, or any other media you may recognize characters and settings from.**

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 **Nexus HWR 1.0 Taken:**

 **Fairy Tail Guild Hall, Pao Town**

 **Two Hours Ago**

Natsu, Gray, Juvia, and Erza sat at a booth eating their breakfast. The normal loud conversations and fights that always made Fairy Tail so lively were absent this morning. The mood of the guild hall was happy, but at the same time it was pretty quiet. Everyone knew why too. Today was the day their friends would be leaving.

People at all of the tables kept looking over at Natsu and his friends' booth, wondering how much longer they would be there for. While they were eating, they heard some loud talking coming from over at the bar. They looked over to see Laxus put a hand on Macao Conbolt's shoulder, then start speaking in a low tone to the older man. Macao pushed his arm off angrily however, and glared at Mira behind the bar as she tried soothing him.

Next to the three of them, Wendy was standing awkwardly. She had a nervous look on her face and was looking down as if she were ashamed of something. "What's going on over there?" Gray muttered as he took another gulp of orange juice from his mug.

They watched as Macao kept shaking his head at Laxus and Mira, then he spun around and looked their way. Erza frowned, "I'm guessing we're about to find out."

The old man with graying dark blue hair and a thick furry mustache marched across the guild's floor. Wendy hesitated for a moment, then followed after the veteran guild member. Macao reached Natsu's table and slammed his hands down on the left side of it closer to the middle of the room.

"What's up Macao?" Natsu asked, shoveling up another scoop of his cereal.

Macao was panting heavily; he looked to be in a lot of distress. "Romeo," the man finally stated after a few seconds. Natsu's spoon froze before it reached his mouth and he lowered it back down while staring at Macao harshly. "Find Romeo."

Natsu was sitting next to Erza on one side of the booth while Juvia and Gray sat on the other. Erza and Gray each looked across the table at each other in that moment. They had confused looks on their faces, because they distinctly remembered every single name Natsu told them back in Port Royal. Elfman, Alzack, Lucy, Happy, Master Makarov, and Romeo was definitely a name they remembered hearing too.

"Macao-san," Juvia started in a quiet voice.

Macao looked around at all their faces, full of pity for him. He shook his head and turned to his left, "Tell them what you told me."

The four wizards at the table looked over at Wendy who was taken aback but then looked back down at her feet. "Macao-san, it was a long time-"

"Just tell them," Macao said, a desperate smile on his face. The old man was sweating on both sides of his face, and his smile just made Wendy feel even worse.

"I should not have said anything. It was wrong to bring Macao-san's hopes up," Wendy whispered, sounding on the verge of tears herself.

Natsu turned to the girl with a confused look. "What do you mean?" He asked.

Wendy looked up at the pink spiky haired Dragon Slayer. She appeared hesitant to say anything, but all four of her friends at this table were looking at her expectantly now. She sighed and then spoke up softly, "It was well over a year ago..."

 **FD + 176**

"Wendy!"

The girl with long blue pigtails turned around a little and froze. She heard the voice but could almost not believe who she was seeing run her way.

"Do you know that boy?" An older girl on Wendy's left asked. The young woman had shorter pink hair that only fell back to her shoulder blades, but was also tied into pigtails.

"Yes Mine," Wendy whispered, tears coming to her eyes.

"And that cat?" The pink haired woman asked in a deadpan manner.

Wendy sniffled a few times and then nodded, "Mm hm!" She turned around on the grassy hill and looked down between the sparsely scattered trees to the two running up towards her. The eleven year old girl rose an arm up and waved at the boy only a year older than her running up the hill. "Romeo! Lily!"

"Wendy," the black cat with white wings flying forward above Romeo's shoulders exclaimed. The Exceed named Panther Lily was holding back his tears so his eyes just looked very watery on the bottom. The two children could not hold it in though and were running towards each other now.

Mine sighed as her companion ran down the hill they had just climbed. She walked after Wendy and watched as the girl embraced her friend. _Aww, sweet._ As the pink haired woman thought it though, she was also on the lookout for any enemies, darting her gaze to the left and right as she walked.

"Wendy! I can't believe I found you," Romeo had her by the hands and he leaned back with their arms fully extended towards each other. "Everyone is going to be so impressed! They said I needed Lily to watch over me, but look at me now!" Romeo was so excited he was speaking almost too fast for Wendy to follow.

"Wait? Others?" Wendy asked.

Romeo nodded his head a few times. "Yeah! Fairy Tail. We built a guild nearby. There's a town and all these people helped us out. There're these really strong guys, and soldiers, and a new kid showed up a few weeks ago who can turn into aliens!"

"Aliens?!" Wendy exclaimed in surprise.

"Wait," the older girl behind Wendy stated, finally walking up to the two of them. "How did you find us?"

Romeo let go of Wendy's hands finally and looked up at the taller girl who was probably in her late teens. She had pink eyes to match her hair, and those eyes were glaring at the kid making him sweat. He gulped, and then held his ground firmly as he said, "I was actually just out here on a hunting mission with Lily."

The black flying cat wearing green pants had a red sword strapped on his back. Panther Lily flew forwards a little and said in a gruff voice, "You there, what is your name?"

Mine's eyes narrowed at the cat. Being a trained assassin meant she was more cautious than most, and she could tell the cat was stronger than it looked. Wendy saw the tension growing and she quickly held up her hands. "This is my friend Mine! She's been traveling with me for a little while! She's a really good person Lily," Wendy assured, and the black cat nodded his head, seeming to take her word for it.

Romeo looked at the older woman and said, "Pao isn't that far." He looked back at Wendy, "Let's go back!"

Wendy nodded. She wiped her eyes and face with the sleeves of her long-sleeved blue shirt. When she lowered her wet arms, her eyes were still watering but she managed to keep from crying in joy anymore. She smiled up at Lily, then down at Romeo and asked, "Who from Fairy Tail is there?"

Romeo turned back and started marching victoriously the other way down the hill. He had a proud grin on his face and could already imagine the praise he would receive from the others upon bringing back Wendy. "There's the Master, and Laxus is there too," Romeo started while the two girls followed behind him.

Lily waited until the two girls were walking before flying slowly behind them. The black Exceed continued, "Elfman, Mira, and Lisanna are all together. Alzack and Bisca and their daughter Asuka too."

"What about Natsu?" Wendy asked, looking over her shoulder at the flying cat. Lily hesitated, then shook his head no. "Erza? Gray? Juvia?" Every time, Lily just shook his head no. "What about Gajeel? Did you show up with him?"

"Gajeel isn't there," Lily stated harshly, looking away fast and ending it there. The black Exceed paused for a moment, then questioned, "Is Charla-"

He saw Wendy flinch badly and the flying cat's eyes widened for a moment before he closed them tightly. "Ch-Charla," Wendy started, but now those happy tears she had been holding back were coming out for a different reason.

Mine sighed and put an arm around the shorter girl's head, grabbing the shoulder farther from her and squeezing it tightly. She pulled the smaller girl into her side and gave her a little half-hug. She was about to say something to her, when the sniper's eyes darted to the left and her hand clenched tighter on Wendy's shoulder.

Wendy noticed the tense clench of her friend's hand and looked up a little to see Mine staring off to the left with a narrowed gaze. "What is it Mine?"

Lily was deep in thought after learning of his friend Charla's demise, but he noticed the pink haired girl looking off to their left as well and he realized he had been too distracted to notice. "We're being watched-"

"What are you talking about?" Romeo asked in a carefree tone. He turned around from the front of the pack and looked behind him at his friends with a small smile, "Everything is fine! Come on, if we hurry we could make it back to Pao before dark..." He faded off as the three in front of him turned his way and then started staring with horrified expressions at something behind him. His face covered in sweat as the two girls stepped backwards in fear, and even the black Exceed was sweating. Lily's white wings vanished and his small form grew twenty times into an over six foot tall muscular man with the face of a gruff panther and black fur all over his toned body.

The boy with wavy black hair did not want to turn around. He noticed the shadow fall over him, and then kept getting larger so that it covered all three of the figures in front of him too. Even in his muscular human-like form, Lily still looked scared and backed up while drawing his large red sword that extended in length when placed in his grip. Romeo gulped and turned away from the blue faces of his friends, turning fully around and then lifting up his eyes to take in the entire creature behind him.

It had two long black legs that ended in little twists of darkness instead of feet. The higher up they looked the legs got thicker, until they reached the huge muscular dark body of the massive creature standing behind Romeo. It was a hundred feet tall with two large arms on its sides and a giant face with glowing yellow eyes and dozens of hair-like tentacles waving around over his face and around his head.

"What is that thing?!" Mine exclaimed finally, stumbling backwards farther and almost tripping.

The four of them stared at the giant black monster, no idea that it was a Heartless creature called a Darkside. None of them had seen anything like it before, but they were terrified nonetheless. "D-Do you think it sees us?" Romeo asked, his feet planted to the spot only ten feet in front of the monster's legs. He tried moving backwards but his whole body tensed up and he froze as the two yellow glowing eyes snapped down to look right into his own.

"Does that answer your question?!" Mine yelled over at the boy. She clenched her teeth hard and looked to her right and left, trying to find a good escape route. _If only I still had Pumpkin. I still can't believe Naruto went nuts like that, he even managed to break my Imperial Arms._ The girl who had escaped from the carnage of Konoha not long ago was now faced with another horrible situation, only this time she was unarmed.

"Hey! You children and cat!"

The four of them snapped their heads to the left and saw a large black-skinned man standing next to a tree nearby. He had no hair on his head and expensive looking clothes on him matched nicely by his fine jewelry: golden rings and diamond necklaces. The man waved a hand towards himself, "This way!"

He was fifty feet away from them, still on the hill actually. _Why was he hiding?_ Mine thought, but then shook her head as there were bigger concerns at the moment, like how the monster in front of them was bringing back a fist and twisting its body.

"Let's follow him!" Wendy exclaimed, turning and starting to run. Lily and Mine ran off too, but Wendy looked back and saw Romeo frozen to the spot as the huge Heartless slammed a giant black fist down towards him. "Romeo!" She yelled.

He couldn't turn away as he watched the fist several times larger than his body come towards him, seeping an evil feeling that made him feel so weak. A second before it was going to hit him, he was slammed in the side by a girl with long blue pigtails, tackling him out of the way. The two of them were thrown even farther as the fist hit the ground behind them. "Ahh!" They both yelled, then hit the ground and tumbled across the hill for a few seconds.

"Wendy! Romeo!" Lily shouted back as he became separated from the other two by a large black fist. He charged the fist with his sword drawn, but skid to a stop as the ground all around the fist turned from green to black. A circle of darkness with a purple center spread out from the fist. Wisps of darkness seeped up into the air from the dark middle, and then it got worse as five black creatures spawned around the hand. They came out of the darkness, little Shadows that looked like imps, with the same glowing yellow eyes as the huge Darkside bent down behind them.

Half of the black creatures turned Lily's way and charged him, while the others ran on the other side of the fist. He knew they were going for the younger kids, but when he lifted up his sword and blocked one of the creature's hits, he found out they were stronger than their small bodies implied. He pushed off of the claw that he parried and then swung his sword at the creature, sending it flying back, only for it to stand back up and then flatten out on the floor.

The monster slid across the floor looking like a shadow, then hopped up on Lily's left side as the other two that attacked him jumped up on his right. The black Exceed jumped back and swung his sword in a wide arc across his body, slicing all three of the creatures.

Meanwhile on the other side of the Darkside's fist, Romeo and Wendy staggered up to their feet to face even more of these creatures that kept appearing. The young boy rose his arms and purple flames appeared over either of his palms in small balls. He chucked the magic forward while Wendy rose her hands to her mouth and yelled, "Sky Dragon's Roar!"

They sent their enemies flying backwards or exploding in balls of purple flames. The two kids looked at each other with smiles and then turned back as the huge monster started lifting back up its fist. "I think we could take this thing," Romeo started, then froze with his mouth dropped as the dark creature rose both hands up in front of it and began forming an enormous ball of darkness that had a glowing orange core like that of a sun, except scarier.

"Okay, scratch that," Romeo said, turning to Wendy and being the one to get her moving this time by grabbing her arm and starting to run. "Let's get out of here!"

"This way!" The black man over to the left of the Darkside yelled again. Around him, other people were running up and they had rifles in their arms. The men had scars on their faces, or golden teeth, or rings covering all their fingers. Ignoring their sketchy appearances, Romeo and Wendy ran their way where Mine was already waving them towards her.

"Go!" Lily yelled, slamming his sword one more time across him and smashing the smaller Shadows into pieces. They turned into clouds of dark bubbles and faded as they floated up. The large muscular cat-person turned around and chased after the younger magicians when he finished off his last opponent.

All three of them caught up to Mine, and listened to the bald black man who yelled, "Follow me!" The others around them were firing their rifles and long thin beams of yellow light shot out towards the monster behind them.

"It's not working!" A white man yelled as he saw his beam hit the monster in the face and have no effect.

"Oh it's working! It's working at pissing that thing off!" Another guy with tanner skin and longer hair than his friend yelled back. He did so because the monster had turned its attention from the fleeing children and cat to them, and was now bringing down the huge ball of darkness at them.

"Ahhh!"

Wendy and the others running with her looked back to see a huge ball of darkness crash into the ground twenty feet behind them. The two closest trees lost their green and brown colors and started to shrivel up before flying off the ground, torn from their roots by the explosion that came from inside the ball of darkness. The core ripped apart the ground and destroyed the men who were trying to run from it.

Romeo and Wendy looked back and saw a man who was helping them escape flying through the air. He had been lifted off the ground by the explosion, and as he flew their way his eyes opened in horror, and then his chest lit up bright and a heart floated out of him. His body faded and the glowing red heart burst into a sphere of darkness before vanishing.

"Get to the river!" The black-skinned man leading them roared, announcing it more to all of his men than anything.

As everyone ran away, Wendy looked back to see the dark giant looking their way over the fading dark explosion and the few trees around them. Her run slowed, then stopped completely. Romeo looked back seeing his fellow guild member stopping and he yelled over, "Wendy! What are you doing?!"

"I must fight this monster!" Wendy yelled. She looked back and forced a smile to her face, "Get everyone to safety Romeo. I will be right behind you."

"Wendy no!" Romeo yelled back, but Wendy already started running towards the approaching giant. She leapt up in the air thirty feet and swung her arms out to the sides. Romeo watched in awe as two long whips of air stretched out from her hands over thirty feet in both directions. She swung her arms around and then smashed them forward, crashing the long whips right into the huge monster's head. "Sky Dragon's Wing Attack!"

Romeo watched in awe, _She's so strong._ He took a step back, but two strong arms grabbed the kid and pulled him the other way. "Huh? Hey what are you doing?!" He yelled at the guy who picked him up and kept running with the boy over his shoulder.

"We've lost too many men to go back empty-handed," the tan-skinned man growled. He had two golden teeth and a scar underneath his right eye, and when he turned to look at the kid's face, he gave Romeo chills. He snarled at the child and said, "Do you want their deaths to be in vain?"

Romeo shook his head, but then looked back again and watched Wendy as they got farther from her.

Wendy landed down on a tree branch and panted hard a few times before catching her breath. She looked at the giant beast that showed no injuries at all, but at the same time every time she hit it she saw chunks of darkness get smashed off and dissolved. _It's solid, but it's made of strange stuff that my attacks break through. Am I even doing any damage though?_ Wendy stepped back and her foot slid off of the tree branch.

"Eep!" She yelped as she fell from the tree. She landed on her feet with her legs bent and put a fist down in front of her to keep from falling over.

She snapped her head back up and crossed her arms expecting an attack to be on its way. Nothing came though, and she lowered her arms to see the huge black creature leaning backwards. It tilted its head up and leaned its chest backwards, confusing the girl even more by throwing its arms out to either side. "What, what are you-" she began, then watched as the Darkside's chest ripped open into a swirling area of dark purple that emitted a strong feeling of evil.

The girl stumbled backwards, then as ten large spheres of darkness shot out of the monster's chest and locked onto her, she turned and ran away as fast as she could. "Vernier!" She yelled, and her legs covered in green light for a second. Her magic buffed her speed and she sped up just as a sphere of darkness crashed into where she was running a second before. She darted to the right, then left.

"Keep going Wendy," she encouraged herself as dark explosions kept happening around her. The trees all around started to thin out even more and she could see a large open field in the distance not a quarter mile away. Past that there was a river and she could see a large brown boat on it.

Across the field over at the river's edge, Romeo and the others had just reached a camp full of people. "Malko! Where are your men?!" An angry figure growled loudly at the bald man leading them to the shore.

Romeo kept looking over his shoulder, but when he looked ahead this time, he stopped running and came to a short stop. The voice that had just yelled at their leader came from a tough-looking lion standing on two legs with black stripes on his beige fur. He had a thick furry mane and was wearing a yellow shirt and pants, along with a necklace with a human skull at the bottom of it.

"Leol-sama," the black man with a low voice greeted the figure who was apparently their leader. While he spoke, Romeo, Mine, and Lily were looking around the camp right at the shore next to a big brown ship. They looked at all the sketchy figures standing up and staring towards them interestedly. Mine saw more than a few of them checking her out and she snarled at them from the looks they were giving her.

Malko continued after greeting his boss, "We were attacked by a monster. My men are gone, but it's not a total loss," the bald man with dark skin motioned behind him at the three figures standing there.

Lily's eyes narrowed at the man motioning towards them. As he did, he noticed something out the corner of his eye and snapped his head to his left to see a very fat man walking towards them. He was holding the end of a leash, and down the rope there was a figure walking on all fours across the ground. It was a human. "What are you-" he started, turning and shouting at the men in front of him.

As he started yelling, two men behind him jumped him at the same time. "What the," Lily growled, lifting up his sword. As he started raising it, he felt something clamp around his neck and a loud _**ding**_ rang out. Panther Lily reached up a hand and tugged on his collar, "Hey! Get this off me!" He spun and swung his sword at the men behind him, slamming them backwards.

"What are you doing?!" Romeo yelled at the dark-skinned man who helped them escape from that monster. He saw someone approaching him and spun angrily, forming purple flames on his hands.

"HAHAHA! You did good Malko," a low voice laughed and announced. Leol walked forward, the part lion, part human Chimera Ant holding his arms out and laughing. "Two strong ones and a fine human girl. Am I right?" The creature asked, looking around at its human subordinates.

"Yes sir," a sleazy-looking man next to Leol said, licking his lips. "She's quite the specimen."

"Leol-sama!" A higher-pitched voice yelled from up on the ship in the river.

Romeo was tense and he stood next to Lily who was trying to get his collar off. Both of them were keeping Mine behind themselves to protect her. They were watching the men closest to them, but they glanced over towards the ship to see a young woman with lightish-purple skin and messy green hair wearing a yellow dress and a pink hat. The girl pointed out over the field and called out, "Flutter spotted something!"

A larger Chimera Ant flew down from the sky, mosquito wings coming out of the creepy looking bug-man's back. There were other human-sized mosquitos flying towards the ship from out on the field. The main mosquito who was wearing clothes to distinguish himself and who actually had the capacity for human speech, called down, "Leol-sama, we should leave here at once!"

The lion creature looked away from his two advisors and back at the three in front of him. He looked past them and his eyes widened at the sight of something coming out of the small forest across the field. The Darkside's appearance had everyone who didn't see it before freaking out. "On the boat," Leol ordered loudly.

The man's voice sounded a lot closer to the fighters than they had expected. All three of them had looked back across the field to see the monster stepping out of the forest, but they heard the lion's voice right behind them. Romeo heard it closest and turned around to come face to face with the Chimera Ant squad leader.

Leol grabbed the boy by the front of his shirt and lifted him off the ground. Romeo struggled and formed flames on his hands, but before he could attack, the lion-man clamped a collar on his neck that he pulled off of the side of his waist. "Romeo!" Lily yelled, swinging his sword at the enemy.

The red blade slammed into Leol's side, but the lion did not even flinch. He turned and laughed at the confused expression on Lily's face, then laughed even harder as the muscular black panther started shrinking into a tiny house cat. "Hahaha! Having trouble finding your strength?" As he asked, Romeo slammed his flaming fists forward into the man holding him up, however his purple flames went out right before colliding with the enemy.

Mine's eyes widened and she turned around, running backwards towards the huge black monster walking across the field. She saw a small figure in front of the giant, and she yelled at the top of her lungs, "WEN-"

Her voice was cut off as a fist slammed into her stomach. Mine's eyes rolled back and the lion Chimera Ant who rushed her tossed her over his shoulder, while his soldiers charged the cat and child behind him who had fallen to their knees. "Get all the prisoners on the ship," he ordered, looking back out towards the giant Heartless. "We're leaving."

Wendy was charging across a grass field as fast as she could. She felt the thuds every time the giant behind her took a step, and it looked like it was not going to let her get away that easily. "Okay, you can do this," she stopped sprinting and turned around fast, yelling out, "Arms!" Her arms lit up bright with magic and she jumped up in the air towards the Heartless, punching right towards its chest.

Her fist stopped it in its tracks, but then a huge black hand smacked her out of the air and a hundred feet away.

Romeo was struggling hard against his captors as he was dragged up on top of a ship. They had been packing everything up quickly and the crew started pulling back up the ramp that led from the side of the ship to shore. He saw something come flying out of the air near shore and when it hit the ground it bounced, then bounced again. Everyone on the ship heard the thuds and went over to the side, before rushing even faster to get preparations out of the way.

"Let's get out of here!" Malko yelled, then ordered around a bunch of the men to get the ship ready. The back of their boat started rumbling as the engines turned on, and they started moving forward on the river.

Romeo struggled harder and pulled out of his captors' grips, running over to the side of the boat and leaning his head over the side. He looked with wide eyes over towards shore and inland fifty feet. "WENDY!" He yelled.

The girl staggering up to her feet was limping, one of her legs was covered in blood. Both of her shirt's sleeves had been ripped off, and there was blood coming down the right side of her face too. She heard the scream from her left side and looked over to see a boat driving down a river. She looked closer and saw Romeo struggling to escape the grasps of men around him, yelling her name over and over. He had a collar on his neck and he screamed in pain all of a sudden. _Romeo? What is he-_

Her thoughts were cut short as darkness surrounded her. It was a hand closing around her body, and as she let out a yelp the hand grasped her. It wrapped her so tight that her arms were pressed to her sides, leaving only her head above the clenched fist's fingers.

"Oh my God," one of the men pulling back on Romeo muttered. He loosened his grip, but Romeo wasn't even moving anymore. The kid was frozen in horror as the Heartless monster lifted a screaming Wendy up eighty feet in the air. It held her right in front of its right shoulder, and then a dark portal appeared on top of that shoulder.

Everyone stared in silence as their ship moved forward down the river, and a man walked out of that dark portal. He had a black coat open down the middle revealing his tan chest that had a dark red and black heart on it. His eyes were the color of gold and his hair silver and long, going all the way past his waist. He stepped out of the dark portal and swung an arm in front of his body.

At the swing of his arm, the Darkside opened up its hand. It held open its palm with the small girl in it. She slowly managed to get up to her knees, then to one foot while the man on the shoulder next to her stepped forward onto the palm with her. "Dear child," the man spoke, making Wendy look up into his eyes. "Give yourself over to the darkness!"

She staggered up on her feet and opened her mouth, but before she could say a word, the man in front of her formed a black blade with key prongs on the end of it out of nowhere and shoved the tip of it straight into her chest. "Agh, ack," Wendy stumbled backwards, the blade sliding out of her chest. Out of the wound though, darkness started spilling out and wrapping around her chest.

Wendy heard her name being screamed and she turned a little, looking out past the giant monster's fingers to the river. She could see a small cat trying desperately to free itself, while being shackled and kicked by the men around it. Her friend Mine was conscious again, screaming her name, while a fat man twice the size and height of normal men reached around her and pulled her back in a bear hug.

And then there was the small boy trying to climb over the ledge of the ship. His collar seemed to vibrate for a second and then electricity coursed through his body. His captors pulled him back, and they all looked over in awe and horror as the sweet little girl with blue hair became completely shrouded in darkness.

It was like the darkness was a flame and the girl was in the center of it, but then all the dark tendrils whipping around sank down into the floor at once. Standing on the palm of that monster's hand was now a figure as black as night, her entire body from her hair to her skin to her clothes. Only her eyes remained white, that is until she turned a little towards the ship, and smiled a wide smile that glowed pure white as well.

Lily, Mine, and Romeo all stared in horror at what had become of their friend. The tall man next to her with long silver hair stepped up behind her back and placed a hand on the dark girl's shoulder. He looked their way and every person on the ship felt a sense of dread deep within them, but then Ansem's head snapped to the right and he frowned deeply.

"They are coming," the man said in a low tone. He lowered his dark Keyblade and it vanished, and then the ground in a fifty foot diameter underneath his Darkside ripped open into a black portal. His Heartless creation sank down into the pit slowly, and he looked over at the ship one last time, along with the formerly blue haired girl at his side. They watched as the ship started to go down and the men onboard rushed inside, while strapping bracelets on their new prisoners' wrists. Then, Wendy sank completely into the darkness.

 **Two Hours Ago**

Every single person in the Fairy Tail guild hall stared speechlessly at Wendy. Even when she mentioned it to Macao earlier, she did not go into as much detail as this time. She didn't want to leave anything out to avoid being asked countless questions by her comrades in the short time they had left together.

"It looked like they were diving," Wendy continued quietly. "As if the ship was some sort of submarine."

Laxus frowned deeply as he looked over at Wendy. He finally turned away with a furious expression on his face. "Laxus," Mirajane whispered as he started walking away with a scary look.

"Damn it!" Laxus roared. Most of the others kept looking at Wendy or were finding their own way to cope, but the ones who did look over at Laxus saw he had punched a fist right through the wall.

"Laxus," Mira said softly as she walked up behind him. "It's not your fault."

"I was right there," Laxus growled, in a voice so quiet only Mira could hear him. "I had been training with Vegeta and thought I could handle it. When we felt their ki's decreasing," he muttered, his own voice filling with disbelief as he thought back on it. "I wanted to trust Romeo, we all saw how much he wanted to be trusted with going out on his own," he snarled and slammed his fist into the wall again, blasting another hole in it. "But his power cut off so suddenly, just like the others with him. We reached the river but no one was there." Laxus shook his head, "If only we had checked the water. They must have been less than a mile away. And now, for almost two years, who knows what has been happening to them. Or what has _happened_ to them?" He added as a possibility, keeping it quiet so only Mira would hear the pessimistic attitude.

"Why did they take the three of them prisoner?" Max called over from his table.

"Weren't they helping you?" Someone else questioned confusedly.

"I don't know," Wendy said, closing her eyes and shaking her head. "I was fighting the Heartless. When I looked over, they were just being dragged away. That's all I know."

Everyone became silent again, and then Natsu spoke up, "You think they might be where we're going?" They all looked to him and he was staring straight at Gray.

Macao looked at Natsu with wide-eyes, then turned to Gray to see what he would say. Gray frowned deeply, looking from the pink haired Dragon Slayer, to the sad little teenage girl, to the father desperate for help. "It is possible," Gray started. It looked like he was holding something back, but he just added, "We'll look for him Macao. If we find any information on what happened to him too, we'll bring you it too. We'll find him, or we'll find closure."

"We'll find him," Natsu stated, making Macao turn back to him and see the wide smile on Natsu's face. "This is Romeo we're talking about. I'm sure he's fine! Probably a lot stronger than you now old man!" Natsu started laughing and a bunch of others in the guild hall joined in with him.

Gray looked grimly at Natsu as if there were a reason behind him not bringing Macao's hopes up, but he turned away and just allowed Macao to happily thank Natsu and go on being happy. He looked back as Macao walked over to a table where his good friend Wakaba was at and sit down at it, instantly talking about all sorts of things with the man. He looked more energetic than Gray had seen him in the months since teleporting on Awul, and that brought a grin to the ice mage's face too.

Suddenly the doors to the guild hall opened back up and everyone looked over. A man stood in the doorway with spiky hair and an orange gi on. Son Goku smiled into the hall and called out, "Time to go!"

 **FD + 823 (823 Days since the First Day on Nexus). PRESENT**

 **Great Ocean**

Natsu stood at the front of the Thousand Sunny as they sailed east over the water. He had a straight expression and was deep in thought despite the boisterous crew behind him. They had just started their journey a half an hour ago, and the younger kids were all excitedly running around and checking out their new home for who knows how long. They were unpacking, and talking to each other, but Natsu could not get his mind off what they discussed that morning.

"You too huh?" A voice asked on his right. Natsu barely saw him coming over, but when he looked at Gray all he did was give him a small nod. "Yeah," Gray muttered, and he looked out over the water. "Romeo's out there, somewhere," Gray said, his voice dark.

"We'll find him," Natsu said, putting a confident smile on his face to show Gray he meant it.

"I don't doubt it," Gray said. Though he said it, he looked like he had something else to add. He opened his mouth to continue, closed it, then opened it again and spoke in a quieter voice. "Natsu, when I told you about Aebrith-"

"You mean when you talked about how much it sucked?" Natsu asked sarcastically.

"Yeah," Gray said, though he did not sound to be in a joking mood. "I left something out when I explained it to you. And when Wendy told us that story, I didn't bring it up because I didn't want Macao to know." Natsu started staring at his friend confusedly but Gray was looking off the front of the ship out over the open ocean. "On Aebrith, at least on most of it," Gray was hesitating, but he really did not know how to put it lightly. So finally he just came out and said it, "There are a lot of slaves."

"Huh?" Natsu questioned.

"Slaves," Gray repeated. "Over all of the King's lands, the Cooperative of High Lords, most of them accept slavery. Over the weaker citizens, but also over other strong fighters. Prisoners of war, or just people sold at slave auctions."

"Selling, people?" Natsu muttered, his expression getting angry at the idea. "What gives them the right-"

"They give themselves the right," Gray said quickly. "The world 'right' in Aebrith is the equivalent as the word 'power.' If you have power, what you determine to be right becomes so. Under this logic, anyone who has power and does not want to do something, can order someone else to do it. And if they order a person to do whatever they say, that person has to do it. And if a power nullifier is put on someone strong, they can't fight back against you."

"Why are you saying all this now?" Natsu asked.

"Because," Gray said in a grim tone. "Romeo was most likely sold into slavery. Some of the creatures Wendy described who were restraining Romeo and the others sound like Chimera Ants. The Ants don't think of humans as their equals. They were some of the first to start using slaves widespread. They also eat humans, along with most other creatures on this world." Gray grimaced and Natsu was staring at him wide-eyed. "I've seen good people get eaten by Chimera Ants."

"Why do you think Romeo became a slave?" Natsu asked, more focused on that than the human-eating enemies they were going after.

"Mine," Gray replied. "The woman Wendy said was traveling with her, I've met her before."

"You have?" Natsu asked, wondering why Gray did not bring this up at the guild hall with Wendy. "Why didn't you tell Wendy, she's probably really worried-"

"Because when I found Mine it was after taking down a fortress with Zoro and the others. We found her chained to a wall without any clothes on, like the rest of the girls there." Natsu stopped speaking and just stared at Gray in shock as the ice mage stared out over the water. "And if I told Wendy that Mine was alive, Wendy would ask if she was alright. Then, I would have had to lie and tell her that Mine was alright, even though she was not. She was not okay at all."

Gray clenched his teeth and his fists clenched on top of the railing they were looking over. "Romeo was not with her, which means that he was probably sold to someone else." Gray ground his teeth and then sighed after a few seconds and calmed himself down. He spoke in a more nostalgic tone, "When we were destroying that fortress, a group of people came running in at that time. They were preparing to attack later that same day, but decided to help us out instead. They came to free the slaves, and were returning to base after. I convinced Zoro and the others to come with them, and after hearing what else the group was doing, I tried to convince everyone to stick with them too." Gray tssked and sighed again. He put his chin down in one hand and continued looking out to the east, "I should have known they would say no."

"So after that, you split up with Luffy's crewmate?" Natsu asked, having heard a few things now about this Zoro guy who Luffy was looking for.

"Yeah," Gray responded. "I saw him a few times after that, but we stopped traveling together. Still though, I consider Zoro one of my closest comrades. I hope we find him soon after landing. We could really use his help getting across the continent."

"Why would we?" Natsu asked.

"You know what I've already said about there being monsters everywhere? Well, Zoro is one of the strongest people I know, so having his help would really benefit."

"We already have the Mayor and Timmy," Natsu countered. "Do you really think we need any more help?" He asked sarcastically.

Gray thought about it for a few seconds but he did not smile like Natsu did. "I hope not," he muttered.

* * *

 **A/N Happy New Year! Heroes Will Rise officially starts with the New Year! The second part of Nexus begins with a flashback to how Wendy got turned into a Heartless, and also gives the three Fairy Tail mages on the journey another mission on their adventure. Find Romeo. Slavery? Mine was naked? Yeah, those of you who suggested I make Nexus 'M', you got your wish. This is probably the main reason I started an entirely new story instead of just continuing where Nexus left off, so that I could change this rating as things really do get bad in Heroes Will Rise. Thanks for all the reviews at the end of Nexus! Shoutout to Espada-001 for getting the closest to guessing all nineteen characters to travel on the Thousand Sunny to Aebrith! 16/19 was pretty great considering I didn't throw too many hints in there for some of the ones you guessed! Once again, hope everyone enjoyed the chapter! Leave a review telling me what you think, questions about the chapter or the story in general, and predictions for the future of Nexus! Well, 'till next time!**


	2. Nexus HWR 1-2 Scars

**A/N So, it's within twelve hours, but it's technically the 2nd so here's another chapter of Heroes Will Rise! Once again I do not own any of the characters in this story. Disclaimed!**

* * *

 **Nexus HWR 1.2 Scars:**

"Land ho!" Usopp yelled from the crow's nest.

Inside the cabin, Ben and Dash snapped up from the table and looked across at each other excitedly. The two of them ran for the door and a few others were heading over behind them. Ben pushed the door open and ran out to the balcony outside the kitchen, taking in a deep breath of air as he did.

"I thought it was going to take longer," Dash said as he jumped up on the railing on Ben's right side. The blond boy leaned forward and put his hand horizontally against the bottom of his forehead, looking over the main and forward decks and out over the ocean.

"It will take much longer," Robin said as she walked out of the kitchen. The two boys looked back and watched as the long-haired woman strolled to the right and to the stairs down to the main deck. "There are many small islands in the Great Ocean. Though we have not been to this particular one before."

"Hey Nami," Usopp called as he climbed down the mast. He looked over his shoulder at the orange haired woman down below and questioned, "I thought you said it would be a few days before we reach our first island?"

"It should be," Nami replied. She had a map held out in her hands and she was looking at it strangely. _We've definitely sailed around here before. How could we have missed this place?_ She rolled back up her map and climbed up to the bow where Luffy, Natsu, and Goku were all standing and looking towards the island up ahead. "It is a pretty small one," Nami said, "maybe we did just miss it." She gazed over to the island covered in a dense forest that was probably only one mile wide by two miles long.

The island had rounded shores that were not covered in sand, as the forest started as soon as the island touched the water. There were tall trees and lush foliage scattered around the island, most of it green, but some other colors like red, orange, and yellow. "Let's go check it out!" someone shouted behind them. The group on the forward deck looked back and saw Ben running up the steps and Dash following right behind him. "That place looks cool!" Ben added.

Luffy laughed and threw his arms up, "Yosh! Let's go!"

"We're landing here?" Gray asked as he walked up the steps. He did not sound too thrilled about it, "It's only been a day. We don't need to restock our supplies yet, not that we could on an island so small."

"Don't worry," Nami waved off the mage behind her. "We'll only be here for a minute or two, then we'll head off again for Aebrith. Okay?" She asked it without really wanting an answer, and Gray could tell so he crossed his arms and humphed.

Luffy turned to say that he wanted to check the place out for longer, but before he could open his mouth he heard something. Luffy turned back around and he looked out at the island, staring at it with a weird expression on his face. Natsu turned left and saw the pirate on his side staring at the island with a thoughtful gaze. "What are you doing?" Natsu laughed, and Luffy turned to the pink haired mage next to him. "It's just an island," Natsu said, shaking his own head at how weird Luffy looked right there.

Luffy frowned and opened his mouth to make a retort, but someone beat him to it. "Is it now?" Goku asked. The other two looked to the man with spiky black hair who gave the island the same look Luffy did a few seconds ago.

"Did you hear it too?" Luffy asked.

Goku turned to Luffy in surprise. "Hear what?" He asked.

Natsu smirked and he started laughing again, "Luffy, are you hearing things?"

"Someone said something," Luffy said, turning back out towards the island. Natsu stopped laughing as Luffy regained that weird expression on his face. They were closer to the island now and Luffy furrowed his brow at the sides of it, and his eyes wandered to the back of the island. His eyes enlarged and he leaned his head right, stretching his neck and freaking out Natsu who stepped back as the long rubbery neck stretched out in front of him. Luffy's head shot off the starboard side of the ship giving him a better look around the side of the island. All at once his head snapped back, and Luffy hummed to himself, "That's weird."

A white haired boy on the crow's nest was thinking the same thing. Killua gazed down at the island and now that they were closer he could see the sides better. He could see the water getting pushed away instead of crashing down into the shores, and he could see some white water on the back edges that were visible to them. _The island is moving,_ Killua thought.

"Hey Timmy," Dash called behind him. The little blond boy looked back and shouted, "Come up here! This island is-"

"Alive," Timmy finished, appearing up on the bow with the others out of nowhere. Most of them were surprised at Timmy's sudden appearance, but as they got over it, they realized what he said and double-taked back at the island.

"Alive?!" Ben and Dash exclaimed together.

Nami's eyes opened wide. "So then, it makes sense that it would not be on my map."

"What is it?" Gray wondered.

"I'm gonna find out!" Natsu shouted. He climbed up on the railing and smirked back at Luffy. "Bet you wish you could do this right now," he chided, then dove off the bow of the Sunny.

Luffy frowned and he climbed up on the railing. "Luffy wait!" Ben shouted at the pirate. "You can't swim," the younger boy reasoned with him.

"But," Luffy glanced back at the island. Nami was calling out orders to get the other pirates to slow the Sunny down, but when she heard Ben she turned around and looked at the railing that Luffy was standing on. Luffy grinned at them even as Nami opened her mouth to shout, and he said, "But I want to see what it is."

"Hold-" Nami started, but Luffy dove off the ship before she could finish. She rubbed her forehead in annoyance and considered letting him drown for a second just to teach him a lesson not to rely on them to save him all the time. After that second though she yelled out for someone to dive in after him.

Under the water, Natsu opened his mouth in shock and bubbles flushed out as he released all his air. The Dragon Slayer stared forward at the face of the island that was staring directly back at him. He heard something above him and it distracted him enough from the face of the giant creature that he realized how much air he had left and scrambled up for the surface.

As he reached his hands above his head to swim up, he let out even more air in surprise at the sight of Luffy sinking towards him. For a second he thought he was wrong about Devil Fruit eaters not being able to swim, until he saw Luffy swinging his arms around yet still sinking like a hammer. Luffy let out all his air as he saw the monster too, and he sank even faster.

"Crap Luffy!" Natsu shouted, though shouting underwater just drained the last of his air and he grabbed at his throat as water poured in.

As the two of them sank down, a fish raced towards them baring an open mouth of razor-sharp teeth. It charged them and extended arms with sharp claws at the end of them. The two defenseless men did not even see it coming, and it slammed both arms into them and their bodies bent over its hands.

After slamming into them, the fish swam up and right out the top of the water next to the island's edge. A flash of green surrounded the creature and Ben landed on shore in between Natsu and Luffy who started coughing up buckets of water. The thirteen year old stared at the other two like they were idiots, which they really were to have almost drowned in such a stupid way.

Natsu shot up after he spit up his water and he shouted, "It's a lion!"

Most people on the Sunny who heard him stared at the young man like he was even more of an idiot now. Luffy jumped up after him and he shouted, "No, it's a turtle!"

Goku smiled and he said, "Must be a lion turtle." The others looked at him confusedly, but Goku continued, "I've seen one before. I wonder if this is the same one."

"A lion turtle?" Nami asked. She looked back at the island and gazed through the water. The ocean was not particularly clear, being a dark blue color. However, the closer she looked she actually spotted a head down there moving around. "Whoa," she whispered in amazement. "This planet just gets weirder every day."

"Hey Timmy," Dash called to the other twelve year old. "Race you to the island!" Without a second's hesitation he jumped off the ship. Timmy looked towards Nami while Dash was falling and the woman looked back at him and gave him a small nod. Timmy grinned and right as Dash touched down on the water, Timmy flew as fast as he could towards the island. For everyone else there except for Goku, all they saw was… well, they did not _see_ anything. All they could see were Dash and Timmy standing on the shore of the lion turtle next to a surprised Ben, Natsu, and Luffy. The two of them were arguing with each other over who won the race.

"Guys," Ben said to the younger boys who appeared next to him. "Let's go check out the island!" He turned and ran up into the forest. Dash and Timmy looked at each other excitedly, then ran up into the trees after Ben.

The people on the pirate ship could hear the kids shouting excitedly from the island. Sanji frowned and crossed his arms as he looked off the ship, "I didn't know we were running a day care."

"Having a few cabin boys won't be such a bad thing," Franky said. "We can make them do the chores we don't want." The pirate smirked and Sanji started grinning too.

"Still," Gray muttered. "We're heading into a war-zone. Don't you think they're being a little immature?"

"Oi! Wait for me!" They all looked back towards the island and saw Luffy running into the woods after the children.

"Luffy! Wait up!" The crew turned to see Usopp run up to the bow. He lifted up his slingshot and fired a device that opened up like a claw and connected to a tree on the island next to Luffy. Usopp put his slingshot down in between two bars of the railing, lifted up a piece of cloth he was holding, and wrapped it around the wire that connected the claw to his slingshot. "AAaaaAAAaaaAAA!" Usopp shouted as he zip-lined towards the island.

Gray and Sanji sweatdropped as they realized the kids were not the only immature ones on the ship. Natsu watched as Usopp and Luffy ran off, and he looked back at the ship to see some of the older people looking at them like they were being immature. _Aw man,_ he thought, and jumped up in the air back for the ship.

"Alright everyone," Nami called out. "We're going to be here for a little. Sanji-"

"On it!" He shouted without needing to wait for her to finish giving him an order.

While Ben, Dash, Timmy, Luffy, and Usopp ran around on the lion turtle's back, the others gathered on the ship's main deck for a snack. They figured they would give the captain the time he wanted to run around, but it was such a nice day out that they decided to eat outside. Gray was getting frustrated waiting around and he ate fast like it would get them to leave earlier. He started pacing and looking around impatiently but most people were ignoring him.

Nami sighed as she looked over from where she was sitting with Robin and Juvia. Juvia was looking his way more worriedly and Nami did not like it when her friend looked like that. "Gray," Nami called to him. Juvia looked at Nami in surprise as she said it rather loud. Nami smiled towards the edge of the ship where Gray turned to her. "Could you tell us more about these enemies of yours?"

Gray frowned, _I know what you're doing. But whether we're doing something productive or not, we're still wasting time._ He opened his mouth, but sighed and closed it, deciding not to complain. _If we're stuck here anyway, may as well go with the productive option._ Gray started walking towards Nami and a few others on the grassy deck looked his way.

Killua got off the swing he was sitting on and casually walked their way with his hands in his pockets. Rin hopped down from the railing outside the kitchen he was sitting on and walked over as well while Kirito dropped down from the boom. Before Kirito dropped, he asked the others with him if they wanted to go down, but Sora, Kairi, and Riku did not, too involved with their own conversation and snacks. The black haired teen in a hoodie of the same color landed next to Rin, and the two of them stepped towards the three women sitting on the grass.

"You want to know about the King huh?" Gray asked, not sounding too interested himself in the question.

"Not really," Nami replied, surprising the man and the others who came to listen in. "Goku's probably going to wind up fighting him after all. Right?" She questioned loudly and the others turned around towards the kitchen.

"Yeah!" Goku called through a mouthful of food. Sanji just brought the Saiyan another large plate over where he was sitting in the shade next to the wall.

"So," Nami continued. She put her empty plate down next to her and stood up. Robin got up as well and Juvia scrambled up after so she wouldn't be the only one sitting in the group. "Tell us more about the King's underlings. The ones that we'll be fighting over there."

Gray hummed and nodded his head a few times as that made some sense. "Although," Gray began, "we should try to avoid getting in fights with the King's men at all costs." The others looked at him in surprise, wondering why he would not want to fight his enemies. He explained, "When Lords get attacked, or their men do, other allied Lords send in reinforcements. At worst, a High Lord will show up if his men need-"

"Whoa!" Nami held up her hands. "Lords, High Lords, how about you slow down? How strong are those guys?" She questioned.

Gray sighed again, as he realized that common knowledge for people on Aebrith was unknown to most of the people on the ship. He nodded at Nami and looked around at the group with him. "I'll give it to you in tiers," he began.

He stared at the white haired kid who he first met on this ship the day before. "The first tier, at the very top of the Cooperative- that is, the alliance of Lords and High Lords who control most of Aebrith- is the King himself. I don't feel like I have to say this, but no matter what happens you must stay away from him."

"Yes yes, the King is bad," Natsu spoke up, making Gray turn to see the Dragon Slayer sitting at the bottom of the stairs. He had an annoyed expression on his face and he said, "You've said it enough. What about the other guys?"

Gray ground his teeth together and seethed, "The second tier..." He continued as if ignoring Natsu completely, pissing off the pink haired mage. "Are the High Lords. Each one of them are like Kings in their own right. They rule countries, some as large or larger than the land the NEG controlled at its peak."

"As big as the NEG?" Rin questioned in surprise. "How big is Aebrith?"

"Several times larger than Awul," Gray answered quickly. The others opened their eyes wide in surprise as many of them had lived on Awul their entire times on Nexus and thought it was already a massive place. Gray continued, "Anyway, the third tier in the Co-op, are the Lords. Normally, these are the best and most trusted soldiers of the High Lords that they put in charge of cities in their territory. Sometimes though, someone powerful will swear allegiance to a certain High Lord for protection, and become a Lord in the process even if they and the High Lord do not know each other well."

"So," Killua began as he thought hard on what Gray was saying. "You're saying not everyone can become a High Lord. That, no matter how powerful, the High Lords are set in stone?"

"Not exactly, but you're right that it is a difficult process putting new High Lords in charge," Gray explained. "They interact personally and regularly with the King. They have to be able to stand up against other High Lords' armies. And on top of that, wars for land already devastated the population, no one wants to try and become a High Lord and wind up killing everyone left."

What he said was pretty grim, and the others were silent for a few seconds. Finally Kirito spoke up, "If each of these High Lords have huge expanses of land, then there can't be too many of them, correct?" He waited and Gray nodded his head after a second. "Then, how many are there?" Kirito questioned.

Gray hummed to himself. "To tell you the truth, I do not know. In the last few months things may have changed, but if it is the same as when I left, then there should be about a dozen of them."

"'About a dozen?'" Killua asked and raised his eyebrows. Gray looked at the boy confused and Killua scoffed. "I figured if you were fighting them for a while, you would at least have an exact number."

The others looked down at the kid, a few of them with glares as he was being a dick. The ice mage scowled at the boy and started, "I rarely went north of the Cataclysm after the Third War of-" Gray stopped mid-sentence. He felt no need to explain himself and just shook his head a few times. "I do have some information on the High Lords though, if you want to know?" He darted a glare at Killua who held up his hands defensively and nodded for Gray to continue.

"Alright, I'll list out the ones I know and the ones I have fought against before." Gray took a deep breath and he looked up at the sky thinking back on his past on Aebrith. "Just a warning, I would not go after a Lord on my own, so these High Lords are _extremely_ powerful." He got a few nods from the others and continued, "Okay, so there's Kouen Ren- High Lord of the Ren Empire, The Black Witch, The Fire Lord, Terminus, Satan, The Emperor..."

"Hold up, hold up," Nami waved her hands in front of herself. She had a bead of sweat rolling down the left side of her face but she laughed off her nervousness. "Did, you just say, Satan?"

Gray grimaced and nodded his head. "Satan is considered on a different level than most of the High Lords."

Nami's face turned blue as she realized she did not mishear Gray. Natsu started to sweat a little just like Robin and Juvia, while Killua and Kirito did not look too surprised. Rin clenched his fists hard and bared his teeth but held his tongue for now. "Are you talking," Kirito started quietly, "about the actual devil?"

Gray nodded his head. "His army is infinite. Demons cover the entire continent. Exorcise them and they go to Hell, but the gates are open and they come right back."

"What else do you know about him?" The other turned to see Rin looking closely and intensely at Gray. "Where is he?"

"Satan?" Gray wondered. He shook his head, "He rarely stays in the upper world. On the surface, Lucifer rules as a High Lord in his stead."

"And Satan's not even the top boss," Killua muttered. He put his hands behind his head, _Not that I need to worry about stuff like that anyway. These guys are just giving me a ride._

"Alright," Natsu called over. "Get on with the list already."

Gray glared back at the Dragon Slayer and then looked ahead and nodded. "There are only two others whose names I know. The first I have never seen, but I've seen a few of his elite soldiers and each one is probably as powerful as a Lord. The name of that elite group, is the Espada. And the man who controls them, is-"

"Aizen."

Gray's mouth was left open as someone else finished for him. They all spun towards the stern and looked at a man getting up and putting his plate down. Sanji stopped next to him with the next plate smoking, but the spiky haired Saiyan ignored the food for once. "You're saying Aizen is one of our enemies?"

"That's right," Gray replied. "How do you know of him?"

"I fought him once," Goku replied. The others looked at him in surprise, and Natsu stood up from the stairs.

"And he's still alive?" Natsu asked.

Goku nodded his head, "I got him to leave Awul alone though."

Gray turned angrily to Goku and clenched his fists at his sides. "Are you saying you could have killed him, but didn't?"

Goku tilted his head as if confused by Gray's question. "I didn't think I needed to kill him. Besides, I was pretty injured when we stopped fighting," Goku explained. He reached down and grabbed the bottom of the shirt part of his orange gi. Goku lifted his gi up and took it off, then took off the blue muscle shirt he had on underneath.

Nami, Robin, and Juvia all started staring at Goku's jacked upper body. All the men on the ship had good figures, but Goku's was the best of them all. The Saiyan was not stripping to show off though. Actually he was, but he was not showing off his muscles. Goku brought his right hand down to his torso and slid it over a dark red line on the lower right side of his chest. "This," he showed them, and their eyes opened wide at the sight of a thin, three inch long, scar. "Is where Aizen stabbed me," he finished. Goku turned around and on the other side of his body was another scar like the one on the front of his chest. It was the same length and they all figured that whatever stabbed him went straight through.

"No way," Natsu muttered. "So, you lost?"

"Hehe," Goku chuckled and scratched the back of his head. "Not quite. Gohan beat up a couple of Aizen's Espada, and Vegeta killed an old guy who got him pretty good too. And I beat Aizen-"

"And you let him live," Gray grumbled.

Goku nodded and scratched the back of his head. "I thought maybe he could change. Vegeta did."

"What?" Natsu wondered, not understanding that analogy.

"Did I never tell you?" Goku asked, and Natsu looked at him confusedly, showing he must not have. "Oh," Goku said, and started laughing. "When I first met Vegeta he was trying to kill me and my friends. He almost destroyed the Earth, haha."

The others gawked at Goku's carefree attitude after laying that bombshell on them. The Straw Hats who had fought alongside Vegeta at several Underworld bases suddenly realized why the man seemed so different from his fellow Saiyans. Gray facepalmed and rubbed his hand against his forehead for a few seconds. _No wonder he let Aizen go. Vegeta changed, it may have worked for him before too. Stupid-_ Gray stopped himself and his eyes shifted to a girl not far from him. He stared at her blue hair and his own eyes widened as he remembered the first time he met her. _That's right, we're the good guys. We need to give second chances. If we didn't, Juvia never would have-_

"Any other names?" Killua asked, getting bored of the conversation.

Gray spun to the kid, and he nodded his head after a second of hesitation. "Yeah, one more." He hesitated and slowly turned around so he was looking back at Natsu. "You already know him."

"I do?" Natsu wondered.

Gray turned and looked at Juvia, "Actually, you met him before too. He's a monster, death follows him everywhere." Natsu and Juvia started to sweat and Juvia actually took a step back.

"Juvia," Nami whispered as her friend rose up her hands to cover her mouth.

"You can't mean-" Juvia began.

"Yes," Gray said. "He is a High Lord who even the King tends to stay away from. The immortal dark wizard, Zeref."

* * *

The crew only stayed at the lion turtle for a little longer before heading on their way again. They sailed east and the boys who spent time playing on the island waved off the stern at it. They called out goodbyes and Luffy's bright smile shifted as he heard something shout back to them. _There is it again. I didn't see anyone on the island though._ Ben and the others ran off leaving Luffy to stare back alone at the island swimming away from them.

On the inside of the ship, Kirito walked through the living room and past the aquarium. Kairi and Nami were hanging out on the couch and Kairi smiled and said hi to him as he walked by. He gave her a small nod and kept walking, while Nami watched him go then instantly started talking to Kairi. "Do you and Kirito know each other?" Nami whispered. Even though the boy walked to the next room and headed downstairs, she kept quiet like he could still hear her.

"Mm," Kairi hummed in an affirmative way. "He's a friend," the auburn haired girl assured Nami.

Nami nodded and looked towards the hallway that Kirito disappeared down. "I fought with him in Metropolis against Blackbeard. He saved me a few times, but," she frowned and continued softer, "he used to be an Underworld member, right?"

Kairi smiled and she shook her head. "That doesn't matter," the younger girl began. Nami looked at her confusedly, and Kairi continued, "Kirito's a good guy. He and Sora are close, and Goku thinks he's a good person too. You shouldn't judge him for his past too quickly."

Nami opened up her mouth to retort, "Hey Kairi!" Someone beat her to the punch and the girls spun to looked towards the kitchen. Sora was there in the doorway and he smiled over at his girlfriend, "Let's go on a flight!"

"A what?" Nami questioned the girl next to her.

Kairi looked excited though, and she got up and ran through the kitchen. Nami chased behind her asking what they were talking about. As Kairi reached the door, Sora reached out and grabbed her right hand. And then, the boy jumped up in the air and high above the Sunny. Kairi yelped with glee and Sora held her closer.

Nami stared straight up in the air and watched as Sora glided off through the air away from the ship. "Sora's so lucky," Nami heard a boy mumble on her right. She turned and saw Dash and Ben standing next to the rail looking up at the two flying away. Ben sighed and mumbled, "I wish I had a girlfriend."

"Ha, you don't have a girlfriend?" Dash teased sarcastically.

Ben spun to his friend. "What do you mean? It's not like you do-"

"Yeah I do," Dash replied and crossed his arms. Ben looked at him in surprise and Dash held up his right hand with all his fingers up. "Five of them actually."

Nami sweatdropped and Ben stared at his friend stupidly. The older woman stepped forward and said, "Dash." The kids turned around and saw Nami looking down at them. She focused on the shorter boy and continued, "Whatever Usopp told you, ignore him."

The boy who spent a lot of time talking to Usopp on the lion turtle's back started sweating. Nami smirked and added, "He's not a very good liar." Her voice got quieter as she walked by the two of them, "And neither are you."

Ben started laughing hard while Dash blushed and spun around to glare at his friend. Ben just started laughing harder at the red on Dash's face. Nami chuckled to herself as she walked away from them, but she found herself glancing back at the ship's cabin. _Kairi seems to trust you, but can we really, Kirito?_

Kirito walked down the steps to one of the lower holds of the Sunny. He was trying to find somewhere quiet on this huge ship. When he tried sitting on top of the crow's nest he became distracted by Goku's training inside. He could not meditate while using his wings and having to focus on flying, so he could not just shoot up into the clouds and relax. The teen was hoping there was somewhere down here he could find to get some quiet.

As he hit the lower deck though, his hopes of peace and quiet were trampled on. **Clank clank clank, DRRRR, Ch-ch-ch-ch…** Kirito followed the sounds of hammers and drills to a door that was partially open. He pushed it the rest of the way and stepped inside to see a strange room with steel walls, scraps of metal scattered around, and a brightly-colored metal man in the middle facing away from him.

Franky lowered the drill in his right hand and he wiped some sweat from his metal forehead with his left. He heard a creak behind him and spun his head around, "Yow! Didn't hear you come in…"

"Kirito," the teen reminded, pretty sure he had met the cyborg before but not getting upset that the man did not remember his name.

"I knew that!" Franky shouted, and he posed with his arms up above his head in his signature fashion. Kirito looked at him confusedly and even more so as Franky shouted, "SUPER! Did you come to check out my new invention?"

"Invention?" Kirito questioned. He walked into the room some more, looking around while he did. There was a desk with some blueprints on it, various buckets and baskets full of tools and spare parts, and there was the contraption in the center of the room that caught Kirito's attention. "What is that thing?"

The thing had treads on the bottom like a tank, but it was only a foot tall and wide, while being two feet long. It was made of normal silver steel, though it had a painted yellow star on top of it. The sides of the contraption had arms, lots of them, with many hands that had different size fingers. "I call it," Franky began and he threw his arms back up in the air in his favorite position. "Franky Junior!" The little robot put all eight of its arms up in the air diagonally above it with their elbows pressed together like Franky had his own arms.

"Was programming it to do that really necessary?" Kirito wondered.

"Of course!" Franky shouted. He pointed down at the robot and said, "Watch this." He ran towards the wall and slammed a fist into it. The walls in Franky's workshop were all reinforced with steel, but his big red fist put a huge dent right in the plating he used to build it. Kirito opened his mouth to shout at him, but Franky called out first, "Junior! Fix the wall!" The top of the robot where the star was popped up and Kirito was surprised to see there was a robotic head hiding inside the body of the machine. It popped up and most of the head-piece glowed red as it spun around, scanning the room.

"Damaged wall identified," the robot said in Franky's voice only higher pitched. Kirito sweatdropped that the cyborg used his own voice, but he quickly lost his unamused expression and watched with interest as the robot rolled to the wall and started removing the metal panel quickly. It unscrewed screws that were undamaged and its hands changed into whatever tool it needed to use.

"Wow," Kirito began. "That's, pretty amazing."

As he finished saying it, a trail of smoke started coming out of the top of the robot. It was pulling at the steel panel and trying to take it off, but there was still a screw in the wall and the little robot was struggling. Kirito suddenly realized something, "Hey, isn't this the project you were just working on? So, you haven't tested it yet?" He took a step backwards as when he looked at Franky he saw the older man had a nervous expression on his grinning face.

"It needed a test drive," Franky started, and then he and Kirito both lowered their bottom lips as the robot started smoking.

"FIX THE **WALLLLll…"** _**BOOM!**_ The flames surrounded the robot and it exploded in a mini blast. Kirito and Franky both held up their arms for protection, and when they lowered them they stared at the smoldering pile of rubble on the floor in front of them. The robot worked until its very last breath though, and the steel panel on the wall fell off and right on top of the flaming metal scrap.

Franky grinned as the panel fell, "See?" he asked as if the experiment went great. Kirito looked at him skeptically but Franky continued, "Franky Junior's purpose will be to fix the ship mid-battle. Since I'll be in the middle of the action, he can patch up any damage he's programmed to scan for."

Kirito nodded his head a few times. "But since it's broken, what're you going to do about your workshop?" Franky looked at him in confusion, then lifted his head and looked at the wall in front of them that was missing one of the three major steel panels. He opened his mouth to say he would put it back himself, then remembered why he had his robot take it down in the first place and looked down at the dented steel on the floor. "Here," Kirito began, "I'll help you out." He walked over to a pile of screws that Franky Jr. dropped when it exploded and he started gathering them up.

"Thanks Kirito-bro!" Franky shouted. He walked over and dragged the steel frame away from the wall and towards a work bench on the other side of the room that he could use to buff out the steel.

Kirito was picking up usable-looking pieces of scrap underneath where Franky removed the panel, but as he was doing it his eyes caught something weird. He gazed up at the wall under where the steel panel fell, a wall made of wood. Thinking about his position on the ship, he realized that this was the hull he was looking at right now. Kirito stood up fully and he reached his right hand out, pressing it against some of the wood and then running it along the wall. "Hey Franky," Kirito began.

The cyborg looked back at the kid and saw him staring at the wall carefully. Kirito traced his hand around an edge of dark brown wood and then ran it over a lighter section of wood that felt softer under his palm. Kirito turned his head confusedly back towards the cyborg, "What's wrong with the wall? It looks like there are different types of wood for the same part of the hull."

Franky nodded and he put down his tools for now. He walked back towards Kirito and smiled nostalgically as he looked at the wall. "I had to. Originally the Thousand Sunny, my ultimate creation, was made only of Adam Wood. Adam Wood was the strongest wood on our world," he continued, while Kirito looked at him in surprise to hear that the cyborg made this entire ship. Franky kept going, "But after we came to Nexus, the Sunny got messed up bad. Not even an hour after we got zapped here, her hull was covered in scars…"

 **FD + 10**

"YOW!" Franky shouted. The cyborg had tears streaming down his face and he jumped down from the tall tree branch he was standing on. The cyborg was wearing a plaid shirt and his right hand was popped open with a chainsaw sticking out of it. He left the tree branch he was on half-cut though and dropped down to the forest floor with a look of extreme joy on his face. "You guys!" He shouted and wiped his face of his tears.

"Franky!" Nami exclaimed happily. Robin smiled wide as well and Sanji let out a breath of relief that they found someone else after a few days of looking with only the ladies. After he thought it though, he instantly realized the downside to not being the only one with Nami and Robin anymore, and a dejected look filled his face.

"I'm so glad you're all okay!" Franky shouted and posed with his arms up in the air. "This past week has been CRAZY!"

"You're telling me," Sanji muttered. He had cuts all over his body and he was still in pain from his battle a few days before. As he thought about that battle he tssked and clenched his fists at his sides. "Franky, did you find anyone else from the crew?"

The cyborg's excited look faltered and after a second he shook his head. The other three sighed, but tried to keep in high spirits that they at least found him. "How about you?" Franky asked. Sanji looked at him confusedly, and the cyborg continued, "Did you see anyone else? After we crashed I found Chopper-bro, but the next day we got separated. I thought I saw Brook but there were too many monsters around and we got separated."

"This is a good thing," Nami said.

She looked around at the others and Robin knew what she was talking about. "At least the others are close-by."

"Though Usopp and Luffy," Franky began, still not knowing what happened to the two of them after they disappeared from their own world. Almost everyone was mentioned now, so he looked up and asked, "You seen Zoro around? He's probably lost somewhere-"

The three in front of him looked saddened by what he was saying and his face covered in sweat. "No way," he whispered.

"He's alive," Sanji said, though he wished he could light up a cigarette as he did. He had run out days ago. The blond man looked up into the cyborg's eyes, "But we ran into Kuma."

"The Schichibukai?" Franky asked in surprise.

Sanji nodded his head, and he clenched his teeth as he spoke the next part. "Kuma hit him. Same thing he did to us back on Sabaody."

Franky groaned and he rubbed the side of his head. "So he could be anywhere huh? That's rough. Especially when we don't even know where _we_ are."

"Well," Nami started. "Let's look for the coast. At least get a bearing of where we are, and maybe try to find the Sunny-"

"Sunny?" Franky asked, and he started smirking again. "I'll take you to her."

"You know where she is?" Nami asked in surprise.

"What do you think the first thing I did when I fell off was?" Franky asked skeptically. "I had to protect her nonstop. It was a good thing I had some help though." He turned and started jogging off through the woods, "Come on."

"Help?" Robin questioned, not hesitating at all to chase behind him. Sanji and Nami glanced at each other in confusion and then started running after as well.

Franky grinned and chuckled to himself. "Yea! She's guarding the ship right now!"

The other three suddenly had an idea as to who it could be, and when they followed Franky out of the trees and into a small clearing full of tree stumps, they discovered their assumptions were correct. The girl with curly blue hair standing on top of the Thousand Sunny looked over in surprise at the four people rushing out of the woods. A bright smile came to the Rain Woman's face and she waved down from the side of the Sunny, which was the top at the moment. The Sunny Go was lying on its port side, the bottom of the hull facing the part of the woods the others just came out of. The bottom looked like it went through some intense repairs, but as the other pirates looked at Franky worriedly, he assured them the Sunny was strong enough that this would not take her out of commission for good.

"So that tree we saw you on," Sanji began.

"Still doing repairs," Franky admitted. "I was looking for a good branch to make a mast out of. These giant trees all have amazingly sturdy wood. Almost as good as Adam Wood I'd say."

"As Adam Wood?" Robin questioned. She reached out to a tree next to her and put her palm against it. "Hmm, that is quite impressive. What can we do to help out Franky-san?"

"YOW!" Franky shouted. "Hold on a minute there sis!" He turned to Sanji and said, "First, it's been ten days!"

Sanji sighed as he understood what the cyborg was talking about. He stepped forward and put a hand on Franky's shoulder, "How can I say no? Especially since you've been protecting Juvia-chan this whole time!" Sanji's eyes turned into hearts and he jumped up to the side of the ship and started exclaiming how happy he was that Juvia stayed with them even after so much had happened.

Juvia got red in the face and she backed up from Sanji. "Juvia, was afraid to go wandering off," she admitted. "Juvia thinks Sanji-san and everyone are nice, so she, did not want, to leave…"

"Well we're happy to have you," Nami said, as she and Robin climbed up onto the side of the Sunny's hull. They looked down as they walked across it and saw different patches of wood filling up the holes that should have been on the hull. "Wow Franky, you guys really patched this up quick. We could probably get Sunny back on the water in a day or two."

"That'll be better for cooking too," Sanji admitted as he now realized he could not just walk into the kitchen and cook them up a feast. "The kitchen is sideways, I don't know how I'm going to make a-"

Franky tapped him on the shoulder and pointed towards the bow of the ship. They looked over and spotted most of the kitchen's utilities sitting there on top of the ship. Some of them looked new like Franky made them from scratch. The cyborg said, "I could make a stove, but I couldn't make a pot roast. You gotta help me out bro!"

 **Present**

"You made a kitchen on the side of the ship?" Kirito questioned the cyborg and laughed a little.

Franky laughed too, but much louder. "Yea! And the next day we got the Sunny back on the water! It went faster with Sanji and Robin helping out."

"What about Nami?" Kirito asked.

"You think she helped?" Franky asked and started laughing even harder. Kirito did not see what was so funny about her not doing any of the work, but he smiled along with the cyborg.

Kirito looked back at the wall and he said, "This ship really has been through a lot. I'm amazed it's stayed together after all this time."

"Oi!" Franky smacked a hand in the air. "The Sunny is amazing! Don't knock her strength, she'll last longer than any of us."

Kirito held up his hands, "Alright, my bad." He gazed back at the wall, "But after that, how did you guys protect it for all this time? You said Luffy wasn't around right? And by the sounds of it that Zoro guy was pretty strong too…" Kirito turned to Franky, "You know, I saw him that day."

Franky looked at Kirito confusedly and Kirito continued, "I'm not surprised the others don't remember me. I remember though, Kuma came out of nowhere and was taking everyone out. He sent Gray and Zabuza flying. Batman and Kuzan tried fighting him, but he was too strong and took out Ron too. And he hit me with his paw and I went flying. I don't even know how the battle ended."

Franky stared silently at Kirito for a few seconds. "Sanji never mentioned-"

"Like I said," Kirito repeated, "I don't think he remembers me. I never said a word to him, but I remember he showed up right before the guy with green hair, Zoro, got hit by Kuma and disappeared." Franky shook his head in surprise, thinking about how small a world it was that this teen was there that day. Kirito continued, "So really, how did you guys survive just the five of you for so long? I'm taking it you never found those Chopper or Brook guys again?"

Franky shook his head and grimaced thinking about how Luffy told them Brook died. He tried not to think too hard on the past though, and he smiled, "It wasn't easy, believe it!" Kirito's eyes snapped open wide and Franky looked at him confused wondering why he was surprised at that last sentence. Kirito gulped and shook his head, saying that it was nothing and for Franky to continue. The cyborg looked at him oddly for a few seconds but he shook his head and continued, "About half the time between then and when we found Luffy, I was busy fixing up Sunny. Monsters and other pirates kept attacking us, and without the captain we weren't doing so well against a few of them, but one day…"

 **FD + 168**

"Franky, are we ready to go?!" Nami shouted.

The cyborg who just came out from below deck wiped some black off his face. He was covered in dirt, and soot, and oil, and he shook his head at the navigator. "Sorry little sis!" After he shouted it, they heard a crash coming from below deck. The others groaned as they did not like the sound of that. "Still a lot more repairs to the Soldier Dock System I need to make. We couldn't even Coup de Burst if we wanted to right now."

"That is not good," Nami muttered under her breath.

"We barely escaped those bastards _using_ it," Sanji started. "There's no way we outrun their ship without it."

"Do you really think they're still after us?" Juvia asked the blond man she walked up to.

Sanji nodded his head and lit up a cigarette, the last one in his pack. He grimaced as he did not know if it was safe to go to a port with the type of people chasing them right now. Robin stepped out of the cabin above them and she spoke down towards the main deck calmly, "Coribou and Caribou are infamously deranged pirates. I assumed that if they are to capture us our deaths will be slow and painful."

Juvia's face turned blue and she looked down horrified at the floor. Nami and Franky yelled at Robin for being so scary, and then Nami turned to start yelling at Franky to hurry up repairs so that they would not get buried alive or something like that. Franky ran off while Sanji said that Robin was beautiful even when she was being terrifying.

The crew ran around trying to get the ship ready to sail again. Nami was wearing an orange, wool sweater and she shivered and crossed her arms. She looked out towards the coast and the beach that had a thin layer of snow over it. _At least we have the Sunny, where it's warm and cozy. I would hate to have teleported to the middle of this continent, lost, freezing._ She shivered even more just thinking about how bad that would be.

As she was thinking about it, a face appeared in her mind and her heart started racing. Nami looked back towards the shore and a sad expression came to her face, _Luffy, is that where you are? Somewhere far from the ocean?_ Four more faces appeared in her mind and she only looked sadder, _Usopp, Brook, Chopper, Zoro. Mina, where are you?_

"Everyone!" Nami spun around hearing a shout on the other side of the ship. Standing there in a dark blue jacket with her arm extended pointing out into the ocean was her friend Juvia, and the Rain Woman looked back nervously at her pirate friends. "They found us!"

"So fast!" Franky shouted as he appeared up on deck again. He looked off the ship and his mechanical eyes zoomed in north along the coast. "Where do you-"

 _ **CRASH!**_

The front of the Sunny dipped and half the small crew fell off their feet. Sanji tried to rush over to Nami to steady her but he was too far away and the orange haired navigator dropped to the floor. She yelled out and Sanji reached down to help her. "Don't," Nami told him, pushing his hand. He looked at her confused and she yelled, "Focus on the next attack baka!" She punched his arm and Sanji nodded fast as he realized the priority.

The chef shot off the deck and up in the air. He Skywalked up and up and looked north where Juvia was pointing. He grimaced and clenched his teeth as he saw their ship, much larger than the Sunny, coming around a bend in the coast with cannons focused on them. _How do they keep tracking us? Not even a full day,_ the blond pirate started panting while kicking the air beneath him to keep himself up. _Damn, and that swamp-bastard and his brother are no jokes either._

He watched as smoke blasted out of the cannons on the front of the approaching galleon, and several cannonballs flew straight towards them. A quick glance down at the Thousand Sunny's bow showed him that he could already see inside the ship from the first attack. _She won't last if we get hit much more. Ship's already almost completely made of material from Nexus._ Sanji kicked himself forward and he kicked the cannonballs back into the distance.

The pirate chef smirked as the large black balls of gunpowder flew towards Coribou and Caribou's ship. His smirk wiped away though as a wall of brown mud lifted up on the front of the ship and stopped the attacks dead. Sanji dropped down to the bow and the wall of mud lowered as well. Caribou reformed as a human and stuck out his long tongue, and looked with his crazy eyes across the thinning gap of water at Sanji.

Robin walked up on Sanji's left side and Juvia came up to the bow as well. She shimmied around the hole in the bow and looked down to see Franky running around like a blur. When it came to fixing the ship he was faster than anyone though so repairs were going quickly. They had extra planks of wood and building materials below deck in case of situations just like this. The three at the front of the ship glared out at Caribou, but their glares became less menacing as the rest of the crazy-person's crew and his own fat, insane brother stepped to the bow of their larger ship.

"Oi Franky," Sanji muttered, and the hole in the floor behind him let the cyborg below hear him. Franky looked up and saw Robin and Juvia stepping back and Sanji looking down at him for support, "Do we have enough Cola for a Gaon-Hou?"

Franky did not like the sound of that question. There was no way Sanji would ask if they didn't need it, and Franky wished he could answer the younger man positively. Instead, the cyborg shook his head and left the repairs for later, jumping up through the hole himself. "There's enough Cola to charge half a Coup de Burst," Franky said. He lowered his voice, "And that's if I pour in everything that's in my own body too."

"In that case," the two men on the bow looked back to see Nami looking at them from the railing outside the kitchen. "Prepare to defend the ship from behind. We're sailing out of here! Franky raise anchor!"

"Can we make it?" Juvia asked her friend.

Nami looked down to the grass deck and nodded at her blue haired friend. "But you have to help out. Use your water powers to speed up the ship. Sanji! Turn the wheel and spin us away from those maniacs! Robin, CREATE A NET!"

The orders became a lot more frantic as cannonballs flew down at their ship from above. Robin created a net of arms that caught the attacks. The net pushed down and then snapped back up to send the cannonballs flying, but something was strange about her net. She looked at it from below with a strange expression and frowned as she saw all the brown gook surrounding her arms. _That man used his Devil Fruit power to coat their attacks…_ Robin's eyes went wide as something dripped in between part of her neck, but the drip of mud was oddly in the shape of a small ball.

"Look out!" Robin yelled. She dove to the right and the others looked over to see her net disappearing from above. Their ship was in the middle of turning, Nami was still giving out orders, and they all spotted the ball of muck dropping from the air that quickly lost all of the swamp around it.

All of their eyes went wide and Franky shouted, "GRENADE!"

While four of them moved away, one of the group dove towards the grenade and wrapped her body around it. Nami looked towards the grass and she shouted, "Juv-" **BOOM!** The grenade went off and the explosion filled up a bubble of water that promptly exploded. The grass beneath the bubble was shredded, but the explosion's damage was minimized by the Rain Woman.

"Juvia!" Nami screamed down at the deck.

The Fairy Tail mage was gone, at least, for a few seconds. Juvia reformed on the deck, singed clothes, out of breath, but alive. Nami sighed in relief and was going to call down thanks, but the sight of the enemy ship bearing down on them reminded her how serious their situation was. She shouted at Juvia that if she was okay she had to get working on making the Sunny move faster.

Juvia started waving her arms and the waves on their sides picked up, lifting the Sunny and pushing it forward. Sanji, Robin, and Franky kept moving around warding off attacks from mainly the back, but also from above as it seemed like the enemies were aiming attacks high to drop down all around the Sunny.

"They're still gaining on us," Juvia called out. They were facing away from the incoming ship now, but they were just off the coast and their enemies were right behind them. The solution in her mind was simple, but she knew the pirates cared too much for their ship to want to abandon it and try to flee to shore.

She stopped using the water on the ship and shouted, "Juvia will try to stop them!" The teenage mage ran for the stern while Sanji was on his way up to the boom where a shard of a cannonball that exploded on his leg slammed into. The sail was coming off and he flew up and started tying it down as fast as he could.

"Could use your help back here Sanji-bro!" Franky yelled. His left arm was opened up and he was firing magazine after magazine of ammo out at their enemies, but as he finished shouting he heard clicking inside his arm and he knew what that meant. "Crap!" As he yelled, a loud dink was heard and the cyborg stumbled back and fell over the railing.

"Franky!" Juvia yelled. She ran over and waved her arms up right as the cyborg was hitting the water. A wave rose and lifted her metal friend back up to the deck.

"Thanks little-" a cannonball hit the deck between the two of them. Shrapnel slammed into Franky's metal chest and ripped through Juvia's watery body.

The two of them got back up on their feet and Juvia could see through blurry vision Franky stumbling around grabbing his head. Robin was behind the cyborg, protecting him and Juvia could see their enemies even further back. She saw Sanji leap up on a different part of the ship and knock a cannonball away, and in her ears she could hear a muffled ringing sound. The ringing was more of a high pitched voice, and she was soon able to put that voice to a location and turned around to see Nami less than a yard behind her shouting at the top of her lungs.

"NAMI?!" Juvia shouted, not knowing how loud she was until the other woman reeled back from the intensity of the shout.

Nami leaned back forward right away though and she grabbed Juvia by the shoulders. "Get ready!" Nami yelled. "They're close now! They're going to board us any second-"

Another crash shook the Sunny and Nami screamed as it felt like it was close. She held up her arms preparing for some shards of wood to fly into her. The rest of them all ran towards the center of the ship, right on the main deck covered in grass. Some dust lifted up and shrouded the damage, but the crew looking in saw something through the dust that suggested there was no damage at all. The dust started to settle and Nami, Franky, Robin, and Sanji all lowered their bottom lips and opened their eyes as wide as possible.

There was a silhouette of a man in the settling dust, a man who reached behind his back and grabbed a hat hanging there. He lifted it up and placed it down on his head, and Juvia recognized the hat as the same one on the sail. Her eyes opened a second later than her friends, and she knew she was right when she heard them all scream at once, "LUFFY!"

"Shishishi, I'm back!"

The rest of the group ran forward a few steps to make sure they were actually seeing this right. "How- when?" Nami began.

Sanji turned his head a hundred eighty degrees, "Wait a second." It was oddly quiet. "Why did they stop attacking?" Sanji questioned

Luffy ran to the stern and his crew chased after him. The pirate captain was grinning wide and Nami yelled, "Where are you going? How did you get here? Why-" She fell silent for a second. "Whoa."

"What the Hell?" Sanji muttered.

"Holy-" Franky could not even finish.

They all stared off the back of the ship at the mess that was their enemies' galleon. Most of them did not know what to make of it, but the Captain was grinning madly at the sinking vessel behind them. The flaming wreckage was going down and the screams rang out all the way to the Thousand Sunny.

Nami shook her head in disbelief and whispered, "What is happening?"

 **Present**

"… but one day, Luffy came back," Franky told the teen in front of him. Kirito looked at him confused and the cyborg started laughing and said, "Out of nowhere, Luffy just dropped from the sky. Ever since, Sunny's been protected better than ever!" The cyborg posed with his arms up above his head. "She's SUPER safe!"

"Luffy just, showed up one day?" Kirito questioned. "On a world this big, without ever seeing him before, he just…"

"Fell from the sky," Franky finished. The cyborg getting back to work on finishing the wall scratched the top of his head for a second. "Actually, he never really did explain how he got there," the cyborg mumbled. "Eh, I'm sure it was a great story."

* * *

 **A/N Shoutout to Avatar The Last Airbender for lion turtles XD! Lots of new information we get from Gray about the new antagonists our heroes will be facing. Not all of them, and not much information, but enough to show that it's not going to be an easy ride. How did Luffy find the Thousand Sunny? Why did Caribou's ship sink? The world may never know... until a later flashback XD. Anyway, hope you liked the chapter! Leave a review below telling me what you think!**

Espada-001 chapter 1 . 8h ago

Glad to see the start of the next half of your series and I'm already hyped for what's to come! Right now I'm kind of imagining the layout of the continent to look something like fallout given how often large scale battles seem to take place there. I really want to see some of the new big shots that are on this continent. I'm curious if you actually have Merum as the leader of the Chimer Ants on this continent since last time we saw him he was at the bottom of Goku's crater getting ready to start his new training. Other than that I don't have much else to say, but if it doesn't bother you to much I was wondering if you'd be able to answer some of my questions from my last two reviews in NEXUS since I'm still a bit curious. Welp thanks for the start of another one of your stories and hope it turns out as great if not better than the first part! Till next time have a good day and a HAPPY NEW YEARS!

 **The continent's geography is a big factor in many of the future battles, but no spoilers as to what it looks like, :P sorry. Meruem... you'll also see. Got those reviews in the PM, and... Happy New Years to you too!**

 **-And on one last note. Coribou and Caribou are pirates from One Piece if you did not recognize them. Bastards with high bounties and some really creepy... everythings. XD**


	3. Nexus HWR 1-3 Okumura Rin

**Nexus HWR 1.3 Okumura Rin:**

On the deck of the Thousand Sunny, over a dozen people were enjoying the nice day out on the open water of the Great Ocean. It was a warm enough day that Nami and Juvia were out in bikinis, while Robin and Kairi covered up a little more having tank tops and short shorts on. Some of the boys had gone swimming on multiple occasions and then had to rush to keep up with the sailing ship heading east across the sea. Franky stood at the helm of the ship and was giving a lesson on sailing to some of their new crew members. Gray, Kirito, and Rin were all paying attention as he explained how the steering system worked, along with some of the Thousand Sunny's special features.

At the stern of the ship, two young boys stood behind the tangerine grove. They looked out over the water behind their ship, and neither one of them spoke. The coast of Awul was gone, not even a line on the horizon for them to gaze back at. All they could see was open water for a hundred miles. For Dash, he was thinking about his family: his father, his mother, and his sister. _Ever since Violet found me, I've been with my family. I know I sounded really confident when I told them I was going, but can I really handle a long adventure away from them? At least Riku and Ben are with me again,_ he thought and glanced to his right where the slightly taller boy was also looking to the west.

 _Gwen, I didn't want you to come, but I, but I didn't think I would miss you already._ Ben put his elbows on the back railing and he held his chin in his hands. _If only we had cell phones. But then we would need satellites, not to mention people who would want to work at a cell phone store! I don't understand how anyone could even consider a boring job like that on a crazy world like this. Then again, Metropolis was full of people with strange jobs. There were also people with cool jobs though, like those animal cops who helped save Gwen… Gwen._ His mind went full circle and he was back to his original sad thoughts.

The two boys were at the back of the ship, so they did not see it coming like the rest of the crew. Everyone on the front half of the ship looked out in the direction they were sailing where huge black clouds seemed to come out of nowhere. The temperature dropped ten degrees in minutes and a fast breeze picked up while the waves started to get choppier. Nami threw on a jacket and stepped up to the railing just outside the kitchen, "Everyone get ready! Pull in the sails. Franky, starboard twenty degrees…"

Ben and Dash heard the shouting after a little and they noticed it was getting cold as well. The two of them turned and jogged to the front of the ship only to see the clouds almost upon them. "Storm's almost here. It's gonna be a big one!" Nami called out, though she kept her voice steady like she had navigated through a hundred times worse than this before and come out fine.

"You kids should get inside," Usopp told the two of them as he ran past. "If Nami says it's going to be big, then expect a lot worse than what you're imagining." He was telling them to get inside for their safety, but to them it looked like he was the scared one.

Up in the crow's nest, Goku stepped out of the training room with a sweaty appearance, and a few burn marks on his face and clothes. He looked out towards the storm and said, "Whew, looks like the water's about to get choppy." He hopped off the crow's nest and down to the grass where the others were rushing about. "Hey Luffy," Goku called over to the pirate captain who just ran out of the kitchen with a chunk of meat in hand. "Could I do anything to help?" he asked the captain whose ship he was traveling on.

Luffy looked down at the spiky haired martial artist. "Ask Nami," he suggested, considering he normally just followed her directions during a storm. Luffy heard Nami call out his name and he jogged off to follow her instructions.

Meanwhile, Goku smiled and said, "I know that one." He looked around and spotted the orange haired woman whose name he remembered. He lifted off the ground and flew past the kid with spiky white hair, and the black haired teen with a sword on his back. Goku didn't remember people's names easily, so though they had been traveling together for a few days now, he still only knew about half the crew's names.

Nami turned to yell over to Franky to change course again as the wind shifted. When she turned, she came face to face with the smiling Saiyan man. He had flown over and landed just as she turned, but to her it looked like he just appeared behind her. "G-Goku," she said in surprise. His face was wet but it hadn't started raining yet, so she realized it was sweat pretty fast. _Why is he training all the time?_ "C-Can I help you?" she asked the muscular man in an orange fighting gi, his usual attire.

"Huh?" Goku asked. "I was going to ask you that," he said confusedly.

"Oh um," Nami realized he was waiting for instructions just like the rest of the crew members. "Could you, help Usopp pull in the sails?" She asked, making it sound like a request that would be totally fine if he said no to.

"Okay," the spiky haired man replied. He turned around and hesitated, "Um, which one is Usopp?"

"The guy with a long nose," Nami replied.

"Haha," Goku laughed as he saw the one she was talking about. "Okay then." He lifted off the ground and flew over to the long-nosed pirate who jumped at his sudden arrival.

Nami let out a deep breath as Goku flew off. _Geez, why am I so tense around him?_ She was sweating a little and she wiped it away with her arm. The truth was, it was a little unnerving having the Saiyan aboard their ship. They had seen Son Goku's power in Metropolis. They all knew how much stronger he was than the rest of them. The only one she thought could come close, was Timmy. She could handle Timmy though. He could be the strongest, smartest, most powerful twelve year old on the planet, but he was still just a twelve year old. Having him on their ship was easy; she liked acting like a mother anyway. With a grown man like Goku, she felt like she was standing in the presence of a God sometimes. When any of the Saiyans looked serious she felt nervous, even the young one Gohan. She thought about the promise Gohan made to Luthor back in Metropolis and shivered.

A raindrop came out of the air and landed right on the bridge of Nami's nose. The navigator shook her head a few times to clear her head and focus on the storm that was upon them.

Everyone listened to Nami's orders, rushing around the ship and preparing it for the storm. When it began, it started off hard. There were about ten seconds from the first raindrop to the point where it was raining buckets. People ran inside if their jobs were done, while Franky put on a big red rain jacket and pulled his hood up on as he continued to steer. Nami stood in front of the door to the cabin, wearing a yellow poncho, and continued calling out directions to the shipwright who acted as the helmsman.

A few people did not head inside as the storm picked up. Goku flew up high in the sky and continued his training while further away from the ship in order to be able to use more power without fear of damaging the Sunny Go. Dash and Ben did not go in either. The two of them were away from their families for the first time, and the thought of a storm on the open water excited them. This was their first storm on a voyage that would cross an ocean bigger than any on their own worlds.

The two of them ran up to the very front of the ship and leaned over the railing. Franky chuckled a few times from behind them where he continued to steer. _We've got our own cabin boys now,_ he thought with another laugh. _Really strong cabin boys,_ he added as he looked at the kids who fought against Luthor while he had stayed in the background. He felt a gust of wind that seemed different from the normals gusts hitting him, and the cyborg lifted his head to look up in the sky. Far above him, just beneath the black clouds, Son Goku was punching and kicking around in the air while powered up in his base form. He fired a dozen yellow balls of light around him, and they all shot back in at the same time.

Ben, Dash, and Franky all gasped as the balls collided with Goku in a huge explosion that rocked the ship. When the explosion faded, Goku was standing in the middle of it with his arms crossed in front of his chest, looking perfectly fine. "Franky! Pay attention," Nami yelled to the shipwright who missed her orders and let their ship get rocked by a pretty big wave.

"Whoops, sorry Nami," the brightly colored cyborg called out. He put both hands back on the wheel and kept steering, though his mind was still on the insane person in the air who tested his durability by attacking himself. _No wonder he's so strong._

Dash and Ben watched Goku fly around for a little more, but the Saiyan soon vanished into a low-flying cloud and they lost sight of him. It was hard looking up anyway with the rain pelting down at their faces, so they looked back down and over the choppy water in front of them. They stared out into the far east towards whatever their next destination might be. Apparently there were a lot of islands between the two largest continents on the planet, so they would be making a few stops before reaching Aebrith.

"Hey, I think I'm going to head inside," Dash said after a little. He looked up to his right at Ben's face, "You coming?"

"Hmm," Ben hummed, "in a bit."

"'Kay," Dash replied, then turned and vanished in a blur. The child raced around the deck and right past Nami who gasped as the blur stopped short next to her. Dash opened up the door and went into the cabin while Nami growled in annoyance that there were too many monsters on this ship.

The other boy who stayed at the bow kept staring into the distance. _Somewhere out there, Luthor is hiding. If I find him… rrg, I guess I won't be able to do anything. My strongest aliens couldn't take him down. Well, I do have over nine thousand aliens I have never used on this thing._ He looked down at his left wrist and the Omnitrix. His arms were crossed on the railing and he slumped a little as he looked at his watch. _I doubt it though. None of my aliens have been strong enough for some of the enemies I've faced. Even my friends, I'm sure I couldn't beat a few of them even as Way Big, or Saiyan Ben. It's so frustrating. I want to get revenge on Luthor, but Gohan has such a better chance of doing so._

Ben's fists clenched while he stood there. He felt something near him and looked around, but besides the rain, he saw nothing. He looked back at Franky who flashed him a smile, and looked farther back to where he could faintly see Nami holding up a pair of binoculars. He turned back ahead when he figured it was nothing, and his mind wandered back to the same subject. _I couldn't beat Luthor, even though, he's the one who killed Grandpa. He made Grandpa choke on his blood, then blew him up so I couldn't even bury him._ The thoughts that usually made him sad, were only making him angry now. _Now Gwen's all alone. I know I was being selfish by leaving, but we can't be kids forever. Still, she would at least have Grandpa, if it weren't for that bastard Luthor!_

 _It's all his fault! And I wasn't strong enough! Do you want to be? YES! I want to be stronger. If only I was faster, stronger, I could have beaten him! But, I'm just a human, and I can't do it! What if you were more than human? What? I will make you stronger. Wait- arrgghh. What the, Hell- hehehehehe…_

Franky stood at the helm of the Thousand Sunny. He had his huge metal hands gripping the wheel, but his eyes drifted away from the sea he was watching to look back at the boy at the railing instead. Ben had his hands gripping the railing tightly on both sides of him. His entire body was shaking, and the boy's wet brown hair started blowing around. "Hey, kid," Franky called up.

"Keep her steady," Nami called from behind Franky, but the cyborg barely heard her. He was far too preoccupied dropping his jaw at the figure in front of him who turned with a maniacal look on his face.

Ben's teeth were sharpening, and his lips curled out showing his teeth extending out from his gums. His green irises were shrinking into small pupils that looked back at Franky with the gaze of an insane person. The cyborg released the wheel and took a step back, "Hey, are you-" The kid's body erupted in a ball of green flames and he tilted his head up in the sky and started cackling.

Inside the ship's cabin, two figures jumped up from their seats near each other. Timmy's eyes snapped towards the door, and he whispered, "Ben?"

Another figure was already running towards the door. It was the black haired teen who Timmy brought on board right before they left. Okumura Rin sprinted at the door and threw it open, while a bunch of others chased after him, wondering why he looked so serious. "Oi, what's happening?" Natsu yelled as he ran outside after Rin.

"Ahh!" Nami screamed. The others who ran outside looked down to the grassy area of the deck where Nami fell to the ground. She had started going up front since Franky let go of the wheel and they were shaking worse than before, but she saw what it was that made Franky lose sight of his duties and she panicked. She scooted back across the floor as Franky slammed on the grass in front of her.

"Franky!" Luffy shouted as he saw his cyborg drop. He jumped over the railing and down to the grass deck, lifting up his fists and glaring at the front deck where the cyborg just fell down from. A figure walked up to the edge of the front deck and looked down at Luffy with a crazy grin of razor sharp teeth in his mouth. The pirate was at a loss for words at the sight of the person in front of him.

Natsu and the others were running forward as well, but they all froze and stared up at the crazy figure in shock. He stood there engulfed in an aura of light green flames. His brown hair was blowing around and steam came off of him from the rain pouring down. "HEHEHEHE," Ben cackled as he looked down at the group of people before him. His flames flared out and he bared his teeth at them, "What's wrong everyone? It's me, Ben!" He continued cackling after he shouted it and then jumped up to stand on the railing. He held his hands out in front of him and a few of the others noticed the sharp claws replacing his normal fingernails.

"Ben!" Natsu yelled up at the kid. "What the Hell are you doing?!"

"That isn't Ben," Luffy stated angrily as he stared at the flaming figure. "Who are you?!"

"Aw, you don't even recognize your friend anymore?" Ben asked, making a deep frown that could not mask his actual mocking tone.

Natsu looked closer up at his friend from Pao, and his eyes widened. He heard a voice next to him and spun to see Gray staring up at Ben in disdain. "You see it don't you Natsu?" Gray asked, his eyes narrowed right at Ben's left shoulder.

"What the Hell is it?" Natsu asked.

"A demon," Gray replied, and a few of the others heard him too.

"Awww," the child looking at them moaned. "That's no fun, you already know what I am. That ruins everything!" Ben lifted his head and cackled, "Not really!" He looked down and his eyes looked dangerous as he clashed his claws together. He dropped down so he was on the grass deck with the others. "I am Abraxas. The Demon of Lies." He chuckled at their shocked reactions, "Or am I?" He laughed even harder and then charged at the pirate in front of him who had his straw hat tied around his neck so it hung behind his back.

Luffy clenched his teeth and pulled a fist back. "Whoa whoa!" The demon yelled as it raced at Luffy, "You don't want to hurt dear Ben would you?"

The rubberman froze and the others didn't know what to do. They were cornered. Abraxas used that moment's hesitation and reached Luffy, bringing down his claws at the pirate. A loud _**clang**_ echoed around the ship and everyone looked over to Luffy who they thought was about to get slashed. Standing in front of Luffy, with a sheathed sword held up in both hands, pressing against the kid's claws, was Okumura Rin. Rin pushed hard with his sheath and knocked the demon back. The boy's eyes were darkened, and he continued to stand in between Luffy and Ben with his eyes shadowed over by his soaking wet hair.

"What are we supposed to do against him?" Nami exclaimed.

"I do not wish to hurt Ben-san," Juvia said worriedly.

Gray grimaced and muttered loudly, "I'm sorry, but I don't know how to perform an exorcism. This is a high-class demon."

Kirito looked over in surprise, then cursed himself for that. _Why wouldn't exorcisms be real on this world? Everything is real._ He shook his head and walked forward while looking over at Ben. "We have to restrain him."

"You think you can restrain me?" Abraxas laughed, and his green flames erupted around him again. He swung both arms forward and lines of green fire rose on the grass trapping the Straw Hats and their friends between two walls of fire. The demon with full possession over the boy he found smirked at the scared expressions of the people in front of him. He lifted up off the ground, floating into the air a little with a wide smirk of sharp teeth that unnerved the crew members down below.

Timmy frowned deeply, _If Wanda were here, I could have wished the possession to be over._ He shook his head, _No, I need to come up with ideas that don't involve Wanda anymore. Think!_

"What do we do?" Sanji asked his captain as he stood in front of Nami and Kairi near the back of the group.

"We could torture the demon," Killua suggested. "Beat it until it begs us to let it release Ben."

The suggestion made a few of them shiver, and they knew it was not because of the rain. "That's too cruel," Nami said, trying to protect the child.

"Do you have any ideas?" Killua asked the woman.

"We will stop Ben some other way," Riku stated. He glared up at the demon holding Ben hostage, the red hands on Ben's shoulders that looked almost translucent, the creepy eyes of the boy the demon was puppeteering.

"Hey, Abraxas or whatever your name is," someone spoke up and they all looked to the front of their group where Rin was still standing in front of Luffy. Rin looked up and Abraxas-Ben looked down at him. The teenager did not have any fear on his expression, though he looked really, really pissed off. Rin lifted up his sheath horizontally in front of his face and grabbed the hilt with one hand. He pulled one side away from the other and the blade caught on fire as soon as he started pulling it out of his sheath. The flames were strange though; they were bright blue. Not only did his sword catch on fire, but his entire body surrounded in a blue, flaming aura. On the front of his head, up above his forehead in his black hair, two solid balls of blue flames burned brighter than the rest of the translucent aura around him. Rin snapped his head up and snarled with a mouth full of sharpened teeth, "Release him."

"Ahh!" the demon in the sky shouted and backed away a little. "I know you!" The green flames were faltering and the entire crew stared at Rin oddly, then even stranger as the flaming boy lifted off the ground and flew up at Ben, slashing in front of him so that his blue flames flew off his sword. Kirito stared at Rin in shock as when he fought the teen before they left Metropolis Rin had never taken his sword out of his sheath and shown his full powers. Rin slashed a massive amount of blue flames that raced towards the boy in front of him. _Careful to only burn the demon._ Rin breathed deeply and focused his flames. "AAHHEEEESSHHhh," Ben screamed and the others looked up at Rin in shock as he lit Ben on fire with the blue flames.

"Ben!" Dash yelled, and was about to sprint forward but another voice called out first.

"Wait, look!" Sora pointed up at Ben who was surrounded by a huge slash of blue flames. "The demon's hands are letting go!"

"What hands?" Luffy asked in confusion.

Natsu looked at Luffy for a second, then looked around and realized that the pirate captain was not the only one confused. Gray spoke to his friend, "Demons are similar to shinigami. Remember how we were the only ones in Fairy Tail who could see them?"

"Yeah, you said you have to be around them often, right?" Natsu asked, while still watching the demon's hands lose their grip on Ben.

"Yeah, that's one way, or," Gray faded off and looked back at Riku and Sora who seemed to have been able to see the demon as well. He turned to Natsu, and then whispered in a grim tone, "People who have died before can see them too."

"AHH!" a voice screamed, sounding like the same one Ben was using a minute ago. Only now, the boy in the sky was dropping down, his eyes closed. Dash sprinted forward, jumped up, and caught Ben in midair. He dropped back down, then looked up in the sky where Rin was facing something in the air.

Only a few of them were able to hear the demon as it kept yelling. "I had no idea you were on this ship. Satan-sama will be so pleased to hear this," Abraxas yelled over at Rin. The Demon of Lies was panting and glaring over at Rin angrily. He was a short, pudgy demon, with red skin and a sword held in its armpit. It had pointy ears and the face of a deceiver.

A few of the people able to see the demon felt the urge to ask, 'Satan?!' Rin started shouting first though, and he roared, "I won't let you!" He shot forward and swung his sword, the same moment the other demon was unsheathing his to attack with. Rin slammed his sword into his opponent's, right as Abraxas covered in green flames. The smaller demon pressed against Rin for a few seconds, but Rin finished with his slash anyway and sent the other demon flying off the front of the ship and down into the water. A huge splash lifted up that made much of the crew confused as to what was going on. The Sunny shook around and Sanji ran to regain control of the helm, considering the downpour was still going on, and now they had to deal with a crazed demon on top of it.

"RAA!" Rin yelled as the other demon shot up out of the water. He charged across the sky and cut back and forth at the smaller demon who couldn't keep up with him. "I'm an Exorcist!" He yelled at the smaller demon who spun away from a sword slash and tried cutting back himself.

"An exorcist?" Gray whispered. The ice mage took a step forward and muttered, "Looks more like a demon himself."

"Your father wants all demons to report any news about his children," the red demon chided as he leapt backwards through the air over the water. He was panting and tried to keep some distance to save himself from the teenager who was getting angrier by the second, and whose blue flames were getting brighter each second as well. Rin's tail popped out of his pants and only a few of his friends were able to see that as they watched the two off the side of the ship.

Gray stared at the tail, "He is a demon," he whispered. Natsu turned to his friend who only he heard, then spun and faced back up as Rin shot across the sky even faster than before.

"I know where your brother is!" The demon yelled as Rin came close. Rin stopped in mid-slash, and Abraxas took that to his advantage, flying forward and cutting across Rin's chest with a slash of green flames that sent Rin flying over the ship and across the sky. "Oh wait, that was a LIE!" Abraxas looked down at the ship below him and cackled again. "Who will I possess next?" He asked, knowing that a few of them were able to see him.

"Excuse me," a man's voice spoke right behind the demon. The small, red form spun around, and came face-to-chest with an extremely muscular body that was not hidden at all by the orange gi the man was wearing. Goku put his hand forward into the face of the demonic creature in front of him, "Sorry about this." A yellow light glowed on Goku's hand, as the creature started to lean backwards. His glowing hand burst into a yellow beam fifty feet in radius that incinerated the demon in under a second, as Goku did not want the creature, no matter how evil, to suffer. The drenched Saiyan dropped back to the deck right as Rin came back, staring at him in shock. The boy with blue flames was panting, his mouth in a snarl with a look in his eyes of an animal. "It's okay," Goku told the younger man, "he is gone."

Rin saw the beam, and he did not feel the other demon's presence any longer, but he was still angry. He wanted to be the one who defeated the demon. His flames raged around him for a few seconds, then he noticed Nami, Dash, and a couple of the others staring at him with looks of fear. He clenched his eyes shut and his sword trembled in his hand. He shot over to his sheath and slid his sword, Kurikara, back into it. His blue flames went out and his black hair fell flat down to his head, starting to get wet again. He turned around, putting his sheathed demon-killing sword back on his back. "Got it," he said and flashed a toothy grin at the people behind him.

"I think I got it," Goku said as he landed down next to Rin. "Still, you did a great job. I would have let you finish if he didn't try going for another possession." Rin turned to Goku who was surprisingly familiar with demons. "But to think, I never knew you were a demon." Rin sweatdropped as the Saiyan said it out loud nonchalantly while he was in the middle of thinking of a way to lie about what just happened.

"A demon?!" half the crew shouted at once.

"Not really," Rin said, scratching his head while the rain kept coming down hard on them. "I'm only half."

"Oh, just like Gohan's only half Saiyan," Natsu said.

"Who?" Rin asked, tilting his head to the side.

"My son," Goku explained to the boy next to him. "My wife was human."

"Huh," Rin stated, surprised that this was not as surprising for some of them as it was for others.

"You know," Franky began as Usopp helped him to his feet. "I never really knew, what is a Saiyan?" He looked over at Goku, "I heard all about you guys for years now, but-"

"They're aliens!" Natsu exclaimed, glad he knew the answer to this one.

"Really? Whoa!" Luffy shouted.

Killua sweat-dropped. "Aren't we all aliens?" He asked them. The others looked at him and he continued, "None of us were born on this planet, right?"

"Sure, I guess," Natsu replied, kind of annoyed. "But Goku isn't human."

Rin looked at Goku while the others talked about demons and Saiyans and crazy stuff like that. _No one really cared. I thought it would be weird, or that people might think differently about me since I'm half-demon. My friends back home did, but none of these people care._ He started smiling and looked back around at the group of people standing in the rain with him. _I like these guys!_

* * *

Long after Goku destroyed Abraxas and the day was finally over, Rin stepped out of the cabin of the Thousand Sunny and stretched his arms up in the air. It was dark and they had just eaten a great dinner an hour before but he could still taste it in his mouth. He could never get used to having such great cooking for every meal considering the way he had been living for most of his time on Nexus.

He stepped out on the deck while stretching and yawned a loud yawn. Rin looked at the front of the ship and saw Franky up there steering, but Nami was walking over and she called to him that he could drop anchor for the night. There were some islands up ahead with shallow waters near them that she would have to carefully navigate around so she would rather they wait until day to keep moving. A few others got to work helping slow the Sunny and bring her to rest for the night, and Rin was about to jump down to offer his help.

Before he could jump however, he heard a voice on his left side. "Tell me what you're doing here." Rin darted his eyes left first and then turned himself completely and saw a man with black hair standing there glaring back at him. The man was someone he recognized from the ship but one he did not think he had talked to before.

"What's it to you?" Rin asked, putting his hands in his pockets and looking at the older boy in annoyance. He narrowed his eyebrows as the look this other man was giving him was more than just anger, it was a look of hate.

Gray took a step closer to Rin and he spoke in a calm, but accusatory voice, "The others may think it's great that you're part demon, but I know what all demons have in common." The ice mage's voice was cold and he took another step closer to the younger boy, the temperature around them lowering as he did. "Every demon on this world answers to the same man. I doubt half-demons are different. So why did he send you with us? Is Satan trying to take Goku's body for-"

Rin stepped towards Gray so there was less than two feet between their faces. "I do _not_ ," he seethed through clenched teeth, "work for that bastard."

Gray could hear the resentment, the hate in Rin's own voice when talking about Satan and his own facial expression softened a little. Rin stepped forward and to Gray's side, and as he walked past he growled, "I am the one who's going to kill him."

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Rin was only a minor character in the first Saga of Nexus, but with his brother taken by Mephisto and Amaimon, and Satan as one of the main antagonists, you can be sure he's going to be an MC for Saga numero dos. Abraxas the Demon of Lies is an actual demon that I looked up for use, so continuing the trend of not having any original characters in this story. Leave a review telling me what you thought of the chapter, questions about the story, or predictions you may have for the future of Nexus! 'Till next time!**


	4. Nexus HWR 1-5 Why They're Here

**A/N Hey guys! Four chapters down in just three days, ;) hope you're enjoying the story so far. As a disclaimer, I still don't own anything. Enjoy!**

 **Nexus HWR 1.5 Why They're Here:**

"Hey Nami, what're ya' doing?" Ben asked. He walked into the ship's library to find the navigator writing something at the table.

She turned to see the child and smiled at him. Although Sanji and Usopp made jokes about them running a daycare now, she liked having the kids on the ship. Ben walked over to her and looked over her shoulder down at the book in front of her. Nami closed the book and for a second Ben thought it was a secret.

When she closed it though, she pointed at the title at the top of the front cover. "It's the Logbook," Nami began as Ben looked at the faded word at the top. "I started it back when I first joined the crew."

"What's in it?" Ben asked, turning to look in Nami's brown eyes.

She chuckled and opened up only the front cover. "I logged all of the adventures we've had. Even the ones after coming to Nexus." She explained to him. He looked interested and she slid the leather-bound book to the edge of the table, "Want to take a look?"

Ben nodded really fast and he sat down next to Nami at the table. Normally he wasn't one for reading, but this sounded like one book he could get behind. Once he started reading his eyes widened and darted back and forth across the page. When he flipped the first page Nami sighed. She was in the middle of adding a new addition to the Logbook, but this seemed like it would take a while. _Guess I'll go check the course... and get Sanji to make me a snack._

Nami stood up and said, "Read as long as you'd like."

Ben nodded without turning to Nami, making the navigator smile again. He became so engrossed with the book that he didn't even notice when she left. He flipped page after page of what seemed less like the travels of a crew and more like an epic novel.

Ben finally reached a part of the story that made him jump up. "It was a whale?!" He turned to the sides to see if anyone else thought that was as crazy as he did. Ben suddenly came to remember that he was alone up here, no one to enjoy his fun with, making it noticeably less fun.

 _Alright, who would want to hear about Luffy's crew's adventures? Gwen would, but she's not here._ His smile faded a little without him noticing it. _...Dash!_ His eyes lit up and he ran off.

Meanwhile, inside the kitchen, Dash was sitting on the counter wearing a bored expression. His increased speed also increased his metabolism, so along with Goku and Luffy, his appetite was difficult to keep up with. Sanji had to make snacks for him every once in a while as per request from Nami who was looking out for the kid in place of his parents.

Sanji murmured to himself in annoyance while smoking some fish Usopp and Luffy had caught earlier that day. He stood up straight all of a sudden and his head turned a little. Dash looked at him confusedly, and then out of nowhere a purple blob appeared right in front of Dash. "Ahh!" the blond boy reeled back and fell off the back of the kitchen counter.

"Hahaha-" a flash of green light surrounded the purple blob that sounded like it was laughing. When the light was gone, Clear Body was too, leaving only Ben in its place. "Haha," Ben finished laughing now in his own body.

Dash got up angrily and ran to the front of the counter where Ben was standing. He was about to yell at his friend when he noticed Sanji standing behind him. Ben started sweating and he did not know why until he turned around a little.

Right behind Ben stood a man on fire. Sanji stared down at Ben with the look of a madman. "You can turn invisible?! That's my DREAM!"

"Dash," Ben began nervously, taking a step backwards. A flash of green surrounded him again and XLR8 stood in his place. "Run," Ben finished, and his black mask covered his alien's face before he sprinted off faster than Sanji could kick him.

Dash was going to say that he had nothing to do with this, but one look at the insane chef told him to get far away. He ran after Ben's blur, one of the only people actually able to follow him. "Over here," Ben called back.

"Where are we going?" Dash asked.

Usopp and Rin stopped fishing for a second and spun around. The two could have sworn they just heard a voice behind them, but no one was there. "Huh," Rin mumbled and scratched the side of his head.

Dash chased Ben all the way until the six foot tall lizard alien stopped running. A flash of green turned him back into Ben and he took a deep breath to calm down. Dash was going to ask him again, but he figured out where they were. "The library? Lame."

"No, look at this," Ben ran over to the table and lifted up the Logbook. "I figure we can look through this until Sanji calms down."

"Logbook?" Dash questioned as he saw the title.

"It's all of Luffy's adventures," Ben replied, and a second later Dash was standing next to him ready to read the book. "Read up real quick and tell me when you get to the whale."

"The whale?" Dash asked as he opened up the book.

"You'll know what I'm talking about," Ben answered with a grin that made Dash want to read so much more. As Ben sat there he thought about Sanji's reaction to him being invisible. He looked at his friend whose nose was buried in the book, "Why do you think Sanji wants to be able to turn invisible so badly?"

Dash shrugged and kept reading. "He must have a good reason if he got that mad about it." The boy offered while flipping the pages.

"Hmm," Ben hummed, thinking about that.

In the middle of reading, Dash's eyes turned huge. Ben saw the boy looking at the page in amazement and asked, "Did you reach the whale?"

"No, not yet," Dash said. He turned the book and pointed at the page he was on. "You read this right?"

Ben read it aloud while the page was facing him. "'The Grand Line's entrance was in sight. With the rain pouring in buckets and the imminent departure to our new lives bearing in, we needed something to set us off on our next adventure. Sanji suggested a launching ceremony and each of us declared our goals for traveling the world. I'll put those here now as reference. Sanji: "To find All Blue." Luffy: "To become-"'"

"Ben," Dash interrupted, shutting the book in front of his friend. "Let's do this!"

"What?" Ben deadpanned. He was not following whatever train of thought Dash was on.

"We're going on a new adventure right?" Dash asked. Ben nodded and he continued, "Then let's get everyone together. We can all declare our goals for going to Aebrith!"

"Umm," Ben mumbled, not thinking it would be as much fun as Dash was making it out to be. He really just wanted to finish looking through that Logbook. "Well, I don't think we can do something similar like that."

"What? Why not?" The younger boy complained.

Ben looked at the book in Dash's hand. "When they did their ceremony, they had already been through a lot. They were a close knit group. Everyone knew each other."

"We all know each other," Dash argued back.

"Really?" Ben asked skeptically. "Before a few days ago I had never seen a few people here before. When I saw them on the ship that was my first time meeting them." Dash nodded along as he felt the same way. "And even the rest who I do know, I'm not great friends with all of them. Like, I know Natsu, Juvia, and the Mayor really well. Luffy too, and Riku of course."

"Of course," Dash agreed with that last one.

"But everyone else I barely know," Ben finished.

Dash agreed and his excited look from before fell. He thought for a little about what Ben said and then started in a quiet tone, "How's that guy Kirito? I heard he was an Underworld member."

"Kirito's a jerk, but he's okay." Ben said and shrugged his shoulders. He could see Dash was disappointed by all this. He started back up, "I'm sure Luffy's crew and any member of Fairy Tail are all great people, but I'm just saying maybe the whole 'shouting our dreams' thing could wait for another time. Okay?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right. It's just..." Dash faded off, "nevermind."

"No, what?" Ben asked, not wanting to discourage his blond friend.

"I, I just kind of wanted to know why everyone else decided to come. In the book everyone had such defined goals, but I," Dash frowned and looked down at his feet. "I only really came to prove I could leave."

"Well, maybe you just haven't found your real reason for being here yet," Ben suggested.

Dash hummed to himself and looked deep in thought. "How about this," Ben started. The blond kid looked up at his friend who had a small smile on his face. "Let's go ask them anyway. We don't need a special ceremony to learn more about our new crewmates."

"I, guess that sounds cool," Dash said. He smiled and nodded his head a few times. "Let's go!" The two boys turned and ran off.

* * *

"So Gray's returning to look for his friends, and Juvia came for obvious reasons," Ben explained as he and Dash walked along the outside of the Thousand Sunny. The two of them were leaving the stern where Gray and Juvia were hanging out.

Dash snickered thinking about how Juvia followed Gray around all day every day. "Obviously," he repeated, then pointed as he saw someone walking around the outside of the cabin towards them.

"Natsu," Ben called out. He and Dash ran up to the pink haired mage who stopped and looked down at them. "We've got something to ask you."

"Why are you here?" Dash asked, looking up excitedly at the magician.

Natsu looked back and forth, then back down at the kids. "I'm walking to the stern." He said slowly, scratching the side of his head wondering if he was missing something.

"What he means," Ben cut in. "Is why did you decide to come on the ship?"

Natsu continued staring strangely at the top of them for a few more seconds. _Why did I come? Is this a trick question?_ He stared closer at them and furrowed his brow making the other two look at each other confusedly. "I came, to have fun," Natsu answered confidently.

Ben lifted up his eyebrows. "Really?" He asked.

Natsu's confident expression vanished. _Was that not the right answer? Crap! How do both of them know this and I not?!_

"Dash was just wondering since he didn't really have a reason for coming," Ben explained.

Natsu sweatdropped and wondered what the Hell he was just thinking about. "Oh," he said in a deadpan tone. "Well, I came to help Gray find his new nakama."

"Yeah, that's what Juvia said too," Dash mumbled. He turned to Ben, "Maybe I should just go with that too."

"Hmm," Ben hummed. He looked up at Natsu again, "Sure there isn't any other reason you're coming?"

"Other reason?" Natsu muttered. He looked deep in thought and he started scratching the side of his head. "Well there is one goal I've had since I was a kid."

"What?!" Dash and Ben both exclaimed together.

"Haha," Natsu chuckled at their enthusiasm. "I'm looking for my dad."

"Your dad?" Dash asked, somewhat disappointed as that was not a goal he could adopt as his own. He already knew where his dad was: back in Pao.

"Yeah," Natsu said, and he looked up in the sky. "He disappeared one day when I was a kid. His name is Igneel. He's a dragon."

"Wait," Ben stopped his older friend. "Your dad is a dragon?"

"Yep," Natsu said and nodded. He was still looking at the sky and in a quiet voice he whispered, "Igneel. Where are you?"

"What if he never came to this world?" Dash began. Natsu looked down and Ben turned in to his friend who had a thoughtful look on his face. "What if he's back on your world?"

"No way," Natsu said confidently. "Everyone else is here, so Igneel's gotta be too! I didn't see him on Awul, so he's gotta be somewhere in Aebrith."

"Yeah," Ben whispered under his breath. "Maybe my parents are too."

"Huh?" Dash asked, thinking he heard Ben say something. The older boy shrugged and shook his head like it was nothing.

"Anyway. Thanks Natsu," Ben said.

The pink haired mage nodded at the younger boys. As Natsu turned and walked off for the stern, he looked up at the sky, _Igneel._

* * *

"Why I'm here?" Kirito asked the two boys standing inside the crow's nest with him. Kirito stood there sweaty and shirtless with his long black wings spread behind him. The fairy wings that his avatar in ALO, a virtual reality game on his own world, were wished to him by Timmy back in the Battle of Metropolis close to a month before. During the battle he utilized them as best he could, but he was out of practice and had never used wings in the real world before. He figured he needed some more training with them if he was heading somewhere as dangerous as Aebrith.

"Yeah," Ben replied. "We're going around asking everyone."

"What for?" Kirito muttered.

Dash opened his mouth to explain but Ben snapped, "Could you just tell us? I didn't see you for weeks after Metropolis. People wondered where you went. Then all of a sudden you're on the ship coming along. How'd you even know we were going?"

Kirito frowned at the boy but he saw that Dash really wanted to know and he sighed. Kirito wiped some sweat from his forehead and started, "I did disappear after Metropolis. I know I should have stayed, but I've done things. Things I needed to make up for…"

 **FD + 818**

Kirito lay back on a rock next to a huge lake. His clothes were set out to dry on another rock behind him, as he stared up into the sky at the three hot suns high above. Summer was in full swing and sun-drying was going fast. Not far from his rock was a fire with a single stick sticking out of the ground next to it and hovering over the flames. There was a huge blue fish impaled by the roasting stick and it smelled good.

 _There are rumors about some new criminals trying to take the Underworld's place as the top guys on Awul. Could go after them. Or maybe do what those wizard guilds do, get a job and help some people that need- no, that's not enough. I, I've gotta think bigger. I have to..._

"Hey Kirito."

The teen jumped so high off his rock the man who was standing next to him looked impressed. Kirito dropped down and spun around with a shocked expression as he did not even feel the man approaching with his Observational Haki. He thought for a second that the man purposely snuck up on him, but quickly realized that he himself was probably just too distracted. "Goku," Kirito said, calming himself down even though his heart rate was still through the roof. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to tell you that I'm going on a boat ride to Aebrith," Goku told the younger man. Kirito looked confused and Goku continued, "I thought you might want to come."

"Me?" Kirito asked, wondering why the man was asking him. "Why not ask your son? Or Vegeta?"

"They're too busy training," Goku said with a small pout. "I tried convincing Gohan but he wants to stay behind. You want to come though, right?"

"Why- what are you-" Kirito shook his head around a few times. "Why do you ask?"

"Well," Goku began, and he scratched the back of his head. "There are some bad guys on Aebrith, a lot of them actually. It's a much different place than Awul, and Gray says he wants our help to save his friends and help the Resistance."

"Gray said he wants my help?" Kirito asked skeptically, as he was pretty sure Gray was one of the people angrier at him than most for his former role in the Underworld.

"Not specifically," Goku answered and laughed. "He didn't ask for my help either though," Goku added as a sentiment that really just made Kirito sweatdrop. "Anyway, I thought you would want to come. Help the Resistance, defeat some monsters, free the slaves…"

"Slaves?" Kirito questioned, perking up.

Goku nodded his head with more of a frown. "Aebrith is a lot different than here," he repeated. "It could use your help."

 **Present**

"Goku knew I wanted to make up for the things I've done, or the things I let happen," Kirito told the two boys in front of him. "I'm glad he searched me out, and I'm going to do my best to stop this evil King that Gray talked about."

Dash and Ben nodded at Kirito as the teen stopped talking. Dash hummed and mumbled, "So you want to help people? Join the Resistance and fight this King guy, and I guess Goku probably does too huh?" The blond kid scratched the side of his head, "Thanks," he muttered.

Dash turned around and Ben nodded once more to Kirito before turning too and walking out with his younger friend. "Did that help?" Ben questioned. Dash shook his head and his older friend sighed. "Well, lots of people still on board to ask. Let's go see who else has an idea."

* * *

 **Two hours later.**

Ben and Dash were back in the library sitting on their chairs in front of the open Logbook. Dash had his chin in his hands and Ben was listing off everything they heard so far, "Finding friends, finding dads, fighting for good, freeing slaves, adventure, following Luffy, looking for a brother, and fun. Sure is a big list to choose from," Ben joked.

He looked at the blond kid but Dash had nothing to say. The light-skinned speedster was deep in though and he closed his eyes. He decided in that moment that whatever appeared before him would determine the course of the rest of his journey. His eyes snapped back open and his face took a look of shock to it. He nodded his head slowly though, accepting the image he saw when he closed his eyes. "I've got it," Dash said.

"Really?" Ben asked in surprise.

"Yeah," Dash said and nodded his head. He lifted up the corners of his lips and clenched his right fist in front of him. "I'm going to help everyone out finding their family and friends and fighting the bad guys all over Aebrith." Ben sighed as that did not sound like his own goal but just a combination of all of theirs. Dash was not done though, "My most important goal however, is that before this journey is done, before our adventure comes to an end, I am going to find my baby brother. I am going to find JackJack, and I'm going to bring him home."

* * *

 **A/N Short chapter, short but sweet. Why would Sanji want to become invisible? XD Small flashback with Kirito and Goku to the time after the Battle of Metropolis. Dash decides to go searching for his baby brother JackJack while helping the others with their goals. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, as the crew moves ever closer to the continent across the sea! Leave a review telling me what you think below!**

Espada-001 chapter 3 . 8h ago

Well I liked the short battle between Rin and the liar but I'm not entirely sure why a demon was so far from thier territory. Other than that I would kind of think that's Devil Fruit users would be able sense or even see demons since the eater would already have a natural connection to the supernatural. Other than that I don't really have anything else to say as you've already answered most my other questions and we aren't to far into this one so I don't have to many things to question yet. Well hope to keep this wonderful relationship of Q/A as the story goes on! Until the next chapter, have a wonderful day and I'll talk to you next time!

 **Glad you liked the last chapter, and I do like writing review responses as often as I can. I don't remember if you asked in a previous review or in a PM, but instead of an entirely other story of just the crew traveling, there are quite a few chapters of them getting to Aebrith. An entire arc in fact ;), with several sub-arcs inside. Demons, Gray did mention that Satan is different from other High Lords and his soldiers probably have a lot more range than the others' men do as well. As for Devil Fruits being supernatural, One Piece has still left us in the dark mainly about what they are so I don't wanna make any claims but I always figured they were just a natural part of the One Piece world and because of their strange powers some people attributed them with supernatural properties, though that was mainly back in East Blue. In the Grand Line they're more commonplace. Let me know what you think. As always, thanks for the review!**

 **-Finally, I figured I'd give a list of the 19 main characters and the shows, movies, anime, etc. I got them from here:**

 **Fairy Tail: Gray, Juvia, Natsu**

 **One Piece: Nami, Franky, Robin, Sanji, Usopp, Luffy**

 **Blue Exorcist: Rin**

 **DBZ: Goku**

 **SAO: Kirito**

 **Incredibles: Dash Parr**

 **Ben 10: Ben**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Killua**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Sora, Riku, Kairi**

 **Fairly Oddparents: Timmy Turner**


	5. Nexus HWR 1-6 Not Just Sharks

**Nexus HWR 1.6 Not Just Sharks:**

Natsu yawned as he walked out of the boy's quarters and down the hall towards the door to the deck of the ship. When he got close to the door however, he noticed two others standing at the exit to the cabin, peeking out through the cracked open door. "What's up?" The pink haired mage questioned the two standing in front of him.

Sora and Ben snapped their heads back together and both held up a single finger in front of their mouths. "Shh," they whispered at him. Ben waved his older friend over and Natsu came over to the door with them. They had to open it a little wider than last time to make room for Natsu, and the boys were all amazed by what they saw outside.

There was only one person on the deck right now, yet at the same time there were thirty people out and about on the ship'a surface. Up at the helm, there was a teenager with messy black hair standing still with his arms held out to the sides. Four other black teens of the same height and body stature kept charging at him and attacking with their fists, knives, or even balls of glowing blue light. Whenever the four attackers got close to hitting the one standing still however, a golden sphere of light surrounded him that protected him from their attacks. High up above the five of them, were six others sitting across the boom at the top of the mast.

The horizontal piece of wood was rounded, but on either side of the mast sat three teens with their legs crossed. Their eyes were closed and their hands were on their knees, looking completely relaxed as they tried to maintain their balance. Closest to the door the three boys were looking out, there were two more black haired teenagers floating a few inches off the grassy ground of the main deck. One of the two lost control as he was hovering and he spun out of control, crashing into the other and making them both fall to the floor. They tumbled into two other teens who were in the middle of trading blows, and one of them missed his punch, slamming it into a wooden wall instead.

The teen tried to lessen the force of his punch as to not splinter the wood, but it still caused enough of a tremor that the six teens sitting cross-legged on top of the boom opened their eyes in surprise. Their distraction also cost them their balance and they all fell off the high mast, only one of them managing to grab on with his hands as he toppled off.

Five teenagers crashed down to the ground below. One fell on top of the boy surrounded in a glowing golden sphere and in his surprise he dropped his Borg. The protective barrier fell as one of the others was pushing forward a spinning ball of blue energy. The Rasengan collided with the black haired teen inside the barrier as four other teens crashed down on the floor around them, some even falling on top of the others. All of them yelled out as the blue attack exploded.

Sora, Ben, and Natsu were trying desperately to hold it in, but Natsu was leaning too far forward to see over Sora's spiky hair and tripped forward on accident. His fall caused all three of them to push through the doorway onto the grass outside. They got back up to their feet fast, but they couldn't help it anymore and all burst out in laughter.

All the injured black haired boys around the deck poofed out in puffs of white smoke. Then the remaining ten or so who were glaring at the three boys on the grass deck all vanished as well. Once all the Shadow Clones were gone, they looked up at the ship's sail where one last one was hanging from the boom.

The final teen, and really the only one who was actually up here, swung off the boom into a triple backflip. He came down fast, but when he was about to hit the ground in front of his three crewmates, he expelled a lot of ki from the bottoms of his feet to soften his fall.

Natsu was laughing the hardest of the other two after watching Kiritos tumble all over the ship. "Ahaha! What are you doing?!"

"Great job," a voice called down from above them. Three of them looked up in surprise, while Kirito just looked up expectantly at his trainer. "Do you remember what the clone on the left was thinking when he was flying a minute ago?" The muscular man in the air with large black spikes of hair on his head smiled at his comrades as he descended towards them.

"Goku?" Natsu asked.

"What are you doing up here?" Ben questioned the former mayor of Pao Town.

"Just helping Kirito with some early morning training," the Saiyan replied. He turned back to the other black haired male on the deck, "You're improving rapidly. Naruto was definitely right with this training method. It seems the more Shadow Clones you produce, the more information you retain." Goku scratched his chin thoughtfully, "Everything your clones think during their training, you can recall it correct?"

Kirito nodded his head, ignoring the other three who were staring at him. "You want to learn how to do it?" Kirito questioned him.

"It's okay," Goku replied. He held up his right hand and said, "I've already got a similar technique. We call it multi-form," his body suddenly split into three different figures. The one in the middle kept speaking while his fellow travelers each took a step back in surprise.

Kirito thought they might just be afterimages so he reached a hand forward, but that version of Goku just chuckled when Kirito felt his solid form. "And this is real? Not just a clone?" He questioned in amazement.

"Yep!" Goku replied cheerfully. "But it has the same setback in that it splits my energy in three." He looked at the four children around him, "I bet the four of you could take a third of me." _If I stay in my base form,_ he added on for himself with a chuckle.

"Really?!" Ben exclaimed hopefully. Goku nodded at the thirteen year old and they smiled at each other.

"Yeah right," Sora said. The spiky haired boy continued, "You are much too strong Son Goku."

The Saiyan grinned at the modest boy with brown hair that spiked just like his own. _Without you they probably wouldn't stand a chance. You are strong Sora._

"I wouldn't need the other three," Natsu said proudly, balling his fists. "I'm all it would take."

"Really?" A voice said behind him. The pink haired kid's eyes went wide as he suddenly noticed the Goku on the left of the center one was gone. Before he could move, two strong arms wrapped under his armpits and connected behind his neck, putting him in a full nelson.

"Hey!" Natsu yelled, "Unfair!" He squirmed around in Goku's arms but the Saiyan's grip was unbreakable.

"This is the move I put my older brother in so Piccolo could kill him." Goku commented nostalgically as he thought back on the fight with Raditz. Saying his thoughts out loud turned out to be the wrong idea though as all four of the others gawked at him in horror. He didn't notice this yet though and scratched the back of his own head, releasing Natsu as he did. He continued, "Though he wound up killing me too!" Goku started laughing at the old story.

"You killed your older brother?" Ben whispered, his voice a little scared.

Goku stopped scratching the back of his head and looked around at the others noticing they were all staring at him nervously. "Well, he was threatening to kill Gohan," the Saiyan argued, "and he wanted me to kill all humans... Oh! And he slapped Krillin through Kame House!"

"Well then that's unforgivable," Natsu said with a stoic nod. The pink haired wizard tried to keep a straight face as he said it but he wound up laughing again with Goku and Sora who joined in with them.

Ben was still staring at the older man with a little bit of fear though. _He could kill his own brother if it meant saving others. What if- What if I have to face a situation like that?_ His fear wasn't directed at the man he was looking at. It was fear that he was going to have to make hard decisions like that in his travels, giving up on one person to save many...

"Breakfast!" A loud voice shouted through the speakers all over the ship. They recognized the blond haired chef's voice who was probably in the kitchen and they all turned back towards the cabin. As they turned, they saw the door had already swung open.

The four teens on the deck looked back behind them but not one of the three Goku's were still on the deck. "Quickly!" Natsu yelled, panic spreading across his face.

Ben started sprinting inside, forgetting his fears as he shouted, "If we don't hurry, Goku will eat everything!"

Everyone on the ship was sprinting the same direction. When they reached the kitchen they found Sanji desperately trying to stop the four monsters from devouring all the food at his table. He kicked the rubber captain across the room and then yelled at the three Goku's to combine so they would stop eating so much. All of Goku's multi-forms combined together and the spiky haired Saiyan felt himself get a lot more full with all his food in one stomach. That wasn't to say he couldn't still eat, and he continued diving into the mountains of food set up for them.

"Every day," Usopp muttered, wondering if his stomach could take watching this much longer. He thought he was used to it watching Luffy eat, but the Saiyan's stomach wasn't even made of rubber yet his mouth seemed like a bottomless pit.

While the crew ate, Ben turned to Kirito and asked, "So, what were the clones sitting on the boom doing?" He took another bite of his breakfast while waiting for an answer.

Ben could figure out what the rest of the Shadow Clones were doing, but the ones on top of the mast seemed to just be sitting around doing nothing. Kirito took another bite himself and swallowed. He looked in at Ben, "I was attempting Sage Mode. It was one of Naruto's best techniques."

"Sage Mode huh?" Timmy asked between bites of his food. The normally quiet twelve year old looked up a little and over at Kirito. They weren't very close, but they did share the bond that they each knew Naruto well. "How's that going? Naruto and Goku are the only ones I know who can do it."

Kirito froze and his head snapped to Goku. Goku looked just as surprised though and turned to Timmy confusedly. Timmy looked over at Goku and saw the older man's confusion. "Remember when we fought Madara? You couldn't see those invisible guys, so I wished that you could see them, which meant giving you Sage Mode."

Timmy kept eating casually while most people stared at him in either confusion or awe. Nami remembered the battle with Madara vividly and she looked away, confusing Luffy who had no idea what they were talking about. "What's Sage Mode?" Luffy asked.

Kirito hesitated for a moment, not wanting to explain it. However the question was directed at him and he sighed. "After reaching a perfect state of meditation you have to absorb the nature energy around you." Kirito said, trying to give just the gist of it.

"And how many times have you actually done it?" Natsu asked the teenager.

Kirito grimaced but tried not to let it show. "Zero. I've been practicing it since my training with Naruto. Over two years now."

"And you haven't done it once?!" Ben exclaimed. He received a glare from Kirito and closed his mouth fast, realizing that probably sounded a little harsh.

"Well," Goku said between bites of food. "Only way to get stronger is by training. Keep at it Kirito."

Kirito's annoyed expression faded a little. "Yeah," he mumbled, then got back to his food.

* * *

Kirito stood at the top of the Thousand Sunny's mast on one foot. He had his other leg bent up to his thigh and his eyes were closed while he meditated. The rounded roof of the crow's nest was hard to balance on which made it the best place to make sure he was focused solely on his meditation. The black pirate flag of the Straw Hats flapped in the wind behind him.

The teenager standing at the top of the ship listened to everything around him. He could hear Ben training inside the crow's nest beneath him. The younger boy was sparring with Riku who was clearly winning by the sounds of Ben's frustrated grunts. From the sounds they were making though, Kirito could tell Ben was not transforming into any of his aliens while fighting. Kirito listened past the two of them down to the grassy deck below where Luffy, Dash, and Usopp were running around playing tag. The sniper kept complaining about Dash's speed, Luffy and Dash kept laughing, and Kirito heard Robin chuckling from her lounge chair not far from them.

He tried to hear inside the ship, to the other presences he could feel with his Haki, but the wind was picking up. The flag flapped harder making a buffeting noise that blocked out the sounds of his crewmates. Kirito looked back at the flapping flag and then up into the sky. Now that he looked, he realized that the sky had been getting darker for a while now. "Hmm," he looked to the bow of the ship and out into the distance of the ocean. There was no land for hundreds of miles, or at least as far as the horizon. The waves were picking up and getting choppier.

"Looks like a storm's coming," he muttered, putting down his other foot. He hopped off of the crow's nest and dropped to the front deck where Franky stood behind the wheel.

"Sup little bro," the cyborg greeted. The smiling robot turned the wheel a little to head right over a large wave. "Want to get Nami for me?" Franky added seeing as the water was getting rougher each second.

Kirito replied, "No need."

The cyborg turned to ask him why, but when he turned he saw Nami walking up the steps behind them. "Heh, forgot you know Haki," Franky said while turning back to the water. "So Nami," he called out, "what's going on?"

The navigator walked up between Kirito and Franky to look out over the water herself. She had a semi-serious look on her face as she looked both directions. "A cold front, and a warm front," her eyes opened wide and she called out, "Hard to port. Get us away from here."

"On it," Franky said, not going to question her orders after all this time.

Kirito's eyes narrowed out off the front of the ship. "What is it?" he questioned. The teen looked to the woman on his right who was starting to look confused while staring ahead. He looked back ahead and finally noticed something in the water other than the waves. "Are those-" he whispered, seeing some fins sticking out of the water.

"Sharks," Nami whispered in reply. Once she saw them, there was no un-seeing them. It was not one, or two sharks, but hundreds. The fins sticking out of the water went on from a hundred feet in front of their ship to farther than they could see. "But, there are other things we have to focus on," she reminded them and mainly herself. "Franky, turn to port and get us out of here."

"Hey, what's going on?" Natsu walked up to the front of the ship and asked. The Dragon Slayer's eyes bugged out at the sight of the fins sticking out of the choppy water, "Are those sharks?! Cool!"

"Not the time Natsu," Nami scolded in between giving Franky directions. She felt a gust of warm wind hit her and froze. "I," she began, turning to her left where the front of the ship just was. They were already turning so now most of the sharks were just on their starboard side. "I don't think this is very good."

Kirito was staring up at the sky and Nami followed his gaze up. She gasped, making Franky and Natsu look up as well. Robin stood up off her lounge chair and stared into the clouds where a thin funnel of wind was coming down. The wind was spinning around faster and the cloud funnel was getting wider as it lowered towards the water. Everyone watching the funnel coming down looked down to where it would touch down.

"What the-" Franky began, sweat dripping down his metal face. The water beneath the funnel was starting to rise up, but the scary part of what they were seeing was that the sharks looked to be swimming right towards the rising water. The funnel of lowering clouds hit the rising funnel of water and created one giant tornado.

Kirito's eyes tripled in size and he yelled, "Get us out of here!"

Natsu turned to the teen next to him, "Huh? What's-" He stopped as Kirito reached behind his back and drew a sword with his right hand. The teen swung it forward and Natsu dropped to the floor in panic. "What are you doing?!" Natsu yelled up at the guy swinging a blade where he was just standing. His jaw dropped as out of the air came a shark with its jaw open, a mouth full of sharp teeth trying to bite down on Kirito's arm as the teen slid underneath it. Kirito dragged his sword from the front of the shark all the way to its tail and cut the beast straight in half.

Blood splattered on the front deck and got all over the boy who cut the shark up. Kirito stood up straight and slashed his sword out to the side, getting the blood off it. The boy soaked in blood turned to Nami who was staring at him in shock, and stated, "We need to get out of here, now."

She nodded her head at him. "Franky," she started, turning to the cyborg. "Use a Coup de Burst."

"You got it," he replied. He turned and took a step, then spotted something out the right side of his eye. He spun to the port side of the ship where the tornado was picking up more and more sharks from the water. He turned because one of the sharks came his way and chomped down on his right arm. Franky frowned and punched his metal arm down on the ground, bashing the shark's brains in.

"What's happening?!"

"Whoa! Sharks!"

Everyone was running up on deck hearing the loud crashes and fast winds up there. They freaked out at the sight of the huge tornado full of sharks spinning next to them. Usopp ran up on the deck and the sniper pointed to the side, "What is that thing?!"

Kirito turned to the entire crew behind him. He leaned over the railing and shouted, "It's a SHARKNADO!"

"A WHAT?!" Twelve people shouted back at him at the same time.

He ignored them and spun around, drawing his second sword as he did. He cut up another shark flying towards him, then jumped up and did a backflip to avoid the next one. While flipping backwards, the wind picked up and Kirito was slammed by a gust of wind, being sent flying up into the sharknado.

"No way," Ben whispered. The boy had just left the crow's nest and was about to climb down when Kirito went spinning past him up into the wind funnel. He looked up to follow the teen, but the spinning tornado was too thick to see his friend. All he could see were sharks. "Damn it!" Ben yelled.

"Get down Ben!" Riku yelled, jumping forward in front of his friend and pulling out a Keyblade as he did. He swung in a circle and hit both of the sharks that were closing in on the younger boy. They went flying back up into the tornado, and Riku pointed his Keyblade after them, "Fire!" A fireball shot into the sharknado and exploded, sending fire spinning in the wind and burning some of the sharks.

He turned and smirked at Ben as flaming sharks fell behind him. The boy looked at Riku in surprise, and his jaw dropped at the sight of a flaming shark falling behind Riku. That shark was flying right towards them and it grabbed Riku by the right arm, dragging him up into the sky. Ben just stared in shock as blood splattered out and flew into the spinning wind along with his best friend.

"Using a Coup de Burst!" Franky shouted from the inside of the ship.

"Hold on! Riku and Kirito just got sucked up," Sanji yelled back at the shipwright.

A shark slammed into the sail and ripped right through it. Another crashed into the cabin and bounced off, but took some of the wood with it. The winds were so fast that sharks came at them faster than they could follow. Nami dove to her left as a shark flew by her head, and Sanji tackled Usopp to the floor as a shark headed for the sharpshooter's back. "The ship won't take much more of this!" Sanji yelled as the railing behind where he tackled Usopp got smashed off.

Franky stared at the button in front of him and kept hearing screams of panic up above him mixed with the sounds of destruction. He closed his eyes and whispered, "Sorry." The cyborg pressed the button, "COUP DE BURST!" He yelled.

"Wait!" Ben yelled, leaning off the crow's nest and shouting down at the ship below.

Goku stared up at the sharknado with a ball of blue light in his hands. He kept looking at it for a few seconds, then closed his hand around the ball and dissipated it. The ship was lifting off the water and the jet behind the boat shot out a bright blue light. It sent them flying fast enough that they did not get sucked into the funnel behind them, though some sharks were chasing them through the air.

"I've never seen anything like this," Nami shouted as sharks flew side by side with their ship.

"What about Riku?!" Kairi shouted while looking back off the stern of the ship.

Sora grabbed his girlfriend by the shoulders and stared out in the same direction.

The ship landed down on the water and bounced a few times. They were out from underneath the dark clouds but everyone was looking back towards the tornado far behind them. "I can't believe it," Dash whispered while staring back there. His eyes were watering and he kept looking back sadly.

"It's okay," Goku stated, while still looking back in the distance.

"Yeah," Timmy agreed while looking the same way. "If something bad was happening, we would have stopped it." He was sweating a little, but he smiled while looking towards the dark clouds.

Ben looked down at Goku and Timmy, then spun to look into the far distance again. They watched the tornado moving across the water for a few seconds, and then out of the funnel on their side flew two people. One of them had four thin black wings like a dragonfly, while the other just soared horizontally next to him. They were both drenched in red, although once they got out of the funnel some green light shimmered down on them and their wounds faded.

Kirito looked next to him to see if Riku did it, but Riku had just let his Keyblades vanish. He turned forward and looked to the ship where Sora had his Keyblade lifted up off the side and was only now lowering it. Kirito smiled at his good friend and flew down to the edge Sora was standing on. "Thanks," he told the other eighteen year old. Sora sighed seeing that he was okay, then chuckled a little at Kirito and then Riku's body as the older teen landed next to them.

"You guys need to go clean up," Kairi joked at them.

Kirito and Riku looked at each other and couldn't help but laugh at all the shark guts they had on themselves.

"Still, what the heck was that thing?" Rin brought back up.

"You guys didn't have Sharknados on your worlds?" Kirito asked the people around him. They all just stared at him stupidly and he shrugged, "Sharknados, Shakicanes, they really messed up the America on my world."

"Wait a second," Rin interrupted and shook his head a few times. "America got 'messed up' by tornadoes full of sharks?"

"Yeah, we were all surprised when it started happening too," Kirito replied. He turned to the half-demon boy on his right, "So wait, your world had an America on it?" Kirito started walking off for the cabin to get washed off and shower, and Rin walked with him talking about his world. As they were walking in the door, Kirito spun to the teen on his left in surprise, "Wait, you're from Japan too?"

"Too? Wow, small giant world," Rin joked and Kirito started chuckling.

"Heh, guess it is."

* * *

"Pull in the sails!" Nami shouted. "Hard to starboard!" Okurmura Rin spun the wheel and Nami screamed, "Starboard means right you idiot!"

"Sorry!"

"Geez," Nami rubbed the side of her head in annoyance. She pushed some of her wet orange hair out of her eyes and then called up to the crow's nest, "Hey Timmy! Do you know how much farther the storm goes on for?"

The young boy sitting on top of the training room at the top of the mast leaned over and looked down to the deck. "Sorry Nami, it goes on for quite a bit longer."

Nami grumbled and then stumbled to her right as they hit another huge wave. The front of the ship smashed through the wave and water rain down over the entire ship. It was already raining, but this extra water made it feel like they were underneath the waves at times. "Hey Luffy," Nami shouted towards the bow of the ship. "Can't we just let Timmy or Goku fly us through the storm? Just this one time!"

"No Nami!" Luffy shouted back. He was sitting on the figurehead's head, and he turned his head to look to the balcony outside of the kitchen where Nami was standing with her hands on the railing. He shouted across the ship at her, "That's cheating! Sunny can make it through this!"

"Yeah, she's our SUPER ship!" Franky agreed as he finished tying the sails down on the port side.

"I don't doubt we can make it," Nami yelled back. She sounded aggravated and she yelled, "I just-" she staggered to her left and barely held on this time. "I just think we're taking this a little too far! They can fly us through the storm! Hell, they can destroy the storm if we ask!"

"She's right," Timmy called down from the mast. "If you want I could make the storm go away." All of the rain stopped falling down on the ship below and everyone looked around at the rain droplets floating around them. The moment was surreal and kind of freaky as it felt like the waves stopped moving too. If they could not hear the rushing wind, thunder, and sound of other waves farther from their ship, they would have thought that Timmy froze time for everything other than them.

"No cheating!" Luffy repeated his shout.

Timmy stopped holding on to everything and the rain continued to fall, harder for a few seconds as the rain had built up at the top of the forcefield he had created high above them. The waves also raged about harder like they were upset about being held off for a few seconds. One huge wave was heading straight for them and Nami lifted her head to follow it up in the air. Her jaw started dropping and she shouted out orders faster than every.

"Go go go!" The ship started climbing up the wave but the top of it started curling. "It's going to tip us!" Nami yelled. "Luffy, break the wave!"

The rubber pirate on the front was laughing and he jumped up to his feet. Luffy threw his arms far back behind him and he turned his hands black. "Gum Gum- BAZOOKA!" He slammed both of his arms forward and his hands smashed through the wave. It made a hole for them to sail through, but as they were making it through, the rest of the wave collapsed. So much water fell down on top of their ship it was as if they had gone completely under.

Everyone tried holding on and many of them were swept around by the wave. Nami got pulled from the front railing and she slid across the floor until she hit the railing on the port side. Her body was pushed up against it but she interlocked her arms with the wooden bars to keep from flipping over the side. She turned her head left underwater and watched as two people who were running towards the bow before were being pushed back. They slid across the floor on the sides of the cabin towards the stern as the water shoved them backwards, and they hit the back railing at the same time.

The younger one got pushed up against the rail and he tried grabbing on, but his hand slipped and the water was still tumbling him. It tossed him over the ledge and the other one grabbed for him. Kirito opened his eyes underwater and saw Ben staring back at him in fear as the water tried pulling him back. Kirito tried to yank Ben back over the rail, but all of his strength left him and Ben's hand slipped through his fingers, and then he himself tumbled over the rail.

As Ben slipped through Kirito's hands, he reached his other hand out and grabbed the rail. The water was going down as their ship pushed back up to the surface, and all of the events underwater took place in only about five or six seconds. As they popped back up though, Kirito was in the middle of falling off and he fell down towards the water behind the ship. Ben gasped as he finally got some air and he really needed it as being tumbled around from the wave made him exhale all of his oxygen underwater.

Ben jumped up right away though and he shouted, "Man overboard!" Everyone else getting up around the ship looked back. Luffy had been thrown from the figurehead but Rin grabbed onto him as he was sliding past the wheel under the wave, and Luffy spun his head to the back of the ship. Ben's voice echoed out over the wind, "Kirito fell off!" At first no one thought anything of it as they remembered Kirito flying back to them the day before, but then Ben shouted, "He's a Devil Fruit eater!"

Luffy's eyes widened and he started sprinting to the back of the ship. He ran by Gray and Juvia who were jogging that way as well, and bumped into Sanji who was coming out of the upper cabin and running around the side of it. They all ran to the back of the ship right as Nami was coming around the other side and jogging up to Ben at the railing. They all looked out over the water and Nami shouted Goku and Timmy's names, but Ben was not shouting anymore as he had seen something. "Whoa," Ben said, tilting his head to the side in confusion.

"Ah!" Luffy exclaimed as he watched a wave go down and saw what Ben had already seen. Kirito was sitting down on top of the water and he pushed his hands down to get up to his feet. The black haired teen started jogging back after the Sunny, but the big waves on the water were making it hard to focus his chakra correctly. He barely managed not to go under when he hit the surface, and it was getting increasingly hard to stand.

 _The Sunny is too far away for me to jump to it, and my wings are soaked._ Kirito saw the ship getting even further by the second and he stumbled to the right as a wave went under him. "Alright," he reached back behind him and lifted up his black shirt a little. Pinned to his waist was something he had not shown anyone on the ship yet, but he pulled it out in front of him and opened it up. "Come out!" Kirito shouted.

The people on the stern who were looking back at Kirito opened their eyes wide as a giant red light appeared over the surface of the water. Sora had just gotten back there with the others and his mouth curled up into a huge smile. "I didn't know Kirito had any Pokémon."

Goku had flown back as well and he tilted his head as he did not remember the boy having them with him when he took him from the Underworld base. When he saw the creature form out of the red light though, he became even more surprised as he did recognize it. Floating there in front of Kirito was a scary-looking Pokémon that had a few of his friends backing away from the railing. It was like an eel with a twenty foot thick body that stuck straight up out of the water and had a curved head at the top. Its face had a huge open mouth full of sharp teeth and the water dragon roared. "That's a Gyarados," Sora began, though even he looked a little confused, "but that's weird."

As Kirito hopped up on his Pokémon and it started swimming after the Sunny, Sora continued, "I've seen a few of them before, and they were all blue."

Kirito stood on the back of his Red Gyarados as it swam through the water and up to the left side of the Thousand Sunny. Kirito leapt up in the air and landed on the port side of the stern, then turned around and called back his red water dragon. He clipped it back on his waist and turned around to the crowd of people at the back of the ship. Goku and Sora walked up towards him and Sora mentioned how he didn't know Kirito had caught a Pokémon. Then Goku spoke up, "Was that-"

Kirito nodded his head and Goku chuckled. The others looked at the two of them confusedly and Kirito turned to Ben who asked what they were talking about. The older teen sighed and then spoke up, "The day Goku destroyed my Underworld base, when we were flying back to Pao we passed over a lake that had this Red Gyarados in it." Ben nodded while a few of the others frowned as Kirito mentioned his Underworld ties. Ignoring the frowns aimed his way, Kirito continued, "After the Battle of Metropolis, I went looking for that lake again. I knew Gyarados were supposed to be blue so I figured it had to be a pretty rare and hopefully powerful Pokémon."

"Have you tried it out yet?" Sora asked. "I mean, besides just now?"

"Well, I fought it myself in order to catch it," Kirito said. "And it was definitely pretty strong. I told myself I wouldn't catch it if it wasn't worth it."

"Alright, then it's time to test it against another Pokémon," Sora challenged. "I'll go get mine," as he said it the ship got rocked by another big wave.

"Do you guys really think this is the best time?" Nami snapped at them as she started running back up to the bow.

Kirito and Sora looked at her then glanced back at each other. "Hold off for another time?" Kirito suggested.

Sora sighed and said, "Guess you're right. But just to let you know Kirito, I won't be holding back when we go. I haven't forgotten that you're my rival. Now that you have a Pokémon even more so," Sora said and grinned at him.

Kirito sighed, pretending he was annoyed that Sora brought back up their rivalry. As Sora started running for the bow though and Kirito jogged after him, a smile came to the black haired teen's face. _Bring it on Sora._

* * *

 **A/N Sharknado! Hahaha, so if you have not watched the movie Sharknado, I am sure you have heard of it. It is so bad, that I found it to be a really funny movie. And the third movie where they fight Sharknados on the moon is definitely my favorite XD! Anyway, when Kirito disappeared after Metropolis we finally learn he headed off to hunt down that Red Gyarados he got a glimpse of once before. Kirito's got one, Gray has one, and Sora has... a lot ;), but who will be the next trainer on the ship? The Thousand Sunny continues to head east and the crew gets closer together each day. Hope you enjoyed! Leave a review telling me what you think!**

Espada-001 chapter 4 . 18h ago

Well this is the second time Sanji's encountered someone that has fulfilled his second biggest dream, and those poor children simply don't understand the mind of a pervert yet. lol XD. But the idea that devil fruits are supernatural was mainly a fan theory. I see them as supernatural for a few reasons, one is that after an user dies the fruit doesn't regrow it just appears in another fruit and alters the shape of said fruit, second is that it's impossible for more than one of each kind to exist at the same time. But I do understand where you're coming from so I won't push the matter. I was also wondering how many people actually remembered that Ben had family aside from his gramps. I only remembered them since I've watched a bit of Omniverse lately. It was nice to see Dash set a goal for himself. One thing I've been thinking about lately is that The crew going have to be catious (don't know if i spelt that right) against some of the people/beings that they may encounter. I only think of this now but there are a lot of characters out there that wouldn't be considered the best in a fight but make up for it with thier abilities. I mainly started thinking about it after watching a YouTube video on dangerous anime characters and one of them didn't seem to be all that strong but he was able to make anything he touched explode, so pretty op in my opinion. Oh well I'm rambling now so I'll go ahead and end the message. Goodnight!

 **Haha, Sanji, the man of many dreams XD. This is the first time Ben's really been around Sanji for a long time, but I'm sure he'll figure the chef's dirty intentions out sooner or later. Ben mentioning his parents was more of just me being like "oh yeah, Ben does have those," lol, so I guess he thought about them in the moment too. Who knows if they'll show up on Nexus or if they stayed behind on their own world? The crew will be cautious, (- correct spelling ;) ) mainly because of how worried Gray seems to be about Aebrith, but there are definitely a few members on the crew who are very non-cautious people. I wonder if that anime character you're talking about is Kimblee from Fullmetal Alchemist who could turn people into bombs with a touch of his hands, he was a monster who has also not been mentioned in this story... yet. Lol, anyway, thanks for the review! 'Till next time!**


	6. Nexus HWR 1-7 Nuts

**Nexus HWR 1.7 Nuts:**

"I don't want to hear it!" Sora yelled, his mouth twisted into a deep frown as he glared at the girl in front of him. "You think Natsu and Luffy are stronger than me!" The boy with brown spiky hair snarled at his girlfriend.

Kairi looked a little surprised, but then the corners of her mouth dipped down and her eyes narrowed at her boyfriend. "Well what was with _you_ yesterday?" She asked accusingly, making the boy lean back in surprise. "When we went for the swim off the last island, you were totally checking out Nami and Robin!"

"Was not!" Sora yelled back at her, his hands balling into fists.

Kairi humphed and turned around, walking towards the door, "If you like big tits that much go ask one of them to be your girlfriend." She reached the door and stepped through.

The boy still in the room glared after her and took a step towards the door. _Who the hell does she think she is? I'm the fucking Keyblade Master!_ he took another step and some darkness seeped out of the bottom of his shoe. One more step was taken before Sora's eyes widened and he froze in place, "Wait," he whispered. "Kairi I-" _What the hell was I saying? I don't usually, get mad..._

"Sora!" someone yelled in the doorway. The teen snapped his head up and saw Riku storming into the room. "What did you do?! I just saw Kairi and she looked pretty sad."

"Good," the other boy in the room responded. Sora took a step forward while glaring into Riku's eyes, "Now move out of my way." Riku was shocked. He stared at Sora blankly for a few seconds as the brown haired teen walked towards him. Sora shoved him out of the way and walked into the hall.

The spiky brown haired teen looked down the hallway and everything started swirling around. Sora lifted his right hand to the side of his head and grabbed it as he walked down the hall. Riku leaned back out the door behind him and watched as Sora stumbled to the side and used his left hand to steady himself on the wall. The brown haired boy regained his footing and clenched down on the wood his hand was resting on, crunching the wall and getting splinters stuck in his hand.

The boy with long silver hair almost down to his waist was confused, he had no idea what was going on. _Things seemed weird at breakfast too, not just between the two of them... but-_

"Damn it Juvia!" a voice yelled from the other side of the hall than Riku was on. "Lunch isn't ready until I say it is! Now get out of the kitchen!" The silver haired teen staring down the hall was shocked to hear Sanji talking to a woman like that. He saw the door open and a panicked Juvia getting shoved out of the kitchen, but when the door opened the teen's eyes widened even more. There was food all over the place, some of it smeared on the wall writing out the words, 'All Blue Is A Lie.' The chef had a knife in his hand and glared out the door as it slowly shut behind Juvia.

Riku shook his head and ran down the hallway. He leaned down and Juvia looked up at him before taking his hand. "J-Juvia is sorry," the girl whispered as her eyes started watering. "J-Juvia j-just wanted to see what was for lunch," the blue haired girl sounded on the verge of sobbing.

"No," Riku said, grabbing her by the shoulders, "you did nothing wrong." The two of them heard a loud crash coming from outside and they snapped their heads the direction of the noise at the same time. "That sounded like it came from the main deck," Riku said. "Let's go around to go out there," he suggested, seeing as they had to go through the kitchen for the most direct route.

The girl next to him nodded, before her eyes narrowed and she spun around. "I don't see why we have to," she stated confidently. Juvia lifted up her arms and Riku's eyes widened as she released two jets of water that slammed into the kitchen door and slammed it down. Sanji was no longer on the other side though, leaving the kitchen empty with the stove on.

Juvia looked disappointed for a second that she didn't get the fight she wanted, and then her eyes widened. "Wh-What?" She looked down at her hands confused, wondering what came over her.

Riku ran past the shocked woman and over to the stove that he turned off before the food on top of it burst into flames. The tall, silver haired teen stared at the girl for a few seconds, then said sternly, "Juvia." The magician snapped her head up with an afraid look on her face. "Something's going on here, I need you to try and stay calm since it doesn't look like it's hit you hard yet."

"What's happening?" the girl whispered over to him.

He looked at the door leading outside and muttered, "Let's find out." The girl behind him walked over and Riku lowered his hand to the handle. He turned it and pushed open the door before stepping outside. He and Juvia walked out onto the deck, and they looked over the railing at the main grass area.

There was madness on the ship. "It's my gun!" Timmy yelled as he ran away with it, Natsu chasing after him. Near them, Usopp was holding Luffy back as the captain tried diving off the side of the ship after a "sparkly-thing" he saw on the water.

"You can't swim idiot!" Usopp yelled at the rubberman. _Eh, what do I care?_ Usopp started to let go, but when his right hand slipped out of Luffy's shirt he grabbed tighter with his left. The sharpshooter panicked and grabbed back on, pulling Luffy back over the edge where the two of them fell and tumbled across the grass.

"Usopp you idiot! Now it's gone!" Luffy yelled as he stood up. The pirate captain in a straw hat punched down at the man with a long nose and Usopp barely rolled out of the way in time. The fist hit the floor and obviously wasn't a playful punch by the sound of creaking wood after he finished his attack.

"Don't hurt my ship Mugiwara!" a voice shouted from above them. They looked up and Usopp dove out of the way right before a large robot would have landed on top of him. Cyborg Franky landed right on top of Luffy and the rubberman flattened to the floor with his shipwright on top of him.

"FRANKY!" Luffy yelled, pushing up so hard that the robot got sent flying high. The cyborg lifted high enough that he knocked into the boom before falling back down. When he hit the boom though, he woke up the sleeping man lying on it.

Goku sat up from where he was laying and yawned. "Hmm?" the Saiyan mumbled, feeling some distressed ki's right below him. The spiky haired man looked down as he stood up, then hopped off the wooden boom of the mast. He looked over at the door to the kitchen where he could smell some good food scents, but instead he saw Riku and Juvia looking unnerved. He looked beneath him to where he felt the distressed ki's, and then had to swerve out of the way as Timmy Turner started firing the weapon in his hand up in the air.

The spiky haired man in an orange gi looked up at the sky where the beam from Timmy's attack popped open like a firework. Each explosion was a beautiful display of lights, but after a few seconds the lights sucked in to individual points. After the lights were gone from that single point for a second, something new exploded out from those points: little black swirling holes in the sky. Goku could feel the black holes pulling him towards them as they each widened.

"Nami!" Riku shouted, also seeing the black holes. "Change our course!"

"I'm the navigator!" she yelled back. "I already started doing that, you don't need to tell me what my freaking job is!" The orange haired woman up at the wheel was shouting so loud that the woman lying near her reading a book put it down angrily. Nico Robin lifted her head and glared at the navigator who opened her mouth to scream again. The older woman lifted a hand and two arms appeared on the sides of Nami's head, covering her mouth with their hands.

The younger woman panicked at the hands coming out of her head and began muffled shouting that no one could understand with her mouth being covered by Robin's new hands.

Riku looked around as everything started getting worse. Small conflicts were getting larger as Natsu started going after the black hole gun with a higher intensity. Timmy was just as selfish as before though and wouldn't let the Dragon Slayer use the weapon, but now he'd resorted to pointing it at the pink haired boy and threatening him with it.

"ESUNA!" a voice yelled.

Every single person on the deck looked over to the source of the loud voice. It came from on top of the kitchen's roof, from the boy with spiky brown hair who had his Keyblade lifted above his head. Above the ship, a yellow orb appeared. The orb shattered into ten swirling yellow orbs that spread out and started circling around the top of the mast.

Sora's magic started descending, casting the entire ship in a golden glow until the small balls themselves split apart. Little lights of yellow seeped into the crew, and one by one every person started rubbing their heads in confusion.

Luffy unclenched his fist and rubbed his head with his right hand, but he felt his left hand clenched on something. He looked down at a man with a long nose staring at him in fear, and then back to the hand he originally had clenched held up above Usopp. "What the-" Luffy let go of his nakama and took a few steps back.

The teen on top of the kitchen sighed in relief, glad the magic worked as well for the rest of them as it did for him. "Alright," Sora called out, "Esuna magic heals status effects, so whatever had everyone... confused," he said, as he didn't have a better word for what was just happening, "hopefully it's all better now."

"Hmm," Goku mumbled loudly, scratching his chin while he did. "That seemed like something that happened in Pao a little while back."

Natsu and Juvia's eyes widened and they looked at each other. "Uh oh," the two of them muttered. Riku looked at the girl next to him, who now looked a lot more nervous than a few seconds ago. Her eyes widened even more though as she exclaimed, "Where is Gray-sama?!"

Everyone looked around the deck, but actually there were quite a few people missing. Timmy looked at the gun in his hand, and his eyes widened that he was playing around with such a powerful weapon. The boy opened up the infinite sack on his back and slid the gun into it, before looking around with everyone else at who was missing from the deck.

"Kairi's not out here," Riku said to the younger Keyblade wielder who dropped down next to him and Juvia outside the kitchen.

"Neither are Ben or Dash," Riku muttered, looking at the kitchen door behind him. "You think the effects of the Esuna reached them inside?" The silver haired teen asked his friend.

Sora thought about it for a second, but it didn't seem likely so he shook his head. They heard someone shout from behind them again, "Well that's some great magic you have there if it can't even cover the whole Sunny Go!"

Everyone on the deck spun to see Franky standing there with wide eyes. He lifted up his right hand and covered his mouth, but it was clear what had happened. Usopp backed up so he was up against the railing, "It isn't gone yet!" He exclaimed.

"Looks like your magic is only temporary," Riku muttered to his friend next to him.

"No need to point out the obvious dumb-ass-" Sora tried catching himself by lifting up his hands to cover his mouth, but the words were already out. He lowered them after Riku looked towards him and the younger teen mumbled, "Sorry."

"It's alright," Riku told his best friend. He spun back to the floating Saiyan above the deck. "How did you stop it last time?"

Goku chuckled and said, "Gohan came up with a remedy for it. He called it a cont-a-gious disease." The man had to sound out the word to get it right but smiled that no one corrected him. He continued, "Only me, Vegeta, and the boys weren't affected by it, so we tied everyone else up until Gohan finished making it."

"Those were a rough two days," Natsu mumbled, not liking the memory of it. "I thought we were cured though," he called up to Goku again, wondering why it was affecting him even though he already used the cure.

The muscular man above shrugged, not having any idea what Gohan did back then that fixed everyone up. "Hey Goku," Riku started, "could you go get some of that medicine?" The silver haired teen was looking around and he could see the others around them starting to get restless. "I think we're going to need it."

"Esuna," Sora whispered, casting the spell over himself again and calming down once again. He was about to use it again for everyone else, but Riku grabbed him by the wrist.

The two teens looked at each other and Sora thought the older boy might have been falling to the sickness as well. Riku saw the concern in his friend's eyes so he shook his head, "I don't feel the effects. Sora, you need to save your magical power." Sora tilted his head confused and Riku continued, "I don't know the magic you just used, so our whole ship is relying on you right now."

Sora looked back ahead of him where Goku was talking to Timmy and everyone else was trying to stay calm. The brown haired teen gulped and nodded, knowing what Riku meant. "I need to use it on people who need it more," Sora said.

Before Riku could respond, they saw Goku lift up high in the air. The Saiyan waved down to his friends on the ship before flying away in a blur of white light. Timmy T. looked back below him at the crowd of people looking up. "Alright, he said he'll be back as soon as he can. Until he returns we have to try not to kill each other."

"Timmy, you're in charge of watching everyone up here," Riku called to the boy.

Natsu and Luffy turned up towards Riku and both of them said together, "Ehh?" Then, they each turned towards the other who thought they should be in charge up here. "What are you 'ehh-ing' about?" the shouted at each other while pointing angrily.

"Idiots!" Nami yelled at the two of them, dropping down from the bow to punch on top of Luffy's head. The rubber pirate reached up and grabbed Nami's fist before it hit him on the head, surprising the orange haired navigator. He looked up slowly and glared at the woman, before instantly losing his glare at the scared look in her eyes.

The pirate let go of her fist and stumbled backwards, but then had to duck as a flaming fist was about to slam into his head. "Natsu!" Juvia yelled at the Dragon Slayer.

"Where do you get off," Natsu started, turning his head towards Luffy after he landed. "Telling me what to do?" the Dragon Slayer finished, growling at the pirate who called himself their 'Captain.'

"This is _my_ ship," Luffy growled back, earning a low growl behind him. He turned and saw Franky clenching his large metal fists. The rubber pirate lifted up his hands, challenging the older cyborg if he wanted to fight.

"This is worse than I thought," Riku whispered as he saw them trying to fight again.

"Why am I in charge?" Timmy yelled frustratedly down at the silver haired teen. "Why put the youngest in charge of anything?!"

"Because you're the strongest one out here," Riku yelled back at the small child. "And we're heading inside the cabin," he motioned at himself and Sora. "The others haven't had any of Sora's Esuna yet, so they could be at each other's throats as we speak."

"Esuna!" Sora shouted, lifting up his hand again where a Keyblade formed and released the golden light around everyone on the deck again.

Riku turned to his friend angrily, "I said-"

"I know," Sora replied, "but it was already wearing off." The younger teen didn't wait for Riku to scold him further and he spun around. "We need to go get Kairi."

"Juvia is coming with you," the blue haired girl next to them stated firmly.

Riku wanted to argue with her that she would start going nuts while they were inside, but they just didn't have the time. "Alright, let's go," he stated, pushing back open the door to the kitchen.

It hadn't been five minutes since they left the kitchen, but after opening the door it looked like a tornado had come through while they were gone. "How did we not hear this happening?" Riku mumbled as he looked at the splintered walls, overturned table, and destroyed chairs around the dining room.

"Who do you think did this?" Juvia whispered.

Sora stared at the ceiling and pointed his hand up at it, "I'll give you three guesses."

The other two looked up where he was pointing and stared at the words drawn on the ceiling in ketchup and mustard. "DASH WAS HERE," Riku read out loud, stepping out of the way as a drop of ketchup from the D in DASH dripped off the ceiling.

"Where do you think he is now?" Juvia whispered.

Riku looked around, but it didn't seem like the boy was in there moving too fast for them to see. "We have to be careful," he whispered, "now let's go." He jogged forward while keeping his footsteps soft each time his foot hit the ground. Juvia and Sora followed behind him, trying to stay focused despite the nagging pulls telling them to go insane.

 _Why is it I'm the only one not feeling the insanity?_ Riku thought to himself as they entered a hallway, one that looked just as bad as the dining room. Somehow someone had gotten a mattress in the hallway, and nailed it partially to the ceiling. _Why would someone even do that? This is nuts, but I really don't feel any different than usual._ **"It's because of me."** _Ansem?_ **"Whatever antidote that half-Saiyan boy came up with obviously wasn't as effective as the one the doctors in the NEG developed. His was a temporary medicine, while ours was a vaccine. We had a cure for it."** _Why didn't you say anything before?_ **"We destroyed most of Metropolis, remember? Chances are the doctors didn't make more of the vaccine yet since it was effective enough that no more cases have come up. Unfortunately, none of the people on this ship were vaccinated."** _Shit! So you're saying we were vaccinated? I didn't remember..._ **"You were far gone at that point."** _And whose fault is that?_ **"Don't make me regret helping you, boy."** Riku paused and sighed, _You're right. Thanks._

"Riku?" Sora asked the taller teen in front of him who stopped walking.

"It's nothing," Riku responded, just hoping that Goku would be back with more medicine as soon as possible. "Let's check this room," he pushed open the door on his left and his eyes went wide.

Sora and Juvia saw Riku freeze in the doorway and his eyes turn huge. They each ran forward, despite Riku turning to them and yelling for them to stop. The other two pushed into the room and stared forward, expecting to see someone killing someone else. As it turned out, the insanity took different forms.

Sora and Juvia each slowly lowered their jaws as they stared at the two in front of them. Gray stood there midway through taking off his shirt and Kairi stood in front of him with an expression full of lust. The girl turned towards the door and saw Sora's face, before giggling like mad. "Hehehehe," Kairi lifted up her right hand to her mouth before laughing insanely with her head tilted back.

Gray got his shirt off and took a step towards the auburn haired laughing girl, when they both heard the scream of rage at the door. They turned to the doorway and saw Juvia with her eyes on fire, her mouth opened wide with sharp teeth, looking much more insane than either of them. Her body exploded into a pillar of water with her head at the top looking absolutely furious.

"Esuna," Sora called out towards Juvia. "It didn't work!" the Keyblade wielder exclaimed.

"That's because it's not the madness," Riku yelled back at his friend, having noticed how much Juvia was obsessed with Gray. That it was to this point still surprised him a little bit though.

"YOU WILL NOT STEAL GRAY-SAMA!" the girl roared.

"What was that? _Bitch!_ " Kairi yelled back at Juvia, her mouth turning into a snarl.

An explosion blew up the wall next to them and everyone spun to see a six foot wide, eight foot tall, white and yellow creature with rounded sides and head. Its eyes were green and there was the little green symbol on his forehead that Riku recognized, along with the creature itself. "Ben!" the older boy shouted at his friend who had turned into an alien.

"WHAT'S WITH ALL THE NOISE IN HERE?!" Cannonbolt shouted, before curling up in a large ball that spun around violently before rolling forward. Everyone dove out of the way and Ben kept rolling until he slammed into a wall and bounced off.

"Out of the room!" Riku shouted as Ben bounced around like a pinball.

"I've got this," Sora yelled out. He lifted up his Keyblade to use Esuna, when Kairi dove at his chest and pushed him to the floor.

The girl looked down into Sora's eyes with an animalistic rage, and then she slammed her lips down on his. Sora dropped his Keyblade from the sudden shock, and then Cannonbolt (Ben's alien form) slammed into the two of them and knocked them tumbling across the floor.

"Sora! Kairi!" Riku shouted over at his friends. He turned the other way and saw a pillar of water get frozen, and then a dozen spears of ice to shoot out of it towards the blue haired girl who made the pillar. Gray leapt up on top of the pillar and started shouting something, before the pillar beneath him was broken by Cannonbolt rolling right through it.

"This is nuts," the silver haired teen muttered, running over and grabbing Sora, and shaking him around a little when he got to him. "Sora, come on Sora," Riku yelled down at him. The brown haired boy opened up his eyes with a low moan.

Sora hopped up to his feet as he realized where he was. He felt dizzy from trying to take most of Ben's attack at the last second when he saw it coming, to protect the girl who was on top of him at the time. "Esuna!" he shouted, lifting his hands and forming his Keyblade, using the magic at the same time over a larger area.

Golden light filled the room and all the people inside stopped what they were currently doing. Juvia had a ball of boiling water in her hand, with her hand a few inches away from Gray's face, while the ice wizard held a large blade of ice inches away from Juvia's chest. The two of them went wide-eyed and dropped the magical attacks in their hands.

"Gray-sama, Juvia is so sorry," the girl started crying on the spot that she would attack her Gray.

Gray was just as flabbergasted, having no idea what was happening. He rubbed the side of his head and then snapped over to the wall where Sora was standing, Kairi at his feet. The storage room was a mess with a broken wall leading into the bedroom on the other side. Gray stared at the auburn haired teen at Sora's feet who... _I almost. Me and her..._ he shivered as he felt a pair of eyes glaring into him and he looked up a little to see Sora hadn't lowered his Keyblade yet. The brown haired teen was glaring so intensely at Gray that the ice wizard subconsciously took a step back.

Sora took a step towards him, but then felt a hand on his right shoulder. He spun around angrily, but his expression softened as he saw Riku shaking his head. "Crap, you're right," he mumbled, rubbing his own head. "Let's go to the next room."

Riku nodded and then looked back in the room. Ben flashed green and he turned back into a normal child wearing green sweatpants and a white t-shirt. "What's happening?" Ben asked, looking around in confusion at why he was acting so nuts.

The older boy who travelled with Ben for the first few months on Nexus shook his head and started, "It's hard to explain now. Get up to the deck and hopefully the guys up there haven't gotten back to the point you were all at a minute ago." Riku turned to Juvia and continued, "You going with them?"

She stared at Gray for a second more, wanting to go with him. _But, if Juvia was going to hurt Gray-sama, the one she loves most in the world, then the others are in danger too._ The blue haired girl looked back over at Riku, "Juvia would like to keep going with you."

"Alright," Riku nodded. He turned to Gray and stated loudly, "Go! Get to the deck!"

"Don't tell me what-" Gray started, then realized he shouldn't be arguing this much. He shook his head quickly and then nodded, "Let's go," he said, glancing over at Ben.

They started running out of the room, and Sora looked down to see if Kairi would be going with them. Although he took most of Ben's blow, it looked like she still couldn't handle it completely as she lay there breathing slowly. It looked like she was out cold, and Sora didn't want to leave her here.

"She'll be fine," Riku assured his friend. Sora looked up at him, then nodded. The two of them ran through the hole Ben blasted in the wall and they entered the guys' room, Juvia right behind them. There were hammocks all over the place, most of them on the ground and ripped up to shreds. Some were on fire, blue fire.

"Guess that guy with the sword is in here," Riku muttered, not really knowing the guy all too well. **"Okumura Rin. He is strong."** Ansem spoke to him in his mind and Riku did somewhat recall capturing the boy using his Heartless army and turning him into one himself. "We have to be careful," Riku told the others, "this guy is actually pretty powerful."

As soon as the words were out of Riku's mouth, a crater blasted in the floor in front of them. It was a good thing Franky used only the best materials for the ship or it would be falling apart already. The Adam's Wood and other woods he used from Nexus trees were strong, but even so, when the dust settled the three teens looked at the splintered planks in front of them with a moaning teen in the middle. Juvia's eyes widened and she whispered, "He's the powerful guy?" she asked, afraid of whatever did this to him.

Riku snapped his head around, looking for the source of what did this to Rin. The teen lying on the ground had blue flames simmering around him, pointy ears and a long demonic tail, but when he tried lifting back up his head, he was sent flying across the room into another wall which he broke through this time out into the hallway.

A few feet in front of them, a small boy was now standing with his leg outstretched in a kick where Rin was just lying. Riku's eyes widened the most of the three of them as Dash slowly turned his way. "Hey Riku," the boy said, before laughing like a crazy person and sprinting towards them, then going right between Riku's legs and into the last room they were in. By the time Riku turned around, Dash had vanished, escaping somewhere else where they couldn't see him.

All of a sudden the group heard crashing from up above. "He must be on the deck," Sora stated, getting ready to run up there.

"No," Riku grabbed his friend by the hand, making Sora spin around and glare at him harshly. "Me and Juvia will go up there. You won't be able to hit Dash with your magic, he's too fast. Find the others down here. Kirito and Sanji haven't been cured once yet, who knows how bad it is for them."

"Stop telling me what to do!" Sora yelled, swinging his right arm across his body. His Keyblade formed in mid-swipe and Riku jumped backwards, but still got slashed across the body and sent sprawling backwards in pain. The boy with spiky brown hair started laughing and he turned his Kingdom Key in his own hands a few times, admiring the weapon.

"Water Lock!" Juvia exclaimed, holding up her hands towards the teen. Sora turned her way, but before he could say anything, his body was engulfed by a ball of water.

Riku jogged back in the room to see Sora swipe his Keyblade from inside Juvia's Water Lock and break the ball apart. The younger boy walked towards her with his weapon raised, and Juvia clenched her eyes shut. She waited for him to bring the weapon down, but then Sora called out, "Esuna."

Juvia snapped her eyes open as the two of them were wrapped in golden light. Riku sighed in relief but frowned as he saw Sora start panting after he and Juvia calmed down. "Sora," he started.

"I know I know," the other boy responded, stopping his pants of exhaustion to make himself look alright to his friend. "You two head up to the deck." He started running away from the two he left in the room, shaking his head of the dark thoughts that just inhabited his mind.

Riku watched Sora go, and then he turned around to Juvia, nodding at her for them to get up to the deck to check on everyone and try to stop Dash. Sora was running back down the hallway towards a new door, but he realized something as he ran, thinking about the two they hadn't found yet. _Oh crap, there're three. I was forgetting about that white haired kid._ Now he needed to find Sanji, Kirito, _and_ the strange kid with white spiky hair who stayed on his own most of the time. _Goku, we really need you to get back here soon._

* * *

 **PAO TOWN**

"Well," Goku stated to himself, floating a hundred feet above the town beneath him. "This is bad," he said, actually floating between different plumes of gray smoke. Looking down at the burning village beneath him, he felt out hundreds of distressed ki's.

A figure with glowing gold hair was flying up towards him and Goku smiled seeing who it was, "Hi son!" The Saiyan exclaimed, a wide smile on his face.

"Dad! I'm glad you're here," Gohan told his father. The half-Saiyan had to rush around all over the place to stop everyone so there was no choice but to go Super. "The medicine I created for the madness-"

"It stopped being effective," Goku finished for his son. Gohan went wide-eyed wondering how Goku knew, then his eyes widened even more as he realized it.

"Natsu and Juvia?" Gohan asked.

"Yep," Goku replied, "and everyone else too. It spread just as fast as last time."

"Well I'm trying hard to make some more of the old medicine, but I can't do that while stopping everyone from killing each other! And Vegeta shot across the continent to go find Laxus who we felt going crazy. No one else would be able to stop him if he really blows a fuse, and who knows who else he's infecting wherever he is on his current job." Gohan looked at his dad sternly, "I need you to stay here and help me."

Goku looked behind him where he could feel the ship he was traveling on still. The Saiyan looked hesitant, but Gohan shouted at him, "There are hundreds more people here, thousands if this gets out of hand. The ship is isolated, think about what's more important!"

Goku frowned deeper, not liking to make hard decisions like these. Then, the Saiyan's hair shot up in a single spike above his head, glowing gold. "Alright," Goku relented, "but make your medicine quickly. I'll start tying everyone up."

"Thanks!" Gohan replied, already flying back down towards their house so he could get started as quick as possible. "It won't take as long this time. I already know the ingredients, so it should only take an hour or two to get enough for everyone."

"Well an hour is better than two days," Goku said, smiling despite the situation at the one bit of good news. He felt people fighting down below and was going to go tie them up, but he looked back over his shoulder first. _Sorry guys, I'll be back with the medicine as soon as Gohan makes some more. Hold on without me for a little._

* * *

 **Thousand Sunny**

"Anyone in here?" Sora asked, opening up the door into the bottom of the ship. He looked around the inside of the hold and stopped breathing for a second, the creepiness of what he was seeing too intense.

Inside the dark room in front of him, there were a few candles scattered around. Whatever caused this insanity, it sure had a twisted way of doing things. _It's really messing with him,_ Sora thought to himself as he stared at one of the figures in the room. There were over twenty figures walking around, sitting down, lying on the floor, slamming their heads into the walls, and talking to themselves. All the Kiritos ignored the teen who just walked into the room, who finally got a hold of himself and walked forward a little.

One of the Kirito shadow clones was sitting on the floor in front of another one, whispering quietly so that the other had to lean in. "You killed her," the clone growled, lifting up his head with eyes full of fury. "You took the first bite of the Devil Fruit, bastard!" The clone dove on top of the other one and pinned it to the ground, clenching its throat and wringing the life out of it.

"You joined the Underworld," a voice on Sora's left whispered. He turned to see a black haired clone smashing his head into the wall over and over again. "They killed Naruto, and took Angel, and you joined them!" The next time he hit his head was apparently too much for the clone's body to take and it exploded into a puff of smoke, the same time the one being strangled on the floor did.

"Hey Kirito," Sora started, looking past a few of the shadow clones to the boy in the back of the room sitting cross legged. That Kirito looked the calmest out of all of them, leaning back against the wall with his eyes closed.

"Meditation is the best way to control the madness," the one in the back started. Sora relaxed as the teen with black hair opened his eyes. Kirito continued, "And the clones distribute what madness is left over. It is a perfect system."

Sora nodded his head, "Well, good job coming up with it-"

"It wasn't me who came up with the idea," the Kirito sitting on the floor stated, making Sora confused. The sitting boy smiled ear to ear and Sora felt shivers down his spine as the other teen whispered, "It was the red man." His words, the words of a crazy person, made Sora take a step back.

"I keep telling you," one of the clones groaned at the one sitting, "he wasn't red! His skin was red, but his personality was green!"

"How did you see his personality?" the one sitting on the floor asked, closing his eyes again as he continued to meditate, convincing himself he wasn't insane.

"I just can okay!" the other shouted at the calm one. "You're pissing me off!" the clone whipped out a kunai from his pouch and Sora realized he couldn't let this continue. Especially if the sitting one was the real Kirito, then his own clone was about to kill him.

The brown haired teen had to make an Esuna wide enough to cover the entire hold, so he took a deep breath and lifted up his Keyblade. He channeled his magical energy through it, "Esuna!" He yelled, filling the room with the golden light.

Each of the shadow clones stopped what they were doing, looks of realization appearing on their faces. Then, all at once, they vanished. Sora was surprised the one sitting down wasn't the real Kirito at all, but then he heard a thud on his left, and another thud. He spun that way and saw another of the Kiritos who was slamming his head against the wall, only this one was still doing it.

"Hey Kirito!" Sora yelled over at the boy. "Esuna!" he pointed the Keyblade straight at him this time, forcing a more concentrated blast at the crazy teen. Kirito slammed his head against the wall one more time, but the bad thoughts didn't leave his head. He screamed into the wall, making Sora take a few steps backwards.

Kirito turned and saw Sora staring at him. The teen regained his composure and then looked around the dark room he lit up with some candles. "What the fuck am I doing?" he muttered.

"Listen," Sora told him, though it was hard to talk between panting breaths. He continued, "Come up to the deck with me. Everyone else is already up there, except for Sanji and the kid with white hair."

"Killua," Kirito told him.

"Yeah!" Sora exclaimed, feeling like the name was a little familiar. The spiky haired teen holding a Keyblade was breathing audibly through his nose and mouth which confused Kirito a little. Sora didn't feel the effects of the madness too badly, as his Esuna that filled up the room of clones also worked on him, but he was almost completely depleted of magic after the second one he used on Kirito. "Quickly, they might all be insane by now!"

Kirito and Sora ran through the ship, with the black haired boy gawking at the extensive damage all around. They reached the door leading out on the deck, but as soon as they opened it they felt a huge blast of wind that almost knocked them off their feet. The two of them looked outside where up in the air above the main deck, Luffy had a fist covered in Armament Haki, turning it black, pressed up against a fist covered in flames. Natsu's entire body was actually in flames, and he roared as he pushed harder into Luffy's steaming black fist.

"...IRON FIST!"

"...HAWK"

The two of them finished their attacks and the shockwave the came off of their punches sent everyone watching on the deck tumbling away. The two fighters only remained in that spot for a second longer when two fists slammed into their faces and sent them each flying back into the mast.

The blond kid who just appeared in the air laughed like a maniac as he dropped to the ground. "Dash stop!" Timmy yelled, appearing in front of the boy as he was descending. Timmy reached for him, but Dash kicked his feet below his body so fast he propelled himself up and over Timmy's head, literally jumping while already in the air.

The kid leapt over Timmy, and once he hit the ground, there was hardly a contest as to who was faster. Dash pretty much vanished to most of the people there, speeding around like a maniac as he knocked people off the ship and punched others who tried fighting back.

"Ice Sheet!" Gray yelled, slamming his hands into the floor and covering most of the deck in ice.

The kid sprinting at full speed slipped on some ice and fell face first on the ground. As soon as he fell, five people dove on him. Sora thought they had him, but he quickly realized they weren't trying to restrain him. "Dash!" Sora yelled as he watched Ben punch down at the boy. "Where is Riku?" Sora exclaimed as he started running forward. It seemed he wasn't needed as six Kirito's came out of nowhere and tackled the other fighters off Dash while also grabbing the boy himself.

"Timmy, Kirito," Sora exclaimed, holding up his Keyblade again. "Esuna!" he yelled, his Keyblade glowing and releasing some magic. Sora watched the two of them go wide-eyed that he'd use the magic on them, but he shouted out after, "You two need to keep things under control. Don't let anyone kill each other! Restrain them if you need to!"

An explosion was heard on the stern of the ship and everyone turned around to see a hole blown in the side of the girls' room above the cabin. Nami snapped up from where Robin's arms had her held down and she roared, "That's Sanji isn't it?! WHAT IS HE DOING IN MY ROOM?!"

That question was answered a second later as Riku came flying out of the room with Sanji right behind him, his right leg on fire, and his body dressed in... a dress. Everyone stopped, their insanity taking a breather as they stared at the blond man wearing a purple dress. He was laughing so loud that they could all hear him, and they heard him yell, "I'm a Cross-Dresser!"

Luffy and Natsu were reaching for each other while they were pinned under Kirito clones, but the two of them stopped at the sound of that, and they started laughing like mad at the chef. "Ha! Gaaaayyy!" Natsu yelled, pointing up at the man in a dress who snapped his head down at the pink haired wizard.

"It's called OKAMA!" Sanji shouted, zipping out of the sky like a missile with his flaming leg pointed at Natsu. He ripped right through the Kirito clone trying to control Natsu, but didn't make it to the Dragon Slayer as Timmy appeared and stopped him.

There were three Kirito shadow clones now holding Dash down, but a white aura erupted between them and the kid inside leapt up in the air. Dash started kicking the air beneath him incredibly fast to keep himself elevated, and his white aura grew as his smiling face turned into a very mad one. "Who's first?" he growled, then heard an angry voice behind him, making him turn around.

"Why is Sanji in one of my dresses?" Robin asked, starting to walk forward with a scary look in her eyes. She walked past Nami, releasing the arms holding her down as she did. The woman crossed her arms, and then her eyes widened into saucers as she saw the little blond boy hovering right in front of her with his fist pulled back.

Then, before Dash could punch in that single second, a flash of lightning lit up between Robin and the boy. Robin's eyes started darting down, as did Dash's, and they each saw the top of the boy between them's head. The white spikes of his hair were spikier than usual, coated in glowing white light, with lightning sparking off his body. He lifted up his arms, facing his hands in towards each other and making the lightning zap between his fingers. He started facing his hands out towards Dash, but at the same time, Killua's eyes widened as he saw the kid's leg swinging around towards him.

 _No way! He can keep up with Godspeed?_ Killua pushed his hands forward, slamming thousands of volts into the other kid younger than him, but Dash's powerful kick still hit him in the head despite him ducking a little during the attack. Dash had seen him start to duck a millisecond before he got zapped, and he adjusted his kick for the dodge.

Lightning filled the area as a smoking Dash was sent flying backwards and Killua tumbled across the ground into a railing, his aura fading as he stopped moving. The boy moaned and looked up a little to see Riku staring down at him, "Wait a second," Riku started, staring at the boy's eyes as Killua got back up to his feet. "You aren't infected."

"I got vaccinated in Metropolis," Killua stated. The fourteen year old reached up a hand and rubbed the side of his head where he already felt a bruise forming. _I should have focused some Ko on my head to lessen the blow. I didn't have time to think, he's so fast, even without Nen-training._

"Good, I need some help," Riku stated, and Killua noticed the boy with silver hair was also not panicking.

"Sora," Timmy called up to the spiky haired boy who was panting very hard now, but jumping around a little and swinging his Keyblade to try and recover some magic power. The first Esuna he used before that covered the entirety of the ship drained what normally would have been all of his magical power, but he kept dipping into the darkness to get more. Now though, even using his extra reserves, he was still exhausted. _I need to recover it the hard way. If only I had an Ether, or better yet an Elixer to use._ "Sora!" Timmy yelled at the boy who was their only chance to keep control, the twelve year old looking angry as he yelled at him.

Sora looked at the pissed off kid who was probably the strongest one on the ship and took a step back. Timmy saw the nervous look in Sora's eyes and he tried to soften his expression as he called out, "Juvia chased after Gray when Gray went back inside before."

"They went back inside?" Sora exclaimed. He spun around but didn't see them go in since he came back out. They must have walked past while he was helping Kirito down in the hold. "Crap," the teen muttered, turning and running back inside.

While Sora ran inside, the insane people on the deck were fighting off individual Kirito shadow clones that were trying to restrain them. One of them ran over towards a thirteen year old boy who was slowly getting up to his feet, but Ben snapped his head up and looked into Kirito's eyes with completely insane ones of his own. The clone faltered for a second as Ben's body lit up green, but then it kept charging at the kid and dove through the green light to try and restrain him.

A few of the others looked over at the flash of green and their eyes turned huge at the sight of the creature that appeared. None of them had ever seen Ben use it before, and they felt shivers down their spines. The white ghost creature floated right through Kirito's shadow clone, freaking the clone out to the point that it exploded in a puff of smoke. Ghostfreak looked around at everyone staring at it and it hissed in a creepy voice, "You want to see something cool?" Suddenly Ben's alien's smooth ghost body peeled back, and everyone screamed at the skeletal head underneath and at the black tentacles that shot out of his chest.

Riku looked over at one of his best friends and saw Ben laughing hard as this creepy alien he had never seen him transform into before. "Keep calming them down," Riku told Killua who he cured of a head wound and was back at a hundred percent.

"I'll do what I can," Killua said, not making any promises before rushing off.

The older boy nodded, then took a step towards Ghostfreak. After taking one step, he had to lean back fast and watched as a small green ball flew inches in front his face. Riku turned and looked over to see Usopp standing all the way across the ship, pointing a slingshot in his direction. The long-nosed sniper lowered his slingshot a little and glared harder than Riku had ever seen him before. He looked absolutely enraged, and he roared across the ship at Riku, "Make me your slave?! Make me KILL people for you?!"

Riku froze in place and the others who were mildly sane looked up at Usopp to see tears flowing out of his enraged eyes. "You made me murder for you!" he yelled at Riku who he now saw as exactly the same as Ansem. "Now," Usopp lifted back up his slingshot and smiled on his angry face covered in tears, so many emotions flowing through him at once. He pulled back his slingshot and roared, "I'm going to murder you!" Riku had to dodge as more Pop Greens went flying past him from Usopp's slingshot, and he frowned deeply as Usopp's words were getting to him. _Hope you're having a better time looking for Gray and Juvia, Sora._

Sora ran down the halls of the Thousand Sunny, throwing open door after door as he searched for the two of them. He ran into the storage room and looked around, but didn't see anyone. He was about to leave, when he realized there really was 'no one' inside. _CRAP! Where did Kairi go?_ Sora started running faster as he searched the halls.

"Kairi! Gray! Juvia! Kairi!" he yelled out, throwing open doors as he looked for them and hoped no one was killing each other.

The teen charged right up to a door and put his hand on the handle. He heard noises coming from behind it and was happy he finally found the right door, but then froze as he started twisting the handle. The noises he heard from behind the door were not of two people fighting, but something very, very different. Sora's face turned red as he heard Juvia scream out in pleasure from behind the door. For some reason, he felt relieved as well, which confused him. _Why would I be relieved?_

A hand grabbed him by the right arm and the boy snapped his head to the right, instantly realizing why he was relieved. He was happy because he heard Juvia's voice, not the girl in front of him right now who was looking at him in the same way he was sure Juvia was looking at Gray right now.

"Kairi hold on," Sora started, pushing her back a little as she leaned up to kiss him.

His light shove stopped her from kissing him and she leaned back, a look of total dejection mixed with some anger on her face. Sora felt heartbroken that he was making the girl feel this way, but it didn't feel right with the state she was in right now. "Why don't you love me Sora?!" she yelled at him, freaking the boy out who took a few steps backwards down the hall.

Kairi walked towards him, matching each of his steps to keep them the same short distance apart. She pointed her right hand at the door as she walked past it and yelled at her boyfriend, "I know you're shy Sora, but _that_ is also a part of love!" The girl with dark red hair dove at the boy who was momentarily stunned and she tackled him to the ground, straddling him as she did.

"Make love to me Sora," she whispered down into his ear. The boy felt shivers through his body and his hands started lifting on their own. "We've slept in the same bed, with nothing but our underwear between us for most of the last year," she whispered, starting to rub her hands along his body as his arms wrapped around her back. "But not once, have you tried something," she continued, sounding a little hurt, and also angry at him. "I love you so much Sora, so why won't you love me?"

"I do love you," the boy told her, pulling her down with the hands he had on her back and pressing his lips against hers. He was losing it. As soon as his lips touched hers it was like sparks ignited through both of their bodies, their minds starting to blank. Sora's hands got under the back of Kairi's shirt and they roamed the bare skin of her back, and she moaned into his mouth. _Kairi, I-I love you so much. So much, that, I won't... let the madness! TAKE OVER!_ Sora's eyes snapped open and the girl above him noticed the change in the pace as his hands slid out from under her shirt.

Sora scooted back fast and pushed her hands away from the waistband of his pants. He jumped up fast and tried to ignore the sobs coming from the girl he loved, the sobs that he caused. He drew his Keyblade with his right hand, and as much as he wanted to use it on himself and Kairi, he had some others he had to help first. "I'm sorry for how awkward this is going to be," Sora shouted as he jumped at the door and knocked it down.

The brown haired teen tried covering his eyes from the sight of the two people interlocked inside the small doctor's office, using the examining bed as their own. "Esuna," he called out, lighting both of them up with a golden light and then stepping back outside.

The two on the examining bed froze, both of them ceasing to moan as their eyes widened to their fullest and they realized where they were. Gray was flat on his back and he stared straight up at the girl straddling him at the waist, and he didn't have to look down to feel that neither of them were wearing clothes. Neither wanted to move, neither said anything, they just stared at each other with horrified expressions on their faces.

Juvia's face was getting brighter, more and more red by the second until Gray thought she was about to pop. And then she smiled and her eyes rolled back in her head. Gray got a panicked look on his face as he watched her fall off him, and then off the bed altogether as she fainted. He hopped off the bed, resisting the urge to cover himself up immediately as he needed both hands to catch the blue haired girl before she hit the ground.

Gray caught her with one arm under her back and the other under her butt, which caused him to let go of her a second later, dropping her to the hard floor. He winced as he heard the thud, and then reached for his pants quickly, trying to process what had just happened in his mind.

The ice wizard stepped out into the hallway with only his pants on, which was normal since he had already discarded his shirt much earlier as caused by his habit of stripping everywhere he went. He looked to his right and saw Sora waving his Keyblade around, and then throwing it over at a wall when he couldn't get another Esuna out of it. Gray looked over at the teen who had helped him earlier when he was fighting Juvia, and now a second time. Sora didn't look much better than he did, but now he saw why the boy was so furious that his Keyblade wasn't working.

There was a girl between Gray and Sora, lying on her knees with tears streaming down her face. "Make love to me SORA!" she screamed, turning towards him and standing up while picking up a piece of wood at the same time. It was a shard blasted off of the door when Sora kicked it down, and it was pretty sharp on the end she put up to her throat.

"Whoa! Kairi this isn't like you," Sora told the girl, his own madness lessened by the seriousness of the situation. She was not the type of girl to do anything like this, so Sora was really freaking out now, deciding he definitely should have saved the Esuna instead of ruining Gray and Juvia's fun time. His magic still felt completely depleted, so he held up his hands slowly, "Put the wood shard down Kairi."

"N-No!" she yelled, pushing it farther so it pressed into her neck, letting a drop of blood spill out. "I HATE YOU-" she yelled, right before the wood dropped from her hand and her eyes rolled back into her head.

Gray stood behind the girl with his hand extended in a chop, having knocked the girl out to stop her from hurting herself. "That was too close," he muttered, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead.

"What, did you..." Gray started looking up as he heard the voice coming from down the hall, "DO TO HER?!" Sora roared, a burst of wind so powerful exuding from his body that Gray was thrown backwards. The ice wizard put his hand down as he landed on his feet and skid back down the hall, all the way to the wall at the other end of it.

"I was helping her," Gray shouted back down, trying to reach Sora. When he looked down the hall at the boy down there though, he didn't recognize the person he was talking to. Gray got up to his feet and took a step back, fear filling his body from the feeling he got looking at the teen down the hall.

There was only one option. He ran. Both girls they loved were in this section of the ship, and Gray knew Sora didn't want to hurt them. He recently got the Esuna magic, healing his madness temporarily, but he could already feel it tearing away at him again. Gray had to run. He sprinted into the kitchen and out on the ship's deck, closing the door behind him.

The door didn't stay closed for long though, immediately blasting open and knocking into Gray who got thrown across the deck and into the burning sail covered in blue and red flames.

Natsu and Rin were battling up in the training room at the top of the mast, the crow's nest shaking every time each one of them threw a punch or slashed their sword.

There were several people tied up on the ground lying unconscious. Next to the cluster of them was Timmy, sitting there curled up with his hands in front of his face. "If Wanda were here, she could have fixed this. Even if she couldn't heal us, she could have built cages to trap us. Or, or she could have just sent us all to sleep until Goku comes back, but... but... she's not here. SHE'S DEAD!" The entire Thousand Sunny started shaking as Gray fell down from the sail.

Timmy roared in mental pain from losing his Fairy Godmother. The sky above them started getting darker with clouds swirling around the sky, but nobody noticed.

Anyone not already unconscious were in the middle of trying to kill each other. Luffy and Killua were moving at intense speeds as they zipped around the ship that had become their battleground. The younger boy was faster, but Killua's lightning did nothing to the older rubber pirate. He pulled out his harder-than-steel yo-yo's, but Luffy punched his fist into one when Killua sent it flying and the yo-yo shattered, right before Luffy's fist slammed into the white haired kid himself.

When Gray hit the ground, right next to him Riku had just managed to knock out Franky and the robot collapsed to the ground as well. He looked down at Gray, to see the ice wizard looking like a mess with cuts and bruises all over him. "Curaga!" Riku called out, healing both himself and Gray with a dome of green light.

Gray's eyes snapped open and the young man jumped up to his feet, not even wasting breath to thank Riku. Despite Timmy's enormous power shaking the whole ship, there was something Gray was more afraid of. He and Riku looked back towards the kitchen where not just the door, but half of the wall leading inside had been broken apart.

Stepping out of the kitchen, was a boy completely shrouded in darkness. The air around him was dark as well, with long black tendrils seeping out and touching other things, making them darker as well. Around his feet, Shadows started crawling out of the ground. These dog-like Heartless looked different from the old Shadows though, standing up now on two legs, looking bigger than before. Neo-Shadows. Their antennae were longer now, and they looked less cute, and more terrifying. The dark human form behind them held up both hands and completely black Keyblades dripping darkness formed in his hands.

Sora pointed a hand forward, and a dozen Neo-Shadows lifted off the ground, literally flying towards the others on the deck. They moved as a mass with so many so close together that it looked like a thick tube of darkness flying at them. The form inside the darkness lifted up his head and roared, "RRAAAAAAAA!"

 **"Use all my power!"** Ansem yelled inside Riku's mind. There was no time for hesitation, or questioning whether Ansem would try to take control, Riku just accepted it. The teen's body became black for a second, his yellow shirt and jeans being replaced as the darkness went away. Gray turned to his side and his eyes widened at the sight of what Riku had become. He never saw what this man looked like back in Port Royal, but from descriptions of him, he knew who this tall, tan-skinned man was.

"Ansem?" Gray whispered, watching as the tall figure with silver hair longer than Riku's took a step forward. On the muscular man's chest was a tattooed heart of red full of black with a red 'X' in the center of it.

The tall man turned to Gray and said in a deep voice, "No, it's still Riku." His body surrounded with a solid white aura, and he lifted off the ground at the same time. A large black form with beady white eyes ripped out the back of the white cloak that had replaced his normal clothing. The beast lifted up its muscular arms and two more arms ripped out under them, while the sky around Riku darkened.

He and the dark form of what should have been Sora stared at each other for a few seconds, and then they both shot towards each other. Riku wasn't expecting his friend's speed to be this crazy, and he had only made it a little towards Sora when Sora caught him, slamming him in the chest with a dark claw that sent Riku spiraling out of the air and down through the deck into the cabin below.

While Riku and Sora battled through the ship, Timmy started lifting up in the sky, his aura getting larger and larger each second. Natsu and Rin were in the middle of fighting in the crow's nest when the wall on one side blasted open and they looked over to see a bright white light flooding in.

One of the few people Timmy managed to tie up before Sora's Esuna wore off on him was the same woman who had been looking after him for quite some time now. The orange haired woman opened her eyes a little, lying on the ground leaned up against a wall where she was pushed after Timmy powered up. Near her, Robin, Sanji, Ben, and Usopp were still unconscious with ropes tied around them. She looked up in the sky and saw the child in the center of the light, and despite her fury at being tied up, she still went wide-eyed at the sight of the kid roaring in pain.

"WWAAAANNNNNDAAAA!" Timmy screamed, and then his aura changed shape. It turned so bright that no one could look at it for a second, and then the light shot over across the water, leaving Timmy behind. The light slammed into a section of the ocean that Nami couldn't see from where she lay, but if she could see it she would have seen five miles of ocean in circumference that went hundreds of yards deep, disappear. The ocean just vanished in that giant hole, and all the surrounding water started moving that way to fill in the hole. The Sunny started turning, moving that direction as was the majority of the ocean around them.

When the light around Timmy faded, the boy no longer looked angry. Instead, his eyes were cold. He glared down at the ship below him and everyone fighting each other looked up at this boy nervously. "Timmy don't!" Nami yelled, coming to her senses as she saw a ball of white light form on Timmy's right hand.

The kid in the air looked down and saw Nami sitting on the ship, staring up at him in fear. His eyes widened and Nami thought he came to his senses, but as soon as she thought it she felt a jolt. The woman clenched her eyes shut and then reopened them, to see that she was a hundred feet off the deck of the ship. Timmy had her in his left hand, while he continued to charge the ball of energy in his right. "I like you Nami," the kid said with a smile, while his face was shadowed by the giant ball of white light on the other side that Nami could feel the immense energy coming from now.

Natsu and the guy covered in blue flames shot out of the crow's nest with their fists and sword pulled back. Timmy looked at them and the two stopped flying in the air, freezing in place. Then he flicked his eyes down, and the two went crashing down into the ship below where they moaned and looked back up in the sky where Timmy threw his left hand down, chucking the giant ball of light.

At this point, all the crazy people on the deck of the ship started freaking out. Nami was screaming at Timmy for releasing the ball down on their friends, but he was just angrily glaring at the top of his white energy ball, not responding to her words.

"Oh fuck!" Franky yelled as the first thing he saw upon opening his eyes was the giant ball of light heading down for the ship he built. This was his dream ship, the one he wanted Luffy to become the Pirate King with, no one was going to destroy it. He hopped up fast, then pointed his hands up at the beam, "Franky Radical Beam!" he yelled, and a laser shot out from between his hands up at the larger energy ball.

Franky's beam might have been powerful, but it was nowhere near the size necessary to do any damage to Timmy's attack. Instead, the laser just got sucked up into the attack, if anything making it larger. The cyborg's jaw dropped, then he turned around and sprinted off the ship, not even jumping when he hit the railing, smashing straight through it. He could try swimming away, but at this point he was already screwed, they all were.

Inside the ship, Sora swung his right black claw and slammed Riku who looked exactly like Ansem out onto the deck. The older teen came flying out and was stunned by the bright white light above him that he was about to crash into. "Shit!" Riku shouted.

Before Riku even finished shouting, the descending ball about to hit the top of the mast, (having torn through most of the crow's nest already), was sent flying to the east. The ball soared into the distance, going, going, until finally it must have hit somewhere because the ocean started shaking and the sky lit up with a bright white light.

Timmy frowned and turned his head to the distance where he felt a large power. "Phew, I made it," Goku said, smiling as he looked at the ship and felt the same number of powers as he did when he left.

"Goku!" Riku shouted, a smile coming to his face as he saw the man.

Goku looked back at Riku and his eyes widened, "You're that Ansem guy right? I'm gonna kick your butt!"

"No Goku, it's me," Riku called out as he descended and landed on the deck in between an unconscious Usopp and Sanji, both looking like they got beat up badly before they were knocked out. "It's Riku."

"Ohh," Goku said, totally confused but also kind of remembering that Underworld base where something similar happened. "Well, I got some antidotes," he added, looking up towards Timmy again who had Nami still in his hand, while his other fist clenched tightly. Actually, both fists were clenching and Nami started whimpering as Timmy had a tight grip on her. "Let her go Timmy," Goku demanded, his look turning serious.

The insane child growled, then dropped the woman who he didn't even remember why he picked her up in the first place. Nami fell, but while she fell she watched as Goku and Timmy soared towards each other. The two of them were blurs in the sky for a few seconds, but Goku's aura turned gold, then a more furious gold, then Timmy dropped out of the sky, a fist shaped hole in the front of his shirt where Goku had hit him so hard he was knocked out.

Super Saiyan 2 Goku sighed and dropped out of his aura. He would have enjoyed fighting Timmy longer, like he could sense Vegeta enjoying a fight with an insane Laxus right now, but his friends were in danger and he needed to get them the antidotes fast.

Goku dropped to the ship, and within ten seconds, every other person on the deck was unconscious. Even Nami who Timmy dropped was lying still at Goku's feet because she tried diving on Usopp's unconscious body. The Saiyan took a deep breath when all the passed out people were in between him and Riku. The teenager gawked at Goku, which was weird since he was still in Ansem's body. Goku didn't relax yet though, and he was smart not to as the deck behind him exploded upwards. Riku started turning, but the creature that flew out was already mid-swing, slamming into him and sending him crashing into the other bodies around him.

The silver haired boy was already tired, but that powerful hit took the rest of his energy from him. His body lit up for a few seconds, and then he was back to normal lying there in his yellow shirt and jeans. He watched through blurry eyes as Goku dodged Sora's attacks, moving out of the way of each one. The Saiyan got behind the kid and chopped him on the neck, but then a black Keyblade slammed into Goku's side, surprising the man who had used the same attack to knock everyone else on deck out.

Goku actually smiled that he couldn't take Sora out with such an easy blow, but the teen had lost control and it was pretty obvious. Even without the madness, Goku would be frowning, as seeing the kid in this state reminded him of the Underworld Base they took on together a little over a month before. He hadn't seen it himself, but this is what he imagined had taken over the teen at that time which allowed them to take down the base.

Goku hopped back as Sora tried slamming another appearing Keyblade into him. The Saiyan's hair turned gold while he was in mid-hop, and then when he touched the ground he shot towards Sora like a missile. He was amazed the teen could keep up with his speed, but his loss of control was clearly messing with his skill because Goku faked a forward punch, then flipped over the kid who fell for it and stomped down on Sora's head. The Super Saiyan felt Sora reaching up for him, so he started zipping around the kid punching and kicking him as hard as he would dare, getting a little stronger each time until finally he had to just go for it and he slammed an elbow into Sora's face.

The creature tumbled back across the deck and stopped moving right next to where Riku was lying. The older teen turned his head a little and watched as Sora's dark aura started seeping away. The black aura dispersed from Sora's red and blue clothes, then from his hair and body, and finally the skin on his face shifted back to its lighter tone. _It's over,_ Riku thought as he saw Sora's face, the boy finally out cold. As he thought it, Riku passed out too.

Goku scratched his head as he looked around all the unconscious people. "There are some people missing," he wondered aloud. In front of him lay the majority of the crew, most of whom had gone insane. He had no idea Killua hadn't gone nuts when he found the kid fighting the ice wizard, so he knocked out both of them.

The Saiyan hopped back and dropped down into the hole Sora flew out of before. Goku flew around the inside of the ship and really felt bad about all the damage inside it considering how much the Straw Hats seemed to care about their ship. He flew back as soon as Gohan finished with the medicine, so there wasn't much that could be done, but if he knew things were going to get this bad this quickly, he would have knocked them all out before he left. He really thought it would take less time. The Saiyan flew down a hall where he saw Kairi lying face down on the floor. He flew towards her, then looked into the room next to where she was unconscious.

Goku's eyes widened at the sight of the unconscious girl lying inside the doctor's office. She was on the floor, lying naked on top of a pile of clothes, and her face was in a full smile. The man started chuckling as he saw her and he walked into the room. Goku lifted her up a little and then grabbed her clothes off the floor, though there were a pair of guy's underwear mixed in with her clothes that he left on the ground. The Saiyan put Juvia's clothes on without having a single dirty thought, and he started whistling to himself even as he did it. "Man, Piccolo's clothes beam would really be great right around now," the Saiyan joked to himself as he finally got the girl's bra strapped back on, though it proved more difficult than he thought it would.

The Saiyan warrior finished dressing Juvia and brought her with him out of the room. He picked up Kairi while he went, and he flew back out to the deck where he looked around at all the unconscious people around him, including Riku. "Guess it's up to me to give you the medicine," the man whispered. Goku took the pack off his back. He opened it up and removed the first of the pills, "I'm sorry," he whispered as he looked at the injured group in front of him, "it is not going to be pleasant." He reached down and opened Juvia's mouth, before putting the pill in and making her swallow it.

* * *

"RAAAA!"

"AHHHH!"

"AGGGHHH!"

Each of the crew members on the Thousand Sunny were tied up around the grass deck. The majority of them were screaming in pain as the pills worked the madness out of their system. _Could we have avoided this?_ Riku thought internally, but Ansem assured him they could not. **"Even the doctors in Metropolis could not find a non-painful way to rid the people of the madness. The vaccine did not seem to be this harsh though."** Riku was standing next to Goku in the middle of the cluster of people. They were rushing back and forth for the last two hours giving everyone water and trying to calm them down.

"Sorry again," Goku called up to the deck behind them. Outside of the kitchen on the little balcony, Killua was sitting on top of the railing swinging his legs back and forth with a calm expression on his face.

Killua frowned at the man who knocked him out and then forced him to take one of the pills while he was asleep despite the fact that he already got inoculated by the vaccine. The boy grunted in acknowledgement, but didn't respond. Goku continued in a more optimistic tone, "Well, at least it's not hurting you as much as everyone else-"

"Yes it is," the boy replied, a little pissed by Goku's carefree attitude. "I can just tolerate the pain better," he sat there not showing a single sign of it, but his body was coursing with pain just like everyone else on the ship. Goku sweatdropped and apologized again, but Killua just waved him off saying it was fine.

"Natsu," Luffy growled across the circle of screaming people. He had his teeth clenched and was resisting the urge to yell out in the horrible pain he felt. "You know I could kick your ass?"

"Ha!" the Fire Dragon Slayer fake-laughed at the pirate captain. "RRrrgg," Natsu groaned, writhing around in pain in his ropes. He snapped his head up and glared at the pirate in the straw hat staring over at him, "I'd like to see you try it."

"Please stop," Kairi whispered, before shrieking out in pain as the medicine worked its way through her system. She felt a hand in hers and turned her head to the left, where she saw Sora reaching over to her and holding her hand. The boy with brown spiky hair ground his teeth, and then the corners of his lips curved up into the goofiest smile he could create.

Kairi still felt the pain, but at the same time she couldn't help herself. His smile was contagious, and the girl in all her pain grinned, closing her teary eyes that still spilled water out of the cracks between her eyelids. Tears streamed down her face, but she smiled with Sora, and she started laughing.

Everyone screaming around the circle heard the new noise mixed in with the cries of pain. The first two to look over were the two standing in the middle. Goku and Riku turned towards them, and upon seeing them Riku burst out laughing. Goku was surprised at seeing Sora and Kairi laughing with huge pained smiles on their faces, but he didn't start laughing like Riku.

Killua looked down from where he was sitting up on the railing and the kid with white hair started cracking up. "You guys are great," he said, tilting his head back and laughing some more. The fact that the same pain that was bothering the rest of them wasn't bothering Killua at all, made Luffy, Natsu, Gray, Kirito, and Sanji start trying hard to keep their mouths shut. Riku couldn't keep his mouth shut though, laughing harder along with his friends.

The tall teen with long silver hair couldn't stop himself. He was so worried about the two of his closest friends that he forgot who it was he was worried about in the first place. A voice groaned at him from his left and Riku turned, still chuckling, to see Ben glaring at him, "It's not funny," the boy moaned, before clenching his eyes shut in pain again.

"Oh come on Ben," Goku told the boy sitting near him, "you're much stronger than last time this happened. I bet Gwen's taking it much worse than you are right now."

The kid looked up at Goku and growled, "That doesn't make me feel better."

"Huh?" Goku questioned, wondering why not. He tried to think up something else to bring Ben's spirits up like and the Saiyan grinned when he did. "It could be worse," he offered, making most of them look his way.

"How?" Nami exclaimed, literally not seeing how on their ruined ship with all of them lying around in pain, this could be any worse.

"Well, you could be Laxus," Goku said, "Vegeta went after him when this all started. So..." The image of Laxus lying on the ground covered in scratches and bruises while an entertained Super Saiyan Vegeta stood laughing over him appeared in Ben, Natsu, and Gray's minds.

The two male members of Fairy Tail and the young boy with the Omnitrix on his wrist saw what they imagined Laxus to look like right now, and all three of them burst out laughing. It wasn't like they were in any better condition themselves, but it did make them feel better with the knowledge that Laxus went nuts too.

Gray was laughing, when he remembered something that happened inside the ship and his face turned red. He turned to the left a little and saw Juvia staring up at him with starry eyes and her face red as well. It looked like they were both thinking of the same thing, so despite the pain they felt as the sickness filtered out of their systems, the two of them couldn't help but smile at each other.

Gray's smile was all Juvia needed at the moment to be able to stomach all the pain herself. She turned with that smile on her face and looked over at her friends in the Straw Hat crew who were all still in pain. The girl travelled with them for such a long time that they all felt like as much of her nakama as did the members of her own guild.

Usopp was most noticeable since he was screaming a lot still, but she could see the pain on Nami and Robin's faces too very clearly. "Everyone," she said over to the pirates. The Straw Hat crew looked over to see Juvia looking their way with a pained expression, but a smile curving up on her tear-streaked face. She laughed, and her laughter picked up as she tilted her head back and cackled. Everyone else who had started laughing looked over at her as her laughter was way too loud, and it was pretty clear the insanity was not all gone yet. Then, at the top of Juvia's lungs while she laughed madly, she screamed, "Juvia loves you all! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!"

She laughed like an evil villain after this loud profession of love for them all, and not one of them could look at her with a straight face anymore. Usopp screamed out in pain again, "Raaaha haha rahaha!" His pained screams transformed into laughter that pretty much exemplified how they were all feeling. Everyone who stopped laughing to listen to Juvia burst back out into laughter and now the rest of them joined in. They laughed while they cried.

* * *

 **A/N This is one of my favorite chapters, so I hope you enjoyed it! It was a ton of fun to write and there were some intense scenes in here from the very beginning. Gray v Juvia, Sora v Gray, Sora v Riku, Natsu v Rin, Dash v Rin, Natsu v Luffy, Luffy v Killua, Ben v Juvia, Ben v Kirito, Sanji v Riku, Usopp v Riku, Goku v Timmy, Goku v Sora, I could go on forever. The battles were endless and they may have given you guys a better idea of which characters are ranked where on the ship in terms of strength. If you want to try ranking the nineteen in a review, be my guest, however I don't think there's a sure way to rank them 1-19, as some of their full strengths have never been shown in Nexus, and it's been two years from wherever they were taken in their respective medias. Go ahead and try though, I'd love to see what you guys think. Everyone caught the crazy virus, a virus I actually didn't take from a different show, but just thought would be cool if it happened and I liked the result of what I wrote XD. Hope you liked it as much as I did! Leave me a review telling me your thoughts, comments, predictions, or questions! 'Till next time!**

joebob323 chapter 5 . 18h ago

Wooww already 5 chapters in! Great content as well, can't wait for the arrival at aerbirth, and Goku being pissed off ; ) it's quite rare for Goku to get pissed, it took krillen, his best friend's death to awaken super Saiyan after all... But just like when majin Vegeta killed the people at the World martial arts tournament, I think the slaves will definitely piss him off, since there has been no records of slaves in DBZ, while the others have either seen or had history (on their worlds) of slaves. Of course, Rin's debut is also much anticipated, since he was one of my favorite characters when I was younger! Sorry for not paying attention, I didn't know that this was up until chapter 100 of Nexus... Thanks for all the chapters! Good luck with life in general!

 **Thanks! Glad you're excited and amped for some Goku epic action. Rin had a cool part earlier this first chapter, though Dash kinda kicked his butt here, (can't top that speed XD). And yeah that's why I posted chapter 100 of Nexus lol, I figured there might've been some people who didn't see the new chapters yet! Thanks again for the review!**

qwerty chapter 5 . 13h ago

You should read The Avatar Strikes Back by MegaBob452, it's a crossover between Avatar: The Last Airbender and Star Wars

 **I'll check it out! Thanks!**


	7. Nexus HWR 1-9 Midway

**Nexus HWR 1.9 Midway:**

"Look! An island!" Usopp pointed off the crow's nest towards a distant shoreline.

A muscular man in an orange gi stepped out of the training room up on the crow's nest, along with a much smaller boy with spiky white hair. Goku and Killua walked up to Usopp, the younger boy hopping up on the railing and crouching his legs. Killua stood on the wood railing and put his hand up to his forehead to block the sun from his eyes as he looked out.

Killua was looking for a solid ten seconds before he saw the slightest blur in the distance. "Whoa, you must have some pretty good eyes," the fourteen year old complimented. It was the wrong move as Usopp instantly started bragging about how great his eyes were, making the younger boy sweatdrop.

It was a little after midday, and for the second day in a row, lunch was awkward. Goku ate a lot, and talked with his mouth full, but he was the only one acting normal. Everyone else was still edgy from a few days before. Natsu and Luffy kept getting in food-eating contests, which turned into arguments if one of them left scraps or if one of their plates wasn't as big as the other person's. Ever since the two of them got in an unresolved fight during the crazy-sickness that spread around the ship, the tension had been high between them.

Riku was also staying quiet a lot more, as he had heard a lot of things during that time. The people who said them came up to him after and apologized, but he couldn't just forget Usopp's words. **"You made me your slave for two years! I killed people for you, you monster!"** Usopp came to him after the medicine had fully worked through their systems, and said he was saying that stuff to Ansem. Riku nodded at the time, but it didn't make him feel much better considering he had teamed up with Ansem to stop the madness. He was the only person who actually knew Ansem from all the mental conversations the two of them had, so he knew he was the only one to know the man was changing, if slowly.

Riku stepped out on the deck, and looked off the little balcony outside the kitchen down to the main deck covered in grass. Sora was walking a few steps to the left of Kairi, the two of them walking together, but at the same time apart. It hurt the tall, silver haired teen to see his best friends having troubles, but apparently some weird stuff had gone down between them during the sickness as well. At one point he heard, Kairi almost kissed Gray. When he first heard it he almost laughed, but he saw Gray looking sheepish and Sora glaring in his direction, so he decided not to.

The ship was also really badly damaged, so they had to stop at an island and gather up a lot of supplies. The repairs took an entire day even with Franky's master craftsmanship, as the lower decks, the kitchen, and the crow's nest were all badly damaged in the ordeal.

There seemed to be only one good thing that came out of all of the hassle. That would be Gray and Juvia finally acknowledging they were in a relationship. Back on their own world, they were close, but Gray went missing for two years after showing up on Nexus. In the last two and a half months though, ever since he showed up in Port Royal, the two of them had gotten closer than ever before. Then, during the sickness, something happened that neither of them would talk about, but now they were openly in a relationship, even occasionally holding hands on the deck, (when Gray didn't pull his hand away).

Everyone was gathering up on the bow of the ship after Usopp shouted about the island. Luffy jumped up on the top of the yellow lion-flower figurehead and put his hand up to his forehead to block the bright light from the suns too. "Cool," he exclaimed in a dragged out voice.

"What is it?" Nami asked her captain, a large robot currently in her way blocking her sight. Franky zoomed in with his partly mechanical eyes too, and he smiled at the sight of the small island.

"Looks like there's a little village on the beach," Usopp called down from the crow's nest. "A bunch of houses that look like they're made from palm trees, bamboo, and they're elevated off the ground a little. There're ladders leading up to the doors of the huts."

Again Killua was surprised by how much the man next to him could see while he could still just see the outline of the island. He knew better than to build up Usopp this time though and kept his mouth shut.

"There are people on the beach," Usopp continued. "Some of them are fishing, but most are just swimming around. There's a dock floating out there that people are jumping off of... Oh, they're swimming to shore. Looks like a few are screaming..."

Nami sweatdropped, "I guess they see us."

Goku started laughing. "Well, when we pull in to shore I hope they have some good food on this island!"

Sanji gawked at the spiky haired Saiyan who had walked up on his right side. The chef muttered, "I just fed you."

"And it was delicious," Goku complimented, patting his stomach to show how good it was. "But we may not come back to this island, so I've gotta try the food at least once!"

"If we're going to have dinner on the island," Nami began, "we may as well spend the night here. I'd like to make a map of that island," she smiled as now that they were closer, she could see it was a little bigger than she originally thought.

"Umm, guys," Rin started. The black haired teen wearing a white button down with long sleeves pointed his arm out over the water. They were still a mile from shore, but a large wake was splashing up as something headed straight for them at rapid speeds. "I think something's coming," he mumbled, though it was pretty obvious by now.

The splashing stopped right before the front of the ship, but whatever it was leapt out of the water. Water droplets fell all over the bow of the deck, as the shadow passed over them, making everyone look up in awe as the skinny figure flew over their heads.

She landed behind them, with a three foot tall white blubbery creature landing next to her. It was longer than it was tall, and it had carried her out to the ship pretty fast. "Dew-gong," the Pokemon stated its name in a happy tone.

The teenage girl with long red hair who landed on the deck did not look as happy. She was wearing a pink bikini, and as everyone turned around, half of them jumped at the angry expression she was giving them. "Just what do you think you're doing?" She asked, pointing a finger at the cluster of people in front of her.

They all rose up their hands and pointed to themselves as if she was referring to each of them specifically. The girl shook her head back and forth, splashing some of the water out of her hair and making it so the bottom tips curled up a little. The teenager was no older than sixteen, but she had a nicely curved body that Juvia elbowed Gray in the side for looking at. Then again, everyone was looking at the same spot, so he didn't know what the big deal was.

"What do you pirates want? Why are you sailing right towards our island?" The girl narrowed her eyes at them. "Answer carefully, I may not forgive you if you answer wrong."

"Are you that island's protector?" Goku asked in a surprised, but also impressed voice.

The girl smirked and humphed towards the tall, muscular, handsome man. Her eyes stayed focused on him for a few seconds, then she shook her head and frowned deeper, "Yea, you could call me that. My name's Misty, I'm the lifeguard of the beach on the island. And I run my own Pokemon Gym."

"Oh?" Sora asked, lifting up his eyebrows. "I've heard about Gym leaders! Were you from the Pokemon's world?" Sora questioned her.

The girl with long red hair paused as she opened her mouth. She wanted to yell at them again about the whole pirate thing, since they were still heading straight towards her island, but this boy seemed genuinely interested. "Yeah, I am. I was a Gym leader back there too."

"Whoa," Sora said. A smile came to the boy with spiky brown hair's face. "In that case, I challenge you to a battle!"

"Wait a second!" She shouted at him, making everyone lose the excited expressions they were gaining. "Answer my questions first! What are you pirates doing here?!"

"We're on our way to Aebrith," Natsu explained quickly, wanting to watch the Pokemon battle already.

Misty's eyes widened and her breath caught in her throat. "Wh-Why would you want to go there?" She asked, a large hint of fear in her voice.

"Wow, this place just sounds better and better by the minute," Kirito muttered.

"It doesn't really matter," Gray stated, quieting everyone who were about to explain why they were going to help Gray's friends.

Luffy ignored the man anyway and said, "To find the rest of my crew! Since they weren't on Awul, they're probably over there!"

Natsu spun towards Luffy, "No, we're going to go help out Gray's friends."

"And find mine," Luffy stated again, looking Natsu right back in the eyes. Neither of them backed down, and it looked like a fight would break out right there, if Sora didn't start shouting again and regain everyone's attention.

"Point is none of us are planning on hurting anyone on the island. Now can we battle?" Sora sounded really excited, and Misty sighed, before lifting back up her head with a glint in her eyes.

"You're on."

A couple of minutes later, the ship was anchored just off the shore of Misty's island. No one had gotten off yet though, as they were all far too interested in the battle about to go on on the main deck of the Sunny.

A few members of the crew were up on the bow, looking down at the grassy area in the middle. A few more were back near the kitchen door, while there were still a few up on the crow's nest. Goku was watching from the sky above the grass area, and Ben was floating next to the older man, crossing his arms as he hovered up there.

Dash frowned that his older friend had such a better view than him, but he raced up to the top of the crow's nest and was now sitting on the railing, looking down with Killua. "Who do you think's going to win?" Dash asked the other boy.

"I don't know," Killua replied. "I've never seen this Sora guy fight, or the Gym leader. Telling from the rep' though, I'd say she has-"

"Err," Dash cut him off with a buzzer noise. "No chance. Sora's got Legendaries."

Killua lifted his white eyebrows, wondering what the speedster meant by that. He just looked down though, going to find out for himself in a few seconds anyway.

"Alright, do you know the rules?" Misty asked, as Sora stood in front of her with a bag in front of him. He was rummaging around inside it, and finally pulled out what he was looking for. Misty gawked at the boy as he strapped the belt with ten pokeballs to his waist.

Sora looked up at her with a smile and said, "Nope!"

Misty fell over along with most of the spectators. She got back to her feet and rubbed her head that had a headache coming on. "Okay," she muttered, ignoring the tick mark on the side of her head. "Well, I'll go through it quickly then. The two of us will use three Pokemon each. Once a Pokemon is unable to continue, they lose. After all three of one of our teams of Pokemon are unconscious, the match is over, understand?"

"Yea, so after all three of your Pokemon are unconscious, I win right?" Sora asked. He got the exact reaction he was hoping for as the gym leader girl a couple of years younger than him frowned.

"And what makes you so sure you're going to win?" Misty asked, her voice challenging him.

"Oh, you'll see," Sora taunted back playfully.

A girl watching from up near the kitchen found herself clenching her fists. There was an older woman with long black hair standing on her left, and Nico Robin looked down to see the young girl, Kairi. She had a look of jealousy, but it was more than that, it was hurt. Robin looked back to the grass deck where they had declared their battlefield, and she looked straight at Sora. _I will have a talk with you later._

"Did you pick your three yet?" Misty asked. She had four of her own Pokemon on her belt. "I'm not going to use Dewgong, so you don't know what any of my other three will be."

"And you don't know what mine are either," Sora replied, making Misty stop with her mouth wide open, realizing he was right. Sora's friends laughed out loud and Misty started fuming, but before she could shout at him, Sora announced, "Alright, I've got my Pokemon ready."

He rearranged his pokeballs so the three he chose were furthest in front of his belt. This was the moment Nami had been waiting for, and the beautiful woman wearing an orange bikini lifted up her right arm, making her boobs bounce as she did. "Ready, set, let the match begin!" Nami exclaimed.

"Starmie! I choose you!" Misty tossed a pokeball up in the air, a red light shining from it that made a purple star shape with ten sharp prongs appear on the deck.

At the same time, Sora's pokeball was flying high up in the air, and he called out, "Come out, Blaziken!"

The tall, fire and fighting type appeared on the deck of the ship. Sora thought Misty would be impressed by his powerful Pokemon, but the girl was just grinning at him.

Everyone watching the battle stared in awe as Misty and her Pokemon worked as a perfect unit. It was almost like the creature knew what it's next command was going to be before it was given. Blaziken and Sora on the other hand, were not as good a match. The two of them were constantly off guard as Starmie leapt off the ship and swam from one side to the other, popping up unannounced and firing jets of water into the Pokemon trying to use fire moves.

It did not take long for Blaziken to fall to his knees. "It's okay, you did great," Sora told the muscular red Pokemon, then called him back into his pokeball.

Misty smiled over at the boy, "You know, you remind me a lot of a boy I used to know."

"Hope that's a good thing," Sora replied, in a great mood despite having lost the first round. _Start off simple, then knock her socks off, and then end it with the star._

Misty half-frowned, "Well, he did steal my bike. But, I guess you could take it as a compliment." She called back her Starmie and told the pokeball in her hand that she did great, before placing it back on her belt. "Do you want to know why you lost that round?"

"Umm, because you're a great trainer?" Sora asked, making Misty giggle and his own girlfriend watching clench her fists even more. It wouldn't be so bad if Misty was at least wearing a little more clothes. At the moment, her skimpy pink bikini was all that covered the lifeguard, gym leader, 10/10 bombshell. Kairi started wondering if the girl just had a young looking face, and was actually closer to her and Sora's age.

"Well, yes," Misty agreed with him, accepting the compliment. "But also, you have to understand that Pokemon each have types. Fire is weak against water, just like in nature, but grass is weak against fire. Natural weaknesses are important to Pokemon battles."

"Wow," Sora whispered. "Guess I shouldn't use another fire type then. You're only using water types."

"That's kind of my thing," Misty replied with a grin. "And it only gets better from here." She pulled off her second pokeball and tossed it behind her off the ship's deck. Everyone ran over to the port side and looked off as the ball bounced back towards Misty in the air, while a giant red light formed on the surface of the water.

"Lapras!" Misty shouted, seeing her large blue Pokemon inside a spiky shell appear on the waves of the shallow area around the beach. "You ready?!"

"Lapras!" The Pokemon yelled in agreement.

"Never seen that one before," Sora said with a smile. "Though, I bet you've never seen mine either." Sora lifted up his pokeball. "Come on out-" he pointed the ball up in the air over the port side, and a red light appeared well over three times the size of the already huge Lapras. The red light was longer than the Thousand Sunny, and about half the members on the crew went wide-eyed as they had never seen this before.

Misty went wide-eyed too and Sora grinned at her shocked reaction. "L-Lugia?!" Misty exclaimed in shock, seeing the enormous Legendary Pokemon appear in the air above Lapras. Lapras' eyes were wide as it looked up at the Guardian of the Sea in the Pokemon World.

The giant beast looked down at the red head down below, a hint of recognition in his eyes. The huge Pokemon tried to place where he knew her from, but the curvy teenager before him was no one he remembered meeting before.

"Lugia!" Sora shouted up at the creature under his command. "Body Slam!"

Lugia looked down at its opponent, and the Lapras below braced for impact. Bracing did nothing, fighting back would have done nothing too. Misty yelped and then sighed as Lapras was down in seconds.

Killua thought he was right originally when he picked Misty to win, especially after that first fight. Now Dash was laughing though as the little boy with blond hair remembered watching Lugia destroy armies of Heartless outside of Castle Oblivion.

"Nice job Lugia!" Sora called to his friend. The huge sea creature flapped its wings and lifted up in the sky. "You can fly around a little if you want. I was about to let everyone out of their balls anyway once the battle's over!"

 _ **"Thank you,"**_ Lugia's voice echoed through all of their minds telepathically.

"Wow," Misty laughed, "you know, you really are just like him." She said, referring back to her friend again. "He was friends with Lugia too."

Kairi unclenched her fists. The girl with auburn hair gasped, taking a step back towards the door to the kitchen. Robin and Sanji both looked in to see the teenage girl's eyes watering up. "What is it Kairi-san?" Robin asked the girl.

Everyone watching the battle instantly noticed the mood shift too as Sora's lower lip dropped a couple of inches. "Oh," he mumbled, having already lifted up the third pokeball, but now hesitating before calling out the creature's name.

"Well, are you ready?" Misty called over, lifting her final pokeball too. "Because with this I'm going to finish-"

"Misty," Sora started, his voice losing all of its joking tone from before. Misty started to sweat as the boy in front of her just gained a serious tone she hadn't heard him use before.

Riku looked down with surprised eyes too, wondering what had Sora all choked up right now. The others all saw him being serious and cold, but Rike could see the sadness he was trying to hold back right now.

Natsu leaned over the railing, totally confused at what was going on, while the others around him stared down quietly. Nami was down on the grass deck with them, officiating the matches, even though she didn't know what was going on most of the time. She backed up though as Sora took that tone.

"Wh-What?" Misty replied.

Sora stayed silent for a few seconds, and then he released the red light from the pokeball in his hand. A small red light appeared on the floor in front of her, and out of it appeared a yellow mouse. It was a foot tall, a foot wide, with little pink cheeks, whiskers, and a tail that looked like a lightning bolt. Sora didn't call out its name, but the mouse that appeared called out, "Pi-kaa!"

Misty stared at the Pikachu with wide-eyes. _It could be any old Pikachu,_ she thought. When it looked at her, in her eyes, she knew it wasn't. Its eyes showed instant recognition, which meant this was the only Pikachu she knew.

"But, but that doesn't make any sense," Misty mumbled out loud. "Pikachu, what are you doing inside a pokeball? I, thought you hated going inside your ball. I, I mean, where's Ash? Wh-Why are you with this guy?"

The ship was silent as everyone stared down at the shaking girl. Pikachu's head bowed down, his eyes closing halfway, "Pika pii," the electric mouse Pokemon whimpered. Sora had just as sad a look on his face.

Kirito turned around from the back of the bow where he was looking down. "Where are you going?" The ice wizard next to him muttered.

Kirito looked back at Gray, "I'm going to the island. I don't want to watch this."

A few others walked away too, with Ben flying towards the island and Dash sprinting after him.

"I don't- did you-" Misty shook her head several times and finally stopped with a smile on her face. "Oh I see," she started laughing, "you must be with him because you got separated from Ash. He's helping you look for him. And for a second there... I actually thought..." Misty's eyes started watering as from the looks on Pikachu and Sora's faces, she was wrong. "Then, Ash is..."

"Yeah," Sora replied. "I'm, sorry," he said, pausing only for a second, before steadying his voice. "I was right there, but I couldn't save him." He stared straight at her as he said this, not trying to look away or shift the blame.

"Sora," Kairi whispered, her heart hurting. She remembered how sad he was when Ash died, how devastated he was about it. She did all she could to raise his spirits, but after so much had happened, that moment was the breaking point for a few months to follow.

Misty started walking towards Sora. He continued speaking, "He was a close friend. And I should have saved him." Sora had never had to do this. He met Giovanni, but he was mad enough at the man that he didn't need to try and explain it, or sugarcoat it, but here, Misty was a nice girl. He felt horrible telling her all of this, wishing he could have just left her to believe that Ash was alive. "I was too- he ran ahead," Sora closed his eyes, thinking to how he ran out of the woods, how the sword was already sticking through Ash's back.

Pikachu stopped whimpering as much and looked up towards Sora. The little Pokemon heard his voice, and even after a year and a half, Sora was still this torn up about what had happened. Pikachu noticed something else though and watched as Misty stormed right by and marched towards its new Master. "Pika," the mouse started, trying to reason with the teenage girl.

Sora clenched his eyes shut as she reached him, not going to move his hands when she tried hitting him. He and Pikachu were wrong about what was coming though, as the shorter, younger teenage girl slammed her head into Sora's chest, and put her arms around his back. Just from the tone of his voice, she could tell how much he cared about Ash.

"Thank you, for watching over his Pokemon," Misty whispered into his chest, which he was feeling get wetter by the second, but didn't say anything about.

Now everyone who was still watching left. All but for Riku and Kairi, watching from opposite sides of the grass area. Kairi couldn't help but feel that pang of hurt again as she watched Sora lift up his arms, and put them around the younger girl with brighter red hair than her. _She just learned she lost a friend. Gain a heart Kairi,_ she thought to herself. It wasn't that she disliked the girl though, which was the reason why she was scolding herself. She thought she didn't like the girl because of Sora hugging her, but she had nothing against the girl. She was, and always would be, one of the Seven Princesses of Heart. There wasn't a part of her who could just dislike a person for something like that.

Still, Kairi felt a pain in her chest that made her lift up her right hand and clench hard. It was real, tangible pain that did not go away after a few seconds. The older woman who started walking away saw her grabbing the left side of her chest, and Robin felt even worse for the young girl. Now there were two red heads on the ship who were crying.

* * *

The crew of the Thousand Sunny disembarked on the island, and Nami found out there was an inn on the island. Apparently, passing ships were rare, but not unheard of. Most, almost all, were heading the opposite direction though. No one wanted to go to Aebrith these days, only leave it. The innkeeper was fine with them staying too, though the amount of rooms in the longhouse were limited. Nami told the nice innkeeper that was fine though, as some people would be fine sleeping in the ship or out on the beach under the stars.

She returned to the ship to tell everyone, but the whole crew had scattered in the wind. Goku was in a red bathing suit swimming around with Natsu, Gray, and Juvia. Luffy was swinging from trees in the forest with Usopp, while some others just went exploring. The orange haired navigator sighed as no one could hear her announcement, but she assumed they would all be together for the big dinner that was being set up on the beach for them tonight. In the meantime, _Time to make a map!_

As Nami went off to go make a map, Okumura Rin walked by himself through the forest on the island. The further inland the denser the trees and everything got. At one point on his walk, Timmy appeared next to him. The younger boy showed up so fast that Rin fell over, and the kid in the pink hat laughed at him.

"There's supposedly a monster in these woods," Timmy told the older teen who had rolled up the sleeves to his white button down as to keep them from getting dirty. "I heard some of the locals talking about it."

"Can't you feel it?" Rin asked.

"Yeah I could," Timmy replied, "but I stopped using my ki sense."

"Why would you do that?" The older boy asked in a deadpan voice.

"Makes it more of a challenge, more fun this way!"

"If you're looking for a challenge," Rin began, grinning at the younger kid. "Then how about whoever finds the monster first, wins?"

"Sounds good," Timmy replied with a smirk, about to shoot off to go looking some more.

"And no supersonic speed," Rin complained, as the small boy in the pink hat would scan this island in under a minute even without his ki sensing abilities. "Stay my speed," he argued.

"Heh," Timmy chuckled, "makes it more of a challenge this way I guess."

The two of them separated and searched through the jungle. Timmy bumped into some of their other friends at one point and told them about the challenge, getting Killua, Usopp, Sanji, Ben, Dash, and Luffy all into the contest.

While Timmy explained it, Rin was in the deepest area of the jungle. The island was only about five miles wide, and three long, but there were some nice trails in the woods. The black haired half-demon teen made a wrong turn at one intersection though, and he slipped off the edge.

He did not even know there was a ledge coming, as the trees were still in front of him. He slipped on the dirt and tumbled down the hill, bouncing and rolling and then coming to a stop at the very bottom with his face full of dirt. "Peh, peewy, spleh speh," Rin spat and wiped his tongue and face of dirt.

He got back up to his feet and looked down at the shirt that used to be white. He started wiping it down, when he heard a low growl right in front of him. As he heard it, he felt the heat of the creature's breath on him. "Easy there," he whispered, slowly lifting up his head. "No, sudden movements," he was talking mainly to himself.

His eyes looked up into the eyes of a ten foot tall, twenty foot long, furry creature. It was jet black, darker than night, and its eyes looked right back into his own. The creature growled at him, and then stopped growling after a few seconds as Okumura stared at it with a lowering jaw. "KURO!" Rin yelled at the cat in front of him.

The boy jumped forward and wrapped his arms around the shocked cat's face. "R-Rin!" The giant cat exclaimed, and then poof, it turned into the size of a normal kitty cat. Tears flowed freely from the cat's eyes, "It was so scary. Everyone on this island thought I was a monster, even though they couldn't always see me. They would run away! I'm so happy!"

"Me too!" Rin exclaimed, then lifted his demonic shape-shifting familiar up above his head. "I win!" He shouted, trying to make his voice loud enough to carry through the jungle.

* * *

Later on in the same day the pirates and friends landed on this island, appropriately named Midway Island, a feast was set up. Everyone who lived there went all out as they only had visitors once a month at most.

The second sun was setting in the distance, the largest, the red sun, dropping below the horizon. The sky was tinted a great pinkish orange color that mixed in with the scattered clouds. The water reflected some of the colors and everything looked even better.

"Hahaha!"

"No way! A Saiyan?!"

Goku's hair flashed gold for some people, who all started smiling and clapping.

"I've never seen one before. They are amazing!"

"You've got a nice body!"

"Are you single?"

"Haha, no, I'm married," Goku looked up at the sky. _One of these days I'll be joining you in Otherworld, ChiChi._

Natsu was up getting more food, when Gray walked up next to him. The two of them started a small argument, but wound up breaking it up as the smell of another dish coming out stole their attention. "So Gray," Natsu began as they walked back over and sat down at a table with Ben and Ben's old friend Dash.

Dash was starting to get to know Ben's friend Natsu more, while Ben was still getting to know Gray himself. Natsu took a bite of his food and continued while chewing, "What are your friends on Aebrith like?"

Gray was surprised that Natsu would ask that, but the pink haired Dragon Slayer seemed genuinely interested. "Hmm," Gray finished chewing a bite himself and took a long sip of the blue alcoholic beverage they were serving at the tiki bar. "Well, there's a real hothead, he's kind of like you. Name's Axel. He's got red hair, and he was the leader of my team when, when I left them."

"Still wasn't your fault," Natsu groaned, having told him it over a dozen times. "Who else?" Natsu asked.

Gray thought about Gon, and Soul, Black Star, Tsubaki, Cloud, and then his mind wandered to his other comrades who weren't in his scavenging team that day. "I ever tell you there are Fairy Tail members there?"

Natsu was taking a sip of his drink, and he spat it all out across the table at that. Dash moved his head out of the way in a blur, dodging all of the individual drops of water in the spray of liquid. "What?!" Natsu shouted. "No you haven't told me that! Why didn't you?!"

"Well," Gray began, scratching his chin that had a little black stubble on it. "It never came up in conversation. We were fighting almost nonstop for two months, wasn't like we had a lot of time to talk about much else besides where we would be fighting next." He paused, "Also, you never asked."

"Grr," Natsu growled, "alright then, who?!" Natsu wanted to know who it was that weren't at the Fairy Tail on Awul.

"Umm..." Gray chuckled a little and Natsu's excited look dropped a little.

* * *

 **2 Months Ago**

 **Somewhere in Southern Aebrith**

"Someone's coming towards the gates," a voice shouted over the loudspeakers. Everyone got ready to charge to battle stations, but they heard a sigh of relief coming over the speakers a few seconds later. "Friendly. Whoa, it's Cloud!"

A man with long spiky black hair was sitting down in the cafeteria, when he heard this announcement. He snapped up out of his seat fast, "Gajeel!" The girl who was sitting next to him with short blue hair called out.

The Iron Dragon Slayer marched away though, ignoring Levy's shouts. He had a snarl on his face and growled under his breath. The mage with piercings all over his face charged down a hallway, people moving out of his way as he stormed past.

Gajeel ran all the way down to the outside door, right as it was opening up. He stomped outside and saw two guards standing on the outside of the steels doors opening outwards. They were looking at Cloud who had bandages covering more than just his wide sword now. His shirt was missing, a few pieces of it wrapped around his upper right arm, and around both hands. They were soaked through with blood, though long dry.

"Where have you been?" One of the guards asked the spiky haired swordsman in front of him.

"It's been weeks," the other said.

Cloud opened his mouth, but before the battered twenty year old could speak, Gajeel was inches in front of his face. He wanted to lift up the young man by his shirt, but he was shirtless so he couldn't make such a threatening action at the moment. Instead he could just glare with cold eyes and growl out, "Where is Gray?"

As soon as Gajeel got out there, he was surprised by Cloud's appearance. He got over it quickest though, and looked around for the rest of Cloud's squad. Cloud didn't say a word, but he looked to his right with a look of regret on his face. "Where is he?!" Gajeel shouted.

"I don't know!" Cloud yelled back. Gajeel leaned back with widened eyes at the response. He expected some horrible news, but that was a strange answer. "One second he was there, the next he was gone, the shirt he was taking off was all that remained of him."

"That doesn't make any sense-" Gajeel began.

"Well I don't know," Cloud growled at the black haired man, making Gajeel lose the angry expression on his face. "At least he escaped, hopefully." Cloud shook his head, then started walking forward and stumbled past Gajeel. "He got away just in time too, we were ambushed. Completely surrounded."

Cloud just kept walking, talking out loud but not checking to see if Gajeel followed him back in. He hadn't talked about it for over two weeks, as he had been clawing his way back to base as best he could, on his own. "In front of us were Chimeras, damn Ants wouldn't let up. There were so many of them. Behind us were the Mutants, and they fucking brought _her_." Gajeel's eyes went wide at that, but Cloud shook his head, "And that's not even the worst part."

Cloud continued as he rubbed the side of his head. "Haha, Axel was actually doing decent against her for a little, but, but then this guy in a black appeared who Axel knew. The two of them started shouting at each other, and then Axel got beaten and pulled through one of those portals. I tried to get to him, but _she_ came up in front of me. I could feel my skin ripping off my body as she looked at me. God, what the fuck happened to us?"

"How did you escape?" Gajeel asked, and Cloud jumped a little, totally forgetting there was someone he was talking to. "Sounds like you were screwed," he commented, still wondering what could have happened to his ice mage friend who vanished.

"We were, but, one of the High Lords showed up. He rode in on a dragon," Cloud looked to Gajeel, "the guy from your world. Zeref." Gajeel froze in place, but Cloud turned and kept walking. "It looked like he was going to capture everyone..."

"They're alive?" Gajeel asked in surprise, expecting when Cloud returned on his own that most of his team was killed.

Cloud nodded his head, then hesitated, "Well, most of us. John," Cloud whispered, "well, that fucker didn't seem to think Rambo was worth bringing back with him. It, it looked quick," he continued softer.

The young Dragon Slayer talking to him snarled as he heard about Rambo's death. "Again, how did you escape?" Gajeel questioned.

"I, I got in a different fight away from everyone." He shook his head, clenching his chest that did not look injured to Gajeel, but it burst out screaming in pain for Cloud suddenly. "Just, I need to get some rest. I'll, I'll get some rest."

Gajeel shivered. He had never seen Cloud so shaken up. "Damn it," Gajeel punched his fist into the wall on his right. He did not even dent the white wall he hit, the base much too strong for a rage punch like that. "Gray, where the fuck are you?"

* * *

 **Present**

 **Midway Island**

"Levy, and... Gajeel," Gray answered Natsu. The ice mage expected to see a hear a groan from Natsu, but he just smiled with a few teeth sticking out over his bottom lip

"Huh," Natsu muttered, keeping the wide grin on his face. "Can't wait to go kick Gajeel's ass. Show him he's not even in the same league anymore," Natsu gripped his right bicep and started laughing. Gray stared at him for a few seconds, then joined in the laughter along with Natsu's long-time friend Ben.

Dash shrugged and just started laughing with the rest of them.

Meanwhile, Sora had gotten some of his food, and he smiled at the girl next to him after she got hers. "Well, I'll see you later Misty."

The younger girl with long red hair smiled at him and nodded. "Mm," she hummed positively.

Sora watched as she walked over towards some of her friends from the island, then turned himself and walked over towards a table. He looked around but didn't see Kairi anywhere, so he walked over to Riku's table and took a seat next to the older boy who had just turned nineteen.

The silver haired teen turned his head to Sora and kept his fork raised partly as he stared at him. A bead of sweat rolled down the left side of Riku's face, and then he frowned at his best friend. "What are you doing here?" Riku asked.

Sora took a bite out of his food, then smiled up at Riku. He tilted his head to the side at the sight of Riku's glare. "What?" He asked, rubbing his lips to make sure he didn't have some food on his face. "I'm just eating with you, what's wrong with that?"

Riku opened his mouth, then closed it, and he sighed deeply. _Looks like Sora's completely oblivious to Kairi's feelings from earlier._ The young man with long silver hair wearing a yellow t-shirt did not say anything though. He wondered if he should help out his best friends, as he had finally accepted the two of them being a couple. He still loved Kairi, but he loved Sora too, and the two people he cared about most wanted to be with each other, so he had nothing against it.

Riku opened his mouth, ready to give Sora a little speech, when Sora started speaking again. "Actually, since Kairi isn't here right now," Sora began, still oblivious to the reason the girl wasn't eating with them. "I need to ask you something Riku."

The older boy nodded his head, and then nodded again as Sora spoke to him. His eyes popped open huge, his jaw dropped, and he almost fell backwards off his chair. "So, what do you think?" Sora asked, smiling at his best friend.

"Uh," Riku mumbled. "I mean," he stammered and looked around, but no one else had heard what Sora just told him. "You know, I think you should go ask someone else. Nami, or Robin. Even Juvia," Riku stood up with his half-empty tray, and got away as fast as he could.

"Haa, ahhh," Sora opened his mouth to call after him, but then just sighed in exhaustion. The eighteen year old boy with spiky brown hair stood up himself. He looked around him, but still didn't see Kairi anywhere. "Wonder where she is?" He mumbled.

"Hey Riku," Ben called out as the older boy walked right past his table, Riku looked his way with a look of utter shock still on his face, surprising Ben who had no idea what could have caused that. "Well that's weird," the younger boy mumbled.

Sora got up from his seat and turned around, and almost jumped out of his shoes as he came face to face with a tall woman with long black hair. Robin was looking down at him, and Sora smiled up at her. "Hi Robin."

"Come here Sora-san," the woman told him. The two of them walked over to the edge of the house-line, just outside of the forest. All of the people who lived in these houses were at the beach for the feast, so no one could hear them as Robin started talking to the boy.

Nico Robin got a few sentences into her speech, when Sora's jaw dropped, and he started laughing. "Me and Misty? There's no way Kairi would have thought," he stopped talking as he remembered how Kairi was nowhere to be found. "Did she really look hurt?" Sora asked, his tone now hurting the woman who was telling him this. "But, but I was..."

Sora finished his sentence and Robin lowered her jaw. She stared at Sora as he continued speaking. "That's why I wanted to talk to you actually. I figured you would have a better idea on what to do for..." Robin listened to the boy, and a smile stretched across her face wider and wider as she watched him.

Riku sat on the edge of the Thousand Sunny, looking towards shore where Sora was making large hand gestures at the woman in front of him. "Just one surprise after another here isn't it," he mumbled to himself. He waited for a few seconds, "Quiet recently, huh?"

He waited, and waited, but no voice came to him from inside his head. "Whatever, stay quiet, I don't care," Riku muttered. It had gotten useful, as well as second nature to Riku, having another mind inside his head. This silence was pretty weird. _Ansem's a monster anyway. Usopp was right. Keeping slaves, murder, stealing my body, you really were a fucker weren't you?_

Riku really thought he would reply there, but nothing. He leaned back on the deck of the ship, sighing loudly at the silence. He closed his eyes, and a smile came to his face. _Good luck Sora._

* * *

Kairi sat on the opposite side of the island as the party. It took her a little while to get over here, and she was just sitting on the sand, her knees curled up to her chest. The girl with dark red hair watched the final sun set in the distance, leaving the sky a dark shade of darkening orange as it transitioned to black.

The girl had both arms wrapped around her legs, pulling them in towards herself. She was whimpering, having tried holding back the tears, but finding no reason to do so now that she was all alone for the first time in weeks.

"Kairi?" A voice she recognized very well questioned from behind her. She jumped up to her feet fast and spun to see her boyfriend standing there a little up the beach, just out of the tree line. "Are you okay?" He asked her.

"Y-yeah," she said, frowning as she stuttered her words, making it more noticeable that she was not okay. "I'm fine, okay? Just go back to the party, hang out with Misty. It's what you want to do right?"

Sora's eyes widened as Robin turned out to be right. "I don't like Misty!" He exclaimed.

"You were flirting with her all day!"

"I was being friendly," Sora replied. "And then, I hugged her because," he broke off, and now it was Kairi's turn to look hurt.

"I, I know," she whispered. "I know why you did, but, but that doesn't mean... God I'm such a bad person," Kairi took a step back, but Sora took two steps forward before they stopped again. "I'm sorry," she whispered, but he could hear the tears as she spoke.

"Kairi," he whispered, taking another step forward.

"Just, she's a redhead too right?!" Kairi yelled at him, her chest hurting as she said it. "I, don't want to-"

"Kairi," Sora said louder, taking another step towards her.

She trembled, her body urging to take another step back, but ignoring it as the boy stared straight into her eyes. "I, I, I didn't realize how much it, would hurt," Kairi whispered, while Sora closed the gap to ten feet between them. "I don't know what it is. I have never, felt something like this before."

Sora closed the gap to five feet, "Kairi."

"Stop saying my name Sora. I'm glad you came all he way out here for me, but I don't need any help." She looked away from his eyes, "Just, I wish you would leave me alone."

"Kairi," Sora whispered, directly in front of the girl now, only a foot away. She was looking down in front of her, but her eyes widened huge at the sight appearing on the ground. He was there, a serious look on his face as he lifted up his hands.

"What is this?" Kairi whispered, her face covering in sweat.

"Well, I," Sora began, kneeling in front of her with a smile on his face. He took a deep breath and ignored the sweat on his own face as he looked up at Kairi. "I don't ever want to be without you again. When I lost you, it was like a piece of me was missing. I had to spend years looking for you, and I traveled all over the multiverse doing so."

Sora shook his head as he knelt in front of Kairi. He had his right hand held up above him, so it was clenched in front of the girl's chest. Kairi was in a white skirt with a pink tee on, while Sora had on his usual black and red outfit. She looked down at him, and past the hand he had clenched in front of her. "I don't ever want you to think you are second to anyone ever again. But I've also been thinking about this for a long time. After we found Riku, and then again after Metropolis, I really wanted to ask... But I won't wait anymore."

Kairi had a small idea of what was going on. There were a few problems with it, like how Sora was down on both knees, or how he had a clenched fist in front of her. When he slowly unclenched his fist though, Kairi gasped at the sight of what was inside. "H-H-How did you-" she started, staring at the ring in his palm in awe.

"Kairi," he whispered. He looked up into her blue eyes, the sky dimming now that the suns were all past the horizon. Kairi's blue eyes looked back into Sora's as he whispered, "Will you marry me?"

The waves splashed down a line along the entire beach. They could hear forest noises behind them, but Kairi was quiet. "Yes," she said after a few seconds of holding a hand over her mouth. "Yes Sora, yes!"

Sora's mouth curled up into a huge smile and he jumped up on his feet. "You mean it? Yes?!"

"YES!" Kairi exclaimed, diving forward into Sora's arms. He spun around while holding her and the two of them spun and spun, laughing loudly as they did. Sora put her down and she closed the few inch gap to wrap both of her arms around the back of his neck, pulling him down to her face.

The two of them kissed, a very long and passionate kiss. They were on the dark side of the island, no torches lighting up this are like on the other. The two of them broke off in the darkness, panting heavily, with something hovering in the air between them as they looked into each other's eyes. Sora gulped as he saw the look on Kairi's face, but he knew he himself was feeling the same way.

"Oh, the ring!" He exclaimed and lifted it back up. "You asked how. I got Genie to come and help," Kairi leaned up and put her lips over Sora's again. He moaned and kissed her back, putting both arms around her back this time. After a few seconds, he moved his lips back a few inches, "And, I asked Robin what she thought you would like..." Kairi kissed him again, and Sora forgot all about the ring.

Sora pushed farther into the kiss, and Kairi moaned this time. He ran his hands up and down her back, and one found its way under her white tee, rubbing the skin beneath with his hand. She shivered at his touch on her, but smiled and continued the passionate kiss with her boyfriend.

The two in their late teens made out for a few minutes before Sora started lifting up the white t-shirt his girlfriend had on. Kairi pulled back from the kiss a little and stared into Sora's eyes. He stopped moving and stared back hesitantly, and then watched as Kairi reached down to the hem of her own shirt and lifted it up above her own head.

The two of them stared at each other for a few seconds, and then Sora closed the gap and put his strong right arm behind her back. The two of them lowered down to the sand as complete darkness fell over the island, not even a moon out tonight.

* * *

"So, who gets to stay in the inn, and who has to sleep on the ship?" Dash asked the orange haired woman between him and the other twelve year old boy on the shore.

Timmy looked up at Nami and said, "I think it should be a random picking. We'll choose lots out of a hat..."

"I'm going to pick," Nami said with a grin. "And you two can stay outside," Nami grinned at the younger boys who groaned. She looked around at the other people gathered around the beach, and picked out a few who could get rooms at the longhouse.

While she was looking around, her eyes stopped on a couple walking down from far down the beach. She looked closer, and would recognize those spikes in his hair anywhere. She watched as they came into the light, and Kairi had her hand interlocked with the boy next to her. The spiky haired boy and Kairi had smiles that stretched from ear to ear.

Nami walked over towards them, smiling herself as she did. "Would you two like a room in the cabin tonight?" She smirked deviously, "Get a little privacy," she offered.

Both Sora and Kairi looked like they'd seen a ghost. "You saw?!" Sora asked with wide-eyes, confusing Nami for a few seconds, before her own jaw lowered a little, wondering what these two were just doing.

"Nami," Kairi started, making the taller girl with orange hair look her way. Kairi smiled at her, and then lifted up her right hand.

Nami stared at the huge diamond on the ring and her first thought was about how much she could make off something like that. The next thing she thought was what she said out loud, "Oh my God." She looked at the girl, then to Sora, then back again. "Eeeeee," Nami exclaimed and wrapped both of them in a big hug, pulling them together.

"Haha," Sora chuckled and Nami finally released them.

Kairi smiled even more and turned to Sora, "Can we go tell more people?"

"Sure!" Sora replied excitedly.

The two of them ran off still hand in hand. Nami watched after them with a huge smile on her face as she did. _Those two are just amazing._

"So who already knows?" Kairi asked as they practically skipped towards a table of Fairy Tail wizards.

"Well, Robin," Sora said, "and probably Riku."

"Aww, I really wanted to see the look on his face," Kairi complained. Though she was groaning, she still looked so happy that it was difficult to imagine her actually being annoyed.

"Hey look Kairi's back," Gray pointed over at the two teenagers standing near the party. He saw Nami's gleeful look and got a little confused at what was going on. Sora and Kairi looked his way and they walked over towards the table that Gray and Juvia were sharing. "What's up you guys?" Gray asked, wondering why they approached and were just standing there.

"I get to say this time right?" Sora asked.

"Hmm, you let Robin _and_ Riku know, and I only got Nami soooo..." Kairi blinked her eyes at him hopefully and Sora sighed.

"Alright alright," he accepted. "Go ahead," he said.

"Thank you," she said, leaning up and kissing him on the cheek. The auburn haired girl looked back at the two confused mages sitting there. "We're getting married," she said, lifting up her hand and showing her ring off.

Gray's mouth dropped and Juvia shot up out of her seat. "You're getting WHAT?!" She exclaimed at the top of her lungs.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and spun to look over towards the source of the voice. Sora scratched the back of his head sheepishly and Kairi blushed at all the attention, but she just held up her hand and showed off the ring to everyone looking over at her now. At first most people just stared in shock, and then all at once the beach erupted with noise.

"What?!"

"No way!"

"Go Sora!"

"I don't get it," Goku began as he looked at Kairi's ring. "What is that?"

Robin turned to the man next to her and said in a confused voice, "Did you not get your wife a wedding ring?"

"Wedding ring?" Goku mumbled. He scratched his chin and then shrugged, "I don't know what that is."

Robin chuckled, "You are a strange one, even for your world I presume."

"Hehe, guess I've heard that one before," Goku admitted while rubbing the back of his head and smiling wide.

Kirito walked over to Sora and Kairi and he smiled at the two of them. They were the first people he became friends with after Goku brought him back to Pao, and some of his closest friends on the ship. "Congratulations," he told them.

"Thanks Kirito," Sora replied.

"This is great you two," Misty exclaimed. She came running over with a few others behind her from the island. Sora nervously glanced at Kairi but she was smiling and looked like she did not care at all about what she was talking about before. "I'm so happy for you Sora," Misty told her new friend.

"Thanks Misty, I'm pretty happy myself," Sora said back to her.

The soon-to-be-married teens looked in at each other and smiled from ear to ear. Everyone was cheering, laughing, and partying around them. At the island of Midway, things were starting to look up for the heroes heading to Aebrith. They all had confidence in their own abilities, faith in their friends, and hope that things would continue to stay this good forever. Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever. The crew heading to Aebrith would one day return on their journey home, but not all of them would make that return voyage.

* * *

 **A/N Oooh, an emotional roller coaster this chapter huh? Bringing up Ash, then Rin reuniting with his cat Kuro, and Kairi getting hurt when she thinks Sora likes another girl, the two of them getting engaged, and then that final line... Not everyone's making it back this time... XD anyway- hope you liked the chapter! Finally we get another glimpse at Aebrith for the first time since Nexus chapter 6 when we saw Gray's team getting ambushed by an army of Chimera Ants. Gajeel and Levy are there! And according to Cloud, most of Gray's team is still alive, (sorry Rambo), but that team has been captured by the enemy. What is happening to Gon, Axel, Black Star, and the others? How much longer will it take our heroes to make it to Aebrith? What other dangers and adventures await the crew on their long voyage across the Great Ocean? Find out next chapter on NEXUS: Heroes Will Rise!**

Espada-001 chapter 6 . Jan 5

Well my first guess is that a kishin is just wandering a bit to close for comfort and started making everyone lose their shit. Other than that glad to see Gray and Juvia finally take it to the next level so good for them. And for crying out loud Sora up your relationship the woman needs you bad! lol ;) Any way all I can say is job well done although I can still never see Sanji getting violent with a woman, the reason for that was that at one point in one of the One Piece games he was consumed in darkness and forced to attack his allies and even then his morals wouldn't allow him to even touch Robin. Although I'm drawing that information from a game so I'll understand if you don't really take that into consideration for your story. Also I have no real evidence for this and these are personal thoughts but I think that Luffy should've had a stronger resistance to mental illnesses/attacks givens that conqueror haki revalves around mental fortitude and two years ago he was strong enough to knock out 50,000 enemies with mental might alone. Anyway, now for the listing on strongest to weakest...

 **So the sickness really was just the crew getting sick, no higher poower or anything which is why I put in Ansem talking about the medicine and how even Gohan was able to make his own. Plus, I think a kishin would affect the Saiyans' minds too. Sora definitely upped the relationship this chapter XD! Sanji hitting a woman, the sickness is rough ya feel? Lol, if Kairi a Princess of Heart was about to cheat on Sora, and Timmy almost killed all his friends, I think Sanji and Luffy going a little nanners too isn't too hard to believe. Also, I liked your rankings, not gonna say much except I think Ben is higher (which you touched on anyway, I just think that him with almost any of his aliens could beat Usopp/Nami) Also, def wondering about how Usopp got higher than Robin on that list, but besides that I thought it was great, and about Ben's watch- I'm not gonna put every Pokemon or beast in it, mainly because he seemed to only get the DNA of intelligent life from other planets. Like, he couldn't just turn into a dog or a cat from a different planet, he turned into their most human-ish species, or a species that was smartest or something. Anyway, thanks again for the review!**

joebob323 chapter 6 . 3h ago

This chapter was quite something! Though the lack of Rin or dash or even Kirito talking at the end is a bit suspicious to me, either their unconscious, or Goku forgot to bring them in. If so, they have a wild half demon, a gamer, and a speedster on their handsXD! Again, great job!

 **Thanks! The lack of those three talking was mainly just because writing out lines for all 19 of them just for the purpose of mentioning that they were there gets tedious. There are some chapters where a few characters are not all that important, or even just certain scenes where they're there, but they're not really pertinent to what's happening. Rin's not as close of friends to the rest of them so he did not have much to say, same with Kirito, and maybe Dash was just in too much pain. No hidden conspiracies here, XD. Anyway, thanks again for the review. Well, 'till next time!**


	8. Nexus HWR 2-0 Sora and Kirito

**Nexus HWR 2.0 Sora and Kirito:**

Sora snapped up on his hammock, panting and sweating all over. "Ah haa ahh haa," he breathed in and out a few times before looking around him. _Damn, what a crazy dream._

He lay back down in the dark room, but there were too many snoring figures around him, and his bad dream was still on his mind. After a few minutes of rocking back and forth with the waves while on his hammock, he sighed and hopped off. He landed lightly on the floor, and treaded softly to the door leading up to the top deck. The eighteen year old would rather not wake up his friends all around him.

He tiptoed past a hammock with a teen around his age lying on it, with a black cat nuzzled up on his chest. He crept past Rin's bed, and finally made it to the stairs without causing a lot of noise.

Sora stepped out on the top deck and closed the door behind him. He looked around at the empty deck of the Thousand Sunny, anchored in the middle of the Great Ocean. He glanced up top to the crow's nest, and could faintly make out the form of Usopp who had watch for the night. He thought about going up there to keep the long nosed man company, but he was not really in the mood to hear one of Usopp's tall tales which he knew would come out of their conversing. _Maybe later,_ he thought, and turned, walking around the outside of the kitchen towards the stern of the ship.

When he got back there, he stopped and adopted a surprised look as he was not the only other person awake besides the current watch. There was a boy in a black cloak looking out over the back of the ship, staring over the open ocean. "Sup?" Sora asked, walking over to the edge where Kirito was standing.

Kirito was so focused that he did not notice the other eighteen year old's presence until he was right there. He got startled and jumped a little, but calmed down instantly as he did recognize the voice of the person walking towards him. "Sora," he greeted softly. Sora walked right up next to him and put his elbows down on the back railing, looking out over the open sea as well. Kirito smiled a little as he looked back out there as well, "How's the married life?" he asked.

Sora chuckled a little, "Not married yet."

"Alright, how's being engaged?" Kirito corrected himself, still smiling softly as they looked over the ocean together.

The spikier haired teen smiled too. "It's great. I bet when we do get married everything is even better."

"It is," Kirito replied in a quiet voice.

At this, Sora became pretty surprised and he turned his head to the black haired boy next to him. "You're married?"

Kirito's smile faded, turning into a frown as he looked out behind the ship. "I was," he replied, emphasizing the past tense. "She died," he stated bluntly, expecting the conversation to end there as he tried making the situation awkward.

"What was her name?" Sora asked, not getting the hint at all.

Kirito sighed. "Her name was Asuna," he stated.

"What was she like?" Sora asked.

With that one question, Kirito's mind flooded with images. He always tried to forget about her, to leave her out of his mind. He didn't tell Liz what happened because he did not want the girl to cry, but also because bringing it up reminded him of the good times too much. This was a harsh world, and if he wanted to live he couldn't get caught up in the past. Thinking of her face again though, watching her cook, yell at him, fight next to him, it made the smile reappear on his face.

"She was strong. More beautiful than any girl I've ever met. Kind. She was a born leader..." Kirito listed off everything he loved about her, and Sora just smiled as he listened along with the other teen. The two of them had not spent much time together since Metropolis considering Kirito ran off a few days after the battle. A lot had happened since that time, but this was truly the first real one on one conversation they'd had with each other.

"She sounds amazing," Sora stated.

This time, Kirito didn't even frown, he just nodded still with the soft smile, "Yeah, she was."

Sora stood there for a few seconds longer, staring out over the water in silence. His dream came back to him and his smile wavered for a second, but he kept it on his face as he whispered, "I ever tell you what world I'm from?"

Kirito turned towards him a little, and shook his head 'no.' He knew that Sora, Riku, and Kairi were all from the same universe, but he never asked, and never really cared to know. They didn't speak much on where they came from, even when the others brought up their old worlds in conversations.

The slightly older boy with brown spiky hair continued to look out over the waves as he spoke. "I came from a place called Destiny Islands. There was the larger one, where all the people lived, and then there was the Children's Island. Me and my friends were in-charge there, running around doing whatever we wanted."

This was not sounding like a normal Earth to Kirito. Then again, he did not expect any of the people on the ship with him to have come from a similar Earth as his own. His world was the norm for people he met in Metropolis: calm, logical, and many with similar histories. This boy seemed to come from somewhere stranger, though, it did not sound as crazy as he thought it would considering the boy's powers. Then again, his own powers were all developed on this planet, so he knew not to judge just by looking.

"...We would fight with wooden swords, have races around the island..." Sora faded off and continued with a nostalgic look in his eyes. "Then one day Kairi came to our island. No one knew where she came from, but me and Riku went and made friends with her. Since no one had ever come from outside of our islands before, we realized at that moment that there had to be other worlds out there." Kirito raised his eyebrows at the terminology Sora used. 'Worlds' instead of other places or islands, and when Sora continued with his story, he found out why.

"So we built a raft," Sora said. "We were going to set sail, just the three of us. Whatever we found, whatever world we landed on, it was going to be together." His smile lowered a little, not fully into a frown, but a somewhat sadder smile. "It didn't happen that way though. Though, it still was a fun journey, and if not for what happened, I would not have been to so many worlds, you call them 'universes.'"

"You went to other universes?" Kirito asked with growing eyes.

Sora paused, but then nodded his head. _Sorry Donald, sorry King Mickey, but I don't think the already screwed-up balance of this world can be upset by anything I say._ "When I first got here, and heard other people talking about travel between worlds, it sounded a lot different from what I did. See, some people knew about space travel in their worlds. They treated it like a common thing, but everywhere they went, the, physics, of the universe remained the same."

Kirito nodded his head, wondering what Sora could mean by that, but staying quiet as he was far too interested to interrupt. "See, I've been to worlds where I could fly, just by believing in fairies. There was a world full of the living dead. I climbed up floating castles, and traversed between different worlds in minutes. But, I never got to do any of that with Riku or Kairi. This, is the first real adventure we're having, all three of us together." Sora stared up at the sky, a smile coming to his face, "But all those adventures I went on, I wasn't alone. Donald and Goofy were with me from the start."

With that, Sora stayed quiet and just stared up into the stars for over a minute. Finally, Kirito couldn't take all the questions he had on his tongue and asked, "Why weren't you three together?" Sora looked back down at him, and turned to lean his back on the railing. "I mean, did you set sail on your raft?"

"Haha," Sora chuckled as he thought about the raft. _It really wouldn't have gotten us very far,_ he thought, now that he knew how hard travel between worlds really was. "No," he whispered. "The night before we were going to set sail," his voice grew quieter and his mouth lowered back into that sad smile he had on from before. "Our world got swallowed up by the darkness." Kirito felt chills shoot up his body as Sora spoke those words. Much of what he had said up to this point had been pretty normal; kids wanted to go have an adventure, go explore away from home, but this, this was new. Sora continued in his low voice, "A man appeared, he showed up right before the Heartless. He said our world was about to be eclipsed. I didn't know what he meant at the time," Sora whispered, his mind flashing back to that final day on Destiny Islands. "But, when the world was sucked into the dark void. When Riku sank into the darkness, and Kairi fell right through my arms. When the entire planet around me was sucked up into the sky, ripped to pieces before my eyes, I understood what he meant."

Kirito watched as Sora continued to look forward, with the same small smile on his face that made it impossible to tell what he was really thinking. The fact that he could keep a smile on, even after talking about all that dark stuff, it was confusing to the other teenager.

Sora could see the conflicted look on Kirito's face out the corner of his eyes, and he turned to the other boy who was looking at him. "What is it?" he asked.

"Well," Kirito began, then stopped himself.

"It's fine, really," Sora said, seeing that Kirito was holding back. "We're nakama right? Friends. Comrades. If you want to ask me something-"

"How are you so happy?" Kirito asked, his voice actually laced with a little bit of anger. "I mean," he softened a little, but still had a harsh look on his face. "Doesn't it hurt, thinking about all those dark things? All of the people you lost?"

Sora shook his head. "I saved everyone from the darkness," he stated. Kirito looked surprised at what Sora said, but Sora lifted up his right hand and a yellow hilt appeared in it, with a long silver blade extending from it and a key at the end. "This was the Key, and using it I stopped Xehanort's Heartless, the one who went by the name 'Ansem.' I fixed the balance of the worlds, saved my home, and rescued Kairi. She went back home, but I couldn't follow her." Sora looked down towards the cabin below, "See, Riku had to stay behind in the darkness, along with the King. So, I went on another journey with Donald and Goofy..."

Kirito stood there and watched as Sora went over his journey. The boy with brown hair talked and talked, about losing his memories, about skipping a year of his life and not remembering any of it. He talked about new enemies, and an organization of them. "Organization 13?" Kirito questioned as Sora seemed to glance over them.

"A group of Nobodies," Sora replied, then saw that Kirito took it the wrong way and laughed. "I don't mean they were like losers or anything," he explained. "When someone with a strong heart loses it to the Heartless, their body reforms. These bodies without hearts are called Nobodies, and the ones who keep their bodies rule over all the lesser ones of people lost to the darkness whose hearts weren't strong enough. My Nobody kept his form," Sora continued, putting a hand up to his heart, remembering the feeling when he lost it.

"You fell to the Heartless?" Kirito asked.

"No," Sora replied. "I found out that Kairi's heart was inside my own. From the very beginning of our journey, she had her heart trapped somewhere. When I learned that I was the one who had it there was only one thing to do." The boy smiled wide as he remembered the moment, when he saw her eyes open, right before he himself vanished. "I opened up my heart, and," Sora faded off, now thinking of turning into a Heartless, and everything that had happened because of that moment. "And that's what made my Nobody," he just stated, not going that far into it.

He quickly changed the conversation from the deep stuff, and just talked about some of the fun worlds he'd been to. "One world the animals ruled over, so as soon as I got there Donald transformed me into a lion. In another I became a merman," Kirito chuckled at the other boy's amazing stories, but then his laughs caught in his throat at Sora's next one. "I was even put inside a computer program."

"Wait, what?" Kirito asked.

Sora turned to him with a smile, but saw the other boy's intense look and continued a little confusedly. "I got turned into coding, and sent inside a computer. I made a friend with one of the programs, his name is Tron. When we finally defeated the evil Master Control, we had to leave." Sora looked genuinely sad for the first time since he started speaking, but then smiled again quickly after. "But, Tron had to stay behind. He said he was sorry to say goodbye, we hugged, and then, he left." Sora shook his head, "For a little, I thought he might be gone for good, but when we got back to the User world, we heard him speak to us through the computer."

Kirito just nodded his head, thinking about someone he left behind in the computer world too. _Yui,_ he thought, his adopted daughter who turned out to be an AI inside the system coming to his mind.

"Why did you seem so interested?" Sora asked, making Kirito turn to him. "That I got sent inside a computer. You seemed like it was the strangest thing out of everything I've told you. Haha."

"No, it's not that," Kirito muttered. He thought for a second, but Sora was telling him all about himself, and he was pretty much staying quiet. There was no reason for him to keep secrets to this teen, who he was pretty sure was his closest friend. "It's just, on my world, we had virtual reality. You weren't actually put inside the game, physically, but your mind was put into the system, and you could interact with people all over the world."

"That sounds cool," Sora exclaimed.

"It should have been," Kirito replied, making Sora lose the wide smile he gained from the tone in Kirito's voice. "But the first game that came out for VR, Sword Art Online, I was one of the ten thousand people who entered the virtual game. Once we went in however, there was no logging out." Kirito's voice became dark and Sora listened closely as Kirito told his story. "...Kayaba trapped us in the game. He installed microwaves into the devices that allowed us to go into the virtual world, and if someone tried to take us out forcefully, the chips would fry our brains. If we died in the game, the chip would fry our brains. The only way out, was to beat the game."

"Did you beat it?" Sora asked.

Kirito closed his eyes, then nodded. "Yeah," he muttered.

"Wow, so you saved ten thousand people huh?" Sora smiled, having expected this teen had done great things too. When he finished his amazed question though, he instantly regretted asking.

After a few seconds of a dark look on Kirito's face, he muttered, "No, by the time I won, it had been two years." Sora's eyes opened wide. Kirito continued, "Almost four thousand people had died in the game, and died in the real world too."

Sora nodded his head, but put a small smile back on it and leaned back on the railing, still smiling. Kirito looked at him darkly and asked in a harsh tone, "Why are you smiling?"

"Well, you still saved so many," Sora replied. "There are thousands of people, no tens of thousands who you helped. All of those people, and all their families, they're all indebted to you."

"But I couldn't save so many," Kirito growled. "Two thousand people died in the first month, and we hadn't even cleared the first floor of the game. My entire guild died in front of my eyes." He was spouting out everything like never before, but in such an angry, guilty tone. "Your stories all sound like fun and games. You talk about the end of all the universes like it was a game. You smiled when you talked about losing your friends. You can't understand what it's like to watch people actually _die_ in front of you. How could you?"

Sora stayed quiet, not once losing the small smile on his face that Kirito desperately wanted to smack off of him. After a little while, Sora turned to look at the back of the kitchen cabin, though Kirito could see the corner of his lips still curved up. "I don't think you understand what it means to lose your heart to the Heartless." Sora thought back to Traverse Town, back when he first got his Keyblade, when he was too weak to save people. "The fear as the Heartless chase you down, as they steal your heart. They don't even let you die, turning you into a Heartless too, so as to increase their numbers. I had to release those hearts, by destroying the Heartless." Sora whispered quieter, "So every time I was killing a Heartless, I was ending someone's life. I know this because I was a Heartless for a small amount of time. I kept more control than most people, but I think those people are all still conscious inside the Heartless."

The boy getting mad at him lost the harsh gaze, but still shook his head, not thinking Sora understood what he was feeling. "But, I also saw people die," Sora stated. "I saw a pack of hyenas rip through animals on the world where animals were as intelligent as people. In Agrabah I saw people screaming as Jafar's Heartless chased them down. In The Land of Dragons, I fought alongside Mulan and Mushu, and a lot of people died as the Huns tried to take over China..."

"What?" Kirito asked in a deadpan voice. Sora tilted his head at the boy, wondering why he was stopping him during such an emotional speech. "You, you've been to China?"

Sora nodded his head, "Yeah, was there a China on your world?" Kirito nodded at him and Sora smiled, "Did it have an emperor?"

Kirito opened his mouth and hesitated, then said slowly, "It did once. That was long in the past though from when I come from." _He fought the Huns? What the…_

"Hmm," Sora mumbled. "Well, yeah, I joined the Chinese army. We fought the Huns, and the Heartless that came with them." Sora faded off a little. "It was sad," he whispered, losing his smile as he thought about something. "When we fought the Nobodies," he continued. "They were causing so much damage, but, all they really wanted, was to get their hearts back. Every time I ended one, I tried to remind myself that they didn't have a heart. But each time the died, they cried about their hearts, how all they wanted was to feel whole. I had to fight them. I was the only one who could save everyone a second time, but then Axel saved me. Axel didn't have a heart, he was a Nobody just like the rest of them, but, but he sacrificed himself to help me, Donald, and Goofy. As he faded away, he talked about his best friend. How could a Nobody have friends, if they didn't have hearts?" Sora shook his head, grabbing his own chest as he talked about it.

He and Kirito stayed quiet for a while after that. Sora knew about Kirito's guild dying, his wife, the game where he was trapped for two years. And Kirito knew about different worlds, the wars against the Heartless, and the Nobodies. It was a lot of information for him to process all at once, but after about ten minutes, Kirito whispered, "Who are Donald and Goofy?"

Sora had brought them up a lot, in most of his stories about different worlds, the two of them were by his side the whole time. This question made Sora smile wide and look out towards the bow, almost as if his eyes were looking through the cabin in front of them, past the water, and to the continent ahead. "They're friends of mine. As close as Riku and Kairi." Kirito was surprised as the three of them were closer than most people he'd ever met. "Donald Duck, and Goofy, a great magician and strong knight. They grew more powerful with me through our journeys, Donald's magic getting even stronger than mine, while Goofy got stronger than me with physical attacks..."

Kirito expected Sora was probably being humble as he lifted up his friends' reputations. He continued to listen though as the boy the same age went on about the duck and dog who became his closest friends. "...I still haven't seen them here yet. I'm hoping to find them on Aebrith. I know they'll be surprised to hear I proposed to Kairi," he laughed imagining the shocked looks on Donald and Goofy's faces. He looked back at Kirito and smiled, "So Kirito, how did you get to be so strong? It sounds like your real world turned out to be just a regular old Earth."

"It was," Kirito replied. "I had a lot of teachers since I got to this world. Naruto, Marco, even Sting tried helping me out with magic a little, though he was pretty bad at it. I had some others before I joined an Underworld base, and learned some things from Akuma who I was convinced was the strongest martial artist in the world. That was when I met Goku. He's also given me some help, though he's kind of against being a teacher."

"Yeah, I can't really imagine Goku teaching," Sora said, and both of the teens started to laugh.

"So Sora," Kirito began, his smile lowering a little. The two of them had gotten closer in this conversation, and Kirito decided to ask something that had been on his mind for almost two months now. "What was that, in Lelouch's base?" Sora's smile lowered a little, but he managed to keep the corners of his lips up, still stunning Kirito who could not see how he did that.

Sora knew exactly what he was referring to, and he sighed. "You know when I said I was turned into a Heartless?" Sora asked, making Kirito nod. "Well, not many people are able to come back from that. My heart was strong enough though, that with Kairi's help, I was able to come back. A piece of me was still in the darkness though, but I buried it deep down inside, because Donald and Goofy told me I could only travel with them if I was smiling. See, our ship ran on happy faces," Sora turned and smiled wide, showing all of his teeth in a ridiculous smile that had Kirito cracking up. "So no matter what happened, I liked to keep smiling. It wasn't hard keeping down the darkness like that, and I didn't even notice I had it until it seeped out occasionally when I tried to use Drive Form."

The taller boy because of his brown spiky hair reached up his hand again and rubbed the center of his chest with it. "In Anti-Form, I was still able to perceive friends from enemies, but, I couldn't speak, it was like I was a Heartless all over again." He paused for a long time, then continued, "And long after I got here, about six months ago," he could not keep the smile on his face any longer, a look of fear, regret, and anger mixing on his face now. "These men came up to me and Kairi. Their leader, Rider, he tortured me for hours, telling me that if I fought back he would kill Kairi who had a gun to her head. He cut piece after piece of me away, put a knife through my eye, all while forcing Kairi to watch and do nothing."

Kirito was silent, unable to say a word as Sora spoke. He had actually stopped breathing without realizing it and sweat was coming out of his pores. The other boy continued with a snarl on his face, "But I didn't get that mad at them. I managed, to hold out... But, when he realized I wasn't going to tell him what he wanted to know, which I didn't know in the first place, he turned to Kairi." Sora's eyes darkened, "He told his men they, he let them go at her. They weren't men anymore, not as they tore off her clothes, as she screamed for my help."

The black haired teen said nothing, because he was in shock that such a thing happened to the perfect couple on the ship who were now engaged, because even after something so horrible, the two of them showed no signs of it happening only months before. Sora continued, "That's when it happened for the first time. I didn't let _it_ happen. I killed _all_ of them." Sora finally remembered who he was talking to and smiled, putting an arm behind his head and scratching his spiky hair. "Umm, well, that's how it happened," he finished, chuckling forcefully. He had no right to talk about how bad that was, especially to this teen who told him some sad things himself just a few minutes before.

"I'm sorry," Kirito whispered.

"It's fine, really," Sora waved both hands in front of him. "Haha, it's all in the past now. Let's look towards the future! Maybe those friends of yours you lost inside your virtual reality world will show up here somewhere."

Kirito smiled too, "You're right." Sora tilted his head at him, and Kirito explained, "During the battle for Metropolis, and after that, I found a bunch of my friends. My whole guild who died in SAO were back. They came back to life."

"That's amazing," Sora told him. "You know, despite how horrible this world can be sometimes, it really is amazing."

"Yeah," Kirito mumbled, a nagging doubt in the back of his mind arising. _It's almost as if this world isn't real. Like virtual reality. As if you were trapped inside and had no idea how to escape..._ Kirito stared ahead with a faraway look in his eyes for several seconds, before shaking his head and getting back to his senses. _No, of course this is all real. This is my life now. I can't become like Lelouch, thinking that nothing around me is real except for me. No matter how much I wish it sometimes._

Sora yawned as he stood next to Kirito, and then thought back to why he was out here in the first place. He started laughing and the black haired boy next to him looked his way. Sora saw the other teen look at him and he said, "Sorry, it's just, I forgot all about my nightmare that kept me up. Thanks Kirito. I'm going to go get some more sleep before breakfast."

Kirito looked at the boy smiling back at him, and his own mouth curled up into a smile as well. "You know what? Me too," Kirito said, and the two of them walked back to the cabin to get some more sleep.

Little did they know, they were going to need that sleep a lot. Later that day, the two of them would be fighting back to back, struggling to survive.

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed the chapter! A lot of talk between Sora and Kirito, some nightmares and fears revealed as well. As the Thousand Sunny continues east towards Aebrith, the crew of the Thousand Sunny is gradually getting closer together. What kind of battles will be happening later in this day? Find out in the following few chapters of Nexus: Heroes Will Rise!**


	9. Nexus HWR 2-1 Under The Sea

**Nexus HWR 2.1 Under the Sea:**

"Where are you going?" Natsu yelled after the black haired teen walking away from him.

"Let him go Natsu," Gray muttered at the pink haired Dragon Slayer. Natsu was making to chase after Kirito, but the ice wizard wasn't going to bother. "So he doesn't want to fight you. There's a dozen other people on this boat who will."

"But I want to fight him," Natsu replied with a glint in his eyes. He looked back at Gray with a grin, "Don't you? Or are you too scared?"

This got Gray's attention. A tick mark formed on the left side of his forehead and he growled at his friend. "You wanna go?" Gray already grabbed the bottom of his shirt and started lifting it up.

"Keep your shirt on!" Natsu yelled at him, "Weirdo!"

Gray's face flushed with anger and embarrassment. He let go of his shirt and slammed his forehead into Natsu's with a pissed off expression on his face. They started pulling their fists back with their heads pressed against each other. Neither of them noticed the looming shadow getting larger over their bodies, until it was too late.

CRASH! Both Gray and Natsu slammed down into the grassy deck face-first. Nami stood over their twitching bodies with both fists punched down in front of her. "No more fighting on the ship!" She yelled at the boys. "Sooner or later you're really going to break the ship! How many times do I have to say it to get it through your thick skulls?!" Her knuckles were red showing how hard she bashed the moaning Fairy Tail wizards under her.

Gray lifted his head from the new hole on the deck and growled up at the orange haired navigator, "You're the only one breaking the ship." Her eyes turned red and her teeth razor sharp as she shot another look his way. Gray scooted back on the ground with his hands up defensively in front of him, "Nevermind. Do whatever you want."

Natsu laughed as he lifted his own head from the deck, (with a noticeable red bump sticking out of his hair). "Ha! You're afraid of-" his voice caught in his throat as the shadow loomed over him again. He gulped and looked back, and he could've sworn for a second that it was Erza glaring down at him. "Uhh, yeah Gray's right. We're good!" The Dragon Slayer smiled wide and scooted back next to the ice wizard.

Nami glared at them for a few seconds longer, then her scary expression relaxed and she let out a deep breath. She turned and walked away without another word, but when she got inside the cabin, she turned to the amazed blue haired girl standing there who had been looking out the window. "And that's how you do it."

Juvia clapped her hands together many times showing how impressed she was. "That was amazing Nami! Juvia wishes she was able to make them stop fighting as well as Erza and Nami." The younger woman bowed her head a little with a depressed look on her face. As she did, a literal rain cloud formed over her head and started raining down on her.

Despite Nami having traveled with Juvia for a good part of a year, she could never get over her friend's strange water powers, especially when it came to her emotions. "Don't worry," Nami assured her friend, reaching a hand under the cloud and placing it on Juvia's shoulder, "I'm sure you'll get just as good at stopping them now."

The girl with wet blue hair looked up at Nami and the cloud cleared above her. "Nami!" Juvia yelled, diving forward and hugging her pirate friend. "Juvia has missed you!"

Nami didn't care that she was getting wet from Juvia's hug, she missed her friend too. She hugged the magician girl back, "Hopefully this time we can travel together for much longer."

"Juvia hopes so too," the teen whispered back into Nami's ear.

Back outside the cabin, Natsu was back to walking around the ship, bored out of his mind on the ship. _At least I'm not seasick. Thank you Wendy. Anyway, if Kirito doesn't want to fight, then maybe… wait a second._ Natsu stopped walking and looked around. From where he was out on the deck, he could see half of the Straw Hats, Goku, Ben, the kid with spiky white hair, Dash, but he didn't see any of the Keyblade wielders. Usopp was walking past him and he turned to the long nosed man, "Hey, you seen Sora and the others around?"

Usopp shook his head at the pink haired wizard. "They took off this morning, said they were going on an adventure."

"Ehh?" Natsu exclaimed.

The pirate sharpshooter shrugged, "Guess they got bored being on the ship all day."

"I get bored too!" Natsu shouted. "Why didn't they take me along?"

"Do you want to come?" A familiar voice called up to him.

A lot of people on the deck heard the voice, but it wasn't coming from on the ship. They ran over to the side and looked off down at the water. "No way," Ben shouted as he looked down at the surface of the water.

"What's going on?" Gray asked as he walked over too. The ice wizard stumbled backwards after peering off the edge. "Whoa, how-" he walked back forward and stared down at the three figures at the surface of the ocean.

"Awesome!" Natsu shouted.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Riku called to the deck of the ship from down below. He leapt out of the water and did a flip in front of the onlookers at the side of the deck. They all gawked at his lower body which no longer consisted of legs, but instead a long green slender tail with a dorsal fin sticking out of his back. Riku slapped his tail in the air and splashed water on them before falling back to the water. The pink and blue tailed mermaid teens down below started jumping around as well.

"Sora! Kairi! Riku!" Ben Tennyson shouted. He'd been wondering where his friends were all morning, but he didn't expect this. "You're mermaids!"

"Actually," Sora called up, the boy with spiky brown hair smirking at the younger kid, "me and Riku are 'mermen.' Kairi's a mermaid."

"Cool!" Dash shouted, leaning further off the deck. "How did you do that?!"

Sora chuckled and dove under for a second, before zipping out of the water again with his Keyblade in hand. As he soared up in the air, light shone from the tip of the weapon and his body engulfed with white light for a few seconds. When he came back down, his legs were back as well as all of his clothes which had disappeared upon his initial transformation.

"Magic," Sora finally answered the group of people he landed in front of. "It's pretty high-level stuff," he added boastfully.

"Yeah right," his best friend called up from the water. The silver haired nineteen year old ignored Kairi's giggle next to him. _Just 'cause I can't do it doesn't make it "high-level" magic._ _ **"I would gladly show you how to transform if it would shut that boy up for a minute."**_ _Really? Alright, but later when no one's around._ Riku was getting more and more used to having another person he shared his mind with, almost to the point that it didn't aggravate him every time the man spoke.

On the deck of the Thousand Sunny, Sora was explaining the magic he used. "...and then you can breathe underwater! I wish Donald was here, he would have explained it much better."

"Who's Donald?" Dash asked the older boy.

"Donald is, one of my very good friends," Sora replied, looking up in the sky. "I hope he came to this world. If he didn't, I bet he and Goofy are searching all over for us."

"The King too!" Riku called up from the ocean again.

"Yeah, and King Mickey!" Sora shouted. He looked around at the group in front of him, "Oh yeah, Donald is the best magician I know, but I'm pretty good too. Any of you want to try?"

"Try?" Usopp asked curiously, his eyes getting wider.

"Yeah, why not?" Sora replied. "We just came back because we were going to grab some lunch. There are actually some cool people living down at the bottom of the ocean. So when we go back down, if any of you want to come-"

"YES!" Ben, Dash, Usopp, and Natsu all exclaimed at the same time. All four of them were excited to try. Usopp was mainly thinking of how great a story it would be someday in the future.

Kairi and Riku finally climbed up on the ship as well, and almost as soon as they did, the whole group heard Sanji call for them from the kitchen. "Lunch is ready," the blond man shouted. Inside the ship, the chef prepared yet another feast and braced himself for the stampede of monsters about to come in to get it.

The crew went into the cabin and Sora went back over everything he just said on the side of the ship to the other crew members. Sanji's eyes went wide and turned into hearts as he started shouting about seeing some mermaids again.

"Undersea huh?" Luffy asked through a mouthful of fish. "I wonder if Jimbei is there."

"Who's Jimbei?" Dash asked the pirate sitting across the table from him.

Luffy smiled as did his other original crew members. Nami spoke up for the captain as he took another bite, "He's our friend from back on our world. He's a fishman, a very strong one."

"So do you guys want to go?" Sora asked, looking around at everyone.

"I think I'll stay on the ship," Franky announced. "I'm in the middle of a project."

"What type of project?" Ben asked, leaning in with an excited look towards the awesome robot.

The cyborg chuckled and lifted up a huge metal arm, putting one of his thick steel fingers up to his mouth. "It's a secret," he said, winking at the boys of the crew who all went starry-eyed imagining a new cool weapon the shipwright could have made.

"Well I'm in!" Natsu shouted.

"Idiot," Gray muttered, making Natsu glare at him. "Wonder how good your fire powers will be underwater?" the ice mage asked, smirking over at Natsu who started sweating. "Better not piss me off down there, or I'll freeze you for good."

"Juvia will not let you," the girl stated firmly, surprising the two wizards next to her. They looked in and then cowered as the girl glared down at them with sharp teeth and red eyes. "You will be friendly and nice the whole time!"

The two of them started mumbling and turned away from each other. Juvia smiled wide and looked across the table to see Nami nodding at her with the proud look of a teacher.

"It sounds like fun!" the man at the end of the table said, and they all looked over to see Goku standing up and stretching his arms over his head. "I can't wait to try some Atlantian cuisine."

"Atlantian?" Kirito asked, a skeptical look on the teen's face.

"Yep," Goku replied. "I haven't been there, but Gohan said Atlantis has some great cooking."

"Wait, there's really an Atlantis?" Ben asked, also confused. "I thought that was a myth."

"Maybe on your world," Kairi told the younger boy. "But Nexus probably had a lot of worlds where there were underwater kingdoms."

"I just hope we see Ariel," Sora said, making everyone look over to him. "She helped me, Donald, and Goofy fight the Heartless when we visited her world of Atlantica."

The majority of the people at the table stared at Sora with blank, confused expressions. The boy with spiky brown hair was looking up at the ceiling with a nostalgic look, but he looked back down and saw everyone staring at him, making him start sweating. "Uhh, what?" Gray asked, wondering what the boy was talking about.

"Let's get going," Kirito said, standing up out of his seat and getting the attention off of Sora who told him all about different worlds the previous night. It didn't look like his friend wanted to go much into detail, and what he just said seemed to be a slip of the tongue. "I want to try out some gills," the black haired teen continued.

Everyone agreed with Kirito and started getting up excitedly. "Rin?" Timmy asked the boy sitting next to him, making the teen with a sword strapped on his back to look down at the small kid in a pink hat. "You going?" the twelve year old asked.

Rin gulped and shook his head. He thought about what Gray said to Natsu a minute ago. _If anything were to happen, I wouldn't be able to use my flames._ "Nah," the son of Satan replied. He gulped, "I don't really like the thought of turning into a fish."

Nami heard this and her mind instantly stopped thinking of her as a mermaid, and instead as a woman with the bottom half of a person and the top half of a fish, with long orange hair on top of her fish head. She shivered head to toe and stepped back from the main group, "On second thought, I think I'll stay behind."

"Noooooooooooooooooo!" Sanji yelled, falling to his knees as his hopes of seeing a mermaid Nami were crushed.

Robin smiled as well and stood next to her younger pirate friend. After an entire life of having a Devil Fruit's power, Robin had no wish to go back into the sea she feared so much. "I will stay behind with you Nami-san," she offered, making the navigator smile wide, and Sanji to moan loudly again.

"Don't worry Sanji," Ben told the blond haired chef on his knees. "Kairi and Juvia are still going." Sanji jumped up to his feet excitedly and spun around, to see Sora and Gray standing next to their respective fiancé/girlfriend, smiling and talking to them. His spirits dropped again and Ben rushed to get his spirits back up, "And all the other mermaids we'll see when we get down there!"

Sanji shook his head from his sadness and bucked up. "You're right!" he shouted. "Sora! Turn me into a fish!"

"Uhh, okay," Sora said, looking back at the chef only to see him jumping high off the side of the ship. Sora rose his arm as Sanji was passing over his head, and his Keyblade formed, already glowing white.

Sanji's body turned bright white, and he was still covered in the light as he hit the water. The chef smiled wide as he splashed below, and then swam up to the surface as fast as he could and leapt out of the sea. "Nami-san! Robin-chan! Look at what you are missing!" he yelled, arms up in the air happily.

"It's haha, okay ha, Sanji-san!" Nami called up to him.

The chef looked down and saw Nami cracking up, while Robin was giggling as well. The men on the ship were not as polite as Robin, all of them laughing as hard as they could. Sanji slowly looked down as he rose out of the water, and his face became distraught, his lips sticking out in horror, his eyes wide looking like he had just seen a ghost.

"Sanji's an octopus!" Luffy shouted, falling backwards and rolling around on his back.

Sanji's face turned red and the octopus in the air burst into flames. He pointed an arm down at Sora, while lifting three tentacles as well and pointing them all at the laughing brown haired Keybearer. "Turn me into a merman!" the chef yelled, falling back to the surface of the water and only keeping his head up this time.

"Sorry Sanji," Sora replied. "I didn't choose, I just made it so you were compatible with the water. When Donald did it, he turned into an octopus too. I think it has to do with your personalities," Sora started scratching his chin as he wondered why some of them turned into some creatures and others different ones.

The blond haired octopus looked down sadly, mumbling incoherent words to himself. _None of the beautiful mermaids are going to like a stupid octopus. The only good thing out of this is that the stupid marimo isn't here. He would have a field day with this,_ Sanji thought about Zoro, but that only lasted a few seconds, until his mind returned to thoughts of mermaids and his eyes became heart-shaped. Not even his own botched transformation could make him upset for long.

"Alright everyone!" Sora called out, waving his arm towards the side of the ship. "Let's go!" He ran towards the edge with Kairi and Riku on either side of him. Goku jumped over everyone's head and pulled his legs in for a cannonball, while Luffy rocketed himself up in the air, closing his eyes and having faith in Sora who promised him that he would not sink as soon as he hit the water.

Dash and Ben smirked at each other, then the two of them ran over and jumped in the air. Dash did about a dozen front flips insanely fast, while Ben tried out a swan dive and smiled as his body engulfed in light right before the water's surface.

All three of the Fairy Tail wizards ran to the edge, and Natsu hesitated for a second, before Juvia and Gray each grabbed him by the arm and jumped into the sea. "Ahh!" the fire mage yelled, right before he became covered in light and hit the water.

Nami, Robin, Timmy, Franky, and Rin jogged over to the side and looked down at the whole crew who were covered in white light just beneath the surface. They all swam up at the same time and leapt out of the water, except for Sanji who stayed where he was, not wanting the ladies on the ship to see his ugly transformation again. The crew members on board ooed and ahhed at the sight of their friends' transformations.

"Hahahaha!" Luffy laughed as he puffed out with a bunch of spikes all over his body. "I'm a pufferfish!"

"Angler!" Killua yelled, as the long tendril sticking out over his forehead lit up and sparked electricity.

"Merman!" Ben exclaimed happily, then turned to his right where he gawked right before laughing as hard as he could.

"How does this make any sense?!" Dash exclaimed, his head sticking out of the top of a turtle shell. They all laughed at the fastest boy on the crew who ironically turned into the slowest creature... at least until they turned to Usopp.

"Snn, sniffle," Usopp tried jumping out of the water as high as the rest of them, but it was pretty hard with the lower half of his body stuck inside a snail shell. "This is just unfair," the sniper said, his slingshot sticking out of the shell along with his upper body.

"Have fun you guys!" Nami called off the ship at their friends. They all dropped down into the water and Nami sighed as they were gone. She panicked and jumped to the right as a giant black cat appeared next to her, lifting up a paw and waving down at the ocean.

"Where the Hell did this come from?!" Nami shouted.

Rin started laughing and turned to the others who were surprised to see the giant black cat. "This is Kuro," the boy explained. "He's my cat. I found him on the last island."

Timmy smiled, "Was that the monster-"

"Yep!" the teenager replied, and then got tackled to the ship's grassy floor by the massive black cat that started licking his face. Franky had a shocked look on his face as he had just seen a tiny cat turn into a monster, but he finally started laughing and wiped some sweat from his metal brow, remembering just what world they were sailing on again. Something like this should not have surprised him.

"Well," Robin said, looking over the railing of the ship and nowhere near as surprised as the others by the giant cat's appearance. "I do hope they do not drown slowly."

"Ahh! Enough with the scary comments!" all four of the others shouted at her and Robin started giggling.

Down below the surface, the rest of the crew were far from drowning. "So this is what swimming is like," Luffy said as he floundered around down after everyone else. Dash and Usopp were next to him, trying to swim as fast as they could but still adjusting to their shelled bodies.

"Must be strange for a Devil Fruit eater," Usopp said to his captain who was swinging his arms around randomly.

"Mm hmm, and I was never good at swimming to start with so..." Luffy turned upside-down for a few seconds and writhed around in panic trying to get himself back upright, making the turtle and snail next to him sweatdrop even under the water.

"This is great!" Ben shouted as he swam around near Riku, Sora, and Kairi.

"You're getting the hang of it fast Ben," Riku told the kid swimming around them. "But can you keep up?" he asked, and then shot straight down as fast as he could. Ben panicked and kicked his tail hard to follow after Riku. His was a much lighter shade of green than Riku's dark green tail, and Sora and Kairi laughed as the two of them went racing off.

"Guys, wait up for me!" Sora and Kairi turned to their left and saw a turtle speeding up more and more as it raced past them.

"Haha," Sora chuckled as the turtle became a blur and sped up even more. "Looks like he's still fast underwater," the teen said with a grin.

"You want to go for a swim?" Kairi asked her boyfriend next to her. She had on a pink bikini top that matched her pink tail, while Sora and all of the boys were shirtless. She leaned in and whispered in his ear, "Just the two of us?"

Sora's face went a little red, but then he nodded at her and they raced off to the left. He looked back and shouted through the water, which somehow did not alter his voice at all, "Meet back at the ship by dinner! Oh! And if anyone sees an underwater city, let Goku know!"

Everyone looked over at Goku who looked a little confused himself. "Me?" the spiky haired Saiyan asked. He still had his legs, arms, his whole body, only now his arms and legs were green, and his torso was covered in orange scales.

"Yeah!" Sora yelled, still getting farther away. "Goku's got Atlantian powers, he can call to all of us telepathically."

"I can?" Goku asked, looking at his body that he thought looked strange considering he did not recognize it as any sea creature he'd ever seen before. The man turned to his right and looked at the boy with spiky white hair and an orb of light sticking out in front of his face. **"HELLO?!"**

Killua grabbed his ears as he heard Goku shout directly into his mind. "AH! What the Hell was that? No need to scream!"

 **"Oh, sorry,"** Goku replied, looking at the kid next to him as they spoke telepathically. The Saiyan smiled and called out loud, "Wow, this is great!" He turned and started swimming down. **"I feel a lot of powers concentrated over here. I bet there's a city. Everyone follow me!"** Goku's words echoed in the minds of all the excited people-sea-creatures around him, and they all looked in to see a blur of white where Goku was racing through the water incredible fast.

"Gotta keep up!" Luffy shouted, and started kicking his spiked legs behind him. He smiled and laughed as that actually sped him up a lot.

"Luffy!" Snail-Usopp shouted from behind his Captain, trying to hurry up as well, but not having Dash's natural speed powers to help him out.

The group descended down from the surface farther and farther into the depths of the Great Ocean. Ben, Riku, and Dash were a hundred yards to the left of Goku and some of the others. The three of them were racing in and out of schools of fish, laughing and having a great time.

They descended together for about five minutes before reaching the tops of some underwater mountains. These mountains came up really high, so they still couldn't see the bottom of the sea that Goku was leading them to. Ben turned his head to Riku to challenge him to try some flip-trick he just invented, but the words never made it out of his mouth. The thirteen year old lowered his jaw slowly.

"Ben?" Dash asked, looking to his left at his friend who was looking straight up above them. The kid with blond hair suddenly noticed it seemed a lot darker, and he lifted up his head a little too.

Riku followed where the two of them were looking and he stared up above him in awe. "Whoa," the teen with long silver hair whispered. He stared at it for a few seconds, the giant shadow over their heads. As it passed by however, Riku noticed something. "Wait a second," he whispered.

Dash saw it too and his eyes bugged out. "No way!"

Ben had seen it the whole time. He saw it as it approached, the deep blue color of the long giant monster. It flapped its two side fins down, and the three of them had to cross their arms to block the torrent of water streams that slammed down into them. "Aaooooo" the creature roared through the ocean, its voice sounding not just in their ears, but their very minds.

"Alright," Ben said, snapping his tail down and lifting up a little. "I'm getting you back for last time!" he yelled, pointing a hand forward at the massive blue creature that passed over them and then slowly turned back around so it was facing the boy pointing at it. "Do you remember me?!" the boy shouted.

"Hey Ben," Dash started nervously, "how about you not piss it off?"

Riku just smirked, "Ben's a lot stronger than last time, we all are." He turned to the short blond kid who looked back at him and then smirked. "That's Kyogre Ben," he told the boy, "one of the Legendaries. Sure you don't want to try catching something smaller as your first Pokemon?"

"I've got this," Ben assured, still looking forward into the giant Pokemon's eyes. "Don't forget, a merman isn't the only undersea creature I can turn into." Ben stuck his arms out to the sides and his watch started glowing green, covering his whole body in light.

The others who were still swimming down after Goku looked up in awe as a green light filled the ocean above them. Natsu recognized it and was going to call up to his friend and ask why he wasn't staying as this awesome mermaid form that he was also in, and then gawked at the sight of the giant blue creature Ben was facing off against.

"Kyogre," Gray whispered, staring at the beast in awe. "I recognize it," he said after receiving a strange glance from Juvia and Natsu. "I was at a coastal city on Aebrith and it got in a fight with Groudon. Me, Zoro, and Zabuza had faced Groudon before, but as angry as it was when it fought us, just the sight of Kyogre made it go on a rampage. Half the city got destroyed before we managed to break it off."

"Whoa," Natsu said, looking up at the looming shadow. "You think Ben has a chance of taking it on on his own?"

"No," Gray responded plainly. He looked over towards the green light, "We should go help-" he stopped talking as the sight of the creature that appeared inside the green light made him drop his jaw.

"Okay, what?!" Natsu shouted, dropping his jaw.

"Hahaha!" Luffy shouted, pointing up with starry eyes. "That's awesome!" The snail chasing after him did not look so thrilled at the sight of the monster three times the size of Kyogre.

It had a giant jaw full of sharp teeth, and looked like quite the horrifying monster... well, until it shouted, "SUPER FISH!"

"Come on Ben, you can get more creative than that!" Riku shouted up at the boy who named that monster of an alien fish terribly.

"What would you have called it then?" the giant fish shouted, turning back down to face Riku.

As Ben turned, Kyogre shot forward like a missile. The boy looked back forward just in time to get body slammed by the Kyogre so hard that it looked like Kyogre itself might have been hurt by the attack. Super Fish went flying backwards, and slammed into the top of an undersea mountain, breaking off the tip of the mountain and making everyone watching wince.

Kyogre raced forward again and Ben snapped his jaws towards it, but the less-giant Pokemon was also pretty agile and dove under his jaws. It slammed into Ben's massive stomach again, then kept swimming to dodge one of his humongous claws. Kyogre turned around after racing past, and the even bigger enormous undersea monster looked tired, panting loudly. "Alright wise guy," Ben muttered, watching as Kyogre faced him again. "Try it again," he dared.

The blue Legendary Pokemon looked like it was going to do just that, and it raced forward fast. The enormous monster alien Super Fish lifted up one of its arms, holding a claw out in front of its body. "It's not use Ben!" Dash called up. "You aren't fast enough!"

"I don't need to be!" Ben roared back in a low voice.

The area in front of his claw started to glow white, and the crowd stared in awe as a green hilt formed in Ben's massive hand. An enormous Keyblade proportionate to the size of his body appeared. "Whoa," Natsu whispered at the sight of it, "when did he get that?"

"THUNDER!" the Super Fish yelled, and the Pokemon racing forward was suddenly struck by one large lightning bolt.

Riku smiled, "That's amazing Ben," the teen stated. "I didn't expect you would be able to use magic so soon." _**"Though it is only first level magic."**_ "Shut it Ansem, it's still good for a beginner."

"Uhh..."

Riku turned his head and noticed Dash saw him talking to himself, since the boy couldn't hear Ansem's voice that was only inside his head. Riku could swear he heard Ansem laughing at his expense and he mumbled in annoyance before looking back up at Ben. The giant monster smirked its super sharp teeth, and then dropped its lower lip as Kyogre raced out of the bubbles and opened its mouth, firing two huge condensed jets of water into Ben's face that sent him flying backwards over the top of the mountaintop he broke off earlier.

"Hydro Pump," Gray muttered, shaking his head. "I doubt he's getting up after that one. Even Zabuza's water dragons couldn't handle getting hit by that, pushed right through and knocked him out during our fight."

"Well, looks like Ben's more impressive than your friend," Natsu said, making Gray look over towards where the huge Super Fish was sent flying. Kyogre chased after it, but right before the blue Pokemon slammed into Ben's stomach, the giant monster was gone.

"Ripjaws!" Ben yelled as he appeared as a smaller alien with sharp jaws, one he was much more used to fighting with. He dodged easily as this smaller form and spun to Kyogre's side, biting it on the side and then dodging again and biting a few more times.

"You're wearing it down!" Dash called up to his friend, rooting for him now.

Everyone started cheering for Ben as he transformed again, but right when it looked like he had Kyogre on the ropes, his body flashed red. The kid transformed back, right before he was going to dodge. In his surprise at being turned back into a mermaid, he stopped his dodge and got slammed again by the Legendary Pokemon. It was the same slam that sent his Super Fish flying.

"Ben!" they all shouted at him as he flew down and slammed into the side of a mountain, the entire thing shaking from the collision.

"Is he alright?" Juvia asked, holding her hands together nervously as she thought about the boy from her village who she'd known for over a year now. "Ben," she whispered.

"I'm sure he's fine," Natsu said, though the Fire Dragon Slayer also looked concerned as he looked over towards a hole in the mountain.

Gray sighed, shaking his head. The shark-mage muttered, "I told you. We should have stopped him before it was too... late..."

"KAME-" a voice echoed through the water.

Goku's eyes opened wide, and he remembered what his son told him on the night before the attack on Metropolis. "He really did learn it huh?" the spiky haired man looked over and the young kid with white hair on his side looked at him in confusion.

Killua looked from Goku back to the mountain where he thought that kid would be dead. _Maybe he's stronger than I gave him credit for._ Killua's eyes widened at the sight of the dark hole in the mountain lighting up blue.

"HAME-" the voice shouted again, definitely Ben's voice coming from the hole in the mountain.

"Dash come on," Riku shouted, grabbing his turtle-friend by the hand who had started swimming over towards the mountain with him.

"Aww," the blond haired kid moaned, looking back over his shoulder towards the mountain as Riku dragged him away. Dash's disappointed look that he would not get to watch Ben's attack went away as a blue light engulfed the entire top of the mountain.

Kyogre was charging towards the mountain again, and out of its mouth fired a huge beam of ice that seemed to freeze the water around it in a one hundred foot wide pillar. The ice was only yards from hitting the hole in the wall, when Ben's voice yelled, "HAAAAAA!" The mountain around him started to crumble, and a blue beam shot out of the hole and slammed into the end of the ice beam.

The two beams pushed against each other for the total of one second, before Ben's pushed through and shot all the way up the ice beam, sending shards of ice shattering in all directions as the blue energy beam pushed through the middle of it. The scattered crew in the water crossed their arms and shielded their eyes, but tried to keep watching as the blue beam slammed into Kyogre.

Goku was floating up a little, but he sighed and stopped himself. "Good thing he hasn't mastered it," the Saiyan stated out loud, making the gawking white haired kid on his left look even more surprised that this powerful attack had yet to be perfected. "If he had," the Saiyan warrior continued, "that poor Pokemon would have been killed."

Killua gulped, and then looked back over towards the crumbling top of the mountain, where a panting and beaten up Ben lowered his arms back down to his side. He grabbed an empty pokeball, the only one he had that he got from the nice lifeguard on the previous island, and gently held it up in front of him, gasping for air as the red light shot out towards a badly wounded Kyogre. "Come on," Ben whispered, holding the pokeball tight in his hand as the red light sucked back in after enveloping the Pokemon.

"Does he have it?" Gray whispered, looking shocked as he stared at the red and white ball in Ben's hand. The ball was shaking, shaking, Ben held it with his other hand as it shook again. Then all was still.

"YES!" Ben shouted, pumping his hands up in the air. He then winced in pain and lowered them back down, falling backwards and lying on his back in the water.

"That, was, awesome!" Dash shouted, swimming up and doing circles around his friend. The turtle was not the only one, as a lot of the group started cheering for Ben.

Goku smiled up as well, then looked down below him. No one else noticed it for a few more moments, but the Saiyan watched the water below them carefully.

"Everyone freeze!"

All of the people/fish creatures floating around snapped their heads down, to their lefts, rights, and even above them. Even Goku started looking around in light surprise, but then calmly nodded his head at the figures swimming towards them.

"Whoa, who are you guys?" Natsu yelled, lifting up his fists and looking around. Everyone swimming towards him looked pretty human, a lot of them even had legs, though there were some mermen and mermaids mixed in. They all had trident-shaped weapons, though the top prongs of them were glowing red and had holes at the end that made them look like barrels to guns. They looked pretty hostile and Natsu grinned, "Watching Ben fight has gotten me all fired up!" He rose up his fists, and steam came off of them, but nothing else.

Natsu looked stunned and Gray smacked a fist down on top of his head. "Dumbass. We're underwater remember. Can't use flames." The ice mage looked ahead of him at five muscular men with long tails instead of legs, all glaring at him threateningly. They were wearing helmets and had on identical uniforms with the letter 'A' in the middle of them.

The pirate crew eased backwards as dozens of enemies gathered around them, pushing them back. "Who are you?" Sanji asked the man directly in front of him, who had glowing blue orbs held above his palms. Sanji wished he had the ability to light a cigarette right now to calm his nerves, but instead he just wiggled his tentacles at the person in front of him. The light skinned man was wearing a blue uniform unlike the others' outfits, and he looked a little stronger than the others.

Garth glared right back at Sanji, and said, "Tell us who you are first."

"Garth sir," one of the soldiers gathered around started. He had his hands up to a headset on his head and lowered the earphones from his ears. "The Princes are on their way. They heard about what happened to Kyogre."

"Uhh," Ben muttered. The thirteen year old with the red Omnitrix on his wrist scratched his head nervously. "Was I not supposed to do that?"

Garth glared over at the young boy. "No you were not."

The group was surrounded on all sides by undersea guards. "Who are you people?" Usopp shouted, trying not to let his voice shake as he did.

"We are the Atlantian army," Garth stated while pointing his glowing trident at the snail who questioned him. He stared at the creature oddly for a few seconds before turning back to face Goku. "Who are you? You look like you are from my world."

Goku smiled over at the young man in a blue uniform. "I'm Son Goku."

Every one of the guards there froze and turned their heads towards the spiky haired man. "Is he serious?" one of them whispered, a three foot tall fish with gills but the arms and legs of a person.

Garth opened his mouth to question him further, when a voice shouted from below them. "What is going on?" Everyone looked down to see three mermen swimming up fast with a small army at their backs. "Who dared to assault Kyogre?!"

"Maybe we should leave?" Juvia whispered to the ice mage on her left side.

"Starting to sound like a good idea," Gray muttered back. "Hey guys, let's," he began but got cut off before he could finish.

"Hey!" Usopp shouted. The long-nosed pirate's eyes were huge and he pointed down at the figures swimming up to meet them. "It's the princes!"

The Atlantian guards looked strangely at this snail creature, wondering why it would know the princes. A strange-looking pufferfish next to the snail looked down in shock too as did the octopus with them. "No way," Sanji muttered. His heart started beating faster and faster and he whispered, "Does that mean, the mermaid princess, is here too?" His voice was barely a whisper and everything around him started to get hazy.

Usopp turned to his left seeing a darkness in the water and he shrieked at the amount of blood around Sanji's face. "Stop thinking about it Sanji!" He begged, "You'll bleed out again!"

"Hey!" Luffy waved down at the three mermen swimming up and all of them stopped short in the water.

"L-Luffy?" Ryuboshi and Manboshi shouted at the same time.

Fukaboshi, the oldest of the three brothers, swam up in front of all the guards and right up to Luffy. He moved much faster than the group of travelers did when they were swimming, and most of them were taken aback by how quickly he got up there. "Luffy," he said, positive now that this was the same man that he knew from his own world. He bowed his head a little, "I must thank you for saving Fishman Island on our world."

Luffy started laughing and greeted the man in the same friendly manner he would greet any of his friends. The Atlantians started lowering their weapons, but the guard known as Garth called out, "Prince Fukaboshi." The muscular merman with long blue hair turned around to see the guard frowning at him. "These people have captured Kyogre."

Fukaboshi turned back to Luffy and his smile faded a little. The other two prince brothers got over their shock and swam up to the group as well. "Brother, look at the mountain," Manboshi said, pointing at the mountain next to him.

Fukaboshi turned and his eyes turned huge at the sight of the crumbled top of the undersea mountain next to them. Ben saw the Prince's angered reaction and he backed up a little, getting closer to Goku. He was tired and his watch was still in the red, something he was mentally cursing himself about at the moment.

"Who destroyed the mountain?" The oldest prince asked, turning to face the group and looking around to find a guilty face.

"It was an accident," Gray started, swimming forwards a little by kicking his tail behind him. "What is the penalty?"

"We should bring them before the council of Neptunes," Garth suggested loudly from behind the princes.

Fukaboshi frowned, but sighed and nodded his head. "He is right. We must bring you before our father and the other Neptunes."

"There's more than one King Neptune?" Usopp asked, getting confused.

"Watch your tongue snail," a soldier snapped over at the creature half-sticking out of a shell. "That is a prince of Atlantis you are talking to-"

"It is alright," Fukaboshi stated, turning and glancing at the soldier. The man quieted himself immediately and the prince turned to Garth next. "Let the council know we are coming."

"What if we don't want to come with you?" Killua said out of nowhere. Garth stopped turning around and spun back, and all of the guards tensed up. The anglerfish shot forward much faster than anglerfishes were known to move at. He stared straight into the oldest prince's eyes and his own looked like little vertical slits for a second.

"This is not a request," Garth stated in a harsh tone.

"I want to go," Luffy said, turning to look back at Killua for a second. "Don't you?"

The younger boy lost his scary look for a second. _I do want to go, but if they decide to capture us- what am I thinking? I'm next to Son Goku,_ he looked at the Saiyan warrior on his right and then smiled. "Okay, I'll go," he relented.

"Am I in trouble?" Ben muttered, not really knowing what was going on. Luffy seemed to be on good terms with the prince guys, but they were still being brought before this council. "Maybe I should just release Kyogre," he said, his voice sounding pretty sad.

"Don't," Riku told him. Ben looked to his side and Riku smiled at the kid, "If you treat that Pokemon right I'm sure the two of you will be great friends." The younger boy thought about Sora's Pokemon and he nodded.

"Come with us," Fukaboshi said. The eldest Prince started swimming downwards and the rest of the guards stayed surrounding the group, waiting for them to follow him down. A few of them looked more nervous than others, but when Goku and Luffy started swimming down the rest of them followed.

As they swam down, one of the princes, the fattest one Manboshi, turned to Luffy and the other male pirates next to him. "Luffy, were you always a fishman?"

"Nope," Luffy replied. "Just turned into one."

"How?" Fukaboshi asked while continuing to lead them. It had been on his mind since spotting the pirates who he knew were humans and not creatures of the sea.

"Our comrade used some magic on us," Sanji started, then stopped with his mouth partially open. He fell back a little while Luffy kept talking to the princes, and he turned to Usopp. "Oi," he muttered to the snail, "have you seen Sora or Kairi around?"

Usopp's head sticking out of the shell snapped in both directions, and he looked back at Sanji with a nervous expression on his face. "They aren't here?" Usopp whispered. They were surrounded by guards on all sides, so they could see everyone in their group within the barrier of soldiers. Sora and Kairi were not with them any longer. "I didn't think they went too far," Usopp whispered.

Their whole group swam down in a scattered mass, but they were all relatively close together. When the Atlantians came they packed together in a smaller mass, but now that they thought about it, Sora and Kairi were not there. "Well, good for them I guess," Usopp mumbled. "They didn't get caught."

"We're not in trouble," Sanji said, noticing someone behind him that made him smirk a little. "Only Ben is."

Ben froze up and he started sweating which seemed tough underwater. He saw the side of Sanji's face and the chef was smirking. "That isn't funny," he muttered ahead, and Usopp started laughing as he realized why Sanji said it.

"Don't worry Ben, it'll be fine," Riku assured the kid swimming with him. "I'm sure they'll understand..."

* * *

"THEY DID WHAT?!" Neptune shouted. The Neptune in the middle of the council shot off his chair and glared down at the people in front of him. "Mount Vega and Kyogre! What do you have to say for yourselves?!"

"Neptune 1, your majesty," Riku began, swimming forward while his friend backed up next to him. Riku started sweating considering he told Ben this would go much differently. "The incident was an accident."

"You accidentally broke a mountain? I have received word from the Coral Ridges that debris has been falling from the sky. Much of it has landed on buildings. The damage is already in the millions!" Neptune 1 shouted.

Ben dropped his jaw and his face went pale. The King of the sea was shouting at him and it was pretty scary. To be precise, one of the Kings of the sea were shouting at him.

Neptune 1 floated in front of the center chair. He had on a pair of golden bracelets that wrapped around each of his wrists. His upper body looked like that of a man's, a tan-skinned, much larger than usual man, with enormous biceps and pecs. His face was stern, though it was hard to tell under his huge white beard and mustache that matched the color of his long flowing hair going back behind his head and back.

The first Neptune was at least ten feet tall, which still only made him the second largest of the three Neptunes. The shortest Neptune sat on his right side, Neptune 3. He was not much shorter than the first, but his entire body was the color green, just a lighter shade than his tail. He had on a crown that covered up the fact that he was actually bald. This Neptune held a trident just like the first Neptune, and just like the second.

Neptune 2 was by far the largest among them. Like the first Neptune, he had very long hair and a large beard and mustache, however his were curly and orange. His facial hair was so thick that it was impossible to see his mouth behind it all. He looked the least annoyed at the group in front of him, which was also partly due to the fact that he was indebted to one of them who smiled and waved his way as soon as he entered the room. The second Neptune was from the same world as the pirates in his council chamber, but although Luffy saved his kingdom once before, he could not let what happened slide and lose the respect of the other worlds' Neptunes.

"What should we do with them?" Neptune 3 muttered, putting his thumb and index finger up to his chin and rubbing it thoughtfully.

"You could let us go," Natsu suggested.

"Do you think this is a joke?!" Neptune 1 roared, shutting a smirking Natsu right up. "Your battle put the lives of many of our people at risk. Thankfully, no one was hurt," he continued, and Ben took a deep breath of relief upon hearing that. "The debris fell slow enough through the water for our people to evacuate, however, the fact remains that you have caused extensive damage. Not to mention the capture of our capital's guardian, Kyogre."

"I was just catching a Pokemon," Ben exclaimed, then shut his mouth immediately as all three Neptunes turned their gazes to the young boy. Dash subconsciously shifted away from his friend to make some distance while all the Neptunes glared their direction.

Neptune 3 scratched his chin some more. "While the capturing and training of Pokemon is a legal practice in this ocean, we have designated areas for such practices." He slammed the butt of his golden trident down on the ground, "The sea directly above Atlantis is not one such place."

Ben backed up even farther and found himself glancing backwards for help. Goku saw the boy's look and he stepped forward in front of him. "Hello," he waved his hand at the three figures in front of their thrones. "Ben is sorry for the property damage, I'll have a good talk with him to make sure he doesn't do it again." Goku looked back and smiled at the kid behind him showing he was not actually upset. He turned back forward with a stern expression, nodding his head a few more times towards the Neptunes to show he was serious.

"Hoh hoh hoh," Neptune 2 laughed. "Luffy! You have some very interesting friends with you, jamon!"

"Shishishi," Luffy laughed.

The other Neptunes glared over at their larger associate for a second and he leaned back on his throne. Neptune One stepped forward and lifted his trident, "We will discuss your punishment. Not just for the boy, but for your entire group for allowing his actions to go on."

"Just to let you know," Natsu called up to the thrones and the guy yelling at them. "This guy's name is Goku," he pointed at the Mayor of Pao Town behind him. All three of the Neptunes looked taken aback, and Natsu smirked as they recognized the name. "And I'm Natsu!"

"Shut up," Gray muttered, as all three of the Neptunes looked at each other as if asking, 'Have you ever heard of a Natsu? Yeah, me neither.'

"Son Goku," Neptune 3 began, looking down at the spiky haired figure who looked like a very strong Atlantian. "Trunks spoke very highly of you."

"Ah yes, the Super Saiyan," Neptune 1 said, his mouth dropping into a frown. "We received word from the Renewed Nexus Government that he fell during the Battle of Metropolis. We were sorry to hear that."

Goku's expression flashed dark for a second before returning to its previous laid-back look. "Thanks, he was a friend," Goku said, smiling at the Neptunes up in front of their thrones.

"If you are Son Goku, then there is not much we can do to punish you is there?" Neptune 3 asked, looking at his fellow Neptunes to see if they felt the same way.

"Wow," Natsu muttered. "I never knew the Mayor was so famous."

"Are you kidding me?" Gray muttered quietly back to his friend. Natsu and Juvia looked in while Gray gazed over at the Saiyan. "When you told me Son Goku was the Mayor of your town I thought you were kidding. Everyone knows who he is."

"Even in Aebrith?" Juvia whispered.

"He's, kind of a legend there," Gray whispered back. "Maybe not as much as in Awul after recent events, but he's definitely famous."

"Well Son Goku," Neptune 1 began with a deep frown. "What do you plan on doing to fix this?"

"Umm," Goku began.

Ben's right hand rubbed over the pokeball on his right side and he floated forward a little. "Excuse me, should I, release Kyogre?" He asked, keeping his voice steady but looking down while he spoke.

The others looked in at the young merman and the three Neptunes looked at each other before looking down at the boy as well. "We can not force you to do such a thing. In fact," Neptune 1 paused for a second, "many Atlantians have tried capturing Kyogre before, all have failed."

Ben lifted his gaze and was shocked to see that the three Neptunes looked, impressed? "Hoh hoh hoh, I was surprised that you were the one to defeat Kyogre and not Luffy, jamon." Neptune 2 laughed.

"So, I can keep it?" Ben asked, lifting up his eyebrows in surprise.

All three of the large merman kings nodded their heads down at him. "Still, Kyogre was protecting our city on its own accord. We do not know why it was doing such a thing, but Atlantis is now less protected than ever. Trunks promised to return if ever we called on him, but he is dead now. There are no longer any allies in the RNG powerful enough to come to our aid if we are to come under attack."

"That's fine," Goku said. "I'll come to help you now."

"You will?" All three of the Neptunes asked together.

"Sure," Goku said with a big smile on his face. "I can sense energies, so if you ever come under attack I'll try to get here as soon as I can. Though it may be tough with so many of your troops wearing the ki-maskers."

Goku's friends looked at him confusedly and the Neptunes began looking a little nervous. "Where did you get those?" Gray wondered aloud. He was looking to the side of the room and spotted one of the guards adorning himself in two metal bracelets that he recognized. "Those are PB-2's. An old model, but definitely a power blocker."

Neptune 3 frowned at the mage's knowledge. "It is none of your business where we got them from-"

"Are you part of the Cooperative?" Gray asked, turning back to the Kings in front of him. His face looked scarier than a second ago and his friends looked at him confusedly while he glared at the Neptunes.

Neptune 1 frowned deeply and stared right back at Gray. "No we are not. Young man, I would warn you to watch your tone while speaking to Kings." Gray lost his scary look and grimaced as he realized he was being rude himself. He apologized and Neptune 1 turned back to Son Goku, "Just a promise to come to our aid is not enough to make up for the damage done to our civilians' properties. There must be a stricter punishment for your-"

"Hey!" a voice shouted. Everyone in the room spun to face the doors where the voice originated from. They watched as a young man swam into the room kicking his blue tail behind him. Just behind him swam a girl with long red hair and a pink tail of her own. "I heard my friends were taken captive, what's going-" Sora stopped shouting and froze in his tracks.

"Sora!" a few of his friends called out.

The Atlantian guards all started moving towards him and raising their weapons, but a loud shout made everyone quiet. "Stand down!" All of the guards turned and saw Neptune 1 floating forward. He was staring straight across the council room and at the young merman looking back at him in surprise. "Everyone out!" He ordered in a booming voice. "Sora, stay here. I must have a talk with you."

All of Sora's friends looked back at the boy who had a very serious expression on his face while nodding back towards Neptune 1. "Do you know Sora?" Goku asked. A few of Sora's comrades remembered him mentioning something about visiting an Atlantis before, and they were starting to put two and two together.

"Yes, now please leave these chambers at once," Neptune 1 ordered again, looking at Goku sternly now.

"Sora," Kairi whispered behind him.

"It's alright guys," Sora stated calmly. He was staring at Neptune 1 with a semi-confused look but also with a smile on his face. "I'll meet up with you back outside."

"But-" Natsu started.

"Alright," Goku clapped his hands together. He was happy to find any reason to get out of this situation in a hurry. "Let's go get some food. Gohan said there was a place I had to try when he was talking about Atlantis," he turned and kicked his legs to swim towards the open door Sora just came in. "I think he called it Subter- Subma-" Goku couldn't put his finger on what he was thinking of and kept muttering words that sounded like what he was trying to remember.

Luffy looked over at Sora, then turned and followed after Goku. _"Remember Luffy, I was not supposed to say anything about other worlds. Apparently it could mess with the world order, and I promised I would try to keep it a secret. Only a few people know..." I bet Sora met that Neptune guy on another world._ The pirate captain glanced over his shoulder while he continued to swim. Usopp and Sanji were right behind him, with the others on their tails, but he looked straight back at Neptune 1.

"Damn, wish I could stay for that conversation," Killua mumbled as he swam next to Kirito back towards the entrance. The ninja looked next to him at the anglerfish kid who was frowning and looking back over his shoulder every few seconds. "That's going to be an important conversation."

"What do you mean?" Kirito questioned the kid next to him.

"Well, I know you already know," Killua began while looking at the teen next to him. "But Sora's been keeping secrets. I've heard him misspeak and mention other worlds before, then try to hide it."

Kirito spun his head around and stared back at the council chamber as the guards who exited behind them then closed the doors as well so they could not hear the conversation either. Inside the council room, Neptune 1 turned to the other two Neptunes who were asking why he sent their guards and guests out of there.

"This boy, is the Keybearer."

Neptune 3's eyes turned huge and he jumped off his throne. Neptune 2 started sweating and he got up off his seat slower than his fellow King. The largest of the three began, "I was once told a legend about the Keybearer passed down from my father, and his father before him. He arrived on our world in a terrible time of darkness. If he were ever to return however, I was to greet him with open arms."

"The Keybearer is known to bring ruin," Neptune 3 added. "Destruction follows the one who holds the key."

"This one in particular broke the most important rule. He meddled in the affairs of my world." Neptune 1 glared down at Sora, but his gaze softened and he started to smile. "However, he also saved my daughter's life, and my entire kingdom." The other Neptunes looked at the first, and then back to the boy who started smiling at him.

"Hey King Triton. Is Ariel here?" Sora asked.

"Triton?" the other two Neptunes asked simultaneously. They turned in towards Neptune 1 who sighed and started scratching his beard.

King Triton nodded his head, and he spoke in as confident a tone as always as he explained himself, "When I arrived in this ocean I came to understand that the rulers of the oceans of other worlds all had something in common, they had the same name. The name, of my grandfather." The other Neptunes looked surprised and Triton continued, "In order to convince the people of all the worlds' oceans that I was another version of their ruler, I took my grandfather's name for myself." The other Neptunes hummed to themselves and looked at each other but seemed appeased to leave this matter for later considering who was in their midst.

"And what about Ariel?" Sora asked, not really caring much since he did not even know Triton was going by Neptune 1 until now.

"Yes. I am sure you will have a great deal of time to catch up with my daughter later. There are important things we must discuss before that however. First, I have a message for you." Neptune One paused, then added, "From the King himself."

"King Mickey?!" Sora exclaimed.

Neptune 1 nodded his head. Sora smiled wide, thinking about how if Mickey was there, then maybe Donald and Goofy were somewhere on the planet as well. The first Neptune continued while Sora smiled, "He told me that if you were to ever show up in Atlantis, I would have to pass on a message to you, are you ready?" Sora nodded his head once and Neptune 1 took a deep breath before he began. "'Dear Sora, I wish you well. Sorry for not coming to find you since arriving here on Nexus. I bet you've been wondering what this is all about."

The other Neptunes looked at each other nervously. Sora tilted his head a little and thought, _Does King Mickey know why we were all brought to the same world?_

"'...I hope you have Riku and Kairi with you already, because all three of you are necessary for what is to come. The Seven Guardians of Light must come together in order to save the worlds. If we fail, everything will fall to darkness...'" Neptune 1 remembered every single word King Mickey told him. It was impossible for him to get the message out of his mind. He replayed it in his mind every day. "'Sora, I need your help,'" Neptune 1 continued.

Neptune 2 opened his eyes wide as he glanced over at Sora to see what he thought of all this. The teenager with brown hair was smiling, and he looked so carefree as Neptune 1 spoke to him. All of the ominous things coming out of the first Neptune's mouth had no effect on his cheerful disposition.

Triton finished up the message, but only after taking a long pause where his expression became a lot more nervous. "'The worlds were never supposed to come together like this. I am sorry Sora. Next time we meet we will need to start the battle to set the worlds back on their right paths. I am sure we will see each other soon. Until then, you need to find the Keyhole. I am going to keep searching for it myself, but before we can save the worlds, we need to save this one. Well Sora, see ya soon.' That was the end of what he had to say." The first Neptune had a bead of sweat on his face, looking easily the least freaked out of the three Atlantian leaders.

"Why have we never heard about this?!" Neptune 3 asked, swimming forward up to the first Neptune. "What other secrets are you keeping from us?"

"I was strictly ordered not to say that message unless in the presence of Sora." He turned his head slightly to the other Neptune next to him. "After receiving a message with those contents, I felt I was obligated to keep my mouth shut." He glared harder at Neptune 3, "I expect you to do the same thing."

"Agreed," the second Neptune behind them began. He floated towards the smaller Neptunes who looked back and up at the huge merman. His usual jolly persona was gone and he said, "If we were to let word of this get out, it would start a panic, jamon!"

"Thank you," Sora spoke up, interrupting the leaders from their conversation. All of them looked forward to the smiling teen before them. "I'll do my best to find the King, and save the worlds. You have my word," he promised them.

Outside of the council tower, a few guards stood around protecting the door. None of them noticed the little boy with spiky white hair or the purple alien blob with him who were standing right next to the doors, only inches behind them. Ben had turned into Clear Body, and the alien was able to keep Killua invisible as well by keeping a gooey hand on his back.

The two boys could see each other though, and they were looking into each other's eyes with jaws dropped. Both of them were sweating profusely and they scurried off so fast that Ben bumped into one of the guards. The man spun around looking for whatever he thought just hit him, but frowned and shrugged as nothing was there.

They swam away farther and farther before getting behind a wall nearby. A flash of green turned Ben back into his merman self, and then he and Killua started panting over and over again. Killua was not even annoyed that he let himself get so flustered, he could not believe what he just heard. _I thought it was going to be important, but, but getting the worlds back the way they should be?! That's insane!_

"I, I don't think we should have listened to that," Ben gasped out as he tried taking deeper breaths. _Sora's like, and Riku too, they're so, important! How could they be risking their lives for us in all those situations, when, when the fate of EVERYTHING rests on them?!_

"Don't tell anyone what you heard," Killua whispered to his friend. The two of them made eye contact and Ben nodded after a few seconds. "Oh man," Killua finally got over the shock and stood back up fully, putting his hands behind his head, right over the glowing light dangling over his forehead. Ben stared strangely at the anglerfish boy until Killua continued, "I can't believe we're traveling with such important people. That's some crazy stuff right there."

Ben just stupidly nodded his head, but Killua spun to face him, suddenly having a realization. "Wait, you have one of those Keyblades too," Killua said, his eyes wide. Ben's jaw dropped and he stared down at his hands in shock. "Guess you're pretty important too," he said with a laugh.

The younger kid just gawked at his own hands, and watched as his Keyblade materialized in them. "I, guess I am," he whispered in response.

* * *

Most of Atlantis was not underwater like the room for the Council of Neptunes. The majority of it was half and half, using an enormous bubble to keep air down at the bottom of the sea. It was how visitors without gills were able to stay underwater for long periods of time. Most people who visited did not change their entire body composition to get down, they used advanced technology instead. Most of the roads in the city were just waterways and there were tunnels of water seemingly shooting out of nowhere up into the sky that allowed the sea creatures to swim around the inside of the bubble unhindered. Inside many of the buildings were floors partly made of water, and partly solid ground so that any of the city's inhabitants could enter.

The restaurant the crew went to was one of those half and half buildings. They swam up to the doors and pushed them open, but the bottom of the restaurant was not far beneath their tails. They swam up to their tables and were allowed to change the height of their seats so that they were either in the water, or above, but either way the tables were all just above the surface.

"Wow Goku, Gohan wasn't lying," Natsu exclaimed before picking up another chunk of green glob in front of him and shoving it into his mouth. "What is this stuff anyway?"

"No idea," Goku replied, then tilted another plate back and let it all slide off into his mouth. He reached over and grabbed a chunk of red chunky food on the plate next to the last one, before promptly throwing the thing in his mouth. He smiled and went, "Mmm!" after taking the bite, then reached back for the plate. As his hand was about to touch it, another hand flew out of nowhere and grabbed onto the other side of.

The Saiyan tugged at the plate and the hand on the other side pulled right back. Luffy sat eight seats down, but his arm extended over the entire table and was now shaking as he tried pulling the plate from Goku's hand. Natsu looked over and saw Luffy's struggling expression and started laughing, "You won't be able to take the plate Luffy," he said, then laughed more as Luffy got pulled slightly over the table.

Goku grinned and pulled the plate towards him without exerting much effort, but he smiled even wider at the next turn of events. Luffy snapped his head forward and his neck extended over the table just like his arm. "Gum Gum Chomp!" His jaw opened much wider than was humanly possible and he tried biting down on top of the plate he and Goku were fighting over.

The Saiyan hopped out of his seat and three feet to the right, pulling the plate and Luffy's hand with him. He got farther away too, but Luffy's arm just extended farther as well. Luffy's head flew right over where the plate just was, then turned in midair and he pushed his neck muscles farther on their own to start zipping around people's chairs as he chased Goku.

"Ahh!" Juvia shrieked as Luffy's head did a full spin around her before continued to follow the spiky haired Saiyan. His neck pulled tighter and made a full loop around the rain woman.

"Juvia!" Gray exclaimed. He got off his seat and started tugging at Luffy's neck to lift him up and over Juvia's torso.

Luffy got closer and closer to Goku who finally stopped hopping around as he got pushed into a corner, since Luffy's neck was touching most other parts of the room. Luffy's head was barely moving any closer to him now though, inching forward one second at a time. His muscles were tightening and he was extended about as far as he could go. His hand and his neck were both swirled around everyone and his goal was within biting distance.

Right as Luffy's tongue got less than a foot from the plate, Goku grinned victoriously. Gray threw Luffy's neck loop over Juvia's head and it snapped straight quickly, while also losing some of its length. When part of the neck snapped back like that, it released all the tension in the rest of the neck for a split second before returning it all at once. Luffy, in his shock, let go of the plate while his head started flying backwards. The pirate captain had to watch in horror as the Saiyan tilted the plate into his mouth.

As Luffy snapped back into his seat and flew across the room into the opposite wall, the others continued eating as usual. Killua and Kirito lifted up their plates as Luffy's arm whipped across the top of the table and just passed under them. Neither of them paused their meal and just continued chewing nonchalantly.

It was such an average meal for the group, however they seemed to forget they were not eating in the dining room of their ship but instead inside a fancy Atlantis restaurant. Ben was staring down at his food with a semi-embarrassed look on his face just being at the same table as these lunatics. Every time he turned around there were people glaring at them.

While he was sitting down, someone swam right up on his left side and popped a squat next to him. Sora bent himself at the tail and sat down next to Ben, "Man I'm hungry. That took way too long," he rubbed his hands together and looked around at all the confusing foods. "What's good?"

"Try the red stuff," Luffy called to his friend.

Luffy was one of the only people not staring over at Sora at the moment. He and Goku continued eating, then Sora did too, and finally Riku asked, "What was that all about?"

Sora looked up and saw all eyes were on him. "Oh, that?" He said, brushing it off by taking another bite of food. "It was nothing. I knew Neptune 1 back when he went by King Triton, in Atlantica."

"So, you had an Atlantis on your world?" Dash asked the teen across the table from him.

"Yep," Sora said, and continued eating like it was no big deal. The way he was treating it got most of the people there less interested, and disappointed that they got excited in the first place.

Ben and Killua shared knowing glances from across the table. "Hey Ben," Sora started, and Ben literally hopped off his seat. Everyone looked over where they heard the splash, and watched as Ben came up out of the water completely soaked again since he had dried off a little a minute ago.

Ben turned to Sora who was staring at him oddly, "What?" the kid asked.

"Umm, I was gonna ask if you could pass me the salt," Sora said slowly, and started laughing as he did. "But I got it," he leaned over Ben's empty seat and grabbed the salt shaker himself. "Little jumpy there," he joked as the boy swam back to his seat.

"Y-Yeah, haha," Ben laughed. He got back on his chair, and a second later he felt a zap and yelped. Some people looked over at him again confusedly, but Ben just got back to eating his food. He looked up from his plate after a few seconds and saw Killua staring at him with a look that said, 'Seriously? I'll zap you again if you don't get it together!' He mouthed back 'sorry' before continuing to eat in a nervous mood.

After what turned out to be one of the rowdiest meals the crew had had since their journey started on Awul, the restaurant owners had to not-so-politely ask them to leave. The place still took credits from the NEG considering the new RNG was using the same currency, so for some reason Riku picked up the check. Apparently he had a lot of money, somehow.

 _The one perk of that asshole running my body for two years, he was prepared,_ Riku thought while their group swam and walked down one of the streets of Atlantis. _**"Lest you not forget, I am always listening. You should watch what you think."**_ Ansem's voice echoed in Riku's mind and he grumbled under his breath. Not being able to think freely would be bothersome on anyone, but having to share thoughts with someone he hated, that was a lot more difficult.

"Hey, you alright?" Ben asked his friend as they swam with the top halves of their bodies out of the water next to each other. Most of their friends were in the water, but Goku and a couple of others who had feet were taking a break and walking on the sidewalk next to the waterway.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Riku replied. Wanting to get off the topic he looked around and said, "This city's really amazing huh?" Ben looked around as well and they admired all the tall buildings and floating bubbles each with different stories inside them. "Look at all that we can accomplish in just two years. When everyone works together..." Riku got sidetracked and smiled as he spotted three kids running down the sidewalk on his left side. The kids swerved in and out of their friends' legs who were walking the other direction. Riku spotted two boys and a girl, all happy, playing.

"Riku?" Ben questioned again. Riku was slowing down and only when Ben spoke up did he notice the rest of their group had gotten farther ahead of them. Riku hurried to catch up and Ben swam by his side, asking, "Are you sure you're alright?"

Riku nodded, though this time he was less sure of himself. He looked over his shoulder to see those three kids again, but the sidewalk was empty. He turned to Ben and opened his mouth, then closed it and shook his head once. He could see their friends were discussing something up at the next intersection and he motioned towards it with his head. "Let's go check it out."

They kicked their merman tails and sped towards their friends all gathered in a bunch. "I'm telling you!" Luffy shouted. He sniffed a few times in the air and pointed to the left, "I'm sure of it, there's some delicious food that way!"

"We just got food baka!" Sanji snapped at his always-hungry captain.

"Well, I could eat," Goku said, smiling over at Luffy who grinned back and started laughing. He could smell what Luffy was talking about too and he wanted a taste.

"I told Nami-san I would get her some clothes from a shopping mall here," Juvia spoke up.

"I'll come with you," Gray offered, and Juvia's face lit up at the offer.

"Goku, you can call us all together later still," Sora reminded the spiky haired Atlantian on the sidewalk next to him. Everyone looked over at Sora who continued with a shrug, "How about we split up now, and meet back up at that restaurant when we're ready for dinner? Then we could all head up to the ship together since it will be hard to find on our own."

The others started nodding with Sora's suggestion, and then Sora turned to Kairi and gave her a huge smile. Kairi blushed, and then Sora turned back and said, "Well, um, see you guys later!" He turned, grabbed Kairi by the hand, and they swam off quickly down the waterway.

"Hehe, you're going a little fast Sora," Kairi told her fiancé.

"Well we got interrupted earlier with Ben's arrest," Sora mentioned which made both him and Kairi start laughing. He looked back into her bright blue eyes and whispered, "Let's finish that swim."

Over at the larger group that watched them leave, Sora was not the only impatient one. "Let's go Goku!" Luffy shouted and threw his hands up in the air. The pufferfish-man had two legs and started running down the sidewalk with Goku right next to him.

Gray motioned with his head to the right and Juvia smiled at him. He locked an arm in hers and they started swimming away. Natsu watched his fellow Fairy Tail wizards swim off and would have liked to go along, but he figured their outing was more of a date than anything and though he would like to mess that up for Gray, he'd rather not do that to Juvia. "Alright, Ben what do you want to do?" Natsu turned to his younger friend who he thought was right behind him.

When Natsu turned though, his lower lip dropped and he spotted Dash, Ben, and Riku halfway down the waterway they just came from. The three of them were in the middle of a conversation and did not hear a word he said. "Hey! Wait up!" The merman with pink hair chased the other three who looked back, smirked, and then raced off. Natsu became flustered and then his teeth sharpened and he sped up after them.

"Haha catch us if you can Natsu!" Dash called behind him.

"You're a turtle!" Natsu yelled. It was not as much an insult as it was just a straight up fact at this point. The others laughed as even as a turtle, Dash was too fast for Natsu to catch up with.

* * *

A few miles away from Atlantis, and much farther below the ocean, a giant octopus with ten eyes was swimming down into a dark crevice. The seafloor was split and the crack looked like a pitch black fissure ripped open in the ground. The eighty foot tall octopus swam down into the crack and went down and down until a little amount of light shone through the bottom. It squeezed through the smallest part of the crack which happened to be at the bottom, and then swam lower beneath a few blinking red buoys around the crack.

Once it descended below the buoys, it became able to sense the other thousands of creatures below the fissure. The octopus swam past soldiers that saluted it as it swam by, and it descended lower to the fortress below. The fortress was made of coral and did not look very impressive compared to the palace in Atlantis. The octopus swam down and entered the fort before swimming into the main room of it. There were several intimidating figures around the room, but the octopus swam forward right up to the one in the middle who was wearing a crown. "Octavian," the muscular green sea creature wearing a crown greeted the red octopus.

"Important news my King," the octopus known as Octavian reported. He lifted his head and stared into the eyes of the Sea Clan King and continued, "Just earlier, the guardian of Atlantis, Kyogre, was defeated and captured by a non-Atlantian."

The others floating around the room looked over interestedly. One of them, a blue-and-white-striped fishman stepped forward and said, "Impressive. Now that it is gone, we should attack!"

"Quiet Zeo," Hordy Jones snapped at one of his commanders. The great white shark fishman growled loudly and turned to the Sea Clan King, "Even if Kyogre is gone, with Trunks protecting-"

"I have more news," Octavian interrupted Hordy. The leader of the New Fishman Pirates spun angrily to the larger sea creature, but his eyes widened at what it stated next.

The Sea Clan King opened up his eyes in surprise too, and then his mouth curled up into a vicious smirk. "That fool who murdered so many of our clan has been taken care of?" He stepped forward and his eyes narrowed, "Good. Then, it is time to show the Neptunes that they are not the rulers of this ocean." The green creature's arms, legs, and torso buffed out and his teeth sharpened. The others around the room started grinning and a tiny green figure with one eye rubbed his hands together menacingly.

Plankton grinned, _And in the confusion of the battle, I'll steal the Krabby Patty secret formula for sure._

The Sea Clan King clenched his fists at his sides. _I will tear the flesh off of all three Neptunes' bones. This ocean will be mine once more._

Hordy Jones looked around at the others and then glanced back at the three officers of his crew standing behind him. All three of them smirked and Hordy grinned his sharp teeth maliciously. _Plan whatever you want, by the end of this battle I will rule the seas and the land. Fishmen will exterminate the humans. And all I need to do it, is just within my grasp._

* * *

 **A/N Atlantis! Hope you enjoyed the chapter and are excited for the upcoming battles under the ocean! Ben captures Kyogre, Sora learns his role in Nexus's grand plan, and he's not the only one who hears it. Ben and Killua eavesdrop and find out they bit off more than they could chew, XD! What are those villains planning? Will their goal to take over the ocean (and the Krabby Patty formula) succeed? Find out next time on Nexus: Heroes Will Rise!**

qwerty

Goku will probably die, he can't be around forever but Gohan can take his father's place. Also aren't Timmy, the Saiyans and Luthor moving at lightspeed and faster-than-light speeds, not just supersonic speeds?

 **No spoilers :p, but I like the prediction! And yes to that question, but they don't always need to move at those incredibly fast speeds. Most of the time Supersonic speed should be enough for the job! Thanks for the review!**

Espada-001 chapter 8 . Jan 8

I like that Kirito's getting to open up with some of the crew, he needs more friends. Also I wonder if you plan on adding Yui to your story. Well till next time have a good day!

 **"Kirito needs more friends," yeah, I think so too XD. Who knows about Yui? (No spoilers :P). Haha thanks for another review, hope you enjoyed the chapter!**

joebob323 chapter 8 . 5h ago

Good job! sorry for the short review, but midterms are tomorrow! can't talk, as much as I'd want too!

 **Thanks, and good luck on your midterms!**

 **-Also, here's a quick list of the characters. (Haven't done this much lately since it's been the same cast mainly, but as a refresher and for those new characters in Atlantis, here we go):**

 **DBZ: Goku, Gohan, Trunks, Vegeta**

 **Spongebob Squarepants: Krabby Patty, Plankton, Neptune 3**

 **Little Mermaid: Triton (Neptune 1), Ariel**

 **One Piece: Neptune 2, Fukaboshi, Manboshi, Shirahoshi, Ryuboshi, Luffy, Thousand Sunny, Nami, Robin, Franky, Sanji, Usopp, Jimbei, Zeo, Hordy Jones, Zoro**

 **Pokemon: Kyogre, Groudon**

 **Naruto: Zabuza**

 **Fairy Tail: Gray, Natsu, Juvia, Wendy**

 **Blue Exorcist: Rin, Kuro**

 **HxH: Killua**

 **Ben 10: Ben**

 **Incredibles: Dash**

 **One Punch Man: Sea Clan King**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Riku, Ansem, Sora, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, Goofy**

 **SAO: Kirito**

 **Young Justice: Garth**

 **Fairly Oddparents: Timmy**


	10. Nexus HWR 2-3 The All Powerful Trident

**A/N Hey guys! So, I know I kind of posted a dozen chapters in ten days, then took a few weeks off before this one, so my b on that one. I had all of those chapters written out, but I was in the middle of working on a much later chapter when I hit this one, and I had to move back into college, then get settled, and now a full week is over... really, main thing was I didn't have this chapter finished yet. I literally just finished before I'm editing it, but on the plus side, the next six chapters are all finished already, so look forward to some quick updates these next few days! Well, on to the story!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story. None at all. Even one or two that may be made up, they're not mine, just in case! All proper nouns actually, so don't go saying I claimed to own the Krabby Patty, 'cause I don't. Alright. Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Nexus HWR 2.3 The All Powerful Trident**

"Come on please," Luffy moaned at the sponge standing in front of him at the table. The sponge was wearing a fish bowl over its head full of water, as the half of the restaurant they were in was out of it. Luffy and Goku kept shoveling down the burgers on their plates as fast as they came out and they were so delicious that Luffy requested the formula to give to Sanji to make on their ship.

"I keep saying no," Spongebob complained at the rubber pirate. "The Krabby Patty formula is a secret!"

"Pleeaaassseee," Luffy moaned, then shoved another patty into his mouth and kept chewing. His body was already bloated and he really looked like a pufferfish now with his sides all pushed out. He burped and asked again, "I'll only let Sanji know it. Then-"

"Unless you are a member of the Krusty Krab staff, the Krabby Patty formula is forbidden." Spongebob declared. He crossed his arms to show that decision was final and Luffy moaned again but stopped asking.

"These really are good though," Goku complimented the fry cook who kept making them more. He patted his stomach and said, "I'm full now. The last restaurant was good but not very filling. Thank you." He stood up and bowed at the yellow sponge who smiled at all the praise.

Luffy was about to stand up too, but there was still a pile of burgers on his plate. He stretched his arm around them all, lifted them up, and unhinged his jaw with his rubber powers to shove the rest in at one time. Most other people in the room who had burgers half-lifted to their mouths saw this and immediately lowered back down their food, for some reason losing their appetites. Luffy burped again and stood up next to Goku, still looking like a ball because he was so filled up.

"Alright, so how will you be paying?" Spongebob Squarepants asked the two of them.

Luffy turned to Goku and the man looked back at him. "Do you have any money?" Luffy asked. Goku shook his head and asked the same thing back to Luffy who also replied with 'no.'

Spongebob's eyes went wide and he started turning around, but only made it about halfway before a crab came flying up out of the water behind them and landing on the upper floor full of air. Mr. Krabs had his mouth open ready to scream, but he gasped and started running around frantically. He sprinted to the wall and grabbed a glass bowl full of water that he slammed over his head and sighed out a breath of fresh water. Once that was out of the way, his enraged look returned and he spun back around, "Did you just say, you don't have any money?!" He yelled.

"Who's this?" Luffy asked the sponge next to him.

"Mr. Krabs, calm down," Spongebob began.

Krabs marched forward and he started snapping his claws in front of him angrily. "Earlier today some rocks fell on me' house, and I am not in a good mood Spongebob." He clicked his claws a few more times and marched up to the two. The red crab leaned up towards Luffy's face, "So how will you be paying for all that food filling your gullet?"

"Guess we should have asked Riku to lend us some credits," Goku said in hindsight. "We can go get him and come back," he offered.

"Oh no you won't," Eugene Krabs snapped. "How do I know you won't go running off without paying?" He growled and turned around to do some quick math in his head. When Krabs spun back he looked even angrier, "From the amount of patties you ate, you have to work here for eight hundred and sixty three days to pay it all off."

"Ah!" Luffy exclaimed. "Not again!" He thought back to Baratie when Owner Zeff forced him to work at the restaurant because he damaged the roof. "We'll get you the money," Luffy begged and put his hands together. "We just have to call Riku over here." Luffy suddenly had a great idea and turned to Goku, "Hey, you can do it with your Atlantian powers."

"Oh yeah," Goku said. "Totally forgot about those," he laughed to himself and Luffy did as well. Krabs frowned at them but it looked like they had an idea to get him his money so he waited to see how it would turn out before chewing them out some more.

Goku put his hand to his head and thought about Riku, sensing him out inside the city, and while he was thinking he started hearing voices in his head. _**"I'm just saying if you're going to help out sometimes, you may as well just be cooperative all the time!" "Why would I want to help you?" "Isn't it boring just sitting in my mind doing nothing? At least-"**_ **"Um, Riku?"** Goku interrupted the conversation he was listening to and both voices on the other side of his mental link shut up. **"Goku?"** Riku asked hesitantly. **"Did you hear-"** _**"Me and Luffy ate a bunch of Krabby Patties and we can't pay for it. Could you come to the Krusty Krab with some money?"**_

Riku sighed at his friends' irresponsibility. He shouted something to Ben, Dash, and Natsu, then talked back to Goku, **"I'm on my way. Stay put."**

Goku thanked him and then lowered his hand from his head. He turned to Mr. Krabs, "Riku's on his way," he said.

Luffy sighed in relief and Mr. Krabs nodded his head in a satisfied way. "He better get here fast," the restaurant owner grumbled. He did not smile but the idea of so much money did make him feel a little better about what he just heard over the phone. _"Our insurance doesn't cover total annihilation Mr. Krabs..." "Your insurance payment was five months behind Mr. Krabs." Well what good was your insurance in the first place!_ Krabs mumbled incoherently under his breath and Luffy and Goku shared a look. They each thought about how Ben was the one who caused the crab's property damage and reminded themselves not to bring it up.

* * *

"Now that Riku's gone, what do you guys want to do?" Ben asked the other two with him.

Natsu and Dash shared a look and both shrugged, Dash looking pretty silly as he did as his shoulders could not lift over the hole in his turtle shell. "Well, let's go explore the city then," Ben suggested. The other two seemed fine with that and they started swimming around the canals of Atlantis. They saw some cool sea creatures and dove underwater at some point to go to the lower sections of the city.

While they were swimming around at the lower levels, Dash spotted something and he muttered, "No way."

Ben and Natsu turned as well and their hearts started beating faster and their faces turned red. "How does he…" Ben started and then shook his head like mad. He opened back up his eyes, but the sight in front of him was definitely for real.

Sora was swimming around the water far in front of them with one arm locked with Kairi. The two of them were swimming forward as dozens of mermaids chased after them. There were three mermaids at the front of the pack who were more beautiful than most, even though all of them were drop-dead gorgeous. The boy and his fiancé spotted the other three and they changed directions, swimming over to them instead.

"Ah! Why's he coming over here?" Dash exclaimed in panic, his arms, legs, and his head all shrinking back into his shell a little.

Ben and Natsu were a little more composed, lifting up their hands and running them through their hair to make sure they looked good. "Hey guys," Sora called out as he swam up to them. He looked a little flustered himself and he swam right past them before stopping and turning around. The three mermaids who were closest to his back stopped before crashing into the three boys Sora just hid behind. Sora laughed a few times and he said, "This is Ariel, and her two friends Shirahoshi and Mindy. They're the Neptunes' daughters."

"Ehh?" Ben and the others exclaimed at the same time. "So wait, they're all, princesses?" Ben asked.

"Well, yeah," Sora said and he started laughing as did Ariel and her friends.

"Why were they all chasing you?" Dash whispered, though the girls in front of him heard the little boy too.

"Actually," Ariel began. She chuckled a few times and did a spin in the ocean in front of the boys, "On my own world there's this wonderful man, Eric. We're in love, and my father is okay with that, but the other two Neptunes…" She faded off and giggled a few times to herself as the two mermaids on her sides went red in the face. The beautiful red haired mermaid continued, "They want to find suitors for their daughters, so I suggested they come meet my friend Sora with me."

Shirahoshi, the giant mermaid bigger than all the others with long pink hair and a cute face shied away and then looked back at the other boys. She spoke in a quiet whisper, "My father does not really care much."

"Mine does," Mindy mumbled in a more annoyed voice. She was the only princess out of them who had short hair, hers black, and she wore a pair of circular glasses over her eyes. She had on a more modest pink shirt too, unlike all the other mermaids who were wearing bikini tops that left little to the imagination.

As Dash was still trying to comprehend what the girls told them, he added, "And what about the rest of them?"

A mermaid with freckles on her face, long curly black hair, and a tail of stripes of black and white looked at the little blond boy and said, "When we heard there was a suitable man for one of the princesses, we had to make sure to get to him first." Ishilly smiled and then swam forward towards the little turtle, "Though you are quite the cutey yourself. Nice shell." She giggled at the turtle-boy's red face and the other mermaids went 'awww' at how cute he was when he blushed.

Kairi turned to Sora who was laughing and she gave him a look that made him stop laughing and gulp. Sora chuckled nervously and he looked back up at the huge mermaid princess and all the other beautiful mermaids around her. The fact that Ariel and Shirahoshi both had heads full of red, or reddish hair, made Sora glance back at Kairi and remember the little argument they had on Midway island about all of Sora's red haired girl friends. _Guess she does have a point,_ he tried not to laugh and turned back to Ariel, "Actually," he started. Sora lifted up his own right hand and turned it so the girls could all see the little golden ring on his fourth finger.

"Oh my God," Ariel exclaimed and she swam forward so fast that Ben and Natsu had to swim out of the way to avoid getting hit into. Ariel swam up to Sora and Kairi and started exclaiming how happy she was for them, while Mindy sighed and Shirahoshi giggled. Most of the other mermaids however, moaned in defeat and then their eyes shifted to the other mermen closer to them. Natsu and Ben were sticking their chests out while pretending like they were looking away and not paying attention.

Ishilly looked away from Dash to the other boys next to her, then she looked back at the rest of the pack of mermaids. They all shrugged, and then started swimming away and talking to each other. Natsu and Ben un-puffed out their chests and the boys gawked at the retreating mermaids.

Sora could not hold it in and he broke the conversation with the girls to start cracking up at his friends' expense. Ben spun around and he shouted, "Hey, what's so… so…" He could not finish his sentence as his eyes were getting wider and wider and his jaw kept dropping. Mindy and Shirahoshi backed up and when Natsu turned around his jaw dropped as well. Sora and the girls on either side of him thought everyone was staring at them at first, then turned around as they saw where they were really looking.

"Oh no," Ariel whispered in shock.

"Sora, that doesn't look good," Kairi began to her future husband.

Sora nodded his head and his look of shock vanished quickest. He snapped his head around and saw so many fish, fishmen, mermaids, and other sea creatures swimming around down here. "I have to go," he said, snapping his head back to look at Kairi. "Go find Riku and the others, tell them what's happening." Kairi nodded her head at him a few times and then Sora took her hands in his own. "Remember what I promised you?"

"Always," Kairi replied and she smiled at him.

"I'll come back to you," he shouted and let go of her hands, swimming off in the direction of the enormous army of monsters and fish carrying weapons and heading for the edge of the city.

Panic started spreading and sirens went off, but Kairi held her hands to her chest and stared after Sora with a smile on her face. The girl whispered softly under her breath, "I know you will."

* * *

"Do you guys hear that?" Riku started as he was extending his hand to give Mr. Krabs the money his friends owed.

He, Luffy, and Goku all turned to the wall on the right side of the Krusty Krab. Mr. Krabs was so close to grabbing Riku's money when the teenage merman stopped and pulled his arm back. "Hey! What's the big idea?" Krabs lifted up his big meaty claws and snapped them in front of him a few times. The three in front of him were ignoring him completely though as they listened through the wall and heard screams coming from outside the Krusty Krab.

Other patrons were getting out of their seats and some people and fish came swimming up out of the water and jumping onto the solid part of the restaurant. "Mr. Squarepants!" Krabs shouted. A yellow sponge ran up in front of his boss and Krabs looked down at him, "Go see what the ruckus is out there."

Spongebob saluted to the tall white hat sitting on top of his head, "Aye aye sir!" He turned to the right wall and ran towards one of the doors there, but as he reached his hand out for it Son Goku appeared in front of him. The Saiyan held his right hand out and Spongebob opened his mouth to ask what the Atlantian was doing, but before he could, half of the wall in front of them ripped apart and the metal door flew inwards. The door flew straight into Goku's right palm and bent around it, Goku not flinching at all.

Riku surrounded in a flash of white light and his merman tail was replaced by a set of legs. He was not very good at transformation magic, but turning back into a human was easy for him. He ran forward easier on land with normal legs like Luffy and Goku had, and he formed his red and black curved Keyblade in his hand as he ran. He slashed back and forth across wooden planks flying into the room at fast speeds that would have hurt the other patrons inside. He sighed in relief as he cut through a plank he would not have been fast enough to reach otherwise and checked if the couple behind him and their infant daughter were alright.

"Me' restaurant!" Krabs roared in anger.

"What's happening?!" A fishman yelled.

"Ahh!"

The wall's hole revealed a horrible sight outside of the restaurant. Half a mile away there were three figures marching through the city of Atlantis. The figures were massive sea monsters with spears and tridents in their hands. One of the figures was a big green monster on two legs with five black eyes, another was a red squid-like creature, and the third looked like a massive great white shark. All of them were shouting and smashing their weapons and claws into buildings around them.

Floating above and around the bubble was an even more terrifying sight. The entire bubble that held the undersea city of Atlantis was surrounded by an army of fishmen, angry fish, squids, octopi, other massive Seafolk, and robots. There were soldiers in suits of armor with visors on their black masks, the only parts of their entire bodies that were not completely covered in the tight black material surrounding them. Those soldiers looked human, or at least humanoid as they had two arms and legs, and the visors on their masks were glowing red, just like the ends of the tridents they were all holding.

Above the army were a few particularly menacing figures. A green Seafolk stood there in the water, his crown barely fitting on his huge horrifying head. His teeth were sharper than razors and longer than those of a great white shark. His muscles were huge and Goku could feel from the Krusty Krab that this was the strongest figure in the sea around him. Before he could get to him though, there were other menacing figures in the way.

One of those figures floated above the soldiers in black suits, wearing one of his own except that he also had a helmet on that made his head look fat like an oval. There were two glowing red lines on his helmet, and Black Manta pointed his trident down at the city below. Thousands of fishmen roared and charged down at the bubble, while his own men fired the tridents in their hands that worked as beam rifles as well. Holes popped all over the city's barrier and water poured in by the hundreds of gallons.

"This is not good!" Spongebob yelled. Water shot down in jets because of all the pressure pushing on it, and one of those jets hit a building not far from them, blowing its roof apart and showing how powerful the water was.

The Atlantian army swam around the bursting bubble and met the enemies in the water above, while across the city from them they could see Neptune 2 facing off against a few Seafolk. Goku started flying up towards the bubble, dodging falling jets of water that shot to the surface of the city and smashed buildings. Luffy became nervous he was going to drown for a second, before remembering that he was actually a pufferfish and smirked. He threw his hands up to the roof and rocketed himself towards the bubble after Goku who was actually slowing down.

The pirate shot up towards the top of the bubble and a few of the fishmen attacking the bubble stopped. One of their commanders stopped as well and he swam backwards in fear. Zeo spun around and yelled, "Captain Hordy! It's Straw Hat!"

Hordy snapped his gaze over from where he was floating under the Deep Sea King, and his eyes went wide and red at the sight of the pirate shooting up at the bubble's roof with a straw hat hanging on his back. "Attack them!" Hordy roared, and swam towards the bubble himself. He fired his trident and Luffy's eyes widened as he spotted Hordy for the first time, but before he could shout his enemy's name, the red beam hit him in the chest and sent him flying back down.

Riku got ready to chase after Luffy and Goku, when a larger hole ripped in the bubble and he saw that rip growing and growing. _They did it, they destroyed the barrier. All of Atlantis is going to flood…_ his eyes opened wide and he looked down at his legs. _Crap!_ He rose up his Keyblade and swung it around, but he did not know the magic to turn himself back into a merman. "Umm," he looked around and he had no idea what he was going to do. As he was thinking, he heard a smash behind him and spun partially before getting hit by a wall of the Krusty Krab knocked down by a flood of water.

All of Atlantis started filling up. Those who swam up from the lower section to see what was going on found that the amount of air in the city was rapidly decreasing. They swam higher and popped their heads out of the surface to see debris floating everywhere as the force of all those gallons of water dropping down crushed homes and businesses alike. Riku was getting swept away by a wave and the teen was cursing to himself every time his head appeared above the water. "Sora!" He called out as his mouth came over for a second. No one responded and another wave coming from the other direction pushed him back under.

 _Stupid. Stupid!_ Riku was getting tumbled around underwater and he knew his only way out. _Don't worry guys. I'll be back. I'll bring help too._ A black portal appeared behind Riku and it pulled in the teen along with a mass of water. Another portal opened up miles above, right above a ship sailing slowly over the water on a day with very little wind.

Nami turned to her friend Robin as they lounged about on the deck. "You know," she began and Robin turned to her friend and lowered her sunglasses. Nami smiled, "It's a really peaceful day here without all-"

 _ **Splash!**_ The sudden appearance of a black portal above Nami and Robin dropped buckets of water on their heads and a teenage boy down in between the two of them. Nami yelled in panic and jumped to her feet while Robin turned and looked at the teen in more surprise than anything else. "Riku-san, what are you doing here?"

Riku was gasping for air and he sat there on his hands and knees for a few seconds just panting hard. The others ran out on the deck when Nami screamed and Franky and Rin started asking him what happened. Riku was short for breath, but he lifted up his head and looked towards the youngest boy already on the deck with him. "Timmy, Atlantis, it's under attack."

"Atlantis?" Franky and Rin mumbled together and looked at each other. "You guys actually found it?" They deadpanned.

"Who's attacking it?" Timmy questioned, not as surprised as the others.

"An entire army," Riku replied fast. "Quickly, we need to get back down there."

"Alright," Timmy said and nodded his head. "Turn us into mermen and we'll go-" he stopped short as Riku's eyes opened wide and the teen shook his head. "You can't?" Timmy asked.

"No," Riku muttered angrily. "I turned into a human to move faster on land, but the bubble around the city was popped and I couldn't find Sora to turn me back. I thought, maybe you could-"

"No," Timmy replied, sounding sad. _Wanda could have turned us in an instant. Because she was always with me, I, I never thought I would need the power to transform on my own. I thought I would always be able to ask her to do it for me._

"There's another way!" Nami shouted. Timmy rose his head and lost his depressed look to instead look confusedly at Nami. The woman pretended she did not jump up and shout it solely because she saw the look on Timmy's face, and instead shouted, "The Shark Submerge!"

"Shark Submerge III," Franky corrected her, and she darted him an angry look to show she could not care less.

"Alright quickly, get it in the water," Riku said. The teen ran back to the side of the ship as Franky jogged off to fix up the submarine he built. Riku looked off the side and down at the water below him, "It's chaos down there."

* * *

"The Krabby Patty formula will be mine!" Plankton yelled. The small green sea creature was sitting in the cockpit of a massive mechanical monster that looked like himself only silver. The giant eye on the front of the robot glowed red and the monster reached its arms down to grab other walls of the Krusty Krab and rip them off as well.

"Plankton! Stop this!" Spongebob yelled.

"He's destroying me' restaurant!" Krabs exclaimed.

"Hey!" Luffy shouted. The pirate who got sent crashing back down to the Krusty Krab by Hordy stood there with a pissed off look in his eyes. He punched his right arm to his side and his entire body started steaming.

Plankton turned a little to the pirate floating in front of him, "What do you want?"

"Stop destroying this restaurant! It has really good food!" Luffy slammed a fist forward so fast that neither Krabs nor Spongebob, nor Plankton himself for that matter, could see him. Plankton felt the fist though as it smashed into his robot and dented the front of it inwards. The entire thing stumbled backwards and the cockpit started flashing red lights. Plankton screamed, and the robot he was inside exploded in one massive fireball.

Luffy snapped back his hand and the steam around him went away. His red skin shaded back to normal and he looked up to see a small green creature floating down above the flames. Plankton waved a pointy fist down at the hole in the restaurant and yelled, "Curse you Krabs! When did you hire new security?!"

Luffy swam up through the water and he raced right past the tiny creature falling towards the crumbling Krusty Krab. Plankton lifted up his arms in fear, but he only got flipped around by the rush of water that hit him as Luffy swam by. He stopped spinning and looked up like the others around him were all doing. Luffy swam up and up towards the rapidly shrinking top of the bubble. Debris was getting smashed around as water popped large bubbles all over. An army of fishmen and soldiers in black uniforms, all with tridents glowing orange, descended into the city of Atlantis. The Atlantian army mobilized and came in from every direction, and a loud explosion went off on the outside of town.

As Luffy swam up, he turned his head a little and looked out to the tower where they were brought before the Council of Neptunes. His eyes widened at the sight of all the black smoke over there and the dust and rubble lifting up into the water as the building crumbled. Luffy snapped his gaze back up and he swam left and right to dodge beams as they shot towards him. There was a large gap between the enemies swimming down into the city and the soldiers firing up at them, but in that gap were several figures swimming straight up through the hails of laser fire.

Black Manta, the leader of a large section of the enemy army, floated up a little as he watched these fish and mermen swim between laser fire like they were dodging rocks. They were so fast that it was hard to follow them and he shouted, "Who the Hell are these people?!"

Luffy raced forward and he turned left a little. Swimming up over there were Sora and Kirito. He looked right and spotted Sanji swimming up with Gray and Juvia right behind him. The pirate captain snapped his gaze back up towards the army above him who stopped descending. They all trained their gunfire on the man at the front of their attackers, but Luffy dodged everything they fired at him. He swam faster and faster and his teeth bared furiously at the sight of the monsters above him.

"Mugiwara!" Hordy Jones roared down. "Men!" He looked around and rose up his arm to point down, "Attack!"

Luffy swam towards the pack of enemies who all lifted their trident rifles that worked as melee weapons too. They charged at the man below them, but he swam up in between all of them faster than they could stab him. They slashed and swiped, but he darted in and out up to Hordy's officers. Luffy threw an arm far back behind him, stretching fifty feet and spinning around in the water. The end of his arm turned black and Luffy roared as he brought it forward. "Horrrrdddyyy!" Luffy screamed.

His Gum Gum Rifle covered in Armament Haki slammed into Hordy Jones' gut so fast that the officers in front of Hordy who moved in to attack Luffy did not see it coming. They looked in and then back to see Luffy's fist indented so far in Hordy's stomach that it showed on his back. "Hawk RIFLE!" the rubberman roared.

The officers who had been defeated by Luffy's crew once before all turned back to the pirate captain. "Don't let him attack the captain!"

Four fishmen moved in on Luffy at the same times. The strongest officers of Hordy's crew. Luffy stopped swimming for a second and he snapped his arm back to his side. They all brought down their weapons, and Luffy lifted up his head the smallest bit. His black pupils dilated and white circles formed in the middles of them. Every soldier watching above and below him lowered their bottom lips as the four officers of Hordy's gang stopped attacking and fell backwards unconscious instead without their opponent even touching them.

"Where are you looking?" a man asked below a section of the enemy army.

A bunch of figures in black suits spun around and started lifting up their tridents at the young man below them. He slammed his left fist into his right palm first though, and shouted, "Deep Freeze!"

Gray froze a hundred square feet of water above him and all of the soldiers inside it. Other men aimed their weapons at him, only for condensed jets of water to slice straight through their tridents and then whip across their bodies and smashing them into each other. They looked down and they filled with terror as a blue haired mermaid's body turned into a massive monster and she rose up huge dark blue hands that started boiling the water around her. "Juvia will not let you touch her Gray-sama!"

Ben, Natsu, and Dash were still swimming up through the large gap between the two armies that was filled with a lot less gunfire than before. They stopped as they saw Juvia's massive body and the boys looked at each other. "Remind me not to get Juvia mad when we're around large bodies of water," Ben stated, and he looked back up at the girl whose body was a hundred feet tall and had no physical form for her enemies to damage no matter how many times they shot at her.

Gray was not going to be showed up in front of Juvia though. He created two giant bats of ice that he swung back and forth in the water, smashing his enemies back and freezing them solid as his ice was cold enough to solidify all the water touching his opponents.

"What are you fools doing?!" Black Manta shouted at his troops as they were getting batted away like minnows. He swam down himself and lifted up his trident that he pointed at the mage using ice magic.

"Gray-sama look out!" Juvia shouted as their enemy fired. She moved her water body in the path of the shot and it exploded inside her. Juvia's body got scattered and the Rain Woman yelled out in pain.

Ben heard the yell up to his right and watched as Gray swam over and held Juvia who reformed in his arms. "Juvia," Ben growled angrily. Natsu also growled something of the sort but when he tried to light his fists on fire, all that came out was steam. "I've got this Natsu," Ben claimed, and he swam up towards the leader of the armored enemies.

Black Manta glared down at the boy swimming his way and he pointed his trident at him. "I've had enough of these children doing whatever, they, want?" Black Manta lowered his trident and the red eyes on the front of his mask opened up wide. "What?!" Black Manta yelled.

The Sea Clan King watching from up above glared down at the huge red light that appeared between Ben and one of his commanders. Ben lowered the red and white ball in his hand and he pointed a finger up at his enemy. "Kyogre!" Ben yelled at the huge blue Pokemon above him. "Body Slam him!"

Kyogre swam forward and every enemy in the way got thrown to the sides by its power. Black Manta turned and swam back, and back, and then yelled out and threw his arms to the side as Kyogre slammed head-first into his back.

Black Manta went soaring through the water and Ben pumped a fist in the air. The young merman did a spin and yelled, "Oh yeah!"

"Nice one Ben," Natsu admitted with a nod. "How about taking down that guy up there?" Natsu pointed at the green muscular monster at the top of the enemy army, and the Sea Clan King glared back down at them.

Ben gulped at the sadistic expression on the monster's face and nodded his head. "Kyogre!" He yelled out. "Use Hydro Pump on that guy!" He pointed at the monster at the top of the enemy army. Kyogre turned around and swam back through the ocean towards Ben. "Good, now up! Up there!" Ben pointed, but his new Pokemon did not obey. He and Natsu had to swim fast in either direction to avoid the beast.

"What was that?!" Natsu yelled at his younger friend.

"I don't know!" Ben yelled back, just as confused.

Gray was making sure Juvia was okay, but he looked up and shouted over, "Ben! The stronger a Pokemon, the less likely it will follow your orders! Especially if you're not very close with each other, and you just met Kyogre today!"

"That's not true," Ben growled, and he spun to look Kyogre in the eyes as it turned to face him again. "Hey Kyogre!" He called at it. "I know you remember me from way back then! You may have beaten me then, but I caught you fair and square! Now, use Hydro-"

A beam of ice shot out of Kyogre's mouth and froze the ocean between the Atlantian forces and their enemies. Beams in mid-flight through the water froze inside the ice cube. Ben face-palmed and called out, "That's not what I said!"

"Ben run!" Natsu yelled.

Ben heard Natsu at the same time he saw the dark shadow fall over him. "So you're the one who captured Kyogre?" Ben turned more and his eyes opened wide at the sight of a fist flying towards him. He rose his arms to block but the force of the punch broke straight through his guard and hit him in the face and chest. "Pathetic," the Sea Clan King said. "If the Legendary beast fell to such a weak human, we should have taken over months ago."

Natsu had no idea where Ben went. One second the boy was floating next to the monster, and the next the monster's fist was forward and Ben was gone. There was a trail of white water surrounding a narrow tube of air that went down beneath him all the way to the mostly rubble city of Atlantis. He followed the tunnel down as water broke in from the sides and filled in the areas where all the water was displaced because of how fast Ben was sent crashing down. "Ben?" Natsu questioned, his eyes opening wide.

A shadow fell over him a second later and he snapped his gaze straight up, only to see the face of that green monster, pale white with fins sticking off the sides of his head and a crown on top. Its yellow eyes glowed and Natsu started to lift his arms but the Sea Clan King was much too fast underwater. Natsu rose his arms to block the fist coming down at him, but he never even saw the knee rising that slammed him in the solar plexus and bent his entire body over it. He gasped and blood splashed out of his mouth, before he went shooting up through the water towards the surface.

A turtle with blond hair swam as fast as it could over towards the Sea Clan King. The monster rippling with green muscles turned at the last second as Dash pulled back a fist. Sure, his speed powers let him move faster than normal turtles, and he could even keep up with his mermen friends, but he was no longer a super-speedster underwater. The Sea Clan King grinned maniacally at the boy in that second that Dash tried to still his momentum and skid through the water.

Luffy spun around from the army he was in the middle of fighting and glared down at the enemy down below who pulled back a fist to hit Dash with. "Dash!" Luffy yelled. He began swimming down, but something grabbed the pufferfish by the right leg, and he turned around to see Hordy Jones, trails of blood coming down either side of his lips, holding him there. "I don't have time to fight you!" Luffy yelled, and he turned his left fist black, leaned back towards Hordy, and slammed his fist down on the shark fishman's skull hard.

Hordy bit down and his teeth shattered, his eyes rolling back in his head. The fishman started to fall and his armies backed away from Luffy, but the rubberman was far too late to stop the Sea Clan King from slamming his fist forward. Dash clenched his eyes shut, and he felt the force of water slam into him so hard that he got sent backwards through the water, but he never felt a fist on his body. Dash's face was still scrunched up in his flinching expression, but when his eyes opened, they opened wide like everyone else in the ocean's.

"Wow! You are really strong," the Atlantian floating in the water between Dash and the Sea Clan King remarked. He had spiky black hair sticking out in every direction and on his face was a calm expression that included a competitive grin. He snapped his coal black eyes up into the monster's golden ones, the monster's eyes that were shaking like the rest of its body as it was not holding back. The Sea Clan King was planning on crushing the turtle right there, but now his attention was fully on the man in front of it. "I'll be your next opponent," Goku said, his eyebrows narrowing down. He released the monster's fist and floated back through the water ten feet as his enemy slowly backed away a good distance as well.

"Goku!" Natsu yelled. The Fairy Tail mage with pink hair kept swimming down back towards the battle, and the Sea Clan King glared up at him angrily that the mage survived the knee he slammed him with. "Where have you been?" Natsu called out.

Goku scratched the back of his head sheepishly and replied, "I had to rescue all those people first." Natsu and everyone else in the ocean followed where Goku was pointing and they saw a cliff a safe distance away from the devastation inside Atlantis covered completely in mermaids and fishmen. There were fish people all over it, every creature of the sea who Goku felt inside the city when he started racing around as fast as he could. It was the reason he did not keep going with Luffy up towards the enemy army at first, and every person there gawked as there were thousands upon thousands of sea creatures saved over there.

Spongebob stood next to Mr. Krabs and they both looked up into the higher part of the ocean in shock like most of their fellow Atlantians. "I can't believe it," Mr. Krabs muttered. "Me restaurant," he fell to his knees and held his claws up above him, "it's all gone! Ahhh!"

The Sea Clan King was thinking of what to do when the name that Natsu called out echoed in his mind. It lowered its gaze back to the man in front of it and saw him grinning like a madman. _Only a fool would look that confident in this situation! Unless, this really is the rumored Son Goku._ The monster gulped and looked down, then closed its eyes for a second. _**"Octavian. Can you hear me?"**_ An octopus monster leading an assault a half-mile away and much farther down heard the voice in its head and replied affirmatively. _**"Good. Retrieve the trident. A Super Saiyan is here. Bring me that weapon NOW!"**_

The urgency was clear in the Sea Clan King's mental voice and Octavian shouted at his soldiers to follow him. The giant octopus swam off, while up higher in the ocean, most of the battle had ceased for the moment as Son Goku faced off against the enemy general. Two of the Neptunes floated at the top of the Atlantian army, a few injuries on Neptune 3's body but none on the massive orange haired Neptune 2. The two of them had their tridents in hand, a signature of undersea warfare apparently as it was the weapon of choice for most of the warriors there.

"Father," Fukaboshi started, swimming up to Neptune 2 with his younger brothers behind him. "Shirahoshi and the other princesses have been evacuated somewhere safe. We must stop that menace now-"

"I believe we will not have to, jamon," Neptune 2 replied while scratching his curly orange beard. "Son Goku will be able to handle this."

Almost as soon as he said it, the Sea Clan King moved a muscle, and Goku countered by swimming across the gap and spinning around his left leg. He did it so confidently, so assuredly, that the enemy leader was positive it was how he was really attacking. In the milliseconds before he was hit though, the Sea Clan King spotted that it was a feint and Goku's left fist was coming up for his chest. He had no idea that that was only the second of three feints Goku made during the entire encounter, and his head was rattled as Goku's left leg hit him under the chin.

A deafening silence fell over the enemy ranks, and simultaneously, cheers echoed through the ocean from the citizens and soldiers and royalty of the underwater kingdom.

* * *

Inside the council chamber for the Council of Neptunes, Neptune 1 lowered the trident he had pointed in front of him. Octavian was falling backwards with a hole in the front of his giant body. The other creatures of the Sea Clan backed up in fear of the trident, and the lower soldiers they brought with them stared in awe at the power of the weapon.

A fishman who was ordered to go with the giant octopus now watched as their temporary leader fell lifeless in front of them. _No wonder the boss wants that trident so bad._ The blue fishman lifted up his trident weapon that had a glowing red light on it and glared up at one of the Kings of the Sea.

"Lower your weapons now," Neptune 1 demanded in a booming tone that shook the council room. As he did, the blue fishman who just rose his weapon opened his eyes huge. Neptune 1 continued, "And I will let you live, attack me, and you will regret it."

The blue fishman swam forward and with all his strength threw his trident at the first Neptune. The former King Triton moved his head to the side and let the trident soar past him without touching his face. He glared down at the fishman who threw it while that creature's comrades stared at him in horror. Even the members of the Sea Clan looked at this fishman like he was an idiot for attacking Neptune 1 after the crowned King gave them an out.

When they looked back up at Neptune 1 though, their eyes widened into saucers. Neptune 1 thought it was because he was raising his trident at him, but the merman with a huge white beard froze as he heard a zap behind him. He started to turn his head, but his eyes popped open wide and his pupils dilated. His jaw dropped and blood seeped out of his open mouth, floating up in the water in front of his face and making it darker. He slowly turned his head while gritting his teeth and saw a shark fishman floating behind him, looking bloody and bruised, but holding up a trident, the same one his crew member just threw at Neptune 1. "Hor-dy," Neptune 1 snarled, before his eyes rolled up in his head and he dropped his trident, falling down towards the bottom of his council chamber.

The fishman who threw it smirked as the plan he could tell Hordy Jones wanted him to help with worked out. He spotted the Captain on the other side of the room, looking in from a window and waiting for his moment. "Great job," Hordy called down to the fishman who smirked even more at the Captain's praise.

The Captain of the New Fishmen Pirates swam forward and grabbed the much bigger, golden, trident right as five other creatures started swimming up for it. Neptune 1's body continued to sink down, a huge black mark on the center of his back from where Hordy shot a red beam into him. Hordy held his new trident in his hands and his lips curled up into a huge grin as he felt power flooding through him. "Hordy, good job with the trident," a huge yellow creature with four arms and eight eyes told the fishman above it.

Hordy Jones looked down and saw five of the Sea Clan looking up at him. "Now," one of them began, a green one with a spherical head and five black eyes. "Return to the battlefield. The King needs the trident if he is to defeat his opponent."

Hordy's huge grin started to lower and his eyes narrowed at the Sea Clan. The monstrous creatures looked around and noticed that all of the mermen and fishmen with them had swam out to the sides of the council chamber. "What is the meaning of this?!" one of the huge monsters yelled.

Hordy lifted up his trident. "The King already has his trident," he remarked. He pointed it at the Sea Clan, "So now what use is there for disgusting creatures like you?" The Seafolk roared and swam at him. Hordy's trident glowed bright golden though and the weapon shook violently. "The Sea Clan should have died out long ago, you abominations." A golden beam shot out of the trident, and never having used it before, Hordy Jones had no idea how much power he should use, or even how to hold back on what he fired. The beam expanded and his comrades swam backwards as it widened to cover all five of the shocked Sea Clan who had not seen Neptune 1 use that much power. The Neptune was trying to let them live however, and Hordy just smirked as he ripped apart his enemies.

The Captain held up his new trident and yelled, "There's no need for two Kings in this ocean!"

"Captain Hordy!" the rest of the fishmen and mermen yelled and pumped fists up in the air.

Hordy turned and looked up at the open roof of the council building. "Now, I think it's time the Sea Clan became extinct."

* * *

"THIS IS _MY_ OCEAN!" The Sea Clan King roared. His green muscles were bulging so hard that purple veins popped all over his skin. His eyes were no longer yellow but glowing orange with red lines going through them. The veins in his eyes popped and they became even redder, but when he charged forward through the water in rage, the man with spiky black hair did a spin to the left and as he finished coming around he stuck out his left leg.

Most creatures in the ocean did not see the Sea Clan King approach, but they did see Goku with his leg extended and the monster flying back with its head snapped back and blood coming out of its nose. They cheered again and when the Sea Clan King's head snapped back down in fury, his bloodshot eyes widened as Goku was no longer in front of him. Barely anyone else saw Goku move either, but their jaws dropped and the leader of the Seafolk started spinning around when he noticed the man standing behind him, facing the opposite direction. The Sea Clan King turned and Goku smacked his fist back over his right shoulder without looking behind himself at the monster.

"So cool," Dash whispered as he saw Goku knock the Sea Clan King away. He was swimming down towards where Ben was sent flying earlier, but he sighed in relief when he saw Ben coming back from down below with Kairi on his side. The auburn haired girl had out her pink Keyblade that just helped with healing her young friend. Kairi and Ben swam up but stopped to watch in awe as Goku punched and kicked the monster in the chest and stomach two dozen times before kicking him under the chin and while the King was rising, grabbing him by the legs, spinning around, and throwing him away into a mountain.

"Not another mountain," Neptune 3 said and facepalmed.

"Hohoho, it is not like we can stop him," Neptune 2 laughed.

The Neptunes and all of their subjects were watching the fight with risen interest, but they heard screaming behind them and looked away from the mountain Goku floated in front of. Natsu was looking down at Goku while grabbing his own stomach, still in a lot of pain from the hit earlier. He heard shouting as well though and looked the other way only to drop his jaw at the sight of a yellow beam crashing into the army of Atlantians.

Garth turned to his soldiers and yelled, "Fire back at- ahh!"

Hordy Jones dragged the trident in front of him and the yellow beam moved like a whip across the enemy forces. Princes Fukaboshi, Ryuboshi, and Manboshi swam in front of their troops and yelled, "HORDY!"

"Hahaha," the fishman who was twice as large as usual laughed menacingly. He rose up the trident and his body surrounded in a golden aura. The army of his waiting up in the higher ocean saw Hordy and started cheering his name. They were worried with Goku messing up their overall leader, but seeing their commander with the all-powerful trident rose their morale. Hordy fired the trident and the Princes yelled out in pain as they were close to him when the beam collided. "MEN!" Hordy Jones roared.

"YAAA!" The enemy army yelled. They lifted up weapons and bared their teeth down at the broken Atlantian army.

Hordy pointed his trident at the two Neptunes, one of whom was furious at the sight of his sons sinking to the bottom of the ocean. He fired his trident, and Neptune 2 and 3 fired their own back at him. Neptune 2's trident was powerful, but nowhere near as strong as the power of Neptune 3's. Still, neither of theirs could match the overwhelming power of Neptune 1's, even if it was in the hand of a monster like Hordy. Hordy's beam broke through the Neptunes' and their army gasped and backed away as their leaders were hit. Hordy would not let them run though, and he held his trident up above him, "MEN! ATTACK!"

"Hordy," Luffy growled as he glared down the ocean. He looked around and spotted members of his crew all around him. The enemy army started charging the Atlantians from all sides. The men who came from the council chamber with Hordy swam up while the rest of the army swam down, trapping the Atlantians between Hordy and his trident and an army even larger than their own. The Neptunes and Princes were all down, and even the commander of their forces, Garth, was laying motionless in the water covered in burns.

Luffy called out to his crew, "Stop their army! I'm going after Hordy!" He started swimming down, while Usopp and Sanji nodded at each other and then swam off to intercept the army. Many of Hordy's forces, including all of his commanders for the New Fishmen Pirates, were still unconscious from Luffy's blast of Conqueror's Haki before, but the ocean was still full of them. Usopp and Sanji swam towards the two armies to try and get in between them, but the snail and octopus were not moving fast enough.

The huge horde of bulky fishmen holding swords and glowing tridents reached the weak, wounded Atlantians. They slammed down or fired their weapons, and all of the red beams and swords bounced back towards them. The two armies froze and even Hordy looked past all the Atlantians in annoyance, wondering what just stopped his men. There was a huge translucent bubble at the front of the Atlantian army, and two young mermen floated there, one holding up a couple of swords, the other with two Keyblades crossed in front of his body.

The merman with spiky brown hair lowered the Keyblades from in front of his face and showed the big smirk on his face to the hesitant army before him. "Curandra!" Sora yelled. He slammed his Keyblades directly above him, and it looked like the ocean filled with algae behind him, as the entirety of the Atlantian forces became shrouded in a green fog. When the haze faded, so did every injury on the army. Sora was panting and he lowered his Keyblades, having used Reflendra right before. Two max-powered magical attacks were as much as he could get out without running out of Magical Power, but that did not mean he was out of the fight yet.

The Atlantian army looked rejuvenated and Sora yelled out, "Don't let them win!" He charged forward and Kirito grinned at the sight of the other teen charging in. He shook his head and then soared in himself with his swords out in front of him. Luffy grinned at the sight of them stopping the army, then turned back down to Hordy as Sanji and Usopp joined in the fight above as well. Atlantians and New Fishmen Pirates clashed in the ocean, making the sound of clanging weapons clank out all over the place.

Hordy himself was looking out towards a mountain where a figure was floating out of a huge hole in it. "Hordy," that figure growled. Goku looked from his opponent to the figure far behind him holding a weapon he could swear he had seen before. He did not recall where though. The Sea Clan King's voice sounded over all the weapons, "Bring me my trident."

Hordy smirked at the monster over at the mountain. "Your time is over, freak," he scoffed. The Sea Clan King's forehead covered in popped veins and its hands started trembling in rage. Hordy continued while holding up his trident, "Ursula, the Neptunes, your Sea Clan, none of you can stand up to the New Fishmen Pirates! We will rule!"

"Hey, where are you going?" Goku shouted and spun around as his opponent shot away from the mountain and was past him inside the second. Atlantians and pirates flew away from each other as an enraged monster covered in steam flew between them. Luffy almost reached Hordy and he shouted the pirate's name, but the Sea Clan King swam right past Luffy's right and the rubberman only started turning his head when the monster went by.

"He's mine!" Luffy yelled after the Sea Clan King, continuing to swim down for Hordy.

The Sea Clan King pulled back his hands and his muscles bulged, his claws extended, his teeth bared. Hordy rose up his trident and the tip of it glowed so bright that the armies floating above the battle started panicking thinking the attack would keep going and hit them. Everyone panicked, and Natsu's eyes opened wide as he realized he was right in the middle of all of it. He wasn't the only one, and Kirito, Usopp, and Sanji all became extremely nervous in that moment as Hordy pointed his mighty weapon at them.

"Don't' worry," Sora shouted and swung his Keyblade up in the air. He had been battling physically for long enough that his MP had risen again, and blue lights shimmered around all four of his friends in the path of the beam with him. He did not cover himself with the light and Kirito shouted at him, but Sora was panting and he did not have enough magic for a single extra barrier to protect himself with. Instead, he just crossed his arms and grit his teeth as he prepared for a blast from the trident.

Goku was not fully used to the water yet, but after seeing where the Sea Clan King was heading, he started swimming after him. The Saiyan did not swim too fast though, and a smile tugged at his face as he descended. _In his hands, this could actually be a good fight!_ Goku thought, eyes shining like a child who just saw some free candy.

It did not look like the Sea Clan King was going to get Hordy's trident though, as the trident glowed so bright the sea around it looked like it was being illuminated by the sun. Hordy yelled out and fired, and the Sea Clan King put on an extra burst of speed. Everyone above panicked and Luffy crossed his arms as the ocean lit up. Their friends even higher noticed there were translucent bubbles around them and looked over towards Sora who was yelling at the Atlantians he couldn't protect to run.

 _Now that they're all distracted. Time to move._

The water behind Hordy whooshed and a path of white water led from down below to a point directly behind his back. Hordy's eyes started to dart to the side, but they never made it before the hand came out the front of his chest. Hordy's eyes were still pointed forward, but his arms flinched and moved up, right as he fired the trident which sent the beam shooting above and away from most of his enemies, including the Sea Clan King. The huge green monster did not slow down as the beam flew overhead, and it wrapped its right hand around Hordy's neck, reaching out its left at the same time and grabbing the shaft of the trident from the fishman whose jaw was dropped and eyes were staring at a point a few inches in front of its chest.

Hordy stared at the beating heart sitting on a hand outside the front of his body. His rib cage was ripped open and pushed out of him to show that this heart was in fact his. The Sea Clan King looked to the side of Hordy's head for a moment as he grabbed the trident, and he saw a sparking bulb of an anglerfish in front of the face of a human boy. The kid's eyes were thin slits, and he had a purple haze around him. The two made eye contact while the anglerfish crushed Hordy's heart in his hand, and then the Sea Clan King's eyes glowed and Killua's expression lost its hardened look. The monster brought back a hand, but the boy was suddenly gone, his arm out of Hordy's chest and a trail of white leading away in the water.

The Sea Clan King let his fist fly anyway, ripping through Hordy's body while everyone else was finally looking back down towards them. They all snapped their gazes up as the beam went over their heads, so most of them missed the exchange between the three fighting for the trident. Goku turned his head a little and watched as Killua retreated far away, frowning a little at the boy's tactic of attacking Hordy when he was not paying attention. He got over it quickly though and looked back to the red haze full of clumpy Hordy parts where the Sea Clan King stood.

Luffy stopped swimming forward and looked at the haze that used to be Hordy in shock too. He was one of the few who did see what Killua did, but he stopped focusing on the kid and turned his attention to the Sea Clan King as well as his entire body covered in a golden aura. "This is it," The king wearing a crown said, and he started growing bigger. He grew larger and his crown grew with him, and his muscles bulged and more muscles bulged on them. **"THIS IS MY POWER!"** He roared, and his voice alone pushed Luffy backwards, as the pirate was the closest one to him. Everyone else higher up got thrown back too, most of them even farther than the rubber pirate.

"Here we go," Sora said, lifting up his Keyblade and holding it sideways in front of his body. Kirito glanced at his friend nervously and then looked back down with him at the monster that was getting larger by the second. Usopp and Sanji looked down from above and ignored the fleeing Atlantians and New Fishmen Pirates all around them who were terrified of the Sea Clan King's wrath.

Ben, Kairi, and Dash swam up on one side of them near the burnt Princes and Neptunes. Kairi started helping them out while the two younger boys floated in front of her and looked at the growing monster in fear. Ben was terrified after how much damage it did to him in one hit, and that was before this power up, but his eyes widened in realization and he yelled, "Kyogre!" He spotted the huge blue Pokemon doing a turn in the distant ocean and he yelled out, "Come back and use Body Slam!"

The King of the Seafolk growing a meter every second smirked at the huge blue Pokemon swimming its way. Kyogre listened to Ben for once, but as it got close, the Sea Clan King shot forward in the blink of an eye and punched the creature in the face. He was already as big as all of Kyogre's head, and his punch stopped the beast's momentum instantly, creating a shockwave in the water that made people scream. The ridges that millions of sea creatures were watching the fight from collapsed and they fell down through the abyss in terror.

"Kyogre!" Ben yelled as his Pokemon flew backwards.

"Ben! Call it back!" Sora roared down at the younger boy who jumped a little in surprise at how angry Sora sounded. He fumbled with his pokeball for a second but pointed it up and recalled Kyogre fast so that the Sea Clan King could not get another hit on it. The monster did not need to though, as Kyogre was descending slowly through the water, out cold from only one hit.

The Sea Clan King did not care about the red light surrounding that enemy and pulling it back into Ben's pokeball. He was too focused on staring at his own fist in smug amazement. He grew to forty feet, fifty, seventy, ninety, a hundred feet tall! When he finally stopped growing, the sheer terror of the sea creatures in every direction was unimaginable.

"What is that?" Nami whispered, her breath mostly caught in her throat as the Shark Submerge III stopped sinking through the water. Franky let go of the sticks and he leaned back in his chair, staring down in fear at the monster down below coated in a veil of golden light and holding a trident that grew a hundred feet tall to match its holder.

"That's, not good," Riku replied. He frowned and cursed under his breath again for transforming back into a human earlier without first asking Sora to teach him merman transformation magic. _I'll have to do what I can from in here._

The Sea Clan King looked around and everywhere he searched he only found Atlantians swimming away from him. Even his own men were fleeing in terror, which was smart on their parts as most of them cheered for Hordy earlier and he would not let that slide. His Sea Clan was gone, but he was now the one true leader of the sea. **"This, is my ocean,"** he said, his voice thundering around the sea and causing even the civilian sea creatures screaming in terror to silence. Babies stopped crying and whimpers from the wounded halted. The Sea Clan King lifted up his trident and fired a beam of gold straight above him. It flew up and up until it broke the surface, then kept going to the upper atmosphere where it exploded on the barrier around the planet. **"This is my power!"** He roared, and millions cowered before him.

He looked down in front of him, at a rubber pirate punching his hands together and turning them black. He lifted his head up a little and saw a boy with brown hair holding a blade with a key on it, and another boy with black hair next to him holding a black sword and a blue one. Even higher was a sniper and a chef, and behind them a strange metal vehicle that was pointing shaky missiles at him. To his distant left he could see an anglerfish watching from behind some rubble, thinking he was in a good hiding place, and under him and back a little were a turtle boy and young merman facing him with scared, but determined expressions.

Natsu swam over to Gray and Juvia who were each injured, but looked better than earlier as Sora had hit them with some Cure magic during the fight. He was frowning deeply and muttering under his breath about stupid fire powers and stupid water fights. They all looked over towards the Sea Clan King too though, not retreating like the entirety of the rest of the ocean.

Neptune 2 and Neptune 3 opened their eyes together slowly while the girl helping them smiled and went on to Neptune 2's sons. She was tired and panting already as it took a few Cures to bring back their health, but as she helped the Princes she heard the Neptunes start talking and she turned her head to them. "You don't need to evacuate," Kairi assured. The huge mermen turned around slightly and saw the girl floating there with a tired look on her face but a risen pink Keyblade that splashed green light over Fukaboshi and the other Princes. "It's all going to be okay."

"Are you blind girl?!" Neptune 3 shouted. He looked back up in the ocean at the massive monstrous being that was already too much for any single one of them, _before_ he got the trident. "The Sea Clan King has the All-Powerful Trident! We must flee!"

Fukaboshi was waking up first of the three Princes and Neptune 2 spoke to him while facing back at the monster above. "Fukaboshi. Get your sister and the other princesses and escape." The Prince opened his mouth to argue but Neptune 2 rose his voice, "Now!" The Prince with long blue hair hesitated, then nodded, grabbing his younger brothers who were still nodding awake and rushing away with them while explaining the plan.

"I'm telling you," Kairi started again. "There's nothing to worry about." She looked up with a bright, hopeful smile and finished, "They can take care of this."

Usopp swam up and away with tears in his eyes. "HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO FIGHT THAT THING?!"

Sanji reached up and grabbed the snail by the shell. "Oh no you don't. We're all going to need to pitch in on this one." Usopp looked down and he could see sweat forming on Sanji's face, somehow, even though they were underwater. "Just stay up here and give us support," Sanji told him. "I'm going in," he added, and started swimming down so he was in between Sora and Kirito. "You two ready?" The chef asked.

"As I'll ever be," Kirito muttered.

"Everyone!" Luffy shouted. He could see his comrades gathering on all sides, above, and below the monster. "Let's-"

"Wait!"

The ten or so people getting ready to attack stopped, and the Sea Clan King turned his head with an annoyed look. He frowned and glared to his right, but stopped at the sight of the man who yelled it. The figure had not a trace of the nervous expression that every single one of his other enemies had. He floated there with his green arms at his sides, his spiky black hair waving around in the rough water, and his orange body covered in scales still showing off how muscular he was. Son Goku narrowed his coal black eyes at the monster with the trident and he thought about how Ursula was never this strong when she used the trident against Vegeta and Trunks back in Port Royal.

"Goku?" Sora wondered.

"What is he-" Gray began.

"I call fighting first!"

The people in the Shark Submerge all fell flat on their faces. Natsu, Gray, and Juvia all spun upside-down in the water, as did Usopp, Sanji, Ben, Dash, and even Killua from where he was watching from a distance. They all face-faulted, while the people of Atlantis just did not think he was serious. The Neptunes glanced at each other, but Kairi started laughing from behind them. She floated up a little so she passed them and went in between Ben and Dash who righted themselves in the water. "Didn't see that coming," she said, and her Keyblade vanished from her hand.

Sora put his hands behind his head too and his Keyblade vanished. "Darn. Well, if he called it."

Luffy frowned and he glanced behind him at Goku who was smirking and raising his arms while keeping his elbows in at his sides. Goku smiled apologetically at him for a second before looking back at the Sea Clan King who was glaring at him. "You impetuous fool!" The monster roared, his voice pushing everyone around him backwards. Goku crossed his arms in front of his face as the force of the water crashed into him, and he grinned even more as that was just from its yell.

"Everyone get back," Goku said. He darted his eyes up to Sora, "And no Cure magic please."

The teen with spiky brown hair held up a hand with his index finger and thumb in a circle and three fingers up. Sora did not expect anything different and replied, "O-kay."

The Sea Clan King saw this man ignoring him, saw him asking for no help, saw him being _alive._ It all infuriated him. He lowered down his humongous trident and pointed it at Goku, thinking that the man would have a different reaction when such a powerful weapon was pointed at him. Goku just looked up into the monster's enormous eyes though, the eyes as big as the Saiyan himself was. Goku held his elbows in to his sides and he opened his mouth, "Ahhhh!" Water swirled around him and a golden aura appeared surrounding his body. His black hair all shot up into a single golden point above his head. He was not done though, as he could go into Super Saiyan mode easily enough that he would not have to power up intensely like this.

Luffy saw how much stronger Goku was getting and he glanced back at the monster, wondering if that trident really was way more than they could handle. He swam backwards as the trident started to glow and then swam to the side since he was in between the powering up Super Saiyan and the hundred foot tall monster surrounded in a golden glow. Kairi waved a hand over at him and Luffy made his way over to the girl and the boys with her. Neptune 2 shouted at Luffy's back, "What are you doing, jamon? You do not understand how powerful the First Neptune's trident is!"

"But Goku does," Luffy replied instantly. The largest Neptune shut his mouth and stared at the backs of the four in front of him. Ben and Dash, they no longer looked nervous like they did before. It was at that moment he realized just how much faith they had in Son Goku, and then he understood why as Goku's hair swirling around with lightning bolts shooting off of it, started to extend longer behind his head and down his body. As that happened, the entire ocean started to tremble.

 _Still not easy enough,_ Goku thought, while out loud he was screaming in pain. _The transformation takes a huge toll. Still, the trident multiplies one's power by a lot. Ursula was actually pretty weak, but Vegeta and Trunks were Super when they fought her. This guy was already really strong._ The Super Saiyan's hair stopped extending as it reached his waist, his eyebrows were gone, his face looked more chiseled, almost like he was an entirely different person. Bolts of lightning shot off of him every second or two and sea creatures not too far away backed away as the current shocked them. His muscles bulked, his body was bigger, and the Sea Clan King stared down at him in fury.

"You truly are Son Goku," the Sea Clan King said, his voice echoing around the ocean and making millions of Atlantians stare over in awe.

Spongebob and Mr. Krabs were staring up from on top of a pile of boulders and their jaws dropped that the man who just ate at their restaurant was actually Son Goku.

"You know me?" Goku asked, his voice deeper than usual, but not by much. He just sounded, different.

"Even in the darkest depths of the ocean, I have heard rumors of you before," the Sea Clan King admitted. "For you to be in my kingdom on the day of my coming, it must be fate; to kill you and cement my rule," the monster's lips curled up and revealed his teeth that were bigger than people and sharper than razor-blades. "We come from the bottom of the ocean to take our rightful place as rulers of the sea," the King announced. "From there, I will go on to the surface, and with the power of this trident…" his body burst in an even brighter golden aura and he roared, making people grab their ears and whimper in fear. He finished roaring and looked down with a smirk, "I will rule this world."

Goku lifted up his right fist that his held in front of his face and curled his fingers up. He held his left hand down in front of his stomach and clenched it into a tight fist, making the water around it push so far apart that there was a bubble there for a moment. "I won't let you do that," Goku said.

"Hahaha! And what are you-"

Goku vanished. The Sea Clan King's back arched backwards while his head and legs flew forwards. There was a huge indentation in his stomach where Goku floated with his left fist lodged into the Sea Clan King's abs. A shockwave rippled out from the collision and went in every direction. Kairi held up her arms but was still thrown back like the merman and turtle-boy near her. Only Luffy managed to stay where he was, though he was still pushed back too just not as far. The Shark Submerge went spinning off through the ocean and Sanji swam up fast to steady it as he heard the shouts of his dear Nami-san inside it. No one in the ocean could say a word as Goku swam there too fast for any of them to see, and his punch finally sent the monster flying off his hand.

The Sea Clan King shot backwards, but the eyes that rolled up in his head snapped back down when he was only fifty feet away. He swung the trident down, and Goku side-swam to the left, letting it pass him by by only a few feet. The rush of water on the sides of the trident tried to pull him down with it as it passed him, but he swam forward anyway and spun a kick for the side of the monster. It slammed down its left hand for Goku, but the kick was a fake meant to do that anyway and Goku leaned his body left, reaching out with both arms at the same time. He grabbed the Sea Clan King by the index finger, and started doing spins in the ocean so fast that it looked like a tornado formed underwater because of how blurry the giant monster's body got as it spun around.

Goku released the Sea Clan King, but the mountain he threw it at was saved as the monster stopped itself with a ferocious look on its face. "I will destroy-" Goku was not in front of it and the monster looked around fast, snapping its head back and forth looking for the man. Everyone else stared in shock, and then the Sea Clan King saw where one of them was looking and he snapped his head straight up, only to see Goku in the middle of a front-flip, one that he ended with his leg extended out to smash the Sea Clan King's nose into his face and break a bone with the collision. The monster roared as its head snapped back, then kept its mouth open and shot up to try and catch Goku in its jaws.

The Super Saiyan tried dodging back, but the Sea Clan King was more used to underwater fighting and could swim faster, especially with the huge power boost it got. It chomped down, and Goku stopped himself and pushed the bottoms of his feet into the bottom row of teeth, grabbing onto one tooth above him with both hands. The Sea Clan King used all his jaw strength to clench down, trying to smush the Super Saiyan 3 between its jaws and devour him. Goku's friends called out for him, but a few of them saw the Saiyan smirk, a second before he ripped backwards and snapped the King's tooth right in half. Without the pressure against it, the Sea Clan King's jaws clamped down hard, but Goku was in a small open space because of the missing tooth.

He swam out of there fast and held up his hands as he did. The Sea Clan King was roaring in pain because of its tooth, but when it looked in front of its face it saw Goku swimming back while pointing two balls of yellow light at it. One ball fired, and the Sea Clan King swiped his trident in front of him, dispersing it easily, but as that ball dispersed and the trident passed in front of his eyes, those massive eyes grew even larger at the sight of the second ball already flying at him. He still had too much momentum on his trident going the other way to pull it back fast enough, so the beast snapped its head back instead to watch the ball fly right above its broken nose. The monster watched the ball fly over, but then lowered its bottom jaw in shock as hiding directly on the second ball of light was the enemy that threw it, and in the compromising position of having his trident stuck out to one side, and his head snapped backwards, there was nothing he could do but watch as the double-legged kick slammed him right in the center of the forehead and knocked his crown right off.

The Sea Clan King flew down through the ocean and collided with the city of Atlantis that, until that very moment, seemed at least partially salvageable. All of the land the city was build on, shattered under the destructive fall of the Sea Clan King. Buildings and possessions turned to dust as the monster slammed so hard against them that they were pressed between its body and the hard ocean bottom that was as hard as land would be this far deep, making it nigh indestructible.

The collision of the Sea Clan King with the ground sent cracks shooting up nearby mountains though, loosened up the broken pieces of earth that the citizens were standing on, and opened up cracks between rocks that fish on two legs fell into. "Spongebob! Help me!"

The yellow sponge grabbing onto a rock for dear life turned his head left and saw a pink starfish running up an eighty degrees slanted rock wall. "Patrick!" Spongebob yelled. The starfish slipped and started sliding down the rock like several other fish around him that could not swim.

"Ahhh!" Patrick fell off the rock right as another huge boulder started falling into the dark crack. Dozens of other sea creatures falling down with him yelled out in fear, and then stopped as a massive hand of more condensed water wrapped around the falling boulder.

"Juvia has it!" The young woman with long blue hair called out from up above.

"Nice one Juvia-sis!" a mechanical voice shouted through a speaker. Everyone in the hole looked up and pointed at a submarine painted to look like a shark swimming down towards them. The Shark Submerge was covered in weapons, but it also had dozens of claws on extending metal arms that shot out of its body and down into the crack.

"Ah!" Patrick Star yelled as a claw wrapped around his body. "Spongebob! The shark got me!"

"That's not a shark Patrick!" Spongebob yelled up to his friend, right before the rock he was holding onto cracked itself. The sponge's eyes went wide and he saw Mr. Krabs start running on his right, only to slip as well and start rolling down their rocky hold that started to fall apart on them.

Spongebob opened his mouth to yell, but he suddenly felt a jolt and his eyes snapped open wide as he was fifty feet away from the rock. He turned left and saw a turtle with a blond haired boy's head sticking out. The turtle saw that he was okay and then swam off much faster than turtles were known to do, returning with another few fish, and then Mr. Krabs who kept screaming several seconds after he was put down.

"Look out!" an Atlantian soldier mixed in with the civilians shouted. He yelled it towards the base of a nearby cliff and all the people huddled near it looked up to see a crack had formed on the wall. Huge rocks started breaking off and fish people swam and ran away as fast as they could.

One of the children fell to the ground and a mermaid saw this boy crying on the floor. She swam back and one of her friends yelled, "Ishilly, wait!" The red headed mermaid yelled at the one with curly black hair. Ishilly swam to the boy and wrapped her arms around him, looking up in fear as the rocks were almost on them. Other people that far back screamed out as the rocks got ten feet above their heads...

 **BAM!** Three figures shot in out of nowhere above the crowd of people fearing for their lives. Two of them on either side of the middle had their fists punched forward, and Gray and Natsu each smashed some of the largest rocks there. The one in the middle had a leg stuck straight up in the air, but his head was turned the other way around and with huge hearts in his eyes and blood coming out of his nostrils he shouted, "Ishilly-chan! Are you okay?!"

"Sanji-san!" The mermaid called up in relief, and he could hear how she was happy to see him and it made him even more madly in love. The mermaid started giggling though and she questioned as small rocks fell all around her, "Why are you an octopus?"

Natsu could not help himself. He burst out laughing and rolled around in the water, grabbing his sides in pain from the laughter because his ribs hurt from the Sea Clan King's attack earlier. Sanji's entire persona changed from pure bliss to what Gray remembered Juvia used to look like. A small rain cloud formed above him which amazed the others as they were underwater, and the chef wallowed in his sadness for a few moments before all of them heard a huge crash and spun towards the old city of Atlantis. A huge foot lifted up and planted itself on the ground, looking even bigger than it did when he came down.

"Is it just me, or is he getting bigger by the second?" Natsu asked.

"Well, that bitch Ursula was pretty huge herself," Gray remarked, remembering the huge octopus woman from the day he first got teleported to Awul. "But yeah," he muttered and swam backwards a little, "he's definitely bigger."

The Sea Clan King stood up, making himself three hundred feet tall. He rose up his trident and pointed it at the golden fighter up in the water above him. **"Was that all you have?"** The King asked, making most people drop their jaws as they thought Goku was the one winning the fight. They looked up at the monster's face to see if he was joking, but the Sea Clan King did not even look that tired. **"My power grows stronger by the minute. That fool Neptune could have ruled if he had just used this weapon-"**

"No," Goku said. The Sea Clan King stopped talking, his voice no longer echoing around the entire ocean floor. He became confused for a second as he did not know what the Saiyan meant by that. Goku continued, "That was not all I have." The small explanation was followed by Goku vanishing to the eyes of every person in the ocean. What they could see however, was the Sea Clan King's head snapping back, little impact craters forming all over his stomach, arms, back, legs, and face. They watched as his body got lifted off the ground and tossed back and forth like a ragdoll.

"RAA!" The Sea Clan King swung his trident around so fast that it turned into a blurry fan in front of his body. He spun it faster and faster until a funnel of water shot off of the weapon and broke straight through a mountain, and lifted people up and threw them backwards.

"Protendra!" Sora yelled.

People and fish getting lifted up and thrown back into the water funnel suddenly found themselves separated from it by a huge bubble surrounding them all. Goku crossed his arms right in the middle of the funnel, and when he snapped his arms out to the sides, the entire funnel broke apart with strong forces of water going in every direction.

"You'd think," Natsu started as he swam left and smashed a rock to pieces before it hit more people. "He would be," he spun a kick into a different rock and shattered it. "More careful!"

Ben swam towards him and the boy flashed green, turning into Ripjaws so he would be faster. He picked up two children in danger of some smaller falling rocks and pulled them to safety. "I think he knows we won't let these people get hurt," Ben called out. Natsu looked at the younger boy in surprise, then lifted his head back up and watched as Goku charged straight at the monster. Watching the golden glowing alien warrior battle the giant monster was awesome, but what was even better was knowing that the Mayor had that much faith in all of them.

"Then let's keep it up," Natsu yelled as the ground shook again and a huge boulder many citizens were standing on started rolling away.

As Natsu and Ben swam off to help more civilians, the Sea Clan King was roaring and swinging his trident every direction around himself. Goku started dodging more efficiently. Every single swing of Neptune's trident would miss the Saiyan by a wide margin. The Sea Clan King stopped for a second and he was panting harder than ever. The Super Saiyan 3 in front of him was panting too, but Goku did not look as frustrated, more, resigned. The Sea Clan King recognized that expression and he grinned madly, **"What is with that look, scum? I will tear you to pieces!"** He charged forward and swung the trident down at Goku, but this time Goku did not dodge.

The Super Saiyan rose up both hands fast and clapped them on either side of the trident's bottom rung. A collective gasp came out of everyone's mouths, and their jaws dropped as Goku tugged back with the hands he had on the trident. The Sea Clan King had a tight grip, so he held onto the shaft even as the trident and himself were thrown forward. What made him let go though, was that Goku stayed in the same spot after tugging back hard on the trident. The Sea Clan King shot three hundred feet forward in an instant, and Goku was there with his fist pulled far back. He swam forward and punched that fist into the front of the Sea Clan King's glowing chest, and at the top of his lungs he yelled, "Dragon Fist!"

Many people believed they imagined it, but even more knew for sure that they saw an aura wrap around Goku's body in the shape of a dragon. He punched his fist forward and ripped straight through the Sea Clan King's chest, out the other side while the monster dropped its trident and roared out in pain. Goku kept the serious frown on his face for a few more seconds and he turned around after breaking through the monster. "I'm sorry, Sea Clan King. You were strong, but you were a monster. I promised to keep Atlantis safe, and to do that, this was the only way." The Saiyan sounded genuinely apologetic that he was forced to kill the beast, but the final thoughts the Sea Clan had as it sank down were all of rage and fury, no thoughts of regret, the mark of a true monster.

The Sea Clan King's body shrunk down a little bit, but it was still a massive form when it landed flat on the ground. The seafloor shook from its weight and the earthquakes rumbled for five to ten seconds before silencing completely. The ocean was quiet. Then, millions of creatures, fish and human, mermaid and fishman, octopus, turtle, and snail, they all erupted in cheers that shook the seafloor even more. The Straw Hats, Fairy Tail mages, and their friends cheered for Goku too, but not long into the cheers did the people cheering gather around each of them and lift them up. Goku reverted back to his base form and looked down, a smile finally returning to his face. Like the rest of his comrades, Goku enjoyed the praise, as All of Atlantis cheered for their heroes.

* * *

 **A/N Atlantis is saved! ...Well, at least the people were! Haha, hope you enjoyed the chapter. Atlantis arc is done, didn't spend much time here, but that was mainly because Atlantis in itself I had as a side thought one day like "hey, I should make them stop in Atlantis 'cuz I did mention Trunks went there. So I started writing it, had a plan, but was more focused on future chapters that it really took me a while to get to this. Hope it was good anyway, and leave me a review telling me what you thought! A lot of Spongebob and One Piece characters thrown in this chapter, with the occasional Young Justice character as well: Garth and Black Manta. The King of the Sea Clan/Seafolk is from One Punch Man, and I justify Goku needing SSJ3 for him considering Ursula took on Super Saiyans earlier on and without the trident she has nothing on the Sea Clan King. Shoot me a question if you have one, or any comments/predictions you have! 'Till next time!**

joebob323

See, with the people planning on attacking alantis, if trunks was a threat, and they don't realize that Goku is in the city... Put two and two together, and you the realize how screwed they are. Plus, not to mention some of the strongest members of Pao town are at alantis... Time to dig a couple of graves! XD Good job with the chapter, BTW...

 **Thanks for the review! Haha, yeah it was a bit of a mismatch, most of the enemies couldn't touch the heroes. The only real threats were from the Sea Clan King and the trident. Hope you enjoyed!**

Espada-001

Sorry this reviews a bit late just been a little busy the past day or so. But anyway I just wanted to say that I enjoyed your chapter and I liked Bens battle with Kyogre. I've looked around a bit but I couldn't find Super Fish as one of his usual aliens and I was wondering if you could let me know if it's inspired by an actual alien/species and if so if you could point me in the direction of an image so I could get a better idea about it. Also I can't say I find it very likely for the Neptune's to allow Ben to keep Kyogre simply because Goku says he'll help. Not to undermine Goku but now they've lost both Trunks as a support guardian and Kyogre as a roving guardian. At least after Trunks died they still had another powerful supporter close at hand. Also while I'm sure they wouldn't actually do it I'm pretty sure that if the two Neptune's with magic powered tridents could probably seriously injure or possibly kill Goku in his base state similar to how Tetsou killed Trunks before he could power up. Anyway moving on I was interested to here the message left by King Micky, also I'm curious how some characters would react to being sent back to their own worlds if it eventually happens. Also after watching the Erza vs Zoro Death Battle again I couldn't help but think it would be awesome if Zoro got to see Kuina again or any of the Straw Hats meeting a lost one for that matter, although I won't keep my hopes up. As for the villains that are gearing up for an attack on Atlantis, well they're going to meet quite a bit of unexpected resistance. lol :). Also please give Plankton the ability to turn into PlankTon. I'm certain he wouldn't become a real threat to the main characters but I still think it would be funny. Finally its a blazing day in the artic when I say that I think that the Neptune from SpongeBob is more dangerous than the Neptune from One Piece T-T. Anyway looking forward to the next update and I wish you a good day!

 **Haha, no problem for the late review, considering I was a bit (very) late myself on the new update. Glad you liked the chapter! Super Fish was just one of the new 9,990 aliens Ben unlocked with the Omnitrix like Clear Body or Boulder, random alien ideas I came up with that I thought would be cool. To imagine Super Fish, I kind of thought of those giant fish in Star Wars Episode I, the ones in Naboo where there kept being a bigger fish chasing them, (if that helps). I agree that the Neptunes could kill Goku in his base state, but most people could get Goku in his base state as even in the Revival of F new movie, Frieza's lackey guy killed Goku with a normal blaster because he was off guard. Kuina, making it to their home planets, meeting lost ones, all things that could happen, BUT, no spoilers :P. I agree that the Neptune from Spongebob is more powerful than the one in OP, but I think that's only in regards to their tridents since Neptune 2 actually had some mad fighting skills without it. Umm, oh yeah! About Ben getting Kyogre, I can't see the good guys forcing someone to give up a Pokemon they caught, it's like, universal Pokemon rules that if you catch it it's yours. Also, it won't be hard for the Neptunes to believe Goku will be able to save them now, after seeing him take on their greatest enemy with their greatest weapon and still come out of it unharmed. Thanks for the review! Always like hearing the new ideas!**

qwerty chapter 9 . Jan 13

It would we be cool if Luthor meets Beerus and pisses him off.

 **That would be cool!**

qwerty chapter 9 . Jan 14

Is Zoro stronger than Luffy or are they on the same level?

 **Who knows? Haven't seen Zoro for 2 years now... but soon!**

qwerty chapter 9 . Jan 15

You don't have to but I would like to see Toriko, from Toriko, or Jin Mo Ri, from God Of Highschool. Based on recent chapters they should at least be on Super Saiyan level.

 **Have not watched either of those shows, though I might soon. Recently I watched Certain Scientific Railgun, Index, also Mob Psycho 100, and Parasyte, so I'm racking up the shows to add some more characters in here once they reach Aebrith! Thanks for all the reviews!**


	11. Nexus HWR 2-5 Arm Wrestling

**Nexus HWR 2.5 Arm Wrestling:**

"What's going on?" Rin asked as he walked up on the deck of the Thousand Sunny. He walked to the railing in front of the cabin door and looked over it where he heard a commotion on the grass below.

"I believe a bet is going around." Rin snapped his head to the right in surprise as he had asked his question rhetorically. Standing on his right was a tall woman with very large breasts pushing against her tight white top. She had long black hair and smiled down at the group gathered below as well. Robin continued, "Who would you pick?"

Rin looked from Robin back down to the grass. As the people there moved around a little, he became able to see the table Franky was finishing constructing to be extra strong. On either side of the table were other boys on the ship, looking across at each other with competitive looks in their eyes. Closer to the port side was a lanky young man with skinny arms and legs. He was wearing a blue shirt opened down the middle and a pair of red pants rolled up to the knees. He also had a straw hat resting on his back, held there by a string tied around his neck.

Monkey D. Luffy cracked his neck to either side while still looking at his opponent. Behind him, Usopp was rubbing his shoulders and ranting encouragements to him. Gray and Juvia were next to each other behind Luffy as well and Sora stood on their right, pumping a fist up in the air and calling out Luffy's name.

On the other side of the table as the pirate captain was a shorter figure. He had a competitive look just like Luffy, but he also had an appearance of confidence that almost reached the point that he seemed bored. The kid had spiky white hair and did not appear to be worried at all. Killua leaned back on his chair while Dash hopped up and down behind him. Riku had his arms crossed but stood behind Killua as well with Natsu not far from him smirking like an idiot.

Rin looked back and forth between the two opponents as Franky stood up on the side of the table and said that the stage was set. "So," Okumura Rin began, "what are they doing?"

Robin giggled a little from next to the teenager. "Arm wrestling."

"Hey Riku!" Ben called out from on Luffy's side of the grass. He looked behind Killua at his older friend and continued, "Where's your faith in Luffy? Come over here!"

"Sorry Ben, sorry Luffy," Riku apologized to the two of them. He looked at the kid in front of him who glanced over his shoulder a little to look into his eyes. Riku chuckled, "We were supposed to pick the side of who we thought would win."

"Ah come on Riku," Sora called at his best friend. "Luffy's got this one in the bag!"

Goku and Timmy floated above the deck looking down at their friends. Timmy turned to the older man a little, "You know who will win right?" The boy asked the Saiyan warrior.

The man with black spiky hair smiled as he continued to look down. "No, but I have a good idea."

"Alright, are you two ready?" Nami asked the contestants in front of her. Luffy made an affirmative noise and nodded his head once. He slammed his right elbow down on the table with a smack and held up an open fist. He cracked his fingers using just that hand and then left it open with his fingers curled in for Killua to grab.

Killua looked at Luffy's arm, then to his face, then back at the arm. "Not yet," the younger boy stated. Luffy looked confused for a second as Killua still looked mighty confident despite what he said. Luffy opened his mouth to say something, then everyone around them dropped their bottom lips. _Luffy's pretty strong, so a little bit of Nen could go a long way._ Killua's entire body wrapped in a white translucent aura that flared around him like a blazing fire. "Okay," he said, as his aura gained control around him and steadied with a veil two inches away from his body. "Now I'm ready."

He put his elbow down on the table and looked Luffy in the eyes again. The pirate stared at the kid covered in aura and his confidence was shaken a little. At first he believed it to be an easy win, but now... Luffy's fist turned black and shiny. The Armament Haki wrapped around his right hand down to his elbow and even a little higher up his arm after that.

"Hey Luffy, you sure you don't want to get a little stronger first?" Killua asked as he looked at the pirate's black fist. He grinned and chuckled a little, "I know you're stronger than this."

"No need," Luffy replied, cracking his knuckles again as he held his black hand right in front of Killua's.

Killua shrugged, then his white aura vanished from around him. Everyone looked at him in confusion, but he just smirked and slapped his right hand into Luffy's. His grip was strong and Luffy noticed that even with a coating of Armament Haki he could feel the boy's hand squeezing his. Luffy's eyes began to widen at the exact moment his navigator called out, "Go!"

The table beneath their elbows broke and Franky dropped his metal jaw. He was just bragging about how strong it was to Ben, but now he and the thirteen year old just stared slack-jawed at the broken table in front of them. More precisely they stared at the hole in the floor beneath the table where Killua had slammed Luffy's hand so hard into the ground that the floor broke. The pirate's legs were still straight up in the air since his body was yanked down so fast.

"Ehhhhh?" Half of the ship exclaimed in unison.

Goku smiled down at the floor beneath him. He heard a voice next to him and looked at the boy in a pink hat. "Is that what you expected?" Timmy asked the older man.

"Yep," Goku admitted. "Luffy should have used his Gear Fourth."

"You think that would have made a difference?" Timmy asked.

Goku scratched his chin, wondering if that transformation would really help that much with arm wrestling. The pirate still wouldn't be able to use his rubber powers, but Goku had felt Luffy's strength go much higher before. "Maybe," Goku continued, "but probably not if Killua released more of his aura. I am surprised Killua could power up like that."

Most people on the deck below were thinking the same thing. Even Natsu who had joined Killua's side was staring at the child with a dropped jaw. Only Killua himself and one other were still calm after the pirate got smashed into the floor. Riku chuckled a little under his breath and Killua turned back to him. "What? You aren't surprised?" He questioned.

Riku shrugged slightly, "I had a feeling."

Gray was staring at Killua in awe too. _He's stronger than most people on this ship. I never paid much attention to him. He might even be able to tank, though I doubt he would stand a chance against Black Star._

"Heh, didn't see that coming," Kirito said and put his hands behind his head. He glanced at the man next to him who was looking at the younger boy in surprise, "Good thing he's on our side, huh?."

Gray nodded his head dumbly for a second and he turned to the younger man who said it. He looked at Kirito and into the teen's eyes, and his shocked look dropped down to an annoyed one. "Yeah," Gray muttered, but turned away showing that was the end of their conversation.

Kirito watched as Gray walked across the deck to talk to Natsu who seemed surprised by his own pick's victory. The teenager just watched the mage leave and he sighed and mumbled under his breath, "Nice talk."

* * *

 **FD + 770**

 **Fairy Tail Guild Hall**

Kirito stood inside the guild hall of Fairy Tail standing ten feet away from a board with lists and pictures pinned on it. There were a dozen people in front of him, and the one in a straw hat ripped a piece of paper off the wall and shouted, "This one!"

"Ah!" Usopp shouted and grabbed the paper from Luffy. "Timmy marked this one down as being ' _EXTRA_ SUPER HARD.' Can't we take an easier base?"

"None of them are going to be easy Usopp," Nightwing told the sniper on his left. "These are all bases full of criminals…" he turned to Luffy and added, "Which makes me agree with him. One that Timmy would label as that hard must be one he considers a job for himself or the Saiyans. Why don't we leave it and go for-"

"It's fine," the group turned and looked up a little to see a boy floating there in midair. The boy was wearing a pink hat and had a pink sheath on his side with a smiling face on it. He was not there a second ago and everyone was surprised to see him. Timmy continued, "We can take that base on. I'll come with you guys."

"Yosh!" Luffy cheered. "Let's go!"

"Wanda," Timmy was getting excited too, and he called out, "I wish we had a super-fast jet to get us to the base quick!"

"You got it Sport," the sheath on his right side replied. Wanda lifted up an arm and her wand lit up golden, and they all heard a thud outside of the hall. The group in front of Kirito turned and ran over to the door and pushed outside to check out their new vehicle.

As the group ran out, a different group was just coming back in, and they had shocked expressions on their faces as a huge plane had just appeared in a puff of smoke in front of them. Natsu, Gray, Juvia, Erza, and Wendy walked into the room and Macao turned his head to look over his booth back at the youngsters. "Back already?"

Wakaba sat across from him and the old man smoking a cigar called out, "What? You forget your coats?"

Erza lifted up her right hand and held up the head of a robot that looked like a gorilla. "It was too easy," she claimed, and the others in the room dropped their jaws as the team had only left an hour before. Erza dropped the steel gorilla head and others started cheering for the team.

Kirito smiled over at them, then turned and stepped closer to the board in front of him where there were less people gathered now. He checked out certain maps that had large areas circled, and found one that did not have an X through it showing it was taken out. _Too much area for me to search, even with help. Find a smaller one._ He gazed around the map some more, then looked at one of the lists that was labeled 'Slade's Location' at the top. There were arrows pointing from different base designations that correlated with different areas on the map. _Guess I could go for another big shot. Akuma and Lelouch in one day was big for these people, they're hoping to get the other leaders soon._

The teen was still checking the map when one of the people who just walked in spotted him. The man with black wavy hair looked over and his eyes opened wide at the sight of the teen. He turned to his friends who were sitting at their booth and said, "I'll be right back."

Gray jogged across the room and the friends he left behind at the table followed where he ran off to. Natsu frowned as he saw Gray's destination and he looked back forward with a more annoyed look. Gray did not see Natsu's expression though, and he ran right up to the teen staring at the board who felt him approach. "Hey," Gray began. Kirito turned his head a little and saw the man looking at him closely. Kirito's eyes opened wider and he turned fully to the man next to him. "It is you," Gray said, and he chuckled a few times. Gray stuck out his hand and said, "Long time no see."

Kirito slowly lifted up his own hand and shook the older man's. "Gray," Kirito said in amazement. "You're here," the teen said, still shocked by this development. "Did Kuma, when he hit you-" Kirito started but got cut off.

"I was sent to Aebrith," Gray interrupted. "Across the world with some others, but you!" Gray exclaimed. "The rest of us all landed in the same area, but we couldn't find you anywhere around. Where did Kuma send you?"

Kirito looked down at the floor and said darkly, "I landed on Awul." He hesitated, and then continued, "When I woke up, my wife was looking down on me. I found her."

"That's right," Gray said, nodding his head a few times. "You were looking for someone back then," Gray said it like he kind of remembered hearing it before, though most everything from that far back was a blur to him. He shook his head and looked at the teen wearing all black in front of him, and he had to scratch his chin as he could not put his finger on it. "I'm sorry," Gray began. Kirito looked at him confused, and Gray continued, "After I got smacked away, I was running for my life for weeks. There were nonstop battles, and I just, I mean," he scratched the side of his head, "I forgot your name," Gray admitted.

Kirito looked at him in surprise for a second, but he shook his head like it was no problem. They only knew each other for close to a week, and back then they were stuck running and hiding from monsters the whole time too; there was not much time to talk. The only reason Kirito remembered his name and not the other way around, was because Gray was one of the ones saving _him,_ while Kirito was just one of the many who needed saving.

"It's fine," the teen began. "It has been a while," he reasoned so Gray would not feel as bad. "My name is Kirito."

Gray stared at the teen in front of him and his smile started to fade. He suddenly realized that the guild hall was oddly quiet and he turned his head. Staring at him was pretty much every person in Fairy Tail, including his friends at his table. Natsu just told Wendy and Juvia who did not know why Natsu looked so annoyed, and the girls had uncomfortable expressions on their faces as well. Most people were looking at him funny, though a few were glaring at the kid past him harder, like he was an enemy. "Kirito," Gray muttered, and he slowly turned back to the teen whose expression was dark as he realized Gray had heard that name before. "You, are the Underworld member?" Gray asked, his voice full of disbelief.

Kirito stayed quiet for a second but he could not longer keep eye contact with Gray. "I, _was,_ " Kirito said, emphasizing the past tense. "I didn't know, I-" he looked up to Gray's face to give him an explanation, but the older man did not look like he wanted one. Gray took a step back and the look of disgust on his face was impossible to mask. "I, I'm sorry," Kirito whispered.

"You people killed Master Makarov," Gray snarled, keeping his voice as a hiss so that only Kirito would hear him. "He raised me like a son, and you _people_ poisoned him," Gray had to spit the word 'people' out as it tasted bad on his tongue.

"I didn't know about any of that," Kirito whispered, but his head was bowed and he said it to the floor. "I just, needed somewhere I could train. I thought the Underworld was the only option I had."

"Fuck off," Gray muttered. He walked towards Kirito and bumped him purposely with his shoulder as he walked to the board. Gray grabbed the first flier he saw and ripped it off before turning around. "Only option my ass. You're just coming up with excuses because you know you're trash. I didn't remember your name," Gray said, stopping as he walked by Kirito, and speaking away from him still in a voice so quiet only they could hear. "But I remembered you were a good kid. The way you looked after that girl, the one with wings. You were good. I remembered that."

Gray walked away and Kirito clenched his fists at his side as he stared straight down at the floor. _Angel. If only you knew Gray. If only you knew how the Underworld had brainwashed her, enslaved her,_ Kirito was shaking in his boots and he could not help the shame from filling him. He turned back to the board and heard someone call to him from the doorway. "Oh hey Kirito, you going out to fight an Underworld base?"

Kirito heard the voice and he reached forward, grabbing the highest level flier in front of him. "Yeah," Kirito said. He turned and saw Goku standing in the entrance. Some Fairy Tail mages stopped giving him as harsh gazes now that the Mayor was there, considering Goku vouched to everyone for him and they all trusted him. Kirito held up the paper in his hand and said in a dark voice, "Let's go destroy them." His expression was determined and scary, and some of the mages who were looking at him angrily a minute ago suddenly felt worse for the monsters he was going after. _I will make this right,_ Kirito thought, _I need to._

* * *

 **Present**

 **Thousand Sunny**

A fourteen year old standing on the grass of the Thousand Sunny's main deck watched as Gray marched away angrily. The man with wavy black hair heard a conversation on his left and saw Sanji and Natsu arguing with each other. The excitement from the arm wrestling was dying down, and Killua turned his attention to them and listened in to what caught Gray's attention. Franky and Usopp were listening in as well as Sanji snapped, "I thought you said the Black Witch."

The chef looked the Gray as he said it and Gray nodded his head. Natsu turned to his friend annoyed now and he said, "Wait, you said Zeref was there. He's the Black Wizard, right?"

"Listen," Gray said, annoyed he had to repeat himself here. "The black wizard Zeref goes by the title, High Lord Spriggan. The witch, Arachne, actually goes by the title Black Witch." Sanji smirked at Natsu who frowned that he was wrong. Gray continued to the group in front of him, "Arachne was the member of the Co-op who moved farthest south into Resistance territory back when I was there. No one could stop her and she took over most of the eastern coast of southern Aebrith."

"Couldn't you guys go all out and fight her?" Usopp asked.

"There were a few large invasions," Gray said, though he grimaced as he did. "Everyone who made it back from those attacks have bad memories of it. The witch has under her control a monster, a Kishin. Whenever we try to attack her, the Kishin's madness takes over. Friends kill each other because they think their friends look like their enemies. Snakes crawl out of your skin and spiders out of your eyes," Gray's eyes were distant and he had some sweat on his forehead. After a few seconds' pause he shook his head and looked at the four in front of him who realized he was one of those people he mentioned who still had nightmares about those attacks. "Let's try to stay away from both the black wizard and the Black Witch, alright?"

"Got it!" Usopp shouted instantly.

Gray nodded and kept walking away, and Killua turned away from their conversation and walked the other way with his hands in his pockets. _Kishin's madness, that's a new one._ Killua did not like the idea of an enemy he could not reach without getting past such a crazy monster. _How could I even fight something like that?_

The idea that he could not stuck in his head and it aggravated him. _Time for some training then,_ he thought, and looked up at a room above the ship he could use for just that.

Killua climbed up the mast of the Sunny and walked over to the door of the weight room. He stepped inside and looked around but did not see anyone else in there. A second after he relaxed though, he tensed up and his eyes darted to the ceiling.

The white haired kid calmed down again as the presence he noticed was just a man in an orange gi flying around, punching and kicking in front of him for practice. Goku finished his set and flew down to the ground where he picked up a white towel and used it to wipe some sweat from his forehead. "Whew, it sure is hot today, right Kil?" Goku asked, turning his head and glancing over at the door.

The fourteen year old nodded at Goku and he walked farther into the room. "Mind if I train in here too?" Killua asked him.

Goku shook his head 'no,' but then he got a better idea and asked excitedly, "Want to spar?"

"With you?" Killua repeated, wondering if he heard right. He held his hands up in front of him, "I don't know what you think of me, but I'm not being modest when I say I wouldn't stand a chance."

"Oh don't say that!" Goku exclaimed. He ran up closer to Killua and bent down with his hands together in front of him in a begging position. "I know you're strong, but I want to see what you can really do."

Goku sounded like an excited kid about to get candy and Killua felt bad that he was not giving it to him. The boy sighed, conceding, and Goku cheered happily before jumping backwards and doing ten back flips on his way down. Goku landed and got right in a fighting stance, one that Killua could not see a single hole in and made the boy nervous though he tried not to show it.

 _I thought he was just incredibly strong, but that stance, I've never seen anything like it. I don't even know which direction to attack from. His whole body is guarded, I'll need to attack left first to draw his right hand in for a block, then try to get around,_ Killua got lost in thought just from Goku putting his hands up, and the Saiyan warrior could not be more excited when he saw the gears working in Killua's head.

 _He's fast, maybe as fast as I am in my base form. Stay in it as long as I can, but maybe Kil can make me raise to the next level! I hope he does!_ Goku's thoughts were less focused than Killua's, but his posture did not take a toll from it. "Ooh," Goku uttered as Killua started walking right. He was surprised because Kil left after-images of himself behind as he made a circle around Goku.

 _He looks like a master martial artist, this won't trick him for long. I don't want to show him everything too soon though. Maybe start with just some hand to hand combat,_ Killua decided and he rushed forward from the spot on the circle of Killuas directly behind Goku. Goku was not tricked by the technique though as he felt Killua approaching behind him.

Even at a fraction of his maximum speed, Killua was still amazingly fast. He rushed at Goku hoping to catch the Saiyan off guard, but as he punched towards Goku's back, the man's left arm was curling back and he caught Killua's left fist with an open palm. Goku curled his fingers on that palm and held Killua's hand tight, but Killua pressed his other hand down on the ground and he brought both of his legs around in a kick on Goku's left side.

He thought he could hit Goku's arm and get him to drop his hand, but Goku crossed his right hand over his chest and stopped Killua's left leg only. Before Killua's right leg collided with Goku's left arm, Goku pushed Killua's right backwards and changed the boy's momentum entirely. The younger fighter did not expect the force put into that small push, and he was thrown away from Goku who let go of Killua's left fist to allow him to fly across the room.

Killua flipped himself in the air and skid back on two feet when he landed. He skid twenty feet so he was almost at the wall, then snapped his head back up to see Goku looking over his left shoulder at him. The spiky haired Saiyan pointed down at his feet and Killua looked down before opening his eyes wide and grinding his teeth. "Gonna have to try harder than that if you want me to move," Goku teased over as his feet were still planted in the same spot facing the entrance of the training room.

"Alright," Killua muttered. His head bowed for a second and a dark shadow came over him. Goku's eyebrows lifted as an aura of a snake surrounded Killua and he snapped his gaze up to look into Goku's eyes. His own irises were vertical slits now and Killua picked up his speed.

 _Toy with me again,_ Killua thought as he sprinted the edges of the room. As he ran, he picked up various sizes of dumbbells from around the room. As soon as he picked them up he measured how much strength he would need considering their weight, the distance, and his intended target, and he would throw the weights at Goku who spun around his head in amusement much faster than the weights were approaching to see what was happening. The black haired man rose up his hands and caught weight after weight and dropping them to the floor just as fast. Killua kept running though and he threw a few more weights before sprinting forward himself.

Goku was waiting for this, and with the dumbbell he just caught in his right hand, he flicked it at Killua whose eyes widened at the weight flying at him twice as fast as he threw it. A spark of lightning surrounded his arms for a millisecond and his arms snapped up so he could catch the weight. Goku looked amused but he kept moving his arms to catch the other weights still coming at him. Killua was getting pushed back by the force of the weight that hit his hands, and he winced in pain as his arms were shaking from the momentum of it.

Killua flipped over the weight and let it fly past him into the wall. The boy himself then leapt back onto the wall where he crouched his legs and sprang off at a hundred miles per hour. He flew across the small room and caught a weight that he threw before and had intentionally missed Goku with. Goku was currently focusing on three different weights coming at him at the same time, and he dropped the two in his hands to make room for them, but his eyes still had the time to dart over and watch what Killua was doing.

Killua saw him look and he mentally frowned but continued his strategy anyway and threw the weight forward. Goku saw it was aimed at his stomach and he leaned his body to the side so as to keep his feet planted as was the first goal he set for himself when challenging Killua to a sparring match. He moved just enough that the weight would miss him, and at the same time caught two of the weights flying at him. The third from before was coming for the point between his eyes, and he leaned his head back to duck under it. As he ducked though, he heard a loud clank directly in front of where his stomach just was.

Goku wanted to lean back up fast to see what was happening, but the third weight was still passing over his face and to lean up he would get hit by it. He hesitated and then lost his balance as the floor beneath him cracked. When he leaned up he saw a weight lifting up in the air slowly in front of him, the same one Killua threw last. His eyes went down and he saw one of the two weights he had dropped in the previous second was still falling, but the other got hit by Killua's throw and sent smashing into the ground at a much higher speed that the floor cracked and Goku's feet lost balance. He lifted back up his gaze to tell Killua how great of a move it was, but his eyes opened huge at the sight of the kid only a few feet in front of him.

Killua's nails were sharpened and his eyes were still vertical slits. He slammed his right hand forward towards Goku's chest, and his nails cut through Goku's orange gi. Killua's victorious smirk vanished from his face though, and an expression of pain appeared instead. He yelled out as he stared at his right wrist that Goku's hand was clenched around. Surrounding Goku's hand was a golden aura, an aura that stretched up his arm and covered his entire body, made his hair golden as well, and his eyes an icy teal.

Killua suddenly felt very, very afraid as Goku looked down into his eyes. He realized that he really did not know Goku that well, and he was a second from killing him right there. He opened his mouth to apologize, but Goku's flat lips curled up into a big grin first. "That was great!" Goku told him, and he let go of Killua's hand. He stayed as a Super Saiyan and laughed a few times as Killua backed off. "For a second there, I thought I was gonna die! Hahaha," Goku leaned back and laughed more heartily.

Killua looked at the man like he was insane, but the next sentence caught him even more off guard. "You're a very good fighter Killua," Goku began. "Let's keep going. Next time I'm going to get serious, so try to keep up."

Killua's shocked look slowly changed and he himself started laughing. He rose up his hands and his nails stayed extended. If Son Goku was fine with training like this, who was he to argue? _I'm fighting a Super Saiyan!_ Killua thought in exhilaration. Killua shot forward, but Goku moved this time and appeared on his left side, moving so fast it looked like Killua was moving in slow motion as the kid turned his head in awe to look at him. "Going to have to pick up the pace," Goku said, before spinning a kick into Killua's side and sending the boy flying.

Killua's strange thrilled feeling to be fighting a Super Saiyan vanished and an empty, forgetful feeling replaced it. _What the- That's one Hell of a power up._ Killua leaned up but Goku was flying across the room towards him and he dropped his bottom lip. He jumped up high and Goku changed his trajectory to chase him. He bounced off the ceiling and the walls crazy fast to try and keep his location hidden, but Goku's eyes darted around and he followed the boy every step of the way.

Killua sparred with Goku for longer than he realized. The Saiyan matched his speed at all times but would only surpass him when Killua got close to landing a hit. The boy retracted his nails after a little as it did not make sense to keep them out when Goku kept dodging, but as soon as the nails were back to normal he started landing hits. Goku stopped speeding up and if Killua got a good move in on him, Goku would take the blow but strike back instantly. He reverted from his Super Saiyan state after only a little of their training and Killua was trying hard to force him back into it.

Killua put immense amounts of power into his punches, but Goku took each one in stride. Killua bounced off the ceiling coming down for Goku's head and he shot a burst of lightning first at the Saiyan's head. He learned Goku's eyes could process fast enough that he had already seen the few times he used lightning in their fight, so he stopped trying to hide it and zapped the Saiyan instead. He brought back a fist, but Goku kept looking up, not flinching from the lightning that zapped him. _What?!_ Killua thought as he saw Goku's smirk.

He punched down but Goku saw it was a feint and rose his other arm to block Killua's foot. He grabbed the boy's left foot above the laces and he lightly pushed it the other way, then tapped the other foot with his same hand as it spun around the first. Killua's first punch turned into his main attack and he yelled out as he focused more of his strength into it. Goku rose up his right hand and caught Killua's hand, but his and Killua's eyes widened as the floor beneath Goku creaked and the Saiyan's legs bent down.

Goku was back in his base state but neither of them expected the amount of force that just went into that punch. Goku rose his other hand to stop Killua, but as he rose it his legs came out from under him. Killua's eyes widened and he pushed down harder to finish the punch, but his arm moved the wrong way as he wanted it to and he got flung back up into the ceiling. "Ah! What's happening?!" Killua struggled around and then heard laughter coming from the doorway.

Goku caught himself with one hand before he hit the ground, and he pushed off that hand and kicked his legs up in the air. He arced up and landed facing the doorway with a smile on his face. "Hey Timmy," Goku greeted, and an invisible boy in the entrance appeared in front of him. Goku seemed surprised, "That's weird, I couldn't feel your energy."

Timmy smirked and he rubbed his nose with his index finger. "I was in stealth mode," he said, though Goku did not really get what that meant. Timmy explained, "Can't see me, can't hear my footsteps or breathing, can't feel the vibrations I make with every step, and..." He held up a finger for every power he stated and this was the fifth one so he had a full hand raised. "I don't give off any energy at all."

"Nice," Goku said, though he was already thinking up ways he could find Timmy while he was using that stealth mode. "Want to spar with us?"

"Yeah, and want to let me down?" Killua called over from the ceiling. The other two looked up at the annoyed boy crossing his arms and glaring at Timmy.

Timmy chuckled a couple times nervously then lowered the older boy down with his mind. "Sorry," the kid who messed with him said as Killua touched down in front of them. The older boy only glared for a second before sighing and slouching his shoulders.

"So Timmy," Goku began. "Want to join us?"

"It's why I came up here," Timmy replied and he smiled softly at the older man.

Killua got some sweat on his forehead. _When I asked the Straw Hats if I could come with them, I did not expect to be sparring with Son Goku and Timmy Turner. This could, get ugly,_ Killua took a step back and he waved a hand at them. "I'm actually feeling a little tired. I'll just watch for now."

"You sure?" Goku asked, as he had been having a fun time fighting with the white haired kid. Killua repeated himself and walked over to the side of the room where he took a seat on a bench. "Alright then," Goku said, and he spun to Timmy with a big grin. "You ready?" Goku asked, curling his fingers in and cracking his knuckles in front of him.

"Let's do it," Timmy replied. He turned his body sideways and closed his eyes. When they snapped open, they were narrowed and his eyebrows dipped in. His eyes had yellow irises with black horizontal lines through them, and under his eyes his skin tinted green. Timmy rose up his fists too and Killua was again surprised to see a stance better than his own.

Timmy and Goku flew off the floor and they shot towards each other. Killua's eyes widened and his eyes darted around the room as the two of them flew around. Timmy got a white aura around himself but Goku followed suit. The two of them were still visible to Killua, but their movements at this speed were too fluid, too thoughtless. _They are not thinking as they fight. Sure, they're imagining moves, but those are moves ten moves from now,_ Killua thought in amazement. _Everything they do is natural, no thoughts needed. All instinct. At such speeds too._

The two fighters stopped across the room from each other and they lowered to the floor. "Something wrong?" Goku asked as his young opponent was taking very deep breaths like they had been fighting for a while.

"No," Timmy replied, though his voice was dark. He curled his elbows in to his sides and clenched his fists hard. The training room around then started to shake as Timmy's aura grew bigger. "Let's take it up," Timmy began. "A notch!" He roared, and a huge gust of wind slammed into Killua.

Goku opened his coal black eyes in surprise as Timmy's skin started to ripple. "Are you sure about this?" Goku yelled over the wind.

The crew on the Thousand Sunny below looked up as the sky above the crow's nest started distorting. The blue sky changed color and got a lot darker. Wind rushed around then and their ship was trembling on the ocean.

"I'm sure," Timmy yelled back at Goku. He yelled again a second later, but he was not making out words, just screaming in pain. His arms and legs extended, his muscles bulking out as they did. Killua's jaw dropped in recognition and his whole body covered in sweat as Timmy's face became more defined, his brown hair got longer and fell back behind his head, and his chest buffed out in front of him stretching his pink shirt that oddly had the ability to match his new size.

Timmy was now taller than Goku, with muscles as large if not bigger, and his aura was a hundred times more intense. "Form 3!" Timmy yelled. The kid started panting over and over and his breaths sounded like he was wheezing.

"That sounded intense," Killua said, still hearing Timmy's pained screams in his ears. "Is it always that painful?" He asked.

"It is now," Timmy replied in a dark tone. Goku frowned and Killua looked back and forth between them in confusion. Timmy looked into Goku's eyes, "With Wanda gone, I need to be able to transform on my own. If I don't get used to it now, when I really need it on Aebrith, I won't be able to transform in time."

Goku nodded at him as that made a lot of sense. Killua on the other hand, just thought, _Who the Hell is Wanda, and how would she make transforming easier?_

"You ready?" Timmy asked, his voice still high-pitched despite his eight foot tall body. Goku nodded back and the Saiyan's spiky black hair all shot up in a single spike that turned golden.

 _Now I get to see these two fight seriously,_ Killua thought, only to drop his jaw as they vanished from in front of him. He calmed down and his eyes darted around following blurs as they smashed into each other and bounced back. An explosion blew up in the air up to his left, but when he looked over he heard the slap of a fist on skin to his right.

 _I need to follow their movements... No! Don't waste Godspeed just to watch a fight. No matter how much you want to watch it,_ Killua kept looking around and he would catch glimpses of the fight going on around him. The longer he watched, the more his eyes adjusted to the speed the other two were moving at which made it easier to enjoy their spar.

After ten minutes of the two fighting, they took a break and Killua could fully evaluate the damage on them. It was not hard to see who had been winning the fight, as Timmy had a trail of blood coming down from the right corner of his lip, and a lot more bruises in general around his body. Goku did not come out without his fair share of damage though, scratches on his arms and legs and a bruise on his left cheek. Goku though, was not panting like his opponent at all.

"Want to hop back in this?" Goku asked, turning to look over at the bench Killua was sitting on.

The boy held up his hands, "I'm good," Killua replied. He tried looking confident as he hopped off the bench and started walking towards the door. "Maybe some other time," he said.

"Aww," Goku complained. "I wanted to see what you can really do," he groaned. Killua stopped where he was and darted his eyes over to see Goku smirking at him. The Saiyan knew he was holding back some moves, and Killua chuckled for a few seconds when he turned back to the door.

As he re-faced the door, his eyes opened wide and he took a step back. The ground in the entrance lost its brown wooden color, turning instead to a pitch black. The feeling of the darkness made Timmy and Goku both look over as well. Unlike Killua though, the two of them just grinned at the dark circle and at the oval of black that shot up out of it. Dark wisps swirled around the portal that had a center of deep purple.

Killua looked into the portal and saw a dark shape approaching. The teen stepped out of the portal with his arms crossed, looking into the room amusedly. "You know you guys are shaking the whole ship, right?"

"Hehe," Goku laughed and scratched the back of his head. "Sorry about that."

"Oh I don't mind," Riku said. "Nami told me to come up here and scold you guys, but I've got a better idea." He held up his hands and two flashes of light appeared in front of him. He clenched around the light, and black and red hilts formed in his grasps. "Mind if I join in?"

"Sure," Goku exclaimed happily.

"You can take my spot," Killua said, and he kept walking towards the door now that the black portal vanished. Riku was wearing a yellow tank top and blue jeans that were ripped up around the knees. Killua was annoyed at himself for being nervous upon seeing the darkness in the first place. _The Straw Hats I could handle,_ Killua thought as he walked by Riku. _But there are too many monsters on this ship._

He walked into the doorway as Riku walked farther inside. Goku and Timmy let their auras fade and it looked like they were going to revert to weaker states. "Don't on my account," Riku began, making the other two look at him in surprise. "I can keep up," the teen said, and he held his arms out to the sides.

Killua heard Riku speak and he chuckled darkly under his breath. _He has no idea what he's talking about. Those two are-_ He glanced back and his jaw dropped. Riku lifted off the ground with his arms raised, and his entire body covered in a bright white aura that stayed there while his clothes underneath shifted to become much darker. His skin got wrapped in a dark coating of, of darkness that pulled tight against his muscles and made them look bigger. Timmy and Goku both grinned and they regained their auras.

The battle started and Killua could barely follow the movements of the two bigger fighters. Riku was trying to keep up, but it looked like his boast really was just that. Riku got punched by Timmy and then kicked by Goku so that he flew back across the room into the wall.

Timmy smirked over and he called out, "Sure you don't want us to slow down?" Goku went in for a punch but Timmy saw it and lifted a block, only for an elbow to slam into his left temple instead and send him flying.

Timmy flipped in midair to control himself and he focused only on Goku again. The Saiyan was distracted like he was a second ago and he prepared to attack, but he realized that Goku would not do something like that for no reason unlike him. He risked a dart of his eyes towards Riku, and his eyes opened wide as the floor around Riku was dropping into darkness. The darkness spread from Riku to the walls and surrounded the entire room in a few seconds.

Killua stepped back from the doorway so he was closer to the railing. He looked at the room in front of him that turned into a realm of darkness. Out of the walls, floor, and ceiling, creatures of the darkness emerged. Killua gulped at their beady white eyes and powerful bodies as they appeared all around Goku and Timmy. He heard yelling down below him and noticed that even the outer walls of the training room were starting to turn black.

Killua turned and hopped off the crow's nest as the fighting started back up behind him. He hit the grass deck below and wiped some blood from below his nostrils. The others all looked at him and Nami snapped, "What is Riku doing? He was supposed to stop them!"

"He joined in," Killua replied as he walked by her. He tried to hide it but the others noticed a small limp in his left leg. An explosion sounded above them and everyone looked up to see a ball of darkness flying out of the right side of the crow's nest. The darkness faded to show light inside it like someone else hit the wall with a beam, and wooden shards fell out of the air around the light and dark as the fight above damaged the ship.

The pirates and their comrades talked about the fight above and some of them talked about joining in, but Nami yelled at them that they don't want to have to stop to get more materials again. This got Gray to agree with her and argue about going faster to Aebrith and taking less stops.

Killua walked away from them though and towards the cabin. The ground beneath his feet shook and he glanced back up at the training room shrouded in darkness. _Keep making friends with them. With their power, I won't have to worry about anyone._

He smirked as he reached the cabin door and grabbed the handle. He froze as he held onto it though, _Just remember, if they knew, they would kill you in a second. Goku, Timmy, Riku, they would all turn on you._ He opened the door and stepped inside, closing the door behind him and leaning back on it. _They can never know my secret._

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Arm wrestling, a flashback to the War against the Underworld, and some sparring! Leave me a review telling me what you think, questions, or predictions. What _is_ Killua's secret? Find out next time on Nexus! Lastly, thanks for all the reviews (no responses today, short on time). So, 'till next time!**


	12. Nexus HWR 2-6 Traitor

**Nexus HWR 2.6 Traitor:**

"Hey Killua, where you going?" Ben called after the older boy who suddenly started walking away with his hands in his pockets. They were on the deck enjoying themselves and playing games until a moment ago.

Killua just waved a hand over his shoulder and kept walking. He had a smile on his face but his eyes did not fool Robin who carefully watched the boy walk past her. He spotted her watching him out the corner of his eye and made it a point not to even look her way.

He walked around the side of the mast and headed over to the stairs up to the cabin. No one paid him any mind and they all continued talking to friends and hanging out on the ship. _"Hey Killua, where you going?"_ He heard the same thing Ben just asked him, only it sounded like different young boy's voice. _Bart,_ Killua thought with a smile.

 **FD + 691**

 **"Hey kid," Killua began.**

 **The boy walking past the alleyway jumped up in the air and Killua smirked. "Whoa man, where'd you come from?" Bart Simpson asked the spooky kid standing in the alley.**

 **"Around," Killua replied. "So, I hear you're some troublemaker. Vandalism, petty theft, arson," every word out of Killua's mouth made the boy in front of him frown more. "Why do you waste your time on such worthless actions?"**

 **"What do you know about it?" Bart snapped.**

 **"I know that you want to do something bigger, something more worth your time," Killua's words made Bart stop frowning and start looking confused. Killua grinned, "Come with me, I've got a group of people I want you to meet."**

 **PRESENT**

Killua walked up the steps on the starboard side of the Thousand Sunny. He reached an upper deck and looked back on it to see Usopp bending over a garden, watering his arsenal of Pop Greens for their next battle.

He watched Usopp for a few seconds, then turned and walked over to the kitchen door. As he reached for it, the door came flying open and he moved out of the way as two boys moving almost too fast for him to see came running by. Timmy was chasing Dash and the two of them sprinted around Killua and over to the steps opposite the ones he came up. He turned to follow them but by the time he looked they were gone.

Killua actually started chuckling to himself, _Just like Mysterion._

 **FD + 679**

 **"Hey Killua," Mysterion began, and Killua spun around to see this strange boy standing in his windowsill.**

 **"How did you find out where I live?" Killua questioned, his voice dark and serious.**

 **"I followed you after the last meeting," Mysterion replied. Killua started walking towards his windowsill as the younger boy kept going, "But Killua, there is something I need to ask you." Killua froze in front of him and the white haired boy's long sharp nails hesitated at his side. His hand shook as he tried holding it back and Kenny continued. "There is a boy in my class. His name is Bart Simpson. I believe he could help us in our cause."**

 **"You tracked me down just to say this?" Killua asked in annoyance.**

 **"If I said it in front of the others, they would probably shut down the idea of having another twelve year old. But you are the one who searched me out, so I believe you understand that our age does not matter." Mysterion paused and Killua found himself grinding his teeth trying not to swing an arm in front of him really fast. Mysterion continued when Killua said nothing, "His entire family was killed in front of him in the first days here. Ever since he has been directing his energy on reckless criminal acts, and I want to help him."**

 **Killua found himself unable to raise his arms and he turned around instead. "You want me to recruit a kid just to help him get over some PTSD? Sorry, but unless he's got some real skill, I don't see-"**

 **"I have no real skill either," Mysterion stated. Killua kept his back to him while the younger boy continued, "Give him a chance. He could help us, and we can help him."**

 **After a few seconds, Killua sighed and turned around. "Listen, I-" he froze mid-sentence as Mysterion was no longer in his windowsill.** _ **Whoa, I need to try that! I'll try it when I go to recruit Ichigo tomorrow. And maybe after, I guess I could check out that Bart kid for Kenny.**_

 **PRESENT**

Killua walked into the kitchen and had a small smile on his face. It was a nostalgic smile, but it was still fake nonetheless. He walked by Nami who was sitting at the dining room table working on a map while eating a snack. Sanji looked over the counter at the kid as he walked by and offered him a snack. "Thanks, but I'm good for now," Killua said without really glancing towards the chef.

The others watched the boy go by but his smile was convincing enough and they continued what they were doing. He just kept walking with the thought of his old friends on his mind.

 **FD + 662**

 **In the middle of the night, a boy in a black hood with a green question mark on top of it was leaning over a roof staring out into the darkness.**

 **"Hey there," a voice said directly behind Mysterion.**

 **Kenny McCormick spun around fast with wide eyes as he did not hear anyone approaching him. "Who are you?" The boy under the guise of Mysterion questioned.**

 **"I'm similar to you, I guess," Killua replied and began walking towards Mysterion. "You hate this Government, so do I."**

 **"What are you getting at?" the caped hero questioned.**

 **"There's a group of people trying to do something about the injustices in this city," Killua said, trying to make himself sound heroic as he did. "Join us, and you'll find out just how much good you can do."**

 **PRESENT**

Killua started walking down the stairs towards the boys' room. Too much was on his mind and he needed some rest over anything else. He opened up the door to their room and then moved to the side to let two black haired teenagers walk by him. He nodded at Rin and Kirito who just gave him small nods back, and then turned and walked into the room, closing the door behind him.

Both of those teens who just went past he barely talked to since getting on the ship. They were pretty quiet guys who kept to themselves, just like him, and like another teen he used to know. _Shu._

 **FD + 657**

 **"Everyone agrees we need more help correct?" Leela questioned. Most people in the room nodded, though there were not many to begin with. She turned to Killua, "You recruited me and Fry, how did you find out about us?"**

 **Killua frowned and looked around at the other people around the table. There were about a half dozen of them at the moment besides him, and they really did look to be lacking. "I get around," Killua answered her.**

 **"If you knew about us though, shouldn't there be others in the city who can help out?" Armin asked the kid across the table from him.**

 **"Listen," Killua began. He held out his hands in front of him, "All cards on the table, I've asked over three times the amount of people than who are here right now." The others looked at him in surprise and Killua continued, "I'm just happy we have** _ **one**_ **new person today, since I confronted** _ **three**_ **between now and last week's meeting."**

 **"Well, it may not mean much," the Green Arrow began. He turned his head to the teenage boy with a long red scarf wrapped around his neck and a black cloak with a collar that came up halfway over his face. "But thanks for joining with this cause."**

 **The teen just looked their way from the wall he was leaning on, and he nodded his head once at them.**

 **PRESENT**

Killua walked towards his hammock and paused when he reached it. He looked down at his feet and slid out of his shoes by pushing down on the heels of either of his feet. He hopped up into the hammock and let it rock back and forth for a little while as he stared up at the ceiling above him. _Why did it all go, so wrong?_ He thought.

 **FD + 649**

 **"Come on Fry, it's no use," Leela told the orange haired delivery boy behind her.**

 **Fry spun around with water in his eyes, "It's not fair. Not fair I tell you," he yelled. He spun back and waved a fist at the office building behind him, "Bender's not a weapon! He's my best friend!"**

 **"They already turned him off Fry," Leela said. "I'm sorry, but it's over. We can't go against the Government. You know what happens to people who do."**

 **Fry sniffled a few times. "I know, but, but…"**

 **"But you want to try anyway?" a new voice asked, directly behind the two adults having a conversation.**

 **The one-eyed woman and her boyfriend spun around and looked down at the kid standing behind them. "If you really want to save your friend, come with me." Killua turned and started walking away with his hands in his pockets.**

 **Fry looked at Leela, then turned and ran after the kid. "Fry, wait!" Leela called after him.**

 **"How do you know about Bender? Do you really think you could get him back?" Fry asked.**

 **"For sure," Killua replied. "I recently started up this group. A few people have similar problems with this NEG regime's rules," he pulled down on his sweatshirt's collar and revealed the steel collar around his neck. "If you catch my drift," he finished.**

 **The two older people glanced at each other with unsure looks, but Killua looked back at them and smiled reassuringly. "I'll help you save your friend Bender, but I'm going to want some help too."**

 **"Sounds fair enough," Leela admitted. "What do you want us to do?"**

 **PRESENT**

 _I want you to be alive,_ Killua thought, a pit of dread filling his stomach. The spiky haired boy lying back on a hammock shook his head and jumped off his bed. "Damn," he mumbled and shoved his hands in his pockets. He was glad no one was in the room so he could freely pace back and forth without anyone judging him or wondering why he looked so troubled.

"Where did it all go wrong?" He growled. "When did I, start caring-" he stopped himself and brought his hands up to the sides of his head, rubbing his temples. _They were all supposed to be pawns. Just pieces in a game of chess to get me my power back. The King shouldn't be attached to his pawns! Raaa!_

 **FD + 645**

 **"I've tried getting in contact with the Upper City, but no one up there will take my calls," Mikasa shouted. "Every Government building tells me the same thing. They are sorry I have this problem and they will work diligently to fix it. Bull shit!" She yelled.**

 **"Mikasa, calm down," Armin urged the girl next to him.**

 **"Not a chance," Mikasa snapped back. "Not while Eren's rotting in that dungeon." She cupped her hands to her mouth and shouted, "The Government arrested my brother for committing no crime! He rots in the dungeon while you all live oblivious to the truth!"**

 **"We're not all oblivious." Mikasa and Armin snapped their heads to the left. There was a boy standing on the sidewalk near them, and he was grinning at them. People walked by, giving the two teenagers pitying or annoyed looks, but this child just smiled at them. He grinned in a way that proved the words he spoke were not empty. "Eren does not deserve to be in that wretched place," Killua spoke, and the teenagers in front of him went wide-eyed. "I'm going to get him out of there, but to do so, I'll need your help."**

 **"Wh-What are you talking about?" Armin whispered over to the kid who was speaking so casually about this out in the open. No one was listening though. They were all bustling by to work and home and ignoring the children on the sidewalk talking to each other.**

 **Killua walked closer to them and repeated slowly so they would understand this time, "Not legally. We are not going to ask nicely. But you two don't care about that do you? You're soldiers. Just like Eren." Killua grinned at their surprised looks that showed the information he had was correct. "Now," he looked right at Mikasa and finished, "let's go save your brother."**

 **PRESENT**

Killua stopped pacing and froze where he stood. He closed his eyes and tried to get their faces out of his mind, but they were all he could think about. They were the only ones on his mind, no matter how much he tried to distract himself. _I, I brought upon the destruction of Metropolis. I got my closest friends killed. It's all my fault._ He walked backwards until his back bumped into the wall, and he slid down that wall until he was sitting on his butt.

He put his face in his hands and whispered under his breath, "I should have killed him. I should have killed him. I should have…"

 **FD + 612**

 **In a dark alleyway inside Metropolis, Killua leaned against a wall with his hands behind his head. He kept glancing to his right at the steel doorway at the end of the alley, but every time he looked it was still closed.**

 **"Hello there."**

 **The kid froze. He cursed himself for letting his guard down, but it was hard to sense people coming with the steel collar around his neck. He turned around slowly and tried to keep a confident, calm expression on his face. He opened his mouth to speak, but the bald man behind him just walked past him casually. Killua watched him walk by, the man in a black suit with his hands at his sides.**

 _ **He's not even taking me seriously. He thinks I can't kill him because of this collar? Maybe I should show him how wrong he is,**_ **Killua grinned and his hand muscles started tensing.**

 **"Follow me," the man in front of Killua said. Killua suddenly felt two presences behind him and through his peripheral vision saw two figures standing there. They both had orange hair and black rods sticking through their light skin, and were wearing long black cloaks covered in red cloud patterns. Those figures were not moving from the end of the alley showing that Killua only had one direction to walk.**

 **He un-tensed his hands, wondering worriedly if the man's subordinates had noticed him tense up and moved up to intimidate him into stopping.** _ **Things may escalate quickly,**_ **Killua thought as he watched the bald man walk straight towards the steel door in front of him. He started walking after the man and put his hands in his pockets to conceal his nails getting sharper.** _ **I might need to take him hostage if I need to get out of there fast.**_

 **The man in front of Killua knocked on the steel door three times in succession with two seconds' space between each knock. A loud click sounded and the door opened inwards. The bald figure wearing a suit looked back at Killua and smiled at him with a warm smile that Killua could feel his body yelling at him was dangerous. Still, those two orange haired figures were walking forwards behind him, so he had nowhere he could run to if it came to it.**

 **He walked behind the taller man and got closer to his back every second. Killua walked into the dark doorway and followed the bald man down a flight of stairs into a deep dark basement. It was only dark for a certain amount of time however. Once he reached the bottom of the stairs, the man was holding an arm out motioning for an open doorway that had a lot of light coming from it.**

 **Killua looked at the man and tried to hide his skepticism. He knew he had no choice in the matter though, and just hoped these people didn't do all this just to kill him.** _ **I already have a nullifier. They wouldn't go through all this just to kill me, right?**_ **He walked through the bright doorway and had to shield his eyes for a second.**

 **When he opened back up his eyes, his nervousness replaced with anxiety and confusion. In front of him was a long, rectangular table. On one side of the table was a short man with a single spike of orange hair and a costume on with the letter 'S' in the middle. Syndrome had two robots behind him with powerful laser arms and glowing red eyes. On the opposite side of the table as him, was a thin teenager with jet black hair. Standing behind Lelouch Lamperouge was a shorter, balder man in an orange gi who looked over at the doorway seriously and made all of Killua's warning signals go off.**

 **The man who invited Killua to come, who walked in behind him, strode over to the other end of the rectangular table two of his subordinates were standing at. He reached the other side and stood there for a moment, looking across the room at Killua still in the doorway. "My name is Lex Luthor," the bald man began, making the child's eyebrows lift up in surprise even as he tried to keep himself composed.**

 _ **This is Lex Luthor? Lex Luthor searched me out? Then these are members of the Underworld. They probably don't have nullifiers. Yep, definitely don't. There's no way I can take them on the way I am now,**_ **Killua's mind raced with plans and ideas and Luthor started smirking almost like he knew what the white haired boy was doing.**

 **The leader of the Underworld slammed his right palm down on the table. The smack almost made Killua jump, even as the boy desperately tried to keep himself from sweating. Killua looked beneath Luthor's palm though and became intrigued. Lex Luthor slid his hand forward and the manila folder beneath it slid across the entire table as he let go.**

 **"What is that?" Killua asked, looking at the folder close to his edge of the table that he had yet to walk to.**

 **Luthor smirked and motioned at it with his head. "Why don't you take a look for yourself?" He offered. Killua started walking forward, and Luthor continued, "I know about you, Killua Zoldyck. I know you dislike that collar around your neck more than most citizens..." Killua continued to walk to the folder while keeping his eyes pointed straight at it. Luthor kept talking though, "...I know you were caught several times trying to break out of your collar. I know getting caught one more time will get you tossed in the Underground Prison. I know you have been trying to escape the city, yet know that your power nullifier will allow them to track you even if you manage to escape for a while."**

 **Killua reached the edge of the table and he put his hand down on the folder. He glanced up at Luthor who knew so much about him despite him knowing close to nothing about the bald man. He looked back down at the folder and slowly opened it up, before staring down in confusion. Killua grabbed the first sheet of paper and moved it to the side, then spread out the next dozen sheets with a similar confused look.**

 **He ended on a Marine with a hair color similar to his own, and he shook his head a few times trying to clear all the thoughts going through his head. "Who are these people?" Killua asked, lifting up his gaze and looking at Luthor.**

 **"They are going to help you," Luthor stated. He motioned at a sheet of paper on Killua's left side, "That teenager has no power nullifier, his power is unknown to the Government."**

 **Killua looked at the sheet and stared at the older boy's name,** _ **Ouma Shu.**_

 **Luthor continued, "The three you nicely laid out in front of the folder should be easiest." Killua looked ahead at the two teenagers and the black haired man he put next to them. "They were all soldiers," Luthor spoke up while Killua grabbed the man's page and pulled it closer. "They have a friend in prison who happens to be the biggest monster of them all. He will-"**

 **"Why are you telling me all this?" Killua interrupted. The man still had his mouth open and Killua slammed Levi Ackerman's photo down on the table. "What do you have to gain from giving me this information?!"**

 **"Killua," Luthor stated, his voice less snarky and more of what Killua assumed was his normal tone of voice. It almost seemed like the Underworld leader was trying to be straight with him here. "I would not help you without expecting anything in return. You know this. However, I only ask a small favor of you."**

 **The young boy lifted up his eyebrows, interested in this offer already. Luthor started smiling and he lifted his arms from his sides, "I give you the means to get your nullifier off. You are an intelligent boy, I am sure you will be able to utilize the information in that folder to the fullest. While you plot and plan though, I only ask that you report back to me on the status of your,** _ **revolution,**_ **" the man finished and waited for Killua's reply.**

 **There was silence in the room for several seconds. The Underworld leaders and their subordinates stared at the kid waiting for him to say something. "That's all?" Killua asked. "You just want me you tell you how I'm doing?" He saw the man nod and his eyes narrowed, "I don't believe you. What is this all about? Why would you want me to do this?"**

 **Luthor's smile faltered for a second, but he kept it up and lowered his hands back to his sides. He looked closely at the boy who was too smart to give his usual spiel to. "I will be taking over this city soon," Luthor stated. Both Syndrome and Lelouch looked over at their leader in surprise, but the older man continued undeterred, "When I do, there will be no such things as power nullifiers. The strong will not have to fear the weak," he slammed both hands down on the table. "The weak will fear the strong," he stated, and his mouth curved up into a huge grin.**

 **In this moment, Killua felt a sudden urge take over him. His nails extended again and he looked over at Luthor's neck.** _ **He's dangerous,**_ **Killua thought, every warning sensor on his body going off.** _ **I should kill him. I need to kill him.**_

 **He did not move though. It was not because of the bald fighter in the orange gi who looked so threatening. And it was not because of the two black cloaked fighters glaring at his back. The reason Killua did not move, was because of the papers in front of him that Luthor so kindly provided.** _ **Their addresses. What their complaints are with the Government. Strengths, weaknesses, he has everything. I could use this.**_ **His nails retracted, his face relaxed, and his mouth curled up into a smirk. "So you're making me into a member of the Underworld huh?" Killua asked.** _ **I'll just use him to get this collar off and then run. No one can catch me at Godspeed. Whatever his plans are, I can escape during them and no one would even notice I was gone.**_

 **The boy chuckled, and he put his hands behind his head casually. "Let's get this party started."**

 **PRESENT**

Killua buried his face deeper in his hands. _I should have killed him. Even if it killed me, I should have killed him right then and there._ He realized his hands were getting wet and he tried to wipe away the tears coming out of his closed eyes.

After a few seconds, Killua lifted his head and slammed it back on the wall behind him. _I helped him, I helped him kill so many innocent people._ The kid stared straight ahead with a dejected look. He had tears freely streaming out of his eyes, and he couldn't take it. _Armin, Mikasa, Levi, Oliver, everyone, I'm so, so sorry. I didn't know- I mean, I knew, but, I didn't know what- I just..._ He started shaking his head and stopped while staring straight at the opposite wall that he was leaning on.

 _In the end, I wasn't the one who used him. He used me. I gave him exactly what he wanted._ Killua put his hands through his hair and looked around him to make sure no one was watching. _I can never let them find out. If Son Goku were to know that I helped the man who killed his wife... I'm stuck on a boat with this man, stuck with him and all his friends._

He put a fake smile on his face and started walking back towards the door. _I better not slip up._

* * *

 **A/N Bum bum BUUUUM! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! I've been dropping hints about Killua for a long time now. Even in the middle of Metropolis he did not show up at the prison with the others, having already gotten his nullifier off, and we saw him watching the destruction with Luthor on his mind. Anyway, a lot of flashbacks this chapter, mostly pretty small ones. Killua was a spy! If only the people on the Thousand Sunny knew he was an Underworld member, since many of them still have hard feelings against Kirito, who was just a grunt in a base, if they knew the role Killua had... things could get messy, at least Killua thinks so. Well, leave me a review telling me what you think, comments, questions, or predictions about this chapter and the upcoming ones! See you tomorrow with the Next Chapter: The Day of Fire!**

 **Also, here's a list since I did mention many characters not mentioned in Heroes Will Rise before:**

 **DBZ: Goku**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Killua**

 **DC Comics: Lex Luthor, Green Arrow**

 **Attack on Titan: Eren, Mikasa, Levi, Armin**

 **Simpsons: Bart**

 **South Park: Mysterion (Kenny)**

 **Guilty Crown: Ouma Shu**

 **Bleach: Ichigo**

 **Futurama: Bender, Fry, Leela**

 **SAO: Kirito**

 **Blue Exorcist: Rin**

 **One Piece: Luffy, Robin, Sanji, Usopp, Robin, Franky**

 **-Also, I don't own any of those^, or any other shows you may recognize these characters I don't own from.**

joebob323 chapter 11 . 20h ago

I have a pretty good idea at what Killua's secret is...he is probably... a witch! Burn the witch!

 **So close! XD, wonder if you had any idea that this was coming? Thanks for the review!**


	13. Nexus HWR 2-7 Day of Fire

**N** **exus HWR 2.7 Day of Fire:**

Over the Great Ocean, the sky for hundreds of miles in every direction was clear except for the sparsely scattered cirrus clouds. Behind the thin white clouds, the three suns burned brightly, too brightly. Down on the Thousand Sunny, not a single person, animal, demon, cyborg, or Saiyan was out on the deck, for it was the Day of Fire.

Two times since arriving on the planet full of creatures and people from every universe, the sun had burnt this hot this before. The first time was thought to be an anomaly, but once it happened a second time a year later it became considered an annual event. Unfortunately, no one had yet to make a calendar so the pirates and their companions were not prepared for the Day of Fire.

Earlier that morning, after breakfast had finished and everyone was out on the deck of the ship, it had started. As the three suns rose higher in the sky, the air over the water's surface started to show little haze marks. The humidity rose and the sky became hazy with the heat. Everyone on the deck and around the outside of the ship started to notice it was much hotter than the day before. Sure it was the hotter part of the year, but the change in temperature from the day before was drastic.

It was Nami who had figured it out, and not a moment too soon. She was staring up at the sky, while leaning back on a deck-chair in her bikini, with a pair of sunglasses on. She lowered them from her face when all three suns had gone behind a cloud, solely to wipe some sweat away from her eyes. After she had wiped her eyes though, she caught a glimpse of the red sun coming out from behind the clouds. She instantly recognized the flaming look the sun had to be the one only seen on the Day of Fire. It was no longer just the color red, but instead looked like a large bubbling pool of lava with huge red flares shooting off of it.

"INSIDE!" she had shouted, right before the other clouds up in the sky got pulled away from each other and the other two suns became visible again. The rest of the crew looked up in that moment as the sky looked to burst into flames, the heat lines becoming more defined and red.

The grass on the ship shriveled up while they ran into the cabin, leaving only Goku, Natsu, and Franky out on the ship to cover everything up. Natsu was able to handle the intense heat easily, always being on fire and even eating it. Franky's metal body handled the heat well, not as good as the other two, but he had to stay outside to explain to the two idiots what needed to be done. The grass was unsalvageable, but they covered up the sails with tarps, and boarded up the windows as best they could to keep the heat out from inside.

Soon it became even too much for Franky to stay outside, so he went in too, leaving Goku and Natsu to finish up. While they were finishing up building a protective walled-in area to save Nami's tangerine bushes on the back of the ship, Natsu asked Goku, "Back on the planet you were born on was it hot like this?" The pink haired mage lowered his hammer and wiped some sweat from his forehead, though the heat was not bothering him too much.

Goku turned to him and chuckled, "I don't know."

"Huh?" Natsu wondered, turning back and hammering a nail into a board again. He picked his nose with one hand and said, "Gohan never talked much about the whole Saiyan thing, but he said he was only half, so that means you're a full one right?" He was never great with math, but he was pretty sure Igneel once told him two halves made a whole.

"Uh huh," Goku nodded, lifting up one more plank and closing up the area they were building, a smile on his face as the tangerine grove inside still looked alive. "But I'm still from Earth. Well, my Earth, hahaha," he laughed.

"Yeeaaaa," Natsu said slowly. "Because you guys are aliens right?" He asked.

"But I grew up on Earth," Goku explained as Natsu hammered in the final board he held up. "Vegeta grew up on planet Vegeta, you would have to ask him if it was this hot there."

Natsu nodded, understanding that at least, though still with more questions. The main one was the reason he had asked in the first place though, and he asked the muscular man, "So, why aren't you sweating then?" Natsu occasionally glanced at the Saiyan's face, and there was not any water on it, he didn't look hot at all.

"Haha, I'm not?" Goku asked with a bright smile on his face. He looked up and scratched the back of his head, "It is pretty hot."

"Pretty hot?!" Natsu shouted. "It's not even noon yet and I can already see the water starting to steam!"

Goku laughed as the two of them finally finished up. The muscular Saiyan warrior stood up and swiped his hands across each other, then turned back to Natsu and said, "The Hyperbolic Time Chamber was pretty hot too. It was a lot hotter than this," he said with another small chuckle. The Saiyan man thought back on the year he spent with his son inside the chamber, and how sometimes it felt like he was sitting inside a volcano out in the void.

Natsu was pretty surprised by Goku's statement. _Hotter than this? Man, these Saiyans are impressive for more than just their genetics._ The Dragon Slayer wiped some sweat from his brow and chuckled, "Guess that's why you're the mayor."

"Huh?" Goku asked the younger man.

"Nevermind," the Fairy Tail wizard said. The two of them only stayed outside for a little longer after they finished up with protecting the ship. It was more fun being surrounded by all their friends though, so the two of them walked over to the door of the kitchen.

The moment Goku opened up the door they felt a cool breeze rush into them. The inside of the cabin was being kept much colder without heat coming in through the boarded windows and with all the shade and cooling devices Franky and Usopp had set up. Still, as soon as Goku opened the door, that cold air rushed outside and everyone who was close to the door spun towards them and yelled, "CLOSE THE DOOR!"

Goku and Natsu ran inside and closed the door behind them, but the damage was done. Usopp was close to the door when it was opened up and the sharpshooter was now lying on the ground crawling away, "So, hot," he gasped out dramatically.

"Oh shut up," Nami scolded from over at the couch in the next room. She pulled out a fan and started fanning herself off as the heat had filled the entire ship again, not that it ever fully left. "It's hot for all of us."

"It is the Day of Fire after all," Natsu said, laughing as he walked over to the table. "The best day of the year," he added on with a smirk at all of their miserable looks.

"For some people," Dash corrected, though he was too hot to argue for long. The little kid sat with his back against the dining room wall, sweat pouring down his face. "This heat is killing me," he moaned. Even though it was cooler than outside, so Goku and Natsu thought it was actually chilly, the rest of them had been sitting in here as it progressively got hotter.

"Now that no one's outside, why don't we have Franky seal up the cracks in the door?" Nami suggested, a smile coming to her face as her fan was not keeping her from sweating much.

"But, won't that keep the ship airtight?" Ben asked from a chair at the dining room table where he had his head down. "Then we won't be able to breathe. Especially with twenty people on board."

"Nineteen," Usopp corrected from where he lay on the floor

"No one cares," everyone else in the room retorted except for Goku. That only made it hotter and they were all feeling miserable.

"Franky!" Nami moaned loudly. "Build more of the air conditioners," she yelled, while leaning back on the couch near the aquarium and doing nothing herself. Even the fish on the other side of their glass wall that showed the ship's aquarium were swimming slower than usual. Everyone was just too hot to care today. "FRANKY!" Nami shouted again as she received no response.

"Sorry Nami-san," Sanji said, the blond haired chef walking into the room from the hallway. He looked as hot as ever, "I think he's downstairs working on-"

"Good," Nami muttered at the sweating chef who was wearing a white t-shirt with the small sleeves rolled up. She leaned her head back, "It's only going to get hotter."

"Well, I'm making cold cuts for lunch," Sanji stated. "I was going to cook something, but I don't think the suns need any of my help boiling us." Everyone nodded in agreement with the chef as just turning on the stove would add unnecessary heat to an already hot environment.

Natsu walked across the dining room and looked around a little, "Hey, where is everyone?" he asked. It really seemed a little empty up here considering they were a pretty big crew and no one was out on the deck in this heat.

"They're down below," Goku said, the Saiyan the only one there who could actually feel their friends.

Ben and Dash looked over at the Saiyan who pointed down at the floor. "Right below us actually," Goku added.

"All of them?" Ben asked, his interest piquing a little.

"Mm hm," Goku hummed affirmatively.

Ben looked back over to Dash, who glanced back at him in turn. "Want to go check it out?" the little boy asked his older friend. Ben looked to hesitate for a moment, as walking around seemed like it would make him hotter, but then he nodded and got up off his seat.

Dash stood up and he and Ben walked down the hall with Natsu not far behind. Usopp reached an arm up as Goku walked past him to follow the others, "Please, carry me," the long nosed man lying on the floor begged.

"Okay," Goku said, then reached down and grabbed Usopp by the arm, lifting him up off the floor simply and carrying him away.

"W-Wait," Nami called over as Goku was walking away. "Me too, please," she added as the man looked her way.

"Alright then," Goku agreed, smiling still and not seeing why he couldn't carry his comrades.

Nami cheered mentally, as doing so physically would make her hotter. While she was being lifted up she looked towards the kitchen and the chef whose eyes were on fire with rage of jealously. "Sanji-san, please call us up when lunch is ready."

His jealous eyes went away and he swooned for her with eyes that looked like hearts. "Your wish is my command Nami-sannnn!"

As Sanji started up on their lunch, the rest of them walked downstairs to see what everyone was doing. They reached the boy's room, but the door was locked. There were noises coming from the other side. Not the sounds of moans, and of complaints about the heat, but of... laughter.

"What is going on in there?" Ben wondered aloud and looked at the boy next to him.

Dash shrugged back, and then got surprised as he was pushed out of the way, so was Ben. Goku had put Nami down who pushed between the two younger boys and reached the locked door. She saw Ben fail, and it ticked her off. The woman slammed her fist against the door over and over, "Let us in there!"

The laughter on the other side of the door stopped and Nami stopped her pounding, panting heavily where she stood with a look of annoyance on her face. "What is going on in there?" she mumbled in annoyance.

"... thought it was supposed to be a secret club." A voice was mumbling as it got closer to the door.

"Just let them in already," another voice said loudly, sounding pretty cheerful.

The doorknob made a clicking noise as it was unlocked and the door opened up a crack. "What's the password?" Rin asked, the black haired teen with pointy ears looking through the small crack at them.

"It's called," Nami kicked the door open and sent the boy behind it flying backwards. "Let me-" her voice caught in her throat and the others behind her all went wide-eyed.

Inside the boys' room it was... snowing. The floor had a coating of white on it, and everyone else on the ship was in here, all smiling and having a good time in the snow. Robin was laying back on a hammock with a book in her hands, reading it casually but happily as the temperature in here was much better than where she was reading it previously. "Oh, Nami-san," she said over to the door. "It is nice to see you."

"What?!" Nami yelled over. She was fuming so bad she wanted to explode. "What's going on here?!"

"Hey," Killua called over from where he was playing cards with Kirito and Timmy. "We don't really want all the snow melting, so if you don't mind closing the door. That would be great."

Nami's face turned red and she was starting to get very, very angry. She heard cheers on either side of her and looked down to see neither Ben nor Dash shared her angry look, instead just diving onto the snow-covered floor and rolling around in it to cool themselves down. "Why didn't anyone tell me about this?!"

"You have to find it on your own," Kairi called over, and Nami looked to see the girl wearing ice skates. Kairi came to a short stop on an icy area of the room to speak directly to her older friend, "The five of us agreed on that when we started."

"What are you talking about?" Nami groaned, not following in the least.

Sora looked around and saw some of the snow melting now that the door was open. "Hey Goku," he called over to the door where the Saiyan walked in and put down a still-shocked Usopp. "Could you close the door?" he asked.

"Sure thing," the Saiyan replied, tilting his head a little in confusion though as Sora lifted up his hands and formed a Keyblade in them. Usopp and Natsu heard the door close behind them, but they were too focused on Sora to turn around. Nami lifted up her eyebrows at the sight of the Keyblade in Sora's hand, then turned to her left to see Riku grin and form two Keyblades of his own. Kairi giggled and rose up her Keyblade, while the girl behind her who was also ice skating came to a stop.

"Go for it Juvia," Kairi told her blue haired friend.

"Alright Kairi-san," the woman told the red haired teenager next to her. Juvia held up her arms and they glowed as she used her magic, forming a large cloud that filled up right below the ceiling of the room.

"Now!" Sora called out. "BLIZZAGA!"

"Blizzard!" Kairi added.

"Blizzara," Riku called out as well.

All three of the Keybearers shot blasts of swirling light blue magic up into the clouds, all at different intensities with Sora's being the strongest. A few seconds later, the storm cloud started pouring down buckets of snow. The clouds weren't large enough to stay while the snow was falling fast, so they were disappearing pretty quickly, but no one was watching the clouds as they were all too excited by another layer of snow.

The orange haired navigator of the crew held out a hand and felt the snow touch it. It was cold, and the snow gave off an icy chill that was what filled the room and made it so chilly only in here. "Alright, so it was you four," Nami grumbled, her head bent a little so her face was shadowed, "and who was the fifth?"

Juvia and the Keybearers looked at each other nervously at Nami's evil-sounding tone. They didn't know if they should say, but they didn't need to. "That was me," Killua admitted over from his card game that was paused for the moment because Timmy was jumping around in the new snow. "I came up with the idea, thought Juvia's water magic could be put to some good use, but getting wet wouldn't be a long term solution." He could tell she was angry and continued, "I also chose not to tell anyone, and told the others not to either. But some people," he looked over at Juvia, "couldn't help themselves."

"Juvia just wanted to tell Gray-sama," she whispered sheepishly.

"And I just happened to hear them," Robin said while continuing to read her book. Her just happening to hear them was really her creating another ear on the wall near where they had their secret discussion since Juvia was acting stranger that usual, but no one else needed to know that.

"And they did it in the room we all sleep in," Kirito added skeptically, "so we were all going to find it anyway."

"See, that's why I said we should have gone up to the training room," Sora said, looking over at Killua.

"Yeah yeah, you were right," the smaller boy with white hair said with a small frown. "I didn't think going out in the heat to get there would be worth it."

"If we had," Riku chimed in from over at the wall he was leaning on, "it would have felt so much better when we made it snow."

"That is true," Kairi said, giggling at the little boy's annoyed reaction as even she was agreeing now.

"At the time it seemed like here would be-"

Their little argument was interrupted by Nami screaming at them. Everyone looked over at the woman as she babbled words too hard to understand for ten seconds straight, all of them sounding very angry, but were rushed too much and became incomprehensible. After ten seconds of everyone just staring at her with a blank look, she finally stopped shouting nonsense and took a deep breath.

"Well umm," Sora looked around. "Why don't you join us and make up for lost time?" he suggested, shrugging his shoulders. There was not much he could do to apologize at this point, but if they could make Nami enjoy this as much as they were, then perhaps she would forgive them.

She stared at him and lifted up a hand, opening her mouth to shout, but then closed it. She growled and opened her mouth again, and held both arms up in exasperation. The woman lowered back down her arms and closed her eyes. "It's not hot enough to stay angry," she stated, opening her eyes a little and grinning. The rest of the room started smiling again and they started cracking up and continuing their snow party, this time, together

* * *

"So hot," a boy whispered. The sky all around him was blurry, the haze of heat too intense to handle. He swung one hand in front of him, then the other, and shot across the air again. He was staying as low towards the water as possible, but it was doing nothing to cool him down from the intense heat of the day.

He kept going across the top of the water and occasionally skimmed it to cool him down. The boy had dirty blonde hair sticking out from under his blue hat. He had on a yellow shirt and blue shorts, with a white cloth belt around his waist. His light colored skin was covered in sweat, but he had to ignore the heat in order to keep himself going. "This is," he mumbled, feeling tired from the heat. "Not looking, good," he muttered, his eyes getting a little hard to hold open.

Again he swung his arms in front of him, and again and again. The child's head dipped every few seconds and his head was burning. The blue hat on his head drooped down over his back, but with every jump it bobbed up and down, allowing the back of his neck to start burning up like his arms and lower legs. He looked more and more red every few minutes, and it was getting hotter still.

He looked up in the sky and had to close his eyes at how bright the suns were, so bright he couldn't even tell where each one was. Closing his eyes meant he could not see where he was going and he felt his feet touch the water's surface. "Oh noo-" he tripped forwards as his feet skid across the water, making him tumble over and over across the waves. He finally managed to spin around and slam one hand down on the surface where he was about to fall.

The boy reappeared twenty feet above the water, panting heavily like before, but now dripping wet and still as hot as ever. "If I don't make it to an island soon," the boy gasped out, sticking out his tongue as he had swallowed some salt water when he tumbled across the surface. He turned his head, looking either direction and wincing as his neck hurt because of the sun burns. He lifted his arms to send himself forward again, but his arms were screaming in pain.

All of the water evaporated off of his skin within seconds of appearing back above the sea. His arms became dry again, and the sun was burning worse than ever, searing him with pain as his sun burns started to become worse than just that. His burnt skin tore with the slightest movement, and when he lifted up his arms, they started to bleed. "Ahhh," he yelled out, and clenched his eyes in pain.

When he opened them, he noticed he was falling again and needed to keep himself up, but swinging his arms or even moving his legs was tearing at his body. "Oh man," he muttered. "I, don't," he whispered, opening his eyes wider and looking up ahead, "I don't know, if I can make it all the way," he whispered. _I feel so low on energy after traveling for so long. Though this heat probably isn't helping any._ The kid looked up with a frown and wondered how he could get himself out of this while he lifted his arms and threw himself forward again.

"Wait," he uttered, his eyes catching a glimpse of something in the distance. He turned towards it and threw his arms in front of him, yelling out in pain as he did, but keeping his eyes open and seeing the something get closer. With a closer look at the object in the distance, a small smile came on his reddened face, followed by another look of pain. "Go go go," he expressed, sending himself flying faster and faster still. He held both arms out in front of him and flew ahead at his top speed, flying as fast as he could towards the ship sitting on the Great Ocean. "Go GO GO!"

* * *

"These sandwiches- munch munch- are delicious!" Luffy yelled between bites of entire sandwiches at a time. It was still hot up in the dining room, but it was bearable and the only place to have a meal on the ship.

"I could make a thousand of these and there still wouldn't be enough," Sanji mumbled from the kitchen where he was already making more, knowing he would hear them shout for it soon. He sighed and then laughed, shaking his head as there was no point in complaining with his situation now. There were too many members of this crew whose hungers were near insatiable to have the hope of ever waiting more than an hour or two after each meal before starting up work on the next one.

The massive pile of sandwiches piled on the dining room table was decreasing fast, but one person who normally ate the most out of them all was just sitting in his seat with a surprised look on his face. Natsu had five sandwiches in his mouth and as he chewed he turned to his left where the man was sitting right next to him, "Wh-at's wr-ong, Mayor?" He asked, finally gulping down all his food in one big swallow.

Goku stood up out of his seat and looked over the pile of sandwiches and into the kitchen where Sanji was looking over at him now. The chef started to sweat nervously at the serious look Goku was giving him, "Did I say-"

"GOOOOO!"

"AHHHH!" half of the people in the kitchen and dining room screamed. They screamed because a huge blue circle of glowing light appeared in the side of the kitchen directly to Sanji's left. The chef saw the portal suddenly appear next to him and he stuck out his lips while falling backwards in shock.

The entire group at the table jumped up to their feet as the portal appeared and a figure came flying through it. His body was smoking as he came through the portal, and he flew across the kitchen from the wall the portal opened in. He crashed into the kitchen counter and screamed out, "Ahh!" in horrible pain. He bounced off the counter and over to the table where he landed right in the middle of their sandwiches, which actually gave him a soft landing.

Everyone stared at the pile of sandwiches which collapsed on top of the person who crashed into it, covering him up. A small trail of smoke seeped out of the cracks in between sandwiches and everyone on the crew stared at the table.

"Okay, umm what just happened?" Ben asked. He turned to his left and saw Dash grabbing at his throat. He realized his friend must have been so shocked right in the middle of swallowing his food that he gasped and started choking. "I got you!" Ben exclaimed, getting behind his friend and making one hard Heimlich maneuver tug, getting Dash to cough out a chunk of chewed up food.

Nami didn't even exclaim how gross it was when it landed on the floor near her feet. She was too distracted staring straight at the pile of sandwiches. "Was that-" she started.

"It looked like a child," Nico Robin stated as she also looked at the table, one of the less shocked-looking people in the room. She turned to Goku who was looking at the table with a smile now, having lost the serious look she noticed earlier when staring at the far wall. _He must have felt the boy coming._

"Hey wait a second," Natsu growled, "he's in our food!"

Luffy's eyes lit up as he realized it too now. The two of them charged at the table together and pulled sandwiches away to get to the kid beneath them. Natsu was just pushing them to the side, whereas the pirate on the other side of the rectangle table from him was shoveling the sandwiches into his mouth.

The two of them moved enough of the food away to get to the figure below, and Luffy grabbed him by his yellow shirt. The pirate Captain lifted the figure up in the air and everyone finally saw who they were so afraid of. A bunch of them had gotten a glance when he bounced over the kitchen counter, but now they could all see the child, and he did not look so good.

"Oh no," Kairi said, lifting up a hand to form her Keyblade. Riku put a hand on the girl's shoulder to stop her and she looked up at him. She saw his gaze and followed it over to Sora who made her smile as he already had his Keyblade risen and glowing.

"Cure," Sora said, and a green dome surrounded the boy in Luffy's hand.

The kid's eyes were closed, and his body covered in burns, a few of them bleeding. Once Sora called out his magic though, the green dome fixed up his injuries like it was nothing. His skin lightened up to what they assumed was his normal skin tone, and he looked fine. Luffy didn't put him down though, he just turned the kid and held him up so his own face was right in front of the kid's.

As the boy's eyes fluttered open, he came face to face with the pirate staring back. "Who are you? Why are you on my ship?" Luffy asked sternly, then much louder, "And why were you attacking our food?!"

"You have food?!" the boy exclaimed in surprise. He sniffed in once loudly and turned his head as he smelt the food right behind him. The kid reached up his right hand which started glowing blue. A small blue portal appeared above it, and a little portal less than a foot in diameter appeared right over the table. His hand went through the portal over his hand and came out of the other, before pulling back out the other side and letting both portals vanish, only now he had a sandwich in his hand.

The kid chomped down on the sandwich and exclaimed with a mouthful of food, "Wow, this is really good!"

Luffy shook his head in shock, then snapped it back to the boy with amazed eyes. He narrowed his eyebrows as he remembered he was supposed to be angry, but then smiled in awe as he remembered the cool portal things.

After he chomped down the first one, the kid seemed to notice he was being held off the floor. Actually, he was realizing a lot of things. "It sure is cold in here. I don't know how you guys did it."

"Cold?" Usopp asked, sweat pouring down his face from more than just fear of this mystery child. "It's like, a hundred degrees in here," he moaned.

"Whoa really?" the boy asked, still sounding amazed. "That must mean it's gotta be like two hundred out there."

"Two hundred," Sanji whispered the boy's words again, whistling afterwards with a hint of amazement. "That's crazy. How long have you been out there?" the chef asked.

"Hours," the boy replied in a tired voice. "So thanks for being here," he added.

Luffy decided. He put the kid down and smiled at him. "Hello. I'm Straw Hat Luffy. This is my ship. I'm going to be the King of the Pirates."

"Pirates? Whoa," the kid said, looking around at everyone. "I've always wondered what it would be like to be a pirate."

"So what are you then?" Kirito asked, the teen still not seeming too keen on this random person being free to walk around after appearing out of nowhere.

"I'm an Eliatrope. My name's Yugo," he greeted.

"I don't know what an Eliatrope is," Kirito stated before anyone else could get in a word. "I meant what type of person are you?"

The little boy smiled wide and pointed at himself, "I'm a hero!"

"Awesome!" Luffy exclaimed.

"Welcome to the club buddy," Dash said, appearing in front of the boy with super speeds.

The kid gained a surprised look on his face and he made an 'ooh' noise at the sight of Dash running up in front of him super fast like. "What was that portal thing?" Dash asked excitedly.

"Oh this?" Yugo lifted up his right hand and a blue portal appeared next to it.

"Whoa," Ben said, stepping closer to this random child.

"A hero huh?" Sora asked, putting his arms behind his head. "Sure you aren't a junior hero?"

Ben looked back over at Sora and tilted his head to the side, "Is there a difference?"

"Yep," Sora replied, chuckling to himself as he thought about the Olympus Coliseum and Phil's hero rankings.

"So umm, I'm going to be the only voice of reason here and ask: How in the Hell did you get here?" Gray asked the boy. "We're in the middle of the ocean. You were covered in enough burns to kill you. So-"

"Like this," the boy explained, throwing his left hand up and creating a blue portal four feet up in the air and five feet in front of him. He pushed his right hand in front of him and did a front flip into another portal. As his body moved through the portal he appeared out the one in the air, and created two more to start hopping around the air with. He would bounce out of one, then on his downward arc put a portal beneath him and one in front, and the one beneath would shoot him out of the other with the same momentum he was falling with.

"That's a new one," Sanji muttered with a look of surprise on his face.

"Portals," Robin said in slight awe. "I wonder how they work?"

"Is it a Devil Fruit?" Kirito asked, this time actually directed at the kid jumping in the space above him. "Or some kind of magic?"

"Nope," Yugo said, falling down to the floor behind Kirito, "all of the Eliatropes can do this."

"Is that a kind of race or something?" Riku asked, his interest piquing now.

"Yes," the boy responded. As he did, Ben got a large smirk on his face and walked over towards Yugo. When the boy was turned around, Ben bumped the glowing green watch on his left wrist into the kid. Yugo turned with a confused expression, but Ben just started whistling and walked away casually, tucking the blinking watch on his wrist away.

"Hey Yugo," someone called at the kid, distracting him from Ben and making him look back at a pink haired figure near him. Natsu Dragneel smirked at the boy, "You can spend the rest of the Day of Fire with us, on one condition."

Luffy frowned at the Fire Dragon Slayer who was making rules on _his_ ship. Natsu continued while looking Yugo in the eyes, "Tomorrow, I want to fight you."

"Fight me?" Yugo asked, looking taken aback.

"Yeah!" Natsu exclaimed. "I want to see what your portals can do," he said, a competitive glint in his eyes.

Yugo looked to be thinking it over, and Luffy spoke up, "You can stay no matter what. You're cool and I like you," he added with a grin.

Natsu looked at Luffy with an annoyed expression. He didn't really mean that he would kick the kid off if he didn't accept, it was just a joke, and the fact that Luffy was adding this sentiment made Natsu out to be an ass. Yugo smiled however after a few seconds and stated, "That's alright. I'll fight you if you want. I'm warning you though," the kid said with a bright smile, "I'm pretty good."

Natsu lost the annoyed look at Luffy and grinned back at the kid. "Bring it on!"

* * *

For the rest of the Day of Fire, Yugo stayed on the Straw Hat crew's ship and got to know each of the people aboard with him. They all introduced themselves and everyone wanted a turn with the strange portal-boy.

At one point, Dash and Ben made an effort to take the weird hat-thing off of the kid's head, but he got really defensive about it and told them to stop seriously. He threatened to leave if they were going to try again so they knew he really meant it, so despite how much more that rose their intrigue, they accepted and just had to live without knowing what was underneath his hat... except for Ben who looked at his Omnitrix and wondered what he would look like if he ever did transform into an Eliatrope.

That night Yugo stayed in the boys' room and told them a story about him and his friends back on his old world. He talked about dragons and his people the Eliatropes, and how every Eliatrope had a dragon brother or sister they were born with. He mentioned how when his people die, they return to an egg to be reborn with their dragon counterpart, yet as he did not remember these past lives, he really was still just a kid. He talked about one of his own people who betrayed their race and caused the destruction of their planet. This Eliatrope, Qilby, tried to take over the new world Yugo was reborn in where he had made all his friends in this life. Yugo talked about how Qilby used the Shushus from the demon dimension to invade the planet, but how he and his friends stopped them.

Everyone had so many questions to ask the strange boy, but he was exhausted from his trip earlier that day through the scorching sun, and Kirito noticed it while everyone was pestering him. He told them all to go to bed and ask him more tomorrow, and Natsu agreed loudly, saying he wanted Yugo at his best for when they sparred. Franky set the kid up his own hammock, and they all went to bed.

The next morning, breakfast went smoothly with the boys going on and on to the females of the crew about Yugo's adventures that he had told them last night in their room. When it was over, they all got real excited and gathered out on the deck of the ship.

Natsu and Yugo got ready on the main deck, but Franky jumped up in the air and landed down in between the two of them. "Hold on a minute!" The cyborg yelled, posing with his large arms up above his head diagonally. "The Sunny-Go can not handle all of these fights, so..." Franky lifted up a remote and everyone watched in anticipation and confusion as he pressed the big red button on the center of the metal device.

The ship started to shake and a loud clanking noise sounded out from beneath them. "What's going on?!" Nami yelled, stumbling to the side and having to grab onto a very happy to oblige Sanji in order to keep herself standing. The clanking sounded like it was coming more from the port side of the ship, and everyone ran over to the left and looked off the side to see something coming out of the Sunny's side. There was a large rectangular piece of wood extending out from the level of the main deck. It went from almost at the bow all the way back to the stern, and everyone watched in awe as it stretched out ten feet to port. Then, the arena doubled in size as half of the extended area on bottom stayed where it was, and the other half on top slid out, off of the bottom, before connecting with the first half, making the battle area wider than the Thousand Sunny itself.

"This is amazing Franky," Ben told the cyborg to the right of the railing he was leaning over. "When did you have time to make this?"

"Before everyone woke up," he admitted. "Only took five minutes," Cyborg Franky said, grinning wide at all the stunned reactions he got from those not as used to his mad shipwright skills.

Natsu leapt up in the air and landed over on the bow side of the large rectangular battlefield. Gray sweatdropped as he looked over and turned to Franky, "You just had to make it out of wood."

Franky chuckled nervously a few times as Natsu's fists burst into flames, wondering himself if his new battle arena would make it through a single fight. "It needs a test run anyway," he said with a shrug of his huge metallic shoulders.

"Go for it Yugo!" Nami cheered.

"You can do it Yugo!" Kairi called out, punching a fist up into the air.

"Yugo-kun, do your best," Robin encouraged with a smile over to the small boy.

Natsu gawked as all three women started cheering for his opponent and not him, then he heard another voice speak up a little and he looked over to see Juvia call out, "Natsu-san, Juvia thinks you will lose."

Natsu's jaw dropped and everyone else started laughing. Juvia looked over at the other women and Nami was giving her a thumbs up while giggling madly. Juvia couldn't help it and she joined in with her friend, _Sorry Natsu-san,_ she thought, even while she laughed in his expense.

Natsu mumbled and grumbled under his breath while Yugo formed a portal on the other side of the arena and dropped down to face him. The Fire Dragon Slayer muttered to himself, "I'll show them." He looked across at his opponent and grinned competitively again, "Let's do this Yugo!"

"Whenever you're ready, come," Yugo said, suddenly sounding much older than the child standing there appeared to be. His big blue hat swayed a little with its two pointy ear spikes and confusing positioning on his head. He stuck his arms out down to either side of him and stepped forward a little, so that he had more balance.

Goku was watching and the Saiyan warrior smiled at the sight of this boy's stance. A lot of the people here could fight with strong powers and awesome abilities, but he always noticed flaws in their fights, ways they could be fighting better if they trained more. _He looks like he's been training a lot._

Yugo grinned. He accepted Natsu's challenge knowing full well that he would be able to stay on the ship without doing so. _They want to see my powers, well, here goes nothing!_ He saw Natsu start taking a step forward and in that moment, a blue portal appeared next to his right hand. He put his hand through the portal and as Natsu finished his step, he felt a tap on his left shoulder.

The Dragon Slayer's eyes went wide at the sight of the portal next to him and the hand sticking out, but he was going with his plan anyway and smirked wide. He dove for the hand, but Yugo pulled back his hand into the portal. However, it seemed like his arm was not what Natsu was going for anyway, as the Dragon Slayer opened his mouth and dove straight through the portal, "Fire Dragon's-" Natsu began as his upper body made it through the portal.

Yugo went wide eyed and jumped backwards as Natsu flew out of the portal next to him at point blank range. The older mage opened his mouth ready to fire his Fire Dragon's Roar, but Yugo frowned at him nervously as he jumped backwards and said out loud, "You shouldn't have done that."

"ROA-" Natsu flew fully out of the portal and they both closed. As he was about to fire a huge breath of flames at the kid, he suddenly felt very nauseous and his cheeks puffed out. Natsu hit the ground and rolled to a stop before puking on the ground and making all the spectators go 'EWWW' and turn away.

Ten minutes later, the arena was cleaned up and Natsu and Yugo stood on different sides of the platform again. "Sorry," Yugo mentioned again to the frowning Dragon Slayer across the platform from him. "I should have mentioned that when other people go through my portals they don't usually feel very good after."

"Whatever," Natsu grumbled, still embarrassed as his comrades kept laughing ten minutes later. "Let's get this started for real!" He yelled, the joking competitiveness from before mostly gone from his voice. He narrowed his eyes across the platform at the kid, and Yugo could see Natsu was taking this seriously this time. This was no time to tap on his shoulder jokingly, it was time for battle.

"Alright," Yugo stood back in his fighting stance, with his arms out to either side. He looked closely at Natsu, waiting for the hot-blooded mage to make the first move. His hands started to glow blue as he stood there, and Natsu's hands glowed red as flames covered them.

The two of them kicked off the ground at the same time. Natsu brought back his right fist far as he flew towards the kid, spinning his body so that he was completely covered in flames. As he was getting close to Yugo, the smaller boy created a portal in front of himself and appeared out another one behind Natsu and up a little. Yugo spun back towards the portal he flew out of and slammed a hand into it, creating another portal on top of this one, and firing a blue beam of light out at Natsu who was turning around to face him.

Natsu's eyes widened at the sight of the beam, but he leapt up in the air and managed to avoid it. The beam crashed down beneath Natsu's rising feet and helped lift him up faster. He spun his left leg towards the kid, "Fire Dragon's Talon!" His leg missed the front of Yugo who leapt backwards, but his leg was coated in flames and some of those flames whipped off and slammed into his smaller opponent.

"Ah!" Yugo yelled out as the back of his yellow shirt caught fire. As he flew backwards, a portal appeared and he flew right into it, then out of a portal directly above the water next to the ship. The kid fell into the water and put out the flames, then swam up and out the surface of the water right into a blue portal.

A different circular portal appeared on Natsu's right and the fire mage spun while already throwing the fist he was preparing forwards. "Fire Dragon's..." he began, right as Yugo started coming out of the portal, "Iron Fist!" His fist slammed into the kid's gut right as he appeared out of the portal.

Most of the spectators oofed as they could almost feel that one, seeing Natsu's fist indenting out on Yugo's back, while the kid's head and legs snapped forward. Natsu finished his punch and flames flew out, while the boy shot backwards, hitting the edge of the platform he started on and breaking a chunk of it off. Yugo kept flying and hit the water, skipping on it once, then twice twenty yards farther back.

Nami watched the child get sent flying and then she snapped her head back to Natsu angrily, "What are you doing? He's just a kid!"

Natsu lowered his fist a little and wondered if he might have gone a little overboard there himself. As he thought it though, he saw a blue portal in the sky far off the platform in front of him. Yugo came jumping out of it with a serious expression on his face, and a hole in the front of his shirt with a bruise behind it. The boy leapt from this portal to one fifty feet to the right, then up on the left near the Thousand Sunny's mast. The boy landed down on top of the boom that held up the sail. He caught his breath down on one knee and a foot, lifting up a hand and wiping his lip where a trickle of blood was coming down from the corner.

"You're pretty strong," Yugo called down to Natsu, a smile coming back to the young Eliatrope's face. A few of the crew were surprised as the kid got back up to both feet after such a devastating attack from Natsu. The boy did not block it at all, so they thought he may have been injured pretty badly, but he just held up his hands and smiled, forming two new blue portals next to his hands.

The pink haired Dragon Slayer smirked up at the kid and he flew off of the battle platform up towards the boom. Yugo leapt off of the wooden cross-piece of the mast and slammed both of his portals together, creating a blue beam that slammed down into the rising Dragon Slayer mage. Natsu got hit square in the chest by the beam and got thrown back down to the wooden platform where he landed on his back, then kicked both legs up in the air while waving both arms in front of him. "Fire Dragon's Wing-"

A portal appeared on his left side and Yugo flew out of it, tackling Natsu out of the air. The kid did a flip off of Natsu's head as the mage tried swinging his arms at him, then disappeared into a portal and appeared behind Natsu. Natsu turned around but the kid jumped to his right and another portal appeared that he fell into and appeared above Natsu's head, coming down with a punch right on top of the wizard's skull. Natsu felt the fist punch down on his head, but he was very durable and the punch did little to faze him. He reached up both arms and grabbed the fist on his head, then slammed down in front of him and brought the child crashing down into the wooden platform.

As Yugo hit the floor, the floor transformed into a blue portal while another one appeared behind Natsu. Maybe his own momentum wasn't enough, but with Natsu throwing him down hard, he came out behind Natsu flying towards him fast with both legs extended. His legs slammed into the Fire Dragon Slayer's back and sent him tumbling across the platform almost all the way to the edge near the water. He managed to flip himself to a standing position and skid to a stop when his feet were only halfway on the platform.

Natsu took a few deep breaths and looked forward to see how his opponent was doing. Young Yugo did not look any worse for the wear however, and the boy actually started grinning as he looked over at Natsu. "Alright," the older boy started, smirking though his eyes looked serious, "let's step this up a notch." Natsu held out both arms to his sides and his entire body wrapped in fire, and then lightning bolts started shooting out of his body as well.

"Lightning Fire Dragon Mode!" Natsu yelled, and his aura of flames and lightning doubled in size. The ground around his feet lit on fire and Natsu grinned through the aura dangerously at his opponent.

"Isn't this taking it a little too far?" Juvia wondered aloud.

Natsu did not know the definition of too far. He flew forward at much faster than twice as fast as he was before. Yugo saw him coming fast and he knew he needed to speed up too. He leapt up in the air as Natsu was doing a three-sixty kick towards him. He flew into his portal and narrowly missed the kick, appearing twenty feet away still in the air, looking back at Natsu who turned towards him with sharp teeth in a smile and the look of a dragon on his face. He shot through the air with his aura lagging behind him leaving a trail through the air. Natsu spun three times and brought forward his right fist hard. "Lightning Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" he roared. His hand was only a foot away from Yugo's face, making everyone tense up as it looked like he was about to deliver a very dangerous blow to the kid. A second before it collided though, a portal appeared on the right side of Natsu's face, and one appeared directly in front of his fast-moving punch. Natsu's eyes widened at the realization, a millisecond before his flaming, lightning-coated fist flew through the portal and slammed himself in the side of the temple.

Natsu flew off the side of the ship and out over the water where he bounced, and bounced again, then spun himself and skid across the water's surface, making a trench through the water. He looked back forwards with white eyes, completely into the fight now. Yugo looked over and saw how into it the wizard flying back towards him was, and he started walking towards the edge of the platform.

"Yugo! You don't have to keep going if you don't want to," Nami called out to the child.

"Yeah," Rin agreed, smiling out at the boy. "This fight's going a little far."

A few of the others agreed, but Luffy, Franky, and Sanji all looked out silently as Yugo stepped through a portal and appeared right at the edge of the ship. None of them said anything, but Goku did call out, "It's not over until they say it's over." A few of them looked at the Saiyan and saw a wide smile on Goku's face. He looked way too excited by the match and was leaning over the railing with excitement as Natsu shot back over.

Natsu roared as he approached the ship, moving faster than ever in a trail of orange light. "Guess I'll step it up a notch too," Yugo said out loud, not in a particularly loud voice, but loud enough for those behind him to hear him. He took another step off the side of the ship, and then a portal appeared in front of him and another right in front of it. Before, all the portals would appear far from each other so the kid could teleport. Putting two right next to each other like this seemed counter-intuitive to the idea of having teleportation portals. As he stepped through the portal though, they understood why this made sense, as another portal appeared behind the second one, and then a third in front of that all in the same instant.

Yugo's body turned into a blur as he flew through portal after portal insanely fast in a line that looked like a blue tube of aura shooting around the sky. He flew right towards Natsu, but then the tube arced up in the air before spinning and coming back down. The orange and blue blurs of light shot around through the sky and collided with each other, then hit each other again as and again they started spinning around each other up through the sky. Clashes of their auras made little bursts of orange and blue energy scatter out around the sky and it looked amazing.

Son Goku, Dash, and Timmy were able to watch everything much better than the rest of their friends were. There were others able to watch as well, but the two fighting were continuously getting faster. They saw at the top of the two streams of light, Yugo come out of a portal and Natsu punch towards him. Yugo used another portal to move to his right then slammed two portals into the same spot, firing a beam of blue light towards Natsu who leaned back in midair and let the beam fly over his body. While he bent back, he kicked his legs up and finished a backflip, catching Yugo under the chin with a powerful kick.

Natsu finished his flip and saw Yugo off guard after being kicked under the chin. He slammed both of his arms in front of him and whips of sparking flames slammed into the kid, sending him flying forward. Natsu gave chase and spun around above the kid, slamming his leg down into the Eliatrope's chest and making him fly out of the air like a missile. Right before Yugo hit the water, he created a portal that he fell into, and another one appeared above the fighting platform, spitting Yugo up in the air and then letting him fall back down lightly on the splintered wood.

A few of them gasped at the sight of the kid in his tattered clothes with bruises and scrapes around his body. Yugo took a few deep breaths as he lay on his back and looked up in the sky and saw Natsu nose-diving towards him. The wizard saw Yugo struggling back up onto his feet, and Natsu roared, "I'm finishing this! Lightning Fire Dragon's-"

As Natsu started shouting, Yugo planted both feet firmly on the ground and looked up with serious expression on his face. His dirty blond hair showing underneath his hat started to sway in a sudden gust of wind and the spectators watching leaned backwards as a blue aura surrounded the boy's body. The translucent aura flared like flames around him, and the kid screamed, "AhhhHHHH!" His scream made his aura flare harder and his already ripped up shirt to fall off of his body. On his shoulders, his chest, and his arms, weird tattoo patterns emerged and started to glow bright blue. His canines looked like they grew a little sharper and the kid slammed both arms out to the side.

As Yugo slammed his arms out to the sides, Natsu brought his hands forward that were creating large masses of fire-lightning Dragon Slayer magic on them. "BRILLIANT FLAME!" Natsu slammed both hands down hard and an enormous mass of fire covered in sparking lightning flew down towards the wooden platform. While that happened, Yugo's right hand formed a blue shield made entirely of energy, and in his right hand formed a small thin blue blade that he rose up with the shield and crossed them both above his head.

Timmy jumped up in front of the spectators and held out his arms, at the perfect moment too as Natsu's Brilliant Flame crashed down on top of Yugo and made a huge explosion on the battlefield, destroying the wood beneath Yugo's feet and blowing apart in all directions, including right into a large forcefield that appeared in front of Timmy's body, protecting the crew and the Thousand Sunny itself.

Franky would have groaned about his new arena being destroyed, if he weren't in awe from Natsu's powerful attack. The flames billowed out around the ki barrier around the ship and it took a few seconds for Timmy to lower his arms, as the fiery explosion had finally died down a little.

No one could say a word as they all looked over the ship's side and down towards the water where the debris was all floating around covered in large wisps of smoke. Natsu dropped down through the smoke and landed on top of a pretty large chunk of wood. He looked down into the water hoping to see the kid splashing back up relatively unharmed, and then he froze as he heard a voice right in front of him through the smoke. "Everyone look away!"

The crew was looking down into the smoke confusedly, but the kid inside yelled out again. "Please, I don't want anyone seeing under my hat, and it got burnt off by that attack. Look away!"

Luffy was frowning down into the smoke, but he turned around and looked the other direction all of a sudden. Nami saw her captain do it, but noticed a lot of the others looking at the smoke interestedly. "Hey idiots!" she started running around and bonking them on the tops of their heads. She imagined what it would be like if her clothes had burned off in the middle of a battle, and she knew she would not want all of these idiots looking at her body. This kid sounded even more serious than she would be, so she snarled it angrily at the ones who were more reluctant to turn around and got Sanji to help her make them all look away.

Nico Robin turned around just like everyone else, but she did close her left eye, and on the port side of the Thousand Sunny, a small eyeball appeared looking into the smoke. She could see Yugo, and she looked at him in surprise as the kid through the smoke floated up in the air a little. Above his head where his hat used to be, were two antlers that were made entirely of the blue energy that he was using for his attacks, and they seemed to be what was allowing him to fly.

"Cover your head and let's keep fighting," Natsu called out. Yugo looked ahead of him and saw Natsu standing on a piece of driftwood, his power still flaring around him, but his eyes were closed. Yugo sighed in relief and he reached up over his head, grabbing the remains of his hat that had been ripped off to reveal his Eliatrope features. He took the hat and started re-tying it around his head. _Can't get hit again or it will come off. Sorry Natsu, I'm going to win now._

"Alright," Yugo's voice called out, and everyone turned back around to look at the kid. His blue hat from before was re-tied on his head only with less going back over his back. Everyone really wanted to know what was under there and some were silently rooting for Natsu to get another hit in and knock that hat off.

Yugo was up in the air, but he was not using portals to float like before. His body was covered in blue light and he looked down at Natsu with his energy shield in one hand and a sword in the other. "Let's finish this," Yugo said seriously, then dove out of the air with a trail of blue light behind him.

Natsu smirked up in the air and leapt up high, punching up for the kid's chin. Yugo suddenly re-entered that blue energy tube thing from before, only this time he was moving several dozen times faster than before. Only those who were able to partially watch them before were able to understand just how much faster he became, which only amounted to five or six of the crew members watching.

Killua looked down from the mast and watched as the blue tube of energy spun around a still-rising Natsu and slammed into his side. The boy wrapped in blue light then shot across the sky and turned back, flying past Natsu again on another strafe while Natsu was still on his way up.

The pink haired wizard got slammed back and forth, even in his Lightning Fire Dragon Mode. He roared loudly and started spinning his body even as he felt slashes slam into him every second. Natsu yelled at the top of his lungs while his left hand covered in flames and his right hand in electricity. "Crimson Lotus: EXPLODING LIGHTNING BLADE!" Yugo tried to strafe him again, but Natsu collided his left and right hand together, creating a vortex of spinning flames and lightning that pulled Yugo in and sent him spinning around and around while screaming out.

The blue tattoos on Yugo's body flared bright blue for a second, and then went out altogether. He spiraled up high in the air, before coming crashing back down hard onto a piece of floating debris. His legs fell into the water and the top half of his body lay on top of the driftwood.

His hat was re-ripped a little, revealing some shining blue light from underneath his hat. Everyone leaned in, then watched confusedly as three hands appeared on top of the hat and started tying it back together. They all turned to Robin and saw her with her arms crossed, using her power to protect the boy's secret that she already felt a little bad about prying into herself.

As Natsu landed down on the same piece of driftwood he was on before, he let out a deep breath of air and his aura left him. He looked over at the kid lying there without any movement and chuckled, "It was a good fight kid."

"I'm," Yugo began, pulling himself up a little and lifting his head to look over into Natsu's eyes. "The king of, the Eliatropes," he lifted up a leg, then another and stood shakily on the platform across from Natsu.

"Wait? He's a King?" Kairi asked in surprise, turning to Sora next to her who looked just as surprised as Yugo never mentioned anything about it the night before.

Yugo looked back forward at Natsu and his chest and arms started glowing blue again in the swirly tattoo patterns he had lining his skin. "If I am going to find my people and my brother on this world," he started again, lifting back up his arms and pointing them in front of him to the also tired-looking Natsu. "Then I must be strong!"

He slammed his right hand forward and a portal did not even appear, a blue beam just shot out of his hand and flew across the space between him and Natsu, knocking the Dragon Slayer off his driftwood and flipping backwards through the air.

Natsu heaved a few times as that blast really hurt his chest, but he snarled angrily and his body covered in red and yellow energy again, sending himself right back into the Lightning Fire Dragon Mode again. _Put everything into one last attack,_ Natsu thought as he continued flipping backwards, then slammed both of his feet down on small pieces of wooden debris on the water's surface.

The small debris did not serve for a great foothold, but Natsu did not care. He leaned his body back, sticking out his chest and rising his arms up to his face. He cupped them at his mouth and his entire aura flared madly for a few seconds, "Lightning Fire Dragon's-" he started loudly, sucking in a whole lot of air.

"Natsu don't!" Gray yelled down at him.

"Natsu-san!" Juvia yelled.

Both of his comrades from Fairy Tail could see Yugo looked to be on his last ropes, even if he could manage to get those glowing symbols all over his body again. A lot of the others were looking pretty nervous as well and Kirito took a step forward, "I'm ending this before someone gets really hurt over something trivial."

As he took his step forward, Luffy walked over and put an arm in front of the teen's chest. Kirito looked at him in surprise and Luffy just kept looking over the side, "Don't interrupt."

Kirito felt like arguing, but he looked past Luffy and all the way over to Goku who was still watching the fight calmly and with a smile on his face. _If Goku doesn't seem worried, then I should calm down too._ Kirito took a deep breath and just looked at the water as Natsu finally slammed his body forward for the biggest attack of the fight.

"ROOOAAAAARRRRRR!"

As Natsu screamed, a pillar of fire that kept widening larger and larger until it was the size of the Thousand Sunny wide and almost as tall as the top of the mast, shot out of his mouth wrapped in hundreds of flashing lightning bolts. The heat coming off of the attack was incredibly intense as it shot past the stern of the Thousand Sunny and towards the piece of driftwood where Yugo was standing.

Yugo waited until the attack was almost upon him, and then he lifted up his right hand and created a rather big portal. The end of Natsu's attack flew into the portal, and then more and more of the beam of fire and lightning kept flying into the circle of blue light. When Natsu finally closed his mouth, the last of his wide beam kept flying straight across the small gap of water around the length of the Thousand Sunny. Normally an attack like that would go on for miles, but it all just vanished as soon as it hit Yugo, and now Natsu could see why as there was a large portal directly at the end of where his vanishing beam was.

The Dragon Slayer lost his amazing aura and stared speechlessly as Yugo lifted up his left hand. The kid pointed his hand at Natsu, and then lifted it up a little to aim above Natsu's head. Another portal appeared in front of this hand, and Natsu's entire Lightning Fire Dragon's Roar flew out at the same strength it was fired at him with. Natsu's eyes went wide, and then he snapped his head up as the bottom of his huge beam went flying over his head.

Goku had gotten ready for a second on the ship, but now he leaned back with a smile again. _Yugo knew Natsu as he is now couldn't handle his own attack after putting that much power into it._ The Saiyan with spiky black hair knew who just won this fight, but the pink haired mage on the water did not accept it so readily.

"I'm not done yet!" Natsu yelled, his fists covering in flames again.

Yugo watched as Natsu got ready to attack, and the kid frowned over at him. He slammed his right hand forward and created a portal, then his left hand into it and fired a blue beam out towards Natsu who was too slow to dodge and could only cross his arms. While he blocked the beam, Yugo slammed his right hand back into the portal in front of him and doubled the beam's size with another portal. He was panting hard, exhausted from his injuries and using so much energy, but he still brought up his left hand once more and extended the blue beam's width to cover the entire portal behind it, and then some.

Natsu barely managed to keep blocking when the beam doubled in size, but this time his arms got thrown to the side and the beam crashed into his chest and face. The attack knocked him senseless while also sending him flying off of the debris and backwards across the water.

The small Eliatrope watched as his opponent went flying, then took a knee down on the platform he was on. He panted heavily over and over but when he looked up, he had a wide smile on his face from ear to ear, and held up two fingers in a 'V' shape for victory.

"Woohoo!" Nami called out as the kid she was rooting for won the fight.

Riku started clapping and he stepped forward, jumping off of the ship's ledge. He landed over on the platform next to Yugo and formed a Keyblade in his right hand. "That was impressive Yugo. Here, let me help," Riku lowered his Keyblade over the boy's back and a green light shimmered down over his body.

Just like that, Yugo's injuries were healed and he looked at the Keybearer with wide eyes. "Wow, I feel great. Thanks Riku."

"Don't mention it," Riku replied, then looked out over the distance of the water for his other patient. Yugo hopped up on his feet and then jumped forward, disappearing into a portal and appearing out of one twenty feet away, then through another two and swooped down snagging Natsu off of the water's surface where he was laying. He vanished with the Dragon Slayer and appeared back over next to Riku with one portal this time.

Natsu dropped on the small platform and almost flipped it over with three people now on it making the driftwood unstable. Natsu got queazy from the transport while Riku patched him up. The Dragon Slayer got on his hands and knees and looked angrily down at the platform beneath him, _Damn it, I lost. I lost against a kid._ Natsu suddenly noticed a hand in front of him and he lifted up his head a little, seeing Yugo holding his hand down for Natsu to take. _Oh yeah. He may be a kid, but he's also a million years old, and apparently a King._ His maturity as a King showed as he extended a hand for Natsu to take, and after a few seconds Natsu reached up and took the boy's hand, a small, annoyed but accepting smile on it.

Now, everyone started cheering and calling out how great a fight it was not only for Yugo, but for Natsu as well.

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 **A/N Hope you enjoyed the chapter and the appearance of Yugo, the protagonist of the show Wakfu. After I finished watching the show a few months back I decided to write this chapter and had a lot of fun doing so. Most other chapters during the trip to Aebrith were actually written after this XD, but at the time I didn't want to wait until I had finished all the others to write this chapter so I skipped ahead, probably when I was still posting Chapter 14 or 15 of Nexus. Haha, so tell me what you thought of the chapter. Hope I don't get too much hate from having Natsu lose, but the final battles Yugo was having in his show were small planet-buster worthy, smashing through moons and stuff, etc. Anyway, leave me a review telling me what you thought, predictions, or questions about the story!**

joebob323 chapter 12 . 21h ago

...Damn...didn't see that one coming...I only thought that he was a witch, not a spy...Great chapter all the same, and good use of flashbacks. I would like to know though, what IS your secret on writing so much so quickly?

 **Nice! Got you off guard XD. Haha, thanks for the review (and praise ;) ). As for my secret for writing so much so fast, the truth is that I write all the time. Well, actually that's not true, in the last 2 days I spent probably 6 or 7 hours reading the entire Magi manga from when the anime ended. Got a lot of cool ideas for future chapters from it. Other than writing all the time, the main, actually the most important thing, is that I don't write in a straight line. I have a page in my notes on my phone, and a list on my computer, of summaries of chapters going all the way to Heroes Will Rise 11 or 12. Whenever I feel like writing one of those chapters I do, which is why on occasion it will take me a while to post, because I am not into writing that chapter at the moment. But since I know what I will be writing in the chapters I skip, I can accurately write chapters far from now, which also lets me put in a lot more foreshadowing for later, even small, events that will happen. At the moment the next 3 sections are fully written out, but I have not finished the arc that starts in 2 chapters or the one after it. However, all of HWR chapter 6 and 8 is finished, and dozens of parts from now to then as well. So, that's the secret! Thanks again for the review!**

Espada-001 chapter 12 . 21h ago

Hello I enjoyed discovering Killua's little secret to be perfectly honest I didn't really know what it was going to be. Anyway I meant to put this out last chapter but I'm pretty sure Killua isn't strong than Luffy. I'm certain that Luffy was physically stronger in their respective worlds even before they ended up on Nexus, also Killua's had a power nullifier on up till recently while Luffy hasn't. Anyway other than that I did enjoy the little training session from last chapter it really reminded me of Netero vs Gon and Killua. Other than that I can't think of anything else at the moment so until next time have a good day and I can't wait for the next chapter! :)

 **Thanks for the review! I'm glad Killua's secret caught people off guard, as I tried to keep it hidden but only slightly possible to guess. Killua finding everyone to set up the rebellion, him not showing up when the other rebellion members were looking for him after they got the nullifiers off, him being on an upper floor of a building in Metropolis so he was not in danger of getting hit by the bombs (even if Luthor didn't tell him why he should get on an upper floor), and the fact that he knew it was Luthor, thinking his name before the Underworld leader showed himself. Anyway, as for Killua, I'll have to disagree that I believe he is stronger physically than Luffy, at least in their base states. Luffy has shown huge feats of strength yeah, but when Killua was 10 he could push open a 16 ton door, and before he got to Nexus he could open a 64 ton gate, without using any Nen. His speed could have also given him the win in the arm wrestling, as like the Raikage did when he versed Tsunade, he could have pulled his hand back a little at incredible speeds and then slammed it forward to get the momentum with it too. It's not clearly stated he's stronger either too, he just won an arm wrestling match, but I'd like to hear why you think Luffy is stronger in physical strength. (Also, it's never mentioned how long Killua had his power nullifier on, and after he got it off he did think that he was back to full strength, just a thought). Thanks again for the review, glad you liked the sparring match, and 'Till next time!**


	14. Nexus HWR 2-9 Where am I?

**A/N Final part of Heroes Will Rise Chapter 2! Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist (Brotherhood), Pokemon, Camp Camp, Psyren, Kingdom Hearts, DBZ, SAO, One Piece, Fairy Tail, Hunter x Hunter, Ben 10, The Incredibles, Blue Exorcist, Fairly Oddparents, Arrow, or any other media you may recognize characters and settings from in this story.**

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 **Nexus HWR 2.9 Where am I?:**

 _Chhhh, dooff, schhh, do-doof,_ crashing waves slammed into a sandy shore and the riptide pulled them back out just as fast. _shhhhhhh..._ _ **DOOF!**_ The next wave that crashed was much larger than those before it, slamming down into the beach with a heavy crash.

Water washed onto shore and the dry sand higher up on the beach was covered in it for a few seconds before the wave was pulled back out by the tide. When it left though, it forgot something behind on the sand. Flat on his stomach, lay a young man. His face was in the sand, slightly turned to the side, and his eyes were closed. The long sleeved shirt he was wearing was missing its left sleeve, and his soaked navy-blue sweatpants picked up sand that dried beneath the boy, making it stick to him. The sound of the crashing waves continued down the beach a little from where the boy lay, but no other waves reached as high as the stray one that pushed him up this far.

The teenager lying on the beach started to moan after lying in the sun for quite some time. He felt uncomfortable lying there, and he moved around a little trying to make himself comfortable. No matter where he moved though, he only seemed to make his situation worse as it felt like sand was attaching to his damp body. _Damp body?_ He thought, slowly opening his eyes as he rolled onto his back. The boy sat up and stared ahead of him down a short few feet of beach before the water line where wet sand started. He watched the water come up with a wave and then go back out, and come back in again. Past the water line all he could see was ocean for miles until the horizon. _Guess I got hit by a wave,_ he dropped back down on his back, planning on continuing his nap. As he lay back however, someone was leaning over him, smiling down with a small smile on her face. The little girl with short red hair and a white tank top on giggled as she saw his surprised expression. He snapped back to his sitting-up position and spun around, "Kairi!" As soon as he exclaimed it, he became confused.

Behind where he was sitting up, there was no girl standing looking down at him. Actually there was no one behind him, but what surprised him the most was not the fact that the girl he thought he saw was not even real. The most surprising thing was the sight of the beach behind him. It led straight into a forest full of incredibly tall trees. The trees were a hundred feet tall at the shortest, with long dark brown branches that went in all directions, and dark green leaves hanging off of them that made it hard to see past the front line of trees.

Sora got up to his feet shakily. He stared straight at the forest behind him, _Where's the treehouse? And the waterfall?_ He looked left and right down the beach and his eyes opened wider at how long the beach went in either direction. _This isn't the Children's Island._ "Riku? Kairi?" Sora looked around and took a step forward, then almost fell as he did not expect the size step he just took. The boy with spiky brown hair looked down at his body, and besides the fact that he didn't recognize his clothes, he found it crazy how tall he was. "What is going on?" He wondered aloud, staring down at his feet which were not wearing any shoes, and looked bigger than the last time he saw them. _They are bigger right? Bigger than when?_ He tilted his head to the right and closed his eyes. _Where am I? What was the last thing I was doing? I was… that dream! That giant monster, it swallowed me up!_

 **Chh-chh** His eyes snapped back open and he stared ahead at the treeline where he could have sworn he just heard rustling leaves. "Hello?" He called out, taking another step towards that forest. "Whatever's going on here, I-" Sora brought both hands up to the sides of his heads and clenched his eyes shut in pain. In his mind flashed an image of Riku sinking down into darkness, holding a hand out towards him. Kairi flew his way and he held out both of his arms, in his mind he could see himself raising up both arms, but she slammed into him and went straight through. Then he saw himself lifting off the island and flying up into a black hole in the sky, staring the entire time down at the island below while it ripped apart. **Chh-chh-chh,** Sora's eyes snapped back open again and although he was freaking out a little, he managed to calm down enough to look totally confused at the creature hanging off a tree branch at the edge of the forest.

The little monster was holding onto a branch by its long purple tail. At the end of the tail looked like a white human hand, only with three fingers that were grabbing onto the branch to keep the monkey-like creature upside down. "Aipom," the Pokemon called over to the teen in front of it.

It stared with large eyes over at the teenager who smiled at it, "Hello there," Sora said to the small creature. Aipom tilted its head curiously at the boy who just tilted his head in response. "This is crazy," Sora whispered out loud, though he couldn't help but smile at the creature. He held out a hand towards it in an innocent manner, though it did seem to retreat a little, frowning at the boy with a very human mouth of its own. "Don't worry," Sora told the Pokemon, "I won't hurt you. Is Aipom your name?"

"Ai-pom, Aipom Aipom, Ai-ere, bad-pom, people here, bad. Stay away…" Sora stuck his fingers in his ears and twisted them around a few times. He thought he was hearing things as the creature suddenly started speaking to him.

Sora pulled his fingers out of his ears, but as the Pokemon kept talking he felt he could understand it. "Hey Aipom," Sora started, and the Pokemon's eyes widened itself. "Where are these bad people?" He looked past the strange monster and looked into the forest behind it.

"You understand?" the creature asked, dropping its tail from around the tree branch and hopping down the sand towards Sora.

The brown haired teen nodded his head, then as he was, he brought his hands up to his temples again. He clenched his eyes as his mind filled with not pain, but memories. He saw himself waking up in front of a yellow dog licking his face. He was walking around and a duck and different dog, both wearing clothing, fell onto him. _"I'm Donald. Goofy. All for one, and one for all!"_ Sora's eyes snapped open, "Donald! Goofy!" He looked down at the purple creature in front of him as he remembered his friends. The Aipom was looking up at this teenager with a confused look, but Sora started anyway, "Hey, you wouldn't happen to know if my friends are here? Kairi, Riku, Donald, Goofy?"

The creature with purple fur just shook its head over and over. Finally it said, "Sorry, only people here are bad people. Stay away."

"Huh?" Sora questioned, looking behind the animal and into the forest behind it. "There can't only be bad people," the boy argued. He took a step but the Aipom leapt in front of him and started yelling about how he should not go into the forest. Sora smiled down at the creature and said, "Don't worry, I can handle myself. I'm a hero-" As he said it, he saw himself standing in the Olympic Coliseum, crowds cheering around him as he Donald and Goofy fought dozens of monsters. _"I hereby dub thee, junior heroes…"_ He could see Phil's face as the goat man made him an honorary hero. He saw himself fighting those dark monsters, and he saw what he was fighting them with. Sora's face lit up and he looked down at his right hand, _**Keyblade.**_ His right hand illuminated with light and Aipom leapt backwards, staring at the kid with a new look on his face. "See?" Sora asked Aipom, "I can take care of-" as he was about to say 'myself,' the Aipom started glaring at him and then turned around. It ran off into the forest and jumped up into the trees to swing away. "Hey wait up!" Sora called after it.

The teen ran towards the edge of the forest, but by the time he reached it he had already lost sight of Aipom. "Hmm," he hummed, lowering his Keyblade back down so that it vanished into a bunch of shards of light. "I wonder what upset him?" He looked into the forest and grinned, "Alright, Riku, Kairi, I'm coming!" He charged through the trees with a determined smile on his face.

* * *

 **Thousand Sunny**

"What do you mean you can't find him?" Riku asked in an angry tone to the two in front of him.

Timmy leaned back a little nervously and he lowered his gaze from the silver haired boy. Nami stepped forward and in front of the child, "It isn't their fault," she scolded the teenager.

"I can't find him," Goku stated. The entire crew of the Thousand Sunny turned to the muscular man wearing an orange gi. The Saiyan had black spiky hair and normally looked like the happiest person on the ship, even during dire circumstances. At the moment though, his lips were flat, his expression serious. "It's as if," the man stopped speaking and looked over towards Kairi who was not far from Riku.

"How did this happen?!" Riku yelled around at everyone. He clenched his fists angrily in front of him while most of the others just backed away after his shout.

Nami lowered back down her gaze since staring harshly at Riku felt wrong at the moment. "It must have been during the storm."

"The storm lasted three days!" Ben exclaimed. "How could no one have noticed?!"

"Ben's right," Timmy brought up, floating up in the air a little so everyone could see him. "Me or Goku would have sensed it, so, I guess it had to be last night."

"I'm confused," Luffy stated, though he kept his voice semi-quiet as the mood seemed to call for it.

A few of the others closer to the pirate captain looked in at him sadly. Sanji put a hand on his captain's left shoulder and Luffy looked confusedly into the chef's eye that wasn't covered by his hairdo. Sanji had a cigarette in his mouth already lit, so he reached up and took it out before saying in a low voice, "If Goku can't sense his energy, then he's probably gone." He looked into Luffy's eyes and saw the other pirate still didn't get it. Sanji sighed and said in a more straight-forward tone, "He fell in during the night. Luffy, he's, dead."

Luffy's lower lip lowered slowly and his eyes bugged out three times their normal size in slow motion. He started shaking his head and then closed his lowered jaw. "No," the captain said in a firm tone. A few others who heard what Sanji said to Luffy looked over at the rubberman in surprise. Luffy cupped his hands to his mouth, "Listen up! Nami!" He shouted, and the navigator of the ship spun and looked over to her captain. She was surprised to hear him, and she and everyone else watched as Luffy reached back and grabbed his straw hat. He put it up on his head and shouted, "Turn the ship around!"

"Wh-What?" Nami asked confusedly.

"We're going to find Sora," Luffy said in a firm tone.

Natsu looked across the deck at the pirate and growled, "Didn't you hear what the May- what Goku just said?" Luffy looked right back into the Dragon Slayer's eyes as Natsu continued, "Sora's energy is gone. He's-"

"I never said that," Goku stated, and Natsu spun and looked at the taller man confusedly, as he could've sworn Goku just did. The Mayor of Pao town continued, "I said I can't feel his energy."

Gray nodded his head from next to Natsu, "So you're saying it could be like Metropolis?" the ice mage asked. A few of the others looked to him and Gray kept talking, "In Aebrith power blockers are not uncommon either."

"That's right," Dash said with an excited smile, the little boy finding some hope for the first time since find out what this discussion was about.

A lot of others started smiling too as they thought all hope was lost, but then a voice spoke up. "Hate to rain on your parades," they looked over to see Killua sitting on the railing in front of the kitchen. "Where would Sora have gotten one of these power-hiders?" His question made most of those who were optimistic lose those hopeful looks. The white haired kid continued, "I don't like it as much as anyone else, but Sora is-"

"He's alive."

Everyone turned over towards where Riku was yelling before and the teen himself turned around to look at Kairi behind him. She had her hands lifted up in front of her heart and she said again, "He's alive. I can feel him."

"Huh? Really?" Goku asked the girl a few feet away from him. He tried sensing out Sora again, but he still couldn't feel the boy anywhere.

"Yes, he isn't far away," Kairi continued. She'd been separated from Sora by entirely different worlds before. She knew what it was like to be away from him. The feeling she felt in her heart now though, was that he was closeby. Luffy smiled over at Kairi and she looked back at the rubberman right in the eyes. He nodded his head and then called out for everyone to start turning the Thousand Sunny around.

Killua frowned over at Kairi. He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again as he saw how many people looked optimistic again. _Jeez, you're all just fooling yourselves. She's just sad about her boyfriend and is stuck in the denial stage of grief. At least Riku made it to anger first. Wonder how long it will take them to reach acceptance?_

Killua was not the only one doubting Kairi's heart. A few of the others looked over at the girl sadly, even as they listened to Luffy's orders and turned the ship around. Usopp stood next to Franky at the helm and Nami stood on the other side of the cyborg, telling them where to point the ship considering the path they took the previous night. "Oi," Usopp whispered, and the other two looked his way to see him staring off the bow into the distance. "What do you think the chances are Sora's still alive?"

His voice was pretty quiet, but Kirito and Sanji who were jogging by heard the long-nosed man's question too. Franky frowned deeper and Nami turned away, as she had tried not to think about it and just went with what Luffy said. After a second, Kirito spoke up, "He probably is." The four pirates near him all looked over in surprise, expecting the black haired teen to be the most negative in this situation. Kirito continued as he looked off the side of the ship, "I don't know where he is, but I doubt a storm could kill that guy."

"But Goku said-"

"And I don't doubt him," Kirito stated, cutting Usopp off. "And I have no idea where Sora would find something to mask his energy while in the middle of drowning," he continued. Kirito closed his eyes and thought about a conversation he had on this very deck with Sora the previous week. He thought about the countless worlds Sora told him about, about his amazing adventures with Donald and Goofy. He imagined the Underworld base where Timmy and Goku, and he, had lost, but it was Sora who defeated the leader of the base. Kirito chuckled under his breath and continued walking the direction he was going before, "But I believe in Sora. He's alive."

* * *

"Hey Jasper, wait up," Sora called out to the eight year old boy running ahead of him.

"You have to get away from here," the boy called back to the teen chasing him. "The people on this island won't stop hunting you. Father Cornello has them all fooled!"

"But I don't even know where here is!" Sora called over to the boy. The kid disappeared behind a tree and Sora kept running until he saw some light through a clearing. He ran all the way to the edge of the trees and stepped through them into a huge clearing. The forest continued in a large circle surrounding a large temple that looked to be in the process of being built. At the base of the temple, people were gathered, chanting and doing circles around a fire while a man stood on a risen platform above them. The bald man was wearing a headdress and a rag over his waist, but nothing more.

There were four people walking in from the right side of the trees, holding a stick between them with a person tied to it by his hands and feet. The man was screaming, while the other people in the circle kept chanting like crazy people. It was around sunset and the bald man on the platform called out, "Quickly now! This heathen went against the word of GOD!" He lifted up his right hand and a red rock glistened on his index finger. Out of thin air, a staff appeared in his hand and he slammed it down on the platform, making the people down below tremble in fear.

"Hey!" Sora yelled, and he started sprinting towards the people. The large group of people dressed in rags, with face paint on and chanting murderous chants, turned in shock to see a figure dressed much better than them running over. "Put that guy down!" He yelled at the four who were holding up the screaming man. He rose his right hand and in it formed a weapon out of thin air, the same thing that Father Cornello just did. _Oh! That must be why Aipom was scared of me._ "I don't know what's going on, but that Cornello guy isn't God!"

Cornello stared at the figure in shock too. _Does he have a Philosopher's Stone too?! This is impossible!_ The priest who had brainwashed all these people into listening to him pointed his staff forward and yelled, "Another heathen! He makes a mockery of our faith with his falsehoods!"

Dozens of people turned and picked up weapons to charge at Sora with. He furrowed his brow and pointed his Keyblade over at the four people who did not put down their sacrifice yet. "Fire!" He yelled.

Sora's Keyblade started shaking, making the others charging at him slow down and stop. Sora himself was surprised at how much power was going into his weapon, and his mind suddenly flashed to standing in Merlin's attic, practicing his magic with Donald and Goofy at his sides. _That's right, my magic is stronger! And I look even older now, wait, how old am I?_ Sora was not focusing on his magic, but when the giant fireball shot out of his Keyblade it was hard not to be surprised by it.

The fireball exploded at the feet of the men holding the prisoner, and they freaked out, running away while dropping the older man. Sora ran over and dove next to the man, slashing at his binds that came off when he did. Sora turned around and rose up his Keyblade defensively as five spears dropped out of the air towards him. He managed to block two, but three others crashed into him. He oofed, then opened back up his eyes as he realized those attacks didn't hurt him that much. His mind flashed again and he was standing in a room full of lava, facing off against a giant red genie. Again it flashed and he had a long merman tail, and he was swimming around an enormous octopus woman even larger than the genie. _Jafar, Ursula, I've fought monsters much stronger than this guy!_ Sora smiled and took a step back towards Cornello, but he heard coughing behind him and looked down at the guy he freed.

The elderly man was wearing a dirty white shirt and looked like he was pretty messed up. Blood trickled down from the corners of his mouth, and Sora could hear angry shouting behind him along with his main enemy commanding the other people to attack. "Come on," Sora said, making a split-second decision. He ran at the old man and grabbed him by the dirty shirt, lifting him up with ease and continuing to run towards the forest while his Keyblade vanished into light particles.

Back at the base of the temple, Cornello was shaking with rage. He looked around at the hundred plus people near him and shouted, "GET THEM! DO NOT LET THOSE TWO ESCAPE THIS ISLAND!" _No one can discover this island! It must stay hidden!_ Cornello lifted off the platform and flew up in the air, then lowered down to the ground. He was panting a little and he looked back at the temple behind him. His people were charging off into the forest, but he walked back towards the temple's doors. The temple looked to be under construction because he told his people that God demanded it be bigger, and they were adding more floors to it. He stepped inside the finished first floor though and walked to the end of the room where the idol stood on a podium.

Father Cornello pressed his right hand against the idol and the Philosopher's Stone on his finger glowed for a second. His mouth opened and he let out a deep breath of relief as the eye on the totem's head started to glow red as well. His body filled with strength and the false priest grinned before turning back around and walking away from the totem. He only took two steps, before lifting off the ground and floating the rest of the way to the door.

Sora kept running through the forest while holding the old injured man over his shoulder. The guy was conscious, but he looked like he had been beaten a few times before they were going to sacrifice him. "I'll get you out of here," Sora promised the man.

"Th-ank you," the man rasped out. He spat some blood from his mouth and looked in at the teenager carrying him. "Who are you?"

"I'm Sora," the boy replied. "And I have no idea where I am." He added, just in case this man thought he had a plan or something.

"Haha, ha, ha," the guy with gray hair laughed despite his injuries.

"How about you? What's your name?" Sora asked the man he was carrying away from the sounds of shouting.

The old man replied, "Oak, Samuel Oak."

* * *

"You sure this is a good idea?" Ben asked his best friend as Riku stood in front of him on the deck. The silver haired teen was holding up a belt covered in little red and white balls. "Without Sora here, they may not listen to you."

"We have to get more eyes in the sky," Riku told the boy next to him. "Now," he looked around at the other six on the ship's grassy deck with him. "Let's let them out."

Everyone grabbed a few pokeballs each from the belt Sora kept in the boys' room. Luffy released two of them by pressing the buttons on the balls, and little red lights appeared in front of him. A small yellow mouse formed next to a tiny green fairy thing. Pikachu and Celebi looked forward in surprise that Luffy was the one to release them. "Pika!" Pikachu yelled, and looked around for Sora who he did not see anywhere.

"Bi Bii," Celebi exclaimed, doing a flip in the air.

All around the ship, red lights lit up and pokemon emerged from the balls. Timmy was the only one of them who had seen all of Sora's pokemon out before, so the group still on the ship were staring around in surprise each time a creature appeared. Goku, Timmy, Rin, Kirito, Sanji, and Juvia were all out searching the nearby ocean for Sora, but none of them had returned with any positive news yet. When Riku returned, many of them had lost hope since there was no way Sora's closest friend would give up if there was any hope left, but Riku did not return because he lost hope.

The silver haired teen released one of the pokeballs and gawked at the sight of the red light that emerged from it. The light shot up a few hundred feet, and inside of it an enormous orange dragon appeared. The Dragonite dropped into the water and made a wave that splashed over the side and got all of them wet. It treaded water with the majority of its body over the sea and some of the people on the ship were starting to get nervous as they were surrounded by powerful beasts without their master.

"Ah! What is that?!" Usopp yelled as he looked at the dragon. He looked at the pokeball in his hand and took a few deep breaths. "It will be fine Usopp. You have the smallest pokemon in existence in your hand. Just believe!" He pressed down the button and looked ahead with hopeful eyes. In front of him formed a massive green Tyrannitar that made his jaw drop to the floor. It landed on the front of the Sunny and pressed the entire front of the ship down. "Go BACK!" Usopp yelled and pressed the button again, returning the Pokemon to its ball. He took a few deep breaths and stared at the ball in his hand in shock that such a monster lived inside it.

Around the ship, above it, and on top of it, Pokemon started yelling in their native tongues at each other. Everyone was confused with all of them shouting nonsense at the same times, but a voice echoed out around them. **"Where is Sora?"** The voice seemed to come from above even though they all heard it directly in their minds. They looked up where Lugia was floating with Mew doing circles around it, seeming to be looking for Sora. Lugia continued, **"He does not seem to be here."**

"He's not," the silver haired boy who came up with this plan shouted. Riku looked around, "We think he fell off the ship last night, and we need as many eyes as we can looking around for him."

Lugia's eyes widened and so did the rest of the Pokemon since they all understood Riku. Pikachu looked over at the side of the ship and the little mouse ran over to the edge, peering off the side at the ocean below. "Pika pii," he said, his voice sounding scared.

"Grr," Blaziken growled, marching over to the side of the ship too and looking out into the distance. "Blaze," it muttered in a deep voice.

"Bee!" Celebi shouted. The little fairy Pokemon floated over in front of Lugia and looked in the Guardian of the Sea's eyes. "Bi, Bee!"

 **"No Celebi, I do not believe Sora wishes that we turn back time for him."** Lugia's voice echoed around and the group gawked at the little fairy that was suggesting turning back time. **"I believe that Sora is still alive. We should find him."** Celebi started nodding to the much bigger Pokemon, then flew off with Mew doing a flip and chasing right after it.

Lugia itself flew up high in the air, then pulled its wings in to its sides and dove down. The enormous Pokemon crashed into the water and dove straight down, going to look for its Master there. Dragonite turned away from the ship and started wading away, but heard shouts and cries from behind it. The giant Pokemon looked back and saw the rest of Sora's Pokemon calling out to it. With the exception of Feraligatr, who jumped off the side and started swimming away, the rest of the Pokemon jumped up on Dragonite's hand as the dragon reached it forward for them.

"Whoa," Usopp whispered in awe as every single one of Sora's Pokemon went off looking for him. "You think they have a better chance of finding him now?"

"Nope," Killua said. The long nosed pirate spun around and saw Killua sitting on the railing behind them. He didn't help release the Pokemon and he wasn't helping looking. "It's hopeless. You guys can hope all you want, but we're wasting time."

"Sora is alive Killua," Riku stated. He turned around and looked at Killua without the angry look the kid expected to look at him with. Riku smiled a little and said, "Kairi is right. If she thinks Sora is alive, then we should trust her."

"Why?" Killua asked him. "Why would we believe her?"

"Have faith," the older boy with spiky hair stated. "In your comrades."

Killua scoffed and leaned back, lying down on the railing. _He's dead. Wasting any time on hope is foolish. It will only make you all the more depressed when you realize he isn't coming back._ He sighed and stared up at the sky that was getting dark as the suns were already almost all down. _Damn, and Sora was one of the ones I liked._

* * *

"Just a little farther," Samuel Oak told the boy carrying him over his shoulder.

Sora ran relentlessly yet did not feel the least bit tired. He looked down at his body and his strange clothes that he never remembered getting in the first place. As he looked closer at them, his mind flashed for a second to him standing at the top of a tower with Donald and Goofy. He looked older in this flash than the others and three different colored fairies flew over to him, waving their wands and changing him out of the clothes he left his home island in. The memory stopped and Sora started smiling, _Yen Sid's tower. I remember it. And… that was after we closed the door._ Sora came to a stop, his foggy mind clearing up.

"I know, it isn't much," the gray haired man on his shoulder said. Sora had no idea what he was talking about, but that was because he was so distracted by his own returning memories that he did not notice the small hut just between the trees in front of him. He walked over and heard coughing over his shoulder again. Sora looked to his right shoulder and the first thing he noticed was the splash of red on his own shoulder. The next thing was the pale face of the old man with blood speckled around his lips. "Sorry," Oak muttered with a weak smile, referring to the splash of blood on Sora's shoulder.

"Just hold on," Sora told the guy. He rushed over to the building and threw open the door. Sora ran inside and across the small one-room hut to a bed opposite the door. He lay Oak down carefully, "Mr. Oak," he whispered, seeing the guy cough a few more times.

"Haha-ha, please," Oak started. "Call me Professor Oak. Or, the Pokemon professor."

"Cure," Sora said, having pulled out his Keyblade while the old man spoke.

Oak felt his vision get a little less blurry and he stopped chuckling as much like he was on the verge of death. His eyes focused on the weapon Sora pulled out of thin air and his eyes narrowed at it. "Where did you get that weapon?" He asked darkly. Oak sat up and winced, but pushed away Sora's hand when the teen tried to ease him back down. "Young man," Oak started harshly, "do not tell me that you too have acquired a Philosopher's Stone?"

"What's that?" Sora asked confusedly. He held up his weapon, "This is a Keyblade." The weapon in his hands dissolved into light fragments and floated away.

"Hmm," the Professor hummed.

"So," Sora started. He grabbed a chair next to the bed and pulled it up next to Oak's side. "Why were they trying to kill you?"

"Ahh," Professor Oak sighed. "Father Cornello has the entire island fooled. What he calls the 'Word of God' is actually a Philosopher's Stone. I also discovered the formula for creating one of these stones. The main ingredient is," he paused for a second and then finished, "Living human sacrifices."

Sora's mouth curved into a deep frown. Oak continued without noticing the shift in Sora's demeanor, "There's something else he is hiding too. I don't know what it is, but he is capable of performing extraordinary feats and I know that no God is involved."

"So all those people with him," Sora began. "They're only following him because he's making them right?"

Oak hesitated and then sighed again. "At first they were. After a while though, I believe they truly started to believe Cornello spoke for God."

"So if I'm going to beat him I need to show the people he isn't really a prophet first," Sora muttered aloud.

Oak's eyes widened and he reached forward, grabbing Sora by the wrist. "Beat him?" He asked stunned. "Cornello can fly. He can lift people with his mind, pull weapons out of thin air…"

"I've faced worse," Sora said confidently. He remembered being on top of a pirate ship, fighting Captain Hook and flying around with Peter Pan. "Besides, I can fly too!"

"Oh, well then-ack, ugh ack," Oak started a coughing fit and some blood splashed out of his mouth.

Sora's eyes widened and he rose his hand to form his Keyblade. Oak held up his palm telling Sora to stop. "It's not something, you can fix," he said with a small smile. He looked up at the boy who was looking down with such a concerned look. "I'm dying," he admitted. "Long before Cornello's followers beat me, I discovered I had a disease. It's killed many people on this island. I'm afraid I've reached a stage where no amount of medicine can help me."

"I might be able to," Sora whispered. He looked sadly down at the old man, "There's no point in not trying."

"Yes there is," Oak replied. His voice sounded the same as usual, but it had a sadder mood behind his words. "I am an old man. Even if you were to help me, I will not last on this harsh world much longer. If only I could return to my world-"

"You know about different worlds?" Sora asked in shock. Professor Oak stared back at the boy confusedly, then nodded his head slowly. "Whoa," Sora said. "How did you learn about them? Did your world get destroyed too?"

Oak stared blankly at the teen for ten seconds before stating in a monotone voice, "What are you on about?"

Sora blinked a few times, and then his hands shot up to the sides of his head. He had another flash, but it was so much more vivid than the others. He and Riku were sitting next to each other, but no one else was around. The two of them were not fighting anyone, or trying to find a way to get home. They were just sitting on a gloomy shore surrounded by darkness on all sides. They sat together in that world of darkness until a sudden flash lit up in front of them. Something appeared inside the flash… The boy's expression fell and Oak became confused as Sora lowered his hands from his head. "Nexus," he whispered.

"Wow, when you said you didn't know where you were, you really meant it! Haha ack, ha-ack," Oak coughed up a storm again. Sora didn't care what the old Professor said anymore and he pulled out his Keyblade, using healing magic on the man again. The old man stopped coughing and he whispered, "Thank you. Sora, you are a good person."

"Thanks," Sora replied, a smile coming back to his face. "Now," he stood up out of his seat and a more stern expression came to his face. Oak's eyes widened as he had not seen the boy look like this yet. Sora recalled everything up until he got to Nexus. His memories flooded back and all of his experiences were back with him again. His Three Wishes Keyblade appeared in one hand, and a pure white one named Oathkeeper appeared in his left to contrast the golden one in his left. "It's time to teach Father Cornello a lesson."

Sora turned and started for the door. Oak stared at the boy's back and he started panicking. He sat up fast, "Sora!" he called out. The boy stopped at the door, but the Professor knew he would not be held back for long. "At least let me help you, you crazy kid," he said, standing up with an effort and walking to the left side of his mostly empty hut. Oak reached a desk with some papers on it and he reached for the desk drawer. He pulled the drawer out and grabbed two specific red and white balls that were inside it. "These are Pokeballs," the Professor began, while Sora stared closely at the objects.

 _"I'm Ash and this is Pikachu, he's a Pokemon…"_ Sora smiled at the sudden memory and interrupted the Professor. "I know what're in them."

Oak looked surprised for a second, then just chuckled and nodded. "Of course you do," he said. He walked over and handed them to Sora carefully. "They will help you stop Cornello."

"Are you sure I can have them?" Sora asked the Professor.

"You saved my life," Oak rasped out. He started coughing again but stopped himself long enough to finish, "I want you to watch over them, when I'm gone."

"Well, don't let that be too soon, okay?" Sora asked. He stood up fully and looked at the two pokeballs in his hands while Oak sat back down on his bed. "I promise," Sora began, pocketing the pokeballs and looking back at the Pokemon Professor. "I'll stop Cornello."

"I, believe you will," Oak whispered back.

Sora turned and sprinted out of the hut as fast as he could, which was much faster than he thought he could. Memories of Nexus kept rushing back to him and he ground his teeth in pain as his head was hurting. He felt like he had remembered everything, except he had no idea if he really did since he did not know how he got to this island. He didn't remember why he would be out on the ocean either, to get stuck on an island in the first place.

 _What is going on?_

* * *

Kirito looked up at the sky in the west and watched as the third and final sun hit the horizon. He was in the middle of the ocean with no one else around him, standing on top of his Red Gyarados's head. "Alright big guy," Kirito began and looked down at his dragon's face. "Let's head back to the ship. Remember where it's anchored?"

"Raa," Gyarados roared in response. It turned and started swimming off the direction they came from so Kirito assumed that was a 'yes.'

As his large red Pokémon carried him over the water he kept looking around in the off chance he would see a boy swimming around out here. "Come on Sora," Kirito mumbled under his breath. "I refuse to believe you died in such an insignificant way. You are by far the craziest person I have ever met." The teen looked straight up and whispered, "A magical multiversal weapon chose you as its wielder and with it you saved the multiverse, twice." He thought about all the stories Sora told him when they both woke up from nightmares the night before going to Atlantis. "There is no way you drowned."

 _But Goku said his power was missing. How would Sora have gotten something to mask his energy in the middle of the ocean? Why would he have even done it? Wouldn't he want us to find him… if he was still alive?_ Kirito shook his head trying to get rid of his doubts, and he saw the Thousand Sunny getting closer to him. His Gyarados carried him all the way up to the edge of the ship and Kirito hopped down as his Gyarados's head was taller than the ship's deck. He turned and called back his Pokémon, then turned around and saw five people staring at him waiting for some news.

"Nothing," he said, and they all sighed and continued on their way.

Gray was in the middle of a heated conversation with some pirates up on the bow and Kirito decided to head up there and see what the commotion was about. He climbed up the steps and heard Luffy finishing, "Until we find Sora, we're not going."

"We'll be here forever then," Gray growled back at him. Luffy frowned at the ice mage and Gray said, "I'm sorry Luffy, but everyone's just pretending they think he's still out there. We all know that Sora didn't magically find a way to hide his energy when he fell off the ship."

"You don't know-" Nami began.

"So give me an explanation as to what happened," Gray told her. She opened her mouth, but came up blank. "That's right," Gray said. He looked around at the other two pirates up there and neither Franky nor Usopp had an explanation either. Gray turned back to Luffy, "We have somewhere to be. I've been compliant with the leisurely way in which we're getting there, but this is a pointless break and we're actually going backwards."

"You just want to leave Sora?" Kirito asked, stepping forward and glaring at Gray.

Gray spun to see the younger man walking up to him. He shook his head a few times, "I don't want to, but I've already accepted the reality. We aren't leaving anyone behind. He's gone."

All of the others heard how Gray's voice became sadder towards the end. He put his hands in his pockets and started walking away from them, "I know you all think so too. Sooner or later we'll have to leave, and someone's going to have to break it to Kairi."

* * *

"Registeel, use stomp!" Sora shouted as he flew through the air at his opponent. The enemy in the sky laughed and flew out of the way as Sora charged him. He spun as he flew by the man though and he pointed Oathkeeper at him, "Gravira!" A ball of black formed above his enemy's head and for the first time since he appeared, the man stopped laughing.

On the ground, Registeel stomped his large foot down at the bald chubby man in front of him, but Father Cornello held up his right palm and stopped the attack before it hit him. He was struggling to hold back the huge Pokémon, and as he held it, a smaller creature was standing behind him. "Use Metronome, Togepi! Sora shouted as he flew down towards where his black gravity magic was dropping the stronger opponent.

Togepi shimmered light as it shook its pointy hands and did a little dance. Cornello looked back confusedly at the tiny egg shell with a face sticking out of the top of it. "What do you expect this thing to-"

Togepi opened up its mouth and a huge beam of white light shot out. The Hyper Beam flew into Cornello who tried putting up a forcefield behind him but it got smashed straight through. He was thrown into the taller, silver Pokémon behind him with seven red eyes in the center of its body. It wrapped its arms around Cornello and Sora shouted, "Great, now-"

"Raa!" the man Sora was swinging his Keyblade down towards glowed white for a second and jumped back out of Sora's range. He had on a gray beanie that covered up the top half of his face making it look like he could not see. He had long light-silver hair falling straight down his back and at the sides of his head so it fell to his waist. He wore a white cloak that covered his legs and had long sleeves, along with a strange head-piece that curved up behind the top of his head almost like a hood except it did not curve over the top of his head but stopped when pointing straight up. The man grinned a mouth full of white teeth and said, "Alright brat, you're starting to get on my nerves. Dholaki's going to show you why you never should have come to this island."

Dholaki put his right hand out in front of him and the ground around Sora lit up. He barely had a second to react, and as he screamed and the ground exploded, he heard Dholaki shout at him, "Explosia!" The white explosion ripped up the ground and Sora crossed his arms inside it. When the explosion faded, Sora snapped his eyes open and glared forward at the psychicer who lost his smile. "What the Hell?" Dholaki muttered as Sora lowered his arms back to his sides and held his Keyblades in a ready position.

"Registeel, use Take Down," Sora commanded. He did not turn around, but he felt the ground under his feet shake and heard Cornello yell out in pain.

Sora just kept staring into Dholaki's beanie where he assumed the man's eyes were hiding behind it. "Listen to me!" Sora shouted. He stood in a huge open area that was only illuminated because of the torches set up all around the surrounding treeline. All the people hiding just outside the clearing looked in and saw Sora standing there in the middle of the field. The boy came charging out of the woods a little while ago and started kicking Cornello's butt, only for Cornello to call out for "God's" help when he started losing. "God" showed up and now Cornello was down and this teenager was facing off against the man Cornello had them worshipping all this time. Now that they finally saw him, he certainly did not look like a God, but his ability to make the ground explode just by pointing his hand at it made most people not willing to say differently.

"Cornello was not a priest, and Dholaki is not a God! And I'll prove it to you!" Sora's body lifted off the ground again, but instead of flying towards his enemy, his body covered in bright white light. _Final Form should show this guy who's boss._ Sora felt himself transforming, but his clothes were not turning white, and he did not gain Keyblades that would fly over him. Instead, his entire body surrounded in a black veil that pressed against his body. When the white light was gone, people backed up in fear at the sight of the black creature with the same spiky hair that Sora had, but that was the only similarity between the two. The black creature had no clothes, no weapons, it was just a pitch black form with long tendrils of darkness seeping off of it.

 _Wasn't going for Anti-Form, but whatever._ Sora thought, and then his mouth curled open. His mouth glowed white and even Dholaki felt unnerved by it. _Now I need to show these people that they are not Gods. I need to kill them in front of everyone._ Sora took a step forward and then what he just thought echoed in his mind and he froze. _What the Hell was-_ In his mind something else flashed, a vision tainted with a black veil of darkness in his mind. He saw people screaming and shooting at him, and dying as the him in the memory ripped through them. He started panting and the Anti-Form Sora was confusing everyone around him who thought he was about to start attacking Dholaki.

Dholaki decided he had had enough. He rose up his hands and put his right hand on top of his left. Then, he spread apart his hands and a ball of white light appeared in the middle. The further he spread his hands the bigger the ball became, and a smaller black condensed core grew in the middle. It grew huge, and then all at once shrunk into the size of a baseball, though the black core in the middle kept spinning around like it was as strong as it was when it was huge. "Condensed, EXPLOSIA!" Dholaki shouted.

As the ball of light got close to Sora, the dark figure who was hesitating snapped open its white eyes. It shot forward and jumped right over the ball of light flying at it. Dholaki's eyes widened as Anti-Form Sora shot towards him like a missile. The ball of light exploded where Sora just was, but Sora was faster than the explosion's edge and shot towards Dholaki without looking back. The taller man tried dodging to the left but Sora spun around in midair with his black tendrils spinning around him. They whipped into the psychicer and then Sora slashed his claws across Dholaki's chest.

"Raah," Dholaki got thrown backwards. All the people watching from behind trees stepped out. The explosion Dholaki made was huge and scary, but they just watched him yell out in pain.

"He hurt him," a woman whispered. She blinked a few times and muttered, "A God couldn't get hurt by just anyone."

"We've been lied to," a man called out.

"I always knew it!"

"What if that kid is actually a God too?" someone else shouted.

"No! Oak must have been right! Cornello was tricking us with that power of his!" The people around the trees started moving in and a few of them were lifting up the spears that Cornello made them chase Sora and Oak around the island with before.

Sora ran at Dholaki who glowed white again and started hitting him back. Some of his hits made Sora get knocked back and tumble away, but the kid kept getting back up. He kept running around at Dholaki and slashing him with his claws, but Dholaki could see the kid was getting tired. Sora was charging him at one point, when his body glowed white and all of a sudden he transformed back into his normal self. He stood there in tattered clothes with scratches all over his body since he could not heal while in Anti-Form. He lifted up his right hand and his Kingdom Key formed in it. The silver Keyblade with the yellow hilt pointed up and Sora called out, "Cure!"

His cuts and bruises vanished and Sora smirked across at his opponent who was still panting while he felt just fine. Dholaki snarled at Sora, then snapped his head right and a spear just missed its mark. It came so close actually that Dholaki's right cheek got a cut on it and the man started to shake in rage. The people around them may not have thought him a God anymore, but a lot of them were still terrified of him, and Dholaki spun his head to glare at the man who threw the spear at him. The man in rags stepped back afraid, but he gulped and kept glaring at the creepy enemy with strange powers who pretended to be their God for so long now.

"Get out of here Dholaki!" Sora shouted at his opponent. "The people know you aren't a God anymore! And take _Father_ Cornello with you. The two of you are done tormenting this island."

Dholaki heard a lot of shouts of agreement coming from around them and he snarled in fury. Then, his snarl vanished and a grin came to his face instead. "Take that fool with me? You must be joking," Dholaki laughed and his body surrounded in a white glow much brighter than any before. It turned into a bright sphere of white light surrounding his entire body and five feet in every direction around him. "If I am no longer revered as a God, I lose the power that comes with it! In that case, what need do I have for any of you?"

Sora had a terrible feeling in his gut. Dholaki laughed and the aura surrounding him grew larger. "Everyone get back!" Sora shouted as he himself charged Dholaki.

Dholaki's aura started to bubble and all at once hundreds of beams of light shot out from him in every direction. "STARSHIP EXPLOSIA!"

* * *

"Riku, we looked all day," Ben whispered to the older teen.

"I'm not giving up," Riku said. He kept his arms crossed and kept frowning at the two in front of him. "If Kairi says he's still alive, then I'm going to believe her."

"That's why we're here Riku," Ben said. Riku looked down at his younger friend, and then next to him at Luffy who had a shadowed look over his face. Ben continued, "We, want you to be the one who tells her."

"Tells her what?" Riku snapped.

"That Sora's dead," Ben replied softly. Riku was shaking and Ben continued, "She's not accepting it, and because of that neither are you. You know though Riku, Timmy and Goku can sense our individual friends in Pao, all the way in Metropolis, around the entire world." Riku ground his teeth and looked away as his younger friend finished, "Why wouldn't they be able to feel Sora?"

"Because," Riku snapped. He glared back at Ben, and then after a few seconds his gaze softened. "It doesn't matter why," Riku said. "There has to be a reason. Something that we're not considering. I know the chances that Sora somehow found a power blocker and put it on are slim, but maybe there's another reason."

Ben did not say anything, but Riku could see the thirteen year old was pitying him. "I mean it Ben," Riku said in a more serious tone. "I'm going to keep looking." He turned and without another word he leapt off the ship and started flying away.

The younger boy reached his left hand after him, then sighed as Riku was already gone into the night. He turned to Luffy next to him who was staring down at the floor with his black hair shadowing his eyes. "Now what do we do? Riku was supposed to tell Kairi, but-"

"I've got it," Luffy said. He turned and started walking away.

"Are you sure?" Ben asked. "I mean, shouldn't her friend-"

"I traveled with Sora and Kairi for half a year," Luffy said and glanced back at Ben who turned away with a small look of guilt on his face. He always noticed Luffy looked a little closer to Sora than to most other people who were not actually on his crew. "After that day we found them," Luffy explained and Ben nodded his head.

"I know," Ben said. Luffy looked at him confusedly and Ben took a deep breath. It was pitch black out, so late in the night that it felt more like morning already. They had been outside for long enough though that their eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and Luffy could see the guilt on Ben's face. He looked up and stared into Luffy's eyes, and said, "A few months, after that day Riku fell to the darkness, I saw you." Luffy's eyes opened wide and Ben continued, "When, when I saw Usopp wasn't with you three, I didn't think you would want to see me. I thought you would think I was a coward since I didn't stay and help you fight Ansem. So, when you turned and shouted into the bushes, I ran off."

Luffy frowned at the kid in front of him. He turned around and started walking away, but spoke up, "You weren't a coward on that day, since your grandpa knocked you out and took you away against your will." Luffy kept talking as he rounded the corner in front of Ben and left his sight, "You were a coward, because you didn't come out of the bushes." He kept walking without looking back to see how Ben took what he said. It was harsh, but he meant it. _I would have wanted to see you back then. I wanted to know if you three made it out alright._

The pirate captain walked around the cabin and was going to head to the door and head inside, when he spotted the person he was looking for up at the bow. The ship was currently anchored so no one was at the helm behind her, and when Kairi felt the footsteps coming up to the bow she turned around. She smiled and said, "Hello Luffy," before turning back and staring out over the ocean.

Luffy walked all the way up to her side, and he turned to see the smile on her face. The smile he wanted to believe was just an excessive amount of hope. The smile of denial.

"Kairi," Luffy began.

"You know," Kairi started. She interrupted him but kept staring out at the ocean. The auburn haired girl continued, "I am worried about him. Everyone sees me smiling and thinks I have this blind hope that Sora is okay, but just because I know he's alive, doesn't mean I know he's doing alright." She lifted up her hand to her heart and whispered quieter, "Just a little earlier, I felt a pain in my heart and knew something must have happened to him. I don't know what it was, but I'm worried about him Luffy."

"How?" Luffy whispered. He looked out over the same water Kairi was looking over and he asked, "How can you know, that he's alive out there?"

"I just do," Kairi responded.

"No," Luffy muttered. He turned to Kairi and stated, "Tomorrow, we're going to have to keep going."

"Why's that?" Kairi asked.

"Well, because we have to get to Aebrith. I want to find my crew, or find out what happened to them," Luffy said.

As he said it, Kairi went, "Ahh, I see." Luffy became confused by her statement and after she said it she looked into his confused eyes, "Is that why you don't believe me?" Luffy's own eyes widened and Kairi continued, "Because you don't know whether or not Zoro and Chopper are okay?" Luffy lowered his bottom lip and Kairi turned back out over the water. "I'm sorry Luffy. I know it must be hard not knowing what's been happening to them all this time, but don't worry-"

"Don't worry?" Luffy asked incredulously. He was starting to get a little angry and he clenched his fists at his sides. "I didn't get to see my crew for two years, and then right after I got reunited with them, we got separated again. And now, I haven't seen Zoro or Chopper in over two more years. I don't know where they are, or if they're alive, or if just like Sora, they-"

"Luffy," Kairi began in a serious tone. She turned to him and put her hands on her hips. He stopped talking as he saw Kairi frowning at him, one of her rare, very rare, frowns. "Why do you think Sora is dead?"

He looked at her questioningly, wondering if she was serious with the question. Thinking he was dead seemed to be the common thought of most people on the ship, and they all had logical reasons for why they thought so. The real question to him seemed to be, 'Why do you think he is alive?' Kairi looked like she wanted an answer though so he started, "Well, Goku and Timmy can't feel his energy."

"Okay," Kairi said. "But Goku even said that that does not mean he is dead."

"Yeah, but then why can't they feel him?" Luffy asked.

Kairi shrugged her shoulders at him, but her mouth curled back up into a smile. "Luffy, the only evidence that anyone here has that Sora is gone is what you just said. And that's not really evidence at all. There's no proof. But everyone is still so quick to give up on him, after just a day, or less for most of us." She looked him in the eyes, "Why do you think that is?"

"Huh?" he questioned, confused at what she was asking.

"Why do you think everyone is so quick to give up on Sora?" She asked. Seeing that he did not have an answer, she had one for him. "They do it because they don't know him like you and I do. They do it because they don't have the same faith that you and I do. And Luffy, I know you have faith. Out of everyone, you should know best that no matter how impossible the chances might seem, good things do happen." Luffy's eyes started to widen larger and Kairi nodded her head, "You thought you were all alone here after Usopp, but then we found Brook. And after that day with Tetsuo, you were devastated. We never gave up though. No matter how unlikely it seemed, we kept pushing on, and we found your crew Luffy. Back then we didn't have any evidence that they were still alive either."

Luffy started nodding his head and Kairi smiled at him before looking back out over the water. "I'll be alright Luffy. I'm more worried about you." She glanced back at him, "I know how close you and Sora are, so I don't want you to have to grieve for him. I can already tell Riku is, and he's going to be so relieved when we find Sora, but I would rather you just be able to laugh it off and say, 'I knew it all along.' Okay? Just keep believing Luffy. You never cared about the logical reasons before anyway," she said and started laughing.

Luffy began to laugh too, and he nodded his head some more. "Yeah," he said. He shook his head around a few times and slapped himself on the cheeks. "What am I doing? Let's keep looking for him tomorrow."

"Got it," Kairi agreed and nodded back at him.

* * *

The next morning, the crew had all gathered up on the deck. Kirito was going to head out to go searching the nearby ocean on his Red Gyarados again, but most people around him were arguing about getting on the way.

"His Pokémon never came back last night," Nami said sadly. "Guess their loyalty was to Sora and not his pokeballs," she looked over at the pile of pokeballs stacked up next to the wall behind the swing-set on the grass deck.

"Maybe they didn't come back because they found him," Dash offered.

"Yeah, and why wouldn't they come back with him?" Sanji asked the younger blond next to him. He had a cigarette in his mouth and he continued, "I searched all over the sky yesterday, Goku, Timmy, Rin, and Riku did too. We didn't see any islands for miles. The closest ones were inhabited, but Sora was not on any of them."

"Hey Luffy," Ben hissed at the taller man on his right side. He looked to the port side where Kairi was staring out over the water and then turned back to the pirate captain. "What gives? Weren't you going to tell her about Sora? And didn't you say we were going to leave this morning?"

"Sora's still alive," Luffy stated. Ben sweatdropped at the reversal of attitude from last night. Luffy was more his cheery self than ever and the others frowned at the captain who ultimately decided their destination.

"So what? Are we going to just sit here until you decide he's not anymore?" Someone asked behind Luffy. He turned and saw Killua leaning back against the wall with a frown on his face. "I have places to go search for my friend other than this boat. How long do you think you're going to keep grasping for straws?"

Luffy opened his mouth, but another kid spoke up on his left first. "Killua's right," Timmy said. "I'm a genius, and the odds that Sora is alive are slim to none. I would give you a percentage but I would have to say several zeroes after the decimal's place before hitting a single number. There's a one in a hundred million chance that-"

"Hey look!" Kairi shouted.

Everyone on the deck spun to the port side and they all jogged over at the same time. Eighteen people and a cat stared off the port side of the ship and stared two miles over the ocean at something strange going on on the water. There was a weird shimmering in the air and all of a sudden the water underneath the shimmering started to disappear. In place of the water, became an island. The island was not huge. They could see the eastern and western sides of it from the south, and both sides were probably only about a few miles apart, maybe half a dozen total. The island was covered in trees, and surrounding the island all around it were these strange buoys in the water.

"Oh my God," Gray muttered as he stared at the buoys. "Those are, the same buoys that surround all of Aebrith." The others would have looked at him if they were not too busy staring at the island in awe. Those buoys in the water were smoking, and more of them were bursting into flames every second. There was a boy on shore pointing a weapon in the shape of a key off of the sand and firing it at buoys, while all around him giant creatures shot flames, water, lightning, or beams of light into other buoys all along the shoreline.

Killua stared at the island with eyes as wide as saucers. _There's no way! How? Even if that place, the chances, how?!_ He kept shaking his head as everything he knew told him the chances of this were so small it was beyond belief. Timmy was gawking with similar shock and he started mumbling under his breath wondering where he miscalculated.

On the shore of the island two miles away, Sora lowered down his Keyblade and stared out in the distance as he spotted something appear in front of him. The boat that he saw started to turn after a few seconds and it sailed his way, giving him a perfect view of the sail on it. He saw the sail and the Straw Hat symbol on it, and Sora's eyes popped open wide. _Luffy! The Straw Hats. Natsu, and Gray and Juvia. That's right, we went to Metropolis, and beat the Underworld and Tetsuo alliance, and then we decided to go to Aebrith. Rin, Kirito, Goku, Timmy, I remember now. I remember everything! Riku, Kairi, you guys didn't give up on me._

As Sora was thinking, he fell down to his butt and started panting exhausted breaths. His shirt was ripped, torn so that the top left of it was gone. It only went up over his right shoulder now, though his right sleeve was gone too. His left pant leg was missing as well and he showed up on the island without any shoes on in the first place. Sora sighed in relief as the ship sailed towards him. "Glad it's finally over."

 **Six Hours Before**

"STARSHIP EXPLOSIA!" Dholaki yelled. Bursts of explosive light shot out of his aura in every direction. There were people all around them though, and Sora could not let those attacks blow up.

Sora knew he survived Dholaki's earlier attack only because he was stronger than the average person, and that those people would not be able to survive if they got hit. So, he did the only logical thing. He flew at Dholaki and yelled out at the top of his lungs, "PROTENDRA!" He only just remembered as he decided to use it that he learned another level to the spell while on Nexus. The high level magic created a spherical bubble that surrounded both Sora and Dholaki it was so big. When the beams of light hit the edges of the bubble, they went off immediately and everyone around the protective bubble stared in in awe and horror as their savior trapped himself inside the bubble with all those explosions.

Dholaki screamed, "You idi-" before the explosions filled the entire forcefield. Sora's magic held firm and the explosions were kept inside it. The teen himself dropped one of his Keyblades and yelled out in pain as the explosions occurred all around him. He opened up his eyes though and glared forward through the forcefield. He saw his opponent yelling out in fury and he started charging at the man even as the light surrounded them both. Dholaki turned his head and saw a shadow sprinting through the light.

Sora pulled his Keyblade back, and he slammed it down as Dholaki screamed out. His Keyblade slammed into the man's chest, directly on his left side on the Illumina Core that Dholaki had implanted in his chest. The man screamed out as Sora's weapon collided with it, and the collision-point with his Keyblade and the core started to glow a brighter white than the light of the explosion around them. Sora's magical bubble faded and the people outside it had to shield their eyes as a bright white light shone out into the darkness of the night and enveloped all of them.

Sora lowered his Keyblade from Dholaki and stared at him inside the white light. Dholaki's core was showing and there was a crack going down the middle of it, and more cracks quickly branching out from the main one. Dholaki was holding up his hands and panicking as he stumbled back inside the light. "I'm sorry," Sora apologized to his enemy. "You hurt too many innocent people." He lifted his Keyblade and shot forward, stopping only once he got to Dholaki's other side. The man stood there still for a moment, and then the core on his chest shattered and his entire body dissolved.

The light faded and Sora stood alone in the middle of the clearing now. He finally dropped his Keyblade and it shattered into light as he did. Sora looked up and around at everyone around him, and then all at once they started to cheer. Cornello was unconscious on the ground nearby, and Dholaki was gone. They were saved.

"You did it!"

"Our savior!"

Sora gave them all a soft smile, before stumbling to his right and grabbing the side of his head. More memories of Nexus came back to him and he muttered under his breath, "I found Riku. We got him back," he shook his head a few times and looked back up at the people in front of him. He opened his mouth, and then his eyes went wide and he exclaimed, "Professor Oak!" Something twinged in his heart and he started sprinting back towards the Professor's hut. At the sight of Togepi and Registeel in front of him already running that way, he knew something was wrong.

Sora charged through the trees ignoring the shouts from people behind him back at the clearing. A small boy stepped forward between a few people and stared after the older teen.

The spiky haired Keybearer reached the hut and ran inside. As he did, he saw Oak on the floor, a puddle of blood beneath his face. It looked like the man was reaching for his desk and Sora ran over, sliding down onto his knees and turning the professor over. "Professor Oak! Professor Oak!" He shook the man around a little and sighed in relief as Oak's eyes opened up. "Thank goodness, I thought-"

"Sora," Oak said in slight surprise. His surprise quickly shifted and his mouth curled up into a satisfied smile. "Ahh, so I take it Cornello is defeated?"

Sora nodded his head a few times, though he did not like that resigned tone in Oak's voice. Sora smiled anyway and said, "I took out that God he claimed to speak for too. It was just some other jerk with strange powers."

"Is that why you are so beat up?" Oak asked. He looked at the boy in front of him who was bleeding out of cuts on his face and arms. "Why have you not used that healing magic on yourself yet?" Oak asked him.

Sora opened his eyes in surprise and then chuckled. "Sorry, I thought something was wrong, so I wanted to come make sure you were alright first."

Oak started to laugh, and a few seconds after he did his laughs quieted down. He was not coughing anymore, but his face was pale and he looked tired, so very tired. "Well Sora, it looks like you took good care of those two." Sora turned around and saw the two Pokémon standing behind him. Registeel and Togepi both had sad looks on their faces that made Sora spin back looking afraid as he stared down at Professor Oak. Seeing him here like this, dying, it made Sora's chest hurt. Suddenly something else flashed in his mind and Sora clenched his teeth hard as he remembered Ash dying in his arms just like this, with his Pokémon crying around him. He had already remembered that part of his life, but it came back to him so vividly all of a sudden.

Oak continued softly, "I know I can trust you young man." He took a huge breath and then made a small motion to the desk with his head. "I let you use the two strongest Pokémon I had as I was afraid Cornello would hurt the others. Please, take them as well though. Take care of them. I am sorry to put this burden on you, but I am afraid I do not trust the others on this island, for, obvious reasons." He chuckled once and then fell quiet. He took a few breaths out of his nose and whispered, "There is also, a Pokédex in there that you can take with you. I'm sure, it will come of good use." Oak blinked his eyes slowly and when he opened them just a little bit again he saw Sora's eyes looking so afraid, "Do not fear my boy, like I said, I am an old man."

Sora snapped his head up all of a sudden. He spun around and looked into the doorway and his eyes went wide. "Jasper!" Sora exclaimed. The little boy with nicely combed brown hair stepped into the hut and Sora continued, "Do you have any doctors on the island? He's-"

"Jasper?" Oak asked, and he leaned his head up a little. Oak's eyes widened and he whispered, "Ah, so then it is my time. I figured."

"Huh?" Sora asked, spinning back to Oak. He spun back to Jasper, the kid who appeared in the forest earlier that day and warned him not to face Cornello.

"Thank you Sora," Jasper said as he walked closer to Professor Oak. As he walked further into the room, his body started to become less solid, so Sora could see the wall behind him. The teenager stood up fast and stared at Jasper who walked up next to him and the old man on the ground. "By defeating Cornello, you've made it so I can finally rest in peace." Jasper's body started to fade some more.

"You, were dead?" Sora asked in shock.

"Jasper was supposedly killed by God when he questioned Cornello's teachings," Oak whispered.

Jasper held out a hand to Oak and smiled at the old man. "Let's go," the boy said in a friendly way.

Sora opened his eyes wide and looked back at Oak who nodded his head at Jasper. Oak turned a little to Sora as he rose up his own right hand, "Goodbye, Sora." His hand touched Jasper's, and then it fell limp back down to his side. As it did though, Jasper's body turned into a ball of light and floated up, and another ball of light floated out of Professor Oak and followed him up.

Sora wiped his eyes and put a smile on his face. He looked up and said, "Goodbye." The teen looked down and saw the two Pokémon in front of him looking pretty sad, but after the lights floated through the ceiling they looked down at him too. Registeel was still halfway in the doorway as even bending down it could not fit fully through the door. "Okay guys," Sora started. "I know I didn't introduce myself before so I'm sorry about that, but I'm Sora. For now on, you guys are going to come with me, okay?"

Togepi nodded its head and put a smile on its face too. The little creature that looked like an egg thought about Sora sacrificing himself to help all those people, and Registeel nodded its head as it thought about the same moment. This was a Master they could get behind, especially if it was what Oak wanted. Sora turned and walked over to Oak's desk, went inside and dug out the other pokeballs and also the Pokédex the man mentioned. He turned it on to check if it had batteries then put it in his bag when he saw it worked.

Sora headed for the door and took one step outside. He only made it that far before a small pink creature flew down through the trees and stopped in front of his face. It had a cute face and slender body along with a long pink tail. Sora recognized the creature as did the other Pokémon around him. He was just about to release the other ones to explain to them what happened, but he was distracted by the legendary Pokémon in front of him first. "Mew!" Sora exclaimed. The pink creature did a swirl around him and started nuzzling up against his face after. Sora put an arm around his Pokémon and pet its back as he laughed, "Yeah, it's good to see you too. Hey! If you're here, then the rest of the guys must be around somewhere too right? Could you bring them all here?"

Mew nodded its head a few times and did a flip in the air. The ancient Pokémon flew off and Sora smiled, then sighed as he remembered what he had to do now. He let out Oak's other Pokémon and started the explanation of what happened.

* * *

 **Present**

"This is unreal," Nami said, rubbing her eyes for the fourth time that minute as she stood at the bow of the ship. They were only a half mile away from shore now and the closer they got the more unbelievable the sight before them became.

Sora was sitting on shore directly in front of him, and sitting on his left shoulder was a small purple Pokémon with a long tail that had a white hand at the end of it. It looked a little like a monkey, and the Aipom was messing with Sora's hair as he stared out at them. The teen lifted up his right hand and waved now that he could see the people standing on the bow of the ship. The Thousand Sunny kept getting closer and the people on it were looking around the shore in awe. Sora's Dragonite was standing in the shallow water to Sora's right, the orange dragon standing four hundred feet tall. Flying around up in the air close to Dragonite's shoulders was another orange dragon, this one only ten feet tall and blowing fire out of its mouth excitedly. Charizard was happy they found Sora and it continued doing a victory flight up above the island. Another flying creature flew even higher up in victory loops around the island, the Legendary Guardian of the Sea Lugia.

Kangaskhan and Feraligatr stood next to each other on Sora's left, looking over at the boy who saved them from Giovanni with thankful and relieved looks. They were worried he was not okay, but despite his injuries he assured all of his Pokémon that he was quite alright. The two of them were standing alongside Blaziken in front of a taller Pokémon made of steel, and Registeel was introducing itself to its new comrades. Mew was also flying around, but unlike Charizard it was just doing little spins above Sora's head and would dip down every once in a while to tap Aipom on the shoulder and then fly up in the air and giggle as Aipom looked around unable to figure out who just did that. Celebi giggled along with Mew, as did the Togepi sitting behind Sora and watching in amusement.

There were three other new Pokémon behind Togepi: an Azumarill, a Scyther, and a Bronzor. The blue, green, and bluish-green Pokémon were still sad about Professor Oak, but seeing this large family of Pokémon in front of them they felt better about knowing they had someone to care for them now. Sitting on Sora's lap was a yellow mouse that Sora was patting its head. "I'm sorry about that Pikachu," Sora told the Pokémon that looked more relieved than any of them. "I hit my head and slipped off the ship, but I wish my friends didn't let you guys out. I didn't mean to make you all worry."

What the people on the approaching Thousand Sunny may have been most surprised at though, was the crowd of people behind Sora and his Pokémon. They were all standing at the treeline as Sora had told them his friends would be coming. All the people wearing rags were shouting thanks over to him. They looked dirty, tired, but very grateful.

As the ship got closer they heard someone yell, "We'll keep Cornello locked up! He'll never hurt anyone again."

"We can't thank you enough!"

Sora looked back at all the people and saw one of them frowning. He ignored the one man and just smiled at the rest of them. There was one person in the crowd who said they should use Cornello's Philosopher's Stone that Sora mentioned to try and create a better life on the island. Sora told them they would have to do it on their own though, without the help of something as despicable as the Philosopher's Stone. Then, he had smashed the red rock with his Keyblade. It annoyed the man, but Sora knew he would get over it.

"Be good now," Sora called to them all. He carefully nudged Pikachu off him and stood up to his feet. He looked back and joked, "Don't go joining any more religious cults."

The people he called it to did not find it as funny as he did, but he got a small chuckle from it. He turned back around and smiled towards the ship coming towards him. It was almost at shore now and he could make out the faces of all his friends looking at him. "Well," Sora said and crossed his arms, "it took you long enough. One cloaking mechanism and a bunch of power blockers kept you guys from finding me for a whole day? I hope you didn't give up on me did you?"

Luffy called down to him, "Of course I didn't."

"Me either," Kairi called. She cupped her hands to her mouth and added in a hushed yell, "But Riku totally did!"

"Did not!" Riku shouted. "I looked all night."

"Thanks," Sora said, smiling up at his best friend who looked away after Sora said it. Sora grinned and hopped up in the air so that he started flying above the shore. He flew up in between Mew and Celebi and looked around at all the people around him. He looked at his friends on the ship and the new ones on the island. He looked at all his Pokémon and Sora nodded his head. "Alright," he turned and looked Luffy right in the eyes, "you ready to keep going Captain?"

Luffy nodded his head once and he reached behind his back. He grabbed his straw hat and put it on top of his head, "Yosh!" Luffy spun around and called out, "Sora's back! Next stop, Aebrith!"

* * *

 **A/N Sora's alive! Haha, we all knew that, so not really much tension there, but I hope you liked it anyway. Father Cornello from FMA(B), Professor Oak from Pokemon (as well as a lot of Pokemon), Dholaki from Psyren, and Jasper from Camp Camp are some new characters seen in this chapter (even if most of them died, or in Jasper's case, were already dead). Also, if you remember in the disclaimer I said that I didn't own Arrow, because that totem thing that Cornello used was like the totems in the recent season of Arrow that Damien Dahrk and Rider had. Yes, the same Rider who tortured Sora in that flashback and made him go nuts just because he was searching for a certain artifact... Well, thanks for reading! 'Till next time!**

joebob323 chapter 13 . Feb 1

Great job with the introduction of a new character, just wondering, what world/anime is he from? Nice chapter, loved the fighting! Natsu finally gets the spotlight from Laxus! XD

 **Thanks! Yugo was from Wakfu, a pretty cool action/adventure cartoon from France that I watched on Netflix recently. Glad you liked the action scene!**

Espada-001 chapter 13 . Feb 1

Well first off I gotta say that I'm less sure about Luffy's strength now. :( I just finished looking up a lot of information and did quite a bit of math and research. The only real source I had to go off of was the weight of the boulder Luffy lifted after the war of the best. After a long and arduous task I came to the conclusion that it weighed around 24 tons. I wanted to do the math for when Luffy pushed those two buildings apart but I don't have the patience for it and I'm tired although I do want to point out that he was heavily injured at the time and he had 2 years of training after that feat before being taken to Nexus. Anyway moving onto this chapter. I did enjoy the battle scenes although I have no clue about who the new guy is. And for the idea that at least one day out of the year where the suns would pretty much scorch the place isn't hard to believe. If anything you'd think it would happen more often. :) (lol) Anyway since I don't know who the new character is there's not much else for me to say this chapter. Although I would like to say that I enjoyed the interaction with Mysterion last chapter and I had a good laugh with his Batman skills. Anyway until next time have a good night and I can't wait for the next chapter!

 **Thanks for the review! Yeah, I did some research too after I wrote the chapter as I realized that maybe I wrote it too hastily, but I still stick with picking Killua as the winner. Glad you liked the new chapter and character, even if Yugo did head off on his own after (hence why he wasn't in this chapter). The Day of Fire idea just kind of came to me and I was like, "yeah, why not have weird weather stuff? It's a big world." XD so thanks! Mysterion makes his first appearance in Heroes Will Rise through Killua's flashbacks, and he definitely resembled Batman a little huh... ;) Anyway, thanks again to everyone who reviewed, faved, and followed this story! 'Till next time!**


	15. Nexus HWR 3-1 A Perfect Day

**Nexus HWR 3.1 A Perfect Day**

"Yaawwwwnnn," Luffy stretched his arms up over his head and yawned loudly. The skinny pirate with messy black hair hopped off his hammock and walked over to his dresser. He threw on a red shirt open down the middle and without any sleeves, a pair of blue shorts, and then plopped his signature straw hat down on his head.

It was quiet down in the boys' room, and as Luffy looked around he noticed he was the only one in here. He also noticed the scent of something so delicious his head snapped up and stared yearningly at the ceiling. The pirate rushed towards the door and headed upstairs as fast as he could.

"Luffy! There you are," Nami called over as she was just about to go yell at him to get up. "This is one meal you don't want to miss," she smirked and looked back over to the dining room table where it looked like breakfast heaven.

"Have as much as you want," Sanji offered as he carried twenty more trays of pancakes to the table. One of the trays disappeared before he could even put it down and it appeared in front of Son Goku.

Goku clapped his hands together and called out, "Itadakimasu!" Then his food started to vanish as he shoveled pancakes into his mouth.

Luffy ran over to the table and jumped up, landing on the bench between Riku and Franky who had to pretty much dive out of the way as Luffy came crashing down on them. His eyes were wide and drool was pouring out of his mouth. He reached out and grabbed eggs, while his other rubbery arm stretched around to a plate of sausages in front of Timmy. He pulled back the sausage plate and tilted it to his mouth making the sausages slide off towards his gaping mouth.

Right as the tasty chunks of meat were about to hit his tongue they stopped. Luffy blinked a few times, staring at the floating sausages, then snapped his mouth up at them. The sausages hopped up out of his reach though, and flew back across the table to Timmy who laughed at Luffy and then ate his sausages that were snatched away a few seconds ago.

As Luffy groaned and then reached for a different sausage plate, everyone else was having their own conversations. Natsu was looking over at Sora and Kairi sitting together eating their breakfast and talking, and he muttered, "I still can't believe they're getting married."

"They are quite young," the black haired woman sitting on his left agreed. He turned to Robin who was staring over at them as well, but smiling while she was unlike him. "But I believe theirs is what you would call True Love."

"Psh," Natsu made a skeptical noise with his mouth. "True Love," he scoffed, chuckling at the childish concept.

Robin looked at the young man next to her, "Do you not believe such a thing is possible?" She asked. He looked at her skeptically as she was normally the most rational of this crazy crew, but she had a thoughtful look on her face. Robin continued, "This is a large world, perhaps True Love is possible. It would not be the strangest thing you or I have seen."

"Sure," Natsu agreed. "But I still don't buy it," he continued with a shrug. In his mind Lucy's face flashed, and then Lisanna's after it. The idea of True Love seemed silly to him if he could love both of them.

The crew ate their awesome breakfast and then Goku mentioned loudly that there were powers approaching the ship from below. Everyone ran outside and to the edge of the ship, looking over the starboard side where Goku said they were coming up from.

They all looked closely at the surface of the water, watching as a large ovular shadow lifted up and then emerged. "A sub!" Ben exclaimed.

"Where did that come from?" Nami asked, tilting her head.

As she asked, the top of the sub opened up. A large panel popped open and a dozen beautiful women climbed up onto the top of the submarine, all wearing bikinis. "Oh look!" One of them with long green hair and extra large boobs pointed at the ship next to them.

"Thank goodness someone was here," another girl, this one with less bouncy breasts and two brown pigtails smiled up at the starboard side of the boat.

"Can you get us to the next island?" A girl in a blue and white bikini who was wearing a sailor's hat asked. "Our sub broke down and we barely made it to the surface."

"Even our mermaid friends couldn't pull us all the way to the next island," another beautiful girl admitted. As she said it, four gorgeous mermaids swam up to the surface of the ocean.

Sanji's jaw dropped several feet as his fantasy got even better. "Luffy pinch me," he said, turning to the Captain. "Wait no, if this is a dream, I don't ever want to wake up." Sanji turned back to the mermaids and their stranded beautiful lady friends.

"Can we please come aboard?" the girl with the sailor hat asked.

"OF COURSE!" Half of the Straw Hats crew shouted at the same time.

Juvia looked around and saw Sanji, Usopp, Franky, Kirito, Natsu, Rin, Ben, and... Gray all looking over the side with gawking expressions. They were in awe of the beauty of these women and mermaids. As she was about to storm over and yell at the women for being her romantic rivals, she saw Gray turn away from them and look her way, making her face turn red and fill with happiness.

While most of them helped the girls up onto their ship, except for Sanji who had collapsed with a terrible nosebleed, Killua was watching with a grin on his face from up at the crow's nest where he was watching from. "Where did they come from?" He wondered aloud, noticing a presence near him.

"I have no idea," Timmy replied from behind the white haired kid. "But they're all really hot."

"You got that right," Killua admitted with a laugh.

Down below, Nami was talking to the girl in the sailor's hat, wondering what they were doing in a submarine. The beautiful woman smiled and said, "We were just traveling, but if you would like to be compensated for picking us up, I do have these." She lifted up a little bag and dumped a pile of diamonds onto her hands.

Nami's eyes started shining and she snatched up the diamonds before wrapping the girl up in a huge hug.

"This seems a little strange don't you think?" Sora asked his best friends on either side of him. Riku nodded but just kept staring at one girl standing a little behind the others, with raven-colored short hair down only to her shoulders. She looked shy and was wearing a dark blue bikini with black bottoms. "Riku? Rikuuu, are you even listening?" Sora asked, but his silver haired friend started walking forwards.

"Where is he going?" Kairi asked in a little confusion. She noticed a girl over on the side of the ship who was shyer than the others. Something about the girl made Kairi feel strange, but Sora started talking again and got her distracted.

"Whoa what are those?!" Sora called out, pointing over the port side of the ship away from the beautiful bikini girls.

"Eeek!"

"Save us!"

The girls started screaming as giant underwater robots emerged off the port side of the ship. Timmy's eyes widened and he hopped off the crow's nest. "I don't feel any energies over there," he called out.

"So if they're just robots, we can go all out!" Natsu yelled in agreement and leapt up in the air.

Dozens of tall steel robots with glowing red eyes and red circles on their palms emerged from the sea. They lifted up their hands and fired beams of red energy towards the Thousand Sunny, but Goku and Timmy sent them flying back.

Riku turned from the quiet girl with black hair standing in between her screaming friends to the tall metal robots coming out of the sea behind him. He narrowed his eyes at them and looked back for a second, but the girl he saw before was missing.

"Riku what are you waiting for?!" Ben called down to his friend.

Riku looked up in the air to see Heatblast floating up in the sky with his hands pushed down, flames coming out of his fists to keep him up. Ben's flaming alien form was looking down at him with glowing yellow eyes, and Riku looked into them and nodded at his friend. He leapt up in the air past the red alien made of molten rocks and did a three-sixty spin. As he spun, he lit up bright and his clothes turned dark, with a red heart appearing in the center of his chest and two dark-colored Keyblades in his hands.

The two of them shot off towards the robot army that just kept increasing in number. While they flew over the sea, a spray of water shot up in a line towards the robots and they caught a glimpse of Dash's blond hair as he ran across the water.

"Just like old times!" Ben called out to his two old friends from the first few weeks on Nexus.

While he shouted it, Goku punched a hole through a fifty foot tall metal creature that was standing up on the water's surface on two large steel feet. He did a front flip through the hole he punched, then flew forward and double kicked the one behind it in its robot face, smashing it to pieces. Kirito was leaping on the water doing ninja jumps, and he formed a Rasengan as he leapt in the air. The former Underworld member slammed his spinning ball of blue energy into the robot's chest. Sora came swooping down and slashed across another one while Timmy Turner held out his arms to the side and fired large white beams that destroyed five robots each.

"Maybe not exactly like old times," Ben corrected himself as a dozen robots all exploded at once.

"I'd call this new times," Riku told the kid flying next to him as a humanoid pile of molten rocks. "But we'll kick just as much butt as we did back then!"

"You got that right!" Dash yelled up, right as he jumped off the water and punched the tall wide robot in front of him a few dozen times in the stomach. Each time dented it more and then he pulled back extra far and swung forward, ripping a hole right through the machine's exterior.

"Nice one!" Ben yelled as he formed a ball of fire to throw down at the robot near him. As he was about to throw it, his target got hit by a tiny green ball, and a dozen vines shot out from the ball and wrapped around the robot. Usopp fist pumped from back on the Thousand Sunny, then continued aiming around and firing Pop Greens with his slingshot around the sea.

"Wait a second!" Dash yelled as he landed on top of his broken robot that fell back on the water. Everyone around him looked over and watched as Dash reached inside the hole he ripped in the steel. When he pulled out his hand, it was full of candy.

"What?!" Most everyone shouted. They looked around and noticed all of the broken robots were spilling out candy.

Dash unwrapped one and tossed it in his mouth, "THEY'RE REALLY GOOD!" He yelled, getting super energetic from just one bite of the delicious candy.

As everyone started going around and destroying more dangerous robots, and taking their candy, and getting cheered on by the beautiful half-naked women on the Thousand Sunny, Ben slowed down in midair and came to a stop. "This is strange," he muttered, looking around as all his friends celebrated from destroying the final robot and started gathering up all the good candy before it got wet. He looked back to the Thousand Sunny and saw two beautiful girls dressed as nurses fanning Sanji to make him feel better as he was still unconscious in shock, his eyes looking like hearts. Near him Nami was getting diamonds tossed at her for all their passengers' gratitude, and even Luffy was digging in to a pile of meat that some beautiful girls had brought out for him.

"This is, too, perfect," he whispered, his body surrounding in green light and then turning him back into a normal boy. "Wait a second," his eyes grew larger and he snapped his head around. "It couldn't be-"

Riku was down at the water's surface laughing as Dash rambled on and on about the candy that gave him so much energy. The teenager looked around for Ben, expecting the younger boy to be down here as well, enjoying their rewards. He looked up right as Ben's mouth opened and he saw the panicked look on Ben's face. "Everyone listen to me! We need to-"

Everyone started lifting their heads up to look at Ben, but as their eyes focused on him they widened, because a large red portal appeared directly behind Ben. A figure wearing a suit of armor and a golden mask came flying out of the portal and slammed straight into Ben's back, tackling him through the air.

"Ben!" The entire crew shouted together. Luffy stretched a rubber hand towards him while Goku and Timmy flew up. No one was fast enough. The man who tackled him flew straight into another red portal that appeared in front of him and then closed.

The sky became clear. Not a person to be seen. "Ben?" Nami whispered.

"RAAAAA!" Luffy roared in fury as his arm snapped back empty-handed.

"Ben?" Dash whispered in shock.

"It can't be," Usopp muttered, stumbling backwards. "Where did he-"

"BEN!" Riku yelled.

Suddenly, a red portal opened up in the sky. Everyone stared at the red circle of energy for a few seconds, and then gawked as Ben stepped out of it and floated there with a triumphant smile on his face.

"Took care of it," the thirteen year old said in a smug tone, wiping his hands across each other and grinning down at the rest of them.

"BEN!" They yelled in relief.

Goku stared at the boy in the sky for a second longer with a wondering look, and then shook his head and smiled with everyone else. Riku flew up to his close friend, "Where did you go?" He asked, grinning at his friend who survived whatever just happened to him.

"Ah it was nothing," Ben waved him off. "Some guy trying to take my Omnitrix. Gave him what for," Ben bragged, punching a fist forward to prove his point.

"That's, cool," Riku said, slowly nodding at his friend who didn't seem shaken up at all by the whole being kidnapped thing.

Ben smiled at him and then flew down out of the sky towards the floating metal robots with candy pouring out of them. Riku chuckled and chased after his friend, and everyone who panicked at Ben's kidnapping calmed down.

Luffy looked up from his pile of meat and over the side of the ship. He kind of wished he could run out there where the others were, but then again... He turned and dove back into the pile of meat. _This is amazing,_ the pirate thought to himself in between chews of chunks of meat. Luffy looked over at the beautiful girl cooking more meat for him on a stove that she brought up on top of her submarine. He called out, "Thank urp you!"

She smiled back and said, "You are very welcome. It is the least we could do."

"I'm in heaven," Sanji moaned from nearby the captain.

Luffy looked over and saw his chef's head on a red headed lady's lap. The pirate in a straw hat chuckled at Sanji's dazed look, then turned and looked over towards Nami. His head tilted to the side at the sight of the woman rolling around in piles of gold and diamonds, while another beautiful girl tossed more gems on her. "That doesn't seem right," he mumbled, lowering the drum stick from his right hand.

He could hear the laughing and cheering for candy out on the water, and all around him his crewmates were having a great time. "I'll go see if I can fix your sub for you," Franky offered and then held up his arms, "Yow!" He yelled, for two girls ran up and hugged him for offering something so nice. The cyborg's face turned red and he allowed the ladies to show him inside their submarine.

Luffy continued looking around and all he saw were smiles on everyone's faces. He smiled too seeing this, but then he turned back to the girl pouring diamonds on Nami. She had long brown hair, a beautiful woman with large breasts and a bouncy butt, and she reached down and grabbed a small bag from her panties, pulled it out, and dumped more diamonds on top of Nami. "That's a strange place to keep diamonds." Luffy mumbled.

"Wow, your hat looks a lot like the one on the sail," a woman's voice said behind the sitting captain. Luffy turned around from his half devoured pile of meat and at the woman behind him. She had long pink hair and cutely smiled at him while rubbing her hands along his back. "Does that mean this is your ship?" She asked in a sultry voice.

"I'm the Captain," Luffy stated to answer her question. He smiled at her, and she smiled back at him the way Boa Hancock used to, a look he knew very well. He was confused though, because he had just met this girl. "Who are you?" Luffy asked the girl behind him.

"Huh?" She asked, keeping the smile on her face the whole time. "Oh that's not important, tell me about being a pirate. I bet it's full of adventures."

"Would you like some more meat captain?" The female chef called up to Luffy from the submarine.

"I could rub your feet if you want," a young-looking woman in a red bikini asked, stepping up to him and bending down over his meat pile. "Or I could rub something else," she said, then winked at Luffy.

"No thanks," Luffy said and stood up all of a sudden. He looked around and back off the port side of the ship. Everyone out there still looked to be having a good time, trading the candies they had gathered with each other. He looked back and around at his crew who were all so happy. "Something is..."

"Is there something wrong Luffy-san?" A voice asked from behind the captain.

Luffy spun around and saw Robin standing behind him. The woman with long black hair smiled nicely at him and tilted her head waiting for an answer.

Luffy tilted his head back at her, "You don't notice it?" He asked.

"Notice what?" She replied with risen eyebrows.

"Huh," Luffy muttered and he had a thoughtful look on his face for a few moments. "Well you're the smartest person I know, so then it's probably nothing." He shrugged and turned back to the pile of meat, deciding there was no point in arguing with a good thing.

Robin just stood behind him quietly and smiled at the captain's back. "Thank you for the compliment, Luffy."

* * *

"Let me out of here!"

"Poor fool," a man wearing silver chain mail and armor, and a golden mask over his face shook his head. He chuckled from under the mask at the expense of the boy in front of him. The kid's arms and legs were pinned to a black wall by blue glowing energy straps. "You can not escape this place."

"I should have known," the kid wearing a white t-shirt and green shorts growled at the man in front of him. "Everything was too perfect, it was just like last time."

"And just like last time, now that you have figured it out, this will become your nightmare," the armored man stated, his voice getting darker.

"Enoch, what do you want with me and my friends? That was really them back there wasn't it?! Do you want the Omnitrix?"

"Ben Tennyson you fool, the Omnitrix is the least of our concerns," the man named Enoch replied. "The Forever Knights are now in the possession of a Saiyan. Your watch is a trivial matter, but we will take it as well as blood samples from each of your friends. Devil Fruit powers, Dragon Slayer magic, Demon blood, a speedster, all of your comrades loved to brag about themselves at the feast. And all of those powers will now fall to the Forever Knights!"

"You won't get away with it," Ben yelled at the man.

"Your Grandpa isn't here this time to save you," Enoch responded, and Ben could almost imagine the man smirking underneath his mask. "No one will save you now," he added, then his body faded away into the darkness on all sides of Ben.

"No! Noooo! Let me out!" Ben roared.

* * *

"Okay, how much meat can you eat?" The girl with long pink hair standing next to Luffy asked with an amazed look on her face.

Nami looked over at the pirate captain in disgust as he put an entire ham into his mouth and then pulled back out only the bone. When she scrunched up her face in disgust though, all the other girls started clapping for her captain. _What? Do they not think that was gross?_ Nami started looking around but then stopped as the brunette right next to her lowered a huge diamond in front of her face.

"Would you like this one too?" The woman asked, and Nami snatched it with drool pouring out of her mouth.

Luffy looked over and saw that happen, right when Nami herself seemed to be confused. _Almost like they're stopping us from realizing,_ he thought. The pirate spun around and looked at everything near him. Everyone from the water group were on their way back to the port side of the ship where the almost naked girls were waving to them and cheering.

"Feels good being a hero," Sora said with a laugh and he put both arms behind his head.

"Too bad you don't get to enjoy it Mister Newlywed," Riku teased his friend next to him. "I on the other hand," he smirked and looked back at the side of the Thousand Sunny, then lost his grin at the sight of that black haired girl again, the one with a blue bikini and black bottoms.

Riku flew fast off towards the ship and Sora lifted his eyebrows. "What's the rush?" He called out.

Ben chuckled from the other side of where Riku was as Sora, and the older boy looked over at Ben. The young kid in a white t-shirt and green shorts laughed, "He's just excited that those girls are here to reward us!" Ben flew off after him yelling, "Wait for me!"

Sora laughed as the kid left, then shook his head softly. _It's hard to imagine that he just got tackled through a portal not five minutes ago. Always gotta keep on guard here I guess._

"This sure has been a fun morning," Dash said followed by a loud burp. The blond kid was running around on the water below and called up, "It's our lucky day!"

On the ship, Luffy had finally had enough and he threw his stretchy arms up to the crow's nest, sending himself rocketing up there. The rubber pirate landed on the railing and looked around. Down on the bow near the steering wheel he could see Rin with two beautiful ladies at his sides, while another girl rubbed the tummy of his large pet cat Kuro.

"Seems strange doesn't it?" A voice asked from behind Luffy that almost made him fall off the railing. He spun around with wide-eyes, not having felt the person with his Observational Haki. "Sorry, was using Zetsu to stay hidden," the boy with white spiky hair stepped out of the shadows and looked into Luffy's eyes. "Have you realized it?"

"What's happening?" Luffy asked, then looked off the crow's nest and down at everyone below.

"None of this is real," Killua replied to the pirate in front of him. Luffy turned back and his eyes turned huge. "I should have noticed sooner, but it was only when that fake Ben came back that it became clear."

"Wait," Luffy turned and looked off the crow's nest down towards Ben who was laughing along with Dash and running around like always. "Ben isn't real?" He asked, really confused at this point.

"He has not gone into any detail about what happened on the other side of that portal. Ben likes to brag, and he did, but the way in which Ben boasted was not usual for him." Killua stepped up and hopped on the railing next to Luffy. "And if something was wrong, who would you have asked first to check with?"

"Robin," Luffy replied. "But she didn't notice anything..." he stopped talking as he saw Killua staring expectantly at him. "She's fake too?!" Luffy exclaimed.

"Shh," Killua urged, putting a finger to his mouth. "What do you think happens when they realize we know what's going on?"

"Who are they? What _is_ going on?" Luffy was so confused and he looked at the kid for answers, but the white haired boy shrugged cluelessly.

Killua continued, "But Ben knew." Luffy looked at him confusedly, so Killua added, "Right before they took him away. The real him. He started shouting like he understood what was happening. That's mainly why I haven't said anything to anyone else yet, I feel like they'll take us out if we-"

"Hey everyone!" Luffy yelled, cupping his hands to his mouth.

The entire crew on the deck below and all of the beautiful girls looked up to see the rubber pirate calling down to them. "Luffy?" Usopp questioned, wondering why they were being shouted at.

"None of this is real! We're dreaming or something!" The captain shouted.

"What?!" Nami yelled up at him angrily. "That's ridiculous!"

"No," a voice said close to Nami, and she turned to her left to see Goku standing there. The muscular Saiyan in an orange gi turned to Nami with a chunk of meat in his mouth and said, "We are dreaming. Haven't you noticed?"

Everyone turned to Goku now, their jaws dropped as the spiky haired Saiyan looked around at them. Killua was pissed that Luffy just shouted that, but now he turned his anger on Goku. "And how long have you known?!" The boy shouted down at him.

"That we were dreaming?" Goku asked innocently. "I thought everyone knew?" He admitted. The man looked around and saw them all just gawking at him. "Whoops," he shrugged his shoulders and laughed at their dumbstruck looks.

"A dream?" Ben asked in surprise.

"How can that be?" Robin questioned, scratching her chin in wonder.

Killua looked back and forth between the two he just called fakes. _They are good copies. I don't think I'd be able to convince anyone else that they aren't real._

As everyone started shouting about how that couldn't be true, Usopp turned to one of the gorgeous women near him. "Hey, umm," he suddenly realized this girl he's been talking to had never given him her name. "What's your name again?" He asked the young woman.

The scantily clad female turned towards him slowly with that same smile on her face as before. "My name?" She asked. "My name?" Her smile faltered and her voice got lower, "You want, to know," every two words sounded lower and lower, and her light colored skin started getting blacker. "My, NAME?!" She yelled, making Usopp scream and fall backwards in fear.

"The beautiful girls are all fakes?!" Natsu yelled in surprise as the girls near him turned dark and snapped their heads at him with glowing red eyes and sharp teeth.

"Ignore the enemies!" Killua shouted from the crow's nest. "We have to find a way out of here!"

"How?!" Rin exclaimed as he backed away from the two girls he was making out with before who now looked more like snakes than women.

"I don't know!" Killua replied loudly. "Just figure something out!"

* * *

"Sir, the subjects are looking for the escape route." A woman sitting at a computer turned around towards the armored man with a golden mask standing behind her.

He looked ahead at the rows of beds they had laying out, each one with a body on it. The one directly in front of him had the boy with the Omnitrix, the watch proving as hard as ever to remove even with his high tech equipment, lying down on it. Next to him on his left was Timmy Turner, and on his right a young woman with dark blue hair. Each of them had little metal helmets on and a dozen wires attaching them to the central device.

Enoch lifted his wrist up to his mouth and pressed a button on it. "Simon, Dreamcaster, come in here."

A few moments after he made the call, the doors behind him made a swooshing noise as they opened up. Two figures walked in and Enoch turned towards them. There was a creepy man whose brain was showing under a round glass casing on his head, and a woman with long straight silver hair down to her waist and purple eyes. "They are waking up," Enoch stated in a cold, low-pitched voice. "Make it so they don't."

"Okee-dokey boss," the girl with silver hair said, giving him a mock salute and then marching over to a glass door. It slid open and let her in, with Simon not far behind her.

"I will handle this," the telepath stated in a nasally voice, walking ahead of Dreamcaster towards the center of the room.

"Oh come on," the girl said in a taunting voice. "You know my nightmares are twenty times better than whatever you could conjure up."

"I have their memories," the man replied, looking around at the room of sleeping people. "And nothing is more dangerous than memories."

"We'll share then," the girl next to him settled with. "I'll go first," she closed her eyes and put her hands down on either side of a boy with spiky white hair's head. Her hands glowed while on his temples and she started laughing to herself, "This is going to be fun."

* * *

"What's happening?!" Franky yelled as he burst out of the top of the submarine. The cyborg was getting bitten by two snake-women, but now they started melting on his back.

The sight of the girls melting was worse than them trying to kill the crew. They screamed out in pain as they melted, and then everyone heard a scream from up above them and looked up to see Killua standing on the railing of the crow's nest, grabbing both sides of his temples. When he opened back up his eyes, there was a figure floating in the sky a hundred feet in front of him.

The sky darkened to night in a few seconds, with dark clouds filling the air. The water itself seemed to turn black but only got more wavy. A few people saw where Killua was looking, the ones who weren't so freaked out that they could actually pay attention, and they saw the kid staring at a muscular figure out over the water. The figure had appeared out of nowhere, but he had a long swirling trail of darkness coming off of his head and swirling up towards the sky. His eyes were pure white, but with swirly black lines going in circles around him. Killua reached forward and he fell off of the crow's nest, his hand held out the entire time he fell.

"Kil!" Dash yelled up as the boy started falling. He ran towards the mast and started sprinting up it, then jumped off and caught the older boy. He landed down on the deck and into a roll where he released Killua.

When Dash stood up he spun around angrily, "Why wouldn't you-" he froze and stopped talking as in front of him, his entire family appeared.

Everyone else in the dream dropped their jaws at the sudden appearance of the Incredibles family. Mr. Incredible and Elasta Girl, Violet, and even a little baby crawling on the floor with a blurry face. Dash looked at them with a horrified expression, but really just at the baby. "JackJack," he whispered, his voice getting choked up.

"Dash it isn't really them!" Riku yelled over. His yell did not help much when the family started to melt in front of Dash's eyes. They held out their hands towards him and the kid could not move as he watched his baby brother start melting. "Dash!" Riku yelled.

The silver haired Keybearer looked all around him and watched as everyone started having horrible nightmares come to life right in front of them. "This is bad," he muttered. He looked over towards Ben who was walking over to Dash with a smile on his face, and Riku's eyes widened for a second. Then Riku lifted his head and looked up into the dark sky. "Ben, wherever they've taken you. Try to escape. You have to free us."

* * *

"RAAAA!" Ben tugged as hard as he could but he couldn't free himself from the restraints. He wanted to transform but his watch wasn't letting him. It looked like it was green, but he couldn't transform at will like usual. "Where am I?" He grumbled and looked around, not seeing anything but darkness all around him.

"Hellooo?!" He called out, looking for some answers. "Someone get me out of here!"

Suddenly, Ben heard footsteps in front of him and he looked straight ahead. "Hey! Who is that?" He squinted and looked closer, to see a woman's figure walking towards him. She got closer and his eyes widened, "Robin?!" A wide smile appeared on his face, but it faltered, "Wait, how do I know you're the real Robin? I've been tricked before."

She walked all the way up to him and then looked at the blue braces keeping him trapped to some invisible wall behind him that blended in with the rest of the black world. "I do not believe I can convince you, as we do not know each other well enough yet," Robin admitted. "However I am real, and I am the only one who has escaped."

"Escaped?" Ben asked, confused and very interested.

"Yesterday afternoon, around twelve hours ago, we came upon an archipelago. On our landing, we were greeted with great applause, and offered a feast in our honor. Somehow they knew who we were from Awul, and the food and drink must have been drugged. The entire night was a fantastic party that the island threw for us, and I do believe most of the inhabitants truly thought the party was real, but even so, I did not drink or eat with everyone else. They attempted to capture me, but I escaped."

Ben nodded his head slowly as she stopped talking to give him a moment to let all the information settle. "Wait, so then where are you right now? Did you go back to the ship?"

She smiled softly at him, "I do believe that saying so is not in our best interests if we wish to free everyone else."

Ben's eyes widened and he definitely believed this was Robin now. "Could you get me down?" He asked. "I got taken from the others and can't escape on my own."

"You should be able to," Robin said, her voice sounding interested as if she were uncovering a mystery. "This is a dream, so you should be able to control it."

"I know," he said, closing his eyes and thinking hard about what he wanted. He sighed in exasperation, "It isn't working! Last time Enoch trapped me I could do anything I wanted! I just, can't," he struggled harder and harder but couldn't break his bonds. Robin looked surprised that Ben knew their enemy's name and more so that he had been in this situation before. "We need to move fast," he added as he took a few deep breaths. "They think I'm trapped, so they might not be watching me right now, but if they see you-"

"It is too late for that," a low voice said behind the rescuer, and Robin spun around and moved out of the way a little so Ben could see him too. Enoch was standing behind Robin, his body over three times as large as usual, and he was much more menacing as a twenty foot tall giant. "Now, I have you all!"

* * *

"What's going on now?!" Nami exclaimed as the ship below them was sinking down into darkness. The black waves continued to splash until the deck of the dark ship went under, then everything turned flat.

"Goku," Kirito grumbled over at the Saiyan warrior standing near him. "Next time you notice we're trapped in a dream, how about trying to get us out sooner?"

Goku tilted his head and looked at Kirito in confusion. "But weren't we all having fun?" He asked innocently, making the teen and anyone else in the vicinity sweatdrop.

Suddenly, the black sky above them shifted. Images started flashing by, and the entire black sky and the walls around them started to turn into a blur. "What is this?" Juvia whispered in fear as they sky started to turn blue and cloudy. Two blurs flew past above the sky, and then another joined in.

Everyone stared up straight at the sky, except for Killua and Dash who were still shaken up by their nightmares. The people who were watching the sky though, finally saw what they were looking at as the blurs stopped moving so fast that so it became possible to see them. "Goku?!" Natsu and half of the others called out in surprise.

"Hey look it's me!" Goku exclaimed, then looked at the other figure with him. Goku had the man in a full nelson, and a third figure with green skin and antennae was nearby.

"Who is that green guy?"

"He has spiky hair like you!"

"He kind of looks like the Mayor."

"That's my brother Raditz," Goku pointed out. "And that's Piccolo."

Everyone looked at the green guy he pointed out, right as the creepy alien slammed his hand forward and fired a swirling yellow beam of light from his fingertips. "SPECIAL BEAM CANNON!"

"Ha!" Natsu laughed. "What kind of name is-" his voice caught in his throat as the beam shot through the guy Raditz, then through Goku's stomach behind him and out the Saiyan's back. The beam kept flying and blew up a mountain in the background and then kept going even farther. Meanwhile Goku and his older brother were falling backwards, each with large holes in their chests.

"What the-" Gray whispered in shock. The ice mage looked back over at Goku who was still smiling, watching this very interestedly.

Suddenly the image changed a little to show Goku lying there on the floor, the hole still in his chest but now with a bunch of people around him. His older brother lay dead not far from him and a short bald man was bent over Goku's body. "Hey that's Krillin," Sora pointed out at the bald guy holding one of Goku's hands up.

No one else said anything as the dying Goku who looked much younger than the man with them coughed up blood. The spiky haired man had cuts all over his shirtless torso around the huge gaping hole in it. He gasped out some laughter and then spoke clearly, "Krillin. Please, take care of, Gohan for me."

"It's not gonna come to that okay? You're gonna make it!" The short bald man kneeling next to him shouted. "And that's all there is to it."

"Krillin," an old man standing next to them warned, as if he already knew what fate was coming.

"No way," Natsu whispered, shaking his head as he watched the Mayor of Pao, the strongest man he'd ever known, cough up blood in this image in the sky. "This has to be fake right?"

"Nope, this really happened," Goku admitted as he watched his past self.

Past Goku looked into Krillin's eyes and whispered, "No, not this time friend. This time, I can't."

"I'll wish you back Goku," Krillin promised the man dying in front of him. "We already have three Dragon Balls."

The Goku on the ground didn't have anything to say to that. It was amazing he lived this long with the hole so close to his heart. His head tilted to the side and he whispered, "I'll see you, soon," and then his eyes closed. He breathed out one last time and then fell limp with a smile on his face.

The sky stayed like that for a few seconds, then became all blurry again. Everyone turned towards Goku who was just watching the sky with a calm smile on his face. He looked around at them all and they were staring at him horrified. "What?" He asked.

Nami had both hands over her mouth and her eyes were watering up. "You died," she gasped out.

"Yep," Goku said. "Twice actually," he corrected her, making her lose the shocked, sad look and just stare at him confusedly.

"Twice?!" Luffy yelled over at the man.

"What was it like on the other side?" A voice asked from behind him, and Goku turned to see Rin staring at him. The teenager who had lost his father looked into Goku's eyes, "Do you remember what happened after?"

"You mean Otherworld?" Goku asked. "Yeah, I got a whole lot of training in with King Kai. And then-"

"This is too ridiculous," Nami whispered, and collapsed down to her knees. "I just want to get out of this dream."

"Let's find a way out," Usopp suggested. "Hey Sanji why don't-" he stopped as he saw the chef sitting there crying. "Sanji?" Usopp asked, stepping over towards him. "You know Goku is alive right?"

"The ladies," Sanji whispered, looking up at Usopp with tears in his eyes. "Bring back the ladies," he begged.

Usopp's mouth filled with sharp teeth and he bonked the chef on the top of the head. "Idiot! Get focused!"

"I'm only focused on pretty ladies," he moaned sadly and rolled over onto his face. "The best dream ever has slipped away."

"We do need to get out of here though," Nami admitted and jumped back up to her feet. She spun around to look for Robin, who turned out to be standing right behind her. "Robin! Have you figured out a way-"

"I am sorry Nami-san," Robin stated. "I believe we will have to wait until the dream ends to get out."

"What?!" Nami's exclaimed, then fell back down to her knees, groaning in aggravation.

Luffy spun around towards Robin and glared at the black haired woman on his crew. She looked so much like Robin, but as he looked at her and she looked back at him into his eyes, he knew. "Where is the real Robin?" He spoke in a low, threatening tone.

Nami lifted back up her head and stopped her silent sobbing to look at Luffy. Near her, Juvia and Gray turned and stared as Luffy walked towards the black haired woman. "L-Luffy-san what are you-" Juvia began.

"Where is Robin?!" Luffy yelled at the woman, who lost her smile and frowned at him, stepping backwards in fear of his approach.

"Luffy what are you saying?" Nami asked, standing up and getting between her best friend and the enraged Captain.

Sanji noticed what was going on and he jumped up to his feet. "Oi Luffy," he growled, "what do you think you're doing?"

"Sanji-san, help me," Robin called over to the chef.

Nami's eyes turned huge, and she slowly turned around to see Robin smiling flirtatiously over at their blond chef to get him to help. Sanji himself was stunned by the words that just came out of her mouth, and he turned back towards Luffy who was marching her way furiously. "Where is the REAL ROBIN?!" Luffy roared.

"Luffy!" Usopp yelled over at him, trying to get the Captain to stop.

"It's not her!" Nami yelled, backpedalling away as she saw a strange glint in Robin's eyes. As she stumbled away, Luffy threw his arms forward, and Sanji raced over to stop him. Neither were necessary as Robin suddenly vanished.

"Where'd she go?!" Timmy yelled, the twelve year old freaking out as much as everyone else.

"Look up!" Natsu called out.

The group turned their gazes to the sky where the air above them was ripped into a bunch of pieces. Whoever was trying to keep them from finding a way out sure knew how to distract them. On half of the dark realm they were in, the walls to their right and all of the ceiling above it, they were in a war zone. There were dead Marines and pirates everywhere, with explosions going off all over the place.

Their jaws dropped however, at the sight of a familiar skinny pirate on his knees, with his arms around another man they knew very well. "Is that, Ace?" Usopp whispered in horror at the sight of their captain's older brother with a huge hole in his chest even bigger than the one that was in Goku's.

"My only regret," Ace whispered, yet his voice echoed all around. "Is that I didn't, get to see you fulfill your dream..."

Luffy had enormous eyes and just stared hopelessly up at the sky. "Ace," he whispered, watching his brother die again.

Meanwhile on the other half of the dark dream world, Kirito lay beneath a tree holding a girl in his arms. A few people were watching this instead of Luffy's, and the real Kirito himself lifted a hand up towards the girl in the image. Her face was blurry, and he clenched his eyes shut tight as he realized he could barely even picture what Asuna looked like.

"AHHHHHHH!" The Kirito in the sky roared, and the tree next to him ripped off the ground and flew into the sky while cracks shot off his knees making fissures in the ground around him.

Just as the memories began, they came to an end. No one could even speak as these things were not meant to be seen again. "I want to get out of here," Nami whispered, then looked up in the sky. "You hear me?! Let me OUT!"

In the dark sky above her, the background did not shift to show images. Instead, three figures appeared directly above her. Her sister Nojiko, Gen, and her mother Bellemere. Nami's angry expression vanished and she just started whispering, "No no no," then could not speak anymore as all three of her loved ones started melting. Their skin peeled off and their faces distorted as their eyes popped and bone structures shifted. It was the worst nightmare imaginable and Nami screamed before falling to her knees.

"This is sick," Riku muttered and spat to his side.

"Don't worry," Sora called out loudly. Everyone looked over at the teen with spiky brown hair and he smiled around at all of them. "Since the real Robin isn't here, I'm sure she's finding a way to get us out of here. We just need to hang on a little longer and make it easier for her. Let's look around for-"

"So-ra," a whisper echoed out around the sky.

Kairi's eyes widened as she heard her own voice, and her and Sora, and everyone else, looked up in the sky. Everything was bright and sunny, and there was a beach of an island where three children stood next to an almost completed raft. "Home," Kairi whispered, smiling a little at the sight of their island.

"I had almost forgotten what it looks like," Riku admitted out loud.

Far in the distance behind the memory kids there were trees in a forest and a large rock face, along with some wooden buildings up on a cliff. Everyone was focused on the three young kids, a short boy with spiky brown hair, a cute little girl with short red hair, and a slightly more muscular and taller boy with spiky silver hair that fell behind his shoulder blades.

"Sora, Riku, and Kairi," Nami pointed at each one and then looked down at their older counterparts. _Looks like it's been five or so years since then._ She kept herself thinking as to distract herself from imagining her melting family over and over again.

The three children up in the memories were standing and looking out over the sea. For some reason the image was zooming in on them too. The boy with spiky brown hair, young Sora, stood in the middle of the three, and the image zoomed closer to him. As it moved closer, everything flashed black for a second and the island was still there but the sky was dark, and lightning shot out of the darkness in the sky. Then it flashed back to light with the three kids there on the beach.

The image zoomed all the way in on Sora, and then showed the young boy turning towards Riku and smiling at him. Riku turned back, and then everything flashed to show Riku with the same calm expression, only now he was standing twenty feet out in the water. He was facing away from Sora, and he slowly started turning around in the waves. The Sora on the beach was staring at him in confusion, and Riku turned all the way around and made eye contact with his friend. Then, the young image of Riku slowly lifted up his left hand as if for Sora to take.

While Riku stood there in the shallow water with his hand extended, day flashed to night for a second. They were on solid ground and Riku was standing there, yelling at Sora, "Kairi's coming with us!" Then, memory Riku lifted up his arm in the same exact way that version of him in the shallow water had done before. It flashed again and the sky was bright, and Riku was back in the water with his hand extended.

"What is this?" Riku muttered, turning to Sora. "This didn't happen," he mumbled.

"I was having strange dreams," Sora whispered in reply, "I still have strange dreams," he added in an even quieter whisper.

Up in the sky and the memories above, dream Sora stumbled towards the water and Riku inside, but then came to a sudden stop and looked around in fear. All of the water near the shore was getting pulled back, and a wave grew behind Riku's back. Young Riku did not seem to care at all as a tidal wave started forming behind him. As this wave formed, the sky started flashing black over and over and showing Riku with his arm outstretched in the dark. Underneath his feet on solid land, a dark circle formed and tendrils of darkness started wrapping around him. "I'm not afraid of the darkness!" The child yelled fearlessly, as Sora tried reaching out to him to grab on.

"This is a crazy dream," Gray muttered in awe at the craziness going on.

"Dream, more like a nightmare," Nami whispered as she watched the image flash again and show the tidal wave crash down on Riku and Sora. It was like being in a washing machine as Sora got tumbled around under the wave. Sora reached for his best friend underwater but was swept away before their hands could touch. In the other darker version Riku got sucked all the way down into the darkness and Sora tried scrambling for the light, only to get dragged down himself. Memory Sora and Riku had their hands reached out towards each other the entire time they were dragged under and everything shook violently as Sora was pulled under.

"That was scary," Usopp said and then went back to biting his fingernails.

"I wasn't scared," Riku stated from behind Usopp. Usopp and a few others looked over at him, but the nineteen year old stood tall with his muscular arms crossed in front of his chest. "I knew we would find each other."

"Well not all of us were so sure of ourselves," Sora said and elbowed his best friend in the side.

The sky suddenly flashed again and showed the beach again with the three childhood friends, only now Riku started to vanish. The young version of Sora turned the other way and saw Kairi began turning towards him.

Young Kairi started to turn around, and then everything flashed to show a dark, almost empty cave with white carvings in the wall. In it, Kairi was standing in front of a door, and there was low rumbling all around them as if the place kept getting hit by earthquakes. The door was ominous, and emitted strange sounds coming from the other side. The girl standing in front of the door was facing away from Sora who stood at the entrance of the cave. "Kairi!" The young boy who was also in the memory called out to her. She started turning, and it flashed between her and the other version on the bright sunny beach.

"So-ra," she whispered, both versions of her speaking. Then the one from the actual memory in the dark cave reached out a hand for Sora. As she did, the door behind her swung open and it was like a gust of black wind sent her flying forward. Half the people watching gasped and then went wide-eyed as young Sora tried catching her, only for her to go right through him like a ghost.

"What is happening?" Nami wondered aloud, not following this crazy line of events at all.

Kirito was staring up at the sky in wonder, every few seconds checking the three Keybearers to see if they were confused by anything, but they were all just watching as if these really were just images of their past. "What a crazy life," he mumbled in amazement, thinking about all Sora had told him the other day and now getting to watch it first hand.

When he looked back up, he dropped his jaw at the sight of the same beach the three children were standing on a minute ago. Only now, Sora was the only one there. The sky had ripped open and the entire world around the beach was getting pulled into darkness. Some of the people on the Thousand Sunny turned to the three kids who lived there and saw them all frowning at the sight of their home world being destroyed. The Sora in the memory grabbed onto a plank of wood on the floor and tried to hold on, but he got ripped from it by the wind and pulled into the sky. Everything flashed white for a second, and the entire crew collectively looked at the teens.

"Your entire world," Killua began. "What happened to it?"

Neither Sora nor Kairi said anything, but Riku spoke in a low whisper, "It was destroyed."

"What happened to you guys?" Usopp asked. "I mean, you didn't die right?"

The sky suddenly split apart and everyone snapped back up and saw Sora all over the place. Dozens of images flashed by with Sora in all of them walking on deserts and swimming in oceans and climbing towers and fighting in jungles. Everywhere he went, the boy was asking the same questions.

"Have you seen my friends?"

"Riku and Kairi?"

"Riku!"

"Where's Kairi?!"

In every image Sora was in a different place, so many strange places that looked like entirely different worlds. He was searching everywhere for his friends, and then in one, something strange happened. It spread to cover the entire sky wiping away the other memory fragments.

Young Sora was standing on the front of a pirate ship. Off the sides in every direction was nothing but black, with little stars in the distance like they were flying a ship through space. The boy was walking and everyone else noticed young Riku step up behind him and up on a higher deck. "I didn't think you'd come Sora," Riku said, the tone of his voice sounding a lot different from last time they saw him. "Good to see you again."

"Wh-Where are Donald and Goofy?" Young Sora asked, confusing most people watching who did not know that those two animal creatures Sora was traveling around with in the other memories were the names he just asked about.

"Are they that important to you? More important than old friends?" Young Riku asked in a condescending tone.

The older version of Riku watching this memory bowed his head a little, but then felt hands on either of his shoulders. He lifted his head up and looked to each side to see Sora and Kairi smiling at him. They nodded at him, knowing it hurt him the most to see how far into the darkness he had fallen back then. He cracked a small smile and all three of them looked up into the sky together.

"Instead of worrying about them, you should be asking..." Younger Riku continued in an angry tone, then stepped aside, "about her."

"Is that, Kairi?" Kirito wondered aloud, turning and looking over at the girl now, and then up at the collapsed child whose eyes were open but not moving. "She's..."

"Kairi!" Past Sora yelled out.

"That's right," Riku replied. "While you were off goofing around, I finally found her." As he said it, the entire memory started to shift and distort. The pirate ship faded and all the images around them swirled together again.

The scene shifted to show a cluster of floating ice glaciers with Sora standing on the highest one with a dog and a duck behind him. Donald and Goofy had their weapons raised, but memory Sora stepped forward and whispered, "Riku." There was a collapsed beast on Sora's right side and Riku stood there with a smug look like he was the one who took it down.

"But all ends here," memory Riku said and held his arms out to the sides. "There can't be two Keyblade masters."

The past version of Sora didn't seem to understand. He swung an arm forward and asked, "What are you talking about?"

The silver haired young teen in a black and yellow shirt called out, "Let the Keyblade choose, its true master!" He lifted up his right hand in front of him and the Keyblade appeared in Sora's hand. The weapon looked like it was being tugged by an invisible force and Sora struggled but could not hold onto it. The weapon vanished in a glow of golden light and the two animals standing behind Sora gasped in shock as a golden glow shimmered in front of Riku and the Keyblade appeared there.

The people watching this memory gasped and a few of them were shooting Riku dirty looks, but those looks softened at the sight of his guilty expression and the forgiving looks of his best friends.

The younger version of Riku in the sky looked at the Keyblade in his hand with the yellow hilt and he scoffed. "Maleficent was right." He pointed a finger at Sora, "You don't have what it takes to save Kairi. It's up to me." He held his arms out in a superior way and shouted, "Only the Keyblade master can open the secret door and change the world."

Memory Sora still looked confused and he said, "But that's impossible. How did this happen? I'm the one who fought my way here with the Keyblade."

Kid Riku smirked and turned the weapon in his hands, "You were just the delivery boy." A few people gasped but it only got worse. The memory version of the silver haired teen continued, "Your part is over now. Here, go play hero with this," he tossed a wooden play sword across the glacier and it landed at Sora's feet.

"Ooh, harsh," Rin muttered. It really seemed like Riku got to Sora with those words too, as memory Sora collapsed down to his knees hopelessly. And it only got worse as the two behind Sora seemed to be more loyal towards following the Keyblade than Sora, and they left him kneeling alone on top of the floating iceberg.

The memory faded and most people on the ship turned and glared at Riku. Riku himself was frowning but he kept staring up and watching as their memories shifted some more.

In the next image that appeared, Riku was standing across a dark room from Sora. Behind him were the two animals that Sora had been traveling with this whole time, who were now seemingly on Riku's side. Past Riku glared at his best friend, "Go home Sora."

"No! Not without Kairi!" The younger boy yelled back, holding nothing but his wooden sword in his hands.

Riku looked pissed off and his body surrounded in light for a second. When the light was gone, his clothes were all dark blue, purple, and black, and he looked so much more, evil. "The darkness will destroy you," Past Riku threatened his friend. The kid no longer looked like Sora's friend, he looked and sounded like a bad guy.

The present Riku felt even worse, but Sora clamped his hand down harder on his friend's shoulder to show none of it mattered now.

The young version of Sora swung his hand in front of him, "You're wrong Riku. The darkness may destroy my body, but it can't touch my heart. My heart will stay with my friends, it'll never die!"

Most of the people watching these memories smiled at that statement. A few of them held their hands to their chests just like the Sora in the past was doing, and the one right there with them too.

"Really?" Past Riku asked sarcastically. "Well we'll just have to see about that!" Riku yelled, pushing a hand forward and firing a huge blast of energy at an unprotected Sora. Half the crew yelped or called out in fright as the memory Riku suddenly attacked Sora.

As the light fired, the entire sky started to morph, and Riku and Sora vanished. A new image formed with a hallway full of darkness and Riku standing in front of a dark blue light. Riku looked in pain and he no longer had the Keyblade with him. The dark light in front of him was speaking in a deep, dark tone, "Open your heart to the darkness. You showed no fear stepping through the door. Now, plunge deeper into the darkness!"

The boy in front of the light had a look of despair on his face as he stared at the floor. "...What do I need to do?" Memory Riku replied, and then that image was gone too.

"Was that Ansem?!" Usopp exclaimed, seeing the little blue light for what it was from the sound of its voice.

"So that's how he got control of you," Sora mentioned, trying to start up conversation with his dejected-looking friend. Riku was not in the mood though and just shook his head.

Dash finally got over the sight of his dream family melting, accepting that it really was just a stupid trick after all. He looked around and saw everyone seemed to have calmed down a little, but they were all just looking at the sky. He was about to shout at them that they need to get out of there fast, but then he looked up as well and his jaw lowered at the sight.

Sora and his two animal friends were in a room without any lights, and an injured Maleficent was backing away with her hand over her chest. Walking towards her was the silver haired boy, only there was something different about him. "Is that-" the duck named Donald standing at Past Sora's side called out over to Young Riku who was holding a unique weapon in his hands.

Young Riku stood in a room of darkness, his body covered in black and when he spoke his deep voice made them feel chills. "Yes, a Keyblade. But unlike yours," he spoke directly to Young Sora, "This one has the power to unlock people's hearts. Allow me to demonstrate..."

Everyone heard the squelch and their eyes popped open wide. Riku was standing there in the sky, a black Keyblade in his hands that he had just plunged into Maleficent's heart. "Now, open your heart. Surrender it to the darkness! Become darkness itself!" He yelled in a voice not his own. The woman stumbled away grabbing at her chest, screaming stuff about darkness taking her over. Young Riku did not care about what he did, he just turned and walked away, ignoring all of Sora's shouts at him and vanishing into darkness.

"This is too crazy," Kirito finally muttered out loud.

"I am at a loss for words," Killua agreed from next to the taller boy.

"I've been trying to follow everything going on," Timmy added near them. "But I think that the Riku we just saw was already taken over by Ansem."

"You got that right," Riku muttered over. "But I let him take over in the first place. You all saw."

Luffy looked over at the silver haired teen, then up at the sky which started distorting again. This time as it reformed, Luffy's eyes opened wider than ever. They did because he recognized the room, and so did Nami, and Usopp, and Sanji and Robin. Dash was the one who pointed and yelled though, "It's Hollow Bastion!"

"Were you in Castle Oblivion?" Usopp asked over at the teens who were all appearing up in the images above.

No one answered him though. They were looking at the dark room with two staircases leading up to the top floor where a giant glowing heart machine rested in between a bunch of machines and sparking wires.

On the floor of this top section, Kairi lay unmoving on the floor. Past Sora ran over to her, "Kairi. Kairi Kairi. Open your eyes Kairi." He held her up with his hands under her head but she couldn't open her eyes.

It was getting hard to watch for some of them as Sora shook the unmoving girl.

"It's no use," Riku's creepy voice mixed with Ansem's spoke from up near the heart, where only now everyone saw him appear. "That girl has lost her heart. She can not wake up."

"What?! You... You're not Riku," Young Sora realized.

"The Keyhole can not be completed," evil young Riku/Ansem stated. He hopped off the top of the golden heart device that he was sitting on and then floated down slowly with his arms extended. He continued darkly, "So long as the last princess of heart still sleeps."

"The princess?" Young Sora asked in the sky memory, at the same time as every single other person down below asked the same question. Young Sora spun back towards his evil friend, "Kairi's a princess?!"

"Don't act so surprised," current Kairi joked and elbowed her best friend in the side for that comment he made years ago.

"Haha, nice mess you've gotten in Sora," the real Riku joked to his blushing younger friend.

Meanwhile, a much darker scene unfolded above with their three past selves. Past Sora shouted at Riku, "Whoever you are, let Riku go! Give him back his heart!" Sora looked fearless in the face of this enemy, swinging his arms at the man angrily.

"But first," young Riku countered, and swung his dark Keyblade around before pointing it down the stairs at Sora. "You must give the princess back her heart!" The tip of Riku's Keyblade glowed, and then Sora's chest pulsed out pink and he collapsed to the ground.

"Wh-what's going on?" Young Sora asked in a weak voice as the duck next to him tried to help him. Those watching this scene were getting more confused too as they were trying to follow what the fake Riku was saying.

"Don't you see yet?!" The dark Riku on the stairs shouted down angrily. "The princess's heart is responding. It has been there all along! Kairi's heart rests within you!"

A gasping Sora on the floor whispered, "Kairi, Kairi's inside me?" As everyone down watching this started freaking out and asking questions, one kid shook his head over and over.

"Hey!" Killua yelled all of a sudden, finally having enough of this. "Let's look for an exit!" He suggested, snapping everyone out of the stupor of watching these memories.

"Aw, but I want to see how this ends," Ben complained. "How did Kairi get her heart?!"

"Ask her later!" Dash yelled at his friend, suddenly realizing Killua was right and they needed to wake up. "Whoever's messing with our heads is probably doing stuff to our bodies too, and I don't like that."

"Agreed!" Nami shouted.

As she shouted it, a fist flew past her face and slammed into Ben's. "Ahh!" She yelled, turning and watching the rubber fist snap back to Luffy.

"Why did you do that?!" Dash yelled over at the pirate angrily. He turned to see if Ben was alright, but Ben just stood up slowly, and then looked ahead at them as he melted. "AH!" Dash yelled, turning away. "Ben was fake this whole time?!" He yelled.

"Ever since he got taken by that armored guy before!" Killua yelled, catching everyone up to speed. He wasn't going to do anything but he was glad Luffy finally knocked the fake boy out. He just hoped Robin and Ben were the only two fakes here. "Now let's go!"

Up in the sky, memory Sora was fighting the darkened version of Riku. The two of them were zipping around crazy fast and Riku was creating huge explosions with every attack, but Sora was blocking many and getting powerful combos in on his friend as well as using high-powered magical spells on him.

"But where are we supposed to look?" Goku asked, turning to the white haired boy who wanted them to look for a way out. "I don't know what an exit looks like in a dream. Do you?"

Killua frowned as despite that sounding too simple, he had no answer for the spiky haired Saiyan. He looked around to ask others, but they had all lifted up their heads and were staring in awe at the sky where the images were playing. He wanted to yell at them again, but then again he also really wanted to see what was happening and he slowly lifted back up his gaze to the top floor of Hollow Bastion.

The fight had ended, Riku was gone. Sora stood between his dog and duck friends, Goofy and Donald. He pointed his Keyblade out towards the giant sparking heart, but nothing was happening.

The dog creature, Goofy, exclaimed, "It's not working. The Keyhole's not finished yet!"

"What can we do?" Sora asked, turning to his friend.

"Maybe," Goofy started, "we gotta go wake Kairi up."

Sora looked back down at the dead girl lying on the floor without a heart. "I think you're right," he said, lifting up a hand to his own chest. The young boy looked so thoughtful as he touched his chest, "If we can free her heart... But... But how?" He asked, looking up as if needing a sign. His eyes started looking down and everyone down below looked to a different part of the sky where a piece of the ground showed the Keyblade that Riku used before to stab Maleficent with. "A Keyblade that unlocks people's hearts, I wonder..." Young Sora closed his eyes, and then opened them and walked determinedly down the steps.

"Sora?" Goofy asked with worry in his voice.

Sanji was staring up at the sky and his jaw was lowering a little more every second as he started to realize what was going on. Franky wasn't too far from the chef and tears started building up in the cyborg's eyes, though he tried keeping himself quiet.

Kirito could not believe what he was watching, but as he looked down and over towards the real Sora and Kairi, they were wrapped in a hug with Kairi burying her face in Sora's chest as he spoke soothing words to her. "It can't be," Kirito whispered, then looked back up and watched as Young Sora walked all the way over to that dark Keyblade.

The young version of Sora lifted up the Keyblade and held it in his hands by the red hilt. At this point almost everyone had figured out what he was going to do except for Luffy and Goku who were totally lost.

Timmy's eyes turned huge as did Dash's next to him. Nearby, Nami lifted both hands up in front of her mouth. "Sora hold on!" His friend Goofy shouted at his past self from nearby in the image.

"No, wait!" Donald yelled, holding out his feathered hands.

Young Sora, just a kid, turned his head and looked down at Kairi for a second. Then he turned and looked over to Donald and Goofy, and flashed them one big smile to show everything was okay. He turned back to his long black Keyblade, grabbed it near the end of the blade, and turned it around so the sharp point hovered inches in front of his chest. The young boy grabbed it with both hands, and plunged it into his own chest.

"SORA!" A dozen people shouted as Memory Sora impaled his own heart.

His chest started to glow, and then as his hands fell back to his sides, the Keyblade pulled out on its own, with bubbles of darkness exuding from it as it floated there. The dark Keyblade floated up and bubbled darkness for a few seconds, before vanishing completely and being replaced by six spheres of light. Those six spheres flew away, and everyone spun to follow them across the dark sky where they illuminated more of Hollow Bastion. Everyone watched as the hearts returned to six princesses locked up around the room.

Sanji cried manly tears and called out to the present Sora, "I can't believe you saved so many princesses! You're too lucky! Too lucky I say!" He yelled, watching as the princesses in the vision started opening their eyes, sure to be grateful to their savior and maybe wanting to give him some sort of reward.

"Lucky?" Kairi asked over harshly.

Sanji looked down at the teenage girl, then up in the air where young Sora stood with his arms held out to either side. His chest opened up, and a large bright light shone out of it. The sphere of light floated high up, then came back down and imbedded itself in Kairi's chest. While this happened, the sparking heart shape in the background that was the Keyhole Sora tried closing before shone bright and lost its sparking energy that showed it was not working.

Young Kairi's chest lit up as her heart returned to her, and slowly her eyes opened back up. "Sora! Sora!" Donald yelled, chasing towards the boy as Kairi slowly sat up. The young girl sat up and looked over to see Sora falling backwards slowly, his whole body getting surrounded in golden light.

"Sora no," Dash whispered as he saw Sora's eyes closing.

Past Kairi stood up fully, and her face filled with fear as she saw Sora falling. "Sora!" She called out, and ran over to him with her arms out to catch him. As her hands touched his body though, he shattered into a hundred shards of light. Kairi held her hands out with a horrified look as he turned into light. She looked up and looked utterly hopeless as Sora's light particles floated up to the sky.

"Sora!" Memory Donald yelled, the duck sounding in serious pain at the sight just like Kairi. "Come back Soraaa!" Donald quacked after him.

"Haha, I'm totally going to mention that when I next see Donald," Sora mentioned, but as he looked around only Goku smiled at that statement.

Kairi hugged her fiancé tightly, and whispered, "Thank you," to him, not knowing if she ever said it before.

"You, sacrificed yourself for her," Gray said over to him in admiration.

Sora sheepishly scratched the back of his head, happy for the praise, though not for why he was getting it. "It was the only option-"

"Don't try that," Nami snapped over at the boy. "You chased all over for her. That was the sweetest thing I have ever seen."

"That was so cool," Dash agreed from closer to Sora.

"A man among men!" Franky yelled.

"RAAAAAAAA!"

Everyone spun their heads and watched as a huge rip in reality tore through the air on their left sides. On the other side of the crack they could see two giants, each three hundred feet tall battling it off with each other. They recognized one of them as the man in armor with a golden mask from before, and the other was a humongous red and white alien they also knew as Way Big, one of Ben's transformations. Ben pushed his enemy back, and then two huge arms appeared out of nowhere and tripped up Enoch by his legs.

"It's Robin!" Nami yelled in relief, seeing her best friend. "She's helping Ben!"

"Where are they?" Natsu asked, confused at what that rip was. "Actually, let's just go through-" the rip closed and Natsu blinked a few times stupidly. "You have to be kidding me!" He yelled up at the sky.

In part of the sky, a memory appeared showing a pretty dark room. There was a large stage in the middle of the room with a familiar figure on it. The short boy with spiky white hair reminded them a lot of Killua only about four or five years younger. The ten year old boy had his hands in his pockets and was looking ahead at the man in front of him who was several times bigger.

The figure in front of Killua was glaring down at him with the look of a murderer. All he seemed to want to do was kill Killua and a lot of the crew members watching were starting to sweat. Killua himself chuckled as he saw the memory begin up above him. The large muscular man with messy brown hair and a brown mustache was glaring at him and yet his past self did not look fazed at all.

"So, how do you want to fight?" Kid Killua asked casually, hands still in his pockets.

"A fight?" the guy in the memory questioned in a deep, scary voice. "I think you have the wrong idea," he spoke with malicious intent seeping off of every word. "The only thing that's going to happen here, is I'm going to slaughter you."

Usopp let out a noise that sounded like 'eep.' A few of the others started sweating worse as their fears came true and this guy really was a murderer. The man in the memory, who Killua remembered was called Jones, continued, "I don't care about the Exam or getting my sentence reduced. I just want to dig my fingers into your flesh that's all."

"Okay, this guy is seriously giving me the creeps," Gray muttered while staring up at the memory.

Memory Jones continued, "All you have to do is scream and cry out..."

"Alright," Memory Killua stated calmly with a blank look on his face. "So whoever dies loses the game?"

The casual way in which he said it made most people watching wonder if they heard him correctly. Jones seemed not to hear him either and just held out his right hand, "I'll tear your body apart," the man said with a smile plastered on his face. He reached in, and...

Everyone stared up at the memory blankly. Only a very few of them were able to see what just happened, but past Killua was now standing on Jones's opposite side. Jones still had his arm reached out, while Killua was casually walking away behind him. The murderer did not understand what was going on, and he glanced down at his shirt where there was now a hole in the top left side of it.

"What just-" Nami began, then noticed what memory Killua had in his hand, making her face turn blue.

"No way," Franky whispered in shock, his face also blue.

Jones grabbed at his chest where the hole in his shirt was and he muttered, "Wh-What? I'm so cold." He turned around to where Killua was now standing, and stared in just as much shock as everyone else as Killua turned towards him with a piece of Jones's shirt in his hand. The shirt was wrapped around something wet and red, and it was beating. "That's, mine-" Jones began, walking towards Killua and reaching his hand out towards the beating heart that Killua held casually in his hand.

"What the fuck," Kirito mumbled under his breath.

Memory Killua was just smirking back at Jones with much scarier eyes than the murderer had before. His eyes were those of someone truly merciless, and he just let Jones keep walking towards him while the heart slowed down its beating. "Give, it, back..." Jones watched as the heart beat one last time, then he collapsed down to the ground. The Killua in the memory finally did what Jones asked, leaning down and placing the man's heart back into his open hand.

"Would have preferred it if you had not all seen that," Killua started as soon as his memory began to fade. Most of the others spun to him with nervous looks and the kid just shrugged at them. "But, too late now I guess," he admitted, not seeing what he could do about them having seen it now.

Before anyone could say anything to the crazy boy, Natsu lifted up his head and roared, "LET US OUT OF HERE!"

As he did, the sky morphed and showed Natsu's face. He was smiling and talking to someone next to him, and Natsu, Gray, and Juvia all felt their hearts wrench at the sight of the big breasted blonde standing next to Natsu. "Lucy," present Natsu whispered. The rest of the sky started to morph as well, and then a single man walked out of the forest in front of them. _Kamishiro._ "No!" Natsu yelled, his body bursting into flames. "Not this day! Raaa! I'll burn this memory down!" Natsu roared.

"What day is this?" Kirito asked as Natsu went on a rampage and started attacking the floor of this dark dream realm.

Gray was near him and looked over coldly, "This is probably the day Lucy died. I don't want to watch this, no one will. It's time to get out of here."

"We need to help Ben and Robin!" Killua yelled, trying to get everyone on task instead of engulfed in the juicy story of another of their memories or dreams. "So let's stay focused and get out of here!" He yelled.

"Yeah!" A dozen others agreed and they all started running around to search for an exit.

* * *

"Enoch!" Ben yelled and punched forward one of his humongous hands at the giant falling towards him.

Enoch had lost a little control when he was attacked by both opponents at once, but he regained it quickly to keep the others in the dreamscape separated from them. Ben's huge fist was about to hit him in his huge golden mask, and then the fist vanished. More precisely, it shrank. Ben transformed back into his human self and blinked a few times in surprise.

The boy looked down at the watch on his left wrist and it was still in the green. "Way Big!" He yelled, as thinking it was not enough. Still, no reaction. He slammed his hand down on it a few times but no green light shone to transform him into an alien.

"It's a dream Ben!" Robin shouted over to the boy. "I infiltrated from outside, but this is partly your dream!" She shouted, while Enoch reached down and grabbed her with a giant armored glove. She looked like she was in a lot of pain and Ben frowned angrily up in the sky.

"I know it's a dream!" He yelled. He clenched his eyes shut, thinking hard on what could be stopping him from controlling this dream like he did last time he had to face Enoch. _Think Ben, think!_

"Robin!" Ben yelled, "Distract him!"

Enoch turned his head from the woman he was crushing down to the boy below. "What are you planning?" The giant armored Forever Knight growled, lifting up his free arm and pointing it down at Ben. Shackles appeared out of nowhere and chained up Ben's arms and legs.

While Ben shouted out in pain, twenty hands sprouted up on Enoch's humongous face. "Huh-" he started, right before the hands smacked right into the holes on his mask in front of his eyes. "Raaa!" He yelled out in pain, stumbling backwards. He opened back up his eyes and pulled back his arm, then threw Robin hard down towards the ground.

"Ah-" Robin gasped out as she slammed into the black floor hard.

A flash of green light erupted nearby her, and she frowned thinking Ben had her distract Enoch solely so he could turn into an alien again. "Ben, what are-" she began while turning her head to look over at him.

Enoch laughed as he saw Ben transform while still held by his shackles. "Foolish boy," he shouted down to the appearing creature. "I will take away your powers once more-"

"I don't think so," the alien that appeared shouted up in the sky. It looked almost like a crab with an orange shell, except taller and with a more humanoid face. It had six legs and two claws for hands, and a silver belt with the green Omnitrix symbol in the middle. "You know," Ben called out in a snooty, condescending tone, "I haven't come up with a name for this one yet. Now that I think about it however, I believe the most appropriate name would be, Brainstorm!"

Enoch glared down at the boy, and then pointed a hand down at him. "Pointless," Enoch said, snapping his fingers at Ben. After he snapped them, Robin spun to face Ben again, expecting him to turn back into a child. Enoch thought the same thing, but Ben just stood there as a crab-like creature with a massive head, not moving except to cross his claws in front of his body smugly.

Brainstorm looked up at Enoch and spoke in a superior tone. "My mental capacity far exceeds that of any human. This is why I was easily able to determine why it was I could not control the dream before. You have hacked into a certain part of my cerebral cortex which makes it near impossible for my human form to comprehend that what he was seeing was truly a dream." Nico Robin's eyes widened at every word Ben was saying now. This really seemed like a different person in front of her, and Ben continued in his alien's voice. "I have figured it out however, and I also discovered where the exit to this dream is."

"What?!" Enoch shouted. Even hidden behind his golden mask they could tell he looked furious. "I will not let you escape!"

"Unfortunately for you," Brainstorm continued, suddenly flashing green again. Ben reappeared, only now he was wearing a blue cape, black goggles with lightning bolts on the sides, dark blue gloves and boots, and he had a golden tunic around his chest. He spun around and the blue cape flapped in the wind, "I already have," Ben called out in his higher pitched, thirteen year old voice. "Ultra Ben is back baby!" He flew up in the air like a rocket and punched up underneath Enoch's chin, sending the huge giant flying backwards through the air.

Suddenly, the black wall to Ben's left tore open to reveal another huge black space. Only in this huge black area, there were over a dozen people looking around for an exit or staring up at the ceiling where a monster of a man was fighting Natsu and killing Lucy and a bunch of other people.

"Ben?!" His comrades shouted over as they saw the wall tear open. A few of them also shouted, "Robin!" at the sight of the woman staggering up to her feet looking a little injured.

Most of them were staring at Ben though as he held out his arms and blasted a huge beam of blue light into a giant in a suit of armor. Enoch flew away into the darkness, and Ben turned and flew down towards his friends. "Quickly everyone," Ultra Ben shouted, "run to me!"

Everyone there started running to Ben, though Natsu, Juvia, and Gray's eyes lingered on Lucy's face up in the sky for a few seconds longer than the others. Ben kept shouting as they ran over, "Enoch will be trying to stop us! As soon as we wake up start fighting!" They were all almost up to him and he shouted, "Link up!"

The nineteen of them grabbed onto each other or grabbed Ben by some part. Once they were all linked, Ben lifted up his right hand and reached down, grabbing his Omnitrix on his left hand. The others were going to ask what he was doing, and then went wide-eyed as he ripped the watch right off. "The last place I would look," Ben said with a grin, seeing a little dot on his wrist beneath the watch he could never remove in real life. He slammed his right hand on it, and everything flashed white.

Natsu snapped up, and he looked around with a panicked expression on his face that quickly turned to fury. He was in panic because he suddenly appeared in a bright room lying on a bed, but then he got mad as he saw the dozens of scientists and other people running around. Someone was next to his bedside gathering up vials that were connected to wires that when he followed them they led to his chest and head where they were attached. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Natsu roared, and the man next to him dropped all of the vials and fell over with a terrified look on his face.

All around the room, the fighters stood up and attacked the people around them. Killua vanished and appeared near a doorway where two people were wheeling out a cart full of red liquid filled vials. "Let me guess, Saiyan blood?" Killua rose up his hands before they could respond and he grabbed the cart. The short kid lifted up the metal cart and slammed it forward into the person farther in the doorway, then spun it around into the man next to him's chest, making him fly backwards with blood splashing out of his mouth.

"Crap!" Simon yelled as he tried hard to keep the Super Saiyan from awakening. "Damn that Dreamcaster, leaving me to deal with this on my own." The telepath whose brain was exposed in a glass shell on his head put both hands down on either side of Goku's head.

Suddenly, Son Goku's eyes opened up and he smiled wide. Simon jumped in fright and took a step back, but Goku just tilted his head at the man. "Were you the one messing with my head? That wasn't very nice-"

"Gum Gum Pistol!" Luffy yelled, and Simon was only mid-turn when the fist crashed into his face and sent him flying across the room. Goku looked over to Luffy as the pirate's fist snapped back and Luffy clenched that fist hard, "Had to be done," he stated. After watching Ace's death again, whoever was in charge of bringing back those memories needed a good fist to the face.

"Where's the guy in armor?!" Ben shouted, looking around at all his awakening friends. "Find Enoch! He was trying to get our secrets!" Ben realized what he shouted and snapped his head to look down at his left wrist before sighing in relief. _Good, the Omnitrix is still there._ He kept staring at his watch and his bottom lip lowered, sweat forming all over his face.

"You heard him!" Natsu yelled, charging for the doorway. "Let's go kick some ass!"

Everyone really pissed off about that whole dream thing charged out of the room to go look for their enemy and kick his butt. Ben just stood in place though, looking down at the Omnitrix on his wrist.

"You coming Ben?" Riku called back to his friend after Sora and Kairi ran out of the door ahead of him. He saw where Ben was looking and lowered his gaze to the boy's watch. The hourglass symbol on the front was in the green, but something was off about it. "What are those orange lines?" Riku asked, looking at two thin orange lines on either end of the watch, blinking over and over and then finally becoming solid after Riku asked the question.

Ben heard Riku ask and he lifted up his head with fear-filled eyes. "It's the SDM. It's been activated." The thirteen year old lifted up his hands and ran them through his hair nervously. "Enoch must have turned it on accidentally while he was trying to get it off. It's all over."

"Hold on," Riku started, turning back and walking towards Ben while a few of the others still in the room looked his way as well. Nami didn't go running off with the others and neither did Usopp, Juvia, or Gray. They looked at Ben while the kid dropped his gaze down to the floor and Riku walked towards him. "What does SDM mean? What's so bad about it?"

The kid with the malfunctioning watch on his left wrist lifted his gaze up at Riku. "SDM. Self Destruct Mode." The others went wide-eyed and a few of them gasped as Ben finished, "And when the watch goes, so do I."

* * *

"My liege," Dreamcaster took a knee down in front of the throne in front of her. She bowed her head, then lifted it up a little to the man sitting on the throne in the dark room with red lighting on the walls. Everything was made of steel, they were moving, and through the port and starboard windows, Dreamcaster could see the water rushing by their submarine. "Enoch was captured and the facility destroyed."

"If all you have brought me is bad news," the figure up on the throne began. He stood up and towered ten feet tall in a large suit of armor with a cross-shaped visor on the front of his helmet. The Forever King's visor glowed red as he looked down at the silver haired witch, continuing in his menacing voice, "Then I will be very displeased."

"Then, it's a good thing I've got some good news too," the girl said, lifting up her head and smirking into the man's visor, making the red light of his visor dim a little. She reached down into her purple cloak's pocket and continued, "Before I left, I managed to grab this real quick." She pulled out a vial from her pocket with a cork on the top of it, keeping the red liquid all in. "You would not believe the number of needles we broke trying to break through this guy's skin." She dangled the test tube in front of her and then stood up to her feet, holding it above her head. "I give you, blood of the Super Saiyan: Son Goku!"

* * *

 **A/N Goku's blood?! The Self Destruct Mode?! What have the Forever Knights done, and what are they planning? Ben 10 villains the Forever Knights under the leadership of the Forever King are the new arc's villains, so I hope you're ready! Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Lots of random memories thrown in here from many of the characters' lives, bringing them closer together more before their arrival in Aebrith... if they ever make it there! Lol, just kidding. By the end of the chapter our heroes will finally be at their destination, but what monsters stand between them and the shores of the largest continent on the planet? Find out in the upcoming chapters of NEXUS: Heroes Will Rise!**

 **Here's a quick list since a few new characters added:**

 **Ben 10: Ben, Gwen, Grandpa Max, Enoch, Forever King, and Dreamcaster (if you don't know her, which you probably don't because she's not actually a character in the show, she's the antagonist of a fanfic I wrote about Ben 10 in the past, and Charmcaster's sister. I'd suggest to give it a read, 'cause I think it's awesome XD )**

 **Young Justice: Simon**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Killua, Jones**

 **DBZ: Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, Raditz, Piccolo, Krillin, Master Roshi**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Riku, Sora, Kairi, Ansem, Donald, Goofy**

 **-And... all the other characters you know well I think. Anyway, review responses!**

Espada-001 chapter 14 . Feb 4

Well the whole Sora having temporary amnesia was unexpected. I would personally like to question why characters with sensory Haki couldn't find him at such a close though since it doesn't detect peoples energy but rather a persons presence. That's kind of a question I've had for a while now actually, so do these devises actually suppress powers or are they cloaking devices? Also nice to see another Psyren character being used even if he was an asshole, I'm looking forward to see if you plan on using more of them. It was nice to see professor Oak and also sad to see him pass so soon. And while I like the Pokémon you gave him he did have his own Dragonite from both the manga and it was shown in the anime as well, I was hoping that you'd be able to add it as well since that seemed to be his go to Pokémon for combat. There's also something else I wanted to ask about, do you think you could have Luffy understand Pokémon? I know it may seem a bit strange but he does have the ability to here the "Voice of all Things". I know that you've referenced it before with the Lion Turtle and I thought that was cool, but the reason why I'm asking is because the ability seems to work better on creatures and animals that have a higher form of intelligence than feral animals. Anyway the reason I'm asking is that he can hear Pokémon is since it's already shown numerous times that they can have actual conversations with people in their own way. (This part is moving away from the review for this chapter and is just some thoughts that came to mind.) Also just a side thought, but by Killua opening the 64 Ton gates, that pretty much means he has more physical strength than Goku since around this time he could barely lift 40 Tons in his base state. Although I'm not sure how to compare pushing strength to lifting strength, also Goku would be stronger than his cannon version with all the stuff he's been through on Nexus. So by this point his base strength would probably be somewhere between 3 to 4 times stronger. (120-160 Tons?) Also Mysterion is turning into an immortal version of Batman at this rate, lol. Anyway moving away from the whole strength stuff, I was browsing YouTube and I found a short series with some interesting characters in it that you might be interested in if you just wanted to find some quick side characters, it's called the "Law of Talos" with about 10 or so episodes, and a couple of spinoffs. And I found another film called "Animated short: the reward" which is only about 9 minutes long but it gives you 2 extremely powerful characters that you can pretty much develop in any way. Anyway I should probably stop here since I'm making this a little to long and off topic, lol. As usual can't wait for the next chapter and I wish you a good day!

 **Maybe Haki is blocked by nullifiers, maybe by the cloak that covered the island, and maybe they were just too far before the cloaking went away to feel them. What the power maskers do will be explained more once the group arrives on Aebrith. I was happy to throw another Psyren character in as they really do have some powerful baddies for our heroes to face, and maybe some powerful allies later in the future. Luffy understanding Pokemon could be a thing, but then again, most people in the Pokemon universe understand their pokemon at least slightly after a while. I don't think it would be big if he could hear them, especially since he pretty much understands normal animals too, monkeys and birds and those big animals on the women's island, etc. For Goku lifting 40 tons, he was not powered up much, lifting is def harder than pushing, (I don't think Killua could lift those gates very easily, let alone do punching and kicking exercises with them on his wrists and feet). Plus Goku's been training pretty hard on Nexus, so who knows? But maybe that is why Goku did have to go SS while sparring with Killua, even if it was only for a second. Maybe I'll check that youtube thing out, and always glad to hear from you! Thanks for the review!**

joebob323 chapter 14 . Feb 5

Well, this chapter brings up the question...Is Sora a god? he now has OVER 6 Pokemon! In the games and anime, it would automatically transfer the Pokemon to the PC, but now, he just has them with him! Over-powered much? Also, will other characters from Pokemon get a turn in the spotlight?

 **More than 6 pokemon?! He must be a god, no! _The_ GOD! Haha, there is a Pokemon character who I've already written into future chapters, so look forward to seeing him/her. Thanks for the review!**

WeepingAngelsDBS chapter 14 . Feb 5

 **Hey there! Saw the request for the story, but I'm pretty busy writing this one as well as Broken Log Pose on occasion. When I'm not, I've got school work to do: essays, readings, etc. And, even if I had the time, I never played the game Devil May Cry so I would probably misrepresent those characters that you wanted me to write about. Sorry.**

 **-Thanks again to everyone who reviewed! 'Till next time!**


	16. Nexus HWR 3-2 Hope

**Nexus HWR 3.2 Hope:**

"This is bad, real bad, so bad," Ben Tennyson paced back and forth on the deck of the Thousand Sunny, mumbling to himself and checking his left wrist every few seconds. "It's still there," he mumbled loudly, as if he had just tricked himself into imagining it wouldn't be.

Nami and Timmy sat on the swing-set a little away from where Ben was pacing. The two of them turned their heads left as he walked left across the grass, then right and watched him walk that way. At one point he stopped, lifted up his left hand, and yelled, "A-HAA!" It sounded like he had discovered something amazing, but then his face dropped back to what it looked like before and he continued pacing.

"Hey Nami," Timmy whispered to the woman on the swing next to him. "I think Ben's losing it," he whispered.

The navigator looked at the nervous wreck stumbling around on the deck and she nodded her head. She made a low humming noise and stared at the watch on his hand where the single orange bar from the day before had gotten twice as thick. It was extending towards the middle of the watch where if it made it all the way, taking over all of the green color, Ben said he would 'explode or something.' She watched him stop and he dropped down to the floor and sat criss cross style on the grass.

Ben lifted up his hands and made little circles with his thumbs and index fingers while holding up his other three fingers. He sat in a meditation state and his mind slowed down from the high paced thinking he was doing. _Okay. O-kay. O...kayyy... Too slow! Alright I need to think, just stay calm and think of a solution._ He gulped and hummed, "Ohmmmmm. Ohhmmmm." The two watching him sweatdropped at his strange mediation style, but it was helping Ben think... or at least he thought it was. _Okay. Last time, I didn't know what was so bad about this until Tetrax told me with one day left. And, I still haven't told the others. Shut up! Come up with plans, NOW! Ah ha ah hah... STOP PANTING THIS IS YOUR MIND!_

Just looking at Ben sitting there, struggling to keep a straight face as he meditated was too hard for Timmy and Nami. Sweat was pouring down both sides of their friend's face and his arms lowered back to his sides as he started shaking. _There's no way I can get this off. I've tried hundreds of times on my own, but every time I mess with it I normally only screw things up more! Using the Keyblade only sped up the process, and the creator Azmuth might not even be on this world, not that I'd be able to find him if he was._ He took a few deep breaths and continued thinking, _Maybe if I used Brainstorm I would be able to come up with a way to get out of this... but if I can't, I'll just be speeding up the countdown!_ "Ahhhhhh!" he grabbed both sides of his head and yelled in frustration.

"Hey Ben," Nami began, making the boy open up his eyes and see that she was standing in front of him, with Timmy Turner floating next to her.

The younger boy's amazing powers did little to make him look less than just a concerned child at the moment. Timmy's face was full of worry and he looked down at the floor as Ben looked up at them. "I'm sorry Ben. If I still had Wanda, she could have taken the watch off-"

"It's not your fault Timmy," Ben stated, shaking his head. "It's those damn Forever Knights! And if I was to blame anyone, it would be myself."

"Ben it isn't-" Nami began.

"They trapped me before," Ben grumbled angrily at her. "They put me in a dream world and I had no idea what was happening until Gwen and my Grandpa showed up and told me. I thought, if it ever happened again, I would notice."

"But you did notice!" Timmy exclaimed.

"Not soon enough," he said softly, shaking his head in disappointment. "I spent too much time enjoying the perfect day that they were able to accidentally set off the Self Destruct Mode. Now, I might not even have three days." His own eyes looked down now, _And it isn't just me..._

"Well," Nami started, bending down and grabbing Ben by the shoulders, surprising the boy. "You still have to eat for those three days, so come and have lunch with everyone. We're all worried about you."

"I told you," he muttered, "I'm not hungry."

"Ben," Timmy scolded, as Nami was just trying to be nice.

"Just go away," Ben growled at them. He turned around on his butt and closed his eyes again, lifting his hands back up in a meditation pose. He hummed loudly a few times before opening one eye and looking out the corner of it. The two who were watching him had walked over to the cabin and gone inside where Ben could hear laughing coming from his friends at the lunch table. "Ahggg!" he fell backwards and slammed a hand to his forehead angrily. _What am I going to do?!_

* * *

 **The Next Day**

"Hey look! An island!" Natsu yelled, pointing off the bow of the ship towards shore. He looked at the lion figurehead and made to climb up it, but Luffy jumped down and landed on it first.

"My seat," he snapped back at Natsu who was midway over the railing. Luffy spun back with his legs over the sides of the Thousand Sunny's figurehead. He pointed towards shore and yelled, "Full speed ahead!"

Robin walked up to the bow where everyone was gathering and she stated calmly, "Perhaps here there will be a way to get Ben-san's watch off."

The others all looked at her, then looked back towards the cabin where Ben didn't leave this morning. Sanji frowned, thinking about the breakfast and lunch he had to bring to the boy who had not left the cabin once today. Then, he thought back to dinner the night before where they had finally calmed Ben down a little since leaving the Forever Knights' facility. Ben was actually laughing, when the watch on his hand started to glow bright orange and a sphere of light surrounded it. He backed up away from the table and everyone panicked as the small orange sphere surrounding his wrist exploded in a dome of translucent light that sent all the food on the table flying and half of them falling out of their seats. They had asked him what happened, but he only freaked out seeing another orange bar blinking on his watch and moving closer to the center.

"Yeah, let's find a way quick," Natsu muttered, staring at the approaching island with a much more serious look as he was thinking the same thing Sanji was.

"I'll go get him," Dash said, turning around. "He probably knows best how to turn it off so we'll need him to help us look." He sprinted away, rushed into the cabin, and down to the boys' room in the next couple of seconds.

Dash threw open the door and saw Ben carefully tinkering with the watch. Opening the door distracted Ben and he panicked, snapping his head up angrily. "Hey! Don't spook me like that! What if I had made it worse-"

"We're at an island," Dash told his older friend who looked way too panicky. "Hey Ben," he began, while the older boy got up to his feet with an anxious look on his face. Ben turned to Dash and the smaller blond boy smiled at him, "You know we won't let you explode, right? Stop panicking so much, you aren't going to die."

Ben gulped, then nodded at his friend and tried smiling. "You're right. Let's go." _Azmuth isn't on this ship, so there's no point in being here. Then again, chances he's on this next island are pretty slim too. No! I got to stay positive._ He and Dash walked up the stairs and Ben smiled genuinely, _I am definitely going to get the watch off on this island._

* * *

 **Later that Day.**

"I can't believe there wasn't a single person on that island," Ben muttered as he climbed back aboard the Thousand Sunny, one of the last of the crew. As soon as he was up, he started pacing back and forth again on the grass deck. "How much time do I have left? A day? Two? This is hopeless. I have no clue how to turn this off and only the smartest person in my universe could do it. Why wouldn't I ask Azmuth how to turn it off myself last time!? Ahh! I thought he had deactivated it for good. Damn it!"

The ship started sailing back away from the empty island that they only managed to get some meat and fruit from, no information on taking off an alien watch. They were sailing for maybe an hour before the suns started to go down, and the crew went inside to eat dinner. All of them except for Ben who stayed outside to continue pacing on the deck.

As dinner was finishing up, the crewmates were nodding at each other, though a bunch of them were sweating or scratching the backs of their necks nervously. "This is ridiculous," Timmy muttered as they all started walking back out of the cabin.

Ben looked up and saw everyone getting out of the dining room. He was a little surprised because after dinner most of the time, some people would go off to take showers or go to their rooms or something, but everyone was coming out on the deck right now. Still, his surprise did not really last as he continued to pace, getting his mind back on his Omnitrix and the SDM.

"Ben," Natsu began as the boy paced in front of where their entire group stopped. "Ben!" he shouted.

The boy who kept pacing stopped and turned in to see all of them gathered right next to him. He looked around at them all, at their nervous, sheepish expressions, and he snapped, "What is it? Why are you all looking at me like that?"

"Well," Usopp began, scratching the back of his black curly hair and looking away.

"We've come up with a way to save you," Riku stated. The silver haired teen stared into his younger friend's eyes and saw a skeptical look in them.

Ben looked around at them all for a few seconds, and then asked, "Okay? What is it?"

Cyborg Franky took a step forward and lifted up a hand he had behind his back. Ben's eyes widened and his jaw dropped at the sight of the buzz-saw in his hand. He pressed a button on it and it started spinning so fast Ben could not follow the blade.

He took a step back. "What are you-"

"We're going to cut off your left wrist," Riku stated, keeping his voice calm despite the crazy thing he just said. Ben's face took on complete surprise and shock, and also some fear as he saw that when he stepped back, three others stepped forward.

"We realize you may be scared," Killua began calmly.

"But this is for your own good," Natsu added, taking another step forward himself.

"So to save your life," Luffy said, keeping a frown on his face as he didn't like the idea Killua suggested, but liked it better than watching Ben die. His eyes darkened and he glared ahead at Ben, "We need to cut off your watch."

"And we all know how connected it is to you," Riku started again. "So the only way to get it off forcefully is to cut off your arm beneath it too."

"You guys are crazy!" Ben yelled at them all. He snapped his head around at them all but they all looked serious. "Come on! Not one of you thinks this idea is stupid?!"

"It is stupid!" Nami yelled back at him. "But it's the only idea we've come up with that saves your life!" The bottoms of her eyes had water in them as she didn't want to watch Ben get his hand cut off as much as any of them.

"I could knock you out-" Timmy began.

"NO!" Ben yelled at Timmy. The younger kid took a step back at that yell. "This is _my_ wrist! And it's my watch too!" He grabbed his wrist with the watch on it and pulled it closer to his chest, then his eyes widened as Luffy, Natsu, and Killua all took another step towards him. "Stop it!" he yelled at them.

Goku watched nervously from the back of his comrades. The Saiyan looked down at the teenager in front of him, "Do we really need to do this?" he asked Sora who turned back to face him.

"I don't like it either Goku," Sora said, "but it's the only chance Ben has."

"You're wrong!" Ben yelled at them all, backing up again as they circled him. His back pressed up against a wooden wall and Natsu and Luffy blocked off the stairs on either side, while Killua continued walking straight towards him.

"If we knock you out, it could be painless," Killua stated, not batting an eye as he did. "Or else it will hurt, a lot."

"I SAID, _**STOP ITTTTT**_!" Ben roared at the top of his lungs. Out from his body shot an almost invisible wave of energy that crashed into Killua and made the kid feel light-headed. He dropped down to a knee while Nami and Usopp collapsed behind him. Robin and Franky each went wide-eyed before dropping to their knees and almost failing to keep their eyes open. A few seconds later, both of them managed to get back up to their feet, but they continued staring at Ben in shock.

"Whoa, Kairi," Sora put his arms behind Kairi and caught her as she stumbled back.

"Sorry," she whispered, feeling dizzy for a second but okay now. "I'm fine," she told Sora, regaining her footing and looking him in the eyes to show she meant it. He nodded, then turned back to Ben with an amazed look.

"What was that?!" Natsu shouted, staring at Ben in confusion.

Ben did not even seem to care that he just knocked out Nami and Usopp. He just glared into Killua's eyes as the older boy stayed on one knee in front of him, looking back cautiously.

Luffy stared at Ben in surprise, _Conqueror's Haki?!_

Ben just snarled at Killua, then snapped his head to Natsu and then Luffy on his other side. "It won't work!" he yelled at them. "Stop trying to cut off my wrist, because the idea won't work anyway!"

"What do you mean it won't work?" Killua asked, trying to keep control despite not knowing what just slammed directly into him that made him feel so weak in the knees.

"I mean it won't work!" Ben yelled at the kid, glaring him straight in the eyes. "The Omnitrix isn't just connected to my wrist or it wouldn't be able to transform my whole body into an alien weapon. It's connected to my brain too or something, it distributes DNA through my whole body! I don't know how it works, but how would cutting it off work?! Why would all the bad guys who captured me over the years not just do that if it was so easy?!"

The crew looked around at each other, then back towards Ben. "That makes sense, but..." Sora began.

"But this is the best option we have," Riku continued for his friend. He stepped forward closer to Ben himself, leaving a nervous-looking Dash behind him. "None of us want to see you dead, and you said it yourself, you don't have much time."

"Even if it did work!" Ben yelled. "Even if you did manage to get it off me without killing me! It wouldn't matter anyway!" he roared.

This time, the entire crew became silent. Even Killua, who was thinking about charging him and slicing off his wrist when he wasn't paying attention, now froze and looked up at Ben's nervous expression.

Ben stepped backwards, realizing what he just said but then bumping back into the wooden wall behind him. "Why won't it matter?" he snapped his head to the right and saw Luffy staring at him. "Why wouldn't it matter if we saved you? Because you wouldn't have your watch?"

"That's not it," Ben muttered, closing his eyes and shaking his head. _Crap. I said too much._

"Ben, what are you talking about?" Riku yelled at him, making Ben turn back to his older friend. "What is going on with you?"

"It doesn't matter," Ben said, shaking his head more. "We need to find another way!"

"Why can't we just cut your arm off?!" Killua yelled at the thirteen year old who was making him nervous now.

"What do you mean it wouldn't matter-" Natsu began, but then Ben yelled out in fury and everyone became quiet again.

"RAAAA!" Ben snapped, looking around at them all and panting over and over. "It doesn't matter if you get the Omnitrix off me! We need someone to deactivate it before it explodes!"

"Why?" Nami asked him, looking over at the boy. "I know you're attached to the watch, but-"

"It has nothing to do with me!" Ben yelled at her. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "The creator, Azmuth, he was paranoid. He was so paranoid someone would get his creation, would use it for evil. He was crazy!" Ben shook his head, then snapped his eyes open and looked ahead straight into Riku's eyes. "It doesn't matter if you get the Omnitrix off, because if it self-destructs, the entire universe will be destroyed."

The group of people in front of Ben gasped. They looked horrified and he looked down to his right a little in shame.

"Why didn't you tell us this?!" Killua shouted, getting back up on both feet and marching towards Ben. He grabbed the boy by his shirt and lifted him up against the wooden wall. "Why didn't you tell us we were all going to die?!"

"I didn't think it mattered!" Ben yelled at the kid with white spiky hair who was holding him up.

"Didn't matter?!" Killua roared at him.

"Ben, why wouldn't you tell us." Riku began in disappointment. "Didn't you trust us?"

The younger kid waited a few seconds, then lifted his head up and looked over Killua's head and back to Riku. "Yes," Ben admitted, sounding sad as he said it. He looked around at the angry, disappointed looks of his friends and continued sadly. "I did trust you. I trusted everyone here. I didn't think it mattered," he whispered, then continued with water on the bottoms of his eyes, "I didn't think it mattered, because I didn't think anyone would try any harder to find the creator if you knew. I thought, telling you would have just made you all afraid. I thought everyone would try as hard as they could, even if, even if it was just me who was going to die."

Killua glared angrily up into Ben's eyes for a few more seconds, then lowered the boy down to the ground and turned away angrily. Other than him though, most of the crew were smiling at Ben now, losing their disappointed looks.

"Of course we were trying as hard as we could," Riku stated, stepping forward over to his younger friend. He knelt down in front of him since he was pretty tall and even down on one knee he was still about eye-level with Ben. "And I promise, we're going to find a way to get that watch off of you."

"Or at least turn off the SDM," Sora added from the main group.

"Juvia was mad Ben did not tell us about the universe being in peril," Juvia started, but then softened up with a smile on her face, "but Juvia is glad Ben trusts us so much that you did not think it mattered."

"I know this is sweet and all," Killua began, getting angry at all the people around him who were turning into saps. "But do I need to remind you that the clock is ticking and Ben is a literal universal time-bomb?"

"You don't need to remind us," Rin muttered at the younger boy next to him. He looked over at Ben nervously, then down at his watch which made his eyes double in size. "Uhh, Ben," he mumbled, making everyone there look at him, then followed his gaze over to the watch on Ben's wrist that had another bar of orange blinking even closer to the middle of the watch than before, making orange cover more than half of it and green have a very small amount of space.

"Uh oh," Ben muttered, then turned towards Natsu and ran at his friend. The pink haired Dragon Slayer moved out of the way as Ben ran straight towards the side of the ship and jumped right off. He started falling towards the water, but then used his flying ability to keep himself up and shot twenty, thirty feet away from the ship. He only made it around thirty five feet before the orange glow surrounded his watch in a small glowing sphere.

Some of Ben's friends were about to chase after him as it looked like he was running away, but now they understood why it was he was leaving. The orange glow that surrounded his watch turned into an orange sphere of translucent light that covered his entire body, then stretched further to cover a fifty foot diameter sphere of energy that finally pulsed out in an explosion that rocked the Thousand Sunny. The entire crew were thrown to the port side of the ship as Ben exploded on the starboard, and as they stood back up they watched a smoking Ben fall out of the sky with his eyes closed.

"Ben!" Natsu and Luffy yelled simultaneously. Both of them were about to go try to get him, but a flash flew by them quicker and suddenly Son Goku was hovering in the air with Ben in his arms.

The Saiyan warrior floated back over to the ship with a motionless Ben in his arms, only a small bit of green left on the center of his watch. Goku lowered Ben down to the middle of the deck and the rest of the crew ran over as the boy was collapsed in the middle of them.

Usopp and Nami were getting back up on their feet after having collapsed from Ben's earlier burst of energy, but as they got up they both panicked at the sight of a motionless Ben in the middle of the deck. Nami pushed people out of the way to get closer and she held up a hand to her mouth as she stared at Ben's body, with cuts on his arms, legs, and face, and blood coming out quickly. "Is he," she whispered.

"He's fine," Goku stated, a smile on the Saiyan's face. A few seconds after he said it, Ben's eyes fluttered open and he pushed an arm down on the ground below him, pushing himself back up to his butt and then getting up on his feet. He shook out his arms and legs and wiped his face of some blood.

Ben looked around at the scared people all around him, and he muttered in a low voice, "I don't know what we can do. My only hope is that Azmuth knows his watch is about to explode, and that he is not so cynical on this world that he thinks it's better off exploding."

"And what are the chances of that?" Robin asked the young boy standing in the middle of them.

"Well..." Ben began, then looked down at the floor. "Not good. I'd say less than fifty percent chance. He would have had to been teleported to Nexus, survived this long, created technology to tell if his Omnitrix was acting funky, and the most unbelievable of them all, still believe this world has a fighting chance."

"So what can we do?" Killua asked, looking back with a dejected expression on his face.

"We do all we can," someone spoke in a positive voice and they all looked over to see Sora putting his hands behind his head. "We hope."

"Hope?" Killua deadpanned, looking at Sora to see if he was being serious.

"Yep," Sora replied. "Hope."

* * *

Miles away from Ben and his friends, two women with long silver hair were walking down the hallway of a castle towards the throne room. A man walked ten feet behind them without saying a word to the two of them. Both women were wearing long cloaks, though Dreamcaster's cloak was more purple than her cousin Charmaster's pink one. The witches walked down the hall and turned left into the throne room when they reached it. Sitting on his chair in a full suit of armor with a helmet that had a glowing red line on the center of it like a visor was the Forever King.

"My liege," Charmcaster greeted as soon as she walked into the room and bowed to the man. Dreamcaster was much less formal and strolled straight into the room all the way up to the most powerful man on the island. Charmcaster glared ahead at her sister, but Dreamcaster walked straight to the Forever King and only stopped when she was standing on the right side of his throne so she was right next to him.

Charmcaster growled at her sister, then jumped in surprise as the envoy walking behind her suddenly appeared on her right side. She stood up fully and stepped away from the man in an all brown cloak. Dreamcaster stopped whispering to the Forever King and he turned his gaze down to the floor and the man there, "I hear the Emperor has sent you personally to our island for, a checkup?" The Forever King sounded accusatory, but the figure in front of him did not flinch.

The man dropped the brown hood over his head and he turned out to have a green skull underneath with spikes sticking out all over it. "The Emperor expects results from his Lords." The Sith Lord rose up his right hand and pointed it towards the Forever King, "Do not forget who you work-"

The Forever King suddenly shot off his throne. He was in the middle of the room in a second with his right armored fist wrapped around the Sith's neck. The Sith barely saw him approach he moved so fast and the alien was choking and reaching for his throat in pain. "You can give this message to the Emperor," the Forever King began, and Charmcaster gasped while Dreamcaster just grinned. The younger of the two sisters was worried that they were going to anger the Emperor, but their Lord no longer seemed worried about that. The Forever King clenched harder with his hand and the Sith tried using the Force against him, but he was not moved an inch. "I no longer take orders," the Forever King growled.

He threw the Sith down at the ground and the man bounced out of the throne room and into the wall out in the hallway. He held up his right arm and flexed, and the armor over his bicep cracked and shattered so his huge muscles could show through. "Look at this. One dose of synthetic Saiyan blood in my system has already made me more powerful than you can imagine," he bragged as the Sith got up to his feet and stared inside the throne room in rage. "Now begone," the King demanded. "The Forever Knights no longer take orders from your Emperor."

Savage Opress, the Sith in the door, rose his arm again, but even a full blast of his Force did not move the Forever King an inch. He snarled and spat towards the Forever King, then spun and marched the other way out the door and down the hall. In a deep voice he grumbled under his breath, "The insolence of this man- this fool! I will have his castle crushed into dust!" He turned the corner and came to a complete stop. Standing there in front of him in the next hallway was another cloaked figure, only this figure's cloak was black and the hood was down to reveal his light-skinned face and his long black dreadlocks. "The Forever King has stopped taking orders," the Sith began.

"Has he now?" the dark man spoke, and his voice gave even the alien Sith Lord shivers. The man turned around and said, "It will be the fool's own fault when he reaches his demise soon." The dark figure kept walking and the air around him started to darken, "Return to the Emperor," the man with long black hair styled in dreadlocks commanded. "Report what you have learned. I will do the same with my own Lord." As he finished saying it, a dark portal rose out of the ground in front of Opress. The green-skinned alien behind him marched forward with a furious expression on his face, and he stepped into the other emissary's portal who closed it behind him.

Back in the throne room, Charmcaster nervously looked to the leader of their organization. She opened her mouth, but shut it fast as her sister darted a glare her way. Dreamcaster smirked at her sister's silence, then turned to the Forever King herself. "My liege," she began, keeping her tone respectful but also on a somewhat even tone as she walked towards him. "Are you sure that was the best move? Considering we cannot mass-produce the Saiyan blood-"

The Forever King swung an arm out and smacked Dreamcaster across the face. Charmcaster's eyes widened as her sister spun around and hit the floor with blood dripping down her lips, and the older sister on the floor stared at the ground with wide eyes as she was not expecting that smack in the slightest. She lifted her gaze and looked a lot more afraid as she stared at their Lord now. The Forever King just walked forward without mentioning what just happened and spoke calmly, "Even with the doses we have already administered, we have become like Gods."

He walked towards a huge window in his room that opened up onto a balcony. The witch sisters behind him glanced at each other and then started following the King out onto the balcony. "Saiyans are one of the strongest races on this world," the Forever King began as he got on the balcony and stepped to the railing at the edge. "Soon, our scientists will complete work on the synthetic blood, and my entire army will be more powerful than you can imagine. The Emperor will try to stop us, but he will fail. I will become the High Lord of this region! Then…" He chuckled to himself and clenched the balcony's railing. "Well, I will see when the time comes what is next."

The Forever King grinned inside his black helmet and behind the red visor his dark eyes narrowed down at the huge open area in the plaza in front of his castle. Most of the time that area would be cleared out, but in that very moment there were hundreds of people down there. They stood in lines of ten going back eight rows deep, wearing suits of armor and holding spears with glowing edges and holes at the ends of them. In front of each block of eighty soldiers was a single commander, ten of them in total, each with their own army, each given a dose of the Saiyan blood they weaponized. At the front of all of those commanders, stood one figure in red armor with a jetpack on his back and katana hilts sticking over each shoulder. The Forever King lifted up his right hand, and the figure in red armor got down on a knee, the commanders followed suit, and close to a thousand people knelt down before him.

Charmcaster gulped from behind their leader on his left side. She glanced at her sister and saw Dreamcaster glaring daggers into their Lord's back. Her own eyes opened wide at that crazed look on Dreamcaster's face that she had not seen in a long time. Despite that look though, Charmcaster looked back forward and thought, _Not this time sister. Hold back your rage. This is not a man you can beat, even with your magic. Not anymore._

* * *

 **Beep beep beep beep, beep-beep beep-beep beep-beep…**

A tall woman with green skin and tentacles on the bottom of her face instead of a chin groaned in her chair. She leaned back and turned her head to the right to look across the room at a different chair where another alien, much smaller than herself, was working. "The beeping's getting closer together," she called over.

"I can hear that Myaxx," the tiny gray creature snapped over at the woman with green skin who was wearing red armor over her torso, shoulders, forearms, and upper legs. He lowered the wrench he was using and kept staring with the bulging green eyes sticking out of his head at the contraption in front of him. "Now, pass me the electron divider. I have almost finished…"

"What's the point?" the muscular woman muttered. She leaned back on her chair and put her hands behind her head. The smaller creature only a few inches tall glared back at her but Myaxx just stared up at the ceiling annoyedly. "If you're just going to let the universe blow up, why should we even bother finishing the particle dismantler?" She leaned back up in her seat and turned fully around to the tiny creature with a wrinkled face and long gray whiskers hanging off of it. "How much time is even left?"

"It doesn't matter," the tiny alien muttered. He turned his back to her and looked back down at his newest invention.

"Azmuth," Myaxx snapped. He did not respond and she groaned. "Alright, I'll hand you the electron divider if you tell me," She bargained.

The small intelligent creature hummed and then lifted his head up to stare at the ceiling of their dimly lit workshop. "The rate of the beeping tells me there are now only twenty-four hours until the Omnitrix's imminent destruction."

"'Imminent,' yeah right," Myaxx scoffed. The smaller creature spun and opened his mouth, but stumbled back as the electron divider came flying his way. It hit the desk behind him and knocked into the particle dismantler. As he yelled at his assistant and ran over to the tools, Myaxx stood up behind him. "You're really fine with letting things end like this? You're dooming us all!"

"I'm saving us all," Azmuth snapped, throwing down his inventions and glaring at the woman behind him. "Whoever got their hands on the Omnitrix is using it the same way everyone on this god-forsaken world use their powers. They're all the same."

"You don't know that," Myaxx muttered his way. The smaller creature narrowed its eyes at her but she continued anyway, "He could still have it you know?"

"The chances that that boy survived on this world this long are minuscule. He likely died within days of arriving," Azmuth stated. "And even if it is somehow in his possession," the gray creature continued, waving a hand as if the possibility were at least partly viable. "He does not have the power to make the change this world desperately needs. It would be better for the watch to go off and just reset everything."

"Ben would beg to differ," Myaxx said.

"If he was still alive that is," Azmuth corrected. He looked back at his inventions, _Who has had control over my greatest invention all this time? Someone like Vilgax? Even worse?_ The tiny alien sighed and rubbed his forehead. His assistant was quiet again, but the incessant beeping coming from a machine across the room from him filled his mind. He turned his head a little and looked back over at the red light blinking over and over and over again accompanied by that high-pitched sound.

Azmuth picked up his electron divider and got to work installing it into his new invention, but as he worked his mind was elsewhere. _Who cares if this place gets blown up? It's not like we're even in the same universe anymore anyway! Wonder if the explosion will be able to break that barrier…_ The Galvan slowed down working and he wound up staring at his own hands. _**"At first, all I cared about was that I wouldn't be able to go hero anymore. That I'd be stuck with just being me. Sometimes you have to see the good in people, and not just be a selfish jerk!"**_ Azmuth closed his eyes and sighed, _Is this world really worth saving?_

* * *

 **A/N Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed! This will be the last update for a little while as I have yet to finish Chapter 20/ HWR Chapter 3. Only one of the other parts in this chapter are finished yet, and it is not the next part, so it's going to take a bit of time. I am going to spend a lot of time today working on the chapter, but I have some work due Friday and if I don't get one in by then, then hopefully this weekend. Anyway, Ben's watch countdown is in its final twenty four hours, Azmuth can't decide whether the world should be saved, and the Forever King amasses his forces with newfound strength! Leave a review telling me what you thought, questions for the upcoming chapter, predictions or comments! 'Till next time!**


	17. Nexus HWR 3-3 Forever Kingdom

**A/N Hey guys! Sorry it's been a while, had a lot of work at school, blah blah excuses. Anyway, here's the newest chapter! Spent all night writing it, and the next three are all ready to post as well so get ready for some quick updates again! Enjoy...**

 **Disclaimer: Still own none of the sources that the characters I use are from. None of them.**

* * *

 **Nexus HWR 3.3 Forever Kingdom:**

"Guys! I found something!" The crew of the Thousand Sunny snapped their gazes up in the air and watched as Timmy came flying down to the deck. Goku was still out searching like Sora and Riku, but the rest of them were still on the ship sailing east and hoping for a miracle.

The second sun was rising just above the horizon and they were all wondering if this was going to be their last day on the planet. Ben's Omnitrix was almost completely orange now, the hourglass symbol on the top of it only having a tiny bit of green in the very center. "What'd you find?" Nami called up to the boy who flew straight down to her.

Timmy excitedly looked in Nami's eyes and then spun around to talk to everyone gathering around him. "I found another island. It's similar to the one Sora was on that was surrounded by those buoys that mask energy. It didn't have a cloaking device on it though, so I could see it from the air."

"Another island?" Gray muttered pessimistically. "What good is that going to do us?"

"Chances that the guy who can fix the watch is on it," Killua began, then shook his head as there was no point in mentioning the odds with such a specific desire.

"There's something else though," Timmy added. The others looked at him confusedly and he said with a bright smile, "When I flew into their airspace, I recognized the energy of someone who was on that Enoch guy's island with us. So I dove down, and there were Forever Knights all over the place!"

"Forever Knights?" Luffy mumbled. He scratched his head and then exclaimed, "Hey! I thought we beat those guys!"

"Enoch isn't their leader," Ben said. He still looked pretty depressed, but this bit of news was somewhat hopeful. He tried to force a smile and looked around, "Let's go there," he suggested. "Even if the Forever King doesn't have a way to stop the countdown, it's their fault that the watch is going to explode in the first place. I want them to see what they did."

"I'm in," Natsu growled. "Those bastards are going to get us all killed. Let's kick their asses first."

"They looked into our minds, pried into our memories and forced our friends to watch," Kairi added from behind the Dragon Slayer. "I want to give them a piece of my mind too."

"Who knows?" Kirito added. "There's a chance that they have means of turning off the watch." The others looked at him skeptically but Kirito continued to look serious. He kept going, "Maybe they set the watch off because they were trying to take it off without disabling it. If they had a way of fully deactivating it, they wouldn't do it right? Not if they could get it themselves."

A few of the others started nodding and Robin questioned, "So you believe that if they hear that the Omnitrix will destroy them as well, they will deactivate it? That is very good thinking Kirito-kun," Robin told the teen who nodded his head and looked at Ben with a reassuring look.

Ben scrunched up his face as he did not believe such a thing himself, but he thought about what Sora told him, and his mouth curled up into a smile. "I guess, we just have to hope it all works out, right?" He looked around at his friends and they all nodded. They knew their chances were slim, the odds were not in their favor, but still, as long as they had hope there was no need to drop into a sad depression.

Killua could see that everyone around him truly believed there was some hope, and he curled his hands into balls at his sides. _They can't be serious… but they are. Even Robin, and Kirito, and Gray, they look like they think there's a chance we survive this. I bet, if we didn't find Sora that time, no one would have this crazy notion of hope in their minds._ The boy's eyes widened and he started sweating though, _Then again, I was positive that Sora was dead back then too. As sure about that as I am that we're all screwed now. Maybe, maybe I'm the one who's wrong?_ The kid sighed and leaned back where he stood as everyone else ran around getting the ship ready. _No, that's just me trying to trick myself. Well, if I am going to die, it wouldn't be so bad dying with these guys. Especially if we're about to kill the people responsible for the end of the world._ The boy smirked menacingly and his whole posture matched his expression.

Natsu was pulling the sail in and he glanced back at Killua who stood where they were all just discussing. He saw the kid's eyes, his murderous expression, and he thought back to a few days before. He was not the only one still thinking about those dreams they had, as a few others spotted Killua's scary look and recalled the kid pulling out someone's heart without them even noticing. Sure, the guy he killed was a murderer; Killua told them all later on to clear the air that the man was a serial killer who had ripped apart over a hundred innocent people with his bare hands. Still, the look in the child's eyes that they remembered in the memory, it was not of a normal boy. Natsu grimaced at the sight of the kid looking his way and he got back to work on turning the ship around.

"Hey Timmy," Luffy called out. Everyone looked over at the rubberman who stood at the bow of the ship that was turning the direction Timmy just told Nami and Franky to turn them in. The boy floating back behind the Captain next to his navigator and shipwright looked forward with the rest of the crew. Luffy pointed over the bow and he turned his head to Timmy, "Just this once, you can pick us up. I want to get there as fast as possible."

Most people on the ship's eyes widened. They had totally forgotten since they had been sailing for so long that there was an alternate means of transportation with them at all times.

Timmy nodded his head, actually glad Luffy brought it up as he was one of those who forgot it was a possibility. "You got it," Timmy replied hastily. He flew away from Nami and Franky and dropped over the port side of the deck. He dropped into the ocean, swam beneath the hull, and put his hands directly on the bottom of the ship. _Here we go,_ he thought. The kid picked up the Thousand Sunny out of the water and started flying east with it. He had searched for most of the night for somewhere close to them they could go for help, and the island he found was almost directly to the east about a hundred fifty miles.

The deck was covered in people, but Kirito realized something as they flew off and he spun around. "Hey," he began with a bead of sweat on the side of his head. The others all looked at him and he continued, "Shouldn't we have waited for Goku, Sora, and Riku to get back?"

"Too late now," Natsu shouted as he spun back to the bow. "I can already see an island, and since we're heading straight for it…"

"Looks like this is our stop," Sanji said. He took out his lit cigarette and put it out under his foot.

"Those guys at that last island weren't so hard to beat," Usopp mentioned, stepping far up to the bow himself as he was feeling confident. He put a foot up there and the fast wind rushed into him even harder so it was pushing the skin on his face back. "Let's break their whole organization of Forever Knights or whatnot!"

"You going to lead the charge, Usopp?" Ben asked the long-nosed man in front of him.

Usopp saw the skeptical look in Ben's eyes but he himself grinned and flexed one of his muscular arms. He rested his slingshot over his shoulder with his other hand, then looked back at the boy behind him with a cool expression on his face. "Of course I will. Who do you think I am?!" He spun back forward and they were starting to slow down their approach. "I am the Great, CAPTAIN USOPP!"

"I'm bringing us right to them!" Timmy yelled.

The group flying over the water assumed they were going to be put down somewhere on the side of the island and have to go in after. Timmy was not planning on stopping before the coast however, and he flew right over the docks and the port town they reached to head towards the huge castle building he could see from the opposite coastline. Most of the island was flat, as in almost all of the trees on it had been cut down. Stumps remained over certain sections, and a couple of low-elevated outlets out from the main section of the island were covered in twenty foot tall trees. The trees covered those areas until the sand started, and there were beaches sticking out all over this island. The landmass almost looked like a squid from above with the number of inlets sticking out all over the place.

Timmy shot over the land fast and headed straight for the massive Medieval-looking castle on the eastern coast of the island. As they got close, they noticed a gap of water separating the castle that was on a smaller island from the mainland. Between the castle's own island that pretty much only had the castle on it, and the mainland that they just flew over, was a two mile long bridge that was over a hundred meters wide. Timmy slowed down because at the front of that bridge on the island they were currently over, eighty soldiers stood in rows of ten behind their commander at the front.

"I think they see us," Rin shouted, lifting up his sword as he did.

"Oh yeah!" Timmy yelled up to the deck from below. He saw all of the army's members lift up their rifles and as they fired he dropped a hundred feet to the ground. His friends stumbled around but Timmy slowed them down right before lowering the ship to the floor. He flew around the side of the ship and called out, "This is as far as I can get us without risking the ship getting badly damaged. Now let's go try to find-"

"Timmy behind you!" Nami shouted.

Timmy looked back expecting to see dozens of beams flying at him. Instead, a single person whose energy he could not feel was flying through the air towards him. It was a single woman who as Ben saw her in the air his eyes went wide in shock. "Frightwig?!" He shouted and then dropped his jaw as the thin pale-skinned woman slammed the orange hair tentacles on her head forward and the black balls at the ends of them smashed into Timmy's chest. The kid who turned to her was not concerned at first because of her small power that he could not even feel, but his eyes picked up on the bracelet on her right wrist a second too late. _Power masker?!_ He thought, right as the black balls slammed into his chest and knocked the wind out of the unprepared boy.

Timmy knocked back through the air but did a backflip to right himself. The woman who hit him stopped moving after she hit him backwards, and she looked down to the ship that just landed right in front of her army. Her eyes widened and then she smirked and called out, "Why if it isn't Ben Tennyson!" She looked around and frowned, "Aw man, where's that Saiyan who was supposed to be with you? I wanted to thank him," she said.

"Shit," Killua muttered and he took a step back on the deck. "We didn't get it all."

"That's right," the woman with enhanced hearing said. She cracked her neck to either side and then held her arms out at her sides, allowing a thin white veil surround her body. "Hahaha! The Forever King has no time for pests like you. He is too busy planning the Emperor's overthrow."

Gray's eyebrows lifted up and he glared harder at the woman above them. _If their leader thinks he has the strength to take on the Emperor now, they must have succeeded in replicating Goku's Saiyan DNA. If they inject that into their armies, they might get increased strength, but that's not all. The consequences of a different species' DNA mixed with their own could lead to some serious side effects._

"Frightwig!" Ben yelled up at the woman who glared down at him. He lifted up his left wrist and shouted, "You idiots set off the Self Destruct Mode on the Omnitrix when you tried taking it off! Now it's going to explode and destroy the entire planet! If your scientists have a way to deactivate-"

"SHUT UP!" The woman roared. Her red hair broke apart into eight tentacles and started spinning around above her head as she flew there. She flew down towards the side of the ship and glared between a half dozen people at the boy standing there on the deck. Her eyes were white with small black pupils in the centers of them, her irises faded. Her teeth were white, but as she glared furiously straight ahead and yelled, a few of the others noticed her canines getting a little sharper. "You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this brat! All the times you defeated us!" She shook with rage and flew forward with all of her hair snapping back behind her like she was preparing for a punch.

Frightwig made it about three feet. Luffy was suddenly in front of Ben, grabbing his right bicep with one hand and punching his right hand forward as he grabbed that arm. His fist indented into Frightwig's face right through her aura, making her mouth open and her tongue stick out as her entire face pushed the other way. When he finally followed through with the punch, the woman flew backwards and into the railing on the side of his ship that she broke straight through.

"Guys!" Luffy yelled. At the same time, eighty people in full silver armor already charging at their ship started shouting and firing beam weapons their way. Luffy sprinted to the broken part of the rail and leapt over the edge, "Let's kick their asses!"

Ben watched as all his friends around him started running forwards. He looked down at his watch, the mostly orange hourglass on it, and he ground his teeth together in anger that he could not use it without speeding up the countdown. That did not mean he could not fight with the others though, and the boy opened his mouth and yelled out angrily as he chased after Luffy and the others.

Timmy rubbed his stomach a few more times and he looked forward at the crew charging at that army ahead of them. _That, kind of hurt. Even with Saiyan DNA, that's weird,_ he flew over the ship and watched as the army firing beams at his friends started backing up towards the bridge. Many of them turned and ran as Luffy reached the front of their ranks and a dozen armored soldiers went flying up into the air. Timmy darted his eyes around and then he saw her, slowly staggering back to her feet with a welt on her face and blood trickling out of her mouth to her chin. "That's not good," he said with wide eyes.

Usopp was standing on the edge of the ship pulling his slingshot back and firing at the armed enemies far from them. He was the only one still there, and he turned to Timmy who was looking ahead and to the right nervously. He looked the same direction and the sniper started shaking in his shoes. Frightwig was back on her feet, but her face no longer looked smug and condescending like before. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she was bleeding out the corners of them. "RAAA!" She roared, making the ground beneath her feet crack in several different directions and all the people running towards the bridge or even over it already spun her way.

The ground was trembling and pebbles dislodged from the ground by her shout lifted into her white aura and broke apart. Her power was not huge, but it was incredibly unstable. The woman who had never used this power before smirked and tilted her head almost fully to one side as she stared ahead insanely at her enemies. Ben took a step towards the carnival freak with long hair and yelled, "Frightwig! What are you doing?!"

"I'm going to kill you!" She screamed back, and then shot forward faster than many of them could see.

Ben stepped back, but this time as someone got between him and Frightwig, she saw it coming. Natsu jumped in between them with a fist covered in flames pulled back. She swung one of her hair tentacle whips forward and he punched his fist into it, knocking it aside, only for seven more of them to slam forward full force and knock Natsu flying back into Ben. The two of them tumbled over each other for fifty feet before Natsu stopped himself and got back to his feet. Ben staggered up a moment later, but he groaned and swung his left arm that hurt a lot from landing on it too many times.

"Take her down!" Nami yelled, pointing a hand up at the woman, while taking several steps back herself.

Robin crossed her arms and Frightwig's entire body wrapped in arms. She did not fall from the air though, just kept floating where she was wrapped in a casing of arms. Frightwig tugged her arms apart from the sides of her body and Robin's arms got pulled away from her. Robin winced but kept her arms crossed and made a giant fist appear out of the ground, rising up and opening up to wrap around the creepier woman. She clenched that hand around Frightwing, but her eyes opened in surprise as it did not feel like she was crushing anyone.

That was mainly because Frightwig was now thirty feet closer to her, and straight up in the air. Robin snapped her head up a second too late, but luckily Sanji was not as far in front of the group as Luffy was. Luffy spun around on the bridge and shouted out his crewmate's name, but Sanji reached Robin and pulled her away from the other woman before she could land the skull-crushing kick she was coming down with. Sanji turned to the freaky woman whose hair swirled around like tentacles above her, and she screamed at him as he put Robin down.

Frightwig charged forward at the blond man, and Sanji stood there and took the blow like a man. He got hit in the gut, the face, the back, and right below the waist by swings of her hair that moved like fists. She bashed him back and forth before putting all her hair together in one whip and slamming it through the air towards Sanji's side. Right before it hit him in the side though, the hair jolted to a sudden stop, even though no one was grabbing onto it. "Come on Sanji," Timmy groaned as he flew forward with one hand raised to telekinetically hold back the glowing woman's hair. "You can at least defend yourself," he told the bloodied chef who would not lift a hand or foot to a lady.

"Cure!" Kairi called out, casting green light down on the man whose bloody cuts and bruises went away.

Sanji opened his eyes wide then looked down at his vanishing injuries in surprise. He did a spin on his toes and called out, "Thank you Kairi-chwannn!"

"Let go of me!" Frightwig roared. Her eyes were even more red now and the ground started shaking beneath her again, even harder than last time. The floor cracked apart and fissures shot out from below her feet. Timmy's arm started shaking as he held her in place, and his own eyes went wide as hers started bleeding out both corners now. The woman lifted up one of her hands towards Timmy and the boy floated back in the air as she formed a ball of white on her fingertips. The ball wavered and energy flared off of it, and then it exploded in front of her hand before she could throw it.

Timmy released the woman who could not control that energy and just blew her arm apart. She screamed and slammed down into the floor, surrounded by a veil of smoke. The others all looking her way calmed down slightly as the ground stopped shaking as much. Franky lowered his left arm that had opened up into a machine gun, and Robin uncrossed her arms. Usopp lowered his shaky slingshot, Kairi her Keyblade, and Luffy stopped running back towards his friends.

Kirito looked closer into the smoke, and then his Observational Haki kicked in hard and he took a step back. "Tim-"

The smoke all dispersed and the ground shook horribly. They all looked into the area that was just covered in the woman's explosion and they went wide-eyed as a group at the sight of Frightwig's face. Her skin was wrinkled and her eyes had blood trails going from the bottoms of them down to her chin. Her entire right arm was gone, but the rest of her body had bulked up, her teeth had sharpened, and she tilted her head back to roar, "ROOAAAA!" Wind rushed out from her body and the cracks already beneath her doubled in size. One crack shot away from her body towards the bridge, but went just to the left of it, cutting down the side of the mainland and into the water so that the water rushed into it and filled up other cracks too, splashing up over the fissures as she screamed.

"The Saiyan DNA," Gray shouted over the woman's screams. "It's fighting against the human side of her and neither side is winning! It's going to tear her apart, but before it does…" Frightwig's head snapped back down and her lips curled up dangerously. Her sharpened teeth bared and she took a step forward. One step became two, and then she lifted off the ground and dove at Timmy who did not know what to do. He was thinking of a way to save the woman who was harming herself with these new powers, but he could not come up with anything and just floated fast to the side to avoid her lunge. As he moved out of the way though, four whips of her hair shot out and grabbed him around the arms and legs, pulling him with her for a second and then slamming him down into the ground below.

"Hey!" Nami shouted at the woman who smashed Timmy into the ground. Frightwig spun towards the navigator and saw Nami spinning parts of her Clima Tact around to make bubbles full of storm clouds fill up the sky in front of her. "Leave him alone!" She shouted, and all of her bubbles popped to form one giant black storm cloud in the air.

"RaaaAA!" Rin tore his Kurikara out of its sheath and his body surrounded in blue flames. "Hold on Timmy," he called out.

The boy in the pink hat lying on the floor in a crater his size stared straight up at the woman above him who was bleeding out. _I'm okay guys, really. I just, don't know how to save her. Not without Wanda. I can't get Ben's watch off, I can't stop villains without killing them, I can't do anything!_ He watched as the circus freak above him screamed and her energy pulsed out again, and as it did her left arm split where some of her new bulging muscles were. Her arms were bulging, but she did not have enough skin there to cover them up and blood spurted out.

Only a few people noticed this though, as Frightwig flew forward at that same moment towards Nami. Nami swung down her Clima Tact, but the other woman was very fast. The bolts of lightning that formed in the cloud and started coming down were dodged and swerved by the crazy woman surrounded in a white aura. She came to a complete stop as a slash of blue flames was about to fly in her path, then sped up again and pulled back her own fist instead of her hair this time. Kirito flew behind her using his wings and he swiped at her back while spinning with both swords stuck out.

Although Frightwig was staring straight forward, her hair seemed to have a mind of its own, swinging behind her and grabbing Kirito by each of his four fairy wings. The teen only had a second to scream before she started ripping him apart. "Kirito!" Timmy shouted, pulling back the teen with his mind and releasing him from Frightwig's grasp. As he was distracted by Kirito though, the woman continued shooting forward at Nami who dropped her jaw at the look of insanity on Frightwig's face.

"Nami!"

"Nami!"

Frightwig's fist was inches from Nami's face. Lightning zapped on her left, steam rose on her left, and wind slammed into her at the speed the three figures appeared. Three fists slammed into Frightwig on the back and sides of her head. Killua looked right in surprise at the rubber pirate who appeared out of nowhere right when he decided to step in to save Nami, but neither him nor Luffy were all that surprised that Dash moved in that second to come help.

Frightwig's red eyes opened wide as her head got bashed from almost all sides except the front. Because she did not get hit in the front, Nami could see the horrifying expression on her face turn to one of sheer terror mixed with pain, right before her mouth opened up and blood splashed out everywhere. She flew over Nami's head and back over the mainland of the island, hitting the ground, bouncing up, and then smashing into a building two miles away so hard that they could see the dust rising from back at the bridge.

Everyone stared back across the island for a few moments, waiting to see if Frightwig would return. Seconds passed, but the ground did not shake and no one saw movement across the mostly flat island. "Alright," Ben grumbled, swinging his arm a few more times and turning back towards the smaller island across the bridge from them. "Let's get going. We should, get across…" Ben quieted down as he stared across the bridge over the water. Every single person with him started staring at the other side of the island in shock, watching as nine figures covered in white glows lifted up above the castle's walls and hovered there waiting for them. Ben stared closely at each one of the figures and his jaw dropped farther and farther at the sight of so many enemies he once faced on his own world.

Down below the commanders of the Forever Knights, armored soldiers lined the walls and slammed their rifles down on the ledges to aim across the water at their opponents. The gates of the castle's outer walls opened up and hundreds of men in full silver armor and helmets covering their faces sprinted out and started charging over the bridge. They screamed out and the glowing commanders above the smaller island grinned and shot forward.

Luffy lost the steam covering his body as he stepped back towards the front of the bridge. He lifted up his right fist and grabbed it with his other hand, cracking his knuckles. Natsu stepped up on his right side and cracked his head to both sides, making loud cracking sounds both times. Gray walked up behind him and a pair of long frozen short-swords emerged in his hands. His torso surrounded in a icy tunic that covered his thighs, shins, forearms, and biceps as well. The ice did not restrict his movement, but it gave him a lot more protection and he finished with a frozen helmet that surrounded the top, back, sides of his head leaving only holes for his ears, and an opening in front of his face.

Franky pounded his red fists together and Sanji pulled out a lighter and a pack of cigarettes. As he pulled them out, Nami spoke up, "Don't." He glanced at her but Nami, scared as she was of the army ahead of her, was looking up in the air at dark gray clouds in the distance. "A storm's coming," she told the chef. She whipped out her Clima Tact again and started spinning it around with a deep frown on her face, "I'll make it come faster." Weather bubbles floated out of her blue staff and up into the air above the bridge.

Soldiers charging across and their leaders slowed down as the sky above them started getting very dark very fast. Gray clouds turned black and they spread from the area right above the bridge to cover part of the mainland and all of the smaller island the castle was on too. Nami connected two pieces of her Clima Tact and pointed it up into the clouds, "Weather Egg!" She shouted. The ball shot out of the opening in her staff and into the clouds where it popped. Everyone facing the crew at the end of the bridge closer to the mainland looked up, and then felt the droplets of water on their faces that clanked out loudly on their armor.

The soldiers looked back across the bridge and dozens of them backed up. Their show of force by all charging out at once with their glowing commanders did very little to intimidate their opponents. Killua glanced around at the group with him who all started marching across the bridge together. The kid thought about how much trouble just one of those figures with Goku's blood gave them, and how there were nine more of them, but not one of the people with him were backing up. _Then again,_ he thought, _Usopp is still back on the ship._

As Killua thought it, a tiny green ball flew over all of his friends, over the enemies, got hit by two drops of rain and dropped several inches, and then hit directly on target on a Forever Knight twice as big as the others right in the back of their bridge forces. All the men spun around and stared in shock at the giant venus fly trap that emerged and closed its jaws around one of their battalion lieutenants while its vines wrapped around other retreating knights. The Forever Knights started to panic, and then they heard a voice shout at them from up above.

"Fools!" Rojo shouted. The woman had spiky red hair sticking out of her metal helmet, black armor over her entire body except for the scary skull symbol on the front of it. She was glowing and she pointed one of her glowing hands down. "Do not run!"

Animo held up his hands at his sides and cackled loudly. The mad scientist on Rojo's left side shouted, "Ben Tennyson! Did you bring your friends here to die with you?!" Out from the dark clouds above him dropped twenty giant insects that looked like they were merged with other creatures into giant hybrids. Animo pointed an arm down and shouted at his creations to attack and the Forever Knights saw the monsters on their side and rose their weapons that they cheered with. They lowered back down their rifles and started firing through the rain, not getting deterred anymore when Pop Greens came out of the sky and plants attacked them. The original venus fly trap got hit by a few hundred beams and ripped to shreds while other Forever Knights cut apart the vines holding their comrades down.

Luffy's march across the bridge turned into a jog, which turned into a full out sprint with the others on his sides. Dash was behind him a little and the kid turned to Ben who was lagging behind most everyone else. Ben had huge eyes and he was clenching his teeth furiously. "Ben, we're all here fighting because we want to," Dash told his friend. "They messed with us as much as with you, so don't feel guilty. Besides," the kid continued while Ben stared at him through the heavily increasing downpour. "We're going to be fine!" Dash yelled and he sprinted forward.

Luffy jumped up in the air and he pulled his fist back. Killua's fingernails extended at his sides and Natsu's fists burst into flames, surrounding them with steam from the rain constantly coming down. Lightning dropped out of the sky and the Forever Knight army charging them roared out as they rose up their swords and rifles. Beams shot across the sky and Franky unloaded bullets from his Weapons Left into the soldiers. Luffy slammed his right fist forward right as the fastest Knight in the army slammed his sword down towards him. Luffy's fist covered in black right before it hit the blade, and the sword shattered into pieces on the collision. The soldier's eyes went wide, and then darted down to the other fist than the one that broke his sword, coming up fast on Luffy's side as the pirate spun his body forward. His fist hit the soldier in the chest and the man's armor broke, Luffy's fist hit him in the chest, and threw him back into dozens of people behind him as he dragged back across the bridge.

Thumbskull and Acid Breath, Frightwig's comrades in the trio of circus freaks dove down towards the pirate who sent their comrade flying across the mainland. Their bodies covered in white glows and they roared with eyes slowly getting redder as they dropped. The two of them were almost at the pirate, when a small figure with brown hair and a pink hat intercepted them, grabbing them each by the face and smashing their skulls together. Timmy threw the men down into their own ranks but watched as they opened back up their eyes and glared at him. Their eyes looked like Frightwig's did earlier, and the bridge beneath them started to shake. Timmy grimaced and he clenched his fists at his sides, _You don't know what you're doing here. You're going to get yourselves killed._

* * *

"Sir! We have to call back the commanders," Charmcaster called over to the Forever King who was looking out a tall window of his castle and out at the battle on the bridge. Charmcaster was standing behind a computer where like around the rest of the room, there was a scientist typing fast into his computer. There was a big screen on the wall in front of them with the body types of each of the commanders on it, and all of their vital signs were spiking. Charmcaster stepped towards the Forever King, "Until we can figure out the problem with the injections, there's no telling what will happen to Animo and the others."

The Forever King continued looking out the window for a few seconds, then he turned his head to the silver haired woman in a pink cloak behind him. "And?" He asked, making Charmcaster's eyes open wide. He turned to his head scientist next, "Figure out the problem in ten minutes or you're all dead." The scientists around the room all looked over at their king in shock. He never said anything like that before, and Charmcaster spun back to the illuminated wall in front of her as the scientists rushed around to get their work done as fast as possible.

The witch examined the vitals of each of her comrades out there and she gulped. _Their aggression is through the roof. Their body types are changing. Muscle mass, bone density, this is more than just receiving Saiyan energy._ Charmcaster turned to one of the scientists who was not rushing around like all the others. He was sitting behind his desk calmly, and he smirked at the screen in front of him as he saw the dental structure of Thumbskull shift and his canines extend. His smirk wiped from his face as a blue bubble surrounded his face. He reached up to the bubble and pounded it with his fists but he could not break through, and after a second he was grabbing at his throat as he could not breathe either.

"Dr. Genus," Charmcaster snarled. The man's glasses fell off inside his bubble and his face was getting as blue as the orb of magical energy. "What did you do?" She growled at him.

The man drooling inside his bubble lifted up the corners of his lips and Charmcaster's eyes grew huge. She let go of the bubble and he chuckled while gasping and grabbing his throat. "I did what I was told," the doctor responded. Dr. Genus looked up at the Forever King who was looking his way through the red visor on his face. "And with the results I acquired with this experiment," he motioned around at the room he was in and the blinking lights all over it. "I can do it," he said. He got back up to his feet and smiled wickedly at the Forever King while putting his glasses back on, "I, the genius Dr. Genus, could turn you into the perfect weapon, my King," he bowed to the Forever King while all the scientists started yelling at him for tampering with the experiment.

The Forever King, Driscoll, had a decision to make. He stared at the genius scientist in front of him and his red visor started glowing brightly, but he heard a crash and turned back to look out the window. He looked down at the courtyard below and watched as three of Animo's creations stopped skidding after breaking through the wall on the outside of his castle. Soldiers were getting thrown back through the hole as well, and a glance above the walls showed him white lights spinning around and all going after two or three figures, but his super soldiers he planned on taking down the Emperor with were not as invincible as he thought. He slowly turned his head back to Dr. Genus who Charmcaster was walking towards with a lifted glowing pink hand. "Do it," the Forever King growled.

Everyone in the room spun to their leader in surprise. They watched as he reached up and removed his helmet, revealing a light skinned man with a black goatee, sharp blue eyes, and short jet black hair. He stepped towards Dr. Genus, "But to be safe. If this does not work, I am programming the Forever Ninja to make sure you die in the most excruciating way on the occasion of my death." Dr. Genus's eyes went wide and his face covered in sweat. Driscoll typed some things into a pad that opened up on his metal left arm, and when he was done he pulled that entire piece of armor off, before turning his arm and showing Dr. Genus the inside of his elbow. "Now," he said and his mouth curled up into a spine-chilling smile, "make me into even more of a God."

* * *

"Azmuth!" Ben shouted up at the ship floating above the island he and his friends invaded because of the castle full of Forever Knights on it. The fight had been going on for a while now, the rain had slowed down and stopped, and when Ben looked up he saw technology he recognized very well, and a figure who made his heart race faster than the battle. The small Galvan sitting on the edge of his ship looking down at Ben Tennyson was amazed to see the young boy still had his Omnitrix on his wrist. "The Forever Knights set off the SDM! You have to deactivate the watch!" Ben shouted.

"Why should I?" Azmuth questioned loudly. Behind him Myaxx facepalmed as she was half-expecting him to say that even after convincing him to go check out who had the watch in hopes that Ben still had it.

Ben groaned and yelled, "This? Really? Are you really going to do this, right now?!" He dodged left and then swung his right fist forward into the chest of a Forever Knight, sending the soldier stumbling backwards with a dent in the front of his armor. Ben snapped his gaze back up to the surprised alien who was confused at Ben's normal strength as a regular human being. "I don't want the universe to explode!" Ben yelled at him.

"Then why did you let the SDM go off again?" Azmuth called down. "Sounds more like it's your problem than it is mine," he added.

"You'll be destroyed too!" Ben shouted.

"And?" Azmuth questioned. The tone of his voice showed he seriously did not care whether or not he went with the rest of the universe and Ben's eyes turned huge. Before the boy could keep shouting at the cynical scientist, a loud explosion to his left made both him and the aliens in the air turn that way. They looked at the cloud of dust fading away and Ben's eyes opened wide at the sight of a cyborg inside the dust on his hands and knees, struggling to push himself back up.

"Franky!" Ben yelled. Out of the sky dropped an armored woman with spiky red hair who smirked over at Ben in a way more menacing than he had ever seen her look before. "Rojo," Ben whispered. He looked into her eyes and those were not the eyes of a sane person. _She looks like Frightwig did…_ as he thought it, Rojo's body covered in a white aura and she lifted up her left hand, forming a ball of white energy on it. As she did, her arm muscles bulked so fast that the armor around them broke apart. She glanced at her huge muscles and looked confused for a second, before her mouth twisted into a huge smirk and Ben saw her growing canines on the insides of her mouth.

 _It's the Saiyan DNA,_ Ben thought, remembering what Gray was saying back when they saw Frightwig. _I always thought they were really similar to humans, but there's a side of Gohan he holds back normally. I saw it when Mikey died, when he slaughtered the Balrogs. I saw it when he told Luthor he would hunt him to the ends of the planet._ Ben gulped as did Franky at the sight of the woman's bleeding eyes and the growing ball of white over her hand. _Saiyans can be ruthless,_ Ben thought, and he started sprinting forward right as the crazed woman was bringing her arm down.

"What do you think you can do without the Omnitrix?!" Azmuth shouted down at the boy sprinting towards this woman like he had a death wish.

"Anything!" Ben screamed, and he dove straight into Rojo's arm as it was halfway down. She was so focused on the cyborg she was trying to kill, and everything in her peripheral vision was blood red, so she did not see the boy coming. Ben grabbed her arm and pushed it away, right as she released the ball of white light. Ben thought he saved Franky, but his jaw dropped as he saw where the ball was flying now, straight towards Sanji and Thumbskull who were trading punches and kicks every second. Gray was running up to Sanji's back with two swords drawn, and Ben screamed over, "Guys! Move!"

Sanji and Gray turned, and both of them leapt as far back as they could in that instant. Thumbskull on the other hand, had much slower reactions even as with his Saiyan enhancements. The stupid brute turned his head and let out a low grunt of confusion, right before the ball of white flew past his knees and hit the ground directly behind him, making a dome of light that encompassed his entire body and stretched out to hit both Gray and Sanji who crossed their arms in front of themselves and roared out in pain.

"Sanji!"

"Gray!"

Natsu and Luffy spun from their opponents and shouted back at their nakama. As they turned though, Dr. Animo saw his chance and his pointed his glowing hand forward. Five giant hybrid bugs in the air shot out of the sky and the two who turned to their friends only turned back when the monsters were right behind them. They slammed half-powered punches into the bugs closest to them, but for some reason they did not even slow down, and Natsu realized why a second later as he saw the scales covering them. The Fairy Tail mage snarled, "Are those…"

"Dragon scales!" Animo shouted over at him. "Saiyan DNA was not the only reward that Dreamcaster brought us after she screwed with your weak little minds!" Luffy and Natsu spun in circles throwing punches at the bugs that had such strong outer shells that they pretty much pushed straight through them. "And with the combined efforts of my own and the Forever Knights' elite science division, we have made my creations, _unstoppable!_ "

Natsu heard that last word a lot louder than all the others and he started spinning around, much too late however to avoid Dr. Animo's fist that collided straight into his left cheek. The Fire Dragon Slayer lifted off the ground and flew back into a stone wall that he blew into pieces with his collision. Animo looked at his fist and watched as the glowing white aura spread up his arm, but he calmed down his breathing after punching Natsu and the aura faded back to being just around his hand. He turned to Luffy who was facing all of his creations alone now but still keeping an eye on him because of the threat he posed, and Animo chuckled at the rubberman's confused expression. "Are you wondering why I am not losing control like the others?" He questioned.

Luffy was somewhat wondering that, but instead of answering Animo, he punched his right hand out to the side. His forearm pumped like an accordion as all five bugs pointed their stingers in at him and shot in from every direction. Animo smirked, then Luffy vanished and appeared directly in front of him. The pirate punched forward yelling, "Jet Pistol!" His hand flew forward, but Animo's surprised expression lasted half a second before his glowing hand rose and blocked the rubber fist that hit him. Luffy's other hand covered in black coating and he punched it up towards the bottom of Animo's chin, right as the mad scientist covered his own left hand in a white aura and uppercut towards Luffy's gut. "Your body seems especially resistant to physical pain," Animo yelled as his fist slammed into Luffy's gut and pushed it back. Luffy's fist was still coming up, but the pirate opened his mouth and coughed, his fist opening up because he was so shocked, as Animo opened his fist while pushing it against his stomach and shot a huge force of his energy straight through Luffy.

The white aura shot out of Luffy's back up into the sky and although it was not solid and would not rip through Luffy, the force itself going through his insides squished his lungs and made it impossible to breath. He flew off the good doctor's hand, but Animo clenched his right hand down on the fist Luffy punched him with first. Luffy shot away, but his rubbery arm only extended so far before shooting him back towards Animo. Animo spun his left foot up towards Luffy, but the pirate sucked in a huge amount of air right before the kick collided. Luffy opened his mouth and let out all the air, but because his body was so large, even though Animo shot his energy through him again, it did not cause the pirate any pain. Luffy wrapped his free arm around Animo's leg as it pressed into his deflating stomach, and with all his strength he tugged up in the air, lifting Animo off the ground and tossing him up.

Animo let go of Luffy's hand as he was tossed in the air. Luffy looked up at the man reaching the top of his arc and he threw his right arm far back, spinning it around as he did and turning his fist black. All five of the insect monsters covered in scales were flying down towards him and blocking his view of Animo, but Luffy ignored them all and focused straight on the man. "Gum Gum…" A pillar of flames shot over Luffy's head, making Animo's eyes widen and his head snap to the side where he saw Natsu standing on top of a pile of rubble. He only looked back down when he heard the pirate below him finish his shout, but by then he was too late to dodge. "HAWK RIFLE!"

The spinning black fist slammed into Animo's face and knocked his head back, flames shooting out the back of his green skull and white hair, some of his hair catching on fire even. His creations were all lying on the ground, their scales not enough to protect them from Natsu's pillar of fire that had a glowing orange core just like the thin orange veil that surrounded the Dragon Slayer at that very moment. Animo slammed into the ground hard close to the main castle across the courtyard full of craters and flames and dead insects that some of the fighters were standing on, and more were reaching every second as the army of regular Forever Knight soldiers on the bridge were almost completely taken care of.

Kairi arrived with Juvia, Usopp, Killua, Rin, and Kirito, and they all looked at Natsu and Luffy on different sides of a destroyed courtyard that must have had some crazy battles on it even before they arrived. The two did not look happy about the lack of enemies around them though, or the fact that Animo's monsters were motionless on the ground around them. Both of them were just staring towards the castle where Animo was getting back up on his feet, his entire body covered in a thick aura now, his white hair lifting above his head and waving around in a sudden wind. "RAAAA!" A deep voice roared, and everyone spun left to see Thumbskull standing up covered in burns, his eyes bleeding like his nose and ears, but his body bulked up twice as much as usual.

"Need some help over here," Sanji called out. Everyone looked over in surprise wondering what monster could be stopping the chef with amazingly powerful kicks, and they saw Sanji standing hesitantly in front of a woman who had her hand clenched around Ben's neck.

"Idiot!" Nami yelled, running past Sanji with her Clima Tact drawn. She swiped towards the crazy woman's head, and her weather-controlling staff slammed into the side of it, but did not even make the armored woman flinch. It did make Rojo turn her gaze to Nami though, and she pulled a choking Ben back and threw him forward into the younger woman. "Ahh!" Nami screamed as Ben hit her so hard that they were both thrown backwards.

"Watch it brat!" Sanji yelled at Ben as he dove behind Nami to catch her.

"Don't yell at him because you're an incompetent idiot!" Nami screamed, then looked down as Sanji did not catch Ben and the kid was on his knees and one hand, using the other to grab at his throat that was red from the choking. "Ben, are you okay?"

Ben stopped rubbing his throat and he clenched his teeth in anger, some blood dripping through the cracks of them. "I'm so, pathetic," he growled while clenching his eyes shut. He clenched the hand he was just rubbing his neck with and punched it down on the floor beneath him. He snapped his head up and glared at Rojo, only to lose his glare as the rest of the woman's armor around her legs and upper body shattered all at once. She still looked pissed about getting slammed in the head by the weak pirate girl, and in only a tight red undershirt and shorts that stretched as her body buffed out, she snapped her head straight back and roared.

Animo had started charging at Luffy and Natsu, but he stopped himself halfway across the courtyard. The steam on Luffy's body had faded and Natsu let his aura go down too, both of them were panting, but Animo calmed down his breathing and he let his white aura fade. "The reason I am not out of control like those idiots over there," Animo said, his voice loud enough for said "idiots" to hear, but neither of them turning around as they were already lost in their rage, "is because I discussed the introduction of Saiyan DNA into my body with Doctor Genus prior to his alterations to our experiments. As long as I keep a level head, my body will not atrophy at an increased rate as my new power grows exponentially, like theirs."

Timmy Turner stopped flying around in the air and he stared straight ahead at four fighters who he had been trying not to kill, but were getting increasingly powerful the longer he fought them. _This is nuts! I wish I could wish up a way to trap them. Unlike Madara and Krona, Wanda's magic could stop enemies like these. But on my own, what can I do but kill them? I guess, I need to knock them unconscious._ The boy covered in a white aura and he shot forwards faster than he had been fighting previously, but as he did he saw each of his enemies' eyes following his movements better than before as well. Their bodies were larger and they had blood all over their distorted faces, and when they roared they sounded like animals.

Acid Breath shot a cloud of green gas at Timmy that he had to fly over to avoid. A dark green mutant bug named Clancy flew over the gas as well though, his eyes glowing red and his entire body seeming to take the effects of the Saiyan DNA differently than his comrades. He raced towards Timmy and grabbed at the boy with his arms, but Timmy interlocked his hands with the mutant's claws. As he did though, two smaller arms pressed against Clancy's side to blend in with his body shot out covered in a white aura, stabbing at Timmy's chest. The boy only flew back fast enough to avoid getting cut, though his shirt did tear from the swipes. His eyes widened that he was caught off guard, and because of that he was caught again by two monstrous enemies shooting up through the gaseous cover beneath Timmy's feet.

They opened their mouths as they shot through it but neither of them cared that Acid Breath's gas started affecting their bodies, as long as they were able to grab one of Timmy's legs each and then fly opposite directions. "Damn it!" Timmy yelled, flaring his aura and sending the men grabbing him flying away. He pointed his arms out towards them and white balls of energy appeared on them, "I'm sorry," he said in a voice full of regret, then fired the balls at his enemies still being pushed away from him. The balls hit his enemies in their chests and sent them flying away from each other before exploding in huge spheres of light in the sky.

Down below the strongest fighter on the island, taking on four enhanced enemies at once, Animo shot forward faster than he had ever moved before. He looked fine though, and his hands did not even have white auras around them as he appeared in front of Natsu who took too long to power back up. Animo put his fists together above Natsu's head, and slammed down on the Dragon Slayer's face as he looked up to see the attack. Natsu's nose cracked and his whole face got pushed in as he broke the floor beneath him and was smashed into a large crater.

"Gear Second!" Luffy shouted. He shot towards Animo who spun around mid-glowing-kick. Luffy pressed down on the roundhouse kick to get himself above it, while swinging his other fist forward, slamming Animo right in his smug face and breaking the doctor's goggles. Besides breaking his goggles though, a non-Haki-coated fist did nothing to the doctor whose head snapped to the side, then instantly spun back towards Luffy with a much more enraged expression. He tried to remind himself to stay calm, but two hands grabbed him by the ankles and he snapped his gaze down to see Natsu grabbing him tight.

"Burn," Natsu snarled. His hands burst into flames and then Animo's entire body followed suit.

"Ahhh! RAAAA!" Animo screamed in pain, and then fury as a white aura surrounded him and pushed away the flames. "INSOLENT WRETCHES!" He snapped his right arm out and grabbed Luffy by the throat even as the pirate punched him in the face with a fist covered in Haki, and he kicked up with his leg, nailing Natsu in the gut and sending the Dragon Slayer up into his own free hand to catch. He grabbed Natsu by the back of the head and squeezed, while gripping Luffy's neck even harder while his red steaming skin faded back to normal.

"Hi-yaa!" Dash yelled, slamming a fist into Animo's face after sprinting straight in between both Luffy and Natsu. The others facing off against Thumbskull and Rojo glanced over at the boy covered in a white aura who appeared out of nowhere to save the two they all thought they were going to have to step in themselves to save. Animo's head snapped back far again, even with the aura around him, and Dash smirked as he followed through with his punch. _I always wanted to try this one out, ever since Barry told me about it. Supersonic punch. Had to go across the other island before I started running to pick up the speed I needed, but it was worth it._ Animo went flying from Dash's punch all the way across the courtyard where he crashed into the entrance to the Forever Kingdom's castle, shattering the doorway and making it all collapse on top of him.

Dust filled the entrance and they looked at the rubble waiting to see if there was any movement under it. The only ones not looking that way were Rojo and Thumbskull, too absorbed in their own power trips to care, and the two facing off against them at full strength. Gray had ice protecting most of his body and he slashed his swords at the woman who blocked with her bare arm skin again, but he smirked as the woman's wide grin vanished itself, because his swords broke the skin this time. Sanji looked at the young man around his age with a look of surprise, because although Gray's ice swords were the color of ice, he could feel the faint Haki emanating from them.

The swords broke the skin, and then as Rojo attacked furiously a second later, Gray dropped the sword in his left hand and stepped towards her, closing the gap and making her fist go right by the side of him. He clenched that fist hard and slammed the hilt of his other sword into it, "Ice Make: Longsword!" The short-sword's hilt that collided with his fist shimmered a light blue glow, and then the blade sticking out of it got twice as thick and extended five times as long. It extended straight into Rojo's chest and broke through her red shirt, making her scream as it lifted her off the ground and pushed back before breaking the skin and sending her flying with blood splashing out of her torso.

"You may be strong," Kairi called out, a serious look on her face as she jumped left, right, and then back to dodge Thumbskull's heavy swings. Her body was covered in a swirling wind thanks to her Aero magic, and she pointed her pink Keyblade ahead at the monster as he snapped his gaze up from the point below his fist that just made another small crater in the ground to snarl his teeth and sharp canines over her way. "But you are much too slow," Kairi said. He looked at the end of the girl's Keyblade and did not even process what was happening as it glowed white, and then light blue, and then the blast of ice magic slammed into the front of his body and his arms stopped moving as did his legs. He froze in place and even his expression was having a hard time changing because of the ice on it.

Azmuth looked down from his ship and watched the carnage going on below him. He turned towards the bridge where hundreds of unconscious and moaning soldiers lay. Not all of them were just unconscious though, as Killua did not hold back in his end-of-the-world rampage. There were dead on the Forever Knights' side, yet those Forever Knights were turning their soldiers into monsters that were destroying themselves for what looked like the sole purpose of killing their enemies. "It does not matter where I go," Azmuth said. Myaxx had her legs up on the console of the ship she was sitting in, relaxing as she watched the nutty battles down below and even up in the sky where that kid kept fighting his enemies with restraint. Azmuth continued in a dark tone that sounded so tired, the winkles on his small gray face getting more defined as he spoke like this experience alone was aging him several years. "It always remains the same. Centuries go by and the nature of life never changes. We kill, we destroy, I tried to think I was different because I was trying to help the universe, but my inventions have been used for so much violence, so much conflict. This world is a dark place that I tried to find some light in, but small lights like Ben Tennyson's can not shine when surrounded by so much darkness."

"Whoa," Myaxx said, lowering her legs from the console and looking at the scientist's back with huge eyes. "You're serious this time. You're really going to let us all explode?" He did not respond and the tentacle-faced alien snapped her nervous gaze down to the console of the ship they were in where a timer was counting down. The numbers on the far left of the countdown were all at zero, the ones marking days and hours that they had left to live. She watched as the seconds ticked down and the green woman gulped, looking back out of the ship and down at Ben Tennyson who staggered forward along with all his comrades towards the fortress that remained standing despite its collapsed outer walls and fallen armies. She looked down at his watch that's orange glow she could see from there, so little green left on the hourglass symbol on it.

Ben glanced up at the ship himself as he walked forward to join his friends. Dash saw him look that way as he got next to him and the kid said, "I've been wondering for a while now, who are those guys up there? The small one looks a lot like an alien I saw you use before."

Ben nodded his head and in a grim voice muttered, "It's Azmuth."

Everyone else around him who were catching their breaths as Rojo and Thumbskull were not getting back up, and Animo was still beneath the rubble in the entrance of the fortress, all spun towards Ben. Only Natsu and Luffy who were up ahead of him kept staring at the castle, and both of them had extremely nervous expressions on their faces.

"What?!" Killua shouted at Ben. The boy raced towards him and then snapped his gaze up to the ship that the small gray figure and a taller alien woman were sitting on or inside. "Can they turn off your watch?"

"Yeah," Ben said. "But they won't," he added before all of them got their hopes up. They looked at him in confusion and then remembered what he said about Azmuth having to believe there was still a reason to save them.

"Yes they will," Killua said, a shadow covering his face. Ben looked at the older boy in surprise, but became even more shocked as there were several others around Killua who had similar expressions. Killua continued in a scary voice, "I can make them-"

"No!" Ben shouted.

Killua turned and glared harshly at Ben. "Do you want to die?"

Ben shook his head, but before he could argue, Gray started, "Killua is right." Ben turned to him in surprise and Gray shook his head, "We can't let everyone die. If we have the possibility, we have to be willing to do _anything_ to save the world."

"If he is going to let all the ladies of the world die," Sanji growled. "I would gladly force him to turn your watch off."

The kid with the self-destructing Omnitrix on his wrist kept shaking his head as the others voiced their words of agreement. They were all stopped from continuing the conversation though as the rubble near the fortress shook and all of them turned their attentions back over to it. Up in the sky, Timmy had a horrible feeling in his gut. _I'm sorry,_ he thought, then rushed around as fast as he could and threw restraint to the wind as he slammed powerful fists and chops into the heads and necks of his enemies, even going as far as to blasting them with powerful ki attacks that he did not know if they could take. He did so because the feeling he got from the fortress in the center of the small island to his right and a half mile down made him extremely afraid for all his friends.

His enemies dropped from the air, the boy shot back, and then he flew straight up in the air as a blur appeared before him and almost got him with a slash of a razor-sharp sword. Timmy's eyes grew huge at the sight of the enemy. At first he thought the man was just wearing another power blocker like the others, but this one was different. The Forever Ninja lifted up its blade and the weapon glowed bright red, like the red V-shaped visor on the front of his red helmet. Timmy opened his mouth to shout at the enemy to move or die, but this enemy had no white aura like the others did, and yet he was still faster than any of them. _Wait a second, this isn't a person!_

Despite the Forever Ninja being a robot that Timmy did not feel the need to hold back against, it was a creation formed by the culmination of all of the Forever Knights' scientists minds put together. Up until a few days ago, it was the most impressive thing they had ever made, more powerful than the Forever King or any of his commanders, the robot that got Driscoll a position as a Lord in the King's Cooperative. It shot at Timmy so fast that the kid had to draw his own sword and block this time, before covering himself in an aura and moving faster so he could get behind the robot and swing his sword at its side. The boy thought he had it, but the Forever Ninja lifted its left arm so the sword passed under it, then jammed its elbow down against its side to trap Timmy's sword there. The boy tugged at his sword, but as he did, the Forever Ninja's back opened up and flames shot out into his face.

Timmy was impervious to flames, but not the sword that the ninja robot shoved back at him while his vision was blocked by the fire. As Timmy was distracted by the Forever Ninja, the monster that he risked killing his last enemies to stop before it reached his friends, had appeared before them. All of them stood in the courtyard with very nervous expressions on their faces, a few of them backing up at what they were seeing. The rubble at the entrance of the castle had broken apart and Animo had shot out of it with his fists up in the air, his arms covered in aura, his eyes red for the first time and he had looked enraged. He snapped his gaze forward, and then as he opened his mouth to yell about his anger to Luffy and Natsu, his hated opponents, a hand grabbed him around the top of his skull.

The hand had lifted Animo off the ground while the doctor grabbed at it with both hands and tried prying it off. He struggled and the man with a black goatee, coal black eyes, and a straight expression on his face simply stated in a chilling voice, "Doctor Animo, before I executed Dr. Genus for the secret he kept from me, he revealed to me that you also knew of his treason."

"Forever King! I can expl-" Driscoll clenched his hand into a fist and Animo's head squished inside it. The mad scientist's body fell to the floor with blood spurting out of his neck, and the man who crushed his skull opened back up his hand and stared at his palm. In a calm voice that made each of his enemies even more unnerved, the Forever King, not wearing any of his usual armor, simply muttered, "Oh, I didn't mean to do that." His voice was so calm, it sounded like he had lost his mind. He slowly looked up from his red hand covered in smushed brains and faced the two closest to him, "I did not know the extent of the new strength Genus provided me before his death." He paused and then continued, "I still do not know the extent."

The man looked very average for a super-villain, not too buff, yet still intimidating, and a black goatee just to top off the evil villain appearance. Despite this though, when he took his first step forward and the island shook beneath him, even Luffy had to gulp at the feeling he got deep in his gut. "Sanji!" Luffy shouted. The chef became confused as to why Luffy called out his name, but Luffy continued without turning around, "Get everyone out of here!"

Sanji felt the ground shake as the bearded man took another step and he did not need to be told twice. He spun around and yelled, "Nami, Robin, Juvia, Kairi, come with me!" None of the guys even mentioned how he forgot to say any of their names, as they were all either backing up or staring motionlessly at the Forever King as nervously as the women whose names Sanji just shouted out were.

"I am the Forever King, Driscoll," the man said, stopping his walk while he was still ten meters away from Natsu and Luffy, right in between them. "Since joining the Cooperative, I have not been able to use that title, the 'Forever King.' Not at official Cooperative meetings. Not when visiting other countries and cities. I was solely referred to as another, _Lord,"_ he said the word with distaste, the first time his voice changed since he appeared before them and murdered the strongest commander on the battlefield.

Acid Breath staggered up off the ground where he fell when Timmy knocked him out of the air. He had bloody eyes making his vision red, and he could barely hear with the blood clogging his ears. His focus instantly returned to Timmy, the only thing he could focus on as it was the last thing he was thinking about before losing deeper mental functionality. However, there was one thing that could take his attention off the boy fighting a robot in the air, and it was the monster who was scaring him even without an aura, because he had been working for Driscoll for a long time now, and not once had he ever seen that look in the Forever King's eyes.

Killua was stepping backwards nervously, afraid for his life. He snapped his gaze back towards the ship that had the creator of the Omnitrix on it, and the thought crossed his mind to go take the short figure, take Ben, and escape with them and force the alien to turn off Ben's watch for him. What stopped him was not the morality of the idea, but the belief that there was no way he would make it away from the monster across the courtyard from him with two prisoners in tow.

Luffy pumped himself into Second Gear and he turned his fists black. He yelled at Sanji to get going while Natsu's body covered in flames, lightning, and then a dark orange aura on the inside of his flames. He yelled out, 'Arcosian Dragon Slayer Mode,' and punched his fists together in front of him to double the size of his aura. The two of them stepped forward, and then Driscoll appeared on Natsu's right side, opposite where Luffy was walking. Luffy started to turn towards Natsu who saw the pirate's shocked look before he even saw the hand reaching for his head. He tried turning to Driscoll, but the Forever King was too fast, grabbing Natsu by the side of the head and then continuing to run forward so fast that he slammed Natsu's head straight into Luffy's. Both of their bodies left the ground and their legs pointed the other way as they were heading as Driscoll continued to push them, and then the man let go straight towards a portion of his wall that was still standing.

The wall was not standing for long. It collapsed on top of two of the strongest fighters on the island. Killua turned and ran. The others near him felt similarly to the kid, but Driscoll was still close to Natsu and Luffy and they did not see the pile of rubble moving yet. They could not leave their comrades behind. Rin's body covered in bright blue flames while Sanji's leg covered in red ones. Franky was panting but he still had some Cola left and he lifted his arms, as Usopp rose his slingshot, Nami her Perfect Clima Tact, and Robin crossed her arms in front of herself as well. Dash lifted his fists, though the kid looked terrified after watching Natsu and Luffy get tossed aside like pieces of trash. Gray looked at Juvia nervously and she looked back into his eyes, but they both knew they could not run; they had to save Natsu or die trying.

"We should have taken the creator and left," Gray muttered as he turned back to Driscoll who saw them all preparing and turned their way with a slightly amused, but also far-off look like he was still in a daze. It was the same way he looked when he left the castle, almost like whatever happened to him had him confused mentally. "It would have been the smart thing to do."

Kirito rose his swords in front of himself and coated them in Haki. "It's not something I like to admit, but this is one of the few times torture would have been called for."

"It would not have been hard to make the creator deactivate Ben's watch," Robin agreed.

"If Goku shows up in a second and saves us," Nami whispered, "then we might still be able to do just that."

"You're all wrong." The voice was quiet but their whole group heard it and looked to the front of their condensed pack where Ben stepped forward. His eyes were closed tight and he shook his head side to side as he walked. "He won't do it, at least not right now." The group looked at the boy in confusion and he started speaking louder, "We can't make him do it! That would defeat the point!" None of them knew what he was talking about, but Ben stopped in front of them, now the closest one to Driscoll. As he needed saving from Nami before, they looked at him like he was an idiot for getting so close to a monster almost none of them could see move when he attacked Natsu. Ben clenched his fists at his sides though and he shouted, "Azmuth won't fix the watch, because he thinks we're not worth saving! Is torturing him going to change his mind about that?!"

A few of the others got shocked and then ashamed looks on their faces. Azmuth himself stopped staring at Driscoll and he looked back at Ben who was facing away from him and at the monster instead. "He would rather let the entire universe perish, than save it, because he thinks it would be better off that way! We're supposed to be the good guys, yet we're having a conversation about torturing someone for what? 'The greater good?' It's no wonder he thinks that way!"

As everyone else stared in shock at Ben's back, Kairi lifted up the corners of her mouth and smiled at the child. _I can see why Riku picked you,_ Kairi thought, lifting up her Keyblade as she got ready to fight for real.

Ben's fists clenched harder at his sides and everyone staring at the kid watched as a white aura flared around him violently all at once. "If Azmuth does not want to fix the Omnitrix, that's his decision! If we're all about to die, then I'm not going to spend my last few minutes doing something that would have tortured me for the rest of my life otherwise!" He started running forward and he screamed, "I'm going to spend it fighting for the sake of my friends!" A green light spread around Ben and his friends gasped, Azmuth and Myaxx gasped, and the Forever King smirked at the boy running his way.

Green light surrounded the boy and Driscoll shouted at it, "Ben Tennyson. I did not recognize you before. I do not know why. But I must now pay you back for all of my plans you foiled in the past! With the Saiyan blood we acquired, my scientists created a physical enhancer like nothing you have ever seen before. You will taste your own blood before I rip your throat out!" The man started running forward, and he punched towards the green light that was finally fading.

Driscoll punched and all of Ben's friends started running forward. Azmuth's bug eyes enlarged, Myaxx leaned over the dashboard of their round ship and over the edge of it altogether so she was almost falling out. Luffy and Natsu just got out from beneath some rubble and stopped moving, Killua's eyes grew huge from the deck of the Thousand Sunny, and Timmy froze where he was above the island as he had been flying over as fast as he could away from the ninja to stop Driscoll. He was frozen in place because Driscoll's fist stopped as well, and the ground beneath where the punch stopped dropped down ten meters and a thirty-foot radius crater formed around him. And for the first time since Driscoll believed he became unstoppable, his mouth dropped into a deep, deep snarl that revealed his sharpened canines.

The green light faded entirely, and Ben floated there in midair in front of Driscoll with a palm held against his fist. The boy glared with coal black eyes straight into Driscoll's, and a brown tail waved around behind his body. "You may have injected yourself with some Saiyan DNA, but you're still partly human. This is Saiyan Ben," he said, and closed the fingers of his hand around the outsides of Driscoll's fist. "I am one hundred percent Saiyan, and I'm about to kick your ass." Ben pulled back on Driscoll's fist and he slammed his other fist forward as he did. Driscoll rose an arm to block Ben's fist, and he was blind-sided by the kick that slammed into his left temple.

Ben pushed through the kick and sent Driscoll flying out of their crater towards his castle. Scientists watching from inside the window backed up as it looked like the Forever King was about to smash straight through the wall, but the man stopped himself before he did with a large kiai. The windows shattered and the scientists covered their faces, but they all screamed a second later anyway as Driscoll snarled down at Ben and powered up. His body covered in a white glow that ripped apart the walls behind him and the men and women in white lab coats right behind them. He was not the only one powering up though, as Ben glared straight up at him and he pulled his elbows down to his sides as he flew up in the air to reach Driscoll's elevation. "Raaaa, RRAAAA! AHHHH!" Ben screamed, the amount of powering-up so intense on his body that he could barely handle the pain.

The island could barely handle Ben's power-up either though. The ground down beneath him cracked and rocks lifted up in the air before breaking apart. Outer walls that were already damaged from other fights and even the walls of the Forever King's castle started coming down as Ben roared. The island shook and the clouds above Ben's head started swirling around in a strange way like his power was reaching all the way up there. _Driscoll's too strong. If I don't stop him now, he's going to kill my friends!_ With that thought in mind, Ben vanished to the eyes of most of his friends and shot towards Driscoll in a flash of white.

Although Ben vanished, the look on his face a second before he disappeared was engrained into Azmuth's mind. The creator of the Omnitrix frowned and his own wrinkled hands clenched into fists at his sides. He could tell exactly what Ben was thinking when the kid powered up stronger than ever with an alien Azmuth never put into the Omnitrix himself. _He is continuing what I originally started. To unite different species from all over the universe, to use the Omnitrix to understand them, he has obtained new DNA and with that he has done only good. In those eyes, I saw no hate. He was not fighting Driscoll because the fool set off the self-destruct, or because of his anger at the Forever Knights. He is fighting because he cares for his friends._

Ben slammed his right fist into Driscoll's and a shockwave rippled across the sky above the roof of the castle. He spun his left leg and his shin collided with Driscoll's right directly over the bridge. Both attacks, although far from each other, happened in such a short amount of time that to those trying to watch the fight it looked like the roof of the castle and the bridge's center got blown apart simultaneously. Ben spun off the kick over the bridge though and he slammed three consecutive punches into Driscoll's chest, punches that made the man gasp each time.

The furious super solider put his fists together above Ben's head and slammed down, smashing on the top of Ben's head and breaking the skin. Ben got pushed down out of the air a little and the cut under his hair let out so much blood that it came out from his hairline, drenched his forehead, and covered the left side of his face. The panic that would have normally set in from an injury that looked so bad did not occur this time though. Ben just lifted his bowed head and stared straight into the Forever King's shocked eyes as the monster did not hold back with that attack. Ben's knee embedded in Driscoll's gut before the man could say a word about Ben's tenacity like he wanted to, and Ben's knee wiped all conscious thought from the man's mind.

The gut-knee was so strong that a visible force shot out of Driscoll's back, and Ben's friends' eyes opened wide with hope at the sight of the man arcing off of Ben's knee. The kid himself was in so much pain from powering up stronger than he ever had before, from making his own muscles bulge like Driscoll's commanders had, but he ignored the pain and just clenched his teeth harder as blood dripped down the corners of his mouth and off his chin. He took a deep breath and put his hands down to his right side as Driscoll continued to arc away from him over the bridge back towards the much bigger mainland. Waves crashed on shore much bigger than the island was used to and the half of the broken bridge beneath Ben that was hanging partially onto the mainland got pulled off by the strong waves Ben's aura was creating. Water splashed up in the air behind Ben and then out of thin air all around him, blue light particles appeared and pulled towards the same point between Ben's hands.

"KAME-" Ben began.

Azmuth's jaw dropped as he watched the energy condense on Ben's hands. In his mind appeared an image from one of the first days he was on the planet. He was a small creature who most people paid no mind to, but one man with spiky black hair did, the man who saved his life with this very attack. Azmuth stepped towards the edge of his ship and he watched as the light created a ball on Ben's palms. "HAME!" Ben's voice echoed back to the Forever King's castle, where Charmcaster and Dreamcaster both watched from a cracked floor in front of a wide opening where a wall used to be. They stared at the boy they once fought and felt true fear of him even more so than they felt for Driscoll.

Driscoll's eyes opened and he righted himself in the air, just in time to see Ben flying towards him and pushing his arms forward at the same time. "HAAAA!" The boy screamed and the ball of light shot off of Ben's hands even faster than he was flying. The Kamehameha Wave illuminated the sky with blue light, making everyone in the Forever Kingdom turn towards the bright blue ball at the end of it. Driscoll rose his hands towards the energy but they were pushed to the sides and he got thrown backwards by the attack, an attack that quickly went from pushing him to engulfing him, surrounding him in the energy that tore at his very being. "No, NOOO! AHHHhhh…" His voice faded away as the beam kept going and Ben lost sight of the silhouette inside it. Killua looked straight up with eyes as big as saucers as a beam as wide as the grounded pirate ship he was on flew over his head, and when it finally faded he shifted his gaze to Ben and found himself in more amazement of the boy than he had had been of anyone else before.

Ben's aura disappeared, his arms dropped limp to his sides, and then his body flashed red. It flashed red again and the tail behind him vanished, his eyes turned green, and the symbol on his Omnitrix blinked orange, over and over again. All of the green was gone, and the orange became a solid shape, right before the watch started sparking violently and Ben stared at it in fear. His friends all watched the boy who looked down and glanced at them, and then snapped his head straight up and flew as fast as he could into the sky.

"BEN!" Dash screamed up at his friend.

"Come back!" Nami yelled.

They almost lost sight of him, and then the watch sparked again and an orange dome of light surrounded Ben's left wrist. He felt the pain start and came to a stop, grabbing at his wrist with his other hand and screaming out. His body curled in and the orange energy widened to surround his entire body. It continued to spread out and made a sphere of energy sparking lightning that grew bigger and bigger until it stretched hundreds of feet in every direction of Ben. His friends stopped screaming and stared into the center of the dome in horror, not because the light indicated the end of existence itself, but because they heard Ben's screams and could see him directly in the center of that blast.

"Ben!" Rin yelled.

Kirito's wings spread out from his back and he shot up in the air. Sanji saw the teen flying and he jumped up himself, kicking the air beneath him and flying towards the scary dome of universe-shattering energy. As they flew towards the energy though, both men realized that the dome had stopped getting larger. It sparked a few more times, and then the dome faded altogether. This was not it.

Myaxx looked down finally after thinking it was all over and she stared at the countdown on the dashboard, the countdown that had sped up as soon as Ben transformed, and that sped up even faster when he turned back into his human self. She saw the zeroes on it had filled in more spaces past the hour slot now though, filling in the spots where the minutes had been counting down earlier. She looked to the seconds and she slouched in her seat at the sight, "Guess this is it." She heard no response. "What? Planning on dying in silence?" She turned her head, but there was no one on the edge of the ship anymore.

Ben started falling from the sky. His eyes closed and the cuts all over his body made it so blood rained down above him. He looked more red than white, and Kirito flew up as fast as he could, catching Ben in his arms and then turning, flying back down just as fast. Sanji snapped his head down as Kirito shot right by him and he shot himself back down after him. Kirito landed on the ground ten feet in front of Kairi and he ran towards her, "Kairi!"

"Cura!" Kairi shouted, swinging her Keyblade at Ben. Although the cuts all over his body, his body that was almost completely visible as his pant legs and his entire ship had been ripped to shreds, shrank or faded away, Ben did not look much better after the use of healing magic. What kept him looking so terrible was not the dried blood all over his face and body though, it was the sparking watch on his wrist that had a pure white hourglass on it that should have been green, or red, or orange, or anything but white. Orange bolts of lightning sparked off of it and Kirito lowered Ben down as the kid's eyes opened back up.

Ben stood on two feet and when he was stable enough Kirito let go of him. "I'm sorry guys," Ben said, his head partially bowed. He saw the watch sparking and he knew it was all over. He sniffled and continued in a sad voice, "I'm sorry I sped up the countdown. I just couldn't, watch you all die. I didn't want that to be the last thing I remembered."

"That's alright Ben," a voice said on his right side. He lifted up his head and turned in shock to see a nineteen year old with silver hair just landed on the ground very close to him. "I saw your Kamehameha and followed it," Riku said. He gave the kid a small smile as he put a hand on Ben's head and ruffled his blood-soaked brown hair. "You guys sure left us far behind," Riku said. He lowered his hand from Ben's head down to his right shoulder and looked into the boy's green eyes with his own. "You have nothing to be sorry for Ben. I'm proud of you."

Ben's eyes watered up and he clenched them shut as he saw all the small smiles of his friends around him. His watch let out a loud beep, and then Ben felt a strange tug on his arm and opened back up his eyes, turning his head to the watch himself that just let out a beep like it was saying, 'Goodbye.' He stared at it and his jaw dropped farther and farther, just like all of his friends who stared at the strange gray alien standing on Ben's arm with the top part of the Omnitrix in his hand, no longer sparking, no longer attached to the rest of the watch.

Azmuth looked up and saw Ben's shocked expression that made him turn away quick so the boy would not see the ashamed one on his face. He distracted himself from his emotions by looking at the watch he needed to fix, but he did speak as he examined it. "Alright, this world might be full of monsters, and I'm not talking about Grimm and Heartless, I'm talking about people like Driscoll, the Emperor, the King, and just about everyone who follow them. But," he said and let out a sigh, "there are also those who fight these monsters. As long as the fight exists, who am I to say there's no hope for this world?"

The hourglass on the top part of the Omnitrix in Azmuth's hand turned green. Just the sight of that color, filling the entire watch again, made each one of Ben's friends feel an enormous weight lift off of their chests. Azmuth continued to work on the watch, but it looked like it was finally over. The universe was not going to be destroyed after all.

"Well then," Natsu grumbled and he crossed his arms over his chest. "It's about time. And Ben," he continued, making the younger boy look up into his eyes. "Good job with beating that guy and all, but he just caught me off guard. I could have taken-"

 _ **Dooommmmm!**_ The ground beneath their feet trembled and half of them fell over. Azmuth fell off of Ben's arm and dropped the top of the Omnitrix, Kairi lost a grip on her Keyblade, and Kirito was in the middle of sheathing his swords and wound up missing one of the sheaths, cutting himself in the shoulder instead. Nami fell over but Sanji had caught Robin already and he cursed loudly and yelled apologies at Nami and asked if she was alright.

"I'm fine!" Nami yelled. She spun her head back and forth as she sat though and she shouted, "But what's going on?"

Riku lifted his hand from Ben's shoulder and the boy snapped his gaze to his older friend. His eyes grew huge as Riku's entire body covered in a black coating that surrounded his muscles tightly to look like clothing. A black heart with a red outline appeared on his chest, and a white aura coated his entire body as he turned and created two Keyblades in his hands. He stepped towards the main island that was now completely separated from them without the bridge connecting the smaller island they were on with the main one. A flash of lightning appeared next to Riku, and Killua reappeared near them as he no longer felt safe on the mainland.

"Nice of you to show up," Usopp muttered, though he was not really focused on Killua at all.

The kid did not say anything back to him, but they all became distracted a second later as a pile of sparking red scrap hit the ground in front of Killua and Riku. Out of nowhere Timmy appeared and stood in front of them, and those far enough on the sides of Timmy's back that they could see his face felt an intense sense of dread at the beads of sweat rolling down his face. Timmy roared and his body started rippling, the island beneath them shaking violently. His arms bulked up, much more than Ben's did before as his actually extended. Timmy's brown hair grew longer and his chest muscles bulged, followed by his abs, and then his legs. He stopped screaming in pain after a few seconds, while his friends behind him started backing up at the feeling of Timmy's strength.

 **"BEN TENNYSON!"** A voice they all recognized echoed over the islands and the water around the mainland rippled before all the waves going towards it changed directions and started heading back into the ocean. A violent white aura formed on the island and flared so huge that it encompassed a hundred yard radius in every direction, and even higher than that up in the air.

"It can't be," Nami whispered.

"He's still alive?" Gray asked in shock.

"Juvia believes it would be a good time to run," the Rain Woman offered.

"No," Ben whispered, already exhausted and now dropping his arms down to his sides as he saw and felt Driscoll's power rising to new heights. "I failed," he whispered.

"That's not true Ben," Riku said. He did not turn to look at the boy who stared at the back of his head as he walked away towards the mainland. Riku continued, "What you did somehow convinced Azmuth to deactivate the Omnitrix. You just saved this world. Don't forget that," Riku lifted off the ground and in a blur of white shot towards the island where they could finally see Driscoll. Even from miles away, they were able to see the man, because he was no longer just a man.

"What the Hell is that thing?" Gray asked, stumbling backwards as he watched it grow even larger.

Usopp's jaw dropped and his slingshot fell from his hand. His head slowly lifted up like the others and turned blue like many of theirs did as well.

"I've seen this before," Natsu said. None of them turned to him, but he continued as if they did, "Soon after I got to Pao Town, there was a full moon. Apparently Goten and Trunks looked at it, and when they did it awakened the beast inside all Saiyans." The others who never really understood what made the Saiyans different from humans suddenly had a very different perspective of them. They stared at this Great Ape, the Oozaru, drawn out thanks to Doctor Genus's genius that he was no longer around to witness and enjoy.

"Can we stop it?" Sanji questioned with a quickly shrinking cigarette in his mouth due to how fast he was puffing it.

"Goku and Vegeta took care of it," Natsu muttered, "but Gohan told me that their powers multiplied by a huge factor. I don't remember what it was," the Dragon Slayer admitted.

The Oozaru stopped growing, and it turned its head towards the small island off of the mainland. It had huge glowing red eyes and a giant mouth sticking out of its face full of sharp teeth that they all saw as it opened its mouth. They thought it was going to roar, but the massive gorilla did not open its mouth for that purpose. Instead, a white glow formed on the inside of its throat and got brighter every second.

"Oh my God," Franky muttered.

"That's not going to be pretty," Killua agreed. He looked around for an escape route but he was trapped on these islands with a massive monster that sounded like it could destroy both islands easily. He cursed under his breath and growled loudly, "We have to take it down!"

"You want to fight that thing?!" Usopp shouted at him.

Killua was already jogging forward though, and he yelled out, "It's all we can do!"

The boy vanished and reappeared on the shore of the island across the water, and an instant later there was another boy next to him. Killua turned left in surprise that his speed was matched but he lost his surprised look at the smaller boy nodding his head up at him. "Let's do this," Dash said, before turning and racing inland ahead of the older boy. Killua looked after him and nodded himself, before chasing the boy towards the feet of the giant monkey. _It's aiming at that island you idiots,_ Killua thought as he charged straight at it. _So listen to me and get off of it already!_

A massive white beam shot out of the Oozaru's mouth. It was a beam wider than Ben's Kamehameha Wave, and it stopped before it reached the island because of a giant black portal that opened in the sky. Riku was panting as he floated behind it with his arm extended and his hand missing inside the darkness. He clenched his teeth for a few seconds before opening his mouth and letting out rapid gasps for air as he tried to control his giant portal of darkness. **"Let me take control. You are still too weak."** _I have this!_ Riku thought, grinding his teeth and yelling out as he concentrated on his dark powers to keep the portal out.

Driscoll-Oozaru finally closed his mouth, and Riku's portal closed as well when the beam faded. He dropped his arm to his side and started panting heavily, and his eyes grew huge as the Great Ape started sprinting across the island. It crushed trees below its feet, the few ones that had not already been cut down on the island. Riku lifted up his Keyblades, but a giant hand smacked him out of the air like a fly. Killua had ran to the right to avoid giant feet, but the boy still got hit by huge rocks that were thrown at him from Riku's collision with the ground twenty yards away. The fourteen year old jumped back to avoid the rocks and he skid away on his feet, before lifting his gaze up to the Oozaru's head in the sky and watching as a muscular eight foot tall figure flew around it punching and kicking, but causing little damage to the monster that was having trouble hitting him back.

Killua stepped back with a face full of fear. _What the Hell was I thinking? Fight something like that? Even Timmy God-damn Turner is having trouble. I, I can't-_

"It's alright Killua," a voice said from the crater in front of him. The boy's eyes snapped down and he looked at the crater in the ground, where an injured figure using a Keyblade to push himself up looked away from him instead at the giant ape they _had_ to fight. "Whether or not you can find it in you to face this opponent, things will work out. One way or another, they always do. You've figured that out by now, right?"

The kid who that morning thought the chances of the universe exploding by nightfall were a hundred percent, and had just given up all hope of survival, dropped his jaw at Riku's words and the sight of the older teen rushing back at the giant monster. _Every time,_ Killua thought. _Every single time I give up, these people prove me wrong._ His hands balled into fists, and he whispered under his breath, "I want to fight with them."

Miles away from the fighters who made it to Driscoll's monstrous form, the others were finding ways to cross back to the mainland without the bridge. They were rushing towards a monster that looked impossible to beat, and Ben watched them all with scared eyes. "What's the matter?" an old, scratchy voice asked behind him. Ben turned around, and Usopp and Nami both looked down at the small creature who stayed back here with them and Ben. Azmuth looked up at Ben and questioned, "Why do you have that look on your face? Don't make me regret fixing this for you."

Ben shook his head and his heart hurt as he spoke, "I tried as hard as I could, with what I thought was my strongest alien. And now Driscoll's even stronger. I just, don't know if I can do this. I tried so hard to save my friends, but now, what if they…" Nami and Usopp both turned to the boy who let a tear drip out of his left eye and roll down his face. He was thinking about his best friends, Dash and Riku, the first ones to charge at the monster, and he imagined Riku getting smacked out of the air by a bone-crushing swing of the Great Ape's hand.

"Well then," Azmuth said, stepping towards Ben and hopping up to his arm, grabbing on and tugging himself onto the kid's hand. Ben shifted his arm so it was easier for Azmuth to stand and the little gray alien lifted up the top piece of Ben's Omnitrix. "If you're that afraid of what's going to happen, then get out there and stop it." He attached the top piece of Ben's Omnitrix and Ben watched as it twisted around on its own, restarting his alien-transforming device. Azmuth started twisting it himself though and he reached into his back pocket, pulled out a small slide like scientists use under microscopes, and he lifted a small piece of plastic off the top of it. Ben watched in confusion as did his pirate friends as Azmuth took the slide and pressed it down on Ben's watch. The watch glowed and Azmuth said, "I admit, there was a part of me that thought I actually might wind up fixing the watch if I came, especially if you really were the one here to convince me."

The black silhouette on the watch's hourglass finally appeared after the watch glowed bright green for several seconds, and Azmuth removed the slide. "You said you used your strongest alien and couldn't beat him? How about you try this one?" Azmuth jumped up and landed on the top of Ben's popped-up Omnitrix. He pressed down on it, and a green light enveloped Ben while the small alien leapt backwards.

Ben's skin rippled and changed color from white to blue. His arms and legs got longer and his torso covered in muscles. His skin was light blue, but navy blue patterns covered his entire body. His hair was purple and spikier than anyone the pirates next to him had ever met, which was amazing for Nexus. He had a dark red shiny orb in the center of his chest, but there was a black line going straight up and down the orb and then vertically up the rest of his blue body. The black line split around his waist and kept going down his legs, while it broke apart near his neck and made a black wrapping around it. Directly in the center of this black line that split Ben vertically, in the middle of the red core in the boy's muscular chest, was the green hourglass symbol of the Omnitrix.

"Holy-" Usopp started.

"Crap," Nami finished for him.

Ben stood twice as tall as both pirates. He lifted up his right hand and clenched it in front of his body. The air above his hand all the way up to the clouds rippled and the pirates, and even Azmuth, dropped their jaws. Ben lifted up that clenched fist in front of his face and the single eye that took up the majority of the top half of his face narrowed at it while the sharp shiny white teeth in his mouth all became visible as he smirked. The kid chuckled in a deep scary tone that sent shivers down the other three's spines, then said in that same tone, "I can work with this."

The alien took one step forward, then another as he started to jog. He ran towards the edge of the small island, and then he vanished so fast and suddenly that Nami and Usopp's eyes widened into saucers. The boy left behind only a pink line that traced where he just shot off to, and a second after that line appeared over the channel, the water dropped down into a deep trench that continued once it reached the opposite shore.

"Whoa!" Gray yelled and stumbled to the left as the ground on his right tore apart.

"Sorry about that!" A deep voice yelled back to him. Gray and all the others running across the mostly flat mainland spun their gazes after the pink trail of aura and spotted the figure inside it as he stopped moving a hundred yards in front of Driscoll.

Timmy flew up in the air after his last punch collided with Driscoll's and made a shockwave that threatened to split the island below them completely in half. He wanted the monster to focus his attacks in the sky, and thought about how much easier it was to fight when he did not have all his friends' lives to worry about too. As Ben appeared below him though, Timmy looked down at him in astonishment. "Ben?!" He shouted, unable to recognize him. He normally could not recognize Ben when the older boy was fighting as an alien, but this time his entire energy changed as well.

"It's me Timmy," Ben said, his voice calm, cocky, and full of anticipation. He did not look up at Timmy, but stared straight ahead into the glowing red eyes of the monster in front of him. "That's right Driscoll," Ben said as he knew he saw a look of recognition in the monster's eyes. "It's me, Ben," the kid said, and the lips of the Great Ape lifted up so that it could bare its pearly whites at him. "And you know what else?" Ben asked. He vanished and appeared in front of the Great Ape's face with his leg snapped up, and the Oozaru flying backwards away from him. He lowered back down his leg and watched the ape hit the ground and skid back across the island. The kid pulled back his fist and chased after the Oozaru, while yelling at the top of his lungs, "IT'S HERO TIME!"

* * *

 **Several Hours Later...**

In the old Forever King's great hall, a room that no longer had two of its walls and its ceiling, two dozen people were gathered. Half of them were soldiers, half of them were scientists, but there were two who did not belong to either group. Charmcaster leaned back where she stood and put her hands in her pockets. She looked ahead at her sister while the others around them all discussed loudly about what they were going to do now. "Guess we should start looking for someplace new," Charmcaster said to her longer haired sister who had her hair falling straight down contrasting Charmcaster's ponytail.

"Please don't leave." Charmcaster turned left and saw a muscular solider in full armor except a helmet looking at her pleadingly. The high-ranked officer in one of the battalions of Forever Knights held out his hands towards the witch before him, "We're at our weakest point. If anyone else comes to take the Forever Kingdom right now, we'll be destroyed for sure."

"Yes," a scientist, the leader of the scientific team actually, stepped towards the witches and agreed loudly. The others stopped talking as much as this older woman seemed to take charge. "We need to go to the Emperor and request he send a new Lord to rule the Forever Kingdom. If we stay under his protection, we will avoid the power struggle that is sure to-"

The scientist collapsed. Everyone opened their eyes wide, including Charmcaster, at the sight of Dreamcaster standing behind her with an arm extended. "It's okay," she said at the sight of all their horrified and shocked looks. "I just made her fall asleep," Dreamcaster said, though as she did the woman on the ground started writhing around from the horrible nightmares she was having. Dreamcaster smirked at the fearful looks the others started giving her and she turned her back to them. She started walking away and called out, "Enoch, Driscoll, they were idiots. I bet the next person I'm told to follow will turn out to be a fool as well."

Dreamcaster walked up steps cluttered with pieces of the roof. She reached a chair at the top and reached down, wiping the dust and debris off of it with a few swipes of her arm. "We broke off ties with the Emperor," she said in a more serious, threatening tone. She turned around and glared into the room full of subordinates and her sister who was stepping towards the steps with huge eyes. Dreamcaster smirked at her sister's awed look, and she questioned loudly, "Do you really think a man like him will accept us back? No," she shook her head and then sat down on the throne behind her. "All we can do is prepare for what he's going to try and do to us now that our forces have been severely weakened."

The woman sat on the Forever King's throne, something that Driscoll would have killed someone for. The throne meant power, and Dreamcaster just took it. The look in her eyes dared a single person in the room, even her sister, to make a noise against her. They all stayed silent. "Good," she said. The young woman leaned back in her chair and crossed her left leg over her right. "I rule this kingdom now."

"What-" Charmcaster began, and Dreamcaster darted her gaze down angrily that her sister would interrupt her crowning moment. Charmcaster gulped but then looked at her sister seriously, "What about Ben Tennyson? And the others with him?" Her older sister frowned deeply and Charmcaster continued, "They are still on the main island. I just heard that even more powerful fighters have arrived and joined them, including Son Goku."

"You think this was their final destination?" Dreamcaster scoffed. She put her arms behind her head and grinned, "Those idiots sure blabbed a lot at that feast we drugged them at. They're heading to Aebrith to save their friends and fight the King." As soon as she said it she burst out into laughter and the figures all around the room dropped their jaws wondering if she was serious. "Haha, ha, and the best part is," she said, trying hard to speak which was difficult to do between laughs. She threw her arms up in the air and in an amused voice yelled, "They actually think they can beat him!" She lowered her arms and stopped laughing, though the grin stayed on her face as her eyes narrowed and she stared through the hole in the wall out towards the main island. "They have no idea what they're getting themselves into."

* * *

 **A/N Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Some pretty intense battles and it almost looked like the universe was going to end there for a minute... though I doubt I tricked anyone into believing it XD. Tell me what you thought of the arc, comments about the story, or predictions/questions about the future of Nexus. I hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day, and will have a great Mardi Gras weekend! Dr. Genus is the scientist from One Punch Man who created the House of Evolution. The rest of the villains were all from Ben 10, (except for Dreamcaster who I created in my other fanfic Nightmares XD ). Anyway, review responses:**

joebob323 chapter 16 . Feb 7

I predict... that the forever knight will die! Not a painful one, but if he thinks he is as strong as a saiyan, he is in for a huge surprise...in goku's base form, he might be about equal, but even then, goku has 3 more transformations that even with his blood, no human can access... on a brighter note, have you seen DBS, the new arc? It's pretty cool, and the animation techniques are back to the old style!

 **Nice prediction haha! Thanks for the review, guess you were probably right on that guess even though I did end the fight a little vaguely. I definitely agree that had Goku been there, this would have ended very quickly. Hope you guys don't think I nerfed Timmy too much for this battle, he did have to face most of the enhanced soldiers, and the Forever Ninja before even seeing Oozaru-Driscoll, so it shouldn't be too tough to believe. I agree that this new DBS arc looks awesome! Can't wait for some awesome Roshi, Tien, Krillin, and ANDROID 17 battles against the strongest fighters in the multiverse!**

Espada-001 chapter 16 . Feb 7

Well it's certainly dangerous that the Forever Knights got their hands on some of Goku's DNA. That's is if they live long enough to see any actual results. Saiyan's are strong theirs no doubt about that however that's only because they get stronger through trial of combat. Sure they might give an initial boost of strength but if they want to see any actual results they're going to have to grind it out. Hell Ben's watch would give him a better boost since it uses only the best DNA to put him at the pinnacle of each respective race, to be honest I can't remember if I said this already but Ben's watch is likely to have given him the DNA of a Legendary Super Saiyan. Anyway I did enjoy the chapter and I can't wait to see more of one of the smartest if not the smartest characters ever come into play some more in future chapters. Well that's all I have for now so until next time have a wonderful evening and I can't wait for the next chapter! Goodnight! :)

 **Those Forever Knights definitely got some good use out of that DNA, and out of Natsu's Dragon-y stuff too for Animo's creations. The fact that the enhanced soldiers did not have any training with their powers was a main reason that they lost all control and fell apart, though really, is injecting a different species DNA into your system ever a good idea? XD guess not! Animo thought he had it under control, but Driscoll brutally crushed his skull before starting his fight against our heroes. You called it with Ben's Saiyan form being stronger than theirs, however I would argue with the Legendary Super Saiyan thing for one reason, and that's that Azmuth did not put the DNA in the watch. Ben did not get "the best DNA" from the Saiyans, he probably got a sample from one of the Saiyans he knows who he bumped his watch into one day. If he hit Gohan with his watch to be able to become a Saiyan, he wouldn't get DNA with the mutation that makes a Saiyan into a Legendary, I think he would have had to hit Broly himself to get that. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter, and thanks for the review! Sorry the chapter took a while :P**

Darugus chapter 16 . Feb 8

If you don't mind me asking what is the time limit on the omitrix for transformation

 **Don't mind at all, but I'm not too sure. Watched the show a lot, it was never really specified. It just seemed to run out at the right time or right in the middle of a fight. Since Ben has more control over transforming now, the whole being able to transform multiple times in the same go thing, he probably has a better idea of how long he can last, but he will have problems with that in the future... But no spoilers. Thanks for the review!**

 **-Thanks again to everyone who reviewed, faved, and followed this story. I'll have another update up soon. 'Till next time!**


	18. Nexus HWR 3-4 Z

**A/N Hey guys, sorry for not putting this in the Author's Note at the end of the last chapter, but the alien Ben transformed into at the end was the same one as Lord Boros from One Punch Man. Saw some confusion over that, so guess I should have made it more clear. Anyway, enjoy the latest chapter!**

* * *

 **Nexus HWR 3.4 Z:**

"Come on Ben," Dash moaned. "What's taking so long?"

"There are ten thousands aliens on this thing," Ben snapped back at him. The thirteen year old twisted the green knob on top of his watch around and around but he just kept frowning at the dark silhouette on top of it. "I don't know why I can't transform into him the same way as everyone else… there!" Ben stopped twisting the watch as he saw a bipedal creature with spikes coming out of its head. The watch's top popped up and the boy rose his hand high above it while Dash got an excited look on his face. "Dominator!" Ben yelled, slamming his open hand down on the watch.

A green light enveloped Ben's body, faded away, and Dash lost his excited look as he lowered his gaze to the floor in front of him. Ben lifted up his own hands and in a high-pitched, squeaky voice, he shouted, "Gray Matter?! Whaat?" He dropped his tiny gray hands and lifted his big green eyes up at Dash who lost his initial disappointment and was now smirking and trying to keep his cheeks puffed out. He could not stop himself though and started laughing at Ben's total failure to transform into the alien he wanted as he now looked just like the creator of the Omnitrix, only a lot less old.

Another flash of green light surrounded Ben and he transformed again into a much faster alien that he started chasing Dash around with. The two of them sped down the stairs from the side of the cabin where they were talking and raced across the grassy main deck of the Sunny. A long-nosed pirate standing on the side of the ship did three spins as blurs flew by him so fast he was taken by the wind. When Usopp finally stopped spinning he was wobbly on his feet and he had to shake his head around to regather his bearings.

He waved a fist after the blurs and yelled at them, then turned back to the edge of the ship where he had his fishing rod attached and the line out in the water. The sniper watched as the lure bobbed, but it did not look like he caught a bite yet. Usopp sighed and leaned back, then heard someone behind him and turned his head slightly to glance back out the corner of his eyes. "Hey Juvia-sis!" Franky said as the blue-haired girl walking across the grass deck came close to him. "Mind giving me a hand with this?" The cyborg asked, catching Usopp's attention as Franky had been working on an invention on the main deck for over an hour now. Juvia smiled at him and got down on her knees to help with the contraption he had set up.

Usopp continued to fish but he glanced back every so often to watch what the other two were doing. He was getting confused as he watched them though, _What's she doing?_ He thought Franky needed Juvia's water powers for something, but he watched as Franky handed her a wrench and she leaned into the bowl-shaped top section of the device. The girl had a blue tank top on and a pair of black shorts, and she tied her hair up in a ponytail behind her head to keep it out of the way as she worked. Juvia leaned back and she wiped some sweat off her face before handing Franky back his wrench with the same hand, "Did Juvia do well?" She asked.

"Better," Franky said as he looked away from the part he was currently working on and looked at what he asked her to do for him. He turned to her and threw his arms up over his head, and Juvia did the same thing, putting her arms together and pointing them diagonally the same direction Franky was. Franky yelled out, "You did-" and the two of them together shouted, "SUPER!"

Juvia started laughing as she lowered her arms and she got back up in front of Franky. He thanked her for her help and Juvia shook her head, "Juvia is happy to help." She turned away from Franky and as she turned she caught Usopp staring, but he quickly spun back to look out over the water.

Usopp had a frown on his face as he looked back towards his fishing lure. He did not know what it was at first, and then it suddenly hit him. _All that time I spent as a Heartless, Juvia got to sail with Luffy and the others. She's been more a member of this crew than I have these last two years. I was barely-_ "Usopp-san," a voice spoke behind him and Usopp jumped, spinning around as he had not heard anyone approaching. The girl on his mind was standing behind him, looking a little nervous herself.

 _Juvia is close with all of Luffy-san's crew. Juvia wishes to be Usopp-san's friend too._ She shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she thought of what to say to the man who was looking at her as hesitantly as she was looking at him. The idea hit her as she looked past him and her face lit up, "Would Usopp-san like help fishing?" Usopp looked at her confusedly, and then his eyes lit up too as he realized what she was offering.

"Can your water powers help?" Usopp wondered, looking out towards his lure as Juvia stepped up next to him.

She nodded her head and reached her arms out over the ledge of the ship. She waved her hands out then turned them back towards herself and pulled in, then repeated the motion several times. Usopp watched the water as it started pushing away from the Sunny and then back towards them in waves that were getting larger with every motion she made. His eyes widened in wonder and he glanced right at the girl, but she was extremely focused on what she was doing. Her eyes examined the waves she was creating and she finally spotted something shimmer under the surface, _There!_ Juvia swung her arms straight up and the wave exploded, bursting in every direction while one part of it shot straight up in the air like a jet, propelling a twenty-foot long tuna up in the air towards the side of the ship.

The tuna was floundering around in its descent towards the ship's edge, and it was falling really close to the side of the Sunny. Usopp and Juvia saw it coming and neither were expecting it to be this big. Since Juvia did not think it was this large though, she did not put enough force behind it and it was falling back down before reaching the side of the ship. It was within arms reach though, and both of the panicking fishers reached out to try and catch the fish. It slammed into their arms and they struggled to hold on while leaning their top halves off of the boat.

Franky looked up from his invention and Dash and Ben stopped running around nearby as they spotted the two leaning so far off the side. Franky stood up and called out, "Oi! If you-"

"Ah! Hold on!" Dash shouted, starting to run across the ship. He made it in an instant and reached out to grab onto the back of Usopp's overalls, only for the weight of the tuna, Usopp, and Juvia all falling off the side of the ship to pull him with them. Ben was running over as well and although he was semi-panicked at the sight of the three of them toppling over the edge, the boy could not help but burst out laughing at Dash's scream when he wound up falling too.

The three crashed down into the water and Franky yelled, "Men overboard! And Juvia!"

Usopp, Dash, and Juvia all hit the rough water on the side of the ship and dropped beneath the surface. A second later, all three of them were shooting back up in the air in a pillar of water that arced and plopped them down right back on the deck where everyone else was running to after hearing they fell off. Ben's laughter cut off a second before the huge mass of water fell on him, but getting wet was the least of what stopped his laughter.

Usopp coughed up a bucket of water and sat up fast. He shook around his head to get some water off his hair, then turned to Juvia who was wringing out her wet blue ponytail. "Thanks," he told her, though he scratched the back of his head as he wondered whether he would have fell in in the first place if she had not thrown a giant fish at him. She had a red face as she was thinking about the same thing, but before she could apologize, the two of them spun hearing loud laughter coming from all around. It started with Dash, but the others who ran over to see if their friends were okay all started laughing as well at the sight of a twenty-foot long fish lying on top of Ben's stomach as the young boy pushed up on it trying to breathe.

"Nice catch," Luffy called over. "Sanji!" He shouted, but the chef waved him off as he was already heading down to get the ingredient for their next meal.

The others called out how good of a snag it was too, and Usopp turned back to Juvia who was looking around in surprise at all the praise. "The amazing Captain Usopp could not have done it without Juvia's help!"

"We know," Nami called over to him, as it was her blue haired friend she was congratulating in the first place. She sighed though and shook her head as Juvia started laughing along with Usopp and the two wet people a couple of years younger than her started talking. _Good,_ Nami thought with a smile. _Juvia's a member of this crew after all. It's about time Usopp…_ Nami stopped her current train of thought as she had a strange feeling hit her all at once. Several others on the ship tensed up as well, because they all heard the same thing that made their entire bodies fill with shivers, the good kind of shivers.

 _"OhhOHHohhhh… Aaahhhooo! Eee, eeelaala. Sailing ships and rising tides, yohoo, yohoo…"_ The voices they heard were so beautiful all of them spun around, needing to find out where the song was coming from. Sanji dropped the huge fish on the deck and blood dripped out of his nose from the sound of those voices alone. Juvia and Usopp froze mid-conversation and both snapped their heads to port, then starboard, searching for the source of those beautiful voices.

"Rin, what is it?" Kuro asked. The small black cat on Rin's shoulder saw its master tense up and look around so it did the same. "What's up with those weird voices?" Kuro asked.

"Weird?" Rin asked, his voice getting angry. Kuro looked confused as Rin shot a glare at it. "Those are the most beautiful voices, I've ever heard," halfway through his sentence he lost his enraged look and his mouth curled up again as his eyes closed. Kuro leapt off his shoulder and backed away as Rin started walking like he was in a trance towards the starboard side.

Timmy floated down from the top of the mast with his head tilted back, his eyes closed, and his face looking like he was in a state of euphoria. "What is that?" He mumbled, landing next to Nami without even looking at her. The navigator was just as entranced as him though, listening to the sounds of female voices that seemed to touch her very soul.

"Franky," Nami called out, though not turning to her left to look at the cyborg. "Turn us, towards the sound of those voices."

 _"Follow the sound of our song… Come find us. OooOOOooo…_ Stepping out of the cabin were two teenagers, both of whom looked like they were feeling the same way as everyone else. They heard the voices louder now and spun to starboard, staggering over and looking over the ledge into the distance. They turned more towards the bow and saw it as Franky started turning the ship, "Look," Sora said, nudging his older friend with an elbow. "Out there."

Riku did not say anything back to him. The silver haired teen was just staring with wide green eyes at the island in the distance. It was not a huge island, in fact it was just a large cluster of rocks. However, as they got closer he could see several figures sitting on the rocks close to the water where waves splashed up and made a mist fall down over them. The women the mist fell over waved their heads around to get some of the water off and their hair glistened with little droplets of water on them. They continued to sing the entire time and there was a glow around each of their bodies, five of them in total who were so gorgeous he could not look away.

"Guys, what's wrong?" Kairi asked, stepping towards the two who had walked away from her inside the cabin and were now staring the same direction as everyone else. She did not like how weird this was, and as the ship turned more, everyone lining the starboard side of the ship started walking as if they were in a trance towards the bow of the ship. "Sora? Sora! Riku," Sora walked away and Kairi tugged on Riku's arm as he was about to walk past to. "Something's wrong!" Kairi shouted at him, seeing a glossy look in his eyes.

 **"Listen to her Riku,"** a voice said in the silver haired young man's head. His eyes became less glossy and a look of confusion spread across his face instead. **"This is unnatural. Look around at your friends,"** Ansem's voice echoed in his mind and Riku snapped his head back and forth to see everyone near him was wandering towards the front of the ship, all except for Kairi. "What is…"

 _"AhhAAhhaaa-ohhhmm…"_ A beautiful voice forced itself inside Riku's mind as he opened his mouth to talk to Kairi, and his mouth slowly closed as his eyes glossed back over. Kairi grabbed him by the arm and shouted at him, but Riku shrugged her off and kept walking, the same as everyone else who left the cabin or came around it from the stern to head towards the bow. "Guys! Guys!" Kairi yelled, tugging on each of their arms and running after them towards the bow. "What's happening to all of you?!" She yelled confusedly.

"Hey Kairi," a voice said directly behind the teenage girl on the starboard side of the main deck. She stopped in her tracks and spun around, then lifted up her gaze to the man behind her's face. Goku tilted his head to the side and asked, "What's everyone doing?"

"I don't know," Kairi said. She looked flustered and spun back to the others who were all climbing the steps to the front deck. She chased after them with Goku right behind her and watched them gather at the edge of the bow where they stared off in awe. Luffy jumped over the bow and crawled across the Thousand Sunny's lion face figurehead to get as far forward as he could. He put his chin in his hands and let out an enamored sigh while staring across the ocean's surface at the source of all the beautiful sounds. Kairi and Goku turned left as a figure walked by them and Kairi's eyes widened at the sight of Franky striding past.

The auburn haired girl spun around and looked at the helm. She lowered her bottom lip even more at the sight of the contraption Franky had been working on all morning in pieces next to it, and two of its pieces were sticking in between pegs of the wheel to keep it going straight. "Franky!" Kairi yelled at the cyborg's back. "What are you doing?"

"It's okay," Franky mumbled and waved a hand to the side.

"Robin! Gray! Ben!" Kairi spun around and looked at all these people leaning farther and farther over the bow. The ship was approaching the rocks fast and Kairi started to get nervous as she looked out at the figures she could hear from the deck. She heard them and their voices sent shivers down her spine. Not because their voices were scratchy or bad-sounding to her ears, but because she was able to see what the creatures really looked like did their voices give her chills. The naked women on the rocks ahead had crusty mouths that were pale white, and sharp teeth stuck out of their gums with small gaps between them where Kairi could sweat she saw lingering pieces of flesh. Even more nerve-racking were the planks of wood and shreds of white cloth laying around the rocks, and the breaking of waves near the closest of the visible rocks, implying there were other shallow surfaces even before the creepy women.

"They sure have nice voices," Goku mentioned, though he still looked confused as he stared ahead at all the strangely acting pirates, mages, and children in front of him. He turned back to Kairi who was not acting like them and saw a look of realization on the teenage girl's face. "What is it?" He questioned.

"Have you ever heard of," Kairi began, turning to the older man, "sirens?" Goku tilted his head showing that he did not and Kairi spun back to her friends and the quickly approaching rocks beyond them. "They lure sailors in with their beautiful song," Kairi whispered. "And then…" She had never been too clear on what happened after that, but she knew one thing for sure. "Goku," she spun to the older man again. "We have to get away from here! The ship's going to run aground!"

"Shouldn't we tell Nami?" Goku asked. He looked ahead and called out, "Nami, Kairi thinks we're going to crash into the rocks."

"It's okay," Nami said. She reached an arm out over the railing, "Because we're almost there."

Goku frowned and he scratched the back of his head. "Huh, I guess maybe we should do this ourselves."

Natsu climbed up on the railing and he crouched with his feet on the bow. He stared out in awe and if he thought he could swim faster that the Sunny was moving, he would have dove off to swim there already. "They're so beautiful," he whispered.

"Pretty ladies," Sanji mumbled. "Beautiful ladies. Cute ladies." He had the urge to get there sooner, but the song compelled him to stay on his ship or to jump in the ocean. The urge to use his Sky Walk to get to them was not there for some reason, the same reason Timmy was not flying over in an instant. The little boy in a pink hat floated up over the railing, and his eyes were glossed completely over. He stared straight ahead at the sirens, and then he stared ahead and to the left at them, just like everyone else.

The entire crew became confused as they had to start looking left to follow the rocks they were staring at. It looked like the rocks were moving to port, and many of them realized at the same time that it was not the rocks that were moving, but their ship itself. They spun around and saw Kairi behind the wheel, spinning it to the right and yelling at them although her voice became muffled as soon as it reached their ears.

"What are you doing?" Gray asked, taking a step back towards her.

Dash spun to Kairi and then back over the edge of the ship. "No," the kid muttered. He ran to the edge, jumped up on the railing, and whispered, "I need to get to them. That song, it's so…" _**Splash!**_ Dash was in the water before he finished his sentence. He popped back over the surface and started swimming forward, waves occasionally breaking over his head but the smile not once leaving his mouth as he only heard the song getting louder.

Most of the others who saw Dash go in the water watched him get closer to the sirens than them, and they all dove off after him. They were falling on top of each other and knocking their own comrades even farther below the water in pain. Natsu marched back towards the wheel with Gray and Sora at his sides though. "Turn the ship back that way," Natsu growled.

"Kairi, we need to go over there," Sora said, his eyes as glossy as everyone else's.

"Sora," Kairi said, her heart hurting. She lifted up her right hand and showed him the ring on it, "Why do you need to go to them? Listen to yourself. This isn't you."

"This isn't me?" Sora questioned. He looked over the bow and stared towards those gorgeous women who kept singing to him in beautiful voices. Goku was no longer on the ship with the four of them, as he had dove overboard and swam down to gather up Kirito, Luffy, and Robin who sank upon hitting the water. Sora stared back ahead at the auburn haired girl who was looking increasingly afraid as two figures walked up on either side of her with threatening expressions on their faces.

Sora blinked a few times, his eyes losing their glossy coating. He heard the song getting louder and he threw his hands up to his temples, clenching his eyes shut and screaming loudly to get the sound out of his head. "Natsu! Gray!" He yelled, snapping his eyes open and glaring forward at the men about to grab onto his fiancé. They turned towards him and Sora stomped forward in a way that made the entire front deck shake. "Step away from her."

"The song," Gray shouted back at the spiky haired teen. "We need to-" Gray froze mid-sentence and he gained a confused look as did Natsu on the other side of Kairi. They became confused because the song they were listening to stopped, making a deep sense of sadness fill them instead. Once that passed though, they became confused and stepped away from Kairi who they were just showing very threatening looks. Gray turned from Kairi to Sora who was still glaring at him and the ice mage gulped, thinking back on the day everyone on the ship went insane when he saw what Sora could really do when he got mad.

"Who did these clothes belong to?" Goku questioned, standing on top of a rock in front of five scared sirens. The Saiyan had three figures tucked under his right arm, all very confused as to what was going on as the sirens had stopped singing and their effect was wearing off. And all three of the Devil Fruit eaters were also dead silent because of Goku's expression at the moment. Goku looked down at some blood-soaked clothes sitting out on the rock, and he turned left to see part of a hull washed up between two larger rocks, and bones sitting on top of the wood.

 _"Hsssss!"_

 _"How are you resisting our song?"_

 _"What are you?"_

Goku frowned that these things were talking to him. He rose up his left hand and pointed it forward at the creatures that looked somewhat human but he could tell were monsters. "I am sorry," he said. "I never like taking a life." The five creatures screamed, but their screams lasted less than a second. All of them, and the rocks beyond where Goku was standing, became engulfed in a white cone of light that shot out of Goku's hand. When the light vanished, so did the creatures, so did the other rocks besides the one tiny piece Goku was standing on, and so did the water's surface for about a mile past Goku's hand creating a long trench ten meters wide the whole way.

Robin and Kirito were sweating a little while Luffy's eyes just opened wide at the awesome display of power. Those floating in the ocean behind them had varied reactions as well, with Sanji's being the most extreme as he screamed out in sorrow and anger.

A few minutes later, a soaking wet crew was back on the Thousand Sunny. Sora was still apologizing to Kairi, telling her he had no idea what came over her, and Rin was petting Kuro who said he was really afraid when Rin jumped off the ship. Natsu and Gray both apologized to Kairi too, but Sanji marched up to Goku and frowned at the Saiyan while everyone else was drying off and trying to get over what just happened. "Why did you do that?" Sanji snapped at the Saiyan.

Goku looked at Sanji in surprise, and he replied, "They were trying to kill all of you."

"You didn't know that!" Sanji exclaimed.

"Sanji, he just saved our lives," Nami groaned over at the idiot chef.

"He harmed ladies," Sanji growled, glaring harder at Goku who frowned back at him. The Saiyan scratched the back of his head and he did not know how to react to Sanji's anger. "You did not have to kill them," the chef growled. A lot of others looked over now, and Luffy could see Sanji was actually angry here, not just moaning because of a broken heart. They watched as Goku and Sanji made eye contact for several seconds with neither one saying anything.

Finally, Goku lowered his arm back down to his side, and he said, "If I left them there, they would have caught the next sailors going past. It looked like they had killed a lot before." Goku reached a hand forward and put it on Sanji's left shoulder, "In the words of someone I once knew: 'There are those, who words alone will not reach.'" The others were opening their eyes wide while staring at the usually carefree Saiyan warrior. Goku continued, "Sometimes, you know that by letting someone go, they will cause a lot of pain it the future. I've made the mistake before. There are some creatures that are beyond reasoning with. I do not like to hurt, but," Goku smiled softly, thinking back once more, "it is because I cherish life, that I must protect it. I believed that leaving those monsters behind would have caused others to die in their place. I couldn't allow that."

Sanji did not know what to say as Goku lowered his hand from the chef's shoulder. Goku turned away and walked off, most people staring at his back as he did. They were all pretty quiet so they all heard Franky loud and clear when he shouted a few seconds later, "Land ho!" Everyone sitting down and catching their breath after the experience got back up on their feet. The crew looked tired and they were all soaking wet, with the exceptions of Kairi, Goku, and Kuro the black cat.

They looked over the bow of the ship together and spotted a lighthouse in the distance, its white light occasionally flashing their way. Nami sighed a deep breath of relief as the sight of a lighthouse meant there were people there, _real_ people. "Let's get ready to land," she said and the others started running around to get to work. Nami took a step forward and under her breath muttered, "I've had enough of the sea for one day."

* * *

 **The Next Day**

"We've definitely got to go back to that island on the way home," Dash said while looking off the stern of the ship. The island was fading into the horizon behind him, but Dash was still smiling thinking about all the nice people they met there.

The others at the stern with the twelve year old agreed with the sentiment. Natsu leaned back and interlocked his hands behind his head. "Sounds like we're getting close to our destination anyway. What'd Arthur say? A few days?"

"I thought he said we were still a week out," Ben mentioned. Natsu shrugged and turned around, walking away as he did not care that much. He looked a little nervous as he walked off though, as he was wondering when Wendy's Troia magic would fade off and his chronic motion sickness would return.

The others all walked off after Natsu, but two boys stayed there a little longer. Dash turned to his best friend, "How are you doing Ben?"

Ben looked at Dash and he could see what Dash meant. Ben sighed, "I'm fine," he said. "Azmuth said he took away the self-destruct function altogether this time. So at least I don't have to worry about the watch bugging out on me again."

"That's good," Dash said and smiled. He looked out over the ocean and the island they left a while ago had finally vanished in the distance. "How far away from Pao do you think we are now?"

"How far?" Ben repeated. He hummed to himself as he thought about it, then shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows, I'd guess at least a thousand miles. Maybe two."

"Two thousand? Really?" Dash asked in awe. Neither of them knew just how low-balling it they were.

"Probably," Ben answered him. "I didn't think the boat ride was going to be this long actually. I thought it was going to be a quick trip over to Aebrith, but you know what? I think this is nicer." Dash nodded his head in agreement. Ben kept going anyway, "After months of fighting the Underworld nonstop, that short break we had after Metropolis really wasn't enough. Once we get to Aebrith it sounds like we're gonna be caught up in some tough fights. But at least for now, we can just enjoy an adventure as pirates. We fight occasionally, but most of the time it's just sailing, and exploring, and a lot of fun, right?"

"Yeah!" Dash agreed quickly. "This has been the most fun I've had since-" he stopped and thought for a second, before his eyes widened and he said out loud, "ever. This is more fun than I've ever had."

"Well, you're still young. Don't worry, there will be other fun adventures to-"

"I'm young?!" Dash exclaimed. "You're only a year older than me!"

"A year's a long amount of time," Ben said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Besides, look at our height difference." He smirked down at the shorter boy by a whole head.

"Eh?! What does height have to do-"

"Hey guys! Come look at this!"

Ben grinned as Dash was interrupted. He pointed towards the bow with his thumb, "That's my cue." He turned and ran off while his best friend fumed angrily behind him and then gave chase.

Ben ran around the cabin to the balcony right before the stairs down to the main deck. He looked across the grassy deck where a lot of the others were running towards the bow, and he looked over the bow deck as well to the ocean past it. "Whoa," Ben gasped and stared out there in awe.

Dash came around the bend preparing to say something to Ben, but his jaw just dropped instead. He hopped up on the railing and leaned forward with his right hand flat in front of his forehead. He peered out and said, "That's a lot of ships."

"That would be an understatement," someone said on their left. They turned and looked at the third member of their group of three best friends. Riku was standing there looking out over the ocean with a growing frown on his face. "Look at the sails," he said to his younger friends.

Dash and Ben turned away from him and looked back out over the sea. Everyone on the front deck was talking loudly about the incoming ships, but the boys were no longer planning to go up and join them. "The sails?" Dash mumbled. There were over ten ships sailing in their direction, with one huge one directly in the center. All of them had blue sails, and in the middle of those sails were symbols just like the Straw Hats had on their ship.

Instead of a skull and crossbones with a straw hat on top though, there was a tall cross behind the skull with the horizontal piece close to the top. Farther down the cross was the skull, but with spikes sticking out of the top like the dead man had spiky hair. But the strangest thing about the sail were the two curved white lines that stretched to either side from below the skull. The lines had concave down arcs so that it kind of looked like the type of bird a kid draws on a picture in art class. The lines were white on dark blue sail backgrounds and Ben wondered out loud, "Are those supposed to be seagulls?"

"That was my thought," Riku agreed. "And who else uses seagulls as their symbol?" He questioned.

Ben and Dash's eyes popped open wide. "The Marines," they said quickly.

Some people on the front deck realized the same thing and were getting nervous at the thought. "Is that a fleet of Marine ships?" Usopp exclaimed.

"The symbol is off, but it does bear a striking resemblance," Robin said.

"Even if they are Marines," Gray began. "Don't you think Aokiji would have let this men know not to attack us?"

"Huh? Why would he do that?" Luffy asked the mage on his right. Gray stared confusedly at Luffy for a few seconds and Luffy continued as if talking to a child, "Pirates fight Marines. Marines fight pirates."

"Baka!" Nami snapped at her captain. "After we let Aokiji travel with us all that time, you really think he's got the Marines out trying to catch us?"

"He doesn't?!" Luffy exclaimed in surprise. Luffy turned to Nami, "Are you sure?"

"God Luffy you can be such an idiot," Nami grumbled. "Why do you think we were allowed in Metropolis after the battle? Kuzan probably told his men that we had free passes."

"So then we shouldn't worry about those ships?" Rin asked the woman in front of him.

"Not at all," Nami replied.

"Then why are they firing at us?" The half-demon questioned. Nami blinked a few times, then turned her head and dropped her jaw at the sight of hundreds of cannonballs flying their way.

"Franky! Hard to-" Nami stopped her orders midway as all of the cannonballs stopped flying at them. Everyone preparing to jump up and defend the ship hesitated and wondered what was going on.

One boy at the bow with them looked around and said, "Oh sorry, did you guys want to get those?" Timmy looked genuinely concerned and he turned back to the cannonballs. "Because I could let them go if you want," he offered, having frozen all the attacks in midair with his mind.

Luffy frowned for a second but he shook his head and smiled wide. "Do whatever you want Timmy. They're enemies, let's go all out!" He threw his fists forward and grabbed the figurehead of the Thousand Sunny. "Gum Gum, ROCKET!" Luffy threw himself up in the air and in between all the cannonballs hovering there.

Timmy watched Luffy go and he dropped the attacks. He did not want to fire them back at the ships and blow up all those random people, so he dropped them straight down into the ocean.

"Alright! Franky pull in the sails, Sanji, steer us to the right of their fleet," Nami barked out orders to the others.

"I'm taking Mini Merry!" Usopp shouted with glee. He ran towards the cabin and a woman he ran past turned with him.

"I will come along," Robin said with a small grin.

"Natsu," Nami called down to the starboard side of the main grassy deck. "Go down to the lower deck and open up the port-side gunports. Push out the cannons and-"

"Yeah, not gonna happen," Natsu said. Usopp and Robin turned back towards the deck, Franky looked at the man next to him, and Sanji turned from the wheel. Natsu was leaning off the starboard side and he looked far forward at the armada of ships where a single man was jumping around going nuts all over his opponents.

"Oi," Sanji growled back at the Dragon Slayer. "Listen to what Nami-san says or-"

"No, Natsu's right," Gray called up to Sanji who turned to the ice mage now in surprise. Sanji thought the fire mage was just being an ass, but Gray seemed more reasonable than that. "We're not actually pirates," Gray said. "And if that is a splinter faction of the Navy, I'm not fighting them."

"Why not?!" Usopp yelled back at him.

"Because the Marines are the good guys," Rin said to the long-nosed pirate at the doorway a few feet from him. Usopp turned to the teen in surprise but Rin did not look prepared for a fight either.

"So what?" Nami shouted. "Are you all just going to sit around while we fight? They're going to attack whether or not you fight back. You _are_ on a pirate ship!"

"I guess, I'll help," Ben announced. The boy jogged forward on the main deck and glanced over at Natsu who just shrugged at him. He ran up to the bow and looked at Nami hesitantly, "I gotta help Luffy after all."

Nami nodded at the boy, but she did so as hesitantly as he did. _Am I really going to send Ben into battle? Why are the Marines attacking us?"_

"More incoming!" Timmy shouted. He rose his right hand and opened it into a palm that froze the next volley of cannonballs. Once he froze them though, Timmy's eyes shot open wide and he snapped his head down at the water. Out from beneath the surface shot dozens of long dark green vines of seaweed. The vines flew up and wrapped around the cannonballs, then threw them in at the Thousand Sunny.

Timmy closed his open palm and all the cannonballs exploded before reaching the Sunny. The explosions were enough to make the front of the ship lift up though, and the whole boat rocked around.

"Could you wrap this up quick?" Natsu called out as he steadied himself on the deck. "Not trying to get sea sick!"

"Can you even get sick with Wendy's magic working on you?" Gray asked his fellow Fairy Tail mage.

"Hey!" Nami yelled behind her. "If you aren't going to help then shut up!"

Natsu opened his mouth to yell back at her but he got interrupted before he could start. "Hey guys," someone called down from the crow's nest. They all looked up and saw Goku floating just in front of the nest. As they looked up, they saw Timmy shoot off across the sky towards the fleet. The Thousand Sunny was much closer now, on the far right side of the line of Navy ships attacking them. Without Timmy there, the cannonballs flew in without anyone stopping them. Sanji leapt away from the wheel and kicked explosives away while Franky rose his left arm and blew up others with machine gun fire.

Meanwhile, Goku kept calling down to the group, "I felt Luffy's power go down. He isn't in the water, but it feels like he is."

"Crap," Nami muttered under her breath. She glared out at the ships with the strange Navy sails and shouted, "They're probably using Sea Stone weapons on him then. Timmy should be able to save him."

Almost as soon as she said it, Timmy reappeared in the air above the bow. He floated there with Luffy in his right hand, the pirate gasping for air with a bloody nose and his neck red from whoever was choking him. Timmy lowered to the deck and dropped Luffy, while Goku flew forward now and punched and kicked right through the cannonballs. They exploded around him but he flew straight through without taking any damage.

Luffy coughed, and coughed, and snapped his head up to look at the half dozen people gathered on the bow. Natsu, Gray, and Juvia came running up to the front and looked down at Luffy in surprise. Luffy pushed down his right fist, and he slammed down his left, shaking the entire bow. "He took Hat," Luffy snarled.

For the first time since he got back to the ship the others noticed what was most off about the captain. His signature Straw Hat was missing, and the black pupils in the middle of his eyes were dilated with smaller white circles inside. "What's so important about that hat?" Natsu asked. He laughed, "You can always just get another-"

A rubber hand snapped out and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. "That was Shanks' hat," Luffy said seriously. He looked into Natsu's eyes and said, "I can't let anything happen to it."

"Where is it?" Nami called down to her captain who she knew cared as much about his hat as anything else.

Luffy let go of Natsu's collar who looked at the pirate oddly, not knowing how to respond to what Luffy just told him. Luffy rubbed his neck and he looked off the port side at the fleet they were going to the right of. "Their leader," Luffy said, his fists balling at his sides. "He took Hat," Luffy said it while glaring past several of the ships closest to them. The others followed his gaze and looked out towards the ship in the very middle of the fleet at the front of it. A man stood on the bow of that ship, a man with spiky purple hair and a giant arm made of Sea Stone.

"He's strong," Goku said excitedly as he felt the man's power.

"So are the two next to him," Timmy said as he looked at the taller man in a weird flowery jumpsuit on their leader's left, and the shorter, pretty girl on his right side who wore a white cloak that had their Navy's symbol on the back of it.

The Thousand Sunny was pulling up on the port side of the farthest enemy ship to the right. Their ship, unlike the Sunny, had dozens of cannons sticking out of the side ready to fire at the Straw Hats' ship. "Everyone get ready!" Sanji yelled as he dropped back to the deck. The enemy ships were no longer firing cannonballs at them, but many soldiers from ships farther down the line were jumping across ships to get to the one closest to the pirates. The cannons on the port side of that ship pushed out and they could see a bunch of soldiers getting ready inside them.

"Juvia will protect the Sunny," the Rain Woman called out.

"Juvia," Gray began towards his girlfriend.

"Gray-sama," she started back, not waiting for him to say anything to her against doing this. "Juvia must help Luffy-san and her friends. Thousand Sunny-san means a lot to them," she said, then stepped towards the port side of their ship and rose up her arms. Gray stared at her in surprise as she was usually never that confident about something, especially if he was against it. The water down in between the two ships that were almost directly next to each other now rose up, and cannonballs that shot out of their enemy's ship flew into the wall of water and lost all their momentum.

"They're boarding!" Nami yelled as she saw people putting planks across the two ships.

"Anchor us Franky!" Luffy yelled. He glared across the ship next to them and felt out with his Haki towards the main ship where some strong presences were getting closer, probably leaping from one ship to the other to get closer to them. As Franky got the anchor and threw it over the side, Luffy yelled out, "We aren't leaving until I get Hat back!" He threw his arms over the side of his ship and grabbed onto the mast of the one next to them. "Gum Gum Rocket!" He yelled, his voice a lot more serious than the time he shouted it a minute ago. He flew right over the enemy ship and onto the one behind it where hundreds of other soldiers from other ships were moving across to get to the one they would board the pirate ship from.

"Shoot him!"

"It's Straw Hat Luffy!"

"Take him down!"

Beams and bullets flew at Luffy but he leaned back and forth and the attacks all went right by him. He stopped moving as several of the soldiers charged him with risen swords. He glared straight ahead over the opposite side of the ship as his own and the one closest to his was on, all the way over at the purple haired man who stopped moving and glared back at him through his sunglasses. Luffy saw the swords coming down all around him, but he did not move a muscle.

Natsu was leaning on the starboard side of the Sunny, staring over their ship and the one after it all the way over at Luffy two decks down. His eyes widened at the sight of a visible white aura shooting off of Luffy's body and surrounding the entire ship he was on. Swords halfway down towards his head fell out of the grips of the men swinging them, and most of the people on the ship with him dropped down unconscious without the rubberman moving a muscle. "Whoa," Natsu muttered, though he kept his voice quiet so the others would not hear how amazed he was by that action. There were people swinging across ropes onto the Straw Hats' ship who seemed to get hit by the blast of Conqueror's Haki too, as they let go of the rope and slammed into the side of their ship or fell down into the water.

Despite Luffy taking out a large portion of the enemies, some who did not fall ran across the planks to board the Sunny and charged at the people on board the ship. "You guys can take care of them," Goku said, and he excitedly leapt forward from where he was standing eagerly watching the fight. _Luffy can probably take those guys himself, but I want a turn first!_ He leapt right over Luffy's head and landed on the ship between the one the rubberman was on and the one with the enemy leader.

"Oi!" Luffy shouted at his back as he could tell what Goku was doing.

"Hey you!" Goku called out, pointing a hand forward at the most powerful man in this fleet. "You're strong! Let's fight!"

The muscular old man with spiky purple hair glared at the figure in an orange fighting gi. In a deep voice he growled, "Ain, Binz, take care of him." The two subordinates on either side of him shot forward and landed on the ship with Goku in the blink of an eye.

More soldiers were running across the armada of ships and ran past the leader to jump on the ship as well, but they left it to their commanders to handle, running right past to the ship that Luffy was on. Some of them stopped to fight Luffy while others kept running to take on the other pirates with their comrades who were already over there.

"Pirate scum!" A muscular, tan-skinned man with a thick black ponytail, mustache, and beard yelled. He had on a long black cape and was the first one on the Straw Hats' ship, having not even faltered at the feeling of Luffy's Conqueror's Haki blast before. Shuzo pointed a hand forward at the blond man in front of him who was glaring back his way. "The Neo Marines make the ocean around Aebrith safe for all travelers! Pirates like you have no place here!"

"Neo Marines?" Gray muttered, his eyes darkening as he heard the name. Natsu glanced over at his friend who did not seem as against fighting as he was a few minutes ago. "You bastards aren't Marines," Gray growled, making Shuzo dart his gaze to the bow where Gray started walking down the stairs. "You aligned with the Emperor."

Shuzo lost his grin for a second but he regained it and glared at the mage. "I do not answer to pirates. The Emperor is the ruler of the southwestern coast-"

"You betrayed the Resistance!" Gray shouted at him. He rose his hands and a huge sword of ice formed in them.

"The Resistance allied themselves with Whitebeard," Shuzo snarled back at Gray. Sanji's swirly eyebrow lifted up in surprise at the sound of that name. Shuzo lifted up his fists and they covered in a thick black veil, making everyone on the Sunny get a lot more on guard. Half a dozen other soldiers came across the planks while the man was talking, and two more swung in on ropes to land on either side of their commander. "Now, you pirates will face the wrath of the Neo Marines!"

Back two ships away from the Sunny, Luffy slammed his right fist into a woman and sent her smashing back into two other Neo Marines who all crashed into a railing and broke straight through it. They yelled while falling off the ship, and a small man only two feet tall came charging at Luffy with an axe in his hand. The dwarf had a hairy face and body, and a very long black beard coming off of his chin. He swung his axe down and Luffy jumped up over it, pressing a hand down on the dwarf's head as he did and then extending his arm and pushing the tiny man straight through the deck to the level below.

"Shoot him!" A muscular figure with green skin shouted. He pointed his rifle forwards and two purple men on his sides with oval-shaped heads and yellow dots all over their purple skin fired beams attached to their wrists. Luffy jumped up high to avoid the beams, then turned his hands black with Haki and moved them around to block all the beams shooting up at him now. His Haki-coated hands did not feel any pain from the beam attacks, and when the alien men realized this and lowered their weapons, Luffy swung one of his black fists down and whipped it across the ship. "Gum Gum Scythe!" The aliens yelled out as they were slammed by the arm and tossed straight off the side of the ship.

Goku faced off against two figures, both of whom seemed strong enough that he did not want to go right past them to fight the leader of this giant army. _This will be a good warm up,_ he thought. He rose up his arms and spread his legs into a fighting stance. He looked ahead excitedly and the two in front of him did not know how to react. The tall lanky man wearing pink with flowery symbols all over his clothes sprinted forward first and yelled, "Mosa Mosa!" He swung his arms at Goku and out from the floor all around him shot green vines the same as the ones he saw come out of the ocean before.

"A Devil Fruit huh?" Goku asked. He dodged left and right as the vines swung towards him, then did a backflip as Binz threw a large shuriken on his back at the Saiyan warrior. "Nice moves!" Goku exclaimed, definitely feeling the use of Haki in that shuriken. Whips of vines were arcing up above him as well and slamming down where he was dodging, so he realized that the powerful subordinate of his main enemy had Observational Haki too and knew where he would dodge before he even moved. _Gotta think far in advance even for these fighters,_ Goku thought, his mouth curving into an even bigger smile. He crossed his arms and let the vines hit him, not that they hurt at all. They slammed him down into the ship, and kept slamming down rapid fire into him, cracking the wooden deck beneath him.

Finally, Goku reached up one hand and clenched it around all of the tips of the vines at the same time. He waited for the moment when they would all be coming down simultaneously, and grabbed right behind the tips so he could see them wriggling around through the gap in his hand. He stood up while grabbing the vines, then heated up his hand with some energy and burst them into flames. Binz stumbled back at the sight of his vines all covering in flames, and he reached behind himself to pull out his sword instead.

Ain was already running forward before Binz pulled out his sword. As soon as Goku grabbed Binz's vines, she dropped the black cloak off her back and sprinted forward in a purple tank top and short white shorts. She was fast, and Goku looked down at her, raising his right hand to block the first punch she swung at him. He grinned as she looked amazed by his speed and ability to block her when she was only a foot away, but Goku lost his grin after a second. He lost it because when the girl touched him, she called out, "Modo Modo!" Goku's eyes widened and he looked down at his arms in confusion as he definitely felt something strange just happen to his body. He did not see any noticeable difference with his body though, and his power felt like it remained the same. Still, he leapt backwards after blocking her punch and put some distance between the two of them.

Binz ran past Ain who was still standing where she just punched Goku in the hand. He lifted his sword and covered it in Haki before swinging it at the spiky haired man in an orange gi in front of him. As Goku leaned back and forth to dodge his attacks, the Saiyan lifted his head and called out, "No fair! I wanted to fight him first!" Binz looked up too as did Ain and they all saw Luffy soaring right over their heads with an arm thrown far behind him coated in Haki.

"Z-sensei!" Ain called behind her as she saw where Luffy was heading.

"You've come back," Z stated. The large muscular man was not wearing a shirt so his ripped torso was exposed. He had a huge arm made out of kairoseki, the Devil Fruit eater's biggest weakness.

Luffy landed on the ship in front of him and slammed his arm forward fast, "Gum Gum Bullet!"

Z brought up his giant Sea Stone arm and he slammed it forward right as Luffy's fist neared him. The two of them pushed into each other, and Z yelled out, "I suppose you want that hat back!" Z clenched down on Luffy's fist and out from his own hand blasted an explosion that covered Luffy's entire body. He kept his hold on Luffy's hand though so the pirate would not go flying, and he chuckled darkly as the explosion subsided and Luffy stood there panting and covered in burns. Z lifted up his arm and swung Luffy up in the air, then slammed down hard on his other side and smashed Luffy down into the deck of the ship behind him. He let go as Luffy slammed into the deck, making a small crater in the wood. Luffy groaned and when he opened his eyes they turned into saucers at the sight of the old man dropping towards him with his huge fist pulled far back.

Luffy rolled to his side and pushed off the ground to toss himself up over the cabin. Z slammed his fist down on the deck and it ripped apart. The man looked towards the cabin that Luffy landed on, and the pirate glared back at him, yelling, "Where is Hat?!"

Z glared at Luffy through his sunglasses, "Pirates like you never learn." His teeth ground and he growled over, "What purpose does that hat have? Why a straw hat like that?"

"It's my treasure," Luffy growled back. "And I'm not letting you have it!"

"Treasure?" Z laughed. His eyes narrowed and he clenched his fists hard while looking at the skinny pirate up on the cabin of one of his ships. "Come and get it then."

A few ships away from the two of them, a teenager dropped down on the deck and slammed his Keyblade into a sword. "I'll take him off your hands Goku!" Sora shouted. The brown haired boy smashed his Keyblade back and forth, but his eyes widened as Binz kept getting faster and he started backing up. Goku was not going to argue with Sora though, as he had to focus ahead of him on the girl who sprinted towards him again, this time with a couple of pistols drawn.

Ain fired her pistols at Goku more than ten times each, but the Saiyan warrior only moved his right hand. He moved it in front of his body so fast it looked like a blur. When she finally ran out of ammo, Goku opened up his clenched right hand and dozens of crushed bullets fell out of his grasp. Ain's eyes turned into saucers, and then Goku charged at her. "I don't know what that power you have is, but this fight is all over!" He called out, moving faster than she normally moved, but not so fast that if she was holding back at all she could not speed up and keep up with him. It did not look like she would be able to speed up that amount though, so Goku slowed down right before he reached her and he appeared behind her back in an instant.

 _Behind me,_ she thought, before Goku had even disappeared from in front of her. She did not start turning, but she did spin her left hand at her side the other way around. She started pushing it backwards right as Goku appeared where she heard he would approach from with her Haki. Her hand touched the front of Goku's body and he smiled, impressed that she knew where he would be and was able to make a move despite his huge advantage in speed.

Goku started swinging his arm around in a chop anyway, going to hit her on the neck and take her down. As his arm was coming around though, he noticed it was changing. He had the same feeling as when she first touched him, but this time the effects of her attack were a lot more noticeable. His arm was shrinking, his legs halved in height, as did pretty much his entire body. He shrank down one foot, two feet, and the only part of him that remained the same was his spiky black hair. "Huh?" He said, his voice a lot higher pitched than it was before.

The others who were watching Goku fight from back at the Thousand Sunny, where an unconscious Shuzo and all his men lay on the deck, dropped their jaws at the sight of the Saiyan turning into a child.

"What the…" Ben mumbled.

"What kind of power is that?" Nami asked nervously.

Sora became distracted too as he saw Goku shrink down, and he spun towards the boy, opening his mouth to shout his name. As he did though, a vine whip slammed into the back of his head and sent him flying at the cabin. Sora was disoriented from the sudden hit, but crashing head-first into the cabin in that dizzy state was even worse. Ain and Binz both focused back on Goku again who was now a small child, looking like he was only ten years old, maybe even younger. "Well this is weird," Goku said, looking at himself confusedly. He saw Ain approaching and shot up twenty feet in the air in an instant. _If I touch her, or only when she touches me maybe, I age backwards. If two touches turned me back this far, then one more and I might disappear completely. That was a close one._

Goku froze before he could think up better ways to take down those enemies below him. He stopped and looked to the ship that Luffy was on, where the pirate who was facing off against Z dropped his jaw and opened his eyes as wide as plates. Ain and Binz were going to attack Goku while he was distracted, but they heard screams and gasps of their fellow Neo Marines and looked around. They spotted a few men on the same ship as them looking back a ship or two, and they looked over as well. The two of them went wide-eyed like everyone else, and their eyes started to water up at the sight they were looking at.

"Z-sensei," Ain whispered.

Binz had tears pouring out of his eyes and he started running towards that other ship.

The two of them and the rest of the Neo Marines were in shock, they were enraged, and they were so sad. Z lowered his gaze down slowly and stared at his chest in utter confusion and shock. He coughed and a bucket of blood splashed out of his mouth. There was a glowing hand with sharp nails sticking out of his front, and the boy with spiky white hair behind the Neo Marines' leader pulled it back out soaked in red. Most of his right arm was red actually, and Killua brought that arm down to his side in a satisfied way, finally dropping the aura of Zetsu he used to sneak over and wait for Z to get fully distracted by Luffy.

"Got him," Killua said. The kid then lifted up his left hand and flicked the straw hat in it to Luffy who rose his hand and caught it. "Now we can go," Killua stated casually. The pirate frowned at Killua for several seconds after catching his hat. That was not the way he wanted that fight to end. Z beat him once, took his hat, and they were in the middle of fighting each other. Killua just stole his fight, and the way in which he did it unsettled the pirate captain.

Goku was frowning down at the top of Killua's head and he shook his own around a few times. He saw Killua turning and looking at the two of Z's commanders who were running towards him in an enraged way. The kid got a dangerous look in his eyes, but before anyone could do anything, Goku was suddenly on the ship in front of him. "We have caused them enough pain," Goku said. He grabbed Killua by the left hand, surprising the boy who barely saw the smaller kid reach out. Goku flew them up and over to Luffy who he also grabbed without pausing. He turned and flew back over Ain and Binz and several of the Neo Marines' ships without a word.

The Saiyan lowered down to the deck of the Thousand Sunny and no one said a word. They did not know who they would speak to first. Killua had just murdered a man in cold blood, a Marine who hunted pirates, not a villain for most of them. Luffy looked pissed about his fight, and Goku was a child. The kid with spiky black hair raced around the deck and gathered up all of the Neo Marines quickly. He shot back over the ships to the one he was fighting the commanders on, which they just got back to as they had to turn around and run the other way to chase Killua. They were both crying as Goku dropped their soldiers down in front of them. "I'm sorry about this," Goku said, bowing his head a little. He shot to the right into a hole in the cabin of this ship, picked up Sora who had blood on his head and was knocked out, and shot back over to the Sunny right as Franky got the anchor up.

Luffy looked over the port side and the whole crew heard wails coming from a few ships down. "Let's get going," Luffy said. The ship started sailing forward again and they went right past the enemy fleet.

Killua turned away first, walking towards the cabin while wiping his right arm down with a cloth. He got most of the blood off, but continued to walk calmly towards the cabin with an uncaring look on his face. Others gave him a wide berth as he walked by not saying a word. _They saw me kill Jones in the memory, and I was ruthless towards those Forever Knights. There's no point in hiding anymore. They all know I'm a killer._

"That was," Gray started, turning his head and looking over at Killua's back, then spinning back to the armada of Neo Marines' ships getting farther behind him. He shook his head and grimaced, _They betrayed the Resistance, but I heard Z was a great man. We were on different sides of a war, but, that was, brutal…_

"Wow Sora," Riku said while shaking his head at the teen lying on the ground in front of his feet. "You shouldn't have let your guard down."

"That's not nice Riku," Kairi scolded the older boy. She walked over and picked Sora up with a little difficulty. "Help me get him inside," she told the silver haired teen. Riku grumbled but came to her side and the two of them carried Sora over towards the cabin. "Don't worry Sora," she whispered as they reached the cabin door. "I'll fix you right up," she told him. The other teen helping her saw the way Kairi looked at Sora who was unconscious between them, and Riku felt a pang in his chest that he tried to ignore. Kairi looked back up at him but Riku turned forward before their eyes met, walking while facing straight ahead instead.

"Hey Goku," Usopp began, finally shaking himself from the stupor he was in for the last few minutes. The sniper turned and he lowered his head down to face the figure who used to look like a God among men. "When do you think that strange aging power wears off?" Usopp asked.

Kid Goku shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know," he responded, his voice high-pitched and childish. "But I don't really care," he added. The Saiyan boy smiled wide and started laughing as he looked down at himself. "I'm a kid again!"

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Leave a review telling me what you thought about the sirens and the attack of the Neo Navy. The battle between Z and Luffy ended a lot differently than it did in the movie... Killua's scaring the crap out of his comrades. Also, Goku gets turned into a child by Ain, who they leave behind without defeating... which leaves Goku as a child XD. Thanks for reading!**

Espada-001 chapter 17 . Feb 24

I'm glad to see you back in action after so long, and I hope you had a good Valentines. Anyway on to this chapters review. I did enjoy a lot of the fight scenes and I do believe that some of the villains could give some trouble to the main characters since they had a partial infusion of Goku's DNA. However Driscoll seemed a little too overpowered especially since in his Oozaru form wasn't even being hurt by Timmy's combat form. I mean after all you did have Timmy hold his ground against Goku in his ascended saiyan form and I'm pretty sure that was stronger than a half baked DNA copy. I'm pretty sure that Luffy or Riku could fight him while they're serious while some of the others could have group attacked him. The only way I couldn't see that happening is if Driscoll had somehow become equal to an ascended saiyan which I find doubtful but I guess not impossible. I thought it was interesting that Gray's now confirmed as a Haki user as well. Also I can't say I recognize the alien that you had Ben use at the end there and I was wondering if you could let me know what it is or if you mentioned it and I simply missed it. Also I meant to ask this last time but what made you give Ben Conqueror Haki? Conqueror Haki usually manifests in people that are strong leaders and I honestly have never seen Ben as a leader type in any version of his series. Well that's about all I can think of right now, so until next time have a good day and I can't wait for the next chapter!

 **When I was writing Driscoll's power I first tried to think of a way to get Timmy away from the fight for a minute or two, but wound up just making Timmy too nervous to go all out while his friends were on the island as an excuse for why he could not beat Driscoll but Ben could. Also, I gave Driscoll so much power because of Dr. Genus from One Punch Man, who created the entire House of Evolution which and many very powerful creatures. So I figured with the DNA of a Saiyan he could make something even more powerful than Carnage Kabuto. Also, I can find it reasonable that something that was created could become equal to an ascended Saiyan (like Cell). At the top of the chapter I mentioned the alien Ben turned into, and as for Ben's Conqueror's Haki, that was the first time we saw him use it so maybe he's now starting to become more leadership-y, like how when his friends wanted to force Azmuth to fix the watch but he tried to make them see a different way which wound up working in the end. Thanks for the review!**

joebob323 chapter 17 . Feb 24

Hey man, great chapter! The fight scenes were epic, and this is the first time we get to see all of the other crew members in action against a common enemy, and actually not be outclassed! (at least not as badly outclassed as Luthor...) anyway, I only have 2 questions, the first being: will it ever be revealed who saved asmuth on day one? I mean, it has to be either goku or gohan, as they have spiky hair and know the kamehameha, but then again, it could be yamcha...Nah... the 2nd question is, who was the alien that Ben turned into? Is it an OC, or an actual alien?

 **Thanks for the review! Yeah that was definitely the first full group battle against a common foe, but there are going to be some more of those in the upcoming parts of this chapter... It looks like they're the ones outclassing their enemies now, (although Sora got embarrassingly beat up this time :P ). Who saved Azmuth may remain a mystery, or a future flashback could very well show what happened. I always like to imagine Yamcha doing stuff, cuz Yamcha needs to do stuff once in a while. And again, Ben turned into Lord Boros alien. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, faved, and followed this story! 'Till next time!**


	19. Nexus HWR 3-5 More Pirates

**Nexus HWR 3.5 More Pirates:**

"And you're sure you're okay with this?" Kirito asked the child in front of him.

The small boy with big spikes of black hair sticking up over his head nodded once. "I'm sure," he said.

"You know, you and Timmy could fly around and probably find them in only a few hours," Gray told the child. The Saiyan boy standing shorter than the rest of them did not seem to care though. Gray continued annoyedly, "Don't you care that she turned you into a kid? Just because they have power maskers doesn't mean-"

"It's okay," Goku said. His hair shot up golden and he smiled around at the crew on the grassy deck with him. "I feel like I kept all my power so it doesn't bother me very much." The kid reached to his side and grabbed a brown appendage swinging there, "Plus I got my tail back!"

"I guess that's one positive of the whole experience," Ben mumbled. He looked towards Killua, leaning casually on the starboard railing. The white haired boy showed no signs that he had any emotions about the man he killed the day before. Ben frowned and then looked back towards the cabin, "Do you guys think Sora will be okay?"

"I'm sure he will be," Riku told his younger friend. "He's more bummed out that he didn't win his fight than anything." The silver haired teen chuckled as he walked towards the bow. The entire crew was out and about except for Riku's friends from his home world. Sora's head was still hurt from the day before's battle and Kairi wanted to stay with him to keep him company while he recovered.

The auburn haired girl made it up to the kitchen for lunch, but she only stayed for a minute or two to grab herself and Sora some plates. The day was going by uneventfully compared to the day before.

"Hey guys!" The crew on the deck below looked towards the crow's nest where Timmy was standing on the railing. The young boy looked down and shouted, "Two ships off the port side!"

The crew looked at each other then ran to the edge of the ship and looked off. They stared far into the distance but none of them could see the ships Timmy said were there. Usopp pulled down the goggles he had over his head and twisted around the knobs on the sides of them. "He's right," Usopp said and peered closer to the ships he spotted. "Two of them, one a huge galleon with a lot of high tech weapons, the other a smaller, darker ship that's moving faster than the big one." The day that almost went by without incident was about to change.

"Are they enemies?" Natsu asked, looking for a fight since he did not get a good one against the Neo Navy the day before. He and the others were finally able to see the ships coming, and boy were they moving fast.

Timmy stayed quiet for a few seconds. "Well," the boy began. He sounded a little nervous as he continued, "They have Jolly Rogers on their masts, but there's something weird happening."

"Weird how?" Nami shouted up.

"Whoa!" Usopp stumbled back and he popped his goggles up over his head. A hundred meters in front of the two boats heading towards them, the water started bubbling. Out from under the surface of the ocean emerged a ship. This ship was not coated with a special material to allow it to dive like the Straw Hats had used on their own ship once. This ship they watched emerge from the depths looked like it should have stayed on the bottom of the ocean.

There were holes all over the hull, the sails were torn and waving in the wind, and the water that stayed up on deck when the ship arose leaked out from the hundreds of holes all over the dark ship. "G-G-Ghost ship!" Usopp shouted in panic.

"It's not a ghost ship," Nami scolded the younger man. She glared out at the ship that sailed towards them faster than the other two and was almost upon them now. As she looked that way, she spotted a few people standing on the bow of that ship. All three people looked part fish, but also part decomposing person. Nami's face turned blue as did five others on the deck.

"Okay, kind of freaked out," Ben admitted and took a step back. "What the heck is that thing?"

The dark, rotting ship turned so that it was coming up on the Straw Hats' port side. The ship's side was lined with barnacle-covered pirates holding up rusty weapons. "Do they want to fight?" Luffy asked. He lifted up his right fist, "I'm happy to give them one."

"Can we not get in a fight for one day?" Nami groaned at her captain.

Sanji came out of the cabin with Robin and they looked to the side of the ship at the undead warriors staring back at them. The whole image was very creepy, but right in the middle of the enemies, Sanji noticed something weird. "Who is that?" He muttered.

Robin was staring at the same man: light skin, handsome, black hair slicked back into a ponytail. His clothes looked cleaner than his fellow crewmates', and he looked more human. The man reached down and grabbed the hilt of the sword on his waist. As the man's hand touched his sword, another hand stuck out of the hilt and smacked his hand away. The man looked thoroughly surprised and he pulled his hand back when he saw the arm sticking out of his hilt. A second later the arm faded away and a bunch of flower petals dropped to the floor.

The other two ships were nearing closer, but the rotting one on their side had already arrived. "What do you want?" Riku called off the deck at them.

"A fight?!" Natsu yelled over.

"Trust me friend," the light skinned man on the ghost ship began in a voice laced with a heavy British accent. "You do not wish to get in a fight with us." The guy looked more human than the rest of his crew, but a closer look showed he had the same dark, dead eyes as any of them.

Still, despite his unsettling appearance, the challenge remained and half the people on the Thousand Sunny got ready for a fight. Their ships were staying next to each other and people were matching up with monsters across from them.

Rin looked across the gap over the sea at his enemy- a blue man with the head of a hammerhead shark and barnacles all over his neck and arms. He had a big axe in his hands and he bared his sharp teeth at the teen. Rin did not flinch at the snarl and the fish guy eased back a little.

"And why wouldn't we want to fight you?" Killua chided over. "Are you too strong for us?"

His sarcastic tone did not go over well with their British foe. The man started glaring at Killua who in turn glared back and unnerved their opponent. The man started to slide his sword out of its sheath, his men took steps towards the railing, and then a gunshot fired from the Straw Hats' other side. They looked the other way and watched as another of the ships sailing their way pulled up on their starboard side. It was the huge galleon covered in heavy cannons and laser turrets.

The third ship pulled up right in front of the Thousand Sunny. It pulled so close before stopping that the figureheads were almost touching. The person who fired the gun up in the air was on the huge galleon to starboard. They all looked over at the side of the bigger ship as a lone figure walked to the edge. "Hello!" The woman holding a smoking pistol called down. She blew out the smoke and spun her pistol around before sliding it back into her holster. There was a big drop from the side of her ship to the deck of the one below, but she dropped down and landed perfectly fine in front of Luffy's crew.

"Who are you?" Luffy asked with narrowed eyes and a frown. "And get off my ship."

"Luffy!" Sanji yelled angrily. He sped over and bowed in apology to the beautiful woman who landed on their deck. She lifted her right hand to her head and took off the big black pirate hat she had on. The woman shook her long blonde hair out and Sanji dropped his jaw even more at how gorgeous she was.

"My name?" The woman asked incredulously, narrowing her eyes back at Luffy. "And who are you? I have never seen your Jolly Roger before. New pirates?"

"What's it matter to you?" Usopp called over from a deck away. She looked over at him and he had his slingshot pulled back far while aiming her way.

She glared at him and nodded her head once. The floor at Usopp's feet splintered at the same time as a gunshot sounded. Those who were not in panic snapped their heads up to the woman's deck. At the top of the starboard side was a man with a sniper rifle in his hands. After they saw him, the entire side of her ship lined with soldiers. The panels on the side that had weapons sticking out of them all had men visible inside them now too.

"Hold it right there!"

Both parties got ready for battle, but one man's shout carried over everything else. They looked towards the bow and saw a man with a red bandanna on standing on the figurehead of the ship in front of them. That man had his own hands behind his back as he walked forward and stepped from his figurehead across a wide gap to the Thousand Sunny's lion face. "Let's all be civil about this, can't we? Perhaps they are new pirates," the man with long black dread suggested. "Why destroy our very own?"

"We are not like pirate scum like them," the blonde woman growled.

"Would you like me to release the Kraken?" The handsome man on the monster ship questioned her. The blonde woman looked over and shook her head at him. They made eye contact for a few seconds before she looked back at those on the deck with her.

"If you don't tell me who you are in a second, all three of your ships are going to sink," Luffy said, his head bowed as he did.

"Oh!" The guy with dreads shot his hand up. "By 'all three,' you don't mean mine too, do you?" Luffy did not respond and the guy started tiptoeing back towards his ship.

"To fly a Jolly Roger and not even know," the woman before the other pirates mumbled to herself. "None of you know who I am?" They all looked at her blankly and she narrowed her eyes. "I am the Queen of the Pirates- Elizabeth Turner."

"And I am Will Turner," the man on the broken-down ship to the port side added. "Captain of the Flying Dutchman."

"F-Flying D-Dutchman?" Usopp whispered in a horrified voice. "Th-That ship doesn't exist."

"Sure looks like it does," Ben whispered to the sharpshooter as they both looked at the ghost ship.

Luffy never turned to that other man though, instead just staring at the blonde woman in front of him with the same shocked look everyone else had on their faces, only his came from before Will spoke. "You," Lufffy began in a confused voice that was gradually getting angrier. Elizabeth did not like the look in Luffy's eyes and she rose up an open palm. All of her men got ready to fire, Will's zombies moved forward, and the odd guy who jumped onto the Sunny's bow completely ran back to the figureheads now. "You're the Pirate Queen? Who says?" Luffy's fists clenched hard at his sides. His crew got ready and his friends saw that he was about to get in a fight and prepared themselves as well.

"Everyone!" Elizabeth shouted.

"Men, ready!" Will announced.

"Hey guys!" Luffy yelled. "Let's-"

"Why is it so loud up here?" A groggy voice called out in annoyance. The cabin door of the Thousand Sunny opened up and a teenage boy with spiky brown hair stumbled out on the deck. He was pulling his own head bandages off as they had finally gotten enough Cure magic to vanish completely, while an auburn haired girl walked behind him and picked up his discarded wrappings.

Luffy did not look away from the woman before him, but she did turn towards the voice. She turned and her jaw dropped at the sight of the boy stepping out of the door. Will looked over too and the captain of the Flying Dutchman dropped his jaw just like his wife.

Sora rubbed his eyes and looked back and forth at the two ships on his sides. Then he looked straight ahead and his eyes lit up. He jumped over the railing and glided over to the bow where he landed right in front of a surprised-looking man on the top of their figurehead. "Jack!" Sora exclaimed at the pirate in front of him.

"That's 'Captain' Jack Sparrow to you," the pirate replied. After saying it, the man grinned and finished, "Sora."

"Sora!" Will and Elizabeth yelled simultaneously.

Killua groaned out loud and leaned back where he was. "What a surprise," he muttered, "Sora knows them too." The boy's sharp nails retracted and he relaxed himself.

"Sora," Elizabeth walked towards him and she lowered her arm down to her side. "What are you-" she stopped talking and looked up at the sail of the ship. She looked at Luffy's Jolly Roger and then back at the boy in surprise, "Did you become a pirate?"

"Don't be so surprised," Sora remarked as he turned back to Elizabeth. "I didn't expect you to be a pirate either 'Ms. Swan,'" he chided with a grin, and gave her a small bow.

"That's Mrs. Turner," she corrected.

Sora's eyebrows lifted up and he spun around excitedly. "You and Will, for real?" He looked over at Will who nodded his head. The others looked towards the Flying Dutchman too, but as they looked, Will Turner was no longer there. They spun around confused and a bunch of them jumped in surprise as Will was suddenly standing only a foot in front of Sora. Sora himself looked surprised and said, "That's a new one."

Will nodded his head as Sora looked closer at him, and the younger boy's eyes widened. "Will, your heart," Sora said. "It's gone."

"Not gone," Jack spoke up before the Turners could. Sora turned to the more scraggly looking pirate who smirked over at Will. "His heart is nice and safe on the Pearl."

"You took his heart?!" Sora shouted in surprise.

"No," Elizabeth said softly to the panicking teen. "Sora, do not worry. To be the Captain of the Flying Dutchman, Will's heart had to be put in a chest. Most people assume I have his heart and we want to keep it that way."

"I... don't understand," Sora said. He smiled though, "But it sounds like everything's okay."

Most of Luffy's crew had relaxed by now and were waiting for Sora to introduce them to these strange people. A few of them were looking at Sora with more confused looks than others though. Robin had her eye on the young man, _He knew King Neptune 1, these pirates, and Misty's friend. I hope that he has as many contacts on the mainland of Aebrith._

"So you guys are married huh?" Sora asked in amazement. There was someone walking up behind him while he spoke but he did not notice her yet. The two he asked nodded their heads at him and Sora added, "Just for clarification, how long has it been since we last met?"

"Since we last..." Will began confusedly. "I would say at least a half dozen years. But oddly you look only a few years older."

"Hehe, wonder why," Sora said and scratched the back of his head. His old friends were looking at him funny, but Sora noticed the person behind him and his face lit up. "Oh! Jack, Will, Elizabeth," he moved to the side a little and the girl standing behind him stepped forward. "This is Kairi, she's my fiancé."

Kairi nodded her head at the surprised pirates and giggled at their shocked reactions. "Sora, you-" Will began.

"Tying yourself down a little early there aren't ya?" Jack interrupted and laughed.

Sora laughed too but he shook his head. "No way," he replied and Kairi smiled wide at her fiancé for that answer.

"Well good for you," Elizabeth said in a positive tone. "And you," she added while looking at Kairi. "Sora saved my life-"

"All of our lives," Will corrected.

"Many times," Elizabeth finished.

"Port Royal would be a pile of scrap if it weren't for him," Jack agreed and pulled out a flask to drink out of.

"Port Royal?" Nami spoke up loudly. "Were you there when the Heartless attacked?"

"Why yes," Elizabeth responded. "How would you know about-"

"Actually guys," Sora called out to stop the confusion. He looked at his old pirate friends and continued, "There's a new Port Royal on Nexus. It's over in Awul, so I'm not surprised you haven't seen it before if you've been on Aebrith this whole time."

"'New,' Port Royal?" Franky muttered to himself. "Then you're all from the world it's really from?"

"Actually," Ben spoke up. Sora looked nervous for a second by that question, but the younger boy continued, "There was a Port Royal on my world too. It was a haven for pirates back in the seventeenth, eighteenth centuries."

" _Back_ in the eighteenth century?!" Elizabeth exclaimed. "Are you saying you are from the future?"

"Hey!" Before Ben could speak, Luffy shouted over everyone else. He glared over at Elizabeth and asked, "Why are you the Pirate Queen? Who says?"

"Watch you mouth," Will growled over at the younger man speaking to his wife.

Sora spun from Luffy to Elizabeth to Will and he shot his hands up in the air. "Whoa! Everyone calm down." He shook his head around a few times, and said, "Guess I should have done this earlier, but I'll introduce you guys."

Sora went around from the three pirates in front of him to every person, alien, cyborg, demon, and even cat on the Thousand Sunny. The three pirates looked at the kid who Sora introduced as Goku carefully but shook their heads and kept looking around as Sora continued introducing his friends. When he finished he took a deep breath and sighed, "Now that we're all introduced," he paused and looked to Elizabeth, "what is he talking about, Pirate Queen?"

Elizabeth frowned and looked over into Luffy's eyes. "It is a title from my own world. The pirate lords nominated me their Queen."

"I nominated her," Jack spoke up and rose his right hand.

"Yes, thank you Jack," the Queen said without turning to look at him. "When we came to this world, using that title demanded respect from fellow pirates. Yes, many try to fight because of the title, but for now no one has succeeded in taking it."

"So, you really are the Pirate Queen then?" Luffy asked, looking more surprised now. At first he thought she was just claiming the title without right or pretending to be the Queen, but if it was really recognized that she was the Queen, then... "Then fight me!" Luffy shouted at her.

"Me?" Elizabeth asked, slightly taken aback.

"Not a chance," Will snapped at the younger pirate.

The young man in a straw hat frowned, "Then how am I going to be the Pirate King if I don't-"

"The Pirate King?" Jack questioned loudly. The pirate who was getting progressively more drunk through all of this stepped forward. "You don't think- ah, you do! You are thinking of the Pirate King, a completely different person than our queen here." He patted Elizabeth on the shoulder twice then ran his hand down her sleeve to wipe off some liquor he spilled. She pulled away from him and Will frowned his way, but Sora had to keep from laughing with his own fiancé.

"So you know who the Pirate King is?" Sanji called over to the pirate.

"Of course," Jack replied and swung his arms out to the sides. "Who in the world does not know the name, Gold Roger?" His voice was sarcastic but the looks of surprise on the others' faces took him out of his act. "So you do know him, I see." He took another swig and stepped back towards his ship, The Black Pearl.

"Gold Roger is alive?" Nami whispered nervously.

"And he's taken up the mantle as Pirate King again," Sanji muttered to the woman on his right.

"Gol D. Roger," Nico Robin said in a calm voice. The others who just heard them say his name was 'Gold' looked at her funny. Killua, Rin, and Kirito looked at her and then Killua and Kirito spun back around to their captain.

Rin looked confused for another second though. "Wait, isn't Luffy's full name, Monkey D. Luffy?"

Robin nodded her head once without looking at the young man. Rin humphed and turned back to Luffy, "So are they related or something?"

She did not have a response for him. Luffy seemed satisfied that this Pirate Queen was not actually holding the title he wanted. He was more interested in what they said about Gold Roger. "He's alive?" The rubber pirate asked.

"Luffy, you did not know this?" Robin questioned, sure she had brought it up before.

He stuck a finger in his ear and twisted it around, thinking back on something Ace told him the night they parted ways. "Huh? Guess I'll have to kick his ass if I wanna become the Pirate King."

"Sure about that Luffy? Apparently he fought on par with Whitebeard," Sanji spoke up. As one who had actually seen what Whitebeard could do, Luffy gulped, but he grinned anyway and nodded his head. Sanji lit up a smoke wondering what type of crew Roger had with him on this world, and how powerful a fighter he would have to take on in their eventual battle.

"Hey, while you guys are here," Sora began to his old friends. "How much farther is it to the coast?"

"Are you sure you want to go to Aebrith?" Will questioned the younger boy.

"We like to stay on the water," Elizabeth began, looking closer at Sora, "because the continent is so dangerous we couldn't survive there."

Sora opened his mouth to respond, but he heard laughter before he could. He looked between Elizabeth and Will to the more drunken pirate who stepped forward and looked at the woman on his right skeptically. "Do I need remind you who you're talking to?" Jack glanced over at Will and then back at the Pirate Queen. "Look at 'im," he pointed back at Sora who grinned wide. Jack saw the goofy smile and laughed, "See, he's got this."

Jack turned back to Sora and pointed out to the east. "In a day or three, you'll run ashore."

"Thanks Jack," Sora told the pirate. The boy with spiky brown hair looked around at his friends who he met all on the same world and he smiled brightly. "It was really good seeing all of you again. I am happy you're all okay."

Will nodded and Elizabeth stepped forward as she looked at Sora. She shook her head and said, "I can't believe you're really Sora. You have become much more mature, even if it only has been a few years for you." As she mentioned it, most of the crew members of the ship Sora was traveling on looked over at him confusedly and like they had questions. Sora scratched the back of his head and nodded, thanking Elizabeth for that.

The pirate alliance did not stay for much longer, though Sora did tell them he hoped to see them again soon. His old friends said goodbye and particularly said that it was nice to meet Kairi, before sailing away, or for Will, diving down into the ocean. Many on the Thousand Sunny relaxed now that the tense interaction was finally over, but a few of them kept discerning looks on their faces and they were all aimed at the same person.

Sora watched the Black Pearl sail off next to Mrs. Turner's until they were far away and he turned around. Sora felt nervous as he looked around and he saw people all looking at him with the same gazes. "What?" He asked.

"The Pirate Queen," Rin began. The half demon looked out over the sea and then turned back to Sora. "She said you looked like you only aged a little."

Sora opened his mouth as he came up with something fast, but Sanji spoke up now too. "And Will," Sora spun to the blond man who continued. "He said it had been at least six years since you last met. But he also said you only looked a few years older."

"Well, about that," Sora started.

"Actually," Gray cut in. "You were the one who asked the question in the first place," he realized. "Why would you ask that?"

"Did you expect them to have spent more time than you-"

"I don't understand-"

"Tell us-"

Sora turned and looked across the main deck at a silver haired teen a few inches taller than him. Riku nodded at Sora and the younger boy sighed loudly, getting the others to quiet down. "Alright," Sora said. He nodded his head once and lifted his gaze so that he was looking at the majority of the people on the ship as they were mostly in front of him. "I'll tell you, why I asked that."

The others asking him questions quieted down and all looked at the teen wondering what he would tell them. Killua and Ben glanced at each other nervously as they thought about what they overheard in Atlantis, and Kirito had kept quiet the whole time the others complained, just like Luffy did. Kairi smiled reassuringly at her fiancé and Sora felt a little better upon seeing it. "Before we came to Nexus," Sora began, "Riku and I, we were stuck somewhere."

"Somewhere?" Natsu muttered at him from the railing on his left where he was leaning against.

Sora nodded his head and he kept a smile on his face though the words coming out of his mouth were far from being pleasant. "Time passed differently outside the place than inside. Inside, we could not tell when days passed, as there was no such thing as a sun, no light at all. This place, is known as the Realm of Darkness." A few of the others started sweating while Riku just grimaced and looked behind him out over the sea. It looked just like the sea in that place, going on forever.

The younger of the two continued, "We were trapped there, in a world without light, for…" Sora did not know how to finish his sentence. "Like I said, there, time was… strange."

"They were gone for a long time," Kairi said, making many of the others look back to the auburn haired girl who had a sad look on her face despite the smile trying to hide it.

"Yeah," Sora muttered. He stopped talking and the others all seemed appeased by his answer. A few of them said things to him like they were sorry he had to go through that, or apologized for prying, but Sora waved them off like it was nothing. He stepped up to the port side of the ship and looked out over the sea just like Riku was doing on the starboard side. Natsu looked at the brown haired teen near him whose expression he could never read.

Sora just stared out into the distance at the red sky over the horizon. _On the shore of that dark world, when we reached the point we could walk no further, we thought it was over. "We'll be the darkness," that's what Riku and I agreed on. We sat there. We accepted it. I was okay with how things were, and how we would never be able to escape. But then, that bright light shone through the darkness, and, and then he…_ Sora shook his head and a soft smile appeared on his face to replace his troubled look. _And then I was on Nexus._

* * *

 **Forever Kingdom**

"How are you not nervous?" Charmcaster whispered at her sister who was leisurely watching her servants repair the walls of _her_ new hall. Dreamcaster sat back on her throne and smirked at her little sister's question, only infuriating the weaker witch more. Charmcaster walked around the front of Dreamcaster's chair so that her sister had to look at her while she was talking. "Any moment now, the Emperor is going to send a Sith _Lord_ to come kill us and take back his island."

"You really think a Sith Lord is stronger than your older sis?" Dreamcaster asked in a feigned-hurt voice. The woman wore a new long purple cloak that reached past her feet and had black lines on the sides of it from the bottom all the way up to her long sleeves and down those as well. She had on a golden crown she forced her scientists to craft for her, covered with beautiful gemstones of all colors of the rainbow. "Ha! These islands are my Kingdom now. I know everything that happens on this island at all times."

Charmcaster lost her nervous look a little. Dreamcaster grinned at her sister's appeased expression and she continued, "If a Sith had arrived on the island I would know. So for now, don't worry. We're safe."

"I wouldn't necessarily say that," another woman's voice said near the door. The two witch sisters near the throne looked over in confusion, wondering which of Dreamcaster's subjects would interrupt their conversation like that. Two men in armor who were standing near the door spun towards each other in shock, almost like neither one of them had noticed that there was now a young woman standing in between them. She had green hair in a bob around her head, long bangs stopping just above her eyes, and two strange blue crosses sticking out the top of her head pointed different directions out of her hair. She had a skimpy white tank top on, but it was underneath a coat with a fur hood at the top that was currently down bunched up around the back of her neck.

Dreamcaster got up out of her throne as her soldiers pointed their weapons at this woman. "What do you mean?" Dreamcaster asked, her eyes narrowing and her lips dropping into a deep frown. Her sister looked a lot more nervous, but since Charmcaster was taking it seriously she was ready with her hand inside her magical bag at her side, prepared to attack at any second. "Who are you?"

The girl near the door looked, bored. "Brandish," she mumbled in response, while looking around at the destruction of the room and wondering what caused it. She looked back at the other young women, scratched her left wrist with her right hand, and said in a hesitant voice, "I'm not all that against a kingdom ruled by women for a change." She shrugged her shoulders and lowered her arms back to her sides. "But, High Lord Spriggan commanded me to follow the Emperor's orders, and he told me to take care of you all."

What this woman was saying made both guards pointing glowing spears at her take steps back and their weapons to start shaking. Charmcaster's hand trembled inside her magic bag, her face was sweating more every second, and Dreamcaster finally snapped. Dreamcaster lifted her right hand and yelled, "I will destroy you! Remarsus Inte-" the start of her incantation was all that came out of her mouth before she was silenced.

A lone ship passing by the north side of the Forever Kingdom had only a dozen figures on it. The sail of the Neo Marines was a testament to the man who used to lead them, a man who died not long ago and whose death caused the disbandment of their entire Navy. "Z-sensei," Ain whispered, the girl with dark blue hair staring off the bow of her ship and into the distance. The small crew they managed to keep with them were rushing around keeping the ship sailing straight, and Binz stood at the helm behind her with his hands on the wheel.

Ain looked far to the west and she thought, _What are we supposed to do now? What would you want us to do Z-sensei?_ Ain's deep, life-deciding thoughts were derailed as she spotted something out the left corner of her left eye. She heard a gasp behind her and Binz dropped his arms from the wheel in absolute shock. Ain turned as did every member of her crew and they looked towards the islands on their left side. The giant squid-shaped island and the small one on the east side of it were gone. There was only one thing in the ocean to their port side, and that was a green haired woman standing on top of some small rocks in the middle of the sea.

Brandish looked down at the tiny rocks just barely sticking out of the water. She stared at the minuscule broken castle on a small rock behind her, and then at a tiny village on one of the inlets extending off of the main part she was standing on. "Sorry," she said, in an unapologetic voice. She lifted her head and looked around, muttering under her breath yet loud enough that every terrified person on the shrunken island below her feet could hear the giantess's words. "Hopefully a big wave doesn't come around this area," she said with a shrug, then leapt up in the air fifty feet.

Ain and Binz spun around and looked towards the middle of their bow where this woman landed. She scared them out of their wits and neither Marine could say a word. Brandish walked over to the railing on the starboard side and she leaned back against it. She turned her head to Binz who was the closest one to the wheel, and in a bored tone she said, "Take me back to the coast. Preferably one of the Emperor's port cities." She pulled out a nail file and started doing her nails right there on the starboard side of the ship. Brandish completely ignored the other people on the ship after telling them where she needed to go, but they needed no further directions or incentive to listen. They did what she said without asking a single question, and turned their ship around.

* * *

 **A/N Forever Kingdom goes down for good! Brandish is from Fairy Tail (more recently in the manga, sorry if y'all have only watched it). The pirates from Pirates in the Caribbean appear and what a surprise Sora knows them too. We find out when Sora and Riku got sent to Nexus on their own timeline as I don't know if I've ever explained that before. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter! Leave me a review telling me what you think. Thank you for all the reviews last chapter, and I have class in ten minutes that I have to rush to or I would do the responses below. I'll answer any questions in them in the next chapter! Well, 'till next time!**


	20. Nexus HWR 3-6 Arrival

**Nexus HWR 3.6 Arrival:**

"Hey Ben, you see that?" Natsu asked. The Fire Dragon Slayer and the boy next to him on the bow stared out to the east with rising anticipation. "There it is. The adventure starts now," Natsu remarked.

"Really?" Ben said skeptically. "I feel like we've had plenty of adventures just getting here."

"Yeah, but that was just the journey. Now we actually-"

"The trip isn't over yet," Gray said, walking up to the two he heard talking in front of him. "Just because we can see a blur across the horizon, doesn't mean we're at our destination. That's still probably a hundred miles away, maybe more." The ice mage looked behind him and saw the suns nearing the western horizon, "We won't make it today for sure, and considering the water closer to shore is harder to navigate than the open ocean, we'll have to anchor for the night, maybe not even make it by tomorrow."

Ben and Natsu groaned. They were about to start arguing with him when Nami spoke up from her spot next to Franky at the wheel. "That's right," she agreed, "Gray tells me that the coast lines are scattered with islands and rocky outcrops. Of course I can get us there, but we will have to slow down our approach."

"Aww," Natsu and Ben groaned again, this time not planning to argue if the navigator said it too. They watched the shore for a little longer, but it was so far away they got bored of looking at a barely visible blur and left to go enjoy time on the ship that had become sort of like a home to them in the last few weeks, almost a full month.

The Thousand Sunny kept going for as long as Nami saw fit, until the orange haired navigator finally told the crew to pull in the sails and drop anchor. The suns dropped below the horizon and night slowly fell over the Great Ocean. The nineteen person crew, and their cat, ate dinners that Sanji made for them and had another rowdy feast. Even Kuro got a delicious meal; Sanji made five-star cat food that had the cat purring on its back in bliss by the end of the meal.

Nico Robin sat at the table eating quietly like normal. She enjoyed their feasts, even if she did not partake in the boisterousness of her comrades. She also enjoyed noticing the changes in the crew from their first night on the ship to this point so close to their destination. Robin saw Ben arguing with Killua about the last sausage on the platter plate in front of them, and then they both spun and started yelling at Dash as the sausage vanished and the younger boy's cheeks puffed out. At a different part of the table she saw Rin stretching Luffy's mouth and wrestling with him over his own missing plate that Luffy would not give back, and the half-demon was only appeased when Sanji brought out a full other platter to put in front of the black haired teen.

"Hey Goku, I never asked, but when we met in the Underworld base, did you recognize me?" Kirito asked. Robin's ears perked up and she looked directly across the table at the two sitting next to each other. Natsu and Juvia both heard the teen's question too and looked in at him, Natsu with a more annoyed expression, but also looking intrigued. The small boy with spiky black hair on Kirito's side tilted his head to the side confusedly though as he took another bite of his food. "Didn't think so," Kirito chuckled.

"Why? Did we meet before that?" Kid Goku asked the teen.

Kirito shook his head but had a small smile on his face. "You were actually the first person I saw on Nexus," Kirito said. Goku looked surprised and he tried thinking back that far but was coming up blank. Kirito continued, "You were in a hurry, but when I first saw you, I thought I was in virtual reality. You started flying right in front of me, really freaked me out."

"Haha," Goku laughed. "I got in a pretty big fight right after I showed up. Cell wasn't very far away from me-"

"The wind from your fight knocked me off my feet," Kirito added. "I got out of there as fast as I could."

"Huh," Goku said.

"Small world," Natsu said, chuckling a little himself. "Like, what are the odds two years later you would meet the same guy?"

Kirito shrugged his shoulders and grabbed another takoyaki ball from the platter in front of his own plate. "Never thought I'd see Gray again either," Kirito mentioned, looking over at the ice mage on Juvia's other side who was talking to Timmy and not in their conversation. Natsu and Juvia both nodded as they remembered how Gray told them he recognized Kirito which is why he approached him that first day they re-met in Pao, before he learned that Kirito used to be an Underworld member and started avoiding him.

Robin smiled as the two mages and the teen ninja swordsman kept talking. _The first day on this journey, those Fairy Tail mages treated him with such disdain. I do not believe they imagined that they themselves would become friends with Kirito-kun._ She looked around and kept smirking in a knowing way. _Killua-kun has also opened up. I do not recall seeing him converse with anyone within the first week._ As she thought it, she saw the white haired kid start laughing at something Dash said, even though Ben went a little red in the face and snapped at him.

"Ohh, who's this Lisanna?" Killua asked the kid next to him.

Dash leaned in front of Ben before the thirteen year old could respond and he said, "She's Natsu's girlfriend. Ben's a little jelly," Ben reached out and pushed the younger boy who yelped and fell out of his chair. Dash was fast but he wasn't expecting it and the older boy started chuckling. Dash jumped up and ran to Ben's seat, pulling him down from behind and making Killua laugh even more.

The two kids started wrestling and Robin crossed her arms. Ten hands appeared on both of them and pulled them apart, "Not at the table boys. Mind your manners."

Sanji got hearts in his eyes and yelled in agreement with Robin before spinning over on a foot and bonking both of the restrained kids on the heads with his other foot himself. They moaned and climbed back up in their seats after a second, and the meal continued. It was one of their longer meals, and even when they finished eating they stayed for longer, everyone enjoying their conversations with each other and not feeling a big need to go to their own rooms or beds yet.

After a while though, certain people got tired and got up from the table. Franky busted out some drinks, but half the crew was underage and the older people wouldn't give them any. Goku did not drink either, and to explain why he said that it was not good for the body, then he left to go train before bed. The drinking pirates and mages laughed as the Saiyan was always training day and night.

The anchored ship got quieter later into the night and even the heavy partiers went to bed sooner or later. The lights went out on the ship, Goku finished training, most people went to sleep, and the two watching from barely above the water a hundred meters away nodded at each other. They dropped underwater and the breathing apparatuses on their mouths kept them from needing to go up for air for as long as they wanted. They approached the pirate ship in front of them silently, wearing goggles that let them see in the dark and underwater.

As they reached the outside of the ship, one of the two popped over the surface first. They were wearing tight black uniforms that accentuated the curves on their chests showing that the thin figures were women. The one who popped over the water first had black hair tied in a soaking wet ponytail behind her head. She lifted higher over the water and two appendages broke out of the black coverings on her back to keep them dry: long thin wings that she flapped above herself to get off the water.

The second figure broke the surface when the first started flying. She had long blonde hair and she removed the breathing apparatus from her mouth when she emerged. The woman's goggles were dark green unlike the dark yellow ones her flying friend had on. She reached up her arms and the winged figure reached down and grabbed her hands. The one with wings lifted her comrade out of the water and flew them up above the deck of the Sunny. They stayed close to the edge of the ship and peered up at the crow's nest, but did not see anyone up there on guard.

The one being held by the hands nodded her head down at the deck and the two of them lowered. They touched down softly as to avoid making a sound, and turned their heads towards the cabin. The one with yellow goggles lowered her wings to her back and reached down, pulling out two tiny pistols from her waist while the girl next to her pulled out a six inch long, thin knife that looked almost like a tiny katana. She held it in front of herself sideways and stepped forward, and then both women froze in place.

Neither of them knew why they did it, all they knew was that their faces and bodies covered in sweat. "Who are you?" A voice asked behind them, so close it felt like the person's head was directly behind each of their own. His voice was quiet, and it sounded very young. Timmy floated there behind the women, staring at the backs of their heads interestedly. "Assassins? You definitely picked the right time, even Franky's asleep up on the crow's nest right now. Really, you got us when everyone was sleeping."

"How did you know we were here?" the one with wings asked, her voice desperately trying to mask the fear she was feeling. She started turning around and the girl next to her felt it was okay to turn as well. They looked back, and froze again at the sight of the four foot tall boy floating a foot behind them. They took steps back, the boy did not follow them, yet they still felt it was a bad idea to turn and run. The one who spoke first started again, "We were silent, how could you have-"

"The vibrations you made when you landed on the deck, they woke me up." The two girls who touched down so softly as to not make any noise opened their eyes wide in shock. Not only because this boy woke up from their vibrations, but also because they had only been on the ship for a full second or two before the kid was floating behind him. He knew what they were doing there, his power was immeasurable to them, and their heart rates skyrocketed.

Timmy could see how heavy they were breathing and how terrified they were even though the two of them were doing well at hiding it and keeping their weapons firmly grasped in their hands. "Hmm," Timmy hummed as he looked back and forth between the two of them. "So you're Bumblebee," he began, and the girl with yellow goggles flinched. He turned to the other and added, "And, Artemis?" The girl with green goggles flinched a lot more than her friend, and Timmy shook his head, "Sorry, Tigress. My bad, though, you know you haven't given up on him yet."

"Who the Hell are you?" Artemis snapped, though she tried keeping her voice quiet as to not wake anyone else up.

"I'm Timmy," the boy responded. He started smiling, "And you two can leave." The girls staring at him opened their eyes wider than ever. They thought they were caught, doomed, and yet this kid just told them to leave? "It's okay," he continued. "I read your minds, you aren't bad people. Just to let you know, neither are we, so you don't need to worry about that. Not all pirates are bad you know?"

The women looked at each other, and then slowly backed towards the edge of the ship they came over. "Why are you-" Bumblebee started, before remembering the boy just said they weren't bad people and that was probably the excuse he would give her, which is why he already said it. She was so nervous about his many impressive powers that the hesitation she felt about abandoning this mission faded completely. "Let's go girl," Bumblebee said to her comrade. She turned and flew away from the ship fast, while Artemis spun and climbed up on the side of the deck.

Artemis stopped as she stood on the railing, and looked carefully back at the child behind her. "Why did you say…" She stopped herself and clenched her teeth. She spun before Timmy could give her an answer and dove off the side. The girl in black went underwater and then put her breathing apparatus back over her mouth. _That was insane. Just how strong was that kid? An easy pirate elimination my ass, that's a top level assignment right there._

Timmy walked back into the ship and he went and woke up all the boys in their room. He went over what just happened and everyone started talking at once. "Why'd you let them leave?" Gray growled, his eyes shadowed over by his black hair. "They're going to tell their superiors they failed. They'll be back with stronger-"

"Well, considering they're your superiors too, I felt it wouldn't be a good idea." Timmy's sentence made Gray's eyes pop wide. "Yeah, that Resistance you always talk about is still around apparently. However," the kid scratched the back of his head, "they're fading fast. When I read their minds it seems like they have even less land than you thought. Still though, they manage to carry out missions in the Emperor's land this far west, so they must still be pretty capable. Even if they don't have any land on the west coast anymore…"

"Doesn't sound too good," Killua stated from his hammock where he lay back with his hands behind his head. "Didn't you say that Black Witch person already controls the entire east coast?" Gray nodded his head and the kid with spiky white hair sighed as it sounded like their group was definitely joining the losing side. _Though if I had to guess, that's probably where Gon would be._

Luffy stretched his arms up over his head and walked back towards his hammock. "Good," he said. "I didn't want this to be too easy."

Gray growled at his remark but he sighed and still felt tired despite this turn of events. "Let's all get some rest," he suggested. "Hopefully we make good time tomorrow, and we'll be at shore by Wednesday afternoon."

"Sounds like a plan," Goku agreed. He hopped back into his hammock and passed out almost instantly, still looking beat up from his late night training session.

"Night guys," Ben said as he climbed into his own bed again too. They turned off the lights and Ben added, "Oh, and thanks Timmy. Owe you one."

The younger boy on a hammock next to Ben's smiled, and then smiled more as as a group, another dozen boys all said simultaneously, "Thank you Timmy."

Outside the ship and a half mile away, a woman floating high in the sky lowered down to the water's edge. She stopped in front of the girl in yellow goggles who flapped her wings every few seconds to keep herself in place, and above the other girl who just popped out of the water beneath them. "Well that did not go well," the older woman said. She was wearing only a black sash around her chest, tight black pants, and a short white cape that wrapped around her neck like a scarf. The woman had spiky black hair farther back on her head, though right above her forehead her hair fell down so her bangs just reached the tops of her eyes. "What happened?" She asked the two.

"I've got no idea Matsuri-san," Bumblebee told the older woman. "Did you see that kid?"

"Yeah, I saw him," Matsuri replied. "We really should not have messed with those guys. It's a good thing the boy was merciful. He could have killed you both before you even noticed him."

Artemis, or Tigress, was panting heavily after she rose out of the surface of the ocean. "He could read our minds," she whispered, her voice sounding far off. "He knew everything just by looking at us. He knew we were Resistance, he knew our names, our pasts," she shook her head and clenched her teeth as she thought about it. The blonde girl looked up at the woman floated above her without any wings, "What should we do?"

"Run away of course," Matsuri replied. She chuckled at the girls' surprised expressions, then turned around herself and motioned in the direction of shore with her head. "Meet back at the base in Daedra. Travel separately." The two younger girls nodded up at her and Matsuri covered in a white aura. She had a metal bracelet on her right wrist so even though she powered up to fly away fast, those in the ship behind her could not feel her at all. Matsuri looked back as she flew away though, looking at the silhouette of the ship fading into the distance behind her. _He spared them. Thank God. I really thought those two girls were dead for a minute there. Just who was that boy?_

* * *

"We're here," Gray said as they neared the coast. They had been able to see the mainland for two days now, a blur on the horizon at first, and then the mountains that were visible in the distance. The amount of smaller islands really picked up off the coast as well, so Nami had been constantly navigating them through pathways in the water.

They were finally close to their destination and Ben pointed a hand off the bow. "Look," he said, and pointed at a city right on the edge of the water. It was in the direction they were going and he said, "We should go to that port."

"Sounds like a plan," Luffy said and looked back from his special seat on the figurehead to grin at his younger friend. "Franky! Steer us towards that port!" The captain called out.

"Hey," Dash mentioned. The kid was leaning up over the rail and he pointed his hand at the water closer to the front of their ship. There were rocky islands on either side of them that they were currently sailing through, but there was something in between the outcrops as well. It floated in the water with a little red dot on top. "Isn't that, the same type of buoy that that island Sora was stranded-"

"Yeah," Gray told the kid on his left. "Those buoys surround the entire continent and make the people inside undetectable by anyone outside. It works both ways though, so once we go in there, we won't be able to feel our friends back on Awul anymore." He looked back at Timmy and Goku who were both standing behind him. "You guys are okay with that?"

"Yea," Goku said. He smiled and said, "I've been here before, I know how it works." The Saiyan kid chuckled, "Besides, I know they can all take care of themselves."

"You do know you have a four year old son, right?" Nami questioned the irresponsible child standing behind her. She said it and instantly felt silly saying that to a boy who looked no older than ten.

"Haha, Goten's strong, and Gohan and the girls are looking after him," Goku felt out his family and smiled feeling they were alright. _Stay safe guys, I'll be back someday._

 _Mandy, Nightwing, Lubba, everyone,_ Timmy thought. He searched out their ki's and smiled at the feelings he got. _I hope I see you all again._

The ship passed through the buoy and Goku got excited as he expected to start feeling all the energies of the people of Aebrith. "Huh," Goku wondered aloud. His friends looked in at the spiky haired child who continued, "It's weird, I can't feel anyone outside of the port."

"That isn't weird at all," Gray brought up. He rose an arm and pointed ahead at the left edge of the port on the coast. There was a tower there with a blinking light at the top, and Gray motioned with his arm to the right and a tower on the other side. He kept spinning and pointed at either of the rock outcrops they were about to pass completely. On top of each one were other small towers with those blinking red lights. "Most cities use Power Blocking technology to keep their cities off the radar. It helps reduce attacks, and also makes it so people don't have to wear PB's inside the city."

"PB's?" Ben asked the man next to him. "Does that stand for-"

"Yes, Power Blocker," Gray said. "Once we get in the city I'll go looking around for some." He did a full spin and looked at all the others gathered with him. "I'd say we need PB-2's for Nami and Usopp, PB-4's for most everyone else, and two PB-6's for Goku and Timmy."

"Hey! Why do I only get a PB-2?!" Usopp shouted. Then, after a second he asked, "Also, what's the difference?"

"The higher the number, the more energy they need to hide. That way, even if you get in a fight and raise your strength, as long as you have on the right Power Blocker you'll be good to go without worrying about monsters showing up." Gray explained.

"Man, we just got here and this whole place already sounds confusing," Killua said and scratched the back of his head. "And you sure about those measurements you just made?" He questioned the ice mage. "I'd rather a monster didn't jump out at me because I trusted your judgement on this one."

"I'm sure," Gray replied. "I picked at least one higher than I thought we each needed. Most of us probably only need 2's or 3's but I feel like maybe I don't know everyone's full powers yet so I said fours. Sound alright?" Gray asked. At first he was annoyed that Killua brought it up, but as he mentioned how he did not know everyone's powers he thought about the times he had seen Killua fight. _He never looks like he's exerting himself. I wonder if he has more strength than I've seen? Either way, I had him at a three so a four should be good insurance._

Killua thought about it for a few seconds before nodding his head. "Yeah, sounds good."

"You're gonna give me and Luffy the same level Power Blocker?" Natsu asked loudly as he walked forward. "You should probably give me a PB-5 instead."

Luffy turned back to Natsu and frowned at the Dragon Slayer who was smirking up at him. He opened his mouth to counter that Natsu should only need a PB-2, when Natsu's face suddenly turned blue. Out of nowhere the Dragon Slayer collapsed to the ground and his cheeks puffed out. His friends dropped their jaws and Gray and Juvia started laughing. Natsu reached his hand out towards the shore. "So, close," he rasped out. Wendy's Troia magic made it so far, and ran out just in time as they were finally at their final destination.

Luffy laughed hardest at Natsu's collapse because one, it was funny and two, because he wanted the pink haired idiot to hear him laughing over the others. He turned back around after laughing some more and saw the shore was much closer now. He jumped up on top of the lion's head in front of his ship and grinned ear to ear at the approaching port. They were heading straight towards a long wooden dock that looked much nicer and more structurally sound than the ones in Port Royal. There was a wide open space at the end of it that looked like it was waiting for them, and there was something else waiting for them too. More precisely, 'someone' else was standing at the edge of the dock looking out towards them.

He had a wide smile on his face and had short but unkempt blond hair. The man stood ten feet tall and wore a white button down, red pants, and a huge puffy pink cloak made of feathers that he wore like a cape, wrapped around his neck and falling down his back all the way to his feet. He had on a pair of horn-rimmed sunglasses with red tinted lenses. His white button down was open down the middle revealing his muscular abs and chest.

As most of the people on the ship examined this man for the first time, two people were looking at him with much more surprised looks. "That guy," Luffy began. "I saw him before," Luffy thought back to the War of the Best when he saw this man. "He was a Shichibukai," Lufy remembered.

Usopp, Franky, Sanji, and Nami all opened their eyes wide. Ben asked what that was, and Nami explained, "The Shichibukai were seven very powerful pirates on our world who worked for the World Government. They were only second to the Yonko like Shanks and Blackbeard."

Kirito heard these names and the person in front of him suddenly became a lot more intimidating. _I got cured several times when fighting Blackbeard, I don't pretend to think that I was actually stronger than him. And Shanks, he split the sky with a swing of his sword. He sliced Naruto's Rasenshuriken in half. If this man is even half as strong as those two, I just hope I don't have to end up fighting him._

"Luffy is correct," Robin brought up. "That man, is the Shichibukai known as the Heavenly Demon, Donquixote Doflamingo."

"Eee!" Nami and Usopp both exclaimed.

"I've heard that name," Franky said, also sounding a little unnerved.

"Isn't Doflamingo supposed to be the scariest of the Shichibukai?" Usopp hissed back at Robin, who chuckled darkly at the question and made Usopp cry out in horror.

"Well, we'll see what type of guy he is in a minute," Goku said. He hopped up in the air so he could see over the others and he smiled at the man they were approaching. "Wow, he's the strongest one in the city."

"Oh that's great," Gray muttered sarcastically.

"What's wrong?" Juvia asked her boyfriend.

"Actually," Gray began softly as they were nearing the dock that the strongest man in the city was standing in. "I have also heard the name Doflamingo before, which means that this port is Dressrosa. Just a quick warning before we go in, this is a Co-op city." He saw a few blank faces and sighed. "It's a member of the Cooperative. Doflamingo is a Lord, so-"

"So then he's our enemy?" Natsu asked.

"No, well yes, but not now," Gray grumbled quickly. "We're here to stock up supplies and hopefully find some means of transportation across Aebrith. If there's no reason to fight him, we shouldn't. We don't even know if he's a bad guy yet or if he just follows the King so he doesn't die."

He faded off towards the end as the ship was now so close that if someone didn't say anything it was going to get awkward. "Hello," Luffy greeted the man on the dock. He did not know what type of facial expression to have but he did not really like Doflamingo much so he chose a frown. "What do you want?" Luffy asked.

"Straw Hat Luffy!" Doflamingo called out to the pirate. "Uuhahahaha," he laughed in a deep tone. "What a surprise to see a familiar face! Welcome, to Dressrosa!" He spread his arms out to his sides to welcome them.

Luffy's frown did not go away but a few of his comrades did seem a little more at ease since it looked like Doflamingo was trying to be hospitable. They ran the ship right up alongside the end of the dock and a few of them jumped off with ropes to start tying up. The others jumped down and stood in front of Doflamingo. "You've got a nice looking crew with you," Doflamingo told the pirate captain in front of him as he examined Luffy's crewmates.

"We're not all actually on his crew," Killua stated to the much taller man. Doflamingo glanced down at the kid who nodded his head up at him and said, "I'm Killua."

The confident way in which Killua addressed the Lord of the city made his comrades look at him in surprise. _Idiots,_ Killua thought smugly. _Even Doflamingo must think I'm pretty strong right now, but really I just know Goku or Timmy could stop this guy easy if he tries to attack me._

Doflamingo actually did not care, and the fourteen year old was getting on his nerves with that look of his. Killua started to feel nervous, and then a child flew up in the air in front of Doflamingo. He had spiky black hair going to his sides and up above his head. He held out his right hand and Doflamingo frowned at it for a second, until the child smiled and greeted, "Hey! I'm Son Goku."

Doflamingo's bottom lip lowered and a bead of sweat rolled down the left side of his face. "You are huh?" He reached out a hand and shook the little flying kid's, whose grip turned out to feel like a grown man's. _Goku? Son Goku? Is this kid serious?_ Doflamingo smiled at the group again and he said, "Dressrosa welcomes you. Its citizens and myself ask you to refrain from any violence inside the city and to make sure you do not break any Cooperative rules. Well then," he turned and rose up his right hand. Most people couldn't see it, but a few spotted the super thin string fly out of his hand and connect to a cloud in the sky. Doflamingo's feet lifted off the ground and he flew up in the air and into the port towards the enormous fortress on a hill in the back of the city away from the coastline.

"You know, I liked that guy," Ben said as he started walking forward on the dock. "I don't know what it was about him, but he just seemed like a genuinely nice person."

"Really?" Dash asked his friend he was walking next to.

Ben laughed, "Ha! No! That guy was totally evil. Everything he said gave me shivers and I really thought he was going to kill Killua there for a second."

Killua chuckled behind Ben and thought, _Yeah, me too._ He tried not to let it show how nervous he became when Doflamingo glared at him through his sunglasses. _These Lord guys are no joke._ He turned to Goku as the "younger" boy flew up next to him and landed. "Hey Goku," Killua began. The shorter kid with spiky black hair turned to the teen and Killua continued, "Who do you think is stronger, me or that Doflamingo guy?"

Goku scratched the back of his head while smiling. "I don't know Killua, why don't you fight him to find out?" He suggested casually.

"Couldn't you sense his energy?" Killua asked, as he did not see a Power Blocker on the man who greeted them just now.

"Yeah," Goku replied and a bunch of the others were staring at the two of them now. "But he was holding back a lot of power too."

The way he said 'too' made Killua frown a little. Without looking around he spotted several people staring at the two of them, and some of them also heard the way Goku worded that and darted their eyes at Killua. He pretended not to notice their stares and kept walking calmly, but thought, _Damn, how does Goku know? I haven't stopped hiding my power since I got on the ship._

"Alright guys," Gray started up loudly, trying to get the attention of their whole group while they were still together. Some of them were walking down the dock like they had somewhere to be so he figured he'd say what he needed to before he lost them all. "Dressrosa is still pretty far north of where we're heading, and we need to head far inland too. It's going to be a long trip, and we need supplies. We need food, sleeping bags, hopefully a vehicle. Look around for a capsule shop so we can store all our stuff."

"What's a capsule?" Ben called to him.

"It's a-" Gray began but Goku interrupted him.

"Hey! We had capsules on my world! Bulma and her dad made them," Goku said excitedly. He was glad to be the one who knew something for once that the others didn't.

"And what are they?" Ben asked the man who was shorter than him.

"They're uh, um, these little things, that have bigger things inside them!" Goku explained.

Most people there sweatdropped as they stared at him, but then Gray spoke up, "He's actually, right." He sounded confused himself as he admitted it. Gray continued, "You can hold capsules between your fingers but a capsule can store a car, a house, food..."

"Or a time machine," Goku mentioned. His friends stared at him and Goku added, "And a spaceship!" Although those things sounded interesting, they all decided to ask Goku about them _later_.

"How does it get bigger?" Nami asked confusedly. The little kid stared at her blankly and she got a bead of sweat on the side of her face. _Like Goku would understand the science,_ she scolded herself mentally. "Nevermind," she muttered at the spiky haired boy.

"I can go look for them," Goku offered. He smirked and added, "Once I get some food first."

"I'll go with Goku," Luffy threw a hand up and said immediately after hearing where Goku was heading.

Sora rubbed his stomach and he looked at the girl standing next to him. "Want to go with them?" He asked. Kairi smiled back and nodded at her fiancé. Sora grabbed her hand and walked towards Goku and Luffy who were about to run off. "Care for two more?"

"Sure Sora," Luffy said.

The four of them started walking off and Nami held Kairi back for a second. "Make sure they don't forget to get the capsules after they eat," she told the younger girl.

Kairi giggled and nodded her head, "Alright, got it."

Gray watched the four of them leave and then he turned and started giving out jobs to the others with him. A few looked annoyed they were being told what to do, but Gray knew them enough by now to know what they would be best at gathering: Sanji to get food, Franky for a vehicle, etc. The crew started to separate and Timmy told them that he would use telepathy to get them all back together later on, so they didn't need to worry about a meeting place or anything right now.

"Alright," Gray said once they were all leaving. The ones who started walking other ways looked back at the mage who was standing only next to Juvia now. He looked around at them all and said, "Be careful. Doflamingo may have greeted us with open arms, but he's still a Lord of the Cooperative. Stay on guard." The rest of them nodded at the young man, then broke up to enjoy the beautiful city of Dressrosa.

* * *

"This is whack," Natsu grumbled. The Dragon Slayer walking down the road with his hands interlocked behind his head looked around and his frown twisted into a more annoyed one. "Everybody went and split up again. This city's so cool, we gotta find something to do!"

"O-kay," Ben started slowly. "I'm gonna ignore the fact that you just said 'whack' for a minute." Dash laughed and Ben couldn't help but smirk as Natsu frowned at him. "Actually no," Ben said and could not hold in his laughter as he shook his head. "Who have you ever heard say whack like that?" Ben asked.

"Everyone," Natsu said, though he looked away to hide his bad poker face. "But really, I'm bored already," the oldest of the three muttered. They'd been walking aimlessly and none of the three could figure out what they wanted to do most in the gorgeous city full of people and animated toys. They were surprised by them at first, but everyone else seemed to treat the fact that toys walked around like people as if it was a normal occurrence around here, so they ignored the strangeness of it.

"Hey look," Dash pointed down the road from them and the other three spotted who he was pointing at.

Timmy was walking on his own down the road away from them. They were about to run over to catch up with him, but they stopped as Timmy did. Timmy looked down the street and he saw a tall man walking his way. The guy was the same one who greeted them on the pier earlier, and his arms were open wide as he walked towards Timmy.

Donquixote Doflamingo was ten feet tall, looking down on a boy barely over a third his size. "One of our esteemed guests," Doflamingo greeted and held out his hands. "What are you doing wandering around Dressrosa without your friends? Are you lost?" Doflamingo asked.

The twelve year old looked up into the city ruler's eyes. Since he saw him on the dock he had a bad feeling about the man, and it only intensified as Doflamingo walked towards him. _Do it. You can't trust him._

Doflamingo walked up to Timmy who started glaring into the pirate's eyes. The Schichibukai stared back at the boy and his huge cocky smirk faltered.

The three boys watching from down the road started to get nervous as they stared at the two of them. Doflamingo looking down and Timmy staring up, they could not tell who looked more menacing. For most people who saw the two, they became very nervous at the sight of their Lord glaring at the child. They were nervous _for_ the child, unlike the three who wondered what Timmy was about to do to this guy.

Doflamingo saw the boy's eyes widen and his own mind started racing at what the boy was thinking. One second Timmy was staring at him like he was trying to figure something out, and the next he appeared to have a realization as if whatever he was looking for, he found. "No," Timmy whispered, "you bastard."

"I don't know what you think-" Doflamingo began. He reached out but Timmy swung his right hand forward faster than Doflamingo saw coming.

The pirate was still a decent length away from Timmy, so he was not expecting to be hit. That's why when a force like a freight train slammed into him, Doflamingo went flying at three hundred miles per hour.

Timmy's friends dropped their jaws, just like every other person nearby. Citizens screamed and Natsu, Ben, and Dash ran forward. Dash arrived in a second and started yelling, but he stopped as a voice shouted in his mind. **"GUYS!"**

Goku, Sora, Kairi, and Luffy looked up at each other. They were eating at a restaurant and all four of them heard the voice in their heads. "Timmy?" Luffy wondered aloud.

Gray and Juvia were in the marketplace buying some food. Gray was pointing out the best foods to take with them that would last on a journey. Sanji was on the opposite side of the market checking out the fish stands. They all lifted their heads at the sound of the voice yelling in their heads.

 **"It isn't safe in this city! It's all a lie!"** Timmy's friends nervously got out of their seats or looked around at the city Timmy was warning them about. Timmy read Doflamingo's mind and he was panicking at what he heard. **"The toys!"** Timmy yelled in his mind. **"They're all actually people. One of Doflamingo's crew, she can turn people into toys and once that happens, they are erased from the minds of everyone they know!"**

"Oh shit," Sanji whispered. He thought about what this meant and his eyes popped open wide. _The ladies!_ He spun and jumped fifty feet up in the air. He looked back at the market and saw Juvia with Gray, but he could not see the others anywhere near him. Sanji kicked off the air, flying over buildings while sensing for the ladies.

As Sanji lifted off, Timmy kept shouting telepathically to them. **"Doflamingo was thinking about how Sugar, his crew member, was already going around turning us into toys."** Timmy sounded scared and his mental voice got quieter, **"I don't know, if she got to any of us yet. How do we know?"**

Luffy jumped out of his seat and he shouted both out loud and in his head, "I would never forget my nakama!"

"Yeah," Natsu caught up to Timmy and he spoke out loud to the boy. "We would know if we forgot someone. I know everyone who got off the ship with us a little while ago."

"Do we though?" Ben whispered and he looked up at Natsu. Ben looked at the two younger boys too and he said nervously, "What if, what if we've already forgotten?"

Sirens started going off around the city and something exploded a mile north of the group. **"Guys, if we don't think anyone is gone, maybe, maybe we should run away."** Timmy thought to his group of friends. The others around him looked at him in surprise, and Timmy kept thinking, **"If she gets us, we could wind up leaving here without someone. We might leave someone behind."**

 **"What if she already got one of us though?"** Robin said, getting her voice to echo in their minds thanks to Timmy's mental connection. **"I believe our only course of action, is to make sure we find and neutralize this Sugar person."**

Gray's eyes opened wide and he yelled mentally, **"To take on one of Doflamingo's executives is to declare war on not only the Lord himself, but the High Lord Doflamingo reports to!"**

 **"Good!"** Natsu yelled mentally back at his friend. **"This is why we're here!"**

"No!" Timmy yelled aloud, looking straight at Natsu. He looked into the Dragon Slayer's eyes and Natsu saw true fear in the kid's. **"I, don't want, to lose anyone here,"** Timmy said softly and his friends all heard him. **"I'm going to count us off in my head. There are seventeen of us in total, don't forget that number. Seventeen: Me, Natsu, Ben, Dash..."** The boys around him looked at each other.

 **"Luffy, Goku, Kairi, Sora, Riku..."** The four in the restaurant who ran outside heard their names and snapped their heads around, on the lookout for anyone who might look like one of Doflamingo's goons. Riku stood on top of a building down the block from them and he kept a watchful gaze on everything around him.

 **"Robin, Franky, Usopp, Killua..."** Four others at a street corner closer to the docks stood back to backs making sure they had eyes on every road touching their intersection.

 **"Sanji..."** The chef up in the air dropped down towards a street corner as he spotted his crewmates and Killua. "Robin-chan, thank goodness you're safe!" Sanji exclaimed. _I saw Kairi-chwan with Goku, so that makes all three women safe._ He thought as he landed.

Timmy only had a few names left, but he felt a hole in his chest and his face scrunched up. He finished though, **"Kirito, Gray, and Juvia."**

Back in the marketplace, Gray and Juvia stood next to each other, snapping their heads around to look for anyone suspicious. People were screaming and running around in absolute panic. Guards with guns went sprinting by on a street near the market, and Gray ducked and pulled Juvia down with him.

 **"Seventeen names,"** Timmy repeated in their minds. **"Don't forget. There are seventeen of us. Seventeen. Seventeen of us."**

"Mommy! Mommmmy!"

Gray and Juvia were on guard, but Juvia turned her head a little hearing this shouting child. She looked back and saw a small girl walking aimlessly towards them. People were running around in fear, and this girl had her hands up to her eyes rubbing them with her hands. "Gray-sama," Juvia started.

The black haired man turned back and saw the girl walking towards them. Juvia was looking at her sadly and Gray figured they needed to help this girl too. "Hey," Gray called out, taking a step towards the child. Juvia smiled brightly at her boyfriend and her heart raced in her love for him. "Where was the last place you saw your mommy?"

The girl kept crying and Gray sighed, stepping closer and bending down. "Can you at least tell me what your name is?" He questioned her. In their minds, Timmy repeated the number 'seventeen' over and over again.

"Why are you taking off your shirt?" The little girl said as she lowered her hands from her eyes. Gray looked down and saw himself pulling his shirt up, and Juvia turned to him with her face turning red. When they looked back forward, the girl was a few steps closer so she was right in front of them. "And my name," she said, while lifting her hands up towards them. "Is Sugar."

The green haired girl touched the wide-eyed mages in front of her and the two of them vanished. In their places were a couple of toys, a wooden puppet with long blue hair and a robot covered in flashing lights. Sugar stopped her fake crying and she laughed at the toys in front of her who stared at her in horror.

Timmy's voice no longer echoed in Gray and Juvia's minds, but for everyone else in the group rushing around the city, they kept hearing his voice in their heads. **"Don't forget. Fifteen. Fifteen of us total."**

* * *

 **A/N Oh no! Sugar! Doflamingo! The Dressrosa arc begins as our group does not make it a full hour after landing before causing mass chaos in a Cooperative City. Gray and Juvia get turned into toys, but there are some others missing already too. The group is shrinking fast and unless they find and neutralize Sugar, their friends are going to be stuck as toys and erased from their memories for good! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Leave me a review telling me what you thought, comments, questions, or predictions for this story! The arrival on Aebrith chapter ends with the Dressrosa Arc, though as I still need to finish this arc myself it may be a few days until the next update... Anyway, review responses for the last 2 chapters since I missed out last time:**

joebob323 chapter 18 . Feb 27

Oooh! Kid Goku! That adds a lot more drama into the story. What it Goku can't access super sayian in his child form? What if he has difficulty moving? I don't know if it is a good thing or a bad one... Anyways, congrats on another chapter well done! Hope to see more soon! And yeah, Yamcha does need to do more stuff, as he is actually among one of the stronger people on this continent.

 **Kid Goku is definitely fun to write, especially since he's already pretty much a child XD. We'll see how he fights without his normal body in the upcoming chapters! Actually, after mentioning Yamcha the other day I wrote a chapter for much later in the future that actually utilizes him pretty well, so I'm glad you mentioned that. Thanks for the review!**

Darugus chapter 18 . Feb 27

So kid goku I see where this is going but since the neo marines worked for the emperor they might encounter then again or maybe the emperor hunts then down because they failed

 **Kid Goku! Thanks for the review! The Emperor sent a hunter for the Forever Kingdom, but luckily for Ain and Binz, Brandish did not destroy them as well!**

Espada-001 chapter 18 . Feb 28

Well it's definitely sad to see Zepher get taken down like that. :( But on the upside Goku's a little kid again, and I'm sure everyone can guess what little feature is about to start growing from his rump. Other than that I don't have anything else so until next time have a good day.

 **Z was def my favorite One Piece movie villain, so yeah it was tough to decide how to end him. Kind of wanted him to be more important, but they were reaching the end of their ocean journey anyway so... :P. Goku gets his tail back, but he keeps up his strength, or so he thinks. Thanks for the review!**

qwerty chapter 18 . Feb 27

So then will super saiyan 4 be a thing?

 ***shrugs* Maybe. No spoilers, but what will Goku's tail mean for this story?! Thanks for the review!**

joebob323 chapter 19 . 23h ago

Pretty neat! I like the introduction of Brandish in the end, and I wonder what went on with her and lucy...now that lucy's dead...oh well. Hope to see more Goku fights! The pirates underestimated him, since he's a boy, but if they ever see him in action...

 **First introduction of Spriggans in that last chapter, hope you're ready because with Zeref going to be one of the main villains in this Saga, there are a lot of powerful subordinates that come with him! Will there be a Brandish flashback? Will she have interacted with Lucy on this world, (since Fairy Tail characters appeared after Grand Magic Games arc and they would not have met before Nexus)? Goku fights coming up next chapters, so hope you're ready! Thanks the the review (again)!**

Espada-001 chapter 19 . 20h ago

Well Luffy was seconds from going ape shit on the P.C. world and Sora thankfully managed to avoid turning that place into ground zero. I really can't wait to see all the new characters your introducing for the upcoming confrontations. As a side project I did the math for Goku's age and by my count he's about 8 or 9. Now that he's a child again I wonder how long it's going to be before he discovers the major draw back to being so young with his power. Also we get to see one of the Spriggan's with one of the most broken OP magic powers ever shown in Fairy Tail. Well till next time have a good day!

 **Luckily for Sora's pirate friends that he was there to calm down his other pirate friends XD! Yeah I decided not to write in Goku's specific age because of all the times he's died, when he kept his body in Otherworld, also since I never really made it specific when they came from their own world only that it was more than 2 years after Cell's defeat. Goku being young again will affect his fighting style of course with shorter arms and legs, but we'll see in the next chapters if he can still handle the enemies of Dressrosa! Brandish's power is so unstoppable that it was a good thing she did not get sent after the Straw Hats and their friends, as she might have been if the Forever King had still been one of the Emperor's Lords. Now that they're fighting another of his Lords though, we'll see if she returns sometime soon... Anyway, thanks for another review!**

 **-Also, here's a quick list of characters since they finally made it to Aebrith, and because there were a couple of new characters this chapter:**

 **One Piece: Luffy, Thousand Sunny, Sanji, Nami, Franky, Robin, Usopp, Doflamingo, Sugar, Shichibukai, Blackbeard, Shanks, Yonko.**

 **DBZ: Goku, Goten, Gohan, Vegeta, ChiChi, Cell.**

 **SAO: Kirito**

 **Fairy Tail: Lisanna, Natsu, Juvia, Gray, Wendy, Brandish**

 **Blue Exorcist: Rin, Kuro**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Killua**

 **Fairly Oddparents: Timmy Turner**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Sora, Kairi, Riku**

 **Teen Titans: Nightwing (Robin), Bumblebee**

 **Young Justice: Artemis (Tigress)**

 **Psyren: Matsuri**

 **Akame ga Kill: Lubba**

 **Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy: Mandy**

 **Naruto: Naruto**

 **Alright, think I got everyone down! Thanks again for reading! 'Till next time!**


	21. Nexus HWR 3-7 Dressrosa Part 1

**Nexus HWR 3.7 Dressrosa Part 1:**

"What the Hell, is that?" Killua muttered, taking steps back towards the coast as he stared in shock at the huge hill Doflamingo's fortress was built on. The hill was getting bigger, and the city of Dressorsa closer to the hill was rising up with it. The edge of the hill on the left of Doflamingo's fortress and down a few hundred feet pushed out, and a massive stone hand emerged from the ground that continued to extend from the ground making a giant arm come out behind it.

Robin, Franky, and Usopp all stared just as nervously at the giant arm coming out of the rising hill. It lifted up and came down hard towards the city, but a bright white light shot up in the sky at the hand and slammed straight into it. The hand exploded, and the face that just started coming out of the hill near the shoulder of the huge stone arm twisted in anger. In a ridiculously high-pitched voice, Pica, one of Doflamingo's executives, shouted, "Ah! Son Goku!" His shattered hand fell down towards the city and Goku flew down, blowing up pieces of stone with ki attacks while Pica recreated his arm and made another one come out of the hill on the other side of the palace.

Doflamingo watched from atop his palace, not looking injured at all from the attack Timmy hit him with earlier. _Son Goku is too much of a hero to let Pica's attacks hurt the citizens. I can keep him distracted by creating havoc in the city and try to catch him off guard. Sugar should be able to get him if he thinks she is just another panicked citizen._ The blond Lord smirked and a figure walked up on his left side, a figure who looked so identical to him that they could practically be the same person. The two of them laughed together, and then Doflamingo's string clone leapt off of the wall and used a string connected to a cloud in the sky to send himself flying forward. The one staying behind had his hands at his sides, but his right hand's fingers twitched as he pulled the strings around his city.

Dressrosa was in a panic. Diamante marched through the streets with three hundred soldiers behind him. In front of those three hundred soldiers holding rifles and wearing blue uniforms and white pants were four other figures. The four executives under Diamante as leaders of his army and fellow members of the Donquixote family marched ahead with confident expressions on their faces. Machvise, Lao G, Señor Pink, and Dellinger walked in a line behind Diamante. Dellinger and Machvise were grinning like mad while Señor Pink sucked on a pacifier (which matched his baby costume), and Lao G kept a deep frown on his face.

"Hunt down the Straw Hats," Diamante said casually as he walked forward in the front of his army. "They and their allies have attacked Dressrosa. Bring them to Trebol if you capture them. We want to be able to get the city under control as soon as possible. **BOOM!** The army stopped and spun to look back at the giant hill that had a massive gray face sticking out of it now. Explosions went off on each of Pica's arms and the giant man screamed in a super high-pitched voice at the spiky haired child flying around in front of it. "Looks like Pica has his hands full," Diamante muttered to himself.

While Doflamingo's forces scoured the city, the people they were looking for gathered in the first floor of an abandoned restaurant. Timmy had flown around gathering them all together and he brought them to the same place except for Goku who was too busy fighting the giant monster sticking out of the hill to be bothered to come. The fourteen of their group stood together in the restaurant arguing loudly with each other. "…But how would we know for sure?"

"There are enemies everywhere, and we have no allies," Timmy said seriously. "There are several huge powers in the city, and if they call in for help, we'll have even more trouble on our hands. We just got here, I think we should wait to get to the Resistance so we can get some help."

"I'm ready to start fighting," Natsu said, punching his fists together in front of him.

"But Natsu," Ben said to the older boy from his town. "What if that Sugar person gets one of us? I don't want to forget about any of you."

Natsu nodded his head as that was a good point. "So what?" Usopp asked. "We get out of the city while we can? Try to find somewhere else we can get supplies?"

"Let's head back to the Sunny," Franky agreed. "We'll sail down the coast to a different port. You okay with that Captain?"

Luffy frowned and he hummed to himself. "I don't think I would forget any of my nakama," he said seriously. "But," the nagging doubt was still in his mind and he could not shake it. "Let's go," he said, nodding at the others who mostly nodded back.

"As long as we still remember the fifteen names Timmy said before, we should be good, right?" Sanji asked.

"Yeah," Sora agreed, nodding his head at the chef. "He definitely said fifteen, so that means we found out in time."

"Unless Timmy already forgot about someone," Riku mentioned. Timmy looked at the taller boy with silver hair and Riku shrugged at him. "Just saying it's a possibility," Riku admitted.

"No," Luffy said. "I did not forget anyone."

"Myself," Timmy began. They all looked at the kid who continued, "Goku, Luffy, Usopp, Franky, Robin, Sanji, Natsu, Ben, Dash, Sora, Riku, Kairi, Kirito, and Killua. Fifteen. Everyone okay with leaving? That's definitely everyone we came here with, right?" The others all nodded as they thought back to their adventures on the Thousand Sunny and remembered all their fun times with the fifteen of them over the past month. One of them was not nodding with the others, but Timmy did not notice and he just nodded again when he saw most of them agreeing. "Alright, let's get back to the Sunny. I'll go get Goku and tell him what we're doing."

They all turned towards the door and started moving, but someone called out behind them, "Stop!" The group stopped and looked back to see the other youngest member of their group standing in the back instead of leading them like Timmy. Dash looked around at the people in front of him, and in a soft whisper he asked, "How do we _know_ we did not already lose people, and just forgot about them?" The others convincing themselves that they had not clenched their teeth or looked away as they could not imagine themselves forgetting about friends.

Luffy did not believe it. He looked down at Dash and said, "I would never forget my friends."

Dash dropped down on his butt, "I'm not as sure of myself," he muttered.

"Dash, come on," Ben told his friend in front of him. "The longer we wait, the more likely we do actually forget someone."

"But, if we think that it's a possibility," Dash started. "Then why can't it be possible that someone was already taken?"

"It is possible," Riku stated. The others all looked at the silver haired nineteen year old who crossed his arms in front of his chest. "However, if we decide to stay and investigate, and fail to find this Sugar person, we might wind up leaving an hour from now saying that there was no point searching in the first place. And an hour from now when we leave, there might only be ten of us." The others all went wide-eyed at him, but Riku looked around and said, "The power Timmy told us about is a scary one. I agree we should leave right away, but, there is a chance, we are leaving someone behind."

"No way!" Usopp shouted at him.

"I would never forget a lady!" Sanji exclaimed as well.

"My nakama are important to me," Natsu said seriously. "If any of them went missing, I would-"

"Hey Natsu?" Dash started, stopping Natsu mid-sentence and making the mage turn to him. Dash stared confusedly at Natsu and he got back up to his feet with that confused expression on his face. "Why again, are you here?" Natsu tilted his head in confusion and Dash stepped towards him, "Why did you come to Aebrith?" Dash asked. "I asked you on the Sunny, what did you say?"

Natsu closed his mouth for a second and looked seriously down at the younger kid. "Igneel," Natsu replied. Dash's eyes widened and he nodded his head as Natsu continued, "I told you I was looking for Igneel."

"Yeah, that's right," Dash mumbled. He turned and looked at a teenager on his right with black hair, "Kirito, what about you?"

"What are you doing?" Usopp asked, getting confused and annoyed by this.

"Just, stick with me for a second," Dash said, his voice quiet and nervous. He looked back at Kirito and asked the teen the same question he asked Natsu.

Kirito sighed and he replied, "I came to help the Resistance."

"Why?" Dash asked right away.

Kirito frowned and responded, "Goku came to get me and asked if I wanted to help."

"Why was Goku going?" Dash asked, questions coming out rapid fire now.

Natsu snapped, getting annoyed at the kid for all these questions, "Goku heard me talking about going-"

"But what does finding Igneel have to do with the Resistance?!" Dash shouted, interrupting Natsu.

Natsu opened up his mouth again, even angrier now at Dash for interrupting him. He opened his mouth, and he stood there with his mouth open for several seconds. The others all turned and stared at Dash and Natsu standing a few feet away from each other. Natsu slowly closed his mouth and he looked left, then right, then down at the floor. "I was on the training field, outside Metropolis," he mumbled out loud. "And I was talking to Goku about going to Aebrith with Erza, and Wendy, and we… the Resistance…" Natsu faded off and the others were all starting to get a lot more nervous as they looked at him. "I'm forgetting someone," he realized. He did not remember forgetting or remember any part of that conversation being weird like someone's sentences were no longer in his memory. "I don't know who," he whispered, "but something's wrong. I, I came to help the Resistance too, but I don't even know anyone in the Resistance."

"You think, you really forgot someone?" Sanji asked, sweat covering his face now as this suddenly became a lot more real to him.

Luffy crossed his arms and adamantly said, "I would not forget my friends."

"I-" someone spoke up right after Luffy, his voice hesitant and afraid. They looked back towards the front of the room and saw Timmy facing away from them with one hand lifted up to his chest. "I, don't know why I'm here," he said in a terrified voice. "I-I-" he turned around and looked up at Luffy who he asked, "Did you invite me to come along?" Luffy did not respond and Timmy looked around to see if any of the others had an answer for him. He looked down and continued, "Now that I think about it," his voice was a quiet whisper, "I can't remember what I told Dash when he and Ben asked me why I came. I don't, remember…" The pit in Timmy's heart returned and he clenched his eyes shut wondering what it was that made him come along on this journey. When he opened back up his eyes, he saw the rim of his hat over the front of his face and he reached his hand up to touch it.

Timmy grabbed his hat and he lowered it in front of his face. "My, hat," he whispered. A tear came out of Timmy's left eye and rolled down his face as his friends stared at him in shock.

"That settles it," Sora said. The others all looked towards the boy who lifted up his right hand and held it in front of his body. A bright white light shimmered before him and a yellow hilt appeared in his hand. His Kingdom Key appeared and he slashed it across the front of his body. "Even if there's only a ten percent chance that we forgot someone, that means we can't leave." The others mostly nodded along with him, though Killua was just frowning like he wanted to get out of the city as fast as possible. Sora started walking towards the door, and he lowered his left hand as he walked by Timmy. The kid felt Sora press a hand down on his head and Sora ruffled around his messy brown hair. "Put your hat back on Timmy," Sora said. Timmy looked up at the older boy and saw Sora smiling down at him. "We have a lot of enemies to fight, so no moping around. Don't worry about who you're forgetting about right now, because we're going to save them."

Natsu rose up his head as he was stuck trying to remember his forgotten friends for the last minute until he heard what Sora said. He looked over and saw Timmy's face lose its dejected look as well. The kid wiped his face with an arm to get rid of his tears, then put his hat back on his head and nodded at the taller teen in front of him. Luffy frowned deeply as the others all seemed to have accepted the idea that they forgot one of their friends. _Even a Devil Fruit power couldn't make me forget my friends. I know it!_ The pirate clenched his fists at his sides and he ground his teeth angrily. _But still, all those other toys in this city are actually people? Doflamingo's been turning people into toys and making their friends and family forget about them?!_

Luffy marched forward and his crew started doing the same. Natsu moved forward and Kirito stopped thinking about whether he forgot his friends, instead reaching up and grabbing and unsheathing the two swords strapped to his back. He coated his wings in Haki and then snapped them out of his back hard, ripping straight through his shirt so he would not have to take it off and go around shirtless for the whole battle. _Goku, why did we decide to come help the Resistance? What made you ask me?_

"Hey Timmy," Kairi began. The boy walking forward turned towards the girl who said his name. The auburn haired teen looked down at him and asked, "Do you know what Sugar looks like?" The others all froze no matter how close to the door they were. All of them sweatdropped and wondered why they did not ask this question earlier, especially because Timmy was not even around them when he first mentioned Sugar and this would have been some useful information back then.

Timmy sweatdropped too and he said, "Uh, yeah. I think I know what Doflamingo thought of her. She's short, and looks like a child so as to trick people. Um, he wasn't picturing her, but we should just be careful of any little girls who try getting too close to us."

"Be careful of little girls, got it," Natsu said in a sarcastic tone. "Guess Sanji's going to be the next one we forget."

"Oi," Sanji growled at the mage, but Natsu was already smirking and chuckling to himself. He was not the only one, and the others who now felt more confident knowing the identity and appearance of their enemy were grinning as well. Sora's speech gave them hope, and Kairi's question made them more assured of themselves.

"If we take out Sugar, all the toys should go back to being people," Timmy said as they walked through the doors of the restaurant. "But if we're going to be taking her on, we're probably going to have to fight the rest of the Donquixote family too." The boy said it and then turned right to look down the road where he instantly grimaced at the sight of the approaching army.

"Looks like you're right," Riku said and rose up his hands, creating a couple of Keyblades that he held in a battle stance.

Diamante came to a stop and looked down the road in surprise at all their enemies showing up in the same location. The group of fourteen turned and gazed down the road at the Diamante army coming towards them. The leader of the enemy group had on tight red pants and an open, button-down, white shirt that showed off his lean but muscular torso. He had on a long red cape that fell to the floor and dragged behind him, with a black hat on that had large feathers sticking out of it like a native headdress. His hair was long and brown, falling in front of his body over each of his shoulders and down over his chest. "You there!" Diamante called out. He drew his sword and pointed it down the road, a thin blade that shimmered and looked like it extended a few feet as he pointed it towards them. "Straw Hats and friends, get ready, to…" Diamante stopped shouting as the group facing him started walking his way.

Luffy's eyes were shadowed over by his hat and his arms were down at his sides, but his hands clenched into fists as he walked forward. Sanji smoked a cigarette and puffed a cloud of smoke in front of his face before walking straight through it. Natsu's pink hair fell partially over the front of his face just below his forehead, casting a shadow over his eyes which glowed red beneath. The small boy in a pink hat walking near the front of the group lifted off the ground and floated with a white aura around his body just on Luffy's left side. On the rubberman's other side, Sora and Riku rose two Keyblades each, and the two of them lit up white for a second. Sora's outfit changed so he was wearing a gold-colored shirt and pants, and his golden Three Wishes Keyblade was in his left hand to match the outfit, while the yellow hilt of his Kingdom Key stayed in his right. Riku's clothing got darker, his jacket vanishing and his shirt tightening to his chest and turning black with a red heart outline on the front of it. The dark coating covered in arms and legs tight, pressing against him and revealing his large muscles while his spiky silver hair waved around behind him.

Kirito lifted one of his swords up to the side of his head and walked forward with the other one at his side. Both the black and blue blades shimmered and an aura of dark purple surrounded them, before a coating of deeper black spread from Kirito's hands over the entire blades. The boy's black fairy wings shot out from behind his back and gave him an eight foot wide and tall wingspan. He flapped his wings once and lifted up in the air above his friends, while Usopp rose up his slingshot and Franky lifted up his left arm. Usopp loaded his Black Kabuto slingshot with Pop Greens, and Franky's left hand popped open to reveal a large hole behind it that started glowing deep inside.

Ben lifted up his watch and he twisted the knob around a few times before grinning at the sight of an alien he did not recognize. He slammed down on the watch, _Time to try something new,_ he thought, as a green light surrounded him and his body started to morph. His skin stretched out and his muscles bulked, his eyes changed color and he grew taller, his hands shifted into claws with holes on the end of them and the outside of his body became covered in a hard red shell instead of skin. Ben's face and fingers were gray, his arms underneath the red armor were black, and his four eyes were glowing green under the curved red shell that came up over his head to offer more protection. Ben looked down at his sharp fingers and curled them in a few times, checking out his claws and then turning his hands to see the holes on the ends of them. He understood what they were for and could feel movement inside of his arms, making him grin and call out in a deep voice, "Water Hazard!"

"Nice one," Dash told his tall friend in front of him who looked really cool all of a sudden. The kid glanced right and watched as Robin rose up her arms, creating a set of wings that sprouted out of her back. They were not the normal wings he had seen Robin create before though. It seemed like the woman got inspired by the teenager flying in front of her, and four individual wings sprouted out of Robin's back. They were pale-skinned ones unlike Kirito's black ones, but they still looked very similar to the teen's fairy wings.

Killua walked in the back of the group, his expression more matching the ones covering the faces of their enemies now. Diamante stopped shouting and he had a bead of sweat rolling down the left side of his face, his fellow executives kept semi-composed looks as well, but the army behind them were staring nervously at the fearless fighters walking towards them. Killua looked over his friends' heads and over the army down the road from them though, watching as twenty giant stone spikes shot out of the massive man's body that was sticking out of the hill. They shot towards a white blur in the sky who dodged or slammed his fists into each of the spikes coming towards him. _Goku's spending too much time enjoying his fight. The rest of us are in trouble back here. Why are we fighting these people already? We should have a plan!_

"It's going to be okay Killua," a soothing voice said on the boy's left side. The only other person this far back smiled down at the shorter teen who snapped his gaze up to her. Kairi smiled at the boy's surprised look and she rose up her right hand. A white light shimmered in front of her hand and a long pink Keyblade with three prongs at the end of it appeared in her grasp. She looked back ahead and kept walking while speaking to the nervous-looking boy behind her, "We're not going to lose anyone here. This is not where our journey ends," she slashed her Keyblade across the front of her body and then started running forward. Killua opened his eyes wide at the sight of the girl running below Kirito and right past Sanji and Usopp. She ran in between Sora and Riku and the other two teens did not look surprised, they just started running forward as soon as she got in between them.

Sora, Riku, and Kairi ran forwards with five Keyblades between the three of them. "Fire?" Sora asked. A grin spread across his face and he heard Kairi giggling on his left while Riku nodded even farther left than her. "Alright," he said, and pointed both of his Keyblades down. He was in Master Form, a Drive Form that bolstered his physical and magical power, so as he pointed his Keyblades forward he almost felt bad for the enemy army in front of him.

"Shoot at them!" Diamante shouted.

Many of his forces ran forwards and pointed their guns down. The Keyblades pointed at them glowed before they could pull the triggers of their rifles though.

"Fire!"

"Fira!"

"Firaga!"

Kairi, Riku, and Sora fired large blasts of flaming magic at their enemies. Kairi shot a small fireball that was instantly surrounded by five larger fireballs of a darker shade of red from her left side. And on her right, three thick streams of fire shot forwards swirling around each other and then moving in and twisting around the six fireballs in the center of the road. Diamante and his army opened their eyes wide at the flames shooting at them, and he jumped forward and slashed his sword down as the flames were about to reach him.

"You call those flames?" Natsu growled loudly, right behind the teens who he started chasing as soon as they started running. He leapt up in the air and pulled his head back, then snapped it forward and yelled, "Fire Dragon's Roar!"

Diamante slashed through the fireballs and swirling flames coming towards him. The halves of the attack moved to his sides and his men screamed out as the fire magics exploded in their ranks. The other executives did not get hit, but all five of them dropped their jaws as they saw what was directly behind all those explosive fire attacks. A pillar of flames as wide as the street barreled down the road so fast that Diamante only had time to lean back and let out a yelp before it slammed into him. Lao G crossed his arms in front of his body and roared out into the flames. Dellinger got lifted off the ground and thrown back through the air, while Señor Pink dove down and beneath the ground right before the attack hit him.

Machvise dove to the left side of the street right before the flames hit him. The heat coming off the attack was still incredibly strong, but he clenched his teeth and bore with it as he reached around the corner of the building he just hit behind. Natsu landed on the ground and started smirking as most of their enemies were lying burnt on the street or thrown far back by his attack. He heard creaking on his right and he snapped his head to see a hairy-chested man with a fluffy blond beard and long blond hair ripping up on the corner of a three story building, one that he lifted above his head with relative ease. "Nihihihihi!" Machvise laughed, then chucked the building in his hands forward hard at the pink haired mage who just decimated their army.

Natsu's eyes widened at the sight of the building flying towards him. Before he could get ready to attack it though, a giant black fist came flying past his right side and slamming into the building. "Elephant Gun!" Luffy yelled as the building exploded out in every direction. Chunks of the three-story building flew over their heads while everyone looked back towards the base of the building to try and find the man who threw the building at them in the first place. When they looked though, no one was there. What they did see however, was the solid ground swishing around as if it were water, and a man sucking on a pacifier and wearing a pair of sunglasses swimming through that liquified ground.

"Look out Señor Pink!" A very deep voice yelled from up above. The man swimming through the ground came to a stop and leapt out of the solid water, landing on top of a building on the left side of the road. The others looked up towards the sound of that voice and saw someone falling in between rubble that Luffy smashed above them. It was the same man who threw the building, falling straight towards Luffy with his arms crossed in front of his body. "Ton Ton!" Machvise yelled, then crashed down into Luffy like a ten ton weight that slammed the pirate into the ground and shattered the street around them. The ground for ten meters around broke down into a crater, then expanded to cover a thirty meter radius around the pirate captain.

"Luffy!" Timmy shouted over. He shot forward through the air, but stopped as he heard loud laughter coming from the center of the crater.

"Shishishi! That won't work!" Luffy yelled out. Natsu and the others pushed back by the force of the blast looked in in surprise just like the giant man whose face covered in sweat as he lay on top of Straw Hat Luffy. Luffy's squished body expanded all at once and Machvise yelled out in panic as he was sent flying up into the air. "Because I'm rubber!" Luffy yelled. Machvise flew up high, then did a flip in the air and glared back down at the enemies with a big smile on his face.

"In that case," the fat man said, looking instead to one of the others in the group. "I'll just-" Machvise tried to fall towards them, but he was not lowering at all. He increased his weight so that he would be several tens of tons, but he did not move an inch from his spot in the air.

A child shot up in the sky directly below him and looked up at the nervous man's face. "Wow, you are heavy!" Timmy yelled at him. The kid rose up his shaking right hand and Machvise lifted higher in the air, then Timmy swung his arm forward and Machvise went flying east, directly towards the shocked face of Pica who got hit by the fat man, blasting his giant mountain head into hundreds of pieces. Timmy grinned at his work, then heard Goku shouting at him from a couple miles away to stay out of his fight, making the brown haired boy frown in annoyance. Timmy looked down and saw the rest of the crew continuing to move towards the palace on the living hill, stopping only to bat away enemy soldiers including the man who swam through the ground and the teenager who Natsu burned before who was back, this time with a mouth full of sharp teeth and a dorsal fin sticking out of his back. Dellinger looked pissed, his eyes were red and he moved so fast that at times it looked like there were more than one of him there. Timmy looked away from the fights going on below though, looking down the road instead to where he spotted a man walking their way.

Timmy's eyes opened wide at the sight of the man, the ten foot tall figure with short blond hair, horn-rimmed glasses, and a long, pink, feathery coat. Donquixote Doflamingo walked towards his executives with a big toothy smile on his face, but a scrunched up forehead covered in popping veins that showed he was far from being happy about the condition of his city. Timmy saw where he was looking and the boy shot over the enemy forces, getting behind the executives fighting his friends. Luffy spotted Doflamingo too and started running forward, but a burnt man pushed a piece of rubble from a building off of him and got to his feet in between Luffy and the King of Dressrosa. "Move," Luffy growled at the man.

"Mugiwara no Luffy," Diamante growled. He rose up his sword and the weapon extended, curved, made a bend, and turned into a sickle in front of him. The weapon shimmered and Luffy could see his own reflection on it. "You should never have come to Dressrosa. The Young Master will have you and all your friends' heads."

Luffy started looking past Diamante's head while the executive was speaking, and the pirate dropped his jaw at what he saw happen behind him. Diamante looked confused and turned around to see what was so shocking, only to drop his own jaw and go blue in the face. Timmy Turner floated there in front of Doflamingo, a sword in his left hand out to the side as he just finished the slash across the front of his body. And above Doflamingo's body, his head was lifting up in the air with a shocked expression on it. Timmy's eyes were dark as he floated there in front of the man's body. _I lost Cosmo, and Naruto, and Wanda. I will not lose my other friends here._ Timmy glared at the head lifting up over Doflamingo's neck and he growled, "Now, where is Sugar?"

Everyone else on the street stopped fighting and looked over towards the boy floating in front of Doflamingo's decapitated body. The body with a flat surface on top of its neck dropped down to its knees, while Doflamingo's head hit the ground and rolled away. "Timmy," Sora whispered, seeing the boy's dark expression from his spot behind him and on the left side of the road where he was in the middle of fighting Señor Pink.

On the opposite side of the road, Ben lowered his red arms that were dripping with water. He had just used a one-liner about being a washed-up fish on Dellinger and was smug about the unconscious man lying in front of him, but his smile vanished now. The kid flashed green and untransformed from Water Hazard, his look of shock a lot more visible in his human form. "T-Timmy?" Ben stuttered. _He just killed that guy. Timmy, you, you aren't like that._ Ben looked around but he did not see anyone opening their mouths to yell at the crazy powerful kid. _Why isn't anyone saying anything? It's like, we're all waiting for someone else to do it…_ Ben's eyes widened and he clenched his fists tightly at his sides, hardening his expression as he did. _Maybe that's because someone closer to Timmy normally would say something if he went off the rails like that. Maybe Timmy's not himself, because he does not remember the person who kept him under control. Maybe, we've lost more people than we realize._

"Is it over already?" Killua muttered, a small bead of sweat dripping down the left side of his face.

"EEEEeeee!" A voice screamed over the entire city. The voice was so high pitched that it could only be one man and everyone spun to look back at the hill on the east city of the city. Pica's upper body had risen up so high that he looked more like a mountain than a hill now. He had a gray crown on his reformed giant stone head, massive muscular arms, pecs, and abs, and huge spikes of stone that shot out of his body every second after the white blur in the sky. The blur was not avoiding him anymore though, and Goku shot around the spikes coming towards him on his way straight towards Pica's face.

Goku flew into the huge stone monster and he smashed directly through its head. He got inside and sensed around, before turning straight down and plowing through solid stone down towards the energy he felt. Pica's energy filled up the entire stone being as it was all a part of his body at the moment, however, the area he felt the energy was condensed the most was directly beneath him. "Found you!" Goku exclaimed, and the man inside the giant stone monster lifted up his head as the stone above him was ripped to shreds. He sent his main body down through the stone to escape, but Goku cut him off, flying beneath him and punching up towards his body.

Pica covered himself in Haki in the gap on the inside of his body. Goku had cut around a chunk of stone in the center and the rest of it started losing its stability. The massive mountain was shaking from Goku's movement inside it and cracks shot through Pica's giant body. The massive stone monster's eyes were cold and lifeless as Pica stood on a single falling stone boulder on the inside of his chest. His lower body was still merged with the falling rock, and he swung a fist covered in Haki down at the boy swinging one at him. Goku's arm had less reach, but the boy leaned his head to the right as Pica's purple hand flew at him. He kept moving forward as Pica's arm passed him by, and he uppercut straight into the hardened chest of Doflamingo's executive.

Pica clenched his teeth and concentrated his Haki, but the fist kept pushing into his chest and his hardening did not slow it down. He opened up his mouth and blood splashed out, then Goku finished with his punch and the huge man got ripped fully from his rock. Pica got thrown backwards so hard he hit the back of the inside of the hollowed-out section of his chest that Goku created by flying around it so fast. The pirate's golden crown shattered as his head snapped back and he tore straight through the back of his already cracked mountain form. He pushed through it and flew across the sky above the palace down below where a blond man in a pink coat stared up in fury at his unconscious executive.

"Pica," Doflamingo growled. _There is no choice then. I'll have to use that._

Across the city, the executives of the Donquixote family were all staring in shock and horror at the decapitated body of their King. Doflamingo's head hit the ground and Timmy Turner lowered to the floor in front of him. The boy glared at the headless body of the man in charge for a few seconds, then looked around and sensed out for the little girl named Sugar. As Timmy started sensing around, his eyes opened wide and his head snapped to the east.

"Young Master!" Lao G shouted.

Diamante looked back at Doflamingo's body in shock for a few more seconds, before his lips curled back up into a grin. Luffy was right behind the man and he was still in partial shock too, but at the sight of Diamante smiling he gained a much more confused expression. _What is he-_ Luffy stopped and his eyes popped back open wide as did the majority of people's on the street.

"Uuhahaha, uuhahahahahaha!" The people gathered on the road covered in debris and flames looked over towards Doflamingo's body, and then down to the head on the side of it. The people closest to the head scrambled back and a few of them screamed at the sight of the laughing head. Doflamingo was laughing, but from the veins popping all over his decapitated head they could see he was far from being happy. "Since it has come to this, it is time to use, the Birdcage."

No one knew what he was talking about except for the executives of his family. The others would find out soon however, as out of the top of Doflamingo's decapitated string clone, hundreds of strings shot up into the sky and arced after reaching a few hundred yards up. They arced in every direction around Doflamingo's string clone and encased the entire city of Dressrosa in bars of super strong white strings within a few seconds. Timmy glared every direction and he could see with his great eyes the white strings start pulling inwards.

"What's going on?!"

"Doflamingo!"

"He trapped us!"

 **"People of Dressrosa,"** A voice that everyone in the city recognized echoed over Dressrosa. Scared citizens in their homes lifted up their heads and warriors fighting in the streets looked around for the source of the voice. The city ruler's voice continued over the speakers, **"Do not be alarmed. Several despicable criminals in the city have caused a disturbance. I will protect you."** As he was speaking, Luffy and the others heard loud noises coming from the side of the road opposite Doflamingo's soldiers. They turned around and opened their eyes wide in shock at the force charging towards them. **"… Any citizens caught helping these criminals will be treated the same as them. Uuhahaha, this will all be settled shortly."**

"This is our moment!" a toy at the front of a crowd of toys and humans shouted. They charged down the road towards the pirates and the city of Dressrosa's army. Tiny people only ten inches tall holding rifles and swords sprinted faster than the toys and humans running down the street. They sprinted through the heroes' ranks and attacked the army fighting them, while Diamante yelled at his men to counter-attack with renewed morale thanks to their Lord's speech.

The toy who yelled at everyone else to charge came to a stop next to Sora and Timmy who were looking at him oddly. The red toy looked like a soldier that had on a black hat, held a fake rifle, and only had one leg. "Whoever you are," the toy began to the people in front of him. It bowed its head and then lifted it back up and saluted them with one of its wooden arms, "We thank you for giving us this opportunity! Pica has been taken down as have several of the executives!" He rose up his rifle as others in their tiny army ran past him, "This is the day we take Dressrosa!"

"Raa!" others behind him shouted.

A female toy robot with only one arm and treads instead of legs rolled forward fast and swung the ray-gun in her right hand around. "Raa!" She yelled, rolling right past Timmy who was surprised by how young she sounded. He grit his teeth thinking about who Doflamingo could have taken from their group again, wondering if it was another kid like himself or an adult. _I have to get them all back!_

"This is going to be settled shortly huh?" Son Goku asked, floating twenty feet in front of the leader of the city. Doflamingo stood on the edge of his palace staring ahead at Goku, a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his face and veins popping all over his forehead. "You're pretty strong," Goku said, though he did not look too excited as he said it. Instead, the kid looked angry and his serious look, even on the face of a young child, sent chills down Doflamingo's spine. "But you use your power for evil. You tried to turn me and my friends into toys, and I don't know if you have succeeded in getting any of them yet." Goku turned in midair so he was sideways and curled his fingers in while getting in a fighting stance.

Doflamingo stared at the intense look on this kid's face and he put a hand up over his face. He pressed his fingers in on the sides of his head and chuckled darkly under his breath. "You really are Son Goku aren't you?" Doflamingo said and shook his head once. "Then this could not be avoided," he muttered, his lips curling down and his teeth grinding. He glared up at the Saiyan child and growled, "You will die here today-" Goku vanished and appeared much closer to the former Schichibukai than a second ago.

Doflamingo rose his right arm to block the fist he heard coming, but it was actually a kick that hit him in the side of the arm he rose to block and pushed it aside so the kick hit him in the body too. Goku pushed farther into the kick and then followed through, sending Doflamingo flying through the corner of his palace and down into the city below. Goku turned and watched as the man hit the ground and dragged a trench through the ground. Doflamingo's power did not go down at all from the powerful blow and the kid's mouth curved back up into a smile. He was pissed, but Doflamingo was a strong fighter and he could not help but enjoy the fight. _This is going to be really fun,_ the kid thought, before flying off the roof of the palace and after the man who tried hurting his friends.

* * *

"Trebol, what is that strange cage around the city?" A bald man in a black cloak with twisted dark tattoos below both of his eyes growled.

A muscular blue figure snarled at the executive in front of him, "Doflamingo is damaging the environment with his powers. I will not stand for this."

A professional-looking man wearing a black suit and tie, wearing sunglasses even though they were underground in a barely illuminated area, cracked his neck to the side before glaring forward at Trebol. "You called us here to ally ourselves with you, but this does not look like a friendly reception."

"Beehehehe, the Birdcage has nothing to do with our business," a fat man covered in a blobby gray substance laughed. Trebol rose up his arms and more mucus dripped off of them while some continued to come out of his nose. He held a golden staff in his left hand that he tapped down on the ground and he called out, "Since Doffy had to use the Birdcage though, that means Sugar couldn't get all of the Straw Hats. If you help us out, I am sure Doffy will be very pleased! He may even reconsider letting you use this underground area for your organizations." Trebol laughed again and looked at the man in the black suit, "The Umbrella Corporation." He turned to the blue figure who continued to glare furiously at him, "The Monster Association." Finally Trebol turned to the creepy bald man covered in tattoos and he finished, "Al-Tharmen. Whichever one of you takes out the most of these pesky troublemakers can reap the rewards! Beehehehe!"

All three of the dark figures in front of Trebol continued to glare at the pirate for a few more seconds. This was one of the people closest to being in charge of the city, so they decided to take his words to heart. The three of them turned around and marched the other direction, leaving Trebol still laughing behind them. The pirate watched them go and then stopped laughing, allowing all the sweat he was holding back to cover his face. He wiped his forehead with one hand and looked out where the figures just disappeared. _The biggest criminal organizations of Aebrith. Doffy sure is taking a big risk inviting them here._ "Beehehe," Trebol chuckled under his breath.

* * *

"Who are all you guys?" Goku asked, looking around confusedly at the people gathering around him. The floating kid frowned and his fists clenched in front of him once more, "I would fight you all, but I'm in the middle of-"

The figure directly in front of Goku who was the only one who looked different from the others stepped forward. Goku had to stop talking because when the monster with blue skin, huge muscles, and two antennae sticking out of its forehead took that step, it moved so fast that he almost had trouble following its movements in his base form. It had appeared directly in front of him and swung its right fist, only for Goku to catch it in his own right hand. "Wow," Goku said, his eyes opening a bit, "you're pretty fast." The child hovering in front of this blue monster five times his height looked into the creature's glowing white eyes that only became that way after his fist was stopped.

Veins popped all over the monster's arms, legs, and completely exposed torso as it was not wearing any clothes. "'Pretty fast?'" It asked furiously. "I am Vaccine Man! Mother Nature created me to punish humans for all they have done destroying my planet, and now on this world too they have continued their wasteful ways-"

"Listen," Goku started, scratching the back of his head with his free hand while he pushed Vaccine Man away with his other. "Normally I would love to hear all about you! If you could power-up that would be really cool too, but," Goku turned right and then glanced back at the monster in front of him. "I'll be back in a bit," the kid said. Vaccine Man dropped his jaw, then watched as Goku gave him a wave before turning and flying away fast. Goku glanced back as he flew off, not to look at the monster he felt a little bad about leaving behind, but to look at all those strange figures in black cloaks who were standing in a semicircle behind Vaccine Man.

"It seems Xaldin was correct," the figure in the middle of the semicircle stated in a chilling voice as he looked up at the trail of white heading away and the boy looking back at them inside it. "Sora is here, but for now we can not do anything about it." A black portal opened up out of the ground behind him, and six other portals rose from the ground behind the three figures on either side of him. They all turned and walked into their portals, but the man in the center chuckled as Goku's face came to his mind. "That boy bears a striking resemblance to _him._ "

Goku felt all those powers behind him vanish but he did not turn around again to look at the cloaked figures or the lack of them. Instead he flew straight towards Doflamingo who he could feel very close to his other friends. He flew over lines of buildings, and then as he passed over a four-story apartment, the roof of the building blew apart and Goku snapped his head down fast. He did not feel anyone in the dust and debris coming towards him, but he used his other senses to locate his attacker. He saw him before the man came out from the dust cover, just the silhouette was enough for Goku to change trajectory and head down instead, pulling his left leg to the side and swinging it right as the guy left the dust and rose above the roof's debris.

The man wore a white coat with a black checkered pattern that covered most of his body except for his hands and his face. He had on a pair of sunglasses, and a buzzcut of black hair with two sideburns that looked like lightning bolts as they got halfway down his face then jumped up his cheeks before darting back down. There was also a lollipop stuck to his left cheek, but the man did not seem to notice as he covered his left arm entirely with Armament Haki and swung it at Goku.

As Vergo attacked Goku, Vaccine Man flew a hundred yards behind him with a body twice as large as when he faced Goku a minute ago. He had long sharp white teeth now and his claws had extended similarly, just like two huge horns sticking out of his face and curving up at the sides of it. His eyes were not glowing white anymore but red, spikes shot out of his skin that had turned dark purple, and he was even more monstrous than before as veins popped all over his body. He held his hands out and screamed, "DO NOT IGNORE ME, MOTHER NATURE'S CHOSEN!"

Goku smirked as he held off Vergo's punch with one of his own that was also covered in a black veil. A white aura surrounded Goku's right fist on top of the Haki already there, and the kid pushed even harder into the punch which made Vergo's arm bend at the elbow. Vergo was glad when Goku's fist hit him in the face that he armored with Armament Haki that sent him flying out of the air. He was glad because he saw four spheres of white light shooting towards Goku incredibly fast that looked like they were going to make huge explosions near where he just was. Goku ignored the attacks from Vaccine Man though, and instead shouted, "Thanks!" as he flew off.

Vergo wondered what the kid was talking about, until he saw all four of the energy balls freeze in midair. He spun to Vaccine Man to see if the monster did that, but the gross purple creature looked just as confused as he did. They both then looked back to where Goku was a few seconds ago where a different child had taken his place, this one with brown hair and a pink hat. "Yeah, no problem," Timmy muttered darkly as Goku flew away. _How is he still enjoying this? We've lost friends here. I, if I don't find Sugar, if I don't stop her…_ The kid's fists clenched so hard his nails dug into the skin of his palms. _I hope that whoever I am forgetting makes me happy, because right now all I feel is rage!_

"GET BACK HERE!" Vaccine Man roared and shot across the sky to chase Goku. He saw the kid descending down into a street far away, and he flew right towards the boy closer to him first so that he could get past and fight the other boy who ignored him. The purple monster flew towards Timmy and he grabbed the back of one of his own attacks that was oddly just floating in midair. He slammed the attack forward and bashed it straight into Timmy's front. "RAAA-" Vaccine Man stopped screaming in rage and instead roared in agony as all three of the other white attacks floating around the explosion that just occurred in front of him shot in at once and collided on his body.

His own attacks were not enough to kill him, but when the energy explosions faded, Vaccine Man floated there panting with burns all over his body and some rips in his bulking, pulsing muscles. Dark green ooze that must have been the creature's blood seeped out of the cracks on its skin, and Vergo stared from a piece of the building that's roof he blew off at the monster in shock. _The representative from the Monster Association,_ the Elite Officer of Doflamingo's family thought. He turned his gaze to the other figure floating above him whose clothing did not even look ruffled by that blast, but who now had a white veil surrounding his body and a look of pure hatred on his face. _This is the boy Doflamingo warned us about on the radio. I must stop him myse-_

Timmy vanished to the executive, and he reappeared in front of Vaccine Man who had started screaming at him again. The monster stopped yelling now though, as it had a fist directly through its chest and could no longer make out any words as the life drained out of it. Timmy's face shadowed over, and Vergo could not finish his thought.

* * *

"Who are you guys now?!" Ben shouted at the twenty men and women in front of him wearing dark red and black armor. There was a man in the front of the squad with his hair up in a bun over his head, his fists clenched at his sides, and flames coming off of those fists. A few of his soldiers were holding spears that looked to double as beam rifles from the holes at the end of them and the glowing lights coming from their sides, but most of them just had their fists raised in fighting stances.

"Trebol sent us out here to take you guys on," a man with wavy brown hair began as he walked up on the left side of the twenty armored soldiers. He was wearing a brown jacket and a pair of jeans, but despite his less intimidating appearance than the soldiers, when his eyes flashed red and pink light shimmered on his fingertips, Ben got a lot more nervous about him than the others. Remy LeBeau chuckled at the kid's nervous face and he lifted up a deck of cards in his left hand. The cards lifted off one hand and arced above his body one at a time but quickly, all of them covered in a purple glow. "Don't really feel like fighting a kid, but it's not going to be much of a fight anyway."

The man smirked and he swung his left arm straight out, sending three of the glowing cards flying at Ben's feet. Purple trails of light lagged behind the cards as they moved so fast, and Ben barely stumbled backwards out of the way in time. The wavy-haired man started laughing, but the guy at the front of the squad of twenty soldiers stepped forward and shoved him out of the way with an elbow. "Move it Gambit," the man whose armor had spiked-out spaulders unlike the rest of his soldiers growled. "Stop playing around now and get serious."

"Whatever _Commander_ Zhao," Gambit grumbled back, sounding annoyed and emphasizing the man's rank like he had been told many times not to forget it when addressing him.

"Really! Who are you guys?!" Ben exclaimed as he did not recognize these people to be the same type of soldiers he was fighting with his friends as a large group before. They had decided that they were taking down Sugar or going down themselves, so they had split up to find her faster even if it meant risking everything. _What is up with these soldiers? They don't look like Doflamingo's men._

"Not that the dead need to know," Zhao began. He stepped towards Ben and rose up his fists, "But as allies of the Emperor, the Fire Nation here in Dressrosa will not stand idly by while you cause chaos." He slammed his right fist forward fast and a fireball shot out of it towards Ben, "We will destroy you ourselves!" Fifteen of the others behind Zhao ran forward and did jumps where they punched or kicked towards Ben to send whips of flames or fireballs in his direction.

"Whoa!" Ben shouted and jumped backwards. The kid lifted twenty feet off the ground and did two backflips on his dodge, before landing on both feet with one hand down on the floor and skidding back a few more yards. The boy snapped his head up to look at his opponents and he took a deep breath, _These are just small fry Ben. You're going to have stronger enemies to fight here, so try not using the Omnitrix too much or you'll waste it._ Ben Tennyson pushed his right leg down far, then sprung off of it and sprinted forward fast towards Commander Zhao.

"Looks like the kid's going to put up a fight," Gambit remarked towards the leader who snarled at the kid sprinting their way fast.

"A fight?" Zhao questioned. He lifted up his fists and glared at the child running towards him. "No. This will be a massacre."

* * *

"You never mentioned people from your world could fly," Sora said to the man on his right without turning towards him.

Luffy shook his head as he stared at the thin white veil surrounding Doflamingo who floated in the air twenty feet off the ground and down the road from him. _I didn't think they could. He probably learned how after getting here._ Behind the two of them, an army of toys, tiny people, and citizens of Dressrosa who were allied with them were fighting alongside Luffy and Sora's friends against the Lord's large armies and those allied with him.

There were over a thousand soldiers in Dressrosa that worked directly for Doflamingo and his executives. Outside of their army though, there were Fire Nation soldiers, members of the criminal underground, and a Sith Lord who was currently facing off against a young woman with long auburn hair. Kairi held up her pink Keyblade and pointed it at the man in a black cloak who had his hood down revealing his distorted face. He held up his right hand and a red blade extended from the hilt, while he rose his left and pointed it over at the girl, his fingers sparking electricity. "You're a Sith huh?" Kairi called out. "I've never fought a Sith before."

"I am Darth Sion," the figure whose skin was gray and looked like it was cracking in several places on his hairless head and neck. His right eye was pure white with extensive burn marks all around it above and below, but his left eye looked more normal with a brown iris in the center. "I warned Doflamingo not to trifle with your friends, but now that two sides have been declared, I must choose the one that faces you. Begone young woman," lightning shot out of his left hand's fingers, but Kairi turned her Keyblade sideways in front of her and started blocking the bolts.

"Just because I haven't fought a Sith Lord before," she called out as her feet slowly skid back across the ground. She planted her feet down hard to stop skidding away, then slashed her Keyblade in front of her body to deflect the Force Lightning in a different direction. "Doesn't mean I won't beat you!" She declared and started sprinting towards her opponent.

Back with Kairi's fiancé, and their good friend Monkey D. Luffy, Doflamingo shot towards them and slashed both arms down as he did. Luffy's body was covered in steam and he shot to the right to avoid the sharp strings that were all different colors of the rainbow flying down at them. Sora lifted his right arm and blocked the strings with his Keyblade, and he smirked as he saw Doflamingo's annoyed look that the strings did not cut through his weapon. Sora slashed to the side, then leapt up at the enemy who turned his entire right fist black and then swung it at him while Sora swung his Keyblade around at Doflamingo's side.

Sora's Keyblade hit, and Doflamingo winced in pain as the blunt shaft hurt a lot more than it looked like it would. The pirate Lord ground his teeth and continued his punch though, slamming it into Sora's face and pushing the young man's face in hard. "Sora!" Luffy yelled, already cutting back in with a trail of steam behind him. He turned his left leg black and swung it at Doflamingo right as the older man turned his way, a turn that looked slow to Luffy yet happened in an instant, almost like Doflamingo was not even serious. Doflamingo's leg turned black as well and he swung it at Luffy as Sora flew off his fist and back down the road into the fighting armies in the street behind them.

"Sora!" Riku shouted as a teen went flying past right in front of him. He turned his head, but then had to spin back right away and cross his Keyblades in front of his body as a fist covered in Armament Haki slammed forward.

"Got you- there's the G!" Lao G pressed even harder into his punch as he yelled, but Riku's feet were planted firmly on the ground. His Keyblades trembled, until he uncrossed them in one fluid movement and knocked Lao G stumbling back off balance. The bald old man in a tight blue fighting costume regained his footing and snapped his gaze back towards the silver haired teen, but Riku was gone. He looked left, right, and then felt the presence directly behind him a second too late.

Riku slammed his Keyblades down towards the back of Lao G's head, but the elderly martial artist had noticed him in the last second. Instead of receiving devastating blows to the skull, he leaned his head to the side as he tried to dodge and Riku's blades only managed to hit him in the left shoulder. The amount of force behind the swings was still immense though, so much so that the old man's legs bent below him and the ground under his feet cracked.

"Lao G!" a few soldiers shouted. They pointed rifles towards Riku and fired, and the teenager turned towards the yellow beams of light flying towards him only after they were about to reach him. Five beams smashed into Riku's face and chest and surrounded him in smoke as he stumbled backwards. The men smirked and cheered, half of them running towards Lao G as they did to see if the executive was alright.

"Stay out of my way," a voice growled. The men cheering stopped and the two helping Lao G turned as well to look into the smoke. Riku stepped forward with barely a mark on him, but his expression was darker now and he looked pissed. The silver haired teen's eyes closed, and when they opened back up they were yellow. He took another step, then dropped the Keyblade in his left hand and brought it to the side of his head. "No," he growled. "Stop it Ansem," he snarled under his breath. "I can handle this on my own. Stay down!"

 **"…If you do not want my help, then fine. But do not let your guard down again,"** Ansem scolded inside Riku's mind. **"I will not have my vessel be destroyed by such weaklings as these."**

"Understood," Riku growled, and before the eyes of the soldiers facing him his eyes turned back to their normal bluish-green color. The men watching him backed up except for Lao G, though even the executive did feel slightly unnerved by the insane teenager who was talking to himself. The teenager took a deep breath and he rose back up his left hand, reforming the Keyblade that had shattered into light shards on the floor in front of him. He ran forwards with his two Keyblades at his sides, then jumped up and twisted his body to the side before swinging down at Lao G again. The martial artist jumped back, and Riku's blades hit the street below where Lao G was just standing, shattering the already cracked pavement and making the other soldiers around him scream as they were lifted off the floor by the rising debris.

Back with Doflamingo, Sora and Luffy shot towards the Lord of the city in unison. They swerved past each other in midair and prepared their attacks. Sora pulled back his Keyblades, his body covered in golden clothing for his Master Form. Luffy threw both of his arms far behind him and his steaming fists turned black. "Eagle…" he started to yell, then his arms retracted and shot in front of his body fast towards Doflamingo. "Bazooka!" Sora swung his Keyblades in at the same time, while Doflamingo rose up both of his arms, elbows bent at his sides, both arms turned completely black.

When Luffy's hands collided with Doflamingo's arm, both of their pupils dilated and an aura stretched out around them with a huge radius. The sky darkened and dark red lightning sparked off of the collision. The two of them had Conqueror's Haki, and the collision of the Kings made everyone on the streets below look up in the air in awe. Debris on the ground below lifted up and started spinning around and pieces of buildings not broken yet started cracking off as well. Some people grabbed onto cracks on the ground to avoid being pulled up by the wind, while the boy on Doflamingo's other side just pushed even harder on the Keyblades he was attacking Doflamingo with.

Sora had his teeth clenched and the corners of his lips curled up. _This is crazy! Luffy and Doflamingo are both so powerful, their auras are fighting each other while I'm just trying not to get in Luffy's way._ Sora pushed hard on the Keyblades and he flipped backwards, then kept flying there while he pointed his weapons forward. _No! I'm not just getting in the way. I'm a hero, just like Luffy, and Goku, and I can fight Doflamingo just as well!_ "GRAVINDRA!" Sora roared, and his Keyblades trembled as did his entire body. He clenched his teeth harder and thought, _I've never tried this magic outside of Final Form, but Master's almost as good! I can do this!_

Doflamingo's eyes darted away from Luffy who he was pushing against and smirking at the younger pirate who thought he could compete against him. When he heard the other boy scream, he looked at Sora, only for his eyes to then dart straight up as everything above him turned black. The huge sphere of blackness was wider than the street itself, and Doflamingo's eyes turned huge at the sight of it. He pushed off Luffy's hands hard and Luffy's mouth opened in surprise that Doflamingo could push away his Eagle Bazooka that easily. The pirate Lord then lifted up his hands and created a net of strings that he held firmly above him to protect from the ball of black that suddenly dropped towards him faster than he could dodge.

Luffy had seen Sora's magic before, and he had seen Sora use this attack many times. It was the main reason he did not turn to get out of the way, as he knew that this was a type of magic that had little to no effect on his rubber body. To Doflamingo though, the Lord was not expecting his arms to suddenly feel a hundred times heavier and drop down to his sides, right before his entire body was dropped down into the street that itself cracked and got crushed down and compacted into a large crater that stretched to encompass even parts of buildings on either side of the road.

When the black sphere faded, so did Sora's yellow clothes in a flash of white light. The spiky-haired boy floated back in the air in a black short-sleeved jacket and red undershirt, with a pair of pants on rolled up to the knees. He only had one Keyblade in his hands now, his Three Wishes all-golden Keyblade that he received a long time ago from Agrabah. The teen with spiky brown hair looked down into the crater and saw Luffy standing back up with no damage on him, as being squished did nothing to a rubberman. When they looked at Doflamingo though, both fighters grimaced at the sight of the man who did not need to get up, as although he was dropped to the ground, he landed on his feet and only bent his legs while inside the mass of increased gravity.

"Could you get out of my way?" Goku asked. He was half a mile from Doflamingo, and frowning at a man in front of him with short black hair who had run away from the scary Timmy Turner, in his mind calling it a 'tactical retreat' as his main goal was stopping Goku from reaching Doflamingo anyway. He floated in midair with a white veil around him, and Goku smiled a little while looking at him, "You're pretty strong too, but I really want to fight that Doflamingo guy."

"If you get past me, the Lord will face you," Vergo promised. He had a bead of sweat dripping down the left side of his face, but he rose up his fists and inside his veil of white, his skin turned entirely black and dark purple. He coated in a full armor of Haki from head to toe, while dropping his coat and revealing his extremely muscular body underneath it. "It is a good thing I was in the city when you arrived," Vergo continued, while lifting his arms up into a fighting stance and facing the child across the air from him. "As I am usually an ambassador for Dressrosa in the Fire Nation, as a member of the Sun Marines there. As such, I need to have immense power in order to properly represent the Lord."

"So you're saying that you've been training huh?" Goku asked, really all he got from what the other man was just talking about. "Well I have too," Goku remarked. He rose up his own arms and then looked at each of them closely. _My arms are smaller now though. Fighting that giant rock guy was not so hard since he could not dodge my attacks with his huge body, but these tiny arms will have trouble reaching faster enemies before they can hit me. I'll have to get around his attacks before hitting him, since he really does feel strong. A punch from this guy while in my base form will probably hurt a lot._

Goku only thought for a second before flying forward to meet Vergo who shot towards him at the same time. Vergo did not need to, but he kicked the air behind him to speed up even faster. He pointed a foot up as he flew and kicked the air above him, dropping himself down quickly while still shooting forward. He dropped under Goku who darted his eyes down in surprise as he was planning a punch ahead followed up by a kick. When he looked down he saw Vergo doing a backflip and extending his right leg to hit Goku with. Goku flew to the side to dodge the leg, then dropped down with both legs extended towards the man's stomach as he finished his flip.

Vergo's hardened stomach got hit by a couple of feet and he winced, but his Armament held and he brought both arms in fast, grabbing the child by the ankles and then spinning himself in midair to spin the boy as well. He spun and spun while Goku yelled out in surprise, then Vergo released Goku straight down towards the ground where the kid collided and dragged a trenched down a block before hitting a house and breaking straight through that too. "Oof," Goku mumbled and he scratched his head as he leaned forward with some dirt on him, a bruise on his left cheek, and a rip on the right shoulder of his new gi to match his small size.

Goku looked at the rip and he frowned. "Aw, someone worked really hard on that," he muttered, his voice getting quieter the further into the sentence he got. "Someone?" He mumbled to himself. Goku's expression turned dark and a white aura surrounded him. He flew up into the air fast as Vergo was giving chase, and one of Doflamingo's most trusted advisors would have kept flying towards him if Goku's expression did not scare him motionless. Goku looked across the sky with black irises, and those eyes flashed teal all of a sudden. "Recently I was turned back into a child," Goku said, sounding a lot more serious than a boy who looked as old as he did normally would. Goku looked to his right shoulder and at the rip near the neat stitching of his clothes, "I would not have brought a gi this small with me, yet I know that there are a few of them with my stuff. I know someone worked to make me those gi's," Goku continued, his eyebrows narrowing down and his face looking scary to the older man floating in front of him. "Yet I don't recall who it was who made my new clothes. Was it someone I cared for? A friend? Family?"

 _Sugar, you should have went after this man first! We knew Son Goku was here- no, no one can blame you. Who would have thought they would figure it out within minutes of our plan?_ Vergo had some more sweat on his face now, and he did not realize but he had floated backwards in the air subconsciously.

Back with Doflamingo, Sora and Luffy were getting pushed back as buildings all around them were getting cut cleanly into five pieces each. The ground sliced like butter every time Doflamingo swung his arms, and both of the young men fighting him finally got hit as Doflamingo swung his arm down towards the army of toys and fighters who were facing Doflamingo's main army and trying to free themselves from his reign. The Birdcage was encroaching, and they suddenly learned what would happen to them if those strings outside the city managed to make it all the way to the center, as Luffy and Sora screamed in pain from slashes that sliced up their arms.

Doflamingo dropped to the ground hard in front of the injured young men who were down on their knees. A pillar of flames rose to the north, an explosion of purple light to the south, and a tornado had formed in the east near the remains of Pica's giant mountain form's lower half. Doflamingo snarled as his Birdcage shrank towards him and started cutting through buildings on the outskirts of his city. People abandoned their homes and ran towards the center of the city, screaming in terror as their Lord marched towards some of the men who caused all this in the first place.

"Doflamingo," Luffy growled. The pirate staggered back up on his feet and his hands clenched so hard at his sides that his knuckles cracked. Toys and little people behind him stared at the pirate with a straw hat dangling on his back in awe as he stood against their tyrannical leader.

The one-armed female robot rolled forward on her treads and whispered to the one-legged toy commander next to her, "You think they can beat him?"

The older toy looked at his second-in-command who sounded so young yet was a very experienced fighter. In a deep voice, the Toy Soldier stated, "These people are looking for Sugar. If one of them manages to defeat her, they will not need to beat Doflamingo." The toy's rectangular eyes narrowed and he finished, "Because I will."

Sora got up next to Luffy and he frowned at the former Schichibukai in front of him. "Doflamingo," Sora began. The taller man looked down at Sora who looked straight back into his sunglasses. "Why did you attack us?" Sora asked. The kid's lips curled up as he asked and Doflamingo's forehead started to cover in more popped veins. "You know," Sora continued, "if you didn't send Sugar after us, we probably would have left here without realizing what you were doing to all these people. We never would have known you turned them into toys, and you could have gotten off scott-free." Sora panted a few times and pointed his Keyblade forward at the tall man, "But you messed up, and now-"

"String Bullet," Doflamingo said, pointing one finger at Sora and firing at the boy who was talking too much. The string bullet hit Sora in the chest and the boy's back shot backwards while his head and legs arched forward. He dropped to his knees and coughed towards the ground, wincing in pain and grinding his teeth for a few seconds. When he lifted his head though, he smirked at Doflamingo, because Luffy had stepped forward and his arms were blackened again.

"Show him what you're made of Luffy," Sora said, pushing himself back up and smirking at his close friend's back as Luffy brought his left arm up towards his mouth.

"What are you planning?" Doflamingo asked the skinnier pirate. "Your strongest attacks do nothing against me."

Luffy grinned as he knew the other pirate was about to be eating his words. As he grinned though, his eyes opened wide and he stopped moving. He felt a presence with his Haki that Doflamingo felt an instant later as it was coming from behind Luffy. Luffy did not turn away from his enemy, but he dared a glance back, and Sora saw that he was hesitating and that Doflamingo was not attacking either so he looked back as well. The toys and tiny people watching all turned, and every person there froze at the sight of the figure marching down the road.

The figure had black wavy hair, a black suit with a white button down on under it, black pants ripped up near the ankles, and no shoes on. He had a black tail sticking out behind him, sharp teeth, a sword in his hands, and his entire body was on fire. Luffy and Sora's eyes went wide, because the boy they were staring at had been erased from their memories until only seconds ago. It was a teenager engulfed in blue flames. Okumura Rin marched forward and Sora yelled towards him, "Rin! You, you must have been turned into a toy right?! I forgot- does that mean Sugar is down?!"

As Sora shouted it, he realized that could not be as there were toys all over the place. Doflamingo was looking down the road at this teenager nervously and he was wondering why Sugar's power stopped working as well, until he spotted the tail sticking out of the teen's back. _A demon?! What was a demon doing on their ship? This changes things. Sugar's power has worked on several different creatures since coming to this strange world, but demons have never stuck._

Luffy looked back at Rin, and he was looking closer now as Rin never responded to Sora. Sora realized that Sugar must not have been taken down when he remembered the other toys, but he was realizing what Doflamingo was already thinking about as he stared at his new friend. "So, I'm guessing demons can't be turned into toys huh?" Sora muttered, lifting up his Keyblade as he did. "So Rin's human half probably got him turned into a toy for a little, but when his demon side came out, he came back?" Sora chuckled nervously and then called out, "It's okay now Rin! You're back! That means you can calm-"

"RAAAA!" Rin roared, and the blue flames covering his sword and entire body erupted out, catching the buildings on the sides of him on fire.

The road around Rin burst into flames, and the Toy Soldier shouted at the others, "Get off the street!" They all abandoned the fights they were in and started running different directions. Most of Doflamingo's soldiers ran as well, while executives nearby continued their fights with Luffy's crew and their friends. A few of them spotted the mass of blue flames, but most of them thought that just meant Rin was really getting into the fight. Only Luffy and Sora, who could see Rin's sharpened teeth, solid blue flames over the front of his hair that looked like horns, and most importantly his animalistic eyes full of rage, could tell that Rin had completely lost himself.

"Rin! Are you okay?" Luffy shouted over at the teen who he did not remember seeing like this since the time they all went insane back on the Thousand Sunny.

Rin just screamed again, then shot down the road in a blue so fast that the road beneath him ripped apart. He swung his sword down at Doflamingo who slashed both arms in front of him and made ten strings total slam into Rin's sword and press against it. The two of them pushed back and forth, and Doflamingo yelled out, "What is a demon doing here! I have allied with the Umbrella Corporation. And Satan is not my enemy!"

"He may not be," Sora yelled at Doflamingo. "But he's definitely Rin's enemy!"

Rin heard Satan's name, and the last vestiges of his humanity faded away. The middles of his twisted eyes flared blue and Doflamingo's eyes opened wide as he saw that spark. Rin's sword suddenly got twice the force behind it and he roared, "RRAAAA!" Then smashed his sword down as hard as he could and broke through Doflamingo's defenses. As Doflamingo's strings pushed apart, the Lord himself shot backwards and then up high as blue flames raced after him. He flew up in the air and rose so high he could avoid the top of the path of blue flames that ripped down the road to the east for over a mile, covering everything in blue flames.

Luffy and Sora had to dive to opposite sides of the street as Rin's explosion of blue flames covered everything. The two of them looked across the flames at each other, and Sora yelled out, "Luffy! Take on Doflamingo! I think Rin's going to wind up hurting himself, and a bunch of other people if he continues on like this!"

Luffy nodded his head at Sora as Doflamingo was the one he wanted to fight anyway. Sora nodded back at him, then jumped up into a backflip and continued through it to fly straight into the sky and after Rin who was chasing Doflamingo. Luffy watched as Doflamingo flew around the sky with Rin and the two of them clashed over and over in much more evenly matched blows, though he watched as Rin shot out of the sky like a missile towards the northern edge of the birdcage after a few seconds. The pirate in a red shirt open down the middle looked back down at his left arm, and he turned it from the elbow down black with Haki. _I can't beat Doflamingo without it, but it's a good thing I'm so used to it now._ He rose up his arm, opened his mouth, and chomped down on it as hard as he could.

* * *

Two men in black suits stood behind a hundred of Doflamingo's soldiers who were following a spiky haired executive named Gladius down one of the streets in the center of Dressrosa. They stopped moving unlike everyone else who continued marching after their commander to go join the fight. These men were wearing sunglasses and they had sweat all over their faces. They had remained calm when the giant Pica statue emerged and when the Birdcage descended over them. As much as they disliked those things, they had remained calm.

As soon as the blue flames rose though, they had their suspicions. When they saw the figure fly up into the air though, with the tail sticking out of his back though, both of them knew. The light-skinned members of the Umbrella Corporation turned to each other and one began, "A demon with blue flames. Did we just find him?"

"It appears so," the other replied. He looked towards the north where blue flames rose up again, but suddenly clashed with a huge icy wind like someone else besides Doflamingo was fighting against him now. The second man to speak continued, "Our mission has changed. Let us report to the regional director at once."

"We should bring this straight to Satan-sama," the first man cut in.

The second scoffed at him, "Do you wish for the director to kill you? We have a chain of command for a reason. The Umbrella Corporation does not officially report to Lord Satan so that our actions remain free from pesky Cooperative rules." The two of them watched for another few seconds as blue flames grew larger than ever near the northern edge of the birdcage. The man who suggested reporting to their regional director lifted up the corners of his mouth the slightest bit, "When he is informed though, we shall be greatly rewarded. Satan will be very pleased, that we have found his other son."

* * *

 **A/N Action! Fighting! Goku takes down Pica while his friends fight Doflamingo's executives around the city. Goku gets caught up fighting Vaccine Man and Vergo, letting Doflamingo go after Luffy and the others. Rin's demon side prevented him from being turned into a toy for too long, but because of that he's gone completely off the rails. The Birdcage has been deployed and is shrinking in towards the center of Dressrosa! Toys and a small resistance force inside Dressrosa have risen up to fight side by side with the Straw Hats and their friends who are fighting Doflamingo and his allies. Sith Lord Sion takes on Kairi, Zhao and Gambit fight Ben, Vaccine Man takes on Timmy. The Umbrella Corporation has taken notice of Okumura Rin, and are planning on reporting his whereabouts to Satan! Lots of stuff happening here in Dressrosa, hope you enjoyed it! Leave me a review telling me what you think, predictions, questions, etc. Thanks for reading! I'll post a list at the bottom since I threw a bunch of new characters in here.**

joebob323 chapter 20 . Mar 2

Well crap... things just got serious, real fast. I wonder what would happen is Sugar meets Goku or Timmy, who can sense intentions. Or if her devil fruit power will affect Natsu or Rin, as they are part demon...In the manga, they beat Sugar using scare tactics, but this probably won't work here, with so many guards and strong people around. P.S., great cliff hager at the end, it really added to the suspense!

 **Thanks for the review! Yep, things are getting serious right off the bat here in Aebrith! Goku and Timmy have yet to find Sugar, although who knows who she has been getting since they started searching the city for her? I was really glad you mentioned that stuff about Natsu and Rin, and decided to use it in this chapter since I had plans for Rin that I kind of messed up by turning him into a toy, so thanks! Glad you liked the cliff-hanger! How will they defeat Sugar and Doflamingo?!**

Espada-001 chapter 20 . Mar 2

Yay Psyren! Well It's funny to see Doflimingo get sent flying bye a sucker punch by someone only a third his size. Once again Paramicia Devil Fruits prove to be a dangerously OP ability for our hero's to deal with. And I noticed Rin is among the missing people but there is a witness in his case since Kuro never leaves his side. To bad we don't get an epic clash between Luffy and Dofi hear to make up for the missed battle in the series. Well looks like our hero's can't go one day without getting dragged into combat with a new threat. lol. I noticed that someone asked about Goku's transformations and according to the series, he still had them the only difference was that his body couldn't handle the strain since his body was underdeveloped. I don't want to be stepping on your toes about this so won't try to put words in your mouth I just thought I'd put in my two cents in. Well I don't have anything else to say so until next time have a wonderful day!

 **Psyren appears again! Haha, so far we've only seen Tenjuin Kyle and Dholaki, so that means there've gotta be a lot more of them here on Aebrith! Doflamingo getting smashed by Timmy must have been a shock to everyone around them, and these Paramecias are really causing some serious problems for our team of heroes! Goku is already a kid because of Ain, hopefully he doesn't get turned into a toy too! I threw in a clash with Luffy and Doffy here so thanks for the suggestion, had to rewatch some parts of the fight to remember all of Doflamingo's moves. Goku's body already could not handle SSJ3 very well without being in Otherworld, so with a smaller body who knows if he'll even be able to transform anymore?! Thanks for another review!**

Darugus chapter 20 . Mar 3

Hasn't been a day and they are already in trouble as expected it seems that rin nami gray and juvia were turned into toys andthr heroes are not aware of it and this looks like an exciting start for aebirth looking forward for the next chapter

 **This crew just can't manage not to get in fights! Luckily Rin managed to escape his toy-ness, but now he's gone nuts! Dash, Natsu, Timmy, Goku, and Ben all noticed in some way or another this chapter that they were definitely missing some people. Nami's disappearance has affected Timmy in some serious ways... Thanks for the review! Hope you enjoyed!**

 **-Again, thanks to everyone who reviewed, faved, and followed this story! Here's a list of characters below:**

 **Blue Exorcist: Okumura Rin, Satan**

 **Resident Evil: Umbrella Corporation**

 **One Punch Man: Monster Association, Vaccine Man**

 **One Piece: Doflamingo, Diamante, Gladius, Pica, Trebol, Sugar, Toy Soldier, Luffy, Nami, Robin, Franky, Usopp, Sanji, Shichibukai, Machvise, Lao G, Dellinger, Señor Pink, Vergo.**

 **Fairy Tail: Natsu, Gray, Juvia, Wendy, Erza**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Riku, Ansem, Sora, Kairi, Xaldin**

 **Star Wars: Sion**

 **X-Men: Gambit (Remy LeBeau)**

 **Avatar the Last Airbender: Zhao, Fire Nation**

 **DBZ: Goku**

 **Magi: Al Tharmen**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Killua**

 **SAO: Kirito**

 **Fairly Oddparents: Timmy, Cosmo, Wanda**

 **Naruto: Naruto**

 **The Incredibles: Dash**

 **Ben 10: Ben, Water Hazard, Omnitrix**


	22. Nexus HWR 3-8 Dressrosa Part 2

**A/N Hey guys! Sorry for taking so long to update. Been a month, but here's the second part of the Dressrosa trilogy! Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, DBZ, Hunter x Hunter, Ben 10, the Incredibles, Blue Exorcist, One Punch Man, Magi, Fairy Tail, Avatar TLA, X-Men, Kingdom Hearts, Fairly Oddparents, SAO, or any other sources you may recognize my characters and settings from.**

 **Nexus HWR 3.8 Dressrosa Part 2:**

"Run!"

"The Birdcage is shrinking!"

"Mommy!"

Amidst all the chaos, a small girl with green hair walked behind a globby man holding a golden staff. Sugar skipped to and fro while eating a bushel of grapes in her right hand. In front of her, Trebol laughed loudly at the mass chaos around them. "Doffy! Doffy! Beat them all!" Trebol called out as he saw the Lord zipping around the sky with a few other figures flying around him. He looked back at Sugar who kept eating her grapes and he continued, "Let's go find some more of them to turn into toys."

"Hmm, okay," Sugar said, smiling and laughing like mad after she did. Trebol had no idea how many of them they had already gotten, as the memory of Sugar turning their enemies into toys was erased from his memories as well. He did remember that a toy was just shouting at them though that 'Luffy will never let you get away with this,' so he figured they succeeded in catching another one of their enemies. _Only fourteen left,_ he thought with a smug smirk.

 _ **BOOOM!**_ Trebol and Sugar spun to the right as a huge explosion of red flames erupted only a block away from them. Inside the explosion, the ground started to lift up like a giant bubble, and then it popped to make an explosion of similar size to the mass of flames that just exploded. Three figures were running fast away from the explosion and they turned down an intersection to see a fat man and small girl staring down the road at them. Trebol grinned and started laughing as he spotted these young men, "Found you!" He yelled out. The man then sniffed in a long drip of mucus coming out of his nose, before swinging his right arm towards a three-story house on his right. A long glob of gooey gray substance shot off his hand and connected with the front of the building, sticking to it so that when Trebol pulled back the other way, he ripped the house straight out of its foundation.

Screams sounded from the inside of the building as Trebol threw the thing towards the shocked three men facing him. "Who's this guy now?!" Killua shouted, as they had just run away from a spiky haired man who was making the ground behind them explode. They left Natsu behind to fight Gladius, but from the sound of the constant explosions behind them they could tell the battle was being hard fought. Killua raced forward to dodge the building, but the older men behind him shot straight up in the air instead.

Kirito and Sanji could feel several presences inside the house with their Haki, though they did not need it with the amount of loud screaming coming from the flying house. Sanji smashed straight through a wall with his right foot, then shot towards a couple of ladies screaming and holding onto a windowsill for dear life. "Your Prince will save you!" He yelled heroically, grabbing the ladies and then smashing straight through another wall leaving some flames around the edges of it.

"What about us?!" the men left behind in the falling house screamed.

Four teenagers sprinted through the house and grabbed everyone they could before jumping out of there and flying up with the black wings on their backs. The saved citizens calmed down, before freaking out at the sight of four young men who looked exactly the same flying in the air and holding them by the armpits. "Get to the middle of the city," one of the Shadow Clones said, as he lowered the man he rescued to the ground like his counterparts.

The men calmed down and they thanked Kirito for helping them, before running over to the ladies who Sanji was hitting on after lowering them to the street as well. "Thank you Prince!" one of them shouted as she was pulled away by an annoyed man who was probably her husband.

Sanji blew kisses after her and her friends, until Killua shouted back, "Focus!" Sanji spun around to yell at the brat that he was only focused on ladies, only to stare in shock at the kid bouncing off the walls of every building on the street to keep himself in constant motion as Trebol fired large globs of mucus in his direction. Killua was a blur to even Trebol who was getting a little nervous at the sight of the kid's quick movements. Killua was also feeling nervous though as he examined Trebol's mushy lower body that seemed to glide across the floor. _Is he a Logia? He looks like one and his power feels similar to many I've seen._

"Sanji, Kirito, combine Haki attacks on him once his back is turned." Kirito and Sanji spun their heads around as they did not see Killua when the kid spoke to them. All they noticed were blurs for a second as Killua bounced towards them and spoke almost too fast for them to understand. When they turned to where the sound was coming from, Killua had already gone back forward to prevent Trebol from firing attacks his comrades' ways. He was too late in bouncing away from Kirito though, and the four Shadow Clones he had jumped in the middle of tried flying up fast to avoid getting stuck in the glob of mucus Trebol fired their way. Unfortunately, two of them did not lift off in time and their lower bodies got stuck.

"Behehehe!" Trebol laughed. The fat man with a long black beard that looked drippy like the rest of his gooey body slid forward much faster than his appearance made it look like he could move. He shot towards Kiritos and the two who made it up in the air dropped down fast to hit him before the man got his other clones stuck in the goo. "No!" Killua yelled towards the older teen, wanting Kirito to stick to the plan. Kirito thought he had his opening though, but all four of the Kiritos opened their eyes wide as the top of Trebol's club-shaped staff popped open and a flame came out of it like a lighter. Trebol laughed even louder as he swung his staff down, igniting the mucus trapping two Kiritos to the ground, and creating an explosion that caught both of the ones in the air who tried to stop when they felt what was coming but did not manage to escape the blast.

"Kirito!" Sanji yelled. The chef shot towards Trebol who was leaping back from the edge of the explosion.

"Stick with the plan!" Killua shouted at Sanji who was racing ahead haphazardly. _Those idiots! I said I would distract him so they could get him from behind! What are they doing?!_ He watched as Sanji lit his left leg on fire and shot forwards at a hundred miles per hour towards Trebol. The executive of the Donquixote family did not dodge the devastating-looking kick though, instead raising up his arms and catching Sanji's foot, a foot that got lodged in a large mass of sticky substance that Trebol created with his Stick-Stick fruit. Trebol smirked at Sanji's stunned look that he was stopped so quickly as he lost all momentum behind him while pushing into the gooey substance.

Trebol brought his arms together around Sanji's leg, but as he started swinging around, Sanji landed a kick with his other foot into the side of Trebol's head. It did not have as much force as his first kick would have, but he still put some Haki behind it and Trebol's head snapped to the side. The executive snapped it back though, only now with a look of rage on his face. He swung his arms harder and a thick gooey rope connected his body to Sanji who started getting swung farther away from his body, until he slammed into buildings and right through them as Trebol continued spinning around, Sanji getting dragged in circles that smashed through burning buildings on both sides of the road.

 _He's distracted, but-_ Killua watched as Sanji bounced on the ground and then slammed head-first into a wall, smashing through it and out the other side of that same building in a second. "Damn it," Killua growled, and instead of charging at Trebol, he sprinted towards the extended line of goo spinning towards him, and stopped once he reached the other side of it. The line cut and Trebol's eyes widened as he had no idea what cut it for a second, until he spotted the blur land on the ground, change directions, and fly straight towards him next. Trebol leaned left, just in time too as the boy reached him and stuck a hand inside his body.

Killua's eyes opened wide as he felt his pinky and ring fingers' nails slice through flesh inside Trebol's gooey body. The fat executive who ate a Paramecia Devil Fruit only looked fat because of all the gooey substance around his naturally skinny body. Killua happened to nick the flesh on the inside of Trebol's body, but his attack was not accurate as he could not tell where Trebol's main body really was. While he tried pulling his arm out of the body though, Trebol focused his powers around the boy's arm and Killua felt himself getting sucked in. The kid's eyes opened in panic, then he got slammed in the right side by something other than the man in front of him who was already raising his staff.

Trebol brought down his staff but Killua was no longer there. He spun right and saw a burnt winged-teen hitting the ground and tumbling away with Killua as he had slammed into his younger friend so hard and fast that the teen could not prevent a rough landing. Killua was going to yell at him for the forceful save as he was getting ready to block Trebol's staff himself with his free arm, but he stopped when he heard a voice very similar to the teen's holding him shout, "Fire Style: Fireball Justu!" Killua and Kirito looked over to see another burnt-up Kirito putting his hands to his mouth after some hand signs and snapping his head forward, releasing a fireball half the width of the street towards Trebol.

The fireball exploded and blocked the half of the street that the two Kiritos and Killua were on from the half that Trebol dodged back to. The clone who used the Fireball Jutsu vanished after using it and Kirito was panting pretty hard next to the younger boy. Killua glanced at him and he furrowed his brow, "Tired already?" he questioned. "Don't think that will be enough to stop this guy. He feels like one of the big shots here," Killua glared through the flames and he continued, "we should make a tactical retreat and find Luffy or someone to help us out."

Kirito frowned as he did not like the idea of running away, but he heard an explosion behind him and looked back to see large sections of the city puffing out as Gladius intensely fought Natsu. "It will be tough to get past that battle. If you flare your aura maybe we can just call help over to us," Kirito said, looking back down at the boy who he remembered creating a large aura of Nen right before arm wrestling Luffy back on the Sunny.

Killua nodded and as he got ready to do so, he said, "Go get Sanji. I can feel him over there, he's fine but he's too close to that guy without our, help…" The smoke of Kirito's fireball was finally clearing, and the two teenagers stared through it at the three silhouettes on the road past it. "What is Sanji doing?" Killua muttered in annoyance, realizing they had no time to work out a plan as the blond haired chef appeared in his vision right next to their enemy. There was another figure there, a small girl who he spotted earlier but had not been fighting them. Killua and Kirito watched as Sanji got between the small girl and Trebol, and then they watched as the girl rose her arms for Sanji's back and the chef started to spin around with a look of shock on his face after Trebol said something.

"No," Killua whispered, his eyes opening wide and sweat covering his face. Kirito seemed to realize it at the same second and took a step forward, but then stopped and became confused at why his jaw was dropped and his eyes were so wide.

The winged-teenager looked right and left, then turned to Killua and said, "Are you going to flare your aura? The two of us can't beat-"

"That's her," Killua whispered. Kirito looked confused and looked from Killua back towards Trebol, the small girl, and the wooden toy standing in front of her, staring at his hands in horror. Killua did not know why, but his face had a complete look of shock on it a second ago, and down the road from him he could see a small girl and a toy. "Why am I so shocked?" Killua wondered aloud, while taking a step forward with a look of rage on his face. Trebol turned his way after laughing for a second, and the man's eyes opened wide as did Sugar's next to him at the sight of the rising aura of white around Killua's body that flared like flames. "Did you just," he began, while his eyes widened and his irises turned into narrow slits in the middle that scared the crap out of his opponents. "Make me forget, my friend, SUGAR?!" Killua roared, and his aura turned dark, the two in front of him stepping back as it looked like a giant snake had just appeared inside Killua's aura and was glaring at them with as scary eyes as the kid himself had.

Kirito was shocked by Killua's intense power, but when he thought about what Killua said, his eyes popped back open wide and he spun down the road to look at the small girl next to a wooden toy. "Friend?" he mumbled, his body starting to shake as he stared at the toy so helpless at her side. "Damn it!" Kirito yelled, his own face looking enraged and his wings snapping to the sides behind him. He flew forward and Killua raced ahead as well, but they both froze halfway to their enemy, as Trebol reached down and grabbed the toy that appeared on the road next to him.

"Behehe," the nervous man laughed, regaining some of his composure. He rose the toy by the neck and yelled, "You don't want me to break this toy, do you?"

"Who did you turn into a toy?!" Killua yelled his way. He clenched his teeth hard after asking and growled, "Not that I would remember even if you told me. Fucking Devil Fruits."

Kirito turned to Killua to tell him the plan he was coming up with, but Killua's expression made Kirito tense up and freeze in place. Trebol had sweat on both sides of his face, and he opened up his mouth and shouted, "Don't move!" His hand clenched around the small wooden figurine's neck, and Killua's expression only became more enraged. The aura around him that had faltered when Trebol grabbed Sanji's toy form went away completely now, and for a split second, Kirito, Trebol, Sugar, and Sanji all thought he accepted what Trebol was saying and was going to stay put.

Then, Killua's white hair spiked straight up over his head. A white veil surrounded him so much brighter than his previous aura, but there was no aura around him now. It was like Killua's entire body got covered in a veil of white lightning, and Killua leaned his head back as his body surrounded in sparking light. "Godspeed," Killua said. Trebol opened his mouth to shout a threat at Killua and Kirito opened his to yell at the kid not to move and risk their toy friend getting his neck snapped. Both of them stopped with their mouths wide open though as Killua disappeared, and then a horrified, pain-filled scream left Trebol's open mouth as his arm was no longer holding onto the toy falling in front of him.

The toy's eyes opened wide at the sight of a kid in between it and Trebol, his hands up where Trebol's arm just was, one pointed up at the other that was pointed down, both covered in blood. Globs of mucus and chunks of arm were shredded all over the air in between the toy and the man who was just holding it. Killua caught Sanji as he fell, but the toy never even saw Killua's arm move. He got caught even before the image of Killua's arm moved down to catch him.

Killua's eyes darted to look Trebol straight in the eye as the larger man screamed, blood spurting out of his right shoulder and discoloring his gray sticky body. "You- you BASTARD!" Trebol screamed, and his body grew ten times as big in the next second, goo pushing out from inside and sliding down the outside of his body to make Trebol look like a giant goopy mountain in the middle of the road. He rose his left arm and a sticky blue substance oozed out of it that started spinning over and over again until it looked like a giant blue fan in front of his already growing body.

"Kill them," Sugar said from behind the giant lumpy form.

"Ahh!" Trebol yelled in anger, pain, and reckless furor! He swung his left arm down, and then the man's eyes grew three times as large as did the others around him. Killua was in the air near his left shoulder, and his entire arm had detached. The spinning goop went flying straight up in the air to the east, Killua having waited for just the right time to remove Trebol's arm with hands moving so fast that even Trebol's body could not stick to it in time. Killua stopped moving his arms and then slowly turned his right from pointing down with his nails extended out, to pointing up with an open palm, letting the shocked toy he tossed up right before ripping apart Trebol's arm land back in his grasp.

Trebol started to scream as Killua fell from the air, and Killua tossed the toy in his hand backwards, "Kirito, catch." The winged teen behind him had not been able to say a word as he desperately tried following Killua's movements, movements he could not even catch a glimpse of as Killua just seemed to be teleporting around. Kirito reached up and caught Sanji, while Killua turned his head in slow motion towards Trebol who was leaning back while more blood spurted from his shoulders. "Seems like you aren't a Logia like I thought," Killua remarked, and he reached down to his left pocket as he did. He was still using Godspeed so Trebol's eyes darted down to follow his arm only for Killua's left hand to already be right back in front of his body. The kid was holding a yo-yo, a steel yo-yo that weighed a hundred kilograms. "Die," Killua said.

Trebol opened his mouth to shout, but there was suddenly a hole in the middle of his forehead. Killua would have pulled back on the string of his yo-yo, but as he was using it in Godspeed, the steel part shot out so fast that the string could not hold on and it snapped off. Half a second later, Killua saw through the other side of Trebol's splitting head, a crack shooting through the broken bottom half of Pica's stone body out on the hill in the distance. The two halves of the lifeless stone giant started collapsing down towards the city, where hundreds of people over there started screaming.

Son Goku was smiling as he had just figured out how to beat the muscular short-haired executive, Vergo, without having to go Super Saiyan like he thought he might have to. Before he could finish him off though to go fight Doflamingo, he saw the cracking giant form that Pica used to be controlling starting to fall down towards the eastern edge of the city. "Crapbaskets!" He exclaimed, and shot off in a blur of white towards the stone chunks falling towards crowds of civilians who were hiding over there away from the battles and towards the middle of the Birdcage.

Back with Trebol's body, Killua landed on the ground in front of Kirito and they both watched as the tall clumpy form shrank down lower and lower to the ground. Trebol's sticky material coated the street in front of them, and the man's split forehead and skull finally hit the ground as the rest of his body became visible under the dispersing gook. "He's skinnier than I thought," Killua mentioned, as his hair lost its glowing white color and dropped back down to normal. He stayed staring at Trebol's deceased form for a second, before noticing something and snapping his gaze up. "Shit!" Killua shouted.

Sanji and Kirito were too busy looking at Killua's back in shock to notice, but now that they looked up too, they realized that the small girl who used to be on the street behind Trebol was no longer there. "Where'd she go?" Killua asked, spinning to Kirito.

Kirito was confused at why he would ask him first, before remembering his Haki and closing his eyes. He searched around, then opened up his eyes and shook his head a couple times. "I can't locate her," he said grimly. The teen then looked down at the toy he was holding in his right hand. Kirito lowered the toy to the ground, a two foot tall, brown wooden figure with a rectangular head taller than it was wide. It was wearing a red shirt and blue pants, but it looked pretty bland other than the blond hair in a style oddly covering the top right half of his face. "Are you okay?" Kirito asked the toy.

The wooden figure nodded its head, but it continued to frown as it started looking back and forth between the younger men. "Killua, Kirito, do you know who I am?" He asked.

The younger boys glanced at each other, then sadly looked back at the toy and shook their heads. Sanji bowed his head, looking down at the floor himself, _They forgot about me. That means Luffy probably forgot too. He's going to beat himself up over this when they get me back… if they get me back._

"Don't worry," Killua said, and the dejected toy lifted back up its gaze to the fourteen year old. "We're going to find Sugar, and we're going to get you back to normal," Killua said. "I'll kill her myself-"

"No!" The toy shouted, surprising both Killua and Kirito who looked at the toy oddly as it had a pissed-off look on its face. "I'll never forgive you if you harm a lady," the toy said, narrowing the swirly eyebrow over its left eye.

Both of the younger boys sweatdropped, "Are you really our friend?" Killua muttered at the toy.

"Kil," Kirito muttered.

"What? He sounds a little," Killua began, and he eyed the toy weirdly, "pervy," he finished.

Sanji's jaw dropped and he jumped up at the kid, pulling his right leg back as he did. "Don't lay a hand on Sugar-chan!"

Killua blocked his wooden foot with one hand, then glanced at Kirito and asked, "You think he's under Sugar's control?"

"Don't know," Kirito replied honestly. He had a bead of sweat rolling down the left side of his head, "There are enough strange people in our group that I wouldn't be surprised if this is how he actually is though."

"I am!" Sanji proclaimed as he landed back on the ground. "I would never lay a hand on a lady, and I won't let you either-"

"What's your name?" Killua asked.

Sanji stopped his rant and turned back to the young kid, "It's Sanji."

"Well Sanji," Killua began. "I don't remember you right now, and I have to admit you're annoying me. So I want to get my memories back because I'm hoping that I actually like you," with that, Killua turned and disappeared down the street. He was no longer moving impossibly fast, so the other two could follow his movements, but he was still much faster than either of them.

Kirito looked back down at Sanji who was fuming about Killua being a brat and about Sugar and ladies. Kirito scratched the back of his head and grimaced at the back of the wooden toy, _Did Killua just leave me to take care of this guy?_ The toy started running forward, shouting angrily, and Kirito sweatdropped, thinking sarcastically, _Great._

* * *

"How are you still alive?" Gladius growled. The former pirate and executive of the Donquixote family had tall spiky white hair and a pair of green-tinted goggles over his eyes. He had on a thick black jacket with a popped collar all the way up to his ears on the sides of his head, while wearing a tight white undershirt that came all the way up over his chin and even his mouth to the bottom of his nose, so that the majority of his face was covered by either this mask or the goggles over his eyes. He was around six feet tall but his spiky hair made him a whole foot or two taller. He glared through his goggles into the smoke where he could faintly see a silhouette and two glowing red eyes on the head of the figure it belonged to.

The young man in the smoke walked forward, his forehead scrunched up and his eyebrows narrowed towards the middle of his face. He had his teeth bared and he growled, "You think you can kill me, small fry?" Natsu swung his arms out to the sides and the smoke dispersed, revealing the dozens of massive craters lining the street and rows of buildings behind him.

Gladius snarled behind his mask and wind rushed around him, making his big black coat ruffle in it. The ground beneath Natsu started to rise up as if a hill was forming naturally. It rose and rose but Natsu did not turn around to look at it. Even when the ground beneath his very feet lifted up as well because of the ground inflating he did not rip his eyes off of Gladius. Gladius yelled out and the huge puffed-up section of ground ruptured, an explosion that made him lose sight of Natsu again inside it. "My Pop-Pop fruit is unstoppable amongst the executives of the family," Gladius said in a deep tone towards the smoke. "You will not be able to-"

A shadow rose up inside the smoke, up to one leg and then the other. Natsu stepped forward with barely a scratch on him, but his fists were on fire this time and some smoke seeped out of his mouth as he got within ten meters of Gladius whose men had all backed up far away or had already gotten caught up in the executive's explosions and were lying unconscious all over the battlefield. "People like you piss me off the most," Natsu growled as he walked past two groaning men on his right side who got caught up in that last blast. Natsu slammed his fists together in front of his body and a fifteen foot tall red magic circle appeared in the air in front of him. He snapped his head back as his body erupted in flames and he yelled out, "I'm all fired up!"

Gladius pointed his arms forward and his forearms started filling up with air so they expanded ten times their normal width. Natsu shot towards him and pulled his right fist back far as he did, his entire body surrounded in flames. "Fire Dragon's…"

"Bracchium!" He yelled, and his inflated arms burst in massive explosions that covered the entire street.

Natsu screamed inside the blasts, feeling himself get pushed backwards by the force. He snapped his head back forward though as he was about to get sent flying away, and he swung his right fist hard through the explosion. Gladius dropped his jaw as a fist flew through his explosion, and then his goggles cracked and shattered as Natsu screamed, "IRON FIST!" Flames blasted in every direction around the impact point of Natsu's fist and Gladius's face, and then the executive lifted off the ground and flew back so fast he hit a building a quarter mile behind him, before making the entire building explode in every direction around him while blood splashed out of his mouth and soaked through the tight mask over his lips.

Natsu dropped down to the ground and he snapped his head to the left, spitting as he did on the ground. His clothes were burnt and he had black marks on his face and especially on his arms, but he did not look very damaged at all. He glared down the road towards the destroyed building he sent Gladius flying into, but no one was getting back up inside it. The Fire Dragon Slayer smirked, and then he heard a voice behind him, "Natsu?"

He did not recognize the voice, and he turned around to look towards another section of lowered ground in the vicinity. There were two figures standing on the edge of a crater, a little higher elevated than the ground he was standing on, yet the figures were only three feet and two and a half feet tall, so he was on eye level with them. Natsu stared at the two toys, and they looked at him with eyes that hurt his heart. "Who, are you?" Natsu asked.

"Natsu," the girl toy began. She looked like a doll and had curly blue hair on top of her head. "It is Juvia, and Gray," she said, motioning to the robot next to her afterwards who told her its name when they appeared next to each other with similar stories of arriving on the Thousand Sunny, yet not even remembering each other.

Natsu stared blankly at them, and then questioned, "Juvia? Gray?" His voice had no recognition in it, and as soon as he saw the dejected looks on the faces of the toys he knew why. "We're friends, aren't we?" He asked, his face shadowing over.

"Nakama," the male toy corrected, making Natsu even angrier. "Fellow members of Fairy Tail," Gray continued, and Natsu's fists clenched even harder. "Try to remember us Natsu, try," Gray urged.

Natsu closed his eyes. _Gray, Juvia. Gray and Juvia. Gray! Juvia!_ His eyes clenched harder and his fists did as well, but nothing was coming to his blank mind. When he opened his eyes, his comrades in Fairy Tail could see he still did not remember them. Juvia bowed her head in sadness and the robot next to her clenched its metal fists hard. "Don't worry," Natsu said, looking back and forth between the members of his guild who he had forgotten and hated that had done so. "I swear, we're going to get you guys back."

"Natsu," Juvia whispered, lifting her head and looking over into the pink-haired mage's eyes.

"You better," Gray said. "I don't plan on being stuck as a toy forever. We have to get to the Resistance and my comrades."

Natsu's eyes widened and his fists clenched even harder at his sides. _Is that why I'm here? That's why we're helping the Resistance? Did this guy- did I come to help him? We must be, really good friends,_ Natsu growled and his body burst into flames. "I'll be right back," he growled out, then out from the soles of his feet shot jets of flames that propelled him fifty yards up in the air. Natsu did a couple of front flips at the top of his arc then snapped his head around looking for the one they called Sugar.

"WHERE ARE YOU?!" Natsu screamed at the top of his lungs, while the two far below him looked up hopefully. The two toys thought at the same time, _You can do it, Natsu!_

* * *

"You can't touch me," Sugar bragged over at Killua who was standing ten meters away from her. She had a lot of sweat on her face, but she was grinning smugly and she shouted, "As soon as you touch me, you'll turn into a toy and everyone will forget about you!" _Holy crap holy crap I hope he believes me! If he finds out I have to touch him with my palms, he'll rip me apart like he did Trebol!_

Fortunately for Sugar, Killua was a very cautious person and would not dare touch her even if she did not tell him that straight out. _Wish I didn't lose my yo-yo, would really come in handy right now._ Before he could come up with a plan, Sugar sprinted forward and to Killua's dismay, she was actually really fast. He leapt back to avoid her and she gave chase, but he was faster than she was and when she ran to where he dodged to, he bent his knees and sprang to the left where he jabbed aa hand into a wall to keep himself elevated twenty feet off the ground. Sugar turned his way and frowned deeply at how fast this boy was, while Killua frowned deeper as he looked at the girl who looked so young.

"Tell me the truth," Killua began as he spoke from his place stuck in the wall. "Are you actually a child?"

Sugar smirked up at him, "Of course I am. What are you, stupid? Look at me."

Killua examined the girl's face as she spoke, and after a few seconds he grinned as well, "Liar." Sugar's smirk wiped from her face, and Killua dropped from the wall with a confident expression on his. "And if you're lying, that must mean you think I won't kill a child, which means you're afraid of me." He stepped forward and Sugar tensed up, but she did not dare step back in fear that he would see past her rouse and go in for a killing blow.

Instead, she rose up her hands and pointed them at Killua who stopped in his tracks. "Long range attack," Sugar started, and Killua's eyes widened. "Toy transformation!" Sugar yelled, and she pushed her right palm forward. Nothing came out of her palm, but Killua did vanish and reappear halfway down the road to Sugar's right.

 _Nothing happened, unless her attack was invisible. Damn! I wish I remembered what she did to Sanji to turn him into a toy, but I can't recall it at all._ He saw her turn his way down the road and Killua clenched his fists, _What if even my aura touching her gets me turned? What if she's faster than I think? No, she seems afraid of me. I must have the advantage somehow._ Killua's eyes darted to the left side of the road, _Well, if I don't want to risk my aura, that does not mean I can't throw something at her._ He darted to the side of the road and grabbed someone's front door. Sugar looked at the younger boy confusedly, then her eyes popped open wide as Killua ripped the door from its hinges. She thought about how fast he threw the yo-yo that killed Trebol, and the girl turned around and sprinted away.

"Get back here!" Killua yelled, and he chased after her with a ten foot wooden door held above his head.

* * *

"Go Luffy!" Usopp shouted, releasing the back of his slingshot as he did. "Midori Boshi: Planatus Shuriken!"

Diamante turned from the battle going on in the air to the source of the annoying voice yelling his way. He glared Usopp's direction and his lips curled into a smirk at the green ball flying his way. "You really think that-" he stopped as the single ball suddenly split into several green shuriken-shaped projectiles spinning towards him. Diamante's eyes widened, Usopp grinned victoriously, then the man with the sword smirked again and his sword became a blur in front of him as he slashed apart Usopp's attacks.

"Ah!" Usopp exclaimed. "It didn't work!"

"Well how about you try this?" Franky shouted as he ran down the street with his right arm lifted up. His forearm was buffing out more and more and he grabbed the shaking arm with his other hand to control it. Diamante turned the cyborg's way, stopping his sprint towards Usopp that he started as soon as he sliced up the sniper's projectiles. Franky's arm buffed one more time and a hole popped open on the palm of his big red hand. "COUP DE VENT!"

A blast of air shot out of Franky's hand and down the street towards Diamante. The entire time it traveled towards him the attack got wider and stretched into the shape of a cone as it shredded the ground and buildings on the sides of the street. Diamante's eyes opened wide and the tall man swung up his arms while shouting, "Army Bandera!" The ground in front of him rippled like it suddenly lost everything holding it down. The floor waved up in front of the executive and then hardened there for Franky's attack to slam into. A crater formed in the road, but it did not break through it completely and Diamante grinned from the other side of the wall.

"What's happening?!" Usopp yelled, as he tried attacking Diamante but the ground beneath him was no longer stable. Other than Usopp and Franky, there were a lot of other soldiers and toys and rebels all fighting on the street. Diamante's attack made all of them lose their balance and many of them fell down and tumbled over each other.

A half mile away from the fight with Diamante, Dash was sprinting towards a boy he recognized down the road. "Hey Killua! What's-" the ground beneath his feet started rippling out of nowhere and a wave of street passed beneath him, taking him off his feet as he ran and making him soar up into the air. Dash swung his arms around in a panic and he came down hard on the ground that he could not even land on as it continued to ripple.

"Ugh," Dash moaned.

"Dash move!" Killua yelled at him. Dash lifted his head to see Killua running towards him, but he also saw someone on his right who he started turning to, but never finished.

Killua froze in place and blinked a few times wondering why he was so worked-up, so nervous, so scared. Then, the wave on the street ahead of him lowered down and he saw Sugar standing there in front of a toy that suddenly appeared. She turned towards him and smirked at his horrified look, before turning and booking it away. Killua's body sparked electricity and he shot forward, his mind full of anger as he realized the toy he was running past was another forgotten friend. As he was so enraged though, he made the same mistake Dash did, and a wave of ground arose right in front of where he was sprinting, and at the speed he was going he lifted up higher and higher in the air so that he shot away from this part of the city completely, then had to cross his arms and screamed out in agony as he slammed into one of the strings of the Birdcage at the edge of the city closing in on him.

The boy dropped out of the air and staggered back up with blood all over his arms from where they hit the strings and got dug deeply into. He turned back around while the strings tore up the ground behind his feet, and he glared towards the center of the city where buildings were moving up and down in the waves of Diamante's attack. He was pissed at whoever was making that happen, but his fists clenched at his sides and he growled under his breath, "Sugar." A second later, the boy was gone, and then the ground he was just standing on got ripped up by the closing Birdcage.

Diamante glared in front of him as one fighter among all those in front of him marched forward despite the wavy ground. It was the one-legged red toy that looked like a soldier. The toy held a fake rifle in his hands made of wood like the rest of his body. He glared at Diamante through rectangular eyes and the executive scratched the back of his head with one hand as he looked back at the toy confusedly, "What are you- wait a second," his lips curled back up and he started laughing. "I remember you."

"Bastard," the toy said, grabbing his rifle by the barrel and pointing the fatter butt end of it towards Diamante. Others who were getting back up around them all looked over and saw this toy glaring at Diamante with a look of pure hatred. "You destroyed the country of Dressrosa! You framed King Riku-sama! I will defeat you!"

"Uhahahaha! Not many toys in this city know that story! Not many people alive at all know the truth of the Dressrosa on our world," Diamante smirked at the toy and he held up his sword. "It doesn't matter anymore though! That was the old world! The old Dressrosa! Even if people were to learn the truth on this world, no one would stop us! It is no worse than the slavery that exists all over this continent!"

"Raaa!" the toy soldier charged at Diamante, feeling an intense rage inside him that exceeded what he felt for any of the other Donquixote family's executives. He jumped off his one leg and slammed his rifle down on Diamante's sword that he held above him calmly. The executive reached his other hand up to his mouth and patted it as he yawned with as big motions as he could. "I will stop you!" The toy yelled, only for Diamante to push back hard with his sword and slice the toy rifle in half. The soldier went flying and both Franky and Usopp frowned deeply at the sight.

"Weapons Left!"

"Sure-Kill: Firebird Star!"

Machine gun bullets and flaming birds flew at Diamante who leaned back and forth to dodge them all, which was not very hard as even without his Haki, the ground was still so wavy that Franky's aim was pretty off. Usopp's aim was better though, and one of the flaming birds coming at him was moving too fast to dodge. So instead, Diamante lifted up his sword and it rippled above his head for a few seconds, then he brought it down hard and yelled, "HANGETSU GLAIVE!"

Out from the blade of his sword came a projectile slash that not only split Usopp's firebird in half, but also the waving floor beneath it down over a hundred feet and much longer than that. It was like a ravine opened up in the road and it split a building straight in half at the end of the slash. Usopp froze in place and turned his head slowly towards the building that could not support itself anymore and started to collapse and fall down into the canyon that opened in its living room.

He stumbled back away from the edge of the fissure that started not that far away from him and his legs and slingshot were shaking. Usopp took a step back, and another, _I can't do this! He's a monster! We need someone else to come handle him! Maybe Franky could-_ As Usopp thought it, he spotted Franky on the other side of the ravine, down another block twenty yards, staggering up to his feet with half of his face ripped off and bloody. His left eye was glowing red and that side of his face was silver steel instead of the beige of the other half. Jumping out of the ground in between Usopp and Franky was a man oddly dressed as a baby who for some reason looked really cool even as he sucked on a pacifier.

Señor Pink and Franky faced off, and Usopp spun his head to the left as he heard a roar of anger from that direction. The toy soldier had gotten back up and charged the pirate, but Diamante was too strong. Little people ran with their commander this time, but Diamante's sword moved like a snake, zipping around and cutting up the cute small people, making them scream and fly backwards with blood coming out of them.

 _They're all so fast, and, and I can barely see his sword, and he can cut all my attacks before they even reach him!_ Usopp's feet stepped back some more and they turned sideways, his fists unclenching, his slingshot lowering down to his side. Screams of the little people, the toys, and all those they had gathered to fight Doflamingo's men echoed in Usopp's ears but he only backed up more. He clenched his eyes shut and thought, _I can't do this!_ Then, right as he was about to be fully turned around to start running away, Usopp's eyes snapped open wide. He froze in place and although his eyes were wide open, what he saw when he clenched them was all he could see in front of him. There were people behind him on the street that was covered in debris and rubble, but those people were transparent. He could see straight through each one of them.

Usopp backed up again, but this way his back was to Diamante who had just repelled another wave of attackers and was about to attack Usopp. He stopped with his sword raised though, and he tilted his head to the side in confusion as Usopp took another step away from, from nothing. Usopp was staring at an empty patch on the street and mumbling to himself, whispering, and then Diamante's eyes opened huge as the younger man shouted, "You're dead!" The sniper stopped moving and he had water in the bottoms of his eyes as he stared at a small girl in front of two taller people, a man and a woman who were both frowning disapprovingly at him. The girl stepped forward and then lifted her head to look up into Usopp's eyes, and when she did, Usopp's legs stopped shaking.

The long-nosed sniper gripped his slingshot tight with his right hand and all the muscles on his arms flexed with veins popping out on them. He snapped his head left hard and glared towards Diamante with a look of rage and determination in his eyes, surprising the man who had seen him start to run only a minute before. "What happened to you?" Diamante called to him. "What are you-"

"I will not run," Usopp growled, then started walking back towards Diamante while lifting up his Black Kabuto in front of him. He knew the figures behind him were no longer there, but each one of their faces were etched into his mind as he shouted at Diamante, "Those screams I hear, I will turn them into cheers of victory!" The little people lying all over the ground covered in bruises and blood lifted up their heads and stared over at the muscular man standing there holding a slingshot up above his head. "Stop crying!" He shouted at them, though he himself had two streams coming down either side of his face. "The great Captain Usopp will save you!"

He snapped his head back down after shouting and he popped a few Pop Greens into the catch of his slingshot. Usopp's mouth was in a deep frown and the sniper glared at Diamante harshly as he pulled the top of his slingshot back farther and farther until it was behind his ear while the shaft was held out a few feet in front of his body. Usopp looked straight into Diamante's eyes, _I can't run. This is it Usopp. They need your help. Save them. This will make up for what you did._ Usopp screamed and he released a cluster of Pop Greens at his enemy. "Midori Boshi:" he began yelling, "GARDEN ERUPTION!"

Diamante got ready to cut up more of those shurikens or a flaming bird like Usopp attacked him with before. This time though, Usopp did not check what he pulled out of his weapons' pouch. He threw a dozen assorted Pop Greens into his weapon, and when those little green balls popped the battlefield became madness. Diamante made everything start rippling again, but the huge vines of giant plants emerging all over the place just slithered around over the waving ground. Giant smelly plants releasing gases up in the air, more green shurikens, bombgrass, and venus fly traps appeared all over the place and Diamante could not cut them up fast enough.

One of the little people down on his stomach, a few-inch-tall guy named Leo, staggered up to his feet and yelled, "C-C-Captain-Usopp!" Others all around him got up and waved weapons in the air, shouting at the same time, "CAPTAIN USOPP! CAPTAIN USOPP!"

Diamante slashed left and cut a plant about to chomp down on him, then kicked his left leg to escape a vine wrapping around him. He spun and did a backflip while covering his mouth and eyes with one arm to dodge another plant attack, but also to avoid breathing in or getting any of the gas in the air in his eyes. While his face was covered though, Usopp saw his moment and yelled, "Sure-Kill: Exploding Star!"

Diamante lowered his arm fast but by the time he saw the ball flying at him from the slingshot, he had no time to slash at it with his sword. The little black ball hit him square in the face and exploded, snapping his head back and making smoke cover the man. The people already cheering for Usopp roared at the sight of this and Usopp himself lowered down his slingshot in amazement that he managed to finally hit his enemy. Diamante dropped out of the smoke and slammed into the ground hard, the ground that was no longer waving around for him.

He lay there flat on his back for a few seconds, making Usopp think for a moment that he did it. Then, he got up. Diamante got up and the glare he gave Usopp made it impossible to gulp no matter how hard he tried. "I see you don't want to be turned into a toy, 'Captain Usopp!' You would rather I kill you right here! Well, I accept your request!" Diamante reached into his red jacket and pulled out four flat sheets that he threw in front of him. They dropped to the ground and then lost their shiny, flat appearances to puff out into four strange tubes that pointed open ends straight up in the air.

"Witness the power of the Ripple-Ripple Fruit!" Diamante yelled, and out from the tubes shot a bunch of black sheets of paper that flew into the sky high above them.

Everyone looked up in the air where the last remains of Usopp's gas finally faded, and they all stared at the shimmering sheets that hovered high above them. Usopp lost his afraid look, smiled, and then pointed up and started laughing, "That's it? Shooting confetti?! Hahaha!"

"DEATH ENJAMBE!" Diamante yelled angrily as Usopp made a tick mark appear on his forehead. Usopp stopped laughing, and everyone staring at the sky became horrified at the sight of the sky filling with hundreds of spiked black balls that replaced the confetti.

"Diamante-sama! Wait!" some of the soldiers from his own army started yelling at him. Diamante meanwhile lifted up a black object that shimmered and then popped out into a steel black umbrella that he used his Devil Fruit powers on to harden.

"Oh my poor subordinates," Diamante called out in mock sadness. He did turn his head after though and call out, "Pink, get out of here!"

A block down, Señor Pink slammed a fist forward and Franky collided a giant red steel one into it. The two of them pushed into each other, then the force of their punch made them skid back away. Pink frowned at Franky, then said coolly, "You're pretty hard-boiled." The shorter, pudgier man turned away from Franky before the Straw Hat could respond, then jumped up in the air and dove down into the ground like it was water for him to swim away in.

"Hey! We're not finished yet!" Franky yelled after him. He was about to give chase, when a shadow fell over him and he looked up in the air. Franky's jaw dropped at the sight of hundreds of black spiked balls falling down towards him, and when they hit the tops of buildings near them they ripped straight through. His head snapped down and he yelled, "Usopp!" He started running back and the sounds of agonized screams got louder as he got closer to Diamante and the giant ravine near him.

Buildings were falling apart and the little people were too tired and injured to move as fast as they normally could to dodge. The toy soldier jumped left and right to avoid attacks, but soon he would be hit and it would be all over. Franky sprinted straight through all the spiked balls falling down and Diamante's eyes popped open huge at the sight of the man's glowing red eyes and the skin getting torn off his body with every ball that hit him. "What are you?!" He exclaimed, only for Franky to respond by punching his right fist out and it flying at his enemy with a chain connected to it, smashing into the executive who could not lower his umbrella to block or risk his own attacks falling on his head.

Diamante got thrown backwards but he landed on his feet and skid away. Meanwhile, Franky found Usopp holding his arms over his head, down on one knee, his teeth clenched with blood seeping through the cracks as he tried as hard as he could to get back up. Franky leaned his own body over Usopp and yelled at him that they needed to move, but his own voice was pained as leaning over Usopp exposed his back, the one part of his body that was actually still human and made of flesh and bone. "We can't leave," Usopp growled and Franky stopped shouting down at him.

Usopp rose up his head and looked at Franky's scary cyborg face with a bloodied one of his own. "All these people need us to stop Diamante. Help me, Franky."

The cyborg stood up and he cupped his hands over Usopp's head, making both of them protected as Usopp got up on his feet. Franky's mouth was curved into a deep frown, but the sounds of screams around them was not dying down and he nodded his head. "Yosh! Let's kick some butt SUPER bro!" Franky pointed his left hand up and started shooting at all of the black balls to stop them from cutting up their comrades, while Usopp marched towards Diamante who became furious at the sight of Usopp walking across the ground without being hit by any of his spiked attacks.

"DIAMANTE!" Usopp yelled.

"CAPTAIN USOPP!"

* * *

"What the Hell is this guy?!" Ben shouted. The young kid had four big muscular red arms and four yellow eyes. Fourarms skid back on his feet and dragged his bottom two arms on the ground to slow himself down. On his right, Natsu pointed one hand behind him and shot out some flames that made him stop skidding earlier than Ben.

Far in front of the two who just got pushed back, a figure in a black cloak stepped forward. He was bald and had three piercings going down his head, with red gems imbedded in his forehead, in between his eyebrows, and right on the bridge of his nose. He had black tattoos under his eyes on his cheeks. The man's mouth trembled, his lips shaking like he was afraid, only to twist up in a horrifying way a second later. "I, am Zormudd," he said, while lifting up his arms that turned raven black.

"Here it comes again," Ben said. A green light surrounded him and he transformed from Fourarms into XLR8. The skinnier alien with thin legs and a slender, aerodynamic body dug its feet down and got ready.

The man's black arms grew twenty times in size and he rose them above the street, shadowing everything below him. "Djinn E-Equip: Af Al-Yad!" The man's voice sounded off and it cracked mid-sentence. His face twitched and Natsu did not like the look of his body as it started glowing. Zormudd covered in bright light, then it shattered like glass around him to reveal his entire muscular body coated in black with only a few purple line patterns cutting through it. Two giant arms ripped out of his shoulders and more came out of his back while the two he held above them dropped down on opposite sides of the road and pointed their hands in at Ben and Natsu.

The boys looked to their sides and noticed eight-pointed stars inside of white circles on the palms of the giant black hands. Before they could make a strategy to counterattack, or prepare to dodge, those stars started to flow and both boys went wide-eyed. XLR8 was fast however, and Ben sprinted backwards just in time to escape the explosion that went off between Zormudd's massive hands. "Natsu!" Ben yelled.

Zormudd started laughing, deep laughs with strange cackles cutting in every other second. Ben looked at the explosion nervously, then heard a voice inside it. "Ben, keep heading towards the palace." The explosion blew away as wind wrapped around Natsu, and the Fairy Tail mage glared at his opponent with an infuriated expression. "I'll take care of this bastard. I'm all fired up!" Natsu slammed his fists together in front of him and a red magic circle appeared in the air.

Zormudd's eyes opened wide as he could swear he saw a giant red dragon standing behind the young man down the road. He spotted the weird alien nod its head next to Natsu and he yelled, "You can try to get past me, but I am the black king! You won't-"

XLR8 vanished and only paused for part of a second when he was on Zormudd's right side. The lizard-like alien stuck a tongue out of its blue face before zipping away at its top speed again. Two of Zormudd's giant hands sticking out of his back slammed down on the road behind him and Ben had to take a sharp right turn down a different road as two blocks got smashed behind him.

Ben let out a breath of relief when he dodged the attack, then turned around and looked back at that destroyed road hesitantly as the huge arms rose up and he saw how smashed everything was. He calmed himself down and a smile came to his alien's face. _Natsu will be fine. He's Natsu after all._ The kid turned and a black mask snapped over his face. _Now, it's my turn to show what I can do._

A blur of blue zipped around the city. Three soldiers of Dressrosa were surrounding one toy with a broken left leg and missing right arm. They suddenly found themselves on their backs and all their weapons were broken, except for the one that was in the hand of a confused but appreciative toy.

Ben raced towards the palace, and he finally saw what he was looking for. More specifically, he saw _who_ he was looking for. He shot forward as a blur and the blond man standing on the edge of his fortress snapped his gaze straight down. Doflamingo glared at the blur coming up his wall, and he swung his right hand down at it.

Ben kept sprinting up, but he jumped off the wall like he was jumping off the floor, using his momentum to keep him going up while dodging all those sharp strings flying at him. Once he was off the wall and in the air though, his speed made no difference to Doflamingo, who pointed his right hand forward and stated, "String Bullet."

XLR8's chest snapped backwards and the rest of his body pushed forward. The alien gasped, then clenched its teeth hard as it fell from the wall of the palace a hundred feet. Doflamingo did not even follow up with another attack, Ben was apparently not worth his time and he spun to face Son Goku who was flying towards him again. "Are you sure you have time to fight me Son Goku?" Doflamingo asked the child who came to an abrupt halt at those ominous words.

Doflamingo's left hand's fingers were twitching and across the city, two people who the toys had convinced to join them froze where they stood like everyone else on the road. Fleeing civilians looked around at soldiers in fear and toys struggled to move a single inch. The two men working with the toys strained their muscles against the invisible restraints, but their bodies did not respond to them correctly. Instead, they turned towards each other and pointed their rifles at one another.

 **BANG! BANG!**

Goku spun around and flew off as a bunch of ki's started dropping fast. He could sense their energies, but had no idea what just happened to them, even if his eyes could see the thin strings covering the city.

Meanwhile, Ben had almost hit the ground but a green light surrounded him at the last second and he rolled into a big yellow ball. He hit the ground hard and made a big crater that he started spinning around and around in. The kid shot out of his crater in a roll up the side of it that sent him flying back up in the air at the palace. "Cannonbolt!" He roared, and Doflamingo frowned as the kid rolled into a ball and started spinning ridiculously fast up in the air.

Then, before Ben could attack, a red light flashed around the spinning yellow alien. Ben un-curled and in a deep voice mumbled, "Uh-oh." The red light flashed even brighter and completely surrounded Cannonbolt. The next moment, a short boy with brown hair replaced the alien and Doflamingo frowned deeply at the kid he recognized from his enemy's ranks.

"You should have been more careful," Doflamingo mocked, while raising both arms above him.

 _He's gonna cut me!_ Ben thought in horror.

Something flew in between Ben and Doflamingo so fast that the two of them wondered if they actually saw it. They spun and watched as the thing that flew past them slammed down into a building and blew it apart. Doflamingo looked closer as he watched the thing skid through the ground and rip apart his city. The projectile hit something it could not break through and bounced up in the air, giving Doflamingo a good look at the muscular short-haired man who he had known longer than anyone still in his life. "Vergo," Doflamingo said, watching his unconscious executive lift up with blood coming out of his mouth and his eyes rolled back in his head. He snapped his gaze back to Ben and the kid's fear rose even higher as all the veins on Doflamingo's forehead became more pronounced in his rage. "An eye for an eye," Doflamingo brought down his arms and ten sharp strings flew down at a falling Ben.

The kid crossed his arms, but death was coming anyway. What saved him, was not remembering that he could fly if he tried and getting out of there, or his watch going back into the green. The thing that saved Ben had steam pumping out the bottoms of his thighs. His upper body was covered in black Armament Haki that created swirling patterns on his back and chest. The pirate's black hair spiked up and waved above him. His straw hat flapped around on his back, and Monkey D. Luffy glared straight into Donquixote Doflamingo's horn-rimmed sunglasses.

Ben continued to fall from the edge of the palace walls and he clenched his teeth in anger and frustration as he dropped. His stomach hurt and he looked down to see he was bleeding from that attack Doflamingo hit him with as XLR8. The ground was approaching fast and he tried focusing his ki, but the pain of that attack, along with some attacks that the fire benders and that strange mutant with them got on him before made it hard to concentrate. The best he could do was turn himself in midair and bend his knees, but when he hit the ground his body could barely take it and his bones creaked.

He collapsed to the ground and then rolled over on his back so he could look up in the air and watch as Luffy faced off against Doflamingo. "Straw Hat, you defeated Vergo," Doflamingo said, his veins popping as he did. "Uuhaha, uuhahahaha! You are going to regret doing that." Doflamingo felt like mocking Luffy's strange fat appearance, but the fact that he just took down Vergo with it meant that it was no joke.

"You turned my friends into toys?" Luffy asked. Doflamingo grinned and Luffy snarled as he did not remember forgetting, still not really wrapping his mind around how impossible that was. "You're going to pay," he said, and he lifted up his right arm that he pointed at Doflamingo. His fist pulled back into his own thick forearm, then pulled back more, and more, tensing up his whole arm and making his body shake as he did. Luffy breathed heavily a few times and steam was puffing out of his mouth fast. Vergo was a harder opponent than he thought he would be when the man originally intercepted him to stop him from going after Doflamingo.

Doflamingo noticed this too and he smirked, "Good job partner," he said. The Lord lifted a hand and he shot himself up in the air above Luffy, before swinging his other hand down. "Penta-Chromatic Strings!" Five rainbow colored strings slashed down at Luffy who punched his Kong Gun early to stop Doflamingo's attacks midway between them. His attack was much stronger than Doflamingo's and pushed up through it, making Doflamingo pull himself hard to the left with another string. As he moved though, Luffy's fist bounced off midair and shot towards Doflamingo, smashing him in the side where he tried blocking with two arms covered in Armament Haki.

Doflamingo groaned and pushed back, but Luffy was too strong and his fists broke through, sending Doflamingo flying back into his own palace and shattering one of the walls completely while blowing holes in another ten walls behind it.

* * *

On the other side of the city as Doflamingo's palace, a man sobbing loudly and holding a sword above his head froze right as he brought it down towards the screaming woman below him. He stopped, and the sword dropped out of his hand. "Honey, honey!" He dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around his screaming wife who he was no longer trying to kill.

Near them, Son Goku finally dropped a group of ten people he was holding who were no longer under the control of some unknown force. He spun and dropped those people, shouting, "Wait Luffy!" He shot into the distance with a frown on his face, "I want to fight him first!"

A one-armed robot girl lifted her head and watched the child fly away with his brown tail waving around behind him. "Oooh! He's strong!" She started rolling forward on her treads and she rose up a ray gun in the metal hand she did have. The girl rolled down the road and stumbled over a crack, then when she spun right her eyes opened wide and she yelled, "SUGAR!"

The small executive girl running her way came to a stop, and the robot fired her pistol at Sugar rapid fire. Sugar hopped from one foot to the other and dodged all of the red beams until the robot child's weapon had no more energy.

The girl with green hair smirked smugly and held her hands up. "I see turning you into a toy was not punishment enough!" Sugar took one step forward, then froze as that foot touched down. The robot that started rolling back nervously on its treads froze too, because its metal eyes darted to the left where a teenage boy only a few inches taller than Sugar was standing. He may have only been a little taller, but his white hair was above his head spiked taller than his own head, increasing his height by over a foot.

Killua's entire body was covered in a white veil and lightning sparked off him every second. He looked straight at Sugar whose body covered in sweat as this boy she thought she lost reappeared in front of her. "Wh-Who are you?" The robot behind Killua asked in a scared voice.

"Sugar," Killua growled.

"Sugar? That's weird," the one-armed robot said. "That's the same name as that-"

Killua sweatdropped but decided to just ignore that child behind him. "Sugar, you may be fast, but right now it looks like you move in slow motion." Killua reappeared half the distance between himself and Sugar. "I may not be willing to touch you," he continued, while lifting his left hand up to his head and pressing his index and middle fingers against his forehead. "And your speed may let you dodge the things I've been throwing at you," he continued. All of Killua's body started glowing brighter and brighter, but the lighting stopped sparking all around him and only sparked directly on the tips of his fingers now, and it was sparking violently making everyone in a mile radius turn seeing the flashes coming from that direction.

"But I don't have to touch you," Killua said. He started lowering his arm right as Sugar started running away. "Because I know, you are not as fast as lightning." He pointed his two fingers out at her, holding his thumb up at the sky. "Lightning GUN!" He brought his thumb down to his index finger and all the electricity sparking at the tips of his fingers shot away from him in a visible line of lightning. It flew down the street and Sugar's hair stood on end, her fear reached its peak, and she opened her mouth to scream.

The scream never left her mouth though, as the bolt hit her and her body lit up as bright as Killua's was glowing a few seconds ago. Her open mouth was like a floodlight shining out as the insides of her body fried. Her skin blackened and her eyes glowed, every hole on her body gave off the glow of the lightning that hit her. The point on Sugar's chest that the lightning hit shredded apart, her shirt first and then the skin beneath.

"Dodge that, bi-" Killua stopped with his smug finisher, as thoughts flooded into his mind. _Robin and Dash! Nami, Juvia, Gray, Kuro!_

Two miles to Killua's left, Sora's head spun around and the boy's eyes went huge. "Guys," he whispered, a smile coming to his face as all the great memories he had of friends he had forgotten rushed back to him. He turned back and looked down to the burning ground below him. "RIN!" He yelled down at the demonic teen who was pressing his sword, Kurikara, down furiously on two swords crossed above Kirito's head while the winged teen was on his knees.

Kirito ground his teeth and he got pressed farther down while blue flames burst out in every direction from the collision of their swords. "Rin," Sora's voice was closer now and Kirito looked through the flames and past the demon attacking him to see the spiky haired teen floating there, no Keyblade in his hands. Sora had tried fighting the half-demon, he had tried holding his friend down only to get pushed back by the flames, nothing worked so far. "Rin, it's okay," Sora whispered to him, directly above the black haired teens now.

Rin's face was demonic and he opened his mouth of sharp teeth and roared. His irises blazed blue like the flames on his hair and all over the city around them. "Listen to me Rin," Sora said, while Kirito's swords were shaking and his Haki was faltering. Rin roared and Kirito's right arm bent back, but he slammed it straight up and yelled out to try and force Rin back, to no avail. Kirito's clothes were on fire and his skin was heating up and getting covered in burns. "Do you remember Rin? Do you remember Kuro?" The crazed teen snarled but Sora's words entered his mind and Kirito noticed his face twitch. The pressure against on his swords weakened and Sora continued even softer, "You remember finding him? How happy you were on Midway Island?"

Kirito uncrossed his swords fast and Rin got knocked back hard. He stumbled away from the teenager who lifted both swords up, though as he looked at Rin he no longer thought he needed them. Rin snapped his head right and down, he had spit coming out of his mouth and he clawed at the side of his head. Rin snarled and snapped his teeth a different way, he roared, and raked his hand through his hair as he bared his teeth. As his teeth bared at Kirito though, the other teen watched Rin's teeth losing their sharpness and the solid blue flames on either side of the top of his head that looked like horns started to fade.

"That's right Rin," Sora said, his smile getting wider as the blue flames everywhere started to lower. "I know it was the demon side of you that got you out of being a toy. Your inner demon is strong and your human side must have been pushed far down, but the fact that you can come out of it shows which is stronger. You're not a demon Rin. You're better."

Rin's blazing light blue eyes closed, and when they opened back up they had lost their flame. His blue eyes stared into Kirito's and he saw the other teen had still not lowered his swords. The sight of Kirito's burned arms and torso made Rin bow his head. _I lost control, again._ "Damn, you really pack a punch." Rin's head lifted up and he saw Kirito reaching back, his arms filling with pain as he did.

Kirito slid his swords into his sheaths, then looked over into Rin's eyes. "Don't worry about it," he said. Kirito saw in Rin's eyes that second before he bowed his head a regret and guilt he knew all too well. _But unlike me, Rin has nothing to feel guilty about. He doesn't deserve that burden._ "It's not like you could really beat me," Kirito said and turned away as Rin gawked at him. He knew Rin was staring at his injuries and he said, "I was going easy on you since you didn't know what you were doing, but if you ever want to spar for real, just remember I won't hold back." Kirito turned back to the teen a year younger than him and flashed him a grin.

Sora stood behind Rin and he smiled even wider at what Kirito just said to him. _Good one Kirito,_ he thought. Rin finally chuckled and opened his mouth to say something back to Kirito, but instead he stumbled forward and dropped down to a knee. Kirito spun fully to him looking worried and he jogged over himself. "You have this?" Sora asked his friend.

Kirito looked at Sora and his brown haired friend had some injuries on him as well, but Sora nodded his head to show he was okay. He turned and rose his right hand, reforming a Keyblade that the tip of glowed green. "Cuaga," he said, and his exhausted friends behind him surrounded in green light. Rin stopped panting and Kirito looked down to see his burns fade. The two of them turned to tell Sora thanks, but when they turned around, Sora was already flying away to the west as fast as he could.

* * *

Luffy bounced on the air right above the eastern edge of Doflamingo's palace. On his right side, a small boy with a brown tail was floating and arguing with him about fighting the man below them on his own. Flying up on Luffy's right was a teen with spiky brown hair who just held his Keyblades up and glared down at their enemy.

Doflamingo stood still on his palace roof, barely looking winded despite Luffy's powerful punch that sent him crashing through his palace only a minute earlier. Luffy was surprised the Shichibukai got back up so fast, but he still believed he could take him down on his own. "Guys," Sora said, interrupting the two arguing on his right. They looked at Sora, then turned down to the man Sora was looking at with a frown on his face and a bead of sweat rolling down it. Doflamingo's forehead covered in veins suddenly went back to normal although the pissed off man continued to frown deeply.

"Sugar," he said, his eyes dark and his hands clenched at his sides. The ten foot tall man in a pink coat of feathers rose his gaze to those floating before him. "It is time, to start over," Doflamingo said. It almost sounded like he was giving up, but the sudden increase in power all three of them felt coming from him made it seem unlikely. "With Sugar down, there is no saving Dressrosa. I do not know how many of my family this battle has cost, how many of them are still breathing. Viola, Giolla, Monet, this world was not kind to all of my family, but I recreated our paradise." His forehead covered in veins and he continued in a deeper voice, "It took two years and much careful planning to finally become a Lord of the Cooperative, and you brats have ruined everything."

"You tried turning us all into toys," Sora called down at him. "Of course we were going to fight back."

"That Darth Sion mentioned what you did to the Forever Kingdom," Doflamingo replied. "If I were to defeat you for the Emperor, I would have been granted their former lands as well." He frowned deeper and bent down, pressing a hand on the roof of the palace he was on. "It is no matter now. Mugiwara no Luffy!" He shouted. "You harmonized your rubber powers and Busoshoku Haki, seems you have put quite a burden on your body. I wonder how many more seconds you can use that form of yours."

Luffy growled and he lifted up his big hands that started pulling into his body. "Gum Gum DOUBLE CULVERIN!" Luffy slammed his fists forward fast. Goku frowned, but he could tell Luffy only had a small amount of time left to fight so he held back for a second. Goku's eyes opened wide though as did the two with him, as the entire roof Doflamingo was standing on lost its gray stone color, turning white instead. A sea of white strings appeared, starting right beneath Doflamingo's hand and spreading to cover his palace. Two giant spikes of condensed strings shot up in between Doflamingo and Luffy, blocking the two huge fists he just punched and holding them off.

"Vergo did a good job weakening you," Doflamingo began, and the string spikes blocking Luffy ripped in half, then both halves pulled back together around Luffy's fists. He whipped the younger pirate up in the air, then smashed him down at the base of the palace. "Listen brat," Doflamingo snarled off the roof as he walked towards the edge, and at the same time the ground all around his palace completely made of strings started to transform as well. "Devil Fruits have yet another stage to them, called 'Awakening.'"

Goku and Sora spun around and Luffy jumped back up in the air as the ground beneath him, like the rest of the city in a mile radius of them, turned into strings that Doflamingo could control. "This entire city, is a weapon for me to use against you." He looked up from Luffy's round bouncing form and into the eyes of the younger of the spiky haired boys above him. "Now, what will you do? You will not-"

A golden aura flashed around the small boy and the black spikes of his hair shot straight up into a single one. Doflamingo's eyes opened wide behind his sunglasses, fear filling him as he looked into the icy teal eyes of the monster above. Goku's brown tail waved behind him, its fur golden now to match his aura and hair. "The Super Saiyan," Doflamingo said, his teeth grinding and his fists covering in sweat. "The stories are true after all."

"Sora, Luffy, stay back," Goku said. He rose up his right hand in front of his face and curled his fingers in. He lifted his left, balled it into a fist, and snapped his elbow down to his side. The serious boy stared down into Doflamingo's eyes, and he finished, "I am going to end this."

* * *

 **A/N Trebol! Gladius! Sugar! Vergo! The Donquixote family's executives are dropping like flies! Killua hunted Sugar through Dressrosa as the Birdcage continued to shrink on the city. Now that she's gone the toys will all return to being people, and Doflamingo's noticed the battle has shifted, prompting him to Awaken his Devil Fruit. Diamante facing off against a determined Captain Usopp, Cyborg Franky, and the entire resistance of those inside Dressrosa. Señor Pink, Zormudd (Al-Tharmen guy from Magi), and some other baddies still linger in the city, but Doflamingo's the biggest problem our heroes have to face now. Rin's calmed down from his enraged state, but he, Ben, Luffy, Kirito, and so many of our heroes are injured or faring badly. What will they do?! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Leave me a review telling me what you thought, comments, predictions, etc.! Sorry again for taking so long to update, school's been tough, had another project I started, was on Spring Break without my computer, and this last weekend I was in New Orleans with a beauty so I didn't have much time to write. Anyways, thanks again for reading! Review responses below!**

joebob323

I literally cannot wait for Goku to snap. He snaps only 2 times in the show, when Krillen dies in DB, and when, well, Krillen dies again, in the Frieza saga. I would like to see how he would react, now that he has found out that he has forgotten a person who is close enough to him to make him clothes. XD BTW, great chapter, and I can't wait for more stuff on One punch man, because he was mentioned once when Boros was beaten, and only recently with Ben's new transformation. It's great that you included the monster association, because in this world there are a crap ton of monsters. Keep up the good quality!

 **Thanks for the review! Not much Goku this chapter, but next one he's gonna be pretty main! Definitely glad I added Monster Association too. That was really like an afterthought as I was finishing up that chapter, and I have a bunch of new ideas I can use with it now. Monster Association, Al-Tharmen, and the Umbrella Corporation are now going to be big enemies of the crew!**

Espada-001

I don't think a lot of the older people in their group should that surprised to see one of their own kill somebody. I mean I Know they might be a little surprised to see Timmy attempt it but, a lot of the older characters have defiantly killed in their own series at points. That may sound a bit confusing but I can't really think of another way to word that, so sorry if that seems confusing. Anyway moving on from the whole Timmy Killing bit, I did enjoy the chapter and I'm glad to see that the rebellion toy's are still around. I can't wait to see all the different characters that have been turned into toys. Also I'm not sure if I should if I should take your comment about Goku as foreshadowing or not. O'well only the future can tell anyway thanks for the chapter and I can't wait for the next chapter. Have a good day!

 **Thanks for the review! I don't think it would be that surprising to most of them if someone they knew killed someone, but the fact that it was Timmy who tried it was what got to them. He got a little rage-y last chapter, but... no spoilers XD. Anyway, yeah I wanted to throw those guys in there, because I also had some cool ideas for random characters who have been stuck as toys for unknown amounts of time, and I know that some of them are going to catch y'all off guard! Have a great day!**

Guest

I am really likening this story it is one of my favorite fanfictions. I am a big KH fan and really like how you added the organization and Kiari. Doing a one on one (about time!) you dont have to say specifcally who it is but are there going to any more KH characters or FF i would like to see axel and cloud. Have you thought about adding anything like daney phantom? Anyways really like we're this is going keep up the good work. Oh are there going to be more RWBY characters

 **Thanks a lot! Glad you're liking this story so much. As for more KH and FF characters, there will definitely be more coming into the story this saga. As for Cloud and Axel specifically, I don't know if you remember or not, but in Gray's flashback about the day Timmy teleported him away from Aebrith to Awul, both Cloud AND Axel were on his Resistance team! So they'll definitely come into this a lot as they're the whole reason half of the group came here. I have thought about adding Danny Phantom, but have never found a great place to add him, so someday maybe. As for RWBY... Yeah. Don't want to spoil much, but a certain RWBY main 4 girl will be making her debut within the next 2-3 chapters (full length, not individual parts)! Thanks again and hope you enjoyed the latest chapter!**

Darugus

Well it seems that the fight between doflamingo and his the heroes has begun. By the way lm sorry to ask but I know that kirito ate a devil fruit but I don't remember what it was or if it was revealed

 **The fight has started and escalated fast! The whole city's already in disarray! Haha thanks for the review, and for your question, Kirito ate the Crack-Crack Fruit. I don't know if I've ever specified it, but for some examples when he fought pain he punched one of the summoned birds and it split head to back, and he punched his Rasengan and Blackbeard's attack in Metropolis and split it and him in half for his like ultimate final attack. He also shouts at the air and cracks it, or stomps the ground to do it, and it's a Paramecia I made up one day. Hope that helps! Thanks again to everyone who reviewed, sorry for taking so long to get back to this, but I'll try to have the final part of Dressrosa up faster this time! Well, 'till next time!**


	23. Nexus HWR 3-9 Dressrosa Part 3

**Nexus HWR 3.9 Dressrosa Part 3:**

Dash Parr snapped up to a sitting position from flat on his back. The kid opened his mouth and breathed in hard, "Aaahh-ahhhh." He snapped his head left and saw ten terrified people sprinting down the street across an intersection in that direction. The road he was on was mostly empty, but then again the street he was on was covered in debris: broken pieces of buildings, wood and steel shards, huge stones, and the road itself was so broken up there were cracks right under his feet.

"I'm me again," he mumbled, looking down at his hands and examining them closely. He let out a deep breath and then looked around him to see what was going on. As a toy he had little ability to run around with the amount of carnage around him and the loss of his speed. He started jogging forward and turned right on what he thought might have been a road but had a building collapsed over the start of it.

The kid sped up and jumped to make it over the pile of rubble in one hop, but as soon as he reached the top of his arc over the building, his jaw dropped and he wished he could turn in midair. He started swinging his arms in front of him wildly as the madness in front of him got closer. He hit the ground and instantly sprinted to the right to dodge a massive black hand slamming down towards him. He made it out from beneath, only for another huge black hand to be swinging sideways, smashing straight through the building on his right and throwing debris at him.

"Whoa, whoa!" Dash hopped to his left on top of the back of the first hand that smashed down, then sprinted down the black arm towards the main body of the man with dozens of huge arms sticking out of him. He almost reached the body and pulled back a fist, when two more huge fists shot out of the guy's back and smashed into him. "Ahh!"

"Dash!" The kid stopped flying back as he slammed into a muscular chest and came to an abrupt halt. The man who caught him turned the boy around so Dash could see his face half-covered in blood, and body all scratched up and bruised. Natsu only had on a pair of tattered pants now, and he stared seriously into Dash's eyes, "This fight is mine." He dropped the kid and Dash spun to say something, only for there to be six huge hands all around them, and on the palms of each of those hands were glowing eight-pointed stars.

The kid booked it away, and just in time too as a half dozen explosions tore apart where he was just standing. He spun back and opened his mouth to yell his friend's name, but Natsu was lifting up above the explosion with three trails of fire spinning around him. "Oh, okay, you got this," Dash said, seeing scales covering Natsu's arms and cheeks and not wanting to mess with Natsu's fight anymore.

He turned and started running a different direction, and he looked up as he did. "That Birdcage is getting a lot smaller," he said nervously, and turned his head left on what used to be a main road all the way back to the port area of the city. He stared towards the docks where the Birdcage's edge had almost reached, and his eyes opened wide as he realized something. "The Sunny!" He exclaimed. The kid started sprinting back towards the water and he reached the docks in seconds.

Dash turned left, then right, and he saw docks on the edges of the port getting shredded by the powerful strings. He spun towards the Sunny that was near the middle of everything and a bead of sweat rolled down the left side of his face. "What was my plan again?" He mumbled as if he had a reason for coming down here in the first place.

"Dash-bro!" a voice yelled up the block from him. The blond boy spun around and looked up the street to see two grown men beating the crap out of each other with their fists. Both looked horribly beaten and battered, but Franky's bloody face also looked terrifying without any of its skin and his glowing red eyes. Dash dropped his jaw but Franky shouted at the scared boy, "Help Usopp! He's in Super trouble over-" Señor Pink slammed a fist into Franky's face and the cyborg stumbled back, then clenched his huge right red fist and smashed it down into the top of the tan-skinned baby man's skull.

"But the Sunny!" Dash shouted up as he realized this was Franky now despite the appearance difference.

Franky turned as Pink stumbled away from him and he grimaced at the sight of his dream ship being closed in on by the Birdcage's strings. Still, the decision was not hard to make at all, "Usopp first! Then the Sunny!" The little boy nodded as if Franky was willing to sacrifice his ship, that meant Usopp was not just in a little bit of trouble.

The kid sprinted up the block and right in between the two men going in for another round of trading blows. He turned left and saw a huge explosion as the strings on the north side of the city ripped through a factory. Sections of the city that were built stronger than others were being pulled by the Birdcage, dragging inwards and smashing apart weaker buildings. Dash saw a crowd of hundreds of people running towards him on his left, and behind all those people was a wave of rubble being dragged across the floor.

He shook his head and kept sprinting up the road in the direction Franky pointed him towards. He checked every intersection he passed and after sprinting down a couple more streets, he finally found Usopp. The kid's eyes opened huge and he sprinted to a nearby boulder that Usopp was leaning against on his butt while tiny people tried helping him. "Hold on Captain Usopp!" A little man in a cute green hat and suspenders shouted as he ran up Usopp's arm, stitching him up as he did with what looked like some form of magic.

"How are you doing that?" Dash wondered as he stared at the little creature holding a needle and stopping all of Usopp's deep wounds from bleeding pretty fast.

A chubby little dwarf in a brown jacket who had a yellow tail and horns over his head like a beetle spun to the child. "Leo ate the Sew Sew Fruit- wait, who are-"

"Dash," Usopp said, his eyes turning towards the kid in front of him.

"Usopp," Dash replied, seeing a lot of blood on his older friend's face. "What happened? Who did this to you?"

"It's alright," Usopp replied, and he turned his head back the way he was looking when Dash originally arrived.

The boy was so distracted by Usopp's condition that he was ignoring the sounds of clanging swords to his left. He finally followed Usopp's gaze over and his eyes opened wide at the sight of a muscular man in a red cape leaping up in the air. This man brought a broadsword up and then slammed it down at the leader of the army that first attacked them earlier. Diamante pushed back with both hands on his weapon but the one-legged man pushing down against him was making his arms and sword tremble.

"Kyros," Diamante growled, sweat on both sides of his face. "Then that means Sugar has been taken out," he said, his mouth twisting into a snarl of rage. He pushed back on his sword and sent the former gladiator flipping backwards in the air and landing down on his one leg. Kyros was pretty bloody, but there were much more injured fighters all around him, badly damaged or worse from Diamante's Death Enjambe a few minutes ago.

"DIAMANTE!" Kyros roared. "You bastard!"

"You were the one-legged soldier all this time," Diamante said, his voice getting more smug as he did. "That makes sense considering the way you acted when I murdered Scarlett, the woman, you…" Diamante faded off and his eyes were opening wide.

Kyros was about to charge him too, but as Diamante realized it, so did the one-legged man. For years, he had hated Diamante more than any other executive because of what the man did, but only a few minutes ago he was enraged for a totally different reason. Kyros thought about all his time as a toy, but for some reason, in the last several months to a year, he had forgotten all about a main part of his rage.

"Ky-ros," a voice whispered from behind the former gladiator and captain of the King's guard. He froze and then slowly started turning around. Littered bodies of other people who fought hard against Diamante as toys before Sugar was taken down lay all around him. They were moaning, covered in blood, scattered in between little people from the Tontatta Kingdom and other allies they made in Dressrosa over the years. He fully turned and looked back at the wall, where a toy he knew very well, who he had gotten to know over the last few months since he met her, who had been badly injured against Diamante, and who he had helped over to a building that he laid her down against, had transformed back into a human as well.

With this woman's transformation back though, came a flood of memories to both Kyros and another fallen toy's mind. "Mother, father," the two who were staring at each other in shock spun their heads, looking over towards an overturned section of the street, where a girl in a green cloak, and a golden breastplate and underwear, lifted her head towards them. Another member of their Resistance, fighting alongside each of them for months, alongside Kyros for even longer than that. She lifted her head with tears pouring down and Kyros was horrified and shocked and relieved and furious all at the same time.

"Rebecca, Scarlett," Kyros started shaking. He trembled in rage and the ground around him started to shake. Pebbles and broken chunks of building shook on top of the ground and Diamante took a step back. He rose his sword, and opened his mouth to yell an attack, but Kyros spun around and looked deep into his eyes before he could do that. Diamante let out a yelp, and then Kyros shot off the ground like a missile.

Dash's eyes opened up huge and he followed the man's movements that became near impossible for anyone else on the street to follow. Kyros leapt up in the air and his eyes were red with rage, his hands gripped his sword's hilt so hard it cracked, and he roared, "TRUENO-" Diamante lifted his sword to block. "BASTARDO!" Kyros finished, and he brought down his sword so hard that Diamante's sword could not hold against it, shattering and allowing Kyros's blade to slash from his shoulder down his torso all the way to his feet. Usopp leaned forward as did all the fighters still conscious on the street, their eyes opening huge as blood splashed into the air and Diamante let out a defeated gurgle as he got thrown backwards by the force of the slash.

"Whoa, that was-" Dash stopped mid-sentence as the entire road behind Kyros erupted with flames that burst in from one side of buildings and broke straight through the other. Everyone screamed, but the flames were pointed up a little and went over the heads of all the people still remaining down on the road. The pillar of flames was enormous and from a quarter mile away Dash had to shield his face from the heat of it. _Are you sure you can handle it on your own, Natsu?_

* * *

Natsu landed down on his feet but dropped a hand to the floor and fell to a knee. He was panting heavily and he glared forward into the smoke where he could no longer hear Zormudd's screams. "Good riddance," he muttered. His Lightning Fire Dragon's Roar faded away and Natsu dropped to his other knee as he was feeling drained after all these fights.

"You-" a voice began and Natsu's face pointed towards the floor snapped back up. "Do not, think you, could stop Zormudd. I, am Zormudd," Natsu pushed down hard on the hand pressed to the floor, and he got back up off his knees. He stared into the smoke where a horrific visage of a man stepped through, his regular arms bumpy and disfigured, while behind his back the rest of them had turned into one big disorganized blob of blackness. It was swirling around and bumps moved through his skin that continued to grow behind him.

"What the fuck?" Natsu muttered, as one of the bumps moved from his back's blob, straight into Zormudd's face, went across his forehead, and then down into his right arm to buff it out even more. The man's dark body was burned badly and there was dark red blood splashing out of cracks in it.

"Al-Tharmen, is, unstoppable," Zormudd said, his mouth twisting up into a smirk that revealed his mouth that had only half the teeth he started with after a few devastating hits from Natsu. "We, are legion. We, can not, be stopped. We are the darkness on Nexus." As he said that last part, Natsu heard a low rumbling sound coming from the sky and he lifted up his head. The Fire Dragon Slayer was not taking what this man said to heart, but high above him, even higher than the top of the Birdcage, Natsu saw dark gray clouds swirling around over a single point, over Zormudd. There were three figures below those swirling clouds though, figures with turbans on their heads and white masks wrapped completely around their faces. One had a wooden staff in his hands, and Natsu saw the man move that staff to point it down at the Birdcage.

At first Natsu thought they were going to try and destroy the cage around Dressrosa. He quickly realized that was not their intention though, as he heard screaming ahead of him and snapped his head back down. "No! I can still do this! I am, Zormudd! FORGIVE-" The bumps all over Zormudd's body started growing exponentially and more formed all over his torso and face. His mouth got hidden beneath the blobby mass and all Natsu could hear were muffled screams for another second or two, at least until Zormudd exploded and his blood and guts went everywhere, including all over Natsu's body.

Natsu closed his eyes when the blood flew at him, but now he opened them back up and looked down at his body in disgust. His disgust was not because of all the organs and Zormudd goop on him though, it was directed at the figures he snapped his gaze up to after his first glance down. "You bastards! He was your comrade wasn't he?!" The three above the Birdcage did not respond to Natsu. They pointed their heads down as if they were listening to him, then turned around completely and started flying off. "OI!" Natsu screamed, but not one of them responded nor stopped. "Al-Tharmen," he snarled, his fists balling and flames surrounding them, burning his former enemy's flesh off of his body. "I'm going to get you for that," he growled.

The young man heard an explosion and he spun a full one-eighty degrees to look behind him. Away from the blood-soaked area he was in, he could see hundreds, maybe thousands of people, all converging in the center of Dressrosa. He spotted some soldiers in red armor running that way too led by Commander Zhao.

The Fire Nation officer turned back to his soldiers, and Zhao growled at the Lieutenant next to him, "That bastard Doflamingo puts us all in this death trap, and Gambit decides to go on a revenge trip. We are returning to Sin City as soon as that foolish Lord is killed."

Natsu thought about attacking those men running in front of him, but he saw a couple of them stop and help some civilians out from beneath some rubble and he decided against it. _It's like Gray said. Not all of our enemies are monsters, some just follow that King guy because they don't want to be killed. Maybe these guys aren't so bad._ He stopped following them and turned right instead, deciding to maybe go down that mostly empty road in the direction of the palace where he knew the final battle would be going on.

The Dragon Slayer took a single step, then his entire body covered head to toe in sweat and he could not move. He stood there, body frozen, one leg in front of the other, while all the hair on his body stood on end. _This magical power,_ he thought, while his eyes darted to his left and he slowly started moving his head. It was the largest magical power Natsu had ever felt, in his entire life. There was only one other time in his life he had felt something like it, but as he turned he knew it was not something "like it," it was _it._

Natsu turned around and he spotted someone walking towards him. The person's head was bowed and he had silver spiky hair that fell behind his body all the way past his waist, as well as spiky bangs that covered up most of his face. He stopped walking when he was ten meters from Natsu, and he lifted his face for the pink haired man to see. Natsu knew it from the magical power alone, but now he was positive. He gulped, already tired from previous fights, his body shaking from more than just the intense fear he felt at the sight of this dark tan-skinned man's face, covered in blue tattoos like his right arm that was sticking out from beneath his dark gray cloak. Natsu had never seen the man before in his life, but he knew who it was, and he said in as sturdy a tone as he muster, "Acnologia."

Acnologia's right eye narrowed and the magical power around him rose. He lifted up his right arm, and when he did his cloak moved a little from the center of his body to reveal more of his torso, a torso covered in scars. His silver bangs that covered part of his face also moved around when he shifted his arm, revealing the left side of his face, a face missing a left eye that looked like it had been gouged out by the amount of damage done around the socket. There were claw marks on his face and torso like he had been ravaged by some sort of beast, and Natsu's jaw dropped at the amount of damage done to him.

"Natsu Dragneel," Acnologia said, his voice deep, his presence horrifying. A dark blue aura surrounded him and rose up like a flame.

Across the city, Son Goku paused what he was doing for a second and he spun around with teal eyes opened wide. He spun back fast though as five huge spikes of condensed strings with Haki coating the sharp tips of them came at him from every direction. Still, the feeling behind him made him intrigued for more reason than one, _What's that dragon doing here?_

"You are Acnologia," Natsu said, already sure of himself but being confirmed now by this man's failure to deny it. "How? Why?!"

"You do not need to know why- ack, ugh ahck-ak," Acnologia lifted his right arm in front of his face and hunched over, starting a fit of coughs that lasted almost five seconds while his aura faltered around him. When he stopped, his lifted his head from behind his arm and glared at Natsu furiously. "Don't look at me, like that!" Acnologia screamed and Natsu tensed up as he had no idea how he appeared to be looking at the most powerful dragon on his world who followed up with, "I'm going to kill you!"

"Try it, and you'll be dead before you get within nine meters of him," a voice said in between Natsu and Acnologia. Both of them snapped their heads down, to look at a boy holding a golden sword in his right hand and holding up a glowing left.

"Timmy?" Natsu questioned, his eyes opening wide at the kid's sudden appearance out of nowhere. Acnologia snarled and flared his magical power, only to start a coughing fit again.

Timmy shot forward, planted his left hand against Acnologia's chest, and filled his opponent with heat. Acnologia tried stepping back but Timmy grabbed him by the cloak and tugged hard, making the person spin around in a three-sixty as his cloak got ripped from his body. Once the cloak was gone, Natsu dropped his jaw and even Timmy had to hesitate for a second at the sight of Acnologia's body. _How is he alive?_ Timmy thought.

Acnologia no longer had a left arm, but more than that, he was missing entire chunks out of his left side. He did not have a stub on his shoulder, his entire shoulder was missing and there was scar tissue all over his neck and around his collarbone. Scars stretched over his pecs and around his abs and waist. There was one vertical scar down his left side like someone had opened him up from his missing shoulder to below his waist where his white belt held his black pants on. Acnologia saw them staring and he opened his mouth to growl at them but wound up having another coughing fit instead.

Natsu stopped being afraid. He calmed himself down and stood fully behind Timmy who noticed Natsu was no longer shaking in fear as well. "Good thing I got here when I did," Timmy said in a dark tone. "I think he was about to kill you, or at least try. Wonder what he could do in that broken body."

"I will destroy you!" Acnologia screamed.

"You will leave, or die," Timmy said. Acnologia's enraged expression froze as he looked into that child's eyes. Timmy was serious. There was no hesitation. His hand clenched around the hilt of Excalibur and he rose it up a little as if what Acnologia did next would determine its fate.

"Grr, GRRR," Acnologia shook and he turned to stare at Natsu again. He looked deep into the Dragon Slayer's eyes, and then out of nowhere he snapped his head back and roared, "ROOAAAAAA!" As he roared, his body started shaking and becoming disfigured. His light blue tattoos got darker, but not as dark as his tan skin that turned black. His right arm buffed out, then grew exponentially in size like his face and the rest of his body. Timmy's jaw dropped and the kid stepped back from the monster. Acnologia grew and grew until he was hundreds of feet long and had a massive tail that swung across the air. Thousands of people screamed and every battle in the city stopped, even the Birdcage hesitated for a second, because the sight of this enormous dragon was not what anyone was expecting.

Acnologia flapped its wings, including its left wing littered with holes. It flew straight up at the Birdcage, opened its mouth, and roared. The roar that came out of its mouth hit the Birdcage and did not hesitate for even a second before shredding straight through it. The huge dragon flew into the hole it tore as dozens of the thick strings of the Birdcage started separating and falling apart. Acnologia flew off, and then seconds later, speeder bikes and powerful people who could jump very high shot out of the hole after it. They did this so soon, because out from the top of the Birdcage came more strings that were filling in the hole Acnologia left, and the entire cage was shrinking again.

"Are you alright, Timmy?" Natsu asked.

The small boy standing in front of Natsu who continued to glare up in the sky did not say a word. "Maybe I should go after him, make sure he doesn't kill anyone," Timmy said, his expression dark.

"Timmy!" a voice yelled to his right.

Natsu was just opening his mouth to tell the kid to calm down, when both he and Timmy's eyes opened wide. His lips then curled up in a smile and he turned to wave at the woman, but stopped when he saw her running straight towards the smaller boy in front of him. Natsu stepped back and watched as Timmy turned completely, and Natsu's jaw dropped again as he spotted the tears flowing down both sides of Timmy's face.

Nami sprinted straight at Timmy and she dropped down to her knees next to him. Nami wrapped her arms around the boy who put his on her sides too and buried his face in her chest. "Na-Nami," he said, tears still coming out of his eyes as he clenched them against her. "I forgot, I forgot about you. But I remember now, I remember why I came here."

Nami pushed Timmy away a foot so she could look down into his face. She had tears on the corners of her eyes too but she smiled wide at the little boy, "Yeah, because I made you." Timmy shook his head as she said it, but he sniffled and his mouth curled up too. They both knew Nami could not force Timmy to come, they knew why he really came. He reached up and grabbed the rim of his _new_ hat, and he pulled it down over his face to cover up his tears from Nami.

A pink haired man standing not far from the two of them was feeling pretty awkward and he decided to turn away. He turned left, and then his jaw dropped as out from the wall of a building right there, a man with gray skin over his entire body and cracks lining it like he was about to fall apart came crashing through a wall, covered in flames. He hit the ground and the red lightsaber in his hand fell out as he bounced and then slammed into a wall on the other side of the street that he hit so hard he indented into it and made a crater.

Nami and Timmy spun and they stood up to look past Natsu on either side. The three of them stared at the hole in the wall of the first house the Sith Lord came crashing through, and all three of them dropped their jaws as a girl came stepping out of it. Her shirt on her right shoulder was ripped off and one of her pant legs was in tatters, she had a bloody cut on her left cheek, and she held up a pink Keyblade with a victorious grin on her face. She saw the guy indented in the other wall was not getting back up and she twirled her weapon around in front of her before resting it on her shoulder.

"Kairi?" Nami questioned, and the auburn haired girl spun to see her friends standing there which only made her happier.

"Nami," Kairi said nostalgically. She shook her head and looked into her friend's eyes, "It's good to have you back."

"You beat that guy?" Natsu asked in surprise. He didn't think he had ever seen Kairi fight someone before, and the guy who came crashing in looked pretty strong.

"My first Sith," Kairi said with some excitement in her voice. "Darth Sion," she said, turning back to the gray man with scars all over his body. "He sure was strong," she complimented. She then lifted up her Keyblade, and said, "Cure." The others thought she was getting rid of the bruises on her shoulder and leg, and the cut on her face, but then a green flash of light surrounded Natsu and he looked down at his arms to see the burns and cuts all over him from his fights with Gladius and Zormudd were fading.

"Wow," Natsu said. He lifted back up his head and nodded at her, "Thanks." He turned and glared into the distance at the palace, "Now, I'm going to-" Natsu stopped mid-sentence and he just stared in shock in the same direction. Everyone else on the street with him who was looking in that direction also dropped their jaws as the entire palace started to morph. It transformed into thousands of white strings that pulled together towards the middle while shooting up high into the sky, extending farther while glowing black and purple near the top. The sharp point at the top started to curve and it pointed back down at the city, then shot down at a hundred miles per hour.

A single light shot up into the sky beneath the falling point and inside that golden blur a small man pulled a fist back. "Mayor," Natsu whispered in relief, as he was afraid for a second the entire city was about to be destroyed. A grin came to his face and Natsu pumped a fist in the air, "GOKU!"

* * *

Goku's fist stopped the point of Doflamingo's attack short but the kid was pushing back against it as hard as he could. More and more strings were pulling up from buildings that were transforming from stone and wood into strings for Doflamingo to use. "Uuhahaha!" Doflamingo laughed from above while Sora and Luffy shot around either side of the giant attack Goku was blocking the protect the city and all the citizens down below. The crazed Lord slashed his arms across his body sending five strings to both sides of him. Luffy and Sora tried to dodge but were too close that they got slashed instead and thrown back. As they were falling with blood splashing out of them, Doflamingo brought his hands back together and combined more strings into his attack that he was pushing down harder and harder each second, and which finally started to lower towards the city again.

"On my world I could count on my hands the number of people I believed were stronger than myself!" Doflamingo shouted. "This world was different, so I became stronger! Are you stronger than me Son Goku?! I have no clue! But I know you can not defeat me!"

Three sections of the lower city where civilians had evacuated to suddenly transformed into waves of string. The ground climbed up their bodies and strings wrapped around their necks, strangling hundreds of them at the same time.

Robin, Juvia, Gray, Rin, and Kirito stared ahead of them in horror as all of the debris, rubble, and the very ground itself transformed into strings. They spun back and forth trying to deflect all of the strings coming for their bodies, but flames nor water nor ice did little to stop the strings from connecting with their bodies and stopping their movements. Once they could no longer move, other strings wrapped around their arms, their legs, and started strangling them.

"Rebecca! Scarlett! Get back!" Kyros yelled at his pink-haired daughter and wife who were behind him. He rose up his sword and tried slicing all the strings away as they snaked towards them, but the more he stopped, the more the ground near them itself transformed into strings. Before long, his arms were no longer his to move, and when he tried breathing in he had to grab his throat in agony.

"Father!" Rebecca shouted. She tried running towards him on her bloody legs, but froze as her body became connected by Doflamingo's strings. She could not even reach up to grab her throat in pain because she had no control over her body at all. The family gasped as they lost their air like hundreds, thousands of fellow citizens of Dressrosa.

"Uuhaha! UUHAHAHA!" Doflamingo's fingers twitched like mad as he controlled a city full of strings. Goku had both hands pressed up against the giant attack that was slowly lowering him down to the ground, but he looked below him and saw people getting wrapped up in cocoons of strings and their ki's were all wavering.

Goku snapped his head back up and his teal eyes flashed brighter green instead. His hair shot up even spikier and waved around in the gusts of wind that surrounded him out of nowhere. "Ahhh! AHHHHH!" Goku snapped his head back and his golden aura doubled, tripled, and grew exponentially in size until Doflamingo could no longer see his city down below his attack. Everything was glowing golden, and the giant spike of strings that was over three hundred meters up in the air before it curved and shot down, stopped moving. Doflamingo pushed down harder on it, but then the spike itself came flying straight back up in the air and it slammed into the top of the Birdcage, ripping through the center of it and making every single line of string connected to break off.

Doflamingo snapped his head up and glared at the falling Birdcage in rage, but his rage was quickly replaced by fear as there was something floating in front of him. He lowered down his gaze and there was a kid floating in front of his face, glaring into his eyes and making his entire body fill with sweat. "I'm going to break you," Goku said.

"Wha-" Goku's left fist hit Doflamingo in the face and shattered his nose. The man went flying like a missile away from the city, but Goku appeared in his path and spun a kick into the man's back, sending him flying back towards Dressrosa. Goku appeared above the path Doflamingo was flying in first though, and he brought both fists up in the air above him. He slammed his double-fist down into Doflamingo's stomach as the man was coming by, and sent him slamming down into the planet below so hard that every person in Dressrosa felt the ground beneath their feet shake violently, violently enough that thousands just released from the strings' holds on their throats and bodies fell to the floor from their loss of balance.

"What's going on?!" Dash yelled.

He, Franky, and Usopp were down at the coast with the Thousand Sunny. Before the Birdcage had fallen, Franky had taken down his opponent, and all three of them were trying to drag the Thousand Sunny up on land so they could get it away from the edge of the strings. The Birdcage was gone now, but they got knocked off their feet by something powerful.

"I don't know!" Usopp screamed back.

"Yo! Look over there!" Franky shouted. His friends followed his point up in the sky to the south where a golden light glowed bright like a sun in the sky.

A mile away from them, Robin got back to her feet while rubbing her neck. On her left, a younger girl with blue hair pointed into the southern sky and they all followed her point. Juvia's smile was wide and she shouted, "It's Goku-san!"

Gray looked next to him at his girlfriend, then turned to the glowing golden portion of the sky as well. Gray looked down a little from the golden glow and saw a rock pillar closer to him, in between him and Goku, and on top of that pillar was a blinking red light. _He left the city boundary,_ Gray thought. _Everyone knows now. They all know he's here._

Luffy lay flat on his back, no longer fat and muscular in his Gear Fourth Boundman form. He lay there panting over and over, barely able to move, but he sat up through the pain and stared into the south.

Riku stood on the eastern edge of the city, standing in front of the body of a crumpled-up, unconscious mutant who had been shouting about hunting down some kid with a green watch. Gambit never made it to Ben for that rematch though. Riku turned and grinned into the distance where he caught the sight of Goku's glow.

"DOFFY!" a rotund guy wearing all yellow and black shouted. The executive flew through the sky with the use of his Devil Fruit that made him almost like a helicopter. He was just above the tops of some buildings, and a boy in between two rows of those buildings looked up to see what appeared to be another member of the Donquixote family.

Killua stood back up from where he was sitting watching the final battle, but he heard a voice on his right. "I've got this." He turned in surprise and saw the one-armed toy robot girl from before who had transformed into a human after he defeated Sugar. The girl was younger than him by a few years, but the look on her face was serious as she glared up at the sky. "Buffalo!" She shouted, and the man in a puffy yellow and black jacket snapped his head down to look at her.

He had spinning rotors around his head that kept him flying just like the ones sticking out of his back. Buffalo looked down at this girl and looked confused like he had never seen her before. The girl wore a green sweatshirt with one sleeve that was too long for her arm and another that just lay flat on her side as there was nothing inside it. She had long black hair and she rose up her single arm to point a rifle she found on the ground up in the air. "This is for my arm!" She yelled.

Buffalo's eyes opened wide as he suddenly realized who was pointing a rifle up at him. The end of the rifle glowed red and then fired a beam up at him. The fat man tried swerving around through the air, but the rifle's lasers were too fast for his fat form to dodge and he got hit once, twice, three times in the center of his body. His rotors started rotating slower and his entire body began to spin around and around as he fell out of the air leaving a trail of smoke behind.

"Nice shooting," Killua told the girl when the fat man finally crashed down a block away. "Guess your time fighting as a toy carried over."

The girl turned to Killua and smiled in a cute way as she tilted her head. "No silly, I learned how to shoot laser rifles a long time before I became a toy. I was a secret agent you know?" She asked, and Killua's eyebrows lifted up. It was not the craziest thing he had ever heard, and Hell, he was killing people as an assassin since before he was in the double-digits.

"Cool," he finally told her, and she just laughed before turning around. As she turned, Killua saw her smile fade and her face take on a more depressed, serious look. "Are you okay?"

She waited a second and then sighed, "No," she said. He heard her sniffle before continuing, "My friends forgot about me."

"Well, they would remember you now," Killua assured her. She lifted her head and turned a little, and he gave her a nod to show he was serious. "I remembered my friends as soon as they stopped being toys. It's probably the same with yours." _Why am I doing this?_ Killua thought suddenly.

The girl's face lit up and her sad expression flipped around again. "Really?! That's great!" She turned and started running, slinging the rifle from her hand onto her back as she did. _Wally, everyone, do you remember me now?_ She suddenly remembered something and spun around, looking back at that teenager who gazed at her confusedly. "Thank you!" She yelled, and she waved her hand at the older kid who waved back after a second and then watched her run away.

Killua's confusion over why he was consoling that girl went away, and he just stared at her back as she ran off. He did not notice but he was smiling the entire time.

* * *

At the outskirts of Dressrosa, a man in a purple hakama, a style of kimono for men, stood facing the sky and the glowing golden child floating there in it. He had a black katana sheath looped in the white belt in the middle of his clothes, and a hand on the hilt of that blade, but he let go as it no longer seemed like he would get the chance to go after Doflamingo.

"Tsk," he scratched the back of his head and muttered, "Wouldn't have been a good fight anyway. Only reason they got me was that dirty trick the girl used." He only stayed in the city instead of leaving through Acnologia's hole like so many other former toys did because he wanted a chance at Doflamingo, so now there was nothing keeping him in the city. His arms dropped back to his side and he yawned with his head tilted back. The man had long black hair going straight down his back almost to his waist, and his mustache was thin and pointed down on either side of his mouth. He wore a pair of sandals that he started walking away from Dressrosa in, the whole time looking up at that glowing child who was making the ground shake and glaring down at that hole he just hit Doflamingo into like the Lord would somehow make it out of there.

Nobunaga Hazama finally turned from Son Goku when the kid's blond hair turned back to black. He stared out into the eastern distance and narrowed his eyes at the darkening sky that direction as the suns were starting to go down in the west. _It's been a while since the rest of the Spiders were here. I wonder if I can find the Troupe on this huge world on my own?_

Goku stared down at the hole Doflamingo should have been coming out of. He glared into it and felt a power at the bottom, a power much weaker than it was a minute ago, but still there. Doflamingo lay underneath huge masses of rubble, but the rocks around him were turning into strings that moved away to give him a safe space underneath the ground. He lay there in a cube made of strings while inside his body, other strings held together his internal organs that would have been falling apart without them.

 _He is too strong,_ Doflamingo thought. The Lord of Dressrosa was covered in his own blood, and though he could repair some parts of his body with strings, using strings to repair his bones was taking longer. He also was not intolerant to the pain, and his entire body screamed out as he stared at the roof of his little string fortress. _What do I do? I have angered a monster. My family is defeated. I can feel it, none remain. What should I-_

Doflamingo's thought process was cut short as he felt a presence approaching him fast. He sank down into his strings like it was water and continued to make more rocks beneath him strings to escape farther and farther down. Then it hit him, and his mouth twisted into a devious smirk. The ground he transformed into strings above him, he allowed to turn back into stone. He sank farther and farther, and the ground continued to turn into strings for him no matter how hard it got. He sank over a mile into the ground, where the earth itself became so hard he could punch it full force and not leave a mark.

The Lord relaxed and took a deep breath to calm himself down. Then, he snapped his head straight up and his eyes started to widen as the rock roof above him tore apart. A boy flew down into the room fist first, and Doflamingo saw a giant golden dragon surrounding this kid's body as he slammed his fist straight into Doflamingo's chest. "Raaa!" Goku yelled, and his Dragon Fist pushed far into Doflamingo's body that he tried hardening with Haki at the last second. It was in vain, and Goku's fist punched in one side and out the other.

The two separated and Goku flew there in a collapsing hole a mile below the ground. He stared at Doflamingo, stumbling backwards while strings filled the hole in his torso. Goku saw him trying to reconstruct and he said, "You are strong. If I wasn't so sure you would start killing again the second I leave, this could have ended differently." Bigger cracks lined the ceiling and huge chunks of stone were falling down around the two of them. Goku continued, "But you turned your own people into toys, tore apart families, made them forget each other. You made people murder each other with your strings. And you erased my friends from my memories, something I can not forgive."

Goku pointed his left hand forward at the man, "Still, letting you get buried alive in here would be pretty harsh." The small boy with a brown tail sticking out the bottom of his back created a ball of white ki on his palm, and said, "I'm sorry it had to be this way." Doflamingo rose a hand and opened his mouth to tell Goku to wait, but blood just splashed out of his mouth instead, and then he was incinerated.

In Dressrosa, everyone felt the ground shake, and then light shone up through a hole in the ground outside of the city. The glow faded with the rumbling, but inside the fading glow something remained. It was a small boy with black spikes of hair who had a serious expression on his face for only a moment longer before smacking his cheeks once and starting to smile. He looked back into the city and spotted his friends all over the place looking his direction. They saw him floating there alone, his golden hair back to black, and they all knew it was over.

"He did it," Kyros said in shock as he stared out of the city at that child.

"How?" Rebecca wondered as she stood next to her father, the man who had watched out for her her entire life, even though she did not remember him, even though he was just a toy soldier. "He's just a kid," she said in shock.

"Because," a voice said behind them. They turned and saw Usopp walking their way, with Franky and Dash on his sides. Usopp grinned and continued, "That kid is Son Goku."

The family in front of him along with anyone else still on that road heard what Usopp said and their eyes opened huge, their jaws dropping. Usopp pointed a thumb at himself, and yelled out, "And he's on the great Captain Usopp's crew!"

Leo pumped his sewing needle in the air and yelled, "That's our Captain Usopp!"

"Captain Usopp!"

"Captain Usopp!"

Dash turned to the long-nosed sniper next to him who was beaming at all this praise. He chuckled and asked, "Just what lies have you been telling these people?" Dash shook his head and said, "Nevermind," right as Usopp was about to back himself up. Dash saw how badly injured Usopp and Franky were and he stopped laughing to gain a more genuine expression. "Thanks guys," he told them. "You got really beat up, and I just got turned into a toy. You really saved my butt."

"Don't worry about it little bro!" Franky shouted and posed with his arms up above his head diagonally.

"Yeah," Usopp said. He smiled slightly and his eyes drifted above Dash to a patch of empty street where he saw a few clear people standing. The sniper's smile lifted some more at the sight of the smiles on their faces before they faded. "It was nothing," he said, looking back down at the small kid before him.

Franky and Dash became confused as normally Usopp would have taken that opportunity to start bragging or something, but they both liked that response better. "Hey guys!" All three of them turned and saw a kid jogging their way. Killua spotted Dash next to the pirates and he pointed at the boy who looked sheepish upon seeing Killua. "You idiot!" Killua yelled at him. The boy taller by almost a foot, not even including his hair, ran up to Dash and frowned at him. "You're the fastest one of us! How could you let Sugar get you like that?" He bonked Dash on the head and the smaller boy groaned.

"I know, I know," Dash mumbled in annoyance.

"If I couldn't find her, I never would have gotten you out of that-"

"KILLUA!" An angry voice roared. All of them turned left and looked over the rubble of a building to see a ball of flames high in the sky. Inside that fire was a blond-haired man who glared Killua's direction furiously.

Killua chuckled, "Guess Sanji's back too. And, I'm betting he's not too happy about how I charred Sugar to a crisp."

"You beat Sugar?" Scarlett asked him. Killua turned to respond to whoever just asked that question, but when he turned he noticed an entire street full of people staring at him awaiting his response. Nervously he nodded his head, and then as an entire group the crowd roared in approval. They heard Sanji scream his name, and now all of them were chanting 'Killua' instead of 'Captain Usopp,' to Usopp's dismay.

Sanji came crashing down in front of Killua, who immediately pointed right at the pink haired beautiful women on his right. "They were toys, and I turned them back to normal." Sanji's rage-filled expression shifted as he turned and spotted the beauties who made his nose bleed. Killua cupped his hands to his mouth and called out, "Sanji helped me stop Sugar!"

Sanji opened his mouth to say he had nothing to do with it, but froze when a hundred women cheered his name at the same time. Sanji's nosebleed intensified so much that he got thrown off his feet backwards with hearts in his eyes and landed on his back having a spasm. Usopp, Franky, and Dash stared at Sanji's writhing body for a seconds before turning back to Killua in amazement. Franky scratched the back of his terrifying robot head that was still scaring the people on the street even if it was one of the people who saved them all from Doflamingo. "That was, pretty smart," Franky said, wondering if Killua had made that plan in advance since the kid did not hesitate a single second to hear out Sanji's shouts at him.

"Thanks," Killua replied. He chuckled and turned to the crowd who went back to cheering his and Usopp's names mostly between just general cheering for their victory. The rest of the crew were making their ways towards the middle of the city, and the people of Dressrosa, freed toys, and little people of the Tontatta Kingdom all cheered for them. When the small boy with spiky black hair flew back in though, the roars intensified three-fold and the entire city cheered his name as word spread fast who it was who took down their Lord.

"We did good work in this city," Nami remarked as she walked forward with a few of her friends. They all turned to her with skeptical looks, and the woman laughed loudly with his head tilted back, totally ignoring the fact that she was turned into a toy even before the battle started and had no role to play in toppling the evil Lord or his men. She rubbed her hands in front of her after she was done laughing and she smirked ear to ear, "Now, let's find out about a reward."

* * *

 **The Next Day**

"How much did you manage to get?" Gray questioned the orange haired woman who he walked up to.

The busty pirate navigator turned around and her eyes were in the shapes of dollar signs. They did not look like Beri symbols, nor the symbol they used on Awul for credits, but actual '$'s as that was the symbol they used for the main currency throughout Aebrith. Gray nodded his head as she started talking about how rich they were now after she went around the city asking for rewards as un-humbly as possible, talking all about how bad off the city would be had their crew never arrived.

"What about you?" Gray turned to Franky and Usopp who were supposed to have gone out and gotten them a vehicle.

Franky shook his head and Gray grimaced. Usopp spoke up, "We found that Capsule shop you mentioned, but it was burned down." Gray spun around and glared at Natsu who shrugged his shoulders like it could be anyone, though he smirked as it was probably him.

"Who cares?" Natsu said. "I want to go by foot for a little anyway. Check out this big scary place you keep talking about."

"Well," Gray turned and looked over towards Goku and Timmy who were talking with Dash and Ben like all four of them were just normal kids. "I think we should be okay, for the most part."

"How's our food situation?" Franky asked, not having been part of the team that went to get some but figuring Gray knew since he was going around asking everyone how their missions that morning went. They spent much of the day in Dressrosa, helping out the citizens they saved, learning that the guy Kyros would be training a military to protect their city as many other forces would be coming in to take Doflamingo's place now. While most of them prepared for their own journey across Aebrith to accomplish their various goals, Sora, Riku, Kairi, and even Ben went around the city healing people who needed help after the day before's chaos.

"Sanji got a lot," Gray replied to the cyborg who did a great job repairing and repainting himself so he looked good as new. "Timmy and Sora have some magical packs that have incredibly large spaces inside them, so we can keep our food in there along with any things that we want to take off the Sunny Go with us."

"Great, though I'll carry my cola myself," Franky said, and he turned a little to show off the huge pack on his back full of mainly extra bottles of cola that he emptied from the ship's barrels as he did not think they would be returning soon. He asked the chief of the Tontatta people to watch over the Thousand Sunny while they were gone and all of the little people were happy to do so. Kyros also promised that the people of Dressrosa would keep guard over the Sunny as long as their heroes needed them to.

The crew continued to gather on the eastern side of the city, until almost all of them had arrived. Gray wanted to wait for everyone, but he figured he could get it done faster if he just explained now. The ice mage of Fairy Tail opened up a bag he bought with some money he asked Nami for, as she highly insisted on keeping all of their cash in one place- with her. He took out several bracelets, twenty of them to be exact.

A small black cat noticed the number of bracelets as soon as Gray took them out and put them on the ground. Kuro walked over and he looked up at Gray, asking, "I need one too?"

Gray leaned back in surprise, _That cat talks?!_ It was always with Rin, and he had created a rift between the two of them early on in their ship ride when he accused the teen of being one of Satan's demons. He shook his head as he wondered if he was the only one who did not know this as no one else reacted like he did. "Yeah," he said to the kitty cat. He continued to explain as he knew there would be a follow up question from the cat, "They are made to be able to expand and retract certain amounts, that way in case people power up and their wrists grow they don't have to take off the Power Blockers. It should expand enough that you can still transform into your big form."

"Nami, Usopp," Gray pointed at a couple of Power Blockers he put in a different group than the rest. The two pirates pretended not to care as they grabbed their PB-2's, but the smirks Dash and Ben gave them were pretty aggravating.

"Why does Kairi need a PB-4?" Usopp grumbled as he picked up his Power Blocker.

"Because Kairi beat up a Sith Lord yesterday," Sora bragged to him. Usopp turned and saw Sora put an arm over Kairi's shoulders and she shied down a little with red cheeks as he bragged some more about her.

"A Sith?" Usopp mumbled in shock. "Oh," he said, and decided not to say anything else as he put on his Power Blocker.

Kairi walked over to Usopp as Sora put on his PB, and she smiled up at the sniper who was surprised to see her so close. "I heard you were really brave yesterday 'Captain Usopp.'" Although she said the last part teasingly, she meant the part about him being brave and the sniper started beaming again as he thought about the moment he stood up to Diamante and got an attack in on him.

"Are we all ready to go?" Ben asked, looking to Gray who had been explaining a lot the last day in preparation for the imminent departure into the vast continent of Aebrith.

Goku and Timmy put on the PB-6's Gray got for them and the ice mage turned to the tallest boy of their youngest four. He frowned at Ben and then snapped his head around, checking everyone once, twice, three times. Gray took some deep breaths then looked back towards the eastern exit of the city. There were two tall pillars on the sides of the road ahead of them, a road that did not get as damaged as most others in Dressrosa. It led up a green hill outside the city and beyond the top of the hill they could not see much but blue sky in the distance.

"Yeah," Gray said. "We're ready." He walked forward and all his friends around him stopped talking and threw their packs on their backs. They followed the ice mage towards the outskirts of the city, and while they did, Gray thought, _Axel, Gon, everyone, I'm coming._

 _Zoro, Chopper,_ Luffy thought, his mouth curling into a grin as he neared the exit. _I'm going to find you._

 _I hope I see Tien again soon,_ Goku thought. _I bet he knows the best places to eat here!_

* * *

 **Umbrella Corporation: Southwest Regional HQ**

"What did you just say?"

Two men in black suits stood in front of a table where a young man sat. He had a freckle-covered face and in front of him on the table was a nice, juicy, _raw,_ piece of cow meat. The suited man on the left of the two removed his sunglasses and repeated, "There is no doubt about it. Blue flames."

The man at the table lifted up a napkin and wiped both corners of his lips, which really only smeared the cow blood around instead of getting it off. He got to his feet and walked around the table in the dimly lit room deep underground. The regional director leaned back on his table and his lips twisted into a smirk. _It can't be Okumura Yukio, which means Rin has finally made it to Aebrith._

"We should bring this to Lucifer-sama right away," the man on the right of the director said. His comrade nodded and agreed with him, though their leader chuckled under his breath and made them stare at him nervously.

The director's head lifted up and his eyes narrowed while his smirk remained. His men's eyes opened wide, and the one who took his sunglasses off dropped them as he spun around. He sprinted for the door but the flames covering the director's arms shot off and engulfed his entire body. "AHHH!"

The other man did not try to run. His eyes only opened in shock for a second before he reached down and grabbed a pistol from his waist. He pointed it forward and fired, fired, fired, and then when his clip was empty, he lowered his gun and stared at the dozen holes on the director's body. Orange flames filled the holes and his body repaired itself, and finally the man started stumbling backwards towards his comrade's no-longer-screaming body. "Director Todo, wait. I don't understand-"

"I have other plans for the Okumura brothers," Saburota Todo said. Then, the other figure burst into flames and screamed, grabbing at his face to try and protect his eyes, only his hands were on fire too. His eyes melted and his voice stopped letting out screams before he was dead, as his vocal cords shriveled and burnt to crisps first. Todo walked towards this man who fell down to his knees and after a few seconds he kicked forward, and the man's body crumbled into chunks of ash. "Why would I tell Lucifer, and thereby Satan, such powerful information? Okumura Rin's existence here must remain a secret. At least, for now," Todo's smirk widened to reveal two rows of sharp white teeth. Flames rose behind him and spread out like wings while above him, the head of a magnificent bird emerged. He tilted his head up and the bird's head did too, and the two of them roared out pillars of flames.

* * *

 **A/N Thanks for reading! A new enemy emerges as Saburota Todo seems to have plans for Rin. Doflamingo goes down and our heroes prepare to leave Dressrosa to embark on their journey on Aebrith. Next chapter is the final one of this arc, and it's kind of a special chapter as Chapter 4 is just Chapter 4, no individual parts to it. Doesn't give away much, but I hope you're excited, it's a good one! I have a few finished chapters ready right now, so I'll be posting one a day for a few more days. Let me know what you thought of this finale chapter, predictions about the upcoming journey, questions about the Umbrella Corp, or anything else you wanna discuss! Anyway, here's a quick list of characters:**

 **Blue Exorcist: Lucifer, Satan, Okumura Rin, Kuro, Yukio, Saburota Todo**

 **One Piece: Señor Pink, Doflamingo, Diamante, Kyros, Leo, Kabu, Scarlett, Rebecca, Sugar, Dressrosa, Gladius, Thousand Sunny, Franky, Usopp, Nami, Nico Robin, Luffy, Zoro, Chopper, Sanji.**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Gon, Killua, Nobunaga Hazama, Phantom Troupe (Spiders)**

 **Star Wars: Sith, Darth Sion**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Kairi, Sora, Riku, Axel**

 **X-Men: Gambit**

 **Avatar the Last Airbender: Zhao**

 **Fairy Tail: Natsu, Gray, Juvia, Acnologia**

 **Fairly Oddparents: Timmy Turner**

 **DBZ: Goku, Tien**

 **Magi: Al-Tharmen, Zormudd**

 **Resident Evil: Umbrella Corporation**

 **SAO: Kirito**

 **Ben 10: Ben**

 **The Incredibles: Dash**

 **-Also, just as a mention, I don't own any of those characters^ XD. Alright, review responses!**

joebob323

Great work as always! I swear, the part where you described Killua chasing Sugar down with a door, that had me on the ground laughing! I can't wait for the next update, where it all ends. Thanks for your hard work man!

 **Thanks! Hope you enjoyed the ending, and glad you thought that part was funny!**

Espada-001

Well this chapter was defiantly filled with excitement! And while I commend Ben for trying to attack Doffy, I don't see that battle going in his favor at all really even if he were at full power. Also Killua gets another big shot added to his kill streak, and frees all the toys. I can't wait to see who you had turned into toys show up, also even though a lot of the main characters were injured they have plenty of back up on standby now. Anyway I saw your comment about RWBY and I'm looking forward to seeing them, I know some people don't think that RWBY characters can keep up with other anime characters based off of other fanfiction crossovers I've read but they're pretty damn strong given how small their series is. Well I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of the battles go. That's all from me for now so until next time have a good day and I look forward to the next update, Good Night!

 **Yeah, Ben was not very prepared for taking Doflamingo on at all. Killua got some more time this chapter, though before he could take down Buffalo, someone else did... Who was that girl? Why didn't I put her name? If anyone knows who she is, then good on you. Left a few hints, be cool if anyone could guess. Glad you're looking forward to the RWBY arrivals. They're definitely getting a lot stronger towards the end of Season 4, but right now I don't know which season/ part of their timeline, I took them from. I'll figure it out later :P. Hope you liked the ending of chapter three of Nexus: Heroes Will Rise! Thanks again to everyone who reviewed! 'Till next time!**


	24. Nexus HWR 4 Across the Sea

**Nexus HWR 4 Across the Sea:**

After a month of travel on the Great Ocean, our heroes have finally landed on the largest landmass on Nexus, Aebrith. What awaits them in the terrifying expanse of a whole other continent? Soon they will find things are very different there than back home. Speaking of home, what has been happening on Awul since the nineteen heroes left it behind?

Other than one day of sheer panic when the crazy-sickness hit Pao Town once again, things have been moving quite smoothly. After Gohan re-administered his antidote to the population that he had to subdue, he learned from some friends from Metropolis that they had a permanent cure to the disease better than his own antidote. They vaccinated everyone who did not have the cure already, and things became calm once more.

Vegeta had to fly off to find Laxus that day who was on a job and subdue the Master of Fairy Tail himself. Leaving Laxus out there to do as he pleased with insane thoughts in his mind was not an option, and luckily the Saiyan Prince caught him before Laxus _completely_ destroyed the town he was in.

Things went back to normal for a while after the incident. Over a month had passed since Goku and everyone left on their journey, and Pao Town was once again a peaceful, tranquil place.

Gohan was at the house of a good friend of his, who lived there on her own now. He had been tutoring her ever since the war with the Underworld and NEG had ended. Her grandfather used to teach her and her cousin, but he had died a while ago, leaving Gwen to learn on her own, or go to a school to be taught. She had decided to try and teach herself, but it was harder said than done, and she was finding great difficulty in most subjects.

"I don't get it," Gwendolyn Tennyson mumbled in frustration, dropping her pencil on the page in front of her. She lifted her hands and rubbed her temples in annoyance while keeping her elbows on the table.

"It's alright," Gohan told her from the chair on her right. "Look," he pointed at the diagram of a squiggly line on the page. "You have everything you need to find the curve, check the equation of the slope again." She lowered her hands and reread the question, but just shook her head again, moaning as she didn't get it. "Here," he picked up her pencil and started writing a similar equation on the top of the page, only with simpler numbers. "You can do this one, right?"

Gwen nodded her head, "Yeah, if I loop through the numbers and multiply the base by the square, I get the derivative," she muttered quickly, "so, the answer is 7x squared."

"Good," Gohan said, and then pointed his hand back at the problem below it with a higher exponent, larger numbers, but the same general equation nonetheless. Gwen's eyes opened wide and she grabbed the pencil from his hand, doing some quick math on the page and then writing the equation for the curve on the bottom of the page. She started drawing more lines on the paper that she got from a textbook in a broken high school in Metropolis while she was there for reconstruction.

Son Gohan smiled and nodded his head as she got the answers right one after the other. "There you go, good job," he congratulated her.

Gwen grinned at the praise from the extremely powerful boy next to her who also happened to be a genius. "Man, how do you know all this?" she turned in her chair and looked at the boy next to her with spiky black hair. "I mean, you are like, really smart."

"Well," Gohan started with a chuckle, "my mom always wanted me to be a scholar, not a fighter," the teen laughed as he remembered trying to train for huge upcoming life and death battles, but always being scolded and told to do homework instead.

Gwen nodded, but then saw Gohan's eyes start looking a little distant after mentioning his mom. She tried changing the subject fast, and smirked as she remembered something, "You know," she started, making him look at her and the devious smirk on her face. "I'm about to be the same age as you." His coal black eyes widened a little and she continued in a smug tone, "I turn fourteen in two weeks. That means the two of us will be the same age."

Gohan's open mouth lowered a little, and then he started chuckling, and then full on laughing with his eyes closed and his head tilted back. She frowned at him, but he opened his eyes and looked at her, laughing a little between his words. "Sorry to disappoint, haha, but, I turn fifteen tomorrow. Guess you'll never be the same age as me," he started laughing some more at the dumbstruck expression on her face.

"Ehh?" she said, losing her excitement from a minute before. Then, her green eyes opened wide, "Your birthday is tomorrow?!"

Gohan stopped laughing and closed his mouth, suddenly realizing what he just did. "Umm," he muttered, looking back at the math questions in front of them.

Gwen slammed the book shut though and stared right at Gohan's face, forcing him to re-make eye contact with her. "Why haven't you told anyone?" she asked, not having heard about this until just now.

The older boy stared at her for a few seconds, then lowered his head a little. _Well, I guess only Mom and Dad knew. Mom's gone now, and I don't think Dad is going to come back for it, if he even remembers. I just, wanted to let it go by..._ He looked back up at Gwen, and shrugged his shoulders.

"Don't you want people to wish you happy birthday?" Gwen asked, tilting her head as she couldn't figure out why he would not want people to know.

"It's just," he started. The boy sighed and spoke quieter as he looked away. "I always celebrated my birthday with my family. Mom would make me a cake, and, she'd tell me she loved me. Mr. Piccolo used to come by too, and Bulma would throw me a party sometimes." He closed his eyes for a second, "I guess, my birthday reminds me of them too much."

The orange haired girl sitting in front of him stared at the sad look on Gohan's face, and she could not take seeing him like this. Gwen stood up fast, and Gohan looked up at her as she stared back at him with a serious look. "I just remembered," she exclaimed, looking a little frantic, "I have to be somewhere!"

"Huh?" Gohan asked.

"It's nothing really," she said a little too quickly, already making for the door. "You can let yourself out whenever. I'll see you later."

Gohan rose his arm to call out to her, but she opened the door and left before he could say anything. His arm dropped back down to his side and he closed his mouth, "Well, that was weird."

 **The Next Day**

"Goten, Goten!" Gohan looked around his house for the kid but didn't see him anywhere. He sensed around for a few seconds, but Goten wasn't here. Right as he was extending his ki sense, he heard his front door open and got distracted.

The black haired boy ran over to his front door and saw Gwen with a foot inside his house. She jumped in surprise as he appeared right in front of her. "Gohan!" she shouted. He looked at her with a confused look as she was dressed... nice? She had on a bright purple dress, and he could see she was actually wearing some makeup. The girl got a panicked look on her face a few seconds after calling his name out though, as if she remembered why she was here in the first place. "Gohan!" she shouted, making the boy stop looking at her dress and back up at her face. "There's something going on. You need to come to Fairy Tail quickly."

"Is this about Goten?" Gohan asked, looking to his side wall and trying to sense out. Gwen saw him doing that and reached in, grabbing him by the arm and snapping his head back to her.

"Just come on," she told him, pulling them outside the house and running down the dirt road with him getting dragged behind her. "I'll tell you when we get there."

"Gwen, what's going on?" Gohan asked, and then noticed something else as they were running down the street. "Where is everyone?" He asked. Pao Town wasn't huge, but the sun was up and not a single person was outside. "Gwen!" he snapped, pulling his arm free as they were almost at the Fairy Tail guild building. She spun to him but he had a serious look on his face, almost like he was about to get into a fight. "What's happening? Are we under attack?"

A bead of sweat rolled down the right side of Gwen's face. Gohan started sensing around, and then he snapped his head over to the Fairy Tail building. "What-" he started.

"I'll explain when we get inside," she said. "Everyone's already waiting on you." She grabbed him by the arm again and rushed towards the building. Gohan put on a serious expression as well as he jogged towards the guild hall's doors.

Gohan slammed both hands against the double doors and stepped inside the guild hall. "What's going on?" he called out as soon as he got inside. It was daylight outside, but in here it was pretty dark. Light wasn't even coming in from the windows, but he could sense people all around him. "Umm," he began, then the lights in the guild hall turned on and the fourteen-turning-fifteen year old's eyes opened wide.

"SURPRISE!" a hundred-plus people all shouted at the same time.

A large banner hung across the balcony of the second floor up above him. The ceiling was covered in streamers that dipped all around the room. Balloons were inflated around him and people jumped out from behind all of the tables. There were large black sheets covering up the windows to keep out light, but with the lights on Gohan could see everyone now.

He stared blankly up at the banner hanging off the second floor where only the best Fairy Tail wizards were allowed to get jobs from. 'Happy 15th Birthday Gohan!' was written in big letters varying in color and handwriting across the banner. There were little pictures drawn on the corners of the banner too, and a couple of little boys who jumped out from behind a table on Gohan's right ran right up to him.

"Do you see the lion?" Goten asked his older brother with a big smile on his face. "I drew that one!" the little kid with spiky hair like their father's pointed up at the banner.

"Happy birthday Gohan," Trunks said, the five year old with lavender hair smiling up at the teen who was like an older brother to him.

Gohan looked around the room and saw pretty much everyone he knew from Pao, along with a few other people. To his left, all five of the Teen Titans were there, smiling over at him after shouting surprise. "Happy Birthday dude!" Beast Boy called over to him, the green shapeshifter sporting a nasty-looking black and blue bruise on his left cheek. It looked like the Titans were thrilled to have this break from their intense training with Laxus, who Gohan also saw standing over near the bar, grinning in his direction.

Sitting on some stools at the bar, Cana and Lisanna smiled over to the door at the fifteen year old gawking at the guild hall in front of him. "You aren't going to order a drink?" Lisanna's older sister who was behind the bar asked as Cana sat there without a barrel of ale in her hands.

"It's only ten o'clock," Cana replied to Mirajane. "Besides, I have a job today."

Both of the white haired mages next to her went wide-eyed. Then, Cana started bursting out laughing and spun around on the stool to face the bartender behind her. "Got you," she said with a smirk. "Get me the usual Mira, can't believe you two fell for that. What's a party if you're not drunk?" Cana started laughing and the two girls there laughed along as well.

The three Incredibles smiled over at Gohan from a table near him on his right, one of their members noticeably missing. Dash being gone from his family for over a month marked the longest amount of time he'd been away from them. Even when he first arrived on the planet, it only took around three weeks for their family to get reunited. Still, the three members of the Parr family who were at the surprise party looked happy and wished Gohan a Happy Birthday with the rest of the boy's friends.

Gohan turned around slowly and faced the girl standing behind him who had a sheepish look on her face. "Sorry about this Gohan," she whispered while looking down. "After you talked about how much you didn't like your birthday yesterday, well I, didn't want you to keep thinking of it that way. I just wanted you to have some fun today, but after I told a few people about throwing you a party, the news spread around that today was your birthday and everyone started showing up and-"

"Gwen," Gohan started, making the girl shut her mouth fast. "It's okay," he continued, and Gwen lifted her eyes to look into his. He was smiling. "Thanks. This was really nice of you. You're a great friend."

Gwen's face flushed red for a second and she shifted her weight onto one foot. "Yeah," she mumbled. "Stupid Ben didn't come back though. I didn't know how to get in touch with them, and Laxus said he didn't feel them anymore. I know you wanted your dad to be here but..."

"It's fine," Gohan said, still smiling at her. He looked back at the room full of people starting up the party early in the day. "Let's have a good time," he said, "and not worry about who's missing out on all this fun." Though he was saying it implying the group with his dad and Ben, Gwen could tell he was also talking about his mom, Piccolo, and Bulma who he mentioned the day before. He smiled back at her again while walking into the guild hall, and whispered, "That dress looks nice on you."

Gwen's eyes widened and she flushed red. She opened her mouth to yell at him, but Gohan was gone from the spot he was previously and lost in the crowd. She fumed silently for a few seconds, and then her lips curved up on her red face. _So he did notice..._

Gohan had a great time at his party, and midway through it someone yelled to 'Bring out the cake!' Everyone looked over towards a door in the back of the bar that opened up and Gohan tried to hold in his laughter at the sight of Erza walking in wearing a white apron and a tall white chef's hat. The second most powerful mage in Fairy Tail was holding a ten foot tall cake in her hands, covered in strawberries.

The strawberries looked like they were put on as decoration, with a nice pattern in a few areas, but as Erza put it down she frowned at the cake on the bar's counter. She lifted up a bag full of strawberries and dumped it on top of the cake, the berries sticking to different layers of frosting and covering the thing top to bottom in strawberries. Erza nodded at the delicious-looking concoction she made and then started to drool while staring at it.

"How about we let the birthday boy take the first bite Erza?" Mirajane suggested to the girl next to her who looked like she was about to ravenously tear the cake apart.

Erza regained some composure and brushed down her smock, "Oh, yes yes, of course," she said. She watched as Gohan walked over, then her eyes narrowed and sweat covered the boy's face as she said innocently, "How many strawberries do you plan on taking with your slice?" Though it was asked innocently, the air around her seemed to darken and her mouth was full of sharp teeth while her eyes glowed red.

"Umm, t-two?" Gohan said, his voice questioning if that was okay. Erza looked down and seemed to count the number of strawberries in an instant, before calming down and nodding her head.

"That is acceptable," she stated. The whole room let out a collective sigh of relief and started laughing as they continued the party, only now with cake. Someone brought out a ton of waffles, and with the cake it was quite a feast. Still, food ran low fast with Gohan, Goten, Trunks, and eventually Vegeta who came in covered in cuts and bruises, hearing there was a lot of food here, not coming to wish the boy a happy birthday. Three demi-Saiyans and a full-blooded one devoured the food like animals, making many people there lose their appetites.

After a couple of hours, Nightwing walked over to his group of Teen Titans. "You guys ready to get back to training?"

Beast Boy opened his mouth to moan a complaint, but then his mouth slowly closed and he sighed, nodding his head. He was surprisingly the first one up to his feet out of the other four Titans sitting down. "Alright, just don't tell Laxus yet. Let's get some training done on our own before he comes to beat us up again."

"You can go train by yourselves if you want," Laxus growled, making all the Titans jump up and snap their heads up to face the man who happened to be floating right above them. "No one is stopping you."

"Uhh, haha," Beast Boy scratched the back of his head and ran his hand through his dark green hair for a few seconds.

"No," Nightwing stated. "That's how we used to train," he looked at Beast Boy sternly and then the rest of the Titans who got back to their feet. They all nodded back at him with serious looks, and the leader of the Teen Titans looked back up at Laxus. "Let's get going," he said.

Laxus nodded his head, then looked back around at the rest of the guild hall. "Alright," he stated. "I will meet you on the training field in ten minutes. If you are not there by then," he snapped his head back down and looked like a demon for a second, "it will be all of your heads."

The five Titans gawked at him, and then charged towards the door as fast as they could, trampling some confused party-goers as they did.

Gohan and Gwen laughed as the group of them ran away Cyborg turned back as he reached the door and called out, "Happy Birthday Gohan! We gotta go," he turned back around and ran out the door.

This big exit by the Titans was seen as a kind of sign that the rest of them should be on their ways soon. Other Fairy Tail wizards had come back for the party, but needed to get back to work on the various jobs they were given from clients around Awul. Others wanted to get back to training, and some to school even.

Violet gave Gohan a small wave as her and her family walked out the door. The girl was about to head off towards the high school recently built on the outskirts of Pao that only had a few teachers, but that her parents enrolled her in.

"Looks like the party's over," Gohan said as he leaned back in his seat and patted his stomach.

"Yep," Gwen replied from next to him. "Hey," she started quietly, staring ahead while Gohan turned a little to look at the side of her face. She turned towards him with a concerned look and whispered, "Do you think they're okay?" Gohan made eye contact with her and saw the troubled look in her eyes. "I mean, I know there are a lot of strong people there with them, but what if..."

"They're okay," Gohan replied, looking back up at the ceiling above him. Gwen tilted her head at him with an unconvinced look on his face, but he continued, "My Dad will protect them. If you want, I could go there too and watch over Ben. I could leave later today even-"

"No!" Gwen exclaimed, sitting up fast. Gohan turned to her with a confused and surprised look on his face, but Gwen looked away from him. "Don't, leave," she said softly. She realized what she just said and quickly spun back to him with red cheeks, "How else am I going to learn Calculus? Without you I can't figure it out, and the advanced biology lectures. Just, don't leave," she said, shaking her head at him.

"Alright," Gohan replied, only offering to go because he thought she wanted him to anyway. If she really wanted him to stay though, then that's what he would do. He smiled at her and nodded his head, "I'll stay."

* * *

 **Metropolis**

Far away from Pao, but still on the continent of Awul, the rebuilt city of Metropolis was running smoothly. There was no longer a giant island above the city, in hindsight a huge safety risk now that people thought about it. Timmy destroyed the island, and their Government had been overturned.

The leaders of the new Government were situated in the largest building in the city, standing where the tube leading up to the upper city used to be. At the top of the tallest building was a round section that was wider than the rest of the thin structure, and inside the round top floor was where the RNG had their daily meetings.

The Renewed Nexus Government was full of new faces, and a few from the old New Earth Government Council. Only two members from the High Council remained in charge, though there was a widely spread sentiment of wanting to have them removed. Many citizens were upset that the Arbiter and Fuhrer Mustang were still powerful in the Government, as they had been ignorant of the evil forces taking hold of the old one. Some people even suggested that they knew of the alliance with the Underworld the whole time, while most just assumed they didn't know but were oblivious to the evil in their ranks, making them partly to blame.

Still, the Covenant and the Fuhrer's forces were a huge force in the RNG, and they helped big-time with the reconstruction of the city. Also, the building of new Covenant ships to replace the corvettes destroyed by Arceus was a good public works project for citizens whose homes and workplaces had been destroyed.

Inside the council room, there was a single round table. Instead of the hierarchy of the old government, full of chairs that rose to different elevations to show different levels of authority, here was a democracy. Not one spot at the table was clearly more important than any other, and all decisions were made by majority vote, not a single person's decision. Tetsuo used to have occasional votes, but despite the outcomes, it really only came down to a few important members at the top most of the time.

Sitting around the table were twelve people. Many were from the lower sections of the council, some just members of the old Government's forces who weren't in the council at all before. The two High Council members in the room sat on opposite sides of the table. Roy Mustang and the Covenant leader Arbiter each had two advisors standing behind their chairs. A few seats to Roy's left sat a man in full red armor with long brown hair, who had survived being punched by Tetsuo, an act that alone showed how powerful he was. In fact, Dreyfus was possibly the strongest person in the room.

The only person who came close, was a young man sitting on his left side. The boy had spiky brown hair, and looked pretty nervous as he sat in the room full of important people for another meeting. Tsunayoshi Sawada, or Tsuna, was the representative of the people who was elected into the council. He did not really want to do it, but someone had gotten a recording of what he shouted at the Marines during his fight in Metropolis, changing their minds on what they were doing attacking the intruders. There were also the videos of him facing off against Luthor and standing up for his fellow citizens of Metropolis which millions of people saw in real time. Roy Mustang respected the young man who he watched try to fight Luthor with the rest of their allies, despite the boy's, and his own, failures.

The elevator door in the back of the council tower opened back up again, and someone walked over to the one last empty chair in the room. Fleet Admiral Aokiji, formerly Kuzan, and even formerly before that Admiral Aokiji, turned his head and watched the small girl with blonde hair walk his way. She hopped up on the empty chair on his right and crossed her hands, interlocking them over the table. "Let's get this meeting started," Mandy stated in a cold voice, her usual frown on her face.

A few people looked at the girl in disdain, not liking the girl's attitude, her harsh nature, or the suggestions she brought to the table. She always spoke logically, but with lack of compassion for the common people, and she never censored what she wanted to say. She didn't have to though, as her spot was one she did not have to convince people she deserved. As the new government formed, she was brought in by Timmy Turner who named her his representative in the RNG.

Mandy looked around at the room of people, and the tall Marine leader next to her spoke up. He was the one who respected her the most out of them all, as even without being Timmy's representative, she had fought alongside him in Port Royal, Castle Oblivion, and in Underworld bases for over a month to follow. She earned his respect more so than the rest of the members at the table, even if she was only twelve years old.

Aokiji started, "Yesterday's battle with the Neo-Underworld did not go well." A lot of the others looked towards the Ice Man, not having heard about the battle yet. Aokiji continued, looking down at the report in front of him, "Our teams went in with the prisoners who were demanded for the trade. When their members came out with their prisoner, the rest of our forces moved in and ambushed them. Vice Admiral Bastille was in charge of the mission, but he along with half of his men… were killed when after ambushing the enemy, they were ambushed themselves."

"Damn it," Dreyfus growled, clenching his armored fists over the table.

"Did they return with Vegapunk at least?" Roy Mustang asked from his section of the round table.

"They did," Aokiji replied, and then lifted up a picture from the folder in front of him. A few people gagged at the sight and others looked away from the picture. The scars on Vegapunk's face were gross, and it was clear who had delivered the slashes. The corners of his mouth were cut up his cheeks towards his ears, making a permanent smile on his face.

"Joker," Mandy grumbled in annoyance, recognizing the crazy clown's work anywhere.

Dreyfus shook his head as he stared at the photo. "Why would they kill him? He was the smartest man on the continent."

"Maybe they got everything they needed out of him," Mandy suggested in a cold voice, no sympathy in it as she spoke. "If they tortured him, I'm sure Vegapunk would have given up all his secrets."

Kuzan frowned at the girl's suggestion, but he nodded his head as it made sense. "The remaining Marines got Vegapunk's body back, but they saw some of their own get captured as they were escaping." Aokiji looked furious as he said this, and the others all knew he was thinking about what kind of horrors befell his men after being captured. "They lost the prisoners they brought to trade too."

"That is upsetting," Mandy said, interlocking her hands in front of his face and leaning forwards. "Not only did they kill Vegapunk, but they bolstered their own forces at the same time. We have underestimated these 'Underlords.'" As she said this though, she was thinking about something else, something no one else in the room knew. _Those Marines who were captured, I should tell Najenda to get Lubba to kill them before they give up any information. The Underlords need to trust him, and he needs to rise in their ranks. Make it look like some escaped, kill a few Underlords so there are no witnesses, and then "avenge" them by killing the prisoners. It will raise his position in their ranks._

Aokiji calmed down a little while Mandy talked, and he spoke in a more serious voice following. "We have also confirmed where the missing weapons went." Everyone went wide-eyed at him, but Aokiji nodded, "Yes, the weapons stolen during the battle of Metropolis were definitely in the Underlords' possession. Not only that, but the other half of the escaped prisoners who weren't recaptured after the jail break..."

"Are now members of this New Underworld?" Mandy asked, and the tall man next to her nodded at the girl. She hummed to herself and thought about the Joker for a moment. _He must have seen the battle coming to plan his attack on the same day. He is a worthy first enemy for my new Government._

"This Neo-Underworld, these Underlords," Roy Mustang began. "We must eliminate them swiftly. More than just to stop their acts of terrorism, but also to instill a feeling of security in our people that they still lack since Metropolis fell."

Aokiji grimaced that he was making these terrorists into a political play to regain the citizens' trust, but he also knew the necessity of having the citizens' support in their fight against the Underlords. Mandy on the other hand, nodded at what Mustang said and continued herself, "I will reassure the citizens myself." The others around the room looked over at the blonde girl who had a serious expression on her face like always. "I will tell them the Underlords are close to being defeated, and do not pose them an existential threat."

A ding sounded behind her as she finished speaking and she turned her head with a sharp glare at the doors. Whoever dared enter a meeting late, after she finished speaking, was not on her good side. A few of the others looked at her nervously at the way she was glaring at the doors, but that glare shifted a little as it was a tall figure in a black cloak who stepped in the room. The Grim Reaper walked in and several government leaders shivered at the sight of his scythe.

Grim walked right up to Mandy and looked down at her hesitantly. He leaned down a little and whispered, but she snapped, "Just show me." Grim leaned back in surprise, but he nodded and reached into his cloak. The Reaper pulled out a round object that made many of the people in the room go wide-eyed, while others just looked at the fruit confusedly.

"Is that-" Mustang began.

"Yes," Fleet Admiral Aokiji responded. He watched as Grim reached out and Mandy held out her hand for him to put the fruit down on. Aokiji looked at her and began, "You do know the consequences? You will never-"

Mandy stared at the purple fruit in her hand and she drowned out the noise of the others around her. Without hesitation, she curled her hand around the object and shoved it into her mouth. It looked hard to swallow, but she managed to do it in one bite. The girl downed it and frowned at the lingering bitter aftertaste. _Power. True power in the palm of my hand. Along with my scythe, this fruit makes me the most powerful person in Metropolis._

"Was that a Devil Fruit?" Tsuna questioned. Grim nodded as he saw the boy was looking at him. He added, "Where did you find it? Which one was it?"

"It was in a forest to the east of the city a hundred miles," Grim replied. "I did not know which fruit it was."

Aokiji hummed and began, "It was most likely one of those reborn after the Battle of Metropolis. Many Devil Fruit eaters were killed during the battle. Several Marines, including the former Fleet Admiral, had powerful Devil Fruits in their possessions when they were killed."

"Could also be that damn Blackbeard," Dreyfus mentioned. "He had two of his own."

"Well?" Tsuna asked, turning his attention to Mandy. "Do you feel any different?"

Mandy lifted her hands over the table and she clenched and unclenched them a few times. She watched as her hands started to shift color and she grinned at their appearance. The girl who always looked so serious, who most of them had never seen with anything other than a frown on her face, she grinned. That was just about as scary as the changes that started with her hands but made their way up her arms until her entire body was changing.

"What the Hell is that?" Dreyfus asked, getting out of his seat fast so that his chair fell over.

Mandy looked down at Grim who was sweating while he looked up at her. "Thank you Grim," she said. He looked shocked that he heard her say those two words next to each other. Her smiled finally faded and she lowered back down to her seat. She calmed down and took a deep breath, and her skin shifted back to its normal color. "Now then, I wish to try out my new powers A-S-A-P." She got out of her chair and walked towards the elevators. "I will reassure the people. When I am done, I expect there to be more information on these Underlords. Aokiji, Mustang, Arbiter," she looked back at the men in charge of the largest forces in the government. The girl nodded once at them, then stepped into the elevator and Grim walked in behind her.

The doors closed and half the room let out a collective sigh of relief. Dreyfus slammed a fist down on the table, "I still refuse to believe that Timmy Turner left such a child to represent him-"

"You know Timmy Turner is a kid himself?" Tsuna reminded the man next to him. "Makes sense to me that he chose another kid... though I- I don't know if Mandy's really..." He did not want to finish in case she was listening in somehow.

Mustang opened his mouth to agree with their concerns and push the issue further, but Aokiji spoke up first, "That girl has some very powerful allies. Timmy Turner is not her only friend, I would suggest not speaking of this any longer." He himself respected the girl and had fought with her many times before, but he knew what the girl was doing. She did not hide her desire for power at all, and because she was only twelve, he knew he might be the only one who really understood how much of a threat she could be if they decided to make her an enemy. "She is our ally, and the people trust her much more than many in this room," he said it and a few heads of ashamed former NEG members bowed. "For now, let us get on to figuring out our next step against these Underlords."

"I have your next step," a voice said behind Aokiji. The Fleet Admiral smirked at the shocked looks all around him as he was the only one who felt the man enter the room. He would have done something if he did not recognize the man's presence as an ally.

Dreyfus shot out of his chair again, but he was not the only one. Arbiter glared over towards the shadows behind Kuzan, where a figure in all black stepped forward wearing a mask. "Grr, who are you?"

"He is an ally," Aokiji said as he saw the Arbiter's hand reaching for the energy sword on his waist. The dark figure walked farther in and a smaller boy stepped in behind him. The child who walked in had on a purple cape with a hood that cast a shadow over his face, and there was a green question mark sticking out of the top of his hood. The man in all black who walked forward in front of Mysterion had on a tight bulletproof costume and a mask with pointed ears on the top. Aokiji stood up and looked back at him.

Another member of the council stood up and looked across the room. "Batman," Commissioner Gordon began. "What are you doing here?"

"I have news on the Underlords," Batman said, his voice deep and scratchy as he masked it on purpose. He looked around at the dozen people in the room and lowered his voice, "A spy has infiltrated their organization."

"A spy?" Mustang wondered. "Who?"

"He said to keep his identity hidden from the Government," Batman replied. "He said that they had a history of not being trustworthy. And he was not wrong."

Those open mouths closed, but Tsuna started smiling. "This is a good thing, right?"

"Yes," Aokiji replied, also finding it in him to grin. "That is very good. This spy who has infiltrated, how good is he?" He questioned the man in a bat costume.

Bruce Wayne nodded his head and said, "He is the best."

* * *

 **New Tokyo**

Inside an abandoned warehouse in downtown New Tokyo, 400 Miles Southeast of Metropolis, a couple of men stood near an old freight elevator in the back of the building. They were smoking illicit substances, each of them their own fix, and it looked like they were just using the building as a place for their extra-legal activities. The two were in the middle of a conversation but when they heard clanking and the rattling of chains they stopped. The men stepped away from the elevator and looked around some machines boxed-in by chain link fences. They looked towards the large garage door of the warehouse that slowly lifted up as the gears on the top of the wall spun. "They're here, Mr. Wink," a man wearing glasses who was balding and only had brown hair on the sides of his ovular head said in a raspy voice.

"I can see that, Mr. Fibb," the man next to him said. Mr. Wink was a little taller than his companion and had a head covered completely in brown hair except for on the bottom of his face and around the two horns sticking out of his forehead. Mr. Wink looked like he was part buffalo while the man beside him had long arms that split like flippers and two tusks sticking out of his mouth like a walrus. Mr. Wink and Mr. Fibb reached down for the green pistols at their sides, but they stopped reaching as they became sure of who was at the door when they opened up.

"Come with me," the man in the doorway said. He was leading a group of six people who mostly looked like hardened criminals. There were a couple behind the four hundred pound black man who did not look the part though, and they both looked nervous because of the people around them. Huell Babineaux walked into the dark warehouse and he glared over at the lighter skinned, and much smaller men who had their hands at the pistols on their waistbands. Mr. Wink and Mr. Fibb put their arms back at their sides as the large man walked towards them. "Open the elevator," Huell ordered the other two.

"Understood Mr. Babineaux," Mr. Wink said. He walked to an old steel grate on his left and opened it up before pulling on a handle inside it. Mr. Fibb in the meantime walked over to the elevator doors himself and he opened the lock on the chain connecting the fence in front of it. He pulled the fences to either side and then lifted a steel bar behind it right as loud clunking sounds rang out from behind the door. Mr. Fibb moved to the side as the door was not big enough for Huell to get in while he was in the way.

Huell looked back and nodded his head at the elevator as it opened. The group of criminals behind him walked forward, darting menacing looks at the grunts who opened up the elevator doors, trying to show superiority to them. One of the men marching forward bumped a shorter, skinnier figure on his right and then glared down at the boy for getting in his way. "Watch it," Bakuzan growled. He had black hair in a small afro above his head with the sides cut off, his sideburns were as furry and spiked out like the goatee on the bottom of his chin, and he had a thick unibrow across his forehead that dipped in towards the middle as he glared at the boy next to him.

"Sorry," the younger man said, pulling down on his purple beanie to hide his face from the much larger, and scarier man.

Another boy on the other side of the group looked over and gulped at the sight of the interaction between the two. He was even smaller than the young man in a beanie, as he was not even in his teens yet, only twelve years old. The yellow skinned boy with spiky hair steadied his expression though and walked confidently past a few of the others so he was the second one in the elevator after Huell. Bart Simpson turned around once he was inside and he crossed his arms over his chest. Instantly he noticed eight sets of eyes on him, and to keep himself from sweating he groaned, "Sheesh, this is taking too long."

"Don't want to end up like the Underworld," Huell said to the small boy standing in front of him. Bart looked back at the man ten times his size and Huell continued, "Gotta be cautious."

Bakuzan marched into the elevator and he glared into Huell's eyes, making the fatter man uncomfortable at how close they were. The younger man who he bumped into a second ago followed him into the elevator and said in a low mutter, "Throw caution to the wind, I hear Son Goku is off continent."

"Where did you hear that?" Bart asked, turning to the man in his early twenties who looked down at him. The blond haired man with light skin looked at the strange boy and for some reason felt like he had seen him somewhere before. He had on a black hoodie but the hood was not up considering he already had a purple beanie on to cover his messy hair. The older boy shrugged, but now the rest of the elevator's occupants were curious as to where he learned that information.

The elevator doors started closing and the skinny man said, "I'll say it when we're in front of the bosses."

"They aren't your bosses yet," Huell said. The other six in the elevator looked at him funny and the large dark-skinned man continued, "You've been recruited, but that doesn't mean you're in yet. Final test, you know," he said and frowned as he looked back down at the short man and kid in the elevator with him. Huell looked out the doors as they closed and called out, "Send us down." Mr. Fibb nodded at him then the walrus-man smoking some crack pulled a lever. The elevator clanked and the box started descending below the warehouse.

"Whoa, I didn't hear anything about a final test man," Bart complained.

"What is the last requirement?" Bakuzan asked in a dark, annoyed voice. "I will complete it in a second."

"It's not something you can do on your own," Huell explained. The others became confused and he finished, "Gotta present yourselves before one of the Underlords, he'll decide if you can join us."

"And if he doesn't want us?" the man in a beanie asked.

"Then they'll kill you of course," a tall, dark-skinned man with short hair muttered. "You already know where the base is after all."

"Where _a_ base is," Huell corrected. The elevator slowed down and the fat man looked at the other dark-skinned man in the elevator, "This is only one of our stations, not a very big one at that. I'm pretty sure there's only one of the bosses here right now."

"Are you saying we do not even get to meet the Joker today?" Bakuzan growled in an infuriated voice.

"Don't look disappointed when you go out there," Huell warned. "He might not take it well."

The elevator clanked to a stop and the doors started opening. As they opened up, they somewhat expected a busy high-tech facility full of bright lights that would flood into their elevator. The doors opened though and outside the box there were little to no lights in front of them. "Uses minimal power from the city," Huell stated. "Keeps anybody from realizing we're here."

"Is this a joke?" Bakuzan snarled, his face scrunching up angrily.

"This is not what I was expecting," another of the men muttered.

"Are you not impressed?" a voice asked from farther in the room, past the small lit-up area where there was a single wooden table. Bakuzan stepped out of the elevator and walked towards the table, and the others got out and followed behind him. Huell watched them all go and then he knocked twice loudly on the back wall of the elevator box behind him. The people he just let out, save for Bakuzan, looked back and watched as the doors closed and Huell began returning to the warehouse.

Bart gulped and then turned back around. He gazed around the dark room and saw old machines on the walls, walls that were crumbling themselves like whoever built this place did not stay for long or make sure it was built correctly. He looked back towards the table that Bakuzan marched straight to that was lit up by a single hanging ceiling light above him with a dim lightbulb in it. The voice that came from behind the table got closer as it said, "The rest of you approach the table as well."

The other recruited members besides Bakuzan stepped forward with Bart taking up the rear. The kid was getting more nervous every second he was in there. He walked towards the table but slowed down like the others when they saw the silhouettes approaching from the other side. There were three of them in total, with the two behind the center one being the much burlier figures. Fat Tony and Fit Fat Tony, his cousin, were each smoking cigars and their lit smokes illuminated their faces before the shorter man in front of them. They each opened their eyes in surprise at the sight of one figure in front of them but said nothing about it.

"You're in charge here?" Bakuzan asked as a teenager stepped into the light. The young man stopped and glared into Bakuzan's eyes with his light green ones that matched his hair color, but although the larger man did not flinch, he continued to give him an uncaring gaze. The teenager's green hair went straight down to his shoulders and he had on a black leather jacket over a green undershirt, as well as a pair of navy blue pants and black shoes.

The teen turned and as he did his eyes examined each of the other muscular, criminal-looking types behind Bakuzan who were stepping up to the table at his sides. A tall black man moved to Bakuzan's left, and when he moved he revealed a young man walking behind him with his purple beanie pulled down over the top of his face and his eyes aimed at the floor. The blond man had a similar body type to him, but was a few years older. When the man lifted his head though, his eyes opened wide, but he instantly made them normal sized again as the teen looking at him did not react in the same shocked way. _Lubba?! Why is he here? Maybe, he's doing the same thing as me. If that's so, then he'll pretend like he doesn't know-_

"Takao," Lubbock started, his green eyes narrowing at the older man who stopped in his tracks. The other five who entered with him turned and looked at the man in the beanie confusedly, wondering how he knew the Underlord. "What are you doing here?" Lubba asked, a lot of distaste in his voice.

 _What's he doing?! Is Lubba, really an Underlord? No! If he is, he must be playing the part or something right now. That's it, they must know that we would know each other, which means I have to go along with it._ "Hey Lubba," Takao began, trying to keep his voice sounding cool. He put his hands down into his sweatshirt's pocket and muttered, "I'm here to join the Underlords."

Lubba narrowed his eyes harder at the older man who started to sweat at the hateful gaze Lubba was giving him.

Fit Fat Tony looked at the teen on his left, "What do you want us to do with him?"

"Should we take him out?" Fat Tony asked, pulling a pistol from his side and cocking it back.

Lubba looked to be thinking about it and Takao's eyes bugged out as he had no idea what was going on. "Wait! Lubba, I came because I have information-"

"What information do you have that you don't think I know already?" Lubba asked, shaking his head at the blond man who realized what Lubba was telling him. "In fact, you definitely know less than me, considering no one trusts you anymore. They wouldn't tell you secrets."

"What did you do?" the tall black man in front of Takao scoffed back at him.

Lubba smirked and he started walking around the table. "This son of a bitch," Lubba began, and Takao took a step back nervously, "was a spy for the previous Underworld."

The other five he came in with looked at Takao in surprise, even Bakuzan who thought the runt was in way over his head. The two Tony's behind Lubba glanced at each other and then looked at the green haired teen's back wondering what he was so pissed about. "Isn't that a good thing?" Fat Tony asked. "Guy must have some skills, probably knows how to get information."

"It is not a good thing," Lubba growled. He stepped closer to Takao who stepped back again as he realized the hate in Lubba's eyes was not faked. "He gave Luthor information that almost got the woman I love killed," Lubba snarled, and Takao looked down ashamedly as what Lubba said was not false. Lubba lifted up his right hand and thin golden wires shot out of his Cross Tail. They wrapped around Takao's neck and the older man grabbed at his neck, choking and gasping for air.

Bart went wide-eyed as he did not see the golden wires because they were so thin. It looked like Lubba just reached up and started choking him, _Just like Stan,_ Bart thought. Lubba yanked his arm to the right, and his strings tugged so hard on Takao's neck that they broke through skin as they tugged the blond man to the ground. Lubba kept strangling him for a few seconds and Bart spun around to see if anyone was going to stop this, but they all just stood by and watched. Takao's choking sounds became more and more strained, until finally Lubba lowered his arm and the strings wrapped around Takao's neck loosened up. "If I were to let my emotions get in the way of this process, I would not be setting a very good example for the other recruits."

He sounded annoyed as he said it, but he left Takao lying on the ground grabbing at his red neck that had blood coming down it on the sides and on front. The cuts were not deep but Takao was in mild panic at how much blood he was getting on his hands as he grasped at his throat. Lubba continued as he walked back towards the table, right on the side that the other recruits were on. "Takao here _did_ manage to keep the fact that he was a spy a secret from me, which I will admit is impressive. He also hid it from the Super Saiyans and Timmy Turner, and played a part in killing the Master of Fairy Tail, and Son Goku's own wife."

Everything Lubba said made the man lying on the ground clench his eyes and grit his teeth as his chest hurt as much as his neck. The others in the room were all shocked by what he said though and looked at the spy on the floor in a new light. "So he's in," Lubba said, and he walked right up to the table so he was within a foot of two other men. "What about you two?" Lubba asked. He looked at the tall black man with short black hair in four lines over the top of his head. "Ebon Evans, let's start with you."

The dark-skinned man grinned and his arms and legs started to get darker. His body shadowed over and Bakuzan glanced to his left at the pitch black man who stepped back and became larger farther from the light so he towered over the teen in front of him who was sizing him up. "I'm a shadow," Ebon claimed, and then he sank down into the floor so that no one could see him anymore. He reappeared back behind the two Tony's and Lubba spun around to see him standing there with his arms crossed and a smug look on his mostly deep purple and black face.

"Your past crimes speak for themselves," Lubba admitted and he nodded at the meta-human who his large associates jumped when they noticed him between them. "Calm down Tony," Lubba said and the men lowered their pistols, not that Lubba thought the weapons would work against the shadow man anyway. "And you?" Lubba asked, looking right at the man next to him. "Why should I let you in Bakuzan?"

"You say you know our past crimes," Bakuzan began, narrowing his dark eyes at the boy in front of him. "Then you know how many people I have killed-"

"That's nice and all," Lubba said in a mocking tone. He stepped closer to the muscular, scary man, and he asked, "But can you follow orders? You don't seem to like the fact that I'm younger than you."

"Don't worry," Bakuzan growled. "I won't be taking orders for long."

"Ahh," Lubba said and crossed his arms. "An ambitious one. That's not what I'm looking for, or what I asked you." Lubba's eyes opened wide and looked a lot scarier than Bakuzan's in the next second. He closed the distance between them to only a couple of inches and looked up into the man's eyes. "I asked if you can follow my orders? Or orders from someone even younger than me, as I am not the Underlord here right now."

The other new recruits and Bakuzan all became confused as they thought this man was the one in charge. "No," Lubba said and shook his head. "Our leader is younger than me, is that going to be a problem?" Lubba asked, and he searched Bakuzan's face, checking to see what the man would do.

The guy's forehead had veins popping on it and his muscles were all tensing up. He looked like he wanted to kill Lubba, but finally Bakuzan seethed out, "If you tell me to kill someone, I will do it."

Lubba thought about asking the man that if he asked him to get him a coffee, would do that, but he knew for a fact that that would set Bakuzan off so he held off on it. "Alright," Lubba accepted. "Show me then," Lubba looked to his left at two other figures he had yet to question. "Kill those two."

The two who were waiting to be questioned opened their eyes wide. "Wait a second."

"Hold on-"

Bakuzan sprinted forward and he grabbed the first man by the front of his face and crushed with his open hand. The second man lifted his right leg and took off his shoe, and sock, and pulled out five small knives he had hidden between his toes while the other target's face got crushed and blood splashed between Bakuzan's fingers. Bakuzan turned to the man who slid the knives between each of his fingers. When Bakuzan charged him, the man punched forward with the hand covered in knives, but Bakuzan stepped to the side and pushed on the side of the knife man's fist to make his trajectory go far off.

"A martial artist and a killer," Lubba said, slightly impressed. He watched as Bakuzan broke the man's arms, then his legs, then a few of his fingers before finally stomping on his throat and killing him. Takao had gotten back up to his feet and the older man looked at Lubba in horror at what the teen just ordered. "And proficient in torture," Lubba said with a nod of his head. "That will be useful," he admitted.

 _Lubba's insane! He's really a member of these Underlords. If I can't rely on his help, then, then I'll have to destroy him with this entire organization._ Takao gulped and winced as gulping hurt his bloody neck.

"Alright," Lubba said as Bakuzan turned to face him with some blood splashed on his face. "Good, I can see you take orders well enough. You four have made it in."

"Hold on," Bakuzan growled. "'Four?' You're including _him?_ " He asked, and glared back at the child who was shaking in fear after watching such a brutal murder. Bart clenched his teeth and glared up into Bakuzan's eyes bravely which surprised the muscular killer but only a little.

"Once the Underlord here saw he was looking to join us, he went out of his way to make sure Bart got in," Lubba stated. His statement shocked Bart though who opened his eyes wide wondering who would possibly do that for him.

 _It has to be someone I know, and Lubba did say the Underlord here was even younger than him. Who?!_ The four new Underlord recruits heard footsteps coming from back in the darkness Lubba and the Tony's came from originally. A light turned on in that direction and they saw that at the end of this room there was a narrow tunnel leading underground and some flickering lightbulbs on the top of the dirt tunnel illuminated it partially. The lights flickered one by one so only a certain portion of the tunnel was lit at any time.

They saw two figures coming down the tunnel towards them, but rarely got a good glimpse of them before the lights went out above them. The Tony's stepped to the sides of the dark room, and they bowed back at the tunnel entrance where the first of the figures entered the room. It was walking on four legs, but it stood up on two and kept walking forward with a frown under its nose that stuck far out of its face. The creature with white fur had a black eyepatch over his right eye, and a belt around his waist with a ray pistol on it. The dog's left ear was ripped and scarred, and under his eyepatch there was a patch of fur missing and a long scar from his nose to the side of his right cheek.

Bart saw this dog and his jaw dropped. He slowly looked behind it as he walked around the table and he said in disbelief, "No, fucking, way, dude."

"Yes way," the high-pitched voice from the tunnel said. The other three men who came in with Bart looked at this figure in shock and disbelief. Bakuzan looked at Lubba furiously, wondering if the teenager was messing with him, but Lubba shook his head as a warning to him before looking back at their leader.

"Stewie?!" Bart exclaimed.

The four year old with a head the shape of a football stepped into the room with a matching eyepatch to his dog also on his right eye. He wore a red pair of overalls over a yellow shirt and he had on a pair of yellow sneakers too. Stewie Griffin and his dog Brian looked at the boy with yellow skin in front of them and Bart shook his head at them, still in disbelief. "Hello Bart," Stewie said and walked up to the older boy. "I can see that you are impressed," the child said in a smug voice. "Yes, I am an Underlord! Hahaha! Hahahahaha!"

"It's good to see you again," Brian said, not sounding at all like the evil persona Stewie was using.

"Stay in character Brian," Stewie scolded the dog next to him.

"You can't be serious?" Bakuzan snarled.

Ebon was thinking along the same lines, but the meta-human did not want to say anything about it. He knew Bakuzan would do that for him, and now he watched as the toddler's eyes darted to the muscular man over near Lubba.

"I warned you," Lubba said and took a step back.

Stewie glared at the man, "Why do you say that good sir?" Bakuzan opened his mouth and Stewie spoke first, "Because as you put it, 'I am a fucking baby'?" The others did not hear Bakuzan say that, but the man who was about to say it looked at the child wondering how he knew that. "I knew what you were going to say, the same way I know what's about to happen to you."

"Stewie don't," Brian started to the kid next to him. "It's not a ridiculous reaction to seeing you."

"Quiet Brian," Stewie demanded. "I am concentrating."

"See ya," Lubba said and smirked at the martial artist in front of him.

Takao looked over nervously and Bakuzan himself lifted up a hand to the side of his head in pain. "I don't know what you're doing," Bakuzan snarled. He shot his eyes open and they were blood red and getting redder, "But I'm going to, to kill-" Bakuzan started running forward but he came to a stop and brought both hands to the sides of his head. "AHHH!" He screamed, right as his head started to widen, and then… **POP!**

Bart spun away as he heard the pop, but he glanced back and scrunched up his face at the sight of the guy's headless body with blood spurting out of it. The yellow skinned kid calmed himself down fast as he watched Bakuzan's body collapse to the floor. _This is great! I know Stewie, he can help me climb the ranks of this thing. He still seems a little nuts, but that guy was an asshole anyway._

"I assure you I am not 'nuts,' my old friend," Stewie told the boy in front of him who went wide-eyed as he spun back to Stewie, remembering how the kid was reading that man's mind a second ago. "But I am happy to see you here, we used to be such good friends."

"Y-Yeah," Bart said. He calmed himself down a little and said, "Not often I see people from my own universe." He looked behind the kid and mentioned, "Good to see you again too Fat Tony. Don't think I forgot about you pinning all those crimes on me."

"Ba-aart, my boy," Fat Tony said, holding up his hands. He was sweating and kind of hoped the kid forgot about him considering the Underlord he worked for said he was friends with him before Bart even arrived. "That was a long time ago. I died, things change."

Bart was feeling more confident now and the other two he came in with were getting more impressed by the kid by the second. "Alright, I guess," Bart said, but the way he said it made it sound like he was speaking down to a veteran member of the Underlords who was there longer than him, and by the way Stewie did not reprimand him for it, it seemed like it worked in his favor.

"So Bart, why should I let you into the Underlords?" Stewie asked. Bart turned and looked at the younger boy in surprise, thinking he was already let in. Stewie put a hand up to the side of his mouth, and whispered, "I just need something to tell the other bosses, they'll wonder why I let you in."

"Oh," Bart said. He furrowed his brow and thought for a second, but then shrugged his shoulders and decided to go with what he planned on telling them originally before he knew Stewie would be here. Bart put his arms behind his head and he said confidently, "I orchestrated the Battle of Metropolis." The others in the room all looked at Bart like he was being stupid, or in awe if they believed him.

Stewie read Bart's mind for a second and then took a step back, "You don't think you're lying."

"That's 'cause I'm not," Bart said, and this time Lubba's eyes narrowed and the rest of the people in the room looked at Bart in shock.

"You can't be serious," Brian said. The dog who had not seen Bart in two years thought the kid was in way over his head but was now just as shocked as Bart was originally when he saw them.

"Oh yeah," Bart told the dog who was looking at him wide-eyed. _This is a criminal organization,_ Bart thought smugly. _More I hype myself, better rep I'll get._ Bart looked into Stewie's eyes and with his arms still behind his head he started, "I joined with this group of people in the city, and we planned out how to turn off all the power nullifiers…"

Lubba and Takao glanced at each other as they both had the same thought. Bart smirked and he looked back at the other people behind him, "I climbed up the Metropolis Control Tower, fought the Marines, and the Covenant, and we shut off the nullifiers around the city." He got louder as he spoke and he continued, "We called in a bunch of allies from around the continent, and we broke into the armory and robbed the NEG of their weapons. Then, I went to prison and fought the Warden, broke out some prisoners, and rode a dragon out of there with my buddy, a Sith Lord."

Bart crossed his arms in front of his chest and he grinned down at Stewie who kept staring at Bart in surprise this whole time. "Hmm," the boy with a football-shaped head hummed. "That is quite impressive. In fact, what you did was a great help to us." Bart started looking at Stewie confusedly, as did Takao and Lubba and the others in the room who had no idea what the toddler was talking about. Stewie continued with a grin, "It's thanks to you then, that the Underlords exist at all."

"I don't get it," Bart muttered.

Stewie smirked and he started pacing to his left, "When you broke into the armory, were all of the weapons there?" Bart's eyes opened wide as he remembered what Levi said during the battle about the armory already being ransacked before they got there. Stewie got a smug look on his face and started pacing the other way, "And when you broke your friend out of prison, you did a great job at incapacitating the Warden and the other guards. It made it much easier to kill them and release the rest of the prisoners." Bart's eyes got even bigger and Stewie nodded his head, "That's right. We released the prisoners, and most of them are now members of the Underlords. And it is all thanks, to you and your band of rebels."

Bart did not know what to say and Stewie started laughing. The younger boy turned back towards the tunnel behind him, "It's almost like you were part of the Underlords already! What fun!" Brian kept looking at Bart for a second longer than the toddler with him and he felt bad for the older kid who clenched his teeth angrily at what he was just told. Stewie called out louder as he kept walking into the tunnel, "Follow me! I will show you to your rooms that you will spend the remainder of your time in our New Tokyo branch living in."

Everyone started following Stewie down the hall and they were led into individual rooms around a tunnel system that went farther than they originally imagined. Bart was asking Stewie where he got his telepathic powers from and Stewie told him to come to his room where he'd explain. Takao was brought into a different room with a single cot on the back wall, a dusty desk on the side with a wooden chair at it, and a lamp that was so dim when he turned it on that his room still seemed dark.

Takao was just glad to be done with all of that and to be able to lay down. He only got his wish for a few minutes though before he heard his door open. He sat up and looked towards it, but the door was closed. For a split second he thought he imagined it, before a set of hands grabbed him by the front of his black sweatshirt and yanked him off the floor. Takao's eyes opened wide as he was spun around and slammed back-first into the wall. "What the Hell, are you doing here?" Lubba snarled at Takao.

"Wh-What?" Takao asked, completely confused again as to what was going on. "Wait, Lubba," Takao looked at him cautiously in the dark and he whispered, "are you really… what are you doing here?"

Lubba was proud of his own acting that he was able to fool Takao, but he did not care much about it at the moment. "I don't have to answer anything you ask, traitor," Lubba snarled, and Takao realized that at least some of what he said back in that room were his real thoughts. "I'll ask you again, why are you here?" Lubba seethed, pushing his face forward so his forehead was pressed against the older man's. "Answer wrong, and I'll kill you," Lubba said, no hesitation in his voice.

Takao gulped and took a deep breath. He thought he had a fifty fifty chance of living if he told the truth, but a zero chance of survival if he tried lying to the assassin in front of him. "I, want to make up for what I did," Takao whispered. His voice was pained and he continued, "You strangling me, was nothing." The blond young man shook his head, "Dawn won't even look at me anymore. Yuri's the only one who says she understands, but even she looks at me differently. None of the kids, Yumma, Tean, none of them want to see me. That's why I didn't make a portal and run when you were, when I thought you were going to kill me." Takao looked into Lubba's green eyes. "I want to make things right."

"You can't," Lubba said, lowering Takao down but keeping his hands on the man's sweatshirt for now. "Nothing you do can bring back the ones we lost because of you."

"I know that," Takao mumbled. "But, but I figured if maybe I stopped this Underworld, before something like the Battle of Metropolis happens again, maybe she'll forgive me. I just wanted to, redeem myself."

Lubba shook his head and he lowered his arms from the older man. He kept glaring at Takao, "You think when this is all over you'll be able to go back to Dawn? You think you're going to survive that long?" Takao looked at him confusedly and Lubba whispered in a lower, scarier voice that had no sympathy in it. "You're a spy and you expect a peaceful death? You should know that you can not be with Dawn anymore. She may have forgiven you someday, but now you're in a dangerous game, and dangerous people know you're name. You don't get to get out now. You gave up everything for a painful death drowning in your own blood."

With that, Lubba turned around and walked to Takao's door. He opened it and walked out, shutting it behind him without looking back. _It's your own damn fault Takao. It was your fault Najenda got ill, your fault she almost died._ He started walking down the hallway and his face shadowed over, _Saying you want to make things right means nothing. Show me with actions, not words. If you want to make things right, then do it. Help me take down the Underlords. But keep your true thoughts hidden, Stewie's not the only mind reader in this organization._

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed! Leave me a review telling me what you think below. We've got most of the main characters from the first Saga of Nexus mentioned in this chapter to show what they have been doing since our heroes left Awul. A lot of new characters too, along with some new developments. Stewie and Brian were only mentioned once in this story, at the end of chapter 11 I think when Tetsuo had his flashback about creating the island above Metropolis and they were running away with Bart's family to escape Titans, giants, Jason Vorghees, and Mike Myers. I'll list out where the characters are from below for reference!**

 **Family Guy: Stewie, Brian**

 **The Simpsons: Bart, Fit Fat Tony, Fat Tony**

 **One Punch Man: Bakuzan**

 **Static Shock: Ebon Evans**

 **Towa no Quon: Takao, Yuri, Tean, Yumma**

 **Pokemon: Dawn**

 **DBZ: Chichi, Vegeta, Gohan, Trunks, Goten, Goku, Super Saiyans, Pao, Bulma, Piccolo**

 **DC Comics: Batman, Commissioner Gordon, Metropolis, Joker, Luthor**

 **South Park: Stan, Kenny (Mysterion)**

 **Halo: Arbiter, Covenant**

 **One Piece: Bastille, Vegapunk, Aokiji, Akainu, Blackbeard**

 **Fullmetal Alchemist (Brotherhood): Mustang**

 **Seven Deadly Sins: Dreyfus**

 **Hitman Reborn: Tsuna**

 **Ben 10: Gwen, Grandpa Max, Ben**

 **Incredibles: Dash, Violet, Helen, Bob**

 **Attack on Titan: Levi**

 **Akame ga Kill: Lubba, Najenda**

 **Fairy Tail: Mirajane, Lisanna, Cana, Erza, Makarov, Laxus**

 **Teen Titans: Nightwing, Starfire, Beast Boy, Raven, Cyborg**

 **Breaking Bad: Huell Babineaux**

 **Codename Kids Next Door: Mr. Wink, Mr Fibb**

 **Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy: Grim, Mandy**

 **Fairly Oddparents: Mandy**

 **-Hope I got them all, if not, ask me where the person I missed was from and I'll let you know. Anyway, review responses:**

joebob323 chapter 23 . 19h ago

I commend you for another chapter well done! The ending was satisfying to see, and I enjoyed particularly the part where you added in the new girl. I wonder if that is someone of relevance...I also want to know, will they be going straight to another city, or will you detail the journey and the encounters on the journey? I also liked the part where Usopp realizes that he is weaker than Kairi!

 **Thanks for the review! There will be some journey ahead of them on the dangerous terrain, so the next city our heroes get to will be a destination to reach. I'm sure the journey before the next city is going to shock a lot of you... but no spoilers 'till you read it. XD**

Guest chapter 23 . 18h ago

Well it's nice that Kyros was able to get his full family back after so long, and good luck to them with maintaining their territory. Also I'm curious as to who put the king of dragons into such a damaged state. I can't say that I recognize the girl from your description so I'm looking forward to the reveal. Well I'm looking forward to the journey to the resistance and I can't wait to see all the new characters coming up. Well till next time have a wonderful evening and I can't wait for next time!  
P.S. Out of curiosity I was wondering if you ever saw those videos I recommend.

 **Yeah it was definitely nice to have a happy ending for some of the people of Dressrosa (even if their city is in ruins). Acnologia's state will be revealed sometime later on, but I'll remind everyone that Fairy Tail characters arrived on Nexus after the Grand Magic Games arcs, before Tartaros and Igneel's fight with Acnologia. Anyway, glad you're looking forward to the journey to the Resistance, but as for that PS... I don't remember what videos you mentioned. I tried looking back in reviews, but were you signed in when you mentioned, or were you 'Guest'? Because there could be a few Guests. I'd suggest changing your name when you review, you don't even have to sign in for it, then I could look back and see which was yours. Anyway, thanks for another review! Thanks again to everyone who reviewed, faved, and followed this story. Well, 'till next time!**


	25. Nexus HWR 5-1 The Boys Are Back

**A/N Chapter 5 of Heroes Will Rise starts. It's the second arc of this new Saga, and it's time for some "new" characters to make their appearances. Enjoy...**

 **Nexus: Heroes Will Rise 5 Around the World:**

 **Nexus HWR 5.1 The Boys Are Back:**

 **700 Miles North of Dressrosa**

Inside a bar in a port on the west coast of Aebrith, people gathered around a television against the wall and were talking to each other in loud voices. The news on the screen was big, and men were slamming bets down on the table in front of the screen.

A woman with long purple hair, wearing a cowboy hat, stepped into the bar and a muscular man near the entrance turned to her. "Did you hear?" He questioned. "Dressrosa, the whole city-"

"I heard," the woman said, blowing him off without even looking his way. She walked by and puffed out some smoke from the cigarette she had in her mouth. She was wearing a white cloak with long sleeves that her arms were barely sticking out of at her sides. Her eyes were icy blue and they examined the room before seeing what she came for and focused on the man at the bar.

The young woman started walking forward and she heard a man on the right side of the room yell, "No way! A thousand bucks it was the Emperor! Never believed he would let a non-Sith keep hold over one of his cities. Not after the Forever Knights rebelled! Doflamingo was a fool!"

"The Emperor wouldn't just destroy one of his own cities for no reason, dumbass!" another man next to him yelled. "It was the King. I'll match your bet."

"Why would the King-" the first man began.

"Because he was bored," the second man replied confidently.

"Even if one of you was right," a shorter man standing in front of them started in a bored tone. "It's not like either of you could pay off that bet."

"You calling us poor?" one of the men asked and glared down at the shorter man who was also thinner and weaker-looking. The two he insulted attacked and a second later they were lying on the ground unconscious. The short boy with blond hair turned and walked away. Most of the others there moved out of his way, then filled back in in front of the tv while a bartender dragged the two unconscious men away.

The purple haired girl stared at the screen for a second and examined the destroyed scene of Dressrosa shown on the drone's camera. A few seconds later the feed turned to static and someone smacked the side of the television but nothing happened. "Damn bastards must have destroyed the drone," a fat man who must have weight eight hundred pounds grumbled.

The young woman chuckled once at the misfortune of those bar patrons. She turned and took a seat on a stool at the bar next to a man wearing a similar white cloak only his had a symbol on the back of it that hers did not. He was wearing an orange hat and had a necklace of red beads around his neck. His cloak's back had a skull and crossbones on it over a large cross, and the skull on the cross had a big white mustache. "Discover anything Mizore?" the twenty-two year old man questioned her. He turned and tipped up his hat a little to get a better look at the woman next to him who he met on his travels.

Mizore Shirayuki shook her head before looking across the bar and holding up two fingers. She took another puff of her cigarette then put it out on an ashtray at the counter. "Did you think it would be that easy?"

"I don't know," he replied. Portgas D. Ace chuckled and leaned back in his seat. The pirate whose cheeks were dotted by freckles watched as the nineteen year old girl next to him downed a shot of whiskey with ease. She knocked back the second one within a few seconds and he started laughing some more. She looked at him funny and he shook his head, "How does that taste?"

"My snow powers cool off the burning sensation in my throat almost immediately," Mizore replied. She breathed out and her breath lingered in the air to show how cold she was compared to the late summer air filling the hot bar. "I still get drunk, it's just easier."

"Ahh, I see," Ace said, scratching his chin and laughing a few times. "Well, might as well spend the night in town and then get heading east. I'm just glad we finally made it across the ocean."

"I wish your boat was bigger," Mizore whispered. "When you asked if I wanted to tag along, I was the only one left on the island, so I didn't really have a choice. But to think you would only have a raft."

"The smaller the boat, the better my fire powers work at pushing it," Ace explained. "Sorry if it was a bit uncomfortable. It wasn't meant as a two-seater."

She waved him off and then held up another two fingers at the bartender who gawked at the girl who was downing shots like water. Ace laughed some more but stopped when he felt something on his left side. He turned and someone was sitting down on the stool on his left. The man was wearing a black jacket over a blue shirt and he had a pair of jeans on his legs. On top of his head was a black hat that he had on tilted down over the top half of his face. He had a white scarf sticking out of his blue button down, and a pair of goggles sitting on top of the rim of his black top-hat. There was blond hair sticking out under his hat and the man questioned, "Who are you looking for?"

Ace stared at the man strangely for a few seconds, wondering what this guy was asking for. He could see blond hair sticking out under the man's hat, and for some reason it looked like the man also had tear streaks on his face. Mizore took another shot and looked around Ace at the guy sitting there with his head bowed. "Who is that?" She questioned, thinking Ace may have recognized him by the look on her companion's face.

"I, don't…" Ace muttered, but found himself unable to answer her completely. _No, the resemblance is uncanny, but, it can't be._ He grinned a little and said, "Ever heard of a man named Whitebeard?" He questioned the other man.

The man next to him chuckled a few times and he said, "Telling from the symbol on your back, I can tell you're one of his pirates, aren't you, Ace?" Ace pulled back and his face covered in sweat. The way the man just said his name, the sound of his voice, his hair and clothing, they all reminded him so much of… The guy started turning towards Ace and he pushed up on the rim of his hat so Ace could see the burn scars on his face, but also the huge smile and the watery eyes of the man in front of him.

"Ace," the man repeated. "You're alive," the guy sounded so choked up but Ace could not believe his eyes.

"Me?" Ace whispered. "How are, you so old?" He reached out for the other man's face and grabbed the inside of his mouth, pulling it to the side to see if he was really… real.

"Stop that," the blond man smacked Ace's hand away. "I've got a lot to tell you, little brother."

"Little?!" Ace exclaimed.

"You didn't age those two years you were dead it looks like," the man said, while Ace dropped his jaw as he realized this was actually happening. It still had not processed in his mind fully, but as he started to accept it he couldn't stay on his seat. He fell to the floor and looked up as the man in the black hat got up and looked down at him. The man lifted a steel pipe over his shoulder that had Ace gawking even more. "S-S-," Ace could not get the word out, until he finally whispered, "Sabo?"

Sabo nodded his head and Ace bowed his head, trying hard to hide his face that was getting covered in tears.

"What is this now? A couple of babies crying in a bar?!" the eight hundred pound man angry about his tv getting cut off walked up behind Ace and towered above him. He slammed his right fist into an open palm and a small shockwave rippled out. "Get out." A crowd of ten or so others stepped up behind him and started making similar taunts.

Ace stood up and Sabo grinned as he looked at his brother. The two of them turned at the same time to the huge man who took a step back from them at the sight of their smiles. "What's wrong with you?" He yelled angrily, not getting why the two of them were crying and smiling at the same time. He pulled back a fist and swung it forward at full force, making wind rush off of it visibly. Ace got ready, but Sabo lifted up his right hand first and he caught the much larger fist. His fingers were spread apart against the man's fist, and his hand had turned dark black.

Ace's eyes went wide, _Armament Haki?_ Sabo clenched down on the hand and the fat man screamed. He lifted him up and slammed down behind him, smashing the man straight through the floor and into the basement, leaving a large hole on the floor of the bar.

Now, a lot more than eight people got up and were looking over at the brothers angrily. Ace lifted up his fists and they covered in flames, and Sabo rose his and curled in his blackened fingers.

"Dragon Claw!"

"Fire Fist!"

A minute after the huge man crashed through the floor, Ace and Sabo walked out the front door of the bar. The two of them were talking and laughing and Ace was shocked when Sabo told him how he survived back when they were kids and Ace thought he had died. "You had amnesia?!" Ace asked in disbelief.

"It only wore off when I saw the paper of your death," Sabo admitted in a grim tone. He smiled right after though and put an arm around his brother's neck, "But who would have guessed I'd see you just walking into port where we're docked?!"

"'We?'" Ace asked.

A woman with long purple hair walked out behind them, but she glanced back into the bar. There were flames all over the place and almost everyone in the room was moaning on the floor or completely unconscious. She chuckled and turned around to look ahead at her companion and his brother. Her head bowed and she smiled softly, _Good for them._

"Oi Mizore, you coming?" Ace called back to her. She snapped her head up and saw the dark haired man and his nicer-dressed brother looking her way. She stared at them for a few seconds, and then nodded her head and jogged forward to catch up.

"Who's this?" Sabo asked, nudging his brother with his elbow. "Got yourself a girlfriend?"

Ace turned and grinned, but before he could answer, Mizore did for him, "As if." She kept walking until she was in front of the men and Sabo started laughing behind her at Ace's expense.

Ace frowned, but he was not sour for long though. How could he be, when a long-dead brother had appeared before his very eyes? Ace grinned and looked up in the sky, _I've been lucky so far. Old man, Jozu, hopefully even Thatch, and everyone else. I'm going to find you all. The Whitebeard Pirates will be a family again._

* * *

 **Eight Thousand Miles East of Ace**

 _Another dead end. This is getting tedious,_ the short man with a thin coating of black hair on his head dropped the figure whose collar he had his hand gripped around. The man hit the floor and instantly started scrambling away from him after the rest of his comrades who were already running away. Krillin scratched the top of his head and he smiled at the feeling of his short hair on it. _I can't wait until she sees my hair. I wanted to grow it for so long, but only now…_

Krillin sat down on the black field he was on and he sighed. The midget put his chin in his hands and looked out into the eastern distance where the third sun was rising over the horizon. He was wearing an orange gi with the sleeves rolled in and his pant legs rolled up. It was very hot out in the open, and the black color of the ground did not make it any easier for him. He sighed and lay back fully, while the man who ran away from him was looking back confusedly as Krillin was not giving chase. Krillin could feel the man stop running and he sighed again. "You can go," he called out. "You don't know anything, so I have no business with you."

"Are you serious?" the man Krillin had been questioning shouted back at him. Krillin leaned up a little and looked the man's way. "Man" was not actually the best word to describe the strange creature that was part butterfly, part hippo, part human. The Chimera Ant was glaring over at Krillin and it growled, "You think you can stop an envoy of the King, beat up his men, and question him, and you will be allowed to live? Your business with us has not concluded, not for a long shot _human_ ," it finished speaking in disgust, spitting the word "human" at him like an insult. The Chimera Ant turned and flapped its wings, shooting up in the sky, though wincing as one of its wings was bent along with a leg and an arm.

"Well if you have slaves, you can expect no mercy from me," Krillin called out after him. He looked the other way from the retreating Ants to where the humans he saved were all gathered and talking to each other. _This King though, I wonder who's in charge around here now. I was under Lelouch's control for so long, I'm no longer in the loop with things in these parts._ He sat up more fully and looked around the black field he was on. He saw a group of monsters in the distance and saw them notice the group of slaves he freed. "Hold on," Krillin mumbled, and he stood up fully. The people near him started shouting, but the Grimm they spotted suddenly exploded, and the man who freed them flew back over and landed in front of them. "Hey, I can give you guys a lift to the nearest town or something if you'd like."

"Really?" a man standing in front of Krillin asked in shock. The guy looked malnourished, very hungry, and he had scars all over his exposed skin. "Could you, bring us south then?"

"South?" Krillin questioned.

"We're escaped slaves," another figure who looked like he underwent some terrible torture replied. "None of the Co-op cities would protect us if the King's men came looking. We need to head south, hopefully there are some Resistance holdouts still safe."

"Please," a white bear creature added. The bear was standing behind the malnourished man, and it was missing its left arm and left eye completely. "We'll never make it up here!"

Krillin nodded his head finally at the group and many of them smiled. The scarred-up hungry man directly in front of Krillin nodded back and thanked him. "Before we go though, can you remove my nullifier?" The man questioned, and Krillin nodded and reached forward, putting his hand on the man's neck where there was a brace. Krillin clenched on a certain spot and the device fell apart, shocking the others around him who had seen similar nullifiers withstand every escape attempt tried on them. "Thank you," the man said, and then he held out his right hand and curled his fingers down to point at the ground. "Room!"

A bubble expanded from his hand and widened to cover all of the slaves around him. In a second, all of the other nullifiers and collars were on the floor in front of him. The Room faded and the injured man looked at Krillin who was surprised by the man's power. "What is that? Magic? A Devil Fruit?" The second guess got the man in front of him nodding. Krillin grinned that he got it right on his second try and he stuck a hand out to the taller person, "My name is Krillin. Nice to meet you."

"Krillin," Trafalgar Law whispered under his breath. He nodded and reached out his right hand, shaking the shorter, but much more muscular man's and introducing himself. "Who are you?" Law asked him. "Part of the Resistance? A freelancer? Or-"

"I'm just," Krillin started, then shook his head as he did not have a label for himself like everyone else on Aebrith did. "I'm just Krillin." He said it, then stomped down on the ground hard and cracked the floor beneath him. The floor cracked and curved around the group in front of him until there was a big circle in the ground that the former slaves were standing on. Krillin reached down and grabbed the sides of the cracked area, then lifted it up in the air with one hoist.

"You're very strong!" the white bear, Bepo, called down to him.

"Thanks!" Krillin called up, though he did not know which of them said it to him since he was under the chunk of ground. "Hey, while I bring you south, could you tell me if you know anything about my wife? I'm looking around for her."

"When was the last time you saw her?" Law questioned down. He figured he owed the man at least this much considering Krillin just saved his, and the few remaining members of his old crew's lives.

Krillin grimaced and replied, "Before Nexus." The others looked at each other and did not look hopeful as that left an entire world that she could be on, maybe two. Krillin decided to try anyway, "Her name is 18. She's stronger than I am, so I figured some people might have heard of her."

Law looked around at the others on top of the rock being flown south, but none of them had looks of recognition on his face. He frowned himself as he was hoping to give the short man some good news. "I'm sorry," Law called down to him. "But we haven't-"

"Ah it's fine," Krillin shouted up, speeding up as he did. "I'll find her, don't worry about it!" _I promise 18._ He looked out into the southern distance determinedly. _Maybe you're with the Resistance. Never a bad idea to check. Worst thing that happens, I have to keep looking. That's right Krillin, stay positive. Stay positive and soon, you're going to find her._

* * *

 **Three Thousand Miles Northeast of Krillin**

"Leol-sama! Leon-sama! Leol-sa-"

The light-skinned human running towards the lion Chimera Ant got a claw around his neck as Leol snapped his arm out and grabbed him by the throat. Leol turned from the conversation he was having with merchants on the docks and growled at the human wearing a red bandanna who dared to interrupt his conversation. "You better have a good reason for this," the lion said. He had a human's skull embroidered with gold on the bottom of a necklace around his neck, golden earrings, a fur coat, rings on his fingers with different colored gems on them, and even two of his sharp teeth were made of gold.

The human tried speaking but Leol was clenching too hard and he could not. The lion growled but loosened his grip a little, and the human started gasping and speaking at the same time. "Ahh, the sh-ip, it, the slaves, they- they're gone-" Leol clenched his right hand into a fist and the human throat in his grip was squished into mush. The merchants talking to him stepped back, but Leol turned away from them and started sprinting fast for the docks.

"What are Flutter and Hirin doing?" Leol roared. His two Lieutenants, not to mention the rest of his crew, must have been completely incompetent if what he thought had happened had really just occurred. _I will have to find an entirely new crew after I eat the old one. This would be a complete failure!_ Leol reached the dock that his ship was on and he gawked at the sight down the dock of his ship. The figurehead that had his face on it was slashed up with something powerful, and he ran over to the ramp that led up to the side.

He ran up the ramp and his eyes widened. The member of his crew who reported was smart to mention the slaves first, as they were Leol's top priority, but they were not just gone. There were bodies all over the top of his ship. It looked like a few of the bodies were of the slaves themselves, most likely killed by his crew while they tried to escape. Most of the corpses were of his own men though, and he spotted Hirin over near the bow of the ship, her hands on her left side with red liquid seeping through her fingers. "Hirin!"

The female Chimera turned her head a little and smiled over at the brown lion with a long white mane of hair. "Leol-sa…maaaa," she collapsed forward, but before she hit the ground Leol was there, grabbing her by the back of her shirt and holding her small body up. The Ant's pink hat fell off and her yellow hair was a mess around her head, with some blood even mixed in with it.

"Hirin, where is Flutter? What happened here?" Leol questioned her.

"Flutter, over there," She whispered and shook her head to the starboard side. Leol walked over to the edge of the ship and looked down, and he frowned deeply at the sight of the mosquito-Ant floating face-down in the water. "I'm sorry, Leol-sama. One of the slaves, he was tricking us."

"One of the slaves?" Leol questioned in surprise. "It was not some of those self-righteous humans? No," he realized and shook his head. "We're too far north for them to try to free slaves. They would have to sneak them thousands of miles to get them to safety, it doesn't make sense." He shook his head some more and looked back down at Hirin who he rested on the deck. "Which of the slaves was it?"

"The boy," she whispered. "The one we found sailing alone on the ocean."

Leol's eyes opened wide and he remembered how easily that boy held up his hands, ready to become a slave as their ship pulled up alongside him. _He was using us to get here faster. Shit, there's no telling his strength. He escaped his nullifier and killed my entire crew._ The Chimera Ant captain looked over the side of his ship and growled furiously. _I can't go after him._

"You don't need to go after me," a voice said behind the lion. Leol's face covered in sweat and the female Ant facing the deck lifted up her head a little in fear. Leol turned around and he stared at the boy standing there. It looked like the kid raided their supplies and found the clothes they stripped from him when they first found him on the ocean. He was wearing his brown cloak again, though his hood was down and his light-skinned face was visible. They could see his short brown hair too, but only the amount that stuck out from beneath his red poof-ball hat.

"I thought about escaping with the others," Darth Marsh began as he walked towards Leol. "But then you would just go get a new crew and make more slaves, wouldn't you?" He asked rhetorically. Out of the brown sleeve on his right arm slid a small silver hilt, and out from the end of that hilt extended a red blade of light. Leol's eyes went wide at the sight of the red lightsaber, and Stan pointed it forward at the Chimera Ant. "Prepare yourself."

"A Sith? This far north?" Leol questioned. He started baring his teeth and Stan looked at him confusedly after hearing him say that. "What do you think you're doing?" Leol snarled, his claws extending and his face looking more animalistic by the second. "Stealing my product?! Killing my men?!" Leol was roaring and the wood beneath his feet splintered. "Does the Emperor understand the consequences?!"

"The Emperor?" Stan muttered. "Never heard of him," he added, confusing the lion enough for it to stop preparing to attack him for a second. "All I know, is that having slaves is wrong. But even worse, is selling them, and making more. You are the scum of the earth, and I am going to eradicate you." Stan did not reach up, but his cloak's hood lifted above his head on its own and cast a shadow over his face.

 _Of course he is not one of the Emperor's, the Sith are some of my top customers. This bastard._ Leol snarled and his eyes were getting bloodshot with rage. "Just who, do you think, I am?!" He shot off the ground and moved amazingly fast towards Stan. He pulled back one of his claws and roared as he started swinging it forward. Stan rose up his right hand, and Leol's own claw suddenly changed directions mid-swing, aiming down at the floor instead. Stan was within a foot of him, lightsaber already extended, and Leol's attack missed badly. The lion wanted to get up his defense, or prepare another attack, but Stan was no longer in front of him.

The twelve year old boy stood right behind Leol with his lightsaber held out to the right, his left knee bent down on the wood, his head bowed to the floor. He let his lightsaber sink back into the hilt, and then he heard the roar of agony behind him and red splashed onto the back of his cloak. Stan spun around and his cloak flapped behind him, red droplets flying off of it into the wind as he glared back at the dying lion Chimera Ant. "It is a shame," Stan growled. "I meant to cut through you completely. Now, it will take several minutes for you to die." Though he said it was a shame, he did not sound too sorry about making the slaver suffer.

Stan, or Darth Marsh, turned away from the dying Chimera Ants and he leapt up in the air. He jumped off the deck, then did another Force-Jump and rose even higher, and jumped again on top of that to do several flips over some buildings near the river's edge. _Siths? The Emperor? The dead returned to life on this world, so maybe, all those stories Master Anakin told me about the history of the Sith…_

He landed on top of a building in the small port town and heard sirens behind him. The kid looked back and towards the river that cut into the northern Aebrith countryside. There seemed to be a commotion on one of the docks and he figured they found the mess he left for them. Stan glared down at the bracelet on his ankle and he thought about what he heard the slavers talking about when they clipped the anklet on him. _It will hide my power from humans and monsters alike. I wonder if that includes shinigamis?_ Stan grimaced and a thought that had been nagging away at him for a long time came back to the surface. _It needs to. I can not approach Ichimaru Gin head-on. The only way I could kill him is if I catch him by surprise. But,_ his gaze shifted south and he thought, _what if those Sith, the ones of old who my Master talked about, what if they know things? They could teach me, make me a more powerful Sith, make me into a true Sith Lord._

Stan hummed to himself and he looked around at all the directions available to him. _I can go anywhere. Do anything. As long as the end result is Ichimaru's death, the journey does not matter. Whatever makes me strongest._ Stan's conviction held firm and he leapt back up in the air, jumping his way towards whatever the horizon had in store for him.

* * *

 **A/N Thanks for reading! Hope you all enjoyed! Ace, Krillin, and Stan have all arrived on Aebrith and have varying goals for their time their. Krillin and Stan stop some slavers while Ace finally reunites with his brother. If anyone remembers, Leol's crew was the one in the first chapter of Heroes Will Rise, in the flashback, that captured Romeo, Lily, and Mine as Wendy got turned into a Heartless. One more thing, the girl with Ace, Mizore, is from Rosario x Vampire, a show I have not seen in a while but admittedly has some pretty strong characters in it I wanted to throw in somewhere. Anyway, here's the list anyway:**

 **Rosario x Vampire: Mizore**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Leol, Hirin, Flutter**

 **One Piece: Whitebeard, Jozu, Thatch, Ace, Sabo, Trafalgar Law, Bepo, Doflamingo**

 **Ben 10: Forever Knights**

 **Star Wars: Sith, Anakin**

 **Bleach: Ichimaru Gin**

 **South Park: Stan Marsh**

 **DBZ: Krillin, 18**

 **-Think that was it for this one. Short chapter, and there are a few more like it coming up in this Around the World chapter. Now, review responses:**

joebob323

STEWIE! I love that kid! Where the heck did he get mind powers though? Eh, it may be powerful among the stupid people, but if he ever meets that one mind bending guy from Heroes, well, bye-bye! also, I liked that you took a step away form the Arbirth arc to focus on things back at home. nice chapter!

 **Stewie's back! His powers are a mystery for now, but yeah, maybe Matt Parkman (that guy you were thinking of) will meet up with him soon. Glad you liked the hop back to Awul, as those characters will not just fade out because they aren't on the main team of travelers! Thanks for the review!**

Espada-001

Well I thought it was nice to see an uplifting scene at the beginning for Gohan, and getting to see Gwen attempting to get closer to him. She's really going to have to be a bit more direct with him if she wants to get her feelings across though. I know that I asked this question before but I can't remember if you had an answer at the time, but I was wondering what part of KTH Tsuna was from or if he even got his signature box weapon since that's a major part of his power. Also I think that Reborn might even crack a small at seeing Tsuna in a position of power and seeing that his students moving up in the world. I noticed a little slip up though at the part where Batman arrives with Mysterion, you mentioned Mandy as though she was in the room when he arrived or was the supposed to be confirming that she is actually monitoring the meeting room? Anyway I was wondering when Stewie was going to get brought back into the story after he disappeared and I'm guessing that somewhere along the line he fell into another tub of toxic material and regained his mental powers. Also I know I already sent a PM to you but I just wanted to confirm that Guest review was sent by me, and the series were the Laws of Talos, and The Adventure. Both were just some short series on Youtube but I thought they had some interesting characters that could be used. Anyway thanks for another great chapter and I'm looking forward to the next update, till then have a good day!

 **Gohan and Gwen was definitely some fun to write, a good break from the nonstop battles of chapter 3. Tell you the truth, still do not know when Tsuna came in his timeline, as I never finished Hitman Reborn... That and Yu Yu Hakusho are shows that I'll watch an episode or two every once in a while but have never watched all the way through. You were totally right with that Batman Mysterion scene where I mentioned Mandy. I looked back and saw that I messed up when I was editing, as when I first wrote it I think I remembered that I just had her leave the room, but when I was re-reading it all I noticed was that everyone was shocked to hear about Lubba, and I knew she already knew about it so I mentioned her grinning. But yeah, I'm going to remove that right now, so thanks again! I threw Stewie into that scene only after watching that episode where he got mental powers, so it was pretty fresh in my mind, and I remembered that he survived that battle like Bart did. And haha, I did see your PM, so I know that was you now, but no I have yet to see those shows. If I have time I'll watch them, and thanks again for posting another review! Well, thanks again everyone for reading! 'Till next time!**


	26. Nexus HWR 5-3 Despair

**Nexus HWR 5.3 Despair:**

 **26000 Miles Southeast of Dressrosa**

Atop a lone green hill in the middle of a black field of ash and rock, a small girl sat with her chin in her hands. She was sitting on the eastern side of the hill, looking far out to the east in hopes of seeing someone flying towards her. There were dark pillars in the distance with black smoke billowing out of them. Everything around the far away city was black like the buildings themselves, it was all so bleak. Dust clouds would rise up from the dry ground and spin around in the air, occasionally making small funnels of black.

The ground in this area never got any rain despite the black clouds hovering overhead at all times. The clouds came from the city ahead, and the haze between the hill and the building made it look even hotter than it was, and it was pretty damn hot. The girl sitting on the hill had blonde hair going down to the bottom of her neck, very pale skin, and a young face. Although she looked young, her face hid the fact that she was hundreds of years old.

Elaine quietly watched the eastern horizon until the three suns fell behind her and the sky grew dark. No lights came from the city ahead, no stars nor moons shone through the heavy black fog filling the sky above her. It was pitch black. She continued to wait while looking out to the east, but she only saw the figures running towards her when they were but a hundred feet away. She saw movement in the darkness and counted each of the blurs when she saw them. _One, two… three, four… four,_ she looked past the fourth person but there were no other figures in the dark to the side of her hill.

The four people running towards the hill climbed up the side to the porch of the building at the top of it. The small girl stood up in front of them and looked at the next shortest person in their group standing in front of her. "Did you-" Elaine began, then froze as the tall man next to their leader stepped forward. He was wearing shiny red clothes that looked so bleak in the dark that her eyes had hardly adjusted to. The man had spiky white hair, red eyes, and a pair of silver nunchucks on his right side. Ban reached behind his back and grabbed the shaft of the weapon he had strapped there.

Elaine gasped as Ban held the spear out in front of him. "Chastiefol," she whispered. She looked up into Ban's eyes, "So then, my brother-"

"He's alive," a girl spoke up on the other side of the short man in front of Elaine. Elaine turned to the younger girl still in her teens who looked like she regretted speaking.

"But," the short man in front of Elaine began. She turned back to her Captain who continued, "We interrogated Lord Giriko. They did capture King, and he was sent, to the Capital." Meliodas put his hands down into his pockets, "We could go-"

"No," Elaine said. She said it fast and without hesitation. "There is no point," the girl stated, and the others did not disagree with her. Elaine sighed and whispered angrily under her breath, "It was my brother's own stupidity that got him caught." She shook her head a few times and lifted her attention back to the blond man in front of her, "How was the Black City? I see you didn't go mad while there."

Meliodas shook his head with a small grin, "Looked like the Black Witch and her pet were not there."

"She probably took the Kishin with her," the taller of the two girls said in disgust. "Leaving a trail of chaos in her wake no doubt." The teenage girl wore a white skirt that contrasted with the dark environment even more than Ban's shiny red clothes. She had a matching white ponytail and icy blue eyes to match. The teenager looked down into Elaine's eyes and shook her head once, "I'm sorry Elaine."

"There may have been nothing you four could do," a malevolent voice of an older woman began from behind Elaine. The Fairy girl floated off the ground as she turned around and looked back at a woman with much darker hair than her walking onto the porch. The four behind Elaine looked past her as well at this older woman wearing much more provocative clothing than the shorter girls at the edge of the green hill. "But I think it has been too long since I visited the Capital anyway."

The others looked at this woman in surprise and the short man leading them stepped past Elaine. "You sure Merlin?" Meliodas questioned the woman with short jet black hair and a sinister expression on her face that did not match what she was offering.

"Of course Captain," she replied. He nodded at her and she continued while turning around, "Where will you be heading, for when I wish to find you?" Merlin started walking to the other side of the green hill, right as the hill itself started shaking beneath her.

Meliodas scratched his chin and a smile came to his face. "Well, I think we're going to head north too. More business up there. Maybe try the Northern Continent for a change!"

Merlin chuckled under her breath. She lifted up her right hand and snapped her fingers. Everyone on top of the hill opened up their eyes wide as they, along with the hill they were standing on and the building on top of it, were suddenly teleported out of the black landscape full of smoke clouds. They transported into the middle of a forest of tall trees, the air sweeter and chillier, everything was so different, except for the hill beneath their feet that looked exactly the same as it did in Arachne's desolate land. The only difference on the hill, was that the woman who snapped her fingers was no longer on the hill's edge. A voice whispered into Meliodas's ear as he stood there staring at the spot Merlin just was however, "Just a goodbye present from me to you Captain. To help you along the way." Her quiet voice became more smug as she finished, "See you soon."

* * *

 **The Capital**

Inside one of many giant palace-like buildings in the Embassy Quarter of the Capital, loud music was playing and a small figure danced in the air to the tune of it. "Hah hah hah, look at him go," a fat pink alien creature covered in spikes yelled out. Dodoria ripped a chunk out of a chicken leg and then threw the bone over his shoulder, making one of the other aliens in the room lean left to avoid getting hit in the face.

"Hahaha!" Appule laughed. The purple bipedal alien had yellow dots speckled on his ovular head and more sparsely scattered on his arms. "Where did you get this thing Dodoria? It is amusing!"

"Just bought it," Dodoria said with another laugh. He reached into a bucket and pulled out a head of an Altaria. The fat monstrous alien chomped into the beautiful Pokemon's head and blood splashed out of it. He talked while chewing, "The King of the Fairies, Harlequin. Hah! Doesn't look like a King to me."

The rest of the aliens partying, drinking, and eating, started taunting and laughing at the small light-skinned person floating in the air. His ankles both had steel anklets on, he wore a pair of yellow overalls, and had on a brightly colored hat that pointed up at three different points. Harlequin, or King, had marker drawn on his face making him look even stupider, and there were bags under his eyes to show how exhausted he was.

King danced there in the air and only a few people in the room were not laughing and enjoying his show. A teenage girl with sun-kissed skin slightly darker than her fellow slaves looked towards King and winced as she saw how much it hurt to have to humiliate himself like that. _King of the Fairies? That guy's a fairy?_ She saw one of the aliens slam a mug down that sounded empty and she spun his way, hurrying towards his table with the tray full of mugs on one of her open palms.

Elizabeth "Liz" Thompson had dirty blonde hair down to her waist and dark blue eyes. She wore a skimpy red bikini, but luckily for her the aliens in the room were not often attracted to humans or those like her who just looked like them. She only dressed like that for Dodoria's human guests, ones who were not slaves like her. Liz replaced an alien's drink without saying a word and hurried off. The alien never even noticed her, and when it grabbed its drink it just grinned as the mug felt heavier again.

"Don't stop!" Dodoria roared. He rose up the skull of the Altaria and threw it at King who was too surprised to dodge fast and got slammed in the forehead by the skull. The fairy did a backflip in midair before hitting to the ground, a cut on his forehead that bled pretty fast. "Get up!" Dodoria yelled at him. "I didn't waste all my money on one slave to be disappointed. I'll tear out your eyes if it motivates you!"

Harlequin staggered back up and wiped some blood from his face. He was pale and tired and hungry, but he only stared Dodoria's way in a pained way before floating back up into the air to keep dancing. Before he could continue his dance though, a voice started from behind him, "Is that how you treat all your slaves, Lord Dodoria?"

Dodoria growled and spun towards the door to see who was interrupting his party. The fat pink alien spotted the figure and he continued to frown, but he did get off his seat as a sign of respect. The man who walked in the room made Dodoria stand, so all of Dodoria's subordinates and friends stood up as well, even those who did not recognize this caped man at first. His cape was long and dark purple stretching all the way down to his feet, he wore a red steel helmet on his head that had two spikes coming out the top, and his helmet wrapped fully around his head except for a slit over his mouth and nose that widened a bit at the eyes. He wore a tight red outfit made of powerful materials as strong as the armor Dodoria and his men were wearing, if not more so, and also had on a pair of purple gloves and matching boots.

"Lord Magneto," Dodoria growled, annoyed that he had to stand for a human, even if the man tended to say he was not one himself.

The mutant in the entrance looked at the Fairy King who had stopped his dancing to look towards him with the other slaves and aliens. "Do not stop on my account," Magneto said, then turned towards Dodoria and continued to walk into the room. King was hesitant as to what he should do, only having become a slave recently, but Dodoria roared at him to get going and the tiny man started dancing in midair again.

"I heard you were having a party," Mangeto said as he neared Dodoria. The fat pink alien sat back down, but a different alien behind him grabbed a chair and pulled it to Dodoria's side quickly before Magneto reached them. Most people did not notice at first as they were too focused on the intimidating mutant Lord, but someone else had walked in behind him and followed behind dragging her feet. Magneto continued as he took a seat on Dodoria's left side, "I was sent here by the Fire Lord to conduct official business with the Emperor, but it has been postponed due to unforeseen circumstances in the south."

"Hah!" Dodoria laughed and he started grinning again for the first time since Magneto walked in. "That damn Emperor is gonna get removed from power if he keeps on losing!"

"I thought so as well," Magneto responded. The two of them watched as King did a backflip in the air but when the Fairy King slowed down, another alien threw a bone at his head and make the fairy yell out in pain. Dodoria and the aliens laughed at his misery, but Magneto kept a calm small grin on his face. "When the Emperor falls, I plan on becoming the High Lord of his territories."

Dodoria had just taken a huge chomp of Altaria meat and the alien had to pound his chest a few times as he started choking on it. He turned and had a bead of sweat coming down the left side of his face. The rest of his men were laughing and yelling too loud to hear what Magneto said, but he heard it well. "I have seen you in action My Lord," Magneto continued, "I would gladly give you reign over part of my lands if you side with me." Dodoria's eyes widened even more and the mutant finally turned to him, "I never planned on staying under the Fire Lord's boot. I always planned on advancing. In this Capital though, there is very little room for social movement. You are here with your title and nothing else. Think on it," he said when the alien opened up its mouth to respond.

Dodoria hesitated, then his mouth closed and it twisted into a grin. "Hehehe, hah hah," the alien laughed in a deep voice. Dodoria lowered his head down and glared into Magneto's eyes, "How about, I don't tell the Fire Lord you plan on stealing his armies and abandoning him, and you get the Hell out of my-" Dodoria stopped as the entire room bent. Walls crinkled and the floor trembled, the bucket he was grabbing his meat out of crushed and mugs exploded. Dodoria snapped to his feet and Magneto did the same. The room was full of noise but everyone shut up instantly as the two of them stood there, faces only inches apart, powerful auras radiating off of them. The two glared into each other's eyes for moments that felt like eternities for the others in the room holding their breaths. Then, Dodoria's frown flipped back into a grin, "Hah hah HAHA!" He tilted his head back and bellowed laughter at his ceiling.

Magneto frowned deeply but sighed and opened up his clenched fists. The walls un-bent and the room repaired itself in seconds. Dodoria stopped laughing as hard and he looked back into Magneto's eyes before nodding his head once, surprising the mutant who thought this went a lot worse than it apparently did. "You've got a deal," Dodoria growled in a guttural voice. "But if you fuck me on this, I will exterminate every last mutant of yours on this planet. It would not be my first genocide." His threat was not an empty one, that much Magneto could see, so the mutant Lord nodded at him.

The two of them sat back down and Dodoria spun to King, shouting, "Get back to it! Actually, no," he smirked and said, "I have a better idea." He turned and called two of his other male slaves over from the back of the room. Unlike King, these men were tall and muscular and intimidating to the tiny fairy man who landed down on the ground with two cuts on his head getting him drenched in his own blood. "I heard the Fairy King was strong, but I think it must have been a joke. Watch this," Dodoria clenched a fist in front of him and the two taller male slaves moved in on King who tried raising his fists to fight back.

The fairy got kneed in the stomach so he was lifted off the floor, then four fists hit him in the back and smashed him to the ground again. The two started kicking him while he lay on his stomach covering the back of his head with his hands. Dodoria called out, "You cause any permanent damage, I'll eat you for breakfast!" They hesitated, then Dodoria yelled, "That doesn't mean stop!" The men had no idea what to do, but one of them lifted Harlequin up and had his fellow human slave slam fists into his chest and stomach.

The bald man punching King over and over saw the fairy's eyes flutter open and a look of intense guilt flashed across his face. King had tears coming down his battered face, but the Fairy King lifted up the left corner of his mouth and through all the blood on his face, the man punching him saw Harlequin mouth the words, 'It's okay. Do what you have to.' The man punching him had to clench his own eyes as they were watering up too, but he nodded his head and continued pounding on him.

"Such barbarism," Magneto mentioned as they watched this display. Dodoria stopped cheering and turned to his new ally with an annoyed look at the insult. "Treat your slaves as such, and they will never accept you as their true master."

"Yeah, like that bitch there?" Dodoria asked.

In the back of the room where some lower ranked aliens were, Liz finished passing out rounds to them and when one tried to hold her back she mentioned how Dodoria might want her assistance. The lower soldiers she could deal with fine, always subtly hinting threats from their Lord if he was out of earshot, threats all of his men took to heart. She sighed as she started walking back towards the front of the room that she left as soon as she saw that other Lord enter. The Lord she knew was always better than the one she did not, as she had no idea how to handle this Magneto's forms of torture. Liz was getting back towards the front of the room though as she could not be gone from her master for too long or he might notice.

As she got there she heard the two Lords conversing, completely ignoring the Fairy King getting beaten to a pulp in front of them. They were talking about a girl in front of their chairs whose head was bowed to the floor, who wore a black long-sleeved shirt and a matching black combat skirt. Her hair was shorter than Liz's, but the same color only a little lighter blonde. Her hair only fell to her shoulders, and was tied in two small pigtails on the sides of her head. When Liz spotted this slave she froze in place and her eyes opened wide, trembling as she stared at the shadowed-over face of the other Lord's slave.

"Physical torture will never succeed in making truly loyal slaves," Magneto continued to Dodoria as Liz started listening in to their conversation. "They may fear you now, but if they ever retrieved any true power, they would turn on you in a second. Unlike my slaves, right?" The girl in front of him nodded her head but said nothing. Magneto's voice turned a little darker and the man said, "I asked you a question."

"Yes, my Lord," she said, her voice not full of fear, but calmly accepting like she did not understand the first time that she was allowed to speak.

Dodoria's eyes widened and he turned to Magneto, "This must have been a weak-willed one then, yeah?"

"No," Magneto replied. He smiled softly and continued, "I bring her around because it was quite a challenge to forge her like the others. Months of struggle went by, but sooner or later, like the rest, her eyes showed me that I had succeeded." He spoke louder so the girl knew it was directed at her, "Lift your head."

Liz was already nervous, already afraid, just by hearing the voice and seeing the general appearance of this girl in front of her. _It could be anyone. A lot of people look, like, like…_ The other slave girl lifted her head and her dark green eyes were hazy, no spark inside them. Liz saw those eyes and the unobstructed face of that girl and her face took on a look of horror. "Maka," she whispered and could not help the tears from welling up in her eyes.

A man sitting on her right turned his head and he looked at the slave girl on his side with interest. Magneto swung his arm in a small motion and Liz yelped as she was lifted off the floor and placed directly in front of his chair. "Oi, what do you think you're doing?" Dodoria asked, frowning at Magneto who was messing with his slaves without his permission. It was not the worry for Liz's well being that he said it, but the blatant disrespect that pestered him.

"A weapon," Magneto said with interest. "Unfortunately, this one is not like my own. She is not as _unique,_ as dear Maka," once he said her name and saw Liz's reaction up close, he knew he was correct and said, "A friend of yours?"

Dodoria saw Liz's reaction and he snapped his head back to start laughing loudly. "That's rich," he said in a deep tone and looked back down at the girl in a red bikini who turned her head and looked back at an unmoving Maka with such a pained expression on her face. "Now that's a look I haven't seen in a while," Dodoria said nostalgically. "I used to go planet to planet, killing most people in a family and leaving just one or two alive in a village or a planet. The looks on the faces of pathetic races when they're at their worst, when they come for their revenge only to fail," the fat pink monster smirked menacingly and licked his lips. "It's delicious."

 _Before I got caught, before Soul, Tsubaki, and Black Star got caught even, Soul told me Maka's team disappeared one day on a run when the two of them were in the middle of a fight. He wasn't out there to help her, and she must have been captured. Oh Maka, we looked everywhere for you._ Dodoria and Magneto kept talking behind her, and she knew she had to turn back to face them in a second, but as she looked into Maka's eyes she saw the other girl flinch. Maka's body twitched in an unnoticeable way, one that Magneto did not see as he was too busy listening to the rantings of an alien boasting about mass planetary genocide. Maka's head lifted up the slightest amount and her eyes, though still glossed over, were not staring straight ahead any longer. They were looking directly back into Liz's.

 _She's still in there,_ Liz thought. _She's still fighting. Hold on a little longer Maka. I was done fighting, I was going to give up and just wait here for Patty and Kid to show up, but I'm not going to leave you with this monster for long. I'm going to get you out of here!_

* * *

 **600 Miles Southeast of Dressrosa**

Night fell over the western coast of Aebrith. Had it still been light out though, the inside of the Order of the Sith's gathering circle would still be dark. There were no windows in the giant chamber, just an empty room full of dark figures. The lights from purple and red lightsabers around the circle of Sith Lords was all that lit up the room and cast dim lights on their faces.

"You were defeated Sion, accept your punishment!" A dark-skinned bald man standing near the head of the circle with two others announced. He was muscular and stepped forward to glare harder at the gray-skinned man on his knees in the center of the circle. The third-in-command of the Order of the Sith stepped closer to Sion, "A human girl-"

"She was no ordinary human," Sion said while staring straight at the floor beneath his bowed head. "She had a Keyblade."

"So you have said," a voice began from next to the man who was just admonishing him. This voice hissed unlike the darker skinned man's growl, and his throat sounded scratchy as he continued, "But you have yet to mention what has been bothering you since you arrived here. I can sense it inside you, a discontent with the Order. If this girl really was a Keybearer," the second-in-command lifted his head and his hood pushed back a little to reveal his wrinkly old face, "then I wonder what else she did to you?"

Sion said nothing. _**"Just because someone tells you to kill for them does not mean you have to do it. Who are you fighting me for? Doflamingo? Some other Sith Lord? You and I have no problem with each other… Ahh haa, ahh haa. You're pretty good. The darkness inside you is really strong, but I'm going to be stronger every time! 'Why?' Because! Light is always stronger than the darkness!"**_

The third figure at the head of the circle lifted his head and a deep frown came to his face. He did not move his arms, but Sion brought his hands up to his throat as he could no longer breath. That tall figure at the backs the other two stepped up so he was right behind the space in between them. In a deep voice that echoed around the room, the Emperor spoke, "Your heart has been tainted by light. There is no place for you here." Sion's body started to crumble but he could not let out a yell as his throat was already crushed. He turned to dust in the center of the room, then the Emperor shot up his left hand fast. "Not this time."

A ghost materialized in the center of the room above Sion's ashes. Sion's translucent form grabbed at its throat as the Emperor closed his open hand into a fist, and the Force Ghost screamed before sizzling away like it was being incinerated. Finally the screaming stopped, and the Emperor lowered his arm back down to his side. "There will be no retaliation against those who defeated Doflamingo and Driscoll," the Emperor announced darkly. "We will give them a wide berth so that they will leave us be."

"That way," the wrinkly old man started. Darth Sidious lifted his palms to face the ceiling and he continued, "We can return to our plans for the Resistance."

A voice spoke from the outside of the murmuring circle, "Our advance slows with every day."

"That is why," the Emperor began again, silencing the rest of the room on the spot. "The new strategy is being implemented." He rose an arm and in the center of the circle where Sion's ghost once floated, a holographic map of lower Aebrith appeared. "There," he motioned and a bolt of lightning sparked on a single dot on the map. "Terra Base will be the first to fall, with the help of our new allies."

Out from the opposite side of the circle as the leaders of the Sith, three figures stepped with a woman with long curly black hair in the center of them. She bowed in a very over-the-top way, while the two behind her made smaller, more nervous bows. The woman lifted back up and smiled a crazed smile, twisting the tip of a wand on her teeth, her eyes bugging out as she looked around the room. Bellatrix Lestrange cackled and then looked straight towards the Emperor, "We are very pleased to have been hired. Our Master is already on his way to Pon-Gatso. You will have your victory over the region within the month."

"I expect no less," the Emperor said, his voice chilling to the bone even for the three witches in black who were representing their organization at the Order of the Sith. The Emperor turned his head to his right and continued, "However, Darth Bane will be leading the assault on Terra." He saw the woman open her mouth to argue, and instead her hands clenched around her throat and her eyes went wide as they bugged out of her head. The Emperor continued in just as calm a deep voice, "It is not a problem."

Bellatrix was released from her hold and her legs trembled. She almost fell to her knees, but she stopped herself form doing so in front of all these Sith. When her eyes snapped back open she could not hide the murderous rage in them, but the Sith Lords around the room did not seem to care. Her right hand holding her wand shook violently, but the two behind her grabbed her by an arm each. "Of course it is not," the man on Bellatrix's left side said.

"We will follow his commands if it means death," the woman on Bellatrix's right added.

The Emperor nodded his head, then stepped backwards into the shadows of the room. His lightsaber sank back into the hilt, and he was gone. There was not even a shadow of him remaining where it just was, and the witches went wide-eyed as they could see through that empty space at the wall behind it. Lightsabers went off all around the room, and it became pitch black. Then, a voice spoke from behind them, the voice of the dark-skinned man who the Emperor called Darth Bane. He was behind them before they even knew it, his voice in the backs of their heads, whispering in a voice that gave them chills, "I will gather an army. Be ready for my call."

"Y-yeah," the male wizard began as he turned. When he turned around though, there was no one behind him. His eyes had adjusted to the dark already, and he looked around to see that the three of them were the only ones left in the chamber. Once he was sure they were all gone, he muttered under his breath, "Fucking Siths."

"You should have let me go for his throat," Bellatrix snarled, snapping her head from one to the other of her comrades.

"Then we all would have died," the other witch seethed. She heard her voice echo around the room and it gave her shivers to be in there on their own. "Let's go," she said.

The three cloaked figures put their hoods back up, then turned into pillars of black smoke that flew towards the entrance they came in from. They pushed the doors wide open and left them that way so that some light flooded into the room from the dim hallway outside. The dim light did make the room noticeably lighter though, light enough that had the witches and wizard stayed there for another few seconds, they may have noticed the figure in the corner. He stood there silently, stilly, so blandly unnoticeable that he was not even detected by the special agents hired by the Sith.

The figure stepped forward. He was a small boy, with short, straight, dark-purple hair. He had a broom in one hand, a dustpan in the other, and he wore a brown cloak that covered his entire body except for his head as his hood was down. He walked forward and his steps made a lot of noise; not because they echoed on the floor, but because of the clanking and jingling that followed behind him as he walked. Out from the bottom of his cloak, heavy link-chains dragged behind him and each of his steps was small as he had to shuffle because of the chain connecting his legs.

The boy walked into the center of the room and silently began sweeping up the remains of Darth Sion. He stopped sweeping for a moment and looked around the room, his eyes examining every last crevice he could see. There were pillars around the circle, but he was in there before the meeting and kept close watch on every person he saw enter and leave. _I am alone,_ he thought, then his eyes gazed towards the doors to the hall. He rose up his left hand, pointed it at those doors, and they ever so slowly creaked to a close, plunging the room back into complete darkness. The boy closed his eyes and took a deep breath, before snapping them open and glaring at the pile of gray ash on the ground.

The child barely into his teens pointed a hand down at the ash and little by little, the pile started lifting into the air. His face covered in sweat, but he rose up a single line of ash and he continued to raise more up into that line without making the line any bigger. He brought more and more substance to the same space, making the ash harden as it got denser and denser. He rose up his cloak with his free hand and his face took on an expression of panic as the hard line of ash in front of him trembled like it was about to fall apart. He focused all his might on it and whispered under his breath, "Size is not an issue. Length of time neither. I can do this."

The ash steadied and he let out a deep breath. He looked down at his ankles and sweat was pouring down his face now as he saw the holes on the chains around them. He lowered the thin spike of ash down, lower, and lower, and a bead of sweat started dripping down the bridge of his nose. He watched it, going cross-eyed to follow it drip down, and he tried blowing it off with little blows of wind. It was not coming off though, and it was so distracting his Force control was taking a toll. In a frustrated movement he rose up his left arm and wiped his face fast, but when he lowered that arm, his ash line had not steadied, but collapsed completely and now there was a bunch of ash on top of his bare feet that were already covered in callouses and unclosed wounds.

"Shit, shit!" he hissed in anger and frustration. "Every time! I'm so close! I want to get out of here! I want to go home!" His voice continued to rise, and he realized it when it echoed off the walls around him. He shut himself up and looked around, checking to see if anyone was going to come see what was going on. Seconds passed and nothing happened, but he did not sigh in relief. He was still far too angry. He snapped his gaze back to the floor and tried focusing, but anger and frustration made it so the most he could get were a few particles of gray ash to shift around on the pile on the floor. "Grrr, rrrrrggg!" The boy rose up his right hand that he was using to try and move the ash, and he held it above his head, "God damn it!" He yelled.

His entire right hand covered in bright purple flames. A ball of fire emerged, and he threw it down at the floor below him, incinerating the ash into even smaller particles that scattered into the air. Flames ignited the ground and slowly died down after his outburst, but they cast a dark purple glow on his furious face as he stood there in the Order of the Sith. He looked angry, and frustrated, and afraid, and the Emperor let out a low chuckle from a room away.

The kid standing on purple fire breathed heavily in and out until his magical flames were all gone. He clenched his fists at his sides and water filled his eyes that were so dry a minute ago, as he thought that he had gotten control over himself, that he had told himself he would mask how he truly felt for now on. The kid glared at the floor beneath him and whispered, "Natsu, Gray, Master, Dad, I don't know how much more of this I can take." He wiped his eyes with his right arm and then lifted his head back up with dry eyes. Romeo Conbolt stared across the room at the doors out into the hall, and he imagined the path he would have to take from that exact spot to make it out of there. _The chains are only the first step. I need to have every move planned out._ Romeo looked back down at some lingering pieces of dust and he lifted back up his right hand, pointing it at the floor and making the dust start swirling in a circle. _One of these days I'm going to escape this prison…_

 _Natsu, if you are on this world… Please, help me!_

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed... or got sad, don't really know which, maybe both? Leave a review telling me what you think below, questions or comments you have, or predictions for the next character to get a chapter in Chapter 5: Around the World, (next chapter it's one guy with a flashback* XD). Anyway, lots and lots of despair this chapter, but also some new characters I hope you're excited for. King, Liz, Maka, and Romeo are all slaves, getting brutally treated by their Cooperative Lords and High Lords, some worse than others... If y'all thought I put an M rating on Heroes Will Rise and not Nexus for no reason, prepare to be sadly mistaken, as shit gets dark pretty fast now that they've made it to Aebrith.**

joebob323 chapter 25 . 11h ago

Yeah, it probably was Matt Parkman. I think this chapter was a huge eye-opener for me, as it helped the plot along, as well as introducing the characters we hadn't seen since metropolis fell. It was nice to see them doing their own things, as well as more people that are heading towards Arbirth, all for different reasons. I particularly like what you've done with Krillin, and I fell like he has a ton of potential for growing stronger. He was one of the only humans that even stood up to cell, and on a planet with more civilians, he naturally becomes a force to be reckoned with. DBS is also showing how strong Krillin can be, when his experience and battlefield techniques overpower Gohan, who should be many times stronger than him. Great job, and Hope to see more Krillin in the future. Also, quick question, are Ace, Sabo, and Mizore all in Arbirth, or are they watching the broadcast from Awul?

 **Thanks for another review! Yours was the only one this time, but truthfully I have not even slept yet since posting the last chapter. I was up all night writing essays and doing HW, then I wrote most of this chapter earlier today. Glad you like what I'm doing with Krillin, he shows up scattered all over the place... don't wanna spoil. I loved Gohan vs Krillin's fight, thought it was awesome especially cuz now Gohan's really going to get into his training knowing that Krillin can beat his ass. And for that final question, I put 'miles north of Dressrosa' at the top of their part to indicate that they were straight up the coast from where Luffy's group landed. So yeah, they were all in Aebrith, everyone who was in the last chapter were new arrivals: Ace, Krillin, and Stan. Thanks again!**

 **-Here's a quick list of characters everyone! Thanks for reading! 'Till next time!**

 **DBZ: Dodoria, Appule**

 **X-Men: Magneto**

 **Avatar TLA: Fire Lord**

 **Star Wars: Darth Bane, Darth Sion, Sidious, the Emperor ( ;) not giving him away yet), Sith Lords**

 **Fairy Tail: Master Makarov, Romeo, Gray, Natsu, Macao**

 **Harry Potter: Bellatrix Lestrange**

 **Ben 10: Driscoll**

 **One Piece: Doflamingo**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Kairi, Keyblade, Keybearer**

 **Seven Deadly Sins: Elaine, King (Harlequin), Merlin, Meliodas, Ban**

 **Soul Eater: Arachne, Giriko, Kishin, Soul, Black Star, Maka, Tsubaki, Liz, Patty, Death the Kid**


	27. Nexus HWR 5-4 Black Star

**Nexus HWR 5.4 Black Star:**

 **The Capital**

To the very far north of Dressrosa, across the Cataclysm Line, thousands of miles away from the Straw Hats and their friends, lay the Capital of the King's empire. The city itself was hundreds of square miles large. Near the center of the southern fourth of the giant city was a circular building with an open-air roof that could turn into a dome on rainy days. Inside this round building, wrapping around the walls, were thousands of seats. At the moment though, not one person was sitting down. They were all up on their feet cheering and yelling down at the stadium below.

A single figure stood on the stadium's floor surrounded by collapsed and bloodied bodies. He held up the dual scythes in his hands and screamed, "Yeah! Woohoo!" Black Star jumped up and down and flexed his arm muscles. The teenager loved attention, so having thousands of eyes focused on him was a pretty amazing feeling.

The crowd continued cheering for him for a little while longer, then the entire Colosseum started clearing out. This was the final match of he day so the spectators made their ways for the doors. Black Star grinned around at all his moaning opponents and laughed while pointing a thumb at himself. "Remember my name! Black Star! Hahahaha!"

The blue haired teen saw some people looking over at him from a doorway on the Colosseum floor. They motioned for him to come over and he grimaced, but then regained his smile as he was in too good of a mood to be brought down now. He walked over to them like he owned the place. He smirked as they tried glowering at him while he walked past.

They didn't like that. A second after he got through the door into the dark hallway, metal bracelets on his ankles and wrists glowed red. Black Star kept walking for a few seconds, then dropped down to one knee. He was facing away from the two he just walked past, but he could tell they were smirking at him. The agony was unbearable; every nerve ending in his body stung with excruciating pain.

He knew what they wanted to hear, he knew there was only one way the bracelets would go back to the green. The spiky haired kid didn't want to give them that satisfaction though. **"Just scream Black Star,"** Tsubaki yelled at him through their mental connection. Black Star's eyes squinted open so he could look at the scythes in his hands. _No... way... Ahhh!_

 **"Out loud!"** Tsubaki yelled at the arrogant boy.

 _N-N-_ "AGHGGHHHHH!" He flipped onto his back and his body arched up. The pain finally became unbearable for him to remain quiet any longer.

The two men near him waited a few more seconds, then one of them pressed a button and the braces all blinked back to having green lights on them instead of red. "Get back to your cage," the rhino-looking figure with the remote scoffed at him. "And get ready, there's another Battle Royale coming up."

Black Star's head lifted up a little. He'd been lying on his back taking deep breaths while his bloodshot eyes turned back to normal. _Battle Royale,_ he thought, looking over at Rhino and Grizzly. "Either of you planning on entering? I would _kill_ for a chance with you in the ring," his eyes narrowed at the Chimera Ants and they could see the murderous intent coming from him.

"Slaves only," Grizzly growled, his voice much lower than his comrade's. He saw a flinch on the kid in front of him and wondered if he would survive an attack from this monster-child. "Remember kid, what you do determines more than just your own fate."

"Let him try it," Rhino said, also seeing the flinch of the slave in front of him. He held up the remote in his hand and pressed the button again, making Black Star's eyes widen. "If you want to take this, then take it," Rhino told him.

"Rhino," Grizzly warned.

"Let him," the rhinoceros/human mix Chimera Ant said. He saw the boy start fighting the pain again, which was something amazing in itself when compared to how fast all the other slaves started screaming. "If he tries, he's dead, and he knows it."

Black Star's hands clenched harder around his dual scythes. He was seriously considering it, especially since he lost all rational thought with the excruciating pain coursing through his body. **"BLACK STAR STOP!"** Tsubaki screamed at him.

Black Star had bent his knees a little, making even Rhino sweat as it looked like he was about to pounce. But before he dove at them, he turned around and started walking away from them. Rhino realized he had began sweating and snarled furiously. He decided not to press the button to turn off the pain, and instead watched as the kid who tried walking away stumbled into the wall on the right. The rhino-ant lowered his jaw a little as the boy screamed and just kept walking forward while he yelled.

"Knock it off," Grizzly growled in his guttural voice.

"I will," Rhino stated, but grinned seeing the kid stumble and scream again further down the dark hallway. "In a minute," the Chimera Ant added with a sadistic grin on his gray face.

Black Star reached an opening in the wall that he walked into. He moved into a more well-lit area with bars on the walls. The steel bars had small spaces between them so Black Star could see the other gladiators he was walking past. They could all see him too and most stared in shock at Black Star's red-lit bracelets and anklets. "RAAAAGHHGHH!" Black Star roared. He slammed his fist into his chest over and over to get some other sensation besides pain.

"Why are your chains on?" Someone called out of their cell. The guy was four times as tall as a normal man with long curly black hair and enormous muscles. Spartan stepped up to his bars and looked through as the kid turned his way. He'd had his chains turned on before, but they were supposed to be for immediate punishment.

 **"I keep telling you not to aggravate them!"** Tsubaki yelled mentally at Black Star. He could tell she was crying but he couldn't respond to her before his legs gave out and he screamed out in agony again. He collapsed to the ground of the hall before making it back to his own cell.

The guard in charge of the cells looked over from the opposite side of the room as where Black Star came in. "Get in your cell," the Chimera Ant called over without any pity in his voice for the screaming boy.

Finally the bracelets and anklets turned back green. After so much of the torture though, Black Star was lying there unmoving for several seconds. "I said move!" The guard shouted from across the room. "Or do you want some more?"

"You'll kill him!" A voice Black Star recognized yelled.

"Move Black Star!"

"Get up idiot!"

After a few more shouts from voices ahead of him that he recognized, Black Star pushed himself up on his feet. He had his head bowed as he walked over to his cage doors. The guard slammed his claw down on a button on a panel and the cell bars in front of Black Star dropped down into the floor. He walked inside and the bars shot back up fast.

The dozen people already in the cell stared at Black Star as he stood just inside the entrance, unmoving. His head was pointed down, and a white haired teen near him stepped forward. "Black Star," Soul whispered, trying to see what was up with his friend.

"You alright?" Kiba asked as Black Star started shaking. The older teen took a step forward, then Black Star's head snapped up and he dropped his jaw like most others in the room.

"I won!" Black Star shouted. He held up Tsubaki victoriously and laughed loudly with his head facing the ceiling. "You should have seen me! I was amazing! Hahaha!"

"Are you enjoying this?" Kiba asked the idiotic kid who was laughing about their situation.

"You're a slave," an older man in the back of the cage stated. He was sitting cross-legged and he looked cross as he stared at Black Star. "Don't forget it."

"Bah," Black Star scoffed, waving off the old guy with long white hair. "Whatever pervy old dude," the teen laughed and called out again, "I'm a winner! There were thousands of people in the stadium today, all came to see me!"

"If he doesn't shut up, I may kill him," a man across the room in the cage opposite theirs growled. He was leaning against the wall in a black suit that was ripped from all the fighting since he got here.

"You're just moody 'cause they won't give you anymore cigars after your last loss," a tall teen with an orange pompadour taunted. He was in a black button down and black pants that no longer had pant legs below the knees. Kuwabara shouted across the hall between cages, "You woulda had no chance if I was there!"

"Ha!" Black Star yelled back, grabbing on the bars on his cell and leaning in. "I dare you to come over here and say that!" He shouted at the older teen.

"What was that pipsqueak?!" Kuwabara shouted, grabbing onto his own bars and slamming his head forward so that the sides of his forehead were pressed into the steel.

The scruffy looking man with slicked back hair and a lack of cigars glared at Kuwabara's back. He rose up an arm with a golden hook at the end of it and started reaching forward, but a different hand grabbed him by the wrist. Crocodile looked down and saw a young boy with spiky dark green hair glaring up into his eyes. "Don't," Gon Freecs told the older man. It was more of a warning about the guards than himself, though from Gon's eyes, Crocodile could tell the kid wouldn't let him do it. _Or he would_ _ **try**_ _to stop me,_ the former pirate thought.

"You should step back," the old man with long white hair told Black Star who had his face pressed against the bars to continue shouting at Kuwabara. Both teens ignored him, so a few seconds later when the guard turned on the steel bars' electric function, the two of them were shocked and thrown back across their cells. The old man scooted a little to his left right before the kid slammed into the wall behind where he was just sitting. "You should conserve your strength."

"What's the point Jiraiya?" A middle-aged man with graying hair who was leaning on the wall near him whispered. "None of us are getting out of here, let him do what he wants."

"Do not be so quick to accept this fate, Rob," Jiraiya warned. "Not having hope will make you slow in your next fight."

Black Star pressed his hands down on the floor on his sides. In a flash of light, Tsubaki appeared standing in front of him where his weapons had fallen on the floor. She frowned at the beat-up appearance of her Meister but sighed as he pushed himself up again. Black Star sat up and started breathing heavily while looking at the floor.

He waited a few seconds before getting up to his feet in one swift motion. He jumped up and turned himself upside-down in midair. When he hit the ground he caught himself with only one finger. He started doing push ups on that finger while still sweating from his last match and the torture after. In a loud voice Black Star announced, "There's a Battle Royale coming up."

Everyone in the cage and the nearby ones heard him and looked around at each other, perking up at the sound of that. Black Star continued just as loud, "You might as well not enter, because this time, I'm winning for sure."

"Yeah sure, that's what you said the last two times," Kuwabara muttered across the room as he kept leaning back against the wall he slammed into after getting shocked. "Ch, another Royale so soon. Give me a break," he put his hands behind his head and sighed.

A few of the others in his cell looked at him sadly. Kuwabara slowly had been losing hope ever since getting caught, but it looked like he was not going to even try at the next Battle Royale.

"Ha!" Black Star laughed. "You can break all you want." He continued to do push ups on only his palms. His muscles felt like mush, very painful mush, but Black Star ignored the pain to focus on his training. _I will get stronger. I will win this Battle Royale. I will be the best!_

* * *

 **FIRST DAY ON NEXUS (FD+0)**

"You're insane!" Black Star shouted, slashing his sword in front of him to get some blood off it.

The enemy in front of him staggered forward with a large horizontal slash across the front of his chest. His clothes were mostly ripped off showing a scarred-up torso, but his face was the most terrifying thing about him. On top of the strange glowing green eye-piece strapped over his forehead, his facial expression itself sent chills down the spines of everyone around him. Zanku's Imperial Arms, Spectator, picked up movement on his left side and the green eye darted that way.

He lifted up his sword without turning and blocked the swipes of the other swordsman who charged him. "You beheaded Mohji!" Cabaji yelled angrily. The swordsman with long black hair and a white and blue scarf around his neck slashed over and over at Zanku, but the man never looked his way and kept deflecting every slash swung at him. "You bastard!" Cabaji yelled.

"Hahaha, which one was he?" Zanku asked. He looked around at all the decapitated bodies and the heads lying around him. "Him? Or him?" Zanku snapped his head left right as Cabaji was swinging down again, "Or you?" He slashed hard and his sword smashed straight through the weapon Cabaji was swinging down at him.

"Ahh!" The pirate swordsman yelled and fell backwards with a long vertical slash down his chest.

"Haaa, RA!" Black Star charged at his opponent and slashed over and over with his katana.

 **"Careful Black Star,"** Tsubaki called out to him through their mental link. The weapon in Black Star's hand noticed the green eye on their opponent's head darting around incredibly fast. **"He has precognition. He knows our attacks before we make them."**

"Then we have to move faster than he can block!" Black Star yelled. His skin started covering in black lines that wrapped around his arms and legs like snakes. Black patterns formed on his face and a dark aura surrounded his sword. Black Star sped up his slashing speed and Zanku had to compensate by moving faster himself.

"You, you, YOU!" Zanku slammed his sword down but Black Star leapt up in the air. The crazy man's sword smashed down into the ground and got imbedded in it. Zanku tugged up, but he had no real force behind his pull, as for some reason all of his strength was leaving his body. The spiky blond haired man's green eyepiece fell off of his forehead, the straps having been cut as Black Star flipped over his head. He stumbled forward, and then dropped down to his knees as blood splattered up from his back.

Black Star slashed his sword across the front of his body and his aura started to fade. He was panting and he turned around, "That's right! Black Star is the one who-"

The kid with spiky blue hair stopped shouting and dropped his jaw. A man with a deep vertical slash down the front of his body was standing in front of Zanku's knelt form. Cabaji had his arms stuck out and the sword in his grip went straight through Zanku's left eye and out the back of his head.

"Waaa! WAAA!"

"Shit," Black Star muttered, shaking off his shock at seeing that brutal execution. He spun around and darted over to a baby he originally started fighting Zanku to save. "It's okay kid," he told the boy with oddly-shaped black spikes in his hair. He picked up the toddler and turned the kid around, putting both of the boy's legs around his neck so he could sit on his shoulder. "Don't look back kid, just stare forward with me," Black Star told him as he walked away from the piles of corpses and heads behind him.

Goten sniffled a few times and kept crying, but he did so softer. His cries suddenly quieted completely and both he and Black Star froze before looking up in the sky. The blue sky suddenly darkened, losing its light blue color and dropping to a tint of green. All over the sky, monsters started to appear and the color of the sky tinted even darker green. "What the Hell-" Black Star muttered, right before the ground shook intensely and he stumbled to the right.

Black Star had no idea what was happening. The fights with Broly, Madara, Cell, and King Cold were so far away, but the ground had been shaking nonstop since he arrived. Now that Madara had Jorgen's wand though, the entire planet was trembling under the ninja's might. Black Star kept walking with Goten on his shoulders, the boy oddly now quiet right as everyone around them started screaming.

 _This is mad._ The older of the boys thought as he wandered in the direction the shaking was more intense. He could see the dark colors tinting the sky all starting from the same direction and he headed that way. _If this world's going to end so soon after I got here, I'm not going to be left out of the action. I'm Black Star! The star of this show!_ He opened his mouth to laugh loudly, but out the left corner of his eyes he spotted something flying towards him, something big. Black Star turned his head and the little boy on his shoulders clapped his hands together over Black Star's head excitedly. "Go-haa, Go-haa," the kid exclaimed as he clapped.

"Go-what?" Black Star muttered, and then the object flying his way slammed into the ground several miles away. It hit the floor and the planet shook, right as the sky lost its dark green tint and turned a deep dark purple. Black Star could not decide where he wanted to look as there was carnage in every direction of him, but what he did decide to do was jump up in the air and backwards to avoid the thing that hit the ground and was skidding through the plains at a hundred miles per hour. The objects ripped a massive trench through the landscape and as Black Star landed he had to slash his dual-scythes around to block all the debris flying his way.

When the dust and dirt finally settled down, Black Star snapped his head to the right where the trench kept going for another hundred meters or so before coming to a sudden stop. Wind slammed into the boy who crossed his arms and tucked his elbows into his sides tight to make sure the laughing little boy on his shoulders did not fly off. _What got him so excited?_ Black Star thought confusedly as the kid kept clapping his hands and saying the same nonsensical words. Black Star stared over at the end of the trench, and his eyes slowly started to widen as a muscular man in a torn red cape came flying back the trench in the direction he came from.

What just sent the hero with a strange 'S' symbol in the center of his chest flying backwards was a huge gray fist covered in spikes that had a shockwave rippling out from its collision with the Man of Steel's chest. That shockwave was what hit Black Star and the kid stared in shock at the monster behind the fist. Doomsday stepped forward and brought its elbows down to its sides, pushing its scary-looking face forward and roaring at the top of its lungs. The monster's voice created vibrations that shot away from its body and crashed into Black Star who had to cross his arms but was still sent skidding backwards over a dozen feet. He dug his feet in to stop himself and then lowered his arms, to see the monster charging towards the muscular man in blue and red who was getting back up on his feet with a pained expression on his face.

Superman ran forward to meet Doomsday and he dodged left to avoid the first fist Doomsday threw at him. He slammed his own right fist up into the center of Doomsday's torso, but the monster rose both arms above his head and put his fists together as one before slamming down on top of Clark Kent's head. Superman slammed into the ground and created a crater with a fifty foot radius. Black Star had to leap away again to avoid getting hit by rocks, then as he was coming down he wished he had jumped the other way as he saw the scary monster with glowing red eyes grab the muscular man in the center of the crater around his skull and lift him by it. Doomsday squeezed and Superman let out a roar of agony, but as he did, the boy on Black Star's head who had stopped smiling so much after seeing the scary monster clapped his hands together again. "GO-HAAAN!" The kid exclaimed in a very high-pitched voice.

As the boy shouted, a yellow blur came out of nowhere, appearing on the other side of the much larger figures closer to Black Star. The boy slammed an elbow down on Doomsday's right arm that it was grabbing Superman's skull with, and the force of his elbow down on the arm created a shockwave of white that rippled around the area. And Doomsday's grip barely loosened at all. It did loosen a tiny bit though, and Superman's eyes glowed red in the following instant before firing two red beams directly into the palm holding him. This was not the first time Superman had faced Doomsday though, and every time he beat the monster it came back nearly impervious to ways it was damaged the fight before. The amount of heat focused into Doomsday's powerful flesh was enough though to make the creature's skin start to burn, but right as Clark thought he was getting somewhere, Doomsday clenched down even harder than before, while swinging around his other fist and slamming it into the demi-Saiyan boy who started pounding it in the face over and over again.

Gohan saw the fist coming and dodged above it, but Doomsday rose his fist to account for Gohan's dodge and hit him straight in the left kidney. The boy's entire left side was about the size of Doomsday's fist, so along with his kidney he felt his ribs creaking and his lungs pushing in. He was sent flying off the fist and into the edge of the crater that did not stop his momentum so he continued skidding through the planet for another hundred yards. As soon as he started slowing down though, he formed a massive kiai behind his body and glared forward with teal eyes as cold as ice while the ground behind him exploded. _Mr. Piccolo, I will not let this beast get away with what it did to you!_ Gohan brought his arms down at his sides and he roared with his head snapped back, "AAAHHHHHH!" His golden aura expanded a hundred times and the planet beneath him trembled, right as the sky above and for tens of thousands of miles in every direction filled with white light.

Black Star spun from the screaming golden boy to the sky full of warm white light that moved down from the atmosphere above to cover even the surface he was on. As he was getting engulfed in the light though, he looked down himself and back over at the monster holding Superman by the skull that now had a lot of blood on the sides of it. As the light hit Doomsday, the monster roared and stumbled backwards, dropping Superman as it did. Doomsday reached up and grabbed at its own eyes as the white light seemed to blind it, while Superman grabbed his own temples and took deep breaths as he wondered how close to popping his skull the monster was right there. As he thought about it though, the pain in his head started to subside, but then the feeling of healing faded and he still felt sore and in agony from his long battle with this monster. It was enough though, and Clark Kent flew straight up in the air so he was a hundred feet above Doomsday. _Whatever that light was, it may have just saved my life. I can not let this second chance pass me by._

Gohan screamed and he shot towards Doomsday who was back to glaring at Superman now that the light stopped blinding him. Gohan got halfway there when he heard a shout on his left and spun only to open his eyes wider than ever at the sight of the boy reaching towards him. "Goten!" Gohan shouted. He changed his flight path and flew towards the boy with spiky blue hair who had his baby brother on his shoulders. Gohan checked that his brother was alright, then snapped his gaze down at the older teen. "Get my brother out of here!"

"No way!" Black Star yelled back at Gohan, surprising and confusing the twelve year old who thought Black Star would help him considering the teen looked to be protecting Goten as it was. Black Star reached up and lifted the younger kid off his shoulders, "If this is your brother, you take care of him!" He tossed Goten at Gohan, the younger boy giggling and laughing while Gohan in his surprise had to shoot forward and catch him. He angrily looked down at the teen once he did and was going to shout at him for doing something so dangerous, but the kid had lifted up the weapons in his hands and already started sprinting forward towards the monster facing Superman. "It's my turn!" Black Star screamed.

Gohan felt out the teen's power, and though it was huge, he shook his head in fear at what he knew was about to happen. "Goten," Gohan whispered, looking down at the boy in his arms, and then back at the monster that killed his mentor. All the rage he felt was still bubbling inside him and the Super Saiyan 2 felt more powerful than he ever had before. He trembled and Goten stopped smiling at his brother who he was happy to see, instead gaining a scared expression on his baby face. "I'll be right back," Gohan said, glaring over at Doomsday as he did. The kid vanished in a blur of yellow light, while Black Star was just showing up next to Doomsday with a transforming weapon in his hands.

"Mode- Uncanny Sword!" Black Star yelled right as Tsubaki turned into a long katana. Black lines wrapped around his weapon, his face, and his arms as his speed picked up immensely. Superman had just started to fly back down at Doomsday, and he spotted the kid reach the monster before him. Black Star shot right by Doomsday's back, slicing his weapon across it as he did. He smirked and glanced back, "How did you like-" he stopped shouting as he gawked at the un-scratched back of the monster. The beast did turn its head towards him though, and it started charging right as Black Star landed on the ground. The boy was already panting hard as using this form took a lot of stamina to keep up, but he ground his teeth and shot back towards Doomsday himself. **"Watch out for the right fist,"** Tsubaki warned her Meister as that was the one Doomsday looked to be throwing.

Black Star raced straight towards the right fist of the monster and he jumped up as the beast threw it forward. He stuck his sword with a black shadow coming off of it down into the monster's arm still rushing forward and he slashed all the way up it to its elbow, before the teen saw the other fist crossing in front of its body towards him. After seeing Gohan try to dodge the fist only to get hit anyway, he felt all he could do was lift his free arm in front of his chest and face to stop the blow from being too damaging. **"Shadow Star!"** Tsubaki yelled, and the black lines on the sword Black Star just finished slashing shot off and slammed into the bottom of Doomsday's other arm, pushing it up and over Black Star's head. Black Star smirked and almost thanked her, but he had no time as he seriously underestimated the force of that punch as the wind around it slammed into his face so hard his cheeks pushed back and his body got thrown away through the air.

The teen's eyes were clenched shut, and when he pried them open, he and Tsubaki opened their eyes wide, Tsubaki's inside the mental world she was in while her body was in the form of a sword. The imminent death they saw coming was avoided however, as Superman slammed both of his legs into the side of Doomsday's face and sent the charging monster slamming down into the ground on Black Star's right. The boy finally did a backflip in midair and he skid back on his shoes another ten yards away from the Kryptonian who saved him. "Thanks, but I've got this," Black Star called out confidently.

Superman did not risk turning to the kid but he opened his mouth to tell him to get back and run. Before he could however, he heard a shout, "Third Form- Severed Shadow!" As soon as Black Star shouted it, the kid appeared ten feet to Superman's left. At the same time though, he appeared five yards to the older man's right, and fifteen yards ahead of him, right past the hole in the ground Doomsday just got out of. The muscular giant beast snapped its head back and forth as the teenager fighting it created dozens of after-images with his enhanced speed in this form. **"Black Star, you're running out of time!"** Tsubaki yelled at her Meister.

"Then let's do this," Black Star growled, and as he moved to make his next after-image, he changed direction instead and shot towards Doomsday while rising up his sword. He was behind Doomsday, but while he was mid-flight the monster turned a hundred and eighty degrees to look him straight in the eyes with ones glowing deep red. It snapped its head forward and bit down, but Black Star's reaction time was incredible as well and he spun in the air by twisting his body with an incredibly amount of force. Doomsday's head still smashed into him as its jaws snapped down on his side, and the monster spun its head hard to the side Black Star was going past on. All of Black Star's after-images vanished and the kid slammed down into the ground so hard he lost concentration and conscious thought for several minutes.

 **"…Star, Black Star! Get up!"** Black Star's hazy eyes focused and he looked up to see a young woman with a long black ponytail and a tan gi leaning over him on her knees. He sat up slowly and mumbled, "Where am-" The last hours of his life came rushing back to him and the boy's eyes opened wide as he remembered what was going on. He looked right and stared into the distant west where three suns were setting towards some giant mountains that touched the sky. On the near faces of those mountains, Black Star could see giant robots fighting even bigger monsters, and then a man bigger than any of them leaned out from behind one of those giant mountains they were fighting on. The massive man grabbed the top of the mountain and he ripped it off, before throwing it up in the air at a huge dragon that was flying around his head and blowing hot purple flames at him.

The kid heard muffled screams and he turned left and looked to the east where the landscape was covered in a red glow just like the sky that was full of so many beautiful red and orange hues. The red glow covering the landscape was not from the sunsets though, the glow was from the flames engulfing miles of fields in that direction. He saw hundreds of people running from the spreading flames, though not all of them were people. Many looked like they had bushes on top of their heads and were creating vines with swings of their arms to pull slower people away from the flames and back towards the rest of the running group. Some people had pale skin, some green, some had pointy ears, while others were covered head to toe in fur and screamed as the flames caught onto their highly flammable bodies.

The ground beneath Black Star trembled and he heard a crash in front of him. He turned straight ahead and stared at a small cloud of dust that already started settling by the time he looked over. He saw a glowing golden light inside that dust and thought for a second that it was the same young kid he saw fighting earlier. When he got a better look inside the veil though, his eyes widened at the sight of a muscular man with golden hair spiked straight up over his head wearing an orange gi that looked pretty torn up from all his fights around the planet today. Son Goku was not so directly in front of Black Star that the boy could not get a partial glimpse at the side of the man's face, and when he did his eyes widened with recognition at the excited, thrilled look the man had. Black Star knew the look very well because it was one he always had on his face when he fought enemies, and the boy started looking around for the monster he knew would be there somewhere.

When Black Star looked around though, he suddenly realized he may have been out for longer than he thought. It felt like one second he got dazed and the next Tsubaki was rousing him, but the landscape around them had been completely overturned. Tsubaki had been keeping him out of harm's way, along with help from the fighters near them who were not trying to get the unconscious boy caught up in the massive battle that had taken all their combined strength to continue this long. Goku was not the only fighter before Black Star, as the man's older son was only a hundred feet to his left, standing on top of a huge piece of a mountain that used to be thirty miles away and now lay in pieces all around them.

There was also a man on Goku's right side, twenty feet away, down on his right knee and left foot, clenching his fists in anger as he could not find the strength to continue fighting any longer. The bald man in completely ripped up clothes so he only had on a pair of tattered green shorts had three eyes on his face, though the entire right side of his face was covered in blood and his right eye was swollen shut. He had fought and won against a monster he never thought he would have had the strength to beat earlier that same day, but now he was at his limits. Tien Shinhan panted heavily and barely managed to lift back up his head to stare into the distance where Doomsday was fighting Superman and a figure with green skin and a blue cape who Superman recognized when he came to help them out. The strange man was apparently a Martian, a Green Martian known as the Martian Manhunter, or J'onn J'onzz.

The two caped heroes from the same universe were panting hard but they did not let up their assault on the monster in front of them. They kept berating it constantly with punches and kicks, anything and everything they could throw at it. "Now!" A voice shouted to their right and both men leapt backwards instantly. Right as they did, a spinning disc of yellow light shot towards Doomsday who turned and rose his hands towards the attack. Krillin smirked as his enemy reached up to grab the attack, and then the midget who was already exhausted and put all of his remaining strength into that attack dropped his jaw as Doomsday caught it, and then threw it back at him. "Ah!" He shouted and dropped flat to the floor. He felt his attack go above his head and if he had hair he knew it would have been cut off by how close a shave that was. When he lifted up his head though, he stopped feeling so lucky, and a huge gray foot slammed into his face and sent him flying up into the sky at a few hundred miles per hour.

"Krillin!" Gohan shouted. The young boy shot forward and his father was right behind him. "Dad, this thing," Gohan shouted as they reached the beast and started attacking it together, punching and kicking from both sides. Superman and Martian Manhunter flew in as well and all four of them attacked as hard as they could. "It's unstoppable!" Gohan yelled. His fists were slamming into flesh but the monster did not feel any pain, and Superman already shouted at him earlier that beating it to death would not work. "Let's try a combined Kamehameha!" Gohan shouted, right before a fist slammed into his face and blood spurted out of his nose.

Doomsday roared as the fighters moved in to attack again, and his roar was so loud it blasted some of their eardrums. The sudden deafening shout also caused a small distraction, one Doomsday capitalized on immediately, grabbing Martian Manhunter by the face. Usually the Martian would faze through his punches, but this time Doomsday had caught him off guard and he clenched on J'onn's face hard, making the hero scream a muffled yell into his hand. He fazed through a second later and fell straight through the floor, but Doomsday slammed a fist down and shattered the ground all around him to try and reach the retreating Martian.

"We need a plan!" Tien yelled, staggering up on his feet as he watched Krillin slam down into the ground far to his right and J'onn climb up out of the ground with blood all over him.

Superman, Goku, and Gohan fought as hard as they could against the bumpy gray monster that never seemed to get weaker, never seemed to feel pain, or fatigue. It just kept battling them with such an intensity that the Saiyans had never seen before in an enemy. Even Cell could feel pain, could get tired and weak after fighting for so long. And this monster did not seem to get any less sharp throughout the fight, whereas the tired other fighters always wound up slipping up sooner or later and Doomsday capitalized on their mistakes every time.

Goku grinned as Gohan got around the back of the monster and Doomsday slammed a fist back towards him. He grinned because the monster left itself open and he reached underneath its right armpit while its arm was risen towards his son on the other side. Goku lifted up and pulled Doomsday off the ground, then slammed him down on the floor behind him and straight into the planet as he started flying down and down as far as he could. The Saiyan grinned as it got progressively harder to fly farther down the deeper into the planet he got, _I knew it. This planet is stronger towards the center. If I-_ The hand of the arm that Goku was not grabbing broke though all the surrounding ground and grabbed onto Goku's face as they continued to descend. The Saiyan's eyes turned huge as Doomsday gripped the bottom of his face, and his blue eyes looked through the cracks between Doomsday's fingers at the monster's face as it pushed back up itself and roared straight at him.

All of the others who looked at the hole in the ground and wondered what Goku was doing, lost the hope they had that he was winning as the glowing golden man came flying up out of the ground a hundred feet to the hole's left. Goku hit the ground and bounced once, before slamming straight into a man's chest who lifted his arms and caught him. "You are pathetic Kakarott," Vegeta growled, and he dropped Goku down on the ground.

The newly arrived Prince snapped his head back up though as after Goku flew out of the ground, the planet trembled beneath them to show Doomsday was on his way. They all looked around but Gohan spun his head over to Superman who was doing full three-sixties looking for where his enemy would emerge. "Under you!" Gohan shouted over.

Superman flew straight up, but he was too late. A hand shot through the ground and grabbed him by the left ankle, tugging him down right as Doomsday's body emerged above the surface. A young teenager with spiky blue hair and large muscles for his age watched in continuous awe of all these incredible fighters who were faster, stronger, and much more durable than him. He watched the Kryptonian with a tattered blue costume on reach his own right hand forward and grab Doomsday by the wrist that the monster just grabbed him with, and Superman clenched down so hard on that wrist that the white clouds high above them shredded and the ground below him cracked out in four directions. Superman was facing west at the moment and he could see those mountains in the distance, one of them in particular that at its current angle blocked only the red setting sun from view. Its rays were no longer reaching him, only the yellow ones on its sides were, though one of those suns that was farthest down of the three was about to drop down as well.

With an increased burst of strength, Superman twisted his body forward and slammed his left fist into Doomsday's face as hard as he could. The shockwave that rippled out made the planet shake as much as almost anything else that day, but Doomsday did not go flying as Superman was still grabbing it by the wrist with his other hand. He yanked towards himself and rose a knee into Doomsday's chin, then as it arced back Superman opened his mouth and released a huge Freezing Breath that engulfed his enemy in ice. The giant ice cube was three times the size of Doomsday's body and sat on the surface of the planet with many nervous spectators watching to see what would happen next.

"Think that will hold-" Krillin began but stopped as he saw the ice shake.

"What the Hell are we going to do?" Tien growled.

"Nothing can stop him," Superman said loudly. One of the yellow suns went down beneath the far mountains and part of the large red sun became visible again during that time which made him feel weaker than ever. "Doomsday," the Kryptonian explained, "is a being that can not be killed. He can regenerate almost instantly, and every time he is defeated he comes back stronger than ever, invulnerable to what stopped him the time before."

"You imbecile," a voice snarled behind Superman. He glanced back and saw a short man with a single spike of black over his head walking forward. As Vegeta walked, his hair turned gold, surprising Superman who had now seen three of these strange fighters today. Lightning started coming out of Vegeta's body and his muscles bulked while his golden hair started swaying in his aura and the planet shook beneath him. Vegeta continued with a scowl on his face, "Nothing is indestructible." He thought about how he destroyed Cell's arm only for the monster to regenerate, Goku his entire upper half, and when the monster self-destructed it even managed to come back stronger than ever because only its nucleus had survived. Still, Cell had fallen, and there was no way this mindless monster in front of him was going to prove any harder to destroy than him. "Boy," Vegeta growled, and Gohan looked over as the man could only be referring to him. "Get ready, we're finishing this."

"I've already tried energy attacks Vegeta," Gohan replied, keeping his eyes on the shaking chunk of ice as he did. Cracks shot out around the cube and Gohan continued louder, "Superman says that Doomsday has already been destroyed with energy attacks, so he became immune-"

"What do you think energy is boy?!" Vegeta roared, making Gohan shut up and look at the man in surprise. Vegeta darted a glare back at the boy, "You think there is a way to protect yourself from energy, no matter how powerful that energy is? That is impossible," Vegeta turned back as he heard a loud shatter and Doomsday was freed, looking angrier than ever after being trapped in ice.

It glared at Superman who was still closest to it, but as it took a step forward a silver blur shot past Vegeta, past Superman, and slammed into Doomsday so fast that the monster lifted off the ground and got tossed backwards. The man who hit the beast turned around, looked at all the powerful fighters in front of him, chuckled and said, "You guys got this." Quicksilver turned and shot away in a blur of silver that was hard for even all of the fighters who could move at beyond supersonic speeds to see.

"Vegeta is right," a voice said behind the Prince of the Saiyans and to his right. Tien stepped forward and though his legs felt like they were about to collapse out from beneath him, the triclops continued, "Energy has no limit, Doomsday does. If the attack is strong enough."

"We can take him down," Gohan finished, nodding his head as he was now agreeing with the older fighters as well.

"Of course we can," a voice said behind Gohan. The kid looked back and saw his father walking up to his side, and the older Super Saiyan smiled down at his son reassuringly. Son Goku turned straight ahead and he called out, "Some other really strong people are holding Doomsday off, so let's make sure we're ready when he comes back for us!" Goku shouted, and the sky above him started to shake and get darker from more than just nightfall. White clouds flew in and started swirling above them while Goku clenched his fists and powered as far as he could into his Super Saiyan 2 state. _I'm already too tired to use it, but with the others helping me, I know we can do this._

Two miles away, Shigeo Kageyama, a boy whose friends called him Mob, held his own right wrist with his left hand and his face was covered in sweat as he tried to hold off the monster walking towards him. Doomsday was leaning forward at a forty-five degree angle as there was a constant force pressing against it that was making its feet skid back while it pressed towards the boy with black hair in a bob haircut. The psychic kid clenched his teeth and he took a step back as his entire body was shaking and he could not handle the monster for much longer.

Doomsday's right arm was shaking, and it finally slammed it forward as hard as it could and broke through Mob's control. The kid's eyes opened in shock- "Iron Rock Wall!" A large wall of rocks shot up through the ground, shattering upon Doomsday's punch, making large rocks slam into Mob instead of the fist that was coming towards him, which hurt like Hell but was a much better outcome. Doomsday spun his head left towards the sound of the voice, to see a bald, tan-skinned, shirtless man in a manly skirt holding up two fingers on his left hand and was covered in a golden glow. He pointed those two fingers forward and yelled, "Supreme King Rock Crush!"

All of the debris rocks covering the landscape and flying after Mob from Doomsday's punch suddenly covered in a golden glow just like Jura Neekis already was. Hundreds of rocks lifted up off the ground, but the entire landscape started shaking violently in that moment for a different reason. The powerful mage slammed a palm forward sending all of those rocks flying towards Doomsday who punched a hand one way and broke apart some of the rocks, but all of the others surrounded him in the next second and piled up more and more until there was a small hill around him. The beast roared inside, while Jura slammed his hands together in front of him now and made huge golden circles of light form beneath his feet and ripple out for hundreds of feet. On either side of the rock hill he created around Doomsday, two giant hands appeared out of thin air with a thin golden glow around them, and those two massive glowing hands clapped together just like Jura had.

The mage grinned, then the smile wiped from his face as the two magical hands shattered and he himself stumbled back from the monster's roar that alone defeated his attack. Jura opened his eyes wide, then they grew wider at the sight of Doomsday flying towards him faster than he could dodge or even raise a block. Before he had the chance to though, an invisible force slammed into the monster's side and made it miss him by several meters. Mob slammed his hands straight up so that instead of letting Doomsday hit the ground and then charge back at them, he made the monster go up in the air so it would take a while for it to come down. As it started rising though, Doomsday suddenly stopped, changed direction, and flew back down faster than it was being sent up in the air.

Doomsday was about to reach Jura and Mob who were pretty close to each other now, when both of those fighters turned translucent and looks of shock appeared on their faces. Shigeo let out a yelp right before he was pulled through the floor. He and Jura were dragged through the ground without disturbing any of the earth around them, and then they were lifted back up to the surface a couple miles away where they saw the source of the shaking planet. More precisely, they saw the 'sources' of the shaking planet, as Vegeta, Goku, and Gohan stood in a line, Gohan stood in the middle with his hands down at his right side like his father on his left. All the way on the right was Vegeta who had his arms thrown back behind him and a violently flaring aura of gold shooting out of his body while giant bolts of lightning sparked all around him.

"Don't you guys think that's enough yet?" Krillin shouted over as a fissure ten meters wide opened up beneath him and he had to dive to one side of it so as not to fall in. He was out of energy and could no longer fly, but when he lifted back up his head he did not know where he would fly away to. He saw a mountain in the distance cracking and the summit of it break off causing a rock slide, the earthquakes ripping apart the surface were creating huge ravines and pushing other sections of planet against each other to make new hills and mountains. Tides rose and shrank, weather changed, volcanoes erupted, and Doomsday flew across the sky covered in a white glow and roaring in a terrifying voice at the heroes standing against it.

Black Star stood behind these heroes, and like hundreds of other humans and sentient creatures all over the altering landscape, he held his breath as the men started to scream. Tsubaki reached to her left and interlocked her hand with Black Star's without saying anything, while the sounds of 'KAME' and 'FINAL' echoed around them in every direction.

A young woman with long black hair and a katana on her right hip stood two hundred yards behind Black Star with a group of six other people. Akame had a young boy with spiky black hair in her arms, and the kid was the only one of them not watching in absolute awe of the Super Saiyans' power.

Shigeo stood behind a green-skinned alien who just broke the laws of physics to pull him through solid matter. He was used to breaking the laws of physics himself with his psychic powers, but this entire day was a level beyond anything he had ever seen or ever expected to see in his entire life. He stood there staring straight ahead, barely processing the conversation of the two alien men in front of him who stared straight ahead, not at each other while they had it.

"Do you think they could really do this?" J'onn asked Clark Kent. The Kryptonian narrowed his eyes at the Saiyans in front of him, these golden fighters who were making the planet shake apart below them just by increasing their powers. _Could they? What that man said made sense. So maybe…_ Clark stepped forward and his eyes started to glow red, brighter and brighter every second while J'onn glanced at him in surprise. The Martian nodded as he understood that by joining in, Superman was accepting the possibility of this succeeding.

Everyone about to fire their attacks at Doomsday saw the monster flying towards them change when it was almost there. Its gray body shimmered and became shinier, its entire body reinforcing and becoming even stronger while it rose up both of its arms above its head.

"FLASH!"

"HAAAAA!"

All three of the Super Saiyans aimed their attacks up at the monster, and it was a good thing Doomsday was flying towards them and not running on the ground. The attacks were pointed somewhat up, yet still shredded the entire landscape for over a mile in front of the golden haired men, and that was just from the initial moment that the attacks left their hands. They were standing so close together that when their attacks widened just off their hands, all three of the beams merged together into one single attack. The yellow of the Saiyan Prince's attack merged with the blues of the Son men, and a green beam of light shot towards Doomsday with a force that pushed the ground below them down. The elevation of the planet beneath Goku, Gohan, and Vegeta's feet dropped, the ground cracking and fissures emerging all over the place only to fill in as the ground got more condensed the farther it was pushed down.

The end of the flaring light green beam shot towards the silver monster and everyone watching the attack gasped as Doomsday became engulfed by it. They continued to hold their breaths though as despite the light being hard to look at for it was too bright, they could see a shadow inside that light. They saw two red glows at the top of the shadow, and they heard the guttural, horrifying roar of the monster that descended through their beam. Superman stomped his feet on the shaking ground hard, and out from his eyes shot two beams of red that widened to become one, before merging with the combined Kamehameha Wave and Final Flash, tinting it orange first, then just a darker green with a shade of purple mixed in with it.

Doomsday roared again and the monster was descending through the beam fast. The beam's edge slammed into the atmosphere of the planet and every single person on Nexus could see the barrier. For many it was their first time seeing the walls to the cage that had them trapped. They all saw it light up bright, and pulse over and over as Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, and Superman pushed every last drop of their energy into it.

"It's not enough!" Gohan screamed as his muscles were on the verge of ripping apart. His energy was at its max and he knew his father and the others helping them could not add anything else either.

"Just keep trying!" Goku yelled. The Super Saiyan looked into the beam and saw the monster getting closer to the start of their merged attacks. _There have been too many battles today,_ he thought. _Even if I wanted to, I would not be able to reach that next level now… but, there is one option. I have never tried it as a Super Saiyan, I'll probably die if I do._ As he thought it, he heard a roar inside the massive dark green attack that made their beam tremble and the purple sky to flash brighter than ever. Ripples shot around the entire planet's sky, but the barrier held firm as the beam pressed harder and harder into it. Goku's eyes narrowed at the monster whose face he could once again see now that it was so close.

"Dad!" Gohan shouted in panic as Doomsday was right in front of them, its hardened body surviving even the unprecedented amount of energy surrounding it now.

"Goku!" Krillin shouted in fear, as if this did not work, Doomsday was going to rip them all apart.

Goku closed his eyes, calming himself and steadying his energy as best he could. _I have only one shot. If I fail, my body will be ripped apart._ His eyes snapped open and he opened his mouth wide as Doomsday brought back a fist only ten meters away from his hands. "KAIO-" he started shouting.

Vegeta snapped his head in towards Goku, as even while he focused all of his power into his Final Flash, he could not help but stare in shock at his fellow Saiyan. _He knows he can't use that as a Super Saiyan! What is that fool-_ "Kakarott!" He yelled, "You're going to-"

"Dad don't!"

"KEN!" Goku roared. For a split second, Goku's golden aura vanished. The skin on his arms shredded and more peeled off of his cheeks. It looked like an internal force tried to escape Goku's body and it tore pieces out of him, and then, Goku roared at the top of his lungs, "TIMES TEN!" His golden aura reappeared only with a red aura around it that was ten times bigger than the one he had a second ago. Goku's body skid back a few feet and the ground exploded beneath him, but somehow Superman, Gohan, and Vegeta all managed to continue their attacks. They kept firing, although the beam turned fully blue, as Goku's Kamehameha became the primary source of energy shooting out ahead of them. The beam grew exponentially as Doomsday tried punching its fist forward, but while its arm moved, the silver coating around its gray skin vanished.

Doomsday's eyes darted down to its arm, and it watched as little by little it vanished. His arm disappeared inside the light, his mass separating on the atomic level. The barrier surrounding the planet cracked, giant lines shooting around the point of the collision with it, and then the cracks were suddenly gone, and purple ripples stopped reverberating around the sky. A hole opened up above the end of the attack. It did not break, did not get ripped open, it was as if a small hole opened up the perfect width to allow the end of the beam to go through, shooting into the distant reaches of space while Goku screamed his lungs out, while Doomsday's body disintegrated into less than ash. The monster's head was last to go, but even as the heroes watched it get fully destroyed, they heard from inside the beam, "ROOAAAAaaaarr!"

The monstrous roar gave every single one of them chills. Even in death, this monster was still the most monstrous thing any of them had ever faced. Goku's red and golden aura faded, his arms dropped, and the back of the beam flew away from them up into the sky. The beam finished flying through the barrier, and Superman stared straight up at the hole that closed when the beam was fully gone. _Someone opened that barrier to prevent it from breaking. They are not all-powerful. The strength we have can stop whatever trapped us here._

"Dad!"

Superman snapped his head back down as the man who saved them all dropped to his knees. Goku was bleeding all over, but he was still only a little worse off than the rest of them. Krillin dropped to his back and panted over and over from exhaustion and sheer terror as he thought he was about to die… again. Gohan helped his father up to his feet, while Vegeta stood not far from them, looking away and panting just as hard as everyone else. Clark Kent walked over to Gohan and his dad though, and he stopped right in front of Son Goku who had arrived in the middle of the battle to help them with Doomsday. "What is your name?" Superman asked.

The Saiyan lifted his gaze to the muscular man in front of him in a tattered blue costume. "Goku," he replied. "You're really strong," Goku complimented the man.

Superman stared at this person with bloody cheeks and a tattered body revealed almost completely as his orange gi was in tatters even more than his own tight costume. "As are you," he finally said, making Goku chuckle. When Goku laughed though, his expression filled with pain and he yelled out in it.

"That's what you get Kakarott," Vegeta growled, turning his head sideways to look back at his fellow Saiyan. "You knew the risks."

"But it paid off in the end Vegeta," Gohan countered to the Prince who humped and turned away in annoyance.

"That technique you just used," Superman began. "It almost ripped you to shreds."

"Hehe, I thought it would," Goku admitted and tried to raise an arm to scratch the back of his head. Instead of raising an arm though, his whole body just filled with pain and he let out another scream. His son asked if he was alright and he calmed down so he could say, "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just glad I got in so much training in Otherworld before I came back to life. I don't think two years ago I would have been able-"

"Hey you!"

Goku stopped talking and he turned his head a little to the left. Vegeta turned his head sideways again, while Gohan and Superman both turned the way Goku looked. Jura Neekis, Tien, Mob, and the Martian Manhunter all stared at this boy's back in shock. The kid was standing only five feet away from Goku, pointing an accusatory finger at him. The spiky blue haired teen who looked pretty beat up like the rest of them made eye contact with Goku, then took the hand he was pointing at Goku and jabbed it towards his chest with his thumb sticking out. "My name is Black Star!"

"What the-" J'onn J'onzz muttered.

Black Star continued shouting, "My name is going to reach the heavens, and one day," he pointed back at Goku, the strongest man he had ever seen before. "I'm going to beat you!"

Vegeta growled at the kid while Superman sighed as that idea seemed impossible to him. Goku chuckled though and he ignored the pain through his body as he did. "I'm looking forward to it," he told the teen, whose challenging look turned to one of partial-surprise, then excitement as Goku was accepting his challenge.

Gohan was about to say something, when the sight of Black Star reminded him of something. "Oh my God," he said in panic. He snapped his head up, then let out a sigh of relief as a girl was walking in between the Martian Manhunter and a tan-skinned bald mage next to him. "Thank you," he whispered to the teenager who he left his brother with.

They watched as this girl with long black hair walked straight up to the Saiyans, and in a quiet voice said, "Here." The girl with a katana in a sheath on her waist held her arms out. Her hands were under the armpits of a tiny boy who reached his hands towards the face of a man who oddly looked a lot like him.

"Hey Gohan," Goku said, tilting his head to the side in confusion. "There's a little me."

Gohan smiled and he looked up at his dad's face, "That's your son. After you died, he was born. His name is Goten."

"Goten," Goku said, the corners of his lips curling up. The man whose arms were covered in blood and looked unusable, rose those same arms without losing the smile on his face. It looked like he would be in the most excruciating pain ever, but he just took the boy out of Akame's arms and held him out in front of him. "Wee!" He lifted the boy up and Goten started laughing loudly at this man who seemed so familiar to him despite them never having met before.

Black Star was looking at Goku and his youngest son, but the older Son boy turned back to him after watching his father and little brother's meeting for a few seconds. "Thank you," Gohan said. He looked to Akame too, but then back to Black Star and continued, "You looked out for him didn't you? Thanks." He bowed to the older teen who looked uncomfortable and just turned away from him.

"Yeah yeah, whatever," he said in a smug, excited voice. "I've got to get to training," he said and continued walking away. A pair of dual scythes on his side lit up bright and next to him appeared a taller woman who walked at his side. Black Star continued to the people behind him who were looking at him and the nervous woman who kept glancing back their way. "I'll come find you when I'm stronger than you, Goku."

Vegeta scoffed at the kid acting like a big shot around so many people stronger than him. Goku just smiled at the kid's back though, _I hope you do._ Goku smiled for a few seconds, and then his eyes opened wide and he looked down at Gohan, "I need to get you two to ChiChi!" His eyes moved up and down Gohan's badly beaten and broken body and he said sheepishly, "She's going to kill me!"

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading another chapter of Nexus: Heroes Will Rise! This time we get the introduction of a few members of Gray's team that he came to Aebrith looking for. Black Star, Soul, Tsubaki, Gon, Kiba, and Kuwabara make their first appearances, and Black Star even gets a flashback. Doomsday! Doomsday has not made an appearance since the very first chapter of Nexus when the monster was the last to appear on Nexus, and instantly went on a murderous rampage that killed Dumbledore, Gandalf, Yoda, Hiro Nakamura, and Piccolo. Only 1.3 million words later, and we finally know how that battle ends! XD Knew I would get to that sooner or later. Anyway, leave a review telling me what you think, questions, comments, or predictions! Here's a list:**

 **One Piece: Spartan, Crocodile, Mohji, Cabaji**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Chimera Ants, Gon**

 **Yu Yu Hakusho: Kuwabara**

 **Naruto: Kiba, Akamaru, Jiraiya, Madara**

 **Fairy Tail: Rob, Jura**

 **Soul Eater: Soul, Black Star, Tsubaki**

 **Akame ga Kill: Akame, Zanku**

 **Mob Psycho 100: Shigeo Kageyama (Mob)**

 **DC Comics: Superman, Doomsday, Martian Manhunter**

 **DBZ: Gohan, Goku, Goten, ChiChi, Vegeta, Trunks, Krillin, Tien, Broly, Cell, Frieza, King Cold**

 **Fairly Oddparents: Jorgen**

Darugus

Wow this chapter shows that this is gonna be a lot darker than nexus looking forward to what all the heroes are going to do about it also I was wondering who do you think is stronger between ace sabo and luffy

 **Def going to be darker, but it will still be lighthearted and fun... at times. I would say Ace might be weakest of the three, considering the two years he spent dead while the other two kept getting stronger. Still, he was near-Admiral level before he died so maybe not. I would put all three of them at very equal. Anyway, thanks for the review!**

joebob323

Ahh! So many new characters, my brain can't keep up! Amazing work as always, but how the heck did Dodoria of all people survive when people like Frieza and Cold didn't? I liked the introduction of the characters that were made into slaves, which the emperor doesn't know about. Since he wants to keep out of Gray and co. 's way, but they are looking for people like Romeo, Maka, etc, I think the emperor will be forced to clash with the group form Awul. Sort pf pity him... NOT! Oh yeah, the only thing I felt was out of place was the alteria heads. Bleh! Who would want to eat that? XD

 **Oh Dodoria, just another planet buster on a planet full of 'em. Still, if the Z fighters never found him and he kept his head down, I'm sure making it into a position of power wouldn't be hard considering he managed to be at the ruler of his Universe's side. Even more slaves thrown in this chapter, though these ones are forced to fight in the Colosseum of the Capital of Aebrith. I laughed about the Altaria head thing, 'cause I mainly did it instead of a chicken or something to make that scene even darker. Like eating Pokemon was just the cherry on top of how brutal things were. Haha, Thanks for another review!**

 **-Thanks again to everyone who reviewed, faved, followed, or just read this chapter! 'Till next time!**


	28. Nexus HWR 5-7 Missions

**A/N Hey everyone! This is the final part of the Around the World Chapter! I hope you enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: As it has been forever, I do not own any of the characters you recognize in this story, nor other proper nouns like Balbadd. Not mine.**

 **Nexus HWR 5.7 Missions:**

 **Balbadd City**

Inside the largest city in Rhodar, and the largest city on all of Awul, an orange haired teenager stepped through a gateway where two guards moved to the sides for him. "Welcome sir," a man on the other side of the gate with long curly black hair greeted. "If you would follow me," Sayid Jarrah motioned with his arm in front of him and the teen who stopped inside the gates nodded his head at the older man.

The two of them walked forward in the green garden full of rose bushes, tropical trees, and beautiful flowers. There was a huge pillar of water in front of them that curved around a circular platform at the bottom right in the center of the garden. Sayid did not say anything, but he checked to see if the teen was still following him which he was. The teenager's orange hair was naturally spiky but dipped down as he did not use any gel, and he had bangs that partially covered up his eyes. He wore a black jacket with a white shirt on underneath and dark pants to match the jacket. On his right shoulder he had a backpack strap and the bag on his back looked like one he would take to high school.

Still, as they stepped onto the platform, Sayid turned to the younger man. "I need to check your bag before you are to see the King."

Ichigo Kurosaki did not argue. He nodded once and slid his right arm out of the strap, handing the pack to the Arab man next to him. The platform they were on started moving and Ichigo looked down and around as he wondered how it worked. Water pushed up on the bottom but somehow did not fall to the sides of the pillar. Sayid checked the contents of his pack and then handed it back to the boy as he did not find anything irregular inside it. The man did stare at this teen oddly though as there was a stuffed animal inside the bag which was weird for a boy his age.

Ichigo took his bag back but he just slung it over his shoulder instead of putting it back on. The water elevator they were on rose higher and stopped for a moment at a bridge that went over this part of the city. Hovercars flew over it and Ichigo followed the street in one direction to see hundreds of floating skyscrapers that way. "Your science definitely beats ours," Ichigo said out of nowhere.

Sayid pressed a few buttons on a tablet he had pulled out that kept their elevator moving up, and the man turned to the younger figure in surprise. He knew the teen's name and that the King gave him clearance and time for a meeting that pushed back all his other meetings even though this kid came out of nowhere. Other than that, he was a mystery to him which annoyed and intrigued the King of Rhodar's Chief of Staff. "Rhodar's science division is working tirelessly to continue to advance our technology."

"Smart," Ichigo said. He frowned and looked up in the sky as they continued to rise towards a building high up there. _Weird that those in charge always put themselves at the top. Is it that they like to feel they are above everyone? Or do they like to be above so they can keep a watchful, protective eye on everyone in their kingdom?_

The teenager furrowed his brow and spoke softly, "Our science division was never given high priority. Tetsuo valued strength, and expansion, but we had enough military might for that without super-advanced weaponry." Sayid looked at the teen in even more confusion as he spoke about the NEG. "It was stupid though. Vegapunk had such great ideas," Ichigo shook his head and muttered, "we should have listened to him."

"Are you a member of the Renewed Nexus Government?" Sayid questioned.

Ichigo looked at the older man and shook his head. He could see Sayid wanted an explanation and he muttered while glancing back up at the quickly approaching castle, "Alibaba didn't tell you? Figures."

Their lift slowed down and came to a stop at a magnificent walkway across the sky. The floor of the walk was see-through which seemed unnerving at first, but as soon as Ichigo stepped on it and found it to be sturdy he felt better about walking towards the floating castle in front of him.

"Follow me into the King's office," Sayid requested and walked ahead of the boy into the huge building. He led Ichigo upstairs while the teen looked around at the inside of the beautiful castle.

Ichigo walked past a woman who Sayid bowed to. He looked at her and the woman with long silver hair glared at him for not bowing. The two guards behind her glared much harder than she did, but she held up a hand for them to not get upset. "Are you the one my husband was talking about?" Daenerys questioned him.

"Probably," Ichigo replied, though he had no idea what she was talking about.

"Hmm," she hummed at him. She turned to Sayid, "Go ahead. Take him to the King."

"Your Highness," Sayid said, and he bowed again before continuing to lead the teen away. Once the woman walked down a different hallway, Sayid turned his head sideways and glared daggers into Ichigo. "If you see the Queen on your way out, you will show her your respect."

"I didn't come here to play Dungeons and Dragons," Ichigo growled at the man. "I just need something from Alibaba, then I'm gone." He walked faster past Sayid and when the Arab man sped up Ichigo muttered, "Don't bother, I can feel him up ahead anyway."

Sayid opened his mouth to complain, but the teen did not seem to be one to care even if he did. Instead, he lowered a hand down to his holster and followed him cautiously. "One wrong move, and you're dead," Sayid stated calmly, but the teen in front of him did not flinch as he kept walking.

"I'm not here to hurt your King," Ichigo grumbled in annoyance. He reached the double doors he could feel Alibaba behind and pushed the doors open. "Hey," Ichigo said as he walked into the room.

"Ichigo!" Alibaba called out. He jumped out of his seat and the other two in the room looked over and got up as well. Morgiana, a girl with hot pink hair and silver bracelets on her wrists, and Aladdin, a boy slightly taller than Morg with a long blue braid behind his head and a white hat on. Alibaba's oldest and closest friends faced the door and smiled at the teen who entered.

"Nice to see you again Kurosaki-san," Morgiana greeted.

"It's been so long!" Aladdin added.

Sayid became even more confused as he walked in behind the teenager. _I've been here for over a year, and I have never seen this man before. Maybe he is from their world._

"Sayid," Alibaba called over to the door. "I take it you met Ichigo. He's one of the NEG's three founders you know." Sayid's eyes opened wide and Ichigo ground his teeth whilst looking at Alibaba in aggravation.

The blond King laughed at Ichigo's look though and said, "Whoops, did you not want him to know that?"

 _This teen? He can't be over eighteen!_ Sayid thought. _He formed that Government when he was sixteen?_

The seventeen year old who created a Government when he was fifteen, alongside another fifteen year old, narrowed his eyes at Alibaba. "I did not come to Balbadd to catch up."

Alibaba lost his big smile and he humphed. "Oh," he said.

Ichigo looked around at the three of them and he sweatdropped. "What? Did you really think that's why I was here?"

"We were hoping," Aladdin replied and threw his hands up in the air. "We haven't seen you-"

"In so long, yeah," Ichigo muttered to finish for him, as Aladdin said that already. "So, can you hear me out?"

"Sure, I guess," Alibaba said disappointedly. "Though I want to hear how things have been too. Things for me have been great. I became a King, got married..."

Morgiana shot Alibaba a look and the King started sweating while pretending like he didn't notice though everyone else in the room knew he did. Aladdin giggled under his breath and Alibaba cleared his throat before continuing loudly, "So Ichigo! What brings you here this fine day?"

"I need a favor," Ichigo started. The King looked at him carefully as asking a King a favor could mean any number of things. "I'm looking for someone," Ichigo continued, and Alibaba relaxed as this seemed more doable than he was thinking.

"Who are you trying to find?" Morgiana questioned him.

Ichigo took a deep breath and then said, "Supergirl." Alibaba's relieved look turned into a frown though the other two next to him did not have the same expression. "Do you know where Kara is? I know that Clark used to visit her every so often-"

"Morgiana, Aladdin, Sayid, please leave us for a minute." The other three looked at Alibaba in surprise. The blond young man looked around at his close friends. "Please," he repeated.

Morgiana sighed but started walking for the door. "Huhh? How come?" Aladdin complained. Morgiana called him to follow her and he groaned about it but ran after the girl a second later.

Sayid walked out after them, though he felt nervous about leaving this teen who he suspected was very powerful alone with his King. "Close the door on your way out," Alibaba said, and Sayid nodded before closing the double doors.

The doors clicked shut and Ichigo turned back to the other teen in front of him behind a table. "What was that all about?"

"I'll tell you," Alibaba began. "Problem is, her location is a secret. I was one of the last ones she talked to before she left. After, you know, the whole Battle of Awul thing." Ichigo stayed silent and Alibaba nodded his head. "That day, it really led to all of our problems, you know that right?"

Ichigo looked into his eyes and replied, "How so?"

"Think about it," Alibaba said, and he started walking around his desk. "The old council, it was made up of some amazing people. Not that the newer one wasn't strong, but the people in it were not the same as the heroes from before. Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman!" Alibaba faded off for a few seconds and he got a frustrated look on his face. "The day Konoha fell, when the rest of us were at that meeting, I considered joining with Tetsuo. It made sense, but myself, Sinbad too, we could not join him. Not after what Kara told me before she left."

Ichigo's eyes opened wide and Alibaba nodded his head grimly. "Yeah," he whispered. "I know it was supposed to be a secret. I know minds were wiped to keep it that way, but what Tetsuo did, it stopped us from joining him. If, if the Battle of Awul had ended differently, Metropolis could have been saved." The blond King looked deeply into Ichigo's eyes again, "Kara would not have left, hopefully more of the heroes would have survived, you yourself would not have quit, myself and Sinbad would have joined. Think about it. Tetsuo had so many great influences, and then suddenly all he had were Superman and Trunks."

Ichigo frowned deeply, but after a moment he began, "We could talk about what-ifs for hours. We'll never know anything for certain. The truth is, that Superman died, and I need to make sure Kara knows. I don't want her finding out from someone she doesn't- I just- I owe it to him. I owe it to both of them." Alibaba did not speak while Ichigo said this to him and when he was done, the King still looked hesitant. "What? If you know where she is, tell me! You know you owe me-"

"I know," Alibaba said, making sure there was no doubt in Ichigo's mind on that matter. "I promised her I would not tell _anyone_ where to find her. I take my word seriously," Alibaba explained, and Ichigo frowned as that was as good a reason as any.

"However," Alibaba continued. "You're right, I know she would want to know about Superman." The King frowned and added, "And I know, she would rather hear it from you, than from me."

Ichigo's eyes widened and Alibaba nodded. "She only came to me to warn me about Tetsuo. We were not good friends, barely acquaintances actually. I protected a large group of people though, and she thought that by telling me she would be protecting them." Alibaba paused, then finished, "You should tell her."

"I know," Ichigo said, having already thought all that through himself. "So, where can I find her?"

Alibaba walked over to the wall on his right and he pulled out a tablet similar to the one Ichigo saw Sayid had. A few buttons pressed and the wall transformed into a full-sized map of Nexus. Their location on Awul was a red dot, and Alibaba walked away from it to the right. He crossed the blue portion of the wall and then all of the land past it too. The land on the other side of the Great Ocean took up so much of the wall that Ichigo double-taked from it back to the continent that their red dot was on. "Wow," the teen muttered, never realizing just how much smaller the second largest continent was than the first.

Alibaba looked around on his map of Aebrith and he started waving his hands around near a spot on the eastern portion of the continent. "She's somewhere around here."

"Somewhere?" Ichigo repeated so Alibaba heard how vague he was being himself.

"Like I said, I don't know her well," Alibaba replied. "What I do know, is that she was heading to be with more of her people. The Kryptonians. I also know that the Kryptonians own this region of Aebrith."

Ichigo lost his annoyed look as he was actually getting some valuable information. Alibaba lowered his arms and Ichigo walked towards the map to get a closer look. The King continued, "It's a long journey, but I have three airships heading to Remano in Leam to trade with our allies there." Alibaba pointed at a blue dot closer to the center of Aebrith but very far in the south of the equator. "I'll get you a seat on one of these airships, and there will be a seat for you on any airship coming back this way after you deliver your message."

"So I land here?" Ichigo pointed at the map, then dragged his finger northeast and wagged it around at a huge area of land. "Then just, search for Kara around there? Hundreds of thousands of square miles of land?"

"It's called asking for directions," Alibaba said in a sarcastic tone. "I'm sure our friends in Leam know a bit more about their powerful alien neighbors and where to find them. Ask around, you'll find her in no time. I have faith in you," Alibaba gave him a thumbs up and the taller teen sweatdropped.

Ichigo looked at the map again and he sighed. _He's helping me out more than I asked for, giving me a ride there and back too. I should just take it and go..._ "Once I leave Remano," Ichigo started. He looked east of there again and saw a darkened area of the map beginning long before the part where Alibaba wagged his hands. "How long until I'm out of Leam's territory?"

"Leam's a big country," Alibaba began, "but they're on the wrong side of a losing war. To their east where you're going, there's a witch who makes people go insane just by being close to her. And to their west, who recently took over the entire west coast, thereby making it difficult to trade with Leam, is the Emperor."

"Sure he won't shoot us down while we fly over him?" Ichigo asked.

Alibaba shook his head. "He wouldn't risk it. The people over there know as much about us as we know about them. Completely different worlds. This guy doesn't want to start having to fight this war on two fronts, one from an enemy he knows nothing about except they have heavily armed airships. We've had some close encounters, but it should be safe to travel."

Ichigo nodded the whole time his old friend spoke and finally he sighed and gave Alibaba a small smile. "Thank you a lot for this. I've been putting this off, but I decided I needed to go now or it would be too late."

"Well good on you for doing this, it's the right thing to do," Alibaba told the taller man. Alibaba clicked a few buttons on his tablet and the map went away. He saw Ichigo looking back at the wall and he chuckled as it looked like Ichigo only cared now that he could no longer see it. "Listen, Alibaba began. "When you leave Leam, head northeast. My allies tell me a little about their situation, and the Kryptonians are north of them, but south of the Cataclysm. So if you reach a really wide canyon, you've probably missed them."

"How will I know if it's the Cataclysm?" Ichigo asked.

Alibaba laughed, "It's a giant crack in the planet! It's impossible to miss!"

Ichigo frowned and nodded his head. He turned around to the door and walked towards it. "Where are you going?" Alibaba asked.

"To find the airship," Ichigo replied.

Alibaba shook his head. "I'll have Sayid bring you to it in a little. The airships leave tonight," Alibaba grinned. "So until then, looks like we have time to catch up." The taller teen knocked his head back and let out an audible sigh.

Ichigo turned and walked back towards the King of Rhodar. He stood in front of Alibaba, then lifted up his hand. "Thanks Alibaba. We're even now."

"Haha," Alibaba shook Ichigo's hand. "We," the King said and started shaking his head. Alibaba smiled genuinely and finished, "We will never be even with what you did for me."

* * *

 **Resistance Base**

"Sectors J-8 and J-9 came up empty on thermal scans, again."

"All of Sector M turned out empty. Only Grimm and Aragami for miles."

"I don't want to hear where he's not," Gajeel growled. He looked around at the others in the room with him and slammed a fist down on the table. "No one?" The muscular man with long black spiky hair and piercings all over his face glared down at the holo-map on the table. "I'm heading out," he growled.

"Gajeel," Levy said and looked at the muscular man sadly. He glared down at her but she shook her head at him.

"He's out there," Gajeel said. "Cloud said-"

"Cloud was delusional when he came back," Wave said. The spiky haired man shook his head and stated firmly, "We can't keep wasting resources looking for Gray. He's already been marked as dead in he system."

"What?" Gajeel growled over. Wave closed his mouth, and Gajeel glared at him harder and asked, "Who did that?"

"Kakashi did," a blond man on the other side of the table as Wave stated. He stood next to a taller figure with shorter blond hair than himself who looked a year or two younger but was still very similar in appearance to his older brother. Edward Elric looked over at Gajeel and stated in a harsh voice, "I didn't know Gray, but he wouldn't want us wasting manpower looking for him, would he?"

"He would if he's out there," Gajeel snapped.

"And if he's not?" Alphonse, Ed's younger brother, asked. Al shook his head at the Dragon Slayer, "It's time to give up Gajeel. I'm sorry."

"Besides," a voice said across the table from Gajeel who had opened his mouth to argue. They all looked towards the hallway and saw Lie Ren walk into the room. The tall figure with black hair going straight behind his back all the way down to his waist was wearing a green shirt and darker green jacket over it. He had on black pants and a belt on that had two pistols on it, one on either side. "We have a mission," Ren continued as he walked in and up to the table. He did not hear much of the conversation before he got in there, but it had to end now and he continued without waiting for anyone to interrupt him.

The young man reached forward at the hologram and he zoomed out on it by pushing his hands together after touching it. Ren zoomed out so their base was just a dot on the map in the middle of the sector. He pulled north on the map and motioned at four blinking red areas around a single green section. The green section was decently large, but there were red stripes going diagonally through it. "The Fire Nation's attacks on our northern bases have intensified in the past few days. Teams to reinforce and help evacuations will be heading up later today."

"Are we going with them?" Wave questioned.

Ren shook his head and he pointed at an area much farther south. He spun the holo-map and zoomed back in on a red position of it. "There's a supply route connecting two of the Black Witch Arachne's Lords that we're going to hit hard. We're teaming up with Omega and Beta Squads for this mission, and we'll also have the remainder of Delta with us."

"'The remainder of Delta?'" Ed scoffed. He put his arms behind his head and leaned back. "So Cloud's coming? Sure he's up for that?"

"I'm fine," a voice said and Ed shot out of his laid-back position. He looked towards the hall and saw a man with much spikier blond hair walking over with his Buster Sword slung over his right shoulder. Cloud glanced across the room at Gajeel who shot him a glare before Levy put a hand on his arm and he calmed down.

"We leave tomorrow at 0500 hours," Ren finished, stepping back from the table and the map. "Supply up, we won't be taking any vehicles so only grab what you plan on carrying."

"No vehicles?" Ed groaned. "Why not?"

"Obviously they need them all for taking the reinforcements up north, stupid," Liliruca Arde, or Lili, scoffed at him. "Right Ren?" She asked and smiled up at the older man.

Ed fumed at her but Ren smiled and nodded. "Very good Lili." The girl beamed at their squad leader who chuckled at the cute girl with furry ears. He turned back to the rest of the people at the table and said, "That's all. Get to sleep early tonight. We'll need our rest." Ren nodded and turned around, "Lambda Squad dismissed."

Wave stretched up in the air and turned to follow after Ren. "Don't need to tell me twice," he said and yawned. "I'm gonna get some rest."

"You need to sleep too Gajeel," Levy scolded the man next to her who went back to glaring at the map. "Gray's fine, he can take care of himself," she assured.

Gajeel shook his head, no idea how Levy had so much confidence in their comrade. He glared back across the room at Cloud who was talking to the Elric brothers. _He just disappeared? Liar. You say you can't remember how the battle ended, but you're lying. Where the Hell were you when they were getting taken?_

"Gajeel," Levy snapped. The Dragon Slayer looked down at her and she had her arms crossed with a pouting expression on her face. He groaned and turned away to leave the room with the blue haired girl. "Thank you," she told him and he just grunted in reply. Levy glanced back into the room as she walked away and she looked at the spiky haired man with a bandaged sword. _Cloud. You will tell us what really happened out there._

As Levy and Gajeel left the room, the Elric brothers stopped talking to Cloud and walked past him out of the room. Ed waited until they were around the corner before turning to his younger brother and spinning a finger towards the side of his head.

Al shook his head at his brother, "I don't think it's funny Ed. He lost his whole team."

"Ah whatever," Ed waved one of his gloved hands at Al and then shoved them both in his red jacket's pockets. "He's definitely off, though it's not like the rest of Lambda's any better."

"You're just mad you got replaced on Alpha Squad," Al pointed out, making his brother almost fall over while they walked and a tick mark to appear on his head. Ed started yelling at him but Al just smiled and lifted a hand that he waved at a girl walking their way. "Hi Winry," Al greeted.

Ed spun in surprise and in front of him really was Winry. "Oh hey," he said, regaining a cool composure in front of her.

Winry giggled into her hand as she just saw and heard him yelling from down the hall. "Hey yourself," she said, and as the boys stopped in front of her she leaned in and gave Ed a peck on the cheek. His face turned beat red and his younger brother snickered at him. "I heard you guys got a new mission," Winry said and the boys nodded at her.

"That's too bad," Winry said and shook her head. They looked at her confusedly and she continued, "I wanted you two to see Pon-Gatso."

"The city in the north?" Ed asked.

Al's eyes went wide though. He asked in surprise, "Does that mean you're going north with the reinforcing teams?" Ed spun to his brother in surprise, then looked at Winry and his eyes widened even more as she nodded her head.

"No way," Ed said, and he crossed his arms in front of him before uncrossing them out to the sides of his body. "We just heard that the Fire Nation increased their attacks in he north! It's too dangerous-"

"It's because they increased their attacks that I need to go," Winry explained.

"Why?" Ed asked.

She glared at him and sighed in exasperation. "Because I'm an automail mechanic Ed, the more they're attacked, the more they need my help. Duhh," she finished and started laughing.

Al laughed along with her but he stopped earlier. "Still, Ed is right Winry," Al said. She looked at him and could see that Ed was not the only one worried about her. "It's going to be very dangerous up there. Can't you wait until we get back from our mission? Then we'll all go together!"

"Yeah, what Al said," Ed agreed.

Winry shook her head at the teenage boys in front of her. The girl with her long blonde hair tied in a ponytail looked into Ed's eyes. "I'll be fine. We'll be taking a Scarab so it'll be a quick trip."

Al lost his worried look a little but Ed still seemed distressed. Winry sighed and reached forward a hand that she interlocked with Ed's. "Don't worry. Focus on your mission, I'll focus on mine."

She held his hand tighter and he looked down at them, the two matching gold rings on their fourth fingers. Finally Ed sighed and nodded his head, "Alright, but be careful. If anything happens-"

"You'll come running, I know," Winry finished for him. She leaned in and gave Ed a kiss, a real one this time. Edward didn't go red in the face this time, but Al looked a little uncomfortable. Winry pulled back and she turned to Al next. She pulled him into a hug, and said, "Take care of your little brother for me."

Al's mouth curled up into a smirk while Ed yelled, "I'm the older brother!"

"But not the bigger one," Al said to his shorter older brother. Ed shook with rage and Winry and Al couldn't help but laugh.

"Winry," a voice called behind the girl. She looked back while the two in front of her got sad expressions on their faces. An older woman wearing all black leather looked down the hall at the automail mechanic. "It's time to go," she said, and Winry put on a serious look that she nodded with.

She turned back to the boys one last time, "Well, good luck you guys. Kick some butt."

"We will," Ed said and lifted a fist.

"See you Winry," Al said, waving at her. She waved back and spun around, jogging down the hallway to join with the others heading north. Al turned to his older brother and saw Ed staring down the hall, his eyes full of worry. "She'll be okay Ed," Al told him.

Ed nodded his head, but he was not as confident as his brother. He turned around and whispered under his breath, "She better be."

* * *

 **Tenth Level of Hell**

In the deepest pits of Hell, a coating of ice covered everything. The ice was thick and the air was so thick with cold fog that the inhabitants of this lowest level could not move. In the center of the Hell there was a giant monster with three heads. In each of its mouths was a different sinner, constantly being eaten for eternity inside the freezing pit.

Far behind the giant red monster's back was a castle jammed in the wall of Hell. Half of it jutted out into the freezing cold and demons stayed perched out there guarding the castle. The only light in the entire layer came from the roof of the Hell where the flames from the Inferno above shone through.

Inside the castle, a green and black demon with two heads sprinted down the halls. Both heads were panting, the three-eyed one and the cyclops both sweating and nervous. "Sir! He's waking up!" The heads shouted in unison as they barged into a huge room even colder than the rest of the Hell.

"Impossible," Beelzebub growled. _It's too early,_ he thought. The horrifying all-black demon lying on a bed of ice lifted up and glared towards the door with his cold red eyes. He did not stand up, but more like his body became blurry and the dark blur shifted to the floor in front of the two-headed demon who backed up into the hall. "Show me," he demanded.

"At once-"

"Of course-"

The demons replied in unison and then glared at each other for not responding the same way. They could feel Beelzebub's eyes boring into them and they gulped and spun around. They ran down the hallway made of stone that's walls were coated in thick layers of ice. The demon almost slipped several times on the icy floor and when they turned the corner it accidentally slid straight into the wall around the bend.

"Watch your step," Beelzebub said casually as he walked by the demon rubbing its heads.

"Huh, oh! Thank you sirrrr," the heads' teeth started chattering as the Demon King walked past them. "Wait! NO-" the demon reached a green hand forward but its fingers froze in front of its eyes. It tried to shout in pain, but its throat froze followed by the rest of its face and body.

Beelzebub smirked as he turned the next corner himself. He told the lesser demon to show him the way, but he knew where to find what he was looking for anyway. Beelzebub walked down the hallway towards the open door at the end of it. The fact that the door was open made his eyes widen, but the fact that the door itself was on the ground, flaming, made his mouth curve up into a grin. Nothing should have been able to burn in this Hell; it was far too cold. However, those flames were no normal flames.

Beelzebub walked up to the doorway and looked inside. Standing next to the wall on the right side of the room was a figure engulfed in those same, blue, flames. The demon lifted up its right hand and pointed it behind him. His hand started to lose its solid form and it finally broke apart into several locusts. The locusts flew away from him while the demon's hand reformed and he stepped into the room. "Too chilly for you?" The Demon King of Insects questioned.

The teenager standing in the window spun around, and he did so so fast that he slipped on the floor. He slipped back but reached his arms out and grabbed the sides of the window before he fell. His room's open windows went straight from the floor to the ceiling so there was nothing keeping him from falling out. "Who are you?" The teen with short dark brown hair covered in blue flames narrowed his eyes at the demon. "What, are you?" He corrected himself.

"Watch your mouth, _brother_ ," the demon growled, making the teenager's eyes snap open wide.

He spun back around and looked out into the icy air outside his window. He looked far out and saw a shape in the distance, a shape that reared one of its ugly heads and roared. The teen stepped back from the window, and whispered, "I'm, in-"

The dark demon behind him interrupted, "That's right, Yukio Okumura. Welcome to Hell."

Yukio's eyes snapped open wide and he gazed out into the dark freezing abyss of Hell. His gaze lifted a little towards the light which he thought might be the surface, but through the icy haze all he saw through the hole on the roof was fire. He was too far away to spot the tiny insects flying up through the Hell-hole to the next layer.

The locusts split up, some heading higher through Hell, some entering Hellgates around the Inferno. One of them passed all of the others though and headed straight for a massive castle in the center of the Inferno that was a hundred times bigger than the castle in the next level down. The locust flew high up the castle and into an open window at the top floor. It entered a giant room full of demons with one sitting on a throne of skulls across the room from the window.

Satan watched as a bug flew across the room and right up in front of his throne. He stared at the insect and after a few seconds his lips curled apart revealing his sharp teeth beneath. He leaned back in his throne and laughed, cackled up in the air. All over Hell and the world above, locusts reported to the Demon Kings and gave word of the boy's awakening.

"A new dark Prince of Hell," Satan said, his eyes a bright blue. They ignited and his eyes burned a blue fury as his fists clenched in front of him. **"Yukio, my son,"** Satan's mouth curled into a nastier smirk as he spoke.

Yukio's eyes widened as he heard a voice coming from up above him. He stepped farther back from the window but even as he covered his ears with his hands he could still hear the voice in his head. **"Show me I was right to bring you back from the brink. Command my armies. You are a demon now."**

The teen stared down at his hands in horror as they burned unstoppably before him. _I'm, a demon?_

 **"Yes,"** Satan growled. **"Like your brother, you have always been a demon. You have always been my son. Now, rise! Rise to my side! The Demon King of Nexus, Yukio!"**

* * *

 **A/N Bum Bum BUHHHH! XD Thanks for reading! Ichigo's on his way to Aebrith, Resistance squads are heading north, and Yukio is in the deepest pits of Hell! Thought that was a nice place to end this whole Around the World chapter. Tell me what you thought, comments on the new characters, predictions or questions for the future of Nexus! Next time we get back to our normal gang, but I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Anyway, list time:**

 **Game of Thrones: Daenerys**

 **LOST: Sayid**

 **Magi: Alibaba, Aladdin, Morgiana, Sinbad, Balbadd**

 **Bleach: Ichigo, Kon**

 **DC Comics: Superman, Supergirl (Kara), Martian Manhunter, Green Lanter, Wonder Woman**

 **Akira: Tetsuo**

 **DBZ: Trunks**

 **Naruto: Konoha, Kakashi**

 **RWBY: Lie Ren, Grimm**

 **Danmachi: Liliruca Arde**

 **Fullmetal Alchemist (Brotherhood): Edward Elric, Alphonse, Winry**

 **Fairy Tail: Gajeel, Gray, Levy**

 **Akame ga Kill: Wave**

 **Final Fantasy: Cloud**

 **God Eater: Aragami**

 **Soul Eater: Arachne**

 **Avatar TLA: Fire Nation**

 **Blue Exorcist: Satan, Rin, Yukio Okumura, Beelzebub**

 **-Alright, think I got them all! If not, let me know in a review if you were confused as to where a character originated from. Now, time for review responses:**

KCSupido

Sorry I haven't reviewed in a while: real life has been kicking my butt pretty fierce!

I feel so badly about Jiraiya though, because I doubt he knows about what happened to Naruto.  
Could it be possible that we see Terra, Aqua, and Ven somewhere in the future?  
And I wonder, when they eventually leave Nexus for their own worlds, will the characters be placed back in the exact moment they left? Will the characters who died on Nexus forget that they were ever there? And what about the friendships and abilities? (Like Sora with Ash's Pokemon, and Ben with a Keyblade.)

 **It's all good, I totally get that considering I took a month break from uploading until a few weeks ago 'cause of real life. Jiraiya learning about Naruto would really crush the old dude, wonder if he'll ever learn about it. As for everything else you mentioned... NO Spoilers! Lol I don't wanna give anything away, but you bring up some cool ideas and points that may be mentioned in later chapters... XD Thanks for the review!**

Darugus

Nice chapter  
Also wanted to say that I don't think gon can stop crocodile anyway I'm wondering who many around the world chapters are left before we go back to the heroes not that I don't enjoy them

 **Thanks! This was the final Around the World one, next we get back to the heroes! As to Gon vs Crocodile, who knows how much stronger Gon has gotten over the last two years? Then again, Crocodile's pretty OP too. Glad you enjoyed these, I got your question!**

joebob323

Thanks for another great and action-packed chapter! I liked the fact that Black star has met Goku before, and if they ever meet again, I can't even picture the look on his face when he finds out that Superman is dead, Goku is now a child, and there are other really strong people like Luffy, Timmy, and Killua out there. He seems nice enough, but maybe a little bit like Tetsuo, just a slight bit sadistic. And crazy/power hungry. I can't wait for them to meet. I also like the role that Martian Manhunter played in the battle, and will we ever see him again?

 **Black Star's definitely a force to be reckoned with. He's my favorite character in Soul Eater, and I feel like after two years on htis crazy world he's gonna be even more crazy powerful! There's a lot to be shocked about though with the group that just arrived. Unfortunately, Martian Manhunter died back at the start of Chapter 14 of Nexus. In the flashback of the Battle of Awul that was referred to by Alibaba in the beginning of this chapter, when Tetsuo snapped to kill Darkseid, he accidentally killed Bulma, J'onn, Hal, Diana, it was pretty bad. Anyway, thanks for the review! Glad you enjoyed!**

qwerty

Black Star will only visit Goku upon surpassing him... too bad Goku has trained and reached new heights of power...

 **No matter how strong everyone becomes, Goku's strength seems to have no limits. Last chapter he proved that even on the first day he was kicking ass in amazing ways, and now it's been over two years... and he's stronger than ever! Thanks for the review!**

 **-Thanks again to everyone who faved, followed, reviewed, etc... 'Till next time! XD**


	29. Nexus HWR 6-0 Shinigami

**A/N Alright, so this editing took me nearly 3 hours. Chrome shut down on me while I was editing this 20 thousand plus word chapter, almost at the end of it. I really didn't want to edit it all again, as it took me more than an hour the first time. I already made the list at the bottom, and arrrgghhhh! Ahh, *sighs* okay, so I hope you enjoy the start of Chapter 6, where stuff happens... this Author's Note was definitely better the first time around. :P**

 **Disclaimer: I own none of these characters.**

* * *

 **Nexus HWR 6.0 Shinigami:**

"Are you sure we should leave so soon?" Kairi asked as she looked back into the city of Dressrosa. They were standing at the gate about to walk out into the outlying area around the big city, but she wondered if they were leaving too soon after causing so much damage.

Sora put an arm on her right shoulder from where he stood on her left side and pulled her close to him. "They will all be fine. That Kyros guy really seemed strong, I'm sure he'll be able to rebuild this city good as new."

"Hmm," Kairi hummed, then smiled wide, "Okay! Then let's go!"

Their large group was all gathered, and they looked around at each other excitedly. "Alright, are you guys ready?" Gray asked, stepping up next to Luffy in the front of the group. The pirate looked at the ice mage walking up to him, and he stepped a little closer to the gate so he was still in front. Gray ignored the childish act and called out, "This is going to be all of your first times in the real wild for a long time. Just remember we need to stick together. Some of these monsters-"

"Let's go already!" Luffy yelled, throwing his hands up in the air and stepping out of the gate. He jogged from the street they were all on leading further into the city, onto some green grass, then kept running ahead towards the ledge up ahead that kind of looked like a cliff. The pirate's straw hat flapped in the wind behind him from the string he had which kept it tied around his neck.

"Can't let Luffy be the only one rushing into this headfirst!" Natsu shouted, while his friend Gray was yelling at Luffy to come back.

"Natsu!" Gray yelled, but his pink haired friend ignored him to run out of the city anyway.

"I'm coming too!" Goku exclaimed, jumping up in the air with a wide smile on his face. The man in the body of his ten year old self ran forward out of the gate of the city with a happy look that lifted everyone's spirits.

Timmy looked at the kid who was around his size and he started running forward as well. The boy in the pink hat ran up to Goku's side and the two of them ran out of the city.

"Haha," Nami chuckled as she walked after them. Her friend Robin looked in at her and Nami whispered, "Sometimes I forget how strong those two really are."

"It is easy to forget that Goku-san is actually an adult too," Robin admitted as she watched the youngest member of their group who was actually around her age run out of the city limits.

Gray frowned as he watched the two of them leave. "I just hope the PB-6's are enough to hide their massive powers from our enemies," he mumbled, looking at the devices he had attached to their wrists.

Everyone was following behind the two small boys, but as soon as they stepped out of the city and onto the grass, they froze. Natsu and Luffy were up ahead of them standing at the edge of the cliff and looking out into the wilderness beyond, but the two youngest stopped running up to them.

"Hey, Timmy," Nami started, slowing down as she got up behind him. "Is something wrong?"

The boy in a pink hat turned his head to the right while Goku turned his to the left. Goku spoke first with an interested look on his face, "Wow, those powers seem so familiar feeling. They feel like Vegeta and Gohan's, even the boys... maybe that means there are Saiyans over there!" Goku lifted off the ground and flew away really fast.

"Wait!" Gray shouted, reaching a hand out towards the child flying away from them. He facepalmed as soon as the man was out of sight, which was only a few seconds after he flew away. "Damn," the ice mage muttered.

"Juvia is sure Goku-san will be back," the Rain woman behind Gray assured, pulling her boyfriend in for a hug. The blue haired female wizard looked out into the distance where Goku flew as well though. Juvia whispered, "Juvia hopes he does."

"Timmy?" Nami asked again, reaching a hand down towards the little kid's shoulder.

"It's a fairy," he whispered. The boy with brown hair kept under his pink hat floated up in the air a little. "I know it. That feeling," he whispered, getting higher as he did. The twelve year old looked down at his friends. "I am sorry, but I am on a mission as well. Rocket told me that if I found any fairies here on Aebrith I had to let them know where I hid Fairy World."

"Timmy wait!" Gray yelled up at the boy, holding his hands up. "You can't leave us here."

"I won't, for long," the boy assured. "I'll be back soon!" He turned and started flying away, "I promise!"

Nami stared after Timmy as he flew away, and she brought up her hands in front of her chest. She held her hands together and pressed them in front of her heart, "Be careful Timmy," she whispered, sounding afraid for the boy.

Sanji saw how nervous Nami was and glared off in the direction Timmy flew. _You better not die and make sweet Nami-san cry you shitty brat._ The blond haired chef ran to Nami's side and tried cheering her up with some compliments.

"Well, those two were Super quick to get out of here," Franky commented and started laughing as he walked ahead towards Natsu and Luffy who were still both just standing on the edge of the cliff.

The others were not far behind the cyborg, and they all walked up towards the edge. Over the edge they could not see much for a while, until the forests started right before a large mountain range in the distance. They were walking east, away from the coast, into the expanse of Aebrith. A continent as big as a world, a place many of them had never imagined going to, it truly was massive. The closer they got to the edge of the cliff, the more of the landscape they could see expanding out to those mountains far in the distance, and the smaller the smiles on their faces became.

"Ummm," Nami whispered as her steps started getting smaller and smaller. By the time she reached the edge of the cliff, she was tiptoeing forward. The cliff dropped about a hundred yards, and then the tar pits started. For about a mile to the east and west, before the landscape started evening off in elevation on its own, the tar pits made up the base of the cliff. There were solid segments of ground, looking almost like dirt paths in between the bubbling pools of black tar. After the tar pits ended a few miles out to the east, there was a giant hole in the ground, the inside of it black and empty as if it went down forever. There were some smaller craters around it, along with large animal carcasses remaining of only bone inside those craters. Around that hole there was no vegetation, but a little to the north of it, on the left side of where they were looking, was a forest that started up out of nowhere and went for dozens of miles before the start of the mountain range. That forest wrapped around the eastern edge of the hole, directly in front of where they were looking, and almost wrapped around the right side as well if it weren't for the massive canyon that spread to the south. There were large rock pillars and natural bridges connecting different highly elevated areas, but they did not look stable, almost like walking on them would make them crumble and fall down into the bottom of the canyon.

All over the place, were monsters. In the tar pits, flying around above the giant bottomless hole, in the sky at low elevations, and some higher up which were much bigger and hidden by the clouds, only getting revealed every once in a while. A few winged creatures came flying up fast out from between two rock bridges in the deep canyon, almost like they were running from something, but as they came above ground level, a huge mouth full of sharp teeth flew up and bit down on one of them, knocking both rock bridges on either side of it over.

The fifteen foot purple bird that escaped turned back and opened its mouth, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth of its own. It fired a blast of blue light that slammed into the bottom of the larger creature's jaw, and it opened its mouth up in pain. The first bird that got chomped down on was released from its mouth, and it screeched out a horrible noise that some of the people watching from the cliff could hear. A few seconds after it screeched, all over the canyon, more purple birds came flying up between the cracks. However, the giant carnivorous creature that chomped down first was already falling back into the canyon, and the birds all swooped down, leaving the sight of the pirates, magicians, and others watching from the cliff's edge.

"Th-Th-This is crazy," Dash whispered, staring over the edge with his jaw dropped.

"What? Are you afraid?" Ben asked the little kid next to him who was stammering like mad.

The blond boy spun to his older friend and crossed his arms, "N-No way!" Dash yelled, trying not to stutter but not managing.

Nami's face was blue and the blond haired chef next to her lit up a cigarette to sooth his nerves. Luffy's jaw was dropped a few inches just like Natsu's right next to him, but he finally closed his mouth and brought it into a smile, "Shishishishi, this place sure looks tough," he said.

"Wow," Riku muttered, taking a good look at the landscape before them. "Really is amazing huh?"

Sora was looking carefully at some of the creatures down below, and a group of three suddenly sprang up between two tar pits. They were little dark four-legged creatures with two heads each, and squiggly antennae on their heads, along with glowing white eyes. "Hey look, it's the Heartless!"

"What?!" Usopp shouted in fear, following where Sora's finger was pointing and looking all the way down to the tar pits. "N-N-No way! I thought you guys finished off the Heartless!"

"As long as there is darkness in people's hearts..." Riku began, making a few of them turn his way. "The Heartless will exist," he finished. "It's a good thing I can control them though, maybe we won't have to fight them."

"Unless someone else is already controlling them," Kairi offered, looking down closely at the Shadows. The Heartless looked right back up at her, and she smiled, "You know, they're actually pretty cute."

"What part of those things do you find cute?" Nami asked skeptically.

Nico Robin chuckled at the red haired girl's statement, "I agree Kairi-san, they are quite cute."

Nami looked back and forth between her two girl friends and then looked over to Juvia, "You're with me right Juvia?"

"Huh?" the blue haired water mage mumbled. Her eyes were not focused on the three black creatures down below, but were looking up a little and into the distance above the mountain range. "Sorry, Juvia was not, paying attention," she whispered, still not really paying attention as her eyes were transfixed on a form in the distance.

Everyone looked where she was looking as well and most of their jaws dropped. Flying above the distant mountain range was a creature that was half-shrouded by the clouds. It had dipped down in the last few moments while they were watching the Heartless closer to them, but now it was on its way back up. "It's as big as the mountains," Franky whispered, the cyborg's metal face getting covered in sweat.

Even the white haired assassin kid who usually never got surprised was just staring at the enormous flying beast in the distance as it lifted back into the clouds. It had four legs that were kicking around and looked like the beast was doing the doggy-paddle through the air. It was working as it lifted back up above the clouds and out of their sight. Killua let out a deep breath that he barely noticed he had held in, and then started panting heavily. _Gon, I wonder if you could have survived in a place like this._

Rin Okumura was shivering nervously and the black cat sitting on his right shoulder curled up into a little ball. Unlike most of the others, he could see the giant demon head sticking out of the middle of the hole east of the tar pits. It had purple tentacles sticking out of the hole around its head, each one flailing around in the air. Other smaller demons were all over the place and gave off a different vibe than most of the creatures, meaning he could tell the difference between actual demons and the horrible creatures that just looked like them.

"Everyone listen up," Gray Fullbuster said loudly. The group standing at the edge of the cliff turned around and saw the black haired young adult standing there with his arms crossed, his shirt off revealing his muscular torso and arms. Why he took his shirt off was a mystery, but it did show he was getting serious to the people who knew him well. "I did not think I would need to go over this too seriously, because we had Goku and Timmy with us, but we just lost our two tanks."

"Tanks?" Usopp asked confusedly.

"The ones I was expecting to do the most damage. They were going to draw the strongest enemies' attacks while the rest of us would have to only fight very powerful monsters, but ones we could handle. Now, we have to be careful. Our PB-2 and PB-4 power blockers will keep us hidden energy-wise from the monsters, so if we try to be stealthy, we may be able to sneak past many of the worst foes." The ice wizard looked out over the landscape past his friends, and he pointed to the south. "The canyon path is safest, so we should head south after the tar pits. This is in our favor anyway as I have a decent sense of where we are now in relation to my base; we should be heading southeast," he pointed ahead of them and to the southern direction where the canyon was. It led all the way towards the mountain range, and then maybe even further as two of the mountains in the distance seemed spread pretty far apart, as if something cut between them.

"I don't know, I say we go that way," Luffy pointed his arm straight ahead.

Nami snarled and her teeth turned razor sharp, "Baka!" she slammed a fist down on her captain's head. "That leads us right through that two hundred meter wide hole in the planet!"

"Maybe it would be a good idea to listen to someone who's actually been here before Captain," Sanji said over to the rubber pirate who was getting off the ground with a large red bump on his head.

Luffy mumbled some incoherent words and then turned away but finally nodded his head when Nami's shadow loomed over his body.

Rin was looking out at the large forest to the north, and then back to the south where a lot of flying creatures with sharp teeth were circling the canyon. "How is that safer than the nice forest?" the teen asked skeptically, looking back to Gray with questioning eyes.

"Less chance of being poisoned," Gray muttered. "I got some medicine from the city, but a lot of the stores were destroyed in the fight against Doflamingo. Some of the best antidotes were missing, so we'll have to wait to get them from the next town." He looked over towards the forest grimly, "Some of the strongest people I've ever known were killed by a poisonous rose bite."

"'Poisonous rose bite?' The roses around here bite people?!" Nami shouted in panic. The long nosed sharpshooter on her right side thought back on an island he spent two years, covered in living plants that he had to learn to survive around. Usopp smiled, one of the only ones to do so while looking over at that forest.

"Some of them do," Gray responded. "Anyway, the canyon is probably the safest route we could take. Even if we do fall down into it, none of us are weak and we can probably handle all the monsters around here if we work together on the strong ones."

Luffy was frowning more and more every second. "I could take the strong ones," the pirate stated, punching his fist into his open hand.

"I doubt it," Gray replied, making the pirate angrier that he was being doubted.

"Luffy, I know you're strong and all," Killua started telling the rubber pirate next to him. The guy with a straw hat looked down at the white haired assassin kid, and Killua continued, "But have you really learned nothing since coming to this world? Some monsters we just can't fight. If you get us into a fight we can't handle, you're going to get us all killed," the kid was not playing around. Everyone looked over at the short teenage boy who was looking Luffy straight in the eyes, "You don't want to be responsible for your crew's deaths right?" Luffy's eyes went wide and Killua already knew the answer to his rhetorical question. He continued, "And I certainly don't want to die, so if you want to run off and fight the strongest monsters, ones we would try to avoid otherwise, then go do it without me."

Luffy frowned and stared the kid straight in the eyes, before looking up and around at his crew members, his actual Straw Hat Crew members, who were all waiting for his answer. "I know there are monsters I can't beat," Luffy admitted, making some of the people there surprised as they did not expect that from him. "But we're not scaredy cats either. We better not avoid every fight!" he crossed his arms defiantly and the others smiled at him.

"Of course we'll be getting in fights," Natsu said, slamming his fists together. "You have met the people here right?" he joked, his fists bursting into flames.

Killua smiled up at the pirate, "Good, I really don't want you to leave. Just needed to make sure," the kid looked out over the landscape again.

"Yosh!" Luffy shouted, sticking his arms up. "Let's go check out that hole!"

Half the people there sweatdropped, and Kirito muttered, "Did you not just hear what Gray said?"

"Yeah," Luffy replied, looking over to the dark teen who was staring back at him like he was an idiot. "Then we can go to the canyon, after we check out the hole thing!"

"Uhh, we should stay away from that hole," Rin stated, making a few of them look over towards the teenager with a sword strapped to his back. The teen looked pretty nervous right now, and he explained, "None of you can see it but there's a giant demon inside the hole."

"WHAT?!" Nami and Usopp shouted at the same time.

Luffy snapped his head back around and stared over at the hole in silence, searching out the monster that their comrade could see. "What are you talking about?"

"Wait Luffy, you don't see it?" Natsu asked the pirate on his left side. Luffy turned in towards Natsu with a confused look, and Natsu started grinning more and more. "Oh well that's embarrassing huh? The mighty pirate captain Straw Hat Luffy can't even see monsters?"

"That's because there's no monster there!" Luffy shouted back at the Dragon Slayer.

"Yeah there is, you're just too dumb to see it," Natsu said and started cracking up as he pointed a hand out towards the beast. "It's right there! Come on, you really can't see it?"

Natsu was annoying some other people too who also couldn't see it, and they were all trying to look closer at whatever it was. Ben turned to his best friend Riku and saw the taller boy with long silver hair staring out there intensely. "You see what they are talking about?" Ben asked, and Riku nodded his head. Ben looked next to Riku at the engaged teens next to him. Sora and Kairi were both staring at the hole with similar gazes as Riku.

"It's true Luffy," Gray started from behind the main group looking out. "Who here _can_ see that demon?" the ice mage asked.

Rin lifted up his hand, and then Gray was surprised to see Riku, Kairi, and Sora all raise their hands too. Natsu lifted up his hand next, and Gray nodded as he was expecting that after what happened in Metropolis. The man looked around at the rest of the group, but none of the pirates could see the monster, nor could Kirito, Juvia, Dash, Ben, or Killua. "I wonder if Timmy and Goku could see it?" Gray muttered under his breath.

"Why can't some of us see the demon?" Killua asked the only one of their group who had actually been here before.

Gray looked down at the boy with white spiky hair. He closed his eyes and then said in a calm, but somewhat sad voice, "There are only two reasons you would be able to see them. One way is that you have spent enough time around demons, shinigamis, and other creatures of the sorts that they have become visible to you."

He quieted down a little and Nami asked softly, "And the other way?"

Gray sighed, and then muttered, "Or you had to have died before. Everyone knows the dead can come back to life on this world, or at least dead people from their own worlds managed to return to life here. All of those revived people are able to see certain monsters: demons, yokai, hollows, arrancar. Other than that demon out there, who else can see those three tall black forms near the base of that mountain directly to our east.

Everyone looked off the cliff and straight ahead all the way past the forest to the mountains, and again the same five people raised their hands besides Gray. "Those three creatures could probably take on our group, especially with Luffy unable to see them yet."

"Yet?" Luffy caught him say, turning and looking at the wizard with a tilted head.

"Yeah," Gray replied, nodding his head, "sooner or later you will be able to see them. You'll even be able to fight them too." Gray frowned and scratched the light shading of black stubble on his chin. "However," he muttered, "it may take longer than it did with me."

"And why's that?" Killua asked with interest.

Gray looked out over the landscape, "Well, I was always around a shinigami. Our close proximity brought up my spiritual energy." He was losing some of his listeners as they had no idea what he was talking about, but he was speaking quieter anyway, as if to himself. "We were good friends. For a pretty long time..."

 **FD + 23**

"Keep up Gray!" Zoro yelled behind him as the ice wizard was falling behind again.

"We will leave you behind," Zabuza growled loudly as he kicked off the ground again, ninja jumping forward at incredible speeds. Zoro was running on his left side and the pirate was starting to take longer strides to try and match their ninja comrade's. Zabuza turned his head a little and looked on with slight surprise as Zoro was continually getting faster ever day. The rogue ninja from the Hidden Mist turned his head a little more and glared back at Gray, "We are not stopping for you if-"

The man with black spiky hair and a white mask covering the bottom of his face stopped on his next landing. He was turned around with wide eyes, and Zoro stopped as well seeing the nervous look on his traveling companion's face. "Shit!" Zabuza yelled, seeing Gray running towards them, with no clue that there was a large green monster chasing him as fast as he was running, only a few yards behind him. The monster was running on all four legs, and it had a large white mask on the front of it with a creepily smiling mouth and long nose sticking off. "Another invisible one to you two!" Zabuza yelled, drawing his sword and pointing it straight at Gray.

Gray Fullbuster's eyes went wide as he heard Zabuza shout back towards him. The man was pointing his sword directly towards him which meant... _I can feel the footsteps behind me,_ the wizard suddenly noticed, feeling them so close yet having no other senses telling him there was anything there.

Zabuza kicked off the ground and flew right past Gray towards the creature, slamming his sword down on its head. The force of his blow slammed the Hollow down into the ground, making a large impact mark on the dirt floor they were running across. There were huge chunks of broken mountains around them, and what looked like giant sheets of purple metal from some sort of ship. They had been traveling across some kind of crater for three days now, and they had almost reached the other side of it, already on an incline to get back up to surface level.

Gray stopped running as he got closer to Zoro and the two of them looked back as Zabuza got thrown backwards, needing to stick his sword down in the ground to slow himself down, and dragging up the floor with him. He brought up his wide sword and blocked, holding off the creature who tried headbutting him, then he slammed the sword back out, knocking his enemy away. Zabuza put his hands together and did a half dozen hand-signs quickly, and then the air all around him started to fill with mist. The mist spread out and covered more and more of the area they were in.

A few seconds after the mist started, Zabuza flew out of it and in between Zoro and Gray. He landed on the ground and kicked off again in the direction they were going before. "I can't cut its mask this time, too low on chakra to make a chakra blade."

"Shit," Zoro muttered, looking back towards the mist which was shifting around as if some sort of creature were inside it. "Let's go Gray," the green haired pirate said, sliding the swords he was in the middle of taking out back into their sheaths, and then turning to the black haired young man who was supposedly next to him. Zoro turned to the spot Gray was in, but the boy was already gone. He snapped his head around and saw Gray long gone, chasing after Zabuza as fast as he could.

"Don't have to tell me!" Gray yelled back over his shoulder. The wizard saw the mist directly behind Zoro disperse and the Fairy Tail mage came to a stop. "Zoro jump!" he yelled, punching his right fist into his open left palm at that same time. The three of them had been traveling on this crazy continent for less than a month together, but Zoro instantly reacted and leapt up in the air, his Observational Haki not even working to warn him of the invisible monster's imminent attack. He looked down as he soared up in the air and saw the ground where he was just standing get pressed down a little, as if some large monster was standing where he was.

Then, the floor beneath where Zoro was got covered in ice, and the ice made whatever was there slip. He could tell because three claw marks started etching into the ice as the creature attempted to slow itself down. Zoro landed back on the ground next to the ice trail and instantly shot up towards Gray. "Damn it," he snarled under his breath. He started running on Gray's side and the two of them kept going after Zabuza together, not even knowing if their enemy was still on their tail. "I'm still far too weak," the swordsman growled, hating this constant running away.

"What?" Gray asked the guy next to him. "You are one of the strongest people I know," he assured Zoro, who occasionally looked like a demon himself when he was fighting.

"I don't want to be one of the strongest," Zoro replied as he continued to run. "I want to be _the_ strongest." He ground his teeth together, _And I would do anything in order to get that strong._

Zoro was still deep in thought when they finally reached the edge of the crater they had been inside for days, only to see Zabuza flying back over their heads and down into the crater. "What the Hell?" Gray shouted, looking back at Zabuza falling away from them, and then forward towards a destroyed forest where the felled trees were flying back up in the air now. A giant hole had ripped straight through the floor underneath the fallen trees, and an enormous worm over a hundred feet in diameter was soaring up into the air. The front of the worm was just an opening, a huge circular mouth full of spinning teeth that were strong enough that it had been cutting through the ground.

"It's just one thing after another here," Gray said, putting his hands on his knees and panting hard as he was exhausted from all this running. Out the corner of his eyes he saw Zoro walked towards the forest and the worm which was going sideways, not towards them. "Hey Zoro, hold on-"

"I can see this one," Zoro stated, drawing all three of his swords. "That means I can fight it."

"You could die!" Gray yelled at him. "If we can just avoid it than why don't we?!"

"I could die," Zoro responded, "but so could it. Let's see what's sharper, its teeth or my swords?" The green haired pirate shot up in the air like a rocket, twisting his body and his swords and swinging them towards his giant enemy. A flying slash shot out from his weapons and cut a hole right through the worm, but it wasn't dead yet and it turned its head towards him, bringing all of its spinning teeth towards the swordsman who blocked with his three swords. He had to clench hard on the hilt in his mouth, blocking the teeth with all his might.

 _He's already exhausted,_ Gray thought as he watched the swordsman get sent flying down into the ground in the middle of the destroyed forest. The worm slammed part of its long body down on him, and the felled trees and Gray all lifted off the ground a little before slamming back down. Gray hit one knee and lifted his head a little, panting heavily and searching the area in front of him, "Zoro?" he whispered hoarsely, wondering if his comrade had been killed.

"Black Rope Dragon TWISTER!" Zoro yelled, his voice echoing around the landscape. All the trees in front of Gray started getting lifted up in the air, along with the huge worm on top of them. The ground itself was tearing up a little as a tornado formed above Zoro's bruised form. The tornado got wider and was full of slashes, cutting the trees and the giant worm to pieces.

Gray heard panting on his left side and turned to see Zabuza stumble back over the edge of the several dozen mile wide crater, before collapsing onto his back and staring up at the three suns beating down on them. He also saw pieces of trees and the works getting torn apart and the ninja chuckled, "Bastard," he turned his head a little and looked towards the green haired swordsman who had a green bandanna tied around his head. "All this power, and you still aren't satisfied. You're the real monster," Zabuza closed his eyes and passed out on the dirt as he finished talking.

Gray stared at Zabuza for a few seconds, then sighed and collapsed down onto his butt. "Guess we're camping here for the night," he muttered. "Hopefully that worm got rid of most of the other monsters around here, that way we could get a good night's sleep for once."

"I'll take first guard," a low voice said near him, and Gray opened his half-closed eyes to see Zoro walking back towards them. The swordsman was looking around for other monsters, and looked the least tired of them, so Gray just nodded his head and fell to his back. Zoro looked down at his two comrades, covered in dirt, with ripped-up clothing splashed with dried blood from previous injuries. He looked at himself next and saw he looked just as bad as they did, _Damn it. Luffy, everyone, you better still be alive out there._

 **FD + 41**

"Ah heh ah eh ah..."

"Pant quieter," Zabuza snapped at the ice wizard on his left side.

Gray tried closing his mouth, but opened it back up a second later and stuck back out his tongue, panting louder than before. "I, can't," he rasped out. All around them was smoke, rising up from the lava on either side of their path. "Too, thirsty. Too, hot."

"Complaining about it won't fill you with water," Zoro grumbled from behind them, though his voice sounded farther away towards the end of the sentence.

Gray and Zabuza both stopped walking and turned their heads in towards each other, then kept turning and saw the green haired man walking the opposite direction. "We could, just let him go," Zabuza muttered, getting fed up with the swordsman's unbelievably horrible sense of direction.

"Zoro," Gray called back, making the swordsman stop and look back towards the slightly younger man. "Please," Gray rasped out, "stop turning around. We, are literally, walking in a straight line."

Zoro would have made a snide remark, or gotten embarrassed, but that was all extra work and he was too exhausted for it. He just turned back around and walked towards them again, while the other two turned forward and kept walking.

They had no idea when the last time they found water was. They did not know if it was day or night because the lava illuminated the area, and smoke blocked out the sky, making all time seem the same. They just kept walking down the winding path because to turn around now would mean going back across everything they had already crossed, and they knew they would die of thirst before making it. All they were hoping was that it would end soon, but there was no end in sight. For hours more they traveled, and Gray tripped and fell to his hands and knees when everything became too dizzy for him to see straight any longer. The youngest of them felt how hot the ground was on his knees and hands, but he could not get back up and stop himself from getting burned. He gasped out, "This, might, be, it."

"Giving up, already?" Zabuza muttered, taking another step but turning his head a little to see the boy on his hands and knees. "Pathetic," the ninja muttered, and just took another step. "I'm not, wasting, this life," he mumbled.

"What, type of, life, is this, anyway?" Gray asked. He imagined he should be crying, but he had so little liquids stored in him at the moment that his eyes could not even water up. His mouth was so dry it felt like his tongue was shriveling up, and it reached all the way back into his throat too, drying him out.

Zoro walked up on Gray's side and took another step, following after Zabuza who kept moving. He looked down at the ice mage, and then forward at the ninja who kept going, and then back down at Gray again. He opened up his mouth to speak to the mage, but Gray's elbows bent down and he fell down completely. The lava on their left and right sides kept bubbling so hot that they were getting burned just being near it, Zoro did not want to feel how hot the actual ground they were on was, but Gray was not even reacting to the hot ground pressing against his body.

 _It's all over for him,_ the swordsman thought. He looked up after Zabuza, and could only see the man's back now as he kept going into the smoke. _I won't die here. I made a promise._ He looked down at the younger man, but if he were to pick him up, he knew it would only quicken his own death, which at this point almost seemed inevitable. _Fuck!_ Zoro started walking forward again, trying hard not to look behind at the man he was leaving behind.

 _Luffy. I know you're looking for me. You will keep looking for me even if I died here right now. You would keep looking for me forever. I know you disappeared when we fell into the water. I know you are here somewhere._ He narrowed his gaze and pressed on into the smoke, keeping himself from looking back, even after he knew he would no longer be able to see Gray's collapsed form.

 _Kuina you won't accept it if I die here. I need to be strongest. We promised._ He fell down to his right knee as his foot misstepped in a small hole in the path of black rock. He staggered back up on his feet and kept walking forward, and as he kept walking he started to notice the smoke getting thinner. He could actually see Zabuza's back again after not too long. Zoro turned to his left and right and saw the lava starting to thin out. It went from two sides of lava as far as he could see into the smoke, to scattered lava pools with black paths between them, and when the smoke cleared more he could finally see walls on either end of this burning hellscape.

Zoro walked faster, panting with every extra step and he caught up to Zabuza before long. Neither man acknowledged the other, but they kept walking faster and faster, and they reached a ten foot wall at the end of this horrible area, with a slanted area on it that led up above. The two of them would have just made the ten foot hop if they were at their normal strength, but they were so exhausted now that it took almost all they had to march up the last couple of feet.

The two of them reached the top of the path, and their dry eyes widened into saucers at the sight in front of them. All the smoke cleared at once and all they could do was stare in awe at a green field stretching over ten miles long in front of them, until it hit a circle of medium-sized mountains that wrapped around the grassy field, all the way in front of them, to their left and right sides, until they finally stopped right at the edge of the long hot area.

It was so unbelievable the two of them actually had to do a double-take. They thought maybe it was a hallucination and rubbed their eyes, but the field was still there every time. Zoro looked back and saw the smoke shrouding the path they came in on and the lava fields that led for unknown dozens of miles behind them. He looked back forward and saw Zabuza walking ahead, stumbling towards a large lake that they could see only a few hundred meters in front of them. There were scattered trees around the grassy area, and a small forested area near the mountains on the right side. Birds were flying around and monsters that looked semi-docile grazing around the grass. And there were people.

There were people chasing around the creatures in the area. There were people on the backs of the flying ones up in the air. There were people on the mountains sparring with each other using creatures, or using their fists or weapons. Right in the center of the enclosed area surrounded by mountains, there was a large building in the process of being built, and there were a lot of small huts scattered around. There was a hole in the side of a mountain on the left side, with wooden planks looking like they were supporting the tunnel, and there were some guys walking in there holding shovels and pickaxes.

Zoro turned back and saw Zabuza stop walking towards the lake. The ninja looked back towards him, and motioned towards the lake with his head. Zoro did not know what the man was thinking, but it seemed like Zabuza thought he had blanked completely after seeing this place, forgetting about how thirsty he was. Zoro did not forget. The green haired man stared ahead and saw a lake that looked so close, despite being over a thousand feet away from him. Then he turned around.

Zabuza was exhausted. He needed water badly, his legs were about to collapse from beneath him, but he still took a step back towards Zoro. "What are you doing?" he called out, panting heavily after he shouted it, since he managed to say it all in one breath. "This is real! There's water!" he pointed back towards the lake with an arm that looked red as his skin had just burned that color being surrounded by lava for the last few days.

"Gray," Zoro mumbled, barely loud enough for Zabuza to hear him. The green haired swordsman stumbled back down the ten foot hill and he tripped, tumbling back into the smoke. His whole body screamed at him for going back into the scalding area, but when Zoro found himself laying on the ground at the edge of the lava pools, he found out how hot the ground was. And if the ground was this hot out here, he could only imagine how hot it was on the narrow path between lava seas back on the path.

He picked himself up and ground his teeth together, stomping down on the ground and pushing himself forward. _I should have picked him up. He is still alive back here. It's not far. I won't give up. I shouldn't have left him._ The green haired pirate charged back down the path, ignoring everything around him as his legs started moving faster, getting him into a run for the first time all day. His legs ached from the constant walking, his eyes wanted to shut as they had not been able to sleep on the path, his eyes were so dry that blinking did not even do anything to help, and just hurt them now.

Zoro ran back down the path, and he came across Gray in two minutes. He had no idea how slow he was walking before, but it had been around thirty minutes since he left his comrade here. He reached down and grabbed Gray by the back of his shirt, picking the wizard off the ground. "Shit Gray," he muttered, staring at the third-degree burns covering the right side of the younger man's face, along with most of his nose, his right ear. The ground had burned through his clothes too. His knees were bloody as his skin had been burnt through, his forearms completely torn up, his chest and stomach looked pretty bad too. The pirate could feel his presence though. He was alive. "Let's go Gray," Zoro muttered, turning and running even faster than before.

Gray had no idea what was happening, but he slowly opened back up his eyes as he bounced over and over on Zoro's back. Everything was blurry, but he could see Zoro's green hair, and smoke all around them. He opened his mouth to speak, but his throat was too dry, no words could come out. _It's over already. Fire everywhere. I thought you left. You should have left._

"There's water Gray," Zoro shouted as he ran. "Water, and people who will patch you up. You hear me? Don't you die!" Zoro charged forward, but the younger man on his back did smile at his words.

 _Thanks Zoro. But, you and I both know there's no such thing as water. All there is is fire. Lava. Hot. Smoke. Death. But, water would be nice._ Gray's eyes fluttered shut, finally at peace, and then opened again as he no longer felt Zoro bouncing around. He felt himself get lowered to the ground, but he could not see much, everything was way too blurry.

"I can't believe you actually got him," Zabuza muttered as he scooped more water into his own mouth.

Zoro bent down at the side of the water and finally shoved his head in the water, unable to think of anything else for a few seconds. He opened his mouth underwater and just chugged as much water as possible. When he came back out, he cupped his hands and got some water. Then, he poured the water into Gray's mouth, and the ice mage snapped up at the feeling of water on his lips.

"Aaa- ack-" he tried making noises but everything was too scratchy with his dry throat. His eyes widened more and more at the sight of water in front of him though, and he crawled forward and dropped into the water. Immediately his whole body screamed out in pain, his burns searing in agony from the sudden feeling of being rushed with water. He opened his mouth to scream, and water filled his throat and lungs.

"What an idiot," Zabuza muttered as Gray started drowning in ten-inch deep water.

"Hey you guys!" someone shouted behind them. Zabuza looked around while Zoro pulled out a drowning Gray from the water. There were people running towards them. Some of the people looked scared of them, but most just looked concerned.

"You're injured!"

"Did you come out of the lava fields?!"

"Wow how did you make it through there?!"

"Let's get him to Nurse Joy!"

"Quickly!"

Gray lay on the ground listening to all of this, but he managed to get his eyes open a little and looked at the green haired man who had punched him in the chest a few times and made him cough up all the water. "Thanks, Zoro," he mumbled, before passing out for good, and for the next four days.

 **FD + 94**

Zoro jumped up on top of the summit of the mountain he was climbing. The swordsman stood in the middle of the snowstorm, looking down off the top of the mountain into the valley below. Despite the falling snow, he could faintly see the town taking up the middle of the valley, buy he couldn't see the mountains on the other side. He could faintly see the smoke on the western edge of the town where there were no mountains, and a thought crossed his mind, _Wonder if it's this cold in there? Probably not._

The swordsman started walking down the other side of the snow-covered slope towards the town below. _Snow's really picking up,_ he thought, feeling a gust of wind that falling snow flying sideways into his unclothed torso. His cold weather training was going well, but even he could not help but feel chilly in this blizzard. "Should probably ask Bo Peep for a wool coat," he muttered, crossing his arms and picking up his pace a little.

The green haired pirate made it back down the mountain and crossed a field that was covering with an inch more of snow every few minutes. "Damn, guess I'll need to do some shoveling tomorrow. Strength training," he muttered to make it sound less like a chore. He shivered from another gust of wind and frowned deeply, "And I'll do it without my shirt on again," he growled at his body for shivering and showing weakness.

As Zoro was nearing the town in the valley's center, two large floodlights turned on on top of the southern gate where he was approaching from. He continued heading towards the town and lifted up his right arm to block out the light as he approached.

"Whoa! That guy isn't wearing a shirt out in this storm?" someone shouted from up on the wall.

"Ha, look at his hair," the other one replied.

They looked closer and Zoro lowered his arm, letting them see his face. The man with a scar over his left eye nodded up at the southern gate guards, and they opened up the gate for him. The town had a wooden fence made up of a bunch of spikes that encircled the entire town. The gate on the south side opened up inwards into the town, and Zoro walked through to the other side, becoming mildly surprised as he did. "Huh," he mumbled, stepping out of the six inches of snow and onto the dirt street ahead of him. He looked around at the streetlights on either side of the path that were illuminating the street, and he could still see snowflakes falling down, but as soon as they touched the floor, they melted. The lights, the heated floor, even the buildings on either side of him made Zoro pretty surprised, and he was still taking it all in when he was approached.

"Look who's back," a voice said on Zoro's right side. He turned his head and saw the front door to the two story building on his right opened up. Brock was wearing a brown jacket made of wool with a fur hood. The teenager smiled at Zoro, "You should go check on your buddy Gray. A new _person_ came to town last week, and she has some great healing abilities."

Zoro nodded at the tall dark-skinned teenager and then kept walking down the road. "And put on a coat," Brock called after the muscular pirate.

"Yeah yeah," Zoro waved off the younger man. _Healing abilities? That could be useful for training without breaks. Hmm, he emphasized "person…"_ The swordsman with three swords at his sides walked down the road with snow falling on him, heading towards a house he built with the two comrades he arrived in the town with.

The muscular man stepped inside the house and took a deep breath in, then released it calmly. It was nice breathing in some warm air and not sucking in a bunch of snow for a change. "Zabuza that you?" Gray asked, stepping out of the next room down into the hallway leading to the doorway. "Zoro!" he shouted in surprise.

The pirate swordsman nodded his head at the younger man. He looked around, but his Observational Haki did not notify him of any other energies in the house. Made sense why Gray thought it was Zabuza then when the door opened up, "Where did he head off to?" Zoro muttered as he walked forward.

"Zabuza?! He keeps going off to go look for his girlfriend or something, but what about you? You've been gone for almost two weeks!" Gray shook his head, "I didn't think you were ever coming back here."

"Just had to get some training in," Zoro replied.

As he said it, Gray looked up and down his shirtless torso. "Whoa, you've got some new scars," the ice mage said in surprise. None of them were bandaged, and Gray smiled, "You have to meet this little person I met. She has a Devil Fruit that can heal your wounds if you want."

"Little person?" Zoro asked. He was walking towards the kitchen to try and find some alcohol, but he turned to look at Gray closer. "Huh, your burn marks are gone," the swordsman observed. He looked the wizard up and down, "That's some pretty impressive work."

"Yep," Gray flexed his arms and grinned at the pirate in front of him. "I'm good as new. We should get going one of these days."

"How about tomorrow?" Zoro asked as he opened up the fridge, pulling out a huge bottle of sake that pretty much had his name on it. He lifted up the bottle and popped the cork on top, before taking a big chug of the bottle marked in the center with an 'X'. "Assuming the misty bastard is back by then," Zoro continued.

Gray was surprised at first by the suggestion of heading out tomorrow, but he smiled once Zoro mentioned waiting for Zabuza. "You know," Gray started up, "there's another swordsman in the village now. He beat the Sword of the Morning guy, you know, Ser Arthur Dayne?" he tried jogging Zoro's memory but the swordsman just shrugged and took another gulp. Gray continued, "He was the guy who used two swords."

"Oh," Zoro said, nodding at the memory of that guy trying to challenge him. "Seemed pretty skillful, but he was weak," Zoro stated.

"Everyone's weak compared to you," Gray replied with a little chuckle. "Speaking of which, put on a shirt. You're making normal guys envious," the pirate in front of him was so muscular that it was hard not to want to have a body like that.

"Speak for yourself," Zoro told the younger man, who looked down and noticed he was in the middle of taking his shirt off. Gray's face turned red and he released the hem of his shirt, hating that damn habit of his. "Anyway, what's this new swordsman's name?" the pirate asked, taking a seat on a stool on one side of the kitchen counter.

Gray walked over and sat on the other side of the counter. Zoro pulled out two sake cups and placed them on the table, lifting his eyebrows at Gray. Gray lifted up a hand to wave him off, but then sighed and nodded his head. "Might as well celebrate if we're gonna be heading out tomorrow." Zoro poured him a cup and then himself one, and they each chugged their tiny cups of sake.

The mage scrunched up his face and smiled as he shook his head. "Damn that's some strong stuff. Oh," he seemed to remember something and put the cup back down. "The new swordsman, his name is Yamamoto Takeshi. He's a pretty cool guy, a few years younger than us, looking around for his friends Tsuna, Gokudera, a few others." Gray grinned as Zoro poured him another drink. "Saw him use his sword, bet he could give you a run for your money."

Zoro rose his eyebrows, and lowered the cup from his mouth, "Seriously?" he asked, wondering if there was more to this teenager than Gray was letting on.

"I don't know," Gray said and shrugged. "He had skill though. When he challenged the Sword of Morning, he moved fast, controlled water, even cut up Ser Dayne's armor. Solid steel plating."

"Cutting steel isn't too impressive," Zoro muttered, but he did lower the bottle of sake too. "Though he sounds like someone I'm willing to check out before we leave," he smirked at the wizard across the counter from him. "Urp," he burped loudly and then stood up. "So if the stupid ninja isn't back by tomorrow, I'll go see what that Takeshi kid can do."

"You hitting the sack?" Gray asked as the man started walking away already.

Zoro yawned loudly and looked back, "Yeah." _Traveled all day through a snow storm. Fought a minotaur. Fell into an underground cavern, where it was still snowing. Damn cave collapsed after I killed those green gorillas. Plus I almost got turned into a plant again. That would have sucked without that kid there to help me out._ He didn't say any of this to Gray, just turned and walked off towards a room with a bed in it. After ten plus days of sleeping outside, having to keep on guard even in his sleep, he was happy to finally get a good night's sleep for once. _Resting once in a while is good for the body._

"We set up plumbing," Gray called out as his friend walked away. "Try out the shower. You could use it."

Zoro frowned as he walked into his room, yawning and stretching his arms up over his head. He got a good whiff of himself as he lifted his arms, and then scrunched up his face. "Alright, good point," he muttered, turning and heading off for the bathroom, "you stripper wizard."

sc

 **Later That Night**

"Ack-ak-ak-ak zzzzzz, ack-ak-ak-ak zzzzzz," Zoro snored loudly lying out on his mattress, his super comfy mattress. He was deep in sleep. Nothing could disturb him. Even the fact that his house no longer had a roof was not bothering him enough to make him get up. His room was filling with cold air, and it got colder as the wall on the left side ripped to pieces.

Outside the house, people were running back and forth down the streets in a panic. "What's going on?!"

"My house!"

"Jenny!"

"Get them out of there!"

Zoro mumbled something incoherent in his sleep and rolled over on his bed. "Damn it Luffy," he rolled on his back and held his hands up in the air, moving them as if they were squeezing someone's neck. "That was the last of our food you rubber idiot," he snapped up in bed with a pissed off look on his face, still holding up his hands in a strangling position. "Huh, oh yeah," he mumbled, lying back down and closing his eyes.

He lay there with his eyes closed for a second, and then his eyes snapped wide open as the wall behind his headboard fell backwards. He jumped up on his bed and looked around, seeing half of his room's walls ripped off, the ceiling gone, and outside of the building people running around in a panic. "What the Hell is going on here?"

"They're attacking from everywhere!" someone shouted near the wall behind Zoro's bed that just broke down. He turned to see Brock tossing up two pokeballs. Out from the red and white balls shot two large red lights, creating a hundred foot tall snake made of large rocks and a fat purple bat in the air flapping around large purple wings. "Onix, Goldbat, I choose you!"

"The walls have broken!" someone shouted, making Zoro turn to see five people running down the street from the other direction. All of a sudden they flew up in the air, going in every direction and screaming as if something had just hit them. The street they were running on broke apart too in a large crater, but whatever hit it was invisible.

"No," Zoro growled as he saw a large building down the path start falling. The people in the town were running around in a panic, but no one was fighting back and now he knew why. "Damn that Zabuza," he muttered. The pirate got off his bed and threw on some clothes fast, "Bastard would be able to see them," the green haired man looked either direction after stepping outside, and he still saw nothing. "I need to see," he growled, looking closer to either side, looking for slight movements of rubble, or buildings shaking. The man suddenly became calm and closed his eyes, then drowned out all noise from around him.

 _I can't use my eyes. Or my ears. I can't feel it using Haki. If I can't find it with any way I know how._ He snapped his eyes back open, _Then I will have to learn how to fight it by the end of this fight._ He swung both arms out to his sides, drawing swords as he did from his waist. As he drew them, flying slashes flew off of his blades and crashed down the road. _On the left,_ he saw his slash collide with something, but whatever it was did not really get affected by his attack too badly, as he saw some rubble even closer to him move a few seconds later. "Alright, I'll just have to fight you without-"

Zoro's chest filled with pain, and then the rest of his body too. "Ahhh!" he yelled, his whole body searing in pain as he felt like he was being burned alive. His clothes started tearing, and he lifted off the ground, flying backwards. He opened his eyes a little through the pain, and he could faintly see a glowing red light around him, but it faded a second later, along with most of the pain. The green haired swordsman clenched his teeth and flipped himself in midair, slamming his swords down into the ground and stopping his momentum, even if he did tear up half the road doing it.

Zoro landed down on his knees, and he was panting pretty hard even from just one hit. "What, the Hell, was that?" he grumbled. He lifted his head and looked down the road the direction he just came from. As he looked up, his panting caught in his throat, and he froze in shock for a few seconds.

Standing down the road, just past his house, were five, super tall, black monsters. They were wider than the street at their bases, and their bodies rose all the way up towards the sky. Their heads were just underneath the dark clouds that were covering the landscape in snow, and on each of their heads was a white mask making the same blank facial expression. Zoro opened his eyes wide at the sight of the white masks, remembering the first time they found out about the invisible enemies, when only Zabuza was able to fight the monster that he said, 'looked like a demon wearing a white mask.'

 _So I can see them now,_ Zoro thought, grinning madly as he did and drawing his third sword to put in his mouth. As he did this, all five of the Menos Grande Hollows opened up their mouths, forming large red lights in their throats. All at once they fired around the town, and Zoro was finally able to see the attacks for what they were. _That's what hit me?_ he thought, suddenly realizing why it hurt so much as one of their red beams incinerated a house.

He saw one of the beams coming for him, and he crossed his swords in front of him to block it. His blades held off the beam, and then with an incredible push he sliced his blades through the front of it, hoping to disperse the attack away. His plan backfired for as soon as he cut the red attack, it exploded all around him and seemed even stronger than the last one. This time it actually tore at his skin a little, ripping him open on his arms and legs, and even making a gash on his upper back that aggravated him more than anything.

"This, is getting, ridiculous," he snarled, finally jumping backwards out of the explosion. When he looked forward though, all five of the Menos were now looking his way. The tall black monsters with large holes in their chests had seen this human survive twice now after being hit by their Cero, but that was when they fired at him individually. Zoro looked ahead at the monsters and saw them all charging those red beam attacks again, _I can't take all those hits,_ he realized, frowning deeply at the thought of weakness, but standing his ground and crossing his arms. _I will not run though. A scar on the back is-_ his mind blanked as the impossible happened.

As he awaited the giant Hollows to attack him, one of them ripped in half vertically. More exactly, it was cut in half. The ones around it started turning in with their mouths still glowing red, but the figure who cut the first one was hovering in midair in front of where it was just standing. Zoro stared at this mystery figure in awe and watched as the man turned and started cutting up the rest of the Menos Grande. Two of them fired Ceros at point blank towards him, but he moved faster than Zoro could see and then reappeared above the collision of the two blasts.

The flying man brought his sword down and cut one of the remaining two monsters in its mask, making the whole beast disintegrate. He turned to the last one, and when he slashed downwards, not just the mask, but the entire Menos's body split in half vertically.

After the person split the monster, it, just like all the others, disintegrated into thin air leaving no body behind. Zoro stared up at this figure hovering in the sky, standing as if there were a solid platform beneath his feet. "Hey you," the pirate yelled up, making the man turn his head a little. Zoro hesitated before continuing, as when the man turned around Zoro came face to face with a white mask that looked like the skull of a horned beast. He could tell the mask was not really attached to the man though because of how different he was from the rest of those masked creatures, and because of the light skin behind the eye-holes in his mask. "Who are you?" Zoro called up to the man.

The shinigami in the air was wearing a black kimono with a white sash around his waist, and a brown fur coat draped over his shoulders and over his back. The person looked away from the strange muscular human down below and glanced to his left and right. When he turned to the right, he spotted a dozen Hollows dropping out of the air, and he kicked off the sky towards them, moving like a blur to the man down below who tried following his movements.

"Zoro!" a voice shouted on the swordsman's left. He did not turn to his comrade Gray who ran up to him and started babbling nonsense. "No one has seen what's attacking us! We need to leave!"

"Someone already killed them," Zoro stated calmly, looking off to the right where outside of the town limits the man in the white mask was jumping around in the air cutting those huge monsters apart. A few more appeared suddenly, only these looked more human, with muscles and humanoid figures. They attacked the guy along with the rest of the monsters, and were actually getting hits on him, but it was like every time the shinigami swung his sword, he killed five enemies. _He's strong,_ Zoro started jogging off in that direction, running past all the buildings around him where people were helping each other out of the rubble.

Gray started running after Zoro, but he heard someone call his name on his left side. He looked over and saw Brock standing beneath his Onix, using his large Pokemon to help him move debris. "Gray, pull them out when we get the roof off them."

"Help!"

"We're trapped!"

Gray heard the young voices coming from beneath the collapsed roof and he ran over towards the falling building. "Hold on!" the ice mage shouted, starting to pull away some rubble too. He glanced over his shoulder while helping out, staring in the direction Zoro just ran off too. _Where are you going?_

The green haired pirate left the limits of the town, having to jump over a section of the wall still standing on the east side of town. He leapt over the wall and stared ahead at the large field where Pokemon and animals were running frantically away from the horde of Hollows. The monsters which were previously invisible to him were all appearing in the same place which was not a good sign.

The person in the white horned-mask was fighting as hard as he could. Zoro saw the man swinging his sword back and forth, defending from Hollows and those stronger masked creatures all at the same time. He saw one of them sneaking up behind him, one with a broken mask that indicated he was stronger than the others. The Arrancar brought forward its claws, and then its hands were sliced off and the creature screamed.

The man wearing a horned mask turned around and saw the enemy who almost got him screaming out without any hands. He spun and slashed its mask, splitting it in half and killing the creature. He turned back and blocked two more attacks, then pushed off to send his enemies flying backwards. As he did however, a hole in space ripped open in front of him, a giant hole with only black behind it. "Why do they keep coming?" he wondered aloud, staring at the army of Menos Grande walking through the hole. The figure looking ahead's eyes widened at the sight of a dark-skinned man walking forward in the air from inside the black portal out behind the Menos army.

"Get away from here!" the man shouted, turning his head and looking down at the muscular swordsman who was trying to help him, and actually succeeding a little. "Get everyone in that town and leave here at once!"

Zoro was about to yell at the man to shut up and not tell him what to do, when his own eyes started to grow larger. The guy with the horned mask was in the middle of turning around, but was far too slow as a bald black man in a white kimono appeared behind him. The black man had a row of white boney spikes going down his head like a mohawk, and a necklace of sharp white bones looking like teeth around the bottom of his neck.

The man with the mask turned towards his powerful opponent, and came face to face with him. He wanted to raise his sword, but his opponent was so fast it seemed like a single movement from him and his enemy would take advantage, cutting him in half. The dark-skinned person stood on the air only two feet away from the man who had been fighting all of these monsters. "I remember you," the darker man stated. "You were the annoying shinigami who lived in the Forest of Menos." The dark enemy controlling the dozen plus Menos behind him continued calmly, "I am the Seventh Espada, Zommari Rureaux. What is your name?"

The shinigami in front of him swung his sword furiously in a swipe across the front of his body. As his sword was inches away from the Espada, the dark-skinned figure vanished. More-precisely, he appeared behind his opponent, while leaving an after-image behind that was cut through. Zommari slammed an elbow into the back of the shinigami's head, sending the man flying out of the air and into the ground below.

After watching this shinigami destroy dozens of powerful monsters, seeing him get tossed like a ragdoll made Zoro's skin cover in sweat. The fear was intense, and he snarled furiously that he was unable to even see this person move. _Weak,_ he thought, staring up at the man who was lowering down towards the ground.

He lowered right past Zoro, but did not even glance the human's way. "You shinigamis," he started, talking directly to the figure in the white mask who was getting back up, though his mask was cracked now, revealing half of his white face underneath. The Espada continued, "You preach how Hollows are evil and proceed to kill them under that basis, but what gives you the right to do so?" The black man landed on the ground and walked towards his enemy who had red hair now revealed from under his mask. "I will ask you one last time. What is your name?" Zommari asked his opponent.

"Kanou," the man growled back at him, "Ashido Kanou." The red haired man glanced behind Zommari at the muscular human behind him, a pissed off look in his eyes as he had told the man to do something. Zoro was not going to run away though, even after seeing the man's eye movements.

The Espada in front of Ashido saw the flicker of his eyes as well though, and he turned his head back to look at the human behind him. He frowned and turned back to Ashido, "You shinigami care so deeply for pathetic humans. They are nothing but meat for us Espada, eating their souls is perfectly alright. Yet you kill Hollows in order to protect them," the man sounded annoyed, and had no idea he was actually sounding hypocritical at the moment. "Well, how about you try to protect them now," Zommari continued.

Zoro's eyes went wide and he knew exactly what the man meant. Fortunately for him, being able to see the enemy also meant he gained his other senses, like being able to hear him speak, as well as feel him approaching with his Observational Haki. Zoro turned before he saw or heard anything, already swinging all three of his swords to the right. The Espada stopped before charging into the blades, his golden eyes opening wide at the aspect of a human predicting his movements, yet he became even more surprised as despite the blades passing in front of him by over five feet, he still got slashed and thrown backwards.

Zommari Rureaux skid back across the ground, his feet picking up dust clouds as he shot backwards. He finally stopped after a few seconds and was panting heavily, not because of pain as the slashes had only cut through his clothing and nothing else, but because of absolute shock. "A human?" his eyes turned into a mad rage for a second, before he calmed himself instantly. "I must have misread the situation. Of course that is not a human. You," he called over to the green haired man looking his way. "What are you?"

Zoro put a sword back in his teeth, his Wado Ichimonji, and he glared ahead at his enemy, his right eye glowing red as he did. He started running forward, but the red haired figure leapt in front of him, raising his sword up in between Zoro and the Seventh Espada. "Get out of my way," Zoro growled.

The man turned towards Zoro a little, staring directly into the swordsman's eye. "Stand back," Ashido stated, then turned towards his enemy again.

The Espada had started smirking when Zoro began charging at him, but now he lowered his smile back into a calm, almost bored expression. Ashido looked over at the dark skinned man and looked into his yellow eyes, "It has been a long time," Ashido stated, his voice deadly serious, "since I had to release my Zanpakuto."

Zommari continued to stare at Ashido without a worried look. "Ashido Kanou. You were in Hueco Mondo for hundreds of years killing Hollows. I will not underestimate you, as perhaps you could be at the level of a Captain. Even a Captain would not be able to defeat me though." He rose up his sword but something strange was happening to Ashido's weapon at the same time.

"Shikai," Ashido said. Ashido's sword started to glow and a second later the red haired shinigami was holding another identical sword in his left hand. The swords were longer now and thicker towards the big curve at the ends. Zoro planned to attack Zommari before Ashido had a chance to, annoyed that they were ignoring him. As soon as he took a step however, Ashido disappeared from in front of him. At the same time Ashido vanished, Zommari did as well.

Zoro's eye darted left and right trying to find the two of them. _**Chh cling dink!**_ He heard the clash of sword on sword coming from every direction yet he could not follow their movements in the least. Finally they appeared in front of him, Ashido pressing forward with both swords while Zommari struggled to hold him back with one. The Espada slashed out and knocked Ashido back, but he was the one who had to jump back next and start panting.

"Even among the Espada, I have the fastest Sonido of all arrancar in Hueco Mundo- Gemelos Sonido!" Zommari boasted and he stopped his panting. "I recognize that you have a considerable amount of strength, but have you noticed something?" The arrancar questioned.

Zoro looked at the red haired man to see if he knew what the other guy was talking about, but he did not like the way his ally was heavily panting. _I couldn't even see them, and it looks like this Ashido guy could barely keep up._

Zommari continued, "That's right, I have not released my Zanpakuto yet. Let me demonstrate it to you." The black man who looked a little like a witch doctor with his bone necklace and earrings lifted up his weapon and held it horizontally in front of him. He let go of the weapon and it continued to float sideways while he brought his palms together in front of his chest. As his palms pressed together, his head started turning clockwise, until his head was completely sideways. His yellow eye widened and a black pupil appeared in the middle that widened to cover the entire thing. "Suppress, Brujeria!" Zommari announced. His blade still floating before him creaked and then twisted, losing its long form to snap into into a curling shape, then snapped again, and again until it was in the shape of a square. Out from the blade came a thick gray ooze that started seeping everywhere and surrounding Zommari's entire body to make him surrounded in a thick sphere of the stuff.

"1080 POUND CANNON!"

Ashido started to turn and the ooze covering Zommari seeped down for a second so that an eye became visible behind the goo. That eye opened up huge at the sight of a slash produced by Zoro swinging three of his swords down as hard as he could straight at him. The ground between Zoro and Zommari split apart in a massive fissure and the slash slammed into his enemy in under a second. Zommari let out a roar as the attack hit him and knocked the sphere of ooze and the man inside it backwards. The slash kept going while Zommari himself fell down, blood splashing from his strange-looking body. His bottom half had become round and pink, while his upper torso was white all the way up to his head that now had a single yellow eye sideways on it. The rest of his strange body was covered in yellow eyes over every foot of his body. There was skin between the eyes, but he must have had around a hundred of them. Several of those eyes were still shut and others on the front of his body were clenched as a slash went right over them and the skin on either side.

Zoro took a deep breath after finishing his slash and then he glared ahead at the creepy Espada and looked straight into his main eye. Zommari had gotten back up so that his round pink bottom section was flat on the ground. When he released his sword, his Resurreccion, he lost his sword as it was holding back the power that allowed his body to transform. He was panting and he had blood dripping down the left corner of his mouth, and he did not look happy in the slightest. "Human, you- you-" He was shaking with rage and he roared again, wind shooting off of his body and pushing the other two back.

"I have not given you the credit you deserve," Ashido began without turning back to Zoro. "You can help me defeat-"

"Amor!" Zommari shouted. The Espada started laughing as neither of the other two realized what had happened and he was already past Ashido and right in front of Zoro. Zoro blocked with his Shuusui, but Zommari slammed his fist into that blade without losing his grin. Zoro became confused as the man had gotten the drop on him and did not have to hit his sword when he could have slammed his fist into Zoro's body. He became even more confused as his own right arm turned black as night.

"What did you do to me?" Zoro asked as he glared at the man in front of him. He tried slashing with his swords, but only the one in his mouth and in his left hand moved. He looked down at his right hand in confusion, while Ashido charged at Zommari when the Espada's back was to him. Ashido swung forward and it looked like he cut right through Zommari, but the image of the Espada just faded after Ashido's swords cut through him.

"You may be faster after releasing your Shikai," Zommari remarked, seeming like he regained some of his composure. Ashido turned around and saw Zommari staring at him with his hands once again pressed together in front of his body in a calm way like he was praying. "But you can not catch up to the Gemelos Sonido. It is fast enough that I can produce clones of myself." As he said it, he started moving to the left and right at supersonic speeds and there were suddenly two clones on either side of him. All the clones spoke at the same time, "Now face the power of my Resurreccion's special ability, Amor."

 **Sloosshh**

The sound of a sword cutting through flesh made Ashido snap his head around, and made Zoro look down in total shock. He stared at his own right hand, holding his Shuusui by the hilt, only the rest of the blade was backwards, stabbing himself right in the stomach and out his back. Zommari spoke while Zoro coughed and blood splattered out of his mouth. "You did not notice, but one of the eyes on my body closed when I used my ability. It stole the sovereignty of your right arm, in essence, making it mine to control."

Zoro dropped down to his left knee, and he coughed up some more blood. He lifted up his left arm and turned his sword around. Ashido thought for a second that his other arm had been captured as well, while Zommari started seething in anger at what Zoro was doing. Zoro turned his blade and he slashed at his right arm, not cutting through it completely, but cutting the tendons on his shoulder and making his arm go limp at his side, losing its grip on the sword in his stomach. Zoro staggered back up onto his left foot while reaching in with his left hand and grabbing the sword hilt in his stomach, but as he grabbed it he heard Zommari shout, "Amor!"

Zoro's left arm stopped moving, and in the same moment he slashed with the sword still in his mouth. Sandai Kitetsu dropped from his left hand as his other arm got its tendons slashed. After cutting it he immediately snapped his head up and sent a flying slash at his opponent. The slash flew at Zommari but the man simply dodged to the right. Ashido was not going to let Zoro get hurt anymore though, and he charged at Zommari at the same time. The two of them started fighting while Zoro staggered around on his feet, barely able to keep himself focused. His vision was getting blurry and he darted his eyes from his left arm to his right, watching as blood poured down from up at his deeply-gashed shoulders all the way to his fingertips and poured out like faucets on the ground. His arms did not even feel like the worst of it, and he lowered his eyes back down to Shuusui that he had still not managed to get out of his stomach.

"Shit," he muttered through the sword clenched in his teeth. All his had left was Wado Ichimonji, but he couldn't move with this sword sticking out of his chest.

"Hey! Hey you!" someone shouted behind him.

Zoro slowly turned around and the boy running towards him opened his eyes wide in surprise upon seeing him. "Whoa!" The teen with spiky black hair exclaimed. He ran up to Zoro and looked down at the man's stomach, "What happened? Are you-" The teen seemed to notice something and he looked behind Zoro to see patches of snow flying up in the air every few seconds. "Are there other fighters here?" Yamamoto Takeshi asked and he reached down to his side where there was a sword resting.

"Oi," Zoro grumbled at the boy who was surprised that Zoro could speak after losing so much blood. Just the fact that he was standing was amazing in itself, but what Zoro asked next made Takeshi's jaw drop. "You heard me, now do it," Zoro commanded. The boy looked into Zoro's eye and Zoro looked as serious as could be. The kid's panicked look faded and he looked much more serious as he reached both hands to Zoro's stomach and clenched them around the hilt sticking out of him. "Just do it fast, don't make me wait-"

 **Swoosh!** In one pull Takeshi removed the blade, and Zoro instantly dropped down to his knees, blood splashing out of the deep wound that cut completely through him. "Are you alright?" Takeshi asked, leaning down and helping Zoro back up to his feet.

Zoro nodded his head once and turned back around. He started marching towards the battle going on behind him while Takeshi stared at him like he was insane. Suddenly Takeshi spotted something and he darted his eyes to the left side of the snowy field, to see a large chunk of ground lifting up in the air, and then splitting apart several times. "What the Hell is-" A large force of something slammed into the teen and he went flying backwards. "Ahh!"

Zoro darted his eyes back and watched the teen roll away in the snow. When he looked back forwards he took a step and then collapsed down on his right knee. "What the Hell?" He muttered. His eyes were very blurry and he could not see a thing, just a blur of white below him that was starting to get darker. The darkness wasn't him closing his eyes, it was the snow losing its white color as it turned gradually more red. He tried to reach his hands up to rub his eyes, but he forgot his arms were under the control of Zommari, and even if they weren't, he cut his own tendons to stop them from working.

In front of him, Ashido and Zommari became visible again. Ashido was limping, he had lost one leg to Zommari's strange technique. More of Zommari's eyes were closed now. The creepy Espada was covered in them though, and he was not running out any time soon. Ashido's left arm went limp and one of his swords dropped, but he reached down with his right arm and lifted up the sword again. "What will you do with two swords in one hand?" Zommari scoffed at his opponent. "If you have not released your Bankai already, then I doubt you even have one. In that case, it is time for you to die."

Ashido looked back and saw a man on his knees behind him. The green haired man was looking at him through glossy eyes while the ground below him was getting red and that red circle was expanding every second. Ashido looked ahead again and Zommari was grinning at him, "Did you just realize how futile your battle truly is?"

Another of Zommari's eyes closed and Ashido's other leg turned black. The Espada started making the shinigami walk towards him, and Ashido saw only way to stop himself from walking straight into his enemy's blade. He slashed down and cut threw his legs so far that they could not support his weight and he collapsed to the ground. He held two swords on one hand while the rest of his limbs were bleeding out and under the control of his enemy. "Pointless," Zommari said, the eye on his head narrowing and looking angry at Ashido's seemingly foolish efforts to delay his death. The Espada grinned after a second though, and he said, "Now that you can no longer follow me though, I will let you survive for the extra time you have bought yourself. In that time, you will have to witness the destruction of those disgusting humans you love so much."

A horde of Hollows dropped out of the air on both sides of Zommari and they all rushed the same direction. Ashido turned his head while lying on his back on the snow and all he could whisper was, "No," as he watched them raid the town still full of people wondering what had happened to them. The carnage restarted in the area, and Zommari rushed ahead of Ashido at a slow enough speed that the shinigami could follow his movements into the town where he began carving the place up.

Inside the town, Gray had just helped two children out from under a building, but he and Brock and Brock's Pokemon only managed to get the rubble off with the help of someone else who arrived when they started pushing. The man with a white mask covering the bottom of his face stood back up fully when Gray got the two kids out, and Gray turned to him while Brock recalled his Pokemon and started excitedly rushing the kids to their hospital where he would get to see Nurse Joy.

"Zabuza, I'm glad you're back," Gray said, his face covered in sweat and looking like he was panicking. "We're in bad shape. I think-" Gray stopped and looked to Zabuza's side where a beautiful girl stepped forward and looked at him. Gray spun back to Zabuza and said, "You found your girlfriend?" Zabuza's forehead got a tick mark on it and he growled at Gray.

"I'm a boy," Haku said calmly, in a feminine voice.

"Oh," Gray said, suddenly feeling very weird for some reason. "Well anyway, we need help! There are invisible monsters-"

Zabuza's head was turning while Gray spoke, and from the sight of how wide the ninja's eyes went, Gray's heart fell. He spun around and yelled, "Are they here?"

"There's dozens of them," Haku whispered, while reaching down and pulling ninja needles out of a pouch on his side.

"You can see them too?" Gray questioned, thankful for that as this guy who looked cute also seemed pretty strong by his unafraid expression.

"Let's go Haku," Zabuza said as screams started echoing out from a different part of town.

The two ninjas took off, and Gray called out, "Find Zoro! He went that way!" Neither of the ninjas turned back to him, and Gray grimaced as he started seeing houses blowing to pieces in the distance but had no vision of what was doing it. _What am I supposed to do?_

 _Zoro's out here? What is that idiot doing if he can't even see these things?_ Zabuza slashed down with his thick sword coated in chakra, and he sliced straight through the mask of a giant Hollow that just started turning to him. All of the others in the area spun his way, and they charged together at the Demon of the Hidden Mist. Zabuza spun towards two coming at him from his right side and he made close to a dozen hand signs. "Water Style: Giant Vortex Jutsu!" He yelled, and up above his head formed a ten meter tall swirling funnel of water that slammed down in front of him and knocked the Hollows off the ground, while also ripping through a few still-standing houses.

The vortex spun out of the town, tearing some of the outer wall off as it did. Zommari Rureaux turned his head to the left and watched as two of his monsters got torn apart inside it. He turned back towards the city and watched as more of his Hollows were getting destroyed. _Humans,_ he thought, his face twisting into a ferocious snarl. The Espada who had already released his Zanpakuto, whose body was fat and pink at the bottom and white on his upper torso, who had a large bloody gash on the front of his body courtesy of Roronoa Zoro, shot forward with a Gemelos Sonido so he appeared in front of Zabuza instantly.

Zabuza started turning but he was far too slow to stop the sword that slashed across his body and sent him flying back a hundred feet and into a building that's wall exploded and the dozens of people hiding inside screamed. They had found somewhere safe to hide, but now the building was coming down on top of them and their screams filled the air. Zommari looked smug that he disposed of that human easily, but he froze as his vision of that destroyed house in the distance became obstructed. There was suddenly a mirror in front of him, a mirror that did not show his own reflection, but the body of a teenage boy with long black hair who wore a blue kimono. Zommari did a three-sixty degree turn and looked above and below where he was standing in the air, because he was shocked to see large rectangular mirrors with that same boy inside them appearing on every side of him.

"What is this magic?" He growled angrily.

"Hidden Jutsu: Crystal Ice Mirrors," Haku said. "You are fast enough to catch Zabuza off guard. However, in here, I can move from mirror to mirror faster than you can possibly move. At this moment, you see me in over fifty mirrors, but I am not in multiple places at once." Zommari's eyes, all fifty-something of them remaining on his fat body, opened huge at the sound of that and they darted around trying to catch the movement of the boy between his mirrors. Haku's Kekkei Genkai was impressive though, and Zommari frowned as he truly could not perceive a difference in each mirror.

 _In that case,_ the Espada thought. He sped forward and slashed at a mirror, but the mirror fixed itself impossibly fast so that he could not escape from his cage. He spun and smacked a hand through the air to knock the ninja needles down before they got him, but then he felt some others stab him in the back as Haku appeared in the mirror that just fixed itself behind him. He shot towards the middle of the mirror cage, then spun and roared, "Amor!" at the mirror where he knew Haku was. That mirror turned pitch black, and Haku froze for a second on the opposite side of the mirrors, leaving the rest of them empty as he stared wide-eyed at a mirror that he could no longer freely move into.

Zommari grinned as he turned his head and glared into Haku's eyes with all of his, but then Haku spoke and his smug look vanished. "I see one of your eyes closed when you used that ability of yours. Sooner or later, you will exhaust-"

"Amor!"

That mirror Haku spoke from turned black, but Haku suddenly appeared on every mirror and continued talking. "And when you run out of eyes, you will die for hurting Zabuza."

Outside of the cage of mirrors that strangely kept turning darker and darker, the town was still in chaos as Hollows commanded by Zommari continued their rampage. Gray lay back against a wall with a little person on his left shoulder, holding up her hands and creating a warm glow in front of them. The tiny blonde-haired woman asked innocently, "Are you okay?"

"Thanks, Mansherry," Gray muttered, his eyes opening back up and looking down at his chest that was all burned and scratched up a second ago. He turned to his shoulder that had almost been ripped through completely that would have taken his arm with it, but there was not even a scar to where it was just healed. He made eye contact with the tiny woman and said, "You really are amazing."

"Please, get everyone out of here," the tiny person begged Gray in a scared tone. "I am afraid that the town is lost. We must-"

Both Gray and Mansherry roared out in pain and the rubble around them exploded. Half of the town suddenly burst into flames, and Zabuza got up from his lying-down position to look around with huge eyes at the red glow surrounding him. The entire town was falling apart, there were monsters everywhere, and then he heard a scream up above him. The scream was so familiar, so horrifying, that his heartbeat stopped for a second. His head snapped up, and Zabuza watched with giant eyes as dozens of black mirrors shattered at the same time, and a young boy with pitch black arms and legs fell from the air with blood raining down after his body.

Haku fell with closing eyes, but while his eyelids were still open his eyes locked with Zabuza's down on the ground halfway across the town. The boy's mouth curved up the slightest amount at the corners, and he whispered, "Don't, waste it…" as he finished speaking, he let out a last breath, his eyelids closed, and Zabuza froze as he knew, somehow he knew.

Zabuza Momochi watched as Haku dropped, hit a pile of rubble that he recognized as his old house, and then vanished from his sight as more rubble collapsed on top of him. Zommari hovered in the air above that house, glaring down with the single eye on his head, panting, and his teeth grinding in fury as there were less than ten remaining open eyes on his body. _Humans, humans, humans! Why can they cause me damage?! This is-_

 **"RROOOAARR!"** Zommari spun around and all of his eyes snapped open huge at the sight of the demonic flaring aura that suddenly flared up down near a man who he sent flying only a few minutes ago. Zabuza's white mask shredded off his face and all his teeth behind it were sharpened like a monster. His aura rose thirty times taller than his own body, an aura that looked like the face of a giant horned demon, and Zabuza shot towards Zommari like a missile while roaring inside it.

Gray had just staggered up to his feet, and he was looking around for the little fairy who healed him a minute ago. When he heard the roar, he snapped his head up to look in the sky and he dropped his jaw as all he could see was Zabuza slashing his sword in a frenzied fury over and over into an empty space in midair. Zabuza roared in an animalistic voice and Gray shivered, then grimaced as he realized what could make Zabuza do something like that. The young mage covered in his own blood staggered towards Zabuza, his vision blurry on the edges, dead bodies littered on his sides on top of and sticking out of rubble from the town he had made his home.

"Rooarrr!" A teenager on the outside of town heard these roars and turned to look back there, spotting a demonic man getting slammed out of the sky, only to shoot right back up again angrier than ever. Yamamoto Takeshi stared at the burning town and then turned around to face the man on his knees whose arms were soaked in his own blood and who knelt in an ever-growing circle of red in the snow.

The teenager with a sword gripped in his left hand stumbled towards Zoro, but fell to one knee as well once he got next to the man whose head was bowed to the floor. "I need to get you some help," Takeshi told him. Zoro made not motion that he heard the boy, and the younger man reached out and shook Zoro by a bloody shoulder to try and get him to move, try and get him to give a sign that he was still alive.

 _ **Bu-dum bu-dum buhh-dum… buhhh-dumm…**_ Zoro could hear his heartbeat in his head. He heard it slowing down, and although his eyes were open, he could not find it in him to look up at the teenage boy asking him if he was okay. Takeshi's voice was a low hum in his head, and he thought, _So this is the kid, Gray mentioned? Good, kid… Shit,_ he was trying to distract himself, but his heartbeat just got louder in his mind and he could not ignore it. _This can't be the end. Luffy, Kuina… Gray. I have things I still need to do._

Zoro's body trembled, then shook more and more until his head was violently vibrating. Takeshi leaned back, while Zoro's neck lifted up with the most effort Zoro had ever put into anything in his life. He rose his gaze to the kid who looked into Zoro's glossy eyes and knew the swordsman did not have much time left. Zoro's vision was blurry, but when he looked at the teenager in front of him, his eyes darted to the kid's right side and Takeshi spun around thinking there was someone right behind him. The teenager did not see anyone, but there was someone there, kneeling on the snow right behind him, looking down at Zoro through eyes full of blood.

Ashido could hold his reverted Zanpakuto only in one arm, as the other was pitch black. He dragged himself towards Zoro on his knees and thighs, as his legs were gone, their sovereignty lost to Zommari. Ashido crawled right up on Takeshi's side who got up and stumbled back as he saw drag marks appear in the snow. "What's going on?" Takeshi exclaimed. Both of the others ignored him, staring straight into each other's eyes instead.

Although Zoro was looking into Ashido Kanou's eyes, he noticed the front of Ashido's chest was ripped open, and blood was coming down as fast there as it was from under the cloaked man's red hair into his eyes. "You can still move," Ashido said, his voice hoarse, deep, only a mutter that sounded so quiet. "You prove your strength once more, but even more so, you prove your will to live." Zoro continued to stare into the man's eyes, hearing his own heartbeat in his mind continue to slow. Ashido pulled himself up in front of Zoro, and he blinked his eyes slowly shut then back open. "We will, both die here," Ashido said, his voice full of regret, anger, and he continued, "And when we die, everyone here will be killed by Zommari and his Hollows."

Zoro's teeth bared and he was furious as he knew this to be true as well. He thought about everyone he knew in that town, faces of friends appeared in his mind, but no matter how hard he willed it, he could not break free from Zommari's hold. "There is," Ashido continued again, even quieter as trails of blood came out of the corners of his mouth and dripped down to his chin then off onto the floor. "A way," he finished, and Zoro's hazy eyes became a little more clear as they widened. "To save them," Ashido whispered, raising up his sword and putting the blade of it right in front of Zoro's chest. The human swordsman did not flinch as he felt the blade touch his chest, right in front of his heart that was beating so slowly now that he knew he would not make it another minute. "If I do this though, you will no longer, be human," Ashido whispered.

Zoro's teeth unclenched, his shaking stopped, and his eyes became fully clear as he stared forward with determination. His mouth opened up, and he said clearly, "Do it."

He did not hesitate, and Ashido nodded his head. _I could keep half of my strength for myself, but I will die in minutes anyway. Therefore, I will break all the rules. I give you everything I have._ Ashido pushed forward with his sword, and a bright white light surrounded Zoro's chest and then his entire body, and all of Ashido's too. Yamamoto Takeshi stumbled back farther as Zoro erupted in light. Inside that light, Zoro heard the man speak to him, "You are no longer a human. Your human body has perished, but you will not leave this world. Take my place, as a shinigami, a Death God. Protect people from Hollows and arrancar and Espada like Zommari. Defeat the demons they cannot see. You are given a second chance… don't waste it…" Ashido's voice faded and the white light faded from around Zoro as well.

Takeshi was covering his eyes with an arm, but as the light faded he lowered the arm from his face. His eyes opened wide and he frowned deeply, tssking under his breath and grinding his teeth in anger. Lying on the ground in front of him was the green haired swordsman, a white hilted sword next to his head, his other blades on the floor near him, the puddle of blood beneath him wider than ever. His body did not move. Takeshi stepped forward, leaned down, and touched two fingers to the side of Zoro's neck.

There was no pulse.

Roronoa Zoro, was dead.

A half mile away, Zabuza lay on the ground on his back. He was taking staggered breaths, both his arms were pitch black, and his head was sideways with his gaze on a boy lying halfway out of some rubble not far from him. "Haku," he whispered, his voice agonized. "I finally found you again, so why?" His sharp teeth clenched in anger, and above him Zommari smirked again. His rage at everything that was happening wrong faded, and he dropped down to the ground in between Zabuza and the boy with long hair who he was trying to look at in his final moments.

"He will not be your final sight," Zommari said in a sadistic voice. "Humans like you do not deserve that mercy." Zommari's round pink body moved forward and he rose up a hand, "DIE!" He yelled, and brought it down at Zabuza who stared right at approaching death, accepting it without even trying to dodge.

 _ **CHING!**_ Zabuza was so far gone that he barely even registered that he was still alive at first. He had spent three months with one objective, and now, right after accomplishing his goal, Haku was dead. He could not care less about the figure in a black kimono standing in front of him. That was, until he heard the voice of the man before him, "Get up." Zabuza's head started turning and he looked up at the back of the cloaked figure's head to see green hair. The man standing there with a single silver katana raised, a katana with an all black hilt, a new katana he had never seen before, turned his head and glared down at Zabuza with two eyes. There was no longer a scar down half his face, he glared straight into Zabuza's eyes and said, "This is not the end."

"You?" Zommari questioned, pushing down hard against Zoro's blade. The katana in Zoro's right hand did not even shake though as he pushed down against it. "How are you moving?!" The Espada yelled.

Zoro's head slowly turned back to Zommari, and Zoro slashed forward with his blade. Zommari used a Gemelos Sonido and appeared behind Zoro, and he smirked as he swiped through the figure in front of him who did not even start turning yet he was so slow. _I've got you! Whatever happened, you are still no match for my speed!_ Zommari's attack went straight through Zoro's body, making both Zommari and Zabuza go wide-eyed as the image of him only started fading after Zommari slashed it. _**Sloosh!**_ Blood splashed out of Zommari's mouth, and out the front of his chest where a silver blade just shot through.

Zommari gasped and Zabuza's eyes could not get any bigger as he noticed Zoro was suddenly behind Zommari. Zoro pulled right hard and cut from the center of Zommari's pink body that he pierced out the side so forcefully that the top part of his body ripped upwards, tearing even more than he slashed. The Espada screamed in rage and pain and he spun, raising an arm to swipe at Zoro. His arm kept raising though much higher than he originally planned, and Zommari's bloodshot eyes all over his body bugged out as his arm was flying up in the air and Zoro's sword appeared in an upwards motion above his shoulder.

"You," Zommari gasped out. He fell backwards and used his one arm to push himself away from the green-haired monster in front of him. "You're a shinigami! How?!"

Zoro's eyes lowered to his sword, a sword which felt so strange as he could sense a presence coming from inside of it. He shifted his gaze back to Zommari, and he spotted an unmoving figure behind him who Zabuza was gazing back at again. Zoro's teeth clenched and around his body formed a white aura. "Noo!" Zommari yelled, but Zoro was suddenly standing right in front of him with his sword lifted up high. Zoro slashed it down while the Espada screamed, and he slashed straight through the monster's face vertically, splitting Zommari's eye and head straight in half.

"Zabuza!" Gray shouted. The ice mage was running over, wiping some blood from his eyes as he knew that was his ninja comrade he saw over there. "Are you alright?" He ran right up to the ninja's side, but Zabuza was just staring over at Haku's body and not moving. The black coloring on his arms faded away and Gray's eyes opened wide. "Did you do it? Are they gone?"

Zoro looked away from his enemy who fell to the floor motionless and stared at Gray who stood less than a yard away from him but paid him no mind. He turned and spotted several Hollows remaining around the town, then vanished to go take care of them. _I'm faster,_ he thought as he appeared in front of one in a second. He slashed normally, and witnessed a mountain a mile away from the edge of their town get a large slash in the side of it. _I'm stronger._ He looked down at his hands, and he clenched one harder around the hilt of his weapon while clenching the other into a tight fist.

"Over here!" A voice Zoro recognized called out, and he turned to see Brock trying to push a large pile of rubble off a woman whose lower body was trapped beneath it. Brock gave one really hard shove, and suddenly all the rocks flew off the woman. His Pokemon behind him who were about to help out gawked at their trainer, as did the woman on the ground, and Brock himself. The young man stared at his hands in shock wondering if he really just did that with his own strength, while the invisible shinigami near him turned and shot after one of the lingering Hollows.

Gray Fullbuster wandered around the devastated town, seeing bodies of people he knew all over the place. _Zoro,_ he thought. He knew where Zabuza was, and there was nothing he could do for the ninja, but he wanted to find Zoro. He wanted to find out what happened to him. Gray staggered to the outskirts of town, right as a teenager was reaching the fallen barricade on the outside. "Takeshi," Gray said and a small smile of relief came to his face. "You're alright, that's-"

Takeshi was not smiling back at him, and the teenager who had talked to Gray a lot the last few days about a friend of his who had not returned for a while turned his head and looked out into the snow. Gray's smile faded fast from his face and he stumbled forward, bumping into Takeshi who did not even mind as he just grimaced at Gray. Gray moved past Takeshi, then started running, sprinting towards the limp form he saw out there in a dark section of the ground. He quickly realized that area was not dark because there was no snow, but because all of the snow there was soaked with red. "Zoro, Zoro Zoro!" Gray reached his friend and started shouting down at him, at his face that lay mostly in the snow with only his scarred-eye and some bloody skin showing on the side it was tilted more to.

"What happened?" Gray whispered, shaking his head as his eyes started to get watery. He spun around feeling Takeshi standing there and he yelled, "What happened?!"

"He…" Takeshi faded off, not knowing how to explain it. "He was fighting, there were other people here, invisible people." The teenage swordsman looked past Gray at the man on the floor, "Then, before he died, a white light surrounded his body."

"A white light?" Gray asked, more confused and angry than ever. "What is that supposed to mean?!"

"Gray."

"I don't know!" Takeshi yelled back at him. "I'm sorry," he lowered his voice again. "At the end, it looked like he was looking at someone, but I couldn't see who. He said, 'Do it,' and then the light appeared. I don't know what he was talking about, but it obviously didn't work."

Gray turned back around, not understanding this teen at all. "What- why?" Gray glared down at Zoro's body, and he whispered in a pained voice, "Weren't you going to be the strongest?"

"Gray."

"You were going to find your crew, and-" something grabbed Gray by the shoulder and the mage's eyes opened huge. The grip on his shoulder was strong, and it spun him to the left forcefully. Takeshi's eyes opened wide as well as Gray was suddenly spun around. Gray stared straight ahead of him into a snowy field, but he could still feel a grip on his shoulder. "What is, happening?" He gasped out, so confused. He blinked his eyes a few times, then rubbed his wet eyes and shivered in the cold and from something else. "What is-" he lowered his arm and his bottom lip dropped. He stared in shock at the figure with an arm reaching out and grabbing him by the shoulder. "Wh-What?" He muttered, shaking his head a few times and blinking hard to get the image out of his head.

The grip on his shoulder vanished and Gray snapped open his eyes again in panic that Zoro would be gone. He was not though, the pirate was just lowering his arm down to his side where a sword hilt Gray did not recognize rested. Zoro had both his eyes, he wore a black kimono down to his ankles and a pair of sandals on his bare feet, and he did not look injured one bit. Gray slowly turned and he looked down at the body behind him, then back up at the man who followed his gaze to the body and continued looking at it. Zoro stepped over and he reached down, grabbing the Wado Ichimonji off the ground. As soon as he did, he felt the presence in the sword on his side flare up, and he snapped his gaze down to it confusedly, not yet understanding his Zanpakuto's feelings.

"Zoro?"

The shinigami's attention turned back to Gray who continued to stare at him in utter shock. Takeshi stood behind Gray with a confused expression, wondering if Gray was seeing things, or if there was a good reason for that sword suddenly lifting up. Zoro turned to Gray, and the sword he was holding fell through his hand, making him snap his gaze down to it as it fell on the floor. _What am I? That Ashido, he called me a shinigami, a Death God._ He left his sword lying in the snow for now and faced Gray once more, looking into his comrade's eyes. "Yeah, it's me," Zoro responded.

"How? You're, dead," Gray said, his eyes darting back to his comrade's dead body for a second.

"Looks like it," Zoro replied. He scratched the back of his head, then continued, "But I'm still here. Nothing's changed."

"Nothing's… changed?" Gray repeated, wondering if he just heard correctly. "But, but, you're dead."

"Is Zoro really there?" Takeshi questioned Gray. The ice mage nodded his head dumbly and Takeshi stepped up to his side. The teenager bowed his head and whispered, "I'm sorry. I wish I could have done something to save your life."

"Don't worry about it," Zoro said.

"I did not know how…"

Zoro sweatdropped as the kid kept talking like he did not hear him, which Zoro quickly realized was because the teen really could not hear him. "Oi Gray, tell him to stop," Zoro told his still-shocked comrade.

Gray elbowed to his side and Takeshi stopped with an oof. "He says to stop," Gray whispered as Takeshi looked at him confused.

"Oh," Takeshi mumbled, then looked back ahead, a little to Zoro's left as he did not know where the shinigami was standing.

"What do we, do now?" Gray questioned, not prying his eyes off Zoro, but wondering aloud as he had no idea where they went from there.

Zoro looked behind Gray back towards their town, and he said, "Get Zabuza and leave." He did not use a nickname for the other swordsman, which did not surprise Gray considering the state Zabuza was in at the moment. Zoro glanced to his side at the teenager there who could not see him. "Tell him to come with us," Zoro added.

"Huh?" Gray asked, wondering if he heard correctly. Takeshi looked at Gray confusedly, and Gray turned to him after nodding, and he said, "Zoro wants you to come with us."

"With you guys?" Takeshi asked. "Well, I'm looking for my friends. I guess there's no point staying here if they aren't here-" Takeshi smiled at an open space only a few feet away from Zoro who sighed as it was going to be troublesome if most people could not see him. "Alright, you guys are really strong. If I'm going to find Tsuna and everyone, I'm sure I'll have a better chance traveling with you."

"Good," Zoro said. "Now tell him to pick up my swords. We're going."

"We can't go yet," Gray argued with Zoro… or Zoro's ghost body, the concept of which was still freaking him out. "We need to go help out the town first, and then," Gray looked past Zoro and he whispered, "We have to bury you."

Zoro sweatdropped and looked behind him at his own body lying on the floor. _Bury me? There's no point. My physical form may be gone, but I am still here. I will continue to get stronger. As it is now, I am still nowhere near strong enough to reach my goal. To be the strongest. To make my name reach the heavens._

 **Present**

"You were friends with a Death God?" Nami asked the ice mage on her side.

"Where did you meet a shinigami?" Natsu muttered at him. "Was he anything like that guy we fought in Metropolis?"

Gray looked at Natsu and then at the pirates, a few of whom were looking at him waiting for him to elaborate. _They've never asked me much about him. Why is that? Maybe I should tell them,_ his mouth opened, then he sighed and turned back to the east. "He was kind of like that guy," Gray said, answering Natsu while staying vague for some reason he himself did not understand. "In that even together, I don't think you and I could take him on. This world has so many people like that," he started muttering while staring out into the distance. Faces appeared in front of him: Timmy's, Goku's, Zoro's, and then one that made him shiver and want to get it out of his mind. He shook his head and his lips curled back up, "I'm sure we'll meet up with him sometime soon.

* * *

 **A/N Hey everyone! Thanks for reading! Got a little frustrated since I started editing before 5, then like 20 minutes after 6 my computer suddenly shut down and erased all my editing. Sooo, if there are some typos in the beginning it's because I did not want to reread the first 15 thousand words after just reading them twice before I finished up the chapter and the first time I edited. Alright! So, a lot of stuff happened this time! Goku and Timmy exit Dressrosa and immediately fly off as they feel presences that interested them, while the rest of the crew looks out over the massive dangerous landscape of Aebrith and discover that getting to Gray's friends is not going to be as easy as some of them may have thought. Then, we get a bunch of flashbacks with Gray back during his early time on Aebrith. We have not seen before what Gray was up to for two years between when Kuma sent him flying and the day he teleported back to Awul, so this is just the first of many flashbacks Gray will have over the course of this story... HAKU! Lots of sad stuff this chapter, and then there's Zoro... I doubt anyone saw that coming, if you did, then you are amazing! XD Let me know what you think of this new development. Zoro has become a shinigami, but unlike Ichigo, as Rukia planned on staying alive after turning him into one, Ashido gave up the remainder of his life to Zoro, and his strength has skyrocketed, and that was still two years ago. Predictions, comments, questions, leave me a review below with feedback for the chapter and the story! Well, quick list, then review responses:**

 **One Piece: Mansherry, Zoro, Doflamingo, Kyros, Dressrosa, Luffy, Kuina, Nami, Robin, Franky, Sanji, Usopp**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Sora, Riku, Kairi, Ansem, Heartless**

 **Fairy Tail: Gray, Natsu, Juvia**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Gon, Killua**

 **Blue Exorcist: Rin, Kuro**

 **Ben 10: Ben**

 **The Incredibles: Dash**

 **SAO: Kirito**

 **DBZ: Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, Goten, Trunks, Saiyans**

 **Fairly Oddparents: Timmy, fairies**

 **Game of Thrones: Ser Arthur Dayne**

 **Pokemon: Brock, Goldbat, Onix, Nurse Joy**

 **Hitman Reborn: Yamamoto Takeshi, Tsuna, Gokudera**

 **Bleach: Ichigo, Ashido, Zommari, shinigami, Hollow, arrancar, Menos Grande**

 **Naruto: Zabuza, Haku**

Guest

Sorry i haven't reviewed when i checked to see if this had been updated i had last read ch 21 so i wanted to catch up. So here we go. I like that i recognized a lot of the characters

I don't watch many anamaies (i know i spelled that wrong) so I'm glad that they are ones i know. I liked how you added Rin. I was honestly thought it would be Weiss because of Winter being in the story or ruby because ever since the organization 13 showed up I've wanted to see a ruby vs. Marluxia battle. I've been meaning to ask were are all the Sith haracters from? I recognized bane but no one else. (Besides the emporer) but i candesc

Sorry accidentally pressed the post button. I was wandering if i could give a few ideas for characters ( although with all these new ones i may not) i can't describe how cool this is other than saying best fanfiction ever keep up the good work sorry this was so long and put in two

 **Thanks for the great review and praise! I'm glad you really like this story, and you can always suggest more characters for me to put in there, if I have seen the show I might really want to add them, or if not I may watch it if I'm interested. Anime (that's how you spell it) like RWBY are awesome, and to tell you the truth I forgot about adding Ren into that Around the World chapter, because to tell you the truth, one of the 4 main RWBY girls is going to appear in this very soon... XD Hope you enjoyed!**

joebob323 chapter 28 . Apr 13

Oh god... this rate of chapters will actually kill me. I think I'm going to flunk the test on Tuesday, all cause of these distractions...Why do you have to do this to me? I mean, I'm not complaining, but at this rate, I'm actually never going to get around to studying. I never read/watched Blue Exorcists, so I don't know, but is Beelzebub another demon king? Isn't he also supposed to be a high ranking Demon? I've read stories where he is the Devil, so can you explain who the hell he actually is?

 **Haha, gave you a little weekend break as I took off for Easter. Anyway, now you're going to be screwed for tomorrow's test with this 20k+ chapter to read! XD Thanks for the review! Blue Exorcist is a great anime, even better manga, (my favorite). Beelzebub is the name of one of the Demon Kings in Blue Exorcist, but I'm sure there is other lore where he is the true Satan. The Satan who is a High Lord on Nexus is the one from Blue Exorcist though, so that Beelzebub is the one I have mentioned (as he also called Yukio "brother"). Hope that explains it!**

Darugus chapter 28 . Apr 14

Nice chapter  
I've been wondering are you gonna you gear four tank man or any other ability that luffy developed over the time skip that he may show later

 **I've only seen Luffy use Tank Man against Cracker, but I'll probably wait until I see it during the Cake Island arc that's going on right now, or until he has an opponent that it may be good against. Thanks for the review!**

Espada-001 chapter 28 . Apr 14

 **Sent you a PM 'cause the review was super long, but thanks again for the review!**

asdf chapter 23 . Apr 14

In your other story, Z in Dressrosa, some mad shit was about to go down on Dressrosa.

I wonder if this is how Vegeta and Doflamingo's fight would've gone down.

Nah, the Saiyans of Nexus are lightyears ahead of the Saiyans as they used to be in the Z world

 **Thanks for the reviews! Sorry I've been taking a while for Z in Dressrosa, but the characters I have going to that island consist of a lot that have yet to be introduced in One Piece's manga, but I feel like will be not long from now. I'm trying to wait to see more of Kaido's crew to continue with that story. As for how the Vegeta Doflamingo fight would have went, and the Saiyans of Nexus, I can't say that the ones on Nexus really are that much stronger than Z in Dressrosa, since that timeline is after Majin Buu and even Battle of Gods, whereas for the Saiyans on Nexus it's only been 4+ years since Cell. Thanks again to everyone who read/faved/followed/reviewed! 'Till next time!**


	30. Nexus HWR 6-3 Aragog

**Nexus HWR 6.3 Aragog:**

On the side of a cliff over a dozen people sat around putting away their sleeping bags and taking drinks from their canteens. Most of them were excited about the upcoming days, looking forward to having lots of adventures.

One of the travelers stood right at the edge looking out over the landscape past their resting place. "Are you ready?" Ben asked. The man on the ledge turned to the shorter boy. He had jet black hair spiked up and to the sides. Strangely he was wearing a black shirt instead of his usual shirtless self.

Gray Fullbuster looked at Ben and then around at everyone who seemed excited to get going. He opened his mouth to give them another warning, but sighed and closed it again. He had barely slept at all, planning all night on the path they should take through the harsh terrain at the base of the cliff. Despite all his warnings about the danger of this continent, everyone was still in high spirits. Even with the new absences of Goku and Timmy everyone seemed to feel confident in their ability to make a trek across Aebrith's wilderness.

"Yeah, I'm ready," Gray replied finally, looking back over the cliff and into the distance. _Out there, somewhere, my team is waiting. Axel, Gon, Cloud, Soul, Black Star, Tsubaki, Rambo, Mario, Kuwabara, Kiba, and even Akamaru..._ He could imagine the dog barking in his ear after he thought its name.

"I still think we should wait some more for Timmy," Nami started as everyone was getting ready near the edge of the cliff. A few of them looked back at her but most of them just kept staring off the cliff at the thousands of miles before them they had to traverse. The pit with a giant invisible demon (at least to most of them), the canyon they were heading to, and the forest that seemed a lot spookier after a story Gray told them the night before. They looked at giant monsters made of red molten rocks and snakes as tall as trees and thrice as wide. The Heartless wandering around the tar pits directly below were mainly Shadows, but there were some other creatures they spotted inside the tar, slimy creatures with two heads and white beady eyes that Sora claimed were also Heartless.

The crew gathered at the ledge of the cliff, and a few people were watching from the edge of Dressrosa. Kyros stood there with his wife at his side, and their daughter in front of them. The three stared out at these heroes who saved their lives from servitude under Doflamingo, who freed them from the bodies Sugar trapped them him. Scarlett gasped as half of them simultaneously hopped off the ledge of the cliff. The rest followed, stepping off the ledge and trying to skid down the steep slope, or just hopping because they knew they could handle the drop. "Thank you," Rebecca whispered.

Kyros nodded his head once they were all gone, then turned and looked back into the mostly rubble city of Dressrosa. _Now, it is time to rebuild. Son Goku, Captain Usopp, everyone, thank you._

The heroes that hopped off the cliff's edge dropped over a hundred feet before the slant of the cliff started back up and they landed down on it. Sora, Riku, and Kairi skid together in a line of three, then when they were almost at the bottom, Riku changed directions to skid to the left instead. He skid right up to a large protruding boulder and when his feet hit it he did three frontflips over the start of the tar pits. Keyblades appeared in his hands as he snapped his body flat over the black smelly pits beneath him, and the tips of those weapons started to glow white though with a dark coating on the outside of the glow.

Riku landed beyond the first twenty pits or so, then turned his head and looked back at the scores of Heartless in the area that turned their heads and looked his way. They stood there staring at him with tiny beady eyes for a few moments, and then they all just started looking back around aimlessly. The others who skid down the cliffs first, expecting a battle when they arrived, held their fists up with confused expressions on their faces, because the Heartless were not attacking them.

"Good job Riku," Kairi called his way as her and Sora continued to run forward through the tar pits. Luffy, Kirito, Natsu, and Rin all snapped their heads up and saw the engaged teenagers running far ahead of them, ignoring the Heartless they were running in between.

Most of the others realized the Heartless were not going to attack them and started running after their friends, but Okumura Rin stayed planted to the spot while he stared at a small figure on four legs on his right. The tiny beast was looking away from him, but it slowly turned around and lifted its head to look him right in the eyes.

Nami had just gotten to the bottom of the cliff and she smacked Sanji's chest to get the chef she demanded help from to put her down. She brushed herself off, then as she was about to start jogging through a solid path in the tar pits to follow the others, she froze at the sight of the teenager in front of her. Nami's eyes opened wide as Rin's face was twisting in rage, and in her mind she imagined him somewhere else.

 _We were so high up in Castle Oblivion. Ansem had him guarding one of the top floors, after Gohan, and the Teen Titans, and Franky, and Timmy, and Aokiji… Mandy stopped him from getting to us, but that room was a mess when we came back through it on the way out._ Nami saw Sanji walk forward in front of her, and the blond man smacked a hand down on Rin's shoulder as he was walking past. The teenager jumped, almost like he was being snapped out of a trance and he spun to Sanji with a surprised expression. "Come on, no point in fighting them now," the chef said.

Sanji kept walking, and he called after Robin and Juvia who were just ahead of him to wait up. Rin stared at Sanji's back for a second or two, then shook his head around and a smile formed on his face. He started running forward and ignored the creatures on his sides that were drawing his attention.

Nami smiled at Rin and Sanji's backs, and she thought, _That was nice of you Sanji. And for another guy no less._ She chuckled to herself and was about to start running forward as well when she heard a deep growl behind her. Her eyes opened wide as in her vision she could see almost every person in their group, at least all the ones she would want next to her if something just growled menacingly. The Heartless in front of her and in her peripheral vision were not doing anything violent, so she spun around expecting maybe another monster hiding in the tar pits to have emerged behind her.

When Nami turned around, her eyes turned into saucers and her jaw dropped. "Grrr," the deep voice growled, the noise coming from his throat. Nami stared in shock at the man behind her with a long nose, holding a slingshot up in his hand, pulling it back and letting fly Pop Greens to either side of him where giant plants emerged and started attacking the Heartless who would not even fight back after being attacked. "Take that, and that," Usopp snapped, firing over and over again at creatures that did not need to be enemies.

"Usopp," Nami whispered, and Usopp snapped his furious gaze forward at the orange haired navigator looking back at him. He still looked enraged after a few seconds of looking in her eyes, and Nami continued, "You're wasting your ammo."

"Wasting?" he muttered. He looked around and nothing was attacking him. Even with the plants he had forming around the tar pits to attack them, the Heartless did nothing but wander around aimlessly.

Riku looked back from the huge bear-like Gohma he and Luffy were battling and all the way back to the tar pits. Luffy continued to fight the monster with glowing orange eyes, black skin, and red protrusions coming out of every joint in its body and lining his skeleton brightly so it could be seen outside its skin. There were many other Gohma like it around, but the twenty foot tall bear was the largest of them. Riku got distracted as he felt the Heartless behind him get destroyed, and he grimaced at the sight of Usopp's enraged expression back there.

"Just calm down and let's get going," Nami scolded, though she did so in a soft voice to the man whose grip on his slingshot was so tight the weapon was trembling. She turned from him and jogged away, closing her eyes as she did. _Sorry Usopp._

Usopp glared forward at the backs of all his friends, none of whom were paying any attention to the Heartless anymore. He snapped his head around at all the monsters he wanted to "waste" his entire arsenal of Pop Greens on. _These monsters are mindless though. The one who really enslaved me was not them, it was Ansem!_ Usopp's head snapped back up and he glared into the distance, straight into Riku's eyes as the other nineteen year old stared right back at him. Usopp glared furiously for a second, before weakening his expression at the pained one on Riku's face. _That isn't Ansem! Stop treating him like him. He's your comrade, your friend._

The sniper started walking forward and he ignored all the Heartless around him, focusing instead on his friends who after exiting the tar pits, cut hard to the right to head towards the canyons. Usopp ran close to Riku as he was leaving the pits and he mumbled, "Thanks, for stopping them." Riku's eyes widened and he nodded his head at the long-nosed pirate who he did not know where he stood with. Back when they first met after only a month on Nexus, the two of them became friends. Ever since the Underworld base where it was revealed that Ansem was trapped inside Riku's body though, Usopp had treated him differently. They were still friends, but Usopp hated a part of him with his entire being, and it was straining their relationship.

Riku tried to ignore those feelings he got from Usopp though, and he only focused on the thanks Usopp just gave him. _He has a right to be mad though. You did make him do some awful things. I don't remember everything, but Usopp was your very first slave. For two years, you-_ _ **"That is in the past. He will get over it."**_ Riku was not entirely expecting a response from the voice in his mind that had been rather quiet lately, only emerging when Ansem wanted to take over like back during his fight against Lao G in Dressrosa.

"This way," Gray called out. The ice mage was looking around and although they were only just out of the tar pits and there was a lot of flat stone ground between them and the gaping hole in the planet, he did not want to get any closer to the monster sticking out of it. Most of the threats around them had been taken down, and he spotted Luffy getting too close to that hole by fighting some Aragami that crawled out of the ground near it. "Luffy! Don't go any farther! Just run from the Aragami if you can, defeating them without special technology is difficult!"

Luffy frowned as not even his hardest attacks were keeping down these scary monsters for very long. _Aragami huh?_ He bent his legs down and his skin pumped, "Gear Second." He held up an open palm and a fist near his head, "Triple Jet Pistol!" Three fists shot forward faster than most of them could see, and all of the creatures went flying back towards the pit that Luffy was trying to knock them into. "Shishi, got-" he stopped talking as the monsters slammed into something right after going past the edge of the hole. They hit something invisible, and six members of their group gawked at Luffy's stupidity.

"That's not good," Riku muttered, making Ben and Dash look at their older friend confusedly. Riku stared with a bead of sweat rolling down the left side of his face as the giant monster sticking out of the pit slowly turned its head around. The Aragami that slammed into it were falling back to the edge of the hole, but three purple tentacles shot down from where they were waving around above it, and they grabbed the creatures before they hit the floor.

The monsters roared and Luffy took a step back as they looked to be screaming in pain. They got thrown miles up into the air by whips of tentacles, all except for one that just got lifted up above the giant demon that most of them could not see, then wrapped up on both sides by multiple tentacles that pulled different directions until they ripped the monster apart. "Let's get out of here!" Nami screamed, and she started sprinting for the canyon.

"Come on Luffy!" Sanji called back to his Captain who was still steaming and standing not far from the giant hole.

"You won't be able to sense it with Haki," Gray yelled at the pirate Captain. Luffy was expecting to sense an attack coming that he could dodge and then fight the monster that way, so Gray's shout made him grimace and hop backwards, just in time too as the ground where he just was got slammed by something that made dust fly up. He could not see it, but not all the tentacles slammed into the ground, some of them curved and followed him away. Gray tssked but sprinted back the way he just came from, smacked his right fist into his left palm while he twisted his body, and yelled, "Ice-Make Unlimited: One Sided Chaotic Dance!"

Around Gray's body, ice started to spin like a saw blade going round and round him while extending all the time. When it finally stopped spinning, anyone looking at him saw that he suddenly had a dozen huge circles of ice swords surrounding his body. The point in between his hands was glowing bright blue, and he spun around while spreading out his arms, sending all of the swords around him flying in the same direction at once. All of the swords flew straight at Luffy, but as the pirate's eyes went wide thinking some of those weapons were about to cut him before he landed, the blades stopped in midair for some strange reason.

Only a few of them were able to see the swords imbed themselves inside the tentacles and make blood splash out of them. The monstrous head sticking out of the pit roared as dozens of its tentacles were impaled and even shredded when enough blades were focused in the same place. "Get a move on!" Gray yelled, only his voice was not coming from the him sprinting towards the demon. Everyone spun around and saw Gray already at the edge of the canyon, waving them towards one of the stone bridges that cut over the ravine to the south.

"If he's there," Usopp wondered to Franky as they ran towards the canyon together. "Then who's that?" He pointed at the other Gray sprinting haphazardly towards Luffy who finally turned and started running after the rest of them, though no longer in Gear Second.

"Ice-Make: Clone," Gray announced, right before the version of him closer to the pit got slammed by something hard and shattered into hundreds of ice shards.

"Gray-sama!" Juvia shouted in horror, even as the man she was shouting about was only ten feet on the other side of her.

"I'm fine," he said and rolled his eyes.

Juvia spun and brought her hands together in front of her chest. "Even watching Gray-sama's visage being broken is too much for Juvia to bear. Hold me."

"Not now," Gray told his girlfriend, then spun around to look over the canyon that looked a little more precarious than he first thought when suggesting taking it as their route. He glanced over the sides and grimaced as he saw movement at the bottom of the ravine that was not all that deep. The walls were covered in winged creatures sitting in little inlets, but at the very bottom he saw nonstop movement of beings that gave him the chills. "Don't look down, and make sure you don't fall off the sides," he called out, then started moving carefully but quickly over the rocky bridge.

The others were not far behind him, cautiously stepping onto the thin land bridge that would not fit more than two of them wide. Ben and Dash walked on next to each other and the first thing they did was the opposite of what Gray told them. The two of them looked down. Their faces from their chins to their foreheads turned blue and they snapped their gazes back in front of them to the backs of their comrades.

"Did you see that?" Dash whispered.

"See what?" Ben asked.

"Nothing," Dash said quickly.

The two of them kept walking while Usopp got on the bridge behind them and started laughing at their expressions that he caught a glimpse of when they spun forward. "What are they so-" he leaned over the side to get a look and he froze mid-sentence. The sniper's face turned blue, then purple, then ghostly white before he finally looked up again. "Oh," he said in a hoarse, high-pitched voice. He took a step forward in a daze from the horrifying sight at the bottom of the canyon… **Crack.**

Usopp froze. Everyone behind and in front of him snapped their heads to him, while Usopp's gaze shot to his foot that he just put all his weight on. The outside of his foot was a few inches in from the side of the bridge, but a full foot of rock cracked, then crumbled out from beneath him. He spun around and grabbed the bridge right as he was about to fall past, and everyone watching let out sighs of relief as his hands grabbed onto the ledge. None of them wanted to run forward and risk cracking the bridge more as there were areas around where he fell that looked like they were just as close to cracking if not more than what Usopp stepped on, making each of them very cautious.

"Baka," Nami scolded the man a few feet in front of her. "Watch where you're-"

The rock ledge Usopp grabbed onto crumbled, "EEEeeee!" Usopp screamed, falling down into the ravine while his friends all yelled his name.

"Idiot," Sanji hopped off the wall from behind Nami and Robin where he preferred to walk, and he shot down into the ravine fast to catch the falling sniper. He kicked the air behind him to speed up, and then out of nowhere a huge black centipede shot out of a hole in the wall on his right and snapped its pincers at him. Sanji had to kick below him to do a backflip over the beast's head, but Usopp kept falling in front of him.

"Usopp!" Luffy shouted and already dove after the sniper himself.

"You idiots!" Gray shouted back at them as he watched one after the other people were jumping off the safety of their bridge.

Luffy threw an arm down to catch Usopp, but Usopp was not going to just let himself get smushed anyway. He frantically pulled out a Pop Green and with only seconds to spare, screamed, "Midori Boshi: Trampoline!" He fired and the green trampoline emerged directly under his body, not even fully popping out before he slammed down into it, pressed it down, and then bounced back up right into Luffy's arm that smacked him in the back of the head and made him start flipping around in the air. "Ahhahhahhahh!"

Luffy fell down to Usopp's level and he grinned in at his sharpshooter as they both dropped back down on the plant that looked like a trampoline. "Shishi, you're okay," Luffy said, a grin on his face.

"L-L-L-Luffy," Usopp's teeth were chattering and he curled up as he lifted a shaking arm to point behind his Captain.

Luffy turned around and his face got some sweat on it too, not nearly as bad as Usopp's, but he still looked pretty nervous as he grinned. The two of them stopped bouncing and landed in between the trampoline, and the army of eight-legged creatures that started surrounding them on all sides, climbing up the walls around them, and up the pillars that held the bridges together above them. The spiders came in all different sizes, but the massive horde of them in front of the two pirates started to move to the side, making a path in the middle that neither of them were happy to see.

Deep footsteps echoed around the bottom of the canyon full of hissing noises. Sanji dropped down to the floor in between Usopp and Luffy and he whispered, "Let's get out of here now."

" _I can't let you do that,_ " a voice echoed around them. Sanji snapped his head left and he grimaced at the sight of even the smallest spiders, probably the babies, that were almost as tall as him. The voice that seemed even deeper as it got louder continued, " _My children will not be denied a meal when it presents itself so easily._ " The path that the spiders opened up got darker as something stepped into view far down it.

"L-Luffy, I agree with Sanji, we should go," Usopp whispered in a high-pitched whisper.

A monster was marching down the open aisle of spiders towards them. It was twice as tall as any of the pirates, and had an eighteen-foot wide leg-span between its two front legs. It had eight horrifying eyes with fur on them like the rest of its disgusting body covered in brown fur. It moved forward one leg at a time and it snapped the pincers in front of its face together a few times. "Who are you?" Luffy called to the spider that seemed to be the biggest one there and the one talking to them.

The spider stopped walking when it was only ten meters in front of Luffy. Both Sanji and Usopp had subconsciously stepped back and were looking around them at the spiders on every side of them. Luffy stared this spider straight in the eyes though, and it looked into his just as closely. The Acromantulas around the pirates were waiting, and the leader of them spoke again, " _I do not sense fear in you. I am Aragog._ "

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy," Luffy replied without waiting to be asked for his own name. "I'm going to be the King of the Pirates!"

" _King of the Pirates… no. That cannot be._ " Luffy's grin wiped from his face and his comrades behind him suddenly got very nervous. " _That title belongs to another, but even if it did not, you will not be leaving this place alive._ "

The giant spiders around them all moved in. Sanji rose up a leg that covered in flames, Usopp pulled back his slingshot, and Luffy took a step towards Aragog. The pirate captain stomped his right foot down in front of him while his body turned sideways, he glared into the spider leader's eyes, and his own pupils dilated with smaller white circles appearing inside of them.

An aura shot off of Luffy's body and expanded around the entire bottom of the canyon. Those at the top of the bridge looking down, waiting to see if their friends needed their help to get Usopp back, stumbled away from the ledge as the entire bridge shook. Down at the bottom, one by one the spiders fell to the ground, their legs coming out from under them. Many of them fell on their backs, but some others just stayed where they were and did not falter. These were only the biggest spiders, ones close to Aragog in size who were strong enough not to collapse, though the threatening looks they were giving the pirates did vanish and they started slowly stepping backwards.

" _Gol D. Roger,_ " Aragog said, his voice echoing around the canyon while his children fell from its walls. " _You are not him, but…_ " Aragog took a step back, then another, then the giant spider turned itself around and walked back the way it came.

"How the Hell does the King of the Pirates know that, thing?" Sanji muttered, still a lot of sweat on his face even as the spiders taller than him that were glaring at him from the shadows backed off.

Luffy continued staring after Aragog as it left, then, the pirate spun around and his eyes opened up wide. He opened his mouth to shout, but before he could, everyone on top and inside the ravine heard, "RROOOAAARRR!" It came from down in the ravine, from a deeper darker part farther south than where Luffy and his comrades currently were.

Luffy's eyes started shining, but Usopp yelled, "Let's get back to the top!"

"Agreed," Sanji said, jumping off the floor then Sky Walking his way to the ladies.

"Luffy, help me up there," Usopp begged his Captain who looked way too excited about the approaching sound of heavy footsteps from the south. "Luffy please!" Usopp exclaimed.

The rubberman frowned, but he turned to Usopp, wrapped an arm around him, and threw his other arm to the top of the bridge in the middle of the canyon to send them launching up there. "Gum Gum Rocket!" He yelled, as he and Usopp came flying above the ledge and dropping back down with a hard thud. **Doof… Crack-cr-cr-cr-** Every single person on top of that bridge froze, and they slowly turned their heads to Luffy and Usopp. The stone under their feet was cracking, and smaller cracks branched off of the bigger ones in every direction. Cracks went down the pillars supporting the bridge and cut straight through where it was weakest.

"You are going to be the death of me," Gray whispered under his breath, right before he let out a scream like everyone else on the bridge as it collapsed out from beneath them.

"Go go go!" Sora yelled, trying to run ahead to keep ahead of the collapsing part of the bridge. He grabbed Kairi by the hand and continued running, but he stepped on a loosening piece of ground and the two of them tripped. They hit the ground, and then the ground broke from beneath them and they started going down.

"Sora, fly!" Riku yelled down at his friend who wrapped Kairi in his arms as they fell to protect her from falling rocks.

"Oh yeah!" Sora shouted and his clenched eyes snapped open. He froze where he was in midair, then turned left and spotted Kirito stop falling as well, floating there in midair with a tiny aura of white around him. Kirito's aura was flickering and he kept dipping down before lifting up again only to fall even farther the next time. Kirito's wings snapped out behind his back to keep him up there, and he sighed in relief and started panting as using ki to control his flight like Goku tried teaching him was a lot harder than using the wings Timmy provided him.

The black haired teenager turned his head slightly and glanced back at his fairy wings that were sleek yet powerful and kept him up with very little movement on his part. _Timmy really made them exactly how I wanted. It feels like ALO controls, except I can do more in the real world than I ever could in virtual reality._

Those who could not fly fell to the bottom of the ravine, where despite the lack of Acromantulas, there were still a lot of creepy-looking bugs and monsters down there. There were also the loud footsteps getting progressively closer, so loud now that the entire group, after getting back up on their feet, turned to the south, the direction the noises were coming from. They looked that way and more than half of them dropped their jaws at the sight of the monster walking towards them.

"You have to be frickin' kidding me," Ben said, taking a step back nervously.

"So cool," Dash whispered, though he also stared in a little bit of fear at the prehistoric monster marching their way. It had tiny arms, but very muscular legs, and a head that was eighty percent mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. The Tyrannosaurus-Rex snapped its head forward and at the top of its lungs roared again at the crew, many of whom stumbled or leaned backwards from it.

Some of them did not back away though, like a boy with spiky brown hair who dropped out of the air yelling, "A dinosaur!"

"Sora, maybe we shouldn't get too close," Kairi suggested to her fiancé.

"Pshh," Sora scoffed, the excited look of a child's on his face. He turned to the girl in his arms and she could not help but giggle at his expression of giddiness. "That's a dinosaur," he repeated to her, almost like she did not get what he was saying.

"I see it," she replied, a brighter smile coming to her face now as she got excited as well. She giggled some more as she looked down, then lifted her gaze back to the young man holding her, "You want to ride it?"

Sora's eyes lit up like the idea had never even crossed his mind, but now that it had it was the best idea he had ever heard. Sora leaned in and kissed Kairi on the lips, then leaned back and nodded his head fast at the girl who was red in the face for a second before she started laughing with him.

Meanwhile, Luffy and the others were all raising their fists and getting ready to attack the monster much bigger than Aragog and with a lot more sharp teeth. The T-Rex stomped forward, then a couple of teens landed on its back, and Sora rose up his arms that he put on either side of its neck. "Whoa there!" He called out. The beast roared and bucked a few times while Kairi held on for dear life and Sora patted the monster on the back of its neck. "Alright, here goes," he shouted, and he rose up one arm and created a Keyblade in it. His Kingdom Key glowed at the tip, and out from the glowing tip shot two glowing golden lines that wrapped around the mouth of the dinosaur and down under its neck.

"What is he doing?" Nami whispered to her best friend.

Robin shook her head and replied, "I have no- oh," the older woman smiled and started chuckling under her breath. Nami shot her a confused look, then turned back and her eyes opened wide as the golden lines wrapping around the dinosaur's head became more defined, becoming easily recognizable as reins that Sora then pulled back on and made the T-Rex rear up swinging its tiny arms around madly. Sora pulled hard to the right and the dinosaur turned that way, swinging its tail behind it and almost taking out their friends at the front of the group as it did. They hopped back, then stared forward in shock as the tail that almost hit them flattened down to the ground.

Nico Robin stepped forward while the others were mostly just standing there confusedly. "I believe," she began as she stepped in front of even Luffy, Natsu, and Gray. "Sora-san is telling us to climb aboard." She did not hesitate to step on the dinosaur's tail and she calmly climbed up its large back towards Kairi who started waving the rest of them up as well.

"They can not be serious," Gray muttered, only to drop his jaw as one by one his other comrades walked by him to climb the dinosaur.

"Yeah, we just want a quick ride through this canyon," Sora continued whispering from where he was sitting with his legs on either side of the T-Rex's neck. He was leaning forward with the top half of his body against the back of the dinosaur's head, and he was whispering into the hole on the left side of its big grayish-green head. "It's your home right? That means you know it pretty well."

"Raaarrr!" the Tyrannosaurus roared.

"Raaarr back at you!" Sora called out, then started laughing.

The others who hesitantly got on the dinosaur's back felt it start shaking and Dash whispered to his right, "What's going on?"

Killua's jaw was dropped, but the spiky haired kid turned left and he whispered back, "I think the T-Rex is laughing."

"I've got it," Sora said, leaning back from his new friend's head. He patted the top of the dinosaur's head a few times as he turned around, and he called out, "Hey guys! This is our new friend! His name, is Icarus!"

The dinosaur leaned its head back and opened its mouth that was no longer restrained by the golden lights that were much looser reins around its neck now. Icarus roared out in agreement with its new name, while Kairi turned to her future-husband with a soft smile. "Icarus? After-"

"Yeah," he replied. Kairi brought a hand to her chest and her smile got less defined, more nostalgic, and even a little sad. Sora saw that look and he gained one similar for a second, but then spun around and got excited again by the fact that, _I'm riding a dinosaur!_ He pointed a hand forward over the head of his new friend and yelled, "Icarus! Straight ahead! Get us to the south-easternmost part of this canyon!"

Icarus started marching forward through the canyon, and the passengers on its back noticed a lot of smaller monsters around them were staying closer to the sides to avoid it. "Looks like we got that ride you wanted after all bro," Franky said to the dark haired Fairy Tail mage sitting on his right. The back of the dinosaur was slanted enough that they could all sit or lay down without falling off, but most of them were grabbing onto some bump or spike coming out of Icarus' skin for extra help in case the ride got bumpy. Gray humphed and nodded to the cyborg, but he could not help but look worried as he was not planning on traversing the bottom of the canyon at all.

"I still say we should have walked," Nami whispered nervously.

"Are you kidding?" Ben asked the woman up above him a few spots on their dinosaur's back. "We're riding a T-Rex! This is awesome!"

"Woohoo!" Dash threw his arms up and yelled.

Natsu looked off the right side of the dinosaur he was barely hanging onto as there really was not enough back space for the seventeen of them, plus a cat. Rin opened up the top flap of the backpack he was wearing like so many of them were, and Kuro popped his head out of it to look around in amazement as they rode on a dinosaur. "Ever think we'd be doing this?" Rin whispered to his left where Kirito was sitting.

Kirito looked to the boy a year younger than him and shook his head no. The two of them had figured out they came from similar worlds, and unlike Dash, Ben, and Timmy who did as well, the two of them were both from Japan, not America. "T-Rexes extinct on your world too?" Kirito questioned quietly, and Rin nodded back at him. Kirito sighed and then chuckled a few times, which received a confused look from his other black-haired teenage comrade. "It's just," Kirito began, and he chuckled again, "Goku told me a story about fighting a dinosaur once. Apparently his Earth was full of them."

Rin's bottom lip dropped, but a kid with spiky white hair slightly above them on Icarus's back looked down. "Are you really that surprised?" Killua questioned.

The seventeen year old looked up at Killua, and after a second he shrugged and said, "Guess you're right Kil. With the things I've seen that guy do, it would be harder to imagine he did not come from a ridiculous world like that."

"Coming from a demon," Killua whispered, which made Rin frown at him. Killua held up a hand defensively, "Just kidding."

"Hmph," Rin looked away with a pout, but he did not seem all that angry which made Killua chuckle some more and Kirito re-cracked the smile he lost when Killua made the joke.

"Sanji, would you mind making us a snack?" Nico Robin questioned. About half of the dinosaur's back's riders heard her, and half of that half's stomachs started rumbling.

Sanji's eyes popped out of his sockets in the shapes of hearts and he yelled, "Of course Robin-chwan!" Sanji was still smiling brightly as he turned the other way and started calling out, "Tim-" He froze and his face covered in sweat as his eyes reverted to normal. "Shit," he muttered.

Everyone on Icarus's back spun to the chef who was responsible for all their food. Natsu's face twisted into fury and he shouted, "What was that 'shit' for? What did you do?!"

"Watch your mouth!" Nami shouted up at the Dragon Slayer. Natsu glared down at her and was going to retort, but he spotted Ben and Dash near her and frowned, realizing she may have had a point. Nami then turned to Sanji and was going to snap at him for cursing too, but something more important was on her mind. "What about Timmy?"

"Well," Sanji said, and he scratched the back of his head nervously. "Most of the food we got from Dressrosa, it was in his bottomless sack." He did not realize until now as they had eaten every meal before this inside Dressrosa to prevent from eating the food they were given for the road.

Everyone started yelling at Sanji at once, even Icarus who roared just to be part of the group. The one sitting farthest up on the dinosaur's back did not shout though, he just turned around with a calm expression and looked down at everyone down below. "Don't worry guys," they all looked up together at Sora whose smile put them at ease. "I filled up my own bag too with food. It's not as big as Timmy's, but it's still pretty huge on the inside. I figured it was better to have more than not enough. So…"

"Sora!" Luffy exclaimed, not recalling a time he had been happier to see his friend.

"Nice thinking," Riku said, and he actually had to wipe a bead of sweat from his forehead as that was almost very bad. _Guess we could have gone back to Dressrosa, but they already gave us everything they could spare,_ the silver haired Keybearer thought. _Can't take any more from them, but if it comes down to it, it shouldn't be all that hard for me, Sora, or Kirito to head out and find some food. Then again, Gray says we should stick together, and from what I've seen so far, he's right._

"You saved us," Nami said with a sigh of relief.

Sora lifted his head high and soaked in all the praise. "I know, I'm amazing." The boastful teen laughed loudly and the praises from behind him turned more teasing. He spun and started arguing with Kirito who said the high horse he was sitting on was a little scaly, shouting about how Icarus isn't a horse, to which Ben yelled up that it was a T-Rex, something he liked to say a lot. Gray looked cautiously off either side of the dinosaur over and over, until Juvia grabbed his right arm and held it tight, telling him how romantic the ride was which made him sweatdrop and Natsu and Nami start laughing. Sanji jumped up to Sora and Sora handed him some food that they started whipping up together right on Icarus's head. The dinosaur made a noise when the food started smelling and Sora told it not to worry, he would give it some food too. Sanji Sky Walked around the dinosaur's back and handed meals out to everyone, even the demonic cat and T-Rex. They started their journey from Awul with nineteen members, and although Timmy and Goku were still gone, for the moment, they had reached that lucky number once again.

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading! The monster that Luffy and Riku were fighting, the Gohma, are the enemies from Asura's Wrath. Aragog is the giant spider that was Hagrid's pet in the Forbidden Forest, so from Harry Potter. Going to try and keep up these rapid fire chapter updates as long as I have chapters ready to post, and there are a lot of them! 'Till next time!**

Darugus

Ok zoro became a shinigami now did not expect that I don't think anyone would hopefully luffy gets the ability to see supernatural beings soon also I hope he gets stronger so he catches up to him

 **Thanks for the review! Not being able to see some of their enemies is going to be a big problem for our heroes, so hopefully before they find Zoro, they find a way to see them! Hope you enjoyed the latest chapter!**


	31. Nexus HWR 6-5 A Promise

**Nexus HWR 6.5 A Promise:**

Over a week after Son Goku and Timmy Turner left the group who ventured into Aebrith from Awul, there was still no sign of their most powerful friends returning. Gray had a good idea of where Dressrosa was compared to his old Resistance base, however they only had a general direction, not a decent map. They had been heading southeast for eight days, crossing over dangerous terrain and fighting monsters every step of the way. Gray had them moving slowly at first, but he also said it was thousands of miles until they would reach his base, so after a few days they began running and hitching rides to move farther and faster.

A few people stopped them on their journey and offered to help, selling rides on vehicles a certain distance, or offering to let them sit on the back of a large animal they had tamed. They rode on Icarus' back only to the end of the first canyon, before learning that he had a family of other T-Rexes that the crew did not want to take him away from. A different time, Luffy tamed a huge elephant beast himself that they started riding, but after a hundred miles some sort of worm monster that could feel vibrations on the ground came up and swallowed their ride in a single bite. They beat the worm up, but by the time they got Luffy's pet out of its stomach, it had already been halfway digested.

The group hoped that Goku and Timmy would return soon, especially after a few close calls that the powerful fighters would have been able to sense coming. Killua, Luffy, Sanji, and Kirito all had some sort of perception telling them when an enemy was coming, but only once the enemy was close enough that they were already a threat. All of their injuries so far had been able to be healed by Sora, Riku, or Kairi, who were literally keeping the group alive at this point. Riku spent a lot of time with Ben trying to teach him magic with his Keyblade, but Ben did not catch on quickly, and had barely managed to use Fire, the simplest of magic techniques with the Keyblade. He argued that the training was useless as he could already use many magic techniques like Fire, Blizzard, and even Cure using different alien powers he possessed with his Omnitrix.

Eight days after they departed from the cliffs outside of Dressrosa, the group from Awul came across a battlefield. The landscape changed drastically from the plains they were previously traveling on into a barren landscape without any signs of life. There were scars all over the land showing there had been a battle here: large craters speckled the ground, smoke rose up in the distance to their north, and then there were the bodies. Right as they reached the first crater, they also hit a small decrease in the land's elevation that gave them a good look at the entire battleground. Being able to see the landscape where the battle took place also meant they could see everything left behind when the warring factions eventually left.

There were skeletons all over the place, but the group focused more on the bodies that had not decayed as much yet. Their flesh was rotten, showing they had been left out for some time, but not enough to decompose completely. "Why are some skeletons and others not?" Nami whispered as the group stood in a line on the edge of the northern edge to the former battlefield. Her eyes lingered on weapons still grasped by the fleshy hands of dead warriors, seeing how even in death they never let go.

"The skeletons probably had the flesh melted from their bones," Killua examined. Franky and Robin both looked in, the oldest members there staring at the little boy who had his hands in his pockets, casually examining the field as if looking for something useful. "My guess is there were a few superhumans involved in the fight who decimated their enemies. Or maybe the beasts caused it," he added, and motioned with a nod of his head over at a skeletal body of something much larger than any person.

They looked around at the bodies of people and creatures alike. The animals they figured must have been domesticated and taught to fight with their masters against the enemy. Gray looked out at the battleground and he frowned deeply, "We should go around it. Come on," he motioned for the east so they could walk around the entire decimated landscape before continuing south. Killua looked a little annoyed they were being sidetracked, but most other people nodded their heads in agreement as they did not want to walk through the graveyard. Besides having to walk past all the bodies, they would have also had to get closer to the terrible scents they could faintly smell from even back this far out.

Nami looked down at a little boy on her left side and saw Dash staring over the barren landscape with a trembling expression. "Alright," she said loudly, gaining the attention of the boy next to her along with a few others. She put a hand down on Dash's shoulder and turned him to the side then stepped on the side of him closer to the battlefield to block off his sight of it. "Let's get going," she said, and she kept her hand on Dash's shoulder while starting to walk after Gray.

Ben looked ahead at his friend's back and frowned. _Dash,_ he knew his friend had seen some terrible things during those first few weeks on Nexus when they were together, but since then the kid had had his family with him the entire time. _Maybe I should have told him to stay back,_ Ben thought. He turned right and looked out at the fields of dead bodies, craters, burnt ground, and littered weapons. The sight made him grimace, but he could handle looking at it without feeling afraid. The other pirates, mages, and travelers with them turned and started walking along the edge of the battlefield after Gray, mainly keeping silent out of respect for the dead near them.

The boy with the Omnitrix stayed where he was a little longer than the others though. He stood there staring at the abandoned war zone, wondering how long ago a fight must have taken place for the bodies to decompose to this level. "Looks like they put up quite a fight," a boy stated on Ben's left. He turned and saw Killua was the only other person still back here with him. Kil had his hands in his pockets and he motioned over to the farther west side of the battlefield, closer to a forest that they were purposely avoiding. "Whoever was on that side lost," he continued.

"How do you know?" Ben muttered. He did not even know that there were two sides, but now that he looked over he saw more bodies clustered towards the forest, some of them pointed towards the middle of the battleground, but most of them lying with their heads closer to the forest.

Killua pointed at the ones whose skulls were closer to the forest, "They were retreating. Get hit in the back, and you fall head-first. Those could be the bodies of enemies charging that direction," he added and Ben nodded his head, realizing there was a flaw in the original reasoning. "However," Kil continued, "look around their bodies, what's missing that someone who was attacking would have?"

The younger boy examined the area for a few seconds, then his eyes opened wide, "They don't have weapons."

"Yep," the white haired teen replied. "Looks like they dropped their swords and guns in a hurry, probably running from whatever burnt up the plains so badly. Seeing as there's no flesh left on their bones, it looks like they were too slow."

Ben looked to his right at the taller teen by only a couple of inches. "How'd you know all that?"

"Just kind of seems obvious to me," the former assassin responded. Killua Zoldyck lifted his hands from his pockets and locked them behind his head before starting to walk after the rest of the group.

The younger kid watched him walk away for a few seconds before running after to walk at the older boy's side. "So Kil," Ben began, "you're pretty smart, huh?" Killua looked down but Ben was not looking up at him when he said it. Instead, Ben just kept talking, "So, what do you think the odds are we find Gray's Resistance base, and that it's still functioning?"

"The odds?" Killua repeated and hummed to himself. "I wouldn't bet on it," he started, then continued slowly, "but Gray seems to think his comrades are pretty strong, and he's the only source I have on the matter so I'd have to say there's a good chance they're still alive."

"Makes sense," Ben agreed, as there was no denying Killua's simple reasoning. "But if you had to guess what we're going to find-"

"An empty base," Killua said before Ben was even finished. The younger boy looked in surprisedly but it was Killua's turn to just walk forward without looking at his friend. "Or a building taken over by Gray's enemies. From what we've heard about this King guy, he's the strongest person on this continent. If he decided at any point, over the last few months that Gray was missing, to come in and wipe out the Resistance, I'm sure he could have done so."

"Power doesn't mean everything-" Ben began.

"Tell that to Luthor," Kil retorted. "You may have had the numbers, and the willpower, the heart, the righteous reasons, so many strengths for one side, yet Luthor on his own defeated you all. Let's say the King is not that strong though, and if he tried taking on the Resistance on his own then they would be able to fight him back. Well, he would never have to do that in the first place, since from my knowledge he also has the overwhelming numbers in his armies. So he could have ordered his huge armies to invade, and attacked at the same time, and he could have wiped anyone on the continent out if he wanted to." The older boy looked down at Ben who was frowning up at him. "Sorry Ben, I know it's not what you want to hear, but you shouldn't be too hopeful for a situation that probably won't come to pass."

"If that is your real prediction on what we're going to find, why don't you tell Gray?" Ben Tennyson asked. "After what you just said, he seems unreasonably optimistic."

"Unreasonably optimistic?" Killua repeated and started laughing. _Taking down the New Earth Government seemed unreasonably optimistic when Luthor proposed it to me._ His laughs died down and he said still with a smug little grin on his face, "Optimism only really matters in tough situations, right? Then there really isn't a time you can be too optimistic," he chuckled, "though I for one am not that optimistic a person, I know my friend would say the same thing."

"Your friend?" Ben asked. "The one you're trying to find here?"

Kil nodded his head and opened his mouth again, but closed it and stopped walking at the same time. Ben looked at him confusedly and then looked forward to see everyone else had stopped too. "What's-" Ben began.

Out of the crowd of travelers, Sora leapt up in the air and did a double frontflip, coming out of it horizontally and flying to the south. "Hey Sora!" Riku called up, "Where are you going?"

Sora ignored the shouts from his friends behind him. He was focused into the battlefield looking much farther than any of them were looking before. He flew over the graveyard below and swooped left and right past some pillars of smoke. He got almost a mile away from his friends who were about to send Kirito and Riku after him, when he suddenly descended from the air and dropped down onto the graveyard of a war zone.

"What is he doing?" Killua muttered. He looked out over the landscape and his eyes narrowed in at Sora, then he gasped. Ben spun to see Killua looking out in shock and the older boy whispered, " _I_ didn't even see it."

"Riku, what's Sora doing?" Kairi asked her silver haired friend as he lost his confused expression.

Sora landed right in the middle of a large scorched area of ground. It looked like a bomb had dropped in this position as the ground was even lower here than the rest of the lower elevated area. The teenager with spiky brown hair landed gently and took a few steps forward after he did. He looked down, and the lump on the floor partially covered in ashes lifted its head towards him. It bared its teeth and tried swiping its right claw at him, but Sora leaned back, then leaned forward again and extended his hand. "It's alright," Sora whispered.

The creature covered in dust and ash had pieces of it uncovered, and its visible skin was a dark red shade, though that was also because of the blood covering much of its body under the dirt. Its body was curled up mostly, and its legs looked badly injured, but Sora focused mainly on a part of its back that had no dirt on it mainly because the still-bleeding wound washed the dirt away. "That's a bad cut you have there, it looks deep, maybe even infected" Sora whispered, reaching his hand closer to the creature's face as he did.

"Char, Char-meleon," it rasped at Sora. The Pokemon snapped its jaws at the teenager in front of it, but Sora did not move his hand back, and Charmeleon's jaws snapped shut inches before his fingers.

"Was that your Master?" Sora questioned softly, gazing behind Charmeleon's injured body at a skeleton with a caved in skull behind it. Charmeleon's snarl got wiped from his face and his angry attitude became one of pure sadness. "I'm sorry," Sora whispered. He reached his hand forward again and did not stop even as the Pokemon growled at him some more. His hand rested down on top of the beast's head and he patted it a few times, before brushing down its head to its upper back and wiping some dirt off of it. "It's going to be alright," the boy whispered to the injured creature in front of him.

"Char… You, speak my tongue? How?" Charmeleon questioned, or in actuality it said its name a bunch of times but Sora heard it as if it were speaking English to him.

"I'm not," Sora said as he continued brushing off the ashes from the Pokemon. "I can just, understand you, and you can understand me. Right?" The dark red creature nodded its head at him, and Sora flashed it a smile. He looked closer at the wound on Charmeleon's back, and then down under its belly where it had its tail curled in, and its dimly lit flame flickering as if it were about to go out. Sora lost his smile and reached down to his side where his bag was, his bag that was so much bigger on the inside yet let him grab whatever he wanted right when he wanted it. Charmeleon backed away from him, but Sora kept one hand petting the top of the creature's rough-skinned head, up the spike and down the back of its head to its upper back, soothing Charmeleon's nerves while he pulled something out of his bag with his other hand. "See, it's not a weapon," he said, hoping not to scare the Pokemon that was obviously in some sort of battle involving blades before he arrived, the reason he did not just pull out his Keyblade in front of it. "Just a potion, to help you."

As Sora applied the medicine specifically made for Pokemon, his comrades watched as best they could from the edge of the battleground. "Wow, Sora found another Pokemon," Dash whispered. "How did he know it was out there?"

"It's so far I didn't pick it up with Observational Haki," Kirito mentioned. Luffy and Sanji both nodded as neither of them had felt anything either.

The group stared out and watched as a bright red light lit up, and next to Sora's hunched over body formed an orange Pokemon with big wings and a long tail that had a raging flame at the end of it. Charizard roared some flames up in the air, and then next to Sora stood the weaker Charmeleon, looking up at Charizard and opening its mouth like they were having a conversation. Sora was talking to them both too and Natsu scratched the side of his head, "Does he understand what they're saying?"

"Yeah," Riku said while glancing over at the Dragon Slayer. "It's a perk of the Keyblades. It's necessary to be able to understand all languages, so it gives out that power."

"Why is it necessary?" Gray asked the teen only a little to his right. Riku turned to him and Gray looked at him closer, "What's so special about the Keyblade? I'd heard of it before, but since so many of you had it, I assumed the rumors about it being legendary were exaggerated."

"You've heard of the Keyblade before?" Riku asked, and he took a step towards the older man. His green eyes narrowed at the ice mage, "Where did you hear about it?"

Gray lifted up his eyebrows at Riku's strange reaction. His gaze shifted from Riku, to Kairi, then out towards Sora in the battlefield. _What if it really is as legendary as they say?_ Gray opened his mouth to talk, when he heard the others start murmuring and both of them turned to see Sora had returned Charizard to its pokeball. Then, the teen with spiky brown hair held out a new pokeball and tapped Charmeleon on the front of the head with it, before immediately putting it back it his bag since he knew there would be no struggle.

Sora turned and flew back towards his friends and landed at the front of the pack with Gray and Riku. "Sorry for the hold up," Sora apologized. "Let's keep moving," he suggested, turned, and kept walking the way they were heading before.

Kirito stared in awe at his friend's back for a few seconds, then chuckled and started walking after him, moving right between Gray and Riku. Riku saw the black haired teen keep going and he shrugged, motioning with his head for Gray to get a move on before following after Sora himself. "Wait up!" Kairi called out and ran past Gray to catch up with Riku and Sora who were taking up the lead with Kirito.

Natsu and Juvia walked up to Gray's sides and stopped for a minute while the ice mage kept staring after the four teens in the lead. "Juvia thinks Sora-san is a very nice person," she whispered with a small smile on her face.

Natsu shrugged his shoulders and yawned. "Yeah, I guess he's pretty cool," the Dragon Slayer said while smirking.

A blur raced by the mages and when it stopped they saw it was Dash who ran to catch up to Sora and excitedly start talking to the older teen. Dash asked all about Sora's new Pokemon, and the kid smiled up at the brown haired teen with sparkling eyes. He talked about how he wanted some Pokemon of his own, and Sora said he could teach Dash how to catch one sometime, to which the boy started jumping up and down in excitement.

Dash slowed down when Kairi went up to talk to her fiancé, and he kept smiling at Sora's back while the Keybearer walked away. He thought about the first time he saw Sora, riding in on a lion's back to save him and the rest of the Anti-NEG league in Port Royal. When his entire family was gone, Sora reached down and told him that he would save them all. Dash remembered how great he felt after Sora told him that, and how it got him back on his feet to keep fighting.

He was not the only one who almost lost hope in Port Royal only for Sora to bring them back. Luffy walked forward with five of his crew members who were all talking about Sora while he just smiled ahead at the spiky-haired teen's back. He had lost his entire crew by the time he reached the top of Castle Oblivion, but throughout his entire time on Nexus, whenever he lost a crew member, Sora was there. He was there for Usopp and Brook, and then as Sanji and Robin were taken away, he returned to make sure Luffy never lost hope. "I really wish Sora would reconsider joining my crew," Luffy mumbled aloud, trying to pout but failing to frown while in such a good mood.

Sanji and Nami turned in to their captain walking between them in surprise. Usopp, Robin, and Franky all looked at his back in surprise as well, but it was Ben walking behind them all who spoke up, "You invited Sora to join your crew?" The other Straw Hats were just as surprised, but Ben sounded a little bit jealous even.

"When did that happen?" Usopp asked his rubbery captain.

Luffy tilted his head to the side and scratched the back of his head, "I don't know, a few years ago?"

"Years ago?!" Usopp exclaimed.

"Uh huh," Luffy nodded.

"Wait," Sanji began, his eyes widening. "I think I remember that."

"You're right, Luffy did mention Sora-san's name that day," Robin agreed, having already remembered it.

The Fairy Tail wizards weren't too far in front of the group of pirates that they did not hear the conversation, and Juvia turned around and smiled back, "Juvia remembers as well!"

"Haha, yeah you were still on the crew back then," Franky laughed.

Gray looked from his girlfriend back to the group behind him and to her again. "Well I wasn't there, what are you all talking about?"

Luffy did not look interested in retelling the story, but Usopp started begging behind him, "Come on, let me know what you're all talking about. It's not fair, I was a Heartless back then!"

"Oh alright," Nami snapped at the long-nosed man behind her who actually made her feel a little guilty with that last remark. "It was the day Luffy finally returned to our ship, for the first time since we got to Nexus."

Sanji lit a cigarette and took a puff of it before adding on, "Those were a rough few months without our idiot captain to guide us."

"And losing Chopper, Brook, and Zoro-san did not help either," Robin added, making most of the crew grimace at the thought.

Franky shed a tear and wiped it with his huge metal forearm, "But we made it by! Day by day! Week by week!"

"Get to it already!" Usopp snapped at his friends, and Gray, Rin, Killua, Ben, and Natsu were glad someone said it since they were all listening in as well.

Nami smiled nostalgically and she could feel her eyes getting a little wet at the thought of that day. "Alright, so we were under attack…"

 **FD + 168**

"Come on Luffy, we're almost at the top of the cliff!" Sora called over his shoulder. The sixteen year old with spiky brown hair had on a blue jacket and heavy pants too as it was cold enough out for there to be an inch layer of snow on the ground. "You okay Kairi?" He questioned the auburn haired teenage girl climbing up the steep cliff side with him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Kairi said, though she was panting pretty heavily. She had to wipe some sweat from her forehead after saying so, as despite it being cold, with all the layers she was wearing and their nonstop hiking she was getting pretty hot. She had her auburn hair tied back into a ponytail to make it easier to climb and wore a lighter blue jacket than Sora with a pair of matching mittens. She looked behind her and saw Luffy trudging up the cliff in a slower, lazier fashion. "We're almost there Luffy! I can already smell the ocean!"

Sora chuckled, then stopped and opened his eyes wide, "Wow, you really can!" He took a deep sniff in and looked back at Luffy, "You're taking too long, hurry it up slowpoke!"

Luffy lifted up his gaze and frowned at the spiky haired teen and his girlfriend near the top of the cliff. It was a few weeks after Brook had been brutally blown apart by the crazy kid with a red cape, and he was still depressed over it, no matter how cheerful his two companions were. His black pupils looked into Sora's dark blue eyes and the younger boy sighed before turning to Kairi and telling her to go ahead. He jogged down the cliff to Luffy's side who grunted in annoyance that Sora was doing this again. "Are you okay?" Sora asked his friend.

"Fine," Luffy muttered. "Let's just get to the top of the cliff."

"You know Luffy," Sora said, smiling at the pirate next to him. "If we really are close to the water, then I bet we'll find your ship and the rest of your friends soon!"

Luffy smiled slightly, imagining his friends' faces all in front of him. Then, Usopp and Brook's faces flashed before his eyes and his smile was gone. Sora put a hand on his older friend's back though and he started walking up the cliff again while helping Luffy with him. They trudged through the short grass under the light snow coating together and Sora kept smiling the whole time, talking about how they could search the entire coast for Luffy's friends. "Or maybe they're all dead," Luffy interrupted quietly.

"Oh don't talk like that," Sora said, patting his friend in a red jacket on his back harder than before. "Listen to me Luffy, you might feel like there is no hope. Your heart is in the darkness right now, I can see it," he turned and smiled at the skinny man next to him, "but in that darkness there is a light, a light that will never go out."

"What if," Luffy saw the top of the cliff where Kairi stopped and was looking over the other side. "What, if I never find my crew?" Sora's eyes widened as this was more than Luffy had opened up since the day Brook died. "What if they're all gone already?" This was less like a pessimistic mutter like he did before, and more of an actual question he wanted an answer to.

"I promised you Luffy," Sora said, squeezing the pirate captain's back tighter with his hand. "We will find your crew."

"You don't know that," the man whose straw hat lay limp over his back whispered. They kept walking towards the top of the grassy cliff, and Sora saw Kairi turn back and look at him with eyes that sparkled because they were brimming with water. Her mouth was curved up into such a wide smile that he knew the tears about to spill out of her eyes were not tears of sadness, but of joy. Luffy's head was bowed and he felt Sora's hand leave his back, "They could all be-"

"Luffy." The pirate heard his name called out by Sora but the boy was no longer at his side. He lifted his gaze and saw Sora standing ten feet in front of him, just up the top of the cliff looking down at him with Kairi at his side. "I made you a promise," he said it while curving his lips up and Luffy saw Kairi's tears start spilling out the bottoms of her eyelids. Luffy stared at them confusedly for a few seconds, then saw Sora and Kairi each turn and stare the other direction.

The rubberman slowly walked up those last few feet of the cliff, his heartbeat speeding up faster than he knew was possible. His clouded eyes and grim expression were rising into a look of more and more disbelief each second. He gulped at least three times in the next five seconds as he reached up in between Sora and Kairi. Before he even stopped moving, his eyes were already spilling tears and he trembled at the sight of what he expected but could not believe was actually there.

The other side of the steep cliff was a much gentler slope, but halfway down that grassy slope the ground turned into sand that was also lightly coated in snow. That sand went on for another few hundred feet until it reached the water, where only a hundred feet off shore there was a ship anchored. "What are the odds?" Kairi asked with a bright smile on her face. "I guess you are lucky," she said, turning and giving Luffy a toothy smile while starting to laugh through her tears. "I'm so happy for you."

"Th-That's, the Sunny," Luffy whispered, barely able to make out the words because his face was covered in so many tears. He rubbed his eyes, not to get rid of the tears, but because he had to wonder if he was imagining things. It was so unlikely, even for a man who lived an unpredictable life such as his, it seemed impossible. "But, then, my nakama?" He turned to Sora who gave him a single nod in response.

"I bet they're on the ship right now, waiting for you," Sora said confidently. He watched as Luffy finally absorbed all this information and he spun to his ship again. "Go on Luffy," Sora said, and this time his eyes started to glisten as they got a little wet. Luffy started walking down the cliff still with a look of disbelief in his eyes, and he heard Sora behind him, "It's been fun."

Luffy took another step onto the other side of the cliff, but froze and turned around as those words registered in his mind. "Sora?" he questioned.

The spiky haired boy had a huge smile on his face, but he stepped closer to Kairi who had her hand interlocked with his now. "Luffy, we have to find Riku."

"Wait, Sora," Luffy took another step up the cliff, then spun and stared out at the Thousand Sunny not a half mile away from him. "Come with me!" Luffy smiled and he wiped his face of his tears. "Join my crew," he turned to Kairi, "both of you," he added.

Kairi tilted her head and grabbed her heart with the hand Sora was not holding, "Thank you Luffy," she said, genuinely touched as she had seen how much Luffy cared for his crew.

"But we can't," Sora continued.

"We can search for Riku together!" Luffy exclaimed.

"Luffy," Sora started, blinking a few times and allowing a single tear to streak down the left side of his face. "Your adventure is out there at sea, with your nakama. Riku could be anywhere on Awul, and we plan on finding him. We never wanted to tell you, but we always knew we would be going separate ways once we found your crew."

Luffy sniffled and it was hard for him to hold back his tears. "Because, you always knew we would find my crew," he whispered, blinking out tears of his own. "Even though I, had given up-"

"You never gave up," Kairi scolded him and the rubberman snapped his attention back to her. "Even in your darkest moments, you always knew your crew could still be alive. There was always a light inside you Luffy."

"Now," Sora said, getting Luffy to turn back to him, "go to your nakama. I'm sure they miss you as much as you miss them. Don't leave them waiting any longer."

"But Sora," Luffy said, taking another step back towards the teen, "you're my nakama too."

Sora opened his mouth to respond, but his gaze suddenly lifted above Luffy's head and out into the distance in shock. Kairi covered her mouth as she gasped and Luffy spun around in panic, thinking something had happened to his crew. Out in the water about a hundred yards from the Thousand Sunny was another pirate ship, and it was firing at Luffy's. Since there were a few trees on the grassy area at the top of the hill, parts of the water were not visible from their angle, and they did not see the ship until it was already firing upon the ship with the smiling lion figurehead.

"Sunny!" Luffy exclaimed as he saw planks of wood from the bow fly up and then two more splashes in the water right next to the ship.

"Go Luffy," Sora said, and the kid sounded closer than when Luffy was previously looking behind him. Sora got right up next to Luffy and he put a hand on the pirate's shoulder, "Head to your friends. I'll give you one last parting gift. Don't worry about that ship."

Luffy looked at Sora in shock for a moment, and Sora gave him one more squeeze on that shoulder. "I'm going to miss you, friend." With that, Sora turned and ran down the side of the cliff, into some trees, and out of Luffy's sight.

The pirate looked behind him one last time and Kairi wiped her tears and said, "Goodbye Luffy. I hope we meet again." Then, she ran after Sora down the hill and to the right towards the direction the enemy pirate ship was coming from.

"Kai- Sor-" Luffy couldn't finish shouting their names, he just stood there with his bottom lip dropped for a few seconds. Then, he heard Sora's voice in his mind, _"Usopp will always be with you Luffy, just like all of your friends. Friends are in your heart, if you remember to keep them there, you'll never truly be apart from each other."_ Luffy never really thought of it much before, but he lifted his hand now and put it in front of his chest, _Sora, Kairi. Thank you._

The pirate shook around his head clearing his thoughts and a huge smile spread across his face instead. He started running down the side of the gentle hill and the entire time he stared as far out as he could, watching the Thousand Sunny as someone pulled up the anchor. _Franky!_ His smile grew, and he saw someone jump up over the top of the ship, kicking away cannonballs as they flew at them to protect the ship. _Sanji!_

Luffy stretched his arms out in front of him as he reached the final tree before the sand, and he grabbed onto a tree branch. "Gum Gum, ROCKET!" He pulled himself up and released the branch, throwing himself high into the air. He spread out his arms and legs and looked down at the Sunny as he flew towards it, and he saw a web of arms spread out in front of the sail and stop a bunch of cannonballs from hitting it. _Robin!_ Someone was yelling on the grassy deck of the ship as others ran by her tying down sails and getting the ship ready to move, and he recognized her angry shouts anywhere. _Nami!_

"Keep them off us until Franky's ready with more ammo, Sanji!" Nami shouted. "Juvia, keep their ship far enough that they can't board! Robin, pull in the sails! Get ready! They're getting close now! They're going to board us any second-" _**CRASH**_ Something slammed on the ground right in front of Nami and she screamed, "AHHH!"

Everyone on the ship heard Nami's shout and they spun around, dropping whatever they were doing. Sanji kicked the air under him and flew over to the main deck, right as Franky and Robin sprinted over from closer to the bow, and a girl with blue hair who was with Nami opened her eyes huge. "Nami-san what's-" Sanji stopped shouting as he saw the person standing in front of Nami with his back to him. The man reached up a hand slowly and he grabbed the straw hat hanging on his back, the hat that matched the ship's sail, and he put that hat on top of his head.

Franky, Sanji, Nami, and Robin all opened their eyes wide in unison and shouted together, "LUFFY!"

"Shishishi, I'm back!"

Juvia, startled as she was, started smiling as she saw recognized the hat Luffy was wearing as the one on the sail. Her smile rose even more as three of the crew, leaving out Robin, sprinting towards Luffy to embrace him.

"How- when-" Nami kept sputtering out words and she gasped as she was running low on air. "I thought I would never see you again," she whispered, and her tears kept flowing down her face.

"Wait a second," Sanji muttered, stepping back from Luffy and losing his excited, happy look for a few seconds. He turned around, "Why did they stop attacking?"

Luffy's excited smile for being back on his ship got even wider and he ran around to the steps on the side of the main deck. "Hold on, Luffy!" Nami called after him, then chased the rubberman around the side of the ship with everyone else chasing after her. "Where are you going? How did you get here? Why-" Nami's words caught in her throat and she froze as she reached the stern of the ship. "Whoa," she whispered.

"What the Hell?" Sanji gasped.

"Holy," Franky began, and never finished as a dozen bolts of lightning dropping out of the sky took his breath away. Those lightning bolts dropped right on top of the ship that was attacking them a minute ago. The ship was over four times as big as the Sunny, covered in cannons with a mega-super-cannon in the front that looked like it could blow away the Thousand Sunny along with a square mile of the water in every direction with only one shot. That cannon was now frozen solid, while the sail of the ship and its black flag were both on fire.

An enormous ball of black formed above the top of the ship around its mast and upper cabin decks. The ball was translucent, and inside it looked like the gravity must have increased a hundred-fold, because the mast cracked and fell, the cabin crumpled floor by floor, and screams rang out from the ship. More lightning dropped from the sky, and flashes of white light erupted all over the ship while balls of fire shot out the sides of the hull.

"What is happening?" Nami whispered in amazement.

"It's Sora's parting gift," Luffy replied.

"Who?" Robin asked, but Luffy just kept smiling and shook his head a few times.

They watched in more or less silence as the ship started to sink, and the crew of said ship grabbed onto chunks of driftwood or lay unconscious on top of them. One figure stood on the largest chunk of hull remaining once the ship was in pieces, and he looked across the water at the Sunny. He rose up the weapon in his hands and pointed it in the sky, firing one ball of red light up into the sky.

Everyone looked up and watched as the light exploded into a giant firework display. The display spread out and they dropped their jaws in awe as the red lights shifted into the shape of a straw hat in the sky. Luffy looked back down at the ship's debris and saw the teen looking back his way, and the boy rose his hand and waved at the Straw Hat ship. Luffy waved back at him, then the figure leapt up in the air and glided over the water all the way to shore where someone else was waiting for him. They looked back at Luffy's ship again, then turned and headed back towards the cliff they just came down.

Before his crew could ask him any questions, Luffy threw his hands up in the air, "Yosh!" He spun around, "Robin, Franky, Sanji, Nami, let's go find the others!" He tilted his head after looking at each of his friends, and shifted his attention back to Robin all the way on his left, as she had someone standing behind her. "Who are you?"

"Luffy, this is Juvia," Nami said, still in partial disbelief that Luffy was here, and trying to act like everything was normal. "She's been on our crew since we got to this world."

"I didn't say you could be here," Luffy said harshly and looked at the blue haired woman as he narrowed his eyebrows. Everyone felt nervous for a second, then Luffy shrugged and smiled, "But if you've been on the crew for a while, I won't make you leave. Nice to meet you Juvia."

"Wh-What?" Nami stuttered, wondering if she heard Luffy correctly.

Luffy turned his head and looked back towards shore, but he could no longer see the two who disappeared up the cliff. He turned back to Juvia, "I'm Monkey D. Luffy, I'm going to be the King of the Pirates!"

"N-Nice to meet you Luffy-san," Juvia started, still totally confused just like the rest of her friends on the crew. She bowed deeply to him, "Thank you for letting Juvia stay!"

"Yeah, don't mention it," Luffy said, and looked back at Nami next. "Set a course Nami! We have to find Zoro and Chopper…"

 **Present**

"Haha, for a second there, I really thought you were going to kick Juvia off the crew," Franky laughed.

"Juvia thought so too," Juvia said with a slightly pale look as she remembered how scared she was in that moment.

"Speaking of which Luffy," Nami began, turning to the captain who stayed quiet through her recollection of Luffy landing on the Sunny. "Why did you let Juvia stay? That wasn't like you at all."

The pirate captain looked up past the Fairy Tail mages, and all the way up to Sora. He shrugged, but everyone followed his gaze and looked ahead at Sora as well. "So the one who destroyed that ship attacking you guys," Natsu started, having only heard Nami's recollection of the events and remembering that she said Luffy mentioned Sora's name back then. "That was him."

"It was amazing," Nami whispered. "The ship was enormous, but in a minute it was nothing but rubble."

"Heh, I could've done it faster," Natsu bragged, though he kept grinning up ahead at Sora. _Man, he sounds strong! I never knew that, I thought he just had really strong Pokemon... I want to fight him even more now!_ The Dragon Slayer grinned a toothy smile and pounded his fists together.

"Hey you guys!" someone shouted from way up in the front of the group. Sora had turned around and was facing them all, "You're all so slow! A turtle could keep up with me better!"

They all looked around at each other, and it was like a switch was turned on. Ben lit up in a flash of green light and sprinted forward as XLR8, while Killua sprinted forward and passed Okumura Rin who clenched his teeth and dug his feet down even harder to speed up more. Usopp sprinted ahead and tried keeping up with his captain who was toe to toe with Natsu as they sprinted after Rin and Killua. Sora started laughing and turned back forward, running ahead again with a huge smile on his face. "Now that's better!"

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 **A/N Thanks for reading! Earlier in Nexus HWR there was a flashback that Franky had of the Thousand Sunny under attack by Coribou and Caribou when Luffy showed up, and then the ship stopped attacking them for some strange reason. So here's the second part of that flashback which explains it a little better! Sora and Kairi traveled with Luffy until the day he returned to his ship, and Sora gave him a goodbye gift too. Sora gets another Pokemon, adding to his already huge arsenal considering he has most of Giovanni's and all of Professor Oak's too, (not to mention Ash ;( ). Anyway, hope you enjoyed!**

joebob323 chapter 30 . 21h ago

ARGGGGG I got a B on my Test! Oh well, it could have been worse... But i'm still blaming you! XD Also, Sorry about not commenting on that last chapter, I didn't get to read it til ten at night. I like this chapter, good job man! One of the only questions I have is, when will we see the "Other sayians" goku talked about? I'm excited to see them! Last question, how the heck is Aragog so strong all of a sudden?

 **I feel your pain, just got back a Japanese test that I got a 79 on, mainly because I missed the easiest section, just skimmed right over it, and got 10 points off that I would have gotten X(((! Haha, must have been too distracted thinking about my next chapter of this. The Other Saiyans will return someday soon, but the chapters will mainly follow the bigger group for now... though No spoilers actually! And for Aragog, I decided to take a little liberty with his character since he's never seen fighting, only commanding an army of giant spiders, and when he died of a disease. At his strongest though, I bet he could withstand a Conqueror's Haki wave from Luffy, (or at least I wrote it that way). Plus Luffy may have just wanted to show off to him after Aragog mentioned how he couldn't be the Pirate King cuz someone else already was. Thanks for the review!**

Espada-001 chapter 30 . 20h ago

Well I mention to comment on your chapter from yesterday but I was sidetracked. Anyway I do think it's pretty cool that Zoro became a shinigami although I do find it sad that he died for that power and if it weren't for Espada 7's ability I'm pretty sure Zoro outclassed him everywhere else. Maybe he would have been a bit slower but doubt the gap would be so great that he would be able to track it completely. Anyway it was nice to see another KH character even if it was breef and he didn't get to do much. Also I'm pretty sure that Luffy's going to take it pretty hard when he finds out what happened to Zoro especially since he wasn't able to actually protect one of his crew. I'm also kinda curious how Heartless and Grimm would interact with each other in the wild given their similarities. The same question could also be asked about how Grimm would react to Riku. It's also sad to see Haku fall so soon after finding Zaduza. Also I'm not entirely sure if you have any set time for how long it takes for people to adapt to seeing supernatural beings but they been in close proximity to Rins cat for nearly 3 weeks plus every time Rin uses his powers around them his energy isn't exactly subtle. Anyway I'm also curious about how Aragog met Gol D. Roger, and for some reason I keep imagining rediculus settings for their encounter. Well that's all I have right now aside from being glad about the upcoming chapters. So until next time I bid you adu and I hope you have a good day.

 **Zoro dying is def sad, wonder if Luffy will learn about that first or him being a shinigami first... both of which situations would probs be tough for him. Zommari's ability really is annoying, but Zoro got a solid amount of work in before he was taken out of commission! So, I don't actually remember putting in another KH character, I tried re-reading and could not figure it out who else I put in. Please lmk. Grimm and Heartless are both dark creatures, and both can be controlled by the villains of their respective series, I wonder if they would attack each other or just let each other be though if neither of them have light inside them? Riku and the Grimm could be cool, sad to see Haku gone, and for how long it takes... no real set time just like in Bleach. It seemed like while I watched, every saga a new side character could suddenly see shinigamis and the likes, so sooner or later I'm sure everyone will be able to. But yeah, "sooner or later" is as good as I've got for you :P. And just like how other people can see Mephisto, but like not his demon form, I'm thinking maybe the whole crew can see Kuro, maybe they don't notice he has 2 tails yet? Don't really know. Doubt Aragog and Roger will get that flashback to confirm your suspicions, so I'd say whatever ridiculous setting you imagined is def what really happened! Haha thanks for another review!**

qwerty chapter 30 . 20h ago

I wonder whether Goku will recognize Icarus.

 **Icarus was not actually the Icarus from DBZ. It was just a dinosaur that Sora named after another Icarus he knew from the past... which might have been that Icarus you're thinking of. (At least that's what I wanted it to seem like). Thanks for the review! Thanks again everyone for reading! 'Till next time!**


	32. Nexus HWR 6-7 Will

**A/N I know right?! 2 chapters in a day? Well, I've got a really busy weekend ahead of me and don't know when the next time I'll get to edit is, so I wanted to get this posted as soon as possible. It's a short one, but I hope you enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: Still don't own any of the characters/proper nouns.**

* * *

 **Nexus HWR 6.7 Will:**

 **Capital**

 **Errrr.** The bars of a cell dropped down into the floor, and a couple of mutants tosses a short figure in their arms into the cage. "Hey watch it!" Soul yelled. The teen with spiky white hair got down on his knees next to the figure lying there flat on his face and he turned the other boy onto his back. "Hey! Hey Gon, you alright?"

Gon's face was covered in bruises and cuts. His left eye was swollen and overall he looked like shit. The bars of their cell rose back up and the guards walked away without saying a word while Soul glared at them. Once they were gone the boy looked back down to his friend, "Come on. You're stronger than this Gon."

"Oi Gon!" a voice yelled across the cells. Soul lifted his gaze and looked through his bars and the next cell's to the blue haired teen pressing his face into the steel poles. Black Star grabbed his bars hard and yelled, "Get your shit together! The Battle Royale's in under a month!" Gon's eyelids opened up even though his eyes themselves were bloodshot and the skin around them was all cut up. "You're my only real competition now that the baby's giving up!" Black Star continued to yell.

Soul looked across the cell block, and he shook his head at his best friend. He saw Black Star glaring past him at the back of Soul's cell and Soul turned around to look to their back wall. He stared at the taller teen with an orange pompadour who did not come up with a comeback for the "baby" comment. In Black Star's cell, a man sitting cross-legged in the middle of the cell opened up his eyes. Jiraiya spoke to Black Star's back, "Your friend's soul has been broken."

"Bullshit!" Black Star yelled. "Hear me Kuwabara?!" Black Star yelled over.

Kuwabara lifted up his bowed head and his eyes were so dark as he glared back at Black Star. "Shut up," he muttered, then bowed his head again to continue staring at the floor.

"Shut up? SHUT UP?!"

"Yeah! Shut up!" about a dozen other gladiators yelled.

None of the ones who shouted were in Black Star's cell, which made sense since no one there would try something so stupid. Black Star roared at them all, "BRING IT ON! I'll take all of you at once!"

"That's the whole idea of the Royale," Crocodile snarled across the cells. The former pirate wore brown rags and his black hair was all messed up around his head. He had bags under his eyes and was tired of Black Star's annoying personality. He continued, "So keep your mouth shut until-"

"Did I ask you, wimp?" Black Star growled. He looked straight across the cells into Crocodile's eyes, and Black Star's mouth twisted into a crazy smirk at the sight of the hate in Crocodile's eyes.

"Monster," Crocodile muttered, turning away from the boy whose eyes were giving him chills.

Gon Freecs was finally getting back to his feet, and Soul gave him a pat on the back when he managed to stay up even on his shaky, bloody legs. "Good man," Soul said.

Gon nodded first through the bars at Black Star who nodded back when he saw Gon's serious, reassuring gaze that showed unlike some of them, he had not given up hope. Then Gon turned to Soul and he started smiling at the teen who helped him out. _This would be so much harder without the rest of Delta squad. We keep losing friends, Gray, Rambo, Axel, Akamaru, Kiba,_ he turned his gaze and with a sadder expression thought, _Kuwabara. But there are still a lot of us here, still fighting, still looking for a way out. I just hope, Cloud made it back to the Resistance…_

Two guards sprinted past the cells and everyone inside them looked out wonderingly. A few stayed sitting, but Jiraiya's eyes that were closed again snapped open, only this time there was a green tint around them and a small grin on his face. The white haired man stood up and walked towards the bars where Black Star and Tsubaki, along with another six of their cellmates were standing looking out in wonder. A couple more guards jogged by and a voice called out from a different cell farther down, "What'sa goin' on here?!"

The Italian accent in the voice was one Black Star, Gon, Soul, and Tsubaki recognized well. They spun their heads the other way and all thought, _Mario,_ simultaneously. They did not know where their Italian comrade was and only saw him on occasion, but they were glad to hear he was still alright and somewhere in their cell block. Another guard, this one the Chimera Ant in charge of opening and closing all the cell doors, ran by the cells and all the prisoners were intrigued now as they tried to look towards the doors on the other end of the room.

The doors opened up, and a small crowd stepped through them as all the guards bowed their heads. Only gladiators from the first few cells could see the doors opening, but everyone could hear them as they started speaking. "Welcome, Lords of the Cooperative," the head Chimera Ant greeted with his head still bowed. Nearly a dozen powerful figures were stepping through the door, and some of them had slaves with them, following behind on leashes or just walking on their own. "Look around and make your picks. All the gladiators you see will be part of the Battle Royale!"

The Lords were there to gamble on the upcoming tournament which was a big event apparently in the Capital. A few of the interested gladiators leaned back as they did not want the Lords to see them. They did not all _have_ to enter the Battle Royale, but if a Lord put money on them, they would not be able to refuse going out into the arena.

"Well _I_ heard," a high-pitched man's voice that sounded very flamboyant called out. He was near the front of the group of Lords, had light green skin, and even darker green hair that was tied into a long braided ponytail that fell far behind his back. He wore a white cloak with his left arm sticking out of it, and he was holding that arm out to the side as he continued in his excited, extravagant tone, "That you have acquired quite the unique specimen Magneto!" He turned his head more and looked back at the other Lord, wearing all purple, and he looked past the man at the figure walking directly behind him. "I find her beauty exquisite! She is both a weapon weilder-ah, meister," he corrected himself, and instantly some others farther down the cell block who could hear him tensed up.

Gon noticed Soul next to him grab the bars tighter and press his face farther into them to try and see farther down the aisle between cells. The Lords were getting closer, and they heard that man continue, "and a blade herself, at the same time! I have never seen something like it before."

The mutant man being spoken to had a fat pink alien at his side. Magneto calmly walked forward through the cell block but he turned to face the taller alien, "That is correct Lord Zarbon. I will allow you a demonstration later on if you are interested." Dodoria smirked as Magneto said it, as there was another reason Magneto wanted to have a private meeting with Zarbon, who Dodoria suggested they find.

Zarbon noticed Dodoria's smirk and he figured out what was happening rather quick. "That sounds delightful," he said, turning back to Magneto and giving him a broad smile. Zarbon then turned and started looking around at other fighters in the cells around them, but he sighed and continued walking as he did not see anything he liked.

"It can't be," Black Star whispered, mainly to himself.

A few others near the cell's bars with him looked at the teen confusedly, and then nervously and a few of them backed away. Jiraiya looked in and saw not just Black Star, but the weapon-girl, Tsubaki, trying their best to look down the block at whoever was approaching them. Tsubaki's arms were shaking, but it was Black Star's twisted expression that had the other prisoners backing away.

Zarbon got in between their cells first, and he looked at these prisoners confusedly by the expressions a few of them had on their faces. He glanced behind him and watched as a couple of the other Lords walked by, only to stop and look back interestedly as well as a few of the slaves did not even glance at them, just kept staring down the cell block at Magneto and Dodoria who were looking confused by the time they arrived. "What is it?" Dodoria muttered, wondering if he had something on his face.

"Maka!" Black Star yelled.

Magneto's eyes opened wide and the mutant Lord turned left to the boy with spiky blue hair who screamed his slave's name. Maka turned when Magneto did and she looked at the cell bars, at Black Star and Tsubaki who looked into her blank, glassy eyes, and dropped their jaws. Black Star grabbed the bars hard and he jumped up so his feet were pressed against them too as he started ripping with all his strength, making the cell itself start shaking. "MAKA! MAKA IT'S ME!" There was no recognition in her eyes and every second he looked at her he got angrier. Black lines crossed over his face and for a second the pupils of his eyes turned into stars and he gave off an aura that made even Jiraiya gawk at the animalistic child trying to rip the bars out.

"Why is this slave not being restrained?" Magneto questioned, turning and looking at the Chimera Ant in charge of the cells.

The Ant gulped and replied nervously, "I already turned on his restrainers." The other Lords who were wondering the same thing as Magneto all turned back to this teen whose bracelets on his wrists and ankles were glowing red, yet he did not scream out in pain. He just continued to roar his comrade's name, and finally the woman grabbing the bars spoke too.

"Maka, it's us," Tsubaki said, her voice barely audible over Black Star's screams. Maka did not move her head an inch as Tsubaki spoke. She stared straight ahead and her gaze missed the taller woman's. "Please Maka," Tsubaki whispered, tears forming in her eyes.

"Aww, this is sweet," Dodoria said in a mocking tone. "I take it back," he pointed at Black Star, "I'll bet three million on that one."

The other Lords said nothing in response to Dodoria while Black Star continued to rip at the bars with all his might, and actually make them visibly shake. Dodoria looked around but none of the other Lords were taking him up on his bet. "I will take that bet," a Lord who had walked farther then stopped to watch this interaction began. He stepped back towards the cell Black Star was in, a man with short, spiky, light-purple hair who wore a black kimono and a headband with an hourglass on it. His ninja headband that signified him as a ninja from the Village Hidden in the Sand also had a horizontal line cut through it. He stepped up to the cell and looked past Black Star at a figure slightly older than himself who glared back into his eyes, "One of the Legendary Sannin, Jiraiya."

"Fourth Kazekage," Jiraiya muttered.

"Lord Rasa, putting a three million dollar bet down that that boy is going to lose?" Magneto questioned with interest. He looked at the boy who seemed ferocious and strong, then to the older man farther back in the cell.

"Maka," a voice whispered behind these Lords. The Lords making bets all turned away from Black Star's cage, and that boy stopped screaming himself hoarse. He finally dropped to the ground as the pain blacked-out his mind and Tsubaki had to drop down next to him and start shaking him as he had a seizure. Dodoria turned to a Chimera Ant and yelled at him to stop torturing Black Star now that he had a bet on him, while the other Lords all looked back at the cell across the block from his. They looked at the teen with spiky white hair directly in the center of the cage, staring at Magneto's prized slave's back, and whispering, "Maka, why don't you recognize us? You're stronger than this!"

Maka Albarn turned around slowly to follow her Master's gaze to the other side of the cells. She turned and Soul stared straight into her glossed-over eyes, and Soul's arms dropped from the bars in front of him. His forehead pressed against the bars slowly slid down as he dropped to his knees. Maka's eyes had no life in them. Magneto spoke up, "Were you her partner? That is sad. You should know though, her will was stronger than most. It took much longer to break her spirit." Soul's face could not even look horrified. He just, bowed his head, and his wide eyes stared at the cold steel ground.

Kuwabara never stood up when the rest of them went to the bars to see what was going on. The teenager who felt so sorry for himself, who felt so broken, saw Soul falling apart in front of his eyes and his own chest hurt even more. He pushed down on the ground on the sides of him, but before he could stand, he caught a glimpse of Gon's face while the younger boy stared at Soul. Gon stood there staring at Soul in a depressed way, and Kuwabara could tell what he was thinking, and it made him lose the urge to go over and help. Soul's eyes were wide open, unblinking at the floor, his entire body could no longer function, because of the crack in his heart.

"Maka," Black Star whispered. He watched as the girl turned with her Master and they started walking away. Until she was out of their sights, she never once turned back around to look their ways. Black Star spun back to Soul and he opened his mouth to shout something, but nothing came to mind. Others saw the way Black Star stopped himself, and then the teen turned his head and looked at Tsubaki who had curled her head down in between her knees. Black Star imagined, just for a second, what it would be like if he had just seen Tsubaki in the state Maka was in, and his mind blanked with rage. It only lasted a second before he quickly reminded himself that she was at his side and he could protect her, but those who saw him about to call to Soul also saw his face during that second, and almost all of them decided to back out of the Battle Royale.

Soul finally blinked because his eyes were dry being open for too long. When he blinked he started to move again, almost like being snapped back to reality. He blinked a few more times, and then he started blinking out tears. He stared at the ground below him that got wet by his tears, and the boy with a broken heart thought, _She's gone. If only I… If only I had went with her. I could get to her, and I could fix her, if I, if I could only get to her. But I can't. I can never get to her. She's, she was… and it's all my… I- I'm sorry Maka._ Soul snapped his head back and the boy screamed at the top of his lungs, "I'M SORRY!"

* * *

 **100 Miles South of the Capital**

"It's so bright," a girl with short pink hair down to her shoulders said. She stood on the top of a hill with two others by her sides. The girl's eyes matched the pink of her hair and the pink cloak she wore from her shoulders to her feet. She had a rifle slung over her back and two pistols at her sides, and she lowered the pair of binoculars she had in her hands and handed them to the man on her left. She kept staring out into the distance though, and she continued softly, "Even without them, I can still see it."

"The city that never sleeps," the dark figure on her right spoke. "You are lucky to have never seen it up close, Mine." The taller figure was covered head to toe in black fur, wore a pair of green pants over his muscular legs, and had a long red blade in his right hand. The figure's face looked like a cat's mixed with a human's, he had a scar on the outside of his left eye, and the majority of the right side of his body was made of metal. His steel right eye extended out a little from his head while spinning, zooming in on the distant Capital while the lens on the end of it glowed red.

Panther Lily's mechanical eye moved back into his head, and he turned to his left to look at the others. The Exceed slashed his sword in front of his body twice then spun the blade up over his back where he strapped it. "The path to the Colosseum is treacherous. We will not make it easily before the Battle Royale."

"We have to try," Mine said, her voice soft but firm. "We've lost too many people getting this far to give up now." She glanced over her left shoulder and down the other side of the hill they were standing on where their other comrades were gathered in tents. The tiny camp did not stand out much considering there were thousands of similar tiny villages scattering the countryside around the Capital. The tents behind them were few and far between, their numbers having dwindled in recent months.

"That's right," the man on the left of Mine said. "We are going to free our future comrades from the Colosseum. We need their strength to free everyone else." He had no hesitation in his voice and everything he said he sounded so sure of. The teenager with light brown hair had green eyes and a constant determined expression on as he spoke. "Once they're all out, we'll only have a short time to get everyone in the same room for the teleporter to work."

Mine smiled at the young man on her left side. The two eighteen year olds gazed into each other's eyes for a few seconds, then Tatsumi looked back out to the north where they could see the bright sky above the Capital in the distance. "This is our riskiest break-out yet," Tatsumi whispered seriously. "Ever since I started this group, separating from the Resistance who would never risk coming this far north, I made a promise never to back down because of how dangerous the fight could be." He held a fist up in front of him, "We are going to get them all out of there, though," his lips curled up again and he finished, "we would never be able to do this, without our soldier on the inside."

Mine, Lily, and Tatsumi all looked out towards the Capital a hundred miles away. Inside that Capital, a slave was currently in the eastern fourth of the city, not the southern Quarter where the Colosseum stood. The Quarter with the Colosseum in it was not nearly as extravagant as the eastern Quarter, the Embassy Quarter, where this slave stood in a room sweeping a broom back and forth on a dirty floor.

Two other slaves were not far from this girl, another girl a little taller than her, who kept glancing her way regretfully, and a tiny man floating around to clean higher up on the walls that got drinks splashed on them during another part. Liz and King would occasionally give the other girl in the room glances or ask her questions, but the blank eyes of the teenager put them off. Liz could hardly look at her old friend because of the way Maka was acting.

Maka stood there, face pointed straight at the wall in front of her, sweeping back and forth as if it was the only thing on her mind. She turned left, took a step, then swept back and forth again, before taking another step and continuing. _Right at the cross, left, down, straight four hundred meters, fifth door after the intersection. 567448… 567448 567448, remember the code, they used it for both doors. Past the guards, their cell block is the lowest floor, twelve or so down…_ Everything she had seen and heard earlier that day came rushing back to her, but all the emotions she had felt back then were returning as well.

 _Tsubaki…_ the sound of tears falling off her friend's face dripped in her ears. _Black Star…_ she imagined him grabbing the bars with his full strength, shaking the foundation of the building with his roars, her heart warmed at how angry he got seeing her like that. The little bit of warmth in her heart vanished though, as she remembered the expression on Soul's face. _"I'm sorry!"_ She heard it echo in her ears over and over and over and over and over again for the last eight hours. The wails she could not react to, the screams that she knew if she looked like she had heard, one of the powerful people around her would have noticed, would have blown her cover.

Knowing how impossible it was to react did not make it easier not to though. She felt her heart screaming and her very soul ripping apart. _Soul, I'm so sorry. I never wanted you to have to see me like that. I never wanted, to break your heart._ She could feel her eyes getting wetter and she had to curse herself mentally and start thinking harder thoughts. Maka steadied her mind and kept pace with her broom, never missing a beat.

* * *

 **A/N Gotcha didn't I? XD So Maka's not as broken as previously thought, but the others are reaching their breaking points one by one. Kiba's no longer in the prison with them, Crocodile's suit is gone, Kuwabara's broken and Soul follows behind him. Black Star's rage is skyrocketing, and bets are being made on the upcoming Battle Royale! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks for reading!**

joebob323 chapter 31 . 8h ago

Hmm, not much to comment on, but it's nice to have a lax chapter now and then. This was a well needed break from the action packed chapters we have had for a while. Just good old family bonding. Yay! BTW, good job!

 **Action packed one the day before, nice uplifting one in the morning, followed by a depressing slavery chapter at night! XD Thanks for the review!**

Espada-001 chapter 31 . 5h ago

Well I don't really I have anything to comment about this time except I can't wait for the next chapter. Also looking back I used a bad abbreviation and confused you I guess. When I said KH character I was talking about Katekyo Hitman, sorry about that I should have used KHR. Anyway till next time have a good day.

 **Ahhhh, I see. Thought you meant Kingdom Hearts and I was so confused as I tried to think back on all 20k words looking for one of their characters. Yeah, Takeshi's here on Aebrith and makes his first appearance, but it won't be his last... Thanks for the review!**


	33. Nexus HWR 6-9 Alpha Dragon

**A/N Hey guys! Here's the final part of Nexus Heroes Will Rise Chapter 6! Little bit of a break over the weekend, but now there'll be a part uploaded every day for the rest of the week, as now that I finished this one, I have the next six-eight parts already finished! Hope you enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: If you haven't got it by now, I don't own anything. Not the characters, not the monsters, not the settings, nor attacks, nor proper nouns of any kind in this story. Alright? Alright.**

* * *

 **Nexus HWR 6.9 Alpha Dragon:**

"Dash! What did you do?!"

The little boy who sprinted ahead only a minute ago and just came sprinting back yelled out, "It wasn't my fault!"

The entire landscape shook again and the seventeen people and one cat staring into the fog that started just ahead of them opened their eyes huge. Inside all that fog, they began to see a silhouette of something. "I swear! I didn't mean to run into it! I didn't see it in the fog-"

"You ran into it?!" Nami screamed, grabbing the boy by the collar and shaking him around with razor sharp teeth in her mouth. Another thud made Nami drop the kid and she spun back towards the looming form dozens of times as tall as them and more than that wide.

"Is that…" Sanji began, the newly lit cigarette falling out of his mouth as his bottom lip dropped.

"I believe it is," Robin said, beads of sweat forming all over her face.

"I was not expecting this today," Ben whispered, rubbing the side of his head as he suddenly felt a headache coming on.

The monster stepped forward again and its head stuck out of the thicker part of the fog. It lifted up its head that was five times as tall as Franky, their tallest member. A tiny cat on Rin's left side puffed out to fifty times its size and the pirates around it jumped away as they were not expecting the sudden transformation.

Usopp grabbed his chest, "God Kuro, you're going to give me a heart attack!"

"I don't like dragons," the cat said in its high-pitched voice that reverberated in their minds as the familiar itself did not open its mouth to speak.

"Dash," Gray seethed through his teeth, stepping backwards as he did. "Did you just, antagonize, an Alpha Dragon?" Gray looked up at the giant dragon's head that was glaring right back down at their group and specifically at a small boy with blond hair who nervously started sputtering about how he didn't mean to do it.

"What's the big deal?" Natsu said, a huge smirk on his face. "Sure it might be big," he stepped forward, "but it's got nothing on Igneel. My dad's a hundred times stronger than this wimpy-looking dragon!"

The "wimpy-looking dragon"'s eyes darted down away from Dash to the pink haired mage who froze where he stood. The look in those eyes excited the Dragon Slayer who punched his fists together and made them burst into flames. "He's mine," Natsu said, a grin spreading across his face.

The dragon opened its mouth and roared, a bellowing roar that made all the fog around it start pushing away from its body. "You idiot!" Gray yelled at Natsu. The fog spread out faster and thinned as it did, revealing other silhouettes in the gray getting closer and more defined. Natsu's smirk wiped from his face and their entire group dropped their jaws as the numbers continually rose, and those silhouettes started flying out of the fog and into the air directly in front of them. Gray backpedalled faster and he yelled, "An Alpha Dragon has its own pack!"

The Alpha roared once more, stomping a foot down as it did, and all of the fog dispersed at once, revealing over a hundred dragons around it. The monstrous Alpha Dragon was the biggest, its head hundreds of feet off the ground. It had gray bumpy skin over most of its four-legged body, but when it spread its wings out to the sides, it made gusts of wind so strong that chunks of ground on its sides ripped apart. All of the dragons flying around it were various colors of the rainbow and more, there were three-headed ones and ones with giant overbites, six-legged ones and ones with claws instead of feet.

"What do we do?!" Nami screamed in panic.

"We have to run!" Gray shouted, but when he turned his head his eyes bugged out at the sight of dragons lifting over hills to their north and south, flanking them from the sides.

"You think we can all outrun dragons?!" Usopp yelled at the mage. He was all for running, but even to him that sounded like a stupid idea.

Gray kept spinning around and around as the dragons closed in on them from all sides. The Alpha Dragon flapped its humongous wings again, and it lifted off the ground, an amazing feet for a beast of its size. Ben's eyes opened huge and he turned to Dash next to him, both of them thinking about the second day they were on Nexus when they saw a similar sight. _Godzilla,_ the boys thought. Ben was about to mention something about it, then his jaw dropped and he pointed a finger forward like he just figured a way out of their situation. About half of his friends saw his reaction and they all looked his way wondering what he was going to say. "It was Krillin!" Ben exclaimed, and all of the crew around him lost their hopeful looks.

Dash gawked at Ben that that was what he had to say at a time like this, then the younger kid's eyes opened huge as well and he shouted, "Oh man! It was Krillin!" Dash spun and he and Ben smiled towards Riku, "Hey Riku!" Dash called over. "Did you-"

"Yeah, I knew it was Krillin," Riku replied, not taking his eyes off the enemies in front of him, which made the boys who lost focus spin back towards the Alpha nervously as Riku did not seem to be in the playful mood. Riku stared up at the Alpha Dragon's face, and in his mind he was thinking about Brogy fighting Godzilla, the monster killing their giant friend, and then the huge monster getting destroyed by a Kamehameha Wave. _Huh, I totally forgot about that. Gotta thank Krillin next time I see him._ A black Keyblade with a red hilt formed in Riku's right hand, and he pointed it up at the Alpha Dragon that was glaring down at them while dragons surrounded them on all sides. "Hey Dash, just what did you do to make it this angry?" Riku asked, as the dragon was back to glaring at the tiny speedster with fury in its eyes.

"I didn't do anything!" Dash exclaimed. "Well, I might have ran right into it… and it might have been sleeping…." The Alpha roared and dozens of dragons around the group moved in at the same time.

"We need to-" Gray started shouting.

"Everyone, circle up!" Sora yelled. Gray spun to his left in surprise and saw Sora standing there with Keyblade raised, turning from the Alpha Dragon and yelling behind him. "Kairi! Get in the middle! Luffy and Rin with me!"

"Ehh?!" Natsu yelled. "Why are you giving orders? And why am I not in the front group?!" He sounded more annoyed at the second part than Sora taking some control.

"Why should Kairi be in the middle?" Nami questioned loudly. "Just 'cause she's a girl? I saw her take out a Sith in-"

"Got it Sora!" Kairi called to her fiancé. She turned to Nami and said quickly, "It's not because I'm a girl. I like to take position as healer during fights."

"That's right," Sora shouted. "Riku! Go!" The others Sora called up to help him had not gotten there yet, but Riku was at his side and already knew what he had to do.

Riku leapt up in the air and he crossed two Keyblades in front of his chest. "RaaaAAAA!" A dark aura surrounded him and then pulsed out through the air. Above the crew on all sides of them and twenty meters up in the air, black circles of darkness appeared. Out of those dark circles came red-skinned beasts with white stomachs and a wide wingspan. Their heads were slanted like hair being slicked back and their ears pointed behind them. They had beady yellow eyes, slender bodies, and the ends of their long wings were tattered. The Heartless had no arms, but three sharp claws on either leg, and a long tail sticking out behind them.

"Wyverns?!" Sora called up in surprise at his best friend. "You made fifteen of them!"

"Impressed?" Riku questioned, looking down at his friend who was not doing a good job at hiding it.

Sora's eyes widened and he turned away, "Not really." _How can he make so many?! I can't even make fifteen Shadows, let alone powerful Heartless like those!_ The Wyverns flew out of the dark circles in the air and intercepted the closest dragons to the group, slamming their claws into them or just ramming them in midair. Still, the crew only gained a few seconds as there were a lot more than fifteen enemies, and although the Wyverns were strong, each dragon they were facing was in its own right as well.

"Let's go!" Sora shouted, and he ran forward with Rin and Luffy. Rin had his sword drawn on Sora's left, and his body burst into blue flames. Luffy turned his fists black, and he ran on Sora's right side with a smirk across his face. "You remember Strategy 3 Luffy?" Sora questioned, confusing Rin who looked in at the two of them wondering what they were talking about. Luffy's eyes turned huge and his smirk widened even more as he nodded his head.

"Shishi, yeah!" Luffy pumped his legs down on the ground and Sora's body surrounded in white light.

"What's Strategy 3?!" Rin shouted, as there were literally twenty dragons dive-bombing them in that second.

"Just follow our lead!" Sora yelled from inside his white light. It faded, but Sora shot out of it in his Final Form. His jacket and shorts had turned white, his undershirt had black over his chest and white lower down, his shorts had dark black highlights over his thighs, he had on fingerless white gloves with black over the knuckles, his shoes had turned with with only a little black on top of them, he had a white hood bunched up behind his neck, and his expression had turned a lot more serious. He did not hold any Keyblades in his hands, instead, a floating white Keyblade and a black one crossed behind his back, then spun away from him as he leapt straight into the air at the approaching dragons.

Luffy threw his steaming arms far behind his body, while the Keyblades that shot away from Sora arced up then dipped down right beneath where the boy who summoned them started to fall. They turned horizontal to the ground and Sora pressed his feet right on the shafts of them, at the same time that Luffy threw his steaming arms forward and yelled, "Jet Bazooka!" Sora's hands lit up right as Luffy's fists hit the bottoms of his Keyblade shafts. Putting the Keyblades in the way prevented Luffy's attack from hurting the bottoms of Sora's feet, but the attack still transferred all the force into Sora, sending him flying forward with a lot of momentum. The Keyblades that Luffy hit vanished into light particles, reappearing in the same instant in Sora's glowing hands, while the spiky haired teen spun his body and looked like a drill flying through the air with his Keyblades sticking out.

Rin gawked as half of the dragons coming towards them got either slammed by the Keyblades, or slammed by slashes of wind that flew off the ends of his weapons. He finally stopped gawking as there were still dragons diving towards him. "How am I supposed to do that?!" Rin yelled. "What's the rest of the Strategy?"

"Shishishi, that's it!" Luffy yelled. He bent his knees, then leapt up in the air and yelled, "Next step-"

Sora flipped out of his spinning drill and pointed his Keyblades behind him at the dragons he flew past. "Is improvise!" He yelled, and a stream of fire shot out of his white Keyblade while the tip of the other sparked electricity and then the sky opened up over a half dozen dragons and rained lightning down on them.

"Gum Gum Jet Gattling Gun!"

Rin shrugged his shoulders and leapt up in the air, bringing his sword down and yelling, "Demon Slash!"

"I'm going!" Natsu yelled from forty meters behind the three taking on the majority of the dragons. A few were coming in on their sides, but Riku's Wyverns were handling most of them. "The big one's mine!"

The pink haired Dragon Slayer ran forward even as Gray shouted at his back, "We need you here! Damn it Natsu!"

A large force of dragons following one that was five times the size of the average twenty-feet long ones swooped down from the west, directly behind the group. They all got ready to block attacks and fight back, only for the squad of dragons to open their mouths and all of their throats to glow.

"Everyone!" Gray shouted, spinning and grabbing Juvia by the arm as he did. "MOVE!"

Natsu turned his head around wondering why Gray was shouting so loud, and the fire mage dropped his jaw at the sight of the area all his friends were just in, completely engulfed in flames. "Mina!" The flames coming out the soles of his shoes spun the other way in midair and sent him flying back towards the flaming grass.

"Everyone!" Luffy shouted back towards his crew.

"Pay attention Luffy!" Rin shouted, and Luffy turned his head just in time to see some claws about to hit him that he was too distracted by his crew's shouts to feel coming with his Haki. Rin blocked the claws with his sword though, and he yelled, "Go to them! Make sure they're all okay!"

"Cure! Cure!" Kairi called out. "Ack agh, uck-uck," she started a coughing fit but then rose her pink Keyblade again and yelled, "Cure!"

"Thank you Kairi-chwann!" Sanji exclaimed as the burn on the right side of his face from shielding Robin from the flames faded.

"And thank you Sanji," Robin said to the man next to her who was turned the other way towards Kairi. He had appeared literally out of nowhere when the fireballs were about to collide with her, and she was very grateful. She leaned towards the chef and pecked him on the cheek, then turned and crossed her arms to create three dozen arms that wrapped up the wings of dragons turning back around to swoop their way again. She spotted bright red behind her and thought maybe more flames were incoming, but when she turned she just chuckled at the sight of a faucet spurting up in the air from Sanji's nose. Robin knew that she truly made the chef's day, or life, but either way she had to snap him out of it and she mentioned loudly, "More are coming."

Sanji shook his head and with a face still covered in blood from his nose down, he roared at the top of his lungs and shot towards the dragons. He would take them all down on his own if it meant another kiss from his dear Robin-chwan, which Robin realized as she watched him run off and she sighed wondering if maybe she should not have done that.

The flames were spreading across the field, and Natsu dropped down right in the middle of them to suck most of them in. Once he gulped, instantly more of the field burst into flames as other fireballs shot down towards them, and the Fire Dragon Slayer glared up in the air at the monsters who hurt so many of his friends around him who he could see with burn wounds.

"Heatblast!" Ben yelled, shooting out of some flames as an alien made of molten rocks. He pushed his hands down and jets of flames shot below him to let him fly towards his enemies that would have burned him if he had not transformed in time.

 _This is nuts! Maybe I should get out of here. No, it's safer to stay with them, even if they do constantly get me in situations like this, no one has died yet._ Killua stood on the back of a dragon that he jumped on when it swooped too close to the ground. He was using Zetsu and staying low to its back in his crouch to prevent other dragons from seeing him, but the one below him must have realized it had some extra weight on its back, as it started violently shaking around to get him off.

Killua would not be thrown from its back so easily, but the erratic movements of the purple dragon he was riding drew the attention of others that turned and shot towards him.

Within seconds, the compact group of travelers had been scattered by their enemies. The dragons were everywhere, and the strongest of them were focusing on the two giant dragons and the one humongous Alpha that lead them all. The other dragons were not weaklings though, and after seeing a tiny green ball turn into a bunch of vines that wrapped around one of their comrades, all the dragons started dodging Usopp's Pop Greens as he fired them into the air.

A cloud of black appeared in the sky on one side of the field, and a dozen lightning bolts rained down from it on five dragons. Nami spun her Clima Tact around with a successful smirk on her face, one that vanished as she noticed all of the dragons not falling from the sky. Instead, the monsters turned their heads down to glare at her, many with black marks on their bodies and pissed-off expressions on their faces. They snarled mouths full of sharp teeth and smoke come out of their nostrils as they huffed at her.

"Uhh, Lu-" she turned her head to start shouting for her Captain's help, but spotted Luffy, Sora, and Natsu all in the middle of fighting the giant Alpha Dragon together… over a mile away from where she currently was. She spun around in a full three-sixty and her eyes opened huge. _Everyone has their own battles. There's no one to save me!_ She spun back and saw three of the five dragons start diving towards her. She stumbled back, and then her face lit up and she smiled. _That's not true. There's always one person._

Nami cupped her hands to her mouth, and at the top of her lungs she screamed, "TIMMY!" She lowered her hands and grinned confidently at the dragons diving towards her. She smiled, and kept smiling, and then when the dragons got ten feet away a look of sheer panic came to her face as they lowered their claws. Nami dropped to her stomach fast, and she felt the wind of the claws going right over her back, and heard ripping as one got close enough to tear through her shirt even.

The orange haired pirate woman scrambled up to her feet, and she saw the ones that missed her turning around for a second go, while the two that did not charge originally were flying towards her now with their mouths open. "Timmy!" She shouted and started running to her right while spinning pieces of her Clima Tact. Black clouds formed above her and rain started coming down, but she did not yell an attack while the dragons that tried firing fireballs at her found their flames sizzling out before they reached their target. "Timmy!" She shouted again, tears starting to form in her eyes.

 **"I was worried! Don't leave my sight Timmy, I'm keeping my eye on you for now on."**

 **"We can't always be together Nami. I need to-"**

 **"You need to protect me. What would happen if you weren't around and I got in danger? Hmm?"**

 **"I would come to you right away!"**

 **"But how would you know Timmy? That's why we need to stay together!"**

 **"That's not true. I already made a wish…"**

 **"What wish?"**

 **"… Well, when I first found you again, I realized I never wanted to lose you. So, back when Wanda was still, alive, I wished that if you were ever in danger, I would know. It would be a tingling feeling on the back of my neck. If you shout my name, I'll hear it. If you get hurt, I'll be hurt too. Whenever you need me, I'll know exactly where you are. That way, I'll always be protecting you, even if we happen to be apart!"**

 **"…Baka, I'm the one trying to protect you…"**

"TIMMY! TIMMY!" Nami screamed it over and over and over and over. The others in the middles of their fights with dragons looked over and saw Nami screaming her lungs out, but she no longer seemed to be in any immediate danger. She kept yelling Timmy's name, and seconds passed but the boy never appeared.

"Does she think this is like Metropolis?" Kirito mumbled between exhausted pants as he was constantly flying through the air battling the dragons around her. "I know Timmy said if we called his name he would come, but I'm pretty sure he only meant for that day."

Riku was flying not far from him, and the silver haired Keybearer smashed his two Keyblades down on a red dragon's left head, making the two-headed monster spiral down and slam into the ground. He turned to Kirito and said in a hushed voice, "Timmy and Nami are closer than most of us are to each other. I wouldn't be surprised if he showed up to save her. Not that he needs to." Riku spotted another dragon coming for Nami's back that she did not notice, and he waved the Keyblade in his left hand, creating a ball of condensed gravity over that dragon that brought it crashing to the ground in a second.

Nami did not notice the dragon behind her smashing into the floor, she was much too focused on the fact that it had been almost a minute, and Timmy still was not there. _He's far away. That's gotta be it. I have no clue where he's been for more than a week! He could be anywhere!_ "Timmy!" _He's so fast though. He could be anywhere, and, and I thought he could teleport right to me. He said he would know where I was. He was so confident he would be able to get there in an instant to save me. If it was just knowing I was in danger, that wouldn't mean anything, he would know that! He has to have a way to get to me! Maybe, maybe it's because I'm not_ _ **really**_ _in any danger._

The woman who had lifted her Perfect Clima Tact to stop an incoming thirty foot long dragon froze, then lowered her weapon back down to her side. Nami's eyes closed and her breathing was fast and ragged. Riku saw Nami getting ready to protect herself so he had turned away, but when he looked back his eyes opened in horror as he spotted Nami with her eyes closed and a dragon coming close to her with an open jaw full of teeth bigger than her head. "Nami!" He shouted.

 _Timmy will come. I know he'll come._ Nami tensed up as there was still doubt in her mind, but when she knew the dragon would have gotten her, nothing collided and a huge smile broke out on her face at the sound of a whimper-roar from a dragon in a lot of pain right in front of her. "Tim-" her eyes opened as she started calling out in relief, and her relieved look vanished from her face at a familiar blond-haired man's back. Sanji's flaming right leg was extended and the long dragon was flying backwards covered in burns, but Sanji did not shout anything to Nami about how he saved her because of his love or anything. The chef just glanced back with grim eyes and he was right to do so, as the look on Nami's face could not have been more distraught.

"Where is he, Sanji?" Nami whispered. She looked into the chef's eyes but he had no answer for her. _Shitty brat,_ Sanji thought furiously. _You're making Nami-san cry!_ Sanji looked over Nami's head and into the distant sky, _Timmy, where did you go?_

Nami sniffled in front of her nakama and then turned the same way as him, staring to the south where they last saw Timmy flying off to. _Timmy. Please, come back to us. I'm so worried about you. Where are you? Why, why didn't you come? Are- are you alright? Are you even… ali- NO! Of course you are. But, but then, where? Timmy, where are you?_

* * *

 **A/N Thanks for reading! Timmy, where are you?! The next chapter is split into 4 parts, and they are some of my favorite parts that I've ever written. I was so into the ideas in them that I wrote these next chapters before I had even finished chapter 13 of Nexus. I paused writing that because I wanted to write this far ahead while the ideas were still in my mind. The following chapters are going to be intense, and they're gonna keep you on your toes! Four parts coming up one every day for the rest of the week! I've got some essays I have to write and a project to do for a class, but I'll find time for this I promise! Alright, lastly I just wanted to mention that the Alpha Dragon is from How to Train Your Dragon! Now, review responses:**

joebob323 chapter 32 . Apr 20

Whoa... that's some twisted crap that girl's had to go through. I like this chapter, as depressing as it is, but why is the Kazekage a villain? I thought he was actually a kind person, just distorted by the loss of his wife. And, is Garaa still alive, or did he already die? (I sort of forgot...) Lastly, will the group on Arbirth make their way to the city in time for the jailbreak, or are there too many obstacles?

 **Maka's got a tough job hiding her true feelings from her friends, but hopefully it's all worth it in the end. The Kazekage tried murdering Gaara for most of his childhood, and I know that in Naruto almost every single villain gets their redemption sooner or later, actually I'm pretty sure except for filler villains, only Kagura never gets semi-redeemed. But I don't remember Rasa's motives really being explained too deeply, but either way, as Gray has mentioned before, not all the Lords and High Lords are really horrible people, some just follow the King because they don't want to be killed. Maybe if we see more Rasa some of his motives will be explained, but so far just seeing him gambling on gladiator fights, he's looking pretty bad. Gaara has not yet been mentioned in Nexus, but that does not mean he is forgotten ;P. And for the final question... no spoilers! XD Thanks for the review!**

Espada-001 chapter 32 . Apr 20

Ya I figured that's what you guessed after reading your comment. Well I certainly enjoyed this chapter although I'm curious as to who or what broke Kuwabara's will given that he was the largest optimist from his own world. Also I'm interested to see who all's going to be attempting the breakout and I can already tell that for better or worse that arc or part depending on how long the fight actually lasts is going to involve a blood bath one way or another. Also Maka just needs to hold out a little longer since for betteror worse the shits about to hit the fan. Well till next time have a good day and I look forward to the next update.

 **Nice prediction on the blood bath of the prison/breakout arc. Won't say whether or not it's right, but I def see how that makes sense. Kuwabara's will breaking, Kiba's disappearance from the cells, lots of stuff happening "off-screen" in the Capital, but seeing what they have to go through every time we witness a scene involving them, it'd be tough for anyone to stay strong in that situation. Even Soul seems to be broken now, but we'll see how it goes the next Capital chapter we get! Thanks for the review!**

qwerty chapter 32 . Apr 20

Man I really wanna see Yusuke Urameshi in the story, his fight with Sensui on the Demon World was almost as destructive as Goku's fight with Kid Buu... mountains were destroyed and giant craters were left on the ground in both fights.

 **Have not finished Yu Yu Hakusho yet, and I want to put in really strong Yusuke, so I'm going to watch a little more first, but he is definitely planned on being added to this story soon! Wouldn't say giant craters and destroyed mountains makes it even with Goku vs Kid Buu, considering Buu blew up the Earth and a bunch of other planets before that fight ended, but then again I still have to watch it before making a better opinion on the matter. Thanks for the review!**

Guest chapter 32 . Apr 21

...AWESOME! Thats how i describe thks whole story. I like makas and black stars stories. I liked the flashback on how sora kairi and luffy found the crew. Speaking of flashbacks i have an idea for one. Could you do one about kairi's first day on nexus and on how sora found her most flashbacks with her she is already with sora. That would be really cool. Here ate a few ideas for characters that i have some will be the characters others will be the just the name of the show: Samaria Jack, kim possible and Ron stoppable and the twins Kims

Sorry did it again. Her younger brothers, basically anyone from disney like star and Marco, 9 th grade ninja, wander over yander, and older ones like ducktales or darkwing duck,( i am making this list up as i go.) or Nickolodeon shows like my life as a teenage robot, and the loud house.(if you don't know that last one it's about a boy who lives with ten sisters and calls himself the man with a plan. I don't know how old you i am thinking 17 at least so i wasn't sure if you have seen it. It is very funny.) I know that last one may be hard (it is my new favorite show and would like to see Lincoln at least. ) but i was thinking maybe you could do something like you did with the characters from freinds. I will stop here thanks for the story and keep up the good work. Love were this id going

 **Thanks for the AWESOME review! Glad you're enjoying the side-arcs and the flashbacks. Kairi and Sora's first days on Nexus are a planned flashback, but it's going to be a little later on for... certain reasons :P, but yeah hope you like it when it comes up! As for all those character ideas, I'll say that I knew the first couple you mentioned, as well as my life as a teenage robot, but most of the others I don't know. Never really watched Friends, and I'm turning 20 in a couple of weeks, so I'm guessing some of those other shows you mentioned probably started up after I stopped watching Disney Channel/Nick. Anyway, Samurai Jack, Kim, and Ron sound like characters that def might be added in sometime soon... so thanks for bringing them back up to the front of my mind! XD Thanks again to everyone who read, faved, followed, reviewed! Leave me one below telling me what you think of the newest chapter, predictions about Timmy's whereabouts, or questions you have! Well then, 'till next time!**


	34. Nexus HWR 7-1 We're All Going To Die

**Nexus HWR 7.1 We're All Going To Die:**

"Natsu where are you going?!"

"Stick together!"

"From above!"

"Everyone get down!" Kirito yelled, tilting his head up and bringing his arms down to his sides. "Aaaeee _EEE_!" His screech caused the red birds diving towards them to spin out of control violently. They all went off target from their original marks and slammed into the dark black ground they were all running on.

Nami screamed and crossed her arms in front of her face as debris came flying at her. One of the reptilian-like birds hit the ground not far from her, sending black rocks in her direction.

"Ahh!" She screamed out in panic rather than pain. Nami wasn't feeling the collision of a lot of rocks into her arms, and she uncrossed them to see one giant hand in front of her with its palm facing the other way. "Fwew," she breathed out a sigh of relief and turned around, "Thanks Robin."

"You are welcome Nami," Robin jumped up in the air as the ground beneath her feet trembled. She had a sudden premonition showing her the ground bursting upwards. Her Observational Haki was not perfect, but it did warn her in time as after she jumped, the ground where she was just standing burst open.

A three headed creature stuck out of the ground with eyes narrowed at the rising woman. The ground all around the Dugtrio started to shake badly as it used Earthquake on these people all around it. The Ground type Pokemon shook half a square mile of the landscape, and most of the group did not manage to stay on their feet.

Natsu was sprinting across the black rocky ground and he stumbled a little, but he was already far enough from the epicenter where the Dugtrio was that he did not feel the full effects of the Earthquake. "Get back here you jerk!" Natsu roared as he chased after the two foot tall metal creature sprinting away from him.

"Stop chasing me you crazy monster!" The robot shouted over its shoulder, then its red eyes turned huge at the sight of Natsu cupping his hands to his mouth. "Oh no, oh noo! Stop it!"

The Decepticon lifted up its right steel arm and fired out a scatter shot of bullets at the Fairy Tail Mage, but Natsu rose up a hand and blocked the bullets while keeping his other hand cupped to his mouth. "Fire Dragon Roar!" A huge beam of fire shot out of his mouth and slammed into the small metal creature that ambushed him after pretending to be a toy car. Natsu grinned as he closed his mouth to see motionless robot parts all over the ground, and then lifted his palm to look at it. The bullets had barely broken the skin, but when he looked at his chest he could see a lot more blood coming out of the horizontal slashes across his chest from when the robot caught him off guard before.

"I got the bastard!" Natsu yelled with a victorious smile on his face. He spun around to smile at his friends, and then dropped his jaw at the sight behind him.

About twenty seconds earlier, a Dugtrio pretty far behind him used Earthquake. When it did, cracks shot out on all sides of the three headed Pokemon. There was a reason the landscape was made out of black rocks, molten rocks. Lava filled up the cracks from the large amount of it trapped under the surface.

Nami was pretty close to the Dugtrio where it popped up under Robin. She saw its eyes widen as it must not have dug far enough down to have realized there was a lot of lava under it. Her bottom lip started lowering as she saw the sad, shocked, and terrified reactions of the three heads of the Pokemon, right before a pillar of lava shot up from under it and high into the air.

There were cracks going out on all sides, but the fissures closest to Dugtrio were the widest, and getting larger still. "Ahhh!" The orange haired woman screamed in horror, turning and running away.

Nami turned and got up to her feet, then started running as fast as she could away from the pillar of lava shooting up in the sky. Robin formed wings on her back after she jumped away from the Dugtrio, and now dove down towards the orange haired pirate navigator. She grabbed Nami under the armpits and then flapped her giant wings made of a few hundred hands that she morphed together using her Devil Fruit powers.

Luffy was looking over his shoulder and he saw the two girls on his crew make it high up in the air right before the ground under Nami's feet crumbled into the lava below. He nodded his head, but before looking back forward his gaze lingered on the spot where the poor Pokemon was a second ago. When he saw how strong it was he kind of wanted to catch it with the pokeball Nami bought for him back in Dressosa, but now he frowned at the pillar of lava that dropped back down and just started spilling out all over the black rocky area.

"Juvia!" Gray called out, seeing a crack near them getting wider and lava about to spill out.

"Water Wave!"

"Quick Freeze!"

Juvia lifted both her arms up while Gray pushed each of his palms out. A wave rose up and then froze instantaneously. It was perfect timing too, blocking a large splash of lava that shot up as a chunk of earth collapsed down into the molten sea beneath.

"Nice job," Gray told the girl next to him, which made her eyes glow bright and her entire face turn red. "Come on, let's keep going," Gray waved his arm forward and shouted louder, "All we need to do is make it to the top of that mountain!"

Everyone running away across the black landscape looked over at their icy leader. The young man with spiky black hair and no shirt on had his hand pointed far to the east at a single mountain. "That's the mountain I mentioned, Ha'gar's Peak! I know where we are, at least relative to some other places..."

Gray faded off and looked to his left, farther to the north, and in the opposite direction that they were going. _It wasn't long after leaving Lake Town..._ He shook his head, forgetting about the town surrounded by mountains where he lived for a few months. All that mattered now was the present, and he had to focus on it to keep his comrades alive.

"Let's go!" He called out, slamming his hands together and then putting them both on the black rocks beneath him. Two lines of ice shot out from his hands a half mile in front of him, and while the ice extended the young man leapt up and landed on the ice. His feet slid across the ice extremely fast, and little ramps formed at the end of the trails that flung him up in the air. At the top of his arc he threw his right hand down in front of him and a spike of ice flew out and crashed into the floor near where he was about to land. The ice shard hit the ground and morphed into a downwards ramp followed by another upwards one. He landed on the downwards slope, then accelerated and shot back off the ramp into the air, doing a three-sixty spin in the air and throwing two more spikes to either side as huge purple birds were heading towards him. His ice spikes hit them in their open mouths, causing their heads to freeze over and their feathered bodies to fall out of the air.

Everyone running behind Gray started to speed up seeing how far ahead he was getting. Natsu was the only one close because he was already pretty far ahead, but someone else in the main pack suddenly sped up intensely.

Killua was in the back, talking to the boy a few years older than him named Rin. The younger kid with white hair said 'goodbye' and before Rin could ask what he was talking about, at his next step he was gone. Killua vanished and appeared thirty feet ahead between Nami and Robin who were running again. They started to turn in towards him, but his next foot touched the ground and he shot ahead again, landing a few feet to the left of the large cyborg named Franky.

Kirito went wide-eyed as he could barely see that young boy as he appeared in front of him. The eighteen year old started speeding up, but Killua kept moving at insane speeds and shot away from the rest of the group. Kirito started doing his Ninja running, leaping forward with each step, looking like a blur to the pirates around him.

"Gray-sama! Wait for Juvia!" Juvia formed a ten foot wide and tall wave of water and she floated up on top of it as if she was surfing, riding the wave forward and putting in more and more magic to keep it going.

"Ah hah heh ah," Nami was panting pretty hard, and she looked to her far right to see Usopp running over there, looking a little less tired than her, but with more blood on him. His overalls' left strap was ripped off, and his shoulder was bleeding pretty bad. "Ah agh, Robin," Nami started, making her sweating comrade on her left look her way for a second, and then over at Usopp who was slowing down a little more.

"Usopp-kun," Robin called over, and the muscular sharpshooter looked her way. "Would you like some assistance?"

The guy with a long nose stared at the grown woman in a purple tank top with slightly torn black shorts, and at the younger girl in a bikini top and even shorter shorts than Robin. _This is pathetic. They think I need their help?!_ Usopp pushed his feet harder down and picked up the pace, along with a lot of dust as he raced forward.

Nami gawked at him a little, while Robin chuckled, "I guess he is fine."

"Yeah, whatever," Nami replied, now realizing she was in the back, since Robin was probably slowing down for her. She looked over her shoulder and smiled a little, seeing that the teenager who joined their group last was still behind her. "Hurry it up Rin," she called out between panted breaths. "Wouldn't want to get left behind would you?"

Rin was looking over his shoulder back towards the lava area, and he had a pretty big frown on his face. Around the cracks in the ground back where they were before, maybe a mile or two back, some other creatures had crawled out of the lava. _I spent too much time in Castle Oblivion, I kind of wish I had some Pokemon._ He was slowing down because he could see some red and yellow creatures back where they were. Rin remembered watching a Pokemon battle in the time between the battle in Metropolis and their departure from Awul where someone used one of those Pokemon, called it a Magmar.

The lava-like, fiery Pokemon were crawling out of the lava, but there were also swirling tornadoes of flames, Fire Elementals, along with little balls of fire with eyes jumping out from beneath the cracks. _I don't recognize any of those other things. I better not risk it._ He looked ahead of him and sped up a little, but everyone else were already pretty far away from him on their ways to that mountain up ahead. "Alright, Kuro help me out here," Rin reached over his shoulder and opened up the flap on his backpack.

A small black cat leapt out of his backpack and onto his right side. "Ouch," the cat exclaimed in a high-pitched voice that echoed in Okumura Rin's head. "The ground here is hot!"

"Then transform," Rin called out. "I'm sure your big paws can handle the heat better."

"Yeah you're right!" The black house-cat jumped up and turned into a massive cat larger than three lions put together. It charged forward like a horse and Nami and Robin could hear the galloping getting closer from behind them. They each looked back and Rin started laughing out loud at the shocked expressions on their faces.

"What is that?!" Nami yelled, sounding a lot more horrified than Rin was planning on. He stopped laughing and then became nervous himself as he could see an afraid look on the older woman's face who had long black hair. If it could scare Robin, then he did not really want to turn around to see what they were actually looking at.

Rin looked back behind him, and he was glad he did not go back to try and catch some Magmars. His jaw lowered as did his familiar's who also looked back. "Rin I'm scared!" The cat named Kuro yelled at him.

The teen did not respond, he just gulped and looked back ahead. "Nami! Robin! Grab hold!"

The women turned inwards to see the cat about to run between them. They each jumped and grabbed onto the cat's black fur, getting yanked with it away to the east.

Usopp turned his head to the left and saw the two women had gotten on the large cat to help them. He was already tired when he sprinted ahead, but now he stopped and moaned that they were getting so far away. He bent down and put his hands on his knees, but as he did he heard them all shouting his name. It was more than just the three on top of the cat; every single person ahead of him was shouting back in his direction telling him to move.

"Go Usopp!"

"Get out of there!"

Usopp started lifting up his head, and he could see the corners of his vision glowing red. He slowly turned left, and then did a full one eighty degree turn to look behind him. It seemed like their disturbances awoke something great, as all of the black rock covering to this molten sea had shattered. It all melted into the lava, and right in the middle of the lava pool behind him, a bulge had formed in the surface. Something was pushing up from underneath the lava, but that wasn't right either, because two eyes opened up on the front of the large mound of lava coming out of the surface.

The liquid creature started to get a more solid form, hardening into a magma head and body, with two arms rising on either side. It had two legs that started to split at the bottom, and it rose almost eighty feet up in the air. The magma monster reached down with its left arm and grabbed a huge chunk of black ground, ripping it from its loose hold, lifting it up in the air and roaring with a mouth that formed on the front of its face.

Usopp fell backwards as he stared at the creature. The ground he was on cracked, a line forming behind his back and separating his little segment from the rest of the ground. He looked up into the giant magma creature's white glowing eyes, and it seemed to look back, right before throwing the huge chunk of rock down at the sharpshooter.

"Luffy!" Nami yelled far up ahead of her as the black cat she was riding was catching up to her Captain. "Luffy! Usopp's still back there!"

The pirate captain turned his head around and his eyes turned huge at the sight of the rock falling down towards an unmoving Usopp. He started bending down to get into Second Gear, but stopped before he even pumped his blood. A large blue beam went flying over his head, and it flew all the way to the huge black rock chunk, slamming into its right side and blasting half of it apart, while sending the other half flying harmlessly to the side.

Luffy turned his head back, and everyone else looked over to the mountain Gray had them running towards. Already high up on the mountain were two forms, the two forms of their youngest remaining members.

"Damn I missed," Ben muttered as he lowered his arms back down having finished his Kamehameha Wave.

"What are you talking about?" Dash asked his older friend who ran here as XLR8, the fastest alien that he could turn into, and who was taking a break with him when they saw the mega magma monster about to get Usopp. Dash continued while looking at Ben, "You hit it. You saved him."

"Yeah, but I was looking to blow the rock completely up. I aimed a little too far to the left..." Ben faded off as the huge monster reached down with both arms and grabbed two more large black rocks. Usopp had gotten to his feet and started running again, but it did not look like Big-Hot-and-Ugly over there was going to let him escape that easily. "Time to charge another," Ben muttered in annoyance, as he had wanted this break to last a little longer.

"Hey, I've got it," Dash assured, stepping forward a little and cracking his knuckles on each hand. "Alright, here goes," the twelve year old boy clenched his teeth and held his arms out in front of him. "AhhhHHHH!" He got progressively louder and his body covered in a thin white veil. "Double Boom Balls!" Two five-foot diameter balls of light formed in front of each of Dash's hands, pushing against each other because he did not hold his hands far enough away. "Whoa!" He exclaimed, falling backwards as the large balls in his hands that were taller than he was pushed him down with their power. He released them, but off-balanced as he was, they did not go where he wanted them to at all.

One flew somewhat towards its target, but a few dozen yards to the right and a hundred feet over the magma creature's head. The magma beast paused for a second to turn its head and watch the ball hit the ground a half mile away from it. Its large eyes burning white grew larger at the sight of the huge dome of energy rising up after.

Meanwhile, Gray was looking to his right where the second ball that was way off target flew away from the lava fields covered in molten rock and crashed into a gray wasteland he was avoiding because of the thick fog covering it. The energy ball disappeared in the fog, a few seconds later he felt an explosion, and then he saw the movement. It looked like a leg, only the leg was as big as a fortress, and he really hoped that whatever was over there hidden in the fog did not get too mad about that attack.

The magma beast watched a pillar of lava fly up from Dash's closer explosion, then looked ahead where a dozen people were running away, or riding a cat away from it. The beast pulled back its right arm, and threw the huge black rock chunk. The chunk arced up in the air, and then a thin beam of light shot up and shattered it.

Franky grinned and lifted up his sunglasses a little after using his Franky Super Radical Beam. Even the shattered pieces up in the air were getting even smaller and ripped to little dust particles. He had on a huge purple backpack with straps around his two large round metal shoulders. The pack was made for pretty much one thing; Cola, and he had a lot in there. He also had a few tools for building if he needed, and a belt around his metal waist that also had a dozen bottles of Cola to charge up his systems with.

"SUPER!" He shouted as the dust rained down on them. He posed with his arms up in the air, then watched as the magma giant threw another huge rock shard at them. "Who's got this one? This super robot needs to recharge on Cola!"

"I got-" Dash started.

"No you don't," Ben told the boy who was only making things worse with his uncontrolled power. "I still wonder why Timmy gave you that power," the older boy mumbled in annoyance, kind of wishing he could have been the one who was magically wished powers out of nowhere.

"Come on Ben, let me do it," the shorter blond boy moaned.

"No way," Ben replied, a green light surrounding him as he said it. His body morphed in front of Dash, who watched carefully as normally when this happened Ben's skin would shift, but the speedster became confused as the green light faded and Ben looked exactly the same.

"What alien is that?" Dash asked, as normally his friend had a cool alien Hero name to go along with it.

A long brown tail shot out of Ben's backside and he grinned. "Saiyan Ben!" The thirteen year old kicked off the side of the mountain, and the ground that was around his feet dented into a small crater. Ben shot across the sky and started flying towards the rock chunk flying their way. He pulled back his right fist and slammed it into the flat side of the debris, blowing it into ten smaller pieces which his friends below would be able to dodge easily.

Ben could see the monster back there reaching down for some more debris, and he called out, "Oh no you don't!" The flying boy with a tail sticking out his green shorts lifted up his right hand and caught the largest chunk of debris from the rock he just shattered. He twisted his body and pulled back the chunk, "Ben Tennyson winds up for the pitch," he announced. The kid threw the rock forward, "He throws a fastball. It's too fast for the batter to see. It's right in the strike zone! And BAM!" The rock slammed into the magma creature's chest and knocked it falling backwards.

Enough of the black rock ground had been broken apart by now that most of the landscape they just ran across now looked like a red sea. His huge opponent fell backwards and the lava splashed up over it. Ben half expected the creature to get back up, but it just sank down into the lava, groaning loudly until the groans turned into muffled gurgles. The lava continued to bubble for several seconds, but then became still.

The thirteen year old sighed and lowered his arms, a green light surrounding his body. _Never let it fall into the red again. As long as I am careful, and don't overuse it, I will always be in the green._ Ben turned back into his normal self, which wasn't much different except for lack of tail, and he looked at his wristwatch where the Omnitrix sat. _Wonder if this still counts as the strongest weapon in the universe? Neptune's trident sure seemed pretty strong, but maybe one of the aliens in here could have beaten its strength. I know Ripjaws is fast enough underwater to dodge the beam, and of course XLR8 could dodge on land, along with Rollout and Quicksand._

"Ben let's go!" Someone shouted at the boy floating up in the sky, daydreaming about something.

The kid looked back and saw everyone already at the base of the mountain Gray was leading them to. He flew back towards Ha'gar's Peak and landed near the top where Dash was still standing. "That was awesome!" Dash shouted, holding up his fist and making Ben laugh and fist-bump him.

The group of older people down below at the base of the mountain were walking up and staring at the two kids higher on the slope. The smaller one was racing around like a blur as he retold how awesome that last attack was, and Ben was laughing along at the over-exaggerated effects his blond friend was making.

"Would have never thought those two would be our two tanks," Gray stated as he walked up near the front of the main group. "They were nowhere near that strong when we attacked Castle Oblivion."

"They've gotten stronger," Natsu commented from the right side of his friend. "We all have."

"You sure?" Luffy asked the pink haired mage up ahead of him a little. He was only walking in the back because he was talking to his crew members, but he looked up at Natsu now and smirked, "'Cause you don't seem much stronger than when we met you," the pirate continued.

"What was that?" Natsu snarled, looking over his shoulder with a pissed off look. "Sorry, you're right. I didn't mean all of us, especially not a rubber idiot like you."

"Ehh?" Luffy said back, making a dopey face and sticking a finger in his left ear. "What was that? I just heard a tiny bird tweeting."

"I'm a Dragon!" Natsu yelled back at him. "I mean, a Dragon Slayer!"

"A birdie slayer?" Luffy asked with a grin.

"Rrrggghhh-" Natsu started storming back down the mountain, but Juvia stood in front of him and gave him her worst Erza-glare. The pink haired boy cowered off a little, and Luffy started cracking up.

He only laughed until a fist slammed into the top of his head and slammed him down on the mountainside. "God Luffy, stop antagonizing him. One of these days you guys are going to break something."

"Not my fault the weakling thinks he's a big shot," Luffy said with a humph and a turn of his head. He saw Natsu glaring back at him and he stuck his tongue out a little.

"I'm going to..." Natsu began, then saw Juvia looming over his shoulders. He clenched his teeth together and forced a smile, "Play nice and be friendly to you Luffy," he corrected himself, seething the words through his teeth.

If Luffy had not seen Nami polishing her fist for another beating, the pirate with a bump on his head would have been laughing at the fire wizard. Instead they all continued walking up the mountain with a considerably less amount of arguing.

Usopp fell back a little as he was still thoroughly exhausted and the last one to reach the mountain's base. Sanji was walking back with him a little, half because he was worried for their crew member, half so he could look at Nami and Robin's backsides as they walked in front of him... Okay maybe it was one quarter to three quarters for the reasons, but either way he did turn to Usopp who was looking up at the group thoughtfully. "What is it Usopp?" The blond haired chef asked him.

Usopp shook his head, "It's nothing," he said, but then looked back up with a thoughtful look again. He watched Natsu walked forward with his friends and start laughing loudly, a wide smile on his face as he forgot all about that confrontation a minute ago, then he turned and saw Luffy gawking with a huge smile and shiny eyes as Franky did a cool trick with his robotic parts. "It's just," Usopp continued, then paused for a few seconds, "have you ever seen Luffy argue with someone like that before?"

He did not hear a reply, and just shook his head. "Me either. Natsu must really annoy him for him to actually take the time to make him angry. I wonder why though, the two of them are pretty similar when you look at them," Usopp watched the two of them again and nodded his head. "Don't you think?" He turned to his right and saw Sanji with two trails of blood coming out of his nose.

"Nami-san, Robin-chan, ladies ladies ladies!" He whispered it in a cheerful way with his eyes in the shapes of hearts, watching the two women walk away as happy as a man could be.

Usopp sighed, then looked up in the air at the clouds high above. For the moment they were not under attack and finally he could catch his breath. While he was looking up and walking up the mountain, the sniper bumped into Sanji's back and stopped himself. "Why'd you stop?" Usopp asked loudly as he bumped straight into the chef who had stopped moving without warning.

Sanji was looking up towards the peak of Ha'gar's Peak, and Usopp followed his gaze up. While the sharpshooter lifted his gaze he saw everyone in front of him and Sanji looking up as well. "What is-" he started, then stopped and stared in awe at the three figures descending out of the clouds.

"Whoaa-hooaaa!" The first figure out of the clouds exclaimed. It looked like a person except their skin was blue. His hair was spiky and brown and he held onto the blue flying creature under him carefully. The beast had a long slender blue neck that the teenage boy was sitting on, leaning forward as they dove out of the air. There was something strange about this teen however. One of the brown spikes on his hair extended out behind his back and turned into a long braid that attached to a thin blue appendage sticking out of the bird's neck. The two of them were attached, the boy with blue skin covered in little black stripes, and the blue bird with a twenty foot wingspan.

Not far behind him falling out of the air was a girl on the back of a green bird only a little smaller than the blue one. The girl had very dark red hair that was almost black, and blue skin like the boy's. Her chest indented out a little and she also had a long braid of hair that attached her to her bird's neck. Both of the teens were wearing nothing but brown rags around their waists, though they had a lot of bead necklaces and bracelets on.

"Who are they?" Nami asked in awe as she saw the two birds start spinning around each other while descending out of the air. She went even wider eyed at the sight of the much larger orange beast flying down above them, covered in black swirling patterns that looked menacing and a mouth full of sharp teeth unlike the smaller ones which just had beaks. On top of this orange bird was another blue figure, with light black hair, almost gray in color, which was much longer than the two below him though still with one extra strand that connected him to his creature's neck. This one looked harder to control than the others and the young man riding it had two orange appendages coming off the creature's neck held in either of his hands like reins. The beast was easily fifty feet wide with its wingspan, a huge beast, which only made the one riding it look all the more impressive.

Ben and Dash looked up the mountain a little to the peak where all three birds flew down to and landed. The blue skinned people removed their hair strands from the connecting points of their mounts, and then hopped off and pet them a few times. The largest one in the middle gave its rider a small nod before lifting back off and flying up into the clouds.

"Goodbye Elli!" The red headed blue girl called up, waving to the green creature as it flew away.

"I'll be sure to call on you often!" The one with spiky brown hair yelled, cupping his mouth to make sure his blue one heard him.

The tallest person with dark gray hair narrowed his eyes down the hill at the two boys closest to the top. Both Ben and Dash took a step back, as the figure who could ride such a huge beast must be pretty impressive. The figure started walking towards them, and then as they leaned backwards even more, he started smiling. "What's with those looks you guys?"

Ben and Dash opened their eyes huge hearing that voice. "Wait a second," Ben looked at the guy in front, then to the other two higher up who finally turned back down the mountain. They each looked at him and Dash and smiled. "Riku!" Ben shouted, turning back to the taller figure with a huge smile of his own.

"Took you long enough," Riku replied with a chuckle. He scratched the back of his head, "Though I guess I do look a little different like this."

"That was a lot of fun Sora," Kairi said as she walked down and stopped behind Riku on his right side. Sora stopped a little higher up than Riku but on his left, and Kairi turned to him, "But I kind of want my own body back now. Do you mind?"

"No problem," the blue figure which was apparently Sora exclaimed. He held up his right hand and a yellow hilt appeared in it, with a long silver blade and a key at the end.

"A Keyblade?" Natsu wondered out loud as they all climbed up the mountain, running to catch up with Ben and Dash. "Whoa! Is that Sora?!"

"Must be," Gray replied and kept running.

"They turned into those blue people?" Rin asked as he jogged up the hill, trying to stay with the main group this time.

"Guess we shouldn't be too surprised after Atlantis," Kirito muttered. He was wondering why he thought he recognized those people he had never seen before, but they had kept some characteristics of their old selves.

Killua was in the front of the group behind Ben and Dash, and he finally reached them first where they were a little below the mountain's peak. The mountain was entirely made of rock, but the slope was just gentle enough and with enough bumps that it was easy to climb. The kid with spiky white hair appeared in between the two kids younger than him who were the only ones who managed to go faster than him. He stopped and looked up as Sora's Keyblade lit up brightly.

Killua and the two boys next to him shielded their eyes, and when the light went away they lowered their arms. The former assassin sweatdropped, "What are you doing?" He asked the three teenagers up ahead of him.

"What do you mean?" Sora asked, tilting his head to the side. As he did, he noticed he felt a little close to the ground for some reason.

Riku sighed and looked back at Sora, making the younger boy hop up in surprise. "Ah! Riku you're a-" Sora started, then realized what had gone wrong. "Oh haha, sorry," he told the black panther in front of him with a silver stripe on his head.

Sora turned to see what Kairi turned into, and she looked at him at the same time. The two lions came face to face, and then started cracking up at each other's appearance. Sora was a six foot long lion with a huge mane and Kairi exclaimed, "Wow Sora, you look like Simba!"

"I do?!" Sora shouted in surprise. He started doing circles on his four furry legs and went wide-eyed at the sight. "It's been a while since I was on his world, when I last transformed into a lion. Back then I looked like a cub, but whoa!" He shook his head around and his big thick mane shook with him.

"I wouldn't say you're as big as Simba," Riku said. The older boy continued as Sora turned to him with a pout, "And I thought we were going back to our normal forms?" He said, lifting up his black furry head and looking at his brown-furred friend expectantly.

"Oh, yeah, sorry about that," Sora said again, having gotten caught up in the transformation.

"Wait!" Kairi exclaimed, doing a few turns of her own and admiring her soft, slender, lioness body. She looked at her two closest friends and shifted her weight from one front paw to the other. "I mean, um, well Sora did just mess up the transformation, maybe he needs to take some time before trying again." She suggested, lifting up her furry eyebrows and smiling her rows of sharp teeth at the two teenage boys in front of her.

Sora opened his mouth to complain that he did not need more time and he could do it right now, but Riku said first, "You're just saying that because you want to see what it's like being a lion." He finished and Sora looked at Kairi expectantly, then gawked as the girl giggled and stuck out her tongue.

"Alright, you caught me," she admitted and pulled her tongue back in. "But don't you want to see what it's like to feel the rush of wind through your fur?! I never knew what fur felt like before, I mean, my own fur that is."

"Well," Riku stepped forward on his black panther legs and grinned. His grin sent shivers down Ben and Dash's spines as they saw the sharp teeth in his mouth. "I guess it couldn't hurt," he accepted, "but we are definitely getting our real bodies back sometime tonight."

"Agreed," Sora said, then lifted his head up in the air and opened his mouth.

"What are you doing?" Dash asked the teenager as a Keyblade formed in his mouth. It started to glow bright white and the others were confused as they all had just agreed on staying in this form.

"ROOOAAAARRR!" A loud lion's roar came out of the light and as it faded, a lion a little larger than Sora dropped down on the mountainside. It looked around for a second, and stopped on the smaller lion right behind it. "Sora!" It exclaimed, diving on him and pushing his friend on his back. The two of them rolled around on the ground but the bigger one, Simba, pushed him down again and said, "It's been so long! How are you? Why are you a lion? Wait!" He stopped and jumped off his friend, "Where's the enemy?!"

"Haha, not this time friend," Sora replied as he got back up on all fours. "I just wanted to see you! Turning into a lion made me miss you, and I remembered I didn't have to!"

"Well don't forget again!" Simba told the boy, turning to him with a smile, "You should summon me more often. Where are we now? What world is this?"

"Still the same one old buddy," Sora replied. "I think my days of world traveling might be done," he admitted.

Ben and Dash looked up ahead at Riku who had told them a few things back in the first months they traveled together. All of them knew what Sora was talking about, except for the kid with spiky white hair who was just staring at Sora wide-eyed. "You used to travel to different worlds?" The kid questioned the lion.

"Whoops," Simba brought a paw up to his mouth and covered it.

Sora looked over at Killua and nodded his head, but then brought up a single finger on one of his claws and made a 'shh' noise that sounded like a low growl coming from a lion, which was actually quite threatening. The lion boy turned back to Simba, "We're all trapped on this world, big purple barrier in the atmosphere won't let us leave. But it's not so bad," Sora said, smiling again after looking a little down there for a second. "This is like a mix of all the worlds, or at least a lot of them. Anyway, you want to run around with us?" Sora looked over his shoulder, but Riku and Kairi were already leaping up towards the peak.

"Don't fall behind Sora!" Someone called from his right and he turned to see Simba chasing after his friends, already higher up than him.

"Hey hold on!" Sora shouted. _Turn them into lions and summon you from a different universe and_ _ **I**_ _get left behind?! Sheesh!_ "Come on, wait up!" The teenage lion called out as he leapt up the mountain after them.

The three kids staring up at the large cats heard voices behind them and turned to see the rest of their crew had finally made it. Most of them were panting and looking exhausted. Usopp put his hands on his knees and lifted his head a little, tipping the brim up on the white hat he had on his head. The long nosed man sighed as he watched the two lions, one lioness, and panther hop over the summit and get on the other side. "How do they have so much energy?" He moaned and fell down to his knees.

"Probably because they didn't have to run all the way here," Nami grumbled in annoyance, right before collapsing next to Usopp.

Gray thought about shouting up at them to be careful, but the ice mage was pretty tired himself and needed to catch his breath. He panted a few more times and then lifted his head up. _Those three are going to get themselves killed here. They don't take anything seriously! Arrgghh! Every time I tell them to wait they go anyway, it's getting ridiculous. At least they didn't run away completely._

Juvia saw Gray turn to the left, looking out way over the distance towards some mountains far to the north. Those mountains were just blurs in the horizon, but they reached up so high that from up close they must be a hundred times taller than the mountain they were currently on. She knew why he was looking that way with an angry look too and she held her hands together, putting a smile on her face, "Gray-sama, Juvia is sure the Mayor, um Goku-san will come back soon."

"Yeah, Goku won't just leave like that and never come back," Natsu said with a laugh. "You just wait, he'll come back any minute now."

"Neither him nor Timmy have come back," Gray growled, annoyed at his friends' optimism. "If they aren't dead, then they either forgot about us or were caught."

"Hey!" Nami yelled at the ice wizard a little in front of her. "I don't know about Goku," she paused. She thought about the Saiyan man/kid who she had just started getting to know, but even from when they first met she had had a good opinion of him. She shook her head, "Though he doesn't seem like he'd abandon us. But anyway, I don't know about him, but Timmy will be back!" She said it assuredly, more for herself than for Gray, needing to believe that Timmy was alright to be able to keep going.

"Yeah, Timmy Turner will be back for sure!" Ben exclaimed. "Wouldn't be too sure about Goku though."

"What?" They all asked the boy loudly. Even Natsu and Juvia who lived in Pao Town with Ben and Goku were looking at the thirteen year old in surprise.

Ben chuckled and scratched the back of his head, "I mean, I've known Goku longer than anyone else here, but I'm sure you all know him by now." The kid held up his hands as if he were giving up, "That guy has no sense of responsibility. He's probably off fighting the strongest guy on this continent, or eating, or training, but I doubt he's heading back here."

"You're serious," Gray stated in a deadpanned voice, looking at the boy blankly. "Arrgghh!" Gray clenched his fists and growled angrily. "And here I was really thinking he was going to be a big help saving my friends! Ahh! He and Timmy left us-"

"Leave Timmy out of this," Nami yelled at the ice wizard again. "He's just a kid."

"The strongest kid in the world," Dash said out loud to remind Nami, who in turn glared at him to get him to shut up.

"I don't see what they're doing wrong," Luffy said with a shrug. "They went off on an adventure. Sounds like fun."

"This isn't supposed to be an adventure," Gray growled over at the pirate captain. "This whole continent is a death trap, haven't you noticed that by now? We have not reached a safe zone since Dressrosa, and I don't know when the next time we might find one will be."

Luffy was glaring at him from the second he said it wasn't an adventure, but Ben jumped forward in front of his old pirate friend and the wizard who was friends with Natsu and Juvia. "It might not have been supposed to be an adventure, but isn't it?" Ben asked, looking at Luffy. "Come on, don't tell me you aren't having fun?" the boy said, lifting his eyebrows and seeing Luffy start smiling after a few seconds. Ben spun to Gray, "And we are heading southeast, just like you said. Sooner or later we'll find your friends and everything will be great! Just like on Awul!"

Gray stared at the kid for a few seconds, then turned around and started walking up towards the top of the mountain. "This place could never be like Awul."

Ben looked around him and saw the others had similar looks as Gray's. A few of them walked past him and they kept going towards the top of the mountain.

Nami sighed and looked off to the south, "Timmy, where are you?" She sighed as she received no response, then continued walking up the slope with her friends.

Ben sighed as even Nami and Juvia looked depressed and kept walking. He looked down, but then he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Luffy smiling down at him. "Of course it could be like Awul."

Ben lifted up his frown a little and asked, "You think so? Really?"

"Don't you?" Luffy asked the boy who now seemed doubtful.

"Yeah!" Ben exclaimed, not wanting to look like he was doubting himself. He and Lufy walked in the back of the pack, but a few other people in front of them listened as Ben continued talking. "Once I'm strong enough, I'll clear out all the monsters on this continent. Just like Gohan did on Awul."

"Really? That's why there were no monsters over there?" Luffy asked in amazement.

Ben nodded, "Mm hmm," he hummed affirmatively. "Gohan, and all the Z fighters. His dad, Krillin, Tien, Yamcha, even Vegeta," Ben went on, and Luffy nodded his head as he thought about the Saiyan Prince who fought alongside him multiple times during the War against the Underworld. "It wasn't just them though, Superman helped too, and so did Vegeta's son I think, the older version of him. When he erased everyone's minds I'm sure we forgot, but he seemed like the kind of guy who would have helped..." Ben faded off. "Tetsuo helped too," he mumbled.

Luffy frowned at that sentence and looked at the younger boy to see he looked conflicted. "Before... everything," Ben started, "Gohan told me about the guy who led the NEG. he said they had fought together to defeat an army of robots. There were hundreds of thousands of them he said, with super strong red beams they could fire out of their machines. This was back during the first week or something, but Gohan told me that Tetsuo saved his life. Still, even then Gohan didn't sound like he liked the guy, and now we all know why..."

He and Luffy silently walked towards the peak where everyone else was getting to now. Franky, Kirito, and Sanji walked right in front of them, having listened to the whole conversation, and now they were all looking a little down too. It only increased when Ben kept talking, "And now Tetsuo's gone, and Superman, Future Trunks... Krillin's disappeared, and no one has seen Tien in over a year. Yamcha lost a leg, and not enough strong people are left to empty out a continent as big as this one of all its monsters. That's why," Ben's voice rose in less of a depressing tone and more of a happy one. "That's why it's up to me now. When Gray told us what this place was like, I hated the idea that most of the world didn't have it as good as we do on Awul. After we save his friends, and find Zoro," Ben added as he looked up at Luffy, who smiled back down at him in turn. "Then I'm going to rid Aebrith of its monsters! Me, and Timmy, and Gohan, Riku and Dash if they want too!"

"Haha, sounds like you've got a Super plan there little bro!" Franky exclaimed, turning around and walking backwards up towards the peak right behind him. The cyborg reached the top and posed with his arms over his head in an excited way.

Sanji nodded his head and looked back at the boy, "Saving the ladies of the world is a noble goal and I will help in any way I can."

Kirito nodded his head from in between the two pirates, and he looked back at the boy. Ben made eye contact with the teenager who called him weak the first time they really talked to each other, who fought him to try and prove he was a weakling. "I'd like to help you too," Kirito stated. _If Sachi, Liz, and the others all came back, there's no telling who else is here who may need saving. Klein? Sugu? Who knows?_ The black haired teen turned back around and walked a few steps over the rounded top of the mountain. Up ahead of him he could see their group all standing a few feet away on the other side of the mountain, staring off towards the other side.

Ben smiled at the three in front of him who all gave him words of encouragement, then looked to Luffy. "Good luck on that Ben," the pirate said with a smirk. "I've got my own adventure for once we find Zoro, and Chopper," he added. He still had not heard any word of the small furry doctor, but he still wanted to find him too.

The younger boy looked a little disappointed for a second, but then chuckled and nodded his head. "Yeah, but once I have ki-sensing powers, I'll be able to visit you whenever!"

The rubber man smiled and nodded at him, and then the two of them reached the crowd of people looking over the other side of the mountain. "What's wrong?" The short thirteen year old asked and pushed his way in front, so that he could see down the other side of the mountain with everyone else.

"Umm," Nami began, turning her head towards the ice mage on her left. "What was that you said about foggy areas?"

"We should stay away from them," Gray replied, but still stared down off the mountain towards the foggy area below.

"And what was that about forests?" Rin asked, his face covered in a little sweat and a small nervous smile.

"Stay away from them," Gray replied again. He continued to stare down into the dense covering of trees that started halfway down the mountain and continued as far as the eye could see to the south, southeast, and southwest. There was not a single direction where he could see a better alternative than just turning around and going back the way they came.

"That's what I thought," Rin said, and looked back towards the jungle full of dense fog that gave it quite the spooky vibe. The trees were not all green too, many were brown, and gray, and black, giving off auras of darkness to them.

Nico Robin stared at the forest down below, the woman with long black hair chuckling a little with a quaint smile on her face. Usopp turned to her, his face pale as a ghost and when he saw her happy expression he pointed at her and yelled, "You're enjoying this!"

Out of nowhere, a low moan came out of the middle of the forest a mile in front of the base of the mountain. "OoooooooOOOOooo," the moan faded off, and was followed by a few dozen crows flying up out of the canopy and making the trees shake as they soared into the sky.

"And what's the deal with low, creepy, scary moans?" Dash asked the only experienced guy there, although all of them knew exactly what that meant.

"Yeah, we all get it," Natsu exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air, "It's a spooky jungle. Stop being a bunch of scaredy cats and come on! Sora, Riku, and Kairi are already way ahead of us!"

The others all looked down the mountainside to see the three large teenage jungle cats jumping around and playing with their real lion friend. "They really don't get phased by much," Killua said and started laughing as he walked down the hill after Natsu who had started running away.

"Neither do you," Sanji muttered as he watched the strange kid walk away. _Shows up on our ship out of nowhere. Walks into dangerous situations smiling, but always the most cautious person around. And he's fast. The fact that you don't have any loyalties to the people here gives me the chills, Killua._ The blond haired chef watched the boy walk away happily, but he could tell the kid was hiding something.

"Yippee! A jungle! It reminds me of the one I grew up in," Luffy said as he walked down towards it, smiling nostalgically.

"Why does Luffy being raised in a jungle not surprise me?" Ben asked and laughed as he followed his rubber friend towards the spooky jungle.

The rest of the group looked at each other nervously. They were either weaker than the ones who went first, more cautious, or just terrified. No matter what their reasons, they couldn't wait up here for long. "If anyone gets bitten by anything, tell me," Gray stated, "I bought a lot of antidotes in Dressrosa." He started walking forward down the slope, "If you wait too long, it might be too late. Depending on what gets you though, I might not have a cure for it. In that case," he looked back at them as seriously as possible, "you will die."

They all watched as Gray turned back around and headed down the mountain. Then, they all walked as a group after him, except for one long nosed pirate who hesitated a little longer than the rest. "Oh yeah, let's all walk into the scary jungle of mystery!" Usopp whispered loudly, and very sarcastically in his best Gray impression. He got a little louder while still being sarcastic, "That's a great idea! I wish I had thought of it! Oh, and one more thing, you're all going to die!" He followed his friends down the slope, and moaned in his own terrified voice, "We're all going to die."

* * *

 **A/N Thanks for reading. Leave a review telling me what you think. Next chapter... well, let's just say this story earns it's M rating ;) Get ready.**

joebob323 chapter 33 . 18h ago

Aww... Why do you keep the suspense up? Its sooo painful to bear... Also, My inference on Timmy's disappearance is that he might be in fairy world, or in a battle where he cannot hear the plea. He also might have a neck injury of a sort, be blind and deaf, and be in a battle. But what are the odds of all that happening at once? I guess I'll just have to wait out for the verdict... Great chapter mate!

 **Timmy where have you gone?! Thanks for the review! All of those are good guesses... won't tell you if any are right, but Timmy's fate will be revealed... sometime. XD**

uest chapter 33 . 16h ago

Well even though this chapter was a bit smaller than usual I still enjoyed reading it. Also I thought of this at the most random times, but when Timmy said he could detect fairies does that include King since he's a fairy king. Anyway I thought of that during lunch of all times and the idea just randomly popped up. I'm gonna follow my gut and say that Timmy was following King's signature. Well that's all I have for now so until next time have a good day and I look forward to the next update!

 **Could he detect King? Sure, but are those fairies and fairy godparents the same? We'll find out who Timmy found soon enough... maybe! Haha sorry I got no answers for you, but thanks for the review!**

Guest chapter 33 . 15h ago

This fight is already awesome and i can't wait to see how it ends. I was wandering how can sora summon heartless anyways that has never made since to me since he is a keblader of light? I also thought of another character idea. Asoka from star wars clone wars or rebels. Maybe her and stan can meet each other. I am hoping she is still alive and wasn't one of the many jedi killed. As for my prediction on Timmy i have three guesses.  
1: he found the faries and is taking them to fairy world but i don't think so because he would be abel to come help  
2: he is most likely still looking for the fairies but this has the same problem as the first.  
3: it was even more likely a trap from some powerful being that tried to get both him and gokou (possible zexion using his powers hoping cause i want to see them get the organizations but.) this is the most likely of the three so i am guessing whoever it is is powerful. I came up with an idea for Lincoln from the loud house ( i know you haven't seen that but look it up on YouTube you would just need to watch one episode to get his ccharacter.) i was thinking maybe he would be the one who found JackJack from incredibles i mean he is the middle child of five sisters i think he could handle him. Also he breaks the fourth wall a lot. I am waiting to see when they find him. Especially dash. Oh i will be putting the name on from. now. On. I will be going by 7lights13darknesses.. Kh reference. Where as king mickey been all this time anyways. Keep up the good work and still like the story. Hey i didn't split it in two this time. That was getting annoying.

 **Why is it that Sora can summon Heartless? Why, back in Nexus chapter 11, and again in 16, did Sora go Anti-Form out of rage? These questions will be answered by the end of this chapter! As for the others, Asoka could def still show up as she was never mentioned with the slaughtered Jedi, her and Stan is a cool idea! All those guesses for Timmy are great! Won't tell you if any are right though. Also, I may already have a plan for JackJack/ have already written him in later in the story... Where could Mickey be? What about the 7 lights and 13 darknesses? So many questions! So little answers :P, Anyway! Thanks for the review, (and p.s. I looked up Lincoln, him and his sisters seem nuts! Don't know if/where/when I'll put them in, but thanks for the idea). XD Thanks again everyone for reviewing! 'Till next time... don't say I didn't warn you.**


	35. Nexus HWR 7-3 The Eliacube

**A/N Enjoy...**

 **Nexus HWR 7.3 The Eliacube:**

"Usopp!" Nami shouted, holding out her arm towards the long nosed man getting dragged away by two vines. The vines were covered in thorns and some of the thorns had stuck completely through the pirate sniper's legs, going in one side and coming out the other.

The orange haired woman swung her Clima Tact towards the two trees Usopp was getting dragged between. Dozens of little black balls of thunderclouds shot through the crack as Usopp got pulled through it. The other side was only shadows, but it lit up for a second as lightning went off and struck a huge venus fly-trap that loosened its grip on Usopp's legs.

"I knew it!" Usopp screamed. "We are gonna die!" He looked down at his legs and gagged at the sight of the thorns leaving them. Blood splattered out of his calves and thighs as the thorns were removed, and all the color left from the sharpshooter's face. Usopp slapped his hands down to get the vines completely off him,, but the fly-trap had not been defeated with one strike of lightning.

"Get moving!" Nami yelled at the long nosed man, stepping between the trees he was dragged through. Her eyes widened as she saw the main body of the venus fly-trap leaning over her friend who was pushing himself up on shaky red legs. "Usopp!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, starting to swing her Clima Tact again. She was only halfway through the swing when the beast clamped down halfway down on Usopp's torso, it's sharp teeth cutting straight through his body.

"Nami-san! What's happening?!" Sanji called out as he ran to her side and looked through the trees to the other side. The chef who heard her scream and came running dropped his jaw. Nami lifted her hands to her mouth, dropping her Clima Tact as she did. "Usopp," the chef whispered as the Venus fly trap lifted up its mouth, and pulled Usopp up with it... for a few seconds. Then, without enough holding him together, his lower half ripped off on the line where the teeth ripped into his stomach.

"Us-" Nami tried saying, but found it impossible to make out words as his lower half twitched for a second and then stopped moving. The Venus fly trap lifted back up its body and all the flaps of it were closed. It looked like a flower that had yet to bloom, and then all of the petals extended out to the sides revealing a pink covering that looked completely safe to step on. The vines around it settled out like motion sensors on its sides, and one was moving towards Sanji and Nami.

"That, that couldn't have just-"

"Nami-san," Sanji said as he grabbed her by the arm and turned. He did not say another word, just lifted her up bridal style and jumped through the trees, his eyes darkened by his hair and his teeth clenched harder than ever.

The chef flew through the trees, going in between them by kicking the air beneath him. It was foggy, but with his Observational Haki he found the group after ten seconds. There were only three people here as everyone else was off looking for the rare medicine.

Sanji dropped to the ground and lowered Nami down, where she curled up in fetal position against a log behind her. "Why are you already back?!" Natsu shouted at the two of them, looking away from the man lying on the ground in front of him. "He's dying! You heard what plant he said we needed!" Gray was lying on the ground at Natsu's feet and Juvia was on her knees holding his right hand as tight as possible.

Gray turned his head a little, and saw Nami shaking uncontrollably where she sat. He looked up and saw Sanji standing there with his fists clenched furiously. "I'm sorry," the ice wizard whispered.

Natsu looked back down at his friend, and then to the pirates. His eyes widened and he whispered quietly, "Where's Usopp?"

Nami clenched her eyes shut and brought her hands up to cover her face. "Watch over Nami-san," Sanji demanded, then turned to his left. "I'll keep looking for-"

"There's, cough, ack, no use," Gray muttered. Everyone looked over to the young man with a pale face. Blood was seeping out of the corners of his eyes now, and he whispered, "After blood starts coming out of the eyes, the medicine becomes useless, remember?" He started having another coughing fit as everyone shouted at him that it wasn't too late. "It is," he whispered, tears coming out of his eyes now along with the blood. "I failed. I should never have brought all of, agh ack ugh, shouldn't have, brought you to this, aggghhh," he kept trying to speak, but his eyes were pure red, and finally they rolled back and the hand Juvia was holding fell limp.

"No," Natsu whispered as he watched his best friend's head tilt to the side lifelessly. "AhhHHHHH!" Natsu tilted his head up to the sky and roared.

A stream of fire shot up in the sky all the way up to the clouds above the tree canopy. Ben and Dash turned around from where they were looking for flowers. "That's Natsu!" Ben exclaimed, then the mask of his alien XLR8 lowered and he raced back as fast as he could. Dash ran at his side, and he two of them ran right past Franky and Luffy who were looking that way as well.

"Was that Natsu?" Franky asked as he looked back. "You think they're being attacked?" The cyborg asked the pirate captain next to him.

Luffy's straw hat shadowed his eyes, "No," he muttered. The two of them started walking back towards the main group. Luffy thought about the ice mage. He never really became friends with him even after their whole journey together. The guy had told him what to do every step of the way since they got off the Sunny. But, every time he talked about finding his friends, or keeping all of them safe, it was impossible not to begin to respect, and even start to like him. And now he was dead.

Luffy stepped out into a small area where Gray lay dead on the ground with Juvia lying on top of him, her head buried in his chest but her loud sobbing still audible. He saw his navigator shaking next to a log, curled up in a ball, and then he saw Sanji walking over towards him and Franky. The chef had a horrible look on his face, but the other two assumed it was just because of Gray.

Ben and Dash stared down at Gray's body on the ground. He looked bad with all the blood and tears on his face. The two of them heard a roar behind them and turned around to see Luffy grabbing Sanji by the front of his yellow button down. "You're lying!" The rubber pirate yelled at him.

Cyborg Franky turned around and slammed a large red, steel fist into the tree behind him, punching a hole straight through it. Ben couldn't figure out if they were all just freaking out because of Gray, but then he heard a low whisper near him being repeated over and over. He turned and saw Nami shaking back and forth, whispering, "Usopp, Usopp, Usopp..."

"No," Ben whispered. The thirteen year old looked around as everyone else finally came walking into the clearing. He counted them off, _Luffy, Sanji, Franky, Natsu, Juvia, Nami, Robin, Killua, Rin, Kuro, Kirito, Sora, Riku, Kairi, Dash, and me. There are sixteen of us. No one else dies!_

Dash noticed his best friend shaking horribly and he put his hand in Ben's. The kid a little older and a little taller looked down and saw Dash looked almost in tears. The boy was holding his hand and Ben lost the furious glare on his face, reverting to a sad look again that he had when it was just Gray who had died.

"Hello there everyone," a sudden voice spoke above them.

Everyone looked straight up to the hole in the canopy where Natsu's flames had burned through. The tops of the trees were still on fire around it, and there was a person standing in the air between all of these flames. His body looked like it was either mechanical or a suit of armor, completely covering him including his face. There were two eye sockets on his face with glowing blue circles filling them, just like the larger blue circle on his metal chest.

"Who are you?" Killua asked, the one least affected by the two deaths that just happened which had everyone else in mourning.

"My name is Nox" the person said, only now he was standing on the ground in front of Killua. Where he just was in the air fizzled blue while the man appeared before them.

"He teleported," Dash said, as he was the fastest one there and had not seen anything.

"Close," the man named Nox stated, turning towards the boy. "Ah, my Wakfu sensors tell me that you have the most of everyone here." He vanished again and appeared next to Dash.

"Whoa!" Dash yelled, jumping backwards and throwing a hand forward, creating a large ball of white energy on it. "Take this!" The boy yelled at the guy who was seriously freaking him out.

"Be careful Dash!" Ben yelled as the white ball grew twice as large as either of the ones he threw earlier that day against the magma monster.

"I know," the boy yelled as he landed and put his other hand on the wrist holding the white ball for support. He was about to fire it, when he thought of something and yelled, "Haaa!"

The person in front of them laughed and teleported to the left of where Dash was aiming. As soon as he appeared there though, the two blue circles on his face grew in size as the white ball was coming his way. Dash had waited until the man moved to fire, just shouting 'Haaa' early to make him dodge.

The white ball slammed into the man and Dash grinned, only to get that grin wiped off his face as he saw the side of his explosion farthest from him flattening out against something invisible. Nox was standing there with a hand raised, and a sort of large forcefield in front of him blocking the attack.

"I don't know who you are," Natsu growled, turning his head towards this guy with a furious look on his face. "But I'm going to kick your ass!" He was so enraged by Gray's death that he was looking for a reason, and this guy was giving him one.

Unfortunately, Nox was too fast for them. "Seems that none of you can see through my time magic," his voice said from Dash's left side, while the huge ball of energy Dash threw finally kept going and exploded a quarter mile away, shaking the ground terribly. Everyone started turning towards the guy, but only Dash and Killua moved fast enough. Dash turned to see the man holding a hand directly in front of his face, glowing blue. The little boy went wide-eyed, and then the explosion hit him and slammed him into the ground.

Everyone who did not see Nox move looked now and saw the little blond kid unmoving on the ground. "Dash!" Ben yelled. Riku was already moving though, jumping up high in the air and raising an appearing Keyblade.

"Yes, I was right! You have so much Wakfu it is unbelievable!" The crazy time wizard explained, lifting up the boy and then freezing time. He took a few steps backwards and rose a hand, before unfreezing time. Riku landed down where Nox was just standing, the silver haired teen swiping down at him, but before his swipe was even finished a beam of blue light crashed into him.

"Riku!" Kairi and Ben yelled at the same time, whereas Sora was just running towards the man.

"It's time to fight time with time," the boy with brown spiky hair yelled. "Stop!" He pointed his Keyblade and the enemy froze where he was standing.

He made the perfect target for Natsu's flaming fist and Luffy's black one. Their fists collided with the armored man and sent him flying backwards, with Dash coming out of his hands.

"I got you," Ben said as he jumped up in the air to catch his unconscious friend. Right before he was going to reach him though, a figure with white bandages around his body flew up in the air between him and Dash. The figure had a shield in his hands, and he slammed it forward into Ben so hard that the kid slammed into the ground between his friends before they even had time to look inwards.

Robin turned in and saw the ground indented down in the shape of a child. She looked up to see that new figure with the shield dropping down, lowering his shield so they could all see the armored mask over his face. Robin frowned and she crossed her arms. A dozen arms extended out of this man's body and snapped his neck backwards. "Clutch!" She yelled, and a loud crack sounded.

"Look out!" Kirito yelled and pushed the woman out of the way, right before a white string would have hit her in the back. Instead it got on Kirito and a sticky web wrapped around his arm. "I don't think so," he growled as he felt it pulling him towards it. He looked up to a branch and saw another bandaged-up man trying to pull him in, so instead Kirito tugged hard and yanked the enemy his way, forming a swirling blue ball of energy on his free hand as he did. "Rasengan!" He yelled, slamming the ball into the enemy's face.

The one Robin Clutched slammed into the ground and her extra arms vanished into thin air. The one Kirito slammed his attack into flew backwards covered in smoke and the web released from the teen's arm. Meanwhile, the man who was hit by Luffy's Armament Haki coated fist and Natsu's flaming one flew through at least twenty trees before coming to a stop.

"I need more power," the gray-steel covered man growled as he floated up in the air. "Eliacube!" He called out, and even from a distance the others could see his body become coated in blue light. Even farther behind him, above some trees, the team of heroes saw a giant metal... clock? The two hundred foot tall, round, metal monster rose out of the trees and turned their way, the front of it glowing the same blue as was covering Nox's body. "Give me more strength! I will return it a hundred fold with these warriors' Wakfu!"

The man's metal body got wider at the shoulders and actually every part of him buffed out as if the robot were powering up. Nox flew forward without using his time powers, but he was still so fast that barely anyone could see him. "I'll deal with these two before bringing you your meal," the metal man stated as he flew in between Luffy and Natsu. The pirate was a little faster and turned in quicker towards the man covered in a blue veil.

Nox was even faster though, and he slammed a fist into Luffy's face that sent the pirate tumbling over and over again through the jungle. He slammed a kick backwards that did the same thing to Luffy to Natsu, only even faster in a different direction. Everyone watched as the two of them went flying, and then Nox lifted up a hand and caught a falling Dash.

"Get back up," Nox demanded and rose his arms. No one knew what this crazy man was talking about, but as he said it, the masked-guy whose neck Robin had supposedly broken got back up on his feet. Kirito saw this and looked back towards the one he hit with a Rasengan, only to see him getting up as well. "Take care of them while I return to the Eliacube."

The man turned around and then everything seemed to slow down as there was a figure standing behind him covered head to toe in electricity. The boy's hair was even spikier white than usual, and he was walking forward while lifting up his hands covered in lightning. Nox froze time and the boy stopped, allowing the man to chuckle to himself and walk right past.

No one knew how long time was frozen for, but when it unfroze Killua was standing there in shock as his enemy was gone. The boy looked all around, still covered in electricity, but he didn't see him anywhere. "No," he whispered, turning and looking all the way back to that large metal clock in the distance. "Godspeed," he stated, taking one step and vanishing to everyone still there.

Kirito created three shadow clones who all started charging the bandaged man in front of him. It looked like the person had just been caught by surprise before though, as he lifted up his head and stared directly at the real Kirito. The teen leapt up in the air and threw two Kunai knives down at the top of the guy's head which was wrapped with a red bandanna. Both ends of the bandanna waved behind him like tails as the bandaged guy leapt up in the air, and slammed a fist forward into Kirito's crossed arms.

The teen went flying back across the air, but as he was falling he stopped himself, deciding to use his wings for once instead of training his normal flying. Four large black wings sprouted out through Kirito's clothes and he had perfect control over them. He looked across the air at his opponent who in the center of the red bandanna on his forehead was a single glowing blue eye that made him look like a cyclops.

Down on the ground, Franky had charged at the one with the shield and was using his signature Franky Boxing on it, but every hit was being blocked. Rin reached up for the sword on his back to go help out, but as he grabbed the hilt he felt something grab him by the wrist. He looked back to see a green head sticking out of the tree behind him, smirking at him menacingly and glaring at him with black eyes that had tiny yellow pupils in them. The monster with green tentacles at the bottom of its face instead of a mouth reached an arm out of the tree that he grabbed Rin with. The figure then threw the teen with spiky ears and demon powers up in the air, making Okumura Rin scream as he shot into the sky at eighty miles per hour.

"We have to go after Dash before Nox gets away!" Ben shouted, looking back through the trees towards the large clock that was rising higher on four large spider-like legs. It looked like it was about to get moving. "Quickly!" He shouted.

"Go after him," Kirito yelled down from up in the air. The messy black haired teen had his hands interlocked with the bandaged figure with a red bandanna on his head. He looked down a little with a strained look on his face, "These guys are stronger than they look. Everyone go on ahead, I'll hold this one here."

The one with the shield sent Franky flying backwards into a tree. As it moved forward to get to him though, a body completely covered in flames flew at it from the side. Sanji spun around with a leg burning so brightly red it looked like a sun, and he slammed it into the shield as the man went to block him. The bandaged figure had a steel mask on his face that kept it from looking into Sanji's flaming eyes as it pushed back. The chef was the one winning out though and his powerful kick made the masked guy skid backwards farther and farther until he hit a tree and smashed straight through it.

"I will protect you ladies!" Sanji yelled over to Robin as he landed. "There is no need to trouble yourself with him-" the chef stopped as his Observational Haki picked up on the man he sent crashing through a tree. The guy was back on his feet already, and the chef who just lost a good friend ground his teeth in aggravation. "Get going you guys, don't let them take Dash."

"Got it," Ben was not going to argue and he started sprinting towards the giant glowing-blue clock made of metal. He raced past fallen trees, and jumped over logs. The kid ignored the shouts of his name from behind, and just kept going as fast as he could.

Everyone else looked at Sanji and Kirito, and then nodded before running forwards themselves. "Juvia let's go," Nami yelled at the girl with blue hair as she herself finally came to her senses.

Juvia was watching everything that was happening, but then she looked back down at Gray. She stared at his body cold and lifeless on the floor, and when she looked back at Nami all the life from her own eyes was gone. "Juvia does not wish to live anymore," she stated in a completely calm voice.

"Juvia," Nami started and reached her arm out. She watched as Juvia gave up right next to Gray's corpse, and at the same time something was appearing on a tree not far behind her. It started off as a face at first, but then the dark brown tree trunk turned green, and a whole body stepped out. "J-Juvia!" Nami shouted. She reached for her Clima Tact and her hand grabbed nothing. Her eyes widened as she remembered she left it back where Usopp was... "JUVIA RUN!" She yelled.

The group running away from the previous area looked back and watched as a creepy green figure walked up behind Juvia's kneeling form and reached down, grabbing her. Nami stepped forward towards her friend, and then watched in horror from a few feet away as Juvia's skin darkened and her eyes turned pupil-less, pure white. The girl's blue hair even turned a little darker shade, and she slowly stood up.

"Nami!" Luffy came out of nowhere and slammed a fist into the green figure, sending him flying. He looked at Juvia for a second, but she looked like a zombie from Thriller Bark. "We'll figure out how to get you back," he said in a confident tone, then grabbed Nami and jumped backwards as Juvia reached for the orange haired woman.

The green figure that got punched away stood up with a frown on its face, but then lifted its head as a loud roar was coming down towards it. Nami and Luffy looked up to see Rin covered in blue flames, slamming his sword down into the green figure and nicking him as it jumped backwards. "I have this one," the son of Satan growled in a demonic tone. Kuro hopped out of his bag and the cat turned big while Rin lifted back up his sword. "Keep going," he growled louder at his friends just standing there staring at him.

"He's right!" Ben yelled and turned, lifting up his watch and slamming his hand down on it. Everyone lifted up their heads as a massive three hundred foot tall giant appeared. Ben did not bother yelling its name and just charged forward through the forest as Way Big.

"Let's go!" Luffy roared and threw one arm forward. "Gum Gum Rocket!" He shot himself away with Nami who was wrapped in his other arm.

Ben got all the way to the giant clock in a few seconds since his strides were huge. Nox was watching from inside the clock face, and he appeared out of it suddenly. "I'm sorry, but I can not let you disturb the Eliacube while it absorbs your friend's Wakfu."

"Give Dash back!" The giant white alien roared, slamming a huge fist down towards Nox. The man frowned inside his mask as he could not move and risk the boy's fist crashing through the clock and hitting his precious Eliacube inside it. Instead he rose up his arms and Ben's fist slammed into a forcefield, Nox was shaking but he pushed hard back into it as the barrier shook.

"I defeated the dragon Grougaloragran! You are nothing!" Nox shouted. His body pulsed blue light and the massive alien stumbled backwards and fell down on his butt.

Some of his friends had to dive for cover as he fell near them. Others were lifted off their feet anyway by the force of the collision on the ground.

Nox grinned, and then opened his eyes wide as the white haired boy was in front of him again. He was about to disappear, when he screamed out as his body filled with electricity. "After Image," Killua said with a small grin as he floated behind his metal enemy. "Guess there is a person in there if you're screaming this much." The boy put more voltage into his attack, and then kicked off the air and flew backwards, landing with his feet on the vertical longer hand of the clock. He stood at a ninety degree angle with his feet flat on the clock hand and his head lifted up to look into Nox's glowing blue eyes.

"You, boy," Nox growled, turning around fully and looking at the kid covered in blue lightning. "You should be burning up with that much lightning around you. How are you-"

"This is nothing," the boy bragged, trying to intimidate his opponent. "The torture training I went through was much more severe, though, I could turn it up a notch if you'd like?" His whole body zapped with electricity and his hair shot up even spikier while his eyes narrowed into slits and sent shivers down Nox's spine.

The kid kicked off the wall and appeared in front of Nox, but the man appeared on his left side. However, Killua was in the middle of a Nen-coated kick in that direction. Nox froze time, panting hard as he stared at the foot moving ever so slowly in the time freeze. "Too fast," he whispered, "for even my time magic to stop it completely."

Nox looked down towards the woods near the giant alien monster that was standing up. All around it he could see people running towards him. "These pesky annoyances have become too troublesome. I will need a lot of Wakfu, much more than last time, three thousand times as much by my calculations. With only two or three of these fighters however, I will finish my plan that has lasted far too long," he voice sounded sad towards the end, but he became focused again as he noticed that the electric boy's attack was getting pretty close to him. "AaHaahh," he sighed. "Not you though. You are too fast, but do not have nearly enough strength to risk you being around for much longer."

Time unfroze and Killua darted his eyes down to where Nox was hovering with one arm held up towards him. The white haired kid crossed his arms, but was not expecting even half of the blue beam that came out of Nox's hand and sent him flying up in the air.

Ben was getting up to his humongous feet and he stared in horror at Killua in the middle of a blue beam that was tearing him apart. The beam finally faded but the fourteen year old inside was falling out of the air with blood seeping from his smoking mouth. Way Big Ben reached a hand forward and caught him, looking for a sign of life from the boy lying on his palm. "Kil," he whispered, staring at a friend of his who he could not even feel a heartbeat from.

Nox stared at the giant monster about to get angry and frowned. "Help me Eliacube. Please. This Wakfu will not be wasted."

 _"Of course Maximillian,"_ a calm-sounding voice replied in his head. The front of his clock glowed bright blue and his body started glowing more and more.

Ben lowered down to a knee and placed Killua down on the ground in front of the main group who finally came running out into a small clearing in front of the giant clock thing. "Oh no," Nico Robin whispered at the sight of the boy who she was looking through the woods for medicine with only ten minutes ago. He was not moving and Kairi ran over and bent down over him, putting a hand on his chest. She made a little whimpering noise and it was all any of them needed to hear.

"Look," Riku stated and pointed up in the air.

"Is that Nox?" Sora replied with wide eyes.

Ben stood back up to his full height and glared down at the man in a metal suit in front of him. The giant white alien with red spikes on his shoulders, head, and chest, along with a green Omnitrix symbol right in the center of his torso, punched his huge white fists together and made a shockwave. He glared with glowing green eyes into Nox's blue ones that had little blue flames rippling around them now. The time wizard's back had puffed out and transformed to become all bumpy, covered in cracks showing blue light seeping out from them. He held up his hands and a blue staff of energy appeared clenched in them, with large metal hammers on either end and one flat and one sharp side on either hammer.

At that moment, there was movement on the ground underneath the large clock. The fighters on the ground looked ahead of them to see hundreds of small black creatures with little white eyes, all wearing brown cloaks, were running towards them with tiny steps. "Are those Nox's soldiers?" Nami asked as she watched the figures approach them.

"Mille Fleur," Nico Robin said, her eyes dark after seeing Killua's small corpse in front of her. A thousand arms appeared covering the entire ground in front of her. Two arms for each black creature. Her arms crushed them all and left them lying on the ground unmoving, then all of her arms morphed into only four giant hands reaching up twenty feet in the air. Her huge hands coming of of the forest floor grabbed the huge clock by the knees of its spider-like appendages, and then pulled its legs out from under it.

While this was happening, Ben had roared and punched towards Nox. His fist slammed into the front of Nox, but again hit a forcefield. This time though, he did not even manage to make Nox struggle. The time wizard just stood still, and all the power he just received easily made a barrier that pushed in and then bounced the fist back out. He flew forwards as Ben went off balance, and slammed one side of his long blue staff into Ben's chest. One of the giant hammers hit Ben right in the red chestplate and Way Big was lifted off the ground, thrown a mile backwards before hitting the ground and tumbling away even farther.

Nox heard creaking below him and looked down to see Robin's attack. He saw the woman who was doing it and appeared in front of her next, bringing down his hammer towards her head. He was met with a giant black fist however, "Elephant Gun!" Luffy roared and hit the man in the side just hard enough for Nox's forcefield to push back into his body and knock him backwards.

Robin was still shocked by Nox's sudden appearance in front of her and she lost concentration on her thousand added appendages for a second. It was all the giant clock needed and it ripped its legs free from her, stomping down on them after and making Robin scream.

From half a mile away, Sanji heard Robin's scream and turned. "A lady in danger!" He shouted, then had to block from the masked guy who tried slamming the shield into him.

"Go Sanji!" Kirito yelled, while crossing his arms above his head to protect from the barrage of punches the bandaged figure with red eyes was hitting him with. Sanji looked over to see Kirito in the bottom of a forty foot wide crater getting deeper every second. "Rin has lost control! He'll take care of his guy and yours soon enough!"

Sanji looked over at the black haired boy with pointy ears who was covered in blue flames, even more than usual. His eyes were crazed as was his smile and the green figure who turned Juvia into a zombie looked scared as he tried to block the kid's flurry of attacks. "Go!" Kirito roared, and Sanji looked over to see the yelling kid uncross his arms and jump, slamming a fist up into his enemy's chest.

Sanji needed no further convincing and he jumped fifty feet up in the air. He kicked below him to propel himself, making little shockwaves in the air as he flew towards Nox. Sanji saw his Captain down below using some of his strongest moves to fight Nox, but the man was just too fast. Even when Luffy did manage to hit him, his attacks bounced off. Finally the Captain decided he had to go into Gear Fourth. While he was about to bite down on his Armament Haki-coated arm though, he got slammed away by the man's hammer made of blue light energy.

Sanji wanted to go down there immediately to stop the guy, but he also knew the man cared a lot about this clock to be stopping anyone from even getting inside. "Hey shitty bastard!" Sanji roared as his right leg covered in flames. He put it in front of him and flew straight towards the middle of the clock where both of the clock's hands connected.

Nox heard the voice above him, glanced up, then rose both arms to block the Keyblades coming down from Sora and Riku. He looked up at the blond man flying over him, and chuckled as he said, "I have one last Lieutenant."

Sora and Riku were confused and followed the man's gaze up. As they looked up, Sanji also noticed a man standing at the very top of the clock machine. He was covered in white bandages like two of the ones they were fighting back where Nox first appeared. This one had long white hair that flowed in the wind up here though, and other than the blue glowing circle in his chest, his only other defining characteristic was the bow he had raised in his arms. The figure pulled back on the string and an arrow of light blue light appeared. He fired it towards Sanji who had to abandon his attack and kick off the air to send himself backwards, dodging the arrow.

The man kept firing though, dozens of energy arrows shooting up through the sky at Sanji. The pirate chef had enough after only a few seconds and shot forwards fast towards the man on the top of the robot. "Diable-" he started shouting.

As he was only feet away from hitting the man, the first arrow that missed him finally hit the ground two hundred feet below. The explosion was massive. The chef caught a glimpse of the huge explosion at the same time he saw another arrow form on the guy's bow. Sanji's foot was only inches away when the man released his final arrow.

The huge clock robot stumbled backwards as an enormous blue sphere of light erupted at the top of it. Ben Tennyson was running back over from a couple of miles away where he had finally stopped skidding before, and he slowed down as the explosion faded, revealing neither Sanji nor the enemy were there. "No," he whispered. _Sixteen_ _! I said no more! But I already lost Killua._ Way Big watched as a tattered suit jacket flew away in the wind when the blue explosion subsided. _Fourteen_ _... Not. One. Less._

Nox was down on the ground staring at his clock anxiously as it stumbled back and only barely managed to stay on its feet. His eyes glowed blue, "Head towards the three in that direction. Along with the one you already have, they will be enough!" His voice sounded frantic now, but also seriously pissed. "The ones here have annoyed me to no end. I will not use them for their Wakfu," he turned towards the young skinny man who was gawking up at the sky where Sanji no longer was. "I am just going to kill them," he slammed his hammer in a three sixty degree spin and the hammer slammed into Luffy's side, sending him soaring away. The hammer kept spinning right into Robin's chest, blowing her away into the sky and into the mountain they had come from before, then through Ha'gar's Peak actually to the other side.

Way Big stayed still as Luffy slammed into his chest. He turned his head a little and saw the hole appear in the mountain miles away where Robin flew. As Luffy was falling from his chest, still not in Gear Fourth as Nox was too fast for him to transform earlier, Ben caught the pirate. "Luffy, Luffy!" He yelled at the man. "Come on you have to get up!"

Luffy heard the roaring of the alien holding him and he looked up a little from where he was held in Ben's hand. As he did, the large green circle on Ben's chest glowed red. "No no no. Nooo-" the red light vanished and Luffy fell from the air down to where Ben appeared standing on the ground, his Omnitrix in the red. "Damn it! No! God Damn it!" Ben slammed his watch into a tree next to him and freaked out.

Luffy hit the ground and instantly the bloody pirate started running back towards Nox. Ben looked his way and called out the pirate's name before chasing after him. The two of them charged through the trees with explosions coming from behind them where Kirito and Rin were still fighting. There were loud explosions in front of them as well though, along with the sound of the mega-clock's footsteps.

When they reached the large clearing though, both Ben and Luffy were pushed backwards by an incredibly large aura that slammed into them furiously. The two of them shielded their eyes and then lowered their arms to see a form of pure darkness standing in the middle of the clearing. Huge black tendrils shot up into the sky around him, and the air in a huge dome that extended half a mile in every direction was darkened by his aura.

Lying at his feet was a girl whose limbs were crushed, turned the wrong way, her auburn hair all messed up and bloody. "Kairi," Ben whispered.

Luffy stared at Kairi for a second himself, then saw a large red robot hand a few feet away from the girl's body, and even farther, the same robot's head. "F-F-Franky?" He whispered, wondering if this was real or if the cyborg was about to put himself back together. Tears streamed out of the pirate's eyes and he didn't even think as he raced forwards and jumped up towards the man in the air above the black form giving off a horrible aura.

"What is that thing?!" Ben shouted as another pulse of pure darkness slammed into his body. He got pushed back and needed to hold onto a tree at the outskirts of the clearing to keep himself there.

"Sora!" He heard Riku's voice. Ben looked ahead to see Riku pushing towards the black form through the darkness. Riku's body itself was covering in dark clothing with a red heart on his tanning chest, but his silver hair just grew longer instead of turning black. He had control. "Sora! Sora please!" None of them had seen Sora like this before, it was horrifying.

Riku shouted at Sora to stop, but he watched as the black creature with spikes on its head reached down and gently brushed a black hand across Kairi's soft face. It then snapped its head up and its eyes were glowing bright white. The beast opened its mouth that glowed white on the inside and the most horrifying screeching roar bellowed out from it.

Nox had Luffy held by the throat in the air, a blue light glowing on his hand that was dragging the life force out of Luffy, and making the bumps on Nox's back grow larger. He tossed Luffy up in the air, and the pirate threw his hands down in a Gum Gum Gattling Gun. Each fist hit an invisible blue forcefield around Nox that only lit up when attacked, but nothing ever reached him. The time wizard flew up high and spun his huge blue energy hammer into Luffy, and three blue shockwaves rippled through the air going up after the rubber pirate who was sent flying. Nox appeared up above him and shot him back down while he was still moving too fast. It became like a pinball machine and Luffy was the pinball getting shot around the sky at speeds impossible to follow.

At least, they were impossible for normal people. Nox appeared behind Luffy to hit him again, when a fist covered in darkness slashed across his back and tore through the huge lump on it. Blue light escaped as Sora ripped through the man who yelled in pain, only to be cut off by Luffy slamming into his front. He was distracted so his barrier didn't go up automatically, but he still only winced at the pirate's limp moaning body slamming into his chest.

He did get distracted enough by Luffy though that he had lost focus on the dark fighter who twisted his whole body around then spun around so fast that he looked like a tornado. His black claws tore through Nox crazy-fast, shredding through armor and flesh alike. The man roared and vanished, appearing twenty yards away in the air. He was panting and his back had no armor, and all the bumps full of energy were gone, he was back to his normal size.

Down on the ground, Ben was looking around at the corpses of all his friends, and watched as Luffy dropped down in front of him on his back. "Lu-Luffy," Nami whispered, making Ben alert to her presence where she was cowering ten feet away curled under some debris. She crawled out and crawled towards Luffy, and Ben ran over himself while glancing up in the air at Riku trying to calm Sora down by shouting at him.

"Luffy get up," Ben demanded as he saw Sora swat Riku away and soar in towards Nox again. "We need your-" Ben froze as the scene he was looking at just became unbelievable. Nox had froze time again, so in an instant it had happened. The man in the metal suit was floating in front of Sora who had been flying towards him. The dark creature did not seem to understand what had happened to it, but the darkness started leaving its body. Nox stood in the air in front of Sora with his hands wrapped around the shaft of his spear, and the point of the energy spear was sticking out of Sora's back.

The boy with brown spiky hair lost all of his darkness and then Nox pulled the thick spear from his chest. "So-ra," Luffy rasped out where he lay on his back, staring up at the sky. Nami had not seen what Nox did as she was looking at her Captain, but now she looked up and watched as Sora fell, blood pouring out of the huge hole in him.

"This can't," Ben whispered. He watched Riku charge at Nox recklessly in a fury. Nox appeared a few feet away and swung the blade down, which Riku parried, only for the man's other hand to be held inches in front of Riku's unguarded chest. The beam shot through Riku's chest and through his heart.

 _ **"Damn you boy,"**_ Ansem growled at the teen as he himself was losing consciousness as well. _**"I won't-"**_ he faded away and all the darkness and life left Riku's body.

"This can't," Ben whispered.

The huge clock creature in front of them started walking forwards. It had regained its balance after getting pushed back again by Sora's powering up this time. Now it was able to march towards its intended destination.

"You know, you do have an incredible amount of energy," a voice stated right in front of them. Nox had appeared and he stood there looking pissed as Hell. "I think I will take you."

Ben was planted to the ground in fear. _I said I would protect them all. I wanted to rid the world of monsters. I wanted to save everyone. There were eighteen. Sixteen. Fourteen. Everyone is-_ he saw Nami lean over Luffy's body to protect him, shouting that enough was enough. The kid opened his mouth, but Nox was too fast and his spear went through Nami's back.

As Nox lifted up the glowing blue spear and tried throwing Nami off it, a fist slammed straight into his mask and pushed him backwards fifty feet yelling out in pain. He dropped the spear and Luffy caught it along with his navigator. Nami was crying and he looked at the energy spear in her chest which was vanishing now without being in the possession of Nox.

"You would have been another good addition," the man stated from in front of Luffy where he reappeared in the air. The pirate's arms were occupied with Nami, but he threw his head forward which the time wizard wasn't expecting. Luffy's head collided with Nox's and the man reeled back angrily, then he leaned back forward with a snarl.

Nox's clock machine kept walking forward and left the clearing, heading towards the area where Rin and Kirito were still fighting their opponents. Nox himself was panting heavily, and he growled, "I can't believe my armor was corrupted." He had slashes on his back that cut all the way through to skin. His front was burned and had a few dents, but he rose up his arms and growled. "One last time Eliacube, give me more strength. I will finish these fools!"

Nox's eyes lit up brighter blue, and he rose up his hands towards Luffy. Both hands had glowing blue circles in the centers of their palms. The pirate in the straw hat thought, _Usopp, Sanji, Robin, Franky, Nami... I'm sorry._ A huge ball of blue light had formed in front of Nox's palms.

Ben shook his head back and forth to regain his composure and he took a step towards Luffy. He lifted his right arm and took another step, "Lu-"

The blue ball of light collided with the pirates and exploded. The blast lifted Ben off the ground and sent him flying back into the forest. He slammed into a tree head-first. Everything went black.

When Ben opened his eyes he felt thuds beneath him. He opened his eyes a little more and discovered that he was leaning against a tree with his butt on the ground. He stood up slowly, and everything came back to him fast. His eyes widened, his heart started racing, he panted fast, and he felt the thud again. "The clock," he whispered, turning around as he felt another footstep from the giant machine. That was the last footstep as the metal beast stopped moving. "Dash, I won't," he muttered, and started walking forward, ignoring the blood pouring down the left side of his face. "I won't let you die."

Ben charged through the jungle, leaping over roots and dodging between trees. He made his way all the way to a huge crater where a bandaged body lay in three pieces. There was a torn red bandanna next to the piece of the fighter that had its head on it. He looked to his left and saw a broken shield and another destroyed fighter, and then to his right where a crushed and sliced-up green figure lay.

"They got them," he whispered, then looked up in the sky where he saw movement. The canopy was thinned out near here as it was where everyone had been fighting. He looked up towards the back of the clock giant standing in front of him. A large panel opened up in the back and Nox was flying in, holding three prisoners with him. Juvia was there too, no longer a zombie, but trapped in a little blue ball and pounding her fists against it. "When her opponent was defeated she must have been set free," Ben whispered with a glance back over towards the crushed green figure nearby. Kirito and Rin were captured too and Ben saw all three of them falling unconscious while Nox brought them inside. He did not see a cat with them and suspected the worst from the distraught look on Rin's face right before his eyes closed for good.

"I need to," he stopped talking. His mouth was still open, but his voice had cracked and his body was shaking too hard to move. "I need," he whispered quieter than last time. _He killed them all. He beat Luffy, Sora, and even Riku. I, I could go home. I should go home! If I die, Gwen won't know what happened to me. Her and Gohan would come looking. Yeah, her and Gohan! I could live, with them, and everyone in Pao!_

The thirteen year old who started smiling froze again, his smile vanishing. _And I'll have to confront Dash's family. Tell them how I left my closest friend to die at the hands of this monster. I'd never be able to look Violet in the eyes. Hell, I wouldn't be able to look anyone in the eyes! I won't run! I can't run! I'm not the kind of person who runs!_ Ben lifted off the ground with a determined look in his eyes and flew up towards the clock machine.

The whole robot was pulsing blue, and Ben did not like the looks of it at all. He landed on the back of the monster, and he started walking inside the open panel that Nox went in before. He entered a dark room, a corridor of sorts and crept forward through it. He checked his watch and saw it was in the green. The thought of changing to Clear Body crossed his mind, but he discarded it. _No, I can't waste my powers again. I need the Omnitrix if I am going to beat him._

Ben crept into a glowing room that was so tall he could see the curve at the top of the clock. He tiptoed his way around some panels and such and peeked out to see Nox standing in front of some sort of cube. It was less than a foot in any of its dimensions, but it was clearly the source of all this blue light pulsing around the room. The man was up a small flight of steps and standing in front of a sort of carrier for the cube.

"Yes. Yes! Take it all!" The man shouted.

Ben looked closer to see what it was that he was talking about. His eyes widened and his heart fell at the sight of three figures floating around the cube on either side of it. Lying on the ground next to Kirito, who was floating on the left side, was Juvia's body. Nox spoke as if he knew what Ben had just seen. "The girl did not have as much energy, but then again, neither did he," as he said it, the blue light around Kirito's body faded fully, the last of it sucking over into the Eliacube. Kirito's limp body dropped from where it floated and hit the ground with a disgusting thud.

"This, this is amazing!" Nox exclaimed as he read some numbers on a device next to him. "This time, I'm really going to do it. The numbers aren't even on my charts. I, I'll be able to see them again!" He looked over to the right and appeared in front of a little fake window on the right side of the room. The window's red curtain opened up and inside were a bunch of dolls. Three of them were lying on the bed and another was a man who Nox picked up and started moving around while talking as if he were him, "Don't worry children. Daddy will protect you from the big bad scary monster..."

The man started making voices for the children now, and Ben was done watching the insane person. He could see the cracks in the man's armor on his back. There was some blood seeping from them. _If I rush over as XLR8, I could get him before he freezes time. I just have to shove my hand, vibrating really fast, right through... his back... into his heart..._ The thirteen year old paused and his heart rate skyrocketed.

 _No!_ He shook his head fast and looked over to the two glowing figures next to the Eliacube. _I need to save Dash and Rin. Even if I beat Nox there's no guarantee the cube will stop draining them._ Ben made his decision and snuck out fast.

"But Daddy are you sure?" Nox asked in a high pitched voice.

"Oh but of course! Daddy would never be late! Not again..." He faded off, putting his marionettes back down. He closed the window with a sigh, "Soon I will have the real thing. No matter how many people I've killed, civilizations I've destroyed, I will get back what I have lost." He clenched his fists, but then grinned, his blue glowing eyes showing his glee. "But to think, thirty minutes of draining and that boy still is not empty. How powerful could he have been if he had truly known how much energy was inside him?"

Nox turned around to look towards said blond boy, and his blue eyes turned huge at the sight of Ben letting down the black haired teenager who also had a huge amount of power. "Rin, get a hold of yourself," Ben slapped the older boy around a little, and Rin opened up his eyes.

Ben looked into Rin's eyes happily, but the teen pushed him, "Ben move!" He yelled, and Ben dove out of the way just before a blue ball of energy would have slammed into him.

"I thought you died!" Nox roared. He disappeared, his body vanishing and then reappearing near them in under a second. He lifted up his right hand, but Rin leapt up and knocked Nox's open palm up in the air, while swinging up a kick and catching Nox under the chin.

The guy who could teleport and control time got knocked back, and Rin narrowed his eyebrows as he landed next to Ben. Ben turned and ran to try and help Dash who had a pained look on his face as he hovered, getting all of his energy sucked out by the pulsing cube. "Hey Ben," Rin started, glancing back at the boy, "where's everyone else?"

"We're all that's left," Ben replied coldly, and in a panicked voice as he reached for Dash and felt a much stronger shock than when he tried to pry Rin out. The main reason, was that Rin was almost empty, and that was shown now as Ben dropped that bombshell on him and Rin collapsed.

The thirteen year old was pushed back as his hand finally touched Dash's skin. He winced and looked down at his hand covered in burns, then heard gasping behind him. He looked back and saw Rin held by the throat. "I am glad the Eliacube managed to get most of your Wakfu before this pest-" Nox was talking to his victim before he crushed his throat, but Ben was not going to wait for that to happen. He turned into XLR8 and shot forward, snatching Rin away and placing him down at the bottom of the stairs up to the Eliacube, panting and grabbing at his throat which he thought was done for.

"Ah hah ah heh," Nox breathed in and out deeply. "Again you have surprised me, pest," he growled at the boy down below who lowered the black mask of his blue lizard-like alien with super fast speeds.

Ben's blue alien face glared up at Nox with an angered but determined expression. "I saved Rin, and I will save Dash too. It isn't looking so hot for whatever plan you were making does it?" XLR8 hissed at him. His black mask lowered and he shot up the staircase towards Nox.

He jumped up and kicked rapidly down at the man, who allowed his invisible shield to block. A flash of green light transformed Ben into a huge bumpy mass of green reaching almost to the ceiling, and Nox held up his arms to catch it but was crushed down by its weight anyway.

The man stood and tossed the bumpy green creature up, and then disappeared and appeared high up in front of its three-eyed face. He attacked, but another green flash made the huge green monster vanish and nothing to appear in its place. "Where did you-" he started, then looked down to see Rin staring up at him nervously. "Haha! After all that and you still leave your friend behind."

The crazy man flew down and hovered directly in front of Rin. He lifted an arm, and then Rin's eyes went wide as a three foot tall purple creature appeared behind Nox. A flash of green alerted him to its presence and he turned his head just in time to see the large four-eyed, four-armed red muscular alien appear. The alien wore a white shirt with black lines on it and he roared as he slammed all four arms forward, colliding with Nox's exposed back and cracking it loudly.

"Aaahhhh!" Nox roared in pain as he was sent flying. He crashed into the wall of the room and Rin cheered for his comrade.

"Now," the four-armed alien growled, turning back into Ben before his watch did it for him, which would keep it in the red for a while. "Time to free Dash," he looked over and saw his blue light shining bright as ever. "Timmy really did make you tough," Ben said as he jogged up the stairs towards his friend.

"Pathetic," a voice growled far behind him. He froze in place before he reached the spot Dash was floating. Ben gulped and was about to turn, but there was no need as in a flash of blue, Nox was standing in front of him, his body sparking and twitching as he looked to be in a lot of pain, but still functional. "I am so close now. Over two hundred years I have waited. And now," he looked back at his equipment around him which was sparking and blowing up as his clock could not handle the Eliacube any longer. "I will be able to go back!"

"I'm taking Dash!" Ben roared, finding the courage to scream in the face of this man who sent so many of his friends to their deaths. "I won't leave until I do!"

"It doesn't matter!" The man yelled at him in a crazed voice. "Whatever happens, it's already over for you all! Hahahaha!" He cackled insanely with his head tilted up. Then he slowly lowered it down to the boy in front of him. A green light started to emerge from Ben's watch, and as it did, Nox froze time. "Ah, so that is the source," Nox said, then laughed a little crazy laugh as he figured it out. "So many different transformations. Very impressive," he walked straight up to Ben who was frozen still with sweat all over his face. "Too bad," the man stated, then started a kick and unfroze time. The green light barely started when it was cut off by a devastating kick to Ben's head that sent him flying away with blood splattering out of his face.

Ben crashed into a wall and dented the inside of the machine. He fell from the wall and heard his name being shouted as he did. He hit the ground down below the dented wall and landed on his stomach. His chin was on the ground and he kept his face pointed forward towards a laughing Nox. Blood poured down the entire left side of his face and his vision was getting red, not to mention dizzy.

In a blur, Ben watched Nox appear behind Rin and stomp him down to the ground. He stomped over and over while laughing and shouting something about his cube. Ben heard a crack as the time wizard stomped down on Rin's neck, and the struggle was over. Ben moved an arm forward, but stopped as it reached in front of his face. He was going to push down and get himself up, but he was running out of reasons to do so. _Juvia, Kirito, Rin, I... I really thought I could save you,_ he clenched his eyes tight. _What was I thinking? I told Gwen not to come because I'm not a kid? Who was I kidding? Nox was right. I am pathetic. I let_ _ **everyone**_ _die._ He opened his eyes and looked over to see Dash's bright blue light starting to go down.

"Finally! Finally!" Nox roared. "With this much power there is no doubt! I can, I can do this!"

 **BOOM**

A hole ripped in the wall right across the room from Ben and up twenty feet. The hole was huge, the metal all ripped inwards, with flames covering the steel. A figure whose body was covered in flames and his face shadowed completely, making it black with red glowing eyes, was standing in the hole. He had spiky hair and he dropped down into the room, his fist denting the ground into a large crater where he landed.

"Na-tsu," Ben gasped out, pushing his left hand down a little. His palm slipped on his own blood puddling next to his face, but he rose his elbow and tried pushing down again. "Nat-su," he said, trying to be a little louder and putting his other hand down now.

"Juvia," Natsu whispered at the sight of his fellow Fairy Tail wizard lying dead next to Kirito. Rin was lying with a crushed neck not far away, and at the top of the staircase, Nox was standing next to Dash who had just a little bit of blue light remaining around him. "RAAAAA!" Natsu roared, lifting up his head and making the entire machine start trembling as his power rose.

Lightning and fire rippled around the Dragon Slayer who was thrown miles away over forty minutes ago, and was unconscious for over half of that time it took him to get back. "You killed my nakama!" He roared in fury, the walls, floor and even ceiling starting to heat up and turn red. Everything started to melt, the heat in the room getting so intense.

"Insolent fool!" Nox shouted as he saw the carrier that held the Eliacube start melting. "You will make it lose some of the Wakfu it has collected!" He vanished and appeared in front of Natsu, but Natsu already punched forward and Nox's chestplate bent in and cracked. He flew backwards and blue light seeped out of his chest.

Ben tried watching, but he could only focus on one thing at once and used his other hand to lift him up some more. "Gotta, get, Dash," he whispered, pulling his knees up to his chest and then using one hand to get up to his feet. He almost slipped on his blood again, and his vision was still red but less blurry than before. He rubbed the left side of his face with his right arm and his arm got covered in blood, but it did make it a little easier to see.

He could see Dash's energy all leaving him, and he stumbled towards the steps.

"Raaa! AAHHH! TAKE THIS!" On Ben's left, Natsu was going crazy destroying everything with super powerful attacks. Holes were ripping in the clock, everything was melting. Ben was sweating badly from it all and his clothes were even burning as he walked towards the steps. He reached them and moved up a step at a time, while Nox fired a half dozen blue balls of energy into Natsu where they exploded. Seconds later, Natsu's shadow was visible inside the smoke and he walked out slowly, looking like a monster and intimidating his foe who took a step back.

Nox growled, "If you make the Eliacube lose even a single scrap of Wakfu I'll-" he turned towards the cube to make sure and froze at the sight of Ben there reaching for Dash. "You-" Nox started but never got to finish. Natsu grabbed the back of his head and slammed him into the ground before he could teleport away.

"I'm not done with you," Natsu snarled in an unrecognizable low voice as he pressed the man's mask into the ground, cracking the back of it with his insane grip. "You will _**pay!**_ "

"Dash!" Ben yelled, grabbing his friend just as it looked like the stream of blue energy seeping out of him was about to stop. He pulled Dash out of the air and the boy fell on him, which knocked him down considering how weak he was at the moment. "I made it," Ben whispered as he saw Dash's chest moving up and down. However, Ben noticed something; Dash's breathing was getting slower.

The blond kid's eyes opened up just a crack as he looked up into Ben's eyes. "I'm, alive?" Dash asked.

"Yeah," Ben told him. Blood was covering Ben's face and he was starting to look pretty pale. His clothes were all torn and burnt, and the amount of scratches that were bleeding on his body was insane.

Everything was shaking around them, and Natsu lifted up Nox's head before slamming him down again, which only made it worse. As Nox hit the ground this time, the metal legs beneath the monster clock could not hold it up anymore and they cracked, creaked, and snapped.

They started free-falling down, and Ben tried lifting Dash up, but he felt a light touch on his hand and saw it was Dash's. He looked into the boy's eyes, the twelve year old boy's eyes, and all he saw was absolute fear. "I'm, dying," Dash whispered, and as he opened his mouth for his next breath, he froze in that position. No breath came, no next rise of his chest, no next heartbeat.

Ben just sat there with Dash in his arms. He didn't notice the machine around him start going haywire. He did not see the cube fall off its carrier, nor Nox go mad when he saw it happen. The man roared and froze time, but the Eliacube continued to lose blue light from it. He formed a spear and turned, slamming it into Natsu's chest and then turning and running for the steps. Time was not staying frozen for long as he had used the power far too often recently and had stopped taking power from how Eliacube.

Time kept going, slower at first, and then at the normal speed. Ben heard a squish noise behind him and turned around fast, dropping Dash to instead look over at Natsu, his friend from Pao for almost as long as Gohan, and someone he had spent more time with than Dash or Riku. He saw Natsu falling with a spear through his chest, a confused look on his face like he had absolutely no idea how that happened. His eyes rolled back and he fell with the ground as it collapsed.

They were all free falling inside this broken machine. Chunks of melted metal were falling everywhere, and blue lights were shooting out in all directions. "I won't let you escape!" Nox roared, Ben thought at him, but it was actually at the cube releasing bright lights all over the place.

The man's metal mask was cracked, and pieces of it were falling apart as he stumbled up the crumbling stairs. They finally hit the jungle's floor beneath them and Ben and Nox were both jolted by the sudden end to their falling. They rolled around and saw the huge metal shards making up this robot falling down towards them.

Ben pushed a sheet of metal off him and looked over towards Nox. "You killed everyone," the boy said as he stood up, ignoring the ceiling and walls falling around him. "Now, I'm taking something that's yours!" Ben looked down at the blue cube a few feet in front of Nox. It was spraying huge blue lights out everywhere, and Ben started walking slowly towards it on bloody legs.

Nox was drained, physically and especially mentally. "No! You can't! Tell him Eliacube! You're mine!" He crawled forward, reaching towards it. "You will always be mine! My family! I-I-" he reached out once more towards the cube, but Ben dove forwards and put both of his hands around it.

"No!" Nox roared, reaching forward himself and putting his hand on the cube as Ben grabbed hold of it. The blue lights stopped shooting out, but the cube started glowing brighter than ever. "It's mine I say! Mine!" Nox yelled, holding on tighter and reaching for it with his other hand.

Ben kept his right hand on the cube, but held out his left hand and opened his bloodshot eyes to look straight into the cracked blue ones on Nox's face. "Gohan, I'm not saying it," he stated. Nox was about to ask what, when the left hand Ben had held out started glowing bright blue.

"No!" Nox yelled. He tried stopping time, but had no power. He lifted up his other arm to fire an attack at the boy, but little blue dust poofed out with no effect. The light on Ben's hand grew as he clenched his fists, trying to draw all his power to put into a Kamehameha Wave that he wasn't shouting the name out loud for.

Ben's enemy was panicking as he saw a strong light appearing on Ben's hand. Then, he smiled wide which was visible under the part of his mask that just fell off. "Yes! Yes it's happening!" He yelled, and Ben lost concentration for a second as a huge chunk of metal falling behind Nox stopped falling, and then slowly started moving back up.

The kid was still furious, and his energy only grew more and more. "What is- No!" Nox yelled at Ben. He was keeping one hand on the cube, but he pulled himself forward towards Ben as the rest of the ceiling debris around them started shooting back up in the air. "You are stealing from the Eliacube! She may not be able to make it all the way back if-"

"Shut up!" Ben roared, and his left hand glowed even brighter blue. It no longer felt like a Kamehameha though, but it was still the strongest energy he had ever felt in the palm of his hand. He looked down at his right hand which he had kept around the cube. Nox's hand was there as well, but the armor had ripped off of it and his skin started to burn. Still the crazy man would not let go and started screaming at the cube to let him stay. "Why isn't it hurting me?" Ben asked, not really to Nox but just confused as he felt warmth flood through him, not pain.

Everything around them started to turn a shade of blue. It was like all of existence turned blue. Ben tried to stay calm, but he couldn't help but freak out as the floor below him rose up quickly, much faster than it fell. "Time," he whispered, "is going backwards..." He looked to his left and watched Natsu fly up in the air, an older version of Nox grab onto him, pull the spear out that last time he had shoved in, and fall back where he had jumped from. Time only reversed faster after this, with Dash going back to hovering in the air, and blue energy shot over and filled him.

"What? No!" Nox roared at the cube that was burning his hand, melting his flesh now. "If you give them back their energy... Please Eliacube! I, I don't understand! Tell me why!"

"Are you serious?" Ben asked the man as Natsu's surprise appearance happened in reverse, then the two of them fighting earlier. He lowered his left hand back to the cube and tried to pry it from the man whose melting hand had a vice grip on it. "You really think this cube can talk? You're mad!"

"Please," Nox got dragged forward a little when Ben lifted the cube. Time was flooding past them, with the large machine walking backwards towards the area where they were all fighting Nox before. They didn't feel the jolts of any of the steps as they were in some weird special field right now. Even their old bodies were still moving backwards faster and faster as time reversed.

Nox's entire mask crumbled off. The version of him moving back in time had it all back together, but this version of him didn't. He was bleeding under the mask, and had finger-marks in his skull, indents from where Natsu crushed down on him earlier. His back was slashed up from Sora and his nose was broken as well as both eyes blackened. His whole body was burned and electrocuted, and he stared up at Ben with crazed, sad eyes. He looked like... a normal guy, which only made Ben angrier as he looked at him. "What will happen to us?" Ben asked, his voice sounding a little nervous as he did see a different version of himself.

"We'll remember what happened," Nox replied with wide eyes. "Only we will know what happened. My family won't have to know how many people I had to kill. Everything will be forgiven-"

"But what will happen to us?!" Ben yelled at the man. "I-" he saw Nox was distracted by some crazed thought and he slammed a foot forward into the man's arm. Nox's eyes went wide and he tried to grab the cube, but as soon as his fingers left it for a single second, it was all over.

"No! No no nooo! Two hundred years! I, I can't... All I wanted," he started to flicker out of the reversing time, "I just wanted, to see them..." His body started shriveling up, getting wrinkly and then losing its wrinkles as he got younger.

Ben's eyes widened in shock and he held on tighter than ever to the cube that was bringing him back in time. Now that Nox was no longer holding on, the cube followed after Ben's past self as time kept reversing. Their special blue sphere followed a three hundred foot tall alien running backwards across a forest. They shot across the landscape away from the clock machine that was sitting still in the jungle. Time kept moving backwards as the sphere of blue light shot across the jungle and came to a stop near a blond boy and speedy lizard alien looking around for medicine. This shot by just as fast as always, maybe even faster.

"You! Nox!" Ben yelled at the man floating in front of him who was a young child that started aging again quickly. He went through his teens and twenties in a matter of seconds, which was the same as negative ten minutes, which was the same as Ben had no idea what was happening to time anymore. "Before you die!" The boy yelled heartlessly, as all of Nox's wounds stayed on him while he aged. The man hit his fifties and sixties hard, getting wrinklier and with whiter hair. At least Ben thought it was like what fifties and sixties should look like, though the guy did say he was trying for two hundred years so Ben did not want to let go of the cube in the off chance he suddenly aged a hundred and fifty years. "Tell me how to stop this thing!"

"It won't stop," Nox said with a smile on his face. "It's going to take me, all," he coughed and blood splattered out. His elderly body could not take the injuries he sustained and neither could his skull, finally cracking from the fingerprints indenting in his head. "All the way back," Nox whispered, and then fell still, floating backwards until he left the blue sphere and vanished.

"I hope, he doesn't come back to life in his ship," Ben muttered. He looked back down at the cube and fear filled him. "I, I can't go too far back. If I'm the only one who will remember, I'll go mad!" He looked around and saw his friends walking backwards through the jungle at amazing speeds, Gray slapping the back of his neck as he was bitten by a mosquito. Everything happened in a blur, but in under a minute and a half, an hour was gone, and it was only speeding up.

"How long?" He whispered. Ben stared outside of the blue sphere and watched himself walk backwards through a jungle. "How far back?" He whispered again, his mind racing with hundreds of possibilities while he held this cube in his hands. "Dressrosa? Before we took off? Metropolis? Or even..." He looked at the Eliacube, "I could go back to Pao and warn everyone, tell them about Luthor. I could save... Grandpa..."

He looked down below him and at the pack of friends marching through the jungle. Another hour must have gone by without him noticing, as Ha'gar's Peak was getting close again. "All these friends I've made," he whispered. He looked at Usopp, and Riku, and Rin, "Everyone who was trapped at Castle Oblivion." He even turned to Kirito, "You were tricked by the Underworld."

Ben frowned and looked at the cube. "All the decisions we've made have had consequences. But, good things have come from them too! I can't, hurt my friends, just to save my Grandpa!" He held the cube tightly, "Eliacube! That's what he called you right?" He couldn't believe he was actually talking to it, but it was all he could do at this point. "If you can hear me! If you can understand my feelings! Then please, listen!" He yelled, closing his eyes and holding the cube right.

Everything was silent inside the time realm without Nox's insane blatherings. "Please Eliacube," he whispered, "listen to me."

The warmth that had filled Ben before got even stronger and his whole body filled with the blue light of the Eliacube. Ben opened his eyes and saw his skin emitting a blue glow. He looked down and saw his friends walking out of the trees, backwards. They were at the start of the foggy jungle, and they kept walking backwards up the gentle slope of Ha'gar's Peak. The blue time-sphere lowered down towards the mountainside, with Ben still inside holding the Eliacube. "They're, slowing down," he realized as his friends stopped being so much of a blur as they walked backwards up a mountain, smiling and laughing.. He turned and saw four lions jumping out of the forest backwards, and then leaping back up the mountain a little.

The cube hummed and time slowed again, and hummed again as Ben was pulled along inside the time space. He was brought up right in front of the him from five hours earlier, his body halfway through taking a step and still moving backwards slightly. The slow motion got even slower, and then as Ben's foot touched the ground, it froze entirely. "You, did it," he whispered to the cube in his hand. "Thanks," he whispered, in shock. "So, uhh, what do I do?" He mumbled seeing the bright blue light of the Eliacube start fading. It shrank down as it faded and he sighed, placing it in the unripped right pocket of his shorts.

He looked ahead at his body standing in front of him, a wide carefree smile on his face. He was laughing. Laughing! "Maybe I could try this," Ben mumbled as he stared at his old form. He turned around inside the blue sphere, and his whole body looked blue and see-through actually. He stepped backwards into the position of his body, or as well as he could make it, but nothing happened. He shivered as he was standing inside his own body. The boy grumbled incoherent words for a few seconds, then stepped forward and re-examined his body. "Oh," he mumbled, and then stepped back into the same position he was in five hours ago. Something was different between that him and him now and he had figured out what it was.

He stood there inside his body without anything happening, and then he forced the hardest smile he had ever had to force onto his face. The blue sphere around him vanished, noise started up around him again. Time started. Ben just stood in place, the only difference between then and now that he could feel a cube in his pocket.

"Yippee! A jungle! It reminds me of the one I grew up in with the mountain bandits," Luffy said.

Ben remembered hearing that before and he saw the pirate who he had been following forward. He froze though, not taking that next step, and he didn't make the same remark he did last time. _Luffy,_ he stared at the pirate's back. In front of the rubberman were a boy with white hair and an older one with pink. _Natsu, Killua._ Farther in front of them still were the Keybearers, all still transformed into jungle cats. _Kairi, Sora, Riku._

"...If you wait too long, it might be too late. Depending on what gets you though, I might not have a cure for it. In that case..." Gray was speaking behind Ben to the group still on the mountainside.

"You will die," Gray stated, but at the same time a voice spoke the same words over his a few paces in front of their pack. They all looked down to see Ben standing there facing away from them down the mountain.

"Y-Yeah," Gray responded. The older man frowned that he was being that predictable when trying to sound serious. "Well let's go," he started walking down and everyone else walked with him.

Usopp was walking in the back, the most hesitant of them all. A few of them walking down the mountain moved to the side a little when Ben got in their path and they looked at the unmoving thirteen year old oddly. Usopp was mumbling behind them, saying the same things Ben heard him say last time. "...That's a great idea! I wish I had thought of it! Oh, and one more thing, you're all going to die!" Usopp's tone was sarcastic and a few of them were laughing at the complaining coward in their midst.

Ben stood still as Usopp walked on his right side. The sniper opened his mouth and moaned out in a terrified voice, "We're all going to die!"

"We're all going to die," Ben said at the same time as him. Usopp stopped and spun towards the kid who just said exactly what he was going to say with no hesitation, no waiting to start hearing what he was about to say or anything.

Gray froze and turned around, this being the second time in the same few sentences that Ben had done this. "Are you a telepath and just haven't told anyone?" The ice wizard accused.

The others back here looked at Ben, and the kid just stood still with glassy eyes. He looked at the group, and then past them down towards the large cats about to enter the forest. "STOPPP!" He yelled at the top of his lungs.

As he yelled it, a large commotion gained his attention in the woods and he looked over to see a large cloud of dust fly up exactly where the clock machine was before. _Too much of it was caught in the time space, brought back with us. But my injuries,_ Ben looked down at his arm which used to have a noticeable gash on it that he saw when holding the Eliacube. As he looked at his arm, he saw a cut open and start growing larger and larger.

The others who looked at Ben were confused at what was wrong with him. Some of the ones farther down the mountain complained and wanted to keep going anyway and ignore Ben. However, when all their friends higher up started screaming and running back up towards Ben, they decided to run up and check for themselves.

"Haha, ha, hahaha!" Ben laughed as he collapsed down on the mountainside. Usopp went wide eyed and took a step away from the kid whose body started covering in scratches, bruises, and burns, yet kept laughing through it all. "AaaHahahaha!" Ben laughed. Tears started streaming out of his eyes as he laughed, making him look insane to the people looking down at him.

"Ben! Ben what's wrong?!" Dash yelled as he dropped down next to his friend at super speeds. The blond kid lifted up Ben's head, only for his hand to get soaked. When he pulled his hand back it was covered in blood.

"Oh my God," Nami gasped and covered her mouth with her hands as a gash ripped open on Ben's skull, some of his hair falling away as it happened. Blood poured down like a faucet and covered his face, and the kid gurgled on it as he couldn't stop laughing.

"If my injuries stayed," Ben laughed really hard and lifted an arm to his pained chest. His face bruised up along with his body and cuts formed all over him. "Then that means so did his!" Ben laughed, imagining the inside of the clock machine where the insane Nox must have been so confused as to why he was getting beat up and dying. He stopped laughing and thought, _Unless he still does remember... What happened after he fell out of the sphere? I have no idea how any of that worked, but I know for a fact that that bastard is dead!_ "He's dead," Ben whispered with a wide smile on his face, blood coming down off the corners of his lips.

"What is happening to him?!" Luffy yelled at Gray who was leaning down over the kid.

Gray shook his head fast, "I have no idea! It's not poison," he shouted, "he's just, getting beat up!"

"That doesn't make sense!" Natsu yelled as he got back here to see a kid he was supposed to have taken charge of getting killed. "Who's doing this?!" The Fire Dragon Slayer roared loudly.

"Let's find them and kick their asses!" Luffy shouted and punched a fist into his open palm.

Killua was staring down at Ben nervously, sweat pouring down his body as he wondered if this was something that could just happen normally to people here. _Then there won't be a safe place anywhere!_

"Ben, what's happening to you?" Rin asked the boy who closed his eyes but kept smiling. "Why are you-"

"Oh my," a grown voice said from behind them and the group parted as a large lion was looking down with concerned eyes. Simba was looking at Ben with a surprised look on his face.

Sora ran forward and looked down, "Sorry Simba, some other time!" He promised as a Keyblade formed in his mouth and dismissed his Summons.

"I understand," Simba replied, still staring at Ben confusedly while he dissolved into light particles.

Sora continued to hold up his Keyblade and he, Riku, and Kairi all turned back into people. They would have complained about wanting to use their furry forms more, if Ben wasn't bleeding out in front of them. "Let's do this!" Sora called out.

All three of them formed Keyblades and held them up above Ben who coughed and some more blood came splashing out of his mouth. He looked to be laughing... but that didn't make sense. The three Keyblade wielders shouted together, "Cure!"

A dome of green light lifted up above Ben and expanded farther and farther covering everyone on the side of the mountain and much more. The green light was condensed the closer to the center of the dome, so Ben's eyes snapped open as all his injuries healed in seconds. "Wow," he stated in a surprised voice, "that was fast."

"Ben!" Everyone shouted and a couple of them bent down, helping him up on his feet.

Ben turned to thank the cyborg who helped him up, but as he looked at Franky's face, his heart dropped. He imagined Franky's head sitting on the floor lifelessly, robot parts scattered all around.

"Are you okay?" Kairi asked, leaning in in front of the boy's face.

She had a bright smile on her face and he tried to return it, but suddenly instead of this version of her he saw the mangled one. Her limbs were snapped the wrong way, her head was broken, bloody, so bloody...

"Ben!" Riku yelled, getting serious now as Kairi was backing away from the boy who looked horrified to see her. Riku got close to his friend and grabbed him by the shoulders, "What happened? What did that to you? Why are you looking at me like that?" He yelled the last part as Ben did not even seem to notice he was doing it.

Ben opened his mouth to reply, and then closed it. He looked around at everyone, his body starting to shake. He lifted up his hands in between him and Riku, "What was I thinking?" He whispered, quietly but still loud enough for the group of people around him to hear. "Beat all the monsters? What a joke," his hands were shaking and his heart was beating fast. Everything that just happened kept playing in his head. _No one will know. I'm the only one who remembers. If I forget, it's like it never even happened. But I can't forget._ Even as he thought about forgetting he was imagining Killua's limp body on the palm of Way Big's hand. "I, I want to go," he whispered, tears coming to his eyes as he reached up and grabbed the sides of his head.

Riku lowered his arms from his friend's shoulders and stared at Ben with a scared look. _Not once have I ever seen Ben this scared. What just happened?_

"You want to go?" Luffy asked the kid who less than a minute before, he, Franky, Sanji, and Kirito were all encouraging him to follow his amazing dreams of taking on the world. The pirate wearing a straw hat wanted to hit Ben, and he normally would have after hearing something so cowardly from a person he normally respected. "Why are you being such a-"

Luffy stopped talking as Ben looked up at him. All Ben could imagine was the blue explosion, and watching Luffy die. He tried to hold in the tears, scrunching up his face and clenching his eyes, but the tears poured out anyway. "I can't-" he gasped out. "I can't handle this burden," he whispered, only a few people could hear him.

"What burden?" Nami asked the boy.

Ben didn't want to look at her, but just the sound of her voice made him imagine her dying in Luffy's arms.

"I-" Ben gasped out.

Then, before anyone could say anything else, three or four of them felt something. They felt it and their bodies reacted by dousing them with their own sweat. It was not a single second after they felt it that everyone else saw or felt it, floating right in front of their group in the air above the downwards slant of the mountain closest to the forest.

Everyone already facing that direction dropped their jaws, and the others started turning around while their bodies shouted at them to run. There was a green figure floating above the mountainside staring at their group. He had two arms, two legs, his body was striped with different shades of green. His face was light green and the dark green crown on top of it was part of his body actually. He had a long, thick, striped-green tail with a thin silver point at the end of it.

Everyone turned to this figure who through the way in which he came out of nowhere, or the power that they could all sense from him, made each and every one of them tremble in fear. Ben lifted his teary eyes towards this figure and his heart screamed as he wondered if he would have to go through losing all his friends again to this monster of a creature.

Gray was the one whose eyes opened widest though, and who felt fear greater than any of them. He opened his mouth to speak but could not.

The floating green figure looked at them with light purple eyes that discerned each and every one of them immediately. "Someone has been messing with time," he stated, his voice calm, commanding, and horrifying all at the same time. "You," he looked straight at Ben who was the only one whose body did not react the same way as the others upon that last sentence. "You caused the time shift?"

"N-no!" Ben exclaimed. "It was Nox!" He yelled, terrified for his life from the threatening look this creature was giving him.

The green creature stared at Ben and could feel his fear, all of their fear. Ben lifted up his arm slowly and pointed out towards the area in the woods where Nox's ship was. "H-He's over there. I-I beat him. He was planning on going back two hundred years..."

Everyone around Ben looked at the kid in total utter confusion, except for the creature, and Gray. Gray could not look away from the creature, and the next one to look back was the white haired former assassin. Killua was sweating, almost as bad as Gray was. The ice mage finally found the courage to move, and he dropped down to a knee. "King," Gray greeted with his head bowed.

"Huh?" Natsu asked his friend, then looked back at the terrifying monster. "This is the-" he stopped talking as the creature turned its head towards him a little.

"The Ant King," Killua said, trying to keep his voice calm. The green creature looked down at him, and Killua gulped but looked him back in the eyes. "I was wondering if he returned to this world." He looked the creature straight in the eyes, "Meruem, that's your name."

Meruem stared at the child for a second, "Ah, you are the one who fought Youpi and Pouf. Not many humans ever knew of my existence, or my name, and survived. You were one of the few." The Ant King nodded at the kid slightly with a look of almost being impressed on his face, which surprised Killua and absolutely stunned Gray. Meruem looked back to Ben, "Two hundred years would have been a tragedy. What was the length reversed?"

Ben was sweating ridiculously hard and no one else was interrupting this scary figure. "F-Five hours, around, I think," Ben said. He looked back over towards where Nox should be, "Aren't you, going to check?" Ben whispered.

"He is dead," Meruem responded. "The person in the spot you are motioning towards died seventy five seconds ago."

Ben did not know how to respond to that statement, so he just nodded dumbly. The King continued, "You saved this world from a fate of not existing, along with most of the people on it. You were telling the truth, or at least you believe you were being honest. I am in your debt," then, the King bowed his head to the child in front of him.

"Uhh, okay," Ben replied hoarsely, still looking a little pale, very lightheaded, totally confused, and with tear streaks on his face. "Th-Thanks," the kid continued, and Meruem lifted back up his head.

"What is your name?" Meruem asked the boy.

"Ben, Ben Tennyson."

"Ben Tennyson," it was instantly remembered by the King who forgets nothing. Meruem nodded once more and turned around. "Thank you," the King said, and then vanished. Most of them saw nothing but the poof of a cloud circle in the air above them, and the stream of white going into the distance that was left behind. Only Dash, and in part Killua and Luffy managed to witness the Ant King's departure.

Everyone stared into the distance for a few moments, and then Nami collapsed to her knees. Usopp fell backwards and everyone else released deep breaths. "What, the Hell, just happened?" Sanji asked, looking around in total confusion. He turned to Ben, "What was that about a time reversal?"

Everyone looked towards Ben, and a few of them who were not as scared were smart enough to comprehend what had happened. Killua looked back at Ben, then out over the forest, "Did you get in a fight with a time traveler?" The white haired kid asked.

"Five hours," Nico Robin began, stepping up towards Ben and seeing the kid look up at her. He winced at the sight of her face completely fine and her body not blown to pieces. "Ben, what happened in those five hours? You seem to be the only one who remembers."

"I don't remember!" Ben shouted back at her. "Nothing happened," he whispered. He took some deep breaths and calmed himself down some, not wanting to say anything embarrassing like he wanted to go home again. "Let's just," he looked down towards the forest and froze as he took a step. "Let's camp here for the night," he whispered. He looked around at everyone, "I'm really tired. I've already been up until sunset. It was getting dark when, when..."

"Come on Ben, tell us what happened!" Dash exclaimed as his best buddy was being way too secretive about this.

"NO!" Ben yelled at the younger boy, then closed his mouth and leaned back as he saw Dash's hurt look. "Just, don't ask me about it," he growled. _I can't forget it,_ he thought. He continued speaking, "Maybe if we just wait a little, my time will synch with everyone else's and I'll only remember this timeline." _If only. That's not going to happen. It couldn't happen. I don't want it to. I'm not the hero I thought I was. I can't do things like beat all the monsters. I'm just, Ben,_ he looked down at the green watch on his wrist. _No amount of training or alien tech can change that. I let all of my friends die. I can't even pretend like I didn't get there in time, or I wasn't ready. No, I just... watched, as Nox killed everyone._

The group stared after Ben as he walked up a little and then reached down into his pockets. His clothes had remained the same as five hours earlier opposite as his injuries, but when he reached in his right pocket the cube was still there. His fingers brushed on it and he felt warm, but he went past and grabbed a little box. The boy pulled out the box and opened it, removing a small capsule that he tossed on the ground revealing a sleeping bag. He never once turned back around as he got into his sleeping bag and closed his eyes. _Goku, Timmy, why weren't you here? Why didn't you come? Everyone died, but you never showed up. Could, could you have died already?_

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed! Who actually thought I killed everyone off? Doubt many, if any, of you did, but if you believed for a little that the ones dying were staying dead, let me know when you started to realize somehow it was going back to normal. Anyway, the King is revealed, and it turns out yes, he is the Ant King. How did the Ant King Meruem become the King of almost all of Aebrith? How is Ben going to handle the deaths of his friends? Just to clarify, Nox is the main antagonist of the first season of Wakfu, the show that Yugo is from (that portal guy who stopped on the Thousand Sunny during the trip to Aebrith). Time powers and teleportation are pretty OP so I hope no one is too peeved that the crew got crushed by Nox and his near-immortal soldiers.**

Darugus chapter 34 . Apr 25

That chapter title and that ending are really worrying me also doesn't luffy have imuntity to poison

 **Thanks for the review. Usopp called it! Haha, he was kind of right, though by some miracle things got fixed as the one killing them all happened to be trying to go back in time anyway! Luffy is immune to lots of poisons, but Gray turned out not to be... Hope you liked the chapter!**

joebob323 chapter 34 . 22h ago

Well, Looks like my question will go unanswered... I do have another one though, I am not sure what Kirito's Devil fruit power is, could you clarify? Thanks for updating!

 **Kirito has the Crack-Crack Fruit. Thanks for the review! Thanks to everyone who read the story, leave me a review telling me what you think, and 'till next time!**


	36. Nexus HWR 7-6 Too Far Gone

**Nexus HWR 7.6 Too Far Gone:**

"No," Ben stated adamantly again. The boy had bags under his eyes and looked like he had woken up many times during the night. A few of the lighter sleepers could confirm this as they were woken up by the screams when Ben woke from his nightmares.

"We have to keep moving sometime," Gray argued and looked back towards the south of the mountain they had spent the better part of a day and a whole night on. He spread his arms out, "Do you see any way around the forest?"

"We could burn it down," Natsu suggested as even looking tired as could be, Ben's look of distraught was still getting through to him. "I'll burn a path right through the forest!"

"And draw the attention of every living thing for a hundred miles?" Killua asked the Dragon Slayer across the discussion circle from him. "Not a good idea," the assassin stated. Ever since the day before, Killua had been reluctant to do any idea anyone came up with if it turned out to have any dangerous aspect to it. He was spooked by Ben's time travel reactions, scared shitless by the Chimera Ant King appearing out of nowhere stronger than ever, he was plain out scared.

They'd been arguing ever since Gray woke them up and tried to get them going at the first sun's rise. It was an hour later now and all three suns had finally risen over the eastern horizon. "I still say we go straight ahead," Luffy complained, crossing his arms. "No idea what's awaiting us; a great adventure! This is boring," he muttered and looked away from the group and down towards the forest.

"EEK Eek eek eek..." A loud screeching echoed through the woods and faded off. It was followed immediately by a noise that went, "OoooOOOOO!" Like a ghost wailing.

"No forest!" Usopp shouted, crossing his arms in front of him.

"Juvia agrees with Usopp-san," the girl whispered, however her boyfriend heard it and turned towards her in surprise. Juvia's face went red and she looked away a little, "The forest is scary... But if Gray-sama is with me I am sure I will be fine!" She yelled, getting over her fear with solely her faith in Gray.

Ben continued to frown and remembered Juvia lying with her head on Gray's unmoving chest. _He can't protect you forever,_ the thirteen year old thought.

"Well we're getting nowhere doing nothing like this," Sanji stated, taking the cigarette he was smoking out of his mouth and blowing out a puff of smoke. "We need to decide and get moving," he paused and looked towards the forest, "and in the forest I could find some ingredients to cook with considering Timmy stole most of our food in his bottomless pack that I stored it in."

"We know," Sora told the chef who mentioned it again. "Don't worry; my inventory is as large as his... almost. Whatever the next town we hit is, I'll try to restock on food from them."

"Yeah, Nami still has the money the people in Dressrosa thanked us with," Dash brought up, and then cowered as the money-loving pirate woman glared at him with glowing red eyes.

"That is my spending cash for emergencies," she stated and humped as she turned around.

"Coming from someone who got turned into a toy," Kirito mumbled from behind her.

She spun towards him, "What was that?" She growled.

"I said we did the fighting and you took the reward," Kirito replied, not backing down at all from her menacing look, which made her lean back a little. "You may have handled the money on your crew, but next time we get paid, don't rob me before I even accept my reward," he growled at her.

Nami took a step back with wide eyes. Sanji appeared in front of her with a foot raised and he narrowed his swirly eyebrow at Kirito. "What did you just say to Nami-san?" The three of them had fought Blackbeard together in Metropolis, but no one spoke to Nami like that and got away with it.

"This is getting us nowhere!" Usopp exclaimed in exasperation, throwing his hands up in the air.

"I have an idea," Ben mumbled loudly. Everyone looked at the kid, and Ben looked up around at them with scared eyes that looked so tired. Not just physically, he looked like he was done with the adventure, like he had given up. Still he continued speaking in a monotone voice, "We're going to fly. Me and Kirito will carry one person each over the entire forest, while Sora and Riku guard us in the air. Sound good?"

He had been figuring out a solution all night, and though this still put them in danger, there was nothing they could do to keep them out of a potentially dangerous situation. He saw a few of them opening their mouths to argue, especially Luffy who moaned loudly first before opening his mouth to complain. "Please," he begged before any of them could interrupt him. "Just this once. Just, do this my way until we reach the other side of this jungle, then I'll be quiet." He looked around and put his hands together in front of him, in a begging position that unnerved a few of the people who knew Ben to be much prouder than that. "Please," he begged again, and even the ones who looked to be about to argue with him lowered their arms.

"Sounds good," Gray stated.

Natsu hesitated for a few seconds as he tried to understand Ben's strange behavior. "Yeah," he muttered, "sure, fine with me."

"Luffy?" Nami asked her captain who was frowning and looking at the awesome forest that they could have so many adventures in.

The pirate captain lifted up the hat dangling on his back and placed it on his head. "Humph, alright," he muttered, and it was settled.

* * *

"Next trip," Ben stated as he and Kirito landed back on the ground on the mountain's southern slope.

"Hold on," Kirito muttered. "I'm not as good as this yet, and the forest is a lot larger than I thought it would be." He saw Ben frowning at him and frowned right back, "Sixty seconds, you can wait." He couldn't use his wings and carry someone on his back, so he was using ki-controlled flight which he kept getting better at.

Riku and Sora continued to hover up in the air above Ha'gar's Peak. Sora was asking his silver haired friend questions about his younger friend who Sora thought of as his friend too, but was nowhere near as close to him as Riku was. "So he's never acted like this before?" Sora asked again.

"Not to my knowledge," Riku replied. "I heard from Gwen that even when their Grandpa died, he stayed strong and went out fighting while she was sulking." He frowned and looked down at the boy, "He loved his Grandpa so much, I don't know what could have been so much worse that he's acting like this."

"Time travel," Sora whispered with a small smile coming to his face. "Ever since Vegeta talked about how simple it was to believe, I realized it sounds pretty cool. Imagine what would happen if we traveled back three years on this world!"

"Three years?" Riku asked his friend. "We haven't been here over two and a half years."

"I know," Sora replied with an adventurous grin. "But who was? Who set the world up with a mountain here and a forest there? Or two years ago was this all flat and since then all of this was formed? What if the planet wasn't even here?"

"Then I guess you would have your answer," Riku replied in a far away voice, still looking down with a concerned gaze at Ben. "Anyway," he looked back up at Sora, "I wouldn't try looking for a way. That King guy was powerful, and he didn't seem to like the idea of time travel."

"Eh, I think he was more concerned that _everything_ got sent back," Sora argued. "If just one or two people," he chuckled and looked down at the group down below, "Or even seventeen wanted to travel back in time, then that shouldn't be a problem for anyone."

"Whatever Sora," Riku mumbled as he saw Kirito getting back up. "Let's head out," the nineteen year old stated as he watched Kirito lift Luffy up and put the pirate on his back. Luffy still had a pout on his face as he was disappointed with this safe means of transportation they decided on.

While Kirito picked up Luffy, Ben picked up Nami and put her on his back. He did not even blush feeling the older woman's large chest pushing into his back. Ben lifted up in the air slowly, keeping a pace that Kirito, a new flyer using just his ki, could handle. "Alright, third trip is all set!" Sora called out and raced forward. "I've got lead this time!"

"You got it," Riku told his friend while Sora was already flying away.

The six of them traveled through the air for another fifteen minute journey to the other side of the forest, which would be followed by one back to get another couple of people. At about five minutes in, Luffy pointed down and went wide-eyed. "We could have explored that thing!" He yelled, pointing down at a large rock between a bunch of trees that had a large stone doorway in the front with some writing on it. The rubber pirate spun around his head and saw no one else looked too interested. "I'm coming back here later to check out the cave-thingy," he looked back behind him but the cave was already gone, hidden in the fog of the dense jungle.

"We really should stay out of the forest," Kirito said out loud for the pirate on his back to hear. "Even you can't fight poison."

"I have before!" Luffy shouted. He frowned and looked down at the place supposed to be so dangerous. "I spent two years on an island covered in giant monsters, this jungle looks easy compared to that one!"

"Idiot," Ben mumbled as he could hear Luffy shouting.

Nami looked down at the top of the kid's head, at his unkempt brown hair and the top of his face. She could see his eyebrows furrowed down, a troubled look on his face mixed with anger.

"Still, you don't know what could be in there," Kirito argued with the pirate. "There's no point in recklessly risking your life in you don't have to."

"Where's the fun in that?!" Luffy shouted. "That sounds like a boring adventure if there're no risks! Besides," he shouted, "I won't die from a jungle like this!" Kirito sighed at the pirate's baseless statement, but did chuckle a little at his unwavering confidence.

"You did," Ben stated coldly as he looked to his right over at his other flying companion.

"What?!" Nami gasped loudly, loosening her grip around Ben's front and almost falling off.

Ben rose his arms and reached behind him, catching Nami by the butt before she completely slid off. He was flustered as he realized Nami had heard him, and now his face got redder as he felt the soft flesh he was squeezing in his hands. "Sorry," he exclaimed and pushed Nami up once before lowering his arms to her legs as she had regained her grip.

Normally, Nami would blackmail someone who did that to her, demanding a large sum of money for it. Now though, she just stared down at the top of Ben's head and saw the kid looking pretty nervous. "What did you mean?" Nami asked, leaning her head down on Ben's left shoulder and whispering into his ear.

Riku was watching from behind and saw Nami start whispering to Ben. _I'll have to ask her later if she figures anything out._

Nami whispered again into the silent kid's ear. "You said, 'you did,' when Luffy said he wouldn't die in this jungle. Was that true?" She asked, and Ben clenched his eyes. With her head turned towards his, leaning it on his shoulder, she could see how much pain went through his eyes. "That's why you're so afraid of the jungle? Because Luffy would-"

"Yes," Ben replied, not elaborating any further on the issue.

She hesitated, but decided to press on anyway. "In five hours after we left the mountain. I can't believe he could die so quickly. He's Luffy!" She yell-whispered, then they both darted their eyes around but luckily none of their flying companions looked at them. "It seems hard to believe-"

"Then don't believe me," Ben whispered as he continued to fly forward. "And forget about what that King guy said, and forget all those injuries I got, and forget everything." He stared straight ahead with wide-eyes, "That's what I'm trying to do. I just want to forget now, but I can't, I have to remember, only I remember. Nox is dead so I'm the only one-"

"Nox? That's the guy you told the King about," Nami whispered.

"He was the one who," Ben turned his head towards Nami a little and his eyes trembled along with his entire face. Just looking at her face reminded him of the man they were talking about, with his spear straight through her chest. He winced and tried to hold in the yelp that he almost made when he imagined it.

Nami saw his reaction and watched how quickly he looked back forward. "It, wasn't just Luffy was it?" She asked. Ben hesitated, then shook his head 'no' slowly and sadly. "Did I-"

"Nami," he begged quietly. "I don't want to think about-"

"I want to know if I died Ben," she stated, demanding it from him. "Please! This is really important to me. I need to know what I did wrong so I-"

"It wasn't your fault," Ben whispered. "You don't need to do anything better, there was nothing we could do." He just shook his head again.

"So I did?" Nami asked. "Give me a straight answer Ben," she was raising her voice and getting more scared as she did. "I want to know if I died too-"

"Of course you died," Ben replied in a whisper-cry. His voice cracked as he said it, and he just stared ahead with watering eyes. "You didn't have your Clima Tact, I think you dropped it when Usopp died..."

"Usopp too?!" She asked in a loud whisper.

"Yes, yes Usopp, and yes you, and yes Luffy," he stated. "Of course you all died. Why would any of you have lived? Why would anyone," he whispered, tears streaming out of his eyes. "First Gray, and Usopp looking for medicine for him. Nox showed up and we fell one by one. Everyone," his voice cracked again and he turned in towards her.

Nami could not make a sound as the boy stared into her eyes. "You all died. All I see right now is your body with a spear through it. Luffy holding you while you bled out. Both of you exploding in a huge explosion." He was staying quiet but his voice was reaching Nami's heart and she could feel it breaking as she stared at this boy. "And no one remembers it," he whispered, "why can't you all just remember? I hate being the only one who knows what happened in those five hours. I hate it, I hate it!" He really sounded like a child now, his eyes full of tears once again. "When it was happening I tried to keep fighting, I tried to stop him from killing everyone else. Every time someone died, I would promise that no one else would. And every, single, time, I broke that promise."

Nami stared in silence at the left side of Ben's face that was getting streaked by tears going sideways. The wind pushing against his face pushed the tears over towards her and a few splashed on her cheeks, which allowed her to trick herself into believing the only tears on her face were Ben's. "I couldn't save, a single one of my friends," he gasped out, saying it out loud for the first time. "No one. If, if Gwen were here. God if I had to imagine her dead every time I saw her for the rest of my life, I couldn't handle it. I already can't look my best friends in the eyes. How can I tell them?" He whispered, turning to her, "How do I tell the people I love that I let them die? I was Right, There!" He yelled, then quieted again as he sobbed silently. "Tell me Nami, how do I tell them? Tell me, tell eh me, tell, sn-me, sniff," he couldn't speak anymore as his words were coming out more muffled, coughing on his words as he tried breathing in and out at the same time as he was panting too hard. "I didn't..." he whispered, "I didn't want to be the only one, but I still remember it. I wish I could forget," he just clenched his eyes hard and looked over to his right at Luffy and Kirito. He looked ahead of them at Sora, and then back at Riku who pretended not to have been watching him from twenty feet back. "I can't stand this," he whispered, as every time he looked at one of his friends his mind shifted to the versions of them he remembered, the dead versions. "It hurts so much," he whispered, reaching up and grabbing the left side of his chest where his heart was thumping hard, feeling like it was going to break right through his chest.

Nami opened her mouth to say something. She thought about saying something about her mother dying in front of her, but then closed her eyes as she did not then have to see her dead mother every day, picturing her with blood splattering out of her back. She tried to just comfort him, but even hugging him just a little harder seemed wrong, not enough for the weight of what he just dropped on her. Her mouth just stayed open while Ben looked back forward. The end of the forest was in sight, and Nami didn't know what to do. "I'm sorry," Ben whispered sadly, his tears gone as he had wiped them quickly the last time he ducked his head down. "I didn't mean to burden you with this, it was my weight to carry," he sounded on the verge of tears again. "I just, couldn't keep it in anymore. That's pathetic isn't it? Not even a whole day and I can't carry my burden by myself? It isn't your fault. I stood completely still when Nox ran you through," Nami flinched on his back. "I'm sorry for telling you," he whispered, feeling her little terrified flinch. "Though, I'm more sorry to the you who I couldn't save."

"Me and her are the same person," Nami whispered, hoping to help. "By having us fly over the jungle now you are saving her, because you're saving me."

He stayed quiet, and then whispered, "To you you're the same person, because you don't remember what happened. But if you could remember dying, would you feel the same way?" She did not say a word, trying to comprehend what he was saying. "I can't just throw away my guilt just because you are all alive again, because you still _died._ How could I? What kind of person would I be if, if I just forgot about letting everyone die?"

"It wasn't your-"

"My fault?" Ben asked, trying to keep his voice from cracking again as he descended towards the field of black dirt with small burnt up trees that went for another long stretch into the horizon. He continued while lowering, "Maybe not all of them were on me," he whispered. "I didn't even see Usopp die or Juvia. Gray got bit by a mosquito, so how could that be my fault?" He sounded like he was reasoning with himself, but then continued sadly, "But then why do I still feel guilty for being the only survivor? Why was it me? When I grabbed that cube, I did it in anger, not to bring back time. I had no idea what Nox was trying to do. I didn't even mean to bring back time! I was just so angry at him, and at myself, and sad," his anger was replaced with sadness as he mentioned how sad he was. Trying to stay angry took so much effort when Nox was already dead. The entire experience just made him sad now, as there was nothing about the entire ordeal, not even a single moment he wanted to remember. "I don't think I can handle the guilt much longer," he whispered as he neared the area of black dirt where a few of their comrades were already gathered. "Five hours that no one else will ever remember. If I disappear, there would not be a single thing left from those five hours. No one would know what happened," he whispered. He clenched his teeth hard and made himself angry to stop from looking sad when he reached the others. "Don't tell anyone," he growled in a low voice, "please," he added.

Ben pulled Nami's hands from his front before he even touched down, and she fell a foot to her feet, then looked back up fast. "Wai- Be-" she tried calling out, but she stopped both times.

"Hey Ben! Kirito needs a break, hold on!" Riku yelled up in the air, but Ben did not slow down.

"I'll go after him," Sora said, "just to make sure nothing attacks him while he's distracted." Riku nodded at him and then Sora soared off.

"Nami-san!" Sanji's voice called in worry from the ground. He had come with the first group using his Sky Walk as he did not need to be carried and now came running her way.

Riku looked down where next to Kirito who had his hands on his knees and was panting pretty roughly, Nami had fallen to her knees, with her feet pointed in different directions as she slouched there. Her eyes were red and tears seeped out of them. She'd always had a soft spot for children, and every single word Ben said was like a knife in her heart.

"Nami, are you okay?" Luffy asked the woman on the ground next to him. He lost the pout that he'd had on his face for a while now and actually looked concerned for her as she stared out into the sky at the dot getting smaller and smaller. "Nami!" The captain exclaimed as the woman started crying. "Who made you cry? Who was it?"

The rubber man looked around with a fist risen, while clenching that arm's bicep with his other hand. Everyone there just ignored him to ask Nami what was wrong themselves. She sniffled a few times and then straitened her quivering lip, and wiped her eyes of her tears. She got up to her feet and stared back to the north where Ben was flying. "We have work to do," Nami stated, and everyone looked around at each other in confusion.

Rin rose his hand and mumbled, "Uhh, what?"

* * *

"At least we found somewhere quiet," Ben mumbled as he walked around gathering dead sticks and twigs. The whole landscape was almost barren, but he managed to get a good handful of firewood after thirty minutes of wandering about. "Natsu can't make all the fires especially if he's hungry, we need one that'll last," he tried smiling, but wound up just having a mostly flat mouth with only the corners of his lips curved up ever so slightly.

Ben looked back across the black wasteland towards the flickering light of their dim fire. He walked back towards it and could hear everyone talking to each other, seemed like he was the only one not there. "Guess I'm doing, all the, work," he tried to finish as strongly as he started the sentence, but by the end of it, it just sounded strange complimenting himself and he faded off.

The boy sighed and kept walking towards the fire at the base of a large swirly rock that had an overhang over their sleeping area, which would give them some shade and let them sleep in late tomorrow. After twelve straight hours of marching across the black desert with close to zero signs of life other than the occasional monster, they were all exhausted.

Ben got close to the shadows near the firelight and heard a few of them murmuring at the others to quiet down. He started walking slower as they all became quiet, and he walked over into the area that got more illuminated with every step. "Umm," he began.

The shadows closest to him were faced towards the fire closer to the rock. Telling from the size of the man directly in his way it was obviously Franky, and he took a step to the left to get past the large cyborg. He frowned as the robot took a step that way too, blocking him off. "Not having any of this," Ben mumbled, imagining himself going the other way and Franky blocking again or something. Instead, he bent his knees and did one large hop up and over the cyborg's head.

Ben landed in front of Franky and put a fist down on the ground. He lifted up his head a little, "What's going on?"

Suddenly Franky's nipples opened outwards and bright lights shone out over the campfire area, illuminating all the people who were shadowed by the darkness. "Surprise!" They yelled. The whole pack of them cheered it at once and Ben just stood there slack-jawed staring at them all.

"Yeah!"

"Ben!"

"Umm," he mumbled, then said loudly, "It's not my birthday."

He looked directly across the fire and saw Riku walking up towards it with a smile on his face. Sora and Kairi were illuminated behind him, both smiling over as well. "It's not for your birthday," Riku explained.

"But then why?" He asked in utter confusion.

Riku smiled at him, "Because you saved all our lives."

Ben snapped his head over towards Nami who he saw on his left side, and she shied away for a second, but then gulped and walked forward. "I know you said not to tell anyone, but I wanted everyone to know you saved us."

"Not like you to keep from taking credit like that!" Natsu teased from the right side of the circle where he was sitting back on a blue bean bag chair. "Surprised you weren't boasting all day!"

"I-" Ben began.

"To even get the King to bow his head to you," Gray muttered in amazement from Ben's right side. "Gotta say that may be the most impressive thing I've seen for a long time."

"You're SUPER!" A loud voice yelled from right behind him and made him stumble a little forward into the circle more. Franky laughed hard from where he stood behind the kid.

"Yeah, without you, Nami said we would all be goners," Rin called over, the teen with a sword on his back smiling a toothy grin at the younger kid.

"You were goners," Ben whispered.

It was too loud around the fire for anyone to really pay attention to that whisper though. "Great job Ben," Kairi called over.

"Ben-san, Juvia thinks you did great," Juvia said from right next to him in his right side.

"Thanks," Kirito said and gave the kid a nod with a small grin on his face.

"But I," he whispered. _They don't get it. Why are they all thanking me? Why are they saying I did a good job? I don't, I don't get it!_

"I didn't need any help, but thanks anyway," Luffy said from behind him on his left, next to Franky.

That was it. Ben's confused look turned furious and he spun around and glared straight at Luffy. "You were dead! All of you were dead!" He screamed. He spun around panting and everyone had stopped talking, an odd silence falling over the campfire. "Raaa," he reached his hands up in his messy brown hair and ran them through it. "All of you died!"

"But, we aren't dead anymore," Kairi said loud enough for everyone to hear her. They looked over at the girl in shock, and she just had a small smile on her face as she shrugged. "So that makes it okay."

"What? No it doesn't," Ben mumbled loudly in confused response.

"Died?" Kirito muttered to himself, looking down at his hands in confusion.

"What do you mean?" Sanji asked the kid as he looked away from Kairi and back to Ben. Kairi was accepting it much quicker than everyone else.

Nami went a little pale in the face as she was really hoping this would cheer Ben up, but had resulted in him snapping at everyone instead.

"What do I mean?" Ben screamed over at the chef. "You were dead Sanji! Dead! All that was left was your suit jacket!"

"What are you-" Rin began, losing his smile and getting pretty nervous.

"Damn, we died?" Sora asked, putting his arms behind his head and leaning backwards. "Well thanks for bringing us back Ben."

"Yeah," Rin started, a smile returning to the teenager's face. He shrugged, "Thanks!"

"Why are you thanking me?!" Ben yelled over at Rin, then back at Sora.

Sora looked confused at that question, and he replied like it was obvious. "Well, you saved us."

"But I didn't," Ben yelled, throwing his hands up exasperatedly. "All of you died!"

"I don't know about dying, or any of that," Franky said from behind the thirteen year old. "But whatever happened in that five hours, you saved us from it. I can accept that."

"Even if I let you die?" Ben asked, his eyes widening a little.

"No one died," Luffy stated, crossing his arms. "Everyone is here, see?" He motioned around him.

"Idiot," Nami scolded the pirate Captain on her right side. "He turned back time, somehow, and we all went back to before the battle where we died."

"Nope," Luffy stated, turning and looking away.

"Fine, don't believe it!" Ben yelled at him. "You were the last one too you know! The last of your Straw Hat crew," he yelled at Luffy, making the pirate turn back to the shorter kid who looked so conflicted right now. "The rest of your friends died first, and they lay around you right before you blew up!"

And immediately the fire circle fell back to the dark tone it had picked up before. "As long as everyone is fine _now_ ," Riku emphasized. "Then it really is all okay. No matter what happened Ben, not one of us would be alive right now if it were not for you. Am I wrong in saying that?"

Ben turned to his silver haired friend and opened his mouth to yell at him, but thought about what Riku said for a second. If he had just let Nox grab the cube, maybe instead of being dead, none of them would have existed anyway. It could have been a fate worse than death even. And if he hadn't turned back time to the point he did, if he had just defeated Nox and not touched the Eliacube, everyone would still be dead. "I guess," he mumbled, feeling a small hint of pride deep down inside him. It was quickly overwhelmed by the waves of guilt that washed back over it though. "I still, wish I could have saved you," he muttered, his mind flashing to Riku's death in front of him now.

"How did I fare against the Nox guy?" Sora asked. Ben looked over towards him and the kid gulped, thinking back on the evil dark form that Sora transformed into. Sora saw his look and frowned, "Oh, never mind. Forget I said anything."

"You did well, compared to most of us," Ben admitted quietly. "You were the first one to break through his, Nox's, powerful armor. I think he mixed some of his energy with it..."

Nami was watching Ben and she went wide-eyed as others started asking questions about the time over there. _The more everyone is talking to him, the more he's seeing us as the real versions, and not the ones he lost._

"Hahaha! Usopp died first? Not surprising," Dash called over to the long nosed guy.

"What?! I didn't even make it to the fight with the main guy?!" Usopp exclaimed. Everyone was almost treating this like one of his stories, where he was the only one with any knowledge of it. Only this time, about half of the people there were readily accepting everything Ben said as fact.

"And how long did I last?" Dash asked his friend. Ben's eyes darkened but Dash ran right up in front of him. "Come onnnnn! I gotta know! I did good right?" He asked, lifting up his blond eyebrows a few times and getting a laugh out of Ben.

Ben had instantly thought about Dash dying painfully in his arms, but it was hard to think of that as anything but a dream when the real Dash was right in front of him, as lively as ever. "You were third to last," he admitted, "me being the last. And this is not including Nox."

"Third to last?!" Dash exclaimed, then punched a fist up in the air, "Whooppee!"

"I wouldn't get too excited though, you barely got to fight," Ben grinned at his friend who had lost his smile. "Nox knocked you out so he could steal your energy, he called it Wakfu, for his time-traveling-cu..." Ben faded out and remembered the tiny cube in his pocket. He smiled a little and put his right hand in his pocket, just leaving it there and getting a warm feeling in his hand that echoed through his body.

"So, I didn't get to fight?" Dash mumbled in annoyance. "Probably lucky for him then," the kid said, punching his fists together. "If he didn't catch me off guard I would have gave him one of these," he punched out his right fist, "and a few of these!" His left fist flew forwards in a flurry of punches as he bounced on his feet.

"Hahaha!" The group was laughing together now, and Sanji announced he was going to make a late night snack since it seemed like they were going to be up for a while. While he and Sora went to make a meal together, Ben sat down near the campfire and told his story.

The longer he told it, the more interactions he had with the characters he was talking about, the less real it became for him. Imagining their deaths started to become just a part of the plot he was retelling, and everyone ooed and ahhed, some even clapped or shed a tear occasionally.

"This is unbelievable," Robin whispered as she watched from behind the large cluster of people now crowded directly in front of Ben, sitting or standing in a semi-circle in front of him. She looked down at her hands then lifted her gaze back to Ben and smiled at the boy, _Thank you Ben._

"Haha! So I was second to last?! I was wondering what happened. There was no way I was going down with one hit," Natsu boasted and grinned madly. He turned his head and smirked over at Luffy who hmphed and turned away.

"It's just a story," the rubber pirate stated, still in denial after hearing that his whole crew died before him.

"A mosquito bite," Gray mumbled over and over again with his head facing down into his lap.

"It's okay Gray-sama," Juvia assured him. "Juvia is just saying though, Juvia was sixth to last," he turned to her jaw dropped and she was sticking her tongue out at him, before laughing and making Gray join in with her.

"You did so much damage!" Ben exclaimed as he looked at Natsu. "I've never seen you so strong. Just being in the same room as you was burning my skin, you burned off my clothes, even the steel walls, ceiling, and floor were melting." Natsu was lowering his bottom jaw more and more and his shocked smile just could not get any larger at one point, even if he wanted it to, and he wanted to smile more as Ben kept going. "Even with his time magic you still managed to land a skull-crushing blow that made the entire clock machine start falling apart."

"I got him!" Natsu shouted happily.

Ben chuckled and everyone looked at the story teller who shook his head. "Sorry Natsu, but while the fortress was collapsing Nox got you off guard with his time-freezing magic. Stabbed you right through, the heart..." saying it out loud with a grin on his face suddenly felt very very strange to Ben. Especially since the part directly after this, one hundred percent happened, even if he was treating everything else like a dream here.

Everyone noticed Ben start having a distant look on his face, but if he could go into detail about all their deaths, they didn't really see what was holding him back now. "And that's when you went back in time right?" Nami asked, wanting him to continue and not dwell in sadness for too long. "What was that like?" She asked.

"Scary," Ben replied. "I kicked a badly beaten Nox off the... time machine device," he kept from mentioning the cube this time for some reason. Ben continued, "When he let go of the device though, he started to age. He got older, then turned into a child, then aged again. Around us, the whole world was moving backwards, and the entire time everything was moving faster and faster. I was alone. Nox was gone. All of you were dead. I thought..." He stared up at the sky, or more precisely the large rock overhang above them. "I thought I was going to keep going back. I thought it was going to take me two hundred years in the past, where Nox wanted to go. That was scary, I wouldn't have known anyone... And then I thought..." he faded out and shook his head.

"Oh come on, tell us!" Dash exclaimed excitedly.

Kirito stared at the boy from where he was standing behind Juvia and Gray's seated forms. Riku was on his right side, and even Sanji and Sora looked over from the makeshift kitchen they had set up.

Everyone stared at Ben as he looked back up. "I considered, if only for a few seconds," he didn't want to hide anything now that he had already said so much. Just one day of keeping a secret from his friends tore at him too much, and he felt so relieved to have gotten most of it off his chest, and it felt even better considering they thanked him for it instead of the reactions he was expecting them to have. He continued while looking at his friends, "I thought about, going all the way back. Back to before we left Awul, and before Metropolis. I thought about going before the War with the Underworld, and back to before my Grandpa died in the attack on Pao."

Everyone stayed silent as the boy sat there pausing for a moment to gather his thoughts. He spoke as if to himself, his eyes just looking down at the floor in front of his feet. "I would have warned everyone about the attack, and saved my Grandpa, ChiChi, Master Makarov, everyone," he whispered, glancing towards Natsu, Gray, and Juvia who were all staring at him wide-eyed. "I _had_ the power, in the palm of my hands. When I decided to go back only five hours, that's kind of what happened. I slowed down once I decided I did not want to go too far back..."

"And why didn't you?!" Natsu asked, jumping up out of his seat.

"The Master," Gray whispered where he sat on the floor.

Nami gulped and tried not to say anything, but she couldn't help but whisper, "If not for Metropolis, Timmy would still have Wanda."

Ben looked around and was seeing most of them looking at him disappointedly or in annoyance. "How could I do that?" He asked them. "How could I knowingly, send Usopp and Rin back to Castle Oblivion? How could I bring back the power nullifiers? Or the Underworld bases we destroyed that helped so many people?" His voice was getting all choked up as he spoke. "You don't think I didn't want to go back to Pao do you? Because I wanted that, so much," he shook his head and closed his eyes tight to hold back some tears. "To see my Grandpa again, just to, to run away. You know, after making all these friends, just to lose them all in one day? I wanted to go back soooo much!" He yelled, his eyes watering up. "Gray never would have come to Awul though without Natsu and Juvia being in Port Royal. And they wouldn't have been there if we weren't looking for information on the Underworld which we wouldn't need if no one in Pao got killed by the attack! Castle Oblivion would have failed and Riku would still be trapped by Ansem who might have taken Timmy and the others without the help we brought from Pao! I tried to think of all the pros and cons of the choices I could make! What if I went back and things went worse than before though? And they could be so much worse," he gasped out, as he hadn't taken a breath in so long he was just getting louder and speaking faster. "None of you had to make that decision, I did! I might have done things better a second time around, if I had another chance at the last five months, but if any of you were to have died during that fixed timeline, God it would all be my fault. I couldn't handle, I didn't want, I thought it was the right choice-"

"Ben stop," Natsu told the kid in front of him. The pink haired Mage stared into Ben's watery eyes, and he whispered, "I'm sorry, you're right. I just... hearing that there was a chance to save the Master, I didn't really think before I spoke."

Ben looked wide-eyed up as his friend who never apologized like that. He sniffled a little and looked around to see everyone else nodding. "That, sounded like a hard choice," Kirito said calmly. "I'm glad you chose right. I don't think I would have. I would have gone back so far, erased everything, just to save her." He shook his head and tried pushing Asuna out of his thoughts. "But I'm glad you chose to bring us back only a few hours. I would still be a member of the Underworld if it weren't for all that had happened."

"And I would be a slave to Ansem," Rin muttered, and Usopp nodded as well with a dark look in his eyes.

"But," Luffy started up, tilting his head to the side. "If you went back to before Ansem took Riku, then you wouldn't have had to worry about the Castle Oblivion people right?" The rubber pirate asked.

Ben had to admit, he had never thought of that option. The risk of messing everything up was still there, but it could have been a good backup option.

"Yeah but Luffy," a sweet voice said from the right side of the sitting pirate. Luffy looked past Natsu and to the girl with dark red hair who leaned forward and smiled at him. "If it weren't for that happening, you, Sora, and I never would have had all those adventures. I know there were some rough times," they each thought about Brook for a few seconds, "but I'm glad I got to meet you and travel with you for so long."

"Me too Luffy!" Sora called over from the stove they had set up with a large pot on top of it made from pieces of the giant stone sticking out of the black soil desert. "Even though we lost Riku and Usopp that day, if you guys had never showed up in town, along with that short old guy who could turn into a giant, me and Kairi would have been killed by all those Ganmen!"

"Short..." Gray whispered.

"Old guy..." Juvia mumbled.

"Who could turn INTO A GIANT?!" Natsu exclaimed in shock.

Usopp, Luffy, Riku, Kairi, and Sora all looked over to see the Fairy Tail wizards staring at Sora with wide eyes. "That person you just described, did he glow white when-"

"Yep, that's him," Sora replied with a chuckle.

"That was Master Makarov!" Natsu shouted with a wide smile appearing on his face.

"Haha," Riku laughed, "I remember Ansem getting his butt kicked by that old man." **"Be quiet brat,"** _Aww come on, it's far in the past. Besides, I know you had their master killed with the attack on Pao, they deserve to get a laugh at you after what you did._ **"Do not lecture me boy!"** _Sheesh, calm down and shut up._ Either Ansem listened to him, or he just wasn't bothering with a response. Both were fine with Riku who chuckled and looked back forward to see everyone trading stories about Makarov.

"And Ben went and ran off," Usopp called over at the thirteen year old who had lost the focus of the discussion.

"That's not fair," Ben argued. "I tried to stay, my Grandpa knocked me out and dragged me out of there. It wasn't my fault!"

"Sounds like he was a good Grandfather," Robin stated with a grin over at Ben. "He was just protecting you."

"Yeah I know," the boy mumbled, "I wouldn't forgive him for it though." Everyone looked his way and saw him looking down again. "For months I was furious at him. I ran away a dozen times to go look for Riku, and Luffy and Usopp. I just, I let Riku get taken by the darkness."

"Jeez Ben lighten up," Riku said, plopping down next to the boy from out of nowhere and patting him on the back. "You've got this big problem where you take the weight of the world and put it on your shoulders. Sometimes bad things happen, and they're not _always_ your fault."

"Hey what's that supposed to mean?!" Ben yelled as Riku was certainly implying something with the way he said "always." Riku started laughing and patted his smaller friend on the back who oofed, then started laughing along.

 _Hard to imagine that yesterday everyone here died,_ Ben thought, his laughter dying down. _It doesn't seem real anymore. Nothing I told them will really stick, because they don't really remember it happening like I do. They don't remember their friends dying, their last words, their corpses, their blood... Man, maybe I am just putting way too much guilt on my shoulders like Riku said. If anything, I did really save everyone by sending us back in time. Maybe if I could figure out how to work this cube, I could reverse anything else that..._ In Ben's mind flashed an image of the King floating in front of him, looking deadly serious about the use of time devices. "Worst case scenario," he muttered under his breath, "only use it once, it will be the only chance I ever get."

"What was that?" Riku asked the younger boy.

Ben opened his mouth to tell his friend, but froze. _This, has to be my responsibility. If I tell the others about the Eliacube, they may try to use it selfishly. I hate distrusting my friends, but this is one secret I have to keep to myself. As soon as someone dies they'll try to get me to use it, but this is too powerful. It needs to be used on a city-wide destruction, or the apocalypse, or, or... for Gwen..._ His own selfish reasons snuck into his mind and he reached down into his pocket again as everyone kept talking. He felt the warmth of the cube and it filled him with courage, strength, a strange sense of calm that made him want to keep holding the cube tight.

Riku saw his friend put his hand in his pocket and a weird smile appear on his face. Before he could try to figure what was up though, Sanji and Sora called out something about food and everyone ran up to get some. Ben was one of those people, taking his hand out of his pocket as he did and making Riku chuckle that he even thought something was wrong.

Sora and Sanji whipped up a great stew to have before bed, and some people continued telling crazy stories about their times on Nexus. "I ever tell you guys about the time I first saw Goku do a Kamehameha Wave?" Natsu asked the small circle of people near him.

They shook their heads and Natsu went into the crazy battle he bore witness to over a year ago. For being such a long time, Natsu had pretty great memory. That, or he was just making a lot of stuff up, it was hard to tell.

"You know," Nami interrupted Natsu from nearby where she was planning to sleep soon. "Speaking of Goku," her teeth turned sharp and she tilted her head up in the air, shouting, "Where is he?!"

"They aren't coming back," Ben grumbled and stood up from the circle where Natsu was telling his story. "If they didn't come back to save any of us from Nox, then I don't see them even being alive anymore."

"What?!" Natsu yelled over at the younger kid.

"I'm sure you thought it too," Ben growled back at him. He lost his growl and looked a little sheepish, "I mean, the you who died. When me and you were the only ones left I bet you thought Goku abandoned us too!"

Everyone looked over at Ben a little sadly, still not really understanding what he had to go through even after his description of the ordeal. "And Timmy," Ben began, his face twisting around as he tried to smile, but couldn't. "Timmy Turner has been my hero for more than half the time I've been on this planet, but he left us to die. I know he didn't mean to. And I know he would have been torn up if everyone was still dead, but he isn't the type of hero I thought he was," Ben grumbled, annoyed at his fallen hero who only a day before he was praising, wanting to go fight monsters around the world with him.

"You, really don't think they're coming back?" Dash asked his older friend.

The thirteen year old looked to the south, and then the north of the rock outcrop from where he was standing. He sighed loudly and frowned. "Hell," Ben mumbled, "How would they even find us. Take off these wrist bracelets and we get hunted down. Leave them on and Goku and Timmy won't find us even if they're looking."

"Did anyone take their PB's off during the time gap?" Nami asked.

Ben thought back, but he couldn't remember what everyone's wrists looked like during the whole thing. "I don't know, maybe?" He shrugged. "Maybe they were on their way," he accepted the possibility, "maybe I'm giving up on Timmy and the Mayor- Goku too soon. I don't want to keep my hopes up that they will swoop in and save the day if there's danger though," he started walking away, continuing, "because they won't. I know that for sure now."

Ben walked away to go set up his mattress. The fire was dying down and conversations kind of wound down to people just talking to their neighbors. Everyone quickly decided it was time for bed as they had another long day of travel tomorrow.

Sora and Kairi lay in a large two person mattress in an indent in the rock outcrop. Kairi nestled her back up against Sora's chest and his arms wrapped around her. She turned her head and whispered to him, "Poor Ben."

"Yeah," Sora nodded in agreement. "He's a little too serious sometimes," he said, making Kairi giggle and raise her arms to cover her mouth. When she lifted up her arms her armpits were unguarded and Sora smirked devilishly, before tickling her pink. She had to hold her mouth shut even harder to prevent herself from cracking up out loud and waking up anyone who had fallen asleep already in the camp.

Finally Sora stopped to the sweet relief of Kairi who elbowed back into Sora's side. He made an 'oof' noise and then chuckled, "Guess I deserved that."

"Yeah you did," she whispered back at him. She closed her eyes and nestled into him to make herself more comfortable. However, ten minutes later and she was still laying there awake. She knew why too. "What's keeping you up?" Kairi asked the boy curled up around her body who she could feel something wrong radiating from.

The boy with spiky brown hair chuckled a little. "You got me," he whispered. He heard only silence and knew she was waiting for him to continue. "Well," Sora whispered, "when I asked Ben what I did during everything that happened, I saw a look in his eyes."

"You think you-" Kairi began.

"Transformed? Yeah," Sora finished her question and responded just as softly. "Ben looked afraid of me in that moment," he whispered, sounding sad to the girl was talking to.

"Well, black never has been a complimentary color on you Sora, hehe," she heard him laughing before she even finished and she barely made it to the end of her joke before joining in.

Sora stopped laughing before long and he just curled up tighter around Kairi, holding her close in his arms. "I know why I turned too," Sora whispered, putting his face into Kairi's hair so his voice was muffled. "I can't, imagine, life without you Kairi," he whispered to her, and brought his hand over her heart. "Thinking about what I did in those five hours we lost, when I lost you..." He clenched his eyes shut in Kairi's red hair, some tears getting on her. "I love you so much," he whispered to her, a smile back on his face as he said it.

"Hehe," she giggled, reaching up and holding his hand, this time not fearing any tickling from him. She held onto his hands wrapped around her and shifted so she could roll around, facing him inside their sleeping bag. "Don't worry about life without me silly, we're getting married remember?" She nuzzled her nose up to his and wiggled it around against his. The two of them looked into each other's blue eyes, and Kairi whispered, "I love you too Sora. Even if we get separated, even by death," she continued, smiling at him the whole time, "we'll find each other again, okay?"

Sora smiled wide and nodded a few times. "It's a promise," he told her. "Who knows, it could be a whole other adventure! But... Let's not rush to it okay?" He asked her sheepishly, making her start giggling and he joined in with her.

"Come here," she whispered, and the two of them closed the tiny distance between their smiling faces and kissed. The kiss lasted long because neither of them wanted to pull away. "Ah hah ah haha," Kairi panted at a loss for breath as she finally pulled back from Sora's lips.

When she reopened her eyes, he was smiling back at her again. "I'll always find you. No matter what," he whispered.

She smiled back at him and repeated, "No matter what."

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed. Ben was pretty distraught this chapter, but it seems like by the end he's calmed down at least a little. I admit I get a little teary-eyed every time I reread this chapter when Ben's talking to Nami. It's tough to see him so sad and unlike himself. Anyway though, the next and final part of chapter 7 of Heroes Will Rise will be called No Matter What. Looking for predictions on what that could mean, and I bet I'm going to catch you off guard** **again!**

joebob323 chapter 35 . 21h ago

... I thought you were actually killing everyone off, at least the part where Gray and Usopp died. Then, when the others started to die as well, I started to suspect that it was a dream, or it was a parallel world, or a hallucination. Never did I think it would be time travel! Also, what the heck did Merum eat to become so strong?! Does this mean that he is stronger, or weaker than Goku? Because there are not alot of people stronger than Goku, and the last time we saw Merum, he was rather weak. Not strong enough to even think about eating anyone close to Goku's level. Even if it was a steady growth, it would take forever to find someone as strong or stronger than Goku, kill them, and eat them. I just want to know, who the heck was that creepy guy that zombified Juvia? Good chapter, you really kept me on my toes.

 **Haha, glad I caught you off guard! It's not as much a matter of "what" Meruem ate, as "who" Meruem has been eating that he's gained so much power. Whether he is stronger than Goku or not has yet to be seen, but as the King of the Cooperative you can be sure he's a whole lot stronger than on day 3 when Boros tried killing him. And for the creepy green guy, that was just one of Nox's lieutenants, in Wakfu he turns one of the heroes into a zombie for a little before getting destroyed and making her turn back to normal! Thanks for the review!**

Espada-001 chapter 35 . 21h ago

Just a heads up I was the guest that made the review about Timmy following Kings energy two chapters ago, but for some reason I wasn't logged in when I made it. Well you could have convinced me that you were killing some of them off but then you had a time manipulating enemy show up to battle them and then while he was getting his ass kicked he kept asking for more power to increase his strength to keep up. (I actually thought he was just going to overload and cause a time lapse.) But in all honesty I figured something was going to happen to save them or reverse the events since you were killing all of them off at a rediculus rate, and that only ever happenes during major arcs or turning points in the series. And I'll admit while I except that it's possible to happen at some point in this story, if it had actually happened like this after no major events had occurred, I might've disappeared for a bit to cool down. Anyway moving on to the actual fight, was Nox using something with his attacks while he was attacking Luffy because blunt strikes can't do anything other than stun him at best. That's honestly the only question I actually had about the fight since other than that it wasn't to hard to follow, and that was the only thing I didn't quite understand. Anyway it was awesome to see Meruem, also while I did know he was going to be in this half of the story I didn't fully expect him to be the King. I had thought about it but I wasn't certain. Well that's about all I have for today so thanks for the great/(slightly nerve racking) chapter and I look forward to the next chapter! So until next time have a good day!

 **Yeah I thought when I put in Nox's time powers some people would begin to see what was going on. Glad you kept up with the fight scene, and as for Luffy getting hurt during it, remember how Nox hit Luffy and Natsu at the same time, and Natsu was gone for 40 mins after? Luffy came right back after that, showing the blunt attack really did not do much. However, Nox's attacks were mostly using energy weapons, so even if they were just slamming into Luffy, it's possible the Wakfu could hurt him similar to Haki or ki. I saw a few predictions about the King in this arc and Meruem was one of them, don't remember if that was you mentioning it, but yep, King confirmed as Meruem! Thanks for the review, and have a Great day!**

Darugus chapter 35 . 9h ago

Well that was a thing I realized that they weren't really dying when gray died because there really wasn't any space between his and ussop's death also ben is going to be traumatised for a while hopefully the others find out and confront him about it because now he is really broken also I was going to ask if you've watched the fate stay night series

 **Looks like you caught on quicker than most if you didn't think Gray was gone. Ben was def traumatized this time but thanks to all his friends being lively as ever, he seems to have calmed down a little, but that does not mean he is forgetting what happened, or that it won't continue to affect him through the story. And yes! I have watched Fate/Stay Night, though I do not even need to answer this question considering a couple chapters from now... nevermind XD. You'll just have to wait and see! Thanks for the review!**

KCSupido chapter 35 . 1h ago

Dear god this chapter made me extremely worried, but I'm glad that everything worked out in the end. I almost expected Clockwork from Danny Phantom to step in and fix it. But now I have to wonder if Ben will give in to the temptation of the cube's power. Also, do you think he's gonna get the Ultimatrix at some point?

 **Nice to see you back with another review! Fwew, I'm glad I got everybody worried there, but it's relieving to know I'm not That brutal as to kill off all the main characters at once out of nowhere. Ben holding onto the cube is going to be a major plot point, whether or not he can handle it, the King somehow knowing when time travel occurs... as for the Ultimatrix... I might have to watch more of the Ben 10 shows. Only really binged the first show, though I have seen some of the others. But, time will tell! Thanks again everyone for reviewing! 'Till next time!**


	37. Nexus HWR 7-8 No Matter What

**Nexus HWR 7.8 No Matter What:**

Usopp moaned as he dragged his feet across the dry, loose black soil beneath him. He had a brown shirt tied around his forehead like a bandanna with both sleeves hanging down over the back of his shoulders. The muscular pirate sharpshooter dragged his boots across the ground while his overalls' straps were down off his shoulder at his waist. "This is torture," he groaned as they trudged along the black ground.

Usopp looked behind him and stopped for a moment. He looked between some of his comrades walking behind him and all the way back into the haze of this black desert. "How humid can it get?" He asked, his voice sounding ridiculously dry compared to the last time he spoke as he purposely exaggerated how bad it was.

Still, he was not the only one feeling it. Kirito was sweating pretty bad and he lifted up his black t-shirt, slinging it over his nicely toned left shoulder and then continuing to walk forward. He flapped his wings behind his back a couple of times just to get the sweat off of them. "Damn," he muttered, using his shirt as a cloth to wipe some sweat off his forehead then dropping it back on his sweaty shoulder to continue walking. "You're right Usopp, this heat is sweltering."

"It wouldn't be so bad if some of us weren't such hot heads," Luffy mumbled as he trudged forward a few feet to the right of Natsu.

"And if a certain rubber idiot didn't get us lost yesterday, we would have been out of here already," Natsu replied, with his tongue sticking out of his mouth.

"You want to go?" Luffy asked half-heartedly, lifting up his fists and turning towards the wizard.

"Anytime loser," Natsu replied, this time actually getting Luffy a little pissed. Luckily they had friends around to stop them before Natsu turned up the heat even more.

Nami was walking forward with Sanji walking at her side, constantly fanning her with a purple fan. The wind was nice, but she was still sweating horribly. She lifted up her head a little and looked under the brim of her white circular sun hat. "How much longer is this desert Gray?"

"I keep telling you," the man around her age groaned, turning towards her slightly with much more sweat on his face than on hers. "I have not been here before. So stop asking."

"Nami-san," Juvia started before Nami could snap at her boyfriend. "We are all hot. Please remain patient please," she said in a sweet voice. "Juvia will try to become sad so that we can have rain."

Nami sweatdropped and smiled at the nice girl, "No no no." She waved her hand in front of her. "I'm fine. Don't be sad."

"Alright!" Juvia exclaimed happily. She was wearing a blue tank top that ended above her belly button, and shot dark blue shorts to match. She smiled and did a turn, "It would have been hard for Juvia to get sad anyway. Not with all of Juvia's friends together."

"Aww," Nami said with a smile, then when she released the breath she started panting heavily. _Wow it really is hot._

"I'll kill you, you, you rubber bastard," Natsu growled as he leaned closer in towards his skinny rival.

"You already used that one bakaaa! Dragons must not have very big brains," Luffy taunted.

"You take that back!" Natsu roared, and he started to pull back his right fist.

"Well everyone," Sora announced and landed right between Luffy and Natsu as they punched towards each other. The younger boy with brown spiky hair was ready though with his Keyblade out. "Protera," he whispered, and both of his friends' fists hit a large blue spherical forcefield that surrounded him out of nowhere.

Everyone chuckled as their friends bounced away from each other, diffusing the conflict. Sora grinned as well and lowered his Keyblade, allowing it to dissolve into light particles. He continued what he was originally saying, "Dash, Riku, and Ben have spotted the end of the desert up ahead not five miles. If we keep it up we could get there in the hour."

"Yayyy!" Usopp, Rin, and Franky yelled, pumping their fists up in the air.

"After the desert starts a forest, but a safe one with tall oak-like trees, scattered around so that it's easy to see all over," Sora looked at Gray who looked on edge at the sound of a forest, but nodded his sweaty head after that quick explanation. "We're still heading southeast so sooner or later we are going to reach our destination. Everyone, let's go!" He smiled and pointed his arm towards the direction where Dash had run up to him and gave him the update a minute ago.

"At least," Usopp mumbled as he jogged forward to keep up with everyone's quickened pace. "We're finally getting somewhere."

"Remember, when we used to, ride on a boat places?" Rin asked, the half demon kid panting hard as he ran after everyone. "Those were the good ol' days."

"I don't notice the difference," a voice said from his back and he looked over his shoulder to see Kuro's black furry head sticking out of his backpack. "Also it's nice and shady in here so I'm going to take a nap."

"You lazy cat," Rin complained, but his familiar just pulled his head back into the bed and made light snoring noises within a few seconds. "Jeez, and I thought finding you was going to give me a break. Now I'm just carrying extra weight."

Killua jogged far ahead of the rest of the group, his body covered in a light coating of sweat, but nothing over the top. He was hot, but not bothered by it, and he was the first to spot the large black lines in the distance that looked like the start to a forest. "Nice," he whispered, then grinned more as he got closer and realized just how tall those black lines were.

"They're huge!" Natsu exclaimed at the sight of the trees.

"I've seen bigger," Luffy boasted, though he was looking at the awesome trees with a mad grin on his face. "Hey Natsu, how about the first one to the top of that tree wins?"

"You're on!" Natsu yelled and charged forward, Luffy right next to him. Natsu was pulling ahead, but Luffy grinned and punched a fist out to his left side, pumping it and making his body turn red, with steam coming out of him.

Luffy shot forward like a missile and Natsu growled, roaring and making lightning surround his body which sped him up immensely.

Riku, Ben, and Dash were sitting down taking a short rest when they heard noises coming from the other way as the forest they discovered. "Here already?" Ben asked, standing up to his feet in surprise.

"I didn't tell Sora he had to rush or anything," Dash stated with a shrug of his shoulders.

Riku sighed, "It's just those two." All three of them watched two black dust clouds near them, pass them, and almost reach the tree line a hundred yards away in a matter of a few seconds.

Natsu grinned and charged right at the tree, grabbing it at the bottom and then shimmying up insanely fast, crashing right through a bunch of thick branches on the way up, lighting some dark green leaves on fire too.

Luffy meanwhile stopped at the bottom and threw two of his arms up and grabbed the thickest branch he could find. "Gum Gum Jet Rocket!" He shot himself up through the branches like a rocket and then grabbed onto the tip of the tree and started laughing as he saw no one around him.

Natsu reached the top too and started laughing, only to hear laughing on his left. Luffy heard the laughter on his right and the pirate turned towards the mage who turned his way at the same time. "Ehh?" Natsu exclaimed and pointed one arm at his competitor. "What are you doing there idiot?"

"Why are you on the wrong tree?" Luffy asked the pink haired wizard who snarled and yelled back that his was obviously the one that Luffy pointed at. To this Luffy yelled back, "I decided the tree! I know which one it was!"

Both of them opened their mouths to yell some more, when they saw movement further in through the forest. They were at the top of trees over a hundred feet tall, both of them pretty much the same height, though that was Natsu's next argument. At least, it would have been his next argument had a figure not leapt out of the trees in front of them.

"Who are you?" Luffy asked blankly.

Natsu was a little more on edge at the sight of this figure, adorned completely in a black cloak with a hood up that shadowed his face. The cloak had long sleeves and went down below his feet, with a zipper going vertically down the entire front of the cloak, and had a little silver chain that looped around the top of the zipper. The figure put his hands in front of his body and swirled them around as he hovered in the air. "Uhh, what are you doing?" Natsu asked, now the one speaking in a deadpan voice.

"Shut up!" The person in the cloak shouted, his voice sounding like a boy's their age or even younger. He pointed both hands that he was making hand signs with outwards, and they glowed blue for a second.

"Luffy I think we should postpone our-" before Natsu could finish his thought, two large blasts of freezing cold air slammed into the two of them and sent them flying off their treetops and back towards the black desert.

By this point everyone else was getting close. They slowed down and many freaked out at the sight of Lufy and Natsu both falling off their tree tops with their chests covered in icicles.

"Who did that?" Killua asked, looking around the tree top and then seeing a black cloaked figure standing up on top of a tree that was covered in ice. "Him," the kid said in a calm, calculating voice.

The white haired boy started to take a step forward, but stopped as the black cloaked figure suddenly became surrounded in hands that wrapped him up tightly. "Way to go Robin!" Nami yelled as the older woman held her arms crossed and created many more limbs with her Devil Fruit power.

"That was great Robin-san," Juvia complimented the woman.

"Thank you Juvia, I-" Robin stopped talking as she suddenly felt very weak. She clenched her eyes shut and fell down to one knee, managing to pry her left eye open and look up to the top of the trees where the figure had lifted up his own arms and revealed black chains on his sleeves.

Nami's eyes went wide as she put two and two together. "Those are Sea Stone chains! Be careful!" Robin's hands all disappeared and the woman fell to her other knee, panting hard as she had held him as long as she was able.

Kirito frowned at the sound of that, remembering Marco's lessens on the weaknesses of Devil Fruit users. "Can't let him touch me," the teen grumbled, then made three hand signs and slammed his hands down into the ground.

For a few seconds nothing happened, then the ground directly underneath their enemy's tree lifted up high in the air. The tree uprooted but the figure wearing black on top did not miss a beat; he leapt up even higher in the air and started doing flips as he came down.

Riku stared up at this figure in a black cloak and he narrowed his eyes. "I've seen this before," the silver haired teenager began.

Ben and Dash both turned in towards him and watched as Riku's green eyes turned huge. He looked to his left and held out a hand, "Sora wait!" He called out.

The guy doing flips out of the air slammed down on the ground in front of Luffy who had a fist pulled way back and his arm spinning. "Gum Gum Rifle!" The figure in the black cloak sidestepped and the fist flew past his chest, missing by inches. Meanwhile on his other side he heard a yell about some dragon fire or other, and simply hopped up in the air, allowing Natsu to slam into Luffy while the pirate was pulling back his missed attack.

"Guys! Now really isn't the time!" Killua yelled over at the two of them as when they stopped tumbling they started yelling at each other.

"It's his fault!" They both yelled, then turned to each other frustratedly. "Just stay out of my way," Natsu demanded and snorted, literal steam coming out of his nose.

Luffy reached an arm forward and grabbed Natsu by the shoulder. "You stay out of mine-"

The ground underneath their feet cracked open and a dozen vines shot up and wrapped around their bodies. Natsu laughed and shouted at Luffy about how the pirate sure wishes he had fire powers right now. Right before Natsu could burn himself out of his vines however, the green whips filled with electricity and the wizard roared in pain.

"Shishishi! Bet you wish you were rubber right-" a large ball of black formed around Luffy and cut him off mid-sentence. Suddenly he and the vine were slammed down to the ground as if the gravity had just multiplied by ten. "What the-" Luffy growled and pushed down on the ground to get himself up, but the black sphere only pushed him down harder.

"Stop hurting my friends!" Sora yelled as he dove towards the black cloaked figure. The figure stepped to the right, but as Sora's first foot hit the ground he pivoted and swung his Keyblade arm towards the guy. His opponent back flipped and kept flipping backwards, but Sora was relentless and chased him down, only a foot behind every step of the way.

The kid with brown spiky hair grinned and leapt up in the air. He started bringing his Keyblade down with one hand, but as his opponent went to flip again, his feet tripped over some debris from when Kirito ripped up the tree with one of his ninja jutsu. "I've got you now!" Sora yelled and brought down his Keyblade towards the figure's head.

Everything started moving in slow motion for a few seconds. Sora's Keyblade slashed the front of the mysterious figure's hood, it kept going and clanked against something that made a loud ring echo around the landscape. The hood that Sora slashed fell backwards as Sora saw the weapon that had appeared in his foe's hand. Sora landed in front of the figure who finished stepping back to avoid the slash, and then he lowered his Keyblade down to his side.

"Wait, what the?" Usopp mumbled and rubbed his eyes.

"That's not possible," Sanji stated in confusion.

Standing directly in front of Sora was a kid with spiky hair of a lighter shade than Sora's, more dirty-blond than brown. The teenager had Sora's blue eyes, his height, and most importantly, his Keyblade. Every Keyblade they had seen Sora, Riku, Kairi, and even Ben use had all been unique. This one had the exact same yellow hilt and silver steel key-shaped blade sticking out of it, all the way down to the identical silver keychains hanging off the bottom of the Kingdom Keys.

"It's, another Sora," Luffy wondered confusedly as he got back up off the ground, the magic holding him down gone now. He was pretty pissed, but also really wondering what this was all about. "Hey Sora! Why's there another you right there?" He called over loudly.

"I am NOT SORA!" The person yelled furiously.

Gray looked at the black cloak the boy was wearing and he rose up his fists. "The Organization," he growled.

"Roxas," Sora whispered as he stared at the boy in the black cloak in front of him. "But how is this possible? You're... you are supposed to be inside of me," he said, loud enough that a few people close-by were confused and just trying to catch as much of this conversation as they can.

"I've got my own heart now Sora," the boy growled at him. "I'm not a Nobody anymore!" He slammed both hands out to the sides and an all black Keyblade with a circular black hilt formed in his left hand too.

"Why are you fighting me?" Sora asked as the boy closed the distance between them instantly and brought down both Keyblades. When Sora parried, Roxas dropped down and swiped Sora's legs out from under him. Sora fell but placed his right hand on the ground before he completely hit the ground, then used that arm to throw himself feet first at Roxas who crossed his Keyblades to block him. While he blocked Sora's double kicks, the teenager with brown hair bent his knees in and did a roll over the crossing point of Roxas's blades, slamming a fist down on the boy's exposed golden brown hair, and then spinning in midair and slamming his Kingdom Key into Roxas's left side.

Roxas rose his own Kingdom Key to block, but Sora's swipe was too strong and pushed past, hitting him in the arm and knocking him flying backwards. Roxas's feet hit the ground fifty feet away but he was still skidding fast so he put down his black, sharper Keyblade and dragged himself to a stop. "You won't control me anymore!" Roxas roared, slamming his arms out to the sides and making his black cloak glow bright for a few seconds.

When the light faded, red stripes went down both of Roxas's black sleeve arms. The hood resting on his back looked like it had turned fully red with only one black stripe down the middle, and a large swirly red pattern appeared on the chest of Roxas's black cloak. "Drive form?" Riku wondered in amazement from where he watched a hundred feet away with Ben and Dash.

"Who is this guy Riku?" Ben asked his silver haired friend.

"He's Sora's Nobody," Riku replied softly. "At least, he was..."

"So that's your Valor Form huh?" Sora asked as what used to be a part of him charged towards him. Roxas's blue eyes glared into Sora's, and he sped up tree times what his speed was before. Sora lifted up his left arm as Roxas put on that burst of speed, and a green hilt appeared in Sora's hand with a silver blade that had three sharp prongs at the end. He blocked the first of Roxas's strikes with it, then had to spin and block the next with his Kingdom Key.

While they were pushing against each other, Roxas was leaning in towards him and frowning with all his teeth showing. "Damn you Sora!" He yelled at the boy he was created from years ago. "Damn you!" He yelled loudly, pushing down harder than ever and making Sora lean back far.

"He's pushing back Sora," Usopp said in awe to the blond chef and ninja kid next to him. Sanji and Kirito were both watching with a little bit of surprise too, but they only became more amazed. Sora fell backwards on the ground flat on his back, then put both hands with Keyblades up over his shoulders and kicked up, sending Roxas lifting up in the air.

Roxas oofed as he lifted up in the air, then opened his clenched eyes to see Sora hop back on his feet and point just the Kingdom Key at him. "Stop!" Sora yelled. His opponent froze in midair, and Sora yelled up to him while he had him in one spot. "Come on Roxas, just talk to me! I thought we were friends?!"

Sora's smile and the words that just came out of his mouth seemed to really do it and Roxas snarled ferociously, breaking free from the Stop magic and dropping down at Sora with both Keyblades pulled back far. Sora's eyes widened as Roxas being in Valor Form right now, the one that maxed out a person's strength, was not going to be pretty if he tried to block.

The boy wearing a black and red shirt along with red shorts and big yellow boots leapt away from his cloaked Nobody who slammed his Keyblades down where Sora just was. The ground underneath where the Keyblades hit dented down, and then a fifty foot radius shot out in every direction as a crater blew down into the black soil. "'Friends?!'" Roxas roared as he shot out of the smoke his other black Keyblade pulled back. He did a full three sixty and looked like a tornado of Keyblades as he collided with Sora. Sora rose his blades and blocked over and over as they slammed into him. Roxas stopped with one last powerful blow that sent Sora lifting off the ground and flying backwards twenty feet where he skid to a stop pretty fast, grunting every time he hit a bump while sliding on his butt across the ground.

Sora looked up at Roxas who started walking towards him now. The boy with dirty-blond hair looked so mad. "Yeah Roxas," Sora said, "we're friends. I thought-"

"Friends don't abandon each other!" the cloaked figure yelled at him. "They would look for each other if they got separated!" He kept marching towards Sora and held both of his Keyblades down at his sides as he did. "When a friend is in trouble you're supposed to help right?!" Roxas yelled at him. "So where have you been Sora? Why are you so surprised to see me?! Did you not even notice I was gone?!"

Sora was at a loss for words as he stared up at he figure in front of him. "I, I didn't," Sora whispered.

"Well you should have!" He yelled back at him. Roxas clutched his Keyblades tightly in his grips and he took another step so he was standing right in front of Sora. "I, I needed your help Sora," Roxas whispered, "but you, weren't, there!" He rose up his Keyblades and then his body covered in white light. When it was gone, so we're the red stripes covering his body, and apparently his confidence too.

"I shouldn't have said anything," the lighter haired boy stated and reached above his shoulders, grabbing his hood and putting it back up. A large slash cut through the middle of it so Sora could see his Nobody's dark blue eyes glaring back at him from underneath the hood. Roxas glared at Sora and growled loud enough for everyone to hear, "Anyone passing through the forest pays tribute to the Lord of it. It won't be hard to find his castle, don't try to skip out or a squadron of our best fighters will be sent straight from The Dread Fort to crush you. I need to get back."

Roxas turned around and reached down into his pocket at his side. It kind of looked like the pouch Sora used which had an almost endless supply inside it. Everyone stared at the figure as he pulled out a red and white ball and held it in front of him.

"Wait a second, are you leaving?" Luffy asked angrily, marching towards the boy who attacked him. Roxas glanced his way while lifting up the pokeball, releasing the red light from it. Luffy continued angrily while the kid stared back at him under the shadow of his hood, "I have a score to settle with you."

A ball of darkness appeared above Luffy's head and the pirate looked up just in time for a black gravity ball to hit him. He thought he was ready, but this one pushed down at twenty times normal gravity and crushed the ground beneath him along with slamming him flat to the floor.

"Roxas wait," Sora stumbled up to his feet and took a few steps towards a piece of him. The other boy was standing in front of a large blue and white Pokemon that had large wings folded in at its sides and a cute face almost like a puppy's. Sora glanced at Roxas's Pokemon and then back at Roxas's back. "I'm sorry I didn't know you were missing. I spent most of the last two years searching for Riku. I only recently got to this continent. Please, if you need help just ask me."

Sora took another step, but Roxas turned his head a little and glared back from under the shadow of his hood. "It's too late. They have her. And I want you to leave this place Sora. Get out of here now!" He turned back and walked towards the Pokemon. "While you still have the chance," Roxas added darkly. "Latios let's go!" He called out, and his Pokemon spread its wings, flapped them once, and shot up into the sky.

"Damn," Natsu growled as he finally got off the ground where he was lying with his tongue sticking out after being charred by the lightning vines. "Just when I was about to get him," he mumbled.

Sora stared up over the treetops of the forest in front of him, watching as Roxas left. _"Friends don't abandon each other... When a friend is in trouble you're supposed to help right? ... Did you not even notice I was gone?!" Roxas, I, I,_ Sora looked after him in the distance, then heard footsteps right behind him.

Sora turned around and saw Kairi standing right behind him, her hands crossed behind her back and an innocent smile on her cute face. She tilted her head to the side, "Go after him Sora. You want to don't you?"

"Yeah but," he started, not looking at anyone else, just the girl he loved in front of him.

Kairi reached up and grabbed a necklace around Sora's neck, with a small pink good luck charm on it. "You've always held onto this for safe keeping. I'll be waiting for you. Remember, no matter how far we go..."

"I will always find you," he smiled at her and backed away, "I'll come back to you, I promise!" He turned and started running towards the forest.

"I know you will!" Kairi yelled after him, raising her right arm up in the air and waving at his back as he ran away.

Sora reached down and pulled out a pokeball from his endless inventory pouch, feeling it out and sensing which one he wanted. "Lugia!" He yelled, tossing the ball up in the air and releasing a huge red light from it. The ball bounced back to him and he caught it in midair as he leapt up towards Lugia's back.

 **"How may I help you Sora?"**

"Follow that Latios!" Sora yelled and pointed over the trees. "We can't let it get away!"

 **"Do you wish to catch it?"** Lugia asked with interest as Sora seemed really excited.

"Kind of," Sora replied with a laugh. "More like catch its rider! Now let's go, before Roxas gets away!"

Lugia's telepathic voice echoed around, **"As you wish."** It flapped its massive white wings once and shot up over the tree canopy a hundred feet above in a split second. There was nothing but empty sky for miles, so it wasn't hard to find Roxas and his Latios as a small dot getting farther away.

Roxas was frowning deeply as he flew away, an angry expression on his face but no one to direct it towards. _All this time, I thought he was dead. I mourned you Sora, I tried to push away thoughts that you had abandoned me, but you didn't even know I wasn't inside you anymore! Ahh! You idiot!_

"Laa, La-aaa," the Legendary bird Pokemon beneath him spoke up and Roxas understood what it was saying to him.

The cloaked figure looked backwards and dropped his jaw at the sight of the massive Guardian of the Sea Pokemon soaring towards them through the sky. "Aaaahh-" Lugia screamed, the sky pulsing out little circles everywhere. It sounded like a rough screech to Roxas, but a few seconds later his bird Pokemon was slowing down.

"Hey Latios, hey!" Roxas looked down and rubbed the top of its head. "Don't listen to it!" He looked back and stared at the boy standing on top of the approaching Lugia. "Damn it Sora," he pointed a hand up at the boy with even spikier hair looking down at him. "That's not fair! Stop controlling my Pokemon!"

"Well then can you stop and explain what's going on with you for a minute?" Sora asked loudly. "I'd really like to help you out. I am really sorry I didn't think to check to see if you were still inside me."

"Haven't you noticed anything strange since you got here?" Roxas asked in annoyance. "You really had no signs that there was something wrong?"

Sora opened his mouth to say no, then froze and thought about when he transformed to save Kairi, and again to fight Orochimaru. His eyes opened wide and Roxas nodded his head, "Who do you think it was keeping your Heartless side in check? With you it was never a big problem, but I knew you must have had at least a few incidents-"

"Do you think I could control it?" Sora asked the teen below him on Latios's back.

"I don't know, you never-" Roxas stopped himself and shook his head over and over. "What am I doing?!" He yelled at himself. "Latios! Snap out of it and use Extremespeed to get us out of here!"

The blue Legendary bird shook its head and then zipped away before Lugia even had its mouth halfway open. **"I am sorry Sora, it is out of my vocal range."**

"Don't worry Lug'," Sora assured, rubbing his hand on Lugia's long slender neck. "Keep chasing them. Roxas will have to calm down sometime, and then we'll figure out what's going on with him."

 **"Who is this Roxas?"** Lugia asked with interest as it carried its Master across the sky after a smaller creature whose wings didn't take it as far with every flap. **"I don't believe you have ever mentioned him before."**

That was a low blow and Sora winced as he realized he really had forgotten all about Roxas. "I know," Sora muttered, "He's an old friend who I need to help. So please Lugia."

 **"Of course,"** the Guardian of the Sea replied with a nod of its large blue and white head. **"Hang on…"**

A few miles back, and getting even farther every second, Sora's friends all stood at the edge of the forest. Most of them had seen Sora's goodbye to Kairi and their promise, and Nami and Juvia were tearing up at the complete faith the two had in each other and their ability to find one another anywhere they went.

Nami heard a light, but lower pitched sobbing behind her and she turned to see Sanji with his head buried in his suit sleeve. "Sora, you are a man among men!" He lifted his head up to the air, "But I am so jealous!" He roared.

Kairi giggled as she heard Sanji's shout, but she just kept looking out above the trees where Sora disappeared to. Gray walked up to the girl's side and tried to see if she was hiding any hidden fear or anything, but she was just smiling like always. "Why aren't you worried?" He asked her in a slightly grim tone.

"Didn't you hear him?" Kairi asked, turning her head to Gray. "He said he'd come back. He promised," she spun around to faceless rest of the ground, "Sora never breaks his promises."

"Well that's great for him, but," Killua started, "now we're down our strongest member! I really thought we were screwed with Goku and Timmy leaving but..."

"Strongest?" Natsu asked, turning his head in a little.

"Member?" Luffy continued, also turning in towards the fourteen year old.

"I've seen everyone here fight," Killua stated. "I've been judging my targets since I was a toddler, deciding who was safe to kill, and who was too much of a risk to go for it."

Everyone just stared at the boy in somewhat shocked silence. The fact that he was talking about killing people as a toddler was very unnerving to most... all of them. Killua continued in a confident tone, "I'd be willing to take on all of you, even you rubber man," he told Luffy who would be his biggest challenge without the effective use of his lightning. "But I never wanted to take on Sora. Or Riku for that matter," he admitted and glanced over at the silver haired teen who was ignoring the conversation and just talking to Kairi.

"You think Sora was stronger than us?" Natsu asked the kid with a scoff.

Killua shrugged, "Maybe not in raw strength you brute, but he's got Pokemon, Keyblades, flying, strength, darkness, and most importantly fighting smarts."

"I'm all of those things and more!" Natsu yelled at the boy.

"Whatever you say Fire Guy," Killua replied, putting his hands in his pockets and walking towards the tree line.

"Why you little!" Natsu lifted his fist, not even bothering to cover it in flames he was so confident. He punched down towards Killua's back, and then everyone watching froze with their breaths caught in their throats.

Natsu's fist stopped moving right where Killua's head used to be, but now Killua was on Natsu's right side with his hand held up near Natsu's neck, his sharp fingernails touching the Dragon Slayer's neck. There was another small figure standing on Killua's left side, holding back the arm that's fingernails had just touched Natsu throat and now had blood dripping down them. "What do you think you're doing?" Dash asked the white haired kid who he had thought was pretty cool up until this point, but who he had just stopped from killing their friend.

Killua chuckled as he looked at the quick kid with immense power in front of him. _He's not very experienced, but easily the best I have left. Better keep being friends with him._ "Whoa Dash," Killua said with a chuckle, losing the murderous intent in his eyes. "Wasn't going to hurt him, come on, you know me better than that. I just wanted to," he looked towards Natsu who still had not looked towards him, but was lifting up his left hand and touching the blood droplets sliding down his neck. Killua chuckled, "Teach him a lesson," the boy finished.

"Creep," Gray growled over at the kid who walked away from his nakama with bloody fingernails.

Killua shrugged, "I thought you would understand most of all Ice Man. This isn't a game. I'm worried about my safety after learning I already died here once. If we split up too much it's going to be very dangerous for each of us. So the fact that everyone's joking around about Sora's desertion, does not sit right with me."

"Desertion?" Riku looked back and asked the kid with a small laugh. "I don't know about Timmy, or Goku, but Sora would never in a million years not come back for Kairi."

"Hehe, thanks Riku," Kairi told the boy next to her who stood up for Sora before she had a chance to.

"Let's just get moving!" Nami exclaimed, one of many people getting fed up with all this drama. "We'll get through the forest, make it to our destination, and hopefully Zoro will be there."

"Yeah!" Luffy shouted, getting excited again. "Let's go!" He yelled, and started marching towards the woods.

"Alright guys, let's go!" Natsu yelled and waved his hand mimicking Luffy and marched off in a taunting way.

"God this is going to be a long trip," Ben mumbled as the two of them immediately began arguing the second they entered the forest and passed the trees they had their climbing contest on before. He looked over to Dash to have a laugh about their older friends' antics, but Dash was just staring over at Killua with a narrowed gaze. "Come on Dash, I'm sure he wasn't really going to hurt Natsu."

"He drew blood Ben," Dash said, turning to his slightly older friend sternly. "What if he had killed Natsu? You heard him, he thinks he could take all of us on, and to tell you the truth I'm pretty sure he's a lot stronger than any of us have seen."

"Really?" Ben asked, looking over and seeing Killua walking forward alone with a pretty large gap around him now. "I haven't noticed."

"Yeah well," Dash started in a quieter voice, "you ever notice how when we get swarmed by monsters he's always the last to help, or only jumps in if the fight is an easy win? I've noticed," Dash continued, glaring at the back of the older boy's head. "I don't trust him Ben," he continued softly.

"Don't worry so much," Ben said and put an arm around his friend's shoulder, pulling Dash's head into his side and annoying the little blond speedster. "When we fought Nox, he died fighting chasing after you. Nox took you and went back to his ship, and Kil was the first one to get there after me." Dash's eyes widened and he looked back over at the white haired kid who kept walking through the entrance to the woods and after Luffy and Natsu.

"He did?" Dash whispered in surprise.

 _I did?_ Killua thought in much more surprise than Dash. _Ben can't be lying. The fact that Meruem showed up and mentioned it is enough proof, but that isn't like me at all. I should have known when the guy nabbed Dash that I couldn't handle him. How could I be so stupid to die like that?!_ Gon's face appeared in Killua's mind and he frowned, because next to it was a fainter image, showing Dash. Around that faint image were dozens of other faint images all over the place. _Stupid? Dying trying to save a friend is probably what Gon would call the coolest death,_ Killua sighed and kept walking, hands in his pockets while looking up at the dark tree canopy up above.

Killua was staring up at the trees for a few seconds when he stopped walking. He did it so suddenly, right in the middle of a stride, that everyone else behind him froze as well. The white haired kid stared up and the rustling branches in the air, and then he looked to his left and right.

"What is-" Sanji started calling over to him, but Killua spun towards him and held up a finger to his mouth telling Sanji to be quiet.

Killua pointed up with one finger right above his head. Everyone followed the point up to the tree branches, and stared in surprise as one tree's branch was brushing up another's, both branches ending in the shapes of hands. "The trees are alive," Killua whispered loudly.

"Which ones?" Dash whispered up to the kid who he just learned tried to save his life.

Killua smiled a little that he had regained some trust, and he looked back with a small grin, "All of them," he said.

Nami looked around her as a gust of wind rushed through. The whistling of the wind sounded low pitched, and she looked up to see the branches swaying up above. "Wow," she whispered.

"It's quite amazing isn't it?" Robin asked her friend.

"Juvia has never heard trees sing before," the blue haired woman added on, holding out her arms and smiling as she let in the great feeling of nature around her. Nami's eyes opened wide and she opened her mouth, but one of Robin's hands appeared on her face and covered up her mouth. "Juvia is so happy," the younger woman continued as she spun around, holding her arms out happily.

Robin lowered her hand from Nami's mouth as it looked like the navigator no longer wished to interrupt Juvia. Little strands of water were seeping out of her fingers and making patterns in the air, dancing as if with the trees' song. Water lifted her feet up above the dark forest's floor, and she waved her arms around in a rhythm, as if she were the conductor of an orchestra.

"Wow," Franky admired, lowering the sunglasses from his robot face a little and admiring the girl. "She's gotten a lot better than when we met her," he chuckled, remembering the flustered girl they adopted to their crew back on the first day of Nexus.

The cyborg turned to Gray and gave the younger man a nice elbow in the side. "Lucky boy," Franky said with a chuckle, then laughed harder as Gray's face went red.

He didn't spend much time looking at Franky though, as he was far too interested in Juvia. He looked at the girl floating higher and higher, spinning around and around with a bright smile on her face. The dark leaves of the trees around her actually started to lighten in color, and the dark brown trunks became a lighter shade as the water from her magic seeped into them.

The ground suddenly shook and everyone down below looked to the distance where Luffy and Natsu had disappeared to. "If those idiots are hurting the trees I'm going to murder them," Nami snarled and stormed off through the woods. Most everyone followed after her, though Juvia was staying behind, and Gray stopped himself from going with the others to stay and watch her instead.

Everyone else headed out through the woods in the direction they last saw Natsu and Luffy going. They all ran out of the trees at around the same time and gawked at the sight in front of them. In he middle of the forest was a bridge, a rope bridge, leading out to a large island with drop offs all around the circular island. Between the outskirts of the trees and the fortress itself was a moat all the way around, with steep slopes to get back up if one were to fall in.

The rope bridge was a madhouse at the moment. It looked like people were trying to cut it down from the other side, but someone was standing there and beating them all away. The bridge was on fire and wobbly, and it didn't look like it was going to stand much longer.

On the island the bridge led to, in front of the figure fighting off demons at the bridge, was a large castle. As they were admiring the work of architecture: five stories tall made out of stone blocks, and a couple of acres of square feet making up the base, the entire building shook.

"One guess as to where Natsu and Luffy are," Ben muttered. As the words came out of his mouth, an enormous foot flew out of the top of the castle, coated entirely in black and as it came back down it burst into flames. "HAWK AXE!"

The left wall exploded outwards in a giant hole at the same moment, with a beam of yellow and red crashing through the stone wall. "Lightning Fire Dragon Roar!" Natsu's voice echoed as the huge beam shot out into the woods.

"No!" Dash yelled. The little boy ran as fast as he could. The beam was fast, but he ran around the outside of the moat and slid on the grass right underneath it before it hit the line of trees. Dash slammed both of his fists up and roared, "RAAAA!" As he did, his punches sent Natsu's attack lifting off its original course and going up above the trees, only burning through a little of the canopy above him. "Sorry about that!" He called up to the trees which were apparently alive. He stopped as he started thinking about it, _Wait, aren't all trees alive?_

Maybe they were, but they definitely couldn't do what everyone started to see the trees doing now. "AaaAAeeeHahhh," a beautiful voice rang out around the forest, and the people watching from the edge of the moat turned around and looked the direction they just came from.

Floating out from in between some trees was their blue haired Rain Woman. Juvia floated forward with her arms risen to her sides and one large pillar of water holding up her feet. Her eyes were huge, and glowing pure white as more water than ever shot out in a hundred different streams out towards the darkened trees all around her.

"Who are you?!" Gray shouted at the woman who stopped responding to his calls of 'Juvia.'

"I am the Dryad who reigns over this forest, a Meliai, daughter of Gaea!" The creature was raising its voice and the amount of water coming out of Juvia's arms was increasing. "This human girl restored my strength and that of my brethren, and now under my possession she will rid the forest of those who defiled it." She floated forward, her pillar of water ripping through the ground as it shot towards the clearing. The Dryad froze at the edge of the trees, where a huge clearing was cut so the most could be built, and that large castle in the middle of it all. "Some of these trees were my sisters," she whispered, seeing stumps of trees around the edge of the most. "This will not be forgiven!"

"Ms. Dryad, Meliai," Kairi called up to Juvia's possessor who was floated forwards. The tree spirit looked down towards the red haired girl who was waving up at her. "A few of our friends are actually over there fighting the people who did this to your forest, so please don't destroy everything."

The Dryad stared at the innocent girl, and then around at her nervous and scared friends. "Very well," she said in a loud commanding tone. "In that case," she floated forward and the pillar of water under her entered into the moat, immediately picking up the water from the wide moat separating the encircling trees from the inner island. "Brothers and sisters," she called out, "Awaken!"

The water around the entire castle, probably a full mile circumference of water on the outer edge of the moat, shot up in the air. The moat dried out in a few seconds, all of the water lifted up in the air and swirling around beautifully. It swirled in different patterns and arced in streams and jets that shot off into the forest in every direction.

Inside the castle, Yokai were running around all over the place. The green, blue, and red demons covered in bumpy skin were shouting and screaming as their walls collapsed around them. "Someone alert Lord Suzaku!"

"He and commander Seiryuu are already locked in combat!" Another demon roared in response.

"What's going on here?" A low voice growled making everyone turn to see a large muscular blue tiger storming up the stairs. He had a fur pelt on and long green hair going behind his muscular back and down to his waist.

"Byakko-sama!" The demons all running around stopped and saluted the man. "There are intruders in the castle, all three of the other four Saint Beasts are already locked in combat!"

"Ahh!" Someone yelled from behind the gathered Yokai. They all looked back to see a demon with one eye and blue bumpy skin backing away from a window.

"What is it you coward?" Byakko growled, charging over and throwing his weak subordinate out of the way. The tiger Yokai stared outside and his green eyes grew wider and wider. "The forest," he whispered, watching as every single tree for miles was ripping itself up by the roots. Some of them formed faces, and others just whistled using the wind. "It's coming to life!" He roared.

"That's the least of your worries," a voice said from behind the tiger. He turned around to see a man wearing a red shiny jacket and similar pants, along with a gray fur coat draped over his back. He held up a silver set of nunchucks that were dripping blood, "You one of these Saint guys or whatever? That stone guy was weak, but at least he lasted a few shots."

"You defeated Genbu? Hahaha, what a weakling he was! Raaa!" His opponent with short spiky white hair and red eyes just chuckled at his opponent's level of stupidity.

All over the castle battles were not going well for the Yokai. "How?!" The Lord of the castle, Suzuku growled as he fell backwards, gripping his side in pain. The orange haired leader of the four Saint Beasts pushed himself backwards. "What are you?"

"Just a simple bartender," the short man in front of him replied, before swinging down his sword's hilt and cutting the castle in two.

A dozen people watched from the edge of the dried-up moat as an army of trees charged the castle. Explosions occurred inside, a lot of demons screamed in pain, and roots tore the walls down. All in all it did not last long, but the ones standing on the sidelines were still disappointed they did not get involved sooner.

The figure who was standing on the other side of the now destroyed drawbridge turned around and looked over towards the people on the outside of the empty moat. A closer look showed the person was actually a girl; she looked pretty young too. She had long white hair kept nicely in a ponytail, and wore a snow white combat skirt that matched her pale complexion. Seeing that no more enemies were coming out of the destroyed castle, the girl swung around her pointy rapier a few times and then slid it down into her sheath.

Kirito smiled at the sight of a rapier, _Just like the one Asuna used to use,_ he became sad thinking about her, but then felt strange as he was staring across the moat at the girl and she was looking straight back at him. Kirito averted his gaze, but out of the corner of his eye he saw the girl sliding towards them.

"Well that's one way to travel," Riku said with a small chuckle. He watched as white circles of magic appeared under the girl and allowed her to slide across the ground without ever picking up her feet. Her glowing circles had arrows on them and directed her in between the army of trees heading for the castle to defeat the demons that tainted their forest in the first place.

The teenage girl with white hair slid all the way up to the edge of the moat they were on and she did a front flip before landing in front of them. She did not draw her sword which they were thankful for, but she did frown at them with an annoyed look on her face. "Wow, that was really cool," Dash complimented the older girl. "You were like Bam! And wham!"

"And you all just stood here and watched," she replied, giving them a sort of disdainful look.

"What, did you need our help?" Kirito asked her.

"Of corse not!" She snapped over at the taller of the two black haired teens.

"Then, what are you mad at us for?" Ben asked, starting to get skeptical that this girl was as serious as the mood she was giving off implied.

"Hmph," she humphed, turning away from them. "Come with me," she stated, and started walking back into the moat.

Dash took a step forward but Ben put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Um, why would we listen to you?"

"Because there's a rubber idiot over there who couldn't see any of the enemies," she looked back at them. "I'm just assuming he's with you."

Nami fumed, her entire face turning red as this girl judged them faster than anyone she had ever met before. "And it's all Luffy's fault," she growled, storming after the younger girl to go find that idiot.

"Well, at least Natsu can see his enemies," Ben said on a positive note. He started walking forward with everyone else, but Gray hesitated.

 _I've never thought about it, but why can Natsu see demons?_ Gray wondered. _He never mentioned being attacked by them, or them ever being invisible to him in the first place._

"Come on Gray," Dash called back to the older boy falling behind. "Juvia's still possessed by that fairy spirit you know."

"Huh?" The white haired girl leading them asked, turning towards Dash who blushed as the girl looked straight at him. "What fairy? What are you talking about?"

"That girl with water powers is also our friend," Ben told the girl in front of him. "You know, the one who summoned an army of tree people," he boasted.

"They're called ents," the girl corrected and then turned and kept walking. Ben's boastful smile wiped from his face and Riku clapped a hand on his back for at least a good try at impressing this person.

The group gathered up on the center island which was just a mass of rubble now. Sitting on a large stone block up in the middle of the castle at the highest elevated piece of rubble was a kid. He wore a brown sweater vest over a white button down, and black pants, and he had a green hilt visible over his shoulder. His blond bangs went just down to the bottom of his forehead and he had a welcoming smile that said 'Come right on in! Welcome to my pile of rubble!'

A few yards away from him on the left was a guy wearing red shiny clothes and a gray fur coat, though he was in the process of making himself a blue one. The dead Saint Beast on the ground next to him had quite the strong pelt, and he wanted Byakko's fur for himself. "Come on just a little more," the guy with short spiky white hair grumbled, tearing a little harder and splashing some blood up on his face. "There we go," he lifted up the blue fur pelt and slung it over his shoulder.

The man turned his head and pointed his bloody face over at the people standing outside the castle debris. The guy smirked menacingly at them and licked some of his dead opponent's blood off the corner of his lips.

The boy sitting on a stone block in the middle of the castle stood up and looked down at the strange group. "Who're these guys Weiss?" He asked, his voice coming out high-pitched so that he really sounded like a child, even though for some reason his composed stature seemed like that of someone much much older than the twelve year old he appeared to be.

Weiss Schnee looked back at them and shrugged, "They were just watching from the sidelines, Captain."

"We got here late that's all," Ben snapped at the girl. "Hey," he called up to the boy who looked around his age. "You've seen our friends right?"

"Two idiots, around this tall?" Nami held up her hands in front of her, one a little higher up than the other.

Weiss chuckled a little at that one but she quickly regained her composure as the tough serious girl and put back on a frown. "The stretchy guy got his butt kicked," she said with a small grin. "Don't know how he's made it this long without seeing Yokai."

"There aren't as many Yokai on Awul," Riku stated calmly towards the sassy girl who went wide-eyed at his statement.

"Awul huh?" The guy wearing shiny red clothes and a blue pelt asked, stepping towards the group near their entrance (just another broken wall). "We know anybody there Captain?" He looked back over at the little kid.

"You're the Captain of this group?" Nami asked the kid skeptically.

"Yep," the boy jumped off his log and landed ten feet in front of Nami. He walked up to her and looked her head to toe, "37, 21, 33."

Nami reached her arms up to her chest and exclaimed, "How did you know?!" And then she realized what she said, and she realized what he said, and what she said again. Her cheeks flushed red from the bottom up. The guy showed up right behind her moving pretty fast and he reached up for her butt, but a flaming kick flew towards him in that moment.

The small man lifted up a hand and stopped the flaming kick, but still skid back across the ground a little as the man who kicked him's entire body was covered in flames. "Hehe, I was just playing around," he said as he saw the deathly glare the flaming chef with blond hair was giving him.

"Sanji-san, calm down," Nami demanded. The chef's flames went out instantly and he appeared at her side like a loyal dog. She patted him on the top of the head as such, and then glared at the small boy, "I could never get mad at a kid for-"

"I'm not a kid," the man said in a completely normal, but still high-pitched voice.

The others who just met him were skeptical, but Franky shrugged his huge metal shoulders. "Hey, it happened to Goku. He looks like he's ten years old."

"Did you just say Goku?" The blond figure in front of them asked. His smiled faded and he actually looked surprised for the first time since they saw him sitting on top of a castle's remains.

"Yes, and I'm very curious as to how you know him," Ben started, "but could you tell me where my friend is first, pink haired guy?"

"Oh yeah," the taller man with short spiky white hair said and laughed at himself for forgetting. "I forgot him under the rubble," he said, then laughed some more.

"Ban," the small Captain of the strange group started. "You said you would bring him up with you."

"Alright alright," Ban the Immortal mumbled and walked over to a huge piece of rubble that he casually lifted up and tossed to the side. It looked like it weighed several hundred pounds but it was nothing to the crazy man who started digging around. "I'm sure I left him here somewhere."

"Anyway," the guy in charge continued. "Gowther just took your stretchy friend who could not see demons back to Mama Hawk. We'll take you to him."

"What, you're just going to leave this castle like this?" Ben asked, looking around at all the destroyed... everything, around him.

The guy shrugged, "We only came here because they told us we had to pay a toll. I told them to show me their pass from the King, and whether or not they had one, they pretended like they didn't need it." He grinned, "Now we get to keep our money!"

Nami's eyes widened more and more, and then she smiled wide. "I like this man. Let's follow him to the end of the world!"

Everyone sweatdropped at the money-loving woman, but they followed after her and the man leading them. "By the way," the man said, lifting up his right hand and making a little wave over his shoulder, "I'm Meliodas."

"Meliodas?!" A voice exclaimed.

Everyone turned back around towards the outside of the destroyed castle. Gray had stopped out there and talked to the Dryad for a little, thanking her for returning Juvia's body and such. He was helping a confused and dizzy Juvia into the rubble after everyone, when he heard the name and looked up, to see the man himself.

Ban lifted up a gasping pink haired Dragon Slayer out from beneath a bunch of debris that collapsed on him when the castle went down, almost suffocating him. When he heard that voice he dropped the younger man right back down and spun. "What a surprise," the white haired guy with a bloody blue fur pelt over his shoulder chuckled.

"And Ban," Gray said, turning and smiling over at the taller man as well.

Meliodas, the Captain with shoulder length blond hair, went running across the rubble over to Gray. "How's it going?" Meliodas asked, slamming his hand forward and gripping Gray's forearm as the taller man did the same.

"Haha, finally a familiar face," Gray said, sounding relieved. "Been back here for weeks and you're the first familiar face I've seen."

"So you really were on Awul?" Meliodas asked, and he and Gray started walking side by side across the rubble together.

"Uh huh, you would have liked it over there. Nonstop battles for months. It was pretty intense," Gray chuckled.

"I bet you and your friends could use a drink and a place to stay for the night," Meliodas offered, surprising the others who heard nothing of this before, but now because Gray was there it looked like they were getting special treatment.

"Thanks a lot but-"

Nami appeared behind Gray and swung both arms around his face, suffocating him. "Of course we would like to accept," the woman said with a bright smile at the young looking Captain. "Right Gray?" She growled menacingly at the boy whose mouth and nose she was currently holding closed. Gray nodded his head furiously while his face was turning blue and Nami smiled, letting go and clapping her hands together. "Great!"

"Nami-saaaannnn," a low voice growled directly behind Nami. The orange haired pirate woman turned to see Juvia towering over her with red eyes. "Romantic rival, romantic rival," Juvia kept repeating and making threatening hand gestures at her good friend.

"Uhh, it's not like that," Nami told her, swinging her arms around innocently.

"Girls fighting for you and you haven't even taken your shirt of yet Gray," Ban called over with a laugh, then fell over on his back as when he was looking over Gray was actually midway through stripping.

"Shit," Gray let go of the hem of his shirt and became embarrassed. "Let's go eat. We've got a lot to talk about."

"Ughh, yeah," Natsu agreed groggily from in the back where he was stumbling next to the white haired man.

Ban leaned down next to the Dragon Slayer's head and whispered, "Don't mention anything about me knocking you out. Really thought you were a demon there for a second, ha!"

"Y-yeah," Natsu mumbled as he staggered forward, "ha!" He repeated and started laughing in a confused manner.

"Haha, I like you," Ban put an arm around the young mage's shoulder and led them away.

The group walked away from the castle and through the other side of the moat. "The forest isn't that big actually," Meliodas was explaining. "Half a mile away Hawk's Mama is waiting for us."

"What is this Mama Hawk thing he keeps talking about?" Nami whispered into Gray's ear, then wished she hadn't as she could feel Juvia's murderous glare boring into the back of her head.

"You'll see in a minute," Gray said, waving her off with a smile on his face, far too preoccupied to care about the people behind him. "So Meliodas, how's the bar?"

"Great! Surprising how few people visit when we aren't near a big town though," he added.

"That's the opposite of surprising," Gray muttered with a shake of his head. "Not everyone's powerful enough to roam this continent alone you know."

"Looks like you found yourself a new team," Meliodas commented. "You seen Zoro recently? I sparred with him a few months ago but-"

"ZORO?!" Nami, Sanji, Usopp, and Franky all shouted, while Robin just lifted up her eyebrows in surprise.

Meliodas sweatdropped at their reactions. "Yeah," he stated, "that's what I said."

"How long ago?"

"Which way did he go?"

"Was he in one piece?"

"Of course he was what kind of question is that?"

"I mean does he still have all of his limbs?"

"Ohh-"

"Guys, give him some space," Gray scolded the pirates. He turned back towards a confused Meliodas and explained, "They're members of Zoro's crew who he got separated from two years ago."

"Oof," Meliodas said, smiling a little but still making a noticeable wince to show he understood their struggle. "Two years and you still haven't found Zoro huh? Hey, any of you seen a guy named Escanor? What about a giant named Diane? Lis?" No one answered him and the Captain of the Seven Deadly Sins just sighed. "Well, it was worth a shot. Come on, Hawk's Mama is right through here."

The short man with smooth blond hair led them out from between some trees. In the clearing was a nice grassy hill with a bar on the top of it. "Welcome to the Boar Hat!"

Gray started chuckling at the name of the bar, and a few of his comrades looked at him strangely but did not understand the reason behind his laughter until they had all climbed up on the hill. The hill started to move, and everyone freaked out, but were much more scared by the face that two eyes opened up on on the front of the hill. The floor lifted up in the air and Ben flew off the side and down in front of the creature, "Whoa! It's a giant green pig... Ohhh I get why it's the Boar Hat, clever," he added with a smile and flew back up, doing a front flip and landing on the ground in front of the Boar Hat building.

"You can fly," Ban said, a little impressed by the thirteen year old in front of him. "Where'd you learn that?"

"They did mention something about Goku," Meliodas remembered and turned to Gray as he led everyone inside his bar. "How do you know the Super Saiyan?"

Everyone walked into the bar and looked around at the empty tables and bar. There was someone lying out on the bar however, and they sighed seeing a bruised and battered Luffy lying there with a small girl kneeling on his chest, using some sort of magic to try and heal him.

"Here, let me," Riku said and walked across the room towards the pirate on the bar counter. He rose up his right arm and a black and red Keyblade formed in it, pointing right over Luffy's body at the small fairy girl kneeling on him.

A fist gripped around the shaft of Riku's Keyblade and the teen turned to his left to see the tall man in shiny red clothes glaring at him with his red eyes. "What do you think you're doing pointing that at Elaine?"

"Ban, it's okay," the girl said and floated over towards him.

Riku yanked the Keyblade out of the man's grip, who was surprised Riku managed to do such a thing even if his grip wasn't as tight as it could be. "Cure," Riku stated and his dark-looking Keyblade lit up green for a moment, forming a small green dome that wrapped from Luffy's feet to the top of his head.

 **"You are getting better at Heal magic when you should be working on your offensive power."** _I have enough time for both. What's the best offense?_ **"A good offense."** _Wrong, a good defense! You beat Sora down hundreds of times, but unlike you, he could keep healing himself endlessly._ **"That is... RAAAA"**

"Ahh!" Riku yelled out loud and grabbed at both sides of his head as it suddenly filled with pain. It felt like Ansem was being forcefully ripped out of his head.

"Hold still for a moment," the small figure floating up in the air next to Ban said. The Fairy, Elaine, floated down to get closer to him while she held her hands out. "You have something evil that should not be there-"

 **"RAA! Stop her!"**

"Stop it," Riku growled. "Don't take him out," he lifted up his head and his eyes were bloodshot while he clenched both sides of his head trying to hold himself together. "We had an agreement. I won't go back on it," he shouted, making Elaine back up fast and lower her arms.

The pull tugging on Ansem stopped and the man faded back into Riku's mind, staying down as apparently talking to Riku made himself noticeable to this Fairy girl. "What did you do to him?" Kairi asked the little fairy, running over to Riku and leaning him back against the bar counter.

Meanwhile Luffy was sitting up on the counter all healed thanks to Riku's healing magic. He looked around and realized he wasn't in the fight anymore, which pissed him off. "Right at the end there, I started to see them," Luffy mumbled, "Just needed a few more seconds."

"Luffy!" Usopp shouted over at the captain of their pirate crew. "These guys know Zoro!"

"Ehhhh?!" Luffy exclaimed and jumped up on the bar counter.

"Captain," a new voice spoke coming from behind the bar. There was a person wearing glasses, with short purple hair, and a white apron on standing in the doorway to the kitchen behind the bar. "Should the pig and I make enough for everyone here?"

"Go ahead Gowther," the short Captain told the purple haired man over in the doorway. Gray waved over at the man in glasses who just nodded back at him before heading into the kitchen again.

Meliodas poured himself and Gray a few beers, while everyone else talked amongst themselves. "Looks like you've got a new member on your team," Gray chuckled with a glance over towards the door, and the annoyed-looking girl leaning back against it. She looked at Gray and humphed before looking away. The ice mage looked back at Meliodas, "Sure know how to pick 'em huh?"

"Haha, she's not so bad once you get to know her. She's shy around new people. Try feeling her up, she warmed up to me fast after-" the girl with a white ponytail appeared behind Meliodas and snarled the craziest smile with of razor sharp teeth.

"What are you telling him Captain? What exactly were those words that came out of your mouth?" Weiss asked with a menacing look in her eyes.

"Here we go again," Ban said with a chuckle over at the bar where he was talking to Elaine.

"What will it be this time? A hundred and thirty? Thirty one?" Elaine asked.

Gowther poked his head out from the kitchen and commented, "When she loses here it will be Weiss's one hundred and forty ninth loss in a row."

"Well," Elaine began, turning and cupping her mouth. "There is a first time for everything. Go-"

Weiss hit the ground behind Meliodas's seat before most people even saw him move. Dash started laughing loudly and the young boy with spiky white hair near him was snickering under his breath.

Meliodas looked over at them and smirked, holding up a finger to his mouth and going 'shhhh' to them. This only made the boys laugh harder. "What happened?" Ben asked his friend next to him.

Dash covered his mouth and Killua just shrugged. "Guess we'll never know."

"What?" Luffy asked. He saw that no one paid him any mind and looked over at the blond guy who seemed to run this bar. "Why did you take her panties before you knocked her out? I've never seen that attack before."

"Idiot," Killua muttered and face-palmed.

Meliodas chuckled sheepishly, but Elaine flew over and started yelling at him for being inappropriate in front of children.

"And how old are you? Seven?" Dash asked the tiny creature floating in the air who looked no older than eight years old.

She put her hands on her hips and spun to face the boy who dared say that to her. "I am hundreds of years old," she declared to him. "Much older than a human could dream to live to."

"Well, except for Quon," Meliodas said and took a sip of his beer.

Gray lifted up his own beer, "Quon," he said, nodding his own head respectfully and then taking a sip of his friend's good beer. "Mmm, this stuff is good."

"Best brew in the multiverse," Meliodas said, spreading his arms out as he did. "Good new slogan huh?"

"Excuse me," Nami began, trying to get everyone's attention. "So, does anyone know where Zoro is?"

Everyone looked over to see the pirates all gathered around one table talking about it. Nami was the one who asked it, and she looked over to the child bar-owner/ crazy powerful friend of Zoro's.

Meliodas put down his mug and cleared his throat a few times. "Hmm," he hummed. "Last time we saw him, we were heading south towards the Resistance lands. Used to be a lot more customers down there, but the King's forces are wiping everyone out. Only good service is turning out to be in the north nowadays, unless we were to go to the far south, but no one wants to deal with those guys."

Gray slammed his mug down in agreement and everyone from Awul wondered what was so bad about the people from the far south? "Anyway," Meliodas continued. "We were heading south, I'd say three months ago. Zoro's team was passing by and saw Mama Hawk so they stopped by. Said he was heading north for good this time," Meliodas lowered his voice to a slightly grimmer tone, "he looked like he was out for revenge."

"What? Why?" Gray asked.

Meliodas stared at the ice mage, but he really wasn't getting it. "Zoro thought you were dead my friend. Actually, everyone thought you were dead. How in the Hell you got to Awul from the middle of a battle against Chimera Ants is a question for the Gods."

Gray opened his mouth to mention something about Fairy Godparents, but that would only confuse Elaine so he stayed quiet. "Zoro seemed pissed about it?" He asked, actually feeling a little happy because of that despite the guilt gnawing at him for allowing his friends to believe he was dead for so long.

Meliodas nodded his head and then reached down with the hand not holding his mug. "Got a scar," he said. The barkeep lifted up his shirt to show a slash on the right side of his stomach, then turned to show it had sliced completely through his side.

"It didn't heal?" Gray asked interestedly.

"Ha, you know Zoro, bastard figured something out-"

"So where is he?!" Luffy finally yelled, getting tired of this banter about his first crewmate who he was feeling like he knew less and less about by the minute. "Do you know?" He asked, and looked from Meliodas to the others in the bar.

Meliodas sighed and put down his mug. "Sorry," the blond boy/man said. "Wish I could help you. If he's looking for some real revenge though, he'd be heading to the big cities to hit the High Lords."

"Knowing Zoro, I wouldn't be surprised if he challenged the King," Gray muttered, downing the rest of his beer as the thought crossed his mind of Zoro getting massacred trying to avenge him when he hadn't even died. "Ahh," Gray wiped his mouth of the beer and chuckled. "Anyway," he continued talking to Meliodas, "we're on our way south. I have to find out how much of the Resistance is left. Even if they're all gone, I gotta at least figure out what happened to my team who I left on that battlefield."

Meliodas nodded at the ice wizard's conviction. "Well, you are welcome to stay the night. We'll have Mama Hawk stop so that she doesn't take us any more north until you've gotten off." Meliodas stood up to go do that now, and he continued as he walked for the door. "Tomorrow morning, we head for the Dread Fort. It isn't huge, but it is the biggest Cooperative city south of the Cataclysm Line in the West. Plus, it's full of heavy drinkers!" He added and rubbed his hands together thinking about all the business he would make there.

"It's settled then!" Gray exclaimed and shook his friend's hand across the table. "I'll owe you one for this. Sorry for such the big team."

"Ah it's fine," Meliodas admitted. "Though I gotta say when it was just you four, and then when you got that Mystogan fellow to join you, those were the best days to roam these lands. Completely free back then! Not that those new beauties on Zoro's team..."

"Umm," Natsu began loudly from over at a table he was sitting at with Ben, Dash, and Kirito. He looked over at Gray and asked, "Mystogan?!"

"Oh," Gray mumbled. "Well, yeah," he scratched the back of his head a little. "Guess I forgot to mention him. Gajeel was with the Resistance, but Mystogan stayed with Zoro when I left to fight the King." He still saw a glare from his friend and muttered angrily, "It had been while, I'm sorry if I don't tell you everyone I know!" The ice mage shouted, then stared down at his mug that he slammed on the table. "Wow, that was some good stuff."

Natsu groaned at Gray's complete uncaring attitude now that he had reunited with some of his old friends... _Or are they new friends? New old friends?_ The Fire Dragon Slayer grabbed his head in confusion and still in pain from getting hit by Ban earlier.

A green light suddenly wrapped around Natsu and he looked up with a surprised look to see Kairi smiling down at him. "If you're in pain, don't be afraid to say so," she told him. "We have to look out for each other okay?"

"Y-yeah," Natsu said, nodding his head at the girl who was maybe the only person in the room who no one ever had a problem with.

Meliodas was looking over at her interestedly, but Gray tapped his mug on the table a few times to get the Captain's attention before he ran off to go act perverted towards her. "Look at her left hand," Gray said.

Meliodas looked closer and was quite surprised at the sight of a wedding ring on the girl's ring finger. "Who?" Meliodas asked interestedly, looking around to see who the lucky guy was.

"He flew off earlier today," Gray admitted. "Hopped on a Legendary Pokemon, while holding the Legendary Keyblade, to chase after a figure in a black cloak who..."

A glass shattered behind the bar and Gray turned to see Weiss standing there, completely still behind the counter. "Sorry," the white haired girl exclaimed and got to quickly sweeping up the mug she dropped.

Gray looked back at Meliodas with a questioning gaze, but his old friend just shook his head slowly. "I'm telling you Gray," the short man started. "With Resistance land going down, this continent really is going down the drain. You think after I hit the northern cities one more time, Awul might be a good change of scenery?"

"Haha, you're always welcome on Awul," Gray admitted. "Before we headed over here we achieved the destruction of the main criminal organization, the overthrow of the largest and most corrupt Government, and Continent-wide peace with all neighboring lands of that Government we overthrew." Gray looked pretty proud of his achievements and he chuckled, "So if you're thinking Awul, it's a safe bet. No monsters though."

"No monsters!" Meliodas exclaimed in disbelief. The conversation between these two ran on longer and longer with more beer coming out and finally food as well.

Everyone gathered around the table and chowed down on some delicious food. At one point Luffy was eating so fast that he accidentally knocked a plate over onto the floor. He crossed his arms to block the kick he knew was coming from Sanji for wasting food, but Meliodas stopped them. "It's no problem," he assured then cupped his hands to his mouth, "Hawk!"

The kitchen door opened back up, but no one stepped out of it. Everyone heard footsteps though and leaned out of their seats to look towards the end of the counter where a fat pink pig walked around. She looked around at everyone and tilted her snout up in the air, "Sniff sniff, sniff, leftovers! Ee ee ee! Oink!"

The pig charged over to Luffy's fallen plate. "Do not fear. I, Hawk, Knight of the Leftovers shall take care of this!"

Luffy's eyes started sparkling at not only a talking pig, but a talking pig who was also a KNIGHT! That only made his decision all the more final.

As dinner was winding down, Luffy stood up and shouted, "We're going North!" He pointed up, making a few people sweatdrop while most were just staring at him either confusedly or nervously.

"Um, what do you mean?" Ben asked. "I thought we were going south?"

"We are," Gray stated in confusion.

"Nope," Luffy stated.

Nami looked up at her Captain, "Luffy what are you-"

"Why are we going south?" Luffy asked.

"To join up with Gray's friends," Natsu stated out loud, looking at Luffy with a confused and discerning look, as it was not completely unheard of for the pirate to actually make sense sometimes.

"To help the Resistance," Kirito stated. Everyone looked over at the boy in surprise, as this had not been most of their goals. "Goku asked if I wanted to help him out, I said yes. This is what we were going to do together, I'm going to follow through with it and maybe Goku will show back up sooner or later."

"How do you all know Son Goku?" Ban asked, the man totally confused at the casual use of Goku's name by everyone in the room.

"He's the Mayor to my town."

"He saved my life."

"He's like a dad to me."

"He's our nakama," Juvia stated, ending the discussion there, and getting back to the last one. "And, aren't we all nakama?" She asked, looking at Luffy.

"Zoro is too," Luffy said, leaving that question Juvia asked unanswered. "I came because Zoro is here. Zoro is north. We're going north." Luffy looked around to see if anyone else understood what he was saying.

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense," Usopp admitted, though he didn't sound too thrilled about it. "I kind of thought we would have to get to Gray's friends to find out where Zoro is, but now..."

"It would just be out of the way," Robin agreed and nodded her head. "You are right Luffy-san."

"I need to find my friends," Gray reiterated, raising his voice a little more.

"So do we," Franky replied as if they were in the same boat. "Chopper and Zoro. We know where Zoro is, or at least a general direction, and that's the best clue we've gotten in over two years of looking for him. Thanks for telling us he was on this continent Super-bro," Franky said to the ice mage, "but we've got a lot of ground to cover."

"On foot?" Nami asked.

"Nami-san!" Juvia exclaimed, having not heard her friend chip in yet but now trying to hold back tears as she talked about going north too.

Nami looked back at Juvia, then turned to Luffy. "Come on Luffy, couldn't we just check out the south way first? Then head up to look for Zoro together? It will still be an adventure."

"Nami," Luffy stated in a firm voice. "I made the decision."

"So what you say goes?!" Natsu yelled across the room at the rubber pirate.

Elaine huddled close to Ban at the bar who was watching all of this with a closed mouth and slight interest, just like the Captain from his seat next to Gray. Meliodas kept a composed look on his face as everyone shouted across the tables he had put together so they could have a friendly feast. "Whoever goes north," the short blond man suddenly said loudly, "will not have to walk."

"Captain!" Ban exclaimed.

"Meliodas-san," Elaine exclaimed.

Meliodas ignored both of them and just chuckled in a small innocent way that really made him look like a kid. "You can come up North with us. The girls will have to work as advertising for the bar, and everyone will have to pull their share, but our team got cut short recently," his voice lowered a little and the atmosphere got darker.

"I'd been wondering where King was," Gray muttered. He didn't put 'the' before King, so some of them were confused. Gray looked over at Elaine, "Are you okay?" He asked.

"My brother was a fool," Elaine replied, her voice hurt as she said it. "But I can't believe he got caught."

"Caught?" Nami asked, looking around and only the people from Aebrith seemed to understand. The entire tone of the room darkened several notches, it was pretty disheartening.

Gray looked over at Nami. "Slavery is legal here in Aebirth. Slaves work for the powerful, they get sold, if they're strong they're sent to the Colosseum in the Capital." The ice mage looked at Meliodas and muttered under his breath, "Any idea where they've taken him?"

"Yeah," Meliodas replied, but still sounded grim. "He's in the Capital. Luckily, he wasn't sent to the Colosseum. Don't know who has him though."

"Shit," Gray muttered, thinking of the small fairy guy who was always pretty fun to hang out with. He was too upset by this now to get really angry at Luffy anymore, and he just looked up at the pirate whose straw hat rested tied behind his neck. "Are you sure about this? We've been talking about lowering our combined strength already, and now..."

"I'm sure," Luffy replied. "I never cared much that people kept leaving anyway," he stated and stuck a finger in his ear twisting it around. "They went off to have their own adventures, it's time for us to go find Zoro." The pirate cracked a smile, "And we get to work at a bar with the Knight of Leftovers!"

Luffy and Usopp went starry eyed, while even Franky posed in his signature way behind them. "So will it just be you six?" Meliodas asked. Luffy looked around at the five original crewmates from back on his world.

"Who are you going with?" Natsu asked the kid with white hair across the table from him. Killua looked back and saw the scabs on Natsu's neck where he cut him earlier that day. He looked up a little and saw the older boy glaring into his eyes.

Killua frowned, "I guess not you," he stated in a cold voice. "Hold on Luffy," he said, turning and looking over at the skinny pirate wearing a red shirt opened at the middle. "Count me in."

"Kil!" Ben exclaimed as the boy just decided to go separate ways as them.

Killua looked back and shrugged his shoulders. He kind of wanted to tell off Natsu in front of everyone for making a big deal out of nothing, but that seemed strange now that he would be leaving them behind. He opened his mouth to mention that it was safer traveling on a vehicle, or towards cities, or away from the people who were fighting the Ant King, but they all sounded like excuses to him. Instead, Killua just replied, "Don't you understand?"

His friends looked at him utterly confused. He held a hand out in front of him and called out dramatically, "I would love to go with you my friends, but unfortunately I must go with my fellow white haired brethren!" He looked over at Ban who started laughing realizing the kid was talking about him.

Luffy laughed too and smiled as he said, "Sure sounds good!"

Riku leaned in and whispered into Kairi's ear. "Sora's not going to like it that not even a full day after he's gone we managed to let the crew fall apart."

"What should we do?" Kairi whispered back.

"There's only one thing to do," Riku replied with a shrug. "I know me and you, and me and Sora, don't have the same special kind of gooey promises you and Sora always make before leaving, but I know we'll all meet again," he whispered to her. "Sora can find both of us. He will be what ties these two groups heading opposite directions to each other."

"Anyone else?" Nami asked, looking around at the big group of people.

"Um, sure," Rin rose his hand. Everyone going with Gray looked over at the boy who rose up his hands in defeat. "What? I'm tired of walking! Besides, someone going north needs to be able to see demons, and that's me." He hesitated for a few seconds, "Plus, did you see that King guy?! I don't want to fight against him. Sorry," he apologized.

"You guys saw the King?" Elaine asked in surprise from her seat at the bar.

Nami looked over at the girl and had to keep reminding herself how old Elaine really was so that she would stop from saying, 'Awwwww,' every time she saw her cute little face and tiny wings. "Yeah we saw him. I'd feel a lot more comfortable if Ben were coming with us," she mentioned and looked over towards Ben. "He's all buddy buddy with The King already!"

"We're not friends!" Ben exclaimed. "I mean, not that he seemed all that bad." He realized he was getting a lot of harsh glares from around the room and he held up his hands in surrender, "Not that I know anything anyway. Sheesh."

Ben looked at Luffy who was smiling back at him, but Ben shook his head. "Sorry Luffy, Usopp," he looked at the two Straw Hats he had known the longest. "I've got to keep to what I said and-"

"I'm going with Luffy," a voice said from the other end of the table. Everyone snapped their heads over and watched as Riku stood up. The silver haired teen looked at Killua and then at Ban, "My hair might be a little darker shade of white, but no one's going to want to walk into a room with us."

Ban and Killua started laughing, and even white-haired Weiss giggled a little, but not many other people were.

"Riku you-" Dash started shouting.

"You can't!" Gray yelled. "A Keybearer could change the tides!"

"Kairi will be going with you," he continued.

"What?!" Nami and Sanji shouted at the same time.

While Sanji just moaned sadly, Nami glared at Riku. "You're going to leave Kairi alone? Sora's already gone and now you-"

"If I were to send Kairi with you I would feel much less safe," Riku started in a cold voice, "than I do leaving her with two of the three other people I trust most on this world." He turned to Ben who was still staring at him silently, trying to figure out, why? "Sorry Ben, it won't be for too long I promise. I'm leaving Kairi in your hands, think you can handle that? Both of you?" He looked at Dash too who was sitting next to Ben.

The two of them slowly started nodding. "That's not very reassuring," Riku stated with a skeptical look.

"We'll guard her with our lives!" Dash exclaimed and saluted with his hand to his forehead at a perfect ninety degree angle.

"You can count on us!" Ben exclaimed as well.

Riku smiled and replied, "I know I can." He sat back down and leaned in, whispering into Kairi's ear, "Look out for them. They're still just kids."

"Aww Riku," Kairi whispered back. "You're such a softie," she teased and Riku turned away, pretending to have no idea what she was talking about.

"So that's it?" Natsu asked as he looked around at all the people in the room. "We come this far with the goal of getting to Gray's base, and now half of you are giving up?!"

"We only ever wanted to find Zoro," Luffy argued with Natsu. "And if you're forgetting, it was my ship that even brought you here. So stop whining you baby."

"God Luffy do you ever shut up?" Nami yelled at her Captain. "We're leaving tomorrow. Can't you just not fight him for one night?!"

"Tell that to him," Luffy replied as Natsu was being held back by Juvia.

"Natsu stop," she begged him. Her eyes were full of tears and they were streaming down her face which actually surprised Natsu into forgetting about the petty argument.

The pirates saw the blue haired girl trying to wipe away tears as soon as they formed. "Juvia?" Luffy asked her, making the girl look at the pirate captain. "You're always welcome on my crew. You're my nakama."

"Then do not leave me," Juvia begged, turning what Luffy thought was going to be a nice heartfelt moment into a sad scene. "Why must Juvia's friends leave?"

"To find Zoro," Luffy explained.

"Zoro-san has a new team now," Juvia sobbed. "He does not sound to be looking for Luffy-san. Why must Everyone find him?"

"Zoro is my nakama," Luffy stated.

"So leaving one nakama for another is okay?" Juvia asked, lowering her hands from her tear streaked eyes.

"You can come with us," Luffy said. "This is the Captain's decision and-"

"Juvia will not leave her Gray-sama's side," she said, her loyalties first and foremost always to Gray.

"Everyone," Riku started loudly, his voice quieting down the room. Elaine stared at the silver haired boy who had that creature inside him, the one that fought her wildly to stay inside him. Everyone watched as Riku lifted up his right arm, and his red and black Keyblade formed in his hand. "Tomorrow morning we are going to split and go our different ways. I'm not as good at these things as Sora is, and I'm sure he's going to rip me a new one for letting this happen while he's off chasing Roxas, but it has to be said. No matter where we go on this continent, we can always count on each other to have our backs. Goku and Timmy and Sora too. If anyone in here ever needs help," he turned to Gray and some of the people in his group, "If fighting the King goes badly and you get captured. If another battle like Metropolis comes up! When that happens we won't split apart like we are now! Alright?" He looked around and held his Keyblade out over the table. "No matter what," Riku repeated. "We come to each other's aid."

Ben looked over at his long time friend who he was still upset at for leaving. "No matter what," Ben said, getting out of his seat and lifting his right hand, drawing a Keyblade of his own. Ben frowned over at Riku who looked back at him, but the younger boy nodded anyway, showing he really meant it despite being mad. Gray went wide-eyed as he had totally forgotten about Ben's ability and was still upset that Riku was only leaving him Kairi. Now the odds seemed a little better though.

Kairi drew her pink Keyblade next and put it in the middle, smiling wide as she did. Everyone stared at the three of them for a few seconds before someone else spoke up. "Heh," Nami chuckled, "makes sense why the Keyblades chose them now doesn't it?" She said out loud, making everyone who had not joined in on Riku's silly pact thing feel bad. "Well, you can count on me," Nami continued, and pulled out her Clima Tact, connecting it and putting it over the crossing Keyblades. "And Timmy, I'll speak for him as his Legal Guardian."

"Huh? When did that happen?" Usopp asked the orange haired woman next to him.

"Shut up and just put your slingshot in the middle dummy," she growled at the sharpshooter.

He made to make the move, but hesitated. To Nami it may just have been something not to think about, but a pact like this was not really that silly. Once one of those things that Riku described comes up, their word would be tested. Who was to say they would not be on the other side of the world about to do something else that also seems important at the time? Reiterating the words 'No matter what' made it even harder to just accept without pause.

"I'm in," Dash agreed. The blond kid vanished and reappeared a few seconds later holding some nunchucks.

"Huh, those kind of look like mine," Ban said, then looked down at his side to check the resemblance between Dash's and his own. He blinked a few times, then snapped his head back up, "Those are mine!" The immortal man yelled at the kid.

Elaine held him back as he tried charging across the room at Dash. "Just wait for them to finish first," she told him. "They will remember this moment for a very long time to come."

"If Nami-san and Kairi-chan are in, then I can not let them go alone," Sanji lifted up his leg and held it in the air with the weapons.

"Can't really say no can I?" Rin asked, shrugging his shoulders and pulling off his Koumaken from his back, holding the sheathed sword out over the table.

Meliodas went wide-eyed at the blade the teen was just holding up without a care in the world. "That sword has a great demonic presence in it," the Captain of the Seven Deadly Skins whispered.

"I know Goku would have been the first one to agree," Kirito muttered, "and I owe more than my life to him, I owe my second chance, my redemption. And I owe it to Sora too for saving me, and actually Timmy." At first he only thought of being saved by Goku from Akuma's Underworld base, but then thought about Sora saving him from Lelouch, and then Timmy saving him in his fight against Blackbeard in Metropolis.

Kirito drew a light blue sword from his back and held it over the table with the others.

"Snif, sniff, Juvia will come running if Juvia's friends are hurt," she hesitated and held back her tears as she added, "no matter what."

Robin stared at the pile of weapons and a foot, and now Juvia's hand. She watched as Franky put a large metal arm over it, opening it up to reveal the cannons inside. _No matter what. That is a big commitment,_ the woman thought, a former assassin herself. She could see why Killua had not yet joined in on their pact to come running even if it meant certain death. Assassins are supposed to make their own luck, this was relying on other people. Robin already trusted her crew, but as she looked around she had no idea who she would be willing to drop everything just to go find him or her. But when she looked back at Luffy, she saw her Captain's reluctant look turn into a smile, and he put a fist out over the pile as well.

With Luffy's fist over the pile, Robin and Usopp both reached out for it. If their Captain was in, then there was no need for hesitation. Usopp put his slingshot in the middle and Robin reached out a single hand, not using her powers which disappointed the youngest members of the group who always got a kick from them.

Before Usopp's slingshot and Robin's hand could reach the middle though, a fist flew out first and stopped right in front of Luffy's. It looked like they were almost about to fist bump each other, but the second fist stopped just before colliding knuckles. The other two lowered down over Luffy, and now Natsu's fists, while the two of them looked across the circle at each other.

The pink haired wizard made eye contact with the rubber pirate making the room silent for a few seconds. "Don't get yourself killed," Natsu said across the table at the pirate. He stopped and smiled a huge toothy grin with his eyes closed as he faced Luffy.

Luffy was truly not expecting that as he stared at the wizard. His face turned to surprise for a second, and then he slowly smiled as well. "Yeah," he told the other boy, for some reason forgetting why he was so angry at Natsu anyway. "Good luck finding Gajeel," Luffy said with a smile of his own.

Natsu's eyes opened back up from his clenched eyes smile, and he looked in surprise at the pirate smiling back at him now. The fact that Luffy remembered their missing nakama's name really shocked the Dragon Slayer, and he nodded once at the pirate across from him.

Everyone had their hands, feet, and weapons held above the table. All except for two. "I," Gray mumbled, looking down at the ground. In his mind flashed Zoro, Zabuza, Takeshi, Gajeel, Gon, Axel, all his friends from the Resistance. "I," he muttered again, a little louder this time. In his mind he imagined all those friends being in danger, but he slowly lifted his head as he thought about it. In the places of those friends became the very people in front of him now, and his face hardened along with his determination. "I now consider each of you as my nakama," the ice mage from Fairy Tail said, smiling around at them softly. "I guess I'll agree to those terms Riku," he added, and held out a hand which created a long ice sword that hovered over the pile.

"You're the only one left Kil,'" Ben teased over to the side where the white haired kid was standing with his hands in his pockets.

Killua stared at their large collection of hands, and after a second or two he stated, "No." Everyone looked at the fourteen year old kid in the bar who was just standing around looking bored and not much else. "I do not know you each well enough to make that swear. I am sorry."

"It's alright," Riku said loudly as some of them were getting depressed by that statement. Riku looked away from Killua as if he weren't there and to the rest of them in front of him instead. "I know when the chance arises you will be there to help us."

Killua's eyes widened as he looked at the older boy facing away from him. _What makes you say that? I won't even join in the pact. Why would you trust me? I'm going with you, but I could betray any of you at any time._

While Killua mulled over Riku's words, the older boy with silver hair continued loudly. "Good luck to everyone. Always be ready in case you're called on for help. And remember, no matter what..."

"We'll see each other again," the rest of them continued. They all lifted their, arms, legs, and weapons up in the air. They held them there, and shouted once more as a group, "No Matter What!"

* * *

 **A/N A pact is made! No matter what! Roxas?! Weiss?! The Seven Deadly Sins?! Our heroes get news on their respective goals and that news pulls their group apart. Hope everyone enjoyed this part, and the chapter as a whole as I really did enjoy writing it and am glad to have finally published it! After this chapter the crew splits up even more, but before we get into the arcs of our split crew, there's a fun part up next to start chapter 8, where a long-awaited character gets his/her turn in the spotlight! Also, I've now uploaded around 70 thousand words this week to this story, a chapter a day since it began, and I'm going to go through this weekend too, but then take a break as I finish up writing chapters 8 and 9 of Heroes Will Rise and start studying for finals. Don't worry though, out of the 20 parts in the next two chapters, 16/20 are already finished, I have 3 left to write in chapter 8 and only one in 9. Once I'm finished I'll get to posting those too! Anyway, time for review responses, and as always, thanks for reading!**

Darugus chapter 36 . 22h ago

Well good to see ben calm down abit  
Also I think the reason natsu did the most damage was because was fighting nox after he had to fight everyone else as well him being angry  
Also I see your hint when I asked you about fate hopefully it's a good guy and not gilgamesh

 **Thanks for the review! Natsu's rage was definitely a factor, and Nox was also pretty damaged by the time Natsu showed up. And who knows about the Fate-Stay-Night character? You will after tomorrow's chapter! XD**

joebob323 chapter 36 . 21h ago

Nicely done as always. I want to see Goku finally arrive, and the rest of the people beating him up (Or at least trying to) for not coming to rescue them. I still have no idea who the heck the Saiyans you mentioned earlier are. Oh well... Guess its time to play the waiting game again...

 **Goku's arrival is still yet to come, the Saiyans are a mystery for now, even if Meliodas's gang seems to have heard of Goku before. The waiting game continues! XD Thanks for reviewing!**

Darugus chapter 36 . 22h ago

Also hoping for the heroes to get alot stronger since there facing alot

 **With the crew now split up into smaller groups, will they continue to be able to stop every enemy that's thrown at them? We'll find out in the upcoming chapters!** **Thanks for the review!**

7lights13darknes chapter 35 . 21h ago

OMG! This was by far the darkest chapter made yet. I honestly thought Ussop and Gray were going to die. I figured that it was going to go back in time when. Nox showed up and showed that he was a time traveler. Even so i almost cried when sora and kairi died( i might have if i wasn't at school right now. Ben must be traumatized from this. And know i am really curious as to were Timmy and goku are. I am not surprised dash as so much power. Even in the movie he didn't know his own strength and Timmy only made him stronger. I would say something about how they went back in time because i actually remember that guy who could control time but by only stopping it ( the one that was killed by doomsday) but i won't complain. I don't have any questions or character ideas too much happened this chapter. In all honesty this had to be my favorite one so far. ( when the sora kairi flashback comes it will probably win but be a close call. Also DON'T ANGER SORA OR HURT KAIRI WHEN HE IS AROUND UNLESS YOU WANT A DEATH WISH ! can't wait for the next chapter. Keep up the good work!

 **;( Usopp Gray nooo! XD I'm glad I got you there for a little, and yeah I guess throwing in a time traveling enemy was a dead giveaway that things were gonna be fixed somehow. Timmy and Goku are still missing, but now Sora goes off on his own too! That may be bad news for Kairi if she no longer has Sora's snapping rage to rely on in a tough situation... and as for Hiro Nakamura (the guy from Heroes you're thinking of) when he fought Doomsday he could not go forward or back in time, all he could do was freeze it. Why couldn't he go back but the Eliacube could? It seems similar to how Goku can't Instant Transmission anymore for some _strange_ reason... XD Thanks for the review! **

**-Thanks again to everyone who read, faved, followed, and reviewed this story! 'Till next time! Oh wait, here's a list:**

 **Yu Yu Hakusho: Suzuku, Seiryuu, Byakko, Genbu, Saint Beasts, Yokai**

 **7 Deadly Sins: Meliodas, Elaine, Ban, King, Gowther, Hawk, Mama Hawk, Boar's Hat, Escanor, Diane, Lis**

 **One Piece: Luffy, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Franky, Robin, Zoro, Chopper, Blackbeard**

 **Fairy Tail: Gray, Natsu, Juvia, Mystogan, Gajeel**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Gon, Killua, Meruem**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Axel, Sora, Roxas, Riku, Kairi, Ansem (Xehanort's Heartless), Keyblade, Valor Form**

 **Pokemon: Latios, Lugia, Extremespeed**

 **Ben 10: Ben**

 **Incredibles: Dash**

 **Blue Exorcist: Rin**

 **SAO: Kirito**

 **RWBY: Weiss**

 **Hitman Reborn: Yamamoto Takeshi**

 **Naruto: Zabuza**

 **DBZ: Goku**

 **Street Fighter: Akuma**

 **Code Geass: Lelouch**

 **Fairly Oddparents: Timmy Turner**


	38. Nexus HWR 8-0 Gang of Evolution

**Nexus HWR 8.0 Gang of Evolution:**

"That's them?"

"They don't look like much."

"Hey, they agreed to meet us on the battlefield. They must be pretty strong if they know who we are."

"Unless they don't know of us, in which case they're all idiots."

"Dead idiots."

"I would rather not kill them, but it doesn't look like they're going to go down easy."

"No, you should not waste time trying to hold your punches. That one in the back is much too strong to risk that."

Across the grassy field the group of humans were talking to each other on, a cluster of monsters glared over at them. There were almost as many monsters as there were humans, and it looked like a very uneven matchup considering the monsters had terrifying appearances. There was a ten-foot tall praying mantis with razor-sharp arms, a fifteen foot tall lion-like monster wearing a black ruffled shirt and metal braces on his biceps, a gorilla that was part cyborg, a mole with the kanji for "Ground Dragon" written down its chest, a mosquito woman who looked sadistic with the crazed smile on her face, and the most-terrifying monster in the back.

"Gang of Evolution," the young woman at the front of the group of humans shouted. She was wearing a red sweater and a black skirt, and she had long black hair going straight down behind her almost to her waist. Lin Tohsaka held out her right hand and pointed at the monsters on the field, "The nearby towns have all banded together and called for your extermination."

"Those humans," Praying Mantis hissed loudly. "We should have killed them all instead of-"

"Whatever your reasons," Lin continued shouting. "We accepted their request. Prepare to die."

"But, thanks!" a young man standing behind Lin called out. The girl sweatdropped and the young man stepped forward and waved out at the enemies all looking at him in confusion. "Thanks for showing up on a field. It would have been hard having this fight somewhere populated."

"Whether we fight here or that town behind you," the Beast King growled. The large lion monster with sharp claws and a massive mane growled at the boy and his eyes had visible red veins in them even from the hundred yard distance. "All of those humans are dead now that they put a bounty on our heads. Isn't that right?" The lion looked back and gained a somewhat sheepish expression as the brown monster behind him stepped forward. It had red lines going down its face, its body was huge and muscular, it had horns sticking out of its shoulders, and it grinned like a madman across the field at their enemies.

"HAHA! Fighters have willingly come to us?! I could not have asked for a better Christmas present!" Carnage Kabuto yelled. The beetle narrowed its eyes and said in a calmer tone, "Armored Gorilla, Mosquito Girl, Praying Mantis, take out their weaker guards. I don't want a pathetic matchup for my first fight."

"Y-You've got it boss!" Praying Mantis shouted.

"Right away," Armored Gorilla replied and saluted him.

Mosquito Girl just cackled and she rose up off the ground. "They're all as good as dead," she claimed. Carnage Kabuto lifted his gaze to her back and Mosquito Girl felt her entire body cover in sweat. "All, but the ones you want to fight of course, boss." She had to spit the words out, but she was too afraid not to say it. She shivered until she felt his eyes leave her back, then she grinned and started flying forward while her comrades charged beneath her.

"They're coming," the thin man who thanked their enemies began. He reached down to his right side, "I call fighting first."

Tohsaka looked at him like he was an idiot. "Are you serious? We aren't the first ones to try and fight this Gang of Evolution. They annihilated the guards of every town in a fifty mile radius."

"I can handle it," the young man began. He stepped forward, wearing a black jacket open down the middle that revealed his muscular chest, and a pair of black pants that were ripped at the knees and did not go all the way down to his ankles. He had short, but spiky black hair, and big brown eyes that zoned in on the fastest of his three opponents, the Praying Mantis scampering across the field towards him at a hundred miles per hour. It would reach him in seconds at most, and his right hand was already down on one of the three sheaths at his side.

He grabbed the hilt of the dark black sheath covered in red circles with his right hand, and in one smooth swoosh he removed the blade from its sheath. He turned his weapon sideways while his eyes darted up to the female warrior flying fast above him. His sword clashed with the sharp arms of the mantis, and he dragged the sword up hard to parry his opponent. He dragged so hard in fact, that a blue slash flew off of his blade as he finished smashing it forward. His slash flew straight up and Mosquito Girl had to stop in her tracks to avoid crashing straight into it. She flapped her wings hard and a huge gust of wind slammed down into the people below as she stopped her momentum instantly.

"Rrrrggh," the insect woman planned on going past the first fighter and diving down at the three girls right behind him. They looked like easy targets, even the blonde woman in an armored dress with blue spaulders, silver gloves, and a longsword at her side that she had yet to draw. Mosquito Girl snarled down at the male swordsman below who knocked Praying Mantis back for a second, so now her two comrades were standing side by side, glaring at the spiky haired swordsman before them.

"If you're not going to let us fight," the girl on Lin's left side began in annoyance. She had long, straight brown hair going even farther down that Lin's so it fell below her waist, with two red bows in her hair that matched the red dress she wore that had no dirt on it at all despite them being in the middle of the Aebrith wild. "You can at least let me help," she continued, and rubbed a bracelet on her left wrist to make the red gem on it start glowing. Asuka Kudou rubbed her bracelet and commanded, "Give Yamamoto's blade strength. Gem of Fire, ignite!" She held out her arm and the black blade with a dark purple color to the sharper edge glowed red and then burst into flames.

Takeshi jumped in surprise as his blade ignited, but strangely his hand did not feel hot at all. He held up his black blade in front of him and grabbed the hilt by both hands in a kendo style. Yamamoto Takeshi narrowed his eyes at the two opponents in front of him and he could see the Mosquito Girl hesitating above him. Armored Gorilla marched forward and rose up his right arm, his right arm that transformed as he rose it so that rocket launchers and red-dot lasers formed in its place. "Attack!" He commanded in a deep voice. Rockets shot out of his arms while Mosquito Girl dove down. Takeshi ran forward and swerved left and right in between the missiles, then spun and swiped his flaming sword through one missile completely from front to back.

The one he sliced exploded behind him but he was so fast that he was already past the explosion. The other rockets all flew way past though, so they almost reached the group behind Takeshi. Right as they were about to hit the front of their lines though, a translucent wall of red formed in front of them that all the rockets exploded against. Lin held her right hand in front of her and the protective barrier held through every attack that got close to them. As she held her arm there, two men walked up on either side of her.

She looked left towards Saber and there was a man in between them with a big sword on his back and another at his waist. Lin turned right towards Asuka and between them now was a man in a dark blue cloak who like the man on her left had a bandanna covering the bottom half of his face. Instead of swords though, this man had five different staves on his back. He had on a navy blue beanie that covered up his lighter blue hair, and he had a tattoo on the right side of his face that went from his forehead almost down to his chin. His arms and legs were wrapped fully in bandages and he had on a pair of sandals unlike the ninja on Lin's other side who had a Hidden Mist headband on with a horizontal line cut in it, and no shoes on at all.

The two men walked towards the barrier and Lin began, "Takeshi said he wanted to fight alone."

"Bastard can't take all of them," Zabuza Momochi growled. The man with a white bandanna around his mouth reached up for the sword on his back, but his hand hesitated before he grabbed the hilt of his huge sword. The bloodlust in the sword was intense, but an even stronger one was pulling to him from his waist. He looked down, but then felt the sword on his back roar out in fury. He snarled and grabbed both hilts, the thick Kubikiribouchou with his left hand, and the Sandai Kitetsu at his right side with his right. Zabuza drew his swords and he made some hand signs even with them in his hands, "Lower the wall," he commanded, right as a heavy mist started falling around them.

Lin looked hesitant, and she glanced to her other side to watch as the man standing there started to fade into the mist. She could still see Asuka past him, so she knew the mist was not too thick, Mystogan had just disappeared into it. Lin grumbled to herself, then lowered her hand and muttered, "Fine. But don't expect me to join in on this idiocy."

"Isn't fighting these bastards why we came?" Zabuza muttered back at her. Lin's expression became flustered, but the ninja disappeared into the mist just like the mage before him and she could not answer him.

Yamamoto Takeshi faced off against his opponents, and the young man was panting as they turned out to actually be pretty tough. He reached down to his right side while grabbing his flaming Shuusui tight with his left hand. His hand passed over a white hilt and he grabbed a different blade beneath it that he drew from its brown sheath and held up in front of him. He held two swords in front of himself and stopped panting, grinning instead as he got ready for the next round after knocking back all three of his opponents and dodging their attacks.

Before he could attack though, he noticed the corners of his vision getting foggy. Takeshi looked back and forth and watched as a mist rolled in around him. At first he was a little disappointed they did not give him more time to fight on his own, but he sighed and grinned again at the new environment surrounding him. The boy took a step back and he grinned out at his three opponents who were closer together now.

Armored Gorilla got a bead of sweat on the left side of his face as his enemy vanished into a cloud of mist. He looked back and across the field he made eye contact with Carnage Kabuto for a split second, a second long enough to make that one bead of sweat turn into a hundred and for the cyborg gorilla to turn around and shout, "Kill them!" He charged forward and Praying Mantis sped into the mist right behind him.

Mosquito Girl hesitated as she hovered there outside of the encroaching mist. She glanced around and could see mist appearing for miles around, just appearing out of nowhere and spreading around their field. _These are not normal humans. Chances are Beast King is going to be needed, but I can't request help if I don't want to end up like Frog Man or Slugerous._ As she was thinking, she lost focus on the mist below her, and did not notice the silhouette in the mist until the last second.

She started flying down to attack him, but the man down there was already looking up at her, and Mosquito Girl noticed a glowing above her. Around the man on the ground, were five staves that he had stuck into the ground to assist him in this attack. The female creature looked up partially and her eyes started to widen at the sight of the yellow, red, blue, and giant purple magic circles above her head. There were five of them in total, and the man below her looked up and recited, "Five Layered Magic Circle: Sacred Song."

A beam of purple light dropped from the sky through all of the magic circles and slammed down on top of the mosquito woman who tried dodging away. She was too slow, and the attack dropped her to the ground where the beam pushed even harder down on top of her and crushed her wings down on her back. The man attacking her walked forward while his attack crushed her and he picked up one of the staves as he did. He lifted the staff and brought it down to point the front of it at the Mosquito Girl, making her struggles cease instantly as she fell into a deep sleep. As he pointed his staff at her, he did not notice the tall figure coming out of the mist behind him and raising up its sharpened arms.

His eyes darted back, right as Praying Mantis brought down its arms. "Aha! I am Praying Mantis, the fourth strongest-" his arms stopped while he was screaming his boasts, for some reason not moving any closer to the man in front of him. It looked down and saw the boy it was fighting earlier standing in front of it, his arms lifted up so he was grabbing the mantis by the undersides of its elbows to stop its arms from moving any farther. His swords were sticking down in the ground, and he pushed up on the mantis's arms to knock back the creature.

"We know it's Carnage Kabuto who made you all slaughter those people. We heard reports that he kills even your own comrades." Takeshi shook his head at the green bug creature, "We don't need to fight. We are going to stop your boss once and for all today."

"You can beat him?" Praying Mantis asked, his eyes wide. Takeshi's own eyes widened that the enemy was considering it, but as he lowered his guard the bug sprinted forward and rose back up its arms.

Mystogan slammed his fifth staff back into the ground and made some hand signs. "Skyscraper!" He yelled. Praying Mantis did not know what the other man was doing, but if he could at least kill one of his enemies, he felt Carnage Kabuto would be happy. The mantis brought its sharp arms down, but before it could hit Yamamoto Takeshi, the ground beneath its feet dropped. The mantis thought the ground had suddenly collapsed from under him, but he quickly realized that he was not falling, but getting higher up. The ground had not fallen at all, and he could see his enemies far below on the floor as he flew away from them. He flew higher and higher and higher until he could see almost the entire planet down below him.

"What the Hell is happening?!" Praying Mantis screamed in horror. It heard crackling above it and a low moaning, and the mantis with part of its brain showing through a glass casing on its head looked up. It looked up towards a giant crack straight through the darkness of space, a black crack that was starting to pull apart in either direction. There was an eye on the other side of the crack, and the mantis lost its mind, frantically trying to get back down to the planet. As it tried falling, belts came out of nowhere and wrapped around its arms, legs, and even around its neck. Praying Mantis screamed as the monster behind the crack leaned back so more of it was visible than just its eye. It reached through the crack with an orange arm covered in boils that was bubbling even more and it roared at him so that the mantis screamed at the top of its lungs.

Takeshi stared forward at the praying mantis that collapsed and was screaming bloody murder at whatever illusion Mystogan was making it see. He reached down and pulled his swords back up before turning to his friend, "Thanks. I really thought I could get-" Mystogan turned into mist and faded into the cloud around them. "Yeah," Takeshi mumbled, knowing he just messed up and frowning for a second. He heard shouts on his right though and became excited again as he watched a huge wave of water lift up through the mist. "Yikes!" He leapt up and did a backflip just in time to avoid the wave of water that washed over where he was just standing.

Carnage Kabuto and the two in front of him watched as a wave pushed through part of the mist. At the very end of the wave was a gorilla struggling for breath against the force of the water. The wave pushed forward and threw Armored Gorilla halfway back across the field towards its leader and comrades. The wave dropped back down and the mist on the battlefield faded, revealing three men standing there and no "evolved" monsters still on their feet.

"Mosquito Girl, Praying Mantis, and Armored Gorilla were all defeated?!" The Beast King shouted in furious shock.

Carnage Kabuto narrowed his eyes past their opponents at some of those still standing behind where that girl rose up a barrier. "Good," the beetle said, making the other two with him look at him in confusion as to why that would be a good thing. "If his lackeys were weak enough to be killed by the likes of those three, I would not have expected anything from him."

"Him?" Ground Dragon asked. The mole looked back into the distance and looked past all of their opponents to the back of the group where one man stood. There was another man lying on the ground next to him, but the one on the floor had on a white hakama to match his wavy white hair. The one standing in the back of the group stood there in a black kimono with a single sword on his side. He had dark eyes that intimidated the mole even from this distance, and his posture gave off the sense that no matter what happened during this fight, he would come out of it without a scratch.

"What do you want us to do?" Beast King asked their leader.

Carnage Kabuto started smirking a mouth full of dirty yellow teeth and he roared, "Kill the rest of them. I will take that one myself!" Without a second's more hesitation, Carnage Kabuto slammed his right foot down and started sprinting forward. He moved so fast that the ground indented with each step and clouds of dust rose up above him.

"Holy-" Lin began to shout.

"Move!" Mystogan shouted at the younger man on his right. The two of them sprinted opposite directions and Carnage Kabuto charged in between them within two seconds of leaving his spot across the field. The ground ripped apart on the sides of his legs and Takeshi and Mystogan went flying. Both of them flipped in the air and tried landing, but as Mystogan came down, a large furry beast appeared in front of him.

The Beast King swiped his right hand and as he was swiping Mystogan realized just how much different this monster was than the ones he fought earlier. He dropped to the floor and the slashes from the lion's claw flew over the top of his head and into the distance where they sliced up a hill into three pieces.

"Ugh," Gintoki began and he stood up fully from next to Zoro. "I got it," he said, and in front of Carnage Kabuto's eyes, the young man with wavy white hair vanished. Gintoki Sakata saw the Beast King swiping down at Mystogan before the blue haired mage would be able to get up and dodge. He pulled out his wooden sword and rose it up as the beast's claws swung down. The wood clashed with the claws sharper than steel, and a shockwave rippled off of the collision. Pieces of the slash were scattered and tore apart the ground around them, making the chunk of ground they were standing on shift up to the left.

Gin looked into the lion's eyes with a bored look while Beast King pressed down with his claws as hard as he could. The strength did not make a difference so he started slashing back and forth with his claws, but Gintoki moved his wooden sword every way the Beast King attacked, blocking every move the monster made. As he made to block another strike, his eyes widened as he felt two hands wrapping around his ankles. Gin got ripped down through the floor so only his head was above, and the Beast King roared with laughter, "Nicely done Ground Dragon! Now, die!" He yelled the last part at Gin and Mystogan who was getting up behind them, and when Ground Dragon heard it, the mole started digging down to get far away from the Beast King's slash.

Carnage Kabuto reached the leader of the group of humans before the Beast King slashed down for the final move on Gin and Mystogan. He charged straight at the figure and although a bead of sweat formed on the right side of his face for some reason, he ignored the feeling and pulled back his right arm as far as he could. "Raaa!" The oversized beetle slammed its fist forward and the shinigami in front of it lifted up its left hand in what looked like slow motion to Carnage Kabuto, yet was moving far too fast for him to change directions. He drew his sword with that left hand and stepped to the side as the beetle was charging him, making Carnage Kabuto sprint right past with its momentum.

Roronoa Zoro just held his Zanpakuto to the side and his blade cut through half of Carnage Kabuto's arm from his knuckles to his elbow before the beetle was finally able to pull its punch. It roared in agony and jumped backwards, and the roar it let out made the Beast King hesitate, for to hear Carnage Kabuto scream in pain was an extremely rare occurrence. The Beast King's eyes only left his targets for a second before he looked back down to finish his attack. When he looked down though, neither Gin nor the man whose face was mainly masked by a bandanna and hat looked concerned. Mystogan actually got fully to his feet and readjusted his headgear to keep his face covered better, and the lion monster roared at their insolence and his muscles bulked up.

The insanely muscular lion swung its claws down, and when they were halfway down a burst of black magic slammed into its chest. The creature stumbled back, then another burst of black magic hit it, before rapid-fire red bursts shot out over and over colliding with the lion's chest and ripping apart the black shirt it was wearing. The monster kept roaring as Lin held her hand out and fired burst after burst into it. There was so much smoke rising up from all the explosions of her magic that after many shots she could no longer see her opponent behind the veil. Lin leaned forwards and her hand lowered a little, right before the smoke dispersed all at once and the bloody Beast King inside it charged.

The Beast King was almost as fast as Carnage Kabuto, charging at Lin faster than she herself could move. Her eyes widened and she rose back her hand to its aiming position, firing a burst of magic at the charging enemy. Now that it was facing her though, it could see her magic coming and sidestepped the attack. It brought back its right claw first, and Lin reeled back as she thought one of those hill-slashing attacks was about to hit her. Right before it did however, a longsword slashed through the forearm of the attacking beast, cutting its hand off in one fell swipe. The Beast King himself looked confused for a second as his attack did not rip apart the girl beneath it, then it screamed and staggered backwards as its arm rose up in the air above it.

The lion's eyes focused on its own arm for a second, so it did not notice the woman with a blonde ponytail step up directly in front of it and hold up her longsword with both hands on the hilt. Her weapon glowed blue and the light drew the lion's attention back down to it, but Saber did not pause at all when the lion screamed at her to stop. She slammed forward with her sword and it impaled the Beast King's heart. Saber yanked the heart straight out the back of the monster where it beat one last time before stopping.

"Saber," Lin whispered, and Saber pulled the sword out of her enemy's chest. She pulled it close to herself and then with her left gauntlet she pushed the heart off of her blade. The heart hit the floor, and then the lion watching it finally collapsed in front of her. Lin took a deep breath to calm herself down before smiling at Saber, "Thank you."

"We are friends," Saber said, and the knight smiled back at Tohsaka Lin. "There is no need for thanks." After she said it, both girls turned around to look where everyone else was already focusing. They looked towards the leader of their group, and the most powerful among them who was staring straight ahead at Carnage Kabuto with a look of boredom on his face. Saber chuckled at his expression, "It seems the rumors of Carnage Kabuto's strength were over-exaggerated."

"I could have handled the damn beetle myself," Zabuza muttered as he walked back over to the main group. Both of his swords were dripping blood, exactly what they asked for before they went into the fight, and the ground behind him was littered with monster bodies. He glared forward at Carnage Kabuto whose right arm was split from the elbow down and whose right hand's fingers were all lying on the ground in front of it. "No point now," Zabuza growled, "it's already dead."

Said beetle darted his gaze back and glared at the Demon of the Hidden Mist, but Zabuza did not flinch from the monster's glare. Carnage Kabuto looked around and suddenly the realization that it was completely surrounded set in. "You won't escape," a low voice said in front of it. The beetle thinking about running turned back and stared at the green haired man gazing at it without really caring about the situation. Zoro continued, "Move in any direction that is not straight towards me, and I will cut you." He lifted his sword a little and the pitch black steel of it reflected some light into Carnage Kabuto's eyes.

 _Straight towards him? If that's my only option, then…_ "You think you've beat me?! You think I can't fight you?!" The brown monster smirked in a twisted way and the sweat on his face vanished. He laughed madly and his entire body pulsed, making half the people surrounding it take a step back. Its skin was vibrating, and its huge muscles bulked more and more. A giant spike shot out of its back and curved up behind its head, while the huge spike sticking out of its head already grew even longer and pointed at the end instead of branching out to look like a beetle's. Its brown skin flashed and turned purple, and green lines appeared like veins all over its body, glowing brightly and pulsing energy as Carnage Kabuto went into his Carnage Mode. Even the arm that got ripped almost in half buffed out and its skin healed itself as muscles rippled out on it.

"Hey Zoro, be careful!" Takeshi called out. "I think-" Carnage Kabuto vanished and Takeshi froze with his mouth still open. The ground below where the beast just stood ripped apart in the direction of the green haired shinigami. A trench tore through the ground all the way to him, and Roronoa Zoro vanished as well. He rose his Zanpakuto to block, but the amount of strength going into the next punch was so much that he got lifted off the ground and thrown half a mile in a second. Berserk Carnage Kabuto sprinted across the ground making it quake with every step, which felt like a constant rumbling as his sprint was too fast for most of Zoro's comrades to see.

"Where are they?!" Asuka called out.

"Over there!" Takeshi pointed as he saw Zoro stop moving, standing in midair with his body twisting. He spun around while swinging his sword at the monster that ran right past him, then jumped up with an insane look on its face and both hands rose up above its head with its hands together as one fist.

Zoro rose his blade but when Carnage Kabuto slammed its arms down, he found his sword shaking from the momentum of the hit. His sharp blade did not cut through Carnage Kabuto's hands either while they pressed down on him trying to smash his head in. "Eh? You've got some fight in you after all?" Zoro's lips curled up, but the insane monster in front of him smiled much wider as it started cackling.

"Last time I went into this rage, I could not stop for two weeks! I destroyed the-"

Zoro vanished from beneath him and his fists kept swinging down on open air. He started to fall, and saw Zoro right behind him already swinging his sword around. The Gang of Evolution's boss suddenly stopped falling, then spun around and slammed a fist at the swordsman who had to switch how he was swinging his blade to block instead. He blocked punch after punch, then reached his left hand forward and caught the tip of Carnage Kabuto's horn as it tried catching him off guard. His Observational Haki told him it was coming two seconds ago however, and he just pulled back on the horn he caught without letting Carnage Kabuto lose its momentum, and then he smashed the hilt of his Zanpakuto into Carnage Kabuto's left cheek, knocking a few of his teeth out with the powerful blow.

Carnage Kabuto flew away at three hundred miles per hour, then did three backflips in midair, turned towards Zoro with eyes that glowed bright red, and flew back twice as fast towards the shinigami. Zoro did not wait for him to get to him, and instead shot forward to meet the beast halfway, swiping his sword down as he did. The monster twisted its body in midair, and while it was turned it caught a glimpse down below it and back two miles where a fissure ripped through the planet from Zoro's missed slash. He snarled and spun back, punching with a glowing purple and green fist that Zoro pulled his sword to the side to block. Right as he was about to block it, Carnage Kabuto screamed, "LIMIT BREAK!"

The only part of the monster's body that changed in the next instant was its right fist, the fist about to hit Zoro's sword, which increased its size five times so it was three times the size of the swordsman himself. The fist slammed into Zoro's sword and he put his other hand on the back of his blade to hold it steady, but it was no use. Carnage Kabuto followed through with his punch, and Zoro slammed into the ground on the east side of his fissure by a quarter mile. Cracks from the hole he just made connected with the fissure he slashed before, and a square mile of earth started collapsing and other sections lifted up in elevation from the earthquakes.

Ground fell around Zoro who stood up beneath the surface on top of a falling section of earth. Another chunk fell down to his left, and as it went by he caught a glimpse of purple on that side and spun. He slashed his sword down, but Carnage Kabuto pushed its feet down on the chunk and vanished, appearing behind Zoro instead. The swordsman finished his first slash then spun immediately, slicing his sword horizontally this time. He spun so fast that when he sliced, a slash came off of his blade and cut through the earth horizontal to him. All of his comrades standing on the surface looked down as the ground beneath them suddenly lifted up a few meters, before falling back down as even Zoro's slash could not take miles out of the ground for too long. Hundreds of thousands of tons of earth dropped back down, falling apart as it did while two fighters flew around beneath the ground.

Chunks of dirt and earth fell all around Zoro and his opponent. They punched and slashed and kicked each other so fast and so hard that more and more cracks appeared all over the landscape above. On the surface, Mystogan glanced to his left, "Still think you could have handled it?" Zabuza said nothing back and just grunted as he stared at the shaking ground beneath his feet.

A hole tore through a rising chunk of grass and dirt eighty meters to the right of the cluster of powerful human fighters. They looked over and all of their eyes opened huge at the sight of a figure in all black rising out of the ground face-up, and a monster shooting out of the floor beneath him with a fist pulled all the way back. Zoro's face was full of pain from whatever last hit him that sent him smashing through the ground into the air at such high speeds. "Ah! We have to help him!" Asuka shouted. She looked around with a quick glance, but despite the surprised looks on many of her comrades' faces, the rest of them did not seem very concerned. She saw a smirk come to Yamamoto Takeshi's face, and the girl who ignited his sword with her magic twenty minutes ago spun back towards their leader.

"Where did he go?!" She exclaimed in surprise. The brown haired girl with two red bows in her hair spun back and forth, just as Carnage Kabuto was doing in the air beneath where Zoro just vanished. Ever since entering his Carnage Mode, the two of their speeds had been much closer, but at the moment he could not see Zoro at all.

"It's all over," Zabuza muttered, while raising up his arms and crossing them in front of his chest.

Asuka turned to the ninja swordsman in confusion, then got even more confused as Takeshi and Mystogan were guarding in similar fashions. Saber stepped in front of Lin who waved her arms in front of her and created a large translucent red forcefield in between them and Carnage Kabuto. Gintoki Sakata twisted a finger in his ear and then lay back down on the floor in a relaxed manner as it seemed the fight was over. The newest member of their group was spinning around looking at them all confusedly, and finally she spun to Lin next to her, "Mind filling me in on what's going on here?"

"Heh, guess this is your first time seeing it," Lin mentioned.

"Watch closely," Takeshi suggested, lowering his crossed arms a little. Asuka looked back at him and the spiky haired young man grinned, "You're not going to want to miss this."

She was going to ask 'what' but chose better of it and decided to just follow the rest of their gazes back up to Carnage Kabuto. The enraged beetle was spinning around in fury, snarling and spitting before it lifted its head back and roared, making the air around it tremble like the ground down below. "WHERE ARE YOU?!" It roared in a deep bellow, its voice causing shockwaves to ripple away from it.

"Behind you," Zoro said, and the beetle monster spun around to see Zoro standing there only ten meters away. The swordsman was not there under a second ago, and Carnage Kabuto shook with rage as he had no idea how Zoro got there without him noticing his approach from any direction. Zoro's demeanor had changed from when Carnage Kabuto punched him out of the ground a minute ago, and the monster knew this which is why it did not charge him immediately. Zoro stood there holding his black sword by the hilt with both hands down at the center of his body in front of his waist. The blade pointed up and out towards Carnage Kabuto and the tip of it caught a piece of the sun and reflected that light right into Canage Kabuto's red eyes.

The monster clenched its eyes shut for a second, but in that moment they were closed, it heard Zoro's voice. "Haunt," he said, and Carnage Kabuto's eyes snapped open wide, no longer red, instead full of panic as Zoro started to fade away in front of it. "Mouretsuna-Akumu," Zoro's voice finished though his mouth did not move as it faded entirely. Zoro looked like he was made of mist himself and his body just dissolved into the air, while the air itself got ten notches darker, the grass below turned red, and the sky above turned black.

Carnage Kabuto spun back and forth looking for Zoro, but the swordsman was nowhere in sight. It saw all of Zoro's comrades staring its way and the beetle's mouth twisted into a huge grin even as his face covered in more sweat. "I'll-" Before he could make a threat, or start flying down towards Zoro's companions, the figures he was looking at started to shift. They lowered their crossed arms and they stepped towards him while also raising up in the air. "No, it, can't be," the monster growled, its voice hoarse as it looked at the green haired figures lifting up towards it. They all had on black cloaks, they all held black katanas in their hands that were longer than they were a minute ago, they all had _his_ face. Carnage Kabuto floated backwards in the air as each one of the shinigamis in front of him lifted up their swords and held them pointed straight out his way.

"I told you," Zoro's voice echoed through the air, but where it originated from was clear. Carnage Kabuto started turning its head, and it saw the figure behind him in the same place he was when he first said, 'Haunt.' "Behind you," Zoro finished, and all the figures in front of Carnage Kabuto but several dozen meters away shoved their blades forward. The one behind Carnage Kabuto did not appear to move at all, but that was not thanks to his Zanpakuto's Shikai, or at least not thanks to its ability. He could move so fast after releasing it, that his arms were stuck out, and his Mouretsuna-Akumu was through Carnage Kabuto's chest, before the monster even registered that the figure had moved.

"What the Hell just happened up there?" Asuka whispered nervously as she looked into the blue sky. Carnage Kabuto had spun around like crazy while Zoro was standing right in front of it, then when the monster turned its back to him, it backed up right until it was within sword's reach of the green haired swordsman.

"Zoro's Zanpakuto Release," Saber said quietly, sheathing her sword as she did.

"I hate it when he uses that," Lin muttered, shivers going down her spine as she remembered facing him once and asking to see his Release.

"Hope you never have to see it," Takeshi told the girl next to him with a chuckle.

"But I don't get what happened," Asuke said in a deadpan voice.

"His Zanpakuto takes the user's ferocity and bloodlust, and turns it into fuel for the waking nightmare his opponent enters," Mystogan explained.

"Must have really been pissed off," Zabuza muttered. "Didn't look like the bastard beetle could even tell where he was."

Zoro removed his sword from the enemy who was coughing up green blood. Carnage Kabuto reached down to his chest and clenched it with one hand, then the monster spun around with a look of pure unadulterated fury on its face. Zoro's eyes widened for a second at the blazing red eyes glaring straight into his. _I know I pierced the heart- there's a second one!_ He heard the beating of a second, auxiliary heart that was not beating before and only kicked in when the first was impaled. Zoro started raising back up his sword that was back to its original length, but Carnage Kabuto flew forward faster than ever, vanishing to almost everyone watching, and it slammed one of its forearms into Zoro's chest and started flying across the sky with the shinigami bent over his arm.

Asuka opened her eyes in panic but she calmed herself and looked to her left, "He has this right?"

Takeshi's nervous expression did not help her and she started to panic as Gin jumped back up to his feet and the others drew their swords again. Gintoki had a sweat bead dripping down the left side of his face and he scratched the back of his wavy hair, "Should we get out of here?"

"What do you mean?! We have to help him!" Asuka shouted at the young man.

Takeshi somewhat agreed with Asuka, but he nodded along as Zabuza spoke, "You interrupt his fight, he's not going to be happy."

"Who would be?" Takeshi mumbled. "But let's not worry, he's got this… he's got this right?" He turned to the ninja who shrugged his shoulders as they both knew Zoro's strength pretty much the same amount, being the only two members of the group who had traveled with him for over two years now. Yamamoto Takeshi gulped and turned back to look into the distance where Carnage Kabuto finally stopped, but as Zoro was about to fly off his arm, the beetle monster swung its other arm around and grabbed Zoro around his skull with a fist.

The monster started crushing with that hand into a tighter fist, its hand wrapped around the top half of Zoro's head as the swordsman clenched his teeth in pain. Carnage Kabuto grinned ear to ear, as even with an open hole in its chest, even with its main heart destroyed, it was still in Carnage Mode and the exhilaration and thrill it felt about to crush this person's head filled it with pleasure. "RROOOOAAA!" It crushed twice as hard, Zoro's mouth distorted in pain, and then that distorted look twisted up into a crazed smirk.

"Haunt," he said once more. Instantly the world dropped into blackness. Carnage Kabuto's hand lost its grip a little, and a second later all its fingers were removed from its hand.

"AHHH!" It roared out in fury and pain. It flew backwards and then started swiping its arms back and forth in the air. It swiped its left arm forward, and suddenly it no longer had a left arm. The black world faded into a world of dark purple, and in front of the monster appeared a figure who was much, much scarier than the most terrifying person Carnage Kabuto had ever seen before. In the beetle's mind, a different figure appeared for a second in that man's place, a bald figure in a tight yellow suit and white cape. Then, that man's visage faded, and in his place was a monster black from its neck down, holding a black blade that stretched into the distance for miles.

 _ **DEATH**_

Carnage Kabuto's mind could only register one thing. He saw it approaching, knew it was coming, but the monster felt so much fear it could not move. The smirk on its opponent's face was not that of a man, or a shinigami, it was a demon's. An enormous aura surrounded the figure with twisting horns over its head, and it roared while the black blade swung around.

"Everyone down!" Zabuza shouted.

"Hit the deck!" Takeshi yelled. He dropped and covered the top of his head with one arm while grabbing the floor beneath him with the other.

Zoro's slash into the terrified monster screaming bloody murder caused an earthquake below. Two hills near the elevation that Zoro and Carnage Kabuto were flying at lost their hilltops, even if those hills were thirty and fifty miles away respectively. The wind from the slash pressed down on the heads of all those who hit the floor, and though Asuka and Lin tried holding on, the two of them found their handholds ripping right out of the ground.

A few miles away from the group, three figures slowed down and came to a stop as a visible slash flew over their heads. They spun around and all of their eyes opened wide at the sight of a small hilltop lifting off the rest of its hill in the distance. "Hwee-hwoo," a teenage girl with pink hair whistled with her hand horizontally held up to her forehead. "Guess those Evolution guys are tougher than we thought they'd be," she laughed and then lifted up her other hand that had a fat drumstick of meat on it that she bit into. The girl wore a brown long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a pair of short black shorts, and a black hat with a small rim on the front of it.

The two men with her gawked at the distant hill for a few seconds longer than their female companion. The cyborg was the next to turn around, a man with silver hair spiked up above his head and steel covering most of his body. His left eye was covered with a gray cloth, his jaw and cheeks were made of metal, he had on a steel suit that covered his torso, arms, and legs, and the only part of his body where skin was showing was his face, and even that was not all there. He had a long silver sheath on his left side and a pistol holster on his right, along with crossed machine guns on his metal back and a few knives strapped to him in various places.

The third of them gulped before turning and jogging to catch up with the others. He had a head of straight light brown hair that fell to the bottom of his neck where it parted almost like spikes in a messy way. His hair in front was longer than most people would grow theirs, letting it fall straight down over his eyes so they were shadowed over. He had a weapons' pouch on his left hip, a black sword hilt stuck out over his right shoulder, he wore a tight blue outfit with thicker black material over his chest and abs, and he had a white cloak that was bundled up on the front of his neck but fell straight down behind him all the way to his feet. The three of them headed in the direction the shaking was coming from and sure enough, within a few minutes their comrades were in sight.

"There they are," Lin Tohsaka said and nodded her head to the north. The others sitting around her followed the nod and looked up to see three people heading their way. Lin was still standing and tapping her foot impatiently, while most of the group lay around catching their breaths or just relaxing around her. Saber and Zoro were the only ones not near the rest of them at the moment, as Zoro still had not come back over to them, and Saber was gathering up all the dead monsters' bodies.

"Wait wait!" Armored Gorilla shook its hands at the blonde-haired woman glaring down at it with her sword raised. Around him were the corpses of every other member of their Gang of Evolution and he looked terrified. "I swear! I was just too afraid of Carnage Kabuto to leave them! I just want to run a ramen stand!" Saber sweatdropped at the gorilla that was part cyborg and she wondered what she should do with him.

"You killed innocent people," she said to him, not much pity in her voice as she continued to hold her blade there.

"I didn't want Carnage Kabuto to kill me!" Armored Gorilla argued back in a terrified voice.

"Well then," a dark voice said behind the gorilla with black fur. Saber lifted her gaze and lowered her sword, while the cyborg gorilla at her feet slowly turned around with sweat all over its face. The pile of dead Gang of Evolution members behind Saber was enough to scare Armored Gorilla into begging her for mercy, but the sight of Zoro holding up Carnage Kabuto's head made him down right drenched in his own sweat. "If you don't want me to kill you, get the Hell out of here," Zoro growled at the beast.

"R-Really?" Armored Gorilla asked. He scrambled up to his feet fast and bowed several times to Zoro and then to Saber who could have just run him through a minute ago without hesitating. Armored Gorilla then turned and sprinted away as fast as it could, making a few of the others look over from where they were gathered and frown.

Takeshi did the opposite, smiling instead at the show of mercy considering there were enough corpses on the field already. Lin was one of those who frowned though, and she called over, "What are you doing? We were told to take out _all_ of the Gang of Evolution members!" As she shouted it, the Armored Gorilla sped up twice as fast

"If he knows what's good for him, he will leave and never go near the towns around here again," Zabuza snarled. The ninja who glared after the gorilla's back finally fell on his back and stared up at the sky. "We'll just say there was nothing left to show them when we were finished with him."

The others nodded with the idea, and Lin finally humphed and turned away, instead facing the three who were reaching the group at last. "And how did it go? Any news?"

The three glanced past Lin to Zoro who was looking at them but looked away when they turned his direction. He tossed the head of Carnage Kabuto on top of the rest of the pile of dead creatures, then he and Saber walked back towards the rest of the group. One of the three who just returned walked over to a guy lying flat on his back and he scoffed. The ninja with light brown hair looked down at Gintoki and said, "You don't look too exhausted considering what we heard about these guys while we were out information hunting."

Gin opened up his right eye and looked at the man blocking his sunlight. "Oh, it's just you Hattori. You're in my sun."

"That any way to talk to the guy who got you some reading material?" Hattori asked. Both of Gin's eyes snapped open this time, and he pulled his hands out from behind his head quickly to catch the paper Hattori dropped down on him.

Zoro and Saber made it back to the group and the other two besides Hattori looked to them. The cyborg with spiky silver hair spoke up in a deep voice, "No luck." Raiden was looking straight into Zoro's eyes and the younger swordsman just nodded back at him, looking a little annoyed, but not really all that surprised. Raiden turned to the girl next to him who looked to be in her mid-thirties, and was still grubbing on the same drumstick as before, though she now had a few pieces of it stuck in her teeth.

"Heard a bunch of news about the Resistance and Emperor's skirmishes down south though," the woman began. Her straight pink hair fell all the way to her waist and she flashed Zoro a smirk as she continued, "Looks like the Resistance is losing even more ground-"

"What else?" Zoro asked, appearing disinterested which made the girl humph and cross her arms under her busty chest in annoyance.

"Whoa," Gin said and he sat up. Zoro looked over to the guy a little older than him who was reading the paper Hattori gave him with interest. He looked up noticing Zoro's eyes on him and he said, "Somebody took down Doflamingo, and you'll never guess who it was." Zoro's eyebrows lifted up and Gin turned the paper around to show the title of it to the others. Three of them had already seen it, but the others opened their eyes wide at the sight of 'SON GOKU RETURNS' written across the top of the page.

"The Legendary Super Saiyan took down Doflamingo?" Zabuza muttered. "What'd he do that for?"

"Who knows?" Lin said, and she sighed. "Maybe he's joining the Resistance. That would be a nice change of pace."

"Think so?" Saber questioned the girl she walked up next to. Her best friend shrugged and Saber continued, "I wonder if one man will really be able to make any difference in the direction this land is heading."

"Heading?" Zabuza scoffed. "Think it's already there."

"Not all of it," Saber remarked back.

"Son Goku huh?" Zoro said, and a smirk came to the swordsman's face. "Oi," he looked towards Takeshi and nodded at the younger man who looked confused for a second before a look of realization hit his face.

"Oh!" Takeshi reached down into his pocket and he pulled out a capsule. The swordsman with spiky black hair tossed the capsule out after clicking it, and on the floor in front of Zoro appeared a body with green hair, looking a lot like Zoro, only dressed differently. Takeshi chuckled at the cuts and bandaged limbs on the soulless body lying on the floor. "Might have to stop at Urahara-san's on our way to Rakushou, get you a new gigai."

"Yeah," Zoro muttered, looking down at the human body he sometimes used in annoyance. They were about to head back to the town that offered them the job, so it was better if everyone could see him. He did not have that problem with his comrades who could all see him as they constantly traveled nearby him, but there were still a large population of people who could not see spirits like him. Looking at the body on the floor reminded Zoro of his actual body, covered in blood, and he imagined the boy who just let his gigai out of a capsule burying that same body with Zabuza next to him burying someone else's. He remembered there being a third person there at the time, and he frowned before walking forward and stepping into his body.

Zoro stood up and the swordsman cracked his neck side to side, curling in his fingers and toes as he did to break in the body again. The process was strange, but he appreciated getting the body from Kisuke Urahara, even if he had never received the Artificial Soul that was supposed to come with it to take over his body when he left it so as to keep it safe. Instead, Urahara built in capsule technology into the gigai, something even stranger and seemingly more impossible even after seeing it occur on multiple occasions. Zoro shook his arms and legs out then looked back over to the newspaper that Gintoki was reading out loud to everyone. _Son Goku, a Super Saiyan. He's even stronger than Tien._ The corners of the green haired man's mouth lifted up and his heart rate sped up, _I look forward to fighting him._

* * *

 **A/N Hey guys! Thanks for reading! Sorry I didn't get this up yesterday, got distracted while I was editing. Anyway, Zoro is revealed, along with a large group that he is traveling with. We have Gintoki Sakata and Hattori Zenzou from Gintama, I believe the first characters of the show I have added into this just like Fate/Stay Night's Lin and Saber. (Lin Tohsaka is one of the main characters from Fate/Stay Night, and though her name is technically Rin, because of Okumura Rin, and to make things less confusing if/when the two interact, I made it Lin for her since in Japanese the hiragana for Ri and Li are the same.) Other than them, we get the first character from** **Problem Children Are Coming from Another World, Asuka Kudou, Raiden from Metal Gear, and Jewelry Bonney from One Piece all traveling with Zoro. In other news, I don't own any of those games/mangas/animes/etc, or the characters from them, or the other ones in this chapter that I didn't just mention. Lastly, the enemies they fought this chapter were the House of Evolution from One Punch Man if you didn't recognize them! Well, here're some review responses:**

joebob323 chapter 37 . Apr 28

Welp, looks like Goku's famous... I can already imagine him being mobbed by fans, and having to run away from hordes of screaming bounty hunters. XD Although if it was him, he'd probably blow them all away... Its surprising though that all the people know about him, even the ones on Arbirth. I also cannot wait for Dadoria and Zarbon to meet goku. After all, they were killed by Vegeta, and have only probably heard tales of the mighty super saiyan.

 **Thanks for the review! Haha Goku's pretty famous considering everyone we've met so far has had some sort of an idea as to who he is: the Atlantians, the Forever Knights, the Pirate Queen's group, Doflamingo, Meliodas, and now Zoro's group too! Dodoria and Zarbon are sure to be nervous about the Super Saiyans. As to how Goku got so famous... if you think about it, Goku may be the character we know the least about in the group. There were flashbacks with him in them only on the very first days, and the 99th day with that crazy war with Darkseid and the Legion of Evil. Other than that, the next time we see him he's the Mayor of Pao, so what else had he been doing on Nexus other than living with his family in a small town? Doesn't seem like Goku's thing to just sit around for 2 years, right? XD**

Espada-001 chapter 37 . Apr 28

Ok so this review is going to be for the last two chapters. First off it was diffinatly a good idea to spread Ben's burden among the others as that's one thing you should never carry on your own plus I do believe that nobody would blame him for what happened. Second I thought that you had Luffy a bit out of character when he kept denying what happened to him if anything he probably would have joked about but actually taken it quite hard after hearing what happened. As for Roxas coming into the scene, to be perfectly honest I was expecting him to make an appearance at some point. Also Luffy's finally catching on to the supernatural so good for him. It's cool to see some of the sins show up with Weiss also there and be nice to see a RWBY character with some more scene time. Also I'm curious how you'll have Gray react to finding out what Natsu really is. And I pretty much figured out that you were going to split the party once they're goals were split. They may be friends but they did come there together for different reasons. Well that's all I have for now so until next time have a wonderful day and I'll talk to you next time!

 **Glad you liked the Ben chapter, and as for Luffy, I think he more does not _want_ to believe it, especially after Ben told him all the rest of his crew died before him. He's already seen two of his crewmates die (even if Usopp did finally come back) so imagining that he had to do that for all of them, it's so unbelievable because he does not want to believe that after getting so much stronger he couldn't save them? Make sense? Hope it does. Anyway, it's cool you saw Roxas coming, and I wonder if you saw that happening before or after the cloaked Organization members started appearing (Forever Kingdom and Dressrosa). Gray and Natsu and END and everything is going to come into play later on, was kind of hoping another season of Fairy Tail would start up already so as not to spoil it for any non-manga readers. That worked out well with the current One Piece season finally... nevermind :P, you'll find out soon enough! Thanks for the review! **

Darugus chapter 37 . Apr 28

Nice chapter  
Also when killua said he was stronger than every one but riku and sora he could probably beat most of them but they are a few he would have a really hard time with like luffy and Ben and probably can't win against them  
Also like how you split up the group hopefully they all get a lot stronger well I think the first group is a bit strong r than the second one since it has riku luffy and killua  
Also liked that moment between luffy and natsu especially since they have been fighting each other for a while also thought maybe you were setting them up to be rivals or so they learn a certain dbz move that was revealed in the buu arc but I guess I have to wait to see

 **Thanks a lot! Glad you liked so many things about that last chapter XD! Killua in a straight up fight with anyone in the group would be pretty tough for them with Godspeed making him so much faster than everyone except Dash. I do agree that he would have trouble with Luffy and certain forms of Ben's. I was trying to set up a Natsu and Luffy rivalry, so wonder what direction that will take now that they're splitting up... Anyway, thanks again for the review!**

7lights13darknes chapter 36 . Apr 28

This was a good chapter to read ( it helped lower all of excitement from the previous chapter) i feel bad for Ben but at least is getting better. Also KAIRI AND ARE GETTING MARRIED YAY. I did not see that coming. I think the next chapter is going to be about them( sora and kairi) because of the title snd

This get really annoying. And because of what sora told kairi.( i see now why you said that there were "reasons" on waiting to have the flashback.) Can't wait for the next chapter and keep up the good work. This is the fastest i have ever seen on chapters updating you ate on a roll.

 **Haha every time now you've accidentally split the messages, I feel your frustration! Sora and Kairi got engaged back at the end of the first chapter of Heroes Will Rise, back on Midway island. Also, saw your review for the last chapter but when I moderated it and accepted, it takes a while for it to make it to the review list for me to copy/paste, so instead I'll just respond to what I remember you saying. Thanks! XD Glad you liked Roxas and Weiss coming in there and caught Weiss dropping the dishes, which we'll find out soon why that was... anyway! Thanks again to everyone who reviewed, faved, followed, or just read this story! I'm really happy to see these reviews keep getting more and more, to the point that I'm not even at half the length Nexus was when it finished, yet I'm already about to hit twice as many reviews! Thanks a lot guys! And, 'till next time!**


	39. Nexus HWR 8-1 The Third Moon?

**Nexus HWR 8.1 The Third Moon?**

 **Bam! Snap!** Krillin pulled back his right fist again and he yelled, "Tell me what you know!"

"I keep telling you, I don't know!" Dalgrefxi yelled back at him.

Krillin gripped the guy tighter by the collar of his black cloak and them slammed him down into the floor. "Oof," Dalgrefxi coughed and wheezed as he lay face-down on the ground. "What's wrong with you dude?" the guy with green skin on his hands and face muttered. He got up on his knees and lifted his gaze to Krillin who ignored the way he looked and focused on the teen's clothing and attitude instead. "I don't, know, anything!"

"Think harder!" Krillin shouted. He pulled back a fist and the man below him flinched in fear. "If you didn't want this happening, you should have attacked someone else. Now tell me where I can find Android 18!" Krillin brought his fist forward but the teen's eyes just popped open wide.

"Wait!"

Krillin's fist stopped an inch in front of the teen's face and the force of the wind knocked all the teenager's dark green hair back. Dalgrefxi gulped at the fist in front of his eyes that he felt would have broken his nose if it had hit. "Well?" Krillin growled.

"Y-You said, _Android_ 18?" the green man asked.

Krillin snarled and snapped, "Yes. Now what is it?" He was getting impatient and every second he had to stare at this imposter's face he got angrier. "Normally I wouldn't like beating up a friend," Krillin growled at the teen below him. "However, you may have his face, but you are not Beast Boy." Krillin reached down and he grabbed the young Nobody by the front of his black cloak. "Tell me what I want to know, _now."_

"Androids!" Dalgrefxi exclaimed as Krillin seemed on the tipping point. "I have heard about androids, and um, you know, how they go by numbers. I don't really know the specific numbers!" He yelled as Krillin's other fist clenched in front of him. The teen shouted, "I haven't heard of an Eighteen. Seriously! I only know their leader, a High Lord who stays out of everybody else's business."

Krillin's eyes narrowed at the teen in front of him. "Who?"

Dalgrefxi gulped and whispered, "Seventeen. Android Seventeen."

* * *

"Roxas, you know Lugia is faster than your Latios! Stop running already!" Sora pulled up on the other boy's side as they flew across the night sky. His much larger Legendary bird Pokemon turned its head in and looked at Latios, speaking telepathically to it while its master yelled over to Latios's rider.

"I'm not running!" Roxas yelled to his left where Sora was sitting on the back of a huge Pokemon. "I am just going back to where I belong. You have to stop following me, now Sora!" Roxas tightened his grip on his Latios's back and pulled up, making Sora and Lugia stop as well. The dirty-blond haired boy in a black cloak stood up on his Latios's back, his hood still up, shadowing his face even though it was dark anyway. "Just, get out of here."

"I can't!" Sora yelled back at him. "I'm sorry I didn't know you were not inside me anymore," Sora apologized, holding his hands out in front of him. He shook them a few times and smiled, "But this is great! I always thought it wasn't fair that you didn't get to be your own person. Nobodies deserved to be whole-"

"But we're not!" Roxas snapped at the person he originated from. Sora lowered his arms a little and leaned back, but Roxas was mad now and continued angrily, "That's why you need to leave Sora! If you come with me, they'll try to make us whole again."

Sora watched as Roxas turned around on his Legendary Pokemon's back. He stayed silent for a few seconds, then called over the space between their Pokemon, "I understand. You think they're going to put you back inside of me? In that case..."

"That's not it Sora," Roxas replied. Sora's Nobody turned around and lowered his hood while he did, to look Sora straight in the eyes. "They won't put me inside you. Here, Nobodies are in charge. The others, the ones who found their originals, they stole their hearts."

"What?!" Sora exclaimed, reeling back in confusion.

"I need to get back, Saix will come looking for me if I take much longer..."

"Roxas wait," Sora called over to the boy. "You have your own body," the teenager wearing black and red clothes and yellow boots took a step closer to the edge of his Lugia. He lifted up off the side and floated across the air, stepping back down lightly on Latios's back. The smooth, smaller Pokemon felt the new feet on its back and wriggled a little, but calmed down as Lugia spoke to it mentally and assured his Master's good intentions.

"This is great," Sora continued, staring right into his Nobody's blue eyes that matched his own exactly. "I've always wanted you to be free."

"I didn't care!" Roxas snapped at his original self. "Remember that time we all met each other? She said that we could be together again, and I said, 'Anytime Sora and Kairi are together.'" He shook his head at Sora while he spoke, "And in the last two years, how long have you and Kairi been with each other?"

Sora lost his smile that he was trying to cheer Roxas up with. "The entire time," Sora responded.

"See?!" Roxas exclaimed, lifting up his hands exasperatedly. "If we had just stayed inside you and Kairi, then we would have been together the whole time too."

"But you still wouldn't have been-"

"What? Real?" Roxas asked angrily. "For us, it was as real as this is now. Because we were together. Stop saying, how great this is!" The boy swung his arm across his body and yelled, "It's not!"

"So, the girl who they have..." Sora began with a frown. "It's Naminé isn't it?" His Nobody did not reply, instead turning to face forward the direction his Latios was looking. They were hovering a few hundred feet off the ground, staying in place, and Roxas realized he could not try and fly away anymore now that Sora was standing on his Latios's back. He turned to yell at Sora, but when he turned, Sora was only two feet in front of him. Roxas's eyes widened, and Sora lifted up his right hand and placed it on his Nobody's left shoulder, "Let's go save her."

Roxas stared into Sora's blue eyes, so full of hope, so determined to help him. "It's impossible Sora," he said, shaking his head. "Saix commands the Dread Fort. If I don't do what he says, he'll tell Xemnas."

"Xemnas is here too?!" Sora said in surprise.

"Yeah," Roxas replied sadly. "and he's the one who has Naminé. If we try fighting, I couldn't get to Xemnas fast enough to stop him from hurting her."

"We could-"

"Sora! You think I haven't thought about it?" Roxas asked angrily, pushing Sora's arm off him. "I spent so much time trying to figure out a way to save her, but I've come to accept it! They won't hurt her as long as I do whatever Saix says." He narrowed his eyes at his Somebody, "That means, if he sees you, and tells me to capture you," the boy's voice became dark and his dirty blond hair shadowed his eyes, "then I'll have to capture you."

The original of the two of them stayed quiet for a little and stared at Roxas's dark expression in front of him. The sky was clear of clouds and there was enough light from the moons and stars that he could see his Nobody pretty well. "Roxas, have you ever thought about saving her, with friends?" Sora's Nobody snapped his head up, and Sora continued, "Sometimes, you can't do it on your own. You can't be two places at once," he brought his arm back up, but brought both of them this time and grabbed each of Roxas's shoulders tightly. Sora shook the other boy back and forth as he continued, "But you don't need to be! You and I aren't the same person, we never were! Now, we have different bodies to prove it." Sora looked into Roxas's eyes, "You are not my Nobody anymore. You're Roxas. You're my friend. And together, we are going to save Naminé."

Roxas's eyes turned huge. The resolve he had to threaten Sora as he did only a few seconds before vanished. Sora could see it too and he clapped his hands down on Roxas's shoulders once more before backflipping off of Latios onto his Lugia's back. "So Roxas," Sora called to his Nobody who he just deemed as his friend. "I bet you already have a good plan that just needed a helping hand to follow through with. Let me hear it."

Roxas continued to stare over at Sora for five more seconds with just a blank look on his face. Finally he sighed, "Alright, I do have a plan."

"Knew it," Sora interrupted with a smug look. He leaned back while putting his hands behind his head and smirking over at his friend.

Roxas sighed and muttered, "Well duh, I am you after all."

"No," Sora corrected, "you, are you."

His Nobody could not help but smile at the sound of that. Roxas continued as if he weren't interrupted, "The plan can be altered so that two people can do it, since I had originally planned on doing it myself, back when I was still trying... Anyway, I'll go into more details tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Sora asked in confusion.

"Yeah," Roxas answered. "I told you, Saix is going to be looking for me soon. He's a lot more powerful now that he's absorbed Isa, his Somebody. If I don't get back, he'll find me, and find you. So," Roxas frowned and looked back ahead of him to the Northeast. "I need to return to the Dread Fort. I suggest you head the same way, only put your Pokemon away. If something as powerful as your Lugia gets close to the city, teams will come after you, they may have orders to take your Pokemon depending on who sends them out."

"What should I do when I reach the city?" Sora asked.

"Don't go inside," Roxas replied. "There's a forest just to the west of the city. Hide near the edge of it and I'll meet you there tomorrow night. Then I'll go over the plan."

Latios started moving forward as Roxas sat back into a riding position. As he flew away, he heard Sora shout after him, "I'll be there!"

* * *

"There they go," Killua muttered. The white haired kid put his hands behind his head and leaned back on the wall of the bar. He looked out over the heads of his comrades in front of him, down past the edge of the giant green boar's back, and out at the group of seven people walking straight southeast away from them. Mama Hawk walked in almost a straight line north, though it did have a set destination and was heading east as well.

The two groups got farther and farther from each other, and the ones moving south glanced back every so often to see how far the giant green boar was away from them. Those standing on the edge of the boar wanted to watch their friends as long as they could, but Killua turned away when they were still in sight. _It's their own fault if they get killed. We're the larger group, which means they're the ones splitting from us, not the other way around._

The boy shoved his hands in his pockets and walked towards the door of the bar. He entered and the bar's workers looked his way. Meliodas turned to him from behind the bar, while Hawk and Gowther looked over from where they were cleaning tables. Ban lifted his head a little in the kitchen where he was making food, and Elaine peeked around the doorway to look into the main room at the first one back inside since the large group on their bar's back went outside to say their goodbyes. She was not surprised to see that it was the one of the group from the night before who would not enter in the group's pact to come to each other's aide No Matter What.

Killua walked in and right up to a table. He pulled a chair around and sat down on it, slumped with his arms hanging over the sides of the back. "Yo," Killua began, as Meliodas walked around the bar and towards him.

"Killua, right?" Meliodas asked, and sat down across the table from him. Kil nodded his head and looked the older man in the eyes. The two of them sat there for a minute without either of them saying anything. "Huh," Meliodas finally muttered, and he leaned back in his own seat.

"What?" Killua asked.

Meliodas hummed and he shook his head once. "It's nothing. For some reason, I thought you would be different from those guys out there," Meliodas grinned and chuckled to himself. "But it looks like you're the same as the rest of 'em." Kil's eyes widened and then his expression darkened for a moment.

He quickly realized who it was sitting in front of him and he shook off the dark look from his face. Killua humphed and shrugged like he had no idea what Meliodas was talking about. The older man smirked at the quick reaction as Killua switched from casual to dark, and back to smug within a single second. It was fast, but not too fast for him not to notice. Killua saw Meliodas smirk and to keep himself from sweating he spoke up, "So you talk pretty big, for someone so small." His statement surprised Meliodas, as well as the other three in the room who looked over at the two of them. Weiss was sitting down at a table not far from them with a map down on the table in front of her, but she looked up at the kid who spoke to her Captain like that. Sure, she tried fighting him all the time, and Killua saw her try to the night before, so she wondered why he would try to provoke him like that.

"You're not so big yourself," Meliodas finally replied to the boy, regaining that smirk on his face that Killua now had as he tried taking control of the conversation.

Kil kept smirking though and he leaned forward. "True," the kid admitted. "Alright then, answer me this, big shot." Killua put a hand down on the table and looked into Meliodas's green eyes. "Since I've gotten to this continent, I've heard more stories than I can count. I don't know why, but all these things sound so common to people here, yet people from Awul have never even heard of them." Killua lowered his smirk a little and asked, "Tell me something I have never heard before. You must know a few things right? What's something you think I don't know?"

Meliodas looked intensely at the boy for a few seconds before leaning back in his chair. _Huh, he's just curious. Guess I could answer a question or two. It'll be a while before we reach the Dread Fort anyway._ "What do you want to know?" Meliodas asked.

"Anything," Killua replied. The boy sighed and held out a palm in front of him, "Ever since I've gotten here, people keep mentioning these God wars, or the Cataclysm, and even Goku who I never knew was such a big shot around here."

"Hmm," Meliodas hummed. The blond-haired bartender scratched his chin for a second before snapping his fingers in front of him. "I've got it!" The other three in the room looked over and wondered what Meliodas was thinking of. Meliodas leaned in and he questioned with a huge grin on his face, "Do you know, what happened to the third moon?"

Killua's face took on a look of confusion, as did Hawk's and Weiss's. Gowther put down his wet cloth though and looked over towards Meliodas, "Captain, what do you know of it?"

"Ah! Gowther, you remember?" Meliodas questioned. The other three looked over and watched as the man with purple hair nodded back at the Captain.

Meliodas laughed and Killua finally asked, "What are you talking about? There are only two moons on this world."

The older man shook his head and wagged a finger at the boy in front of him. Weiss stood up and Hawk spun around, "Wait!" The pink pig exclaimed, "There was really another moon?!"

Their Captain nodded and he put his hands down on the table in front of him. "I know the first few days were confusing for most of us. No one knew what was happening, and paying attention to the sky was probably not any of our top priorities." Meliodas grinned and spoke softer, "But I remember. Those first few days, when two of the moons were full, there was another moon up in the sky. It was not as big, or noticeable, and after a few days it was gone. I am sure that anyone else who saw it assumed that they had imagined it and went on with their lives, but I was there when _they_ fought the moon."

"Who are 'they?'" Killua asked.

Meliodas looked up at the ceiling like he was thinking on something far in the past. "Team Dai Gurren." Meliodas could see it in his mind. He watched as the moon fell, and a giant hole ripped in the purple barrier in the atmosphere. He saw the giant red robot flying up at it and the voices that screamed inside it and echoed out around the lands. "Simon the Digger. I do not know the details myself, but the moon fell through the barrier and almost collided with the world. It may not have destroyed Nexus, but it would have wiped out all life on the surface." Weiss gasped and Hawk got covered in sweat from head to hooves.

Killua shook his head as this was all too unbelievable. "You don't know the details?" Killua questioned. "So you never actually saw-"

"I did," Meliodas countered, stopping Killua in his tracks. "From a distance, I saw them merge. It was only later on that I heard their names and discovered what they had done. The moon would have killed us all if it were not for them."

Kil leaned back in his seat and he let out a deep breath. He had a single bead of sweat rolling down the left side of his face that he tried to laugh off. _Well, he definitely told me something I did not know before. Was there a third moon? I don't remember. At the time, I had too much on my plate._

"As for why everyone thinks of Son Goku as such a 'big shot,' I could start off the stories about him by mentioning the same event I just told you about." Killua's eyebrows lifted up and Meliodas chuckled as he got up from his seat. "Simon wasn't the only one who showed up to stop the moon," he remarked as he turned and walked back for his bar. Killua opened his mouth to call something out to him, but the door opened up behind him before he could.

Kil glanced back and watched as Rin stepped into the room, followed by Usopp, Robin, and Franky. The three boys were talking to each other and Robin spotted the map in front of Weiss and started to walk over. Killua closed his mouth and sat silently at the seat he was in, thinking on what Meliodas told him and wondering how he could even use that information. _Simon. At least I got a name. I should have asked Meliodas whether or not this Simon the Digger is still around._

Outside the bar, a few of the others took longer to come inside than their friends. Sanji had tears streaming down his face, but he finally wiped his eyes and turned back for the bar. _Kairi-chan, Juvia-swan, we will meet again!_ He held a fist up in the air as he bowed his head and walked towards the bar looking depressed. As he opened up the door though, his depressed look faded at the sight of Weiss and then Elaine whose face he spotted in the door to the kitchen.

Nami, Luffy, and Riku stood at the edge of the hill the longest. Luffy and Riku looked southeast long after they lost sight of their friends walking away. Luffy's fists curled at his sides and he finally turned away with a huff. _I'm sorry Juvia, but you should have followed me._ Luffy looked the other direction with a look of pure determination, _Zoro. We're getting closer. I know you are near. I'm going to find you!_

Riku kept staring south and faces flashed through his mind. _Dash,_ the little speedster raced through his head, laughing and smiling and punching out fists he boasted to be stronger than bullets. _Ben,_ he saw the young brown-haired boy holding up his left wrist and slamming down on his watch, transforming into an alien in a flash of green light and shouting out, 'Hero time!' Riku's mouth dropped into a lower frown, _Kairi,_ he thought. He saw the redhead, only a child, hiding behind her father's legs like she was afraid of this new place she was in. He could perfectly see Sora running straight up to the man's legs, and peeking around them to ask the girl so many questions about where she came from and what that world was like. The young girl in his mind transformed into her eighteen year old self, and Riku clenched his fists at his sides as well. _Ben, Dash, take care of her._

Riku and Luffy both started walking back to the bar, but they stopped and looked back at the edge where Nami stood with her hands held together in front of her chest. She was not looking to the southeast like they were before, but directly south, and she looked more worried than any of them. "Nami?" Luffy questioned.

She started, and slowly she turned her head back to look at the males behind her. She looked sad, not just because Juvia, one of her closest friends had left, but for something even deeper than that. Nami sniffled and she whispered in a hoarse voice, "Where is Timmy?" Neither of the others said anything, and Nami looked back south. "Wanda," Nami said, sounding choked up. "Wanda told me to look after him, but, but I-"

"Nami," Luffy said seriously. She looked back at him and he put his hat on top of his head before snapping his head up and looking in her eyes. "Trust in Timmy. He's strong. We'll see him again," Luffy grinned and finished, "no matter what."

Nami's eyes went wide, and she wiped them as she nodded a couple of times. "You're right," she said, her voice sounding back to its confident self which made Luffy and Riku both smile at her. "He may be twelve," she began, "but he is the strongest twelve year old in the world."

"And considering the people we know," Riku added. He chuckled a few times thinking about Dash, and Mandy, and even Ben who he still could not believe was already in his teens. "That's a pretty impressive feat," Riku finished, and Nami smiled some more at the silver haired teen. The three of them finally turned back and headed into the bar with the others. When they got inside the bar was pretty quiet with a few of the crew sitting at one table talking, Robin and Weiss discussing a map, and Killua sitting across from Meliodas though their conversation had ended.

Once Meliodas saw the last three come back into the bar, he got out of his seat and clapped his hands together in front of him. "Alright," he called out. "We're heading for the Dread Fort, but there's a town between here and there we're going to stop at tonight for some business. Nami, Robin," he announced. The two women on the Straw Hat crew looked over at Meliodas and their eyes opened wide as he held up a couple of pink shirts and short black skirts in his hands. "You'll be working as waitresses tonight when the bar opens," the short man said.

Sanji got a nosebleed and he stuck a thumbs up in Meliodas' direction. "Great idea!" He shouted.

Nami punched him on top of the head and then glared over at the short perverted man. "I don't think so, I'm-"

"Nami," Luffy began, looking right at the woman standing not far from him. "He is letting us travel with them," the captain said with a shrug of his shoulders. "What's so bad about being a waitress?" He asked.

Nami spun in surprise to her captain, then back to the outfit the short man was holding up, then back at Luffy angrily. "It is okay Nami," a cute quiet voice spoke up from the kitchen. She looked over as did everyone else and watched as Elaine came floating out of there finally, wearing the waitress uniform that Meliodas was holding up at the moment. Elaine smiled and said softly, "It is to attract more customers."

"I get that," Nami said with a bead of sweat rolling down the side of her face.

An arm popped out of Meliodas's right wrist and the short man looked at it in surprise. The hand grabbed one of the sets of uniforms and tossed it across the room. He followed its path and watched as Robin lifted her hand and caught the uniform she tossed to herself. Nami looked at her friend in surprise while Robin examined the uniform, then Robin turned to her younger comrade and said, "Could be worse."

Nami dropped her bottom lip, before sighing and conceding to Meliodas's terms. Sanji jumped out of his seat in joy, but then Meliodas turned to the man he heard was the chef and asked if he could help out later on as well. "Oi Captain," Ban growled from behind the counter. They all looked over and saw the man with spiky white hair above his head was now wearing a white apron over his clothes. "What do you think you're doing opening up my kitchen?"

"Sanji's the best cook in the world," Luffy bragged loudly. "You should let him cook."

Meliodas chuckled and he shrugged over at Ban. "You heard him. The best cook in the world, how can I pass up a business opportunity like that?"

* * *

Mama Hawk walked across miles of terrain on their way north. Many of the new additions to Meliodas' group traveling over Aebrith spent their time outside the bar, looking around the landscape they were traveling over from above for once. They looked over the tops of trees in nearby forests, but they could not look too far in any direction. Gowther came outside at one point and explained that the closer to the Cataclysm they get, the more hilly the landscape becomes. The crew members heard this and wondered why it was, looking around and seeing sections of land that just seemed to rise up suddenly and others that dipped down.

They started to reach these hilly areas and Mama Hawk climbed up a large hill before heading back down the other side. While they were at the top of that hill, the largest one for miles around, Rin pointed a hand out into the northern distance, and a little to the east. Over a few other hills they were looking at, the crew spotted a drop-off in the land. After that drop-off there was a giant gap in the landscape that stretched farther than they could see, but before they could examine it closer, they started descending the hill back into a valley.

"What was that?" Nami asked, turning to the purple haired man who was reading a book outside the bar on a chair near the front door.

Gowther lowered his book and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he faced Nami. "That was the Cataclysm. We will be heading across it after stopping at the Dread Fort."

"The north of the Cataclysm is in fact much larger than the south," Weiss said as she stepped outside. Nami and Sanji turned back to the girl with a long white ponytail as she walked out of the bar. "The Cataclysm is right around the Equator, but the southern part of the continent does not go all the way to the pole, whereas the north does."

"That's so informative of you Weiss-chan!" Sanji exclaimed.

"Though she is wrong," Gowther said while lifting his book back up.

Weiss got a tick mark on her head and she snapped her gaze down to the glasses-wearing figure. "What?" She snapped at him.

"There is a continent above Aebrith, separated by a channel. It is part of the Cooperative so many do not make the distinction. However, it would be like calling Lagann Island a part of Southern Aebrith," Gowther explained casually, though every second he spoke Weiss just looked more annoyed at him.

Nami saw Weiss opening her mouth to argue with the man further, but she spotted something out of the corner of her eye and turned left instead. Out near the head of the giant green boar they were standing on, Luffy pointed his hand forward and started excitedly talking to Usopp. She saw why too, as behind a hill they were marching around, she spotted a village. Most of the houses were small, looking almost like huts with their wooden rooves, doors, and cramped living spaces. Almost none of the buildings were two stories tall, though the ones that were were made of stone.

"Ah, Terrorvale," Gowther said and he got up to his feet. Nami glanced at the man in surprise that he knew the name of a small village like this, but she realized they must have been there before if they knew it was here in the first place.

The suns were on their descent in the western sky when the group were finally reaching the town. They looked off the front of the giant boar and saw several villagers coming out to meet them. Many of the people in the town looked like normal humans, but there were some who had very strange, blocky appearances. Their arms, torsos, and legs were all rectangular, and their heads were cubes. Their clothes did not look like normal clothing either, more like they were part of their skins as they lay flat against their block-like bodies.

The strange people greeting them outside the town were not even the strangest thing they noticed as they approached. "Whoa, what are those things?" Usopp said as he spotted a few beings taller than the normal people in town. They stood on two legs and had two arms and a head, but the beings looked towards them with serious, threatening gazes. They were gray and their bodies were thick, standing twelve feet tall each and four feet wide at the shoulders. "Iron golems," a voice said behind the sharpshooter. He turned as did Luffy and saw Ban grinning down at the monsters, "They're guardians of the town. Look," he pointed to the left side of the village and a few of the others looked over as well to see some of the blocky people doing something weird.

Three people put down cubes of iron that looked much too heavy for them to carry. Each of the people had on different types of armor, one wearing leather, another iron, and another had on a diamond chestplate covering his torso, making Nami's eyes light up gold. Her eyes returned to normal though and widened huge as did her friends as the man in the diamond chestplate put a pumpkin with a face carved into it on top of the 'T' that the villagers made out of iron, and they animated another iron golem out of nowhere.

"What the-" Franky muttered and scratched the side of his metal head. "That's some odd construction," he said, wondering if he could do something like that.

"Minecraftians," Meliodas explained as he walked up to the front of the boar as well. "They've got some strange control over physics. Don't let it surprise you too much," he added. The short man with a green hilt over his shoulder looked down at the giant head of the boar he was standing on. "Yo! We're stopping here tonight," he called out. The boar made a loud noise in understanding, then dropped down into the ground and turned into a hill like many of the other green hills around the landscape. If the people around were not watching, they would not even be able to tell that the hill was not natural.

Meliodas started walking down his hill as soon as it was down in the ground and he announced his bar's arrival to the locals. Luffy was looking around in amazement at all the new things near him. "This place sure is amazing," he said, looking closer at one of the iron golems that wandered their way, then turned suddenly and just walked the other way. The sun was going down, and Luffy started noticing that the area was still quite lit up. He looked back over at the houses and spotted torches all over them, and around the grassy area surrounding the town there were many others as well.

"How do those flames stay lit?" Sanji muttered as he realized there were several dozen torches all over the area.

"Like the Captain said," Gowther said from behind the pirate chef. "Minecraftians have power over physics. A torch one of them places will never go out on its own."

"Huh," Sanji muttered, wondering why that was.

"Sure is useful," Weiss said. The teenage girl in a white combat skirt looked out into the distance over the hills to where the suns were going down. "Very soon, night will fall."

"And this continent is already a lot less safe than Awul," Riku mentioned as he walked up to the group at the front of the bar. They glanced back at the teen with long spiky silver hair who darted his eyes left and right. "I can feel them coming. Creatures that thrive in the dark."

Weiss stared at this man cautiously. She thought about how Elaine tried to pull something evil out of him the day before, and how the teenager was against it. _Be careful around him,_ she warned herself.

Luffy ran off to go explore the town, and his comrades walked up to some of the residents who were eyeing them carefully. Luffy threw his arms up and rocketed himself on top of a building. He started running around the tops of buildings, jumping on each one and looking out to every side of the town. During the nights they traveled with the big group, usually one of them would keep watch and take on any enemies that got too close to the group, or wake up someone stronger than themself if the monsters were too strong. They spent the whole day riding on a boar's back though, so unlike most days where Luffy already had a full helping of battling monsters, today he was still eager to battle some more. _Wonder if night monsters are really much different from the ones we fight during the day?_

He kept looking around but the suns were setting too slow and he was getting bored. People started heading into their homes, and someone yelled up at him to get off their roof so he complied. The pirate started walking back through the town towards the bar that torches had been placed around. The door was wide open with Nami in the doorway trying hard to keep a friendly smile on her face as she waved people towards the bar, wearing the uniform that although she was annoyed she had to wear it, she had to admit looked really good on her.

Another girl came walking out of the bar a little after Nami got there, and Nami saw the deep frown on the younger girl's face who was also wearing the uniform. "Didn't think he'd be able to make you wear one of these," Nami admitted, referring to the girl's short captain.

Weiss ground her teeth and she muttered, "He said I can stop once I beat him." Nami sweatdropped as that did not seem like it was going to happen anytime soon. Weiss saw her unenthusiastic reaction and snapped, "I'm getting close! Next time," she clenched her fists at her sides. "I'll take him down for sure. Once I do, I'll finally be ready…" Weiss faded off and Nami started looking at the girl closer. She thought she figured out why Weiss was always fighting the Captain, as the girl did so again earlier that day, but now Nami had a feeling there was a deeper reason behind it.

Nami spotted Luffy walking towards the bar and she looked over at her captain. She opened her mouth to call something at him, but Luffy froze mid-step towards them. Weiss and Nami looked at the pirate captain in confusion as he spun his head left all of a sudden. Luffy's eyes gazed over all of the torches around him, out towards the bottom of a nearby hill where he felt a presence with his Haki out of nowhere. It was closer than the edge of his Haki sensing normally started notifying him of presences, so he wondered how it got so close so suddenly. He looked closely at the form at the base of the hill, its tall, black body. It was much taller than the pirate himself, facing away from him at the hill where it was walking towards.

The thin monster walking on two skinny legs came to a stop as it neared the hill. Luffy felt a bead of sweat on the side of his face, and his eyes opened wide as the tall figure suddenly spun around and glared a half a mile away straight at him. Its eyes were square and glowing purple, and as it faced him, the monster opened up its mouth and screeched in a horrifying voice.

Weiss's eyes opened up in recognition and she reached for her sword as she heard the yell. She saw Luffy staring in shock across the field and she yelled, "Stop looking at it!"

Luffy heard her but he did not look away, mainly because the creature he was looking at was no longer standing in the same spot. He snapped his head left and saw the creature appear half the distance it just was away from him, then his Observational Haki went off the charts and he leapt backwards. It was just in time too, as the monster teleported right in front of him and started swinging its arms down at the pirate. Luffy landed on the ground and skid back, but the creature chased after him making long strides with its legs and screeching the entire time.

Nami dropped her bottom lip and stared at the beast in terror. Luffy lifted his fist to slam into the approaching beast, but Weiss shouted, "Stop! The Enderman won't get hit like that!"

"Gum Gum, Pistol!" Luffy ignored her and swung a rubber fist at his enemy, his arm stretching out and his fist colliding with the front of the Enderman. He almost smirked, but right when his fist touched the monster, it disappeared from in front of him. Out of the left corner of his eye he spotted it appear within a foot of him, and the teleporting monster swung its arms down and bashed Luffy backwards. It knocked him back and kept swinging over and over until an iron golem came out on Luffy's left and slammed a fist into the Enderman.

The monster turned from Luffy to one of the town's guardians. The golem tried swinging down again, but the Enderman was faster and started swinging its arms faster and faster, knocking back the golem several yards with each hit. The Enderman finished off the stone golem in seconds and then turned to Luffy right as the pirate slammed a fist covered in Haki into the monster. The creature teleported away again, but this time as it did, Weiss shot forward with a white magic circle beneath her feet sending her gliding across the ground. She tried slashing at the monster, but right as he sword touched it, it teleported behind her and slammed her in the back.

"Who looked at an Enderman?" Meliodas asked as he stepped out of the bar, having heard the screeches from inside. Ban and another figure came outside as well, but Nami did not recognize the Minecraftian who came out the door in a blue shirt. Meliodas and Ban pulled out their weapons and charged forward as the Enderman turned back towards Luffy.

Meliodas slashed his sword in an uppercut and out from his broken blade came a slash so powerful that the ground split apart a half mile long until a hill in the distance broke into pieces. The Enderman he tried slashing vanished as he brought up his sword though, appearing behind him with both arms lifted up above his head. Ban had his silver nunchucks out and he started smashing back and forth fast to hit the tall black creature in front of him. The Enderman got hit once and turned towards Ban, so that on the second time it got hit it did not get knocked back but instead vanished and appeared behind the immortal with spiky white hair.

The beast slammed its arms down on Ban's back, but the man it hit just turned his head slowly and glared back with red eyes at the monster. Right as he was about to go all out against the annoying teleporting monster, someone called out, "I can handle this." They looked over and saw the Minecraftian walking over, suddenly holding a bucket of water in his right hand. The Enderman went on the attack as the man in a blue shirt dumped the water out on the ground, and those who just met these strange people went wide-eyed at the sight of a large cube of water appearing on the floor and continuously pouring water in every direction around it. There were hundreds of gallons of water pouring out from the spot the water was put down and it constantly flooded out before stopping several yards away.

The water spread far enough to touch the bottom of the Enderman's feet though, and the creature screamed at the touch, vanishing and appearing fifty feet away like it was terrified of water. It started charging forward again, but as Luffy yelled out and pulled back a fist to attack it with, the man who put down the water pulled out something new. He lifted up a small black orb that he chucked forward right next to the sprinting Enderman. The pearl hit the ground and the Minecraftian appeared on the side of the Enderman with his diamond sword already swinging down.

The Enderman fell to the ground and died, leaving behind another enderpearl like the one the Minecraftian just threw. Luffy's fist snapped back to his body and he looked over at the strange blocky figure in surprise at the man's strength. Meliodas started clapping his hands and he whistled in amazement. "That was very impressive," the bartender called over to the man. The guy turned back and his sword vanished from his hand as he did. He smiled and Meliodas motioned towards the Boar's Hat with his head, "Let's go get drinks. I'll buy you a round for that nice save."

"I could have handled it," Luffy said, denying that he needed any saving. The figure with a cube-shaped head nodded once at Luffy and then turned back and nodded at Meliodas in response to his offer for drinks.

Things calmed down after the Enderman attack, and because of the torches all around the town, very few monsters were spawning close to the bar. The bar got packed only an hour or so after parking at the town; it seemed like the entire town had gathered inside. The boisterous building was so crowded that Nami had to swerve in between people dancing and drinking, on occasion bumping into chairs getting pulled out and getting beer splashed on her from the drunker customers.

The navigator was getting increasingly angrier as the night went on and her new waitress uniform was covering in alcoholic beverages. At one point she decided she needed a break and walked over to the counter to sit on an empty stool. The stool was only empty because the man sitting on it a minute ago had passed out and his friend had to drag him out of the bar. She sat down and Meliodas turned from where he was pouring more drinks behind the bar. "Just need a short break," she mumbled at the man before he could scold her for sitting down on the job.

Meliodas chuckled and finished filling up his drinks. He walked around the bar and stood next to Nami for a second as she spun on her stool and looked around the packed bar. She noticed something as she was looking around the bar, and she turned back to the man next to her. "Where is everyone?" She wondered, as Robin, Elaine, and Weiss were walking or floating around the floor in front of her as waitresses, but none of the guys were in her eyesight. She knew Sanji was behind her in the kitchen, but the other guys should have been sitting at one of the tables in here drinking with everyone else. They were until a little while ago, but the table they used to be at had different people at it now.

"Who knows?" Meliodas questioned. With a knowing smile he walked across the bar to bring his patrons their drinks. He handed the mugs to them while casting a glance at the wall of his bar and smirking at a flash he saw out the window.

Outside the bar, and a mile away from the Boar's Hat, Luffy slammed a giant white fist down on three Grimm charging at him. His fist flattened the creatures to the ground and when he lifted it back up, the monsters disintegrated into black dust. The pirate landed and sprinted to his right, "Gum Gum Stamp!" he yelled. Luffy put his foot behind him then kicked it forward and slammed four skeletal creatures holding bows backwards with his leg. They exploded and left bones behind along with some arrows and their bows.

Not far from the pirate captain, Ban slammed his right fist into an Ursai's claw as the Grimm bear tried swinging at him. His hand smashed straight through the dark bear's and hit it in the face, breaking through that as well and turning the monster into dust. He spotted a few black creatures appearing on his right side and looked over at the monsters rising out of the ground. Ban's eyes widened and his grip on his silver nunchucks tightened. He glared at the five creatures that were about his height, only because of the squiggly antennae sticking out the tops of their heads. They had beady white eyes and rose out from dark circles that formed on the ground below them. _Heartless,_ Ban thought as he narrowed his eyebrows.

Ban took a step towards the monsters, but came to a stop as he saw a figure even closer to them. The man with spiky white hair went wide-eyed at the sight of the younger man whose spiky silver hair was much longer and fell behind his back. He had his right hand lifted in front of him and his eyes were closed as he focused. His hand covered in darkness and the five creatures that formed glanced back at him. _**"Let me take control if you wish to fight with the Heartless."**_ _No, I need to be able to control the darkness on my own. I can't rely on you every time Ansem._ Riku's eyes snapped open and he glared at the five creatures intensely with his green eyes.

The Neo-Shadows stared back into Riku's eyes, then turned away from him and looked over at two monsters with white masks over their faces and spiky bones sticking out of their arms and legs. The beast was on all fours, a Grimm known as a Beowolf, and their red eyes glared over at Riku. The monsters started charging, but as they were passing by the Heartless, the Shadows turned to them and dove. Two Heartless hit the first one and brought it to the ground, making the second one skid to a stop and look at the other Heartless confusedly. It growled at them, but the three Heartless charged it and attacked. The Grimm swiped at one of them, but all three piled on top of it and surrounded it entirely.

When the Heartless backed away from their prey, the Grimm were gone. The scrawny dark creatures stood there bouncing from one foot to the other, not knowing what to do now that their goal was completed. Riku lifted up his Keyblade as he spotted monsters coming out of the sky towards him. Bigger ones came over the top of a hill nearby and his Heartless charged towards them while he leapt up for the bird above. Ban turned away from the Heartless, though he did steal a glance up at the teen rising into the sky. _How does he control the Heartless? The only ones I know who can do that, are those full of darkness._ He thought back to what Elaine tried to do to him the day before and his red eyes narrowed more at the teen.

He looked back forward though and saw the rubber pirate charging at some monsters coming over a hill. A younger boy with spiky white hair jogged by him and up to Luffy while a robot far on his left opened up his left arm and fired a cannon at a cluster of monsters. Killua and Franky ran up on either side of Luffy and started attacking monsters with him, while farther to their right, the squad of Heartless battled against some creepy one-eyed monsters with tentacles sticking off their round bodies that rolled up the hill. The Heartless again took down the enemies with little difficulty, but Ban saw something after the other monsters were gone that made him glance behind him. All five of the Heartless exploded one after the other in balls of fire, and Ban's eyes were sharp enough that even in the dark he could see where the tiny explosives that hit them came from.

Ban looked back and saw a long-nosed man at the edge of the torch line near town lowering his slingshot. Usopp had an enraged expression on his face, and when the explosions faded and he saw a few of the Heartless still standing, he lifted back up his slingshot and fired more explosives at them. A dark-haired figure sprinted past Ban on his right side, and the taller man turned and saw a teenager lifted up a sword still in its sheath, only to slam it down on the last remaining Heartless after Usopp blew up the others. The looks on both Usopp and Rin's faces were ones Ban had seen before, and he looked up to see if the other teen had seen them as well.

Riku floated in the sky after defeating the giant monstrous bird that was swooping towards them a minute ago. He looked down at Rin who put his sword back behind his back after smashing through the Heartless, then turned his gaze back towards the bar where he saw Usopp lowering his slingshot. The sniper glared hard at the spot the dark creatures just vanished, and his eyes lifted up a second later at the teen flying high above them. He and Riku made eye contact for a second, before Usopp turned away and rose his slingshot again, firing Pop Greens this time over near Luffy to help him and the others out. Riku saw the angry look on Usopp's face and he decided not to form any more Heartless, instead just lifting up his Keyblade and diving down to join the others in their fight against a thirty foot tall monster. _I need practice with the darkness, but, Usopp and Rin…_ _**"They will not forgive you so easily."**_ _Forgive me? It's you who they hate._

Ansem was silent for a second, and then he whispered in Riku's head, _**"Is it really?"**_

Riku stopped attacking the monster in front of him. He dropped down to the floor and glared at the beast with a pissed off look on his face. "Yeah, it is," Riku said aloud. He saw the monster bringing a claw down for Rin, and he shot forward faster than usual, appearing above the younger teenager and clashing his Keyblade with the bottom of the monster's claw. "Now Rin!" He yelled out.

"Got it!" The half-demon shouted. Okumura leapt up in the air and he unsheathed his sword. He focused solely on the monster in front of him and slashed his flaming blue sword down at it, resisting the urge to shout out his signature move, but doing so in his head anyway. _Satan Slash!_ "Demon Slash!" A slash of blue fire rained down on the monster right as Luffy slammed a fist into its stomach, knocking it backwards and on fire. The beast lit up the area all around it and the group fighting monsters on top of a hill looked around to see they drew the attention of every monster in a mile radius with that attack. While most of them just grinned, Ban was staring in utter shock at Okumura Rin while blue flames surrounded the teen.

"Hm, that worked well," Killua muttered. He darted his eyes all around him and saw hundreds of monsters on the ground and in the sky turning towards them. The various creatures did not know they were there until the flames lit them up, and Killua glanced down at the bracelet on his wrist. _This Power Blocker really does wonders. If I ever need to escape, they would never find me._

"Time for the second wave," Franky said, cracking his giant metal knuckles in front of him.

"How many of them do you think there are?" Rin questioned.

"Not enough," Luffy said as he cracked his knuckles like his shipwright.

"You guys ready?" Riku asked. The others all nodded and they started running forward as a group. "Let's take them down!"

* * *

 **A/N Thanks for reading! Hope everyone enjoyed! This chapter we see Krillin finally get a clue as to where Android 18 could be, from Dalgrefxi the Nobody of Garfield Logan, otherwise known as Beast Boy. Android 17 is a High Lord, Roxas and Sora team up to take on the Organization, and there was a third moon on Nexus at one point! Minecraftians, Endermen, and iron golems showing up this chapter, as well as some more Grimm, Aragami, Heartless, lots of monsters to fight constantly on this continent! Both Sora and Luffy's group are heading for the Dread Fort... XD Time for review responses... or, response* Haha it is two updates within 5 hours, so I'm happy to have even one! (Figured I'd make up for not posting yesterday, since this is the one meant for today anyway)**

joebob323

Woohoo! I love this chapter, and I hope to see some more Goku flashbacks in the future! Now that you mention it, we really don't know much, huh...

 **Glad you liked the chapter! Now with the story about the third moon, and Meliodas mentioning Goku being there, maybe another early flashback will be coming soon where our Super Saiyan makes an appearance? XD Thanks for the review!**


	40. Nexus HWR 8-2 Killua

**Nexus HWR 8.2** **Killua:**

"Hey Killua, Kil, get up," Usopp shook the kid with spiky white hair a few times and finally the fourteen year old opened up his eyes to see the long-nosed man leaning over him. Killua opened his mouth but Usopp lifted a finger and put it in front of his first to keep the boy quiet. The guy with long curly black hair motioned his head towards the door and Killua sat up to see Franky and Sanji both getting out of their beds.

"What's going on?" Kil whispered.

Luffy stood near the doorway and he looked back at the kid who just sat up. He chuckled in a quiet way and put a finger up to his mouth, before saying, "Let's go sneak into the Dread Fort."

Kil's eyes popped open wide. They had traveled the last two days with this destination in mind, but Meliodas had them stop at a small village right outside their destination for another night. Killua started frowning as the others all continued getting up, smirking and whispering to each other in excited ways. He noticed Luffy did not complain earlier when they decided to stop, even though they were so close to the Dread Fort that from the top of the bar they could see it over the next hill. He thought it was weird then, but now he realized why the pirate did not argue with Meliodas choosing to stop.

"Come on," Luffy urged, waving his friends towards the door while staying quiet so the men whose boar they were riding on would not hear them. They were in the room one down, and Luffy giggled as he snuck out of the room and tiptoed past Meliodas's. He headed towards the girls' room while the others kept getting up behind him, putting on their clothes and grabbing their weapons.

"Didn't think we'd be heading in in the middle of the night," Rin whispered as he grabbed his sword and slung it over his back.

Riku had a straight expression on his face, flat lips, staying silent as he watched the others get up around him. He spotted Killua slowly getting out of his bed and looking around the room with a nervous expression on his face, then turned and saw Usopp grabbing his slingshot that he put on his back while grabbing his weapons' pouch and strapping it to his waist. Sanji put on his suit jacket and Franky opened up his chest to check his cola supply once before closing it slowly to avoid making a loud clank.

Killua looked around at all the boys in the room and he opened his mouth, but held his tongue and his fists clenched at his sides. _Don't worry, Nami and Robin will-_ His eyes opened wide as he spotted Luffy back at the door, both women he just thought of sneaking over behind him. Robin had a small grin on her face and Nami was smirking, matching the mischievous looks on Franky, Usopp, and Luffy's faces. Killua looked to his right at Rin and Riku, but both of the other non-members of the Straw Hats were fully ready now and started heading for the door where Luffy was ushering them.

"Let's go," Luffy said excitedly and in a low whisper. "I want to see how strong the Lord guy is," he added. Nami lost her excited smirk and she bonked Luffy on the head, whispering scoldings to him not to start fighting as soon as they got there. Most of the others were already expecting Luffy to say something like that though and just chuckled or shook their heads. Luffy saw all eight of his friends were ready, and he turned and made for the entrance of the bar. _This is gonna be so much fun!_

* * *

"STOP!"

The group of eight people walking towards the bright lights stopped and turned around. The person standing behind them had been slowing down progressively since they left the small town where the Boar's Hat camped for the night. It was already night, but because of the lights coming from the city they were on their way towards, the air was bright enough to see this white haired kid whose head was pointed down at the floor.

"Why did we stop?" Luffy called back with a frown from the front of the group.

Riku stared at the youngest member of their group as the kid's hands shook at his sides, curled into fists. "Is something wrong?" He asked.

"Kil?" Rin began, taking a step back towards the kid with spiky white hair.

"I tried to hold my tongue," Killua whispered. He lifted up his head and shouted, "But are you all fucking insane?!"

Usopp and Rin both stepped back in surprise. Nami and Robin opened their mouths with varying levels of shock on their faces. Sanji dropped the cigarette from his mouth as his own lower lip lowered. Franky's metal eyelids opened up wide and even Luffy and Riku were taken aback by the kid's shout, and by the two streams of tears coming down his face.

"Kil?" Nami whispered back to the boy with wide eyes. "Wh-What's wrong?" She always thought he was creepy, nothing like the other children she always tried to be motherly towards. This kid though, he just glared at them all with two lines of water coming from the corners of his eyes.

"What's wrong?!" He shouted at her, then looked around at the others with him. "What's wrong?" He repeated, saying it again slower in case any of them wanted to jump in and answer his question. Killua turned to Riku, then Nico Robin and stared into the older woman's eyes. "What, the Hell, are we doing?"

Robin saw the question directed at her and she opened her mouth, but Luffy spoke up first loudly, "We're going to that city!" He pointed a hand out towards the top of the hill they would have to ascend to be able to see where they were headed that was giving off so much light.

Killua shook his head and held both arms out in front of him. He clenched his eyes shut and then snapped them open and yelled, "WHY?!"

Every person there gawked as they could not understand what was so wrong with this whole situation.

Usopp spoke up first, "B-Because Meliodas said Zoro was going north."

"And this is the closest city north of when he said that," Nami added.

"There are slaves in the city," Rin added darkly, reaching up and touching the sword behind his back.

"Because I haven't been in a good fight all week!" Luffy said, smiling again as he looked back at the boy whose mouth could not drop any further. "And I can't wait to see Zoro again."

"We go where the Captain goes," Sanji stated, lifting up another cigarette to his mouth and lighting it.

"YOW!" Franky agreed, posing with his arms over his head.

Killua stayed quiet for several seconds, then shook his head furiously with splashes of water flying off his cheeks. "Why are we trusting Meliodas?" He asked, looking around at all of them as they suddenly looked pretty confused. He focused on Usopp, "'Melidoas said Zoro was going north...' Who cares?! Why should you believe anything that guy, who we just met, says?! But you know what, let's just pretend like everything he said was the truth." He snapped his head to Nami now, "But the ' _closest_ ' city north?" He questioned as if speaking to a child. "Who knows how many _months_ it's been since Meliodas and Zoro have last seen each other. If he was going north, do you really think your friend only made it _this_ far in all that time?"

"Killua, it isn't about the probability of how likely he's going to be there," Riku began. "They just want to go because there is a slim chance they could see their friend again."

"And why are you going?!" Killua yelled at him. "You never even gave a reason."

Riku stayed quiet as he looked at the boy with lighter hair than his own. The nineteen year old finally spoke after looking into Killua's eyes, "For the same reason you're here."

Kil's eyes widened and he took a step back. He kept looking into Riku's eyes and could see the older boy actually knew what he was talking about.

Usopp had no clue what was going on though and he looked back and forth between the two of them. "Umm, what reason would that be?"

"To protect you guys," Riku replied, looking back to the group he was with. "Not that you need protecting," he continued, holding up his hands innocently as Luffy glared at him. "I just promised myself that until Sora came back, I would protect everyone."

"You're wrong!" Killua shouted, shaking his head and glaring up into Riku's eyes. He grabbed both sides of his head and shook it over and over. "That's not why I'm here."

"Yes it is," Riku responded casually, barely glancing back at the boy.

"No!" Killua yelled, lowering his hands and glaring with a much crazier look in his eyes than before. He wiped his face fast so that the tears were gone and he smiled wickedly at the pirates in front of him. "Protect them? If any of you think for a single second I would not sell you out to save myself," he looked straight into each of their eyes, one by one, and finished, "you're dead wrong. I'm a killer," he continued, looking straight into Nami's eyes. He was expecting her to flinch and step back or something, but this time she just looked pained for some reason and Killua's own threatening, insane look faltered. "I am!" He shouted. "I do it without a second's hesitation. I would betray each of you if it meant saving myself-"

"Who are you trying to convince?" Riku asked the kid, stepping a foot towards him. Killua's eyes opened a little wider and Riku continued talking, "Because someone who would do those things would not tell us about it." Killua clenched his teeth angrily as Riku was right, he was being stupid by saying all this right now. And, he never acted stupid so he didn't understand why this was going so wrong right now. "Killua," Riku continued, taking another step towards him. "Since you got on the ship in Awul, you've become a part of this crew. Just because you wouldn't join in the pact, doesn't mean you weren't still a part of it." Riku looked down into the shocked kid's eyes, and saw them start watering again. He continued while the people behind him all smiled at Killua too, "You asked us all why we came, because you are afraid we are going to run into danger in the city. You're right, we probably will. This is a stupid idea."

All the people watching from behind Riku lowered their bottom lips a little upon hearing this. Riku continued, "But, Luffy is the leader of this group. That's why you didn't stay behind in the town, because you're ready to follow for no other reason, than not wanting the rest of us to go get killed while you could be there to stop it." Killua shook his head, tears coming out of his eyes again, making the other smile at him once more. Riku lowered a hand down on the kid's shoulder, "That's why you're here. Say you would betray us all you want, I won't believe it. You may not trust yourself Killua, but we trust you."

"You shouldn't," Killua stated in such a dark, low voice, that Riku lifted up his hand from the kid's shoulder. Killua had his head bowed and his white hair shadowed his face. "There was another group who trusted me," he began darkly, lifting up his head a little and allowing a strange dark aura to swirl around him. "They listened when I said, 'Hey, let's turn off the power nullifiers. I'll help save your friends!'" Killua shook his head. "But I got my nullifier off, and I left them to do the rest. Because I had held up my part of the deal, and once my collar was off, he fulfilled his part of the deal too."

No one understood what Killua was saying, but slowly Rin opened up his mouth, "Wait, you were in Metropolis?"

"That's right," Sanji muttered, "you didn't get affected by the insane disease that hit us out on the sea. Did you live in Metropolis?"

"I was a prisoner there," Killua snarled at the chef, raising his gaze and making the chef's body fill with sweat at the kid's swirling blue eyes. "So, he told me he knew how to get my collar off. He knew where the control room was, he knew who I could _use_ to help me, which people were just as upset with the Government as me. And all I had to do was give him updates on my progress."

"Who?" Riku asked seriously, standing straight up in front of the shorter boy.

"Who else?" Killua asked with a mad grin. "Lex Luthor."

The group gasped together and more than half of them narrowed their eyes at him a second later. "That's right," Killua said with a smug look on his face. "I was Luthor's spy."

"But, wait a second," Usopp began in confusion. "I thought that guy confessed after the battle..."

"Him?" Killua laughed out. "A pawn Luthor told me about. Though, I was just another one of his pawns in the end. Actually, maybe I was more like a rook," he grinned around at the hate-filled looks they were giving him. "The guy in Pao would have only learned about my attack the day before, but Luthor, he'd been planning for weeks, ever since I gave him the date of when my comrades would be ready. I kept planting the idea in Green Arrow's head that he needed to get more help, because Luthor knew that he had the best connections of any of us. Luthor knew he would find the Saiyans and bring them to fight Tetsuo. We all pretend like the rebels and fighters-against-evil won because we freed Metropolis, and took down the corrupt NEG leaders, and destroyed the Underworld, but in the end Luthor was the only real victor of that fight. And I gave him everything he needed to get the ball rolling."

"You, psycho!" Rin shouted at the boy, his ears pointing out and blue flames wrapping around his body. "It's your fault Yukio-"

"Rin hold on," Riku snapped, turning back to the black haired teen sternly for a second.

"Why should he? You heard him, he's Luthor's dog," Sanji stated, taking a big puff of his cigarette and then narrowing his swirly eyebrow at the kid.

Riku shook his head, still in shock himself but thinking of something else. _Don't you all get it?_

"Once I got my collar off, I snuck off when no one was looking. Armin, Mikasa, Levi…" he began, and Sanji's eyes widened as he actually remembered those people, making him even angrier now. Killua continued with a smile on his face, "Eren, Oliver, Anakin, Fry, Bender, Leela," he tried to keep smiling but a few of them saw him falter for a second. "I didn't try to help them. I did my job, and Luthor said his new Government would be fine with people like me, so I just sat back and watched everything happen from a distance. Thought it was pretty funny when Luthor ran off, especially since things changed anyway." He started laughing, putting his hand on his chest and leaning back to make it louder.

Riku looked around as all of the pirates were looking more and more angry by the second. Robin looked calm, but she was the only one and Rin's flames were burning brighter. It was when he saw Luffy take a step towards Killua that Riku spun towards Luffy and stepped between him and Luthor's spy. "Luffy stop."

"Get out of my way Riku," Luffy growled harshly.

"I won't," Riku replied.

"Why are you still trying to help me?" Killua asked with a mad smirk on his face, looking up at the back of Riku's head.

"Because you're still trying to save us," Riku answered, making Luffy freeze in confusion, and everyone else to stop giving such harsh looks as well.

"What?" Sanji asked, snapping his head to Riku.

"I don't understand," Nami said quietly.

"He's trying to turn you all on him, so that we all forget about going to the city." As Riku finished, they all realized they'd been sitting there talking for five minutes now, not going to the city like only one of them didn't want to do.

"That's not-" Killua began.

"Kil!" Riku yelled, still looking ahead towards Luffy, not even glancing back at the kid who went wide-eyes at his shout. "We're the first people you've ever told about this." He didn't ask it as a question, he just stated it out loud because he already knew. "You know if word gets out, the Super Saiyans are going to hunt you down," he turned his head and looked at the kid behind him. Killua's eyes darted around as he knew that was true, and his hands trembled at his sides. Riku kept talking, "So what will it be Kil? Are you going to kill us right now to prevent us from talking? It's the sure thing, the only real way to keep yourself safe."

Killua's eyes widened larger than ever while Riku turned fully to face him. "No?"

The next second, Killua's hand was up in the air in front of Riku's throat, his fingernails touching Riku's skin. He moved fast, incredibly fast, but as he moved he watched Riku's eyes, and he saw the older teen following his movements, only to not dodge at all. He didn't even flinch.

Nami gasped as the kid shot his hand up at Riku's throat and since she was on the other side of him she couldn't tell how far in he had gotten. Everyone moved forward, then froze as Riku lifted up his right hand with an open palm, motioning for them to stop. He lowered back down his arm and stared into Killua's eyes. "No lying this time. No more games, or tricks, or lies," he added, not wanting to hear the kid blather on again forever while stalling them. "I know why you don't want to go into the Dread Fort. Do you?"

The kid's spiky white hair waved around for a few seconds as a breeze flew by. His hand kept shaking where it hovered right in front of Riku's throat, but he couldn't even will himself to look threatening anymore. He lowered down his right hand and whispered loud enough for the people behind Riku to hear too, "I don't want us to go, because we might not all make it out of there."

Franky's metal face started tearing up himself and then the cyborg burst out in loud sobs. "Little bro! I'm sorry I doubted you!"

Sanji looked at their cyborg shipwright, then back over at Killua. "What you said about Luthor though..."

"All true," Kil replied, as Riku stepped out of the way and gave Killua a better look at the group. The kid took a deep breath while they all stared at him. _You can do this Killua. Just try. Try one last time to make them understand._ "But, the truth is, I don't like killing," he admitted. "I kind of hate it actually. And if we attack this city right now, if we go in with the intent of causing havoc and starting fights, I don't know how many people I'm going to have to kill in order to survive. How many I'll have to kill to protect my comrades."

"You don't have to kill anyone," Nami began sternly towards the boy.

"How do you know that?" Killua asked, looking at her as if wondering if she really had an answer for him, which she didn't. He looked around at all of them, "I made a plan for Metropolis. We didn't have superior firepower, we didn't have an army, but we had stealth, we had the element of surprise, and we had a PLAN! And still with all of that, most of my team died. Sure, I pretended like it didn't get to me. But after spending months with a few of them, shorter for some others, I grew, _attached_. Just like I have, for this group," he admitted, looking away a little as that was hard for him to say while looking straight at them. He turned his head back and continued though, "Back then, I thought I knew what I was getting into, and things still went terribly. If I had known what Luthor would do, what he was planning for the city, I would have killed him the second I laid eyes on him." He shook his head sadly with clenched eyes, "But I didn't, and I watched an entire team die in a plan that I put together."

"It won't happen this time," Luffy stated firmly, unclenching his fists but still frowning at the boy for stopping them from going to the city for this long. "We won't die-"

"Damn it Luffy!" Killua shouted at the pirate captain. "Not all of us can have your optimism! _I_ actually believed Ben when he told us we all died! I died trying to save Dash. I hated myself for doing something so stupid, but now I hate myself even more because I'm about to go rush to another early grave, following you!" He panted over and over while glaring through the dimly lit darkness at the pirate in a straw hat whose face was shadowed over. Killua frowned and continued, "There is no rush. Your friend Zoro sounds strong. He's probably alive somewhere, somewhere that's not in that city. And we can go to the city anyway, but why not with Meliodas when those guys are ready to go? Why are we taking such unnecessary risks when we know how dangerous it is?"

A fist flew out of nowhere and crashed into Killua's face as his mouth opened up to keep on shouting. Riku spun and glared angrily at Luffy as his arm snapped back into place. "Hey! What are you doing?" Riku yelled.

"Luffy!" Nami scolded the captain sternly.

The rubber pirate grunted and slammed his hand out to the side. He looked across the dark area to the spot where Killua was pushing himself back up to his feet. The kid was rubbing the left side of his mouth with a deep frown on his face, but suddenly he started smiling and laughing even. "Luffy," Kil started. He looked over and stared straight into the pirate's eyes, "I've heard of stupid pirate captains. I've heard of reckless pirate captains. And I've heard of pirate captains who care nothing about their crews, who think their men are disposable." Killua glared across the darkness into Luffy's eyes, "But you don't get to be the first two without also being the third one!"

Luffy's eyes widened and he stared at the kid blankly as Killua kept shouting at him. "If you're going to act stupid and reckless all the time, every day, every God damn minute! Then don't go crying and pouting when your friends die in front of you!" He shouted at the rubber man. "I know you care about your crew Luffy, I know you don't think any of them are disposable! But," he shouted, and pointed his arm ahead so that it was aimed past Luffy and up the hill behind him. "But if you go rushing into that city tonight, and a single one of your friends die, then you have no right to get mad about it! And you don't have to tell me about having faith in your comrades, because I do too. But just because I believe Robin is smarter than me, doesn't mean that she knows anything more about what's inside that city than I do!"

He looked around, trying to make them understand more than earlier when they were all just staring at him blankly, and five minutes ago when all they did was pity him. Killua frowned deeply and looked straight ahead at Luffy again, staying a little more on guard now than before as he was expecting another punch soon. "The strongest man on my world. Isaac Netero. When we went to war with the Chimera Ants, with the King as their leader," the others all listened closely hearing about that insanely strong creature who was in charge of this continent. Killua continued, "Netero fought the King. We made a precise plan, with every step of it thought out thoroughly. I trusted each of my comrades to do their parts, and in the end the King was dead, so were his Royal Guards. But in the end Netero died, he had to sacrifice himself. And Gon," he whispered, closing his eyes as he thought about his best friend's form after fighting Pitou. "My best friend was on death's door. He almost died, lost a limb," Killua looked around and saw a few more pitying looks. "Stop with the pity already!" He shouted at them, surprising a few of them into leaning backwards. "I don't want your pity! That isn't why I'm telling you this! I just want you to understand, because none of you seem to. We could all die tonight. I trained and planned for months for both my fights against the King, and in Metropolis. When I'm going into a life-threatening situation, I plan for it, because I don't want to die, and I don't want any of my comrades to die. What, can, I, plan, for, tonight?" He asked, taking a break between every word to hopefully, finally get a point across.

The group stayed quiet until Riku spoke up, "We don't know."

"Exactly," Killua replied. "We don't know anything about this place. This is an entirely new world to us. If Gray were here he could tell us how powerful the Lord in charge is. Whether or not Luffy or Riku could take him. He could let us know what type of weapons people use on this continent. What if there are land mines all around the city, buried in the ground waiting to be detonated at any second? What if there are laser snipers that could shoot us from three miles away as soon as we step up that hill looking suspicious. We did no recon! So I'm going to ask again, and I will go with whatever we choose. What, in the Hell, are we doing?"

Luffy had been silent for a while now, ever since he punched Killua across the face. He had been trying to ignore him the entire time the boy spoke about changing their minds, but it had started getting to him. _I trust my crew. They can handle... certain people. I find whoever's the strongest and take him on, then Riku and Sanji could take the next strongest guys. And there aren't normally too many, more... but what if there are? That's just a risk. Pirates have fun with risks. Risks make an adventure!_ Luffy's mouth opened up a little, but he stopped as he saw the black haired teenager on his right take a seat.

"I'm mad at you Killua," Rin said, using his full name unlike he had for last few weeks since they became friends. He turned to the spiky haired kid and continued, "But, you're right. This is stupid, and I'm pretty stupid myself," he added on, "so that makes me think this is a new level of stupid."

"Rin," Usopp started from next to the younger boy. The sharpshooter looked over at Luffy then down at the sitting boy, "Whatever Luffy decides-"

"I'll go with too," Okumura Rin stated. This surprised a few of them who saw his sitting down to indicate him not wanting a part in the attack. "Whether we stay or go, I'm in. I chose to come this way knowing full well that Luffy was going to be in charge." The half-demon looked at the pirate captain and continued, "That doesn't mean I'm going to be quiet and not tell him my mind. Luffy, waking us all up at midnight to go raid this city was a stupid idea. Sounded fun and exciting at first, but I have lost all excitement that I felt towards it originally."

Riku stayed quiet while Rin spoke, but as he looked over at Luffy he saw the pirate captain still not speaking. "Luffy," he began, making the pirate look his way. "We've known each other for years. You know I am fine with risky situations, and I accept that in this group, you are the leader. I'm not afraid, but then again, death does not scare me that much. I know it doesn't scare you either, but it's not just about you and I, and a leader needs to make decisions for the good of the group."

"What about what you said before?" Usopp asked sarcastically.

Riku looked at the long-nosed man and felt a pang of guilt, while Usopp looked at him harshly. The silver haired teen spoke calmly, "I stick to what I said. I said I promised to protect you guys, and I also said I would follow Luffy. Doing both of those things at the same time is hard sometimes, and it will be even harder if we go into that city right now," he added. "So yes, Killua is right in that we should have some idea about who we are planning on fighting, or where the slaves we want to help are inside a giant city. I already sent some scouts ahead..."

"Wait what?" Nami asked the younger man, interrupting him in his speech.

"As soon as Luffy woke us up," Riku admitted, looking around at all the shocked looks. "What? I just sent some Shadows to take a look around."

"Sent some Shadows?" Usopp asked, his voice coming out pretty harsh. "You're using the Heartless?"

"Those things are evil," Rin added, the other person trapped in Castle Oblivion with Usopp also despising the creatures. "You shouldn't use them."

Riku shook his head slowly, "I use the darkness when I feel my friends are in danger." His words made a few of them look down and a couple others to look back at Luffy. "Tomorrow morning, those Shadows will return to me with a lot of information on the city, more so than what Meliodas will have even if we had just waited to ask him instead."

While Rin lessened how deep his frown was at Riku, Usopp's only dropped further. _That doesn't make it okay to use those monsters._

"Luffy?" Nami whispered after a few seconds of Riku being quiet.

"Alright," someone said on Luffy's left. "By us not saying anything, it really makes it seem like those of us actually on the crew are just sheep following their Captain." Everyone looked over and saw Sanji turn and look straight at Luffy. "This is serious, speaking against a captain's orders, but right now I can tell you aren't even that sold on your own orders Luffy. Not questioning your decision, but if you endanger Robin and Nami's lives needlessly, I won't be able to follow you anymore."

"Sanji-san!" Nami yelled over at the cook.

Okumura Rin sweatdropped, _What about the rest of us?_ He thought staring over at the blond man who only mentioned two of their group members.

"Well I'm with you Luffy, all the way!" Usopp shouted out, slamming a hand against his muscular chest that showed under his overalls. The sharpshooter grinned over at Luffy to give him a vote of confidence, but his smile wavered as Luffy did not return one of his own. "Luffy?"

 _But changing my orders now seems weird. It feels like I wouldn't be making the decision here. I should just go with what I said, go with my gut- even if my gut now says to listen to my friends?_

"Luffy?"

The pirate in the straw hat looked up and across the circle over at the former assassin, former spy, with spiky white hair. Killua stared into Luffy's eyes and the captain looked right back. _What's the point of nakama if I'm not going to listen to their advice... every once in a while?_ A smile spread across Luffy's face and Killua frowned deeply, expecting the worst. "Let's go get some more sleep," Luffy said, then started walking towards Killua whose eyes were huge. Luffy walked right by while stretching his arms up and yawning. "Tomorrow we attack Dread Fort!" He called out with his arms above his head.

Usopp shook his head a few times from his shock, then his eyebrows narrowed and he yelled, "Don't shout that we're going to attack a city when we're this close to it! Baka!"

Nami, Sanji, and Franky all sighed after a few seconds and started walking after their captain as well. Sanji took another puff of his cigarette, "At least let me buy some good ingredients before we leave this city the same way we left Dressrosa."

"I want to go shopping too," Nami stated firmly. "I have not haggled-to-free a new change of clothes for far too long." She did not say the word 'buy' which would indicate her spending money, her precious money. This made Rin start laughing and follow after the woman while Riku chuckled quieter and followed after as well.

Killua took some deep breaths as everyone went walking past him, then he reached up and rubbed the side of his face where Luffy's fist hit him before. "I was an assassin once myself," a voice said on Killua's right, and he spun around fast to see Nico Robin standing there. He totally did not notice her and it kind of freaked him out, especially with what she said to him on top of it. "An assassin, and a spy, and at one point, I abandoned Luffy and left the crew."

Killua stared at this woman confusedly as she stepped in front of him and got down on one knee. "The life we lived was not pleasant, but the lifestyle makes for a cautious person, which is something necessary on the crew of a stupid, reckless... and caring pirate captain. I've been on the crew for too long, but you made the right call today that we needed." She leaned forward so her head was right on the side of his and whispered, "I'm glad you trust us enough now to share your secrets. But Killua, if you ever do betray us like you said you would, and unlike Riku I think there is a part of you who still would, I will tell your secrets. Son Gohan will know that you fed Luthor information willingly. Prince Vegeta will hear about it. No matter where you go, or where you hide, the Super Saiyans will find you like they found every Underworld base and crushed them under their feet. You pride yourself on your torture training, but I wonder how many painful ways Prince Vegeta knows how to kill someone." Robin leaned back from the kid's ear and smiled down at his face. "Good night, Killua-kun."

The kid did not turn to watch her after she walked past him, because he was staring forward for a solid minute after that. _She wants me to believe she was an assassin and spy too? Yeah, I can see that... Gulp._

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed! Killua freaks out about sneaking into the Dread Fort and winds up spilling his own dark secrets, a dangerous move while also showing that he really is getting attached to his friends despite what the No Matter What pact showed. Thanks for reading! Let me know what you thought in a review! Sorry but no review responses today, for some reason when I click on the reviews for this story and refresh, I can't manage to see the most recent reviews from chapters 38 and 39. Hopefully the problem is fixed by tomorrow, where I will be posting HWR 8.3 The Dread Fort Part 1! Anyway, 'till next time!**


	41. Nexus HWR 8-3 The Dread Fort Part 1

**Nexus HWR 8.3 The Dread Fort Part 1:**

A giant green boar marched down the side of a hill towards the walls of the city ahead. Most of the people on top of Mama Hawk were not inside the bar, but standing near the giant pig's head so that they could look at the city they were approaching.

"Whoa," Rin gasped out. When Meliodas called the place they were approaching a 'city,' he had underestimated what that word meant. Most cities in his mind were much smaller than Metropolis, and though this one did not have the towering skyscrapers the capital of the NEG had, the wall in the front of it extended miles to the left and right of the gate they were approaching. The wall was about thirty meters tall from what they could see, maybe a little higher. There were armed towers every hundred meters or so, though the guards were also scattered along the wall itself.

The gate itself was much taller than the rest of the wall. It had two large towers rising up from both sides of it. The wall and towers were all made of black steel. The gate on this side of the wall looked like a double doorway to be opened up, and considering how tall it was, some of those approaching it wondered how tall some figures were that needed to get through those gates.

Nami looked to either side of the gate and saw some tall buildings dispersed throughout the city. One building caught her eye because of its pyramid-like shape and because of the big flashing sign near the top of it. Her eyes turned into dollar signs and she started rubbing her hands together in anticipation.

"Look," Riku muttered to the boy on his left. He turned a little and saw the kid he was talking to already staring at the same thing.

Killua nodded his head. The white haired kid stared at the top of the gate where several turrets sat. They did not look manned, but he noticed them moving around so he figured they were automated. _Snipers on the gate. Turrets with sensors, high walls, I really don't know what would have happened if we had attacked last night._

The fourteen year old was not the only one thinking about that as they approached the gate. Luffy stared at the top of the gate where the defenses looked strongest. _Would my nakama have survived if we went when I said?_ "Hmph," he hummed. He was trying not to think about it but it kept creeping back into his mind.

"Alright," Meliodas clapped his hands together and the group turned around. The short man with wavy blond hair smiled at them from in front of his bar. "We're going to set up shop in the market. The rest of you are going to have to spend some more time at the gate."

"Why would that be?" Robin asked the older man who looked like he was a child.

The leader of the Seven Deadly Sins turned to the black haired woman. "Gray never told you?" He asked in a surprised voice. Most of the group shrugged their shoulders, not knowing what Medliodas was referring to.

"You were planning on just walking right in?" Weiss scoffed as she walked out of the bar behind her. The teenage girl with a white ponytail was wearing a nice brown coat that fell almost down to her ankles. It had three buttons on the front of it where the right side was overlapping with the left. She had on a pair of white gloves and the sheath with her thin sword in it was on the outside of her coat, strapped to a leather belt over her waist.

Sanji's eyes popped out as hearts and his heart pumped out of his chest. "W-W-Weiss-channn!" Sanji spun around and stopped next to the female swordsman. "That jacket covers you up but makes you pop at the same time!" He reached out his arms to pull her in for a hug.

A white circle appeared underneath Weiss's feet and three more appeared behind her. Her feet quickly slid across the top of Mama Hawk's back without her moving a muscle. She humphed angrily towards the pirate chef who fell flat on his face when the girl he tried hugging vanished from between his arms.

Rin laughed as Sanji snapped his head up with tears coming out of his eyes that the lady vanished. Weiss turned from the perverted man and looked ahead towards the other girls with her. "Are you wearing that into the city?" She motioned at Nami's shirt that had small sleeves and left her belly exposed, and at both her and Robin's short shorts. "The Dread Fort isn't the safest city in the South."

"Hmm," Nami hummed to herself. She looked down at her legs and wondered aloud, "Maybe I should put some pants on. It is a little chilly."

"Summer is on the way out," Robin added. "Though I would like to wear shorts just a little longer," she admitted to herself, looking down at the nice pair she got from Dressrosa. "Since I won't be able to wear them soon."

"Suit yourselves," Weiss said, shrugging uncaringly, not going to feel guilty if something happened after she warned them.

"Back to what you mentioned," Robin continued to Meliodas. The short man with a green sword hilt over his shoulder looked back at her as the archaeologist continued, "Why will we need to stay at the gate?"

Ban came walking out of the bar with the others who were still inside with him. He walked out with Elaine walking next to him, Gowther behind, and the pink pig, Hawk, walking on his other side. "You nine will need to get identifications if you want to get into any cities in the Cooperative." Ban told them.

"Huhhh?" Luffy asked, looking back with an annoyed expression. "That sounds boring."

"It is," Ban admitted, looking away in annoyance himself.

"You won't have to sneak into every city if you get one though," Elaine mentioned. She held up a finger and continued, "Some countries won't even let you in at the border if you don't have an I.D."

"Makes it easier for them to banish you," Meliodas mentioned with a chuckle. "You friend Zoro is not permitted in several countries. Not that that stops him from entering anyway."

"So if we get I.D.'s and Luffy makes a commotion," Nami began darkly. "We won't be able to go into anymore cities?" She turned and glared at the rubber pirate who started grinning at the idea of becoming Wanted again.

"Not always," Gowther began, pushing up on the bridge of his glasses. "Some Lords welcome all citizens no matter how infamous they are. Those cities are often the most dangerous-"

"And fun," Ban interrupted with a wide, toothy grin.

"Truth is," Meliodas spoke. "We are already too close to the wall to turn back now. When they stop us inside the gate and ask for I.D.'s, you'll have to make your story believable."

"Huh? What story?" Usopp asked confusedly.

"Well, you don't expect they're really going to believe we don't have I.D.'s do you?" Killua asked the long nosed man next to him. Usopp looked at the younger boy confusedly and Killua continued as if it were obvious, "They'll probably assume we did some bad things in some other city and ditched our identifications to try and start over."

"Smart kid," Ban told the younger boy with spikier white hair than his own.

Meliodas added, "Shouldn't take you guys too long though. Since your prints won't be in their data, your story should work fine."

"Oh man," Usopp groaned. "We're going to tell the truth and I still feel nervous!"

"Get over it," Nami said in a confident voice. "We need to get into this city. Zoro could be here," she declared determinedly.

She turned to Usopp and all he saw were dollar signs in her eyes. "What?! What are you planning?!" He shouted in panic.

"Oh relax," she told him with a wave of her hand. She smirked deviously and looked ahead at the giant gates they were approaching. _Get ready Dread Fort, here I come!_

The outer gates opened inwards when Mama Hawk came close to the walls. The giant boar marched through the gate into a large open area between the inner and outer walls. Ahead of them was another tall gate leading into the city, but that one was not opening up yet.

A figure dropped down from the top of the gate behind them and landed on the back of the giant pig. The man walked forward with a sniper over his back, a black bandanna around his forehead, white army gear on his body, and a pistol at his side. "I.D.'s," he demanded.

While half the group pulled out their identifications, the other half didn't move. The guard looked at them and growled again, "Identifications."

"Um," Nami began, taking a step forward towards the guy. "We just came from Awul."

"Awul? What's that?" The guard grunted at her. "And what does that have to do with your I.D.'s?"

"We don't have any," Sanji scowled at the man who was speaking rudely to Nami. He turned to the chef in surprise and then looked around at the rest of the group. Sanji looked at the guy coldly and scoffed, "You've never heard of Awul?"

The guard grimaced at Sanji for a second then looked over his shoulder. "Hey Hue, Farlan." Two others near the top of the gate looked down at the man below who continued loudly, "You ever heard of a place called Awul?"

The two thin men at the top of the gate looked at each other thoughtfully for a few seconds. They each shrugged, but another guy who was on the inside of the gate, down on the ground near Mama Hawk's feet, called up, "Yeah, I've heard of it. On the other side of the world."

"We've come a long way," Robin began to the man in the bandanna who turned back towards her. "We would greatly appreciate it if we could get through the identification acquisitions as quickly as possible." The dark haired woman's eyes bored into the guard's and he gulped at her.

"Alright," he muttered slowly. "You nine," he pointed at the group of pirates and their friends. "Head down there and we'll try to get you through the gates as fast as possible." The guard turned back to Meliodas and his comrades, "And you-" he continued. The guard looked at the identifications that the Sins were showing him, and he gulped when he saw Meliodas's. "Oh, I-I'm sorry sir. Um, yeah, you may go right in."

"Sir?" Franky asked the short guy next to him.

Meliodas lifted his I.D. a little and showed the cyborg it. He pointed at a filled-in gold circle next to his face. "That shows I'm recognized as Lord level. Even if I don't want to be a Lord," he added with a small laugh.

A few of the pirates looked at Meliodas with varying gazes. While Usopp wondered if maybe these Lord guys were not as strong as Gray made them out to be, Killua and Luffy thought differently. _Just how strong is this guy?_ Killua thought as he stared at the figure who looked about as young as he did, but told them he was in fact an adult.

"Alright," Meliodas said, looking around at everyone. He turned to Luffy and said, "If you want to stop by the bar we'll be in the market for at least a few days. See ya!"

The guard motioned for the group without I.D.'s to get off the giant boar and they looked back one more time at their new friends. "Later," Killua said to the man with spiky white hair like his own. Ban nodded at the kid as Killua turned and jumped off the boar.

The rest of the pirates' group got off and the gate on the inside of the city opened up. The Seven Deadly Sins started heading inside and Elaine whispered, "I liked them."

"Yeah, I can see why Zoro was their nakama," Meliodas agreed. "But on to business! Elaine, get on your waitress uniform! We need some customers!"

* * *

"I can't believe we spent four hours answering those stupid questions," Nami groaned as she sat on a bench near the inner walls of the city.

"At least we finally got inside," Usopp offered optimistically.

"Hungryyy," Luffy moaned from Nami's right side. He slid down and slouched so much that his butt fell off the bench.

"What is taking those three so long?" Sanji muttered as he took another puff of a cigarette. He looked back towards the smaller doors next to the giant inner city gates. They were on a road with buildings on one side and the wall on the other. The intersection with the main road from the gate into the center of the city was not far away from them, but they couldn't go anywhere until their entire group was ready.

Okumura Rin kept looking down at the ID in his hand disdainfully. Usopp noticed his looks and leaned over the younger teen's shoulder, then burst out with laughter. Rin spun around in surprise hearing the laughter right next to him and bobbled his ID, dropping it on the floor in front of the bench.

Franky, Sanji, Nami, and Luffy looked down at the ID on the floor. Their cheeks puffed out, and all four of them burst out laughing just like Usopp. "What?!" Rin snapped at the group as he snatched up his ID. "They wouldn't let me take a re-take of my ID photo, okay?" He grumbled in annoyance as their laughter didn't stop for a few more seconds.

"At least it isn't a drawn picture," Usopp mentioned, making Sanji stop his laughter.

Luffy thought about the Wanted poster that the Marines made for Sanji and he started laughing like crazy for a new reason. Sanji turned to Usopp with a look that said 'I'm going to kill you,' and the long-nose sprinted away until he was at a safe distance of a hundred feet.

Franky turned from the others and looked back towards the gate. "Look, here they come," the cyborg stated. Coming towards them were the three others of their group.

"Took you long enough," Nami mumbled loudly towards those three. Killua, Robin, and Riku walked in a line, all of them looking smug.

Killua smirked, thinking about how their interrogation of him turned around so that he was finding out all sorts of things from the guards. He started casually, "The walls surround the city on all sides, though there is an airfield to the north of the city that is not inside the city boundaries."

"Tonight, a Lord from another city is visiting," Nico Robin brought up. "There will be a feast in his honor and all those Orange and above are invited."

"Orange?" Nami questioned confusedly.

"Remember when they asked you to punch the machine?" Robin asked her friend.

"Oh!" Luffy exclaimed. He held up his ID and pointed at a small orange circle next to his face. "I got orange."

"I kicked the machine," Sanji admitted, "and I got orange too."

Franky grunted in annoyance and Usopp looked at the robot in surprise. "You didn't get Orange rank Franky?"

"Yellow's good too," the cyborg said. "What did you get?" He asked following, turning to the muscular younger man.

"Well you see," Usopp began with a smirk, "I opted out."

"Me too," Nami said.

"Me three," Killua added.

The others all looked at him in surprise. "What? I'd rather not tell them how strong I am."

"That is why I punched it," Robin stated, and she turned her ID to Killua. It had a little green circle on it and she continued, "If you held back I am sure they would have given you a green circle as well."

"Huh," Killua mumbled as he saw the green circle. His ID had no circle there at all, and now that he thought about it he realized that might look suspicious. "Good idea, I'll do that at the next city."

"But you won't get to go to the feast now!" Luffy exclaimed to Killua. The younger boy frowned and shrugged his shoulders, wondering if maybe he would be able to sneak in later.

"So what do you guys want to do first?" Usopp asked as they were finally all together as a group.

"I need to buy some food for our journey North," Sanji admitted. "And hopefully find one of those bottomless pouches. Being able to keep a full inventory of food on me at all time would be amazing."

"Alright," Nami started, pulling out her own bag and reaching inside it. "We still have a lot of the money from Dressrosa, so I'll split it up. Everyone gets a hundred except for Sanji since he's buying our food."

She started distributing the money and Killua noticed she was keeping a whole lot in her bag. "And what will you be doing?" He asked suspiciously.

Nami grinned at the young boy and turned her head to look into the city. She looked over some of the smaller houses and shops near the edge where they were, over towards a giant pyramid sticking out like a sore thumb. The others followed her gaze and gawked at the sign that flashed red over and over. The sign was just a bunch of capital letters, spelling, 'CA$INO' and actually using a dollar sign for the 'S.'

"Figures," Killua muttered with a small shake of his head.

"Food!" Luffy exclaimed, as this was taking too long already.

"I'm with Luffy," Usopp agreed, putting his hand up in the air. "Let's go get some food."

"That sounds nice," Robin agreed.

"Someone should go with Nami to the casino," Riku spoke up. Sanji opened his mouth but Riku cut him off, "You need to buy food." He looked around at the rest of them, then sighed and stated, "Alright, I'll go."

The orange haired pirate smirked and started leading her bodyguard down the road in the direction of the giant pyramid "Ooh! Riku!" Nami exclaimed as she suddenly had a great idea. She turned to the teen and whispered something to him while their comrades looked over wondering why Nami shouted.

Riku chuckled and lifted up his right hand. In his hand appeared a red and black Keyblade. The end of it glowed bright for a second, and he and Nami's bodies were surrounded in white light at the same time. When the lights vanished, along with Riku's Keyblade, most of the others dropped their jaws. Even Nami looked stunned as she looked down at her own body, the light blue dress that sparkled as she spun around a little, the white gloves, the heels. Riku was standing in a suit next to her and he smiled at her awed reaction. _Never been to a casino before,_ he thought as he held out his arm with his elbow crooked out to the side. _But I'm going in style,_ "Shall we?" He asked.

Nami turned to the slightly younger man and her eyes sparkled as she smiled at him. "We shall," she said in just as much of a fancy person voice. She locked arms with him and the two of them strolled off down the street in style.

"Well they sure look the part," Usopp muttered, though he did find himself staring at Nami for several seconds longer than usual after that change in appearance. He heard a muffled roar on his right and turned to see Sanji chewing on his shirt collar and glaring down the road at Riku's back with fiery eyes.

"Yosh!" Luffy exclaimed, getting attention back on him. "Let's go get some food!" He held up the money Nami just gave him and licked his lips, ready to spend it all on his lunch.

* * *

"Wow, I'm truly amazed," Usopp said as he walked out of a shop with a smile on his face. "I can't believe I've never tried doner kebab before. That was delicious!"

"Yeah, we should tell Sanji about it when we see him," Killua agreed. Usopp looked down at the younger boy next to him who was also licking his lips. The long-nosed sharpshooter frowned a little as he thought about what the kid said last night. _He was a spy for Luthor… But he's just a kid, let it go Usopp._ He shook his head and smiled, agreeing with the kid on the telling Sanji idea.

"To find Sanji-san we would have to go to the market first," Robin announced to her friends who walked out of the shop with her. There were only five of them now, as Luffy and Rin walked out next to her too.

"Franky might be there too," Rin suggested. "He did say he would look for parts to make us a vehicle. I wonder if Nami gave him enough to make something that fits nine." The teen with wavy black hair scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"Ten," a voice called out from Rin's back. Rin's cat poked its head out of the bag with a fish in its mouth that Rin gave it a few minutes ago, only the fish was mostly bones now. Kuro had a big grin on his face but he yawned and popped his head back down, closing the bag's flap behind him.

"Anyway," Luffy started, and pointed his hand to the left. The others followed his point and he was pointing straight at a castle in the center of the city. It looked like a fortress with large towers, stone walls, and no doubt a large number of guards. "Let's go there!"

A couple of the others looked at each other nervously, and Rin spoke up, "Shouldn't we wait until we're all together before-"

"Nope," Luffy said in just as carefree a tone.

The captain turned to see if Killua was going to argue with him, but the boy just shrugged his shoulders. He said what he needed to the night before and he could tell Luffy was at least being a little more cautious. "Hey, he never said anything about fighting," Killua offered as a consolation to the two nervous older teenagers. "But if it comes to that, we can handle it."

"What?" Usopp asked, totally confused by Killua's reversal from the night before.

"Hey, I've seen the outside of the city. We got past the hard part. I hear there's a Lord here, not a High Lord or anything. So let's go." He smirked and started walking forward, "If Luffy gets in a fight with some asshole Lord, I'm sure the rest of us can back him up just fine."

"Right!" Luffy agreed. He started walking forward too, and Robin walked right after him. Usopp and Rin glanced hesitantly at each other again, then followed after their captain. Killua kept a calm grin on his face, but despite what he just said he had a bead of sweat rolling down the left side of his face.

"Hey Luffy," a voice said behind the five of them and they all stopped. Luffy froze in place and his eyes widened. He spun around just like the others with him and looked behind them on the street where a single figure in a brown cloak stood. He had his hood up, but he lifted his head a little and smiled out at them. "Long time no see."

Luffy started, "So-"

The teen in the cloak lifted up a hand to his mouth and put one finger over his lips. "Shh," he whispered to them. He turned back and forth and saw a few others walking by on the street. They looked like normal people, but he saw a few glance at him oddly and he turned back to his friends. "Follow me." He turned and walked back over to the shop they were just at, only a little to the left of it.

The group looked at each other, shrugged, then chased after the cloaked figure into an alley between the doner shop and the building next to it. The teenager jogged down the alley for a little until he hit a turn and turned down that one into a darker alleyway between the backs of two buildings whose front doors were on parallel streets.

Finally he stopped moving and turned around to the five chasing after him. The teen lifted his hands up to his hood and lowered it for his comrades to see. "Ohh," Usopp said in a understanding tone. The others looked at him in surprise that he didn't recognize the teen sooner, but Sora just smiled that his disguise was working. "What are you doing here Sora?" Usopp asked.

"Shh!" Sora put his finger in front of his mouth again and shushed Usopp. "Don't say my name."

His attitude was making most of them nervous. Killua whispered, "What is it? Are you being hunted?"

"No," Sora whispered back, then paused for a second. "Actually, kind of," he admitted as he thought about what Roxas told him.

"What's going on? Did you catch that person you were chasing?" Rin asked the teenager who was just a little older than him.

Sora frowned and closed his eyes for a few seconds. "Not yet," he muttered sadly, but his smile came back to his face not long after. "Anyway, I saw you guys and wanted to say something, but I needed to be careful. The Lord in this city is pretty strong."

"You faced him already?" Luffy asked in surprise. He pouted and crossed his arms, "I wanted to do that." Usopp clenched his teeth angrily that the Captain was already planning on that while Killua was telling them that they weren't going to try and pick a fight.

Sora nodded, but spoke up, "Not here though. I fought him before coming to Nexus."

"Whoa, really?" Rin asked in surprise. "Did you win?"

Sora nodded his head. "But I had Donald and Goofy to help me back then," he admitted, as was true about most of his fights in the past.

"Well if you could do it-" Luffy began.

"He's much stronger now," the boy with spiky brown hair interrupted his good friend. He looked Luffy in the eyes, "It would be a hard fight even for you."

"What do you mean?" Robin asked the teen. "You seem to be hiding something."

Sora's mouth opened wide, but he closed it and started chuckling. "Yeah, I'm kind of paraphrasing because I need to be on the lookout." He lifted back up his hood and whispered, "I snuck into the city a few nights ago." A few of them went wide-eyed as he continued, "You won't believe how difficult it is to move around the city without an ID. The casino won't let me in, I can't get anywhere near the Dread Fort."

"Wait," Usopp swung his arms in front of him. "Aren't we in the Dread Fort?"

"Technically, the whole city is the Dread Fort, but it was really only built around the original Dread Fort. The ones who built the fort got crushed in a war a while back, but their fortress remained so now he's in charge. His name, is Saix." Sora became quieter and started whispering everything Roxas had told him the night he left his friends.

His friends started nodding their heads together as a group every time Sora finished a sentence, even as half of what he said went right over their heads. "… and the Nobodies are taking their Somebodies and merging them… The original loses all sense of individuality while the Nobody takes control… Saix already found his Somebody, and Roxas said that after he merged with Isa, Saix's power increased ten fold." Luffy, Rin, and Usopp kept nodding until they realized that Sora was done speaking.

"Hmm," Luffy hummed, "so they're Mystery Enemies," he said in a confident tone.

Sora lowered his bottom lip for a second, then smiled at his old friend who he traveled around Awul with. "Yeah Luffy, they're Mystery Enemies. Organization XIII is strong. I'm glad you guys are here though," he added. His friends turned to him in confusion and Sora lifted up a fist, "Now, we can stop them."

"EHH?" Usopp exclaimed, only to be met by half the people around him shushing him. He whispered in a loud way at Sora, "Didn't you just say all this scary stuff about them?!"

"Yeah, but that's why I was waiting for you guys," Sora said. "I know that the eighteen of us can take the Dread Fort easily."

The group in front of him froze. Sora continued speaking, not noticing their shift in mood, "Speaking of which, where is everyone?" He looked at his friends and a few of them had nervous looks on their faces. Sora's smile dropped and he whispered, "What happened?"

"Everyone's fine Sora," Robin began, seeing that the boy was misunderstanding their looks.

"We split up," Luffy stated flatly. Sora turned to the pirate in surprise, but Luffy continued, "Gray wanted to go South, but I wanted to go North."

"So," Sora began, letting that news sink in. "Who went with Gray?"

Usopp held up his hands and started putting down fingers each time he listed off a name. "Natsu, Juvia, Ben, Dash, Kirito…" he gulped and added one more, "and Kairi."

"What?!" Sora exclaimed. He rose his voice without caring that he had been hiding for days. "And where was Riku during all this? What was he doing?"

Rin coughed a few times to clear his throat and said in a nervous tone, "Riku, was the one who sent Kairi with them."

"Oh," Sora said, tilting his head to the side. It was a much less harsh reaction than Rin was expecting. "Okay then," he said, bringing up a hand and scratching the back of his head, "I'll have to ask him about it later. It still sounds like most of the team is in the city though. Would you guys be willing to help me out?" He asked his friends. Sora looked around at each of them, and added, "It's Saix and his comrades in Organization XIII that are forcing Roxas to do their bidding."

"Hold on," Usopp began before anyone could answer Sora. "This Roxas guy attacked us didn't he?" Usopp looked around wondering if anyone else remembered that cloaked figure coming out of nowhere and kicking ass.

"He only did because Naminé is being kept hostage," Sora replied. He saw Usopp open his mouth again and held up a hand to stop him. "Just trust me," Sora started. He looked into the pirate sharpshooter's eyes, "Roxas is a part of me. Take my name, Sora, and rearrange the letters. Now throw an X in the middle. What do you get?" He looked around and one by one they figured out what he meant, well, except for a confused Luffy. "He was my Nobody, but now, now he is his own person."

"Doesn't matter," Luffy stated. Everyone turned to the pirate captain and Luffy just smiled at his old friend, "We're going to help you anyway. This Saix guy is a jerk, right?"

Sora grinned at Luffy and nodded his head. "Yep," the boy responded.

"It's settled then," the captain called out. Usopp started moaning at him and Luffy just crossed his arms, "If he's Sora's enemy, then he's my enemy too."

Usopp stopped complaining and sighed. "In that case," he began, "he's our enemy as well, right guys?"

"Yep," Rin, Killua, and Robin all replied.

Sora smiled at each one of them. "You guys are the best!"

* * *

 **A/N And so it begins. The Dread Fort has some enemies lurking inside it as Sora recruits his friends to help him free Roxas and defeat Saix. There are lots of twists and turns these next few chapters so hold on tight! Who is the visiting Lord who Robin mentioned? Sanji and Luffy got rank Orange during their identification process so they'll be at the feast to see who it is. The Seven Deadly Sins are still in the city too, wonder what their role on the upcoming battle is going to be? What about other Organization members in the city? And the Ca$ino that Nami and Riku are heading to, what about that?! Haha, let me know your predictions for the upcoming chapters in a review below! I hope you all enjoyed! The reviews for the past couple of chapters have finally uploaded on Fanfiction, as did the ones for chapter 40 which I'll respond to below!**

joebob323 chapter 40 . 23h ago

I got you. I tried to see the reviews on my story as well, ans it appears that the most recent reviews are not showing up. I hope this message gets to you no later than the 5th, but good job on this chapter. I like these sorts of chapters, But I can't wait for more action!

 **Just to let everyone know, I was still getting the reviews on my email, I just could not copy and paste them as easily so I did see that I was getting reviews during the time Fanfic wouldn't show them! Thanks for the review though and I'm glad you liked the emotional chapter, though more action is coming... XD**

Espada-001 chapter 40 . 18h ago

I thought Killua finally opening up was a pretty good scene. Also Robin leaving him an open threat was definitely hilarious. Here's a question I just thought of but we've seen Heartless all over the place but why haven't we seen any Nobodies, and I know we found out that Beast Boy has a Nobodie. But what I'm talking about are the regular Nobodies they should be just as common as the Heartless shouldn't they? And while my knowledge of Kingdom Hearts isn't the greatest and there's a good chance I'm wrong, but shouldn't there be a Nobodie for everyone that got turned into a Heartless? If so then I'd be interested in seeing the Nobodie of Shanks. Well I think I rambled on a bit there so I'll draw this to a close by saying goodnight and I look forward to the next chapter!

 **Glad you liked the chapter! Beast Boy's Nobody, Dalgrefxi, foreshadows a lot in the story that I'm glad you picked up on. Don't wanna say much else as lots of what you asked is kind of spoil-y, but the Nobody of Shanks thing I totally thought of only a couple of days before this review! Haha once I thought of him though I realized how cool that would be so who knows when he'll show up! Thanks for another review!**

Darugus chapter 40 . 12h ago

Killua finally opening up to the group  
Also I like the fact that even though riku killua and rin are against the luffy's idea they would still go with it even because he is the leader of the group also I think you were trying to show that luffy was growing as a leader now taking his comrades advice ocasionally looking forward to there raid on dread fort next chapter

 **Thanks for the review! The group that followed after Luffy kind of knew what they were getting into when they did it. Before that the "leader" of the group was un-specified, but once Luffy split off to go find Zoro it became pretty clear that those following him would be _following_ him. Kil getting Luffy to agree showed a lot about both him and Luffy, and I'm glad you're looking forward to the upcoming Dread Fort mayhem! XD**

7lights13darknes chapter 40 . 14h ago

OMG Kil's character in this story is getting so much better. I am liking his part more and more. I never really new his character before ( i have only seen one episode of hunter x hunter) i was shocked that he told them his secret and how well riku took it( i would expect that from sora if not anyone else.) i figured it would happen at one point but still my mind has been blown( the last few chapters have been doing that lately) and like i said before thus is the fastest i have ever seen a fanfiction updated. How and when do you get all the free time!? Keep up the good work and can't wait for the next chapter.

 **Killua was pretty minor back in the first part of Nexus, as the rebels in Metropolis were the last main group I added for that final war, and I mainly focused on the Attack on Titan crew, Smoker, and Stan/Anakin anyway on top of that. Glad you're starting to like his character and he really was the one hiding a whole lot from everyone, though there is still someone else in this group keeping a big secret... As for how I keep up updating so fast, it's because I always have chapters on-deck ready to post when I start up a spree like this. When I was writing the Atlantis chapters I got disinterested for a little and went pretty far ahead and kept writing, finishing up about half of chapter 8 while I was still posting chapter 2. Then when I had to write the Forever Kingdom and Dressrosa I was also distracted by chapters 9 and 11, both of which have over 100,000 words already written in them, so that once I finish up chapter 8 I'll start posting chapter 9 right away. Whenever I take a break from posting, it's likely because I'm writing chapters other than the one y'all are waiting for. Haha not the best system as sometimes I have to edit things I wrote in the future to match up with things I changed when writing about the past, but it works out well to be able to post this fast as I'm always interested in what I'm writing! Anyway, thanks for the review!**

qwerty chapter 40 . 35m ago

Man who are these other saiyans gonna be?  
Bardock and his team: Would be cool if Goku finally meets his father  
Cabbe and Caulifla (Fem Broly) from Universe 6: Goku meets Broly... again  
Future Gohan: This would actually be pretty sad, he'll have to learn about the fate Future Trunks  
Nappa: Vegeta's worst nightmare  
Raditz: Nah we don't give a shit  
Tarble: Meh  
Goku Black: Ohohohoh... too strong... too soon

 **These Saiyans have evaded being written about for too long! Sorry to keep you in suspense, so I'll just let you know that within the next 10 parts I post, you will get a look at the Saiyans. Not very spoil-y, but it's what I'm willing to share. Lots of good guesses, though Goku Black would not have existed yet as the DBZ crew got brought to Nexus only 2 years after Cell in their timeline. Thanks for the review! Thanks again to everyone who read, faved, followed, and reviewed to this story! 'Till next time!**


	42. Nexus HWR 8-4 The Dread Fort Part 2

**Nexus HWR 8.4 Dread Fort Part 2:**

 **CA$INO**

"Welcome sir, madame," a lean man in a black suit greeted Nami and Riku. He bowed to them as they stepped in the automatic double doors of the giant pyramid. The casino's interior was a sight to behold and it had both Nami and Riku staring around in awe. Past the greeter in front of them was a large open floor covered in rows of slot machines. Farther back behind the slot machines were tables with groups of people sitting around them making bets and playing card games. Bars were on the walls near the booths where people could trade chips for actual currency and vice versa. There were also bars in the middle of the huge floor near the tables where the best-dressed people were gathered.

Nami looked closer towards one of those tables and she could see huge piles of chips in front of each of the game's participants. She rubbed her hands together practically drooling at the rich interior of the casino. Beautiful paintings lined the walls, the carpets looked like they were made from animal furs, and the guests all had on fancy clothing. The two of them fit in nicely with all the classy people around them. "Let's go," Nami said excitedly. She made to step forward, but the thin greeter stepped in her way.

"I'm sorry, please present your I.D.'s." Apparently the man was more than just a simple host. Riku looked at him closely but he definitely did not look like the fighting type. Out the corners of his eyes though, he noticed two different men in suits who were pretending not to be looking over. They had sunglasses on and white earpieces in their ears. One had dark skin and the other light, but other than that they looked like the exact same broad-shouldered bouncer.

 _Those guys would probably swoop in and try to kick us out if we fail to show I.D.'s._ Riku thought while pulling out his identification. He and Nami were allowed into the casino after a quick check and the two of them walked further into the pyramid to find it was just as magnificent as it looked. The chairs the gamblers were sitting on had different vibration settings, men and women in suits and dresses walked around with trays of alcoholic drinks, and Nami realized that she stood out a lot less in here than she did outside. Every person in the casino was dressed similarly to her and Riku and though disappointed she would not be turning as many heads, she was still smiling at the sight of so much money switching hands.

She rubbed her palms together in front of her and flashed Riku a smirk. "Let's get to work," she said excitedly.

 **One Hour Later**

"That's it, I'm out," Riku said, pushing his chair out from the table.

Nami grinned up at him, "Aww," she said in a teasing voice. "Are you sure? You still have enough for another hand."

Riku scoffed and turned around. "I'll go find some slots or something," he said. "I know I'll just lose the rest playing another hand with you," he remarked, glancing back once and looking at the huge stack of chips in front of Nami. _I knew she was too good at this,_ he thought as he turned back forward and kept walking away. _I saw what you just did,_ he thought with a grimace.

Nami found herself staring at Riku's back for a few seconds longer as he walked away, a small frown on his face. She opened her mouth to send another taunt his way, but stopped herself and held her tongue. Her own smile faltered a little, but she shook her head and grinned as she spun back around to the table full of men who had steadily decreasing stacks of chips in front of them. They were all sweating and looked angry, but Nami leaned over the table and pressed her arms together in front of her, pushing her chest up towards the top of her dress and giving them all a look at her cleavage. "Come on boys, are you ready for another round?"

The men all agreed and shouted at the dealer to start the next round. Nami continued to hustle them out of their money for another few minutes until her stacks were almost up to her eye level so it was hard to see the others behind them. Because she could barely see them, she did not notice the woman behind the counter wearing a black suit make a small motion with her hand to the left.

Nami slammed down a drink she just finished and pushed her stacks to either side so there was an opening in the middle. She smirked both ways and said with a tint of red on her cheeks, "Who's ready for the next hand?!"

None of the men responded. They lost their lustful, angry, and competitive expressions. All of them were just staring at her with disdain and Nami's drunk appearance pulled a one-eighty. "What?" She asked, her voice serious.

Nami suddenly noticed that it seemed a little darker around her. _That's a shadow,_ she realized as she saw the shape cast on the table in front of her. The female dealer did not smirk, she just nodded at the form behind Nami as the pirate turned around. Nami looked up and there was a man standing there with short black hair that stretched down the sides of his face as his sideburns connected with the scratchy goatee around his mouth. He had on a white shirt with a black vest over it and a red tie that he fixed with his white-gloved hands while looking down at Nami through a pair of black-tinted sunglasses. "Ms. Nami, please come with me."

"Who are you?" Nami asked harshly as she got up to her feet. She tried not to look nervous though her eyes did dart back and forth to see if Riku was anywhere near her.

"My name is Junior," he replied casually, "I am the head of security." Despite this unnerving statement, a smile came to his face that looked friendly which confused Nami. He held out his right arm to his side and said, "You have reached the maximum for chips in the main room. I am here to escort you to the High Roller tables in the back."

Nami's eyes turned into money signs instantly which made Junior Xiong lean back in surprise. Nami's mouth shot up into a wide grin instantly and she said, "Lead the way." He chuckled and started walking to the right, though Nami did not follow him right away.

She looked around and spotted some slot machines far to her left. _That's where Riku said he was going. I should get-_ "Your friend is already waiting for you in the back," Junior said, snapping Nami's attention back in front of her. Junior had stopped walking and was looking at her over her shoulder. "Though he is not able to enter in the games back there," the man cupped one hand to the side of his mouth, "he ran out of money."

Nami smirked and chuckled at that. She started walking after Junior and said, "What about all my chips? Don't I need to bring them?"

"Do not worry," Junior replied as he kept walking towards the wall opposite the doors they came in from. Nami glanced behind her wondering what would happen to her chips, but between her and the table she just left were two women walking after her with straight expressions on their faces that did not look happy or angry, just blank. They were looking straight at her back though, and she started to get nervous again, her eyes darting around the room to see if Riku was actually still there.

The girls were obviously twins, but one of them had on a white dress and a furry scarf around her neck while the other had on a shorter red dress that left less to the imagination. "Meet Melanie and Miltia Malachite," Junior said and Nami turned back forward to the man whose voice sounded closer now. He was standing on her right side instead of directly in front of her now, but straight ahead of her she saw two burlier men in black suits and sunglasses standing on either sides of a double set of doors to the back. One of them reached up and touched a white earpiece he had in his left ear, saying something into it while he looked at Nami.

"All this, is VIP treatment huh?" Nami asked, trying to keep her voice steady as she did. _What's going on? Is Riku really back there already? Is this even a High Roller room?_ She turned left and right only to notice other bouncers staring at her from nearby areas. _Oh crap, what's happening?!_

"Just for those who win an, _abnormal_ amount of money," Junior replied, making Nami tense up as she wondered what he meant by that. He walked straight up to the doors and they opened for him, revealing a ten by ten foot box on the other side. He walked in and then turned around and smiled at the woman who hesitated at the entrance to the box.

"What is this?" Nami asked.

"An elevator," Junior replied. Nami noticed two people directly behind her and realized those girls with long black hair were a lot closer to her now. "Come in," the head of security told her.

"Thought we were going to a back room," Nami mentioned and her left foot inched back. It bumped into something and then Nami felt a light shove on both of her shoulders, making her stumble into the elevator. "Hey!" She exclaimed and spun around to the Malachite twins.

The girls just walked into the elevator in front of Nami and then turned their backs to her, keeping her towards the back of it near Junior. Right after the twins walked in, the doors closed and Nami heard Junior say on her left, "It's fine. We're just heading down. The upper section of the Pyramid is mainly empty, that's why the grand hall's ceiling was so high up. The back of the CA$INO is where the club for visiting musicians is, not for High Roller games."

"And the basement is where High Rollers go?" Nami questioned, snapping her gaze to the man next to her with a harsh look.

"Yes," Junior replied, though the friendly feeling Nami got from his smile before was gone completely now. "Those who make the risky gamble of cheating in this casino, a 'high roller' you might call them, all are taken to the basement."

"I didn't cheat!" Nami yelled, and then the elevator stopped moving. She reached down to her side for her Clima Tact that was hidden under her dress in the waistband of her underwear. The woman's hand rested over her waist and she made no sudden movement to take it out yet. _What is going on here? Are they taking me to someone? Are they planning on killing me down here? Did they already catch Riku? I didn't see him up there! I shouldn't have, cheated…_ Nami mentally cursed and watched as the twins stepped out of the elevator ahead of her, then felt a shove from the man behind her.

Nami stepped out of the elevator on her own accord though and then pushed the twins to the sides and marched forward confidently into the huge room beneath the casino. It was a bright room but it was mostly empty with walls far away from her in every direction except her back, but far ahead of her she saw some steps that led up to a small elevated area where several women wearing only tiny pieces of cloth over their breasts and waists were standing or lying on the steps. There were muscular armed men on the sides of the steps all wearing sunglasses and those earpieces, but Nami focused on the woman at the top of the steps who had one leg crossed over the other, wore a long white robe, and held a fan up that covered the bottom half of her face.

The woman stood up from her elegant chair, and she shook her head once to get all the strands of her long blue hair behind her head. She waved her red fan at her face and blinked her eyes of the same color before narrowing the red orbs at the young woman walking towards her. Melanie and Miltia glanced at each other, not expecting Nami to walk forward on their own. The two turned back forward and followed after her, while Junior waved a hand at Nami's back as the elevator doors closed in front of him. "Damn," he muttered once they were shut. "Such a beauty too," he said disappointedly.

In the basement, Nami walked almost all the way to the bottom of the steps while the woman above walked to the top of them. "I know you have been stealing from me," the woman said and fanned herself a few times. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Who are you?" Nami asked. She stuck her chest out and looked up confidently at the older woman with paler skin and pointier ears that stuck out to the sides of her head. "Do you understand who I am?"

"Who _you_ are?" the woman asked. "HAHAHA!" She tilted her head back and cackled. When she looked back down Nami tensed at the sight of her scary eyes. "I saw you on the monitors, you were quite sneaky with your slight-of-hand. I only hire the best dealers, so you are good to have gotten it past them I must admit. However, I am the Peacock Queen! I run the casinos all over Organization and Fire Nation land. I can spot a cheater from a mile away."

"You caught me," Nami admitted. "But I'm warning you, I have very powerful friends. You don't want-"

"By the time any of your friends, even the boy right upstairs, notice that you are gone," the Peacock Queen began, and she rose up her hand as she did. All of the security guards on the sides of the steps reached for their hand guns or rifles, the girls behind Nami moved to the sides, and the woman holding her hand up smirked wide. "You will be long dead!" She swung her arm down and all her bouncers fired at the young woman at the bottom of the steps.

Melanie and Miltia stood on either side of the middle aisle where Nami just was. There were several large pillars around the room holding up the floor above, and the two of them were in front of pillars fifty feet away from each other, staring inwards at Nami in the middle of them who dozens of bullets were flying towards. Yet as they watched her, the twins' eyes opened wide as Nami never stopped smirking once even as the bullets hit her.

The bullets slammed straight through Nami and she started laughing. Her body started to lose its solid form and then Melanie and Miltia both spun around in surprise as figures stepped out behind the pillars they were in front of. The Peacock Queen spun her head back and forth from one pillar to the other as five Nami's stepped out from behind each one in single-file lines. "What sorcery is this?!" The woman yelled, swinging her fan in front of her and making sharp blades extend from it on all sides.

"Mirage Tempo," one of the Nami's said. As she said it, another Nami was appearing out of nowhere in the center of the ten. She was spinning a blue staff with three blue balls on it around above her head and the guards looking at her were all getting nervous.

Peacock Queen spun back and forth looking at her men and then back at the Malachite Twins. "Kill her!" The woman with long blue hair shouted.

"I don't think so," Nami called out, all eleven of them this time. They pointed their Perfect Clima Tacts forward and yelled, "Thundercloud Tempo!"

"What did she," one of the bouncers began, right before all the hair on his neck stood on end. He and everyone else on the steps lifted up their gazes, only to drop their jaws.

"When did that get there?!" someone shouted at the sight of the sparking black storm cloud.

The scantily clad women lying down scrambled up onto their feet and people were trampling each other to run away. Lightning rained down from the cloud and electrocuted most of them, while Melanie and Miltia charged at the Nami's. Melanie, the one in the white dress, jumped up in the air and blades extended from the bottoms of her heels. She came down hard on one of the Nami's only to fall right through her as it turned out to be another mirage. Miltia charged forward and lifted up her hands, instead of kicking like her sister started to do, the girl had on red gloves which black claws extended from that she used to slice up the Nami's at fast speeds.

Three Nami's emerged away from the rest of the mirages fading away and they each had their Clima Tacts broken apart and were shooting bubbles out of them to fill up the room. The twins turned their way when the initial mirage had finally fully faded, and the Nami in the center of the three stepped forward, holding two pieces of her staff in her left hand and one in her right. She smirked across the hall at the two other girls and called out, "I told you not to mess with me." She turned sideways and narrowed her eyebrows at the girls who appeared stronger than everyone else in the room, except maybe the Peacock Queen who Nami saw staggering back up at the top of her stairs in between all her collapsed subjects and guards. "It wasn't just my friends you had to worry about. You should have been more afraid of me, because I'm Cat Burglar Nami."

* * *

 **Dread Fort (The Actual Fort)**

 **8:00 PM**

"Welcome sir," A guard said with a bow of his head. He handed the I.D. back to Sanji and the chef smirked as he walked inside the fort's tall gates.

"You know," Sanji began as he walked up next to his captain. "I could get used to this," he finished. The blond cook and his black haired pirate captain looked around with huge grins on their faces.

They were in a courtyard that stretched from the gates all the way to the steps leading to the fortress. It was over a hundred yards wide and about half that from the gate to the steps. The steps were covered in people all the way up to the building at the top as well. The fortress was a huge stone building with four towers on the corners of it. The front entrance was behind a line of ten stone pillars holding up the balcony coming out of the third story of the fort.

The courtyard itself was already bustling with people. Two of the suns had fully set and the sky was a nice orange, getting darker every minute. There were guards walking around, but the two pirates who just walked in were focused on only two things. For Sanji, it was the half of the courtyard that seemed to be covered in only women. His eyes popped out of their sockets in the shape of hearts and he raced over leaving a trail of dust behind him. Luffy sprinted the opposite direction with just as strange eyes, only his were in the shape of chunks of meat with bones through them. Drool dribbled out of his mouth as he sprinted to the all-you-can-eat appetizer table.

Sanji was only near the women for a few moments before he saw a group of them running away. He looked over and saw a short man with wavy blond hair, a big smirk on his face, and two red handprints on his cheeks. "Oh! Sanji," Meliodas greeted the pirate chef he also saw through the crowd.

The pirate walked over. He was wearing a suit which matched the attire of the guests around him more than Meliodas's usual clothes that he wore to the feast. "Guess your gold symbol beats orange huh?" Sanji asked as he reached the smaller man. Only orange and above were allowed to be at the feast, though Sanji already suspected he would see a few of the Sins here.

"Uh huh," Meliodas replied with a not of his head. He held up four fingers, "It goes orange, red, black," he said, putting a finger down at a time. "Then gold," he finished.

Sanji blinked a few times. _I kicked that machine pretty hard and still only got orange._

"Don't worry," Meliodas said, as if he knew what Sanji was thinking. "the ranks go up from more than just punching a machine."

"Hmm," Sanji hummed to himself. "And how did you get that gold rank?" He asked while lifting up his swirly eyebrows. His left eye was covered by the blond flip of hair going over his face, so Meliodas only saw him lift up one of his eyebrows.

"Hehe," the shorter man chuckled. "Why don't we go join the others?" He asked. Sanji followed Meliodas's gaze back across the courtyard to where he saw Luffy standing in front of Ban and Weiss. The short Captain started walking away and he snagged a mug of ale off a tray getting carried past him. Sanji would have followed behind, if he didn't catch something out the corner of his eye and turn towards it confusedly.

The tray that Meliodas grabbed his beer off of was being carried not by a human, but by a pointy silver hand. The creature the hand belonged to was thin and constantly moving, swaying around randomly. After Meliodas grabbed his drink, the silver creature snaked away through the crowd. It bounced on its pointy feet, and its head on top of the thin body had a mouth full of sharp teeth that was closed at the moment. On top of the being's silver head was a darker gray cross symbol with points on the top and both sides, but an upside-down heart on bottom.

Now that Sanji noticed one of them, he looked around and realized there were more of these creatures about. When he noticed them though, he also spotted other silver creatures up on the walls, only these looked thicker, pointier, with sharper heads. They had those same gray symbols on them though.

"Don't worry," a voice said to Sanji from not far off. The chef jumped and spun around fast. His eyes widened a little at the sight of the figure behind him wearing a brown cloak. The person lifted his head a little so Sanji could see his spiky brown hair that was being pushed down by the cloak's hood, along with his grinning mug. "The Dusks aren't very strong. If Saix was going to try anything, he would have had more Samurai Nobodies down here," Sora continued to his friend who was surprised to see him here.

Sanji wanted to ask how Sora got in, but he was wondering about what the kid said first and foremost. "Samurai?" He muttered to the cloaked teenager who he was told was in the city by his friends who saw him earlier that day.

"Up there," Sora whispered with a nod of his head to his right. Sanji followed the nod and looked up the steps to the stone pillars of the fort. Now that he looked closer, he noticed there were creatures in front of each stone pillar camouflaging into the background. They had darker silver bodies than the smaller Dusks, with dark black hands, a black head covered in slits almost like they were wearing helmets, and two long swords on its body ready for use.

Sanji furrowed his swirly eyebrow at the gray figures. "What are they?"

"When a Heartless is formed," Sora began while staring up at a Samurai himself. "A Nobody is created at the same moment. Remember when I unlocked Kairi's heart?" He asked, and there was no way that Sanji would forget the moment he gained eternal respect for Sora. He recalled the shared dream where he watched Sora stab himself in the chest with a Keyblade to release Kairi's heart, and he nodded his head in response to Sora's question. Sora continued, "Well at that moment, I became a Heartless. And simultaneously, Roxas was born. When those with strong hearts are taken by the Heartless, their bodies remain intact. For most people though, Dusks and other mindless Nobodies are created. Anyway, it's pretty confusing, let's go talk to the others." Sora motioned over towards where Sanji was going originally.

"Ye-ah," Sanji said slowly. _When someone with a strong heart becomes a Heartless... I wonder..._

The two of them walked across the courtyard over to where Meliodas, Luffy, Weiss, and Ban were standing in a little cluster. "Oh, so even the pervert chef made it," Weiss said not sounding very amused.

"How did you make it?" Luffy asked Weiss while tilting his head to the side. "You don't seem all that strong."

Ban and Meliodas had to stifle laughter while the girl with a white ponytail went red in the face with anger. "I'll have you know I-"

Ban cut her off, "If a swordsman can cut steel they automatically get orange."

"Huh," Luffy mumbled. Thinking about cutting steel made him think of something else and he turned to Meliodas. "So what rank is Zoro?"

Meliodas chuckled and replied, "He's rank black."

"Wait a second," Sanji started up. "I thought you said that the shitty swordsman beat you the last bunch of times-"

"The Captain here has a different reason why they marked him as equal to a Lord," Ban said with a large smirk. Melidoas turned and frowned at his taller friend, so Ban just continued to smirk and keep his mouth closed. As many questions as this raised about Meliodas, Luffy was still thinking more about Zoro.

"By the way," Meliodas began, turning back towards Sanji. He lifted a hand and pointed next to the chef, "Who is that?"

Luffy followed Meliodas's point and his eyes lit up. "Sor-" he began excitedly, but Sanji shot forward and clamped a hand over his captain's mouth.

"Keep quiet Baka!" Sanji whispered loudly into Luffy's ear. He got quieter, "Sora snuck in, remember?"

"San-mmm-ji, ge-mm-t off mmmee," Luffy moaned through Sanji's fingers.

"As long as you understand," Sanji muttered and released his captain. He turned to Meliodas and his fellow Sins, "This is our friend, the one Riku talked about back when we made our pact."

Weiss nodded her head, remembering how when they all said 'No Matter What' there were a few people who others spoke for. She thought about who Riku mentioned, _Sora._ The girl stared at the cloaked teenage boy for a few seconds. _He's kind of cute,_ she thought, and then her cheeks went red and she turned away, mentally chiding herself for thinking that.

The group of six talked to each other for a little while, with Luffy chowing down on appetizers the entire time. Meliodas and Ban drank heavily, and even Sanji enjoyed himself by indulging in more than one pint of ale.

Weiss was keeping her eye on Sora, and saw him looking around completely alert. His eyes lingered on each of the guards. He almost seemed to be counting. _What the Hell is he doing?_ She walked over to him and stated while looking down her nose at him, "I'm Weiss."

He turned his head a little to gaze at her. The boy chuckled at her serious expression as she awaited him to greet her back. He turned his entire body towards her and reached his right arm out of his long cloak sleeve to shake her hand. "It's nice to meet you," he told her. Weiss looked down at his hand, and her eyes widened at the sight of a gold ring on his ring finger. Sora saw her expression and he chuckled again, then smiled brightly from ear to ear. "We haven't gotten married yet, but I know the first thing I want to do when I meet back up with her." He turned his hand a little with his eyes on his ring, then put it back out for a handshake.

The white haired girl hesitated for a few seconds, then reached forward herself and shook his hand. Her head wasn't lifted up as much anymore since she was not looking down on him as much as she did Sanji or Luffy. She could see a difference between Sora and the two pirates he was friends with. "So," she began as she lowered her hand. "How did you get in here?" She was looking around but didn't see any way that he would have been able to make it in with all these guards.

Sora frowned a little and looked down at his hands. _I had to use the power of darkness._ He shook away his frown and smiled back at Weiss again, "I made a portal," he explained. "I'm actually getting pretty good at them. Riku's much better though," he admitted and frowned with a pouting expression.

Weiss chuckled herself at the sight of his pouting face, and she covered up her mouth for doing so. Sora saw her get embarrassed and started laughing again while her face turned red. "Hey," she snapped at him, slapping him on the shoulder.

"Sorry, sorry," he apologized with his hands up defensively. His happy look settled down so that his smile was much calmer, a very small smile that somewhat unnerved the girl he was talking to. She was planning on scolding him or something, but his look had her expression become much more serious. "Hey Weiss," Sora started. He kept his voice down so no one around him would hear anything. "Now that we're friends," he continued and Weiss lifted up her eyebrows, wondering when the decision that they had become friends was made. Sora continued, "I want you and your friends to be careful." His eyes darted around and then back to her again, "You might want to-"

"You don't have to worry about us," Weiss stated, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "I'm strong enough as is, but if something bad were to happen, the Captain is actually more powerful than anyone in this city…"

"That's not what I was going to say," Sora whispered. He didn't sound annoyed that she cut him off and she closed her mouth, allowing him to continue this time. "You might want to stay away from us," he warned her. She looked confused so he continued softly, "I mean, you guys seem like you can handle yourselves, but getting mixed up with us isn't the best idea if you want to stay out of a fight." He chuckled a little and Weiss felt a bead of sweat form on the left side of her face. Sora suddenly felt a twinge and his eyes focused up on the Dread Fort's huge double doors at the top of the big staircase. The doors were opening and his eyebrows narrowed down, making Weiss follow his gaze up.

"Good, maybe now the feast will start," she muttered, having gotten tired of appetizers and idle conversation. She looked back at Sora and wanted to explain how the feast would work, to show off her knowledge, but he was gone. She spun around a few times, and spotted a cloaked figure over between Sanji and Luffy. Weiss clenched her fists and grumbled incoherently under her breath in annoyance. "Grr," she growled at the end and humphed, then turned to go look for the other Sins here with her.

Sora went over to where his friends were looking towards the top of the stairs as well. Everyone in the courtyard started looking up, they heard the doors groan open and now the Nobodies around the area were gathering on the staircase, standing in two lines to make a wide path for the woman standing at the top. Sanji noticed Sora glaring really hard up at the beautiful lady and he stopped drooling over her to turn to the younger man. Sora's frown deepened as he stared at her. _**"Oh you're so much fun to watch…You're so stupid. Don't you get it now?… That's right, your memories are lies lies lies. Binding you in the chains of your own memories was essential to our trap. It makes me tingle to think how easily you were duped…"**_

Every single memory he had of the woman with blonde pigtails standing at the top of the stairs was a bad one. Out of everyone in Organization XIII, she was one of the ones he hated the most. His deep frown lifted a little as he remembered her fading away painfully after he defeated her with Donald and Goofy's help. Now though, he could see the same woman in a black cloak with her smug, infuriating smirk, looking down at the courtyard and all of them in it. "Larxene," Sora muttered quietly.

 _Looks like he knows her too,_ Sanji thought, turning and looking back at the top of the stairs. His eyes turned into hearts and his face went red, _She's so cute! Wait a second,_ his eyes turned back to normal and he thought about the name Sora just mentioned. _Larxene. There's an X in it. Just like Roxas, and Saix. Shouldn't jump to any conclusions, but she might be one of those Nobodies._

Larxene threw her arms up in the air. She had a black cloak covering her entire body with long sleeves up her pale arms. There was a silver chain just under her chin at the top of the long silver zipper that went from the top of the cloak all the way to her feet. "Honored guests, welcome to the Dread Fort. My name is Larxene," she called out, pointing a thumb at herself. "Thank you all for coming for a very special occasion."

"We just came for the free feast," a ten foot tall, burly man over on the right side of the courtyard shouted. After he did, a few others shouted similar things, all sounding pretty rude.

Sanji looked over with a semi-surprised look. This was a party they were invited to, and the guests were insulting the host straight to her face with their impoliteness. Sanji frowned a little, _Then again, everyone in this courtyard is powerful. They are all stronger than Franky at least, and a few of them,_ his head turned over to Meliodas who was grinning up towards the beautiful lady at the top of the steps. _A few of them are beyond that._ The chef felt himself start sweating and he tried soothing his nerves by lighting up a cigarette.

"Ahem!" Larxene called out, clearing her throat in a fake way to quiet down the crowd. "The food is on its way out," she announced, settling down a few of the disgruntled, hungry guests. She tried to keep on her friendly smirk but it was difficult not to scowl at the group of people before her. _Learn some respect for your betters,_ she thought while glaring especially hard at the burly man who shouted first. "Before it comes out though, I have been tasked with introducing our special guest for tonight's feast."

She stepped to the side and a figure behind her near the door started walking forward. There was a smaller figure by a few inches walking behind him. They stepped out of the shadows cast by the large stone pillars and to the top of the stairs. The figure who walked behind stepped up to the taller figure's left side. He had dark green hair that got lighter the closer to the center of his scalp it got, then spiked up in a single light green point in the middle. He was wearing a dark red jacket with a yellow tie over a dark green undershirt, maroon pants, and a pair of pointed white shoes. Next to him stood the figure that most people were looking at because of the way he was smiling like he had total control over everything, everywhere, at all times. His long purple hair was partially covered up by a white top hat and he had on a white jacket, pants, and long white cape that flapped when he swung his right arm out and held it to the side. "Greetings," he announced, and smiled a sharp smile that with the little goatee on his chin, made him look like quite the menacing person.

"Who are you?!" some hungry person shouted.

"This," Larxene shouted to stop any further interruptions, "is Mephisto Pheles!" She held out both of her hands towards the man on her right and kept smiling as he looked her way with a thankful grin. "Only recently, he was made into a Lord of the Cooperative." Most of the people who were frowning and angrily yelling before simmered down and kept their mouths closed now. The hungry person who shouted at him a second ago suddenly felt very nervous and took a step backwards. Larxene kept introducing their guest, "He has taken command of Death City in the far reaches to the northeast. His commander is the High Lord, Satan!"

Sanji's cigarette dropped out of his mouth. _Did she just say…_

Larxene kept talking to the crowd who looked more impressed now than before. "He has honored us with his presence and by bringing a batch of high quality slaves from the north. Everyone knows that Satan's lands produce the best, most obedient slaves, so you can be sure the private auction later is one worth visiting." Larxene motioned back to the fort behind her and continued, "After the feast, at 11:00, the auction will begin inside the lower hall of the Dread Fort." She looked towards the doors and saw someone motioning to her that the food was ready.

The blonde woman clapped her hands together and turned to Mephisto again, going to finish up her introduction quickly as she was hungry as well. "Lord Mephisto returned to Aebrith after a long absence. Where was he you ask?" she questioned, and then continued loudly, "On the other side of the world! Lord Mephisto, and his younger brother Amaimon," she motioned to the frowning figure with black eyeliner and green hair who looked absolutely bored standing next to his brother. Larxene continued, "The two of them were leaders of the Government in charge of a continent a third the size of Aebrith itself."

Many people were looking at the two demons with amazed, nervous, or impressed looks. Hearing some crazy feats about a person from someone else was a quick way to learn who you did not want to get into a fight with. A few of the people in the crowd were watching with more shocked expressions than most of the others. Luffy, Sanji, and Sora were all slowly lowering their jaws from where they watched. Weiss and the other Sins looked over to their new friends and saw Luffy and Sanji start frowning deeply after the initial shock wore off.

They continued to frown while Larxene went on with her introduction, "These two were members of the High Council of Awul's Government, so I expect you all to give them the respect they deserve while you are within in boundaries of our fortress." By the end of her sentence, her friendly grin turned into a more sinister one and her words came out sounding more like threats than anything. As she finished speaking, she lowered her arms to her sides, which signaled a few dozen staff members to run out of the doors carrying tables, chairs, tablecloths, plates, silverware, and food. The food smelled delicious and Mephisto licked his lips as the people started rushing by him to go down the stairs.

"What? We aren't eating inside the Fort?" Ban questioned loudly.

"Dinner will be served in the courtyard sir," a timid-looking woman wearing a white and black maid's uniform told him as she ran by carrying tablecloths. She looked nervous and only glanced at Ban's scary face for a few seconds. The spiky-haired Sin shoved his hands into his shiny red pant pockets and grumbled in annoyance.

"Oi Luffy," Sanji muttered in a quiet voice. The two of them were standing next to each other, though when Sanji glanced in at his captain he noticed Sora had vanished again. He kept talking anyway, "These guys, they're NEG."

"HEY YOU!" Luffy shouted, and Sanji's face coated with more sweat. He wanted to shut up his captain, but Luffy started walking towards the stairs, ignoring the other people around him and the staff who froze and stared at Luffy like he was an idiot. They all saw who he was speaking to, the Lord, and it was only seconds after Larxene made that threat so everyone would treat him respectfully. The blonde woman herself started glaring down at Luffy for ignoring her warning, and her hands started sparking while her mouth twisted into a snarl.

"Wait, Luffy," Sanji whisper-yelled, speed-walking after his captain who pushed his way to the bottom of the steps and glared up at the guy at the top. As he followed after Luffy he caught a glimpse of Larxene glaring at them, but when the woman made eye contact with him, her face took on a look of surprise instead which confused him.

Mephisto looked down at the man who called him out, and his eyes widened. The demon's mouth curled up into a grin and his younger brother next to him looked down with a confused look after seeing his brother's grin. "Do you know them?" Amaimon mumbled.

"You guys were friends of Tetsuo right?" Luffy yelled up at them, balling his fists at his sides.

Amaimon's eyes turned huge and he stared at the person down there with a more confused look. "Who are-"

"Straw Hat Luffy," Mephisto called out, holding his arms out to his sides in a friendly manner. He lifted up off the ground and floated to the bottom of the stairs where he landed directly in front of Luffy, showing no fear of the pirate who looked very menacing to a lot of other people around them. He looked behind the man and flashed Sanji a grin as well, making the nervous chef totally confused. He spoke loudly, "It is quite alright Larxene, I met this man while on Awul."

"Huh?" Luffy's fists unclenched a little and he wondered when he ever met this guy.

"To be more precise," Mephisto started. "I watched you in your fight against Akainu. That was an impressive spectacle," he narrowed his eyes while smirking with a mouth full of shiny white teeth.

"Wait a second," Amaimon shouted, and jumped down to land next to his brother. He stared at the skinny man in front of him in a red shirt opened down the middle, "This is Straw Hat?" He looked up at the hat and tilted his head to the side, "Guess so… Hahahaha! Akainu was so worried about _you?!_ " He started cackling and grinned as he got a reaction from the pirate in front of him.

"Luffy," Sanji began from behind his captain.

Luffy's fists were clenched tight and he turned back to Mephisto. "We kicked your asses," he said to the man with purple hair. Amaimon growled furiously that not only was he being ignored, but he was reminded of his humiliating defeat in Metropolis.

"Ah yes," Mephisto agreed with a small nod of his head. "The Government did not stand a chance. How did the battle end? I had to leave early, family emergency," he said, giving his excuse.

"So you ran away?" Sanji accused, without really thinking about what he was doing. It was only after the words came out, and Mephisto turned his head towards him, that he realized just how stupid that was.

The sky around them darkened. Everything was lit up by lights around the courtyard, but the air suddenly turned dark purple. A few dozen people felt their bodies cover in sweat as the dark air around them started swirling around. They looked over towards Mephisto who just kept staring at Sanji while the air turned blacker around him. "As I said, there was a family emergency," Mephisto stated again, and the sky turned back to normal, the feeling of terror going through half the people there went away, and Sanji released a breath he had kept for a long time.

"Anyway," Mephisto added, looking back at Luffy, "I only joined the Government in order to witness the battle that I knew was coming. So no, I was not friends with Tetsuo."

Larxene yelled at the staff to continue getting things set, and a few people lost interest and took seats as soon as they were set for them. The majority of people were still interested in the confrontation that they hoped would not escalate, or for a few of them, they hoped it would. "What happened to Tetsuo anyway?" Amaimon asked, leaning in and staring at the pirate in front of him.

Luffy frowned at Amaimon because of the demon's taunts earlier, but after Mephisto's small, yet incredible, display of power a second ago, he decided not to attack the demons. Luffy didn't feel like answering though, and he turned and walked away towards the table getting set up. Mephisto laughed as his brother dropped his jaw and started fuming. Before Amaimon could rush off to kill Luffy, Sanji stepped forward, "He died," the chef stated. Amaimon and Mephisto looked back at Sanji. Mephisto was not as surprised as he had suspected as much, but Amaimon's eyes were huge.

"Really? Hmm," he hummed, and it was Sanji's turn to be surprised. He thought the talkative, annoying demon who he thought he had a grasp on his personality would have said something like 'Serves the brat right,' but instead, Amaimon looked kind of, sad. He started frowning, and Mephisto was surprised at his brother's expression as well. Amaimon was deep in thought, _Tetsuo wasn't that bad. The kid was cool. Not like those other goody-two-shoes. Him and Gin, and Ansem made that place exciting._ "What about the others?" Amaimon questioned.

"Like who?" Sanji asked, and finally most other people looked away from them. Now with Luffy gone, it didn't seem like anything was going to come from that nerve-wracking initial confrontation. They all headed over to the big feast tables, many of them talking about Luffy or the new Lord.

The demon with green hair who was one of the top six council members of the New Earth Government looked back at Sanji and muttered under his breath, "What about Gin?"

"Ohh?" Mephisto said to his brother in a droned out way. "Did you make a friend?"

"Quiet," his younger brother snapped at him. "Aren't you curious? The shinigami did get us these nice bodies," he held his arms out to show off how great they were. He looked exactly like a human, hiding his demon tail and form. Unlike the bodies the two demons used on their own world, the gigais they were in now were not deteriorating because of their immense powers.

"True," Mephisto admitted.

"Sorry," Sanji told the two in front of him. He was feeling a little nervous after Mephisto threatened him before, and considering he was an enemy of the NEG for a long time and these two were leaders of it. He kept his cool though as he spoke to them, "Don't know what happened to him. I recognize the name though. He was one of the ones in on the Underworld Alliance."

Amaimon frowned and started grumbling, "I'm still pissed they didn't invite me into their inner circle." He remembered watching the video where Tetsuo and the Underworld slaughtered Superman and the Jedi. He had spotted Akainu in the room, and now he heard Gin was in on it too. It made him angry that they didn't trust him with it. "What about Akainu?" he asked, not sounding as focused as with Gin. "Do you know about him or-"

"Dead too," Sanji stated.

"Really?" Mephisto asked, lifting up his eyebrows. He turned his head over towards the table that Luffy was sitting at. "And, was it your captain who finished him off?"

Sanji shook his head and started lighting up another smoke. "One of the Underworld leaders, Orochimaru, did that."

"Who from the Government _did_ make it?" Amaimon asked, since it seemed like most of the council were dead.

The chef knew a little about how the Government reformed after the war, and how there were a few of the former leaders still in charge. "The Fuhrer guy, the Covenant leader, and Dreyfus."

Amaimon nodded after hearing Roy and the Arbiter made it, but tilted his head to the side and could not for the life of him recall who Dreyfus was. "Whatever," he muttered after thinking about it got boring. He was starting to lose interest completely but his eyes opened wide and he looked back at Sanji, "You never said Trunks."

Sanji didn't respond, and Amaimon's eyes only got wider. "And the Super Saiyan falls," Amaimon said, shaking his head and chuckling darkly. He sighed and looked up at the sky. _After that first council got destroyed, I was the first one to join up. Ichigo and Supergirl quit, everyone else was dead or missing, leaving only Superman, Tetsuo, Akainu, and Trunks. Then Gin joined up, and Roy._ He sighed again, thinking of all the good times ruling a country with comrades instead of working as the Demon King of Earth for his father for once.

Mephisto stepped up to Sanji and put an arm around the chef's head, pulling his shoulder to move the pirate closer to him. "Come, sit with us. I want to hear about the rest of the fight after I left." He started walking to the table without waiting for a reply and pulled Sanji along with him. Sanji looked over to his captain for some help, but sweatdropped at the sight of Luffy's cheeks puffed out, stuffed with meat. _Thanks Captain._

* * *

"You sure we should be doing this?" Rin whispered as he and Killua climbed a little higher. They had their hands and feet against the stone wall surrounding the Dread Fort's courtyard.

"Stop being such a scaredy-cat," Killua whispered back at the older teen.

Rin frowned and almost shouted something at Killua, but they both froze as they spotted something at the top of the wall. It was dark out and they were blending in pretty well with the wall as they had both decided to wear black for the occasion. They stared at the silver creature that aimlessly walked across the top of the wall only ten meters above them. Once it was around the bend in the wall, the two boys let out sighs of relief. "Let's keep going," Killua said and started climbing again.

Rin nodded his head and followed the white haired boy up to the wall's ledge. Killua reached first and poked his head over, and seeing as he did not pull his head back right away, Rin felt it was safe to poke his head up too. They both peered over the edge of the wall and saw that the path on top of the wall was actually a little below them, with the part they were holding onto elevated so that anyone walking on the top of the wall would find it hard to fall off. At least, if they were falling to the outside it would be harder, there was no railing-wall on the inner part of the wall's walkway, giving the two boys leaning over the wall a good view of the inside of the courtyard.

"Oh man, that looks so good," Killua complained as he stared at the feast going on down below. _I should have just hit the machine. Damn, Sanji wasn't around so we had to eat out, but Nami didn't leave me or Rin enough money to get more than the two hot dogs we had. Bitch,_ he thought in annoyance, but really was just mad because his stomach was growling at him. He smirked and turned his head a little to Rin, "Hey, wanna try to sneak in and steal some food?" Killua's question hung in the air but Rin did not respond.

Killua started looking at Rin nervously as the teenager in front of him was getting angrier by the second. Rin's face looked intense and he only held onto the wall with one arm, reaching up his other and grabbing his sword by the hilt. Killua panicked and reached a hand over, grabbing Rin by the wrist. "Whoa, what are you doing?" Killua hissed at him.

"That's him," Rin snarled, and Killua could see the older boy's teeth were sharper than a minute ago. Killua followed his gaze into the courtyard, but did not let go of Rin's wrist so that the boy would keep his sword sheathed and not ignite himself with blue flames.

"Who?"

"Mephisto," Rin growled. Killua's eyes widened as he recognized the name, and then recognized the person who the name belonged to.

"The High Council member," Killua whispered as he stared at the purple haired man wearing a white cape, suit, and top hat. Killua's eyes darted to the man's left side, "And Amaimon's here too," he added in just as quiet a whisper. "This is bad."

"I can deal with Amaimon," Rin said, brushing it off like the King of Earth was of no consequence. "But Mephisto is the one who took my brother." Killua spun to the teen who never really talked about why he came to Aebrith. He heard from Dash once that Rin was on a mission to save his brother, but never asked Rin about it himself. "When Yukio was dying in Metropolis, he took him away and said to find them on Aebrith. Well I found him, but my brother isn't down there with them." Rin was growling even more, and he turned to Killua, "Now let go of my wrist."

Killua looked into his comrade's eyes and he whispered, "Will you hold on a second?" He saw Rin frown at him, but the older boy nodded and Killua let go of him. The white haired boy put his hands both back on the wall, but he kept his head pointed at his older friend. "You said you can take care of Amaimon, does that mean Mephisto is too strong for you?" Killua saw Rin frown deeper and look back into the courtyard. "Then if that's true, let's not go in there guns blazing. Let's ask this guy if he knows where your brother is, since to me it sounds like he was trying to save him."

Rin ground his teeth together, but while he was doing it Killua could see those teeth losing their sharpness. The younger boy sighed in relief as Rin brought his hand back to the wall. "Then let's go ask him," Rin suggested.

"Not now," Killua said in a quiet voice. Rin glared at him, but Killua continued while looking into the courtyard, staring at Sanji who was sitting at Mephisto's table. "We don't want to make a scene out of it. Later, when he's alone we can corner him and ask about Yukios. I want to help you, but we have to do this smart," Killua urged.

Rin and Killua made eye contact, and after a few seconds Rin sighed. "You're right. Seeing him again, it just made me want to see Yukio so bad," Rin clenched his eyes shut painfully. When he opened them back up they had a softer look to them, "Sorry Kil."

Killua looked taken aback, "For what?" The boy asked.

"Last night, I doubted you. When you told us that stuff, I actually thought you were a bad person for a minute. Even after, I was still a little upset, but you really are a good friend. So, sorry, I should have trusted you more, like Riku did," Rin gave the stunned kid a smile, and then started climbing back down the outside of the wall.

Killua watched him descend for a few seconds before following. _A good friend?_ He thought. _Am I, really? No. He has no idea. Robin's the only one who really gets me. The only one who knows I would still leave you guys if I ever felt my life was in danger. She knows what I really am._ Killua's face hardened and he kept descending the wall with a straight face. _A monster._

* * *

"And the town actually erected a statue of me after all was said and done," a man with long, curly black hair shouted from one end of a long table. "The women called out my name, 'Theseus! Theseus!' That night was one to remember!" The Greek Hero laughed out loud and a group of men close to him joined in the merry laughter.

Luffy was one of those laughing along with the guy's story. He had a chunk of meat in one hand and his cheeks puffed out while he laughed, sending chunks of food flying about. In his other hand was an almost empty mug of ale and Theseus saw this from his seat a few away. "My new friend, let me pour you another drink!" Luffy looked over and watched the man swing his arm. A barrel of the ale far from them at the side of the table opened up and beer magically flew out the top of it in an arc directly into Luffy's mug where it filled until it was spilling over.

"Oooh! Thanks!" Luffy exclaimed, then took that drink to wash down the meat filling his mouth. He reached his arm out to the left ten feet to grab a plate of potatoes and his arm snapped back to place afterwards.

While Luffy poured the potatoes into his mouth, a woman a few seats to his left looked over at the man who stole a plate of potatoes from right in front of her. "A stretching arm?" She started interestedly. "What type of ability is that?"

"A Dev-il Fr-uit," Luffy said between bites of food.

"Ahh," a few people around him said.

"A Devil Fruit?" Theseus exclaimed. He scratched his chin and the fuzzy beard over it. "I was once offered one as a reward, but thankfully those rewarding me warned me of the fruit's weaknesses."

"Could you imagine?" A man sitting on Theseus's left side began. "The son of Poseidon, unable to swim!"

"Hahaha!" Theseus laughed and the others laughed with him.

"What, does being, ack, ack-" Luffy punched his chest and finished swallowing before continuing his question. "What does being Poseidon's son have to do with swimming?"

"Poseidon is a water god," the woman on his left from before mentioned. She leaned over the table and rested her chin on her hand while talking to the pirate. The woman looked like she was in her mid-twenties, with a purple ponytail that only held some of her hair while the rest fell messily behind her. She had a rifle slung over her upper back and two machine guns strapped lower down on her black tank top. Her right shoulder and upper arm were covered in swirly black tattoos, she had a lit cigarette in her mouth, and there were two pistols with skulls on the sides of them at her waist on a belt around her jean shorts. "Theseus over there happens to be a son of one of our captors."

"Captors?" Luffy muttered in response, not knowing what she was talking about.

"The Gods," Revy replied. The woman covered in guns leaned back on her seat and pulled out her cigarette. "This is all just one big game they put together for their own amusement."

"The Gods would never do something so cruel," a different woman across from Revy scolded harshly. She had on a white fur headdress and there was a white direwolf lying on the floor behind her chair. It growled over at the gunslinger woman the same way its master was doing on the seat in front of it.

"Sorry, sorry," Revy waved off the younger woman and her wolf. She glanced back over at Luffy, "San here thinks the Gods have a plan for us all."

"Quiet Revy," the younger woman snapped at the person across the table from her. Luffy was beginning to notice the two of them seemed pretty friendly towards each other, despite their contrasting opinions on the issue of the Gods. San turned towards Luffy and stared at the skinny pirate with a discerning gaze. "Why did you challenge Lord Pheles earlier?" She questioned the man in the straw hat.

As San asked it, a portion of their table became quiet as the others wanted to hear Luffy's response. They did not understand all that talk about Awul, the NEG, or the Underworld from before, but that did not mean they were not interested in it. Luffy shrugged and grabbed a piece of meat from in front of him, "I thought I wanted to kick his ass. But he seems okay."

"Okay my left foot," an annoyed voice said behind Luffy. The pirate turned around to see Sanji standing behind him with a pissed off expression and his arms crossed. "Way to leave me with that guy for the last half hour. He wouldn't stop talking," Sanji took a seat next to Luffy that he noticed his captain had kept empty for him. "Made me answer all sorts of questions," he continued to mutter even as he grabbed some food. His annoyed expression changed to one of interest as the food on this table differed a little from the head table he was just sitting at.

Sanji looked back over his shoulder and to the opposite side of the courtyard. The table he was just sitting at had both Meliodas and Ban sitting at it, along with Amaimon and Mephisto, not to mention the woman Larxene who was their host for the evening. He learned that since Meliodas and Ban had higher ranks than orange they were invited to that head table, and after that he felt very out of place being the only orange-ranked person there. _Is everyone at that table stronger than me?_ He thought while looking around at the other half dozen people there he did not recognize or get to know while he was there. _How did that shitty swordsman get black?_

The guests continued feasting for free out in the courtyard of the Dread Fort. Over a hundred people ate and talked with servants tending to their every whims. Those servants were mainly mindless Dusks that snaked around the tables serving more food and drink.

At one point the Nobodies gathered together at the steps making two lines up to the doors of the fort. The gray Samurai in front of the pillars moved in and made up the top of the lines while the Dusks filled the bottom steps. A wide path led straight to the front doors of the fort that opened out towards the courtyard full of people looking up at them.

Larxene looked to the steps and frowned for a split second. She got out of her seat and walked towards the base of the steps with a large smile on her face. "Everyone, please welcome the Lord of the Dread Fort..." Out of the doors walked a tall man in a black cloak just like Larxene's. He had the same chain at the top of the zipper going up the middle his coat. His hood was down revealing a stern face with an X-shaped scar crossing his forehead and down over the bridge of his nose to under his eyes. His light blue hair was long, straight all the way down his mid-back. Larxene rose a hand up towards him, "Saix!"

A couple people clapped lightly while most of them just looked up and watched him step out of his fortified building. Luffy spotted something behind the man and that something walked to Saix's side. This person had on the signature black coat but their hood was pulled up keeping their face shrouded in shadows. Luffy looked closer at the shorter figure whose face was shadowed. It didn't matter that he could not see the person's face; he recognized the presence anyway.

 _Now that I know, he does feel a little like Sora, a lot actually._ Luffy stared at the cloaked figure who Sora was here for. _Roxas,_ he thought. Luffy frowned thinking about how the teen attacked him and Natsu, but if he was being forced into it then the pirate figured he could forgive him.

Sanji noticed his Captain's intense look and followed his gaze to the figure whose face was shadowed. _So that's Roxas,_ he saw the figure's head turn towards him and Luffy. The man in front of Roxas walked straight down the steps, but the boy behind seemed to flinch and hesitate for a second. Sanji realized the teen's hood was not pointed towards them anymore, but more to their left. He turned and saw Sora sitting at another table in a brown cloak with the hood up too.

The chef had heard from Usopp and Rin all about what Sora told them in the alley earlier when he was out buying supplies. _Sora's Nobody is only here because a lady is in danger._ Sanji's eyes lit on fire and his hands clenched over the table.

Saix gazed around at everyone in the courtyard, taking it all in quickly. His attention focused down at the table closest to Larxene though, and he walked straight towards it. When he got close, Mephisto Pheles stood up and bowed to the hosting Lord. The two of them started talking, and though Mephisto was very loud and outgoing, Saix kept everything short and concise.

The reigning Lord took a seat at the main table and the feast continued. About an hour after the food came out, dinner was officially over. Everyone was invited to stay and come inside for dessert while a live performance would be taking place. During that performance, those who wished to head to the slave auction would head to a different part of the fort for that.

The meal ended and most everyone headed inside. Only a few people were there for just the food. Sanji spotted the three members of the Sins heading inside ahead of him and his Captain. "Luffy," he started while they walked towards the doors. The lines of Nobodies were still on the steps making sure to keep order in the Dread Fort. The rubberman on his side looked in at him and he continued, "Try not to start anything just yet. There are a lot of strong characters in here with us."

Luffy nodded his head while the two of them walked inside. "Hey Sanji," Luffy began as they stepped through the doors. "Have you seen So-" he stopped talking, and just mouthed the name 'Sora' at his blond chef. Sanji spun his head around looking to see if anyone saw Luffy, then sighed in relief and looked around for Sora himself.

"No," Sanji admitted. The two of them walked farther into the building that was much more illuminated than the outside, while at the same time feeling darker. The ceilings were high up and the farther up the room the darker it got, making it almost seem like night above them while the floor they were on was well lit by all the lights on the walls and even glowing panels on parts of the floor.

"Hey you two," they turned and saw Meliodas waving them over. They walked his way and spotted Ban and Weiss not far behind him. "Coming to the auction?" Meliodas asked them.

Luffy narrowed his eyes at the short man while Sanji just looked at him confused. "You want slaves?" Sanji asked the bartender.

Meliodas chuckled and Luffy lost his angered look to become confused as well. Meliodas turned and walked back towards Ban and Weiss who were waiting for him outside of a staircase that led down to a lower hall where the auction would be taking place.

Sanji turned as he heard music coming from the great hall on this floor. He spoke up, "Luffy, what are we doing here? We going to try something?" Sanji did not like this place the longer he was here. _Slaves getting sold in the basement, but even the people not going down there are just sitting up here listening to a concert like nothing's happening. It makes me sick._

"Let's wait a little," Luffy suggested. Sanji looked at his captain in surprise as Luffy was not often one for waiting. Luffy continued in a casual tone, "I think Sora has a plan. He'll come tell us when he wants our help."

Sanji face-palmed as Luffy just said Sora's name out loud right as two of those Dusks were walking by. He followed them with his eyes to see if they noticed, and he watched as both gray figures stopped, looked back at Luffy, and then turned towards him and kept staring at him with their creepy faces. It did not even look like they had eyes, just mouths full of sharp teeth that looked like zippers.

"Shoo, go away," Luffy waved his hands at the weird creatures that did what they were told and slithered away from him, moving a lot more irregularly than when they were just walking past a minute ago.

"Hold on," Sanji jogged after them. He turned and growled at Luffy, "Stay here, or go to the concert or something, but stay where I can find you."

"Where are you going?" Luffy asked.

"To take out those Dusks," Sanji whispered loudly back to him. "I have a feeling they're about to report us." He ran away and Luffy watched him go before turning and walking towards the sound of that great music. He saw the stage after walking past a marble pillar, and he smiled as he thought about another musician just like the one up there playing her violin.

Luffy chuckled as he thought about his skeleton violinist. _Maybe he wasn't exactly like her. Brook would probably have asked to see her panties,_ Luffy could not help but laugh harder in nostalgia until he stopped and his smile faded. He walked farther into the room and his mouth dropped into a straight line. He looked at the blonde woman on stage playing the violin masterfully, and only now did he notice the ankle bracelet she was wearing. If not for the Power Blocker visible on her wrist, Luffy may have thought it was just one that she wore on her foot for a fashion statement or something. Since she was wearing two though, and the one on her foot had a glowing red light on it, Luffy knew what she was. He knew that smile on her face was for the guests, and that she did not enjoy this music she was playing.

 _Slaves. Slaves everywhere._ Luffy thought, his fists clenching at his sides and his pupils dilating. His body gave off a small aura that had other guests nearby him, sitting at tables and drinking together, looking his way and wondering why he looked so mad. Luffy held it in for now though, he held it all back. _Sora and Roxas both need my help. This is one of those times that Nami talked about, umm, a delicate situation, that's it! I have to be careful, or Sora won't be able to get his Nobody back, I think._

The woman up on stage had an anklet marking her as a slave, but as Luffy continued to watch her he found it hard to imagine that she was one. The expression on her face was not of sadness or fear, but a calm, relaxed look, and she seemed to be truly enjoying herself. She was very young, in her mid-teens by the looks of it. She held her violin up at her chin and played with her eyes closed, the only lights near her all pointing directly on the stage and at her. There were others sitting at round tables around the outside of the stage, sitting and drinking and eating desserts, but no one made a sound as they did those things. Friends sat near each other and they all stared at the stage in silence, mesmerized by the girl's beautiful music. Luffy watched this girl in amazement as the song picked up speed and his own lips curled back into a smile.

He was waiting for Sora and listening to music that he could not dance along to like he enjoyed doing for most music. The song and the girl's grace while she played worked so well together. He watched for two minutes straight before the girl sped up, sped up, and then out of nowhere she pulled towards herself and did not push the bow back over the strings of her instrument. Luffy realized his breath was held three seconds after she stopped and he finally released it, though for others they found themselves holding it much longer as they waited and waited for something, only for the musician to lower her instrument. They all let out breaths of air and they stared at her in awe of what they just heard and how unexpected the song ended.

"Amazing," Theseus said from his seat, lowering his mug of ale and starting to clap his hands. Others joined in and Luffy found himself clapping a few seconds later too.

The girl on stage opened her eyes and looked out at everyone clapping, the silhouettes in the dark. She stared at them and no longer had the calm expression she had while playing the violin. The clapping slowed and stopped, then a woman with blonde pigtails stepped on stage, clapping her hands slowly and loudly so the sounds echoed around the room. "Tonight's performance will be Kaori Miyazuno's final in the Dread Fort."

The girl bowed her head and did not say a word as Larxene walked up behind her and put both hands on the younger blonde's shoulders. "She will be the final piece to be sold at the auction tonight-"

"Hey!" someone shouted from a table. "I came here because I didn't want to take part in the damn auction, don't bring it up!"

"Yeah!"

About half of those in the dark room started yelling at Larxene who held up her hands defensively, then whispered something in Kaori's ear before turning and walking back off the stage. Luffy did not shout like some of the others, and he glared around the dark room at all those inside it. He could not tell how he felt about the ones who shouted against the idea of slaves, seeing as they were not doing anything about the auction going on. There were some others who stayed silent like him who he could also see were glaring darkly at Larxene as she walked off the stage, but then he spotted a few who did not say anything but were looking intrigued now and talking to each other in hushed voices. As Kaori started back up on her violin, three of them got out of their seats and made for the exit, only they were not leaving the Dread Fort, but heading to its lower halls.

Luffy watched them turn down the same way as the stairs Meliodas, Ban, and Weiss went down, making him growl and clench his fists. Luffy took a step, then heard a voice right behind him, "Luffy." He spun around and saw a boy in a brown cloak standing there. Sora looked up into his eyes and the teen's face was intense. "Follow me, we're doing this." Luffy spun his head and looked back the direction of the slave auction, but then turned to Sora and nodded. The teenager nodded back at him and motioned with his head for Luffy to follow.

Luffy got behind Sora and they started walking off. The pirate's fists clenched at his sides and he bared his teeth. _Good. I need to hit someone._

* * *

"That was the last one," Sanji muttered to himself. He looked around the empty hallway but no other Dusks were around. "I just hope the others don't notice when one of those things gets destroyed."

"Hey, what are you doing over here?"

Sanji heard the voice and started turning while getting ready to come up with an excuse for why he was in this hallway by himself. When he turned and looked down the hall from where he came though, his eyes opened wide and his mouth curled up into a huge smile at the sight of the blonde woman standing there. "Larxene-channn!"

"You were supposed to report to Vexen in the deep basement," she began while walking towards him from the end of the hall. "And what did I tell you? You were only supposed to put on the suit after…" Larxene faded off and her eyes opened huge as she stared at the pirate in the middle of the hall.

Sanji's lovey-dovey attitude he had towards all the ladies faded and the chef suddenly became very confused and unsettled. "You know me?" He asked confusedly. _She's talking to me like I'm someone else completely._ "Why do you-" **CRACK** The back of Sanji's head filled with a sharp pain and cut him off as he was taken right off his feet.

Sanji hit the ground and his vision was hazy. He lay on his side as the corners of his eyes went black and his vision closed in. He saw a figure who must have been behind him walk forward so he was standing right in front of him in between him and Larxene. "Nicely done," Larxene said.

"Ah! Larxene-chan praised me!" The figure in front of Sanji yelled out happily. He twirled around on one foot and Sanji rose his eyes to look at the back of the man's head. The figure in all black chuckled darkly after finishing his spin and he said, "I can not wait to become whole." Sanji stared at the back of the man's head, covered in blond hair, and the man laughing in a low tone turned his head ever so slightly. The man looked back with one eye and the swirly eyebrow over his eye was unmistakable. "Who would have guessed my Somebody would be so weak?"

"Ha, I would have," Larxene remarked, making the Nobody in front of her grab his chest like he got stabbed by her words. Larxene sighed at his immaturity and she turned away from him, walking away and saying, "Jixsan, get your Somebody to a cage. Vexen won't be able to convert you right away." Jixsan looked at her back confusedly and she explained, "The chamber is about to be used by a higher priority Organization member. Wait your turn, number XXIII" she said in a smug voice. Larxene kept walking away and she turned down another corner while the blond Nobody behind her shouted affirmation and then spun to his Somebody whose head was still rocking from whatever hit him.

"You're, my Nobody," Sanji muttered, trying to pull up his hands so he could push himself up. The cloaked figure in front of Sanji kicked him in the right shoulder though and Sanji grunted in pain.

"That's right, but soon," Jixsan said, as he reached down and grabbed Sanji by the suit collar. "Soon the two of us will be one, and my heart will finally be whole." Sanji had no idea what he was talking about, but Jixsan started walking away carrying Sanji like he was a duffle bag, dragging the chef's lower body on the floor next to him. Jixsan laughed to himself as he walked, "Who would have guessed, a half dozen of our Somebodies all show up in the same city? If it was just you Straw Hats, I wouldn't be surprised, I do have your memories after all."

Sanji's vision went black again and he yelled mentally at himself to stay awake. Jixsan kept talking while Sanji was close to passing out though, "Xirn, Manix, Bronxi, Swixes, even my own! Too bad the others aren't around to capture theirs, I'll just have to catch you all."

"Why?" Sanji mumbled. His eyes were closed but his ears still worked and he heard everything his counterpart said.

"Because if I get Manix-chan, Bronxi-swan, and Swixes-tan their Somebodies, they'll definitely fall in love with me!" Jixsan exclaimed happily.

"To get their Somebodies though," Sanji growled, his eyes opening back up and his black vision tinting red. "Just who is it you plan on capturing?" His voice was less slurred and sounded angrier now. Jixsan looked down, and Sanji's head snapped up in anger to look his Nobody in the eyes. "I won't believe it. You can't be my Nobody," Sanji spun around and slammed a kick into the Nobody's legs. Jixsan winced in pain and let go of Sanji's suit, letting the chef drop to the floor and then push himself up.

"What are you talking about?' The Nobody who looked exactly like Sanji, only with his flip of blond hair over the opposite side of his face, asked. "I am you. I have all of our memories. Owner Zeff, Luffy, Vivi, Nami, Robin, Conis, Camie, Juvia..." Jixsan lifted off most of the women Sanji was friends with and the blond chef wearing a suit only got angrier.

"You bastard," Sanji snarled. Jixsan looked confused and Sanji snapped his gaze up to look in his Nobody's eyes. "You were planning on harming a woman!"

"Who said anything about hurting them?" Jixsan growled back, angered that this man would think he could harm a woman. "Nami, Robin, Weiss, those three will not be harmed. Just like I need you, Manix and the others need their Somebodies to become whole." Jixsan stepped towards Sanji, "Now, come with me quietly. I do not wish to disturb the guests." Jixsan was acting calm, but the Nobody was currently thinking up a way to take down Sanji quickly. He thought the hit to the back of the head before was hard enough to knock out his Somebody, and that it was just taking a while, but the chef in a suit did not look tired in the least anymore.

 _He said Weiss, which means Weiss-chan must have fallen to the darkness once before too. In that case, she's as much of a target as we are. I have to warn her! And Nami-san, and Robin-chan!_ Sanji rose up his right foot and he narrowed his eyes at the enemy in front of him. "I won't let you touch them," Sanji growled.

Jixsan stared at Sanji's leg and the Nobody laughed. "Are you going to kick me?" Jixsan questioned. He stepped forward and rose up his hands, and a staff formed out of thin air that he grasped with both hands. His left hand was higher up the staff than his right, but he twirled the black staff around in a circle in front of him so fast that it became blurry. Then, he grabbed the bottom of it with his left hand and pulled back so it shot in between his side and his left arm, and he held his right hand out near the head of the staff that was wider and bumpier than the rest of the black weapon. Jixsan pointed his staff at a stunned Sanji who felt like he was looking at himself in the mirror only he did not recognize his own moves. Jixsan glared at his replica and stated confidently, "I won't even let you get close."

* * *

 **CA$INO**

"So you defeated the Peacock Queen?"

Nami turned around and chills went down her spine at the dark aura spinning around the room behind her. She took a step back and the Clima Tact in her hand started shaking. She tried to put on a brave face, but she was hurt during her fight against all the now-unconscious casino staffers around the Ca$ino's basement. The Malachite twins were both pretty durable and got a couple of hits in on her giving her some bad bruises before they went down. The Peacock Queen herself turned out to be the most durable of the bunch and Nami's left leg was bleeding badly from the sharpened fan the casino owner clipped her with.

"I would say that this means it will be an interesting fight," the dark voice continued. It was somewhat high-pitched but still sounded like a man's. Yet, as Nami looked for this man in the growing darkness, she saw no one appearing to face her. "But considering your injury, I believe you will fall easily," his menacing voice said.

"Come out!" She yelled. She connected the three pieces of her Clima Tact and spun the blue staff around in front of her body. "I'm not afraid of you!"

"No, you aren't afraid of anything, Nami."

Nami's heart stopped at the sound of that voice. The man's voice was gone, and the darkness in front of her spread so it covered the floor, the ceiling, and all of the walls. The people lying unconscious around the pirate woman sank down into the darkness leaving Nami alone in a completely black void.

"Nami? What's wrong?"

 _That voice,_ Nami thought, and she stumbled back over the dark floor. As she stumbled, the ground came out from beneath her and she started falling, falling, deeper into the darkness. She spotted a circle of light down below her and her feet slowed down as she neared it. Her feet touched down gently and she looked around in shock as the darkness around the light area shifted and some of it flew forward to make a single mass in front of her. That solid darkness began to take shape and it spoke as it did, "Are you alright? I've been worried about you."

Nami's legs became weak and her lower lip dropped a few inches as the woman in front of her formed. She had long dark red hair tied in a ponytail that fell behind her back, and wore a blue plaid shirt with a yellow apron over it. "I have missed you Nami," the older woman said as she completely formed in front of her.

Nami opened her mouth but words were hard to form. The most she could make out at the moment was just, "Belle-mere-san." Her lips were trembling and she had water on the bottoms of her eyelids. "Is it," Nami whispered after a few seconds. "Is it really you?"

"Yes Nami," Bellemere responded. The woman walked towards her daughter while Nami collapsed down to her knees.

 _What is this? What the Hell is going- Did I- Did I die?_ Nami looked up with teary eyes and the woman in front of her was smiling down. _That must be it,_ Nami thought, a small smile coming to her face at a sight she had so longed to see.

"Nami," her mother began, and lowered down her right hand to touch her daughter's cheek. Nami tilted her head to the side so her left cheek would get pressed harder into her mom's hand. She sighed in relief as it all ended, her eyes closing shut. If this was how it ended, it did not seem so bad. "Why did you kill me?"

Nami's eyes snapped open and looked up at the woman in front of her. Bellemere was no longer smiling and the hand she had on Nami's cheek was lowering down. The hand lowered to Nami's chin and then shot forward and wrapped around Nami's weak neck. "Bell-mere," Nami gasped as she was choking. "Why?"

"That's my question!" Bellemere snapped. She lifted up on Nami's throat and the younger woman's feet left the floor. "Arlong would have let me live if it weren't for you!" She clenched harder on Nami's throat but her suffocation was not nearly the worst pain she was feeling right now. "If only you had run, he would have let me live. Even if I had claimed to have daughters, if you had just escaped like the others told you to, I would have been allowed to live!" Bellemere clenched harder and Nami tried to scream but it just came out as a raspy breath of air.

"What do you think happened to everyone you left behind?" Bellemere asked, her voice getting deeper and darker. She lowered Nami and spun her around, but wrapped an elbow around her neck to keep choking her. Nami could not take it and her hands opened up, dropping the weather weapon she was holding in them. Bellemere laughed as Nami's only protection fell from her grasp. In the man's voice from before, Nami's mother said, "Look what befell your old world only months after you left it."

Nami's squinted eyes opened up a little and then shot open wide at the sight of a planet appearing in the darkness in front of her. A massive hand that was a deeper black than the rest of the darkness reached forward out of nowhere and clenched down on the planet. The vision zoomed in far and Nami looked horrified at the sight of Cocoyashi village and all the citizens on it, everyone she loved. They were all running around in panic as one of the black fingers curled around their part of the planet. _Nojiko,_ Nami thought in horror as her sister screamed and held up her hands to try and stop the darkness. She could not though, and was crushed along with everyone else.

The person holding Nami felt all the vibrations in her neck, and though he wanted to keep choking her, he also wanted to hear her screams. He tossed her forward and she hit the ground that lost its light color from before. Nami gasped, and then screamed out in agony, and not just the physical kind. Everything she was seeing was too much for her and she grabbed her neck and the side of her head at the same time.

"Honey," her mother's voice spoke up. Nami did not want to look, but her head turned anyway and she saw Bellemere looking down at her. The woman's chest was getting red, blood soaking straight through her clothes. Tears spilled out of Nami's eyes and Bellemere reached a hand out for her. "Why?" Bellemere asked. "Why Nami? Why?" The red splotch got wider until it covered her entire body, and when she coughed, a bucket of blood splashed out, some of it getting on her traumatized daughter.

Nami lifted up her hands and stared at the blood all over them in horror. Then, her head dropped down and her arms fell limp at her sides. When the voice spoke back up, it was no longer in her mother's voice, but she could not bother to look up. "Aww, it looks like she's finally broken. That's a disappointment. Well, you were fun to mess with. Merging with Ienzo definitely made my illusions stronger."

Nami heard footsteps and though she was looking down, she saw legs coming closer to her that stopped once they were only a few feet away. "Guess it's finally time to end this. It's a pity-"

"Don't you touch her..." Nami's head flinched while the man in front of her took a whole two steps back. He started looking around and Nami lifted up her head a little. She followed the bottom of the man's feet up the black cloak he was wearing to his face. He had bright blue eyes, though the entire right side of his face including his right eye was covered by his long bluish-silver hair. He was small in stature, not very tall, nor well-built in any way. And when Nami looked at him, she saw an intense fear on the man's face that she imagined matched her own.

"Touch Nami again, Zexion," the voice snarled, and the man in front of Nami staggered even farther backwards at the sound of his own name. "And I will **DESTROY** you!"

The darkness surrounding the two shattered. Nami saw someone standing behind the person who had been making her see illusions, and when that man saw the look of despair on her face, his angry expression turned even more furious. "Scratch that," Riku growled and he rose up both hands. Darkness surrounded his hands and then light shone out in front of his curled fingers. Two long Keyblades formed that Riku crossed in front of his body and then uncrossed fast to make sparks fly off his weapons. "I am going to destroy you right now!"

"Riku," Zexion growled at the teen. His originally nervous expression lifted into a cockier one and he started laughing, though with sweat on his face. "I was hoping you would show up one of these days. I still need to pay you back, for what you did in Castle Oblivion!" Zexion lifted up his right hand and a book appeared on it, while he rose his left hand and a pen emerged with a long beautiful feather sticking off the back. Riku looked at the pen cautiously, and Zexion spoke up smugly, "That's right. I have become more powerful here on Nexus. And recently, I became fused with my Somebody!" The Lexicon in his hands exuded darkness from its pages and wisps of black floated off of the feather on his pen and from its tip as well.

"Merged?" Riku muttered, confused at what he was talking about.

"Ienzo," Zexion said in a smug voice. "We found him, and now I am complete! My power," the walls around them shifted again and Nami yelled out as the floor beneath her feet transformed. "It is out of this world!" Zexion roared, and the world around them shattered and got completely replaced by a new one.

Nami looked around while still on her knees and her eyes went wide. _I've seen this place before,_ she realized. She tried to think of when it was, and when she looked at Riku she realized it. The look of recognition on his face was unmistakable. This was the same world she remembered seeing him, Sora, and Kairi on during their memory trip courtesy of the Forever Knights. It was exactly how she remembered it in that memory too, on the day that Riku's world was swallowed up by the darkness. They were on a small spit of ground while chunks of the island around them were getting ripped off into a swirling black vortex in the sky.

"It's your fault Riku," a girl said to the right of them. Riku turned and the woman on her knees twenty feet back did as well. Nami saw Kairi suddenly standing there looking at Riku in a terrified, disgusted way. "You let the darkness in. You let it destroy everything."

"Kairi," Riku whispered. His fists clenched around the hilts of his Keyblades and his eyes darted around the false world around him. "Where are you, Zexion?!"

"You accepted the power of darkness," a voice spoke on Riku's left now and he spun to see Sora standing there. As he turned, he caught a glimpse of his own skin and looked down to see he was darker, with a big red heart on his chest with a black outline. His hair was straighter and water formed beneath him for him to look down into and see his reflection. He had turned into Ansem again, and he backed up a step at the sight of his own face. It was a face he spent so long hiding from his friends because he could not bear for them to see him like that.

"You," two voices said at the same time. Riku slowly turned around and he looked past Nami's kneeling body as she spun around in panic because there were voices right behind her. Nami fell on her butt and scooted backwards as there were two men standing behind her who she knew weren't really there. Usopp and Rin pointed their arms out at Riku and spoke in unison, "You destroyed us. You turned us into your weapons. You made us your slaves."

Another three figures appeared behind them: The Flash, Brother Blood, and Wendy. All five of them continued, "An army of darkness, but you knew the whole time that we could feel everything we were doing."

"We had to watch!" Wendy yelled.

"And we couldn't control our bodies!" Barry Allen yelled. The Flash sprinted forward but Riku rose up his Keyblade and blocked the punch aimed at his face.

"You may look like them," Riku growled, his eyes shadowed over by dark lines. "Even the things you say, may be things that they never said themselves but always wanted to," Riku bashed his Keyblade forward and smashed straight through the Flash. "But you can't copy the Flash's speed!" Riku raced forward and right by a shocked Nami.

Usopp pulled back on a slingshot that appeared out of nowhere. He fired and Riku simply moved out of the way before cutting through him, "Or Usopp's accuracy! Or Rin's flames!" Riku slashed back and forth and cut apart all the illusionary figures around him.

"Riku." He turned around and saw Sora and Kairi holding hands and staring at him, both with horrified looks on their faces. They spoke together and made Nami feel shivers down her spine, "Your decisions cost us our hearts. The two of us died, but at least we got to get away from you."

"RaaAAAA!" Riku roared. Out of his body came a wall of darkness so powerful that Nami could see a darker black on the already pitch black background of the illusion. Riku's roar shook the realm and the walls twisted as they vibrated too hard. The black walls around them could not handle the teen's darkness and all at once they shattered. The Destiny Islands underneath Nami's knees shattered with the dark walls and black vortex, while Riku's darkness all stayed right where it was.

 _Ansem, hold back,_ Riku thought. He could feel the Lord of Darkness rising up to help him, but he did not want any assistance. He stared through the wisps of darkness in front of his face at Zexion who was glaring back at him and furiously writing in his Lexicon with his dark pen. _I will take care of this bastard on my own!_

Riku's green eyes shimmered and he flew forward fast still in his Ansem form. Zexion tried to write faster, but Riku was in front of him at the next pen-stroke. "You have no idea," Riku began. He slashed with both Keyblades and Zexion flew backwards yelling out in pain. Dark flames rose around the room while Zexion slammed into the back wall and left a large indent in it. "What I am capable of!" Riku yelled, and he threw a Keyblade forward.

Zexion's eyes opened up after clenching from the pain, and he spotted a fully black Keyblade flying straight for him. "How?! I merged with my Somebody! How could you still be stronger than me?!"

"Because I am better than you," Riku yelled, right as his Keyblade slashed straight through his enemy, hit the opposite wall, and bounced back into Zexion who was falling backwards, pulling the short man back towards him. Riku raced forward as Zexion was pulled his way by one of his Keyblades. Riku pulled back his other weapon far and he roared, "And because you hurt my friend!" Riku slashed through Zexion's front, and by stopping the Nobody's momentum all at once, his other Keyblade pushing on Zexion's back pushed completely through him at the same time.

Riku stopped behind Zexion and he faced away from him as the Nobody staggered forward. Riku looked down at Nami who was staring at him in awe, and then she looked past him at the man in a black cloak stumbling around and grabbing at his chest. "No, I- I had a heart," Zexion whispered, his voice sounding choked up, water in his eyes. The soles of his feet started seeping out darkness and he rose up his hands in front of him to see dark wisps coming off them as well. "It isn't fair," Zexion whispered, spinning around and glaring at Riku's back through watery eyes. "I was whole! Human!"

"Just because you had a heart," Riku said in a dark voice, only amplified by the fact that he still looked creepy. His body shimmered and his Keyblades vanished as he transformed back into a teenager, his long silver hair getting spikier and his skin turning lighter. Riku turned his head sideways and looked back at Zexion through his right eye. "Does not mean you were human," he finished. "For that, you would need humanity, something you were sorely lacking."

Zexion stumbled towards Riku and reached out a hand. His arm was dissolving and his whole body was fading into darkness. "Agghh, ack, RIKUU!" Zexion screamed, as his face fully covered in darkness and the ground below him opened into a dark circle. Black tendrils shot out of the floor and surrounded Zexion's body in an oval of darkness that his body just sort of merged with, and then it all faded away together. Zexion vanished from in front of them, and Riku finally relaxed as the Nobody was gone, this time, he hoped for good.

Riku turned his head back forward and looked down at Nami. "I'm sorry," Riku began as he walked towards her. "I should have stayed closer to you. I was supposed to be watching you, protecting you," he reached down a hand for her to take. "This is my fault. I couldn't find you, not until I felt Zexion's darkness. I shouldn't have-" Riku's mouth froze open and his eyes turned huge.

Nami took his hand to help herself up, and the first thing she did was wrap her arms around the nineteen year old in front of her. Tears flowed out of her eyes and she pressed her face into his shoulder. "Ah, ahh, AHH!" Nami yelled, so much sorrow and pain in the sound of her shouts. Riku did not say anything else, but he closed his mouth and he brought around one arm that he held around Nami's back and hugged her back with it. "Thank you," she whispered after a minute. "I was- he made me… the things I heard, I saw," Nami shook her head into Riku's shoulder.

"Zexion's mind tricks once plunged me far into the darkness," Riku whispered. Nami lifted her head a little and saw Riku looking over her and into the distance almost like there was no wall in front of him. "But what you need to realize, is they were just tricks, nothing more." He looked down into Nami's eyes, "What he showed you, it was not real. That woman," Nami's eyes widened and Riku looked away, "I don't know who she was to you, but whatever Zexion made her say, I'm sure she didn't mean it."

Riku had come in while Zexion was transforming back into himself, and telling from the way Nami was curled up, he knew the monster must have said some pretty sick things to her. She blinked a few more tears out of her eyes and Riku stepped back from her. "Let's get out of here, Nami," Riku suggested. He turned and looked at the wall on his left, "Something's going on in the Dread Fort. We need to see if the others are okay."

He turned to the door of the room and started walking towards it. He did not take two steps before looking back though and staring at Nami. Her brown eyes widened as she realized he really was not going to let her out of his sight again. For some reason, she felt warm knowing that, and she sped-walked across the floor to catch up to him. She nodded her head and put on a brave face despite all the horrors racing through her mind. _It was all fake, just a nightmare Nami. Bellemere would never say something like that, you know that! Trust Riku, he said it was all lies… including what he showed me about Nojiko, and our world? Yea, yeah! That had to be a lie._

As Nami walked through the door after Riku though, she found herself staring at the younger man's back. _Except, it wasn't all lies. What he showed Riku, the way Riku reacted, it was all true for him. Rin, and Usopp, and Wendy and the others, they all were taken by the darkness he let in._ Though she thought she might get mad at him as she thought it, she did not feel any anger towards Riku. All she felt was pity, _Zexion didn't even have to show him those things._ She stared at his back and her eyes lowered a little sadly, _He lives with them every day._ _**"…Because you hurt my friend!"**_ Nami's gaze lifted back up to Riku's back and she shuffled her feet to move closer to him. _Thank you, Riku._

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed! Wifi was down on campus for most of the day so I couldn't post this earlier, but I guess it's not too late XD. Anyway, it was a long chapter! Mephisto and Amaimon showed up, and Luffy confronted the former NEG council members. Sanji's Nobody Jixsan appears, as well as a bunch of other Nobodies who get their first mentions this chapter! Larxene, Saix, Zexion (RIP), and a bunch of others were referred to if you want to try and figure out the anagrams of their names with 'X's thrown into them! Nami gets caught cheating but takes on the entire casino staff and wins! I'll put a list of where the characters are from at the bottom, but if you want to know where you can see Junior and the Malachite twins in action, check out the RWBY Yellow trailer where Yang and them have an awesome fight! Thanks for reading! Leave me a review telling me what you thought, predictions about the Dread Fort, etc!**

 **RWBY: Junior, Melanie and Miltia Malachite**

 **Gintama: Peacock Queen**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Zexion, Vexen, Saix, Roxas, Namine, Sora, Kairi, Destiny Islands, Ansem, Riku, Dusks, Nobodies, Heartless, Larxene, Ienzo**

 **Fairy Tail: Gray, Juvia, Natsu, Wendy**

 **Teen Titans: Brother Blood**

 **DC Comics: Flash (Barry Allen), Supergirl (Kara Danvers), Superman**

 **One Piece: Luffy, Zoro, Usopp, Nami, Robin, Sanji, Franky, Akainu, Bellemere, Nojiko, Cocoyashi village, Devil Fruit**

 **Akira: Tetsuo**

 **Blue Exorcist: Satan, Mephisto, Amaimon, Rin, Yukio**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Killua**

 **Your Lie in April: Kaori Miyazono**

 **RWBY: Weiss**

 **7 Deadly Sins: Dreyfus, Meliodas, Ban**

 **Greek Mythology: Theseus, Poseidon**

 **Black Lagoon: Revy**

 **Princess Mononoke: San**

 **Halo: Arbiter**

 **FMA(B): Roy Mustang**

 **DBZ: Future Trunks**

 **Naruto: Orochimaru**

 **Bleach: Ichimaru Gin, Ichigo**

 **Star Wars: Jedi**

 **-And I think that's everyone! If not and you're still wondering what media source a character comes from, (media sources that I do not own), ask me in a review! Here're the review responses for last chapter:**

Darugus chapter 41 . 18h ago

Nice chapter  
Can you explain the whole color rank thing and ho it works I know gold means lord but what are the other colors?  
Also now the group may or may not need to take on two lord and sanji and luffy can enter the banquet  
So chaos is going to start soon not that it was going to start to begin with

 **Thanks! Meliodas explained it a little more this time, but as a refresher we've now seen none at all, which could seem sketchy that they chose to opt out of punching the machine, there's green, which is low, there's yellow which is above green but below orange, then orange, red, black, and gold. Hope that helps! Chaos is starting as Sora and Luffy make their moves, the Sins are looking sketch, Sanji's fighting his Nobody, and Riku and Nami are made a mess of the Ca$ino! Thanks for the review!**

KCSupido chapter 41 . 7h ago

Sorry of my last review was a bit long. I'm not super surprised that Sora's reaction wasn't that bad, he's too happy go lucky. But I can't wait to see what happens next

 **It's all good, I like long reviews! Just couldn't put a reply to it because I did not have it to copy paste on the chapter after, but as for what you said I'm glad you liked the Minecraftians, Xion... no spoilers, Link I never even considered as the only game I've ever played with him is Smash Bros. Have also never played the World Ends with You game so probs won't be adding those characters or aspects of their world into this either :P. Thanks for another review!**

7lights13darknes chapter 41 . 22h ago

LET THE BATTLES BEGIN! ( too soon?) I'm getting really excited for the next chapters. I can't wait to see grays team story too. I can't believe i didn't catch on too the whole beast boys nobody. ( it annoyes because i am a HUGE fan of kingdom hearts.) but doesn't that mean Wendy starfire and the incredible family ( minus dash) have nobodies too?! THIS JUST GOT A LOT MORE INTERESTING. you should have had sora say he was a Jedi or pretend to use the force and be like you will help me fight organization 13. Just for fun( that and he probably looks like a Jedi with the brown hooded cloak. And i JUST realized that RIN himself should have nobody. Ha it is going to be intense. I also can't wait to see how serious ben and dash are going to take the job of protecting Kairi. They are probably going to go overboard. Specially ben since he knows exactly how sora will react if somthing really bad happens to her. Completely unrelated and i don't expect a strait answer but will we ever see characters like jimmy newtron or bens parents. And when will we find jackjack!? You really got me hyped up for that scene. Keep up the good work can't wait for the rest of this arc.

 **AND THEY BEGIN! XD Thanks for the review! Chapter 8 will continue on with Luffy's group, but don't worry 'cause Chapter 9 we switch over to see how the others are doing! Haha I tried to make Beast Boy's Nobody as clear as I could since it was the first character not actually an original Nobody who we've seen, which is why Krillin mentions not liking hitting someone who looks like his friend. And it looks like that guess of yours might pan out now that we've seen Sanji's Nobody, who knows how many others there are?! So many MCs were turned into Heartless, and that's only the ones we know now that we hear that Weiss also fell to the darkness at some point! Lol at the Sora being a Jedi cause of his brown cloak, I really just made it brown because wearing a black one would make him blend too much with the Organization members. Rin's Nobody may have been mentioned in the chapter at some point... ;) wonder if you caught it? Ben's parents at one point in the first chapter of HWR he mentioned wondering if they were on Nexus, and who knows if they are, whether Jimmy is there is also on the table from when Timmy saw Cindy and Jimmy's other friends in Metropolis and they mentioned not seeing him, and JackJack... well, no spoilers!** **Thanks again to everyone who reviewed, read, faved, and followed this story! 'Till next time!**


	43. Nexus HWR 8-5 The Dread Fort Part 3

**Nexus HWR 8.5 The Dread Fort Part 3:**

 **Three Months Ago**

"Let me out of here!" Black Star screamed. He slammed his fists into the bars in front of him, got filled with electricity, and thrown back across his cell. The spiky haired boy jumped back up to his feet and charged the bars again, diving headfirst this time as his arms were currently not responding, his nerves overloaded by all the shocks he had been receiving.

"Shut up already!" A prisoner in the cell to the left shouted.

"Every God damn day with you!" A mutant prison guard growled over. He had spiky black hair, sharp black line tattoos on his chin and neck, and sharp quills sticking out all over his face and out the top of his head. Quill walked down the corridor between the two walls of cells, and he lifted up a remote in his hand. "You really want another helping?"

"Please," Black Star remarked, stepping back towards the bars with black smoke coming off of his forehead. His hands were clenched into shaking fists that he could no longer unclench, and his arms and legs were still wrapped in white bandages from the battle that got them caught. "Do it!" Black Star yelled when the mutant did not reply at first.

"Black Star, enough," a man in his own cell said before Quill could use the torture devices strapped to each one of their left ankles. The prisoner got up to his feet and glared over at the steel bars, out at the mutant behind them, "You know he's not gonna break out of here. Just let him scream," the taller man with red hair that spiked out in every direction behind and above his head held out his hands and grinned like it did not matter either way.

Black Star continued to snarl out at the mutant, but the man covered in quills just turned towards the guy who spoke to him and smirked. "Let's see how long you can keep that cocky attitude," the Asian man began. Axel kept grinning, but his face did make a small movement as he became confused at the mutant's expression. A few people in the cell across from his and Black Star's also got up to their feet and stepped closer to their bars, sensing that something was up. Quill leaned closer to the bars and he smirked towards the red haired man, "Who would have thought? I didn't know you creeps even had the ability to go rogue," Quill laughed after saying it and Axel lost his smile.

Gon Freecs stepped closer to the bars of the cell across the hall and one to the right of Axel and Black Star's. "Hey Axel, what is he talking about?"

"Oh," the mutant began, his smirk getting even bigger as Axel's grimace got deeper. "He never told you?" Quill asked, leaning even closer to the bars as he did. As soon as he asked the question, the sound of a loud buzzer rang out through the prison followed by the creaking of a thick metal door opening up. The prison was loud and full of shouting prisoners, but the person who just walked into the cell block had footsteps that echoed inside every cell and quieted them all down. Quill chuckled as he glanced left, then turned back to the bars and grinned at Axel who was looking to the right to try and catch a glimpse of this person as soon as whoever it was came into view. Quill continued, "I never would have thought someone like you would be a part of that stupid Resistance. Though then again, I don't know if I really can call you 'someone,' can I, Nobody?"

The others in the cell with Axel all darted their eyes to the man, including the blue haired kid right on the other side of the bars as their mutant prison guard. Black Star's eyes were wide, and what he was just told was confirmed by the expression on Axel's face that his squad leader never showed them. The taller man had his eyes pointed down, and his fists unclenched as he heard the word echo in his mind.

"Axel's a, Nobody?" Soul muttered from the cell across from the taller man's. Kuwabara stood to his right with his bottom lip dropped, while Gon in the next cell down stared thoughtfully over into the other cell at his older friend.

"That's right," Quill called out as those footsteps got louder, showing they were getting closer to their cells. "He probably never told you because he-"

A hand shot out between two of the bars and it gripped Quill by the front of his shirt. The mutant only had a second to open his eyes wide, and he never got to extending quills out of his chest to impale the hand, because the boy who grabbed him pulled back hard into the bars and filled both himself and the jail guard with electric shocks. He did not let go right as the electrocution began though, instead smirking out at the screaming prison guard while hundreds of prisoners around the jail roared out cheers. After several seconds of this Black Star could not handle it anymore and had to let go of Quill before stumbling back and collapsing to the ground.

The mutant lying on the floor had faded irises and he seized over and over on the other side of the bars. Black Star was breathing heavily, but he still got up before the man who had not felt those shocks before, and was not used to, or prepared for, them at all which sent him into shock. Black Star stepped towards the bars and he glared down at the man fidgeting around on the dirty floor in front of him, "Who the fuck cares if he's a Nobody?" Black Star leaned forward and reached a hand out of the bars, being careful not to touch either of the ones on his sides so he could grab the remote he saw next to Quill and pull it back into the cage with him.

"Black Star hold on," Axel started.

"I almost have it," Black Star said.

Gon was near the bars one cell away on the left of theirs so he had a better view of down the hall than Axel who was farther back in the cage. He spotted the figure whose footsteps did not speed up despite Quill's collapse on the ground, and his eyes widened in realization. "Black Star!"

The more muscular young teen reaching through the bars glanced over at Gon, then turned his head the other way to see what the big deal was. He looked right, then lifted his head up and his gaze rose from the base of the black cloak the man had on, to the zipper going up the middle of it, and finally to his face that had a large X-shaped scar over the middle of it. His blue hair was long and his eyes were cold and emotionless as he stepped towards Black Star, reached down, and grabbed the remote right as Black Star's fingers were touching it.

"Saix!" Axel shouted.

Black Star stood up and he pulled his arm back inside the cage as he could not reach Saix from this far away. "You know this guy Ax- ahhH!" Black Star grabbed at the sides of his head as his anklet turned on. His body filled with pain and he roared at the top of his lungs.

"Black Star!" his friends shouted from cages all around.

"Bastard!"

"Who are you?!"

"Axel," Saix said, staring at the figure before him closely. "You have avoided us for too long. As you will not join the Organization voluntarily, I must resort to drastic measures." Without turning away from the red haired man, Saix continued, "Everyone in this cell, move to the sides. Turn around and put your heads and hands against the walls. If you do not comply, you will meet the same fate as that boy." Black Star continued to scream as Saix did not turn off his ankle bracelet.

Most of the others in the cell with Axel were not his comrades and walked to the walls immediately. A woman who ran over to Black Star's side and was shaking him and yelling at Saix to stop turned towards Axel. She had fearful eyes, but she spun back towards Saix and yelled, "We won't-"

"Do it Tsubaki," Axel said, his voice full of resignation. He heard his other comrades shouting at him from across the cells, and he bowed his head and continued, "Don't worry. They won't kill me." He lifted up his gaze and stared out of the bars at Soul, Gon, and Kuwabara who were looking back at him. "I promise, I'll find a way to save you all."

"Three seconds," Saix said.

"Now Tsubaki," Axel demanded, looking down at the woman on her knees who was looking his way hesitantly.

She got up, and took another second to look into Axel's eyes, before finally turning right and walking to the wall where the rest of the prisoners already were complying with Saix's orders. She put her hands and face against the wall, tears welling up and coming out the corners of her eyes. Tsubaki could hear Black Star's screams and could still see the look of resignation on Axel's face even with her eyes clenched shut and her forehead pressed against a cold concrete wall.

Axel stood in the middle of his twenty by twenty foot cell and he stared out at Saix who lifted up his right hand. Another loud buzzer sound went off and the bars in front of Axel opened up. Saix continued to stand in place, but he lowered his arms down to his sides and made a small nod of his head backwards. As he did so, the ground beneath him ripped into a dark circle and an oval of darkness eight feet tall shot up behind him. Axel started walking forwards and he avoided looking around at his friends as he did. He could hear them shouting his name, even Black Star who lay face-down on the ground, screaming it in between roars of agony. _I will come back for you._

The captured Nobody stepped through the portal, and Saix nodded his head as his mission was completed. He looked down at the man on the floor and as the buzzer went off again and the cell bars closed, Saix stated, "Thank you for your cooperation." Quill was still twitching and Saix narrowed his eyes at the mutant. "Magneto is a reasonable man. He will understand that this is for the best." None of the prisoners in the cell block had any idea what he was talking about. Saix dropped the remote in his hand, letting go of a button as he did and getting Black Star to stop screaming. The others in that cell looked away from the walls now that they thought it was okay, and Black Star weakly lifted up his head. Most others could not see because of their cells' positions, or because the black portal behind Saix blocked their sights, but the few in the cell Axel just exited watched as the blue haired Nobody reached down and grabbed the twitching mutant by the shirt.

"What are, you doing?" Black Star snarled, wanting to be the one to finish off Quill himself.

"A gift to Magneto," Saix said, the people in the cell in front of him the only ones able to hear his quiet voice. Saix's hand covered in darkness as he held the mutant at his side, and as he turned towards the portal the darkness on his hand started spreading to surround the figure. "A power-up for one of his warriors," Saix continued as he stepped into the portal with Quill in hand. He smirked as he stepped through the darkness, _And another member of the Organization._

* * *

 **Present**

 **Dread Fort**

"Why did you bring me here, Saix?" Axel growled. The Nobody with spiky red hair had a black eye, cuts on both cheeks, and bandages on his arms covering injuries much worse than the ones he got getting captured almost four months earlier.

Standing in front of the man chained to the lowest floor of the Dread Fort, was Saix. The Nobody in charge of the city and surrounding region was not alone in the dark room though. Lurking all over the floor they were on, the stairs on either side of them, and the upper sections of the room, were Nobodies: Dusks and Berserkers, Samurais, Snipers, and Dragoons. Silver Nobodies of different shapes and sizes walked around mixed in with Nobodies that had faces like Saix and Axel. Back in a part of the lower floor they were on that was the most lit up in the Dread Fort, a scientist holding a clipboard in one hand was typing with his other onto a panel in front of two large cylinder tubes. The tubes were made of glass and were empty, but they were very bright as there were yellow lights on the tops of the insides. Two Nobodies with faces stood on the sides of Saix as well, one who Axel recognized as the jail guard from the first prison he spent time in after getting captured by the Co-op. The second figure's face, Axel recognized much better. He recognized it as the face of his best friend.

Roxas had a straight expression on his face, hiding well the feeling of hatred he had for the man on his left. Saix could still feel that hatred coming from him, but he ignored it as he responded to Axel, "You know what happens at the Dread Fort."

"Then you really did it," Axel muttered, his thoughts confirmed. "Where is he?"

Saix turned away from Axel without responding. He took two steps the other direction while the two subordinates he left behind stayed guarding the prisoner. He faced the man at the strange machines connected by tubes and split apart by fancy-looking computers. "Vexen," Saix began. The genius scientist typed a few more buttons in and then turned around to face the Lord of the Dread Fort. Saix continued, "Demyx reported in. He has arrived at the Order of the Sith. He will return with Lea shortly. Is the Integration Chamber prepared?"

Vexen grinned over at the serious figure with crossing scars over his face. The scientist had long dirty-blond hair down his back even farther than Saix's as his fell all the way to his waist. He held up his arms and his black sleeves that were longer than his fellow Nobodies' slid up a little to reveal his open hands. "I just finished," Vexen claimed. Axel was already grimacing deeply at the sound of the name Saix mentioned, but now he looked behind Vexen and his grimace grew even deeper.

"You know," Axel started up loudly, making the other Nobodies look back towards him. "I don't know who you guys think you're messing with, but you really think a shmuck like Demyx can handle Lea?" Axel laughed and he leaned forward, grinning in a dangerous way over at Vexen. "Lea's going to free me, then I'm going to destroy you, again." The reaction on Vexen's face made Axel's suffering and terrible situation feel a little better. He smirked at the enraged look on the scientist's face who once begged him for his life, only for Axel to incinerate him with his chakrams.

"Why you-"

"Enough," Saix said, holding up his right hand and silencing Vexen. The scientist ground his teeth furiously that he was quieted, but he did not speak out against his superior. His eyes darted to Axel though and the red haired man could tell that as soon as Saix was not looking, Vexen would get his revenge somehow.

The ruler of the Dread Fort turned away from everyone and Vexen clenched his fists while glaring at Axel who glared right back at him. Both of them spun their attentions to the part of the room Saix just turned to though, as out from the floor in between a few Dusks, a black portal appeared. "Come on, oof- stop it!" A figure got tossed through the portal and hit the ground hard. A second figure stepped through the portal that closed after him, but Axel's gaze was focused solely on the man flat on his face on the floor.

Demyx cracked his neck to both sides as his portal closed, then he rubbed his left cheek where a bruise was forming. The Nobody with cyan eyes had dirty-blond hair that stuck up near the front of his head then pulled back into a long mullet. Demyx threw up his hands that were inside of black gloves that matched his cloak and boots similar to the rest of his fellow humanoid Nobodies. "Turns out Lea wasn't too thrilled about the news. Who knew?" He dropped his arms back down to his sides and then smirked past the body of the man lying in front of him over to the one chained on the ground, "You excited, Axel?"

Axel did not respond to his old comrade who was only one rank beneath him in the Organization. He used to be number VIII, and Demyx followed up with rank IX. Axel stared straight at the figure lying on the floor whose head was covered on all sides by dirty red hair. His clothes were ripped up and he had cuts on much of his body just like Axel. The guy lifted his head up a little and his green eyes locked with Axel's. "Hey Lea, how you doing?" Axel said to his Somebody.

"Got caught," Lea muttered, his voice scratchy and his face covered in some burns that made it hard for him to fake the same confident-looking expression Axel was faking. "Sorry 'bout that."

"I should be the one apologizing," Axel told the figure in front of him. "You-"

Vexen stomped a foot down on Lea's back out of nowhere and the Somebody's head slammed back down into the floor. Axel yelled at him and the scientist laughed at the reaction he got. "It does not matter what condition you two are in when you go into the Integration Chamber. The process will bring you back to full health, as well as restore your heart," by the end of the sentence Vexen was grimacing. He himself did not have his Somebody's heart as of yet, but here was Axel about to get his. The scientist ground his teeth then turned away and stepped off of Lea in annoyance, "Malx Lewx, get them ready for the integration process."

The Nobody of Maxwell Jordan, the mutant formerly known as Quill, nodded his head in Vexen's direction then walked over to Lea himself and yanked the prisoner up on his feet. As he got Lea almost fully up, Lea smashed his head to the side and headbutted the mutant Nobody. Malx growled and then grabbed Lea tighter around his arm, before extending porcupine quills straight through his skin and causing the man with spiky red hair to scream in agony.

As Axel shouted at them to stop again, Roxas turned away and ground his teeth in anger. Malx Lewx dragged Lea towards one of the tubes as Vexen lifted back up a clipboard and examined it. Saix looked around as this was happening and he frowned. The blue haired leader of the Dread Fort turned towards Demyx who was walking away with his hands behind his head, "Demyx." The ninth ranked member of the Organization spun around and then groaned at the look Saix was giving him.

"I just got back," Demyx complained.

"Jixsan was told to report, but he has no arrived yet, and this must be done as soon as possible," Saix explained. Demyx sighed then lifted up his hands, creating a blue instrument that looked like a guitar with three strings, called a sitar, as tall as his own body. He slammed the bottom of his instrument down on the ground and then nodded at Saix, waiting for his orders. Saix continued, "Bronxi's Somebody is in the eastern section of the city. Retrieve her and bring her back to me. Her name is Nico Robin."

"Nico Robin huh?" Demyx asked and scratched the back of his head, not seeming too into these orders. Saix shot him a glare and Demyx stopped scratching to hold up that hand defensively, "Alright alright, I'm going. Man," he turned and swung his hand in front of him, creating a black portal to walk through. "Fighting girls is such a drag." Demyx stepped through and the portal closed behind him, but Saix still did not look at ease.

"He's strapped in sir," Malx told Vexen once Lea was immobile inside one of the two tubes.

"Good," Vexen said. He turned and looked across the room, "Now Axel," he called over and Axel's frown could not get deeper. "Your entire world is about to change. I do hope you change your mind about the Organization after you and Lea are merged. Though if you don't, I won't be too heartbroken."

"He will," Saix said calmly and assuredly. He turned and looked down at Axel who was still chained to the floor. "We have been patient with him so far only because of the high chance that he changes his mind upon being merged with his Somebody."

"I won't work for that bastard Xemnas," Axel growled as Malx got closer to him. He glared straight into Saix's eyes, "A completed heart, a stronger body, those things won't change my mind. Lea and I are already our own people. Got it memorized?"

Lea opened up his partially closed eyes from inside the tube as he stared out at Axel who gave him a reassuring smile. Lea nodded his head and the other red haired man chuckled, "See?"

Saix said nothing, but he did nod at Malx Lewx who stopped next to Axel. The Asian man covered in quills reached down to unchain Axel from the floor. Axel's smug smile faded and he and Lea shared a look of despair as despite their attempts at bravado, they knew this was it. They were surrounded by Nobodies, a Lord of the Cooperative, and both of them had on bracelets that could fill them with pain and stop them from escaping on a second's notice. Vexen smirked as Malx got Axel off the ground, Saix watched as Isa's childhood friend's Nobody got pulled towards the Chamber, and Roxas saw Axel's depressed look and he had to stare at the floor to hide the guilt all over his face.

 _ **CRASH!**_ Roxas's head snapped up and all of the Nobodies in front of him spun around. Malx spun and Axel turned with him, Lea lifted his head up more to see over Vexen who turned as well, and Saix's eyebrows narrowed in towards his nose as he turned to the other half of their lowest basement. They all turned so they could look to the upper part of the bright room up the steps on either side of the lower wall that Axel was just chained in front of. They looked up to the upper section's railing where there was a giant hole in the wall behind it and a massive white fist sticking through that wall.

The fist pulled back and shrank down, and then two figures walked through the hole in the wall. They were shadowed at first, but the farther they got the more visible they became and the more everyone in the room dropped their jaws. Vexen stumbled backwards and dropped the clipboard from his hand while Saix's eyes popped open huge. Roxas's shocked look turned to one full of relief a second later, only for his relief to change to nervousness a second after that. It was Axel who stared at the railing with the most shock in his eyes as any of them. He stared at the young man on the right of the two who was around the same height as the other, only without the straw hat on his head that would have covered the big brown spikes in his hair. Axel's dropped jaw started to close and he gasped out, "Sora?"

Sora had his mouth open to shout something at Saix, but when he looked into the room his eyes opened huge and he shouted, "Axel?! What are you-" he stopped and looked behind Axel to a couple of glass tubes where inside one a man who looked exactly like Axel only even more beaten-up was strapped to a metal contraption with tubes sticking off of it up into the top of the glass container that had metal pipes and computers attached all around it and in between it and the other empty tube. Sora turned to Roxas and thought about what his Nobody told him, and he figured out what was happening very fast. "Roxas?!" Sora shouted.

Roxas got confused but before he let it show on his face he thought about why Sora would be acting surprised to see him and remembered Saix was right behind him and he should have reported it if he knew Sora was there. _Nice,_ Roxas thought, though he was even more nervous now as out the corner of his eye he spotted Saix's surprise fading completely and a more determined look coming to the calm Lord's face. Rank VII in the Organization, Saix, the Lord of the Dread Fort, pointed his right hand up at the railing and stated, "Roxas. Go acquire your Somebody and bring him back here. The two of you will be merged by the end of tonight."

Luffy's eyes turned huge and he pointed a hand down at the man pointing up at Sora. "Sora's not getting merged with anybody! I'm gonna kick your ass!"

"Saix, I can't-" Roxas began to the man behind him on his right.

"In a single second, I could have a Dusk report to Xemnas that you were uncooperative. Naminé will pay the price," as soon as he finished speaking, Roxas looked back up at Sora a lot more seriously. Luffy remembered Sora telling them that Roxas and him had cleared things up, but the look Roxas was giving him now was not that of an ally. Roxas lifted up both hands and a couple of Keyblades formed in them.

"Hurry it up Malx," Vexen snapped at the mutant Nobody who was just watching this all in confusion. "Before Sora gets down here!"

Malx shook his head and then tugged Axel harder towards the tubes. Axel pulled away from him though and broke free in that moment. He had the confusion of the room on his side and he turned to run towards Sora and Luffy. He was leaving Lea behind, but the further he got from his Somebody the safer he knew the man was. He only made it two steps before a hand gripped his cloak's hood and yanked him back. Saix tossed Axel backwards towards Vexen who reached up and caught the beaten Nobody tossed to him.

Luffy and Sora jumped over the railing, Luffy holding up his left hand as an open palm and curling his right into a fist behind him as he did. Roxas jumped up in the air while Sora formed two Keyblades himself, but Roxas had more force in his jump and he changed their momentums towards the lower wall beneath the railing that they slammed into and then straight through. As they went crashing into a different part of the basement, Luffy yelled out, "Gum Gum Pistol!" He slammed his hand towards Saix who was in between him and the tubes in the back of the room that he did not really understand their purpose but knew it had to be bad by the way Sora reacted to them.

Saix did not form his weapon yet. Instead, two Samurai Nobodies jumped in between Luffy's fist and the Lord of the Dread Fort. They took his punch and skid back, but then swiped sharp arms down at it to try and cut the rubberman. Luffy yanked his arm back fast as he landed on the ground, then had to leap left fast as Sniper Nobodies fired sharp gray diamonds at him. Where he landed, three Berserkers were charging him with huge thick hammer-like blades in their hands that they started spinning around at the pirate. Luffy punched his right arm to the side and his body covered in steam, and at that moment Saix rose up his hands in front of his face.

"Gear Second!" Luffy vanished as his skin turned red and steamy, and all of the Nobodies attacking him lost sight. He appeared in front of Saix with his right fist punched forward, only for it not to reach the Lord he was trying to hit. He aimed for Saix's chest, but in front of Saix's entire body there was now a very wide weapon made of light blue steel. The weapon itself was seven feet tall and Saix had both of his hands gripping the white shaft of it that went from above the top of his head down to the bottom of his chin. He pushed back with his claymore, a thick melee weapon named Lunatic that had a silver seven-pointed star at the end of it with a golden cross inside it that had sharp points on it touching the inside of the outer seven-pointed star.

The force of Saix's push sent Gear Second Luffy flying backwards into a part of the lower wall that was not broken from Sora and Roxas smashing through it. Luffy landed at the base of the now-crumbling wall on his feet and pressed a steaming fist down on the ground. He glared up at Saix while his hat that was on his head fell down to his back but did not fall off thanks to the string around his neck that kept it in place. Luffy's black hair waved around as his fists turned the same color and he shot towards Saix again, "Let those spiky guys go!" Luffy shouted as he threw his arms forward in a Gear Second, Armament Haki-infused, Gum Gum Jet Bazooka, otherwise known as his Eagle Bazooka.

Lea looked through the glass tube that was now fully sealed to the rubberman outside who was trying to save him. He turned left and looked past some of the computers to the other tube that he could only see the head of the man inside it. "Yo Axel, you know who this guy is?"

"He's with Sora," Axel shouted while struggling against Vexen's efforts to strap him into the tube. "They're going to get us out of this!"

"I hope so," Lea said nervously, looking through the glass and watching as Luffy shot back and forth trying to get past Saix. "You've got this!" Lea yelled at the rubberman.

Saix lowered Lunatic and released one of his hands from the heavy-looking weapon. He pointed that hand forward and all of the remaining Nobodies in the room moved towards Luffy at once. "Gum Gum, Hawk Gattling Gun!" Luffy yelled. He slammed his fists forward rapid fire and dozens of Nobodies got destroyed one after the other by Haki-infused punches. Saix narrowed his eyes and the hand he had pointed out shook some, making twice as many Nobodies as were already in the room appear.

"Quickly, quickly," Vexen mumbled to himself as he typed faster and faster into the machine.

"Isa, please," Lea begged. The man outside of his tube did not turn around as he continued to send hordes of Dusks, Samurais, and other Nobodies at his rubbery opponent who started roaring as his Hawk Gattling Gun was going on for too long.

"Isa has been a part of me for six months now," Saix said without turning to face Lea. "Our memories were always one, and now so are our hearts. You will understand the feeling soon enough my friend."

"Friend?" Lea asked, his voice getting louder. "I know only the Nobody keeps control in there! Can Isa even hear me?! ISA!"

"Do it Vexen," Saix said, then directly in front of his face appeared the rubber pirate who ignored ten Nobodies between him and Saix and the others that were still forming to race straight up to him. Saix rose his weapon to block Luffy's right fist that he had pulled back far, only for Luffy's left foot to slam up under his chin and knock him into the air. Saix gasped as he was thrown so hard up by Luffy's Gear Second kick that he flew all the way into the ceiling and then smashed straight through it into one of the lower halls of his Dread Fort that was still above the very bottom one where they merged Nobodies and Somebodies.

Luffy landed down where Saix was just standing as ceiling pieces rained down around him. His Gear Second state faded as he snapped his gaze down to the machines he was about to break, only once he looked down he wished Gear Second had lasted a few seconds longer. The tubes were already closed and Vexen was finishing typing right now on his computers, so Malx Lewx had nothing to do but focus all his attention on the man trying to stop the integration. Luffy's Observational Haki kicked in as soon as he saw the man in front of him spiking out; on the entire front of his torso from his face to his chest to his stomach and covering each of his appendages, thin black quills stuck out of him and then shot all at once towards Luffy who dove to the left to avoid them.

They moved faster than bullets though, and there were too many of them to dodge. The right half of his body got slammed by over ten quills that hit his right arm, his cheek, and more than half of them got in his right leg that lagged farthest behind. He hit the ground and did a somersault before flipping himself back up on his feet. As soon as he put weight down on his legs though, he yelled out in pain again just like he did when the quills connected. He clenched his fists to attack Malx, but his gaze snapped to the ceiling first as Saix came dropping down with his claymore lifted up above his head, making Luffy jump back to avoid being smashed by the blade.

As he was still in the air moving back, Saix slammed his weapon into the ground and three cracks shot out from the collision. One of those cracks went straight under the machines Vexen was working on and the scientist yelled, "Watch what you're doing!"

"Stop wasting time and merge them," Saix scolded back while jumping off the collision towards Luffy.

"Hold it!" a voice shouted from through a hole in the wall.

"Oh no you don't!" Another voice that sounded very similar shouted.

"Done," Vexen said. He reached out towards the computer in front of him and hesitated for a moment, looking straight into one of the glass tubes and into Axel's eyes before pressing the button and smirking at the man.

Sora and Roxas came tumbling through the hole in the wall for some reason and then each sprung away from their counterpart to stand facing one another with Keyblades risen. Both of them were using Master Form, with all of Sora's clothes having turned yellow, and Roxas's black cloak being lined with yellow stripes. They spun towards the tubes that started glowing bright while Luffy and Saix collided in the air above them making wind and debris fly around them. Some rocks slammed into the machines and a crack formed on Lea's glass tube, making Sora and Roxas both go wide-eyed with hope. The machines started blinking red, an alarm went off, steam came out of metal tubes, and the walls started shaking as Saix smashed Lunatic into the pirate's left side and sent Luffy smashing into the wall on the right of the tubes at a hundred miles per hour.

The glass tubes both cracked some more as Saix landed on the ground, and he spun around just like Sora and Roxas to look over at the machines. The lights inside them kept getting brighter and brighter while Vexen backed away from the smoking computers, shouting about how everything was malfunctioning. A fireball burst out on the panel he was just typing on, then that flame expanded five times in size making Vexen fall to the ground and cover his face with his arms as he yelled in pain. The scientist scrambled up and ran away from the tubes, shouting, "Everyone get back! It's going to blow!"

* * *

Sanji jumped up in the air, kicked the air beneath him, and shouted, "Sky Walk!" He kicked the air so hard he bounced off of it and shot forward, then forward and right, then bounced off a wall and down towards the ground where his dashingly handsome opponent was twirling around a staff and waiting for him. Right as Sanji got close, Jixsan smashed the butt of his black staff down on the ground and the golden ring on top of it bounced up as he lowered the elevation of the hallway. Sanji's eyes widened at this strange power as it did not look like Jixsan hit the ground hard enough to form a crater.

Jixsan did not create a crater by slamming his staff down so hard though, the floor just moved down on its own after being tapped by the staff. The walls stayed where they were but seemed to extend to match the elevation of the floor. Sanji's kick went right over his Nobody's head, and he changed his direction by flipping in midair and then kicking the air behind him again. As he did this though, Jixsan lifted his staff off the ground and jabbed it Sanji's way.

Sanji knew it was coming with his Haki and dodged to the left, then stuck his right leg out towards his opponent, "Èpaule!" The leg he had kicked at Jixsan went above his opponent's shoulder, so Sanji lifted it up higher and then smashed it straight down on Jixsan's left shoulder, making the Nobody hit the ground and this time an actual crater was created.

Jixsan gasped out and then clenched his teeth as he pushed his hands down on his sides. "What the Hell?" He muttered as he got up to his knees, pushing his staff down to help him get up. "How did a shitty chef like you get so strong?"

"Thought you had all my memories?" Sanji snapped back as he landed in front of the Nobody who threatened going after Nami, Robin, and Weiss earlier. "Then you know exactly how I got this strong."

"No, idiot," the other blond haired man in the hallway growled back. He was panting while he continued, hoping that his Somebody did not notice he was just doing this to catch his breath, "You were never that strong. Something must have happened, since Port Royal."

"Port Royal?" Sanji asked.

"The last thing I remember," the Nobody replied. He stopped panting and he slammed his staff down on the cracked floor beneath them, making the entire floor tremble and then lift up fast towards the ceiling. Jixsan dove towards Sanji as the chef fell backwards away from the section of the ground rising fastest. Jixsan jabbed his staff straight into Sanji's stomach and then kept shooting forward as he kicked the air behind him using the same technique Sanji used a minute ago. Sanji winced when the staff hit him, but he ground his teeth and covered his left leg in Haki, before swinging it around and slamming it into Jixsan's extended arms.

The Nobody yelled out in pain and his staff fell from his hands. The elevation of the hall was still funky as they dropped and Sanji rolled into a wall hard while Jixsan bounced off the kick twice as far. Jixsan groaned in pain as he staggered back up, then his eyes opened huge as Sanji was already up and jumping right in front of him when he opened his eyes. "Oh shi-"

Sanji's leg spinning across the front of his body hit Jixsan in the neck before he could finish cursing, and the chef shouted, "Collier Frit!" Jixsan got knocked off his feet and flat to his back with a loud thud. Sanji then leapt up in the air and called out, "Brochette." His whole body started spinning while he pointed one foot down so he looked like a drill. Jixsan coughed and opened his eyes to see Sanji about to slam down into him with a powerful blow. He rose up his hands and his staff emerged out of the ground on his right, appearing in his hands for him to jab up as hard as he could with a white glow around his weapon.

The two of their attacks collided, and Sanji kept spinning down on the top of the staff his foot was pushing against. He pushed harder and harder and the ground beneath his opponent was creaking more, and more, and then the floor broke completely and the two of them fell through the hallway. They dropped and Sanji spun faster again but Jixsan was pushed off harder and gained some distance between them. Jixsan rolled to his left on the piece of rubble he was falling to the floor below on, then the Nobody cursed as Sanji's foot hit that large stone and shattered it with his drill-like kick.

The shattering of the boulder made Jixsan fly off of it on a few broken pieces. He hit a floor and bounced, then on the second bounce he slammed one of his hands down into the floor and skid backwards. He dragged his nails on the floor and Sanji frowned deeply as he watched the man's fingers start bleeding, _My Nobody isn't a chef. He knows I would never risk hurting my hands like that._ Sanji landed down on the ground on the floor below where they were just fighting. He heated up his right leg and started lifting up his glowing red knee so it was in front of his chest. "Diable Jambe!"

Jixsan growled Sanji's direction and he lifted up his right leg as well. Sanji's eyes opened wide as he saw his opponent's leg heating up and turning red to match his style. "What the," Sanji began. "Now that I think about it, why haven't you been using kicks? Even if you did not get stronger from fighting in the War against the Underworld and in Metropolis, your kicks should still be our most powerful-"

"Don't say 'our!'" Jixsan roared over at Sanji. The chef froze and the Nobody in a black cloak continued shouting, "I am not you! You're a shitty Somebody, keeping your heart all to yourself so that I can't give my whole being to the ladies!" Despite how idiotic that would sound to most, it sounded completely serious to Sanji who narrowed his eyes at the figure ahead of him who was shaking with rage. Jixsan kicked off the ground with his leg that was not red and smoking, sending himself flying incredibly fast towards Sanji.

 _Not fast enough though,_ Sanji thought as he kicked off the ground towards his opponent too. They were almost at each other, then Sanji kicked the air below him a little and rose up over Jixsan's first kick. He slammed his own leg down on his Nobody's stomach and Jixsan's whole body curved over it. The cloaked figure flew off the kick and down into the floor below which he created another crater in only even deeper than the first one he made on the floor above.

Down the dimly-lit hall from the cracking floor, a couple dozen people turned around and looked towards the dark hall where they heard a loud crash come from. Larxene was standing on stage next to two rows of ten people down on their knees, and hearing the crash from down the corridor she twisted her mouth into a snarl. "It is not a problem," she announced loudly for all the powerful people in the room who were thinking about going to check it out. Squads of Nobodies emerged out of nowhere and blocked the entrance because there were too many of them heading into the halls for any of the people to push through.

Larxene took her eyes off the crowd in front of her for a second, but when she looked back towards her slaves to continue auctioning them off, her eyes opened huge at the sight of the figures up on stage with her. A short blond man turned to her and chuckled with his white teeth shining at her. "Hehe, looks like you've caught us," Meliodas said, while behind him Weiss was bent down with a set of keys in her hand and was taking off one ankle bracelet after another.

The blonde Nobody shook with rage and reached down to grab her remote that would let her turn on the bracelets to kill all the slaves now. When she grabbed at her waist though, the remote was gone and her eyes opened up huge at the sight of Ban standing on the other side of the stage, holding up the remote in his hand right before crushing it with one simple squeeze. "You do not understand," Larxene began and ten knives appeared in her hands, sparking electricity. "What you have done!" She finished with a roar.

The others at the auction turned and were staring at the stage in surprise now. A couple moved towards it to stop Weiss from freeing the other slaves, but Ban moved towards the front of the stage first and he held a long steel pair of nunchucks in front of him while glaring at all the people before him. "Try it," he said, grinning a mouth of shark teeth as he did and his red eyes glowing. "I'm itching for a fight."

Since everyone in the Fort was supposedly rank orange or above, they were all wary of Ban. Then again, each one of them was a powerful fighter and a half dozen of them charged at the stage while others ran for the exit and some just watched amusedly. Larxene charged at Meliodas and threw her knives, only for the short man standing there to reach up and catch all of the knives with hands moving at incredible speeds. He got shocked by them but one could not tell by looking at the man who looked like a kid grinning on Halloween. Meliodas dropped the knives and then reached up a hand for the green hilt sticking out over his shoulder.

Sanji lifted his foot high above his Nobody as he stood next to Jixsan on the cracked floor. The Nobody was on his hands and knees and it looked like the fight was over. Jixsan twitched though before Sanji could bring his leg down, and then Jixsan's head snapped up fast and he looked straight past Sanji's legs, past all the silver Nobody forms sprinting down the hall towards them. Sanji saw the look on his Nobody's face and the look of anger on his own as he was about to slam a foot down on Jixsan's skull froze and faded. "A lady is in danger!" Jixsan shouted, pushing himself back up with strength he did not think he had. In front of Jixsan however, Sanji stood in his way with a foot still glowing red. "I'll give up on getting my Somebody. I have to get past you, and I will kill you if you get in my-"

"Go," Sanji said, lowering his leg and moving to the side of the hall. Jixsan's one showing eye not covered by his blond flip of hair opened wide, but he did not hesitate to start sprinting down the hall. As the Nobody ran though, his face was full of confusion and disillusionment. _Why?! Why did he let me go? I must disgust him! I_ _ **know**_ _I disgust him! He could just as easily save this lady himself!_

The chef watched his counterpart jump up and kick through the air to go over the heads of the army of Nobodies coming his way. Sanji turned to the Dusks and Samurais and a few other strange ones he did not recognize in the ranks and rose back up his leg. His leg was no longer red, but he held up his fists in front of his face and brought his right knee in between his elbows. A faint glow surrounded him and he yelled out, "Raaa!" before flying forward and sending dozens of Nobodies smashing up in the air, into the walls, and ripping them apart.

Far past where Sanji was destroying Nobodies, Larxene was grabbing her right shoulder that was covered in blood with her left hand. She winced in pain but then lifted both arms again no matter how bloody her right was. "This is unacceptable!" She screamed. Larxene was shaking and she pulled out a single knife for each hand that sparked lightning out around her while her blonde hair waved around behind her. Meliodas put his green sword hilt back over his shoulder even as Larxene charged recklessly at him, as he no longer believed he would be needed. He turned and walked over to free more slaves, while the girl currently on her knees with the others stood up and spun around.

Larxene lifted her knives up over her head and then brought them down for Meliodas's back. Meliodas froze and his eyes opened wide, turning around as fast as he could. Weiss shot past the Captain of the Seven Deadly Sins while he was mid-turn, and she brought her rapier up fast, knocking both of Larxene's knives out of her hands so fast that the older woman fell backwards. Larxene hit the ground and Weiss rose up her rapier, a look of fury on her face as she did. She pulled her hilt back, then jabbed forward, only for Larxene to vanish from in front of her. Weiss could only see a blur and she snapped her head to the right angrily as Larxene was whisked away by something.

"I don't believe it," Meliodas said. He did not turn around because Larxene was attacking him, as he knew that was going to happen before he started turning away anyway. He turned because what he felt coming could not have been right, but there he was, standing there and making Weiss's eyes the size of saucers.

The teenage girl with a long white ponytail did not know what to say. She stared forward at a loss for words at the sight of the man who had the same color hair as Larxene and held the mean woman in his arms bridal style. "Larxene-chan, are you alright?" He asked. The man in a black cloak had a trail of blood coming down from his left nostril, the left sleeve of his cloak was ripped off, and his forehead about his swirly eyebrow was bruised. Jixsan coughed once and some blood came out on the corners of his lips, and the man winced but did not drop the wounded woman in his arms.

"You're, not Sanji, are you?" Weiss asked. She had to make sure. It was clear what was going on, but the way he acted towards women was so similar then maybe… The angry look on Jixsan's face made it certain that he was not who she just mentioned. _Those people we brought with us, who are they? They said Sora chased after a figure in a black cloak, but, but he's not the only one with connections to the Organization._

"Put me down," Larxene growled, struggling a little but not very strongly as Meliodas's attack on her was draining a lot of her strength. "We can't let them take the slaves. And, we can't let Swixes' Nobody get away," she turned her gaze to Weiss, but then winced and Jixsan's decision not to let her go became even more final.

"We will fade soon," Jixsan said in a low whisper. Larxene snarled but said nothing and the man continued, "Let's leave it to Lord Saix." A black portal opened out of the ground behind Jixsan and he stepped backwards, taking Larxene with him despite her weak, non-genuine protests. Jixsan felt a presence on his right as he stepped into the portal and he darted the eye not covered by his blond hair over and saw Sanji standing at the entrance of the room, no regular Nobodies remaining in sight around him. The two of them locked eyes for a second, then the portal closed and Jixsan and Larxene were gone.

Weiss turned the direction Jixsan was looking right at the end and she stared into Sanji's eyes. "Tell me, what do-" _**BOOOOOM!**_ An explosion rocked the entire Dread Fort and the hallway behind Sanji filled with bright red light. The chef started turning his head and his eyes began growing huge at the sight of the flames billowing down the hall as the other people rank orange and up who had started going down it sprinted back. He watched as all of them were enveloped by the flames and he rose up his arms and crossed them at the very last second, before the flames shot through the entrance and slammed into him too.

* * *

 **Three Minutes Earlier**

"I don't know where all the guards went, but now's our chance. Come on!" Killua shouted in a hushed whisper. He jogged towards the open gateway where the Nobodies that were there a minute ago had disappeared into thin air as if they were called somewhere else. Running on his right side was a taller teenager with jet black hair who looked around him for some enemies that he might have to unsheathe his sword to fight.

Okumura Rin was not just looking for enemies around the near-empty courtyard though. He was on the lookout but did not spot who he was looking for and frowned deeper. "Up there," Killua said and Rin snapped his gaze up the steps to see what he was talking about. Killua had stopped running and the two teens only three years apart, one fourteen and the other seventeen, frowned at the sight of five Samurai Nobodies appearing at the top of the steps. It was as if whenever someone who was not supposed to be there got close, those Nobodies would appear to protect the place.

"What do we do?" Rin muttered. He did not know whether he should unsheathe his sword for something like this, but Kil turned to him and chuckled and his hesitant look.

"Don't worry, I've got this one," Killua told him. The kid started jogging up the stairs, and the Nobodies at the top jogged down towards him. They rose up sharp swords, but Killua surrounded himself in a white glow and dodged back and forth easily to evade each of the attacks. One of the blades came too close to the top of his hair though, and he had to duck faster in annoyance at that. He shot a hand up as he ducked and while his white aura thickened around his hand, he grabbed the blade and yanked the Samurai off the ground. Kil's hand was covered in Ko making it a lot harder so that the blade did not dig into his skin, and he did a full three-sixty while holding the Nobody, smashing it into all of its comrades.

All of them fell away, then got up and charged at him again. _These things might not be too strong, but they are durable._ Kil jumped ten feet in the air to dodge as the silver creatures that came from every direction slammed weapons down at the same time. He landed on the shoulders of one and pressed down with his legs while twisting its head-part around and ripping it off. Rin watched very nervously as these creatures had similar body types to humans, and Killua bounced around dismembering them all with ease like he knew exactly what he was doing. Kil's left hand's fingernails extended and he shoved it through the torso of the final Nobody, and the creature shattered into a flash of light that faded after a second.

As soon as the final Nobody vanished, a dozen more appeared around the top of the stairs. Kil and Rin dropped their jaws and Killua turned to look at the older boy. "Screw it. Let's just run past them." Rin nodded as it seemed like that was a better idea than trying to fight a seemingly limitless number of enemies.

Rin frowned deeply as Killua ran through the ranks of Dusks that appeared, thinking back more than a year in anger. _They're just like the Heartless. They never run out. No matter how many I took down, Ansem had more waiting for me._ Rin sprinted up the stairs and he saw Killua's back as the younger boy got into the entrance. The Nobodies filled the space between them, half chasing after Killua and the other half facing Rin ready to attack. The half-demon snarled as he thought about the day Ansem turned him into a slave of the darkness, and he lifted up his sword getting ready to unsheathe it. Killua called his name out and said to just jump over so they could keep going, but then both of them froze.

The ground beneath them felt like it was just hit by an earthquake and Killua spun around in shock. He stared into the Dread Fort behind him and heard screams echoing out through the building. The floor beneath his feet was rumbling, and then he saw the glowing light far ahead of him. He snapped his head to a dark entrance of a staircase leading down, and watched with huge eyes as very fast people sprinted up those stairs and dove to the sides, right before a massive fireball shot out of the tunnel and into the main room. Someone had just made it to the top of the stairs when the fireball shot out and Killua watched as the woman screamed and her skin got ripped from her body before the rest of her flesh melted off her bones. The fireball faded and he watched as bones with barely anything left on them fell at the top of the stairs, but the kid who watched this was not thinking about that woman at all.

 _Luffy, Sanji,_ Killua's heart rate sped up and he shouted without turning around. "I'm going to see if they're okay!"

Rin was just then getting his balance as he had stumbled about when the Dread Fort shook, and he snapped his gaze over the Nobodies only to see Killua vanish from sight in that instant. _Fast,_ was the only thing Rin could think as he had no way of following the spiky haired kid. All of the Nobodies seemed to lose interest in him too, and they all faced Rin while others who had escaped the fireball inside now stared towards the entrance wondering what was going on up here considering the basements of the Dread Fort were full of mayhem.

Theseus walked in from where he was on the main floor with a woman covered in guns next to him. He and Revy were on their way out of the Dread Fort together when the explosion hit, and they headed faster to the entrance to see what the fuss was all about. The two of them looked around and saw a few people had burns near the top of the stairs, but most who were fast enough to escape up the stairs had avoided being damaged by the flames. Eight people looked towards the exit of the Dread Fort where silver Nobodies were facing off against a teenager holding a sheathed sword.

 _I have to catch up to Killua and find out if the guys are okay._ Rin tssked but he saw no way to avoid it and he grabbed his hilt tight to pull it out of the sheath. Then, as Rin was right about to pull the Kouma Ken out and ignite himself in blue flames, all of the Nobodies in front of him flattened to the floor as if the gravity on them had increased a hundred fold. They got pressed down so hard that they all vanished in explosions of white light, even though the air around them had turned purple when the gravity increased. Rin froze, as two figures appeared floating down from above the top of the entrance on the inside of the Dread Fort.

They lowered to the ground inside the entrance and looked out at the teenager standing there and narrowing his eyes at them. The smaller of the two figures that lowered glared at the teen who he was shocked to see, but the taller of the two just grinned. Amaimon and Mephisto touched down and stared ten feet forward at the black haired teen who did not put down his sword. Mephisto looked straight into Rin's eyes while all those powerful people behind him stared at the demons' backs in confused silence. The purple haired demon wearing fancy white clothes narrowed his eyebrows and began, "I have been anticipating your arrival, Okumura Rin-kun."

* * *

"Ack-ack, uck-ah," Vexen coughed over and over while waving an arm in front of his face.

The scientist in a black cloak swiped away the smoke in front of him and finally stopped stumbling around. He looked towards the Integration Chamber, or where it used to be at least. The ceiling above them had completely blown apart, and Vexen smirked before coughing some more.

"We're okay?" Sora wondered as he got up to his feet. He turned left and saw Roxas getting back up too, and Luffy pushing a large chunk of ceiling off him from a little farther away. The pirate reached down and ripped some black quills out of his body but Sora nodded seeing he was okay. The teen then looked forward towards the source of the explosion that was still covered in smoke, but at least most of the flames that came with the explosion had faded away.

Saix and the mutant Nobody were also back on their feet, though Malx Lewx took longer and had both sleeves of his cloak completely ripped off showing burnt arms beneath. He had soot all over his face and coughed like Vexen before turning right to the Nobody scientist with blond hair and yelling, as his ears were ringing and he had no idea how loud he was being, "How the Hell did we survive?!"

Vexen continued looking into the smoke but he began speaking as he did. "The ability to merge two beings, two hearts, as incomplete as one of them may be, is an amazing feat, and requires an incredibly powerful energy source. The condensed Spiral particles necessary for the Integration Chamber have always been unstable. I knew that an explosion of great magnitude would occur should the Spiral particles' casing be compromised. In case of an event like this however, I built a failsafe into the chamber to expel any explosion upwards to protect myself and those in this lowest basement," Vexen smirked, "as well as the subject inside the chamber."

Everyone stared past the scientist into the smoke that was only now starting to thin out the slightest bit. As it did, the people in the lowest basement wondering what had happened inside the chamber when the explosion went off, watched as a black silhouette appeared in the smoke. They looked around as that shadow was on its hands and knees, looked for another silhouette to appear as the shadow got to its feet, but they saw only the one. The silhouette had big spikes sticking out from the shadow of its head, and they could tell the figure was looking their way as the lengths of those spikes were equal on either side of the head.

The figure stepped out of the smoke, his face no longer bruised or scratched up at all. He wore a black cloak that somehow looked un-damaged from the explosion, and he looked down at his right hand that he rose in front of him, then smirked in a way that made Roxas and Sora both go wide-eyed. "I am Axel," he said, lifting up his head and smirking into the room where Sora, Luffy, and the Nobodies all stared back at him in wonder. Vexen's eyes were huge at the look on Axel's face that looked nothing like the dreading, regret-filled expressions of the two who were put into the chambers only minutes before. Axel grinned menacingly, "This is better than I could imagine."

Luffy's eyes were huge as he looked at the guy. He looked behind him for another one, but there was only one, and he seemed so different from the two who had cheered him on to beat Saix and save them.

Axel chuckled darkly and he rose his right hand in front of him and clenched it into a fist. "I'm grateful, Xemnas," Axel began, an evil smirk spreading across his face. Saix grinned at the result while Vexen humphed as this was what the Organization was hoping for, though he himself was partially hoping Axel would not be so changed by the procedure. Roxas and Sora were both staring at Axel in shock as he opened up his right fist in front of him and slammed his open hand out to his right side. Axel smirked their way and a bright light glowed in front of his right hand, making everyone, all of the Nobodies, Roxas, Sora, and Luffy, all stare at the red-haired man first in confusion, then shock.

"Is that-" Malx began.

Vexen gasped and took a step back.

"It can't be," Saix said.

Luffy turned his head to see how Sora and Roxas would react, but they were just as shocked as everyone else in the room.

The two spiky-haired boys the same height as each other lost the yellow highlights to their clothes and they turned back to normal. A Keyblade vanished from one of their hands each, making it so both of them were only holding those Legendary weapons in their right hands, just like the man in front of the destroyed Integration Chamber. Axel's right hand had a circular red hilt in it covered in spikes, and out from that hilt was a blade that started off yellow, got more orange the farther down the blade it got, then turned red right at the end where it curved and spikes of red flames stuck out. Hanging off the hilt of his weapon was a keychain just like the ones hanging off Sora and Roxas's weapons. Axel stood there, holding a Keyblade, while everyone else stared at him in awe. "Lea was a Keybearer," Axel said, then swung his right arm forward and pointed the end of his Keyblade out at Sora whose expression turned to one of despair. Axel smirked, "Who knew?"

* * *

 **A/N Thanks for reading! We finally get a look at Axel who was not in the Capital with the rest of Gray's old team, and now we know why too. Axel was captured months ago, but it was them finding Lea around this time which allowed them to be merged in case anyone was confused. Sanji beats up his Nobody, the Sins freed the slaves and beat up Larxene, but Jixsan escapes with Larxene. Demyx is sent after Robin, Luffy says he's gonna kick Saix's ass, Axel's transformation is unsettling, and Rin faces off against Mephisto and Amaimon! A whole lot is going on! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!**

 **-On a different note, I know I've been posting a chapter a day for the last two weeks now... but that's over, sorry ;(. I had all of chapter 7, and the whole start of chapter 8 written out when I started posting them, (except Zoro's chapter which I finished the day before I posted it), but admittedly, I just finished writing this chapter earlier today. And what's worse, I have nothing written down yet for next chapter except the summary. Even worse, next chapter is going to probably be the longest of the Dread Fort, which means I have probably near 20k words to write before I post it. And worstest, (sorry for all the bad news), the two chapters after The Dread Fort Part 4 are started, but also not yet finished. Also, just to top it all off, next week is finals week at college and I'm going to be stuck studying during my free time when I want to be writing this :(. There is one plus side to this, and that is that I have 9/10 parts of Nexus HWR Chapter 9 already written completely, as well as 8.9, which means that once I finish up the next three chapters I will be posting another 10 straight! So, hope this doesn't bum anyone out too much, there'll just be super suspense as to how the Dread Fort is going to end in the next part of this chapter!**

Darugus chapter 42 . 21h ago

The other nobodies there are nami robin rin and wiess  
Also nice chapter

 **Nice call on those Nobodies, though they aren't actually in the Dread Fort, only mentioned by Jixsan when he said their Somebodies were there. Thanks for the review!**

7lights13darknes chapter 42 . 22h ago

That was awesome! I was not expecting zexion to go so quickly but I'm not complaining. The battle was really good considering how short it was. I have a couple things to say:  
1) i did notices the mention of rins nobody. ( good job on the whole switching the names by the way)  
2) how many members are in the organization now because larxcene said #xxiii (23 right?) so it has expanded and this time above 14 ... Get it? ( xion reference)  
3) the suspense is killing me i want to see sora and roxas take those guys down! ( I'm getting tired of typing there names)  
4) i like how you did soras reaction to seeing larxcene. My cousin once pointed out on how out of all villians she made legit made in the actual game. Sure the rest of them angered him but he actually wanted to kill her ( along with Marluxia) so i think it was well done.  
5) speaking of character development and all i think i know who you are doing the best so far( drum roll ) ... King mickey because know has seen him or know where he is! Get it ( this was meant as nothing but a fun joke and nothing more  
All jokes aside you are doing awesome and keep up the good work. Oh yeah i was wandering if sora could do more summons like mushu, tinkerbell, or chicken little . ( i keep doing kh stuff because like i said big fan it is actually half the reason i started reading nexsus. The other is because it seemed really good anyways and the first chapter got me hooked on it) thanks for such a great fanfic and hope you liked the jokes. Don't worry i wont do them often ( those were the only too i had for know anyways)

 **Thanks for the awesome review! Mushu, Tink, and Chicken Little could all be summoned, just like Simba, Genie, Stitch, and Arceus, (who knows when they ever will though?) :P. Xirn, Manix, Bronxi, Swixes, Jixsan, and Dalgrefxi. We've seen/heard of six new Nobodies so far from the characters trapped by Ansem. Also turns out the Organization was making Nobodies as well with Quill's Nobody: Malx Lewx (which was the best I could come up with with Maxwell as a starting name). Zexion kicks the bucket but Larxene doesn't?! XD Sometimes stuff happens, but yeah we'll see what happens about Marluxia and Mickey and Xion and everyone... Anyway! Thanks again everyone for reading this story and to those of you who reviewed! 'Till next time!**


	44. Nexus HWR 8-6 The Dread Fort Part 4

**A/N Hey guys! A few days break comes to an end as I finally finished up this chapter! I know a bunch of you still haven't read the last few chapters because of Fanfic's email problem right now, but a few of you noticed the lack of updates and figured it out. I doubt this update is going to send anyone an email either, so whenever the problem's fixed it'll be fixed, and maybe once it is that means you'll get to binge a bunch of chapters in a row XD! Anyway, here's one of the longest chapters so far in all of Nexus. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: Still don't own any of the characters from the medias I received them from. Short list off the top of my head, I don't own: Greek Mythology, Princess Mononosuke, Black Lagoon, X-Men, Kingdom Hearts, Yu Yu Hakusho, Soul Eater, Hunter x Hunter, Blue Exorcist, Fairly Oddparents, RWBY, Seven Deadly Sins, One Piece, Fairy Tail, DBZ, SAO, Ben 10, the Incredibles, Fairly Oddparents, Avatar the Last Airbender, and many many more! I don't own any of it!**

 **Nexus HWR 8.6 The Dread Fort Part 4:**

"Whee hwoo," Demyx had a hand held out against his forehead and he looked into the distance where he saw a bright red light flash near the Dread Fort. The ground shook under his feet and he chuckled nervously with a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his face. "I would love to come back and help you out boss," he began, but slowly turned his head and looked behind him off the top of the building he was standing on and into the street. He stood on a flat roof twenty feet above the ground, and he frowned as he watched the two pirates in the street below taking out dozens of Dusks that were coming for them from around the city.

"You doing okay back there sis?!" Franky yelled. He did not turn as he was under constant attack from strange monsters he did not recognize. He rose up his left arm and shouted, "Weapons Left!" He dragged his arm across the front of his body and railed machine-gun fire into the enemies that swerved around on skinny legs and dodged many of his attacks. Even those that were hit by bullets were not destroyed easily, and Franky frowned before popping his left hand back altogether. The hole in the center of his hollow arm glowed blue and he yelled, "Franky Super Blaster!"

A blue ball of light shot out right in between three Dusks that had just dove towards the cyborg. The explosion hit behind them but it surely was "Super" as the edge of the blast caught the escaping silver enemies in it. Franky smirked, then his lips curled back down and he let out a groan as five more Nobodies emerged on the street in front of him. "Oi, you don't think these things are attacking us for any reason do you? Maybe because a certain someone pissed off the people in charge of this city."

"It is not fair to assume," Robin said, though her lips did curl up into a knowing smile. "I believe Luffy may not be fully to blame however, as Sora was intent on facing this Saix person as well."

"Sora's in the city?!" A voice shouted from the side of the road that made both pirates spin in surprise. The Nobodies around them vanished into the floor while the man in a cloak on top of the store jumped down. He landed in front of the pirates who looked at him hesitantly, not knowing what to think of the young-looking man holding up what looked like a musical instrument. Demyx's sitar did not just look like an instrument however, it also appeared to be a weapon of some kind if he intended to use it as such. "Hey there, the name's Demyx."

His black cloak gave himself away, but Robin questioned anyway, "Are you a Nobody?"

"Got me," the guy admitted and put a hand up facing the sky like he got caught. He chuckled, though a bead of sweat rolled down the left side of his face. _Sora's here? No way am I going back there._ He calmed himself down and gained a smug look as he gazed at the black haired woman in front of him. His eyes narrowed and the sweat on his face was gone, "You sure look a lot like Bronxi."

"Bronxi," Robin repeated calmly. "That was one of the anagrams I deciphered for my own name with an 'X' in it. If my Nobody is your purpose for being here, then I assume you are preparing to attack." She crossed her arms, but as she did, Demyx swung his sitar up in front of him and slammed his hand down on the strings. A loud blast of music came out of the instrument and out from the ground on all sides of Demyx appeared over a dozen Dancer Nobodies. The thin figures looked almost human, light-skinned figures with long legs and arms, and pink coverings over the top parts of their heads that did not cover their menacing smirks.

"Sorry lady," Demyx called out from behind his Nobodies. He strummed his sitar hard and a funnel of water ten feet in diameter formed around him and shot up over fifty feet into the air. The Dancer Nobodies sprinted forward and around the funnel of water appeared clones made of water who appeared similar to Demyx in appearance. "But I've got my orders, and I'm sure Bronxi's looking forward to getting her Somebody!"

"Franky Radical Beam!" Franky fired at the base of the funnel the enemy's voice was coming from, and Demyx screamed as the explosion blasted through his fast-moving water wall.

"Cien Fleur! Clutch!" Dancer Nobodies were cracked by Robin's arms, but her eyes opened wide as the figures did not have spines for her to crack. Instead, they just swiped at her individual arms and got back up, looking like very little damage was done to them by her last attack. "Franky," she called out as the cyborg used his Franky Boxing on water clones attacking him. She looked ahead at Demyx who was getting back to his feet behind all the other enemies, "Take on the small ones. I will go after Demyx." She crossed her arms and wings sprouted out of her back, happening so fast that this time Franky did not even see arms appear first to merge into wings. She was becoming much better at creating them, and just yelled out, "Dos Cien Fleur: Angel Wings!"

Robin's wings snapped down and shot her off the ground and over the Dancer Nobodies that just pounced at her. As soon as she was off the ground, Franky opened back up his arm and yelled, "Franky Super Blaster!" He fired another blue ball of light into the crowd of Nobodies Demyx controlled. The blue explosion behind Robin gave her a blue glow as she shot towards Demyx. He looked a lot more serious suddenly unlike his playful attitude from when he landed, and he slashed his sitar in front of him and made a jet of water fly up at Robin. She did a barrel-roll in midair to her right while crossing her arms in front of her body. "Diez Fleur!"

Ten arms sprouted out of Demyx's own arms and grabbed the weapon, tugging it and trying to remove it from the Nobody's grip. "Little help," he called out, and two water clones on his sides ran over and slashed at the arms that were preventing him from defending himself against the woman now dive-bombing him. Robin's arms vanished, but the woman created more all over Demyx's body when he thought he had regained control over his weapon. He struggled against her arms and lost focus on the woman for a second which the woman noticed and smirked. Robin swooped down and brought up her right knee, and at the speed she was flying at it slammed into Demyx's face hard enough to crack the man's nose and lift him off the ground.

The guy with dirty blond hair rolled back on the ground then after a second snapped his head up. "Get her!" Demyx yelled, his voice angry but high-pitched and nasally while blood came out both his nostrils. Three dozen water clones appeared around Demyx, but the woman who kneed him was standing on the ground where he just was and glaring his way with her arms crossed.

"You can tell Bronxi," Robin began, while a huge shadow cast over Demyx and his summoned creatures. The man turned around and the Nobodies and water clones all turned their heads as well then slowly rose their gazes up. Two giant white legs were behind them with thighs sticking right out of the ground, and the legs were over a hundred feet tall. They bent at the knees and Robin did not yell out her move, instead stating calmly, "That if she wants my heart, she will have to come take it herself. I wish to have a talk with her."

The giant legs started stomping all over the ground and Franky whistled in amusement behind her. Dust rose up on the street and people who were nearby and came to watch ran the other direction at the sight of something so crazy. Robin grinned at the dust cloud under her stomping feet and she dropped her arms, finally making the giant legs vanish into flower petals. She let out a breath as she used a lot of energy with all those rapid-fire attacks, but as she let out that deep breath her eyes opened wide at the feeling of something coming fast with her Observational Haki.

Out from the dust rushed Demyx, sitar held over his right shoulder and a pissed-off look on the man's bruised face. He yelled out and slammed his sitar down at the woman who did not leap back in time, but right before he hit her, a tiny black ball appeared in front of his vision and slammed into his face. **Boom!** The tiny ball exploded and all of Demyx's momentum forward jolted to a stop, making his legs swing out in front of his body and hit Robin anyway. He fell back to the ground and reached both hands to his face, rolling around in pain as his hair was all singed and he was covered in burns now. "Oh man! Ahh! Ouch that hurts!" He pulled his hands down and jumped up to his feet, then stared forward nervously as Robin got back up with a dark look on her face and Franky pointed his weaponized hands towards him as well, angry that he just knocked Robin to the floor.

Demyx did not know what to do as he was feeling exhausted, and could feel something inside of him that made him want to run as far away as he could. "I haven't felt like this," he began, taking a step back as he did. He held up his hands defensively so they would not attack him as he backed up. "Since Sora killed me," he continued, and he liked the shocked reactions on their faces. He only mentioned it because they mentioned Sora and he figured bringing it up would stop them from attacking him, at least for a second.

"Sora killed you?" a voice asked from behind the two oldest pirates on the Straw Hats' crew. The voice came from the youngest member, the muscular man in a pair of overalls stepping forward behind them with the Black Kabuto slingshot in hand that he used to stop Demyx from getting a direct hit on Robin a minute ago with his sitar. "I don't believe it, Sora's so… what?" Usopp asked, getting between Robin and Franky and gaining a confused expression as Demyx stopped backing up and was just staring at him in shock.

"What the- I don't get it," Demyx scratched the back of his head in confusion. "If you're here, then why did Saix have me going after Bronxi's… Actually, it makes sense," he grimaced while looking at the sniper, and finished darkly, "who would want _him_ getting any stronger?"

Usopp's face was full of confusion but Robin darted her eyes to the side and looked at the younger man. _He looks just as young as he was when we got here. If my Nobody Bronxi was only created after my defeat in Port Royal, then perhaps his has been around for…_ "Explain," Robin demanded and stepped towards the mysterious man. "What did you mean by that?"

Usopp turned to Robin confusedly wondering why she seemed so serious all of a sudden. Demyx chuckled though and a black portal opened out of the ground under him. "Wouldn't you like to know?" He remarked snidely. Robin glared at him and he took another step back with sweat forming all over his face. _No way I'm taking all three of them on in this state. I'll just tell Saix I wanted to check how he was doing after that explosion._ Demyx grinned while an oval of darkness surrounded him. He faded away inside it and the pirates watched as the portal closed, and he was gone.

* * *

Inside the Dread Fort, inside one of the lower levels, an explosion had just billowed down a hallway and blasted full force into an open room. People were still screaming from burns and others who were farther in the room when the explosion destroyed the entrance to the hall it came down were mostly knocked to the floor. Sanji was down on his butt, his crossed arms in front of his face, covered in burns. He was breathing deeply but his thoughts were jumbled as he sat there with his eyes clenched shut. He just kept thinking of those people sprinting towards him down the hall, their bodies melting as soon as the powerful flames hit them, how fast that explosion moved, and then that flash of black as he got thrown back by the blast.

 _What the Hell?_ He thought, his breathing ragged and his ears ringing. The screams of people around him were muffled and the ground below him kept shaking for some reason even though the explosion had faded. Sanji's eyes opened and everything around him was blurry. He was in pain, and his ears stopped ringing so much so he could start hearing humming of people's voices. Sanji stared in front of him at the hallway that was still full of flames, even though the ceiling of it was ripped completely off and the walls were crumbling or gone altogether. The fact that entire sections of the Dread Fort were blown apart by that explosion just made Sanji's flesh wounds all the more confusing, as to him it seemed like he should have been incinerated.

"Oi, you alright? Hey," a hand shook Sanji by the shoulder and he turned right with wide, confused eyes to see Ban down on a knee next to him. The man with spiky white hair had pulled Sanji back fast and got some pretty bad burns on his face, but Sanji just watched in confusion as the burns healed and Ban's skin regenerated. The chef saw Ban nod at him like the man with red eyes was checking to see if he was okay, then Ban turned with a grimace as he looked back towards the hall. Sanji turned to the hall too, and his blurry vision focused on something right in the entrance that was much wider than a minute ago. As he saw it, his ears stopped ringing as much, his breath caught in his throat, his vision was no longer blurry, and his eyes shot open wide.

The black that filled Sanji's vision the second the explosion hit was not a trick of his mind like he thought it might be. Standing there was a short figure with blond hair, a white shirt and torn black vest waving around in tatters off his body. A lot of his torso was exposed, letting Sanji see that the entire right side of him was a deep dark purple that was nearly black. The dark coating covered up his skin from his right leg up under his shorts, then came back out above his waist and stretched up to his neck where it broke off a little to reveal more light skin. It looked like a spiderweb of blackish purple aura stretching over his shoulder and then over the other one. The speckled darkness got thicker down the short man's biceps, turning solid near his elbows and stretching all the way to his hands.

Once Sanji saw his hands, the chef gulped at the sight of huge black hands with wisps of darkness coming off of them. Each hand was almost as big as the man himself, and he had them held out to his sides, shaking for a reason other than the entire Dread Fort shaking. Sanji looked down at the flames burning the ground past the man's feet, but not inside their room behind him, _He stopped the explosion, with his body?!_ Sanji put his hands down on his sides and winced. He looked down and grimaced deeply at the sight of burn marks on the palms of his hands, _Shit. I need Sora or Riku to heal me before these become permanent. A chef needs his hands._

Sanji got up to his feet and Ban was semi-impressed as he thought he had not gotten Sanji away from the entrance to the hall in time to prevent serious injuries. The pirate was durable though and despite the powerful explosion, and the fight he got into with his Nobody already, he was still standing strong. Sanji stared straight ahead with a dark look on his face. The thing in front of him just saved his life, it saved everyone in the room by the looks of it, and yet… "That you, Meliodas?" Sanji questioned.

The short man in front of him slowly turned his head and the entirety of the room behind him stared at the blackish purple markings on his face and his cold, dark eyes. He did not answer Sanji, but then again, Sanji did not know if he could. Ban's eyes were huge as the shorter man turned around, but not for the same reason as everyone else in the room. "Oi, Captain, are you-" Ban stopped as the small man with bad burns all over the front of his torso lost his black aura. Meliodas's skin under the aura that faded was perfectly fine, but it had not covered the majority of his torso and face, so his entire left side and most of his face were covered in second and third degree burns.

Sanji's nervous expression at the feeling of the man in front of him snapped off his face as Meliodas smirked wide for a second, then fell forward without saying a word. Ban ran forward and caught the Captain of the Seven Deadly Sins as he was halfway fallen. "What the-" Ban lifted the shorter man and he stared in shock and confusion at how bad he appeared to be damaged. Ban lifted up his gaze back to the flaming remains of the hall out the huge entrance and he muttered, "What the Hell was that explosion?"

"Hey! We need to get going!" Weiss shouted towards the other side of the room and the three men over there. She looked behind her at all the slaves she freed, then continued, "We'll get all of you out of here, and get you out of the city. Make sure you make it south."

"You can't do that," a man near the stage began in a deep voice. Weiss turned and looked down at the man, then frowned as the figure was one of those sitting at the table with Meliodas and Ban outside, showing he was over rank orange at least. He looked behind her and said, "I bought three of them. You can't take them with you." The slaves all tensed up and three of them in particular let out yelps or whimpers of fear.

"You can't buy people," a man said from right behind the dark-skinned figure who was glaring into Weiss's eyes again. Her eyes widened and the man who had bought slaves at the auction narrowed his own and turned around. He glared behind him and people around the room stared at the two men standing ten feet apart, both with harsh gazes on their expressions. The fort was constantly shaking and it sounded like more explosions were going off nearby, but the blond-haired pirate could not run off to find the others he wanted to search for until this was done. Sanji lifted a lighter and ignited the cigarette in his mouth, then narrowed his gaze at one of the men he had sat with out in the courtyard while Mephisto questioned him about the Battle of Metropolis. The thought that everyone at that table was stronger than him no longer mattered to the chef who just glared into the dark figure's icy blue eyes.

"I _can't_?" The man questioned. He took a step towards Sanji, "Is that a threat?" The next step he took made the entire room shake but Sanji managed to keep on his strong facial expression.

"Make of it what you will," Sanji said. He took another puff of his cigarette then dropped the butt on the floor and stomped down on it hard, so hard in fact that the floor beneath his foot cracked out in four different directions. Sanji's right foot turned black and he lifted it off the ground that cracked so bad beneath him that the floor actually began feeling not so sturdy. His foot burst into flames and the room filled with an orange glow as Sanji lifted up his leg and growled, "Diable Jambe."

The darker figure narrowed his eyes at Sanji and his fists balled up, then he froze as he spotted the figure behind Sanji. Ban had the shorter man who saved them all wrapped in an arm over one shoulder, but his other hand he balled into a fist while standing next to a wall near the entrance. With little effort at all, Ban tapped that fist into the wall and the entire thing started coming down, and at the same time flames from the hallway on the other side of the entrance started filling up that side of the room. The flames put a shadow over Ban's face while his red eyes seemed to glow, and the darker-skinned figure who saw those eyes glaring straight at him knew that Sanji was not his only opponent should he choose to fight now.

He spat to his side then glared back towards Sanji. "You watch yourself, and pray we don't meet again." The man bent his knees, then leapt straight up and smashed a hole through the ceiling with a punch. He left and Sanji let out a deep breath as his Observational Haki was telling him the person he just made an enemy of was barely human at all.

"Alright, can we go now?" Weiss asked in an annoyed tone, though for the first time as she looked at Sanji it was not with as superior an expression as when she first noticed how perverted he was, three seconds after they met. The slaves behind her were all in agreement and Ban gave her a small nod before looking back at his shoulder and wondering what was so strong that even Meliodas could be knocked out.

While Ban looked at the man on his shoulder, he noticed a figure walking towards him and then right by his side. "Oi, what are you doing?" Ban questioned.

The blond-haired man stopped at the edge of the flames, and Weiss called his way, "Where are you going? Aren't you going to help us get these people out of here?" She thought the pirate stopping that man from taking his slaves showed what Sanji intended on doing, but the chef was going the wrong way now, towards a section of the Dread Fort full of flames where they could see pieces of upper floors falling down into their basement.

Sanji chuckled under his breath, "Good luck with that," he said. He turned to Ban and looked at the shorter man on his shoulder, "Tell Meliodas thanks for me, because I've got my own stupid Captain to help." The blond chef who already looked pretty injured turned back to look into the flames with a serious look on his face. He took a deep breath, then without saying another word he leapt straight into the burning hallway and kicked the hot air below him to stay above where the tops of the flames were licking his shoes. What the pirate just did and what he was about to do left his mind however, for as he flew towards another battle all he could think about, was, _Jixsan._

* * *

"Vexen, if you would," Saix ordered.

The scientist with long blond hair frowned but nodded as he turned back towards a different Nobody in the deepest basement of the Dread Fort. He pulled a device out of his pocket and tossed it to the man with huge spiky red hair, who snagged the device out of the air and smirked at Vexen. "Thanks," he said, though his voice was smug and mocking. Axel put the device close to the torture bracelet he had on and pressed a button on it, one which unlocked the bracelet and made it fall right off. It would have made a loud metallic clank on the ground if Axel did not swing his fiery Keyblade forward and slash straight through the device. He smirked at the skin beneath the bracelet as it was not even chafed thanks to his entire body healing during the integration process.

"Hey Sora, why does he have a Keyblade too?" Luffy wondered over at his spiky-haired friend who shook his head slowly in response.

"I, don't know," Sora responded. "Axel, since when could you-"

"Axel, Roxas, Vexen, Malx Lewx," Saix interrupted Sora. As he did, he glared at Luffy who noticed the man's gaze and snapped his own attention back to him. Saix continued to the four of his subordinates inside the room who were all waiting for his orders, "Capture Sora. We will have to return to Twilight Town with him." Saix rose up his claymore and narrowed his gaze at Luffy, "I will take care of the other." As Saix said it, ten Nobodies formed around him. They had thick arms and legs and were holding long, silver, hammer-like weapons over their shoulders. Each one was eight feet tall and had pitch black faces along with silver cross markings on their thighs, shoulders, and on the sides of their heads.

The Berserker Nobodies gathered on either side of Saix and looked ready to attack on command. The four Nobodies with faces in the room all turned to Sora who snapped his gaze around to look at each one of them. "My name," Luffy growled. His enemies all spun to him and Luffy's black irises became larger only for smaller white circles to appear on the insides of them. "Is Monkey D. Luffy," he continued, and out from his body exuded a translucent aura that slammed into every person around him all the way to the walls and through the opening on the roof that was completely blown apart and gave them a clear view three floors up in the Dread Fort. All of the Berserkers exploded in puffs of white light, and Malx Lewx stumbled to his left before his legs came out from beneath him and he fell with his eyes rolled into the back of his head. "And I'm the man who will become the Pirate King!"

He yelled this at a shocked Saix then punched his right hand out and made forearm pump and all of his skin turn red. Luffy covered in steam as he yelled, "Gear Second!" Then, he shot forward and appeared in front of Saix with a fist punched up, "Jet Pistol!" Saix went flying through the hole in the ceiling, then spun around in midair and tried swinging his claymore down at the pirate, but Luffy was no longer beneath him, instead appearing directly in front of him three stories higher than the basement. "Jet Spear!" Luffy kicked his legs with the soles of his feet pressed together out and nailed Saix in the center of his gut, sending him flying so hard towards the entrance of the Dread Fort that he flew right over a few demons who looked up and went wide-eyed at the sight of the Lord of the Dread Fort smashing through the top of the entranceway. They were even more shocked as the man crashing outside the fort surrounded in chunks of debris was suddenly joined by another man, floating above Saix with his arms thrown up high in the sky, his hands coated in Haki, his entire body steaming as he yelled, "EAGLE BAZOOKA!"

Luffy's blackened hands slammed down straight into Saix's chest, and the Nobody's eyes opened wide and he gasped out in pain. Saix shot out of the air so fast he was invisible to most, even the rank orange guests of the Dread Fort's feast who were watching from near the entrance where the demons who were facing off all were. Saix hit the ground of the courtyard and instantly made a hole in the middle of it, then the four chunks the courtyard split into all lifted up towards the middle while the outsides of them closer to the walls dipped down. The steps leading up to the fort itself covered in cracks and crumbled as a huge section of earth lifted up right beneath them and then dropped back down with twice as much force and shook the Dread Fort even worse, making cracked walls around the entrance Saix was smashed through start collapsing.

Inside the Dread Fort, down in the deepest basement, Vexen kicked the unmoving man with black hair on his right side. "Idiot," he growled at Malx, then snapped his attention back to Sora in front of him. "That pirate may have saved you the trouble of fighting four ranked members, but you will be captured nonetheless." Sora frowned back at Vexen before darting his eyes left at Roxas then right at Axel.

Axel had a smirk on his face like the one he had since coming out of the Integration Chamber. "You sure about that Vexen?" The scientist glared at Axel, but the spikier-haired man continued, "Shouldn't one of us go make sure Saix is doing okay. He might not be able to-"

"Quiet!" Vexen yelled at Axel. The smirking man held up his hands defensively towards Vexen who was shaking in rage. "You have no idea how strong Saix became when he merged with Isa. A rank orange like that man above is no match for him." Sora was feeling pretty confident about Luffy's chances, but the idea that Saix was any stronger than the last time the two fought was a scary thought to him. He risked a dart of his eyes up towards the hole in the ceiling, _Luffy, don't bring the fight outside. It's too clear of a night._

"You should pay attention Sora," a voice said in front of him. He snapped his gaze down fast while bringing up his Keyblade and barely got it up in time to block Axel's slash. He jumped backwards but grimaced as there was now a wall to his back, and all three of the black-cloaked figures in front of him stepped farther forward. Roxas had an angry look on his face as he was backed up into as much of a metaphorical corner as Sora was in a literal one. He darted his gaze towards Vexen then to the other side of the scientist at Axel who was smirking menacingly. _Axel, what are you doing?!_

Vexen stood directly in front of Sora who took another step back and found the back of his feet pressed against the wall. _My Drive Gauge is still low. Roxas is almost as strong as I am, and he can't hold back in front of the others or Naminé will pay the price. Axel has a Keyblade, and Vexen… well Vexen's not that strong, but the others have to listen to whatever he says!_ Vexen lifted off the floor in front of Sora, levitating there while the temperature of the room around them dropped ten degrees. Vexen rose his right arm and a blue shield materialized that covered in ice, and the dark blue spikes sticking out of the shield's edges glowed light blue too with shards of ice sparkling off them.

Axel's Keyblade covered in flames, and Roxas rose his left hand and another Keyblade formed in it. "I'm sorry Sora," he said, regret filling his voice and showing Sora that his Nobody would not be going easy on him.

Axel turned in towards Roxas and he smirked towards the teenage Nobody. His eyes shifted off Roxas to Vexen, and Axel opened his mouth as Vexen pointed his left hand forward to yell to attack. "Hey, can I get a piece of this action?" All three of the Nobodies froze, and Sora's eyes grew huge as well. Axel's smirk wiped off his face and he frowned, while Vexen looked back in semi-surprise, and Roxas just grimaced even deeper than before. Sora looked behind the three of them at a black portal that opened up on the unconscious Malx Lewx's side. A figure with dirty-blond hair stepped out of the portal in a black cloak that looked singed, and he had some bruises on his face too. He ignored the looks his fellow Nobodies were giving him though and looked right past them all at Sora who got a bead of sweat on his face at the sight of another face he recognized. "What? You aren't happy to see me again?" Demyx asked in a mock hurt tone. "It's time I got some payback for what you did to me."

"Demyx," Sora mumbled in a quiet voice. "Vexen," he turned to the other Nobody, then shifted his gaze more, "Axel." He remembered all three of them and it made him sad thinking about how they all died. "I'm sorry," he whispered. He looked away from Axel and back to the two men who were now right next to each other between Axel and Roxas. Demyx's eyes grew huge while Vexen just frowned deeper at Sora. "I, never wanted to destroy you all. But, what you were doing to the worlds." His face gained a more serious look and he rose up his left hand, like Roxas creating a second Keyblade in it without going into Drive Form. "I couldn't let it continue! You were covering the worlds in darkness and I had to stop you! I never wanted to hurt anyone, but I had to, to stop you from damaging the worlds. And if you plan on doing the same things to this world," Sora's blue eyes got more narrow and Demyx's face covered in sweat as the teen finished, "I'll destroy all of you again."

Vexen was shaking the entire time Sora spoke and he snapped as soon as the kid finished, "There are four of us and only one of you! You are all talk!"

"'Only one of him' my ass," a voice said behind the Nobodies. They all spun around and standing farther back in the room than them was a blond-haired pirate in a burnt suit jacket with pretty bad burns on his arms and some on his face too. He did not look that great, but he stood sturdy on both legs and stared at the figures ganging up on Sora. _"Covering the worlds in darkness?" "I'll destroy all of you again." Sora, what the Hell are you?_ The chef tried to get his mind off the insane end of the conversation he accidentally just listened to and really wished he hadn't. Instead, he glared at the scientist who was just taunting Sora and said in a pissed-off tone, "Sora's not here on his own. You Nobodies would be smart to remember that."

"Who the Hell is this now?" Axel muttered with a bead of sweat coming down the side of his face.

"Jixsan's Somebody," Demyx said in surprise.

"Where is Jixsan?" Vexen growled. "He was supposed to take care of you. Where is he?"

Sanji remembered his Nobody holding Larxene as he stepped into a portal to flee the Dread Fort. Out loud though, the chef just growled back, "Hell if I know where that shitty-bastard is. Probably trying to re-capture all those slaves I just let free." His words had the exact desired response as Vexen snapped his gaze behind him and yelled out in anger, too much going wrong for him to hold it in anymore. He spun back and Sanji's eyes widened at the sight of Vexen's light blue glow and the large mounds of ice appearing between the two of them.

"Take care of Sora!" Vexen yelled. He shot through the air at the surprised blond chef who thought there would be a more organized plan to these Nobodies' formation. Mounds of ice ripped out of the floor between the two of them and then right before Vexen reached him with his shield, ice came out of the ground right beneath him and he did not have time to let out a yelp of shock before he was completely frozen solid. Vexen slammed his shield forward and all the ice around Sanji shattered while the chef himself was thrown back coughing as he could not breath there for a second.

"Sanji!" Sora yelled out. "Curaga!" He swung his Keyblades above his head and green light surrounded the chef bouncing away. Sanji's eyes snapped open wide and he rose his hands above him as he bounced, seeing the burns from the explosion before fading off of them as Sora's powerful healing magic hit him. _Thanks Sora,_ he thought, before flipping up in the air to dodge as Vexen tried slamming the shield down on him, then kicking forward with his left leg and nailing the scientist in the chest.

Sora wanted to run after Sanji to keep helping him out, but the ground behind his three opponents covered in water clones of Demyx who smirked at the teen who was still outnumbered. "I'm getting my revenge here Sora," he said, not sounding like his usual self at all as he glared straight into Sora's blue eyes.

"Sounding pretty tough there Demyx," Axel remarked with a chuckle. "Does that mean you've got your Somebody back too?"

Demyx frowned deeply and Axel laughed louder, "No? And you think you can take on Sora? How about you let the big boys handle this?" He stepped in front of Demyx who snarled at Axel's back and sent his water clones forward anyway to attack the teen.

Sora slashed his Keyblades in front of him so fast that every water clone that approached was shredded into water droplets within seconds. As the water from the exploded clones was still rising up, Sora sprinted through the veil of water and leapt with his Keyblades risen. Roxas tssked, then leapt up and crossed his Keyblades as Sora swiped down hard with both of his. The two of them pressed into each other, then Axel rose up behind Sora and Roxas's eyes went wide as he made eye contact with his best friend. He wanted to shout at Axel to stop, but a blonde girl's face appeared in his mind and he held his tongue, only to wince as Axel nailed Sora in the back of the head with an elbow and sent him tumbling through the air over Roxas's head.

Demyx watched all this with wide eyes, _They're in a different league!_ He gulped but strummed his sitar anyway and created a dozen Dancer Nobodies around the room. As soon as he did, he started panting heavily as he was running out of strength. He felt that feeling in his gut again, but he ground his teeth and ignored it for now. _There's no reason to be worried! We still outnumber them, and we've got home field advantage! Jixsan and Larxene are probably getting those slaves back right now, and maybe they'll go get Nico Robin for me too._ "Heh heh," he chuckled and turned to watch as Sora got up with a bloody cut across his left cheek and turned to look Roxas and Axel in their eyes. He heard an explosion above him and glanced up, _Actually, where the Hell is Saix?_

Outside of the Dread Fort, Luffy had landed at the bottom of the courtyard where the steps used to be and stared forward at a hole in the ground that he sent the Lord of the Dread Fort smashing into a minute ago. Something was seriously wrong though. He thought he hit the man hard enough to knock him out, or at least weaken him, however the presence he felt with his Haki was getting stronger every second. A bright glow emanated from inside the hole, then the man with aqua blue hair came floating out of it. He had his hands risen above his head pointed at the sky, and Luffy could see a bright white glow covering those hands that were getting brighter every second.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" Luffy shouted over at the guy who was confusing him with his current actions. Saix lowered his head that was snapped back and he looked towards Luffy with glowing white eyes that somewhat unnerved the pirate. "In the light of the moon, I become stronger. And you picked such a bad night to face me, a clear night with no clouds, while both moons…" Luffy lifted his head and heard Saix finish in front of him, "are full." Luffy stared at the two large white circles in the sky then lowered his gaze back to Saix who covered in an even brighter white light now, making an aura around his entire body. He dropped his arms back down and out from the hole below him floated up his claymore, Lunatic. The weapon looked different, as soon as Saix gripped it by the shaft, a white aura surrounded the weapon and made translucent spikes stick out of it on all sides.

Saix rose up higher towards the moon and he shook violently as the white aura around him flared. He snapped his head back and roared, "RaaAAAA!" As he yelled out, his teeth sharpened, his eyes glowed brighter, and his long hair waved violently behind him inside his aura. Luffy frowned deeply as he had seen stuff like this before. He had seen his good friend Gohan do something like this on a few occasions, and every time he witnessed it, immediately after he bore witness to incredible feats of strength like nothing he had ever seen.

The pirate smirked though as Saix snapped his head back down and bared his fangs at him. _These Lord guys really are strong._ He lifted up his right hand and balled it into a fist in front of him, his right bicep flexing and veins appearing on his skin. His right fist turned black and the Haki stretched down to past his elbow up onto his bicep, and Luffy narrowed his eyes as he glared into Saix's glowing ones. "Bring it on!" He yelled, then leapt off the ground towards the man in the sky.

* * *

"Was that Luffy?" Rin mumbled as he looked behind him towards the entrance of the Dread Fort. He thought about going out there and seeing what was going on, but he had something else to do first and snapped his gaze back to his front. He rose up Kurikara in one hand and pointed the tip of his sheathed blade at the two demons in front of him who were looking over his head in surprise too as they saw who just flew over head as well. "Mephisto!" Rin yelled. The two demons looked back down and Rin shouted, "Tell me where Yukio is! Where did you take him?"

"Rin," Mephisto began, sounding like he was about to go on a long lecture.

Rin swiped his sword across the front of his body and yelled, "I'm not playing games! Tell me where he is NOW!" He brought his sword back and gripped the hilt tightly, grabbing the sheath with his other hands and narrowing his eyes to show he was about to take the demonic weapon out.

"I would not do that if I were you," Amaimon warned. The shorter demon with green hair darted his eyes to the left where a decently large crowd was watching. Those who did not run to the entrance to watch what was happening with Saix were staring at them and waiting to see how this turned out. "A lot of people here probably have a problem with father," Amaimon looked back into Rin's eyes, "so I would be careful with drawing your sword on a whim."

Rin opened his mouth to shout at the Demon King of Earth, but the taller demon continued before he could, "Rin," Mephisto sounded more serious now and Rin looked into Mephisto's eyes to see them dark, and they looked almost like they were, pitying him? Mephisto stared straight into Rin's eyes and said darkly, "You have no chance of saving your brother. Give up." Rin's eyes popped open huge and his entire body started shaking as he filled with anger.

"There it is," Amaimon said, a smirk coming to his face. He bared his teeth showing off his fangs and he called out in a high-pitched voice, "There's the demon I wanted to see! Have you accepted who you are, brother?!"

"I may be part demon," Rin began in a deep growl. He knew there were eyes on him but he did not care what they thought anymore. One muscular man with long curly black hair was going wide eyes and Theseus's eyes widened even more as the teenager yelled out, "but I'm also half-human!" He ripped the hilt of his sword one direction and discarded the sheath in the other. His body flashed blue and covered in flames with two solid flames on the front of his hair sticking up like horns. His entire sword was covered in blue flames like his body and those watching him dropped their jaws and many of them started sprinting away without pausing even a second.

Rin's body was covered in satanic flames but the boy inside them did not look all that more demonic. Theseus leaned back and the woman next to him tugged his arm with sweat all over her face, but he did not budge. He stared inside those flames at the teen whose teeth were sharper and ears were pointier, but kept the same human-like appearance, and sounded just like a human as he shouted, "Now tell me Mephisto! Why did you tell me to come to Aebrith if I wanted to find Yukio, if you weren't going to tell me where he is?! Where did you take my brother?!"

Mephisto continued to frown for a few seconds, but in the corner of his eyes he could see Amaimon itching to charge forward. "I know you want to take another shot at him," Mephisto began and started turning around. He looked back into the Dread Fort and smirked at a giant hole in the floor behind him that Saix came flying through a few minutes ago, "I will meet up with you later. Have fun with our little brother."

"Hehehe!" Amaimon cackled and started marching forward. "Thanks!" He started sprinting and Rin yelled out furiously before charging forward as well. The short demon with green hair slashed his claws forward and Rin swiped his sword. The two of them dodged side to side and clashed claws and blade over and over, making blue flames fly around them from their collisions. "I've been training Rin! Watch!" Amaimon leapt backwards and as he did a backflip, his body covered in a white aura. "Tetsuo and Trunks were good sparring partners," he remarked with a huge smirk, then shot forward at twice the speed and Rin had to dive to the left as he was not expecting the claws that suddenly came down for him.

Rin rolled away then as he jumped back to his feet he was immediately rushed by Amaimon. He slashed back and forth, but Amaimon leaned backwards and the sword went right over his head. As the slash went over, flames flew off Rin's sword and slammed into a distant wall, shattering that wall on contact and making the ceiling on that part of the fort start to fall. The flames missed Amaimon though, allowing the demon to stand fully up within two feet of Rin, looking into Rin's bright blue eyes that were full of shock at how much faster Amaimon was than the last time they fought. Amaimon slashed both arms down and Rin leapt back too slow to avoid being cut from his shoulders down his entire chest before he gained enough distance.

Blood splashed out of him as he skid back on the soles of his feet. His entire body covered in brighter blue flames, blue flames that filled up those open wounds on his chest that was before only shrouded in a blue aura. The flames covered more and more of him more solidly and Rin could feel himself slipping. "Call yourself a human?!" Amaimon cackled over at his brother whose expression was starting to scare him as last time he saw it Rin almost burnt him to a crisp. A bead of sweat formed on the left side of Amaimon's face but he yelled out anyway, "Because to me, you just look like a demon!" He charged forward as Rin's eyes were losing their defined irises, as his teeth sharpened even more and the blue flaming horns on his head ignited brighter and twisted around.

Amaimon was right in front of Rin and the teen brought his sword up above his head with both hands on the hilt. **BANG!** On Amaimon's left, and Rin's right, a yellow beam came into their visions. It flew straight into the side of Amaimon's head and then out the other side. The demon with light green hair in a single spike over the top of his scalp and dark green around the rest of his head went flying to Rin's left where he tumbled across the ground before coming to a stop. The shock of seeing Amaimon get shot in the face snapped Rin out of his rage just enough for him to realize how close he was to losing control, and start taking deep breaths to calm himself down. He turned his head right a little and twenty yards away from him he spotted a woman with purple hair half tied into a ponytail and the rest messy around her head holding up a sniper rifle with a smoking barrel. Revy had a smug look on her face and lowered her rifle a little to nod over at the teen, though she had a bead of sweat rolling down the left side of her face as she did.

In between Rin and Revy, a muscular man walked forward while taking his shirt off. He had a furry beard and a friendly face as he smiled at Rin who he walked right towards. "Calm yourself brother," he told the younger man who stared at him in utter confusion. Theseus walked right up to Rin's side but was looking past him. Rin heard growling on his other side and spun to look back where he saw Amaimon pushing himself back up on his feet. The Demon King of Earth had a nickel-sized hole in his left cheek and another matching it on the other side of his face as the beam had gone through and through. He glared past the men in front of him all the way back to the woman with many guns strapped to her body who gulped at this demon's fury-filled expression.

Amaimon took a step, then froze and snapped his attention to the floor that was shaking beneath him. Rin looked down too in shock as a thick metal pipe ripped right out of the floor. The pipe busted open and hundreds of gallons of water shot out of it and slammed into the surprised demon who was thrown back by the force of it all. "Hahaha!" Theseus laughed heartily as the demon slammed into a wall on the other side of the grand entrance hall of the Dread Fort.

"Who are you? Why are you helping me?" Rin was too confused and he spun from Amaimon back to the older man next to him. He looked back Amaimon's way and watched as the demon slashed his claws down to separate all the water around him, only for the water that splashed to his sides to morph into three dozen fists. Amaimon's jaw dropped, then the solid water fists shot towards him and started beating him from every angle.

"I am Theseus, son of Poseidon," the man next to Rin began. "And from that conversation you had with Lord Pheles, I believe I heard you say you are half human, did I not?" Rin looked confused but nodded his head and Theseus laughed again. "I did not know Satan had any children with humans!" He patted a hand hard on Rin's back and grinned as the blue flames did not hurt him, though Rin had to make sure they did not in the very short time he had before Theseus touched him. Theseus grinned because he felt them being hot as his hand was on its way but also felt that heat vanish right before his hand entered the flames. "I feel a kinship with all fellow demigods." Theseus grabbed Rin by the shirt and pulled him to his right, surprising and confusing the teen who stumbled and almost fell from the heavy tug.

"RRAAAA!" Amaimon roared and all the water around him exploded outwards. The demon inside where all the fists were just punching snarled out at Theseus and the woman behind him with a furious expression, and Theseus rose up his fists as he looked back into Amaimon's demonic eyes.

Theseus spoke and made Rin stare at him in shock, "Go on ahead. I believe you never received a clear answer from Lord Pheles. I shall hold Amaimon here."

Rin glanced back at Revy and though the woman did not look happy about it, she nodded at the teenager covered in blue flames. _Damned Gods,_ Revy thought in aggravation. _Always getting me caught up in things I don't want to be a part of. I bet you're laughing it up right now San, though I wish you'd have stayed after dinner for this._

Rin turned back to Theseus, then looked towards Amaimon who he did not know if the other man could handle. Yet, even as he wondered if he should stay and help, a much bigger part of his mind told him to listen to Theseus. "Thank you," Rin said, bowing his head a little as he meant it with his entire being. He spun around and glared towards the hole he saw Mephisto drop into before. _Mephisto! I am going to make you tell me where Yukio is!_

"Hey! Get back here!" Amaimon yelled at Rin. He started sprinting forward, but a whip of water grabbed him by the leg and made him trip. He tumbled forward but jumped right out of it and slammed a fist forward at the demigod who punched towards him at the same moment. The two of them collided fists and a shockwave rippled out from the connecting, before Theseus grunted in pain and his arm bent behind that fist, then the fist hit him in the chest and sent him flying backwards with a loud grunt of pain. Amaimon charged after him to finish him off before going for Rin, but the woman far behind Theseus dropped her sniper and as she sprinted forward she whipped the twin submachine guns off her sides. She pointed them forward and fired dozens of yellow beams in Amaimon's direction and the demon yelled out in pain as there were too many to avoid.

"Damn it!" Amaimon yelled as he dove to the right and got behind a pillar that shook violently as Revy's beam bullets slammed into the other side of it. Amaimon snapped his head back angrily and roared, "RIN!"

* * *

"Ugh," Malx Lewx stumbled into a room and he stared forward in surprise as he stumbled upon a fight. The two figures fighting were pressing a leg into a shield and the wind coming off of the collision slammed into him making him cross his arms in front of his chest.

Vexen's eyes darted to the side of the room and he smirked, "Malx Lewx! Come here!" The mutant Nobody looked over and nodded his head. He lifted his hands and lights shone in either of them, making Sanji look over too and see a pair of cutlasses appearing in midair. Malx swung his hands forward and grabbed both curved weapons, then spun them around in his hands, twirling them and spinning them around his body, masterfully dual-wielding them. He sprinted forward and his entire body covered in sharp quills making Sanji grimace even more as he kicked off the shield and landed away from Vexen.

 _How the Hell do I kick that guy?_ Sanji thought as the man's body was covered in a seemingly-impermeable defense. Sanji was panting heavily and he cursed under his breath. _Jixsan and that explosion took too much out of me. Even if Sora healed my physical wounds, I'm too tired for a two-on-one against these Nobodies._ Vexen smirked as he could see how tired Sanji was, and Malx Lewx chuckled too as he pointed his curved swords forward at the pirate chef. Sanji took another step back, then out from a hole in the ceiling right above him dropped a figure who landed in front of him a few feet.

The smaller figure who landed on the ground stood there on two feet, arms crossed in front of him, spiky white hair above his head, and a smug look on his face. He opened his mouth to say something but sniffed a few times and snapped his gaze down in surprise, before panicking as his right sleeve must have caught on fire as he made his way through the flaming basement above. He patted that sleeve down fast and then took a deep breath before turning sideways and smirking at Sanji, "Could you use a hand?" It was not the entrance Killua wanted to make, but Sanji let out a deep breath before grinning himself like the kid already was.

"Thanks Kil, my bad," he said. Killua nodded as he thought Sanji meant about getting cornered like this, but Sanji continued, "It was stupid to doubt you. You really are a good kid." Killua turned away from Sanji fast and a deep frown came to his face. _First Rin, now Sanji. I told them I was Luthor's spy! What the Hell are they talking about?!_ Killua shook the thoughts from his mind as Vexen was glaring in a very angry way in his direction.

"Grr," Vexen growled gutturally. Malx looked confused and Vexen explained, "Another of the ones who entered the city with Jixsan, Xirn, Swixes, Manix, Bronxi, and Xoupps' Somebodies." Malx's eyes opened huge as Vexen mentioned that final name and he gulped, something both Sanji and Killua caught onto and seemed very strange to them. Vexen continued, "Take care of him, I can defeat the pirate on my own." Vexen lifted back off the ground and shot forward faster than before.

 _He thinks that guy can take me on?_ Killua wondered, a smug smirk coming to his face. He raced forward, then stopped himself and dove to the right as fast as he could as all the quills surrounding his opponent's body shot out at once. Killua swerved around some of them but one nicked his right arm and he winced in pain. He stopped and snapped his gaze back to the mutant with a furious expression, but Malx Lewx's body had already re-covered in quills that provided him with more than just a defense apparently. Killua frowned and in the corner of his vision he saw Sanji and Vexen go smashing through a wall into a different part of the basement that was even darker than the one he was currently in.

Malx walked over towards that hole in the wall then turned towards Killua, standing in his way in case the kid wanted to go after Sanji. "You do not want to do this," Killua warned, his appearance looking terrifying all of a sudden with a dark purple aura around him. Malx spun around his cutlasses and slashed them across each other in front of his body to create sparks, then he slashed those two blades down at the ground. Once they hit the floor, the ground in front of him spiked up, and the ground past that spiked up, and the entire floor between him and Killua covered in thin, sharp stalagmites. They shot up and Killua jumped back then jumped back again as they kept rising towards him. _Damn, these Nobodies have too many powers._

Almost as soon as Killua thought it, Malx rose his hands that continued to hold his sharp swords in them, and out from the ground on either side of him arose eight Nobodies, sixteen in total. They were three feet tall, short and pudgy, but had arms covered in sharp spikes as did their legs, making them look almost like short silver cacti. "Go," Malx ordered, a smirk coming to his face as Killua's scary aura was gone and he realized it really was just an intimidation tactic the kid had been trying to use.

Killua glared at the man who was smirking like he was in control of the fight, and he reached down to the floor that he felt would spike up soon and try to catch him off guard. Killua's fingers dug straight into the ground and the kid lifted up, making Malx drop his jaw as Killua ripped a huge section of the ground off of the, ground. He lifted it up, then punched the back of it and sent huge chunks of cement flying through the room, smashing through Nobodies, spikes of ground, and towards the Nobody himself who tried slashing the rocks apart with his swords but wound up getting pushed back anyway.

Not far from the room Killua and Malx were fighting, another fight was causing a lot of shaking inside the Dread Fort. Holes were opening on the ceiling for reasons other than the raging fires on the floors above, and walls were cracking from the collisions every time these two attacked each other.

"Diable Jambe!"

"Ice Barrier!"

Sanji's fiery kick slammed into a wall of ice so thick that the longer he pressed into it, the colder his foot got. _The ice is too strong! I can't break through!_

Vexen smirked on the other side of the ice and Sanji saw it through the veil. He realized it too late and leapt backwards as the wall of ice shattered, and inside the wall were over a dozen swords of ice that locked onto him and shot after. He landed on the cracked floor of a darker part of the basement far from the destroyed Integration Chamber. The chef held up his arms crossed in front of his body and yelled out in pain as the swords slammed into him.

He was slower now than earlier and Vexen grinned as he stepped towards the pirate. "Hmm, seems that Jixsan managed to hurt you after all. However, your damn useless Nobody is nowhere to be found, and in this situation, I suppose I could not be blamed for using, _excessive_ force." Sanji lowered his bloody arms and stared forward while panting at the scientist who had a dim light cast over him from holes in the ceiling that revealed a flaming upper floor of the Dread Fort.

"You're going to take away my Nobody's chance at becoming whole?" Sanji wondered between staggered breaths. "Unless you've already merged with your own Somebody, that doesn't seem like a smart idea." Vexen froze and thought about what Sanji was saying. The pirate trying to catch a break smirked and continued, "I'm a pretty vengeful guy, so if you take me out, I wouldn't be surprised if Jixsan went straight for your Somebody's throat if they meet."

Vexen's teeth ground against each other and he snapped his gaze to Sanji angrier than ever. "You think you're so smart?" He snapped in a snide, furious voice. "If your Nobody can't accept it, I'll kill him too!" Vexen roared and a wind rushed around him as he rose his arms. Sanji tried jumping, but he only made it five feet up in the air before the glacier that suddenly emerged from the ground below him caught his legs. It was meant to capture his entire body, but he rose high enough that it only got his legs up to his upper thighs trapped in a thick coating of ice.

Sanji tugged as hard as he could but he was frozen still. A larger hole opened in the ceiling near them as part of it fell into their dark room. The chunk of ceiling was covered in flames on the top side, making a flickering flame light the brightest thing in their dark basement. It cast a dark red light on Vexen's face as the Nobody lifted off the ground and floated towards Sanji, the air getting colder and making Sanji shiver even worse than he already was. He tugged more and Vexen laughed at him straight to his face as he floated closer, lifting up his shield and pointing one of the dark blue spikes on it straight at Sanji's chest while the chef leaned back to get away from it.

"Excuse me," a voice said behind Vexen. Vexen froze and Sanji's eyes opened twice as large as the annoyed Nobody's did.

Vexen was shaking with rage and he spun around while shouting, "Will somebody just let me finish killing this bastard alrea-" Vexen stopped shouting and his entire body tensed up. Sanji's jaw continued to drop as the figure that floated down from the ceiling landed at the base of the glacier, down below where Sanji and Vexen were in midair. Vexen held his shield in front of Sanji's chest and he really wanted to jab the point through the pirate already, but the look on the man below's face had him hesitating.

The purple-haired man in a white top hat and white cape smirked up towards the two of them with a smirk and a confident expression on his face. "If you could please hold off," Mephisto began to the scientist. He held up one hand and continued, "I believe we can settle this in a different way. Let me-"

"You have no say here," Vexen snarled. The Nobody lifted his head and looked down his nose at the figure below who he was already looking down at before this. "You were invited to the Dread Fort as a guest. Do not overstep your bounds, _hellspawn._ " Sanji's eyes opened wide as he noticed a twitch on Mephisto's face at that word, almost like it was some sort of derogatory slang and Vexen knew it because the Nobody scoffed at the demon who started frowning up at him. "Now if you'll excuse me," Vexen continued and started turning around, pulling his shield back as he did, "I am going to finish off this scum!" He jabbed his shield forward.

Sanji watched as the shield neared him, and continued to get closer, and got closer for almost five seconds. Vexen's face turned to an expression of shock, slowly. As it was only halfway to looking shocked, Vexen dropped from the air like a rock and slammed into the ground with a heavy thud. The ice beneath Sanji shattered an instant later and the chef dropped down to the ground. He shook his legs off which were stiff after being frozen for some time, then he stopped moving altogether as fear filled him. The room had been decently lit because of the holes in the ceiling and the flaming chunks of upper floor that had fallen through, but that light suddenly vanished and was replaced with a dark purple color that surrounded everything around them.

Sanji lifted his gaze from the man being flattened to the ground by some unknown force. He followed up the white cloak touching the floor up the man's legs to his face that at that moment looked truly terrifying. There were few things in Sanji's entire life that scared him more than what he was seeing right now. "The only _scum_ I see," Mephisto began in a dark voice that echoed around the darkness, "is the Nobody in front of me."

Mephisto looked up and still with that demonic expression on his face continued, "I have become rather fond of Sanji in our short time talking in the courtyard earlier." As Mephisto looked back down, Sanji thought, _Holy shit. Thank you God. How the Hell did I get lucky enough to make friends with this demon?_ He was panicking mentally despite how it seemed like he was safe from this demon's wrath.

Vexen pressed his hands down on the ground below him and he struggled to lift up even the tiniest amount. He lifted his head and looked up at the demon with a scared look on his face, "Just, who are you, Mephisto Pheles?"

Mephisto chuckled darkly and Sanji's body drenched in sweat, as did Vexen's. "Ha ha ha," he chuckled darkly. "You think Mephisto Pheles is my real name? I am the King of Time, Samael." The statement had Vexen trembling in terror and Mephisto continued loudly and hatefully, "Second most powerful of the Eight Demon Kings of Hell. I am the embodiment of time itself, and you, are no one." Flames suddenly appeared all over the darkness, the only spot they were not burning was directly beneath Sanji and around him in a five foot radius. The chef covered in even more sweat from all the heat around him, but he did not complain as he could have been caught in the center of the flames like his enemy who writhed around on the ground as demonic flames surrounded him. Vexen screamed out in agony and his skin started melting, and Mephisto continued casually, "Tell Saix I appreciate his hospitality, if you ever make it out of Hell."

"AAAHHH! EEE! HELP ME!" Vexen's sizzling skin got darker and wisps of black came off his skin and floated above him. "NOO! I DON'T WANT TO DISAPPEAR!"

Mephisto frowned as Vexen started to be destroyed. The demon spoke darkly, "Do not worry, I will not let you fade like other Nobodies." The floor ripped open and the flames around Vexen grew higher while arms came out of the ground and grabbed onto him. Vexen started screaming even louder and Mephisto finished as he was dragged down into Hell, "After all, I am a demon. That fate, would be too kind." The floor closed back up and Vexen was gone, the flames vanished, the deeper darkness disappeared, and Sanji stood motionless in front of the demon that was now easily the most terrifying thing he had ever seen after that display. Mephisto lifted his gaze to Sanji who flinched, and the demon did not laugh as flinching was an expected reaction that a human would have after witnessing something like that.

The Demon King of Time reached up and tipped his hat to the pirate. "I hope we meet again, Sanji of the Straw Hats." As soon as he finished the word 'Hats,' Mephisto was gone. Sanji did a three-sixty spin wondering where he went but there was no sign of the purple-haired demon anywhere. Sanji looked down and watched as a blue shield lying on the floor burst into a bright white light and then the light particles faded away, leaving nothing left of Vexen. Sanji stared at the undamaged floor and imagined what he saw when that floor ripped open a minute ago, _That was, Hell? That was Hell. That's what a demon is? Rin, is a demon like that?_

A figure dropped down from a hole in the ceiling and Sanji took a step backwards with huge eyes. There was a teenager standing in front of him, covered head to toe in blue flames, those flames brighter on the front of his hair where they spiked up like horns. "Sanji!" The figure yelled in a furious voice and Sanji's face covered in sweat. "Did you see Mephisto here?!" Rin roared. "He knows where my brother is!"

In a hoarse voice, Sanji muttered, "You just missed him."

"RAA!" Rin roared in anger. He looked back up and jumped straight back out of the basement. The look on his face was not one showing that he had completely lost himself, but he looked so angry that Sanji did not know what else to do except answer his question. Once Rin was gone, Sanji let out a deep breath and calmed himself down. It was only the fact that he was thinking about Rin being like Mephisto right before the teen dropped down into the basement that Sanji got so afraid, but now he chided himself mentally for looking at the teen that way. _Wait a second, maybe…_ Sanji gulped, but allowed himself to continue the thought, _maybe, if Mephisto, or Samael, or Time, if he really is the physical embodiment of time…_ Sanji got too off track with his thought and shook his head to re-focus. _Maybe, since he really does seem to like me, I could get him to tell me where Rin's brother is. It's worth a shot,_ though he thought it, the idea of searching back out that demon made a pit so large form in Sanji's gut that it weighed him down. He looked up and grimaced while thinking, _Damn, why do we have to travel with so many crazy people?_

* * *

"Move!"

"Everyone off the street!"

Luffy slammed down into the ground and rolled legs over head several times over the road. He felt Saix coming down and pushed his right hand down hard, sending himself flying back up in the air. Saix flew right past him and even the extra length that being in his Berserk form gave his weapon Lunatic, the sharp edges of his claymore missed Luffy. He smashed the blue spikes at the end of Lunatic into the floor and the entire street under his weapon broke down. Chunks of pavement flew to the sides of the road and smashed through windows and walls alike and screams rang out from those buildings.

Saix snapped his head up and glared his glowing eyes at the pirate rising in the air above him. "Twin Jet Pistol!" Luffy yelled and punched down twice. His fists slammed into Saix, one in his chest and the other on the left side of his face. Saix got pushed back a foot from the first one, and his head snapped a little to the side with the second, then he glared back up at Luffy and snarled with a mouth full of sharp teeth. The pirate's eyes were huge as he dropped down to the ground and Saix shot towards him. He crossed his arms while Berserk Saix rose up his weapon, and Luffy's feet only touched the ground right when Saix brought the claymore down so he had no time to dodge. Luffy turned his forearms black with Haki though, and when Saix hit the point where Luffy's arms crossed, an enormous explosion of white light went off around them.

Lightning crackled in the air and Saix's bright aura flared, while Luffy's dilated pupils shook and the aura that exuded off of him lifted rocks and made them swirl around him. Windows of buildings in a mile radius of Luffy shattered and the glass flew outside in a twister with a center on the destroyed road Luffy and Saix were standing on. The pavement beneath Luffy's feet pushed down, but at least it stayed beneath them unlike the rest of the road around them which broke apart then flew away because of the swirling wind the two of them were creating with their fight. Luffy uncrossed his arms and punched a steaming, black fist up into Saix's face, but Saix pushed his cheek the other way into the fist and he swiped Lunatic across his body, nailing Luffy in the side of the head with it and making the pirate cough up blood.

The sharp white aura on the edge of the blade cut into Luffy's rubbery skin for a millisecond before he hardened his head with Armament Haki to avoid getting hurt worse. He still got lifted off the ground by the force of the hit though, and thrown into a building on the side of the road that he broke through, then smashed through the one behind it which was an apartment building full of people who screamed as Luffy flew through one wall and right out the other. Luffy flew over a half mile before spinning and hitting the ground that he did cartwheels over uncontrollably until he hit a hard cement wall that stopped his momentum, but did gain a Luffy-sized indent in it.

Luffy gasped out in pain as he finally stopped moving, but he ground his teeth and snapped his eyes back open angrily and looking okay. All the bouncing around the city did not damage him as much as it would someone else, because he was made of rubber. He pulled an arm out of the wall and muttered, "That weapon he has though. Ugh," he yanked his other arm out of the wall, then kicked both his legs out, before smashing them back into the wall his whole torso was lodged in. The wall crumbled and Luffy fell with the debris down to the floor. He landed on his feet and looked up and down the road to where he saw Saix floating down from above a building he just flew over. Saix stopped when he touched down, and the man with spiky blue hair held his arms up to the sky. His eyes were back to normal, so were his teeth and his hair, and now he looked to be regaining the strength he was just at as a white light surrounded his arms and looked thicker near his fingers while a thin white veil moved from the air onto him.

Luffy snapped his gaze up and frowned as there were no clouds in the sky, so it looked like his opponent had a limitless amount of energy. _But, he has to absorb more every once in a while. When he's like he is now, I should attack him._ Luffy pumped his legs again and took a deep breath to calm himself as he did, as using Gear Second so many times was going to be exhausting for his body. _I can handle this much though._ He breathed steadily and glared forward with a body completely covered in steam. He shot forward while leaving one arm far behind him, then stopped ten feet in front of Saix and yelled, "Gum Gum Jet Bullet!"

Saix did not lower his arms, but he did not need to block Luffy's attack. Out from thin air in front of Saix appeared a Berserker Nobody with his hammer weapon held in front of him. Luffy's powerful blow knocked away the hammer easily, but when it hit the Nobody it stopped moving altogether. The Berserker exploded into light, but when the light had faded, directly behind that vanished light was Saix, smirking with sharpening teeth and a body covered in a white aura again. Luffy's eyes went wide and he shot up in the air right as Saix brought his arms down and smashed his weapon. He smashed it on the floor, then smashed it again and again in the same spot in a rage while his eyes glowed yellow.

The rubberman in the air yelled out, "Hawk AXE!" The leg he threw up in the air turned black and he slammed it down into Saix's back, making flames shoot out of the man's front as it slammed him into the ground he had just annihilated. The entire street below and the buildings on either side of it were collapsing, but on top of all that falling rubble, Saix got to his feet and glared up with his glowing eyes at the pirate whose own eyes opened wide at the sight of the Nobody looking fine even after that.

Saix shot up in the air and Luffy threw his fists forward at the same time while Saix swiped his weapon. The claymore knocked Luffy's punches aside, then Saix swiped up to knock Luffy higher in the air as the pirate could not fly himself and thus had less control up here. Saix hit Luffy with the flat side of his weapon, then did a full spin with it and hit him again with the same side, knocking him higher and higher up in the air. Luffy finally moved to the side as he felt it coming again, but Saix stopped before spinning it all the way, and brought his weapon in the direction Luffy dodged. Luffy knew this was coming too though, and though unable to avoid it, he yelled out, "BELL!" He slammed his head forward with a black coating on his forehead and this time Saix's head got snapped back and he flew away in the air, the edge of the sharp white aura only nicking Luffy's front, ripping his shirt and slicing his chest with a shallow wound that still made Luffy yell out, "Ahh!"

On the southern edge of the city, a man in a black suit and sunglasses stood outside of a giant pyramid. His thoughts wandered to what was going on behind him inside the Ca$ino, and mainly the lowest floor of it. Junior sighed and took a puff of his cigar, "Stupid woman should have known not to mess with the Peacock Queen. What a damn fool," he tssked and looked up in the sky, and the cigar dropped out of his mouth. He was looking up to stare at one of the full moons, when he spotted a figure floating between him and the moon with his arms raised. A glow surrounded that man, and Junior gulped as he got a better look at him, _It's Lord Saix! But, what is he doing-_ Another figure shot towards Saix while his arms were still up, and a foot slammed into the Lord's face faster than Junior could follow.

"What the Hell?!" He exclaimed. Junior Xiong watched the two figures in the air crash into each other over and over, then Saix swung his huge weapon down and slammed the other man out of the sky and into a four-story tall building. The wall of that building closest to the entrance of the pyramid shook and a thick crack went through it from top to bottom making Junior drop his jaw even more. He noticed in that exact moment too that a different tall building he should have been able to see from that angle was no longer where it should be. "This is madness, I need to go tell…"

"Who? The Peacock Queen?" a voice asked behind him, one Junior recognized well. He started to turn and his eyes widened much, much larger at the sight of the two people behind him. He opened his mouth but instead of getting any words out, he just got a blue staff right between his top and bottom rows of teeth as Nami smashed her Clima Tact into his face. Junior did a full flip and Nami humped as the man landed flat on his face. "Serves you right," she said while he moaned there on the floor.

Riku looked at Nami and was about to ask what that guy did to her, when he caught a glimpse of what the man was looking at in the sky. He turned and lifted his gaze before dropping his jaw at the sight of who it was floating there with an aura around him. "Saix," Riku growled in a deep voice. Nami turned to him and saw Riku raising a hand and creating a Keyblade in it.

"Who is he?" Nami questioned.

"Saix," Riku began while glaring up at the man who looked like an animal in the moonlight. "The Demon Dancing in the Moon, second-in-command of Organization XIII."

"COME!" Saix shouted down and his voice echoed around the entire Dread Fort. All over the city, people stared in shock at the Lord who up until now had never acted anything but calm, cool, and level-headed. His fangs bared and he snapped his head up while roaring, "Monkey D. Luffy! Come and DIE!" Riku and Nami went wide-eyed at the sound of that then snapped their heads down to another shadow in the night sky. Luffy leapt up in the air but at that moment Saix pulled Lunatic back, and threw it at his full speed down at Luffy. The pirate lifted his arms to catch the weapon, but it was moving way too fast and pushed his hands back when he tried grabbing it by both sides.

"AHHH!" Luffy yelled out in pain as he was smashed out of the air straight into the ground. At that moment, an explosion went off at the actual fort of the Dread Fort and huge chunks of stone went flying up in the air in every direction. Many of those stones rose over the outer walls and flew into the city making people who were already running away from their shaking buildings scream in panic as giant rocks started smashing into apartments.

Beams of yellow light shot out holes in the Dread Fort's roof, and some people standing on top of a green hill in the market of the Dread Fort stared over with huge eyes. Weiss closed her dropped jaw and stepped closer to the edge of Mama Hawk, "What are those idiots doing? Do they plan on destroying everything?!"

"Hehe, seems like it," a voice said behind Weiss that made her spin around fast with huge eyes.

"Captain!" She exclaimed as he was back to his feet and not looking too bad, even his wounds seemed to have faded a little. Behind Meliodas, Elaine was feeling dizzy and Ban held out her arms to let her drop lightly into them. Weiss turned back the other way as Meliodas walked towards her, and the two of them looked off the side of the huge green boar they were standing on along with all the slaves they freed. "Is that-" Weiss began, before dropping her jaw even more as she definitely recognized the man's rubbery powers as he threw hundreds of steaming punches at Saix in midair. Meliodas scratched his chin but winced as he did and started swinging that arm he scratched with around as he continued to watch the amazing pirate in the sky. The Hawk Gattling Gun was making nonstop flames shoot out of Saix's back, but the man in Berserker form was only getting pushed back with not much damage to speak of on his body.

Luffy finally stopped, and he was panting hard as he dropped out of the air. He landed on the roof of a five story building and he frowned deeply up at his enemy. Saix glared down at the steaming pirate who managed to take Lunatic thrown full force at him and still come out of it with only a deep gash. _I meant to cut through him completely!_ "RAAA!" Saix roared, then his eyes lost their glow and he calmed down a little as he started panting. "Moon, give me more power!" He threw his arms back up and light from the moon came down and started surrounding him again.

 _NOW!_ Luffy stuck both thumbs in his mouth and bit down on them hard. He blew in and yelled, "Third Gear: Bone Balloon!" Anyone watching the fight or thinking about jumping in froze and their eyes opened huge at the sight on top of that tall building, one of the tallest ones in the Dread Fort. Two hands emerged, each one wider than half the building so that they were hanging off the sides, and both of those giant hands were steaming as Luffy did this still in Gear Second. He started panting heavier and his chest was puffing out as he took staggered breaths. Luffy snapped his gaze up and then leapt towards Saix, leaving his arms right over the building as he did so that his arms stretched out long and thin between him and his massive hands.

He rose towards Saix who glared down at him as his entire body covered in a thick white aura again. "ARMAMENT- HARDENING!" Luffy's fists turned black and they continued to steam as he rose even higher towards Saix so that he was only twenty meters away, then fifteen, ten…

Saix lowered his arms and Lunatic reappeared in his hands. His blue hair stuck up behind him and waved around in the strong wind that whipped around him, his eyes glowed bright like the two moons high above him, and he opened up his sharp teeth and yelled, "GET OUT OF MY CITY!" He rose up his arms and his entire Lunatic glowed so bright that it was impossible to see the silver and blue steel of it anymore. It looked like a seven-foot long, glowing-white, melee weapon with a dozen sharp points at the end each one a foot long themselves. His weapon got longer and glowed brighter, and he brought it down the same moment Luffy threw both of his arms up at him.

"FLAMING GRIZZLY MAGNUMMMMM!" Luffy's giant black fists shot up as his long extended arms retracted. He threw his hands in front of him and right as they passed the sides of his body they burst into flames. A huge white slash came off of Saix's glowing weapon and flew down at Luffy's hands, flaming hands that shot up so fast that they pushed through the slash without pausing a single moment. Saix's moon-like eyes widened, a second before the huge fists both much larger than his own body slammed into his weapon, pushed it aside, and smashed straight into his own body. "RAAAA!" Luffy yelled as he pushed harder and harder, and the white aura that surrounded Saix and protected him in his Berserker form flickered, flickered, and went away causing the man to open his clenched sharp teeth and let out a blood-filled gasp.

Luffy's fists collided with Saix and all around the city people watching dropped their jaws in shock. The Lord of the Dread Fort's weapon lost its glow and fell out of the air on the side of Luffy's long arms that kept extending up for a few more seconds before finally coming to a stop, a stop which did not stop Saix's momentum at all. The blue-haired Nobody went flying off Luffy's hands, flying up into the sky beneath the moon and casting a shadow down over part of the city below. Saix's eyes lost their glow and he coughed, blood splattering out of his mouth. He stared up at the moon he was soaring towards, _I, am not ready, to die. I don't, want to._

* * *

"Where the Hell did that kid go?" Malx muttered as he treaded through the lowest basements of the Dread Fort. He had a huge number of quills sticking out of his body for protection and every step he took he made spikes shoot out of the ground in case the extremely fast kid tried ambushing him from one of his sides. He did this for over a minute, before coming to a stop and looking around him confusedly. "Yo, you even still here?" He was in a lit up room and could see all the walls, and the kid was nowhere in sight. "Huh," he mumbled, a bead of sweat dripping down the left side of his face.

Two rooms away, Killua leapt in front of Sora and punched his fist into the sitar being swung down at him. "Killua!" Sora exclaimed in surprise as the kid showed up out of nowhere.

"I'll take this guy Sora, you focus on the others," Killua said in a confident tone. He pushed Demyx back and smirked thinking about that guy he left nervously wandering around in a different part of the basement.

Demyx groaned loudly at the appearance of another fighter to stop him from taking his revenge on Sora and make the odds look a little more even. "Axel, take care of this guy alright?" Demyx told the red-haired man on his left.

Axel looked his way and chuckled, "Do it yourself Demyx, rank IX of the Organization." Mentioning Demyx's rank made him drop his jaw as minutes before Axel was not even a part of the Organization, yet he was already pulling the rank card.

"Man this blows," Demyx mumbled. He glared ahead at Killua though and suddenly looked serious which made the kid tense up as he wondered what powers this man had. "Alright, take this!" He strummed his sitar and five whips of water shot away from him in every direction, then curved in towards Killua. The kid raced forward, but three Dancer Nobodies emerged out of the floor in front of Demyx and got in his way. The kid leapt up in the air to dodge the Nobodies and the water whips, then he pulled out a steel yo-yo from his pocket and flicked it down at Demyx. The Nobody looked up and the yo-yo hit him in the face, crushing his already-broken nose in one blow and cracking some of his teeth.

"AHHH!" He yelled out in pain as he slammed into the ground. Killua's left hand's fingernails extended and he dropped towards the man lying on his front, but Demyx snapped his bloody face up and roared, "RAAA!" Around him formed a dome of water that expanded ten times and slammed into a stunned Killua who got knocked back by the force of it all the way into a wall he slammed into. The wall started crumbling but when Killua opened the eyes he closed in wincing pain, his eyes shot open wide at the sight of ten whips of water curving in towards him. He crossed his arms, but the whips slammed into him forcefully anyway despite the Nen barrier he surrounded himself with.

"Kil!" Sora yelled towards a wall that collapsed around the falling kid and flaming debris from above fell down on top of him. Sora took a step, then his eyes opened huge as two Keyblades were swinging towards his face. All he could do was let out a half-yelp before getting slammed by Roxas's weapons and knocked back so hard he slammed into the wall on the opposite side of the room as Killua.

The wall was already mostly broken, so Sora's body lay half over a broken piece of it and he slowly leaned up to look in front of him where Roxas was marching his way with Axel standing behind him with a deep frown on his face. Roxas yelled as he marched towards his Somebody, "Damn it Sora! Pay attention or I'm really going to capture you!" He shot forward and slammed his Keyblades down, but right before they hit the teen with spiky brown hair, Sora shot his hands up and caught both of the Keyblades by the shafts.

Roxas's eyes opened huge as Sora stood up to his feet, and from only a foot away looked him in the eyes. "Roxas, who are you trying to fool? Me? Yourself? I can't tell anymore." Roxas's enraged expression faltered and Sora released Roxas's weapons, allowing the other boy to lower them down to his side. Roxas had a defeated look on his face and could not say anything back to him. Sora put a hand on Roxas's right shoulder and looked over it towards Axel who smiled smugly at him again. Sora shook his head at Axel but that only made the taller man chuckle darkly his direction.

"Oi," a voice called out and everyone in the room turned. Axel looked behind him and Demyx turned away from the pile of rubble to look towards the hole in the wall a figure in a torn up suit walked through. Sanji pointed a thumb over his shoulder and said, "Vexen's gone."

Demyx's eyes popped open wide though Axel just smirked some more as he made eye contact with the pirate chef. Sanji was confused at Axel's reaction, but the red head said smugly, "Wish I could've been the one to do that."

"Oi Axel, this isn't funny," Demyx said and spun fully to look at the man a rank above him in the Organization. "If Vexen's been destroyed, we're running out of help here! We should return to HQ before-" _**Squelch!**_ Demyx froze mid-sentence and everyone looking his way dropped their jaws. He lowered his gaze down and stared at the hand with sharp nails sticking through his chest. He turned his head sideways and in a raspy voice began, "What the, fuck," he looked into Killua's eyes but the kid was not grinning, he lost the smug look he had at catching Demyx off guard.

Kil pulled his hand back out of the man's body and looked at it hesitantly. The red on his arm sizzled black and disappeared, and Killua gulped as he looked back at the man's body in front of him. The guy stumbled away and Killua muttered, "I, didn't feel a heart." He had tried piercing it, but when his hand went through he did not feel anything inside Demyx's chest. The hole in Demyx's chest was not bleeding red, but black, a black ooze that came out of him and started surrounding his body.

Demyx stumbled away and fell to his knees between Axel, Sanji, and Killua. "No, no no," he brought his hands to the side of his head. "Not again. I, I didn't even, get to, find, my heart," a tear came out of Demyx's left eye, then he snapped his head back and yelled a heart-wrenching yell, right before the ground opened up with darkness and he faded away inside it.

Axel was the first to look away from the fading blackness on the ground. He turned to his left and saw through another hole in the wall, a man covered in spikes who started running towards him. "Hey," Malx Lewx began as he jumped between Axel and Roxas. He made a triangle formation with them and had some sweat all over his face. "This is bad. We no longer have a number advantage," there were three Nobodies in the middle of the room, with Sanji, Sora, and Killua on the sides. Malx looked Sora's way, and he said seriously, "The boss wants us to bring Sora at all costs, but we should-"

"Just shut up already," a voice said behind Malx. He opened his eyes wide and spun around, then gasped and hunched forward. Everyone else in the room stared in shock at the man with large spikes of red in his hair who had his Keyblade stuck forward with the point straight in Malx's chest. Axel narrowed his eyes into Malx's and began in a low voice, "Do you remember my friend Black Star? The one you tortured for fun when you first captured us. It's time for a little payback," Axel twisted the Keyblade in the Nobody of Quill's chest, then yanked to the side and Malx stumbled backwards with darkness seeping out of him.

"No, you can't," Malx lifted a hand and his sword was shaking there, then his sword fizzled away into light particles and he stared at his hand in horror. "Why?" Malx whispered, then just like Demyx, he faded away.

Axel stared at the spot the mutant disappeared from for a few seconds, then heard someone behind him say, "Axel?" He turned back and saw Roxas looking at him confusedly and Sora walking up to his side with just as confused a look.

"Oh come on guys," Axel said and he laughed out loud. "I'm hurt at how easy it was to trick you! I would have thought you'd have some more faith in me." He lowered his Keyblade and Sora and Roxas's eyes were turning huge, and Sora had a huge smile brimming on his face. "We're friends, got it memorized?" Axel asked.

"Axel!" Sora yelled happily.

Killua stared at the man hesitantly for a few seconds. _Could he just be tricking us because he realized he was on the losing side? Sora seems to trust him, but Sora's a trusting guy._ Killua glanced towards Sanji to see what the pirate thought of this, but Sanji, seeing that the fight was over, closed his eyes and fell right down on his back in exhaustion.

"Axel, you," Roxas began. "What are you doing?" He questioned.

"I'm helping you guys out, isn't it obvious?" Axel asked back. He stepped forward and pulled Roxas towards him to pat him on the back. "But man, you haven't grown at all! You're still just a squirt!"

"Hey! I'm taller than I was before!" Roxas yelled at the man who was just unnaturally tall. "Besides, I'm still growing anyway!"

"Yeah yeah, barely," Axel teased, and Roxas fumed.

"So Axel, when did you get a Keyblade?" Sora wondered.

Axel opened his mouth, but Roxas interrupted, "Wait, first," he looked around and spoke in a lower voice, "what are we going to do? I mean, Saix is still around. He knows Sora's here, and if I don't capture him…"

"Then Naminé gets it, right?" Axel asked. He caught some of what Saix said to Roxas earlier and he understood now why his best friend was here. "You really like that girl, huh?" Roxas nodded seriously at him and Axel sighed, scratching the back of his head. "Well that complicates things doesn't it?"

Killua walked towards the three Keybearers in the center of the room with hesitation in his step. _What King Neptune 1 said to Sora about fixing the worlds, what I know about the Keyblades, these three right here are insanely powerful, they must be._ Killua saw them all turning towards him and he tried not to let it show how important he thought they all were. "So, what are we going to do?"

"Who are you?" Roxas questioned the kid.

"This is my friend," Sora began before Killua could introduce himself. "Kil, meet Axel and Roxas."

The younger kid nodded at the Nobodies and said, "Killua." They nodded back then Killua repeated, "So, any ideas on how to fix this problem we have?"

Axel and Roxas looked stumped, but Sora started laughing and they looked at him confusedly. "What problem?" Sora wondered. "The only ones who saw me besides Saix were Vexen, Demyx, and that Malx guy. And since Saix isn't a problem, you'll be able to head back to your HQ without raising any suspicion."

"Wait wait," Axel looked confused and tilted his head at Sora. "What do you mean by that? Why won't Saix be a problem?"

Killua realized what Sora was saying and he chuckled himself, "Oh, so that's where Luffy's been."

"You think that rubber guy was able to handle Saix on his own?" Axel asked. "He has absorbed Isa," he reminded in case Sora forgot.

The spiky haired teen scratched his chin then shrugged his shoulders. "Why don't we go find out?" He offered. He jogged to the other side of the room and reached down, picking up Sanji and putting the unconscious pirate over his shoulder. "Nice job taking out Vexen," Sora told him, and Sanji was not awake to tell him what really happened in his fight. "Come on guys," Sora called out, not waiting for anyone to second guess him as he did want to see if Luffy needed help anyway. He leapt up through the holes in the ceiling and kept rising until he was on the main floor of the Dread Fort.

Roxas, Axel, and Killua all decided to just go with it and they jumped up as well. Roxas did a frontflip in midair on his way up and Axel hovered his way once his jump lost momentum, while Killua just put enough force in his hop to make it in one leap. They landed behind Sora who walked to the side of the huge hall they were in and put Sanji down next to a few injured people with burns on them. There was a muscular man with long black hair who looked badly wounded with deep gashes on his arms, exposed chest, and back, but he was the only one standing in the group and was moving around water with motions of his hands. That water wrapped up the wounds of other people on the main floor of the Dread Fort and Sora watched in surprise as those wounds started fading.

"Could you help him out too?" Sora asked Theseus. The demigod turned and nodded at Sora, and Sora continued while resting Sanji down next to him, "I would help you out, but if Saix is still around I'm going to need my magic. I'll be back though to heal everyone in a little bit." Sora turned and jogged away while Theseus stared at him, and then the demigod's eyes opened huge as Sora lifted his right hand while running and formed a weapon with a strange shape in his hand.

"It can't be," Theseus began, standing up and forgetting about healing everyone for a moment. Three others jogged by him and the man with long curly hair chuckled to himself and shook his head. "I must be mistaken," he said while Killua was still within earshot. The kid pretended not to slow down and eavesdrop, but he did grimace as he heard the man who turned to keep healing people say, "Three of them in the same place? Ha. If the Guardians were already gathering this soon, Nexus would be on the brink of destruction." He laughed loudly despite the bead of sweat rolling down the left side of his face, and though he told himself not to, he wound up glancing towards the entrance of the Dread Fort again.

 _Guardians?_ Killua thought with sweat covering both sides of his face. _He's talking about the Guardians of Light, the ones in the message King Mickey left Sora. I knew it._ Killua came to a stop and watched the others leave the Dread Fort ahead of him. He turned and looked back at the muscular man, and started walking that way with a narrowed expression on his face. _What do you know?_

Out front of the Dread Fort, Sora, Roxas, and Axel hopped down broken steps and upturned earth to get inside what they thought was the courtyard, even if most of the walls had fallen down. They looked around at the devastation around them and spotted some smoke rising from outside the actual fort's walls, coming from out in the city. "Looks like the fight was hard fought," Sora mentioned, not looking as confident as he did downstairs. He lifted his Keyblade and darted his eyes around, wondering where Luffy and Saix were. Suddenly, he had a strange feeling and lifted his head to look straight up, making his jaw drop as he did.

Roxas and Axel saw the stunned look on Sora's face and they followed his gaze to the sky. Both of them dropped their jaws too, then lowered their gazes to follow the object they saw falling from the sky. Sora hopped backwards so he was right in between the two Nobodies, and the three of them watched as a battered man with long blue hair dropped from the sky right on the spot Sora was just standing. He hit the ground so hard that an uplifted chunk of stone on their right got knocked loose from its position and rolled into an unsteady wall, breaking straight through it and making another section of courtyard wall collapse.

Past all the dust rising up, near the entrance of the Dread Fort's courtyard, or at least where the entranceway used to be considering the walls on both sides of it were gone now, three dozen soldiers running towards the Dread Fort to back up their Lord came to abrupt stops. There were no Nobodies around them which was very odd considering how bad shape the city was in. They stared forward and wondered what was going on, but they all looked inwards as a figure pushed through their ranks. He shoved people to the sides with his shoulders and did not care when they yelled at him. He had two bloody gashes on his chest, one of them a lot deeper than the other, and there was a lot of blood coming down the right side of his head.

"Who are you?!"

"He's the one who was fighting Lord Saix!"

"Take him out!"

Luffy's pupils dilated and every person around him collapsed to the ground in the next second. The aura that burst out from him broke all of their already shaky wills and two of the three in the courtyard opened their eyes wide in surprise at that action. Roxas and Axel glanced at each other, then back to the man who they realized why Sora had so much faith in him now. Then, their gazes fell back to the hole that lost all the dust around it and showed a man on his knees with his head pointed up at the sky. He wanted to raise his arms, but they were in too much pain and he could not get in the position to absorb more power from the moon.

"I feel it coming," Saix said in a low voice. Luffy stopped walking on his other side when he was ten feet away, and the pirate wondered what the man was talking about. His Flaming Grizzly Magnum hit hard, but the man was still able to speak and it surprised the pirate who wondered if these Nobodies got any stronger than Saix. Saix bowed his head then turned it and looked up at the three behind him, "My time on this world has come to an end."

Roxas and Sora stood side by side and Saix let out a sigh at the sight of them not fighting. He turned to Axel next and Axel stepped towards him so they were the closest ones to each other. "Saix," he began, "I understand now." A saddened look spread on the man's face and he continued, "I know what you meant. I am Axel, but Lea is not gone, just as Isa must not be either. We may have kept our consciousnesses, but we are no longer one person." He steadied his expression and become more serious as he finished, "I'm sorry. We're going to take down the Organization, my friend." He said the last part with a strained voice as the wounds on Saix's body started to release dark wisps from them.

Luffy stared at his enemy in confusion. He thought he might have to continue the fight, and he asked, "What's happening?"

Saix frowned deeper as he tried to hold on but his body could not handle it. "Even with a heart," he muttered in a deep, sad voice, "us Nobodies are not meant for this world."

"He's fading away," Sora told Luffy as the pirate still looked confused. "You did it," he said, though Sora did not seem too happy about it either. He needed Saix to be defeated so Roxas and Naminé could be safe, but watching these Nobodies fade was something he never liked doing. "Saix…"

"Sora," Saix interrupted, and his voice was less sad and a lot more serious. "You have let this world continue for so long. So much suffering, so much blood has been shed," Sora's eyes widened and his fists clenched at his sides. "You were not able to anything to save the billions who have died. Actually, you were _able_ to do everything, but you didn't." Saix's mouth curled up the slightest amount as he taunted Sora in his final moment. "The Organization will hunt you down," he said.

"They can try," Sora said confidently. "But I'm going to take you all down, and defeat Xemnas again!"

"Defeat Xemnas?" Saix questioned in a quieter voice as more of his body became shrouded in dark wisps. "You fool," he said, and his voice suddenly turned so much more ominous that Sora got a bead of sweat on the side of his face and all four of the people watching Saix vanish had terrible feelings in their guts. Saix chuckled darkly under his breath, "Maybe you will defeat Xemnas, but if you do, you remove the one piece that holds Nexus together." Sora's eyes opened wide and Luffy snapped his gaze over Saix to see Sora suddenly looking very, very nervous. Saix continued as his face covered in black, "His hold, over the darkness, keeps this world in check. Should he fall, a black shroud will fall over this world."

"What do you mean? What happens if Xemnas is destroyed?! Tell me, Saix!" Sora yelled all this at a black oval of darkness, but by the time he was finished shouting, they could not even make out a shape of a man inside that black any longer.

Roxas ground his teeth as he thought about the leader of the Organization. _Xemnas, just what is your role in all this?_

"Damn," Sora muttered as Saix vanished completely before them. Axel tssked and turned away, not letting the others see the angry expression on his face. While he was turned away too, he rose an arm and wiped the top half of his face fast. Sora continued staring at the space Saix just vanished from and he started shaking his head around. "He was just messing with us," Sora said confidently. "One last taunt to mess with us before he was gone forever. Let's try to forget it for now."

He looked around at the others and Roxas nodded slowly as ignoring it was a lot easier and less nerve-racking than deciphering what he meant. Sora finally smiled and he turned fully to look straight at his Nobody, "We did it Roxas. We won!"

Roxas hesitated for a few seconds, then the teen with dirty-blond hair smirked as well and nodded back at Sora. "Yeah, we did. I didn't think it was going to work out, but your friends really pulled through." Roxas thought about the blond pirate they left inside and the white haired kid who stayed in the main hall a few minutes ago, and then he turned his gaze to the man who put a straw hat on top of his head and walked towards them. "Thanks," Roxas said and nodded to the man, "for beating Saix." He hesitated then scratched the side of his head and looked away, "And sorry, for the other day."

Luffy thought about Roxas attacking him and Natsu out of nowhere, but he shook his head and said, "Don't worry about it. I would have won anyway if we had kept fighting."

Roxas lowered his bottom lip then called out and pointed a finger at the pirate, "As if! I totally kicked your butt!"

"You wanna go right now?" Luffy asked and grabbed his bicep.

He was bloody all over but the smirk on his face showed he was ready to continue, and after Roxas watched those thirty guards get knocked out with Luffy not even swinging a single fist, the kid held up his hands defensively. "Uh, some other time," he said, and Luffy smirked at the look on Roxas's face.

"Haha," Sora laughed and patted Roxas on the back. "I told you it would work out. My friends are really strong after all, huh?"

Roxas nodded and thought back a couple of days to when he and Sora met outside the Dread Fort to go over his plan. _**"We'll have to act like enemies to fool my superiors. If we can take down Saix though, I get my excuse to go after Naminé. If the Dread Fort loses it's Lord, there will be an instant power struggle for a new Lord to take over. In the meantime, I'll be "forced" to return to Headquarters to get new orders, and those headquarters…"**_

 _ **"Are where Naminé is? Good. I can feel Riku getting closer to me. He'll be here soon with the rest of my friends and we'll take Saix out of the picture. I promise!"**_

"You kept your promise," Roxas told his, friend.

Sora smiled and put both hands behind his head. "Of course I did," he said with a smirk.

Roxas sighed as he was trying to be serious there and Sora was just blowing him off. He regained a serious look on his face though and turned to the tall man next to him who had looked back their way and looked relaxed as for the first time in months he was not in chains. "Axel, I won't tell Xemnas what you did. He might figure it out though when you don't come back to Headquarters with me, but maybe he'll just think you got destroyed with the others." Roxas took a deep breath and then held out his right hand, "It was great seeing you again. Goodbye."

Axel stared at the hand Roxas held out for him to shake, and the red-haired, taller Nobody laughed in Roxas's face then smacked his hand down. Roxas gawked as he tried to make that an emotional goodbye, and neither Sora nor Axel were going along with these serious things he kept trying to do. Axel stepped towards him though and said, "I probably should head back to the Resistance and let them know I escaped, but, I've got some things to do first. And the first of those things, is to go back to HQ." Roxas's eyes turned into saucers and Axel smacked his friend on the shoulder, "I'm coming with you to help get out Naminé. Knowing you, you'd probably just botch whatever rescue attempt you're attempting if you do it on your own."

Sora started laughing while Roxas just dropped his bottom lip more. Axel lifted the hand he smacked Roxas on the shoulder with and he tapped the boy twice on the side of the head with a finger. "I told you, were friends. Got it-"

"I've got it memorized," Roxas said quick, stopping Axel from finishing his favorite phrase and making his best friend grin because of it.

"Well good," Axel said. He turned back to Sora and Luffy and said, "You're going to want to get away from the Dread Fort. We'll take our time getting back to HQ, but even if Xemnas does wait to send a team here, other Lords in the area will be sending armies to try and claim the Dread Fort and its surrounding land for themselves. The lot of you are too tired to be taking on an army right now."

"I could fight three armies," Luffy boasted as if Axel had no idea what he was talking about.

The taller man laughed out loud and held his palms up defensively. "If you say so." He turned to Roxas and then motioned with his head backwards. A portal opened out of the ground behind him and he said, "Let's get going. Don't want anyone seeing you and Sora together, do we now?" Axel turned and walked towards the portal, but rose his right hand as he did and gave a small wave that Sora returned to him figuring the wave was meant for him.

Axel disappeared into the portal, and Sora turned his gaze back to Roxas right in front of him. "Take care of yourself, okay?" Sora told his Nobody. "I'll make sure to work my way to the Organization's Headquarters, but you'll have to protect Naminé without me for a little while longer, okay?"

"I know," Roxas said. "I didn't expect it to be finished quickly, but… promise me you'll be there when I need you."

Without any hesitation, Sora nodded and said, "I promise. I know I haven't been reliable these last few years, but I'm going to make up for it Roxas. I'll help you save Naminé, and we're going to take down the Organization together." He held out his hand for his Nobody to take. Roxas looked at Sora's outstretched hand and a small smile came to his face. He reached out and took it, then Sora pulled him in suddenly and put his other arm around Roxas's back, giving him a firm hug. "We aren't the same being anymore," Sora whispered into his Nobody's ear. "You are you, and I'm me, but I don't care any less than when you were a part of me. You're still my friend Roxas. We can do this, together."

Sora pulled back and Roxas stared at him wide-eyed for a few seconds, before nodding his head confidently at his Somebody. Roxas turned away and walked towards the still-open portal. He stepped straight through it without turning back, and Luffy watched as the dark oval closed behind him. The pirate stared at the space they vanished into for a few seconds, then he noticed something on his left that caught his attention. Luffy turned his head and saw the side of Sora's face, and he saw Sora's mouth in one of the deepest frowns he had ever seen on his face. "Sora, what's wrong?" Luffy asked and the teen turned his gaze to Luffy without losing that frown. "We just won," Luffy reminded him as it looked like Sora had forgotten all about it.

"Maybe," Sora mumbled. "We won today, but what Saix said," he shook his head and clenched his teeth. "He was right. I'm not talking about when he mentioned Xemnas, but before that, when he said I could have saved so many, but didn't." He saw Luffy opening his mouth to argue but he held up a hand for him to wait and his friend did. "Luffy, I knew it from the moment I got here, this world was not right. But finding Kairi, then Riku, and then fighting with all of you to beat the Underworld, I got so caught up in my own problems that I wasn't thinking of the bigger picture."

Sora lifted his head and stared into the sky at the two moons high above him. "Finding King Mickey, searching out the Keyhole, and saving the world." Sora's face took on a few years in that moment and it looked like he was being weighed down by the weight of the world.

Luffy frowned at his friend, and he spoke up, "That's a heavy burden." Sora looked at Luffy in surprise as he did not expect to hear that from his pirate friend. He expected something more easy-going, but he actually appreciated Luffy taking it serious more. Luffy continued to be even more surprising though as he continued, "I can always share some of it, if you want?" Sora's eyes widened even more and Luffy finished with a smile, "Remember Sora, you're my nakama. I'll help you whenever I can, even if I never get what you're talking about."

"Hahaha!" Sora couldn't help it and he leaned back laughing. "Yeah, it can get confusing," he admitted and looked back down. Luffy smiled at him and Sora smiled back, "But I'll take you up on that offer."

"Yosh!"

"Hey you guys," a voice said and snapped Luffy and Sora out of their goofy smiles. They spun in surprise and looked at a short man with blond hair who had some pretty nasty burn marks on his body though many were faded.

"Whoa!" Sora exclaimed at the sight of him. He rose his arm and a Keyblade appeared, and he called out, "Cura!" Green light surrounded Meliodas, and the Captain of the Seven Deadly Sins looked down at his chest then up at Sora gratefully as his burns were all gone. Sora smiled back, then jumped and shouted, "Oh yeah! Sanji!"

Sora spun and ran back for the Dread Fort, while Luffy shouted after him, "What happened to Sanji?!" He was about to chase after Sora, when he heard Meliodas speak behind him and he spun around.

"We're heading out." Luffy looked at the shorter man in surprise, and Meliodas continued, "We were going to head north, but Weiss recognized one of the slaves she saw, or at least she says she did." He chuckled as he thought the girl was just using that as an excuse but did not really care in the first place. "Thanks for giving us an opening with that explosion, whatever that was." Meliodas grinned and added, "And nice job beating Saix. You can bet you'll be moving up from orange now."

Luffy's grin spread across his face at the mention of his rank going up. Meliodas lifted a hand and gave the pirate a little wave, "Anyway, I doubted you were going to want to head south with us only to head right back north, so if I could make a suggestion?" Luffy nodded and Meliodas continued, "Get on a train east tomorrow. There's a bridge that crosses the Cataclysm in Sin City, plus, Sin City's just a fun place to visit. I'm sure you'll figure out why." The blond man turned around and waved back at Luffy as he started running off.

Luffy waved back, then cupped his hands to his mouth and called after the man who was moving very fast away from him. "Thanks for taking us this far! Tell the Knight of Leftovers I said bye!"

"I will!" Meliodas shouted back. The man chuckled after shouting it and he shook his head a couple of times. _Gray, you made some crazy friends since the last time we met. Wish you still had Son Goku with you when we met, I've got a lot of questions for the Super Saiyan…_

* * *

"I finally found you," Rin said, panting and his blue flames small and flickering around his body. He was panting so hard that he could not take it and slid his sword into his sheath that he picked back up when running through the main hall of the Dread Fort looking around for Mephisto. The demon with purple hair was standing on top of a pyramid on the southern side of the city, and Rin stood flameless on top of the blinking CA$INO sign on the side of it only twenty feet down.

Mephisto Pheles was facing away from the younger man, and he held his right arm out to the side with his white cape in hand, making it flap around behind him. "I've been waiting for you, son of Satan," he called out and Rin darted his eyes to either side of the pyramid to see if anyone heard his shout. Mephisto did not look back but he noticed Rin's head motions and chuckled, "I understand not telling your comrades that you are Satan's son, however, many people on this continent of Aebrith know what those blue flames mean. I would consider telling your friends before they discover it on their own."

"I didn't come here to talk about my friends!" Rin yelled up, wondering if he should draw his sword again. The moons were lowering down near the horizon and behind Rin the night sky was starting to get a little lighter. He had ignored his friends around the city who he had bumped into over the last few hours, instead nonstop searching out Mephisto who he finally spotted on top of the pyramid. "Tell me Mephisto," Rin said in as serious a voice he could, making Mephisto lose his bright smile even and lower it into a small grin that could not hide the dark look on his face.

Mephisto looked out at the city that had some small fires going on around it, that had many destroyed buildings and upturned streets, and he looked out at the Dread Fort that was nearly unrecognizable with the amount of damage done to it. "Heh, I had a good time in this city," Mephisto shook his head and then his look got darker. "It was fun while it lasted."

"Is Yukio alive?" Rin asked, ignoring Mephisto and asking what he knew the older man had the answer to. "He was dying when I last saw him, but you said you could save him. Did you?"

Mephisto's face looked disturbed and Rin did not like that expression that he caught a glimpse of on the half of Mephisto's face he could see. Mephisto began, "Yukio is alive. However," the top half of Mephisto's face shadowed by the white rim of his top hat. "Satan has gotten his hands on your brother." On the other side of the pyramid as Rin, a shorter demon lying back on the top section of the pyramid opened his eyes and grimaced as deeply as Mephisto. Amaimon had some cuts and bruises on him, but like Mephisto he felt that he had fun in the city and was smiling until a few moments ago. Amaimon stood up and walked up to the point of the pyramid where he stood next to Mephisto and they both looked down at Okumura Rin.

"Tell me where my brother is!" Rin shouted up at them.

Amaimon glanced at his older brother but Mephisto just frowned deeper. He looked down into Rin's eyes and narrowed his eyebrows as he spoke, "Travel east, to Sin City. Another of our brothers is a Lord there. Question Astaroth about what you want to know, as I will not get involved this time." Rin opened his mouth to shout and Mephisto spoke louder and in a scarier voice, "And remember this Rin, you can not beat me as you are now." He looked straight into Rin's eyes and a dark aura formed in the sky above him that made the face of a demon with horrifying eyes that glared down at Rin and made him freeze with his mouth open. "As you are now, you have no chance of saving dear Yukio."

Mephisto turned and he floated up off the casino pyramid. Amaimon frowned at Rin for another second before turning and jumping up in the air and flying after Mephisto. He turned to his older brother as they flew off straight to the north. "'As you are now?'" Amaimon questioned. He was not the only one who caught that Mephisto said that part of his sentence twice, and Rin watched them leave while mulling over that phrase in his head over and over again. Amaimon continued, "You don't really think, he could stand up to Father?"

The purple-haired demon did not respond. They flew so far north that they stopped flying over land altogether and instead flew over a giant crevice in the planet that dropped miles down. Ten minutes after leaving the Dread Fort, Mephisto slowed down his flight and Amaimon came to a stop next to him. Mephisto had been quietly thinking since they left, but now he turned around and looked back into the distance where he could no longer see the Dread Fort and that meant that anyone there could no longer see him either. "What?" Amaimon asked him as he could not read his brother's expression in the least.

Mephisto started to grin slightly and that grin spread into a larger smirk from ear to ear that showed off his sharp teeth and menacing gaze. "Amaimon, return to Death City. Take command, and be the Lord for me in my stead."

"What are you going to do?" Amaimon asked, a bead of sweat coming down the eccentric demon's face. "You aren't going to stand against Father, are you? Once he learns Rin is here, we will all be sent to capture him."

Mephisto frowned as he thought about what that would mean, but he clenched his teeth and then smirked again. "I am going to make sure Father does not learn that Rin is here," Mephisto said.

Amaimon gulped but nodded with a mischievous smirk spreading across his face too. "Nice," he said and cackled, though some sweat formed on his face as he did. He turned back to the north while Mephisto continued facing south, and then said darkly, "I won't cover for you if Father or older brother Lucifer asks though." Mephisto chuckled and shook his head as he did not expect anything else. He thought about threatening his younger brother, but he knew whatever Amaimon told him after he did would be lies, because if he could scare him, then they both knew that Lucifer and Satan could scare him a lot more.

Amaimon flew off and Mephisto continued to stare back in the direction of the Dread Fort. _If there is a single person who can stop Father, it is not me, nor the Super Saiyans, nor the King himself. Only you can do it Rin. You alone._

* * *

 **A/N Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! The Lord of the Dread Fort falls and his soldiers all drop around him. Robin learns of Bronxi's existence, why is everyone so weirded out by Usopp? What's up with Xoupps? Sanji makes an enemy out of someone powerful, and Luffy is seen by a lot of people taking out the Lord... Saix fades with an ominous warning about Xemnas and the world, and Mephisto thinks Rin is the only one who can stop Satan. What is going to happen next?! Find out next time on Nexus: Heroes Will Rise!**

Espada-001 chapter 43 . May 6

Well it's certainly awesome to hear about all the new Nobodies. And I thought you had the interaction between Sanji and his Nobodie down pretty well. The Straw Hats would probably due what they could to help their Nobodie with the exception of getting absorbed. I'm curious how Axel will actually react to becoming whole especially since he was already ok with his solo existence. Here's something that came to mind recently but with the whole idea of the Nobodies and Heartless mirroring each other. I've been wondering about the stronge powered souls becoming Soul Reaper, or even becoming connected to some other afterlife society. Well that's about all I have for now so until next time have a good day and I look forward to the next chapter.

 **Nobodies everywhere! They don't seem to last long though huh? XD Anyway glad you liked Sanji and Jixsan's interactions! Turns out Axel wasn't so bad after all, just faking it to convince the other Nobodies :P, and I never really thought about strong souls becoming Soul Reapers. I don't really remember how Bleach dealt with that, but I'm pretty sure the souls that became Soul Reapers did so after being souls for a long time, which since it's only been 2 years since Nexus started kind of excludes most people. Also, if you remember what Hitsugaya Toushirou said about Soul Society after the battle of Metropolis, that also might throw a wrench into things... Thanks for the review!**

joebob323 chapter 43 . May 7

Great job with this, I like where this is going. How did Axel's mind change so much though, after the merging? I feel like this is going in a good direction, where now that Goku and Timmy are gone, there is a chance for the others to show their powers.

 **Thanks! Glad you like the direction this is heading and I tried getting all the characters some moments during the Dread Fort chapters. Robin, Franky, and Usopp were left out a little but I got them in at the start of this chapter, so hope you liked their fight scenes. As for Axel... well, looks like his mind didn't change after all, though he told Saix he did understand what his old friend was telling him about the merging procedure. Thanks for the review! (and I get the not reviewing thing cuz of Fanfic being so funky this past week).**

7lights13darknes chapter 43 . May 5

YES!AXEL HAS A KEYBLADE! I was wondering if you would do that or not since he actually has one in the game. Please tell me he is not going to fight sora because that would be anticlimactic ( probably a good fight) but don't let it happen! I was hopping larxcene would be dead by now but now sora might fight her. When i saw that she was going to fight meliodous

Darn it! Melodious, ban, and Weiss i new she already lost. Loved the fight scenes. By the way i like how roxas have the drive forms ( that was a nice touch) when we get to grays team i was hopping that ben would use his keyblade more often? I keep this review short. So good job and keep up the good work. Also you are like my favorite author for fanfictions i actually read both of your ben10 stories they were really good.

 **Axel having the Keyblade was something I remembered since Lea did have one in that first cutscene we see with him since Axel's death. Since they're merged now, the part that let Lea have a Keyblade let Axel have one, which leads to the question of why didn't Axel already have one, when Sora and Roxas both did? Larxene survives by the good graces of Sanji and Jixsan, though Meliodas got close to tearing her in half when she tried fighting them. Yeah, that fight would not have been fair with three of the Sins against one Nobody. Glad you liked Roxas's drive forms cuz when I thought of it I was like "oh shit! That'd be awesome!" Gray's team coming up in Chapter 9 so we'll see about Ben! I'm happy that I'm you're favorite author, and thanks for the praise on the Ben 10 stories, though sorry for never finishing up The Crash. Had that idea one day but it kind of faded from mind. Anyway, thanks again, and thanks to everyone who reviewed, faved, followed, or just read this story! 'Till next time!**


	45. Nexus HWR 8-7 Train to Sin City

**Nexus HWR 8.7 Train to Sin City:**

"Sora, are you sure you don't want to come with us?" Nami asked, watching as the brown haired boy walked away. The navigator took a step towards him, "We could use your help. Roxas, could use your help."

Sanji and Robin stood behind Nami at the northern edge of the Dread Fort. Everyone was in a rush, people were heading out of the city, others were on their way to the train station to flee to the east. The airfield ahead of them was packed full of people loading onto planes and getting out of there as fast as they could. No one wanted to be in the city for when the force arrived to find out what happened to the Lord of the Dread Fort, or for the power struggle that was sure to follow.

Sora stopped walking north out of the city and froze where he stood. "I made a promise to Roxas," Sora stated, looking down a little as he spoke. "I promised I would help him save Naminé." He spun around and looked in the distance to the South, "And I also have Kairi to think about. If I knew where she was I would use the darkness to reach her right now." His eyes darkened and he glanced at the floor for a few seconds, his fists clenching hard. _There's so much I want to do! But, but, I've spent more than two years doing things I thought I needed to do. More and more will compound on top, and it will never end, not as long as we're stuck here. King Mickey, I haven't forgotten your message. And now, I'm going to do what I'm meant to._

He lifted his head and looked at the three pirates watching him. "I don't know if you've figured it out yet. I don't care if you know anymore though. I have been all over the universe, or multiverse, or whatever you want to call it. This weapon," he slammed his right arm out to the side and a yellow hilt appeared. "This Keyblade," he stated. "I have it for a reason. It's not just about me, or Kairi, or Roxas or Naminé. I do want to stay with you all and travel with you North. I want to help Gray and his friends. I want to find Kairi and marry her today." He swung his Keyblade in front of him and it shattered into a thousand shards of white light that floated up in the air. Behind the shards of light they could see his eyes were closed, but when he snapped them open all they saw was the pure determination in his blue eyes. "But I can't do that."

A smile spread across Sora's face, despite what he was telling the pirates. They felt bad that he had this much responsibility on him right now, but there was nothing they could think of to say to him. "I'm going to find Goku," Sora stated, making the three pirates go a little wide-eyed at the declaration. He turned more to Nami, "and Timmy," he continued. "And together, we're going to save the world."

Sora turned around and took a step away from the pirates. A second later, a ten foot portal of darkness rose up from the floor in front of his feet.

"Where are you going?!" Nami called after him as he stepped towards the portal.

The teenager with spiky brown hair turned his head a little. He glanced at Nami through one eye, "I may not know where Kairi, Timmy, or Goku are. But Goku said he felt some Saiyans before he flew off, and I learned where to find them." The portal's darkness started to shroud Sora's entire body, but they heard his voice call out of it. "If I had to guess, that's where I'd say Goku would be. I'll see you soon!"

The door of darkness faded away to nothing and the three crew members just stared at the spot on the floor for a few seconds. "Sometimes I forget how strong some of the people we're traveling with are," Sanji said as he lit up a cigarette.

"It's not just about being strong," Robin continued, turning in towards the chef a little. "I do believe we have made friends out of heroes."

"You got that right," Nami said, turning around back towards the city. "Save the world?" She muttered in annoyance, just loud enough for the other two to hear her. "I came here to look for Zoro and Chopper. If we get sucked into another giant war..."

"Knowing Luffy," Sanji began with a deep frown. He and Nami groaned together.

"Luffy-san did agree to wait until day to attack the city," Robin brought up while they walked down the streets of the Dread Fort. Sanji and Nami both looked in towards the woman walking between them. Luffy's decision to wait until morning surprised all of them, but it surprised them in a good way.

Nami thought about it for a second and shrugged her shoulders, "Well, whatever happens, I'm just glad Sora's looking out for us. Though if he could find Timmy and Goku and get their help too, that would be more than appreciated."

The pirates all agreed on this point. Everyone nodded but Sanji came to a stop and made the other two look back at him after taking a couple more steps. "What is it Sanji?" Robin questioned.

"There's something else I've been thinking about since last night," he muttered. The chef looked up at the women and began, "My Nobody looked identical to me. He was completely different in many ways, but his physical appearance, it felt like I was looking into a mirror." The women did not see what he was getting at and Sanji looked over his shoulder, "So then, if Nobodies are supposed to look just like the originals, why did Roxas and Sora look, different?"

"I thought they looked pretty similar," Nami began, though she slowed down by the end of her sentence. "But you're right, they weren't identical. Are you sure that it's normal for Nobodies and Somebodies to look exactly alike?"

"I'm not positive," Sanji continued in a quiet voice. "But I have a feeling it is. So," he looked back forward at the other two, "what's so special about Sora?"

Robin cracked a smile and she repeated, "What's so special about Sora? I believe we already know the answer to that."

Sanji nodded his head as that was true, they had a good idea. _Still,_ he thought, _Sora's Nobody looked like, a different person altogether. It just doesn't make sense._ He finally sighed and shrugged his shoulders before motioning that they should keep going.

They continued walking through the city that was getting more and more packed the closer they got to the train station. "How do you think they did on Luffy's disguise?" Nami asked as they neared the ticket booth. _Good thing we got those identifications before we crushed their leader._ She watched as someone put a few credits on the counter and then held out their identification that Nami was pulling out herself now.

"I am sure Franky and Usopp-kun have done a great job," Robin assured.

"Yeah..." Sanji mumbled, while turning his head to the right and lowering his bottom lip. "You've got to be kidding me."

Nami and Robin followed his gaze and looked the same way. The younger of the two woman smacked herself on the forehead and then dragged her hand down her face exasperatedly. Nami mumbled under her breath, "Well, there are enough crazy-looking people in this world that it isn't too unbelievable."

"That's absolutely right Nami-swan!" Sanji agreed loudly, though as he glanced back he did have his doubts.

Stepping through the crowd was a figure only a little shorter than the large cyborg he was walking with. Franky already normally stood out with his brightly colored armored plating, but now with the nine foot tall guy walking around off-balanced with red and blue striped pants, a tall red and blue hat, and a fake black mustache and beard on his face, their three crewmates could not stand out more.

Luffy turned heads every step he took, and Nami watched nervously as some of those people looked at him closely. They all turned away after a few seconds though and she sighed in relief. When she looked closer, she could see the rim of Luffy's straw hat sticking out from under the taller hat, but besides that and his goofy expression, there wasn't much way to recognize him if she weren't already looking for him. "You idiots," she growled deeply as Franky and Usopp stepped out of the crowd and in front of her.

Before she could yell at them and at the guy in stilts stumbling out behind them with a goofy smile on his face, they heard a voice call to them from the right side of the road. They looked over hearing some of their names, and saw a young man with messy black hair waving over at them.

"It's Rin," Usopp said, getting the attention off of Luffy's awesome disguise that Nami did not seem to agree with.

The pirate crew got off the main street and over to the side road next to it. There were still some people walking on it, so Rin waved them to follow him and made a turn down a more narrow alley off the side road. Everyone gathered up in the alley and Rin jogged right up in front of a tall wooden box that a kid with spiky white hair was sitting on.

Killua waved his legs back and forth but brought them to a stop when the pirates stopped in front of him. "Alright," he started, standing up on the box and looking down at the group. "We've got some good news, and some bad news. Who wants the good news first?" He asked.

"I'd rather end on good news," Usopp stated, holding up his right hand.

"Bad news first," Sanji agreed, lighting up a cigarette so that he could smooth his nerves no matter what happened.

"Alright," Killua accosted. "Bad news is, the train leaves in about fifteen minutes. Also, even if we take this train, we won't be able to get north of the Cataclysm Line."

"Cataclysm," Sanji repeated thoughtfully, pausing on it for a second. "I heard Meliodas mention something about that with Gray."

Rin spoke up from in front of the box Killua stood on. "It cuts from one end of Aebrith to the other. It's tens of thousands of miles long, over a hundred miles wide, and supposedly impossible to cross on foot."

Each one of the pirates glanced in a little at Luffy and could see the captain trying to hold his eyes back from shining at the prospect of such an awesome adventure. Killua continued quickly onto more bad news, "We could switch trains at Sin City. The problem is that there, the rule in the city is that there are no rules. Most people heading East plan on getting off the train long before they reach the city."

"No rules?" Luffy asked, his eyebrows lifting. "Sounds awesome," he said, his smile stretching wider than was possible for non-rubber humans. He thought about how Meliodas told him the night before that he would find out why it's a fun place to visit, and he already agreed before even getting there.

"Yeah, it does sound pretty fun," Killua admitted, "But, to get on the train north after Sin City, you have to undergo pretty severe security checks. After what happened here, I'm pretty sure they might be looking for Luffy. The security is so tight because they don't want any terrorists on one of the only three bridges across the Cataclysm Line in Western Aebrith. This bridge furthest to the West that connects to Sin City is called the Bridge of Azulon. And the country that controls the land on both sides of the bridge, is not a very... _forgiving_ , country."

"Alright alright," Usopp yelled at the boy. "Get on to the good news."

Killua grinned over at Usopp and nodded. "Okay," he clapped his hands together. "So, the train is big enough to carry almost everyone in the city, which is great since a lot of people aren't getting on anyway. Also, to check each of the citizens thoroughly would be a big waste of time, so they are only checking the I.D.'s of the person who buys the tickets. That means Nami can buy the tickets for all of us," he looked over at her, "that is, assuming she still has the money."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Nami yelled at him, pointing a finger his way accusingly. As she pointed, a glint shone from a gem on a ring on that finger, and her own jaw lowered a little as she realized it. The gem cost most of the money she took from the CA$INO the night before but damn did it look gorgeous. She lowered her hand and put it behind her back while receiving a few annoyed looks. "We have enough," she assured, then laughed a few times with a sweat bead dripping down her face.

"I hope so," Killua mumbled.

"That all the information you two managed to get?" Sanji asked the younger boys.

Killua nodded, but Rin looked away for a second. The younger kid looked at Rin in surprise, as Rin had told him what he said he learned before and Kil thought he reiterated it all. The black haired teen looked up at the younger boy above him, then sighed and apologized, "Sorry for not mentioning earlier." He looked ahead at the group in front of him seriously, "I heard from a demon I beat up in an alleyway that the leader of Sin City," he paused and looked down, "is known as Astaroth. He is a powerful demon, known as the Demon King of Rot, some call him the Demon of Destruction." _It may be a lie, but I can't just tell them Mephisto told me Astaroth would be there._

"Do you think you could take him?" Killua asked the boy beneath him. "Because none of us can see demons."

"I can now," Luffy stated casually.

"Yeah Rin, you're going to have to-" Usopp stopped, then spun towards the funny-dressed pirate captain next to him. "What? Since when?!"

Luffy shrugged, but grinned as he thought about what Rin just told him. Sanji kept staring at the nervous teen intensely and he wasn't the only one who noticed something was up. "Rin-san," Robin started, "is there something else?"

"Huh? Nope, not at all," Rin replied quickly, smiling wide at the group in front of him. He looked a little suspicious and a couple of them noticed, but before anyone could pry further, they were snapped from their discussion.

"What are you guys doing?" A voice suddenly asked from the alley's edge. Everyone spun around and saw Riku standing there looking in at them as if they were stupid. "The train leaves in five minutes." He motioned with his head back out towards the main street, "Now let's get moving. We can talk on the train. I hear it's going to be a long trip."

* * *

"This is much bigger than the Sea Train," Franky admired as the group gathered inside one of the train cars. The trains he worked on when he was a young shipwright had nothing on the piece of machinery he just entered.

In front of the cyborg were three rows of booths: one in the middle and one on either side near the windows. The booths looked pretty comfortable with soft red seat-backs and cushions to sit on. There were tables in between the sides of every booth, and lights on the ceiling that had buttons next to them along with little knobs for the fans coming out of the air vents. Each booth had a little curtain pulled to the sides so that when it was night they could close it for some privacy and so that they turn off their lights without having to worry about the lights of their neighbors bothering them.

"Did we accidentally buy first class?" Rin muttered as he walked in after Franky.

"That lady at the ticket booth better not have scammed me," Nami growled angrily.

Killua walked in and shook his head, "It's alright. The technology in Aebrith seems a lot more advanced than Awul. Each of the High Lords have their own civilizations right? And since they're all allied under the King, they can trade with each other. Only way for nations to survive would be by not falling behind so that they still have things to trade with. That, or overwhelming military superiority," he added with a shrug as he knew there were some monsters who could just take over countries on their own if they wanted. _Like the King,_ Killua thought to himself nervously. _How much stronger is he now than back then?_

"Let's go find a booth!" Luffy exclaimed as he wandered into the train behind the rest of them. Usopp had to help make sure Luffy didn't fall while walking on his stilts, and he was starting to doubt the practicality of the disguise they made for him.

"Monkey's right," Riku stated, surprising a few of them. They noticed a couple of people walking in behind them and realized why he used the pirate's family name. He turned to Monkey D. Luffy and continued, "Where do you want to sit?"

"Let's get a window," he said in excitement. "I still want to see more of this place!" Luffy started over to a booth on the left side of the train and the rest of the guys followed him.

"You boys go enjoy yourselves," Nami said in a disinterested tone. She grabbed hold of Robin's arm and pulled her female friend over to a different booth close to them. The older woman with black hair chuckled at her friend's eagerness to finally get to spend some time away from the boys. It wasn't that they didn't love their male crew members, just that they needed some space once in a while that they hadn't really gotten since they had their own room on the Thousand Sunny.

While the girls went over and pulled the curtains shut on their middle booth to show it was occupied, the boys all gathered in one booth a little farther back and to the left side of the train. Franky took up two normal spots, and almost a third on top of that, but luckily Killua was small enough to fit on the same side. They quickly realized they wouldn't all be able to fit in the same booth though so they thought about splitting up and half going with the women. Nami poked her head out of the booth up ahead of them and yelled back that they weren't allowed, so they just grabbed the booth in front of the other guys.

Kil was glad to not have to be squished with the large robot, even though he thought Franky was incredibly cool and shiny. He hopped over the booth into the one in front of it, while Usopp came running around as well and Rin not far behind him. Luffy was the first one in the first booth so he wasn't getting up, but Sanji wanted any excuse to get closer to the women and he jumped at the opportunity to move a booth up.

The train was filling up now and some other people were filling up booths around them. Riku noticed a couple of people having to sit with others they didn't know, so he came up with an idea fast. The silver haired teen, sitting on the same side of the table as Luffy, reached a hand over the table and it became shrouded with darkness. Franky and Luffy both looked at him in surprise for a few seconds, then jumped in even more surprise as dark figures appeared on Riku's right side and Franky's left. There were enough strange figures on the train that even these two monsters could be looked over as long as they didn't act up. The two tall Heartless had black squiggly antennae and glowing white eyes on their pure black faces. Their arms were crooked and held over the table with sharp black claws at the end.

The Neo Shadows sat casually on the booth, and the one of Franky's side turned its head to the cyborg and tilted it to the side while Franky stared at it. After a few seconds, Franky started laughing and he said, "You know, not that these guys aren't trying to kill us, they do look pretty cute don't they?"

"Cute, isn't the work I'd use," Riku muttered. He looked at the creatures he summoned and though not afraid of them, he couldn't say he liked them at all. "All I see when I look at them is my world falling to the darkness," he admitted, saying it in a casual tone and not dark like the words suggested. "It was my fault you know," he said, turning to Luffy and then Franky. "I opened the door to darkness on my world and welcomed the Heartless." What he saw in the Dread Fort's casino was fresh in his mind and he thought about it nonstop for the past eighteen hours.

He shook his head a few times, "I was just a stupid kid though."

"You're still a kid," Luffy teased the boy sitting next to him.

"I'm what? Three years younger than you?" Riku asked. He seemed a little aggravated, but calmed himself down as Luffy laughed at him. "Well anyway, I wanted to bring up the Nobodies if you two were interested," he offered.

"Nobodies?" Franky asked slowly, trying to place where he'd heard that. "Oh yeah, that's what Sora called his friend Roxas."

"They were in charge of the Dread Fort," Riku added. Franky nodded as he remembered the guy he fought out in the streets who Robin called a Nobody. Strangely, Riku noticed Luffy was also paying attention to him. The teen smiled a little and looked past Franky at the booth behind him where Killua was sitting. _Guess you really got to him. Good job Kil._ He continued speaking for the two with him, "Saix, the guy Luffy fought. He was a high ranking member."

"What do you mean by high ranked?" Franky questioned. As he asked, he noticed the two black creatures in their booth turning their heads towards him, then looking back over at Riku while he spoke. It was a little weird.

Riku nodded at Franky and then reached down to his side and into his bag. He rummaged around in it for a few seconds and then pulled out a piece of paper and a pen. "Organization 13," he said, writing the name at the top of the paper. "It's a group made up of the strongest Nobodies. Though," he took his pen and wrote a question mark next to the number thirteen. Riku continued, "The member I fought in the Dread Fort, Zexion, he mentioned something about new members. I fear who may have been added to their ranks since we arrived on this world."

Franky opened his mouth to ask a question, but Riku quieted him with a look that showed he was about to explain. The cyborg nodded and the teenager half his age continued uninterrupted, "When someone's heart is lost to the Heartless, a Nobody is created. Most Nobodies look like this," he drew a quick picture of a Dusk, one of the silver Nobodies that were most common. "However," he continued, looking back up at the two in the booth with him. "If someone with a strong heart is taken by the darkness, then their Nobody will retain its human form. That's what Roxas is. Who, Roxas is," he corrected himself, trying to keep an open mind that these Nobodies could be their own people like Sora wanted.

"Then," Luffy began, scratching his chin. "Roxas and Sora are the same person?" He asked confusedly.

"Kind of," Riku said, somewhat surprised Luffy was keeping up with him. "It's a little more complicated than that, but the important thing is that people with strong hearts who were lost to the darkness on this world most likely have Nobodies now." He glanced behind Franky a little at the other booth. "Sanji had one, but also Usopp maybe, and Rin," he whispered, then continued in a more grim tone, "not to mention the Flash." Thinking about the speedster as an opponent unnerved them a little, but Riku shook his head a few times and regained his calm expression. "Anyway, we can't be sure that _any_ of them had strong enough hearts, but we can't rule out that _all_ of them did either. For now though, I'll go over the original 13 ranks of the Organization, at least the ones I know." He drew a bunch of lines coming out of the title on his sheet of paper and started, "Number 13, Roxas..."

While Riku educated Franky and Luffy, the other four boys were settling down in the booth ahead of them. Killua leaned back in his seat with his legs propped up on the table. Sanji was looking around for some ladies to invite to come sit with him, but most people on this train car were already seated or were with a bigger group than two which was the number of spaces they had available at their table. When he turned back, he yelled at Killua to take his legs off the table as they would be eating on it for a couple of days.

The youngest person in their group grumbled in annoyance but lowered his legs anyway to appease the chef. Killua chuckled to himself as while Sanji was scolding him, two good-looking ladies walked past who looked like they were trying to find seats. He would have also liked to invite them to his table, but that seemed like a favor to Sanji who just yelled at him, so he let them walk by without saying a word. Usopp saw why the kid was snickering and he started laughing himself at the oblivious chef.

Before Sanji could question what they were laughing at, Rin said, "Whoa." They all looked at him and the boy next to the window was staring outside wide-eyed. "I didn't even notice we left the station."

"Huh?" They looked out the window and lowered their bottom lips. Sanji put a hand down on the table in front of him, and finally he could feel a little vibration, but it was still amazing. _There was no jolt. The train started moving and we didn't notice at all._ Only looking outside could he tell that they were moving at all, and they were moving fast.

"Heh, guess having a window seat doesn't matter too much," Usopp stated as he looked at the landscape rushing by like a blur. He could make out some hills and mountains in the distance to the north, but they looked to be passing them quickly. He looked over his shoulder at the seat behind him to mention it to Luffy in case the captain didn't notice they had left yet. When he leaned over the seat though, his jaw dropped at the sight of Riku, Luffy, and Franky leaning in and having a conversation over a piece of paper. His jaw dropped mainly because of the other two figures though, the black Neo Shadows leaning in over the table too and acting like they were part of the conversation.

The long-nosed pirate glared at the Shadows for a few seconds. He opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it and sat back in his seat with an upset expression on his face. _The Heartless are evil. Riku shouldn't be using them so freely._ He clenched his fists angrily, wanting to say something to his friend again, but he already did two nights ago and it didn't seem like Riku cared to listen. _Luffy and Franky don't even care that those monsters are next to them,_ the sharpshooter thought, getting angrier by the second. _They made me fight my friends, and kill people!_

"Usopp," a voice whispered into Usopp's ear and he quickly spun to the right. The three others in his booth were looking out the window at the cool speeding-by landscape. None of them noticed Riku standing next to their table and looking down at Usopp with a discerning gaze.

"What?" Usopp snapped at the tall boy with long, spiky silver hair.

Riku kept his voice quiet but stated, "I could feel the darkness radiating off of you. Is something wrong?"

The guy with the long-nose glared at him for a few seconds longer, then his eyes opened wide and his fists unclenched. "What the..." He whispered, looking down at his own hands nervously. _Am I really that angry?_

"Be careful Usopp," Riku warned, making the other teen his age look him in the eyes. "Don't let yourself fill with hate, and anger, and rage," he continued, staring straight into Usopp's eyes as he did. "I do not want your heart to fall to the darkness."

"Fall to the... What are you talking about?" Usopp snapped at him. The others in the booth looked over to see Riku talking to Usopp and they saw Usopp looking pretty pissed off. "Darkness doesn't just take hearts. You took my heart," he growled. Usopp stared back into Riku's green eyes for a few seconds, then his gaze softened again and he looked down. "I mean, Ansem took it," he corrected himself.

The damage was done though. Riku tried hard convincing himself the actions he committed for two years were not his own, but clearly Usopp didn't think that. "I'm sorry," Riku apologized. "Just trying to help," he stated, then turned and walked back to his seat. As Riku sat down he snapped his fingers and both dark figures in the booth vanished. There was no point in keeping them when everyone had already found seats.

Usopp watched as the Heartless vanished, then leaned back into his seat. He looked around him and saw all three of the others looking at him harshly. He sunk down a little in his seat and crossed his muscular arms across his chest. "What?" He muttered, looking around at the others. The three of them looked away as they understood why Usopp was angry, though even Rin had to admit Usopp sounded pretty mean right there, and he had been trapped by Ansem too.

It didn't take long for Usopp's mood to go back up and both booths full of boys stayed loud and boisterous for most of the day. Chefs/train-attendants came by with carts covered in food, and Riku and Franky had to keep Luffy from eating everything on it which would cost them a fortune they did not have. Night fell and many of the booths started going dark around them as people closed their curtains and cut off their lights.

A few rows in front of the guys' booths, Nami spoke in a hushed voice to her best friend across the table from her. The younger woman was giggling as Robin covered up her left ear, and Nami peeked her head out of the curtain to look back on the train. An ear appeared on the ceiling above the booth some of their friends were in and Nami smirked as none of them noticed it. "So, what are they talking about?" She asked, leaning in close to Robin again.

The older woman chuckled at her friend's childish excitement. She continued to hold her right ear closed and listened in to the conversation the boy's were having.

"Ohh? Who's Shiemi?" Killua's voice asked and Robin grinned a little, knowing this was exactly what Nami wanted to hear.

"No one! I mean, she's a friend. A good friend." This time she heard Rin's voice and chuckled a little at how nervous he sounded.

"A _good_ good friend?" Usopp teased.

"No way," Sanji stated. "I refuse to believe it."

"What? Disappointed someone got a girlfriend before you, pervy cook?" Killua asked, making Robin smirk again in Sanji's expense.

"She's not my girlfriend," Rin yelled at them all. "She's probably not even on this world," he said in a more disappointed tone.

"Don't write her off, I was stunned to see my father here," Usopp said, trying to encourage his friend.

Rin's eyes darkened, "Yeah, me too..."

Robin stopped listening and looked at Nami with a small grin. "Sooo?" Nami started, "What'd you hear?"

"Turns out this 'guy talk' you mentioned may be true after all," Robin admitted, making Nami's eyes widen. The orange haired, younger woman explained that 'guy talk' was guys talking about girls and other stuff they wouldn't talk about with women in the same area.

"What did you hear?" Nami asked, leaning so far over the booth she was only a foot away from Robin's face.

"It seems," Robin began. She took her sweet time to keep Nami on the edge of her seat. The older woman continued, "Rin-kun has a girlfriend."

"Eeee," Nami exclaimed. She covered her mouth a second later as if the boys had heard her and knew what the squeal was for. She started giggling and despite how childish the conversation was, Robin joined in with the laughter. "What's her name?" Nami questioned.

"Shiemi-chan," her older friend replied.

"Shiemi huh?" Nami whispered. "Lucky girl."

This made Robin smirk but she regained a cool expression to ask, "How so?"

"Huh?" Nami asked, then realized what she said.

"Why is she lucky?" Robin questioned again, making the younger woman frown at her since Nami could see what she was doing.

The orange haired woman grinned after a few seconds though. This was half the purpose of girl time after all. "Well," Nami began, looking over her shoulder as if to check if anyone was there even though they were the only two in the booth. She turned back to Robin and said, "It's not like he's bad-looking. Plus, he's got style."

Robin nodded her head, thinking about Rin's choices of nice button downs, jackets, and pants to match. "He seems a little young for you Nami, but I can understand-" the older woman began.

"What?!" Nami exclaimed at her friend before realizing Robin was just teasing her with the small smile the woman gave her after. "Ha ha," she laughed sarcastically at her friend who kept grinning at her. "Just because I'll admit he is _somewhat_ attractive, does not mean anything. I think we can both admit, and appreciate, that we are traveling with some above average looking men."

This time Nami smirked at Robin and waited for her older friend to respond. "That is true," Robin stated, though she would not tell Nami whether or not she had thought about it before. She took a few seconds to respond almost as if she were thinking first of her answer.

Nami saw through it though and laughed. "Although," she began with a proud smile. "They must appreciate it much more to be privileged enough to share an adventure with beauties like us." She beamed in her own self-image and Robin couldn't help but giggle. Nami saw she had her friend off guard and leaned in fast, "So who do you think is the most handsome of the guys?"

Nico Robin prided herself in not being surprised by much anything. Yet at the sudden question her eyelids widened, and Nami smiled a toothy grin that she was able to catch Robin off guard. The black haired woman knew Nami had her, so she thought fast. With a calm smile on her face, Robin replied, "Son Goku was quite handsome. And he was cute as a child," she added on after, thinking about the man's child form he got transformed into before leaving them.

Nami frowned. She was hoping more for someone closer to them. It was easy to get out of the question by picking the man who looked like a God. _I should have been more specific..._

As she thought it, Robin spoke up. "Out of the boys on the train, Nami," Robin began, the one to catch her friend off guard this time, making up for her mistake a minute ago. She continued, "Who do you think is the most attractive?"

Nami's face went red and she looked away. "Attractive? Those idiots?"

"Did you not just say that Rin-kun was 'not bad-looking'?" Robin questioned, and smirked at Nami's flustered expression that followed.

"He's not," Nami said, "but..."

"So you think Rin-kun is the most attractive?" Robin asked, knowing exactly how her friend would react.

"No!" Nami exclaimed. The orange haired twenty-two year old saw Robin grin at her and she knew she was trapped. She shifted her weight around a little and frowned, but she wasn't really upset. Her frown lifted up a little and she muttered, "Keep an eye on them, make sure they're not listening."

Robin smiled and then covered her left eye. Her eye appeared hidden in the ceiling, watching over the train car. She told her friend, "Most of them are trying to sleep, the others are not listening."

Nami's frown lifted up a little more as she sighed in relief. "Good," she whispered. The navigator leaned far over the table, and this time Robin came out to meet her. Nami whispered as quiet as possible into Robin's ear, "I guess, Riku is pretty hot, right?"

Robin leaned back and smiled devilishly at her friend, making Nami sweat in panic. "You can't tell anyone I just said that."

"Of course," Robin agreed. "Why do you think he is 'hot?'" The older woman asked interestedly.

"What, you don't?" Nami asked in surprise. Robin didn't say anything which was smart, and Nami appreciated it. "Good," the younger woman said with a small grin. "I mean, he's pretty muscular."

"So is Usopp-kun," Robin stated.

"Yeah but Usopp is... Well he's Usopp!" She exclaimed in a whisper, and Robin nodded as she knew exactly what her friend meant. Nami continued, "Riku isn't just muscular, he's got amazing silver hair, his green eyes pretty much trap you when he speaks to you."

"All of these are true, Riku-san is handsome," Robin agreed with her friend.

"It's not just that he's handsome," Nami continued, a far off look in her eyes. "He's been through so much. There's so much darkness in his past and in his heart, but yet," Nami hesitated and she realized Robin was looking straight into her eyes, listening closely for Nami to continue. Nami never told anyone this, mainly because she had only thought of it in the past few months, and a lot more so recently. "But yet," she continued again, less on a rant now and more just talking to her best friend. "He is still so, good. When we all went insane on the ship, he ran around trying to save us from ourselves. In Atlantis, he escaped the battle, but went back down because he wanted to help the Atlantians. The only reason he's following us right now is so he can save our lives if the moment comes, and back in the Dread Fort..." Nami faded off as she thought back on it.

Robin had been wondering about this for a while. "What did happen when you two were in the casino?" The black haired woman questioned. Nami had been acting strangely ever since they met up after the long night.

The younger girl stayed quiet for a few seconds, then whispered, "Riku saved us. Our worst demons were attacking us," her voice came out trembling. "Yet when Riku arrived, he was able to defeat Zexion, because he fights his demons every day. I, I had to face my mother, while she choked me, blamed me..." Nami clenched her eyes shut and didn't want to think about it anymore. While she had her eyes closed though, she thought about Riku showing up and knocking Zexion back who was pretending to be her mom. "Riku saved me."

"That is why you like him?" Robin questioned, hinting that maybe Nami was just in a phase because of him saving her.

"No," Nami replied, shaking her head. "When Luffy, or Zoro saved me, I never, felt like I do now."

Robin smiled lightly at her friend. She started quietly, "Unfortunately, I do believe Riku-san has his eyes set on another."

"I know," Nami said sadly. She wasn't sad for herself though, but for the boy she was speaking of. "I want to help him though," she continued, looking up into Robin's dark eyes. "We all know Sora and Kairi are meant to be together, but Riku still has feelings for her. So," Nami continued, a huge smirk coming to her face, "I have an idea."

* * *

 **THE NEXT MORNING**

Rin turned the page on the menu he was holding up over the table. "It's amazing how many different types of pancakes they can make on this train. Chocolate chip, blueberry, I don't even know what jellyfish jelly tastes like." He closed the menu and licked his lips. "I might just have to try them all."

"There's gotta be an entire train car solely for cooking all this food," Usopp muttered in amazement as he also looked at the menu. He looked up at the huge car they were in right now with dozens of rows of booths going three columns wide. There were hundreds of people in a single booth, so using an entire full-length train car just for cooking seemed crazy to him. _Then again, if there are hundreds of people in only one train car, then there've gotta be thousands of people on the train for them to cook for._

"It's pretty impressive huh Sanji?" Killua asked the blond-haired chef on the other side of the booth as him.

Sanji hummed to himself for a moment and he put down the menu, "I was not overwhelmed by the dinner last night." The chef casually stood up and put his hands in his pockets. He walked out into the aisle, pushing by Usopp who grumbled at him for being annoying or something.

"Where are you going?" the long-nosed pirate who Sanji squeezed past questioned.

Sanji grinned while he walked off and he just lifted up a hand that he waved next to his shoulder. He turned to his right as he was walking past Nami and Robin's booth and he pulled the curtains aside a little, "Nami-swann, Robin-chwann! I am going to make you the best breakfast you-"

"Out!" Nami snapped, lifting her head from the pillow she had it resting on right on top of the table. Robin sat across from her holding a book in her hands and she smiled at Sanji, but motioned with her head for him to leave as well.

Sanji's face filled with rejection and he bowed his head, letting go of the curtain and starting to walk away. Robin lowered her book and looked at Nami with eyebrows raised for a few seconds until Nami finally sighed. The tired woman who was up late gossiping with Robin lightly slapped herself in the face to wake herself up, then poked her own head out of the curtain. "Sanji-san!" She called out in a lovey-dovey tone. The man staring at the floor as he walked away with his hands in his pockets flinched and lifted up his head.

Nami smiled and said, "Bring us the tastiest treat you can make!"

"Yes Nami-sann!" Sanji exclaimed. He spun around in a blur and then sprinted off down the aisle so fast that wind rushed into the booths around him.

While Sanji headed off to go find the kitchen car, Nami shook herself fully awake. She knew there was no way she would be going back to sleep considering how loud it was in the booths around her. She was already trying to just cover her ears and go back to bed when Sanji checked in on them.

As she was rummaging through her pack on the same side of the booth as her, looking for an outfit to wear today, she noticed Robin watching her over the top of her book. Nami glanced over wondering why that was, then her own eyes opened wide as she remembered what they talked about through most of the night. Nami turned again and she leaned her head out of the curtains.

She looked back a few booths, past the one with Rin, Killua, and Usopp, to the one behind it. She could see the back of their giant cyborg on the side closer to her, Luffy on the other side near the window, and a teen with spiky silver hair sitting in the aisle at the perfect angle for Nami to see him. Riku had his head leant back and his hands interlocked behind it.

"So," Robin began, and Nami yanked her head back into the booth as she realized she had been staring for too long. Robin chuckled and continued, "Let us begin."

Nami felt a bead of sweat rolling down the left side of her face, but she nodded determinedly and pounded her fists down on the table. "Yosh!" She started getting changed fast while Robin kept watch, and as soon as she was finished, Robin put down her book and stood up. She opened up the curtains and left them that way as she walked back down the car towards the boys' booths.

Robin walked past the booth closer to theirs, and up to the one where her captain was sitting. Luffy looked away from the window feeling her approaching and Riku leaned forward a bit as well. Franky saw them looking behind him and he looked over his left shoulder to see Robin strolling right up to his side of the booth. "Franky," she began, smiling at the cyborg next to her. "I have an idea for a vehicle that I would like to work on with you if you are not busy."

"Really?" Franky asked in surprise. Robin nodded at him and he smiled wide, and he posed with his arms up above his head. "Suuu-per! Sit down-"

"Actually," Robin continued before he could finish. "I already made a sketch of the design, but I would like to keep it a secret until it is complete. I believe Luffy-san would like it better that way," she flashed her captain a smile and tilted her head to the side.

"Whattt?" Luffy moaned. "I want to see the cool thing now," he complained childishly, making Riku start chuckling in his expense.

"You're a hundred percent correct!" Franky agreed and jumped out of his seat. "The best inventions are most Super right when they're revealed! You got it!"

"Thank you," she said. She motioned with her head for him to follow her back to the girls' booth, but she paused for a second and looked back at Luffy. "I'm surprised to see you still here Luffy. I would have thought you would be with Sanji."

"Huh? Where'd Sanji go?" Luffy asked in confusion. Riku leaned out of the aisle a little too and looked over the seat behind Franky, and he noticed the blond haired chef's head was nowhere to be seen.

"He said something about making breakfast, and he went looking for where they cook the food-" Luffy slammed his palms down on the table and jumped up on top of his seat. Riku had to duck as the captain jumped over him, and he sighed as Luffy ran off faster than the other two pirates who chuckled to each other and then continued walking away themselves, Franky asking all sorts of questions about Robin's vehicle design.

Riku watched them go and then looked farther down the aisle to see a pink blob monster sludging its way towards him. If he hadn't already seen the thing yesterday and heard it ask him what he wanted for dinner, he would have been more concerned. The thing was covered in gooey tentacles making it easy for it to carry several trays of plates, water pitchers, wine bottles, silverware, and anything else a waiter might need all at the same time.

He sat back in his seat again figuring he had a few minutes until the guy would show up. _Though I'm not really all that hungry anyway,_ he thought and closed his eyes.

"Hey," a voice said from about a foot away from him. He flinched and turned his head, managing not to grunt in surprise or make any more than just that small motion. Even his expression when he turned was not of surprise but instead looked like he was awaiting the person to continue, surprising Nami who thought she had caught him not paying attention. She got nervous for a second, but didn't let it show and leaned down more over the table next to Riku. If she did not always wear such indecent clothing, Riku may have been tipped off to her intentions, but still his eyes lingered on the top of her low cut blue tank top. It definitely showed off her... assets. "Come with me," she demanded.

"Why?" Riku questioned, looking up into Nami's brown eyes with his green ones.

She stared into his eyes for a second and suddenly forgot what he just asked her, making her flustered. _What did he say? What did he- WHY!_ "Because I told you to," she replied, keeping on a sense of authority on the issue. She continued anyway to explain herself, "I'm going to take a look around, there could be some dangerous people on this train."

"Ahh, I see," Riku replied, smirking up at Nami as she leaned back and looked at him with a smirk of her own. He pulled his arms from behind his head down in front of his body and he pointed a finger at her. "You know, this is getting to be a habit," he said. "Didn't know you needed so much protecting."

"Hmph," Nami humphed. She turned her head and her long orange hair flipped behind her. "It's not that I need it," she stated while starting to walk away, swaying her hips a little more than usual. She turned her head a little and looked at Riku out the corner of her right eye as he stared ahead at her, "I'd just rather not get my hands dirty. Besides, you should be honored I'm asking for an escort-"

"Alright, alright," Riku started, getting up out of his seat. "Guess I don't have much of a choice do I?" He asked, stepping out of his booth and crossing his arms in front of his chest. The six foot two inch tall teenager had on a pair of jeans and a yellow shirt with a black, sleeveless jacket on over it. There was a large black X over the front of his t-shirt as well, crossing lines from his shoulders down to the opposite sides of his waist. He walked up to a waiting Nami and the two of them walked down the wide aisle together in the opposite direction as Luffy and Sanji went.

Robin was in the middle of a conversation with Franky who was sitting on the side of the train closer to the boys' booths, so she was able to see around him into the hallway. While Franky talked about her design and pointed something out on the drawing she had made that morning before Nami awoke, she smiled watching Riku and Nami leave the train car for the next one. The orange haired younger woman glanced back once and gave her a small smirk before heading out.

Okumura Rin was staring out the window, while Usopp bragged about some crazy story to Killua. The assassin with big spikes of white hair was tuning him out though, instead watching the door between train cars close and start chuckling to himself. Usopp thought he was laughing at his story and he tilted his head back and laughed, "It is pretty amazing isn't it?! Hahaha!"

Kil nodded his head, but he looked away from the man across from him and back a few booths from him where he could see Nico Robin looking over at that train car door Nami just left from. Robin saw the boy looking her way and she made eye contact with him, and Killua started laughing at the expression she made when she realized they were discovered. Usopp asked him something and Robin sighed internally as Killua waved him off, playing it off as nothing.

 _I should have expected Killua-kun would see right through that,_ she thought to herself, then shook her head slightly and refocused on the design that Franky was putting additions on now and was actually looking pretty impressive.

In the car behind them, Nami and Riku walked in to see another car full of people in booths just like theirs. "How many train cars did you see back at the Dread Fort?" Riku questioned as he tried thinking back on it.

"You know, I think we were closer to the front," Nami began, "because when we got on I could barely see the first car."

"Oh. You're right, the front car was in sight," Riku said, and he added, "I couldn't see the last car of the train from the station though."

"Big train," Nami commented.

"Yep," Riku said and nodded his head.

They kept walking and though Riku was thinking about the number of train cars, Nami was mentally panicking. _Big train? BIG TRAIN?! He just said it went on farther than he could see, of course he knows it's a big train! AH! It's so much easier flirting with guys I don't like!_ She calmed herself down as they both spotted a strange couple of aliens with green skin covered in spikes almost like cactuses. Neither of them said something as they approached, but once they were past they glanced at each other and shared a grin, before Nami started giggling and was unable to hold it in despite putting a hand over her mouth.

She looked over her shoulder to make sure the couple did not spot her, only to see them staring at her. Her face turned blue and Riku put an arm interlocked with one of hers at the elbow, pulling her along as she had stopped walking in that sudden embarrassment. "Geez," Riku muttered once they were a good distance away, "laughing at a couple of aliens right behind their backs." He shook his head disapprovingly, "I'm disappointed."

"Wh-What?!" Nami exclaim-whispered at him. "But, you, that look-"

Riku could not help the grin from pulling at the corners of his lips and Nami's flustered expression turned into one of shock, then anger and she smacked him on the arm. "Not funny," she muttered, looking back ten booths to the cactus aliens... "Wait, those were aliens?" Nami asked, spinning around again.

"You know Nami, most aliens I've run into have better hearing than humans," Riku continued as he kept walking. "So you really should stop talking about them." Once he said it, Nami's bottom lip lowered seeing both cactus people turn their heads and glare back at her again.

'Sorry,' she mouthed their way, but their angry expressions showed it was not forgiven. Nami turned and jogged after Riku who kept walking away only with his arms crossed in front of his chest again. In a quiet whisper she began, "How'd you know they were aliens?"

"There's a simple trick to that actually," Riku started, and Nami looked at him with interest, wondering what kind of trick Riku had for this. The boy opened his mouth, and explained, "They were green and covered in spikes. What else would they be?"

Nami lowered her bottom lip. She held up a hand and opened her mouth wide to say something in response, but nothing came to mind and she dropped her hand and closed her mouth. "That, is true," she mumbled. _You are blowing it! He probably thinks you're an idiot!_

 _Wow, I thought Nami was smarter than this,_ Riku thought, trying hard not to crack a smile at how tactless she was being only a minute into their excursion around the train. "How you managed to hustle an entire casino escapes me," Riku said smugly.

Nami gawked at him for a second, then retorted confidently, "A crooked casino mind you. They were cheating too, and they robbed their customers." She tilted her head back like she was looking down on everyone else and she finished, "But I'm the best thief there is. No two-bit casino's going to pull one over on me."

While she tilted her head back, she unknowingly pushed her chest outward making her large breasts bounce in her tight-fitting shirt, catching a quick glance from Riku. The nineteen year old had to remind himself where Nami's eyes were after an instant and looked up while she was still talking. He smirked to see she had not witnessed his momentary lapse in judgement and thus could not hold it over his head to gain some of the imaginary power she had over everyone else.

 _Never really understood how the navigator got to be the one giving out most of the orders,_ he thought while they continued to walk and banter with each other. _Luffy gives out orders when he really wants to, but those occasions are pretty rare. Nami controls the course, watches over the money, scolds the captain... and she couldn't figure out those were a couple of aliens back there._ He shook his head and sighed with a small smile, _It's the little things._

They walked through the train car and a few of the next ones, talking without any real purpose. As they were walking through a car maybe ten away from the one they left their things, Riku overheard some people talking on his left. He looked over across the middle booths at the aisle across the train and listened in as they were walking the same direction he and Nami were. "Alright, follow me up at the end of the car."

"Y-You sure there isn't a special area?" the man walking next to the one who spoke first questioned.

"I'm sure. This is not my first time taking the train you know," the first guy responded. He was wearing a dark yellow button down and black pants, and he had a soft hat on with a rim on the front of it. The hat was gray and black and looked like something someone would take hunting, which made sense considering he had a double-barrel shotgun on his back. He was a few inches taller than the man following just behind him who wore a pair of glasses that he pushed up nervously as he continued towards the end of the train car.

"Where do you think they're going?" Nami questioned. The two of them watched as the men reached the end of the car near the door they just entered from, but the men did not reach for the door. Instead, the man in a yellow button down lifted up one of his muscular arms and tapped a button on the right of the doorway.

Riku lifted up his eyebrows interestedly as a panel on the ceiling opened up and light from outside flooded into the train. The wind pushing against the train seemed like it would make a lot of noise, but there must have been barriers up on the top of the train car because the buffeting noise Riku expected did not come with the open panel. Ten prongs of a ladder stuck out of the wall a second after the ceiling opened and without delay, the taller man with broader shoulders started climbing up.

The chubby guy wearing glasses looked back and forth as if wondering if this was okay, but even if it wasn't, there were no guards on this train car to stop them. He finally just looked up and hoped his companion knew what he was doing before climbing after him.

The silver haired teen watching this go on glanced around and did not see anyone looking that upset that those two just climbed up on top of the train. _We're moving so fast that they would fly off easily, unless there's actually something up there._ He turned to Nami, "Let's go check it out."

She spun in surprise, "You want to climb, up there?" She asked, right as the ceiling panel closed again and darkened the edge of the train just a bit so only the lights inside kept the vehicle illuminated. "We'll fall right off," Nami exclaimed in a hushed whisper.

"I doubt it," Riku said, then motioned with his head back the way they came and started walking off.

"Riku," Nami hissed but started following him back anyway. "This seems like a bad idea. We're already being hunted. Doing something out of the ordinary like this is a really easy way to get caught."

"I think I can handle any guards this train might have," Riku said calmly. Nami opened her mouth to argue, solely for the sake of arguing as she knew he was right there. _It isn't about if you can beat them. I don't want to have to leave the train._

"Rrggh," Nami grumbled, but she followed Riku over to that section of the wall where the button was and said nothing as he pressed it. "Guess we're going up," she said, and before Riku could start, she grabbed the rungs that stuck out of the wall and started to climb. He looked at her in surprise for a second, and then a second later he was still watching her as she climbed, only for a different reason.

Nami got halfway up the ladder and then looked back down, seeing Riku staring exactly where she wanted him to. The short shorts she was wearing purposely made her ass look great and she smirked down at him and asked, "Are you coming?" There was already space on the ladder beneath her and she caught Riku hesitating because of the view he had.

He grabbed the rungs without rushing so as to avoid suspicion, but Nami was not fooled and turned back up with a more smug look on her face. _Here we go,_ she thought, finally getting out of her rut. With newfound confidence, Nami climbed through the roof and pulled herself to her feet on top of the moving train. She could feel some forceful wind, but nothing too strong for her to stand in, just enough to make her hair get in her face. Nami started tying her hair into a ponytail while Riku finished climbing, so they both saw the top of the train at pretty much the same time.

Nami's confidence was shaken as she looked around the top of the train car they were on. She turned around and looked over the gap to the car they had just came from, and her bottom lip lowered even more as it turned out this was not the only roof to look like this. "The tops look different than back in the Dread Fort. I'm guessing these barriers lifted up when we started moving," Riku mentioned. He looked far back and then far forward on the train cars where there were a lot more than just two people standing up there. He had figured as much, whereas Nami half expected the two men who climbed up before them to be the only ones up there.

On every single train car's roof there was at least one person, and the one they were on had one other person up there other than the two who just climbed up. The muscular man in yellow and his glasses-wearing companion were on the right side of the train, looking over the curved glass barrier that went up five feet. The closer they got to it the less wind was blocked so the guy with glasses was standing back a little. There were other wind-breakers sticking out of the sides of the glass walls though and at the ends of each car sticking up much taller than five feet.

"Don't be such a coward," the muscular guy with short cropped brown hair and a thin mustache told the other behind him. He walked right up to the barrier and took his shotgun off his back, pressing a button on the side of it that made a small circular iron sight lift off of the gun. There was a red dot in the middle of the sight, and a beam of red came off of the glass circle that the man started looking through and cut through the air far off of the train. The weapon in his hands may have looked like a double-barrel shotgun, but telling from how far he was aiming, it looked like he had a lot more range than a normal shotgun would.

"Hunting huh?" a voice said behind the man who started looking over the grassy yet hilly area south of their train. The man whose mustache looked sinister lifted his head a little and turned it with an annoyed expression. He had caught a glance of these two coming up but did not have any interest in them, but now it seemed like they were going to try and start conversation with him. The person behind him was much younger than him himself, though the boy's green eyes and spiky silver hair caught the man's interest more than they did a second ago. "What are you hunting for?" Riku asked.

"Whatever crosses my sights," the man replied. "Smee," he started and the shorter man next to Riku jumped as he was suddenly referred to. "Get out your rifle, no time for dilly dally."

"Of course Clayton," the shorter man replied. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a black rectangle that Riku and Nami stared at oddly. The man called Smee wore a blue and white striped shirt and a pair of red pants. He pressed a button on the black rectangle that the younger people could not even see as it blended in with the rest of the box. What looked like a box turned out to be much more interesting however, as the rectangle extended out in both directions and started splitting in different sections to create a rifle that the somewhat pudgy, yet also toned five and a half foot tall man held in his hands. It was a smaller rifle than his comrade Clayton's, and had a green holographic sight on it without a red laser sticking off.

"You don't even know what you're looking for?" Nami questioned, her voice sounding like a scoff. The two hunters said nothing and she frowned, crossing her arms in front of her in annoyance as she did. "It's not like you're going to hit anything at the speed we're moving."

"I would not expect a woman to understand," Clayton began. Nami's forehead twitched and Riku frowned at the man's back as well while he continued to pan his sights over the landscape south of them. Nami saw movement to her right and glanced down the roof of the train car a bit to see a person in a black cloak with their hood up had flinched as well and turned partially their way. The person spun back to look off the north side of the train instead of their side, but Nami smirked as she definitely saw some long, woman-like hair sticking out of that person's hood. She could also see the rifle that woman was holding in her hands that proved Clayton was really just being arrogant and misogynistic.

Clayton continued, "But the rifles in our hands have aim assist as well as homing bullets. Best on the market."

Nami lifted up her eyebrows as she examined the weapons again. She looked at the black one in the smaller man's hands and nodded her head, _I wouldn't expect tech that could transform a box into a rifle to be super common, so I guess maybe he's not just bragging. And 'homing bullets?' What the Hell are those?_

Riku was thinking the same thing and guessing he was about to find out. There was something else bothering him though, and he questioned, "How did you two manage to obtain such great weapons?"

Smee froze and tensed up, his gun no longer panning over the landscape. "And now that I mention it," Riku continued. "Whatever you kill out there, you won't be able to get off the train and take your catch."

Clayton's hands were slowly tightening on his rifle as Riku spoke in a superior tone and he finally snapped and slammed the bottom of his shotgun down on the glass top, not cracking the strong glass in the slightest. He turned his head and glared at the teen behind him, "Hunting is as much a sport as a way to obtain money." Nami was staring at him harshly and Riku did not flinch from his harsh glare which only made Clayton angrier, "What? The majority of creatures we hunt are man-killing monsters. You should be thanking us for eliminating as many as we can."

Riku's look softened, but Nami spoke up behind him, "The majority?" She questioned his specific wording. "Which creatures do you hunt that don't kill people?"

Riku's eyes widened, but before Clayton could snap at them, Smee spoke up in a rushed voice. "Clayton!" The more muscular hunter spun back around, and Riku and Nami moved closer to their backs. The hunters in front of them aimed out on the hills and there was one they were approaching with something on it. The large gray beast was about a mile south of them and they were coming up on it fast.

"That creature on the hill," Riku said, his voice low and cold, making the men in front of him flinch. "It's called a Rhydon, and it is a Pokemon."

Smee gulped and lifted his head from the rifle a little. Clayton kept aiming down his sights and moved his rifle towards the direction of the huge creature that got up on two legs on the top of the hill and was looking their way at the fast-moving train flying by it.

"You kill Pokemon?!" Nami shouted at the men as Smee looked back at them nervously. "Aren't there laws against that here?!"

"Laws?" Clayton muttered, not tearing his eyes off his sights once. "What world do you live in woman? This world has no use for laws or rules. Any place that tries to implement them can not speak for the entire land."

"The hunting of Pokemon is only banned in Leam and Resistance lands," Smee began. "And also Lagann Island," he added.

"It's wrong," Riku said, staring straight into the man's eyes through his glasses to see if he understood that. "Wait a second," Riku muttered, blinking a few times as he stared at the chubby man there. The guy wearing glasses tensed up and started sweating badly, and Riku mumbled under his breath, "Don't I, know you from somewhere?"

Smee shook his head fast, but Clayton heard this and he actually lowered his rifle, turning around and glaring at Riku first and then at Smee. "You recognize this brat?" The hunter questioned his partner. Clayton saw the two of them staring at each other but he could not tell if they did or not, so he spun around fast and lifted back up his rifle.

Nami got up next to him though and pushed his rifle's barrel down. He glared at her but she glared right back, "Why would you kill Pokemon? They're gentle, nice creatures! You could just as easily catch them as kill them."

"Sometimes I do catch them," Clayton said while he yanked his weapon from her hands. "A live Pokemon is worth much more than a dead one after all." Nami's eyes widened and Clayton smirked as he lifted back up his rifle and turned off the side of the train, staring out towards the Pokemon they would be passing in seconds. He had his gun almost completely straight out now instead of pointed ahead of their car and his finger tightened around the trigger. "Rhydon meat is tough and chewy though, so not many humans like to eat it, and I don't like dealing with alien or ant scum. The black market's full of people who would love live Pokemon to be their slaves too, which I find more tasteful than selling other people."

Nami stared at this man in shock, having no idea who she was talking to until this moment. Riku figured out something right as Clayton was firing, and he rose up his hand which stopped Clayton's finger halfway through pulling the trigger. "What?!" Clayton shouted. Then, out of nowhere his weapon crumpled up and he dropped it in fear.

"Do not kill Pokemon, they are better creatures than you," Riku said. Nami turned to him in surprise, then shock as she saw the black surrounding his right hand that he was holding straight out in front of him. Clayton turned around and the hunter's eyes went wide making him stumble back into the glass barrier which he half-wanted to jump over to get away from the teen who suddenly had a very strong appearance.

"R-Riku," Smee whispered, knowing it for sure now. The last time he had seen this nineteen year old was when Riku was still a kid, and he had only met him the once.

"Mr. Smee," Riku said, his voice harsh while he still held that blackened hand out in front of him. He looked closely at the shorter man than Clayton and he moved his right hand towards him. Smee stumbled back so he was pressed against the glass too, and Nami was starting to sweat as Riku looked very angry in the moment. Nami saw the woman on the other end of the train car turning their way and her weapon was half-raised, almost like she agreed with what Riku was doing stopping them, but also felt hostile towards the sight of the darkness like most people would be. "I remember you now," Riku said as he looked at the former pirate. "You were on Hook's ship." He looked at Smee's cool weapon, made his darkness surround it, and then lowered his hand and let the darkness fade without crushing it. "You were on Maleficent's side, but so was I back then. And to tell the truth, you helped me find Kairi when she lost her heart."

Clayton was staring at the two of them with narrowing eyes. This talk about hearts was pissing him off and his fists clenched in front of him. He and Smee had been traveling together for a while, and they knew things about the other that connected them. "Another world traveler I presume," Clayton snarled.

"'Another?'" Nami asked, her eyes widening.

Riku turned back to Clayton as well, and he smirked as he saw the hunter's expression. "My guess is he's acquainted with Sora." By Clayton's instant snarl Riku knew he was right and chuckled some more. Nami closed her eyes and shook her head, _Everyone. They literally know everyone!_ Riku turned back to Smee and his glare returned, "I did not destroy your weapon Smee, but if you use it on Pokemon again." He looked back at the other hunter, "If either of you do…"

The two men tensed up and then their fear tripled as out of the train's roof in front of either of them appeared beings that had their exact shapes only pitch black with creepy glowing white smiles on their dark faces. "I will know," Riku said. The men covered in sweat and beneath their dark shadows appeared circles of black that Shadow Smee and Shadow Clayton started sinking down into, slowly. "And if you harm a single Pokemon without the intention of becoming its master and treating it well," Riku continued, right as the heads of the shadow hunters sank down into the darkness. The circles vanished and Riku finished, "I will pull you two into a void you will never escape from."

Nami kept staring at Riku in almost the same way the other men were for a few seconds. He turned to her and opened his mouth to say something, and he caught a glimpse of her expression before she tried lowering it fast back to normal. She was too late and he turned away and back towards the panel on the roof to go back inside. He walked away leaving the terrified hunters behind, but Nami ran up to him before he reached the panel and grabbed him by the arm. "Riku," she said softly while he paused.

He looked down at the panel and clenched his teeth. _Why do I keep using the darkness? I know what it can do. I know it's evil._ _ **"It is power. When one has power, it becomes hard not to rely on it."**_ _It would be easier if I just didn't have this power._ _ **"You do not truly wish for that, and you know it as well as I do."**_ _…I know. The strength to protect my friends comes from my darkness._ _ **"Our darkness."**_ Ansem correcting him there was the last straw and Riku shook his head to get the voice out of his mind. He reached for the button on top of the panel sticking out of a four foot steel prism coming off the roof that said 'OPEN' over it, but Nami tugged on the arm she grabbed. "What?" he muttered.

"We're not going inside this soon," Nami said. Riku turned to her confusedly and got even more so as Nami smiled at him. She motioned her head towards the front of the train and there looked to be cracks on glass panels separating the cars. She let go of his hand and walked towards the panels, tapping a button on it and making the glass doors drop down to become glass bridges that went over the gaps between cars. "Come on," she said without looking back at him, expecting him to follow along anyway. "There must be better company on the top of this train than a couple of lousy hunters."

Riku stared at Nami's back for a few moments and this time his eyes never lingered to her butt. He just stared right at the back of her head and the ponytail swinging back and forth behind it. "Yeah," he muttered and finally started following after her. "Guess you're right," he admitted. Riku put his hands in his pockets and shot a glare back at Smee and Clayton who were staring at him but spun away when he gave them that look. _Yeah, what am I upset over? I probably just saved a lot of Pokemon by doing that. Even if it was with the darkness. Usopp's been getting me down, but I know that good can come out of using the darkness, from_ _ **being**_ _the darkness._

Deep inside his mind, a being hiding its true thoughts from Riku ground its metaphysical teeth. Riku's rage and sadness faded but the darkness was still there. Riku continued to smile even though the darkness was on his fingertips. Ansem said nothing to the teenager controlling him, but Riku's hold over the darkness was stronger than he had ever felt it. _**You have become much stronger.**_ _I know I have._ Riku thought and he could almost hear the gasp inside his mind that made him chuckle as he continued to walk after Nami. _Yeah, thought I couldn't hear your thoughts right? Sometimes if I'm really paying attention I'll hear you back there Ansem._ _ **"You should only be able to hear me when I permit it."**_ _Well, it's like you said. I'm becoming stronger. Thanks by the way._ _ **"You thank me?"**_ _Couldn't have become this strong without you. Hurts to admit, but I know it's true. Zexion couldn't handle just me alone, just thinking about what we can do when we really work together excites me for our chances for future battles._

Ansem said nothing back to him. Riku chuckled some more to himself as he kept walking and caught up to Nami though, the woman looking at him confusedly as he seemed in oddly a good mood after the depressed look he just had on his face. Riku turned to Nami and saw her look to which he said, "It's nothing. Let's head up a couple of cars to that crowded one," he said it while still looking at her and Nami spun forward to look past a few more glass barriers at what he was referring to. She nodded her head as she saw a dozen or two people standing up there, many of them looking like children which she definitely preferred to disgusting older men who liked killing Pokemon for 'sport.'

The two of them strolled over to the crowded car that was full of loud people. There were three kids running around and older teenagers looking down at them in annoyance. A few adults were standing on the right side of the train looking out over the southern hills in amazement, but Riku and Nami looked the other way as they heard someone shout to look. The two of them walked over and some people made room for them at the edge.

Nami let out an audible gasp and even Riku had to whistle as he stared out to the left. The train looked like it was not heading directly east, as it must have headed north a little bit too and they were nearing something massive. The ground below the tracks was green and covered in grass on both sides, but only two hundred meters to their left side, the ground vanished. They were closing that two hundred meter gap slowly and far in front of them they could see the start of the train was much closer to the ledge. Nami and Riku stared over that ledge and into the black crack that stretched farther than they could see. About twenty to thirty miles out from the edge of the crack there was a low fog rolling about so the northern side was not visible.

"That's the Cataclysm," Riku said softly.

Nami glanced at him and saw Riku frowning deeply. "What is it?" She questioned him.

"Ansem's been here before," Riku said in a low voice. His expression darkened and he continued, "I didn't remember, until now. but I've definitely seen this before. Looking at it now, brings back memories, memories of when I had no control." All that time he spent under Ansem's control was a blur, most of the time he barely remembered any of it. He felt like his life ended when Ansem took over and started back up again when his friends saved him from Castle Oblivion. Still, he remembered this place, he remembered looking over the crack and seeing nothing for miles.

Nami stared at the side of Riku's face and she could not tell what he was thinking. His expression was hard to read, but she could see the pain masked by that serious gaze. She lifted her right hand, hesitated, then put it down on Riku's shoulder. He started and glanced at his left shoulder to see Nami's hand there, but on the other side of it the woman was looking out over the Cataclysm like he was a second ago. He looked surprised for a moment, then smiled softly and looked back out to the north again. "Thanks," he said. Nami did not respond, but she squeezed the hand on his shoulder lightly and just nodded her head, while desperately trying to stop a grin from spreading on her face.

* * *

 **A/N Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the chapter and the new pairing of characters from different universes which we have not seen much since Nexus began. Anyway, I just finished my last final of my second year at college, I turned 20 a couple of days ago, and in a week I'm going on a trip to Italy! Until that flight though, I'm planning on posting erry day! I was about to start my drive home (23 hours long), but I decided to post this chapter first, and I'll probably post another at whatever motel I stop at tonight! The group is on their way to Sin City and then they plan on heading north to continue their search for Zoro. Next part of Chapter 8, Sin City, get ready...**

Joebob323 chapter 44 . May 10

Sorry about the guest account, I am currently going through problems with my actual account. I liked this chapter a lot, particularly the part where Luffy finally defeats a strong opponent in Arbirth. You did well this chapter, and I cannot wait for the next time we see the group. A few questions though, which group will make it to the prison with black star and the others first? And when will we see more Super sayian action? I also wondered if Xoupps is actually strong, unlike his counterpart. Or if it simply is the fact that his bluff skill is OVER 9000! XD couldn't resist the puns

 **Glad you liked the final battle! Luffy's getting his name known in Aebrith as a lot of people definitely saw him kicking Saix's butt. Can't answer that first question... SPOILERS! But the second q, I'll let you know that within the next 5 parts you'll get some SS action... XD No news on Xoupps, but I liked the puns! Thanks for the** **review!**

Darugus chapter 44 . May 11

Nice chapter  
It's good to see you back after a break  
Well it looks like said is defeated by luffy without luffy going all out  
Looking forward with what comes next with sin city and what's going on with the other group  
I wonder what color luffy is going to get promoted to since he beat a lord and it wasn't really a secret since they were fighting in the middle of town and saix was screaming luffy's name out

 **Thanks! Yeah, Saix gave away Luffy's name, though because of the IDs they might have figured out who he was anyway. Luffy didn't go Gear Fourth and he still took down a Lord, showing he's got the power to be a major player on Aebrith. Luffy's rank... ;) Well you'll just have to see, soon, hint hint... XD Thanks for another review! Thanks again to everyone who faved, followed, read and reviewed! 'Till next time!**


	46. Nexus HWR 8-8 Sin City

**Nexus HWR 8.8 Sin City:**

"The connecting train to Rakushou is on Platform C. All passengers heading to stops in northern Aebrith remain on this train. This stop is Sin City. This is the train to Pyraxas. As we arrive at the Bridge of Azulon there will be heavy checks by the Fire Nation army. If you are going to make a problem for the train, just get off now."

The Straw Hats and their friends looked around at each other as they were getting out of their seats. The announcements seemed directed at them, and Killua suddenly spun around and glared to the other end of their train car. He spotted a couple of train conductors standing there watching as a few others disembarked from the train, but those conductors were not watching those people, they were staring right past over at their group. _Shit, cover's blown._ He turned to his friends, "Let's get out of here fast."

The others were in agreement and they grabbed their things and headed for the doors closer to them which conveniently did not have anyone standing in front of. They got into a space between cars and then stepped out onto the platforms outside the train. The suns were up high in the sky, beating down on the crew who shielded their eyes from the sudden bright light. Usopp had an arm in front of his face as he looked up, and he put his goggles down to give himself some protection from the bright sunlight. As soon as he could see though, his jaw dropped and he started shaking nervously. "G-Guys," he said.

His friends were all looking around the platform, at the tall buildings in a different part of the city, and to their right out of the city where rolling green hills only covered part of what they could see. Those green hills were what they could see from their booths that morning, but had they been on the other side of the train as they just neared the city, they would have noticed that the train tracks ran almost along the edge of a massive cliff that dropped into darkness. There was nothing there but an edge, almost like the entire world just ended and they could not see the other side from the angle they were at. They hoped that maybe when the train left they could turn fully around and would be able to see the other side.

The others looking at all this turned to Usopp, then followed his gaze up into the sky and most of their jaws dropped. Killua, Robin, and Riku had noticed it as soon as they got off the train, but still the sight in the air only cemented what they already feared. Riku snapped his head back down and darted his gaze left and right on the platform. _Six, ten, no. I count at least twenty soldiers on the platform alone. There are more in the streets, I swear I just saw two tanks roll by._

"What the Hell is going on here?" Nami wondered aloud as she continued to stare in the sky where one of the huge objects floated in between her and the sun and let her get a better look at it. The blimp was massive. It was a giant balloon with an ovular shape, red covering on the outside of the helium that held it up, and a long metal piece beneath the actual balloon part that was only a fraction the height of the rest of the blimp, but had windows on it and catwalks sticking off with ladders going up them to different parts of the flying machine. The dark red covering to the machine had a bright red circle right in the center of its side, and in the middle of that red circle there was a black flame symbol with a curved bottom and three sharp points at the top. The machine's steel bottom was lined with turrets, many of those turrets glowed orange, they had tanks that looked to be filled with gas on the sides of them, and there were bomb ports beneath the steel bottom of the ship.

And there were close to fifty of these blimps flying above Sin City. The flame inside the circle was not a symbol many of them recognized, but they could guess whose it was: the Fire Nation's.

"Looks like they're going to war," Robin remarked, looking down and around at the soldiers bustling around the city near them. At first she was nervous that those soldiers were on the platform to take care of them, but she looked far down the platform nearly a half mile and spotted a squad of soldiers in black and red armor helping some train workers unload the train. She also spotted one of those workers look down the platform while talking to a Fire Nation guard, and she turned to her comrades behind her, "We should move."

"And go where?" Franky questioned as he was also starting to be on the lookout. He started walking after some other people in a crowd who must have been heading to an exit.

"Off the platform," Riku said, as they could figure anything else out after that. He started walking forward and Nami walked next to him, and with the navigator moving, the rest of the Straw Hat boys followed behind her.

Killua was about to walk after the rest of them, but he stopped and turned his head left to see Rin glaring around at the tall buildings inside Sin City. Even while the rest of them were focused on the blimps up above, Okumura Rin's eyes were darting around Sin City and the teenager was growling under his breath. "What's up?" Killua asked his friend. Rin turned to the younger boy and the look of anger on his face was unmistakeable, but he also looked very, very nervous.

Riku hid it well as he walked with the Straw Hats, but his eyes continuously darted around him and his fists were clenched at his sides. Nami noticed the young man next to her was tensed up and she thought it was because of two Fire Nation soldiers they were about to walk past near the bottom of the stairs that they were heading down the platform on. She became confused though as Riku was not looking at those soldiers at all, but straight to his right at the empty area beneath the platform on the right of the steps. The area was filled with trash and Nami was confused at why Riku was glaring at that area so intensely, then she almost jumped as he leaned back and snapped his gaze up, growling as they went flying right up over his head.

"What's gotten into you?" Nami questioned the man while they all walked past the distracted guards and managed not to draw any attention. Nami was worried about Luffy doing it, but Riku was the one acting really out of the ordinary right now. She glanced back at those guards, but even though they could not have missed seeing Riku's weird movements, neither of them were looking at the teen. If anything… _they're looking the same way as him._ Nami came to a stop and she spun left and looked up in the air, but there was nothing there. "Riku, what's going on?" She questioned in a low whisper.

Killua and Rin stood at the edge of the platform closest to Sin City. Kil was getting very nervous as Rin snapped his head left, right, up, and down, every direction in the city with the same look of distress on his face. "They're everywhere," Rin said. He glanced down at Kil and said in a deep, angry tone, "Demons. I knew Astaroth would be here, but," he turned back and looked up at a skyscraper that had a purple demon as wide as the building itself sitting on top of it. "There's so many of them," Rin hissed.

The kid with spiky white hair did not like the sound of that. _What the Hell am I supposed to do about enemies I can't see? It's not like staying with Rin is going to help either, they're all after him for some reason after all. Guess it's time to go chill with Riku._ "Come on," Killua began. "We should stay with the others," he suggested and started walking down the steps to head over to Riku who he could see also looking around at demonic entities around the city.

"Yeah," Rin muttered, and he shoved his hands in his pockets and followed along. Rin had on a light blue sweatshirt, and he reached up and grabbed the hood bunched up behind his neck. The young man lifted his hood over his head as he and Killua walked down the steps, and he received a few strange looks from his comrades ahead of them who were waiting up for a second and looking back their way.

"What's up with you?" Sanji asked the teen whose deep frown he could see even though his face was shadowed over.

"It's nothing," Rin said. "What's our next move?" He wanted to keep the topic off him, though the others noticed his fists clenched pretty hard at his sides.

Luffy stared at the black haired teen confusedly for a few seconds, then frowned as something was obviously up. Robin came walking back towards the center of the road next to the train platforms, as she had walked away a minute ago to head to the nearby ticket booth where she figured she could get some information from the old woman there. When she came back, she looked at Luffy who was wearing a much simpler disguise than they got him on the train with, wearing only a fake white beard and mustache now and the top hat over his straw one to keep him unrecognizable. Unfortunately, Robin looked at him and thought back to what she saw on the wall behind the woman in the ticket booth, and to her they looked very similar.

"We will not be able to get on the train across the Bridge of Azulon," she began. Her friends all turned to her and Robin continued in a quiet voice just loud enough for them all to hear her, "The Fire Nation is closely allied with the Organization. Their lands border each other so it is to be expected, however, that means that in this country, Luffy has a bounty." Luffy's eyes sparkled and his mouth curled into a huge smile.

"How much is my-" Robin waved an arm in front of her and two arms appeared on Luffy's face and covered his mouth. He was shouting too loud and there were five guards walking right behind him at that moment. She did not want him finishing that sentence, and the rest of the group let out sighs of relief as the guards walked by without saying anything.

Without releasing her ability over Luffy, Robin stated, "Twenty million dollars." Luffy's excited smile fell into a frown and Robin's arms vanished as she could tell he no longer felt like shouting.

"That's disappointing," he mumbled.

"Gotta start over before you reach 400 million again," Usopp told his captain with a shrug.

While Usopp said this though, Nami was doing some calculations in her head and her eyes bugged open wide. "Wait a second," Nami was putting things together fast and she slowly looked around at the group with an increasingly nervous expression on her face. "Luffy was worth 400 million _Beris_ on our world. Here, I've been buying clothes for ten, twenty dollars, clothes that would be worth a thousand to two thousand." Some of the others were catching on and Nami continued slowly, "If a single dollar is a hundred times what a Beri is worth, then, then 20 million dollars," she gulped and a few of her comrades' eyes were growing before she even finished, "is the same as two billion Beris."

Luffy's jaw hit the floor, literally. His rubber jaw stayed there though his comrades in the Straw Hats had theirs down pretty far as well. Riku watched all this in amusement, thinking to himself, _I wonder how much Beris and dollars would be converted to Munny?_

 _How much are those things converted into Jenny?_ Killua was thinking along very similar lines as Riku. While the Straw Hats started whisper shouting about how crazy this was, Kil turned to Rin and asked, "What kind of currency did your world use?"

Rin was not focused, instead glaring down the road at three demons he saw crossing an intersection. He turned as Killua asked if he was alright and he nodded fast, "Yeah, um, well in Japan we used yen, but dollars were the currency of America, so I guess the money here is the same as from my own world."

"America huh?" Killua wondered. "That's where Dash, Ben, and Timmy said they were from." His voice got quieter right at the end of his sentence, and he immediately wished he had not said it as he spotted Nami dart her eyes to the floor and her hands clench tightly into fists. "I wonder how they're doing?" Killua continued, leaning back and interlocking his hands behind his head without missing a beat from his previous sentence. "Knowing Ben and Dash, they probably got themselves in a whole lot of trouble. Heh, Timmy will probably have to bail them out of it, again," Killua smirked and chuckled a couple times.

Nami smiled while she was staring at the floor and her fists unclenched. _Yeah, Timmy's just fine,_ she reminded herself, staying positive despite not knowing where the boy was. "Alright," she snapped her head up with a determined smile and looked around at her comrades, "We've gotta figure out a way to get across the Cataclysm. If we can't take this bridge, we can head east and try to leave Fire Nation land before heading farther to the first bridge after their territory."

"Hey, Zoro's probably farther east anyway!" Usopp said optimistically.

It was a baseless suggestion but they all liked the idea of it. Luffy was about to say something about it, when he felt a weird sensation in the back of his neck and turned his head sideways. He glared behind him and saw some shimmers in the air, and then the faces of two red monsters appeared in the air to him. His eyes opened wide at the sight of them, but before he could turn farther around, a hand grabbed him by the front of his right shoulder and spun him to the rest of the group. Riku stood directly in front of Luffy and he shook his head back and forth, "Luffy, it's great you're starting to see demons, but don't start anything with them right now."

As Riku finished talking he darted his gaze to the left and saw Rin shaking where he stood as he glared after those two red monsters. Nami opened her eyes huge and she hissed towards Riku, "That's what you were looking at? There are demons all over the city?"

"What?!" Usopp's face turned blue as he whisper-yelled.

"Ignore them," Rin growled under his breath. _Don't get them caught up in this. They will only get hurt if you do._ "Listen guys, it will take a while to figure out where we're going, right?" He glanced around and didn't really wait for anyone to answer him before continued, "Alright then. Let's meet up back near that train ticket booth in a couple hours." Rin turned and glared down a road where he could feel a large demonic presence coming from.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Nami asked the teen.

"Rin, what is up with you?" Sanji snapped. The teen spun to see the chef staring discerningly at him, and the others were not buying the confused look he tried showing them, even Luffy who he could usually fool pretty easily. The chef stepped closer to the teen, "We know you're a half-demon and all, but whatever it is you think you have to do here on your own, let us help you out."

"It's nothing, really," Rin tried assuring them.

"Since the Dread Fort you have been acting strangely," Robin observed aloud.

Sanji's eyes opened wide as he looked at Robin, and he spun back to Rin and asked, "Was it because of those two? Mephisto and Amai-" He did not need to finish as Rin's growl showed him he was right. Sanji remembered what Rin looked like when the teen dropped in on him in the basement of the Dread Fort. _He looked insane, but he was shouting about, his brother,_ Sanji's eyes opened wide as he remembered it, having somewhat forgot considering he passed out almost right after.

Rin opened his mouth, but Killua stepped in between him and the others first. "Hey, why don't we just let Rin do his thing? I want to check out this 'no-rules' city for a bit too. Don't you Luffy?" He asked the pirate captain who had apparently forgotten all about what they learned about Sin City before getting there. Killua smirked at Luffy's excited reaction and the youngest boy in the group continued, "Give me ten minutes and I'll find out where the coolest place to be in Sin City is."

Luffy nodded a few times as he liked that idea. The other guys there looked pretty excited about it too, and they seemed to forget all about their previous conversation. Nami sighed as it did not look like they were getting anything out of Rin, and she turned to Robin and asked, "Want to come with me to figure out ticket costs? I have to plot out a course for us to take across this continent if we're going to avoid the Fire Nation completely."

Robin nodded at her and the women told the boys to make it back to the booth before sunset. As they turned to walk away, the other men there noticed Luffy frowning deeply for some reason. Killua just ran off to go find them the fun thing to do, and Riku questioned, "Oi Luffy, what's up?"

"Hmm," Luffy hummed. He opened his mouth to respond, seeing that Riku, Usopp, Sanji, and Franky were all waiting to hear it, then he blinked a few times in confusion and looked left and right. "Uh, Rin?" The other four boys did a double-take to the empty spot in their circle where Rin should have been.

"He ran off," Sanji muttered, pulling out a box of cigarettes as he did. The chef looked above him and glared at a blimp flying over his head, then glared towards the darker part of town where there were some really tall buildings, most of them with Fire Nation blimps attached to the tops as if the soldiers had emptied out of their vehicles and were using those buildings as bases for now. The Fire Nation soldiers were not the only ones he was upset about too, and he wasn't thinking too hard on the idea of demons in the town, what he frowned deeply about was the fact that when he looked towards the blimp directly above, he spotted a figure in an all-black cloak standing on one of the catwalks beneath it, the dark shadow under his hood pointed straight down towards their group. _The Organization again,_ Sanji thought. _Whose Nobody is that? Someone we know? Or someone like Axel or Saix? Someone from Sora's universe? Someone who knows the mysteries of this world…_

"Sanji-bro, you alright?" Franky asked the blond-haired man on his right who was spacing out there for a second.

"Yeah, fine," Sanji said, and he lit up his cigarette fast. He definitely needed one to sooth his nerves and he took a long drag.

"Guys," Usopp said in a shaky voice. The others all turned towards him and saw Usopp looking nervously at small buildings all around them. He gulped and continued, "There are people watching us all over the place. They aren't Fire Nation soldiers, they're just, armed, and scary," he spotted a few men in some windows of a two-story house on the right side of the road, and a second later he saw a sniper pulling back fast on the roof of a taller building to avoid being seen by him. It was Usopp's great vision and the fact that he was a sniper himself that allowed him to notice all these people pretty quick. "We should get moving. If crime here is legal, then they could trap us if we keep standing here like this."

"And if they recognize Luffy," Franky began. "They might be looking for that 2 billion bounty of his."

"It's twenty million," Riku corrected. Luffy frowned and turned to his friend but Riku shrugged and said, "What? You going to go by the bigger number to make yourself feel bigger, or use the same currency everyone else has for their bounties? Doesn't seem very fair to me."

Luffy frowned for a few more seconds, then grinned, "Shishishi, you're right. Twenty million's not bad to start, I think," he said, though he really had no idea how this world labeled their criminals. The fact that he was technically worth the same as two billion Beri was still in his mind so he did feel pretty good about it, but he was going to say twenty million if he was ever asked. _I wonder what Zoro's bounty is here?_

"Anyway," Sanji pulled his cigarette from his mouth and puffed out some smoke. "Let's get moving."

"But Kil said he'd be back in ten minutes," Luffy said back. "We should-"

"You guys," Killua began. They all turned and the people in the windows and on top of rooves around the crew stopped getting ready to ambush them. This child appeared out of thin air, and he was glaring at the rooftop that Usopp saw a sniper pull back from before. Killua had a terrifying aura around him and they could swear they saw a snake the width of the road surrounding his body and hissing up in the air. "Come on," he said, his voice casual like he wasn't simultaneously making a bunch of opportunistic thieves and bounty hunters sprint away while pissing their pants. Once he knew they were all gone he turned to his friends and his scary appearance faded, though the scared looks on Usopp, Sanji, and Franky's faces remained for a second or two, longer for Usopp. "I found some cool stuff to do, let's go," he motioned with his head in the direction of the tallest buildings in the city that all had giant blimps above them.

The spiky haired kid started leading them and Usopp ran right up behind him once he got over that terrifying snake-aura-thing Killua did. "Are you sure going over there is a good idea? Near all the soldiers and spooky buildings and blimps and-

"Apparently Fire Nation blimps are actually called zeppelins," Killua said, shutting Usopp up. "And no, we don't need to worry about them. In this city, the rule of there being no rules counts for the Fire Nation soldiers too. Legally, we can do whatever we want, and we technically can't be arrested." Usopp's eyes widened and he smiled at the idea of that. Killua held up his hands at his sides and continued while shrugging, "That doesn't mean they won't arrest us, since whose going to stop them? It's not like arresting us is breaking any rules."

"Heh," Sanji chuckled. " So what you're saying is power here, is really just-"

"Power," Killua finished for him. "That's right." The kid's face got a little darker and he continued in a lower tone, "I figured out why too." The others looked at his back and he muttered darkly, "This Astaroth demon, is a monster. He may be one of the Fire Nation's Lords, but he rules this city with an iron fist. Anything he says goes, and he made the rule for no rules so that he could do whatever he wants in this city at any time. All these Fire Nation soldiers you see here are in the middle of fighting a war south of us. They're using the trains to move supplies and troops around, and using Sin City as a launching point for an invasion south that's going on right now." He hesitated as they continued walking towards the really tall skyscrapers that were over a hundred stories tall but all clustered in one area in the city, only a little over a dozen of them total. Then the teen continued in a quieter tone, "The Fire Nation soldiers apparently won several battles already in their push south, and all the prisoners were brought back here. They were meant to be POWs, some were going to be made into slaves… but then Astaroth showed up at the train that all the prisoners were being loaded onto."

Killua was only gone for six minutes at the maximum, so the fact that he came back with so much information and a goal in mind was impressive, and a little unsettling to some of them. The kid did not continue his story, but Franky could not hold back and he muttered, "What happened to-"

"He killed all of them," Killua replied. "Hundreds of people. And they did not die, quickly," he thought about how the guy he found in a building not far from his friends who had been watching them for a little ranted on and on about all the atrocities Astaroth committed on those prisoners, and how the man wished them all on Killua for breaking his left leg. The kid broke his right leg after that before heading back to his friends. Killua opened his mouth to describe the way Astaroth melted flesh, or decomposed people alive, made maggots come out of their eyes and ears, made them explode, and burn, but he decided not to mention any of it. It all stuck with him though, and his friends who knew him as one to easily be able to shake things off were off-set by Killua's quiet, unnerved mood. "Anyway, let's just stay away from that guy if we can. And for now, I found something awesome for us to do."

 _Rin,_ Killua thought as he continued walking ahead of his other companions. _What the Hell are you doing looking for a guy like that? I know that's what Mephisto told you, and I know you have to find your brother, but, but… Damn it Rin, these are_ _ **demons!**_ _Actual demons. Not like you, or that Abraxas thing that took over Ben, or like any of the monsters we've seen on this journey. These demons are the personifications of evil itself. They are Satan's kin! Be careful man._

* * *

"So this is where Astaroth is?" Rin muttered, staring at the end of the street in front of him with a grim look on his face. He stood in between two buildings, both over thirty stories tall, both casting dark shadows onto the narrow road below. Some light reflected off building windows around him, but the place Rin was looking was even darker than the road around him. The paved street ended in a few meters, and a few meters after that it started slanting down. The ground dipped and out from the sides of the street rose stone arcs that connected above the dipping road, making what looked like a tunnel going into the depths of the planet.

The strongest demonic presences Rin felt though, were all coming from inside this hole. He heard whispering behind him and glanced back to see a few men at the intersection behind him looking his way as if he were insane. Okumura Rin turned away from them and back to the hole, then walked towards it and down into the ground.

It was dark down there, but the farther Rin went the more it started to light up again. He saw a light in the distance and continued walking down the slope towards it, going deeper than basements would be in the nearby buildings. Rin walked down farther and there was a wide opening ahead of him as the tunnel opened up. The boy walked through that opening that put him right at the edge of a cliff, then looked down and grimaced at the sight of how far down the ground dropped.

There was a stone floor a hundred feet below him, bumpy walls on all sides, and the ceiling above was covered in sharp stalactites pointing down at the creepy open cave's floor. Rin gazed around and saw less demons than he expected in here, and then right when he glared to the opposite side of the cave as he was in, where there was a protrusion from the bumpy wall with an open door at the bottom and four heavy-set demons in front of it, the enormous demonic presence he felt coming from behind that door faded away. Rin's eyes opened wide and he snarled as he wondered what that could mean.

The teenager hopped off the cliff and arced up in the air coming close to the stalactites before dropping down into the middle of the cave. He hit the ground and started running immediately, while demons around him spun inwards and looked in shock at the hooded figure sprinting past them. "Hey! What are you doing here?!" A high-pitched demon's voice yelled on his right.

"Someone stop him!"

"Rip his eyes out!"

"Feed him his tongue!"

Rin ignored the shouts and sprinted straight towards that wall protrusion where four demons were lifting up hammers and axes and glaring his way. One of them, the largest, fifteen foot tall, eight foot fat, gray demon covered in bumps just like the walls, stepped forward with no weapon in hand and just punched his fists together. In a voice lower than any Rin had heard before, the gray demon grumbled, "Name yourself."

Rin reached behind his back and kept his head low to avoid being seen under his hood. He pulled his sheathed sword off his back but did not draw it as he sprinted ahead, and when he saw the large demon punching towards him, he sidestepped to the right and spun his blade into the side of the monster. It was not expecting the strength in Rin's hit one bit, and the demon was lifted off the ground and thrown right into a chubby red demon on his other side. The red one dropped its axe, and Rin froze as the other two behind the gray one brought down war hammers. Rin leapt to his left and rose his left hand as he did, catching the falling axe and then spinning around with it in hand.

The two who swung hammers down at him smashed them into the floor and blasted holes in the rocky surface, not very big holes as they were pretty far down, but that made creating even holes of those sizes impressive as the ground was a lot harder down here. They snapped their gazes up at the teen who was too fast for them, and their eyes opened huge the second before the axe sliced through one of their necks and kept going to cut straight through the other's head in the middle of his temples. Rin sprinted past the falling demons, though he heard the two that tumbled away first shouting and getting back up, along with all the ones he ran past before who were right behind him now. Ignoring them, Rin ran into the door of the protrusion, and smashed his sheathed sword to the right as he did.

Cracks shot up the rocky entrance and loud creaking noises could be heard right as the closest demons to Rin's back were getting into the entrance. They snapped their heads up and let out screeches and screams as the entrance collapsed on them. Okumura Rin stopped on the other side of the hole and looked back to see it had been sealed off like he hoped, though he could hear the demons on the other side yelling about moving away the debris. He turned away for now though and looked into the dark room barely illuminated by the same kind of artificial lights sparsely lining the walls outside the protrusion. "Astaroth," Rin growled, stepping farther into the room. He darted his gaze left and right but did not see anything, then looked forward to that staircase on the other side of the small entrance room, leading farther into the cave so that Rin knew the next room was past the outside cave's walls, maybe even a room that would not look natural like the one he just went through.

"Where are you?" Rin snarled, holding his sword's hilt tight in his right hand and grabbing the sheath with his other, ready to take it out at any moment. He walked up the stairs slowly and though he could not longer feel a demonic presence up ahead, he heard noises coming from the top of the stairs. He got closer and the next room up was more lit up from the orange light he could see at the top of the stairs where there was a hole that opened into a larger space. _What the? Is that, singing?_

 _"I'm just digging, digging, digging! I'm just digging, digging-digging! Got my pick and my wits, and I'm using them for digging!"_ The lyrics were stupid, and Rin sweatdropped as he got closer to the top of the steps. There was something weird about those lyrics though, but as he thought about it, it was not really the lyrics themselves that were upsetting him.

 _What the Hell is that voice?_ Rin thought, clenching his Kurikara even tighter as he neared the bright orange light. He stepped on the top step and into the next room, where there were torches on the walls that gave off a lot of light compared to the rest of the cave, or even the city above shadowed by all the Fire Nation zeppelins. Rin instantly snapped his gaze to the other side of the room where there was a figure facing away from him, facing an empty wall, except there was something weird about that wall. In front of the figure who was holding a pickaxe that looked to be made of diamond, there was a thick purple pillar almost as tall as the singing person himself. The skinny man standing there kept singing while he broke another chunk off the obsidian pillar, then started smashing his pickaxe down on the remaining two foot tall purple stone.

 _"And when I'm done, Imma find me a pretty girl. And me and that girl are gonna…_ finished!" The teen exclaimed in an excited voice. He tossed his tool to the right side of the room, while the person at the hole in the wall behind him stared in absolute shock. The black haired teen recognized this person, this person whose face turned sideways a little when he tossed his pick, who sang lyrics about getting with girls, who had a golden staff on his back with a ring dangling at the top of it over his left shoulder. Rin dropped his jaw as the teen who turned sideways noticed him, and slowly turned his way with a menacing glare on his face and a deep frown.

As soon as the pink-haired teen turned fully around though, that look of menace wiped from his face completely and his jaw dropped. He rose his right hand and pointed it ahead in utter shock, "O-O-Okumura?!"

"Shima?" Rin mumbled. He rubbed his eyes and out from the bag on his back Kuro popped his head. The cat jumped out and landed next to Rin, then looked up at Shima with just as wide eyes as Rin. After Rin rubbed his eyes and he saw the other teen still there, a giant smile spread across his face and he shouted, "Shima!" Rin sprinted across the room while strapping his sword back on his back.

Rin pulled Shima into a hug and the other teen stopped looking so shocked, then started laughing out loud and he put his arms behind Rin's back too. "Rin! I can't believe you're here!" Shima pulled back and he started walking away from the side of the one-exit cave that he was standing on. He walked back towards the stairs a little then turned towards Rin and his cat who cautiously eyed Shima as it noticed what Shima just did, even if Rin did not. "What are you doing here?" Shima questioned with a friendly smile on his face.

Rin shook his head around as he could still not believe Shima was really here. The disbelief slowly faded though as he realized what Shima asked, and before he answered it, he repeated the question in his mind while staring at the teen who died his hair pink. "Wait a second," Rin mumbled, "why are you here?"

"I asked first," Shima replied back, keeping that smile on his face though Rin suddenly noticed Shima had increased the gap between them to ten feet and was standing close to the top of the stairs he just came up.

Rin became really, really confused and he took a step towards Shima as he spoke, "I thought Astaroth was here so I-" Shima took a step back when Rin took his forward and Rin's smile faded from his face now. "Shima, what's going on?" Rin questioned, trying to get a little serious.

"Rin," Kuro urged, sounding nervous as it and Rin could both feel demonic presences getting closer, notifying them that the debris Rin blocked the entrance with was likely moved away.

"Sorry Okumura," Shima said. His friendly smile had lowered down a little into a small one, one that did not look real, that looked, unsettling. Shima chuckled and glanced behind Rin at the empty wall for a second, "You just missed him. Our Lord just left, he has important business in Pyraxas, the Fire Nation's Capital." Shima smirked as the demons behind him had not come within earshot yet. "Well, I would love to stay and chat, but I need to get going. The Umbrella Corporation runs this city while Astaroth is gone, and I have to let the member of the Light in this city know he's in charge now."

"The Umbrella Corporation? The Light? Shima you're making no sense! What's going on? Why are you here with-" Rin got cut off as Shima continued loudly over his old classmate.

"The Umbrella Corporation is a criminal organization that runs Sin City from the shadows and controls regions all over the world. The Light are made up of powerful people and demons who run the Corportation, so they're the ones I report to. As I said, I need to go report to the member of the Light here, Klarion." Shima heard voices at the bottom of the steps and he nodded towards Rin with that smirk still on his face. "Well, if you'll excuse me Rin."

"No," Rin said, looking extremely serious for the first time since he arrived there. Shima got a bead of sweat on the side of his face and Rin stepped towards him, "Explain to me what's going on? Why are you working for demons? What happened to you?!"

"'Happened to me?'" Shima asked as if it were an odd question. "You know Rin, I was a spy the entire time you knew me." Rin's eyes turned into saucers and Shima reached behind his back and grabbed K'rik, the staff he had there. "A spy for the Illuminati, and when I arrived here, I found my old bosses and joined back up with them." Demons were right behind him on the stairs now and Shima called out, "Don't let him follow me! Yamantaka-kun!" He rose up his staff and a huge black flame rose out of the tip of it, making both Rin and Kuro step back while staring at it in shock. The flame turned into the shape of something terrifying, rising forty feet above Shima's head so it pressed into the ceiling while four arms ripped out of the flame's sides. Shima smirked and slammed his staff down on the ground, making his black flames erupt in half the room while the two glowing white eyes that Rin noticed on the top of monstrous flame faded away.

"Shima!" Rin yelled into the flames. They were hot and he leaned away from them, wondering just what the Hell was going on. "Shima! You're lying! Tell me the truth! Where is Yukio?! What's going on?!" Rin was furious, enraged, he snapped completely and he pulled his sword off his back. "Shima! Tell me what you know! Tell me what you're hiding!" Rin drew his sword and his body erupted with blue flames. The black flames were simmering down, but Rin glared through them where eight demons were standing at the top of the stairs, and every single one of them looked shocked and horrified by the sight of Rin. He had blue flaming horns on the front of his head and his ears pointed out to the sides. "RAAA! SHIMA!"

Shima was running down the stairs fast and he dared a glance behind him. "Whoo, got out of there just in time," he joked, seeing a bright blue light coming from the top of the stairs. He turned around and continued running off, but as all the demons in the cave were already behind him, and no one could see his face anymore, none of them noticed the relieved smile on his face fade. His lips turned flat and his eyes turned dark, but he just pushed himself to move faster. _Sorry Rin. Next time we meet I hope we can talk longer._

Rin stood inside a cave covered in demons' bodies that were burning blue. He snarled and his sharp teeth bared to the final demon pushing itself away from him. "Stop! Stop it! We didn't know it was you Satan-sama!"

Rin's furious look turned even worse and he roared in an animalistic way before charging forward and slashing down at the demon that screamed at him to stop. "I, am not, Satan," he snarled, but no one was left in the room to hear him, no one but a cat pressing itself against the opposite wall in fear.

"R-Rin," the cat whimpered, and Rin spun his head around still looking enraged. The feral, animalistic snarl on his face stayed for a few seconds, but the more he stared at the terrified look on the kitty cat's face, the more his human side yelled at the demon part of him to stop scaring his friend. "Rin!" Kuro yelled, seeing Rin's snarl fade a little.

The sound of Kuro's voice calmed the teen enough for him to sheath his sword, making the blue flames all over his body fade away just like the pseudo-horns. "Sorry Kuro," Rin said, though his voice was dark and not very apologetic.

"I don't understand," Kuro whispered as it walked towards its master. The familiar continued, "Why was Shima saying all those things? Do you think someone was making him?"

Rin looked down at the floor and he clenched his fists, one of them around the shaft of his Kouma Ken. "That's it," Rin muttered. A small smile came to his face as that was not a good thing, but it was better than the alternative. "Someone had to be doing that," he agreed and nodded fast at Kuro who looked just as relieved to hear that as Rin did. Rin turned away from his demonic cat and back to the door leading downstairs, _But, what he said about before Nexus. The Illuminati? Shima couldn't have been a spy! Not the Shima I know._ Rin's frown was back on his face, and no matter what he thought, he could not get Shima's words out of his head. _What he said about the Umbrella Corporation, and that Light group, if those are true I should go tell the others._ "Come on Kuro," Rin said and started walking for the steps. "Let's go find Luffy and them. Astaroth isn't here anymore."

* * *

"Ohh! And Boulder takes another big hit to the head! It looks like he may be out for the count after this one!"

"Raaa!"

"Get up pussy!"

Killua turned to his left and smirked up at Sanji, "Hundred bucks says Boulder's going to win."

Sanji's eyes widened and he snapped his head down to the shorter teen. They all just saw Boulder get slammed by a boulder right in his fat forehead, and the four hundred pound man was having a hard time getting back up while blood poured down his face. "Sure about that?" Sanji asked and Killua nodded, holding out a hand for the chef to shake. Sanji shrugged and smirked as he shook the boy's hand. "Thought you were supposed to be the smart one," Sanji remarked.

Killua grinned and they both looked over the ledge of the long second-floor balcony they were standing on back down to the arena. They were in a penthouse of one of the giant skyscrapers in the city, only the penthouse itself took up four of the top floors with ledges all over the giant square room that people were standing on and shouting down at the arena stage below. Killua darted his gaze to his right where he saw one of the bookies taking official bets for the match whispering to a man in a fancy purple suit who had on a lot of nice jewelry, and who he heard talking about certain aspects of the match only a minute ago.

"Earth Rumble 10 continues as Boulder motions that he's alright to go on! Hippo's still looking fine, and it does not look good for last month's champ as the previous runner-up looks like he's going to-" Boulder stomped a foot down and the stage around Hippo broke apart, leaving a hole that the slightly smaller man fell into. "What's this?!" The announcer shouted and half the room that were just booing started cheering while the ones who were cheering started jeering and yelling at their fighter to get back up. Sanji's eyes opened wide and he stared in shock as a pillar of stone rose up from the center of the stage as Hippo tried to get out of the hole, but the sides of the hole were also raising up and then curving down at the man with black hair unlike his fatter, balder opponent.

"AHH!" Hippo yelled out, right before six curving pillars of stone slammed down into him and shattered the pillar he was using earth-bending to raise.

"They're not as skilled as Toph," Franky remarked. "But these guys are pretty good," the cyborg finished.

"How did you know?" Sanji muttered under his breath, but Killua just shrugged like he had no idea what Sanji was talking about. Sanji got ready to give the kid his money, when his eyes widened and he smirked while nodding down at the arena. Kil looked back as well and they watched as an arm stuck up through some rubble, then Hippo pulled the rest of his body out of the rocks.

Killua got a bead of sweat on his face as he noticed the man in a purple suit on his right start angrily arguing with a bookie. The bookie in a black muscle shirt reached a hand up to his ear and pressed a button before speaking, and Killua darted his eyes down as he saw a twitch of Boulder's head down on the arena stage. The bald man darted his eyes up to their balcony for a second, before grinding his teeth and glaring forward at Hippo.

He started shaking his head, then something else must have been said to him as his eyes went huge and he grinned menacingly. "You should have stayed down!" Boulder shouted. The earth-bender stomped his feet down hard and the rocky rubble behind Hippo rose up. Hippo spun and punched a fist through the debris wall, but then snapped his gaze down fast as the ground started sucking up his legs. It twisted him around and put him in a strange position while dragging him beneath the stage surface too so only the top of his chest, shoulders, and his head were sticking out of the stone.

Hippo tugged but he was too tired and he groaned angrily as he saw Boulder walking right towards him. "Damn, you got me this time," Hippo said. He really wanted to hold onto that title, but it did not look like that was happening this time.

"And there you have it folks! Our previous champ Hippo seems to be conceding defeat! And how could he not after that devastating performance from Boulder?" The announcer's voice got a lot of people cheering, but those people quieted down as Boulder lost the big smirk on his face and stood right in front of Hippo.

Killua could see the man in the purple suit on his right holding the earpiece that the bookie originally had in his ear. That man was shouting into it and Boulder did not look very happy as he stood there, but then the suited man said something that made the bookie's jaw drop, and made Boulder's mouth twist into a large smile. Killua frowned deeply, _Everyone has their price._ "Forget about the hundred bucks," he said darkly, and Sanji turned to the kid wondering why as he was about to take out the cash. Sanji turned back to the stage and his eyes opened huge as Boulder rose up his arms and a large chunk of the arena on his right rose up.

"Hey, hey Boulder! What are you doing?!" Hippo started shouting.

People all over the audience were roaring, cheering, booing, as Boulder pushed his arms forward and made the huge boulder hover right over Hippo's head. Hippo was shouting at him the entire time, and the announcer joined in, "Hold on folks! Looks like the long-standing rivalry of Boulder and Hippo is coming to a sudden end! What is going on?! Is this bad blood?!"

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

The Straw Hat men, Riku, and Killua looked around at all the balconies on the three floors above the main level, and then down at all the people getting closer to the stage every second on the first floor of the penthouse. There were Fire Nation soldiers in the mix, and Luffy spotted some demons floating above the stage chanting along with everyone else. Even the announcer joined in, and Killua spotted the man in the purple suit on his right run up to the railing they were all next to and shout over the ledge, "DO IT! KILL HIM!"

Boulder made eye contact with Hippo, and his smirk faltered for a second, before he ground his teeth and brought his arms down fast. The boulder shot down and Hippo's head did not last a millisecond, the rock keeping its speed all the way until it hit more rock, smashing through Hippo's head like a watermelon and crushing the top half of his body. "OHH!" The announcer yelled. "That was brutal! And here I thought it was a friendly rivalry!"

Boulder turned, lifted his arms up above him, and roared, "RAAAA!"

"WOOO!"

"YEAH!"

The room erupted with cheering, while Sanji lit up a cigarette. He had seen other people in the building smoking already so he knew it was fine. He took a big drag then muttered, "There goes my appetite."

Luffy was frowning deeply and he did not like the look Hippo had on his face right before he was killed. It looked like, Hippo felt like he was being betrayed. Suddenly, a voice filled the screaming room, "ENOUGH!" Everyone quieted down and they all looked to the fourth level of the penthouse, on a section of the balcony that stuck out more than the rest of it. That balcony floated down on its own and there was a man sitting on a comfy-looking chair on it, petting an orange house cat that was sitting on his lap. He had jet black hair smoothed down on his head except for two black spikes on the sides that stuck up, though it was hard to tell if that was a part of his hairstyle or if he had horns coincidentally the same color. He was a scrawny man in a black suit with a black tie on over his white undershirt, and he picked up his ginger cat while standing and continued to pet it. "Boulder is the champion of Earth Rumble 10! Now, get on with the gladiator matches!"

Boulder stepped off the stage, a stage that the scrawny man on his floating balcony pointed down at. The stage lit up, and within seconds all of the holes, blood, and debris on it were gone and it was back to the way it looked at the start of the fight. White lights shimmered around the edges of the stage though, and large silver fences shot up along all the edges while the stage itself morphed from having four sides to having eight. "Step into the octagon!" The figure running the show yelled and waved an arm out in front of him. "Two will enter the cage, and only one will make it out!"

Another chain-link fence formed on top of the rest of the fences to cover up the stage, though the holes in it were wide enough that it would still be easy to witness the fight, just hard for anyone inside the cage to get out once they were in. The figure who waved his arm across his body and created that cage, pointed his hand down at the arena now and cackled madly. A fireball formed in front of his hand and he fired it at the stage. It erupted on top of the cage, and instantly the outside of the cage was in flames, leaving only one part of the cage un-burnt, the part of the cage that suddenly opened up in the middle to create an entrance for a fighter to enter into.

"Who is this guy?" Usopp whispered to his right in fear.

Franky shook his head and he did not like how omnipotent the being in front of them seemed. _He's creating matter out of thin air. That shouldn't be possible. The Law of Conservation of Matter…_ The cyborg decided to stop thinking rationally as the man floated off his already-floating platform, then teleported down to the arena and hovered right above the center of it. "Come on! Two people need to volunteer! _I don't want to have to pick you myself_ ," he sang the last part though when he was finished he narrowed his eyes and looked around dangerously at people who were looking hesitant after hearing that only one person would make it out of that cage alive.

"Guys, we should get going, it's almost sunset." The group staring over the balcony spun around in surprise and stared at the teenager behind them who had a dark expression under his blue hood. Rin lifted his head and his friends could see that his expression was darker than it had been for the past day, which was already pretty dark, and the small black cat on Rin's right side had a sad expression to match as it looked at the ground.

"What happened to you?" Usopp questioned.

Rin looked his way and said, "Astaroth isn't here."

"Is that what you went to do?" Sanji asked with huge eyes. He took out his cigarette and stepped towards the teen, "Killua told us about this Astaroth demon. Why the Hell were you going after such a monster on your own?" Rin's face looked even darker and Sanji questioned seriously, "Is it about Yukio?"

Rin snapped his eyes straight into Sanji's, and after a few seconds he sighed and nodded his head. "I thought Astaroth could give me a lead, but all I learned is that Astaroth is in the Fire Nation's capital, a place called Pyraxas." Rin grew quieter then looked over his friends and out into the big room where an annoying voice continued to shout, "That guy's name is Klarion, he's a member of the Light."

"The Light?" Riku questioned, his eyebrows raising.

"A group of criminals who run the Umbrella Corporation," before anyone could interrupt he continued to explain, "a criminal organization here on Aebrith kind of like the Underworld, only run completely by demons." _And Shima,_ he thought darkly.

"Where's this Pyraxas place?" Luffy questioned. Rin turned to the pirate and looked at him confusedly, but Luffy smiled back at him and continued, "If it's north, let's head there next."

"Really?" Rin questioned with wide eyes.

"Of course," Riku told the teen. "Don't be so surprised. We all know you're here looking for your brother."

"Yeah," Usopp agreed. "We haven't forgotten. If you've got a lead, it's better than what we've got on Zoro."

"Which right now, is just 'north,'" Sanji muttered while putting his cigarette back in his mouth. He smoked the last of it then dropped it on the floor and stomped on it while finishing, "And if this Fire Nation army is using Sin City as a launch point for attacks in the south…"

"Then Pyraxas must be north of us," Killua finished for him. Sanji nodded but Kil smirked and continued, "Also, our train conductor said the train heading north was going to Pyraxas, so…" Sanji got a bead of sweat on his face as he did remember that and his deduction skills didn't really matter anyway.

"Super!" Franky yelled and posed with his arms over his head. "Looks like we've got a new destination!"

"Let's get going then," Kil suggested and the others all nodded.

They turned to start heading out, but Luffy glanced back while they were all walking. He looked out over the balcony and down at the cage in the center of the room where two people were beating the crap out of each other with only their fists. The cage was glowing and there were no exits on it, and both figures inside looked rabid as they went at each other with their lives on the line. _Damn it,_ Luffy thought angrily. _That guy, Klarion,_ he thought about what the man was just doing and he cursed himself as he turned and walked after the rest of his friends. _Power like that, that's not natural. Gohan, and Goku, and Timmy, they can't even do stuff like that. So how can a weirdo like that guy?_

The pirate was stumped and he shook his head with an annoyed look on his face as he was once again reminded how small he was on this giant world. Luffy and his friends headed to an elevator and Rin did not let out a breath of relief until after it started going down. Kuro looked up at his face and Rin looked down at him and they made eye contact for a moment. They had both been trying to keep it out of their minds, but it was all they could think about anymore. "I met a friend of mine in the city," Rin began while the elevator was slowing down at lowest floor.

The elevator doors opened at the first floor with a ding and a group of seven people stepped out with most of them looking at the teen in front who had a cat walking on his right side. They walked between Fire Nation soldiers as there were a lot of them gathered in the lobby, but most of those soldiers had already started drinking or were laughing heartily as the night had begun and they were in Sin City. The group strolled through the lobby while Rin answered Usopp who just asked him who he saw. "Renzou Shima. He said…" Rin's eyes opened wide as he started speaking and he froze where he stood. _Why did Shima tell me all that stuff? That's weird now that I think about it. If he was really a spy, he wouldn't go around saying stuff like that… unless, what if he knows about Yukio? Does he know I'm looking for him?!_

"Rin?" Usopp repeated for a third time and finally the teen spun to him and his shocked look lowered back down a little. "What did he say?" Usopp asked.

"He told me all about the Umbrella Corporation, The Light, demons, and Astaroth," Rin said, only now realizing it all as he finally calmed down from his anger and confusion earlier. "I don't know what he was up to, but I'm starting to think he was really trying to help me out." The teen smiled, _I hope so, no, I know that's it!_ He chuckled a few times at his own worry from before.

The group walked out of the mega-hotel, but right as they were exiting, one of the doormen turned and said, "Monkey D. Luffy." The team froze and they all looked at the man hesitantly. Luffy's beard and mustache were still on but those and the top hat on his head apparently were not good enough a disguise. Even though the zeppelins cast shade over most of the city, the man who said Luffy's name was still wearing sunglasses and he stood nine feet tall with shoulders as broad as Franky's. He took a step towards them, and everyone tensed up wondering what he was about to do. He looked at Luffy who looked back into the man's sunglasses, and then the guy said, "Hand me your Identification if you would."

"Why should he?" Killua snapped, on edge and about to attack this guy if necessary.

The man frowned down at the kid, did not flinch at the menacing look Kil gave him, then turned back to Luffy and said, "While you were inside I received new news of what happened in the Dread Fort. I recognized you on the memo as you had only just walked by me. Your defeat of Saix means I need to update your ranking, now hand me your I.D." Luffy's eyes started shining and he pulled out his I.D. fast, no longer caring about his original cautious hesitation.

The burly figure pulled a device out of his pocket that looked like a card reader, and he slid in Luffy's rectangular piece of plastic that depicted his face and had an orange circle next to it. The man typed fast on the other side of the reader and Luffy leaned up his head wanting to see what the man was writing, but before he could see, a loud ding rang out and his I.D. popped back out. The doorman reached to grab the I.D., but Luffy snagged it first and spun it around to look at it. All of his friends leaned in too and looked at the plastic and Sanji's eyes widened. "Black," he said in semi-surprise, "you skipped right over red."

"Woohoo!" Luffy exclaimed.

"Wait a second," Killua began. He turned to the doorman in a full black suit and looked up into the guy's black sunglasses less threateningly than earlier. "I thought rank gold meant equivalent to a Lord?" He questioned, wondering why Luffy did not hop straight to that level.

"Rank black is the strength of a Lord," the doorman said respectfully to the kid. Killua suddenly realized the reason this guy was not trying to be threatening at all to them, as he thought they were incredibly strong. _And he's right,_ Killua thought smugly. The taller man continued, "Rank Gold however, is reserved for those who the King deems worthy of receiving the rank."

The group's eyes all opened wide, and Franky mumbled under his breath, "Meliodas must have, met the King before too, huh?"

"Thank you," Riku told the doorman. The suns were setting pretty far and he motioned with his head away and his friends all agreed. They turned and walked away from the hotel, each of them thinking about different things. They thought about Pyraxas, how they would get there, Luffy's new rank, Meliodas's rank and the mystery around it, and for Rin, he thought about his brother. The seven of them headed back uptown and to the north where the train station was. The tracks covered the entire northern edge of Sin City, and past them only twenty meters or so was the edge of the cliff that started the Cataclysm.

As they neared the station and the ticket booth a couple of pirate women were standing near, they saw that the train they got off earlier was no longer on the tracks. The fog that filled the Cataclysm thirty miles away from them had lifted as well, and the boys all stopped thinking about whatever was on their minds and just stared forward in awe. They could see the Cataclysm in its entirety now, from the that started bridge a little to their east just outside of Sin City's boundaries, to the dark brown, orangish pillars of stone that rose up from the depths of the crack and held that bridge up. There were huge stone pillars every few miles or so, differing in height and width, and a few of those pillars had massive birds or dragons perched on them. And miles and miles away, almost too far for them to see, there was a wall.

"The other side," Usopp said in amazement. "We can see it."

"Finally," Killua mumbled, though he was just as amazed. _It looked like that cliff was the end of the world, but there really is more to this place beyond this Cataclysm._

They neared the women, the younger of whom was impatiently tapping her foot as one of the suns was already set and they had been waiting for the boys for over an hour now. "Took you idiots long enough," Nami snapped as soon as they were within earshot, which still meant they had to walk another forty meters to reach her. "Ugh you guys are slow," she groaned as they did not speed up when she shouted at them.

"Sorry your highness," Killua remarked sarcastically.

Nami fumed and lifted a fist, but then Robin spoke up and switched everyone's attention to her. "We learned of a route that we can take east of here to reach another bridge over the Cataclysm that is out of the Fire Nation's territory. The price is not too hefty, however there will be security checks on the way. They will not be as strict as the ones on the Bridge of Azulon would be, though we will need to be careful."

"The next train comes tomorrow at eight A.M.," Nami continued for her friend, forgetting about the youngest boy's annoying remark a moment ago. The whole time Nami and Robin were speaking, most of the boys were paying attention and nodding, all except for Luffy who looked away and started walking off. No one noticed he was leaving, as Nami got a little quieter and kept speaking, "We also heard, from some Fire Nation soldiers we were getting information from, about the Resistance south of us."

The others looked at her questioningly and Nami lowered her gaze to the floor, "We heard that all of the Resistance bases south of us, are going to be crushed soon."

"You guys think Gray's group is going to be okay?" Usopp asked, though the question was already on all of their minds as soon as Nami mentioned it.

"If there really are bases not far south of here, then they've likely come upon one of them by now," Riku admitted. "They should still be pretty far west of us though, considering the train took us pretty far east. Maybe the Fire Nation attacks aren't spreading that far."

"'Pretty far east?' Haha," Nami repeated and laughed at Riku. The others looked back at her and Nami continued smugly, "I found out some of the dimensions of this continent, and we are nowhere near the middle of the continent, we're only a small fraction of the way inland. Even with that train ride and all the walking before it, we're still maybe only a tenth of the way to the opposite coast if we kept walking east."

"Damn!" Franky exclaimed. He thought about that for a second then shouted, "That's SUPER wide!"

"Well it's a good thing we're not heading all the way east then," Killua said.

Sanji nodded and turned to Robin, "How long will the train from here take to get to the next bridge?"

"All together the trip should take five days…"

"Hey guys!"

The group of eight gathered near the ticket booth turned their heads to the north. There was a single figure standing in the glow of the setting red sun on the western horizon, standing on the other side of the train tracks as them, right on the edge of a humongous cliff. Luffy dropped his fake mustache and beard on the floor, took off his hat and tossed it to the side, and he turned his head sideways and looked back at his friends out the corners of his eyes. "We're not taking the train," Luffy said and his lips curled up even more. The others were all starting to open their eyes wide and Luffy turned back to stare out over the massive canyon stretching a hundred miles, basked in a dark red glow that made it seem all the more mysterious. "Shishishi," he laughed and pointed his right index finger forward, before yelling, "We're crossing the Cataclysm!"

* * *

On the thirtieth story of a tall building close to the northern edge of Sin City, a figure with purple hair stood facing sideways inside a window, sipping a cup of tea and looking outside out only his left eye. He gazed down towards the train tracks and a large smirk spread across his face as the pirates and their friends started arguing, and then the Captain of the Straw Hat Pirates turned and leapt right off the side of the Cataclysm. Mephisto Pheles let out an audible laugh and tilted his head back laughing harder as the others started yelling but chased after him anyway.

"Think it's a good idea letting Rin head down there?" a shadowed figure farther inside the room questioned. He walked out of the dark and up to the window too so that he and Mephisto were right next to each other, though unlike the King of Time he stood with his front fully facing the window as he stared out at the Cataclysm. "You know demons infest the depths of the Cataclysm."

"Ah, I am sure Okumura Rin will be careful," Mephisto remarked. "I am thankful that Rin's flames completely destroy demons, like those ones in Astaroth's cave earlier. I am sure brother will not be happy about them. It makes things easier on me though, as now I don't have to return to Hell and destroy them again to keep them quiet." Mephisto chuckled and then his eyebrows narrowed down and his expression darkened as he stared at the young man in front of him, "Do I have to do that to you, Shima-kun?"

"What? No no," Shima turned and waved his hands in front of him defensively. The eighteen year old with dyed-pink hair stopped looking so innocent and goofy and he started grinning at the demon before him.

Mephisto lost his dark look and he began laughing heartily again. "Shima-kun, you have been the best spy a demon could ask for for years!"

"Thanks," Shima said with a genuine grin on his face. "I really enjoy it."

"I can see you do," Mephisto replied. "So, how are things going in the Umbrella Corp?"

Shima shrugged and began, "More or less the same. Saburota Todo did not report seeing Rin, though I know Rin must have come through his region. Rin's with the group that came through Dressrosa, so Todo must have saw him too."

"Todo," Mephisto hummed. "I wonder what his plans are if he never told Lucifer or Satan that Rin was here. Maybe he did, but they are keeping it from the rest of the demons… no, no Father would want everyone on the lookout for Rin to bring him to Hell as soon as possible." Mephisto scratched the purple stubble on his chin and smirked again. "Keep up the good work, Renzou Shima-kun. Remember, don't get caught."

Shima smirked right back at the King of Time and replied, "I never do."

* * *

 **A/N Shima's a spy?! Sorry non-Blue-Exorcist-manga readers :P. Luffy dives head-first into the Cataclysm, 'cause fuck trains that's why! Earth Rumble, Boulder, and Hippo from Avatar the Last Airbender, Klarion, a member of the Light from Young Justice, and Shima from Blue Exorcist all make first appearances in the crazy Sin City. News coming up from the wars south in Resistance land doesn't sound good for our heroes friends... so let's see how they're faring! Next chapter we get a special for the end of Chapter 8, then Chapter 9 starts up, which I would label in total Nexus: Heroes Will Rise Chapter 9- The Resistance. Look forward to it. Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed!**

Darugus chapter 45 . 8h ago

Nice chapter  
Also didn't expect that pairing  
Looking forward to the next chapter

 **Thanks! Happy you didn't see it coming though I did try and hint at it at the end of the chapter where Riku destroyed Zexion, but not much before that. Hope you liked the update!**

Espada-001 chapter 45 . 6h ago

Well I certainly enjoyed the last two chapters especially with the fight between Luffy and Saix. I also find it amusing that Sanji seems to have gained the interest of Mephisto unintentionally and luckily that saved him while he was in a weakened state. And Saix definitely screwed up when he brushed Luffy off as just another nuisance (lol). It also seems like Robins message won't being passed on to her Nobody since Killua killed the messanger. I was honestly expecting Axel to take on Saix himself but I definitely enjoyed the actual opponent. Also it seems that Xemnas has been doing something that's probably going to shake Nexus somehow. I know I might sound a bit ignorant in asking this but isn't Xemnas the Nobody of Ansem? I'm still curios as to how you have Rin's father holding a large amount of power on the surface world when there should be other super powers down in hell, but I guess you'll get around to that later. It seems that Sora's off to go and do his actual job now and find the worlds key hole but he's probably going to have some trouble especially since there aren't any known locals from the planet to point him in the general direction. I also completely forgot that Flash was turned into a heartless as well. And while I admit that Killua god speed power is the fastest in the group followed by Luffy's gear 4th state, neither of them would be able to touch the Flash if he doesn't want them to. Anyway it's definitely amusing to see Nami trying to get Riku's affection and for what its worth I wish her luck. Well that's all I have for today so until next time have a good day and I once again look forward to reading the next update!

 **Thanks for the review! Glad you liked the Luffy v Saix battle, and I thought it was cool you did catch that Demyx was killed before telling Bronxi which I wondered if anyone realized. Mephisto's definitely starting to play a bigger role as it looks like he's following Rin and his friends around now. What is Xenmas doing?! And, he is not Ansem the Wise's Nobody, but he is the Nobody that was created when Xehanort's Heartless (the one inside Riku who CALLS himself Ansem, but isn't really) was created. It's pretty confusing haha. Anyway, how does Satan control Hell(s)? What about his power on the surface?! Where is the Keyholes? What about Timmy and Goku?! So many questions, so few answers ;). The Flash being a Nobody seems pretty unstoppable. Heartless Flash took Dash to take down, but that was Flash without intelligence or the use of his better skills, unlike a Nobody which has some real smarts. We'll see how that goes... later!**

LOLYOL chapter 45 . 3h ago

Yayy! Short and sweet, no complaints.

 **Thanks!**

joebob323 chapter 45 . 3h ago

Great job! I just want to know, who the heck was Clayton?

 **You don't know Clayton? The hunter from Tarzan? The guy who got hung by all those vines in the most gruesome Disney death I've ever seen?! Haha, in Kingdom Hearts 1, he loses his heart after trying to kill the gorillas and Sora puts a stop to him, just so ya know. Thanks for the review! And thanks again to everyone who read and who review so fast that I can post two chapters a day and still have 4 review responses to write by the second one... though I guess since it's almost 2 A.M. it's not technically the same day anymore. XD 'Till next time!**


	47. Nexus HWR 8-9 Midnight Escape

**Nexus HWR 8.9 Midnight Escape:**

 **The Capital of the Cooperative**

The Ant King, Meruem, for the first time in two months, looked surprised. "That boy?" He questioned. The green and purple Chimera Ant stood in a room alone with one of the three beings he trusted the most in the world. After a few seconds of slightly widened eyes and a questioning gaze in them, they returned to normal as did the rest of his posture. "That is interesting," he admitted.

Neferpitou, or Pitou as her King and fellow Royal Guards called her, nodded her head and the two of them continued to stare at the screen on the black wall in front of them. Bright white light-filled tubes were on the sides of the room going from the floor to the ceiling, with bubbles of different colored lights all over the spectrum floating around inside them. The black steel walls had them boxed into the room that was one of the smallest ones in the King's castle. That small room was still hundreds of feet wide, long, and almost as tall.

The two standing in the room watched the images on the screen flashing by at three times the speed they originally took place in. Watching them in real time would have been boring for the two who could see the fight, impressive as it was, going on easily with their naked eyes. Even at three times the speed, Meruem still watched them moving in slow motion, though Pitou examined the movements of a single boy in the fight of twelve on twelve much more closely. Meruem glanced at her while she continued to watch and he remarked, "You fear him."

She flinched and spun to the King apologetically. She bowed her head and opened her mouth to deny the fear, but realized there was no point and she did not want to call the King a liar. "Perhaps, a part of me does," Pitou stated. "I am sorry that-"

"It can not be helped," Meruem said, brushing off her apology as unnecessary. "It is to be expected that some lingering natural instinct, likely from your human, or even your cat DNA, warns you to stay away from the one who once took your life." The Ant King tilted his head to the side and stared oddly at the boy on the screen who had large muscles for a kid his age. He had spiky blackish green hair and an intense expression even though all he was fighting were alien gladiator warriors who were being forced to fight him as well. The battle speed was slow for the spectating Ant King, but he still enjoyed watching.

 _He is not nearly fast enough to defeat Pitou. This is strange._ He opened his mouth to ask her, but closed it and smiled instead as he continued to watch. Asking Pitou would have been easy, but figuring out how it happened on his own was much more entertaining. _It has been two years. Pitou from two years ago fighting him as he is now would have been an interesting fight from what I can see, yet even Pitou as she is at this moment is afraid of him. I say it is instinct, but she is watching him fight so carefully, she is making sure she could defeat him if she had to face him again, as impossible as his escape should be._

As Meruem questioned how the boy on the screen could have defeated Pitou two years before, that very same boy was woken up in the middle of the night by a short Italian man wearing a red had with the letter 'M' on the center of it in white. He was in the same city except underneath the giant Colosseum in the center of the Southern Quarter dozens of miles away. The boy sat up and opened his mouth to ask what was going on, but Mario put a finger to his lips and whispered, "Shh." The Italian man stood as tall as Gon Freecs when the boy got up. He was a little chubbier than the boy, though he had a full mustache on his upper lip unlike the fourteen year old boy. "Follow-a me," the former plumber whispered. He waved a hand towards the bars and Gon confusedly followed him away from the mats around the walls where most people in their cell were lying.

Once they were next to the cell's row of electrified stronger-than-steel bars, Mario darted his eyes around then pointed them straight at the boy in the darkness with him. "It's-a time to escape-a this place," he said in a hushed voice.

"Escape?" Gon whispered. The boy glanced around himself and then leaned towards the older man. "No one gets out of the Capital," he whispered. "Break outs always fail-"

"I have a power that I may have not mentioned before," Mario interrupted, though his heavy Italian accent and what he said made Gon wonder if he heard him correctly. Mario nodded his head at the kid a few times and then turned straight towards the bars. He stood there and Gon had to rub his eyes in confusion and then awe as Mario's body changed in the blink of an eye. The former plumber in a red hat stood in front of him still, but as Gon walked a semi-circle around him, he stopped when he was directly on the other side of Mario as the bars. He stopped because he lost sight of the man completely. He looked up and down, then stepped a little to the side again and was able to see him once more. Mario smiled, though as Gon came to his right side the boy could only see half of his face and half of his curved up mouth. "It's-a-me, Paper Mario," the Italian man said. Then, in an action Gon found almost as unbelievable as Mario literally turning himself two-dimensional, his comrade stepped out of the cage they were trapped in. Mario had not been in a cage with any of his fellow Resistance fighters for over a month now, but after their last match they switched up where he was staying and he finally got in a cage with the boy he was looking for.

Mario turned back 3D as soon as he got into the hall between the rows of cages. He turned back around and smiled at the kid inside who was looking at him with an expression of wonderment. "Come on," Gon said in a hushed voice, waving Mario towards himself. Mario nodded and ran to the side of the electrified bars on Gon's right, where he pressed a few buttons on the manual control pad the Italian man had seen a Chimera Ant use earlier that week for the first time when the remote the guard had on him was not working. He waited a few days to get the rest of the logistics of his plan down, but this was the night he decided on and he was following through with it.

The almost silent buzzing of the electricity filling the bars faded out and Mario leaned in so his head was on the other side of the bars and he nodded in at Gon. The boy reached forward slowly, wrapped his hands around the two bars in front of him, and grinned from ear to ear. Gon tried to keep quiet as he pulled to the sides, and Mario shook his head in slight amazement at Gon's impressive strength as the boy's muscles bulged and he managed to bend the powerful steel. "Alright," the kid said as he stepped sideways through the slightly bent bars and out into the hall. He glanced behind him to see if any of the other prisoners heard him get out, but the rest were still asleep. He frowned though as he looked at them, and he looked back at Mario sadly, "We can't break all of them out." The plumber nodded his head and Gon frowned deeper, "The more people we escape with, the less likely-"

Mario shook his head and Gon stopped whispering, his eyes going wide. "No more people," Mario whispered. Gon got ready to argue but Mario put a finger back in front of his mouth to keep Gon quiet. He did not feel the need to say 'Shh' again, but he did whisper, "I'm-ma sorry Gon. If we try-a to save all of Delta Squad, we will get-a caught."

"You don't know," Gon began, but Mario started shaking his head and Gon clenched his own teeth as he thought about how they would escape with all those people. _I don't even know where Kiba, Akamaru, or Soul are. Axel got taken months ago. But…_ Gon turned his head left and looked at cells not far from their own. His fists clenched at his sides as Mario started explaining the rest of his plan to him. _Black Star, Tsubaki, Kuwabara, if I leave them here, they might never get out. This is the best chance I'll ever have to save them._

"…Once-a we get the anklets off, we will be able to escape without them tracking us. If I do get-a caught, Gon," Mario grabbed the boy by the shoulder and Gon's faraway look snapped to the then-and-now. "You must use Zetsu and escape without-a me." Gon looked hesitant and Mario clenched his shoulder tighter, "Promise me Gon. I made a promise to your padre a long time ago. I will get you out of the city."

Gon stared into Mario's eyes. _If I leave with Mario, Black Star and the others will never be free. If I try to free them though, we will still be on the losing side of the war. We will still be caught again, and enslaved and tortured again. There is only one thing I can do, and I'm in the perfect place to do it._ The kid shook his head at Mario who lowered his hand from Gon's shoulder as the boy shrugged him off. Gon's face shadowed over even more and his eyes looked dark and serious as he stared ahead at Mario, "I am staying."

"No!" Mario exclaimed, his voice a very loud whisper that made him look around a second later to see if anyone woke up from it. "I need-a your help," the man urged, having freed Gon for more than just the fact that they were comrades.

"I know," Gon said. "But after I get our anklets off," he continued, "I'm going after Pitou and Meruem." The boy did not flinch as he said it, while Mario's face covered in sweat and he took a step back from the insane kid in front of him.

Several miles away from Gon and Mario and about a mile above their elevation in the underground below the Colosseum, Meruem suddenly turned around. He closed his eyes and opened them back up a second later as he began mentally speaking. **"I have a job for you."**

 **"King! Of course! What is this task? I will complete it without hesitation!"**

 **"Two people have just escaped from the Colosseum. I want you to bring them to me."**

 **"Understood!"** The mental connection broke an instant later and the man who the King requested a job from pumped a fist up in the air excitedly. "Yes!" He shouted out loud in the middle of his bedroom.

The light-skinned man leapt out of his bed and did a few jumping jacks. He had blond hair falling straight behind his head to his shoulder-blades. He had a beard of brown stubble on his chin and upper lip, and his earlobes were longer than the normal man's, though he was still very human in appearance. He was not wearing a shirt, and as he slid into a set of tight-fitting armor, he admired his body's incredible muscle tone. He slid into the armor that once inside fit perfectly to his skin, then flexed his arms to his sides. His armor was black and looked like a tunic only stretchy, and it had no sleeves, looking almost like a tank top.

"Alright!" The man shouted happily. He clapped his hands together in front of his body so fast that a shockwave rippled around him.

Across the city, Gon stood on a bustling street full of people and cars. "The city that never sleeps," or the Capital, was the biggest city on all of Aebrith. Gon walked down the road in a brown cloak he got from the Chimera Ant guard he killed before getting his and Mario's anklets off. The anklets were not meant for blocking their powers, that was the purpose of the PB-4 Gon had on his right wrist, and the PB-3 Mario had. Mario was no longer with Gon however, and Gon Freecs took a deep breath as he looked over some massive skyscrapers, and still could only see the bottom of the Northern Quarter of the city. He glanced left at a section of the city much higher than the lower Southern Quarter he was in. _The Embassy Quarter. That's where I would find the others who were taken by Lords and High Lords for their amusements._

Gon snarled, but he turned his attention back to the north and the giant section of the city that rose up into the clouds. It was made mostly of purple steel, at least the walls visible from the Southern Quarter were all dark purple. There were buildings built right into the sides of that giant fortress, and guard posts all over the place. Planes flew around in the sky above him, and he saw flashing red lights in the distance to his right. The Residential Quarter was just as busy as the Business Quarter this time of night, and Gon could hear sirens going off in that direction. He was dozens of miles away from every other section in the city, but he turned to the one in the north and bared his teeth at it. _Meruem, this is all your fault!_

The sight of all of Gon's friends appeared in his mind as he started running north down alleyways to stay out of sight. _Killua,_ he thought, hating how he never found his friend, wondering if maybe Meruem caught his best friend like he did him. He wondered if Killua was dead after all this time, and no matter how many times he told himself over the last two and a half years, he finally was losing hope of ever finding him again. _Gray,_ he saw the ice mage vanishing into thin air. _Axel,_ he imagined the look on Axel's face when they discovered he was a Nobody, when Saix took him away. _Kiba, Akamaru,_ he watched as the two got dragged out of each other's arms, everyone else screaming at the guards the whole time, roaring at the Lord for taking Akamaru away.

Gon kept running but he clenched his eyes shut in pain at the next memory. _Kuwabara,_ he imagined the look on Kuwabara's face when that green haired girl, Yukina, was dragged by a Lord through their cell block wearing nothing at all, and how she screamed at him to help but he could do nothing. And he remembered how the Lord was tired of her complaining, and how he beat her to death right in front of their cages, how she screamed Kuwabara's name to the very last second while Kuwabara's anklet was turned on and he could do nothing but scream her name in agony as she died.

 _Soul,_ Gon thought, imagining a similar situation when that girl Maka was marched through their cell block only a few days ago. The Lord who broke her spirit broke Soul's that day, but apparently he wasn't satisfied, and someone came back and took Soul away the very next day, they all assumed to bring him to Maka and torture one of them in front of the other.

The boy with dark green hair was almost at the giant wall of purple leading up to the Northern Quarter. He saw entrances all over the bottom part of the artificial structure that made up a hundred miles at the very top, or so he had heard. _I can make everything right,_ Gon thought. The images of all his friends from Delta Squad, all of them so tortured, they got combined with five times as many faces now, the faces of all those friends Gon had lost since the start of this war. At the very front of them was another member from Delta, _Rambo,_ he thought, then clenched his fists and snapped his gaze up at the wall. _I'm avenging you and everyone else we lost._

Gon was at the edge of a line of buildings, and he had to make a dash to get from there to the base of the Northern Quarter. He knew the King was somewhere up there, and the kid sprinted out from the building line. He made it halfway when a figure on his right caught his attention. The man was there so suddenly, that Gon spun and leapt back twenty yards away from him while getting into a fighting stance at the same time. "Who are-" Gon froze mid-question, his jaw dropped, and his eyes turned as wide as saucers. The man walking towards him looked so familiar that Gon had to rub his eyes a few times, and when he examined the man's body as he got closer, Gon became even more shocked.

The man walking his way was illuminated by artificial lights coming off street lamps and off buildings all around. There were not many people near the base of the Northern Quarter at this late hour, and those who were mostly ignored the young child and middle-aged man facing each other from twenty feet away. The older man was smiling at the boy, but his smile lowered after a couple of seconds. Gon's shocked expression steadily shifted and the kid smiled ear to ear. "Netero-san!" He exclaimed.

Isaac Netero's eyes opened wide. Gon ran across the twenty foot gap and looked the figure up and down, "It really is you! You're so young!"

"Am I?" The man asked, looking down at his body and wondering if this was considered young.

"You must have come back to life younger huh?" Gon questioned, an excited look on his face as for the first time, in a long time, some good luck came his way. "What are you doing in the Capital?" Netero opened his mouth but Gon spoke faster, "Actually, it doesn't matter! Now that you're here, you can help me!"

"Help you?" Netero questioned the boy, intrigued at what he was saying. "With what?"

Gon turned and glared up at the giant purple wall. "I'm going to kill the King. With your help we can do it. You've done it before, so-"

Netero chopped a hand into the side of Gon's neck and the boy never even saw it coming. Gon collapsed to the floor, and Netero stared at the boy's body with huge eyes. _This man killed the King?! I had no idea! It all makes sense now, why the Royal Guards were so hostile towards me those first few months! Oh King! I wish you had told me!_ Netero leaned down and picked up the boy lying on the floor. "I am so sorry," he said aloud, but it was not Gon he was talking to.

* * *

Gon's eyes fluttered open. His vision was blurry, but it became less blurry every second, then became clear all at once as he recognized the face in front of him. "Netero-san!" Gon exclaimed. The boy jumped up, then turned around and saw that he was just sitting down on a purple metal chair on the middle of a dark floor. He was standing on a black-steel ground and in the distance on his sides he could see walls that looked like they were made of the same material. He looked up and the ceiling was far above him, then he lowered his head back to Netero to question what was going on.

When Gon lowered his head, his heart skipped a beat and his breathing became ragged and sped up. Isaac Netero stepped to the side with a smirk on his face that Gon could never imagine the nice old man he once knew smiling like. Beyond Netero, where Gon was staring in absolute horror, were a couple of figures. First there was Neferpitou, or Pitou, crouching with her hands down on the floor beneath her bent legs, glaring at Gon with glowing red eyes and all her hair standing on end. On her right there was a slender figure in a white long-sleeved shirt with antennae sticking out of his head and thin insect wings sticking out of his back. Shaiapouf, or just Pouf, glared at Gon while crossing his arms and looking down his nose at the inferior human. On Pitou's left, or at least to the left of her from Gon's perspective, there was a massive red figure covered in muscles with slicked-back black hair unlike Pitou's curly white and Pouf's straight-falling blond. Menthuthuyoupi, or Youpi, examined the child up and down and he frowned deeply as he knew where he had seen the boy before, on the very same day he died.

There were two other figures in the direction Gon was looking, both of them in between Gon and the three Royal Guards. One figure was sitting on his butt with his left leg curled in towards his right that was outstretched in front of him. That figure was the King, Meruem, and he was holding the other figure on his lap, grabbing him by the shoulders with the top of his head right in front of Meruem's own mouth. The Ant King looked straight into Gon's eyes while he opened back up his mouth and took another bite out of the opened skull of the short Italian man he was holding. Meruem pulled back and yanked brains out of Mario's head that he slurped back and bit into, sending brain juice splashing out towards Gon.

Gon stared at the lifeless eyes of the man Meruem was holding for a few moments before Meruem dropped him to the ground and got up on his feet. The Ant King stepped forward and crushed Mario's skull under his foot which was even easier with it being hollow and already partly broken. He never took his eyes off Gon, who stared in horror at the puddle under Meruem's feet, then lifted his gaze up to the Ant King with a body shaking like mad. "H-How?" Gon snarled.

Meruem spoke, "I felt you use Zetsu back at the Colosseum. A presence in my Capital vanished suddenly, of course I would notice. It did not matter that the two of you had on Power Blockers. I flew over and killed him, then watched as you approached my castle. I knew that you were acquainted with Isaac Netero so I made arrangements to see how you would react to seeing him again. I had hopes that you would notice Netero was not himself sooner, however-"

"Who is he?!" Gon shouted, getting angrier and angrier by the second. He spun from the King, an action that made all of the Royal Guards tense up angrily. Meruem held up a hand though as he did not want them to kill the boy just yet. Gon turned to Netero who continued to smirk at him, then threw both arms up in the air on either side of his head. He dabbed to the right, then swung his arms to the left, right again, before making a pose with one leg curled up with a foot to his thigh and both hands pressed together high above the top of his head.

"The honorary Royal Guard of the King! Protector of the Capital and the High Commander of the King's Army!" He re-planted both feet on the ground and punched his fists down to his sides, then brought them slowly up the front of his body, crossing them across each other before swinging them straight out to either side like an airplane. He spun around on one foot and leaned his body forward while kicking his other leg back behind him.

"Ginyu, enough," Meruem said. The dancing man dropped down to a knee and nodded instantly. Meruem wiped some brain from his lips with an arm and then continued to Ginyu, "You did well. Thank you for your good work."

"It was nothing at all Your Majesty! I live to serve!" Ginyu exclaimed.

"Thank you," Meruem said. "Now you may leave," he added, and Ginyu looked up and without any hesitation nodded at the King. Meruem smirked as the man who looked like Isaac Netero left. _He did not mention what this boy told him of Isaac Netero killing me. Hmm. I do not believe he is planning anything however. He must not want to bring up my death for another reason. Ginyu is strange in that loyalty is his most redeeming quality, which I have only ever seen before in my Royal Guards._

"Where is the real Netero?" Gon growled towards the King and his Royal Guards.

"Watch how you speak to the King you insolent brat!" Pouf screamed, unable to hold back.

"Pouf," Meruem warned, and the guard behind him held his tongue but continued to glare at Gon furiously. Meruem looked Gon in the eyes, but as he got ready to speak to the boy, he was thinking a hundred times as fast and his mind was astray. _That is another good thing about Ginyu. Unlike my Royal Guards, he never questions an order. Unlike them, he has no true attachment to me, does not truly care if I live or die, however until I do I know he will remain loyal. Strange man, very strange._ "Ginyu destroyed his old, damaged body, after switching bodies with Isaac Netero. The man you once knew died in that body," Meruem explained to Gon, making the angry boy open his eyes wide in pain and anguish for a second, before dropping his gaze down to the floor.

 _Rambo, Mario, Soul, Maka, Kuwabara, Kiba, Akamaru, Killua, Netero, Knuckle, Rex, Jimmy, Axel, Gray… I'm sorry._ Gon stopped trembling. He stared at the floor beneath him that was getting more red every second as blood from Mario's corpse spread his direction. It got all around his feet and pieces of brain chunk floated around on the red river beneath him. "I-I… I'm done."

The bracelet on Gon's right wrist broke. Meruem's mouth twisted into a huge grin as this is exactly what he wanted. From the moment he felt Pitou's fear during the last gladiator match that they visited together, he had been awaiting this moment. He put that Italian man in the same cell as Gon's because he could feel that the man's hope was not as faked as the rest of his comrades, that he might have had a way out of the cells, and knew the two were friends from the way they looked at each other once while within the King's vision. He had actually been waiting for the boy to break out when he was re-watching the clip with Pitou only a little earlier, and when he told her who had escaped from prison the first thing she asked was whether or not the King set it up that way. This moment was what the King had orchestrated so simply, but the feeling that everything fell so perfectly into place was a great one, especially as his curiosity was finally being satisfied.

Pitou's eyes turned huge and the female Chimera Ant braced herself to pounce. Pouf and Youpi were also shocked as Gon's power that was hidden behind his PB-4 slammed into them. The boy's body surrounded in a dark aura that stretched all the way up to the ceiling, a white veil around it, and his hair shot up inside that aura stretching all the way up with it. His hair was pitch black like his skin that turned the same color, and his eyes when he snapped them up and glared forward. _I can't,_ he thought. He tried so hard to keep it together, but after months of this, and years of steadily reaching that point, he lost all remaining hope. Netero's appearance was a lie, Mario never made it out of the prison, and even here, he could only see himself dying or going back to his cage to die in the Colosseum. _So I don't care. Whether it's today, or tomorrow, I'm dying here. This, is what I can do. Maybe, I'll manage to save some people, maybe, I'll give the Resistance a chance. All I need to do..._ his enormous aura slowly shrank down to his body until there was a golden veil around him.

Gon's body was no longer that of a child's. He was huge, taller than Meruem and as muscular as Youpi. He rose a fist and clenched it in front of him, and the floor beneath his feet cracked down. _I am stronger than last time,_ he thought, then rose his gaze to Meruem once more. _This is my full potential. This is everything I could ever throw at you._ "I'm going to take all four of you down," Gon said, his voice sounding different just like he looked like a totally different person. He stared straight ahead and Meruem understood now how the boy managed to kill Pitou back on their world. The two of them locked eyes, and a dark purple aura surrounded the King while white auras surrounded each of his Royal Guards.

Gon got into a fighting stance and Meruem did the same. They faced each other, man against beast, a King against a warrior. The two of them shot off the ground towards each other and met right in the middle. They both punched forward their right fists and a flash of white light exploded when their fists collided, filling the room and surrounding everything in its glow. Gon and Meruem could see each other in that light as they pushed harder into their punches. Gon glared into the Ant King's eyes and he roared, "MERUEM!" Then, the light became more solid and worked its way over their entire bodies, up their faces, and over their eyes.

* * *

 **A/N And... cliffhanger! XD Thanks for reading! Posting this past three in the morning since I finally made it home from college, (took me 34 hours in all). Hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Next chapter is the Gray team chapter, so get excited! I'm posting one a day all week!** **Oh, and happy Mother's Day.**

Darugus chapter 46 . May 13

Nice chapter  
Well bounty of 20 million and rank black luffy is probably just getting started  
Also I was really wondering if you would include the whole shima spy thing since you included lucifer who was in the manga  
Shima being a double agent for mephisto and lucifer was really a twist in the manga  
And luffy jumping into the cataclysm head first hope that doesn't go bad  
Zoro probably heard that luffy is on aebirth wondering how he react after being separated from his captain for so long and if he would still be loyal to him

 **Thanks! Hope you liked the new chapter and glad you read the Blue Exorcist manga so it wasn't a Spoiler! Word of Luffy's deeds may spread to Zoro's ears considering we saw his group hearing about Goku beating Doflamingo earlier. Wonder how he'll react?... XD**

Espada-001 chapter 46 . 7h ago

Well not too much to say here today, so all I have is that I'm feeling sorry for the Hippo and I look forward to seeing more of the resistance. Oh and I had a good laugh when Luffy did his little cliff diving. lol. Well any way until next time have a good day and I look forward to tomorrow!

 **Hippo NOOO! Resistance coming in to play next chapter! Thanks for the review! And thanks again to everyone who read, faved, followed, and reviewed! 'Till next time!**


	48. Nexus HWR 9-0 Zeppelin

**A/N So I know I said the Resistance chapter was starting this chapter, but it'll start up next part. Surprise...**

* * *

 **Nexus HWR 9.0 Zeppelin:**

 **Two weeks before the 'No Matter What' Pact was made.**

A small boy lifted off the ground and flew across the sky with a look of awe and adventure on his face. "Wonder why those Saiyans aren't using these power-mask thingies," Son Goku said while glancing down at the bracelet on his right wrist. "I guess I'll find out," the child laughed and spun through the sky. His spiky black hair somehow stayed in its strange shape the entire flight even while his brown tail waved around behind him.

Goku had not mentioned it to his friends often, but being turned back into a child did not make him as upset as many people would be. Quite the opposite actually; he loved being a kid again, especially since he felt like he was still at full strength. The spiky haired boy shot across the sky in a blur of white. He flew over forests, deserts, rivers and huge lakes. In the center of one giant lake there was a foggy area, and as he flew through it he could see huge dark pillars sticking up in the sky around him. At the top of these shadowy figures, he could see two red eyes that darted down to look at him.

"Amazing," Goku said in awe. He kept flying and left the fog, then flew over the rest of the lake pretty quickly as well. The young/adult Saiyan warrior flew up into the clouds as he continued north, but he found they were much thicker than he had expected. He actually had to push through the clouds to get up above them, and then his coal-black eyes widened at the most magnificent sight up ahead of him.

He continued soaring through the air, but slowed down to admire the floating city on his right. Even though it was already above the clouds, it still hovered up higher than the cloud's floor level. Huge waterfalls dropped off of floating rocks around the main island, and on top of those smaller rocks were huge turrets and cannons, along with glass buildings that looked like military or research facilities. The main island itself was covered in tall white skyscrapers, amazing domed buildings, and there were bright lights emitting from all over the place.

Goku came to a stop right as he was about to go past it. He wanted to keep flying, but this city was so amazing he just had to look. He gazed inside and saw flying cars zipping around in between the tall buildings, while on the streets of the city, people rode animals that Goku had never seen before. Animals of all different shapes and sizes, all saddled up with individuals, couples, or even entire families riding on top of them. Above the roofs of the skyscrapers and domes, large floating bubbles of different colors drifted around the sky, and a closer look showed they were full of light. Each bubble had a large amount of light matching its bubble's color stored in it, and Goku tilted his head to the side in confusion, wondering why that was. There were golden bubbles, and green ones, blue ones, and even a few black ones near the outsides of the city.

"Hmm," Goku hummed, frowning as he stared at the city that he could not feel in front of him. "I can't feel anyone, but I know they are there. They must all be wearing their things," he looked down at the PB-6 on his arm again and then turned his head left to look into the distance the direction he wanted to go before. _I can still feel them, but,_ he looked back at the floating city, _I might not be able to find this place again. Without Instant Transmission or ki-sensing, I could miss my chance to check this place out forever._

The little boy smiled and flew forward, "Here I come!"

 **Two days later...**

"Goodbye Son Goku!" a man with naturally squinty eyes and two white wings on his back waved after the man flying away from him. Pagaya stood at the edge of a half-destroyed city, with the civilians of the city all standing behind him.

"We'll never forget you!" Pagaya's blonde-haired teenage daughter standing on his left called up into the sky with her hands cupped to her mouth. Conis lowered one arm and rose the other higher, waving it excitedly up at the child looking back at them.

Goku smiled down at the nice people all waving to him, and he called back, "Be careful now. Thanks for all your help Mr. Pagaya!" He added and directed his attention to the man whose furry brown beard connected with his mustache and covered up his mouth completely. The guy and his winged daughter both had antennae on the tops of their heads that matched the color of their hair. Goku waved at the older man, then turned and flew off across the sky. "Those were some nice people," he said in a thoughtful way, then grinned ear to ear and giggled, "and they made some great food! I should come back here sometime, if I can find the place."

Back behind him, the citizens of Skypiea watched as their hero flew away. "Who will lead us now?" a person asked in the middle of the crowd once the little boy was out of sight.

"It should be Captain McKinley!" someone yelled.

"No!" a gruff man wearing a black shirt with a purple 'G' on the front left of his chest called out. He was wearing a white hat that signified him as the leader of the White Berets, the group of men gathered in rows behind him, most of them looking bruised up from the recent battle that left half of their city in ruin. Captain McKinley looked around at the citizens gathered at the edge of their city, he looked up at the islands around where the facilities and turrets keeping them trapped were all just piles of rubble now. "We do not need another leader like Loki."

"Captain McKinley!"

"You are nothing like him!"

Pagaya turned from watching the sky where Son Goku's dot disappeared in the distance, and looked across the crowd back to the White Berets. "McKinley," he called over in a calm voice unlike the rest of his fellow civilians. "Every one of us saw you fighting Loki's beasts, we know you were only working for him to protect us!"

"It does not matter," Captain McKinley stated firmly, and his troops stood in solidarity behind him. "Skypiea is in need of a true election. No magic, no trickery, this country needs an honest Governor." The White Beret Captain looked back at the bearded angel-winged person calling over to him, "And although I will not be running, if I were to choose someone to lead us, it would be you Pagaya. You and your daughter brought Son Goku to us to free this land of years of tyranny."

All the people calling for McKinley started turning and looked over to Pagaya who they all knew and respected as well. Someone who agreed chanted, "Pa-ga-ya! Pa-Ga-Ya! PAGAYA!" The city cheered for the man and Pagaya stood still in place with sweat dripping down both cheeks.

"Excuse me I don't think-" Pagaya started quietly.

"I know you can do it father," a soothing voice said next to him. Pagaya turned to see his daughter with her blonde beautiful pigtails, smiling into his eyes and nodding in encouragement at him. Conis whispered, "I believe in you."

Pagaya looked at his daughter for a few more seconds, then back at the crowd and announced, "I will run for Governor, but we must still have the election." As he said it though, the election seemed unnecessary at the sound of the roaring applause and cheering from the citizens of the city. Pagaya chuckled at the civilians who really just wanted someone other than their old leader, but he would try to be more than just that. The old man looked back outside of their city, _Thank you Son Goku for giving us this chance._

Son Goku was flying fast away from the sky-city, but his mind was elsewhere. _I wonder what that Loki guy meant? I'm not very good with riddles, and that's all he spoke in! "Kings will rise and Kings will fall, there is but one who rules them all." Is that the King guy who Gray was talking about? Or, umm, what was that other thing he said about swords and hearts?_ Goku hummed to himself but shrugged and smiled as he decided not to think too hard on it. He flew down into the mass of fluffy clouds and started laughing at the feeling of pushing through them.

"Now," he hummed aloud. "Where are those-" he stopped right in the middle of a cloud. Goku blinked a few times and he snapped his head right and left. "Weird," he mumbled. "Where did they go?"

Goku shot down fast out of the clouds so he could see for miles of landscape around him. He looked one direction, and a few hundred miles away he could see an end to the land, a huge scar on the landscape. The Saiyan smiled as he recognized the crack and followed it left with his eyes. He looked out to the east and then kept turning to look northeast, and then north of his current position. His eyes narrowed at a cluster of mountains in the distance. They were so far they looked blurry to him, but they must have been some of the tallest things on the planet, because he could still not see their peaks.

Goku started flying towards those mountains, as he had a strange feeling about them. As he flew though, he wondered aloud, "Where did those three Saiyans go? They seemed really strong." He lowered down until he was flying right over the ground, and he swerved in and out of creatures and monsters all over the rocky waste he flew over. There were dark creatures and monsters eating each other all over the place. He slowed down and looked up to see a flock of Fearows and Spearows flying across the sky. Out of nowhere a Grimm bird dropped out of the sky. Its wingspan was five times the size of the largest of the Fearows, it had black feathers, sharp talons, and red eyes on the white skull on the outside of its face.

The Nevermore descended and the flock of Pokemon scattered. It followed one Spearow in particular and dropped its claws towards the bird. A Fearow shot in and slammed into the side of the Spearow, knocking it to the side right as the Nevermore's talons were closing. Goku frowned as blood splashed out of the bigger brown creature and he heard the screams of the Pokemon up in the air. He looked around him at all the Aragami that started marching his way. They were disgusting, bloodthirsty monsters, and a few of them he could see scars that looked like they were dealt by human weapons. If the humans never finished the job though, he figured the monsters won those fights.

Goku started narrowing his eyes at all these monsters. _Tien,_ he thought, and stepped to the right to allow a diving Grimm wolf to fly past him. _What have you been doing all this time? Weren't you going to clear this place out on your own? To get enough power so we could fight again?_ Goku caught a monster by the wrist of its claw it just swung at him, and he yanked the creature's face in front of his own. _I haven't seen one of these in over a year. We cleared all of them out on Awul._ His hand started glowing gold and the creature's face took a look of surprise for a split second before it exploded.

The other Aragami and Grimm hesitated. Large golem-like monsters with red lines going through their bodies like visible veins kept marching towards Goku. The Gohma stepped on a few Grimm and did not look like they noticed. One of them punched down towards him, but Goku had enough. He pulled his arms in and yelled, "Haaa!" A golden aura surrounded him, and his hair shot up spiky and blond. The little boy yelled louder and his aura grew brighter, and started ripping apart the monsters around him. They reeled away and pulled back their arms, but their bodies disintegrated in Goku's golden light.

Goku finally stopped powering up and he let his hair drop back to its normal black spikes. He took a calm breath and looked around at the empty landscape for a hundred yards around him. There were still monsters all over the place and the young Saiyan boy frowned. He did not have time, nor did he want, to go around destroying every monster on the continent covered in them from the feel of it. "I want to find those Saiyans," he mumbled childishly. The boy crossed his arms and he closed his eyes. The pouting look on his face faded and he looked much more serious as he focused his mind.

 _The three I felt could have entered a city. Maybe they put on Power Blockers too. Or maybe, they are hiding their energy. If I try sensing harder, then, perhaps…_ Goku's eyes snapped open and his head pointed to the northeast. "There," he said, a big grin appearing on his face. They were in a much different location than where he felt them last time, now they were a lot farther away and their energies were fainter. A golden aura surrounded him again as he transformed into a Super Saiyan. "Gotta get there fast in case they disappear again."

With that, the Super Saiyan flew into the distance. He crossed miles in mere seconds, and hundreds of miles in minutes. He rose higher off the ground as to not disturb people below when he crossed over a town with high walls. As he flew over though, the people pointed up and shouted at the glowing golden blur flying above. Goku almost wanted to fly down to them and talk considering when he flew in their airspace he felt quite a few powerful figures down there, but once he crossed into their space he also lost feeling of the faint Saiyan energies he felt. He shot out of the town and tried locking back on, but their energies were even fainter than before, or gone, he could not tell. _Did they feel me coming and try to hide? That doesn't make sense, I have one of these PB thingies on._

Goku looked at his right wrist and the silver bracelet on it. "Maybe if I take this off…" He hummed to himself and thought about what Gray told him. "Really strong guys will come find me if I take it off," he started, an excited look coming to his face. He reached for his wrist, ready to get in an amazing battle at this very moment. As his left hand touched his wrist though, he felt three powers rise in the northeast. "There they are!" His train of thought was derailed and he put his arms back at his sides as he flew off.

He shot straight towards the powers and moved faster than before so he would not lose them again. Traveling so far east so fast made it so he was arriving somewhere much later in the day from where he left. The suns were in the middle of the sky when he left only a few minutes before, but were halfway down in the west when he was finally getting close. Goku spotted the area that the powers were coming from and his face lit up. It was late summer, but down below were mountains of ice. The mountains were not huge, but they were large craggily peaks of ice and rock with no real solid ground between the mountains. The area seemed in-traversable by foot with spikes of ice sticking up every few feet and no real path to walk on.

A few of the peaks had openings in them, or big black doorways right below the peaks with little flat platforms outside them. "People must live here," Goku said as he flew by a mountain. He flew at the door's level and looked inside to see a man with a big white beard, blue skin, and a golden crown on his head sitting alone at a table, seeming really sad. Goku felt one of the Saiyan's energies drop fast so he ignored the old icy guy for now and flew off faster.

He spiraled around two more mountains and finally the ground below him started to show signs of the powers he was feeling. Whatever the three Saiyans were fighting was invisible to him, and Goku slowed down as he realized that whatever it was had to be wearing Power Blockers. He slowed down and furrowed his brow, as he originally came with hopeful expectations of the Saiyans, but now that he thought about the Saiyans he had met before, he did not have high hopes that the ones they were fighting were going to be bad people he would want to help them with. In fact, he thought it would be the contrary, and he would most likely wind up fighting these Saiyans in a few seconds.

Goku sped back up and shook his head around. Whether or not he had to fight the Saiyans or help them, he had to get there and join in. He lifted up over one last mountain, one where the ice at the top was cracking and an avalanche started on the western edge because of the shaking ground. He flew over the top of the mountain and looked down over the other side to see the three Saiyans were closer to the mountain than their enemies who vastly outnumbered them. And when he saw the army standing and floating before his fellow Saiyans, he realized that the reason he could not feel their energies was not because they were wearing Power Blockers at all.

In front of the two floating Saiyans and the injured one down on a knee behind them, was an army of robots. The bi-pedaled steel men had glowing red eyes on their shiny silver faces, rocket launchers on their wrists, jets coming out of the soles of their feet, and many in the front rows had wires sticking out of their circuitry. There were several crumpled-up sparking robot carcasses on the floor in front of the Saiyans and below their flying opponents. All three of the aliens had bad injuries, but the bald one in the back down on his knee was missing his entire left arm. He was grabbing his bloody shoulder with his remaining hand and taking heavy breaths in pain.

"I told you we shouldn't have come this way," one of the black haired men with short hair growled back to the injured one behind him.

"Heh, sorry guys," the bloodiest one muttered in reply. He had two scars going vertically down over his eyes from his forehead to his cheeks. "Didn't see the trap coming. You were right," the man started coughing and blood splattered out of his mouth.

"Shit," the third man with long black hair that spiked down his back to his waist cursed. He did not look behind him, but he could tell his comrade with a missing arm was not doing well. "Bora," he muttered quietly. "Take Dobaka and get out of here." The short-haired man on his left side glanced at him and then at the army in front of them. The robots were raising their arms and all charging attacks simultaneously. The one with long hair kept speaking, "When they fire, go. I'll stop their attacks and stall until-"

"Hey there!"

The muscular Saiyan man who was speaking darted his eyes up in the sky as did his two companions. They stared up in the air at a young boy with a brown tail sticking out behind him, making all three of them go wide-eyed as the tail looked very similar to the ones they had wrapped around their waists. The kid flew down so that he was floating in front of the two older Saiyan men between them and the enemy army. The boy wore an orange fighting gi that looked much different from their Saiyan armor, but his hair looked similar to a Saiyan's, just like his tail. He floated there facing them and the long haired one shouted, "Who are you?"

"I'm Son Goku," the kid greeted. The men in front of him dropped their jaws.

"No you are not," the guy with long, spiky, black hair snarled back at him.

"Apragus, look at his hair," Bora said. He was about to shout something along the same lines as his partner, but the kid's hair had spikes that he recognized well. "Does that look-"

The robots all fired their weapons. Goku felt them coming and he spun around in midair, not expecting such powerful attacks to be shot by those robots. His hair shot up golden and his body surrounded in a golden aura that had the three men behind him staring in awe. Goku lifted up his right hand and yelled out as the red beams all collided with him. His hand moved like a blur smacking into every single red beam and knocking them off to the sides. Huge red explosions erupted to Goku's left and right sides, and then the small boy flew between them and up to the closest robot to him. The robot's red eyes seemed to grow in that split second before Goku slammed a fist forward and knocked its head off.

"He's, a Super Saiyan," the man on the ground whispered. He pushed himself up and staggered forward, all the while staring in amazement as Goku tore apart their enemy army. "Then, that's really him?" Dobaka asked, looking up at his companions for verification.

"Might be," Apragus said. He crossed his arms and glowered, losing his shocked look while staring off at the powerful child. "If so, we must report back right away."

"Abandon the mission?" Bora asked.

"We already failed," Apragus said. The muscular and least damaged of the three Saiyans glared ahead at the boy who finished off the last few robots before letting his golden glow go away. "Boy, come here," Apragus shouted and Goku spun around. He flew over towards the long haired Saiyan and stayed at eye level with him, even when the man tried floating up a little to look down at the kid.

"Hi! What are you doing here?" Goku asked.

"None of your concern," Apragus replied. He crossed his arms in front of his armored chest, armor that Goku recognized well, it being the same armor that Bulma used to make for them based off of Vegeta's space armor. "Are you really Kakarott?" He asked, and the other two Saiyan men glanced at him confusedly.

Goku nodded his head, and the other two more-injured men besides Apragus lowered their bottom lips. "So if you guys know my Saiyan name, you really are Saiyans?" Goku questioned, his face already lighting up. "That's great. You aren't bad guys right?"

Apragus looked agitated by the question and in an aggravated voice he responded, "Come with us." The man turned to the slightly shorter, and more pudgy man next to him. "Bora, get Dobaka. We're returning."

"Where are you going?" Goku asked.

"You are coming with us," Apragus told him. Goku frowned that he was not asked, but he lifted up his eyebrows and started smiling after the next sentence the Saiyan told him. "We are returning to see the King."

* * *

 **Just Off of the East Coast of Awul**

 **One Week Ago…**

"Is everything to your liking Kurosaki Ichigo?" A young woman with light skin, long black braided hair, and a red tunic on questioned the younger man leaning against the wall to her right. They were in the frontmost section of the largest of three flying airships heading east across the Great Ocean. There was a clear glass window in the front of their control room showing the bright blue sky ahead of them and the white clouds they were flying just above. The two of them were standing on the upper level of the room, while a lower level down the stairs to either sides of them had a dozen people sitting behind computers and control panels to fly their giant zeppelin.

Ichigo was leaning on the wall but staring past the stairs next to him and out the window of their airship. He caught glimpses of both of the other airships in their convoy to their sides, but could only see the very front parts of them. He turned his head to the woman in command of this mission and nodded, "Yeah Toto, everything's fine." Ichigo had his hands in his pockets and he pushed off the wall with a foot. "How long does it normally take to get to Remano?"

Toto walked away from Ichigo and up to the railing of the second level they were on. "Only a couple of days. The newest airships have max speeds of three hundred miles per hour, so this will actually be my fastest run to Aebrith yet."

"Alright," he said, and he leaned off the wall while stretching his arms up over his head. He stepped away and put his hands down into his sweatpants' pockets and started walking for one of the staircases. "I'm going to head to the passenger section."

"King Alibaba told me to let you stay in the cockpit," Toto began, turning to the teen who did not stop.

Ichigo walked down the stairs and without looking back he said, "Yeah, but he didn't tell you to keep me up here. I'm just going to go look around," he finished.

The young woman in charge of the fleet sighed and waved him off. "Suit yourself."

Ichigo walked back through the front of the zeppelin until he reached a set of double doors. From this side of the doors he did not need a passcode or card or anything so he just kept walking and the doors slid open on their own for him. He exited the front section of the giant blimp and instantly the place seemed a lot bigger. The front section also had rooms on the sides for the crew and special guests, (which he didn't realize Alibaba thought he was before getting on), so both sides of him in the passageway he just walked through were walled off making it a narrow hallway. The room he just entered though, he had to pause a moment to take it all in.

It was not his first time seeing the inside of the extravagant machine, but it never ceased to amaze him. The sides of the blimp were white but the material that made up the vehicle was translucent so he could see outside anyway. Both the inner and outer parts of the zeppelin's white walls were clear though there was some space between them that was full of elements that kept them afloat. There were no windows because of this, it really seemed like they were outside except for the white tint to their surroundings. He had a much better view of the other zeppelins on either side of them now, but he was not looking outside. Ichigo's eyes were wandering around the blimp that if he were to compare it to somewhere else on his world, it would be an airport. There were sections for sitting near doors that would be used for exits when they landed. Televisions and computers were almost as scattered as chairs for all the passengers to use for their entertainment and to pass the time on their way to Aebrith. The chairs here were much nicer than in an airport, soft recliners and couches where he could see friends and family sitting around talking and eating. The food they were eating probably came from one of the restaurants scattered around the floor, or even on the second level fifty feet above him that there were staircases leading up to.

Ichigo started walking down the twenty foot wide aisle in the direct center of the zeppelin where no food stands, shops, or luggage could be kept. There were some other people walking on it, though most people were sitting down. He spotted a couple of Rhodari guards coming his way wearing matching red uniforms and green hats with small rims on them. The two guards were talking to each other, and Ichigo moved a little to the left to walk past them, but when they noticed who it was about to walk past, one of them almost jumped out of his shoes. The other person looked interested as well but the man who jumped really overreacted.

Ichigo continued to walk but the two stopped and he tried to hold in a groan as he turned to them. Below the rims of their hats he spotted headbands that were not completely covered. One of them had a swirly circular symbol on the center of the headband and the other's symbol looked like a gourd. _Ninjas,_ he thought, while out loud asking, "What?"

The more nervous of the two had jet black hair and big bushy eyebrows. Ichigo recognized the headband he was wearing as one belonging to a Hidden Leaf shinobi. The teen did not look much older than Ichigo, just like the blonde haired girl on his left. The boy looked at Ichigo with big eyes and took a deep breath which made the taller, spiky orange haired teen lean back. "It is an honor to meet you Kurosaki Ichigo the King has spoken very highly of you and we are to make sure you make it to Remano safely and as fast as-"

The blonde girl jabbed an elbow into her comrade's side and he hunched over in pain with his tongue stuck out. "You're speaking too fast Lee," Temari said with an annoyed look on her face. She turned back to Ichigo and tilted her own head up to look at him down her nose. "So, you're the ' _hero_ ' we're supposed to be guarding?"

 _Alibaba I'm gonna strangle you,_ he thought angrily. "Not really," Ichigo said aloud in a bored tone though his face showed more the annoyed expression that matched his thoughts. "Ichigo," he introduced himself, nodding his head at the kunoichi.

She grinned as she was half-expecting some snob who must have requested Alibaba's help and told the King to call him a 'hero.' The look on this teen's face was not a happy one though and she chuckled. "Temari," she said. "And this guy here's Rock Lee."

"It's an honor!" Lee exclaimed and snapped straight up again.

"You said that already," Temari mumbled at the idiot next to her.

"The King said you saved his life," Lee said in a rushed voice, ignoring Temari completely. He pushed his face up closer to Ichigo's. "So you must be incredibly strong!"

Ichigo nodded, not caring much to explain his strength right now. He felt like if he said anything this guy was just going to jump on it and keep on rambling so he stayed quiet. Lee did not need him to say something for him to go off of though, and he started asking all sorts of questions which made Ichigo sweatdrop. Temari noticed the taller teen looked uncomfortable and as much as she wanted to watch the 'hero' squirm, she grabbed Lee by the arm and tugged him the way Ichigo just came from. "Let's go. We have rounds to do."

"Wait! But I-" Lee had turned for a second to shout at Temari, but when he looked back Ichigo was already walking the other direction with his back to them. "Oh, well, I'll find you later when I am on break Ku- Ichigo!"

"Can't wait," Ichigo muttered under his breath. A cheer of happiness rang out behind him and he dropped his jaw as somehow Lee must have heard that. _This is ridiculous_ , he thought and looked around for a seat. He saw an empty section nearby and walked towards an empty chair. The teen felt movement in the bag on his back and he sighed, taking it off as he got to the chair he would be sitting on for the next few hours if possible.

Ichigo dropped the bag down on the floor and it hit with a thud. "Ouch!" A high pitched voice exclaimed from under the flap over the top of his bag. The flap got pulled open and a stuffed lion climbed out of his luggage. "Hey!" The lion pointed one of its round hands at Ichigo and waved it around. "Be more careful, did you forget I was in here?!"

"I didn't forget," Ichigo stated blandly while getting comfortable in the recliner. He leaned his head back while Kon gawked at him for his purposeful mistreatment. "What do you want Kon?"

"Whoa! Is that what we're inside?" Kon asked in amazement as he had climbed on the chair and looked through one of the walls at one of the other zeppelins outside.

Ichigo shrugged as he took another look himself. "I'm pretty sure this one's bigger," he said.

"Whoaa," Kon gasped out. He seemed to forget all about Ichigo roughly dropping his carry-on with the cool environment he suddenly found himself in. "Ichigo look, a Big Belly Burger," Kon pointed over at a restaurant, the one with the longest line of any away from the counter. The stuffed lion spun and looked up hopefully at the teen, "Please?" he begged. Ichigo did not look down. "Please, please, pleeaaasseee!"

"You're not taking my body just so you can eat a burger," Ichigo said, leaning his head back and rubbing his temples as he wished Kon would just be quiet already. He rubbed for a few more seconds then stopped as he was expecting Kon to keep saying 'please.' He looked down and the stuffed lion was gone. The teen looked left and right and groaned as he didn't see Kon anywhere.

He put his hands down on the armrests to push up, but stopped himself and just slouched back in his chair. _We're inside a zeppelin miles up in the air above an ocean, where is he gonna go?_ Ichigo put his head back and closed his eyes.

* * *

"Attention passengers," a speaker system that covered the entire zeppelin Ichigo was riding announced.

Ichigo was sitting on a chair, watching Rhodari television that still managed to get a signal over the Great Ocean. The screen blanked for a minute though so that everyone watching would pay attention to the captain's message. Toto's voice continued over the ship, "We are nearing the coast of Aebrith. We will arrive at the capital of Leam, Remano, by nine o'clock tonight. Until then, enjoy the view as we approach the largest continent on Nexus."

"Whoa!"

"Look!"

"It's amazing!"

Ichigo tried to drown out their voices but he finally conceded and stood up. He turned to the left side of the blimp where people were lining up at the curved wall and leaning into it so they could all look down and far ahead of them where a coastline was coming into sight. Ichigo stared out there and he heard a little girl on his right whisper up to the woman holding her hand, "Mommy, it's so big. How many people live here?"

The mom's bottom lip was dropped as she took it all in. She looked at amazing island formations near the coast and mountain ranges just barely visible above the horizon. It was less cloudy than the day they left so it was easy to see their destination and all of its magnificence. She closed her mouth though and clenched her young daughter's hand tightly. "It's my first time coming here too baby," she whispered. "So I don't know, but a whole lot I bet."

"More than home?" The girl asked.

"Maybe," her mom responded. "Let's ask your father when we get to Remano."

"Is he really there?" The girl asked, her head pointing down and her face getting a sad look to it. Ichigo was trying to just watch the approaching coast but it was hard not to eavesdrop on the family since they were so close to him. "What if he's-"

"He's there," her mother assured confidently. She knelt down in front of her small daughter and held both of her hands right now. "King Alibaba promised that the list of missing friends and family us citizens of Rhodar gave him would be given to the King of Leam. The people of Leam did the same thing, so anyone who got separated from family, like you, me, and daddy, could find each other." The mom gave the girl a reassuring smile, "And sure enough, your daddy was looking for us all over, just like I told you he was."

The girl's sad look was gone and she nodded happily at her mother. "Mm!"

Ichigo found his own lips curling up but he did not catch himself. He felt good so he smiled for a second or two, until he noticed something behind him that made him spin around and lose his smile. He watched as five guards went running down the aisle in the middle of the blimp towards the front. He jogged over as he spotted a couple of people he recognized.

"Oi," he called out as they were moving too fast and about to go by him.

The ninjas turned and Temari kept going while Lee paused for a second. The Leaf shinobi turned to Ichigo who snapped, "What's happening? Where are you all going?"

"We just got word," Lee began. "Our radars picked up on something. It's approaching the-"

A chill ran down Ichigo and Lee's spines and the two of them went wide-eyed. Other people on the ship who were starting to get nervous at the sight of all the rushing guards began freaking out as they got the same feelings and were not experienced fighters like the teenagers. "Weary travelers," a deep, horrifyingly deep, voice began.

Ichigo and Lee spun towards the front of the ship while Temari spun around like the five guards in front of her. In between Ichigo and Lee, and the rest of the guards, a single figure stood in the aisle. He had an all black cloak covering his entire body with a hood up that shadowed his face. He was six feet tall and his dark appearance scared the ship silent in seconds.

"Who are you?" Temari snapped at this figure. She reached behind her back and pulled a two-foot long rectangle of steel off her back. One button press though and the steel extended over twice as long and then spread to the sides, revealing a beige fan as tall as she was with three red dots on it as it was spread out to its full width. "And choose your words carefully," the sand kunoichi warned him.

"Your ships are surrounded," the figure stated. He was not facing Temari's group, but Ichigo and Lee who did not back away from the man only twelve feet away from them. He continued in his deep scary voice, "We will be taking control now."

"Why? Who are you?" Lee shouted at him.

"'Why?'" The man repeated back in a voice that made Lee's face cover in sweat. "Because aboard these vessels are supplies that you are bringing to our enemies. Leam will lose this war. The Emperor assures death to all who stand against him."

"Your allegiance is to the Emperor?" Temari questioned. "Then you should know that we have a non-aggression-"

"Bringing weapons to our enemies is the definition of aggression!" The man roared. His right hand slid out of his sleeve and it was dark blue skinned. He was holding a silver hilt and out from one side of it came a red blade of light. People gasped at the sight, then the fighters preparing themselves got nervous as out the other side of the lightsaber came another blade of red.

"Oh my God," someone said in a horrified voice on the right side of the blimp. At first some people thought she was talking about the apparent Sith on board, but those who turned to her saw she was looking outside and they did the same. There were hovercrafts out there, flying speeders covered in turrets, and on those vehicles were other cloaked figures holding lightsabers along with regular soldiers holding firearms.

Ichigo looked back and forth between the ships surrounding the blimps outside and the Sith inside. A bead of sweat rolled down the left side of his fave, _Kon! Where the Hell did you go?!_

 _Ichigo! Why are you all the way over there?!_ Kon thought in panic while hiding near a big group of people instead of standing directly in front of the terrifying enemy.

"Sith Lord," a voice called out, coming from behind Temari and the other guards. They turned and spotted someone in a red tunic walking towards them from the bow of the airship.

"General Toto," Temari said and moved to the side as the slightly older woman approached.

"Is that what we should call you? Or do you have a name?" Toto questioned the man in an annoyed and cocky voice.

"You need not know my name," the Sith began. "All you need to know is-"

"No," Toto stated firmly. The Sith spun his double-sided lightsaber and pointed one end towards Toto which made all the guards around her tense up and raise their weapons. Toto smirked and took a daring step towards the Sith so she was in front of all her guards now. "It's time for me to tell you something. You say we're supplying your enemies like this is some important war you need to win and we're endangering you by doing this. I know however, that the Sith invaded Leam unannounced. I know that this is an unwarranted war of aggression. So I will tell you again, no. No you can not take control of my ships. No you will not stop us from trading with our allies."

"We have you surrounded," the man repeated and he started to raise his free hand to point at Toto.

When she saw him lift his hand she rose her own and pressed a button on the remote in it. "Commander Rhodey."

"Yeah General?"

"Do it," Toto stated.

The Sith hesitated, then spun his head right as did everyone else around them as a loud explosion went off over there. Floating in between their mothership and the next zeppelin down was a man made of iron, a silver man floating there in the air with glowing blue jets on his shoes and gloves propelling him up. One of the speeders in between the zeppelins was going down, but as they watched that burning wreckage fall, everyone's eyes started darting around to look at the outsides of the other zeppelins.

The sides of the huge blimps started opening up all over the place, and out from those holes flew more and more metal men. Dozens of them flew out and surrounded each and every one of the small ships and vehicles "surrounding" the zeppelins. In a matter of seconds, being surrounded took on a whole new meaning.

The Sith Lord was staring outside and shaking with rage, but he turned back when Toto started speaking again. "Listen closely you scum," the former gladiator growled. She rose up a sword and an eight-pointed star on it started glowing. Her whole weapon started to glow, then she pointed it down at her enemy. "You may be winning your war against Leam, but if you really want to start a fight right here, you'll get the two front war you're asking for. And you. Will. Lose. Rhodar is not a nation to be toyed with. Tell the rest of your Cooperative buddies that too. Ever try taking one of our ships again, you won't get away with losing just one speeder."

Toto rose up the device in her hand and spoke into it, "Rhodey, if any of them try fighting, kill them all."

The Sith snapped his head left and right and he could not see any of his men preparing to fight. He growled before turning back to Toto, "You insolent-"

"If you do not get off my ship in the next five seconds, you'll leave without your head," Toto said.

"Yeah!"

"Do it Captain!"

Passengers around the ship suddenly felt a lot safer. The chills they felt before were gone and this mysterious man seemed a lot less threatening. The Sith opened his mouth to respond, but Toto started counting down. "Five, four…"

"This is not over," the Sith snarled.

Toto glared into the eyes she could faintly see under his hood, and she snarled back, "I hope not."

The Sith slashed his lightsaber down at the floor and sparks and smoke surrounded him. A second later, the smoke was gone, and so was he. Toto darted her eyes around as did a few of her guards, but when she looked over at Lee, even her fastest soldier shook his head at her showing he did not see where the Sith Lord went. Toto lowered her Household Vessel and smiled at the power just being in King Alibaba's Household gave her.

"Well that was, unexpected," a voice said behind Ichigo and the teen spun around with a pissed off look on his face. Kon held up his hands defensively, but Ichigo pulled back his foot anyway and punted the stuffed animal.

Lee watched Ichigo in surprise but before he could question it, Toto called him over as they had a lot of work to do as they were about to fly over the Emperor's lands after threatening his men. Ichigo walked away and he stared down at the stuffed lion that pushed its back against a garbage can. "Where the Hell were you?" Ichigo growled.

"What did you want me to do? That guy was scary Ichigo!" Kon exclaimed.

"Yeah," Ichigo muttered, "that's why I needed you to come over so I could give you my body."

"Well," Kon began, twisting his foot on the ground and lowering his head. "You could always give me your body now-" Ichigo punted the stuffed animal again and it screamed as it flew off, "It was worth a try!"

* * *

 **The Far South of Aebrith. Present.**

"Heyyyyyyyyyyyy! Hellloooooooooooo?" Timmy Turner moaned loudly. "HELLOOOOOO?!"

The young boy looked around in the dark room he was in. He tugged his arms forward and winced in pain. The chains on his wrists were tight and he looked to his right side at the hand held up above his head and pinned to the wall. He could see blood dripping down from beneath the brace on his arm, just below his Power Blocker where he felt like his circulation was almost being cut off with these powerful chains. It was pitch black in the room, but one of Timmy's numerous wishes over the years included night vision. Everything was tinted green, but he could clearly see his hand and the droplets of red dripping down his arm to his exposed chest.

"HELLO?!" Timmy shouted again. He struggled in his chains but neither his arms nor his legs could pull away from the wall at all. He opened his mouth and breathed fire, but the flames hit the wall across the small room from him and then sputtered out without anything to catch onto. The room he was in was a steel box with nothing in it except for him and his chains. He was strapped to the wall in nothing but his pants, and the pink hat on his head that he would not let go of no matter what. "I'm going to get out of here!" Timmy yelled. His eyes started glowing red and two beams shot out of them, crashing into the wall across from him and digging in to the steel foundation. He pushed his head farther forward and made his beams stronger, and his eyes widened as he saw they were actually managing to burn through a little.

 **CLANK!** Timmy's head slammed back against the steel behind him so hard that a normal man's head would have cracked, or exploded. His eyes pushed open wider as his face felt like it was getting flattened by some huge invisible force in front of him. His irises darted to the right side of the room where there was a part of the wall with cracks going vertically up it, and in between two of those cracks, a thick door of steel opened up. Timmy clenched his teeth angrily as this was not the same position the door opened up in last time. "Hey! HEY!" Timmy shouted as the door slid inwards and a figure stepped inside his box.

The figure was no taller than Timmy himself, but he was thicker than Timmy was. The person walked in and despite Timmy being able to see, the person's body was entirely black as if he were standing in shadows. Timmy could tell he had clothes on, and that the person was looking at him telling from the face-shape in the shadow, but he could not see his captor's eyes. "Who are you?" Timmy asked, making his voice sound serious and angry. "Why do you have me here?! WHY?!"

"Shut up already!" The boy in front of him shouted. He at least sounded like a boy from his voice, and a boy around Timmy's age at that. Timmy' scrunched his face in frustration at the boy's remark, and using his mind he tried to force the person against the back wall. The fatter boy lifted up his right hand though and in it formed a wooden staff. He did this in the same instant that Timmy attacked, and the fat boy pushed his staff forward into the invisible force Timmy shot at him.

Timmy stopped trying to attack with his mind and instead opened his mouth again. A fireball the size of the room shot at his opponent, but the boy swiped his staff down and the ball of flames dispersed. Hiding behind the flames was Timmy's real attack though, as several powerful bolts of lightning shot forward and hit the boy who was not expecting them. Timmy smirked, and then fell into despair as his opponent did not even flinch as he was slammed by all those lightning bolts. "Tell me," Timmy growled at the boy before him. He rose his voice and yelled, "Who are you?!"

"Can you stop screaming?" The other boy asked. Timmy looked shocked as it sounded like this person was the one annoyed with _him._ "I soundproofed this room, but I swear I can hear you all around the castle."

"Castle?" Timmy asked, for the first time getting an idea of where he was. "Where are we exactly? What is this place? And who are you?!"

The person walked towards Timmy and then suddenly floated up in the air to the point in front of where Timmy was strung up in chains against the wall. "You're not in any position to be asking questions," the other boy taunted. He leaned forwards towards Timmy and closed his eyes. Timmy could feel someone entering his mind though and he closed his own eyes, appearing in his own mindscape. The person walking through it opened his eyes wide and spun as a figure appeared in there. The Timmy in his own mind was not the same little boy strung on the wall though, unlike the fat little boy who stayed as his same, small, shadowy self from outside the mindscape.

"Whoa!" The fat boy shouted, stumbling back inside Timmy's mind as an eight foot tall bodybuilder in a pink hat appeared in front of him.

The walls of Timmy's mind turned red and the bodybuilder of Timmy's Form 3 shot forwards at his opponent. The other boy rose his arms to telekinetically stop Timmy, but the force that slammed into him was much too weak to stop this powerful form. He pulled back his right fist and slammed it full force into the fat boy in his mind. For a second, Timmy knocked the black right off of his opponent, making him visible to Timmy inside his mind. They left Timmy's mind in that same instant he punched the other boy though, and they both snapped open their eyes wide as the larger boy flew away from Timmy and into the opposite wall.

The boy hit the wall and yelled out in pain and anger. "You shouldn't have fought back!" The boy shouted, and he rose a hand and fired bolts of lightning at Timmy. Timmy did not flinch though as he glared down at his new worst enemy. The kid attacking him lowered his arms as he saw the lightning had no effect. "Hmm, looks like you wished for lightning immunity as well." Timmy's eyes started to open wide and he opened his mouth to yell a question at the other boy, but the boy lifted up his right hand and clenched, making Timmy roar in pain. "You are getting weaker, one of these days I am going to get into that mind of yours, and then, you're all mine." The boy turned from a heavily panting Timmy and started walking for the door. "I wish the walls in here could withstand his energy attacks. And fix up the damage already done too while you're at it."

Timmy's suspicions were confirmed and he snapped his gaze back to the opposite wall. The burn holes where the beams that shot out of his eyes dug through vanished in a puff of white smoke and the wall returned to its former glory. Actually, Timmy suspected that the wall was much stronger than it previously was. The steel door closed behind the dark figure who left the room and Timmy yelled out in frustration. He narrowed his eyes and they glowed red. Beams shot into the opposite wall and he made them even hotter than the ones he used before, the hottest energy beams he could make. After a full ten seconds of doing this though, Timmy stopped with his beams and stared at the wall behind them while he started panting again.

The wall had no damage at all. There were not even any black marks around where his beams were hitting to show the wall had felt the heat. He struggled harder against his binds, but as he did the chains seemed to get tighter and he roared as his hands and feet were pulled away from his body tighter so that his chains had no slack at all. "What do you want from me?! Who are you?! RAAAA!"

* * *

 **A/N Surprise! Goku! Ichigo! Timmy! The return of the giants! Haha hope you liked the chapter as a lot of you have been asking what Goku and Timmy have been up to. We see what happened to Goku right after he left the group, but now he's going to see the King?! And Timmy, who is that monster with him?! How did he get a fairy? Ichigo heads across the ocean in Rhodari zeppelins to trade with Leam, but tensions are high with the Emperor and the Sith who follow him. Thanks for reading! Quick list this time:**

 **One Piece: Pagaya, Mckinley, Conis, Skypiea**

 **DBZ: Saiyans, Goku (Kakarott), Vegeta, and admittedly just some new Saiyans I made up, I know right? Crazy! XD**

 **Fairly Oddparents: Timmy Turner**

 **Naruto: Temari, Lee**

 **Magi: Alibaba, Toto**

 **Star Wars: Sith Lord, Emperor**

 **Marvel: Loki, Rhodey**

 **Bleach: Ichigo Kurosaki, Kon**

 **RWBY: Grimm, Nevermore**

 **Pokemon: Spearow, Fearow**

 **God Eater: Aragami**

 **Asura's Wrath: Gohma**

KCSupido chapter 47 . 3h ago

God, what you did to Mario is so cold... Although, maybe he had a few 1-ups hidden away ;p  
Great chapter as always!

 **Thanks for the review! Sad for Mario... ;(**

qwerty chapter 47 . 9h ago

I'm guessing this is Mario before the event of the Super Mario Galaxy Series, where the Universe was literally destroyed as a result of his fight with Giant Bowser. I'm sorry if I sound butt-hurt but you just killed the most god-damn iconic character in gaming.

 **Sorry for killing off a fav of yours. Even if it was Super Mario Galaxy Series, (and no I haven't played, but I watched a playthrough of the final battle to see what you were talking about), I was wondering if Mario had more powers in it or something, but Mario could still just punch or kick without power-ups. The universe blowing up was because Mario punched Bowser into the sun, while in low gravity so it wasn't much of a hard punch, and Bowser somehow made the sun explode, and the sun exploding sucked in the rest of the universe. Anyway, it's a tough break for Mario but I mean, he gets killed by a few punches from turtles and mushrooms, so... ;( sorry**

Espada-001 chapter 47 . 2h ago

God damit, poor Kuwabara losing Yukina like that is so sad T-T! And while Kuwabara was brought back to my attention a thought came to mind. Why the he'll hasn't he started breaking people free and starting a riot!? I know his powers are surpressed while he's locked up but they're turned off when he has his power back, and you've already shown that Law's shambles power can work on the suppressors so Kuwabara's dimensional sword should be able to cut through them like butter. I mean Rabin the Manga his sword could cut through space and create wormholes to travel large distances instantly. As for his broken thought process right now if he's to distraught to break himself out then the moment somebody takes the device off of him he's most likely going to go from heartbroken to absolutely livid in a matter of seconds over what happened to Yukina. As for Mario while I've never been the biggest fan of his games it's definitely sad to see him die like that. And anybody able to detect energy for quite a distance around is definitely going to notice Gon's power spike especially since his power suppressor fell off. It'll definitely be sad that Gon's going to die as well and hopefully once he's done all he can hope fully he can destroy himself so that Meruem won't be able to absorb his power and become even stronger. And poor Netero being replaced by Captain Ginyu although the moment he started acting strange the first thought that came to mind was that it was Captain Ginyu. Well that's all I have for now although I can't say I was happy with how things went down, but that has nothing to do with bad writing as it's just me feeling sad for Kuwabara. So until next time have a good day and I look forward to the next chapter.

 **Yeah, that was, brutal. Yukina! Also, as for why he doesn't break out, he is in the Capital, surrounded, and maybe he has tried it before. With the King showing up to watch certain matches though, and other Lords are also seen making bets on the matches, that attempt may have failed, we don't know. Plus, though his powers may not have been nullified during the fight, the torture bracelets they wear would be turned on if anyone started trying to, let's say, cut off all the others' suppressors. Anyway, just a consideration since the months right after when they were captured haven't been mentioned much except for the last chapter. Also, as for anyone feeling Gon, that may be true for inside the city, but most cities have power blockers around the outside so likely no one felt him. Mario! Gon?! What happened to him? Who knows? Haha nice at calling Captain Ginyu though! Thanks for the review! Thanks again to everyone reading this story, and 'till next time!**


	49. Nexus HWR 9-1 Scarab

**Nexus HWR 9.1 Scarab:**

"How far out are we Gray?" Natsu asked the black haired wizard walking a few paces in front of him.

The ice mage looked back at his pink haired friend and then glanced left and right across the field of red grass. This was a nice change of scenery after the tar pits, lava fields, and canyons they had to travel through over the past week. "I don't know," Gray finally replied, turning back around and looking off towards a cluster of tall hills up ahead of them. The hills looked red until they got a little farther back where they grew taller, and blacker. "You don't understand how big Aebrith is," the mage continued as he started walking forward again. "If what Meliodas said was true, and my friends have lost over three quarters of our territory since the last time I was here, there would still be hundreds of miles worth of terrain to cover. Maybe thousands."

"Uggghh," Natsu groaned, but the Fire Dragon Slayer kept walking, not going to complain for too long as long as Gray wasn't either. He looked over his shoulder with a pouty expression, "Come on Juv-" the pink haired man stopped and sighed at the sight of the blue haired woman walking forward in a blue rain coat because a storm cloud was above her head raining down buckets.

Natsu opened his mouth to say something, but he was actually getting thirsty out here in the suns, so he walked over instead and just stuck his tongue out under Juvia's rain cloud.

Ben walked over as well from where he was walking in the back. He lifted up his canteen and let it fill up all the way to the top before drinking some. "What's, glug glug, wrong Juvia?" Ben asked, chugging some of his water as he did and then refilling right away before closing the cap.

"Sn sn," Juvia sniffled. "Juvia misses Nami-san," she whispered. "And Sanji-san, and Franky-san, and Luf-"

"Lalalala!" Natsu covered his ears, making the other two look at him. "I don't want to hear that bastard's name." Natsu started storming off ahead after Gray who had a twenty yard lead on the three of them. He mumbled under his breath the whole time he stormed off, "Damn pirate thinks he's so cool. Leaving randomly like that. I would do something like that too, but only after my friends were okay first. That rubber bastard's probably already gotten eaten by some giant monster without us there," he started chuckling and grinned his sharp teeth evilly. "That's right, without us there he'd be toast. Guess it's just too bad," the young man shrugged to himself and then oofed as he slammed right into Gray's back.

"Watch where you're walking," Gray growled behind him. Natsu opened his mouth to growl back, but Gray lifted up a finger to him to shh, and then looked back at the rest of the group and made the same motion.

A girl with dark red hair walking forward with her sweatshirt tied around her waist, and a pink tank-top on, stopped where she was on the right side of the group. Kairi stood still and stared ahead at Gray who was looking forward at the upcoming red hills carefully. "Hmm," Kairi hummed to herself, then started bouncing from foot to foot with a smile on her face.

Dash was in the back of their group and the little blond boy was feeling as down as Juvia, only he didn't have a raincloud to cover him and show it. He was standing a few feet behind and to the right of Kirito, their last and most quiet member. The kid heard a low humming a little further to his right and looked over to see Kairi nodding her head back and forth to a tune.

He raced over and was next to her in a second. "Are you happy?" the boy asked, somewhat annoyed, though also really curious as to how she could be at a time like this. There was no reason to mention why he was even asking the question, or to explain all the reasons why she shouldn't be happy right now. They were all pretty obvious.

"Mmm? Mm," Kairi hummed and shrugged her shoulders, though she did smile as she made the noises. She lifted up her left hand a little and looked at the beautiful diamond ring on one of her fingers. _Just like you left me this, I know you still have my good luck charm Sora. It will help you find me again._

"But," Dash mumbled, "but everyone's gone." The kid thought he was speaking pretty quietly, but the black haired eighteen year old to his left and the blue haired Rain Woman in front of him both heard him as well. "I thought, well, I mean Ben's here with me, and the wizards have each other. I thought, you would probably have it worst off, you know, 'cause your friends aren't here."

Kairi lost her smile and gained a confused look on her face, tilting her head at Dash. Kirito and Juvia each looked over and saw her confused reaction, which only confused them more as they had been thinking the same thing as Dash. Why did Kairi look so, content? "What do you mean?" Kairi asked. "My friends are all around me," she leaned down to the short boy and poked him in the nose, "even right here."

Dash couldn't help it and a smile came to the kid's face, but he quickly wiped it away with a blurry quick shake of his head. He couldn't shake away the red tint to his face though and just turned away crossing his arms in his blue t-shirt. Juvia smiled at Kairi's answer and the dark cloud above her faded away.

Kirito grunted at the girl's response and then kept walking forward to where Natsu and Gray were standing still. _'All around me?' Haha, actually thought she was going to go on one of those friends are in your heart speeches. I kind of liked her answer better though... friends._ He glanced back at her, and saw she was smiling up towards him, making him smile too.

"Crap," Gray whispered, and Kirito was close enough to hear it, making him spin back and see the ice mage and fire mage muttering to each other quietly. The teenager walked over to the two older, but shorter men who continued muttering.

"We could take it," Natsu said, punching his fists together. "I'm not afraid."

"Don't say that," Gray growled. "We have Blockers on. If we can hide, we should. Neither Goku nor Timmy would be able to sense it if we were dying."

"You think they're going to kill us?" Natsu asked with a scoff. "Where's your faith? Coward."

The ice mage ground his teeth but ignored his comrade from Fairy Tail. "I only caught a glimpse of it over the hills," Gray muttered, looking away from Natsu and to the teen he felt approach. Kirito looked around at the hills and tried to catch a glimpse of it as well while Gray continued talking, speaking loud enough for the others behind to hear without them moving up. "Looked like a Scarab. Chances are it's not one of ours, I doubt any of ours remain up here, and if they did they would not stray far from a base."

"Scarab?" Kirito whispered, and then he saw a piece of it. It bounced in the distance, as if it was taking a step. A large purple head, though the head looked like it was made of metal, like a piece of a ship.

"Covenant tech," Gray explained, "like those aliens in Metropolis. Pretty sure the original owners of the tech here were killed a long time ago though. I never saw any of those aliens from Metropolis back when I was first on Aebrith, so they were most likely wiped out."

"Ha, you were just talking about how big the continent is, and now you're saying things like if you haven't seen them then they're probably wiped out?" Natsu asked, making fun of the holes in his friend's story.

Gray frowned deeply, "I just automatically assume most people here have been wiped out." Natsu stopped laughing at that and followed Gray's gaze into the distance, where a large thick metal leg a hundred feet tall stepped up on top of a hill. Gray muttered loud enough for his group to hear, "Get down," and crouched low. Natsu frowned that his teammate was telling him what to do, but he finally followed the rest of their examples and crouched down.

They all watched as the metal leg unbent and another leg stepped up on the side of the hill, before two more behind it moved up as well. Then the first two legs were able to move again, and the Scarab Tank looked to be moving in a straight line. Gray sighed in relief seeing its path would take it at least two miles to the east of them before it would cross from the hills into the flatter area covered in red grass. "I think we're good," Gray whispered, standing up a little as the large metal head on the top of the tank was pointed directly towards the east, not the southeast where they were heading. Inland and south, that's all Gray told them, but they were as good of directions as any on this barren landscape.

Ben Tennyson un-crouched, and as he stood up fully he stared out at the Scarab walking away. "You know, I kind of wish we knew who was piloting that thing. Now we'll never know."

Everyone stared over at the distant four-legged tank, and then the steel head on top spun almost a hundred and eighty degrees and looked their direction. The top purple head thing had a green bar in the middle that started to glow. "You just had to say something Ben," Natsu yelled over at his friend.

"Maybe it doesn't see us," Kirito suggested, crouching back down a little as maybe the beast of a machine just turned around randomly, or something.

All four of the legs started lifting back up and then down, turning the Scarab in their direction. The front of it was sloped up from the space between its fore legs, to the large top head piece. It had slanted edges on either side of the middle torso section, and holes on the sides of those edges that got blocked by the top of the legs when they lifted up making them only partially visible.

"Okay, it definitely sees us," Dash said, jumping up and down all jittery.

"Good, I've been itching for a fight," Natsu punched his fists together and flames rippled out around them.

Gray shook his head fast and was looking around for a way out of this.

"Well, it is slow," Kairi offered as a positive. "So, maybe we can just run and hide." She watched as it lifted back up its front right leg, and then lowered it to the ground, only this time it did not stop when the knee was bent at a normal height. Both of the long front steel legs bent far down, and its torso in the back crouched all the way to the ground while the back knees stayed high.

Natsu sweatdropped and muttered, "Does that thing remind anyone else of a cat about to-"

The Scarab's legs unbent and it shot forward insanely fast. Its legs slammed down on the ground over and over, one after the other, shaking the ground beneath the heroes feet. "Okay, not slow!" Kairi exclaimed, bouncing off the ground every time one of its feet hit the ground, which was every second now. "Def-in-ite-ly not slo-o-o-o-oow!"

"Prepare for battle," Gray announced, punching his right fist into his open left hand. Everyone bouncing off the ground looked over to see him planted firmly on the ground, ice sticking out from his feet and planting him there.

Ben smirked and was about to transform into one of his many alien creatures which had wings, when he thought back on Dressrosa. _I have to be able to fight as long as I can without my aliens. And I need to figure out their weaknesses first before I transform, that way I know exactly which of the ten thousand is best for the job!_ The thirteen year old crossed his arms and the next time he bounced off the ground, he just stayed floating in midair.

Natsu turned his head for a second and went even wider eyed at Ben's white aura than he was about the charging Scarab Tank. "Kamehameha Wave and an aura?!" Natsu exclaimed, having seen the boy do something crazy back in the Great Ocean near Atlantis in his fight against Kyogre, and now again he was amazed at his younger friend. "Maybe you are a Saiyan," Natsu joked.

"I could turn into one if you want," Ben offered. The kid smirked as Natsu's eyes widened and he thought back to something he saw back in the Forever Kingdom. During the battle in Metropolis, when they all fought Luthor together, most of Natsu's vision was red and all he could really focus on was Luthor. He did not really remember much about his allies fighting by his sides during the battle. But fighting Driscoll, Natsu recalled Ben had gotten stronger than he had ever seen him before.

"You guys are too distracted," Gray growled at them as if they were his own team. "The people on this tank could be normal grunts, they could be robots. Or there could be a monster on here who we won't be able to defeat."

"Worst comes to worst we could always take off the PB-4's," Dash suggested. "Then Goku can come and-"

Gray snapped his head to the smaller boy behind him as the ground was shaking even worse now, the large tank less than half a mile away, looking bigger than ever as it tore over the hills. "Not under any circumstances," Gray growled, interrupting him. "We have no idea what else lurks in these hills, or underneath our very feet right now. There's a greater chance of one of the enemy's hunters to get to you long before Goku, and they'll strap another PB-4 on your neck so we can't chase after you, and they'll drag you away and make you tell them everything they want to know about us."

"I would never talk," Dash exclaimed.

"Everyone talks," Gray replied in a monotone voice, looking back now at the Scarab which had decided to slow down in front of them instead of running them over. "It isn't a matter of willpower. The torture is just for fun, they don't need to do it to find out what they need to know. There are machines or spells to do that for them."

Everyone tried to skip right over the whole "torture for fun" thing and get back to the task at hand. The task was currently standing in front of them, all four legs extending to full length and making the tank's bottom hover high above them. Its front two feet slammed pretty hard down into the ground ahead of them, but as Kirito looked closer he noticed the feet were not making any footprints, despite being so heavy considering the mass of the monster they were carrying. _How does it do that?_

The giant Scarab backed up, its feet taking a few steps backwards, and then all four moved to the left a couple meters. The seven people watching from down below and in front of it stared up in a little bit of confusion, with some sweat dripping down their faces. Finally, the front two legs started bending down, revealing the front of the large body up top.

"Uhh," Ben started, taking a step back, "that guy wasn't there before, was he?"

They all stared up at the top of the Scarab, where standing directly on the edge was a large white wolf. On top of the wolf was a man, who even from this distance they could tell was very muscular. The wolf was huge, snarling its razor sharp teeth down at them, and the man on top did not look any nicer

"He doesn't have any weapons," Gray said, taking a step back.

Juvia looked at her boyfriend who was slowly stepping back in her direction. "Isn't that a good thing?" the Rain Woman asked him.

"No," Gray replied. "Not at all."

"Here he comes!" Dash exclaimed, seeing it before the rest of them as the man opened his mouth to speak. The kid was right in his call as the man must have told his wolf to move forward.

The beast took one step and leaped down off of the front of the Scarab. Gray's mind was working fast, _He sees that we don't have weapons either. One man going against five others without weapons is either stupid or confident in his abilities. And there are no more stupid people left._ Gray glanced to his right at the pink haired Dragon Slayer who was not backing up, and instead covered his whole body in fire and leapt up in the air.

"No you idiot!" he yelled, instantly taking back what he just thought about no more stupid people.

Natsu ignored Gray and pulled back his right fist far as he flew up to meet their enemy. "Fire Dragon's, Iron Fist!" he punched forward and for a second his whole body looked like it was surrounded by the aura of a dragon.

The wolf falling did not stand a chance, and the man on top of it knew. He stood up and jumped off of the white wolf's back, punching down towards the young wizard rising towards him. The two of their fists collided in the air, and everyone stared up in awe for a split second at the shockwave, before dropping their jaws as Natsu's arm bent back and he was sent flying out of the air so fast that he hit the ground fifty yards to their left before they could even look down.

The wolf landed twenty yards in front of Gray, but the man who punched Natsu only landed five yards away. He landed with a fist down on the ground, his knee bent next to it, and the floor reverberated around his collision, rippling out like a wave in every direction. The man had short black hair, a chiseled chin, broad shoulders, and his tight black shirt showed off the rest of his huge muscles as well. He snapped his head up and glared into the ice mage's eyes, but Gray was not just standing around.

As his enemy looked up at him, Gray's arms covered in ice from his elbows down to his hands, where long swords formed in both grips. "Ice Make: Gladiator!" Down his entire back, spikes of ice shot out, and a helmet of ice covered his head while armor surrounded his torso and his legs from the knees down. Gray spun his ice broadswords around, then held the one in his right hand forward at around his head level and the other near his waist on his left side.

"RaaaAAA!" the muscular man charged Gray, punching his right fist forward, then his left as Gray jumped backwards. The man was fast, and strong, but Gray continued to dodge around and the mage quickly noticed his foe did not have any long-range attacks. Unfortunately, his strength alone _was_ a long-range attack. The guy stomped his right foot down on the ground as Gray was stepping away from another punch, and the ground broke apart in a line towards Gray before blasting up and sending the ice wizard flying with it.

Gray ground his teeth and then did a backflip in the air as his enemy jumped up towards him. Midway through the flip, all of the spikes on his back shot out, and two of them slammed into the man jumping towards him. "Oof," the guy grunted as he was slammed out of the air.

 _Good, I can hurt him,_ Gray finished his flip and spun around, forming a large bow made of ice. "Ice Make: Triple Shot!" Three arrows of ice formed on the bow and he aimed carefully at the man who got back up and started charging at him.

Right as Gray fired his arrows, the man started to dodge. He put his feet down hard to push off the ground to his right, but when he tried lifting them back up he found it difficult. He looked down just in time to see two hands sticking out of the ground and holding him by the ankles, right before all three arrows hit him in the chest and shattered, though making him roar out in pain before they did.

"Damn, can't break the skin," Gray growled. "What is this guy made of?"

"You don't need to break the skin," Ben told the wizard as he walked up to him. Gray looked down to see the thirteen year old walking forward, cracking his knuckles. "I don't know why you're so intent on killing the guy. We just met him."

"He's trying to kill us!" Gray yelled at the immature boy.

Ben shrugged his shoulders, "Well you're trying to kill him." The boy spoke and then ran towards the guy in the black shirt who reached down for his feet.

Their opponent grabbed one of the hands on his ankles and tore up, ripping the teen with messy black hair right out of the ground. Kirito had a shocked look on his face as he got yanked up in front of their strong enemy, the dirt tearing apart around them. The guy with the chiseled jaw pulled back a fist and let it fly, but right before it hit he saw the teen lose the shocked look and start smirking. His fist hit the kid in the chest, and then the kid was gone and in his place was a log.

Before the man's eyes could even go wide, he felt a blade against the front of his neck. "I sharpened it this morning," Kirito said, keeping calm as he held a Kunai knife against their foe's throat. "I don't want to-" the taller more muscular man slammed his neck into the blade, and his neck skin shattered the knife.

"Hm," Kirito mumbled, then leapt backwards as the guy spun and punched at him. While he was on his way up though, he saw a white blur on his right side and went wide-eyed as he had forgotten about the wolf.

"Raa!" Ben yelled, a larger, blue wolf with human-like legs and some rags on his waist. He tackled the white wolf out of the air before it hit Kirito, and as he landed he howled up in the air, "Benwolf!" The older teen let out a deep breath seeing Ben had the wolf handled, before focusing back on the enemy coming for him.

Kirito landed next to Gray and the two of them charged back forward, right as the big guy pressed his knees down to propel himself at them quickly. "Water Lock!" Juvia shouted, and a ball of water surrounded the muscular dude. He started swinging his fists around inside the ball, flailing madly trying to get out, but soon he was just clenching at his throat, and then sitting still in the ball of water.

"Nice Juvia," Kairi called to her friend and Juvia smiled at the compliment.

"Well," Ben started in a low growl, as he lay on top of the white wolf and pinned it down with his muscular blue-furred arms. "That wasn't so bad was it?"

They were all panting, but each of them started laughing at that. Juvia released her Water Lock, and Kirito and Gray walked over to the man who collapsed on the wet ground. Now that they got a better look at him he really did not look much older than the young mage and ninja.

Ben had to keep holding down the wolf as it was trying hard to break free and go help its master, but he suddenly noticed something. "Hey, where's Dash?"

"Ahhh!" a voice screamed from above them.

They all looked up and watched as a figure dressed in all blue was falling out of the air, his butterfly-like wings all messed up. An explosion suddenly blew a hole in the wall on the right side of the machine's torso, and then four figures went flying out the back of the tank, falling a hundred feet towards the ground.

"We're all dead!" one of them shouted, a man in yellow full-body armor.

"If only we had scouted before attacking. Proper preparations always lead to victory."

"Thank you Captain Hindsight!" the woman falling next to that man shouted. "Now use your fucking flying powers to catch us!"

"If only I had thought of it earlier, we may have all survived," he began. The man in the yellow costume kept falling for a few seconds, then flew around and caught the other three people before landing safely on the ground. He looked a little troubled, and he turned and started walking away as soon as they landed below the Scarab.

"Where's he going?" the guy in yellow armor who was panting heavily beneath his helmet muttered.

"Does it really matter?" the guy next to him who had been screaming in fear the whole way down replied, hands on his knees with sweat all over his face. He had hair in the shape of a large number 3 above his head, a pretty weird hairstyle to say the least.

"Well, yeah, kind of," the guy in yellow armor started, pointing his hand over to the other side of the Scarab. The man with the number three hairstyle had on a blue and white vertical-striped shirt, and the blonde woman next to him in all black leather had a black mask and black leggings to match. The man wearing armor pointed over at the front of the Scarab where a bunch of people were looking at them, and where there were two unconscious forms near the front legs. "Uhh, aren't those two supposed to be our best guys?" He muttered while looking at the crumpled blue butterfly guy and the muscular young man next to him.

"These punks?" Ben growled over, making the guy in yellow jump seeing the blue werewolf talk. The kid did not want his watch running out on him so he jumped off the white wolf he had pinned down and his body flashed green, turning him back into a kid. As this happened, Gray looked over and froze the ground around the white wolf, right as it got up to its paws. Now it was mostly off the floor, but still frozen stuck in place.

"Okay," the woman in black leather began. She looked through her small black mask that only covered her eyes over at the unconscious young man in a black shirt near their enemies. Then she shifted her gaze to the beaten up moaning blue figure a little closer to her, and then the frozen stuck white wolf. She kept her cool despite their situation and took a step towards her fallen comrades and their enemies, "I'm going to need to ask you to give us back our friends."

"Not until you tell us-"

"Sure," Ben interrupted Gray who was starting up an intimidating speech.

Gray looked at the kid and the woman in all black looked at him in surprise too. "What?" Gray asked the boy. "No, we have to question them and find out why-"

"It doesn't really matter," Ben said with a shrug of his shoulders. He looked at Gray who was glaring at him intensely. "Dude," Ben began, speaking in a voice that showed he was really tired of this. "Ever since we've gotten here, all you do is talk about how everything is different. Why can't it just be the same? We're the good guys," Ben looked back at the older woman with blonde hair, "if we give you your friends back, can you tell us where to find his friends?"

The woman saw the kid motion towards the taller, more aggravated man who was taking this thing a lot more seriously than the others. She was noticing at the same time that the girl with blue hair just looked a little depressed, the black-haired teenager standing next to their unconscious muscular man in black looked somewhat, bored? That kid who was a wolf a second ago had a carefree look on his face, and the girl with red hair in the back was actually humming!

"Who are you people?" the woman asked.

"You tell us first!" Gray growled back, and glared at Ben who was about to open his mouth to answer her.

Ben closed his mouth and frowned thinking that Gray was just being a worry-wart, but then started thinking about it closer. _If she tells us first, even if we aren't on her side, we can pretend to be if they captured Gray's friends. That way she'll lead us right to them. If we told her first, she might not tell us. Good thinking Gray._ The kid nodded at Gray who looked back at the woman, who was having a similar conversation in her own head.

"How fast could you get back into the tank?" the woman muttered in a low voice.

The man in yellow armor on her back left stammered, "Uhh uh, I don't know. I forgot to fuel up my jetpack before I-"

"Imbecile," the woman growled, making the two men behind her jump back.

Suddenly standing behind all three of them was the man who caught them when they were falling a minute ago. He had black hair and was wearing a yellow and red costume, red gloves, and a red cape. "If you had brought your jetpack along, you would have been able to get back up to the pilot's seat much faster Grif."

"I know that Captain Hindsight," the armored man grumbled.

"Well then, Captain Hindsight, away!" he lifted up a fist and flew off, while the guy in yellow armor named Grif jumped on his back. "Huh? What are you doing?" the man asked in slight annoyance as the soldier positioned himself better.

"You know, I think, I forgot to turn on the parking brakes," Grif yelled, not-so-subtly making an excuse for the man to fly him up there. Captain Hindsight flew up to the to of the Scarab fast, in order to lecture Grif on how he could have done his parking job better.

"Why did we even bring him along?" the guy with a 3 on his head mumbled.

The woman in black did not respond, staring confusedly at the group in front of her who did not move to stop their two escaping members. "You know," Ben started, smiling at the woman a little, "our friend is still up there." Ben pointed up and the woman in the black mask lowered her bottom lip a little as she had become too focused by these people that she forgot to warn the other two about their trip back up.

"...And that's why you should always put on the parking brake," Captain Hindsight finished, while he and Grif lay dazed with their backs against the wall. All around the inner cabin of the Scarab were unconscious figures along with ones just moaning and groaning.

Dash started laughing, "I thought this was actually going to be hard." The fast kid moved a little to his left and dodged a beam coming down from up and behind him. "That was a close one," he admitted, but then raced up to the second floor of the area and chopped a Korean sniper on the back of his neck. "But another one for the Dash-meister!"

Down below the Scarab tank there was a face-off between the two groups. "Okay," Ben began, walking towards the woman and her friend with the strange hair. "So what are your names? We aren't working for the King," the mention of the King made the other two back up a little. "I said are _not_ working for him. Jeez, you guys are so uptight."

"What base are you from?" the woman asked the kid.

"Star in Sector 562," Gray responded without hesitation.

The woman turned over to the young man, and then she narrowed her eyes at him. "Liars," she snarled at them.

"It's the truth!" Gray yelled back at her.

"If you really weren't working for the King, you would know," she said, shaking her head, "that entire Sector is gone."

Everyone became silent for a few seconds, and then Gray spoke in a grim tone, his black hair shadowing his eyes. "Did anyone escape?"

The blonde woman almost let down her guard seeing the way he looked after hearing about this. "I hear a few made it out in time," she admitted. "I wouldn't know, we're far from. Which leads to the question, how did you get all the way out here? And why didn't you know about your base getting destroyed?" she regained a suspicious look towards him.

"I got teleported away by a magical fairy four months ago and wound up on the other side of the fucking world." He finished his sentence and did not care about how ridiculous it sounded. It sounded idiotic to him too, he just hoped they could see he wasn't lying.

"That's stupid," the guy with his hair up in a three muttered.

"Your hair is stupid," Gray retorted, making the man gasp.

The woman with blonde hair started laughing though. "Whatever, we'll find out soon enough if you are who you say. Your record probably has you marked down as deceased, but you'll still be on file. What was you name?"

"Yeah, nice try," Gray replied.

The woman sighed, and finally responded to his original question, "I'm Black Canary. This is Galdino, but you can just call him Three. We all do."

"Please don't," the man in the striped shirt moaned in annoyance.

"The guy in the red cape who was here before was Captain Hindsight, and the guy in the yellow armor was our pilot, Grif." The Black Canary continued. "And those guys over there, are Blue Beetle," she motioned at the mumbling blue man who was rolling around in pain on the ground, "Wolf," she motioned towards the... wolf. "And looks like you're about to be re-introduced to _him_ yourself," she said, talking about the last member.

Kirito looked next to him and barely jumped back in time to dodge the fist coming for his face. He calmed himself down fast as he landed ten feet away, but the muscular guy looked like he was about to charge anyway. "SB, stand down," the woman in black told him, making the muscular guy look her direction. "They aren't hostiles. We were wrong to assume."

"They could have seen us and reported back," the guy replied, then turned to glare at the group in front of him, "and they could have tricked you into believing whatever lies they told."

"Raaa!" a voice yelled behind the guy in black. He and everyone else there looked behind him towards a charging red light.

"Natsu!" Gray yelled. "Stop, they're not our enemies."

The pink haired mage slowed himself down, but kept glaring intensely at the man he was charging, who sure looked like an enemy the way he was glaring back. Natsu growled out, "I need to pay him back for that lucky shot."

"'Lucky shot?'" the man asked sarcastically. "You're the one who's lucky I didn't take your head off."

Natsu opened his mouth to respond, when he froze and just stood there staring at the guy in front of him, and specifically his black shirt. He did not notice it before considering the situation, but the shirt was not completely black. Right in the center of the shirt, was the shape of a shield, a red shield, with a large letter 'S' written on it in a strange, but familiar font. "I've seen that S before," Natsu whispered.

"What? This?" the guy looked down at his shirt, then back up at the shorter man who could use fire magic. "Where did you see it?" he started marching towards Natsu with a look of passion on his face. "Tell me!"

"Superman's S," Juvia whispered, seeing it now too.

"Superman?" Gray asked, remembering hearing that name a lot after teleporting to Awul.

Ben frowned at the name, and the red haired girl stopped humming from behind them. Kirito put his hands down in his shorts' pockets, while the muscular young man charged over to Natsu who looked away.

"Where did you see this? You know Superman?"

"Have you seen Superman on this world?" Black Canary asked the group.

"Yeah," Ben replied, remembering a video he watched back in Metropolis a couple of months earlier. "He, he was killed." The man marching towards Natsu froze, then spun and faced the thirteen year old kid who looked his direction with a sad expression on his face. "Luthor cut his head off," he continued.

"Lex, Luthor?" Canary asked, the woman wearing black getting all the more confused by the second. She turned to the ice wizard again, "Where did you say that... magic fairy, teleported you again?"

"I'm telling you, across the world. Wasn't even on Aebrith anymore. A smaller continent called Awul" Gray replied.

"So that's where Superman was," the woman whispered, shaking her head sadly. "He's really dead?" she asked, not able to believe it.

The other figure who already knew who Superman was couldn't believe it more. "Impossible!" he shouted. "There's no way-"

"They filled the room with Kryptonite beforehand," Natsu began, having seen the assassination take place on video during the battle of Metropolis. "Luthor's blade cut through his skin easily when none of Supes' powers were working."

"Where is Luthor now?" the man in black asked, turning back towards Natsu with a look of fury in his eyes.

"What's it matter to you?" Natsu asked.

The young man with a red S on his chest narrowed his eyes at Natsu, "Everything. Superman was, my father." Superboy stated, and he got a shocked reaction of just about everyone there. He wasn't going into his whole life story with these people he just met, so he just turned and walked away.

Galdino just gawked as the muscular man walked past him. His jaw dropped even more as a boy with short blond hair suddenly appeared in front of him, smirking wide while looking at him. "Looks like I don't have to knock you all out after all. Sorry about that," Dash scratched the back of his head and laughed.

Dinah Drake, the original Black Canary, looked around as the group of people she just met gathered around in front of her. _They stood up to Superboy, and that kid knocked us all out of the ship before I could even see him. He was like the Flash._

"Did we make it Gray?" Juvia asked the boy she walked up to. "Are you finally back?"

Gray looked closer at the woman in front of him, trying to judge if he could trust her or not. Superboy's reaction sure seemed real enough upon hearing his father had been offed, and she looked nice enough. "What Sector are we in?" Gray asked.

Black Canary glanced around once more at the group in front of her. "Don't do it boss. We still don't know if they are-"

Ignoring the man with his hair shaped oddly as a 3, Canary replied, "541."

"Ahh! You told them!" the strange man exclaimed.

"541, 541? 541?!" Gray almost shouted it the last time. "Is Hiei still in command?" Now most doubt in Black Canary's mind was gone at how excited he looked, and she nodded her head at an apparent comrade. "That's great," Gray said, seriously sounding grateful to the woman. He turned and looked at the group with him, "Hiei knows Kuwabara. I'm sure he'll know what happened to my squad the day I vanished."

"So we actually made it?" Natsu asked, almost sounding disappointed that the trip was over.

"Well I'm glad," Kirito admitted, leaning back and putting his arms behind his head. "There better be some beds at this five forty-one place."

"Wahooo!" Dash exclaimed, running in little circles around and around again. "I bet we found our goal before they found theirs!"

"Haha, me too," Gray agreed, feeling great in the moment. He looked up at the sky above him, the bright blue sky. _Kuwabara, Gon, Mario, Rambo, Cloud, Soul, Black Star, Tsubaki, Kiba, Akamaru, Axel. I finally made it back you guys. Please, still be alive._

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading! The Resistance is finally found, through a small group of people riding a Scarab tank in Aebrith's wilderness. Here's a quick list of characters I don't own:**

 **DBZ: Goku**

 **Incredibles: Dash**

 **Ben 10: Ben**

 **SAO: Kirito**

 **Young Justice: Superboy, Wolf, Blue Beetle, Superman, Black Canary (Dinah Drake)**

 **Soul Eater: Soul, Black Star, Tsubaki**

 **Nintendo: Mario**

 **Rambo: Rambo**

 **Naruto: Kiba, Akamaru**

 **South Park: Captain Hindsight**

 **Red vs Blue: Grif**

 **One Piece: Sanji, Nami, Robin, Usopp, Luffy, Zoro, Franky, Mr. 3 (Galdino)**

 **Fairy Tail: Natsu, Gray, Juvia**

 **Yu Yu Hakusho: Hiei, Kuwabara**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Killua, Gon**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Sora, Kairi, Riku, Axel**

 **Final Fantasy VII: Cloud**

joebob323 chapter 48 . 22h ago

Cool chap, as always. I like the part with Goku, but poor Timmy... I predict that Goku will be facing King veggie, not the King of the continent. I may be wrong, But I don't think that Saiyans would bow down to others, rather they will fight to the end. Wasn't Bora part of Bardock's team? is Bardock still alive? Last question, are the rest of the resistance members that Gon thinks are dead, really dead?

 **Goku and Timmy are still alive it seems, but who is the King Goku will be facing? What are the Saiyans up to on Aebrith? Are they part of the Cooperative? Are they good, evil, who knows? Bora was not one of Bardock's team members, though when I looked it up to check if I did that on accident, it turns out there was a DBZ character named Bora, the guy at the base of Korin's tower who Goku wished back to life once. And for the final question, Gon was thinking about all of his friends, even ones that were alive, though there were some he knew were dead, some he didn't know about. Anyway, thanks for the review! Thanks to everyone who read and as always, 'till next time!**


	50. Nexus HWR 9-2 Mercy

**Nexus HWR 9.2 Mercy:**

"So you're telling me this Luthor guy single-handedly took down all of the best fighters on your continent?" Grif asked the boy sitting on the co-pilot's seat next to him. They were inside the Scarab Tank heading east towards the tank's original destination before it got sidetracked by the group from Awul.

Ben nodded his head at the soldier in orange armor. He grimaced and mumbled, "I couldn't land a single punch on him. Not that it would have hurt him anyway." He clenched a fist in front of him, wishing he was stronger.

"Well duh," Grif said, looking at the kid for a second and laughing. He looked back out the windshield so he never saw the boy turn and glare at him while he continued. "If he could take on the strongest people on Awul, what made you think you had a chance against him?"

"I-" Ben began, then shut up and frowned.

"I mean, turning into a wolf seems pretty fucking cool," Grif continued. He looked at the navigation screen below the sticks for a second and he pulled them to the side seeing they were off course a little. The pilot continued going straight then glanced back at Ben to continue, "but any shmuck with a gun could take on a wolf-"

"I can turn into other things too," Ben snapped. "Not that I need to to kick bad guy butt."

"Whatever man," Grif said, leaning back in his seat. "If I were you, I'd grab myself a badass gun." He motioned his helmet over to the right side of his chair where a rifle was leaning up against the wall. "Look at this," he reached over and grabbed the weapon, then held it up in front of him. He held it up with one hand, and pressed a button on the side that made the entire bottom of the gun snap to the side, and a huge curved blade snapped out of the opening. "It's the Grif Shot 2.0." He moved the gun around so Ben could admire it from all sides.

"It's a gun and a blade," Ben whispered. "That's pretty cool," he said, trying not to sound too impressed. "But see this guy," he continued, and a flash of green light surrounded the kid. Grif watched through the green light as Ben grew five feet taller, his arms and his legs extended, and the symbol on his watch moved to the front of his forehead. His entire body turned gray, but his arms and legs looked shinier silver, and were sharp on the fronts and backs. He still had hands and feet, but his face was pointed out like a swordfish's, with a long silver blade coming out right below his black beady eyes. "Slicer!" Ben shouted, swinging his arms out to the sides and posing once the transformation finished.

"Whoa dude," Grif pulled back to avoid one of the sharp arms coming too close to him.

"Sorry," Ben said quickly as he realized he really did almost hit the pilot. The Scarab jerked to the side as Grif let go of the sticks for a second and the pilot had to get back on his seat to grab them again. Ben scratched the back of his head and said in a low voice not his own, "Haven't used this form much, so I forgot my extended reach for a second."

A flash of green returned Ben back to his human form and he popped a squat back on his seat. Grif was staring at the kid much closer now, "So, where'd you get that watch? And can I get one?"

"It's from my own universe," Ben said, stopping any hopes the orange guy had about getting his own. "Fell from space right in front of me and latched itself on my wrist." He shook his arm around to show that the watch was not loose at all, actually connected to his body. "Only one of its kind," he finished, looking a little smug as he did.

"Space huh?" Grif mumbled in disappointment. Ben chuckled but stopped as the man before him spoke up again, "I was a space warrior on my universe. A badass one too." He added.

"Really?" Ben asked, his voice sounding very skeptical.

"What? You don't believe me?" Grif asked. He motioned around at the vehicle he was in, "This tank comes from my universe too."

"I thought it was from the Covenant's universe-" Ben began.

"Yeah, those alien freaks were around in my universe too. Joined the space army to kick their asses, but Master Chief went and blew them all up before I could," the space warrior sounded a little annoyed, but sighed as Ben asked him who Master Chief was. "He's a Spartan," Grif said, "the best Spartan. Never thought I'd wind up fighting in the same army as him on this world too though."

"He's part of the Resistance?" Ben asked in surprise. "Hope I get to meet him," the kid said with a small grin.

Before Grif could respond, something started beeping on the control panel in front of him. The space warrior in orange armor looked down at the dashboard and started pressing a few buttons. "Let's see," he mumbled. His fingers typed fast, and Ben tried leaning over to see the screen in front of him to see what was happening. Suddenly, more numbers and random letters started appearing without Grif typing anything and the orange-armored warrior gasped. "Shit!" Grif exclaimed and jumped out of his pilot's seat.

"What? What is it?" Ben asked, jumping off his chair as well and running after Grif who started running for the main area of the tank.

"Canary," Grif shouted as he got inside the main room. Over two dozen people were sitting around or having conversations inside the clustered vehicle that was already packed even without the new additions they picked up the day before. A woman with long, blonde hair, wearing a black leather costume with a blue jacket over it, spun to face the guy running out of the cockpit with a little boy trailing him. "We just got a distress call. Only twenty miles to the east."

"Are you sure it's for real?" Dinah Drake, the original Black Canary, asked the pilot.

"I checked and they had the most recent codes. They said it was threat level Beta," as Grif reported, Ben stared confusedly at the soldier wondering how he got all that information from the gibberish he thought he saw on the control panel. Grif continued, "The enemy number in the hundreds, from the sound of it, the situation doesn't look good."

Black Canary frowned and clenched her fists at her sides. Many others in the tank were looking down with angry and some ashamed looks. Natsu and the others who were grouped together near the right side of the tank were getting confused. "What are you waiting for?" Natsu snapped at them all. "Aren't those your comrades out there?"

"Threat level Beta isn't something to back up with thirty extra troops," Dinah muttered loudly. "We could be walking into a slaughter."

"I say we give them a wide berth," Grif offered up. "Get to Pon-Gatso as fast as we can."

Ben frowned at the man next to him who he actually thought was pretty cool until now. "You're just going to leave your comrades to die?" Grif looked down at the kid through his visor, and Ben continued, "They called for your help!"

"Hey! They didn't call for us specifically," Grif argued back. "Who knows, maybe a larger team nearby got the message. One that won't get their asses kicked as soon as they show up."

Conner Kent, Superboy, turned to a shorter man on his left with spiky black hair. "Tell your friends what a Beta threat means," he told Gray.

Gray looked next to him at Superboy and began in a loud voice, "It doesn't matter." Everyone looked over at the ice wizard who continued, "I could say there are a million enemies waiting for us and you still wouldn't change their minds, or mine." He narrowed his eyes and spun to Black Canary, "We should go."

Canary looked over at Gray in surprise, and then rubbed her own chin like she was thinking about it. "Nooo!" Mr. 3 shouted. Galdino pointed at the ice mage, "You are going to get us all killed!"

"You can all just stand back and hide if you want to," Natsu growled around at the nervous people. "I'll take care of them all on my own."

"You're going to get yourself killed," Superboy scoffed over at the Dragon Slayer.

Natsu glared over at the muscular man and snarled, "You wanna bet?"

Gray looked straight into Dinah Drake's eyes. "Trust me. My friends are stronger than you think. We can save them."

"Grif," Canary started, her voice sounding urgent. The pilot looked over and already started groaning as he predicted what she was about to tell him. "Get to that distress signal's location. Everyone else," she looked around at her tank's occupants. "Prepare for battle."

The entire main room started bustling about and Grif ran back into the cockpit to get the Scarab moving again.. "Hey," Natsu yelled. The soldiers all stopped running for their weapons and turned to the pink haired mage instead. "What did I just say?" He asked in annoyance. He turned back to Superboy and said with a smug grin, "I'm going to take them all on myself."

"Wait, I thought he was kidding," Blue Beetle muttered to the Korean guy next to him holding a sniper rifle. The older man just shook his head wondering if Natsu was serious.

"You still don't understand what a Beta threat is," Black Canary began to him.

"Natsu," Gray started, making his friend look his way. "This is going to be tougher than you think. We should attack togeth-"

"Hold on a second Natsu!"

Gray was annoyed he was interrupted but turned in surprise and looked over at Ben who was standing there pointing at Natsu from twenty feet away. Ben pointed at Natsu, then brought his hand in and shoved a thumb in his own chest. "I call fighting them!"

"What?!" Most of the room shouted, including Natsu. Natsu took a step towards the younger boy, "Too bad, I called it first!"

"Wait," Dash began, as he realized it was up for debate. "I want to fight them too!"

"No way," Ben snapped over at his blond friend. "I call fighting on my own. I can take them all."

"You can't tell him no," Natsu yelled over. "I get to," he said, and then looked over at Dash and told him he couldn't fight.

"This is so not fair," Dash grumbled and crossed his arms. Ben and Natsu started arguing louder and getting closer and closer to each other as they did.

Finally, a voice spoke up from more towards the middle of the room. "Why don't you guys just play rock paper scissors?" Natsu and Ben turned to him, and then everyone else looked in at Kirito as well. The ninja wearing a black t-shirt and black pants put his hands in his pockets. "Goku said that that was how they always resolved who got to fight first since none of them ever wanted to fight together."

"Goku?" Black Canary muttered, wondering if she just heard that teen correctly.

"Son Goku," Galdino whispered under his breath. The man with his hair in the shape of a three raised his hand, "Excuse me." Kirito turned to him and glared at the guy who gulped but kept talking, "Who is this 'they' you are talking about?"

Kirito frowned, but stated, "Goku, and Gohan, Vegeta, Superman, and Tetsuo."

"You're telling me Superman played rock paper scissors to decide if he was going to fight someone or not?" Superboy asked, his voice full of skepticism.

"Yeah," Kirito replied without putting much thought into it as he did not know Superman like Conner did. "Since Superman was always fighting alongside Goku, he had to adapt to the Saiyans' way of doing things."

"Alright then," Ben said, crossing his arms. "That's fine with me."

Natsu looked down with a frown for a few moments at the younger boy, before holding out his right hand in a fist. "Me too," he agreed. _Come on Rock!_ Natsu thought hopefully as Ben stuck his hand out in front of him as well. For everyone in the room, as they were no longer going for their weapons, this now became their main focus. They watched as the two boys swung their arms, and one threw rock, while the other threw out paper.

"What?!" Natsu yelled.

"Yes!" Ben exclaimed. The kid started dancing around while Natsu groaned in defeat.

Superboy looked around nervously, less so than most people inside the tank, but still feeling a little on edge about letting this kid fight on his own. Most of the others felt ashamed in themselves for not having the nerve to tell this kid he could not go out there on his own. He mainly just felt nervous about waiting for the boy to fail in saving their comrades before he was allowed to jump in himself.

He walked over towards Black Canary and whispered, "Do you really think this is a good idea? Letting these kids decide our course of action?"

Dinah hummed for a few seconds, before looking at Conner with a small smile. "Why don't we give them a chance? They kicked your butt pretty easily." She smirked at his instant annoyed reaction.

"I was caught off guard, and they ganged up on me. Still, even I would not be foolish enough to attack a Beta-level threat all on my own," Superboy added.

"And we all know how impulsive you are," Canary mocked, though she sounded a little more serious when she said it. _Maybe this_ _ **is**_ _a bad idea._ The Scarab jolted as Grif turned it into the next gear, speeding them up to their top speed. Black Canary stumbled but Conner grabbed her arm to steady her. "Thanks," she mumbled as she regained her footing and he let go of her.

She looked over and saw that kid, Ben, talking to his younger blond friend, the ice mage, and the black haired teen who brought up rock paper scissors in the first place. Dinah stumbled over to the four of them while her men grabbed onto railings or strapped themselves in as it was getting hard to stand. Black Canary looked down at Ben as she got over and asked, "Are you sure you can handle this?"

"Don't worry," Ben assured, waving it off like it was no problem at all.

"Ben," Gray began, making his voice as serious as he could so that the boy would take him seriously. "Beta means that the soldiers fighting are rank yellow or up. The fact that there are hundreds of them probably means yellow, as hundreds of orange soldiers would not be leaving anyone alive to send out a distress call. Still, these are powerful fighters. Ones with abilities, strengths, high-tech weapons, experience probably," Gray put a hand on the younger boy's right shoulder, "so don't start off by testing them. Fight your hardest right from the beginning."

"My hardest?" Ben asked, lifting up his eyebrows. "I don't think-"

"Your hardest," Gray repeated. He squeezed tighter on Ben's shoulder. "One false move and you're dead. I know you of all people understand that."

Ben's eyes turned dark and the boy looked down for a second. Black Canary noticed the three others all looking at Ben with pitying looks, and she wondered what it was that had the boy so depressed all of a sudden. "Just be careful Ben," Gray repeated. "And go kick some ass."

Speakers turned on above the heads of the people in the fast-moving Covenant tank. The voice came out scratchy but it sounded like Grif's, "Three minutes until arrival."

"How fast are we moving?" Natsu muttered from next to a window as he heard that voice over his head. _Thought he said twenty miles. Three minutes out... that means we're moving, like, really fast._ He tried to do the math in his head, but Igneel only taught him the basics: addition, subtraction... that's it. Figuring out their current speed was beyond him.

The right side door of the Scarab opened up. Wind rushed inside as they were moving very, very fast. Ben saw the door open and he took a deep breath. His friends wished him good luck, and Kairi walked over and leaned down towards his face. She put her own face right up in front of his and whispered, in a voice that was quiet enough that the wind drowned it out for everyone else except for Ben, "If you get in trouble, you can call out for help. There's no shame in that. We already know how brave you are." She leaned forward a little more and gave the boy a small kiss on his forehead.

For a second, Ben remembered Kairi lying on the ground in front of him, her limbs all mangled after being crushed by Nox. He flinched, but then his eyes focused on the girl leaning back from him. She was not dead. She was right there, smiling at him and telling him he could call for help if he needed any.

He smiled back at her in an emotional way for a second, before noticing Gray and Kirito looking at them oddly. He changed his smile to a more cocky smirk and said out loud, "Don't worry, I won't need any help." With that, Ben turned and ran for the open door. He sprinted straight through it and leapt off the side of the still-moving Scarab.

The tank was already slowing down and Ben noticed that from the wind that was rushing into the tank from the door slower. Half the room freaked out as Ben dropped below the side of the tank and fell back behind the moving vehicle. A few seconds later however, Ben came lifting back up over the side and flew forwards faster and faster each second. Really, the tank itself was slowing down, but to the people inside it looked like Ben was moving faster.

When the tank got to a slow enough speed, everyone else ran outside and to the front of the tank to watch Ben. They saw the boy shooting across the sky in front of their walking Scarab, over towards an area with huge smoke pillars rising up around it. Natsu stepped up to the front of the pack and he watched the young boy who he promised multiple people he would look out for. "Be careful Ben," he mumbled, and only the two people on either side of him heard him. Juvia held her hands together up to her chest, while Kairi stared ahead with a more confident gaze. Kirito lifted his hands and grabbed the hilts on his back, ready in case things went south.

Gray frowned, but thought back to Metropolis for a moment. He thought about Ben standing up to Lex Luthor while he himself stood back fearing for his life. He thought about the boy firing a Kamehameha wave in Atlantis and defeating Kyogre who he thought Ben had no chance against. He thought about Ben's watch almost self-destructing and the boy flying over the water in order for the explosion to not hurt them. _He has a Keyblade. He has that watch. He can fly. I believe, Ben. I have to._ For him, someone who lived in Aebrith for two years with little to no hope, trusting his friends was more important than anything at this point. _They've been scolding me for being so cautious since we got here. Prove me wrong Ben. Show me that we're more capable than any of them give us credit for._

Ben flew away from the Scarab and he saw it stop moving when he took a small glance back. He turned back forward fast though, and looked towards the rising smoke pillars. There were four of them in all, and as he got closer he saw the burning carcasses of transport vehicles below. There were six other trucks, hidden behind the veil of smoke with a line of soldiers holding weapons who were using the burning vehicles as cover to fire at the enemies from behind.

The enemy made Ben gulp. He looked past the smoke veil that he came in from behind, and he saw an army. _They're all, animals?_ He looked around at the creatures scattered around the front of the burning transports. There were centaurs, pigs, wolves, lions, rabbits, bugs, crabs, and many had more human-like faces than their animal counterparts. They were much larger than normal animals Ben thought were in the wild, and they all looked like they had many human attributes he was not expecting. Many of them were holding up guns and cannons, others had swords, scythes, and axes. In the very back was a vehicle that looked like a drill, and probably acted as one considering the hole in the ground behind it that happened to be a similar size to the circumference of the bottom of the drill.

"I've got this," Ben stated. _Remember Ben, don't let the watch drop into the red. Then again, Gray said I have to try my hardest from the very beginning. I should take his advice. Ten second intervals have proven to fully recharge the watch as long as I choose the interval myself. Make sure you take those full ten seconds if you need them._

Ben flew straight above the lines of Resistance soldiers. Many of them pointed weapons up at him thinking he was another Chimera Ant flying over, but were surprised to see just a human boy flying over them and through the smoke of the charred vehicles they were using as cover. Ben flew straight through and four dozen flying Chimera Ants shot towards him without hesitation. They did not look surprised; they were ready for one of the enemies to be able to fly, and they charged straight at him.

What they were not expecting however, was the small human child to light up green out of nowhere. They all stopped flying towards him and stared in awe as his body started growing larger. His skin got shinier and more green, becoming crystal in composition. "Diamondhead!" Ben shouted, and he did not drop out of the air. He kept flying in his alien form, and he pointed his arms forward. "Haaa!" His hands with crystal-like fingers morphed into spikier ends that fired huge chunks of green crystal out from them. Two of his attacks collided with enemies, wrapping them in crystals and making them fall from the air as their wings were wrapped as well.

As Ben fired at the others though, they swerved out of the way to avoid getting wrapped up. Two of them flew towards him, ones that had long tails sticking out that Ben was wary of since the very ends of them looked to have stingers. As he was looking out for them though, he barely noticed a yellow beam flying up towards him, and he scooted back in the air a little to let the beam fly by. _Diamondhead isn't working well enough,_ he thought, even while pointing his arms forward and firing dozens of small, sharp crystals that did not wrap around his enemies, but instead cut right into them and their wings mainly, dropping them from the air.

 _New plan,_ he thought while looking down at the ground. "Fourarms!" He shouted, and his body lit up green making his large green crystal arms transform into red muscular ones instead. He dropped out of the air with two extra red arms, and two more yellow eyes to speak of. His shirt was white with black lines going vertically down it. He dropped all the way through the air with his arms crossed, barely wincing as yellow lasers crashed into him. His tough skin was too strong and the Chimera Ants only figured it out when he was but ten feet above them. Some tried backing up, but Ben slammed all four arms into the ground and made a huge crater that sent chunks of grass and dirt flying at his dispersing enemies.

"Get him!" an Ant that had the body of a tiger but stood on two legs shouted. He lifted his claws and his sharp nails extended. The tiger Chimera Ant charged forward, but when it leapt at Ben, he rose his upper right arm and grabbed it around the throat before it could slash at him. He released the tiger, then punched forward with his lower right arm to slam it in the stomach, while at the same time using both left hands to punch approaching Ants on his other side.

 _Damn, there's just too many of them!_ Ben flipped backwards as a grizzly bear with a scythe and wearing a t-shirt swung a scythe down at him. As he landed, two purple blasts of light shot at him and he ducked down to let them fly over his head. When he ducked though, three different creatures swung down with swords at his back. He clenched his teeth and forced some of his aura around him, cracking the blades as they hit his back.

A mile away from him, a couple dozen people released their breaths as for a second they thought the boy who transformed into a four-armed alien was about to get stabbed. Grif came running up from behind them all and he shouted, "What's going on? Did we decide not to attack like sane people?"

"Nope," Gray stated, still looking out towards the battlefield as he did. "Ben's out there."

"You can't be serious," Grif said in a deadpan tone. When a few others looked at him and shrugged, the soldier in full orange armor tilted back his head in shock. "You are serious. Damn it," he pushed forward through the crowd until he was up at the front with Ben's friends. "Why did you let him do this? That kid's going to get..." Grif dropped his jaw as a single figure in the distance with a brown tail held his hands forward and shot a blue beam in front of him.

"Haaaa!" Ben yelled, finishing his Kamehameha that was always a lot easier when he was a Saiyan. He watched as it flew forward, but barely any of his enemies got caught in it. And worse, he now had to worry about all of the Ants, as even the ones who were not originally focused on him, who were still firing at the Resistance fighters behind their cover, were coming for him after that display of power.

 _I need to recharge the watch now. I haven't finished them as quickly as I hoped._ He flew straight up in the air right as four swords were about to collide on his body. Being a Saiyan increased all of his senses, along with strength, speed, and energy. His increased speed allowed him to fly up between the last four flying Chimera Ants before they could attack him either, and he kept shooting up in the sky without taking a break. Enemies gave chase, but froze as a green light shone above them.

The flying enemies chasing him looked up nervously, but the boy who transformed again turned back into his usual form. He did not even have that brown tail that seemed to make him so much stronger. The different Chimera Ants looked at each other, nodded, and then flew up in a group after the boy who kept flying straight up away from them.

 _Ten,_ Ben thought. He looked down to see if he was being chased, and opened his eyes wide to see Chimera Ants flying after him, and gaining fast. _Nine._ He kept flying as fast as he could in his human form, but it was not enough and the Ants literally born to fly were about to catch him. _Eight. Seven._

The boy stopped flying all of a sudden and let himself drop. The Ants were surprised, but they rose up their claws, one of them snapped up her tail, and one lifted a sword covered in poison. Ben was about to drop down to their level, when he did a backflip in midair and lifted just over the sword just swung at him. He saw the sword going under his back and saw purple liquid flying off of it. He slammed a fist up and hit the Ant's hand around the poisoned weapon's hilt, making the creature drop it.

Two sets of claws were about to slam into his back, and since he was no longer flying he focused some of his energy into making a veil on that spot. Their claws hit him, and two claws had their nails shatter upon impact. Two others though, sliced through his aura and through the back of his shirt and into his skin. His guard did not hold, and Ben winced in pain as he felt the shallow cuts. The veil at least slowed the attack to keep the attacks weak, but he was still angry that he got hit, and spun with a kick so strong that the two who slashed at him were hit. He hit one in the head, and he put so much power into the kick that that one's head got smashed into the other's and they both flew across the sky.

The Chimera Ant with the long tail also covered in poison hesitated as two of its remaining allies were sent flying. Ben grabbed her tail below its point while she was hesitating, and he swung her into the one whose hand he punched a second ago, sending both of them flying as well. _Four, three,_ he started flying up in the air again before the four he sent flying could recover. Only one of them started falling out of the sky, while the three others regained their composure and started flying up after Ben again.

"Don't let him get away!" The female Ant with the long tail shouted.

"He just got above the clouds," one of the ones with claws yelled.

 _Two... one..._

"Be ready for him!" The one who lost his sword but now bared a mouth full of sharp teeth growled. He lifted a few more feet, before slowing down and coming to a full stop at the sight of a green light just above the clouds. He was about to keep flying up, when suddenly the clouds were gone. In their place, was a giant.

"WAY BIG!" the monster hundreds of feet tall roared.

The Resistance fighters a mile away dropped their jaws at the sight of the falling giant in the sky. "Is that," Superboy began, lowering his bottom lip as the monster fell from the sky. "He's huge."

Ben did not fly. He did not even know if he could fly as Way Big. He just fell, his back facing the floor. He fell straight towards the army of Chimera Ants down below who started panicking at the sight of the monster falling towards them. They fired their weapons up at him, but Ben was already focusing his huge energy on his back to soften the pain of the fall when he hit the ground.

"Run!"

"Get away!"

Ben's back was so huge that the Ants who started running doubted their ability to get out from beneath him. Way Big fell so far that he almost slammed down completely on top of them. Right before his back slammed into them though, he lowered his hands and feet, slamming them all into the ground and keeping his back elevated a little. Chimera Ants stared up at the massive white wall directly over their heads and most of them could not breathe in sheer horror.

"What is he doing?!" Superboy shouted. He looked over at Gray who had his jaw dropped as well.

"He, doesn't want to kill them," Gray whispered. The ice mage rubbed his forehead wondering what he was going to do. He slowly lowered his hand though, as Ben stood up fully as Way Big. He turned around and glared down at the enemies below him.

All of the Chimera Ants were terrified now. They knew he could have just killed them, and he was just staring down at them like he was deciding whether or not to kill them or not. He lifted his head the slightest bit, then reached down both hands and grabbed the sides of the huge drill that had bored through the ground near them. The Chimera Ants could only watch as Ben lifted it, put it only in his right hand, wound up, and threw their drill so far into the sky that a few seconds later they saw the purple forcefield light up, the barrier of Nexus.

Ben had thrown the drill so hard it left the atmosphere and hit the barrier that prevented them from leaving. He looked down at the monsters in front of him and said in a booming low voice, "RUN!" He stomped his right foot forward and the Chimera Ants nearby where it crashed down had to dive out of the way to avoid the foot.

For a second, nothing happened. And then every single member of the army facing the Resistance fighters turned around and ran away. They got about a hundred yards away from Ben's feet, when thirty or so of them came to a stop. They turned, and white auras surrounded their bodies. Way Big stared harshly at these fighters, the most powerful of the army, and he crossed his wrists in front of his chest. A bright light-blue beam shot out from the white and red giant monster's crossing-point of his arms. The blue energy slammed down to the left of the Chimera Ants, and Ben moved his arms right to drag the beam across where they were standing.

This time, the Ants panicked for real and spun, sprinting away after the rest of the army as fast as they could. Way Big's beam smashed straight through the ground they were just standing on, incinerating it all and tearing several dozen yards down into the ground. Once Ben saw every single Ant was fleeing, at least the ones able to, a green flash of light surrounded Way Big and a little human boy floated there a hundred feet off the ground in his place.

The Scarab Tank parked a mile out from the battlefield was silent for a few seconds. Then, Mr. 3 whispered, "He, did it."

"No fucking way dude," Grif muttered. He wiped the visor of his helmet to make sure he was not seeing things.

"Never doubted him for a second," Kirito stated. A few of the others looked at the ninja in surprise and Kirito added, "I sure wouldn't want to fight him again." He thought back to their fight in Pao Town, and after that when they fought side by side in Metropolis. Every time he saw Ben fight, the kid improved so much.

"Heh, I could've done it faster," Natsu said, though he was smiling ear to ear admiring Ben's work.

"I told you," Gray started, turning and looking at the shocked group behind him. "My friends are stronger than you're giving them credit for." Juvia turned and smiled at her boyfriend, while Natsu just smirked along with the other boys. Gray continued, "With their help, I truly believe, we can start to make a difference in this war."

* * *

 **A/N Thanks for reading! The chapter's name was Mercy, and I think it works nicely with what Ben just showed his enemies. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the battle! Next chapter, things get really, really intense. I hope you're ready, for Nexus HWR 9.3 League of Assassins.**

joebob323 chapter 49 . 4h ago

Ohh... I was thinking of Tora, not Bora. Your response just gave me more questions! Gah! I cannot wait for the next chapter, it doesn't matter who is in the next chapter, they all have ended on cliffhangers. Thanks for the chapter!

 **Glad you enjoyed it, and though this chapter may not have ended on a cliffhanger, I hope the title of the next one has you on edge... Thanks for the review! Thanks again everyone for reading this story! 'Till next time!**


	51. Nexus HWR 9-3 League of Assassins

**Nexus HWR 9.3: League of Assassins:**

"What did they say?" Kirito asked as Gray walked over to their small group. The ice mage was walking away from a huge Scarab Tank that had bent knees and all their lights off. There wasn't enough space in the tank for the tank's original crew, all the battle's survivors, and the group that came with Gray. Because of this, and needing to repair a few of the semi-damaged transports, they couldn't keep moving through the night and had to make camp for all the tired soldiers.

Gray stopped as he reached the circle consisting only of his friends from Awul. Ben, Natsu, Kairi, Dash, Juvia, and Kirito looked at him awaiting some news. The man with wavy black hair sighed and put his hands in his pockets. "Superboy and the others are joining up with these guys. They're going straight east, maybe a little north, towards a nearby Resistance city. Apparently it's about to fall like most of the others in this region." Gray looked downcast as he spoke and he continued in a lower voice, "How did things get so much worse than they were?" He already thought they were in deep trouble, but only talking to his comrades in the Resistance did he realize just how bad things had become since he left.

"What's the plan?" Kirito asked, looking at the man three years older than him.

Gray grimaced. He looked around and saw all of them looking at him, waiting for him to make a decision. Even Natsu, who seemed the least interested out of the group, wasn't saying anything to show that Gray was leading this little mission. "My team is to the east still, but much farther south. If we want to find them, we should avoid this conflict entirely. But," he continued, looking into Kirito's eyes as he did, "I know you said back at the Boar's Head that you came here to help the Resistance."

The others all looked to Kirito and the teen himself looked conflicted. He looked past Gray and over to the Scarab, but then looked at the ice mage again. "Whatever you decide, I'll go with."

Gray looked a little confused and Natsu questioned the teen, "Why's that?"

Kirito glanced back over Gray's head again, "I don't trust these people."

"Huh?" Ben questioned in surprise, looking back over himself. "They all seem like great people." He'd been being praised all afternoon, and anyone who thought he was great, he thought were probably pretty good people themselves.

"I don't know them," Kirito corrected himself. "They could be great guys and girls, but I don't even know the group we've been with the last few days well enough to trust them."

Dash didn't like Kirito's distrustful attitude, but his frown suddenly flipped as he realized something. "Does that mean you trust us?" He asked the black haired teen who was always the most quiet on the Thousand Sunny during their journey.

Kirito glanced down at the short kid with blond hair who was looking up at him excitedly. He chuckled and nodded, "I guess," he admitted.

Dash and Ben smiled up at the taller teen, and Kairi giggled a little at him. The three Fairy Tail wizards smiled a little too, but Juvia turned to Gray and brought back up the question at hand, "So, what will we do Gray-sama?"

"Hmm," Gray hummed, glancing back over at the other Resistance members a little behind them. "I want to help them," he admitted, though they could all hear the 'but' coming. "But," he continued, turning the other way and looking south through the darkness. "I need to find out what happened to my team after I vanished. Depending on what I find, we may be heading back north anyway."

The others saw him grimace at the the notion of his friends being turned into slaves. Juvia was going to say something but Kairi stepped next to him and put a hand on his shoulder. He looked at her and she tilted her head with a bright smile on her face. "We'll find them. I know we will."

He stared at her strangely for a second and then smiled. "Yeah, you're right." Neither of them noticed Juvia's furious look on the other side of Gray, more angry at herself than anyone that she didn't touch Gray's shoulder and comfort him first. Kairi nodded and put her hand back down, then Gray looked back around at the group. "Tomorrow we'll let Black Canary know we're splitting up," Gray announced to his friends. "For now, let's get some sleep."

"Finally!" Natsu exclaimed, falling backwards on the spot and closing his eyes. The ground in this grassy area was softer than most places they'd had to camp since starting their travels and Natsu didn't really mind not taking out his sleeping bag first.

"I'm exhausted," Ben agreed. He turned and started walking back towards the fire they made over here just for themselves.

"Hey Ben," Natsu said, not opening his eyes as he did. Ben turned back and Natsu kept talking while facing straight up. "Good work today."

A wide smile spread on Ben's face. All the praise from the others he saved was great, but hearing it from Natsu was so much better. Living in the same town as the stronger boy for so long, he'd looked up to him almost like an older brother. Sure, Gohan was a great friend, and Ben wanted to be as strong as him, but the two of them were too close in age that Gohan was more of a friend than a role model of his. "Thanks Natsu," Ben said happily. Everyone else smiled over at Ben too, and a few of them said things along the same line while they all set up their sleeping bags.

Kirito sat up after setting up his sleeping bag and getting in it. He looked over the smoldering embers of their fire while the rest of their group got settled. His gaze wandered to the large shadow of the nearby Scarab Tank, and he didn't see the light over there of the other fire going on anymore. _Sleeping out in the open so close to strangers seems dangerous._

He looked around him and noticed no one else seemed to think anything of it. Juvia lay next to Gray snuggled up with him, and the two of them were talking. Kirito thought they were about to kiss goodnight so he looked away and saw Dash wriggling around in his sleeping bag near Ben's, trying to get into a good sleeping position. Kairi looked like she was staring up at the sky, holding her hands in front of her chest and whispering something. After a few seconds she turned on her side and fell asleep fast.

 _Maybe I'm overthinking it,_ Kirito thought, glancing back at the Scarab once more and then laying back and sliding farther into his own sleeping bag. _Wonder if Goku is heading back anytime soon. Probably not,_ he sighed and turned on his side. The teen closed his eyes and before long he was fast asleep.

"Gray-sama," Juvia whispered. The boy lying inside his sleeping bag next to hers turned in a little and looked at her. "Juvia thinks we will find your friends soon."

"Thanks," he muttered in response. He nuzzled up his sleeping bag to hers and put an arm over her. "I don't know though. My friends are strong, but there are enemies I know they couldn't beat. I just hope they didn't run into them."

"Please do not worry," Juvia whispered back at the man snuggling with her. She felt so warm and happy with him there, but his negative tone was making her sad too. "Juvia will help Gray-sama save his nakama. Juvia promises."

"Hah, thanks," he whispered back, a small smile actually coming to his face because of that. _Out of all of them, I can rely on you the most. Natsu too I guess, but I know you'll stay with me, no matter what._ He hugged a little tighter and Juvia's face filled with glee. The two of them closed their eyes too, and finally the whole group was asleep.

* * *

On a hillside two miles away from a parked Scarab Tank, two people leaned over the top of the hill. "Are they all asleep?" A voice whispered, coming from behind the two figures.

The short siblings leaning over the hilltop looked closer through their long-range night vision goggles, then turned back around. Alecto Carrow faced the man behind him and replied, "Looks like it."

His sister, another stout figure with disgusting greasy hair and wearing black clothes like him, looked back at their comrade. "They didn't even leave a guard," Amycus laughed tauntingly. "We should go kill them now!"

"Quiet you idiot," the taller man behind the two siblings growled at them. The brother and sister cowered back at the guy's scary look. He had long, curly black hair and his eyes were as dark as the black cloaks they were all wearing. Yaxley glared at the Carrow siblings for a second longer, then turned and walked down the hill towards the rest of the group waiting there.

One man stood in the center of a group of twelve, and Yaxley walked straight up to him. The curly haired man knelt down in front of the leader and whispered, "Those seven are asleep."

"Good," the figure in front of Yaxley's knelt form stated. He stepped forward, the only one of the group of twelve who did not have his hood up. Yaxley stood after the leader walked past him and he put on his own black hood. He stared at the back of their leader's head, his short black hair, the beard and mustache that stretched to the sides of his face. He had large muscles but they were hidden well under the black cloak.

"Remember," the man walking forward started. "Do not let them make a sound. We do not want to alert the main camp's guard to our presence."

"Understood, Ra's al Ghul," the twelve behind him, Yaxley, and the two siblings above him on the hill replied in unison. The two on the hilltop lifted up their hoods and then turned back around as their leader walked between them.

"Move," Ra's stated. He took a step over the top of the hill and his body turned into black smoke. The Death Eaters behind him and the rest of the group in black clothes lifted off the ground as well. They flew forward as plumes of black smoke, racing through the air over the grassy landscape as silent as the wind.

* * *

Gray Fullbuster awoke with a start. _Something's wrong,_ he realized. There was no strange power telling him something was off, he just had a feeling deep in his gut. His gut was right.

As the ice mage made to sit up, he felt cold steel against his neck. "Do not move," a woman's voice said to him. She sounded horrifying, creepier than any voice he had heard in a long time. The fact that she wasn't whispering very quietly unnerved Gray, but he quickly learned why that was.

Gray got yanked up to his feet by the woman holding a blade to his throat. Once up, he could see around him at the others already on their feet. Kirito and Kairi were up already, with blades to their necks just like his. Juvia got pulled up at the same time as him and looked Gray in the eyes with a terrified expression on her face. The male mage gave her a reassuring look then turned a little and watched as two figures in black cloaks got on either side of Natsu's sleeping bag. He wanted to shout something to warn his friend, but he had a feeling that the woman holding a blade to his throat was not playing around.

Worse than the woman threatening him, was the man next to her, holding his saber to Juvia's jugular. He was not wearing a hood like the others, and had the face of a man who had killed so many times before. _Could she break out of there? There's a good chance she could turn to water and escape the slash._ While Gray thought about it, a pair of Death Eater siblings yanked Natsu up to his feet. They whispered threats at him and held the points of their blades to his throat.

"Huh?" Natsu muttered, darting his eyes to either side. "Who are you freaks?"

"I said shut up!" Amycus whisper-yelled at him.

"You be quiet too!" Her brother Alecto scolded her.

"Get the final two," the tall man with black curly hair, Yaxley, commanded back at a couple of other figures in black cloaks. "Be careful or-"

"What are you doing?"

All of the figures in black looked over and watched as a lump in a sleeping bag got up to his feet. Ben Tennyson stood up and looked around him, and instantly his heart fell. _No,_ he thought in disbelief. "Dash," he said sternly.

"Be quiet or they die," Yaxley growled over at the boy.

He was too late though. Dash got to his feet and instantly became aware of the situation. He stood next to Ben with a nervous, but angry expression on his face. "Who are these guys? What's happening?" Dash questioned his best friend.

"I don't know," Ben whispered back to the younger boy. "But we have to save everyone fast or-"

"We know how fast you are," a man spoke who made both Ben and Dash start sweating badly. His voice had the hostages sweating and they all looked at him, afraid for their lives. Ra's al Ghul wiggled the blade off of Juvia's neck for a second, "Our blades have enough poisons on them that one little nick, and it's all over. How many of them do you think you can save?" Ra's asked while lifting up his bushy eyebrows. "You can not hope to save them all."

Ben and Dash looked at each other. Neither of them knew what to do, but they were trying to figure it out quickly. "You bastards," Natsu growled. The pink haired mage wanted to try and break free, but the blades were already touching his neck. If he moved there was a good chance he would get cut. Still, he lifted up his arms and the two who dragged him to his feet could not hold his arms down with only one hand each.

"Stop moving," Alecto snapped at his prisoner.

"We will kill you," Amycus snarled in the young man's ear.

Natsu had his arms halfway raised and he hesitated. _One quick move and I could knock their other hands away before they cut me._ His body tensed up.

"Natsu!"

The Dragon Slayer froze and turned his head a little to his left. Kirito was staring back at him and the teenager stated calmly, "Even if you were to knock their blades away, the rest of us would be killed on the spot." Natsu's eyes widened and his body un-tensed.

"That isn't true," the man leading the dark figures said, still with his eyes straight on the two youngest boys. "We would only kill one of the hostages if he escaped. That would show him how serious we are. If you need, we could kill one of you now," Ra's offered the group.

"No!" Ben yelled at the bearded man. He took a few deep breaths as the figure looked at him with dark eyes. "Just tell us what you want," the thirteen year old said.

A few of the cloaked figures made their ways toward Ben and Dash, but their leader held up a hand for them to stop. "I am Ra's al Ghul," the man said, and instantly Gray tensed up with wide eyes. "We are the League of Assassins."

 _No wonder we got caught,_ Gray thought. He glanced over at Kirito who was captured too, _Even with our Haki we wouldn't be able to sense the League coming._ "What does the League want with us?" Gray asked the scary leader of the League who he had heard much about.

Bellatrix Lestrange leaned over her captive's shoulder so her long curly black hair draped over him. She looked in with a wicked expression and cackled, "We don't want _you_." Gray looked confusedly at the crazy woman holding a blade to his neck.

"We only came for you two," Ra's said. Everyone followed his gaze and looked over at Ben and Dash who Ra's had kept facing the entire time.

"Us?" Dash asked in surprise. He pointed at himself, then looked at Ben skeptically. "Why?" He questioned.

Ra's walked forward and pushed Juvia with him as he did. The blue haired girl moved with her captor and tried not to struggle. _Gray-sama is thinking up a plan. Juvia will escape!_

The leader of the League of Assassins only stepped a few feet before feeling stopping. "You two," he continued while directly facing the short boys, "are faster than any of my assassins. You are faster than the soldiers of the High Lord who hired us. And, you are quite strong."

"But why does that matter for you?" Ben asked, getting a bad feeling about all this.

He was feeling nervous from the cold, icy gaze of this Ra's al Ghul person. The words that came out of his mouth were like daggers, and the next sentence that he said pierced Ben's heart. "You two will assassinate the Resistance leader in the city to our northeast. If you decline, we will kill all of your friends in front of you."

Dash dropped his jaw. "What?!" The kid exclaimed.

"Also," Ra's continued. "If you awaken or alert any soldiers from the nearby group, we will kill them, not capture them."

The blond boy who pretty much just shouted slammed his mouth shut. His body covered in sweat and he looked over to the Scarab tank, hoping everyone near it was asleep. _Weren't there guards watching the valley? Why didn't they see these guys?!_

"We won't do it," Ben stated.

Dash snapped his head to the taller kid next to him. His eyes were wide and he turned back to Ra's then to Ben again. Most people just saw a blur as Dash looked back and forth really fast. "But Ben, he's going to-"

"We won't kill anyone," Ben said, looking down at Dash now. "You couldn't kill anyone."

The blond kid opened his mouth to argue with his older friend. He paused though and thought for a second. He imagined some random guy standing in front of him, who he had to kill to save his friends. He tried to think he would be able to do it, but even in his imagination he watched himself lower his arm instead of using it to stab through the guy. _Ben's right. I couldn't do it._

"I'll do it," a voice said and everyone looked over to Kirito. The person holding a blade to his neck was a little surprised to hear his prisoner speaking again, but didn't try to shut the teen up at all. The black haired teenager continued, "I'll go."

"Brave of you to try and spare your younger friends from the horror of murder," Ra's said, still without looking away from the two youngest kids. "However, you will not make it past the city's defenses."

"You don't know that," Kirito started. "I am a ninja," he stated, though for a second he thought about how stupid that sounded out loud.

"A slow ninja," Ra's continued. "If you speak out of turn again," he said, stopping Kirito who opened his mouth to say he was fast. "Yaxley will kill you," Ra's finished. Kirito's mouth slowly closed and he continued to glare at the leader of the League even as his own captor pressed the knife harder into his throat.

Ra's al Ghul stared straight into Ben's eyes, as he was the one who denied his request. "Though he may die anyway. All of them will die," Ra's stated, "unless you agree to our terms."

"You want us to kill someone," Ben said harshly. "We won't-"

"If you don't, you are killing your friends," Ra's told the boy. He narrowed his eyes a little, "Is this stranger's life worth more than theirs?"

This question made Ben's eyes widen. He looked around at all his friends. Gray was staring at Ra's al Ghul with nervous ferocity, hating how the man had Juvia in his grip right now. The Rain Woman herself looked nervous, almost like she wanted to test if her neck could phase right through the blade, but was too afraid to do it because of the man who was holding her.

"Ben," Dash whispered. The older boy looked in at his younger friend and he and Dash made eye contact. The two of them stared into each other's eyes for a few seconds before both turned ahead at the same time and harshly glared back at R'as al Ghul.

"We'll do it," Ben stated.

The sudden reversal surprised some of his friends who thought he was dead-set on not killing anyone a minute ago. Ra's himself lifted up his eyebrows and stared straight back into Ben Tennyson's eyes. "He will be at the very top of the city. He has four highly trained guards. Do you wish to know your target's name?" He asked in a cold voice.

"No need," Dash replied snidely. "And we don't need to know where he is, or how many guards he has so you can keep all that to yourself." The kid's cocky voice did not match his pissed off expression.

A flash of green light surrounded Ben for a second and when it was gone there was a lizard creature standing on two feet in its place. The alien had black plating and blue skin with a pointy head. XLR8 glared forward at Ra's and growled, "Don't hurt them while we're gone." He turned around and his black mask shot up over his face.

"Ben no!" Kairi shouted at the boy.

"Think about this Ben," Natsu said in a deeper voice than usual. "Do you really-"

"Not one more word," the assassin on Natsu's right whispered, his words sending chills down Natsu's spine as the blade on his neck pushed in a little, almost breaking the skin.

"We won't let you die," Dash stated, turning around as well. He looked in at Ben and the taller alien creature looked back down at him. The little blond boy continued, "We've made our choice."

Ben just had one last thing to say before he ran off. "We'll be right back." With that, he and Dash sped away as two blurs across the landscape.

They were heading towards the east, but Alecto Carrow noticed they weren't going north at all. "How are those brats even going to find the place? Stupid kids-"

"Idiot, you saw how fast they are," Yaxley growled, putting less pressure on the knife he had against Kirito's throat as he got ready to wait for them to come back. "They could search every inch for a hundred miles in an hour."

"True," Ra's stated, his voice still giving the hostages chills. "If they are not back within the next two hours, we will kill these five and leave."

Kirito cast a dark glance over at Ra's, then looked back into the distance where he could no longer even see the dust clouds that were knocked up when Dash and Ben ran that fast. "How long have you been trying to kill that Resistance leader?" Kirito asked, surprising Yaxley by the sudden daring question and making most of the others look his way as well.

"What's it to you?" The man behind him snarled.

"It just seems strange that a group of assassins needed two children to do their job for them," Kirito replied.

 _What the Hell is he doing?!_ Gray thought in panic. _He knows they'll kill him without a second thought, right?_

"What was that?" Yaxley asked, wondering if he heard the teen he was threatening correctly.

Ra's stared over at Kirito with piqued interest. "You said that you would kill the Resistance leader," the leader of the League began, making most people there surprised that he was talking to the boy instead of ordering Yaxley to kill him. "You would not have hesitated?"

"No," Kirito replied darkly.

"Hmm," Ra's responded to the young boy. "I do not believe you."

"Why not?" Kirito asked, looking the scary figure directly in his eyes.

"Because-" Ra's al Ghul stopped talking and his eyes started to widen.

"AHHH!"

 **22.3 Seconds Earlier** '

Ben and Dash were sprinting to the east at the same speed as each other. Neither of them had talked since they started running away, and the two of them looked in at each other once they knew they were far enough away that their friends and enemies could no longer see them. The boys stopped running and stared into each other's eyes for a few moments.

"Are you ready?" Ben asked the twelve year old at his side.

"What if we're not fast enough?" Dash whispered.

Ben reached one of his scaly black arms forward and placed a hand on the younger kid's shoulder. "You are the fastest kid in the world. You can do this."

"Alright," Dash said, regaining a confident look on his face. "Let's go." He started running in place, getting faster and faster and faster so that dust picked up around him and rose up in the air.

"I'll get Gray and Juvia," Ben said. "Can you get the others?" He started running in place just like Dash was doing to get himself ready. Normally he wouldn't make a statement that so easily labeled himself as slower than Dash, but their comrades' lives were on the line, this was no time to be prideful.

"I can," Dash said with such confidence in his tone of voice that Ben did not doubt him.

"On three," Ben said. He kept sprinting in place and ground his teeth together underneath his alien's mask. "One, two, three."

"AHHH!" an assassin yelled as he felt his knife get ripped from his hand. It felt like his fingers were broken and the girl with long auburn hair in his grip was suddenly missing.

Amycus and Alecto barely started turning towards the source of the scream when the blurry face of a blond child flew in front of them. He grabbed their hands that were holding blades against Natsu's throat and yanked those hands backwards so hard that he threw the two Death Eaters up in the air. He had to jump himself to grab their hands, as he was still a pretty short kid, and as he landed he spun and charged the creepy guy with long curly black hair who had Kirito hostage.

Yaxley read the situation pretty fast as his comrade screamed. He couldn't see what was happening, but once Amycus and Alecto got lifted off the ground in the next moment, he knew it was time for action. He brought the knife that he'd loosened his grip on back towards Kirito's throat and pressed it against him hard, just for the knife to bounce off harmlessly.

Kirito focused his Armament Haki on his neck the instant trouble started. He felt the blade hit him and started turning to attack the man who tried killing him, but by the time he was only mid-turn, the man was flying backwards with a fist to the face. Dash saw the guy press his weapon into Kirito's throat and was happy he decided to save Kirito last considering the teen was able to save himself.

Dash arrived at the group not much before Ben, but when the lizard-creature arrived Dash was already on his way to Amycus and Alecto. Ben ignored the dark figures on the outside of the group and ran straight to the closer of his two friends being held hostage. He hopped up in the air behind the crazy woman with dark black curly hair, and slammed a kick into the side of her head.

As Bellatrix Lestrange went flying, Ben landed and shot off towards the final member of the League of Assassins who still had one of their friends hostage. He could see the man who had Kirito in his grasp go flying away on his right, so all he needed to do was stop this final man and... Ben skidded to a stop as Ra's al Ghul spun around so fast that he almost matched XLR8's speed.

He moved a little slower than Ben, but still at a speed where he could look right into the visor of Ben's alien's black mask. Their movements happened at speeds the other people around them couldn't follow. Only Dash was able to look over and see what was happening, and he started running over just like Ben. The two speedy children ran forward at what would be amazing running speeds for the others, and for them was still insanely fast, but for them time seemed to slow down so it felt like they were running normally.

Ra's al Ghul stared straight into Ben's eyes, and he dragged the knife in his hand across Juvia's throat. His eyes widened as the second he pressed the blade into her neck with the intention to kill her, her neck turned into water and the blade passed right through. Still, the intent alone made Ben furious and he charged at the man, leaping up and extending both legs at his head.

Ra's was slower that his opponent, but he leaned his head to the left and both of Ben's legs went right over his shoulder, barely grazing the hairs on the side of his head. He slammed an elbow up and hit Ben in the back as the boy continued to fly over him faster than the speed of sound. The thud from his elbow colliding with Ben's armored back didn't sound out until Dash Parr was already directly beneath his face, punching up at him in an uppercut.

The child's fist hit Ra's so fast that the man's neck slammed backwards and his face pointed towards the sky. While his head lifted up though, he ignored all pain and brought back the sword that he had lodged inside Juvia's neck. He pulled back through the water and slammed in towards Dash's arm. The kid brought back his extended fist underneath the incoming blade, then grabbed Ra's by the hand holding the weapon. He bent backwards with a look of anger on his face and he heard a crack in the older man's wrist. Still, Ra's al Ghul showed no pain and was already bringing a foot forward that did not flinch at all when his wrist was snapped.

Dash got kicked in the gut and thrown backwards while Ra's started turning to the alien who landed and charged back at him. Ben went for a punch to the man's face, but it was a fake and he came up on the guy's left side, then went back to his original plan as it looked like Ra's expected the feint with the way he was lifting his left arm for a block. Ben kicked him five times in the stomach, then leapt backwards as a beam of green light flew towards him. The beam passed in between him and Ra's, and Ben turned his head a little to see a half dozen figures pointing wands at him with green bursts flying out of them. The men and women in the League were told not to worry about Ra's and just attack any enemies without worrying about his well being. That is why they were firing bursts of magic that would cause instant death if they collided, and Ben and Dash could feel how evil those bursts were as they swerved in and out of them.

 _The magic is slower than he is,_ Dash thought as his feet touched the ground. He dodged a blast right as another wizard was yelling "Avada Kadavra!" and swinging a wand at him. The man was only midway through the first word when Dash vanished from the spot the man was aiming at. _Ignore them all until the leader is down._ Dash charged back in and lifted up his right hand, yelling out as he did. A ball of white light formed on his hand in that instant and he jumped up as Ra's turned to him. "Take this!" Dash yelled, throwing his hand forward right into Ra's' face.

The little boy was much faster than his older friend and the leader of the assassins, so Ra's was only midway through turning when Dash attacked him, and Ben was not ready for it at all either. The thirteen year old felt how much strength was going into that attack by the amount of heat pressing against his face even from a distance, and he jumped backwards. There was no need however, as when the beam of light was about to hit Ra's, the man shot up in the air as a pillar of black smoke, letting the beam go right underneath him and out into the distance where it exploded in a huge dome of light.

Ben glanced over towards the Scarab Tank as the explosion went off. _Someone had to have heard that!_

Ra's al Ghul was thinking the same thing and he announced loudly, "Move out." His pillar of black smoke shot through the sky and a dozen others turned into smoke as well. A pair of siblings barely back up on their feet were looking around in confusion but heard the order and shot away with the rest of them. Two pillars of smoke dropped down and the people inside them reached down and grabbed two unconscious members of their group who were not retreating with the rest.

"They're getting away!" Natsu yelled out as he saw the darker patches of black shooting through the sky. As he yelled it, the lights came on on the Scarab and they heard yelling from over there as the group of Resistance members became alerted to the danger.

Natsu looked at Dash and Ben to see why they weren't charging after their enemies. The Fire Dragon Slayer did not have a great grasp on what just happened. One second Kirito was having a discussion with the leader of the League of Assassins, and the next moment he, Gray, Kairi, and Kirito were all freed from their captors. He had glanced over towards Ra's and saw a bunch of speeding blurs for a few seconds, then almost charged over at the other members who he saw fire green blasts of magic at the blurs. Before he had a chance though, an explosion blew up in a huge dome a hundred meters away from him, a pillar of black smoke yelled out to retreat, and all the enemies ran away.

Now that he looked at the two boys, he saw that they had looked around to see if everyone was alright. Dash and Ben had noticed something which is what kept them from going after Ra's. In front of them, Juvia was standing in shock from the displays of speed that happened all around her yet she was not able to witness. The blurs raced around her body that whole time while she staggered backwards, her neck reforming with skin after turning into water when Ra's tried cutting her. The reason why Ben and Dash were staring at her though, was because she kept swaying back and forth in place.

Natsu noticed what the two kids were staring at as the light from the Scarab actually lit up their area a little too. He looked at his nakama and said, "Oi, Juvia are you-"

The girl with long blue hair that was curled at the bottom dropped down to her left knee. Gray was looking off into the distance where the League was retreating, but he heard a few people call out the same name and he spun around with huge eyes. "Juvia!" He called out, running towards her and slamming down on his knees as he reached her. "Hey, hey! What's wrong?" He grabbed her hand and clenched it while the girl dropped down to her other knee with her head bowed, facing the floor.

"No," Ben whispered on the left of Gray where he was looking down at them. _"Our blades have enough poisons on them that one little nick, and it's all over." But, but she didn't get nicked. She turned into water!_ Ben thought it, but staring at the girl on her knees he was finding it hard to convince himself. "What's, wrong?" he managed to say to the female mage who started crying while facing the floor.

The others all ran up to Gray and Juvia who were on their knees with their heads close to each other. Gray was staring at the top of Juvia's head and holding her hands tightly with a look of shock on his face. _This can't be happening._

"J-Juvia is sad," the girl whispered. She lifted up her head a little and Gray felt hopeful all of a sudden as he thought maybe she had just fallen because she was scared or something. When she looked up into his eyes though, his look of relief turned into one of horror at the sight of the lines of blood coming down from her eyes and mouth. "J-Juvia will not be able to be with Gray any-more."

"What are you talking about?!" Natsu snapped from Gray's right side. "Stop sounding so pathetic and get up!"

"Natsu-san," Juvia whispered, a small smile coming to her face at the sound of his encouraging words.

Kirito stared at the girl with sweat coming down both sides of his face. He thought of something as he heard loud shouting coming from the direction of the other Resistance fighters. He turned and sprinted over there, moving huge leaps in seconds with his ninja steps. He arrived at the front of the group in moments and shouted, "We need antidotes! Any cures to poison you might have!"

Back over with his friends, Kairi lifted her hands and a pink Keyblade appeared. "Cure, Cure!" She called out, trying to cure her friend.

Dash was shaking where he stood as each time Kairi shouted, a green light would appear but Juvia did not look any better. He suddenly stopped shaking as a great idea came to mind, "Kairi! What about that magic Sora used on the ship? Esuna right?"

Kairi's expression fell and she whispered, "I don't know that magic." She looked down at her friend, "I'm sorry Juvia."

Juvia started speaking quietly, her voice only heard by the few right around her. The poison was working through her body fast, and she remembered what that scary man who cut her said before. "Juvia is sorry everyone. Gray-sama," she whispered, looking straight at him, "I love you."

"Juvia," Gray said firmly, interlocking his fingers with hers as the girl stared back into his eyes. "I won't let you-" Her hands suddenly stopped holding his back and his mouth froze open midway. "Juvia?" he whispered. His eyes opened wide and his mind blanked. His plate-sized eyes started to tear up and he clenched them shut. "I love you too," he whispered, tears coming out from between his eyelids and sliding down his cheeks.

"Come on, you six with me," Kirito yelled at the half dozen people in front of him. "I bet the assassins have an antidote on them. If we can catch up-"

"NO!" Natsu roared, turning around and bursting into flames. Kirito looked over and saw the pink haired mage storming across the ground and illuminating half the field they were on with the huge flames coming off his body.

A few of the people Kirito just explained the situation to lost their determined looks. They looked down and away with pitying looks on their faces. Kirito spun back to them though and he yelled, "Let's go." The rest of them looked at him confusedly and he continued, "We are not letting those bastards get away." He turned and jumped off the ground, before flying away in the direction the League of Assassins went.

Superboy looked over towards the collapsed woman with dark blue hair and the others around her. His fists clenched and he turned the direction Kirito went, "He's right." The muscular Kryptonian pushed his feet down hard and then jumped off the ground after Kirito.

Gray lifted up off his knees. He still had streams of water coming out of his eyes, but he focused those eyes out into the distance to the east. "I, am going, to MURDER YOU!" The temperature around him dropped fifty degrees and his friends shivered and saw their breath turn to fog in front of their faces. Gray sprinted across the field faster than they had ever see him run, and Natsu was right with him charging after Kirito and Superboy.

Dash looked in the direction everyone started running. He felt obligated to charge after them all himself, but the kid had no urge to. All he felt at the moment was sadness. He took a step after them, then felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around to see Kairi standing right behind him. The girl looked down into Dash's eyes, then reached down with both arms and pulled him in for a hug.

Ben stood still while his friends ran off. He heard muffled sobs on his right but didn't turn to see Dash with his face buried in Kairi's stomach. All he did was stare at Juvia's body, lying on her back facing the sky. Her face was covered in blood but she did have a small smile on her face despite the tears. "It's my fault," Ben whispered. Kairi and Dash looked in a little to see Ben standing there over Juvia's body. "I thought I could save everyone. I didn't, want to kill-"

"Ben, what you did was right," Kairi started telling the boy.

"Was it?" He whispered, not looking away from the body on the ground in front of him. "How could it have been? Juvia's dead."

"It's on me too," Dash told his friend, trying to share his friend's guilt.

Ben shook his head. "I said I would save Gray and Juvia, and told you to get the others. You saved all three of them, but I, I couldn't do it. I wasn't fast enough." Dash opened his mouth to retort but Ben continued first, "I let her down. I-I let her die again." He lifted up his hands and put them into his brown hair, raking them over his scalp over and over. "Damn it," he cried out, his voice cracking as he did. "Damn it!"

Kairi and Dash lowered their gazes back down to the floor. They thought about how Ben told them about their deaths, how none of them took it too seriously. Thinking about it now though, this was two times in a matter of a few weeks that Ben had to witness his friend die in front of him.

 _I should have stopped him. I should have told Dash to get Juvia. The leader had her hostage and I didn't even take into account that he might be faster than the rest of them. Why didn't I suggest guard shifts?! Kirito didn't trust the other group and I shouldn't have either. I, I messed up..._ Ben suddenly felt a warmth in his right pocket and his eyes opened back up wide. He could feel it pressing against his leg and slowly he reached his hand down and placed it in his pocket next to what was making him feel this way. _There's still a way... but I promised myself I wouldn't use it if someone died. I wanted to save it for the end of the world, or, or Gwen. But that's unfair! Why should Juvia stay dead if I was going to bring back my cousin?! I'm being selfish!_ His ground his teeth in anger and continued staring down at Juvia's lifeless body.

 _But if I do go back,_ he thought his mind suddenly flashing to show him the terrifying green monster that showed up after his fight with Nox. _The King will show up and kill me. Or, maybe he'll just take the Eliacube..._

* * *

The first sun started rising in the east and the sky was already lighting up. In a circle not far from the main group of Resistance fighters gathering their things to get ready to leave, six young people stood with dejected looks on their faces. A capsulizeable coffin-tube with a glass cover was in front of them occupied by one Juvia Lockser.

None of them were speaking. They all just stared at the body in front of them. "Gray," Ben spoke up, making everyone look up from the body in front of them at the thirteen year old who spoke up. Ben stared into Gray's eyes as the older man looked his way. "I," he started, then froze with his mouth open. His head bowed, _I'm sorry Gray. I don't even know if the Eliacube still works, Nox said he needed a lot of energy to get him back in time. Even if I did know, I just can't risk our only chance at a redo button._ "I-I'm sorry. I should have just killed that leader like they asked."

"It's not your fault Ben," Gray muttered in a low voice. "You didn't kill her, Ra's did."

"That bastard is going to pay," Natsu snarled, looking back down at the body of one of his closest friends.

Gray nodded his head, then stated in a loud voice, "I've changed my mind." The other five looked up at him. "We won't be going south anymore." A few of them lifted up their eyebrows in surprise, while Natsu just growled in agreement. Gray continued, "The city these fighters are going to is the same one Ra's wanted Ben and Dash to kill the Resistance leader at. We're going to go to this city, help them defeat their enemies, and hunt down the League before they kill anyone else."

"Sounds like a plan," Kirito said darkly, finding it hard to wait to hunt down Juvia's killers any longer. Natsu clenched his fists tight and Dash nodded his head with a serious look in his eyes. Ben just stood there staring at Juvia's body, showing no sign that he heard what Gray said.

Gray leaned down and pressed a button on the side of the yellow coffin Juvia was lying in. The coffin shrank down into a small capsule that Gray could hold in his hand and he slid it down into his pocket. The ice wizard stood back up straight and closed his eyes, _I'll find a way Juvia. I swear, I'm going to bring you back._

The Fairy Tail wizards' depressed expressions, Kirito's enraged one, and the sad looks on Dash and Ben's faces were a huge turn around from the day before. The one remaining female member of the group was staring sadly down at the ground, but she rose her arms and wiped below her eyes and down her wet cheeks. When she lifted back up her head she had a small smile on her face.

Kairi looked around at all her friends and she clapped her hands together in front of her. They all turned and widened their eyes in surprise at the curved up corners of Kairi's lips. "Well we've got a new destination, let's try to make the best of-"

"Why are you smiling?" Gray asked. His voice was very low-pitched and he glared at Kairi harshly. The others would say something about how mean he looked at the moment, if they weren't all so confused as to why Kairi would be smiling at such a depressing moment.

Each of Kairi's friends looked at her and she saw none of them had even the faintest trace of a smile on their faces. She closed her eyes for a moment with that small smile still on her face. The teenage girl opened them back up and stared into Gray's eyes, "When I was a girl, my grandma used to tell me a story. She told me it over and over, it was a story that I loved, and one of the only things I remember from my childhood."

"What are you getting at?" Gray snapped.

"I don't think a children's story is really appropriate right now," Kirito muttered in a low voice. He thought about the type of place he was in back when Asuna died in front of him, and he doubted he would be very happy if someone started telling him a kid's story. He glanced at Gray and saw the older guy was in the same emotional state he was in then.

"Trust me, it is," Kairi said. She looked to her left at Dash, then to Ben, Gray, Kirito, and Natsu. She saw that no one was going to interrupt her and she took a deep breath in. The red head started, "Long ago, people lived in peace, bathed in the warmth of light. Everyone loved the light. But then, people began to fight over it."

Dash looked next to him at Ben and the other boy looked right back, both with totally confused looks on their faces. They turned again to Kairi and kept listening as she continued, "They wanted to keep it for themselves. And darkness was born in their hearts. The darkness spread, swallowing the light and many people's hearts. It covered everything, and the world disappeared. But small fragments of light survived..." She looked at the two youngest boys and finished, "in the hearts of children."

"I still don't understand why-" Kirito started, but he noticed each of the others around him all staring at Kairi closely. _How is this going to help?_ He thought in annoyance.

Kairi looked at Kirito and gave him a smile. "Just listen," she said. The girl took another deep breath and continued her story, "With these fragments of light, children rebuilt the lost world. It's the world we live in now. But the true light sleeps deep within the darkness. That's why the worlds are still scattered, divided from each other."

Her words sent shivers down Ben's spine and he thought about some of the things Riku told him about other worlds. _Doesn't seem the worlds are scattered anymore._ Kirito thought about Sora's stories that he told him back on the Thousand Sunny, and he too started to take Kairi's story with a little more than a grain of salt. Kairi saw some of them looking at her more thoughtfully and she continued, "But someday, a door to the innermost darkness will open. And the true light will return. So listen," she looked back at Gray and recited softly, "Even in the deepest darkness, there will always be a light to guide you."

Her friends all lifted up their heads a little. "Believe in the light, and the darkness will never defeat you. Your heart will shine with its power and push the darkness away." Kairi fell silent for a few seconds and then said, "I know things seem pretty dark right now, but we will get through this. I don't think Juvia would want us to be sad on our adventure. We need to keep believing in the light." She smiled wider than before and looked at her friends expectantly.

 _Smile?_ Gray thought as he saw what Kairi was waiting for. _She wants me to smile? Juvia's body is not even cold... No, I'm not going to let her stay dead. I'll- I'll bring her back, and take down the League of Assassins while I'm at it! Then, I'm going to find every one of my friends, and if they need saving, I'll do that too._

"Alright." Every one of the guys spun to the source of the voice and stared in shock at the black haired man in the middle of them. Gray closed his eyes for a few seconds, then took a deep breath and opened them back up. "I could be all depressed and pissed off for a while," he began, then reached down and grabbed the hem of his shirt. The ice mage lifted his hands up and threw his shirt to the side, his signature strip. "But Kairi's right, Juvia hated it when we were sad." _And when she comes back, I don't want her to think she made us depressed._ At that thought, the muscular young man managed to lift up the corners of his lips a little, and Natsu dropped his jaw at his close friend's attitude.

 _Something isn't right here. What is he thinking?_ Natsu's eyes narrowed at his comrade.

"You know Kairi," Dash started, looking at the beautiful girl in front of him. She looked down at the short blond boy who chuckled under his breath and looked up at her with a sad smile. "You sounded a lot like Sora there for a second."

"Hehe, he tends to rub off on you," she told the little boy. Kairi looked down at the ring on her hand and smiled a little more, though in truth it hurt thinking about Sora now. _I'll have to tell him about Juvia. I know he'll beat himself up over not being here._ She sighed out loud a little, but shook her head and tried to keep a small smile on her face.

"Hey kids," a voice called over to the young adults and kids in a little circle. They turned and saw a woman in shiny black leather clothes looking their way. Black Canary stood in front of the giant Scarab Tank while it rose up behind her. "We're leaving."

The fighters from Awul nodded their heads. They had planned to tell their new friends they would be leaving this morning to head their separate ways, but they had a new goal. Ben looked off to the east where the first sun was rising and the second one was visible on the horizon. _Ra's al Ghul. You wanted us to take down the leader of the Resistance in this region, but by killing our friend you have done the exact opposite. We are going to help them, we are going to find you, and we are going to destroy you._

* * *

 **A/N ;( Sad times. This chapter might seem like it's now at it's darkest... yeah, we'll see about that... Anyway, I hope you enjoyed/cried-over the chapter, and wonder what's going to happen in the upcoming ones. Ra's al Ghul appears with the League of Assassins behind him, including many Death Eaters from the Harry Potter franchise. They could not get the speedsters to do their dirty work for them, but they followed through on one of their threats, as Juvia falls to Ra's' blade. Let me know what you think in a review...**

joebob323 chapter 50 . 18h ago

Eaayyyy! It's Grif! I loved that guy, it is a shame the rest of the Spartans aren't here... and where is Master Chief? Will he show up in later chapters? League of assassins, huh. Is that in any way related to Mortal Combat or Assassin's Creed? or maybe League of Legends...

 **Glad you recognized Red vs Blue, as that's one of my favorite shows. Who knows about Master Chief... I do, and he will XD! As for the League, this is the League of Assassins from DC Comics, mainly as they're portrayed in the tv show Arrow. Thanks for the review!**

 **-Well, for the first time since Heroes Will Rise began, one of the main characters we started with loses her life. Thanks everyone for reading, leave a review, and as always, 'till next time.**


	52. Nexus HWR 9-4 Storm Clouds

**Nexus HWR 9.4 Storm Clouds:**

Trekking over the dangerous terrain of Aebrith was a huge Scarab tank tailed by six smaller speeders and tanks rolling behind it. The sky opened up earlier that day releasing a monster of a storm down on the convoy. The Scarab lifted up its legs one at a time but each stride was longer than the other vehicles could reach in the same amount of time, so it was not moving at its top speed.

Standing on the front slant of the Scarab were Blue Beetle, Superboy, and Grif. The three were on guard duty and Grif looked to his right at the other two. "Ever wonder why we're here?"

"Why are we here?" Superboy started off stoically. "Is this all part of a bigger plan? What do the Gods ruling over this world want? Why did they entrap us here?"

"..." Grif stared at the muscular teen next to him blankly through his orange helmet's visor. "I meant on top of the Scarab," he said slowly, and Blue Beetle started cracking up. "It's raining and we could be keeping guard just as well from the nice warm cockpit."

Superboy stayed quiet for a few seconds. Grif spoke back up, "I mean, we could talk about Gods and stuff if you want-"

"Shut up Grif," Conner Kent muttered angrily. The more muscular figure tried hiding his embarrassment and continued, "As to why we're out here, we don't want another mistake like the other night."

"Yeah, that's on us. We said we'd have guards," Blue Beetle added.

"We did have guards," Grif said. "We just, didn't see anything." The other two glared at the only one of them who actually was on guard duty that night. Grif pointed his fingers at them, "It was the League of Assassins for crying out loud. If they don't want to be seen, they're not going to be seen. Especially not by me," he added, making sure they knew he was not pretending to be some sort of super soldier.

The two heroes grunted or sighed and looked back in front of the tank to keep watch. "Either way," Superboy stated, "we should be grateful they decided to stay with us."

"Yeah," Grif agreed. "I wouldn't want to mess with these guys. Hope our enemies feel the same way." The three of them nodded and fell silent, stuck standing guard in the torrential downpour around them.

The inside of the Scarab was even less chatty than outside. Everyone seemed to be in a bad mood, and it wasn't because of the rain. Well, it wasn't _just_ because of the rain. "It just keeps on coming down," Natsu growled. The pink haired Mage leaned against a glass window on the side of the purple vehicle's main area. "Seems ironic," he mumbled to himself.

 _Juvia's gone and the first thing that happens is it starts to rain. Almost feels like she's still here,_ Natsu clenched his fists at his sides. He slammed a fist into the wall next to him. _Why were we so useless? Why was I unable to do anything?!_ "Damn it," he growled under his breath.

Natsu glanced back over his shoulder regretfully. _Even worse, I put the burden on Ben._ The younger boy was sitting down across the room from Natsu with his head leaning back on the wall behind him. Ben was easily taking it the hardest out of any of them, and most of the group thought they knew why. He and Dash raced in trying to save their friends, and while Dash saved three of them, Ben could only save one of the two he tried to protect. He just, wasn't fast enough.

At least, everyone thought that was the reason Ben was so depressed. None of them knew the real reason. _Even now, I could still save her._ His right hand rubbed over the cube in his pocket. The Eliacube flooded him with warmth but it didn't make him feel any better. He took his hands out of his pockets and put them behind his head instead. Since he was leaning against the cold steel wall of the inside of the Scarab, his head was uncomfortable so he decided to use his hands as pillows. The kid was trying to sleep, but every time he closed his eyes he saw Juvia dying, again.

 _I failed. I wanted to keep everyone from dying this time. I messed up._ Ben closed his eyes again and clenched them shut tightly. _No one else,_ he thought. _This time for sure. I won't let anyone else die! ... Though I said that last time too..._ Ben moaned and shook his head around, trying to clear his negative thoughts.

The speakers crackled above them and most people in the cabin looked up. "Hey guys, we're almost there. Pon-Gatso is just up ahead." Black Canary's voice faded but the speakers did not shut off, and she spoke up again in a lower tone after a few seconds, "I just received word that Terra Base was destroyed."

The inside of the Scarab filled with murmurs and worried whispers. Natsu turned to a shaking man on his left side and muttered, "What's Terra Base?"

The man in a red sweatshirt pulled his red baseball cap down over his eyes more. "It's the base we just came from."

Another man on the red-clothed guy's other side as Natsu leaned forward and put his head in his hands. This man was wearing a blue sweatshirt and a blue beanie and he bore some resemblance to the first man who spoke. "Our brother was back there," he murmured. "Wonder if he got out."

He sounded pessimistic and Natsu could see tears coming down the cheeks of the other guy in red who pulled his hat down to shadow his eyes. Natsu leaned back in his seat and frowned deeply, understanding why Gray was so pessimistic now. _People are just dying left and right around here. They're not even surprised anymore._

"What happened?!" Someone shouted, tilting their head towards the hall to the cockpit.

No reply for a few moments. The tank kept bumping and vibrating as the Scarab charged across the landscape. Finally Canary's voice spoke up over the speaker's again, "The Emperor made his move. We may not be here to reinforce anymore."

With that she became silent. Natsu noticed a few grim looks after that though some people looked relieved. "What does she mean?" Natsu asked the guy in blue who was still leaning forward.

"If the base on our Southwest is gone, we're pretty much completely surrounded," the man in the blue beanie mumbled. "We're probably going to be evacuating this Sector completely."

"You're giving up?" Natsu asked.

"If we wait any longer, they might cut off our southern escape," the skinny guy wearing red muttered. "Then we'll be trapped, captured, and sold as slaves." Both of the Amori brothers looked devastated but almost like they were too tired to mourn.

"If I had stayed behind at Terra Base, it would not have fallen," a voice said on Natsu's right side. He and the other two on his left looked over at a man standing there in a yellow costume with a red stripe down the middle and a red cape on his back.

"It's not your fault Captain Hindsight," an Asian man holding a sniper rifle on the hero's other side as Natsu stated, trying to hold back a groan. "You don't even know how many Sith attacked-"

"If we had prepared ourselves for a defensive sooner, the others at Terra Base would still be alive." Captain Hindsight started walking away, apparently undisturbed by the shaking of the ship. "If only the walls were thicker..." His voice got quieter as he walked away and the others around Natsu sighed in annoyance.

"Does that guy ever shut up?" Natsu grumbled.

"He's a bastard," the man in red on his left stated harshly. "With the stupidest power, hindsight. He just goes on and on about what we could have done better, never using his super strength, or speed, or flight to actually help us fight."

"Is he stupid?" Natsu asked with a bead of sweat rolling down his face.

"No," the Korean guy with the sniper said, his voice actually sounding full of pity now. "I think it haunts him that he has perfect hindsight, because he knows exactly what he could have done to save the people he doesn't."

"But why doesn't he?" Natsu asked.

"Just stop with the questions already," the Amori brother in red snapped. "I'm trying to get some rest here."

Natsu growled and spun to the man next to him, but seeing his tear-streaked face the Dragon Slayer stopped himself from yelling. He grumbled to himself for a few seconds and just got up on his feet. He walked away from the aggravating soldiers and over to a different section of the main area. A guy whose hair was in the shape of the number three took his seat as soon as he got up as there were not enough for everyone.

Natsu considered walking over to Ben, but the boy with his head leant back on his hands actually seemed like he might be sleeping. Natsu wondered if he had been getting much sleep the previous nights, he knew he wasn't. He looked around the cramped cabin some more for a different place to sit. Gray was up in the cockpit with Black Canary so no luck there. Kirito was standing in between two much larger guys, with no space next to him for Natsu to stand. Dash was sitting on the floor not far from Ben, looking bored now that his friend was asleep. Natsu thought about going over and talking to him, but thought better of it. He liked Dash, but the boy was still twelve years old and acted pretty childish most of the time. Around all these people he just met he didn't want to be seen spending his time playing with a little kid, _No offense Dash,_ he thought with a shrug.

So Natsu turned the other way and looked back at Kairi who saw him turn her way and smiled back at him. He walked over, stepping around people who were sitting on the floor. "Hey Natsu," she said as he fell back and leaned against the wall next to her. "Are you excited for Pon-Gatso?"

He looked at her in surprise. He thought about Juvia for a second, then about what Kairi said after she was gone. _She just does not get brought down by anything._ "Not really," he replied, putting his hands behind his head and yawning. "Sounds like we're not going to be there long."

"Huh, why's that?" Kairi asked.

Natsu chuckled as he pretended like he figured it out on his own and repeated what the other soldiers said to him a minute ago. "You think they're going to retreat?" Kairi asked in surprise. "So you're going to run away?" She asked him, lifting her eyebrows.

The mage turned to her in surprise for a second. "Wha-what?" He asked, confused by the question.

"You're running away?" She questioned again. "Because the escape routes might be gone soon?" She added seeing if that was the reason why he was leaving.

"I'm not, they are," he snapped.

"Ohh?" Kairi asked, smiling at him playfully. "Then why did you say ' _we'_ aren't going to be there for long?"

"What- I-" he saw Kairi trying to hold back giggles and he snapped, "This isn't funny."

"Sorry," she said with a smile that showed she wasn't. "I say we shouldn't run though." Natsu opened his eyes wide at her and she looked over towards a bulletproof glass window on the left side of the tank closest to them. Kairi continued, "I know Sora and Riku would stand and fight. So we should too."

Kairi held up a fist in front of her and smiled at it. _I've always been behind you guys. This time I'm going to be fighting on my own. I can do it though, because the Keyblade chose me too!_ A bright light shimmered in her hand and she smiled at the sight of her pink Keyblade appearing. The hilt was curved like a circle around her hand with a single shaft in the center that connected with the long silver shaft going to the end of the weapon. The end of her Keyblade had two five-inch prongs spread about a foot apart and one two-inch prong in between them.

A woman sitting not far from them looked over and up in surprise. "What is that?" She asked. They looked at her and saw she was quite the beautiful woman, with a busty chest, long smooth blonde hair, she looked like she could be a model if it weren't for the twin scars going diagonally over her entire face making an X that crossed right over her nose. She was wearing a black bandanna around the top of her head, a black sash around her chest so that the skin over her entire stomach and arms was showing, and a pair of tight jeans.

"It's a Keyblade," Kairi said to the girl who looked around her age.

"What's it made out of?" the blonde girl asked, actually getting up to her feet to get a better look at it.

"Made of?" Kairi repeated and blinked a few times. She looked down at the weapon in her hand, and she shrugged, "I don't know."

"It looks pretty amazing," the other teenage girl stated. "May I have a look?"

Kairi giggled and said, "You can try."

The other woman was confused at why Kairi thought that was funny, and Natsu started smirking as well which only made it more confusing. Kairi turned her blade and grabbed the shaft so she could hand the other girl the hilt.

The girl with crossing scars over her face reached out and grabbed the pink weapon carefully. She looked at the circular pink hilt and admired the light red floral patterns that waved around it. As Kairi let go of the shaft however, the girl now holding the hilt jumped in surprise as the part in her hand vanished into thin air. It reappeared back in Kairi's right hand and she swung it back and forth before putting it up to rest on her shoulder, "Sorry," Kairi started, "the Keyblade chooses who gets to hold it."

"Huh," the other girl said, frowning as that did not seem very fair. "Where have I heard the name Keyblade before?" She mumbled under her breath.

"Yo," Natsu started, interrupting the blonde girl's train of thought. "You ever been to this Pon-Gatso?" He only thought about it recently, but he had no idea what type of place they were even going to.

"Once, about a year ago," the younger girl stated. She didn't elaborate any further and instead looked back at Kairi with a sudden excited look. "Wait! I have heard of the Keyblade before. Ed and I ran into this guy once..."

"What did he look like? Did you catch his name?" Kairi asked, getting really excited as well.

"Yeah," the other girl said, looking a little taken aback by Kairi's sudden interest. "We never got his name, but he wasn't someone we could forget about. I mean, there aren't very many mouse-men running about."

"The King!" Kairi exclaimed.

A dozen people looked over at her with nervous or scared looks, and Kairi said softly, "Sorry, not _that_ King." She giggled to herself and then put her hands together in front of her waist and swung back and forth on the balls of her feet. "This is great. I can't wait to tell Riku, he's really close with King Mickey."

"Mickey huh?" the girl who said she met him muttered. "Mickey the mouse," she chuckled and shook her head. The teenage girl with long blonde hair held her right hand forward that had been at her side the whole time she talked, "Anyway, it was nice to meet you..."

"Kairi," the auburn haired girl replied, letting her Keyblade vanish and reaching forwards to shake the other girl's hand.

"Nice to meet you Kairi, I'm Winry, Winry Rockbell."

Kairi shook her hand, and her gaze snapped down to the girl's hand she was shaking. "Your hand is so cold," she said in surprise.

Winry chuckled darkly and she reached her left hand over towards her right elbow. She grabbed up near the top of her forearm, right in her own skin, and then started peeling forward like it was elastic. Natsu and Kairi both leaned back in surprise as underneath the skin Winry pulled back there were a bunch of steel bars and wires inside. "It's automail," she stated and after giving them a good look she slid her skin-sleeve back up to her elbow. "I made it myself."

"Really?" Natsu asked, surprised she could do that, especially if she only had one arm.

"Yep," the scar-faced girl replied, a smug expression on her face since he sounded impressed when he asked. "I'm the best automail mechanic this side of the Cataclysm." She pointed a thumb at herself using the right arm that looked so real it might as well be.

"Cool," Kairi said with a bright smile.

 _Wow, these new guys are so much more laid back than the rest of these people._ "Actually," Winry began, "I got sent to Pon-Gatso because I'm an automail mechanic. Seems the war with the Fire Nation's really got our guys and gals in a bind. They called me up from down south, but I stopped at Terra Base first to help out a few emergency patients over there." Her expression turned grim by the end of her statement. _And how many of the patients I worked with were still at Terra Base when it got destroyed?_

"So when people lose limbs, you give them new ones?" Kairi asked. Winry nodded and Kairi clapped her hands in front of her body, "That's amazing. I wish someone knew how to do that back in New Tokyo. There were so many crippled people after the Underworld attacked," Kairi shook her head as she thought about it.

"They don't have automail mechanics where you're from?" Winry asked in surprise. "This Awul place sounds dull," she said.

Natsu opened his mouth to argue, but Kairi just nodded with a small giggle. "Sure was," she said. Natsu gawked at the back of the redhead's head, and Kairi looked back at him with a small grin. He suddenly realized that Kairi didn't actually think so, she just did not want to get into any fights or arguments with her new friend. Kairi saw Natsu could tell what she was thinking and she turned back to Winry, "So, how far south were you before you came up here?"

"How far?" Winry asked, and she started scratching her chin. "I'd say... at least two thousand miles south. A few thousand east too. We're still on the far western side of Aebrith."

"How big is this place?" Natsu muttered to himself, as they had been traveling east for weeks now since they got off the Thousand Sunny in Dressrosa.

"Hey Winry," a voice called out, only the voice was coming from above and not from around them. They looked up at the ceiling where a speaker just turned on and called out the girl they were talking to's name. Black Canary continued, "Come up here, something's up with the Scarab's engine."

"Grrr," Winry growled as the speakers turned back off. "How many times do I have to tell them? I'm not a mechanic, I'm an automail mechanic. There's a difference!" She started walking off for the hall up to the cockpit, but she smirked over her shoulder back at the man standing behind Kairi, "Pon-Gatso's a nice city. I'm sure you'll like it."

Now it was Natsu's turn to growl as the blonde girl knew he wanted to know more about the city the entire time she was talking to Kairi. Kairi giggled at his frustrated reaction, and she tugged on his right arm a little. He turned to her and softened his gaze at her bright smile, "Why don't we go have a look for ourselves?" She asked.

He tilted his head to the side in confusion, but Kairi just started walking towards the wall on their left. Without breaking stride she tapped on a panel next to the wall and the purple door slid open. A huge gust of wind slammed in and rain moving almost horizontally because of how fast they were moving pelted her.

"Where are you going?" someone shouted at her, annoying a lot of people who lifted up their tired heads and then looked over in surprise at the open door that was making a loud buffeting noise as the wind pushed in.

"Just heading up for a little," Kairi yelled back at them over the wind. She lifted up one arm to put in front of her face, and then walked outside and started pushing forward to move up to the front of the tank.

 _She's going to fly right off!_ Natsu thought as he saw her feet sliding backwards on the purple steel. He jogged forward right as the door was closing behind Kairi, and he slid in between the closing doors. Instantly it became ten degrees colder which was pretty chilly considering the inside was already cold from when Kairi opened the door. He shivered and lifted up an arm to hold in front of his face, blocking out the pelting rain.

Kairi marched up the slanting side of the Scarab while people looked out the tinted windows on their side of the tank and watched her move. She slipped on the metal and a dozen people gasped, but another person walked up into the sight of the window and put an arm around her back, steadying her. The people who gasped sighed in relief and the others who were woken up decided to head back to sleep.

The two young people with different shades of red hair continued making their way up towards the top of the Scarab. The slanted pathway on the side of the tank led them right up on top of the front section of the Scarab, though still below the tall head sticking up above the cockpit. "Hello!" Kairi called out at the three men standing on top of the very front section.

Blue Beetle, Grif, and Superboy spun around to see two others standing up on the roof with them. Grif looked down at their feet and called out, "Where are your magnetic boots?!"

The wind picked up and Kairi and Natsu slid back a few feet, but they noticed that Grif was standing in the exact same place. The other two heroes with him were not moving either, though Superboy was doing it on his own strength, while Blue Beetle's blue-casing of armor kept him firmly planted to the ground with similar tech that was in Grif's boots.

"You guys should head back inside," Blue Beetle shouted at them. "It's not safe up here. We're moving way too fast and the wind shields can't even keep up."

Natsu just remembered how fast this Scarab could move and he turned his head left to look off the side of the vehicle. He almost lost his footing from the shock of watching the landscape around them literally blurring by him. "Whoa," he whispered, though no one heard him considering the pelting rain and buffeting wind.

"Sorry, we just wanted to see Pon-Gatso!" Kairi called out while cupping her mouth at the three guards. "Black Canary said it's coming up soon!"

"Yeah, it's already in sight," Conner Kent stated, his voice carrying to the other two as he was facing away from the wind.

"Really?!" Kairi and Natsu exclaimed at the same time. Natsu turned to the girl in surprise, but she started laughing at the fact that they shouted simultaneously. Despite the wind pushing her back, Kairi marched forward until she was right up in between Grif and the beetle guy. "Wow," she gasped. Staring straight ahead was the only way for everything not to be blurry, and the wind shields Blue Beetle mentioned seemed to work the most right where the guards were standing, which was probably why they were standing there. She was able to drop her arms and stare ahead without worrying about the wind, though some rain still hit her in the face, however softer than before with the decreased wind.

Natsu struggled his way forward as well and he lowered his arms feeling less resistance as he got up between Grif and Superboy. "So that's actually Pon-Gotso?" Grif said while looking to his right at Blue Beetle. "Really thought you were joking about that."

"What?!" Natsu exclaimed. "I thought- that girl Winry said it was a city!"

"It is," Superboy stated. "The city is inside, and on top, of Pon-Gotso. The tallest, widest tree in the world some say."

From their distance, the tree already looked massive, and they could not even see the bottom yet. The large purple head to the Scarab tank lit up green once, and Kairi and Natsu turned to look up at it. The glowing head piece blinked twice more, then paused a few seconds, before holding out a green light for five seconds then letting it drop out again.

"We need to use codes in case one of our ships gets taken by the enemy," Superboy stated out loud as he figured maybe the two newbies would be confused as to what that was for. The young man with broad shoulders wearing a tight black shirt looked like he was in a bad mood, and for good reason. He looked down at the symbol on the front of his chest, _Superman. How could you die? How could you die on a world like this without even knowing what the biggest threat was?_

The Scarab started to slow when they were still miles out from the tree. Miles out still meant that the group could not see the top of the tree however. It also meant that most of what they could see in front of them was tree trunk. The tree's base itself was the widest section of it, with huge roots that were not fully in the ground breaking off from the bottom of the trunk and imbedding into the ground all over. Two roots broke off in their direction but the Scarab was heading straight between them, and the tank kept running past and then underneath the huge roots.

Natsu stared up in awe just like Kairi and even Grif who had never been there before. He looked a little to the left of the root they were currently going under, and he saw past it up about a half mile of the trunk until he saw something strange. The usually light brown wood was black in that section, and the closer the Dragon Slayer looked around that side of the tree pointed north, the more damaged he noticed it was. One of the giant roots sticking off in that direction was cut off, leaving a huge open chunk that must have been somewhat new because the bottom part of the root no longer attached to the tree was not even that rotten yet. The green grass they had been traveling over for some time now also changed drastically on the north side of the tree, becoming more of a desolate wasteland in that direction. The ground was gray and lifeless for miles until Natsu could see no farther because of the rain.

The tank was really slowing down now, and others started coming up to the top section of the Scarab. Ben awoke from a quick nap to Dash shaking his shoulders and telling him to 'come on.' He walked outside with the younger boy and realized it was dark, and it had stopped raining. When he looked up to see where the storm clouds went though, he became confused as it was not the sky he saw above him, but a roof. The kid looked left to see what was going on, but when he looked behind him he only became more confused to see what looked like thick strands of ceiling dropping down and shoving into the floor. There was a line of vehicles behind their Scarab going all the way out past the edge of the roof where it split off and dropped down to the grass. A few seconds later though, they were all out of the rain and Ben turned the other way to see where they were heading.

Ben and Dash started walking to the top of the ship where a lot of others were already gathered. The Korean man with a sniper over his back was talking and many people were listening to him, including Kairi and Natsu. The man's name turned out to be Jin, and he was explaining about the city of Pon-Gatso which he was in fact a resident of. As soon as they got close enough to hear him both boy's went wide-eyed as they discovered where they were. "...but most of the tree is not hollowed out. The builders made sure not to kill Pon so that the tree would continue to bear fruit. The tree is so tall though, that even though each floor can only be a hundred feet in diameter, there are literally thousands of floors. Those floors extend below the tree as well, into the deep basements and mines where robots continue to gather steel for weapons, armor, and vehicles."

At this point, Jin was mainly talking to Natsu who was standing right in front of him and nodding every time he finished a sentence. The Fire Dragon Slayer thought this tree was awesome, and as Jin went on, he turned ahead and stared off at a steel gate they were approaching that was opening up for them. He heard Jin continue, "There are airbases in the canopy, and on many of the wider branches. Most higher floors have an emergency exit which will normally lead out to a branch. The lower branches also contain many houses and small villages."

"There are separate villages inside the tree?" Ben asked in surprise.

Natsu turned to see the boy had woken up, and looked to be distracted by all this enough to have temporarily forgotten his problems. Jin looked down at Ben too and he nodded his head. "There are many types of people, and other creatures, who live in Pon-Gatso. Those from different worlds sometimes have different cultures that do not blend nicely. We work together for the most part, but there are problems."

"How many people live here?" Dash questioned.

Jin looked at the other boy now and he started frowning. Dash thought he said something wrong, but Jin turned away and looked at the open gate they were approaching fast. "At the city's peak, twenty million."

"Twenty million people in one tree?" Grif repeated sarcastically. "I'm sure living conditions must have been great."

"Pon is bigger than you give it credit for," Superboy stated right as the Scarab was entering through the open gateway. "Miles up until you reach the very top of the canopy, and over a mile down before you reach the bottom of the roots. It seems they could not burrow any farther as the ground that deep in Nexus is much too hard. Our toughest drills break at two miles."

"Two miles down?" Dash whispered in shock. He looked down at the top of the Scarab and could only imagine how far down that was. He heard a few gasps on his sides and looked back up, only to gasp himself. They were inside an enormous hangar with a curvy, natural roof, and a half mile in front of them was a giant wooden wall that he realized was the start of the solid trunk. There were doors in the base of the wall, opening and closing as people walked through them. The entire hangar was filled with artificial lights so the room was fully illuminated, revealing the lines upon lines of vehicles. There were so many of them, and they were all under repair.

"What happened?" Natsu muttered. He looked off to the right where another Scarab like theirs was missing its back two legs and half of the head section. It had one leg up and the other front leg bent back, and it looked like it was going to be a big project to fix, however only one person was standing on a ladder next to the bent back leg, holding a blowtorch up to it. Natsu looked around some more and saw there were more broken vehicles currently without anyone working on them than there were ones being worked on.

"This isn't right," a woman's voice said behind them. The others looked back and saw Black Canary standing a little higher up on the front of the Scarab, allowing her to see above the rest of their heads. "Where is everyone?"

"Did you see the north?" Superboy asked. Dinah shook her head and he continued, "The plains were Scorched."

"Scorched?" Natsu whispered to Gray who walked over on his left side. It didn't sound like such a strange word to him, but a few people gasped as Conner said it.

"Devoid of resources. Dead. A new wasteland," Gray muttered. He looked at Natsu and continued in a low tone, "This tree has some tough defenses, but if our resources get depleted, we can't do anything. I'm guessing the Fire Nation is trying to burn us out, not very surprising."

"At least the tree itself produces food, right?" Ben asked, having listened to the two of them's conversation. "So, even if-"

"There's not enough," Gray said with a shake of his head. "Millions of people can't survive on the resources of one tree, even a tree this big."

The Scarab came to a complete stop and the vehicles behind it finished entering the gate. The giant steel doors started to close again while the Scarab's four legs started bending beneath the vehicle to lower the top section to the ground. Black Canary had a bad feeling about this, but she called out, "Gather up your things, we're heading inside."

"Where?" Grif asked, turning and staring at the woman in black skeptically. "If you haven't noticed, we're already inside."

"To the top," Dinah explained. "We're here to reinforce the General's troops. He's in command here."

"I'm going to head to the hospital floor," Winry stated out of nowhere. Black Canary turned to the younger blonde woman in surprise, but Winry was already walking towards the back of the tank. "I know what I'm here for, I don't need new orders."

"Hehe," Kairi giggled, then turned and chased after her new friend. "Hold on Winry," she called out, and the other teenage girl was surprised to see Kairi stopping at her side and starting to walk at her pace. "Let's go together, I can heal people too. So even if I can't give them new limbs, I bet there are some people who could use my help."

"Oh, okay," Winry said, looking surprised for a second. They kept walking and she looked strangely at the girl next to her, "How do you heal them? Are you a doctor or-"

"Magic," Kairi replied.

"Ohh," Winry replied, smiling with a bead of sweat on the side of her face. "Of course," she added and laughed a few times. The two eighteen year old girls continued talking to each other and walked off the back of the Scarab.

"Hey Dash," Ben whispered down to his friend. Dash looked right and up a little at Ben who smirked at him. "Wanna go explore?"

Dash's eyes went wide, then he grinned and nodded quickly back at him. Ben grabbed his friend's arm and held him back while everyone else started walking for the back of the Scarab that was tilted down the most. The back wall of the main section of the tank was opening down into a ramp for the group to walk down, but Ben and Dash did not follow.

Kirito was looking around from the top section for a few more seconds before following after everyone else. As he turned to follow though, he saw a flash of green out the corners of his eyes. He turned his head, but no one was behind him. _Wait, they're both still there. Oh, it's Clear Body,_ Kirito remembered the first alien Ben used against him when they fought a few months ago. _Guess it can turn whoever Ben is touching invisible too._

"Don't get lost," Kirito said to the open air behind him. Ben and Dash looked ahead in surprise that Kirito could seemingly see them, but Ben remembered how the teen was able to hit him during their fight despite his invisibility. The ninja did not stay for long though, turning and following the rest of the group down the back of the Scarab.

"Let's go," Ben whispered. Dash turned and looked at the purple blob next to him who only he could see with Ben's gooey hand on his shoulder. The younger kid nodded and they ran to the front of the ship before jumping off.

It only took a few seconds for Black Canary to notice something was wrong. She was standing at the top of the ramp motioning for everyone to move down to the hangar floor, when the last person in the group started walking down. "Where are those boys?" She asked, stopping Kirito by grabbing his arm.

Natsu and Gray looked back as well, confused at what she was talking about. Gray dropped his jaw as Kirito smirked a little and shrugged his shoulders. Black Canary made for the inside of the ship, but Kirito grabbed her arm this time, "Don't. They're not here anymore."

"Where are they?" the blonde woman asked, trying very hard not to raise her voice.

"Don't know," Kirito replied, then let go of her arm and walked down the ramp. The two Fairy Tail mages were looking at him and he shrugged as he walked by, "Really. I don't know."

"Ughh," Gray groaned, putting a hand on his forehead and wiping it down his face. "Can you two at least stay with us until we get introduced to the General?"

Natsu grunted and nodded, though he was a little disappointed he didn't run off with Ben and Dash. He lifted his head and stared up at the lights on the bottom of the giant tree root stretching over his head. "This place is huge," he stated, still in awe at the biggest tree he had ever seen before. "How many people did you say lived here again?" He questioned, turning to Black Canary who was walking down the ramp with an aggravated expression on her face.

"I thought there were still ten million plus," she stated, though by the tone of her voice she no longer believed that number was accurate. "But telling from the number of mechanics," she started, "and the lack of a welcoming committee," she looked around and did not see anyone walking over to greet them. She finished, "I would say that number is much, much lower now."

"At least we still have it," Gray spoke up, putting a hand on the woman's shoulder. She turned to look in his eyes and he added, "It could be worse."

She nodded a few times and lost her grim look, "You're right. Okay, let's go people!" Dinah called around at the large group. The others from the vehicles behind their Scarab were walking over as well and joining in with the main group.

"Hey," a tall, buff man nudged Grif in the side as he walked over. The armored soldier stumbled forward then turned to the man looking at him with a big smile on his face. "Where's that kid? I never got to say thanks, I was knocked out when he showed up," the man explained.

"No clue," Grif replied with a shrug. He looked around and muttered, "Actually, where is Ben?"

"He ran off," Kirito stated casually from the orange-armored soldier's side. "Probably ransacking the kitchen or something," the ninja said with a small chuckle.

Grif and the buff man turned, and the six-foot tall guy with dark black skin and giant muscles all over his body opened his eyes in shock. "He shouldn't do that." The other two looked at him confused, but the bald black man wearing a tank top looked pretty nervous. "Hijikata-san does not tolerate theft in his tree."

"Who's that?" Grif asked.

"Hijikata Toushirou is the Captain of the Pon-Gatso police," Darkshine stated. The muscular man's muscles seemed to glisten as he stated in a low voice, "Don't get him angry or he'll kill you."

"Great, another crazy person," Grif said. He groaned and started walking away from the others after Black Canary who was leading them all towards the trunk.

"Is he strong?" Kirito asked the man next to him as they walked after the rest of the group. Superalloy Darkshine looked at the boy next to him who was staring up at the roof of the roots above them. Kirito was trying to sense ki's up higher in the tree, but on top of his inexperience, most people he'd met on this continent were wearing Power Blockers anyway so after a few seconds he sighed and gave up.

"The best swordsman north of Leam," Darkshine responded.

"We'll see about that," Kirito whispered under his breath and started grinning.

They all reached the trunk of Pon and a few of them became confused at the look of the tree in front of them. There were two doorways, both of which were on either side of where they walked straight towards. Canary did not want to hear any pointless questions though, and she lifted up a hand and pressed her hand into the wood a few yards to the right of an odd vertical crack in the tree.

The place she planted her hand pushed in a little, then slid to the side where there was a hand-print scanner behind it. As Dinah Drake put her hand on the scanner, the older of two invisible boys to her right whispered, "So that's how you get in."

The crack split apart revealing a wide elevator inside. It was ten by twelve feet, but as Black Canary looked behind her she saw over fifty people standing there. She sighed, "Alright, not everyone needs to come up. If you live here, go use another elevator and just go back to your rooms. My squad that just came from Terra," she continued, "stay here with the ship. Superboy, BB, with me," she added, showing not all of her group were staying behind. She looked around more and pointed out the man next to Kirito, "Darkshine, right? With us."

"Yes!" the man yelled, and flexed his arms above his head.

Although he seemed somewhat stupid to her, Canary heard from the rest of the convoy Ben saved that he was their strongest fighter. Apparently he held off the Chimera Ants all on his own for over five minutes while they called for reinforcements.

"We're coming too I suppose?" Gray brought up as the others Canary mentioned walked into the elevator.

"Of course," she replied, turning around and walking in with the rest.

Kirito and Natsu followed after Gray as he headed inside the elevator. The door closed behind them and the inside walls of the elevator surprised the ones who had not been there before. The entire elevator looked to be made of wood, though that could not be right as when they walked through the door, on the inside of the layers of wood there was a thick metal sheet. "Aesthetic appeal. Also, the Sadida people get really mad when the tree is desecrated, so in order to keep them appeased we try to make Pon as happy as can be."

"The tree, happy?" Natsu asked with a laugh.

"Don't let the Sadida hear you say that," Darkshine said in an ominous tone. He looked down at Natsu seriously, "They'll kill you."

Kirito suddenly sweatdropped and wondered if that Hijikata guy Darkshine mentioned was all he was cracked up to be if Darkshine was always this quick to say someone would kill them. Black Canary was typing something in a pad next to the door that looked to be the only piece of electronics in the room besides the lights on the ceiling.

The elevator started shooting up fast. They noticed it, and could feel how fast it was going, but they barely lost their balance for a second. "Whoa," Natsu mumbled. "How long will it take to get to the top?"

"A minute or so," Black Canary replied.

As she said it though, the entire group felt the elevator slowing down already and then jolt to a sudden stop. "What's the big deal?" Blue Beetle asked in surprise. "Didn't you say the top?"

The doors slid open and a few of them thought maybe someone else had pressed the button and was also heading up. "I thought I locked it from outside interference," Canary muttered, and then became even more confused as there was no one on the other side of the door. A few seconds later, then door started closing, and then right before they were completely shut, a flash of red light shone from outside the cracks.

"What was that?" Superboy asked, his eyes narrowing.

"We have a breach!" Black Canary exclaimed.

"Wait!" Gray shouted, calming down the woman who was reaching for the communicator on her wrist. "Don't worry about it," he stated.

"Someone snuck in-" she began.

"It was Ben," Natsu said and started laughing at all of the Resistance fighters' panicked reactions. "He snuck on the elevator, and made it off right before his watch ran out of juice."

Outside of a floor far below the elevator that had started shooting up the tree again, Ben and Dash were panting with their hands on their knees. "That was close," Ben whispered, and the two of them looked at each other for a few seconds before laughing to shake off their nerves.

"Do you think they know it was us?" Dash asked.

"Nah, no way," Ben said confidently. "The door definitely closed before I changed back."

Dash opened his mouth to argue, as the insanely fast child knew exactly when Ben's watch flashed compared to the door fully closing, but he decided better of it and closed his mouth. He instead looked around the hallway they were in and around at the walls near them. There were two large white walls on either side of a five foot wide hallway that stretched a hundred feet long, and on either long white wall was a single door in the middle.

"What are these rooms?" Ben asked curiously while walking forward away from the wooden elevator doors.

"I don't know," Dash whispered. "Want me to run inside, get a look around, and come back out?"

"Umm," Ben hummed, wondering if that was a good idea or not.

Suddenly a ding rang out and both boys stared straight ahead down the hall where apparently the wooden wall on that side was another elevator. The wall slid apart and the boys stood there caught red-handed. Ben's Omnitrix was still in the red so there was nothing he could do to hide, and he and Dash just smiled sheepishly over at the elevator with five people in it.

No one seemed to notice them yet as they were pretty far down the hall, but as a single man walked out and said goodbye to the people in the closing elevator behind him, he spotted the kids. He looked over in surprise, and then Dash dropped his jaw as he recognized the man standing there. "Crap Ben," the kid whispered nervously. "I knocked this guy out back on the Scarab."

Jin was standing there with a sniper rifle on his shoulder, staring right back over at the boy who chopped his neck to knock him out a few days ago. He was a little nervous, but next to the young blond kid was the other boy who saved all their comrades in the Resistance. Finally his surprised look wiped from his face, and the Korean man smiled warmly at the boys. "I do not think you are supposed to be here," he said in a friendly tone, showing he did not really care about it.

"Heh heh," Ben chuckled, scratching the back of his head.

"I bet you two are pretty hungry," Jin said as he walked towards them. He stopped a few yards in front of them and motioned with his head to the right at the door next to him. "Why don't you come inside?"

"Wait," Dash began, shaking his head around a few times. "Is that your house?" He asked.

"Sure is," the older man replied. He placed his hand on the handle and held it there for a few seconds. The silver handle made a clicking noise, and Jin smiled as he twisted it and pushed the door in.

Before the door was even halfway open, a woman was running out the door shouting, "Jin-Soo shi!" She tackled her husband in a hug and he pulled her close over his shoulder.

"Hello, Sun," the man greeted in English. Normally he spoke Korean to his wife when they were in private, so Sun looked around and sure enough there were two children in the hallway with her husband. He released the hug seeing where she was looking and he motioned over at the boys, "This is Ben, and Dash. Boys, this is my wife, Sun," he looked back at her and gave her a smile despite her confused expression.

"Who are they?" Sun asked. The Korean women looked back and forth from the kids to her husband, and she started smiling after he said a few things to her quietly in Korean. "Hello boys," Sun said, flashing them a warm, motherly smile that put the two nervous boys at ease.

"Please, come in," Jin told them, and he and his wife walked inside first.

Dash looked at Ben nervously, but the older boy shrugged and moved to follow the nice couple inside. He walked into the white doorway and was surprised to see he entered a living room. On his right was only a half-wall from the outer hallway wall to the curved trunk on the other side of the room that was made of wood not yet painted white to match the rest of the room. Where the half-wall left a space revealed a kitchen where there was a pot of boiling water already on the burner, and Ben noticed there were no open flames on the stove.

The other way from the kitchen on the opposite side of the living room were three doors. The one in the middle was partially open and the boys could see a sink counter, meaning it was probably the bathroom. Another door was partially open showing a decent-sized room with a large bed in it, while the third door was closed. Jin was walking over to that door though, but before the kids could see him open it, Sun spoke up, "Jin says you boys are quite hungry. I was already making food, please, eat with us."

"Sure," Ben exclaimed. She smiled down at him even as his friend looked at him in nervous surprise.

"Ben," Dash whispered at him while Sun walked off to the kitchen. "We should go," the younger boy whispered.

"Hey," Ben snapped, looking at Dash with a frown. "Ever since Sanji left, it's been fruit and burned meat for every meal. Let's take them up on their offer. We probably won't be staying here very long anyway," he added, seeing as his friend still seemed nervous. He sighed, "I mean, if you don't want to eat, go ahead and don't."

Dash's eyes went wide and upon hearing that, his mind told his stomach to let him know this was not allowed, and Dash's stomach growled loudly. The boy looked a little sheepish but he smiled and said, "I mean, if Sun's already making it, it would be rude to say no. Right?"

"Right," Ben agreed.

"Papa!" a voice exclaimed behind the boys. They turned, but all they saw was the three partially open doorways on the other side of the room. The voice sounded like it belonged to a little girl, and a few seconds later Jin came walking back out of the mystery room holding a small girl on his left shoulder.

"You, have a daughter," Ben said, trying not to sound too surprised.

"Yes, this is Ji Yeon," Jin replied, bouncing his young daughter on his shoulder. She had long black hair like her mother, but her father's eyes. "Say hello to the heroes Ji Yeon," he told his daughter.

The little girl started waving to them and said in a cute voice, "Hi!"

Ben and Dash looked at each other. _Heroes?_ Dash thought, as he had thought the man might have a grudge against him for knocking him out. Ben looked back first and said hi back to the five year old girl, and the mood of the room suddenly became much lighter toned. Sun brought out food, and Jin told his wife and child some new stories since he left. Ben and Dash were impressed by the stories as well, but when they started talking about their journey over Aebrith, the family was much more impressed than they were.

At one point, Jin opened his eyes wide and said, "You're the ones who took down Doflamingo?"

"Well, it was mainly Goku," Ben admitted.

"The Super Saiyan?!" both the man and his wife exclaimed. Ben told them their group were friends with him which only amazed the family more.

"Wow," Dash said, taking a break between bites. "It seems like everyone in the world knows who Goku is."

"Well of course," Sun said with a chuckle. "Without Son Goku, none of us would be here."

Ben nodded his head, "You got that right- wait what?" He shook his head a few times, "When did he save your lives?"

"We've never met him ourselves," Jin stated. "However, Son Goku is known to show up every once in while to save the day. I heard he was here in Aebrith around, five months ago I believe," the Korean man continued, scratching his chin as he did. "Where did I here that?"

"Five months?" Ben mumbled. He thought back that long, "That was probably before his wife died." _And my Grandpa._

"That's terrible," Sun whispered, feeling sorry for the man so well known and loved throughout the world.

The boys nodded, but they started back up conversation about Awul now, and the family became very interested and listened in to their tales about the other side of the world they had never visited. The idea of a land without conflict seemed far-fetched to them considering the world they'd been living on, so both parents were doubtful when the boys said they completely solved Awul's problems. Ji Yeon seemed to love the idea though and clapped her hands when the older boys said they won against the evil Underworld.

The family and young boys ate a nice meal, the first one the kids had had in a long time. Ben and Dash wolfed down their food, and Dash asked where they got the fish from at one point. The woman, Sun, calmly replied that she got them from the lake on the Nawasagi Branch, to which Ben and Dash both dropped their jaws hearing there was a lake on the tree.

As Ben opened his mouth to ask what other cool places there were on the tree for him to visit, a knock sounded and they all turned towards the door. Jin stood up and wiped his mouth, "I wonder who-"

 _ **Crash!**_ The door fell inwards and standing on the other side was a man with one leg planted on the ground and the other extending out in a kick. Ben and Dash jumped out of their seats, Sun reached for her daughter, but Jin just went wide-eyed and exclaimed, "Hijikata-san!"

Sun stopped reaching for her daughter and turned with a much more confused than scared look. The man in the doorway had a toothpick in his teeth as he was not allowed to smoke inside Pon but it felt good still having something there anyway. He had messy black hair and was wearing a black uniform with a star badge over his right chest pocket. Hijikata Toushirou looked around, and his eyes narrowed on two children standing next to the table and looking over at him nervously.

Jin-Soo Kwon, who are those children?" Toushirou reached down to his side and pulled out a long katana with one swoosh.

"Hold on," Jin began, holding an open palm up at the samurai police officer.

"Hey Ben," Dash whispered, and his mouth curled up in a smirk. Ben looked at the boy confusedly, but then grinned as well.

Sun saw the children's smirks, and she became panicked. She had just heard them tell all sorts of crazy stories about their adventures, and she thought they might be about to start a fight inside her house. As she opened her mouth to yell though, a green light flashed around Ben.

Jin spun around, and Toushirou charged forward. "Hold it!" The cop yelled.

A taller, lizard-like alien appeared in Ben's place. The black mask over its thinner, pointy head slid up and revealed a face of blue skin underneath. "Thank you for the meal," Ben said.

"It was great!" Dash exclaimed.

"Don't move," Toushirou stated in a cold voice. He had his sword held out right under XLR8's chin. Both Dash and Ben looked at the blade only inches from Ben's neck, and they started laughing. The man became confused for a second, then opened his eyes wide as the boys vanished. He followed a blue blur as it flew by his right side and he fully spun around to watch them run back into the hallway. Ji Yeon started clapping her hands and giggling, while both Jin and Sun struggled to hold back laughter at Hijikata's flustered facial expression. "Get back here!" Toushirou roared.

* * *

 **Pon-Gatso Basement Level 1 (B1), Infirmary.**

"Oh my God," Winry whispered, putting her hands up in front of her mouth.

"Sure are a lot of injured people down here," Kairi stated. She looked around the basement floor which extended over a mile to her right and left, and even farther straight ahead of her away from the staircase they just came down. The terrible thing about the giant basement though, was that there were hundreds of patients, maybe even thousands. Rows of beds started from only ten feet in front of the stairs, to farther than the teenage girls could see.

There were dozens of doctors and nurses in white and blue scrubs rushing about between the rows of patients. Some of the patients were plugged into machines, most of them however were just lying down with bloody bandages or hard casts around different parts of their bodies.

Kairi started walking forward and she looked down to her left. There was a man there with a bandage around his head, but he was awake and his bed's back was leant up a little. She turned to him as she walked by his bed, and the man looked up at her with such a hopeless look that Kairi's smile wiped from her face. It was not his extensive facial burns that made her sad, but his expression that told her he did not believe there was any hope left in the world.

She bent over his bed as soon as she saw his eyes and she brought her face up close to his. "Don't give up," she ordered. The man was so surprised by this girl who just walked around his bed and put her face up near his that he leaned back in his bed and opened his burnt eyelids as much as he could. Kairi leaned away from him, and she lifted up her right hand. A pink handle appeared in her grip while Winry walked towards her back. The blonde girl stared in silent shock as Kairi whispered, "Cure," and a veil of green light shimmered down around the injured man.

 _I can use Cura, but it spends my Magic Power too quickly. There are too many people here..._ While Kairi was thinking about how she could efficiently go around healing everyone, starting with the most injured people first for now on, the man she healed was looking down at his hands in shock as burns faded from his skin. He reached over with a hand and pulled some bandages off where he was burnt the worst. There were bad scars in the area, but the pain was receding and he felt his strength returning.

"Feel better," Kairi said and tilted her head at the man while smiling wide. She spun around and started walking off again with her hands behind her back, twirling around her Keyblade aimlessly as she did.

"That was," Winry began, as she ran past the man getting out of his bed in shock, and right up behind Kairi. "Amazing," she finished.

"Thanks," Kairi said, giving the other girl a bright smile as well. "Can you call me if you see anyone in need of immediate help. I'm going to try and help them first," she said, though Winry was finding it hard to figure out if Kairi was being serious about this at all because of her smile. The blonde girl had never seen someone smiling so much around so many wounded people, it actually creeped her out a little. "Winry?" Kairi asked, wondering why the other girl had not responded and actually losing her smile for a second.

The lack of a smile shook Winry from her trance and she laughed nervously. "Huh? Oh, yeah! If I see anyone, I'll-"

"I need help over here!" a doctor three rows ahead of Kairi and a hundred feet to her right shouted. He was not shouting towards her as much as he was to another two people in scrubs farther down his own row. Winry never got to finish telling Kairi she would call her, because Kairi ran off all of a sudden.

The girl with long auburn hair leapt up in the air, and she did a front flip before gliding forward over the beds of a few dozen shocked men and women. People leaned up from their beds and looked over at the girl who was falling with style. She glided all the way to the doctor who originally shouted and she made it there before his fellow doctors. As she arrived, she saw some other doctor shouting a quarter mile away and the body of the person next to him was seizing.

Kairi did not even slow down as she flew over the first patient. "Cure!" She called out, waving her Keyblade beneath her and then continuing to glide forward for another ten feet before landing, and immediately jumping back up twenty feet in the air before starting to glide again into the distance.

The wounded man plugged into life support suddenly stopped shaking, and the heartbeat monitor that was beeping way too fast slowed back down to a normal speed. The other two doctors arrived and looked down wondering what the first doctor was shouting about, but that man turned and stared after the girl who just showered his patient with green healing light. "Who the Hell is that?" the doctor muttered.

"Cure! Cure," Kairi swung her Keyblade and pointed at as many badly injured people as she could. "Ah ha, ahh, haa, ah, Cura!" Kairi swung her Keyblade again and used all of her remaining magical strength on one woman whose body was entirely wrapped in bandages. She watched as the woman's heart rate monitor stopped beeping so erratically, and smiled right before her shaky legs came out from under her.

Kairi fell to her knees and bowed her head, panting over and over again. _I'm not used to this. It's like Metropolis all over again, only I don't have Sora or Riku to help me._ Kairi dropped her Keyblade and put both hands down on the ground in front of her. _That's right, they aren't here. So it's all up to me!_ She looked up with a more determined expression, and she smiled as she back up got to her feet. She rose up her right hand and her Keyblade shimmered to life in her grasp again.

"Sora always told me if I wanted to regain my Magical Power quickly, I needed to fight using my Keyblade," she hummed to herself and started swinging the Keyblade around in the air in front of her. After a few seconds she came to a stop and mumbled, "That doesn't feel like it's working. I can feel my strength coming back, but no faster than it normally does. Maybe, I need to actually be hitting something to power up!"

Kairi looked around and then frowned with a puzzled look, "Only, what is there to hit in a room full of injured people?"

* * *

 **Canopy, Pon-Gatso**

"This is the top of a tree?" Natsu mumbled, trying to hold back his awe as he looked around. They left the top of the trunk that looked noticeably thinner than the base, and all around them now was the color green. Huge leaves bigger than houses made it near impossible to see around them. All they could really see was a branch leading away from the trunk's elevator.

Black Canary led the way across the branch and the group followed behind her. Kirito, Gray, Natsu, Blue Beetle, Superboy, and Darkshine followed her a hundred yards before they hit a fork in the path. The branch split out in two directions. To the right and farther forward, some of the leaves were cleared out from smaller branches extending off the path. Where those leaves were missing, were buildings. Most buildings were made of material other than wood, surprising the men from Awul.

"How'd they get all that steel up here?" Kirito questioned, looking at Canary's back. They were several miles above the ground so it seemed pretty difficult to him.

"It's not as hard as you'd think," Dinah began without looking behind her. She continued walking along the wood of the massive tree's branches, all the while explaining the sights they were taking in around them.

Only the two who spent most of their time on Awul were surprised by all of this. They were looking around with awed expressions at the miraculous feats of architecture all around them. These people used leaves as structural foundations for schools, they took a twig (a thirty meter thick twig) and transformed it into a blacksmithing shop, they even morphed a twisting branch pointing up into the sky into a marvelous staircase that ended with a giant fortress-looking building at the top.

"Whoaaa," Natsu uttered. He lifted his gaze farther and farther up the huge wooden staircase before the black building at the top. As they started walking towards it, Black Canary explained that the black material they saw up there was some of their strongest steel that they use to reinforce evacuation vehicles, high-risk buildings that would likely be targeted, and even body armor for those lucky enough to receive it.

"Hah, armor," Natsu scoffed. The Dragon Slayer smirked as he received a look from the Blue Beetle guy in his suit of blue armor. _Who needs armor when you could have scales?!_ The pink haired man smirked even more thinking about his own strength, and he darted his eyes to Superboy intending to pick a fight. The guy with broader shoulders was not even looking his way though, he just kept walking straight ahead like he had an important date to get to.

Their group trekked up the sloping branch to the large fortress made of black steel. Black Canary led them right up to the doors and she said a few words to the two guards standing outside that made them move to the sides. Once they were out of the way she stepped forward and pushed the double doors in front of her inwards. Natsu followed behind her and he heard the guard he passed on the left mutter into a walkie talkie, "They're here." He turned from the guard and looked inside the building, opening his eyes wider at the sight of the magnificent hall inside that looked a lot better than the reinforced outside. Most everything was made out of wood, even the walls which must have had an inner coating before being reinforced for attacks.

Across the giant hall they just entered, full of long tables for the first half, and a huge empty area after that, was a group of people standing around one single table on a more elevated section of the room. Halfway across the room the floor lifted up a few meters, and Kirito figured that if the building was built on a slanting branch that they needed to rise the floor as to not cut too far into Pon. Black Canary did not stop after opening the doors and the group followed her towards the higher section of the room.

The people around the table in the far back of the hall looked towards the front entrance. A few of them walked around the table but the man on the exact opposite side of the table just put his right hand down on the table and swung his legs over it to get to the other side. The other four who were around him walked in front of him as they headed across the elevated area, and they stopped halfway across it. They watched as Dinah's group headed up the eight steps to their section of the floor, and then a woman with long black hair all the way on the right of the four called out, "Hold it. Who are those three with you? They are not registered Resistance fighters."

Black Canary stopped where she was and her comrades all looked back at the three new people behind them. "Couldn't have called ahead?" Gray muttered up to the woman.

"They're allies. They saved Darkshine's convoy," she explained and motioned to the dark-skinned bodybuilder who nodded his head in confirmation.

"In that case, welcome!" a voice shouted from behind the four people facing off against Black Canary's group. The person pushed his way between the two men standing in the middle despite their protests, and he took a step towards the bigger group. "I'm the General of this outpost," the man began. He had his hair up in a bun above his head and the butt of a rifle was sticking out over his shoulder. His wore a blue gi and he had a white belt around his waist. And he was only a teenager, surprising the three from Awul who expected someone a little older.

The young man stopped and smirked at them, "The name's General Sokka, nice to meet you."

* * *

 **A/N Sokka?! Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading and let me know what you think in a review, along with predictions of future chapters! Next chapter we meet some new characters and a there will be a flashback, maybe... Here's a quick list of new characters:**

 **Gintama: Hijikata Toushirou**

 **Avatar the Last Airbender: Sokka**

 **One Punch Man: Superalloy Darkshine**

 **LOST: Jin, Sun, Ji Yeon**

 **Wakfu: Sadida**

 **-1 percent battery left on my laptop so no review responses today. Sorry :(, but thanks again everyone for reading, favoriting, following, and reviewing! 'Till next time!**


	53. Nexus HWR 9-5 The Fire Lord

**Nexus HWR 9.5 The Fire Lord:**

 **Pon-Gatso: Canopy**

Inside the black-steel treehouse-castle at the top of the mighty tree Pon, Black Canary walked forward down the long Great Hall with a bright smile on her face. The others who came in behind her stood near the doorway with less excited looks, but Dinah Drake was staring right at the young man in the middle of the room. "Sokka! It's been too long."

"Canary!" The man who stepped in front of the guards jogged forward as well. He met her halfway and put his right hand out, grasping her by the forearm as she did to him. The smile on his face only lasted a few seconds though and quickly turned grim, "I'm sorry about Terra Base."

They released their grasps and Black Canary nodded solemnly. After a few seconds though, she lifted her gaze and looked at him strangely. "Wait a second, _General_ Sokka?"

She thought maybe the young man would smirk and talk about a promotion, but instead his expression just turned extremely grim. The four guards who were around him had jogged up and were now standing on either of his sides again. Sokka nodded his head once and sighed, "It's been a long two weeks since we called for your aide."

"I'm sorry we could not get here sooner," Dinah began.

"It's not your fault," Sokka said immediately. He was a tan-skinned man, with a fairly built body that was not overly muscular. His black hair was held up above his head in a bun, and he had a blue beam-rifle sticking out over his back. He was wearing blue clothes that reminded Natsu of someone, but he couldn't put his finger on it. _And that name... Sokka? I feel like I've heard it before..._ Natsu just shrugged and continued looking forward at the people talking in hushed voices now.

"What happened?" Black Canary whispered. "Where is the Commander? Where is Pon Gatso's Council?"

"The Council," Sokka began. He sighed and said loud enough for the group behind Black Canary to hear as well. "The Council was assassinated. General Stoick the Vast, King Oakheart Sheran of the Sadida, even Commander Jon Snow-"

"Jon's dead?" Blue Beetle gasped from back behind Dinah. Natsu turned to look at the guy who looked a little like a bug, but first he had to look past Gray who was trembling in rage.

Gray stepped forward with his fists clenched at his sides. The four guards around Sokka each looked at him and looked ready for an assassination attempt. There were two men on his left, one with a single spike of black hair and the other with a smoother spike of golden hair going straight up above their heads. The one with black hair reached up over his shoulder and grabbed the hilt to a six foot long lance on his back while the blond one just bent his knees a little. On Sokka's other side, an armored woman with long, straight black hair grabbed the hilt of a rapier at her waist. The other girl next to her who looked a little younger and had a silver ponytail also reached for her thicker sword.

Sokka saw all of their movements and he looked past Black Canary at the man walking his way angrily. "Who's that?" He whispered, cupping his mouth with one hand while pointing a finger over Canary's shoulder with the other.

Black Canary looked back and stated, "He's a Resistance fighter, came from-"

"Who assassinated the Council?" Gray asked. His voice was low, his eyes dark, his fists clenched so hard that his nails were almost cutting into his palms.

General Sokka noticed Dinah looking away after hearing the question, and he saw a few others behind this man gaining more serious, dark expressions. Sokka looked to his left, "Stinger, Lightning Max, it's fine." He nodded at his right side, "You too Guila, Jericho." The guards seemed to ease up a little, but still looked on guard. It only made sense to the other people in the room considering all the other leaders were killed in the past two weeks.

Sokka then turned his gaze to Gray who stopped walking right on Dinah's right side. "It was, Ra's al Ghul..." Instantly, Gray's already upset expression deepened and his nails cut through the skin of his palms. "And," Sokka continued, "the rest of the League of Assassins."

"God damn it," Natsu growled, his own fists clenching. "Those bastards are everywhere."

"Hold on," Kirito said, shaking his head a few times. He stepped forward and called out, "Ra's al Ghul captured us. He tried to force our friends to go straight east and kill the General there." Everyone looked back at Kirito in shock and the teen looked straight at Sokka, "I think he was talking about you."

"Why would Ra's al Ghul want you dead?" Black Canary asked quickly, gaining a concerned expression as she looked back at the younger man.

Sokka chuckled and this time did look a little proud of himself. "Immediately after the League assassinated the Council, the Fire Nation attacked. Our guess was that they were colluding with each other, and attacked when we were at our weakest. It was madness here already without our leadership, and it only became worse as we got attacked by an army. Dozens of zeppelins, fire coming down like rain, it was chaos."

"How did you survive?" Black Canary asked, her eyes opening wide.

"It was all Sokka," the blond man, who Sokka called Lightning Max began.

"He really pulled through," Stinger agreed. "Got us to rally together when they were right on top of us."

Sokka smirked for a few seconds, but he could not keep the expression for long. "We suffered heavy losses," he began, his eyes dropping down to the floor. "We managed to hold them off, but only by Scorching the landscape on the side they were attacking from. The Sadida were furious. Prince- King Armand," Sokka corrected himself as the former Sadida King was dead making Armand the new King. "After the battle we had some words, and he took his remaining people and fled. With the deaths of the Council and the loss of the Sadida, our men lost hope and most who were not injured fled. We started evacuation efforts at that time too, as we discovered the Fire Nation's armies did not retreat back to their cities."

"What do you mean?" Superboy asked, walking forward now. The others figured it was okay to join the conversation as well and followed him towards the middle of the room. "Where are they then?"

"A hundred miles north," Guila replied. The woman with long black hair had purple accents on her silver steel armor, and a purple hairband over the top of her head. "It will not be long before they regroup and attack again."

"They probably would have attacked already," Jericho began. The woman with a silver-colored ponytail smirked and nudged Sokka with her elbow. "But this guy here had the great idea to send squads out north, west, and east just like we always do."

"Huh? Why?" Gray asked. "Shouldn't you have been focusing all efforts of evacuation?"

The General grinned and began, "If we all decided to run at once, they would have charged after us. There's no way we could protect half a dozen _million_ people with the amount of soldiers we have left." Sokka took a pause and looked grim as he added, "So I sent soldiers out like normal to trick the enemy into thinking we are still at a higher strength than they know." His face turned a little pale and he continued with a voice that cracked midway through his sentence, "I guess that's why the League is after me now eh? Haha... haaa."

"Don't worry man, we won't let anyone kill you," Lightning Max promised, patting the General on the back.

"We're just glad you came," Stinger agreed.

"Came?" Gray asked, looking at the younger man quizzically.

"I'm not actually stationed up here," Sokka began. He frowned and added, "However I'm the only one with experience beating the Fire Nation from back in my old universe, so they called me up."

"Lucky for them they had you then," Kirito said.

"You bet it is," Sokka replied, leaning back and laughing proudly at the praise. _Although back then I had the Avatar to help me, not to mention the strongest water, earth, and fire benders I knew._ "However," he continued, and slowly lowered the smile from his face. "It doesn't seem like it will make a difference in the end. We're now the farthest Resistance fighters to the north. Bases all over the Southeast and Southwest have fallen. If we don't evacuate the rest of the city soon, we may be trapped here."

"Don't worry about that," Natsu started. Everyone looked over at the man with pink spiky hair. He grinned and punched his fists together in front of him, "This is what I've been waiting for. I'm all fired up!"

"Where did you say that Fire Nation encampment was?" Kirito asked, knowing they never gave him a location, but asking anyway like they already did. The teen wearing all black with two swords on his back asked it so casually that Sokka blinked a few times and shook his head. Kirito reiterated, "The exact location."

He and Natsu looked ready to go, but Gray was still shaking in anger. "You say you know it was Ra's al Ghul who killed the Council?" He asked, more of a rhetorical question than anything. The General and his guards looked in at Gray who seemed to have something personal against the League of Assassins. Gray took another step forward and asked in his most serious voice, "Do you know where they are?"

"The League?" Sokka asked, his eyes going wide. "Are you planning on going after them?"

"That's suicide," Jericho exclaimed from Sokka's back right.

"Do. You. Know?" Gray repeated, making sure they understood how serious he was this time.

The General and his guards looked around at each other. Sokka finally turned back to Gray and asked, "Who are you again?"

"Gray Fullbuster," the ice mage stated. "Now, tell me where the League is."

"Sir," Stinger began, getting a little more serious at the moment. He spoke softly right into Sokka's ear, "That is classified information. If the League were to find out we know where they are, they would change their location, or worse, come after us with their full attention."

"We aren't League of Assassin members," a voice said coming from directly below the guards and the General. They all jumped in surprise and backed away, and then out from the floor emerged a teenage boy crawling out of the ground like it was water. Another Kirito stepped up and most of the room gawked at the clone of the teen right before he vanished. The real Kirito stepped forward now and continued for his clone, "We aren't part of the League, so just tell us where to find them. We want them dead more than anyone."

"Sokka," Canary began, stepping in between Kirito and the General. She was trying to calm down his guards who got pissed by that eavesdropping and were reaching for their weapons again. "Trust them. One of their friends got killed by Ra's al Ghul on our way here."

Sokka stopped the hand he was reaching up over his shoulder. He lowered it back down and said, "Sorry, for your loss." He shook his head a few times, "But even so, you can't take on the League. Especially not now."

"Why not?" Superboy asked, narrowing his eyebrows and frowning deeply.

Sokka sighed, and finally admitted, "Before Terra Base fell completely, we received one last message. Apparently the League were hired by the Emperor to help them. This was not just in order to help take Terra Base, the Sith needed no help with that. The League of Assassins were hired to help the Emperor's expansion east. We're speculating that the Fire Lord and Emperor are working together to take us down once and for all."

"Attacked by the Sith and the Fire Nation simultaneously," Black Canary whispered. "We wouldn't stand a chance."

Sokka nodded. He looked his blonde friend in the eyes and stated, "We need you and your team to help evacuation processes. We don't want to leave anyone, or _anything_ behind. The resources in this tree are too important to allow to fall into enemy hands."

For some reason, Natsu suddenly remembered Black Canary mentioning how the tree did not like something earlier and how he made fun of it. Now though, he frowned thinking about what Sokka was implying about the tree. "Hold on," Natsu stated, getting the others' eyes back on him. "Didn't you hear me? Tell me where they are, and I'll go kick their asses."

"Shut up," Superboy growled over at the pink haired idiot.

Natsu got ready to shout back at him, but Gray beat him to it and made the Dragon Slayer lean back in shock. "Shut up!" Gray yelled at Conner, making even Superboy lean back at the sudden snap of the more cool-headed mage. Superboy looked down at Gray's sides noticing something and he saw blood trickling out of the cracks between Gray's fingers. Gray spun and looked back at Sokka, "What is the Fire Nation's main weapon?"

It sounded like a stupid question, and Sokka replied while looking confused, "Fire..."

"Yeah, well Natsu can't be hurt by fire," Gray stated. Everyone who didn't already know this stared at the man in shock and Natsu started smirking, despite being surprised that Gray was talking him up. Gray continued, "He can literally eat their flames, and they make him even stronger."

"They do have other weapons," Jericho began, still annoyed by this guy who thought he knew so much.

"Yeah, but their most powerful ones are fire-based, right?" Gray asked, looking around for someone to contradict him, which no one did. "Good, Natsu can handle it. He'll have some help too."

Gray looked back at Kirito who was a few feet behind him. Kirito was asking about the encampment's location a minute ago so he figured the ninja would go along. However, Kirito walked forward so he was at Gray's side and he added, "Yeah, Natsu will have Ben and Dash to help him."

The two mages looked at him confusedly, but Kirito turned to look straight in at Gray's face. "I'll be coming with you," the black haired teen told the older boy with spikier black hair. Gray opened his eyes in surprise, and Kirito turned to look at Sokka, "Now tell us where we can find the League of Assassins. We're going to hunt them down."

"We?" Gray asked, looking annoyed as he didn't ask for any help.

"I'm a ninja, Gray," Kirito stated. He looked at the older man seriously. "Our best chance of defeating Ra's is with stealth. I can sneak up on him. Plus, with only two of us we can keep quiet, but if we do get discovered I can make a hundred Shadow Clones and we can go on a full frontal assault or escape in the confusion."

Most people in the room just stared blankly at these two as they planned an assault of the League of Assassins. Natsu turned and started complaining about not being able to go to the fight to avenge Juvia. "Is this for real?" Sokka mumbled, looking over at Black Canary.

"I'm still getting used to it myself," she whispered. "But you should give them a chance before you abandon all hope. You may just be surprised."

Sokka nodded his head dumbly a few times. "Sokka, you can't actually be considering this," Lightning Max started, smiling faintly as he really hoped the thoughtful look on the General's face was a joke.

 _If flames really can't hurt him..._ Sokka stared at the pink haired man for a few more seconds before speaking up suddenly, "I'll tell you where you can find the Fire Nation encampment, and the League of Assassins, at least, where their last reported location was." He took a deep breath and then added, "But first, you need to prove to me you can truly help out."

"What do you want us to do?" Gray asked, wondering what type of annoying test this teenager was going to make them undergo.

"Touch me," Sokka started, lifting up his arms at his sides and holding up his palms like it was a simple task. "Guys," he added, talking only to the guards next to him now. "Don't let them touch me."

Every person in the room tensed up as all four of Sokka's guards and the three fighters from Awul instantly looked ready. Sokka shouted, "Nobody kill each other!" Before he was even finished with the sentence, Black Canary dropped her jaw as half the people in the room vanished.

Sokka was impressed by their speed at least, seeing as one of them vanished and two were just blurs to him. He himself was not much of a super-human, but he considered himself a good judge of the different levels of strength of those who were.

"Man they're fast," Blue Beetle said, his eyes darting around to follow the movements of the fighters around the room.

Superboy and Darkshine had less trouble following the battle and their pupils darted back and forth to follow individual fighters.

Gray ran towards the man with black hair holding a giant lance. The guy slammed the lance forward and Gray dodged to the left. As he dodged he punched one fist into an open palm. After punching his palm, he slammed his fist out at the lance while opening it up. The lance froze as Gray ran by, and the mage leapt up in the air to avoid Stinger's kick that he followed up with.

As he rose up in the air and Stinger yelled out in panic while his arms covered in ice, Gray spotted Natsu trying to hit the woman Jericho, while Lightning Max sped up from behind him. Gray did a flip in midair and landed with both hands firmly planted on the ground. A trail of ice shot from his hands all the way to the blond man whose shoes had jets coming out of them.

"Max!" Guila called over, seeing his feet about to get caught in ice. As she looked back, her eyes widened seeing a dozen figures form on that side of her. She did a full three-sixty and there were enemies on every side, all of them looking exactly like the original. They drew two swords each, holding them in different stances and looking at her in different ways to prove they were all their own bodies.

Lightning Max still heard her shout though and spun, then jumped just in time for the ice to go right beneath him. He smirked, and called out, "Nice try!"

"Now Natsu!" Gray yelled. Max looked below him and lowered his bottom lip while he was still rising up in the air. The ice that passed him froze Jericho's feet to the floor, leaving her open to an attack for Natsu. Instead though, the Fire Dragon Slayer sprinted right past Jericho.

They'd all gotten so wrapped up in their fight that they forgot what they were fighting for in the first place. "Got him!" Natsu shouted as he tackled Sokka to the floor.

"Ouch!" Sokka exclaimed, no longer liking the idea he came up with.

Across the room, an explosion blasted twenty clones up in the air that all exploded. Kirito looked ahead at the woman glaring at him and pointing a sword forward with a glowing ball of fire on it. Suddenly the person she was pointing the fireball at vanished, and she heard a voice behind her, "It's over. We won."

Guila looked back and saw the real Kirito standing there with his hands back in his pockets, his swords in the sheaths on his back. A little behind him, Gray was looking at his hands and he wiped them on his shirt, for the first time noticing they were bleeding after he slammed his open hand into Stinger's lance. Even farther than that, Lightning Max landed next to Jericho who chiseled her feet out of the ice finally with a fuming look on her face. Then there was Natsu, helping Sokka back to his feet.

"Well, that didn't take long," Sokka admitted. "Though I am glad you held back Guila and did not burn Pon down." He mentioned it because the woman was still holding up her sword with a small burning fireball at the end of it. The woman whose eyes were almost closed they were so squinty finally lowered her weapon and allowed her magic to fade.

"Held back huh?" Kirito asked, smirking at the woman he had been a step ahead of for that entire, small, skirmish. "I couldn't tell."

"Would you like to die?" Guila questioned, tilting her head as if it were an actual question. His smug look wiped from his face and she turned from him, walking back over to Sokka's side.

"Okay!" Sokka exclaimed, a true, genuine smile coming to his face. "You guys are great! Let's get started on some new plans."

"General," Jericho began.

"Hey, I gave you guys a chance," Sokka argued. "Now it's time to believe in them," he said and looked at the three fighters who gathered in front of him. "Besides, I'd rather be able to call in all the patrol groups we have out right now to provide more support for evacuations. Only four million of our starting population of six million civilians have been evacuated. We still need more time, and we need to get more of those damaged vehicles up and running to help get them out of here faster."

"Alright," Gray started, walking over towards Sokka. "We're going to help you out. But," he continued, narrowing his eyes at the younger man. "You need to tell us how to beat the Fire Lord. You say you've done it before," he added, and Sokka started frowning.

 _With Aang's help,_ Sokka thought in annoyance. "It was different that time," Sokka began.

"Why?" Natsu questioned, walking over with Kirito now. The others who watched the fight started walking over as well so everyone was gathered in a small area.

Sokka looked around at them all and he sighed. He scratched the back of his head, and he mumbled, "Well, last time..." His arm dropped from his head and his face got a lot darker. "Last time we were fighting Fire Lord Ozai. We _defeated_ Fire Lord Ozai."

"And this Fire Lord," Kirito began. "It isn't Ozai?"

"No," Sokka replied, his eyes darkening even more. "On my world, a war raged for over a hundred years against the Fire Nation. We had only just ended it when I got teleported here. We defeated Ozai, the third of three Fire Lords who continued the long war. His grandfather, the man who started the war that ravaged my world for a century, is tremendously more powerful than his grandson ever was, and is the one who rules the Fire Nation today. His name, is Sozin. Fire Lord Sozin."

 **FD + 149**

"Give up Azula!" Zuko shouted across the burning field at his sister. The plains of red grass were on fire in every direction around the fire benders. The young man with a black ponytail pointed a finger at Azula, down on one knee, panting while her small group of followers backed up behind her. "You can't win!" He yelled.

Standing behind Zuko were a few hundred warriors. The majority of those behind him were fire benders, though he had some other allies at his sides as well. A young man up close to the front near Zuko pointed a finger at the young woman with messy black hair and shouted, "That's right! Take that! Hahaha!" Sokka leaned back and put his hands on his hips victoriously.

 **BOOM!** _ **CRASH!**_ "Ahh!" Sokka shrieked as the field on his right side exploded up in the air. He and the other nearby warriors backed away while a pillar of smoke billowed up from the explosion.

"Yes! Father!" Azula shouted over at the explosion. "Come here and help me finish off my foolish brother!" She got up off her knee and started cackling like mad. Her laughs caught in her throat though as a figure came flying out of the smoke, flying backwards with steam coming out of his mouth and his eyes rolled back. Fire Lord Ozai slammed into the ground, bounced, and rolled back a few dozen feet before coming to a stop behind Azula and her soldiers.

All of the smoke in the area he was just in dispersed at once and the ground under it burst into flames. An old man had his shirt torn off to reveal he was not the short, fat old man people thought of him. Sokka's jaw dropped, "I-Iroh?! That's what you always looked like under there?"

"Uncle," Zuko said with a growing smile. He looked over at his father who Azula ran to and was yelling at to get up. The other soldiers with them were backing away and many started running away. Zuko rose his voice though, "Everyone! Stop running!" The enemy fire-benders looked back towards the young man who like Sokka had a black ponytail over his head, only his was not wrapped up in a bun. Zuko rose up his fist and covered it in flames, "Today we must unite the Fire Nation! There is no need for us to fight each other any longer!"

The Fire Nation soldiers running away because their leaders were getting beaten on looked around at each other and then back at the Prince of the Royal Family. Zuko kept shouting and a few of them started walking his way. "We have sent word out around the continent! All fire-benders from our world will be coming here, hoping for a united Fire Nation. I do not want war! You all want to go home to your families, or to look for them on this world! Come with me, and I can-"

"Be quiet boy!" Ozai shouted, getting back up on his feet next to Azula. The two of them nodded at each other and then jumped forward, landed on one foot, twisted it, and stomped their other feet forward. They twirled their hands around as well while they stomped their feet and as their right hands went behind their heads, lightning started sparking on their fingertips.

"Get back!" Zuko shouted to the others around him who stumbled or ran backwards at his command. "Uncle!" Zuko yelled.

Zuko ran to the right while his Uncle Iroh ran left. The muscular old man with gray hair and a gray beard smiled at his nephew as he ran by, and then focused on the task at hand and stuck his hand out. Azula and Ozai fired bolts of lightning forward at the same time, and Iroh crossed to take the bolt that Azula shot at them. He caught the lightning on his hand and did a three-sixty spin before snapping his hand back out and redirecting the lightning at her feet, knocking her up in the air screaming. Zuko caught his father's bolt of lightning in his right hand, but he had to grab his right wrist with his left hand to steady it.

"You can do this Zuko," Iroh assured him from only a few feet away.

Ozai started stepping backwards as he had put all of his power into that attack, yet this _boy_ was holding onto it. Zuko released his right wrist and he pulled back his hand on his own. His entire arm covered in whips of blue lightning, and then Zuko slammed his hand forward faster than before and the lightning flew out, to hit the same spot in front of his father that Iroh aimed his attack on Azula. His lightning hit at the feet of Ozai and knocked the Fire Lord off of his feet. The rest of Azula and Ozai's followers saw this and ran across the battlefield at once. They threw down their arms, held up their hands in surrender, and joined the _true_ Fire Lord's side.

"It's over father!" Zuko shouted as his old man struggled to get back up on his feet. "Look at this!" He yelled, his voice pleading. Ozai got up, alone on his side of the field as his daughter lay moaning behind him. Standing behind his son were hundreds of soldiers who should be his own followers, along with other powerful warriors, and even his own brother.

Sokka pulled out his boomerang and shouted, "Don't make me use this!"

"Ozai!" Iroh yelled at his younger brother. "This world was a place to start anew! Your powers returned to you, but the Avatar's mercy was wasted on you. You never change!"

"I am not the one who needs to change!" Ozai roared. Circles of flames started spinning around him and flames shot out the bottoms of his feet, lifting him up in the air. As he got up a few feet though, a ball of fire flew out of nowhere from behind him and slammed him in the back. Ozai yelled out and the flames he had summoned vanished. He dropped to the ground and the rest of the soldiers looked at Azula. Attacking from behind seemed like something she would do, especially if she was about to lose and thought attacking her father would get her out of punishment. When they looked back though, Azula seemed just as shocked as the rest of them while she sat there on her knees.

The young woman was on the side of a hill looking down at her father's groaning body at the bottom. The field before them was full of enemies, and it seemed like behind them were even more. She struggled to turn her head around to look at the top of the hill behind her. When she turned though, her jaw dropped and she started shaking where she knelt. Down on the field below, Iroh took a step back in shock and Zuko snapped his gaze to his uncle, wondering what could make him so awe-struck.

The teenage boy leading the Fire Nation stepped forward and looked up at the top of the hill where there was a figure standing. He was a tall man, with long black hair falling straight behind him. Zuko never recalled seeing him before in his life, but there was something very familiar about this man. The tall figure was adorned in full Fire Nation garb, but more formal than that of the soldiers all over the fields, more upper-class than those men and women would wear too. Iroh gasped out a single word that had his nephew opening his eyes wide like many of the soldiers on the field already had. "Father," Iroh gasped.

Azulon looked down the hill and he smiled at the sight of Iroh down below. Despite the old man's appearance, he still recognized his first born son after all these years. He was himself much younger than Iroh now, having returned to life in his prime. "Iroh, it is great to see you again," Azulon said to his very old son. He nodded, but then glared back at a man struggling to stand back up closer to him. "OZAI!" Azulon shouted.

Ozai spun around and looked at the top of the hill in shock and horror. "I know what you did!" Azulon shouted, and he took a step down the hill. Behind Azulon, ten Fire Nation soldiers, all wearing creepy white masks and holding black rifles in their hands, stepped up to the top of the hill. Azulon took another step down and yelled, "After Iroh's son was killed, you demanded the position as heir! And when I would not give it to you, you had me POISONED!" Azulon rose up his fists at his sides and they erupted with spheres of flames. Azula got up to her feet and ran out of the way of her enraged grandfather.

"Father, it isn't what you think-" Ozai began, lifting up his palms towards Azulon.

"It is!" Azulon roared. "You rose your hand against your own father, and you did it in the most shameful way imaginable. I despise that you are my son. And you will burn for what you have done!" Azulon slammed his hands together and the flames on either of his hands merged into one condensed attack that shot out and slammed into Ozai who was too tired to even raise a guard. Everyone could hear Ozai's screams from inside the flames, and they lasted for around ten seconds before falling silent. Azulon kept frowning but he finally lowered his arms and let his flames disperse, showing nothing but a pile of ash remaining where his son once stood.

"Father," Zuko whispered in shock as he stared at the spot Ozai was just in. He had no love for his father, but seeing the man executed in such a way, it touched a part of him deep inside. Zuko lifted his gaze to his grandfather, but Azulon turned away from the army in front of him. He turned towards the voice that spoke from the top of the hill.

"So that was my grandson?" A man questioned. The words coming out of this man's mouth made Iroh tense up his entire body. Around him, other fire-benders backed up and everyone on the field stared in absolute shock a the top of the hill.

Sokka was counting on his fingers as he tried to keep track of all the generations of Fire Nation leaders around him. "If that was Iroh's dad, and this guy said Ozai was his grandson, then he must be…" Sokka lowered his hands, and his face covered in sweat as he stepped backwards. He looked at the top of the hill and watched as dozens more creepy-looking Fire Nation soldiers all walked around the sides of it, up other hills in that direction, and filling in all the spaces in between.

"I must thank whoever gathered the entirety of the Fire Nation in one location," the man at the top of the hill began. As he spoke, Azulon got down on a knee and bowed his head to the top of the hill and the man standing there. The man had black hair flat on top of his head and up in a bun above it. His sideburns spiked out to the sides below the ears, and his beard had one long pointy spike down at the bottom. He had a mustache that dipped down long enough that the ends of it stuck out below the curves of his beard between the spikes on the cheeks and the one on his chin.

The man at the top of the hill wore a black cloak with orange stripes going from his shoulders down all the way to his feet. The bun over his head was kept there by a golden headdress that spiked up like a burning flame. "I am Fire Lord Sozin!" The man announced, and all of the soldiers on the top of the hill with him, and around the hill, and in between this hill and the others, and on top of those hills as well, all bowed down to this man. The others in front of him could not see, but the hundreds of soldiers behind him on the other side of the hill all bowed as well. "Prince Zuko!" He called out, and looked down the hill directly at the teen and the others around him. "I have been told that in the present of our world, you were the Fire Lord. This is not our world though, and here, I will be the Fire Lord."

Zuko frowned and his fists clenched at his sides. Iroh glanced at his nephew nervously, but Zuko stepped forward assuredly. The soldiers behind him looked nervous, but seeing their leader step forward gave them courage. Sozin saw this as well and he smirked a little. "Good. I would not expect you to stand down so easily. My son understands what it means to be family, but you, you were raised by a father-murdering bastard." Sozin glared down at the pile of ash between their two armies like he wished more pain on Ozai right now. "So I will now teach you the respect your great grandfather deserves."

"You don't deserve my respect!" Zuko shouted up to the man. Sozin frowned as he was planning on fighting Zuko right away, but it seemed like the boy had something to say first. "Your war cost thousands of lives!" Zuko shouted. The rest of the people already bowing down to Sozin lifted up their gazes and stared at the boy challenging him. Many of them had died in those wars Zuko was referring to, and they perked up at what Zuko was suggesting. "I will not let you start another war like that! For a hundred years our world was ravaged by something that you created! You committed a genocide against the air benders! You are _not_ the Fire Lord."

Azulon snapped to his feet and glared down the hill at his grandson. When he looked down though, he saw that none of Zuko's men had bowed down yet, not even his own son. "Iroh, bow to your grandfather," Azulon commanded.

Iroh bowed his head to his father, but spoke while looking at the floor, "I am sorry father, I can do no such thing." Azulon's eyes opened wide as he thought his first born son was a better man than this. Iroh rose his head and looked at Azulon and Sozin at the same time. "The war you started," he said while looking at Sozin, "and that you escalated," he turned to his own father, "caused so much heartbreak, so much, unnecessary destruction. Zuko and the Avatar finally managed to create peace on our world. I believe my nephew can do the same on this one."

"Peace?" Azulon snarled. "What weak man do I see before me now? When your son died, I believed your depression would only last for a short time. Your siege of Ba Sing Se failed but I forgave you, because you were my son." Azulon started shaking in rage. "But now, you dare defy me in front of your grandfather?"

Iroh knew his father, he knew how much the man cared about this sort of thing, and he bowed his head farther at how much disrespect he was making the man feel right now in front of Sozin. He did not stand down though. Zuko stepped forward and he pointed a finger up the hill at the man standing at the top. "Great grandfather!" Zuko shouted. "I challenge you to an Agni Kai!"

Sozin lifted his eyebrows, but the reactions from their men were a lot more intense. Many made audible gasps of shock, while most opened their eyes wide and snapped out of their bows. "Challenged to an Agni Kai by my own great grandson," Sozin said in a booming tone. He chuckled darkly and his eyes narrowed down at the boy as his face hardened, "I would not accept victory in any other way. I will warn you first Prince Zuko. I have become stronger since coming to this world."

Sozin floated off the grass with the bottom of his feet glowing bright red. Flames did not shoot out of his soles, just so much heat pushed off of his feet that he lifted from the ground. He floated down the hill and past his own son who stated, "I am going to take care of my own son in the meantime." Sozin nodded his head as he expected to hear that from Azulon as he flew by.

Sozin landed on the ground in front of Zuko who got into a fighting stance. Zuko stuck his right arm far back and his left arm forward, then turned his body and pulled his arms in and then to the sides. Sozin lifted his eyebrows again and he said in an impressed tone, "The Dancing Dragon? I am surprised you know such a high level fire bending technique. Surprised, and impressed. Your honor will stay intact even after your defeat here at my hands."

Iroh turned to officiate the match, but he spotted someone coming out the corner of his eye and spun just in time for a fist to slam into his face. Zuko spun and shouted, "Uncle!"

Azulon was there with his arm extended forward, and a pillar of flames shooting out of his fist, far into Zuko's own ranks. Iroh was at the end of it tumbling across the field into the distance before he was able to right himself. "Do no lose focus boy!" A voice shouted directly in front of Zuko. He spun back forward and Sozin was standing there, his arms lifted at his sides, his palms facing the sky. He did not look ready at all for a fight, but yet he looked annoyed that Zuko was getting distracted.

"What are you doing?" Zuko shouted at the older man.

"Just because we will be dueling, does not mean that your grandfather will stand by and allow his son to insult him in front of his armies. Now prepare yourself," Sozin said, "the Agni Kai has already started." Sozin clenched his fists and a circle of flames appeared in the air above the two of them. The flames lowered down to the grass field they were on and made a perfect circle around the two of them, keeping them trapped in close proximity so neither could escape. The flames rose, and the older man on the inside smirked as Zuko kicked off the ground towards him.

Everyone awaited the outcome of the battle between the two men. They did not have to wait long. The flames in the circle around them dispersed, and Sokka opened up his eyes wide, as the true Fire Lord stood there with his right hand risen. Sozin had Zuko lifted by the throat and Zuko looked absolutely horrible. "Let these burns remind you never to challenge your ancestors again," Sozin said, while Zuko's neck seared in his hand. Zuko's arms had scattered burn marks on them, his cheeks were melted, his ponytail was burned off completely.

"Zuko!" Iroh shouted, losing focus on his father for a second.

"You should not have looked away son!" Azulon shouted and slammed his right hand forward. His hand was not in a fist, but extended so the tips of his fingers slammed into his son's exposed chest. His fingers were covered in bright blue flames, and they hit Iroh's chest and went straight through into his ribs and organs. His hand did not come out of the old man's back, but he did hold it there inside his son's body with a regretful look on his face. Iroh gasped and he coughed up some blood while other soldiers in his and Zuko's army stared over in horror. Azulon clenched his hand into a fist inside Iroh's chest and he spoke in a dark voice, "It is a sad day when a father must kill both of his sons." Azulon's right fist burst into flames and Iroh tried to scream, but his lungs were among the first to go. Iroh opened his mouth and blue fire flew out of it as his father's flames were literally rising up his trachea.

Zuko barely managed to open up his eyes while his great grandfather held him by the throat, but he was able to look across the field and watch as his uncle's body burst into flames. He opened his mouth to yell out to him, but Sozin clenched harder and Zuko could only scream as his throat felt like it was on fire. As Zuko watched his uncle, he also watched as all of his men between him and Iroh got down on their knees. Hundreds of his followers dropped down. Seeing Zuko and Iroh fall at the same time was too much for them. A few remained standing and yelled at the others to get up, but those were mainly the non-Fire-Nation soldiers.

Sokka looked back and forth between Zuko and Iroh, and he suddenly realized he was the only person left standing for a hundred feet around him, with the exception of Fire Lord Sozin. The Fire Lord tossed Zuko's body backwards and Sokka gulped but he ran right towards the other teen. Sokka dropped down to his knees next to Zuko and he shook him around. "Get up Zuko. I can't handle an army on my own."

Zuko could only gasp and grab at his own throat in pain. He reached one hand out towards the area his uncle was in, only for an explosion of blue flames to appear in his sight and his heart to clench up. Azulon pulled his red right hand back and put it at his side as he looked down at what became of his first born son. "It is a good thing I am a young man again. I will have new sons to replace you failures." The man shook his head and turned back to his father who looked his way and nodded. Azulon nodded back respectfully and then got back down on his knees.

"Great Grandfather," a voice spoke behind Sozin. The Fire Lord turned and saw a young woman standing there on the hill. She dropped down to a knee and bowed her head to her other knee that was still sticking up. "I give you my strength. Grandfather was right, my father killed him and-"

Sozin flicked his right hand forward and Azula yelled out as her cheek burned. She reached up and grabbed her right cheek but did not get out of her kneeling position. Sozin hummed and nodded his head as he turned away from her. "Even if it is true, you do not betray your own father. I will not hear another word of it from you. However, our family seems to be getting smaller by the second. What is your name, great granddaughter?"

"Azula, my Lord," she replied, clenching her teeth as to not make any indication that she was in pain from that burn he gave her.

Sozin smiled. "Azula, after your grandfather I presume. Good." Sozin rose up his arms and out of the ground at his sides arose two pillars of flames that shot high up into the air. He clenched his open hands into fists and at the tops of those pillars, the flames puffed out into mushroom clouds of flames that spread to connect with each other and disperse across the sky. Anyone who was not already bowing dropped down to their knees, planning on escaping later on if they wanted to, but not daring to go against this powerful man now. Sozin shouted while his flames covered the sky, "The Fire Nation will be more powerful here than on our own world! Our ideals, our wealth, our culture, we will spread it around this planet to all the people of the worlds not fortunate enough to have had our influence. We are the Fire Nation!"

Soldiers all over the hilly fields got back up to their feet and pumped fists up in the air. "YAAAA!"

"This is our world!" Sozin roared.

Azulon punched a fist up in the air and a ball of orange fire flew up to mix with the rest of the flames already in the air. "RAAA!" He shouted and punched another fist up making a ball of blue flames shoot into the flaming air this time and make the sky above him swirl a dangerous-looking purple color.

"I am your Fire Lord! And together, we will rule!" Sozin announced.

"HAAA!" Azula found enough strength to force another bolt of lightning from her fingers. Standing so close to the legend of the Fire Nation gave her the strength, and standing by his side she wanted to make her power known to him. When her lightning hit the flames in the sky, it was like the entire cloud of flames became charged and sparks of electricity shot off all around the sky.

Sokka stopped wrapping one of Zuko's wounds to looked up in the sky with everyone else. Now instead of being the only one standing, he was one of the only people still on the ground, not up screaming and cheering with everyone else. He looked at the sky, the sky on fire, full of lightning and swirling with blue flames. The teen gulped and he reached down to help Zuko up. "We have to get out of here," he urged the other teen.

Zuko shook his head, still unable to make out words. When he looked up at the sky though, he grimaced at the sight of the power his enemies possessed. "We can't fight them if we're dead," Sokka yelled at him, not worried about being heard as everyone around them was screaming too. "Now let's go!"

 **Present**

Sokka shook his head at the people before him in the war room of Pon-Gatso as he finished his story. "Sozin was far too powerful for us to take on back then, so we retreated south. Zuko tried to gather a following of other fire-benders not loyal to Sozin to go against him, but in the Second War of the Gods, he fell along with everyone who followed him."

"Second War of the Gods?" Kirito mumbled to himself. Natsu muttered the same thing, but he did so louder so the others knew he did not understand them.

Black Canary turned to the Fire Dragon Slayer. "One of three great wars to determine who would rule all of Aebrith. The Second War put the current King in charge, and the Third War ended when the King single-handedly slaughtered tens of thousands of enemies challenging his rule. The Third War was more of a merciless massacre than a War."

"Luckily," Sokka spoke back up, "the Second War of the Gods claimed more than just my friend Zuko and his followers, it also claimed the life of the Fire Nation general facing them and his army. Prince Azulon was killed, the second strongest member of the Fire Nation."

The others nodded as that did seem like a good thing. Hearing how he crushed Ozai and Iroh worried them, even if he killed them after the two had already worn each other down in their fight against each other. Sokka continued as he walked over to his table and motioned for the others to follow. They came over and Sokka pointed at their position on a map zoomed-in on their region. On the left side of the map was the coast, showing how small the map was that the water only took up a little of the paper. To the two who spent all their time on Awul though, they finally got a good bearing of how small the area they traversed really was. They saw a small 'X' on the left side of the map between the coast and them, with the words "Terra Base" written beneath it. There were 'X's all around the map on both sides of a small path south of Pon symbolized by two parallel black lines drawn side by side going straight down towards the bottom of the paper.

Sokka pointed at the tree symbol on the map which was pretty easy to figure out what it symbolized. He pulled his finger up the map to a point not far above it, and tapped down on that spot again once he reached it. "This right here is the Fire Nation encampment," he looked up at Natsu. "I don't want to send you on a suicide mission, but you all sound confident that you can handle this. We'll provide you with some good equipment anyway, but I have one more thing to warn you about." Sokka stood straight up and he crossed his arms and shivered a little. "The woman in charge of the assaulting army, is the second strongest fire bender currently alive. Azula."

"Zuko's sister?" Gray muttered, scratching his chin as he thought about that. "That's going to be difficult. Be careful Natsu," he warned his friend.

"So you are serious about not going?" Sokka asked the ice mage. Gray glared at him and Sokka nodded his head seriously, "Alright then. You two, this will be even harder than going up against Azula and her army. I would wish you luck, but you are going to need a lot more than luck to survive this. I hope you're as strong as you make yourselves out to be." Gray looked back down at the map and Sokka said in a dark voice, "I'll tell you everything we know about the League of Assassins. There is already a special Resistance force working on this and we don't have all the details, but the League's been operating up here a lot recently, so we do have some bearing on their locations."

Kirito and Gray stepped up close to the table and Sokka leaned over it. The other high-ranking Resistance leaders all got around the table and listened close as the General went over the plans. They had a long few days in front of them, and things were going to get real messy, real quick.

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading! We learn some more about the foe both of our groups of heroes are facing now, as Fire Lord Sozin appears on Nexus. Azula is with him and leading the attack on Pon-Gatso and the surrounding Resistance lands. Sokka also has some info on the League of Assassins, and now our already split group separates some more. Next time we get a huge battle... but I can not say when that will be. Tomorrow I head to Italy for 10 days, half for work, half for pleasure. Anyway, I doubt I will have time for editing and posting during that time, but I will have my computer with me so it is possible. So until then, thanks again for all the support, and let me know what you think is going to happen in a review below!**

 **Wakfu: Oakheart Sheran, Sadida, Armand**

 **How To Train Your Dragon: Stoick the Vast**

 **Game of Thrones: Jon Snow**

 **Avatar the Last Airbender: Azulon, Sozin, Ozai, Iroh, Zuko, Azula, Aang, Katara, Toph, Sokka**

 **7 Deadly Sins: Guila, Jericho**

 **One Punch Man: Lightning Max, Superalloy Darkshine, Stinger**

 **DC Comics: Ra's al Ghul**

 **Fairy Tail: Natsu, Juvia, Gray**

 **SAO: Kirito**

 **Ben 10: Ben**

 **Incredibles: Dash**

 **Young Justice: Superboy, Blue Beetle, Black Canary**

 **-Think that was everyone mentioned this chapter! Anyway, here are review responses for the last two chapters since I skipped last chapter:**

Espada-001 chapter 50 . May 17

Well it looks like Ben hasn't fully understood the concept of what's supposed to happen in a war. It was also cool to see a RvB character make an appearance and I hope to see more in the future especially Caboose. Here's a question I've had for a while now but kept forgetting to ask. How are there still so many Chimera Ants? Meruem killed his mother the moment he was born and didn't care and as far as I could tell only the queen ant showed the ability to make new Chimera Ants. Also where is Kite because he was born as a twin to Meruem when he was reborn as a girl and had the loyalty of the remaining Chimera Ants so shouldn't s/he(?) have split the remaining Ants when Meruem was brought back to life? I mean I know that Chimera Ants obey Meruem mainly out of fear but Kite was the one that toke charge when they were being hunted plus it seemed like Kite was regaining his strength pretty fast even while clearly being the weaker of the twins as well as maturing at a slower rate. Well that's all I have for now so until next time have a good day and I look forward to the next chapter.

I'm definitely sad about what happened to Juvia. And Gray is thinking about finding some very risky item or power that 9 times out of 10 usually either ends bad or doesn't work the way its expected to. Well till next time.

 **Glad you liked Grif's appearance and we'll see about Caboose in the future. About the many Chimera Ants... good question, got me thinking a little harder about it, and I have a nice arc in the future I hope will explain it now, as for Kite though, haven't really thought much about him. Who knows where he and any good Chimera Ants may be? Juvia nooo! And what could Gray be thinking?... Thanks for the review!**

KCSupido chapter 51 . May 17

Oh no! Juvia isn't gone for good, right? Hopefully...  
Though it makes me wonder... A lot of the worlds that these characters come from have items like Phoenix Downs or revives or 1 ups to bring back the dead and/or knocked out. Why is it that we haven't seen any of those? Is it just that they don't exist on this world? I can't honestly remember if you said the Dragonballs were on this world or not.  
It seems like we're seeing more witches and wizards again: perhaps Harry, the founders, or even Voldemort will show up soon haha  
I also wonder if Sonic will show up, and if so, will he be connected to the speed force like some of the other speedsters? Because its stated that he can run at least 3000 mph, not including if he becomes Super Sonic, or taking into account his Chaos Control powers to slow down/freeze time.

 **Juvia! Phoenix Downs, Revives, and 1 Ups, if they don't exist naturally on the world, maybe there are some people who know how to create those things, with the right materials. This is a whole new world though so it begs the question if things like those would be easy to find. Dragonballs would require Namekians right? And we haven't seen any of those... yet, (or ever) who knows? Witches and Wizards def starting to show up. Harry? Voldemort? Sonic? Where are they?! No spoilers XD, but thanks for the review!**

joebob323 chapter 51 . May 17

Tears... that's all i can say... Man, what a chapter... It was done excellently, but it was still depressing. I never really thought of Juvia as one of my favorite characters, but its pretty sad seeing her die. For real this time.

Thanks for the Chapter! Hope you eventually get to showing us once more what Timmy and Goku are doing!

 **JUVIA! Thank you a lot for the compliment on the chapter, and I'm glad it was depressing 'cause I try to get everyone connected to each of the characters. An actual death not reversed by time travel really makes it sadderer... Anyway, what are Goku and Timmy up to? What will happen next? Thanks for the reviews!**

Darugus chapter 51 . May 17

No juvia  
This chapter was really sad  
I knew one of them was gonna die but not this soon  
Ithe strawhats won't like this when they hear about this

Also I see the path that gray is going Down and really don't think that is going to end well

 **The Straw Hats were close with Juvia so that will def be a tough talk when they finally reunite. Glad I caught you off guard with the sudden death, and that's a nice catch with Gray... XD but no spoilers. Thanks for another review!**

7lights13darknes chapter 46 . May 18

I usually catch up before leaving a review but i decided that i had to do at least one by story is getting better and better and ...(an eternity later)and better. The earth rumble and the boulder were a nice touch. I actually recognized him when it said earth rumble. I also really like the riku and nami ship. Sora goes to find there missing friends and namina and the keyhole and to defeat xemnous and the rest of the organization. I just realised that xigbar hasn't been even mentioned i would say he is dead but demyxe actually lived for a while until kil came (rip demyxe you were my fourth favorite nobody my first three are roxas xion and axel ) also in one of my previous reviews the answer you gave me pretty much told me you are going to have xion. Also who else noticed the whole ventus reference when they were talking about roxas a few chapters back raise your hands kingdom hearts fans. Rins story is getting really deep i think i said this before but i will say it again this fanfic actually makes me want to watch the animaies in this story like sao, hunter x hunter, and fairy tale. The matches that black star fights in isn't that in sin city if so the were so close to seeing him and the other slaves. I will end with this sora and riku know everyone EVERYONE! XD. Keep up the good work now i am done for now.

 **Thanks for the review! It's awesome you caught the Earth Rumble tourney, 'cause I remember when I rewatched Awatar a year back I think, when I saw the tournament going on right before Toph joined them, I wrote down in my plot outline file of Plans For Nexus to throw an Earth Rumble into Sin City. Lots of Kingdom Hearts stuff you mentioned, most of which I won't reply on. Xigbar? Xion? Ventus? Who knows?! Though nice catch with the Ventus thing :P. Also really happy you're getting into these other shows I like just from this crossover, and it's almost like Sora and Riku were skipping through universes or something XD! Thanks again to everyone who reviewed, faved, followed, or just read this story! 'Till next time!**


	54. Nexus HWR 9-6 Counterattack

**A/N Ciao da Italia! (Hey from Italy!) I know I said I would probably not get a chapter posted until after I returned, but I got so much positive feedback from the last chapter I wanted to upload this one fast! (Also, Italian is hard and I need a break XD ). Anyway, Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not and never have nor never will own any of the characters, settings, and proper nouns I took from other media.**

* * *

 **Nexus HWR 9.6 Counterattack:**

 **Pon-Gatso: Canopy**

At the top of the tallest tree on Aebrith, Dash, Ben, and Natsu stood on a huge circular wooden platform. As they were miles off the ground, the wind was gusting about and messing with the boys' hair. In front of them on the platform were a few dozen creatures, many with wings, but some odd ones were just big furry mammal-like creatures with the faces of buffalos. There were other platforms around them, some with flying vehicles on them, but those were mainly vehicles under maintenance as the properly working ones were capsulized.

The three boys from Awul were taking it all in when the young man who led them up there started shouting to be heard over a sudden gust of wind. "This is Pon-Gatso's airfield! There are platforms all over the tree, but this is the main one!" Sokka turned and walked over to a big buffalo creature with soft white fur with gray patterns on it, a long wide tail, and puppy-dog eyes. "And this big lump of fur," Sokka yelled, patting the big buffalo on the side, "is Appa! He's a flying bison and a good friend of mine, he'll take care of-"

The flying bison turned its head and stuck out its tongue. It licked up from Sokka's feet to his face and left the teen covered in saliva. Ben, Dash, Grif, and Natsu burst out laughing, and Black Canary couldn't help but chuckle as well. Superboy was the only other one up there with them and he just kept a frown on his face the whole time. Sokka complained at Appa for that while the flying bison itself looked to be laughing.

Appa was over ten meters long and three meters wide allowing for a large saddle on its back with seats on it. Black Canary walked up to the beast and started patting its face. Appa nuzzled up against her and she smiled at the creature. "There we go boy, okay," she grabbed its reins and started climbing up its side to the saddle.

Dash started walking around the side of the bison, but a shadow passed over his head and he looked up. It was early in the morning so the suns were still on the eastern horizon, but Superboy's body leaping over him cast a shadow for a quick moment. The muscular teenager landed on top of Appa's back right as Dinah was getting up there.

Natsu was planning on climbing up as well, but after Superboy jumped up he just had to do the same. And when Natsu leapt up on top of the fifteen foot tall bison, Ben decided he had to as well. Natsu landed and grinned at Conner Kent, and then turned in a little surprise as Ben landed next to him. Ben smirked at the surprised look, but Natsu did not stay like that for long considering all he had seen Ben do recently.

Dash was annoyed everyone was already up there, and he wondered if he could make the jump without a running start. He tried hopping up, but wound up falling short a few feet. He grabbed a handful of fur and had to pull himself up the last little bit while Natsu and Ben laughed at him. Dash finally got up with a red face right as Grif finished climbing up on the same side Black Canary went up on.

"Sure you want to come Grif?" Black Canary asked the man who walked up and sat next to her on the front row of seats. "Thought you would have rather stayed behind."

"Hey, I might be lazy, but I want to actually win a fight for once," the soldier in thick orange armor replied.

"You're that confident huh?" Dinah asked in surprise.

"The amount of battles with no chance of survival that I've lived through, even a small chance of victory seems like an easy win now." Grif sounded exasperated and excited at the same time. "Besides, if I stay here I bet I'll have to do more grunt work. You guys are going to do it all for me."

"Real noble of you," the woman in all black remarked sarcastically.

"Hey, I'm gonna look like a badass space hero again when this is done," Grif said. "My reasons don't take away from that."

"You know, you're right," Dinah agreed. "Throwing your life away for the Resistance in a low chance of survival mission is respectable no matter what reason you give. Jumping straight into enemy territory, with an entire army aiming at you, I know I wouldn't dare to do something so reckless with only a suit of armor to protect me."

Grif stayed silent. Seconds passed, and then he rose up his head, "Is it too late to back out?"

"Mission is a go!" Sokka called up to the saddle.

"Yip yip!" Black Canary called out and cracked the reins.

"Waaiiittt!" Grif yelled as the flying bison smacked its tail down and shot up in the air.

* * *

"Everyone mic check!" Canary shouted.

"Superboy," Conner Kent stated into the black microphone in front of his mouth. The mic was connected to a headset over the top of his head with thick pads outside his ears that blocked out all the wind noise around them.

"Ben here!" Ben called out.

"Dash, ready to go!"

"Natsu, all fired up!"

...

Black Canary turned to her right, "Are you ready Grif?"

"Yes yes I'm ready!" Grif shouted through chattering teeth. _Damn what did I sign up for? Gotta just stay behind the kids, they're all as badass as I am._

"Good!" Canary shouted. She then announced, "We're three minutes out. Equipment check!"

The three from Awul were somewhat confused, but they saw Grif patting down his backpack and pulling the straps tight. He lifted up his arms and checked the wing-suit that stretched out under his armpits. The soldier tapped his helmet and switched the display in his visor a few times. "Check!" He finally called out.

"Same," Superboy said, though he did none of what Grif just did.

Dash, Ben, and Natsu started doing the same thing Grif did. "I'm not so sure about these," Dash began as he pulled the straps of the pack on his back tighter. "We didn't really have much time to test them."

"Come on," Ben said to his friend. "They weren't that hard to figure out." He pulled a strap from the backpack around and held it in his right hand. He showed Dash the end of it where there was a controller and pointed at the red button on the top of it. "Just hold down harder if you're falling too fast, got it?"

"Yeah, I think so," Dash mumbled. He lifted up his arms and looked at his squirrel-suit closer. It made him grin and he stated more quietly, "I've always wanted to use one of these."

Although he was trying to whisper it to Ben, they were all wearing headsets and everyone heard what Dash said. Even the boy heard his own voice echo in his head and he spotted everyone turn to him for a second. He went red in the face but then Ben replied, "Me too." Dash looked up at his friend and saw Ben grinning back down at him. The kid stopped blushing and he smiled as well. The whole reason Ben was wearing the wing-suit and not just going to fly like usual was because he always wanted to try one out.

"It's fine to be excited, but remember this isn't a game boys," Canary announced. "We're a minute out. I'll start the countdown to drop with ten seconds left. Keep in mind, this is a one way flight. Grif and Conner both know the rendezvous point south of here. If you miss the rendezvous, it's a long trek back to Pon-Gatso."

Dash and Ben glanced at each other, then turned and looked back into the distance south of them. The tree was faded but still visible. They heard the Fire Nation's encampment was a hundred miles north, so still being able to see the tree was impressive. Then again, it was one of the tallest landmarks for thousands of miles, taller than some distant mountains. They were so high up in the air that there was a layer of clouds beneath them keeping them from seeing the ground.

"Pon-Gatso seems so close, even though we've been flying for thirty minutes," Dash said while staring back at the tree.

"I know, it's almost like-" Ben's voice got cut off by Black Canary screaming into the mic.

"Hold on!" She pulled up on the reins and Appa swerved to the left. Everyone held onto their seats as flying up on the right side of their flying bison was a rock twenty feet in diameter. The boulder was covered in flames and it came out of nowhere, bursting through the cloud layer below them. The entire group looked forward and their eyes widened as out from the cloudy sea beneath them, dozens of holes started ripping open with fireballs flying through them.

"We're going in hot!" Black Canary shouted and her voice echoed over their headsets. "Still thirty seconds out!"

"The drop zone is too hot," Superboy called out. "Pull up!"

Canary pulled on the reins and brought Appa higher in the air, but as she did, a fireball flew right in front of Appa's face and the flying bison jolted to a sudden stop. It had to slap its tail down again to keep moving and another ball of fire almost hit it in the tail. "Let's just jump here!" Ben shouted. "Appa won't make it much longer!"

"We're still miles out from the drop zone, your suits won't bring you all the way to their encampment!" Canary yelled back.

Another fireball flew up on Appa's left side and some embers from it flew off and landed on the bison's fur. It roared out in pain right as Dinah Drake shouted, "Ten! Nine…"

Dash was patting out the fire as fast as he could, but Natsu stepped up right next to him and drew the kid's attention. "Natsu, what are-"

Natsu opened up his mouth and the flames on Appa's fur went out, sucking into his mouth instead. He gulped, and then as Black Canary yelled out, "Seven," he dove off the side of the furry creature.

"Natsu!" Ben yelled after his older friend.

"Damn it," Superboy growled. "He's our trump card, we can't let him go in alone." The man stood up and ran to the side Natsu just jumped off.

"Conner!" Black Canary yelled after him, but Superboy was already leaping off the bison.

"Turn Appa around!" Ben yelled at the woman flying their ride. "We don't want him to get hurt!" Black Canary looked at Ben closely, and watched as the boy looked at his friend and nodded. The two youngest boys ran over to the side and jumped off, and Canary turned to Grif.

"You know, the longer you wait the farther in front of the others you're going to wind up," she told the hesitating soldier.

Just like that, Grif sprinted to the edge and dove off the side of the bison, (ungracefully). Black Canary looked after him and whispered into the headset, "Good luck you guys." She pulled the reins hard to the right and Appa made a sharp turn, right as another fireball flew up from the clouds beneath where he was just heading. Canary spun her head around and watched the fireball lift up behind Appa, and she let out a deep breath of relief that she did not get caught up in that.

Off of the bison, the ones who jumped were free-falling through the air. They had their arms down against their sides and were falling horizontally out of the sky with the wind pressing against their faces. "It's s-s-so c-c-cold," Dash said while his lips flapped around in the wind. The little boy with blond hair dropped only a few meters away from his older friend by a year and the two lifted up their heads to grin at each other before pointing their bodies more downwards to speed up.

As they dropped through the cloud layer beneath them, their excited looks vanished and replaced with looks of sheer panic. "That's, a big army," Ben said, not at all trying to hide the fear in his voice. They were over the empty Scorched landscape to the north of Pon-Gatso, but about three miles north of where they were falling started the enemy's encampment. "Encampment," really was not the best word for the literal town set up that stretched miles wide and even longer than that back. They could see the other side of the army because they were so high up, but even the back of the lines of tents and makeshift buildings did not end the enemies' numbers. Behind the back of their lines were trucks driving south and north as if running a supply line, and on every side of the enemies' location there were tall watchtowers that were all blaring sirens at the moment.

On the inside of the several-square mile large enemy base, were hundreds, maybe thousands of tents set up. The ground near the front lines a mile in front of them had thick steel spikes sticking out of the ground and crossing each other to stop Resistance vehicles from moving up. There were machine gun turrets up on the watchtowers, and flamethrowers on the front lines behind small stone walls set up for cover. The tents were set up in a grid pattern to leave large spaces as pathways for troops, and while the group fell from the sky they saw hundreds of soldiers running out of the makeshift buildings and out of tents and gathering up their armor and weapons.

Most of the soldiers put on red and black armor, including gauntlets, helmets, boots, and full-body tunics. There were many who did not though, and these were the ones Ben focused on more closely. _Sokka said that every army does not just have soldiers from their High Lord. Usually to make stronger alliances between members of the Cooperative, they send soldiers to help with different conquests. There should be some Chimera Ants like the ones I fought the other day, but maybe mutants like in Dressrosa too, and some other strange people with powers too._ Ben gulped as he saw the doors open on main building in the middle of the encampment, made entirely of black steel and giving off a lot of black smoke out the top of it. He was looking closer at that large building than any of the other ones billowing smoke, and he spotted several people coming out of there who looked stronger than the average soldiers.

Natsu was falling much farther down than Ben and Dash, and he was about to reach the ground. The whole time he fell though, he was sizing up the enemies' forces rather than the buildings or defenses they had set up. He saw all the soldiers in armor with spears and swords and the Fire Nation soldiers who were probably more proficient with their fire who did not carry any weapons at all. But he also spotted the different types of enemies within their ranks, and more specifically he spotted an area that made him uneasy. Some of the monsters they had been fighting since landing on Aebrith, ones he remembered from his first weeks on Nexus as well, were being held in a pen near the front of the camp. These big black beasts with bone structures on their outsides and red glowing eyes, called Grimm, were hungry for human flesh and got attracted by negative emotions, but this was the first time he saw anyone using them for their own gain.

While he fell, he saw a few Fire Nation soldiers, strange-looking ones who wore white masks that had three horizontal slits across the middle of them, walk over to the pen and slap whips down making the Grimm follow them out. At the same time, Natsu saw an area towards the back of the encampment where there was another pen full of creatures, only these were not Grimm but large, hairy, three-horned, four-legged animals. Soldiers ran over and climbed up on the creatures' backs, and cut the ropes holding them down so that they could move up. Beasts even farther back than those shot up into the air flapping their wings down and growling with mouths of sharp teeth and just as menacing riders on their backs.

For the first time since volunteering to go after the Fire Nation, Natsu had doubts about what he signed up for. _It looks like they can use a lot more than fire. I might have to be careful like Gray's been telling us._ Natsu hardened his expression and something caught his eye far to his left. Superboy had caught up to him by falling almost straight down head-first, and the teen with broader shoulders turned his head and looked over at Natsu. He nodded his head at the Fire Dragon Slayer, and then extended out his arms and the wings on his suit spread out as well. The wind caught under the wings and Conner snapped up to start gliding over the sky towards the enemy instead of straight down. As he did this, he grabbed the bottoms of the straps of his pack and he pressed down on both red buttons hard. The bottom of his pack opened up and the propulsion system turned on, shooting out hot air that propelled him through the sky much faster.

"Jetpacks are so fucking cool," Natsu said, and everyone listening through the headsets smirked a little, even Superboy who immediately frowned again afterwards. Natsu spread his arms and used the jetpack as well, doing a three-sixty roll in the air on his way towards the enemy. He shot after Superboy, but was pretty far behind the younger man who used his jetpack first. That was probably a good thing, because all of a sudden, hundreds of yellow beams started shooting up in the air from a mile and a half in front of them. Huge balls of fire flew their direction too and Natsu followed the trajectories back to a line of tanks right in the middle of the enemies' formation.

Superboy tried dodging the beams for a few seconds, but there were far too many of them and they cut right through his wing-suit. Conner's voice came over the headsets, "Don't try flying over them! Land outside and move in! I'm going-" Superboy dropped out of the sky and slammed into the ground. Static filled their headsets for a few seconds and then cut off entirely.

Natsu let go of the buttons on his straps and put his arms down at his sides. He let himself drop straight down and then tapped the buttons a few times when he was close to the ground to slow his fall. He finally just dropped the last ten meters and bent his knees upon landing. Natsu stood up fully and took his arms out of the straps. He dropped the pack on the floor and looked ahead with a worried look at a cloud of dust that rose up half a mile in front of the enemies' front lines. The dust rose up in a line from where Conner hit down in the middle of the field of metal spikes, to almost at the first walls the enemy soldiers were standing behind. "Yo Superboy, you still there?" Natsu questioned into the microphone in front of his mouth.

Inside the dust cloud, Superboy pressed his right fist down on the ground. He got up to one foot, and then off his other knee and stood up fully. He stepped forward through the cloud of dust and glared forward at the front of the enemy lines where hundreds of soldiers looked back at him with nervous looks. They made him drop a few hundred feet out of the air while filling him with beam rifle bullets, so the fact that he looked just barely bruised up, and very pissed off, was more than a little nerve-racking. Superboy stepped his right foot forward and bent down that leg, bent the front of his body, and bowed his head. He clenched his fists at his sides and ground his teeth, and then kicked off his back foot and started sprinting so fast that the ground under each step tore up into the air.

"Fire!" a man at the front of the Fire Nation's army shouted.

Thirty Fire Nation soldiers jumped up in front of the first barricades and punched their right fists out. Fireballs shot off of every single one of their arms and flew down at Superboy. The Kryptonian sprinted faster than before though and made it just underneath the first barrage of attacks that all exploded behind him. He kept charging, but the line of soldiers jumped in the air again and did a kick across the front of their bodies. They all jumped at different heights so that the whips of flames flew at him on every level. Conner had to cross his arms and just keep running forward, but he still winced in pain as the flames surrounded him for a second. Right as he got through it he opened back up his eyes, and they widened seeing an endless barrage of those flame whips coming at him so he would not have another second of break.

As the flames were about to hit him though, they all changed direction and shot to Superboy's left. He spun his head and his eyes widened as Natsu was standing there fifty feet behind him, his body leant back, and his chest puffed out as all the flames on the Scorched field sucked into his mouth. The soldiers themselves who were attacking slowed down and finally stopped as their flames were all acting weirdly. They followed the movement of their fire all the way to the point it was getting sucked into, and their jaws dropped at the sight of the man behind it who literally snacked upon their attacks.

Natsu started slowly walking forward, and he rose up his right and left fists so that they covered in flames. Those flames expanded twenty times in the matter of a few seconds so it looked like Natsu had massive bonfires on the palms of his hands. He grinned a sharp-toothed grin and then roared, "I'm all fired up!" He slammed his hands down to his sides and shot out jets of flames behind him that lifted him up just high enough to clear all the metal spikes crossing out of the ground. He flew right over the first barricades and over the front lines of soldiers who lifted up their heads and weapons to get him, but Natsu was already lifting his hands up above his head and a massive fireball had formed with the connection of the flames on his right and left hands. "Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!" Natsu smashed down the fireball right in the middle of the front lines.

An explosion of fire a hundred feet in every direction erupted below Natsu. Superboy had to raise his arms to protect his face from the heat pressing into him, and when he lowered his arms he had a stunned look on his face. When he punched Natsu in the face the first time they met, he got the wrong impression about the Dragon Slayer. He thought he was weak. Now, Superboy had a little bit of a better idea about how strong the pink haired wizard was. He himself realized he was just standing there and decided to charge back in again, though as he ran forward he spotted one of the watchtowers, the one on the front right corner of the camp, firing its machine gun turret up in the sky.

Conner spun around and looked up in the air, to see Ben and Dash flying around with their squirrel-suits, trying to dodge the bullets and beams flying up at them. He looked around for a second, and then took two steps to his right and reached his arms out. Superboy grabbed the two crossing metal beams sticking out of the ground to stop tanks from rolling in, and with one hard tug he ripped them out of the ground. The young man turned and lifted up the beam in his right hand, pulled back, and then threw it like a javelin. He waited two seconds, then nodded his head in accomplishment as the supports on the left side of the watchtower ripped apart and it started to fall over. He turned around and got ready to throw the other beam at the tower on the opposite side, but a hail of gunfire slammed into his chest before he had the chance.

The young Kryptonian skid back across the floor for a few seconds before grinding his teeth and digging in. The gunfire continued but Conner just slowly lifted his head and stared across the field of spikes to the other watchtower where he looked into the eyes of the gunman. The man behind the turret panicked at that cold gaze and stumbled back, then dove off the side of the watchtower with his partner a second before the second beam ripped through the floor and tore the tower apart.

Meanwhile, Dash and Ben were falling and although they jumped a little after Natsu and Superboy, they were falling right over them considering Appa made it farther before they dropped. They did not dive as fast either and had opened up their wing-suits earlier, allowing them to glide farther over the front of the enemy lines. "Dash, get your guard up!" Ben yelled as they dropped towards the enemy camp below. Hundreds of beams of yellow light shot up at them, but now different sized balls of fire were shooting up as well, and even a few blasts of green and blue light.

The two kids swerved left and right dodging as many attacks as they could. Dash saw two beams flying up towards his wings and he turned his body sideways, just making it in between them. He stopped himself short to let a fireball fly in front of him and then yelled out to make a white forcefield surround his body, including his wing-suit to protect it from getting ripped apart. Ben also formed a white aura around himself, and he just kept flying forward without worrying about the attacks shooting up at him. The thirteen year old started taking deep breaths, and he closed his eyes while flying forward.

"Dropping a regroup position a mile out. The capsule has cover and medical supplies in it," Grif's voice came over their headsets.

"Natsu, stop running so far ahead!" Conner yelled out, his scratchy voice echoing in Ben's ears as well. It sounded like his comms were not completely broken but there was something messed up with them for sure.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!" Natsu yelled.

"AHHHHH!" dozens of people screamed down below.

Ben snapped his eyes open as he reached a hundred feet over the camp. He was just about halfway across it, almost at the black building in the center billowing the most black smoke of any. Ben saw thousands of soldiers shooting at him or running his way to attack him when he landed. The Fire Nation tamers were dragging monsters through the camp and enemies flying on top of mounts flew above him and fired attacks down at his head. He let out his deep breath, and his body surrounded in a green light. Ben's arms and legs rippled out with muscles and his skin turned orange, with a light coating of fur growing out of him. His clothes vanished and his chest and stomach became ripped with abs and pecs, though a lighter tone of tan than the orange fur that covered the rest of his body. He grew over twice his normal height and over four times as wide as usual, broadest at his shoulders. His face looked like that of a dinosaur with small holes on its nose and glowing yellow eyes. Ben's Omnitrix symbol glowed green on the center of his tan chest, and he had a long orange tail sticking out of his butt.

The twelve foot tall monster dropped out of the air like a rock and it roared with its head pointed down at the enemies below, "HUMUNGOUSAUR!"

Ben slammed down in the middle of twenty soldiers who were waiting for him to drop originally with confident expressions on their faces, but looked a lot more afraid now. Some of them tried stabbing him with their steel spears as he dropped, but the shafts of their weapons broke as soon as Ben dropped down on them. He slammed his fists down on the ground that along with the momentum of his drop, caused the ground beneath him to crack down and break apart in every direction. Chunks of ground lifted up and slammed into enemies around him, many of whom crossed their arms to try and form some sort of guard.

Two men charged at Ben on his left and he swung his fist in a backhand swipe at them. He knocked the two of them up in the air screaming, then punched his right fist forward and hit another man charging right at his front. He felt a prick on his back and he swiped his tail back there, taking three men off their feet. A few rifle beams slammed into the back of his head and he oofed. The monster growled in a deep booming voice, "Alright, who did that?" He turned and glared behind him, only for his yellow eyes to grow wide at the sight of hundreds of people aiming at him. They took down their tents to make the area a lot more open, and now everyone could see exactly where Ben landed.

A mile to his right he saw pillars of flames rising up and more explosions going off. The watchtowers around the camp were constantly firing, **Do-Do-Do-Do-Do-Chhhhh!** The spray of gunfire ripped across the camp and Ben watched as twenty men got tossed into the air by an explosion closer to the front of the army. _This is nuts!_ He crossed his arms in front of him as more and more people fired weapons at him, and he was getting nervous about their chances here. _Bigger!_ He growled and his body started rising up, getting to twenty feet, to thirty, all while his enemies yelled at each other in panic.

"Fire!" a woman's voice shouted, and suddenly Ben felt a sharp shock in his back. The sensation and pain of something slamming into the center of his back was topped by electricity filling his entire body and he roared out in pain. He stumbled forward and reached a hand behind his back, rubbing the spot where a bolt of lightning just slammed straight into his fur. Humumgousaur turned around and glared down, to see a young woman with her black hair up in a bun wearing a suit of thin black armor with dark red spaulders on that spiked out to her sides. There was a man next to her with green hair who had an oddly familiar face. They were both frowning up at him from behind twenty columns of soldiers who fired their weapons together at the humongous beast.

"RAAA!" Ben roared down at them, but the woman and the man next to her did not flinch. The girl just smirked wider and the man at her side continued to frown calmly. Ben hated those confident looks on their faces and he started charging forward. Men and women ran out of his way as he charged, his feet shaking the battlements, and Ben roared out, "Let's see how you like this!" He jumped up in the air and his body surrounded in green light again. When the light was gone, Ben's body had completely changed. He was now eight feet tall with a body that was mostly black with white only in a vertical line up the center of his torso and splitting off around both sides of his black neck. The green hourglass Omnitrix symbol stayed in the same spot in the center of his chest, but he had one green eye now in the middle of his face. His body was tall and lanky, with thin legs and arms, and two long antennae sticking off the top of his head that pushed back like slicked-back hair. At the ends of his long black arms were hands that had strange-looking fingers though, little yellow tubes that looked to be made of metal and were sparking electricity. The end of his antennae and the end of his long black tail had similar yellow plugs on them that looked like they were meant to be inserted into outlets. "Feedback!" Ben yelled in a more high-pitched voice than the low roar of his previous transformation.

Feedback dropped down on the ground and he pushed both hands back behind him. Out of the conductors on his fingers shot beams of blue light that lifted him off the ground and shot him forward. He saw the woman with a black bun pointing two fingers up in the air at him, and watched as static electricity formed around her fingers. She fired the attack, and the antennae sticking behind Ben's back whipped around the front. They stopped in front of his body and started absorbing the energy she fired at him. The woman attacking him lowered her arm in surprise, and then the alien fired the energy back by pointing his tail between his legs and shooting a beam of blue light her way.

She leapt out of the way as did the man with her, but the others in their vicinity were all caught up in the explosion. Ben dropped down on the ground and a few men went in to slash at him, but he was much more agile in this form as well and started sprinting in and out of the ranks of enemy soldiers. He let them slash by him and smacked his hands out to the sides without coursing any electricity through his arms. He was super strong in this form anyway though, and each smack knocked soldiers off their feet and sent them flying. As he was about to reach the enemy leaders, Ben had a sudden realization, _My watch is going to hit its time limit soon!_ He froze in place, and at that second the man with green hair charged him.

The guy got right up in front of Ben's face and this time the alien boy definitely knew he had seen the man before. "Sanji?" Feedback asked, and the man pulling back a fist to hit him froze in place. The man had swirly eyebrows just like Sanji, but he was wearing a set of big headphones that curved over the top of his head and had a pair of sunglasses up front on his slicked back green hair that pulled into a ponytail behind his head. He had a green neckerchief around his neck, a black cloak on with the number four on it, and he was wearing heavy-looking steel gloves. The man hesitated for a second, and he watched as Ben's body covered in a green light and transformed him back into the same small kid they saw falling from the sky before. "Is, that you, Sanji?" Ben asked, feeling nervous as the man looked similar but still a little different from his good friend.

"How do you know, that bastard Sanji's name?" The man in front of him growled. "He's supposed to be dead."

"So, you're not him?" Ben asked, while everyone around them just stared at the two of them in confusion. "But, you look so much alike."

"No I'm not that pathetic runt," the man growled. "I am Yonji. Tell me, did my useless brother come back to life on this world?"

"Come back to life?" Ben muttered confusedly. "I don't think Sanji ever died."

"Ehh? Then he would be a man around my age, not a brat like you," Yonji remarked.

"Yeah, he is a man your age," Ben retorted like the man in front of him was an idiot. The guy looked surprised at that statement, but got even more confused as Ben started smirking at him much wider than a second ago. "Damn you're stupid. I needed some time to recharge, and you just stood there and gave it to me." The older man ground his teeth in anger and pulled back his fist, but Ben's body surrounded in green light again. Yonji punched forward anyway, and as the green light went away he smirked at the sight of his fist pressing against Ben's face.

Ben's normal head snapped to the side and he felt a bruise forming on his right cheek, but he did not go flying backwards. He just continued to stand in place as he turned his head forwards, pushing Yonji's hand back as he did. The man in front of him went wide-eyed at the sight of the kid's competitive grin, the glint in his black-irised eyes of a true warrior, and the brown tail sticking out of his butt. "Saiyan Ben," he growled. Ben lifted off the ground in one fluid motion so his face was at the same level as Yonji's, and then he kicked up under the man's chin and sent him flying back over all of his men.

At this point, the Fire Nation started to panic. "Commander Yonji!"

"Yonji's down!"

"No I'm not!" Yonji roared and flew up in the air. As he rose up, Ben shot towards him in a blur of white light. The kid punched at Yonji as the man punched down at him, and their fists pushed against each other in midair. Ben spotted a ball of blue fire rising towards him and he backflipped in midair, then dropped down and slammed both of his legs at the top of Yonji's head. Yonji rose his arms and blocked the kicks, but he yelled out, "Stay out of this Azula! I can handle this brat!"

"Watch your tone with me, husband," Azula snapped right back up, and she fired another ball of fire at the two of them flying in the air. "Stay out of my flames or get burned."

Yonji opened his mouth to reply, but as he was distracted by Azula, Ben's fist got past his guard. His eyes only had a split second to widen before Ben's fist indented into his face and the boy pushed hard into it, knocking Yonji into the distance where he slammed into a tank and that tank exploded. Ben dropped out of the air and he turned right towards the growling coming from the creatures of Grimm being led his way. "KAME-" Ben began, and everyone near him froze in place. They stopped charging him and even Azula lowered her arm and her body felt chills.

"What is he doing?!"

"It can't be!"

"He's faking it!"

"HAME!" Ben roared, and his hands that he pulled down to his right side started to glow. A blue orb of light illuminated there and grew into the size of a bowling ball. It gave off so much light that everything around him started glowing blue.

"RUN AWAY!"

"AHHH!"

 _Guess they know what's coming,_ Ben thought. He shoved his hands forward and screamed, "HAAAAAA!" The blue orb at the connection of his hands flew off and a beam of blue pushed against the back of it. It flew forward into the front lines of the Grimm, and it tore straight through the spiky black beasts. Their bodies ripped apart while the men leading them dove to the sides and still got thrown by the beam. Ben's attack kept going until it slammed into one of the smaller buildings that was giving off a lot of black smoke, and the ball of light erupted in a huge explosion the likes of which Ben had never created before. The dome of blue light rose up thirty meters high and spread fifty in diameter. Ben himself stared at the explosion with widening eyes for a few seconds before looking back down at his hands in amazement.

As he stood there looking at his hands, apparently someone got the idea to attack him and five soldiers punched their fists his way at the same time. Five balls of fire flew at Ben and collided at the same time, making the young man with a brown tail stumble to the side and yell out in pain as he got surrounded by fire. Ben flew straight up to escape the flames, but as he rose, that woman from before pointed two fingers up at him and another bolt of lightning shot out of her hands. Ben remembered the story he heard from Sokka about the Fire Nation's leader and his great granddaughter, and telling from the level of power this fire bender had, he had figured out who it was even before Yonji called out her name. _Azula, I have to be careful of her,_ he dodged the lightning by barely getting his head out of the way in time, and he knew she was the one who hurt him back when he was Humungousaur; he could still feel the burn on his back.

Before Ben could approach the woman who was moving her arms around in a strange pattern to create more fire, his wrist lit up red and he snapped his gaze to it. _What?! The time should not have run out that fast, unless I didn't wait long enough when I was talking to Yonji. No, I should have had more time!_ His whole body flashed red and his tail vanished, as did his white aura. _Calm down Ben, bring back the aura and keep it up until the watch is better. You are strong!_ He convinced himself and brought his fists down to his side, elbows tucked in. "Raaaa, RAAAAA, AAAHHHHH!" A white aura rippled around Ben's body and the ground underneath his feet started shaking. Little rocks lifted up in the air and broke apart inside his thin aura, and Ben snapped up his head to look over at Azula.

The young woman facing off against him still had a smirk on her face, and he had no idea why until he saw the figure out the corner of his eye. It happened so fast he almost did not see it coming, someone popping up out of the ground next to him with a hairless green head and body, and eight arms sticking out on either side. His lanky arms were white but with dark green hands the same color as his torso. He looked like a centipede, but was as tall as a human, and had a human's face. _Chimera Ant,_ Ben thought, and then the figure's body covered in a white aura right as it started swinging the eight arms on the right forward. _It can control its energy!_ He realized, and moved his arms in to block the punches.

The hits were still hard and Ben got knocked back through the air so he landed on his feet and skid away several yards. He kept skidding and tore right through a tent, then tripped on a pile of logs and started tumbling backwards before flipping himself back up on one hand and skidding more on one hand, a knee, and a foot. "He's mine Centipede!" A voice yelled to Ben's right. The kid spun his head to the right only to see an armadillo standing on two legs, the same height as an average person but with a rat's face and sharp teeth. The creature jumped up in the air and curled in, its back curling around the rest of its body to make it round with the hard shell on the outside.

"You can try Baro!" the other Chimera Ant who punched Ben first yelled, and he dropped down on all sixteen legs and started crawling across the ground at forty miles per hour. Baro was moving even faster though, as when he curled into a ball he was able to speed up twice as fast as before by rolling his way towards Ben. The two Chimera Ants raced across the battlefield and around them, Fire Nation soldiers were charging at Ben as well.

He heard shouting behind him and glanced back to see another squad of fighters charging at his back. They punched their fists forward or jumped and kicked, sending powerful fire attacks his way. At the same time, two creepy red-eyed men riding dragons dove down towards Ben and fired their glowing green cannons at him. He was being attacked from every side and he had no idea what to do.

"I've got your back!" a voice shouted, coming in on Ben's headset, though the boy could hear it behind him too. Dash came out of nowhere leaving a path of rising dust behind him. He ran right in front of the flaming attacks heading for Ben's back and the wind funnel from him running so fast caught all of the flames. Dash did a full circle around the enemies behind Ben and kept running faster and faster until the flames were whipping around in a flaming cyclone. "Woohoo!" He yelled while leaving his tornado and letting it take the enemies away with it. He sprinted forward and jumped up in the air, while forming two large balls of yellow light on his hands. "Watch this!" He yelled, and fired his attacks up in the air.

The two huge green bursts of energy dropping from the sky that were fired from the dragon-riders' cannons slammed into each of Dash's attacks and exploded in huge spheres of yellowish-green light in the sky. The riders were too close to the blasts and yelled out as they were thrown from the backs of their mounts that reared to get away from the explosions. "Yaahoooo!" Dash screamed as he came back down and continued running faster than anyone could see.

When Dash shouted at Ben to 'watch this' the older boy almost did, but with Dash guarding his back, he knew where his focus had to be. He looked ahead at the enemies charging him and he calmed down his breathing. They were approaching fast, they had unknown skills, but they were powerful, and if he focused too much on them, other enemies would take advantage of the situation. _Not another Kamehameha, save that for last if you need one final attack. Don't waste energy with ki attacks, but fly if you need to dodge and don't have anywhere else to go. Flying could also work out well 'cause I could stop those riders from attacking us from above. But then these two will still be trouble for the others. I should take them down now._ Ben stared at Baro, the armadillo Chimera Ant who was approaching fastest. All his thoughts happened in the matter of a few seconds, and Dash did everything behind him in only one or two, but Baro was already on him and he still did not have a great plan of action.

"Alright, here goes!" Ben jumped to the left and he rose his arms at the same time. As he was jumping to the left, hoping his enemy would roll right by him, he saw something sticking out of the back of Baro's ball. The creature had a tail, one that he slapped down on the ground to change his trajectory mid-roll and send him straight after Ben at the same speed at before. The ant grinned as he figured he had the boy, then became very confused as something hard crashed into his shell and knocked him backwards. He unrolled and looked forward, only to see the boy who a second before had nothing in his hands, holding a long blade with a key at the end of it. The armadillo was still falling, but Ben pointed his Keyblade forward and aimed straight at the monster's unguarded stomach, "Fire!"

The tip of his Keyblade glowed red for a second, and then a tiny fireball shot off of it and slammed straight into Baro's chest. The Chimera Ant yelled out in pain and he fell down on his back, but Ben frowned at the weak power of his Keyblade's magic. _Riku totally would have blown him away with that attack._ He realized he was distracted and spun, just in time as Centipede caught up and started slamming down a barrage of punches too fast for Ben to dodge them all. Punches were getting by his defense as he tried swinging his Keyblade around to knock them all back. _Too fast!_ Ben jumped back to gain some distance but the Chimera Ant jumped right after him.

Ben slashed his Keyblade forward and the ant ducked under it, leaning his head forward towards Ben's neck. _He's going to bite me!_ Ben realized, and in that same moment he saw something that made him grin. He slammed his eyes shut, and when he opened them back up they were pure orange. Two more eyeholes opened up above those, and Ben's skin turned red. Two arms ripped out beneath his armpits, all four of them grew muscular, and he flexed them at his sides. Centipede panicked as the boy he was about to bite down on grew twice his original height and many times in size, but he did not back off nearly fast enough to dodge the quadruple-fisted punch that hit him a second later. "Fourarms baby!" Ben shouted victoriously.

As Centipede flew off of Ben's fists, he turned to the other Chimera Ant he knew would be rolling back towards him in a second. Baro looked seriously pissed off and the armadillo's eyes glowed bright red as he rolled back into a ball. He shot forward, speeding up and up and he jumped up in the air above Ben. "RAA!" A voice roared behind Ben and a huge tube of spinning flames wrapped around the ant who screamed as he got caught up in it and all burnt up.

Centipede spun towards his comrade. "Baro!" He shouted, but the armadillo-type ant was lying unmoving on the ground. He saw the one who burned him land far to the left and he darted his eyes that way, _He takes pauses between fire attacks, after the next one I'll go in for the-_ "Agh-" Centipede's body doubled over as there was now a fist imbedded in his gut. Dash Parr followed through with his punch and then pumped the fist in the air as his enemy went flying, "Another one for the Dashmeister!" He landed on the ground and Ben came running up to him back in human form. Screams rang out on their right, and then Natsu came running through a wall of fire up to them as well.

"Looks like you guys made it down okay," Natsu remarked between panting breaths as he finally took a break.

"Where's Superboy?" Dash questioned.

"His comms are acting up," a voice said over the headset. They could hear Grif even though he was nowhere in sight, and the missing soldier continued, "But I see him three quarters of a mile to the left of your position. He's facing off against some powerful fire benders over there. Someone should go help him out."

"Yeah, and why don't you do that?" Ben questioned the man speaking in their ears.

Grif laughed and the others sweatdropped. The soldier standing miles south of them, on top of the roof of a building he popped open from inside a capsule, lifted his hand from the top of his helmet and grabbed the Grif Shot 2.0 off his back. "I'm guarding your escape route in case you need it. But so far you guys are looking good, keep up the good work! Grif out."

Though the soldier was staying far away from the battle, he lifted his rifle towards the enemies. _They've got us outnumbered a thousand to one, but we've totally got this._ He noticed his Grif Shot was shaking and he steadied it over the wall's edge that he was standing behind. "Take this!" He yelled out, and started firing his knife-gun. The rifle worked as a grenade launcher and a few seconds after Grif fired his first shot, one of the watchtowers on the side of the encampment exploded. The armored Resistance soldier slowly dropped his jaw and watched as the tower burst into flames and started creaking before violently collapsing. Fire Nation soldiers were screaming and yelling out, but Grif started yelling for a different reason. "Oh yeah! Go Grif! I'm awesome!"

The celebrating soldier suddenly saw a large group of enemies turning his way and he gulped, his loud cheers silencing. He was feeling cocky though, and he leaned over the wall and cupped his free hand to his mouth, "Come get some!" He rose up the Grif Shot and fired a few more attacks, making explosions all over the front lines of soldiers who were regrouping to go charging into their own forces to hunt down their enemies. Their attentions were turned back in front of them and they looked across the field covered in metal spikes towards a single black building that seemed to be the enemy's headquarters. There was only one man on top of that building, and since they were on the front lines they all saw him drop from the sky a few minutes ago and knew he was the only one over there.

"Let's go take him down!" a soldier yelled, a man holding two ferocious-looking Grimm back with leashes. He let go of the leashes and the creatures charged, while close to fifty Fire Nation soldiers ran forward as well. Grif dropped his jaw and started shooting faster, but his gun started clicking without firing anything. "Crap! Ammo!" He spun and looked down, to see only one extra rack of ammo up here. _No. Did I…_ "Umm, guys," Grif said, and the others fighting in the camp ahead of him listened to his voice over the comms. "I might have forgotten to stock the base with extra ammo."

Grif peeked down inside the lower level but he did not see any extra ammo down there either. He reloaded his gun with the one magazine of extra grenades he did bring, but his voice sounded panicky over the mics as he called for help.

Natsu, Ben, and Dash looked at each other, and Dash nodded his head, "I got this." The little blond boy who was fastest of them all turned and sprinted back for their helpless comrade. As he ran off, Natsu and Ben faced off against a woman who regrouped her forces before them.

Azula stood in front of her army. They were caught mostly off guard by the sudden attack from the sky, but her troops were prepared now. The Fire Nation soldiers were armed and armored, they knew their enemies' strengths, and they had much higher numbers. Behind her rolled up several dozen tanks, and flying in the air above them were some small dragons with riders on them. Standing between the tanks were tall creatures with four long lanky legs and slender green bodies. The Eel Hounds were the fastest mounts of the Fire Nation and the riders on top of them looked more elite than the other soldiers surrounding the two boys in front of them. They all had bald heads and held whips in one hand and pistols or rifles in the other.

Rhinoceroses stomped over with more heavyset bald riders sitting atop each of them. The rhinos had three horns on their faces with the longest one sticking out of their snouts, and two others sticking out the tops of their heads like bulls. "You two there," Azula said, pointing at the people in front of her. "Can I assume you are the Resistance's counterattack?"

As she spoke, Centipede got up on her left side and he rubbed his stomach where Dash punched him before. He growled under his breath, _If I didn't focus Nen in that spot, I'd be out cold right now._ He stepped forward and cracked the joints in his long arms as he glared at the small boy he was fighting before. Ben glanced back at him but then looked straight ahead at Azula to speak. "This is the one chance we'll give you," Ben called out in a cocky tone. Azula started snarling at him and Ben called out louder, "If you want to run, go for it! If not," he rose up his left fist and clenched it hard, "prepare to get creamed."

"Why should we run?" a voice asked behind him. Ben's eyes opened wide as neither him nor Natsu were paying attention and did not realize someone was this close to them. They started to turn but Natsu's body clenched up next to Ben. Ben was midway through his turn when Natsu tensed up, and the younger kid opened his eyes huge at the sight of a long stinger sticking out of Natsu's side. The stinger was connected to a skinny purple tail coming out of the back of a woman floating in the air behind them. She must have dropped from the sky when they were not looking, and she flapped her wings to keep herself up. Her whole body was purple, she was wearing a blue crop-top and a pair of green shorts, and she had a white mask covering the bottom half of her face.

Mosquito turned her head towards Ben and snickered at the boy's horrified look as he stared at Natsu's impaled side. "Die!" She yelled, and the Chimera Ant's white mask broke. A hole ripped right in the middle of it and a stinger like the one sticking out of Natsu's side propelled at Ben fast. He was still looking at Natsu's side when the attack started coming at him and he panicked as he could not dodge in time. He started thinking about which alien to turn into to save himself, but would have been far too late to save himself. Luckily, there was one other person still on the battlefield who happened to be watching and waiting for the right time to strike at Azula. Superboy came out of hiding early though when Natsu was stabbed, and he slammed a fist into the stinger shooting at Ben, snapping the female ant's stinger with one punch.

She screamed and purple goo which was probably her blood flew out of her mouth. Mosquito released her hold on Natsu, and Conner grabbed the pink haired man who was staggering around where he stood. Conner leapt back and Ben, still in panic, jumped back with him. They increased their distance from the enemy army and Superboy put down Natsu. He turned and punched away the fastest enemies who came charging at them now that they were at a disadvantage, and he shouted, "Natsu's been poisoned. We have to get out of here!"

Ben looked at the Kryptonian and then around at the huge army around him. _Run? Run away? The Resistance is losing. All we've heard since we got here is how they keep losing over and over. If we want to be the ones to show them they can really do this, we can't lose our first big fight._ "No way," Ben said. He looked down at Natsu who was gasping for breath on the ground and coughing in pain. "Isn't that right Natsu?" Ben asked.

Superboy opened his mouth to shout at his stupidity, but a fist slammed down on the ground and he looked down to see Natsu pushing himself to get back up. His body was trembling and blood came out of his nostrils, but he was pushing himself up nonetheless. Ben smirked and he ducked under a ray beam flying his way, then pointed his right hand the other direction and fired a small ball of white ki towards where the beam came from. The ball exploded and he heard people scream, but he kept looking at Natsu as he did. _I said all that, but…_ "Superboy," Ben began, turning to the teen next to him with a look of realization. "That base Grif dropped, we have antidotes there right?"

Conner Kent's eyes widened and he nodded his head once. "Good," Ben said, then spoke more directly into his headset. "Dash, you hear that? Natsu's been poisoned. Get some medicines and come back-"

"Already here," Dash said as he showed up standing right behind Natsu's kneeling body. He did not have any antidotes on him, and he exclaimed as he moved his head back and forth to dodge beams, "We're too out in the open to give him medicine! I'll get Natsu back to the base, it's safe now." He reached down and hoisted up the poisoned, bloody older boy. "Let's go Natsu," Dash said, and he raced back across the battlefield.

As soon as they were gone, balls of fire came in from every direction. "Now!" Azula shouted, and every one of her fire benders attacked behind the fireballs already surrounding their enemies. More fire pushed into the backs of the first attacks and all the flames condensed on one point around Ben and Conner. She was glad Mosquito took out the man who could eat their flames and now she felt she had their enemies right where she wanted them. "You can't win!" Azula yelled into the flames as she heard two distinct screams coming from inside.

Inside the temporary base, Dash spun his head around nervously as he heard the agonized screams of his best friend in his ear. He looked back up and heard Grif shouting from the roof that there were more enemies heading south to attack them at their base. Dash looked down at Natsu who he administered the antidote to as fast as he could. "Natsu," Dash said, sounding pretty unnerved as he did. The older man lying on his back on the table on the first floor shifted his eyes to the short boy next to him. "We need your help out there. Don't take too long, okay?" Before waiting for a response, Dash turned and vanished out the base's door.

Dash sprinted back across the field and knocked everyone running for their base back to their tank-stopping lines. He kept going but skidded to a stop at the sight of a dome of fire so large it looked like one of Natsu's stronger attacks. More and more fighters for the Fire Nation kept adding flames to the fire, making it bigger and bigger every second. His eyes got watery as he no longer heard Ben's screams in his earpiece or coming from the flames in front of him. "Ben," Dash whispered.

"HEATBLAST!" A voice yelled from inside the flames. All the soldiers went wide-eyed at hearing a voice that did not sound to be in pain coming from inside their combined attack, and then that dome exploded outwards. Dash blinked a few times in shock then smiled wide and pumped a fist in the air. The exploding fireball sent flames in every direction, hitting all the men and women surrounding the two they were trying to burn alive. An alien made of molten rock with glowing eyes that matched the color of his spiky flaming hair looked down into the center of the explosion he just came out of. "Superboy, you alright?" He called down to the man whose shirt was gone and who had some pretty bad burns on his arms that were crossed in front of his chest.

 _Thought I was a goner there for a second,_ Conner thought. He lowered his arms and looked up at Ben, nodding at the kid who just saved his life. He snapped his gaze back down and glared at Azula who was snarling as she also thought he was done for there. He bent his legs and charged towards the woman, but out of Azula's feet came two streams of blue fire that propelled her up in the air. She swung her arms around in the air and punched both fists down at the end of her motions, firing large spheres of blue flames at the muscular teen down below. Conner slammed a fist into the first fireball, but it exploded on his hand and he roared at how hot the blue flames were compared to all the others. The second fireball was coming towards him, and he dove to the right to dodge it this time.

The explosion from that second fireball was still going to get Superboy and an alien in the sky knew it. "Got it!" Ben yelled, flying down by shooting flames out of his own feet, and pressing both of his hands into the end of the blue fireball. He yelled out and streams of flames shot out of his glowing red hands that pushed into the fireball and sent it flying back at Azula. Azula bent her knees and leaned back so far that her body was horizontal to the ground a foot below her, so Ben's counterattack shot over her head. She turned and watched them fly off, then spun as her Observational Haki told her the boy was approaching. She saw him coming shrouded in green light, and she wondered what he was going to turn into this time. Her eyes opened wide and Azula doubted she would ever get used to the changes this boy underwent in the matter of seconds.

Ben now had giant blue butterfly wings sticking out of his back, two large antennae that looked like scissors sticking out of the top of his scalp, and a head that looked just like a bug's only with glowing green eyes. His body was a lighter blue than the dark blue wings behind him that were over ten feet tall, he had a green Omnitrix symbol on his chest, and highlighting the light blue color of his body were black areas of skin on his sides, underarms, and backs of his legs. "Big Chill!" Ben shouted.

Dash looked up in the air in awe at his best friend as this was not an alien he had seen him use before. The little kid with blond hair was not under attack, as most of the front lines of the Fire Nation's forces had been routed to a point farther back in their ranks. The four watchtowers closest to the front of the Fire Nation army were either smoldering piles of rubble from the Grif Shot 2.0 or had collapsed when Superboy threw metal beams at them. Tents all around were on fire as were the piles of firewood the Fire Nation had gathered. There were many injured enemies lying all over the ground, most of them unconscious. Some were limping backwards, and Dash could see large groups of enemies setting up a point for them all to gather on farther back in their ranks. The only one still fighting this far forward was Azula, and back in those ranks he saw the Chimera Ants Centipede and the female ant Mosquito who had purple blood surrounding her mouth but still a working poisonous stinger on her tail. Near them he spotted the green-haired man Ben fought originally sporting a bloody nose and black eye, but back up on his feet and pushing away the medic, (who Dash could tell was a medic by the white pack the soldier was holding with a red cross on it), helping him. There was another man at the front of those forces who Ben had not seen yet but looked very dangerous to him, and the figure marched out in front of the forces to show he was not afraid to go past their regroup point.

This man had two flamethrowers strapped to his wrists constantly spewing out flames, but those flames were getting bigger and bigger and started making strange patterns, and Dash doubted the weapons could do that on their own. The man had tight yellow spandex covering his body, red boots and gloves, the pack on his back connecting to his flamethrowers by yellow tubes was also red, and he had on a red jacket that looked to be flameproof too. He had on a red mask that covered his light-skinned face and tall wavy blond hair that swirled around above his head as the wind from his flames pushed it back. "Pyro, get back here!" Yonji yelled at the mutant in their army, a high-ranking soldier who their ally Magneto provided them.

"You gonna let your wife take them on on her own, coward?" Pyro snarled without turning around.

This remark made Yonji's forehead scrunch up and he clenched his teeth angrily. _First thing he does when he arrives with forces from the supply line is disobey a direct order! I don't care if he's another Lord's represenative, I'll kill him!_ He looked up and continued thinking, _Azula can handle herself. That boy is pretty strong, but she knows he has a time limit. There's no way…_ Yonji's eyes opened wide at the sight of the two beams pressing against each other in the air. The beams were different shades of blue, Azula's dark blue flames, and the light blue icy beams shooting out of Big Chill's black palms. The blue backs of Ben's hands glowed brighter blue and he yelled, "AHHH!" The soldiers of the Fire Nation all looked up and saw the icy beam double in size, pushing back Azula's attack and finally reaching her arms, instantly freezing them as she lost the flames that were slowing Ben's attack down.

"Raa!" Azula shouted as her arms froze. She started falling out of the air but turned herself as she did and shot flames towards Ben out of her feet, stopping the boy who was about to give chase. She propelled herself at her army and flew behind the front ranks of soldiers before crashing down. She hit the ground hard and winced in pain, but got back up to her feet and glared at the closest soldiers to her. "Thaw my arms," she growled at them. The soldiers did not hesitate as they saw that insane look that Azula occasionally had in her eyes. They rose their arms and created flames around the ice cubes that were their General's arms.

Yonji glanced back at Azula, then turned and prepared to stop the monster that would be giving chase to her. Big Chill did not follow her though, instead wrapping in green light and staying in midair. Yonji smirked as he saw this and he yelled, "Not this time!" Ben snapped his gaze down and he frowned as he remembered telling Yonji that he needed time before to recover, really just as a taunt because Yonji had given him that time. This time though, Yonji yelled, "Take him down now! Before he can transform again!"

 _I can transform right now,_ Ben thought aggravatedly. _But he's right. If I transform now, I probably would only have a minute, then lose my ability to transform for a few more. I have to fight for twenty seconds without it. Ten apparently was not enough when I did it last time._ He dropped out of the air and saw the lines of Fire Nation soldiers running towards him. The man at the front, who had already been jogging forward when Yonji shouted, pointed his flamethrowers at Ben and fired. He was already releasing a huge amount of flames, but when Pyro actually attacked, those flames shooting out of his flamethrowers increased ten times.

Dash was just about to run forward to help Ben, when Pyro released his flames and even from a hundred meters back he could feel the intense inferno pressing against his skin. He shielded his burning face with one arm and yelled, "Ben! Get back!"

The other boy was blinded by the sudden explosion of flames, and he tried flying backwards as the heat was too intense right in front of him. Superboy stopped running forward as well when he saw all those flames, and he looked behind him with a deep grimace. _Natsu, where the Hell are you? Was that poison lethal? The antidote should work for most known poisons, but this Chimera Ant's may have been unknown. If Natsu's done for, then there's no way we'll be able to stop this entire army. Even Dash won't be able to stop them all if they cover the entire place with flames._ Conner looked down at his burnt chest and he frowned at the fact that his shirt with the letter 'S' on it was gone. He knew that 'S' did not actually stand for Superboy, or for Superman, but it was the Kryptonian symbol for hope that just happened to look like the English letter 'S.' It also represented the House of El, Superman's house. As he thought about his missing symbol, his eyes widened and he looked back up at the two children backing away from the wall of fire that kept getting bigger as it got closer to them.

"Yeah Captain Pyro!"

"Take them down!"

The soldiers on the other side of the flame wall punched their fists in the air and sent celebratory fireballs into the sky. Others waved around their spears, swords, and rifles while windriders, lion-like creatures with large bat wings sticking out of their furry arms and long spiky purple tails, and their riders did loops in the sky behind the massive wall of fire pushing their enemies back. They waved around their glowing green cannons and their mounts roared as the flames grew even hotter.

Rhinos and Eel Hounds stepped back but their riders did not care. The fat bald men on top of the three-horned rhinos cracked their whips in the air above them. The magnificent feat of power Pyro was showing off made the entire army a lot more confident. Captain Pyro had arrived ten minutes after the battles started, coming back from Sin City with over a dozen trucks full of men and supplies with him. One of the only people not cheering stood twenty feet behind Pyro though. Yonji had a bead of sweat coming down the left side of his face. _Why did I have to get married to the woman whose always surrounded by fire?_ He wiped some sweat off his forehead and then glared less menacingly at Pyro's back, _I take back what I said before. I would rather not get into a fight with this mutant, but still…_ "Pyro!" He shouted up at the man using his flamethrowers to rip apart everything in front of him for fifty meters on either side of his body and just as far forward. The mutant grunted to acknowledge him and Yonji yelled, "If that kid is able to transform again, he might have something that can stop you! So stop showing off and finish them!"

Pyro stopped making such massive attacks of fire and when his fireball went down he could see the two kids still on the other side of his attack with a muscular man farther behind them. "Alright," he growled, opening up the palms of his hands and making all the fire condense into two huge fireballs. He punched his right hand forward first and the massive fireball flew straight towards Ben. The kid sprinted to his right to dodge, but Pyro blew up his attack preeminently, blasting Ben backwards as he was not expecting the sudden explosion. As Ben hit the ground and rolled back, Pyro threw his other fireball forward.

"Ben!" Dash yelled. He turned and sprinted towards Ben who just started staggering back up. Dash barely slowed down as he grabbed Ben and the jolt really hurt Ben's arms as Dash grabbed him and kept running. The older boy did not complain though, as the fireball heading to the spot he was just lying grew three, then four times in size. It exploded where he just was and the flames expanded out fast. Dash dug his feet in as he felt the flames on his back, burning through the black fabric of his clothes that the Resistance gave him _because_ they were supposed to be fire-resistant. He sped up even faster and he and Ben's faces got pressed back by the wind, their cheeks and lips flapping until Dash finally slowed down because the fireball was no longer on them.

The two boys who came to a stop started panting hard, and they heard groaning over the microphones on their heads. At first they thought it was Natsu, but they realized that someone else was a lot closer to that explosion than they were and spun around. They looked back and shouted together, "Superboy!" The explosion of fire was fading and the ground was already Scorched so there was nothing to stay lit, quickly letting the flames extinguish. Lying on his stomach and face was Conner, barely moving though they could hear his voice in their heads.

Pyro looked to his right over at the kids, then turned forward and growled, "I can at least take one of you down." The man lifted up his arms, but in the corner of his vision he saw a bright green light flash.

"You idiot!" Yonji yelled.

Pyro started to turn, but before he was even halfway turned to his right, two figures had appeared in front of him. There was the tall alien that was mostly black with only a few light blue highlights of stripes on its tail, its blue arms, and the blue face once its mask opened up revealing its glowing green eyes. XLR8 had a single white line going up its chest with the Omnitrix symbol in the center of it, and black lines going across its face that wrapped around its green eyes. XLR8 had its right hand pulled back and so did Dash, and the two of them swung forward at the same time, hitting Pyro in either side of his chest and knocking the fire mutant off his feet and flying a hundred feet backwards before hitting the ground and rolling, his pack and flamethrowers breaking apart as he did.

"Captain Pyro!" a soldier yelled, then dropped his jaw as a blond boy's face appeared in front of his own.

"What's happening?!" A man screamed as soldiers around him were getting knocked off their feet every second. Black and blue blurs raced through the Fire Nation's ranks and men went flying in every direction.

Yonji spun around trying to locate an enemy, but even his Observational Haki was much too slow to let him block when he felt the high-speed punch coming for his face. Ben did not just punch the man once, but sent a flurry of punches and kicks into Yonji's chest and face to make sure he did not get back up this time. A tooth flew out of Yonji's mouth and his nose cracked on the next punch. XLR8 had a conflicted look on his face, as beating someone this badly would make him uneasy on its own, but beating someone who looked like a close friend of his, it was even worse. _It's not Sanji,_ he thought, right before spinning a kick at twice the speed of sound into the side of Yonji's head and making the man crash backwards into a dozen of his men, sending them all tumbling through their ranks into a tank that got a large dent in it.

That tank turned its main cannon to the spot Yonji was just in and fired. There were men around it, but the driver could not risk losing sight of the alien again. It fired and a huge fireball exploded on the spot. He looked up from his firing mechanism and gazed over at the flames to see if there was a burning alien inside them. The next second, the top of the tank was open and he lifted his head to see the alien smirking down at him. "Ahh-" Ben grabbed him by the top of his armor and threw him out of the tank, then jumped off as two other tanks turned their cannons towards him and fired at the same time.

Azula looked around as her tanks exploded one by one and her men were getting tossed around like ragdolls. She spun to her right and yelled, "Centipede! Mosquito! Find those boys and-" As she was talking, Mosquito disappeared. Centipede spun to his side in shock as his fellow Chimera Ant vanished. He spun around as did Azula, but when she finished spinning, Centipede was missing too, and there was a boy with short blond hair standing there. Dash put his hands up to his cheeks, pressed his thumbs into them, stuck out his tongue and blew it at her in a taunting way. As soon as he did it, he regretted it. The look on Azula's face scared him and he decided not to mess with her anymore and to just charge her instead. Azula was not waiting for him though. As soon as the kid taunted her, she screamed with an enraged look on her face and crossed her arms in front of her chest, before punching both fists down at the floor.

A circle of blue flames surrounded her and then expanded in every direction. Dash tried stopping his sprint but the flames rose up under him before he could change directions. "AHHH!" Dash screamed in pain as his body surrounded in hot blue fire. The soles of his shoes melted straight through and the bottoms of his feet burned.

Ben spun hearing his friend's scream and he yelled, "Dash!" Out the corner of his eye he saw another tank fireball flying at him and he started running, but he was distracted long enough by Dash's shout that the fireball still exploded close to him and lifted him off the ground. "RAA!" Ben yelled as he lifted up in the air. While he was in the air, two beams of yellow light slammed into him and one of them broke through his black armored body, while the other just exploded and burnt his blue arms and face.

Conner clenched his hands into fists on the floor but he could barely move a muscle. _Fight, through the, pain,_ he thought furiously, slamming a fist down beneath him and getting up. _Those kids, saved your life. Now, repay, the favor!_ He slammed his other fist down and glared up at the flaming circle around Azula that Dash was kneeling in. The boy surrounded himself in an aura to stop the pain, but although new burns were not forming, the burns from the hot blue fire that he already received were not going away and they hurt like crazy. The most sensitive part of his body and his most treasured, his feet, were burnt worst of all. He kept screaming into his microphone and Ben whispered his name in pain as he staggered up to his feet again.

Ben was about to run towards his friend, when his body surrounded in red light and he opened his eyes wide. "No," Ben whispered. A flash of red light transformed him back into a human child, and all of the enemies around him circled in. Tanks pointed their cannons and fire benders lifted their fists. Everyone pointed guns at him and he could still hear Dash's screams in his ears.

"RaaaAAAA!" A voice got louder over their mics and then so loud they could hear it even without them. Azula stopped making her blue flames surround the screaming boy and she spun her head towards the muscular man Pyro never finished off. Conner Kent had gripped his fingers into the ground so hard that the floor cracked, and he was lifting up a huge chunk of black ground above his head. He put it in one hand, stomped forward with his right leg, and chucked the rock as hard as he could at Azula. She opened her eyes wide and spun her hands towards the rock, pointing two fingers at it and releasing a blast of lightning at the rock to blow it into pieces. The lightning collided and the rock exploded, but out from behind the shattering pieces of rock came a man barreling towards her at fifty miles per hour. His face was burned, as were his fists, one of which he was pulling back behind him at that very moment.

"Protect the General!" Some of the higher ranked forces around Ben shouted. They were distracted by their leader's predicament, but some of the troops decided to finish their current task before moving to the next one. They slammed fists forward and flames shot at Ben who was down on one knee, panting hard as he was too tired to stand. _Save the Kamehameha for the end my ass. I can't even stand, let alone make an aura._ He felt the flames getting closer to him and dove forward to try and avoid them. It barely helped. His black pant-legs supposed to be strong against flames started to burn through and his skin was getting hotter beneath them. He clenched his eyes shut so flames wouldn't get in them and yelled out in agony as the flames covered his head.

Superboy heard Ben's screams, but he had to take out Azula before going to help him. Dash was still down on his hands and knees, covered in burns, so he was not able to turn towards Ben and help despite his urge to do so. Superboy got within ten feet of a panting Azula who covered her hands in flames to try and stop him. Right before the two were about to collide though, the blue flames on Azula's hands leapt off of her hands and towards Superboy without the General doing anything. Superboy's eyes went wide as the flames grew exponentially and then surrounded his body before he could even scream. He tripped while moving fifty miles per hour and dug a trench through the floor while burning blue flames.

Azula turned and a smug look appeared on her face as she spotted Pyro walking towards her. "My flamethrowers are broken, and I can't make my own flames. But yours," he said with a smug look, and the blue flames around Superboy raged even hotter so that Azula herself had to back up. "Those I can use," the mutant said with a smirk.

"Oi, bastards," a low voice growled back behind Pyro. Azula looked over the mutant's head and she spotted a young man with pink hair staggering towards them. There was another man behind him in orange armor, looking nervous but pointing his Grif Shot 2.0 at the enemies, safely from behind Natsu. Grif had no ammo left in his weapon but he felt like pretending there was some was better than holding it up as a knife alone. Natsu was the one who growled, and his pink hair shadowed over his face making his eyes glow red. If his face was not shadowed, the enemy would be able to see how pale his skin was and the two trails of blood coming down from his nostrils, over his mouth, dripping off his chin. Natsu still felt weak, but his heart rate had slowed down from when he was initially stung and he knew the medicine was working, if slowly. "What do you think you're doing?" Natsu growled.

Pyro smirked and he turned around. He rose his arms and the flames all over Superboy rose up above him. Azula glanced down at the burnt-up muscular man and saw him twitching, naked on the ground with singed hair and gross skin all over his body. She looked back and her eyes widened as she saw what Pyro was doing. "Wait!" She shouted at the man who showed up to the battle late. Pyro was not one for listening to her orders though, and he threw the blue flames at Natsu in one massive fireball.

Natsu grinned a second before the flames hit him, and he opened his mouth wide. "You idiot!" Azula shouted at Pyro's back. He glanced back at her and then dropped his jaw as he spotted what Natsu was doing out the corners of his eyes. "He eats flames!" She screamed, and finally all of the spiraling blue fire went down into Natsu's gullet. He grinned and then frowned again as he glared past the two of them. He looked towards the flaming wrecks of a bunch of tanks, along with random fires on tents all around the back of the battlefield because of the soldiers who tried attacking the speedsters and wound up setting their encampment aflame. And he looked at the men attacking his screaming friend on the ground.

The Fire Dragon Slayer opened up his mouth and breathed in even harder than before to suck in the flames from a distance. Everyone looked over towards Ben and watched as the flames surrounding him moved away all at once. The soldiers already running towards Azula to help her, and who were cheering because Pyro returned and took down Superboy, all stared over at Natsu in fear as all of the flames in the entire camp shot towards him and went into his mouth. Natsu gulped, the entire landscape was silent as all the fire had vanished and the Fire Nation soldiers were holding their breath, and then Natsu's body ignited. His flaming aura alone was much bigger than the blue fireball Pyro threw at him a minute ago, much hotter too even though it was red. There were hints of purple flames in the aura, as well as bolts of lightning, while a bright orange glow in the center of his flaming aura coated his body.

"You messed with my comrades," Natsu growled. "And now," he lifted his head up and roared, "I'M ALL FIRED UP!" When he snapped his head up, his enemies could see his face and the dragon scales on his cheeks. He rose up his arms and his Dragon Force spread, covering them in scales too. He kicked off the ground and moved so fast he was at Pyro in a second. He slammed a kick into the mutant's back before Pyro could even try and control Natsu's flames. "Arcosian Fire Dragon's Talon!" He yelled, and Pyro shot away in a blur of red flames back into a tank that exploded as the mutant went in one side, but the men who were behind the tank could see a hole rip in the other side before it blew apart and they spun to watch as Pyro kept flying away.

"YOU INSOLENT WRETCH!" Azula screamed, slamming a fist towards Natsu and punching a ball of fire at him. He turned and sprinted at her, opening his mouth as he did and munching on her fireball without a second thought. Her eyes widened as his aura increased, then Natsu put his arms behind his body and leapt up in the air.

"Dragon Slayer Secret Art:" he began in a voice that echoed over the entire landscape. "Planetary Exploding Flame Blade!" He slammed his arms forward in a circular movement and out from them shot giant whips of bright orange flames covered in lightning. They slammed into Azula and exploded on contact. The flames blasted into the ground and made explosions all over the air as they kept going. They swirled around each other like a double helix, constantly exploding and tearing straight through more than half of the remaining tanks in the Fire Nation's arsenal.

Vehicles heading south to reinforce the Fire Nation encampment screeched to a stop at the sight of the massive swirling flames heading their direction. The ground was getting torn apart and their own tanks were getting destroyed. They turned and drove to the sides, but a few of the supply trucks burst into flames and exploded, men diving out of the driver's sides as they did. The remaining Fire Nation trucks did not keep driving towards the camp, as the soldiers in the camp turned around and started sprinting the other way. They were sprinting north, and it made sense to the other truck drivers a few seconds later as out of the sky dropped a woman with singed black hair and shattered armor. Her eyes were rolled back into her head and she slammed into the ground hard with her mouth wide open. One man running by her reached down and touched her neck, feeling for a pulse. The figure faintly felt it and lifted the General up before continuing to sprint north along with the rest of their forces.

A few tanks still in the camp turned their cannons towards Natsu. One Colonel popped the top of it and screamed back at the retreating men, "Do not leave your posts! This battle is not lost yet!"

Many of the soldiers looked back, and all of them stared in terror at the figure now standing on the front of the Colonel's tank. The Colonel himself looked forward and his face covered in sweat, he lost all control over his bladder and wet his armor, and then the pink haired glowing figure on his tank punched down on the front of it and the tank's back lifted up so hard it did three full front flips. The Colonel was thrown from his vehicle, which was likely a good thing as it landed on its top and exploded a second later.

The other tanks all turned around and started driving off as fast as they could. Other Fire Nation soldiers had to dive out of the way as the tanks did not care who they hit as they drove away from Natsu Dragneel. He did not care that they were running though. "I just saw you shooting flames at my injured friend," he growled, and Ben lifted his head up a little from right behind a burning hot Natsu. The Dragon Slayer in Dragon Force was giving off so much power that the ground beneath him was shaking. He lifted up his right hand and opened it up spreading all of his fingers apart so it looked like a claw. "Hidden Fire Form…" Natsu began, bringing that arm back far behind him. His entire aura shot to a single point, all directly on his right hand. It burst so bright that Ben had to look away, and the men and women sprinting away from their encampment glanced back before picking it up to double time.

Natsu brought his arm forward in a slash that seemed to lag because of how much power went into it. "ARCOSIAN FIRE DRAGON'S CRUSHING FLAME!" Flames shot off of his hand in five distinct paths that all turned into one massive flaming claw soaring at the enemies. The soldiers screamed in pain as it hit them and tanks lifted up in the air, flying forward while the steel that made them up started to melt. People's armor cracked and their clothes ripped off, their skin burned and the attack went past them, slamming into every soldier no matter how far away from the camp they had gotten already. The flames kept going all the way to the supply trucks in the very back of the line that finally decided not to make their locations a rendezvous point and instead turned around themselves and started driving back north at full speed. They truly believed there was nowhere for miles that would be safe for them.

Natsu's final attack faded once it reached a few miles away from the Fairy Tail mage. He brought his arm back down to his side, glared out into the distance where soldiers were staggering back up to their feet and limping away, helping their comrades move if they were too injured. He glared around him, and any of the soldiers left behind who were too injured to run away closed their eyes and played dead. Some crawled away if they did not think Natsu was looking towards them, and the fire mage finally lost the scales covering his body. He spat to the right, and a glob of blood came out instead of spit. His eyes were red and his skin went back to being pale, maybe even more so than it was before.

"Hey, Natsu," Ben said, his voice scratchy as he walked towards the man. Natsu looked back and saw Ben's arms and legs, and even parts of his face were burned. The kid lifted up his arms and in them formed a green hilt that extended out into a Keyblade. "Thanks," he said, then added, "Cure!" A small amount of green light shimmered down on Natsu, and then Ben dropped down to his knees, panting hard. The boy had tried getting Riku to teach him more powerful magical attacks with his Keyblade, but Riku would not let him until he had first learned Cure, which he only did he did three days before they split up. The magic drained the rest of his energy though, so he could not keep his arms up and his right arm fell to his side, his Keyblade barely staying in his grip.

"Ben," Natsu began, turning fully to the boy and walking towards him. He did not feel much better with that blast of magic, but the thought was there and he stepped right up to the boy, reaching down and grabbing him by the back of his damaged black shirt. He lifted the kid up and Ben weakly lifted his head to look into Natsu's eyes. Natsu was grinning madly and he said, "Next time, use it on yourself, then get Dash and Super-dork over there." The others could all hear Natsu in their earpieces, and Grif was just glad the man was not blowing out their eardrums like he did screaming all his attacks in the last few minutes. Grif chuckled at the nickname for Superboy, while said burnt-up man on the ground was too unconscious to care. Dash snickered then winced in pain as it still hurt to move his badly burnt body too much. Natsu continued to grin at Ben after he said what he needed to, and he finished, "We did it Ben. We won."

"Haha, ha," Ben chuckled and his lips curled up just like Natsu's. "Of course, we did," the boy said. "We had me after all."

"Hey," Dash mumbled into his mic. "I took out the Chimera Ants, and definitely got more, soldiers than you, ow." He finished with 'ow' as it hurt to say the entire sentence but he could not let Ben get away with taking the credit.

"Yeah, but I, beat Sanji's brother," Ben said with a smirk. He looked to his right and Natsu turned to see a green-haired man lying on his back slumped over another beaten-up figure not far from them. Natsu's eyes opened in surprise as he had no idea that guy was Sanji's brother, though he had to admit there was a strong resemblance.

"Too bad guys," Natsu said smugly. "I'll be taking the credit for this one." The other two would argue, but they were too tired, and Natsu was right after all. They were all down for the count when he showed up. He took out the General, routed their troops, and really saved both of their lives.

"Haha, I don't think so," a fourth voice said, and all three of the others looked back to see Grif walking forward confidently. He lifted his Grif Shot victoriously over his head and said, "If not for me, we never would have-"

"Shut up," Dash, Ben, and Natsu all muttered at the same time. Grif dropped his jaw from inside his helmet, and all three of the others who were still conscious started laughing.

Ben smiled wide as he finished laughing at Grif. He closed his eyes and felt safe as Natsu held him there by the shirt. _We actually did it. We came to Aebrith, found and joined the Resistance, and helped them push back the enemies threatening them. We really did it._

* * *

 **A/N Fire! Explosions! Madness! Hope you enjoyed the battle! Let me know what you thought in a comment below, and make predictions for the following chapters where we switch to the other mission our heroes embarked on: finding the League of Assassins. A team of 5 takes down the Fire Nation encampment, and the Resistance gets a win for a change. Anyway, I'll put a quick list of new characters below before review responses:**

 **One Piece: Sanji, Yonji**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Chimera Ants, Baro, Centipede, Mosquito**

 **Avatar TLA: Azula, Zuko, Sokka, Sozin, Fire Nation, Eel Hounds, Appa**

 **World of Warcraft: windriders**

 **X-Men: Pyro, Magneto**

 **Red vs Blue: Grif**

 **The Incredibles: Dash**

 **Ben 10: Ben, Humungousaur, Big Chill, Feedback, Fourarms, XLR8, Heatblast**

 **Fairy Tail: Natsu**

 **Young Justice: Superman, House of El, Superboy, Black Canary**

Espada-001 chapter 53 . May 20

Well I enjoyed these last two chapters and I had my suspicions about Zuko since the fire nation was still an enemy. I do have something to say though and that's that I noticed Natsu hasn't been feeling his motion sickness in the past two chapters. Heck I'm pretty sure that the elevator would effect his motion sickness. Well that's all I have so until next time have a good day!

 **Sad to see Zuko gone before he's even introduced, and glad you liked the chapters! Funny you mentioned the Natsu motion sickness thing, 'cause I recently realized I had been forgetting about that XD, which is why there's already a scene later on that I added so it'll make sense, (within another full chapter). Thanks for the review!**

Darugus chapter 53 . 15h ago

Nice chapter  
Looking forward to the fight with the fire nation  
Also I just realized that since brooke is dead his revive revive fruit has been reborn which is probably one of the few ways for revival on nexus but unless juvia ate it and we don't know about that really wouldn't work  
Also there are alot of other devil fruits that would have been reborn I wonder if your going to use all of them

 **Well, here you go! Hope you liked the battle with the Fire Nation! The Revive fruit and all the others could be somewhere around the world, but who knows if anyone will be getting them in this story? Since the second chapter of Nexus we've lost Enel, Brook, Trebol, Doflamingo, and a whole lot of other Devil Fruit users. No spoilers, but at least 3 of them have already been given to other characters sometime in the future chapters I already have written out. :) Thanks for the review!**

7lights13darknes chapter 48 . 18h ago

Again i have to leave another review before i catch up. OMG! Who has Timmy captured? This is getting crazy the chapters are getting better and usually i like ling chapters but i don't mine short ones in this case. I like how Gon is such a somewhat more important character i hope he lives but I'm doubting it. I can't wait to see what happens to timmy compared to goku he is not doing well. I'm guessing sora or goku or both are going to save him in the last second deal thing. And i totally called it on timmy being captured. I think that was when i didn't put in my user name still. I actually started watching fairy tale yesterday and it is hilarious i can't wait to watch more. I want lucy to be a main character now she is my favorite. Also where is nastu's pet ( happy right i couldn't tell.) i really need and want to catch up now keep up the good work.

Two reviews in one day that is a recored. The time has come we finally are seeing what team gray is up too. I thought you were going to start from when they left or a couple days after but i like this way too. I like that you added young justice characters and grif the rest i didn't know. I am liking kiari more and more in this story. I will leave this one short and again good job and keep it up

WHY! WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME...AGAIN!? WHY JUVIA. know that is out of my system good chapter it my be the darkest one yet. Good fight scenes but noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! You better not kill anyone else. Although i am actually glad ben didn't try to go back in time because it would be to easy and too clechi. Keep up the good work you know i haven't even seen juvia in fairy tale yet. I really want to now later juvia killer jk

 **Wow three reviews in a row! Glad you're all caught up now XD. Who _has_ Timmy? I won't tell ;). Another long chapter this time hitting 17 thousand words (before comments). Most of the protagonists of the main shows in this are pretty main characters (Goku, Luffy, Natsu, Ben, Rin, Kirito, etc.), so Gon follows along with that pattern. Timmy and Goku's paths differed greatly after they split up... and as for the last part of the first review... I think you should read Nexus if you haven't already. You may know why, Lucy, and Happy, aren't, here... Well, on that ominous note I'll say that I'm glad you recognized the Young Justice characters and Grif, (considering those were the most important as they actually came along on the mission) and it's cool you're liking Kairi more because that's a main reason I split her up from the others in her video game as she never really gets her own epic scenes without them (except when she beat up that Sith Lord Xion in Dressrosa XD ). Finally, JUVIA! Oh I'm definitely going to kill someone else, but, you know, that's pretty vague 'cause a lot of people die in this story (like every chapter really)! Haha won't be killing off main characters every chapter, but don't be surprised when it happens... Thanks again everyone for reading, favoriting, following, and for all the reviews! 'Till next time!**


	55. Nexus HWR 9-7 The Dark Side

**A/N Hey guys! Back from Italy this morning, so I'm back at it again! Hope you enjoy the chapter...**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, Star Wars, Sword Art Online, Fairy Tail, Ben 10, The Incredibles, DC Comics, Arrow, Avatar the Last Airbender, One Piece, DBZ, Naruto, or any other show/movie/manga/book/etc. you may recognize characters, places, or other proper nouns in this story from.**

* * *

 **Nexus HWR 9.7 The Dark Side:**

 **Terra Base**

Kirito and Gray lay flat on the side of a steep hill. The hill was gray with no grass on it, the material beneath them soft but coarse, little pieces crumbling off every time they moved. The top of the hill was only a few feet above the tops of their heads. Both of them lay on their stomachs without making a sound.

They got there before the suns went down on the third day of their journey. Even on their speeders, one-man vehicles somewhat like motorcycles only they hovered off the ground, the trip still took several days. In that three day time, the two young men spoke very little. They would talk when it came to seeing if the other wanted a break, or if they were at a good place to rest for the night. Most of the time Kirito had to convince Gray they needed to rest as the ice mage wanted to keep moving nonstop to reach Terra Base. Gray would argue there was no telling if the League was still going to be there when they arrived. Still, Kirito managed to make him take breaks by saying there was no way they were going to be able to defeat an army of assassins while tired and hungry.

On the third afternoon of their journey, they finally reached the gray landscape that Black Canary mentioned surrounded all of Terra Base. They had a map drawn out by the former members of Terra Base as well, and using it they figured out the best place to do some reconnaissance on their enemies. They waited until dark to even look upon the base, not wanting to reveal themselves in the daylight.

The two boys laying flat were thinking to themselves. Both had just peeked their heads over the hill. Both immediately pulled back and tried to calm their nerves. Kirito pressed his face into the floor and thought hard about everything he saw in those few seconds. _On one hill to our left was a figure. I could barely make him out, but hills surround the entire base. There's a huge field before the base's walls, just like Canary said. Any frontal assault on it would be seen long before we reach the outer walls. I want to see if there are other guards on these surrounding hills, but even the one I saw was barely visible. They're all wearing black, just like us._

The black haired ninja glanced to his right where Gray was lying on his stomach too, but with his head tilted up so he was looking at the top of the hill. They were both wearing tight black battle suits that Sokka provided them. His guards said he was wasting their best, and only remaining super-suits, but Sokka said he would have faith that they would return them. He also said that if he was going to have faith, then he needed to give himself some assurance that he wasn't just sending them to their deaths.

Gray also had a black beanie over the top of his head, and they both had on black combat boots, though only Kirito had a black cloak going from his neck all the way down to those boots. Gray looked to be moving back up to get a better look over the hill, so Kirito reached up and tugged on his left arm. Gray snapped his head to the left at the younger boy, but Kirito was shaking his head. The ninja released Gray's arm and then shimmied down the hill instead.

The Fairy Tail wizard glanced up, but frowned and scooted back down the hill after Kirito. "What?" Gray seethed in an annoyed whisper.

Kirito put a finger up to his mouth. _Talking in the middle of a stealth operation? Is he stupid?!_ He did not even shush the older man, just held his finger there for a second to shut Gray up. He then pointed that finger at the ground and drew a circle with it. Around the edge of the circle he started making little curved marks to symbolize hills. On the other side of one of those curved marks he drew two X's, then pointed at the X's and then up at himself and Gray.

Gray frowned at the teenager who for a second he thought was just being annoying by going through all this instead of just talking. _Unless he's really taking what they told us at Pon-Gatso seriously. None of them think we're going to survive. He's just being cautious, and I should too._ The older man only frowned deeper at his carelessness and started watching closer as Kirito marked more X's on every other hill he drew.

The mage decided to step in and he put his finger in the middle, drawing a smaller circle inside the one Kirito made to symbolize the base. Then, on that smaller circle he started making little marks that made Kirito look up at him confusedly. Gray humphed and opened his mouth to explain, but Kirito put his finger up to his mouth again. Gray growled, then put his hands up and made it look like he was aiming into the sky. He pulled back a few times with both hands making it look like an anti-aircraft turret.

Kirito frowned deeply as he was thinking about using his wings to fly in over everything. He looked up in the sky, but frowned deeper seeing two bright moons and hundreds of stars. _No clouds, they'll probably spot us. Damn, if only we had Ben, he could go Clear Body and this would be ten times easier._ He felt a tap on his shoulder while he was thinking and turned to see Gray looking down at the diagram closely.

Kirito looked down as well, and he became confused as Gray started drawing X's all around their side of the hill. Kirito's eyes widened as Gray pointed at him again, then pointed at the new X's. There were ten of them, and Gray started pointing around at the different X's they had drawn on the tops of every hill Kirito put one on.

 _That's right, there was no way we could bring Ben with us,_ Kirito thought as he nodded at Gray. He crossed his fingers and around them poofed a dozen Kirito shadow clones. They looked in at the original and all thirteen Kiritos nodded at each other. Eleven of them dropped into the solid ground leaving holes behind and Gray was surprised they could do that so easily.

The mage was confused why the twelfth did not sneak into the ground with the others. Instead, that twelfth clone snuck back up the hill he and Kirito were on, and they watched as he poked his head over the hilltop. Gray started following him up there after a few seconds of that clone not getting discovered. The real Kirito opened his mouth to tell Gray to stop, then sighed and just followed him up the hill.

They crawled up to the top and the Kirito clone who was already there was looking around at the other hills. Gray looked at him in confusion, then around and looked closely at every hill surrounding Terra Base. Kirito was right in assuming there were guards on every other hill, though there were actually a few less than that. There were more guards just patrolling the inner field, like these hills were the farthest defenses. All of a sudden, the Kirito clone between the two puffed out of existence.

Gray's eyes widened, but he saw the real Kirito still just staring out over everything with careful eyes. When one of his clones vanished, the rest of them received the information that one had obtained. Eleven shadow clones around the landscape who snuck to the hills with these guards on them nodded their heads as the data flooded into their minds. Gray was looking carefully at a hill directly on their left, and he watched as the man suddenly dropped a few feet down into the ground.

All over the place, Kiritos reached up through the ground and grabbed men by their ankles. He dragged them down a few feet, then jumped out of the ground in front of them and unsheathed a sword from his back. He swung the sword in front of him without hesitation, and removed eight heads from their bodies simultaneously. After the eight outer guards were dead, the Kirito clones pushed the dead bodies under the ground, hiding them and clearing the top of the hill before it became completely covered in red. Then, they just stood there calmly as if they were the guards supposed to be there in the first place.

 _Keeping those eight won't take up too much chakra, and if I ever need it back I can make one or two vanish. The other three should be on their ways back-_ a cracking sound was made behind them and the boys turned to see three shadow clones crawling back out of the ground. They snuck up the hill and stopped behind the real Kirito and a surprised Gray.

 _He just killed them all without a second thought,_ Gray thought. He turned back and looked in at the former Resistance base two miles in the distance. There were some lights inside the walls making it more visible, but Gray was not thinking about the base for now. _Ra's al Ghul killed Juvia. I will murder him... but anyone else, I would have at least tried to knock them out, maybe take them hostage. No, this is a war zone, I've been in enough to know that thinking like that is naive... but isn't that why I'm traveling with such a naive group? These friends of mine are supposed to be hopeful, be merciful, though I guess Kirito wouldn't understand that._

He turned left and stared at the younger man by a couple of years. Kirito was looking around at the rest of the base's defenses, and Gray could tell that those men Kirito just killed were the farthest thing from his mind right now. _What should I have expected from an Underworld member?_ Gray thought, and turned to look out as well. _His comrades killed the Master, and just because Goku thought he was an okay guy, he got to get off scot-free. The rest of his comrades were arrested, or killed, but he got to walk, and now he's lying next to me. I have to trust such a guy to watch my back._

Gray glared harshly over the landscape on the other side of the hill. His thoughts shifted to the enemies in front of him. _Juvia,_ he thought with an intense look of hatred splayed on his face. _I swore I would find a way to bring you back, but right now you're still dead. And it's their fault. They killed you. I need to be ready to kill them!_ He lifted up his right fist and open left palm, pressed them together, and ice started spreading out over his arms. It surrounded his back and torso in armor, made a spiked helmet around his head, gave him extra protection on top of the battle suits that Sokka said were already nigh-indestructible.

"Gray," Kirito whispered. The older boy turned to him annoyed, almost as if asking 'Oh, now's an okay time to talk?' The younger teen had been looking out over the landscape long enough though that he realized it was safe to speak as long as they did it quietly. "There are guards all over the place, and who knows how many inside the base. The turrets on the walls won't let us get the drop on them. We need a plan of attack."

"I have a plan," Gray growled, standing up as he did. "Attack." He kicked his left foot on the hill beneath him and shot off down the other side.

Twelve Kiritos smacked themselves in the faces in annoyance. The four Kiritos on the original hill got up, looked at the other hills for miles around Terra Base. Every single Kirito saw Gray start rushing down, and they all knew what they had to do. All of them started running forward, but it was only the individual Kiritos on the other hills who started crossing their fingers.

The eight who took out guards suddenly created more shadow clones to run with them. These ones also shouted, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" However, the one on the exact opposite side of Terra Base as the real Kirito shouted loudest, "Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!" While five or six clones formed with every other group, forty clones surrounded this one.

Gray was running full speed forward, but even in the darkness, he saw dozens of figures start popping up all over the field. He was charging straight at a group of three walking towards the base, but they saw something far to their right and started running that way. Two of them jumped up in the air and turned into black pillars of smoke, while one of them jumped up and then jumped even higher than that. _Force Jump,_ Kirito thought as he continued running after Gray, glad none of them saw him yet.

 **CH-CH-CH-CH-CH!** The sound of machine gun fire rang out over the field. Gray looked up towards Terra Base and saw the sky on the other side of it illuminating with every shot. Then, other turrets turned on on other sides, and finally the one on his side turned on. _Let's see if these suits are all they're cracked up to be._ He rose up his arms in front of his face and continued sprinting straight ahead. _I will avenge you Juvia. I haven't given up trying to save you, but I will kill the man who took you from me... for now._ Gray's mouth twisted into a horrible snarl and as the first bullets collided with him, he did not even falter in his sprint. Ice shards went flying out around his body as his outer armor got torn through, but once the bullets started hitting his black under armor, he realized Sokka was not kidding about its strength. He could barely feel the hits inside his suit, even when his forearms got hit in front of his face. He just charged forward haphazardly, ignoring the sounds of gunfire and screams coming from all around him.

Meanwhile, the enormous circular field around Terra Base was in chaos. Clouds of black smoke flew everywhere and became people just long enough for the men and women inside to swing their wands. Green beams shot off their wands and slammed into shadow clones instantly destroying them. Others shot red beams of light that made Kiritos drop to the ground and start screaming in excruciating pain from the torturous magic.

The Kirito clones quickly learned to avoid any beam of green or red light. However, the assassins who were witches and wizards were not the only ones to look out for. A few dark cloaked figures leapt off the wall of the western side and charged at the largest group of Kiritos. Two of them slammed their hands down into the ground after making some hand signs and a wall of water shot up that splashed forward and made half the field into an ocean. All the Kiritos jumped up and started running across the water surprising the ninja assassins. Two assassins jumped up on the water and charged at the clone army, and when a Kirito was about to hit one, another three assassins flew up out from beneath the water, slicing knives coated in poison across three clones.

"Fireball Jutsu!" Kirito yelled, aiming at three enemies charging at him. A fireball flew out of his mouth towards the enemies, but one enemy in particular leapt forward. He put his hands out in front of him and stopped the fireball right as it reached him. A Force Wall pressed against the attack, but while the Sith Lord was holding it there, a figure flew past the side of the fireball. The person moved so fast the Sith barely had time to start turning. The old man's head was partially turned and he gawked at the sight of a black haired teenager in an all black cloak, with four black fairy wings sprouting out of his back.

Kirito swung his two swords down at the Sith Lord holding his other clone's attack, but someone Force Pushed him from out of nowhere and he went flying. He righted himself in midair, looked around for who did it, and froze as his Observational Haki kicked in. The teenager started swerving around and just in time too. He dodged a hail of gunfire coming from the base's walls, and then leaned backwards and a ball of fire flew right over his head.

Ten Kiritos flew up high in the air and had to constantly dodge bullets from the turrets down below. They got close to each other and had to shout over the sounds of attacks down below. "We're already down thirty clones!"

An explosion ripped apart a huge section of field on the northern side of the base. "Thirty-four now!" Another Kirito clone shouted. After he shouted, a bullet ripped through his wing and he winced. He couldn't fly as fast anymore and was barely dodging the bullets now. "I'll test our chances of aerial entry," the injured shadow clone shouted, and he started dive-bombing Terra Base.

Lots of assassins and Siths shouted and pointed up at the lone figure dropping out of the sky like a missile. A white aura surrounded him he was moving so fast, wind pushing against him and around his body as he put both of his swords in front of him with their tips together to make himself more aerodynamic.

"Take him down!"

"Keep him out of the fort!"

The other nine Kiritos in the air realized they had their chances as they looked at how much attention that clone had. "I'll go," one of them accepted, and he poofed away. Instantly, fifty other shadow clones understood what they needed to do. They stopped focusing on their enemies and all at the same time charged at the base.

The one in the sky had almost reached the top of the walls, but two figures leapt up in the air and slammed their open palms forward. A huge amount of Force slammed into the already injured clone and it exploded.

Meanwhile, every other clone still on the ground leapt up in the air at the same times. Their wings stayed at their backs however, as they were not trying to fly. They each came down and slammed a foot down on the ground, creating fissures all over the field. The fissures went from their feet all the way out to the walls around Terra Base, and then straight up the walls as well. So many cracks created by Kirito's Devil Fruit lined the wall that only five seconds after the cracks formed, huge chunks of Terra Base's wall started collapsing.

The Kiritos who ignored their enemies in order to make that attack were suddenly swarmed. "Avada Kedavra!"

"Crucio!"

"Summoning Jutsu!"

"Water Dragon Jutsu!"

It was a slaughter. The Kirito army got devastated in a matter of seconds. However, over the sounds of the screams of attacks from the enemies, and of pain from Kirito clones, there was no longer the background noise of gunfire ringing out around the landscape. The turrets that were firing fell silent as the stone walls came out from beneath them.

The eight Kiritos in the air had their opportunity. They dropped for the main building in the center of Terra Base's crumbling walls. The original Kirito looked to the outside as he dropped and felt bad for his Shadow Clones, but he needed them to keep the enemies' attentions for just one more minute. _Don't use any Jutsu, though I'm sure you all know that. I'll need as much chakra as possible for this next part. Now,_ he looked around like his other clones already were as they were about to land. _Where is Gray?_

Inside the very building beneath Kirito, Gray stood panting with two ice swords in his hands. Two men lay still on the ground in front of him, and five others stood behind them holding red or white lightsabers in their hands. Blood dripped off the usually blue ice blades and Gray glanced down at his enemies' bodies for a second, before looking up at the still living ones in front of him. "If the rest of you don't want to die, you will get out of my way."

He took a step forward, and then froze and felt his mind blank. The wizard did not even feel the hand on the top of his head, his whole body just lost feeling. Standing behind him was an eight foot tall dark-skinned figure with black tattoos around his eyes that darkened his eye sockets. He had curved horns sticking up on either side of his forehead and two others pointing down from his cheeks. His head was hairless and his face was lined with wrinkles though he did not look all that old.

The frowning Sith Lord with a hand on Gray's skull looked over the young man at the other Sith in the room. "Leave us," he commanded. The other men retracted their lightsabers and backed away, one of them picking up the dead bodies of their comrades and carrying them with him out the door behind them. That door closed, and finally the Sith released his hand from Gray's head. He used Force Push to throw Gray across the room where the boy hit the floor and skid on his stomach and face a few yards before flipping himself over and landing on his feet.

Gray spun around in panic as for some reason he felt like he just spaced out. It looked like he did too as most of his enemies were gone. The only one remaining, was exactly where he was just standing. His eyes widened, _He could have shoved a lightsaber through my chest! Why? What-_ "Who are you?!" Gray shouted at the scary-looking man in a brown cloak that went from his neck down to his feet.

"I am the one who goes by the name Darth Bane," the figure before Gray said in a deep tone that seemed to echo around the room. The man started walking to his left and Gray did the same, keeping equal distance to the man as they circled the center of the room. The dark man continued, "Third in command in the Order of the Sith. In my universe, I created the system of having only one Sith Lord, and one Apprentice at any time. However, here there is no need for such a rule. The Sith do not have internal conflict here, for the Emperor is the most powerful Sith to have ever lived."

"I didn't ask for your life story," Gray snapped at the Sith. The man did not look agitated by Gray's growl though, he was too level-headed for that. "Why?" Gray questioned. The ice mage clenched his hands around the cold blades in his grasp. "Why did you not kill me?" _I was stupid. I rushed in here. I need to steady-_

"Would you like to bring back the one you have lost?" Bane questioned. He did not break stride, but he lifted up his deep frown just a little seeing Gray stumble and almost fall over. Gray stopped circling and Bane did as well, though he was closer to the mage now. Bane took a slow step towards Gray, "What do you know, of the Dark Side?"

"I know it's evil," Gray growled, trying to stop himself from listening to the man.

"Evil, good, such childish ideas," Darth Bane stated, taking another step forward. "You do not truly believe in them. I can see what you really want. What if I were to tell you, there is a way to bring back, Juvia?" Bane asked. Gray lowered his bottom lip and the man took another step closing their distance to ten feet apart. "It is very possible, with the power of the Dark Side."

Gray stood there in shock. Not only did this man know exactly what he wanted most, but he said there was a way to make it a reality. _It, can't be,_ he thought. His body covered in sweat. _I've known it. Even though I kept telling myself I would bring her back, I never really believed it. I just, didn't want to grieve. I didn't want to accept it._

"I can bring her back for you," Bane began. His words seeped into Gray's head and he looked into the enemy's eyes in awe. Bane started circling again, but Gray was standing still now and just followed the taller, bigger man with his eyes. Bane walked to Gray's left side and kept speaking even as he got out of Gray's peripheral vision. "You want her back don't you? More than anything?"

Gray's eyes darkened and he looked down. "Yes," he muttered. He could feel the scabs on his palms from where his nails dug so far into them just thinking about Juvia's killer. The wounds had opened back up a few minutes ago since he was gripping his ice blades so furiously.

"You would do anything to bring her back?" Bane asked, his voice sounding closer than ten feet away now. He sounded like he was only a foot behind Gray's nodding head.

The ice mage was literally shaking where he stood. He thought he might be able to spin around and cut the man behind him before the Sith Lord could react. His body tensed as he thought about it, and then he heard the whisper in his ear, "I could bring her back for you." His grip on his swords weakened and his eyes blinked a few times, reminding him that this was actually real. Bane continued speaking in his dangerous tone, "I am a man of my word. What do you care more about? Her life? Or this petty Resistance, squirming around futilely in the face of imminent destruction?"

Bane continued waking around Gray and the mage was right in guessing that Bane had gotten closer to him since he left his eyesight. The man was only a few feet away when he moved back in Gray's vision, and he spoke calmly as he got back directly to Gray's front, "Who would you choose? The people who have already forgotten about the woman you love? Or _her?_ "

Gray's mind suddenly flashed with memories of Juvia. Fighting her for the first time. Watching her follow him around with hearts in her eyes. Battling against the army of dragon-spawn with her. Remembering that moment in time long forgotten when he pushed her out of the way and sacrificed himself. He thought about finding her on this world after being teleported to Port Royal. Fighting by her side in Metropolis against Cooler. He thought about the ship ride to Aebrith, the day they went crazy, what he and her did then, and again that night, and so many times since. He thought about how she cried when Luffy and the others left her, but said that she could not go with them as long as Gray was going south. And he remembered her dying. He thought about her crying and dying in his arms.

"I choose her," Gray muttered. He looked into Darth Bane's eyes and the grip he had on his swords disappeared. The blades dropped from his grasp and he looked at the dark man's even darker eyes, "I would do anything, to get her back."

"Good," Bane responded. He walked towards Gray and then walked only inches past the young man's left side. He opened his mouth and whispered, "Then, there is only one condition." He kept walking and grabbed the handle to the door Gray left open when he barged in, the same door he calmly walked through to grab Gray's skull and read his mind. Bane walked through the door and started closing it behind him, while saying in a quiet voice, "All you need to do, is kill the man you came in with."

Gray's eyes opened wide and he spun around in shock. There was no one else in the room though. The door was closed behind and in front of him. He was in an empty room, one that he noticed for the first time looked way, way too empty. There were no windows, no support pillars, no furniture, not a single thing in the room. _Even the blood from those men I killed, who I think I killed... And my ice blades, where are they? It's only been a few seconds, there's no way they melted already. And if they melted, where are the wet spots?_

The cement floor was dry, gray, untouched. Even the pieces of his own ice armor that broke off left no wet splotches on the floor. _Did he clean them up somehow? That Darth Bane?_ All his thoughts about how strange the room looked were meant to distract him from one thing. It was the one thing in the back of his mind creeping through the rest of the thoughts like a virus. _I should chase after him. He could not have gotten too far._

Gray took a step towards the door Bane walked out of, but as he did, he heard the sound of a door opening up behind him. His heart started racing and both sides of his face covered in sweat. "Gray!" The all-too familiar voice of the person behind him shouted right as he started turning around. He froze mid-turn and the thought creeping through his mind shot to the surface, _Kirito._

The wizard of Fairy Tail finished turning and stared blankly at the cloaked figure in the doorway behind him. "Kirito?" He whispered, wondering if he was seeing things or if the boy really was right in front of him. "Or, are you just a clone?" Gray muttered, looking closer with a panicked expression, still wondering if this was even real or not.

"I lost my clones," Kirito replied, walking into the room and closing the door behind him. "Now," he began, walking across the room to Gray. He had a bloody blue sword in his right hand and another up in the sheath. He walked towards Gray looking seriously pissed, and Gray took a step back. It was not far enough, as Kirito marched straight up to him and socked him in the face with the fist not curled around his blade's hilt.

Gray lifted off the ground and flew three feet back, but he kept his legs down and landed on his feet. He slid backwards into the doorway he was walking to a minute ago, and his eyes snapped open wide. "What are you doing?!" Gray yelled at the younger boy.

"Me?" Kirito asked, doing so in a quiet whisper though as he was seething through his teeth. "Oh I'm sorry, did I miss the part of the plan that involved throwing stealth out the window and sprinting straight at the enemy?" Kirito asked, throwing his hands up in frustration. He sighed at Gray's at-a-loss expression and just slid his other sword up into his sheath.

"Hahhh," Kirito released a deep breath while looking down and he looked back up into Gray's eyes. "Alright, there's no point focusing on the past now. We're inside, they probably know where we are. It took losing all of my clones to get me this far, but I can make some more for our escape."

Kirito knelt down on the floor and he reached into his coat pocket. "I got this off of one of the guys I was fighting upstairs. He seemed a little stronger than..."

Gray watched as Kirito pulled out a white piece of paper and unfolded it on the floor below him. He was talking about his fights, the enemies' tactics and strengths, the information he received. The other man in the room stopped listening though. It was not that he meant to stop listening, Kirito just started becoming more and more muffled until his voice was just a quiet humming in the back of Gray's mind.

The ice mage took a step towards Kirito, looking down at the boy on one knee who was pointing at different things on what looked to be a map he spread out. He took another step, staring at the back of Kirito's neck as the teenager stared down at the floor. Gray froze. _What am I doing? What am I thinking?! He's my comrade... But, is he really? I may have traveled with him, but, I never really knew him. I made that pact. If_ _ **anyone**_ _in that group was in danger, I swore to come help. I thought of them all as my nakama. That was BEFORE! Before she died, before you knew that one of their lives, could be traded for hers..._

He took another step forward and froze again. _No! This is crazy. You don't even know if you can trust him. But, Bane said- why would I trust what he said? Why not?_ His angered expression fell and he looked down at his hands. As he did, he noticed something sticking out of the waistband of his pants, and his right hand slowly lifted up to it. He pulled the hard, black thing out of his waistband and looked at it, recognizing the shape as that of a knife sheath, with a knife in it. _What, do I have, to lose?_ He thought, his eyes focusing down on the knife. His eyes lifted and he stared at Kirito who was looking at him as if awaiting an answer. "What?" Gray asked, and Kirito sweatdropped at him.

"It doesn't really matter," Kirito muttered. He just asked 'Okay?' to see if Gray was staying with his explanation, so that answer was not what he was looking for. He didn't plan on going back and explaining the whole thing again though, so he just continued on to the important parts. "Anyway, the men I captured, one of them was more willing to talk than the other, but he did not know as much. Apparently Ra's al Ghul isn't here, and he did not know where..."

 _His Observational Haki would kick in before I have the chance. No! He won't be expecting it from me. He's off guard. I could distract him too, make him even more unsteady. Make him lose balance! What am I thinking? He's... A member of the Underworld. My enemies. They killed the Master. He could help bring back Juvia. This is how it has to happen!_

"...So I had the loose-lipped man help me out. He knew one of those curses that kept making my clones die painfully. The Cruciatus Curse. It looked horribly painful as I made him use it on the tight-lipped guy. Not five seconds in and the assassin was screaming for me to stop..." Kirito did not notice Gray taking another step towards him, but now the older man was just a foot in front of Kirito, making it look like he was staring down at the map below him.

 _Even as he talks about torturing people he shows no remorse._ Gray put his right hand behind his back, and he started bending down to supposedly get a closer look at the map. His heart rate was speeding up every second. _**Thump-thump, Thump-Thump,**_ _**THUMP-THUMP...**_ _He's open for an attack. Just need a clear shot of his neck. No need to make it painful..._

Kirito continued talking, glancing up occasionally but just seeing Gray staring at the map he laid out. Kirito pointed down at the map, his finger right on Terra Base, and he started sliding his finger down the map. His eyes focused down on it and he continued speaking, "He said that the League's secret headquarters where Ra's al Ghul is hiding is about a thousand miles south. And then, I made him tell me more. I asked him if the League knew how to bring people back to life."

Gray's hand froze at his side, midway through bringing it around. The blade no longer in its sheath glistened and dripped a drop of purple liquid next to him. "Wh-What?" He muttered, his eyes slowly growing wide.

"They were using some powerful magic so I thought they might have a way. Turns out, the League has this pool, called the Lazarus Pit. The man gave me some cryptic warnings about it, but he said it could definitely bring someone back to life. Especially if it's within the month." Kirito looked up and saw a shocked look on Gray's face that exceeded his expectations. His serious expression curved up into a smile and he rose his right hand, putting it on Gray's shoulder. "We can bring her back, Gray. We can save Juvia."

Gray's whole body started shaking. The man crouching down in front of Kirito lost his support and fell to his knees. His right hand lost all grip and a knife fell from his grasp, clanking on the floor loudly and echoing through the empty room. Kirito's eyes turned slowly from Gray's horrified face down to the source of the clanking and he saw a knife still bouncing back up on the floor. It hit down a second time and came to a stop, covered in purple liquid that seeped off the steel and onto the concrete floor. "Gray?" Kirito questioned, looking from the knife back to the man in front of him. "What are-"

Gray lifted up his hands and slammed them against his face. Tears were streaming out of his eyes and he could not hold them back. "I'm sorry," he rasped out from behind his hands. "Oh God," he mumbled, tilting his head back and dragging his palms down his face. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," he just kept repeating it even as tears streamed down his face. _I almost- I can't believe I- Juvia wouldn't have- she wouldn't have wanted- and he! He never forgot._

Gray hunched over and continued sobbing into his hands. Kirito on the other hand, got up to his feet and took a step backwards. "You," he muttered, his voice low and angry. He reached down and snatched the map from underneath Gray's sobbing face. "What were you-" he stopped midway as he already knew the answer.

"I," Gray began. He dropped his hands and looked up at Kirito's shocked, angry, and above all else-confused face. "I was going, to kill you," Gray whispered out loud. He couldn't hide it. He could barely look at Kirito he felt so ashamed. "I'm sorry," he gasped out again.

"Why?!" Kirito yelled. Now he was the one who didn't care about others hearing them. He reached down and grabbed Gray by the top of the hair, pulling his head back and looking into his eyes from a few inches away. "Why would you do that?!" Kirito yelled at him, his mouth twisting into all different frowns in anger and confusion.

"He said," Gray rasped out. "Darth Bane, he, he said I needed to kill you. If I ever wanted to see Juvia again, he said," Gray clenched his eyes shut and started shaking his head.

Kirito released Gray's hair and pushed the ice mage down. "You're kidding me," Kirito muttered. He rubbed the side of his head and looked up for a second. The teenager sighed, then glared back down at Gray, "Haven't you ever heard of a Jedi mind trick? He was playing you. He took control of your mind. So stop crying, it isn't-"

"It wasn't a Jedi mind trick," Gray whispered, looking down at he floor and allowing tears to flow out unobstructed. Kirito stared at him in confusion for a second and Gray just kept whispering, "He said, he would bring her back, if I, killed you." Gray shook his head even as Kirito dropped his bottom lip and stared at Gray in absolute shock. Before, Kirito thought a million things could have taken control of Gray to make him try to do that, but now, he was starting to realize that nothing _made_ him do it at all. "I'm sorry Kirito," Gray whispered. He looked up at the teenager, "I shouldn't have trusted him. I just, wanted to see Juvia. I know that doesn't excuse-"

"Doesn't excuse?" Kirito mumbled aloud, wondering if he just heard correctly. The teenager shook his head and took another step back away from Gray. _I can't believe I trusted these people,_ Kirito thought, taking another step back. _I let my guard down. I finally found a group of people I thought were good. I thought I could be the darkness necessary to help them all through this dark world. Turns out there was enough darkness here without me._ His teeth clenched and his fists balled up. He took a step forward angrily and Gray looked straight at him, looking willing to take whatever Kirito was about to throw at him.

His fists unclenched though. "I trusted you," Kirito seethed, finding it hard to open up his clenched teeth. "I, I trusted you with my life! Does that mean nothing to you?!"

Kirito was screaming now, his face looking nothing like his usual composed self. Gray felt his heart getting stabbed every time Kirito spoke. "It does mean something to me," Gray began, but he had to look away even as he did. "Look, I'm sorry," Gray whispered. He looked up at Kirito's enraged face and called out louder, "You're right! I messed up. And I'll do whatever it takes to make up for it. Even if it takes my entire life! But right now, we need to get to that Lazarus Pit!"

Kirito kept glaring angrily down at Gray, but he stayed silent for several moments after Gray yelled up at him. "You want me..." Kirito began repeating slowly, blinking a few times as he did, as he could not believe what he was hearing. Then, Kirito's enraged look wiped from his face just like that. Gray became panicked as the emotionless expression Kirito adopted was a hundred times worse than the furious one. "Screw you," Kirito muttered in a monotone voice.

The teenager turned his back to Gray and started walking away. "Kirito!" Gray shouted.

"No!" Kirito yelled, turning back and looking enraged again for a second. He tried calming himself down, but could not return to the same completely emotionless look he had a second ago. "Screw you Gray! I was in Konoha when Naruto, my best friend, turned on us and killed everyone I cared about!" Gray closed his mouth and stared in shock at the teenager in front of him who continued his rant while glaring down at his " _friend._ " "I was trapped in a Virtual Reality world where thousands of people, my entire guild, my closest friends got slaughtered, and the man who trapped us in there in the first place, he turned out to be our greatest hero! He was the man us players looked up to the most, he was our comrade, we trusted him! And he betrayed us! And when I joined the Underworld, I thought I found a place where there were other people who felt betrayed, who society pushed away, who were in the darkness just like me! I thought maybe they could be my comrades, and after months of training together with them, living together with them, they tried to blow me up! After I had just saved their lives," he added, shaking his head at how similar it was to the situation he was in right now. He looked down at Gray who leaned back seeing the water in the bottom of Kirito's eyelids. "There is no forgiving someone like you. I, I can't," he whispered, closing his eyes and shaking his head once. "You betrayed me, Gray. So screw you."

"Kirito, please," Gray begged, still on his knees looking up at the teenager. "I'm sorry. But please, I'm sorry, I need your help. We need to save her."

Kirito reached into his pocket and balled a fist around the piece of paper he hastily shoved in there a minute ago. He pulled out the crumpled up map and threw it down at Gray. "Do it yourself," Kirito muttered, returning to his emotionless tone. He turned and walked back to the door he came in from, "I'm done with you."

"Kirito! Wait!" Gray called out, scrambling up to his feet and snatching up the piece of paper on the floor. He took a step after Kirito, "What are you doing?" He asked.

"Don't follow me," Kirito muttered, opening up the door in front of him. He walked into it and glared back into the room for a second, his eyes looking dark under his black bangs. "Find your own way out." Kirito walked outside and the door closed behind him.

Gray stood still for a second, then the weight of what just happened set in and he ran towards the door. He threw it open, but there was no one there. He stood there silently staring out into the empty hallway for a few seconds, and then his gaze lowered down to the hand not on the door handle. Gray opened up his hand and heard a crinkling noise as he did. He stared at the crumpled up sheet of paper and he clenched his fist around it hard. He looked back out the door with less of a desperate look and one with more determination. _Juvia,_ he thought, walking out the door and pulling it closed behind him. _I'm coming._

* * *

 **A/N ... ;( The Dark Side indeed. The Sith corrupt, and Kirito almost gets a knife in the back from a comrade, again. The League of Assassins section of this chapter really is dark, first with Juvia's death, now with this, what's next? I do hope you enjoyed the battle, infiltration, and betrayal, and are looking forward to the next chapter: Nexus HWR 9.8 Ra's al Ghul. Leave me a review telling me what you think and predictions for the upcoming chapters. And finally, gotta admit I do not currently have 9.8 completely finished (or even a quarter of the way done :P) so, sorry if you thought I was going to get back in the 1 post per 1 day grind, but I don't have another set of completed chapters ready until chapter 11, so it's gonna slow down a bit. Anyway, review responses:**

Espada-001 chapter 54 . May 22

Well I definitely enjoyed all the battle scenes and I definitely thought it was hilarious that Grif still can't remember to bring extra amo. Although Natsu's dragon physiology should have given him a stronger resistance to the poison attack, and probably would have been more injured from being stabbed rather than poisoned. Well that's all I have for now so until next time have a good day and I look forward to the next chapter!

 **Thanks for the review! Glad you liked the chapter! Grif never brings the ammo when he needs it, (though that laziness has saved him before XD). As for Natsu, he did get poisoned during his battle against Cobra, so I don't know if he's less likely to get poisoned than others, though maybe it's his dragon side that kept him alive long enough for Dash to give him medicine, or that he was still able to kick so much ass while recovering from it. Thanks again!**

Darugus chapter 54 . May 22

Nice chapter  
Also suprised you put in the vinsmokes  
Also I don't think any of sanjis family have haki or the ability to develop it since his brothers are emotionless and don't have a will of there own  
Also look on forward for next chaptee

 **Thanks! I was glad the anime finally caught up before I posted this chapter in case non-manga readers didn't wanna be spoiled (not that it hasn't been happening a lot in this story). And I'd have to disagree with the brothers being emotionless and not having wills, 'cause despite that latest manga chapter where they get guns put to their heads and don't really react, they are shown with personalities and emotions through the beginning of the arc. They laugh at Sanji and get annoyed at stuff, and I checked the wiki 'cause I wasn't too sure after reading your review, but the wiki on them seems to think they have strong wills as well because they managed to withstand a blast from Big Mom's Conqueror's Haki. Anyway, my thoughts on them having Haki, but we'll see in upcoming manga chapters whether they bring it up or not!**

7lights13darknes chapter 52 . May 23

That was an awesome and hilarious chapter. My two favourite parts are the beginning with grif and superboy were making fun of the first rvb episode. It is one of the few rvb references i get. ( u am only 15 turn 16 in june so i have not seen much of the series but i am getting there) "ever wonder why were here". I read that part and literally put the phone down. And started laughing before i even read the rest of it. My second favorite part is of course ... SOKKA! I did not see that coming but now we know how they have survived for so long against the fire nation. Hey do you think you could have experiments from lilo and stitch as characters. Again keep up the good work

FINALLY CAUGHT UP! That fight scene against the fire nation was awesome. You can tell i am getting faster at reading these. Like i said before thus just gets better. Forgot to mention this earlier but king Mickey has been helping the resistance. At least we know he is actually doing something right? Also noooooooo zuko iroh i was hoping at least one of them would live. Are any of the characters going to put two and two together and realize that sokka is friends with aang. Since I'm talking about avatar do you think you could have legend of korra characters? And just saying i have read nexus it was finished when i started it. By the time i finished it you already had chapter 16 or something like that when i started this story and so you can imagine i don't remember everything. That is also why i never left a review in the first story or early in this one. Like i said i usually like to catch up. One last thing in the list of characters you forgot to mention the Grimm. RWBY is my favorite animai so i had to point that out. Keep up the good work( and yes i consider it sn aniame deal with it)

 **Glad you've liked the recent chapters! "Ever wonder why we're here?" Is the symbolic quote of the entire show, so I figured anyone who had seen it would get the reference. Sad to see Zuko and Iroh gone, but we hear something else about the King, even if it is vague... A few of the residents of Pao seem like they recognize Sokka's name, but unfortunately none of them have put together who he is yet. Also, probably a no to the Legend of Korra characters, since there are timelines where I took the characters out of and put them in Nexus, and telling from Aang, Katara, Toph, and Sokka's ages, and the fact that none of them mentioned dying on their own world, we can figure that Korra characters did not exist yet before Nexus was created. Anyway, it's awesome that you've read all of Nexus and Heroes Will Rise up to this, and yeah I guess forgetting Happy is pretty easy since I never gave a flashback of when he died. Lucy kicked it in the Metropolis flashback when Natsu was fighting reanimated Kamishiro just as a reminder. And finally, I 3 RWBY too, though not sure whether I would call it anime or cartoon (but to each their own) :) Thanks for reviewing and thanks again to everyone who read, favorited, followed, and reviewed to this story! 'Till next time!**


	56. Nexus HWR 9-8 Ra's al Ghul

**A/N Hey everyone I'm back! Sorry for the longest (2 month) break from updating since I started Nexus. Had a lot going on, from family visiting, to my job starting, but mainly writer's block just got me for this chapter. Finally got it done though, so I decided to start editing and get it posted tonight if I could. Anyway, hope you enjoy the longest chapter in all of Nexus, breaking 30,000 words!**

 **Last time on Nexus: Gray and Kirito attack Terra Base where the Sith and League of Assassins took up camp. Darth Bane corners Gray and offers him Juvia's life with the power of the dark side, but only if Gray kills Kirito. Gray almost goes through with it, but Kirito tells him how he interrogated a League member and discovered something which could bring Juvia back to life. Gray collapses as he realizes what he was about to do, and upon breaking down in front of Kirito, Kirito abandons him for his attempted murder, leaving Gray on his own to head to the League's Headquarters, and find the rumored Lazarus Pit.**

* * *

 **Nexus HWR 9.8 Ra's al Ghul:**

 **99 Miles North of Pon-Gatso**

 **BrrrmmMMMmm…** The engine of the truck rose in volume as they hit some bumpy terrain, then returned to its regular hum. Eight figures sat in the back of the truck, and there were two others inside the vehicle up front in the driver and passenger seats.

Black Canary sat in the passenger seat and she looked over her shoulder back into the main section of the eighteen wheeler where the heroes were sitting. She gazed carefully down at Superboy lying in between the rows of seats lined against the walls, but the girl on her knees on Conner's side stood up with some sweat on her face but also a relieved expression. The auburn haired girl smiled towards the front of the truck and Black Canary nodded back at her. Dinah turned her head to the driver's seat and the Korean man sitting there who was grinning ear to ear as he headed back towards Pon-Gatso.

Out past the windshield there were headlights shining their way, and Jin and Dinah looked out their windows and watched as dozens of vehicles drove by on their way to the Fire Nation encampment to take it over now that all their troops had been routed. Jin-Soo Kwon looked towards the tree he could see fireworks shooting off of from even ninety-nine miles away and he chuckled, hoping his wife and daughter were watching the same thing. _They did it. Those kids really did it!_

In the back of the vehicle, Grif lay back with his head against the wall, still in his orange armor but passed out inside it. His visor was dark and the others around him could hear a light snoring coming from him. Kairi walked towards his side of the vehicle and sat down a few seats away on the right side of a small blond-haired boy she healed as soon as she arrived on the battlefield. "He'll be fine," Kairi said and the other men and boys in the back of the truck with her nodded or sighed in relief.

Other than Dash who was sitting next to Kairi, Ben who sat on his left side with his head leant down near his lap and his eyes closed as he was exhausted from the day of fighting, and Grif on Kairi's opposite side as Dash, there was another person on their side of the vehicle. The guy wore a blue jacket over a long-sleeved blue shirt and had on black pants, along with a black-and-blue-striped beanie over his head. He still had a shocked look on his face even though it had been a while since they picked up the team that routed the Fire Nation. This man sitting closest to the back of the truck was Imori, the youngest of the three Amori brothers… possibly two since his older brother Umori was at Terra Base when it fell.

"I can't believe you guys did it," Imori whispered. "I mean, you really, won a battle," he repeated, wondering if anyone else thought that was as crazy as it sounded to him.

"Of course we did," Natsu said from the other side of the vehicle where he lay across four seats. He had his hands behind his head and his eyes closed, but he was awake as the vehicle's movement was making it too hard to sleep, even though his stomach was not bothering him. "You guys have never had me before. Or Ben, or Dash," he added, as it was not fair for him to take all the credit and he knew it. He turned his head to the side and looked in between the rows of chairs, "Not to mention, the son of Superman. I don't see how you guys were losing with a guy like that in your ranks."

"Thanks." Natsu's eyes opened wide as the man whose eyes were closed as he lay flat on his back spoke. Natsu frowned deeply as he did not mean to say that while Conner was awake, but there was not much he could do about it now. Conner's eyes slowly opened and he continued speaking while staring straight up at the ceiling, "Technically though, Superman, wasn't my real father." Natsu sat up a little, the other man sitting on Natsu's side of the vehicle looked over in questioning wonder, and Imori, Kairi, and Dash all looked in as well. Superboy kept speaking in a low voice, "I, am," he paused and clenched his teeth hard. "I was created in a lab, with Superman's DNA. I'm a clone."

Even the members of the Resistance who knew Superboy prior to this looked at him in surprise. Jin's eyes widened and he glanced in the rearview mirror, and only Black Canary looked back with a look of understanding as she had already known this. _Why is he telling these people?_ She wondered, glancing around the back of the truck. She saw Conner turn his head and look straight at Natsu before continuing and Dinah's lips curled up a little.

"I may have been a clone of him, but, before we were teleported here, Superman had started treating me, like his own, son," Superboy still had some pretty bad burns on him as Kairi only stepped aside to take a few minutes' break before getting to healing him again. He started panting after speaking, then continued, "What did, how did," he paused, then growled in a guttural tone, "Why did Luthor kill him?"

Natsu kept staring back into Conner's eyes. After a few seconds he began, "Lex Luthor tried taking over all of Awul. But, someone got a video of him killing Superman, and they played it all over so we would know what he had done. We didn't let Luthor take over. By the time the war was over, he was too strong for us to take down, but… but we stopped him anyway. Seeing Superman die like that, there was no way any of us were going to let Luthor rule Awul. Your dad didn't die in vain."

The Dragon Slayer said it seriously and Superboy closed his eyes after, sighing and turning his head straight again back towards the ceiling. His eyes opened back up the slightest amount and he whispered, "Thanks." Natsu nodded and leaned back himself. After a few more seconds, Conner continued, "I don't know why I told you guys that. I haven't told… I haven't had a team, like this," in his mind flashed faces of a lot of old teammates and Conner winced. "In a long time," he finally finished.

"A team," Natsu repeated softly. He closed his eyes and faces appeared in his mind: a blue cat's, a blonde girl's, and the grimace on his face deepened.

Dash closed his eyes too as he heard Conner say that. He put his hands under his chin and whispered in a tired tone, "I hope our team is doing okay. All of them, Goku, Timmy, Sora, Luffy and Riku and those guys, and… and Gray and Kirito." As he mentioned that last part, everyone in the vehicle became quiet.

"Did you get any word from them since we left?" Natsu asked the younger man near him.

Sokka shook his head. The General of Pon-Gatso came out to check the battlefield himself with the first groups that went to reinforce the area, but he had to return to Pon so he left with the assault team. He was so excited by their victory that he had pushed it from his mind, but the others seemed to be thinking deeply on it and he frowned, saying softly, "I'm sure they're alright. I let them take the best super-suits the Resistance has to offer, the only two we had in Pon-Gatso. Those things can handle pretty much anything thrown at them."

"Including Ra's al Ghul?" Kairi asked the other teen.

Sokka opened his mouth wide and held up a finger, then lowered that hand and closed his mouth. "I don't know," he finally said in a soft voice. "Ra's is more of a legend than most Lords and even some High Lords. The Resistance leaders he's killed, our forces his group has decimated, and he doesn't just attack us. He's taken out Lords before, Co-op generals, and back in the Third War of the Gods, I heard that on a battlefield of thousands, Ra's al Ghul was the sole survivor."

Natsu, Dash, and Kairi stared at Sokka in horrified shock. Dash gulped and shook where he sat, while Kairi put her hands together and thought a silent prayer. Natsu stared to his side at Sokka for a few more seconds, then lifted his head and stared at the top of their moving vehicle. _Gray, I have faith in you. You're my nakama. But still… don't let your guard down. This guy sounds like a monster._

* * *

 **Southwest Aebrith**

Gray Fullbuster sat on a single speeder bike that flew across the burning tar pits of south-western Aebrith like a missile. The small windshield in front of it protected his face from the extremely fast winds that would be crashing into him otherwise. Still, he had to wear a pair of goggles to protect from the wind that snuck in around the outsides of the bulletproof glass. He had his hands on the handlebars in front of him that were covered in rubber gear-shifters. The throttle was twisted as far forward as he could put it to make his bike move at its fastest speed.

His expression was flat. His lips were straight, his eyes open to their normal degree, but his breathing was faster than ever. Gray blamed it on the wind, on the feeling of moving four hundred miles per hour. The sky was dark, though instead of late night, it was now early morning the day after he attacked Terra Base.

His right arm still felt sore from a powerful attack he blocked with it earlier. _I probably would have lost the arm if it weren't for these battle suits. This, battle suit,_ he corrected himself. The mage cursed under his breath for still thinking in the plural form. _It's just me here. I'm on my own, heading after the League of Assassins all on my own._

He ground his teeth together. _If Kirito didn't run off I would have a much better..._ Gray could not even finish the thought. _No,_ he thought, _Kirito did nothing wrong. All he did was get me into Terra Base, and locate the League's HQ,_ _ **and**_ _find a way to bring Juvia back to life. How did I repay him? Stabbing him in the back, almost literally._ His hands clenched around the thrusters on his handlebars harder.

 _Calm down,_ he told himself, loosening back up his grip. _Stop thinking about Kirito for now. There are more important things going on._ His face hardened and his eyes darted back and forth over the black landscape he was zipping over. The only lights for miles were the lava pools that were not covered by black rocks. _I'm deep in the Emperor's territory. A thousand miles south of Terra Base puts me close to Daedra and Far Far Away. Daedra,_ he thought nostalgically. _When they took it I was first in line to help get it back. The siege of Daedra went great, but once we had it back, we couldn't hold it. That's when I first realized how hopeless this all was._

Gray started staring straight ahead with a purpose. _Darth Bane may have been right. The Resistance might just be an almost dead bug writhing around with its head cut off. Maybe we are just waiting to get finished off. Maybe our fight is futile._ His hardened face only looked more determined as he thought these things however. _But if I had done what he said, the Resistance would have meant nothing anymore. The Resistance stands for everything the King and his Cooperative isn't. I joined them because I thought they were good. And as long as we keep fighting for good, there is always going to be reason to keep writhing._

Gray flew across the landscape without stopping once. He had not eaten since before the previous attack, and his sleep the night before was restless so he was going on a very little amount of rest. His powerful armor was still in pique condition, unlike his body that was still recovering mainly from the difficult escape from Terra Base.

It took him over two more hours of traveling before he saw the mountain that Kirito marked on the map as being the League's secret base. There was a town at the base of the mountain but Gray somewhat recalled hearing Kirito mention that his source said the town was a front, and that every person inside was working with the League. He could see the lights from the town already, and he slowed down his speeder to allow him to approach more stealthily.

Gray spotted a house just ahead of him. He almost did not see it as he had cut off the headlights of his bike to mask his approach. The silhouette of the house's shadow surprised him mainly because he was still miles away from the mountain and the town at the base of it. The shack was dark inside and although that made sense considering how late it was, he had a feeling the building was abandoned. _No vehicles outside, cracked windows, no sign of upkeep._

He slowed his bike to a stop a hundred feet away from the building. It was a wooden shack and as Gray looked around, he did not see a single tree for miles in any direction. _This house must have been built a long time ago, before the forests here were destroyed._

He parked his bike and jogged towards the wooden building. The ice mage pressed his back against the wall and snuck to the corner of it, peering out and looking into the distance. He stared at the mountain and around the town at the bottom. _I need to find a way in. If anyone sees me, I'll be assassinated before I set foot in the base. Then, am I trying to sneak in, to a mountain full of assassins?_ The question lingered in his mind and he clenched his teeth at how suicidal it sounded to him. His rational side told him to wait, to run and find help, bring them to this mountain and attack it together. _All of us could take on the League and win. It would take a while, but it's not like the League can just take the Lazarus Pit somewhere, can they? No, even if they could, they're deep within their own territory. They would feel safe… They would_ _ **be**_ _safe._ He realized and clenched his teeth hard, _If a large group tried attacking the mountain, the Emperor would send them reinforcements. It has to be like this. I need to do this_ _ **now!**_

Gray left the cover of the wooden shack and started sprinting across the dark landscape while keeping his footsteps as quiet as possible. _And… now!_ His body covered in an invisible aura, the special Nen of Zetsu. He was wearing all black and now his power was hidden even more. _Power Blockers hide my energy, but my presence could still be noticed by the enemies' Haki, the ones that have it. Not to mention my magical power. There must be a powerful mage or two in the assassins. I'm glad I took that Nen refresher course from Killua back on the Sunny. Almost forgot how to do this._ He kept up his speed and went far to the left of the town he was approaching. _There would be entrances inside the town, but I'll definitely be seen if I go in over there. Look for a back entrance. There will be guards, but they probably aren't expecting to be assassinated themselves._

The mage kept to the shadows and sprinted farther across the dark ground. There were no more lava pits around, so it was pitch black except for the light coming off the town up ahead. The moons were blocked out by a big cloud that moved above him right before he left the cover of the shack. He was still to the left side of the town and gaining on the mountain, when a few headlights turned on very close to the mountain's base. The mage thought fast and darted to the right as the headlights started pointing his way. Gray picked up his speed and then came to a sudden stop right as he got behind the wall of the closest house in the village. He stood there with his back up against the wall and held his breath as the lights he saw pointed over the landscape he was just running on and illuminated the black ground all the way up to the house he was next to.

Gray held his breath for twenty seconds before hearing rumbling that got louder as the lights grew brighter. He did not dare move, and he only watched out the corners of his eyes as two trucks rolled over the ground to his left and then kept driving the way he just came from. _League scouts? Do they have patrols around here? Or are they heading out on a mission?_ Gray let out a deep breath once the trucks were far past him, then his eyes opened wide and he tensed up. _My bike! I didn't hide the speeder, STUPID!_ He jumped out from behind his hiding spot and started sprinting full speed towards the mountain. _I only have a minute max. I have to assume they're going to find my bike._

The ice mage was right up along the edge of the town now, but he did not care about the illuminated buildings next to him. That changed however, as while sprinting past a two story home only a hundred meters from the base of the mountain, Gray spotted two people in the window staring straight outside. He panicked as he thought they were just looking outside and he had run into their eyesight, but then his panic grew even more as the people were staring straight at him, and did not look surprised. The man and woman looked right into Gray's eyes as he sprinted past and neither changed their blank facial expressions.

 _I'm seeing things!_ He thought to himself in a panic. The mage running towards the base of the mountain sped up, his breathing picking up with his footsteps, and then he came to a sudden stop still fifty meters away. There was a gap between the homes and the base of the building. He thought he would have to look around for an entrance, but one was illuminated very brightly at the base directly in front of him. It was so directly in front of him that he gulped because he had been sprinting straight towards it. There were two men standing outside the hole in the mountain, and the mage thought about turning and running to their sides to get a sneak attack in on them.

"There's no point!" One of the two guards shouted towards the town. It was a distance, it was dark, and Gray did not know how he was seen, but it did not matter now. He sprinted forward while raising his right hand, but the man who shouted continued, "We have been instructed to receive you, Gray Fullbuster." The young man who created a sword of ice in his right hand started slowing down because the men in front of him were not drawing weapons of there own.

He stepped into the light near the entrance of the mountain and tried to look as intimidating as possible. He wanted one of them to raise a weapon at him, but the two figures just turned their backs to Gray and walked inside the entrance. "Follow us," the man on the right began. Gray opened his mouth to shout at them that he would not walk into a trap, but the man continued, "He is waiting for you."

 _"He?" What are they doing? I could kill them right now! Their backs are turned!_ He sped-walked his way into the entrance and behind the two guards, right hand clenched so hard around his sword that he could feel the ice cracking. _Do it! Kill them and look for the Pit yourself. You don't need to move at their pace!_ Gray's breathing was speeding up and he did not like this at all. He was walking through a rocky tunnel that was dimly lit, but farther down the rock walls got less bumpy, the floor evened out, and lights became more common on the ceiling. The tunnel's dimensions became rectangular once he was fifty meters from the entrance, and he darted a quick glance behind him to see if anyone was following him.

The muscular young man looked back ahead and continued walking directly behind these assassins. They were in black cloaks, one had short brown hair and the other black hair of the same length, and they were silent as they walked. Gray tried to sense them with Observational Haki, but he could only feel six presences in the entire mountain and the people in front of him were not any of those. He saw something on his left as they continued to walk straight and he looked at the wall to see a painting hung up in a frame, a beautiful landscape with the mountain he was inside in the background of it, far to the right side. The farther they walked, the more decorations like this became common, like shelves on the sides of the hallway with strange objects on them: totems, gold tablets, books with mystical characters on them.

 _This is the base of the most feared assassins on the continent?_ He was underwhelmed by it. The young man passed by another small tunnel that jutted off of the wider one he was in, and he turned and saw two people standing in the narrow dark path, speaking to each other in hushed voices. They became silent as he looked their ways and they both turned his direction, looking at him with eyes that glowed red. _What the Hell?_ Gray looked back ahead as one of the two men leading him motioned to the right, and the three of them turned down a darker, narrower hallway than even the one Gray just saw those two creepy pale-skinned figures in.

There was a set of double doors not far into the jutting-off pathway, and Gray figured that was where he was being led. He could feel a presence through the doors and it was a powerful one, but his face hardened at the feeling and he gripped his sword tight once again. He marched forward and past the two assassins, ignoring the looks they gave him as he moved by. He stepped up to the doors, large and made of steel, and he pushed them open with one shove of his left hand.

Gray stepped into the next room and glared down the six steps to the circular area in the center of it. All around the outside of this fifty meter diameter circular room were large stone pillars, separating the open area in the center from a small pathway around the room on the outside. There were ten pillars in all, and Gray marched forward so he was at the top of the stairs in front of him and in between the first two pillars close to the entrance. He did not see any other doors in the room, or any other people besides the man standing alone in the center of the room adorned in a brown cloak. The dark-skinned figure lifted his gaze and made eye contact with the mage staring back at him. "Darth Bane," Gray snarled at the sight.

The Sith Lord glanced behind Gray and the steel doors slammed shut, the sound of it echoed through the enclosed room. Gray did not flinch. Bane looked up at the young man, and after a second he said in a deep tone, "Disappointing. I had high hopes, but you failed to kill the one requested of you. Do you not care-"

"Where is the Pit?" Gray interrupted. Bane quieted, and Gray continued while walking right, not down the stairs to the man at the bottom. He walked right and behind the pillar on his side, then once he was between that one and the next he continued, "I know all about it. I can bring Juvia back, and I don't need to kill my friend to do it."

"Friend?" Bane questioned, slowly turning and following the mage's movements around the top part of the room. Gray stared right back at him and while he listened to Bane, his eyes darted around the room he was in. In between the two pillars he was walking between, there was a thick steel rod sticking out of the ground. It looked like it continued down past the ledge of the top section, likely only one level down. Bane continued while Gray looked around and noticed more of these metal rods around the room, "Do you really think he considers you as one, after what you did?"

Gray grimaced and clenched his teeth, wondering how Bane knew about that. _How? Was he watching me? Actually, how did he get here before me? I didn't break since I left Terra. I didn't see anyone fly overhead, and no one passed my on the- no! He wants you to get caught thinking about that. Focus. Focus on your surroundings._ "Maybe he doesn't," Gray said, keeping his voice calm. "And I'll pay for that later, but right now, I'm getting Juvia back."

"You could have had her already," Bane said darkly. Gray glared furiously at the man as he walked around another pillar, but he could not tell if Bane was lying to him or not. The Sith with dark markings around his eyes and a constant serious expression continued, "If you had murdered that boy, you would have Juvia back. She would be alive. It's your fault she is still dead!"

"Shut up!" Gray yelled down at the man. "I shouldn't have to kill, a good person, to bring her back. It wouldn't be right."

"'Right?'" Bane scoffed. The Sith Lord turned his head as Gray continued to walk a circle around him, and he questioned, "What is 'right' when compared to a woman's love? You fool. I thought you understood that the Resistance is just a writhing insect, about to be squashed! The values it holds will be killed along with it. 'Right,' will become whatever the victors choose, and in this world no one would have blamed you for choosing her, over him."

Gray's teeth were grinding hard and he was trying desperately to keep his cool. Bane continued though while Gray started walking around the other side of the top part of the room, "Good and evil, darkness and light, they are not two sides of the same coin. They are the same thing, colors meshed together to create one underlying truth. Intelligent life will always be neutral." Gray's expression became confused but he did not let himself slow down his walk around the top of the room. He knew that once he reached the spot he started in, Bane would attack or he would. They both knew it and he could tell Bane was finishing up as there were only two pillars to go. "Whether one chooses to use the darkness, or hide from it, does not change their innate nature. You never saw yourself killing a comrade, but when presented the opportunity with the right circumstances, even one bathed in the light can delve into darkness." In Gray's mind he saw Sora on the lower decks of the Thousand Sunny the day they all went insane, and he watched as that teen everyone loved shrouded in black and tried to kill him. Bane continued, "It is the same for all people. Anyone can be 'corrupted,' because every person has a side to them that you would call 'evil,' even those in the Resistance."

The ice mage stopped as he reached the spot he first entered the room. He stood between the two pillars on either side of the doorway and looked down at Darth Bane. The Sith's right hand slid out of his cloak's sleeve, and a purple blade of light came out of the silver hilt in his grasp. "Let us begin," Bane said.

"Before we do," Gray interrupted, and the Sith's face gained a hint of annoyance as he was not expecting Gray to say a word. The mage holding a sword of ice lifted it up next to him, then dropped it so it fell on the ground. He smirked. "I've got a few things I want to say too."

Bane rose his right hand, and a massive dent appeared on the center of the steel doors behind Gray, or behind where he just was. Bane snapped his head left and glared at the young man stepping out from behind a pillar. "I have fought all kinds of enemies," Gray began, then shot to his right very fast so he was on the side of the room opposite the double doors. A thud sounded on the wall behind where he just stood and some cracks formed on it, but the mage himself was not injured. Bane spun around and glared towards Gray, but Gray was no longer in the back of the room, but on Bane's left side.

The Sith Lord spun and growled under his breath, and Gray chuckled, "So you realized it huh? Yeah, I was expecting as much." His expression darkened but he continued in a smug tone, "I have fought Chimera Ants, mutants, demons, Espada, and I have fought Siths. You were not the first to face me, and there was something that all of the Sith Lords I faced had in common, just like you." Bane started lifting a finger, but Gray was gone and back in the front of the room near the doors. "You're slow," Gray said, and Bane darted his eyes over with a look of anger on his face. "Sure, you have long-ranged attacks, and your short-range is pretty good too; those lightsabers really pack a punch. Being able to predict what attacks I'm going to make without Haki, that's pretty impressive too, and despite a difference in speed, that tends to make up for it."

Gray started walking to his right, he walked behind a pillar, then walked out from behind a different pillar three down from that one which made Bane snap his head that way fast as he had not seen him dart over there. Darth Bane clenched his teeth but the corners of his lips curled up and he rose his left hand towards Gray. "Another thing," Gray began, right as blue sparks started coming out of Bane's hand. "I noticed you chose a room with a lot of metal in it. On the ceiling lights, these metal rods sticking out of the ground, so I guessed that Force Lightning was probably one of your stronger attacks."

Thick blue lightning shot out of Bane's hand and hit the metal rod in front of the mage. The Sith was confident that Gray was about to be zapped by the rod that was supposed to send electricity scattering in all directions, but once the lightning hit, nothing else happened. The Sith Lord looked closer and his eyes widened at a thick coating of translucent ice surrounding the pillar. "When?" Bane questioned.

"Every time I passed one on my loop around the room," Gray replied. He glared down into Bane's eyes, "You were following me closely, so you didn't see I was leaving behind a trail of ice that slowly made its way to the lightning rods only after I had walked around the next pillar." Gray rose his hands and he clenched a fist with his right, while leaving his left open into a palm. "I have one last thing to tell you," he said before using any Ice-Make magic. "I'm a Fairy Tail mage, and you may be right that there's a side of me that would do evil things, but you're wrong when you say anyone could. You're wrong when you say the Resistance is just like everyone else. Even if we have a dark side to us, not everyone is a monster who would act on it. Goku, and Kairi, Natsu, and Juvia, they're good. They're better than me, and they're definitely better than you."

Gray slammed his fist into his open palm and yelled, "Ice-Make: Freeze Lancer!" A dozen lances of ice shot out of the ground around Gray where the air suddenly dropped fifty degrees in temperature. The spears were wider than Gray's body and the heads sharp as real steel weapons. They curved in towards the center of the room, but when they got close to Darth Bane, all of them shattered at once.

The Sith glared up at the start of the shattering lances, but as the ice fell in between him and Gray, the mage vanished from sight when a shard of ice passed through his vision. Bane spun left and he rose his right hand, slashing his purple lightsaber through the hammer of ice Gray was swinging down without yelling the move's name. Gray spun off the attack and kept diving towards Bane as the Sith's lightsaber finished swinging through his hammer, but Bane stopped his swing's momentum and started pulling back towards him faster than Gray thought he would be able to. He could not wait until he landed to change momentum, so instead Gray let out a breath so cold that the air beneath him thickened, slowing his fall just the slightest amount as ice particles formed from water vapor in the air. The ice did not have time to completely harden into a pillar that would have stopped his fall, but it was enough. A purple blade of light slashed inches below his horizontal body, then Gray swung his left hand down on the floor before Bane could switch directions and stab down at him again.

Five huge ice spikes shot out of the ground around Gray's hand. Bane was swinging his lightsaber down at the man's back, but he felt with the Force an attack coming for his feet and leapt up high in the air. As he rose, a point of ice rose directly beneath his feet, almost moving fast enough to catch him. Bane did a seven-twenty spin in midair though and he used the Force to change his direction completely, making it so he was high above Gray's head right as the mage below was snapping his head up. Gray's eyes opened wide seeing the sparks coming out of Bane's fingertips, but even though he was standing on ice, he was able to move the same speed as always and darted to the left.

Bane's Force Lightning crashed down on the ice beneath where Gray was just standing and ice shards flew everywhere. The thick bottoms of the spikes Gray made were even shattered, and the rest of the ice on the floor around them melted fast with the electricity charging around it. Gray stood behind a pillar, his hair on end as he barely made it away from the end of that last lightning bolt. _Gotta keep up the speed,_ he thought, right before hearing a voice in his ear, "Is that all?" Gray ducked, then a blade of purple light swiped through the pillar above his head. He rolled to the left, and just in time too as Bane used the Force on the top half of the pillar to knock ten meters of stone down where Gray was just sitting.

The mage got to his feet and sprinted to the left, only to hear a loud crash and look back to see Bane had picked back up the first pillar he knocked down and thrown it after him. The only reason it did not hit him was because another pillar got in the way and the first one shattered against it while also putting cracks up the entire second one. Chunks of stone shot off of the jolt that blew the first pillar apart and two of them slammed into Gray's back, only to shatter against his black armor. He stumbled when hit by them, but he felt no pain at all and smirked as he spun back towards Bane. _These Sith and assassins are all wearing cloaks, just ratty, non-protective cloaks. I have the technological advantage!_

Bane stepped forward hard with his right foot, then threw his lightsaber as hard as he could at the mage glaring into his dark eyes. Gray panicked at the sight and he leaned back hard, allowing the spinning lightsaber to fly right over his head. He leaned up once it was past him, then sprinted forward as he felt what was coming for his back. "Ice-Make: Gladiator!" He yelled. The young man slammed his hands together and ice coated his body while in mid-sprint, while he felt with Haki a lightsaber chasing him as Bane pulled it back with the Force. Gray reached Bane right as two swords of ice were forming in his hands, and he swung them both at the side of the man's body. Bane leapt up into a front flip and reached down, catching the hilt of his purple lightsaber as he did. He slashed it at Gray and Gray spun around, swinging his two ice swords to protect himself.

Gray's eyes popped open wide as the lightsaber sliced through his swords like butter, not pausing for a single second to show they had trouble cutting through. Gray tried leaning backwards, but the enemy was too close. The end of the lightsaber still hit him, right in the front of the armor, and it cut through the armor slowly. Gray pulled back harder and escaped the range of the lightsaber, then leapt backwards fast to create some distance. Jumping in the air was not the smartest move though, and Bane proved that to him by waving his free hand and Force Pushing Gray at five times the speed he was already moving backwards, slamming him into another pillar in the room that he smashed straight through and then hit the wall behind it, creating a huge Gray-shaped crater in the wall.

The mage fell out of the hole in the wall while the pillar in front of him collapsed on top of itself. Dust rose up and created a screen between the two fighters, Gray at the top of the room and Bane still in the center, staring out and waiting for his opponent to get back up. Gray knew that Bane knew he was not down for the count, which actually helped him more than hurt him as he was able to examine himself more closely with a sense of security. _Bane doesn't want to come up here. He has the advantage having a lot of space around him. Any direction I attack from, even if I get to the other side of the room without him realizing, he'll still sense me attacking before I can get the drop on him._

Gray looked at the front of his armor, down at the left side of his chest, and sighed in relief at the sight of the deep cut Darth Bane left in his armor, and only his armor. He frowned a second later as he realized he might have been relieved too soon, as a drop of blood trickled out of the four-inch slice in his super-suit. _Still, to hold off an attack from a lightsaber… thanks Sokka._ Gray punched his fists together in front of him and the already-settling dust dispersed faster. He glared across the room at Bane who stood in the center calmly, lightsaber pointed down at the floor on his right side. _His reaction time is too fast. As long as I keep my distance and my speed up I can prolong the fight, but how do I get close to him?_

"You seem to be mistaken young warrior," Bane began and looked towards the edge of the room where Gray was standing. "Do you really believe that keeping your distance will save you?" He rose his left hand and lightning sparked off of it. Gray saw the bolt coming and he ran left. He was still running around the edge of the room when he saw the lightning collide with one of the frozen metal rods in between stone pillars. His eyes opened wide though as the metal rod was not frozen when Bane's attack hit it, and small openings on every side of the top of the pole redirected the lightning out in smaller bolts that flew around the room into other metal rods.

Gray leapt up in the air as a bolt of lightning flew beneath him in the direction of another rod which was luckily still frozen. However, once he was up in the air, he had nothing to prevent Bane from clenching his left hand into a curled fist and making Gray's neck feel like someone just tightened a vice around it. He gasped for air and squirmed where he was held above the ground. _Need. To. Attack!_ Gray's body surrounded in a thin white veil, one that turned light blue after a second and then stretched to cover the air around him all the way up to the ceiling. He froze the metal bars holding up the ceiling lights and the lights shattered after a second, plunging the room into sudden darkness and making glass rain down on the fighter in the center.

Darth Bane grimaced as he finished clenching his curled fist, but no longer felt anyone inside of it. The Sith Lord chuckled though in the dark room and he closed his eyes. "Foolish boy," he rose up his purple lightsaber which gave Gray a perfect target. Bane was practically the only thing visible in the room any longer and he charged the man, only for the light he was using to track Bane's position, to suddenly vanish as he retracted his light blade. A second after the blade disappeared, Gray felt a fist pressing into his left cheek so hard he heard a crack in his jaw. He flew off the punch spinning through the air and collided with a pillar, only for a force of what felt like a train to slam into his chest a second later and plow him through the stone column.

Rocks and debris fell down on top of Gray, then the mage let out a deep breath as all the weight pressing down on his body lifted up. He quickly realized that should not have happened though and rolled left on the dark floor. He was just in time too from the sound of things as all the rubble that was lifted up came smashing back down into the ground where he was just lying. _Plan! I need a plan!_ He rolled forward and used his Haki to sense out Darth Bane. The man was only ten feet in front of him, and he was lifting two fingers to attempt to choke Gray again. _I won't have a way out of it this time!_ The younger man thought in panic, and he dove to the left to avoid the Force coming at him.

"Ice Make:" he yelled out as he rolled. Most of the ice around his body had shattered off when he was bashed around a minute ago, but now more was forming in his right hand as he finished the roll. He came out of it and jumped up while spinning his body, yelling, "Ice Blade Cannon!" A three foot long sword of ice had formed in his hand, but as he slashed it in front of his body, a visible slash of light blue air shot across the room and into Bane who tried turning on his lightsaber to slice the flying slice in half but did not get it up in time. _He's on the defensive! Now is the time to move in for the kill!_ Gray landed and instantly charged forward fast at the man getting back up with lightsaber in hand. Gray slashed down but Bane rose his blade to slice Gray's weapon in two. Darth Bane was so confident his lightsaber would cut it, that he stopped focusing on defense as much as he went in for a slash of his own knowing it would cut through Gray's blade mid-swipe.

 _Risk it!_ Gray's sword split as he swung it, but he ran even faster as they were close enough now that he could see the darks of Bane's eyes. He rose up his hand not on the hilt of his sword and slammed it full sprint into Bane's neck, lifting the Sith off the ground while Bane was still swinging his blade, and hitting the Sith Lord so hard that the silver hilt came out of his swinging arm. The lightsaber lifted up in the air while Gray kept sprinting forward with Bane lifted in front of him.

"AHHH!" Gray suddenly screamed as electricity surrounded his body and electrocuted him. He dropped Bane who jumped backwards while using the Force to pull his lightsaber back to him. As it was coming back though, it arced down towards Gray who despite being in excruciating pain, sensed it coming and dove to his right. He barely avoided the blade of light and skid across the ground on his stomach with his arms crossed in front of his face. He rolled onto his back after a few seconds of pain and glared towards Bane, only for Bane's free hand to already be risen. Gray gasped in panic as Bane rose him off the ground with the Force only to slam him down again.

Gray was lifted up and smashed down three times then slammed to the left into the small wall of the lower level that shattered so that Gray dragged through the floor on the upper circular section of the room. Pushing through stone that hard hurt almost as much as being slammed into the wall, and when he finally stopped moving he groaned in pain that filled his body. As he pushed down on the floor next to him, he thought about how this fight would have went without the armor he was wearing and grimaced. _Darth Bane is not the only one I have to face here,_ his face hardened as he got fully to his feet, then darted right fast to avoid being caught by another Force grab. He started running around the room as fast as he could although he was already panting heavily and his legs ached. _I do not even know where the Pit is, and I'm wasting time! I need to finish this, now!_

"Getting desperate?" Bane questioned the blur he saw racing around the outside of the room. Gray flinched as he said it, but the more the Sith talked the more anxious and angry he got. "Feeling afraid? Wondering how you will ever make it to save your dear Juvia, when you can't even get by me? I am not even part of the League of Assassins. Defeat me and you would still have the entirety of this fearsome force to take on by yourself. I can only imagine how you feel, knowing that you have already lost, before you even got started." Bane swung his arm right and a pillar shattered, but the blur he saw slow down behind it changed directions and shot the other way to avoid flying debris. "Tired? Did you ever fully regain the strength that you lost at Terra Base? You should have waited. Taken your time. Instead, you have rushed to an early grave."

"Shut up!" Gray shouted. He pushed his feet down harder and kept sprinting around the upper section of the room. He ran over rubble and hopped over craters on the floor that were shaped like his own body. The room was almost pitch black, though his eyes were adjusting to the darkness. The ice mage ran around and around, pushing his body and mind to the limits. _I can't get close. The Force is like a more impressive Haki. He knows what I'm going to do, every time I attack. How many seconds does he have from when he learns what I'm going to do, and when I actually do it? One? Half a second? His reaction time is faster than any Sith I've ever fought._

 _ **CRASH!**_ A hole blasted in the wall in front of Gray as Darth Bane tried leading him, but luckily the mage just happened to be subconsciously slowing down at that exact moment. He stopped short as stone shards shot out of the wall, then kept sprinting forward through the rest of the rubble. He knew it was the right call as behind where he stopped, another hole blasted in the wall showing that Bane thought he would turn and run the other way after the first attack. The Sith in the center of the room frowned deeply as he lost Gray again, and his eyes darted around the dark room following the sound of footsteps and vibrations on the floor.

 _I have an idea._ Gray thought, his eyes opening wide as he finally came to a short and sudden stop. "Bane!" He shouted, standing directly behind a pillar so that the man could not grab him with the Force so easily. Darth Bane hesitated as the younger man shouted his name. Gray knew he had a moment and he continued louder, "This is your last chance! Surrender and I'll let you live!"

 _What is this?_ Darth Bane thought to himself. _Is he trying to anger me? Distract me? Give himself a few extra seconds?_ Bane lifted his hand to shatter the pillar, but stepping out from behind it was the young man who just shouted at him. Gray Fullbuster stood there, ice swords in his hands, looking towards the center of the room with a confident expression that Bane could make out even in the darkness. Gray took a step forward, then Bane barely moved his left hand and Gray's neck was clenched by a Force Choke. The young man lifted off the ground with a look of pain strewn across his face, but he managed to raise his arms even as he was risen.

While Gray was lifting up, he pulled his arms back and threw forward as hard as he could. The three-foot long blades of ice with sharp edges on both sides shot through the room, spinning around and around in the air. The corners of Bane's lips lifted up the smallest amount as he continued to choke the man, because though the blades were flying close to him, he did not need the Force to be able to tell that they were going to miss him. One blade was heading to his left side, and the other to his right.

 _I need to time this perfectly,_ Gray thought. _Ice Make: Castle!_

Bane felt a twitch on the back of his neck. He stopped choking the life out of Gray, and instead clenched that hand he was using to Force Choke all at once. Gray's neck snapped, but instead of a loud crack filling the room, the sound of shattering ice filled it instead. "Ice Make:" a voice shouted behind Bane, making the Sith dart his eyes to the side and try to look behind him. Out from behind a pillar straight behind him, Gray charged with a sword clenched in both hands. "Clone!" The Gray coming at Bane's back shouted, while the one in front of him fell out of the air losing all the color to him as he turned to ice and fell apart.

The figure coming at Bane's back was doing so incredibly fast, and Bane lifted his arms to use the Force on one side of himself, push himself away from the younger man. As Bane was about to do it though, he remembered something and his eyes widened more at the sight of the spinning swords directly in front of him while his head was turning to the side. _Clever, boy. If I push to the left, I'll destroy one sword and fly into the other. Push right and have the opposite effect. In that case,_ Bane twitched a finger, and Gray stopped where he was in mid-charge at Bane's back. "Fool," Bane began as he sent such a huge amount of Force behind him that he halted Gray's movements completely. The swords came flying by his sides as Bane himself was lifted forward thanks to expelling so much Force behind him. "I don't need to dodge the swords at all, if I stop-" A crack formed on the face of the young man he just plowed with the Force and the Sith froze with his mouth open.

The Sith Lord felt something else that made his body wrench and his head snap straight ahead again. Behind the falling ice of the first Gray Clone, another young man sprinted forward with an ice sword turning black with Armament Haki. Darth Bane was so close to this Gray already, only ten feet between them as the Sith Lord's eyes looked into the mage's. Gray started swinging his sword while they were still eight feet away, and Bane calmed himself as his feet were about to touch the ground. _He is too far._ Bane's lightsaber flew back into his hand and he got ready to turn it on, going to slash the young man as soon as the end of the boy's sword flew just in front of his body.

Bane's feet touched the ground and he stopped himself short. Gray continued swinging his sword, and Bane started rising up his right hand, but the calm Sith Lord's eyes opened wide and darted at the floor beneath him. The breath he was taking caught in his throat as he looked at the ground: shiny, slippery, frozen over. His feet slid forward, and his lightsaber was a millisecond behind turning on. He brought his arm around, but Gray was already mid-swing. Gray brought his sword across Bane so hard that it looked for a second he would split the man in half, but his blade got jammed halfway through the enemy who used the Force to prevent a clean slice. Bane stood there, a foot and a half in front of Gray, looking the younger man in the eyes while Gray held both arms out, gripping the shaft of his sword as it trembled inside his enemy's chest. The Sith Lord had his left hand up, shaking as he tried holding Gray's ice sword in place, with his other hand holding the hilt of his lightsaber in mid-swing, the purple light blade only inches to the side of Gray's chest armor.

"When?" Bane questioned. A drop of blood came out of the left corner of his mouth and slid down to his chin. "When did you freeze the floor?"

Gray looked the Sith back in his dark eyes, and though it did not matter now, he responded anyway, "While you were choking the first ice clone."

The taller man nodded once, then let out a long breath. "This is unfortunate," he clenched his left hand into a fist and the sword lodged inside him broke. It broke off right near the hilt though, and Gray increased the distance between them so he was out of range of the purple lightsaber that was way too close for his liking. Darth Bane did not give chase though. The Sith Lord's lips were curled into a deep frown. He stood there staring at Gray, the calmest look Gray had ever seen on a man's face who was about to die. "My wrath will know no end," Bane said, while his arms fell limp at his sides.

His lightsaber dropped from his hands that could no longer hold a grip around it. The purple blade of light fell to the floor but stopped inches from the ground. Gray's eyes darted down to the weapon he did not hear clank against the ground. It was dark, and he stared at the weapon as it hovered there, casting a dim glow on Darth Bane's body. "Farewell," Bane said, as his knees started to come out from under him. Gray did not know what it was, but something told him he needed to run, run fast.

He turned and looked around for the door, but it was pitch black in there. He felt the lightsaber flying towards him with his Observational Haki and he jumped up into the air. As he rose, he watched the lightsaber fly right past him, almost like he was not its target in the first place. Gray's eyes widened as the weapon gave off enough light that he saw what it was flying for. It sliced straight through the stone pillar, then curved and shot past two collapsed ones towards another. Gray was panicking, but he had not hit the floor yet so he could not run for the door.

Bane hit his knees, and his upper body started to fall forward. The lightsaber he sent out with the Force followed its path, cutting through every pillar still standing in the room. The weapon turned off, plunging the room into darkness. Gray touched the ground, while cracks ran up and down the walls and across the ceiling. Chunks of stone fell over the young man who started sprinting towards the door. He made it to the stairs, then a huge chunk of ceiling fell down in front of the doorway. Pieces of the rock that fell flew into him and knocked him back, right into more debris he could barely see, falling down on him hard as the room collapsed. Gray shook his head clear after getting hit by a rock, then snapped his head up as he felt danger coming, and watched the entire ceiling above him collapse at once.

* * *

 **League of Assassins Headquarters**

"Father." Deep inside the League of Assassins' mountain headquarters, a beautiful young woman with jet black hair walked into an open hall. The room was almost as dark as the rest of the mountain, only this one had gas lamps hanging from the ceiling in two lines. The room was very empty. There was a red carpet leading from the craggily entranceway all the way to the other side of the room where a man sat in the air. He sat cross-legged in midair facing four columns of figures in cloaks of black material, swords at their sides or bows and on their backs.

The woman who walked in was trailed by two others. They walked on either side of her as she entered, only a few feet behind. Talia al Ghul strode down the carpet and in between the two center columns of assassins. As she neared the front, a woman with long curly black hair broke off her meditation and smirked up an insane look at the woman walking by. Talia ignored Bellatrix Lestrange's creepy gaze and only stopped walking once she was ahead of the front row where she got down on a knee in front of her father. "Darth Bane has been killed. As has the intruder-"

"The boy is alive," Ra's said. His daughter snapped her gaze up and saw Ra's lowering down. His eyes opened and he left his sitting position, fully extending his legs right when he lowered to the point where by extending them his feet would touch the floor. The fifty-one assassins in front of Ra's al Ghul looked to their leader awaiting orders. They rose from meditation positions into the same kneeling pose that Talia was in at the front of their pack. Ra's smiled as he looked over all of their heads to the opening in the back of the room that had no real door in it but led to the rest of the mountain. "I want to see him for myself. Make yourselves scarce."

Fifty people in front of Ra's darted away and vanished into the shadows. His daughter stood up slower though and faced her father, "Darth Bane was no fool."

"You are not to harm him," Ra's repeated. Talia ground her teeth, but nodded, then leapt back to the door she came in from, before vanishing out into the mountain.

Ra's turned his back from the entrance. He faced the back wall and closed his eyes again. Ra's waited. The leader of the League waited, waited, then spoke, "Gray Fullbuster."

Across the room, the man who had snuck his way through the mountain all the way to this giant room froze. He had been on the other side of the entrance, looking inside while using Zetsu, waiting for his moment to sprint into the shadows. As soon as he took a single step out in the open though, Ra's al Ghul called him by name. The mage did not even try to go into hiding after that. There was no point. He dropped his Zetsu as keeping it up put a danger on himself of being completely unguarded if Ra's were to attack. "How did you know?" Gray questioned.

"En," Ra's explained as he turned around, his eyes opening up only once he did so that Gray could see they had been closed. Gray still looked confused, and Ra's continued, "It is similar to Zetsu in that it is a utilization of one's Nen. En is more complex however." Ra's dropped his En and the sphere surrounding him shrank back into his body. Gray's eyes widened and he looked around as a translucent sphere of white light closed back in on Ra's' body. "It allows me to feel the shape, size, and movement of anything that enters within sixty meters of my body.

 _Sixty meters?! Then, he didn't just notice me as I entered the room. He was waiting for me the whole time._

"Father," a voice said, and Gray spun around to see someone back in the hallway he just came out of. Talia looked aggravated as she spoke up, "There were four opportunities to kill him on his way here." The woman glared at Gray and continued, "Even now, he turns his back on Ra's al Ghul. Please, allow me the honor of killing him."

"Did I not say," a voice began, making Gray spin even faster back around than he already did after hearing what this woman said. Ra's was half the distance to him as he was a second ago, standing there with a straight expression on his face that somehow still set off so many danger signals to the young man. "I want to see him for myself?"

"You have seen him," Talia remarked. "Are you impressed?"

Gray stepped back towards the left side of the room while these two conversed. _Ra's al Ghul has a daughter? How strong is she? Will I have to face them both on my own?_ "I am, in fact," Ra's replied. His daughter looked surprised, then Ra's continued as they both faced Gray, "Now, Talia, leave me. Do not return again until I call for you." Talia hesitated at the entrance, and Ra's continued to look at Gray while he said, "If you like, you could try and kill him right now."

Ra's left the offer up there. Gray did not know if the man was being serious, but one quick look at Talia showed him that he had completely misread the situation. Ra's was not giving her a shot at him first, he was telling her to try and harm him, like if she tried it would be the last thing she ever did. She bowed her head and stepped backwards, before vanishing into the darkness before Gray's very eyes. Gray looked back towards Ra's as soon as Talia was gone, and his eyes focused in on his enemy. He became so focused in that single instant that Talia could likely walk back in the room and straight up to his back without him noticing. This was Ra's al Ghul standing before him. His eyes, his ears, his senses, everything he had was honed in on Ra's.

 _If I'm to get to the Pit, I need to get past him. This is going to be the hardest thing I've ever done. Ra's al Ghul is a monster, the leader of the League of Assassins. There's nothing I can say to this man. All I can do is try to get past him. I_ _ **need**_ _to get beat him. Unless-_ "Ra's, I'm here to-"

"I know," Ra's interrupted Gray, stopping him before he could make a speech, or attempt to stall to have more time to think up a plan. Ra's al Ghul faced Gray inside this empty room, and he continued, "You are here to bring back the woman you love. But Gray, tell me," Ra's lifted his right hand and Gray's nerves got even more rattled as the leader of the League of Assassins had a saber in his hand that the mage did not notice until just now. "Why would I allow you to use the Lazarus Pit which has kept me alive for a millennia?"

Gray's face gained even more sweat to it. He looked at this man who was clearly aged, but did not look like an old man at all. "A, millennia?" Gray muttered, wondering if he heard correctly.

"A thousand years I have honed my skills," Ra's pointed the tip of his blade at the young man ahead of him. "Now come, we both know that there is only one way this will end."

Gray grit his teeth and he rose his arms. "Ahhhh!" Gray's hands covered in ice and then the air in front of them shimmered with light. His fists were clenched but had openings between his palms and fingers so that his hilts could form in them. A pair of longswords appeared in his hands and Gray planted his feet down on the ground hard as he stood in a stance with them. _Don't form any ice on the legs,_ he thought, _and keep as little weight as possible on my body. I saw how fast he was when he faced Ben and Dash. Damn how I wish one of them was here right now._

The ice mage charged. He sprinted towards Ra's, and the man he was facing did not move. Ra's stood there, almost six feet tall, with sideburns on his face that stopped before his chin and spiked back up towards his nose. His hair was brown and pushed back even though there did not look to be any product in it. His eyes were small, cold, evil. Unlike the rest of the assassins in the base, Ra's had on a green cloak and a cape connected to it by golden clasps on his shoulders. His collar was popped up and the hilt of his long silver saber was pitch black. Gray noticed all of this as he slashed his two swords down into Ra's' shoulders all the way down into the floor.

Gray's blades connecting with the ground sent loud clanks echoing around the room, while Gray himself stared at the spot Ra's was standing, or at least where the image of his body was fading away. "Wha-" Gray froze, his voice stopped coming out, and the cold steel against his throat slid across. Gray stumbled forward and spun around, looking at Ra's in horror while grabbing at his throat.

"Do not worry," Ra's began. "I used the back of the blade," he turned the weapon in his hand and smirked at Gray's reaction when the mage looked down at his hand and saw no blood on it. "Also, I would like you to know, before I kill you," Gray gulped, annoyed at himself for doing so, but he could not stop himself after what just happened. Ra's continued, "I do not have any poison on my weapon." Instantly, Gray's nervous, hesitant, afraid expression, darkened and hardened. Ra's nodded, "Yes, in an assassination, the poison I created is very useful, but I do not feel the need to use it in a fight such as this. In fact, it would be dishonorable, would you not agree?"

"Honor?" Gray snarled, his swords shaking as he rose them up again. Ice spread up his arms, all the way to his neck that it wrapped around in a strong coating. "What do you know of honor? The way you killed Juvia," Gray spat on the floor of this man's room, and finished, "you have no honor."

"From what I have heard," Ra's looked straight into Gray's eyes, and countered, "neither do you." The hilts of Gray's ice swords cracked in his grip. The mage charged again, and though more furious and full of hate than a minute ago, his moves were sloppier too. He slashed so hard with the sword in his right hand that a flying slash came off of it and flew into the wall over on his right. Ra's sidestepped the other direction though, having noticed the sword was moving with so much force and momentum that it would release a long-ranged attack like that. While the attack was still coming off of Gray's first blade though, he jabbed his second towards where he felt Ra's was dodging to.

"Does it pain you?" Ra's questioned, while raising his right hand and catching the tip of Gray's second sword. Ra's clenched his hand into a fist and Gray's sword broke in two. The League's leader reached forward and grabbed Gray by the face while the younger man leaned back trying to avoid it. Gray brought his other sword across his body trying to cut Ra's' hand off while the man had him grabbed, but as his eyes were covered by one of Ra's' fingers, he did not see the man's forearm covering in Armament Haki, shattering his blade on contact. "I killed the woman you love, and you are so powerless to stop me." Ra's lifted Gray off the ground while the mage tried to think of something to do against this overwhelming power, then Ra's tossed him straight up towards the ceiling.

Gray snapped his eyes open and rose a fist to use some Ice Make magic on the man down below. When he tried refocusing on his opponent though, his eyes widened as Ra's was no longer there. His presence was gone too, and the first time Gray realized where he was, was when Ra's' left leg slammed into his side so hard that the armor he was wearing could not cushion the blow enough. One of his ribs cracked, he coughed in agony, and shot off the kick down into the ground where he collided on such an angle to start rolling across the floor into the opposite wall as the door he entered from.

 _This isn't good! I need to focus! Get my bearings, get a strategy together like with Bane!_ "When you tried to murder your friend," Ra's began, and Gray clenched his teeth and fists hard. _Ignore him! He's trying to get to you!_ "Did he look betrayed? Of course he did. How did that look feel?" Ra's stepped towards Gray who stood up from under the debris that collapsed on top of him when he hit the wall. Ra's looked genuinely intrigued and he continued, "I have betrayed many people, but for someone like you to do it. A Fairy Tail mage. A good son, student, friend…" Gray froze right as he was getting ready to sprint at his opponent again.

 _How does he know those things?! What the Hell?! Who is this man!?_ "Ra's al Ghul," Gray muttered. The top half of his face got shadowed over by his hair, and he growled in a deep voice, "Who, who are you?"

"I am the Demon's Head," Ra's responded. "Over a thousand years I mastered my arts, all while researching the mysteries of the world. I was not surprised when we were brought to this world." Gray's lower lip lowered and Ra's stared so deeply into his eyes that Gray could feel fear throughout his body. "When the darkness rises, when the guardians fall, the League will be there. I will lead us through the end of everything. In this fight to the death, who do you think is more likely to survive?"

Gray suddenly realized he was up against a wall, no exits around him, the only exits in the room that he could see were behind Ra's. Here he stood, facing a man who knew things that terrified him to his core. "I don't know what it is you're fighting for," Gray snarled, his nerves soothing as his body relaxed. He dropped his swords and rose his right fist, lifting up his left palm at the same time. "But I know what I came for, and I won't leave without her. I won't die until she's alive!" Gray slammed his fist down on his open palm, "Ice Make Unlimited: One Sided Chaotic Dance!" Bright blue light shone around the point of Gray's hands and expanded farther and farther until it flashed bright. Ice appeared all around Gray. Swords of ice spun around his head and shards shot in every direction. Ra's looked left and right as the ice surrounding Gray expanded, circles of ice stretching from the floor to the ceiling, spinning around and around so fast it was hard to see what the ice actually looked like. When it stopped being so blurry, slowing down to a sudden stop, Gray had hundreds of swords of ice surrounding him on every side.

The man inside all that ice was panting hard, his chest heaving, but the corners of his lips curled up. All of the blades shot the same way. They flew towards Ra's, and Gray focused hard on controlling his attack. He kept a small distance between each sword in order to spread them out through the room, giving Ra's nowhere to dodge to. Then, when he saw Ra's standing still getting ready to take the swords coming straight for him, Gray slammed his arms inwards and sent all of the blades on the outsides shooting in at the same point. As soon as the swords connected, an explosion of ice blasted Ra's, covering ten meters by ten meters of ground in ice crystals that stretched all the way up to the ceiling.

Gray stood right in front of one of the crystals, as they had spread so far that they almost hit him. _I couldn't hold back though,_ he thought, while trying to steady his heavy breathing. _Did I get him?_ Gray took a step around the crystal closest to him and tried looking into the center of the ice. He stared inside it and his eyes opened wide at the sight of Ra's' face, his eyes opened wider than usual, his mouth open like he was trying to say something. He was frozen solid. "I did it," Gray whispered, more shock than anything else in his voice.

"If only," Ra's replied, and Gray snapped his head right to see the man stepping out of the shadows. The gas lamps on the ceiling were waving back and forth, a few of them had broken from the attacks, and shadows danced on the walls giving the room an even more creepy aura. Ra's continued to walk towards Gray while staring into the shocked mage's eyes. Gray did not look back towards the ice, but Ra's said anyway, "A clone. What you just froze was no more than a rock that I transformed to look like myself after you hit that wall. That moment you were covered in debris was when I made the switch." Gray's mouth opened more and his breaths were coming out more staggered now, exhaustion seeming to set in as what just happened set in. "It must be frustrating," Ra's said while still walking calmly towards his enemy. "Knowing that you wasted so much magical power, while all it took was a pinch of chakra to use the Transformation Jutsu. The futility of your actions."

Ra's lifted his sword and Gray realized how close he was. The man jabbed his sword forward and Gray leapt back, but the weapon was longer than he thought, which along with Ra's jab, arm length, and how far he leaned his body forward, made the tip hit Gray in his armor. It started to cut through, but Gray was already in a backwards momentum and the sword thrust solely added to the speed he was sent backwards. Gray slammed his back into the wall, then slammed both of his hands back against it too, covering the wall in ice.

The Demon's Head no longer seemed to be playing around though. As soon as Gray flew off of his sword, he sprinted at the mage, slashing down towards him. Gray rose his right arm and formed a sword as fast as he could, covering it in Haki too for good measure. Even with his Haki, as soon as Ra's' weapon clashed with his own, he felt the entire weapon crack inside the Haki coating. His arms trembled as he grabbed the hilt with both hands and pushed back as hard as he could, but Ra's pushed down harder. "AhhhhHHHHH!" Gray roared louder and louder, then kicked his legs out while slamming his right hand to the wall again. With only one hand on his sword, he could not hold Ra's back for more than half a second, but before his blade got pushed aside so Ra's could stab him, the leader of the League had to dodge his double-kick.

As Ra's moved to the side of Gray's legs though, the younger man's other hand slammed into the wall already covered in ice and the entire wall shattered. Ra's' eyes focused on the part right where Gray's hand hit, and he pulled his sword back while leaping to his right. Gray had a long shaft of a spear in his left hand and he smashed it down where Ra's was just standing. He darted his eyes to the side and saw Ra's still in midair about to hit the ground, so without any hesitation, Gray turned, stomped down powerfully with his right foot, and threw his spear forward with all his force. The spear flew across the gap between them in an instant, the whizzing sound of the spear cutting through the air filling their ears. Ra's leaned his head right, and the spear shot over his left shoulder without touching him.

Gray sprinted at his opponent. This was the first time through the entire fight where he felt like he had any sort of control. He could not lose it now just because of how disheartened he was at the ease with which Ra's seemed to dodge that last attack. He slammed his right fist into his left palm, yelling, "Ice Make-" Ra's moved. He moved so fast that Gray stopped mid-shout because his opponent was suddenly sprinting towards him and bringing a sword down. Gray formed a sword as fast as he could and rose it up, then his eyes opened even wider while he was lifting the sword as Ra's' entire weapon coated in black Haki with a dark purple aura around it. _Focus!_ Gray shouted internally, concentrating as hard as he could on surrounding his weapon with Haki.

Ra's' sword collided with Gray's. Right before the blades clashed, Gray's surrounded in a coating of Armament Haki. The blades pushed against each other, for a moment. Gray felt all the ice inside his weapon shatter, then watched in horror as his Haki shattered before his eyes, and then Ra's' sword kept slashing down straight across his body. The sword cut through Gray's armor, slicing from right shoulder down to his left side, and completely cutting through the powerful material of his battle suit. Gray was still staring in horror at his shattering sword when blood splashed up in the air, his own blood.

The power of the slash was too much and Gray got thrown backwards. He yelled out in pain before he hit the ground and tumbled over and over before uprighting himself. He got to his feet and looked down at his armor, seeing a slash across it and blood coming out of that slash fast. _It didn't cut deep enough,_ he thought in relief, before snapping his head up as he felt Ra's right in front of him. By the time his eyes were off his bloody gash, Ra's stood there three feet in front of him, saber held at his right side by the hilt with both of his elbows curled in. Gray's eyes started to widen. He had no weapon in his hands, and Ra's jabbed with his own, far too fast for Gray to avoid. The blade connected, it went through Gray's armor, and the ice mage gasped as his chest felt like it was slammed into by something hard, even if he did not go flying from the attack this time.

The Fairy Tail wizard stood there in a daze. The attacks Ra's was hitting him with were too fast, too strong, too skilled. The leader of the League had stopped talking, and Ra's al Ghul lived up to his name. Gray looked into Ra's' eyes, and then he didn't die. _That, hit my heart,_ he thought, before lowering his eyes just like Ra's in front of him did. Gray looked at the blade sticking out of his chest that for some reason seemed too long, almost like it had not impaled him at all. Ra's looked at the weapon as well, and he said while sliding it backwards, "I see. That armor of yours is most powerful in front of your heart. I used the exact amount of power it took to cut through before, yet you have survived, and from the looks of it, even you did not see this coming."

Gray snapped his shocked gaze back up and stared at Ra's with huge eyes. _I almost died! If he had hit me even a little harder, I was dead. If this suit was just a little weaker, I was dead._ Gray leapt backwards fast, not knowing when Ra's would strike next. Ra's looked at Gray as he arced through the air, and the Demon's Head started walking towards him before he even landed. "Now you understand. I can see it in your eyes. Your determination, your will to fight, they are strong indeed. However, even the strong fear death." Ra's slashed his sword to the side and Gray's blood flew off of it and into the wall on his right where it made a splatter mark. The lanterns that remained on the ceiling were waving around, light dancing in the room as Ra's walked towards Gray, holding his saber straight out to the right.

Gray was panting loudly, unable to keep himself composed, unable to keep his voice down as he wheezed for breath. He was close to a wall when he landed, and there was no way to get out of the room. _I have to just try to get to the Pit without fighting him! He's way too strong!_ "This will be the final attack," Ra's stated calmly, while all of Gray's warning sensors went off and his mind screamed at his body to run. He could not run though. _Ra's will follow me. If, if I'm risking my life for this, I might as well go all out._

The younger man stopped panting all at once. He brought his arms in to his sides, bent his elbows, clenched his fists, and yelled, "AHHHH!" Gray's arms covered in a thick coating of light blue ice, stretching all the way up to his shoulders. The ice started moving to his head, but Ra's picked up the speed to twice what he had already been moving. As he was already faster than Gray, this was almost like teleporting to the younger man whose eyes opened huge as the ice swords he was making were not ready, the armor on his head was not ready, and he had no time to dodge. Ra's got within a foot of Gray and his sword was covered fully in Haki, moving faster and harder than it had moved all fight.

Ra's slashed.

 _ **CLANK!**_

Gray had his eyes closed. He did not know when he clenched them, but the release of death he thought was about to take him never came. The instant he had closed his eyes, a thousand images had rushed through his mind. He had heard people say that when you are about to die, your life flashes in front of your eyes. Well, the only images that he saw in that instant, were memories that he had shared with Juvia. He opened his eyes, ready to keep fighting, ready to go on and take on the entire League again as what he was fighting for reappeared before his eyes. When his eyes opened though, he suddenly realized why it was that Ra's' sword had never reached him.

A black cloak waved in front of the mage's eyes. Gray's jaw dropped. There was a figure in front of him holding two swords crossed over his head, each one coated in Haki, but also another substance that dripped off the hilts as he held off Ra's blade. He held his swords there holding off an assassin who looked less shocked than Gray, but still had his eyes opened larger than normal, his eyebrows raised, and whose saber he pushed down harder, only for the two longswords that were shaking beneath his own to push up and knock his blade back. Ra's jumped backwards ten feet. He landed and stared at the boy in front of him, the teenager with jet black hair that was long in the back and had long bangs that partially covered his big dark eyes.

Gray could not make out words for a few seconds. Ra's composed himself more quickly though. "Kirito," he said, and the teenager before him narrowed his eyes to glare straight into Ra's' similarly dark ones. Kirito lowered the sword in his right hand, the black one, down to the right side of his waist while keeping it pointed towards Ra's. He rose the blue sword in his other hand up at his left side with his elbow bent and the sword slightly pulled back as if he was already planning a strike with it, even if that was just his usual stance. Ra's examined the stance, and he then looked back up and past Kirito to the doors the teen came from. "How did you get here?" Ra's questioned.

Kirito's blades dripping blood was a give away, but the teenager said nothing for a few seconds. He kept eye contact with Ra's, his instincts telling him to stay absolutely focused, because he was facing one of the most powerful opponents he had ever fought. _This feels like Blackbeard, but I have no backup, no healers, no Wanda to give me the upper hand. Thanks to Akuma's training I made it here only killing four guards, but even if they can't sense me, they'll find the bodies soon and find out I'm here. If I'm going to beat this man, I need to do it before they get here._ "Kirito," a quiet voice whispered behind him.

As soon as Gray let out a sound, Kirito's forehead wrinkled in anger, his teeth clenched like his hands around the hilts of his blades, and he glared even more furiously at Ra's. "You came," Gray whispered, taking a step to the right so he could see Kirito's face. "You, saved-"

"I only came for Juvia," Kirito growled, his irises darting to the corners of his eyes for a second to give Gray the same glare he was giving an amused-looking Ra's. "I have a better chance of that if you're helping me, so that's why I saved you." Kirito's eyes darted back to Ra's and he continued darkly, "I realized if Juvia has a shot of coming back, I have to take it. I was willing before, and she shouldn't have to pay for the choices you've made."

Gray's bottom lip lowered as Kirito spoke, but when the teen finished he grit his teeth and focused back on Ra's himself. Ra's was no longer facing his original opponent however. "You defeated several members of the League to make it this far," Ra's stated.

"Four to be exact," Kirito replied. His swords stayed steady and his eyes looked deep into Ra's'. "I was able to sneak past the rest of them without issue."

"Hmph," Ra's lifted his head and looked down his nose across the room at Kirito. "What you said about being a ninja, perhaps I was too fast to dismiss it." Kirito's fists clenched harder around the hilts of his blades as Ra's referred to the night the League ambushed them. The corners of Ra's' lips curled up a small amount, "Something has changed about you. That night, you would not have killed the Resistance leader I-"

"It was not my ninja training that allowed me to get here," Kirito snarled, interrupting the leader of the League whose expression immediately took a darker turn. Kirito's was already that dark though, and the teenager took a step forward before coating both of his swords in a full coating of Haki. "I was part of a criminal organization where I learned how to mask my energy. That organization took down countries and slaughtered millions." Kirito started sprinting forward and he roared, "You know nothing about me!" He slashed down before he reached Ra's, and a slash of blue light flew off of his blue sword that was coated in Haki.

The slash flew at Ra's only for the man to turn his body left and allow it to fly harmlessly past him. Kirito pulled his other sword back far behind him and slashed forward, now close enough that the blade itself would be what hit his enemy. Ra's lifted his katana and blocked Kirito's sword, only for the blue one he swiped first to already be coming back down over Ra's' head. Ra's lifted his free hand and around it formed a white veil so thick that when Kirito's blade hit it, the Ko completely protected Ra's' skin from being cut. As Kirito's blade stopped against his hand though, Ra's felt something coming from below him and his head snapped down.

The floor broke upwards and four arms reached out of it for Ra's' legs. Ra's hopped in that moment and his feet rose just above Kirito's hands as they grabbed in for his legs. Ra's stomped back down hard and his feet smashed through the ground and through the two clones beneath the stone. As this happened however, Kirito dragged his black sword against Ra's' saber all the way up to the hilt and then forward towards Ra's' head. Ra's leaned back and kicked upwards, catching Kirito in the gut and knocking the teenager up in the air. One of Kirito's swords came out of his grip as he rose, but what Ra's thought was a mistake in account of the pain, was just another move by the teen who brought his newly freed hand to his waist and pulled out five shuriken that he whipped down with a flick of his wrist.

Ra's backflipped three times as sharp throwing stars stuck in the ground where he just was over and over again. When he stopped, he pressed both feet down hard to get ready to charge forward again. As soon as he pressed down though, he felt his feet grow cold and a quick dart of his eyes showed him his legs covering in ice. "Ice Make Trap!" Gray yelled, and the floor of ice all around Ra's shot up his body in an instant. Before the ice had even reached his waist though, Ra's started moving his hands in strange positions in front of his body.

Kirito finally landed from the kick in the gut and was charging forward, but he realized what Ra's was doing and shouted to his right, "Dodge!"

Gray glanced in Kirito's direction, then leapt to his own right without questioning what the teen yelled his way. It was right on time too, as Ra's put his hands up to his mouth and cupped them there. A cone of flames shot out of his mouth so wide that Kirito had to stop charging and cross his arms in front of him, before getting knocked back by the force of the attack. Gray also crossed his arms even as he dodged, and both of the younger men came out of the attack barely scathed. When the flames settled however, Ra's stood there no longer partially encased in ice. He also stood in front of a figure that had both of the younger men hesitating at how big he was.

"Gray, I no longer have any interest in you," Ra's stated. Gray got a bead of sweat on the side of his face as the ten foot tall muscular giant in a white mask behind Ra's turned towards him. "I would like to continue a one on one fight, but with young Kirito. My bodyguard Ubu, will take care of you." The giant leapt over Ra's' head and arced towards Gray while pulling an arm back. Gray got ready, and while he did, he spotted someone on his left sprinting forward. For a second Gray though Kirito was going to intercept Ubu, until the teenager sprinted right underneath the muscular giant and leapt at Ra's who was still looking Gray's direction.

Ra's stepped left and swung a fist into Kirito's stomach, making it visible on the teen's back. "Kirito!" Gray yelled, before having to refocus on the man falling on him who punched forward his pulled-back fist. Gray tried stopping it with a punch of his own, but Ubu's arm buckled his own and kept going until it hit him in the chest and sent him flying backwards. Gray smashed into a wall, then formed a huge crater in it, then smashed straight through it completely as Ubu leapt towards the crater and slammed an elbow into the mage's stomach. Blood splashed out of Gray's mouth as the wall crumbled around them, and he was thrown out into a different hallway then through the wall on the other side and into a large empty room full of weapons.

Back in the main chamber, Ra's al Ghul faced off against Kirito who was frowning deeply but not panting at all. Kirito did not wish to show any sign of weakness in front of this man who was much more monstrous than his giant manservant. _I managed to recover most of my chakra from last night, but I wish I was at full strength before fighting a more powerful opponent. That's what this is. Imagine fighting Blackbeard, but without any outside help, without healers, without any way to restore myself if I make a mistake. I can't make mistakes like I did that day. Every injury is life-threatening. Every move I make is a waste of energy and chakra if I don't make it count._

Ra's reached behind his back and then swung his arm around his body. Kirito's eyes widened as the same type of shuriken he threw at Ra's a minute ago came flying at him. He could still see his own throwing stars on the floor, so he knew that Ra's must have had the same weapons on him from the start. Kirito used his Observational Haki to figure out where each one was coming from and dodge accordingly, but as he dodged Ra's came sprinting forward. _Nowhere to dodge!_ He thought as Ra's swiped his sword down and there were shuriken on all sides of him. Kirito closed his eyes calmly, and the sword slamming down inches in front of his face stopped.

Kirito's eyes snapped back open and he glared through the yellow veil at the enemy over him. Ra's pushed down harder and cracks formed all around the magical barrier, but it gave Kirito the time he needed for the shuriken to fly past him, and now he was able to dive to the left and avoid the attack. The barrier dropped and Kirito picked up his black sword lying on the ground where he dodged to, before pressing his feet down hard with bent knees, and springing off at the man who landed where he was just standing. He slashed both swords down together but Ra's rose his own and grabbed the hilt with both hands to stop Kirito's swipes. "Raaa!" Kirito slammed his swords down as hard as he could and his weapons shook violently against Ra's' sword.

Ra's pressed his own weapon back against Kirito and sent the ninja flipping back through the air and landing thirty feet away from him. "A Borg?" Ra's questioned. "I admit I was not expecting you to know any magic."

Kirito paused before sprinting at the Demon's Head. _He likes talking. I should let him. I need to catch my breath more often than he does, and he might not know that._ "I learned it in a place called Magnoshutatt, but I never finished my training. The NEG took over the country and I fled, joining the Underworld so I could continue my training." Kirito tossed his swords up in the air and made several hand signs in front of his face before cupping his hands to his mouth like Ra's did a minute earlier. Ra's' eyebrows rose and Kirito yelled, "Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" Fireball after fireball shot out of his mouth towards the older enemy who darted around to avoid all of the attacks. Kirito turned his head to follow Ra's' movements, but the Demon's Head was too fast for his fireballs to connect.

Kirito puffed his final fireball then sprinted ahead again. He leapt up in the air and brought both swords high above his head. As he came down at Ra's though, the older man raising his sword to block noticed that Kirito's swords were not coming towards him as fast as the teen's feet were. Kirito lead with his legs and the bottoms of his feet covered in Haki to protect them. Ra's covered his blade in Ko and Haki and rose it to block Kirito's kicks, but when Kirito's feet connected, a loud **CRACK** echoed through the room making Ra's' eyes open wide. Kirito covered his feet in Haki as protection, but also as a diversion from what he was really planning, the first use of his Devil Fruit powers in the battle.

Ra's let go of his snapping blade as Kirito's feet smashed through it. He rose up his hands and caught Kirito's feet, but the boy was already swinging down with the swords over his head. Ra's pushed up hard with his hands making Kirito do a backflip as his feet were thrown up. He let go of his swords as he flipped and crossed his index and middle fingers across each other. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Five clones appeared in the air around him, and four of them shot at Ra's without delay.

The man who flipped Kirito away thought he had more time to recover and pick up a second weapon, but seeing these five new enemies told him the teen had different plans. He had to flip backwards and gain some distance to prepare a counter, and while he did that, Kirito's fifth clone hit his hands around Kirito's open palm over and over gathering spinning chakra there. The fifth clone vanished as soon as the spinning blue ball of light had formed, then Kirito sprinted forward and yelled, "Rasengan!" He slammed the ball of light straight through a Shadow Clone that was swinging a sword down at Ra's, trying to catch the leader of the League unawares.

Ra's saw the blue ball of light coming through the puff of white smoke as Kirito's clone vanished. He stared at it with eyes that were narrowing, right before those eyes lifted and focused on Kirito's. The teen saw the smirk right as he connected the ball of light, and he already knew he had failed before the clone he smashed the ball through vanished. Ra's did not disappear into a puff of white smoke, the image of him simply faded away. _What was that? A regular clone? After-image? It doesn't matter, he used my clone's smoke as a cover to vanish. He knew what I was doing from the start._ Kirito rose up his arms in a fighting stance and the two remaining Shadow Clones of his made a triangle formation with him to guard as many blind spots as possible.

"How did you do that?" Ra's questioned. The three Kiritos started walking in a circle, having each of them focus on different parts of the room at different times, making it harder for anyone watching to figure out which one was the real Kirito. "My sword should have been strong enough to cut through any type of steel, or the Haki's of men with very strong wills. How did you crack it?" He could not figure out where Ra's was speaking from, nor sense him in any corner of the room. A loud crash sounded from past a hole in the wall where Kirito suspected Gray was having trouble with the heftier enemy. The second he focused on that hole though, he felt Ra's in the direct opposite direction and spun around fast, all three of them. The Kiritos looked straight at Ra's only fifteen feet away from them, somehow having approached without a single one of them noticing.

The three identical teenagers rose up two swords each, even the original who grabbed his while circling with his clones. _Don't let him know it's a Devil Fruit. There's a possibility he has Kairoseki in here, and if he-_ "Is it a Devil Fruit?" Ra's questioned. Kirito's eyes opened wide and he instantly cursed himself in his mind for being so stupid. "Ah, so it is," Ra's said, and Kirito grimaced deeper that Ra's caught his reaction. _How did he know? Can he read minds? Did he guess? Does something about that power give it away? No, it doesn't matter anymore. He knows, now adapt._

"You no longer have your sword, Ra's al Ghul," Kirito taunted. The one in the middle stepped forward and continued, "I have six." The teen on the left stepped forward while also walking a little left so that they were starting to encircle Ra's. He spoke as he walked around, "You won't be able to stop all of our blades-" The Kirito walking to the right continued, "And our Devil Fruit powers-" The Kirito in the center re-positioned his stance and finished, "And my ninjutsu, with nothing but your hands." All three Kiritos bent their knees and pressed their feet down hard.

"I believe, you may be right," Ra's replied. He reached up to his shoulders fast and grabbed both hands underneath his green cloak, then brought his arms back out in front of him so fast that the Kiritos who all sprinted forward had only made it a single step before Ra's was holding two scimitars in his hands. The curved blades as long as Kirito's looked so sharp that Kirito had no idea how the man could have had them unsheathed under his cloak, and he wondered what else could be hiding under there. He only had the luxury to wonder that for a moment though, as Ra's sprinted to his left and took out the Kirito that originally walked to the right. He stabbed both swords through Kirito's chest, and the teenagers went wide-eyed at how fast he moved.

The other two ran at Ra's' back as the third exploded in a puff of smoke. _He took on Dash and Ben and was able to land hits. Wait a second._ As the Kiritos slammed their swords down and Ra's blocked two each with only one sword of his own, the boys fighting the older man realized something. _How is he fighting so well? Dash said he broke one of Ra's' wrists. It's only been a few days._ Kirito was too distracted and he snapped his head to the left as another Shadow Clone went flying backwards and smashed into a wall before disappearing from sight himself. Kirito re-focused on Ra's who turned to him once more from only a few feet away, both of them with two swords risen but the older man clearly in control of the fight. "What happened to your injuries the other night?" Kirito growled.

"I thought you knew," Ra's said as he started circling and Kirito did the same to keep equal distance from the man. "Is it not why you are here?" Kirito's eyes widened slightly but he regained composure instantly and grimaced at what Ra's was saying. "The Lazarus Pit has kept me alive for a millennia. Its regenerative properties are incomparable." The League's leader tilted his head and questioned with a straight lip, "Do you really think I will allow you to use it for a woman I myself killed."

Kirito's lips lifted so Ra's could see how hard his teeth bared at that final sentence. He sprinted forward and slashed the blue sword he had higher up down towards Ra's' head. Ra's stepped to the left to avoid it, but Kirito's other sword slashed across his body to follow Ra's' dodge. The man rose one of his own swords and they clashed _**CLINK**_ then Ra's slashed across his body with the sword he had free. Kirito had already swung both of his own and was still pressing against him, so with the extra speed he thought he would slice right through the young man. Kirito saw the blade approaching fast, but he also saw it approaching from the very start and had enough time to snap his body backwards. _**Whoosh**_ the sword slashed horizontally right over Kirito's face and upper body. Right after it passed over him, he snapped back up and jumped towards Ra's, bringing up the blue sword he swung first that slammed into the ground earlier.

The blade slashed close to Ra's' left shoulder but he leaned away and brought up the sword he parried Kirito's second swing with, brushing his weapon against Kirito's to force it to keep its distance. _**SHHHH**_ The swords slid across each other and Kirito moved closer the whole time, so that he was close enough to slam his head forward at Ra's'. Ra's leapt backwards though right before their heads collided, and Kirito bit down in fury as he missed and the Devil Fruit Crack he was trying to use failed. _Ra's knew what I was trying. He's already figured out part of my Devil Fruit, and he knows I have Shadow Clones and Fire Style Jutsu. I need to use everything in my arsenal and catch him off guard every time if I'm going to start landing some hits._

Ra's landed a good distance from Kirito, then he examined closely the weapons in Kirito's hands. "I put a large amount of Haki into my parries," Ra's began, making Kirito stop and keep up his stance instead of charging in again. _Any time he gives me to formulate a strategy, to catch my breath, is time I'll accept._ Ra's continued despite knowing what Kirito was doing by standing there and listening. He was far too interested and he continued, "I did not sense any Haki in your blades, but oddly enough they did not crack, let alone break. What are those weapons you are holding?"

Kirito's eyes glanced down at his swords. _These are the swords Timmy wished for me in Metropolis. After the battle I searched for hours to find them near where we fought Luthor. They've never needed to be re-sharpened. They're stronger than any sword I've ever used before. These are the swords I used to kill Blackbeard._ His hands tightened around the grips of his weapons and new confidence was rising in him. _Luthor, Blackbeard, Nagato, Naruto, Orochimaru, I have fought dozens of powerful enemies before, and I've always made it through. This time will be no different!_ Kirito shot forward like a missile, pulling his black sword back at a speed faster than he had moved throughout the battle. He put so much strength into his liftoff from the ground that the rock floor beneath where he just stood cracked down, then shattered into a small crater.

The teen slashed down while filling his black sword with Haki. Ra's rose a blade of his own and filled it with Haki, before swinging at Kirito. "RAAAA-" _**CRACK**_ Kirito's eyes of fury opened as wide as saucers and his yell caught in his throat. Ra's did not swing at him at all, he noticed it in the final moment before their weapons collided. Ra's was swinging straight at the center of Kirito's sword, right where the weapon was now cracked from one end to the other. The top half of the blade was lifting high in the air, but while it did Ra's turned to Kirito's shocked face, stared into the boy's eyes for a moment, then slammed the elbow of the arm he just slashed his sword with straight into the teen's head.

Kirito was thrown so hard into a wall across the room that he smashed straight through it. The hole was not on the same side of the room as the one Gray bashed through a few minutes ago, and the room Kirito was thrown into was so much darker than the one Gray was currently fighting Ubu in. Kirito hit the ground in that room and he coughed violently as he pushed debris off of him. _I feel myself slipping. I can't, give in. Not yet. Hold on just a little longer._ He pushed up on his hands and knees and looked around, around the pitch black room he entered where the only lights he could see were coming from the hole he smashed in the wall.

A shadow walked towards that hole though. The shadow got closer and the lights in that room past it became dimmer, until all of the lamps in that other room suddenly went out all at once, and there was true darkness. Kirito continued to stare straight ahead, even without a shred of light illuminating the room. Ra's stepped in and his footsteps stopped reaching Kirito's ears. His Haki vanished. Kirito did not try sensing him with the training Goku had been helping him with, as he had no doubt Ra's was masking his ki as well. "That look on your face," Ra's said, the distance from Kirito sounding only ten feet away, and directly behind him. Kirito did not flinch. Ra's continued, "You appear remarkably calm for such a scenario. At any moment I could take your life." And at that moment, Ra's chose to.

Ra's al Ghul sped at Kirito's left side and slashed down one of his scimitars. _**CLASH!**_ Kirito had his blue sword risen and blocking Ra's' with no effort as Ra's did not feel the need to put much strength into that slash. Kirito turned his head left and looked straight into the Demon Head's eyes. "You're not the only one who can see the expression on his enemy's face," Kirito said, and the look on Ra's' vanished and was replaced with one of anger and intrigue. "It may be dark, but I can see!" Kirito slammed his other hand forward covered in Haki and with all his fingers outstretched. Ra's was too fast. The enemy leapt backwards to avoid the attack aimed for his chest, but he could see that Kirito was aiming straight for his heart with that attack.

Kirito started sprinting after Ra's and moving as fast as he could to keep the man on the retreat. Ra's started making hand signs as he retreated and Kirito slowed down and let distance gain between them. _I don't recognize those hand signs. What is this jutsu?_ Ra's started murmuring under his breath and Kirito could not make out the words, but he knew they were not a language he understood. The teen's head snapped down and he looked at the floor on either side of Ra's with lifting eyebrows and growing eyes. "My studies in the realms of demons have improved greatly on this world. I have a pact with several." Ra's pointed an arm forward and the two dark monsters that rose out of the ground charged at Kirito.

Kirito stepped left to avoid the one on the right as it slashed down at him, then he crossed his hands and yelled, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Two clones appeared and leapt at each of the monsters attacking him, while the one in the center ignored them and sprinted right at Ra's who had been opening his mouth to continue speaking. Ra's closed his mouth and he pulled a scimitar back, only to throw it forward at Kirito who had to snap his back ninety degrees backwards at how fast the weapon came flying at him. He felt the next attack coming but could not tense in time to avoid a huge amount of pain from filling him when Ra's slashed a blade down his left arm that he did not pull far enough away. He turned sideways and kicked both legs out at the enemy to make him back away, but Ra's sidestepped then dragged his second scimitar across the floor making sparks as he brought it towards Kirito.

The teenager pressed one hand down hard on the ground, so hard that he pushed his whole body a foot up. Ra's' sword slid right under his arm and Kirito grabbed the back edge of it as it was sliding under him. Ra's snapped his head up and looked into Kirito's eyes, both of them still in complete darkness, right in the middle of an intense fight. "Your reflexes are more impressive than any man I have ever faced. They are your most impressive skill." Ra's slashed up with his weapon but Kirito twisted in midair and when he finished spinning he already had a half dozen shuriken in his hand that he threw down at Ra's. The Demon's Head slashed his scimitar back and forth in the air and split every single shuriken perfectly in half, twice. The shards of sharp steel fell from the air and clinked on the floor, but those clinks were drowned out by loud, pain-filled roars.

A glance behind him showed Ra's that both of his demons were ripped to pieces and sinking into the floor. The Shadow Clones turned their heads and glared towards him in the darkness. They knew exactly where he was despite the amount of ways he knew how to hide himself. "Are you wondering how I can see you?" The Kirito Ra's was already fighting asked, regaining the man's attention back on him even though Ra's was now in the center of a three person triangle. Kirito took a step towards Ra's and grabbed his blue longsword with both hands by the hilt, getting into a kendo stance. "That criminal organization I worked for, I trained for months in complete darkness! The one who trained me was a man named Akuma, a martial artist better than you and more demonic than any you could summon."

"Yet it is not those feats that I am impressed by, but your reflexes," Ra's said, not intimidated by Kirito's speech and showing it through his words. He turned his back to the boy facing him, and he flicked his wrist in the direction of one of the other clones. The third Kirito snapped his head to the left and looked with huge eyes at the shuriken sticking out of the other clone's head, wondering when it was Ra's put that weapon in his hand. _Did he catch one of mine? Did he have that inside his cloak? FOCUS!_ "I believe that those reflexes were something you must have had from before you came to this world," Ra's continued, while turning and facing the Kirito closest to him. "I also believe your sword skills may have been obtained prior to your arrival on this world, as you tend to rely on them more than your other powers."

 _That could just be because I don't want to waste my strength though,_ Kirito thought, as that was actually why he believed he was using swords mainly, though now Ra's had him unsure of his own thoughts. "Tell me young man," Ra's said, staring into Kirito's eyes and smirking as he did. "Before coming to this world, were you, a normal human?" Ra's smirked more when he saw how Kirito barely reacted to the question, and then his smirk lowered down and he took a deep breath. "This is a first." Kirito did not say anything, mostly because he was confused. Ra's continued, "I will now tell you a secret Kirito, one that not many on this world would believe, but I know that you will."

Ra's rose his sword in front of his face and the weapon covered in flames from hilt to point. They illuminated his face with a dark orange glow, and in that light he looked so menacing as he said, "Before coming to this world, I also had no powers." Kirito's eyes turned huge as he stared at this man more powerful than nearly every man he had ever met before. He did not doubt Ra's' words however. "So, if all of the various powers the two of us have, have been obtained and mastered since our arrival on this world, this comes down to a battle of who we were before our arrival." The assassin no longer smiled. Ra's pointed his flaming sword at Kirito and said in a dark voice, "Even if you were gifted on your own world, I had a thousand years to sharpen my intellect, fasten my reaction speed, master my weapons, and fine-tune my martial arts. I only became the Demon's Head a thousand years ago because I was the most gifted of the assassins picked from all around the world for their potentials. What can you do to stop me?"

Ra's shot at the Kirito standing in front of him so fast that Kirito had no time to react. "It's over," Ra's said and his voice was so loud it filled Kirito's head. The teen did not see Ra's take a step, but suddenly he was in front of him, in midair, with his sword slashing across the front of his body. Kirito leapt backwards and at that moment caught a glimpse of his left arm where Ra's' sword cut through his black armor earlier. Ra's was swinging as hard as he did back then, but this time it was going to hit him right in the stomach. Kirito's eyes were huge, the flames flew off of Ra's' sword and a roar echoed from them, they shot at Kirito, but through the flames Ra's looked into Kirito's eyes, and at the final second he saw them narrow and his lips curl into a smirk.

The flames collided and there was an explosion. An object in the flames was thrown backwards so hard that he flew out of the hole in the wall they made before and back into the original room they were fighting in. _Last second insanity? No, this boy was too strong for that. What was that look?_ Ra's walked into the hall he presided over his subordinates in, pointed his hands up and ignited the lamps on the ceiling he put out two minutes earlier. He looked in the light towards an object in the center of the room, and that object was in the shape of the teenager he was fighting. Kirito was standing back up, a huge slash across his black armor and blood all over his torso. The burnt figure looked at Ra's, and then the still-smirking teen exploded in a puff of smoke.

Ra's felt it behind him but stared at the opposite wall for a moment as he asked, "When?" The Kirito standing in the hole behind him did not respond so Ra's turned around. Ra's glared into Kirito's eyes and the teen saw an emotion on the man's face he had not witnessed before. It was rage. Ra's was masking it behind his calm demeanor and questioning expression, but he could not hide that rage deep in his eyes. At the same moment Ra's turned from the opposite wall, a bloody victor from a fight beyond it stumbled into the opening.

"'When?'" Kirito repeated, sounding like he spat it out at Ra's. They both knew what he was referring to. Kirito created two Shadow Clones and at some point during their exchange in the darkness, the real Kirito must have switched places with one of them. Ra's thought he kept his eyes on the Kirito who cast the jutsu the entire time though, but he just watched that teen puff out of existence as a clone. Kirito narrowed his eyebrows in and the corners of his lips curled up even as the same emotion filling Ra's' eyes filled his own. "'When?'" Kirito took a step into the room and cocked his head to the side, "When, did you ever think, you were facing the real thing?"

The Shadow Clone watched Ra's' bottom lip lower, then it vanished just like the injured one a second ago. The shock of what the clone said doubled as it was proven to the assassin that the boy's words were not mere boasts. That look on Ra's' face filled Kirito's mind. He opened his eyes. Kirito shot up the dark path of the League's headquarters from the small room he stood in full of dead bodies. He knew the path from the Shadow Clones already destroyed whose information he retained, and he sped into the hall he was just fighting Ra's in, only he was twice as fast as ever, both of his swords were undamaged and strapped to his back, and Ra's was not using his impressive En to find where the real Kirito was yet. He turned when Kirito was already finished making the hand signs he started only halfway up the mountain, and the teen snapped his body forward while opening his mouth wide. _Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!_

The glowing in the back of Kirito's throat exploded outwards with such force and speed that it looked impossible to dodge. Gray dropped his jaw from the hole on the other side of the room. Behind him was a pillar of ice with a burly man frozen solid inside it. The heat from the fireball made Gray wonder if Ubu would be thawed out, as the size of it was more than Gray thought Kirito could produce. Kirito and Gray stood there, on opposite sides of the hall full of flames. Kirito was panting hard, but Gray was panting a lot worse and his posture took a toll from it. He had one hand against the wall, his face had a lot of wet blood on it, and he had a small limp in his left leg where there was noticeably less armor covering it than before he started fighting Ra's al Ghul's bodyguard. Kirito took a single glance Gray's direction to see how well Gray had it together, but refocused on the massive fireball that was starting to shrink after only that one look.

"You would not have killed that man." Kirito's eyes opened wide and he bit down hard. _I used so much chakra. I'm a fool. There was no way those taunts would get to a man like him enough to get the drop on him. Even those looks, they might not have been genuine. Have I gotten to him at all? Is he fine?_ Kirito looked into the flames, hoping that when he saw a man walk out of them the figure would have injuries all over him. His shadow appeared first, then the flames around him parted and Ra's stepped out. It seemed that even his cloak must have been fireproof, as the green fabric did not take a toll from the fire that had surrounded him. Then Kirito saw it, on the backs of Ra's' hands. _Burns!_

Kirito focused so much on how he finally landed some damage, that he had forgotten what Ra's said inside the flames, and Ra's knew it. "You would not have killed that man," Ra's repeated, and this time Kirito looked into his eyes and appeared confused like he had no idea what Ra's was speaking of in the moment. "The leader of that Resistance base," Ra's specified. Kirito thought back a few nights and he bared his teeth remembering his conversation with Ra's that night. "Before you were betrayed by that man behind me, you would not have done it." Gray was both stopped from thinking he could sneak up on Ra's while he was facing Kirito, and reminded of what he had done hours earlier, and the mage felt his energy deplete. "A young man who would dirty his hands to save his younger friends from having to dirty their own, is one of the most _good_ acts a person can do." Ra's grinned a little as he saw how much Kirito started snarling at that. "You may not believe it, but you are so full of light, and you were lying when you said that you would kill a good man to-"

"You," Kirito started, his bangs shadowing over his, "have no idea, the kind of person I am." Kirito lifted his head but the shadow over his eyes only appeared darker. Gray looked across the room and into that dark expression and he felt chills down his spine. "I trained under Akuma, unknowing to the fact that Akuma killed Marco, a former teacher, and friend of mine. Unknowing to the fact that the organization we were a part of killed my best friend Naruto, and abducted my close friend Angel, and was responsible for murdering thousands, upon thousands of people." Kirito glared into Ra's' eyes and he growled at him, "My closest friends' loved ones, the ones still alive, they all look at me with hate deep in their eyes, because none of them have forgotten."

Kirito reached up for his hilts and he returned to a stance that Ra's knew well, but to the boy it was the first time he was getting in it since arriving. "I will not die here," Kirito said, firmly, without caring about how crazy it seemed when Ra's took so little damage from one of his strongest attacks. "My ignorance does not resolve me of my sins. That's why I won't die here. I have not done nearly enough to make up for what I've done. Killing Sokka would have saved my friends, and saved Ben and Dash from having to do it themselves, so I would have done it. I walk in the darkness so that others may walk in the light. I would have killed him whether or not Gray stabbed me in the back. It would have been a step in the right direction. This is just another step. A step I'll take," he rose his arms and crossed his swords in front of him, making a loud clank ring out and sparks fly, "By Killing YOU!" Kirito sprinted through the sparks and he yelled, "Get him!"

Gray sprinted forward as there was only one person Kirito could be talking to. They made it two steps each, then froze and their hearts fell. Ra's stopped standing. Kirito suddenly realized how Ra's moved so fast to knock his clone through the wall before, and a trump card Kirito was saving suddenly felt very irrelevant. Kirito and Gray lifted their heads and watched as Ra's floated off the ground and crossed his arms in front of his body. He covered in a white veil that flared like fire around him. "Don't give up hope," Kirito said, and Gray turned his head to the left with wide eyes as that was exactly what he was just doing.

 _If I didn't get Sokka to adjust the battle suit… don't think about it._ Wings shot out of Kirito's armor and spread out behind him. Two split fairy wings, one half of each pointed diagonally up and the other halves pointed the opposite direction down. He flapped them once and lifted in the air, then held them in place and used his ki to continue floating there. Gray looked up at Kirito floating there in the air, then to Ra's who was staring straight at his flying opponent like he was the only one he needed to be concerned about. The ice mage ground his teeth and he yelled out in fury at the sight of the man who killed Juvia, ignoring him right before his eyes.

Gray lifted an arm and smeared the blood across his eyes away a bit so he could see better. He glared at Ra's with bloodshot eyes and yelled out at the top of his lungs, "ICE TRANSFORMATION:" Ice instantly shot down his arms and formed off of them down at his sides. Ice spread down his back and spikes shot out one by one along his spine. A mask of ice covered his face with a visor over his eyes, but a protrusion sticking out in front of his mouth, a protrusion that shaped into a long mouth full of sharp frozen teeth. Ice covered his torso and legs, and the spikes going down his spine continued long past his body forming a tail of ice. Gray snapped his head up while swinging his frozen arms out to his sides, and as the wings pressed against his body flapped, he yelled, "FROZEN DRAGON!" Wind raced off of the Fairy Tail wizard and it was so cold that the flames still flickering from Kirito's fireball dimmed and went out, leaving only the lamps on the ceiling igniting the room.

Gray rose in the air so the mage floated next to his ninja swordsman comrade. They flew there facing Ra's together, all three flying in a cramped space, no one saying a word. Ice spikes formed in Gray's hands, barbs on the sides ready to extend and expand at a second's notice. Kirito's hands clenched around his swords, and from his wrists to the points of his blades, Armament Haki wrapped around him. Ra's uncrossed his arms but when his right arm extended, a small shaft of wood slid out of his green sleeve and into his hand. He grabbed the weapon, and it extended ten times to create a staff twice as long as he himself was tall. The end of the wooden staff opened up and a black spearhead came out of it, and though not made of steel, whatever it was looked so sharp that the boys fighting this assassin doubted even their body armor would be able to protect from it.

They flew towards each other. The time for words was over. Gray swung an arm forward before they reached Ra's. A spike of ice flew off his hand and at the assassin. The spike missed and kept flying into an opposite wall where it exploded into a dozen spikes all extending from the collision. It exploded so violently that it ripped a hole straight in the wall it slammed into. Gray swung his left arm forward next, while Kirito and Ra's collided in midair as they were the faster of the three. Kirito slammed his swords down into the wooden shaft but even with his Haki, his blades did not cut through Ra's' weapon. Ra's twisted his spear and knocked Kirito back through the air, only to see another ice spike flying at him. Kirito flapped his wings hard behind him to stop his momentum, and he was about to start flying back in when he saw Gray's ice spike fly behind Ra's. When the spike passed the man who only had to lean his head to the side, Gray clenched his left fist and the spike exploded prematurely into a ball of ice spikes. The spikes slammed into Ra's' back and the assassin went flying the other direction, straight into Gray's Frozen Dragon's claws that grabbed him by the arms and clenched down as hard as they could.

"RAAA!" Gray squeezed Ra's' arms into his body and the mage's ice wings cracked all over from the force he was putting into his attack. The mouth of the dragon that Gray formed with ice over his face opened up, and a bright blue light shone from deep inside his mouth. He was facing Ra's' face from inches away, and he bellowed out a roar so cold it felt like it would freeze the air itself. Ra's also opened his mouth when Gray did however, and the light glowing inside his throat was much different from Gray's. The orange light that shot out of Ra's' mouth was burning, and it collided with the ice to make half of the room a bright light blue, and the other a deep dark orange.

 _He can't do this!_ Kirito stopped staring and his wings flapped behind him, sending him forward at a hundred miles per hour. A shockwave rippled behind him and shot wind into the damaged wall full of holes at his back. The entire room rumbled, then stopped as Kirito slammed his blue sword down at Ra's' back again. It stopped because Ra's rose his spear and stopped Kirito with barely any effort, then twisted the weapon so the spearhead sliced across Kirito's weapon, and shaved half of it off like cutting through butter. Kirito ripped his sword back to prevent it from being completely destroyed, while already spinning his body in a three-sixty to get as much force as he could behind his second sword's swing.

Gray closed his mouth as he ran out of power in his ice breath, and he formed two more spikes of ice in his claws even as half of his frozen face melted off. Kirito's relentless attacks made Ra's stop breathing fire at him, but the assassin who dodged Kirito's second attack was making several hand signs as he flipped through the air. _Stop his hands,_ Gray threw both spikes of ice at Ra's on opposite sides of him, then blew them both before they collided with anything again, this time aiming the spikes that shot out of his original attack. He tried positioning the secondary spikes to protrude into Ra's' hands, but before they connected, all of his ice shattered in mid-explosion. Kirito was flying straight up, and Gray was dropping to the ground, but both of them went wide-eyed at the sight of Ra's' hands completely covered in electricity.

Ra's slammed his sparking hands together above his head and all the sparking combined into one giant light. The light was seizure-inducing because of how fast it was strobing, and then Ra's dropped out of the air with it straight towards Kirito. _FAST!_ The electricity was not only for attacking, it increased the already faster opponent's speed greatly, and Ra's dropped behind Kirito before turning to the ninja in midair. Kirito started turning his head and he saw Ra's pointing both of his hands straight at his own back. He opened his mouth to scream, but the sound never came out before Ra's blasted him with the lightning.

Kirito shot across the room and collided with a wall, but the boy's eyes snapped open and he breathed deeply and in rapid succession. _If he had aimed for my head, I would be dead. These suits disperse electricity thanks to their rubber-like properties, but, my wings,_ Kirito winced as he pushed off the wall and tried flapping his wings. They were charred and barely functioning, and he could not stay in the air for long. He started dropping, but as he did he caught a glimpse of Gray on the ground looking his way. Kirito's panicked eyes and the pain filling his face when he flapped his wings hard enough to fly towards the ice mage, made Gray look back up as he understood what could panic Kirito so. Ra's was dropping towards him, no longer with hands covered in lightning, but ones covered in Haki that looked like they would crush his head. "Ubu failed me, but now I will get to remove this nuisance myself."

"MOVE!" Kirito slammed into Gray full force and sent the mage tumbling across the ground, then twisted his body and sliced up at Ra's. By the time he looked up where he was slashing, Ra's was no longer there. The assassin stood on the ground behind a confused Kirito, and he reached his hands covered in Haki forward. "AH!" Kirito yelled in agony as he felt two strong hands grip around parts of his body. He tried flapping his burnt wings to get him out of there, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not move an inch.

"Where did you get these?" Ra's questioned. Kirito's eyes grew as wide as saucers. His entire body shook and covered in sweat.

"DON'T-"

Ra's put a foot against Kirito's back and tugged backwards hard with both of his hands. _**RRRIPPP**_ "AAGHHH!" Kirito flew off of Ra's' foot while his wings went the other way.

"Kirito!" Gray yelled, jumping up and catching the teen spinning through the air straight towards him. Kirito connected with his torso and shattered more ice off of it than was already lying on the ground around the mage. Gray dropped to his knees and skid back with Kirito in his arms, then dropped the teen and looked at his own arms so covered in blood. Kirito writhed on his stomach for a few seconds, screaming muffled yelled of pain into the floor as blood splashed out of his back.

Gray lifted his head and looked towards the center of the room where Ra's held Kirito's fairy wings in his hands, staring at them with interest, then losing that interest just as fast and igniting them. Kirito rose his gaze from the floor and stared at his flaming wings with an agonized expression. Watching them burn though, a gift from Timmy he had become so used to, they made his pain turn to anger. Kirito curled his right hand into a fist and slammed it on the ground beneath him, and ten cracks shot out from where he punched to every side of the room. Gray stumbled to his left and turned to Kirito with wide eyes that only grew wider as Kirito slammed his other fist on the ground and created a crater that sent four cracks across the floor and up every wall of the room.

"I can still fight," Kirito growled. He got up on one knee, then a foot, then stood on legs that only stayed shaky for a single second. He stomped forward and Gray suddenly tensed up as he saw Kirito's skin through the black armor on his back. Kirito's skin was sealing itself, and the teen thought to himself, _Another gift from Timmy. Guess Wanda thought I might lose these in battle, or at least put that in as a precaution._ As Kirito's skin where his wings used to protrude from sealed itself, the ninja could only wish that more of his injuries would heal, and his fatigue would go away as well. Gray was not thinking about his current injuries though, no matter how bad they were.

"But Kirito, why?" Gray asked. Kirito paused but did not look back at the bloody man behind him. Gray stared at the ground and his ice claws were melting off of his hands. Bloody water dripped off his fingers to the ground and the mage snapped his head up to look at Kirito's back. He thought about those screams of agony, agony that Kirito went through when the teen could have attacked Ra's in that moment the assassin was distracted instead. Gray stepped towards him, "Why, would you save me? I, what I did-"

"It doesn't matter what you did," Kirito said. His hair was shadowing over his eyes and his voice was dark. He would not look away from Ra's, but what he was saying was directed at the man behind him. "To me, you were once my comrade. We fight the same enemies. And even if I hate you, you're my party member." He clenched his fists at his sides. "I would rather die, than watch a party member die in front of me."

Gray's bottom lip dropped and he suddenly saw himself standing there in that dark room with his knife swinging around his body for Kirito. Kirito kept speaking, "Because to me, seeing my comrades die is a hundred times worse than death." The knife Gray swung in the memory dropped from his hand, but in the moment he felt like that blade was shoved straight into his own heart. Kirito shot towards Ra's who heard everything he said and lifted the corners of his lips again. Kirito knew Ra's was thinking about how he called him a good person earlier, but he was not going to get in an argument with the Demon's Head again. "You're going to regret taking those wings from me," Kirito snarled at the assassin.

"Will I?" Ra's asked, and he floated off the floor again.

Kirito closed his eyes and focused. His body covered in a thin white veil and his feet lifted off the ground. He snapped his eyes open and stared across the room at Ra's who lowered his smile and frowned back. "YES!" Kirito shot at his opponent. Though Ra's noticed immediately he was slower than when he used his wings, the leader of the League noticed something else that made him raise his spear seriously and point it at his opponent with intent to kill. _He's getting faster._ Kirito dodged the first jab and swung with his left arm, but as Ra's started dodging the sword, he saw that the swing was a feint and Kirito was kicking up with his left leg.

As Ra's dodged the real attack, Kirito opened his mouth and roared, " **AHHHHEEE!** " A blast exploded off his mouth and sent ripples through the air. As soon as the initial blast went off and knocked Ra's back and off guard, the air condensed in front of Kirito into a single crack with the higher pitched Kirito made his voice. The room trembled and cracks covered the ceiling making chunks fall off and the two fighters to start dodging them. The assassin moved away from Kirito's crack and jabbed his spear towards Kirito's face, but Kirito heard it coming with his Observational Haki and turned his head the direction of the weapon while increasing the pitch of his scream. " **EEEEEIII!** " The black spearhead shattered, and then the rest of the wooden weapon up to Ra's' hand that he pulled away fast and then flew towards the ceiling to escape.

Kirito needed a breath, but as he took it, Ra's dropped out of the air with a serrated dagger in his hand. He slashed straight down Kirito's face, but the teen pulled back a millisecond soon enough that only some strands of hair were sliced off. A big chunk of ceiling fell down as Kirito leapt backwards, and it fell between him and the assassin he was trying to gain some distance from. As the rock passed in front of him, it shattered into a hundred pieces with Ra's shooting through it with his leg extended. Ra's turned in midair and sliced his dagger across Kirito's chest as the shocked teen dropped his jaw. **Puff** Kirito exploded and another boulder replaced him.

 _The second he was out of my sight,_ Ra's thought, then twisted his wrist and flung his knife at another boulder that Kirito was just coming out from behind to try and get the drop on him. Kirito was too focused on attack and not enough on hiding his presence, and the dagger slammed into his armor on his right arm and cut through it, imbedding straight into his bicep. "Rrrgg," Kirito ripped out the blade and kept it in his right hand while holding his black sword in his left. He had dropped his blue sword a while ago, and considering Ra's had sliced off most of the steel he could not use it the way he was used to and could not risk learning a new tactic against Ra's. _I have tried using a knife before though, trained throwing them, I can use this._ Kirito held the dagger pointed behind him at his right side, and his longsword up at his left shoulder pointed out at his enemy.

Gray watched this battle down on one knee as he could no longer find it in him to stand up. _This is as fast as I was moving against Bane earlier. No, these two are moving faster. I can barely follow the fight, but Kirito, he's keeping pace with the Demon's Head._ Gray slammed his left fist down and his arm trembled as he tried pushing up as hard as he could. _"I would rather die, than watch a party member die in front of me." DAMN IT! Juvia, I don't deserve, you. Kirito, I'm sorry. It doesn't mean anything, but I am._ Gray's knelt leg shook but he stood up anyway. He looked forward and watched Kirito dodge, throw the dagger to make Ra's dodge a certain way, then swipe with his sword. Ra's did not dodge however, but catch his own dagger between two fingers, spin it around, then put it right in front of Kirito's black blade to block it. He parried Kirito's weapon away and gave the assassin a wide opening on Kirito's body, an opening he would take as he rose his other hand with a long blade, curved at the end, back in his hand. Ra's brought down the scimitar and Gray moved. He sprinted faster than he ever did while fighting Bane, he sprinted the distance faster than he knew he could move, while covering half of his body in ice and raising his left arm as he did. _ICE MAKE: EXCALIBUR!_

Kirito saw he had messed up fatally. He was falling backwards, off-balance from the powerful parry of his opponent. There was too much force pushing his black sword away and he could not pull it back in front of himself fast enough. Gray slammed into him. Just like Kirito did a minute earlier, Gray collided with Kirito. _Why?_ Kirito thought as he fell to the floor. _What the Hell are you doing?_ He hit the ground and winced as Gray really was moving very fast. Kirito clenched his eyes shut in the pain of getting hit by his fighting partner and from hitting the floor, but the pain on his face was amplified by his absolute frustration. _Why would you do such a contradictory thing?!_ His eyes snapped open in rage and his mouth opened to let out a yell.

Kirito could not make a sound. The huge sword of ice Gray had lifted was split in half, but both halves were rising up in the air. All of the ice Gray surrounded the left side of his body in for extra protection, it was all cut away and shattering to the sides. Even Gray's black armor did not hold against Ra's' slash, a slash so strong that the force of it created a flying attack that flew past Gray and to the wall behind them, slicing vertically through that one too and making it collapse. Ra's' sword buried so deep into the rock ground that it was stuck almost to the hilt. The assassin snapped his gaze to Gray with enormous eyes, as he never expected the mage to be able to move so fast, but also because he never thought Gray would jump in front of a slash meant for Kirito. Kirito thought the same thing, but his thoughts were currently frozen as his eyes slowly moved up with something else rising into the air.

Exhaustion. Gray felt it fill his entire body. He tried putting resistance into the sword he held up, but getting to Kirito fast enough was all he could do. Nothing held. He turned to his left side where he felt a screaming pain, even as he himself was too tired to yell out. The sight of his left side shook him from his shock and his eyes widened, not as big as Kirito or Ra's', but he was still shocked as he saw the blood splattering out from his empty left shoulder socket. His eyes rose to the arm lifting in the air, still with half of an ice sword gripped in it. The slash did not cut solely through his shoulder though, and Gray felt the slash going down most of the upper left side of his torso.

"Shi-" Gray fell to the right, his eyes losing solid color, his skin paling. **Thud** He hit the floor and stopped moving.

Kirito looked to his right and stared at the man sprawled out in an awkward position. Blood puddled around Gray and as it grew larger it touched Kirito. The teen lifted up his right hand and stared at the blood on it. _What? Why? I don't- Why?_ He looked away from the blood and towards the one whose blood it was. "Gray," Kirito whispered. He got off his butt and scrambled over on his hands and knees. Ra's let go of his sword and stared silently at the teenager on top of his friend's bloody body.

"Hold on," Kirito urged. He made a hand sign then rose up his hands only they were covered in a red veil that let out steam because of how hot they were. He lowered his arms down to Gray's left side, right on his shoulder that was spewing blood, and right there in the middle of the battle he cauterized Gray's wound.

Ra's stared at the young teen as he did this. He frowned deeply and reached back to grab a weapon from his cloak, but his arm froze when it was only just touching the green fabric. It froze because out of the corner of his eye, Kirito saw what he was doing, and the black haired teen snapped his head up with eyes so full of rage they had more fire in them than his own flaming hands. Kirito stood up, because though the first aid was not as much as Gray needed, this was not the time to administer more. He could only hope that he had slowed the bleeding enough to try and save him later. Kirito stared into Ra's' eyes looking so angry, so enraged that Ra's knew this was it.

"One final clash then," Ra's said. He stopped reaching for a certain part of his cloak and instead reached up right behind his head. He grabbed a hilt on his upper back and as he pulled it out, the blade seemed to get thicker and longer than what would be possible to hide under his clothes. The leader of the assassin organization snapped his hilt out in front of him and the twelve foot long blade steadied in his hand. It looked like it weighed a hundred pounds easily, but Ra's held it straight out without issue.

Kirito's teeth ground across each other, his eyes were bloodshot, and the top half of his face was covered in wrinkles that showed how furious he was. His hands both gripped the single black hilt he held in front of him so tightly that he could feel it cracking, until he filled it with Haki and spread that Haki through his weapon instead of just in his hands. Kirito turned the weapon around and slammed it straight into the ground, then crossed his hands over each other and yelled, "Fine! Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Ra's' eyes darted around him and on all sides, inside the holes in the walls, standing on the walls and on the ceiling itself, a hundred and thirty eight Kiritos appeared. _Final fight?_ Kirito thought. If _that's what he wants, I'll give it to him. I'll give him everything I have and then some!_ "Kir-ito," a voice said, a voice in between a half dozen Kiritos. Only one of them looked down at Gray though, as the others were all completely focused on Ra's who chose that moment to cover himself in a white aura that expanded thirty times until they could not see where it ended anymore. Ra's' hands glowed bright white until his skin was no longer visible, and his eyes flashed white for a second before turning back to normal, but with a veil of white aura over them. His sword coated in a dark purple aura, then flames burst out on it again, while the assassin himself finished murmuring something, and the wall behind him exploded into a thousand pieces as a demon five times the size as the ones he summoned before smashed it down.

Kirito looked down and saw Gray with barely opened eyes looking up at him. "I'm, sorry," Gray whispered. Dozens of Kiritos leapt at the demonic monster, but along with it being larger than the ones they fought before, this one was more powerful, and it could control the shadows in the room. The Kiritos leaping at it found themselves getting thrown without the demon doing anything, then the monster's head started emerging from their shadows and biting down on them with a mouth full of rows of razor sharp teeth. The Kiritos were relentless and saw the monster coming for them once they saw how it attacked, and the monster roared in agony as a sword finally cut through it. "Please," Gray whispered, tears coming to his eyes as he did. "Beat him," Gray begged, "and save her." His head dropped back down to the ground without ever hearing Kirito's response.

Kirito looked forward again and he growled under his breath, "Got it." He started running forward, at first in between his clones, but then all the clones started running with him. "GO ALL OUT!" Kirito yelled. He jumped up and twenty others jumped up with him, and they all threw Kunais down towards Ra's.

"FIRE STYLE:"

"EARTH STYLE:"

Five Kiritos on the ceiling stomped as hard as they could and cracks shot out through it. The ceiling started collapsing down towards Ra's, making it so he could not leap up to avoid the fire attacks coming towards him. Ra's was fast though. He swerved between two fireballs and slashed his sword around the left side of his body. The reach was already incredibly long, but the slash with him extending his arms out made it seem so much longer. Five Kiritos got hit by one swing of the sword and they all exploded. Ra's pulled the sword back between his side and his arm, jamming the hilt of it into the face of a Kirito right behind him. The Kirito's face did not explode into smoke however, but turned to mud and melted around the hilt of Ra's' sword.

Three more Kirito's came on Ra's' right and he sprinted towards and right through all three of them. They spun to look at him, but the two behind the one closest to Ra's froze and dropped their jaws at the sight of the back of the third's head. The paper bomb that was stuck inside the mud clone and wrapped around the hilt of Ra's' sword when he jabbed it backwards was stuck against that clone's head. The two of them ran forward to rip the paper bomb off, but it exploded first and all three of them disappeared. Rocks fell from the ceiling around Ra's, which along with the smoke and flames from the bomb made the assassin disappear into the smoke.

Ra's did not try to hide though. He moved through the smoke like a snake, slithering back and forth and biting everyone in his path. Kirito blocked a sword swipe with his black blade, but even covered in Haki, Ra's cut straight through it. Splitting his energy between so many bodies was making it tough to stand up to any single attack, but Kirito was on the offensive now. As many clones as were being destroyed every second, there were too many of them for Ra's to destroy quickly. Some waiting on the walls picked their moments and leapt into the smoke when one of the other Shadow Clones vanished and let them know where the assassin was.

The Demon's Head turned towards the top of the smoke where three clones were dropping towards him. He hopped up and the hands that reached out of the ground missed his ankles, and he reached up his left hand to grab one of the falling Kiritos by the head before it could finish its slash. He dragged that one in front of the other two, then after it had been impaled by its fellow clones, Ra's slashed his massive sword through the smoke and hit the Shadow Clones behind it. He spun the blade like a rotor above the top of his head, then slammed it straight into the ground and heard the screams below of the Kiritos who tried grabbing his feet. A Kunai flew through the smoke on his left right as he slammed the sword through the ground. It flew between two falling boulders, and Ra's only pulled his head away just enough that the blade grazed his left cheek.

Blood was drawn, but Kirito did not celebrate. Only one of him saw the blood, and that was the Kirito sprinting in from Ra's' right. He caught the Kunai with blood on it and twisted it around, stabbing down for the top of Ra's' skull. Ra's did not turn around fast enough, and Kirito jabbed the knife down into the top of his head. _**CHH!**_ The blade shattered, and Kirito saw the top of Ra's' head covered in a black veil of Haki, right before Ra's snapped his head back and used that Haki to headbutt the Kirito clone out of existence.

"Blood!" Ra's heard someone shout behind him. The destroyed Shadow Clone's information filled the minds of the others.

"We'll draw more!"

"We'll kill him!"

"He's a fool!"

"Pussy!"

"Murderer!"

The amount of shouting coming from all sides masked the sound of footsteps sprinting around him. Ra's could not sense them, but he could see the smoke start moving in a twister, a sort of funnel. The paper bomb's smoke and the dust from falling debris was fading and settling, and Ra's could see fifty enemies around him, running in circles and yelling insults and taunts at him. They started throwing Kunais and shuriken, and then two leapt up over the circle and puffed their chests forward to shoot fireballs at him. Ra's slashed the fireballs apart with his sword while dodging shuriken and Kunais with his masterful Haki. He stomped the ground hard and a chunk of it ripped out, blocking a dozen shuriken that appeared where only one was a second ago.

"Tssk," Kirito sprinted between two of his running clones and he slammed his sword down hard. Ra's could feel the difference between this Kirito and the others, and he rose up his sword to block the attack. Kirito pressed down on Ra's' huge sword, and as he stared straight into the man's eyes he yelled, "This is for Juvia!" Ra's did not know what he was referring to, as he had just blocked the boy's swipe. All of the other Kiritos stopped circling at the end of Kirito's shout though, and they all dove in at the same time.

They came in from above, below, and on every side of the Demon's Head. Kirito had his sword occupied so Ra's could not swing away or he would continue slashing down and cut into him, but there were so many he needed to dodge in that second, or so Kirito thought. Ra's put more strength into his block and spun in a full circle with his sword. He put so much force into the spin that his sword sent out a slash in a full three-sixty around him. All of the Kiritos running in at ground level were hit, while the wind from the slash was enough to make four dropping down in the air get thrown away too. Ra's finished the slash around him and then lowered it and continued spinning as he dragged the sword through the ground, tearing it apart and all the Kiritos underneath which was actually almost half of the clones remaining as Kirito had a plan that involved them, a plan no longer feasible.

Kirito hit a large boulder on the side of the room, but as he started slouching down on it, he brought his right hand back and grabbed the boulder. He grabbed it and clenched, and the rock broke into five pieces. The boy started walking forward and he could feel something inside his body burning. Each step made the floor crack around him and his body surrounded in a white veil that flared more violently every move he made. "Sword," he said. One of the only remaining Shadow Clones around him that just got to its feet looked over, and one look at the original told it to toss Kirito its sword. It tossed the black blade and Kirito lifted his right hand, catching it and then bringing it down to his side while he rose up the other in his left.

Kirito's black cloak was in tatters, he had cuts on his black armor, and a gash on his head that was letting out a lot of blood. His black hair shadowed his face, and his black swords made him look like quite the dark knight. He snapped his head up and looked straight into the swirling funnel of dirt and rocks that Ra's lifted up by slashing his sword through the ground. "Disappear," Kirito said. Seven Shadow Clones vanished, leaving only the one that tossed Kirito its sword. He sprinted forward, and both of his swords covered in black, then covered in a thin light-blue veil of chakra.

All of the other presences were gone. Ra's al Ghul turned towards one side of the funnel and he rose up his sword in preparation. Kirito smashed through the wall of the funnel he created, his swords already slashing as he had to cut through a large chunk of rock to make it through. Rocks flew everywhere out from the smashed boulder, but Ra's stood still and took them head-on. He slashed his sword down while Kirito swiped one back up, then the boy swung around the left side and Ra's brought his weapon up to block that attack too. Before Kirito's second swipe even hit his sword, the boy was already swinging with the first again. Ra's had to cover his arm in Haki and block Kirito's slash, but the boy roared and the amount of chakra covering his blade tripled.

Kirito cut through Ra's' cloak and just broke the surface of his skin, when Ra's let go of his sword and leapt back through the side of the funnel. Kirito was less than a second behind him, but Ra's was already pulling out two swords very similar to Kirito's, only silver in color. Kirito did not care. He slashed like he had been, only faster. His swords started glowing brighter and brighter blue, and every slash he swung send more and more force off of it until every slash created a flying attack that if parried would fly to the edge of the room and cut a line through a wall. Ra's moved faster and faster to match each of Kirito's movements, but when he slashed back, Kirito dodged and slashed forward again even faster.

Kirito ducked under a sword and popped back up even closer to Ra's, slashing straight up the man's torso with his weapon. He cut through Ra's' green cloak and into the skin of his torso, but Ra's leapt backwards again and put his feet against the wall, before bending his knees and propelling off it even faster than before. He flew along with the jump, and his stuck both of his swords forward straight towards Kirito's chest. " **BOMMMMMM!** " A shockwave came out of Kirito's mouth and was so thick that when Ra's' swords got close, he slowed, slowed, and then when his swords connected, they did not have the speed or force to break through Kirito's armor.

The younger swordsman started slashing before Ra's' swords even connected with his chest though. He knew the assassin could not cut through his armor moving that slow, and he continued dual-wielding his swords as fast as he was before Ra's tried that last attack. Bright blue light filled the room as slashes flew off in every direction. Kirito slashed faster than he ever had before, faster than he ever had in virtual reality, even as the move he was making was one he could only ever do in a virtual world. "STARBURST-" he slashed both of his swords down so they crossed each other over Ra's' chest, but the assassin slashed up and split them apart, then jabbed his other sword straight at Kirito's face. The boy saw it coming towards his eyes, fast at first, then when it got close, he could imagine it slowing down as his body moved, his conscious mind not able to process it first. Kirito's head moved to the left so the blade just missed its target, so close that it reopened a scar on Kirito's cheek and forced blood to splash out. Ra's arm was over-extended from that miss, one side of his body was open, and Kirito brought both of his swords back up while screaming, "STREAM!" He connected with flesh, a solid hit, and he tore his swords straight through Ra's without stopping, his chakra-and-Haki-infused swords cutting through his enemy, pushing his body to the limit to slice through tendons and bone and organs. Kirito did not stop though, as the Starburst Stream was a continuous attack that involved hundreds of swipes. Kirito slashed back and forth over and over and over, even after the swords in Ra's' hands had dropped, until the assassin in front of him could not stay on its feet any longer and started falling backwards.

"AAAHHHHHH RAAAAA!" Kirito pulled both of his swords up over his shoulders, then jumped towards Ra's as he fell and slammed them both down straight through his chest, and into the floor below in a single stroke. Ra's was impaled by two black swords, as was the ground below him, and the Demon's Head stopped falling for a second, before sliding down the blades and leaving them soaked with his blood. "Ah, ha, ahh, hah, ah, hah…" Kirito stood over Ra's' body, staring down at the man's face, so covered in slashes that it was almost unrecognizable. He was waiting for something. He ripped the blades out but still no reaction from the man beneath him. Kirito kept panting, wheezing from his own exhaustion. His swords almost fell from his hands as they felt so heavy, then one of them disappeared as he could not maintain his shocked Shadow Clone standing in the corner any longer. Kirito saw what he looked like as he fought Ra's, seeing it through the eyes of his clone that just vanished. The teen glanced to one side of the room and saw a murdered demon in several pieces underneath some rocks. He looked the other way and saw Gray, his chin on the floor so his face was lifted up, one eye open and looking towards him in shock and awe.

Kirito looked back down at Ra's' face. He really thought Ra's would say something. _Blackbeard was a talker until the very end, he was a screamer too, but Ra's took all those attacks and did not let out a scream._ Kirito rose his black sword up over his shoulder, and slid it back into his sheath. He stared at the man below him, at his body, at _another_ body. _I've killed a lot of people, a lot of bad people, but you… what, were you?_ "Speak," Kirito whispered, too quiet for the almost-unconscious Gray to hear him. _Is he dead? I don't feel him. His body's right in front of me. Is this really, what Ra's al Ghul's body looks like?_

"You, did it," Gray rasped out, and Kirito snapped his head to the older man with wide eyes, as for a moment there he had been so completely engrossed by the body below him that he forgot where he was. Gray put his right hand out in front of his face, and he dragged himself up a bit with it. "You, did it," Gray's lips curled up and what sounded like a cough escaped his lips, though it also kind of sounded like a laugh to Kirito.

Kirito walked over to a discarded blue sword on the floor. He picked it up and stared at it closely, examining the damage and then deciding that he would take it with him anyway. He slid it back into its sheath, then turned towards Gray and slowly walked towards the mage struggling to get up. Gray thought it would be easier, but a glance at a limb sticking out from beneath a nearby boulder reminded him why he was having such trouble. The sight of his own hand sticking out beneath some rocks was discouraging, but what made it feel better was the sight of another hand in his vision.

Gray turned his head and saw Kirito next to him, one arm extended down so that Gray could grab his hand. _He saved my life. Ra's had the drop on me back then. He lost an arm for me._ Gray's lips curled up while Kirito was thinking deeply to himself, and Kirito pulled his comrade up. Gray's legs were wobbly, but he steadied himself as he remembered what his mission was. Although this was what they told the Resistance they were trying to do, the mission both of them really came to the League of Assassins' Headquarters for had yet to be accomplished. The ice mage could feel the tiny capsule in his pocket and recalled what was inside it. The thought strengthened his legs and made his second eye open back up as he became more alert.

"We're still in League Headquarters," Gray muttered. He tried to say it in a sturdy voice, but he was missing an arm, his skin was pale, he was covered in blood, and he could barely stand let alone fight. His voice could not even put up a good mask, and Kirito could see he was on the verge of collapse. If there was not something they still had to do there, he was sure Gray would have collapsed already. Gray looked into Kirito's eyes and continued, "We need to-" Gray faded off.

Kirito stared back into Gray's eyes. The older man became silent, and Kirito's look darkened more. He turned around and started walking without letting Gray finish, without asking why he faded off. Kirito walked towards a hole in the back of the room opposite where they first came in from. "We should save Juvia and leave," Kirito said. He did not tell Gray to follow him, he did not ask if the older man was okay, nor did he thank him for saving him before. Gray looked shocked for a moment, then his own expression darkened, and he slid his hand into his pocket to feel the capsule inside. _Just wait a little longer, Juvia._ He lifted his head and started following after Kirito, _We're almost there. Just a few minutes more, and I swear, I swear on my life, you'll be with us again._

Kirito and Ra's left the meeting hall that Ra's addressed his fellow assassins in. They were gone for only a minute when someone walked in the normal entrance of the room leading to the lower sections of the mountain. Ra's wished to be left alone for his fight, but they had not heard anything in a while and one brave assassin chose to check it out. He ran back through the dark hallways of the mountain and soon, everyone knew what had happened.

They arrived inside the destroyed room at the same time. Talia al Ghul walked in and saw her father's body, lying on the ground with a hundred slashes going through him. "Father," she said.

"Whoaa-hoa, will you look at that mess!" Talia lifted her gaze over her father's corpse to a hole on the wall to her right. She stepped farther into the room and the person standing in that hole also stepped forward. The other woman had longer, curlier, messier black hair. She twirled a wooden stick around in her hand, and Bellatrix Lestrange shoved the tip of it into her mouth for a second, pressing it against the inside of her left cheek.

"Bellatrix," Talia said, and the two men behind her stepped forward up to her sides. Out in the hallway behind them, five others walked into the room but no one walked farther than Talia. Bellatrix smirked crazily and turned her head to look into Ra's al Ghul's daughter's eyes. "Step back," Talia said.

Bellatrix pulled the wand out from her mouth, and her eyes darted over to Ra's' body. Her eyes lingered on his right hand, on one of his fingers where there was a golden ring wrapped around it. "I order you," Talia continued, and Bellatrix snarled as she re-faced the daughter of the Demon. "Step aside, as I take my place," Talia stepped forward again, but Bellatrix did as well, and this time, three others stepped into the room behind her.

"Even if you got that ring," Bellatrix said, before licking her lips and getting them all wet. "We would not listen to you." Talia's expression darkened and the members of the League behind her grabbed their weapons. Bellatrix smirked and continued, "Which puts you in a pickle, doesn't it? Hehehe, 'cause you see, if I get the ring first, I get everybody who follows only the ring, and all of us." She motioned with her arms at the followers behind her. "But you, you win and we'll still fight to get that ring off your finger. So you see," dark clouds flew through the hole behind Bellatrix and Death Eaters with the black hoods of their cloaks up filled the room around her. "Either I win and get everyone, or we can all kill each other in this fight."

Talia al Ghul looked at her father's body, then drew a long katana that she pointed at Bellatrix. "My father was foolish to allow so many of you traitorous witches into the League after he killed your Dark Lord. I will correct that mistake." All of Talia's subordinates pulled out swords, daggers, and wands. Bellatrix cackled madly and pointed her wand at the other woman, and all of her comrades followed suit. Dozens of League members faced off, and the war for the mountain began.

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed! Editing took too long so it's now tomorrow from when I started. Ra's al Ghul defeated! Kirito takes down the Demon's Head, Gray defeats Darth Bane, and now the League fights for the ring that decides their leader (which is a major plot point of the show Arrow). This battle took a lot of time to write, as Ra's is really a terrifying villain. Ra's did not have special powers before arriving, but nonetheless, Kirito knew he was fighting an uphill battle from the start, especially since Ra's started talking about the "darkness" and "guardians," whatever that could mean ;). Kirito gets his wings ripped off, Gray loses his left arm, and both badly injured young men still have to make it to the Lazarus Pit to save Juvia, while surrounded by assassins whose leader they just killed... Next Chapter: Lazarus Pit. Hope you're ready.**

joebob323 chapter 55 . May 31

Whoa... This has got to be something huge. Kirito has left the group, creating so much more drama! I wonder what's going to happen next?

 **Kirito returns! Deciding that Juvia's life means more to him than his anger at Gray, he comes to the rescue, saving Gray and the hope to resurrect Juvia! Thanks for the review, hope you enjoyed, and sorry for the long wait!**

Darugus chapter 55 . May 31

Wow gray really taking the dark path that I was expecting him  
But to be honest I didn't think his obsession with bringing back juvia would start before him taking revenge  
Almost betraying kirito when it came down to it really dark kirito's trust in gray can never be restored completely probably  
Also the thing with the vinsmokes and haki I made an assumption there since they seem to be genetically modified to follow judge's word without any question

 **Thanks for the review (and the PMs)! Like that list of power rankings you sent me, they sound pretty on-point. Gray's revenge is settled this time, even if he isn't the one to take out Ra's. I like what you said with Kirito not trusting Gray ever again, 'cause at the end we see Kirito turning from him even after all that had happened. Anyway, hope you enjoyed!**

Espada-001 chapter 55 . May 31

Well that almost ended pretty badly for Kirito, well at least more so than it already did. And Gray nearly messed up in his thoughts of desperation. Also I started thinking about something a couple chapters back with captain Ginyu. When he switch's bodies he's swapping their souls in order to do that, and Nen is basically aura. Aura is the power from your soul, so when he stole Netero's body shouldn't he have gotten weaker since Netero still would have had his powers while Ginyu would only have his physical abilities? As unlike Dbz characters, HxH don't have their energy stored in just their body. Well that's all I have for today so until next time have a good day and I look forward to the next chapter.

 **Kirito makes it through just barely once again! Thanks for the review! As for Captain Ginyu, we haven't seen much of his strength yet, but when he returns I have some ideas for what to do with his power situation: so first just like with Goku, at first he did not know how to use Goku's body or powers so he was weak, but he quickly grew into the body. We don't know how long he's had Netero's, so he's likely already used to it. And secondly, according to the Nen page of HxH wiki Nen Aura "** **is the life energy produced by all living bodies vital for survival" so I think the Nen of someone would stay with their body and not their mind if their minds switched bodies. Either way we have not seen what Ginyu-Netero can do yet, so if you see problems when his fight scenes arise, let me know! Sorry for the long update!**

7lights13darknes chapter 55 . Jun 1

Before i say anything else this was a really good chapter but ...are you trying to make these chapters darker than the one where all of the main characters ( aside from ben) died. Because it's when i said no one else die i meant the main characters but at least sora, riku, and kairi, ben, dash and Timmy should live i think they are the most likely and they are my favorites in that order too. I almost thought kirito was going to die for minute i am glad he didn't. While reading i thinking we haven't had so many deaths in a row since metropolis. Glad your back by the way. I also thought of other characters you could add they would be about the same as kirito id you have ever heard or seen this show you know why the show is code lyoko. Recently started playing a video game of it and its got me wanting to watch the series that i still haven't finished even though i have known about for years. Most of it can only be found on YouTube. Can't wait for the next chapter have a good summer by the way. Keep up the good work.

 **Gotta keep up that M rating you know? XD I don't think anything is going to get as dark as the everyone dying in front of Ben chapters (at least for a while). You're right with the no MC deaths since Metropolis, and that's mainly because Heroes Will Rise is a much, much bigger story than the original Nexus. The way it's planned out, it will likely reach 4 million words. Anyway, because of that, there's a lot more time to build up the character development before the... nevermind, no spoilers ;). I love Code Lyoko, don't really have a good place to put them yet, but there is an arc I'm working on that might be a good place for them, I'll let you know (maybe). So, thanks for the review, hope you enjoyed the chapter, and again to you and everyone, sorry it took me two months to get this chapter posted.**

 **-Well, 'till next time.**


	57. Nexus HWR 9-9 Lazarus Pit

**Nexus HWR 9.9 Lazarus Pit:**

"This the room?" Gray mumbled, his voice coming out slurred.

Kirito looked left at the older man by a few years. The ice mage of Fairy Tail looked wobbly on his feet and his face was pale, but the look of determination he wore had never been stronger. The teenager's gaze lingered on Gray's left side for a minute. The mage's entire side was soaked with blood, from his armpit down to his boots.

Gray did not hear a reply so he turned a little to Kirito to see why he was not responding. He followed Kirito's look to his left side and stared at his own empty arm socket. The melted skin of his shoulder kept more blood from flowing from the wound, but he could still feel the agony of the injury. He tried moving around his left hand and could actually feel false fingers where his hand should be, but as he was looking at his side he saw no hand to speak of.

"It's not that bad," the older of the two muttered. He tried to keep his voice steady to assure Kirito it was alright. He turned back to the door in front of him, a giant double doorway with intricate drawings on them. There were no handles, so it looked to be a door they needed to push open. "I know it Kirito," Gray started, his voice quiet, his eyes almost closed. "It's behind this door. The way to bring her back."

"Then," Kirito began, and he took a step towards the doors. "Let's go in." He pressed both hands up against the door on the right and pushed open hard. They were heavier than they looked, and Gray struggled hard to push the door on the left with only his right hand. Slowly, Gray's door opened up as well and the Fairy Tail mage stumbled into the room behind Kirito.

Instantly the layout of the room stood out as being totally different from what they were used to. There were no concrete floors, no flat walls, no statues or art or anything to make the place look manmade. Instead they were standing on a rocky, uneven surface, one that stretched to the dark corners of the room and then went up the bumpy walls. Water leaked in from cracks on the walls, moss grew on the rocks, and the only light seeped in from a hole on the ceiling that pointed straight up at one of the moons.

The boys left the door behind them open to keep the room semi-illuminated, allowing them to see all the way to the other side with the help of the moon as well. The rocky surface seemed to flatten out towards the back of the room, but there were small natural steps towards the back wall, leading to a flat upper section with a circular tub in the center. Steam rose off the pool in the back of the room full of bubbling water.

"The Lazarus Pit," Gray mumbled, his eyes focusing on the pool. He took a step forward, but Kirito grabbed his arm before he could get past the younger boy.

Gray looked at the teenager in confusion, wondering why Kirito was stopping him. Kirito appeared cautious though, and the teen announced, "I can sense you're here. Come out." Gray started spinning around as he had no idea who Kirito was talking to. The room looked empty to him. Then, all of a sudden his attention shifted to the back right corner of the room. It did not even look that dark, but for some reason the man standing there was invisible to him until just now.

The man was at least a foot taller than the younger men, and much more built. He was a big person: large arms, broad shoulders, and as he stepped into the moonlight they could make out more of his features. His face did not look like an old man's, but definitely someone much older than them, most likely middle-aged in his thirties or forties. Kirito was thinking of all this while he stared at the man with long silver-blond hair walking out of the shadows.

"I am impressed you were able to see me," the man stated. His voice was low, but for some reason sounded almost friendly. "I will enjoy killing you," he continued, and Kirito sweatdropped. _Not friendly. Definitely not friendly._ The black haired ninja was panting as he looked ahead at the monster in front of him. _Low on chakra,_ Kirito thought, _and Gray can barely stand let alone fight. If they only left one man to guard this pit, then most likely he's one of their strongest warriors. If he is even close to Ra's al Ghul's level, we won't stand a chance._

"Hey Kirito," Gray mumbled. His blurry vision got a little more focused upon hearing the man with long curly hair say he was going to kill them. Gray's eyes focused on the man's long, silver hair, and he muttered, "Does this guy look, strangely familiar?"

The muscular man before them started walking their way. He cracked his knuckles and an aura of white surrounded his body, making both men facing him lower their bottom lips and get seriously bad feelings in their guts. "I don't think I've ever met him before," Kirito replied. He wanted to take a step back, but he was sweating so much that he figured the man already had enough reason to think they were easy prey. Kirito reached down and whipped out a Kunai that he held in front of himself defensively. "And he's never met us either."

"That is true," the silver haired man responded, stopping his march forward while he was still forty feet away from them. "Telling from the earlier explosions in the rest of the fortress though, I am sure you are quite powerful. Especially if you have made it this far with only one lost limb." He looked at Gray's left side where the missing arm was obviously there not so long ago considering all the wet blood. The man looked back at Kirito who he could tell was currently the bigger threat to him, "My name is Silva Zoldyck. Now, let us begin."

"Nope, I definitely recognize him," Gray said, almost like he did not hear anything the other two just said. He tried raising up his left arm to scratch his chin thoughtfully, but when that failed and he remembered why, he rose his right hand instead. Gray tilted his head to the side while the other two looked each other up and down. "Hey Kirito," Gray began, a thought coming to his head. "What was Killua's last name again?"

The man in front of the two had just started sprinting forward. He closed the distance to ten feet in under a second, but then stumbled out of nowhere and Kirito saw his opening. He threw his Kunai forward and made a bunch of hand signs, "Kunai Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Kirito's single Kunai turned into a hundred and filled up most of the room.

The silver haired enemy stood still as the knives approached. He stared straight at Gray, and when the knives hit him and shattered he never once looked away from the Fairy Tail mage. Kirito lowered his bottom lip more as his attack did close to nothing against this enemy. Silva looked at Gray and stated calmly, "What did you just say young man?"

Gray's eyes opened wide and he repeated, "What was Killua's..." The look of recognition on the muscular man's face made both Gray and Kirito's eyes open wide.

"You know Killua?" Kirito asked. _There's no way,_ he thought. _The chances... the odds! It's impossible! The one man who could stop us, just happens-_

"He is my son," Silva Zoldyck stated.

Gray and Kirito dropped their jaws. After about five seconds, Gray closed his mouth, then started laughing. Slowly at first, then full out hysterical laughing. "Haha hahahaha! He said he, was an assassin, haha, but," Gray had to wipe some tears from his pale face he was laughing so hard.

"Are you friends of Killua's?" Silva questioned, raising his eyebrows. "I am not surprised my son is on this world, but it is amazing to have run into you two here of all places."

 _That's what I was thinking,_ Kirito thought. He gulped and spoke up, "Yeah, Killua is our friend. We traveled around the world together. He's, he's doing great."

"Hmm, and is he here now?" Silva questioned. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and started staring questioningly at the boys in front of him.

Gray and Kirito looked at each other, and Gray looked back first, "No, he, he broke off to go do something else a little while back."

"Is that so?" Silva stated, not so much of a question as just him pondering this himself. "Well, the fact remains that you two are in a room I am obligated to protect. I was hired by Ra's al Ghul to-"

"Then it's fine if you don't kill us," Gray called out. He nodded his head to the right at the teenager next to him, "Kirito just killed him." Silva's eyes widened as he stared at the teenager who nodded his head and did not look to be lying.

 **Boom! CRASH!**

The boys looked over their shoulders but the explosions that sounded close were not right outside the doors, at least, not yet. Silva looked over their shoulders as well and he nodded his head, "Ah, so then that must be the other members fighting over who becomes the next Ra's al Ghul."

"The next," Gray began slowly.

"Ra's al Ghul?" Kirito repeated, opening his eyes wide.

Silva nodded his head again. "Ra's is not a name, but a title passed from one leader of the League to the next. However, if the man who hired me is dead, then no matter who becomes the next Ra's al Ghul, I am no longer obligated to guard this room." He started walking forward towards the two younger men who were still nervous, but did not think he was going to kill them anymore.

The former guard of the Lazarus Pit looked closely at the boys as he walked closer to them. "Do you know what the Pit does?" He questioned, and the two nodded back at him. Silva hummed to himself as he saw their responses. "And the one you wish to bring back, is he also one of my son's friends?"

" _She_ is," Gray replied, correcting the man on the pronoun for who they were bringing back. Silva looked at the young man and could immediately see Gray had a deep connection with the one he was going to bring back.

The silver haired man frowned and stopped walking when he was only a foot in front of Gray. "Lower her into the Pit, and hold her there until she awakens. Do not be worried at first, she will regain sense of herself before long." What he was saying did not make much sense to the boys, but they continued to listen anyway. Silva stared deeply into Gray's eyes and continued "And there is one other thing I must warn you."

Gray nodded at the older man, motioning for him to continue. Silva looked over his own shoulder back towards the Pit. He spoke in a low voice, "The woman you remember, will not be the same one who comes out of the Pit." He looked back into Gray's widening eyes, "She will be different. Forever changed by her time on the other side. I have seen someone be brought back by the Pit before. The change will not be noticeable at first, but in time, you will understand what I mean."

"What about her will change?" Kirito asked.

Silva looked down into Kirito's eyes, then back at Gray without responding. Gray clenched his right fist at his side and growled, "It doesn't matter. I'm bringing her back."

The older man nodded, and then walked in between Kirito and Gray back towards the doors. "If you see my son," Silva began as he reached the doorway. The younger men looked back at the man pausing there in the entrance even as explosions rang out around the rest of the mountain. The assassin continued, "Tell him, I am proud of him for making so many friends. And tell him to remember what we promised each other."

"What did you promise?" Gray asked. The pale-faced mage had no tact in the moment thanks to the blood loss. Normally he would have understood that Silva did not say it out loud on purpose, but he was a little off right now. Silva chuckled, and then he vanished out of the doorway.

"Well," Kirito mumbled after about ten seconds. More rumbling was going on throughout the mountain and he walked back to the doors, closing them so that it was only him and Gray in the room. "That was a lucky break we got," he muttered, then looked back over his shoulder at Gray who had started walking through the room. "Maybe the first one we've gotten all night," he finished darkly.

"Yeah," Gray mumbled. "I guess we deserved some good luck, right?" He continued to murmur as he walked his way across the rocky room. The natural feel of the room made it seem like the Lazarus Pit had been in this mountain from the very beginning of this world. As long as this mountain had been here, this pool had been inside it. Gray could not tear his eyes away from the steaming pool while he walked towards it. "But it's definitely more good luck than bad," he continued in a quiet mutter. "I may have lost your trust, lost my fights, and lost my arm, but I'm about to get Juvia back. How does a shitty guy like me get to be so lucky?" He chuckled under his breath and started climbing up the stone steps towards the pool in the back of the room.

Kirito followed after Gray the whole time. He frowned when Gray mentioned losing his trust, and he thought back to how Gray almost killed him earlier. The thought of it still disturbed him, but after what Gray did during their fight against Ra's, he could find it in him to forgive the older boy, if only a little. _I can't trust you though,_ Kirito thought, even as he thought about forgiving him. _I can't trust anyone. Not anymore._

Kirito shook his head of those types of thoughts and focused back on the task at hand. Silva's warning stuck more in his mind than in Gray's, and as Gray reached the edge of the Lazarus Pit, Kirito finally spoke up, "Gray." The ice mage did not turn from the pool he was looking down at, but Kirito continued anyway. "Are you sure you want to do this? What Silva said... What if Juvia comes out of there and, and she's no longer herself?"

"She's going to be fine," Gray muttered. His face was covered in sweat that started actually washing off the blood on it. He lowered his gaze to his pocket and he reached down with his right hand. Gray pulled out a small capsule he had and pressed down on the top of it, before dropping it at the edge of the pool next to him.

The capsule popped open and a yellow coffin-shaped tube appeared with a glass pane on the top showing an almost perfectly preserved Juvia on the inside. Her eyes were closed and her mouth was still in the same scared position it was in when she died. Her blue hair was strewn about in a mess, her skin was a little pale, but not any more so than Gray's.

Gray reached down and pressed a button on the side of the container, opening up the glass panel. The panel slid open and Gray turned his head, "Can you, help?" He questioned, hoping Kirito would say yes considering why he returned in the first place.

The younger teen hesitated for a few seconds. _If Juvia returns a monster, we will have to stop her. I won't make you kill her though, Gray, I'll do it myself._ Kirito nodded his head at the man who had no idea what he was thinking about. "Let's do this," Kirito said. He walked around the coffin and reached down with his arms, wrapping one around either of her legs.

Gray reached down his right and only hand and slid it under the left side of Juvia's neck, then scooped under her right armpit, giving himself a good hold on her upper body. It was off-balanced as they lifted up Gray's deceased girlfriend, but they managed to stumble their way over the ledge of the pool in the center of the flat upper section. They stepped down into the bubbling water, and both of them winced at the heat of the pool.

Their boots and the bottoms of their powerful armored pants kept them from feeling the heat too badly, but Gray's lower left leg and both of their ankles were being burned. They knew they needed to hurry up, and without further delay, they shoved Juvia down under the water. They completely put her under, to let all the liquid soak in... or something. Gray held a hand down on one of her shoulders, and Kirito held her down by the knees, his own hands burning now as he held them underwater. This was not the time to feel bad about his own pain however. _If this doesn't work, we have no leads. We will have gotten our hopes up for nothing,_ Kirito thought.

 _This will work. It has to. I know it will!_ Gray pushed down harder on his girlfriend's shoulder. He clenched his hand down hard and closed his eyes, _Please, work. Please. Come back, Juvia._ "Come back Juvia," he whispered. Kirito lifted his head up while he held Juvia down and he saw Gray with his eyes closed, murmuring barely loud enough for him to hear. Gray whispered, "Please, come back to me. I, I don't know what to do without you. I'm so lost," water seeped out of Gray's closed eyelids and Kirito looked away from him, back down into the water where they were still holding an unmoving Juvia.

Seeing Gray break down while Juvia was still not moving was making Kirito feel uncomfortable, and sad. He stared at the legs he was holding down and frowned in a sad way, _She's not getting-_ Kirito saw a twitch. His mind blanked and he looked down at her left foot. Juvia had no shoes on, she was wearing the same clothes she had on the night the League ambushed them. He stared at the motionless foot, and started to think he had imagining it, until he saw her toes wiggle again.

"...I let you die," Gray continued, tears dripping off his eyes now and down into the bubbling pool below. "I'm so sorry Juvia. Please, I need you. I, I love you-" Juvia's shoulder ripped itself from his grip and Gray stumbled back in shock, falling to his butt in the pool. He stared ahead and watched as Kirito desperately tried holding onto her legs, but she kicked him off her and he flew out of the pool and back ten feet from the edge. The water started bubbling harder and harder and Gray had to get up and flip backwards to get out before he burned alive.

The ice mage looked into the Pit but could see nothing through the veil of steam rising up. "Juvia?" He called out, looking in and trying to see her. He stepped forward, but more steam rose up and he pulled back as his face got seared with pain. When he was able to turn back, he lowered his bottom lip at the sight of a shadow inside the steam. The silhouette stood there unmoving, and then all of the water in the pit flew up in the air at once.

"Back up!" Kirito yelled across the pool towards Gray. He himself ninja-leapt backwards and still just barely avoided the wave of boiling water that flew his way. He looked over to see if Gray avoided it as well, and as he landed his bottom lip lowered upon seeing a wall of ice on the other side of the pool. The figure inside the steam turned towards the ice wall, and water rose up beneath her in a pillar.

She rose up above all the steam even as her pillar boiled and she towered over the frozen wall. Gray was panting hard after freezing that water to save himself, especially since he already had almost no magic power left. He looked up in the air as the figure towered above him, and his eyes opened wide at the sight. "J-Juvia?" He questioned, calling out her name.

The girl up above him had Juvia's body, but her face was distorted into that of an animal's. She bared her teeth down at her boyfriend and snarled down at him, "Raa, RAA!" She dove down off the pillar towards Gray who was too shocked to move this time.

"Damn it!" Kirito shouted, and he jumped across the room, intercepting Juvia as her hands were inches from Gray's throat. He tackled the blue-haired woman out of the air and pinned her to the floor. "Juvia, think about where you are!" Kirito yelled down into her face as he pushed her face into the floor.

"Ahh! Raaa!" Juvia shouted, struggling to get out of Kirito's grasp.

"You're hurting her!" Gray yelled at Kirito.

The older man stepped towards Kirito and put a hand on him, but Kirito snapped his gaze up angrily. "She's going to hurt herself if we can't get her to calm down!" Gray's hand froze tensed on Kirito's shoulder, and then the teen got thrown off the girl beneath him and tossed into the air.

Gray watched as Juvia stood up, her face darkened by her messy blue hair waving in front of her face. She looked at him with eyes not her own, and she snarled in a deep tone at her boyfriend. He clenched his eyes shut, painfully regretting what he was about to do. Juvia lunged at him, and Gray's eyes snapped open as he stepped to the side. She flew right by him and he rose up his right hand, then chopped her hard in the back of the neck as she was moving by him.

Juvia's eyes rolled up into her head and Gray pulled back his right hand, using it now to catch the delirious girl who faded into unconsciousness. He held her up with a regretful look on his face. While looking down at her he heard a voice getting closer, "You did the right thing there. She was in shock." Gray lifted his gaze and saw Kirito walking towards him. The teenager continued, "Remember what Silva said first? She will regain a sense of herself. For now she's just, I'm guessing, still confused by what's happening to her."

Gray was angry at first at the teen, but the longer Kirito spoke the more he felt better about what just happened. He started nodding his head, "Yeah, you're right. She'll be alright." He looked down at the girl in his arm and tried smiling if at least a little. "She's al-ive," he whispered, his voice cracking as he did.

"Yeah," Kirito mumbled. He was still in shock himself as he stared at the girl whose skin was less pale than a few minutes ago. He turned his head a little and sweatdropped. The boy muttered, "Looks like that was a one time thing."

Gray was confused at what he meant so he turned to look at what Kirito was already staring at. When Juvia rose up and boiled the water, she spilled it all over the place and evaporated even more. The Lazarus Pit was near empty. When they got there it was full up to the brim, and when they stepped in, the water went up to their waists. Now though, there was not even an inch left. Gray looked at some of the ice wall he had frozen and his eyes narrowed at it. "Let's take some of this to go."

The teenager standing next to him was already thinking the same thing. He reached over his back and grabbed a small pack he had on that was originally under his now-destroyed black cloak. Kirito whipped out his water bottle and dumped out what was left while Gray did the same thing. The two started chiseling chunks off of the ice wall next to Gray while it shrank down itself, melting and letting the magical water spread out over the floor uselessly.

While Gray was carving some ice into his water bottle, he glanced back at Juvia lying on the floor behind him. He then turned and stared at Kirito for a second, and he began, "Kirito, thank you." The teen looked up from the bottle he started to close, and he nodded at Gray, but Gray was not finished. "I, couldn't have done it without you," the ice wizard continued. He scratched the back of his head with his right hand, "I know, you said you came just for Juvia, but you saved my life back there too."

Kirito looked back at the bottle in his hand and he heated up his hand with his energy for a few seconds. He opened it back up and saw there was still more space after the ice he had filled it with melted. He cut off a few more pieces with a swipe of his hand covered in a small coat of chakra, while Gray spoke to him softer, "I know, what I almost did- no. What I did, even just the thought, I don't deserve-"

"Gray, stop." Kirito stated, closing his bottle again and lifting it back up, putting it into his pack. He looked over at Gray who was looking at him hopefully, but Kirito sighed and then frowned at the older man. "I told you," he said, his voice dark and cold, making Gray's hopeful look fade from his face. Kirito was glaring at him with an extremely pissed off expression though, and he continued, "You were going to kill me. Not six hours ago. You were going to kill me." Gray looked down ashamedly but it did little to appease Kirito who finished, "You are no longer my comrade."

Gray's head snapped up and he stared at Kirito in shock. The teen just continued glaring and then he started walking back down the steps away from the Lazarus Pit. "I'll stay with you on our way back to Pon-Gatso, solely to protect Juvia. Once we are there, we're done." Kirito could feel Gray looking at his back with a sad, shameful expression behind him, and he himself had to clench his eyes shut thinking about it. _He risked his life for me. He lost an arm! Why? Why can't I just- forgive him?_ Suddenly a face appeared in Kirito's mind. Kuradeel's face. _I've been apologized to before. I trusted someone who I tried to make amends with. And he put a sword in me. Gray isn't a bad guy though... but you know you can't ever trust him again._

The teenage ninja shook his head as he realized it. _It's not Gray's fault he can't earn my trust back. I just, can't trust anyone anymore._ He continued walking towards the door and could see out his peripheral vision Gray picking up Juvia with on arm, putting her over his shoulder, and walking after him. Kirito made it twenty feet from the double doorway when he froze in place.

Gray noticed his... companion, no longer moving and he stared at the entryway past Kirito confusedly for a few seconds. That's when he noticed it. "Where are all the explosions?" He whispered, trying to make his voice just loud enough for Kirito to hear.

"Very good!" a shrill voice exclaimed from outside the doorway. Both of the doors flew open and the boy closest to them bit down in anger.

Kirito leapt in the air and did a backflip so that he landed right in front of Gray. As he was in midair he whipped out a Kunai and he held it defensively in front of him. Gray stared at Kirito's back in surprise for a second, then lost that surprised look as half of his vision was taken up by Juvia's limp body over his shoulder and he remembered why it was Kirito was actually protecting him. He didn't think too hard on it now however, choosing instead to focus on the doors where a woman was walking around the left one and right into the middle of them.

She had long black curly hair, and she had something in her left hand that made both of the men looking at her flinch. The woman had another woman's decapitated head clenched in her hand by its messy black hair. The bottom of the head was dripping blood on the floor and some chunks of gook fell out as the woman with messed-up teeth and a crazy look in her eyes shook it around.

"Talia," Gray muttered, recognizing the head in the other woman's hand. He lifted his gaze and looked at the other, "So, who are you supposed to be?"

As he finished speaking, ten figures emerged behind her out of nowhere. Some of them dropped from above the doorway on the other side, others flew in in clouds of black smoke. They all appeared wearing black cloaks and holding up swords or wands. The curly haired woman held up her right hand and on her index finger was a pointed golden ring.

"I'm the new Ra's al Ghul," Bellatrix Lestrange replied. She lifted up her right hand and flashed her ring in their direction. "You should have plucked this off the body of poor old Ra's," she said in a smug tone. Her hand whipped down to her side and she pulled out a wand that she then pointed forward in a threatening way. Kirito and Gray tensed up, but the woman started cackling instead of casting a spell. She lifted the wand and put the far end of it in her mouth, sucking on the tip while laughing. "You two have done me a favor." None of the other assassins behind this woman said a word against what she was saying. Their loyalties were to the woman in front of them now, not to the old leader. He was no longer Ra's al Ghul.

"If you're really grateful, you'll let us leave here in peace," Kirito began, though his eyes widened even as he spoke. "Actually," he muttered, and he lowered his Kunai down to his weapon's pouch. The woman stared at him in confusion as she had a witty retort for his request, but he no longer seemed to want to know her answer. Kirito reached up to his back and drew one sword at a time from his sheaths. "I remember your face," Kirito started.

"Hahaha. Heeehehehee!" Bellatrix was confused for a second, but once she realized it she started cackling like mad. She tilted her head to the side and drew her wand back out from it, pointing it across the room at Kirito, only a little over his right shoulder. "That's right kid. I was there-"

"I know," Kirito interrupted her, making the woman's crazed face take a very dark turn. Kirito slashed his swords in front of him then put the black one down to his side, and the other, thinner one, up at his shoulder, both pointed out towards her while he widened his stance. "And because you helped kill my friend, I am going to end you."

Gray dropped his bottom lip as suddenly it clicked who this woman was. It was dark, and he was looking away from her almost the entire time since she was always behind him, but he recognized her face. She was the one who put the knife to his neck after all. She was the one who stopped him from saving his girlfriend. Gray snarled and he took a step forward, then his eyes rolled backwards, and he lost his footing, falling straight forward onto his face.

Kirito heard the thud behind him and the grunt from Gray. He would not look away from the woman pointing a wand at him, but by the way she started cracking up and a few of her assassins started smirking, he got the gist of what happened. "It doesn't matter," he growled, glaring harder at the new Ra's to make her stop laughing. "I can take you all on by myself."

"Hmmm," Bellatrix hummed loudly, while strutting into the room confidently. "I wonder about that. If you're so sure of yourself, why aren't you attacking?" Kirito did not respond and she smirked a crazed smile full of crooked teeth. "I know why. Old Ra's tired you out." She pointed her wand forward at Kirito who wanted to call her bluff, but could not hide how his heavy blades were shaking from being too heavy for his tired arms to hold.

Gray lifted up his head the slightest bit and he had blood dripping down from both corners of his mouth. "I've, got your, back, Kirito..." his voice faded out even as he spoke and Kirito could only grimace more as he realized how much blood Gray must have lost. A quick dart of his eyes back told him that the cauterizing was not going to be enough.

Bellatrix stopped her incessant laughter and she got a more deadly look on her face that told Kirito he no longer had time to ponder his options. A small nod of her head made every single one of her soldiers behind her start walking forward. _My chakra's almost depleted! I couldn't make a Shadow Clone if I tried! Or maybe I could... but, if it takes all I have, I'll die before we can stop them... if we can even stop someone who rose up to the position of Ra's al Ghul in such a short amount of time. DAMN! Goku! Where are you-_

 _ **BOOOM**_

Bellatrix was midway through pulling her wand back, half of her troops were sprinting forward, and the teenager facing them was leaning back with an afraid, panicked look on his face. Kirito's jaw dropped as the entire mountain shook. The people charging at him froze, a few of the ones moving full speed fell from the shakes and skid across the floor before flipping themselves to their feet.

"What was that?" Bellatrix snapped. She looked back and forth at her closest two men, then nodded her head back at the doorway ten feet behind her. The two were about to reach the door, when a woman's scream rang out through the mountain, echoing around in an impossible way. Her voice bounced off the walls and sounded like it was coming from every direction.

 **BrrrrRRRR** A bright red light emerged in the hallway and grew brighter and brighter every second. **CRASH!** A fireball as wide as the hallway itself flew in from the right side and kept moving across the doorway and down the hall more to the left. The two men who were about to poke their heads out the door got burned by the attack and thrown backwards.

Bellatrix ground her teeth while looking out at the flaming hallway. She looked back at Kirito, and she swung her wand, "Avada Kedavra!" A burst of green light flew from her wand at Kirito, but he saw it coming and covered his blade in a small amount of Haki. He slashed forward faster than her attack was moving and cut the death magic in half.

The female leader of the League snarled furiously that her attack did not kill him. She did not have the time to worry about him though, and just did not want to leave any unfinished business here while she went to deal with the real problem. "Shit!" She snapped. Bellatrix looked around at her men and yelled, "Outside! Find who's doing this and murder them!"

All her soldiers nodded and spun away from Kirito and his injured companions. They ran off, while Bellatrix herself glared into Kirito's eyes and bared her teeth at him. He did not falter though, and after a second she snapped her gaze up to the roof of the room. "Yaa!" She yelled, and her body erupted in a mass of black smoke. The former Death Eater, turned assassin, turned Ra's al Ghul, flew up through the hole in the roof and vanished into the night.

 _Where does she think she's going?_ Kirito thought half-heartedly, though while lowering his swords down. _Who am I kidding? I can't take her right now. Where's Sora when you need him?_ Thinking about some of that Cure magic made Kirito sigh and he collapsed down to his butt, finding it hard to pick up his feet. He fell only a foot away from the two collapsed companions he had with him, and he looked over his shoulder at them, "What am I going to do with you?" he questioned to no one in particular.

Another explosion went off in a nearby hallway, and Kirito looked back towards the doors. In the hall just outside, all of the flames suddenly went out, along with the lights that had been lighting up the room a little bit since they walked in. It was truly the darkest it had been since they entered the mountain. Even the moons seemed to stop shining as much to drop them into total darkness.

As this happened, Kirito felt his stomach lurch at the presences he felt with his Observational Haki coming his way. A few of them were from the assassins just in the room, yet as some grew closer, those powers were vanishing. _What the Hell is that?_ He thought upon feeling a monster inside the mountain. There were a lot of people encroaching as well, but he stopped trying to feel them out with his Haki, and tried sensing with ki like Goku tried teaching him so he could judge the monster's power. When he switched though, he felt nothing at all. _Even the monster must be wearing a Power Blocker… wait, that doesn't make any sense. Unless, I just think it's a monster. What person feels like this?!_

The intense fear he felt only grew as some of those human presences showed up right in the open doorway twenty feet away from him. He knew they were there, but he could not make a sound. Kirito partially hoped they would look into a dark room, see nothing, and leave, but his pessimism was easily crushing that small bit of hope. The hope was so small in fact that he got rid of it completely and just mumbled, "Who are you?"

"Who am I?" the voice in the doorway replied. The voice was higher pitched than he expected, but hostile, and though high in tone, he sensed it was a male speaking. Footsteps sounded out from the door, but as Kirito began hearing them, he heard them echo around the walls and on the floor all around him. His Observational Haki was going off the charts and all he could feel anymore was the man in front of him. _He's overloading all of my senses!_ "Who," the voice continued, and Kirito tensed up feeling it on his left side now, only a few yards away by his estimation. "Are you?" the man finished.

Kirito did not know what to say. For several seconds he sat there trying to think up an answer. Finally, he went with his gut and replied, "I killed Ra's al Ghul?" It sounded like a question, like Kirito wondered whether saying this was going to get him killed or saved. _Whoever this is was attacking League members, so maybe-_

"Well thanks a lot," the person who was in front of him again retorted in an annoyed, sarcastic voice. The figure was only a few feet away, but Kirito noticed the hostile tone in their voice was gone and it no longer bounced around like an echo. "We've been planning this out all week, and you just decided to charge in a day early and ruin our mission."

"What mission?" Kirito mumbled in annoyance, not in the mood for any games right now.

The person before him chuckled and then responded, "Our mission to kill Ra's al Ghul. Guess I should call everyone back. You really killed him, right?"

"What?" Kirito muttered, so confused by what was going on right now. "Who are you? What are- what are you talking about?" He shook his head and rubbed the side of it with one hand.

"Guys come in," the person in front of him spoke, supposedly into some sort of communications device. "Head up to the Lazarus Pit. These guys already took down Ra's. We'll regroup and move out."

Kirito waited to hear a response, but none came from whoever the person in front of him just talked to, making him think that maybe the person was just messing with him for the fun of it. He frowned and he tried lifting up his swords a little, but his arms felt like mush and he had no real motivation. "You're not going to kill us, are you?" Kiritio asked, his voice dull and really just tired.

"Depends," the man before him said, his voice unreadable for a second. Then, Kirito's entire body covered in sweat as he heard a voice in his left ear and could feel the breath on his skin. "Are you sure you aren't League members? You are wearing black."

"We're not part of the League," the teenager in black replied calmly, attempting to trick his interrogator who was doing a great job at intimidating him into thinking that he wasn't. "We came here to bring back a friend-"

"Ah, you heard about the Pit and thought you could just barge in and the League would let you leave?" The person questioned amusedly.

"No," Kirito replied in a cold voice. "I set out to kill Ra's al Ghul. I only heard about the Pit after I interrogated one of their members."

"How'd you know about this place?" the person asked, and Kirito did not know how to respond for a second. The main reason he paused was because Kirito could feel some movement going on around him again. His Observational Haki was not working for some reason, even for the person he was speaking to. _Is it Zetsu? Killua could hide from me great. There may be people surrounding me._ The man in front of Kirito saw him getting nervous and he grinned, an action that Kirito somehow noticed and lifted his head angrily. The silhouette of the person in front of him was more visible now that his eyes were adjusting to the darkness. "I said," the man with a high-pitched voice started again, and Kirito could see his mouth moving. "How did you learn of this place?"

"I told you, I interrogated a member of the League," he repeated, though his eyes were darting back and forth as he did. He saw other figures around him and had no idea how many of them were in here. Gray and Juvia were not moving, and he was cornered. "We attacked a different League base and-"

"Where?" the man interrupted.

"Terra Base!" Kirito exclaimed. He leaned back as the man in front of him leaned forward. He continued in a nervous tone, "That old Resistance base." The person in front of him did not respond, but instead took a step back and walked slowly away from Kirito. "What is it?" Kirito asked. He hoped this person was not going to do anything to him, but he was faced with uncertain odds, in a small room, with two people he could not just leave behind to save himself. He heard loud clanks of the room's doors slamming shut. Everyone was still around him though and he spun his head around looking at all the shadows. "Who are you?!"

"Answer me this one last question," the person before Kirito began. He looked ahead and the man said in his most serious tone, "Where does your allegiance lie?"

Kirito froze up in fear. _Depending on who these people are, my next answer could mean death. If they're members of the King's Cooperative, Gray said that they have the right to enslave any Resistance members they don't kill. If they're just bandits who want the League's treasures, they might be hesitant to attack us if I tell them we're soldiers of a certain High Lord. Which High Lords do I know? The Fire Lord? Should I say we're his men?_ Kirito thought all of this in the span of only a few seconds, his mind racing with possibilities and options and methods for him to survive this. He opened his mouth, and then one final thought went through his mind, _But... what if, they..._ His face covered in sweat and he gulped. Then, the teen tilted his head back and proclaimed, "We fight for the Resistance!"

He clenched his eyes closed. His eyes clenched so hard they hurt, the same with his teeth. At first, nothing happened. No one said a word. He did not feel a stabbing pain in his chest or throat, so after a few seconds he opened up his eyes. Right as he opened them though, the room filled with light.

High beams illuminated on all sides of him, and after finally adjusting to the dark, the light was blinding. He rose up his right arm to cover his eyes as even with his eyelids closed he could still see the bright light.

"Haha," the man in front of him laughed, before he was even able to see. "Only an idiot would come out and say they were members of the Resistance. You do know we're pretty far in Co-op territory, right?"

Kirito lowered down his arm and he squinted his eyes open. The person speaking to him was right in front of him now, and though everything else was white, this person stood in the center of his vision and leaned down, extending a hand. That high-pitched voice was not the only feminine thing about the guy though, as it turned out he had very feminine facial features, and blue hair down to the bottom of his neck. He was definitely a guy though, as accentuated by his flat chest and boyish body. Kirito's blurry vision slowly got better and he saw the man had on soft-looking body armor that was thicker than his own, with more pouches and belts on it for the various weapons and tools the person had with him.

 _He's, younger than me,_ Kirito realized in shock as he stared at the young man's face. _Seventeen? No, younger._ Despite this realization, Kirito still felt very nervous about taking the kid's extended hand. The boy knew this though and smiled at Kirito in a warm way, and said, "Hi there. My name's Nagisa Shiota. We're also Resistance members." Kirito looked at the boy cautiously, but he reached forward the hand he had covered his eyes with and grabbed the boy's hand. Nagisa smiled and he hoisted the other teen to his feet, even grabbing Kirito by the forearm with his other hand to help steady him.

"Sure we can trust him Nagisa?" a girl asked to the left. Kirito turned and saw a short young woman probably the same age as this Nagisa guy standing not ten feet away, holding up a small device that exuded light in every direction.

"Sure of it Okano-san," Nagisa replied confidently. While he replied, Kirito was looking around the room and he noticed something. There were ten people in there with him, and all of them looked like they were the same age.

 _Did I just get saved by a school?_ "So, who are you guys?" Kirito questioned now that he was back up on his feet. "Are you the ones Sokka originally sent for?"

Nagisa smiled a little more and smirked over to the short-haired girl named Okano who nodded realizing that if the teen knew that, then he was almost definitely one of their members considering how small that loop of information was supposed to be. "We're Class 3-E," Nagisa replied to the older teenager who just sweatdropped at the sound of that.

"Oh," he muttered.

"'Oh?'" a voice snapped from behind him. He looked over his shoulder and saw a sixteen year old who was over six feet tall, had a bulky body, and short brown hair that was dyed blond on the sides of his head. He took a step forward and pointed a finger at Kirito, "'Oh?!' Do you not know who we are?!"

The angry kid only received a blank look from Kirito. Kirito did not even reply to the question. He was too tired at this point. Terasaka himself sweatdropped as all Kirito did was stare at him and after a few seconds he pointed harder, "Answer me!"

"Oi Terasaka, hold on a second," a skinny boy a few yards to Terasaka's left began. They were all wearing the same body armor, but this kid did not have any weapons or lights in his hands like the others. He walked forward towards Kirito, then right as Kirito thought the boy was going to say something, he bent down and stared at the unconscious girl lying on the floor, "He's got a really hot girl with him!"

"Dammit Okajima," Terasaka growled. "I thought you were being serious there for a second."

 **Rmmm Brmmm** The mountain violently shook and everyone steadied themselves. The ceiling cracked in a few places, and a rock even fell off and smashed down into the floor. "Whoa," Okano exclaimed. The short girl had brown hair shorter than their male leader's, and she put a hand up through her hair whilst holding her bright light. "Karma's really going all out back there," she said with a nervous laugh.

"That guy never knows when to hold back," a wavy-blond-haired teenage boy not far from Okano laughed. Maehara smirked over at the girl close to him, "Though after watching you do that Ko-filled split-kick for two grunts-"

"I thought they would be stronger!" Okana snapped over at the tall, but built, blond teen near her.

Kirito kept looking around the room at all these kids who should be in school in some different universe. They were treating all this like it was normal, and looked to be enjoying themselves. It was a strange sight to say the least.

"Alright," a voice called out and everyone looked back towards Nagisa who was close to the double doors. "Karma just confirmed that Ra's al Ghul is dead. He has the body and is returning here. Once he's back, we return to the transport and head straight for Pon-Gatso to report to General Sokka."

"Anyone else think it's unfair that Sokka got to be General?" Okajima asked, the skinny boy closest to Kirito groaning in aggravation. "Last time we saw him I made fun of his boomerang, and now he's our boss-"

"Deal with it Taiga," Maehara called over. He laughed and added, "Maybe he'll put you on garbage duty, or dish duty, or maybe he'll make you wash all the toilets in Pon-Gatso!"

"Ugghhh," the boy in the middle of the room moaned, and everyone else laughed at him. Even Kirito could not help but crack a small smile seeing how carefree everyone here was. The younger teen sighed and looked at the floor, then Okajima lost his disappointed frown and started drooling as he looked at Juvia. "Whoaaa," his eyes traveled up from her bare feet up her wet body towards her chest where his eyes started to linger.

The pervy teen leaned down and reached a hand forward. Kirito was looking somewhere else but he noticed the boy's movement out the corner of his eyes. He started to turn, and then just smirked as Taiga Okajima jumped in fright. A hand had reached up and clenched so hard on his wrist however that even after jumping he was pulled right back down.

"What were you, just about to do?" Gray growled, his face still pointing down at the floor while his right arm had a vice grip around Okajima's wrist. Gray lifted up his head slowly and he glared up into Okajima's eyes. The enraged look of a man who looked like he was on death's door made the younger teenager freak out and yank his arm from Gray's grip.

"Sorry," a boy with medium-length black hair falling evenly around his head began as he walked up to Okajima's back. "He's kind of an idiot, you can ignore-" Isogai stopped talking as he walked by Okajima and looked down at the man on the floor. His eyes turned huge and most people stopped talking and looked over at Isogai who took a full two steps backwards after looking down at the Fairy Tail mage's face. Finally, he opened his mouth and whispered, "Gray?"

"You know him?" Maehara called out to his best friend.

Gray stared blankly at the boy in front of him for a second. His eyes lit up and he opened his mouth, but then his eyes rolled up into his head and he face-planted right back down on the ground again. His head hit hard enough to make a thud sound and Isogai ran forward, "What's wrong with-" he stopped mid-sentence and looked on the opposite side that he was standing on. "His arm!"

"Ra's cut it off," Kirito muttered.

Isogai snapped his gaze up at Kirito, then looked back down at the man on the floor. "How are you here?" Isogai whispered, his voice sounding so distant. "You're supposed to be dead. Everyone thinks..."

 _ **CRASH!**_ Everyone spun towards the double doors and those holding up lights moved them closer in that direction to light up whatever it was that just smashed straight through them. The one flying through the doorway made most of the group lower their bottom lips and step back nervously.

"Karma!" Nagisa shouted, running forward and catching his red-haired friend who was falling with blood coming out of his mouth. He barely caught the other teen and had to drop down to a knee from the catch. Nagisa stood back up fast though and tried steadying him. "What happened?" The blue haired teen questioned his friend who had his eyes clenched shut in pain but was slowly opening them.

Akabane Karma looked panicked as he lifted up the two knives still clenched in his hands. They were dripping blood, but he had some blood dripping off his arms and down his face too. "We have to get out of here now!" Karma shouted, his voice commanding, and very, very scared.

Every single person in the room who knew Karma dropped their jaws and felt immense fear. Even the cool-headed Nagisa who Kirito could tell was in control of the situation from the second he started talking, looked scared out of his wits. "What is it?" Nagisa asked, backing up from the doorway and shaking while he pulled out a knife and a pistol.

"The new Ra's, Bellatrix Lestrange," Karma shouted. Kirito thought the boy was just being overdramatic for freaking out this much over that woman who he did not think was so powerful, but Karma was not finished yet. The redhead shouted, "I was about to finish her when she released a monster!"

Kirito's Observational Haki kicked in and suddenly he was a lot more afraid than anyone else in the room. "Let's go!" He shouted, looking behind him and reaching down, grabbing Gray with one arm and Juvia with the other. In his sudden panic he filled up with enough adrenaline to give him the strength to pick the two up.

"What type of monster?!" Isogai called over to Karma.

Karma looked over and his fearful eyes made Isogai tremble in his boots. "A Diclonius!" Karma shouted.

Okajima tilted his head sideways while staring at Karma. A wave of relief rushed over him and he started laughing, "Ha, haha, ha ha, I've never heard of a Diclonius. Maybe, you're just overreacting."

"It killed Bellatrix in a second," Karma stated trying to put a sense of urgency in his voice. Okajima shook his head though, not wanting to believe it while they were trapped in such a small room.

"No way," he whispered. He was backing up while he spoke though, and he looked behind him towards the door. Okajima spun and stared at the entryway behind him as he felt a weird sensation on his body, "It's probably your imagination!" he shouted in panic, while reaching up and grabbing the butt of a rifle on his back.

"Okajima! Stay back," Nagisa shouted at the other teen.

"Evacuate through the roof!" a girl with long blonde hair on Kirito's right side shouted. She leapt up to the side wall, kicked off it, and bounced up to the hole in the ceiling. Rio Nakamura got on her knees on the edge of the hole and reached her hand down, offering help up to anyone who needed it.

"If the old Ra's is dead, and the new one too," Okajima called out, and he pointed his rifle at the door. "Then all we need to do is kill this monster and the entire League is destroyed!"

"That's not our mission baka!" Okano shouted over at him.

"I'll get the idiot," Maehara told the short girl next to him. "Go up with Nakamura," he said. Hinata Okano frowned at him for giving her orders, but he was already jogging over towards Okajima so she resisted making any remark.

Maehara jogged up behind his friend Okajima and started, "Come on dude, we need to-"

"It's right there," a voice said behind them. Kirito started walking backwards after he spoke, and he looked up at the ceiling high above him, wondering if he could make the leap while holding two people over his shoulders. Neither of the teens in front of him turned around, but neither of them said a word either. Kirito looked back down from the ceiling, and he gulped seeing the thing he felt walk around the corner behind the doors.

His fearful expression wiped from his face at the sight of the figure standing there. She had straight pink hair down to her shoulder-blades, just a little lower actually, she wore a white gown that made her look like a patient in a hospital, and she looked like she was only about thirteen years old. "Who are you?" Maehara called over at the girl who turned her head and looked into the room. The blond haired boy was taking steps back, but Okajima was frozen in place.

Okajima's shocked look vanished in a second and his eyes lit up excitedly. He dropped his gun and brought his hands up in front of his chest with a huge smile on his face. "WOW! What a cutie!" He started running forward. "Hey do you need help?!"

Kirito opened his mouth to shout, as did Karma, and Nagisa who could tell from Karma's expression that Okajima should not be doing this. Before any of them could make a sound though, Okajima stopped running. He stopped running and his eyes grew as wide as saucers, full of confusion as his vision suddenly lifted up a few meters. Every other person in the room dropped their jaws.

"Wh-What just-" Okajima began, while he continued to rise up higher. His body was turning in the air and leaned forward a little, giving him a view of the floor down below him. He could see his legs far below, and his waist, his waist spurting blood up in the air, and he watched as the bottom of his rising top half splashed blood down on his separated lower body. The shock of seeing his own body ripped in half knocked him out as much as the pain or blood loss.

"OKAJIMA!" Maehara screamed, and he took a step forward. He drew his assault rifle and began firing beams of light at the enemy at rapid speeds. Dozens of yellow beams flew out towards the pink haired girl, and they all slammed into an invisible wall in front of her and scattered out in different directions. The girl started walking forward, and Maehara kept firing while shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Idiot! Don't let her get close!" Karma screamed, and he sprinted forward, grabbed Maehara by the back, and yanked him back as hard as he could. Maehara's hands were on his gun and the farthest thing in front of him, and as he was being pulled back he could swear he felt two invisible hands grip him by the forearms. Then, both of his arms were ripped cleanly from his body at the elbows.

"Ahhh!" Maehara yelled and fell backwards, blood spurting out of him.

"Retreat!" Nagisa screamed. Anyone who was not already jumping for the roof did so. Karma looked behind him where he tossed Maehara and saw the boy writhing around on the ground in pain. He heard Okano shout Maehara's name from up above, and the boy's best friend Isogai ran towards him and picked him up.

Karma looked back in front of him and saw that creature disguised as a little girl walking farther into the room. She reached the spot where Okajima's top half just hit the ground, and the boy's body floated up in the air. He was split at about the waist, and Karma had no idea if he was still alive, though if he was he expected it would not be for long. The teen who got lifted off the floor hovered directly in front of the girl behind him. He floated there, and his head twisted off of his neck, then a hole ripped in the center of his chest and his heart flew out and slammed into Karma's chest, knocking him back a few feet.

Kirito had had enough. _RUN!_ Every inch of his body told him to move and he bent down his knees. He got ready to jump, but in front of him he saw Karma not moving. The young man was so angry he held up his dual knives in front of him and snarled at the approaching girl. _What do I-_ he looked up, then down, then up again, then cursed under his breath.

He took a step forward and took a huge breath in. "Damn it! **RUUUN!"** Kirito roared, and in front of his mouth the air rippled in a circular shockwave. A single crack shot through the air right past a shocked Karma's left shoulder, and it slammed into something invisible in front of the pink haired girl. The force of Kirito's Devil Fruit power's attack still made her lift off the ground and when she landed she skid several feet backwards right out the door, though the look in her red eyes did not change at all.

Nagisa and Karma both looked in at the older teen who just sent their enemy flying with his voice alone. He glared at them both and screamed, "NOW!" They looked back out the doorway and saw the girl walking towards them again, and they needed no other incentive to run.

"Come on!" Nakamura shouted down.

"Maehara!" Okano shouted as Isogai leapt through the hole in the roof with a badly bleeding Maehara in his arms. She spun and looked over at Terasaka, "Please! Ryouma, don't let him die!"

"Me?!" Terasaka shouted.

"Cauterize his wounds idiot!" Kirara Hazama snapped at the muscular boy in front of her. She was still trembling after watching Okajima's head come off a second ago, but she did not want to see another classmate die tonight. The girl with long curly black hair spun around seeing something behind her and took deep breaths to calm down seeing it was only Karma. Then her eyes opened wide as Nagisa came flying out of the hole as well, holding a one-armed man on her back.

Kirito flew up last holding only Juvia as that blue haired boy with long hair took Gray from him to help out. Once he was out of the hole, he immediately started running along the side of the mountain. He looked back and saw one of the guys was doing what he did to Gray's arm earlier to both of Maehara's, but he screamed, "There's no time! Get away from there!"

The roof around those teens started cracking, and huge chunks flew up in the air. Everyone started screaming, and running away, and they carried anyone they had to. Nagisa ran in the middle of all his friends and he looked behind him at the collapsing mountainside. His eyes darkened with sadness as did those around him, and a single tear dripped out of his right eye. _Okajima._

* * *

 **One Hour Later**

Sitting inside a vehicle on its way northeast, Kirito was cautiously examining his surroundings. He was riding a truck with at least twenty rows of wheels from what he counted before he got inside. He was in the very back of the vehicle and he could not see the front as there was a curtain blocking the section farther ahead of him. He was glad the curtain was there though so he did not have to watch the surgery the blond boy Maehara underwent.

The creature that attacked them was still on his mind, but the redhead, Karma, told them he had seen one before. It had pink hair just like this one, but he said the one he ran into before was older, and her range was longer. When they asked what he meant by range, he explained that a Diclonius had powerful vectors, or invisible arms, that could easily rip a person apart just like it did to Okajima.

Although the young girl dressed like a hospital patient was still on Kirito's mind, he was more focused on the people around him. They did save him, but they were pretty intimidating in how they did it. The teen with blue hair who questioned him, and who seemed to be in charge of the group, called their group 'Class 3-E' which left Kirito in the dark considering he had no idea what that meant. He would ask someone about it, but everyone was either trying to sleep or crying, or both. Whispers of 'Okajima' could be heard between sobs and the girl with short hair, he heard her be called Okano by her friends, would not leave Maehara's side in the section up front, though the curtain did little to drown out her cries.

Juvia was lying across the seats to his left, and he was dreading the moment she would wake up. He looked to his other side at the bag he had resting on the open seat next to him. _The water from the Lazarus Pit, I need to keep it safe,_ he thought about the ice he scooped into his water bottle earlier after they defeated Juvia in her crazed state.

"She still hasn't woken up?"

Kirito lifted his gaze and looked across the middle of the truck to the other side. There were two rows of seats lined up on the walls facing each other, so this was the person in the chair directly across from him. Sitting there was a boy who looked around his age, with black hair falling down to his shoulders and bangs down over his eyebrows. Kirito shook his head at the boy and then glanced back down at Juvia.

"She will be alright," the boy in front of Kirito spoke again. Kirito looked up and stared at the other teen, wondering how he would know that. The longer-haired teen continued, "Her spirit is calming down. You can be at ease."

"Sure," Kirito mumbled.

"You can believe Haku," a girl on Kirito's left said softly. He looked over Juvia's body at the blonde girl he remembered from the mountain. Rio Nakamura nodded her head across the truck at the boy who just spoke, "He might not look like much, but Haku there's a God."

"A God?" Kirito repeated with a blank, unbelieving expression.

"I'm not a God," Haku stated with just as blank an expression.

"Oh my bad Mister River Spirit," Rio chided. She chuckled at Haku's annoyed expression then looked back at Kirito and said, "If he thinks she's fine, she'll be fine."

"Aaagghh," Maehara groaned louder than he had been for the last ten minutes and Rio's snarky expression flinched. She turned away from Kirito, hiding her face from him and Haku.

Kirito turned towards the curtain and listened to the boy's moans for a little while. _Wonder how Gray is doing? They said they would tell me if anything big happened, so I guess he's fine._ After those few seconds of thought, he tried to shift his thought to something else, _someone_ else. He didn't want to think about Gray.

"MmnnnN," a quiet hum turned into a groan on his left side. He spun and the Nakamura girl turned in as well. They looked at the blue haired woman a few years older than both of them. Juvia squirmed around for a few seconds, then her eyes opened up and she sat up in one of the seats she was lying across. She stayed silent for ten seconds, and no one else said a word to her.

Juvia rose up her right hand and brushed it across her neck. She felt her pale, cold skin, and she shivered from the feeling of her fingers on her throat, her pulsing jugular.

"Juvia?" a voice whispered on her right and she spun her head that way fast. She took rapid, heavy breaths, she was sweating, and she looked like the fear of the devil was in her. Kirito looked into the girl's eyes and he continued in a soft voice, "Are you okay?"

"Am I... Am I okay?" Juvia repeated. She looked down and put her hands over her own lap. The girl nodded once yet looked so confused, and she started, "But, what happened? We were, looking for Gray-sama's friends," Juvia shook her head and rubbed the side of it confusedly. "I- can't- remember," she was coming short on breath and her eyes suddenly snapped open, "Gray-sama!"

"He's here," Kirito assured her. She made to stand up but Kirito put a hand on her right shoulder, making her jump a little but stay seated. She turned to him and he looked in her eyes, "He got hurt, there's a doctor here working on him. But Juvia," Kirito paused and he looked into the girl's eyes, "are you sure, you're alright?"

She started nodding at him, but stopped herself after only one nod. "Kirito," Juvia said, looking down again at her hands. She whispered in a very soft voice, "What, happened to me? I, Juvia feels strange." As she corrected herself Kirito felt a little better that she was at least talking like her normal self again, but what she was saying was unnerving him at the same time. She continued, "And, I don't know where we are or who these people around us are." Just like that she went back to the first-person and Kirito felt strange again.

 _What did Killua's dad say? The person would be different right? Well, this isn't so bad... if only that was all he meant by it._ Kirito could not fool himself though, he knew something else was off. He looked at Juvia's bowed head and he did not know what to tell her, so instead he just gave her a little tighter a squeeze on the shoulder. "How about you get some rest?" he suggested, and Juvia looked back up in his eyes. "When you wake up, I'll make sure Gray is here to greet you, and then we'll explain everything okay?"

Juvia opened her mouth to object, as she wanted to know what was happening now. As she did however, a yawn escaped her lips and her eyelids felt heavy. "Juvia, is okay with that," she whispered. She lay back the way she found herself in a minute ago, her eyes closed, and Kirito smiled again.

"You should take your own advice," Rio Nakamura suggested after a few minutes to the black haired teen who was watching Juvia in silence. She continued, "We've got guards taking shifts through the night, you'll be safe-"

"The last time I heard that from the Resistance," Kirito began, interrupting Rio. He leaned back in his own seat and sat there with his eyes pointed straight ahead, not planning on closing them for good the whole night. "Juvia got killed."

As Rio turned away, the blue-haired girl in between her and Kirito opened up her eyes. She lay there with eyes as big as saucers, what Kirito just said echoing in her mind. _Juvia... died?_

* * *

 **Pon-Gatso Canopy**

"Hey Natsu!" The Fire Dragon Slayer turned to the open door across the grand hall of the black-steel castle atop the tree. He recognized the voice of the person who called out his name and saw Ben standing there with an excited expression. "They're back."

"Ehh?" While Natsu's face lit up, the others around the table at the back of the room looked a lot more surprised. The one who made the 'ehh' was Lightning Max, and Sokka held out an open palm in front of Max with a grin on his face. Max frowned at the awaiting hand and said, "I want to check for myself."

"Sure, but you're still gonna owe me ten bucks," Sokka laughed. Natsu was already running across the room but now the others all started following him.

"Do you think they both made it?" Darkshine asked Black Canary as they jogged together towards the doorway.

"Ben did say _they_ ," she commented. "I'd assume that means they are both still alive at least."

"Truthfully," Stinger began from in front of the other two. He glanced over his shoulder and continued, "I never thought we'd see them again."

"That makes two of us," Jericho agreed from his right side. Guila stayed quiet but she was thinking the same thing.

General Sokka, his bodyguards, Black Canary, Darkshine, and Natsu all chased Ben back to the tree trunk where the elevator door was already opening up for them. Ben was excitedly shifting from one foot to the other. "Quickly!" Ben urged, and once everyone was inside he pressed his palm on the scanner and made it so they were heading for the first floor.

"In a rush?" Sokka asked the kid and laughed.

"I'm racing Dash," Ben said quickly as if it would make the elevator go faster.

"Can he fly?" Sokka questioned in confusion.

"No, he's running down the tree," Ben replied, making most people in the tree lower their bottom lips.

"We're five miles up," Max muttered.

"And this elevator's moving over three hundred miles per hour," Stinger added. "It only takes a minute to get down, so if he's there, how fast can that kid move?"

"Come on come on, move faster," Ben paced from one foot to the other and practically pried the doors open when they reached the first floor. The kid ran out the elevator into the garage. Across the giant hangar with roots as ceilings and walls he could see the doors closing, and there was a large truck driving their way still closer to the door than the trunk. Ben looked around but he didn't see Dash anywhere.

The thirteen year old grinned and pumped his fist. "What are you so happy about?" A high pitched voice questioned on his left. He turned and saw Kairi walking towards him with her blonde friend next to her.

"Oh hey Kairi," Ben said. "I was racing Dash, and he's not here yet."

Kairi opened her eyes wide in surprise and then had to cover her mouth as she giggled. Winry saw what her friend was giggling at and she could not help but laugh along. Ben felt a sense of dread and he spun around fast, catching a glance of someone running the opposite direction he spun. Dash seemed to realize Ben saw him that time though, and he stopped running in circles to keep himself directly behind Ben. "Hahahaha," Dash grabbed his stomach and started laughing as Ben glared at him with a red face.

"How long were you here?" Ben asked.

Dash shrugged his shoulders with a cocky smirk on his face. "About ten seconds before the elevator showed up."

"And you didn't start until after the minute head start so I could tell Natsu?" Ben interrogated, lifting up his eyebrows.

"I waited until I saw the elevator door close behind you guys," Dash replied and crossed his arms, getting annoyed Ben was not just taking his word for it.

Ben finally sighed in defeat, but he turned and tried to get his mind off his defeat by looking over at the rapidly approaching truck. "Did Kirito and Gray steal a truck?" He questioned.

"Where did you hear it was them anyway?" Natsu asked his younger friends who he walked up next to.

"We were walking around the canopy's branches when Jin came running out of this building with a tall radio tower sticking out of its roof," Dash explained. "Apparently he was going to run to tell Sokka, but he knows how fast we are, and he knew we would want to know as well so he sent us."

"And how did _he_ know they're on the truck?" Lightning Max brought up from behind them, not really wanting to pay Sokka that ten bucks.

"Jin just told us that the driver told them they were," Ben replied, though he was not smiling as much as before. The guard's skepticism was making him anxious. "Do you not think they're on it?" He whispered.

"Of course they are," Sokka assured the kid. Ben turned to him and after a few seconds he smiled and nodded at him. For some reason he found himself staring at Sokka for a few more seconds, as when he was smiling in reassurance, Sokka reminded him of someone else he knew. _Who does, he look like?_ Ben couldn't place his finger on it, but out the corner of his eyes he saw the truck was almost at them so he left that question for later and turned back around.

The truck drove towards them and right as it reached, it turned to the side, driving some meters to the left and then backing up and curving more so the back of the truck was pointing at Pon-Gatso's trunk. "By the way Kairi," Dash began while Ben was staring straight ahead at the truck. The blond kid continued, "How did you hear about Gray and Kirito being back?"

"I didn't," Kairi admitted. The others glanced her way for a second but looked back when the back-door of the truck opened out towards them from the bottom and folded down into an exit ramp. The auburn haired girl continued while they all looked at the truck, "Winry and I heard there were some injured coming in so we offered to bring them down to the infirmary."

"More like Kairi volunteered us," Winry corrected with a sigh.

"Hehe," Kairi giggled. "I only heard it was them when you brought them up, Ben," Kairi finished.

Ben was going to say something else, but he stopped himself as the ramp clicked to a stop and two people came running down the ramp holding a stretcher. On the stretcher was a young teenager who had bloody bandages around his upper arms, and was missing both his arms from his elbows down.

Isogai and Okano ran Maehara down the ramp and Winry started running by their side and asking what the situation was. Kairi watched her friend run off and Winry called back for her to stay and help with anyone else who needed it. Kairi looked back into the truck and watched as more people started unloading. A few of them had cuts, bruises, or minor injuries of the sort.

One girl was helping another walk as the second had a limp, but as Kairi was going to ask if they wanted some help, something else caught her eye and she looked up with a smile into the truck as she spotted Kirito walking towards them out the darkness. Kirito spotted Natsu, Ben, Dash, and Kairi all looking up at him and smiling as he exited the truck. He did not smile back though. _Any one of them could have done it. I trusted Gray as much as I did any of them,_ his eyes lingered on Ben, and then Kairi for a few extra seconds. He looked down at his feet though and just kept walking.

"What's up with him?" Natsu questioned, whispering it mainly to Ben who was standing on his right.

Ben shrugged and they all watched Kirito keep walking down the ramp for a few more seconds, before they heard Kairi gasp and looked back to the top of the ramp. A few others walked out between Kirito and this man, but now they could see him and his appearance shocked them. Gray Fullbuster stood there, blood-soaked bandages on parts of his face, his super-strong black armor suit cut through on more than one spot and left pant leg in tatters. Oh yeah, and he was missing his left arm.

"Gr-Gray?!" Natsu shouted. He started running forward, but Gray looked back over his right shoulder into the darkness of the truck and motioned with his head towards the open door. Natsu slowed down right at the bottom of the ramp, confused at why Gray was smiling so much when the ice mage turned back towards him.

Having a better angle of the inside of the truck, Dash, Ben, and Kairi all saw her first. Natsu was straight down from the back part so he was looking more up and the bottom of the truck blocked her from his sight while his friends gasped behind him. After seeing Gray missing an arm, he wondered what could possibly, shock them, so... Natsu's jaw dropped.

None of them could form words at the sight of her. Black Canary and Superalloy Darkshine stared at the girl in astonishment as well and they each stepped backwards.

"No way man," a soldier who just walked up towards the growing group muttered. Around the hangar there were people working on evacuation vehicles and even a few combat ones. Among those people were some who recognized the people awaiting the truck, and they decided to check it out. Superboy, Grif, and Blue Beetle had looked up from the Scarab they were working on together and once they saw Black Canary with the group, Grif convinced them to go check it out. The soldier in orange armor was also the one who muttered those words of shock upon seeing the girl at the top of the ramp.

Superboy's eyes were huge and he whispered, "That's impossible."

"Isn't that-" Blue Beatle began, but telling from the looks on her friends' faces, he knew he was right already. "But... how?"

Sokka was looking around and seeing a lot of shocked faces, so he turned to his old friend Dinah Drake. "Yo Canary, who is that?"

"She," Black Canary began, but fell silent before finishing. She waited a few more seconds and everyone who knew her just kept staring. "She's the one the League killed."

Sokka's eyes widened as did his guards, and then all four of Sokka's guards narrowed their eyes at the girl at the top of the ramp. Sokka saw them all and he lifted up his right hand in a 'stop' position, making each one of them look at him questioningly.

"Sokka, protocol-" Jericho started.

"I don't care," Sokka interrupted in a harsh whisper. "And that's General Sokka," he snapped, making sure she understood he was telling her this as her commander. The silver haired woman kept her hand down near the sheath at her side, but she eased up a little, as did her comrades.

Ben finally took a step forward without tearing his eyes off of the young woman. "J-Juvia?" He whispered in a raspy voice. He almost choked on his own words as he couldn't believe it to be true. She turned her head a little and focused on the boy who said her name, making Ben's heart skip a beat. "It's really-"

"JUVIA!" Natsu yelled.

Juvia's eyes turned huge and she took a step back, but it was not enough to stop Natsu from throwing his arms around her as he had charged up the ramp in the span of an instant. He pulled her tight to him and moved his hands around her back as he did, "You're real!" Natsu exclaimed.

Gray turned to the pink haired guy hugging his girlfriend with an annoyed look, but the look of annoyance wiped from his face when he saw Natsu's, covered in tears. Natsu stopped rubbing her back and just held his arms there for a few more seconds before he finally pulled back a few inches so his head wasn't right next to hers anymore and instead in front of it so he could look at her face. He lifted up his hands and patted her red cheeks a few times before pulling at the insides of the corners of her mouth. "You are real, right?" He questioned, letting go and lowering his arms while looking at her cautiously as if he could not even believe it after touching her himself.

She couldn't respond while seeing Natsu's face so covered in tears. He wasn't the only one though, as Dash had water in his eyes too, and Kairi had to wipe her cheeks to get off the tears on them. Ben did no such thing though, and just like Natsu he let the tears stream down.

 _She's alive,_ Ben thought. _Then, it's not my fault. I, I didn't have to use the Eliacube after all. Somehow, somehow she came back anyway._ Ben felt like he was lying on his back and hundred pound weights were getting removed from his chest one at a time. Every second he looked at her was another weight gone, as if the longer she stood there the more alive she was to him.

Juvia started walking down the ramp and Natsu stared at the girl's back for a few seconds. Gray watched her walk down to and get intercepted by two of their other friends who charged at her and jumped up into a hug. Kairi and Dash started shouting how happy they were that she was okay while Ben cried down near the rest of the Resistance fighters. Natsu finally wiped his eyes and he walked over to Gray, "What- How?"

Gray turned to his friend and had a huge smile on his face. The question lingered there for a minute while Gray just kept smiling, and finally he looked down the ramp and at Kirito who was facing away from the happy reunion. The teenager was standing near the back of the group of Resistance members, almost like he was trying to keep distance between him and Gray. "Kirito found a way," Gray whispered, while Natsu followed Gray's gaze over to the teenager's back. "He discovered a method to bring Juvia back, and he killed Ra's al Ghul."

As Gray said it, one of the members of class 3-E just reported the same thing to the General below. Sokka's face lit up and the guards around him went wide-eyed. "You have to be kidding me," Lightning Max muttered in shock.

"The League, destroyed?" Jericho mumbled, wondering if she just heard the report right.

Nagisa nodded his head. The blue haired teen glanced past the group in front of him at the older teenager's back who was not looking to be in as good a mood as everyone else. "On top of that, Kirito there told me they stopped at Terra Base before attacking the League. He claims to have destroyed most of the fort, and killed many Sith along the way. And inside the League's HQ, his friend took out number three on our Sith hit list: Darth Bane."

"Damn," Stinger said. He put his hand up through his hair and said, "Looks like those guys weren't really going all out against us the other day."

"This is amazing," Sokka finally exclaimed. He held his fists in front of him and started shaking with glee. "These guys are unstoppable!"

Everyone was getting excited all at once. The Resistance members were receiving great news about their enemies' defeats. The fighters from Awul were thrilled seeing their friend alive and well in front of them, acting like her old self, just a little more nervous which was understandable. The people who disembarked from the truck were the only ones not so thrilled considering the loss of one of their friends recently, one who did not come back to life. Still, it was an overwhelmingly good mood.

"Why is it that this woman has not been detained?"

Every person there heard the voice and spun towards the bottom of the truck's exit ramp. Juvia was in the middle of talking to Dash and Kairi, while Natsu and Gray watched with smiles from right behind her. All five of them started turning their heads to Juvia's right, and Ben just lifted his head up with a face covered in sweat as there was suddenly a man standing right next to him. He let out a small noise and scrambled back as the man was literally a foot away from him, and he moved towards his friends who were all looking at the short man nervously.

He appeared so suddenly, right in the middle of a crowd of people, that at first sight most people were put on guard. The light-skinned man had a big spike of black hair over the top of his head, and had small black pupils inside of tiny dark red irises centered near the top of his eyes. Some of his black hair was not spiked up but fell in front of his forehead as bangs, but were sparse enough that underneath them those looking his way could see a white bandanna around his forehead. His neck was covered by the white collar of his mostly black cloak that went down over his entire body down to his feet. At his right side was a black scabbard and his right hand was resting on the hilt of the sword there.

"Sir!" someone shouted after seeing the man for a second and getting over their initial shock. "You're back!"

"C-Commander!" Sokka ran forward and saluted fast to the person in front of him who was almost a foot shorter than he was.

"Interim-General Sokka," the person before Sokka greeted, "your defense of Pon-Gatso was adequate. However upon arriving I just heard that that woman there was recently brought back from the dead. Why have you yet to detain her?"

Juvia's eyes turned huge, and then even wider as four people stepped in front of her and looked ready to fight. Kairi, Natsu, Ben, and Dash were all standing in between her and this man who was saying threatening things they did not like. "You're not detaining anyone," Ben growled over at the guy, who looked at him and made the boy feel shivers down his spine.

"Commander, these people just took down-"

"Hiei?"

The short man who was turning to Sokka to listen to his excuse, heard someone say his name and turned. He turned and watched as a man walked out from behind Juvia and the others, a man with only one arm who stared at the short figure and went wide-eyed. "It is you," Gray said, letting out a deep breath as if he just reached the finish line of a race.

"You," Hiei muttered. "You were with that idiot Kuwabara-"

"That's what I wanted to ask you!" Gray exclaimed. He tried running forward but stumbled and almost fell to the floor. His face was still pale and his friends looked at him worriedly from behind. Kirito was watching with a hand up on one of his hilts from behind Hiei, though he was hoping he would not have to run in and fight again anytime soon. "Listen, Hiei," Gray's face looked desperate and he held his hands out in front of him. "I have to know. What happened to my team? What happened to Kuwabara and the others?"

Hiei stared at Gray oddly for a few seconds. "Why is it that you do not know?" He questioned. Gray muttered his reason really fast and most people there stared at him like he was an idiot, or crazy. Hiei just considered it for another few seconds before starting, "Not that I cared, but I did hear about it from Urameshi." Gray's face filled with hope as he was finally about to get some answers. The short man in front of him continued, "One of your squad, his name Cloud Strife, escaped and reported the mission's failure to your base before it fell. The rest were either killed, or brought to the Capital to be slaves."

There was no 'I'm sorry for your loss,' no 'my condolences,' Hiei just stated it and then turned his gaze from a shocked Gray back to Sokka. "Now, give me your reason for not detaining that woman."

Gray stood there staring forward with eyes as wide as saucers. It went from one of the best days of his life to one of the worst in a matter of seconds. Kirito was looking his way and the teen could not even find it in himself to be mad at Gray at the moment. The man looked so broken. "Gray…sama," Juvia whispered, taking a step towards her boyfriend. She reached out a hand and touched his shoulder, and he tensed up at the touch. "I'm, sorry," she whispered to him.

Gray was frozen in place. _"I'm sorry?" What the, why did Juvia just use the first person? Something's weird with her._ He turned his head slowly and looked at the girl behind him who was staring up at his face. His face was full of worry and the amount of things he was worried about were beyond her. _Everyone's been taken, they've been slaves for months. I wasted so much time! I should have come back right away. What if they're all dead already? What if Juvia's not really back? Juvia always says her own name, a fake wouldn't know that. Or would it? It's not a fake, just look at her! She's real! So are your friends, your slave friends._

"Hey," Natsu snapped. Gray lifted his gaze slowly from Juvia's face up to the wizard behind her. "What's with that pathetic look?" Natsu asked his comrade. Natsu's friends looked at him in surprise and anger, but Natsu continued, "There's no reason to look like that. We just figured out where your friends are. We did it." Natsu stepped towards the other two Fairy Tail mages who both looked at him now. "Let's go save your comrades."

"You can't," Superboy began in a condescending tone.

"We've been kicking ass all over the place," Natsu snapped at the muscular teen on his left. "And I'm all fired up!"

Gray's worried look started to change. _Natsu's right. We, we can do this. It has to be a stealth mission, but even so, we could successfully save all of them._

"We're with you Gray," Ben told the man next to him. The older man looked down at the boy who held up his left wrist with the Omnitrix on it. "No matter what."

"No matter what," Kairi and Dash agreed.

Gray looked at them and then back to Natsu who nodded at him with the same toothy grin on his face. He looked back down at Juvia who looked into his eyes and smiled, "No matter what, Gray-sama. Juvia will be by your side."

The corners of Gray's lips curled up and each of his friends did the same upon seeing him do so. "Alright, let's head to the Capital," Gray said.

"Hold on," their group spun and looked back at Hiei who just finished getting briefed by Sokka. He heard what Gray said and figured it had to do with how he said Gray's old team got transported there. "I can't let you do that."

"Who's asking your permission?" Natsu growled over at the shorter man.

Hiei glared at Natsu for a second, before looking back at Gray. "As you are not dead, that means you are still a member of this Resistance. You will follow my orders, or that woman behind you will have to be put in restraints."

Most of the Resistance fighters looked at Hiei in shock. This seemed a lot like a threat, and a pretty cruel one too, and most of them prided themselves on being the good guys. "Sir, they are-"

"That's not going to be necessary," Gray said, making everyone look back at the ice mage. "What are your orders, Commander?" Gray asked.

All of Gray's friends looked at him confusedly, but Hiei nodded at the man in his army. "Going to the Capital is a suicide mission. You know that, and I know that, and to send such powerful assets to certain death would be a waste." The group in front of Hiei opened up their mouths to protest so he continued quickly, "However, as the Interim-General just told me-" Sokka grimaced at the mention of "interim" again, suggesting his promotion was not permanent. Hiei continued, "You are impervious to attacks of fire," he looked at Natsu while speaking and the Dragon Slayer nodded his head 'yes.' "In that case, I will permit you to go, though you will need to fulfill your duty to the Resistance first."

Hiei stepped towards the group and looked straight into Gray's eyes, "Go to Pyraxas. The capital of the Fire Nation. If you are truly as strong as you make yourselves out to be, then take down High Lord Sozin."

"Commander!" Black Canary exclaimed. The woman in black leather could not hold her tongue any longer. She stepped forward and said, "These seven have saved countless lives in the last two weeks. They rescued a convoy and prevented an attack on Pon-Gatso. This is unfair to them."

"Dinah, don't worry," Gray said over to the woman on his left.

Most of the people with Gray were still smiling and others around them were starting to get confused.

"No, she's right," Grif spoke up. He jumped nervously as Hiei looked his way, but the soldier in orange armor continued, "You guys have done nothing but kick bad guy ass and save our butts this whole time. Why should you-"

"Oi," Natsu began, looking straight at Hiei who turned his gaze back to the Dragon Slayer. "This Pyraxas place, is it on the way to the Capital?" Natsu asked.

Nobody spoke for a second, and then Hiei responded, "Yes, it is."

"Well, then there was no point in you telling us in the first place," Natsu stated. Everyone there gawked at him, but Natsu's friends did not look surprised at all. In fact they were all smiling and thinking the same thing already. Natsu punched his right fist into his left open hand and yelled out, "We would have kicked his ass even if you didn't tell us to!"

"Yeah!" Ben exclaimed.

"That's right!" Dash agreed and pumped a fist up in the air.

Kairi giggled and nodded her head as well, feeling the same way. Gray just kept grinning at Hiei who looked surprised by their reactions. The rest of the Resistance members around them who felt bad that Hiei was asking for so much, demanding it really, stopped pitying their new friends and just became more in awe of them than ever. The demon in the black cloak finally lost his surprised look and chuckled darkly under his breath. "Okay then, it looks like I underestimated you," he lifted up his head and continued, "if you are successful in your mission however, you should reconsider going to the Capital."

Hiei looked straight at Gray who lost his confident smile at the look. "You know the King's strength. If he discovers you before you make your escape, you will all become slaves, or die."

"We will be careful," Gray told the Resistance leader in front of him.

The short, spiky-haired man did not respond, but just nodded his head back at the ice mage. Hiei turned and looked at the other Resistance members behind him, "Gather up the best supplies you have and give them to Gray." It was the first time Hiei mentioned Gray's name so Gray thought Hiei may have actually remembered him, despite the act from before. _Then again, Juvia did call me 'Gray-sama,'_ he reasoned with himself. Hiei continued, "I am designating this a priority one mission. All resources that can be spared should go towards making this mission a success. The fall of the Fire Nation would result in an important power gap inside Co-op territory." He turned to the soldiers on his left: Grif, Blue Beetle, and Superboy, "Get transportation ready for them."

The three soldiers nodded and ran off to find something suitable for seven. Hiei glanced back at the people from Awul one more time as they started talking amongst themselves. He turned and started walking away after Sokka and the rest of the leaders who were dispersing and sending different people to go get food and weapons for the fighters going on the mission. "Black Canary," he started in a low voice.

The blonde woman walking ahead of him spun around and waited for him to reach her before continuing to walk. "Yes Commander?" she questioned. She wondered if he was going to scold her for questioning his orders a minute ago, but he had something else to tell her. Hiei started speaking and Dinah Drake's eyes grew in size as her heart rate sped up.

"This is why you will be going on the mission with them," Hiei told her to finish their conversation. He kept walking while the Black Canary stopped in place with shock in her eyes. "Good luck," he said, and then vanished from right in front of her.

Black Canary stared at the tree trunk in front of her for a few seconds, then turned her head around and looked back at the group of seven behind her. They were all close to each other now, even the teen in black who was keeping his distance from Gray. She saw them laughing and looking all excited for the mission. Dinah looked between two of the boys and stared at a girl just past them, chuckling nervously and looking the same as she did when Dinah first met her. _"Listen to me Canary, I heard that she was brought back with the Lazarus Pit. In that case, she will now have an insatiable hunger that she will need to satisfy every so often. That is the hunger for killing. Her bloodlust will only grow for now on, which is why I do not detain her and instead send her deep into enemy territory. Still, should she show signs of her bloodlust around the innocent, do not expect her friends to do what is necessary…"_ Dinah looked closer at the blue haired girl's smiling face and into Juvia's eyes. _Please, prove Hiei wrong. I do not wish to hurt you, but if you turn out like he says, you will have forced my hand._

Black Canary started walking towards the group in front of her and smiled wide. "Hey, room for one more?"

"Make that two," another voice started before the group could even respond to Canary. Dinah turned around while the group from Awul looked at her and behind at the blue haired boy walking forward. Nagisa had a calm expression on his face and he said, "Two of our comrades from Class 3-E were captured and brought to the Colosseum months ago. We do not know their status, but I want to go and try to save them."

"Nagisa," Karma spoked up from behind his friend. Nagisa looked back at him and he nodded while giving Karma a serious look. The red haired teen frowned but after a few seconds he nodded too and then called orders out to the others in their class who would be staying behind with him.

"I don't see why not," Natsu said and put his hands behind his head as he looked at the girlish-looking boy. "Are you strong though? Don't want anyone holding us back."

Nagisa smirked and took a step forward, but Kirito turned to Natsu first and said, "You don't need to worry about that." The black haired teen glanced at Nagisa as he walked towards them, and the younger teen looked at Kirito in surprise that he stopped him from showing Natsu an assassination move that he thought would make the pink haired mage piss himself. Kirito nodded at the assassin and then looked back at his comrades, "Nagisa is strong." He turned to the boy, "Thanks for your assistance."

Nagisa nodded back at Kirito and smiled more genuinely. "You're welcome."

"So the nine of you then?" Sokka questioned, walking back over and looking around at the group in front of him. He stepped up and crossed his arms, "The leader of Class 3-E, Black Canary, and you monsters," Sokka said and made a few of them laugh. Natsu grinned while Ben and Dash smirked at each other and bumped elbows. "If anyone has a chance at beating the Fire Lord. It's you." He looked to Canary and continued, "We can provide support only so far. After you reach Sin City it will need to be a stealth mission from then on."

"I understand," Canary replied.

"And once you do beat Sozin," Sokka said, grinning confidently. "Feel free to come back here. The Capital will still be there, and you can rest-"

"I will be returning right away," Dinah assured. She glanced at the group next to her, _Hiei said my orders only last until Pyraxas. Any farther than that and he thinks I'm just wasting my life… and I'd have to agree with him._ She turned and smiled at the young people with her, "But not until we take down the Fire Nation."

"Yeah!" Natsu shouted and pumped a fist.

"You too Nagisa," Sokka continued to the teen. "If you want to-"

"I will be going all the way to the Capital," Nagisa interrupted. Sokka grimaced as he was hoping the teen would be a little more persuadable. Nagisa continued in a dark voice, "And if the King is to capture me, I will fight him with everything I have." The others looked at Nagisa in astonishment as it sounded like he knew what the King was capable of but was saying this anyway.

"You can't be serious," Gray told the teen with blue hair.

"You did not see Isogai for months before you vanished from this continent Gray," Nagisa said. "So you do not know, that during the Third War, our teacher was killed. Class 3-E's assassination teacher, Korosensei, was killed, right before our eyes." Nagisa clenched his fists at his sides, "And the King was the one who did it. He devoured our sensei's brains in front of us. If I don't save my classmates, I will at least take my revenge."

Gray shook his head at the teen. "I never knew your teacher, and I'm sorry, but you don't really think you can take on the King do you?"

Nagisa did not reply for a few seconds, and then he said in a dark tone, "The King has those he cares about." He looked up into Gray's eyes and the ice mage could see this boy was not joking in the slightest. A few of the others behind Gray gulped but the ice mage himself slowly nodded his head.

"Alright," Sokka said, keeping his voice positive as to boost the mood. "We're having a flying bison equipped for travel north. You'll have to head to Sin City, then catch a train north from there. The Fire Nation guards would never let you fly over the Cataclysm. It's a good thing you've cleared the path to Sin City though," he added and looked at Natsu who held up a fist.

Ben lifted his fist too and said, "Don't forget us."

"Yeah we helped too," Dash added.

"Same!" Grif called over. Natsu, Dash, and Ben all looked over at the man skeptically and he dropped his jaw at their unappreciative looks. _Last time I volunteer to go on a mission with you brats._ The soldier turned and walked away with Superboy, complaining to the Kryptonian that he totally did help during that battle. Conner still had burns on his body though from that battle so he mainly ignored the whining older man.

Black Canary turned to Gray, "When do we leave?" she asked him.

The man opened his mouth to respond, but fell down to his left knee before he could. Juvia ran to his side and started yelling in panic about how pale his face was and how hurt he looked, telling him to get some rest. On the other hand, Natsu laughed from behind him and shouted that Gray would be fine. The one-armed man shot a glare back at Natsu, but he agreed with him more than Juvia. _I can't let my injury get in the way of our mission._ He ground his teeth and pushed down with his only hand to get back up on his feet. "I'll rest on the bison," he assured Juvia. He looked back at Dinah, "Let's leave right away."

"Sounds good to me," Natsu agreed.

"Cura!" Kairi said. Gray turned and got splashed with a wave of green light when he looked at Kairi. The light faded and he frowned at her but she started giggling and said, "Okay, now we can go."

Juvia glared at Kairi, "Romantic Rival," she growled in a scary voice. Gray tried holding her back while Natsu laughed, and Black Canary froze with her hand near the sidearm at her waist. By the way the others were acting, Juvia getting violent over other girls getting Gray's attention was not new. The blonde woman stared at the young girl nervously though and found her hand hovering next to that pistol. _Juvia, I am sorry for what happened to you, but things will only get worse for now on._

The group started heading to Pon-Gatso's trunk and the elevator to the top of the tree where they would be departing from. A short man with spiky black hair watched them walk away while others reported to him about the status of the base. He listened to what they said while also focusing on the individuals walking towards the tree. _Most of you will die on this mission,_ the demon thought. _Those who make it back will understand what this war really is… Futile._

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 **A/N Hope you all enjoyed the final part of chapter 9! Almost hitting 20k, it's another doozy, but hey I figure fifty thousand words published in a couple of days ain't bad! Juvia's alive again! Black Canary and Nagisa Shiota join up with the team before their trip north to Pyraxas, a destination our other heroes are already heading towards. Nagisa, Karma, and the others in Class 3-E are all from Assassination Classroom, a show I finished a long time ago, then proceeded to write this chapter after I did as I really wanted to get their characters right while I still remembered them all. Also added in a Diclonius from Elfen Lied if anyone's ever seen that show, (very gruesome). I'll put a list below since it is the final part of the chapter and there were many new characters introduced here. Thanks for reading!**

 **Elfen Lied: Diclonius**

 **Harry Potter: Bellatrix Lestrange**

 **DC Comics: Ra's al Ghul, Talia al Ghul, Ubu, Lazarus Pit**

 **Star Wars: Darth Bane, Sith**

 **Fairy Tail: Juvia, Gray, Natsu**

 **Spirited Away: Haku**

 **Assassination Classroom: Nagisa, Karma, Rio Nakamura, Terasaka, Kirara, Maehara, Isogai, Okano, Korosensei**

 **Final Fantasy: Cloud Strife**

 **Yu Yu Hakusho: Kuwabara, Hiei, Urameshi Yusuke**

 **Young Justice: Superboy, Blue Beetle, Black Canary (Dinah Drake)**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Silva Zoldyck, Killua, Meruem**

 **Lost: Jin**

 **One Punch Man: Darkshine, Lightning Max, Stinger**

 **7 Deadly Sins: Guila, Jericho**

 **Avatar the Last Airbender: Sokka, Fire Nation, Sozin, Azula**

 **The Incredibles: Dash**

 **Ben 10: Ben**

 **Sword Art Online: Kirito**

 **Fullmetal Alchemist (Brotherhood): Winry**

 **Red vs Blue: Grif**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Kairi**

 **-Hope I got 'em all! Lastly, review response:**

Darugus chapter 56 . 9h ago

Nice chapter  
But Im really wondering how ras got so many powers in only two years  
Also wow the fight with ras was amazing  
Also there goes my ranking for the second group  
But you know the second group that's going south has had it harder than the first one going north  
Also looking forward to next chapter hope they find the pit at least

 **Thanks! Really glad you liked the fight! Group that went north def seemed to get it better than the one that went south, but then again they did have more people, and the 7 Deadly Sins to help them, and Mephisto, Axel, Roxas, Theseus, a lot of helpful people in the Dread Fort. They did find the pit, and they managed to save Juvia! Now both of the groups head to Pyraxas, looking for the Lord of Sin City and High Lord of the Fire Nation: Astaroth and Fire Lord Sozin. How will they fare against these new enemies? Find out in Chapter 10: Pyraxas (all 10 parts of it XD). Thanks for another review! And thanks again everyone for reading this story! Hope I don't take too long to write the next part ;). Until then... 'till next time!**


	58. Nexus HWR 10-0 Battle Royale

**A/N Hey guys! This part starts off Chapter 10: Pyraxas with a bang! Hope you all enjoy the long-awaited Battle Royale! And with this 20,000 word chapter, that makes 70,000 words in the last 3 chapters! Probs going to start making shorter ones again though soon... Anyway, enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I own none of the shows, anime, movies, books, comics, or other media where you may recognize characters and settings from this story from. They aren't mine.**

* * *

 **Nexus HWR 10.0 Battle Royale:**

 **The Capital**

On the day of a Battle Royale the entire Capital of the Cooperative went all out. The Southern/Business Quarter completely shut down most of the streets near its center where the Colosseum was located. Even the skies above the streets were closed off to hovercars because of all the VIPs who needed the extra airspace. The sky high above the center of the Southern Quarter was full of massive battleships and zeppelins. There was a flying airfield higher and bigger than any ship where smaller planes could land, and there were shuttles from that airfield down to the Colosseum below.

Having only been around for less than two years, the Cooperative did not have much in "cooperative" activities. There were not many sport leagues in the Co-op, and the ones that did exist were mainly intra-regional, as in the league only stretched between member cities of the same High Lord. The Colosseum was thereby a symbol of the Co-op, being one of the only things that connected all of the High Lords together, and the Battle Royale was the symbol of the Colosseum. It was the biggest event the Capital had and only occurred every few months or so, usually marking a major event. The previous Battle Royale around two months earlier coincided with the addition of a new High Lord and the Emperor's completed conquest of the western coast of Southern Aebrith. There had not been an out of the ordinary amount of news recently, so everyone in the Capital was buzzing wondering what was going on.

The crowds outside the Colosseum numbered in the hundreds of thousands. They packed the closed streets that had vendors on the sides selling everything from clothes to weapons to slaves. Auctions for prisoners of war were side by side with gun shows or scientists showing off technology. Guards were everywhere too. The white guard uniform consisting of a jacket, pants, and a hat, adorned the bodies of Chimera Ants, humans, aliens, and demons alike. They kept the King's peace, without concerning themselves on who it was they were addressing. Lords had been known to break the laws in the Capital as they believed they still had some authority there. Although they may have had VIP clearance, no one was above the law in the Capital, and those Lords left the city without their heads.

Outside of the Colosseum, there was a huge clearing of a half mile radius in every direction of the outer walls where no buildings could be built. The Colosseum itself was four miles in circumference, and around it on every side were people pressed so close together that from the sky, the ground was impossible to see. On the west side of the huge circular stone amphitheater, the side closest to the Embassy Quarter, two women walked out of a crowded street into the much more crowded clearing outside the Colosseum. Most people had to push their ways through the crowds in order to get by, but the majority of people who saw these two women coming close gave them a small berth. It was not unusual to see powerful people near the Colosseum, and the idea that they had to follow the laws did give people a sense of security, but they still did not want to upset anyone in a black cloak like the ones these two women were wearing.

The two had their hoods up and the one who was an inch shorter than her comrade muttered in a quiet voice, "Screw this. I did my hair this morning and there's no point if no one sees me." She pulled her hood off and though she knew it would make them less intimidating and make it harder to walk through the crowds, she smirked at the reactions she got from men all around her.

The woman at her side who looked around ten years older reached up and removed her own hood as well. Her hair was jet black, much darker than her comrade's, and it fell straight down her back to nearly her waist. Her hair was bland compared to her comrade's that was mostly up in a bun above her scalp with some other braids falling behind her and to the sides in a beautiful, intricate fashion. She frowned at the sight of the people in front of them looking their way and then turning and continuing conversations with each other or street vendors who set up their stalls in the clearing likely days in advance if they obtained a spot this close to the arena. "I wish you had waited another minute," the darker haired woman began as they continued to walk again.

"Doesn't matter, they'll move out of my way if they know what's good for them," the younger-looking woman shot glares like daggers towards the people in front of her who moved out of the way without her even asking. They moved back into their spots as soon as she was past and the people walking behind her were getting caught up in the crowd. She glanced behind her and darted her glares to the short men following her who she growled at, "Don't fall behind."

All six of them gained nervous expressions and pushed people out of the way to catch up to her. They had bracelets on their ankles with glowing red lights on them, and each of the men only two feet tall had large packs on their backs with all the lighter-haired woman's belongings in them. Many of them were holding bags from that day as well, as their Master saw some things she wanted on the walk to the Colosseum from where they came from at the shuttle station. They were both staying in the Embassy Quarter but their rooms were both over thirty miles away from the Colosseum so they called a shuttle to pick them up from their hotel and bring them as close to the Colosseum as they could before the crowds became too thick. It was still over a four mile walk, but the women preferred that to going straight above the Colosseum and dropping down to wait there until the Battle Royale began.

"We've still got a half an hour until they even start the introductions," the shorter woman began as they got held up for a minute. In front of them marched a double-file line of horses with some pretty fancily-dressed people riding them. They had on beautiful silks and jewels, and there were Capital guards walking on their sides along with the Royal Family's own guards. The younger woman in a black cloak that went from her neck all the way down to her feet and covered all her skin except for her hands and her face, stopped speaking as even she felt nervous as the center of the horse caravan marched by. The red haired figures who mounted those horses had serious expressions and powerful auras around them.

Kouha and Kougyoku sat on horses side by side, and they kept their hands down at their sides on the hilts of their weapons. Both were Lords of the Kou Empire, but even Lords were not safe from danger in the Capital. They felt better today than most times they visited the Capital though, as on one of the two horses behind them was their eldest brother, the High Lord of the Kou Empire, Kouen Ren.

Kouen and Koumei, the second oldest of the Ren siblings, marched side by side and looked around at the crowds as they did. Koumei looked down to his left at two women in black cloaks next to his horse. He nodded at the woman with black hair whom he actually recognized, but he said nothing and turned forward to continue riding through the crowds. After a few seconds Koumei noticed his elder brother and High Lord looking at him out the left corners of his eyes.

Without turning his head, Koumei began, "Bronxi, rank XXV of the Organization. We met at the last Summit of Southern Lords." Kouen looked back straight ahead as his brother talked, and the two continued to gaze around the crowded area where hundreds of thousands of people were gathering. Koumei continued, "She is sharp-tongued and clever, for a Nobody."

Kouen nodded his head and repeated the name in his mind a few times to get it memorized. He liked making the loop around the Colosseum before entering, and was the only High Lord he knew of who did so. The man with long red hair had it all pulled back behind him into a single braid kept together by many white bands. All of the Ren siblings had long hair, beautiful necklaces and jewelry, and were dressed like Royalty, which in the minds of most, they were.

Bronxi watched as the Ren family's caravan finished passing them, then she walked forward through the open path that had yet to be filled back in by people hesitant to walk behind them. Walking in the back of the lines of horses were slaves who had shovels and baskets strapped to their backs, their jobs to pick up any shit the horses might make during the march around the Colosseum. As soon as the final slave had walked by, Bronxi walked across the path and continued towards the massive arena over two hundred meters tall on its outer walls.

Her comrade behind her grumbled and sped up to catch her friend who she walked side by side with again. "Who was that guy?" She asked, and the older woman smirked. "I saw you two make eye contact. You've met."

"We have," Bronxi replied. "But I do not have to tell you, Rank LV." The younger woman's forehead scrunched up angrily but her friend chuckled at the reaction and continued, "I am only kidding Manix. That was Lord Koumei. A master tactician and a genius in terms of politics and economy."

"Hmph," Manix humphed. The previous sarcastic remark her comrade made was still aggravating her, especially since her rank was mentioned. _I got created six hours after you, but the Organization fucking doubled in size in that time! Stupid ranks, stupid Bronxi, stupid..._ Manix focused on an entryway ahead of them that was taller than most around the Colosseum. This was the same entrance that giants would use, though she had not seen any so far today. Because it was the entrance for giants though, and many people were worried about being stepped on in such a crowded place, it was the least packed of the entrances from the experience of the two Nobodies.

The girl with orange hair stopped when she was close to the arena. She turned and glared at the men behind her. "Stay," she ordered. The mens' eyes widened and she kept going, "Watch my bags, and if any of you get the bright idea to run, or lose any of my things," her expression darkened and she snarled, "I will rip you in half."

The cluster of short men with beards all gulped simultaneously. Manix started to turn but she muttered as she did, "Doc." One of the dwarves, the one wearing a pair of spectacles, ran forward and nodded quickly at the woman. "Find me a white horse," she flicked him a card from between two of her fingers and the dwarf gulped and held it carefully. "If you spend too much, I'll feed you to the dogs."

Manix turned and she walked away with Bronxi towards the wide and tall entrance that even with hundreds of people walking into it, still had a lot of room to move around. Bronxi chuckled which made her friend turn towards her before she began, "You are so hard on them. You and I both know you would not do anything to your children."

"Heh, says you," Manix replied starkly. "They aren't even children, they're a bunch of old men."

"But I do recall you shutting down Jixsan with a, 'my adorable little men are all I-'" Bronxi stopped as Manix snapped her a glare with slightly red cheeks.

"How do you know about that? You weren't even there!" Manix snapped.

Bronxi just smirked and continued to walk, leaving her comrade in the dark. Manix grumbled but decided there was no point in wondering how Bronxi obtained her seemingly limitless information. The younger Nobody shook her head clear of her annoyance and tried looking forward to the event at hand. It became easier as while they walked through the dark tunnel, loud music started blasting over speakers. The music was orchestral, only string instruments playing in loud short bursts, followed by a fast trumpet, followed by thousands of drums all playing together. The music was epic and building up to something as it grew louder and louder the farther the women walked down the tunnel. The sound seemed to bounce off the walls in there and everyone heading inside started nodding their heads and growing large smirks across their faces.

"Let's go to the upper level!" Manix yelled at her comrade even though they were right next to each other. She pointed at the stairs that led over the lower tunnel they were already walking down where there was another tunnel above them. There were private elevators on either side of the staircases up to the top level, but neither Manix nor Bronxi were invited to box seats this time.

The older woman nodded and the two headed to the upper level and then down that tunnel further. They could see light at the end of it and the music was extremely loud right at the exit. Then when they stepped through out into the stands, the music stopped being so loud as it was overlapped by the sounds of hundreds of thousands of people cheering and shouting and talking to each other.

Bronxi pointed above them and to the right where she spotted a few open seats near each other. Manix nodded and they started up the stairs on the side of the tunnel, but she looked higher up as they walked. The orange-haired Nobody frowned up towards the box seats above the top rows of the Colosseum's stands, three hundred of them total for the four and a quarter mile circumference of the top of the arena. _How did we not get any seats up there? Having to sit with the commoners,_ Manix's mouth twisted into a disgusted frown as she glared around at the people on either side of the steps. Some of them were not wearing shirts, others had painted their faces, many were part human and part animal or some other creature. She saw aliens with four arms, ones with purple skin, some with spikes and some with bumps, and all of them disgusted her.

Up in the booth directly above the top of the stairs Manix and Bronxi were on, a heavyset man with long curly blond hair was thinking the same thing. "Look at those animals," he remarked while swirling his red wine around in its glass. The two standing behind him on either side said nothing and he continued, "They can not wait to see blood spill. If only it was them down there, I would like to see their faces as the terror of the Battle Royale sets in."

Judge Vinsmoke tilted back his wine and downed another full glass of it. "More wine!" He shouted and held his glass out to his left side. The beautiful girl standing there with a swirl of pink hair above her head picked up a bottle from a small table at her side. Reiju poured her father a glass with steady hands and then placed the bottle back into the bucket full of ice on the table on Judge's left side.

"The tournament has not even begun yet Father," the man on Judge's other side began. He had dark red hair spiking down behind his back and the same swirly eyebrows as his father and sister. Ichiji had a straight expression on his face like his sister and he remarked calmly, "You do not wish to miss the fight."

"Fuck the fight!" Judge exclaimed and he slammed his glass down so hard on the right arm of his chair that the bottom of it cracked under his hand. He did not even notice that he got a shard of glass stuck in his fist as he was so livid. "Your worthless brother Yonji failed his conquest in the south, bringing shame to the family name! _My_ name!"

Ichiji smirked as his father cursed in frustration. "He did report back some interesting news though. It seems our brother Sanji is alive and well. Yonji heard that he's a man around our age too."

Reiju said nothing but the corner of her lip that was farthest from her father and brother curved up. _Sanji, I hope you're doing well on this world._

"That Sanji was a pathetic excuse for my son," Judge snarled. "Though it would be great if Niji could find him and bring him back. I could marry him off to make an alliance with the Ren. Maybe that Kougyoku needs a husband."

Ichiji's swirly eyebrow lifted up and he let out a single laugh. "Sanji is hardly worthy of our name, let alone a Princess of the Ren Empire." Judge laughed along with that and Reiju let out a small unenthusiastic chuckle.

Two boxes down from the Vinsmoke's booth there were a lot more people gathered inside. There was a counter right at the front edge of the box, another counter behind it and a little higher up, and a third one behind that. There were a dozen seats behind every counter, and the people and creatures sitting on those seats had computers out in front of them. One person had a cube with a hologram sticking out and another person wore a high-tech pair of glasses and was moving his hand in the air seemingly without purpose as no one else could see the display he had in front of him. No one had any pens or paper there as they all typed on their keyboards, but many in the media booth were writing for newspapers.

"Big News" Morgans, a tall, white-feathered, humanoid bird in a top hat that had a darker feather sticking out of it, sat at the very center of the front row of this media booth. He had on a monocle and a black suit and he was squawking away with other news reporters around him. His newspaper, Aebrith Daily, circulated every corner of the continent including Resistance lands. There were few places his paper did not reach, like the far reaches south, or a few individual alien countries that refused to interact with members of the Cooperative, as few and far between as they were.

A blonde-haired woman on the second row had a laptop in front of her and already started typing her paper. She had on a media tag at the bottom of a green lanyard around her neck. The tag had a picture of her face on it and the letters 'ZTV' above it. The girl looked young, maybe in her mid-late twenties, and she wore a pair of glasses that with her professional black skirt, white shirt, and ponytail made her look like quite the... nerd.

This nerd lowered her glasses though as she looked over her laptop and down across the Colosseum to a dark tunnel on the other side and all the way at the bottom. She used her X-Ray vision and thought, _Here they come._ Kara Danvers started typing fast as she put down the names of the competitors at the front of the pack of gladiators heading to the arena. As she typed up the news for somewhere the Aebrith Daily did not reach, writing for an entire city she would return to after this event, her lips dipped down into a deep frown that stayed that way while she typed.

 _At least in a Battle Royale, the winner gets a choice. It's the only good I can see coming from something like this._ The Kryptonian who once acted as a superhero under the name of Supergirl shook her head of the negative thoughts she had of all this and focused back on the arena below. She had been describing it in her article when she first spotted the competitors still in the tunnel, and she got back to finishing up its description. The circular floor was completely made of sand this time around, all the way out to the fifty foot tall stone walls encircling the fighting arena. The center of the stage had something interesting on it though, a sort of cornucopia of weapons for the gladiators. As Kara wondered how this battle would be fought, loud clanking noises quieted down the stands and everyone looked in to see what was happening.

All around the outer edges of the arena floor, ten feet out from each side of the exit of the dark entrance tunnel and then wrapping around the entire Colosseum like a ring, a marble platform rose. It came out from beneath the sand and made a meter-high ring around the arena leaving only the end of the tunnel without any marble. The ends of the incomplete ring on either side of the tunnel's exit slanted down into the sand, and when the gladiators came out in two lines, they split off to walk up the ramps and around either side of the ring.

The two standing in the very front of the pack glanced at each other as they exited the dark tunnel. Neither of them liked the other very much, the former pirate with a golden hook hand despised the kid with spiky blue hair and vice versa. Black Star smirked at Crocodile though before turning left and walking up that side of the ring. He held his muscular arms up in the air with his scythes in them and grinned as roars of applause echoed out for miles. The Colosseum was filled to the brim and people who could not get in watched on screens on the outsides of the Colosseum's walls. Everyone in the Co-op's Capital could hear the cheers from the Colosseum and they expected they would be hearing them for the entire day.

Black Star and Crocodile circled the arena and then moved closer to each other as they both closed in on the opposite side of the ring. Other gladiators followed behind them coming out one by one, and while this happened, their faces appeared one by one up on four giant screens above the VIP boxes on the north, south, east, and west sides of the Colosseum. Their wins, losses, stats, and their names were all labeled up there and those who were not privy to the early gambling started throwing down their bets. Many did not even wait for the entire pack to exit the tunnel as as soon as they saw Black Star's record they started betting. The teenager himself was smirking at the picture of him on the screen and the awesome stats he had next to it that garnered so much cheers and applause.

 **"Black Star! You need to focus!"** Tsubaki called out to him through their mental link. Black Star kept waving her around in his hands, but the twin scythes continued in frustration, **"This isn't like other battles! You remember the last Battle Royale?"** Black Star's smirk faltered but he did not let it fade and continued to shout his own name while he swung Tsubaki around. **"Black Star,"** she began again, her voice softer this time, **"you can fool the rest of them, but I can hear your thoughts."**

 _I know,_ Black Star thought, and as he allowed those thoughts he had in the back of his mind to rise to the surface it became impossible to keep the huge smirk and cocky expression on his face. _But we need to win this time. I need to be focused on nothing else until the fight is over. You don't need to remind me what's at stake._

Tsubaki nodded her head in the black mental void she was standing in. Although her Meister would be keeping those thoughts down during the battle, she could not compartmentalize as well. _We haven't seen Gon or Mario in two weeks. Soul went missing before that, and we haven't seen Maka again for even longer. Everyone who was left is disappearing one by one! All that's left are us, and..._

Black Star turned his head a little as despite Tsubaki not speaking to him, he could read her thoughts about as well as she could read his own. He glanced back towards the tunnel and saw a taller teenager with an orange pompadour stepping outside. His big hair shadowed the top half of his face but his mouth was twisted into such a furious snarl that Black Star could assume what his eyes looked like. _Good, at least he's taking the Battle Royale seriously. I thought he wasn't going to even try._

 **"I would suggest staying out of Kuwabara's path Black Star,"** Tsubaki urged her Meister. Black Star was going to mentally shout at her so she continued quickly, **"I know you could beat him, but he's going to be fighting in rage, looking for vengeance. You don't want to get in the way of that, right?"** Normally Tsubaki would suggest trying to calm down Kuwabara and reasoning with him to find another way to fight, but she and Black Star remembered what happened to Kuwabara well. They could only watch from the cell across from him as they tortured that Yukina girl in front of him, and then beat her to death before his very eyes.

 _I know who Kuwabara's picking if he wins,_ Black Star thought to his weapon. _And I know who I'm picking too,_ he lifted his head and glared three miles away and straight into the eyes of a mutant standing in his own booth. A woman with long curly orange hair at his side smirked and glanced in at the older man with a metal helmet on his head that covered most of his face save for his eyes, nose, and mouth.

"That boy is looking at you," she said to the Lord at her side. "Would you like to know what he's thinking?" She questioned.

"If you could, Phoenix," Magneto replied to the telepath.

She smirked and said, "Kill kill kill, I will kill you, kill kill, die, bitch get out of my head-" Phoenix stopped and she turned away from Magneto and glared down to the arena and the boy there. Her eyes narrowed and her fists clenched, but Magneto quickly put a hand on her shoulder as Black Star's face scrunched in pain. The kid let out a breath of relief as the sudden choke-hold on his mind was released and he shifted his furious gaze to the mutant woman on Magneto's side.

"Do not be foolish Phoenix," Magneto warned. "We are in the Capital. Do not make such actions lightly." He shifted his gaze to the largest booth of the three hundred around the top of the Colosseum and spotted a monster staring right back at him. He bowed his head respectfully and after a second, Phoenix did the same.

Black Star was snarling up at those mutants before they bowed. _I want to kill both of them! The bastard who tortured Maka, and the bitch who captured us! I'll kill all the damn mutants I can get my hands on!_

 **"Not all of them are enemies. Wolverine is a friend-"**

 _But most of them,_ Black Star thought angrily. _Most of them deserve to die._ The boy's expression darkened but his smirk did not leave his face and Tsubaki started to feel a little nervous.

The nearly one hundred competitors of the Battle Royale marched two by two out of the dark tunnel leading from their underground cells. There was an odd number of them this time, so in the very back of the line, a single man walked in between the rows. His eyes were closed and the two Chimera Ants walking behind him glanced at each other in confusion. They really thought the man would have opened his eyes by now, as he had had them closed from the moment they went to his cell to get him. He looked like a middle-aged man, though his hair was snow white and he had some wrinkles on his face.

 _This is the day._ Light started filling his mind as his eyelids could not block it all out. His ears filled with sounds of roaring applause and yells. Jiraiya took a deep breath, then stepped fully out of the exit, the final competitor in the Battle Royale. Everyone in the audience turned to this man as he stopped between the two ramps of marble, not stepping up either of them to join his fellow competitors. Lords and High Lords examined him closely, and the cameras zoomed in so that all four big screens showed it.

Black Star stared across the arena, and he heard the former pirate on his left mutter, "What is that man doing?" The boy with blue hair was thinking the same as Crocodile, _Jiraiya. I have never seen you fight before, but that ninja who bet on you, he was confident you would win._ The kid's mouth twisted into a smirk and his eyebrows narrowed. _Show me what you've got old man!_

Jiraiya's eyes snapped open. His eyes glowed white for a second while thick red lines wrapped around the skin of his eyelids. Those red lines curved in towards his nose before stopping in single points on the bridge of it, and on the other side they got thicker to cover his cheeks and wrap around the outsides of his face before vanishing beneath his hair. His nose became bumpier and when his eyes stopped glowing, his irises were replaced by horizontal black lines. His white hair extended down his back and wrapped around the sides of his face giving him a scruffy beard that pointed down in several spikes below his chin. Very few in the entire Colosseum were able to see the nature energy flowing through Jiraiya's body, but those who could leaned forward and looked on with intrigue.

In the largest of the boxes around the top of the Colosseum, the Ant King Meruem gazed down at the white haired ninja. _What is that power? I have not seen anything like it, since,_ the image of a man in an orange gi with spiky black hair appeared in the ant's mind. Meruem's lips curled up and the King of the Cooperative got out of his seat. He stepped to the edge of the box, while the four behind him stayed exactly where they were. Neferpitou, Shaiapouf, and Menthuthuyoupi, or Pitou, Pouf, and Youpi, were the King's three Royal Guards and his most loyal servants. They stood behind him in the shadows of the box, guarding him from any possible attempt on his life.

One other figure stood in the box. He stood behind Pitou, much taller than the female Chimera Ant, and without any of the animalistic characteristics the others in the booth had. He stood farthest back, scars and stitches covering his entire muscular body, his expression emotionless. The four in the box stared forward in silence as Meruem lifted up his right hand and the Colosseum went wild.

"And that's the signal from the King folks!" The announcer of the fight shouted. The young woman named Cocco had orange eyes and frizzy orange hair tied up in a pom-pom style on each side of her head. She wore a blue tank top that did not cover her lower stomach, and a pair of green short-shorts that matched her headband. She was standing up at the edge of the arena, right above its walls, looking over her shoulder and towards the huge box above where their ruler stood at the edge. The King lowered his right hand, but a figure in a booth three to Meruem's left stepped forward out of the shadows where several other figures in black cloaks stood.

Manix and Bronxi lifted their gazes to the box across the arena. They stared up at the High Lord at the edge of it whose name Cocco shouted. "High Lord Xemnas if you would!" The man at the edge of the box had silver hair spiking up on either side of his head and right above the center of it, but it also flowed down behind his back all the way past his waist. Xemnas rose up his arms and a bright pink flash illuminated the outer ring of the arena, before creating a translucent pink cylinder that stretched so high into the sky that there were Capital guards flying miles above the arena to make sure visiting ships did not fly into the Colosseum's direct airspace. Right before the match began, the massive airship that smaller ships parked on opened up a hole in the center of it, as it was big enough that even the huge Colosseum would fit on top of it.

Bronxi heard her friend mutter something in annoyance under her breath, and the woman with darker hair elbowed Manix in the side. "Do not complain," Bronxi said. "He will hear you."

"I know," Manix mumbled back. She continued staring up at that box even after Xemnas lowered his arms, and she spotted someone in the back of it that made her forehead scrunch in aggravation. Manix cupped a hand to her mouth and whispered to her right, "But, I don't get why the boss lets someone like Usopp's-"

"Never," Bronxi said, her voice quiet but rushed so she could interrupt her friend. Manix turned and saw a bead of sweat dripping down the left side of Bronxi's face. "Never, make the mistake of thinking that man, is anything like the Usopp you know from your memories." Manix turned back to look towards that box, and sweat formed on her face as she saw one of the hooded figures inside the booth facing her direction. _Xoupps, I really hope you didn't hear that._

Inside the Organization's box, Xoupps turned away from the two women he spotted across the arena thanks to their black cloaks that stood out a lot. The seasons were changing, and it was colder than it was at the last Battle Royale, but most people in the audience were still scantily clad in the heat of the sun for today's match. The man with his hood up looked down towards the arena and at the fighters all around it. _This is a pointless battle. We should be hunting the ones who took down Saix right now._

"Enjoy the match, Xoupps," a hand clapped him on the left shoulder, while the man who spoke stepped up on his right. Xoupps shrugged the arm off of his neck, and the older man who had his hood down like their High Lord started laughing. The figure wore the same black cloak with silver zippers and chains as every other member of the Organization, though as Rank II, he had more freedom as to his attire and wore a pair of shades that he lifted up as he faced his comrade next to him. Under his sunglasses, he only had one eye, the other covered by a black eyepatch, with a scar going under the patch suggesting why he might be wearing it. "It's always good to see which gladiators might be good additions to the army," Xigbar smirked ear to ear.

The Nobody got no remark from the man next to him so he sighed and turned the other way, looking over a short figure who stood directly at his left side, past Xemnas' back and to a man on their High Lord's other side by a few people. That man also had his hood up like Xoupps, but when Xigbar saw this he smirked twice as wide and called over, "What? Don't want them to see your face Axel?"

Axel stared through the shadow of his hood down to the sand-covered arena below. The pink barrier faded and would only reappear if something slammed into it, which was why Xemnas created it- to protect the audience. _Black Star. Kuwabara. Oh man, Kuwabara. What happened?_

Kuwabara's pompadour shadowed his face, but his mouth was visible beneath that shadow. His teeth were bared and the competitors on either side of him were inching away like they did not want to be anywhere near him. Many of the gladiators in the competition looked at each other with knowing looks, as there was an unspoken rule among them not to murder each other. Every single gladiator was there against their own will, and though the Battle Royale required there to be a victor, other rules were very vague. There was no giving up, but that was meant as a warning from those in charge, telling the gladiators that they had to fight whether they wanted to or not. When they stopped fighting was up to them, but most gladiators assumed that if they pretended to be defeated while they could still fight, someone would turn on the torture bracelets they had on until they stood. They had heard stories.

A ninja in a box near the eastern side of the Colosseum looked towards the exit tunnel for the gladiators. Lord Rasa had over thirty people around him in the booth, but it was not his own comrades or subordinates he was watching with. Rasa was invited to a booth with many of the other Lords who were betting on the Battle Royale, including some who Lord Rasa had bet against. Rasa was looking down towards Jiraiya who finally stepped to one side and got up on the marble ring around the arena floor, when one of the men he bet against turned his fat pink head around from where he sat and called out, "No taking it back now! Three million dollars when that Black Star brat kicks the old man's ass!"

"You only win if he defeats everyone there, not only Jiraiya," Rasa corrected. He continued quickly while Dodoria opened his mouth to shout something, "Though it will not matter, since Jiraiya will win this Battle Royale."

Dodoria froze with his mouth open, then growled at how confident Rasa looked and he turned back towards the arena floor. The fat alien covered in spikes wore his usual battle armor, but he also had a long red cape on that was draped over the back of his cushioned chair. He looked towards the fighting stage and thought about how confident the kid looked, how savage he was when his friend was paraded through the gladiator cells, and how amazing his stats were when they came up on the big screens a few minutes ago. "Heh heh," another alien, sitting on Dodoria's left side, chuckled. "I do hope you have not bitten off more than you can chew, Dodoria." Zarbon chuckled again, swirling wine in a glass in his left hand, and sitting in a chair similar to Dodoria's only with a green cloak that matched his long braided hair draped over the back of it.

"That kid will win for sure," Dodoria assured the others around him.

Rasa, the Fourth Kazekage on his world, and a Lord of the Cooperative on the new one, lifted up the corners of his lips a very small amount. _Do not be so sure about that. I would never wish to face the legendary Jiraiya of the Hidden Leaf, and I would decline a challenge from him if he wins the Royale._

Jiraiya glanced up towards a booth high above where he could see several Lords he recognized from the early betting they were privy to. He glared straight inside it, but not at the sand ninja who placed a bet on him, or the aliens who bet on others around him. His gaze snapped back down though and the Sage Mode markings on his face made him look even more serious, while the countdown to the start of the Battle Royale began. Cocco was shouting the rules, even though all the gladiators already knew what they had to do, even though most people in the audience came knowing what they were going to see.

"…When only one is left standing, the Battle Royale's champion will have been chosen!" Cocco yelled, and thunderous applause rang out through the Colosseum. "Ten seconds remain everyone! Ladies, gentlemen, and whatever that thing behind me is, let's get this Battle Royale underway!" The timer was at three seconds, and everyone in the audience was already chanting, but their voices filled up the entire Capital now as hundreds of thousands yelled the same words.

"THREE! TWO! ONE! HAAAA!" As soon as the screams switched from yelling out numbers, to yelling out just for the heck of it, two dozen warriors shot off the marble ring and towards the cornucopia of weapons in the center of the arena.

Jiraiya did not move from his starting place even as everyone else started fighting. On his right side, he could hear two animal creatures, one with a wand and the other with a shield, talking to each other in hushed voices about a strategy for winning the fight. Neither of them were paying him any mind, but he was not too concerned about them either. _After two long years, this is finally it. One final battle. Things could have been different. But this is where my journey ends._

 **FD + 3**

"Run Erza!" Makarov Dreyar shouted. The young woman in a full suit of armor that looked like a dress as it widened at her feet, her Heavenly Priestess armor, spun to the Master of Fairy Tail with huge eyes. Makarov was growing in size, his entire body glowing white just like his pure white eyes. "Get away from that man!"

"Max!" May screamed. The girl who shouted it wore a torn red shirt, with messy brown hair and her red bandanna wrapped around her upper left arm. The boy with her grabbed her by her uninjured arm and he started running, even as tears came flying out of his clenched eyes. "Ash stop!" May yelled, punching her friend on the arm he was dragging her away with. "Max! We need to go back for Max!"

"He's gone!" Ash Ketchum shouted. He turned to the girl and her eyes were huge, but Ash had seen the boy disappear just like everyone else. "We will be too if we don't get out of here!" Ash turned the other way and yelled, "Come on Pikachu!"

"Pika!" The little yellow mouse turned from the massive man in a black jacket and white pants, and from the even larger old man who grew four times the size of the Shichibukai. It looked back over its shoulder and saw the pirate warlord looking to his left at a furry creature backing away on its butt, then turning to the huge man who started punching a fist towards him.

Bartholomew Kuma lifted up his right palm, while saying in a monotone voice, "All who attempt to save a wanted criminal, are guilty as well." Makarov's glowing white fist hit Kuma's hand, and it bounced backwards and hit himself in the gut.

"Master!" Erza yelled as Makarov roared in pain.

"Chopper!" Brook shouted from the treeline, and the tiny reindeer scooting away from Kuma spun his head with wide eyes. "This way! Come-" Brook turned because he saw Chopper looking in horror at something next to him, then the skeleton himself turned and started sprinting away as fast as he could, while three dozen Grimm beasts barreled over the trees near him and started chasing him away.

"Brook!" Chopper yelled, getting up to his feet and reaching an arm after his skeletal friend.

Out of the corner of Chopper's eyes, he saw an arm swinging down at him and his eyes widened in horror while his jaw dropped. "Stay away from him!" Erza Scarlet shouted. The Fairy Tail mage with huge silver wings sticking out of her back shot through the air and a hundred swords flew in around her.

"Then you will be next," Kuma said, turning his gaze her way instead and lifting the arm he was already swinging. Erza slashed the two swords in her hands and all the others shot forwards at the enemy. They all looked inches from connecting, when Kuma vanished from before their very eyes. Makarov was leaning forward and he saw it before the red haired woman did.

He opened his mouth to scream at her, "RUN-" Erza was only half-turned around when the open palm covered in a paw pad slammed into her, and just like the small Pokemon trainer before, she vanished into thin air.

"Stop it!" Chopper yelled, turning back towards Kuma and raising up his fists. He closed his eyes shut tight, and his body transformed into Heavy Point, the first time he was able to get into that form for over a few hours. They were in a giant clearing that stretched for a hundred miles in one direction, and he could not tell if this was better or worse than the forest he had already used up all of his strength surviving inside of for the past couple of days. The tall, muscular form of the reindeer stomped towards Kuma and yelled, "Stop hurting these people!"

"They are only being harmed, because of you," Kuma responded, and Chopper looked horrified by the idea of that.

"What did you do," a deep, menacing voice began. Chopper and Kuma turned, and watched as the giant who punched himself in the stomach before grew larger, and larger, and the white glow around him illuminated everything for a few miles. A man with long white hair leaning against a tree two miles away turned his head to the side at the sight of a brilliant white light. The ground started to shake and the man put down the apple he was eating, stretched his arms up to the sky, and then started running towards where the light was brightest. In the center of that light, Makarov finished roaring and the ground trembled with his voice, "TO MY CHILD?!"

The woman who just vanished looked far too young to be the child of someone so old, but no one thought of that while Makarov charged forwards, creating massive footprints with every step. Kuma's jaw dropped and for a second it looked like he was shocked by Makarov's appearance, until a light started glowing from deep inside his throat, and fired out as a laser beam that collided with Makarov's chest and exploded into a huge dome of blinding light.

"Stop, hurting-" Kuma started to turn, then rose his head slowly as the figure in front of him got larger, and larger, until it towered five times the already large man's height. "THEM!" Monster Chopper roared in a deep voice, swinging down a huge arm that he was going to slam Kuma into the ground with. Kuma dodged and appeared ten feet to Chopper's left side with both of his arms raised, and his legs spread out in a sumo-wrestler-like stance. Kuma started pumping his hands forward, sending shockwaves in the shapes of paw pads flying towards Chopper who was too burly and wide in his Monster form to dodge them at all. "Agh, ah, RAAA!" Chopper yelled in agony.

"Fire Style: Giant Flame Bomb!" Kuma spun his head left, but it was too late to block the giant fireball that slammed into him and knocked him off his feet. Chopper fell to his knees, but he did get a reprieve from the constant barrage the enemy was battering him with. Master Makarov and Chopper both found themselves staggering up to their feet, and the giant fighters turned their heads towards the source of the fireball.

"I don't know what's going on here," Jiraiya began, getting out of his fighting stance and standing straight up. He stretched his burnt arms over his head, then cracked his neck to either side to ready himself. "But this area's been ravaged pretty badly these last few days. Would you fellas mind giving it a rest?" Jiraiya smiled and confidently looked towards the smoke where he sent the bear man flying to, but in his mind he was not as cocky. _Haven't seen Naruto in days, since right after we got here. Only recognized two others as ninja from my world. Only got a few hours of sleep in three days, and I am not feeling back up to strength yet._

Makarov and Chopper were thinking along the same lines as they turned back to the silhouette in the smoke as well. "He won't stop," Chopper began, his voice slow and very deep. The doctor of the Straw Hat crew took a step forward and winced in pain from being hit by Kuma so much. "Bartholomew Kuma," Chopper explained, "is not a human anymore." Makarov and Jiraiya nervously stared at the ten foot tall shadow in the settling dust, standing tall and looking unfazed by the attack. "He underwent a lobotomy, and his mind is now under the control of the government from my world. One of his orders is to eliminate pirates, which I am."

The smoke and dust went away leaving Kuma exposed to his three powerful opponents. Jiraiya and Makarov heard that Chopper was a pirate, but their opinions on the matter did not change. Makarov's fury over Erza's disappearance had him on the balls of his feet. The only thing holding him back was the memory of how easily he was stopped twice in a row. Jiraiya thought about the other groups of people nearby he had seen, and how this fight would be drawing the attention of every monster in a fifty mile radius. Chopper shouted at them anyway though, "Get out of here! He's after me, not you!"

"Erza," Makarov snarled, his eyes glowing bright white again.

"She's alive," Chopper said hurriedly. Makarov glanced towards the giant reindeer who turned his way and smiled. "Kuma sends people flying with that smack of his, but-" Makarov's jaw dropped and Chopper froze mid-sentence. Jiraiya came sprinting by the shocked Fairy Tail Master's side, but he was too late to stop the government weapon they were discussing from slapping its hand into Chopper's side. Just like that, the giant furry monster disappeared.

Jiraiya grimaced that the friendly monster got sent flying, but he kept in mind what Chopper said right before he was hit, and continued sprinting straight for Kuma who shifted his gaze towards him now. Jiraiya saw Kuma's head for the first time since the dust settled, and the ninja suddenly realized something was different after that last attack he used. He had no idea what Kuma had been through in the last few days, or that before his fire style jutsu, Kuma's head was already cracking, but he could now see what his attack did, and how badly the inside of Kuma's head was sparking. He did not hesitate despite the appearance of the mechanical interior to Kuma's head, he just continued his sprint and punched hard into Kuma's side, and although his fist felt like it exploded on the steel, he also heard a loud crack inside the robotic man.

Kuma swung an arm down and Jiraiya flipped where he was pressed into the robot's stomach, and kicked his leg into the hand coming at him. "Wait!" Makarov yelled. It was too late. Jiraiya's foot hit the paw pad, and all the force was reflected back at him, sending Jiraiya flying off of the palm, directly into the ground, where he dragged a trench through the earth for a hundred meters. Jiraiya started smashing through trees, when he finally flipped himself out of the ground and slammed back-first into a tree trunk that did not completely shatter when he collided with it.

Jiraiya's vision was foggy. He fell off the tree and tried landing on his feet, but his legs were wobbly and he collapsed to the ground. **"Exterminate. Tony Tony Chopper. Exterminate."** Jiraiya lifted his gaze and looked out to the clearing past the fallen trees and his trench. He stared at the giant old man and the malfunctioning robot that only seemed to get more menacing thanks to the attacks the ninja landed on him. _Even with that pirate gone, this government weapon is still sensing him._ Jiraiya watched as the robot dodged an attack to appear right behind Makarov, then opened its mouth and fired a beam that exploded on Makarov's back into a huge sphere of light.

The screams of the old man shook Jiraiya from his state and got him back to his feet. _What am I doing with my renewed youth?_ Jiraiya thought, stumbling forward, then regaining his composure and starting to run full sprint, only a little wobbly on his feet. The dizzy ninja started making hand signs as he ran, _I'm younger than when I died, maybe ten years. That's ten years I got back! I'm going to use them and do as much as-_ The enemy he was sprinting towards vanished, and in Jiraiya's peripheral vision on his left side, a ten foot tall sparking robot appeared. _Shi-_

 **Present**

Jiraiya opened his eyes and his expression was deadly serious. _Naruto, Minato, Nagato, every student I have ever had came to this world, and they all died before me. Ten years was too much to hope for. Jiraiya the Gallant's story should have ended years ago, but since I am here, there is room for one more chapter._ The white-haired man turned right and glared through his strange eyes at a female swordsman sprinting towards him.

The woman ran eighty miles per hour, but Jiraiya vanished from in front of her and appeared behind her back. He elbowed backwards with a dark look in his eyes, no hesitation even as he nailed a beautiful woman in the spine strong enough to throw her into one of the outer walls. He never took his eyes off the opponents he saw as soon as his eyes opened. The woman flew away from him one direction, while the legendary ninja dropped to all fours and started running even faster.

"Thunder!"

Kuwabara spun left at the sound of the high-pitched yell, and he glared down at the duck with a blue wizard's hat over its head. He rose up his red sword of energy, his Reiken, but before he could slash it down, a dark cloud formed above him and dropped lightning on top of his head. The teenager grit his teeth to stop from screaming, even as his body filled with electricity and pain. The tall dog companion to the duck waving a wand in its hand charged at Kuwabara, spinning around in circles with his shield out and creating a tornado of wind and sand around him.

"Get him Goofy!" Donald Duck shouted, while nervously taking a step back at the look in Kuwabara's eyes.

Goofy spun straight into the teenage boy and hit him over and over again with his shield. "Sorry, sorry, sorry," Goofy apologized repeatedly every time the man oofed from his attacks.

"RRRAAAHHHH!" Kuwabara roared, bringing his sword down hard towards the dog without caring how many times he got hit doing it. Goofy's eyes opened wide at the sight of the air above his head splitting open like reality itself was being split.

"Goof-" Donald started shouting in panic, before yelping as he himself was wrapped around the body by something. "Yaaaa!" Donald screamed as the whip of white hair around his torso lifted him off the ground.

"Art of the Raging Lion's Mane!" Jiraiya yelled from fifty feet away. The ninja was on his hands and feet, all of which were covered in bumps like the skin of a toad. His long white hair curled above his body and shot out long enough to wrap Donald up. Jiraiya snapped his head left, then right and whipped Donald so fast towards Kuwabara and Goofy that the two did not understand what was happening as a screaming duck collided with them and sent all three tumbling away.

In the center of the arena, Black Star glared to his left as he heard screams coming from the castle that was gradually getting larger. The sand castle rose higher up and stretched from the wall to halfway to the center. _Crocodile probably set up traps in there. Guess he remembers what happened last time he came straight at me. This is his element though, might be up against him in the finals._

Black Star looked around the cornucopia where he was surrounded by moaning and defeated opponents. There were some really high-tech weapons out here, so he came out as fast as he could and stopped the weaker competitors from getting any steps up on him. _I'm winning this time. He's mine!_ The boy darted a glare towards one of the upper boxes, where a man in a metal helmet looked straight back into his eyes.

Magneto watched as the boy glaring his way had to snap his gaze back down to dodge bullets that came curving at him around a steel wall covered in weapons he stopped his competitors from ever getting to. Black Star leapt away and created several after-images of himself from moving so fast, but the Gunsmith's eyes locked onto him and he fired rapidly with his seemingly endless supply of pistol ammo. The dark-skinned bald-headed man finally heard clicks in his guns, and he pressed a button on the left sides of them to drop the clips, while at the same time slamming his guns down to his sides where extra magazines were strapped. The mutant Lord smirked as he saw the gladiator boy sprint forward, because the gunman was reloading too fast and had his guns back up before Black Star reached him.

A slave girl standing behind Magneto opened her eyes wide in fear, but Maka quickly restored them to their usual size half because she did not want it to be discovered that she was not entirely broken, and half because her friend managed to dodge the bullets Gunsmith shot at him from only a few feet away. Black Star darted around the bullets that curved to chase after him, and his speed rose higher every second. He sprinted at the Gunsmith and the man pointed a pistol straight at his forehead. **Bang** Black Star could see the smoke come out of the barrel and the bullet inside pushing through it. He was already slashing Tsubaki down, no longer a pair of dual scythes, but now a thin, sharp katana that he split the bullet, and the barrel of Gunsmith's pistol, straight in half with. The Gunsmith went wide-eyed, losing confidence in that moment as one of his guns split, and he did not have the mental fortitude to recover quick enough.

Black Star sprinted by him and blood splashed out of the assassin's chest. **"Did you see that Black Star? That man could curve a bullet!"** _I know, it was really cool!_ Black Star sprinted straight past Gunsmith so that he could cut in on a one-on-one fight some other enemies were having, and Tsubaki transformed in a flash of light back into dual scythes so he could take them both out at the same time. Only once they were flying backwards with match-ending injuries, did Black Star risk a look back towards the trained assassin he defeated. Gunsmith was down, but Black Star's gaze never lingered on him, as when the boy looked back, his eyes opened huge at the sight of the tear in the side of the arena's airspace.

Sand was being sucked into the hole, while a dog and duck tried grabbing onto the marble ring on the outside to prevent being dragged into it. Jiraiya was bent down, white needles flying out of his hair as he used his Sage Art: Hair Needle Barrage. The needles were aimed at Kuwabara, but the younger man had cut a hole through space itself and the needles were flying harmlessly into the void. Jiraiya could feel his energy depleting and he had to put a lot more force into pressing his feet into the floor and pulling away from the rip in dimensional space. _Damn, if only Fukasaku and Shima were still alive. I had to remaster Sage Mode without their help, and I never managed to get the time limit to what it was. Before it ends though…_ The markings were already fading from his face and the bumps from his arms and legs, but Jiraiya lifted up his right hand and jumped in the air.

A huge amount of blue energy started forming on his right palm, swirling around as it expanded with a bright white core in the center. Black Star was sprinting towards Kuwabara who he could see was going all out, but the boy spun left with giant eyes at the sight of a ball of chakra much bigger than the swirling rip in the air. Kuwabara could see it from behind the rip in space, and all the other fighters still up on the arena floor looked over in shock at how big it was getting. "MASSIVE RASENGAN!" Jiraiya slammed the ball of energy ten times as wide as his own body down, instead of out towards the rip Kuwabara made with his Reiken.

Everyone thought Kuwabara was the target, so when Jiraiya aimed at the floor, he caught them all off guard. His Rasengan hit the floor, tore straight through most of the sand, and hit a rocky bottom that blasted into pieces and sent debris in every direction. A pair of gladiators working together to take out others were already running away, but a huge chunk of rock flew out of the sand and slammed into one's back, while the other dove for safety only to be taken by the wind and thrown up and out of the arena. At least, he would have flown out of the arena if he did not hit a giant pink barrier that only re-became visible when he collided with it face-first.

"Oooh!" Most of the audience outside that barrier winced and leaned back as the man's face smushed up against the barrier. After feeling bad for a second, they all screamed again as loud as they could in excitement. The entire arena floor was clouded by dust and sand as it continued to fly away from where Jiraiya's spinning ball of chakra hit down, but inside that debris cloud, the fight raged on. Black Star lowered his arms from in front of his eyes, and though he could not open them yet because of all the sand in the air, he rose his arms back into a fighting stance and sensed around.

The blue haired boy slashed to the left, but the person swiping at him in the sandstorm heard that their attack had been sensed, and changed up to parry Black Star's attack instead. He was not going to let the attacker get away with that though, and he sprinted after them through the swirling sand. It took a minute for all the sand to finally settle, but in that minute, most of the remaining fighters on the arena floor were taken down for good. Black Star took down another opponent then looked around, and the young gladiator smirked ear to ear at the sight of all the moaning and bloody contenders around him. Four opponents stood on the other side of the cornucopia from him, but he saw them all give each other looks and then turn back his way with weapons or fists raised. "All at once then?! Bring it on!" He laughed loudly and leapt up in the air, holding Tsubaki high in both hands as he did, "I'm the star of this show! Black Star!"

He landed on top of the cornucopia and glared at his opponents, a deadly look in his eyes. As menacing as he was however, when one of the men saw something behind him, his jaw dropped and he started sweating a lot worse. Black Star even felt a bead of sweat on the side of his face and he darted a look to his side, and then turned his head and looked all the way straight back behind him. His eyes opened wider and he stared at the man who took the brunt of Jiraiya's massive Rasengan, yet had one hand in the sand, dragging himself up just enough that the five other contenders on the floor could see his eyes. The amount of hate in Kuwabara's eyes, directed at people he didn't know, at his own comrade, it was unreal. He started lifting up his other hand to recreate his Reiken, but right when he was about to, all the sand around him curled up, and slammed down on top of him, burying him in it.

 _CROCODILE!_ Black Star thought in rage. He was about to sprint towards Kuwabara to save him, but the former pirate still inside his castle of sand stopped before sucking the life out of the teenager. _He knows if he kills Kuwabara, I'll murder him._ Black Star grunted in satisfaction, feeling Kuwabara's presence fade, but not disappear, and he turned back to his other four opponents. **"Be careful Black Star. I have seen each of them take down several competitors on their own."** _It's okay. I can't lose to small fry like these. The big guns are up next._

Inside Crocodile's sand fortress, the pirate with the Sand Sand Fruit, a Logia type Devil Fruit, stood in a room at the top of his castle. One of his eyes was not on his face, a gaping hole there instead full of sand so it looked like his entire body was made of it. Crocodile's left eye was on the outside of his castle, watching the match out there from inside the safety of his fortress. _Six more and I can demand my freedom from this game. Becoming a Lord shouldn't be too hard, but I won't risk it here. I'll try my luck on the outside, after planning, unlike what the idiots here always choose._

Crocodile sighed and he turned to face the open doors leading farther inside his sand fortress. "It seems the traps did nothing to stop you," Crocodile said, deep annoyance present in his voice.

A man stepped out from around the corner and glared into the pirate's eyes. Jiraiya narrowed his own eyes and frowned thinking about how Sage Mode had run out. _I can still do this though. I am Jiraiya-sama!_ He grinned confidently, and called out, "Crocodile! How about you and I-" The sand beneath Jiraiya's feet shot up his legs, and Jiraiya looked shocked as it completely enveloped him from head to toe, leaving only his face exposed.

"If you want to talk, then do it yourself," Crocodile said. His lower body turned into a sand twister and he flew across the room with his right hand outstretched, a hand he slammed into Jiraiya's face and sucked the water out of. It did not take long for the Shadow Clone to explode into a puff of smoke, and Crocodile flew out into the hallway beyond as he awaited the real ninja to approach.

"I'll admit I'm surprised," Jiraiya called out. His voice echoed around the castle and Crocodile glared around, his teeth baring as he did not like the feel of this ninja. He looked down the hall as he spotted Jiraiya come around the corner at the end, but Jiraiya was not smiling any longer. The ninja's expression was dark, and he said in a deeper tone, "I must thank you for providing us with these walls and ceilings though. I wanted to save this for my later fight, but as long as those outside cannot bear witness," he started making hand signs and the left corner of his lip curled up a bit, "I guess I can try it out early."

Outside of the sand castle, above all the rows of bleachers and inside the largest box seats there were, Meruem leaned forward in interest, as suddenly both presences inside the castle of sand completely vanished. Everyone else in the audience was watching Black Star masterfully take on four powerful enemies on his own, but Meruem watched the castle instead. _Did they vanish? Did that Jiraiya have a teleportation jutsu and only wait until now to use it? Where have they gone?_

The King was not the only one staring at the castle of sand on the arena. "Getting nervous there Lord Rasa?" Dodoria sneered at one of the other Lords in their box. He cackled loudly and pointed a hand down as Black Star got stabbed through by a broadsword, only for it to be an after-image as he moved so fast, and for the real Black Star to appear behind his opponent and slash him across the back.

"Not at all," Rasa replied, continuing to stare at Crocodile's castle as the sand started losing its solid structure. The other Lords in the booth, their companions, and their slaves, all followed Rasa's gaze while many others in the audience began looking over as well. There were still three competitors left in the center of the arena, with explosions going off around them and huge flying slashes shooting away from them all the way to the barrier that kept flashing whenever it got hit. A lot of people were looking away from that crazy fight though, as two very powerful contenders had been missing for a while, and it looked like they were about to see what became of them.

The other three still fighting looked over as well as they felt Jiraiya's presence reappear. All of the fighters remaining had some way to sense people other than ki, so despite the Power Blockers they were wearing, they knew Crocodile was no longer at the strength he was at before, and they knew something else was coming. **CHHH** The sand castle exploded in every direction, and the audience roared out like crazy at the sight of a twenty meter tall toad appearing on the arena floor. "Gamaken!" Jiraiya yelled from atop the dark red toad's head, standing in a sage position, with an unconscious Crocodile lying at his feet covered head to toe in burns.

 _That guy took out Crocodile?_ Black Star thought, his mouth twisting into a bloodthirsty smile. In his distraction, he did not see the woman on his left charge at him again, and only sensed her in the last second. He tried leaning away and blocking, but most of her slash got by him and he roared in pain as he was sent flying. The woman turned her head and nodded at the ten foot tall muscular man near her who nodded back, showing their temporary alliance was still going on while Jiraiya and Gamaken were a big problem to deal with. "I'll get you for that!" A voice screamed, and the woman spun away from Jiraiya towards the boy she just sent flying, he was sprinting back with black lines wrapped around his face and body that made him so much faster the woman could hardly follow him.

 _He's going to be a problem,_ Jiraiya thought, while a huge man leapt up towards him and swung a sword down. "Oh crap, Gamaken dodge!" He yelled. Gamaken leapt to the right while raising his left arm and the huge yellow shield on it. The muscular man who slashed down at them was no normal man though, adorned completely in red armor, holding a ten foot long sword that even though it did not connect, ripped a ravine in the ground and tore through the wall behind where Gamaken just was, as well as shattering the shield that got hit by a piece of the flying slash.

Twigo, an apprentice Holy Knight on his own world before he was killed, dropped to the sand and swung his sword after the toad that dodged him. "Get back-" his eyes opened wide as the toad was already coming back his way, and slamming forward the massive two-pronged sasumata, covered in spikes. The center of the sasumata where the prongs split off slammed into Twigo's sword he just slashed, and the weapons pressed against each other, shaking violently while giant gusts of wind picked up sand and discarded bodies around them and made them spin around in the air, flying out to the sides and around in a vortex above them.

Cocco shouted out how crazy the attacks were and the crowd was going nuts. Gamblers placed bets, screaming at each other who they thought would win the clash, trying to find someone to disagree with them before the clash ended. Gamaken's feet were dragging backwards in the sand, but the toad pushed its arms forward harder, while Twigo's sword shook like his arms and his entire body, while veins popped all over him as he tried pressing against this giant monster toad. Before the clash finished however, Jiraiya leapt off of Gamaken's head and sprinted down the shaft of the weapon the toad was holding. Twigo's eyes opened huge, as if he tried moving his sword from its current position to attack Jiraiya, Gamaken's massive weapon would slam into him, and if he didn't- Jiraiya did not use a jutsu, there was too much fighting left to be done to waste chakra where it was not needed. Jiraiya leapt off of the sasumata and stuck a foot out, one he planted on Twigo's face and pushed him back with, just enough that Twigo lost the pressure against Gamaken's weapon, and allowed Jiraiya's huge summons to slam the armored man hard enough that he was sent flying with his armor shattering around him.

Jiraiya was about to laugh and call out to his opponent something witty, but before Twigo slammed into the barrier, a woman came flying out of nowhere and collided with him in midair. Both were unconscious before they hit the ground. Jiraiya turned his head left, as did Gamaken behind him, and they stared at a boy with spiky blue hair standing between where they were on the outside of the arena and the cornucopia in the middle that was a mess after the battle Black Star just had with that other final contender.

"And there we have it folks! The final two contenders of this Battle Royale! What a turn of events! I mean, who didn't see Black Star making it to the finals after almost winning it last time? But for his first time in a Battle Royale, Jiraiya is really kicking some ass out there!" Cocco's announcement got the entire Colosseum echoing out with cheers for Black Star, though there were many yells of Jiraiya's name as well for those people who would lose bets if the fan-favorite won.

 _Without Sage Mode, I need more help to take down this kid. He doesn't look like he's taken much damage, though it's more than I have at least._

 _What hand signs are those? Is he summoning more toads? Gotta keep up my speed. I already used Uncanny mode once, time to put on a show for these people!_ Black Star smirked and called out, "Red Uncanny Sword!"

"Summoning Jutsu!" Jiraiya yelled. Two giant toads each as large as Gamaken appeared on the sand. At the same time, eight more medium sized toads with varying weapons and some with armor on their arms or helmets on their heads appeared in front of the three big ones. _There would be more, if not for what the toads told me Naruto did to them. Brainwashing… no, don't think of that now. Focus on the boy._

Black Star held a long katana pointed straight up directly in between his eyes. He held it by the hilt with one hand, and his other hand had two fingers pointed up behind it. Black lines spread down his face from under his hair above his forehead, and two other lines cut in from the sides of his face to his cheeks. The katana that was formerly black turned bright red in color, growing as it started glowing, while the boy himself grit his teeth as his body strained itself. His grit teeth made him look even more mad as his lips curled up and his eyes had a dangerous spark in them.

"Who is that boy, Jiraiya?" Gamabunta questioned. The giant, old, dark-red Chief toad unsheathed the giant katana it had at its side. All of the toads on the arena could see this was a dangerous kid, but at his first movement, they realized they had been underestimating him.

 _FAST!_ Jiraiya thought, while leaping backwards off of Gamaken's head.

Six of Jiraiya's smaller toads leapt in the air, right as Black Star appeared in the center of them. They slashed axes, swords, or punched fists covered in steel. The smirking kid called out in his mind, _Shadow Star!_ Tsubaki nodded inside the mental void where she also had black lines on her face and arms. She started controlling her Meister's shadow, while Black Star slashed his glowing red sword in a circle around himself. He moved so fast that the toads were still in the same millisecond of their mid-swipe down when he started slashing as when he finished.

Jiraiya's eyes grew huge as he saw the toads go flying in every direction. _He's strong._ Jiraiya sent Gamabunta forward, but when the giant toad slashed down, Black Star slashed his Uncanny Sword against the massive katana, and he held it there against Jiraiya's strongest summon's weapon. _Too strong,_ Jiraiya thought. _Stronger than I._

"Second Form: Leaf of the Moonlit Night!" A flash of white transformed Tsubaki into a four-pronged giant shuriken. There was a white ring in the center of the black weapon with prongs in the shapes of leaves, and there were white ornate patterns stretching out from the white ring to the edges of the weapon. Black Star leaned back far, then threw his shuriken so fast that the toad it was flying towards barely had time to raise his sasumata, not that Gamaken's weapon could withstand the force of the blade anyway.

"Gamaken!" Gamabunta and Jiraiya shouted at the same time as one of the three giant toads went flying with blood splashing out of a large gash in its stomach.

The toad slammed into the huge pink barrier and cheers echoed through the Colosseum. So many people looked away in fact, that just like Jiraiya, they were all stunned when they looked back and saw Black Star inches in front of the older man, looking into Jiraiya's eyes. "You should send your frogs away, before I wind up killing them all." He slashed, and his sword got stuck in Jiraiya's body that turned into mud as soon as the sword collided.

Black Star snapped his gaze up and saw two more Jiraiyas falling towards him. He tried yanking Tsubaki free, but the mud hardened around his weapon and made it difficult to do so. Instead, he pushed down on the top of his hilt and flung his legs behind his back and over his head to kick both Jiraiyas in their punching fists. The Jiraiyas bounced off the parries though, kicking down their legs at the boy who could not dodge while in midair and got slammed into the ground.

Black Star bounced away, then flipped up and skid backwards on his feet. "Thanks," he said, and swiped Tsubaki out to his left side, "I was having trouble pulling her free."

Jiraiya's eyes widened. _Did he get hit on purpose? The force of my kicks was enough to yank the weapon girl free. This boy looks young, but he is an experienced fighter. I could risk it- but then I will not be able to catch_ _ **him**_ _by surprise later. This boy is strong, but I am risking my life today, I cannot let him stop me._ "Attack all at once," Jiraiya said, and all the toads around him, even the injured ones, glared down at Black Star intensely.

Black Star frowned that Jiraiya did not send away his summonings, and he glared right back into the master ninja's eyes. _Damn it, that chick took more out of me than I thought. I could kick this old man's ass easily if he was on his own._ All of the toads leapt towards Black Star, right as the red glow vanished from his weapon. The boy closed his eyes and calmed his breathing. **"Black Star, you don't need to go this far! You need to save some strength for the next match if you make it!"**

"I am going to do, whatever I can to make it to that next match," Black Star snarled. Then, his left eye lost its normal color and a star formed in the center of it. "Madness, Takeover," he growled, his voice deep, his hands gripping tightly around his katana. An aura surrounded him, white but with a dark veil on the outside of it. His clothes turned black and his muscles bulged, and the corners of his lips stretched out into his cheeks so that he truly looked mad on the arena floor.

"What's this?!" Cocco shouted, leaning back in her seat at the force of wind that slammed into her. Sand swirled around the arena, and it became difficult for the spectators to follow what was going on anymore. Black Star was moving so fast that he left several after-images every step he took. It looked like there were dozen of the kid jumping around the arena, slashing apart the slower toads with his rapidly transforming weapon. Tsubaki was panting inside the mindscape, so was Black Star, but so was the ninja facing Black Star who was being pushed to his very limits.

Three Jiraiyas came falling down with large Rasengans in their hands, but the Black Stars they slammed their attacks down at were just where the kid was half a second before. They missed their attacks, then got slashed in half, each one of the Shadow Clones one by one. As soon as Black Star sliced the third one in half, another Jiraiya came flying up over the explosion of that third clone's Rasengan, with a Double Rasengan of his own pushing forward.

"AHHH!" Black Star screamed, first in agony, then in rage as he leaned forward into the attack and looked Jiraiya in the eyes. The crowd stopped cheering as much as they heard that roar. It was not just directed at Jiraiya. The anger was there, mixed with sadness, and rage, and ferocity. This was a caged beast they were watching. They put it in a cage and made it fight against other caged animals, and now it was baring its teeth and they were afraid. Cocco stopped shouting as the aura around Black Star grew larger. "YOU THINK THAT WILL STOP ME?! I AM BLACK STAR! NOTHING CAN STOP ME!" He slashed down so hard, right through the spinning balls of chakra that were breaking through his skin, right through the Shadow Clone that attacked him, and through the ground below that could not withstand his slash and exploded in every direction.

Manix leaned back in her seat as huge chunks of debris flew her way. None of the debris ever reached her, slamming instead into the barrier her boss created, but it was still nerve-wracking. "What's wrong with that kid?" She mumbled, wiping some sweat off the side of her face. "Ha, haha he's insane!"

 _I can't keep up with him. He's too fast. Too, mad!_

"RAAAAA!" Strands of Black Stars shadow shot off of his sword and impaled toads and Jiraiya clones. The creatures Jiraiya summoned were vanishing one by one, the ninja not wanting to see them die because of this fight. He was running out of chakra fast though, and he knew he had to end this instead of dragging it on against this kid who he had no doubt still had tricks up his sleeves. _Black Star. You are a fantastic warrior. I apologize for this._

Black Star snapped Gamabunta's sword in half like a twig, and the largest toad in the arena went flying up in the air in a tornado of wind and sand. The kid was moving even faster now, and Gamabunta's loud roars echoed out around the Colosseum as the kid appeared on all sides of it slashing with his sword. "Go home Chief Toad!" Jiraiya yelled out. _Goodbye, Jiraiya,_ the giant toad thought. Gamabunta vanished in a puff of white smoke. Black Star turned his gaze to the arena below, and though hard to see, Jiraiya stood in the center of it waiting for him.

"Good! Face me! The star of the show!" Black Star dropped from the sky spinning. He was laughing loudly, even as blood splashed out of him from a dozen different wounds, even as his chest screamed at him in agony because of the Double Rasengan that hurt a lot more than he let on. "I can't wait to be let out of here!" Black Star roared. As he dropped from the air, a few dozen Lords and High Lords swore they saw his eyes dart around the boxes at the top of the Colosseum, as if looking at each one of them specifically. "I can't wait until I'm free to get my revenge!" He screamed, scaring some people who were watching him fight for his life for their own enjoyment.

Reiju chuckled as Judge Vinsmoke spilled some of his wine. In a different booth, even someone who bet on the kid like Dodoria, gulped as the kid's eyes lingered on their box longer than most. One figure in that box made eye contact with the kid, and Magneto frowned deeply at the sight of the boy's crazed eyes. _If he wins this fight, I will put his sword through his own head._

Black Star snapped his gaze down at Jiraiya and he dropped with a purpose. He brought his sword back and it covered in red again. **"Careful Black Star!"** _I've got this!_ Black Star slashed down, but the Jiraiya he was slashing at did not dodge.

"You looked away far too often on your descent," Jiraiya said. Black Star slashed through him, and at the same time started swinging around for the man he could see behind him making hand signs. He spun and slashed through him faster than Jiraiya could dodge. Black Star opened his mouth to taunt that he knew it was a clone all along, but the second one he slashed through was a clone as well, and exploded into a puff of smoke as his sword was still pushing through him. Black Star continued his momentum while starting to turn his head again to check behind him for another clone, but Jiraiya was all out of clones, and he was still right in front of Black Star.

The white puff of smoke from Jiraiya's last Shadow Clone dispersed, as Jiraiya came crashing through it with his hands cupped to his mouth. Black Star was already swinging his sword around the other side of his body, when he saw the old man covered in a white veil flying through the smoke of his old Shadow Clone. "SHI-"

"Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame!" Jiraiya yelled, and he put almost every last drop of chakra he could into the most powerful fire attack he knew of. At point blank distance, with Black Star swinging his sword towards him so fast that Jiraiya wondered if he would get it off in time, a mass of flames shot out of Jiraiya's mouth and engulfed Black Star. The fire did not stop at the boy though, it filled up the entire arena on Jiraiya's other side, slamming into the pink barrier and outer walls, and then billowing straight up through the pillar so that through the entire Capital, everyone could see a three hundred meter tall pillar of fire shooting up into the sky.

The fire wrapped around the outer walls and everything inside was covered completely in flames for a few moments. When the fire finally started to recede, many of the spectators leaned back at the sight inside the arena. A moment before the flames left Jiraiya's throat, all of the unconscious and wounded fighters on the floor of the arena became surrounded in pink protective bubbles, but many of them were still screaming as they had thought they were going to be burned alive. Jiraiya was down on his knees, panting so hard that his breaths were coming out as loud wheezing noises. "I, apologize," he said in a very quiet, raspy voice.

Jiraiya lifted his head and looked at the figure in front of him. He could not even find the energy to be shocked, but the right corner of his lip did curl up a bit as he chuckled darkly. "I want to, say I'm, surprised," he began, while pushing down hard with one shaky arm, and staggering up to his feet. He stared down at the shorter fighter, somehow still standing on two feet, though his entire body was shaking. The sword he had clenched in both hands was trembling violently, and Tsubaki was screaming Black Star's name, telling him to keep fighting, just like the boy himself was trying to yell at himself, while his mind was blanking.

Donald Duck lifted up his head from the edge of the arena where he was thrown earlier. He lowered his arms that he had covered his head with to protect himself from the fire, and he stared out in complete shock like any other competitor who could still move. Black Star's clothes were all burnt away, and blood was dripping off him all over the place. "Your overconfidence and arrogance led to this defeat," Jiraiya said, while taking a single, unsteady step towards the boy. Black Star tried stepping backwards, but he could not move his legs. "You were careless," Jiraiya punched forward and slammed his fist into Black Star's gut so hard that it was visible on his back.

"OOOH!" The audience yelled in a collective wince. Blood flew out of Black Star's coughing mouth as he lifted up on Jiraiya's fist.

The white-haired ninja brought Black Star's head right up next to his own, and he whispered something into Black Star's ear, before elbowing him down on the back and slamming him into the ground at a hundred miles per hour, forming a crater in the ground that doubled in diameter after the initial shockwave. Dust and sand rose up as the ground collapsed beneath Black Star, then it slowly settled on the ground all around the arena.

Everything became silent for a few moments. Nothing was happening. Black Star stayed down. And the crowd went wild. The loudest the arena had been the entire day, thunderous applause and bellowing cheers filled the Capital. The news reporters and journalists typed as fast as they could to get down the specifics of the end of the battle. Some of the fight had been moving too fast for them all to catch, but Kara Danvers caught every second of the action and was marking it all down in her story.

Maka Albarn stared at the arena emotionless. She ignored Dodoria's yells and the other Lords' laughs as Rasa demanded his payment. She ignored everyone and stared down at Black Star's body laying still on the sand. _Black Star. I wish I could say I'm disappointed, but if you had won, you would have chosen Magneto. If you had killed him, all of our carefully laid plans would have been foiled. Tatsumi, Mine, Lily, only a little longer and it'll be time. Black Star, I'm getting us out of here._

Jiraiya stood alone in the center of the sandy arena. The cornucopia's weapons lay in pieces like the cornucopia itself, and parts of the ground beneath the sand were risen up and broken into chunks all around him. He was taking deep breaths while trying to replenish his chakra as fast as he could. _Nature energy alone will not suffice for a long battle. So I only need enough for a single move. One move that will guarantee my victory._

"Jiraiya is the winner of the Battle Royale!" Cocco shouted into the microphone, triggering another round of crazed applause. Jiraiya turned towards the announcer who was up on her feet shouting like everyone else. "Now! As the winner he has a few choices opened up to him that no other slaves have! First, he can go free, right here, right now!" The audience started quieting down, as everyone looked at the ninja to see what he was going to do. Jiraiya's gaze started lifting up and everyone was getting a lot more excited while he looked up at the King's box, where Meruem was staring straight back down at him.

Cocco herself grinned at where he was looking, and she shouted, "A second option however, is that Jiraiya can challenge any member of the Cooperative! If he wins, he takes the place of that Lord, or High Lord, or even the one who made this rule, our King himself!" Cocco exclaimed, and the Ant King gazed down into Jiraiya's eyes, wondering what the ninja was thinking staring straight at him.

"As much as I would like to face the King," Jiraiya began loudly, in a confident, boastful tone, "and as much as I want to leave this city behind me, I have something I need to do first." Jiraiya turned his head to a different booth and a bunch of talkative Lords quieted down as he gazed at them. He thought back to what he told the boy he knocked unconscious only a minute before, _**"Not to worry."**_ "I do have a challenge in mind! I pick Lord Magneto!"

Maka's eyes opened huge as she realized she may have felt relieved too soon. Magneto also looked semi-surprised, while the rest of the Lords in their booth turned to him wide-eyed. All of the screens around and outside of the Colosseum started showing a camera view of Magneto's face, and the Lord himself looked into the camera for a second before gazing back down at the arena floor. Dodoria and Zarbon stood up and looked at the Lord who had requested their help recently. Magneto walked in front of them and the two brightly-colored aliens glanced at each other with smirks on their faces. Rasa stood near Dodoria but forgot about his monetary payment for the moment as he focused on Magneto instead.

Cocco held her microphone to her mouth and called out, "Lord Magneto! What do you say to the challenge presented by this Battle Royale's champion?!"

 _I did not expect this man to challenge me. Why myself over the other Lords? Does he think me weakest? Does he know my abilities? Whether or not he does, I cannot deny him this challenge. Dodoria, Zarbon, other allies I have made in preparations for my rebellion against the Fire Lord, they are all here right now. I cannot afford to look weak in front of my future subordinates._ Magneto stepped to the ledge, past Phoenix who smirked at the much older mutant as he walked by. As soon as Magneto hit the edge of his booth he floated up in the air over it, sparks of electricity starting to form around him. A purple cape flapped behind him and he crossed his arms over his chest in a menacing way.

"I think we have our answer!" Cocco shouted. The crowd started going nuts and more bets were put down by gamblers all around.

"A Lord at full strength," Manix scoffed, "against that tired old man? This isn't even going to be a fight."

Normally, Bronxi would agree with her friend. As she looked towards the panting old ninja however, she saw the corner of his mouth curve up the smallest amount as Magneto accepted the challenge. _What is he planning?_

"Jiraiya," Magneto began as he floated to a stop. He stopped while hovering fifty feet over the ground in front of the gladiator. "May I ask why it is you chose myself as your target?"

"That girl you have enslaved," Jiraiya began. "When I looked in her eyes, I realized that you are not a man at all, but a beast." The audience fell silent, and Jiraiya continued louder, "Also, I happen to know your skill set, as I was on a Resistance mission to assassinate you when I was captured." Jiraiya started making hand signs while Magneto's eyes opened huge. The mutant leader rose his arms and steel bars from deep beneath the arena shot out of the ground like giant tendrils, whipping around in the air all around them.

 _He was sent to kill me?!_

"What's this folks?! Jiraiya, the champion of the Battle Royale, has been hunting Magneto all this time?! What a turn of events!" Cocco was leaning so far forward in her seat that her face pressed up against a pink barrier and she did not care. "Magneto rips steel out of the ground, and he's creating a huge amount of electromagnetic energy in front of him. I wouldn't want to be in front of that when it goes off!"

"Summoning Jutsu!" Jiraiya began shouting as he hit his final hand sign.

Magneto smirked and calmed himself down. _Whatever toad he summons, I will crush it instantaneously to prove to the other Lords that he was no match for…_

"Ninja Art- Toad Mouth Trap!" Jiraiya slammed his hands into the floor, and suddenly the sand was gone. The entire arena floor vanished and was replaced with a dark orange substance.

Magneto spun around and watched as the orange substance made its way up all of the steel bars he had out, and he lost control over them once they were surrounded by the fleshy substance. "What is this?!" Magneto shouted, spinning to Jiraiya angrily as he had no idea what was going on. The mutant fired his sparking ball of energy forward, but ten tendrils of flesh shot out of the ground and up in between Jiraiya and his opponent, intercepting the blow, though all the tendrils were ripped to shreds.

The flesh continued moving up the walls of the arena and up the invisible pink ones after that, while Jiraiya called out to his opponent, "I have summoned the oesophagus of the great stone toad of Mount Myouboku! There is no metal in here for you to use." Magneto snapped his head up, and he tried flying up, but the fleshy wall that suddenly snapped inwards on all sides was too fast. He stopped himself before slamming into the newly-made ceiling of flesh, then looked down and around to see that he was surrounded on all sides.

Luckily for the spectators, one of the tiny flying cameras that were taping the match got stuck inside the summoned oesophagus too, and it pointed at the two fighters to show everyone outside what was going on. Meruem grinned slightly as once again he could not feel presences inside the giant wall of flesh in front of him. _Almost as if the fighters themselves were teleported into the toad's stomach. How does a man summon only a single organ? Very impressive._

"You will never escape this place, Magneto," Jiraiya threatened the Lord in front of him. Magneto was thinking hard on what he could do in this predicament. He floated directly in the center of the large fleshy area he was inside of, but he noticed the walls were starting to close in on him. Long pieces of flesh started moving around and shooting towards him, but he zapped them apart with pulses of energy over and over, holding a stalemate of sorts for the moment. _I need to do this fast. I am nearing zero chakra, at which point I'll die before ever finishing my mission._ "No one has ever seen the inside of this toad and survived!" Jiraiya shouted confidently. _Except for Itachi Uchiha, who broke through with his Amaterasu. As long as Magneto does not have a trump card… no, don't wait for him to use it! Go all out!_

Jiraiya charged forward. "You foolish man," Magneto called down, then swung his arm and lifted his opponent from a distance. He flicked his wrist and threw Jiraiya across the inside of the fleshy summons. Jiraiya slammed into a wall and coughed up blood, no matter how soft the cushioning was he was just too injured to be tossed like that. Magneto lifted that arm up and pulled Jiraiya out of the indent in the wall, levitating the ninja directly in front of him so he could look in Jiraiya's tired eyes. "At full strength, you would have been no match for me."

"Ha haha," Jiraiya chuckled, then smirked as Magneto's jaw dropped and his eyes turned huge. "It is a summoning. I don't have to control it at all times."

Magneto restricted Jiraiya's movements, but several thick strands of flesh shot up and wrapped around Magneto's legs. They yanked him down and Jiraiya was released from his hold. The ninja started to fall while Magneto was pulled into the floor, then the mutant blasted the ground at his legs to free himself. The ground was off of him for a second, then a dozen other strands of flesh from the wall that had been closing in behind him wrapped around his body. The crowd outside the flesh was going wild, screaming and cheering and laughing their heads off.

"What a fool!"

"Idiot!"

Phoenix leaned in over the ledge and her eyes were wide, while her mouth was curled up in a wicked smile. Maka's jaw was on the floor as she watched the mutant struggle to break free. They could all hear Jiraiya's voice over the speakers, telling Magneto as he got pulled into the walls that he would be slowly digested by the toad, and they heard the mutant's final scream right before a long piece of flesh with a mind of its own curled around his face and went into his mouth, gagging him as it pulled his head into the stomach of the beast.

Two figures came walking into the box from a different one they were at before the match began. "Can you believe it?" A red alien with a long white mane of hair down to his waist asked with a loud laugh.

Zarbon and Dodoria turned and both looked surprised for a moment, before they burst out laughing with the other two aliens who just walked in. Jeice and Burter kept laughing, and then the tall, muscular, blue alien, Burter, mentioned in his high-pitched voice, "It's too bad though. I really wanted to be the one who did him in."

A bunch of the other Lords looked at these four aliens nervously as they laughed about Magneto currently dying. Zarbon laughed heartily, then noticed Lord Rasa gazing at him nervously out the corner of his eyes. He turned and held a hand out to explain, "We had a bet on who would kill Magneto first, but it seems we won't be seeing that happen now."

The four aliens capable of destroying planets showed no fear in repercussions from what they were saying. There were laws and rules against that sort of thing, which was likely why they did not kill Magneto right away and were waiting to find a good time. Maka looked at them with scared eyes, _These, these_ _ **things,**_ _they don't have ambition. They don't have ideologies. They're just laid-back monsters working as Lords under the King._ One of those monsters she was looking at, turned to her with a smirk. Zarbon took a step towards her and said, "If no one else is claiming this one..."

Magneto's screams echoed over the speakers long after he was no longer visible in the wall on the monitor. In another box ten to the left of the one Maka was in, a ten foot tall person who was made even taller by their huge purple afro, cackled loudly at Magneto's defeat, "WOOHOO! Mmmfufufufu that Magnet-Boy got digested!" Emporio Ivankov bellowed.

Two people stood in the booth with the Queen of the Okamas. One was a man on the okama's left side wearing a pair of purple sunglasses, who had hair that was half white on his right side, and half orange on the other that matched his long orange cloak. Inzauma had a glass of red wine in his hand that he swirled around while watching the screens that showed the inside of the flesh walls before them.

The other person in the booth was a shorter girl on Ivankov's right and farther back near the door. Koala heard a knock and the girl with short light-brown hair only down to her shoulders turned her head. She wore a pink t-shirt and tight black pants that matched her big boots, and wore a dark maroon hat similar in color to the gloves she wore. She reached for the door with one of her gloved hands and cracked it open, so that the nervous-looking person on the other side could whisper into her ear.

Koala's eyes opened wide and she ran away from the door and up to Ivankov's side. "What is it?!" Ivankov shouted as Koala leaned in to whisper something. Ivankov's eyes popped out of his eye sockets, and the huge man with a giant hairy chest, wearing only a purple leotard, jumped out of his seat and spun around with sweat all over his face. "Send him up!" He shouted to the door and the messenger standing there. The person ran off in a hurry, while Ivankov started fluffing his huge purple hair, and wondering aloud, "Why would Dragon be here?"

"Dragon is here?" Inazuma questioned in shock, turning towards the doorway as well and patting down his cloak.

They stared at the closed door for about a minute, until the handle started to turn and the door opened up again. Ivankov stepped forward and exclaimed, "Dragon-" The one who opened the door was not Dragon, but Ivankov's jaw dropped to the floor anyway. "S-S-S-SABO?!"

Koala had tears in her eyes, and the young girl sprinted to the doorway and leapt towards the man in a suit and top hat who just walked into the box. Two others walked in behind him, and the three in the room from the same universe as one of those two went wide-eyed again. Ivankov stared at the shirtless man in an orange hat for a few seconds, then back to Sabo, then back to Ace, then to the third person who walked in with them. Mizore did not say anything while the very, very strange person stared slack-jawed at her.

"I'm looking for Whitebeard," Ace said, and he smirked at one of the leaders of the Revolutionary Army from his world. He stepped into the box and continued, "Figured this is probably a good way for it."

"What do you mean?" Inazuma questioned.

Sabo stepped forward as well and while ignoring the wall of flesh outside of the box, he said, "We're planning a meet up between Dragon and Whitebeard." The two brothers smirked menacingly and dangerously, and Sabo finished, "It's time to turn this world on its head."

"With your resources, I'm sure it can't be too hard to get in touch with the old man, or someone from the crew at least," Ace started. He saw Ivankov open his mouth, so he interrupted before the Okama Queen could, " _And,_ I'm sure Whitebeard will want to meet up, if he knows Dragon has one of his sons."

Before the conversation could continue, Ivankov noticed the people in front of him suddenly looking behind his back, and he turned around to see the giant walls of flesh had vanished completely. In the center of the arena, Jiraiya stood next to a very-much digested Magneto. Others started to realize that what Crocodile was covered in before were not burns from some type of fire attack the ninja used, but acid burns from being partially-digested inside the very same attack.

Jiraiya stood in the center of a badly destroyed arena. _Not, dead yet? Strange. That was all, my chakra._

The cheering crowd quieted down as a figure floated down from the booth directly behind the announcer of the matches. Cocco shouted at everyone to shut up, and the King lowered to the floor a few feet in front of Jiraiya. "You have defeated Magneto, and now you are Lord Jiraiya." Meruem looked into Jiraiya's eyes, and the ninja looked right back. Everything fell silent, so silent it was hard to believe there were hundreds of thousands of people gathered in one place. The silence was eerie, until the King broke it, "So predictable."

 _ **Squish**_ No one blinked, but still only a very small handful of people in the few hundred thousand were able to see what happened. One second Jiraiya was there with his head on his body, and the next second the King's tail was through it. Those that could see what happened in that instant, saw the thin tip of the King's tail go through the ninja's right eye and out the back of his head, before the thicker part of his tail kept going and splattered the head into a thousand pieces. Jiraiya tried something heroic, something brave, something idiotic, or at least he would have, if the King could not sense what he was thinking long before he would have made the action to do it.

"Never raise a hand against me," Meruem said, his voice calm, commanding, echoing over the audience who remained perfectly still as he spoke. The King smirked and a dark aura surrounded him as his tail curved back up so the tip of it was in front of his face. _He had some strange abilities._ Meruem's tail hovered in front of his face, and he licked brains off of it while the crowd remained silent, watching the victor of the Battle Royale's body finally collapse to the floor, and the King they all bowed to eat his brains.

The other competitors of the Battle Royale stared inwards from all around the arena, unable to move from their injuries, or from sheer terror at the sight of the man who was able to best all of them, get eaten before their very eyes.

Meruem cleaned off his tail, then looked around the audience, and more closely at the boxes above them all. "My subjects," he said, his mouth still red from blood and chunks of brain still between his teeth. "There will be one _final_ Battle Royale in forty days."

"Final?"

"What the?"

"What's going on?"

Even the Royal Guards up in the King's booth opened their eyes wide at that declaration and they stepped forward to the edge of the box. Meruem looked up towards them, then around at individual High Lords who looked back into his eyes wondering what he was thinking. The King did not elaborate though. He floated up in the air and did not return to his box, but flew out of the Colosseum and towards the Northern Quarter of the Capital, the Command Quarter.

The Colosseum quickly started emptying out, while staff flooded the arena and gathered up the injured competitors to bring them back to their cells or to the infirmary. Up in the Organization's booth, Xigbar turned his head to the Organization's leader who was mulling over the King's final declaration. "Well then, we're gonna be heading back for Pyraxas." The short figure at his side turned towards their leader as well and nodded his head in agreement, though said nothing as the others all looked his way.

Xigbar gave a small sarcastic salute, then a black portal appeared out of the ground behind him. "Haha, would you believe it if I told you that fool Magneto tried getting my help against the Fire Lord? Idiot never would have stood a chance." He stepped backwards, the short figure with him stepped back as well, and the portal closed on the two of them.

Tens of thousands of miles away, another dark portal opened up on top of a giant palace smack in the middle of the capital of the Fire Nation. They were at the tallest point in the entire city, and Xigbar smirked at the enormous city around him. "Might not be as big as the Capital, but I like the feel of this place better, wouldn't you say?" Xigbar asked, and he looked down at the hooded figure next to him. The Organization member rose their hands to their head and grabbed the hood, before slowly removing it and the shadow from over his face.

He looked out into the city through dark eyes, and replied, "I don't know what it's like to 'like the feel' of something. A city is a city. It's a place where people live, work, die. Why should I feel any differently about this one than any other?"

"Couldn't jog anything, huh?" Xigbar wondered aloud. The boy turned to face him confusedly but the one-eyed man put his arms behind his head and started walking away. "Let's go report what we saw to the Fire Lord. You know he doesn't like to be kept waiting." The boy with dark eyes stared at the city for another second, then turned and followed after Xigbar. _I am a Nobody. We don't like anything. We don't dislike anything. How could we, without our hearts?_

* * *

 **A/N Thanks for reading! To start this chapter we get another look at the Capital, and a lot of future enemies of our heroes. The Ren Empire, the Organization, the Germa, mutants... or at least Phoenix XD. Jiraiya gets a small flashback in the beginning, and we also get an explanation for why Kuma was malfunctioning when he attacked Zoro, Zabuza, Gray, Kirito, Kuzan, Batman, Nami, Robin, and the others in the flashback to why Gray was in Aebrith all the way back in early Nexus (probably the first 100,000 words of this story). We also saw a mysterious sewn-up figure behind Pitou, and a short Organization member who will be a big part of this next chapter, wonder if you can guess who these people are? Supergirl makes her first appearance that's not in a flashback (since she was in Nexus 14.0 in that giant war against Darkseid's Legion of Evil). Ace and Sabo make plans to get Dragon and Whitebeard together, more than half of the Ginyu Force are in the Capital, Maka's trading owners, a lot happened this chapter! I hope you liked this chapter and the fights, (though I bet I'll get some crap for having Magneto lose ;P ), but let me know in a review below! I'll put a list at the bottom since there were a lot of new characters this chapter, right after review responses.**

 **Seven Deadly Sins: Twigo**

 **Wanted (movie where assassins can curve bullets (it's really awesome)): Gunsmith**

 **Naruto: Naruto, Jiraiya, Gamabunta, Gamaken, Pain, Nagato, Minato, Rasengan, Rasa, Fukasaku, Shima, Mount Myouboku**

 **One Piece: Judge Vinsmoke, Ichiji, Niji, Reiju, Yonji, Sanji, "Big News" Morgans, Ivankov, Inazuma, Koala, Crocodile, Ace, Sabo, Dragon, Whitebeard, Bartholomew Kuma, Shichibukai, Chopper, Brook**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Donald, Goofy, Xigbar, Xemnas, the Organization, Saix, Axel, and Manix, Jixsan, Bronxi, and Xoupps (OCs, Nobodies of the Straw Hat crew).**

 **Snow White: Doc, the seven dwarves (Manix's slaves)**

 **Magi: Kouen Ren, Koumei, Kougyoku, Kouha**

 **Soul Eater: Black Star, Tsubaki, Soul, Maka Albarn**

 **X-Men: Magneto, Wolverine, mutants, Phoenix**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Meruem, Pitou, Pouf, Youpi, Chimera Ants, Cocco**

 **DBZ: Zarbon, Dodoria, Jeice, Burter**

 **Supergirl: Kara Danvers (Supergirl)**

 **Yu Yu Hakusho: Kuwabara, Yukina**

 **Fairy Tail: Makarov, Erza**

 **Pokemon: Ash, May, Max, Pikachu**

 **Avatar the Last Airbender: Fire Lord Sozin**

Darugus chapter 57 . Jul 31

Well juvia's back  
Also if only gray knew what the lazerous pit's side effects was especially when Ras is dead  
Well it seems that even though the two groups split up they might meet again soon

 **Yay Juvia! Thanks for the review and the PMs. Everyone's heading for Pyraxas, and now we see there are going to be some Organization members in the Fire Nation's Capital too!**

Espada-001 chapter 57 . Jul 31

First off glad to see you finally back. And second I enjoyed both of the updates. I enjoyed the fight between Bane and Gary, and I actually had a slight sense that Kirito was still going to show up and help. (Bane was my favorite Sith Lord) As for the fight between Kirito and Ra I thought it was pretty awesome too. And it was interesting to learn that Ra became capable of fighting against someone on the caliber of a Yonko without prior planning. And I'm glad they managed to bring Juvia back although I'm worried about her upcoming side effects of her resurrection. I thought it was pretty cool to see Nagisa make an appearance and I'm interested to see how strong he's become since arriving on NEXUS. As for what happened to Koro sensei that actually made me feel sad as I really liked his character. However I'm curious as to how Meruem was able to eat him in the first place since he can only be injured by an artificial material and also even if he was killed shouldn't his body have just dissolved? I'm also still hoping to see Caboose make an appearance. And I was supprised to see Hiei make an appearance at the end there and I'm even more that he hasn't gone into a fit of rage after losing his connection to his sister. Well that's about all I have for now so until next time have a good day and I look forward to the next chapter. Actually I'm about to lose access to the internet after tomorrow for 15 days is there any chance you could make 2 posts tomorrow?

 **Thanks for the review! Glad you enjoyed the battles, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well (took me nearly 15 days so I hope you have internet again!). I always liked Bane too as a Sith Lord, which was why he was ranked 3rd of the Siths, and who knows if he'll appear again (cuz ghosts n stuff ;P ). Caboose would be awesome and there are some RvB characters I have plans for later on in the Saga. Anyway, thanks again for reading and all the reviews!**

Joebob323 chapter 57 . Jul 31

Well, one question was answered, but still though, was the ring that the league members were fighting over anything special? Also, can't wait for more epic action!

 **Thanks for the review! The ring that the league members were fighting over is what decides the next Ra's al Ghul. I don't know why, it's just how it worked in Arrow Season 3, that whoever got the ring would become Ra's. Hope you liked this chapter's epic action, and I wonder if I caught any of you guys off guard with Jiraiya taking the spotlight for most of this one (or surprised that he died).**

Guest chapter 57 . Aug 13

this is the best fanfic I ever read

 **Thank you very much! Again, thanks everyone for reading, following, faving, and reviewing to this story! 'Till next time!**


	59. Nexus HWR 10-1 Cataclysm

**Nexus HWR 10.1 Cataclysm:**

 **100 Miles North of Pon-Gatso**

Nine people sat on the back of a flying bison heading north away from the biggest tree in the world. Behind them they could still see it, sticking up into the clouds in the distance. None of them were looking back at the tree now though, as they were either staring straight ahead towards their next destination, or off the sides at the landscape below them.

"You guys really did some work down there," Black Canary said. She whistled in an impressed way and more of the others looked down as well. There were long trenches through the Scorched landscape that Natsu and Ben smirked about wondering if it was one of their Dragon Slayer Roars or Kamehamehas that dug each trench through the ground.

As they were getting farther north, Dash spotted something up ahead of them and his eyes widened. "Uh oh," he said. The others followed his gaze to the front of the bison and down towards the land where a camp was set up. There were buildings in it, a few of them billowing black smoke like the Fire Nation's camp earlier that week. "They're back so soon!"

"Don't worry," Nagisa said in a calm voice.

The others looked back at him like he was crazy, but the teen was still sitting down, not looking like he cared. He smiled at the group in front of him and said, "Look for the Fire Nation emblem."

They looked back towards the camp and at some buildings, and even some of the soldiers as they were almost above it now. "Wait a second," Kirito muttered. He turned his head to the woman on his right, "Those are Resistance fighters?"

"I told you," Black Canary began. "You guys really gave us some hope. Hiei's preparing a counterattack, and more higher-level troops are being called to Pon-Gatso from the top as they think they may actually be able to hold it."

"From the top?" Gray mumbled in surprise. "Good. I didn't think we would get this much attention before taking down a High Lord, but the better known we are the easier it will be for us to succeed with our goal."

"But why are they setting up camp up here?" Dash wondered. The kid looked back at the older woman who smiled at him and walked over to his side to point down at the camp they were passing over. She explained how they would rather the fight not be on their own doorstep, especially if evacuating Pon was no longer absolutely necessary and some civilians might consider staying there.

Dash nodded his head in agreement and after watching them pass over the front of the Resistance camp he went to sit back down with Ben. Dinah stayed at the edge of the flying bison's saddle though, and her smile faded as she saw she was standing only with Gray, Natsu, and Kirito now. "The Fire Nation will retaliate." Her voice was quiet and the three men at her sides did not turn, knowing she was keeping quiet so only they would hear. "This entire region is going to turn into a bloody warzone fast. If other elite soldiers like Hiei arrive up here, the Co-op will send down soldiers to match them. No civs are going to be left in Pon-Gatso. They're _all_ evacuating."

The other three realized that what she said to Dash was solely to make the twelve year old feel better. They grimaced and looked to the north again, wondering just how much time their friends back at the big tree had left to run. "They won't be able to send any troops down here though," Natsu said, his voice loud and assured. The others looked ahead at him and the ones on his sides looked in. "Because we're going past the Fire Nation, and all the way north to crush the damn King ourselves!"

Dash and Ben grinned, and Kairi giggled to herself. They all ignored that mental image of the King in their minds and reminded themselves that they would be stronger by the time they faced him again. Juvia gave Natsu a small smile, and even Kirito grinned a little, but neither Dinah nor Gray said anything or looked excited by that in the least. It was the blue haired teen sitting behind Natsu who spoke up first. "That would be impossible," Nagisa said calmly.

"Hey, you wouldn't know until-" Natsu began.

"How fast can you move?" Nagisa questioned. The question caught Natsu off guard, so the teen stood up and took a step towards the mage, putting him even more off guard as he was not expecting this sudden movement. Nagisa now stood a couple of feet in front of him and the teen with creepy eyes looked into Natsu's, "Let me repeat, how fast are you?"

"Pretty damn fast," Natsu replied with a growl. "Besides, Dash is faster than anyone," he added. Dash grinned at the praise and bragged about stealing Ben's left shoe that he then held up in the air and made Ben realize his shoe was missing. The two of them wrestled over the shoe and Natsu grinned at the teen who looked semi-impressed at the boy's speed.

"So he may be able to run, but the rest of you," Nagisa said, looking straight into Natsu's eyes, "will die if you try to fight the King."

"You don't know-"

"The last time I faced the King," Nagisa began, shutting Natsu up immediately and making everyone else lose whatever expressions they had to turn to Nagisa in shock. The teen assassin continued, "It was the Third War of the Gods. The teacher of Class 3-E, Korosensei, he was the strongest person I have ever known. He could regenerate, it seemed like he was invulnerable to almost every type of weapon, and he could move at speeds up to Mach 20, that is twenty times the speed of sound." The others stayed quiet and Nagisa looked deeper into Natsu's eyes, "The King killed him, and devoured his brains, absorbing his power. Meruem could already move faster than Mach 20 half a year ago, and he is a constantly evolving being. Can you imagine how strong he is now?"

Natsu ground his teeth and clenched his fists at his sides. Nagisa shook his head, "Do not joke about taking on the King. Very little in this world can kill him now, and it would be wise to stay away from him at all costs." The assassin turned and walked back towards his seat, _I will not let you throw your lives away, but for Korosensei, I will risk everything._

* * *

 **Sin City**

"That, that's not good, is it?" Dash whispered. The little boy crouching down behind the tail of a five ton flying bison poked his head up over the bison's tail and into the distance over the city beyond. It was early morning and they finally reached their destination, but the city directly to the north of Pon Gatso looked on the brink of war. The sky above the city was packed- dozens, hundreds even, of zeppelins floating there, still in the morning light.

Each one of the long blimps had the same symbols on the sides of it. The Fire Nation emblem. "This is…" Black Canary began. She shook her head a few times and looked around at the group with her hesitantly. "We need to go back," she said after a few moments' deliberation. They all spun to her in surprise, and the blonde haired woman continued, "This is not just a force to reinforce their southern border, or to regain lost ground. They plan on pushing-"

"We're not going back," Gray said. Dinah turned and the mage looked her right back in the eyes. He thought about telling her how they have been on the defensive for too long, or how going to the Fire Nation's capital and taking down the Fire Lord might actually stop an invasion from coming. He discarded these thoughts though, and he said what he thought would actually work the best. "We have our orders."

Dinah's eyes widened and her fists clenched in her black gloves. Gray reached a hand out and put it on Dinah's right shoulder, snapping the woman's attention back to him from the floor. "But you're right, this is big." She became confused as did the others, and he continued to explain himself, "Go. Take the flying bison. They need proper warning about that fleet. Warn them quick, and hopefully you can prepare a defensive for Pon Gatso."

"But, what about all of-" Canary began.

"We're losing our ride?" Natsu groaned.

"It's fine," Gray told his pink haired friend. "We never would have made it over the Cataclysm on it anyway." He gave the furry creature a few pets himself and then looked back into Dinah Drake's eyes. "Listen to me. This is our mission. I don't know why you decided to come along, but I can see you already want to head back. So do it Dinah. Go warn the others. We can handle this."

"Damn right we can," Ben said and lifted his right fist.

Kairi frowned at the boy behind her and he leaned back a little in surprise. "No cursing Ben," she scolded. Dash tried putting his face in his hands but he could not stop himself from snickering. That stopped though as Kairi turned to him and added, "That goes double for you Dashiell."

Dash dropped his jaw and Ben turned to his friend confusedly. Dash's face was starting to go red and Ben's eyes opened wide. "Wait, Dash isn't your real-"

"What matters," Gray continued in a loud, but hushed voice considering the increased presence of Fire Nation soldiers in the city not far from them. "Is that our comrades know what is coming. We don't all need to go back to give that warning."

Dinah looked Gray in the eyes and she could see he was serious about not giving up the mission this easily. She glanced at Nagisa to see if the blue haired boy would consider going back in her stead, but the teen shook his head and turned back to the north. Dinah finally sighed and she nodded her head a few times. "You're right. I'll head out right away. We have no idea when they'll be moving on us."

The others agreed and they all got to work on unloading the saddle. They gathered up their supplies while Gray and Nagisa went over the plan again with the others to make sure they all knew what they were doing. They would all need identifications upon entering the city, and none of them had any at the moment. None of them, except for the two Resistance boys who had their own fakes ready for them back at Pon Gatso. They said they would have made fakes for the others too, but it was better if the ones who had never had ones before could just get real ones now and they would make fakes later if they tarnished their reputations in too many Co-op cities like Gray and Nagisa apparently had.

When they were almost done preparing, Natsu hopped off the flying bison with a couple of packs in his hands. He turned and saw Black Canary standing there, looking right at him with a serious expression on her face. He looked around to see if anyone else saw this, but Gray was still busy explaining to the others and he did not see that weird blue haired teen around so he was probably on the other side of the fat bison. "Natsu," Dinah began, her voice barely a whisper. She stepped towards him and he inched his head back, but she then leaned her head in so her face was close to his.

He felt uncomfortable and was about to say it, when Dinah started whispering into his right ear. His eyes turned to saucers and darted to his side where Gray and the others were, and his heart sped up faster than it had the entire time he fought the Fire Nation earlier that week. "The reason I came on this mission was to watch your friend Juvia. The way her boyfriend brought her back was taboo. Hiei knew of this and told me. Bringing someone back with the Lazarus Pit burdens their soul with a bloodlust that grows stronger every day. She will start to thirst for blood, and then she will start to kill, and she will never stop. When the time comes that she can no longer distinguish between friend and foe, you will have to be the one to kill her. At that time, do not blame yourself. You will only be saving her from becoming even more of a monster."

Dinah stepped past Natsu and she climbed up the bison. She grabbed the remaining pack on it and tossed it down without caring if anyone caught it. Gray looked at her wondering why she did that and she gave him a half smile, "Got to get back, right?" She picked up the reins as the younger man nodded at her in understanding.

Black Canary looked down at Juvia while everyone else was looking her way, then she turned back to face Natsu. The pink haired mage still had not said anything, but he looked over and saw Juvia standing next to Gray, appearing completely normal. As he looked over though, he noticed that Dinah was not the only one stealing nervous glances at her, as Nagisa and Kirito both saw Dinah's look and followed it to the Rain Woman. Natsu snapped his head back to Dinah and his mind was racing. She cracked the reins but Natsu was not letting this go, "Why me?!" he shouted. His friends all looked at him confused, no idea what he and the woman in black leather were just discussing. "Why would I- I wouldn't!"

"You would," Canary replied. Her bison kicked its legs and smacked its tail and it lifted off the ground. "You'll have to," she said, her voice fading at the end as she got carried away.

* * *

"I keep telling you, it was nothing," Natsu muttered to the blond and brown haired boys on either side of him.

"It wasn't nothing," Ben said, certain of that much at least. "If she said it had to be a secret, you could just tell us that and we'll leave you alone," he told his older friend.

"Well then, it's a secret," Natsu replied.

"Doesn't sound like she said that," Dash said, scratching his chin mock-thoughtfully. "It sounds like you're just using that as an excuse to-"

"I'm done with this conversation," Natsu picked up his pace to get away from the boys who frowned at his secret-keeping back. He walked towards Gray and Juvia and tried to ignore what that older woman told him as he stepped right next to his female friend. "Where's the entrance?" Natsu questioned, looking straight ahead at the city.

The other two mages looked in at him. Both also wanted to know what Dinah told him before she left, but he was acting really weird about it so they left it alone for now. "Over there," Gray pointed towards an entrance gate to their left a little and still about a mile ahead. Sin City did not have very high walls, or very well-kept ones. There were people scattered around on the hills to the south of the city, and a few sparsely dotted monsters too, but the people around the outside of the city were all able to handle them easily.

"Looks like a rough crowd," Ben said as he looked to his left and spotted a few people standing behind a hill they just walked around. It looked like some sort of deal was going down, and the four creatures there all looked humanoid, but far from human. Two had faces of insects, one was more of a red blob, and another was a two foot tall creature that had the most human-like face, and using that face it glared over at Ben and then slammed the black crate it had open closed. The other three followed his gaze back to Ben and they all glared at the boy who turned away fast, realizing that whatever they were doing, it was a private affair.

Gray noticed the group with him getting subconsciously closer together, and he spoke in a normal voice that all eight of them could hear. "Sin City may be under Cooperative control, but the rules in the city are simple. There are no rules." As Natsu started to smirk, Gray continued so none of them would get the wrong idea, "That does not mean you can do whatever you want without consequences. Gangs get protection money from businesses and homes. Any damage to any building in this city would likely put a target on your back. Mob bosses, hitmen, bounty hunters, and monster slayers all gather here. It's the biggest gathering place for scum in all of southern Aebrith. Hence the name," he finished with a scoff.

"Why are we even going in then?" Kirito questioned the man on his right. He looked at Gray and his eyes lingered on Gray's left side for a second before lifting to the man's eyes. He was glad Gray only looked his way after his eyes had risen from the man's empty shoulder, but as Gray answered him his own face grew angered and Gray looked away to finish responding.

"There are only a few trains that cross over the Cataclysm line. Train systems are used all over the Cooperative, but southern holdings used to be- there didn't used to be so many of them." He shook his head to get the bad thoughts out and continued with a more positive grin, "Anyway, Sin City is the farthest city west with a train that crosses that great canyon."

"The Cataclysm?" Kairi asked, wondering if that was what he was referring to. He nodded and she smiled brightly, "I can't wait to see it."

Gray sighed and muttered, "Over a hundred miles wide, and thousands long." The others looked impressed by the stats, but became confused as he finished softly, "I remember the day it was made."

"The day," Kirito began.

"It was made?" Ben questioned.

Gray nodded and the top half of his face shadowed over. "The day, of the Cataclysm."

 **FD + 11**

Gray stumbled backwards and he fell down on his butt. He was staring to the north in so much shock that he could not make out words. He could barely even breathe.

"We need to move," Zabuza shouted over the rumbling of the earth around them. He looked down at Gray and shouted, "Get up!"

Gray shook his head and scrambled to his feet fast. He turned and started running the other way, but in the left corner of his eye he saw a flash of light that made him freeze in place. He stopped and turned, and watched as the flash of white went away, and in its place was a mushroom cloud that painted the sky red around it. The force from the explosion shook the ground and only then did he hear the deafening boom from a hundred miles away.

Gray turned to start running again, but when he looked left he saw someone behind him that made his heart start racing. "Zoro!" Gray spun and shouted back to the man who was staring towards the even scarier sight than the mushroom cloud. "Let's get out of here!"

Zoro's right hand was clenched tightly around the white hilt at his right side. The three blades there were shaking, and he could feel that they wanted to enter the battle as much as he did. "Are you insane?!" Zabuza roared at him. Zoro glared back but the Demon of the Hidden Mist looked, afraid, and that glare lessened as he had not seen such a look on the ninja's face before. "Those are Gods fighting over there! The entire planet shakes with every attack! What the Hell do you plan to do?!"

"You're just going to get yourself killed," Gray yelled. He turned and started running the other way, "Come on! There's nothing we can do against forces of nature!" Right as he finished shouting, the ground stopped shaking altogether. Zabuza and Gray froze in place and even Zoro's hair stuck up on end. Their warning sensors went off and the three of them did not want to look back towards the north.

Zoro lifted his head though and his jaw dropped, his face turned blue, and sweat covered his body. His right foot lifted up and inched backwards, and then his left, and Gray and Zabuza standing side by side saw Zoro step backwards in between them. The look on his face made the other two even more determined not to turn around, but they could not help themselves. Gray started to turn, and while he turned he could see blurs of gold and white flying in every direction above him, as long as the direction was far, far away from the sight to the north. Gray turned fully around and looked up in the glowing sky. His heart skipped a beat and his legs turned into jello, losing all ability to hold him up and making him collapse down to the ground.

 **Present**

As Gray mentioned the day of the Cataclysm, his face paled and he gulped thinking about it. Nagisa looked back at the older man and he opened his eyes in somewhat surprise. "You were there that day? I arrived on the northern continent on the First Day, too far to see anything. The rumors-"

"Don't do it justice," Gray muttered with a small shake of his head.

"Hmm," Nagisa shook his head and hummed. "I can imagine. I had to cross the Cataclysm on foot, twice," the boy scratched the back of his head. "I can't imagine what could have created that."

"Guys, we're getting close to the gate," Kirito warned, wanting the two Resistance members to get quiet.

Gray looked at Kirito again and muttered, "Sin City does not actually care whether the I.D.'s they check are of known Resistance supporters. They-"

"Whether or not this city itself does, does not matter right now," Kirito said without pause. Gray looked at him confused and Kirito nodded up at the sky where the others looked back up to. "I doubt that fleet of Zeppelins is the only Fire Nation force in the city right now, especially considering they are not moving. There's most likely an entire army in this city. We need to stay quiet."

"Good thinking," Nagisa told Kirito. "In fact," Nagisa continued, and he turned his attention to one of the taller skyscrapers in the city. The edges of the city were surrounded in gates, low walls, and fences. Right inside the edges were warehouses, streets covered in small, ratty apartments, and lines of shops that each looked like the shopkeeper would more likely rob them than sell them something. Towards the center of the city though, there were many huge skyscrapers, flashing lights, beautiful sights that did not match the outer area at all. Nagisa kept going, "The Fire Nation leaders in charge of the attack on Pon-Gatso are probably at one of the mobsters' hotels right now. Nicest buildings in the city, best security," the boy was smirking and as they neared fifty feet from the gate they were going to enter from, and he finished, "I'm going to try and go kill them."

The other seven walking with Nagisa looked at him surprisedly. Gray turned to the boy who slowed down so that they were side by side. "Are you sure? What about Pyraxas? What about the King?"

"Like Black Canary said," Nagisa started. "We owe it to our comrades to help out. Taking out the leaders of whatever advance is being planned is the best way to stall it, maybe even stop it altogether."

"You want us to help you?" Kairi questioned the boy.

He shook his head no though. "It's an assassination. Others would only get me caught." They were about to walk through the gate and Nagisa turned back to Gray, "Alright John, get on the next train north. Don't wait. Don't spend time in Sin City. Get to the station, and leave. If I am not there by the next train, go without me. I've either been caught, or I'll catch the next one and try to catch up with you guys."

Gray opened his mouth to respond, but they were in the gateway now. Nagisa stepped into the gate, then immediately darted right and behind a small shack on the inside of the wall. The others snapped their heads to follow him but it was dark behind the shack, and they lost sight of him in under a second.

"Wait," Natsu reached out a hand. "Damn it," he clenched it into a fist and stepped towards the shack, "I'm going after him."

"Natsu's right. He's going to get killed," Ben said worriedly.

Kirito shook his head, "It's no use." The others looked back at him, "We would never find him. I can't even sense him with my Haki."

"We have to trust him," Gray said, turning back forward and picking up his pace. He sped up into the city and added, "We need to get to that train. If something happens, transportation is going to be cut off."

"If something happens?" Dash whispered. He sped up a little and looked up at the older man, "What do you think's going to happen Gray?"

Gray glared down at him. He stopped and darted his gaze back and forth. He looked down at the boy and put his right hand on Dash's right shoulder. "What did we talk about?" He squeezed the kid's shoulder tightly and Dash realized his mistake. Gray whispered harshly, "John Smith. We're family. Going to Pyraxas to do what?"

"Catch a connecting train to Shelbyville," Dash whispered his rehearsed response, embarrassed by his mistake so soon after entering the city.

Gray let go of the kid's shoulder and looked around at the others, a few of whom were looking at him skeptically as if he was overreacting. "We are already inside," he whispered in a harsh tone to his friends. "Kirito's right, look around." The others glanced around and Natsu saw two men standing in front of a shop, both of them with the same black rifles on their backs, and the same red sweatpants and black shirts, almost like casual uniforms. Gray continued in that harsh whisper, "We're already surrounded. No more mistakes from here on."

He turned after that and kept walking, muttering loudly under his breath, "I didn't give you allowance to throw it away on the cheap thrift shops on the inside of the gate. Wait until we're downtown."

Three men sitting on the side of the road were throwing dice on the ground and slamming money down, shouting loudly. One of the men just threw down the rest of his money only to roll the wrong number and the pile was taken from him. He was fuming and his hands were shaking in rage, when he looked up. The group following behind Gray consisted of two children, two teenagers, and two who were barely out of their teens. Natsu was the most muscular of them, but still, not one of the group had weapons except for that teen with sword hilts sticking up over his back.

The teen with swords was also the first to notice this man motion to his buddies and all three of them stand up right as their group walked past. Kirito started raising his right hand for his swords, but the man behind him pulled his gun out first. He spun around and the man behind him fired. _Lawless really means-_ Kirito stopped thinking as he realized the shot went straight up in the air.

The man who fired at him was falling backwards and his shooting arm was still lifting up in the air. Blood splashed out of the hole above his elbow, and the guy's friends lowered their own hands from their weapons. One of them even looked down at his "friend" and started laughing, before walking away from the screaming man, while the man with the ice sword in his hand lowered it down and glared at the other to see what he would do. The other man had an eyepatch and two golden replacements instead of front teeth. He glared back into Gray's eyes for a second, glanced at the younger man's left side where he was missing an arm, guessing his odds. He stopped though and backed up as another man stepped up next to Gray, his right hand touching the blue hilt of the sword sticking over his right shoulder.

Kirito and Gray glared at the man, and finally he turned and walked away from his still-screaming gambling buddy. Gray dropped his ice blade, turned, and jogged back up in front of the group he was originally leading. Ben and Dash found themselves staring over at the screaming man until Kairi put hands on their shoulders and pulled them along as Gray did not slow down after jogging back to where he was before. "I saw that bastard getting ready a mile away," Gray muttered under his breath before his friends could ask any questions. "But if we had just avoided him, the other vultures aiming to rob newcomers would have bore down on us."

Only at that moment did Natsu notice the three men sitting on the roof of a building across the street on the left and down three buildings. Two of them had rifles in their hands, and he noticed the unarmed one in the middle had a hand on the top of one of the men's rifles, as if holding the gun down to keep them from confrontation. "If these bastards all want to fight, then I'll give them one." Natsu's fists burst into flames and he glared right at those three men on the roof. The three of them got up, but they did not engage him in a fight. Instead, they turned and bailed as fast as they could.

Two people did head their way though as Natsu's fists covered in flames. "You," someone shouted, and Natsu spun with an aggravated look on his face. His look faded a little and he hesitated, not knowing what to do as the two men in casual Fire Nation uniforms approached him. Their red sweats and black muscle shirts that had Fire Nation emblems on the right side of their chests made them look like they were not ready for a fight, but they did have assault rifles on their backs. The two men had long black hair, though one of them had his hair in a bun and the other's was in a ponytail, and the one with a bun also had a scruffy goatee. The one with the goatee walked closer to Natsu and he looked the young man up and down, "Fire powers huh? Ever consider joining the Fire Nation?"

Kirito sweatdropped. _Is he being recruited right now?_ He saw Gray tense up and for a second thought this was bad, until he had a different realization. _If this was any other Resistance fighter, he would say yes. Get into the organization, destroy it from the inside. It would be smart… if we weren't already going to destroy it with a head-on assault._

"Get lost," Natsu growled at the man.

"What was that?" the younger of the two men, the one with a ponytail, growled back at Natsu. He reached for his gun, but the bearded man stopped him with a lift of his open left palm.

"This is Sin City son," the man said. The others were surprised these men were father and son, and the father continued, "Strength is respected here above all. You will watch your own mouth when speaking to superior fighters." The older soldier bowed his head a little in apology, then turned and started walking away. His son snarled at Natsu for another second and then turned and followed the older man off.

"Well that, was weird," Natsu mumbled after a few seconds.

"Were you born an idiot, or did Igneel drop you on your head when you were a baby?" Gray asked the idiotic Dragon Slayer in front of him. Natsu spun angrily to him and Gray added, "Actually, don't answer that. We're wasting time," he turned and broke into a fast jog. "Let's get to the train. We don't want to miss it. There's no telling what Phil is doing right now." A few of others were confused for a second, until they remembered that Nagisa's fake name was Phil and that he was about to assassinate some high ranking Fire Nation official in the city.

They started running after Gray, and Natsu sped up so he was on Gray's side. "Do you even know where you're going? Where is this train station? What if we go past it?"

"How could we go past it?" Gray muttered in disbelief. "Past the train station is a canyon that stretches for a hundred miles. Really, how could we-"

"No need to be such an ass," Natsu growled at him. Gray turned in surprise and Natsu was staring straight forward, "Remember who we're traveling with Gray." He did not call the other man John, but Gray could tell that was on purpose that time. "Next time you decide to do something like intimidate some people, do it without chopping off a guy's arm in front of Dash and Ben."

The two of them were in front of the others by a little so they could not hear him, and Gray glanced back to see both kids with unsettled expressions on their faces. "They aren't soldiers," Natsu whispered and Gray turned back forward. "At least make some effort not to turn them into ones."

"Before this is over," Gray whispered, his voice deep and harsh. "They may have to-"

"They don't have to do anything," Natsu growled. Gray spun his head to see Natsu was dead serious as he spoke. "Don't put Ben, or Dash, in pain. I won't forgive you for that."

After a couple seconds Gray nodded his head. "Alright. You know that means you will have to take up their shares of the burden?" Gray said, and Natsu nodded his head, already planning on it. "It's a long road to the Capital," Gray stated. "Be prepared for anything."

Natsu nodded and was going to respond but Gray sped up and spoke louder to their friends. "Over here. Let's get you guys I.D.'s."

They all followed where Gray was turning to and spotted what looked like a train station up ahead. There was a small building before the stairs up to the platform that Gray was walking towards. The other six looked at each other and then followed him up to the window at the front of the booth where it looked like they were supposed to buy tickets.

"You don't have I.D.'s?" The teller was asking Gray ask the others showed up.

Gray slid his identification on the counter and continued, "These six don't. I have mine, but they arrived here from far away-"

"I don't need to hear your excuses," the ticket seller said in a bored tone. The old woman took Gray's I.D., looked at it closely, then handed it back with a chuckle. "That's a nice fake John Smith. It looks just like a real I.D."

"That's because it is," Gray said and narrowed his eyes at her.

"Yeah yeah, whatever," she said. She walked to the side so that she was behind the wall next to the window, then the group heard a jingling around the side of the building. They walked over and a door opened up for them. "Come on in. I'll take your pictures and get you out of here within the hour."

"When's the next train?" Gray asked as he walked into the building in front of his friends.

The woman looked down at her watch, then up at a board behind her. "Fifteen minutes."

"That's great," Natsu said smugly. "That gives us some time to check out the city-"

"Get our I.D.'s done in ten," Gray said, and he pulled out a wad of cash tied in a roll with a rubber band. Thanks to Hiei's priority one designation for their mission, Gray had a large amount of spending cash to use for their trip. The woman's eyes widened and Gray tossed her the wad of bills without another word.

She took off the rubber band and flipped through it while Natsu looked at his friend in annoyance. "Aw, I wanted to check out this city some more," Ben complained from behind them.

"Like I said," Gray started in a low voice. "We need to get out on the first train."

The way he said it had the ticket seller lady stop counting her money. She lifted her gaze and saw Gray looking straight into her purple eyes. She nodded her head and pointed at a back wall that was painted green. "Go over there one by one and I'll take your pictures. If you don't have time for power rankings, just let me know what color-"

"Make everyone green except for him," Gray said and motioned at Natsu. "Have his I.D. marked orange."

"Orange?" the older woman asked in surprise. "Seriously, or-"

"No questions," Gray said, and the woman looked down at the money in her hand and shrugged. She slid the cash in her pocket and motioned for the first person to walk in front of the blank wall to get their picture taken.

Kairi, Kirito, Juvia, and Natsu all went quickly. As Ben went up, Dash asked the purple-eyed woman, "Do we really need I.D.'s too? I mean, I'm twelve."

Gray shot the boy an annoyed look, but the older woman looked down at him and smiled. "Age don't matter here honey. Do what you want, where you want, when you want. It's the Sin City way. So just 'cause you look young, don't mean people won't be checking your I.D."

She took a picture of Ben and then of Dash when he walked up in front of the wall. After she was finished, she turned to her computer and plugged the camera in. Pictures started appearing and there were blank spaces next to them for her to fill in. She started asking each of their names as the pictures appeared, affiliations to which they all responded with 'None,' and a couple of others like age and species before filling in their power rankings herself. As she was writing Juvia's name down, she asked a new question other than the usual ones she had been asking everyone. "So, should I get out of this city after you board the train?"

No one spoke, and she turned her head to look at Gray who was frowning deeply at the woman and not looking as nervous as the others around him. _I should quiet her. Knock her out long enough for Nagisa to… unless, maybe she won't tell the Fire Nation. No, can't take that risk-_

"You'll be fine," Kairi told the woman in front of them. The older lady turned towards her and Kairi leaned in a little, to whisper, "Might be a few explosions downtown, but nothing you need to worry about."

Gray gawked at Kairi and was about to yell at her when the old woman sighed in relief. "That's fine," she said. "Running away just because of a few explosions?" She questioned and laughed at them as she finished up Juvia's I.D. "Guess this is your first time in Sin City huh?"

Ben and Dash grinned and started laughing. "Yeah, you got us," Ben admitted.

"We'd rather not be here when the explosions go off," Kirito added with a shrug.

"What was your name again sweetie?" the woman asked the blond boy behind her. Gray stared at the others in confusion and then awe as they started chatting it up with this woman who did not seem to care at all about them. They _were_ in Sin City after all, but he thought she may have been a little more nervous. If anything, she actually lightened up once the others started talking with her.

 _Sin City- no. All of Aebrith is too dark. I came in here thinking I may need to hurt an old woman just to keep her quiet, but that's just adding more darkness on an already bleak world. We need more light in it._ His lips started to curl up as he saw everyone asking the woman about her job now and what kinds of crazy things happen in Sin City on a daily basis. As he watched though, he spotted something that formed a pit deep in his heart.

Juvia stood away from her friends, fists clenched at her sides as she stared at the old woman. "Gray-sama," she began in a low whisper. Only he heard her and without turning his way, she whispered, "Should we take care of this woman so she does not alert the authorities?"

Gray turned to the blue haired girl and he shook his head no. She looked at him confused, and became even more so at the scared look Gray was giving her. "Gray-sama, what is wrong?" She asked.

"Nothing," Gray replied and turned away fast. "Let's just get on the train," he said. Right as he said it, they heard the loud rattling of the tracks near them and the toot of a train's engine coming towards them. The others all looked at the back wall and Gray spun to the older woman in the booth. "Are they-" he stopped as the woman lifted up a half dozen I.D.'s in her hand. She smirked but Gray just ran over and snatched the identifications fast. "Everyone to the train," Gray said in a hurry, not wanting to miss it.

The others saw how rushed he was and all ran out of the booth, some of them saying goodbye to the nice woman they met first. Gray waited for them all to go, nodded at the woman himself, then turned to the door to head after his friends. As he started turning though, the woman closed the window on her computer showing the I.D. process on it. Behind the window was a different one that the woman went back to looking at, a window that had Gray's eyes turning huge. They popped open because the window was a picture with the word 'WANTED' at the top of it, a very large price tag at the bottom, and the face of Monkey D. Luffy in the middle of it.

 _You have to be kidding me,_ Gray thought, then watched as the woman scrolled down a little on the picture and he read what was beneath it. _Luffy took down the Lord of the Dread Fort? What the- Why would-_ the mage shook his head and then heard his name get shouted from outside the booth and up a little. He remembered the train was already there and turned, sprinting out of the booth and then leaping up instead of taking the stairs, jumping onto the platform where Natsu was standing in the doorway of the train to keep it open and the others were all waiting just inside.

"What took you so long?" Natsu asked in annoyance.

"Nothing," Gray muttered, walking towards the door and shaking his head again. "I'll tell you on the train," he said as Natsu was still looking at him oddly. The other Fairy Tail mage shrugged as Gray walked by him and he followed after to look for an empty booth for them and their friends. The door closed behind them and some woman's voice came over the speakers telling them about their destination and the route to it. The train clanked a few times, then started up and started moving again although those inside it could barely feel the movement beneath them.

A couple of miles away, a blue haired teenager standing on the inside of the sixty-forth floor of a fancy hotel watched as the train pulled out of the station. It drove east for a quarter of a mile before curving and leaving this side of the continent. It turned onto a wide bridge with several tracks on it and went right past a train heading south that continued to go straight past the city before curving more east itself. He watched the northbound train get a full mile away from Sin City, then turned around in the dark room he was in. Nagisa reached down to his side and pulled out the curved dagger at his waist, sliding it slowly out of his sheath and then twirling it in front of his body. He held it sideways across the front of his chest, a silver blade with a red highlight on the back of it and two separate barbs on the sharp side. _Good luck you guys,_ Nagisa thought.

The boy opened up the door in front of him with his left hand, making it creak open. Nagisa took one step forward- **BANG!**

* * *

 **The Cataclysm**

"The other side looks so far away," Usopp moaned sadly as he climbed up a rock face in front of him. He reached one hand up over the other and hoisted himself higher on the pillar. He leaned left and looked around the side of the pillar again. The giant canyon they were in stretched so far in front of him that the opposite wall was a blur of brown in the distance. "How much further?" He groaned as he lifted another arm and hoisted himself up further.

"Ah you're almost here," Rin called down to the older man who had not yet made it to the top.

Usopp grumbled to himself but after a few more seconds finally made it to the top of the rock pillar. The sharpshooter took a few deep breaths as he stood at the top with the others. He turned right and looked up at the much taller rock pillars to his side. The others with him looked that way as well as they heard rumbling.

"What is that?" Sanji mumbled. He had a cigarette in his mouth and he looked higher up the rocks. The pillars were separated, but mainly in a straight line towards the other side of the Cataclysm. Sanji followed the pillars across the giant canyon with his eyes. _There are train tracks across the pillars. Somehow the pillars are set up to make a straight line. Did they just knock down all the others on purpose? No, no it's probably more like Toph's ability._

"Is that, what I think it is?" Nami wondered aloud.

 **TOOO- TOOOOOT!**

They all watched as a train as fast as the one they took east shot over the edge of the cliff behind them. This one was heading north, same direction as them, only it did not have as many natural barriers slowing it down. The bullet train flew by them a few hundred meters overhead and to their right. "I still say we should have taken the train," Nami groaned.

"Oh come on Nami," Killua said. The boy standing furthest forward on the rock glanced back at her. "We've barely checked the place out yet. Let's give it a shot." While still facing Nami he took a step forward and dropped from the cliff. Nami's eyes opened wide for a second before she reminded herself that the kid would be fine.

"Yeah, let's go!" Luffy shouted. He hopped off the other ledge and skid down the slope. Franky, Robin, Usopp, and Sanji dropped off behind him. Riku walked forward next. He stepped off the ledge casually and grinned back at Nami who looked nervous to step onto the steep slope. It was not as straight up as the opposite side they just climbed, but she still thought she had a good chance of falling if she stepped down. "Too scared?" Riku asked with a smirk as he slid away.

Nami lowered her bottom lip and she stormed forward angrily. She was going to punch him on top of the head but he slid away from her reach before she could. She almost gave chase but she stopped with her feet on the edge again. Nami looked down and watched her friends skidding and then dropping the last twenty feet to the rocky ground below the bottom of the slant. Nami gulped but she saw Riku smirk up at her again and she calmed herself down.

She got ready to step forward too when she saw the only other person still up there with her tense up. His body shook and he turned right, gazing to the east with a look of dread on his face. Nami started to get nervous at his appearance and she whispered, "Rin? Is everything-"

"No," Rin said, his voice dark all of a sudden. Nami did not like the sudden look on his face and when he turned back straight ahead he looked serious. "Let's get moving," Rin said. He jumped forward, not sliding at all, he just flew fifty feet forward and landed at the front of the group already down below.

Nami slid down behind them calling for them to wait up. Sanji and Usopp stopped to wait for her while the others jogged after Rin not wanting to let him get too far ahead. "You see Rin's face?" Riku said and the two pirate men behind him looked forward to see Riku had stopped walking too. The teen was facing east and he frowned at the feeling he was getting. The pirates asked him what was up but Riku turned ahead to Rin instead. _There is some deep darkness in that direction, and he can feel it. I just hope they can't feel us._

* * *

 **Forty Minutes Later**

"So you know when I said we should give this place a shot?" Killua called out. His was spinning around three hundred sixty degrees and looking at every angle around him. There were stone pillars blocking off his sight on every side and taller ones just a little farther on the corners. He was back-to-back with Franky's legs and he called out, "Scratch that! I want to be on the train now."

Everything around them was dark, but the suns shouldn't have set for at least another hour. The walls on either side of the Catalysm were not visible because of the same darkness blocking off the sky. That darkness was moving, clouds of black swirling around the air and zipping about as if they had minds of their own. The insides of the black smoke clouds sparked with electricity and they all made loud noises like trains clanking down their tracks while a few of them even screamed.

"What are these things?" Nami shouted.

"Things?" A voice asked on Nami's left, a voice she did not recognize. She turned and watched as the smoke dispersed leaving a black man inside with short dark hair and a set of nice clothes on. He looked respectable, but as he stared at Nami she felt chills down her spine. "You know, that isn't very nice." His eyes closed and when he blinked them back open they were pitch black. Just orbs of black where his eyes should be.

More of the black clouds flying around came to stops around the group. They separated and people got out of them on top of rock pillars or just standing below with the group. "You kids have stepped in some shit this time," a woman began as she walked forward. She had short blonde hair down just above her shoulders, and a smug look on her face that did not match the frowns and _hungry_ looks of her comrades.

"Who are you?" Killua asked the woman.

She turned to the kid and her eyes opened wide. His irises were thin slits and he had a purple aura around him. The aura seemed to get even more intense as she stared into his eyes and she could see a gigantic snake around him. The others who came out of black smoke clouds all looked at the kid too, and then the woman up front started laughing. Killua flinched and the woman laughed even harder. "Well _kid_ , my name is Meg, and these are my friends." She motioned around at her comrades.

"What do you wa-" Luffy began, but he got cut off by the black man on his left.

"To eat." He said. The guy smirked and the others did as well. "Most people know to stay out of Lilith's territory, but I guess some people like to be demon food."

Another man on the other side of the circle smacked his lips together loudly. "Which one of them should we bring back for her?" The spiky haired ginger questioned

"You aren't taking us anywhere," Luffy growled. He turned and punched a fist at the ginger. The light-skinned man was confused at first since Luffy was not close to him, but Luffy's fist extended and slammed into his face. The guy went flying back where he slammed into a rock pillar and the thing shook so hard it collapsed.

Meg spun that way and her eyes turned huge. "Alright, I'll admit, was not expecting that," she said. She turned back to the group in front of her and kept smirking, "But it doesn't matter how strong you are." Walking out of the dust and rubble was the man Luffy just punched away, looking perfectly fine. "We're demons," Meg said, emphasizing the word 'demons.' "You can't just-"

"Omnus potentus spiritus!"

The demons screamed. The humans looked towards the middle of their group where one black haired teen was stepping forward. "Omnus destatem crucifux! Sanctus sortium omnipitus!"

"Ahh! Stop! Stop it!" Meg grabbed the sides of her head and screamed as did the other enemies around them. One of them sprinted forward with a horrified expression on her pained face. Luffy slammed a fist into her though and knocked her back away into the other demons shouting at Rin to stop.

Rin just got louder though, so he was screaming now and his voice echoed around the area. "Spiritus Sanctus!" He rose up his right hand towards the demoness in front of him. "As a member of the True Cross Order, I exorcise thee! The power of Christ compels you!"

"AHHHHH!" Meg screamed. She tilted her head back and out from her mouth shot the cloud of black smoke. All of the demons started to lose their bodies as their souls were ripped out of them.

The group looked around once their enemies were all down. "What, just happened?" Sanji muttered.

"That was Super!" Franky shouted. Rin turned to the cyborg next to him and Franky went on about being super impressed.

"How'd you even know how to do that?" Usopp asked the younger teen. "And what's that Order thing?"

"The school I went to taught future exorcists," Rin explained. "I didn't usually do the reciting lines stuff, but..."

"Yeah wait a second," Nami was still freaked out but she just realized something. "On the ship, when that demon possessed Ben you used those blue flames to get it out of him."

Rin nodded his head while frowning. "If I used those blue flames though, and one of them escaped, the demons would figure out who I am."

No one said anything for a few seconds until finally Killua bit. "Well who are you?"

"Huh?" Rin questioned, then realized he kind of set up that question. He scratched the side of his head, "I guess, because I'm the one who's going to kill Satan..."

"Kill Satan?" Half of them repeated dumbly.

"Yea," Rin said, looking more serious. "Their boss. I don't want him to know I'm coming." The half-demon clenched his teeth behind his closed lips, hating how he had to lie to his friends. His eyes darkened more and he finished, "When I find a way to get to Hell, that's when we'll be going our separate ways."

Franky's grin wiped from his face. The excited cyborg was no longer congratulating Rin, instead looking at him in a much more nervous light.

"And why do you want to go to Hell?" Riku asked.

Rin grimaced deeply. Sanji turned to Luffy and then looked back at Rin. "Hey Rin," the chef began. "That Mephisto demon from the Dread Fort, he mentioned he-"

"Mephisto was the headmaster at my school for demon exorcising," Rin stated. "But he's also one of the strongest demons alive. The King of Time."

Sanji gulped as he remembered the intimidating look Mephisto gave him back at the fort before they became acquainted. He thought about how Mephisto disposed of Vexen and announced his name, _"The King of Time, Samael!"_ Sanji regained a look of composure and said, "And also, the guy was one of the NEG's High Council members."

The others who had yet to hear this opened their eyes wide. "Did he know about the Underworld alliance?" Usopp questioned the blond chef.

Sanji nodded his head and kept frowning. "Apparently he showed up to watch the battle and left for a 'family emergency.' Didn't know how crazy his family was though."

 _You have no idea,_ Rin thought while shadowing his face over with his bangs.

"Why, is Satan, real?" Nami whispered fearfully. She had heard talk of him before but this was the first time she truly realized that he was their enemy too. Nami turned to Rin, "And why are you antagonizing him? He's Satan! The Devil!"

"I agree with Nami," Usopp shouted and threw his arm up in the air. "Nothing good can come from messing with demons. They're seriously creepy." Rin frowned and a second later Nami slammed a fist down on Usopp's head, hitting him to the floor. He looked up and saw her glare and turned back to Rin to see his dejected expression. He hopped up fast, "Not you though of course. Haha, ha, half-demons are great! You're even trying to kill Satan, you've got nothing to do with him!"

"Yeah, thanks," Rin said with a small shake of his head. _Nothing to do with him huh?_

"Let's keep going!" Luffy exclaimed.

The others all looked at the pirate captain who started walking forward again. They started to follow, but Luffy stopped suddenly and turned his head to the right. He looked at one of the bodies the demons flew out of, and it was moving.

"Holy crap!" Nami exclaimed as she saw the man's arm move, reaching at them. The look on his face was horrified and he looked to be in so much pain.

"He's alive," Usopp whispered. "Wait, are these all, people?"

"Demons possess them," Rin said. After the first man moved he looked around but his face kept its grim expression. The rest of them were already dead. He continued, "But since the demons can't feel pain, they aren't concerned with what happens to their hosts."

The others looked around and Luffy started going wide-eyed at the man in front of him, groaning in agony. It was the same chubby red haired man he slammed a fist into before. The guy was gasping in pain and blood was gurgling in his throat. It sputtered out and splashed all over his face. It was disgusting, and sad, and making Luffy feel terrible.

"You didn't know there was a guy in there," Sanji said on his captain's left side. "There was no way you could have."

"Besides," Rin cut in. "The demon possessing him most likely already caused enough damage for this to happen."

Riku thought about pulling out his Keyblade, but the man in front of him was about to die, he knew his magic wasn't strong enough to stop that. Rin had an idea though, and he was stepping forward while reaching up and grabbing the sword off his back. He heard his cat whisper in his ear from the bag on his back, "Rin." Kuro could feel Rin's emotions and the cat got sad at what the teen was about to do.

Rin held the sword horizontally in front of him and he ripped it from its sheath, lighting his whole body on fire. His blue flames flickered as he rose up his sword, and when he swung it down flames flew out in every direction. The others got nervous, but his flames did not burn them. The flames did only one thing, incinerate every body around them, including the man coughing up his heart. A second later the wave of flames went away and all that was left of the bodies was ash.

"Whoa," Killua said after a few seconds of them all just standing there. "That was a pretty strong move. Even if you did show off your flames I'm pretty sure you would have wrecked all the demons before they could tell anyone."

"Didn't want to take that chance. One of them could have ended its own life before I had the chance." Killua looked a little confused, so Rin continued, "Where do you think demons go when they die?" Rin asked. Killua's grin faded from his face and the others went wide-eyed. "Right to Hell. Right to Satan's feet. But with my flames, it's different."

Luffy started walking again and the others figured it was time to get moving. The sun was on its descent but they still had some hours of sunlight. Shade quickly set in though as the sun was almost always blocked out by a wall or stone pillar around them. Only at midday when the sun was straight up was it really bright, and very hot too. As they walked, Riku asked Rin about ways to defeat demons.

Riku assumed he had the power to take them down with the Keyblade, but thought that the others should all know too. Rin explained there were different incantations for sealing different demons, capturing the lower classes to make them do work, as well as how there are more physical ways to defeat them. Silver, salt, holy water, devil traps, demons are not all that hard to kill as long as you know how apparently. The others started to feel better about facing off against demons with all this information, though Nami shouted at Rin when he admitted half the techniques he mentioned he knew nearly nothing about since he always got bad grades in those classes.

When they finally set up camp because it got dark, Killua and Franky started a fire and they all put their sleeping bags around it. Inside the Cataclysm it got really cold towards the middle of the night and they could already feel the chills coming on.

As they all curled up inside their bags, Killua turned to the teen on his right side. Rin was the closest to Killua's age in their group now that the younger boys were gone. "So, why are you going after Satan anyway? I thought you were looking for your brother, and didn't Mephisto have him?"

Rin nodded his head. He stared into the flames of the fire and then whispered, "Not anymore though. Satan has my brother."

Killua nodded his head slowly. "Sorry for your loss," he said.

Rin turned to the boy in surprise. "My brother is not dead." Now it was Killua's turn to look surprised.

"Isn't he in Hell?" The younger boy asked.

"Yeah, but not because he died. Satan captured him," Rin muttered. He looked straight up at the sky and lay back in his sleeping bag. _Astaroth is in Pyraxas. Find him, beat a way to get into Hell out of him, and find Yukio._ "I have to get my little brother back," he whispered to the boy next to him, his fists clenching inside his sleeping bag. "I have to save Yukio."

* * *

 **The Next Morning**

"This thing just gets deeper and deeper," Nami complained as they were again sliding down a rocky wall to a lower elevated section of the Cataclysm.

"The rocks this far down are harder than steel," Killua remarked from a few yards to her right. He stood with his right foot forward and his left dragging behind him to keep him slowly descending, but he couldn't dig his foot into the ground like he could higher up.

"I remember Goku mentioned something about that once," Riku said up ahead of them. He glanced back and continued, "The deeper in Nexus you go, the harder the planet gets."

"I wonder why that is," Robin began and scratched her chin. The others looked up to where the black haired woman was descending above them with a set of long skin-colored wings sticking out of her back. Robin scratched her chin as she lowered and kept looking around. "I have discovered something, unsettling," she started, and lowered down in between Luffy and Franky who were sliding down the rocky slant together.

"What's up?" Franky asked her.

Robin turned right and nodded her head at a huge stone pillar sticking out of the slant. There were marks towards the bottom and higher up some uneven curves. "That pillar looks highly eroded, as if a hundred years of buffeting wind has wore it down."

"A hundred years?" Franky said in surprise.

"But, we only got here two years ago," Luffy started. He scratched the back of his head and asked, "So does that mean..." The others who could hear this conversation looked over at Luffy with shocked looks. Luffy thoughtfully turned to a nervous Robin, and he finished, "It's a mystery pillar?"

Everyone sighed in relief as Luffy had not been replaced by a fake. Robin smiled and she shook her head. "Obviously," Sanji snapped up at Luffy. "Robin-chan is saying that the planet was here before we arrived."

Robin looked back and she shook her head again, making Sanji drop his jaw that he was wrong. "For something to make it look that eroded," Killua began. He shook his head and muttered, "It must have been very strong."

"It is not just that pillar," Robin continued, and the whole group looked at her now. They reached the bottom of the slant and she turned fully around to look at what they just slid down.

Rin slid up next to her and he turned to stared at the rocky wall. "What is-" his eyes opened wide and he looked at little cuts in the slanted wall, tiny craters, and he realized it at the same time as most of the others. "The wall too?"

"I believe," Robin stated. She looked around her and although she kept a composed expression, what she said made herself and the others around her very nervous. "This entire canyon was not here originally. It looks to me like someone created it."

Killua had sweat coming down his face and he looked at the floor beneath him. He lifted up his right foot and stomped down, but did not make even the slightest dent in the floor this far down. "Well that's unnerving," he muttered.

"Who could make something like this?!" Usopp exclaimed. _No way! I don't believe it! I don't want to believe it!_ The sniper crossed his arms and shook his head with a reassuring smile.

"Timmy probably could," Luffy said with a shrug.

"Goku too then," Sanji added, though he pulled out a cigarette and lit it anyway to sooth his nerves. _But this deep? And it's thousands of miles long?_ The chef looked to his left and right imagining how far this place went on for.

Their group started walking north away from the slant. The ground at the bottom of the Cataclysm was as rocky as the rest except even harder to navigate through. There were boulders, knocked over pillars, and rock walls that came out of nowhere making the Cataclysm into one giant maze.

Luffy was jumping from rock to rock at the front of the group when he felt something with his Haki. He came to a quick stop and the short boy with spiky white hair jumping behind him immediately froze at Luffy's tensed form. _Someone's here,_ he thought. Killua closed his eyes and a bubble of En surrounded him and then expanded in a dome with a twenty meter radius.

Sanji snapped his head to the left and he sped up to catch up to Nami and Robin on the rock in front of them. Nami was reaching out her leg to take another step but Robin held out an arm in front of her. Nami looked at the older woman confusedly and saw Robin staring away. Sanji appeared next to her and she spotted Killua and Luffy up ahead looking the same way as her friends next to her.

"What's up Luffy?" Franky shouted over. He, Rin, Riku, and Usopp came to a stop and looked around for the reason why they stopped.

Luffy's eyes examined the landscape in front of him. He heard Killua whisper behind him, "There are six of them. What do we do?"

"I-" Luffy stopped and he snapped his head left. He rose his hand and clenched it around an arrow's shaft, the arrowhead inches from his face. He did not flinch as the arrow was shot at him and Killua admired his reaction speed. The two of them darted their eyes from the arrow to the direction it came from. "Who's there?" Luffy called out. He clenched hard and the arrow in his hand snapped.

Usopp rose up his slingshot and his eyes searched the rocky area Luffy got shot at from. He pulled it back and steadied his breathing as his eyes examined everything. _There!_ He released the back of his Black Kabuto and a small green ball flew out of it. "Midori Boshi! Devil!" The little green ball popped on the stone pillar he just saw a pebble roll down the top of. Out of the Pop Green appeared a giant plant monster with vines that wrapped around the pillar and grabbed onto three figures behind it who were shocked at its appearance.

Three others managed to jump out of the way of the attacking plant and they came out into the open from behind the pillar. Two of the three had bows and arrows, while the third had a long steel sword in her right hand and a shield in her left. The one with a sword and shield was also wearing heavier-looking golden armor with a steel breastplate and waist guard, while the other two, larger women only had on brown cloths around their breasts and midsections. All three of them were showing a lot of skin, which was not too surprising because of the blistering heat, but it was still a little odd.

"What do you want?" Killua called out to them as the women pulled their bows back again. The woman with the sword dove at Usopp's plant and slashed at its vines to release the other women while the two with bows fired their way.

"Looks like they want to fight," Luffy said and cracked his knuckles while leaning his head left and right to dodge the two arrows.

The women who fired at him opened their eyes wide in surprise as their attacks were dodged with ease, and one of them whispered, "That's Haki."

Killua darted forward on the rocks and Luffy was jumping right next to him. Sanji was staying back because he knew he would be no help here, though he was shouting at the others to be gentle with their female opponents. Five of the women ran away from the Pop Green Devil plant that Usopp made and charged at their male opponents. "Wait!" Someone shouted, and everyone looked back at one of the women in brown rags who was released by the vines last and did not start charging at the others in the ravine yet.

Sanji's amazed look at the sight of all these beautiful women turned sour as he looked back at the one who shouted. She was a hefty woman wearing rags that were striped yellow and brown, holding a staff that looked like a living snake in her right hand. She had brown hair tied in pigtails, fat lips, a huge nose, and was not nearly as attractive as the other women in the group, yet all five of the others stopped upon her orders. She stepped forward and her already huge eyes grew even wider, "It is you," she said in amazement. "Luffy-san!"

Luffy tilted his head and looked back at this girl confusedly, before his own eyes popped open in recognition and a huge smile came to his face. "Shishishi, Sweet Pea," he said.

"Ehh?" Usopp, Franky, Nami, and Rin all asked, turning to the pirate captain in surprise. Nami stormed towards her captain and yelled, "How do you know her?"

"Sweet Pea," one of the other women, the one in an armored breastplate and waist guard began. She had long beautiful blond hair and a stern expression on her face, "These men are trespassing in our territory. They are too close to Amazonia-"

"Hey Sweet Pea," Luffy said excitedly. He jumped over some of the other women's heads, making them gasp at his audacity. He landed much closer to the heavy woman and continued, "Is Hancock here? I really want to see her!"

"B-B-Boa Hancock?" Sanji stuttered, taking a few steps back in shock. He thought about the Pirate Empress who Luffy mentioned he knew right when the crew met up back on Sabaody Archipelago after two years of being separated. Just the thought of her gave the chef a violent nosebleed and made him collapse to the ground.

"So that must be one of the Kuja tribe," Robin said, a smile coming to her face as it was always nice to meet people from their own universe.

"The fabled kingdom of women?" Usopp asked, his own heart rate speeding up.

"Sweet Pea," another woman in brown rags close to where Sweet Pea and Luffy were talking began. Luffy was disappointed as Sweet Pea told him that she had not seen Boa Hancock since coming to Nexus, but there were others who Sweet Pea mentioned who Luffy also wanted to see. The woman's fellow warrior shook her head though and argued, "We all know the rules. Men are not allowed in the kingdom except under special circumstances."

"The Captain of the Royal Guard, Marguerite, would very much like to see Luffy," Sweet Pea argued back. "I am sure Queen Cassandra will admit them as guests."

The other women looked at each other hesitantly, but Sweet Pea happily turned back to Luffy who was exclaiming about his excitement over Marguerite being there too. Nami and the others were heading towards their captain, happy that he got them out of this confrontation but now wondering what they were doing as it seemed they now had a new destination. "Luffy sure seems to know a lot of the Kuja tribe," Nami muttered as Sweet Pea kept talking about others who Luffy remembered from his time spent with the women tribe.

Sanji bit down on the collar of his shirt and tugged on it furiously. _Luffy got to know all these beautiful women, while I spent two years, with those, freaks!_ He shivered thinking about their hairy legs and lipstick-covered hairy faces. He shook his mind of the memory and spun on one foot towards one of the warriors in front of him. "Oh beautiful archer! Let me sweep you off your-" The woman lifted up her bow and pulled an arrow back in an instant. The arrow was pointed straight at Sanji's forehead at the chef got a bead of sweat on the side of his head as it looked like the woman was about to let go and he could feel it coming with his Haki, showing this was not an idle threat.

Two hands stuck out of the archer's arms though and pushed the bow upwards, making the arrow soar right above Sanji's face. Robin sighed a breath of relief that she caught sight of that a second before the woman could kill their chef. While Sweet Pea yelled at her subordinate for attacking Luffy's friend, Nami marched over and slammed a fist on top of Sanji's head before yelling at him for being an idiot. "We're heading into a kingdom of only women. You better not embarrass us in there!"

* * *

 **Amazonia**

"Whoa," Franky gasped, looking straight up at the three giant women walking left down a road in front of them. The Amazonian giants glanced down at the men and started talking to each other in whispers that were still loud enough for the group that just arrived in the city to hear.

"What are stupid men doing here?"

"Men only good for snu-snu."

"Are they here to be snu-snu-ed to death?"

Sanji's heart practically leapt out of his chest and he spun towards the giant woman. He did not know what this "snu snu" was, but he definitely wanted to die from it. He opened his mouth, but a hand wrapped around his face and a dozen more wrapped around the rest of his body and dropped him to the ground. Robin sighed as this was getting tiresome, but she did not expect anything different from Sanji, though she had hoped he would make it farther than ten feet inside the gate.

"Sweet Pea, what is the meaning of this?" A higher-pitched voice than the heavyset woman's called out. Down the stone path on top of the elevated rocky pillar with a wide enough top for a large town on it marched twenty warriors holding bows and arrows and all wearing skimpy uniforms. Their rags left little to the imagination and Sanji started bumbling out nonsense and the only word they could make out was 'ladies' every few seconds. "Why are there men…" the person shouting quieted down as Sweet Pea moved out of the way and revealed the man in the straw hat behind her.

Marguerite came to a complete stop and her eyes opened wide while Luffy smiled down the road at her. "Luffy!" She exclaimed, a huge smile coming to her face. The young woman with long blonde hair down below her shoulder blades put her snake bow back over her shoulder and ran down the street to the rubberman who she hugged upon reaching him. Her soldiers back behind her watched confusedly though a couple of them also looked happy to see Luffy and mentioned to the other women in the squad where they knew him from.

"Is this your crew?" Marguerite asked and looked behind Luffy at the others behind him.

Luffy looked back at a few he wondered about responding for, but Riku nodded his head, as did Rin. He turned to Killua who he remembered back in Dressrosa told Doflamingo as soon as they got off the Thousand Sunny that he was not actually a member of the Straw Hats. At the moment though, Killua did not seem to want to introduce himself separately, just giving Luffy a small smile and nod of his head instead. Luffy turned back and nodded at Marguerite who smiled and then introduced herself to the people behind Luffy. "Please, stay the night here in Amazonia. I will request an audience with Queen Cassandra. I believe she will like you very much."

"That sounds great," Nami spoke up before Luffy could respond. She stepped towards the blonde in front of her and asked with a sly grin, "You wouldn't happen to have somewhere we could take showers around here, or just bathe?"

"Of course," Marguerite replied, and the navigator who had been traveling on foot for the last few days through a deep dark canyon practically jumped for joy.

Luffy was scratching his chin and after a moment he nodded his head and turned around to his friends. "Let's stay here tonight, but I want to leave tomorrow."

"Noo!" Sanji moaned loudly. He ran up to Luffy, "Let us stay for a week, no! A month!"

"Nope," Luffy said and shook his head with a grin. "We have to keep heading north. I doubt Zoro's in the land of women."

"Who cares about the shitty swordsman?! This country is full of women! Beautiful ladies!" The chef was drooling and Marguerite backed away from him, making Nami spin and yell at him again for being creepy.

"We should not impose on a country with laws against having men here," Riku mentioned, making the others near him glance his way. He looked towards Marguerite and nodded his head at her, "Thank you for letting us stay just for today at least."

She smiled at a man who seemed very polite and replied, "It is no problem. Luffy saved my life before."

"Great job Luffy!" Nami exclaimed happily. She patted him on the back so hard that he stumbled forward and she kept laughing as she did. Nami walked over to Marguerite and put an arm around her shoulder, "Now, where is that shower you mentioned?"

Robin and Usopp chuckled at Nami while Sanji continued to drool as now he got to thinking about Nami taking a shower. Luffy stretched his arms up in the air and yawned, then walked after Nami and Marguerite as Marguerite turned and told him to follow her as well as she would show them where they could rest while she went to ask the Queen for an audience for them. The rest of the group followed along but Riku froze as he started walking, darting his head to the left at the sudden feeling he received from that direction. Down a side road off the main one they were walking down, standing there in between two women who walked by without even noticing, was a figure in a black cloak with his hood up over his head. As soon as Riku saw him, the figure disappeared into a black portal that appeared under his feet and enveloped him. _The Organization is here,_ Riku thought darkly, his fists clenching at his sides. He looked around at all the strong, armed women every direction around him and thought, _we may not be safe after all._

* * *

 **13,000 Miles North of Amazonia**

A swampy field in the far north of Aebrith had only one man on it. He was looking back and forth with a tired expression and he sighed and lay back on the soft grass between two muddy puddles. All of the ground around here was soft and squishy and green. It was hard to walk on and not a great place to live which is why there was no one around. He came over because he sensed some powers that felt like humans, but they were below the marsh and when he stuck his head in a puddle, the goop was too thick to see what was down there.

 _Why would Android 17 be under a swamp?_ Krillin thought to himself. He frowned and his forehead scrunched up in annoyance. _Why is he back anyway? Couldn't whoever brought us all here have just left someone like him behind?_ He turned on his side and grumbled under his breath, "Still, if Seventeen is here, that's the best lead I have to find Eighteen yet." He rolled back on his back and stared up at the sky. _Unless that Dalgrefxi guy was lying to me. Probably not, but then why did more people not know about him?_

All of a sudden, Krillin snapped up. He sat on his butt and stared forward with wide eyes, ever so slowly turning his head around. He got halfway around when he saw them, three figures standing on the field not far behind him. Unlike himself, they were wearing Power Blockers on their wrists. The only reason he noticed their presence was because of the massive murderous intent he felt behind him. He saw them and his eyes opened wide while he scrambled up on his feet.

The three figures were not far away, but there was a hundred foot gap between them and the short man with very little hair on his head. Krillin looked at the figures and he no longer felt that intense murderous feeling from a minute ago. They saw him, and one of them pointed a hand his way. "That's him," the creature shouted. It was not a human, but a monster with a huge gray stomach, four wings sticking out of its back, and a human-like head only bald and gray like its stomach.

Krillin ignored Hippofly and he lifted off the ground in the swamp. He flew quickly across the marshy land and dropped down only ten feet in front of the figures. He ignored the one that took a step back and had pointed at him a second ago, instead looking at the other two who were looking at him in some surprise. The figure on the left had white hair down below her shoulders, a tail sticking out of her butt that was partly made of metal, sharp nails on her hands, and a blue button down jacket on above her red skirt. She had cat ears sticking out of her hair and at the sight of the man in front of her her eyes grew much larger. "Hey! How's it going?" Krillin greeted the two on his left, still ignoring the Chimera Ant on his right who he also recognized.

"You," Neferpitou whispered. The Chimera Ant woman glanced at the King who was still staring directly at this human's face.

"I can't tell because of the Power Blocker," Krillin started. He had a bead of sweat on the side of his face and he chuckled. "But uh, you definitely look a lot stronger than the last time we met," Krillin told the green and purple figure in front of him.

The Chimera Ant with a green and black striped tail swung it behind him casually to rest pointing the other direction. He did not smile, but he did start to speak to the short human man before him. "Krillin," the Ant King, Meruem, stated. Krillin smiled and looked genuinely surprised that the creature in front of him remembered his name.

Krillin scratched the back of his head though and he said, "Yeah. But um, I don't actually remember if I got your name back then-"

Hippofly's eyes popped open wide and he was spinning his head from the King to Krillin and back again. The Ant King ignored him just like everyone else, and he gave Krillin his name, "Meruem."

Pitou cut in after as Krillin nodded his head, "You may refer to him as, King."

Krillin spun from Pitou back to Meruem in surprise. _That King everyone mentioned, is this him? Just how much stronger did he get-_

"I must thank you Krillin," Meruem began. Krillin tilted his head and had some more sweat on his face now as he realized that he might not be the strongest figure on that field. He calmed down though as he recalled what the King just said, and Meruem continued, "On that third day, you saved not only my Royal Guard, but myself as well from Boros. I was not yet at the level I am now, and your strength saved us. You have my gratitude."

"Ha, ha, it was nothing," Krillin said, settling down a little. He was still a little nervous though, so to make himself feel better he added, "I've gotten even stronger in the last two years." He did not forget about that other figure in the group with the two he was reminiscing with, and if this King was that monster's leader, then he still did not know if he would have to fight. He would rather avoid it, so he did not want them to think they could beat him.

Meruem grinned for the first time since he arrived though. He saw exactly what Krillin was doing, and he stated, "I have become much stronger than two years ago as well." To prove it, he let out a little power and Krillin could not feel it, but he could see the purple aura that touched him because he was too close to the King. He felt fear flood through him and his smile wavered.

Hippofly grinned at Krillin's nervous look that even he could see and he pointed his hand back at the human. "King! This is the man who beat my men and freed our-" Before the creature finished shouting, his head vanished. The rest of his body was still in the same place, but there was now dark reddish-purple blood spurting up from Hippofly's neck. Krillin's eyes were huge as he had no idea what just happened, but his gaze snapped down to the King's tail that was waving behind him, and he saw purple blood dripping off the tip of it.

Pitou bowed her head a little to Krillin after the King's action and he just stared at them in confusion. She began, "I am sorry for that Ant's insolence." Neferpitou knew she needed to do this to make sure that the King would not do something so un-kingly as to lower his head to a human. She lifted back up and continued, "And I thank you as well for saving our lives that day." Hippofly's body finally dropped to the ground and Krillin still did not know what to say.

"Oh, yeah, like I said," Krillin said, his voice confused but not shaking as much anymore. "It was nothing," he mumbled.

Pitou smirked at him and her eyes gave him the creeps. The King's eyes were calm at the moment, but he was the much more terrifying out of the two. Meruem looked at Krillin after Pitou apologized, and the King said, "You are searching for Android 17." Krillin's eyes widened more as he had no idea how the King knew this information. He only found out about 17 _after_ he freed the slaves that Hippofly was transporting, so the fact that Meruem heard who he was looking for unnerved him. "I will give you his location," Meruem continued.

"Really?" Krillin asked in surprise. He calmed himself down some and nodded his head, "Thank you."

He stood there and listened as the Ant King explained to him how to get to Android 17's land from where they were now. Krillin nodded his head at everything the King said and when the creature was done he thanked him again and said he had it memorized. "Pitou, let us head back," the King said after Krillin thanked him. He turned around and Pitou did the same, but behind them, Krillin lost his grateful expression and his fists clenched at his sides.

He was scared. This figure in front of him was a terrifying beast, that he could tell from the interaction they just had and the body on the floor near him. Krillin could not hold his tongue though. He stepped forward before the Ants took off and he called out, "Why slavery?" Pitou froze in place and turned her head slightly to the right. Out of the corner of her right eye she glared back at Krillin and he tensed up at the animalistic look in the glowing red orb. He gulped but called out to the Ant King who also froze, "Why do you do it? Why, do you let everyone here…"

Krillin faded off because Meruem started turning around again. Unlike Pitou though, he still had a calm look on his face, and he nodded back at Krillin as he believed it was a justified question. Then, he started and stunned Krillin with his words. "There is a misconception in this world that I 'encourage' slavery in Cooperative lands. This is not the case. I have never once made an edict on slavery. I do not have any slaves myself. Slavery, is a human construct. Chimera Ants do possess human traits because of the DNA we share, which is why many of my kind partake in the cruel practice. But it was not I, nor any of my Ants, who were the first to have slaves on this world. It was humans." The way the Ant said the last word in that sentence made Krillin have a very unsettling feeling deep in his gut. Meruem continued, "Humans enslaved others of their own race. They enslaved Pokemon, and animals, and all the creatures of this world. I have seen a human with Chimera Ants as slaves. You ask me, 'why slavery?' The truth is, you know 'why slavery.' You know it because it is in your very DNA, the DNA of humans across the multiverse share this. You do not wish to do work yourself, or to bathe yourself, to feed yourself, to do many things- on your own. Instead of asking for them though, if you have the power, why not demand it? It is simple, yet for some, your urge to feel superior to others around you transcends the boundaries of slave and master. You wish to feel superior over even the masters, so you called them _immoral_. You say it is _wrong._ I do not give heed to such frivolous things."

Meruem turned his back to Krillin who stood there thinking about the deep philosophy lecture the King just dropped on him. Meruem kept talking when he turned around, "I do not dictate everything my High Lords can and cannot do. I never instituted the practice myself, I simply did not outlaw it, and the humans themselves savaged each other in the most brutal ways. It is not us Ants who have the most slaves." He said this and lifted off the ground, and Pitou followed him into the air with a white aura around herself unlike the King who had no aura as he flew. They flew away leaving Krillin behind to think deeply on what he was just told. His mind was boggled and he could not come up with a quick enough answer for the King before he was gone. He stood there and frowned now that he was no longer able to have an argument, making him feel like he failed his entire species by not convincing the King differently. He considered chasing after them, but gulped and shook his head of that idea as he had a feeling he was no longer a match for this King.

So Krillin turned away from the direction Meruem flew, looking instead to the northeast. _Seventeen. Do you know where your sister is? If I ask you, are you going to kill me?_ The short man had sweaty palms, but he kept them clenched into fists and flew up in the air. As he shot off in the direction the Ant King told him to go, one thought rushed into his mind. _I have to get a Power Blocker._

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading the chapter and let me know what you think in a review below! One of our groups of heroes gets on a train to cross the Cataclysm, while the others are facing some trouble trekking the dangerous bottom of the ravine. Luffy meets up with Sweet Pea, a Kuja warrior he met years before who invites him and his friends to the women's kingdom. We hear some more stories about the King from Nagisa, get a peak of the day of the Cataclysm that there will be a much bigger chapter for later on, and see some more of the King as he and Krillin meet again since the third day on Nexus when Goku saved the Ants from Lord Boros. Lots going on, and I hope you're excited for this chapter, the next part of which is called: Amazonia. Anyway, time for review responses.**

Joebob323

Well... Jiraiya's dead. I really liked him too... Oh well, the main focus of mine for this chapter was Kara. Is she planning anything huge, since she was a hero on her last planet? Also, when will we get more Goku action, I really want to know how close him and Timmy are to the King's base!

 **;( Jiraiya! He was one of my fav Naruto characters too, but with his dying breath he was going to try and take a swing at the King, which is cool of him, but not very successful. Kara made her first appearance and we'll definitely be seeing more of her, since Ichigo left Rhodar on a zeppelin for Leam, so that he could look for her (thanks to some directions from Alibaba). Don't want to spoil what her part might be, but I will mention that Goku and Timmy have huge parts in upcoming chapters, I get that they've been put to the side for a while, but that's gonna end soon...ish XD Thanks for the review!**

Guest chapter 58 . 3h ago

I wonder if General Zod will reappear? I last saw him leaving after the defeat of darkseid telling superman that him and the remaining kryptonians were going to be kings and queens.

 **Great question, I was really wondering if anyone would remember that. Last we saw of Zodd he was heading to Aebrith, wonder how long it will be until we see/hear about him? Don't want to spoil it! Anyway thanks for the review, and thanks everyone who read, reviewed, faved, and followed! Well, 'till next time!**


	60. Nexus HWR 10-2 The Women's Kingdom

**Nexus HWR 10.2 The Women's Kingdom:**

 **Amazonia**

Luffy's jaw dropped to the floor as he stared at the long rectangular tables lining the center of the room before him. He and his friends just entered the largest building in the women's kingdom, which was still only a one-story tall hall made of stone. The decorations here were much nicer than around the rest of the stone city however, with furs from animals killed inside the wide Cataclysm lining the walls and being used as rugs for the floor. The utensils on the table were crafted out of bones and it looked like the entire country got their supplies from the ravine they were located in. Despite this however, the table was covered in tons of delicious-smelling plates with steam coming off of them. There were hogs with apples in their mouths and piles of balls of meat covered in yummy-looking sauces.

The drooling pirate captain finally snapped his rubber jaw shut and ran towards the table, devouring as much food as he could while his comrades walked over behind him. "Luffy," Sanji growled, "be polite in front of…" he faded off as the woman on the other side of the table sitting on a stone chair got up to her feet and walked into the light. Sanji's eyes turned to hearts and popped out of his head and the other men around him looked at her in similar ways, although Luffy just kept digging in to his food.

The woman behind the table had long flowing blonde hair down to her waist and a golden tiara on top of her head. She wore a tight red one-piece with golden breastplates over the chest area and a golden whip attached to a belt on her right side. Her arms stuck out of her sleeveless red outfit and showed off her toned muscles. She had a serious expression on her face but lowered it as she walked closer and smiled instead. "Welcome to Amazonia travelers. I was told you were hungry and had this meal whipped up for you. I hope it is to your liking."

"Wow! Thank you," Nami exclaimed. She was not expecting such a friendly welcome from the Queen of a kingdom that seemed to despise men, but it looked like Luffy's name really carried a lot of weight around here.

The crew walked up to the nine seats on their side of the long tables and it looked like the Queen was waiting for them to sit down. They did so and Luffy wound up sitting too as he piled food onto a plate in front of him. Across the table from the captain, the Queen sat down on a chair herself and was the only one to sit down as there were not even any other chairs for the other women around the room. Robin glanced around as she put some food on her plate and she examined the women watching them. _None of them are the women who Luffy recognized earlier. Sweet Pea mentioned that Marguerite was the Captain of the Queen's Royal Guard, so it would make sense for her to be here._

Robin put food on her plate but she did not start eating. She made it look like she was though as to not arise suspicion, however she was becoming slightly nervous as she spotted a few of the armed women whispering to each other on the sides of the hall. "Thwis wis wreallry gwood!" Luffy shouted through a mouthful of food.

The Queen grinned at the pirate before wiping that smirk from her face and shaking her head. She returned to having a calm smile on her face and replied, "Thank you. It is good to hear it." She took a deep breath while putting some food on her own plate and continued, "I am Queen Cassandra Sandsmark of the Amazons. The country you are currently in is Amazonia, the Women's Kingdom."

"A country full of only women," Nami said with a relaxed sigh. "It sounds too good to be true."

Sanji had his chin in his hands with his elbows resting on the table's edge. He sighed just like Nami and just kept oogling the Queen with his eyes. She was a young ruler, looking like she was still in her late teens actually. She had a mature aura around her though, and that only intensified as Luffy asked a question after swallowing a mouthful of food. "You're a Queen? Does that mean you know the King?"

The rest of Luffy's friends all looked over at him like he was an idiot, all of the guards around the room tensed up, and Cassandra frowned at the man across the table from her. "Yes, I heard from my people that you mentioned something about the King," she said in a mutter. The blonde girl closed her eyes and started, "You do not seem to understand, so I will explain it to you as simply as I can. I may know the King, but that does not mean he knows me. The King owns all of Aebrith from the Vast Mountains of the Northern Continent to the Demon Forests in the east, to the Shadowlands in the south."

"I thought the Resistance ruled in the south?" Usopp brought up confusedly.

Cassandra frowned deeper and spoke harshly, "The Resistance rules nothing. All they are, are terrorists." Her voice right there seemed to get even lower and Riku lowered down his soup spoon. He narrowed his gaze at the Queen and then his eyes darted around the room so that he could see that twice as many guards were in there as what there originally were. "For the good of my people, I accepted the King's rule. His laws are my laws…"

"What are you doing?" Killua asked, still holding the steak knife in his left hand though now he had a dangerous-looking expression on his face.

Luffy was mid-chew of a huge drumstick and he looked around confusedly as everyone was getting really tense all of a sudden. He looked back forward and with a huge smile on his face he said, "Thanks for all this great food!"

"I am afraid I cannot let you leave the Women's Kingdom," Cassandra said. Luffy's smile faded and the rest of the group tensed up more as all of the guards around the room stepped inwards.

"What? Why not?!" Nami exclaimed.

"Some of my subjects heard your Captain talking about fighting the King. We are currently inside Fire Nation territory. If I were to let you go, and the King or his Lords heard of this, then my kingdom would be crushed beneath their feet," she explained, some pity in her voice.

"Invite us in for food and then betray us?" Killua asked, his voice as sharp as the knife in his hands. His hand clenched around the hilt and he flipped the knife around in his fingers, pulling his arm back and aiming at the Queen as he did.

"Killua hold on," Riku started.

The kid did not listen. The knife flew off Killua's fingers and shot towards Cassandra in a split second. The Queen did not flinch, and an arrow intercepted the knife in mid-flight, shattering the blade as the arrow fired at it was full of Haki. Luffy's eyes shot open wide as he just realized what was going on. Killua was already halfway across the table though, having leapt right after his knife to try and get the Queen as his hostage as he already knew they were surrounded. His fingernails sharpened and his eyes turned into vertical slits, making the boy look like a snake as he shot towards the Queen of the Amazons.

Queen Cassandra jumped backwards off her seat and pulled out her golden whip at the same time. She cracked it towards Killua while the rest of her soldiers charged at the table. _Sweet Pea, Marguerite,_ Cassandra thought, _I am sorry. I know he is your friend, but I can not risk the lives of everyone in the kingdom for this man._ Killua dodged her whip but two of her fastest soldiers charged at the spot he was dodging to. In the meantime, she pointed a finger at Luffy and yelled, "Take down the pirate!"

"Why are you fighting us?" Luffy called out in confusion as he dodged arrows and then swords as a few of the soldiers charged straight towards him.

"Move Sanji!" Usopp yelled at the chef who was backing away but not raising his legs at the women in front of him. The sniper fired explosives and Pop Greens around his friend to protect the helpless chef surrounded by his weakness, women.

Okumura Rin slammed the sheathed sword in his hands into the sword of a woman in golden armored underwear who slashed down at him. He struggled to push her away as she actually turned out to be very strong. He skid back across the floor after pushing her off with his sword, then spun to his right as he saw someone charging at him from that direction. Rin lifted his sword and got ready to pull it out of his sheath as he was getting serious, while the teenage girl charging at him summoned two fox familiars with white fur to her sides in a flash of light. Rin froze with his sword up in the air and the girl pointing her arm at him to yell commands at her foxes froze as the two of them made eye contact.

Izumo Kamiki had short purple hair going down only to the back of her neck and bangs down to the tops of her eyes. She stared in shock with her dark red eyes right into Rin's blue ones. "Okumura," she whispered. The girl had been outside waiting for a signal like many others and only a few seconds before charged through the door, which was why she did not know Rin was there until they locked eyes.

"Kamiki," Rin mumbled back at her, lowering his sword as he did.

Izumo spotted something in the left side of her vision and she shouted, "No!" One of her two foxes, Uke, sprinted forward and dove to Rin's right side. The boy just started turning as he spotted someone on that side and watched as Izumo's familiar tackled one of the Amazon warriors away, knocking the sword right out of her hands.

Queen Cassandra looked to the back of the room in surprise, but Izumo clenched her teeth together and spun to the Queen as well. "Please, stop this! Okumura, is my friend," she shouted, and the half-demon in front of her opened his eyes wide. He had not seen Izumo in two years, more, but the girl just risked her position in this Women's Kingdom to stand up for him.

The Queen tssked and clenched her hand around her whip tighter. _If I had known, I would have locked her up with the Kuja who knew Luffy was here before this. There is no stopping it now._ "Izumo, leave if you wish, but do not get in our way." She cracked her whip forward as she spotted Killua lunging at one of her soldiers, and the golden whip wrapped around the boy's right wrist as he shot his arm forward. Killua was not expecting the strength of the whip, and it tugged him up into the air while his friends called out his name.

Izumo looked back and forth between the Queen and her old friend, and finally she mumbled a curse under her breath and ran up to Rin's side, spinning around and glaring back at the other female soldiers behind her who had risen bows nocked with arrows but stopped firing into the center of the room as readily. "What?" Izumo asked and narrowed her dark red eyes. "You're not going to shoot now that I'm here?" Izumo glared at the others and then turned her head towards the front of the room where the Queen was frowning hesitantly at her, "I'll fight with my friend. It's better than fighting for someone who's too afraid to fight for herself anyway."

Everyone else in the room stopped fighting and Cassandra narrowed her eyes back at Kamiki. "You know what kind of monster the King is," Izumo growled, though she had sweat coming down both sides of her face as she seemed to realize all of the soldiers in the room were glaring at her now for insulting the Queen. "Yet you have us fighting good people because they dislike him too. That's what I call cowardice."

"Watch your tongue girl," an older Amazon warrior growled over in a deep voice to the teenage girl.

"Izumo," Rin whispered, shaking his head. "It's alright. We'll be okay. You shouldn't have-"

"Don't say that now that I've already done it," Izumo grumbled back at him, though her voice was shaky as she did.

Cassandra marched forward and though she had a pained expression on her face, she stated firmly, "There is no other way. Speaking against the King is treason."

"I'm going to kick the King's ass though," Luffy said, a confident look appearing on his face.

A woman holding a bow on the left side of the room scoffed at him and said, "You have no idea how weak you are compared to the King."

"It's not just him though," Nami called out. Some of the women looked her way skeptically wondering if she was talking about herself. Nami shook her head and continued loudly, "Timmy Turner is also going to fight the King." Nami realized that no one around her had recognizing looks on their faces, so she added, "He's incredibly strong, powerful enough to destroy planets even!"

"Goku too!" Usopp shouted, the sniper holding his left bicep where he was slashed by an arrow a minute ago. The females all around the room looked at him in surprise and Usopp smiled hopefully, "Yeah! That Goku! He's planning on fighting the King and we're all going to help him!"

"You're telling me you know Son Goku?" Cassandra asked. She closed her eyes and imagined the face of the spiky haired Saiyan, then snapped them open and narrowed them at the figures in front of her. "Where are these heroes you speak of? Why are they not here with you?"

"They're preparing for the fight with the King other places around Aebrith," Killua growled over at the woman who he was still annoyed at. He chose his words carefully though, "Goku would be sure to protect you if you chose not to follow the King anymore. Meruem can't stop him."

"Meruem," Queen Cassandra repeated in a whisper. A few others in the room looked at the Queen in shock that she would refer to the King by his actual name instead of using a respectful term instead, while most were confused having never even heard the King's name out loud before. After a few seconds, Cassandra rose her arm and said softly, "Lower your weapons." Her soldiers stared at her in shock and she looked closely at the silver haired teenager who was looking her straight in the eyes. "You there," she said, and Riku nodded back at her. "Explain yourselves. What is this plan you have?"

Most of the soldiers in the room lowered their weapons and many of the pirate crew relaxed too, though they were still on guard as it seemed they could be attacked at any time. Riku started explaining to Cassandra a plan that did not really exist but could very well come to pass with the help of Goku and Timmy. Most of it was lies, but they were lies to get them out of a very dangerous situation. He could tell that the Queen of the Amazons did not want to be a part of the Cooperative though, and he hoped that even the small hope he was giving them with their fake plan to stop the King would be enough for her to let them go.

While they discussed however, a single figure in the shadows towards the front of the room opposite Cassandra stepped out into the night. She walked down the dark rocky path outside of the largest building in their small country, and ducked behind a smaller hut that had no lights on as the warriors who lived there were currently at the main hall. She had on a white mask that had red triangles painted near the top and sides of it, a smile of white teeth on the bottom, and cat ears sticking out of the top. She wore a tight black outfit that accentuated her curves and had long black hair falling in front of her shirt. "Cheshire," a voice said on her right as she walked through the shadows.

The woman tensed up and spun to the right where she did not see anyone. After looking into the darkness for a few seconds though, a silhouette emerged and walked towards her. It was a man with a black cloak and a zipper going straight down it from the bottom of the hood down to his feet. He reached up and grabbed the top of his hood though, taking it off so he could look the woman in the eyes through her mask. "The Queen backed down," Cheshire said in a hushed whisper. "The Amazons will likely switch sides if they are given the opportunity."

"Hmm," the man with short blond hair and diamond earrings hummed to himself. He looked past the girl reporting to him and then back at her and nodded. "Good work," Luxord stated. The Organization member chuckled to himself and continued, "That bit of information just saved your life. The coming destruction of the Women's Kingdom does not necessarily mean the loss of everyone inside its borders." Luxord chuckled again and a black portal opened up beneath his feet. "Finish up your work here and return to Twilight Town. You do not wish to be here when Amazonia is Scorched." His voice faded away as the portal closed behind him and Cheshire nodded her head, her mask hiding the bead of sweat rolling down the side of her face.

Back inside the Queen's dining hall, Riku, Nami, Robin, and Killua were creating a story that they hoped would come to pass. "We really can beat the King," Nami said, confident in what she herself was saying. "These guys can beat him, but Goku will do it if they can't."

"Goku can stop him," Riku agreed. "There's nothing that man can't do."

Luffy wanted to mention that he would beat the King first, but he was lost in a different train of thought. _I brought my crew to this dangerous place and let down my guard when they gave us food. Riku and the others are doing their best to get us out of it, but I messed up. I said we could trust them, because Sweet Pea and Marguerite liked them, but, I led my crew right into a trap._ Luffy's eyes shifted to his left side where he saw Usopp grabbing his muscular bicep tightly, while blood dripped between his fingers. He frowned deeply and glared back at the Queen of the Amazons, but he could not even feel that angry at her at the moment. _I knew we were in Fire Nation territory, I should have known not to talk about that. I put her in a hard spot._

"Luffy?" Nami questioned quietly, and the pirate captain turned right in surprise. He looked into his navigator's eyes, while Robin was continuing to explain how great their chances were of defeating Meruem. "It's okay if we don't spend the night here," she whispered. Luffy glanced around the room and he frowned at many of the women still glaring their way, hands clenched around their swords and bows as if ready to resume attacking at any moment.

"We're leaving." Everyone in the room spun to the rubberman. Robin and Cassandra stopped their conversation and turned to Luffy as well. He reached behind his back and grabbed his straw hat, then lifted it up and put it down over his unkempt black hair, pressing some thick strands down and partially shadowing his face. "Right now," he finished, and turned right to one of the doorways that was blocked by women.

Queen Cassandra opened her mouth to tell the pirate to wait, but before a word could come out of her mouth, Luffy took a step and the pupils of his eyes dilated. Small white circles appeared in the centers of his eyes, an aura surrounded his body and expanded to cover the entire room in an instant before anyone could dodge, and fifty women with wide eyes suddenly collapsed when those big eyes rolled back into their heads. The crowded doorway was suddenly open, and Luffy turned his head and glared at Cassandra who still had her mouth open, waiting to see if she had anything to say about what he just did.

Cassandra closed her mouth and looked back at Luffy wondering what to say to the man. Every one of her soldiers were collapsed on the ground, all except for Izumo Kamiki who was looking around in shock as she had no idea what had just happened. All but one of her subordinates were on the ground, no longer able to hear what she had to say. Cassandra turned back to Luffy, and a smirk spread across her face. She cracked her neck to either side, then said, "I hope you all succeed on this mission of yours. Just to let you know, I was a superhero on my world- Wonder Girl!" She posed with a fist held up above her, and the pirates in front of her, even Luffy, stared blankly at the girl whose personality suddenly shifted a hundred eighty degrees.

"Name's Cassie," she said, as if introducing herself for the first time. Izumo looked at the Queen with wide eyes, and Cassie turned to Izumo, "Don't tell the others about this, but I'm actually really glad you stopped the fight like that. My advisors were very insistent that we attack these pirates," Cassie glanced down to her sides at very muscular and much older women who she was surprised Luffy's will was powerful enough to overwhelm. "And don't worry, I'll make sure you don't get punished for that, so you can stay if you want." Izumo nodded slowly at the Queen who until now she thought was a lot more serious of a person.

The Queen looked back at the pirates who were all looking at her with varying looks of unease and confusion. "I really am sorry, and there is something else I wanted to say before but couldn't because of the consequences it would mean for my people." Cassie smirked and continued, "I hope you defeat the King. And I'll make a promise right now, a secret promise," she added in a whisper. The young woman stood up straight and she looked very serious as she finished, "When the time comes, I will rise up with my people to help you. You have my word."

Luffy did not respond. He turned to the door and walked out. Robin started walking after him, and Usopp clenched his arm tight for a second, before lowering his blood-soaked hand and nodding towards the Queen. Riku began while the other Straw Hats left, including Sanji who Nami had to drag away as he was hoping to stay forever, "Thanks Cassie. We'll remember this, and I look forward to the day we're fighting together, on the same side." Riku lifted his right hand, and a flash of light created a Keyblade that he gripped and swung in front of him.

Cassie stared at the weapon with eyes as wide as saucers. "Is that-" A flash of green light surrounded the muscular pirate sniper walking out of the door, and Usopp turned his head and muttered a quick thanks to the silver haired teen behind him. The Keyblade vanished as fast as it appeared, but when Riku turned to follow Killua to the door, the second to last person as Rin and Izumo had walked out together a few seconds before, the Queen of the Women's Kingdom stopped him. "Keybearer," she whispered. Riku paused near the door, and Killua tensed up but did not stop his strides. He walked out then stepped to the side of the doorway so he was out of sight of the two inside, while keeping close enough that he could hear what was being said inside. Riku looked out the corners of his eyes towards the blonde girl, and Cassie whispered, "Where have you been? The world is in disarray, full of darkness, despair… where have you been?"

Riku's eyes darkened and he bowed his head a bit. _Contributing to that darkness._ He hardened his expression though and kept walking to the door, "It's none of your concern."

"I am the daughter of Zeus!" Cassandra yelled to the doorway. Riku froze, and she continued, "The most eminent God on my world. I know things-"

"Where is the Keyhole?" Riku questioned. No response. _I tried, Sora._ Riku did not turn around, he just said quietly to the woman behind him, "If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you really can't help me." Cassie looked at the floor and her expression became downcast. "But Cassie," he began again, and the girl lifted her gaze back up. "That promise to help when the time comes, I hope you don't just mean against the King. There will be a greater battle. I don't know where or when, but it will come…"

"And I will fight with you, Guardian," Cassandra replied, sounding as serious as she did when she pledged her help a minute ago. Riku turned to the side and watched as Cassie bowed her head to him. _Guardian,_ he thought as he stared at her, bowed in clear respect for him despite not knowing who he was, or what he had done. _I don't deserve that title. I have not yet proven myself to be, a Guardian of Light._

* * *

 **2,200 Miles North and 17,000 Miles East of The Women's Kingdom**

"Go for it Yamamoto!" Tohsaka Lin shouted. Lin pumped a fist in the air, then the girl leaned back where she was sitting and rested against the pack behind her. She was sitting on a blanket with two other girls, one of whom had a much larger bag than her own open, and was pulling out drumsticks of juicy meat to chow into.

The former pirate woman wore a white tank top pressing tightly against her large breasts, and had on a long pair of brown leather pants. She wore a green hat over her pink hair that fell behind her back all the way to the blanket below it was so long. Jewelry Bonney lifted the thickest chunk of meat she had stuffed in her bag, and she took a massive chomp out of it for her first bite. "You aren't taking part?" the third girl on the blanket asked the woman next to her who was chewing very loudly. Asuka Kudou received a grunt in response and she sighed but looked back herself where the other two women were looking.

Yamamoto Takeshi had a single sword drawn clenched by the hilt with both of his hands. He held the hilt right in front of the center of his waist with the blade pointing out and up a little towards the opponent facing him. The man facing him also had one sword drawn, but held it in his left hand and kept the other curled into a fist at his right side. He wore a black muscle shirt with long sleeves, a pair of black pants and dark shoes, and he had a green haramaki around his stomach with two extra swords strapped to it near his right fist. Roronoa Zoro stared seriously over at his opponent, both of his eyes focused, his mouth in a straight line, his un-scarred face showing little emotion.

 _Time to break in this new gigai._ _Urahara-san said it should be stronger than that last one._ Zoro cracked his neck to either side, then rose up his Shuusui and blocked the blade that came down towards him. The swipe was aimed at a spot that would kill a human, even though Takeshi would never strike to kill, which Zoro knew from fighting at his side for two years. Seeing the blow coming for that spot then did not make Zoro wonder why Takeshi would strike there, he instantly figured it was meant to be blocked, and Zoro parried away the first strike then turned his blade the other way and blocked the second blade that Takeshi unsheathed. _Even if he knows he won't kill me, there would have been no point in practicing a move that would kill a person, which means he intended to practice the second slash. However he knew I would block that too._ Zoro was already turning his blade and blocking the next strike, and the one after, all while standing in the same spot.

Takeshi was circling Zoro as he swung over and over, until he swung down both swords at the same time. Zoro rose Shuusui and blocked, but as Takeshi put all of his force into his two weapons, Zoro felt the presence coming from his blind spot, and it was coming fast. The blonde woman in a suit of armor leapt up in the air, her body spinning around as she did so her round combat dress lifted out to the sides. She had blue steel spaulders on and cloth beneath the rest of her silver armor, and she wore a blue bow that kept all of her gorgeous blonde hair in a ponytail as she rose with her broadsword extended and glowing. Saber dropped and yelled, "Haa!"

 _ **CLANK!**_ Saber's long steel sword slammed into Sandai Kitetsu, a blade lighter-colored than the dark Shuusui. Zoro unsheathed it and rose it behind his back while still holding off Takeshi with his other hand. Saber dropped to the ground as even after her full-force swing from the air, she could not break Zoro's defenses and get to him. Zoro suddenly pushed back, and Takeshi and Saber skid away on the grass. They were stopped on a grassy field still a hundred miles away from their intended destination, but they had been traveling so much on foot over the last few weeks that they had finally agreed to come to a stop for a rest day. Not all of them were as into resting as others.

The two who skid away pushed their feet down hard to stop their momentum away from the green haired swordsman. Saber bent down her knees and lowered her sword down to her right side where it glowed blue. Her eyebrows narrowed and her eyes glared at Zoro's feet that still had not moved once. The woman shot forward like a missile, and Lin called out her best friend's name as she did. Lin called out Takeshi's last name too when he ran forward with one sword down to his right side and the other to his left. "Shigure Souen Fourteenth Offensive Form: Rising Rain!" the twenty year old with spiky black hair shouted. He brought both swords at his sides up in a single strange swipe, one that skimmed the top of the ground as Takeshi ran over it.

Those watching the fight lifted their eyebrows or opened their eyes wider in surprise as the grass around him lost its green color. Out from the dirt ahead of Yamamoto, rose a ten foot wall of water that moved forward towards Zoro. It already rose only ten feet away from him, and Saber was only six away when he caught a glimpse of it rising from the earth. Zoro slashed Shuusui down towards Takeshi and split the incoming wave in half, while swinging his Kitetsu across the other side of his body and also making a flying slash come out towards Saber. She swung her glowing blade up though and parried his flying attack, though it did slow her down. He focused back on his other side though, as once the wave started splitting in the middle, Zoro saw Takeshi falling through the wave towards him with one sword risen high. The other sword Takeshi had to his side was the one Zoro had to focus on, as he knew the one more theatrically risen would be a feint.

Zoro smirked though, and he slashed his Shuusui to the left towards part of the falling wave, instead of towards the younger man falling towards him. The falling figure's eyes opened wide, then the illusion vanished and Takeshi was gone, stunning half the people there who did not know what Takeshi did with the reflection off the water. The half of the wave that Zoro slashed at split and the man diving through it at that moment had a split second to raise his sword when he heard Zoro's attack coming with his Observational Haki. The slash still knocked him back over fifty meters, and he hit the ground on his back before flipping up and landing on his feet to continue skidding away.

Zoro refocused on Saber who had only slowed for a second, giving him enough time to knock Takeshi back and turn back to her before she reached him. When she swung the glowing blue sword though, Zoro's eyes darted to the left, and he shot his right hand down to his side and flicked the white sheath resting there. A weapon flew out of the sheath and right in between Zoro's teeth where he clenched hard, then spun his head to the side and rose two swords together, while blocking Saber with only his Kitetsu. The wooden sword that swung down at him got blocked by the crossing point of Zoro's other two blades, while Saber pushed her entire body into the swing she made against Zoro's third blade, so that all three of his blades were shaking. Zoro's knees bent, and the ground below him dropped into a five foot wide radius crater full of dead grass. His feet skid back an inch, then he uncrossed all his swords and the two opponents flew backwards.

Gintoki Sakata landed on his feet and stumbled back a few steps. He scratched the side of his head and mumbled, "Yeah, didn't really think that was going to work." He picked the moment Zoro had been under the most pressure to move fast for the entire fight, but all the green haired swordsman had to do was pick up his speed even more to stop him too. Gin checked the wooden sword in his hand and he examined the point on it where he slammed it into Zoro's. _Next time, use Haki._ Gin covered the wooden sword in a black coating from the hilt his hand was gripping tightly, all the way to the tip. He slashed it down with one hand, then glared back over at Zoro who started walking forward until he was out of the hole.

Saber looked angry after that last parry, and Lin got a little nervous seeing that look in her friend's eyes. "Hey Saber, why don't you come eat with us?" Lin called over. She was having a nice picnic with the other two girls in their group, but Saber ignored Lin and rose up her sword by its golden hilt so the weapon was pointed straight up in front of her chest. The hilt was not the only thing that was gold in a second however, as Saber's entire weapon started to glow the same color. Takeshi came jogging back over, and seeing the way the other two fighting Zoro with him looked, he thought there was only one course of action. Both of the swords in his hands flashed dark purple and then black like his hands around their hilts.

Zoro tilted his head to the side, lifted up his left hand, and tapped a button on his neck that was invisible to the human eye. It blended in with his skin, but he pushed it in and there was a loud click, before Zoro was gone. At least, the gigai he was wearing vanished, and Zoro stood in its place in a black kimono, holding a tiny capsule in his hand. He slid the swords he had been holding back in their sheaths, tossed them to the side, then said, "Lin." The black haired girl with long pigtails watching from the side looked over, then rose her hands in surprise as the capsule his gigai was in was already flying her way. She caught it, but when she opened her mouth to complain, the four swordsmen in front of her vanished and reappeared in the air above the crater they made a minute ago, swords clashing and gusts of wind flying everywhere.

"Stupid shinigami," Lin muttered, pocketing the capsule as she said it though. She continued cheering her friends on, while Asuka questioned if she would like a glass of wine. Lin nodded at her, and the other girl who had long brown hair with two red bows in it unlike Lin's black ones at the tops of her black pigtails poured them a few glasses. Normally they did not drink this early in the day, but it was supposed to be their break day and they figured that meant from their normal healthy routines too. The two teenage girls clinked their wine glasses together once they were full of red wine, then the ground shook and they each spilled some of their drinks on themselves.

"Rrrggh," Asuka growled, snapping out of her good mood instantly. She jumped to her feet and turned, ready to join in, only for a man who was standing twenty feet to the right of her to step forward and draw her gaze.

Asuka looked over in surprise, while the ninja wearing a white mask over the bottom half of his face reached up and grabbed the wide sword off of his back. Kubikiribouchou looked like it weight easily a hundred pounds, but Zabuza held it in his right hand outstretched straight in front of him without his arm shaking at all. He slashed the weapon once and thought, _Going into shinigami state so soon. You're gonna make them think they made you do it, but you just wanted the rest of us to stop standing by already._ Zabuza could see across the field, a man who was half machine was moving around carefully with a katana sparking lightning in his right hand. Raiden was not the only other person about to hop into this fight, as a cluster of eight shuriken flew up in the air from some tall grass eighty meters to Zabuza's right.

Zoro leaned his head to the sides to dodge most of the shuriken, but he swung his Zanpakuto before the final three reached him. The wind strength from his slash redirected all three shuriken so they flew back into the tall grass, and a ninja leapt out from hiding and into the air. Hattori yelped in panic as his weapons came flying back twice as fast, and now he had three cuts in his clothes as the shurikens had pinned down his legs and right arm without so much as nicking him. He ground his teeth at how easy that was for his opponent, but when he dropped to the ground he leapt backwards with a sheepish look on his face, deciding not to pull out the katana sheathed on his back.

Zabuza saw one other figure waiting to get into the fight, but the ninja swordsman from the Hidden Mist Village decided he was going in first. He took a step and lifted his free hand to make a hand sign, but something caught his eye and he froze. Zabuza's head snapped left and he looked past the girl looking his way in slight surprise that he was about to enter the fray. Zabuza looked over Asuka's head and the other two girls', making Bonney lift her gaze and turn around as soon as she noticed it. They both watched as the black dot in the distant sky got closer, but then Bonney sighed and turned back to the girl next to her and kept talking to Lin.

The ninja swordsman lost some interest as well, but seeing as no one else was focusing on it anymore, and Bonney never raised her hand, he grumbled in annoyance and did it instead. Zabuza rose his left hand with his index finger pointed straight up. He curled it in towards himself while looking out at the shape in the sky, and the bird that had white feathers, a yellow beak, and a white hat on, turned his direction and started flying over. The News Coo dipped out of the sky and flew to Zabuza, carrying a stack of rolled-up newspapers in a pack around its left shoulder. There was a small red bag around its neck, and the bird that landed in front of Zabuza kept one of its wings held over the paper bag while eyeing the scary-looking ninja suspiciously.

"Stupid bird," Zabuza muttered, while reaching into his pockets. He pulled out a couple of coins, and the bird looked at him skeptically as if asking, 'Really, that's it?' Zabuza growled at the creature, but the News Coo did not like that and it flapped its wings down. "Oi!"

"Here," Asuka walked over towards him and she pulled out a ten dollar bill. Zabuza took it and held it towards the bird that flapped its wings slower and lowered back towards him. He slid the money into the red pouch, then reached into the bird's bag and took out a newspaper before the bird could do it itself. Zabuza held up the paper and waved it around, showing the bird that he could have taken it at any time faster than the bird would have noticed. The man had a pissed-off look in his eyes and the News Coo gulped before lifting off and flying away twice as fast as it flew towards them. "No need to be cruel to the poor thing," Asuka scolded the older man. "It's just a bird."

Zabuza did not respond to her. He looked at the newspaper's front page and hummed to himself at the news of the Battle Royale. He opened the paper up to the second page where there was more information, but there was a loose piece of paper inside the Aebrith Daily. This was not unusual, as there were often notices and posters shoved into the newspapers, so Zabuza ignored it for a moment as he continued reading about the Battle Royale. Mainly, he looked down the list of contestants and some information about their fights, and the scoreboard on the bottom of the second page. The swordsman growled deeply as he saw a couple of names he recognized. _Those Resistance guys we asked said that these guys, 'Kuwabara' and 'Black Star,' were with Gray. Why isn't he there? Are you really dead?_

The loose paper sticking between the next pages started to slide out of the paper. Zabuza grabbed it before it fell and decided to glance at the page before he would crumple it up. He glanced, then the glance became a stare, a stare with widening eyes as he examined the paper from top to bottom. "Huh," he muttered. "Oi Zoro!" He shouted towards everyone fighting. Takeshi had just hit the ground and was ready to jump back up and join the fight, while Saber was in the middle of clashing her sword with Zoro's. Mystogan had thought he finally had a moment to jump in, and Raiden was going to sprint forward as well from the other side, but everyone turned towards Zabuza as there were few reasons he would interrupt a fight like this.

Zoro looked down with his Zanpakuto in hand, somewhat annoyed like the rest of them were at the ninja for interrupting. Zabuza had a newspaper in his hand though and Zoro grimaced as he wondered if this was going to be bad news. He dropped out of the air so he was a few feet in front of Zabuza, and he walked towards the man who out of everyone in the group, he had been traveling with for the longest. "What is it?" He questioned the Hidden Mist ninja.

Zabuza turned the wanted poster in his right hand. Zoro's eyes opened wide in shock, then he looked to the bottom of the picture and his shock was replaced by a smirk. He chuckled, an audible laugh came out of his mouth. _Twenty million dollars for a first bounty. Taking down the Lord of the Dread Fort. Luffy,_ Zoro looked at the smiling face of the pirate in a straw hat on the poster in front of him. As he looked at the poster, his smirk lowered. His thoughts got darker and he turned his head to look into the distance.

"What's going on?" Lin asked as she walked over.

Mystogan floated over as well and landed down on Zabuza and Zoro's left side. Zabuza turned the poster and showed the others near them, and while Mystogan and Takeshi who was already walking over looked at it in surprise, most of the others did not know what was going on. Jewelry Bonney was still sitting over on the blanket, but when she looked over and saw the poster, she called out, "Wasn't that Straw Hat your Cap'n, Zoro?"

 _You won't be satisfied just taking down a Lord. Damn it Luffy,_ Zoro sheathed his Zanpakuto he was still holding to show the fight would still continue in a second, and the other fighters all catching their breaths looked confusedly at him. _After taking down one of his Lords, Sozin's not just going to accept this._ "We're heading back south," Zoro said. He was loud enough to be heard by all of his friends around him, and even those who knew who the man on the poster was before Bonney mentioned it looked towards Zoro in surprise.

"We are?" Zabuza questioned with lifted eyebrows.

"What about Rakushou?" Lin questioned. She looked annoyed and pointed a hand to the east, "We're not even two days away."

"After we spent all that time coming up here," Asuka groaned.

Raiden slowed down as he neared the group that he was farthest from in the first place. "What happened to looking for that friend of yours?" He asked. Zoro, Mystogan, and Takeshi all looked back thoughtfully and Raiden continued, "The Ren Empire has the most slaves of any region of the Cooperative. There's also the largest slave market in the world in Rakushou, even bigger than the Captial's. We make it there, we can find where practically any slave on the continent is."

"It, could be worth it," Takeshi began, turning towards Zoro to look him in the eyes. "Just to head there real quick?" He offered, hoping Zoro would agree.

Zoro shook his head, and he turned to face the southwest. "We need to get to Pyraxas as soon as possible," he began, his tone dark. _If I don't find that idiot first, he's going to get himself killed here. Luffy, do you have any idea what you're doing?_

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed! Queen Cassandra (Wonder Girl from Young Justice) turns on the Straw Hats after Luffy is heard talking about kicking the King's ass, but luckily before things could get too out of hand, Izumo Kamiki causes a break in the fight by standing up for her old friend Rin. The Straw Hats leave, and Cassie gives them a promise to rise up when the time comes, however, there are dark forces at work inside her kingdom... The second half of the chapter saw Zoro's group on their search for Gray, but now it seems they have a new destination. Does Zoro know something Luffy doesn't? Or is he worried for nothing? Everyone's heading to the same destination! Thanks for reading!**

 **Young Justice: Cassie (Wonder Girl), Cheshire**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Riku, Kairi, Luxord, Organization, Keyhole, Guardians of Light, Saix**

 **Blue Exorcist: Okumura Rin, Izumo Kamiki, Uke**

 **One Piece: Zoro, Luffy, Nami, Robin, Franky, Usopp, Sanji, Sweet Pea, Marguerite, Jewelry Bonney**

 **Fate Stay/Night: Saber, Tohsaka Lin**

 **Problem Children Are Coming From Another World: Asuka Kudo**

 **Hitman Reborn: Takeshi**

 **Naruto: Zabuza**

 **Fairy Tail: Gray, Mystogan**

 **Magi: Rakushou, Ren Empire**

 **Metal Gear Rising: Raiden**

 **Gintama: Gintoki, Hattori**

 **Avatar the Last Airbender: Fire Nation, Sozin**

 **Fairly Oddparents: Timmy Turner**

 **DBZ: Son Goku**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Killua, Meruem**

Guest chapter 59 . Aug 15

Great chapter with the battle royale, Xemnas is now a high lord, not to mention Donald and Goofy as slaves, I wonder where mickey will be, and I also want to wonder where pete and maleficant are, I last saw maleficant saving pete from being crush during the collapsion Castle Oblivion.

And one more question, nexus 7-1 HWR were all going to die, natsu attacked this car shifting robot, was that wheelie, poor wheelie, speaking of wheelie, did Optimus and the autobots make it to nexus?

 **Glad you liked the chapter! Glad you still remember Pete and Maleficent, as they were some of the only characters in early Nexus who did not return to the fray during the Battle of Metropolis. No spoilers as to where they, or Mickey are, or the autobots for that matter XD! But if one Decepticon could make it to Nexus, then there's no reason to think that others from their universe couldn't have come too. (Could have been Wheelie, I'm pretty sure he was the one I was thinking of when I wrote it, even if I never mentioned his name). Thanks for the review!**

Joebob323 chapter 59 . Aug 17

Hmmm... This chapter has soooo much to consider, in terms of character interactions. The way the King acted around Krillin makes me want to say that he really won't fight Goku due to the debt that he owes him, but the other part of me knows that Goku will probably hear all these horrible things the King has done and try and defeat him. However, this fight will probably be weird and not a clear black and white fight, such as "you are the villain and I am the hero". Lastly, Timmy seems to be in quite a pinch, I wonder where he is exactly, as well as whether or not Gon is dead...

 **Thanks for the review! Lots of mysteries still surrounding the King, Gon, Timmy, etc... but I like what you said about the "black and white fight" 'cause that's really what I was going for making the bad guys in charge of this continent. On Awul, the criminals were clearly the criminals, terrorists, and monsters messing with a pretty good world, and Luthor was shown always being manipulative and evil. The NEG were more split in how to view them as heroes or villains, or neither in some instances, which we might be seeing more of here on Aebrith. Meruem didn't kill Krillin, and who knows if he'll try to kill Goku or not when they meet? But what we do know is that Goku came to Aebrith planning on fighting the King, so there's going to be conflict between the two of them... at some point ;). Hope you liked the chapter, and thanks again to you and everyone who read, reviewed, faved, and followed this story! 'Till next time!**


	61. Nexus HWR 10-3 Close Encounter

**Nexus HWR 10.3 Close Encounter:**

 **Cataclysm**

"You're serious? Luffy has a bounty?!" Natsu exclaimed, though in a whisper-yell as even he knew not to shout something like that, especially considering where they were. Even at the volume he exclaimed at, a few of the others darted their gazes forward and back in the train car to see if anyone was looking at them oddly. Guards had made patrols through the train a few times now, but no one had come to check their tickets yet, so all of them were getting anxious about that.

"Shh," Gray shushed, looking really annoyed, mainly at himself for mentioning it in the first place. He nodded his head once it was silent in the booth though, and he continued to whisper, "I saw it right before we left the ticket booth. Twenty million dollars is a huge bounty, bigger than any I've ever had on my head."

"You had a bounty?" Ben whispered with wide eyes.

Gray nodded his head just once, then continued, "All the land just north and around the entire west side of the Fire Nation is controlled by the Organization, and they are close allies of the Fire Lord. Everyone from here to the Capital is going to be hunting Luffy down now." He quieted down and the people on his side of the booth understood why. He looked across the table between their seats and into the eyes of each person with him individually and seriously. "Don't forget your bags when we disembark."

Ben tensed up, then purposely calmed down as much as he could and leaned back with his arms behind his head. _"'Disembark' will be the word I use when the ticket-checker is coming over. Don't forget the story. Don't hesitate to answer questions. Don't draw attention to us."_

Kairi turned her head to the left and gave Kirito a smirk. She locked elbows with him on Dash's left side, and she said, "I'm so excited to see Pyraxas."

Kirito smiled faintly back at her. "Yeah, me too," he responded. He kept his eyes calm, though under his breath he whispered, "Sora's going to kill me." Kairi giggled as she heard what her friend said, and Kirito smiled a little more genuinely at the laughter he got out of her.

"Tickets and identifications please." The two kids on Kirito and Kairi's right side turned and looked up first. The three Fairy Tail mages on the other side were already looking up at the man since he had approached from in front of them and it would have been strange to avert their gazes. Kirito and Kairi turned last, looking surprised at first, then reaching down for their pockets when they saw who was standing there.

 _Kirito and Kairi are playing this perfectly,_ Gray thought, while he himself had his arm around Juvia's shoulders (having made sure she was on his right side at the start of the trip so that he would be able to at this moment). He lowered that arm now though to reach into his pocket and grab his ticket, along with his identification. "Ben, Dash, get your tickets and I.D.'s out." The boys across from him were staring at the train staffer waiting for their tickets, and also at the two guards in armor who were holding weapons behind him. They had spears in their hands with glowing orange parts on the sides of the spearheads that had openings on the end presumably for some far-ranged attack capabilities.

"Boys," Kairi said, and the kids snapped their gazes to her, then back to the guards as they reached into their pockets to take out their tickets and I.D.'s too.

The man asking for the tickets had a sharp mustache pointed out to the sides, and a bun over his head similar to other Fire Nation soldiers they had seen before. The two guards behind him were bald and burlier, but just like the one in front, their eyes were discerning as they examined the passengers before them.

 _Worst comes to worst, I blast our way out of this._ Natsu thought, while at the same time handing over his I.D. like the others with him.

 _Just like Gray said,_ Ben thought as he handed his I.D. and Dash's over at the same time so the younger boy didn't have to reach past him. _If Dash and I don't seem nervous that might look suspicious, but if we give our I.D.'s to them too fast, they might suspect something._

The leader of the group of three examined their I.D.'s very carefully. Gray felt nervous as the man reached his, but despite the woman at the ticket booth calling him out on the fake, the guard passed right over it. _That woman must be really good. Sokka said the fakes were top of the line._

"Natsu Dragneel," the thin guard began. He was not wearing armor like the men behind him, but he had a pistol at his waist, and wore red and black colors like other members of the Fire Nation. He looked into Natsu's eyes and the pink haired mage stared straight back.

"What?" Natsu asked.

Gray turned his head to his left at the Dragon Slayer who he narrowed his eyes at. _Careful Natsu._

"This I.D. has you marked as rank orange," the guard said. Natsu smirked, and the man humphed at the cocky look on the young man's face. He had a follow up question, but the threatening look in Natsu's eyes after he humphed actually made him believe the orange rank may have more merit to it than he originally thought. "Dashiell-"

"Dash," Dash interrupted, correcting the man hastily.

Ben snickered at the name he had only learned just earlier, one which Kairi mentioned to the old woman who made their I.D.'s, to Dash's dismay. The guard was not as amused, and he narrowed his eyes at the small boy who leaned back at that look. "Your last name is Parr, yet none of the, _adults_ , in this booth share your name. Why is that?"

The way the guard hesitantly said the word, "adults," aggravated a few in the booth who felt like he was insulting them, but Kairi was not so easily upset. She smiled up at the guard and spoke up, "Dash hasn't seen his parents since arriving here on the First Day, so we've been taking care of him."

The guard kept looking at Dash while Kairi spoke, and when she finished, he said in a low voice, "Benjamin Tennyson, what about you? And this time," he continued quickly, while lifting his gaze and glaring towards Kairi, "allow the boy to answer for himself."

Kairi's bright smile lowered down, and she nodded respectfully at the thin man, while at the same time, Kirito and Natsu were giving the man dark glares. Ben took a deep breath, then looked into the guard's eyes with dark ones of his own, "I found my parents on this world." The others in the booth turned towards the thirteen year old and said nothing, making sure they did not look surprised, all of them staying in character, even though none of them were expecting that answer.

 _What is he doing?!_ Gray thought, while keeping a stoic look on his face.

"But they died," Ben continued, frowning deeper at the ticket checker whose expression softened a little at a look that flashed over Ben's face. Ben thought this may have been more difficult, tricking the guard into feeling awkward so that he would leave them alone, but he was able to come up with a dark expression pretty fast. All he had to do, was imagine each of the people around him, the day he saw them all die. His expression kept darkening as he sat there, because once he thought of one of them dying, he reimagined the entire day, and was watching Dash die in his arms as he whispered, "So Kairi and Kirito, and John and Juvia are watching out for me now."

He looked back up and into the guard's eyes, and the man stared back for a second before averting his gaze and looking towards Gray who re-faced him. He opened his mouth to ask something, but Natsu leaned over the table first and snapped, "What about me?" Ben turned to the Dragon Slayer, and his dark expression vanished, replaced with a smirk.

"What _about_ you?" Ben questioned back, only mentioning the other four older people's names on purpose a few seconds ago. Despite knowing that Natsu was probably the one looking out for him the most out here, he knew he would get a reaction like this from his friend. Natsu dropped his bottom lip for a second, then began yelling something about how he was watching out for him just as much as the others.

"When we're not looking after you," Kirito mentioned quietly, though loud enough that Natsu turned to him with risen eyebrows, going, 'ehhh?'

"Thank you for your service," the ticket-checker said, and everyone at the table spun back to the edge of it to see the man putting their identifications back down. He seemed convinced by the recent set of events, and he pulled out a hole-puncher that he quickly punched their tickets with. "Enjoy your trip to Shelbyville, though I would suggest spending some time in Pyraxas before you catch your connecting train. The city is quite beautiful."

The man's suspicious questions and attitude completely switched and he actually sounded, friendly now. Kairi was the first to smile again and she responded, "Thank you. We might just do that." He nodded at the girl, and she could tell that the nod was half-apologetic for the tone he used with her before. The man turned and continued walking down the car with the other guards, before stopping at another booth with other passengers who just got on at Sin City.

The group started up a pointless banter that did not make much sense, and kept it going until the guards left their train car. During the conversation, Gray noticed that Juvia was being awfully quiet, and he darted a glance to her to see what was up. She looked concentrated on something, and she was. Juvia was focused on the voices of the men behind her now, waiting to catch one of them mentioning something about their group possibly looking suspicious. Gray moved his hand to his side and grabbed Juvia by the hand under the table, surprising the completely focused girl and making her turn towards him. He had a reassuring look on his face and Juvia smiled softly at the look of it.

Once the guards were off of their car, most of the group turned to Ben with a questioning look. The thirteen year old shrugged his shoulders, "It worked didn't it?"

"It wasn't what I said," Gray scolded back. "You and Dash were supposed to say the same things."

"I think you sold it perfectly," Kairi remarked, making Ben beam towards her while Gray groaned and leaned back, annoyed at how casual his friends treated everything. He had already thought ten steps ahead for if they got caught, knew where to run, thought about whether it was smarter to highjack the train or jump into the Cataclysm, but they kept throwing wrenches into his plans.

Natsu opened his mouth to mention something, but was interrupted by a deep growl. _**Grrr**_ The others turned towards the Dragon Slayer who froze in place. He chuckled after a second and began, "Must be hung-" _**GRRR**_ Natsu grabbed his stomach and his face turned pale. "Oh no," he muttered, then his cheeks puffed out and turned purple in color.

"What's wrong?" Kairi questioned the man across from her.

"Motion sickness?" Ben asked. Natsu slumped over the table and looked like he lost all of his energy. The younger kid would have laughed, but he was too confused at the moment and went, "Wait a minute, we've traveled on vehicles a lot since getting off the Sunny, but you haven't gotten sick once!"

Gray turned to the side and his eyes were wide as he had not noticed until now either. "Right when we were getting off the ship, you got sick didn't you?"

Natsu nodded slowly with his chin on the table. "Stupid, idiot," he mumbled, the others barely able to hear him. He could see everyone looking at him confusedly, and he mentioned in a groggy voice, "I've been taking pills, ugh, since Dressrosa. That bastard Kyros, he never mentioned nothing about the effects, urggg, wearing off, though." Natsu dropped his face to the table, then slid backwards into his seat and collapsed into the most slouched position he could get in.

"Must be like Wendy's magic," Gray deduced. "After so many uses, sooner or later your body builds up tolerance."

"Greaaat," Natsu mumbled out. His friends started laughing and the mage closed his eyes, praying the train would get to its destination as fast as possible.

* * *

 **Below The Train That Gray's Group Is On**

 **TOOT!** **ChChChCh TOOT!**

"There goes another one," Killua mentioned, staring up and to the right at the stone pillars rising from the bottom of the Cataclysm.

The kid watched as a train approached from the distance south, until Nami shouted from below the rock he was standing on, "Will you pay attention?!"

"Sorry," Kil remarked with a laugh, turning back around and looking down at the monsters running at them from all angles.

"They're after our food!" Luffy shouted, a panicked look on his face. Coming at them from all sides were bug-like monsters with four ant legs, long mouths full of sharp teeth like those of an alligator, and so many eyes that it somewhat resembled a spider too. The canyon crawlers were heading straight for Franky and Sanji who were carrying the largest bags, and the ones full of all their food.

Hundreds of these monsters were crawling out of cracks between stone walls, out of fissures in the floor, even climbing down pillars around them. Robin looked around, and the dark-haired woman saw something straight to the north of them. "To the cliff!" Everyone turned her way, then followed where she was pointing and saw a pathway up the northern canyon wall of the Cataclysm that they had been able to see all morning and were already heading towards.

"I can take 'em!" Luffy yelled. "Gum Gum Gattling Gun!" Fists flew and canyon crawlers were sent flying all over the place.

"Luffy!" Nami shouted back, as she was already pretty far ahead having listened to Robin right away. "Who knows what else is waiting for us up the walls?! Let's avoid this fight if we can!"

The pirates and their friends continued running north, even though Luffy stayed back and fought the big bug monsters for a little longer. He turned around though as he heard a yell, and his eyes widened at the sight of more of the creatures coming around the sides of where his friends were running. The monsters were not after him, and he realized he was only fighting the ones trying to get straight past him now. "Gum Gum…" he threw a hand up a tall stone pillar near him, "Rocket!"

Luffy shot up in the air, did some flips through the sky, and dropped down in the middle of twenty canyon crawlers. Meanwhile, nearly a mile over the head of the pirate captain, a train shot across the tracks and passed them so that it was farther north. On the western side of the train, the side closer to where Luffy's group was traveling, a young woman with dark red hair leaned up against the window and stared down with eyes as wide as saucers. "Was that…" Kairi whispered.

"What?" Kirito questioned the girl next to him.

Kairi turned and she had a small smile on her face, the corners of her lips curled up just the tiniest amount. "I think," she began, then stopped herself as it sounded crazy. She turned back around, then looked to her friends again who were confused at why she looked so giddy. "I could have swore, that for a second, I just saw an arm down there." Her friends looked even more confused, until Kairi continued slowly, "An arm, stretching up."

"What?" Ben asked, jumping out of his seat and leaning over Kirito and Dash to try and see out the window.

"It was only for a second," Kairi said.

Gray looked shocked for a moment, then calmed himself and leaned back in his seat. "You probably imagined it," he said. He chuckled that he thought something of it even for a second. "Why would Luffy be down there?"

"Didn't you say it was a really dangerous place to travel across?" Dash asked. Gray turned to the kid and his smile started to fade.

"And Luffy _is_ wanted by the Fire Nation, so he wouldn't be able to use the train," Kirito added with a shrug. "Wouldn't be surprised if you really saw him," he told the girl on his side. Kairi smiled that he believed her, though Kirito stayed serious as he thought, _There have been weirder coincidences, like the guy guarding the Lazarus Pit being Killua's dad._ Kirito looked up a little and saw Gray looking back at him, wondering whether Luffy being below them a minute ago made sense or not. The two locked eyes for a second, before Kirito's eyes darkened and he narrowed his eyebrows, as he was already thinking about his mission with Gray before they looked at each other.

Gray felt his shoulder ache and he turned away, reaching up his right hand and touching his left shoulder. Kirito turned back to the window and looked out himself as they neared the northern side of the Cataclysm. Neither one of them noticed that the other two Fairy Tail mages in the booth saw the interaction they just had in silence. Natsu looked confused, while Juvia saw where Gray put his hand after they locked eyes, and her heart started racing.

 _Did Kirito have something to do with Gray-sama losing his arm?! I'll kill him!_ _But why didn't Gray-sama mention it to me? …Me? Why, didn't Gray-sama mention it to Juvia?_ Juvia glared down at the table in front of her, but after a second of glaring she realized that her hands were gripping the table so hard that she could feel it starting to crack beneath her fingers. _What the-_ Juvia stared at her palms as she turned them to face herself, then spotted something out the corner of her left eye and turned her head.

Natsu was looking at the table where Juvia was just gripping, his eyes wide, his heart racing. _"_ _She will start to thirst for blood, and then she will start to kill, and she will never stop. When the time comes that she can no longer distinguish between friend and foe, you will have to be the one to kill her. At that time, do not blame yourself. You will only be saving her from becoming even more of a monster."_ Natsu lifted his gaze, and looked shocked to see that Juvia was already staring into his eyes.

"Natsu-san?" Juvia asked.

Natsu smiled half-heartedly then turned back to Gray who he had initially turned inwards to look at anyway before Juvia's furious glare at Kirito caught his eyes. "What's up with you two?" Natsu mentioned, frustrating Juvia who could tell he was avoiding her gaze for some reason. Gray turned to Natsu and lowered his hand from his shoulder, while Kirito just glanced back, then turned to gaze out the window again. "Things have been tense since-"

"Nothing's tense," Kirito said, making the others turn to him and see he was still looking out the window. He brushed it off like it was nothing, but unlike the others, Natsu kept looking at Gray when Kirito spoke. Natsu saw Gray's face flush with guilt and regret, before he spoke up and agreed with Kirito that nothing was wrong between the two of them. _Gray loses an arm on their mission, but Kirito's the one who looks angry at him. I don't get it._ The Dragon Slayer shrugged as he figured since neither one of them wanted to tell him he'd have to leave it alone.

 _Now that Natsu mentions it, Gray's been averting his gaze from Kirito since they got back with Juvia._ Ben looked around at the group with him, and he frowned at all the tension building up between them. _What's going on? Juvia, Natsu, Kirito, Gray, it's like me, Kairi, and Dash are the only normal ones here._ Ben's right hand slid down to his pants, and into his right pocket where it wrapped around something cube-shaped and warm. _Normal? Is it normal to lie to your friends? I could have saved Juvia, but I didn't._ He clenched his hand tighter around the Eliacube, then let go and put his hand back on top of the table. _No, what I did was smart. The King would have shown up and killed all of us if I went back in time. Stop thinking about it!_

Ben leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes, while an announcement came on over the speakers telling them that they were approaching their destination. Next to him, Dash put his head back too and his arms behind his head. The relaxed little boy smiled and closed his eyes. _I wonder if JackJack is in Pyraxas? That would be sweet._

Kairi looked out the window as they started speeding across the northern landscape. Her friends all had so much on their minds, but she was just taking in the beauty of the Fire Nation's green lands and the small towns all over the fields and hills near them. "Wow," she whispered, spotting a city in the distance when she leaned her head closer to the glass. "Sora, I wish you could see this."

* * *

 **Northern Canyon Wall of the Cataclysm**

"Pyraxas?" Gimli questioned. The three and a half foot tall dwarf in a suit of armor scratched his long auburn haired beard that melded with his long hair and covered most of his upper body in it. "You're heading in the right direction." The dwarf with deep blue eyes examined the figures in front of him and chuckled, "You be heading into battle?"

Luffy grinned at the dwarf in front of him who he decided was a good guy, even though he had been telling himself he would take longer next time before trusting someone after what happened in the Women's Kingdom. Gimli chortled loudly at the smirk on the pirate's face. The dwarf who was standing guard at the entrance of a cave on the northern wall of the Cataclysm stepped out onto the flat stone platform jutting out of the steep slanted wall. Most of the group with the pirate in the straw hat in front of him were sitting down and resting as the northern cliff face of the Cataclysm was a lot steeper than the southern face that they slid and walked down a few days ago.

One of the group sitting behind Luffy looked towards the short hairy man and lifted his eyebrows. "How did you know?" Riku questioned the friendly-enough dwarf they just met.

"Why else would ye be making this trek? Most humans take those trains to cross this here crack!" He laughed again then pointed up the slant above the top of the cave. "I shouldn't be doing this, as King Anvilmar, the king of the dwarves, is a Lord under that bastard Sozin. But," he cupped a hand to the side of his mouth and looked like he was about to whisper, only to bellow at the top of his lungs, "Only a fool or a coward would bow to a slime like that!" The cupped hand to his mouth did not keep his voice from echoing back through the cave behind him, and Gimli looked smug at the aspect of someone else hearing him.

The dwarf put on guard duty for some "unknown" reason grumbled incoherently under his breath for a few moments before taking a deep breath. "So," he started back up to the pirate boy in front of him and looked up the slanted wall outside the cave again. "At the top of this here cliff, only a mile or so more to go, you'll be able to see that city in the distance. Ironforge is a massive city in these caves behind me, but our miles-deep forges have nothing on that great city. I should know. I helped build it."

"You built the Fire Nation's Capital?" Nami questioned as she stood up, stretching her arms over her head as she got ready to keep moving again.

"Thought you didn't like them?" Usopp asked, confused like his friend next to him.

Gimli smirked, "I don't! But they paid in gold, and they paid heftily." He rose up his double-sided battle axe that looked to be made of very strong steel but also glistened gold on the end of the shaft right before the steel head started. "HAHAHA! Enjoy the climb young warriors! I await tales of your victory over Sozin!"

"Well, we don't know if we're actually going to be-" Nami began.

Luffy threw his arms up in the air though and laughed, "Shishishi! You bet!" Nami could only groan and decided to leave scolding her Captain over not getting into fights in a little bit, they had time after all. The group said their goodbyes to Gimli and packed up any of the things they removed from their bags for the short break.

Luffy started climbing again more excitedly and the rest of his friends followed. The top of the Cataclysm was in sight, but the sun was out without any clouds and the trek was exhausting. They kept pushing themselves though, with their goal so close at hand it was tough to think of taking another break. Panting and sweating, the group of nine pushed up to the top of the cliff, before immediately turning around and looking back out over the giant Cataclysm. Even with the sun out, it was impossible to see the other side of the canyon, but they could see a great deal of it considering how far it dipped down in some portions.

Sanji tried to locate the Women's Kingdom but he could not see it from the edge. Nami thought maybe she would be able to see the Amazonian giants, but after two days of trekking away from their kingdom, she could no longer see the women ten times as tall as her. "That was a Super hike!" Franky said and posed with his arms diagonally up over his head. Rin nodded in agreement, though he was thinking of the demons that attacked them soon after they descended the southern wall, and the black cat sticking its head out of his bag licked him on the side of the face to try and cheer him up. Rin turned to Kuro and nodded, then turned around like some of the others already had.

The second the half-demon turned around, his bottom lip dropped and he let out an audible breath. "Whoa," he whispered. Rin gazed out to the east, and in the far northern distance he could see mountains so tall that he could not see their peaks, and even though there were clouds gathering solely in that area in the rest of the mostly clear sky, he could tell the mountains were taller than any he had ever seen before.

Luffy smiled wide as he examined the landscape in front of them. The train tracks going across the Bridge of Azulon continued north not far to the group's right side, but those tracks shot right through some towns before reaching the next station. "Look at all of that," Killua mentioned and whistled to show he was impressed. They could see the walls of Pyraxas from the cliff edge, and though so far in the distance that they could fit it between their fingers while their arms were outstretched, they could not believe how big the city was.

"Oh man," Usopp whispered. A few of the others looked at him to see what he was looking at, and saw he was looking straight out to the east. They followed his gaze and they became just as shocked to see walls in the distance. The walls were lower down than the giant ones surrounding Pyraxas, but to be that far away from the city they were wrapping around, the group understood the walls had to go for hundreds of miles around.

"That's amazing," Riku said. He turned to a large cyborg next to him and mentioned, "I bet it would take even you a month to build a wall like that."

Though Franky was admiring the brilliant architecture of the walls surrounding the distance Pyraxas and all the land around him, he scoffed at that and said proudly, "Give me a day and I'd build a wall twice as long and thrice as tall!" Riku could not tell if the shipwright was joking or not, and that only made him chuckle more.

"So many towns," Robin remarked, gazing around the lush green landscape within the outer walls. Her eyes lingered on Pyraxas, but she could not see all that much of it from this distance, especially with the high walls on the outside, and the even higher ones inside those outer walls. "It seems many in the Fire Nation live in the outskirts of its capital. The city must be thriving to draw so many even outside of the walls."

"Doesn't look like there are any monsters here though," Killua mentioned. He turned around for a second, then looked north again and said, "I wonder if anyone noticed we're here." A few of his friends looked at him confusedly, and Killua continued, "Someone must be watching the Cataclysm's edge to make sure no monsters climb over it. We should probably start moving in case they have guards patrolling around here."

"Just," Nami began, "give it a minute." Kil looked her way and saw her still looking over everything with such awe in her eyes. The beauty of the land was only matched by the structures and towns scattered around them. There were medieval structures made of stone, and towns made of logs or steel. Most of the buildings had the same style with roofs of red shingles, with little overhangs outside of every floor so that each floor had its own balconies. Doors were made of paper not glass, and most walls were made of bamboo likely cultivated from the bamboo fields between some of the towns. There were two rivers visible from the edge of the cliff, and even some large, docile animals grazing around.

Rin took everything in like his friends, but his eyes focused on Pyraxas before most of theirs did. _Yukio._ His eyes narrowed and he lost focus on the beauty of everything around him. _Astaroth is in there. I'll find him and make him tell me where you are, little brother._ He clenched his fists tightly at his sides, _"A_ _s you are now, you have no chance of saving dear Yukio." You're wrong Mephisto. I don't care why you aren't helping me, but you wouldn't have said anything if you thought I had no chance. I can do this. I can save him!_

The others who were looking around at everything noticed Rin's intense expression, and they remembered why it was they decided to come to Pyraxas anyway. _Astaroth is in there,_ Killua thought, while trying to keep his nerves under control despite the rumors he heard about the demon. _If that's just what a Lord can do, how strong is a High Lord? Is Sozin stronger than Astaroth? He must be. Maybe I'll find out just how strong inside._

 _Sozin. A High Lord. Saix was pretty strong, so I'll probably- definitely need Gear Fourth to fight him._ Luffy's eyes glanced over to Killua, before he looked out over the north again and thought, _It might be smart taking our time to get to him. He's so far away after all, and there's no rush._ He calmed himself down, as no matter how much he wanted to charge right in and fight the strongest guy in the city, there were other things he had to consider. _I won't lose any nakama in this city,_ he thought, and an adventurous smile came to his face. _We're gonna have so much fun here._ "Let's get going!" He called out and started walking forward over the grass at the edge of the canyon. "I can't wait to see inside that city!"

"How about this time, we go in without sending scouts ahead of us first?" Usopp mentioned. Riku turned to the muscular man on his right who spoke sarcastically, but was not smiling when Riku looked into his eyes. Riku knew the sharpshooter was thinking about how he used the Heartless back at the Dread Fort, and he grimaced at the look Usopp gave him.

"Yeah! I want to be surprised," Luffy agreed loudly, not sensing the awkwardness behind him. Luffy's shout seemed to snap Usopp out of it though and he turned ahead and ran up to his captain's side. Riku stared at Usopp's back as he talked excitedly with Luffy, and the silver-haired teen frowned deeply.

"Robin-chan! Let me carry you to…" Nami droned out Sanji's half-perverted half-chivalrous shouts to her left side, and she looked right at the tall young man with deep green eyes walking next to her. _Riku,_ she thought, while the boy in question stared straight ahead with eyes so far away. _What are you thinking about? Ever since the Women's Kingdom you've been, off._

 _Guardians of Light, what does that even mean? Am I only supposed to use the darkness when it's absolutely necessary? Why? When I can control it so well? … Well? What do you think? … Still quiet huh? I know you're still in there. I got used to having someone to talk to this about._ Riku waited while he continued to walk, then sighed and continued to frown in an unsure way. _What am I supposed to do to get him to forgive me? Maybe he never will. Why am I even focusing on this anyway? I have bigger things to worry about. Sora's gone off on a mission alone to find the Keyhole, Goku, Timmy, and King Mickey. Should I have gone with him? I have the Keyblade too, so why am I leaving it all up to him?_

"Riku, are you alright?" Nami whispered, and the man turned to look into her light brown eyes. He smiled at her and nodded, but she kept her facial expression serious and whispered, "It's okay if you're not. You can tell me."

Riku's smile faded. He thought about how Nami was there with him in the Dread Fort when Zexion showed them their worst nightmares. She knew more about him that anyone else in the group he was with, and a small, more genuine smile, returned to his face. "I know," he told her, in a voice that said he really did know that he could tell her if he wasn't alright. "And Nami," he added as he turned back forward, "thanks."

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 **A/N So that's where I originally ended the chapter, but... Something fun I wrote and couldn't figure out where to put, so here you go!**

 **One Week Ago**

"Now that Axel is once again with us, that leaves only one group of rogues unaccounted for," Xemnas sat at the highest chair in the circular room of tall white thrones. They all rose at least fifty feet off the ground but his was closer to fifty yards up.

Axel, despite only joining recently, was among the top ten highest chairs in the room. He leaned forward and questioned, "There were others?"

"Ha! Did you think you were some sort of special case?" Xigbar taunted his way. The man with a black ponytail and only one eye leaned forward and shook a fist in front of him. "Nah, there were some other guys who weren't too keen on staying here."

"Who?" Axel asked.

sc

 **1000 Miles Away**

 **The Great Ocean**

Next to a small island in the middle of the Great Ocean but closer to Aebrith than Awul, two ships sailed close to each other. The ships' starboard sides were both lined with their crews. They were sailing so close to each other that there would be a twenty foot gap between their sides, at _most_ , as they ran up alongside each other.

The crews were not focusing much on how close they were though. One crew stared at the black dragon figurehead of the other ship. They looked up at the sail and the skull and crossbones on it and on the black flag at the top. The sails were black and the skull on it was white, with two swords instead of bones crossing behind it. It was a very similar symbol to the one on the white sails of their ship that had a red dragon figurehead. The hilts of the swords on the black flag were gray, and unlike the red sash that went down over the left eye of the skull on the white sail, the sash was gray on the black sail's skull, and there were two of those sashes crossing over each other right above the eyes of the skull.

The crews stopped looking at how closely their ships resembled each other's, and instead shifted their gazes to the sides of the approaching ships closer to them. Every one of the men on the ship with white sails lowered their jaws, while the ones on the darker ship stared back with stern, hardened expressions.

"Uhh, Captain," Yasopp began. The sniper with long curly blond hair did not turn away from the ship they were sailing next to. He continued, "You seeing this?" On the ship twenty feet away from them, stood people who looked exactly like them. The Red Hair Pirates stood on the same exact spots as their counterparts on the other ship. Even the helmsmen looked over from the wheels and made eye contact at the same time.

"Drop anchor," Shanks called out. He stepped towards the ledge and looked out at the ship next to his. Another man walked up to the ledge of that darker ship, a man whose hair was jet black, who had scars on his face in the exact same spot as Shanks. "Hey there, Shanks?" Shanks greeted, raising his pitch to make it a question as he did not know whether this guy had the same name as him as well as his face.

"X Shanks," he corrected, his voice even sounding exactly the same to Shanks's.

"This is too weird," a fat man in a green and white striped shirt on Shanks's left side began. Lucky Roo looked into the fat man on the opposite ship's eyes, and the man glared back at him much darker.

"Who are you?" Benn Beckman called over. Their ships both were at a standstill, but Shanks's crew were getting increasingly nervous at the hostile expressions on all the cloaked figure's faces. Unlike their own brightly colored crew, every person on the ship with black sails wore a black cloak with hoods bunched up behind their necks.

The man who looked like Shanks only with black hair stared straight into Shanks's eyes for a few seconds longer. Then, he reached his hand down towards his waist, and Shanks did the same, putting his hand on his sword hilt. Then, the figure in a cloak calling himself X Shanks pointed a hand forward and yelled, "Got ya!" He tilted his head back and started cracking up at Shanks's sudden baffled expression. The rest of X Shanks's crew lost their hostile expressions and all started laughing too.

Shanks let go off his sword and he called over, "Who are you guys? You our counterparts from a different universe as us or something?"

"Haha, no, we're your Nobodies!" X Shanks called over. "But we'll talk more about that," his eyes narrowed and his men suddenly looked menacing again. Shanks's crew that relaxed became on guard again, then X Shanks yelled out, "Over drinks!" He reached down, grabbed a barrel that was hidden next to the side of the railing, then leapt over the side towards Shanks's ship.

The rest of X Shanks's crew came leaping over while the Red Hair crew groaned that these guys were just messing with them again. Benn Beckman did not relax as easily, and he turned his gaze to the man whose face looked exactly like his. "And who are you? X Benn?"

"Benn X," the Nobody said and Benn sweatdropped.

"All of you have X's either at the start or end of your names?" Yasopp asked his Nobody, Yasopp X.

"Or for Lucky, right in the middle," Yasopp replied with a laugh. Lucky X Roo grinned at Lucky Roo who blinked a few times wondering if this was really happening.

"Drink!" A voice shouted and both crews introducing themselves to or staring oddly at each other spun around. They looked towards the cabin and saw Shanks with his right arm over the cloaked figure's shoulders, and X Shanks's left arm slung over his Somebody's. They both had mugs in their hands and knocked them back at the same time. They chugged, chugged, finished at the same time, and both slammed their mugs down on top of the barrel filled with more ale.

"I like this guy!" Shanks yelled and then started laughing loudly along with his Nobody. The rest of the crews looked back at each other, then they all started grinning and drinks were poured. The party started with duplicates of nearly every person on the ship.

A man from X Shanks's crew was looking around and he turned towards his Captain and his counterpart. "Oi, where's my Somebody?"

Shanks stopped drinking to look towards that man, and his big smile wiped off his face. "Ahh," he sighed and lowered down his mug. "I don't really get what's going on, but Ricky died in the fight against Blackbeard's crew."

"Damn, we fought Blackbeard?" Ricky X said in annoyance. "Wish I could remember that, that was probably a great battle."

"And Sal?" X Sal called over from where he was drinking with the Yasopps.

Yasopp turned to him and took a drink before saying, "Luthor snapped in Metropolis and got Sal with a piece of his aura."

"The guy's aura alone killed my Somebody?" X Sal asked disappointedly.

"Don't be that bummed," Yasopp mentioned. "Luthor took a shit on all of us. Even the Super Saiyans were like rice paper to the guy, all but Son Goku."

Over with Shanks and his Nobody, and both of their first mates, Benn turned to Benn X and asked, "So what is up with all of you? What do you mean you're our Nobodies?"

X Shanks answered, "When you all got turned into Heartless in Castle Oblivion, we were created. This group called the Organization told us to go out looking for our originals to try and take their hearts..." Before he could continue, both Shanks and Benn tensed up, but X Shanks wasn't actually trying to mess with them and he held up a hand defensively. "I didn't really like that Xemnas bastard though, so we left the Organization."

"Abandoned those shitty names they gave us too," Benn added and took a chug from his drink. He started pouring another one and muttered, "What the Hell kind of name is Nenxb? Can't even pronounce that shit."

"Ha! Think that's bad? Try making an anagram with seven letters but only one vowel, two S's, a K, and an X in it!" X Shanks laughed. Benn and Shanks both tried doing it and it just hurt their heads trying to come up with something. They joined in with the laughter when they couldn't come up with anything and the ship got louder than ever.

The party lasted late into the night as Somebodies tried out-drinking their Nobodies and vice versa. It wound up knocking out the majority of both crews while those who remained just cracked up at them. Shanks finally turned to his counterpart, both with faces flushed red, and he asked in a slurred voice, "What's up, urp, with those black cloaks you're all wearing?"

"These?! Ah, we just wear 'em 'cause Xemnas knows where to find us if we aren't. I don't like him, but there's no denying he's a monster. All those High Lords are," X Shanks mumbled at the end.

"He's a High Lord?" Shanks wondered and looked up at the stars. "Huh, haven't been back to Aebrith in a while. Though we are sailing not too far off." He turned east and cracked his knuckles in front of him. "Looks like we've got a new destination! Guys! Let out the, sails..." Shanks fell backwards with his eyes closing and passed out upon hitting the ground.

X Shanks pointed and started laughing at his counterpart who had a snot bubble sticking out of his nose. He opened his mouth to make a taunt, then fell forward and landed crossed right over his Somebody's body. He was out before he hit the ground.

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed! I wrote the little part about Shanks' and his crew's Nobodies a while back, and figured here was a good place as any to put it. As for the main part of the chapter though, the close encounter is meant to show that the two group's timelines have now lined up. Since chapter 8 followed Luffy's group, and chapter 9 followed Gray's, many of the events happening in those chapters were happening simultaneously. We see in this one though that Luffy's group was already down in the Cataclysm for a few days before Gray and friends got on the train (though this is kind of my bad if it was confusing since I was switching back and forth between plots in the last few parts as if they were happening at the same time). One more thing, the canyon crawlers going after Luffy's group's food are from Avatar the Last Airbender if you wanna look them up. Let me know what you thought of the chapter below! And get ready for the next chapter- Nexus HWR 10.4 Pyraxas- City of Fire!**

joebob323 chapter 60 . 22h ago

Woohoo! That was a good chapter, we were introduced to many new faces, and finally got a glimpse of where Zoro was camping out! Nothing much to say, except that I am waiting for the next chapter in high hopes!

 **Thanks for another review! Glad you enjoyed and hope you enjoyed the latest chapter! Thanks again everyone for reading this story, and 'till next time!**


	62. Nexus HWR 10-4 Pyraxas- City of Fire

**A/N Hey guys! Before I start this chapter, I noticed that Heroes Will Rise already has over 700,000 words which I did not expect to happen this early in the story. The first Third of the Aebrith Saga is nearing its end with only three more (full) chapters to go, but I think before it does I will have already surpassed the number of words in all of Nexus! So I just wanted to say thanks to all of you guys who review to the story, I like to hear your ideas and feedback and a lot of the time take what you say into consideration when writing chapters in the future. Thanks to everyone who reads this too even without reviewing, and I hope all of you enjoy this latest chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: Still don't own anything. None of the shows, movies, animes, mangas, comic, books, etc. that you recognize characters, places, and situations from this story are mine. Support the official releases.**

* * *

 **Nexus HWR 10.4 Pyraxas- City of Fire:**

 **Palace of the Fire Lord, Pyraxas**

 _ **Tut tut tut tut...**_ The wooden clops of a man in a cream-colored robe echoed through the halls with every step he took. The figure had a long gray beard that ended in a point halfway down his chest and a mustache that stuck up on either side of his nose in smaller points. Above his left eye were two scars on his forehead just showing under the man's white and green hat. On the front of the hat was a yellow sun, a sun with two white curves in it that connected to look like a seagull.

The man walked down the hall and made a sharp turn right when he came to the door. As he spun, the white coat he had on over his cream robe flapped in the gust of wind. He faced the doors and the guards on either side of it saluted him with the hands they were not holding their spears with. The soldiers were each in full red armor, but their armor was thicker around the chest and back area and not made of steel but kevlar. They had on black helmets each with a single vertical red stripe down the middles of them, and black visors over their entire faces.

"Welcome Komei Taishou," one of the two guards greeted.

"The Fire Lord is expecting you," the other added. "The others are already inside."

Komei nodded his head and he stepped forward without a word to the guards. He reached the door and pushed forward, opening it without delay and stepping inside. The doors closed and clanked shut behind him, gaining the attention of close to a dozen figures who all looked his way.

The Fire Lord's chamber was magnificent: long red banners draped across the walls with the Fire Nation's flaming emblem proudly displayed on them, ornate stained glass windows of different colors, and marble pillars from the floor to the ceiling in two rows on either side of the room. Past the pillars there was more to the room, but those areas were darkened now and only the flames rising high behind the throne kept the great hall illuminated.

"Admiral Komei, good you could _finally_ join us," a snarky voice snarled over from his right side. A glance over showed Komei who it was leaning against a pillar and looking at him with hardly masked aversion. "What were you doing? Combing your beard?" Astaroth asked, and cackled to himself afterwards.

The demon in the body of a thirty year old man with short dark red hair cackled at the top of his lungs. "Brother," someone closer to the front of the room where the Fire Lord's throne was started. Komei heard this voice and darted his gaze over in surprise. When he first entered the room he checked everyone out, but this was one figure he did not recognize. The purple-haired man in a white suit tipped his white top-hat to Komei when he saw him staring. "I apologize for my brother's rudeness. He is-"

"Enough Mephisto," a voice said from the top of the stairs Mephisto was standing at the bottom of. Everyone in the room looked over including the demon who seemed lightly surprised he was interrupted. "Astaroth is one of my Lords, I'll scold him if I find it fit." The man started marching down the stairs, his steps echoing around the room covered in his own flames.

As he walked down the steps, indents on the sides of the staircase burst out flames. Metal lamps around the room on every pillar illuminated brighter as oil inside them ignited. Mephisto watched all this in amusement as it was his first time in the Fire Nation capital. He did not step back though as the Fire Lord descended his steps, and this kept the room absolutely silent. He was not in the Fire Lord's way at all, but the others who had all moved closer to the steps were giving him a wide berth and respectful looks.

Mephisto gave the Fire Lord a smile as the forty year old man descended. Sozin did not accept this. "Step back demon," he stated.

"I thought I was a guest," Mephisto said in mock surprise. In fact, he was wondering how this man would act if he treated him like an equal as he did Saix in the Dread Fort. _Though Saix was a Lord like myself. Sozin may think himself better because of his status as-_ Mephisto halted his thoughts as Sozin took another step down the stairs but was then down three more in an instant. The Fire Lord was only a few feet away from him now and flames rose up higher all around the room.

The flames on either side of the stairs, behind the throne, on every torch, and now in lines on the floor in between all the marble pillars were getting higher by the second. "You dare disrespect me in my own palace?"

Astaroth glared daggers into his brother's back, but the fact that he did not speak up said more to Sozin than to Mephisto. Sozin knew that Astaroth would, under normal circumstances, rip someone to shreds if they disrespected him. He did not assume that it was out of brotherly love that Astaroth did not charge Mephisto, but decided it was out of fear instead.

Mephisto gained a dark aura around himself, however flames continued to burn hotter and brighter by the second. Komei wiped some sweat from his brow that he could not tell was from the tension of this moment or the rising heat around him. After a few seconds of their glares, Sozin started to lift a hand, and Mephisto's dark aura disappeared at once. "My apologies," Mephisto stated. He moved so fast that most people in the room did not see him move. He appeared ten yards farther away from the Fire Lord and he bowed his head to the man.

The flames on Fire Lord Sozin's right hand flickered for a few seconds, then faded entirely. The rest of the room's flames returned to normal and everyone relaxed a little. Sozin waited a moment for things to settle, then turned right and stated, "Bring my great granddaughter in here."

A man standing on Sozin's right side smirked and nodded once. "You got it Boss," he said. The figure had a long jagged scar on his left cheek that went up to his left eye, his only working eye as the right was covered by an eyepatch. His left eye's iris was a deep gold and the figure wore a cloak, boots, and gloves all black as night, just like the portal that opened up when he lifted his right hand.

Komei glared across the room at the cloaked figure and the shorter one wearing a hood next to him whose face was shadowed over. His main focus was on the man with the eyepatch thought, _The Organization's second-in-command, Xigbar._ The Marine clenched his teeth hard at the thought of their dark organization.

Komei frowned even more at the screams that started coming from inside the portal. He watched as Xigbar clenched his hand around something and yanked it out of the portal by force. The scar-faced Nobody with long black hair tied into a ponytail behind him had his hand wrapped around the face of a woman with short black hair only a few inches long or shorter in some places. Xigbar held the squirming woman in one hand, before unceremoniously tossing her on the ground in front of him.

"You," she seethed, rolling over on the ground. Clenching her hands into fists she snapped her gaze up and looked insanely at the cloaked figure. "You, you, do you know, who I am?" She roared at him, strands of hair falling in her face and making the tear-streaked young woman look even more crazy. "I am the Fire Lord's blood! He will-"

"Azula," Sozin spoke, his voice low, sending chills right down the tortured girl's spin. "Do not speak for what I will do in my presence."

Azula slowly turned and figured out where she was. As much pain as she was in, she still found it in her to scramble to her feet and bow to her great grandfather. She had seen what her family does to other family members who do not show respect for her entire life. "Great Grandfather," she said while her head was bowed. Azula's eyes darted around and she fully realized where she was and who was present. Still, she could not hold her tongue and she seethed, "This _man_ left me in a dark void for months. I am sure you looked for me, but he-"

"Hold on there Princess," Xigbar remarked behind her. She clenched her teeth in rage and was going to shout but Xigbar continued first, "You were only in there for a couple of days. No need to exaggerate."

"Days?" Azula whispered, her eyes going wide. She looked back forward and saw that the Fire Lord did not say anything, proving that Xigbar was not lying. "But, I- and you-" Azula grabbed at her hair which she remembered was mostly gone and she freaked out again.

Right as she started to yell, Sozin said calmly, "You are stripped of the General rank I bestowed upon you before your journey south." Azula's jaw dropped as this was not what she was expecting upon finally being reunited with her great grandfather. She opened her mouth to protest but the flames all around the room flickered and she saw Sozin's eyes narrow at her. "Is that a problem?"

It did not take long for Azula to swallow her pride and shake her head. "No, of course not," she responded and dropped down to a knee in front of him. "My sincerest apologies for my defeat in the south. The Resistance had weapons we had no information on."

"What kind of weapons?" Komei asked. The Marine walked forward while making sure to keep an air of respect around him for their leader. "Would they pose a threat to Thymilph's squad-"

"Of course they wouldn't!" Thymilph roared, angered just by the idea. The light-blue gorilla beastman wearing silver armor over most of his furry body had long brown hair and held a massive war hammer that must have weighed twice his own weight. Considering he himself was five hundred pounds, the hammer weighed around half a ton. "None of those Resistance brats have put even the smallest scratch on my Ganmen."

"Nonetheless," Komei started again. "As the Chief Strategist, it is my duty to-"

"Komei, Thymilph, be quiet," Sozin stated. The two men shut their mouths. Mephisto grinned from where he watched with increased amusement. The Fire Lord wore a long red robe that fell to the floor past his feet and dragged behind him. He had on a small golden crown hairpiece that held his bun in place above his head. His eyebrows were sharp, his eyes sharper. His mustache and beard were similar to Komei's but less defined, smaller. The Fire Lord himself did not have a truly terrifying appearance, but the aura emanating out from his body made even the strongest in the room feel unsettled, nervous.

One figure did not get that sensation. He stood there less than five and a half feet tall with a black hood over his head, arms down at his sides, and cold eyes looking out from the shadow covering his face. Xigbar glanced down at the shorter Organization member to see how he was handling Sozin's presence, and he almost laughed as he saw the boy's bored look. He only _almost_ laughed, because Sozin decided to start speaking at that same time.

"We will be attacked within the next day or so," the Fire Lord stated. He said it so calmly that most in the room questioned whether they heard him right.

"Ehh?" A figure with blond hair and pointy ears exclaimed. He had stayed quiet so far, but this was news to him. The dark blond color of his hair matched the fur on the long thin tail sticking out behind him, and he had black tattoos around his right eye, the only eye visible as his left was covered by his long dark blond bangs. Jackal's hands were pitch black unlike most of his white skin color, and the farther up his arms one looked, the lighter his skin got with little patches of darkness stretching as far as his elbows. "Who's attacking? The Resistance?" He questioned skeptically.

"Speak out of turn again," Sozin started and turned towards the Tartaros demon. "And I will incinerate you."

Jackal frowned and closed his mouth in aggravation. _Not that it would do you much good anyway,_ the demon thought.

Sozin looked straight at Azula and he continued, "Scouts in Sin City recognized three of the fighters who destroyed your army getting on a train heading north. They were with another four comrades, one of whom used ice magic to create a sword."

Azula took a deep breath to calm down all the pent-up rage she had to quell for now. Then, in a respectful, calm tone, she started, "Did they give descriptions of the three? If I know who is coming, I can describe their abilities."

Sozin stared at his kin for a moment and then loudly announced, "Dr. Octavius."

Clanking of metal echoed around the room and they all looked towards the left line of pillars where a figure was coming out of the darkness. Xigbar watched the man use all four of his long metal legs to march across the floor and he laughed. "Oh yeah! Doc Ock, how're the new legs?"

The scientist walked into the light given off by the flames and he made a quick bow of his head to their High Lord. Doctor Otto Octavius had no flesh and blood legs to speak of, just stubs sticking out below his lower body, but he did have four long metal appendages sticking out of his back that he used to walk across the floor. The ends of each of his steel arms were claws that shook the floor with each step. He had on a lab coat and a pair of black goggles, but what Azula focused on was the manila folder in his right hand. He tossed the folder down and Azula snarled at him as it hit the floor at her feet. The doctor did not greet her, did not give her any respect, and it seemed like her great grandfather could not care less. She reached down to pick up the folder, thinking, _After I regain my honor, all of you fools will fall to my hands._

Azula opened the folder and she grimaced at the three pictures held on the top of the inside of the folder's left side by paper clips. Azula fully folded the folder inside-out so her father could see the pictures. She pointed at the small boy with blond hair on the left, "Speedster. None of my men, nor I, could follow his movements."

Komei scratched his chin as he thought deeply about what that could mean for their countermeasures. Azula continued, "The boy in the middle has a device capable of transforming himself into various powerful creatures. There seems to be a time limit on it as he often reverts to his human state for several seconds before returning to one of their forms."

"That matches up with Yunju's report," Thymilph mentioned. The others looked his way as the beastman scratched his chin. "His entire battalion of Chimera Ants were routed by the same child." The heavy figure holding a hammer smirked though, "However, he has a weakness other than that time limit of his."

"Which is?" Komei questioned interestedly.

Thymilph laughed out loud and Azula finished for him, "The boy does not like killing. In fact, none of them do." She shook her head at the naivety of it.

"So that's how so many of your men survived despite your humiliating failure," Xigbar taunted. "What was the point of running if they weren't going to kill you anyway?"

"The three of them were not alone," Azula yelled over, making Xigbar laugh more by her flustered expression. Jackal cackled as well and Astaroth laughed along.

"Does it give you..." Sozin began, and the laughter quieted down. "Such pleasure, insulting my blood?!" Flames erupted all over the room and it felt like a sauna as temperatures went well over a hundred degrees. Azula would have been grateful to her great grandfather if she herself was not in utter fear of being this close to him at the moment.

The room silenced. All they could hear were the flames dancing around them. Mephisto opened his eyes in surprise as for a second there, he saw Sozin's eyes glow bright white and the man's entire body pulse with energy. As soon as the moment started however, it was over. The flames died down, but the laughter in the room had ceased.

As Sozin calmed down, a black portal opened in the ground next to Xigbar's smaller comrade. The short figure turned slightly and looked up at the man who appeared there. Luxord had his black hood up but he leaned forward and spoke quickly and concisely to Xigbar. Sozin glared his direction and the man with short blond hair made sure to give him a small nod of his head before creating another portal to vanish into.

"What was that?" Sozin questioned Xigbar, thinking that it better be important or the cloaked figures would pay.

Xigbar tilted his head to the side and lifted up his palms. "Looks like those brats on the train are the least of your problems." Sozin's eyebrows narrowed as he did not like playing games. Xigbar held up his hands defensively as the heat turned up, and he continued, "Seems the guy who offed Saix is heading here right now."

Mephisto's face lit up and he smiled. _Perhaps I will not leave this city so soon after all._ The purple haired demon lifted up his white hat and did an extravagant bow. "If I may cut in," he interjected. "This man on his way, he is Straw Hat Luffy, correct?"

Sozin and most of the others did not look to recognize the name, but Komei's jaw dropped and his eyes bugged out. "L-Luffy?! Are you sure that was his name?!"

Mephisto turned to the man in surprise which was quickly erased as he recognized what the man was wearing. "Ah, you must be from the pirates' universe. I assume that means you were an old acquaintance of a former comrade of mine, Fleet Admiral Akainu?"

Komei's eyes got even wider, while Sozin narrowed his at the Marine strategist. Mephisto started walking towards Komei and he had a smug expression on his face. "In fact, I do not remember you at all in my time allied with the Marines. Are you a splinter faction?" He heard them call Komei the Taishou, or Admiral, so he knew this man was highly ranked in whatever Marines were here and he wished to see his power.

Komei's teeth clenched and he said in an aggravated tone, "That is correct. The Sun Marines are loyal to the Fire Lord, and only the Fire Lord," he specified, making a quick glance back to his High Lord to see if he was appeased. After saying it though, he could not help a certain name from going through his mind. _Tsuru-sensei..._

Xigbar cleared his throat loudly and obnoxiously to get the attention back on him. "Eh-hem," he continued and looked back at the Fire Lord, "That Straw Hat is bringing one of the Organization's worst enemies. He crushed Zexion in an instant from what I heard, and Zexion was a completed Nobody unlike myself."

"You're saying he's stronger than you?" Komei asked, still caught up on the whole Straw Hat thing, but able to focus on his job as tactician anyway.

"Probably," Xigbar admitted. "He's got a Keyblade," the dark figure stated. Most of them looked confused, though Thymilph's eyes did grow huge. "Apparently there are a bunch of others with them too, but I'd say the two of them are the strongest."

"Would you agree Lord Mephisto?" Sozin asked, not looking away from Xigbar as he did.

Mephisto seemed a little surprised by the question, but he only hesitated a brief moment. For the Demon King of Time though, a brief moment paused for a minute gave him certainly enough time to decide what to say. "Yes," he said. "Mugiwara and Riku were definitely the strongest of the bunch." He turned and glanced at his brother for a moment, _I will allow you to reunite with our brother on your own. I am excited to see it._

"Riku," Sozin said in a deep voice. _A Keybearer,_ he thought. "Hmm, I have no interest after all," he announced. Sozin looked back at Xigbar, "I assume you will want to take care of him?"

"Nah, do whatever you want with the brat," Xigbar replied, already smirking. "I've got a different target," he finished menacingly.

"I will dispose of him," Thymilph claimed in a booming voice. "I have a grudge against the Keybearer!"

"Do not decide on your own," Sozin growled in a voice that silenced the beastman. He looked straight ahead at a Marine doing calculations in his head. "Komei will lead the city's defense. You will all give him your full support."

"Understood," Thymilph growled, though it sounded like the words tasted bad in his mouth.

"Take orders from him?" Astaroth snarled, darting daggers into the human's side. He almost said, 'a human,' in as much disgust, but reminded himself that despite the majority of people in that room not being human, the High Lord commanding him was one.

"Correct," Sozin replied, and Astaroth's teeth ground in anger and frustration. "If that is all," he started and got ready to turn back to his throne.

"One moment great grandfather," Azula began. Sozin looked back at her and Azula was still holding the folder in her hands. "I did not get to finish my report earlier," she said it after remembering herself that she failed to report on the most important piece of information. "This man here," she said, and pointed at a picture of a young man with pink hair who had his face pointed forward so only half of it was caught on camera. "He has the ability to, eat fire."

"Eat fire?" Jackal asked.

"Yes," Azula said, making sure none of them thought they misheard her. "He can eat our flames. Every attack our army threw at him was nullified, but more than that, it seemed to make him stronger."

"That, could be a problem," Xigbar said and scratched the left side of his face right over his scar.

"Then he will be my number one target," Komei started. The others turned to the master tactician who seemed confident again, a grin on his face as he already had a plan. It sounded foolproof in his head, but there was one crack in it. "These two groups must not meet each other." Komei continued and looked very serious, "We can eliminate them all with very little collateral of our own troops and our city. If the two groups are to meet and join forces though, the results could be disastrous."

* * *

 **Pyraxas Central Station**

 _ **Ding Dong**_ "The Express Train is approaching its next stop. This is the train to, Gehenna. The next station is, Pyraxas."

"This is our stop," Gray muttered under his breath to the others in the booth with him. They were disembarking at the first stop after crossing the Cataclysm, though the train would be heading farther north after it dropped them off. "Remember, the I.D.s you got in Sin City are for life. Do something to piss off the wrong person, and you could be put on a kill list like that."

"Don't worry about it _John_ ," Natsu chided over. Gray's fake I.D. had worked out well so far, but he still looked nervous under the false name. The bullet train was slowing down and the group started getting up and grabbing their things. Kirito leaned up over their booth and grabbed his swords from the overhead compartment, (sitting down with them on his back was uncomfortable, even without his wings).

"What are we even supposed to be doing here?" Ben whispered as he got up and grabbed his backpack as well. He slid his arms through the straps and turned to Gray, "It's not like we got a briefing or anything."

Gray shot him a look to shut up and Ben sighed but did so. He got ready and turned to Dash who slid his stuff out from under the seat and was getting ready to depart too. "You ready bro?" Ben asked.

Dash nodded his head at his friend as he put on his own backpack. He looked both ways down the aisle of the train and saw people flooding out of booths and grabbing their things. The speedster looked at each of them and he thought about something Gray told him on the train ride. _My speed is more than just how fast I run. I can process things faster than anyone, but I still get caught off guard. I should know what's going on around me at all times._ His eyes darted around extremely fast, _Twenty three women behind me, thirty two men, five kids, eight soldiers, three strange green alien things. The soldiers, each one has a spear that doubles as a rifle it looks like._ He looked the other way and carefully examined the other half of the train car, and then stated only a few seconds after his friend asked, "Yep, I'm ready."

The kid had a confident yet cautious expression on his face and Gray nodded as he looked at the boy. The Resistance fighter who brought all his friends along to join his war felt confident himself as he gazed around. _Every one of them have some experience now. They understand that this is a war, a war with serious consequences. And unlike the war with the Underworld, the Super Saiyans and Timmy aren't always watching our backs._ He looked closely at Juvia, then to his own left arm, or where it should be. The ice mage nodded his head once the aisle next to their seats was open and he said quietly, "Follow me." Gray stepped out and followed some people towards the closest door on their train car.

Natsu, Juvia, Kirito, Kairi, Ben, and Dash followed Gray down the train to the door that they exited out of. They stepped onto the train platform and looked straight ahead with huge eyes. The seven of them had to stop and take a minute just to let it all soak in. Ben's bottom lip lowered and he let out an audible gasp. The train platform was elevated and the tracks went over most of the city, though there were splits on the bridges going around the upper railways that arced down into the city at different stations, while others still went higher up towards the upper city beyond a wall a few miles in the distance. The wall was very high, but the elevation of the land beyond it must have been pretty high as well compared to the rest of the city as the more fancy and expensive-looking buildings were still visible beyond that huge stone wall. One line of tracks went straight towards a magnificent palace at the very top of the city, a palace surrounded by tall walls that still barely rose up past the first floor of it so that the entire building was visible from the main station of Pyraxas.

The station the seven of them just got off at was the most crowded of any in the city, as it was the one that all other trains in the region needed to stop at to get over the Bridge of Azulon. The platform they were on was so crowded that they almost lost each other in it just by standing there and looking off the edge of the other side into the huge city. "It's bigger than Metropolis," Ben whispered in awe. He looked around at all the Japanese-style buildings with shingled roofs and sliding paper doorways, many with steps up to them as the houses were on wooden stilts to keep them elevated off the ground. The whole city stretched for miles in every direction, with walls cordoning off different sections of the area. There was a section with very tall buildings that had television screens on all sides of them flashing lights, but that was a small area that looked like it came from the future compared to the traditional style of the rest of the city.

"Guessing the Fire Lord is up there," Natsu said, staring straight ahead past miles of buildings and several different walls up to the palace. That palace was still only in the middle of the city, as there were just as many buildings, walls, and sectors beyond the palace as there were between the southern station and it. Natsu looked around and he did not notice any flying vehicles up in the air, and he furrowed his brow as he wondered why that was. _Even in that skyscraper, future-looking section, there aren't any hovercars. Guess they don't want anyone flying over the walls. Does that mean we'll have to show our I.D.'s to get farther up in the city? If so, will they even let us in those fancy areas, or are we going to have to start fighting less than halfway to the palace?_

"Oi Gray," Natsu began.

Gray turned and his eyes narrowed at Natsu angrily. "Wait until we find somewhere to rest for the night," Gray said. He literally seethed it through his teeth and Natsu realized why as Gray tapped at his pocket where he had his I.D. Natsu scratched the back of his head apologetically but Gray shook his head at him a few times and showed it was not forgiven that easily. They were deep in enemy territory now, and he needed Natsu to start taking it seriously, like calling him John Smith while there were Fire Nation soldiers on the platform with them.

"Find somewhere to rest?" Ben asked. "Isn't it a little early?"

Before Gray could respond, Kirito looked down at the kid next to him, "It's so we can put down our stuff, have somewhere to go back to after we, look around the city this afternoon." He chose his words carefully and glanced at Gray to see if that was good to which the older man nodded his head.

"Let's go then," Kairi said. She moved forward with a skip in her step and looked back at her friends with a bright smile, "I think this city is really interesting. I want to make sure we see as much as we can before we, _leave_ ," she finished and winked at her friends implying she did not really mean 'leave.' A few of them sweatdropped as they wondered what she thought was going to happen to the giant city while Kairi just giggled and turned back forward to head towards the stairs many others were descending down to head into the city.

The group followed after the crowd into a station beneath the tracks that had many different platforms they could head to for connecting trains. Although they told soldiers who asked them on the train that they were getting a connecting train to Shelbyville from the Central Station of Pyraxas, they were really looking for an exit. They heard some people talking about heading out into Pyraxas and Gray motioned his head at their backs to follow them to the exit they seemed to know about. They walked down a very long and wide hallway covered in shops and restaurants for people who had to stay in the station for a while depending on when their connecting train would be coming.

They were walking after the couple for a few minutes before the man came to a stop. The seven behind him wondered what was wrong, as did the woman next to him. The man turned his head to the left and looked out the corner of his eye at the people behind him, "Are you following us?" The young man asked. He had brown hair and eyes, his hair parted to the left side and was only three inches long falling flat on his head except for his bangs which stuck up. He looked no older than twenty, a tall and lean figure wearing a white button down and black pants. He had a pistol on the left side of his waist and he frowned at the people who he noticed were following closely behind him.

The woman next to him had longer brown hair falling down to her shoulders and she looked cautiously back at the group behind her and her husband. She had on a yellow t-shirt and a pair of brown pants, and after seeing who it was her husband questioned, she smiled and nudged him, "It's okay Shinichi." She looked down at the nervous looking boys who seemed to relax a little at her smiling face. "Do you need help?" The young woman asked, looking up at Gray now who had darted his eyes around to see if anyone else noticed them.

"Yes," Gray replied. "We were just looking for an exit onto the streets. Sorry for following you," he apologized to the man who the woman called Shinichi.

The guy seemed to lighten up after a second of staring at the group. "It's alright," he replied, a smile coming to his face. "We'll show you the way. I'm Shinichi Izumi by the way."

"Murano Satomi," the woman greeted too. The group behind them greeted her back and Gray used his fake name to the couple who did not seem to notice it. Gray was glad they did not and grinned once they turned around because none of his comrades made facial expressions of confusion or smugness when he said it this time. _They're learning,_ he thought.

"First time in Pyraxas?" Murano questioned and glanced back at the group who were closer to them now that they got permission to follow along.

"Yep," Kairi replied to the older girl. She walked up on Murano's left side as Shinichi was walking on her right, and Kairi asked, "What is there to do here? Anything fun for kids?" She questioned and motioned back at the boys she was pretending to look after, or at least the boys thought she was pretending though Kairi really meant it in the question.

Murano hummed to herself for a second but her husband spoke up, "There's always the theater." Murano smiled and nodded as she agreed with him. Shinichi continued, "The army shows off their fire powers in awesome displays every night. Different squads try to one-up each other, every night is different."

"That sounds fun," Kairi mentioned.

"Juvia would also like to see this," the blue-haired mage behind Kairi mentioned.

"The theater?" Ben muttered, glancing to his right at Dash. The younger boy stuck out his tongue and Ben nodded in agreement of the distaste for it.

"Haha," Shinichi laughed at the boys' reactions. He scratched his chin and then added, "You could also check out the Hanging Gardens. Though, you would have to get day passes into the Upper Residential Area for that."

"Day passes?" Gray questioned. He thought about the layout of the city after exiting the train and figured he knew where the Upper Residential Area was from his quick glance. "Where do we get those? And how?" He added.

"For non-residents," Shinichi began, "they're pretty expensive. Those upper-class guys don't really like us lower citizens walking around their sector."

As the man mentioned it, he turned the direction he was walking and cut left down a smaller hall. There were still a lot of people around them, but up ahead they could see a staircase with a lot of natural light flooding down from the top. What he just mentioned also made Gray curious though, and although the mage was getting prepared for their exit into the city and most likely an I.D. check, he questioned, "Do you live here?" The way Shinichi referred to himself as a 'lower citizen' made Gray wonder.

The man shook his head 'no' though. "We live in a town on the outskirts, near the wall thirty miles east of here," Murano explained. "Shinichi works in the finance district though," she continued as they reached the stairs and started going up them. She mentioned how the finance district was the area where all those tall skyscrapers they saw earlier were. She continued, "And I work for the military." The whole group with the couple tensed up and Murano noticed. She saw a few of them frown and she sighed, "I know," she said knowingly. "But it's good work, and I'm a nurse. I help those soldiers who come back injured from missions and excursions. They get to reunite with their families. It's not as bad as it sounds."

"Still," Natsu began.

Gray shot him a look, and the Dragon Slayer closed his mouth. He also wanted to tell Murano that even just helping their wounded was still siding with the Fire Nation, people he considered bad guys, but talking like that while they just reached the top of the stairs and there were dozens of Fire Nation guards in full armor just in front of them did not seem like such a great idea. There were turnstiles that people were swiping I.D.'s and walking through, and after that first part they had to walk up to individual booths where other soldiers were working, ones not in full armor and white masks like the guards holding glowing spears on both sides of the exit.

The group of seven watched as Murano and Shinichi walked forward, swiped their I.D.'s, and then showed them to the people in the booths who asked them some questions before letting them go on ahead. The couple stopped after getting their I.D.'s checked, looking back and watching as the group following them headed forward.

 _Like we practiced,_ Gray thought, really hoping none of his friends behind him would mess this up. He swiped his identification and walked through the turnstile, then handed it to the man inside the booth past it. He kept his face stern like the picture on the card showed, and the guy behind the glass looked down at the card then up at Gray before nodding his head. "What's your business here in Pyraxas?"

"Trip with the kids," Gray replied, motioning with his head behind him where his friends were. "Solely pleasure," he finished.

"Hmm," the guard hummed. He looked at the computer screen next to him, then back at Gray and handed the man back his I.D. "Alright, you and your family can go on ahead."

Gray nodded and then motioned at his friends to come forward. The rest of them came in and flashed their I.D.'s to the guard at the booth who just kept waving them by as it seemed he did not care to ask each one of them what they were doing there. They all walked towards Gray who led them away from the checkpoint and up to Shinichi and Murano who they thanked for leading them all this way. The couple said it was no problem and waved them off as they were heading right and Gray was leading his friends straight ahead.

The group of seven walked away but Kirito turned his head a little and glanced out the corners of his eyes back at the checkpoint. He saw the guard inside the box staring after them and a few of the armored guards in masks turned back to stare straight forward when he made his glance back. The teen frowned and looked back forward, _That went too easy. Gray's fake is supposedly good, but that woman in Sin City called him out on it right away. Maybe she's just used to more fakes than these guards are since she_ _ **is**_ _in Sin City. But, maybe they let us in on purpose. I have a bad feeling about this._

A hundred feet behind Kirito, the guard standing in the booth looked back at the computer screen next to him. He saw the seven photos on the top of the screen and looked below them at the I.D. pictures of the people who just scanned in. He looked back into the city at the people moving farther in and then pulled out the walkie talkie on his waist. "Admiral Komei," he began. "They have arrived. Heading north down Caldera Avenue."

"Very good," Komei replied over the radio. The Admiral of the Sun Marines stared at the television screens in front of him showing surveillance over most of Pyraxas, and he smirked as the three soldiers sitting down behind those screens showed him several camera angles of the seven who they were keeping a close eye on. "Kansho," Komei started, changing the channel on he radio in his hand. "Keep a close eye on them, make sure they find their ways to the Agnius Hotel so the operation can commence."

"Understood," a soldier wearing a Sun Marine jacket replied into his walkie. He lowered it back to his waist and clipped it on, then lifted back up his sniper rifle and looked through the scope down several blocks at the seven figures walking the opposite direction. He followed their path down two more blocks before lifting his walkie again and whispering, "Now." He watched as out from the road on the right of where the group was walking, a cart rolled by and a man chasing after it yelled at the group for help. He saw a teenager with black hair and two swords strapped to his back get in front of the cart and stop it, then watched as the man thanked him over and over before asking for help pushing it back up the hill on the previous road. There looked to be a semi-heated discussion between a few members of the group, but the teen finally accepted and pushed the cart back after the man, the man who would thank them by offering a free night at a hotel he co-managed after asking enough innocent questions to the group that they would let him know they just arrived in the city.

Kansho lowered his sniper as the group left his sight and he started running ahead, jumping onto roofs of small buildings while keeping out of sight as best he could. He heard voices over the walkie talkie on his waist and listened as Komei gave out more orders to their forces around the city. _We have to keep them from noticing that we're on to them._ The sniper thought, and when he reached a tall building that gave him a better view of the city he looked through the scope to check if the group was following their strategy. His eyes opened wide and he dropped down to the floor.

Kirito frowned as he stared over the roof behind him, knowing for sure he spotted that same figure who was watching them earlier just appear on top of a tall roof a half mile away. _We're being watched. Why? Do they know why we're here? Were there spies in the Resistance? Or did we just make too much of a name for ourselves south of the Cataclysm? Either way, we have to be careful of what we eat, drink… maybe even this man._ He looked back straight ahead but glanced out the corner of his eyes at the old man who was still thanking him for pushing the cart. Gray was talking with him and Kirito frowned as he heard the old man mention how he owned a hotel, _Yeah. Definitely a trap._

 _Crap, how did they know?_ Gray thought, while Natsu and Kairi were both thanking the man for offering and already accepting the free night. The ice mage kept from looking around too much, but he did notice Kirito frown and was glad someone else realized that there was something wrong here. _Alright, they let us into the city, which means they're going to try and trap us. It makes sense. If they know about us, especially Natsu, they would not want to get in a direct fight. They know where we are right now though, so the only way to fix that is to get somewhere hidden from sight, then start our stealth mission. They have us exactly where they want us right now,_ he put on a fake smile and thanked the old man, while thinking, _but this is far from their victory._

* * *

 **8 Miles South of Pyraxas**

"Yaaaawwwnnn," Kuro tilted its head back and yawned loudly. A few of the others around the six foot tall cat chuckled at how cute it looked even with its massive size. "Rin, I'm tired," the familiar told its Master. Rin sighed but opened up his pack, and the cat leapt up and turned tiny while in midair, landing inside the teen's backpack.

"Oof," Rin grunted. He muttered under his breath, "You just keep getting heavier somehow."

"Huh?" Kuro asked, poking its head back out of Rin's bag.

"Nothing," Rin replied. The thought of his cat yawning was stuck in his mind though, and the teen lifted his arms up and let out a yawn himself. When he put his arms down he looked out to the west and saw the suns on the horizon painting the sky orange and red. The red sun had just lowered enough that the bottom of it was no longer visible, making a beautiful sunset wash over the Fire Nation. Again Rin was impressed by it all, but he turned back and looked towards Pyraxas which they were getting ever closer to. "Hey guys," the half-demon began, and his friends in front of him turned around and saw him come to a stop.

"What's up?" Riku asked.

"Are we going in tonight?" Rin questioned. The others looked at him confusedly, then turned around and gauged the distance between them and Pyraxas. A few of them who had not been thinking about the distance suddenly noticed that there were still two small towns between them and the outer walls of Pyraxas. "It's going to be night soon," Rin added. "We might want to be well-rested before going in."

"Hmmm," Luffy turned and looked back towards the walls. "They're not that far away," he began. "But yeah," he said, and his friends turned to him in surprise at what they were hearing. "Let's stay at one of these towns tonight." The pirate captain gazed towards the nearest town in front of them and wondered aloud, "I wonder if the Fire Nation makes good food?"

Sanji scoffed and started walking forward as Luffy began to as well, "You won't find out tonight." Luffy turned his head and Sanji continued with a smirk, "Because I'm going to make some of my Hormone Stew to get everyone energized for tomorrow."

"Mmmm," nine sets of hums echoed out simultaneously. They had had Sanji's stew a lot lately and it always tasted different, but they loved it every time.

They walked towards the town closest to them where there looked to be an inn near the center. Usopp looked beyond the town though and he mentioned in a nervous tone, "How are we even going to get in there?" The others followed his gaze to the walls that looked bigger with every step closer they took. Riku opened his mouth to say something, but the idea he had suddenly did not sound like so good of an answer considering who was asking.

"I'll come up with something if they don't let us in," Luffy said. His crew stared at him like he was an idiot, wondering why they would even consider letting their group in considering the bounty on Luffy's head. The pirate captain just smirked though and cracked his knuckles, showing his comrades that he never really thought they would let him in without a fight in the first place.

Killua sighed and put his hands behind his head as he kept walking. He had a calm look on his face but did not join in the conversations going on around him. _We're going to walk straight up to the gates? Is he stup- Why do I even ask that? Still, this is absurd and no one's saying a thing. Luffy, I thought you were taking stuff more seriously. We're going up against a High Lord! Please, don't make me- No. If it gets to that, I'll leave. I'll just, leave._

* * *

 **Lower Residential Area, Pyraxas**

"It would just be easier to kill them all right now," Zachary Miller muttered to the taller man next to him. Miller wore an all-black suit of high-tech armor including helmet and visor, though the visor lifted up into the helmet as he spoke to the Sun Marine Admiral on his side. The two were standing on the roof of a four-story building in the center of southern Pyraxas and looking out towards one of the nearby hotels. "I could have my team in and out of there in ten minutes, plant enough explosives to blow them to the red sun."

Komei frowned deeply as that did not sound like a terrible idea to him. He began though, "The Fire Lord does not want a commotion made in his nation's Capital. The respect of the other High Lords would be lost if an attack could so easily be carried out in the heart of Fire Nation territory. We must be discreet about how we carry out the eliminations of your targets." Komei paused and his eyebrows narrowed inward, "In the off chance an explosion of that magnitude does not kill them, they would retaliate full force. We must weaken them first. Take no chances. That, my friend, is how justice will be served to these criminals."

Miller nodded his head and let his visor snap back down to cover his face. He did so because he did not want the intimidating Admiral in a white cloak with orange highlights on the outer edges of it to see the eye-roll he made after hearing that spiel about justice. The former space pirate turned elite guard of the Fire Nation's Capital zoomed in on the hotel they were observing from afar. "Still," he began as he caught a glimpse of what they were watching for, "this method, it doesn't sit well with me. Even I know, you never make a deal with the devil."

"Astaroth is not the devil," Komei growled back to the Captain of the Royal Palace's security force. The Admiral holding a fan of white feathers at his side glared out at the demonic form rising up the wall of the building, looking like a shadow as it wrapped around the windows of the floor they were watching.

Without the windows ever opening, the shadow moved inside, and Miller finished in a low mutter, "He's close enough."

* * *

 **A/N Thanks for reading! If you didn't recognize Vice Admiral Komei, he's from the One Piece special Adventure of Nebulandia as a very formidable opponent to Luffy and the Straw Hats, known as the Genius Tactician. Thymilph is from Gurren Lagann as one of the Spiral King's four generals, Jackal is one of the Tartaros demons from Fairy Tail, Doc Ock is from Spiderman 2, and Zachary Miller is a space pirate from the show Red vs Blue (he worked with Felix and Locus as a very, very minor character if you guys who have seen it didn't recognize him). Anyway, we get a whole group of villains inside Pyraxas who our heroes need to be wary of, not to mention Mephisto has returned and is hanging out in the city. Both groups are going to bed, and tomorrow, it's going down! Next chapter is called: Nexus HWR 10.5 Trap, so get ready for a fun one, and hope you enjoyed this latest chapter!**

 **-Here's a quick list since there are some new characters in this chapter.**

 **Parasite: Shinichi, Murano**

 **Avatar the Last Airbender: Sozin, Azula, Azulon, Fire Nation, Fire Lord**

 **Blue Exorcist: Satan, Mephisto, Astaroth, Rin, Kuro, Yukio**

 **Fairy Tail: Natsu, Gray, Juvia, Jackal, Tartaros**

 **Gurren Lagann: Spiral King, Thymilph, Ganmen**

 **One Piece: Komei, Konshu, Tsuru, Aokiji, Akainu, Luffy, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Robin, Franky**

 **Spiderman: Doc Ock**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Sora, Kairi, Riku, Xigbar, Xemnas, Organization, Luxord, Nobodies, Zexion, Saix**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Killua**

 **Ben 10: Ben**

 **Incredibles: Dash**

Guest chapter 61 . Aug 23

city of fire, cant wait to see that

 **Not much fire in the city of fire, unless you're in Sozin's flaming throne room! XD Thanks for the review!**

7lights13darknes chapter 59 . 17h ago

These past chapters have been amazing! Sorry i haven't made a review in a while. I loved the fight scenes. My favorite being gray vs darth bane. The whole fight to get to the pit was awesome as well. I don't think i have ever read a story with so much detail in fight scenes. Also no one else seems to make a big deal about this so i will... WE FINIALLY

Sorry thought i would stop doing that. SAW DONALD AND GOOFY! AND THEY ALMOST DIED. I was going to be so mad if they did. Although i have to be honest i am surprised Donald has survived for so long. I really like how kari is a mother figure to Ben and Dash, or should i say Dashiell?, i actually didn't know that was his name until tonight. I wasn't sure if you made that up so i looked it up and you were right. Also that whole scene with kari getting on to those two was both funny and cute. Please have more scenes like that. I like that we are starting to see more of the other team again. But i really want to now what has happened to timmy and goku. And of course i want to now what Sora and roxas are up too. I now axel was mentioned the last chapter i am guessing he is undercover so where are sora and roxas? The fight scene with black star was really good too. Whats really ironic about Donald And GOOFY showing up is that i recently got those giant chibi versions of them and Mickey. Also for more character ideas i was thinking of steven universe ( i would be surprised if no one else has suggested that.) and vultron legendary defenders. Apso where are all if the marvel heroes. You have had almost all of the main DC characters ( not that i am complaining) with most of them being dead but next to none one marvel. Keep up on the great work i will catch up as soon as i can. This is still one of my favorites by the way.

 **Glad to hear from you again, and really glad you liked the recent chapters! DONALD AND GOOFY! Haha, I was waiting for your review about them, and luckily they made it through the Battle Royale thanks to the gladiators not really wanting to kill each other. Kairi's staying positive as ever through this chapter too, and Luffy's group has come back into play as they're about to reach Pyraxas where the other group is already spending the night! Goku, Timmy, Sora, and Roxas all make their comebacks in the upcoming chapters (11 and 12 (or maybe even 10 ;P )) before the end of this Third of the Aebrith Saga. Just to specify, I've had most of Aebrith (Heroes Will Rise) planned out for a long time, and there are 3 times in it where crazy stuff happens coinciding with about a third of the story done. Anyway, Steven Universe is a great (and possible) option to add characters into this since I have seen some of it. I wanted to watch it so I could add them, but every time I try to binge I stop after a few episodes :(. A Marvel character (maybe a few) does have a big part to play not far down the road, 3 full chapters or so, and I encourage you to guess who it is. Thanks for another long review, and as always thanks to everyone who reviewed, faved, followed, or just read this story. Well, 'till next time!**


	63. Nexus HWR 10-5 Trap

**Nexus HWR 10.5 Trap:**

 **Lower Residential Area, Pyraxas**

"Sir, wake up."

Admiral Komei of the Sun Marines opened his eyes. The tall Marine stood up from the chair he was sitting in and grabbed his officer jacket off the table at his side. Komei draped the coat over his shoulders and stepped towards the edge of the roof. He picked up his fan and waved it at his face a few times, blowing wind at himself made him wake up faster, even if it was already chilly in this early morning. He stepped up to the edge of the roof next to a man in a Marine uniform with a symbol of a sun behind a seagull on his back. The figure standing there had a pair of binoculars in his hands, goggles pulled up over his big brown curly hair, and a green scarf wrapped around his neck.

Kansho held the binoculars to his side and Komei grabbed them from the best sniper in his forces. He looked through them and several blocks away through the windows of a hotel room that their roof had a perfect angle to spy through. _Kansho says he thinks one of them spotted him yesterday from a distance, but they won't be able to see us this far without binoculars._ Komei looked through the window and smirked at the placement of a mirror on the wall opposite it, giving him a view of the entire room from the distant roof. _They're waking up,_ he thought, though he did not need to see them getting out of bed to know it, as his men were ordered to wake him only once the enemies awoke.

Komei handed back the binoculars then turned and walked back towards the center of the roof. Behind the chair he slept in, Marines working all night were sitting in a line of three with nine computer screens in front of them. There were camera angles inside the hotel bathroom, inside the walls, all of them impossible to find with the naked eye for those inside the hotel room. Komei was not taking any chances that the group inside the hotel did not somehow hack the cameras overnight and put them on a loop however, and he checked to see if they matched up with what he saw in the binoculars.

"Hmph, they do not seem to suspect a thing," Komei said in a smug voice. "Commence Operation Separate and Destroy." He posed with his fan pointed at the monitors, and his men saluted back at him. Komei put down his fan that doubled as his weapon, then said in a commanding tone, "Go get some rest." As he said it, the door to the roof behind the monitors opened up and three men came out of it, replacements for the tired ones who worked through the night. His soldiers did not argue and got up from their seats with the replacements taking them right away and putting on the headphones the first team took off. Before the man in the middle put his set on, Komei held his free hand out in front of him and the soldier handed the headset to him instead.

Komei put on the headset and stared at the screen straight in front of him that had a wide angle of the three beds in the room on it. The pull-out couch on the side of the room was also partially visible, but the pink-haired man who slept on it was out of bed already. _The one who can eat fire._ "Come on, get up guys," Natsu grabbed the blanket on the bed closest to him and pulled it off with one tug. _The transformer and speedster._ Ben moaned and rubbed his eyes, but sat up on his bed so it looked like he was about to get up. Dash turned the other way though and curled up more, grumbling, 'five more minutes,' in a slurred, tired voice.

The Admiral's gaze shifted to another camera angle, this one of the bathroom. One of the couples who slept in the same bed were in the bathroom, still wearing what they wore to sleep, though that meant a long-sleeved black shirt and matching comfortable pants for the teenage boy, and a pink night-shirt and long pink pants for the teenage girl. _They have not acted much like a couple. Is that a ruse? Or is it because they are in a group that they rarely have time to themselves? At the moment though, they are the only ones in the bathroom._ Whether or not the two were actually in a close relationship mattered a lot to the Marine. In one case, if they weren't but continued to act like it while alone in the bathroom, they likely suspected they were being watched. If they were together however, that meant he could use one of them against the other in a future maneuver.

The boy standing in front of the mirror covered his cheeks, upper lip, chin, and neck in shaving cream, then picked up a razor and started shaving. He went from his neck up, so he removed the stubble from his cheeks last. Komei's eyes focused in on the horizontal lines on his cheeks a different shade than the rest of his skin. As he looked at the scars though, he shifted his gaze to the auburn-haired girl next to him who turned and rose a hand up to the boy's face. She brushed a hand gently over one of the scars on his cheek, then when the boy turned to her in light surprise, she gave him a soft smile. "You never talk about these," she whispered.

 _Kairi and Kirito,_ Komei thought, having gotten their names from the I.D.'s they used to get into the city. _They're a couple._ _Just like the other two._ Komei smirked and turned to a different camera angle that showed one of the muscular men in the room leaning off the bed he was sitting on and rummaging around in his bag. "Let's walk around for a little and try to find some breakfast, then maybe we'll check out the theater Murano mentioned. Just to see how much the tickets cost," Gray added, turning to the boy behind him on the farthest bed from his own since the middle one was empty.

Ben closed his mouth as he was about to complain about not wanting to go to the theater. "You say that now," he mumbled under his breath. "But later you're totally gonna want to buy the tickets too. Then I'll be stuck at a stupid show all night." The boy sighed, then looked next to him and nudged the boy under his blanket with his foot. "Get up Dash, we're all gonna be waiting on you if you fall back asleep."

"Ugghh," Dash groaned and curled up more in his bed. "Why are we getting up so early? The first sun isn't even all the way up yet." Ben sighed and looked down at his watch, then started messing around with it with a mischievous look on his face.

"Early bird gets the worm Dash-kun," Juvia said. She turned around from where she stood in front of the main room's wall mirror, doing her hair there since the bathroom was filled up.

"What's the boy doing?" Komei questioned, and the men in front of him focused on the screen that zoomed in more specifically on the bed Dash and Ben were on. Behind him, Kansho darted his eyes to the boys in the hotel room in the distance, but they were doing the same thing in the binoculars as they were on screen. Komei leaned forward and stared at the strange green device on the older of the two boys' left wrist. The camera zoomed in farther on the top of the device where strange black silhouettes were appearing. One appeared that the boy looked at with wide eyes, then he rose up his right hand high, making the three getting ready in the room with him look over.

Ben slammed down on his watch and a green light flashed in the room. When the light faded, the Marines on a roof over a mile away dropped their jaws. "Whooaaa," the creepy alien monster floating over Ben and Dash's bed said in a stretched-out voice.

Dash finally poked his head out from beneath his blanket, and he had a similar reaction to the alien above him. "Cooool! What's that alien called?!" The little boy asked, jumping up as it seemed like he was no longer tired. Ben floated there as a creature with eight long yellow legs wriggling around below his head where they all connected. His head looked even stranger, like a glass case with a big green brain inside it that had a few brain strands sticking down below it to connect to the lower body, and a few strands connecting to the outer glass shell of his head. On the outside of the glass shell on the front of his body, there was a dark green face that had lighter green portions like its circles for eyes and the lines for eyebrows and its mouth.

"I don't know, it's my first time using it," Ben said, his green mouth line wiggling around as he did. "I think I'll call it, Octopus Man!"

A Marine sitting on the chair to Komei's right cracked a smile, before dropping his lip back to a flat line as he could feel the Admiral giving him a glare. _This is good information,_ Komei thought, refocusing on the screen before him. _The device on his wrist, he does not seem to understand it fully. I do not know how long he has had it, but if he is trying new "aliens" when he fights, he does not know all of their powers and abilities. There are probably ones he is more trained with, but he is not utilizing his possible arsenal to its full potential. Stupid boy._

"Ben, stop messing around and get ready," Gray scolded the kid behind him who kept floating around the air like he was swimming in the ocean.

"Haha, in a minute," Ben said out loud. Everyone continued to get ready, in the main room, in the bathroom, while Ben's strange alien voice continued in their heads, **"Just kidding about that Octopus Man thing. This guy's name is Synaptak!"**

 **"Great job Ben,"** Gray thought, trying hard not to crack a grin as he started tying his shoes, which took him a while with only one hand. **"Now we can talk about the plan. Good job everyone on staying quiet, I didn't know if you all understood the signals I gave last night."**

 **"Almost didn't see that,"** Natsu admitted, while pulling his arms up and taking his shirt off. He reached into his own bag and grabbed a different shirt, this one a black tank top that held together in the middle by a thin yellow line he could pull apart to make it open down the middle. **"What's going on? I don't see any cameras."**

 **"No, we're definitely being watched,"** Kirito's voice echoed in their minds, even though he was in a different room than most of them. **"This is the only way we can talk for now. At least until we're out of this room. The guy who gave us the room here didn't just do it out of kindness, and that cart didn't just happen to roll past us."**

Natsu finished sliding his shirt down and his face looked a little more serious than when he put the bottom over his head. Gray started tying his other shoe, and Kirito and Kairi came out of the bathroom. Kirito walked over to his bed where he sat before taking out his swords and starting to sharpen them. He frowned at the blue one that was thinner than it used to be thanks to Ra's, and he focused his sharpening on that one to make sure it was still deadly in battle. Dash was finally getting up, while Ben kept floating around the room, before using his many arms to pick out a bunch of different shirts at the same time to see which one he wanted to wear today, and going with one of his normal white ones with a thick black vertical stripe in the center of it.

 _This is strange. They appear to be just, a normal family._ Komei became very on guard and his hand clenched around the grip of his fan, _Why are they here? We expected them to attack, but they talk about visiting tourist locations. Does this mean they know they are being watched? If so, then they are not speaking their real intentions out loud. Hah,_ Komei smirked again. _If they know they are being watched, it would have been smarter for them to make a fake plan aloud. Rather than pretending to be a normal family. Who do they think they are trying to fool?_

 **"…The plan relies on you. We have an arsenal of 10,000-"**

 **"Sorry Gray, more like 1,100. Still haven't gotten through all of them. But I'm really good with all the ones I do know."**

 **"I know you can do it Ben,"** Kairi thought, while humming to herself as she got ready like her friends.

 **"Where are we heading after we leave here?"** Natsu telepathically asked, while standing up and saying something pretty similar out loud.

 **"We do what we say we're doing out loud,"** Gray replied. **"Do everything a normal family would. Lure those watching us into a false sense of security. Even if they know everything about our activities in the south, just the sight of Ben and Dash acting like normal kids is going to trick normal Marines. Once we get somewhere we know for sure no one can see us, that's when Ben makes his move. Got it?"**

 **"Got it."** Six voices repeated in the ice mage's head.

A green light flashed around the alien in the room. Ben reappeared and he took the white shirt he was already holding and replaced the one he went to sleep in with it. He slid into a pair of green pants, and started putting on his white sneakers. On the other side of the bed as him, Dash stared inside his bag nervously, though he tried hiding it from appearing on his face. _I want to put on my super suit now, but it would totally give away what we're doing. Wait a second, I've got this._

Dash moved so fast no one in the room saw what he did, though a small gust of wind hit Kirito on the bed right in front of Dash. He lifted his gaze and saw the boy's clothes looked a little ruffled, and he could see some blue underneath the left cuff of his long-sleeved red shirt. _The windows are closed. There should not be wind in here, unless Dash just put on his super suit._ Kirito looked at the bag at Dash's feet, then back up at the kid who looked him in the eyes with large ones of his own as he did not think anyone would catch him.

 _Whoops,_ Dash thought, but Kirito did not mention anything about it, nor did he keep staring for more than a second.

All of them finished getting ready around the same time, even Dash who woke up late but moved extra fast to use the bathroom and brush his teeth. They all put their shoes on and headed for the door, leaving behind their bags in the room. None of them wanted to lose their belongings, but they mattered little at the moment, and some still hoped they would be able to come back to the hotel later on. Anything valuable they owned they kept on their person, or in the bags that Gray and Juvia were carrying around on their backs. "Water bottles, snacks, money, sunscreen, I think we're good," Juvia said, smiling at the man next to her as they walked towards the door in the front of their group.

Gray froze. All morning things had been going smoothly. What Juvia just said made his mind blank though. It distracted him from everything else and he turned his attention to her. _There is is again. "I think we're good," "I," Juvia never uses the first person. She didn't even notice._ Gray was not the only one who noticed this time though, and every person behind Juvia stared at her confusedly, even Ben and Dash who glanced at each other once, then back at Juvia wondering why she would say it like that, thinking that it might have been part of the ruse they were pulling on the Fire Nation. Juvia kept looking at Gray though, not at Kirito or Natsu who looked at her nervously, or Kairi who saw Natsu's reaction and turned to him, or the confused boys. The blue-haired Rain Woman looked at her boyfriend and questioned, "What's wrong, Gray-sama?"

Instantly, Gray's worry about Juvia vanished, because she just said something very, very wrong. His eyes opened wide, and hers did too a second later as she seemed to realize what she said. The others behind them opened their eyes wide or lowered their bottom lips, and Kirito said quickly, "Let's get going." He moved forward and since Gray and Juvia were blocking the doorway, the two of them had to start moving. _Oh crap!_ Ben thought, trying not to look panicked as he walked towards the door after all the others. Dash looked over his shoulder and Ben nudged him in the side, before wondering whether it was smarter to just let him turn around and look back on his own.

Their anxiety made sense, as on a surveillance roof over a mile away, three figures in front of Admiral Komei were typing away at the keyboards in front of them as fast as their fingers allowed. "Another mistake," Komei said, though he looked more serious now as he stared at the screens that stopped showing room surveillance, not that it mattered anymore with the room being empty as it was. The screens were showing Fire Nation databases, and the word 'Gray' was written across the top search bar. "Gray. We thought his name was John Smith. Find out if they are all using fakes. Find out everything you can about this Gray-"

"Found him, Gray Fullbuster," one of the soldiers in front of Komei began, while leaning back in his seat with growing eyes. "Whoa, five million dollar bounty in the Ren Empire, seven point five here in the Fire Nation, and…" the guard stopped reading off the page and lowered his bottom lip far. The other men around him looked at the screen and their jaws dropped, while Komei's face gained some sweat drops on the sides of it and he leaned in to get a better look at what he just read.

"Thirty million dollar bounty, recently placed by the Emperor himself," Komei muttered. He leaned back and started stroking his long gray beard.

"I'm heading out to join the tracking team," Kansho called back, and Komei just gave the sniper a nod. The man slid his goggles down over his eyes and put his binoculars away, making his hands free to grab his rifle with.

As Kansho leapt off the roof to head closer to their targets where he would follow behind them, Komei heard the door to the roof opening and turned to see a burly man turning sideways so he could make it through the thin doorway. "Dojaku? Why are you here? You are supposed to be preparing for Operation Separate-"

"Komei Taishou, this is important," the six hundred pound man said, interrupting the Admiral which showed Komei how important this was considering the respect his men usually had for him. The tan-skinned figure had heavy black facial hair that made a big bushy beard and a mustache that pointed out to the sides. He had two green hilts sticking up over his shoulders and large saw blades extending off of them strapped to his back. He had small eyes in comparison to his giant teeth in his smile that took up most of the bottom half of his face, wore a blue-and-yellow-striped hat on his head, and had big white loop earrings sticking through his earlobes. Dojaku ran around the computers and he panted a few times to show he had sprinted all the way here. "We just received new information from a source in the south, about other members of that group besides the three who routed Princess Azula's army."

Dojaku turned his head a little and saw a picture of a man on the screen with a few large bounties beneath his face. "Him," Dojaku began, and Komei frowned as he believed he already knew what Dojaku was going to say, and it did not deserve the disrespect his soldier just showed him. "He killed, Darth Bane of the Sith," Dojaku said, and Komei frowned even deeper as that was a name he had heard before, and he looked back at the picture of the man on the screens to his right. "And another one of them, the boy Kirito," Komei refaced his subordinate, and Dojaku looked very nervous, even gulping before he continued speaking, "He took out Ra's al Ghul."

"What? Impossible!" Komei did not believe his ears. _Ra's al Ghul, defeated by that boy?! I don't want to believe it... but I have to. To plan the defense of this city I must act in such a way as if that teenager is able to defeat the Demon's Head. Discovering the truth comes later._

"They are said to have taken out a large portion of the League of-"

"Dojaku," Komei interrupted, narrowing his eyes at the soldier before him. The larger man nodded back, wondering what plan the Admiral would come up with to counter this new information. "Return to your post, but for Operation Separate and Destroy, make sure to get the two of them away from each other. If together they can defeat the League, I want them far away from each other's assistance. Remember though, the priority one target remains Natsu Dragneel. Get him alone, and I will take care of it from there." He finished and swung his fan out to his side, while at the same time coating it in a dark black coating of Haki that gleamed in the light of the first yellow sun rising in the east. _Everything will go exactly as I plan it._

* * *

"…Well that isn't too expensive, let's come back here later," Kairi turned and flashed the others behind her a smile.

The rest of the group nodded to her, then Gray stepped up to the counter inside the lobby of the theater. "Excuse me, but do you know how much it is to visit the Hanging Gardens?" He asked the young woman with long red hair standing behind the counter.

"In the Upper Residential Area?" the ticket-seller questioned, before scratching her chin thoughtfully. "I only sell tickets for shows in the lower sections of the city, but I do know it costs five thousand for just a day pass to the Upper Residential Area. The Hanging Gardens are one of the key attractions of the city, I've heard in peak season they can go for over fifty thousand dollars, a person."

"Fifty thousand?" Gray repeated in a surprised, unenthusiastic voice. _Hiei made sure we had a lot, but fifty times seven is, three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Damn, spending that on a whim will make us stand out too much._ "Maybe, we'll check it out and see if it's a little cheaper today. It is getting chilly," he added, suggesting the season could be changing to one where the prices were cheaper.

The girl behind the counter looked surprised that even after she told them the price, they could still be considering it. Gray sighed and reached into his bag, before pulling out fifty dollars and putting it down on the counter, "Thanks for your help." If he was going to make it sound like they were rich, then he had to play the part and tip people for their assistance. "What do you guys think? Want to head to the upper sections of the city?"

Komei frowned from a roof across the street from the theater. Having heard the group mention where they were going first while still in the hotel room, he managed to have the lobby bugged with microphones before the group arrived. It was too late to try and set up hidden cameras while making sure they were out of sight, but the mic under the counter was letting him listen in to everything the group said. _They are heading to the Upper Residential Area already? Then now is the time to spring the trap. We cannot allow them to make it that close to the Palace._

"Sounds good," Natsu said, not sounding too interested.

"Juvia would very much like to see the Hanging Gardens," the Rain Woman added, using her name which relieved a few of the others with her who were still unsettled by earlier.

"Hold on," Ben said. On the roof across the street, Komei frowned and put his hand over the headset on his left ear, listening closely and drowning out the sounds of the city around him. "I have to use the bathroom, sorry." Komei leaned back and lowered his hand from his ear, humphing as he thought the kid was about to mention something important.

"I told you to go before we left the hotel," Gray scolded the boy.

"Um, I actually have to go too," Dash mentioned, and Komei could hear Gray's loud sigh over the microphones.

"Kairi and Kirito were hogging the bathroom all morning," Ben complained.

"There was a lot of time, you could have gone whenever you wanted," Kirito countered without hesitation.

"Whatever," Gray said, ending the argument before it really got heated. "Just go. Excuse me, where are the bathrooms?"

"Oh, around that corner and down the hall, then turn right and you'll see them. Ladies' room on the left, and the little boys' room on the right."

Ben opened his mouth to say something about that 'little boys' comment, considering Natsu started snickering next to him, but instead he just grumbled in annoyance and started walking towards the bathroom with Dash.

Outside the theater, Komei stood by and waited, and waited, but no one was speaking anymore over the hidden microphones. Finally, a young woman's voice came over the line, "Komei Taishou," she whispered. The voice was of the Marine he stationed at the counter incognito, and she continued in a whisper, "The rest of their group went down the hall following the boys."

"There are no exits that way," Komei said, a growing grin on his face. He fanned himself and spoke confidently so all the men listening in on their headsets from various locations around the theater could hear his reassuring voice. "If the fools are trying to make their escape now, all troops converge on them. Push them northeast towards Captain Dojaku's position."

"Understood," several dozen voices responded. Komei looked down at the street below where not a single civilian was walking. _We have a perimeter set up. They cannot escape my clutches. Even if they were to make it to the Upper Residential Area, the guards up there are ready for them. Azula will keep them out of the Palace, but in the unlikely chance they make it past her, Thymilph's squad will eliminate them for sure in the courtyard… This bathroom break is taking too long._

"Private Jenkins," Komei began, walking to the edge of the roof he was on. "What is the status of our targets?"

"You want me to go down the hall and check on them?" The young Marine questioned in response.

"Yes, right now," Komei said, a bead of sweat rolling down the left side of his face. _What am I worried about? There are no exits in those hallways. They would have to go all the way to the back door, where my men are already laying in wait._

"Understood," Jenkins replied, and she leapt over the counter before running around the corner to her left. She sprinted down the hall then slowed down at the right turn she had to make. The redhead brushed her hair down once with her hand, then turned around the corner, "Is everything-" she stopped talking as the hallway in front of the bathroom doors was empty. She sprinted forward and threw open the ladies' room's door, "Anyone in here?" No response. She ran inside and pushed open the stalls one by one, all of them were empty. The Marine shot across the hall and looked in the men's room, but no one was in there either.

Komei waited impatiently across the street, so much so that he was already leaping off the roof when he heard in his ears, "They're gone!" He shot across the paved road and through the rice-paper doors of the theater instead of sliding them to the sides. He ignored the woman leaning over the counter who shouted towards the hidden microphone, and instead did a thorough search of the lobby and surrounding hallways as fast as he could. Marines were sprinting inside from the back and front doors, all of them yelling and pointing their guns around in panic.

 _Where did they go? How could they vanish like that? They found a moment when they were out of sight completely, then vanished. They must have known we were watching this whole time._ "Find them! Split up into your platoons and search the surrounding area. Send word to all guard posts that Gray Fullbuster, Natsu Dragneel, Juvia Lockser, Kairi, Dashiell Parr, Ben Tennyson, and Kirito are missing in the Lower Residential Area. Tell all guards to the gates into the Upper Residential Area that they will be heading straight towards them. Get Dojaku-"

"Sir!" a voice shouted, and Komei spun around to see a Marine sprinting towards him with sweat all over his face.

"What is it?!" Komei yelled at the thin young man.

"The south gate of the city!" He yelled in response, before panting over and over to catch his breath. "Monkey D. Luffy is requesting entry!" Komei's jaw dropped and the Marine kept going, "He's shouting at the gate guards demanding they let him in!"

Komei turned and started jogging through the building, while reaching up and pressing a button on his headset again. "All men listen up. Locate Gray Fullbuster and his team and continue with Operation Separate and Destroy. Captain Dojaku will head the Operation from here on forward. I am heading to the southern gate to receive the Straw Hat Pirates. Kansho, with me!"

"Roger that," Kansho said, and he packed up his sniper rifle quickly. The sniper on top of a tower two miles out from the theater they lost Gray's group in put his scope and the tripod he set it up on to lower kickback and improve accuracy back into a bag that he slung on his back. Then he put his sniper strap on as well and his sniper over the bag on his back, before grabbing the railing in front of him with both hands and throwing his legs between his arms. He leapt off the bell tower of a church and landed on its roof three stories below with his knees bent and teeth clenched. It hurt, but there was no time to waste and he started sprinting across the building's shingles before leaping across a busy road and to the next roof down.

Komei was already running across rooftops, hopping from one to the next as it was faster than trying to maneuver his way between civilians on the streets. _Mugiwara. What is he thinking going straight up to the gates with a bounty on his head? Is he that confident in his own abilities? If so, I may have to call Thymilph down here. I will try to handle him on my own first though. Let me see your power, Straw Hat Luffy._

The Admiral of the Sun Marines leapt up high, giving himself a good view of the gateway in the distance. It was not far from the part of the wall that the tracks from the south led over, just a little to the west of that area. He spotted Kansho leaping over roofs a little behind him, and spoke into his headset, "Kansho, find a location to snipe from, and load your rifle with Kairoseki bullets. I am going in to coordinate the guards." Komei leapt over the final building before the south gate, then dropped his jaw and stumbled upon landing near the guard buildings on either side of him. He stared straight ahead at the fifteen meter tall, wide open gates to the city, and the eighty guards on his sides, in front of him, and on top of the wall, all of whom lay unconscious with their eyes rolled back. The gate was open because the large steel doors that normally stood in the opening were laid out on the ground before him, the steel they were made out of bent and warped out of shape.

Kansho stopped looking for a place to snipe as he caught a glance at the gates, and the curly haired sniper sprinted over as fast as he could. He looked down and saw Komei looking around with wide eyes, and the Admiral turned back and looked in his eyes after a few seconds. Komei's face gnarled up and his mouth twisted in anger, before he opened it and roared, "FIND THEM!"

* * *

 **Lower Residential Area, Pyraxas.**

"Luffy wait!" Nami shouted and reached a hand out for her Captain. Luffy had his head stuck up in the air though, his nostrils wide and loudly sniffing in the scent of something delicious closeby.

Nami fumed as he ran down the street ahead of her. "Don't worry Nami-san," Sanji told the orange haired woman he walked up next to. "Let's just follow after our idiot for now."

"If those guards at the gate are all we have to worry about, then we should be fine," Killua remarked confidently. He started jogging after Luffy to make sure he kept sight of the rubberman who knocked out all the guards without moving a muscle. _Though I said that, we're in a High Lord's city. This is beyond our normal level of danger. This is as dangerous as it gets on this continent. Worst comes to worst, this may be where I end up leaving you._ He thought it without hesitation, but it left a bad taste in his head and his mouth lost the calm smile he had a second before.

The crew jogged down the road and turned left to see their Captain frozen in place right around the corner. He stood there staring forward with giant eyes. Fifty feet in front of him stood a two story tall fast-food-looking joint with a huge sign on the front of the second story. Like all other buildings in the area it had a fancy roof with shingles on it and points on the sides. The sign had a mouthwatering burger on it, and in front of the glowing burger were letters spelling out the name of the restaurant. "Big Belly Burger," Usopp said with a sweatdrop on the side of his head.

"Not a bad name for a burger joint," Franky said, smacking his metal lips together.

"Let's go!" Luffy shouted and spun to his crew. The pirate wore a red tank top open down the middle to reveal the X-shaped scar over his chest, and a pair of blue pants that were not rolled up today. Most of the group were wearing long pants actually, as they had been noticing that the temperature was dropping steadily over the past weeks.

The crew saw the ear-to-ear smile Luffy had on his face and none of them could deny him. He snickered and spun before running to the doors of the restaurant. Luffy was going to throw them open in a grand entrance kind of way, but before he could, both doors opened to the sides, sliding straight into the walls. "Oooh," Luffy said and looked back and forth as he entered the building. The doors quickly became the last thing on his mind though, as he caught a glimpse of one of the booths on the side of the room next to some windows, and his eyes turned into pieces of meat at the sight of the juicy burgers on the table.

Luffy took a step towards that table, but Nami reached out and grabbed him by an ear. "Get your food from the counter like a normal person," she snapped at him. A few people whose food Luffy was ravenously staring at leaned backwards nervously, but Nami waved them off saying it was fine.

The man standing behind the counter up ahead of the front doors stared at this group of people oddly. He had on a red uniform and hat, and had a name-tag on the front right pocket of his shirt. Nami dragged Luffy towards the counter and the other six walked behind her, talking to each other and looking up at the electronic menu above the counter that showed what was on the menu.

"Guess I'll get a Big Belly Burger," Usopp said, assuming it was the best thing on the menu if it shared the name with the restaurant.

"I'll be fine with a salad. I do not wish for this burger or its special sauce to mess with my stomach later today," Robin mentioned and explained. Killua was thinking about getting the same as Usopp, but hearing what Robin said, he started thinking about how well he would fight with a gross delicious fatty burger in his stomach.

"Welcome to Big Belly Burger," the man behind the counter said as the group finally stepped up like they had their orders ready. It was still pretty early, only a little after they opened, so the restaurant was still very empty and these were the only people currently on line. The man behind the register had a bright smile on his face, light orange-colored eyes, jet black hair, and a lean stature that matched his five foot six body. "Where the ingredients are always fresh, and the food is equally cheap! Are you ready to order?" He finished greeting them and questioned.

Robin looked at the name-tag on the man's chest, _Sadao Maou._ She began, "Yes Maou-san, could we please get three house salads, and forty eight Big Belly Burgers." The man typed in the salads as she asked, then his finger hesitated over the register as he heard the second part. He looked around at them all again, focused on Luffy for a second, then chuckled and finished typing it in.

"Very well," he said, still looking amused. "Your total will be one hundred and thirty eight dollars including tax."

"Oh Mr. Manager," Nami began, making the cashier look up from behind the register. She leaned forward so her cleavage was pushed up and she continued, "That's so expensive, can't you please do something about it?" She bat her eyelashes at him while the men behind her just gawked at her completely un-subtle way of going about trying to get them a discount.

"Sorry ma'am, the prices are standardized by corporate. Even as the manager I cannot control how much I charge." He saw her opening her mouth again but he shook his head before she could continue. "Do you have the necessary funds?" He questioned.

Nami froze with her mouth open, then humphed and reached into her bag to take out some money. Luffy and Usopp snickered behind her and she darted them an angry glare.

"That didn't work out as planned," Kuro whispered into Rin's ear from where he had his head popped out of Rin's pack. Rin was grinning but trying hard to keep in his laughs at the scary woman in front of him.

"It's your money too," Nami grumbled as she turned and started leading the group to a table.

Most everyone followed after her, but two stayed back for another few seconds. Nico Robin found herself staring at that cashier who just like Nami she noticed the picture of him behind the counter and around the side wall next to the stoves in the back. There were frames all over with 'Employee of the Month' written on the top, and most of them had that man's face in the frame with his name below and the word 'Manager' next to it. Robin chuckled as she looked back a little farther on the wall and saw that he had not been the manager for long, but had been working here for quite a while. The man was in the back barking out orders to other workers who had been having a calm morning and now had to rush around making a ton of food.

Robin noticed someone else staring into the back, but unlike her the boy was not smiling. Him and the black cat sticking its head out of his bag were staring at the manager closely and with discerning eyes. "Rin-kun?" Robin questioned the seventeen year old.

Rin seemed to snap out of a trance and he spun to Robin fast. "Huh?" He questioned, then shook around his own head like he was confused at what he was just doing. "Let's go sit," he suggested to the older woman who nodded back at him.

The crew gathered in one of the largest booths in the restaurant. It was in a corner so it had two booth sides and some chairs around the outside. The eight of them and the cat that Rin let sit on his lap leaned in over the table and spoke in whispers. Nami snapped at the guys whenever they got too loud and occasionally slammed a fist on Luffy's head to shut him up.

"Alright then," Killua whispered. "I have no doubt they already know where in the city we are. The fact that no guards are attacking us right now can only mean one thing."

"They don't think they can beat us?" Usopp asked hopefully.

"They decided to let us stay?" Nami added as another optimistic possibility.

"Most likely-" Kil continued. "They will try to kill us in some other way than a frontal assault. Let me try a burger first, I'll tell you if I taste any poison in it."

"You would do that, for us?" Nami questioned the kid in surprise.

"My training involved more than just tolerance to pain. I do not know of a poison I cannot handle." After he said it, his cocky smirk lowered down a little. _I have trained myself with some new poisons since coming to this world, but what am I doing? Sure I'm least likely to get poisoned here, but this is still risky..._

"Thanks Kil," Luffy began. "But I'm eating first," he pointed a thumb at himself confidently. The rest of the crew gawked at the Captain, but Luffy laughed, "Shishishi, I've been poisoned a bunch before too. I can take it."

"I agree. You guys eat first," Usopp said with a lot of sweat on his face.

Sanji suddenly wanted to light up a smoke, but when he looked towards the counter for a second he grimaced at the sight of a 'No Smoking' sign. He grumbled to himself then focused back on his crewmates in front of him. "Listen," he began and the others looked towards the chef. "I don't like this. Luffy, I'm sure you feel those hostile presences all around the building." The pirate Captain looked a little serious as he nodded back at the blond chef. Sanji continued in a quiet voice, "We are still in the Lower City. There are walls, gates, and probably a ton of soldiers in between us and our destination. I have no doubt that this High Lord has some very powerful subordinates around here too, not to mention that demon Astaroth we know is here."

Okumura Rin frowned deeply and his teeth bared. That reaction made Usopp jump a little on the other side of the table. The sniper gulped at the sudden enraged look that took itself upon Rin's face. _Demons,_ Usopp thought, sheer terror filling his mind at the idea of them. "Are," he began, and Rin looked up into his eyes making the muscular pirate even more nervous. Rin softened his look at that anxious gaze Usopp was giving him, and Usopp continued quickly to try and pretend like he wasn't afraid so as not to make Rin self-conscious. "Are all demons, as scary as that one that possessed Ben?"

Everyone thought about Abraxas, the lying demon that attacked them on the Great Ocean not far from the coast of Awul. "That was a high-level one for sure," Rin admitted. Usopp let out a deep sigh of relief, then Rin continued, "But Astaroth is easily a hundred times more powerful than Abraxas." Usopp's jaw dropped and the sniper started shaking again. Nami's face turned blue as she already did not like the sound of this guy from what Killua told them he discovered, but this was some really bad news.

Rin looked around and saw that more than just the usual nervous members of their group looked more than slightly afraid. "It's alright," he said, a confident tone that made everyone look up at him in surprise at the sudden switch from how dark he was just being. "I'll take care of him myself."

"Are you sure you can do it?" Killua asked. Rin turned to the kid sitting next to him and Kil continued, "These Demon Kings are as powerful as demons get. Can you really beat one?"

Rin hesitated, then nodded his head slowly. "I don't think I could beat Mephisto," he admitted. "But I can kick Amaimon's ass," he added, and the others who knew those two demons grinned. Sanji and Luffy both remembered the more annoying of the two demons they met in the Dread Fort and they were glad to hear Rin could do it, and chuckled even as it sounded like he had done it before. "Astaroth will be stronger than Amaimon," Rin continued, bowing his head a bit. He clenched his fists over the table, _Yukio._ "But I will defeat him, and find out where my brother is."

The rest of the crew nodded at him. Franky was going to say something encouraging, but out the corners of his eyes he saw two people walking around the counter. They both carried round silver trays covered in burgers wrapped up in thin wrappings, as well as a few salads. Each of the crew members had their own water bottles they pulled out and were drinking from, as Robin suggested before they entered the city that they make sure they were especially careful with their drinks.

The two who walked over put down the trays and the man from behind the counter, Maou, flashed them a bright smile. "I hope you enjoy your meal!"

Killua and Luffy each grabbed burgers while the others were being more hesitant. Robin took a salad and did not look suspicious at all, but the others who were hesitating received a strange look from the manager. "Don't worry," Maou began. "If there were people who _may_ have been trying to get us to poison your food, they obviously have never heard of the pledge all Big Belly Burger employees must take before starting a job here. Customer comes first!" This did not sound like a very hypothetical situation to the crew. The people sitting in front of the manager gawked at him, then Nami waved him off laughing lightly and asking what he was talking about in a non-convincing way.

Killua and Luffy started chowing down, and from the looks on their faces the food was delicious. Usopp was going to grab his so it wouldn't look like he was afraid of poison, but before he did he looked closer at the other person next to the manager.

There was a short boy with dark black hair standing there behind his tray. He had small black pupils in the center of his wide white eyes, and he wore a black version of the uniform and no hat to cover his messy hair. Usopp read the kid's name-tag and tried ignoring the strange vibe he received from the boy, saying, "Hey there, Damien." The kid turned and looked into Usopp's eyes without losing the frown on his face. "Um," Usopp gulped, "thanks for the food."

"Enjoy your final meal mortal before the Fire Lord's men send you down the River Styx," Damien said.

Every person at the table except for Luffy froze. The pirate Captain kept chewing while the rest of them looked at this kid like he was crazy. The manager next to him had a bead of sweat rolling down the left side of his face and scratched the side of his head nervously. The kid was seriously giving the customers the creeps, and Sanji muttered under his breath, "What are you, the devil or something?"

Maou's eyes opened wide but since most of them were looking at Damien, no one saw his panicked reaction except for an-increasingly interested Robin. The kid opened his mouth, "I am Damien, son of-"

"Frank," Maou interrupted and threw a hand around the kid's face to cover his mouth. "Frank Smith, he was a waiter here but he passed a while back. This kid's been trouble ever since, haha." The boy mumbled into Maou's hand while the man spoke, then froze and his face filled with fear for a second. The kid no longer made any noise, while the manager holding a hand over his mouth chuckled nervously, "Haha, ha, will you excuse me? Please, enjoy your meal folks." He backed away pulling Damien with him.

Sanji stared at the kid being pulled away for a few seconds, then heard Luffy mumble through mouthfuls of burger how good it was and he looked down to taste for himself. Everyone got to eating and Usopp mumbled as he eyed his burger carefully, "Weird kid."

"At least the manager was truthful about the food," Killua mentioned as he took another bite of his burger. "Surprised me that he would bring up those guys who snuck in the back and made that request though. Guess he saw your hesitant faces."

"You knew they asked him to do that already?" Franky questioned the young teen. Killua just nodded while continuing to chow down, though his mind was rushing in panic considering what just happened.

Robin ignored the conversation about poison and their enemies that was going on around her. She was interested and wanted to take part of course, but her mind was on something else and she needed to check for herself. Robin lifted her right hand without taking her eyes off her food, and she put it over her ear in a subtle movement that no one around her noticed.

An ear appeared across the restaurant inside an air vent so that it was out of sight of the two next to the wall where the vent was. "I've told you before, no Hell-speak during business hours."

"But Maou-san, I was right in saying that they will all be killed by troops-"

"The customers don't want to hear stuff like that while they're eating. Now listen, I took you in as a favor to your father after the War of the Satans, but if you don't get serious about working hard here..." Robin's entire body tensed up as the tone changed from scolding guardian, to something much, much darker. "I am going to throw you in the Pit to be with your father."

Robin removed the hand from next to her ear and stared at her food with eyes as wide as saucers. A few of her friends saw the look on Robin's face that immediately freaked them out. Nami leaned back in her seat and whispered, "Robin, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," Robin replied. She answered way too quickly and with way too much nervousness in her voice. The others all gawked at the nervous pirate woman who was desperately trying to calm herself down. _What the Hell is this? Am I hearing things? Those two... What are they?_

Killua continued to eat his food without saying a word, but he was not looking at Robin, he was not making any sudden movements at all. _For just a second there, I felt something evil in the back of this restaurant._ It was the same reason Luffy and Sanji, after looking carefully at Robin, shifted their gazes towards the counter where Maou glanced their direction and flashed a smile. This time though, they did not smile back.

 _Huh. I can see why the guards want them taken care of. These guys look pretty scary,_ Maou thought, a bead of sweat dripping down his face.

"Let's finish our meals quickly and continue on," Robin suggested to the others around her. Usopp and Nami nodded fast, but both of them were surprised that every other member at the table nodded in agreement and sped up their eating. The fact that Luffy was no longer smiling as he ate was a clear and nerve-wracking indicator to the others that something was seriously wrong.

The crew finished their meals and left the restaurant without incident. As they were heading through the automatic doors, the manager behind the counter called out, "Thank you. Please come again!"

Luffy paused on the other side of the doors. He looked back, straight into Maou's eyes. His whole crew stared at him hesitantly, and then Luffy smiled wide and called back, "Yeah, we will! It was really good!" He turned and started walking away and the doors closed behind him.

The crew let out a collective sigh of relief and they started heading north down the streets together. "What was all that back there?" Usopp whispered to Sanji as he still did not get what just happened.

 _Most people would have just thought that kid was weird and gotten over it,_ Sanji thought, ignoring the younger man next to him for the moment. _But we were just talking about demons a minute before. I felt that man's Haki change for a second, his presence shifted from that of a human's... to something terrifying._ "Luffy," Sanji began and the Captain up ahead of him looked over his shoulder. "Let's not go there again."

"Odds are that place won't be there come tomorrow," Killua said before Luffy could argue. Everyone looked towards Killua who stood on the right side of the pack. He thought about a conversation he had with Kurosaki Ichigo the night before the Battle of Metropolis. The boy began in a soft voice, "We came here to fight didn't we? If we win, this whole city will be in utter chaos. The government will fall without their leader, the guards will turn brigands, laws will be replaced by power of the strong. Looting, raping, enslaving each other."

"Whoa," Nami exclaimed as that went from 1-100 really fast. "What makes you think that will happen? This is a civilized city, people won't just-"

"Nami," Robin interrupted her friend. The younger woman looked left at her dark haired comrade and best friend, to see Robin sighing before saying, "Killua is correct. This is not a civilized world. After Metropolis, there was nothing left to steal, and there were enough leaders still around that rules stayed in place."

"After we beat the Fire Lord though," Luffy said, and a dozen citizens walking the other way down the road spun and gawked at him as he said that rather loudly. His friends stared at him like he was an idiot but Luffy didn't catch on and continued just as loud, "Won't his other leaders take over? Until we beat them up too?"

"Luffy," Killua began. The pirate Captain turned towards the kid whose head was bowed. Killua snapped his gaze up and then along with Nami, Sanji, and Usopp they shouted at him, "Shut up!"

Luffy's head hit the ground with a bunch of bumps in it and the rubber pirate moaned in pain. Killua sighed and rubbed the side of his head in aggravation at how hard this was. _They're following us. They haven't told the public that we're enemies yet, so they must be trying to avoid a fight still. They know that if they start fighting, we'll cause a lot of damage to the city. Are they trying to protect their citizens... or are they letting these civilians stay around us to keep us from attacking?! If they have enough information on the kind of people we are, they might just be using their citizens as human shields. As long as we're in a populated area like this, they don't think we'll start attacking. They're right of course, but that's a risky plan, and a really smart one. They could be leading us right now into another trap. Damn._

Killua's mind was on the moment, but he started thinking farther into the future for a second and a deep frown emerged on his face. _Five months after arriving. Awul still had a lot of monsters, but the biggest monsters, were the nomads, the Warlords, the gangs of thieves and bandits. Beaverton, a city of twelve thousand. When half the city takes up arms against the other half, who were the powerful to side with? It wasn't an enemy the Saiyans could come in and destroy. It was a civil war over ideologies, and it was bloody. But when one of the sides teamed up with a Warlord, the other did the same to even the odds. They invited their allies into the city, and the Warlords turned on them. No one came to save them. Even if people could sense the death, it had been happening for weeks. I guess it didn't raise any red flags. The Warlords sacked the city and continued to fight each other and both sides the entire time. I had never seen men act like that before. I knew it was in our nature, but, I never expected to see humanity at its absolute worst._

Killua shook his head to get those thoughts out of his mind. _And now I travel with humanity's best._ He looked next to him and paused for a second, _Well, a half-demon and a bunch of pirates may not be the best... but when Sora, Goku, Timmy, and Kairi are back then- what am I thinking? Focus! You are in the middle of a warzone!_ He paused as he sensed a strong force coming close to them, and the whole group stopped as Luffy stopped walking at the front.

A teenage boy dropped from the sky and landed on the road and the group was relieved to see the silver haired teen. Killua chuckled to sooth his nerves while also laughing at himself, _Oh yeah, and the Lord of Darkness. The best humanity has to offer._ He laughed some more then sighed and said, "Hey Riku. You missed out on some good food."

"You guys know you're completely surrounded, right?" Riku asked.

Killua shrugged, Luffy laughed, Sanji lit up the cigarette he waited through lunch for, Franky posed with his arms over his head, Rin grabbed the hilt of his sword, Kuro nodded his head sticking out of Rin's pack, Robin smiled softly, Usopp's hands steadied at his sides, and Nami reached for her waist and grabbed the three parts of her Clima Tact. "Then," Riku began and turned around, looking up the city towards the palace in the center. As he looked that way, the edges of the roofs above them became lined with soldiers. Riku chuckled at the hundreds of them appearing on the roofs, in doorways, in open windows, everywhere. The teen smirked, a Keyblade formed to life in his right hand, and he said, "Let's get started."

* * *

Under a bridge, the darkness illuminated with a flash of red, and when the red light faded there stood seven people in its place. Ben dropped to his knees and started panting so hard it felt like his lungs were squeezing. "Are you alright?" Dash asked his friend, leaning down next to him.

The thirteen year old getting the knee areas of his green pants muddy in the banks of the small river cutting through Pyraxas lifted his head. "I've never tried turning more than," he took a deep breath and continued, "more than one other person invisible, with Clear Body before, let alone six. I need, a short break."

"Well you're not getting one," Gray said, and Ben turned his head to see the ice mage near the edge of the darkness under the bridge. He poked his head around the outside of it and tried to catch a glimpse of the walls to the next section up, but he could not see the high walls from below the edges of the road. Gray looked behind him and down at the shallow water, thanking their luck that the tides were low at the moment and they were able to find this place right before Ben's watch reached its time limit. He turned to the boy who he told could not take a break and continued in a scolding voice, "We're in the middle of a battle now, and we can't be taking breaks this soon."

Natsu looked like he was going to say something to his friend, but Ben saw this and pushed down hard first, getting up to his feet and clenching his mouth shut to stop panting as much. "Got it," Ben said, continuing to calm down his breathing, but doing it without bringing attention to himself this time.

"Good," Gray said. He faced his friends and though it was dark under the bridge, enough light came in from around the sides that they could all see each other's faces. "Next step is getting into the Upper Residential Area. Once we do that, we can head for the Palace, and then-"

Natsu punched his fists together and finished for his comrade, "The Fire Lord."

Everyone nodded in agreement, then they started discussing a plan in more detail now that they had some time and were hopefully out of prying eyes. They came to the decision that moving around in the open was out of the question now that they had escaped surveillance. They were only able to come up to that decision though, thanks to the fact that there were metal bars under the other side of where the bridge connected with the riverbank, metal bars that blocked off a small tunnel where a stream of water was coming out of and pouring into the river.

No one liked the idea of going into the sewers, but no one complained about it either. Kirito leapt across the water first, then walked over to the bars while sticking out his right hand. "What's he doing?" Dash whispered, before sprinting forward so fast that he ran right over the water between the river banks and stopped at Kirito's side. Kirito's held-out hand glowed blue with chakra, and he used it to slice through the metal bars with ease. He cut lines through the tops of the bars, then the bottoms one by one, grabbing the bar with his free hand after it was dislodged and placing it down gently to prevent the sound of clanking metal as it dropped.

The whole group made it through the four foot tall hole, and as luck had it, the tunnel was bigger on the inside and led underneath the streets of the city. After Kairi made it through though, Gray called Natsu's name out in a low whisper and the Dragon Slayer turned back around. Gray lifted up the metal bars Kirito cut off, and he whispered, "Weld these back on." Natsu saw the open hole with just the ends of the bars visible on the tops and bottoms, and he realized it would look suspicious to anyone who might be searching for them.

Kirito frowned, _I should have discussed it before I cut the bars off. Natsu could have just bent them to the sides and unbent them just as easily._ He watched as the fire mage created flames on the tip of his right index finger and welded the bars back into place so it would look like no one ever touched them.

Gray looked towards Kirito and though in deeper darkness that under the bridge, he could tell what the younger fighter was thinking. He thought about saying something about how it did not matter, but he held his tongue as it was hard finding the right words when speaking to Kirito these days. _We're still working together well, for the most part. If we weren't undercover though, he would be showing a lot more animosity towards me. I tried to kill him. No! Don't let your mind get clouded here. It's too dangerous. The others are listening to you, they're putting their lives in your hands._ "Let's get moving," Gray whispered. He started walking and continued, "I do not think the sewers down here connect to the ones of the Upper Residential Area, that section of the city seems to be at a higher elevation. We _can_ however, get as close to the walls as possible without anyone spotting us, as long as there are no cameras down here. Stay on the lookout for any while you walk."

His friends followed behind him, their eyes glancing at the walls for any sign of surveillance equipment. "Hey Ben," Dash whispered, and his best friend turned left to look at the kid walking next to him. They were ankle-deep in sewer water, they were sweating from the humid and stuffy air below the city, and they were being hunted by an army, but the youngest member of their group was grinning. "Doesn't this feel like, like one of those spy movies?"

Ben could not help but crack a grin as he thought about some movies he saw as a kid. "I think we're much cooler than any of the guys in those movies," Ben admitted, now that he thought about it.

Though the Fairy Tail wizards did not really understand what the younger boys were talking about, the corners of Kirito's lips curled up the tiniest amount. _He's right. I can't think of a single action movie character who's done more than we have in the past week. Taking on armies and assassins, going undercover into the enemy capital, now it's time for the boss fight._ Kirito's lips curled back to being flat and he started frowning. _Those fights are always the hardest parts of the movie and usually take their tolls on the heroes. They get bullet wounds, or the side characters with them die, or even the main character himself has to make an epic sacrifice to take down the boss… But this isn't an action or spy movie. This is real life, which makes it even less likely we get through this without paying a steep toll. Movies where everyone has a happy ending are idealistic._

"AH!" Juvia screamed. The two in front of her and the four behind and snapped their attentions to the Rain Woman as she swung her arms down at the floor. The water beneath her exploded up and the whole group got splashed with sewer water.

"What is it?!" Gray shouted to her.

Natsu held up a fist and covered it in flames, illuminating the tunnel and the ground below Juvia. The water around her seeped back down to the lowest part and covered the floor at her feet again, but her gaze was near one of the walls where the water was shallower, and there was something sticking out of the inch deep sewage. Natsu moved his hand over a little, and the group let out sighs of relief at the sight of a rat on the ground.

Dash let out his sigh too fast, and he gagged a second later and turned away from the sight of the little creature. The others had less visceral reactions: Ben turned away, Kairi frowned sadly, and Natsu just stuck his tongue out at the sight of the disemboweled rat. Its head was missing, and the water around its body was turning red. Juvia was panting heavily, her chest heaving as she let out and took in deep breaths. "Sorry everyone," Juvia whispered between panting breaths. They were giving her a minute to calm down, after she blasted that rat to Hell, though a few of them also needed to calm down as well as her shout caught them all off guard thinking they were under attack. "Juvia is just, a little jumpy," she said while they were all standing there catching their breaths. "She had a nightmare last night," she admitted in a soft voice.

Gray nodded his head from in front of her as he understood that, but he was confused as Natsu nodded his head too which he could see through the flames Natsu held in front of him. "It's okay," Kairi began to her friend and Juvia turned to her. "I also had a nightmare last night. Tried going back to bed, but I had another, haha."

Kirito frowned as he realized why he noticed Kairi turning a lot during the night. _Then again, I only noticed because I was awake too… because I had a nightmare._ Kirito's eyes opened wide and he looked around at the others in the group to see they were all realizing the same thing. "Did everyone, have a nightmare last night?"

Gray's eyes opened huge as he saw both of the younger boys look at each other, then turn back and nod to Kirito. "That's not good," Gray said, "that's really, really not good."

"What do you mean?" Natsu asked. "So we all had nightmares, so what?"

"Don't you think that's a little odd?" Kirito questioned the Dragon Slayer. "Seven of us, all having nightmares on the same night? Nightmares which kept us awake, kept us with little sleep?" Natsu's frown started growing and Kirito finished, "It's not a coincidence."

"That explains why Gray's so uppity," Natsu muttered, trying to lighten the mood even though his mouth was still in a deep frown. He did not mention it under the bridge before since Ben stood up to make it look like he was alright, but Gray's serious attitude was getting to him a little.

"I'm being cautious," Gray snapped, "because the mission is already going wrong." He did not mention Juvia saying his name at the hotel, but they all thought about it in that moment. He continued quickly, "Someone was messing with our heads last night, we're being toyed with, that's why I'm _uppity,_ " he used Natsu's terminology but seethed it through his teeth.

"They're going to regret toying with me," Natsu snarled.

"What-" Ben began, and they turned towards him wondering what was up. He gulped and asked, "What, were your guys' nightmares about?" The rest of them gained dark expressions, even Kairi who Ben had never actually seen look like that before. He gulped again, and continued in a quiet voice, "Because mine, wasn't like, other nightmares I usually have." He continued before anyone could question him about how he apparently usually has nightmares, "There was, this monster, in my dreams. It had horns like a goat's, and red eyes, and it was in every shadow."

"It could use the shadows to wrap around your neck," Kirito continued, "and could rot the flesh right off your skin."

"Guys," Gray said, before anyone else could start talking about the monster of their dreams. "Whatever it was, its powers were exaggerated inside our dreams. If we actually run into it, I know we'll be able to handle it."

"Really?" Dash questioned.

 _"Really?" How should I know? Maybe there is some kind of monster in this city we're not prepared for in the least. Maybe we should turn around and get the Hell out of here right now. The only thing I can think of that would give us nightmares like that, is a demon. Is there a high-class demon in the city? Damn, and Kairi and Natsu are the only other people who can see… Oh wait,_ his gaze shifted to Juvia and he thought, _she should be able to see them just fine now._

"Well let's keep going," Natsu said, ignoring the fact that Gray never responded to Dash's question. Gray was shaken from his thoughts and he nodded at Natsu, agreeing that they should get a move on. "I'll take point," Natsu said, and he kept his right fist enflamed so that their path would be lit on the way forward and nothing else would surprise them.

Dash gulped as his 'really?' was never responded to, but he hardened his expression after taking a glance at Ben and seeing how serious his older friend looked. Ben started after Natsu, and Dash walked close to his side. Kairi followed behind the two boys and Kirito walked next to her in water that was getting a little deeper so it was now up to his shins. Gray would have followed, but he was staring at the woman next to him with nervous eyes, and a bottom lip that was lowering.

Juvia stared at the illuminated floor at the edge of the tunnel next to her. Natsu was getting farther away, but his dim firelight was lighting up the lump of flesh that used to be a living creature, until she blew it away with her magic a minute ago. She stared at the red water around the disgusting, mangled rat, and she stared straight at its innards that were seeping out of its skin. Juvia's heart started racing, because without even noticing, her lips had curled up into a smile. _Why am I smiling?_ Juvia thought, realizing something was wrong with the current situation.

"Come on Juvia," a voice said next to the girl, and Juvia slowly turned her head to face Gray a foot away from her. His face looked worried, no matter how much he tried to mask it. "We need to go," he said, and turned to face the backs of their friends. He took a step, but a hand grabbed him by his right arm and he froze.

"Gray-sama," a quiet voice whispered at him. Gray clenched his teeth hard while Juvia stared at his back, "Does, Gray-sama, know what's happening to me? To, to Juvia?" She corrected herself, and became even more worried as she realized something wrong with what she just said. Gray would not turn around, because he knew his expression would give it away and he wanted Natsu to be farther so that his face would be more shrouded by darkness before he turned. "Please," Juvia whispered, her voice pleading, "what is wrong with Juvia?"

"Nothing," Gray said, turning his head and staring her straight in the eyes. He did not have to mask his expression while he said it because he meant what he said. "Nothing is wrong with you. I knew, that there were going to be a few side effects, from bringing you back to life," he admitted, but he made sure to keep eye contact with her the whole time he said it. Juvia's eyes grew wider, but Gray continued, "But nothing is wrong with you, I promise. You're still perf-" he stopped himself, his cheeks going a little red as he averted his gaze a bit.

Juvia heard the first part of that before he stopped though, and the worry building up inside her was replaced as what Gray said replayed in her mind. "Gray-sama thinks, Juvia is perf-ect?" Juvia whispered, her face so red that she could not get any redder.

Gray felt a little awkward, but he turned back to her and he flashed her a smile. "Just the way you are," He finished for her, and then he put his right hand around her shoulder, grabbing her back and pulling her into his chest tightly. "I'll always love you," he whispered, and tears formed in Juvia's eyes. "So don't worry about the little things."

"Mm," Juvia hummed in agreement into him. Gray pulled back and he motioned after their friends who were getting far away from them. Kairi just called back to them and he called out that they were heading over, but Juvia whispered when they were still far from their friends, "I'll always love you too, Gray-sama." She was walking just behind him with a bright smile on her face, so she did not see the smile on Gray's fall at the wording of her proclamation.

* * *

Four men stood on top of the wall separating the Lower Residential Area from the Upper Residential Area. Two of the men were in Fire Nation uniforms with black and red armor, shoulder pads spiked out to the sides, and spears in their hands that glowed orange near the ends to show they could double as rifles. The other two men were wearing Sun Marine officer coats, though the shorter, younger man had red spiky hair in a mohawk over his head with black hair on the sides of it. The younger Marine than the Admiral standing in front of him did have something in common with his superior officer however, as they both had scars on his face, though the red-haired Marine had only one, long scar on the lower part of his left cheek.

"Troops have engaged Straw Hat Luffy and his crew two miles south of here," one of the Fire Nation officers reported. "They discovered they were being followed and the men were forced to-"

"What happened to the plan to poison them?" Komei interrupted, pointing his fan accusingly at the officer.

The more elderly Fire Nation officer, with a white mustache pointed to the sides like Komei and a pointy beard that was just a little shorter than the Admiral's, responded for his colleague, "The men attempted to poison the invaders, but the manager of the, Big Belly Burger, would not allow them to."

Komei frowned at the old man and he said in an accusatory voice, "They should have forced him, or removed him from the situation entirely and-"

"The men reported," the old man cut in, "that the manager scared them too much to try anything."

The other two on the wall overlooking the southern section of the lower city of Pyraxas turned to the old man on their left with wide eyes. Komei's bottom lip dropped but the Fire Nation soldier said nothing to explain how absurd that sounded. Komei turned his head and looked out into the city, _My soldiers, scared by a manager of a fast food place? This is Nexus, but even so I find that hard to believe._ Komei growled and turned to the man in the center of the three, "Captain Grount." The young man smirked as he had been waiting for this- "Return to the Upper Residential Area and provide support for Princess Azula."

Grount's excited expression vanished in an instant and the nineteen year old Sun Marine officer frowned at his Admiral. "Hold on, I'm going after Straw Hat," Grount said, and Komei's gray eyebrows narrowed down at his subordinate.

"You are skilled, but do not overstep yourself, _Captain_ ," Komei said in a condescending tone to the younger man. "Do as I command-"

"Why are we retreating farther into the city?" Grount snapped, sounding like he was not going to obey this order. "We have them in the Lower Residential Area, we should keep them here. If I go down there, they won't make it any farther."

Komei growled and glared straight into the younger man's eyes. _All-Hunt Grount. I understand now why Vice Admiral Prodi has so much disdain for this boy. However, Prodi did admit he has certain skill._ "Fine," Komei said, "Get Straw Hat away from the rest of his crew if possible. Challenge him to a duel for all I care." Grount's eyes opened in surprise as did the officers at his sides, neither of whom expected Komei to fold that easily.

Grount was not one to question a good thing though, and he turned and leapt off the wall with a smirk splayed across his face. "Commanders," Komei said, and the two Fire Nation officers in front of him turned from Grount's falling form and back to the "Genius Tactician" leading their city's defense. Komei looked left and out into the Upper Residential Area which looked so serene, peaceful, unperturbed at the moment. "Head to First Battalion and help to mobilize the army." The two looked surprised, but Komei continued harshly, "I do not want any mistakes. If these invaders do make it farther into our city, they will have five thousand elite soldiers set upon them."

"Understood sir," the darker haired of the two officers replied, saluting Komei as he did.

The older man with whiter hair frowned and looked out to the south over all the buildings of Pyraxas. "What poor timing for an invasion. So much of the army gone on various offensives. I do hope we are not spread too thin. It may prove disastrous for our proud country." The old soldier turned and walked off, while Komei stared at the experienced veteran's back in a little anger at the disrespect he was shown, but he also watched him thoughtfully. _He is right. We are missing Grount's powerful comrades Bonham and Zappa, Commander Zhao, and most importantly- General Bujing, who is leading the invasion force directly south. It would not be so bad if all the mutants in the city were not called away by Lady Phoenix, after Magneto's untimely death earlier this week. This just makes it more of a challenge however,_ Komei started to grin again as he fanned his face, _these setbacks will not stop me from defending this city. Justice will prevail!_

"Admiral Komei," a voice spoke into Komei's ear and he grinned as he recognized the soldier it belonged to. "We found them. The gate at Hearth Drive, to the southeast of your position."

 _Southeast,_ Komei thought, his grin growing more prominent. _And finally a stroke of luck._ "I'm on my way. Locate the Missing Targets Maneuver is accomplished. Resume Operation Separate and Destroy!"

* * *

 **Lower Residential Area, Pyraxas.**

"This is never going to work," Natsu whispered to his right.

"They'll be fine," Kairi assured back to him. The two with different shades of red hair looked out the same window of a coffee shop close to a gate to the Upper Residential Area. They picked the table with the best view of the gate and the guard posts in front of it, as well as the black haired man in a suit Kairi magically whipped up for him. Gray's hair looked different than before, all of it slicked back over his head now so he looked extra fancy. He had on a red tie, a white shirt, black pants and a matching jacket, nice black shoes, and even wore a pair of glasses that had no prescription to them, they were just there for show.

"It's a good disguise," Natsu admitted, as he could barely recognize his friend. Gray looked nothing like the sewer-water-drenched, shirtless (for some reason he had stripped on their trek through the tunnels beneath the city), experienced fighter from a half an hour ago. Even without an arm, he just appeared to be a businessman who must have gotten caught up in something earlier on Nexus and lost his arm because of it. _Ben's watch better hold out. If things go wrong, grab Gray and both of you get out of there. We'll come up with a better strategy._

Ben stayed silent as he stood next to Gray. He had to keep close to his older friend to avoid people walking next to them from bumping into an invisible purple blobby figure. _Clear Body is getting a lot of use today, but I wish this alien had better fighting capabilities. If it comes to a fight, I'll go Heatblast and push forward. They won't be able to burn me, but I can still burn them. I won't have a lot of time after changing though, it really cuts my time limit down. I'm already starting to feel nervous about staying Clear Body for just this long._

"Is there a problem?" Gray questioned the guard behind the counter. He was standing very close to the gate he wanted to go through, a gate that had just opened up for a different couple who only had to flash cards for the guards to move aside for them. The guard he requested access to the upper city from was still typing in his computer though, looking like he was just processing Gray's request, but to the ice mage, even something like this was raising his suspicions.

"Just a second sir," the guard replied without looking away from his computer. "I have to process each ticket individually, and I am on the fourth one now."

 _Only the fourth? Did he choose halfway for a reason? It would be smart to make me think he has already done a lot, so that I do not decide to leave before reinforcements arrive. But he also does not want me to think he is too close to being finished, or he would soon have to make another excuse for keeping me here. Think of the worst possible outcome, and question how much sense it makes. Well this makes too much sense. Now, for a quick retreat._ Gray reached down into his pocket and grabbed a communicator he had bought on his way here for this sole purpose. "Oh?" He looked down at it and made sure it was out of sight of the guard behind the counter who turned to look up at him, since the screen was black and had nothing on it. Gray acted like it did though, and he looked back up at the guard already facing him, and said while lifting up his phone pointed towards himself, "I need to take this."

Gray took a step back and the guard said, "Sir, you really should stay here. The process is almost finished-"

"It's important," Gray said, making himself sound busy while he turned around. He looked back towards the lower city while bringing the phone to his ear, then froze after a single step as he saw Hearth Drive in front of him. The road was paved straight away from the gate, and fifty guards were jogging down that road in lines of ten, all of them holding spear-rifles, all of them in Fire Nation garb. They wore armor and every other soldier had a scary white mask over his or her face with red horns on the top of it. Down either side of the mostly empty horizontal strip along the front of the wall, Gray saw men and women wearing white uniforms running towards him, with red handkerchiefs tied in front of their collars, and red rims on their white hats with the words 'Sun Marines' written across them. In his peripheral vision, Gray saw the Fire Nation guards behind him who were acting all nonchalant at their posts raising their weapons, even the man behind the counter who pulled out a pistol and pointed it at his back.

Gray vanished.

The hundred soldiers aiming and looking at Gray froze and dropped their jaws. The man in a suit they were cornering did not make a move so fast none of them could see, he did not fly away, he just disappeared from right in front of them. "Not so fast!" A voice shouted from up above, and all the Fire Nation soldiers and Sun Marines looked up to see a man in a cream-colored robe falling from the top of the thirty meter tall gateway.

Admiral Komei descended towards an open area between all his men. He rose up his arms as he fell, and a dark purple aura surrounded his entire body. His eyes narrowed as he pointed two fingers on his right hand straight up, then waved both arms to the left and swung his fan with his left hand. "Busoshoku no Haki. With this spirit of mine, I apply power to my fan." The man smirked and one of the two invisible figures staring up below him went wide-eyed as he felt what was coming with his own Haki. Komei's fan lost its shape and became pitch black, the feathers of it extending out and whipping around like crazy for a second, before all pulling together in a thin blade twenty feet long.

Gray put his hand on Clear Body's blobby shoulder and pushed the boy away, then jumped backwards as fast as he could. Ben went one way and he went the other, then a thin black blade slammed into the ground between them and split straight through the paved black street. Gray put his arm in front of his face to protect from flying debris, while Ben was hit by a few chunks and lost his invisibility before tumbling away.

"Shit," Kirito muttered under his breath. He was still holding out for hope that Ben and Gray could get out of there on their own, but now was the time for action.

"Whoa!" a soldier shouted and looked down at the floor in front of him in panic. In the middle of the fifty Fire Nation guards on Hearth Drive, the ground tore apart as a teenager stood up, looking like he was getting out of water by how simple it was to him. Kirito stood in the middle of the guards, and Komei spun around hearing their shouts, before going wide-eyed as twenty more teenagers all with the same face stood up out of the ground throughout the squadron of soldiers.

The Admiral lost his grin after landing on the uneven ground where his sword stabbed through. _The one who defeated Ra's._ "Take him down!" Komei shouted. Two men slashed swords down at the first Kirito to pop out of the ground's head. One of them slashed before his comrade, and Kirito turned sideways to avoid the first slash that passed straight down inches in front of his face, then sidestepped to dodge the second swipe by the same margin. He kicked up with his right leg and into the side of the first man who slashed at him, a powerful blow that cracked the man's armor before sending him flying across the street and into a coffee shop's wall. Kirito planted the foot after the kick and did a one-eighty spin while raising his other leg, but the second soldier brought up his spear to block the blow with his shaft. He should have known after the force at which his comrade was sent flying, that his spear had no chance of surviving a kick, and it split in half with Kirito's kick. The soldier lifted the two halves of his spear and stared at them with wide eyes through his mask, at least until a second later when a fist collided with his mask and shattered it while sending him flying backwards into two other men who were pointing their rifles at a nearby Kirito clone. Another Kirito ducked as three soldiers bounced off the ground, letting them flip right over his head while he himself pulled a Kunai from a pouch on his side and twisted it around in his hand so the tip was pointed behind him. He planted a foot down hard and spun on it, slamming the knife back into the side of a heavyset soldier who had his spear raised above his head.

On the side of the road, an armored guard who smashed through the wall of a coffee shop groaned in pain but pushed his hands on the floor below him. He wrapped a hand around the shaft of his weapon that he dropped only after hitting the building, then ground his teeth in pain as he got up to one knee and a foot. He looked down at the left side of his armor and saw cracks lining it and a chunk missing. _The armor absorbed most of the damage, but the damn brat is strong._ He tried getting off his second knee, but there was oddly a lot of force pushing down on the top of his head so he could not move an inch. The guard darted his eyes to the right and watched as a teenage girl with long auburn hair walked past him and out the hole in the wall, while raising up her right hand and creating a long pink shaft in it. She flashed the man a quick grin, before rushing out into the road and attacking his fellow guards. The pressure was not off of his head yet, and the guard continued turning his gaze to a muscular figure behind him whose tank top was open down the middle now to reveal his abs and pecs. Natsu lifted up with the hand he had on the soldier's head, and finally the man was pulled off of his second knee, and also up in the air in front of Natsu.

"You want to keep fighting?" Natsu questioned, as he could see what the man was thinking as he walked up to him. Natsu held the man by one hand while covering his other fist in flames, "Then get back out there! Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" He slammed his fist into the back of the guard who screamed and went flying out of the coffee shop covered in flames. He looked like a fireball as he flew into the mass of Kiritos and guards and blew them all away.

The real Kirito and a few of his Shadow Clones turned towards the coffee shop with annoyed looks on their matching faces. Natsu got a little creeped out by their gazes, but one of them got shot and vanished while they were frowning at the Dragon Slayer, so the rest stopped giving him their dirty looks and got back to fighting. Closer to the gate, Gray stood facing a tall Marine officer from only five yards away. "Who are you?" The ice mage questioned.

"I am Admiral Komei of the Sun Marines," Komei replied and slashed his Haki-hardened fan to his side. The gatehouse on his left was not touched by the weapon, but a second later, the top half of the building was sliding off of the bottom half. "You terrorists who would disturb the peace of this city, the gem of the Fire Nation, will face your dooms here at my hands." The man had a tall red Sun Marine hat on his head, a red sash at his waist, and a cream robe around his body with green highlights at the cuffs of his sleeves and in the center where the two sides of his robe crossed over each other. He had two scars on the left side of his forehead and a smaller one beneath his left eye. Komei's dark gray mustache pointed up to the sides with nothing in between the two points leaving his upper lip hairless, though he had a long pointy beard sticking down from his chin all the way to his waist. "Now Gray Fullbuster," Komei said, keeping his face serious even as the Resistance member in front of him went wide-eyed that his name was already known by the enemy. "Prepare for your demise!"

A flash of green light caught the corners of Komei's eyes and he changed the trajectory of his slash midway down. Gray was already leaping backwards when Komei started his attack, but the Admiral stopped slashing at him and instead curved his arm on its descent, swinging it across his body while twisting around himself. Ben was shooting forward as Heatblast, but the boy's glowing white eyes opened huge at the sight of the man's black weapon slashing towards him. He leaned backwards far, and the blade sliced right over his bent body, cutting through his fiery hair and making the boy let out a gasp of relief at how close it was.

Komei leapt up in the air as Ben unbent, and the Sun Marine Admiral swung his weapon above his head, changing its shape once more so that it again looked like a fan, only five times as large as before. Komei slashed down and the massive fan created a gust of wind so powerful that the ground around where he already cracked it with his blade shattered and lifted up in the air. Ben pointed his hands down and flames shot out of his palms, while the soldiers at his sides punched towards him or fired their energy spears. Bursts of yellow light and balls of fire flew around the alien that swerved through the air, but the attacks thinned out the higher he flew towards Komei. They did not thin out because the men stopped aiming as well, but because the ice mage he left down below charged at the men around him and punched and kicked them around.

Gray snapped his head to the side as he heard loud creaking, and he frowned deeply at the sight of the gate behind these men about to close. _Damn it. We couldn't get through, and more men are coming every second._ He caught a glimpse of soldiers running along the top of the wall, though he became confused as many of them were running away from the gateway. _They're heading to the east? Is something going on at the southern gate? Or even farther in the city? Whatever's drawing their attention, it's to our advantage._ The mage focused back down and leaned left then right to dodge two beams fired by his enemies. The men dressed as Marines opened their eyes wide, then Gray darted towards them and before they could fire a second bullet, their guns were each pushed up by the barrels by Gray's rapidly moving right hand. They fired straight up into the air before Gray ripped their rifles from their hands one at a time, then swung both weapons around into the side of one man's face which knocked his head into his comrade's.

Two yellow beams flew up past Ben, but the boy did not need to dodge them as for some reason it seemed like the men who fired them were not even aiming at him. He rose his right hand and a fireball formed on it that he threw forward, as the man in front of him kicked the air below his feet to stay hovering at his level. Komei slashed his fan down and the flames Ben threw split apart, and then the wind from the swing hit him a second later and he went spinning through the air. He finally righted himself, but when he looked back towards where the Marine was, Komei was nowhere in sight. He snapped his gaze up at the last second as the shadow passed over him, and he rose up his arms, clapping his hands together on the long blade that Komei jabbed down at him.

Ben was being pushed out of the air and his arms were shaking as he could barely hold Komei's weapon back. His hands glowed brighter as did all the cracks between the molten rocks holding together his body, but the weapon he was grabbing was too full of Haki for him to melt. _I need to be a stronger alien!_ He thought, but before he could come up with a plan, a flash of red illuminated on his chest where the hourglass symbol used to be green. "Not yet!" He shouted in panic.

"Your time is up!" Komei yelled down at the boy who looked even more panicked as this man seemed to know all about his Omnitrix's time limit. Ben pushed with all of his remaining strength before the last flash of red light, and he managed to knock Komei's blade back so that it did not cut through him as soon as he turned into a child. Ben's thirteen year old human body appeared falling out of the air fast, and he slammed down into a chunk of uplifted pavement that made him wince in pain. Marines and Fire Nation guards ran up to the boy lying on his back and they pointed rifles down at him.

"Ben!" a voice shouted, and one of the Marines closest to Ben got lifted off her feet. She flew over Ben's body and slammed into another two Marines who tumbled away with her. The other guards pointed their guns towards where the female Marine just was, but the tiny figure that just appeared there shot to his left and took the legs out from beneath a guard pointing a spear at him. The guard dropped, then so did the next to after him.

Dash sprinted for the next guard while Ben was slowly getting up, rubbing his back in aching pain. "Thanks Dash," Ben began, but stopped when he saw the armored soldier in front of him with a grin on his face. The man tapped the heels of his boots together, the same time as the rest of the guards around Ben and Dash. Dash was running for another guard, when tiny panels opened up on the sides of the guard's boots, and a strange white liquid poured out of his boots and all over the pavement around him. Dash kept running forward though and he slammed a fist into the guard's stomach, knocking the smirking man backwards with a wince replacing his smug look. A second later though, the smug look reappeared on the man's face who did not skid very far away.

 _The power of my punch, it didn't feel like the others,_ Dash looked down at his hand, then past it and down at the floor where he realized his fatal mistake. Dash struggled to lift his feet up, but the goo on the ground stuck to him like gum, pulling up with a foot but then snapping him back down. "I'm stuck!" He shouted in panic.

"Dash!" Ben shouted, and he took a step towards his friend, before seeing the barrel of a rifle shoved straight in his face. Ben's eyes opened wide and he lifted his gaze nervously to the Sun Marine woman pointing her gun straight at him. A look spread across her face that made Ben feel hopeful, but at the woman's side appeared ten more guards who pointed their guns at him and Dash.

Juvia spotted Dash down the street from where she and him were hiding until a moment ago. They were told to come in as a last resort to help the others escape, but seeing the boy stuck in something she started running forward. She rose her arms to create some water magic and try to wash away the material sticking him in place, but some guards saw the woman on their list and pointed their weapons at her, firing dozens of beams at the girl with no guard up. The beams passed straight through Juvia, but they did stop her from attacking the others farther down the road from them who were surrounding Ben and Dash now.

Komei dropped down behind the group of men in front of the boys, and the Admiral looked down at the children stuck in place with a look of disdain. _These children are being used by the terrorists, but I cannot show them any mercy._ "How do you like this, the Glue in the Boots Maneuver?!" Komei laughed and then rose his voice louder, "Dojaku!"

Ben and Dash snapped their heads up as a shadow fell over them. Something big was falling from the sky, and it dropped to the floor in between Komei and the young boys. Dust rose up thanks to all the broken pavement around them, and when it settled down, a burly figure of another Sun Marine stood before them. Dojaku had a huge smile in the center of his big bushy beard, and the man had a rope held in his right hand leading back up into the sky. The man started running towards him, but when Ben glanced down at his left wrist he saw the Omnitrix still in the red. A strong arm slammed into his chest and knocked the wind out of Ben who was not expecting the large man to move so nimbly that he would reach him in under a second. He got his breath back though as Dojaku ran towards Dash, and he yelled out, "Gray!"

The ice mage who was the closest to the boys turned his head and opened his eyes wide at the sight of Dojaku grabbing Dash with the same arm he had Ben wrapped up in. "Dash!" Gray shouted and started running his direction. Dojaku yanked up and the kid yelled in pain as his legs were getting stretched by the gooey glue. Komei saw his subordinate was struggling and he slashed his fan out once, cutting the stretching goo beneath Dash's feet and making Dojaku stumble backwards as all resistance was gone. "Ice Make: Floor!" Gray yelled, clenching his right fist in front of his chest as he was running over.

Komei turned around and he slashed towards the ice mage, but Gray dropped beneath the slash and slammed his hand into the ground. The ground from his hand all the way to Komei froze over, with the Admiral just jumping up to avoid being frozen to the floor. The rest of his men were not as lucky, being frozen stuck to where they were. Komei saw even Dojaku let his feet get stuck to the ground, and he widened his fan again with Haki, before swinging the wide weapon down and creating a force of wind so powerful that the ice and ground beneath Dojaku crumbled. "Now!" Komei yelled, and Dojaku tugged down on the rope in his right hand.

Ben was trying to pull his arms up from his sides over the burly arm around him so that he could free himself, and Dash was swinging his arms and legs fast as to vibrate himself out of his enemy's grasp. His feet were still coated in the white sticky substance, but the more he kicked his feet, the more glue he was managing to burn right off of his feet. His clothes were getting ripped up too by how fast he was moving, but beneath them he had on a tight blue costume that withstood the friction force made by his vibrations. Both boys stopped struggling though as they were suddenly yanked off the ground, being pulled into the air at sixty miles per hour.

"What's going on?!" Dash yelled in panic.

Ben lifted his gaze up, past the hairy face of the smiling Marine holding him, up the rope they were hanging off of, to the top of the rope where his eyes focused in. The rope curled up over the wall and the top of it was moving west fast, as if someone was on top of the wall running with the end of the rope in hand. Ben's gaze shifted to a little in front of them and he saw something that made his eyes grow wide, and his suspicions were confirmed as the top of the rope moved south below the wall, but did not fall as it was attached to a rolling cart on top of the railroad tracks that led over the wall. The cart looked to be rolling on its own across the elevated tracks, while the rope hanging off of it was retracting back so the three were getting closer and closer to the steel box every second.

"Ben! Dash!" Gray yelled after the boys getting carried away from them. He heard something coming for him with his Haki and flipped backwards, just in time to dodge a swipe from Komei. He landed the flip on one hand, then as he flipped again back to his feet, he punched a fist out and yelled, "Ice Make: Tiger!" A tiger ten times as large as Gray's own body formed out of thin air at the end of his fist and pounced towards Komei. The Admiral leapt up in the air high to avoid it, and he slashed down while he lifted, shattering the frozen animal into pieces. He glared down as he landed on the top of the wall high above, because there was a man sprinting up the wall below him, ice forming beneath his feet with every step so that he could run the ninety degree angle with no issue. Gray ran all the way up the wall and stopped ten yards in front of Komei, facing the Marine though his gaze kept darting behind him to the boys getting increasingly far away.

"Go on," Komei said, "do you not wish to save your friends?" He lowered his weapon from a ready stance and his fan lost the Haki from it. He put his hands behind his back and slid them into the opposite arms' sleeves. "Go," Komei said, "or I will command Dojaku to kill them now."

Gray did not have time to think about it. He turned and started sprinting away as fast as his legs would allow. He started jumping and throwing ice at the ground where he was going to land, creating little jumps of ice that his feet would slide down then slide up the other side which he made into a ramp that would send him soaring up in the air. "Gray!" Natsu shouted up as he finished off the last enemy in front of him. "I'm right behind you-"

"No!" Gray shouted, looking back and seeing his friend already sprinting towards the wall. Gray dropped and flew back up thanks to his ice jump, but he was now shooting backwards off the wall and towards the railroad tracks leading farther west away from the upper areas of the city. "Keep going and get to the Fire Lord's Palace!" _I don't know why Komei does not want me to keep moving forward, but if anyone needs to keep going, it's you Natsu._ "I'll get Dash and Ben, and we'll catch up when we can!" He was shouting at the top of his lungs now as he was getting too far away, and the last thing he shouted before he got too far was, "It's up to you now!"

"Gray-sama!" Juvia yelled, running right behind Natsu. They were in the wide opening between the tall walls and the first buildings closest to them. There were Marines and Fire Nation soldiers lying on the floor all around them, but none left standing to fight. Kirito and Kairi came jogging up behind the other two, and all four of them watched as Gray landed on a far away railroad track that he started running down.

Natsu growled and glanced back at the top of the wall. The Admiral who was the strongest of their enemies was fanning himself and looking down with confidence at them. "I will now take my leave. Search for me farther inside the city, if you dare." He laughed and then turned around and leapt away on the other side of the wall.

Natsu snarled at the man's words, but snapped his head back in the direction Gray ran off. "Bastard led us into a trap. We've gotta go after Gray-" Natsu took a step as he was talking, but a hand grabbed Natsu by the arm and he spun his head angrily, glaring at the teen behind him who stopped him from running off.

Kirito glared just as hard back though, and he yelled, "You are the most important part of this plan!" Natsu's angry look lowered down a little, but Kirito stayed pissed as he let go of the Dragon Slayer's arm. "You have to be the one who faces Sozin," he told the older man. "Trust in Gray-" Kirito's face scrunched up as he said it; the words tasted bad in his mouth as he himself never could do what he just said. He continued, "And Ben, and Dash, trust our friends, and they'll be right behind us like Gray said."

Natsu frowned and glanced to the west again, before turning back and nodding his head. "Then I'm going to take down the Fire Lord as fast as possible," he growled, as he really wanted to make sure his other friends were alright.

"You go on ahead," Juvia told her friends. "Juvia will go after Gray-"

Kirito shook his head at her too. "There is only one thing that might work better against the Fire Lord than Natsu," he began. "And that's you with your water powers." Juvia frowned as she really wanted to chase after her boyfriend, but Kirito continued, "The best way to help Gray, is to take down the Fire Lord as fast as possible and throw the city into chaos."

"Chaos?" Kairi questioned. Kirito turned to her and Kairi looked into his eyes, "What about all the people living here?"

Kirito ground his teeth but spoke in a detached voice, "What did you think was going to happen when we defeat the Fire Lord?" None of the other three spoke, and he continued harshly, "We're at war, and we're being the aggressors here. We came into a city that was peaceful, and we're taking out the ruling power. I accepted the reality of what we came here to do the moment we decided to go, now it's time for you guys to understand exactly where we are."

Natsu turned his head away from Kirito and looked around him. Smoke and fire rose up in the small battlefield they were just in, only it was not a battlefield, but a bustling street only a few minutes before they went wild in it. He looked towards the coffee shop that he had been laying in wait in, and he saw the young barista who gave him his coffee. He could see her through a hole in the wall, curled up next to the counter with a little girl held in her arms. The woman made eye contact with him as she was looking out the wall in his direction already, and the expression of fear that spread across her face upon being seen made Natsu's chest ache. After a moment he turned away though, and though he kept what was going on around him in mind, he said, "Let's do what we came here to do."

Natsu marched towards the giant gates leading farther into the city, and he stepped straight up to the point between the two tall steel doors. Without covering his fists in flames, without shouting out any crazy attack name, he slammed his fist forward, and the doors over a dozen times taller than him broke off their hinges. Kirito and Juvia followed behind him, with Kairi taking up the rear. The young girl let her Keyblade vanish as she walked up on top of the doors on the other side of the gate. Natsu started jogging forward at the front of their group of four, and Juvia and Kirito determinedly stared forward and sped up after him. Kairi stared at her friends backs with a sad look on her face though, _What are we doing here? Is this really, a good thing we're doing?_ The group of four were coming to the end of the road and they turned right down another one, before coming to sudden stops one at a time. Kairi was the last one around the corner, and the girl's doubts faded from her mind at the sight of something straight down the street from them.

A hundred feet in front of the four fighters at the corner, there was a square between some elegant buildings of the Upper Residential Area. In the center of this square was a wooden stage, with a wooden bar eight feet off of the floor of the stage. There were some figures above the stage too, figures whose feet were dangling a few feet off the ground, with barrels on the stage a few feet behind their legs, and ropes around their necks that were tied to the bar over the stage and held them all there. Each of the three figures hanging by their necks had signs in front of their chests, and steel chains on their ankles that held their feet together, even the shortest one whose face looked so young. On the signs were the same words for all three of them: 'Attempted To Run.' What was worse than the three slaves hanging there though, were the citizens of Pyraxas walking around the square and the nearby streets, not a single one of them even glancing towards that center stage and the people there. The bodies looked fresh, as if they had died only recently, and the four figures who just barged through the gate southwest of them started to look very, very dangerous.

A couple of rich people walking away from the square and down the road towards the four stopped where they were. The woman in a fancy dress and the man in a suit and a top hat stared down the paved street at the four who did not look like they belonged in the Upper Residential Area. The man opened his mouth to say something, when the boy with pink hair lowered his attention from the gallows to the people right in front of him. "'Attempted to run?' Why don't you try it?" He said, and his fists burst into flames. Juvia snarled and guttural growls came out the back of her throat, and Kirito drew both of his swords before glaring at the "people" in front of him in disgust. The two civilians started running, but a Keyblade reappeared in Kairi's hand as she spotted guards appearing on the other side of the square and pointing their direction.

"SOZIN!" Natsu roared, snapping his head back as he did. _This is the world we live in?!_ Natsu's head dropped back down and the guards running his way slowed down at the frightening look on his face. _For over two years I had no idea this was going on! I let monsters like this rule the world?!_ "RAAA!" Flames billowed out of Natsu's mouth and he charged forward, melting the ground beneath his feet with every stomp he took. The soldiers coming at him started to hesitate, some of them rose shaky weapons, some of them just turned and started to flee as the beast charged them.

Komei watched from a distance and he lowered the binoculars from his eyes. A bead of sweat rolled down the left side of his face, _It is time to call in Azula. She can handle poisoning Natsu Dragneel while I focus on the pirates._ He turned the other direction and took off while giving orders from his headset. After he sent out the orders, he fell silent again and kept leaping away on the shingled roofs of buildings. _One look at those slaves and… No. That is the way of this world. It was the way of my old world too. What these fools are doing is not justice. They are harbingers of chaos. Chaos will always cause destruction, violence, and war. And war, is the worst thing there is._

* * *

 **1/4 Mile West of Pyraxas**

"Ben! Isn't the watch ready yet?!" Dash yelled at his best friend, even though they were right next to each other.

"I said I'll tell you when!" Ben yelled back, though he could understand Dash's panic. He leaned back over the front of the rail-cart they were rolling along inside of. "Hey! Stop it already!" The man who dropped him inside the cart with Dash a minute ago was sprinting backwards on the railway leading away from the city. The rope he was holding before was now tied around his waist, and with both hands he was placing down planks of wood and metal tracks so fast that he looked like a blur. "Man," Ben muttered as the large Marine ignored him again, "this guy builds so fast, he could probably stand up to Franky."

Dash was sitting on his butt in the metal cart, looking at the soles of his shoes and wiping them off with his quickly vibrating hands as there was still some white gook left on them. "I can't believe I let myself get caught like that," Dash mumbled to himself in annoyance. Ben looked back and down at the kid who finally started getting up to his feet. "I'm so fast, but I wasn't paying enough attention, again!" Ben's eyes widened as he stared at his slightly younger and slightly shorter friend. _He's talking about what happened with Juvia,_ Ben thought, and his own mouth curved down, his eyes narrowing back towards their enemy ahead of them. _This track was already built leading far out of the city, he's just adding to it now. I don't remember seeing it yesterday though, so either I missed it, or this guy built this track out here as part of their plan. That's why it just ends like this out in a field somewhere._ Ben looked around as he wondered why the enemy chose this area, and he nodded as it made sense considering there were none of the towns and villages surrounding Pyraxas within a five mile radius of them.

Ben spotted something as he was looking around, and a big smirk came to his face at the sight of the green on his watch. _Here we go-_ The cart jolted to a stop and Ben flew out of it, as there was nothing holding him inside the vehicle. "Ben!" Gray shouted, cursing himself mentally for what he just did. Ben opened his eyes as he flew through the air, and he looked back towards the cart that Dash was leaning over the front of with a look of pain on his face, and that had ice all around its wheels and coating the tracks behind it.

Dojaku dropped the materials in his hands and reached up over his back, grabbing the hilt to one of the giant saw-shaped blades he had resting there. "Sorry about this young man!" The hefty Sun Marine shouted, while drawing his weapon and slashing it in front of his body right where Ben was on target to hit. Dash panicked and got over his pain to climb out of the cart he was in, but he was too slow to start running and intercept Dojaku's slash. He never needed to however, as the slash cut the air a few feet in front of Ben without ever touching the boy.

Ben had stopped moving, and he floated ten feet in front of Dojaku with a dark look in his eyes. _This man just tried to kill me,_ the boy thought. Ben lowered himself to the floor in front of the enemy, but Dojaku was backing away from him with a very, very nervous look on his face. Dash sprinted up to Ben and stopped on his left side, then Gray came running up behind them a few seconds later. The ice mage was panting a little, but he still managed to say, "Sorry about that," to the two boys he was trying to help.

"And I am sorry as well," Dojaku said.

"I don't accept your apology," Ben growled. He froze and turned his head to his right side, "I mean, I don't accept _his,_ " he specified to Gray, in case the mage thought he meant it to both him and their enemy.

"I got what you meant," Gray said, before both turned back to Marine Captain ahead of them. "The Sun Marines," Gray growled, "I never expected that you would have anything to do with them, but your uniforms are too similar to ignore." Ben realized what Gray was saying and he focused in on the white jacket the heavyset man ahead of them was wearing. Dojaku also wondered what Gray was talking about, but before any of his enemies could continue, or he could ask, he gulped and tapped his shoes together.

Dash's eyes darted to the man's feet and he took a step back, thinking the man was about to release the same white glue that trapped him earlier. Instead however, flames shot out of Dojaku's feet and ignited the grass beneath him. The man continued to look apologetic as he lifted off the ground, and Gray had a bad feeling in his gut that the man's apology a moment ago was not for dragging them a half a mile out of the city.

"Hey! Where are you going?!" Ben shouted at the man flying high over his head. "I thought you wanted to fight!" He yelled, but Dojaku was getting too far away for him to reach with his voice anymore. Ben dropped the fist he waved after the man, and he slouched his shoulders, "Huh. That was, weird," Ben muttered, then looked left and right as if waiting for something to happen. _He wouldn't just bring us all the way out here to leave, would he? No, there's a reason he picked an area where there aren't any towns. Something's wrong!_

"Where does he think he's running off to?" Dash questioned in an annoyed voice.

"We should go after him," Gray said, his voice low and serious. _He is running from something._

The speedster of the group of three agreed wholeheartedly. He started sprinting ahead to cut off the enemy and put Dojaku in between him and his two friends. Dash had only just started running when Gray had a very bad feeling, not just with his Haki, but with his entire being. "DASH STOP!" He was too late.

Dash snapped his head down, the other two behind him looked at the floor below Dash's feet in fear, and Dojaku flinched in the distance and he had dared a glance over his shoulder. The grass in a fifty meter radius around Dash vanished, though more precisely, the grass died, wilted, and became black within a single second. The black grass could not withstand its old shape and disintegrated, covering the field around the boy in ash as he skid forward, his eyes pointed at the floor beneath him. "What the-" the boy began, before screaming in agony as the ground opened up beneath him, and thick white strands of something that oozed darkness shot out of the floor and up his legs. _MOVE!_ Dash vibrated his legs faster than he ever imagined he could, and he sprinted straight through whatever was wrapping up his legs. He sprinted out of the dark patch of ground and to the southern side of it, and Ben and Gray started running towards him from the west side where they had been standing.

Dash escaped the dark area and then dropped to the ground and rolled away at a hundred miles per hour. When he came to a stop, he flipped himself onto his back and sat up, looking down at his legs that were still screaming in pain. He was panting hard, and his eyes grew huge at the sight of the bare skin on his knees, shins, and ankles where his blue super suit should have been protecting. It was not just the super suit that dissolved though, and Dash hissed in pain as smoke seared off of his skin. Patches of his leg were red and bleeding, he could smell his own flesh, and he smelled disgusting. The boy watched as a piece of his skin fell right off of his knee, and he almost gagged at the sight of it, dark, and bumpy, and rotted. The rotten flesh fell to the ground below his leg and sizzled into nothing in the grass.

"Dash! What happened?" Ben bent down next to his friend and looked at the damage to Dash's legs. "Can you stand?"

"It hurts," Dash whispered, but he sniffled and pushed his hands down on the floor at his sides. "But yeah," he said, "I have to."

The little boy staggered up to his feet and winced in pain putting all his weight on his wounded legs. Ben turned from his younger friend and looked the same way that Dash and Gray were already looking. All three of them faced the black circular area where there used to be grass, and they backed away as the dark circle continued to expand out towards them. They kept backing away even when their eyes left the edge of the circle, when they heard the voice coming from the center of it. The voice started out quiet, laughter that could almost be mistaken for wind, "Eeehahahaha…" A gust of wind rushed through the field at that moment and the three boys facing the dark circle shivered, though they did so not because of the breeze.

Black smoke had started rising from the dark patch in the grass. It seeped out of the ground while the floor where Dash was tripped up before started to bubble. The ground became less black and turned white and bubbly, a disgusting mixture seeping out of the floor and rising up more every second. "What, the Hell, is this?" Gray whispered, then wished he had not as he was supposed to be the most composed one there, keeping it together for the sake of the younger boys. His sounding like he had no idea what was happening only unnerved the other two even more, but he could not help it, this was seriously freaking him out.

"Komei you bastard," a voice hissed through the thick black smoke, and a silhouette became visible inside of it. "You said you were sending me some humans to kill, but you didn't tell me they were children!" The shadow in the smoke moved forward and stepped out of the darkness onto the black ground past the smoke. The smoke continued to billow higher and grow thicker while the man stepped towards them, a middle-aged man with cropped red hair around his head, a white button down shirt on, and who wore casual black pants and shoes. Despite what he said, the figure in front of them's tone and the smile on his face when he came out of the smoke made it seem like he actually preferred it that Komei sent them children instead of adults, and the three standing in front of the man gulped.

"Who, are you?" Gray called out. He rose his fist to look menacing, and Ben reminded himself that his watch was still in the green so he should not be panicking this much.

The redhead in front of them started laughing. His laughter was a low chuckle at first, then a cackle, then it became hysteria as he snapped his mouth wide open to reveal all the teeth inside it were sharpening. The boys in front of the man had seen this happen before, specifically with a half-demon friend of theirs who they thought about for a moment at the sight of this man's face. Dash took a step back and his face flushed with fear as the smoke behind the figure cleared a little. "Oh my God," the kid whispered, his voice cracking as he did. Ben and Gray could see it too, but neither of them could speak at the sight of the giant mass of white sticking out of the ground behind the demon before them. It kept getting bigger and bigger, already fifty feet tall and still getting taller, and wider all the time.

Astaroth smirked menacingly with lips that curled so far apart no that no human could do such a thing. "The Impure King," Astaroth said while his opponents looked over his head and towards the top of the white blob behind him. It was still emerging from the portal in the ground, but its head was all the way out now, and Gray, Dash, and Ben stared at the terrifying eyes of the monster the likes of which they had never seen before. The black smoke that rose with Astaroth all vanished, but there was still a cloud of gas surrounding the Impure King, and Astaroth said while the young people before him gawked at it, "Its miasma will spread and rot you from the inside out!" The cloud of gray specks coming off of the monster started to expand, and the little particles were being taken by the wind and spread around the field like a disease.

All the grass within a mile radius started to wilt, and Gray felt the urge to start coughing into his arm. He resisted at first, then heard the coughing on his left side from both others with him and he knew what was happening. "Cover your mouths!" Gray shouted, while pulling off the suit jacket he still had on and covering his mouth and nose with it. He took a deep breath into the fabric, then tossed the jacket to his side at one of the boys, before ripping off his button-down next, and using the shirt to cover his own mouth. Ben caught the jacket and tore it in half with one hard tug, handing one half to Dash while still coughing, then waving around the piece of fabric he still had in his hand to clear the air in front of him so he could take a deep breath. The boy tied the cloth around the bottom of his face after taking the breath, then stared back towards their red haired opponent who watched them with a murderous look in his eyes, and a hungry smirk plastered across his face.

"What, are you?" Ben said, changing the wording of Gray's question from a minute ago.

"Heehahaha! EEEHAHAHA! HOW WERE YOUR NIGHTMARES?!" Astaroth screamed, before slamming his arms out to the sides and making the ground on both sides of him explode with flames. The orange fire shot in lines across the blackened earth right past Gray and past Dash on Ben's other side, before the flames curled in behind them and trapped them between fire and their enemy. What he shouted about their nightmares had them terrified, the flames made them sweat even worse, but it was the transformation the demon underwent in the following seconds that made each of the boys in front of him feel fear worse than anything they had ever felt before. "I AM ASTAROTH! THE DEMON KING OF ROT! AND YOU WILL ALL DIE HERE!"

 _A Demon King?!_ Gray thought in sheer terror. _Don't panic! Hold it together!_ He could hear Dash's whimpers and as much as Ben tried, the kid could not help but let out a yelp as the fire around them doubled in size and the air darkened to a deep shade of black. _Holy shit! We're all going to die!_

"SATAN…" Gray, Dash, and Ben slowly rose their heads from the eight foot tall monstrous demon covered in red bumpy skin that had twisting goat horns coming out of its head and an enormous monster at its back. The demon itself looked up in the air above them and was just as shocked as the other three, his jaw dropping just as far, as the figure engulfed in blue flames fell towards them and screamed, "SLASH!" The man falling through the air slashed his sword down, and a slash of blue fire so huge that it filled the sky over the gap between orange flames fell upon the Demon King of Rot and his pet. The figure inside the aura of blue flames dropped down between Gray, Ben, and Dash, and the screaming demon who was hit by the blue fire.

"ASTAROTH!" Okumura Rin shouted at the blue flames in front of him and the monster inside them. "WHERE IS MY BROTHER!"

"Rin?" Ben asked, as the orange flames on either side of him died down to nothing in the dirt.

Rin turned his head to the side, then looked back forward furiously towards the demon inside his attack. He blinked a few times, then spun around again and gawked at the three people behind him the same way they did when he dropped from the sky. "Ben?! Dash?! Gray?!" The three boys who thought Rin just made some crazy heroic entrance sweatdropped, as apparently, he had no idea they were in danger in the first place. "What are you doing here?!"

 **"DYING!"** A voice shouted behind Rin, and the half-demon spun back around in shock and stared at the blue flames as they blew away. **"Rin!"** Astaroth bellowed, his voice more terrifying than ever to the people behind the half-demon Astaroth was addressing. **"Father will be so pleased to hear I found you! Now move out of my way and let me kill those humans behind you. Then, let us be off to Hell!"** Behind Astaroth, Rin saw a creature he recognized growing larger and a bead of sweat rolled down the left side of his face.

 _The Impure King, did Astaroth summon it here? The miasma in the air is so thick!_ "I'm not moving," Rin growled at the Demon King, "and you're going to tell me where Yukio is!"

Astaroth's smirk wiped off his face and the demon snarled in the most monstrous way possible. "I am going to melt the flesh off your bones! Then maybe you'll be a little more cooperative!"

Rin got some more sweat on his face as he held up his sword towards his enemy. _Last time I could not even defeat the Impure King on my own. To fight it, and a Demon King, at the same time! It's imposs-_ A figure walked up on Rin's left side, and Rin turned his head partially to see a thirteen year old boy standing there with his left wrist raised in front of him. He had half of a suit jacket tied around the bottom half of his face, but Rin could still see Ben's eyes as the kid turned to look at him and gave him a reassuring nod. _That's right, I'm not on my own,_ Rin realized, and turned back to Astaroth, though through the corners of his eyes he saw two more figures walk up to his sides, to the frustration of the demon before them. _I don't know where you guys came from, but I'm seriously glad you're here right now. Alone, I don't know if I could beat him, but together…_ Rin's sword ignited brightly with blue flames and burned out the miasma surrounding him and his friends, clearing the air to give them a perfect view of their enemies. _I know we can win!_

* * *

 **First Royal Battalion Barracks, Pyraxas**

On the northern side of the Upper Residential Area of Pyraxas, five thousand soldiers inside a military base were putting on armor and gathering up their weapons and ammo. Surveillance rooms were full of soldiers receiving briefing reports on the enemies who had entered the city and on their various abilities. Komei's new reports on the more unknown invaders before this morning were revealing the other fighters' capabilities, and new reports were coming in every minute.

"Did you hear? Captain Grount got taken down!"

"All-Hunt Grount defeated before we even got there? We gotta get in there fast!"

"We're just waiting on the order!"

Inside the Command room of the barracks, two officers of the Fire Nation army were standing on the opposite side of a desk as their commander, and the Princess of the Fire Nation. "What are we waiting for Princess?" One of the two asked, an older man with a thick goatee and long ponytail falling behind his head.

Azula glared at him, then the younger man closer to her age who tensed up more at her glare, especially with how disheveled she appeared to be at the moment. Her hair was a mess, for as much as she tried to fix it to look good, its varying length on different parts of her head, and how short it was at some parts to make it look like she was balding, were impossible to fix. She had considered cutting it all off several times that morning while her men were preparing themselves, and as she glared at the figures in front of her, a few strands fell in front of her face and she blew a quick breath up to push the hair away. They fell back down over her eyes and in fury she reached up and ripped the strands right out, letting out a sharp yell of pain as she did, and unnerving both officers in front of her.

The door on the other side of the Command room opened, surprising the three figures inside and making Azula growl as she wondered who would barge right in without knocking. The sight of who entered made Azula grin however, while the two men on the other side of the desk gave the green-haired man a bow. "Commander," the dark haired man with a ponytail greeted. "I had been told you were still missing after your defeat in the south."

Yonji was not intending on being reminded of that failure as soon as he arrived. He had other things on his mind, but the aching pains in his gut, and the bruises on his face, suddenly jolted him with more pain than a few seconds ago. He turned to the officer who stayed looking serious despite Yonji's angry scowl, "I-" Yonji only made out a single word, before the older officer in front of him opened his mouth to scream, but could never make a sound as his body charred to a crisp. Yonji and the other officer next to that man looked at him in shock as his skin blackened, and as he collapsed to the floor they turned to the other side of the desk and the disheveled woman standing behind it with two sparking fingers held out in front of her.

"P-Princess!" The younger officer shouted, spinning around and reaching down to his belt where he had a sidearm resting. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"He insulted my dear husband straight to his face, do you think I could let that slide?" Azula questioned, while a broad grin spread across her face.

The man wondered what she was smiling so much about, when suddenly there were two hands on the sides of his head. "No wai-" he started to scream, before Yonji snapped to the side and broke the officer's neck.

"Putting your hand on your holster, how dare you threaten your Princess?" Yonji asked, before smirking and looking up at the woman behind the desk. He lost his grin after a second and questioned, "What happened to your-"

"Don't you fucking dare," Azula snarled, and Yonji froze with his mouth open, before shrugging and closing it, deciding if she was sore on the subject of her current appearance he better not press it. She took a deep breath to calm herself, as her fingers had started sparking again in rage. Then, Azula looked into her husband's eyes and said, "Put on your Raid Suit. You don't want to be caught off guard this time," she commanded.

Yonji looked at the floor in front of him and the bodies on it. Then he looked back up at the woman behind the desk and said, "We may have acted a bit rashly. This will not look good-"

"I don't care how it looks!" Azula shouted. She looked enraged for a second, but then smirked menacingly and lightning sparked violently from her fingers. "My great-grandfather can rot in Hell for all I care," she continued, and Yonji's eyes grew wide at what she was saying. _What happened to her? She's acting crazy, well, crazier than usual._ Azula chuckled, then laughed louder and looked Yonji in his wide eyes, "This is the plan…"

* * *

 **A/N The fight for Pyraxas has begun! Thanks for reading! I originally planned for this chapter to have several more parts to it, but when I finished the second to last scene I checked how many words it was and saw I was already at over twenty three thousand, so I decided to cut it with one last scene. I hope you enjoyed Komei's mental battle against Gray's team as the two groups try to outmaneuver each other (Komei with long names for each of his maneuvers), and though Gray's team managed to evade prying eyes underground and made it to the walls to the next section of the city, they were unable to all make it through together, with Ben and Dash getting dragged out of the city on a rail-cart and Gray sent after them to split him and Kirito up as was Komei's plan. Astaroth emerges out of the ground with the Impure King at his back, but Rin shows up demanding to know where his brother is, shocking the others who have no idea where he came from. Finally the two teams who invaded the city are starting to bump into each other, but how long will it be before the others realize their two groups have the same objective? Five thousand "elite" troops are preparing to enter the battle, but the Princess supposed to be leading them has plans of her own. What is Azula planning? Or is she just insane? Lots of questions, lots of battles, a lot of enemies yet to be seen by our heroes. How will they handle them? Find out next time on Nexus!**

 **-Hey guys, so one more thing, less about the story and more about the update speed. I know it's been going pretty fast the last couple of chapters, but I'm going to have to slow down for a little. I spent all day yesterday writing this chapter, even when alarms were going off on my phone telling me to do the work I've been putting off for a while. I am studying abroad in the spring (in Tokyo) and I'm trying to apply for a few scholarships to lessen the burden on my wallet, but I need to write essays and find out some financial stuff for those scholarships. So for the next week or so whenever I have free time, I'm going to try and focus on that and schoolwork. On a better note, I have chapters 11.1-12.3 complete, so when I do start updating again, or at least after the next half dozen chapters, I'm going to do an update a day type of thing again. Once again, hope you all enjoyed! Time for a quick list:**

 **One Piece: Komei, Grount, Bonham, Zappa, Luffy, Nami, Robin, Franky, Usopp, Sanji, Yonji, Kansho, Dojaku**

 **Avatar the Last Airbender: Azula, Sozin, Zhao, Bujing, Fire Nation**

 **Blue Exorcist: Kuro, Rin, Yukio, Mephisto, Amaimon, Astaroth, Impure King, Satan**

 **SAO: Kirito**

 **Fairy Tail: Natsu, Gray, Juvia**

 **DC Comics: Ra's al Ghul, Big Belly Burger**

 **Star Wars: Darth Bane**

 **Ben 10: Ben, Omnitrix**

 **The Incredibles: Dash**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Sora, Kairi, Riku**

 **Devil as a Part Timer: Maou Sadao**

 **South Park: Damien**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Killua**

Darugus chapter 62 . Aug 24

These past two chapters were good not much I want to say just looking forward for the next one

 **Glad you liked them! Thanks for the review!**

Espada-001 chapter 62 . Aug 25

Well I'm a tad late with a review for the past few episodes. Starting off the whole battle royal was pretty awesome and all the fights were pretty good however I'm still feeling bad for Kuwabara. I'm curious as to why Jiriya used his trump to kill one lord when he could have instead saved it to reverse summon the prisoners to the toad mountains (If there still in the mountains anyway). Also looks like Black Star won't be getting the payback he wanted now that Magneto is dead, and a bit disappointing to see Jiriya go so soon. Also I have a few questions about Phoenix, why was she following Magneto even though she's clearly stronger and this seems to be her in one of her more stabilized versions. Also why would Dadoria's group immediately be able to take Maka as their slave, wouldn't they still have buy her from Phoenix or does everything just become a free for all once a lord dies? Anyway I meant to ask this first but why are Robin and Nami's Nobodies actually interested in slaves when both of them would have memories of despising the idea of slavery? Along with Ussop's Nobody are the like the clone of squad 2's Lieutenant in that bleach filler season and hate their original selves? (Sorry if you don't get the reference that was a bad explanation.) Anyway moving on it was nice to be able to see some more of Nagisa even if it was only one chapter, however I won't even be able to think that he's dead till I see a body especially since he was trained by one of the three greatest assassins that I've seen in fiction. It was nice to see some of the Amazonians again and pretty messed up that Luffy never actually got to catch up with his old allies. I'm also glad to see that Zoro is finally on his way to reuniting his captain and from what you've shown of him he's defiantly gotten a lot stronger. Also something I noticed is that you never gave a color rank for the High Lords, was that intentional or did you forget? And moving on to #17 is he going to have his family because around the point that he was brought to Nexus he should have been married? And although I love Luffy and I know that Riku is powerful even if they meet up with Gray's group there's, actually no way they'd be able to take down a force that's larger than Metropolis with less than 2 dozen people. Heck both Gray and Kirito are still technically crippled since Gray is missing his arm decreasing his spell casting and Kirito lost his wings decreasing his speed considerably. I know that this review is starting to get long so I've only got one more thing to talk about, and that's seeing X Shanks's crew and discovering that they've split from the Organization. It'll be awesome to see them working together later on and their ships tag teaming is pretty much equal to an armada, (lol) so I'd love to see somebody try to cross that. Also since X Shanks was created while Shanks was weekend due to being ill does that mean that he was created weaker than the original or does that not apply when a new Nobody is created? (I genuinely don't know.) And hearing X Shanks sounding wary of a High Lord makes me curious as to just how powerful they actually are but I guess we'll be finding out soon. Well I know that this review is one of my longer ones however I also know that I'm forgetting to mention something but this is enough for now. So like always thanks for the great chapter(s) and I look forward to the next update, HAVE A GOODNIGHT!

 **;( Sad times for Kuwabara. This is a big review, but I'll try to get to all the points. Glad you liked the Battle Royale. As for why Jiraiya used his trump on Magneto, he said that his mission before getting captured in the first place was to take out Magneto since that toad mouth thing would work best on him. Also, I'd say he couldn't summon everyone there to a place that exists inside a different universe thanks to the barrier, or just jutsu constraints, doubt he had enough chakra for something like that. Black Star won't get his revenge on Magneto, but it does not look like Maka is safe yet just because her owner was killed. Just like in X-Men 3, Phoenix followed Magneto for some reason even though she was the strongest mutant, so I just went with that. As for Manix and Bronxi, even though they have Nami and Robin's memories, they don't have hearts (or at least that's how they describe it in Kingdom Hearts 368/2 and 2, that they have memories of feelings, but not the actual feelings themselves). Anyway, many of the characters who were turned into Nobodies were not that evil to start with (like Lea's friend Isa, or even Lea himself since Axel acted pretty evil sometimes in the Kingdom Hearts games), but after losing their hearts and becoming just husks, became a lot darker. Like that you recognized Nagisa, and who knows what happened to him? I'm sure you'll find out later ;). The High Lords not having a color ranking was not intentional, it just seemed strange to me to designate a single color for all of them since every High Lord has different powers/abilities as others, and many of them are probably leagues ahead of others, like Satan for example. I started writing this long before Dragon Ball Super came out, let alone they made Android 17 a character and a likable one at that. I may have to change a few things with his character later on, but you'll learn about him when he finally shows up. I get what you're saying with their group of less than 2 dozen not being able to take down a force bigger than Metropolis', but the force they're up against isn't actually bigger than Metropolis', especially with many of the armies being scattered throughout the Fire Nation's lands and out on invasions in the south. There are still thousands of enemies for them to face, but Luffy's taken down 50,000 enemies without moving a muscle before, and Riku could command an entire army of Heartless if he so chose. That's not to say they have it easy, because not all of their enemies are grunts who can be taken down by Conqueror's Haki or Heartless Shadows. Would not say that Kirito and Gray are considerably weaker after their last fights, as if anything the battles would have given them more experience, though you are right that they will need to change up their fighting styles a little bit, Gray more than Kirito considering his Ice Make magic usually started with him punching a fist into an open palm (though we saw a new way of how he did it this chapter). And finally, Shanks and X Shanks. Glad to hear you're excited about the new X Crew, but no comment on how strong X Shanks is. If you watch the final battle between Sora, Riku, and Xemnas at the end of a Kingdom Hearts 2 play-through on Youtube, you'll see why it is even someone like Shanks would be wary of such a monster. That sure was a long review, but I'm glad you posted it and I hope most of what you asked I answered (as well as I could without spoiling)! Thanks again for reviewing!**

Joebob323 chapter 62 . Aug 25

Yeet! I loved this chapter, and how your having the 2 groups rendez vous in the city where their enemy resides!

 **Yeet! Haha, it's weird, but I only heard this word this summer when some of my campers at the camp I work at as a counselor started saying it. Thanks for the review, happy you liked the chapters, and the groups are already starting to meet up with Rin's dropping in on Gray, Ben, and Dash! Hope you're ready for some more reunions in the next chapters! Thanks again to everyone for reviewing, following, favoriting, or just reading this story! Well, 'till next time!**


	64. Nexus HWR 10-6 The Royal Palace

**Nexus HWR 10.6 The Royal Palace:**

 **First Royal Battalion Military Base, Pyraxas**

On the northern side of the Royal Palace of Pyraxas, just outside of the tallest walls surrounding the courtyard, resided one of the largest military bases in all of Pyraxas. The barracks on either side of the base were full of soldiers awaiting orders, but no orders were coming. Thousands of men and women were in armor, holding weapons, and receiving reports on damage going on throughout Pyraxas, but since their initial orders to mobilize, they had not received orders to move out.

Around the massive base were fences on all sides, twelve feet tall and with barbed-wire at the top to keep out intruders. In between the two long barracks that stretched two miles long from the southern fence all the way to the northern one, there was an airfield full of fighter jets and zeppelins. Pilots were rushing around the tarmac and vehicles were driving around fueling up the planes and getting them ready for liftoff. A light-skinned soldier in an urban-camo uniform of gray and white colors ran out from beneath a plane, a rifle on his back, a helmet on his head with goggles pulled up on the front of it. Over the long-sleeved uniform he wore he had a black vest covered in equipment: flares, knives, morphine, a med-kit, and various other tools he might need in battle.

He ran across the airfield but came to a short stop, turning his head left and watching as two fighter jets sped down the tarmac and flew up in the air after racing right past him. _What's up with that? Didn't think we got any new orders._ The man turned towards the command building closest to the northern fence between the two barracks, a taller building with satellite dishes on the top of it and a radio tower on the northeast side. The man started jogging towards the command building, his left hand shaking a little at his side, brushing against the pistol in the holster on his belt. He could feel the heavy rifle on his back and the extra magazines of ammo weighing him down, bouncing with every step he took, and he had sweat drops on the sides of his face that he blamed on the heavy equipment he was carrying.

The thirty-year-old man ran towards the entrance of the command building and right inside without hesitation. He jogged past some people without saying anything, making it look like he was in a hurry to report something to a higher up. "Corporal!" A gruff voice called from his right, and Corporal Dunn jolted to a stop and spun that way to see an older man in an empty room off the hallway looking his way. The dark-skinned figure had on the same gear that he had, but his assault rifle was already out in his hands, and Dunn figured that meant he should draw his own. The Corporal pulled his rifle out from over his back as he jogged towards the older man who had some wrinkles on his darker face.

"What's going on Sarge? I didn't hear any new orders-"

Sergeant Foley frowned and turned his head to look down a hallway on the other side of the room as where Dunn entered from. "Colonel Qiu has taken command," Foley said in a low voice. "I don't know what's going on anymore, but they found two of the Commanders dead in the High Command office."

Dunn lifted his eyebrows accusingly, but Foley shook his head no. "Ramirez?" Dunn questioned.

At that moment, another figure stepped in from behind Dunn, and the twenty-six year old said in a serious voice, "It wasn't me either." Corporal James Ramirez looked into the eyes of the two in front of him who turned his way, and he continued, "The charges are set."

Dunn nodded and wiped some sweat from his forehead before adding, "Yeah, mine too."

The two Corporals turned back to their Sergeant who nodded at them with an intense expression on his face. "Alright, on me. Hooah."

"Hooah," Dunn repeated, his voice quiet but still proud as he said it. Ramirez took out his rifle like the other two, and the Corporals followed after Foley as their Sergeant started jogging down the next hallway towards the commanding officers of the base.

Foley jogged past soldiers going the other way who he had been serving beside for months now. _They're not bad men, but they rarely are. This is our mission. This has always been our mission. Never expected it to be thrust on us so fast though, we only got a few days' warning about this. Damn unorganized Resistance._ The undercover Resistance soldiers ran through the base full of other soldiers with Fire Nation emblems on their uniforms just like the three had on the front of their vests.

"…Send out the Zeppelins to the southern Upper Residential Area. Aim turrets precisely as to avoid civilian casualties and property damage. Re-establish communication with Admiral Komei! Someone locate the missing Princess Azula. Notify Lord Thymilph that two invaders are nearing the southern gate to the Palace." The three soldiers making their way through the command base located the source of the yelling, and entered a room full of officers from around the barracks who had all shown up looking for orders to give their men standing idly by in the base. All of the officers, even the ones at a higher rank who did not like the young and lower ranked officer giving them commands, were glad that someone was taking charge of the situation.

"Go! Take your men and head to the southern side of the Palace. All of our enemies are to the south of us. Cross through the Palace courtyard to shorten the time to get there-"

"You cannot give that order Colonel Qiu," a veteran Fire Nation officer with white hair and a narrowed gaze snapped at the young officer. Ye Qiu turned his head, a young man in his mid-twenties, with jet black hair, wearing a suit of tight-fitting black armor with red highlights on his shoulders and in every joint of his armor. The older officer continued, "Special permission must be granted to allow access to the Palace. You cannot send five thousand men barging through the gates."

 _That would sure make my job easier,_ Foley thought, though he quickly re-focused on the task at hand.

"This is an emergency situation," Ye Qiu continued. He lifted up the spear in his hand and spun it around over his head, then slammed the butt of it down on the ground. "If you have a better plan of action, then give out the orders yourself, but we cannot afford to waste more time bickering amongst ourselves. Officers, return to your men and send them out into the city. There are only sixteen invaders, you now know each of their faces. Take them down…"

Officers looked like they were about to leave, the Colonel was reaching the end of his speech, and Corporals Dunn and Ramirez pulled out small black devices from their pockets. There were tiny red buttons on the tops of the detonators, and each of the men took a deep breath, before pressing down on the buttons. Dunn closed his eyes as he pressed his, _Can't let any more aircraft take off. Sorry boys,_ he thought, apologizing to the pilots and men already inside the blimps and planes outside he had planet C-4 under.

Ramirez kept his mind clear as he pressed his button, then rose up his rifle fast as the entire base started to shake. The small attachment at the end of the barrel should have been a clear giveaway to anyone who saw it, but of course they would have had to be suspicious in the first place to even wonder why he would have a silencer on his assault rifle.

"What's going on?!"

"What was that?!"

"There was an explosion inside the base!"

Ye Qiu spotted three men in the back of the room raise the rifles in their hands and his eyes opened wide. _There were more of them!_ He lifted back up the spear he had slammed into the ground-

 **Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch… t-t-t-t-t-t-t Doof Crash** "Ahh-"

Dunn, Ramirez, and Foley unloaded their entire extended mags into the room of Fire Nation officers in front of them. The sounds of the bullets leaving their silenced rifles were quieter than the sounds of the men hitting the ground and knocking over things as they fell. A few screams escaped the mouths of the officers, and Ye Qiu even managed to dodge and throw his spear forward, before he, like the others, was gunned down.

Finally, all that could be heard in the room were the clicking sounds of empty weapons. Ramirez and Foley looked inwards at Dunn who kept pulling the trigger several times after his gun was empty. He was panting heavily, and did not stop trying to shoot until Foley said, "Corporal, your arm." Dunn finally stopped firing, then lowered his gaze to his left arm. He stared at the rip in his sleeve, the blood around it, and the shaft of the spear right next to it. He turned his head and followed the shaft all the way to the spearhead that was lodged in the wall behind him so far he knew if it had been thrown a foot to the right, he would have been impaled through the heart.

Ramirez looked around the room at the dead soldiers scattered on the floor. He saw movement and dropped the magazine from his weapon, quickly putting in a new mag that he grabbed from his side, and replaced the empty one. He pointed the barrel of the rifle down, and put a bullet into the wounded officer's head, stopping his movement. Dunn was wrapping his arm in a bandage to stop the bleeding, but he turned his head at the sound of another silenced shot, and muttered, "Damn man, they didn't even put up a fight."

"That's what we were going for," Foley said. "Now get your ass moving upstairs. We're taking control of this building." He grabbed Dunn by the back and pushed him in the direction of the closest staircase, then turned to Ramirez who was still staring down at the man whose head he just put a bullet through. "Ramirez!" The soldier spun to his commanding officer, and Foley pointed his gun back into a doorway the direction they just came from. "Guard the entrance! If anyone comes in here, you know what to do."

Ramirez nodded, then jogged back down a hallway with his rifle risen. Foley heard shouts of panic down that hallway, then he spun and ran towards the staircase he sent Dunn towards. _Ramirez might not have powers like many of the men I've fought with on this world, but he's the best soldier I've ever known. Gotta have faith he'll watch our backs here._ Foley reloaded his weapon as he started up the stairs, but when he got to the top he was surprised to see Dunn had stopped running ahead. "What's wrong soldier?" Foley questioned, marching up to Dunn's back.

The Corporal was just out of the top of the stairwell, standing in a hallway and looking down it with eyes as wide as saucers. Foley stepped up to Dunn's side and turned right to see what had him so stupefied. Foley's bottom lip dropped and the Sergeant lifted up his rifle. Dunn snapped his back up too seeing what his commanding officer did, but the younger man whispered as he did, "This is weird man. I mean, what the Hell happened up here?" Dunn looked down to his right at a man slouched against the wall, a blood stain smeared down from a little higher up down to the back of his head, almost like the figure was thrown so hard his skull cracked on the steel wall. His armor was shattered around the left side of the chest, and half of his face was burnt off so his skull was visible beneath.

Dunn turned from the butchered figure and looked around the hallway at a half dozen other figures who looked the same or worse than him. "Whoever did this saved us the trouble," Foley said, and he started walking down the hallway towards their intended destination. He never put his rifle down as he walked, despite what he said aloud.

"Whoever did this," Dunn repeated slowly, "is Goddamn crazy."

"Quiet Corporal," Foley snapped, as they were about to reach the door at the end of the hall. There was a keypad next to the door that they had been carefully keeping track of what the password to it was over the last several months. That keypad was sparking and the door on its side was blasted right off its hinges, lying on the floor inside the next room in two pieces. Foley pressed his back against the wall on the side of the door closer to where the bigger half of the room on the other side was, so that anyone in there would not be able to see him even if he was right up in the doorway. Dunn stacked up behind him, and Foley could hear the heavy, nervous breathing of the Corporal behind him.

"…I repeat, all troops report to the North Gate of Pyraxas. An enemy battalion is coming around to flank us. In case an enemy taps our communication, command will use a clearance code for all further transmissions: Tango Epsilon Niner. I repeat, all troops report to the North Gate of the Lower Residential Area." The man leaning over the communication station stepped back, pulled back his right fist, and punched it forward at the machines in front of him. A fireball flew out of his fist and slammed into the machines, causing them to explode. Then, he spun around with his other fist pulled back and a dark expression on his face.

"Hold on there," Foley said, holding his assault rifle up from only a few meters away and pointing it straight at the young man's head. The man before them was wearing thick Fire Nation armor with parts on the shoulders that spiked out to the sides. He had a black bun over his head as was the style for many men in the Fire Nation, a handsome face with small eyes and a well-defined jaw, and blood all over his hands. Sergeant Foley narrowed his gaze at the man, and he spoke in a low, serious voice, "I just heard the report you made, are you Resistance too?"

Dunn kept his rifle steady as he faced the young man in front of them, as he was not planning on burning alive today. "Didn't know there were other spies in the city," Dunn muttered, and he gulped as the soldier before them turned his way.

"You're telling me the two of you are Resistance spies?" The soldier questioned. Neither of them had seen him before, but there were thousands of soldiers in the base who Foley and Dunn had never seen in their time in the Fire Nation's First Royal Battalion. The man kept his fist raised and he glared at the two discerningly, before questioning, "Was it you who set off those explosions then?" Neither of the two in front of him responded, but Foley gave a small nod after several seconds. The man in Fire Nation armor lowered his fist, and after a second, Foley nodded at Dunn before lowering his own rifle. Dunn took a second, but he followed his Sergeant's order and lowered his gun too.

"Who are you?" Foley questioned, keeping both hands on his gun, but holding it horizontally in front of his body now to be less threatening to a supposed ally. "Are you part of the Resistance?"

"No," he replied, and he looked Foley in the eyes before taking a deep breath. "My name," the man began, "is Lu Ten." The two in front of him did not show any recognition to the name, so the figure continued, "My father was Iroh, the firstborn son of Azulon." That name was one the other two had heard before, not only because of the bridge to the south that had its name.

"Azulon, as in the son of Sozin?" Dunn questioned in surprise.

"Yes," Lu Ten responded. "When I first discovered the Fire Nation had been reborn on this world, I came hoping to find my father. However, I discovered that my grandfather had killed my father, and ruled at the side of my great grandfather before his death in the Second War of the Gods. To get revenge for my father, I entered the army under a fake name. I had been biding my time to rise through the ranks and find an opening to kill the Fire Lord, but the events of today have led me to believe I can get my revenge right now."

"Kill the Fire Lord huh?" Foley asked, lowering his rifle more now and relaxing his muscles. "Then we've got the same mission. We've got an ally in the city who is impervious to fire, and he's the one we're putting our bets on." Lu Ten's eyes opened wide and the former Prince clenched his fists.

"You're welcome to go take him on yourself though," Dunn mentioned. "From the looks of things in here and in the hall, you're a pretty strong fire bender."

"I have practiced every day for over a year to get strong enough to defeat Sozin," Lu Ten said, "but I do not pretend to think I could ever face him in a one-on-one fight. Sozin's power grows every day. If you say there is an ally in the city who can defeat him, I will do everything I can to support that person."

"Well sending all the soldiers to the North Gate was a good start," Foley said, impressed already by the disguised soldier's actions. "It's going to be a long day though, can we count on your help?"

Lu Ten nodded his head. He turned towards a nearby window on the south side of the building that faced the Royal Palace walls, a determined expression on his face. "Today," he started, "Sozin will fall."

* * *

 **Royal Palace, Pyraxas**

"Princess Azula," an old woman with white hair in a bun over her head bowed to the younger woman and then to the man who walked in behind her. "And Prince Yonji. What are you doing here?" She unbowed and faced the two with a look of hesitation on her face, though she hid it well.

"Caretaker, surely you have heard the explosions outside," Azula said, while walking forward and brushing right past the older woman. "I have come to see my kin to safety." Azula opened the door past the old woman on the other side of the large room full of bright colors and toys. She peered inside, but the bedroom was empty, she did not have to look far inside to see that. Azula turned back around and faced the woman behind her, "Where are they?"

The dangerous, malice-filled expression on the Princess's face made the old woman fear for her life, but also made her feel that she had made the right choice. "Princess, I must ask that you leave."

"What did you say?!" Azula screamed.

"I am under strict orders from your great grandfather, High Lord Sozin, to protect Azorai and Soren-"

"Protect them?" Yonji questioned, his voice smug as he took a step towards the old woman's back. She started turning to him, but he lashed out when she was only halfway turned and wrapped an arm around her neck. "What can a feeble old woman like you do to protect them?" He squeezed tightly and forced the woman to keep staring forward at the Princess whose eyes darkened as she walked forward.

"You will tell me where you hid them," Azula said, her smirk growing as she neared the frightened older woman. She rose up her hands and electricity started sparking on her fingers, "Those twins born bathing in that most powerful light will become the strongest fire benders who have ever lived. Their mother who died from constant exposure to that energy during her pregnancy would have wanted their blood to raise them."

"Their father-"

"Let me rot in a dark void for months!" Azula screamed, and the man behind the old woman holding her around the throat looked over her head and into his wife's eyes, to see a ravenous look on Azula's face. "The cold, empty, darkness that Xigbar put me in. It was torture! And my _great_ -grandfather did nothing to punish him! He does not know how to treat family," she narrowed her eyes and brought her hands forward, zapping the old woman and making her scream. "But I do. Now tell me, caretaker, where have you hidden the boys?"

"AHHHH!"

* * *

 **Upper Residential Area, Pyraxas**

 **Clank. Clank.** The two huge steel double doors closed behind a small group of pirates who just entered the Upper Residential Area from the southeast gate. Nami turned her head to look behind her, then lifted her gaze to the top of the gateway and along the wall up there where soldiers were lining up on the edge and lifting their rifles. "I knew it was a trap," she muttered, "it's always a trap."

"Surprising so many of them are still back here waiting for us," Robin mentioned, as she looked around at the roofs of nearby elegant buildings and down the roads closest to them where soldiers were appearing out of nowhere. Men and women filed out of doorways and lined the roof of every building they could see. "I had thought more would have chased after Luffy and the others."

There were only five people in the group that just walked through the wall. Other than the two female pirates glancing around at their enemies, there was also a blond-haired pirate chef, and a shaky-legged pirate sniper holding up his Black Kabuto slingshot, though he kept moving it around as he could not pick a single target to focus on. There was also a young man wearing a yellow tank top with a black X on the front of it that's lines crossed from his shoulders down to his waist, and who had on a pair of black gloves that matched the dark pants he was wearing. Nami, Robin, Sanji, Usopp, and Riku stopped looking around at their enemies and all turned their attentions to the road in front of them where the Fire Nation soldiers on it moved to the sides.

A man behind the pack of soldiers started walking forward, with thirty men behind him marching in lines three wide and ten back. The uniforms on these soldiers, their red handkerchiefs, the hats that looked so similar if not for the red color and the word 'Sun' before the word 'Marines,' they all looked so similar to the five watching them march down the road. "What is going on?" Usopp whispered, his voice sounding so confused.

"Straw Hat Pirates!" The man walking towards them yelled out. "Even on a new world, you have not changed your evil ways! Once a pirate, always a pirate it seems." He fanned his face and then snapped his arm forward to point it at his enemies. "You have disturbed the peace of this great city, and now you will face the consequences! I, Admiral Komei, will defeat you!" As he shouted it, the men and women on the roofs pointed their rifles down at the road, the soldiers of the Fire Nation who rushed out of buildings to surround them rose up their swords, and Komei himself grinned as his plan fell into place.

"Wait!" Nami yelled at the man in front of her.

Komei had not yet given the order to fire, and the Admiral paused before he did. "Cat Burglar," he said in a condescending tone, "what could you possibly have to say?"

Nami gulped as it seemed like this man really was a Marine from their world who recognized her. She found her confidence though and called out, "The Marines aren't our enemies!" The soldiers behind Komei who all wore Marine uniforms only with red highlights instead of blue looked confused at what she shouted. "Aokiji is leading the Marines back on Awul, a smaller continent across the Great Ocean. We allied with him!"

A few of the men behind Komei glanced at each other, looking deterred a bit by what she shouted. Komei looked shocked at first when the younger woman mentioned Aokiji, but he narrowed his gaze and yelled, "Even if that were not nonsense, there are many Marines all over the world who have banded together to form their own Marines! We are the Sun Marines though, and our allegiance is to the Fire Lord whose capital you have invaded!" The Marines behind him steadied their weapons and started glaring at the pirates ahead of them again.

"Who's the Gensei of your Marines though?" Sanji questioned. "They can't have more authority than Aokiji, so you should still, be…" Sanji faded off as Komei started smirking when Sanji was speaking.

"Ha! The man in command of the Sun Marines does have more authority than Aokiji, in this world and the last! On our world Aokiji was no longer even a Marine, let alone an Admiral! The Gensei of the Sun Marines however, was the former Fleet Admiral, and Commander in Chief of our world's Marines, KONG!" Nico Robin's eyes opened huge at that as she had heard that name before. Komei frowned as he suddenly felt the ground beneath his feet shake, and heard an explosion in the distance. "Men!" Komei yelled, and he rose up his fan again. All his soldiers at the ready prepped their weapons for attack, while the enemies in front of them got ready. "Attack!"

"Thunderbolt Tempo!" Nami yelled. The woman who had been stalling for time with her argument, and had been twirling a part of her Clima Tact behind her back the entire time, connected all three pieces of her weapon and swung the blue climate-controlling weapon down in front of her. The Fire Nation soldiers and Sun Marines all over the roofs and gateway snapped their gazes up, right before the bolts of lightning dropped down on them.

Komei spun his head left and right and frowned deeply at the sight of dozens of his men collapsing. A few shots went off from men aiming at the group near the base of the gate, but Riku sped in front of them with a Keyblade in hand, slashing bullets apart at incredible speed. He then shot away from the group he was with, towards the closest and fastest soldiers charging them from the right of the street. Sanji saw what direction Riku went to and was about to head the other way to take on the majority of their remaining enemies, but he felt something coming fast from in front of him with his Observational Haki. "Diable Jambe!" He yelled, heating up his right leg fast and raising it, attempting to block the strike from Komei who suddenly rushed him.

Komei's fan extended before he slashed it at Sanji, extended and covered in a dark black coating of Haki. Sanji clenched his teeth in pain but pushed his leg back as hard as he could against the Marine Admiral. _This guy's no joke!_ Sanji thought, as he felt his own bones creaking, and saw the wall of a building on the side of the road shatter from the force of the two of them colliding. Nami fell backwards from the wind pushing behind Sanji, and Usopp crossed his arms in front of his face to protect himself. Robin also crossed her arms, but she called out as she did, "Cien Fleur!" The Marines running after Komei yelped or screamed as arms appeared out of all their bodies and grabbed them by the heads and arms and legs. "Clutch!" Robin shouted, but an instant before her arms snapped the men backwards, she felt weak and dropped to her knees, unable to finish her attack.

Robin snapped her gaze up as she fell, looking towards the men she had grabbed, and she saw one of them on the left side of the group had up a pair of Sea Stone handcuffs, ones that he had put around one of her wrists with quick thinking to make all of her arms vanish and turn into flower petals. "They have Sea Stone?" Nami questioned, turning to Robin who dropped down in front of her. She took a step towards her friend to protect her while she was catching her breath- **Bang!** Nami snapped backwards, blood splashing from her chest close to her right shoulder.

"NAMI-SAN!" Sanji yelled in fear. Usopp spun right and looked in horror at the woman falling backwards with blood splashing out of her.

"CURAGA!" Riku was suddenly behind Nami, his left arm holding her up, his right wrapped around the hilt of his Keyblade that blasted a huge amount of green light around them.

Nami gasped, the pain filling her vanishing, though she was still terrified. **Bang!** Riku's eyes opened wide as he was still holding up Nami and would have to drop her to get in front, and the moment's hesitation he had made it so he would never reach around in time. The second bullet was more on target with Nami's heart, having missed by a few inches the first time. It made it halfway the distance, before a small black ball slammed into the bullet and created an explosion in midair.

A mile and a half away, inside a fifth story window of an expensive hotel, Kansho leaned back from the scope of his sniper rifle, sweat appearing all over his face as his shot was intercepted. He had seen the man who shot at his bullet too, and the sniper's face gave him chills at how angry it looked. He picked up his rifle and prepared to move, when a window on the floor below him shattered. Kansho snapped his head down as the floor shook, then started sprinting for the door as fast as he could. He was too late, as the floor beneath him cracked and collapsed, tree trunks breaking through the floor and growing rapidly around him. Kansho tried jumping towards the door, but the trunks twisted and turned and wrapped him up between branches that grew more every second.

"Midori Boshi: Forest Trap!" Usopp shouted as he lowered his slingshot.

Komei parried off of Sanji's leg, and he spun his head to look away over a mile to where he had had Kansho set himself up. The Admiral glared at the greenery surrounding the fourth, fifth, and sixth floor windows that continued to grow thicker for a few moments before coming to a stop. He spun back around and glared towards Usopp, then back at Sanji who kept his flaming leg up and was glaring at him hard with his swirly eyebrow narrowed down. Sanji's look was full of hate after Nami got shot, but Komei had a steady, determined look on his own face. "Black Leg, your Haki is impressive. However," Komei snapped his arms to the right, then swung them around over his head and a dark aura surrounded his entire body for a moment as his fan became even more focused with Haki. "My will is stronger than yours!"

Robin pulled herself back up to her feet, and Riku steadied Nami who gulped but stopped shaking after a second. She nodded at the man behind her who looked carefully at her before releasing her shoulders. "Thank you," she whispered in a hoarse voice, but Riku said nothing in response, only walking up on her side and glaring forward at Komei like the rest of Nami's friends. He rose up his left hand and a flash of white light surrounded it, before creating an all black Keyblade that gave many of the enemies in front of him the chills. Usopp pointed his slingshot forward, holding part of it back with a Pop Green already nocked. Nami reached down and picked up her Clima Tact that she had dropped when she was shot, and though still afraid from what just happened, she calmed herself down as they were stuck in the thick of it. _You're a pirate! Get a grip. Remember whose crew you're on. You're on the crew, of the man who will become the Pirate King!_ Nami's eyebrows narrowed in and she glared forward at the soldiers who were shocked to see such a serious, unwavering look on a woman who almost just died. Her attitude unnerved them more than any of the stronger fighters around her.

Komei stopped swinging his arms, and he glared through a dark aura around his face at the enemies in front of him. "Prepare yourselves fiends," he began yelling, then leapt off the ground and pulled his weapon back, shouting as he shot towards them, "to face true justice!"

* * *

 **Royal Palace, Pyraxas**

Inside the tallest walls of all of Pyraxas, the Royal Palace stood. The largest building in Pyraxas, it took up half of the space inside of the eight mile long wall that encircled it. The Palace itself was situated closer to the northern side of the highest section's walls that still only reached to the top of the building's first floor, while on the southern side of the Palace there was a huge, beautiful courtyard. There were two gardens with paths through it so the Royal Family could take walks in them, but between those gardens was normally a wide open area with a floor made of marble. In that area at the moment however, there were eight large steel robots, the largest of which was three times bigger than the others. Standing on top of that thirty meter tall white robot with blue spikes on its shoulders shooting up even higher than its head, was a gorilla beastman who had a huge hammer strapped to his back.

Thymilph stood atop his Ganmen, Byakou, glaring up at a man floating in front of his ship. "What do you want?" He snapped, not hiding his animosity towards this figure in the least.

The man in front of him had a muscular torso underneath the pink kimono and long-sleeved black undershirt he was wearing, at least, where his body was not made of metal. His face showed the fact that he was a cyborg thanks to the glowing red eyes protruding from his head and the round steel plating on the sides of temples. He had a single long braid of black hair, and his arms were crossed beneath the bottom of it behind his back. "Is that any way to speak to your superiors?" The man questioned, looking down his pointed nose and rising up a little so he could look down on the beastman better.

Thymilph snarled, then growled out, "What do you want, _Ambassador_ Tao." He had to seethe the words through his teeth as he hated how saying the man's title. _How could the Spiral King bow his head to the damn Androids? Our military might alone should make him a High Lord!_

"The fighters on their way here are more than Sozin is prepared for. You will remain here and fight to your last breath," Tao said, smirking at the angered reaction he got out of the beastman.

"And where are you going?!" Thymilph roared. "If you think they're so strong, why don't you get off your high horse and go fight them? Or are they too much for even you, _Ambassador?_ " Thymilph smirked as the man in front of him glowered down at him, his eyes glowing darker red. Suddenly, Tao was gone, and Thymilph's face covered in sweat as he felt cold steel against the side of his furry neck.

 _If I was not under strict orders…_ Tao thought, before the sharp blade extending from his right arm retracted back inside his body and a steel hand moved back into place. "Know your place, _Lord_ Thymilph," Tao said. He then turned away from Thymilph's back, and flew off to the north, rising high up to fly over the top of the Fire Lord's Palace.

Thymilph glanced backwards at the former mercenary who was flying away. He wiped some sweat from his face and then started glaring at the top of the Palace once Tao was out of sight. The way Tao mocked his title as 'Lord' enraged him, especially after the Ambassador showed that he was clearly stronger with his display of speed. It was the reason Thymilph did not retort- well that, and he thought Tao might actually kill him if he did.

The beastman with light-blue fur and much darker blue armor growled under his breath, then turned back forward and dropped the far distance to the ground. He landed with a fist slammed into the floor, then stood back up and marched forward towards the other seven Ganmen lined up in front of him. He marched between the legs of the center one in the line and watched from a short distance as Zachary Miller shouted orders to the highly trained Royal Guards around him. Only a few of the soldiers here were wearing Fire Nation uniforms, as most of them had on black body armor, or no armor at all for a few of them who relied mainly on speed.

A few of the men in front of Miller noticed Thymilph behind them and they turned to the Lord. Half of them were beastmen, but a few were different species as well, though none were humans. They walked towards Thymilph who looked around at them, still glowering thanks to his brush in with Tao. "Get inside your Ganmen," he ordered, thinking about what the Ambassador told him. "The enemies will be here any minute," he added.

The men saluted him and they started for their Ganmen, but Thymilph roared, "Not you!" One of the figures in front of him spun in surprise as the shout was directed towards him. The figure had the muscular torso of a man, but his skin on his upper body and face was green, a slightly lighter shade than his long blackish-green hair. The lower half of his body extended backwards like that of a horse, only with white fur. And his face looked like neither that of a man's or a horse's, but of a serpent complete with narrow yellow eyes with red pupils, and a serpentine tongue sticking partially out of his mouth. The Chimera Ant turned to Thymilph questioningly, and Thymilph growled at him, "You are being replaced on the Ganmen squad, Yunju."

Yunju's eyes went wide, and then the Chimera Ant hissed with his tongue before growling, "What did you say?"

"Your loss in the south was unacceptable," Thymilph snapped. "Running away with your tail between your legs. You embarrass this squad, and your species."

"Watch yourself beastman, the King is a Chimera Ant like myself," Yunju hissed.

Thymilph did not think about that before he made his insult, and he regretted saying that now that he thought about it. He kept a pissed-off expression on his face, but at the same time did not want Yunju to go off repeating what he just said, so he improvised fast. "The Fire Lord demanded that I punish you," he lied. "But if you bring me the head of one of the invaders," Yunju's eyes narrowed, and the Chimera Ant's mouth curled into a dangerous smirk as Thymilph finished, "I'll reinstate you in my elite squad."

 _If the Fire Lord said so, there's nothing I can do. There are worse punishments Sozin could have given me than getting to kill one of these humans with my bare hands._ "I'll bring you a head," Yunju said, then continued while licking his lips, "but you don't mind if I eat the brain before I do, right?"

The crazed, hungry look in the Ant's eyes gave Thymilph chills, and the gorilla beastman muttered, "Do what you will."

Yunju grinned and turned away from the Lord, galloping over to his Ganmen. Thymilph glared at him closely, wondering what the Chimera Ant was doing, then he snarled as Yunju leapt right up to the cockpit of his robot. He was about to shout at the hybrid monster to get out of it, when Yunju leapt out on his own, only with something in one of his hands. Yunju landed on the white marble ground and he put the belt around his body where his horse half merged with his human side. "I'll be right back," the Chimera Ant said, glancing one last time back towards Thymilph and the others in his former squad, a squad he planned on re-entering very soon.

Thymilph watched as the soldier ran off, then he looked around and saw most of the other soldiers, not just the ones in his group, staring his way. "What are you idiots looking at?! Get back to it!" His men rushed to their Ganmen and the other guards under the Captain of the Royal Palace's security force listened to Miller's commands then ran off themselves. After Miller finished giving his orders, he jogged towards the beastman Lord in the courtyard with him. "Lord Thymilph," he started, and the beastman turned to the man who bowed his head a little in respect. "Now that you have a Ganmen open, I will-"

"Not get it," Thymilph interrupted, and took a step towards the man who stepped back nervously at the angry look the beastman gave him. "No human will step foot in one of my Ganmen. Got it?" He glared into the visor in front of Miller's face and straight into his eyes.

Zachary Miller nodded his head and replied, "Yeah, I got it." He bowed his head again, then turned and ran off to go coordinate the defense from inside. _Crazy bastard. He'd rather leave one of our best weapons empty than let me use it. Heh, probably a smart move. If things go south here, I'd probably take it and get the fuck out of here. Probably still will,_ he thought, and smirked to himself knowing that Thymilph could not see his face. **BANG!** Miller stopped when he was still twenty feet away from the white steps leading to the front doors of the Palace. The Palace extended out on the sides of the entrance, jutting out before the gardens so that there were walls ten meters away on either of Miller's sides. **BANG!** He turned from the door in front of him, following the building's east wing with his gaze before hitting the east side's garden and the trimmed hedges in it, some of which had the visage of the Fire Lord on them. **BANG!** He continued turning and looked straight behind him, watching as Thymilph leapt up in the air to get in his Ganmen, as the others powered up and stood off the ground, raising their arms and pointing weapons towards the giant reinforced-steel gates on the south side of the Royal Palace's walls.

The Captain of the Royal Guard gulped, then turned and sprinted inside as fast as he could. The massive gates that could withstand a punch from Thymilph's strongest Ganmen, (he had seen the beast try it before), were denting inwards with every loud bang Miller heard. Inside the Palace doors that Miller slammed shut behind him, a few guards stared at their Captain with wide eyes at the nervous glance back he made to the doors behind him. "Zero," Miller said, refocusing ahead on the middle of the three men in front of him. _At least she let one of them stay behind,_ Miller thought, as the mutant in front of him stepped forward, not looking disturbed in the least unlike the other three with him. The mutant man had narrowed eyes and a small mouth, and he said nothing as he whipped out two pistols from his sides and unloaded then loaded them in a matter of a single second. "Don't let anyone through these doors, got it?" Miller ordered.

Zero narrowed his eyes at the human in front of him, but after a second he nodded without making a sound. Miller started jogging away down the hall to the left to go inform others of what was going on, and Zero glared at his back as he left. _Phoenix told me to stay here and listen to these bastards until she makes her move, but I doubt the bitch- FUCK! Lady Phoenix. Never fucking even THINK that about her. She could always be listening._ Zero got some sweat on his forehead and the Asian man wiped it off, unnerving the other guards with him who thought he was getting nervous about their enemies outside. "Let's get outside. No point in guarding the doors from in here," Zero said, and he started marching forward to the front doors of the Palace. "Anyone gets behind you," he said as he grabbed the doors, speaking to the hesitant two men behind him, "I'll kill you myself."

The men dragging their feet picked it up and raced to the opening doors with weapons in hand. Zero pushed the doors open with his hands still holding a pistol each, and then the mutant dropped his jaw as he stared across the courtyard at the massive gateway covered in huge dents. "…GUM GRIZZLY MAGNUM!" Zero heard the end of a scream coming right from the other side of the gate, and then his eyes opened even wider as the massive door to the Palace courtyard fell inwards, breaking apart in the middle with two black hands bashing through it, each one a quarter the size of the door itself. The massive black hands Zero could tell were covered in Haki had their palms stuck out and all their fingers curled out like the claws of a bear.

The arms pulled back outside the gateway while the doors slammed into the ground and rose up some dust. Several of the Ganmen took steps back, but they all kept their cannons or swords risen as a shadow appeared in the dust. The figure marched forward and dust settled around him as he stopped moving directly in the middle of the gateway. Thymilph's eyes opened wide from inside the cockpit of his Byakou, at the sight of a man wearing a straw hat standing there, cracking his knuckles and glaring forward into the courtyard seriously. A second after all the enemies staring at Luffy felt unnerved by the man who took down Saix's appearance, they all lost much of their fear as Luffy's serious expression vanished and his eyes turned starry.

"Franky look!" Luffy shouted, pointing his hand forward while his eyes shone bright. Franky walked up behind his Captain, his left arm raised as he was ready to support him in whatever they were walking into, but Franky's arm dropped and his eyes grew wide at the sight in front of him. "Giant robots!" Luffy yelled in glee.

 _This things are huge! Franky Shogun took me a while to build, do a bunch of these High Lords have armies of mechs like these?_ Franky looked around at the robots that looked plenty powerful, and he told his Captain, "Luffy, this isn't going to be, easy!"

"Men! Attack!" The robot in the back charged forward right before Franky finished telling his Captain, and the cyborg shouted the end of it while throwing his arms back up in front of his body.

"Franky, RADICAL BEAM!" His arms trembled and out from the point between the hands he had held up, a beam of white light flew out and shot towards the tallest white robot shooting around the rest of the others. Thymilph reached an arm of his giant mech to the right as he took a step next to one of his men, and with a sharp tug he threw the smaller Ganmen in front of the white beam flying towards him. His sensors told him what type of attack it was, and the inside of his cockpit was blinking red telling him he needed to evade. His method he liked better though, and as Franky, Luffy, and most of Thymilph's men gawked at the sight of Thymilph sacrificing one of his men into a huge explosion, the leader of the Ganmen squad came flying out of that explosion, leaping up in the air with a huge sword straight up above his head.

"RAAA!" Thymilph roared, terrifying Franky who ran to the left and dove for cover. Luffy was pissed at this guy for sacrificing his own man like that, but the pirate could also see how strong this attack was and he pumped his legs fast, before shooting himself to the right to avoid the sword slash. Thymilph continued swiping down and he slammed into the empty gateway's floor beneath where Luffy was standing a second ago, and he cut straight through the floor, making both sides of the ground where he slashed smash up into the air. Huge rocks flew towards Franky and Luffy and sent them flying, even as the cyborg crossed his metal arms in front of his body and Luffy hardened his with Haki and did the same.

"What are you idiots waiting for?!" Thymilph yelled, his voice echoing in the cockpits of the five remaining squad members behind him. The Ganmen Thymilph threw in front of the beam attack came out of it and landed on the ground sparking, a few pieces broken off of it like its entire left arm, but the cockpit was still intact. Those men who were hesitant about following a leader who just sacrificed one of them looked down and watched as the sparking Ganmen's legs moved, and the cyborg who landed under a huge piece of marble pushed it off of himself, only to gawk in shock at the robot he attacked getting back up to its feet. The other five around it raced forward, but only one of them moved towards Franky while the others all shot after his Captain. This did not make Franky think he had it easy off though, as if one of the Ganmen could survive one of his strongest attacks, he did not want to have to face this one and the damaged one behind it that had an angry beastman inside screaming at him for attacking, deciding to focus his anger at Franky and not his own squad leader for sacrificing him.

"Fire everything!" the furious lion-like beastman yelled, slamming his hands down on his control panel as blood came down the left side of his face. There were blinking red lights inside his Ganmen, but he was pulling levers and pressing buttons and getting every piece of his machine that still functioned focusing on the sole task of killing Franky. The sole arm his robot suit still had opened up and a dozen missiles popped out of its sides, while the malfunctioning targeting program showed the crosshairs zipping back and forth on the glass in front of the beastman. He focused, focused, then slammed a fist down on a red button to fire the missiles when the crosshairs went right over Franky. There was half a second lag between when he hit the button and when the targeting system stopped moving around, but the crosshairs were close enough.

"Franky Fireball!" Franky yelled, puffing his chest forward. A huge ball of fire slammed into the Ganmen charging at him with a ten meter long sword pulled to the side. The flames surrounded the machine and since it was made of steel it heated up fast and the beastman leapt up in the air to escape his cockpit from getting too sweltering. Franky grinned and let out a deep breath after firing all those flames from inside him, then the cyborg dropped his jaw and his eyes bugged out as through his flames shot a dozen missiles all aiming straight for him.

"Franky!" Luffy shouted. In his mind he watched all those missiles slam down around his cyborg. Any direction Franky could run, he would still be stuck in the blast, an unlikely consequence of the lion beastman's targeting system sending the missiles in a wide range around him. The missiles were too close for Franky to raise his left arm and fire bullets into all of them, but the cyborg was going to try and shoot at least the one that would explode closest to him. The missiles were curving through the air, and Luffy tried shooting towards him already inside Gear Second, but although he made it between two of the five enemies around him, the Byakou appeared in front of him with its left palm pointed at him, a circular opening in its center that glowed bright blue.

The pirate too focused on his crewmate's safety did not see Thymilph coming until it was too late. His eyes clenched and he crossed his arms, only for the blue light to get brighter before firing straight into him, making the pirate scream as he was only able to cover part of his body in Haki in time. Franky would have been worried as he heard Luffy scream far to his right, but he was too focused on the missile dropping straight towards him while his arm was pointed the other way at one that turned off course suddenly to show him he did not even have to worry about it. "FU-" the cyborg started cursing, swinging his arm back around while constantly unloading machine gun fire up in the air. He would not have made it, but a second before the missile slammed into the ground, it exploded in the air. The blast was still close enough to Franky that his feet skid back across cracked marble and he had to raise his right arm over his face to protect from the heat melting off his prosthetic skin.

When Franky lowered his arm, all the other missiles around him were dropping down, only for all of them to suddenly explode like the one closest to him. Franky's eyes opened huge, then through the flames of those missiles dropped the Ganmen that leapt up in the air to avoid Franky's Fireball attack earlier. It had its sword lifted high over its head and Franky could not move his feet in time as he had dropped down to his knees after he skid back from the explosions. Like the rockets though, this attack never reached the pirate whose jaw dropped lower than it had all day, and whose eyes hurt because they were trying to widen more than the parameters he had built for his eye sockets would allow. The cyborg no longer had to wonder what stopped all those missiles, as a figure wearing all black flew straight over his head and into the center of the falling Ganmen, slamming his right hand forward as he did with a giant swirling ball of blue energy on the end of it, and yelling out, "MASSIVE RASENGAN!"

Luffy hit the grass inside a garden, bounced, flew through a hedge that looked like a person, before hitting the outer wall to the Royal Palace. Still, as he bounced away from his cyborg, the sound of that voice made his eyes snap open wide through the pain. "KI-" when he hit the wall he stopped yelling, as he hit face-first and was imbedded inside it for a second. Then, the pirate captain pushed his hands into the wall to pry his head out, which he spun a hundred-eighty degrees with his rubber powers and looked back through the garden and past all the Ganmen at the sight of the teenager floating in the air with pieces of Ganmen blasting away from him back towards the Palace. "KIRITO!" Luffy yelled towards the teenager, his voice full of shock.

"YOW! Where did you come from lil' bro?!" Franky yelled up in the air above him.

The teenager who already threw a dozen shuriken to intercept the missiles and save the pirate looked down and behind him at the cyborg on the floor who had some melted skin around his body but other than that looked mostly okay. _What the Hell? Why are Franky and Luffy here?_ Kirito opened his mouth to call down to the cyborg, when he heard something coming with his Observational Haki and snapped back towards the direction he sent a robot smashing into pieces a second ago. The other Ganmen still furious at Franky was charging forward, with the arm that fired all the missiles transforming to become an automatic kind of mega-rifle. It pointed its gun forward while sprinting and Kirito could hear the creature inside yelling and it began to fire. Huge bursts of yellow light shot out of the arm rapid fire towards the teen in the air and the pirate still on the ground behind him.

Thymilph's wide eyes narrowed again and he took a deep breath. He was grateful that one of his soldiers managed to keep attacking, as the appearance of this fighter meant trouble for all of them and he was flustered by his arrival. _Komei said we can't let the members from opposite groups meet up. I had no idea he meant that the two groups knew each other._ Thymilph heard the other two shout this figure's name, and he grimaced even more as he had received new information about this particular fighter not long ago. _The one who defeated Ra's. I shall defeat him and present his head to the Spiral King for a Lordship in our own territory!_ "Ganmen squad, focus all attacks on the one they call Kirito!" On the glass screens in front of the seats in the cockpits of every Ganmen, Kirito's face and a list of his feats and known powers appeared. The other Ganmen facing Luffy turned around, while the pirate captain himself snarled that he was being ignored.

Luffy started running back towards the center of the courtyard, when Thymilph yelled out, "Zero! Take him out!"

 **Bangbangbangbang** Rapid fire shots rang out from the courtyard not far from Luffy, as the mutant running towards Luffy pulled the trigger several times per second. He left the other two who came outside with him near the door while he fired at the pirate trying to avoid him. _He has Haki,_ Zero thought, and he started firing around Luffy in positions he would dodge to. The nimble mutant leapt up in the air thirty feet, flipping as he did and firing the entire time. When he was at the height of his arc, he dropped his mags, slammed his guns down at his waist where full ones were waiting, and continued firing at Luffy in just a second.

Luffy's Observational Haki overloaded as he heard bullets coming from all directions. He was out of Gear Second, and he could not get into it in time to dodge the bullets. The mutant landed behind Luffy's back and he smirked as the pirate was unable to dodge at least five of his bullets. Zero turned around to the thin man in a red shirt, blue pants, and a straw hat standing behind him with his head bowed. Luffy's head snapped up though and Zero took a step back, as Luffy grinned at him and shouted, "That won't work on me!" Zero stared in shock at Luffy's body, specifically his chest in between the sides of his opened shirt where two bullets had hit and were pushing his skin so far in they broke through the fabric on his back. Luffy's skin snapped back to shape though and the bullets whizzed by Zero's head as fast as they were originally shot out of his gun, "Because I'm rubber!" Luffy yelled.

A serious look appeared on the pirate's face while Zero took another step back. _What the Hell am I going to do-_ Luffy appeared in front of him, not even Gear Second, just moving so fast that it looked the mutant could not even start to dodge. Zero's eyes were widening as he saw both of Luffy's fists still back in the position the pirate had been standing in, and Luffy yelled out, "Gum Gum Twin Bullet!" Both of his fists flew forward, hitting Zero on either of his pectorals and sending him flying back towards the Palace, straight into a window on the east wing where he vanished inside of. Luffy's eyes followed where he just sent the mutant flying, and the pirate snickered, "Shishishi."

Luffy threw his arms out in front of him while turning his head left. "Take care of these guys Kirito!" Luffy yelled. Kirito dared a glance away from all the Ganmen he was facing on his own, and he gawked at the sight of Luffy rocketing himself straight through an already-broken window into the Palace.

Thymilph would have capitalized on Kirito being distracted, but he was too enraged and flustered himself at the sight of Luffy entering the Palace. _The Fire Lord will have my head!_ Thymilph thought. "You men!" Thymilph yelled while spinning back to the Palace front doors. He was going to yell at the two men near the door to go alert everyone to the pirate's infiltration, but sweat appeared all over his face, and he stared in shock at the sight of both armored guards lying unconscious on either side of the open doorway to the Palace. _What the Hell?!_ Thymilph thought, then heard an explosion behind him and was forced to spin back and continue his assault on the flying ninja behind him.

Meanwhile, just inside the front doors and jogging at a calm pace down a hallway, a fourteen year old with spiky white hair chuckled at how easy it was to sneak in. _As soon as that gunslinger headed after Luffy, and all the Ganmen were focused on Kirito, I could not have asked for a better opening._ Killua saw a foot stepping out of a hallway connecting with this one.

"I heard they need help out in the courtyard!" The man in front of the group of five rushed underneath Killua who was flat against the ceiling with his arms spread out, his fingers digging into the flat surface to hold himself there. His finger strength alone could hold up his body, but the speed at which he had to react and jump up made a bead of sweat roll down his nose. He crossed his eyes and stared at the sweat drop angrily, yelling at it mentally to stay on his face.

"Captain Miller's sending everyone to the front, shouldn't we leave a few guys at the back door? We received word from Royal First Battalion Command that there is a mass of enemies flanking us from the north." Killua's ears perked up at the sound of what the man in the back of the group who just ran beneath him shouted. Only one of his hands was still stuck in the ceiling, as his other was clenched in a fist below his face, having caught the bead of sweat as it dripped off to prevent any of the men from feeling it fall on them. Killua flipped himself on the ceiling so his stomach was to it instead of his back, then he spider-crawled along it the direction he was going, turned right down the corridor those men just came from, and finally dropped to the floor.

The kid let out a sigh of relief, then thought as he continued jogging, _Coming from the north? Even if we did have allies helping us, they would be coming in from the sides. If they really wanted to catch the Fire Nation off guard though… no, it still wouldn't make sense strategically. The only thing I can see, is that we have an ally at Command who's causing their men to scatter where we aren't. Actually, the allies we have are probably allies of Kirito. If he's here, then they probably found the Resistance and got sent up to take out the Fire Lord. It makes sense with Natsu being with them._ Killua frowned as he thought about the last day he and Natsu had been together, how the Fire Dragon Slayer had glared at him while asking which group he was going to go with. _I, probably would have gone- It doesn't matter now._ He thought, stopping himself from thinking about the hypotheticals.

Killua's face hardened and he picked up the pace of his jog through the building. He sped up when there was no one around him and took the stealth option at every opportunity. _I managed to get this far without killing anyone,_ he thought with a grin as he sat inside a vent, holding the grate shut with one hand's fingers while being careful not to let the screws he had ripped straight out when he ducked inside fall out of his other hand. He watched the three guards run right by him, then waited five seconds, before popping out of the grate and leaving it and the screws on the floor as he ran off. _By the time anyone sees those, the Fire Lord will be dead. Everyone else I can get away with letting live, but not him. Besides, if I take down one of the High Lords, whew! I'd be known as one of the strongest people on this continent. And who would ever want to get in a fight with me then? …Unless, the King gets mad if I do it…_

The former assassin came to a short stop in the middle of a hallway, and the thought he just had echoed over and over in his mind. _Even if he does, I have Goku and- Except, I haven't seen either him or Timmy for weeks. I can't survive against the King on my own. I won't be on my own though, but they can't stop him either! If I don't though, one of them will anyway, and if he's going to come after me, he'll still come after one of them, who I'll be with. So, then the risk is the same whether or not I do it, unless I leave, them._ Killua's frown could not get deeper. _No, the risk would still be there. The King saw me with them when Ben turned back time, he might hunt me down anyway just for being a part of the group. The main risk then, is against the Fire Lord, the short-term risk. And I can take on a High Lord. I'm the best suited to. Out of all of them, I have the least risk of dying if I face him!_

Killua sprinted off, turning corners and opening every door he ran into. When he reached the third floor on the north side of the building though, he knew he was in the right place. The hallways were twice as tall on this floor, the windows were made of stained glass, with beautiful murals depicted in each of them. The colors of the windows were mainly yellow, orange, and red, and Killua saw a lot of religious imagery in regards to the Fire Nation symbol and the man he guessed was the Fire Lord himself who was always much taller and more radiant than all the others depicted in the glass. He ran down the hallway that's red walls were draped with long Fire Nation banners, and in between each banner were crossing spears or fancy armor that Killua had not seen a single soldier wearing.

Then he saw it. In the middle of the hallway, the doors stretched so high and were so ornate, they could only be to a single room. _Unless it's his bedroom,_ Killua thought, trying to make a joke though he did not smile at it. He stayed as serious as could be, and he darted to the entrance and stood in front of the crack between the double doors. A few seconds went by as the boy caught his breath, collected his bearings, and prepared himself for what was beyond the door. "Come in," a deep voice bellowed on the other side of it, before Killua had a chance to reach for the doors himself. The kid's serious expression deepened even more, as the Zetsu he had started since entering the Palace was not effective against the man he assumed was the Fire Lord. _I'd expect no less from a High Lord,_ Killua thought, while reaching up his hands and pressing them flat against either door.

Kil pushed open the doors and entered the largest room in the Royal Palace. He stared across the room and the figure sitting on his throne got up and stared all the way back at him. "The first challenger," Fire Lord Sozin boomed, orange flames rising all around the sides of his throne, the stairs below it, and the edges of the room.

The kid took some steps inside and came to a stop as the doors slammed shut behind him. Killua's eyes narrowed and a grin spread across his face, as he said in his most confident tone, "And your last."

* * *

 **Upper Residential Area, Pyraxas**

"RAAA! Come face me like a man!" Natsu roared from atop a tall building in the western Upper Residential Area. Dozens of rooftops around him had craters and slices cut out of them, and Natsu was panting heavily as he glared around. _I wish I knew that damn Haki! He always knows where I am, but I keep losing him all over the place. Sneaky bastard knows this city like, well like he lives here._ The Fire Dragon Slayer growled to himself, then smirked as he had a good idea. "Screw it, I didn't even want to fight you anyway!"

Natsu had a shallow cut on his left arm, a dark blue bruise on his left cheek, but he decided to stop fighting the annoying Admiral who had been chasing him around the city for the past five minutes. He started sprinting over the roof and he leapt back towards the Palace gate he had reached earlier, before Komei had dropped behind him while he was trying to bash it down. In a single leap he made it almost halfway back, and the mage grinned as he saw it in his peripheral vision. "Fire Dragon's-" he began, raising his right hand that had a small bit of space between his palm and his curled fingers. Natsu leapt again, then spun around so he was flying towards the gate but with his back to it, so that his front was facing Admiral Komei who was pulling his long Haki-hardened fan back behind him at that moment.

Komei's eyes opened wide, and Natsu roared, "SPEAR!" The flames sparking in the gap in his hand suddenly burst bright and extended out to either side of his hand ten meters. Natsu threw his giant spear of flames back at Komei who had to slash his fan down in front of him. Cutting fire was easier said than done however, and although Komei split Natsu's spear straight in half, the flames that split on his fan still slammed into either side of him. He only prevented a head-on collision, so he yelled out in pain and fell backwards, while Natsu finished his spin and landed down on a building close to the wall.

The mage did not turn and go back to finish off the Admiral. A part of him wanted to, and he hesitated when he landed on that building not far from the Palace walls, but a voice echoed in his head. _"You are the most important part of this plan! You have to be the one who faces Sozin!"_ Natsu ignored Komei who he knew was strong enough that his Fire Dragon's Spear would not take him down for good. Instead, he bent his knees extra far, then sprang up in the air towards the highest walls in Pyraxas. This time he did not head for the gates that he was finding so hard to break through before when Komei ambushed him, he just leapt straight up high enough that he landed on top of the walls surrounding the Royal Palace of the Fire Lord.

Natsu landed with his knees bent and his hands flat on the ground between his feet. He landed on the edge of the inner part of the wall, and when he looked down his eyes bugged at the sight inside the courtyard. Down there were over fifty teenagers in black cloaks who he recognized, slashing swords and using ninja skills against the elite guards who were pouring out of the Palace front doors and charging him. What was more crazy than the battles between all the humans though, was the fact that five giant robots were thrown into the mix, along with the craziest thing of all, a cyborg Natsu recognized very well. _Franky?! What the Hell is he doing down there?!_ Natsu stood up and was about to shout down there, but three things caught his attention before he did.

The first thing Natsu noticed, was that there were guards up on the wall with him, and a few of them on either side had noticed his presence and were turning their rifles inwards towards him. The second thing he noticed, was that one of the Kiritos flying around through the air had seen him as well, and that Kirito gave him the harshest glare possible in that single second Natsu saw his eyes. He knew Kirito wanted him to go straight inside without joining in the fight out here, and Natsu had to remind himself why it was he stopped fighting Komei in the first place. The final thing Natsu noticed in the single second before he was going to jump down and shout questions at Franky, was that behind all the Kiritos, guards, and robots, there were a group of guards clustered at the front doors to the Palace. A few men lay unconscious next to the doors, and the men seemed to decide something, sending half of them back inside while the other half ran out to join the battle against Franky and the Kiritos. _Someone's already inside, and if Franky's here… There's no way you're getting there first, Luffy!_

Natsu ignored the men pointing rifles at him, and he just bent his knees again then leapt straight towards the Palace in an even higher leap than the one he made to get on the wall in the first place. The guards fired their rifles anyway since they thought they could get Natsu, but they were too slow and many of their beams crossed and crashed into each other.

Franky heard some yells above his head and he looked up to see three men falling off the wall above him, two of them yelling in pain with less blood splashing from them than the third guard. He quickly shifted his gaze from them though, to the pink-haired mage he had not seen in over a week who was soaring over his head. Franky's head snapped down as he heard a yell and saw one of the Ganmen ahead of him turning its huge mechanical head to follow Natsu's trajectory through the air. It rose up an arm and a massive barrel extended from its hand and pointed straight at Natsu. The Dragon Slayer's body surrounded in flames as he flew towards the west wing, while the Ganmen's barrel glowed bright red like something was about to be fired.

 **Clank!** Franky slammed shut his opened chest compartment and his eyes glowed white for a second. He snapped his arms up in front of him, and both of them shook violently with a bright white light growing even brighter than the red one of the machine ten times as large as him. "SUPER FRANKY RADICAL BEAM!" He shouted, and all the Kiritos and other guards fighting near him spun around as a beam of light flew up in the air towards one of the Ganmen. The one who was aiming at Natsu saw a flash in the side of his vision and started turning his head, making the head of his Ganmen turn that way as well, and the beastman inside the machine did not even manage to let out a scream before the explosion rocked the courtyard.

The dome of white light kept expanding from the shoulder connecting the Ganmen's rifle arm and its body, all the way to the ground below that cracked and sent rocks flying in every direction. The wind was already enough to lift several guards and ninja clones off their feet, but the shrapnel from the blast took out twice as many. Thymilph snarled as he watched machine parts fall all over the floor, and he turned furiously towards Franky while thinking, _I should have let Yunju stay. We need all the help we can get back here._ The gorilla beastman covered in blue fur and armor plating grinned again though as he stared at the cyborg whose brightly colored arms dropped to his sides after the attack.

All of the new Cola bottles inside Franky's chest were empty, and the cyborg dropped his mechanical bottom jaw and let out a breath of steam. He started breathing more staggered breaths and although he knew he had to reach back into his pack and grab some more Cola to recharge on, he needed a moment to even be able to lift back up his arms. His eyes focused past the fading explosion as he caught his breath though, and Franky smirked between wheezes at the sight of a huge flaming hole in the wall of the second floor of the Palace. The cyborg glanced to the other side of the building at its east wing, where there was a similar looking hole on the same floor. He could not help but chuckle as he thought about the two who entered the Palace, _Wish I could be there when they see each other,_ the cyborg thought, right before getting tackled away by a teenager who saw coming what Franky could not.

A huge explosion blew up the ground where Franky was standing a second later, and the Shadow Clone pushing him away yelled out in pain as it was caught in it. The clone exploded, then Franky roared in pain as the blast hit him next, though he managed to survive it thanks to the teenager fighting by his side. The real Kirito looked away from Thymilph whose Ganmen's torso he floated ten meters in front of. Kirito could hear laughter from inside the Byakou and he grimaced at the sight of Franky slouched against the wall all the way on the other side of the western courtyard, his head bowed so his chin was touching his chest and no movement at all coming from him.

Thymilph kept laughing as he saw a Ganmen and ten of the Palace guards rushing the injured cyborg, then the gorilla's deep laughter caught in his throat as three figures shot past all his men faster than any of them were moving. The Kiritos ninja-jumped right past their enemies, got to Franky, and spun around making a triangle around the cyborg to protect him. Thymilph turned back and glared at the teenager who snapped his head back as well towards the largest Ganmen, Byakou, with its better weapons and stronger white armor that Kirito was finding hard to put a dent in with his attacks. _I can use my Devil Fruit powers, but the larger the object I try to Crack, the stronger it is too, the more it exhausts me. There are still too many enemies all around me, and I am one of the strongest of my friends. Even if Luffy's group is here in the city somehow, I can't let myself be taken down this easily. Not like Franky,_ he grimaced at the thought, but there was no helping it as he now had to portion off some of his clones to protect his injured ally. _He deserves the protection though, he gave Natsu the chance to get inside. All I can hope for now, is that they can take down Sozin before I'm forced to use up too much strength here._

"Kirito," Thymilph growled at the figure in front of him who he could see was deep in thought. "I am Thymilph, One of the Four Supreme Generals of the Spiral King. Tell me, are you human?"

Kirito frowned deeply at the question, but his Haki already told him that the creature inside the Ganmen was not himself human. "Yes," Kirito responded, and he heard a guttural growl come from behind the red eyes on the front of the Ganmen's body that made the robot itself look alive. An idea formed in Kirito's head as he glared at those red eyes, _They're glass. I might not be able to Crack his steel casing easily, but if I can make a hole in there large enough to throw a Kunai, I could take him out without ever disabling the Ganmen._ "Thymilph, what may I ask, are you?"

"That's LORD Thymilph to you, human scum!" Thymilph roared, the anger of losing this battle to a human of all species more infuriating than anything. _How?_ He thought as he swiped his arms up fast, and almost hit the flying teenager in front of him who was better at flying without wings than ever, but was still not back up to the agility he had when he had fairy wings. Thymilph slashed back and forth, then right as he was coming down with a swipe that looked on-target, a Rasengan hit him in the right knee of his Byakou and he got knocked backwards, just enough that the tip of his Ganmen's arm missed Kirito's body by a few feet. A beam fired from one of the elite guards hit the Kirito clone who was distracted saving his own real body, destroying that one, but Thymilph still thought in rage, _HOW!? How can a human face half a dozen Ganmen without a mech of his own?! He is no Kryptonian, no Saiyan, no Android! How can my elite soldiers be falling one by one, to the likes of scum like him?!_

"RAAA!" Thymilph roared, clenching his Ganmen's hands into fists and slamming them down on the ground beneath him. The ground shook like it did when Franky's final attack went off, and twenty men running around the courtyard got lifted off the ground by the tremor, messing them up whether they were on Thymilph's side or not. He glared up at the Kirito he had been facing who was saved by one of the others, _This one is the real one!_ He rose his fists from the ground and his hands opened up in the middle of his palms, allowing tips of missiles three times as large as the ones Kirito destroyed before to reveal themselves pressing out from inside his arms. Kirito's eyes opened wide, while inside Byakou, a flashing red crosshair on Thymilph's monitor locked-on with a loud ding. "Targeted missiles!" He yelled, and both rockets fired out of his arms towards the teenager who looked up and started flying straight towards the blue sky above. "FIRE!"

Three Kirito clones on the ground looked up and saw the original flying off. They shot up to give chase after the missiles following him, each one four times as tall as any one of them. One of the three flying up tried swerving out of the way, but the Ganmen he had been facing was not letting him get away, and though missing the punch with its huge blue fist, it was already lifting its other hand and the giant pistol held in it that it fired point blank into the Shadow Clone.

The other two Shadow Clones who kept flying up surrounded themselves in white auras and tried picking up their paces. _The rockets are too fast!_ Both of them realized at the same time, giving each other a nervous glance as without their wings they just could not put on the extra burst of speed they needed right now. The Kirito highest in the air and with the most at stake looked down, and he saw his two clones flying up after the missiles behind him. Like them though, he came to the realization that he was not as fast as the missiles that were quickly gaining on him, and if he was not fast enough to escape them, then the clones were not going to be fast enough to intercept them for him.

 _Go go go go!_ Kirito tried picking up speed and flew so far up that he broke through a thin cloud he did not see in the air when he started flying. He broke a hole in it, then three seconds later two more holes popped through it ten meters apart from each other. Kirito looked down and he saw the distance of the two holes, each one equidistant from the hole he himself made in the cirrus cloud. _No it's crazy!_ He thought, yelling at himself for a thought he never even had that felt more like an instinct. Still, that idea he never thought coherently was the only idea he had, and the missiles were getting closer every second. _Fuck it, don't die!_ The teenager flipped in midair so he was pointed straight down, and he flew as fast as he possibly could straight towards the planet.

The two clones below Kirito just popped out of the cloud themselves, and the two stared at him like he was an idiot as he dove at the two missiles. Kirito opened his mouth and yelled at the top of his lungs, "AAAAAAHHHHH!" The white aura around him flared and he doubled his speed, diving straight between the two missiles that were only three meters away from him on either side at the moment he passed between them. He kept screaming as the two missiles above him turned inwards to follow him down, and the two Shadow Clones realized it an instant before it happened, their jaws dropping right before the pointy tips of the two rockets dinked into each other. _**BOOOOOOOM!**_

"AAAHHHHH-" Kirito kept screaming as he flew away from the explosion, but the blast was too fast and hit his feet as he shot out of the sky. The soles of his shoes burnt through fast and he tried pulling them down away from the flames, which resulted in his back getting hit next by the full brunt of the explosion. His cloak burst into flames and he let out a roar as his back bent against the force of the colossal blast.

The two Kiritos below the one getting thrown out of the air flew up, but before either one of them could catch him, the force of the blast hit them as well. The force was not very strong considering they were a good distance away from the explosion, but at the strength Kirito was at at that second, neither one of them could handle it, and they exploded in puffs of smoke with shocked looks on their faces.

Five remaining Kirito Shadow Clones in the courtyard suddenly saw in their heads what those two clones saw before they disappeared, and all of them snapped their gazes straight up in shock. Thymilph smirked as he was still looking up, but he could see in the bottom of the screen in front of his face the look on the face of a Kirito clone facing one of the other Ganmen with him. There were still fourteen elite guards outside, having earned their elite status for a reason and managing to keep up in part with Kiritos many Shadow Clones. Other than the Byakou, there were still four other Ganmen standing as well, though two of them were missing an arm each. All of the enemies saw where the remaining Kiritos were looking and shifted their gazes to the sky. And every single one of them smirked at the sight of a figure covered in smoke falling through a thin cloud that looked to be one of the only ones in the clear blue sky.

The last Kirito remaining in front of Franky's unconscious body snapped his head down before any of the five enemies or the Ganmen in front of him. He thought about attacking them while they were off guard, but only for an instant. His second thought, and the one he went with, was to turn around and slam a fist into the wall Franky was leaning against. The enemies nearest him turned around, and they gawked at the sight of a crack splitting the wall from the floor all the way to its top. The two guards who had been shooting down, and one of whom had actually managed to take out one of the three Kirito clones protecting Franky, were thrown to the side as the surface of the wall between the two of them exploded upwards.

The Kirito Shadow Clone took the shock his enemies felt about him completely cracking the wall to his advantage, running forward and grabbing Franky by the collar of his tattered Hawaiin shirt, and dragging the pirate shipwright through the thickest part of the gap he made in the wall that was right at the bottom. Franky was so broad at the shoulders, that after Kirito sprinted through the wall, he got jammed up by the robot he was pulling behind him back into the Upper Residential section. The wall was too thick from one side to the other to just yank harder and pull him through; Kirito himself was only halfway through the wall when Franky got stuck at the exit of the courtyard.

Kirito's enemies started laughing and one of them pointed a rifle towards the cyborg's still-bowed head. Right as his finger tightened on the trigger however, a fist slammed into the back of his head and sent him face-first into the floor, and then the teenager clone who was closest to the courtyard and flew there as fast as he could, slammed his other fist forward straight into Franky's gut so hard that the cyborg's eyes snapped open and he coughed up blood and spit all over that Kirito's face. "WAKE UP ALREADY!" That clone shouted while Franky was sent pushing through the wall and into the back of the Kirito who dragged him that way.

Franky smashed straight through the Kirito he did not even know was behind him, while the one who punched him landed on the courtyard side of the crack in the wall and spun to face the other enemies who all chose that moment to attack him. "Don't let the other one escape!" Franky heard a voice shout from through the crack in the wall as he landed on the other side, down on his right hand and his knees, while he had his left hand up to his gut and was rubbing it in pain from the punch Kirito just gave him.

"What kind, of way, is that, to wake, somebody, up?" Franky gasped out in pain and exhaustion. The cyborg dropped his left hand to the ground as he was too tired to even hold it up to his stomach and longer. "Cola," he mumbled, and he managed to lift up an arm and slide his huge pack off of his back. Franky frowned as his pack was nowhere near as thick as it was when he first filled it with over a hundred bottles of Cola a few weeks before, no matter how hard he had been trying to conserve and refill old bottles. _Only three more full recharges in here, but even a full recharge at my current state,_ he coughed as he thought it and watched as some more blood hit the ground beneath his bowed head. An explosion went off through the crack in the wall ahead of him, and Franky growled as he reminded himself of what was going on inside. _My human body makes up only a small percentage of this robot. I can SUPER take it!_ Franky popped open the bag he dropped in front of him, and with a loud clank, the steel plating in front of his aching gut opened outwards. _But damn, Kirito sure packs a punch._

* * *

 **Upper Residential Area, Pyraxas.**

"HeeheHEHEE! Found some!"

The two pirates jogging up a street, literally as the road they were on was clearly slanted up in elevation towards the Royal Palace which was why they were taking it in the first place, came to a stop together as a figure ran down the same road straight towards them. Sanji's eyes opened wide at the sight of the creature, while Nico Robin's eyebrows lifted up at the appearance. _A hybrid of several creatures. Part horse, part man, and part snake from the looks of it. He is most likely a Chimera Ant._

Yunju galloped down the street faster than a car would, but his hooves skid to a stop when he was still twenty meters away from the pirates, a good enough distance to speak to them from. The figure had white fur all over his horse half, though the tail sticking out of his rump was a deep red. His skin on his face and torso was green and his hair was a much darker shade. Yunju shook his long hair around and he smirked wide, slithering his tongue at the two ahead of him. "Humans! Prepare to-"

"Veinte Fleur," Robin said calmly, and twenty arms appeared all over Yunju's four horse legs. The Chimera Ant had just started running again, but he snapped his head down with shock all over his face that anyone would have upon seeing five arms coming out of each one of your legs. The legs grabbed him around different parts of his legs, from right above his hooves to clenching his thighs, and then as Yunju looked back up into the woman who spoke's eyes, his own doubled in size at the evil grin she gave him before saying, "Twist."

"AHH!" Yunju screamed as his legs were not only pulled out from under him, but twisted in different directions as far as Robin's arms could pull them too. The Chimera Ant slammed down on his torso and face and skid down the street a few feet, while his legs flailed around kicking all the arms off of them and into flower petals.

Robin dropped her crossed arms, but she did lose her grin as the Twist did not work as it should. "His legs were too strong," she said, signaling to Sanji to stop praising her as he had been for several seconds, and to turn back to the enemy in front of them who kicked his hooves down and returned to his feet.

"RAA!" Yunju yelled at them, the reds in his eyes becoming more pronounced. A white aura surrounded the Chimera Ant, and Robin and Sanji felt a lot worse about the enemy than they already were. "You fuckers!" Yunju roared in a pissed-off tone. He eyed the woman carefully, then smirked in a crazy way and reached down to the bottom of his scratched-up muscular human torso. The pirates watched where he was reaching to, and both of them went even wider-eyed at the sight of the creature ripping six balls of red and white off of a belt he had separating his animal and human parts.

"Damn it," Sanji growled. _He's going to make us fight his Pokemon? Bastard._ Sanji's eyes rose over the Ant's head and towards the high walls of the Palace only a mile away from them. He saw a lot of smoke rising from the other side of those walls, and there were a few other areas around the Upper Residential Area itself that had explosions going off in them too. _Everyone's too far dispersed. That Marine Admiral left for the Palace when the other Marine shouted something about an intruder nearing the western gate, and we were able to push through his men without him there, but when they regrouped behind us I thought it was smarter for me and Robin-chan to guard the other's backs. Thought we would have caught up to them by now, but I didn't expect this bastard to block me from getting back to Nami-swan._

"Are you so low that you will send out Pokemon to do your fighting for you?" Robin questioned, giving the Chimera Ant a condescending glare. The way the beast called them "Humans" earlier made her believe that it would be easy to antagonize the hybrid creature by acting better than it to damage its pride. She frowned though as the creature only smirked even more menacingly, proving to her that his distaste of humans went to a point that he truly believed them to be lower than him, and thus her insults would not impact him at all.

"Pokemon?" Yunju questioned, and Sanji and Robin both tensed up. Their eyes focused on the pokeballs, sweat forming on their faces as Yunju cackled madly, "Hehehe! Heeehehehe! No, not Pokemon," he tossed up all six pokeballs, and out from them flashed bright red lights. The lights formed a line on the street between the pirates and the Chimera Ant, and Sanji and Robin each took a step back in horror at the sight. Half a dozen people formed out of the red lights, terrified expressions on their faces, and steel anklets at the bottom of their legs. They had collars on and were all naked, the two humans, the shorter dwarf whose beard was shaved off, the blue-skinned troll with orange hair and scars all over its body like the others, the purple night elf whose eyes kept darting around while she trembled, and the Pandaren whose black and white fur looked hastily shaved off leaving him mostly pink. "I don't keep, Pokemon," Yunju said, before cackling louder than ever at the expressions on the pirates' faces.

"ATTACK!" Yunju screamed before the pirates had a chance to yell at him for this barbaric act of slavery. The pirates snapped their gazes to the figures in front of them, and despite them looking like they had been through Hell, each one of them appeared to be a warrior from the way they grabbed staves or swords from the straps on their torsos that were the only materials any of them were wearing.

"Please, help us!" The human woman yelled, even as she sprinted forward with a broadsword clenched in her hands. Tears flowed down her face, while the human man who appeared next to her rose up his staff so it glowed blue at the top, before firing a rapid-fire blast of magical energy down the street at the pirates. The troll slammed the butt of his bumpier staff than the human's down on the floor, and a red circle appeared beneath him, making every one of the others' weapons glow red as well.

The woman's scream echoed a hundred times in Sanji's head, and he roared as his entire body burst into flames. "HOW DARE YOU?!" He roared, ceasing Yunju's cackles in an instant. Sanji shot forward, ducking under the slash of the woman's sword, and kicking off the air beneath him to dodge the dwarf and Pandaren's attacks. Sanji flipped in the air and then came down with one leg extended out towards the Chimera Ant who he was infuriated at. Yunju's white aura was still around him though, and the Chimera Ant took two gallops forward before jumping up and leaning his upper body to the side as he punched forward right into Sanji's flaming aura. The muscular green arm came inches from colliding with Sanji's chest, when the chef tapped his foot that just missed the Ant's body, and pushed him into a front-flip over the beast's head. He pressed a hand flat down on top of Yunju's skull while his legs flipped over the top of his body, then slammed both of them down hard on the horse's back.

Yunju slammed down into the ground and each of his white legs bent down, but the street cracked before his legs did. The street cracking took off some of the pressure from the kicks, and Yunju twisted his upper body with an expression of pain on his face, slamming his other fist behind him at Sanji's legs still pressing on his back and igniting his white fur with his flames of rage. Sanji bent a little and pushed off the Ant's back, but even as Yunju's fist passed under his feet, the Ant smirked and Sanji saw that look on his face a second too late. The chef snapped his head up as he felt it finally with his Haki, but the magic had already locked onto him and he could not dodge the huge purple blast from the night elf woman that hit him in the face and created an explosion sending him backwards.

The female elf yelped and her eyes grew wide at the sight of the man falling out of her explosion with his head snapped backwards. He was falling to the floor, but Yunju wasn't going to wait for that to happen and he sprinted at Sanji and shoved the bottom of his front right hoof straight into the chef's face, before turning it down and slamming Sanji's head down into the ground at a force that cracked the road around him. Sanji's legs flew up, but the night elf woman looking on in horror was already pointing her staff his direction with another purple light glowing on the top of it. Right before another of her most powerful attacks was fired, two arms appeared out of each of her wrists and knocked the wooden staff from them. She was thankful for a second and darted her gaze behind her to the other pirate, only for her grateful look to vanish at the sight of three of her downed fellow slaves who had charged Robin, and the woman to be glaring furiously at her for what happened to Sanji.

Thirty more arms appeared out of the purple-skinned woman's body, while the four already sticking out of her wrists reached back and held onto her tight. The woman was about to scream, when he heard a voice yell, "DON'T!" Robin's eyes opened wide and she darted her gaze past the girl her arms were surrounding, to the figure lying on the floor with a hoof on top of his face. The hoof was so large that Sanji's eyes were not visible under them, but somehow the chef knew, and he screamed it through his bloody mouth again. "Don't do it Robin-chan!" Sanji lifted up both of his legs straight up, then slammed them each down as hard as he could on the ground below him while covering them in a deep black coating of Haki that Robin had never seen Sanji manifest so clearly before.

The ground beneath Sanji and Yunju had cracked when the Chimera Ant stomped him into the ground, but the cracks that Yunju made were pale in comparison to the epic shattering of an entire quarter mile of road to either side of Sanji. The houses on his sides broke at their foundations, cracks shooting up the walls and all of the windows shattering. Yunju stumbled as the street directly below him was the most unstable, and as he fell, the rest of Sanji's face became revealed and the Ant felt true terror at the look on the human's face. He scrambled backwards, and the pirate chef kicked his legs up again, then did a full three-sixty spin to slam a foot still coated in Haki straight into the right side of Yunju's jaw.

The Ant's jaw dislocated and teeth came flying out of it, cutting up his serpent tongue as they did. Blood splashed out of the Chimera Ant's mouth, then the foot that kicked him, and had stopped only a foot past the jaw it had kicked, changed directions and slammed backwards just as hard with the heel, only this time it was a little higher up on the Ant's face and hit him in the ear, then the temple, then made his yellow and red eyes bulge out as he was completely lifted off the floor and thrown at a hundred and fifty miles per hour into the ground up the street from where they were standing. He hit a large chunk of road that had been uplifted when Sanji smashed his legs down, and he broke straight through it before hitting the ground on the other side and bouncing, then doing over fifty cartwheels through the air before slamming into the thick southern walls surrounding the Fire Lord's Palace.

Anyone in the southern half of Pyraxas who looked towards the wall after hearing the loud crash from it dropped their jaws at the sight of a web of cracks shooting out in all directions from a single crater on the wall close to the southern gate. Yunju's head imbedded so far in the wall that his body could not even fall from it, so anyone looking towards the wall's crater just saw what looked like a white horse limply sticking out of the wall.

As tens of thousands wondered who would do such a thing to a horse, Sanji dropped down to his feet while at the same time taking out a cigarette. He put the cigarette in his mouth while lifting a lighter in front of his face, flipped the top up, and took in a single deep puff before the blood dripped from the end touching his bloody lips all the way to the lit side, putting it out before he could take a second drag. "Look out!" A voice yelled on his left, and Sanji turned to see the night elf woman had picked up her staff and was pointing it at him again.

Robin thought about attacking the woman, but Sanji's shout echoed in her mind and she shifted her gaze around fast. She smiled and crossed her arms, saying, "Doce Fleur-" Anyone still standing close to Robin looked around and spotted her twelve hands appearing all over the ground, all of them popping up in pairs. The six pairs of hands grabbed a pokeball each, then Robin said, "Snap," and each of the sets of hands pulled away from each other, ripping the pokeballs in half. The night elf pointing her staff at Sanji and urging her hand as hard as she could to unclench gasped as her fingers suddenly flew open, and the staff fell from her hand in what she thought was slow motion while her eyes focused on her fingers, and she watched as she herself controlled how they wiggled.

The other two slaves still standing dropped their weapons too, both the male human and the troll gasping over and over as they stared at their hands, wondering if their nightmare was truly over. Robin felt bad for these people, _Just how long have they been that monster's slaves? What kind of things were they forced to do for him? It is too terrible to think about._

 _ **Dunk**_ The sound of the night elf's staff hitting the floor at her feet snapped her out of the stupor she was in. The woman looked up towards the blond man whose face was so covered in blood, who was calling over to Robin that she was so smart for destroying the pokeballs. Sanji was still in the middle of praising her when he saw what was coming out of the corner of his eye and he turned in surprise. He watched the purple-skinned humanoid creature charge straight at him and for a second, both he and Robin thought that breaking the pokeballs did not actually work. Robin hesitated before stopping the woman though, and she sighed as the night elf threw her arms out and wrapped them around Sanji who was too shocked to speak, and then unable to speak anyway as his mouth was covered up by another's.

"Oh no," Robin said, rubbing her forehead with a hand in exasperation. "He has already lost too much blood," she said, before the night elf girl pulled herself away from Sanji in fear that she had hurt him because of all the blood coming out of his nose like a faucet. Sanji started stumbling around, mumbling incoherently and making the woman in front of him hold her hands together in front of her chest with wide eyes. "Do not worry," Robin said as she walked up to the two of them.

"What have I done?" The creature who looked very humanoid, and very attractive, questioned the woman whose calm expression actually put her at ease. "Is this normal for a human on your world?" The night elf questioned.

Robin smiled at her then turned to Sanji and said, "No, but then again, this is no average human." Sanji must have heard her voice through his delusional state, because Sanji's heart-shaped eyes turned back to normal and he yelled with glee at what Robin said. Then, when Sanji turned to the beautiful girl next to her, Robin continued in a serious voice, "Sanji-san, we must get to the Palace."

Sanji froze with his mouth open, and as much as he wanted to enjoy another kiss, another passionate, amazing kiss, with the woman he freed, he thought about what Robin said and calmed his heart down to a fourth of its skyrocketed beating rate. "Y-Yeah," he said, taking a few deep, heavy breaths to help calm him down and remind him of where he was. _Aebrith, Pyraxas, we're fighting the Fire Lord and all of his armies._ Sanji's mind was rattled even before the kiss, and he reached up a hand and grabbed his forehead as it flooded with pain from that stomp to the face he received.

"Are you okay?" the night elf questioned, while the human and troll who were holding their staves again were walking towards the three.

The troll saw Sanji grabbing his face and could already tell just from his appearance how badly he was injured. "Allow me," it spoke, its voice deep and with a strange accent the pirates had heard somewhere before laced in it. Sanji, Robin, the human, and the night elf turned and looked to the blue troll who was already taller than the rest of them by a foot without the spiky orange hair that added another foot on his height. He rose up his staff and the top of it glowed green, a color Robin and Sanji already associated with the magic he was about to use thanks to their Keyblade-wielding friends. The healing light that the troll shaman covered Sanji in felt just like a dose of good-ol' Cure magic from the pirates' friends, friends they were reminded of by that magic, one of whom they knew was facing danger at that very moment.

Sanji stole one last look at the beauties in front of him, then turned to the two men on his left. He nodded at the troll in a way that showed he appreciated what he did, and the men nodded back as the debt they owed was worth much more than a simple spell. "Look after the ladies," he ordered the two, and the night elf on his right opened her eyes in surprise, while the human woman was still unconscious on the ground nearby. Sanji then turned the rest of the way, knowing that if he looked at the women again his eyes would linger and he would waste more time. "Let's go Robin-chan," he said.

"I am with you Sanji-san," Robin replied, and the two of them started running up the street, following Yunju's path of destruction to the walls above.

The three still-conscious powerful slaves who Yunju captured during his time on Nexus watched their saviors run, then the human mage took a step forward. "I can not let them face the wrath of the Fire Nation on their own," he said, raising back up his staff and narrowing his gaze towards the walls in the distance where he knew powerful fighters awaited Sanji and Robin.

"I was about to say the same thing," the night elf said, her eyes still stuck on Sanji's back, her heart racing as she watched him run away.

The two were about to start running, when the troll spoke again in its Jamaican accent that reminded the pirates of the Grim Reaper, "Do not be so fast to leave your posts." The two others spun around and looked at the troll in a confused way, but the troll was walking down the street until he was past the feet of the Pandaren lying unconscious on the ground. He rose up his staff and slammed it on the floor beneath him, "Do you not recall what our saviors said? We are to protect the others," he knew it was not exactly how Sanji worded it, as did the other two, but all three of them could see the force of Sun Marines and Fire Nation soldiers running up the block from down below. As much as they wanted to go join the fight with their heroes, protecting their rears made each of them feel just as honorable.

The night elf snuck one final glance behind her to the form she could only barely see now in the distance. _Goodbye, my prince._

* * *

 **Eastern Gate of the Royal Palace, Pyraxas.**

Juvia and Kairi stood together with their backs to the giant gate behind them that Kairi had unlocked with her Keyblade but never managed to push open. They were backed up against the gateway's giant doors, because of the cloaked figure in front of them who floated upside-down with a big smirk on his face. "Oh ladies, what's with those dirty looks your giving me?" He turned right-side-up and continued to float in place with his twin arrowguns in hand. The weapons, called Sharpshooter, looked a little like crossbows thanks to the round section on top, but the weapon's design meant more than that, as the round piece on top had spikes on its sides that made it nearly identical to the symbol that all blank Nobodies had on their bodies. Underneath the top part of the arrowguns were sharp blades that wrapped around the triggers his hands were wrapped around, and on top of the weapon extending from the round part straight out was one long spike, out of which all the attacks flying at the two girls had been coming from.

"Kairi," Juvia whispered, as she glared at the figure in front of them who was looking at them with such a taunting expression. "Who is this man? He is wearing the same cloak-"

"Xigbar," Kairi said, and from the tone of her voice, Juvia could tell that this was someone Kairi had ran into before, and not in a good way. "What are you doing here?" Kairi called to the figure with long gray hair pulled into a ponytail behind his cloak. He had black gloves on around the hands he had on his Sharpshooter, and the scar-faced Nobody had an eyepatch over his right eye.

"I'm here for you little lady!" Xigbar called down, then pointed his arrowguns out to the sides and fired a few red laser arrows in random directions. After half a second of them shooting away from him, distortions in space opened up and the glowing arrows vanished inside them.

Juvia's eyes widened, then she felt a hand grab her by the arm and had no idea why Kairi was tugging her away from her current position. As she was yanked away though, the Rain Woman's eyes opened wide at the sight of a spacial rift opening up above where her head just was. Five red arrows dropped out of the hole in space where Juvia just was and slammed into the floor where they ripped through concrete like it was butter. "Xigbar has power over space," Kairi said, letting go of Juvia while raising up her hands and clenching them both tight around the hilt of her pink Keyblade. "We must be careful of him, he is Rank II of the Organization."

"Kairi Kairi Kairi," Xigbar said, leaning his head back and speaking down to her. "What have you got there? You finally get yourself a Keyblade? Well it's about damn time girl," Xigbar laughed and he slammed the arrowgun in his left hand on top of the one in his right. The two weapons merged into one, and Xigbar held up the extended Sharpshooter, before snapping it down so the point was aimed straight at Kairi. "But in your hands, that legendary weapon's nothing more than a toy to a guy like me!" Xigbar's weapon started shaking, and Kairi and Juvia's eyes both went wide.

"Move Kairi-san!" Juvia yelled, this time being the one who sprinted forward and grabbed her friend by the arm as she did. She sprinted only five feet when a huge blue blast of light shot from Xigbar's weapon towards where the girls were just standing. "I don't think so," he said as they looked like they escaped its range, and the two girls running away opened their eyes huge as the space around them distorted. Xigbar did not make his attack vanish and appear somewhere else to fly at them, the two girls ran straight into one of his rifts, and found themselves sprinting straight towards the incoming attack.

 _ **BSSHH!**_ The huge arrow of blue light collided with the two girls and they both screamed and flew backwards. Their backs slammed into the gate to the Palace, and Xigbar laughed as they slid down it and hit the floor at each other's sides. "Oh man, I don't believe this," Xigbar taunted, putting a hand against his chest and leaning back laughing. "Geez, Sora from two years ago crushed me, but you, hahaha," Xigbar's yellow left eye gazed straight down into Kairi's as she opened them back up. "You're not even worth my efforts."

Kairi ground her teeth and she ignored the blood on her elbows, and the pain in her legs as she pulled herself up to her feet. "Out of all the Keybearers I've fought over the years, you have gotta be the weakest… _by far."_ Xigbar added the last part just to throw salt in the wound, but although Kairi winced after he said it, the girl stood firm and re-clenched the hilt of her Keyblade with both hands.

"Cura," Kairi said. Xigbar opened his mouth to laugh, but the green light did not cover the Keybearer below. Instead, it covered the other woman who was a little older, who had pushed Kairi back a bit right before that last attack hit and Kairi knew was hurting worse than her. Green light surrounded Juvia, and the mage's half-closed eyes snapped open, her body feeling rejuvenated, and some.

Juvia's head snapped up right as Xigbar was going to make a snide remark about Kairi saving her power, and the Nobody floating there froze with his mouth open. " _Grrr,_ " Juvia growled, standing back up one foot at a time. Xigbar was not liking the look on that girl's face one bit. He pointed his arrowguns forward and fired them rapidly at the girls below. _To get to Kairi, I'm gonna need to get past-_ Xigbar's eye opened huge and he slowly rose up his head as he lowered his weapons. Kairi lowered the Keyblade she was using to block glowing red arrows, and the teenage girl turned her head to find out why such a large shadow was cast over her. "Tidal Wave!" Juvia screamed, and the two arms she rose above her head, she slammed down towards Xigbar.

A sphere of space around Xigbar distorted and the man vanished. A second later, a huge wave crashed through the space he was just floating in before collapsing to the ground all at once. Juvia snapped her head up as she leapt off the top of the collapsing wave she rode when it pushed past her before reaching Xigbar. She leapt because the man who vanished had reappeared all the way above the crest of her wave to evade her attack. "RAA!" Juvia swung her right fist at the man who turned his body to the left then fired an arrow straight up, where it vanished in a hole in space, and appeared below Juvia flying up at the same speed so it hit her straight in the chest. The Rain Woman's body bent over the arrow, then the smirking man next to her got that smug expression wiped from his face as Juvia's hand shot out and punched him in the face.

Xigbar flipped backwards through the air, and he created a hole behind him that he flipped straight into. He reappeared twenty meters away in the air and closer to the wall, only for his yellow eye to bug out at the sight of the mage turning towards him and waving her arms in his direction. "Water Whip!" Juvia yelled. Two whips of water shout out from her palms and cracked across the air towards Xigbar. He ripped his Sharpshooter back in half and pointed an arrowgun at a whip each. The Nobody fired, but the whips twisted in midair while the woman who cracked them his direction had started to fall. Juvia paid close attention to make her whips snake around and dodge Xigbar's attacks, and one of them finally reached him. He tried pulling his leg back, but the whip wrapped around his ankle and Juvia yelled, "Got you!"

The blue-haired woman shot up through the air as her whip retracted, pulling its caster towards the man it had captured. "I don't think so," Xigbar said, and he vanished into another rip in space. He floated back in it and had a bead of sweat rolling down the left side of his face. "What's up with this girl? She got some sort of-" Xigbar's jaw dropped mid-sentence as he realized the whip was still connected to his ankle, and he only realized it because a girl came flying through his rift in space and tackled him.

Kairi's eyes popped open wide as Juvia shot straight into Xigbar's rip in space, and then she spun her head the other way and watched as half the height they were just at and fifty meters away, the two came flying out of nowhere, rolling over each other in midair. Juvia grabbed Xigbar by the cloak and flipped them so he was falling with his back to the ground, and Xigbar looked out his peripheral vision to see the roof of a building approaching fast. Before he slammed back-first into it, the air right above the building ripped apart and they fell into it, vanishing to the auburn haired girl desperately trying to watch the fight. A hole ripped directly above Kairi's head and she snapped her gaze up, to see Juvia pushing Xigbar hard like they were still falling straight down, only now they were moving sideways and both of them were upside-down. Xigbar knew which way they would come out of his next rift, and he spun them while they were flying over Kairi's head, reaching out with his hands as he did and grabbing Juvia by the shirt, and slamming the girl hard into the gateway that she did not see coming.

Juvia gasped and her hands released Xigbar's cloak. Her whip had already fallen from him, but now the Nobody saw his chance and he threw Juvia down at the ground. The Fairy Tail mage hit the floor on her knees, then snapped her eyes back up furiously at the man above her. Xigbar turned and righted himself as he glared down at the girls still in front of the gate that was now a crack open after the speed at which he slammed Juvia into it. "Heh, not bad," the Nobody snapped his fingers, and a strange sphere of distorted air surrounded him. An instant later, he was gone.

Kairi let out a breath of relief, then frowned as she stared down at the hilt she held up in her right hand. _Am I the weakest? It's good to rely on my friends, but I need to be strong too, so they can rely on me sometimes._ "Juvia, thanks," Kairi said and looked up towards her friend's back. Juvia got off her knees and was glaring towards the middle of the Palace gates where Xigbar just vanished. "I don't know what he wanted, but it sounds like Xigbar thinks-" Kairi stopped as she heard a low growling coming from in front of her.

"He thinks he can escape that easily?" Juvia growled, her voice scary to the girl behind her whose eyes widened more than they did when Xigbar first appeared. "He thinks he can escape from me?" Juvia snarled, and steam rose off of her fists that were clenched so hard she broke through the skin of her palms and drew blood.

Kairi was afraid. She was afraid that there was something very wrong with her friend. "Juv-" Kairi began, but Juvia sprinted towards the gate before Kairi had even finished calling her name. "Wait! Juvia!" The Rain Woman leapt at the crack in the gate, and as her body hit it, her entire form turned into water and pushed straight through with no resistance.

Juvia reformed on the other side of the door and she landed down on a knee and one foot, with her fist pressed firmly into the floor in front of her. The girl stood on the east side of the palace, on the outside of the east wing that had been broken into from the south, right in front of the side entrance that currently had no guards at the doors considering they were all called somewhere else. Juvia snapped her head up and roared, "Where are you?!" She then leaned forward on the foot she had pressed down, clenched the ground around where her fist opened on the floor, and lifted up the knee she had in the dirt, before shooting off like a rocket for the side doors and blasting straight through them without stopping, ripping them right off their hinges.

Meanwhile, on top of the Royal Palace, Xigbar appeared on the southern side overlooking the courtyard and the battle below. He appeared next to a smaller figure in a black cloak who was looking down into the courtyard at a burnt-up teenager who was all alone against so many enemies, but was somehow holding his own. Even with all of his clones and allies gone, Kirito was facing off against Thymilph in his Byakou, three other remaining Ganmen, and a dozen of the best fighters of the Royal Guard.

"You didn't get her?" The figure next to Xigbar asked.

The man standing there chuckled and he clapped a gloved hand down on the boy's left shoulder that was a foot below his own. "She's all warmed up for you," Xigbar said. The Nobody chuckled even darker as the shorter figure turned and started walking away. "Don't forget to take off your hood," Xigbar called to him. "It'll make it more entertaining!"

The figure whose face was shadowed by his hood stopped walking, and he turned his head a little to glare out of it towards Xigbar. "And why is that?" He questioned, his dark eyes narrowing under the hood.

"If you wanna know so bad, then take off the hood," Xigbar suggested. So the figure did just that, reaching up and grabbing the hood of his cloak, and pulling it off of his head. The shadow lifted as sunlight touched down on his lightly toned skin, and his black hair was freed from the constraints of being pressed down by the restricting hood. He glared back at Xigbar with his dark eyes, then turned and continued walking away from his fellow Nobody. _Why would it be entertaining? Whatever, it doesn't matter. I have a mission, and I'm going to see it through. Kairi, you are mine._

* * *

 **Big Belly Burger, Pyraxas**

"Everyone please stay calm," Sadao Maou announced to the people in the fast-food establishment he managed. He stood behind the counter, waving his arms in such a way as to soothe the people who had panicked and ducked off the streets when explosions started earlier. The intensity of the distant explosions determined how loud they were screaming at any certain time, and in the last two minutes the shaking had intensified more than ever.

Maou frowned as another tremor sent the restaurant into a frenzy. He turned and looked into the back for his staff, but all of his staff members were as terrified as everyone else. A part of him wanted to get them all in control of themselves and working together to calm down their customers, but instead he just stood there and watched as negative energy emitted from their bodies. The only member of Maou's staff who was not panicking looked over from the booth he was sitting at. Damien's eyes started to grow and one of the Princes of Hell stared at the manager of the Big Belly Burger as he walked out around the counter. " _ **Stay in here, and calm down. You will be safe.**_ " Maou spoke in a booming voice that bounced off the walls, but as much as Damien was impressed and unnerved by the voice, all the humans inside the building quieted down. They closed their mouths and walked over to tables one by one, sitting down and calming themselves completely.

None of the others in the restaurant were looking at him anymore, so only Damien could see as the dark energy continued to flood into Maou. It was not coming from their establishment anymore, but through every window and door and even the roof of the Big Belly Burger, negative energy was pouring into the demon who managed the fast-food joint. Maou's eyes lost their light orange color and glowed brighter and brighter red every second. His uniform could not handle the strain as his arms, legs, and torso all bulked up, his muscles bulging all over his body and his skin turning gray as they did. The room was cast into even deeper darkness and Maou's mouth lifted up into a smirk from ear to ear, and his mouth was glowing red like his eyes while horns protruded from the sides of his head and pointed up through his pitch black hair.

"I was wondering when you were going to let it in, but geez," Damien said, getting quieter at the end of the sentence. "I haven't seen you get this powerful since… since ever," the kid said, and even the son of his world's Satan gulped as Maou looked down at him now.

"I am in a city of millions," Maou said, his voice echoing around him as his muscles bulged even more, to an extent that any farther and his tearing white undershirt would fall apart and even the crotch area of his pants would not be able to stretch wider. "Millions of terrified voices echoing in my head, all their fear, their pain… it's all my power!" Maou turned towards the exit and started walking towards it, the light vanishing wherever he stepped. "Damien, stay here and watch the shop." There was no room in his voice for argument, and Damien just frowned and nodded.

Maou stepped through the automatic doors of the Big Belly Burger, out onto the street, and then the doors closed behind him. As they were closing though, they slowed, slowed, and came to a stop. Maou stuck his arms out to his sides and hunched over. As he bent down, the rest of his white undershirt tore to shreds, as what originally appeared to be black shadows all over his back finally merged together to form wings that ripped through the material. "Ahh, it has been a while," the devil growled, then he bent his knees a bit and jumped a hundred meters into the sky with one single effort.

"To think," he muttered as he stood up straight in the air above southern Pyraxas. "I would get enough power in Pyraxas to create a pocket dimension. Now, what's going on in this…" Maou faded off and he turned his head to the west. He glared that direction towards a massive white creature he could see over the walls surrounding the lower city. He could feel enormous demonic presences in that direction already, but that was not why he turned to look that way. He turned because one of those demonic presences was flying straight towards him, turning the sky dark purple around him as he did. _Inside my own pocket dimension, it could only be one._ Maou crossed his arms over his bare chest and he kept a deep scowl on his face as the purple-haired figure arrived in an all-white suit with a cape, top hat, and even held a cane to finish the outfit. "Samael," Maou greeted, his voice neutral in tone.

"Satan Jacob! I had no idea you were here in Pyraxas!" Mephisto greeted back in a much more enthusiastic way. He was being his usual outgoing self, yet Mephisto was surrounded in a dark aura and he looked sinister as he broke through this other demon's time magic. "I would have searched you out after my introduction with the Fire Lord!"

"What are you doing in my city?" Maou asked, getting straight to the point.

Mephisto chuckled a few times, then his eyebrows narrowed down towards his nose and he spoke in a dark tone, " _Your_ city? Do you not recall the War of the Satans? Or do you just need a reminder, of who rules this world?" Mephisto's dark aura grew larger, but Maou's grew as well and pressed back against his. The two leaned forward, and then Mephisto rose up his cane and pointed it at Maou. Maou vanished and appeared directly on Mephisto's left, facing the distant north with his arms still crossed over his chest.

"You may have won the war," Maou said in a deep growl. He appeared on Mephisto's other side, only this time he was facing Mephisto and his arms were no longer crossed. His right arm was held out to the side and a wide red magic circle appeared around his hand, "But whatever you're doing in _my_ city is filling me with power right now!" Out of thin air, a twelve meter long sword formed in Maou's grip in a flash of white light.

Mephiso glared out the corners of his eyes towards the muscular gray demon. He snapped his fingers and an explosion went off in front of Maou, but when the smoke fell, there was a forcefield separating Maou from any damage that explosion may have caused. "Final chance, Samael," Maou began. "Before either of us start to get serious," he finished, and snapped the sword in front of him so the point was splitting the distance between them.

Mephisto turned towards Maou so they were looking eye to eye, then he lowered down his cane to his side and lifted his smile a bit. "I do not recall you being this strong the last time I saw you. My apologies," Mephisto did a polite bow and took off his hat to say it was a good show. He stood back up fully in midair and put his hat back on, then continued, "As to your question, I'm afraid to inform you that I myself have nothing to do with the series of events you see going on around you."

"That's your brother isn't it?" Mao growled, nodding his head out towards the western side of the city. "I knew Astaroth was in the city, but he's brought one ugly beast here with him." Mephisto opened his mouth up to respond, but Maou cut him off by saying, "When I mentioned your brother, you had a flicker in your eye that you would not have had with Astaroth." Mephisto's expression turned darker than it ever had during their brief skirmish, and Maou continued in a serious, but also threatening tone as he saw the shift in Mephisto's mood, "Who is that teenage boy with the demonic sword?"

Mephisto's eyes opened huge. "How do you know him?" The Demon King of Time asked, truly intrigued.

"He just ate burgers in the restaurant I manage," Maou replied, and once again Mephisto was left at a loss for words, something that rarely happened for him, yet he always tended to enjoy it. "Who is he?" Maou repeated.

 _This demon manages a burger restaurant? I suppose leaving him alone in this city is not very harmful for anyone. As for telling him about Rin-kun…_ "That boy is none of your concern," Mephisto said, and he said it as a threat, making sure the point got across. "I would be happy to tell you about the others who ate with him, or the other interesting things currently going on around this city, but that boy, is to be left alone." Mephisto seethed the last part through his teeth and the entire atmosphere around him darkened.

"You dare threaten me in my own city, my own realm?!" Maou roared, and the time space around them quaked and descended deeper into darkness than ever. Flames rose in the sky around both of the demons, then Maou pulled back his giant sword and shot through the air. At the same time, Mephisto twirled his cane around like a shortsword, then pressed a button on the top of it that made the cane transform into just that. The Demon King of Time shot through the sky at his opponent, and the two clashed swords, beginning a fight that would start and end within the same moment, an entire epic battle that would take place between single punches being thrown in other fights around the city.

* * *

 **Royal Palace, Pyraxas**

Inside the throne room of the Fire Lord's Palace, Killua Zoldyck walked forward at a slow pace. The room was the largest of the Palace, and he had what he estimated as an eighth of a mile to walk from the giant double doors to the base of the steps beneath Fire Lord Sozin's throne. _Godspeed now and kill him. No, test the waters. Figure out his speed. If he's slow it'll work, if not it'll just be showing him my top speed too early. If he's too fast I'll need to lure him into a false sense of security with my normal speed, then Godspeed when he gets cocky._ Killua's eyes darted to either side of him. There were giant pillars on either of his sides from the floor all the way to the ceiling of the third and top floor of the Palace. Those pillars went from twenty feet from the doors to the rest of the building, all the way to twenty feet from the base of the throne steps, with twenty feet in between each of the five foot diameter white columns that had grooves in them for the extra bit of aesthetic appeal.

In the symmetric spacing between each pillar, flames rose from cracks Killua spotted in the floor below them, and he wondered for a second if there was oil in those cracks that was being lit to give the room a more fiery ambiance. There were high flames rising from behind Sozin's throne as well as down the sides of the stairs in a way that widened so the flames were close together on either side of Sozin's throne, but spread farther apart every step away from the throne the Fire Lord got. Sozin started walking down his steps, and with every step he took, the flames getting farther from his sides would get higher and higher each time while burning brighter as well. Killua was standing on a red carpet that went from the doors he had entered, all the way up the stairs to the floor at the foot of the throne-seat where Sozin could put his feet down on it. _The carpet is probably flame retardant, or else it would have caught on fire before, unless it does often and they just replace it. If not though, then as long as I'm on the carpet, he can't rise flames from beneath me. There could be, and probably are, tricky parts to this room that only he knows about though._

"Killua Zoldyck," Sozin said, from the base of the steps that he reached before speaking. Killua came to a stop fifty meters from the man. He stared the distance that he was going to keep as long as the Fire Lord decided to talk to him. "When I saw the name on the I.D. I was provided for those who obtained theirs at the same time as Straw Hat Luffy, I thought I recognized your last name." Killua kept his face steady though his ears perked up and his mind started racing. "So I thought back, and recalled the name of an assassin I once hired to help take care of one of my competitors, back before I was a High Lord."

Sozin stared across the room and the Fire Lord's eyes narrowed. He had a black beard wrapping around his chin with three distinct spikes coming off of it straight down and diagonally down to either side, his mustache was thin and curled down on either side of his mouth into his beard, and he had a bun over his head that held his black hair together using a golden hairpiece in the shape of a flame. He wore a long red robe that fell past his feet on the floor, and over his shoulders was a thicker, darker red part of his cloak that was held together by a golden clasp near his right shoulder. Sozin reached up and grabbed the clasp with his right hand, then yelled as he yanked to the side with one hard tug, tearing off his cloak as he did, "When Zeno Zoldyck returned wounded from his kill, I eliminated the old man myself!"

Sozin's cloak flew to the side of the room, through the flames on his side without igniting as none of the clothes he owned would ignite that easily, if at all. Sozin stood with his arm outstretched, his torso revealed now with only a red muscle shirt covering it, which did little to hide the jacked form that the cloak had been hiding. He wore a pair of baggy black pants beneath the long-sleeved red shirt, and he had no shoes on to speak of, standing on his carpet bare-footed. Sozin stomped his right foot forward, held his right hand out as a fist, and pointed his left open palm out towards Killua as he stood sideways facing the boy.

Killua's eyes widened when Sozin finished shouting, and it took a few seconds for the kid's eyes to return to their normal size. He opened his mouth to shout a taunt something along the lines of, 'You want me to believe you took our my grandpa?' Or, 'There's no way a weakling like you could defeat him!' But Killua closed his mouth and his eyes narrowed, and a white aura surrounded the kid whose teeth clenched and ground against each other. He could hear the grinding in his ears and the muscles in his hands tensed, his nails extending and getting sharper as his rage bubbled. His knees bent and he glared into Sozin's eyes with ones full of hate, before starting his sprint to the Fire Lord.

It took a second for Kil to reach him. The kid with spiky white hair ran up on Sozin's left side, but sidestepped to the right an instant before his attack. He pushed off of his left foot to lift in the air while swinging his right foot around, but Sozin's arm snapped up to his side with an open palm facing out where Killua's leg was approaching. Kil's eyes snapped open wide at the man's speed to catch his right leg, but before his leg was even blocked, flames ignited in front of Sozin's palm. The Fire Lord clenched down, and he expelled out so much fire from his hand that Killua's pants shredded and his skin began to beneath. Killua ripped as hard as he could backwards while spinning around, bringing his other leg that lifted off the floor around to slam his heel into Sozin's chest. Sozin leapt backwards while darting a look at his hand that had clenched into a fist when Killua's ankle ripped from its grasp.

The Fire Lord landed on one foot, then spun his other leg around before bringing its heel straight down into the floor. Killua landed on his hands after making Sozin back off, then he flipped himself backwards and landed on his feet twenty yards away from the Fire Lord. He winced and darted a glance at his right leg to see the pant leg from his knee down was gone, and his skin all over his lower shin was bright red. The kid darted his eyes back up as Sozin's heel hit the floor, and a line of fire shot out of the older man's foot quickly moving in a path towards the fourteen year old. Kil hopped to his right, then did a cartwheel in midair, twisting his entire body to dodge the fireball Sozin punched towards him after his previous attack. Killua landed as the fireball passed only a foot behind him, and he started sprinting even faster than before towards Sozin.

Sozin's feet glowed bright though, and Killua noticed that the man was standing on the carpet he himself was sprinting over. _The carpet's not burning. It's not fireproof though,_ Killua realized as the entire red carpet started to glow bright like Sozin's glowing feet. Kil took three more steps before leaping up, because the carpet material conducted the heat throughout and had melted through the soles of his shoes. He was close enough to Sozin when he leapt though that he moved like a missile with his legs extended towards the man. Sozin reached forward with his left hand that was opening from a fist, but before he grabbed Killua's left foot that was now exposed, the kid snapped his upper body up and brought his hands up to his feet. Sozin leaned back to avoid the sharp fingernails, but Killua had a backup plan and he flattened out his hands that were initially pointed out to impale the Fire Lord.

Sozin's eyes widened as he saw the sparking electricity on Kil's fingertips. He brought up the hand he was reaching for Killua's foot while bringing his other around at the same time in an open style, dragging a whip of flames with it. The first hand he used to grab the wrist of Killua's left hand with and twisted it to the side, but then Killua grabbed the hand grabbing him's wrist with his other hand, and he filled Sozin with electric shock. The kid smirked, then Sozin's other hand coming around as a slap kept moving and he saw it out the corner of his eye the moment before it would have smacked him straight in the face. He leaned away from the palm, but the whip of fire following after Sozin's other hand slammed into his face. Kil closed his eyes, but that was all he could do to protect himself without letting go of the other hand he was grabbing Sozin's wrist with. He pushed his head forward through the flames so the rest of the whip kept going behind him, and on the left side of his face Sozin's slapping hand kept moving from its momentum, while Killua pushed down with his right hand to pull Sozin off balance thanks to the other hand he had grabbed.

Killua let go with the hand on the man's wrist, but as he started bringing it up, he felt all the pressure on his left wrist vanish as Sozin let go of him as well. _He did it at the same exact time! He knew when I would release!_ Killua's hand he was bringing up for Sozin's throat was grabbed around the wrist by the hand it was just restraining. Killua's other hand flew up since it was no longer restrained, but Sozin's left hand that slapped flames into Killua's now-burnt face a moment ago flew back in time as there was no longer as much momentum pushing it away. He slapped away Killua's left hand, then rose his knee and slammed the kid in the gut before Killua's right foot that he was bringing up himself could connect. Kil gasped and spit came out of his mouth at how hard that knee hurt his stomach, _I have a thin coating of Nen around me! That hurt too much!_ Kil's eyes darted down and widened at the sight of black all around Sozin's knee, and it was a darker shade that the man's baggy pants.

As Killua was lifting up from the knee, Sozin yanked the wrist he was grabbing up with the momentum, adding more to it and swinging Killua around fast over his head and down into the floor. He smashed the kid into the carpet that was still glowing bright red, and the back of Killua's shirt burnt straight through. The instant he hit the ground, his eyes snapped open and his pupils were tiny. _Turn the switch on._ A dark aura surrounded the boy who turned on his Assassin Mode, and suddenly all the emotion left his face and Sozin could see nothing but killing intent. The man planning on ripping Killua back up into the air to slam on his other side, felt no urge to do so anymore and instead released the boy's wrist and sped backwards faster than Killua had seen him move the entire fight. Killua's free hand had shot up in the air in that same moment and he drew blood on his own right wrist as he had tried tearing apart Sozin's fingers that were grasped on him. The boy kicked his legs up in the air and landed on his two feet, but he did not have any pain on his face as he landed on the scalding hot carpet.

Ren surrounded the boy over a foot on all sides of him. The flaring white aura allowed for him to feel any attack that entered it, and it turned on automatically as he started sprinting forward again. He rose up both his hands as he went for Sozin's vital points, _The Snake Awakens._ His hands became like blurs that whizzed around all over the front of his body, his fingernails still protruding from his hands like claws thanks to the complete control Killua had over his body. Sozin's eyes were darting back and forth and up and down at the boy running towards him, and then he yelled out, "Raaa!" A wall of fire appeared in front of him and blasted out at Killua who had to leap up high to avoid the twenty foot tall flames. He glared down through the fire even as it passed beneath him, but the kid's eyes opened wide as the figure he was staring at through the flames disappeared, his body turning into flames and fading away to nothing. His head snapped left, then straight down into the top of the wall passing beneath him, where a six foot tall figure emerged with a fist covered in orange aura was flying up towards him.

It entered Killua's Ren too fast for the boy to escape. He was not on the ground and did not have a great base to start dodging. He knew where the attack was coming from though, and moved his body just enough that Sozin's fist slammed into his left shoulder. _Whirlwind._ An ability Killua had kicked in as soon as Sozin's fist touched him. Beneath Killua's aura, there was a thinner veil of aura made of electricity covering his entire body and giving him a faint blue glow. By turning that aura into pure electrical currents, the moment he was touched his aura transmitted impulses straight from his brain to the part of his body he needed to move, completely bypassing his central nervous system and saving him the time he did not have. Sozin's fist hit Killua's body and the boy was instantly able to determine how much power was in the blow, and he pulled away and moved a different part of his body while he did, making it so that even though Sozin hit him, he did not fly off of the fist away from the older man. Instead, a loud crack echoed through the room as Killua's left shoulder was ripped from its socket, but since Sozin punched him so far on one side, Killua's other half was pushed towards him at incredible speeds, and Killua's sharpened right hand shot straight into Sozin's side.

Killua's nails broke through Sozin's skin on the left side of his chest, then pushed through muscle as well, then came to a short and sudden stop. Killua's eyes focused on where the tops of his fingers had entered Sozin's body, and the boy's eyes opened wide at what he saw. All of Sozin's skin around the left side of his chest was black, but the muscles beneath the Armament Haki coated skin, were vibrating and squeezing together right on Killua's fingers. The kid's eyes darted away from where his hand was jammed, because Sozin's fist that he did not use to dislocate the kid's shoulder was coming towards his face, and Killua could not block with one hand out of commission and the other one trapped. He ripped his right hand free from Sozin's chest while placing his left foot against the man's stomach, then as he pushed off, he tensed the muscles in his feet too and extended the nails that were exposed thanks to Sozin melting off his shoes. As he pushed off, he dragged the claws of his left foot down Sozin's stomach and blood splashed out of the man.

The fist Sozin punched at Killua stopped short of hitting the kid in the face as he was already propelling himself down towards the ground, but the massive fireball that appeared out of thin air moved faster than Killua was and engulfed the boy before he slammed into one of the giant pillars in the room, creating an explosion of flames and rubble around the kid in the middle. _Zeno ji-chan, this guy, he's holding back isn't he?_ Killua opened his blue eyes from under the rubble and he pushed up with his right hand, moving all the stone debris off of him. He got up to his feet and climbed on top of the largest piece of stone near him so that when he looked across the room at Sozin, he would be looking down at him. Sozin was falling to the ground himself, but when he saw where Killua stood, the man stopped falling all of a sudden. Killua grimaced as the Fire Lord hovered in midair, but the kid regained a semi-confident expression at the sight of the blood on Sozin's left side and the more shallow scratches on his stomach.

Kil cracked his neck to the side, and then his left arm popped up into its socket with a crack even louder than when Sozin knocked it out. The kid stood back up straight while shrugging both his shoulders a few times, then he said while looking up into Sozin's eyes, "Huh, I never would have guessed you would be able to control your own muscles like that." Sozin wiped a hand on his left side and Killua could see that the bleeding from what he had originally thought was a deep wound had already stopped.

"Young man," Sozin said, his voice less menacing and more calm than before after that exchange. "The one before you is a High Lord of the King's Cooperative." Sozin's body surrounded in an aura of flames that Killua did not change his expression towards, though in his mind he cursed wondering how he would land another hit without burning himself. Already Killua had burn marks on his legs, wrists, back, and over his eyelids and the rest of his face. Sozin continued down to the fighter before him, "Did you not think, that in the last two and a half years, I would not use that title to my advantage?" Sozin chuckled darkly and then started lowering to the ground in the center of his hall, glaring farther towards the back and the left side where Killua stood atop a pile of rubble that had been one of his throne room's pillars.

"What do you mean?" Killua asked. _I need to use farther ranged attacks. He still has not let down his guard, and if I were to use Godspeed now, he would start going all out on me. If he did not mention Ji-chan, I might have changed strategies already._ Killua's fingers started sparking electricity and small bolts of lightning connected from the tip of each finger to the floor at his feet, giving him a dangerous appearance that he hoped would keep the Fire Lord from floating any closer.

Sozin did stop, and he narrowed his thin black eyebrows at the boy ahead of him. "Haki, Nen, magic, ki, I have had many teachers since becoming a High Lord. The best teachers Aebrith had to offer. They taught me the basics, and I was able to learn much more through my own training. But before I became a High Lord, I knew none of those things. Does it not interest you? Does it not intrigue a member of the Zoldyck family enough to question 'how?' How did I, with only the ability to bend fire, become one of the most powerful men on this continent?"

Killua did not want to know the answer actually. In fact, he hated every word that came out of Sozin's mouth. It made no sense. If what he had witnessed from other fire benders really was the average amount of power for someone in the Fire Nation, he thought the Fire Lord himself must have been just a stronger version of one of them. He had already guessed then, that Sozin would have learned other skills and techniques to make himself a force to be reckoned with. _But without any of those abilities, with just the power of fire bending, could he really take control of a huge part of the world?_ _ **This**_ _world?!_

"Doctor Octavius," the Fire Lord said, and Killua snapped his head to the left. The kid glared past Sozin and past all the pillars behind the floating Fire Lord, back towards his throne and the darkness close to it where loud clanking sounds started echoing around the room. Doctor Otto Octavius stepped out from behind a giant pillar, his huge steel legs lifting his body high enough that the flames between pillars did not reach him. The scientist wearing a lab cloak and a pair of goggles over his eyes smirked in Killua's direction, then turned towards the steps in front of the Fire Lord's throne. "The good 'Doctor Octopus,' or 'Doc Ock,' has been of invaluable help to me and my regime," Sozin explained to the boy staring across the room and getting increasingly nervous.

"You honor me, my Lord," Doc Ock replied, while lifting up a device in his hands that he was pressing buttons on and twisting dials. "All I have done, is complete my life's work!" The scientist rose a finger and pressed down on a button at the bottom of the device he was holding. Loud clanking noises echoed through the room, and Killua stared at the bottom step at the base of the stairs right in front of the mad scientist. One by one, the steps leading up to Sozin's throne were opening up in the middles and sliding out to the sides. Half of the bottom steps opened, then all the clanking noises stopped, but Killua's eyes stayed glued to the opening in the stairs. A bright yellow light was coming from that hole, and Doc Ock spoke as the light grew brighter and rose higher up, "Thanks to the Fire Lord's vast resources, he was able to find me enough precious tritium that I was able to build it. I was able to build a fusion reactor, capable of sustaining fusion, in perpetuity."

Killua's eyes grew the size of saucers as the top of what the mad scientist described rose from beneath the floor. Immediately the room was bathed with its light, but as blinding as it was, Killua could not look away. Doc Ock backed up himself, but the look on his face was of pure ecstasy. "This, sun!" Otto began yelling, turning his head to look across the room at Killua as he did. "Is sustained by the fusion stabilizers beneath the floor all over this room. Under the floor are hundreds of wires that take the energy produced by the fusion reaction, and distributes that energy all over the Fire Nation, as well as to many of its neighbors, though most of them have no idea where their energy is coming from. Tens of millions use the energy from my experiment every day: to power their homes, charge their phones, anything electronic for thousands of miles around comes from this power source right here, but that is not even the most impressive feature of the reaction!"

The boy listening to that explanation was impressed, but as the doctor said it, he wondered why they would be showing it to him at all if it was just a power source. After a moment more of staring at it, he realized. His eyes shifted from the glowing sun, to the orange haze that surrounded it, and to the air above the middle of the room where the thickest part of that haze was moving towards. "On my world," Sozin spoke, from inside the haze that surrounded him and cast him in a dark, deadly orange glow. "A Great Comet came close to the planet, a comet I learned was later named after myself for my utilization of its powers. You see, when it broke my world's atmosphere, fire benders became a hundred times stronger and we were able to conquer entire nations in a day! That, was the power of a celestial object a hundred miles above my head at its closest. Can you imagine if it was only a few meters from me? When the good doctor came to me with his idea to create sustainable power for the city I was in control of at the time, I knew at once the possibilities that I would attain with the completion of stable fusion reaction. And now, for over a year," Sozin began yelling, while throwing his arms out to the side and making the orange haze around his body grow thicker so that Killua could barely stand to be in the presence of it. The Fire Lord continued in a booming voice, "I have bathed daily in the light of this sun which I have deemed, the Supernova! Just by being in close proximity to it, I am stronger, faster, my flames burn hotter, than any other fire bender alive. This sun that burns brightly beneath my throne, makes me more powerful by the day!"

Sozin's fists that were extended out to the sides opened up, and a light flashed that cracked all of the stainless glass windows in the hall. Killua stared at this terrifying man and could hear the laughter of the scientist below him, standing in between that small glowing sun and the pile of rubble he stood on. _Can I beat someone like this? He brought that Supernova up to the surface because he must think he needs it in his presence to defeat me, right? Then, if I can find a way to shut it off… What am I thinking? There is no "turning off" a sun. And if I destroy the stabilizers that keeps it from growing out of control, I'll be killing everyone in this city, maybe in the entire country. If I can't turn it off though, I have to get him out of its light. How can I change our fighting location? There's no way he'll leave on his own, and I'm the one attacking! Do I run? If I run will he chase me? Even if he doesn't… should I still run anyway? I, can't beat him now. He was messing with me that entire time, not using a fraction of his possible strength. Haki, Nen, he's clearly a trained martial artist, he can fly, and he's the most powerful fire bender in the world. He killed Zeno Ji-chan! How could I even think of fighting someone who could beat my grandpa?_

Killua took a step backwards, and then in front of his eyes appeared an image of a face. _If I leave, they'll still be right behind me. They'll still come to fight him, even if I go tell them what Sozin can do. If I leave, they'll come, and they'll die._ More faces appeared in front of Killua, and the foot he was stepping backwards slammed down on the back of the rock he was on hard. The rubble crumbled beneath his foot and he fell, then tapped his feet below him and hopped inwards to the carper in the center of the room that was now at a dull red color that showed it was warm but not going to burn his feet just by standing on it. Killua stared straight up into Sozin's eyes, eyes that glowed bright white as he absorbed the rays of the Supernova behind him. A flash surrounded Killua, all of his white hair spiked up straight over his head, and lightning bolts sparked out all over his body. "Godspeed," Killua said, before vanishing to the mad scientist still laughing to himself from in front of the Supernova. Doc Ock's eyes opened wide, and then Sozin vanished from above him as well, and he was left staring into an empty room for a second, before two fists collided in midair ten feet in front of him, and he was thrown off his feet by the force of the collision.

"WhoaaAAHH-" Doc Ock's scream of panic from getting lifted off the ground became one of sheer agony. Sozin's eyes darted to the side and grew double their usual size at the sight of the scientist's metal arms reaching forward, before dropping limp and getting sucked backwards into the Supernova where the rest of Doc Ock already vanished into. Sozin heard something coming so fast towards him that he was only able to surround himself with a layer of Haki as his eyes darted back to the boy whose fist he met in midair. Killua's left hand was coming up from the boy's waist towards Sozin's chest, and Kil slammed his open palm straight into the center of Sozin's muscular torso.

"Ahhh!" Sozin yelled out in pain as he was electrocuted, and he pushed off the punch to increase his distance from the boy who dropped to the ground below him. The Fire Lord's mouth twisted into a furious snarl as he glared down at the child, but Killua glared right back with as much ferocity in his eyes and more. A flare ripped off of the fusion reaction and whipped up towards Sozin who stood there and allowed the sun's energy to enter his body, making bright white light expel from every hole on his body. He opened his mouth and roared while his mouth worked like a powerful beam of light shining down at Killua. His eyes glowed bright white too, but when the light expelled from them and shot towards Kil, the kid felt that something was different and he shot backwards fifty feet in an instant. His eyes focused on the floor where he was just standing, and he saw two holes burnt straight through the carpet that until then had taken the heat just fine. _"My flames burn hotter,"_ _he wasn't bluffing. I won't get away with light burns next time I make a wrong move. If I misstep again, it's lights out._

The pressure was on. Both fighters were done playing around, stepping it up to the next level of their fight. There was no turning back.

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed! Another giant chapter, and there're still three more of them left before the end of the chapter. Some other allies in Pyraxas have shown themselves, the manager of the Big Belly Burger gets in a battle outside of time with Mephisto, Kirito takes on Thymilph, Xigbar is after Kairi but Juvia gets enraged and is now the one hunting him, all the Straw Hats get in battles around the city, and Killua faces off alone against the Fire Lord! A lot happening all over the city, what's going to happen next?! If anyone hasn't seen Spider Man 2 (2004), it's a pretty good movie with a cool concept around Doc Ock and the fusion reaction he tries to create, which I thought would work really well with the Fire Lord and making him into a much more serious villain for our heroes. Let me know what you think of the chapter and predictions for the next ones in a review below!**

 **Call of Duty (COD) Modern Warfare 2 (MW2): Dunn, Ramirez, Foley**

 **Avatar the Last Airbender: Lu Ten, Iroh, Azulon, Sozin, Sozin's Comet, Azula**

 **One Piece: Yonji, Kansho, Komei, Sanji, Nami, Robin, Luffy, Usopp, Franky**

 **The King's Avatar: Ye Qiu**

 **X-Men: Zero, Phoenix**

 **Gurren Lagann: Thymilph, Byakou, Ganmen, Spiral King**

 **DBZ: Mercenary Tao**

 **Spider Man 2: Doc Ock, tritium**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Yunju, Killua, Meruem, Zeno Zoldyck**

 **Pokemon: pokeballs**

 **World of Warcraft: night elf, Pandaren, troll, etc. (those slaves stuck in Yunju's pokeballs)**

 **Red vs Blue: Zachary Miller**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Xigbar, Kairi, Riku, Saix, Sora**

 **DC Comics: Ra's al Ghul**

 **SAO: Kirito**

 **Fairy Tail: Natsu, Gray, Juvia**

 **Devil as a Part Timer: Sadao Maou (Satan Jacob)**

 **South Park: Damien**

 **Blue Exorcist: Mephisto Pheles (Samael), Astaroth, Rin, Satan**

Guest chapter 63 . Aug 31

great chapter, the 2 groups are going to be together again yay, I also wonder what azula's crazy plan guess I will wait to see, and when I heared one of the groups say they both had the some strange nightmares I was thinking freddy Krueger but it was astaroth and the impure king, besides I didn't they can do that, I never watch blue exorcist, but still it was a good chapter, I hope they can survive, and rin showed up what a surprise for them.

 **Thanks! Kirito shocks Luffy and Franky by his arrival in the Royal Palace courtyard, and Natsu is stunned as well to see Franky there when he arrives. Many of the characters still don't know their other comrades have entered the city though, so more of that next time! We see Azula again this time for a moment, where she shows off again how ruthless and crazy she is. Freddy Krueger would have been cool to add and maybe I will later on, as for Astaroth being able to give people nightmares, we haven't really seen him much in the Blue Exorcist manga or in the anime, but being one of the most powerful demons I've gotta make him a force to be reckoned with. We'll see more of that fight next time, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!**

Darugus chapter 63 . Sep 2

Nice chapter  
Looks like the fight has started with rin and the demon king of rot as well as the impure king this may result in his cover being blown as son of satan  
Also looks like you added ground that resent filler marine he was pretty weak so its no surprise we was taken out with that ease  
And now both groups are trying to get to the fire lord who seems to have significantly gotten stringer since he reached nexus  
Looking forward to the next chapter

 **Thanks! Rin and Astaroth get at it, though they both have some help in their battle. Originally I planned on giving Grount more face-time in a fight like the filler one where Luffy crushes him and shows him he could get stronger... but then I figured it could just as easily be shown how quick it took to take him down by having another character mention it. Everyone's converging on the Fire Lord, and though he has his first challenger, we'll see how long it is before another shows up to join the fray! Glad you liked it and hope you enjoyed the latest chapter! Thanks again to everyone who reviewed, faved, followed, or just reads this story! 'Till next time!**


	65. Nexus HWR 10-7 Juvia

**A/N Hey guys I'm back! Sorry it took so long, I've been a little preoccupied with school and setting up study abroad for next semester (I'm going to Tokyo!) Anyway, I did not realize it until right now as I am starting to edit, but this is the longest chapter of Nexus or Nexus Heroes Will Rise... by 10,000 words. This chapter is over 40,000 words long, so I hope it makes up for the long wait! Hope you enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I still do not own any of the media you recognize characters or settings from in this story. None of the movies, anime, tv shows, manga, comics, or books where I got these characters from belong to me. Just clarifying.**

* * *

 **Nexus HWR 10.7 Juvia:**

 **Royal Palace Second Floor, Pyraxas**

On the second floor of the most magnificent building in all of Pyraxas, two guards stood in front of a set of doors that looked much more intricate in design than any others on the floor, and perhaps any others in the entire Palace. The two were wearing scary white masks over their faces with two black holes at the top, and three dark slits on the bottom near where their mouths would be. Around the white of their masks was a hard red exterior that spiked out to the sides and up above their heads making them have the appearances of demons with large horns. Even the rest of their armor was a much darker red than most soldiers of the Fire Nation, giving them a deadly feel just like the twin hilts of the curved blades they had sticking out over their shoulders, and the submachine guns on their waists.

Both of the guards had their hands on their machine guns, and one of them pulled the gun on his right side out as another crash shook the building. "I think we should go check it out," the man spoke, his voice deep and muffled by the mask.

"Our orders have not changed," the other soldier began, her voice higher pitched, though because of their identical armor it would be impossible to tell she was a woman if not for it. "We are never to leave this post, unless directly ordered to do so."

"Heh," the deeper voice chuckled, and he lowered his submachine gun back down a little. "Sounds good to me," he muttered. "If they're able to make it this far, I would rather let one of the Lords deal with them."

 **Clank** The two guards turned their heads together and looked down the hallway to their left. The woman leaned forward as she was on the right of the male guard and had to peer around him to see what made that noise. The two of them stared at a metal grate lying on the floor only twenty feet away from them, and their gazes then lifted to the ceiling above where the grate lay. "Huh," the male guard began, a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his face at the sight. "Must have, fallen," he muttered.

The woman behind him was not as convinced and she took a step towards him to get a better look at his side of the hall. **Thud** The ground beneath her vibrated and she heard the sound of feet hitting the floor behind her. The noise was not loud, and the man in front of her was still looking towards the grate and the open hole on the vent in the ceiling, so he did not witness it as his fellow guard started to turn, only to get a hand wrapped around her face. The female guard tried pulling a weapon, but as she breathed in through the holes on her mask, she suddenly felt very drowsy and her eyes closed on their own.

 **Clank!** The sound of the woman's submachine gun hitting the floor made the man in front of her spin around. His eyes opened wide behind the mask at the sight of a woman clad in all black leather pressed tight to her body staring straight at him through a black mask that had pointy ears on top like those of a cat. She dropped the woman who fell limp in her arms, then stepped towards the man and did a cartwheel towards him while he rose his weapon, already firing before he had even aimed correctly. Bullets flew, but the cat-like woman lifted up in her cartwheel and her feet came down on top of the barrel the guard was raising. He reached his free hand up over his shoulder and grabbed a hilt, drawing and slashing his sword over his other arm quickly to try and cut the strange woman.

Selina Kyle was not expecting the guard's reactions to be so fast, but she tapped her right foot down to push his gun arm away, then kicked up her left into his chin before his slashing arm came around. The curved blade in mid-swipe flew from his grasp and imbedded in the wall right next to the door on the right, satisfying the woman who landed on the ground between his legs. "It would have been a shame to carve into such a beautiful design," she mentioned while looking at the door next to the blade, wondering how she could take it off its hinges. "I believe it could go for a great price on the market," she darted her eyes back down as the man was reaching to his side for his other gun, and he stopped and reached that hand up as if telling her to 'wait!' because she brought back a foot, then slammed it forward. The legs she was standing between arched up as the man stopped shouting 'wait,' and could only make out a high-pitched yelp at the pain he felt jolt through his entire body. Then, his legs dropped down and his head fell limply to the side.

The thief looked back and forth between the two guards, then let out a deep breath before turning back to the doors. "Now, let's see my prize," she stepped forward and pushed her hands into the doors. The entrance creaked as the large wooden doors opened, and Selina was careful as she pushed them not to put her hands on the most intricately painted parts that she did not want to smudge the most. _You can barely call these doors, they're art in… oh my God._ The woman in all black shiny leather stared forward with a dropped jaw, and her mouth curled up every second she stared inside the treasure room in front of her. _Forget the doors. I've struck gold._

She meant what she thought in a very literal term, and she ran inside looking around her at piles of gold bricks and coins lining the walls. There were huge stones of various colors, shiny gems on top of golden pedestals, and even more valuable things than she could count. Selina stopped in the center of the room and did a full spin to take it all in. Then, the woman reached down and pulled out a black sack she had tied around her waist. "Jackpot."

The entire Royal Palace shook while Selina Kyle packed as many treasures as she could into her sack. She lifted her gaze to the ceiling at one point as she heard a rumble come from right above her. _Already on the third floor? What the heck is going on in this city right now? Whatever it is, they're giving me exactly what I need._ A small crack formed on the ceiling and little chips of it broke off and fell around her. She reached down and grabbed another ruby from a pile of shiny gems in front of her. _Just a few more and I'll-_ She tensed up. "Another cat burglar huh?" A voice asked.

Selina spun around and reached behind her back, pulling out and drawing a silenced pistol from her waistband. She did not want to resort to using it, but she would at least be a lot more threatening holding one up than not doing so. "Who are you?" She snapped.

"Whoa whoa," the woman in the doorway began, holding up her hands defensively with a small grin on her face. She walked in confidently, the woman with long orange hair, and spoke as she gazed around with greedy eyes, "There's enough gold to go around." Her eyes suddenly looked even more than greedy, turning blue and shiny as she spotted something on the opposite side of the room as her. Nami sprinted towards the diamond she saw that looked larger than all of the gems around it, almost as if it were the crown jewel of the room. "So," she began, while bending down in front of the diamond and examining it from all sides to try and appraise it herself. The other woman had not lowered her weapon yet, but Nami started small talk by asking, "What are your plans for escaping the city, um…?"

"You can call me Catwoman," Selina Kyle said, hearing the hesitation at the end of Nami's question like the younger woman was looking for her name. She would not be giving that away so easily, but an alias was just as good to Nami who at least had something to call her by now. "As for how I'm getting out," she continued, and smirked devilishly, "I have a way, but you'll be swarmed by guards before you even escape the palace."

"Who's escaping?" Nami questioned, while standing back up fully and lifting the diamond in front of her face as she did. She turned around and smirked at the confused woman behind her, "We're the ones attacking." Nami chuckled at the shocked, then nervous reactions the other thief had, before she started walking back towards the doorway herself. Nami had to swing her bag around her front to shove the giant diamond into, as there was not enough space in one of her pockets for it. _This one is even more expensive-looking than the one I bought with my earnings at the CA$INO._ As she put her bag back on her back, she added for the woman she knew was still watching her, "You might want to hurry up in here, Catwoman. There's no telling for how much longer this building is going to stay standing."

Nami turned her head sideways and looked back into the woman's eyes, "And my name is Cat Burglar Nami, tell your friends there's a new thief in town." Nami smirked, and then Selina's eyes doubled in size as the woman in front of her started to fade away. Catwoman had to rub her eyes to check if she was seeing things, but when she lowered them from her face, the thief in front of her was gone.

* * *

 **Royal Palace Courtyard, Pyraxas**

Kairi ran around the eastern side of the Royal Palace and stopped when she got a good view of the courtyard. After she had pushed open the gates that Xigbar and Juvia had partially knocked open in their fight, (that she had found a lot harder to push open on her own), she had planned on going straight inside after her comrade. However, after entering she felt a strange feeling in her chest and it made her spin towards the walls curving around her to the south. All the smoke rising from the Palace was coming from that direction, and she knew that at least one of her friends was there fighting. She had turned back to the eastern entrance to the Palace reluctantly, because the expression on Juvia's face as she stormed off was one she wanted to get rid of as soon as possible, but turned away again when the feeling in her heart got even stronger.

She ran around the side of the Palace and out into the courtyard, where she was greeted with a terrible sight. Kairi stared forward in shock as she saw her black haired ninja friend get slammed by a fist of white steel so large that even though the boy tried blocking with both of his swords, the Ganmen's fist pushed through his defenses and sent him flying back through the courtyard and into a wall. Kirito desperately tried slowing himself before he hit the wall, but he was in so much pain from blocking the punch alone that he could not focus enough on his already depleted ki, and he slammed into the stone wall hard enough that a loud crack sounded from his spine.

His eyes cracked open as he was imbedded in the wall, and he stared towards the dozen guards and four Ganmen charging his way. _God damn it. What am I doing here? Why am I, fighting all of them alone?_ He let out a low growl as he tried and succeeded at ripping his right arm from where it was lodged in the wall. He even managed to keep his hand gripped around the hilt of his black sword, though there was little he could do from that position. _Natsu, and Luffy, going ahead to fight the Fire Lord, that made sense. But Nami,_ he grit his teeth and ripped his other arm out of the wall, _she snuck right past. She's not going to fight Sozin. I thought she might help, at least a little, but why would I think something like that?_ His eyes narrowed and he glared furiously towards the Byakou charging past the rest of the men to get a finishing blow on him. _I'm all on my own out here._

"Riku! Usopp!" Kairi shouted. Kirito's eyes darted from Thymilph's personal Ganmen to his right, and he saw Kairi hopping over a hedge on the side of the east garden far from him. She was looking his direction, only a little to his right, closer to the southern gate of the Palace. "Save Kirito!" Kairi shouted, and though Kirito's mind was still boggled from that hard slam into the wall, he managed to make out what she yelled.

Usopp and Riku were jogging through the open gates to the Palace, and Riku had just sarcastically asked who Usopp thought ripped the gates off their hinges, but the two of them skid to short stops at the sound of that shout. They spun to the east side of the Palace and their jaws dropped, but Kairi had no time to be surprised at the sight of friends she had not seen for over a week. The panicked expression on her face and what she shouted echoed in the two shocked men's minds, and they spun to all the enemies charging to a spot on the wall on their left, and then looked at that spot in the wall where they saw Kirito pushing his hands back against it trying to pry the rest of his body from a crater.

Thymilph darted his gaze to the side and saw the enemies in the southern entrance. _Finish this one first, then focus on the others!_ He brought back a giant metal fist while a tired Kirito was still trying to pull himself from the wall.

Usopp reached into his bag to pull out a Pop Green to use, but he was low on ammo after he and Riku had to fend off a pack of Sun Marines on their way to the Palace. Nami had left the two behind to "go help Luffy" as she claimed, though her eyes were in the shapes of dollar signs ever since she hit a fire-bending officer with a lightning bolt and discovered where the Fire Nation kept their treasury. Usopp found ammo that he could use, but he was too late to arm his slingshot and fire at the Ganmen about to slam a fist into his friend.

 _I can't lock on to him from this far!_ Kairi thought in fear, waving her Keyblade to no avail as the Cure magic would not reach Kirito from that distance.

Only one of them would make it in time, and he knew it. Riku's hands covered in a black aura so thick that his skin became impossible to see beneath them. It looked like black flames erupted in his palms, and he rose them up while yelling out, "RISE!"

Usopp's eyes darted to his left at the taller teen next to him, then his eyes looked back towards Kirito, and he dropped the Pop Green he was trying to load into his Black Kabuto. Kirito's hands stopped pushing against the wall behind him, and Thymilph skid to as short a stop as he could, before stumbling backwards with his Ganmen. The floor of the courtyard in between Kirito and Thymilph descended into darkness in an instant, and less than a second later, an hand ten meters wide shot out of the center of that darkness and reached for the sky. The long black arm sticking off of the hand continued to rise up, then bent at an elbow ten meters down from the hand, making the hand push down on the blackened floor and push more of the monster up. The head of the Darkside rose next along with its other hand that it used to push its body up faster. The waving black tentacles of hair and creepy yellow eyes of the Darkside scared half of the remaining dozen elite guards in between Thymilph's Ganmen squad to flee for the Palace.

Kirito stared forward in silence as the back of the monster rose up in front of him, and his eyes just slowly followed the back of the beast's head until it finally stopped at a height half of that of Thymilph's Byakou, which still made it five meters taller than the other three giant Ganmen robots in the courtyard, and much more terrifying than any of them. Thymilph glared through the red eyes of his Ganmen at the floor around the beast, and he watched as small black monsters he recognized crawled out of the ground. _Heartless,_ he thought at the sight of the small dog-like Shadows. His gaze shifted to the tall teenage boy who lowered his arms and let out a breath of relief as his comrade was not killed. _Who is this boy to summon such creatures?_

"Riku," Usopp growled, glaring next to him at the teen who turned in surprise at the sound of Usopp's voice.

"What?" Riku snapped. "It was that, or let him hit Kirito. That punch could have killed him," Riku glared back into Usopp's eyes, but the other man was not backing down and continued to glare back.

"Cure!" Kairi yelled, and the two turned their heads to see the auburn-haired girl running past them and swinging her Keyblade in front of her. This time as she swung it, a green flash emitted from the tip of the silver shaft, and Kirito's body covered with that green light. Riku shook his head around then rose his right hand and formed a Keyblade in it as well, before waving it and casting his own Cure magic on Kirito who fully ripped himself from the wall and dropped down to be with the other three.

Usopp shook off his anger at watching Riku use so much of the darkness, and he ran towards Kairi and Kirito. "What are you guys doing here?" He exclaimed at them. "I thought you were going south to join the Resistance?!"

"We did," Kairi said, turning to Usopp once she saw that Kirito's burns and other external injuries had mostly faded. "But they sent us here hoping that Natsu could beat the Fire Lord." Her smile as she said it lowered a little and she continued, "And also, we found out that Gray's friends were mostly captured, and sent to the Capital much farther north. So after we're finished here, we'll be heading north again." This time she smiled more genuinely and her face brightened as she mentioned it.

"In that case," Riku said, turning to his childhood friend with a smile of his own that matched hers. "Our two groups can travel together again."

"KEYBEARERS!" A voice boomed, and all four humans spun to the thirty meter tall Ganmen facing off against Riku's summoned Darkside. They were not directly behind the Darkside, so they were able to look at the Byakou's face and see its red eyes narrow almost like the robot itself was glaring at them, and from the amount of rage they heard in that voice that just shouted at them, they would not be surprised if it did. "I knew you were coming, and I have been waiting for you!" Thymilph bellowed, and his men behind him started to feel more confident at how pissed off their commander sounded.

"Do you, know this guy?" Kirito muttered, turning his head to his right as he asked. Riku shrugged his shoulders, but then Kirito, Riku, and Usopp all turned to Kairi whose eyebrows narrowed in towards the center of her face.

Riku's eyes suddenly popped open wide, and he whispered in a quiet voice, "Usopp, you remember that town, where Ansem took us?" Usopp nodded his head, a dark expression on his face as he continued to glare towards Thymilph. "Sora mentioned the Ganmen when we first saw them in the sky," Riku continued, "he sounded like he had run into them before."

"A long, long time ago," Kairi said, continuing for her friend. "On the very first days of this world, the beastmen, and Sora, and I, we all got acquainted," Kairi explained. She did not sound too nostalgic about their meeting, and Thymilph even less so from the tone of his shouts.

"RAAA!" Thymilph roared, and he charged at the smaller black monster in front of him. The Darkside may have been half the Byakou's height, but the Heartless monster was not to be trifled with lightly. It brought back a huge black fist that it slammed forward right when Byakou did the same. The two fists collided and a shockwave rippled out through the courtyard, pushing wind into all the remaining guards and fighters still standing.

A yellow beam flew towards Usopp who scrambled backwards just in time to see it whiz in front of his eyes. He spun and glared between two of the Ganmen behind Byakou to see a guard wearing all black armor including a helmet over his head turn his rifle a little and fire again. The man was less fazed by everything going on around them than his comrades, even those inside the three giant robots on his sides who were still hesitating from the sight of the giant Heartless. Usopp rose up his slingshot and started running to the right to dodge the man's shots that he was seeing come at him seconds before they actually fired. He fired a Pop Green towards the man, but the soldier pointed his rifle at it and shot the green ball before it reached him, destroying the plant inside before it even popped out.

Thymilph roared again inside his Ganmen while he pushed against the Darkside, and Riku's eyes widened below as his monster's feet were lifted off the ground and it was thrown backwards into the wall where Kirito had ripped himself out of a minute before. The Darkside was not down yet though, and after it hit the wall, its chest opened up into a swirling pit of darkness with a deep purple core in the middle. All at once, dozens of black spheres with burning orange cores shot out of the monster's body and curved through the air before shooting back towards Thymilph. The beastman darted his eyes around inside his Ganmen and saw his sensors picking up the trajectories of every one of the attacks, and he smirked at the speeds at which they were moving. The bottom of Byakou's metal feet opened up and jets appeared around it, while wheels popped out below them giving the robot even greater mobility.

The Byakou dodged every single one of the Darkside's attacks, then lifted its right arm that had its wrist pop open and reveal another missile sliding into place. Kirito's eyes widened at the sight of the missile the same size as the ones he dodged in the sky and still got badly burnt by the explosions just from being in the vicinity of them. "Move!" He yelled at Riku and Kairi, and then ran straight forward towards the rest of the enemies, as the farther he got from the wall the Darkside was leaning against, the better. As Kirito ran forward, he slashed his swords in front of him and cut apart beams of light from his enemies who went wide-eyed as the slurred, slow motions of the boy they had cornered only a few minutes ago had sped up immensely thanks to the magic of his comrades.

Riku shot over Kirito's head and slammed his Keyblade into the face of a Ganmen who was approaching the dark haired teen with a sword pulled back behind it. The beastman pilot inside the robot was not expecting the speed at which the silver-haired Keybearer was going to move, and definitely did not expect the strength of the slash Riku hit him with. Riku hit the Ganmen once, then bashed the other way against it, before doing a seven-twenty spin in the air that sent flying slashes out despite being close enough that he hit the robot physically. Chunks of steel went flying out from the sparking robot that got lifted off the ground and pushed higher with every single slash of Riku's Keyblade.

"Stop him!" one of the other pilots of a Ganmen shouted, and he and the other remaining Ganmen below Riku pointed their rifle arms up. As they aimed up, storm clouds suddenly formed above them and the pilots dropped their jaws.

"Thunder!" Kairi shouted, holding her Keyblade up and making bolts of lightning drop down on either of the Ganmen aiming at Riku. Her thunder magic was not very strong, and it took so much out of her after curing Kirito that she had to drop her arms to her side and take a few deep breaths after, but considering she was fighting giant robots, the attacks did a lot of damage. The monsters inside surrounded by metal had all their fur stand on end before they were zapped, being forced to let go and pull back from their controls. Their Ganmen stumbled around without anyone holding onto their controls and bumped into each other, causing both of them to fall off of their feet and topple backwards.

Usopp had just gotten cornered by two of his enemies' beam rifles, but as he saw the next attack he coming from both sides, one of those beams faded from his Observational Haki's vision. He ran that direction the beam should have came from, while looking towards the man who should have shot it. The pirate sharpshooter winced at the sight of a robot on its back right where the guard who was firing at him was just standing. He did not hesitate for long though, unlike the second guard who turned towards his comrade in horror, going as far as lowering his weapon. Usopp took the guard's shock to his advantage and fired a Pop Green at the man's feet, surrounding him in vines that forced him to let go of his weapon altogether.

Riku finished his combo in the air while the two pilots of the Ganmen below were regaining control of their machines, and the two stared up with giant eyes at the sight of the third remaining member of their Ganmen squad falling to pieces above them. Thymilph glared backwards out the corners of his eyes at the sight of one of his Ganmen breaking apart, then snapped back forward with a furious snarl on his face. "Take this scum!" He yelled, and fired the missile from his arm at the giant black monster pulling a fist back again and stepping away from the wall.

A few of the guards saw Kairi and Kirito sprinting at them and rose their weapons, but the two ignored them as they sprinted straight towards the Palace. The guards were confused for a few seconds, until the explosion on the other side of the courtyard blew apart the entire gateway in the south along with a huge portion of the wall around it. They turned to run, but the blast force hit them first and threw them off their feet. Kirito saw the bright light behind him and he dove left to grab Kairi, but before he even touched her, a yellow bubble surrounded both of them and they shot their gazes up to see Riku holding his Keyblade high with a relieved look on his face.

 _Thanks,_ Kirito thought, though he did not say it out loud as he was already turning back around towards the enemy he felt behind him. Kirito faced the explosion and watched as Thymilph stepped out of it, unharmed inside his Byakou that still looked untouched after their entire battle. Behind him, he could hear fighting as Riku descended and started bashing the other two Ganmen with his Keyblades. Thymilph started charging the Keybearer attacking his squad's giant robots, but stopped as a figure flew straight up in the air between him and Riku.

Kirito slashed his swords in front of his body and then held them up in the dual-wielding stance he mastered inside virtual reality years ago. He held his thinner blue blade up near his shoulder-level and the other at his side by his waist. His eyes were dark as her glared into the red glass ones of the Byakou, wondering if he was glaring straight into Thymilph's eyes as well. "Guys," he said, shouting in a loud enough voice that Usopp, Kairi, and Riku could all hear him from where they were finishing off the other remaining enemies in the courtyard. Riku just sent a Thundaga into the remaining Ganmen that had them lying incapacitated on the floor, and he and the other two turned around to see Kirito floating in the path of Thymilph and them. "Thanks for the assist," Kirito continued, then a white veil surrounded his body, and a pitch black coating surrounded both of his swords, adding a purple tint to his body's white aura. "But I'm going to finish this on my own."

"You got it!" Usopp called out, already turning his back and running for the Royal Palace. Just one look at the giant thirty-meter-tall robot that came out of a massive explosion undamaged was enough to send the sniper running towards what could potentially be even more danger.

Kairi giggled at Usopp's fast retreat towards more enemies, then waved a hand towards Kirito that she hoped he could see through his peripheral vision. "Good luck," she called to him. As she turned, her eyes lingered on the giant white robot for a second, and her smile faded, the memory of a robot just like it appearing in her mind.

Riku glanced back and forth at the robots on the ground at his sides, and then an empty one off to the side of the courtyard. None of the three were out of commission, but he could feel the two pilots inside the ones he just defeated were unconscious, and there was no pilot for the third in the first place. He glanced back towards Kirito before flying off, _Should I leave some help here for him?_ After a second, he frowned and turned away. It was not the fact that Kirito seemed to want to fight alone that made him stop what he was thinking, it was the set of eyes he felt boring into him, and he looked towards the Palace doors to see a muscular young man glaring his direction like he knew what Riku was thinking.

The silver-haired teen acted like he did not see the glare and flew down to the girl running towards the entrance of the Palace. Riku landed at Kairi's side and ran with her up to Usopp who turned and led them inside. As they were running towards the doors though, Thymilph's voice roared from the courtyard, "Don't think I'll let you escape that easily!" None of them turned around, and they did not need to, as the Ganmen who charged straight at Kirito was not expecting the teenager to fly straight back at him.

All of the individual Kirito Shadow Clones who Thymilph had faced so far tried to use their speed and agility to fight him, and all of them failed. Kirito remembered what all the clones faced in their battles though; he already had experience fighting Thymilph several times. He flew straight towards the monstrous robot who could tear down the tallest and thickest walls in the city with its arsenal, and he slashed his right sword down for the face of the Ganmen. Thymilph brought up his left arm and slammed it into the bottom of Kirito's sword, and despite the Haki put into the weapon, the size of Thymilph's arm was too much and parried his sword away. Kirito spun after the strike was blocked and he brought his left hand's sword around in a three-sixty spin that caused a slash to fly off of his weapon. The slash went in a full circle around him, carving into the second floor walls of the Palace, shattering all the remaining windows of that story, creating a large slash on either of the Palace walls on his sides, and slicing through part of the white steel of the Byakou's body.

Thymilph saw a red light flash on his center console and received a visual of the damage on the monitor in front of his face. The cut was not deep, but the fact that Kirito _could_ cut him, made all the difference to both fighters. Thymilph rolled backwards, jets emerging on the front of his ankles that pushed him back at record speeds for the Ganmen. Kirito's eyes darted down and he watched as panels all over Thymilph's legs opened up, jets appearing out of them on all sides. Bright orange light shone from inside each of the small jets that appeared, and then flames shot out of the ones behind his legs, sending the Ganmen flying at the teenager even faster than it rolled back.

Kirito dodged to the right, but jets came out of the right side of Thymilph's legs as he did, and sent the incoming Byakou straight into Kirito's path. Thymilph rose an arm and his Byakou did the same, then both slammed that arm down and Kirito was nailed in the left side by a huge white fist. He had brought up one of his Haki-covered swords to block with, but once again the punch was too much to handle and he was slammed into the floor of the courtyard, tearing through it like it was dirt instead of stone all the way to the eastern edge near some flaming bushes. Kirito winced but stood up as fast as he could, and he growled as he was already panting after that short exchange.

 _As I thought, Kairi and Riku can heal me as much as they want, but fatigue is much harder to cure. It's mental as much as physical._ The teenager stood up straight and got back into his swordsman's stance. As he stared a hundred meters away though at the giant robot about to charge him, and the small, shallow cut in its center, he grimaced and ground his teeth in resignation. Thymilph was about to charge forward, but Kirito's hands unclenched and the beastman watched as the weapons fell from the boy's hands, clattering on the ground and falling still.

"You may have given the Keybearers time to escape me, for now," Thymilph began, the speakers of his Byakou echoing around the courtyard. Behind him there were flames all around the rubble of the wall and gateway he had knocked down, the gardens on his sides were engulfed in even more because there was a lot more to catch on fire inside them, and the marble floor between the two was upturned or cracked at every step. The engines on the back of the Byakou's legs started glowing brighter and brighter red as energy built up inside them, getting ready to be released all at once. "But you will perish for that!" Thymilph screamed, and he brought back his right fist at the same moment that his legs expelled all the flames to send him flying towards Kirito at a hundred meters per second, so that in a single second, he was bringing his fist down towards the wide-eyed ninja staring back at him. "DIE!" Thymilph screamed, and then the entire courtyard around his fist broke upwards as his fist hit the floor.

The foundation of the Royal Palace itself was in jeopardy, and many of the ceilings and floors all over the Palace cracked to the dismay of those inside. Out in the courtyard, chunks of stone that weighed up to a ton were lifting in the air like they weighed nothing, before dropping back to the ground with thunderous crashes. "Haa, haa, ahhh," Thymilph took some deep breaths with a huge grin on his face. "I, a beastman, was the one to kill, the man who killed Ra's al Ghul." The smug look on his face could not get any cockier. **Beep-beep-BEEP-BEEP…** Thymilph's smug look wiped from his face as his sensors blared at him, and his monitor showed something still floating behind him even after the rest of the debris fell.

Thymilph's eyes darted to the ground below his Ganmen's fist, and as he started to lift it up, he saw no human body beneath it, only more shattered stones. He started to turn the Byakou around, while the beeping got even louder, and the swordless ninja behind him flew forwards with his right fist pulled back behind him. "I can crack it," Kirito shouted, while the front of the Byakou was about to be right in front of him again. He was lined up perfectly with the slash he made in it before, "I can crack anything, and everything," he yelled, bringing his fist forward towards the crack that told him exactly how much power he was going to need to put into this blow. "EVEN YOU!" Kirito roared, and the red eyes of the Byakou widened in that second, right before Kirito's fist slammed into the slash he carved with his black sword, and a vertical crack split that slash down the middle. The vertical cut stopped right at the top and bottom of the slash, for a moment, then Kirito screamed, "RRAAAA!" And he pushed his fist even harder than he thought he needed to, putting in even the energy he was going to try and spare, putting in everything he had. The vertical cut escaped from the shallow slash and continued up and down the Byakou, breaking right through the monitor in front of Thymilph's face as the beastman roared behind it.

"NO!" Thymilph screamed, pressing buttons and pulling the arms of his Ganmen as hard as he could in to try and smack the teenager away. His arms responded at first, but before they hit Kirito they went limp, and then the entire cockpit of Thymilph's Byakou flashed so bright red that his fur and armor even looked that color. His monitor cut off and the blank screen showed only his own reflection for a second, a crack straight through it, but the fear still visibly spread across his face.

 _ **BOOOOOOM!**_ The Byakou started to split down the middle, before erupting in an explosion that rivaled some of its previous attacks' explosions. Kirito flew away from the explosion, keeping a small white veil around him to protect himself from the blast he knew was coming when he started his attack. He had hoped that Thymilph had already used all of his largest rockets, but even if that was so, there seemed to be enough smaller ones remaining inside it that caused an explosion powerful enough to slam Kirito painfully into the ground even with his aura. His veil faded once he hit the floor, but he only bounced once before flipping himself and landing on his feet. He still had a lot of momentum even after landing though, so he stumbled backwards and finally toppled down on his butt when he hit a slanted piece of marble sticking out of the floor. It made for a good seat actually, and he sat on it staring forward at the explosion near the middle of the courtyard, only a little closer to the Palace than the collapsed walls behind Kirito.

"Ahh, haaa, ahhh, haa," Kirito wheezed as he could breathe after using all that energy. _Naruto said that if I use all my chakra I can die, and Goku told me never to use up every piece of my strength, because there's no telling when an enemy will come back, but sometimes I feel like I drain every last bit I have._ He pushed his right hand down on the stone next to him, a stone similar to the one he used for his Transformation Jutsu to trick Thymilph into attacking while he hid beneath the ground. Kirito stood up and started walking towards the flaming debris in the middle of the courtyard that was still surrounded in smoke, but no longer had a giant explosion around it. He walked to the right to avoid the heat from the rubble, and just in case there was a missile that had not yet exploded stuck inside the broken Ganmen that could erupt out of its casing at any moment.

He got around the broken, burning rubble, and stared up at the Royal Palace in front of him. Even with the broken windows, slashes, and scorch marks, the Palace still looked like quite a magnificent building. Kirito thought about the bodies he saw in the Upper Residential Area, the small slave boy he saw hanging for attempting to run away. The elegance of this Palace made him sick as he thought about the way those corpses looked, and he stomped towards it ready to tear the place down. He took a single stomp- **thud.** The sound of a foot hitting the ground made Kirito freeze in place. It was loud, and the ground beneath his feet vibrated after it, but he did not stomp down _that_ hard. **Thud!** Kirito's head started to turn, sweat appearing on both sides and dripping down while he did.

"You," a deep voice snarled, in a raspy, hateful tone. Kirito finished turning his head, then spun the rest of his body after seeing the silhouette in the smoke. The figure stood just outside of the rubble of the Byakou, standing around four times the size of the teenager, with smoke coming off of his body and adding to the shroud around him. There was also the shadow of something very large and long in the right hand of the shadow, and as the beast stomped forward again, Kirito heard dragging of steel across the broken stone of the courtyard. He heard the stone crunching under the weight of the object, before the shadow that was getting clearer by the second rose it up with one hand, and smacked it down on his other so hard that the smoke around him cleared.

The smoke dispersed, and Kirito stared at the huge gorilla with scorched blue fur and blackened armor, holding a massive war hammer in his hands that left a trail of crushed rock in the wake of where it was dragged. "I will not," Thymilph started in a deep snarl. "Let you step one foot, in the Palace." Thymilph snapped his head up and his eyes were bloodshot as he glared into Kirito's eyes. He had scorched fur all over his face and Kirito wondered if the beastman's eyes were open when the explosion went off. "This, is where, you die," Thymilph started charging forward, not looking slowed at all by the weight of his hammer.

Kirito reached up for a sword over his back, as he still had them unlike the transformation who dropped them before getting slammed into pebbles. He stopped though when he was close to grabbing it, as he knew if he tried to parry a weapon like that hammer, which looked to weigh close to a ton, his guard and all the bones in his arms would break. Thymilph swung his hammer down, and Kirito hopped backwards to evade its reach. He made it only a few feet past the edge of the weapon, but was not expecting the amount of debris to fly at him when Thymilph's hammer hit the marble chunk he had been sitting on. A gash ripped through Kirito's left side, tearing his black shirt and making blood splash out, while another less-sharp rock slammed him straight in the face and made him flip backwards.

The teenager fell on his back, botching his landing because of the rubble that hit him in the face. He was disoriented, but his Haki was still working and he could see even with his eyes closed that Thymilph was rising over him. His eyes snapped open and he saw the gorilla falling from the air, a high height for such a monster to jump. Kirito slammed his hands together in a hand sign and dropped into the floor beneath him, and dropped as far as he could as fast as he could, before hearing the ground above him get smashed to smithereens by Thymilph's hammer. Kirito's face had an expression of panic on it as he felt the hammer break through the rocks right above him, and then he oofed in pain as the weapon slammed into his chest. The hammer was at the end of its strike, so there was not much power in it, but it weighed enough that even that much was enough to crush Kirito's lungs. He gasped for breath, but the hammer was too heavy and he had to bring his hands in over the top of his body and push the weapon up as hard as he could.

Thymilph felt the pressure against his hammer and he smirked in a ravenous way, knowing that he had gotten the boy. "THIS IS WHERE YOU DIE!" Thymilph put both hands on the back of his hammer's shaft, then pushed straight down twice as hard.

Kirito had just lifted the hammer off him a bit, but the doubled pressure was making his arms creak and scream out in pain. He would have screamed, but his head was surrounded by marble that he had been sinking through. He could not focus on a jutsu and keep pushing Thymilph away at the same time, so he could not escape any farther into the floor. _He's crushing me! I'm running out of air, and I can't push him away! I can't!_ Kirito's eyes were bloodshot and his face was turning red. All of the muscles in his arms were straining, and veins were popping all over his skin. His heart rate was through the roof, and he could hear its thunderous thumping in his head. He was afraid. His thoughts blurred like his vision. The pressure he could put against the hammer was diminishing, and he was out of breath. He was afraid. He was going to die. He was already beneath the ground, already in his grave.

The boy opened his mouth and he screamed. It was a shout of terror and agony, and so loud that the beastman above the ground smirked ear to ear. The smirk on Thymilph's face disappeared and his eyes darted to either side as giant cracks ripped through the already destroyed courtyard. There were four cracks making an X with the point directly beneath Thymilph, stretching all the way to the sides of the courtyard and then cutting through the flaming gardens next to it. Those four cracks suddenly doubled to eight, then sixteen, and then he looked down as he heard the scream below get higher pitched, and louder, and then the entire courtyard shattered. Every single chunk of rubble or large boulder of marble still over a hundred pounds on the surface broke into pieces, and Thymilph fell backwards as that included the piece he was standing on to give him a sturdy enough balance to press his hammer into Kirito.

As the beastman fell backwards with his hammer falling with him, a figure leapt out of the ground in front of him with eyes of pure red, blood trails from the corners of his lips to his chin, and veins all over his arm muscles showing since the sleeves of his shirt were ripped right off. Kirito's face no longer looked human. He was lost in rage. His cognizant mind had been overwhelmed by survival instincts. A second ago he was a cornered animal about to die, and a cornered animal is a dangerous thing. Thymilph was more animal than man himself, so he recognized the look in Kirito's eyes well. He had pushed the boy into a corner, and it lashed out at him with everything it had. He rose up his hammer and blocked the right fist Kirito swung at him, and the boy screamed out again in pain as his knuckles cracked on the steel. "AAHHH!" Kirito yelled, and the air in front of him reverberated and slammed into Thymilph.

The shout knocked Thymilph stumbling backwards, as Kirito landed on the shattered floor and started running over all the small rocks he made. He punched his left fist forward, then ducked down as Thymilph swung his hammer around in front of him, a defensive swing to keep Kirito away from him. The boy's duck allowed the hammer to swing inches over the top of his head, any lower and it would have smashed through his skull. Kirito's reflexes were better than anyone Thymilph had ever met before though, and at the moment they were heightened to their peak. His body was reacting to every movement of Thymilph's eyes, every twitch of his arms or legs, every tiny thing he might need to worry about.

Kirito stuck his right leg out while the hammer swung over him and he used it to swipe Thymilph's legs out from under him. The blue-furred gorilla beastman winced in pain as Kirito slammed a leg into his, but he did not get lifted off the ground by the weak kick. He finished swinging his hammer and brought it behind him, then his eyes opened wide as he saw the boy already dodging to the right, way before he had even started swinging the hammer towards him. He started shifting the direction he was swinging, but Kirito dodged the opposite direction now, and Thymilph's bottom lip lowered as the boy's initial dodge was only to make him swing in such a manner. He had left his entire right side open, and Kirito drew the black sword from his back as he got around that side.

The boy slashed his sword, and he cut through Thymilph's fur and the flesh behind it. The cut was deep, but Thymilph's large body protected the vital organs Kirito was trying to connect with. The fatty flesh he cut was too thick, and his cut actually stopped before he managed to slash all the way through the other side. He tried tugging his sword out while Thymilph brought his hammer back around, but his eyes widened and he brought his head back, too slow to avoid Thymilph's elbow. He had only seen it coming at the last second when Thymilph let go of his hammer, allowing his arm to move much faster than it previously was and whip straight into him at full force.

Kirito was thrown from his sword, his hands ripped from its hilt, and he bounced over and over before shoving his hands into the rocks beneath him and dragging himself to a stop before he flew into a flaming garden. He dug his hands down farther and wrapped them around a rock each, while Thymilph picked back up his hammer and started charging his way again. Kirito bent his knees and lifted up his heels, putting all his weight on the balls of his feet. He pounced, shooting towards Thymilph in a serpentine path, moving left, right, left again. Thymilph did not know where Kirito was going to attack from, so he put the hammer in only his right hand and whipped a wide arc in front of his body with it. Kirito had to leap up to get over the swing, and Thymilph slammed his other fist forward in the path the teen was going, his arms thrown behind him. Kirito tried to fly backwards, but the attempt failed, so instead he tried focusing Haki in his stomach where he was about to be hit, which worked a little better. He prepared for the punch, and winced in pain as it hit him, but then bent over Thymilph's arm and threw his arms that were behind him forward. He already knew he would be able to focus Haki on his stomach, because he had done the same thing to the rocks he grabbed from the courtyard's debris.

Thymilph gasped as a rock hit him in the forehead, then roared, "RAA!" The second rock hit him in the side of the neck, but his fatty neck protected him more than the thick skull of his forehead. His fur there was already burnt thin, so Kirito was able to see the blood pouring out of the gash he made with the rock. Kirito dropped his arms down to Thymilph's wrist of the fist still slammed into his stomach, and he flipped the rest of his body up with an agonizing push. He flipped over Thymilph's head and slammed a fist down into the same spot he hit with the rock, and Thymilph roared again, but slammed his other fist upwards as he did. Kirito knew he could not fly, but this time he did not manage to even cover himself in Haki, and the fist slammed into his back and knocked him away from Thymilph and into the floor again. He rolled head over heels three times before extending his legs during a roll and bouncing up to his feet. He spun around and glared at the beastman whose punch was nowhere near as strong as the Byakou's, but at the strength Kirito was at now, it hurt twice as much. His back ached, his lungs felt like someone was squeezing them, making him wheeze as he faced Thymilph, but the battle damage was clear on his enemy too.

The two looked straight into each other's bloodshot eyes. They knew the damage caused to the person in front of them was thanks to their own actions. They stood there staring at one another, in a fight of life or death, and neither of them said a word, but they knew the next clash was the final one. Kirito's breathing slowed, and Thymilph put both hands on his war hammer. Kirito rose his right fist to his side, his eyes closed, and he heard the footsteps of his opponent charging towards him. Thymilph was closing the gap, swinging his hammer around and around, picking up speed with every swing. Kirito took a deep breath, the fist on his right side opened, and he curled his fingers up around his palm. Kirito's eyes snapped open, and blue light started swirling around over his palm, getting brighter and more defined every second. Thymilph was five meters from him, and he made one more warm-up swing that was the widest of them all, going far back behind him this time so that he would have the biggest wind-up for the most powerful finishing strike. As the hammer finished moving in front of him though, Kirito sprinted forward. Thymilph's hammer kept going around behind him, but Kirito reached him before he could bring it around again. His entire torso was exposed, and the beastman's eyes opened huge as Kirito shoved his right hand forward, yelling at the top of his lungs as he did, "RASENGAN!"

The swirling ball of blue light connected with Thymilph's armored chestplate. It shattered. His Rasengan slammed into Thymilph's chest and the beastman started roaring, his voice full of agony. Kirito slammed his right foot forward and pushed upwards with all his might. Thymilph's feet lifted off the ground, and the gorilla beastman roaring in pain started spinning as he flew off of Kirito's hand. He spun around and around through the air, his screaming stopped, and he flew so fast away from the boy in the courtyard that he rose right over the top of the Palace and kept going. Kirito kept following through with the arm he made the Rasengan with, while his legs came out from under him, and his mind started to blank. He put his hands out in front of him, and just avoided slamming face-first into the ground.

Kirito only held himself up for a second, before collapsing onto his face and chest. His elbows bent fully at his sides, and he coughed into the floor once. He tried taking a deep breath, but just wound up coughing a dozen more times. _I'm so exhausted,_ he thought, as he was needing to force his eyelids to stay open. His arms fell limp at his sides and he turned his head sideways, looking towards one side of the courtyard and the flames rising from the garden there. He stared at them, flickering, flaring, blazing, an inferno enveloping everything around and turning it into ash. Kirito kept panting while staring at those flames, and his heart rate was not slowing down. _I've got nothing. No strength left at all._

Kirito's eyes started closing once again. Then, Kirito saw something. In his mind, he saw Metropolis. He saw the moment he was at his absolute weakest moment. Kirito saw himself lying on the floor, having just given all of his remaining energy to Goku to fight Luthor with. Around him were all the other fighters, people he had fought alongside, and who had all given Goku their full powers as well. Ben was at his side, chuckling as Goku landed near them after defeating Luthor. He had said that he always thought Goku could do it, and then Luthor dropped down in front of them, alive, breathing, and all the hope Kirito had was lost. But then, Goku, looking like he had no strength at all, managed to stand back up. He turned into a Super Saiyan, and landed a blow that was so strong it ripped Luthor's arm clean off, almost at the cost of his own life. Kirito wanted to get up so much and run to him, to help him, but he had already given Goku all of his strength, and it didn't make a difference.

Kirito's arms tensed up at his sides as he stared at the flames of the garden. He tried gripping the ground, but even his fingers seemed to want to ignore him, and he was having a hard time finding a grip. In his head, he watched as Luthor pointed his left hand at Goku, and then something stunned him. He grit his teeth in the present, as he had watched Sora walk on shaky legs up to Goku, legs so shaky that as soon as he reached Goku, he had collapsed. Kirito remembered trying so hard to get up. _But did I?_ In his mind he watched as that man Tsuna walked over, and Natsu, on the verge of death, looking like a corpse, staggered over as well. And then, in his mind as he watched himself trying to push his body up, his arms shaking beneath him, out the corners of his eyes he saw something that made him look up in shock. He stared at Ben, the boy looking like one of his arms was broken, like he had been fighting as hard as Kirito had, or harder, the entire day. And he watched as that child stood up, and staggered into the crater, all the way to Goku and Sora who he collapsed next to.

 _All of them were able to do it._ Kirito thought, and his gaze stopped focusing on those flames, and darted to the Royal Palace instead. His arms stopped shaking as much as he gripped stones beneath him, and his elbows started to unbend. His chest rose and he pushed his forehead down on the floor, dragging his knees up over the ground and groaning as he did. He stopped groaning after a second, gritting his teeth instead through the pain. _Bear it!_ He curled his right hand into a fist, crushing the rock he had grabbed with it. Kirito slammed that fist into the floor and the other rocks around him trembled. He crushed the rock in his right hand and punched that one down too, pushing more of his body up as he did. He was on his hands and knees, and he rose up his left leg first, stomping down hard with a leg that stopped shaking as he glared at it. _I can't be the only one. Not again. The others, are still fighting. I can't, I can't!_ Kirito brought his other leg up and pushed his hands off the ground once and for all, rising back to his feet. _I'm not just going to collapse here, hoping that one of my friends comes to get me, hoping that Riku or Kairi will come to me, hoping that they can handle whatever enemies are ahead without my help._

The injuries he received from Thymilph were severe. He was bloody and bruised all over. His mind was clear though. Kirito stared ahead at the Royal Palace, and he started walking towards it. He could hear explosions coming from inside, as well as explosions coming from behind him, out in the city and beyond its walls. _I won't fall here,_ Kirito thought. His walking turned into jogging, and his facial expression hardened. _Not again. Not, while my friends still need my help._

* * *

 **Royal Palace Second Floor, Pyraxas**

"Ahh!"

Nami turned to the right as she heard screaming coming down the hall from that direction. The halls were covered in red carpets, the walls lined with paintings, everything was luxurious. There was so much for her to steal, but the sound of that horrified scream made her heart clench up.

She started walking in the direction the scream came from. Another man's voice yelled out in horror but was cut off just like the first's. _What's going on? I don't recognize their voices, so they're probably enemies. Then why, why do they sound so..._ Nami walked through an open doorway, and she turned right down a hallway on the other side of it.

The orange haired woman froze. She stopped moving for many reasons. The biggest reason was because of the blue haired woman standing down the hall from her. "Juv-" Nami began, her eyes widening and her mouth curling up into a smile at the first glance at her. A second later though, Nami was no longer smiling. She was instead staring at the younger girl's hands, both held out in front of her with large spheres of water growing out in front of them.

Those water spheres surrounded Juvia's hands, but they also covered the heads of two Fire Nation guards down on their knees whose faces her palms were gripping. The men were grabbing up at their throats and trying to escape, but Juvia's water spheres kept them trapped in the bubbles. They gasped for air and air bubbles floated out of their mouths. Their faces were scrunching up in pain and their eyes got red as they bulged out.

"Juvia," a male's voice said sternly from behind her. "Stop this."

Nami looked behind Juvia and saw Kirito standing there. The ninja wearing black clothes with the sleeves ripped off looked worse for the wear. He was staring at Juvia's back and the girl looked over her right shoulder back at him. She smirked a smirk so menacing, so devious, neither Nami nor Kirito recognized her at the moment. "No," Juvia said, and she looked back forwards and watched the men whose faces turned pale, then blue as they ran out of air.

"They're dying," Kirito said, his voice quieter now. He had felt her presence with his Observational Haki as soon as he entered the Palace, and when he sensed it he knew something was wrong. If it was any of his other friends who he felt, he might have just thought they were enraged, but he had been warned about this. Ra's, Silva, even the first League of Assassins' member he tortured to find the Pit's location, they all warned him of the Lazarus Pit's effects. He whispered softer, "You're killing them."

Nami was slowly walking into the room but the other two hadn't noticed yet. Kirito took a step towards Juvia's back, "Do you really want to do this? Think about it Juvia, this isn't you."

Juvia's hands started shaking and the solid water spheres vibrated almost like they were going to fall apart. The girl's mouth flattened and started trembling, but steadied after a few seconds and lowered into a deep snarl. "It's your fault," Juvia growled, and then she clenched her fists shut. The water started boiling around the two dying men's heads. They would have been in tremendous burning pain, but a second after she started, they drowned inside her balls of water and stopped moving. Juvia released her clenched fists and the guards collapsed forward motionless as the spheres burst.

Juvia spun around and she looked furious. "You did this to Juvia! Kirito and Gray-sama brought her back!" She grabbed the sides of her head and then looked back down at the floor and the dead men behind her. "I couldn't help it," she whispered, tears coming to her eyes. "Juvia wanted to let them go, but, but at the same time, I needed to kill them!"

She shook her head over and over and clenched at the blue hair on her temples. "Kirito, you should not have brought Juvia back. You should have let me stay dead."

"You died?" A voice whispered twenty feet to Juvia's left. Both her and Kirito spun to see Nami standing there. The sight of the woman made Juvia drop her jaw, but Nami just took another step forward. "How? Why? When, did you, die?"

"She got assassinated-" Kirito began.

"How could you let that happen?!" Nami screamed over at him, making the teen step back in surprise as he was not expecting that. "Juvia," Nami whispered, looking back over at her friend who looked so scared right now. "I'm so sorry," Nami whispered, her voice cracking as she did. "You, died- and I- I wasn't even there to help when you were in trouble!"

"Nami left Juvia!" Juvia yelled. Nami leaned back in shock, half-expecting Juvia to forgive her right away. Juvia took a step towards her pirate friend, and shouted louder, "Nami, and Luffy, everyone left her. Only Juvia's real friends stayed, but Juvia still died! Nami was not there to help Juvia! Juvia died because of Nami!" Juvia kept walking forward every time she shouted, and as she shouted that last sentence she froze in place.

The Rain Woman regretted saying what she just said to her friend. She wanted to apologize. Before Juvia could though, before she lost the furious expression on her face, her eyes focused on Nami's face only a few inches in front of her. And as she read the expression Nami had, her own look of anger vanished. Her lips trembled and her body shook. She had no idea that while she was yelling at Nami and storming towards her, that her own body was getting taller and her arms were steaming. All she knew, was that the woman in front of her was looking at her as if she was a demon.

Juvia looked to her right at the dead bodies of the men she just mercilessly slaughtered. Her eyes widened and she turned from them back to Nami. "Nami is not safe around Juvia," she whispered.

Nami's scared look lowered as she realized what Juvia was so freaked out about. "J-Juvia no, it's not-"

"Nami thinks Juvia is a monster," Juvia stated, while lifting up her palms and staring at them in horror. "Juvia _is_ a monster." She added in realization, and her arms dropped down to her sides limply.

"Juvia," Kirito began, reaching an arm out towards her.

"No!" Nami yelled, starting to run forward at the blue haired girl. Her whole body was telling her she needed to get to Juvia now! "I don't! Juvia is-"

The girl in front of Nami exploded. Her solid form turned completely into blue water the same shade as her hair, and it burst out before dropping to the floor in one large puddle. Nami gasped and screamed, "JUVIA!"

"Juvia, are you," Kirito started, but stopped himself as he saw the puddle shimmer. The puddle of water slid across the floor and the other two stared at it in surprise for a second. They saw where it was heading and started running towards it, but even Kirito was too slow to catch the water before it got in the vent, not that he knew what he would have done if he caught it in the first place.

Nami dropped to the floor and leaned in towards the air vent's grate. "Juvia! Juvia!" She shouted into the vent. After calling her name a dozen more times, she fell backwards and put her face in her hands, shaking her head around sadly. "She ran away. She's gone."

"Don't overreact," Kirito muttered. Nami snapped her gaze up and glared at him furiously, but Kirito did not even flinch. It reminded her of when he mentioned her taking the reward money from Dressrosa right before they split apart. He was not afraid of her. He looked down at her and said in a non-caring tone, "And next time you see her, be less of a bitch."

A tick mark formed on the side of Nami's head and she jumped up to her feet. "You may not fear me right now, but I am going to-"

"I told you Juvia got killed, and you started yelling at me," Kirito said in his same monotonous voice. He interrupted Nami without fearing any consequences, and the orange haired woman took a step back away from him. He took a step towards her though and kept his face close. "You put the blame on me," he continued, his eyes and voice dark. She stepped back again and he took another step to follow, "But it was you guys who left us. Juvia begged you to stay with her. She accused you all of leaving her behind for a different friend. And you know what?" Kirito asked, leaning in even farther and shoving a finger in Nami's chest right above her breasts. "She. Was. Right."

He poked his finger into her each time he spoke and pushed Nami back with his forcefulness. She gawked at him as he glared at her in such a pissed-off way. "She thought she could trust you. And now, after seeing her for the first time in over a month, you looked at her like she was some kind of monster." Kirito's voice sounded disgusted and Nami had to look away in shame. "The way we brought Juvia back," Kirito continued, and as Nami looked up she saw it was his turn to look away ashamedly. "We were told it would not bring her back, exactly the same as she was before. But even after finding out about her bloodlust, not once," he said, and looked up into Nami's brown eyes with ones full of fury, "not once did any of us look at her like you just did."

Nami felt like Kirito just stabbed her in the heart. She could not even move as he marched right past her, making sure he gave her a rough shove with his right shoulder as he did. Nami stumbled to the side and the hit knocked her out of her stupor. She spun around and looked at Kirito's back as he walked away. She wanted to shout her reasons, or just yell angry things at him, or even apologize. Instead, she called out, "Wh-where are you going?"

Kirito stopped walking for a second. The images he thought about out in the courtyard flashed in his head, but then faded away just as fast. He balled his fists at his sides and closed his eyes. He clenched his teeth so hard with his lips pulled apart that he was baring them like a wild beast. "I'm going to see if I have a single friend left."

 _Goku, Gray, Juvia, Nami... To think, I actually thought we were all comrades. To think I would make that stupid pact with these people! No matter what? Goku let us all die according to Ben. Nami's a greedy, mean woman. Gray..._ Kirito's angered expression as he walked down the hallway distorted even further. _How could I forgive him? Telling myself day in and day out to let it go. No! I won't. I'm not such a nice person that I can just forget and forgive. I trusted you. I let you guard my back. And you, you plotted to kill me! The good guys? Give me a break. We're all just monsters when it comes down to it._

* * *

 **Upper Residential Area, Pyraxas**

"We're almost there," Robin said. She dropped her arms back to her side and took a deep breath, before starting up a jog again and running right past a dozen Fire Nation soldiers lying on the floor. The huge walls to the Royal Palace were only one more block ahead of them, or at least, where the walls used to be. Her and the man who landed at her side and started jogging with her again were coming straight from the south, so the walls in front of them were demolished a few minutes ago by a massive explosion that sent debris flying through the Upper Residential Area. The explosion had actually slowed their advance, as Sanji insisted on destroying the debris and helping the women of the Upper Residential Area who were threatened by the blast, and Robin had to face the soldiers who came rushing towards the explosion from around the city.

Sanji was taking deep breaths and could not even shout something happy and affirmative at his dear Robin-chan. He had a hole in his shirt on the lower right side, and there was a lot of blood coming from the wound. Luckily there was no bullet lodged inside him, but the beam rifle he was shot with ripped right through his skin and he had no idea the extent of the internal damage. _Bastard, shooting me while I held up the rubble for those women to escape out from under._

The two pirates neared the fallen southern walls to the Royal Palace's courtyard. Right as they were getting close, they spotted a figure stepping out from behind one of the buildings on the street closest to the walls. The sight of him made the pirates' eyes widen, and they headed towards him when he turned their direction and made eye contact. "Franky, what happened to you?" Sanji asked, stopping in front of the cyborg whose large red hands had lost a lot of their paint, and whose skin on several parts of his body looked melted off. Franky had made a few emergency repairs in the last twenty minutes, but when he was about to head back into the courtyard to help out, the entire wall exploded and sent him flying through the building behind him. If the other two pirates who walked to him were to look around the side of the building Franky just came around, they would see most of the wall was torn down as Franky was not the only thing to slam through it.

"Nothing this Super robot couldn't handle," Franky bragged, though he did it with less of his usual enthusiasm. He turned towards the wall closest to them where they could see some marble chunks sticking out of the ground with a gap between them. It looked like that was the old massive gateway, and Franky grimaced imagining what would have happened if he had been a few seconds faster in his repairs, as he would have been in that gateway during the explosion. "I'm recharged on cola, and ready to get in there," he said, grinning again and turning to the other two who smiled back.

"Same," Sanji said. He frowned after saying it and muttered, "I mean, about being ready, not the cola thing…" He pulled out a cigarette and lit it while frowning at the laughter from the cyborg in front of him.

The three of them started for the Royal Palace together. They walked over large chunks of wall that were covered in black like they had been burned. Sanji felt better thanks to the troll's healing magic, and Franky felt energized thanks to his cola, but both of them and Robin felt tired from their battles so far in the city. They each showed a little battle damage, though for Robin that just meant her left sleeve was ripped, but it was nothing they could not handle.

 _ **Brmm**_ An explosion went off in the direction of the Palace, but the pirates could not see what caused it. The building was huge: three stories tall, but each story was twice what a floor would be on a normal building, and the third floor was even taller than that. The pirates stopped as they were about to walk through the giant opening in the walls completely, and they turned and looked at each other, sweat forming all over their faces. The ground was shaking, and explosions started going off faster and faster together, but the Palace in front of them was not shaking as this happened. They saw it out the corners of their eyes, but none of them really wanted to look that way.

Finally, the three stepped back outside the Palace walls, and all three of them turned to the west. They looked out past the walls of the Upper Residential Area, and the ones surrounding the city of Pyraxas as a whole. They stared outside of the city, at a bumpy white mass outside of the city that grew bigger and bigger every second. The three of them stared at the mass in shock, as until a few seconds ago, it had somehow evaded their sight entirely. "What, the Hell, is that thing?" Franky mumbled, rubbing his eyes and then leaning back as it was still there when he lowered his hands from his face.

Suddenly, a flash of blue ignited on one side of the mass, and the ground shook as an explosion of blue flames blasted on the side of the monster closest to the city. The pirates looking that way all recognized the flames. Sanji frowned and he looked behind him, then back out into the city. _Rin might need our help. Luffy wouldn't want us busting in on his fight with the Fire Lord, but Sozin might have other allies Luffy needs me to take care of so he can get his one on one fight… And if Rin found who he was coming here for, if that's, the demon he was after..._

Sanji was not the only one hesitant as he stared outside of the city. A battle between demons was not something any of them were keen on running into. The stories Killua told them about Astaroth, the way Rin looked when he really lost it, and all of their encounters with demons so far, told them that joining that battle was not a decision to be made lightly. Then, all three of the pirates dropped their jaws, Sanji's cigarette dropping to the floor. Even Robin, the most composed of the Straw Hats, lowered her bottom lip and gawked at the flash of green light she saw outside of the city.

Robin rose her gaze as out of that green light formed a giant so tall he topped the height of the bumpy white mass, at least for now. The disgusting white creature that they thought they could make out a face on the side facing the giant was getting bigger every second, so even the giant alien they recognized might not be the tallest for long. Robin focused on the more humanoid giant, with huge white arms and legs, but also red spikes sticking out of his shoulders and on top of his head, as well as sticking off his forearms and lower legs. _Way Big,_ Robin remembered Ben using that form to fight against Enoch when she and him were the only ones to escape the Perfect Day their comrades had had before arriving in the Forever Kingdom. She watched as the alien punched a hand forward, but that massive hand got stuck inside the monster that Ben punched at and he had to grab his wrist with his other hand to pull his hand out.

"What's Ben doing here?!" Sanji shouted, finally getting over the shock of seeing him enough to shout.

Franky's mouth had closed the fastest of the three pirates, as this was less shocking to him than the others. "He's not the only one," he said. Robin and Sanji turned towards him and Franky explained, "Kirito-bro was here fighting with me and Luffy earlier, and Natsu headed in after him to try and get to the Fire Lord first." The other two pirates were shocked, but when they looked back at the courtyard covered in broken giant robots, destroyed walls, and flaming gardens, it was not hard to believe that Luffy had some help messing the place up this badly. It would have been a lot for even their crazy Captain to do alone in that amount of time.

"We should go in after them," Sanji said. The other two seemed in agreement, though they did look back out to the west again when a huge beam of light fired from the crossing point of Way Big's arms.

Sanji and Franky started heading back into the courtyard, but Robin spoke up behind them, "Wait." The two men turned, and saw Robin no longer looking out to the west over the Upper Residential Area to the giant monster battle beyond Pyraxas. Instead, she was staring the opposite direction, turned to the east with a serious feel to her expression. The two men ran out to get by her sides, and they looked east as well.

"This isn't good," Sanji muttered, and he wished he had not dropped his cigarette when he saw Ben. There was no time to light another one though, as there was a zeppelin like one of the ones they saw hovering above Sin City heading their direction from the northeast. It was far outside of the city, at the moment at least, but the ship looked intimidating with its dark red cover and turrets all over the bottom metal piece. They could also see a lot of smoke billowing up from the northern side of the Palace, making the pirates wonder what was going on on the other side of the city, and if their friends who they had not seen in over a week had something to do with it.

"Reinforcements?" Franky questioned. "How many you think are in there?"

"A large number to be sure," Robin replied, though she herself had no idea what that number would be. "Word that their capital city is under attack must have been relayed to their armies all over the region. I would not be surprised- yes, there is another," she pointed and the men followed the point across the east towards the Cataclysm line they could see pretty well from the high elevation of the center of Pyraxas. There was a zeppelin rising from the Cataclysm what looked like fifty miles east of them, a little farther than the one they saw coming from the north. Both were moving fast however, and those distances would be closing fast.

"All those soldiers coming into the city, fresh," Sanji muttered. "It's not going to be good." His eyes narrowed and he frowned as he took another glance back towards the Royal Palace. Sanji grimaced and turned away, then took a step to the east. "We can't let those zeppelins reach the city. Luffy needs time to face the Fire Lord." The chef looked back and said in a serious voice, "I'll take the one coming from the north."

Franky nodded his head, and Robin told him, "Good luck."

"Thank you, Robin-channn!" He leapt up in the air into a front-flip, then kicked the air behind him and shot off like a missile.

Robin chuckled, then Franky began in a quiet voice, "If Zoro was here, bet Sanji would have went after both on his own." Franky was thinking about previous fights where the two would compete to take down more enemies.

The woman at his side smiled at his nostalgic tone, then she crossed her arms in front of her body. "Cinco Cien Fleur: Wings!"

Franky started turning his head to look at Robin, but he let out a yelp as suddenly hundreds of arms were sprouting from his back and merging together. The woman next to him had a hundred arms appear on either side of her back, while she added a few more to the wings she sprouted from Franky as he did weigh more than her. She flapped her own wings and his at the same time, and the two of them flew up into the air with ease. She had a very large wingspan proportional to her body, while Franky's looked more natural. She liked having the larger wings though, as a single flap made her fly so far considering her small body. "Come, Sanji-san is leaving the other one to us. Let us prepare a trap for it at the outer walls."

The cyborg got over his initial shock and started laughing. "You got it sis! Not really my style, but I'll make the most Super trap you've ever seen!" Robin chuckled at his enthusiasm, and the two of them flew away to hold off the Fire Nation reinforcements coming from the southeast.

* * *

 **Western Gate of Pyraxas**

On top of the tall gates on the far west side of Pyraxas's Lower Residential Area, two men were standing and looking out at a crazy sight. The battle occurring before their eyes was unlike the others going on around Pyraxas. Whether it was the two hundred meter tall mass of white that looked more mountain than beast, or the almost-as-enormous humanoid alien firing beams out of its arms trying to fight it, the fight was out of control.

"The miasma's getting close to the city," the younger of the two men on the wall mentioned. He pulled out a piece of cloth and wrapped it around the bottom of his face like a bandanna to keep the small grayish-white specks from getting in his lungs. Around the young man standing on the wall were unconscious Fire Nation and Sun Marine soldiers. Ten meters to his right, the heavyset inventor and one of Admiral Komei's best men, Captain Dojaku, lay still with half of his body draped over the outer wall's stone rail and his butt sticking up in the air.

The older figure on the wall did not bother covering his mouth and just continued to stare out at the fight ahead of him. He looked at the giant alien's feet, and the base of the Impure King's mountainous form, where there was another fight going on that he was more interested in. The man had black hair unlike his comrade's that was dyed bright pink. He wore a pair of glasses and had freckles all over his face. Saburota Todo frowned as he watched a figure covered in blue flames go flying at a hundred miles an hour into the floor. Debris flew up in the air and dust mixed in with the dangerous miasma coming off of the Impure King's body, making the air in the vicinity even hazier.

Todo and the boy next to him lowered their gazes to a point closer to the wall they were on. A shadow on the ground came out of the thicker miasma and became visible to them. It already seemed to know they were there before they saw it though, as when they turned to the shadow it was moving in a straight path in their direction. Renzou Shima's eyes darted from the shadow sliding across the floor back to the fight around the rapidly expanding base of the Impure King. He could still see a shadowy figure in that direction with goat horns over his head and glowing red eyes, so the teenager looked back in surprise as that shadow reached the wall and shot up it in a second so it stopped right in front of him and Todo.

The shadow emerged from the ground, without any of the color that the real demon out on the field had to his body. This being was a shade, nothing more. It stood there in front of the two men, and a face started to appear on the shadow's head, giving Shima the creeps even though he just stood there grinning at it. "What are you two doing here?" The mouth that formed on the shadow's head first asked, while the eyes and ears were still forming.

"I heard that Okumura Rin was in Pyraxas, so I came to see for myself, Lord Astaroth," Todo responded to the demonic shadow in front of him.

Shima did not turn his head to the man next to him, though as he continued to face Astaroth's shade, he thought, _Heh, Todo's smart making it out like he had no idea Rin was here. I know you saw him in Dressrosa._ "I also wanted to see if my old pal Rin was here," Shima mentioned. He peered out with a hand against his forehead and whistled as Astaroth sent Rin flying again, "You're really handing it to him," he mentioned.

"Of course," Astaroth growled. "The boy will be brought to Hell and presented before Lord Satan. I will be the one who presents our father with this. No one else," he narrowed the darker black circles on his face that the two thought to be his eyes.

"You don't want any help?" Shima asked, looking surprised though secretly happy by that statement.

Astaroth's shade swung a fist and Shima watched it fly, but did not back away. The eighteen year old got hit and sprawled backwards, grabbing his face in pain and showing a look of shock on his face like he had no idea that punch was coming. "You imbecile," Astaroth snarled. "You think I require your pathetic help?" The demon's shade scoffed, then turned back to the other man, "Saburota Todo, assist the Fire Lord and stop the others who arrived with Okumura Rin in this city."

Todo's eyebrows lifted, and the freckle-faced man questioned, "Is it a good idea for me to reveal the Umbrella Corp's presence in the city? High Lord Sozin is strongly opposed to-" The shade lashed out again and Todo stumbled back, his glasses cracked as he was punched straight in the face. After a second Todo closed his mouth, stared forward through the cracked lenses, and simply said, "Understood, my Lord." Astaroth smirked at the two in front of him, and then the shadow exploded, turning into black wisps that faded away in the air in seconds.

Shima stood up on Todo's side, and looked at the Southwest Regional Director of the Umbrella Corporation who for some reason started smirking despite the cracked glasses. Todo reached up, grabbed his glasses, and dropped them on the floor in front of him. He continued to stare out past the wall though towards Okumura Rin, and he sighed as he watched Rin's friends run in and use different attacks to keep Astaroth away as Rin was struggling to stand back up after the last time Astaroth hit him. _I am glad I already got to see what Rin can do, but I pity young Okumura to have to face the King of Rot. I had such plans for you._ Todo shook his head and turned to the teen next to him, "Renzou-kun," he began, and Shima looked into his eyes with a mischievous look on his face. "What was your purpose for coming to Pyraxas?"

Shima shrugged and opened his mouth, but after examining Todo's expression he closed it, and his face returned to having a mischievous look to it. "I'm guessing, the same reason as you," he replied. Todo's eyes narrowed and the boy's snarky look suddenly looked a little more dangerous, as he stared straight back with a grin that showed Shima knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Hnhnhn," Todo chuckled, keeping his mouth closed so it sounded like short breaths of air coming out of his nose while he hummed. "Be careful, spy. One of these days you will get yourself killed with that tongue of yours."

Shima chuckled himself and then looked back out towards the battle that seemed to intensify after Astaroth's shade vanished. The miasma was thicker, the Impure King was even more massive, and a flash of green light returned the massive alien fighting it and keeping it at bay to the size of a young teenage boy. "Nah," Shima started. Though his voice had a joking tone to it, his smile was gone and he was just staring out at the flickering blue flames around his old friend in the distance. He glanced out the corners of his eyes at the man standing next to him, "This tongue of mine is what's gonna keep me alive."

* * *

 **A Mile West of Pyraxas**

Okumura Rin was on his hands and knees. He stared at the grass beneath him, covered in his blue flames, burning brighter than his aura that he was staring through to look at them. He clenched his teeth and snapped his head up, snarling towards the demon in the distance who sent him flying him so far away with every hit. _So strong,_ Rin thought, while getting back up on two feet. He grit his teeth and could feel them sharpening, but he took a deep breath and they shrank back. _Don't lose control. He's the demon. This isn't a fight between two demons. I can't beat him like that. Not like the first time I beat Amaimon. I need to beat him as_ _ **me**_ _, as a human! If I don't, then what's the point?_

Rin started running back towards the battle, because he could not let his friends fight Astaroth on their own. Ben was down there with them now, all three of them facing the demon instead of the giant monster that was making the area hazier and hazier by the second. Ben, Dash, and Gray were all able to see the monsters they were fighting, and Rin was at least glad that Astaroth's powerful demonic presence was enough to make Astaroth and his pet visible. The Impure King was looking less like a giant blob of white now, as the monster took on a more solid form with giant walls, archways, and even towers emerging around it. Ben's earlier attacks as Way Big tore huge sections out of the Impure King, but it only slowed the gradual construction of the Impure King's body that repaired itself faster than they could destroy.

At the base of the Impure King's southern edge, Astaroth cackled maniacally at them with his arms held out to the sides. "Dash out of the way!" Gray yelled, pointing the ice cannon in his arm forward. The boy running towards Astaroth grimaced and turned mid-sprint, running to the left instead. He coughed into his arm as he ran, wincing with every step. _I'm getting in the way!_ Dash thought, angry at himself as he was barely running any faster than the rest of his friends. His pants from his knees down were shredded and his legs were in a lot of pain from Astaroth's initial sneak attack, a trap that he fell right into.

"Ice Make: Ice Cannon!" A huge ball of light-blue light fired from the giant ice cannon twice as long as Gray was tall. The light flew towards the demon before them, looking more terrifying every second. The light blast from Gray's cannon got close to Astaroth, but the demon slammed his right fist from his side out in front of him, and the sphere of light dissipated into thin air. Gray lowered his cannon with wide eyes at the sight of his attack vanishing like it was nothing, and his eyes grew even larger as through that light he could see Astaroth staring straight into his eyes, into his soul, with glowing red eyes that he recognized from somewhere. Gray knew exactly where he had seen those eyes again, and he thought on his nightmare from the night before, the terrifying monster in it that was scary, but nowhere near as monstrous as the real-life monster in front of him now.

 **"Die!"** Astaroth yelled, and he charged at Gray like a beast. His legs were hairy like a goats, and every stomp of his clawed hooves on the floor ripped the blackened ground apart. Dirt chunks rose up from beneath the dead grass, and the demon cackled as all the nutrients in the debris that lifted up were rotted away, and even the dirt shifted gray and turned to ash.

Ben and Dash looked towards Gray who they saw take a step back with Astaroth charging straight at him. A flash of green surrounded Ben, while Dash just changed directions he was moving and sprinted towards their older friend. Ben turned into XLR8 and shot across the black ground that was getting grayer every second, and the thirteen year old spotted Dash's blurry form running over as well, but slower than he was moving. _Damn it, all of us need to be fighting, but I also need to take some time and heal up Dash's legs! I can't risk going Tentacure and waste time on the Omnitrix-_ XLR8 lifted his right arm while he ran, and a flash of yellow light appeared in front of his hand. He sprinted in between Gray and the demon only ten meters away from him, and the boy moving insanely fast swung the weapon in his hands forward.

Astaroth's red eyes lost their ominous glow and grew as wide as saucers. He could not stop his momentum, though he had the time to raise an arm and parry, clashing his bumpy orange-skinned right arm into the weapon. He pressed against it and the alien pushed back against him, a strained look on its blue face though Astaroth could not see it behind the black mask XLR8 had up. "A Keyblade?" Astaroth snarled, his shocked look snapping down to a more furious one. "It's your damn fault we're here," the demon said, and Ben's Keyblade lost the pressure pushing back against him as the boy dropped his jaw in shock. Astaroth felt the lowered pressure, and he brought up his right knee while the boy was distracted, and nailed Ben straight in the gut with it.

XLR8 rose up in the air, coughing in pain. He hit the top of his arc and glared down, but shook his head of that anger and focused on what he originally pulled the Keyblade out for. He had to save Gray first, but now he swung the Keyblade and a flash of green light emitted from the tip. Another speedster sprinting towards Astaroth's back suddenly took another step, only to find that his body did not shoot with pain this time.

Dash looked down in awe, seeing the rotted skin that fell off his knee before was all back, and his legs barely looked red at all anymore. _Yes!_ The boy thought, while Astaroth lifted his arms and extended the claws from his fingers. "No one will care if a Guardian or two gets skewered!" Astaroth screamed, and he brought his claws up at the alien dropping towards him. **BAM!** Astaroth's face filled with an expression of pain, and the monster was lifted off the ground as Dash slammed him in the back with a double-fisted punch. Astaroth flew off of Dash's fists, and the kid yelled, "Gray!"

Gray had stopped stepping back when Ben attacked Astaroth, and he had been too afraid to step forward even when Astaroth was going to impale Ben, but he bit down hard and planted his feet as hard as he could exactly where he was standing. _There is no running from this monster! Either we win or we die, so deal with the fear, and handle this like a man!_ Gray clenched his fingers into the Ice Cannon he was still holding, and he twisted his body all the way around, swinging the cannon right into Astaroth's face as the demon flew towards him. The cannon clotheslined the demon and snapped his head back and straight into the floor. Gray's Ice Cannon shattered upon contact with Astaroth's face showing how hard he swung it, and the mage and the speedsters stared at the monster on the ground hopefully as it did not move after the hit.

"Hehe, HEHEHEHE!" Astaroth's cackling laughter made Gray step back again against his wishes, though the other two fighting with him had to back up as well. Ben lit up green and turned back into a child, and now that they were able to see it, Gray and Dash could see that he had just as much fear plastered across his face as the two of them. Ben started coughing, and he brought an arm up and pressed it hard against the ripped suit jacket he had tied around the bottom of his face. The effort did not help, and he kept coughing while Astaroth's laughter grew in volume. The air around Ben was so hazy that he could barely see Gray past the figure on the floor, and even Dash only a few yards away from him was starting to get blurry.

"The miasma has spread to the west side of Pyraxas," Astaroth said. The demon kicked its legs up and landed on its feet, glaring forward at Gray and then far past him at the distant walls of the Fire Nation's Capital. "You pathetic weaklings could not stop it, and now so many are suffering from the Impure King's attack on their bodies." The ground beneath them started shaking at that moment, and Dash and Ben had to turn around to see what it was that made Gray suddenly drop his jaw and stumble backwards. The two boys stared at the base of the Impure King in shock, as a wave of miasma so much thicker than anything they had seen so far erupted from the demon's city-like form. It moved towards them like the edge of an explosion, and Astaroth just laughed at their horrified looks.

"Get on!" a voice yelled, and Dash and Ben looked up, then brought their gazes down as the figure dropping from the air landed between them. Astaroth glanced backwards and the Demon King's smile lowered a little, his eyes glowing bright red at the sight of the creature covered in black fur that landed between the two boys.

"Kuro!" Ben exclaimed at the sight of the cat. He reached over and grabbed some fur on the giant cat's side. Dash thought he could outrun the miasma, but he would have to get by Astaroth and the thought of doing that alone made him scared enough to grab Kuro's fur with no questions asked.

Kuro leapt as soon as Dash's hands grabbed tufts of his fur, and he leapt to the right, then forward, then left towards Gray, giving Astaroth as wide a berth as he could while still getting to Gray before the explosion of miasma. "Where's Rin?" Gray asked as he jumped towards where Kuro was landing, grabbing on and allowing the cat to instantly jump towards its next location.

"Kuro! You have two tails?" Dash asked, looking behind the cat at the tail that split in two.

Ben scrunched up his face as he was sure he had seen Kuro's tail before, but he was shocked to see that Dash was not seeing things and the tail really was in two parts.

"Focus!" Gray yelled at the two farther back on the cat's long body than where he was grabbing on to. The kids looked forward at Gray, then turned as the sides of their vision filled with white. The sight behind them had everyone on Kuro's back speechless. The wave of white was twenty meters tall, rushing towards them like a wall of death, while behind that wall they could see towers of more solid white rising to the sky, archways that spewed miasma connecting giant bumpy masses of pure demonic rot, white houses and streets and high-rises, it looked like an entire city was forming where the Impure King emerged from. And then in the middle of the sea of white between the wave they were escaping from and that city, a figure surrounded in black wisps arose.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Astaroth screamed, and the sky around him darkened. All the way in the center of that massive city behind Astaroth, the most giant bump of rot that looked like it was about to pop, started to distort and gain a more solid shape. Two black eyes formed across that giant bump and glared past Astaroth at the three figures escaping on Kuro's back. The sight of the Demon King and his pet that took up miles of space, it was too much for them to handle.

"We need to get out of here!" Dash yelled, turning around like facing the opposite direction as hard as he could would make them move faster. Kuro's eyes darted to the floor and the familiar was as afraid as any of the humans on his back, as he saw the ground beneath his paws turning gray every step he took. He had to move faster as he spotted the spots where his paws touched down getting consumed by rot that came out of the floor moments after he touched down. Finally, his back left paw got touched by the rot, and Kuro let out a yell and did one last pounce to lift himself as high as he could. The boys on Kuro's back let out yells, and then Kuro's paws lifted up just high enough that the wall of white crashed beneath them.

The outer walls of Pyraxas were close, but they were not going to reach them, and Kuro was at the top of his arc. "We're going to fall in that?!" Dash screamed, tears forming in his eyes as they were about to drop into a sea of miasma so thick there was no way they would be able to breathe.

"No we're not!" Ben yelled, and a white aura surrounded his body. He started coughing violently as he took a deep breath to fill himself with strength, but even as he coughed, Kuro stopped descending towards the miasma. It was getting higher up, but they started to do the same, as Ben carried Kuro, Gray, and Dash up in the air. He bared his teeth and veins popped all over his forehead, his muscles strained, and Ben yelled out as he flew towards the outer walls of Pyraxas.

Gray was relieved that Ben managed to pick them up, but he saw a flash of red light out the corner of his eye and turned around to see Astaroth had just shot a ball of fire five times as large as Kuro's body in their direction. He only had one arm and had to use it to keep holding on to Kuro's back, and the realization that he could not use any magic to stop that fireball had him cursing at the top of his lungs. Dash and Ben looked back as Gray screamed profanity, and the two of them let out yells as well, though theirs were of fear then pain as the fireball slammed into them and sent them flying twice as fast towards the wall they were already close to. Ben managed to keep his eyes open inside the flames, as he focused the aura around him strongest over his face. He clenched his mouth shut and listened to the screams of his friends as he directed the trajectory of their crash landing, and managed to drop them right on top of a wall covered in unconscious soldiers.

The flames dispersed as they crashed, though Ben started patting down Kuro's fur as the cat was whimpering in pain and still smoldering. He stopped helping the familiar that shrank down into a small house cat, and turned around, the only one left standing to face the terrifying enemies they were battling. "Kuro," Ben began, staring out in fear as Astaroth laughed in his direction, making fun of him as he was still trying to stand against him. Astaroth's horns twisted around and he rose his arms, making the sea of miasma beneath him start rumbling, large bubbles forming throughout it and then popping, releasing huge masses of spores into the air that were spreading far and wide. The black cat behind Ben opened its clenched-shut eyes and looked up at the boy's back. Ben's arms had some rotting skin visible on them, same with his left cheek, and he had burns all the way down his legs that he protected the least when they were hit by Astaroth's fireball.

"Ben, if you can run-" Kuro began.

"Where is Rin?" Ben asked, repeating the question Gray asked as soon as the cat picked them up. The boy looked around the sea of white in front of him, and he started coughing into his left arm as another breath sucked in another cluster of the poisonous spores.

"Snn, snn," Kuro sniffled a few times while facing the railing to the outer wall, unable to look out over the Impure King from where he lay on his side. "He said he had a plan, and told me to get everyone out of there," Kuro began. Ben's eyes opened wide, and Kuro continued in a sad tone, sounding on the verge of tears, "I didn't want to leave him behind, but, but Rin said it would be okay."

Dash was on his hands and knees, his face pressed into the stone floor of the wall. He was in excruciating pain, like the ice mage a few feet away from him who had a fist clenched beneath his forehead and was trying to deal with the agony. Gray flattened his right fist out and pushed down, getting up to one foot, then the next. He turned out towards Astaroth who cackled even more at the sight of another one of them getting up. _Rin's out there? That stuff would fill your lungs in seconds. Maybe, because he's part demon,_ the sound of Kuro crying at his feet stopped Gray's thought process, and he ground his teeth in fury. _Damn it, we can't do anything against him!_

"I will finish you fools off once and for all, then I will have the Impure King spit up Rin for me," Astaroth mocked his defeated enemies. Even as they stood against him, he could see the looks in their eyes. They knew as well as he did that they did not stand a chance against him _and_ the Impure King. "I will rot the flesh from your bones and feast on your eyeballs! And once you are dead, I will find you in Hell, and the torture will never stop!" Ben and Gray gained horrified expressions on their faces, while Dash's eyes snapped open and he started shaking as he stared at the floor beneath him. "That's right! You think losing here means death? Means it's the end?! NO! You don't get to die just once, you get to die forever! I'll enjoy killing you in every way you have ever imagined, and thousands of even more terrible ways your mortal minds can not comprehend! HEEEEHEHEHE!"

Ben was trying to look strong. He stood defiantly before their enemy, but what Astaroth just said made him want to cry. He wanted to back away, but there was an entire city full of people behind him, and he knew Astaroth would continue his attacks even if his targets were in a populated area. All he could do was gulp, and his eyes darted to his Omnitrix, still in the green. It was the most powerful weapon on his world, one of the strongest things in existence, but it gave him no consolation as he looked from it back to the monsters ahead of him. _Heatblast? Rin's flames seemed to be working pretty well, but so did Way Big's beams, for a few seconds. The Impure King just kept surging no matter how much we tore away. Any others? Saiyan Ben? I could try turning into Dominator, but I haven't done that successfully since the Forever Kingdom!_

 _Juvia, get out of the city! Natsu, don't try coming here after you finish off the Fire Lord. I know you will, but, but just get Juvia and get out of the city as fast as you can! Please!_

 _Mom, Dad, Violet, someone!_

Astaroth flew forward. He gave them no warning. Ben took a step backwards in fear, Gray clenched his fist and a sword hilt formed in it as his face filled with determination, and Dash got up to his feet and ran to the inner side of the wall, all in the same moment. "ASTAROTH!" A voice screamed, and Astaroth stopped moving, his eyes going wide, while all four of those on the wall in front of him felt their minds fill with hope. Even Kuro managed to get back up and jump on the outer wall's railing to look out over the sea of miasma. Dash stopped running, hearing the voice that lowered his fear enough for him to realize what he was doing. The blond kid stared inside Pyraxas from the railing of the inner side of the wall he was standing on, and his eyes widened even more as he spotted people staggering through the streets, trying to help each other and collapsing in fits of coughs. The entire western side of the city was full of thick miasma, not as bad as outside the walls, but enough that those normal citizens were falling one by one. Dash turned and ran back so he stood in between Gray and Ben behind the railing that Kuro stood on, and all four of them stared out beyond Astaroth.

The Demon King of Rot slowly turned around, and a hole appeared in the base of the Impure King, very close to the main body of the monster that Astaroth considered like a pet. Okumura Rin flew out of that hole and hovered above the sea of miasma, rotted skin all over his face, arms, and legs. His clothes had deteriorated, leaving only tattered rags around his waist, shoulders, and upper thighs. Rin floated there, taking deep breaths for the first time in a few minutes as he had escaped the thickest part of the miasma. He started a violent coughing fit, and blood splashed out of his mouth, but the teenager was careful to move his flaming sword in the path of his blood.

"Stay away from my friends," Rin growled. Though his body was not covered in blue flames, and he did not look all that intimidating, Astaroth felt something deep inside of him that enraged him, because it felt a little like fear.

Miles away, on top of a hotel in the Lower Residential Area that was closer to the walls of the Upper Residential Area than the city's outer ones, Todo looked out miles and hummed to himself at the sight of Rin's appearance. "What will you do, Okumura-kun? I devoured Karura, the Myouda's way of keeping the Impure King at bay. Even with your blue flames, the Impure King has grown too large to destroy without a high-level fire-" Todo's eyes grew huge and the man took an excited step forward on the roof of the hotel.

Astaroth glared at the Kouma Ken in Rin's hands, and his snarl grew even more furious as Rin pointed the weapon at him with both hands held on the hilt. He had the hilt right in front of his waist with the blade pointed out and up towards Astaroth's snarling mouth. "I'm going to defeat you, Astaroth," Rin called over, his voice a less furious snarl than before, and more calm, serious, though still very angry. "And you are going to tell me where my little brother is." Rin turned around. He turned his back to Astaroth and continued in an even louder voice, "But first, I am going to destroy the Impure King!"

The demon facing Rin's back stopped snarling so furiously, and instead his lips curled up to the sides of his face. He started laughing, cackling, his voice echoing over the landscape and the nearby city where terrified, dying civilians held their ears shut in fear. "EEHAHAHA! YOU THINK YOU CAN DEFEAT THE IMPURE KING ON YOUR OWN?" Astaroth screamed at Rin's back. "LAST TIME YOU HAD THE HELP OF UCCHUSMA, AND THIS TIME YOU MUST FACE ME AS WELL! I CREATED THIS MONSTER, AND IT IS MY STRONGEST! I AM THE DEMON KING OF ROT! THE KING OF DESTRUCTION! THE MIASMA WILL SPREAD AND KILL EVERYONE HERE, EVERYONE IN PYRAXAS! FUCK THE FIRE LORD! FUCK THE FIRE NATION! ILL WATCH IT ALL ROT AND TURN THIS LAND INTO THE IMPURE CITY!"

The Impure King already looked a lot like a city, but after Astaroth's screaming rant, the towers reaching for the sky grew even taller, their points extending for the clouds. The mountainous top of the Impure King bubbled furiously, a dozen more black eyes appearing on it, and then out from its head emerged four giant tendrils that stretched out from its body then curled up and in over its head. All the time it grew, more and more miasma pulsed out of its giant body, filling the sky with gray and turning the landscape for miles into ash. Dojaku brought Dash, Gray, and Ben pretty far from Pyraxas and any town around it, but the walls of the city were turning gray just like every town within a few miles of where Astaroth laid his trap. The task was daunting, but Rin took another deep breath, and this time he resisted the urge to cough. Instead, he questioned in a deep voice, "'Last time?'" Astaroth became confused, not sure as to what Rin was referring to by repeating what he said like that.

Astaroth's eyes shifted to Rin's arms, and the Demon King stared at them in even more confusion as he saw trails of blood from his upper arms going all the way down to his hands that were wrapped around the hilt of his demonic sword. No blood dripped through the cracks in his fingers though, none dripped off the hilt and into the sea of white below. Rin's skin looked paler than usual, but Astaroth thought that was just the rot at first, but even the areas where there was no rot damage, his skin was white. _"This is enough, right?"_ Rin thought.

 _ **"Usually I require the blood signatures of several Upper Class Tamers, I should feel ashamed to accept the blood of one exorcist alone, but your blood is special. I will fight with you again, Okumura Rin, human, and son of Satan."**_

Rin lifted up his sword, and out from the tip of it emerged blue flames so bright that the sky lost its bleak appearance. Blue light shone between every spore of miasma and flashed over and over, making Astaroth reel back and raise an arm up in front of his face as he hissed. When he lowered his arm, Astaroth stared above Rin in shock at the sight of the giant flaming bird that he recognized well, though never before in this color. _Kin of Iblis, the Demon King of Fire, rot's natural weakness._ Astaroth started trembling in rage, absolute fury as he stared forward, and watched as the thirty foot tall flaming bird turned its head and looked back towards him with glowing green eyes. "Ucchusma," Astaroth snarled.

Ucchusma spread its wings out to reveal its wingspan of around fifty feet wide. All the miasma spores around it disintegrated when they touched Ucchusma's body, but that was not going to be enough, and Rin knew it. _Last time, Suguro's flame barrier kept the Impure King from spreading as much. It's already so much bigger, so much more powerful, and Astaroth is right behind me._ Rin coughed a few times, but he kept his sword steady in his grasp. **"My sworn enemy, what a form you have taken on this time,"** Ucchusma remarked, staring upon the Impure King's giant body with disgust in its eyes. In Rin's mind, Ucchusma spoke, _**"Speak the mantra, I will prepare-"**_

 **"You will not have the chance!"** Astaroth roared, and his voice echoed in Rin's mind, interrupting the demon that he summoned while inside the miasma. The teenager spun around, though Ucchusma continued to face the Impure King, getting larger while blue flames continued to trail off of Rin's sword and merge with his body. Astaroth brought his right arm back, and when he slashed it at Rin, Rin saw the very air itself cutting from Astaroth's claws. He brought his Kurikara up and blocked, but the collision caused all of the miasma around them to push away making a clear area in the sky the two were pressing against each other in. The last few times Astaroth clashed with Rin, he sent the boy flying even when he blocked. This time however, Rin pushed back and Astaroth's eyes opened wide as the teen was holding him back.

Behind Astaroth, at the wall to Pyraxas, Rin saw the thickest miasma spilling over the railing. He watched as it bubbled over Kuro, who could no longer crawl away and got overtaken by it. The others who thought they needed to make one last stand collapsed when Rin emerged looking like he had a plan, but they were backing away from the miasma with the fear of death and much worse in their eyes. He could hear Dash's screams, and see the looks of horror on all their faces. From where he was floating in the air, he could see over the walls too and inside Pyraxas, inside the city full of people coughing up blood and slowly rotting to death. His eyes burned bright blue and an aura of blue fire flared around his body furiously. "You're wrong Astaroth! I am not alone! I have friends who are important to me, who I need to protect! I will _NOT_ let you hurt them!" Rin's muscles twitched and his teeth sharpened, as he snarled out a roar, "ANYMORE!" He brought his sword down harder and Astaroth's defense was broken, a slash of blue flames slamming into his chest after cutting his arm, and making him scream in agony and fly away from his younger brother, falling into the sea of white below.

 **"I am ready,"** Ucchusma said behind Rin. The boy turned and flew forward, stopping beneath the giant flaming bird demon and raising his sword once again. Ucchusma's wingspan was almost two hundred feet wide and half that tall, and it pulsed blue light again before stopping and settling to a constant size and shade. **"I will return to the Kouma Ken,"** Ucchusma looked back and down at the half-demon. **"Your demon sword is made for fire demons like myself. I have to share the room with your heart, but there is enough space in there for two… Goodbye, Okumura Rin."**

"Thank you," Rin replied, and then Ucchusma's giant flaming body retreated back into his sword. His sword already normally was covered in blue fire, but as Ucchusma's massive body all sucked into the weapon at once, it looked like Rin was staring at a blue sun, in the shape of a sword. His hilt grew hotter, and the aura around his body burst five times as large as usual. He was panting furiously, not just from the miasma that weakened his lungs, but from the amount of power he had to use to summon such a high-level demon, as well as utilize its powers to an extent he never had before. He closed his mouth though and did not think about how much more powerful Ucchusma was this time, because the Impure King was stronger too, but then again, so was he.

Giant tendrils sticking off of the Impure King's head curled away from its body and stretched down towards the boy floating in front of it. Rin's eyes closed, _Ucchusma wants to use Kashou Zanmai, burn everything for twenty miles, and is willing to kill so many people in the process. But I don't need to worry about that last part. I have control over my flames now. It has been years since I was not able to draw my sword from its sheath. The old me would have been worried I would mess up, but not today, not right now._ "Shuri shuri mamari mari shushuri," Rin could hear the voice in his head and he repeated the mantra. All of the bright blue light on his sword moved towards the tip and he continued, "Kuroda nou un jaku." Rin brought his hilt to his right side, gripping it with both hands, pointing the blade back behind him, while the flames at the tip of his sword started to form a sphere of blue light so condensed that it was making the sky and the earth shake with its power. The sphere doubled in size at the tip of his blade, then tripled, then tripled from what was already triple its size.

The tendrils of the Impure King slammed down towards Rin, who screamed, "RAAAA!" His aura flared and the Impure King's appendages could not handle the heat of the teen's aura alone, shredding apart inside it. The monster pulled its giant tendrils back, then the entire city and mountainous mass inside it seemed to lean away as Rin's sphere of blue fire doubled in size again, right as the boy started slashing it around the side of his body. "DAI KASHOU ZANMAI!" The sphere of light shot off of Rin's sword, and a shockwave rippled out through the air like an explosion when the light flew off the tip of Rin's sword. The sphere dropped like a bomb towards the Impure King, which surrounded the area the bomb was falling with a bumpy mass of white that shot upwards to intercept the attack. The giant Kashou Zanmai pushed straight through all that bumpy rot though, not hesitating for a second, and then it hit the ground and an explosion so high that it reached where Rin floated a hundred meters up went off. The blast created a blue light so bright that everyone in Pyraxas could see it, it blinded many of them, and it expanded like a bomb too.

Sanji stopped Sky-Walking around the zeppelin which kept shooting fireballs and bullets at him out of its turrets. The turrets all stopped firing though too, as every Fire Nation soldier manning one of them dropped their jaws at the sight of the explosion on the other side of their capital. Robin and Franky stood on top of another zeppelin far to the south of the one Sanji was battling, and the two of them stared in shock in the direction of that blue light. Franky wanted to whistle, or mention something about how Rin is stronger than he knew, but the sight of that explosion stretching towards Pyraxas was nerve-wracking.

Ben, Dash, and Gray were just outside of the miasma, though a lot of it had stretched up parts of their bodies. Their skin was covered in rot and they were coughing up their lungs. The fear of rotting moved to the backs of their minds though, as the blue flames of Rin's explosion shot away from the epicenter and towards them at speeds none of them would be able to dodge at their current strengths. They each let out screams, and then the blue flames hit them, and they felt warm.

Ben stopped yelling and he looked down at his skin. He watched as the rotting flesh, the bubbles sticking out of his appendages, it was all fading away. All of the rot was vanishing, and around him on top of the wall he could see it shredding off of Kuro's covered body and all the bodies of the Fire Nation soldiers and Sun Marines who could not crawl away like he had. Gray looked down at his right hand and Dash to his feet, and they watched as all of the rot covering them burned away, but their bodies were not getting hurt at all.

In the sky high above Pyraxas, a figure looking down rose the corners of his lips. _The thing that Aebrith has been missing from day one. I always hoped it would come. The return, of the Blue Exorcist._

All over the Lower Residential Area, citizens were opening back up their eyes, and looking down at their bodies and seeing that they were alright. The blue flames surrounding them, surrounding their homes, they were not burning anything away except for the miasma. The blue flames could burn anything, but unlike what many thought, they were not demonic flames. Rin's blue flames burnt demons, they burnt spirits, and impurities, and the demon he summoned called them something he never heard anyone else call his flames. Ucchusma called them "holy flames." Rin did not know if that was right or not, but he knew he could control them, and he could decide what burns and what does not.

The explosion stretched farther than the Upper Residential Area, rising all the way up to the Royal Palace and stopping just outside. It stretched farther than the miasma ever reached, which meant that every single piece of the Impure King, every trace of it inside of Pyraxas and out, it was all gone. Rin's blue aura faded while his sword was still out of its sheath. The horns made of blue flames that were ignited on his head shrank down so they were barely sticking out of his messy mop of hair. He started dropping from the air, exhausted, breathing heavily, and deeply for the first time possible since the miasma started attacking him. His body was naturally resistant to it, his flames burned it away faster than it could tear at him, but he had to lower his guard when he focused all of his strength on summoning Ucchusma. During the attack though, the flames burned away all the rot on him like it did to everyone else in the city.

Rin fell all the way to the gray ground. The miasma coating may have burned away, but the grassy fields had already been too badly destroyed to be restored just by the removal of the rot. He fell flat on his back but did not wince. He just fell still and stared straight into the cleared sky above him. There was a smile on his face. _I did it. I saved, everyone._ _**"You,"**_ a voice hissed, and Rin's smile wiped from his face. The teen started turning his head, putting his hands down at his sides to try and push himself up. Before he managed to get an inch off the ground though, a foot slammed into his left side so hard that he was lifted off the ground. He rose five feet, then as he opened his eyes that clenched shut from the pain, he let out a nervous yelp right before the two fists held together over his head slammed down straight into his face.

The teenager slammed into the ground hard, so hard that cracks shot out from his collision with the floor in every direction. Rin clenched his right hand around his Kouma Ken tightly and he snapped his eyes open, burning bright blue flames. "Grr-AH!" He started to growl, and then a hoof stomped straight on his face and slammed him into the ground.

Astaroth stood over Rin, his eyes looking like small red fireballs, his goat horns twisting and growing bigger while black smoke seeped off of them. The hoof he was stomping Rin's face with suddenly grew claws, and Astaroth pointed those claws down before dragging his hoof across Rin's face. "AHHH!" Rin screamed in agony, blood splashing from three lines going vertically down his face. The half-demon reached up his left hand to grab his agonized face, while slashing his right hand in front of him to make Astaroth back away. Astaroth leaned back to avoid the sword, letting a slash of blue flames fly off the weapon and up through the air in front of him. Rin was not watching where he was swinging with a hand over his face, so Astaroth just rose up his hoof, then stomped it down on Rin's chest this time, making the boy try to scream but be unable to with his lungs crushing in.

Rin's eyes bulged and he stared straight up at Astaroth, the demon eight feet tall, and covered in blood. Astaroth's right arm was covered in it, and blood smeared his torso as well in a line where Rin's slash sent him crashing down before. The fur coming out of his body was singed, but Rin realized how wrong he was when he thought he destroyed Astaroth with the Impure King, because the monster over him looked as strong as ever. "Do you know," Astaroth began snarling at the boy whose lungs he pressed down on harder, making it even more impossible for Rin to breath. He continued, "How long it took me to recreate the Impure King? I made it stronger, and it took years to get it to this point!"

Rin mustered as much strength as he could and slashed for Astaroth's stomping leg. The Demon King of Rot leapt up into a backflip, and Rin pushed himself up quickly to get ready for him to charge back in. He coughed a few times, then muttered while raising his sword and gripping it with both hands, "You had to make it again? It didn't, come back on this world?"

"You destroyed it with Satan's flames," Astaroth snarled, though his lips did curl up as he said it. "You think there was anything left of it for the Gods of this world to bring back?" Astaroth lost his small grin, and he charged at Rin while the boy looked surprised at that last statement. Rin turned his sword sideways to block the slash of Astaroth's left arm, but the demon was faking him out and ran to his other side, pulling back his right arm that splashed blood on Rin's body, before he brought it forward at the teen. Rin saw that the first attack was a feint, but just lifting his sword to block that first hit was almost too much for him.

He was exhausted. He used all of his strength to make sure that every bit of miasma hurting the people of Pyraxas and surrounding towns would be destroyed. Rin did not hold anything back, and now he was paying the price as Astaroth's right claw collided with him and blood splashed out of Rin's left side. Blue flames flared out of Rin's wound, but blood continued to pour out as well as the boy hit his hands and knees. Rin looked down at his chest, and he thought he could almost see his own ribs through his skin, that's how deep the wound felt. _No,_ Rin thought, and he lifted his head to look back towards Astaroth. The demon was smirking at him, but his enraged expression returned at that look of defiance from the boy on his hands and knees.

"Okumura Rin, if you will not come on your own volition, then I will bring you to Satan the old-fashioned way." Astaroth rose his right hand, and his claws coked in Rin's blood extended, growing sharper and glistening in the sunlight. "Come now, Rin," Astaroth said, his eyes darkening as he started taking steps towards the afraid boy on the ground. "Don't you want to be with your brother?"

Rin tensed up and his urge to back away vanished. He sat there with his head up, staring in shock into Astaroth's burning red eyes. Astaroth saw his look and grinned while continuing to walk towards him, "That's right, Yukio is already in Hell. Father is giving him, special treatment. Hehehe, HEHEHE! HEEEHEHE!" Flames rose on either of Astaroth's sides, and the demon yelled down at the boy he was only ten feet from now, "The tortures he is enduring, you don't want him to go through those alone, do you? I'll help you! I'll send you to him! All you need to do, is DIE!" Astaroth lifted his right hand and Rin stared at it in confusion, shock, terror, hesitation, regret. He did not know whether to move or not, even while his body and mind screamed at him that he did not want to die.

"Get away from him!" A voice yelled, and Astaroth snapped his gaze up, only to drop his jaw at what was flying straight at him. He tried jumping backwards, but the figure made of molten rock who had jets of flames coming out the soles of his feet, slammed his hands behind him and made extra jets that propelled him even faster at the demon now in the air with less ability to dodge. Rin looked up in shock as Heatblast flew over his head, then did a flip over Astaroth's head as the demon tried slashing at it, stopping only once he was behind the Demon King's back. Astaroth started to turn, but Ben already had both of his hands pointed at the demon, glowing so bright orange that Astaroth leaned back from the brightness. "HAA!" Ben yelled, and two bursts of flames so thick that they merged into one collided with Astaroth and sent the monster flying back the direction Ben came from.

Ben dropped to the ground in front of Rin, and he looked at the older teen with wide glowing orange eyes. His face was made of red molten rocks, but there were two large glowing circles showing Rin where the alien's eyes were. Ben rose his right hand, and in it formed a green hilt, one that Ben swung and called out in a strange voice, "Cure!" Green light came out of the Keyblade, and Rin looked down at his chest to see the blood stop pouring out from his wounds, and then stop bleeding completely. He reached up a hand and touched his face, but the more shallow wounds were not even there anymore unlike the thin lines he could still see on his chest.

"Ben," Rin whispered, then he turned his head as he heard a loud shout of pain. He stared behind him with huge eyes as a hundred lances of ice dropped from the sky like rain on top of Astaroth who was already slammed into the ground. Dust and dirt rose up all around and kept making the area around the Demon King of Rot less visible with every spear that hit the ground. "Gray," Rin muttered, and he started getting up to his feet. He saw a shadow in the air and looked up, to see a ten foot long black cat soaring towards them from the direction of Pyraxas. "Kuro," Rin said, his heart racing faster. A tiny figure leapt off of Kuro's back at the top of its arc, and the boy pointed his shaking right hand down at the dust and ash where Gray's ice lances dropped. The kid yelled out, then fired a sphere of white light into the ash that got rid of all of it, filling the area instead with a huge dome of white light the destroyed everything in its path. "Dash," Rin finished, looking around at the four of them with huge eyes.

 _What was I thinking? Astaroth could have been lying to me, and I almost just sat there and let him kill me! Even if he isn't lying, I can't just let myself die! There have to be other ways to get to Yukio, get to Hell, without dying. If I died, Kuro, my friends, I would be leaving them all behind, leaving them in this dangerous place without my help. I can't do that._ Rin watched as the explosion died down, as did the others near him who were all panting, all tired. Kuro and Dash landed on the opposite side of the domed explosion as Gray was on, and Ben and Rin were on the side opposite the western walls of Pyraxas.

No one said a word. They all stared at that white explosion that was so powerful they could all feel they heat and wind from it. Each of them started moving towards where the explosion was fading. They took steps, swords and fists raised, their breathing steady. Then, a shadow became visible in the dust that was settling after the blast. They kept moving towards it, because that shadow was on its hands and knees, and not moving.

 _It's time to finish him off._

 _We have to finish him now!_

 _If he gets back up, it's all over._

"Astaroth," Rin snarled towards the shadow that became more visible as he got close. The demon no longer looked as terrifying as it once did. In fact, it was back to its original appearance, a middle-aged man with red hair, though his clothes were shredded now, and so was a lot of his skin. Ben, Dash, and Gray all dealt huge amounts of damage with each of their attacks. Compounded with the injuries Rin already gave him, Astaroth could barely hold himself up anymore. "What you said about Yukio," Rin growled towards the man on the ground, facing the floor with a shadow cast over his face.

"He is being tortured," Astaroth said, his voice smug, his tone not what the others would expect from a man who appeared on the verge of death. "Brutalized in every way possible, and you can't do anything about it," Astaroth lifted his head, and the look in his eyes made Rin freeze. What he said about Yukio made him enraged, but though his demon side wanted to take over, his more rational mind saw the look in Astaroth's eyes, and he took a step back instead. Kuro, Dash, Ben, and Gray all felt terrified as Astaroth started cackling, because it was not the laughter of someone who had gone mad, or accepted that he had lost. Astaroth was laughing in victory.

"See you there, Okumura Rin," Astaroth said, and then his entire body glowed red. His skin started to bubble, looking almost like the miasma that spread over their skin earlier, except this was not rot that was bubbling on him. The bubbles on his skin were bright red, and flashing, faster and faster each second.

Gray took a step back and started to turn, "Guys! Run!"

Dash's eyes started to widen, and he backpedaled fast as Astaroth's body gave off a wave of heat so strong he felt it burn his skin. He was about to turn, but he tripped while he was stumbling backwards, and landed on his butt right as Astaroth's entire body puffed out. The demon's neck got thicker and surrounded most of his face with skin, his arms puffed out, his stomach bloated, and then his body flashed one last time with bright red light that caused the ground for a hundred meters in every direction of him to glow the same color.

 _He's self-destructing?_ Rin thought, his mind filling with horror as he looked around and saw his friends all so close to this demon. _I got everyone killed!_ The regret that filled his mind made him feel despair like he had never felt before.

Ben had turned and started to run, but he saw Dash on his butt to his right, and the ground for a long ways in front of him glow red. _He's blowing himself up!_ Ben thought in horror, so afraid that he did not even think about transforming. The sight of his best friend falling made him hesitate even more, and that final flash he knew was the one where Astaroth was going to explode. The ground shook like an earthquake hit, and Ben yelled out in panic. The ground stopped shaking. Ben clenched his eyes and put his hands on the sides of his head, but the ground stopped shaking almost like the explosion had been stopped. He spun around, and stared at Astaroth's body, puffed out to the point that he was about to explode, and Ben's eyes opened huge as he saw Astaroth's skin ripped in certain areas, and flames coming out of those areas of skin.

But the flames were not moving. Ben turned towards Dash to yell at his friend that they needed to run while they had the chance, but Dash was not moving either. The younger boy sat there staring in utter horror at the demon behind them, but he did not move to stand up, he was not moving a muscle. The whole moment felt surreal. It was like he was in a movie and someone had pressed pause. Ben looked to either side and saw Kuro, Rin, and Gray all frozen just like Dash, all looking just as panicked and afraid, though Rin also looked really guilty too, like he thought the fact that they were about to die was all his fault. Ben kind of wanted to tell him differently, but he doubted the older teen would be able to hear him.

"Well this sure is a treat," a voice said above Ben. The kid snapped his head up, then stumbled backwards at the sight of the figure floating there. The man looked surprised at Ben's reaction, then rose his arms and looked down. "Ah," he said, realizing what Ben was so startled by. His appearance had drastically changed in the last half hour, though in reality it only changed in an instant, when he got in a battle for life or death and barely pulled a victory out of his white top hat, the only article of clothing he wore that was not currently in tatters. That instantaneous fight took a toll on his body too, and his face had skin peeling off of it, like his arms, legs, and bloody torso. His dark purple hair was a mess and shortened in many areas, like his beard that was no longer a pointy goatee, but a shriveled and burnt husk of its former glory. "Yes," the demon said while turning his arms over and looking at the backs as well as the fronts, "this deteriorating body can not take much more damage. I must search out Ichimaru Gin and request he make me a new gigai, it has worked so well."

"Who are you?!" Ben shouted up at the messed-up monster above him. It was speaking way too calmly for this situation. Time was frozen, his body was falling apart, and Ben could not handle this. "Did you," Ben began, while the figure looked down with small green eyes into Ben's wider ones. Ben gulped but continued, "Freeze time?"

"Verwunderliche!" The deteriorating man called down. He floated down in the air and stopped when he was only ten feet off the floor in front of Ben. He was smiling despite his appearance, and he continued, "I truly am surprised, that you figured it out so quickly." The demon chuckled a few times, then continued with a more knowing tone, "I would almost go as far as to say that you have seen something like it before, Benjamin."

Ben's face was covered in sweat. He took a step back, and repeated nervously, "Who, are you?" He did not shout this time, he kept his voice quiet, and fearful, as this was beyond what he was expecting the day to entail, and he had been expecting the worst.

"My name, is Mephisto Pheles," the demon replied to the boy. He smirked and looked deeper into Ben's eyes, "But I am also the Demon King of Time." Ben gulped as he said it. A glance behind the demon reminded Ben of what a Demon King could do, and here was another one before their fight with the first ever reached its conclusion.

Mephisto rose his left hand, and Ben stared at it in fear, but then his eyes darted to his side as something moved. He stared at a blond-haired little boy who was lifted off the floor, and he spun back to Mephisto angrily, shouting, "What are you doing?" Ben saw his other friends lifting up in his peripheral vision, and he stepped towards Mephisto, no longer looking like the afraid boy who faced him a minute ago. "Put them down," Ben ordered, trying to sound as threatening as possible.

"If I did such a thing," Mephisto began, while casually floating forward towards Ben, and then right past the boy who turned his head and watched the demon float overhead. "Then all of you would surely die," Mephisto finished, and Ben suddenly noticed which direction Mephisto was floating, and which way the figures he had picked up telekinetically were moving as well. _He's moving away from Astaroth,_ Ben thought, staring at the distant Pyraxas walls Mephisto was flying towards.

Ben realized he was getting left behind and started chasing after the mysterious demon. He was confused, and somewhat grateful, and he could not decide which was more important. "Um, thanks for helping us," Ben began, "but why are you helping us?" He added, and Mephisto chuckled at what was an expected reaction from the boy.

Mephisto was nearing the western walls of Pyraxas's Lower Residential Area, and he looked back at Ben to respond. "I used Er Stofven to freeze all of Pyraxas and the surrounding area for a hundred miles. It is more than I usually cover with Er Stofven, and because of that I will not be able to keep the time inside the barrier frozen for months, but mere hours. However, I will not keep it frozen for more than a few minutes, as my brother would notice that he has been frozen very soon, and I do not wish for that to happen." Mephisto looked over Ben's head and back towards Astaroth. He could not see his brother's eyes because of all the bloated skin and red light around it, but the last expression he saw was a ravenous smirk on Astaroth's face as he was about to destroy everything for a mile around him in all directions. Mephisto frowned for a second, then looked back to Ben who he smiled at again and said, "As for why I helped you, I did not want my other brother to face such a demise after fighting so bravely."

"Brother?" Ben wondered, and he looked up at Rin who could be the only one Mephisto was referring to. Before Ben could elaborate on his question, Mephisto looked down into Ben's eyes and he stopped moving towards Pyraxas altogether. Mephisto had a look of disdain and pity in his eyes, and something Ben was not even thinking about suddenly rose to the surface. "Why," Ben began softly, "am I not frozen like the others? Did you, want to ask me something?"

"No," Mephisto replied. "I am afraid, I could not freeze your time even if I wanted to." His eyes shifted from Ben's face down, towards his pants, and Ben's eyes widened as he darted his own eyes down to his right pocket. Ben was going to ask something about the glowing cube in his pocket, but Mephisto continued first, in a dark tone, "You have cursed yourself by meddling with time." Ben looked up, and the boy filled with fear at how Mephisto was shaking his head, knowingly, like there was nothing Ben could do about a fate that only he knew.

"I, I only turned back time once!" Ben yelled up at the demon.

Mephisto chuckled darkly, his eyes shadowing over by his messy purple hair. "Once?" He asked in a soft whisper, so that Ben wondered if he actually heard him. Mephisto turned his back and started floating away again, the other figures around him floating over as well.

Ben ran after him and opened his mouth to shout about that ominous conversation. Just then however, Mephisto snapped his fingers, and four voices yelled out in panic as they thought an explosion was racing at their backs. The figures realizing they were not engulfed in flames were not put at ease, as they were so confused by the fact that they were floating through the air towards the Pyraxas walls that most of them kept screaming. Rin spun his head around, and his eyes bugged open wide, "Mephisto!" he yelled, seeing the demon. Before he yelled anything, Rin winced at the sight of all the injuries on Mephisto's body that looked a lot worse than he or any of his friends had endured. "What happened to you?" Rin asked, while Kuro, Dash, and Gray all turned towards the demon who seemed to be the one carrying them through the air.

"Another time perhaps," Mephisto replied to the teen, not wanting to go into his battle with Sadao Maou at the moment.

Gray had so many questions for this figure in front of him, but the name Rin shouted echoed in his mind, and his expression darkened. "Mephisto," Gray muttered. "One of the NEG members who knew about the Underworld alliance?" He asked, and from the demon's look when it turned to him, Gray knew he was right.

Ben snapped his head back to Mephisto with a shocked look as this was news to him. None of his friends seemed to put together the fact that Ben was currently jogging below them with the fact that he was not frozen until an instant ago like the rest of them. Almost like Mephisto did not want them to figure it out, Ben suddenly found himself lifted off the ground so that he was floating after his friends. Dash turned around and looked past a floating Ben, all the way to the exploding demon far behind them who Dash thought was about to kill them all a few seconds ago. "You, saved us," Dash said, turning in confusion to the figure carrying them away.

Gray's angered look was shaken and he spun to see the same thing Dash was looking at. The sight of the demon in mid-explosion shocked the Fairy Tail mage. "Why are you here, Mephisto?" Rin asked, and Mephisto turned to the teen with a flaming sword in his hand that he had yet to sheath. "I thought you did not want to help me?" Rin questioned, using a tone to show that Mephisto was doing exactly what he said he would not do.

"One moment Rin-kun," Mephisto said. They had just reached the wall, and Mephisto lowered down, landing right on the wall's outer railing. The others were all put down by his telekinetic powers right behind him, amidst unconscious Marines and Fire Nation soldiers. Mephisto looked behind him into the city, and he frowned as he could sense figures in there who he could not risk unfreezing time and being spotted by. He turned back towards Astaroth, and rose his left hand to point towards the Demon King of Rot. "Everyone, please stand back," he said, and then he opened his left hand into a flat palm and held it in front of him, creating a massive translucent barrier with dark edges that the boys could see, but also see through.

Mephisto clenched his open palm. The ground shook, and all of Pyraxas trembled as a flash ignited in the west. Astaroth was no longer frozen, but Mephisto had waited until his brother was at the moment of his demise, when he would not be able to process that there were no longer figures in front of him to be exterminated by his self-destruction. The entire west shredded by the blast though, and the boys who were about to be caught in that dropped their jaws at how powerful it was. The light blocked the sight of the explosion for a few seconds, and then when their eyes adjusted a bit, they were able to see the pillar of flames rising a hundred meters in the air and curling out at the top in every direction. Smoke billowed off of it, and at the bottom, the ground tore apart in waves. The wind traveled fastest, picking up only the dust and smallest debris, then the force of the blast above the ground sent cracks through the landscape, before the underground blast sent everything flying up in the air, only to be incinerated by the fast-moving flames.

The blast hit Mephisto's barrier around the wall, and the demon instantly had to raise his other hand up and grab the first one by the wrist. _I have never faced Astaroth, but you are stronger than I gave you credit for brother. Iblis' rumors otherwise were unfounded._ Mephisto's barrier was shaking, and a giant diagonal crack formed in it from its top straight in front of them all the way to the bottom thirty feet to their right. Branched cracks ripped off of the largest one, but Mephisto's shaking arm became more steady, and the Demon King of Time managed to hold everything after the initial blast without issue. What formed the crack was the first collision with the explosion, but now Mephisto was just holding off its flames until it settled.

While the explosion settled down, Mephisto spoke to the boys behind him, "My physical body will not last much longer. Get on your way to your next destination, I hope you can make it there before time unfreezes." The young men behind Mephisto, and the cat with them, looked around at each other wondering what they should do. Mephisto continued, "Rin-kun, would you mind staying behind for just a moment?"

Gray stared at the explosion beyond Mephisto's barrier, and then he spun around and looked back into Pyraxas. His eyes opened wide as he could see some people from atop the wall, and those people were still frozen in time. _This is perfect! I don't know how much longer it will last, but everyone else is probably at the Palace already. We need to get up there and not have to fight our ways there the entire time._ He glanced back at Mephisto again, someone he knew was in on the NEG and Underworld alliance from reports after the battle that he, unlike most of his Fairy Tail friends, was interested in. His look of anger did not return though, as Kirito's face appeared in his mind, saving him in a very similar way as Mephisto just did. "Thank you," Gray said, surprising his friends around him.

"Y-Yeah," Dash said after a few seconds. He looked at the scary demon's back and said, "Thanks a lot!"

"Rin, are you okay staying here with this guy?" Gray questioned.

Ben looked at Gray in surprise, then realized what Gray was thinking as he gazed back into Pyraxas himself. He frowned though, while Rin told Gray they could go and Gray told them to follow him. He frowned and looked at Mephisto, and he saw Mephisto glance back his way out the corner of his eyes. _The Demon King of Time, does he know about the Eliacube? Does he know how it works? Why did he laugh, when I said I only turned it back once?_ Ben had so many questions, but Gray repeated himself to him and Ben had to turn and nod, agreeing that they should go to the Palace right now. _Why don't I ask? He would answer me, he would have to! He's stuck holding that explosion back. What's the downside of asking right now? Right now! Everyone would know._ Ben's eyes snapped open wide, and he only just then realized that there was a warm feeling in his right pocket, filling his leg and then his entire body with its warmth.

Ben turned fully and leapt off the inner wall, and Gray and Dash hopped off after him, somewhat confused as it seemed like he was the one hesitating there the most. They ran up to his sides, and though they did not ask anything about it, in the corners of their visions they could see Ben staring straight ahead, though his mind looked a thousand miles away. _Why am I not telling them? They're looking at me curiously. They want to know what's up. I could tell them right now, tell them everything. About the Eliacube, about how I can turn back time if I want, but the King would get me if I did. Why don't I?! Why do I keep stopping myself? From the very first day I had it, the urge to talk about it is met with resistance! Is the cube, stopping me? I can do it though, I'm choosing not to! It's my choice, to prevent everyone from fighting over its powers. Besides, if I told Gray about it now, he would be furious that I let Juvia die._

A small smile moved across Ben's face, and he stopped thinking about talking about the Eliacube, and the glowing warmth filling him faded away, though he did not notice. "We should get to the Fire Lord as fast as we can," Ben suggested, looking left at Dash, then right at Gray to see if they agreed. The other two nodded with him, and then Ben looked ahead and continued, "I'm worried about Natsu. He always thinks he can handle everything alone, but he might need our help. So let's go!"

"Right!" Dash exclaimed. He picked up his jog, and pushed the pace for the other two who ran as fast as they could to stay with him. Ben would have transformed, but he doubted he would be able to make it through the day without transforming again, and he did not want to waste the Omnitrix's time limit just getting to that fight.

Hundreds of meters behind the boys running through Pyraxas, Mephisto finally lowered his arms and the cracked barrier in front of him vanished. He gazed over the devastated landscape that looked like it was just bombed, and as Rin did the same, the half demon noticed that there was a thin translucent wall right at the edge of the city. "I had to shrink the time barrier to release Astaroth, while still keeping the rest of us frozen. There are some in this city who I do not wish to see me helping you," Mephisto explained, and he turned to face Rin.

Kuro stood as his house cat form on Rin's left side, and Mephisto flashed the creature a smile. Kuro smiled back, and Rin saw this out the corner of his eye. He looked at his familiar quizzically, and Mephisto explained, "I have known Kuro since long ago, perhaps before even Shiro-san." Rin heard his father's name and his expression darkened, because it reminded him about his family.

"Why are you here Mephisto?" Rin questioned, turning back to the demon and narrowing his eyes at him. Mephisto did not respond for a moment, and Rin continued, "Are you following me? If so, then why not just help me? Help me save Yukio."

"I am afraid, I cannot do that," Mephisto said. Rin frowned deeply, but he sheathed his sword, and the small blue horns sticking out of his hair vanished. Mephisto saw the dejected look on Rin's face, and he started to explain, "I did not want Astaroth to tell our Father that you were here. At the same time however, I did not want to prevent the two of you from meeting, as the reason I told you to seek out the King of Rot in the first place was to see if you at your current level could beat him." Rin's eyes widened a little, while Mephisto frowned and tssked, mainly to himself. "I am thus annoyed," he continued, "because since Astaroth destroyed himself, and you did not do it with your blue flames, he will return to Hell and there is nothing I can do to stop it."

Rin's expression darkened again, this time more than before as he realized that Astaroth's self-destructing really meant very little. _If only I had used more flames. If only I had destroyed him! Now, Satan will know where I am. He'll be able to find me… and my friends._

"If I had left Astaroth frozen for too long, our brother would have noticed his position and reported on my actions when he reforms in Hell." Mephisto continued to explain his actions to Rin who he hoped would stop looking so depressed. "I was very impressed younger brother, by your control over your blue flames, and the ability to use such a high-powered attack on the Impure King." Rin started to feel a little better and he looked into Mephisto's eyes, but despite what he was saying, Mephisto was frowning. "At the same time," Mephisto continued, "without your friends, you would have been defeated by the King of Rot, who is not the strongest of the Demon Kings, not even in the top three. And there are others, besides us Demon Kings, who reside under Satan in Hell and are even more powerful than Astaroth, some even more-so than myself."

Rin's face filled with shock. _How many? How many monsters at Astaroth's level, or stronger, are there that I have to fight? I didn't even destroy Astaroth! He's still down there, along with all of them, along with Satan… and along with Yukio._ Rin's expression hardened and he clenched his fists at his sides. "Give up," Mephisto said, and Rin glared into his eyes harshly at the suggestion.

"I don't care how strong they are," Rin growled. He lifted up his Kouma Ken in his right hand and held it above his head. "I am going to save Yukio. No matter how strong my enemies are, I will get to him, and I will save him. And when I am done with that, I am going to kick the shit out of Satan!"

Mephisto's eyes widened. He stared at the teen in front of him, who years before told him the same thing at Shiro Fujimoto's funeral. At the time, he had burst out laughing at the idea. Satan's son, working as an exorcist? The idea was mad! This time, he did not start laughing though. He stared at the determined look on Rin's face, and after a long pause, he bowed his head and sighed. Mephisto looked up slowly and through eyes shadowed over he made eye contact with Rin. "In that case, Yukio is in Hell. I do not know how much you got out of the King of Rot, but he is in the Tenth Level of Hell, all the way at the bottom. I invite you to come down and try to face Satan and all of his armies, in a futile attempt to save Yukio-kun-"

"I will," Rin said, not a trace of hesitation in his voice.

Mephisto laughed darkly at how fast Rin was to respond. He lifted off the ground and tipped his hat to the boy watching him float away, "Of course you will." Mephisto shot up into the sky, and within seconds he was gone from Rin's sight.

Okumura Rin turned back around and looked into Pyraxas. He stared out towards the walls to the Upper Residential Area that he never reached earlier, as he had felt Astaroth's presence appear in the west of Pyraxas. He saw pillars of billowing black smoke rising from that area, but also beyond it even farther east and higher up in the city built on a hill. The black smoke started to shift around, then rise up, and Rin knew time had been continued. He took a deep breath, then glanced at his side at the cat standing there. "You ready?" He asked.

Kuro nodded back at him, tired from their battle, but unwilling to show it on his face. "Then come on, we've still got a fight to win," Rin said. He leapt off the wall, and Kuro hopped off next to him, transforming back into a giant cat again so that he was ready to fight at a moment's notice. After all, their next target, was the Fire Lord.

* * *

 **First Royal Battalion Military Base, Pyraxas**

 _More of them are figuring it out,_ James Ramirez thought, while lowering the M4A1 assault rifle he just unloaded into several soldiers. **Click-BOOM!** Ramirez spun around and started sprinting back down the hall from the back door towards the front entrance. _One of the claymores,_ he stopped at the corner before the front lobby of the command building's first floor. There were bodies littered all over the floor, but Ramirez overlooked them to a mirror he had placed while setting up a defensive position in the base. The smoke from the claymore was still settling, but he frowned seeing that his enemies were not hit by the explosion, but instead set it off in a controlled blast so that they could make it through the now-destroyed front doors.

Ramirez pulled out his magazine and slid a new one in, frowning deeper as the one he grabbed was the last one of his extras. He still had twin pistols, one on either side of his waist, as well as his army knife and any of the various weapons lying around the floor of the base, so he was not too concerned. What did unnerve him though, were the orders he heard from the front doors where a squad of soldiers were moving in. "…Yes sir, it's confirmed, the command building has been taken over. We're moving in to try and regain control now. Echo and Bravo teams are going around the back…"

The Resistance Corporal standing at the corner was about to pop out and fire on the squad, but they were moving slowly and he had time. They were looking around at their comrades' bodies lying on the floor, and murmuring to each other wondering if they could handle whatever did this to them. Since they were taking so much time, Ramirez had the moment he needed to pull the detonator for the two C4 packs he had left above the back entrance to the command building. He took a deep breath, then pressed the button on the detonator. His equipment was feeling lighter by the second, as another explosion went off behind him and shook the entire building.

"What was that?!"

"Contact! At the back-" The soldier in front of the squad who started sprinting forward to get to the other side of the building where it seemed like their enemies were, could not even skid to a stop when the man popped out from around the corner and pointed the barrel of a rifle in his face. The assault rifle clicked with barely a sound, but the man in full-sprint had his head snapped backwards and his legs thrown out in front of him. Ramirez kept firing as the soldier's head snapped back, hitting the man behind him, and the one behind that. The others who were steadying themselves from the explosion and starting to sprint after their squad leader were not expecting the sudden ambush, but two of them managed to lift up their spears before Ramirez targeted them.

The Resistance fighter dove to the left, but the spears fired yellow beams of light and not bullets. Just missing a direct hit from the weapons did not ensure his safety, and one of them came too close to his back and burned straight through his gear. Ramirez's eyes bugged at the sight of one of his grenades rolling on the floor beneath him, the pin pulled right off as where it was clipped to his vest got burned through. He ignored the pain of his burnt skin, and after he finished his roll he immediately got back up in a full sprint, dropped his empty weapon from his hands for the extra burst of speed, and leapt for one of the shattered windows of the front of the building. **BOOOM!** The men behind him who were turning their spears to fire more shots, screamed as the shrapnel of Ramirez's grenade hit them and the room filled with flames.

Ramirez hit the ground on the other side of the window on his arms that were protected by his thick clothing and avoided having the glass shards all over the floor from imbedding in them. Ramirez rolled into a stand while whipping his arms to his sides and grabbing each of his pistols, pulling them out in front of him and firing at the two men who were running across the tarmac in his direction. The two were a good distance away and his pistols had a lot of recoil, but Ramirez's aim was impeccable and after five shots from either of his pistols, the enemy soldiers were motionless on the ground. Ramirez darted his eyes to the left, then right, pointing his M9 pistols wherever he gazed so there would be no gap between when he saw an enemy and that enemy dropped.

"Ramirez!" a voice shouted behind him, and Ramirez spun around with his arms held straight out in front of his chest, M9s focused on the hole where the entrance to the barracks used to be. Sergeant Foley held an open palm towards him, telling him to lower his weapon. He had hoped his voice was enough to steady the soldier, and seeing that Ramirez's reaction speed was that great did not unnerve him one bit. "Good job soldier," Foley said, while thinking, _Damn am I glad you're on our side._

"Shit dude," Dunn began as he walked into the entranceway next, behind Foley who started walking out towards Ramirez. Dunn glanced behind him, then looked back at his comrade and said, "What'd you take down? Thirty of them?" Ramirez lowered his weapons more and gave no response, and Dunn just shook his head, muttering, "Hooah man." He saw Ramirez snap his guns back up towards him and he opened his eyes wide for a second, before remembering something and holding his arms out to his sides.

"Lower your weapons soldier, he's an ally!" Foley yelled, seeing Ramirez had his fingers pressing on the trigger like he was ready to shoot above and below Dunn's arms to hit the figure who just appeared in the entrance behind him.

Ramirez lowered his M9s, though he was slow to do it. Dunn moved out of the way and let out a breath of relief. The figure behind him in Fire Nation armor was also looking around like Dunn had, staring at all the carnage in the lobby. Lu Ten then shifted his gaze outside to the soldier standing there with pistols in his hands at his sides, a serious look on his face, and cuts on his face, back, and chest through his vest and clothing. His hands were bloody, his knuckles still bleeding, but he showed no sign of fatigue from the battle damage. _This is no soldier, he is a warrior._ "I am Lu Ten," the man began while walking out towards Ramirez. He was the only one not holding a weapon, but Ramirez did not think that meant he was not armed, as for the man to be their ally yet not be holding a weapon in their situation, it would be suicidal.

 _Fire bender,_ Ramirez thought, and he nodded at the figure in front of him without asking any questions about him or why he was there helping out.

"Alright men," Foley began, and the other three turned towards the Sergeant. "There's a whole lot of noise coming from the Palace, and the messages we were sending out of command here have been cut off. We've gotta get to that Palace and find out if the Fire Lord's been taken care of or not. Everybody we sent north is gonna be comin' back this way now, so we gotta get off this base ASAP."

"Sir, if the Fire Lord's not been taken out, what's the point of us going there?" Dunn asked, then turned his head around and looked up the city towards that very building as an explosion went off that shook the ground under his feet. "If the guy they specifically sent to take him out couldn't do it-"

"Quiet soldier," Foley snapped, and Dunn grumbled but closed his mouth. "Even if the mission has failed, our exfil is going to pick us up straight from the Royal Palace. So we either find those allies of ours and help them finish the mission at hand, or get the Hell out of this city before the soldiers we've sent scattering regain control of the situation." Foley locked and loaded in his weapon then turned and started running around the front of the command building. "But we can't stay here! Taking back this base will be the first move the First Battalion makes. We need to move fast up the city, and hit them hard while we've still got the upper hand!"

Lu Ten looked at each of the soldiers in front of them as they ran around the side of the building. They moved for the fence, and he watched as Dunn pulled out a pair of small bolt cutters from his vest and started snipping the chain links one by one. "Foley," he started, once they were through enough of the fence that their leader could pull it to the side and usher his men through. Foley looked back and Ramirez stopped bending down to crawl through the fence like Dunn had just done. "You and your men continue your mission, I will put my faith that the Fire Lord is being taken out at this moment, and proceed with the second part of my own plan."

"And what was that?" Dunn questioned from the other side of the fence. The first part of Lu Ten's plan was similar to theirs with the way he misdirected all of the city's soldiers.

The Prince of the Fire Nation turned his head north and glared the direction the Fire Nation's soldiers would be returning from. "I am in the line of succession, even if my great grandfather does not recognize it. I will face the army of the Fire Nation and bring them word that a new Fire Lord has come to take his place on the throne. And if my cousin rears her head, I will put my training to the test and fight her for the sake of our people."

Ramirez's eyes narrowed as the man behind them spoke. _He is making a power move. Did he get the Sergeant and Dunn on his side, to further his own goals? Is he, only using us, not helping us? After we help him take power, what type of ruler would this man make?_

"Well good luck to you," Foley said to the Fire Nation Prince. He saw Ramirez watching Lu Ten start to walk away north, and he called out, "Get a move on Ramirez! We're on a schedule here!" Ramirez turned and nodded at his Sergeant, then ducked down and crawled through the fence that Foley was holding back for him. The Sergeant watched his man go through, then held the bent fence up while he himself ducked down and made his way through it, only letting go once he was safely on the other side, though it did not snap down very fast at his back.

"Think that guy has a chance?" Dunn asked the other two who finally made it through the fence.

"We've got other things to worry about," Foley said, trying to get his men to refocus. "Now let's go, we're joining up with the assault team. Time's running out." He started running, and Dunn and Ramirez followed after him on either side of his back.

Back inside the military base, walking north on the tarmac full of zeppelin and plane wreckage, a smirk was spreading across Lu Ten's face. The serious, justice-seeking son, smirked in a dangerous way that one of the soldiers he was just with had dreaded. _Stupid Resistance fools,_ Lu Ten thought. _Once I am the High Lord and have control of the Supernova, I will crush you all in one fell swoop._

* * *

 **Ironforge**

Two miles south and four miles below Pyraxas, in the dwarven capital of Ironforge, hundreds of dwarves were rushing through the forges and gathering up their strongest weapons and armor. Short, bearded men grabbed large double-sided axes, and massive war hammers larger than their own bodies, or for some, double-barreled shotguns and automatic rifles. The soldiers of Ironforge were all heading towards the Central Forge, but when they arrived they were not met with coherent orders telling them what their objective was. Instead, they found themselves gathering in a growing circle of dwarves in the middle of the Central Forge, in the center of which there were two dwarves getting louder and louder as they shouted at each other.

The first of the dwarves was the High King, Modimus Anvilmar, wielding a giant war hammer that he held by its long steel shaft in both hands. He slammed the hammer down on the ground on his right side and roared, "There is no argument to be had! We have received a request for aid from our allies in Pyraxas! Admiral Komei-"

"'ALLIES?'" Another voice bellowed, this one coming from the dwarf ten meters in front of Anvilmar. The malcontent dwarf wearing less shiny armor, though still with gold on his weapon, on the bottom of the shaft and right beneath the head of his axe, smacked the shaft of his weapon into his other open palm so loudly that it sounded like it must have hurt. "They are not our allies, but our conquerors! Why should we fight by their sides?!" Gimli roared, and many of the dwarves around the growing circle of his brethren started murmuring in agreement.

"It is because they have already shown their ability to conquer us, that we must go to their aid when they request it," Anvilmar began, while stomping a foot towards Gimli and raising up his war hammer again. "I will not have my people exterminated, and that is exactly what will happen when the Fire Lord is finished with those attacking right now! _If,_ we do not come when his advisors request-"

"'Request, request, request,' they are not requesting anything!" Gimli yelled at his King. "They are ordering you to send us into battle for them! I do not fight for the Fire Lord!" Many of the other dwarves around the circle rose their voices this time. Many others yelled at the ones who rose their voices with Gimli to quiet down, as they were on the side of their High King, but Anvilmar looked around and saw more than he thought looking restless like this most outspoken dwarf in front of him. "I do not fight for anyone, I do not find fit!" Gimli added in a shout. "And if fighting for this High Lord is your command, then I will not fight for you!" Gimli narrowed his eyes and Anvilmar glared back into them as Gimli was speaking treason.

"Then what will you do, Gimli son of Gloin?" Anvilmar questioned, his hammer glowing bright red, the stone beneath his feet cracking down. _If I am held up here by internal conflict while the fight goes on above, I have the excuse I need not to send my people to war._ Anvilmar grinned as Gimli lifted his axe then yelled out a war cry and charged straight at him. The High King spoke, "If it is a challenge against your King, then I will gladly accept! Come Gimli, let us see if you can defeat me, this time!" Anvilmar rushed forward and pulled back his hammer. The rest of the dwarves around them roared out their King or Gimli's names, and the two swung their weapons together in a clash of steel that echoed through the forges for all the dwarves to hear.

* * *

 **Royal Palace First Floor, Pyraxas**

Inside the west wing of the first floor of the Fire Lord's Palace, Zachary Miller had his back up against the wall on one side of a doorway. He looked across the open entrance and took a few deep breaths, before nodding at the soldier standing there looking back at the visor of his helmet. The elite guard he nodded at gulped, then popped out around the doorway that no longer had a door which could be seen by the wooden shards lying all over the floor. "Raaa!" The man yelled, charging through the door and firing his automatic rifle as fast as he could.

Miller took a few more deep breaths before twisting his left foot to pop out behind the door too. "AHH!" He heard the same soldier's voice yell out, and then an explosion flashed yellow light through the opening, and a second later his comrade came flying through the doorway in a cloud of smoke. The man hit the ground and bounced farther into the room Miller was already inside, and the Captain of the Royal Palace's security force stared down at his comrade, his only remaining comrade's, twitching form.

Through the door and thirty feet down the hallway, a tall, silver-haired man lowered his Keyblade, and the girl next to him asked, "So how did you get so far east? Was it all on Mama Hawk's back?"

Riku shook his head no, and the other, longer-nosed man in the hall replied, "We took the train after Luffy beat the Dread Fort's Lord."

Kairi laughed and mentioned, "We heard about that."

Usopp tilted his head to the side and questioned, "What about you? The train took us pretty far away, but I heard there were not any train lines south of the one we took."

"We took a Scarab Tank that some Resistance people we met had. That's how we got east at least, then we took a flying bison north, and then a train from Sin City," Kairi explained to the boys.

Riku sighed, and said, "Luffy couldn't get on that train. It didn't matter though, since he wanted to cross the Cataclysm on foot anyway."

Kairi started giggling, "I thought so," she said.

The other two looked at her with confused glances. "What do you mean?" Usopp asked from the left of the girl walking down the center of the hall.

Kairi waved it off like it was nothing, then said, "Gray couldn't take the train either, so he needed a fake ID. We had to disguise ourselves as a family and were sneaking around the city on a stealth mission to take down the Fire Lord."

Usopp's eyes were wide as she spoke, but he groaned at the end of her sentence. "You guys sound like you had a much better plan than we did. We just rushed right in here haphazardly." Usopp was taking another step towards the entrance, but Riku leaned forward and held up a hand for the pirate to stop. Usopp turned to him, and Riku pointed at the doorway, then to the right side of it with a small grin.

The long-nosed pirate lifted up the corners of his lips, but as did, he thought about what happened out in the courtyard of the Palace, and his sour mood returned. His shifted his gaze back to the doorway in the middle of the hall leading into some room they were heading towards, and Riku frowned at the side of his head as he thought they were about to have some fun with this. Riku started frowning deeply at Usopp's annoyed expression, one that did not disappear even after he fired a Pop Green through the doorway at the floor beyond, and the screams of panic filled the air from the soldier laying in wait for them.

Usopp started walking forward again, and Kairi gave Riku a quick smile before following after him. Riku shook his head around a few times, then followed after Kairi and tried pushing his mind to something else. He walked through the door and glanced right at a figure hanging upside-down by his ankles, the top half of his body stuck inside a green plant that looked almost like a mouth, getting fed to it by arm-like vines. He chuckled, then slashed at the man with his Keyblade, knocking him out of the plant and into the wall twenty feet past it. He hit Miller so hard that the guard slammed into the wall, then slumped over to his side motionless.

"Ughh," Usopp groaned, and Riku looked ahead with a pissed-off expression. His angry look disappeared though, as Usopp was not looking at him like he thought, annoyed at _another_ little thing he did. The sniper was in the center of the room, looking around it and groaning as there were no other doors in here besides one in the back left corner that they could tell only led to a bathroom. "A dead end," Usopp said, turning around to face the two behind him.

Kairi gazed around the room interestedly. There was a large bed pressed up against the back wall, with four wooden poles sticking out of its corners and holding up a velvety red canopy over it. The blanket was embroidered with Fire Nation symbols, and the curtains on the right wall that were currently closed and preventing them to see what was outside were similarly patterned, though the curtains had golden highlights on the edges of the red fabric they were made of. "This _is_ a nice room," Kairi said, looking around at more of the room's designs and details. "But we should get going. I want to find Juvia, and help the others too." She turned to Riku and looked up at the taller teenager, "Where should we go from here?"

Riku hummed to himself and thought about the design of the building from what he saw outside. _This place is massive, there have to be hundreds of rooms for us to search._ He opened his mouth and began, "I'll send out some Shadows to figure out what's going on around-"

"No!" Usopp yelled, interrupting the other teen. Riku ground his teeth, but before he could argue, Usopp took a step in his direction and snapped at him, "You keep using the Heartless, and for what? Because it's easy? Those things are evil!"

"We are wasting time with this," Riku growled back at him through clenched teeth, trying not to sound too annoyed at the man whose anger he could understand. "And we would be wasting even more time by searching every room of this Palace, instead of just using the Heartless!"

Usopp's hands clenched into fists and he yelled, "Why don't you get it?! Using the darkness is what got you taken over by Ansem in the first place! It's what got _me_ taken! And you keep doing it! You haven't learned anything!"

"I learned how to control it!" Riku yelled back.

"Guys," Kairi urged, trying to step in before this got any farther, as her friends were getting angrier by the second. "Let's just calm down for a second okay? Maybe, the three of us should just search the Palace ourselves?" She suggested, looking to Riku softly.

He turned to her with wide eyes, shocked she was taking Usopp's side. They were in the middle of a battle against real enemies, and he was going to use everything in his power against them. "The time I could save using Shadows to help us, could save one of our friends' lives," Riku said, his voice dark. He turned from Kairi who looked surprised by how serious he suddenly got, and turned instead to see what Usopp thought about that. The angry, unaccepting look on Usopp's face even after that explanation only made him angrier.

 **CRASH!** The wall on the right side of the room blasted open. All three of those in the center of the room looked over. If someone was blowing a hole in the Royal Palace, it was likely one of their friends. Kairi was secretly happy they were just interrupted from that serious question, and she opened her mouth to greet whoever it was that finally reached the Palace. Usopp looked towards the hole in the wall with settling dust around it, and he did not look as excited as Kairi. He was still angry from what they were just arguing about, and also he was not as confident that she was that the one who smashed a hole in the wall was a friend. Unfortunately for him, he was right.

Kairi closed her open mouth, because the sight of the figure floating in the hole in the wall made her entire body tense up. He was wearing a black cloak with a silver zipper down the middle of it and in a loop around the hood at the top. The hood was all bunched up behind his neck at the moment, revealing the young cloaked figure's face. Kairi stared at the face for a second, then two, and her nervous look started to fade. She took a step back, her bottom lip lowering, while the figure in the hole floated forwards. He lowered down to the ground twenty feet in front of the three, and glared at each of them one by one. When he saw Kairi's expression, his own eyes widened and he took a step towards her, but then, his gaze shifted to the tallest figure in the room who was looking towards him with a similar look as Kairi's, only much, much darker.

 _This boy._ Riku thought, his eyes shadowed over by his silver bangs, his long hair waving around in a sudden gust of wind behind him. His fists clenched furiously at his sides, so tight that his fingernails dug into his palms and drew blood. He stared in silent fury at the figure who had black hair sticking up off the top of his head in a bunch of tiny five-inch spikes. _I know him._ The figure was almost full foot shorter than him, and a little shorter than both Kairi and Usopp. _I, created him._ The whites of the boy's eyes took up most of the space in them, but right in the centers of those eyes, were coal-black dots that stared straight into Riku's green eyes. _I created a monster._

The short figure opened his mouth to speak, but as he did, Riku's mouth opened, and the tallest figure in the room, laughed. Riku's head bowed and the two behind him stopped facing the short figure, instead turning to their comrade whose laughter was very deep in tone. He was shaking, his entire body trembling, as he laughed harder and harder. Kairi turned her head and the shock she had on her face from looking at the Nobody who entered the room doubled at the sight of one of her best friends.

"Hahaha, haha," Riku's deep laughter was creeping out his friends at his sides. "Finally," he said. His lips curled up and he cracked his neck to the left, then the right, while Kairi's face filled with terror, and the other two in the room stared at him in total confusion. Riku lifted up his right hand and stared at its fist as he unclenched it, and examined the blood coming out of where his nails dug into it. He stared at it for a few seconds, then clenched it tightly again, and in a menacing voice, he growled, "I am free."

* * *

 **Royal Palace Third Floor, Pyraxas**

"Jackal, guard from intrusions from the west wing. There are less men posted there." Admiral Komei of the Sun Marines stood in the hallway directly outside of the Fire Lord's throne room. He had looked inside only a few minutes ago when he arrived, and to his dismay the Fire Lord was already in the midst of a battle with one of the intruders. The man in a cream-colored robe with burnt sleeves pointed his fan to the west, and the shorter figure in front of him frowned in annoyance.

"What was that?" Jackal asked, twisting a finger around in one ear. The demon of Tartaros had cat ears and a long tail with fur the same color as his dark blond hair. He wore a green tank top pressed tight against his torso, and a pair of tight-fitting black pants. His arms from the forearms down to his fingers were pitch black, with more speckled black dots between the middle of his forearm and his elbow, and some of those dots were on his face above and below his right eye. The left side of Jackal's face was covered by a flip of his dark blond hair, the demon had a thin and pointed nose, and the shiny white teeth in his mouth were sharpened like a cat's.

Komei frowned back at the figure before him. "They are in the Palace already," he said in a harsh tone. "I do not have time for insubordination."

"Yeah yeah," Jackal kept twisting the finger in his ear, but he took it out and blew on it, then started walking the opposite direction as the one Komei pointed in. Komei opened his mouth to order him to turn around, but the Marine shut it and ground his teeth instead. Jackal smirked and started laughing at Komei's cowardice.

 _Wasting any more time arguing with that demon would be foolish. I must handle the side with less guards on my own._ Komei started walking towards the west wing where only a few men were stationed on this floor. _I am losing contact with soldiers all over the Palace. There is no telling how many have infiltrated at this point. I made contact with the soldiers of the First Royal Battalion, and they are on their way to the Palace, but they have no leadership with them. For them to have sabotaged our entire standing army, I did not give these fighters their due respect. Now however, they will be stopped. Two zeppelins have reported in from the east, and five Lords have relayed to me their eagerness to help the King. They are quickly mobilizing and approaching the capital, and the dwarves should have arrived at the southern gates already, though I have not received word of their arrival._

The leader of the Sun Marines in Pyraxas froze as he heard a loud noise come from the west wing. It sounded like something crashing, maybe through a wall, or the floor, and it unsettled him. He lifted his fan and covered it in Haki, making the weapon extend to the length of a longsword. _They are coming._

On the opposite side of the hall, Jackal turned around and frowned as he also heard the noise come from that direction. He and Komei were each halfway from the center of the hall to the respective wings they were supposed to be guarding. The ceiling was over thirty feet above their heads, and the walls were covered in ornate decorations and fancy tapestry. The demon smirked as he thought about blowing all the beautiful decorations to pieces, and then he froze and spun around. He turned because he felt something, and the demon with features of a cat sniffed a few times before going wide eyed.

In the east wing, several soldiers were on guard, machine guns in hand with blades sticking off the bottoms of their weapons. Two stood in a doorway one room down from the main hallway of the floor that the throne room was centered in. One of the men was bald and had scars all over his face, while the other wore a lot thicker black armor including a helmet over his face that shielded his face. The one in the helmet had his weapon lowered and he was looking at the man next to him while speaking in a hushed, nervous tone, "I'm telling you, I saw it! I thought they were just rumors, but the entire city filled with them only a few minutes ago!"

Neither of the men saw the thin figure walking towards a doorway on their left, fists clenched at his sides and a smirk on his face. The skinny man hesitated though as the bald man replied to his comrade, "You're sure? Blue flames! We're fucked man!" The pirate through the next doorway got a confused look on his face, and then the bald man continued louder, "Fucked! Why the Hell is Satan attacking us now of all times?!"

Luffy stomped through the doorway. The two guards spun towards him and rose up their weapons. They unloaded, no hesitation, their reflexes fast hence their position on the third floor of the Royal Palace. Luffy just marched straight towards them though, his body leaning left and right, weaving between the yellow beams like he was not even trying. The men backed up, but their backs were to the wall on either side of the door behind them.

Jackal heard all the gunfire and he turned straight towards the doorway. Loud screams echoed from the east, and then the wall on either side of the doorway he was facing blasted into pieces. Two men came flying through the wall with palms clenched on their faces. The visor of the more-armored-man's helmet shattered, while Luffy crushed down on the two of them, and then slammed them each into the floor so hard they got sent crashing down to the floor below.

On the other side of the hallway, Komei spun around as he heard the crash, then turned back to face the west wing a second later as another crash came from this side of the hallway. He heard screams coming from inside the west wing.

"We've got him!"

"No one could survive all those flames!"

"HOLY SH-"

"AHH!"

The walls around the corner of the west wing covered in flames, and all of the elite Fire Nation soldiers Komei had posted there came flying backwards covered in burns. Komei's teeth clenched, because he knew there was only one figure who could be coming around this corner. He backed up so he was closer to the door of the throne room, while lifting up his Haki-covered fan and holding it sideways protectively in front of his body.

On the east side of the main hallway of the third floor, Luffy stepped through the settling dust from the wall he smashed through. He glared forward a dozen meters at the figure in front of him with golden-furred ears and tail and dark blond hair. One look told the pirate captain that this figure was stronger than any of the ones he had faced on his way up there. As Luffy looked at the figure though, his eyes grew three times in size and his gaze shifted over Jackal's left shoulder.

On the opposite side of the hall, a man just walked through the flames surrounding the corner. He stepped out and glared forward, "I found you," Natsu snarled at the Sun Marine Admiral. "I was wondering when you were going to show your ugly face," he said, as he knew Komei was not taken down during their earlier skirmishes. Natsu's fists burst into even more flames, and then he saw over Komei's shoulder and down the hall, two other men. One of those men was looking straight back towards him, and Natsu's eyes bugged out for a second, before darting to his left while still looking past Komei.

Luffy followed Natsu's gaze, shifting his own to the right side of the hall, and he looked straight at a massive doorway sticking all the way up towards the ceiling. The pirate realized what Natsu was thinking, and he snapped his gaze back down with a much more serious look than he had just by facing Jackal. Natsu's fists covered in five times as many flames, shocking Komei who was already hesitant about attacking because his flames had doubled.

"What are you looking at?!" Jackal yelled at the pirate in front of him. "Your opponent is right here!" He rose his arms.

Luffy punched his right fist out to the side, and his skin pumped, turning red with steam coming off of it.

Komei yelled out and his entire body covered in a purple aura. He brought back his fan and the weapon extended to ten feet long before he started swinging it back in front of his body.

Natsu bent his knees. He pushed off the ground and the wood beneath him cracked down, then burst into flames after a second. Flames rose behind him as he charged at Komei, then the Dragon Slayer darted to the right, then left as Komei changed the trajectory of his swipe to hit him.

"Gear Second," Luffy said. Jackal grinned, but Luffy saw it coming. The entire hallway around where Luffy was standing exploded.

"HEHE-" Jackal stopped cackling after only two laughs, his voice catching in his throat. The pirate was not inside the explosion he created out of thin air. Luffy stood straight in front of him, teeth grinding, his right fist still far behind him so that it was in the middle of that explosion. Luckily for Luffy, his entire fist was covered in a coating of Armament Haki. And now, it was already covered in flames, though more were forming around it as he brought his fist forward faster than Jackal could follow with his widening eyes.

Komei missed his slash and his sword sent a flying slash all the way through the corner connecting their hall to the west wing, and then through a wall so that it ripped a crack to the outside. Komei's weapon jammed into the floor, while he turned his head to the right where Natsu sidestepped a second time. All of the flames on Natsu's left hand vanished, and the enormous flames around his right hand doubled in size once again. Komei's bottom lip started dropping, while Natsu's fist far behind his body swung forward with a massive fireball surrounding it.

"FIRE DRAGON'S DEVASTATION TALON!"

"HAWK BULLET!"

A fist slammed into the center of Komei's face and sent the Admiral flying all the way back through the hallway surrounded in a ball of fire. A different fist slammed into Jackal's right cheek, and an explosion of flames ripped out of the left side of his face. The demon was lifted off the ground for only a second, before slamming into the ground beneath where Komei was flying, then sent bouncing through the entire hallway. Natsu was sprinting forward, and the Dragon Slayer hopped up when the bouncing form neared him, slamming a hand down on the top of the figure's face to push it right under his legs. Luffy sprinted forward from the other side, and he snapped his body sideways as the Admiral-filled fireball flew at him, before continuing his sprint as fast as he could.

Natsu was getting close to the door first, but Luffy was still in Gear Second, and the pirate pushed his legs down before pouncing down the hall. The two of them almost collided with each other as they met outside the door, and they growled at each other considering it was too close. They opened their mouths and at the same time shouted, "I call fighting-" neither of them finished as they were too annoyed that the other was shouting at the same time, and even more annoyed that they were saying the same exact thing.

"I'm first," Natsu argued, reaching out for the door.

"No! I wanted to fight him all day!" Luffy grabbed Natsu's wrist, then put his hand on the other door to start pushing

"Well I've wanted to fight him all week!" Natsu yelled back and wrestled with Luffy's arms so he could be the one to push the door open.

"I wanted to fight him all year!"

"You didn't even know he existed all year!"

The doors to the throne room were thrown open at the same time. Two figures stumbled inside, then pushed away from each other with frustrated looks on their faces. They turned forward, and then both of them dropped their jaws at the sight in front of them.

Natsu glanced left and right at the sides of the throne room past all the tall pillars reaching up towards the ceiling. On the sides of the room were flames rising from every square inch of floor, rising up over twenty feet in height so that there would be no way for anyone to get through there. Near the opposite side of the room as the doorway, where Sozin's throne sat atop a staircase, the entire floor and stairwell were enflamed similarly. The Fire Lord was currently floating above those high-rising flames, out of the reach of a figure closer to Natsu and Luffy, standing near the center of the room in the middle of a flaming carpet, though around where the kid stood, the carpet was torn to shreds. There was a circle of lightning sparking on the floor around the boy standing in the center of the room, but as the two behind him looked his way, they saw that lightning and the electric aura around the kid's body fade, his spiky white hair lowering down as well and losing some of its intense spikiness.

Luffy looked past the kid in front of them who he was stunned to see already in the throne room. He looked past and all the way to Sozin, but then looked beneath the Fire Lord who he was seeing for the first time, but knew from a first glance that that was who this man was. Beneath him, was something that made Luffy's heart race. He stared at the glowing sphere of yellow light, but his eyes quickly adjusted to the brightness to show him that yellow was just the glow the outside of the sphere was giving off. A closer look let him see the orange and red core to that sphere, burning so densely that it looked like a sun. In Luffy's mind, he saw something like it, an attack that his brother Ace made back when they fought Shadow Shanks in Hollow Bastion. The size of Ace's Supernova was a lot smaller though. _That thing feels a hundred times more powerful than Ace's! And we beat Shanks with it, even if, it was his weakened Shadow._

"Luffy, Natsu," Killua muttered. "It took you long enough," the kid said, but he did not turn to the two behind him.

"Killua," Natsu said, shocked even more so by the kid's being here than by Luffy. He glanced up over Killua's head, then down at the kid again. Sozin had a little bit of blood on his body, on the side of his exposed and muscular torso. Killua's arms also had some scratches on them though, and anyone could see that he had first and second degree burns all over his exposed skin. His ankles had melted flesh on them, and Killua's shoes were gone, burnt through completely by all the flames rising from the floor. _What is he doing? Why, is he fighting Sozin alone?_ Natsu thought, not understanding this situation at all.

"Monkey D. Luffy," Sozin announced, his voice booming. He shifted his gaze a little, "Natsu Dragneel." Sozin's eyes narrowed more at the Fire Dragon Slayer than they did at the pirate. "I was expecting your arrivals. I had hoped to be finished with young Killua Zoldyck before you arrived, but it is no matter."

Killua was panting. Godspeed just ran out on him, and his feet and ankles were in so much pain that he was finding it hard not to let Sozin see his legs shake. His hands clenched into fists at his sides. _Luffy and Natsu are here! I, I couldn't beat him, before they arrived, but they don't seem too injured from their previous fights. They can take him. He'll probably come after me first to finish me off before taking them on, so, so I should get out of here!_ Killua's feet would not move. _Fuck!_ Killua cursed mentally. _What is wrong with me?! Sozin's proven himself to be stronger than me! This entire room is built to support his powers, and every second he floats there in the light of his Supernova, he gets faster, stronger, and his flames burn hotter. He said so himself, and I can see it happening! At my decreased speed right now, I, I won't be able to do anything!_

"Why are you here?" Natsu asked, and Killua's eyes snapped shut.

In the kid's mind, he saw himself a little over a week before, his extended fingernails pressing against Natsu's throat like claws, just to make a point. He thought about the Boar's Head bar, when Natsu asked him which group he would be going with, the glare on Natsu's face as he asked it.

Sozin was not going to stand there and let them reminisce. The Fire Lord shot through the air faster than Natsu or Luffy were expecting, and Killua tried leaping backwards, but Sozin was too fast. He crossed his arms in front of his body and formed a small Nen barrier around him, but Sozin's fist hit him in the crossed arms and sent him flying towards the left side of the room. Luffy's eyes opened huge as he saw how huge the flames were that Killua was about to fall into, and then all at once, all of those flames stopped burning so hot and high. All of the flames on the left side of the room pulled in one direction, and the Fire Dragon Slayer stuck his chest out as he sucked it all in.

Killua dropped down on a floor no longer covered in flames, and he rolled up onto one knee and a foot, though he found it difficult to get back up. _Get out of here already! You're too weak to keep fighting… except I'm not! I can keep going!_

As Killua snapped his head up, he watched as two other figures leapt up in the air towards the Fire Lord. Natsu with his recently ingested flames, and Luffy covered in steam, yelling out powerful attacks towards the older man who was looking towards Killua. Killua kept up eye contact with Sozin even as the Fire Lord rose his hands and caught each of his enemies attacks. _There's no way!_ Killua thought, then watched as Sozin slammed his two enemies' heads into each other, then tossed them to opposite sides where they each slammed into pillars so hard that they smashed straight through them.

"The two of you," Sozin snarled, turning his head and glaring down at Luffy's shadow in the dust that was pushing itself off the ground. "Have the audacity to come here now," the Fire Lord continued. "At least Killua came straight here, but you two, how much of my city have you destroyed?!" Sozin roared the last part, and the two about to leap back towards him with new attacks found themselves hesitating as a massive flame surrounded Sozin and flared over his body. "To have reached this far, you must have defeated my advisors, and broken your way through my Palace, and I am beyond enraged!" Sozin's eyes glowed bright white through the flaming veil, but Natsu smirked as the aura grew larger.

Natsu opened his mouth and sucked in, and the aura around Sozin started to shift directions and head towards him. When the start of the trail of flames was almost at Natsu's mouth however, Natsu's jaw dropped and he stopped breathing in, because Sozin was suddenly in front of him with his left elbows stuck forward. Natsu leaned away to dodge, then a foot slammed under his chin and snapped his head back so hard he was thrown all the way to the ceiling that cracked in a dozen different directions when he collided. Sozin heard Luffy flying towards his back, and the Fire Lord roared and his aura flared behind him thirty feet. Luffy yelled in pain and stopped himself in midair, throwing his arms backwards and grabbing a pillar to swing himself back to.

Killua ran back to the middle of the room. He glanced up and watched Natsu fall from the ceiling, then the Fire Dragon Slayer hit the ground on his right side. Natsu had his hands and knees on the floor and was looking down with wide eyes as he could not even follow Sozin's movements during that last attack. Killua's eyes darted to his left and he saw Luffy land next to a pillar and start patting his chest down, then rip off the flaming shirt he had on and toss it to the side. Kil looked back towards Sozin who floated before them, eyes glowing bright white, a huge flaming aura around him that grew larger by the second. Suddenly, the floor beneath the three fighters challenging the Fire Lord shook, and Natsu fell back to his hands and knees as he was halfway through standing up.

"What, was that?" Natsu muttered. He looked up and staggered onto his feet, then stared past Sozin's floating form and lowered his bottom lip a few inches.

Sozin saw where the other three were looking, and he looked back over his shoulder. "Is it, supposed to do that?" Killua shouted.

They all stared at the Supernova. They watched flares of orange whip off of the sphere, dragging across the floor and digging through it. A whip snapped off the miniature sun and cut straight through a pillar, and the entire pillar started collapsing. "No, it is not," Sozin said, his voice dark, and full of rage.

"Well aren't you going to do something?!" Killua shouted up, his voice semi-panicked as he had enough sense to be able to tell that this was seriously bad. "How do you get it under control?!"

Sozin's expression darkened and he turned back forward to face his opponents. "My top scientist, Doctor Octavius, was the expert on the Supernova," Sozin said. Killua's heart fell, and Sozin continued, "But you killed him, and now, I don't know what will happen." Despite what he said, Sozin's lips curled up at the corners, and all three of those facing him got very bad feelings about this. Killua took a step back, but his eyes widened as the two on his sides took steps forward instead.

"Whatever it is you're trying, I won't let you do it," Natsu growled. He rose his fists and this time, they covered in both fire and lightning bolts.

Luffy snapped his head to the side, spitting on the floor to his right as he did. He turned back and glared at Sozin, his body still steaming and his skin red, though now his fists were black with Haki too. "He's mine," Luffy said.

The two did not look at each other. They ignored the person next to them and leapt up at Sozin at the same time. They were leaping straight towards him, and all Sozin had to do was fly twenty feet backwards. He was already floating back, but now, he got to witness the two who leapt at him reach the point in the air he was just in simultaneously. The best part was, he knew either of them could have changed their trajectories to come after him, but since they were both thinking about that, neither thought about the other person attacking at the same time, and Sozin watched as the two collided in midair and started flipping over each other before crashing down to the floor.

Sozin almost laughed. Instead though, he just glared at the two on the floor in front of his shaking Supernova who started arguing about how the other got in their way. Sozin's eyes moved around the Supernova, and again his lips curled up as flares of flames and whips of the sun tore off of it. "This fake sun is becoming unstable," Sozin started, not really speaking to the men beneath him, as he was just speaking out loud. "Without Doc Ock to get it under control, I have no other choice than to harness all of the excess energy myself." Sozin slowly started lifting his arms, and the Palace stopped shaking. Another orange whip came off of the Supernova, but this one curled up in the air towards Sozin.

Unlike the other energy they saw leaving the Supernova and heading to Sozin though, this flare did not absorb into his body. The flare curved up over the top of Sozin's head, right above his hands that he had over his head, palms up towards the sky. All of the haze in the room started moving to that point, and the Supernova below him that was violently pulsing light and burning everything around it, started to settle down. Natsu and Luffy stopped squabbling as Killua shouted at them, "Idiots! Look above you!"

Look up they did. Natsu and Luffy lowered their fists and dropped their jaws at what was floating above Sozin's head. The Supernova only a few meters ahead of them might have been the more condensed energy, but just the Supernova's scraps and flares created so much fire energy that there was now a fireball above Sozin twenty times as large as the sphere coming out of the throne room's steps. That sphere already was taller than a normal person, so the one Sozin held above his head was enormous. It grew so large so fast, that the roof of the throne room could not handle it and shredded into the fire. It burst into flames for a single second before disintegrating as all the fire's fuel was burned through. Sozin had to float higher up because he thought that if he let the sphere get any bigger, it would tear apart all the walls of his throne room as well.

Sozin floated at the level the ceiling used to be, glaring down at his enemies with a malicious smirk on his face, and a bright burning sun held over his head. Everyone in Pyraxas could see the sun and they all stopped moving as they wondered what was going to happen with it. It was almost as wide and long as the throne room itself, and Natsu gawked at the daunting size of it. _Could I eat all that on my own? If I start to, will Sozin attack me again? I need to wait for my moment._

 _If he throws that down here, I need to get above it,_ Luffy thought, looking towards a corner of the room that would not get hit if the fireball were to descend where he would escape from to get above and closer to Sozin.

 _We're dead. There's nothing any of us can do against that!_ Killua thought in terror, already able to feel the heat from the giant sun attack though the Fire Lord had not even thrown it yet.

Sozin looked at the faces of those below him, and his eyes opened wider for a second. "Oh no," he said, scoffing, almost chuckling at the idea of it. "You think I am going to throw this at you? You, who stand in my home?" The fighters beneath him looked at him in utter confusion. "An attack of this magnitude would destroy my entire Palace, no, a large chunk of my capital city! This attack is not meant for you." Sozin grinned more menacingly, then rose up only his right palm, while turning his back to the enemies below him. As he turned his back to them, flames shot out of the ground in front of the three to prevent anyone from having any bright ideas of attacking while his guard was down.

"If it's not for us," Killua began confusedly.

"Then who?" Luffy asked, similarly confused.

Natsu almost voiced his confused sentiment as well, but he was not as slow as most people thought. He knew the layout of the Palace, and thought about where they were inside it, and where the Fire Lord was facing as he floated out of the ceiling. "You think you can attack Pyraxas and there will be no consequences? The debt must be paid," Sozin bellowed. Sozin was facing south, and he looked to be focusing on something. Natsu's eyes were growing larger and larger, and he heard Sozin continue, "Even if every man, woman, child, and animal wears a Power Blocker, there is one energy they can not hide."

"Don't!" Natsu shouted. His friends looked over at him in confusion as Natsu started sprinting forward, opening his mouth and chomping straight through the wall of flames blocking him. "STOP IT!" Natsu roared.

Sozin brought his right hand down, and the giant fireball over his head started to move. Natsu opened his mouth and started sucking in. He sucked so hard that all the flames behind the throne and still on the sides of the room pulled towards him, the rest of the wall at his back still holding Killua and Luffy away too, but as the back of the fireball started to pull his way, Sozin turned his head furiously and his eyes glowed so bright that anyone could tell what was coming. Natsu was in the middle of taking a deep breath so he could not even scream as the two white beams that shot out of Sozin's eyes slammed into his chest. The beams of white had orange tints to the outsides of them, and they left nickel-sized burns on either side of Natsu's chest.

Without Natsu pulling it back anymore, the fireball Sozin threw picked up speed and shot away from the Palace at an alarming speed into the south. Luffy and Killua were confused as to where Sozin was aiming that attack, but Natsu's eyes snapped open while he faced the floor where he landed. "You bastard," Natsu snarled. His body covered in an orange aura, and he snapped up his gaze with such a furious look on his face that a rare few would dare getting in his way. Dragon scales spread up his arms starting at his hands, and formed on his cheeks as well, while the orange aura around his body sparked lightning and flared blazing hot flames.

"I am not bastard," Sozin growled, glaring right back into Natsu's eyes without flinching at the sight of his power-up. "I am High Lord Sozin! Ruler of the Fire Nation! And you are nothing!"

Natsu shot off the ground moving faster than he had since entering Pyraxas. He flew up towards Sozin and pulled a fist back. Sozin pulled his right fist back as well, and the stable Supernova down below him sent a haze of red in his direction that formed around his arm and made it glow bright red. "RAA!" Sozin yelled.

The Fire Lord slammed his fist down as Natsu punched forward, shouting, "Arcosian Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" The fists collided and a blast of wind slammed down into Killua who took a step back, and Luffy who stood there taking it without flinching. Natsu pushed harder into his attack, veins popping all over his face, but as he pushed harder using sheer force of will alone, Sozin had a physical force giving his punch more strength every second. As hard as Natsu tried, the increase in Sozin's strength through the short span the two of them had their fists together was too much. The haze got thicker and surrounded Sozin, and the Fire Lord smirked through the veil, before snapping his arm the rest of the way forward, bending Natsu's arm at the elbow and slamming the Dragon Slayer in the face.

"Eagle-" Sozin's eyes snapped up from where he sent Natsu flying, and the pirate hovering in front of him grit his teeth at how fast Sozin reacted to his appearance. Luffy did not stop however, and he finished screaming, "BAZOOKA!" His steaming red arms shot forward, and the black fists at the ends of them covered in flames right before flying straight into the aura around Sozin. Luffy was used to his fists getting hot with attacks like these, but before his palms had even slammed into Sozin's exposed torso, he could feel his skin burning beneath the Haki. "AHHH!" Luffy screamed in pain, but he only pushed harder into the attack and slammed his open palms into a smirking Sozin's chest.

Sozin's eyes popped open wide at the force behind Luffy's attack, and he was sent flying backwards through the air, doing a backflip as the force of the attack was focused on the top half of his body. After the flip, Sozin put his hands behind him and expelled so much flames that the entire north wall of his throne room, right behind his throne, blew to fiery pieces and flew away. The flaming chunks of wall went right over the wall surrounding his Palace, and thousands in the Upper Residential Area looked up in fear as flaming debris fell like meteorites onto their city. Hotels, restaurants, apartments, gardens, trees, everything in the City of Fire was so flammable.

Luffy landed on the floor of the throne room and looked straight ahead towards Sozin, floating above his throne and behind the Supernova. Past him, flames started to rise beyond the wall and the city looked to have a red glow that filled the air above it with smoke. Sozin stood between Luffy and that red glow, and his body gained a red tint to it even more so than it already did. "Straw Hat Luffy," Sozin growled. He looked down into Luffy's eyes, eyes that dilated and formed smaller circles inside of them as Luffy gave off a powerful blast of Haki. "Haki of the Conquering King?" Sozin questioned. Then, the Fire Lord started laughing, before snapping his gaze back down with narrowed eyes of his own that had small white circles in the middle of his irises. "In this room, who is the real King?" Sozin shouted, a Haki aura expelling off of his body that made the flames near him quiver and the walls tremble.

"I get stronger by the day! At the moment the Ant King may rule the Cooperative," Sozin continued in a booming voice, while around his body formed flames more powerful than ever. "But soon enough, I will surpass him! Aizen! Zeref! The Saiyans! The Kryptonians! All will bow before me! All will bow before the might of the Fire-"

 _ **BOOOM!**_ Luffy saw it coming, but he was no longer covered in steam. Without Gear Second, there was no way he could dodge in time. Sozin's eyes widened for a split second as the ground beneath Luffy exploded, and the rubber pirate went flying and screaming through the air. Killua turned left and ahead where Luffy was just standing defiantly, "What just-" **BOOM!** The ground next to where just exploded ripped apart in a dome of yellow light, then three more appeared in a line towards Killua who crossed his arms and surrounded himself with Nen, only to still scream out in pain as the next explosion occurred right on top of him.

"What's going on?" Natsu growled, picking himself back up finally after Sozin's punch had his head jumbled for a minute. He put a hand back on a chunk of pillar on the floor behind him to steady himself, while Killua and Luffy both staggered out of their explosions and turned as well.

In the doorway of the throne room, a figure with a giant welt on his cheek stood. The thin man had light skin, but it turned black near his hands with speckled black dots up his arms and a matching few on his face. His eyes were rolled back in his head, but he was facing towards Luffy who looked back at the figure with a deep frown. _I thought I took care of him,_ Luffy thought in slight annoyance.

"YOU!" Jackal screamed while facing Luffy, the man who punched him in the hallway so hard he fell unconscious. Jackal was up again though, and his rage had bubbled over. "I'm going to kill you!" Jackal screamed. "I'm going to blow you to pieces!" He roared, and rose up his hands at his sides. His arm muscles started rippling, his green tank-top shredded to pieces, and the three fighters facing the Fire Lord went wide eyed as Jackal's body transformed. The black on his hands spread farther up his arms, while all of his light skin turned yellow and covered in a light coating of fur like was already on his ears and tail. He grew twice as tall, and much more muscular, while his mouth extended out and sharp teeth came out of his jaws. "RAAA!" Jackal roared.

"He, turned into a monster," Natsu muttered.

"Now you, DIE!" Jackal screamed, his voice much deeper than before, and bone-chilling with the way he shouted it through bared teeth. The demon took a step forward towards its enemies, and then all three of those it was facing froze and their eyes focused behind the monster.

Jackal started to turn around, but when he was only halfway around, sweat covered his entire face and his blood started pumping much faster than usual. There was a red glow to the room behind him and his fur was getting hotter by the second. "What did I say about speaking out of turn again?" The voice behind him questioned. Jackal's mouth started to open, but Sozin reached a hand forward as he did and placed his palm softly against Jackal's forehead right as the beast finished turning. Jackal's words caught in his throat, the demon's eyes grew huge, and Sozin finished, "I said I would incinerate you."

Sozin's expression was emotionless as Jackal's body glowed bright red. The beast tried to let out a scream, but nothing came out of its mouth. The other three in the throne room stared forward in shocked silence. Jackal, a monster that had all three of them on edge a few seconds ago, stopped glowing, but his body no longer had any color to it. Only seconds after Sozin pressed a palm to his forehead, Jackal's entire body was gray. And then it crumbled into a pile of ash.

The Fire Lord turned back to the three closer to the center of his throne room. Killua took a step back. _He just killed that man, mercilessly, unceremoniously. He wants to kill us in the same way, and if he gets his hands on us, it's all over. He's become too strong! I needed to finish this in the beginning! I should have gone Godspeed from the start, then maybe, maybe I could have stopped him before…_ Killua's eyes darted to either side, and the kid clenched his fists and teeth in anger, frustration, and regret.

Sozin lifted off the ground, and he floated back over Killua's head towards his throne. Luffy and Natsu walked back towards the center of the room, both with a lot of visible damage on their bodies like Killua, and in part like Sozin. Still, the Fire Lord covered in his magnificent flaming aura, with his Supernova now at his back again, was easily the most intimidating figure in the room. Luffy rose up his fists and they covered in Haki, but in his mind he was starting to understand that this might not be enough. Natsu snarled and glanced back towards the ceiling in the south, before growling even more gutturally and raising his fists that covered once again in hot red flames.

 _Why are they still thinking about fighting?! They aren't fast enough to face him!_ Killua's mouth opened, _We should run. We don't have a chance!_ "I," Killua began. _Run! RUN!_ "I want… to be better." Luffy's eyes darted to his right and Natsu's to his left at the boy standing between them. Killua's head bowed for a second and he clenched his teeth so hard, before gasping out and continuing, "I want to deserve it! I, want to deserve, to travel with Son Goku, and Timmy Turner, and Sora, and all of you, because I want," Killua's fists clenched and his head snapped up as he shouted, "Because I want to be a hero like the rest of you!"

Natsu's eyes widened at the sight of the wet younger boy's eyes, and Luffy did not even frown when Killua called him a hero. Killua slowly started to unclench his fists, and sparks of electricity came off of his fingers as he did. "I have done, so many horrible things," Killua continued, while Sozin's eyes shifted down to the boys hands that he could see lightning sparking off of. "I have run away from fights all my life!" Killua shouted. "But right here, right now, I can make the change! Here is where I can choose to fight, and not run!" More electricity started sparking off of his entire body now, off his shoulders, his legs, his face, and up in his spiky white hair. "I was saving power the entire time in case I needed to flee the city later, because I wanted to make sure I had the strength to fight off enemies on my way out. But I should have gone all out from the start, because as much as I deny it, I know I can trust my comrades to get me out of here if I use so much power that I can't even walk anymore."

A white aura flashed around Killua, full of lightning that sparked out in every direction. All of those random strikes were shifting to the right though, hitting the floor around his right side, while all the aura around the left side of his body shrank in. Then, the aura closer to his head and feet moved towards the center of his body, all while moving to the right. Killua's entire right arm started shaking, covered in a white aura so thick it was becoming hard to see his skin underneath. All of his clothes on the right side of his body started tearing apart, and his shirt shredded on his right arm while it shook from the power of the thick coating of electricity around it. Killua was clenching his teeth in pain, while Natsu took steps away to the side from the kid whose face looked agonized, who was trembling in pain while lightning rippled around his right arm. "Even if it takes all of my strength," Killua said, his aura of lightning condensing even more as it moved from his entire arm, to only his forearm and below, and then down to only his hand. "I want to be good!"

Killua lifted up his right hand, and as much as it pained him to do so, he curled in his pinky and ring fingers. Any movement at all hurt, though he was already in constant pain from all the electricity around his hand. He was trained to withstand torture from electricity, it was one of the reasons he chose it as the element he would transform his Nen into while fighting. This much though, it was more than he had ever gathered because he knew that even his body could not withstand the strain it would put on him. He stuck his index and middle fingers up at the ceiling in front of him, and all of the electricity around his hand shifted up even more so that it was solely around those two fingers. _If I had used this much on Sugar, there would have been nothing left of her body. This is not Sugar though, this is a High Lord. It's all or nothing!_

Sozin glared across the room at Killua, and his eyes shifted to the two fingers the kid had pointed up in front of him. Sozin stomped his right foot down, then planted his left foot in front of himself. He put one hand down in front of him, and the other up behind the back of his head. Killua's eyes widened as it looked like the man was going to try and take his attack head-on, and then the corners of the kid's mouth curled up even while his face was still covered in an expression of pain. _Here goes then!_ Killua snapped his arm down so his two extended fingers pressed together pointed straight at the Fire Lord. He grabbed his violently shaking arm with his left hand to steady it, then stuck his thumb straight up over his right hand. "SUPER LIGHTNING GUN!" Killua shouted, and he pressed his thumb down onto the top of his index finger. His thumb did not touch the electricity though, as by that moment, all of the condensed lightning Killua had created was at the very tips of his two extended fingers. Then it fired.

The force of the release from his hand sent Killua's arm flying up with recoil like a real gun, and the kid stumbled backwards a step. His entire right arm filled with agony from the force that jolted his bones, but thanks to his left hand steadying his arm, he prevented any muscles from tearing. As Killua stumbled a step back, his eyes stayed focused straight ahead of him at the Fire Lord whose eyes opened huge at the sight of the small blast of white light that got bigger as it flew towards him. Lightning sparked off of Killua's attack, and the blast became so bright that Luffy and Natsu had to bring their arms up in front of their faces. Killua's attack moved as fast as lightning, and Sozin brought his left hand from in front of his waist up a foot, the only movement he was able to make in the instant Killua's attack flew at him. He brought his hand in front of the blast, and Killua's attack connected, and the lightning collided with Sozin's fingertips. The lightning raced up his arm and Sozin directed it all to his right hand that he held behind him pointing up towards the ceiling. Killua stopped moving and the kid's jaw dropped at the sight of all the lightning he attacked with getting directed by Sozin, moving from one hand to the other. Sozin's body trembled and the floor beneath his feet cracked, then the Fire Lord lifted up his right foot, and his moved his arms fluidly, snapping his right hand down in front of his chest, and then out in front of his body while he stomped his right foot in front of him, and he redirected the lightning.

* * *

 **A/N BAM! Cliffhanger! I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and thanks for reading! It took me all day to edit alone, and almost a month to finish, but there are now two parts remaining of the Pyraxas chapter. A lot is happening all over the city. Enemies are falling and new ones are appearing all the time. Thymilph, Astaroth and the Impure King, Komei, and Jackal all fall, but our heroes are spread thin and getting weaker while the enemies continue calling in reinforcements from all over. Will they be able to take out the Fire Lord who has managed to redirect Killua's strongest attack? Will they be able to take on the Fire Nation and all of its allies? Find out in the next two chapters of Nexus: Heroes Will Rise!**

joebob323 chapter 64 . Sep 16

Wait... You can put people into pokeballs?! Also, it would be cool to see what the beast guy fighting Kirito does when he finds out Kirito was trained by the 4th Hokage and then Son Goku... Good chapter man!

 **Who knew? I figured if Pokemon could be put into pokeballs, then why not people? They're not so different. Thymilph goes down without learning about who taught Kirito, but I hope you like that battle anyway! Thanks for the review!**

Espada-001 chapter 64 . Sep 16

Well I definitely enjoyed these last two chapters and I loved hearing about a war between Satan's. Although that just left me a very large question. (Actually more like a number of questions that all go together.) First if there was a huge battle to determine the true title of Satan where Gods of the underworld involved in this? Second, I believe it was stated earlier but I think I remember somebody saying that the gates of hell have been opened for the demons. And if that happened I can't exactly see the Gods and guardians of the supernatural simply allowing that without a fus, so was there a war between the Divines and supernatural overall? Anyway moving forward it was nice seeing the heroes getting together again. However I was looking over the wiki for the Lazarus pit the other day and it said that it only the user temporarily insane so I don't think Juvia would actually go feral especially since she isn't naturally that violent to begin with. Anyway moving onto this chapter I find it amusing that every time Sanji gets a girl to like him he ends up having to leave them behind shortly after. (Poor Sanji lol) And here's something I meant to bring up a long time ago, what happened to Sengoku after we last saw him? Last we saw of him he was injured but he wasn't dead and now that I think about he probably should have ended up with the same job Kong had before arriving on Nexus since I doubt the old Marine would just retire after arriving on a new world. Also it was cool to see Maou get all prepared for combat especially since on a world like Nexus he should be several times stronger than any time we saw him before. And from what I know about fire benders they should be naturally stronger on Nexus as well due to having two suns above them. This last bit is a bit rushed since I'm on a time crunch but Anyway thanks for another amazing chapter and I look forward to next time! Have a good day!

 **Glad you enjoyed the last chapters, and I hope the wait for this one wasn't too long! A lot of good questions, thought not many I am going to elaborate on as they'll definitely be explained in the story (when the time is right XD ). Gods, Satans, and lots of other mysteries currently surrounding the world of Nexus will definitely be explained throughout the Saga. The team's back together... mostly! As for Juvia, I am taking the effects of it off of what I saw on the tv show Arrow if you've ever seen it. In it, the Lazarus Pit does make the person temporarily insane like you said, but that was what I was showing right when Juvia was brought back to life when she rabidly attacked Kirito and Gray. After that, the insanity is less-pronounced, with the characters brought back to life feeling a bloodlust that makes them more and more rabid until they satisfy it, then it goes down for a little until they sate it again. Hope that explains it well enough. Haha poor Sanji, though he did get a kiss so it's a good day for him in general. Sengoku... ;) there might be some plans for him down the road a little, but no spoilers (though I'm glad you remembered him from the Madara fight). Didn't get to see the Maou vs Mephisto fight, though I did not elaborate much into how it ended so it's a mystery for now, though we saw that Mephisto definitely got a lot of damage dealt to him during it, enough to make him need a new physical body. I liked what you said about Nexus having a few suns (though there are 3) so the fire benders should be stronger, since I never actually thought about that before. Might make sense how they were able to build such a large country on a world with so many powerful people though. Thanks for another review!**

Guest chapter 64 . Sep 16

killua now takes on sozin now, and I watched Spider Man 2 and I know what tritium can, that if they don't stop that machine, mayham will be released in pyraxas or even nexus

 **Yeah we've already started to see the Supernova going out of control, as just the flares from it were enough to let Sozin create a massive fireball that he sent, somewhere... Sozin and Killua's fight comes to a head as Luffy and Natsu arrive on the scene, and I hope you enjoyed it!**

Guest chapter 64 . Sep 19

its also interesting to see foley from call of duty, wow there aligned for the fire nation, I bet he dosen't  
know that they are evil, the battle with sanji and yunja was awesome, I find it funny to that you can put people in pokeballs, I also see the slaves that sanji saved are going to help them, but I can also see that someone is trying to capture kairi and this person want to have her

 **Don't know if this is the same guest from above, but thanks to you for reviewing too (if you're not). If you didn't catch on last chapter, I hope you noticed this time that Foley, Dunn, and Ramirez were not actually aligned with the Fire Nation, but Resistance spies in their midst. Glad you liked the Sanji vs Yunju battle, and we get another closer look at the short figure who has been mentioned a lot in recent chapters as he comes for Kairi. Wonder if anyone can guess who's Nobody he is/ what his name is? Thanks again to everyone for reviewing, reading, favoriting, and following this story! 'Till next time!**


	66. Nexus HWR 10-8 Darkness

**Nexus HWR 10.8 Darkness:**

 **Royal Palace, Pyraxas**

"R-Riku?" Usopp began, taking a step towards the teenager. Riku's head was bowed and he was laughing in a low tone not his own.

The silver haired young man slowly lifted up his head while facing away from Usopp. He looked left at Kairi and then forward at the cloaked Nobody staring confusedly at him. Kairi gasped when his eyes looked her way though. Riku's eyes were yellow instead of green.

"What is your name?" Riku questioned the figure near the hole in the wall. His voice was dark, deep, and the short Nobody in the room examined him closely.

"Noxagh," the boy with short spiky black hair replied.

"Noxagh," the silver haired teen repeated, a smirk spreading across his face. "I can guess why you are here," the tall figure continued, and his mouth lowered into a straight line. "Take her," he said. His voice was deeper than usual and it sounded like someone was speaking over him.

Usopp walked backwards nervously. He stared straight at Riku's back and flinched as the silver haired teen started turning around. "Where did your confidence go?" The silver-haired man asked in his same creepy voice.

"Riku," Usopp began hesitantly. Riku showed no reaction and Usopp gulped. His lip quivered and he opened his mouth again, "Ansem?"

The person in front of Usopp nodded his head once.

"Riku!" Kairi shouted. "RIKU!" She yelled again, trying to shake the teenager inside Ansem awake.

"I said take her!" Ansem yelled, glaring back at Noxagh.

Usopp started to panic. _Why does he want them to take Kairi? Could Kairi get Riku back?_ He opened his mouth to speak but Noxagh did first.

"Who are you?" He asked. The black haired teenager wearing a matching black cloak smiled. Noxagh started walking forward while keeping his eyes on the tall teenager. He was intrigued by this current development and did not listen to Ansem's instructions to take Kairi away.

"I am your leader, in a way," the man replied. He was still in Riku's form so it was not as obvious, but he turned back to Noxagh anyway. His eyes locked with the coal black ones of the Nobody. Noxagh's face took on a look of recognition at the sight of Ansem's eyes.

"Xemnas's Somebody," Noxagh said, his eyes narrowing. "I've always wondered," he began and took another step forward, grabbing Kairi tightly by the arm as he did. She spun in surprise as she had no idea how close he was until that second. Kairi flinched in pain from his grasp on her arm, and she tried pulling away, but Noxagh's grip was iron tight. "The boss has us all looking for our Somebodies," Noxagh continued while taking another step towards Ansem. "Yet, he doesn't want us to find his. Why is that?"

The smug look that Ansem had lowered for a second. Here he was, in control for the first time in months, and he frowned. "Xemnas' Somebody? No. I am _his_ Heartless. If Xemnas and I were to meet, it would be very bad, for everyone." Ansem turned smug again and nodded at the short teenage Nobody before him, "Now take your prize. Naminé's Somebody. I am sure Xemnas will be very pleased."

Noxagh looked at Ansem and thought for a few moments. While he thought, Kairi started speaking to Riku softly. Riku's mouth twisted into a snarl and he took a step forward.

"Don't worry, I'm leaving," Noxagh said. He lifted his right arm up and his palm slid out of his black sleeve pointing straight at the ceiling. A blue beam shot off his hand and into the roof, blasting a hole straight through it and the two on the floors above it.

Usopp dropped his jaw and he stared closer at the cloaked figure. _That face,_ he thought, _it's Gohan. When did Gohan become a Heartless? Do I-_ His eyes bugged out and his thoughts stopped midway. Noxagh lifted off the floor and started flying up towards the hole in the roof. "Wait, Kairi!" Usopp realized the girl was being taken and he screamed her name.

Kairi shouted back down to Riku but Ansem did not even look up at her. He steadied his breathing and turned around to Usopp who was screaming Kairi's name.

The pirate pulled out his slingshot on reflex and pointed it up. Before he could fire though, a black sword slashed his slingshot and knocked it out of Usopp's hands. Usopp looked down and saw Riku smirking back at him. He suddenly realized he no longer heard any screaming from above. Usopp snapped his head up but Noxagh was gone, and Kairi gone with him.

"Too bad," Ansem spoke. Usopp realized just how close the two of them were and he backed up a step. Ansem stepped towards him closing the distance even shorter than it just was. Usopp froze in place and his body covered in sweat. The person in front of him looked like Riku, but he knew who this was. This man had enslaved him and forced him to do unspeakable things for years.

He almost took another step back, but froze instead with an expression shifting from fear to rage. "What are you doing Ansem?" Usopp asked, his voice rising in volume. Ansem actually looked surprised with Usopp's angry attitude. "Why did you take over?!" Usopp yelled at him.

Xehanort's Heartless did not respond for a few seconds. Then, calmly, he asked, "Why wouldn't I?" Usopp tensed up and the Heartless going by the name Ansem took another step towards him. "Are you really that surprised? You know better than most, the type of man I am. I just decided I wanted my body back."

"It's, not yours," Usopp said, trying to stand up to the monster in front of him. He glared into Ansem's eyes, "Why now? Why did you wait so long?"

"Timmy Turner said he would kill me if I took over again." Ansem said. He rose up his black sword and slashed it down in front of him. "But Turner is dead."

"Wh-What?" Usopp asked, his voice shaking. "Timmy's dead?" He questioned.

"Well," Ansem began. He held up his weapon and pointed it at Usopp so the point was only a foot away from Usopp's muscular chest. "I took over Riku, and I am quite sure that Turner would know, if he were alive. So where is he? Shouldn't he be here right now, stopping me?"

 _Timmy's dead?_ Usopp thought. _Nami's going to be devastated._

"I became suspicious that he was dead a long time ago," Ansem said in his overlapping voice. He lowered his weapon, "But enough about that. I am leaving."

"What?" Usopp asked confusedly. "You're, not going to kill me?"

Ansem looked at the young man with an uncaring gaze. "I could not care less about you." He waved his free hand in Usopp's direction. "However, this will keep you occupied long enough for me to leave this place."

In front of Usopp a black pool formed on the floor. Out of the darkness arose a pitch black figure exactly Usopp's height. It had the same body shape and hair style only entirely black. The dark figure had no eyes, no features, nothing except Usopp's shape, and claws.

"Goodbye," Riku said. A portal formed beneath him, and he vanished.

"Wait!" Usopp shouted. He leapt back as the beast swiped at him and he fell to the floor. The sniper scooted backwards and rolled to the left for his slingshot when his dark version dove at him. He looked back for a second while he grabbed his slingshot and he saw the disappearing wisps of black from the portal Riku's body stepped through. _Riku,_ he glanced up at the broken ceiling, _Kairi._

Usopp's body stopped trembling and he smacked the creature with the shaft of his Black Kabuto as it dove towards him. He knocked the Heartless creation to the side and stood up holding his weapon confidently, but with an enraged expression on his face. "What am I doing?" He yelled as he fired Pop Greens at his dark enemy. "I spent all that time arguing with Riku, and now he's gone!" He fired another Pop Green after weaving his opponent around the room, and this one was too close for the shade to dodge.

Vines wrapped around Usopp's dark twin and Usopp kept yelling while pulling back his slingshot for another shot. "I let them get taken! I just sat there, and let it happen!" Guilt flooded through him as he was the only one left of the three he entered the Palace with. "Exploding Star!" He fired and an explosion blasted his vines and his enemy to pieces.

* * *

A black portal appeared on the roof of the east wing of the Fire Lord's palace. Out of it appeared a silver haired young man in a yellow shirt that had a black X across the front of it.

Ansem stepped onto the roof and looked around. He frowned and stated out loud, "I was trying for Sin City. Why are we here?"

 **"GIVE ME BACK MY BODY!"**

"Quiet down," Ansem said, Riku's mouth actually moving unlike when the real Riku tried to speak. "You are not as weak as last time, but do not think yourself stronger than me. This is my body again."

 **"Why? I thought we had an understanding. I, thought you changed."**

"Changed?" Ansem asked skeptically. "There is no such thing. You let me in, and you did it again when you started treating me like your ally instead of your enemy." He chuckled. "You're doing the same thing with that boy Killua. You believe in the good in people too much. You used to be so much smarter."

Riku was yelling as loud as he could inside Ansem's head. The monster was taunting him, and he wasn't having any of it. **"Killua is good! If you can't see that then you're as blind as ever!"**

"He betrayed his old friends," Ansem stated out loud. "It will happen again. Now, it is time to go-"

 **"He wouldn't betray us!"** Riku yelled. Ansem's face twisted in anger. **"You'll never understand what it's like having nakama, comrades, FRIENDS! I gave you a chance Ansem! I didn't shove you down inside me because I know what it's like being trapped that far down!"**

"You didn't shove me down because you couldn't. I am too strong," Ansem countered.

"You're wrong!" Riku yelled, and unlike the times before, this time his mouth actually opened up and his voice came out sounding usual. Their face distorted into confusion and anger. Ansem thought he had complete control and he roared, making a huge aura of black surround him and flare up. Riku's body started to transform and as hard as the boy fought it off, he could not stop his skin from darkening and Ansem's appearance from taking over.

The Lord of Darkness's body emerged on the roof wearing his usual garb. He had on a long black cloak that went to his feet. It was different from the Organization's cloaks, white at the bottom, and open down the middle to reveal his dark-tan muscular chest. On the center of his chest there was a red outline of a heart, and inside that outline was pure blackness. His silver hair became straighter and longer, and his face looked sharper, and much more menacing.

Ansem rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck to either side. "The further into the darkness I dive, the less you will be able to lash out," he spoke aloud calmly. He looked out from the roof over all of Pyraxas and held up his arms. "Look at it. The flames of-"

 **"SHUT UP!"** Riku roared in his head. Ansem flinched and he closed his mouth with an annoyed expression on his face. Riku's voice was loud, so loud he could hear it in his ears even while the boy was stuck in his head. **"All those flames mean my friends need my help. And WE are going to give it to them!"** Riku willed his body forward and Ansem could feel the tug on his legs.

"Haha, hahaha! You actually think you can move me?" Ansem questioned while laughing. He could hear Riku's mental groans in his head as the teen pushed harder, and Riku focused more on only his right foot now. Ansem's yellow eyes darted down and he watched his foot inch forward, then take a full step out of nowhere. His laughs stopped, and rage filled his eyes. "ENOUGH!"

"No!" Riku shouted through his own mouth, though it was still laced with Ansem's voice. "I may have been wrong about you, but you are just a Heartless. A powerful Heartless, but one nonetheless. I was tricked by the fact that you could make words like a person, but really, you're nothing but a monster. And I know that _people_ can change. I can change!"

"You're wrong!" Ansem growled. He spun left and snarled, "Just to prove it, let's go have a look at the one you put so much faith in. Luthor's spy. A murderer. Killer." He floated off the ceiling and down to the side of the third floor.

Ansem laughed as they descended and stopped right outside a window. "Through this city, your comrades are losing. You have not seen half of them for weeks or more. Now Kairi is gone too. All of them will slip through your fingers and you will drop into despair." The dark man laughed harder as he could feel even more darkness in Riku's heart as he spoke.

"That may be true," Riku growled, through a face that was snarling because the man he was sharing control of it with was enraged that Riku could still use his own mouth. "But there is only one thing that matters at this very moment. Whether darkness or light will win in the end? I know, and it is what gives me the strength to fight you."

"What strength?!" Ansem yelled. They turned and smashed through a window next to them. The two of them could feel the darknesses of the people inside and a few of them were very strong. One of those darknesses was the one of the boy they were looking for. He was in the very next room over and Ansem laughed as they felt him grow stronger. "Even now, the darkness in that boy is growing. He will betray you. He will survive because he is strong-"

"He _is_ strong," Riku agreed, and he forced them forward faster. Ansem's face took on an expression of shock as he raced towards the wall where a portal of darkness appeared. "But that strength comes from his light!" As Riku shouted it he felt Killua's darkness fade to almost nothing, and the teen grinned.

Ansem and Riku, looking like one seriously menacing figure, flew through the dark portal to the other side where they floated above Fire Lord Sozin's grand hall. Riku wiped the grin from his face, as Ansem could not wipe the grin away himself as he suddenly lost all power over their body. _It can't be,_ the Lord of Darkness thought in that one moment Riku took back control and Ansem sank down. Riku's body did not shift back to normal though, as he was only filled with more darkness than ever at the sight down below.

He made it in at the last possible second and saw Sozin standing there with so much lightning condensed around his right hand that half of the room was sparking with it. The Fire Lord manipulated it all on the tips of two of his fingers then swung that hand forward in a fluid motion that flowed from the rest of the smooth movements he had been making with his arms to hold the energy there. Riku's eyes started to follow the lightning, but his body would not have been fast enough to do anything about it. He looked down and saw the bolt shooting across the room at one of the three people facing Sozin.

Luffy turned his head right while the bolt flew to the opposite side of the room as him. Sozin chose his target well, picking the only one out of the three of them who could resist his fire powers. His own lightning was not this powerful, but in redirecting the most powerful attack that Killua could throw at him, he knew he had Natsu trapped.

Natsu's eyes widened as the bolt flew his way. There was nothing he could do but lean back and from reflex alone he started lifting his arms to try and defend from the blow. There was no time to think, and he still could not think as he was slammed into on his left side. The speed at which the object slammed into him so as to reach him before the lightning, it was so fast that he got thrown across the room. While he flew off though, his eyes focused on where he was just standing, where the bolt of lightning was about to hit, where the boy with spiky white hair had his arms extended and his hands opened up.

Killua shoved Natsu and his own eyes opened wide, and then even wider as the bolt hit him. He had been through electric shock torture to prepare him from attacks as powerful as lightning, the only problem was, his own attack was hundreds of times stronger than anything he had prepared himself for. His wide eyes turned glossy and the pupils in the middles faded and turned from black to gray. Electricity coursed through his body while Natsu slammed into the wall and Ansem sank into the recesses of Riku's mind.

Killua's body never stopped sparking until he hit the floor. Luffy was sprinting over before then and he dropped down next to Killua to look at the boy closer. Killua's shirt was ripped apart, the remains of it shredded by the force of the attack that hit him. Where it hit on his chest was clear too, despite the black burns all around it. The hole, the nickel-sized hole that spewed blood over the blackened skin around it, it was all too real. Luffy reached down for Killua's shoulders and he shook the kid a few times, shouting his name. Killua's eyes were wide open though, his chest was not moving.

He was gone.

Riku could feel himself slipping. He was not giving in to Ansem, but he knew the feeling, and imagined it was what Sora felt those times he would turn Anti-Form against his will. He glared at Sozin and got ready to attack, when he felt something dark outside of the palace and his head spun left. _Noxagh! He's still in the city, which means Kairi's still here too._ He looked back down at Sozin who turned his attention to Luffy and started marching forward towards him.

Riku's eyes darted over to the wall that Natsu crashed into but the Dragon Slayer was not moving under all that rubble. Luffy did move though. The rubberman got up after resting Killua down carefully. He turned to Sozin and an aura of Conqueror's Haki burst off of him so powerful that Sozin stopped in his tracks. Luffy's right forearm shone black and the pirate opened his mouth wide, then chomped down into it.

Riku watched as Luffy started to transform, then snapped his head left again. _Kairi could be taken at any moment. If they teleport away with her, she's gone for good. I can save her._ He looked back down, _Luffy, don't let him get away with this._ The man who looked like the Lord of Darkness turned and shot back through a dark portal in the wall. Back in the throne room, Sozin lifted off the ground with flame towers beneath him, and Luffy shot off the ground with steam coming out of his fat, Gear Fourth thighs. Their final battle had begun.

* * *

 **Upper Residential Area, Pyraxas**

Standing atop a ten story building in the financial district's upper section, were two men. The district was set up where there was a large area for business below the walls of the Upper Residential Area, but the district continued past the walls for those business executives and more influential members of society to stay and work in the magnificent city. At the moment however, half of the district was on fire. The fires started all over the city by various battles were not being put out fast enough; the streets were flooded with panicked civilians and the soldiers were all too busy hunting and getting their asses handed to them by the intruders. Chaos was filling the city and smoke billowed up on all sides of the Royal Palace in the center, where all of the tremors shaking their city's foundation were originating from.

The men standing on the edge of the tall building were focused on a single figure running through a gateway into the Upper Residential Area. The taller one on the right with jet black hair and a freckled face had a giant smile on his face and was leaning forward with glee plastered on his face. His grin spread ear to ear, _I thought my plan was foiled now that Astaroth was killing young Rin, but you have proved me wrong, young Okumura! And if you can survive an encounter with the King of Rot, then I am now positive it is going to work!_

A dark shadow covered the roof of the building, and Saburota Todo stopped grinning so madly off the edge. He turned his head a little and gazed out the corners of his eyes at the teenager next to him, standing with a golden rod risen in his hands, and massive black flames rising up behind him in the shape of a great demon. Todo chuckled, then spoke in an ominous tone, "I see you knew I was about to silence you, Renzou Shima." He turned his body more and stood face to face with the teenager who was smirking back at him, pointing the tip of his K'rik at Todo's face, and narrowing his eyebrows while looking as dangerous as possible.

Shima glared into Todo's eyes and spoke in a smug tone, "You didn't hide that killing intent of yours very well, _boss._ But, I have to let Lucifer know, hopefully before Astaroth reforms in Hell and releases the news to everyone." Todo frowned and narrowed his eyes more at Shima who smirked at the reaction. "I know," Shima continued, "that I'll be pissing off Astaroth by taking away the one thing he can brag about from today, that he found the other son of Satan, but it will put me in better standings with Lucifer, so it'll be worth it."

Todo's body covered in orange flames, and giant arms simultaneously ripped out of the mass of black flames behind Shima. "Yamantaka-kun, protect," Shima ordered, and eyes snapped open on the demonic monster behind him. Todo hesitated at the giant demon's menacing glare, and the sight of those black flames made him hesitant to take a step forward. Shima spoke while his boss hesitated, "As much as your plans rely on them not finding out, I have plans of my own."

Todo glared at Shima, but the corners of his lips did curl back up like the boy's already were. _What is he thinking? He is right, there is no immediate need to dispose of him. Whether he dies or not, Satan will soon learn of Okumura Rin's arrival on this continent._ The flames around Todo's body went out and the man started chuckling darkly, then louder with his head tilted back, letting Shima see inside his mouth all the sharp teeth there that showed Saburota Todo was no longer a human. "I will let you leave," Todo said and looked back down into Shima's eyes, "as I am curious as to what your plans truly are, spy." Todo turned around and walked back to the edge of the building, but Shima did not release his black flames or dismiss Yamantaka. Todo chuckled one last time before he leapt off the building, and he mocked in a quiet voice, "'This tongue of mine is what's gonna keep me alive,' huh?"

* * *

Farther inside the Upper Residential from the western gate that Okumura Rin was entering from, three other fighters were already making their ways up towards the Palace. "Go on ahead!" Gray yelled to the two boys who were moving faster than him and slowing down to keep his pace. Gray stopped for a minute and started panting with his hands on his knees. The other two looked back at him, but Gray looked up and shouted, "Now! I'm right behind you!"

Ben frowned. He did not feel great either, and his lungs ached every time he took a deep breath, which he had to do a lot considering they were sprinting through an entire giant city. He nodded at Gray though and decided that maybe the ice mage was more damaged than he was. "Come on," Ben said to a hesitating Dash, and as he started running forward again, a green flash of light surrounded him. _Just for a few seconds, just long enough to reach the Palace._ XLR8 appeared, and when Dash saw it the little kid nodded and sprinted forward.

Gray sighed and let go of his legs when the other two sprinted away. _Thought so. Don't want to hold them up._ He took a few more deep breaths, then started jogging forward again at the same pace he had been moving before.

Far ahead of Gray and getting closer to the Royal Palace every second, the two speedsters were breathing heavily as they prepared themselves for what they thought they would find up ahead. Neither of them felt great after their fight with Astaroth and the Impure King, and even though all the miasma was rotted away, they were exhausted from all the fighting they had been doing since that morning. The suns were already past being right over their heads, meaning that it was sometime in the afternoon. The kids looked around the city as they ran up the streets, and they saw flames coming off of so many roofs, and they saw people screaming and running away from wherever explosions were coming from.

The two boys slowed down as they neared the western walls of the Royal Palace. They were still over a block away, but Ben transformed back into his human form, and Dash could see that his older friend looked as troubled as he did. As the two looked around on the intersection they were in, Dash saw something that made his eyes go wide. The kid pointed a hand and yelled, "Ben, look!" The older boy spun left and looked down that street on the intersection as well, and just like Dash he saw a brown-haired man whose bangs were sticking straight up and who wore a pair of black pants and a white button down shirt looking their direction. His eyes were wide like he had seen them appear out of nowhere because of their speed, or maybe just saw Ben transform out of his alien state.

"It's Shinichi," Ben said, recognizing the guy they met when they got off the train the day before.

The man who helped them find their way out of the train station started jogging their direction. Ben frowned and glanced towards the Palace where he heard another explosion come from, but then turned back to Shinichi who looked like he needed to say something. "What's up?" Ben asked, and the man running his way slowed down.

The thin, brown-haired man had a straight expression on his face. Shinichi Izumi looked down at the two kids. "What are you two really doing in this city?" He questioned. Dash's eyes opened wide, while Ben just frowned as the man proved he really did see them do something out of the ordinary. Ben's eyes darted to the man's side where there was a pistol, and he recalled how Shinichi's wife Murano mentioned being a nurse for Fire Nation soldiers.

Still, Ben remembered how the man and his wife were kind to them, and he decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. "We came to take down the Fire Lord," Ben responded seriously to the figure in front of him. Shinichi's eyes opened wide for a second, before going back to normal faster than Ben expected. Dash was still wide-eyed though and looking at his friend in confusion as to why Ben would tell him something like that. "We're part of the Resistance," Ben continued while looking into Shinichi's eyes to see what he thought about that.

Shinichi did not have any reaction to it though. And then, the older man bared his teeth, making Ben and Dash take steps back with widening eyes. "You imbeciles!" He yelled at them. Ben prepared for the man to reach down to his waist, but instead Shinichi pointed his right arm at them, and the two children dropped their jaws as his arm tore apart. His skin shredded in five lines that morphed into blades, and a pair of eyeballs stuck out of the top of his arm. "Migi, kill them," Shinichi said, and his right arm slashed towards the children.

Ben surrounded in a flash of green light that turned him into an alien that looked very similar to his human form, only now he had a brown monkey tail sticking out of his butt. "Why are you attacking us?!" Saiyan Ben yelled at the man in front of him whose strange power he was trying to overlook for the moment. Ben dodged blades made out of Shinichi's own body, and Dash did the same though with less difficulty. Shinichi's right hand was fast and the blades were swiping at the two boys faster than most people in the vicinity could see, at least anyone who did not start sprinting away as soon as they saw what Shinichi's arm did. "The Fire Nation is a part of the Cooperative! I know you know they're bad, Murano even looked like she felt guilty about working for the military, and it isn't hard to tell why!"

"You don't know anything! You've killed Murano!" Shinichi yelled towards the boy. Ben's eyes opened wide, and Shinichi's arm stopped slashing at the two dodging children for a minute while he continued yelling. "There are too many Lords in the Fire Nation for you to just take down Sozin and think it will work! Those Lords are all probably on their ways to Pyraxas as we speak to 'give support' to the Fire Lord. If he wins then they can say they came to help, and they'll gain favor with him by showing their loyalty, but that's only one reason they're coming!" Ben and Dash looked even more confused, and Shinichi stomped towards them furiously. "The other reason, is that if the Fire Lord falls, they want to be the ones who take his place! It is a win-win for them, coming to Pyraxas, so all of them are going to do it!"

Ben's eyes were slowly widening as he was putting two and two together. Shinichi continued yelling at him, "If your other comrades are really taking down the Fire Lord as we speak, then those Lords converging on the city will start fighting right here in Pyraxas. Not just them either, but High Lords Spriggan, and Ren, and Alligator, they'll send their armies this way to take over more land for their nations. This city is going to turn into a battleground! Streets will run red with blood," he slashed his right hand forward as the two boys went wide-eyed, but the kids were still too fast for him to connect with, even if he had halved the distance between them subtly while he was shouting.

Dash dodged left, then right, as another arm blade came down and cut into the floor where he was just standing. He did not know how Shinichi's arm could harden enough to cut straight through stone, but the older man was doing it somehow. "But," Dash started yelling, and he gulped as Shinichi looked his way and into his eyes. "How can you take the Fire Nation's side, while, they still have slavery?"

Shinichi's arm shrank back and the man stopped attacking. His mouth opened, then closed and he let out a sigh. "You did this because of slavery?" He questioned in a dark voice. "Do you have any idea what you're talking about?" Dash's eyes opened wide, and his mouth closed, because truthfully he did not. "You really don't understand what you're doing if you thought this was a smart idea." Shinichi's arm turned back to normal and he turned his back to the hopeless children. "Go, play hero as much as you want," he mocked while starting to jog away. "I'm going to find Murano and get out of here, before the war you've started gets us all killed."

Ben watched as Shinichi ran off, and the boy flashed green again, making his black eyes go back to normal and his tail disappear. "Ben," Dash whispered. Ben continued to stare after Shinichi, but he listened as the kid next to him continued in a quiet voice, "We're the good guys, aren't we?"

 _Always, I want to say. I mean, he was just making excuses for himself, right? Reasons he wouldn't stand against the Fire Lord, reasons why he would not stand against slavery and injustice?_ "Of course we are," Ben responded, and he actually sounded confident enough out loud that Dash let out a sigh of relief. "Shinichi is a coward, not like us," Ben told his friend, turning and looking down into his eyes as he did. "He won't be the only person that doesn't understand what we're trying to do, but you can't let people like that get to you, okay?"

"Yeah, got it," Dash said with a nod of his head.

"Alright," Ben said. He turned towards the Royal Palace again, though now with doubt creeping through his mind. "Come on," Ben began and started walking towards the giant western walls of the Palace. "We still have a battle to win."

* * *

Close to the middle of the Upper Residential Area, between the walls to the Royal Palace and the ones separating the area from the Lower Residential Area, a pink-haired boy standing atop a roof watched as a one-armed mage ran up the street below him. He followed Gray's path up the street for a second, then looked back west towards the outside of the city, where another figure was running up the street behind him. _He's about to catch up to his friend. This is my only chance._

Okumura Rin was running up a paved street towards the Royal Palace he saw miles away. There were flames shooting out the top of the building, and he saw a bunch of lightning bolts fly out of there as well. _Got to go join in that fight, I wonder how Luffy's doing against-_ Rin stopped short, his feet skidding to a stop in the middle of the road. There were some other people on the street, running up or down the block in panic and yelling about the fires spreading everywhere. He stopped though in the middle of the street, and stared up the block twenty yards to where another figure stood in the middle of the road like him. The boy standing there had messy pink hair similar to his that was messy but black. "Shima," Rin said, and though Shima was too far away to hear his voice over all the shouting people, he could read lips and grinned when Rin said his name.

"Hey there, Rin," Shima greeted. Rin started walking up the street towards his old friend, but this time Shima did not run off as he got closer. The black cat at Rin's side eyed Renzou Shima nervously, and the smile the teenage boy gave Kuro did not make him feel much better. "I think it's safe to talk now, since Todo just left, and Astaroth's been destroyed." Rin's eyes opened wide at what Shima was saying, and he came to a stop only five yards in front of the slightly older teen.

"Why- what are you doing here, Shima?" Rin questioned. He so much wanted to believe that Shima was trying to help him back in Sin City, and he had kept telling himself that Shima gave him so much information for no purpose other than to help him. Here he was again though, apparently having watched the battle against Astaroth. _Just like Mephisto,_ Rin thought, the idea creeping through his mind already after his talk with Mephisto, but being pretty much confirmed by Shima's appearance before him now. _Mephisto told me that the whole reason he sent me after Astaroth was that he wanted to see how I fared against him, but, but why did Shima tell me that Astaroth was here? Did he do it to help me? To help Yukio? Or like Mephisto, does he have some kind of plans for me?_ "Shima," Rin started, and he had a hurt, betrayed look on his face that he was trying to hide, trying not to let Shima see how much he was currently doubting him. Still, he had to ask it, "Are you using me?"

"Using you?!" Shima asked incredulously. "Why would you think something like that?! I'm not nearly as clever as you think, though I'm glad you think so highly of me!" Shima laughed, and Rin looked to calm down a little, a small smile forming on his face, even though Kuro still looked completely on guard like that monster made of black flames they saw in the cave in Sin City could appear at any moment. "Rin, I just wanted to warn you that demons are going to be constantly coming for you from here on out…" Rin smiled genuinely, and Kuro actually let down his guard a little, because this was something they already knew from what Mephisto told them while time was frozen, and there was no way Shima could know that, so the other teen really must have thought he was helping them at the moment. Both of them stopped feeling relieved though, and their faces covered in sweat as Shima continued, "…since I'm going to go tell Lucifer where to find you."

Rin's jaw dropped and again he started to look betrayed. Shima held up his palms in front of himself defensively though. "Hold on, it's not what you think," he said. Rin regained a confused expression, and Shima spoke in a soft voice as there were still some people running by them on occasion and he could never be too careful.

"'Not what I think?'" Rin questioned. "Are you, on my side?" Rin asked, seriously wondering at this point.

"Of course I am buddy!" Shima yelled in response.

"Then," Rin continued, and he scratched the back of his head for a moment. "Tell me," he continued, having a sudden idea. He made a serious expression and spoke in a demanding tone, "I want to know about the Umbrella Corporation, and that Light group you mentioned in Sin City."

 _Why not?_ "Sure, but don't tell anyone you got the info from me," he said. The pink-haired teen whispered that last part with a hand cupped to the side of his mouth as if it were a secret, which it really was, though he was downplaying the severity of it by joking like that. "Anyway, the Umbrella Corp's pretty boring, just a bunch of demons I work with who get to do whatever they want without facing consequences from Cooperative governments since it's a criminal organization no matter where you are in Aebrith. We only don't operate in the far northeast, but that's because that's technically Satan's land, though really Lucifer is the one who rules up _here_." Shima scratched his chin for a few seconds, then started again, "Well that's about it for them, but the Light, whew! That's a lot more fun to talk about. There are not many in the inner circle, and they are a seriously tough crowd. You've already seen Klarion back in Sin City, but I heard a rumor that one of your friends, this Kirito guy, took out a member of the Light last week. Ra's al Ghul's death came out of nowhere, it had everyone up here riled up wondering what to do about it. We're pulling strings with about every government we've got a hand in, which is all of them, to put big bounties on that buddy of yours."

Rin could not get the confused, stupefied, somewhat angry look off of his face. He did not know what to make of what Shima was telling him. His old friend was telling him so much that he did not know, so much about these villains, and helpful information that he could assist his friends with, but Shima kept using the first person to describe these groups. Rin wanted to thank Shima for telling him about Kirito's bounties, but when he said "every government _we've_ got a hand in," it made Rin remember that the person in front of him was working with those people who were putting bounties on his friends. Shima kept talking, pretending like he did not see the mental struggle Rin was going through at the moment. Rin interrupted him though, "Are you, a member of the Light?" Rin questioned, looking into Shima's eyes seriously to check if the other boy was lying in his response.

"Me? No way," Shima said and crossed his arms in front of his chest. Rin thought his old friend was telling him the truth, but it was getting harder and harder to tell. He did not know what he could believe anymore, even though Shima seemed to only be telling him the truth. Shima laughed a few times, then continued, "I couldn't be in that circle, Vandal Savage gives me the creeps." He shivered to accentuate how much he got chilled by that guy he just named. "Plus," Shima continued, "Light members are dropping like flies these days. Not only Ra's, but I heard that Black Manta got arrested after some big battle in Atlantis…" Rin's eyes opened wide, as he was there for that battle. _I had no idea this organization spreads that far. Atlantis is closer to Awul that Aebrith. Could, could the Light be in Awul? Rhodar, or the RNG, could they already be infiltrated?_

"You should be cautious of the Light," Shima continued, and Rin shook from his deep thoughts to stare into Shima's eyes with his giant ones. "Even though a couple have gone down recently, they are not a group you want to take on lightly. They will be coming for you though, so best of luck! I hope you can handle what's about to be thrown your way, Rin," Shima smiled brightly at the teen in front of him. He turned his back to Rin whose eyes closed a little so they were back to their normal size.

 _All of that was useful information. "…since I'm going to tell Lucifer where to find you."_ "Shima," Rin called out, right as Shima took a single step away. Shima stopped, and Rin questioned at his back, "Is this really who you are?" Shima did not turn around. His mouth curved down but Rin could not see his face while his back was turned to him. "I did not believe it at first," Rin continued, "but now that I can't figure you out, even while it's just the two of us speaking alone, I think I have a grasp on what you're really thinking."

Shima's eyebrows lifted up, and the corners of his lips rose as he turned back around. Rin had his mouth open and was about to elaborate, but the look on Shima's face when the teen turned to him, it struck him silent. Everything Rin was thinking, the explanation he had for Shima's strange behavior, none of it made sense anymore, thanks to a single look from his "old friend." Shima was smiling, but his eyes were devious. His eyebrows were raised playfully, but the corners of his lips were curled just up enough that Rin did not think the smile was real at all. The bangs of his pink hair shadowed over his devious eyes, even while Shima laughed in a way that sounded exactly how Rin remembered the boy always laughed around him, so carefree. That laughter still sounded like it did back then, but it no longer sounded carefree at all to Rin, yet as Rin tried to pinpoint what it did sound like, he came up blank for answers.

Shima stopped laughing and he looked straight into Rin's eyes as the shadows vanished from in front of his own. "You could never understand what I'm thinking, Rin," Shima said. The boy did not laugh after he said it. He just kept that same look on his face that completely blew Rin's mind, and then turned and started walking away from him again. Rin opened his mouth to say something, but he did not know what to say after that. He did not know who he was talking to anymore. His mouth closed, then he opened it again, but at the moment he opened it, a group of people that was running down the street surrounded Shima and ran right past. As they were running past him though, one of them blocked Shima from Rin's sight for a moment. In that instant Shima was out of Rin's line of sight, the older teen vanished.

Kuro and Rin spun around, looking every direction for a sign of the mysterious boy, but they could not see him anywhere. "Rin," Kuro began softly. Rin looked down at his familiar speaking to him through their telepathic link. "I think, Shima is a bad guy," Kuro said, feeling bad for its master as it said it, because the cat knew how Rin would feel about that.

 _"A bad guy?" Shima?_ _ **"Don't mention that bastard's name."**_ _That's right, I forgot to ask him about Izumo. She wouldn't tell me what he did to her, but she, she sounded so betrayed when I mentioned seeing him. He, he was trying to help me though, wasn't he? Why else would he tell me all that stuff?_ Rin was stumped. He did not know who Shima was anymore. _We're friends,_ Rin thought confidently. Something Shima told him a long time ago echoed in his mind, _**"Pff! What am I doing? Hahaha, I was trying to avoid you as much as possible, but here I am, talking to you like always. Ahhahaha, ahahaha! It's way more of a hassle to avoid somebody."**_ _Shima was the first one, to forgive me for lying about being Satan's son. He treated me like a friend, while Suguro, and Koneko, everyone was treating me like an enemy. He didn't care that I was Satan's son, even when his own family had suffered because of him. So, even if he is working with bad people, even if he's a part of the Umbrella Corporation or the Light or whatever! He's still my friend!_

"No way," Rin finally responded to his cat. Kuro looked up at him in surprise, and Rin smiled down at the furry creature, "This is Shima we're talking about. Does he really look like a supervillain to you? Hahaha!" Rin started walking forward towards the Royal Palace, still laughing loudly and as convincingly as he could, though Kuro would not be fooled. Rin stopped laughing after a few seconds and just stared ahead with a wide smile on his face. _Shima, next time we meet, for sure, I'm going to figure you out! Until then… I really hope you weren't serious about telling Lucifer where to find me. If demons come after me, they'll be coming for my friends too. I, won't be able to forgive you, if they get hurt because of that. If they do, then we really will be, enemies._

* * *

 _God damn it I'm so exhausted._ Gray stopped running again, putting his hands down on his knees and taking wheezing breaths as he took _another_ break. He lifted his head and stared towards the Royal Palace in the distance, but the tall western walls were blurry to him and he had to blink a few times to make them more clear. People were mostly running west towards him, but the young mage stood back up straight and started jogging east and up towards the center of the city once again.

 _Is it the miasma? No, Ben and Dash seemed to get over that pretty fast. I mean, we're all still feeling the effects, but,_ Gray suddenly realized it and his eyes darted to his left side, the empty arm socket. _It's only been a few days. The blood transfusion at Pon-Gatso and Kairi's magic worked wonders, but of course I wouldn't be a hundred percent. Hiei might have been right, we could have waited a little, but it's strange. By deciding to go right away, we came at the same time that Luffy's group arrived here. Out of all the cities, all the countries and lands, they came here, today. There are no such things as coincidences. Silva being Killua's father excluded maybe, I mean, like, hold on!_ Gray shook his head around and realized he was getting slower with every step he took. The mage ground his teeth and picked up his pace, lifting his pale-faced expression and staring up at the Palace ahead.

Gray was running up the street, while a man was running down the street towards him. Gray was a few feet to the left side of the road, and the man was going to run past him on his right side. The two barely cast glances at each other as they were running past, but they _did_ glance. Gray took three more steps after passing the man, then slowed down, his eyes gaining a confused look to them. He slowly turned around, to see the man who ran by him had stopped as well. The figure turned around and looked back into Gray's eyes.

Gray's eyes widened as he examined the figure's face, and the eyebrows that made him suspicious confirmed what he thought at the first glance. _"It was crazy! There were Chimera Ants, and mutants, and so many fire benders! Ben even fought Sanji's brother! I'm serious! Tell him Ben! The guy had green hair, but he totally knew who Sanji was and said he was his brother. It wasn't hard to believe, he did have those stupid swirly eyebrows._ "Yonji," Gray said, staring at the figure before him with a dark expression.

"Gray Fullbuster," Yonji said in response. A smirk spread across the green-haired man's face. He had big headphones over his ears connected by a black band over the top of his head. There was a pair of sunglasses pushed up to the top of his forehead, and the man wore a suit of green clothing from neck to feet. He had on a dark green cloak with a lighter green number four on the front left side of it, and under that cloak he wore a green jumpsuit of long light green pants and a long-sleeved shirt of the same color, with only a thin yellow belt separating the two. He had on big green boots, but Gray's eyes lingered on the gloves on his fists that looked strange and gave him a bad feeling in his gut. "When those kids you were with met me on that battlefield," Yonji continued, and his smirk vanished as he started snarling. Gray saw a scabbed cut over the man's left eyebrow, and a purple welt on the left side of his face that he did not notice before, but Yonji continued in an even more annoyed tone as he saw where Gray was looking, "They caught us off guard, fought me without my Raid Suit ready." Yonji opened up his hands and then curled his fingers back in slowly so each one cracked as he balled his fists.

"Hold on," Gray began. _How does he know me? Who am I kidding, they probably know all of our faces by now._ "Yonji, your brother Sanji," Gray knew it was a long shot, but he was going to go for it anyway. "He's in the city right now," Gray continued.

Yonji's eyebrows lifted up, and he looked to his left, then his right. The man then turned back towards Gray and smirked again, "He's not here, so I don't really care." Gray's eyes widened and his bottom lip lowered at how little Yonji seemed to care about this. The man did not look to be lying, and he actually started laughing at Gray's expression, "That weakling wasn't worth our Vinsmoke name. I always thought he offed himself because he couldn't handle the shame of being born into a family better than him."

 _Is this guy stronger than Sanji? Crap, fighting Sanji at full power would be tough, though I think I could probably beat him. But right now, one-armed, weak and dizzy, against this man who's bragging a strength higher than Sanji's, I have to come up with a plan-_ Yonji kicked off the floor and Gray's bottom lip dropped even more at the man's speed, before his dropped jaw got snapped to the side with the rest of his face as Yonji's right fist slammed into him. "Ugh!" Gray gasped, spit and blood flying out of his mouth as he was lifted off the floor and thrown to the side of the road. He slammed back-first into the wall of a building, and gasped out a glob of bloody spit again at how hard he hit it.

"This is all you've got?" Yonji questioned. Gray opened his eyes that were clenched in pain, and he saw the green-haired figure walking towards the wall he was slumped into. The concrete wall only cracked a little when he slammed into it, but Gray wished he had flown straight through it, as he now stood with his back against the wall. Gray tried raising his arms to block Yonji's next attack, but his eyes widened as only his right arm crossed in front of him. Yonji laughed out loud and slammed his right fist into the exposed right side of Gray's chest where a left arm would have been crossed in front of, had he had one.

Gray gasped in agony at how powerful the punch was. His vision got blurry and then flashed white as a fist slammed him straight into the face. Yonji's laughter echoed in Gray's ears, but Gray could not protect himself, finding it difficult to even stand let alone try a counterattack. Yonji backed up for a second, then as Gray's eyes opened up, he lowered his jaw and lifted his gaze to the fighter who had jets coming out of the bottoms of his boots and was now hovering in front of him. Yonji had a smug look plastered across his face, and he pointed his legs behind him to propel himself faster towards Gray before slamming both fists into his stomach at the same time.

Gray bent over the fists, while Yonji laughed at how he could feel the concrete wall behind Gray's body. He had punched so hard that final time that the cracking wall broke into pieces and Gray was thrown into the rubble before it all collapsed down on him. Underneath a pile of concrete, Gray had his eyes open staring at nothing but blackness. _Is this my punishment?_ He thought, his body aching all over. He lifted his right arm, but it got stuck in front of his chest and there was such a heavy piece of rubble right on top of him that he was finding it difficult to move it. _For what I almost did, to Kirito?_ He flattened his right hand against the bottom of the piece of debris, and his muscles started straining as he pushed up against it. Even though he would normally be able to move something dozens of times the weight of this debris, at the moment it felt like a million tons pressing against his chest. _No. It's not, what I "almost" did. Sure, I, I almost killed him, but, that's not all._

The ice mage's teeth clenched and his fingers curled in more against the bottom of the debris, debris that started to shake. _I broke Kirito's trust. Not just in me, but, but in anyone. We made the No Matter What pact, and, and now he probably can't trust anyone who made it with him. He cried, when I betrayed him. He's been betrayed, so many times, and yet I… I broke that oath we made!_ The broken wall over Gray started to shake, and the man with green hair staring through the hole in the wall at it started to grin. "Still got some fight in you, do ya?" Yonji punched his fists together in front of him, and then the wall on top of Gray froze. The green-haired figure took a step back, his eyes darting around as ice spread from the rubble right over Gray, to all of the debris on the floor and even the edges of the hole in the wall.

Everything shattered at once, and Yonji leaned away as some ice flew out at him. The man then snapped his gaze back forward and glared angrily at the man standing before him. Gray's bloody and swollen face only made his expression look more determined, and he rose up his right fist like he was ready to go all out against Yonji if he had to. Yonji floated back off the ground though and he clenched his own fists out in front of him again, fists covered in powerful gloves of his Raid Suit that Gray knew first hand how powerful they could be. The mage was ready to defend himself now, but he also knew to be cautious. Yonji however, got over Gray's determined expression quickly and started laughing again, "What's with that look? Are you that determined not to get killed? Too bad, I needed to vent-"

Yonji had started to pull his right fist back while he spoke, but he stopped speaking mid-sentence and decided not to fly down at Gray and punch him in that aggravating face of his. He froze and tensed up, because Gray's face suddenly looked horrified, his eyes turned as wide as saucers, but the mage was not looking at him. Yonji followed Gray's gaze to right behind himself, and he slowly turned around as he felt the air on his back heating up. _It's right behind me!_ He thought, the feeling of a monster filling his mind as he turned to see what caused the sudden shadow to fall over him. The heat intensified as Yonji turned and stared at the wall in front of him, rising up and curling over his body, covered in steam.

Yonji lifted his gaze up the steaming wall of water in front of him, up to the twenty meter tall woman's shoulders that were bubbling with boiling water, to her face that he could not make out any features of because the front of it was veiling by a smokescreen of steam. All Yonji could see from that face, were the glowing red eyes behind the steam, glaring straight down at him like he was a bug about to be squashed. "Hold on-" he started yelling, then the right hand of the giant water woman that was bigger than he was smacked him out of the air and into the floor.

"What were you just about to do?!" The giant woman roared, while everyone even close to the nearby vicinity sprinted as fast as they could away from the giantess.

Gray stepped out of the hole in the wall and looked up. _Juvia?_ The giant woman rose her right hand and a huge sphere of boiling water appeared above it. Gray's eyes darted down and he saw Yonji getting up out of a hole in the ground, then he shot up in the air thanks to the jets under his boots. He opened his mouth to yell, then did a backflip in midair to dodge the left hand that swiped across Juvia's front. As Yonji was flipping to avoid her swipe, his jaw dropped and his eyes grew huge at the sight of Juvia's right hand coming down with the sphere of water ten meters in diameter heading straight for him. "AHH-" he started screaming, at least until the boiling water sphere slammed into him and drowned his voice out.

"Juvia!" Gray shouted up to the giant woman's head. The redness to Juvia's eyes started to fade a little and the steam in front of her face shifted away, but Juvia kept her right hand pointed down with a constant flow of water slamming down like a high-powered waterfall on Yonji's head.

"Gray-sama," Juvia called down, her voice low and booming. "Are you alr-"

"Stop it!" Gray shouted up at her. Juvia's eyes opened wide, and Gray shouted, "You're going to kill him!"

The constant jet of water flying out of Juvia's right hand stopped, and the huge woman shrank down, ten meters, five, and then down to her normal height. She stood ten feet in front of Gray with eyes that were huge as she saw how he was looking at her with so much fear, but fear _for_ her, not _of_ her. Juvia's lips trembled, and the girl whispered, "Juvia cannot help it." When Juvia's face reformed as its normal appearance, he could see streaks of dried tears on her face, and she started crying again as she spoke to add more to them. "Juvia, k-killed people," she said, her voice hoarse as she did.

"Oh Juvia," Gray muttered, shaking his head. She leaned back in horror, but Gray stepped towards her, and he said in a guilty voice, "I'm so sorry." She opened her eyes wide in shock, and he whispered, "I knew, there would be side effects, but, I brought you back anyway. I didn't know, what those side effects would be."

More tears started pouring out of Juvia's eyes. Her chest was heaving and her heart beating a thousand times per minute. It felt like it was going to fly right out of her chest. "Gray-sama," Juvia whispered, his words getting choked-up as they came out of her mouth. "If, Juvia can't stop, herself from killing people," she sniffled a few times, then looked straight into Gray's eyes and began, "then she would rather kill her-"

"Don't finish that sentence!" Gray shouted. Juvia froze with her mouth open, and she looked down, but he stepped towards her since he could see from her expression that she still felt the same way. "Don't you ever, feel like you would be better off dead," Gray said, and he put his right hand forward so it was up against Juvia's left cheek. She leaned into it and shook her head, her eyes clenched tightly as she did not know what to say, if there was anything she could say. "After all I went through to get you back, Juvia, I can't lose you again. Don't you ever say you want to die," he said, his voice scolding. She started to lift her gaze, her eyes widening as he spoke. She made eye contact with him right as Gray finished, "If you were to die, I couldn't go on. I know that now. I know because I had to go through that once, and I can't do it again. So please Juvia, whatever you were thinking of doing, promise me you won't. It might be selfish of me, but I'll make sure you don't lose control again! I'll stay by your side for now on, no matter where we are, no matter what we're doing. I'll be by your side, and I'll protect you!"

Tears were welling up in Juvia's eyes again, but for a different reason as she could see water on the bottom of Gray's eyes as well. Gray opened his mouth to continue his heartwarming speech, but his eyes grew huge as he saw something behind Juvia. With the hand he had against her cheek, Gray pushed extra hard and threw Juvia out of the way, right before a jet-propelled foot slammed straight into his face. It would have hit Juvia in the back of the head, and the girl who looked up from where she was thrown on the ground dropped her jaw as Gray took the blow straight in the nose for her. Gray flew off the foot while Yonji spun his red face towards the girl now. His face was dark red from the searing burns he got from all that boiling water that Juvia had attacked him with, but his Raid Suit seemed to have protected the rest of his body. As he turned to Juvia with an enraged look on his face though, that furious expression vanished and was replaced with unease as the shocked girl turned her gaze to him. As they made eye contact, it was like a switch was flipped in Juvia's head and the girl's body covered in steam.

"Oh no you don't!" Yonji yelled. He shot towards Juvia like a missile while she rose up a hand towards him.

Juvia opened her right palm and growled, "Water Slicer!" A blue magic circle appeared in front of her palm and a half dozen whips of water as sharp as blades flew at Yonji. The green-haired fighter dodged the blades with ease though, and he flipped over Juvia's head right as two more whips of water flew out of the top of her magic circle, going right beneath his feet as he brought up his legs. Juvia was not able to turn in time, and Yonji brought the fist he had pulled far back forward, slamming straight into Juvia's spine.

"That'll be enough to break-" Yonji started talking before his fist even connected, because he knew Juvia would not be able to dodge from that close. When his right fist connected with Juvia's body however, his fist went straight through her and out the front of her chest. For a split second, Yonji thought he had punched her so hard that he completely impaled her, but the smirk that started to replace his shocked look faded just as fast. His eyes focused on where his hand went through, and he saw water surrounding his arm around the elbow.

"Imbecile," a dark voice snarled, and Yonji rose his gaze from his arm that he was finding hard to dislodge from Juvia's back, up to the girl's head. Her head started to turn around, and then her neck turned fully to water so that her face could turn a full hundred and eighty degrees. Her lips were curled up at the edges, but her eyebrows were narrowed down to show she was still pissed. The girl was smirking though, and she said in a smug tone, "Did you think you could touch me? Gray-sama is the only one Juvia wants to touch her! And you **hurt him!** " Her voice got extra deep at the end and her eyes flashed bright white for a second, before steam started to come off of her entire body.

Yonji could feel Juvia's boiling body burning through the Raid Suit on his right arm. He reached to it with his left and yanked backwards, finally pulling himself out of her, only for Juvia to raise a hand and growl, "Water Lock." A sphere of water surrounded the shocked man who reached up and grabbed his throat as he had just tried taking in a deep breath when he was encased. Yonji swung around his arms trying to disperse the water, but he could not do it, and his face was starting to get pale. "Hahaha," Juvia chuckled, a menacing look in her eyes as she stared through the translucent sphere back into Yonji's.

 _Shit, I can't touch her. Her magic is too, strong. Fuck I need to breath!_ Yonji grabbed at his throat again and his bloodshot eyes were rolling back into his head.

"Juvia," Gray whispered, having staggered to his feet behind Juvia once again. She heard his voice and her smirk wavered, her eyes widening as she realized what she was doing, then narrowing again as she remembered how Yonji attacked her Gray-sama. "Look behind him," he said, his voice just as soft. "And let him go," Gray finished.

Juvia frowned, Gray's suggestion sounding like a terrible idea to her. She had Yonji exactly where she wanted him. She had failed to finish him off before when she saved Gray, and he came right back and attacked them again. "Gray-sama, I should finish…" Juvia trailed off as she listened to what Gray said first, and looked behind her Water Lock. Juvia looked out into the middle of the road, and she saw a young woman around her age standing there. The girl had darker hair, hair that was messy and disheveled with different lengths on each side. She looked banged up, but the expression of fear and nervousness on her face, as she looked straight towards Yonji, it made Juvia's arms shake. What made Juvia's smile vanish completely though, and what made her drop her arms to her side and release the Water Lock, were the two children that young woman was holding in each arm.

The water sphere surrounding Yonji collapsed, and the man inside of it did as well. Yonji fell flat on his face and stomach, and the jolt to his chest caused him to cough up a few buckets of water. Across the street from them, only seven meters away, the woman who was watching in fear that her husband was about to be killed lifted her gaze from his squirming form to the two behind him. She looked at the blue-haired woman first who had lifted up her hands and started staring at them in disgusted horror, then to the man who told the girl to release her husband. Gray stared past Juvia for the moment and straight at the other woman, "Take Yonji and get out of here, Azula," Gray ordered.

Azula frowned deeply as he knew her name, but it only made sense as she knew his as well. She opened her mouth to say something, when the little boy in her right arm opened his mouth, clenched his eyes, and started wailing. "Shh Azorai," she began, only for the child's twin to start sobbing in her other arm. "Soren, Azorai, just, just hold on," they were getting louder, and her attempts to get them to shut up for a second so she could say something to Gray failed. The fire bending Princess glanced at the floor next to her, wondering if she could put the kids down for a second, but then her eyes shifted back to Yonji who was on his hands and knees, and then to the mages who were glaring at her as if they knew what she was thinking.

The Princess of the Fire Nation started walking towards them, but she stopped when she was next to Yonji, and she leaned down and whispered something into his ear. The furious man on his hands and knees opened his eyes wide in surprise, then snapped his head the other direction and saw the two mages he was fighting standing side by side, and glaring down at him like if he stood against them again, it would be the last time. Yonji grimaced, _Damn it. Showing me mercy. How pathetic._ He pushed himself up to his feet, and then turned his back to the two glaring at him.

"Let's go," Gray said, putting his right arm around Juvia's back and turning her around. The two of them started walking up the city towards the center, while the other two started heading the other way. They walked away from each other, separating, somehow without killing one another. No one said a word, but two babies screamed the entire time.

Once Gray and Juvia were far enough away that Gray did not think they could be heard any longer, he whispered to the girl next to him, "You did it." Juvia glanced at him confusedly as they continued to walk, but Gray was smiling and he clenched the hand he had around her back tighter on the shoulder farther from him, pulling her closer to his body. "You could have killed him, but you didn't do it. You know why, Juvia?" She shook her head at him, and Gray turned to look her in the eyes, "It's because you aren't a monster. You're loving, and caring, and kind, and a thousand different amazing things. That piece of you, this anger you're feeling, it doesn't have to control you."

Juvia sniffled a few times, and then in a tiny voice she whispered, "It's so hard." She wiped her eyes and looked into Gray's eyes lovingly, "But if Gray-sama thinks I can do it, then, I… then Juvia will believe him." She dropped her head down onto his right shoulder and nuzzled into it with her eyes closed. "I love you, Gray-sama."

"Yeah," Gray whispered, and he pulled her tighter to him again. "I love you too."

"Awww," a voice said in a dragged out way behind the two of them. Gray and Juvia spun around, and the teenager standing behind them with a messy mop of black hair flashed them a smile. "That was cute," Rin said, and the black cat standing on his right side smiled too. Rin and Kuro were just thinking about Shima's appearance and how mysterious and evil he sounded, so they were happy to get it off their minds.

Juvia's initial anger that someone was breaking up a moment between her and Gray vanished, and the girl smiled wide at the sight of the boy and cat behind her. "Rin! Kuro!" She exclaimed. Juvia held out her arms, and the cat that ran towards her leapt up in the air and right into her arms. Juvia giggled a few times as Kuro rubbed his head into her shirt, then she tilted her head confusedly and asked, "Have you always had two tails?"

Gray grimaced deeply for a second as he realized why it was Juvia was now able to see Kuro's split tail. Rin saw Gray's dark look vanish before Juvia lifted back her gaze, and he made a mental note to ask him about that later. The half-demon then turned his gaze to the east, towards the Royal Palace where a giant explosion that rocked the city just originated from. "We should get over there," Rin suggested. The others all followed his gaze up the city, and they watched as a beam of orange light surrounded in flames blasted out of a wall.

"Natsu?" Gray muttered, then shook his head as he examined the beam closer. "No," he said, his voice deep. "Shit, he might not be able to handle this on his own." Gray took a step, and then stumbled forward as he did not see the chunk of wall on the floor right in front of him. He did not see it because beneath both of his eyes, his face was so swollen that the bumps blocked parts of his vision, his vision that was already half red because of the blood in his left eye that dripped down from the open head wound above his eyebrow.

"Gray-sama!" Juvia shouted, dropping next to him and grabbing him by the right arm with both of hers to help steady him and get him back on his feet. "You already lost too much blood," Juvia said, looking to his left shoulder with a wince.

"I've been meaning to ask about that," Rin began while looking down at where Gray's left arm used to be.

"Later," Gray said, trying to keep his voice as stern and serious as he could. He stood straight up and paid extra attention to the floor this time as he started walking. "We have to go now though, if we aren't at the Palace soon, we won't make it in time."

"In time to do what?" Rin asked, walking up on Gray's left side at a quickened pace. It was less than a jog, but he did not need to go any faster to keep up with Gray's staggered way of jogging forward while staring at the floor. "I'm beat after fighting Astaroth, Kuro too, and you two don't look much better."

"I can keep fighting," Juvia said in a serious tone. Rin snapped his head to the right and looked past Gray at the woman who kept staring straight up the block without noticing Rin's shocked look.

"Did you just, use the first-person?" Rin asked.

Juvia flinched and froze for a second, before picking up her jog again to stay on Gray's right side. The cat she was still holding in her arms looked up at her face concernedly, and Juvia appeared upset so the cat opened its mouth to ask what was wrong. The group of four froze.

"To the Royal Palace!"

"Don't listen to any orders from the comms! The enemy has hacked them!"

"Regroup at the Palace!"

"Everyone to the Palace!"

The four invaders of Pyraxas had just reached an intersection, and as they did, they became able to hear the voices shouting on two sides of them. The voices were mainly coming from their right sides down the block to their north, but there were also some more right behind them coming up the street they just ran up.

"This is perfect," Rin began. The others looked to him in confusion, but Rin was taking the sheathed Kouma Ken off of his back. "As we are now, I hate to admit but we'd be no help against a High Lord. A bunch of grunts though," Rin drew his demon sword from the sheath and it burst into blue flames, just like his body and hair that grew two horns out the front of it. "We can take them no problem."

Juvia smiled in relief. _Juvia did not want to go back to the Palace anyway._ The hardened look she had on her face a minute ago while staring straight up at the Palace was not because she was determined to get up there fast, it was just she was thinking so hard about what she would find at the Palace that it had been troubling her. _Those men, and Nami-san. And, Kirito tried to stop me, just like Gray-sama, but Juvia did not listen to him. Will he be mad at me? No. Kirito, saved Juvia. Gray-sama keeps telling me, how it was Kirito who saved me. But he is so angry at Gray-sama now. Why? When Gray-sama lost an arm? Why-_

"Who goes there?!"

Juvia's troubled look that reappeared as she kept thinking about sad things vanished again, though this time instead of a smile of relief, an intense look appeared on her face. Gray leaned in to the side of her head as she prepared for the men running at them from the north, "Don't worry. I'm right here. If you feel yourself going too far, just remember I'm at your side." Juvia's cheeks turned red and she nodded a few times really fast, and then her head started steaming and her skin became even redder as Gray planted a small kiss on her cheek.

 _That should keep her mood up for now,_ Gray thought. _But this is bad._ He turned towards the enemies and lifted his right fist to prepare for a fight. The enemies were faltering at the sight of Rin who took point in front of them, and then they backed up even more as Kuro had leapt out of Juvia's arms a minute ago and suddenly transformed into a monster cat taller than a human at Rin's side. Gray did not look towards Juvia as he thought it, but in his mind he imagined her giant steaming form as she pummeled Yonji into the ground, the bloodthirsty smirk on her face as she held a Water Lock around him. _Juvia, what did I do to you? I said it's alright, but I shouldn't have put this burden on you. I was selfish to bring you back without thinking of the consequences. There could have been better ways to do it, but I was just so desperate. I won't make you live like this forever. I swear, I am going to find a way to cure you of whatever this is. No matter what._

* * *

 **Vistarion**

Inside a laboratory deep underground a massive city five thousand miles away from Pyraxas, a tank full of liquid trembled. Inside the round cylinder that stretched from the floor to the ceiling twenty feet above, was a figure with cat ears and a long tail. The figure's body was still forming, his body incomplete, but his mouth was a part of him that was complete, and he could not stop cursing in anger.

"Calm yourself Jackal," Tempester said. Another demon of Tartaros, this figure was completely covered in brown fur that got thicker and darker around the bottom of his square jawline to give him a black beard. He wore a dark green cloak, but the hood was down revealing his long mane of blond spiky hair that dropped beneath his cloak so it was impossible to tell how long it was. Tempester had his arms crossed in front of his muscular body, and the demon said in a deep voice, "You have been through the process before. Hell's Core cannot put you back together any faster. Now tell us, what was it that killed you?"

"That damn Fire Lord!" Jackal screamed.

"Hahaha!" Another voice much deeper than Jackal's bellowed laughter through the underground chamber. Ezel moved closer to the tube that Jackal's body was reforming in, using the six tentacles sticking out below his muscular light-blue torso to move forward. All four of the twenty foot tall figure's buff arms were crossed in front of his chest, and he kept laughing through his mouth full of razor sharp teeth. His teeth were not even the sharpest thing on him though, as on top of the monster's shoulders were a bunch of protruding spikes that matched ones sticking out of the sides of Ezel's head. "You must have really pissed him off for him to try and kill you, Jackal!"

"Grrr," Jackal snarled, glaring at his fellow demon through the liquid around him. "It wasn't even me who had him all pissed," Jackal grumbled in annoyance. "Pyraxas is under siege, but stupid Sozin incinerated me before I could enjoy the rest of the battle."

"Was Sozin winning?" Tempester questioned. The serious demon started scratching his chin as Jackal hesitated to answer.

"In that case," Ezel said, and he flexed his arms at his sides before cracking his neck either way. "I'm going to take the city!" He yelled out.

"Do not get ahead of yourself," Tempester said to the larger demon on his right side. "We must first check whether or not the city is up for grabs, and if it is then I, Calamity, will take-"

"Actually, you weak little insects won't be going anywhere," a high-pitched voice said in the darkness of the far side of the room. The demons spun to look over there, sweat on all their faces, even Jackal's inside the tube full of liquid. A thin figure with wavy black hair started walking out of that darkness into the dim blue light around the Hell's Core regeneration tubes.

"Wall Eehto-sama," Tempester greeted, bowing his head a little as he did.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jackal scowled towards the thin man walking towards them. Wall smirked in his direction, and Jackal leaned back a little at the devilish grin of sharp teeth that looked so unnatural on the face of a human. It was hard to think of this person as just a man though, as the floor beneath his feet started quaking with every step after Jackal's remark. He had little black holes all over the bottom of his jaw line, and screws in either of his earlobes.

The Machinas man walked all the way up to Tempester and Ezel, then between them as they moved to the sides for him. Wall Eehto stepped up to Jackal's regeneration tube, and he reached a hand out for it, pressing his palm up against the glass. "Did you get hurt again, little insect?" Wall questioned, only a foot away from Jackal's body now. Jackal dared not say anything in response, as all it would take would be a flicker of one of Wall Eehto's fingers to shatter the regeneration tube.

 _I've never been interrupted in the middle of reforming before. Would I, still come back? Or, is that it?_ Jackal's face filled with anxiety and he kept silent, but Wall's eyebrows furrowed like he wanted a response from the demon. Finally, Jackal gulped and just nodded his head at the powerful man. "Well that's too bad," Wall said, and he removed his hand from the glass. He curled his hand into a fist and slammed it forward and Jackal opened his mouth wide in shock, then dropped his jaw further as Wall stopped his fist just in front of the glass and started cackling at Jackal's afraid expression.

After Wall got in a good bit of laughter, he turned his back to Jackal and looked at Tempester who had asked him a question. "The High Lord has heard about the situation in Pyraxas already, and he's sending Spriggans to deal with it." Wall Eehto smirked at the demons in front of him, "Looks like we're the ones getting all the fun!"

* * *

 **Royal Palace Throne Room, Pyraxas**

"You are all that remains Straw Hat!" Sozin roared, and he laughed darkly while flying to his right. He stuck his left hand out and shot a beam of red light that propelled him even faster away, and then Luffy's giant fist flew through the spot he was just flying. There was now a beam of red light there, but Luffy just bit his lip to ignore the pain and curved his arm, snapping his fist in the direction Sozin dodged to. Blasts of red flames shot out of the soles of Sozin's feet, and he did a backflip that put him right over Luffy's fist as it went below him. Luffy could not hold it in this time and roared in pain as Sozin's feet shot flames straight down into his extended arms that did not have a strong enough Haki coating to prevent being burned.

Luffy's arm snapped all the way back to him, and the pirate started panting even more heavily than he already was. Sozin flew towards him though, not giving him a moment's reprieve, and yelled as he pulled back a fist, "I invented the fire bending technique of redirecting lightning! Killua Zoldyck was a fool to try it, not that he knew that I would be able to send it back. I aimed at Natsu Dragneel because he was the biggest threat left to me, but I am fine with the outcome either way! Such a powerful boy, dead because he wanted to save a friend!" Luffy's eyes widened and a pulse of Conqueror's Haki blasted out from his body while he slammed a fist forward. At the same time, Sozin punched his own right fist completely covered in red at Luffy, and the two fists collided in midair. Sozin's irises widened and a smaller white circle reappeared in the centers of them, and his Haki aura pushed out against Luffy's.

The two of them roared at each other and pushed harder into their punches. Their auras pushed back and forth, while all of the debris from broken floor and pillars and glass and ceiling littered around in the throne room lifted up and started spinning around them. Bolts of lightning sparked away from their bodies and slammed into the outer walls, smashed into the floor, and shot up into the sky above the Palace. Everyone in Pyraxas looked towards their Palace only to see a tornado of debris spinning around above the top of it, lightning bolts flying in every direction, and the very city to be shaking as a result of it.

Sozin stopped roaring and he clenched his teeth. _More! MORE!_ The haze from below got thicker and drew into his body, but Luffy ground his teeth too and the pirate screamed out, "YOU BASTARD!" Sozin's eyes widened at the look of rage plastered across the pirate's face, a second before the force against his own hand felt like it doubled. Luffy smashed Sozin's fist away, and roared, "KONG GUN!" His giant fist slammed into Sozin's chest and the High Lord's body bent over it, before flying off down into the floor near the edge of his Palace so fast that he left a trail of white through the red haze the air. He smashed through the floor on one side of the room, and a bunch of machinery below the ground broke apart and exploded. Luffy did not notice it, but to his left, the Supernova started to flare out again, stabilizers Doc Ock put throughout the throne room failing because of their fight. The pirate would not have cared even if he knew though.

Luffy glared through the hole in the floor and out past the walls of the Palace, to the walls outside that separated it from the Upper Residential Area. He hit Sozin so hard that there was a giant crater in those high walls, and then the entire wall blew apart around that crater that stretched from the floor to its top. Luffy grit his teeth, then his facial expression filled with even more rage as out of that explosion flew a man covered in a reddish-orange flaming aura. "Stop making fun of Killua," Luffy snarled loudly, his body bouncing in midair thanks to steam pumping out beneath his thighs. "You killed him," Luffy shook with anger as he said it. _I was right there! He was my friend, my nakama!_ "YOU KILLED HIM!"

Sozin's eyes were glowing white with nothing else visible inside them, no irises, no pupils. The man was enraged like Luffy, and he roared back, "I DID!" He shot towards the pirate right as Luffy pointed his legs back and shot himself towards Sozin. Sozin flipped to the right in midair, but Luffy saw it coming and punched that way. Sozin pointed a hand down and pumped a jet of flames out of his palm, lifting himself ten meters in a second and avoiding Luffy's fist. Luffy turned his punch though in mid-swing, and sent it flying straight up through the jet of flames towards Sozin.

"RAAA!" Luffy yelled in anger and pain, as the Haki around his knuckles burnt away, as he pushed his fist towards the most condensed of Sozin's flames. The Fire Lord's eyes grew huge at the sight of the fist flying straight through his jet of flames, and he slammed down a second hand to double the size of the red beam. Luffy roared again, though this time it was only in pain, and his attack lost focus from the agony. He missed Sozin who dodged away from his attack, and then the Fire Lord rushed Luffy while the pirate's eyes were still clenched from the pain. Luffy heard him coming with Observational Haki and his eyes snapped open while he pulled a fist back, but his opening eyes became huge as Sozin was not in front of him like he thought.

"Too slow," a voice said behind him. Luffy started to turn, but his senses could not keep up, and a leg slammed into the side of his head, not only covered in flames, but a black aura of Haki as well. Luffy flipped over and over on his way out of the air, before hitting the ground in the middle of the throne room and breaking straight through it, then dragging a trench through a bunch of steel machines beneath the ground. Sozin floated down towards Luffy, but his entire Palace shook and he glanced backwards at the Supernova.

He snapped his gaze towards Luffy as the pirate climbed out from beneath the ground, and spoke as Luffy glared his way, "The Supernova is unstable, and even I do not know what will happen anymore, but the one way I have been able to stabilize it, is the same reason you are going to lose this fight." Sozin's body pulsed red, and three flares that ripped out of the Supernova at that second flew over to him and started spinning around like rings of fire. They spun around his waist, and diagonally in both directions over his shoulders and down to the sides of his legs as Sozin floated off the ground. "Your attack before did cause a little pain, but every second that passes, the amount of pain I will feel from a similar attack decreases. By now, I would no longer even be harmed from an attack of that magnitude."

Luffy was panting heavily, Sozin could see that, and Luffy knew Sozin could see that. Luffy was panting from his Gear Fourth state alone, but with all the heat in the room, with his own burns and bloody injuries, he was more tired than ever. Yet Sozin was not panting. The Fire Lord was taking all of the energy the Supernova gave him, and it was making him stronger and stronger. _He's not bluffing,_ Luffy thought. Those rings of fire around Sozin grew more pronounced, thicker, and Luffy understood that even if Sozin could not take all of the energy into his body at once, the Fire Lord could control it all and take it in later. The haze was moving towards those rings of fire, and then a lighter haze moved from the rings into his body at a slower rate.

"Do you understand now?" Sozin said, seeing a look on Luffy's face that made him think the pirate was comprehending his strength. "Do you see how futile it is to keep fighting?!" Sozin lifted higher off the floor, while glaring down at the round-shaped pirate who was bouncing off the ground with tiny little hops on his small legs.

Luffy's eyes shadowed over by his elongated hair, and his mouth twisted into a furious snarl as he stopped himself from panting out huge breaths of steam. The Fire Lord lost his smirk and frowned deeply in an enraged way. "You choose to fight?!" Sozin yelled, and he rose his arms at his sides. "This fight is OVER!" Sozin roared and created fireballs above his lifting arms. Luffy rose an arm too in that moment, but he did not do so to prepare an attack. Sozin stared at the pirate oddly, and then the Fire Lord's eyes opened huge as Luffy brought his giant right arm right in front of his face, and bit into it just like he did when his arms were normal sized. Ripples of muscles jerked around his arm, then across his back and chest, down his left arm like his right, and Luffy grew even larger than before. He finally had to let out a breath of steam as his body could barely handle Gear Fourth, let alone this enhanced form of it. _I won't have much time, so I have to hit him as hard as I can, as many times as I can!_

The pirate's eyes darted to his side at a small figure lying on the floor, and the thoughts of how much time he had in this state vanished from his mind. He suddenly felt like he could last in it for as long as he needed to, for as long as it took to defeat Sozin. Luffy's arms grew twice as big as they already were before stopping, and his round body was so large that his feet started bouncing him higher with smaller, closer-together bounces. Luffy snapped up his head and the dark circles around his eyes had expanded so they covered half of his cheeks and much of his forehead too, with a thin pattern of swirling black lines like the ones on his lower chest connecting the two sides of darkness on his face. Sozin shot towards Luffy in rage, while the pirate who just doubled his size brought back his fists and yelled out, "THIS FIGHT IS FAR FROM OVER!"

* * *

 **Royal Palace Courtyard, Pyraxas**

A hundred meters above the destroyed courtyard of the Royal Palace, a black portal appeared and out of it floated a dark figure. His eyes were dark yellow, his skin was so tan that it was almost brown, and his hair was silver, straight, and falling all the way down his back to below his waist. He wore a cloak over his shoulders that was open down the middle to reveal a black heart over his chest that had a red outline to it and a red X through the middle. The cloak was black near the shoulders but turned white halfway down his body around his waist, right where an inner part of his cloak stretched in and connected to cover up the front of his waist with a white button down. He wore black pants and boots, and clenched in the white gloves on his hands, the figure held a fully black Keyblade in his right and another black one only with a red blade in his left.

The figure floated out of the black portal and glared forward at another figure already in the sky. "I've been wondering when you were going to show up," the man in an all black cloak that had a silver zipper splitting it down the middle said. He had an eyepatch over his right eye, and long grayish-black hair tied into a ponytail behind his head. Xigbar smirked menacingly at the dark, silver-haired figure who continued to glare his way silently. "I know you're his Heartless and all, but we made new plans since we got here. Xemnas doesn't want to-"

"Where's Kairi?" the darker-skinned figure asked, his voice cold, with two voices speaking over each other: Riku's and Ansem's. Xigbar froze where he was, his mouth hanging open in mid-sentence. A bead of sweat formed on the one-eyed Nobody's face, while the man in a black and white cloak floated forward clenching the hilts of his Keyblades tightly. If he was holding anything other than the most powerful weapons in existence, the hilts would be crumbling inside his tightening grasp. "Tell me Xigbar, before I rip you to shreds," the dark figure snarled.

"Riku," Xigbar said, easing back in the air with another bead of sweat on his face now. "What's up with that look there, kid? Thought you were someone else!"

Everything Xigbar said while thinking he was speaking straight to Ansem stuck in Riku's mind, but he pushed it all aside for later. There was only one thing that mattered to him right now. "I'll only ask one more time," Riku growled, and a black aura surrounded his body with a white veil on the outside of it. "Tell me where she is, now," Riku demanded.

"Sorry kiddo," Xigbar said, and he rose up his arrowguns as he knew how this was going to go once he finished his sentence. "But that ship has sailed. Noxagh's long gone with your girl," Xigbar chuckled after finishing his sentence. "I mean, not _your_ girl, Sora's girl," the Nobody corrected. Xigbar quickly connected his two weapons to make Sharpshooter in its more powerful form, as the furious snarl that spread across Riku's face did sent chills down the Nobody's spine.

 _Kairi's gone. Xigbar's a talker though. I might only have one chance at this. He's not stupid enough to just tell me everything if I ask, but if he thinks he's winning this fight, he might let slip a few things._ Riku's angry look intensified, and on the face of Ansem, the Lord of Darkness, Xigbar could not help but nervously chuckle. "What's wrong, Xigbar?" Riku questioned, and he flew forward with his Keyblades both pulled far back behind him. Xigbar smirked and snapped his weapon straight forward, firing a huge red arrow of light at Riku's chest, Riku slashed both of his weapons forward, but before they connected with the arrow, a hole in space opened up behind him and that light arrow flew out of it and straight into Riku's back.

Riku's eyes opened wide in shock, then he clenched his teeth in pain and dropped out of the air a few meters. He snapped his head back up and panted a few times as he glared at Xigbar, "Fighting off Ansem's got you tired huh?" Xigbar questioned the teen, and Riku grimaced back at him like Xigbar was right on the money with that guess. "Well then, I might as well try my luck with you. I told the Fire Lord I was going to keep my distance, but Thymilph got his ass kicked so guess it's up to me now."

"I'm going to defeat you, Xigbar," Riku shouted at the man floating above him. His voice was still overlapped with Ansem's, but Xigbar was starting to feel a little cockier as that was not a tone or a sentence that the figure he was associating with that body would ever have used. "And when I do, I'll find Kairi and take her back."

"Good luck with that," Xigbar said with a laugh. "But a piece of advice," he continued, and his eye narrowed, his smile fading a bit as his voice became more serious. Riku actually hesitated, his heart rate speeding up, because he had never seen Xigbar even remotely serious before. He was always cracking a joke, always being sarcastic or acting funny, and yet as he looked at him now, Xigbar was definitely preparing to say something in a serious tone. "Stay away from Xemnas as long as you've got Ansem inside you."

That was it. Xigbar's expression returned to normal, and in a snarky tone he continued, "The darkness gets stronger here every day kid. Time's running out, but guys like us don't have to worry about it."

"I'm nothing like you," Riku growled.

"Sure you're not," Xigbar remarked back sarcastically. Riku ground his teeth and shot up in the air, pulling back his Keyblades again. Xigbar started firing his Sharpshooter down at Riku rapid fire, but Riku sliced every single one of the attacks apart with movements that were blurry to Xigbar's eyes. Xigbar ripped his gun apart and slammed down the individual smaller arrowguns right as Riku reached him, and the two of them pressed their four weapons against each other. Xigbar leaned his head forward over the crossing points of their weapons, and that intense look on his face reappeared for a second, "If you know what's good for you, you'll listen to what I said." The smirk reappeared on Xigbar's face, but his words continued to sound dark as he finished, "If you don't want this whole world going to shit that is."

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading the newest chapter of Nexus: Heroes Will Rise! This chapter was called Darkness, and it kind of spanned all of the different plot lines in the city. Noxagh kidnaps Kairi, and Ansem takes over Riku's body. Riku is able to come back, but only because Killua proves Ansem wrong by showing that people can change, pushing Natsu out of the way of his Super Lightning Gun that Sozin redirected to try and take out the opponent he was most wary of. Ben and Dash face off against Shinichi, the main character of Parasite, who says they don't know the consequences of what they're doing. Juvia saves Gray, and then Gray saves Juvia with what he tells her to get her mental state in check, though he knows it's not going to be that easy. Shima stands off against Saburota Todo, then goes down and tells Rin all types of secrets he probably shouldn't be telling. What are Shima's real intentions? Can Luffy handle everything Sozin throws at him while the Fire Lord gets fed more and more power from his Supernova? Why doesn't Xigbar want Riku to go after Xemnas? Next time we see the epic conclusion to the Pyraxas Chapter: Nexus HWR 10.9: Supernova. **

Darugus chapter 65 . Oct 14

looking forward to the next chapter especially with that cliff hanger

 **Thanks for the review! Killua! Hope you enjoyed how the chapter turned out! Thanks again to everyone who read, reviewed, followed, or faved, and as always, 'Till next time!**


	67. Nexus HWR 10-9 Supernova

**A/N Hey everyone! Thanks for reading this far! Another 30,000 word part coming at you to finish off this chapter of Nexus: Heroes Will Rise. Hope you enjoy!**

 **Nexus HWR 10.9 Supernova:**

 **Grand Hall of Fire Lord Sozin's Palace**

 **POW! BANG!** _ **CRASSHH!**_ _What's all that noise?_ _ **BrrrmmMM**_ **DOOF ba-CRASH!** _It's so loud…_

 _"Sozin!"_ **BAM! Rrrr-DOOM!** _Wait a minute…_ Natsu Dragneel's eyes fluttered open, but everything around him was black. He tried to move but it was impossible, and he was in excruciating pain. _What the Hell is-_

"Straw Hat!"

"SOZIN!"

Natsu heard muffled screams coming from right above him, right through the darkness he was staring at. _That was Luffy's voice. What the Hell happened? Why is everything so dark?!_ "Rrrgg," he growled and tried moving harder than before. He felt his body shifting, and above him shapes in the blackness shifted. He realized what was going on quickly and pushed his arms up as hard as he could, punching straight through the wall that had collapsed on top and around him. Natsu opened up his fists and grabbed each side of the hole he just smashed through to pull himself up.

The pink haired Dragon Slayer dragged himself into the light and tilted his head back to take in a deep breath of air. As he breathed in, he froze and his eyes opened wide at the sight above him. Luffy was fat, and round, and bouncing in the air with steam coming out of the bottoms of his thighs. He bounced back and forth dodging whips of fire while the walls on every side of them were engulfed in flames. Natsu spotted another person up there above him, flying around covered in an aura of bright orange flames that were so hot that anything he flew near started melting.

Luffy clashed with Sozin in midair over and over, then Sozin got thrown out of the upper section of the room and slammed down near his throne, smashing apart the stairs up to it. Luffy shot down towards him to finish him off, but a fireball twenty meters in diameter shot out of the hole and slammed into the pirate who screamed from inside it. A burning man flew out of the hole behind his fireball and he grabbed both sides of Luffy's head as he reached him. Sozin's eyes were pure white and he roared, "INCINERATE!"

Luffy brought a fist forward as fast as he could as his entire body got covered in raging flames. He spun out after hitting Sozin away as he was in too much pain to think straight. Luffy slammed down into the ground at the front of the grand hall, and Natsu turned his head to follow Luffy's arc through the air the whole time. Natsu staggered off of the pile of rubble and took a step towards the pirate, then froze and his eyes shifted down to the floor a few feet in front of him. Natsu's eyes grew the size of saucers at the sight of the boy lying there, unmoving, his eyes open and staring straight ahead at nothing. "Kil-lua," Natsu whispered in shock.

He took a step towards Killua's motionless form, then heard a scream far ahead of him, "Natsu look out!"

Natsu's head snapped up, but Luffy's warning came too late. Sozin was flying straight towards him with a fist pulled all the way back, and he let it fly straight into Natsu's face so hard that Natsu felt his mind get jumbled like Sozin was punching him in the thoughts. Natsu's body followed after his head as he got thrown towards the destroyed steps that he made even more destroyed by smashing into them. He hit the bottom of Sozin's steps so hard that the floor beneath Sozin's throne cracked, and the glorious seat for the Fire Lord fell to pieces.

He had no idea how long he was out for that time, but everything was dark for a while. The deafening sounds and violent tremors brought him back to semi-consciousness though. The Dragon Slayer's vision was blurry when his eyes opened back up. Sozin was incredibly powerful, more-so than he had imagined. He stared ahead through hazy vision and watched as a blur of red clashed with Luffy's round form over and over again. Gear Fourth's doubly bulked-up state was strong, more powerful than Sozin could handle, at least at first. The more Luffy punched him, the more their fists collided with each other's, the less Luffy's punches were breaking through and knocking the man away.

Finally, Luffy punched a Kong Gun at his enemy, but Sozin's speed had increased as well and instead of dodging away, he just shifted a small amount to the right and let Luffy's fist go by him. Luffy could turn his punches at sharp angles, but he could not make his fist start flying the opposite direction fast enough to catch Sozin. Luffy's eyes widened, then Sozin's elbow hit him in the face, wrapped in a solid orange aura that grew even brighter as it pressed into and scorched Luffy's face.

Luffy got sent flying off the elbow and Sozin flew after him. In the air between that battle and Natsu, the pink haired mage staggering back up to his feet in a tremendous amount of pain could see a haze of orange that he only just noticed. He had blood covering the left half of his face, and his arms and legs were pretty badly bruised and cut up. He watched the orange haze as it all moved in Sozin's direction, and he followed those trails of heat away from the High Lord who started knocking Luffy back and forth through the air with powerful punches and kicks.

Luffy got slammed by a double-fisted punch in his back, but the next time he went flying, he spun himself in midair and shot his legs out of their curled up positions in his thighs. "KONG SPEAR!" His legs moved so fast that Sozin had no time to dodge. Luffy knew where the man was about to appear to hit him again because of his Observational Haki, and his feet hit Sozin so hard in the gut that his toes became visible on Sozin's back. Sozin flew off the kicks so hard that he smashed through the wall across the massive hall in the same instant, shattering the already broken wall and making the rest of it collapse down at the top of the stairs near his destroyed throne.

The rubber pirate was panting as he brought his legs back into his thighs and pumped steam out of them again. He was breathing heavily and he had burns all over his body. His Armament Haki did well to protect his arms, legs, and upper torso, but his stomach and face were already badly burnt. The pirate with spiky black hair felt something approaching the Palace fast, and pulled his black fists into his arms like a spring in preparation. He knew it would be too hopeful of him to think the Fire Lord was down after that last hit, but this was still disheartening. He ground his teeth and roared, "LEO BAZ-"

Sozin shot through the still-collapsing wall behind his throne at hundreds of miles an hour. He saw Luffy's fists about to punch forward and he changed his attack from a punch that started miles away, instead pointing his legs down a little and shooting his flames off harder to push himself over Luffy's fists that jetisoned out of his thick forearms. He rose above Luffy's stretching, Armament-coated, buffed-out arms, and then threw his own arms down. He was covered in so much condensed fire energy that just swinging his arms down sent a huge amount slamming into Luffy's body, going as far as ripping through the Haki on his stretched arms.

The brunt of his attack hit Luffy on the top of the head though and the pirate slammed down into the floor of the grand hall so hard that the floor cracked in five different directions around him. Sozin started flying in the air above Luffy, and the Fire Lord's lips curled up into a smirk. He wiped the left corner of his lip to get some blood off it and ignored the pain through his body as he called taunts down at Luffy. Luffy's body was shrinking down below him. The pirate slammed a fist down into the ground at his side and urged his body to hold on, but every time he let out a breath of air, his muscles deflated more.

Despite all the pain it put him in, Luffy stood up. He got to his feet, no longer a Boundman, steam no longer seeping from his mouth. "I am Fire Lord Sozin!" The man above shouted down at the wobbly pirate who looked on the verge of falling back down. "I am a High Lord of the King's Cooperative! Ruler of the Fire Nation! Who do you think you are to stand against me?!"

Luffy's head snapped up, and he opened his mouth to shout something simple yet satisfactory and somehow deep. He froze though with his mouth wide open, and Sozin became confused at why the pirate looked that way. Sozin's body suddenly tensed up as well though as sweat covered his face and his aura shrank. He turned his head as did Luffy to the side of the room open to the outside world, an entire wall that had collapsed, and a figure standing atop all the rubble. Natsu stood there looking pretty messed up, he stood there on shaky legs, his hands held out in front of him, on either side of a flaring orange sun that he looked like he was squishing between his palms.

 _Natsu? What are you…_ "Natsu!" Luffy shouted as he saw Natsu get a good grip on it.

"What are you doing?! You fool!" Sozin screamed towards him. He started flying that way while Luffy ran over on the ground, but they both froze halfway. They stared in shock and horror as Natsu clenched his hands tightly around the Supernova, smushing it into an even more condensed form, then cramming the miniature sun straight into his mouth. His cheeks puffed out, then he gulped, and a fat lump slid down his throat. Sozin's entire aura disappeared, not because he lost all his power, but because of the sheer astonishment he felt in that moment.

"Natsu!" Luffy shouted.

Natsu slowly turned Luffy and Sozin's way, and the two of them stared at him in even more shock at the look on his face. The right half of Natsu's face was covered in black markings. His eyes were wide and his pupils small in the middles of them. A flaming aura surrounded him, flames with black tints on them, flames that melted the rubble around him. Natsu was smirking like a madman, but his mouth lost that smirk and dropped into a deep, agonized frown as his body flashed white. The black markings left his body and his flames vanished, and Natsu screamed, "AhhAAHHHH!" His body glowed bright again, even brighter than last time, bright like they were staring straight at a sun.

"Natsu, what are you doing?!" Luffy yelled at the Dragon Slayer.

"I- don't- KNOW!" Natsu screamed, and he fell down to his knees as his entire body glowed white. From head to toe, Natsu's entire form became pure white that exuded light so bright all of Pyraxas spun towards the Fire Lord's Palace. They stared at the light that shone out the walls and shattered windows, that made the entire city start shaking.

Sozin floated back through the air away from Natsu. "You fool," he snarled. "The Supernova has become unstable. Your body won't be able to handle it. You have just gone nuclear, and you're about to take this entire city and a good chunk of the region with you." Sozin flew higher and right through the open ceiling to escape from there. "You lose," he said, though he looked pissed off enough that it was hard to tell who was losing.

"Where…" a voice growled, making Sozin freeze right before he reached the hole in his Palace roof. He slowly turned with his entire body covering in a new coating of sweat. "Do you think…" he stared towards the white light that pulsed over and over every second or so. It was as bright as ever, but inside that light he could see a black silhouette of a person's body, a person with eyes glowing red, a person who opened his mouth and screamed, "YOU'RE GOING?!"

The silhouette inside the light vanished, and Sozin and Luffy both snapped their heads up as a trail of light showed them where Natsu went. The two dropped their jaws at how fast the Dragon Slayer was, appearing above Sozin's head already mid-flip. "SUPERNOVA FIRE DRAGON'S TALON!" Natsu finished the flip and slammed his foot down on Sozin's head, causing the Fire Lord's mind to blank before he was shot out of the air at three hundred miles per hour and into the floor of his throne room. "AAHHHH!" Natsu screamed, grabbing the sides of his head as he dropped after Sozin, falling flat on his back on a lifting section of the floor.

Luffy looked towards Natsu who pulsed white light again and melted the entire chunk of floor beneath him. This was the most reckless he had ever seen a person fight, but even as Natsu screamed bloody murder, the Dragon Slayer flipped himself over onto his stomach, gripped the melting floor beneath him with his fingers, and dragged himself back up to his knees. He pulsed again with the light of the Supernova, and again, and again, faster every time. "I, can't," he began, and turned his head so that he looked straight towards Luffy, with eyes that flashed bright white when he did. "RUN!" He roared at the pirate, before flashing brighter than ever and partially blinding Luffy.

"What about you?!" Luffy yelled over.

Before Natsu could reply, the ground beneath the two of them shook, and Natsu did not flash again. They snapped their heads down, right before the entire floor shattered and flames shot up through every crack. The entire room of the Palace filled with fire and all the walls still standing started to collapse. Natsu roared in agony as Sozin flew through the ground, his face covered in blood from the head wound he just received, his eyes bloodshot as he stared into Natsu's flashing white ones.

Luffy staggered up to his feet and stumbled backwards away from some of the hottest flames he had ever felt. He saw a body sliding down a chunk of floor on his left and glanced towards it, then back at the flames in front of him. Through the flames he could see Sozin screaming down at Natsu, but Natsu was not responding as the Dragon Slayer was in far too much pain. He kept flashing over and over, and Sozin's furious expression vanished as Natsu flashed like a sun again. When the look of fear spread across Sozin's face, Luffy knew he could not stay there any longer and he turned around. The pirate threw an arm to his side and wrapped it around Killua's body, then started sprinting as fast as he could for the exit of the room.

Luffy ran out the doorway that no longer had any doors and into a huge hallway with an unconscious Marine inside it. He ran right past Komei though, then screamed as he turned around the next corner, "Kirito! Run!" The black haired teen who Luffy was speaking to for the second time in weeks took one look at Luffy's face and the boy wrapped in his arm, before turning and sprinting the other direction just as fast. They hit another intersection at the same time and Kirito turned left, making Luffy turn too and then yell loudly, "RUN NAMI!" The navigator looked his way, about to shout something about all the shaking in the Palace, when a bright white light shone down the hall behind Kirito and Luffy and she could feel the heat on her skin. She needed no more incentive to run away with them.

Back in the throne room, Sozin stumbled back away from the man who was getting too hot for even him to stand next to anymore. "You fool! You've killed everyone in this city." Sozin pointed his hands down at the ground and flames discharged in jets from his palms. He rose off the destroyed and collapsing floor, flying above the flames and out of the room while staring down at the flashing boy. "But you won't take me, and I'll return to rebuild this city, before heading south personally to get my revenge." Sozin looked out one last time over his city and all the flames rising from it.

Natsu rose his hands in front of his face, shaking violently and pulsing with light underneath his skin. His skin was starting to peel, and he was in so much pain he could not think straight. Then, his eyes tripled in size and he stopped flashing for a moment as a voice shouted something at him. **"NATSU!"** It was a voice he recognized, but one he had not heard in a very, very long time. **"Expel it all! You're going to explode!"**

 _Igneel?_ Natsu thought. He only thought it for a second though, before what his father shouted at him repeated in his mind, and he rose his gaze up to the sky above him. "Hey Sozin!" He shouted. The Fire Lord started lowering his gaze back down, while Natsu continued as loud as he could, while getting off one knee back up to a foot, "SUPERNOVA ROAR…" Sozin finished looking down and his eyes were as wide as plates at the sight of his enemy getting back on one foot. Natsu got to the other foot and stomped it hard on the floor below him, "…OF THE FIRE DRAGON!" Natsu's body chose that second to pulse white again, but as the light coursed through his legs and arms and torso, it got dimmer faster than the other times. All of the light in his body changed directions and shot straight to his head, and Natsu's eyes glowed brighter than suns that blinded Sozin for looking straight down into them.

The Fire Lord pulled his face back at the light that blinded him, so he was the only person in the city unable to see what happened next. In fact, Sozin was the only person for five hundred miles who did not witness the half mile in diameter pillar of pure white light that shot straight into the sky over Pyraxas. Red flames flickered around the outside of the beam, but no one could see those thanks to how bright the white light was. Natsu screamed the entire time the light exuded from his mouth, as it was more energy than he had ever had in his body, and if he did not get it all out he did not think his body would be able to withstand it any longer. _IGNEEL! WHERE ARE YOU?!_ Natsu's beam hit the atmosphere and purple ripples reverberated around the planet's barrier.

Around Pyraxas, every single person in the city, and most people in the nation, were staring at the beam shooting into the sky. Yonji and Azula and the babies in her arms from where they sat atop a private train car speeding out of the city. Dunn, Ramirez, and Foley from the North Gate of the Royal Palace where they were surrounded by dead Fire Nation soldiers and an open gate. Ben and Dash from where they were standing in the Palace's destroyed courtyard, staring straight up with jaws on the floor. Gray, Juvia, Kuro, and Rin from the western side of the Upper Residential Area where they and the soldiers they were fighting froze to stare at the beam in complete awe. Sanji, Robin, and Franky from the zeppelins they were combatting enemy reinforcements. Even Mephisto Pheles from where he watched near the clouds, having found it difficult to leave without at least waiting to see the outcome of the events in the city. Everyone who could see the beam of light stared silently as there were no words that could be used to describe such an attack.

Luffy, Kirito, and Nami stopped running away from the direction of the throne room and snapped their gazes to the ceiling above them. The ceiling was ripping to pieces, shredding away and getting pulled into the beam that widened above the top of the Palace. Nami screamed and fell to her butt, crossing her arms in front of her face to protect herself from the light. Kirito kept taking steps backwards as he stared at the bright white light, but when he sensed ahead with his Haki, the teen froze in place and no longer felt fear. Luffy had not backed up at all after turning and looking straight up at the white beam. _That would have destroyed everything, it would have killed us all, if Natsu didn't…_ Luffy clenched his teeth hard as he thought about what could have been, but he shook his head around to get the thoughts out of his head, since those things did not happen and there was no point straying on them.

The beam was the most powerful that most people in Pyraxas had ever seen. Sending ripples of purple across the atmosphere for anyone within the nearest few ten thousand miles to see before they faded. All the reinforcements on their ways to Pyraxas, all the cities and towns in the Fire Nation, if it was clear outside, everyone stared up at the rings of purple rippling across their sky. Once again, these people accustomed to life on Nexus were reminded that it was not their decision to be there. The walls to their prison illuminated and reminded them that they were trapped.

Then it was gone. The attack did not slowly fade, or get thinner and then sputter out, the wide beam just ended. The bottom of it that got cut off moved so fast up to where the end already was that in an instant the beam vanished. Inside the Royal Palace of Pyraxas, those closest to the beam's starting point were hesitant to move. Luffy and Kirito sensed out with their Hakis, and the two grew wide-eyed for different reasons.

 _He did it,_ Luffy thought.

 _No way,_ Kirito thought at the same time. The teenager's eyes shifted from down the ceiling-less hall he was staring down, to Luffy's right arm.

Luffy took a step back in the direction he came from, a grimace spreading across his face as Natsu's presence suddenly felt very faint. He turned his head sideways before he kept going though, and he saw Kirito staring at his right arm already. "Take Killua for me," Luffy said, and he stretched his arm a few feet to Kirito who held his arms out in front of him. "I'm going to get Natsu," Luffy finished, and he placed Killua down in Kirito's bloody arms. Kirito did not feel Killua's weight wearing on him though, despite how hard it was to lift his arms even without anything in them a minute ago.

"Luffy," Nami said, getting up to her feet with a distressed look of her own. The expression her captain just had made her feel uneasy, and she asked, "What happened? Did you guys beat the Fire Lord?" She turned her gaze to Kirito and the boy in his arms. "What about Killua?" Luffy stopped for a second, then continued walking away back the direction they came from. Nami was behind Kirito, so she could only see Killua's legs and the side of his head and spiky white hair from where she was standing. "Hey Kirito," she began, stepping forward, the sense of dread growing larger inside her gut. She stepped closer to his back, more of Killua's face becoming visible each second. She opened her mouth to ask another question, when she saw Killua's eyes, staring straight up, faded, lifeless. "No," she whispered.

Kirito's eyes were focused on the blackened skin all over Killua's chest, and on the hole in the center of it covered in so much blood that it dripped off either side of his body. _**Creeaakk**_ The ground beneath Nami and Kirito shook, and they looked down to see cracks splitting the wooden floorboards. "Let's move," Kirito said, turning his head and walking the opposite direction that Luffy went a few seconds ago. "We need to find somewhere stable for a minute."

Nami, tears in her eyes, looked back in Luffy's direction one more time, then turned and walked quickly to get up on Kirito's side. "Killua, was so strong," Nami whispered, her heart clenching as she said it. "I, never thought," she bit her bottom lip and the weight on her back felt so much heavier now. The gold and jewels she had shoved in her bag, while Killua was dying in the same building, they felt like hundred pound weights dragging her down. "I'm so sorry," Nami whispered.

* * *

 **Four Miles Northeast of Pyraxas**

Inside a zeppelin flying on a direct course with Pyraxas, there was a control room full of flames. The metal underbelly to the huge blimp was full of soldiers, but all of those soldiers were currently either unconscious or on the floor moaning in pain. In the control room, officers and grunts alike were splayed out on the floor, bent over their computers, or even draped over the rafters like clothes left out to dry. A single figure stood amidst all this carnage, a blond-haired man with a swirly eyebrow and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

Sanji stood behind a strange wheel with two handles on either side and red buttons on top of it. He had never seen one like it, but he figured it out easily enough, and was steering the zeppelin towards its original destination. _The reinforcements weren't so tough,_ Sanji thought, then snapped his left leg back and slammed it into a figure who jumped off the ground with a sword risen, trying to catch him off guard. The foot hit the man in the face and knocked out some teeth while knocking the man out altogether. _Good thing there weren't any women on the ship,_ Sanji thought, a bead of sweat dripping down his face as he had realized on his way there that he should have brought Robin or Franky with him in case that situation arose.

"…Reports are spreading like wildfire out here!"

"Are the rumors true?!"

Sanji looked towards the console behind the wheel he was moving, and he grinned to himself that he was listening in to the Fire Nation's communications' channel. He could hear communications from all over the Fire Nation, and already knew about several different reinforcement groups heading towards Pyraxas. What he just heard was confusing to him though, and his eyes shifted from the glass windshield at the front of the control room to the console's speaker. _Rumors?_

"That beam of light!" a man shouted, and Sanji listened closer as he was interested in what caused that as well. "We're hearing the Fire Lord was inside it!"

"Holy shit, you're kidding me!"

"Keep your composure over the radio," an older voice scolded.

"I have family in Pyraxas!"

"We need to get back as fast as possible!"

"Stop talking about it over the radio!" a voice shouted in a panicked voice. Sanji got confused by this one, and he started hearing panting coming from over the line. The man who just shouted that started whispering, "We don't even know if it's true. If we spread these rumors-"

"They are true," a different voice interjected. "I just got confirmation from a source in Pyraxas. The Fire Lord is dead, and we are no longer coming to reinforce."

"What are you talking about?!"

"You know exactly what I mean," the voice said, sounding a lot more menacing than Sanji first heard it. People started yelling at that man, but there were no further communication from his side of the line.

"I need to get out of here," the panicked voice from before that was shouting at everyone to stop discussing it started. "If General Niji hears this, he'll…"

Sanji's jaw dropped and his eyes grew huge at the sound of what that man was saying. _Niji?_ And then, Sanji's bottom lip lowered even more as a different voice interrupted that one, "What will I do?"

"General Niji! I was just-"

"Informing our enemies of our current situation?" the dark voice continued.

"E-Enemies? No, sir, I'm on the line with fellow Fire Nation-"

"There is no more Fire Nation, without the Fire Lord," Niji's voice said. A voice screamed over the line, and then the line turned to static a few seconds later.

The channel was silent for a few seconds, and then a composed voice said, "If anyone on this line is in Pyraxas at the moment, this is Major Forester. Get my family out of there."

"Prioritize the families of Generals first!" a different voice yelled.

"Evacuate the city!" another voice screamed. "Our representative in the Capital has just informed me that his radar spotted a fast-moving object heading south from the Northern Continent. It flew past the Capital at a thousand miles per hour!"

"The Germa army is advancing from the east!"

"Three more Lords' armies are on their way from the north, northeast, and northwest!"

"Kong has just declared independence from the Fire Nation! He's withdrawing his troops from every army!"

Sanji's wide eyes shifted from the console up towards the windshield again. He was getting closer to Pyraxas every second, and he stared out at the city larger than Metropolis with huge eyes. The city was in flames. He did not know how it happened, but fire covered every side of the city. He could see crowds of people filling the streets, and the Palace at the top of the city was in as much flames as the rest of it. _What the Hell have we done?_ Sanji thought. _They're coming from every side. Lords, armies, way too much for us to handle at our current strength! Who knows how badly Luffy's been injured in his fight against the Fire Lord? And if that beam killed him, that means Natsu's there too. Rin already fought Astaroth, so did Ben at least. We can't handle all this right now!_

Sanji leapt over the console and sprinted towards the windshield, kicking straight through it and flying towards Pyraxas by kicking the air behind him much faster than he did to get to the zeppelin. _We need to get out of this city!_ Behind the pirate chef, the zeppelin he took over started falling out of the air. He ignored it though, his thoughts not on the men he defeated but his own comrades inside the city that was about to become several times more dangerous. He flew towards the city, his eyes examining the burning mess of buildings and terrified people swarming the streets to escape from the flames. _Shit shit shit! What are we doing here?! What is that bastard Niji doing coming here? The Germa are in the Fire Nation?_ Sanji bit down hard and shot out of the sky as he neared the northeast side of the city.

He thought about heading straight to the Palace, but the chef wanted to check if any of his friends were in the lower sections of the city before heading up. _We all need to move now,_ he thought, sweat forming on both sides of his face. _A thousand miles per hour that guy said? All the way from the Northern Continent? If enemies are coming from other continents, from all sides of us, we have to get out of here right the fuck now!_ Sanji's eyes scanned the city below him rapidly, and he clenched his eyes shut and extended his Observational Haki as far as it would allow. _Anyone down here? No?_ Sanji's eyes snapped open and he was feeling a little more relieved. He kicked the air behind him and shot over a street of the Lower Residential Area, looking down at scared people mostly running towards the outsides of the city.

Sanji's head started to lift so he could face the walls to the next area of the city which he would have to lift up a little to get over. Right as his head rose though, his entire body tensed up and the sweat on his face doubled. Sanji's head snapped down and he glared down and straight ahead of him at a figure running the opposite direction as most everyone else. The people running towards the center of the city did catch his eye, but most of them he glanced right over. This young man though, a spiky-haired thin man, had a couple of swords strapped to the right side of his waist. Sanji did not know why it caught his eye, he could not even comprehend how he saw it from so far away, but one of the hilts at this man's side made Sanji's breathing speed up and his heart rate fasten.

 _That sword,_ Sanji thought. He missed a kick behind him and started falling out of the air, but then decided not to kick again, and he just fell all the way down to the street level. He did not know what he was doing, but without thinking he shouted, "Hey you!" The figure running up the street in front of him turned his head sideways, looking thirty meters back at the pirate who was staring straight at his waist. Sanji started jogging towards him, an angered expression slowly spreading across his face. "Where did you get that sword?!" Sanji yelled, his voice full of anger.

The man who looked around the same age as Sanji, maybe a little younger, looked surprised and his eyes shifted down to his own waist as he turned fully to face Sanji. Sanji's eyes were on the swords: the one he did not recognize inside of a brown sheath, and one he did recognize that was in a black hilt covered in red circles. The darkest hilt was not the one that caught his eye from so far away though, it was the white sheath, the white hilt, that made Sanji's heart speed up. _When he fought Hawk-Eyes, he swore he would never lose again on that blade. I met him and he had it. I have never seen him fight without it._ "That's not your sword," Sanji growled towards the young man.

Yamamoto Takeshi stared at this strange figure in front of him in confusion, and then his eyes widened and filled with a light that confused Sanji. "Why do you have the marimo's swords?" Sanji asked, and Takeshi's eyes opened even wider as his suspicions were confirmed.

"Are you one of Zoro's crewmates?" Takeshi asked, a smile forming on his face.

Sanji continued to frown despite that confusing smile. _Don't be fooled by his friendly expression._ "That stupid marimo would never let someone use his swords," Sanji growled, demanding an explanation with his voice.

Takeshi held up his hands defensively as Sanji's tone was seriously dark. "I'm only holding the Wado Ichimonji, he would never let me use that one," Takeshi explained. "It's just, when Zoro died, he asked me to carry his swords for him-" As Takeshi spoke, Sanji's jaw dropped and the chef's face turned pale.

 _Oh shit,_ Sanji thought, his hostile expression fading away. "Zoro, died?" Sanji questioned in a soft whisper. _Damn it, Luffy. This is gonna kill you._

"Wait wait!" Takeshi exclaimed, waving his hands in front of him with a panicked expression on his face. Sanji looked up at him with a depressed but confused look, and Takeshi chuckled a few times before saying, "Sorry. I guess you couldn't have known, but even though Zoro's dead, he's not, _gone_."

Sanji's head cocked to the side. "Huh?"

* * *

 **Upper Residential Area, Pyraxas**

Riku floated fifty meters above the southern side of the area for the rich upper class of the Fire Nation. When the giant beam of white light blew apart the roof to the Royal Palace, both he and the black-cloaked figure currently twenty feet to his left side were floating above it. They were a little to the south of the center of the beam, having been battling each other over the Palace's courtyard, which was the main reason they survived the attack. As soon as the beam destroyed the roof and shot for the sky, it had started widening at a speed almost too fast for Riku and Xigbar to be able to dodge. They managed to drop out of the air quickly though, and at the same time fly away from the center of the beam, but the two of them were still panting at how close that was.

Riku glanced back towards the outer walls of the Royal Palace. The ones in the south closest to him were completely destroyed, and through the gap in the wall where the gateway used to be, he saw a couple of small children gawking at the sky above them. The taller of the two nudged the smaller blond one, and then the two of them jogged up some steps and into the Royal Palace. _Good, the two of you are alright at least. I'll be there to protect you in a minute. First, Kairi._ He turned his head left, and the Nobody still staring up at the sky saw Riku's head turn and lowered his own gaze a second later.

Xigbar let out an impressed whistle before turning towards Riku. "Didn't see that one coming," Xigbar admitted, though he laughed after he said it, showing he did not really care either way. Xigbar cracked his neck by cocking his head to either side, then he let out a deep breath of relief. "You know, I was just getting tired of this place." Xigbar lifted up the two pieces of his Sharpshooter arrowguns, but he pointed them straight out at his sides instead of forward at Riku.

 _Something's happening,_ Riku thought, keeping his yellow-eyed gaze on Xigbar, but making sure he looked around through his peripheral vision at the same time.

"Let me ask you a question, kid," Xigbar began, while Riku's eyes started darting around now for real. His yellow eyes shifted quickly to his right a hundred yards, where in the sky at the same level he and Xigbar were floating at, ten Nobodies appeared. The silver blanks, the thin Dusk Nobodies, with the Organization's symbol on the tops of their heads and mouths full of sharp teeth, were motionless. The figures hovered in the air where they appeared, and then Riku's eyes darted the opposite direction, where he saw another cluster appear floating in the sky. Xigbar continued with a low chuckle, "You ever wonder, why no matter you go in this world, the Heartless are wandering all over the place?"

"No," Riku responded immediately, his voice deep and dark, not sounding like his own at all. "I understand, that there is darkness in almost every heart. That darkness draws the Heartless, so…"

"You gotta let me finish what I'm saying!" Xigbar shouted, throwing his arms up in mock exasperation. Riku clenched his teeth, giving Xigbar a second to continue. "I'm asking, why you see the Heartless walking all over, but you never see a single Dusk anymore?" Riku's eyes narrowed in, and he kept them focused on Xigbar even as more Dusks appeared directly behind the man, and more and more appeared behind them, exponentially increasing in number. Samurai Nobodies appeared in the ranks, and then hundreds of Sniper Nobodies, the ones that Xigbar was personally in command of, emerged amongst the growing army in the sky. Every gap between Nobodies filled with another one that appeared out of thin air, little balls of white light popping in the sky and dropping a Nobody into Pyraxas airspace. "It's because!" Xigbar shouted, as he slammed his arms out to the side again, and Riku's bottom lip dropped as the army doubled in size. For every Nobody that was already floating there, another one appeared next to it. "The Organization controls ALL of the Nobodies!"

As Xigbar shouted it, the Nobodies started to drop down to the city below him. "And now we'll have more," he said in a menacing tone.

Riku shot forward like a missile, "What are you doing?!"

Xigbar fired his arrowguns while flying backwards away from Riku. The red and blue lights he fired from his weapons flew into distorted airspaces, but as they reappeared all around Riku, Xigbar's eye widened a little as Riku picked up the speed a lot from how fast he was moving before. _Hah, clever kid. I see what you were doing,_ Xigbar connected his Sharpshooter and fired one giant attack right as Riku was about to reach him. "What am I doing?!" Xigbar questioned, while Riku slashed both of his Keyblades down so hard that he smashed straight through Xigbar's powerful attack. "I'm just getting an army ready to take part in the upcoming war!"

Riku hesitated for a second, and Xigbar smirked in front of him. Riku realized it too late and spun around, but the Sniper Nobodies that appeared behind him had already fired their weapons. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and winced several times as he was slammed into by a barrage of attacks. "RAA!" He yelled, and an aura of darkness exuded from his body that shattered the remaining attacks that had yet to hit him. He spun around and glared towards Xigbar, with eyes full of fury as he saw the black portal behind the one-eyed man in the sky. His gaze snapped down as he heard the screams and saw Nobodies filling the streets of the Upper Residential Area they were over. _Why is he doing this?!_ His eyes snapped back up towards Xigbar who floated back into his portal with such a smug look on his face, and Riku in all his frustration shouted, "What war?!"

* * *

 **Royal Palace, Pyraxas**

"Come on Dash, we're almost there!" Ben yelled to the kid behind him.

Dash would normally be taking up the lead, but the small boy with blond hair kept looking over his shoulder. The stairs they were charging up kept shaking and cracks were constantly forming through them. The ceiling of the stairwell above them was splitting as well, and little chunks of plaster fell off of it in small intervals. "Ben," Dash called up to his best friend in a half-whisper half-shout. "What if that beam wasn't Natsu?" Dash asked, his voice wavering a little as he asked it. Ben shook his head like it was nonsense, but a look of hesitation spread across his face that Dash could not see, so the younger boy continued, "What if, that was the Fire Lord's attack? I mean, that was more powerful than anything I've ever seen Natsu make. You too, right?"

Ben slowed down as they were nearing the third floor. The exit to the stairwell was just ahead, but Ben did not know if he wanted to go through it now. _If that, was the Fire Lord…_ Ben gulped and his fists clenched at his sides. "Even if it was," Ben said, his voice hardened and with no hesitation in it. Dash's eyes opened wide, but Ben started marching up those last steps with determination, and stated firmly, "there's no going back now. If Natsu's fallen," Ben's eyebrows narrowed inwards and he clenched his fists tighter at his sides, "then it's up to us to finish this."

 _Ben,_ Dash thought, his eyes growing huge.

Ben stepped out of the stairwell and darted his eyes in every direction. He was standing in a hallway that had cracked walls on both sides, but to his left he could see a larger, more open room than the hallway. "Come on," he said in a hushed voice, and the kid who just reached the top of the stairs behind him nodded once before following after Ben. They walked cautiously towards the more open room where every step closer they got a better look at the soft chairs and couches, fancy lamps on round tables next to recliners, and of course the Fire Nation banners and symbols scattered around the large living room. They reached the entryway to the room that did not have any doorways in it, and the two gazed around, surprised at how intact the room looked. The televisions that were supposed to be attached to the walls were on the floors next to them with shattered glass around them, and a few lamps had fallen and shattered as well, but overall the room looked better than most they had seen so far. Then again, the ceiling of the room was completely blown off, and the walls on the northern side were covered in so many cracks that it looked like they would collapse with the slightest gust of wind.

The hallway breaking off of the room towards the north looked even worse. The walls on either side of it were crumbling as the boys stepped into the living room, there were flames on the floor and blazing through the banners that were hanging from those breaking walls, and the farther north they looked, the less Palace they could see. On top of all the broken walls, collapsed rooms, and missing ceiling, there was so much smoke coming from the north of them that they could barely see ten meters down that northern hallway.

Dash gulped as he looked into that black smoke. "Should we," he began, turning his head to Ben to see if his friend was thinking what Dash thought he was thinking. Ben's serious look confirmed what Dash thought, but when Ben made to take a step forward, the brown-haired boy froze. He stopped and Dash spun back to see what it was that made Ben do so. The kids heard them before they saw them. First came the footsteps, barreling down the hallways. Then the silhouettes became visible in the smoke, and they were moving fast enough that seconds after their shadows appeared, they became recognizable to the kids hesitantly raising their fists.

"Nami!" Dash exclaimed, a smile spreading across the boy's face at the sight of the orange-haired woman running out of the smoke. She had an arm in front of her mouth and was coughing into it, as well as tears in her eyes. The kids thought the tears were from the smoke though, at least until they turned to look left at Nami's right side, where a different figure who would normally be faster came running. He was already exhausted and out of energy to be running like this, but being that tired and having to carry someone else too, it made Kirito lag behind.

"Kir-" Ben began at the sight of the teen's face, but he stopped shouting in an excited voice as his eyes shifted to the figure in Kirito's arms. "No," Ben whispered.

"H-Hey," Dash called out, and he ran across the room to the northern exit where Nami finally dropped to her knees inside. Dash looked at the woman on her knees for a second, as she sat there panting, hands on her legs, then when she rose her gaze, Dash did the same. They looked up at Kirito who came to a stop next to them. Kirito stared straight ahead at Ben who was walking towards him, a horrified expression on his face.

"Not again," Ben whispered, his heart pounding. "Kil-"

Kirito dropped down to his knees and placed the boy in his arms flat on the ground. _It couldn't have been more than an hour ago,_ he thought, while reaching behind his back and underneath his sword sheaths. He reached for the one thing he would not leave behind in their hotel room that morning, something he made sure he would have on him at all costs. Kirito pulled the water bottle out and held it in front of him. He paused, staring at the bottle, the water inside sloshing about. Then he looked down at the kid on the floor in front of him. _Does Killua, really… "No matter what."_ Kirito stopped hesitating and unscrewed the cap of his water bottle.

"What are you doing?" Dash whispered. The kid's voice came out choked-up, and Nami lifted her head to see Dash staring down into Killua's wide-open eyes. The glossy, faded irises in the centers of Killua's eyes had Dash struggling not to start sobbing, though he could not keep the tears from streaming out of his eyes silently. Nami would have grabbed the boy and held him to make him feel better, but what Dash asked made her turn to Kirito in confusion as well.

 **BOOOOM!** The entire city shook from an explosion and Kirito's hands shook as well. A few drops spilled out from the water bottle he just opened and the teenager cursed loudly. Kirito took a deep breath, then he turned the water bottle sideways over Killua's chest. The young boy's shirt was completely gone, and the small hole on the front of his chest was covered in blood and burn marks. Kirito dumped some water on the wound though and he used his other hand to rub it around the burns surrounding the hole.

"Kirito," Nami whispered. "What are, you-" Kirito reached up and opened Killua's mouth, then poured more of the water in his bottle down Killua's throat. He splashed some on Killua's face, and he grimaced as the bottle was nearing empty. _So soon. Is it enough?_ He brought the bottle back down and carefully poured the last of it directly on the hole on his chest. Kirito turned the bottle upside-down and smacked the bottom of it a few times, making sure he got out every last drop.

Nami, Ben, and Dash all looked from Kirito to Killua in confusion. They could see how intensely Kirito was staring at Killua's wound, and the more they saw Kirito's expression, the more their own expressions were starting to match it. They all looked at the blackened skin around Killua's chest wound, and their hopeful, fearful looks became ones full of utter shock as the skin started to regain a lighter shade. The nickel-sized hole shrank to the size of a dime, then the skin puled inwards even more until the hole was gone, though there was a wrinkled bit of skin over it in a circular shape to show where the injury had been. Killua still did not move though. The shocked looks became full of dismay as the group looked from Killua's body to his eyes, eyes that were still hazy, unmoving.

Kirito closed his eyes, and he slowly bowed his head down to rest on Killua's chest. He pressed the left side of his head against it, and stayed absolutely still. He drowned out the sounds of explosions, and the near silent sobbing of those around him, and the crackling of the flames in the hall behind him getting louder with each passing second. He focused solely on the chest beneath them that was not heaving, and then he heard it. **Bu-dum.** It was a single beat, and Kirito did not hear another for a few seconds. He almost thought he had imagined it out of pure hope alone, until, **Bu-dum.** He heard it again. Kirito lifted his head from Killua's chest with eyes as wide as saucers, and he whispered, "He's alive."

"What?!" Ben exclaimed.

"He is?" Dash's voice full of relief whispered.

Nami stared at the young kid in shock for a few seconds, while Kirito reached up and closed Killua's eyes with a brush of his hand down over them. "What, was that, water?" Nami finally asked, lifting her gaze to Kirito.

He turned and looked her in the eyes, then turned down to Killua with a regretful expression on his face. "It's, how we brought Juvia back to life," he explained. Dash and Ben spun to him in shock, then to the empty water bottle on the floor next to Killua's motionless body.

Ben could see a deep look of regret on Kirito's face, and he thought about how Kirito had been gazing at Juvia ever since she came back. He opened his mouth to ask something that made his skin crawl, but before he could make a sound, someone shouted, "Guys!" All four of those gathered around Killua's still body turned around, looking to the side of the room opposite where Ben and Dash came in from.

Dash's mouth curled into a big smile, and he wiped the tears from his face while calling out happily, "Usopp!" The small blond boy who had not seen his long-nosed pirate friend in over a week jumped up to his feet. He was just told that Killua was alive, his friends were showing up all around him, things were not looking so bad. Dash saw a distraught look on Usopp's face though as the sniper ran over, and Dash's excited mood flushed down the drain. "What's wrong?" Dash asked nervously.

Usopp was panting heavily, but he spoke between gasped breaths, "Ansem, he took over Riku!" Ben snapped up looking shocked and then deadly serious as he glared up at the open ceiling. Usopp continued before Ben could fly off though, "And Kairi got, kidnapped!" Usopp's shout made all four of the conscious people in front of him drop their jaws.

Another person who heard this shout sprinted through the smoke behind the four Usopp was talking to, and the rubber pirate with another man draped over his back yelled, "What?! Where is she?!" Luffy dropped the pink-haired mage on his back to the floor next to his friends, and the others all looked at the muscular figure in torn-up clothing whose skin was peeled off in several areas and looked like he had been through a meat grinder.

A dark look spread across Kirito's face as he glanced down at Natsu's body. _He's bleeding a lot, and if Kairi and Riku are both gone, and Sora's still missing. This is not good._

"Where are they?!" Ben yelled, stomping towards Usopp with an angry look on his face. "Where did Ansem go? Who took Kairi?!"

"I don't know," Usopp replied, a guilty look spreading across his face as he said it. "It happened so fast. Gohan's Nobody showed up, and then Ansem took over Riku's body, and Noxagh took Kairi and flew off with her!"

Ben's determined, ready-to-go expression, faltered. The kid's eyes were huge, and he whispered in fear, "Gohan's, Nobody?" _Noxagh? If, if he's even close to as strong as Gohan is…_

Ben was not the only one thinking it. Nami's face turned pale as she thought about the kid who fought thousands of Heartless outside of Castle Oblivion and cleared them a path straight to the castle's doors. Kirito thought about the promise Gohan made to Lex Luthor about killing him one day, how it sent chills to his bones. Luffy's teeth clenched and he remembered seeing the look of unbridled fury plastered on Gohan's face after Tetsuo killed Future Trunks, when his friend flew towards the island above Metropolis, screaming in rage. Ben thought back to the first Underworld base he attacked, when the Balrogs killed Michelangelo and Gohan went berserk, killing all of them without hesitation, when he could not manage to defeat even one.

As fast as Dash was, he did not pretend to think himself a match for the Saiyans. "At best, I could run away from him," Dash mumbled under his breath, sweat forming all over his face. The kid's fists clenched and he whispered in a sad tone, "I'm sorry Kairi, and I'm sorry I couldn't protect her, Riku." Ben's teeth clenched in anger as he thought about how he and Dash promised Riku they would protect Kairi with their lives.

As furious as Luffy was about what he just heard, and how frustrated he was thinking about his chances against Gohan, especially in his current condition, he still had his Haki searching out around him, and his head suddenly snapped to the left. "People are coming," Luffy said, his expression dark as his black bangs partially covered his eyes. He stomped forward past his friends to get between them and the open hallway ahead.

Ben's downcast gaze lifted, and he looked down at his left wrist. The glowing green watch on his wrist made his eyes go wide. The kid snapped his eyes back up to the doorway that Luffy was looking towards. His fists clenched at his sides, and he marched forward like Luffy to stand at his side. Kirito's body ached, but looking at Ben's back, he once again saw the kid standing up in front of him in Metropolis, when he stayed down. Kirito pressed his hands down on the floor next to him and pushed himself up on shaky legs, but he did get up.

"This way!"

"Heartbeat sensor's picking up several targets in the next room."

"Hold on, three of them are tagged as friendlies." The men running towards the end of the hall that opened into a much larger room, though one that did not have a roof, slowed down and lowered their weapons a little.

"What about the other two?" Corporal Dunn asked, slowing down from his position at point. The light-skinned soldier was jogging with his fellow two soldiers on either side of his back, and he did not know if he wanted to lower his guard if the people in the next room were not all friendlies.

"Could be other allies they made in the city, like Lu Ten," Sergeant Foley suggested, while lowering his assault rifle and snapping the heartbeat sensor back into the side of it. He continued, "Slow down though, they might sense us coming and be prepared to attack when they don't recognize us."

Dunn slowed even more, while Foley jogged up on his side and closer to the wall. Ramirez stopped and he kept his weapon up more than the rest of his team. He watched as Foley stacked up against the wall right before the corner, then held a hand out slowly past the wall to show he had no weapon in it. "Gray Fullbuster?" He called out.

Ben's hardened expression as he glared towards the dark-skinned hand sticking out of the corner faded, and the kid took a step towards the opening. "Who are you? What do you want with Gray?"

Foley moved at a slow pace, but he stuck his head out past the wall, then seeing that they had no guns aimed at him, he stepped out fully. He lowered his hands but did not reach for the weapon he had snapped to his side for a quick draw if the situation required. "We're Resistance who were undercover in the First Royal Battalion in Pyraxas," Foley began, and Ben's fists unclenched as he realized these were not enemies. Two other figures stepped out around the corner, and all three men looked like heavily armed soldiers of the Fire Nation. They even had Fire Nation emblems on their uniforms, though one man's was ripped along with a lot of his uniform.

As soon as Ramirez walked into the room, he darted his gaze around and examined each of the figures in there. After a quick glance showed him that none of them were enemies, he started jogging for the opposite side of the room where he stacked up on a wall next to an opening, then peeked his head around it to check for enemies. He started setting up a trap in the hall, while Dunn pointed his rifle around at the ceiling, looking out for enemies coming from above while their Sergeant talked to their allies.

"Where is Gray Fullbuster?" Foley questioned.

Luffy frowned at the guy in front of him, but he turned and walked back to Nami and Usopp to ask them about the others who he last saw with them. As Luffy asked the two about Sanji and Robin, and asked Kirito what happened to Franky, Ben frowned at the man in front of him and replied, "I thought he was right behind us. He should have made it through the Upper Residential Area by now though." Ben's expression darkened.

"You don't think something happened to them, do you?" Dash asked, stepping up on Ben's left side. "Rin's out there too, so if Gray got in trouble-"

Ben interrupted his friend, "We're all tired from fighting Astaroth and his pet, I don't know if they could handle it if a real enemy attacked them right now."

"Excuse me," Foley interrupted the kids. The young boys both looked his way while Foley stared down at them with a bead of sweat dripping down the left side of his face. _It's ridiculous that these aren't even the youngest kids I've had to work with._ "If Gray isn't here, then what about Nagisa Shiota? My orders are to brief one of them-"

"Well neither of them are here," Ben interrupted the soldier. "Nagisa never left Sin City with us. He stayed behind to sabotage the army preparing to attack Pon-Gatso, but he wasn't just behind us like he said he would be."

"So neither Gray nor Nagisa are here?" Foley muttered. His expression deepened, and he brought his right hand around to his rifle. "Well, is the Fire Lord taken care of?"

Dunn and Ramirez both looked over, and Ben and Dash both turned their heads around. Foley looked over the kids' heads, and they all saw Luffy stop talking to his crewmates for a second. The pirate turned his head and looked down at Natsu and Killua lying side by side, then he turned more to look over his shoulder, "Yeah, they beat him."

Usopp and Nami opened their eyes wider as Luffy did not take any credit for defeating the Fire Lord. Luffy's gaze dropped back to the unconscious boys on the ground though, and his expression stayed dark and depressing, for a few seconds. _Wait a second,_ Luffy's eyes grew huge and he ran over and dropped down next to Killua. His Observational Haki did not even pick it up for a few minutes, but as he stared at the kid, he swore he felt a presence there. Luffy's eyes watered up as he stared at the spiky-white-haired kid in shock. "He's alive," Luffy whispered.

Kirito looked down to his right, then back up as he heard a beeping noise ahead of him. The man who looked to be in charge of the small group of Resistance fighters sighed in relief. "That's good," Foley said after his sigh. He lifted his gaze to the ceiling and continued, "Because our exfil is already here." The beeping sound seemed to coincide with something coming, and the group gathered on the nearly-destroyed third floor of the Royal Palace stared up through the open ceiling.

There was something coming straight down towards them from the sky. It was a small black dot when they first looked up, but every second it got bigger, until its features became visible. The people in the destroyed living room saw white furry legs, and a black underbelly to the beast descending on them. It dropped through the hole in the ceiling and more of it became visible, as did the saddle on the creature's back. Ben and Dash opened their eyes wide and they backed away from the middle of the room, while Foley moved the other way to stand between Dunn and Ramirez who were guarding doorways on opposite sides of the room. Foley kept his rifle trained on the flying bison, but his weapon was actually aimed above it in case there were any enemies following the creature into the Palace.

The group gathered closer to the northern side of the room stared up at the saddle on the flying bison's back, and a few of them opened their eyes huge at the sight of the person who stood up after the creature landed. The blonde woman wearing all black leather stood up and looked down at the group of tired and wounded fighters in front of her flying bison's face. "Looks like you guys could use a ride," Black Canary said.

Ben's dropped jaw closed and curled into a smile at the sight of the woman in front of him. Dash called out, "Dinah!" excitedly, and even Kirito had to sigh in relief and then smile at the sight of the woman.

"You came back," Ben said, his smile softer now, as even though this was great, the situation was only slightly better than before. The boy walked forward and he reached out his hand, petting the nose of the flying bison in front of him, "Hey there Appa."

"Actually," Dinah Drake said, while climbing down the flying bison's left side. She walked up to the side of the creature's head that Ben was petting, and she continued, "This isn't Appa." Ben pulled his hand back for a second, and he looked closer at the cute flying bison's face. He turned to Black Canary with a look that said, 'Are you sure?' She chuckled at him and pet the top of the bison's head herself, "Sokka is with Appa to help lead mass evacuations, they could barely spare this bison alone."

"Mass evacuations?" Dash whispered. "I thought we were going to try and stay and fight?" He asked innocently.

Dinah shook her head, now regretting her decision not to tell the younger boys this earlier. "We're getting the civilian population away from Pon-Gatso. That army at Sin City got held up for some reason and hasn't attacked yet, but it's an invasion force that we can't stop without bringing up a lot more troops, troops we can't spare from conflicts over the rest of the continent."

Dash and Ben both looked down, saddened and frustrated by what was happening around them. "Even though we're winning," Dash whispered.

Kirito balled his fists from behind the kids. He stepped forward and began, "Dinah, we just learned that Kairi was taken by the Organization." Ben and Dash turned and looked at Kirito confusedly, but Dinah's expression became very dark.

"Wait a second, Kirito," Nami began, stepping towards the ninja swordsman's back. Kirito frowned and did not turn, but Nami continued to his back in a soft, but curious tone, "How do you know about the Organization? Did you guys face the Nobodies when you went south?"

Ben and Dash only thought Gohan's Nobody would be so terrifying because of how strong Sora's Nobody seemed to be when they met him the day their group split apart. They did not even know what this Organization Kirito mentioned was, but the rest of their friends seemed to have a good idea. Kirito frowned deeply at the idea that they were here, but he answered Nami as much to explain it to her as to explain it to Ben, Dash, and Dinah. "Sora told me all about them back on the Thousand Sunny." Kirito thought about that night he woke up from a nightmare, and how Sora came up and the two of them talked a lot about their lives. _Sora, where are you? These are your enemies aren't they? Kairi's been taken by them… I'm sorry I didn't stop them._

"Alright, we need to get going," Black Canary said, and everyone in the room looked towards her. "I've heard a lot of chatter on open radio channels about Lords bringing armies to Pyraxas. Everybody wants the gem of the Fire Nation, and we can't be here when they show up." She walked forward and looked down at the unconscious Natsu, then the boy next to him who looked even worse. "Let's get the injured loaded up and then depart for the south."

"South?" Dash whispered.

Canary turned and looked at the kid confusedly, then heard a voice in front of her and spun to see a skinny young man looking into her eyes. "We're heading north," Luffy said.

"Luffy!" Ben yelled, turning and glaring at the pirate behind him. Luffy looked at Ben confusedly, and the kid continued angrily, "Are we in any position to keep going north right now?!"

"You guys were going south anyway," Luffy began.

"But we headed north because Gray's friends were all captured and brought to the Capital!" Ben snapped. "Even I know though, we are in no condition to keep going any farther than this!"

Luffy looked back down at Killua who was somehow alive, and next to him at Natsu who was bleeding pretty bad still. "Luffy," Nami began behind her captain in a quiet voice. Luffy turned and saw Nami looking down, and she lifted her gaze with a sad look in her eyes, "Juvia, she's in the city, but," Nami shook her head with a pained look on her face.

Ben and Dash looked her way nervously, and Kirito continued for her, "Luffy, Juvia died." Luffy spun to Kirito with huge eyes, and Kirito continued, "But we brought her back to life." Usopp's jaw was dropped, and Luffy's eyes were huge, before they shifted down to the kid lying on the floor next to Natsu.

"We don't have time to play catch up," Black Canary shouted, right before the ground beneath their feet shook, and parts of cracked walls around them crumbled. She turned to Kirito and looked him in the eyes, "My mission isn't actually to retrieve you and your friends. It's to pick them up," she motioned behind her where the undercover soldiers were standing. Kirito frowned at what she was saying and started to think about it himself as she continued, "But I requested to be the one sent on this mission, because I wanted to convince you guys to come back south with us. You'll be able to help us much more down there than by heading to your deaths in the Capital."

"Tango approaching fast!" Dunn shouted.

Ramirez pointed his rifle in the air, and he started firing rounds rapidly at the form that flew over the hole in the ceiling.

"Hold on," the dark figure up in the air called down, holding a hand up to get the soldier to stop firing at him. Ramirez did so, but not because he was told to. He stopped firing because his rounds were having no effect on impact with the figure floating towards them.

Only some of the people in the room recognized this figure, but everyone felt chilled by his appearance. The dark, menacing appearance to the tan-skinned figure with long straight silver hair was making each of them sweat. "Ansem!" Ben shouted up at the figure descending into the room. "Give Riku back his-"

"Ben," the figure interrupted. "It's alright. I'm in control." His voice was layered with Ansem's, but the words he was saying let his friends know who this was.

Usopp stepped forward with eyes as wide as saucers, "R-Riku? Is that you?"

"Yeah," Riku said, his tone dark and scary. "I pushed Ansem back down," he added. The nineteen year old glanced over at the floor, and a small bit of relief filled him as he felt Killua's life force. It was small, but there, and he let out a deep sigh of relief, before returning to a menacing grimace. "I couldn't save Kairi, and now there's an entire army of Nobodies filling Pyraxas. We need to get out of here, now," Riku finished.

The sight of the Lord of Darkness's body was seriously giving his friends the creeps. Luffy felt intense anger towards the person in front of him, and he had to keep reminding himself that this was Riku he was staring at. Ben looked up at Ansem's face, and the boy felt deeply troubled. Not because Riku had the face of one of his greatest enemies, but because that face had a look of worry and, fear, spread across it. "We can take an army of Nobodies, can't we?" Ben asked his older friend.

Riku frowned deeper and he said in a deep, chilling voice, "That's only one of the armies. Xigbar released them to take part in the battle, but, when I rose high above the city to get a look around, I could see them approaching. Thousands, from the north, the east, and the west. They're closing in on the city as we speak."

"Why?" Luffy asked in confusion.

"There's no time to explain," Black Canary snapped at the pirate near her who she could see had no idea what they were talking about. "We need to go, now!" She spun towards Ben, asking quickly, "Where are Gray, Nagisa, and Juvia?" She already heard that Kairi was missing, but heard nothing about the others in the group she left behind to warn everyone in Pon Gatso of the coming invasion. Ben opened his mouth to respond, but an explosion shook the floor and he stumbled to his right before steading himself. Black Canary shook her head around and shouted, "Nevermind! We have to go now!" This time as she shouted 'now,' she really seemed to mean it and started jogging back for the flying bison she brought with her.

"Cero."

The three soldiers in the room had just turned towards the bison. Luffy had opened his mouth to tell Black Canary off, saying that he was not going until his crew was together. Ben had turned away from the woman to look back at Dash and Kirito, and both of them also seemed hesitant about leaving the city without their other comrades. Riku had nodded along with her, though he had a distant look on his evil-looking face. Nami had thought about saying something too, but a look at her feet and the two nearly-dead, unconscious friends of hers made her pause. In the moment Nami paused, before Luffy could say a word in defiance, a voice spoke so clearly and bone-chillingly that every person in the room who heard it covered in a coating of sweat.

Then the beam of black dropped in the center of the room, right on top of Black Canary.

The flying bison reared up on its back two legs, kicking the other four in front of it frantically as it stumbled backwards. The beam of pure black energy was so wide that even ten meters away from the woman, Ben, the closest to her, screamed in agony as the edge of the beam expanded out and slammed into him. Riku ran forward and got between the rest of his friends and the beam, lifting his arms and crossing a pair of Keyblades in front of his body to hold off the energy.

Nami's eyes grew wider and wider as the beam became visible in front of her eyes. As everyone else screamed and the woman near the center of the room was slammed through a giant ten-meter-radius hole in the floor, Nami slowly started to see the black energy that everyone else was so afraid of. Kirito took a step back from his place in front of her, his eyes as wide as saucers as the beam appeared for him as well. _Where the Hell did that come from?!_ The two of them thought in panic, as they were the only two who did not hear the voice that spoke prior to the beam.

Ben fell backwards in pain, then snapped his head up and looked past his older best friend standing between him and the beam. His shock was quickly overcome by a different emotion, and Ben screamed at the top of his lungs, "DINAH!"

Dash and Kirito's shocked looks faded and the younger of the two looked horrified, while Kirito reached his hands up and grabbed the hilts of his swords sticking out over his shoulders.

The black beam of energy finally faded, leaving a twenty meter in diameter hole right in the center of the living room. The hole went straight through the floor, and the second floor's floor, and the floor of the first floor, and a lot of the ground below that too. More of the third floor around the hole was breaking off and falling into the hole, and Riku had to step backwards as the ground he was standing on right at the edge cracked and fell in.

The flying bison backed itself against a wall between two soldiers, one of whom was in charge of his squad and gulped while pointing his rifle up in the air. Dunn looked past the bison and to his Sergeant who aimed up, and despite all the fear he felt in that moment, he aimed up as well. Luffy's eyes darted up, then narrowed as he thought about the woman who was just consumed by that beam of energy, and the sounds of his friend's scream of her name like she was someone Ben was friends with. Luffy's angry expression got replaced by a much, much more afraid one as he stared through the hole in the ceiling. He looked so afraid, because when he glared at the figure standing on air outside of the living room, he also used his Haki to sense the man. The instant Luffy tried feeling his presence, the pirate's blood ran cold and he was at a loss for words.

"It was difficult to make a Cero so small," the thin figure began as he stood in midair. He did not look at a single one of the people gawking at him from below, but instead stared at the furry beast standing between two men pointing rifles up at him. He had a long, thin blade in his right hand, down at his side at the moment while he looked at the flying bison. His skin was ghostly white, but on his frowning face he had two black lines going from the bottoms of his eyes down to the sides of his mouth. On the left side of his head was a shell of what looked like bone, almost like a part of his skull was on the outside of his body, wrapping around the top of his head and stopping in the middle of his long black hair. The outer bone curved in down his forehead over part of the bridge of his nose, and cut in from the side so part of it wrapped under his left eye, though it did not connect with the bone over his nose. The strange figure looking at the bison continued, "However, I did not wish to harm such a gentle creature. The beast is not human, and therefore can live, unlike the rest of you."

He said it without turning away from the bison, but then his eyes shifted and he faced the dark figure next to the edge of the hole he made in the floor below. "Who are you?" The dark figure questioned, while floating off the ground with two black Keyblades in hand, one of which had red on the curved blade to make the weapons at least a little colorful, even if it was a dark, blood red.

"I would ask you the same thing," the pale figure replied. He was wearing a long white cloak that covered his entire body from his neck down to below his feet. The figure received no response from Riku, who stopped floating up when he was in a direct line between the monster and his friends on the ground behind him. Riku did not fly too close, but he got in the way of any future beam attacks. The man with bones on the outside of his head spoke after a five second pause, "Very well then. I am Ulquiorra, the Fourth Espada." Riku clenched his teeth and some more sweat appeared on his face, but he did not lower his weapons at all. "A Lord of the Cooperative, under the High Lord, and ruler of the Northern Continent, Aizen-sama."

 _That's the guy who Goku said he fought,_ Ben thought with intense fear spread across his face. _He had a scar on his chest and back, like he was stabbed through by the guy he was talking about. Maybe, his subordinates are a lot weaker than him!_ Ben tried to stay optimistic, but the dread he felt from watching Black Canary get obliterated was filling him with despair. _We should have left when she told us to! Why did we take so long? After, she came all this way to save us!_ Tears formed in Ben's eyes and built up on his lower eyelids. _Natsu and Killua are down, Kairi's been kidnapped, and everybody's still scattered through the city! Why weren't Gray and Rin right behind us? What's going on?!_

Ben was not the only one panicking, and though holding it together better than Dash or Nami, Riku could not say that he was calm in this situation. _If I use too much darkness, is he going to come back out? I have it under control right now, I can't even feel him after what we saw Killua do, but he'll be back. He always comes back! At my current strength, can I handle him, and this Ulquiorra, at the same time?!_ Riku clenched his hands tightly around the hilts of his Keyblades, and he slashed them through the air once while keeping a glare pointed at Ulquiorra. "Don't move," Riku growled, trying to look as menacing as possible which he figured was even scarier than usual while he looked like Ansem.

Ulquiorra did not flinch though. The figure just examined the weapons in Riku's hands, then turned his head.

Foley realized it and opened his mouth, "FIR-"

The figure they were all looking at was no longer in the air. Ulquiorra was just, gone. Everyone spun to the voice that got cut off unnaturally, not like Foley had stopped screaming as a count of his own volition. They all turned, and their jaws dropped at the sight of the Espada they were just looking at, holding Foley with his left hand wrapped around the soldier's face. The back of Foley's head was slammed into the wall behind him, the wall that broke into pieces from the collision of the soldier's skull with it.

"No!" Riku yelled. He had flown between the monster and his friends, but there were others in the room who needed his help. As the teenager in the body of the Lord of Darkness started flying across the room, he had to raise his altitude as the flying bison leapt forward and flew over the hole in the center of the room to get away from the Espada that killed its rider and was scaring it even though the Espada claimed not to want to kill it. As Riku rose over the bison, he saw Corporal Dunn pointing his rifle at the being that killed his Sergeant, and unloading while screaming curses in a high-pitched terrified voice at the monster. Bullets flew at the Espada from only thirty feet away, but the being did not even dodge them, though it was not a matter of being too slow.

Ulquiorra did not need to dodge, and he simply moved forward through the hail of gunfire. He moved in an instant, from the time one bullet slammed into his front, to the time the very next shot came out of the barrel of Dunn's rifle. Ulquiorra was just suddenly in front of Dunn, while Riku was still mid-opening his mouth to shout at the Espada to stop. Riku's mouth froze open, and he stared forward in horror at the sight of the long sword sticking through Dunn's chest and out the man's back.

Riku saw the third soldier closer to a different hallway lifting up his rifle. He flew that way as fast as he could and got between the man and Ulquiorra. "I won't let you kill-" Riku stopped shouting, his face filling with fear as Ulquiorra turned his head to the right. The Espada had not even pulled his sword out of Dunn's body yet, yet he shifted his attention not to the hallway Riku flew in front of, but to the side of the room Riku was originally guarding. _No,_ Riku thought, and he turned his head to yell at his friends who were nowhere near fast enough to handle this.

Luffy realized it as the monster slaughtering everyone in the room looked his way. "GUYS!" Luffy screamed. _Nami! Usopp!_ On his sides, he saw Dash spin around in an instant and start running away, while Ben scooted backwards on his butt, pushing his hands forward on the floor to try and get away while letting out screams of fear. "RUN!" Luffy yelled, and then the Espada appeared in the air in front of him.

Nami opened her mouth to scream Luffy's name. She was about to run away, she was ready before Luffy even shouted at her to, but when she saw the monster's head turn, she saw his gaze stop straight on her captain. She opened her mouth to scream as soon as her mind processed it, but Luffy had already screamed at that point, and then before she could make a sound, Ulquiorra was there. Usopp's leg was in mid-step-back, but he changed its direction while opening his own mouth to scream Luffy's name.

 _LUFFY!_ Dash thought, his head turning to look over his shoulder. Guilt filled his body but he had too much momentum in the wrong direction and could only stop himself from getting any further. He had no time to get back.

 _Too fast!_ Luffy thought.

Ulquiorra's sword was slashing down as soon as he appeared, which is why no one had any time to shout his name. The sword slashed down- _**CLANG!**_ In almost the same instant everyone thought it was over, something else appeared between the pirate about to be slashed in half, and the Espada hovering in the air in front of him. That figure had his right arm raised, a katana held in it sideways, blocking the longer and slightly thicker sword that Ulquiorra slashed down at the rubberman behind him.

Luffy became confused as his vision was blocked. The Espada slashing at him was blocked by a figure even closer, who wore a black cloak covering his entire body similar to how their enemy wore a white one. Luffy's gaze lifted from the figure's back, up to his head, a head covered in green hair that made Luffy's heart race even faster than it was a second ago when he thought he was about to get cut in half. Nami and Usopp dropped their jaws from behind their Captain where they stood. Kirito darted his eyes back and forth at the pirates on his sides who looked a lot more shocked than the rest of them at this man's appearance before them, and then his own jaw dropped as he remembered he had seen the man once before.

Ulquiorra's eyes also opened wide at the sight of the man who appeared in front of him. He pushed his sword harder into the man, but the green-haired figure grabbed his shaking blade with his second hand, then slashed forward so hard that it was Ulquiorra's turn to feel the pressure. The Espada's sword shook and when an extra burst of power pressed into him, he had to fly backwards to avoid being slashed. The swordsman in a black cloak cut through the air where Ulquiorra just was, and a giant white slash flew off of his pitch black katana. Ulquiorra sliced his silver blade down and cut through the flying attack coming at him after his retreat back. He then slashed his sword to the right and held it at his side while staring through his dark green eyes at the shinigami in front of him. "What brings you here, shinigami?" Ulquiorra questioned, his voice cold, monotonous, just like it was when he spoke of killing everyone in the room earlier.

"Z-" Luffy began, but a lump in his throat stopped him from finishing his shout. He swallowed hard, then stepped to his left and looked up at the side of the man in front of him's face. The first glance at his face confused Luffy, because he could see the man's left eye wide open, and the scar he thought should be there was missing. "Zoro?" Luffy asked, his voice hoarse even though he wanted to scream it. His Haki was not telling him that this was a person he was staring at, and the feeling of his comrade was unsettling him to his core. "Is that-"

The shinigami turned his head a little to the left, and looked through his eyes at the man behind him. Nami and Usopp's suspicions were confirmed and their jaws dropped even further at the sight of the man's scar-less face. He floated there in front of them, wearing a black cloak, holding a black sword none of them recognized, and had eyes so dark that his friends who had not seen him in years were finding it hard to speak. This was why they were on Aebrith, but now that he was here in front of them, none of them could say a word.

Nami was the only one of the three who had seen Zoro after coming to Nexus, so unlike Luffy and Usopp, she was a hundred percent sure that whatever happened to him happened since his fight with Kuma. In Luffy's mind, he imagined Zoro swimming down towards him as he sank, after the Thousand Sunny had mysteriously vanished from beneath his feet. That man and the one in front of him seemed so different, and that was just from a single glance at his old crewmate.

Zoro's eyes darted back in front of him and he straightened his face out, glaring towards Ulquiorra again. "What's an Espada doing so far south?" Zoro growled. He held his black hilt out in front of his body with both hands, the tip of it pointed up and out towards his opponent's face.

"Zoro!" Luffy shouted this time, yelling at the back of the man in front of him.

"Get out of here Luffy!" Zoro roared. The man behind him took a step back in shock at the sound of that shout.

Ulquiorra looked past Zoro. "Are you the one who defeated the Fire Lord?" He questioned. Luffy's eyes darted from Zoro's back, to the man on the other side of the room who he could just see around Zoro's left side. Ulquiorra kept frowning at the angry look the pirate started giving him. Luffy was furious that Zoro's attention was stuck on that enemy and not on him, as he wanted to have a reunion with his crewmate so much right now. "He was weak," Ulquiorra said, and Luffy's hardened expression faltered for an instant. "Did you think yourself strong for facing him? Southern High Lords could not stand against a Lord in the North of Aebrith. Ichimaru, 14, Iblis, myself, so many could have annihilated the Fire Lord if we so chose."

 _Ichimaru?_ Riku thought, watching from the side of the room. He glanced back towards the rest of his friends behind the figure who Luffy called Zoro, and thanked his luck for the first time in a handful of minutes, as he saw the flying bison cowering in a corner not far from them, trying to make itself look as small as possible, which was still way too large to be missed. Riku glanced behind him to say something to the soldier he tried to protect, but when he looked back, Corporal James Ramirez of the Resistance was nowhere to be seen. The teenager in the body of an evil Heartless darted his gaze down the hallway, but Ramirez must have left while he was focused on the standoff between the shinigami and Espada hovering before him, because he was already long gone.

"Zoro! We came here looking for you!" Luffy yelled at his nakama's back. He pushed what Ulquiorra just told him into the back of his mind, trying not to let the figure trick him, if it really was a trick. _They're all stronger than Sozin?!_ Luffy thought, then cursed mentally that he did not push it far enough back in his mind yet. He shook his head, then stepped towards Zoro's back and yelled, "I've been looking for you! Come with-"

"Luffy go!" Zoro yelled, this time sounding less like an angry order, and more a distressed shout. Ulquiorra was lifting up his left hand while Luffy was shouting, and the menacing figure rose an open hand pointed out at their side of the room. A small green light formed in front of his palm, a green light that instantly dropped the room into darkness. The energy sucking in front of his hand from all sides was pitch black with a green veil surrounding it, and it grew darker and darker as it formed into a sphere larger than his hand.

Nami, Kirito, Dash, Ben, and Usopp stared in horror at the attack forming on Ulquiorra's hand. The pressure of the energy alone was so heavy that Usopp's legs were shaking beneath him. They were shaking not because he was scared, but because there was so much weight pressing down on him that he could barely stand. Nami's legs gave out and she started to collapse, when two strong arms grabbed her by her shoulders and steadied her on her feet. Nami spun her head around, and her face filled with fear for a second, before remembering who it was that had such a terrifying appearance, one that haunted her nightmares from what the man did to her and her friends. "Riku," she whispered in a hoarse, scared voice.

Riku looked deep into her eyes with his yellow ones, and for a second Nami thought she could see some green in them. She quickly realized though, that the green she saw in Riku's eyes was nothing more than a reflection from the energy Ulquiorra amassed in front of his palm. Riku's eyes darted around to look at everyone in that instant. Ben was on the floor still, staring past Luffy at the Espada with terror in his eyes. Back at the opening to the hallway that led towards the side of the Palace mostly destroyed by Natsu's final attack against the Fire Lord, Dash stood with a look of so much fear that he could not bring himself to step back one foot into the living room. Nami could not stand on her own if he let her go, and Usopp looked like he was about to fall down as well. Only Kirito looked somewhat capable in this situation, holding his shaking swords with a look of anger on his face, having never faded since the shock wore off, as he was still thinking about the woman clad in black leather who took the first blow.

 _We can't stay here,_ Riku realized. A few minutes ago, the decision to leave was theirs, and it was a _choice._ Right now though, they _needed_ to leave. _That monster is claiming strength greater than that of a High Lord,_ Riku thought. _We can't deal with that right now, but maybe…_ Riku's eyes darted to the side of the green-haired shinigami's face. _He might be able to do this, but even if he can, we still can't be here. Ulquiorra's "small" Cero destroyed so much of the room, and he's much faster than any of us except maybe Zoro. If we don't go now, he'll take us out one by one like he did those soldiers!_ Riku thought all of this in seconds, and then Ulquiorra spoke, "Cero." It was the same tone of voice he heard when the first beam flooded through the ceiling. It still sounded, bored.

The black sphere in front of Ulquiorra's palm expanded a hundred times in a second. The Espada no longer seemed like he cared about the flying bison as it was in the side of the room that he was aiming towards, and the attack was much larger than the last one he created. The outer green tints were the only thing that kept the beam from looking like just a wall of darkness flying towards them, that, and the fact that everything around the beam shredded as soon as it was touched. For a second, a half dozen people thought they were dead. Then, a voice spoke, a furious, hate-filled voice, "Haunt: Mouretsuna-Akumu." Zoro's blade glowed and extended, and he slashed downwards in a way that made his lengthening Zanpakuto look like it lagged through the air, leaving after-images behind it.

Zoro's blade connected with the end of the Cero, and the two pressed against each other in a fight for superiority. Zoro got pushed back through the air, but he sensed the man right behind him get closer, so close that in a second he would be surrounded by the beam, and his ferocity towards the Espada increased even more. And as Zoro's bloodlust grew, so did the power of his Shikai, and the air around the Cero darkened even more, though this time thanks to Zoro's powers and not Ulquiorra's.

Luffy stared at Zoro's back a few feet in front of him, shock spread across the rubberman's face. He wanted to reach out and touch him, just to see if this was really happening. The beam that was so strong that Luffy doubted he could have survived a blow from it, was being held back by his first crewmate, his nakama. That nakama no longer felt human though. He stood there in midair, pressing against a giant beam of light with all his strength, a rage-filled expression on his face nothing like the calm, focused demeanor Luffy usually saw the man fight with. "RaaaaAAAAA!" Zoro's sword shook as the green veil of the Cero started to push around him to either side, filling up even more of the room while the swordsman and former pirate screamed.

 _Luffy, Nami, Usopp,_ Zoro thought, his eyes clenched as his sword was shaking too much. His sword stopped shaking, as in his mind he watched those three getting killed by his opponent. His teeth bared and his sword did more than stop shaking, it started slicing. His Zanpakuto sliced through the Cero and the beam split apart, each half of it flying to the corners of the room behind Zoro and breaking through them and the rest of the Palace they crashed into afterwards.

When the dark beam finally faded in its entirety, Ulquiorra stood in the same place in the air, though he did look a little more interested than a few seconds ago. His black eyebrows lifted up slightly as he frowned at the panting shinigami ahead of him. _He has not even released Bankai. Is it because he does not know how? Even if he does not, to have stopped my Cero with just a shikai then is an impressive feat, one no shinigami has done before._ "Shinigami, I am the Fourth Espada, Ulquiorra Cifer."

Zoro watched as the Espada in front of him decided to get a little serious, and he growled at the man behind him in a deep voice, keeping his ferocity up to make sure he did not lose any strength. "Get out of here Luffy," Zoro snarled, confusing the pirate captain behind him who had no idea why Zoro was so angry. The corners of Zoro's lips then curled up, confusing Luffy even more as his nakama smirked like a wild animal and glared straight into Ulquiorra's eyes with ones of a predator. "I've been hoping to fight another Espada," Zoro growled, though his voice sounded more competitive, more intense, more, _bloodthirsty,_ as he spoke this time. Ulquiorra's eyes widened a little more, and Zoro continued, "Haven't had a chance to kill one since number seven. I was hoping the next one would be a higher number than four though," he said, in a tone of mock disappointment.

"You killed Zommari Rureaux?" Ulquiorra questioned, his full attention now on the shinigami and nothing else.

Luffy opened his mouth to yell at Zoro's back, when he heard a voice behind him, "Luffy, let's go!" The pirate spun around, and his eyes opened wide at what was happening behind him. Standing on six big hairy legs twenty feet behind his back was the flying bison Black Canary entered the room on. On top of that tamed beast, already in the saddle, were Usopp, Nami, Dash, and Kirito. Kirito was resting Natsu down on the floor of the saddle, and Ben came floating up over the side farther from Luffy a second later with Killua in his arms. The brown-haired boy was not looking at the kid in his arms though, but towards Luffy and right over his head at the terrifying battle going on in the room with him.

The one who spoke to Luffy was floating between him and the bison, but was lowering towards him and extending a hand. "Come on," Riku urged, a desperate look on his dark face. Ansem's face could not even look menacing with the expression Riku was showing right then. His eyes kept darting over Luffy's head to the monsters whose darknesses were so great even he was amazed. Their raw power was nothing to be trifled with either, and he reached his hand down farther, lowering a little more while keeping his gaze up to make sure he was not attacked by the Espada almost too fast for him to follow with his eyes.

"Your name, Zoro…" Ulquiorra began, having heard the man behind his opponent shout it enough times.

"Roronoa Zoro," Zoro snarled, while lifting up his extended Zanpakuto and slashing it across the front of his body.

 _Zoro,_ Luffy thought, turning and looking up at his swordsman, his very first crewmate, one of his best friends, his nakama. "Zoro, come with-" Luffy began. Zoro vanished and Luffy's voice caught in his throat as the shinigami reappeared in front of Ulquiorra, who was now holding his blade in a different position he was a single moment ago, having moved so fast that Luffy did not see the motion. Their blades clashed, and the wind that shot off of their collision sent Luffy stumbling backwards. Zoro slashed again, and again, then Ulquiorra swung across the front of his body and Zoro brought up his sword fast on his right side, blocking it with much difficulty. He was getting pushed across the front of Ulquiorra's body, but he roared and slammed his head forward, surprising and catching the Espada off guard with the headbutt. As Ulquiorra leaned back from getting slammed in the forehead, Zoro pushed twice as hard into the sword he was parrying and slashed his own across the front of his body.

Ulquiorra saw the sword coming though, and unlike the headbutt, he was prepared for this follow-up attack. The incredibly fast Espada flew straight up in the air, and when Zoro missed his slash, he flew straight up after him. Zoro paused for a split second as he reached the level the roof of the third floor of the Royal palace used to be. He hesitated, and spoke in a deep voice, "Go. Right now." With that, he vanished, and reappeared even higher up in the sky where Ulquiorra had his sword pulled back and was about to slash down towards the Royal Palace with an attack so powerful it would destroy the entire building. Zoro's teeth bared harder and he slashed from a distance just like Ulquiorra was doing, and the two of their slashes collided in midair. Zoro's was white with a black veil around the outside of it, whereas Ulquiorra's was black with a green veil around the outside. The slashes covered the entire sky above the Palace when they collided, bright lights erupting from them filling the air with spiritual energy.

Luffy's eyes were huge while he stared into the sky. "Zoro!" He yelled out. The floor beneath Luffy's feet cracked as he stepped forward, and he looked down just in time to watch the entire floor crumble beneath him. He fell, but not very far. Luffy snapped up his gaze as a hand grabbed him by the forearm, and he saw Riku staring down at him with a serious, but understanding look. "It's, time to go," Riku said. He was not begging Luffy this time. Luffy understood that tone in Riku's voice well, a tone that told him things were out of his hands, out of his control. It was a voice he hated more than anything, because more often than not when he heard it, especially since coming to this world, there really was nothing he could do.

 _I found him!_ Luffy thought, snapping his gaze back to the sky above. _I found Zoro, so why?_ The pirate looked so frustrated, and though Riku could understand that frustration, the silver-haired teen started towards the flying bison that was all loaded up with their friends.

Riku dropped down on the center of the saddle and let go of Luffy's arm. The rubberman landed on his feet, though the animal below them moved around in that moment and his legs came out from under him. Everyone wondered why the flying bison started to move, only to yell out in panic as the rest of the floor of the living room collapsed. "Yip yip!" Ben yelled from where he was holding onto a seat of the saddle for dear life. He did not know if this flying bison knew the same commands as the one that carried him, Natsu, and Dash into battle earlier that week, but the bison did understand that it needed to get airborne.

The furry creature slapped its tail down as it fell, kicking its legs at the same time like it was swimming through the air. Their fall slowed, and though they fell at least a story down, luckily the floor below collapsed at the same time thanks to having close to no supports after Ulquiorra's attacks. The bison pointed its tan face up, shaking its head to get some of the white fur out from in front of its eyes. The creature's stomach and face were the only parts of it not covered in white fur, though on its back under the saddle there was some brown fur as well in the shape of an arrow that pointed down right on top of the bison's skull.

"Ughh," a voice moaned on the back of the saddle.

Dash spun his head and looked behind him. The kid was grabbing onto the bench on the back of the saddle for dear life, his legs lifting up in the air as the bison did almost a ninety-degree lift-off from its drop. Dash snapped his head back and watched as the pink-haired man on the floor behind him was starting to slide off the back of the saddle. Dash's eyes opened wide as the bison slapped its tail on the air again, and the jolt knocked Natsu loose. "Ah!" Dash yelped, and he clenched the bench even harder, hard enough to pull his legs down and put his bare feet against the saddle. As soon as his feet touched, he let go of the saddle and started running backwards.

The young kid with blond hair ran up and over the back of the saddle, then down the furry tail along the brown line that was thin this far down on the animal's back. He sprinted almost to the end of it and reached a hand up to grab Natsu by his left ankle. The kid turned as soon as he had a grip around Natsu, and he ran back up the bison's body. His eyes opened wide as he ran up the nearly vertical slope, as there was another body sliding over the ledge of the saddle. The bison's legs were in mid-kick, the same kick from when Dash ran off the saddle, but as they finished that kick, the bison lifted just that last amount to make it pointed straight up. Dash kept running though as Killua's body fell, and his friend only dropped a few inches before getting a hand around one of his wrists, so that Dash could run him back onto the saddle just like Natsu.

Dash got back on the saddle and he groaned from the weight of the two he was holding onto, until he pressed their backs against the back of the saddle and sat between them, throwing an arm in front of either of their bodies to hold them still while he faced straight up in the sky. Dash saw Ben hanging onto the front of the saddle similarly to how he was holding the back bench a few seconds ago, with his legs dangling below him and his arms fully extended. Riku stood calmly at a vertical angle right behind the front bench, while Luffy had one hand pressed down on the center bench to hold himself up, while he looked sideways and into the air above them to try and keep seeing his crewmate. "ZORO!" Luffy yelled.

Kirito grimaced as he tried to keep chakra focused on the bottoms of his feet. _I'm too drained,_ he realized, and dropped fast to grab onto something right before his feet came off of the floor. He held onto a bench, then looked behind him as he heard shouting. Behind him with their backs pressed against the front of the back of the three benches on the saddle were both of the pirates other than Luffy who could not stop screaming as a giant black and green explosion went off high in the sky.

The bison saw the explosion too, and it stopped its ascent to instead veer right. Some of its passengers who relaxed a bit as their straight rise got more gradual, yelled out again as they slid across the floor of the saddle. Dash shouted in panic as Natsu fell over him, and he and Killua tumbled across the back of the saddle before hitting the right wall. They were tilted to that side so Natsu almost bounced over him, but as Dash reached up to grab him, an older man with black hair appeared next to him, grabbing Natsu around the torso and pulling back so both of them fell on the floor. "Thanks Kirito," Dash told the teen who ran back to help him.

Kirito was panting too hard to respond, so he just nodded at the kid in front of him.

The bison flattened out and started flying across the sky towards the direction the suns were setting. None of the three suns had gone down yet, but it was getting pretty late in the afternoon from what they could tell of how close to the horizon the lower yellow sun was. Riku stepped up on top of the furthest bench forward, and he glared off the bison's left side for a moment and up in the air higher above them. He turned away from the fast-paced battle up there, and faced the west with as much disdain in his eyes.

"What are we doing?" Kirito called out to Riku.

Luffy turned his head and saw the younger man facing his direction, but looking over his head at the only other person standing on the bison. Luffy looked forward as well, and he frowned at Riku standing above him. He then turned and looked out to the left again where a battle was going on not far from them. "We have to wait for Zoro-" Luffy began.

"He told us to go," Riku said, his voice deep and unsettling. "And we need to go, Luffy." Luffy frowned and turned towards the younger man telling him what to do, but the dark figure standing on the front bench was not looking his way. Riku was looking straight off the front of the bison, out towards the west.

"Why would we go that way?" Luffy said in a stern voice, trying to take charge of the situation. "We're heading north," he continued, but Riku turned his head and glared straight into his eyes with cold yellow ones.

"North?" Riku questioned, his eyes narrowing at the man behind him. "Why don't you take a look that way?"

The others on the floor of the saddle who were still catching their breaths after that quick ascent, lifted their gazes to Riku, then one by one they got up to see what he was talking about. Nami and Usopp pushed up on the back bench to get to their feet, and Dash and Kirito from behind it stood up as well. Ben climbed up on the front bench where Riku was standing, and he looked to the north, before dropping his jaw and covering in sweat. _Is this what, Shinichi was talking about?_ Ben thought, while staring at a line of zeppelins covering the entire northeastern sky. There were two rows of them, one higher that the other one, with blimps flying between each of the ones on the row below.

Beams of yellow light were shooting down from the metal platforms beneath each zeppelin, and they could see why as tanks rolled around on the distant plains that were inside those far outer walls of Pyraxas that surrounded all the nearby towns and villages. All of those towns in the north were smoking, and the northeast was not the only battlefield. The northwest was in flames, but through those flames rolled giant vehicles with dozens of wheels on each side, and giant turrets on top that were firing around them. Some of the cannons on top of those faster, larger tanks, were aimed up at fighter jets coming from the east. The vehicles were firing on each other, even though all of them had Fire Nation emblems on them somewhere.

"We can't go west either," Riku muttered, his voice getting darker. Everyone looking out to the north in stunned silence spun the direction they were heading, and they watched in shock as four giants dropped from the sky. These hundred foot tall giants had silver bodies, sharp limbs, and on the front of their smooth silver faces, were darker gray cross symbols with sharp points on the tops and sides, but an upside-down heart on the bottom of the cross. "More Nobodies," Riku said. "Seems Xigbar wasn't satisfied just filling the city with them."

Nami had giant eyes as she stared at the huge monsters to the west, but as what Riku said echoed in her mind, she chose that second to look down off the side of the creature she was riding. Nami looked off of it and down into the city below, only to gasp and cover her mouth with her hands in horror. Usopp followed the woman next to him's gaze, and he looked down only to drop his jaw even further at the sight of silver flooding through the streets, hundreds of Nobodies weaving between buildings and attacking anyone they saw. The Nobodies were focused on the southern side of the Royal Palace, but they were spreading out through the entire Upper Residential Area, all the way to the western walls of it that they were about to go over.

"Ben, get the bison to turn south," Riku told the boy standing at his side.

"Hold on," Luffy growled, and Riku turned back to look the pirate straight in the eyes. Luffy glared into Riku's eyes, and he said in a dark voice of his own, "We aren't going anywhere until the rest of my crew is here."

"We don't, have that luxury," Riku replied, then he leapt backwards as Luffy rose a fist in front of him. Luffy did not punch yet, and instead he gained a confused expression as Riku leapt right off the front of the bison, then shot over the top of their heads horizontally. Everyone spun to follow Riku as he flew behind them, and Nami screamed and ducked with her hands covering the top of her head. There was no need for her to scream though, as the missiles firing from two fighter jets flying straight towards them were sliced apart by the tan-skinned figure flying through the air behind them. The bison below them started to turn, while Riku pointed a Keyblade out at either of the jets and yelled, "FIRE!"

Fireballs flew out of Riku's weapons and shot towards the fighter jets. The jets swerved and flew off, but Riku's magic was locked on, and the fireballs flew after them before slamming into the planes. The glass tops of both planes popped open and the pilots flew out, parachutes coming off the top of their seats, while their planes spun out covered in flames and crashed down into the flaming city below. Explosions followed each of the planes crashing into the ground, and Riku glared down into the city with a furious, depressed look on his face as he heard screams echoing out from all around it. His hands clenched tighter around his Keyblades, then his eyes darted to the west, to the north, and then to the east in the direction those fighter jets just came from. _Those jets did not have Fire Nation emblems on them. I didn't recognize their emblems at all. Who else is coming? There's a huge expanse of continent still to the east of us, and I don't know anything about what lies in that direction. As much as I want to stay and help…_ Riku's eyes darted back to the flying bison heading south, and he thought, _I already have too much I'm trying to protect. If I get too greedy, I'll lose everything._

"Hold on Ben, stop-" Luffy reached out a hand for Ben's back, but the boy spun and smacked Luffy's hand away before the pirate could touch him.

"Will you stop already?!" Ben shouted straight at Luffy's face. Luffy's eyes opened wide, and then kid standing past the front of the saddle on top of the bison's head so that he could pull its fur the direction he wanted to go, which actually worked, climbed back on the front of the saddle since they were pointed south now. He glared straight into Luffy's eyes from a little higher up as the saddle's edge he was on was elevated, and he said in an angry voice, "Why do you still need to go north? It's not because Zoro's there, because we know where he is!" Ben yelled into Luffy's face. "You just want to do it because you decided to, right? Because that was a decision you made, and you can't handle it that we're not doing it your way?!"

Luffy stayed silent as he stared at Ben with wide eyes. Ben's fists clenched at his sides, and he yelled louder, "What were you guys doing here?! We had a plan, and disguises, and allies, and even an evac for when we were finished! You, you just ran in here and got Killua killed! And now you want us to do what?!" Ben screamed. Dash stared across the saddle at his friend's face with shocked eyes of his own, while Kirito stared at the side of Ben's face with a grudging respect. Ben dropped off the saddle and stepped towards Luffy, who to the shock of his two crewmates farther back on the saddle, took a step back himself. "You want us to fly straight towards all those armies? On top of this defenseless animal?" Ben was shaking, and he yelled at the top of his lungs, "THEY HAVE JETS! AND TANKS! WE- ack, are exhausted," Ben continued, his voice cracking in the middle of his next shout. "Killua, just died Luffy," Ben whispered. "And Natsu's also out of commission. We can't do this right now."

Luffy stared down into Ben's green eyes for a few seconds in silence. Then, the pirate said with eyes shadowed over by his hair, "Killua, isn't dead."

"He was," a voice said on Luffy's right. He turned and looked back across the saddle, to a teenager standing behind the farthest back bench, swords drawn in his hands in case they were attacked while trying to run. Kirito stepped over the back bench so he was in front of Usopp and Nami watching from the edge, and he continued in a dark voice, "I brought him back, I heard a heartbeat, but he was definitely dead there. I don't know for how long, but whatever happened while you guys were fighting Sozin, it killed him."

"How, did you bring him back to life?" Usopp asked in utter confusion.

"It doesn't matter," Kirito grumbled, thinking about the empty water bottle he left behind in the crumbling third floor room of the Royal Palace. "Because I can never do it again," he added, making sure no one there had hope that if they died, he would be able to save them. _Killua didn't even wake up, not like Juvia,_ Kirito thought, turning and gazing over at the boy's body Dash was standing next to.

Luffy turned away from Kirito and back to Ben, then he lifted his head as Riku dropped down behind the younger boy. Ben, Kirito, and Riku were all staring at him, waiting for him to say something. None of them were listening though, none of them were listening to what he had to say. _I should just get off the bison then,_ Luffy thought, a reactionary thought, but one that made a pit form deep in his chest. _That's, what I thought when I heard Zoro was north. So I left, and, and I found him! But, but wouldn't I have been here anyway? The others, came here- No, I wanted to go so I left! Just like I should now._ Luffy steadied his expression and turned away from Ben and Riku. He stepped to the edge of the flying bison and leaned his head over the left side of it, then turned his gaze towards the back of the bison.

He looked back towards the center of the city from the southwestern side they were nearing now. _Sanji, Robin, and Franky are somewhere in here still. And Zoro,_ he looked all the way towards the Palace and above it where he could still saw a battle going on. _Once he's done kicking that guy's ass, I'll be able to talk to him for real!_ Luffy grinned, and he turned his head more so he was not looking straight back off the bison now, but instead across the middle of its back at Usopp and Nami on the other side. He opened his mouth, and then froze as he stared at the two of their faces. _They'd follow me,_ Luffy thought, staring at the scared faces of his nakama. _They'd follow me, down there._ His heart rate sped up, _What am I hesitating for?_

"Luffy." The pirate spun his head. Luffy looked so upset: angry, sad, confused, frustrated, and he was panting heavily with a pale face. "Cure," Riku continued, while pointing the Keyblade in his right hand at the pirate.

Luffy tensed up, and then felt the burns covered much of his body stop hurting so much. His skin lost some of its pale color, and everyone on the bison's back stared at the tall, dark Keybearer in shock. "Why?" Ben whispered up to his friend standing behind him.

"Because," Riku said, his voice overlapping with Ansem's. He turned back around and looked over the head of the bison out to the south again, "I don't want Luffy to die, if he does leave." Riku did not know what the pirate's decision would be, but with that statement he made his position clear. Whether or not Luffy leapt off the bison, this ride was going to continue south. They all understood it, and the ultimatum made Luffy's heart rate speed up even more. This escape route, the lucky break they got when Black Canary brought this creature for them to escape on, he was about to give it up. "I'm sorry Luffy," Riku said, his voice quieter now, though everyone on the flying bison's back could still hear him. "I've lost too much already, to turn back when I'm given an out."

Staring at Riku's body, stuck in a dark state, his eyes yellow, his voice overlapping with the man who took him over, his friends knew what he meant by how much he had lost. Not only Kairi, but a piece of himself was lost back there in Pyraxas. "If, Goku or Timmy were here," Riku began, and his eyes darted over to Usopp for a second. Usopp's eyes widened at the mention of Timmy's name, but that quick glance by Riku told him to stay quiet about what Ansem said. Riku continued while his face that was turned partially sideways faced straight to the south, "The situation would be different. If Sora," Riku faded and his fists clenched furiously around the hilts of the Keyblades at his sides. _I'll have to tell him, that I let her get taken._

Luffy kept staring at Riku's back for a few seconds, then he looked down at his hands that he held out in front of him. They balled into fists and shook like mad, and then they unclenched. Luffy turned and ran away from Riku. He leapt from bench to bench until he was at the back of the saddle, and he climbed right over it. Usopp gulped and he held his slingshot tightly in his grasp as he started for the back of the saddle. Luffy ran fast right past his crew, but they turned after him and started to follow. Riku clenched his teeth in anger and stared straight at one person, the orange-haired woman making her way to the tail of the bison. He could see Dash staring at the pirates with scared eyes, and Kirito shaking his head at their backs after they walked past him, but he just saw them through his peripheral vision. He only watched the woman who turned and looked back over her right shoulder. Riku locked eyes with Nami who walked away from him with such fear in her gaze, yet even as he thought about it, he could not come up with anything he could say that would convince her not to follow her idiot of a captain.

"ZORO!" Luffy screamed. Usopp and Nami stopped before reaching the back edge of the saddle, hesitating instead of climbing over the three foot tall wall to head to the creature's tail. Luffy was already on the tail, using his exposed and burned toes to clench tufts of the beast's fur, while cupping both of his hands to his mouth to scream. "ZORO! COME FIND US DOWN SOUTH! ZORO! ANSWER ME!"

Much closer than Luffy thought he was yelling to, a figure flying across the sky too fast for his old friends to see slashed his blade at his opponent, but Ulquiorra turned his own blade sideways and sparks flew off the collision. Zoro dragged his black blade down the Espada's, scraping the steel all the way to the hilt of his enemy's weapon. As his Zanpakuto was about to reach the hilt, Ulquiorra pushed up and then swiped diagonally down across Zoro's body. His parry opened up Zoro's body for an attack, but right when his blade was about to cut through the top of Zoro's shoulder, the green-haired shinigami smirked in a threatening way. Ulquiorra cut through Zoro, then turned from the fading illusion and rose up his blade, blocking the swipe coming from his back.

Zoro's smirk wiped from his face and he grabbed his sword with both hands, pressing harder into it to try and break through Ulquiorra's guard. "It seems that man is calling for you," Ulquiorra said while their faces were only a foot apart. Zoro snapped his head forward, but Ulquiorra pulled his face back, while snapping his right hand up and slamming Zoro under the chin with the hilt of his blade. Zoro's head that was moving forward got snapped back, the muscular shinigami gasping in pain. His head straightened back out and his eyes had a glint in them of even more animalistic rage as he glared at Ulquiorra, and the aura around Zoro slammed out even harder than before. "Hmm," Ulquiorra hummed, and he flew backwards fifty yards through the air.

Zoro shot after his opponent, slashing his blade across the air while yelling, "HAUNT: MOURETSUNA-" Ulquiorra shot forward before Zoro could finish his shout, and he slashed down into Zoro's blade before the shinigami could release his Zanpakuto again. Zoro grunted, then grinned and pressed harder into Ulquiorra's sword, so hard that he slammed the Espada away. Ulquiorra's arms were thrown out to either of his sides, and the force from Zoro's slash alone threw him twice as far back as he originally flew a second earlier. Ulquiorra stopped, and unlike Zoro he was not panting as he floated there in the sky.

"Your weapon responds to your bloodlust," Ulquiorra began, and Zoro stopped flying across the hundred yard gap when he was halfway to his opponent. The shinigami's eyes opened wide, and Ulquiorra continued, "However, it seems that is not all it reacts to." By the look on Zoro's face, Ulquiorra knew he was correct, though by the sound of confidence in his voice, Zoro knew the Espada had already figured it out. "That Release is a double-edged blade, and it will not work well on me. I can see you are getting frustrated by the level of power your blade has, even after all this fighting, even after you have gotten so angry. You would not be so frustrated, if by this time you did not already have more power in your usual fights."

 _This bastard,_ Zoro thought, and the corners of his lips curled even more up. His hands tightened around the hilt of his Zanpakuto, and a white aura came off of his body that flared wildly around him. _Makes me want to go all out!_ Zoro thought, his hands clenching in anger as well as competitive anxiety now. He needed to rush his opponent, needed to slash his sword right at that moment, but Ulquiorra was not finished yet. "Your Zanpakuto responds to your own bloodlust, but also to your opponent's. I suppose at this point in a fight, your usual opponents are cursing your name, and foaming at the mouth. Your power would be amplified, would it not?" The Espada received no response, except for his opponent flying across the air faster than he had the entire fight.

Zoro slashed, and Ulquiorra used a Sonido to vanish and reappear another hundred yards away, though this time it was straight up in the air. Zoro snapped his head up, his gaze following Ulquiorra the entire time. "Even while I stay calm, you are still able to get stronger," Ulquiorra said, almost sounding impressed, but only _almost._ "Then it is time. It has been a long time," Ulquiorra pointed his sword down, and the entire sky around him filled with a pressure so intense that Zoro found it difficult to keep his smirking expression up. Ulquiorra held his right arm out straight in front of him, and he finished while looking into Zoro's eyes, "Since I released my Resurreccion."

"Enclose: Murcielago."

A black flame erupted around Ulquiorra's body. The flame had a green shade to the outer edge of it, and it was over fifty feet wide and twice that tall at the highest flare of its flames. The flames ripped around him violently, and the entire sky darkened while dark green wisps of energy shot off his flaming body. The green energy ripping off of him fell out of the sky like rain, pelting Zoro and then dropping on the city below. Zoro narrowed his eyes as he glared up at the fading black fireball, and then his eyes opened wide at the sight through the vanishing flames.

Those fighters flying over the southern wall of the city on the back of a flying bison looked back into it in shock. High above the city, a figure floated surrounded by a dark sky, a sky that should have been more illuminated considering all three suns were visible in the west. This figure's presence was darkening everything around him though, and his presence made everyone who could see him feel intense fear. Two huge wings at least twenty feet long each stuck off of the figure's back. The wings looked like those of a bat, though the figure's face still looked at least partially humanoid. The bone covering on half of his face extended to cover the entire top of his head, now with two large horns pointing up above either side of his head. His arms had lengthened, as did his fingers and the black fingernails on the ends of them. His long black hair grew as well, falling on either side of his head down over his chest, as well as dropping far down his back almost to his waist, and his bangs that grew longer crossed over the bridge of his nose so that the hair sticking down the left side of his forehead covered the top of his right eye, and vice versa.

"Well, Roronoa Zoro," Ulquiorra began, his voice using the same monotonous tone he had had throughout their entire fight, showing Zoro that his mental state was fine and not going to make Zoro's Zanpakuto any stronger. "What will you do now?" A green blade of energy formed in Ulquiorra's right hand, and the Espada appeared in front of Zoro in the same instant, the green blade already slashing down. Zoro's wide eyes grew even more, and then blood splashed out of his chest as he did not pull back fast enough in time. Zoro flew out of the air and down into a section of the Upper Residential Area, getting pushed down by the green slash that already cut through him all the way into the floor. Then, when the shinigami hit the ground, the green energy pressing against him exploded. The explosion that followed destroyed two city blocks and every building in a fifty meter radius. The green blast domed out and the wind sent Nobodies and Fire Nation soldiers flying as easily as it ripped apart buildings and tore through civilians.

* * *

 **Southern Lower Residential Area**

"What was that?!" Juvia shouted, spinning her head and looking back towards the center of the city. She just heard an explosion, but only after she turned around did her jaw drop at the sight of how large it really was. "Oh my, God," she whispered, as the top of the green domed explosion was so high it was easily visible over the wall they just went through.

"Don't stop Juvia, we have to keep moving," Gray called behind him to the girl at his back. He looked up in the sky and gulped at the dark color it was tinted, then spun and looked back to the south where they were already running. They were fighting Fire Nation soldiers in the southwest of the Upper Residential Area a few minutes ago, but the sight of a flying bison leaving the Royal Palace told Gray he had missed their ride. The bison was still in sight though, having changed directions a few times in the air, but now heading straight south like it was going to leave the city.

"It's getting farther away Gray," Rin shouted, before slashing his sword to his right and cutting through a cluster of Dusks that just smashed through the wall of a building near him. "Where do these Nobodies keep coming from?!" Rin yelled, as right after his slash's blue flames subsided, a dozen more Nobodies came rushing over the roofs of three buildings in front of him, as well as running out from between them. The Nobodies were about to reach the road, when all twelve of them stopped moving.

Gray's entire body tensed up. _What could make Nobodies stop attacking? Only one of the Organization members. We can take one, even two probably, but our ride…_ Gray glanced over his shoulder and then shouted, "Let's keep-"

"Look out!" Rin yelled. The two mages on his right started to look left, but Rin was already sprinting forward and stopped in front of them. He slammed his sword down into the stone in front of him, and a wall of blue fire rose up between them and the buildings the Nobodies stopped on. _**BOOOM!**_ A second after the blue flames rose, five huge explosions blew up the buildings and Nobodies together. Rin grabbed the hilt of his Kouma Ken tightly as he felt the ground shaking beneath it, the concrete cracking more and knocking his sword loose. The force from the explosions pushed against his wall of blue flames, but Rin's eyes opened wide as a wall of ice rose up on his right side behind his flames, and on his left rose a wall of water, water that was then turned to ice a second later.

Gray wheezed out a few breaths after freezing Juvia's wall so that there was a thick layer of ice behind Rin's flames. _He can choose what he burns,_ Gray thought, while lifting his bowed head a little and gazing at his ice. The corners of his lips were pulled up the smallest bit, even though his mouth was wide open so that he could take the deepest breaths possible. Rin's blue flames burned brightly on the other side of the ice wall, but the wall was not melting as fast as it should. As Rin's flames simmered down though, large cracks formed across the entire ice wall on either side of the three behind it.

Gray's grin vanished. The small victory of surviving those explosions meant nothing, while whatever caused those blasts was still out there. His ice walls shattered.

"Hehehe!"

"AAhhahahaha!"

"EeekeekekeeEE!"

Screeches and cackles filled the air, echoing around the darkened city and scaring citizens still. Gray's body tensed up, and Juvia gulped, before lifting her steaming fists with a furious look on her face. Rin's face looked the most distraught though, and the teenager took a step back while staring up at the top of a flaming building straight ahead of him. Through those flames, he saw three figures step right up to the edge of the building. Their bodies were shadowed by the fire, but their mouths were open and laughing, and their laughter sounded like the screeches bouncing down the street.

"Gray-sama," Juvia whispered, her voice soft and shaking. "I do not like this."

Rin may have noticed something off with how Juvia was speaking, if he was not so full of dread. _Demons! Did he… It's too fast!_

"Okumura Rin!" a voice shouted, and all three standing on the street looked straight up at the center of the building in front of Rin. The flames pushed away from that roof and the monster standing there with glowing red eyes, horns coming out of its head, blackish purple skin, and sharp teeth filling its mouth, cackled at their expressions when they saw him. The other demons started laughing, the two larger ones on either side of the one in the center of that roof, the ones coming out of the flaming alleyways below, or crawling out from cracks in the ground.

"Where are they all coming from?" Gray whispered, stepping back in fear at the sight of all of them.

Rin was thinking the same thing, and he growled angrily under his breath for a few seconds before stomping forward and shouting, "What is this?! How did you all get here so fast?!"

Juvia and Gray glanced in at Rin's back in confusion, wondering if he knew why these monsters were showing up all of a sudden. Rin's expression stayed full of fury, but he was keeping control of himself while he held up his flaming blue sword. _There are mid to high level demons here. A lot of weaker ones too, but, but that one in the center doesn't even seem afraid of me. The others I can see it, they're hesitant to move forward because of my blue flames. That one though, he's just having fun watching my friends' afraid expressions!_ Rin's face took on an even deeper snarl, and the blue flames on his sword flared, the horns sticking out the top of his head burning brighter.

"'Get here?'" The dark purple demon repeated down in a mocking tone. He took a step forward on a muscular leg covered in black fur, and the demon dropped off the roof onto the floor below, shattering the flaming porch of the building he was on. Wooden shards flew in every direction, then even more blasted away as the two ten foot tall ones still on the roof dropped down to either side of him. The eight foot tall purple demon in charge stepped forward, his teeth looking like they were extending as he continued to speak, "We didn't _come_ here at all, we were always here! We, are the Umbrella Corporation!"

Gray's eyes grew wide, while Rin just bit down his sharp teeth harder as he thought about what that meant. The demon leader in front of them continued while his prey stepped back or started to look more hopeless, "We had to hide ourselves here in Pyraxas thanks to our High Lord Sozin's stringent policies. But the Fire Lord is dead," he added, his tone no longer taunting, no longer sarcastic like when he mentioned his "High Lord." The demon sounded, demonic. The monster cackled in a deeper tone than it did when it was on top of the building, and it looked straight forward with its dark red glowing eyes, straight into Rin's that had a fiery blue glow to them. "We will be the ones to capture Okumura Rin and present him before Lord Satan."

Other demons behind the leader moved forward, and the three who were facing them on the street only now realized that there was nothing left between them and the monsters. The demonic red flames the monsters rose with had faded, leaving them alone on the cracked street, with no ice or blue flames separating them from their target. Rin glanced out the corner of his eyes, and in the far distance to the south he spotted a figure shooting across the sky, using kicks to send himself after the bison that had long passed the southern walls. _Sanji._ Even farther, he could swear he saw two other figures with giant wings extending off their backs, using those wings to head the same way that Sanji was going.

Rin turned back to face the demons in front of him, the main one of which was staring at him with a little confusion at why he just turned away. "Gray, Juvia," Rin began, his voice dark, but at the same time- friendly. The teenager smiled, and he continued while the demons in front of them stopped cackling, stopped their taunting as a feeling of dread washed over all of them. "Our ride is gone," Rin continued, and the two mages spun to the south but like Rin could barely see the bison that was just a dot on the horizon. "Let's head after it," Rin kept going, "and don't worry, I'll protect you from any demons that attack us." Rin lifted up his Kurikara, and blue flames shot out the tip of it straight up into the sky a hundred feet.

The demons all snapped their heads up to stare at the line of fire in fear. The monster directly in front of Rin realized what was happening and it roared. The purplish black demon charged forward on furry legs, and rose up its sharp claws that extended as it started slashing them down. "Satan," Rin whispered, while all of the flames shooting out of his sword pulled down into a single blue ball right over the tip of his weapon. The boy spun around his sword so the tip was pointed straight at the ground beneath him, and he smirked at the face of the demon slashing down at him, before yelling, "BOMB!" Rin slammed his sword down into the ground and the condensed blue sphere of satanic fire exploded, flooding the street with blue flames that engulfed all of the demons he was facing in an instant.

"NOO!" The demon slashing at Rin pulled its arms back to try and cover its face, to no avail. The monster screamed and fell down to its knees, surviving a little longer than its comrades that were all screaming and shredding apart inside the flames. "This is impossible! You were supposed to be weakened already! AHHH!" It started to tear apart, slower than its fellow demons, looking like it was in a lot more pain than the rest of them were when they died.

Rin stared at the spot the demon vanished long after his flames had vanished. Then, the teen turned and he started jogging down the street towards the south. "Let's go," Rin called out. Juvia and Gray looked at each other, and they nodded before running after their powerful friend who could help them get out of the city. The two of them ran behind their friend, and they could partially see the side of his face as he ran. Despite his confidence, something was very wrong as they could clearly see from Rin's depressed expression. "Don't worry about being left behind, I'm sure we'll find everyone," Rin said, and he really believed they were going to find the rest of their friends if they just followed after where the bison flew away to.

 _Those demons knew where I was! They knew I was weakened! DAMN IT!_ Rin's right hand clenched so hard on the hilt of his Kouma Ken, while the injured cat sticking its head out of Rin's bag whimpered softly behind him. _You were right Kuro!_ He knew it, and his familiar knew it as well, which was why Kuro sounded so sad at the moment. _Shima told the demons where to find us! He could have, he could have gotten my friends killed! He's sending demons to capture me! I, I want to know why he's doing all this, but- but I can't just forgive him for this! Whatever his real reasons are, he's my enemy now! God, damn it, Shima._ Rin rose up his left arm and wiped it across the bottoms of his eyes, but he missed a lone tear that rolled down his face and dripped off his chin.

* * *

 **Northern Lower Residential Area**

"Well? Is it up yet?" Zabuza growled.

"Give me a second," the girl on her knees on Zabuza's right side snapped back. Tohsaka Lin finished setting up the talisman on the roof of the building the two were on, and she stood up next to the ninja from the Hidden Mist Village. Lin looked down at the talisman that glowed purple light, while below the wooden talisman, the entire roof was covered in black. The building was on fire when the two got to it, but Zabuza's water style jutsu were easily enough to put out the flames. "Go for it," Lin told the man wearing a white mask over the bottom half of his face.

"Hmph," Zabuza grunted, making Lin's forehead scrunch in annoyance at the lack of appreciation for what she just did. She was going to say something about it, but the look in Zabuza's eyes told her that he was already in the middle of a different conversation, so she held off for now. **"Zoro, we're set up around the exits. Just got new info on the armies coming from the east."** Zabuza was straight to the point, but he waited a second before continuing. The man he was trying to contact telepathically did not respond though, and Zabuza turned to Lin and questioned, **"This working?"**

Lin spun to him in surprise, then nodded her head while speaking back mentally, **"My magic always works. What are you asking-"**

Zabuza turned away and though Lin shouted at him in her mind, it seemed like he had cut off their connection as he did not react to her scream. **"If you can hear me then, General Niji got stalled by Lord Katarou, but Niji's army showed off some new tech the Germa invented, blew Katarou's ninja army from what we're hearing. His army's only twenty minutes out now."** Zabuza paused again, and he grumbled under his breath at the lack of reply from the shinigami. **"Are you hearing me? You've got-"**

 **"Think you can take care of them?"** A voice responded in Zabuza's head. Even though it was through a mental link, Zabuza could hear pauses between words like Zoro was panting. **"I'm fighting an Espada,"** Zoro continued, and Zabuza's fists clenched intensely at his sides. _Haku,_ Zabuza thought, his fury at the Espada who killed his closest friend not sated solely by the death of the one who did it. _All Espada, and that bastard Aizen too. I'll kill them all!_

Almost like Zoro could hear what Zabuza was thinking, the ninja's thoughts were interrupted, **"This fight is mine. Take the Germa."**

Zabuza snarled to himself, then turned and glared out to the east of the city again. His eyes had a different look in them now, one that made Lin take a step back from the man she no longer had any thoughts about scolding. She just stared at the side of his face as he snarled towards the east, and she heard him mutter as he took a step that way, "Have it your way. But if you fail, he's mine," Zabuza leapt off the roof and reached up behind his back at the same time. He grabbed Kubikiribouchou off his back with his left hand, then slammed it out to his side while drawing another sword from a sheath at his waist with his right.

Lin gulped as she watched the man soar off towards the eastern walls of the Lower Residential Area. His swords sticking out to the sides in the dim orange glow of the sunsets were seeping killing intent, killing intent that almost surpassed that of the man carrying them. The cursed Sandai Kitetsu shimmered in the right side of Zabuza's gaze, and the ninja could see red on the blade already. Lin watched him descend, then she turned her head and looked towards the center of the city and above it where the air was darkened.

 _Carnage Kabuto was like no monster I have ever seen. He was so powerful, so frightening. Zoro handled it though, he always handles it. So then why? Why do I have such a bad feeling about the darkness in the air?_ Lin bowed her head and closed her eyes. She whispered something quick and concise under her breath, then snapped her eyes back open with newfound determination. _No one else is going to do it but us._ Lin walked to the closest side of the roof she stood on, and she looked eight stories down into the streets below. The sight of five Nobodies, four Dusks and a Samurai, chasing a young couple down the road, made Lin's mouth twist into a deeper frown. Lin rose her right hand and it started to glow, then she hopped right off the roof. As she fell, firing red bursts of magic at the Nobodies below, Lin thought, _How many people can I save?_

* * *

 **One Mile South of Pyraxas**

"SANJI! ROBIN! FRANKY! RIN! ZORO! SANJI…"

Luffy's lungs may have been made out of rubber, but he could feel his voice giving out. Still, every time the pirate captain shouted the name of one of his friends, his voice only seemed to get louder. Luffy's throat hurt, but he kept screaming those names at the top of his lungs, and he did not pause for a second when his chef came kicking through the air all the way to the bison. Luffy just removed Sanji's name from the list, then kept shouting the rest of his friends' names as loud as he could.

Ben sat with his back up against a side of the saddle behind the farthest back bench. He sat there looking in front of him at two figures lying on their backs, motionless. He thought he heard a groan from Natsu a minute ago, but his eyes were more focused on Killua anyway. _Ever since Kirito brought him back, he's just been lying there. He might have a heartbeat, but is he really, here?_ Ben closed his eyes, but he could not think too hard as his head was full of loud shouting. He snapped his eyes open and stood up, turning to Luffy to yell at him to shut up already. When Ben turned though, his eyes opened wide at the sight of Sanji dropping down on the front of the saddle, a leg raised in the air like he was ready to attack. Dash got between him and the dark figure Sanji was glaring at though, explaining to the pirate that this was not Ansem but Riku standing on the flying bison's back with them.

 _If, Sanji heard Luffy's shouts,_ Ben's eyes opened wide, and he ran to the back of the saddle, climbing up on it and cupping his hands to his mouth. Luffy stood on the bench in the middle, so the pirate could see the kid farther back in the saddle than him getting up on the railing and shouting, shouting the names that Luffy had been neglecting. "JUVIA! GRAY!" Ben gulped, then yelled even louder, "KAIRIIII!" He yelled their names once, then started taking deep breaths as he stared out at the city getting so far away from them. Out the corners of his eyes he saw two figures flying towards them, giant beige wings sticking out of their backs. _Robin, Franky,_ Ben thought, though he could not feel a great amount of relief considering all those not with them.

Luffy stopped shouting when he saw Robin and Franky coming their way, but just like Ben he could not find it in him to smile. He stared out to the north and clenched his fists at his sides so hard it felt like he was going to rip right through his rubber palms. _I did it again,_ Luffy thought, dread filling his expression as he looked towards the city they were leaving behind. His eyes shifted down to the floor of the back of the saddle, and a boy lying still on it.

Luffy thought, eyes full of anger and regret, _I decided I wouldn't lose any nakama in this city. That's what Killua was. He was, my nakama, and I just stood there and watched him die! Just like with Ace, and Brook, and when everyone got hit by Kuma, and taken by Ansem! I'm there every time, and I can't ever stop it!_ He looked back to the north, his heart aching as he thought about his friends still in the burning city. _I want to believe that if I go back I can save them all, but, I'd probably just get us all killed._

As Dash ran over to Robin and Franky and started explaining to them the same thing he just told Sanji, Riku ignored the pirates' hostile glances and stared off the flying bison to the west. _What have I done? Kairi, I let you get taken. I let Ansem, take over. Because of what? I got angry, and upset, and I let him twist my emotions for his own gain! Ansem, I know what Killua did pushed you far down, but I also know you'll try rearing your ugly head again. And when you do, I am going to be ready. I am going to show you that you will never take control of my body again! YOU HEAR ME?! YOU ARE MY PRISONER! AND YOU WILL_ _ **NEVER**_ _GET OUT!_

"Juvia, died?" Franky whispered, and Usopp nodded back at the cyborg in front of him.

Robin and Sanji were looking over at the sharpshooter as well, and Usopp continued with a bowed head, "They brought her back to life, but, she still died."

"Kairi got kidnapped too," Dash whispered, and the pirates who just arrived looked down at the boy who had quickly explained to them why Ansem was seemingly catching a ride with them. Dash's face was full of guilt, and the kid continued softly, "The Nobodies took her-"

"Right in front of me," Usopp finished, and the little kid looked up at the long-nosed pirate to see Usopp's face had a lot more guilt on it than his own. "I let her get taken, and I couldn't do a thing to stop it."

"The Fire Lord?" Franky questioned, hoping for at least one bit of good news.

Usopp and Dash looked towards the back of the saddle, and the pirates who just arrived looked over there as well. "They beat him," Dash whispered, though the kid did not sound too excited about it.

Natsu and Killua looked really beaten up. Ben walked over to them and he created his Keyblade out of thin air, then dropped some healing magic on the two. Killua did not move a muscle, but as some of Natsu's peeled skin reformed, Ben heard another pained groan from his pink haired friend. Ben let out a small breath of relief, and he fell to his butt back where he was sitting a few minutes ago. He looked up at the sky that was a dark shade of blue with the suns so far down in the west. He was not able to tell before now, as the burning city of Pyraxas illuminated the sky too much, but night was already falling on Aebrith.

"So," Sanji began, lighting up a cigarette and taking a long drag of it after they flew in near silence for close to ten minutes. "Where are we going?" Some of them had kept whispering the whole time to get caught up on what had happened around Pyraxas while they were doing other things, but it was still unclear as to what their current objective was. "Captain?" He questioned, and looked over to see Luffy still standing on the center bench, staring off to the north as if waiting for someone to come flying towards them.

Luffy did not reply, and Sanji sighed out a puff of smoke at the general bad mood on top of the bison. "Black Canary," Ben began softly, and everyone on the bison turned his way. "She, brought this bison up here to come get us. We should bring it back, to help the evacuations in the south," Ben continued whispering. The boy leaned his head back and stared straight up in the sky with a dejected look on his face. "I guess, we should tell Sokka about our victory too. We did beat the Fire Lord after all, like we said we would."

Ben rubbed his eyes with his arm, then turned left to see if everyone behind him agreed. Luffy looked down into the kid's eyes, and then lifted his gaze back straight over him and into the north. "We found Zoro," Luffy muttered, as he reached behind his back and grabbed his hat with his right hand. He rose it up and placed it on top of his head, and his friends were surprised to see the edges of the hat were singed and blackened in some areas. "But I never got to talk to him," Luffy continued with a deep frown on his face. That frown started to lift though, the only person on the bison's whose did. The others looked at him in even more surprise as Luffy's mouth curled into a grin, "So that means we'll have to find him again. I'm just glad he's okay though," Luffy laughed a few times under his breath, then said louder, "He was really strong too! Shishishi, Gray did say he kept getting stronger, but whew did that surprise me!"

Sanji sighed, but a small grin came to his face as he took another puff of his cigarette. "I heard Zoro died too." The others looked at him in surprise, but Sanji kept smirking. "Seems like death these days isn't what it used to be," Sanji joked. Hearing about Juvia, and then Killua, what that Takeshi kid told him about Zoro dying did not seem so crazy anymore.

"It does appear, that death is not the end," Robin added, a small smile on her own face as well.

"You should definitely try to avoid it though," Dash said, his voice sounding very nervous as he said it. The pirates almost laughed for a second as they would obviously try to avoid it, and Dash sounded too worried, but the kid was worried for a different reason and they could tell from the tone of his voice. Ben shivered, and he held his arms as he crossed them in front of his chest. Luffy saw Ben's reaction, and he turned his head around to look at Dash like the rest of them were as the blond boy continued. "Astaroth told us, when we were fighting him," Dash's voice cracked and he brought his hands to the sides of his head with a look of intense fear on his face. "He said, 'I will rot the flesh from your bones and feast on your eyeballs! And once you are dead, I will find you in Hell, and the torture will never stop!'"

Dash shook his head around while grabbing it even tighter. He remembered word-for-word what Astaroth told him, as it was the most terrifying moment of his life. It was replaying in his mind as he retold it to the pirates and his other friends who were all staring in shock at his blue face. "'You think losing here means death? Means it's the end? No. You don't get to die just once, you get to die forever! I'll enjoy killing you in every way you have ever imagined, and thousands of even more terrible ways your mortal minds can not comprehend!'" Dash started panting hard after he finished speaking, then the kid who was staring at the floor beneath his feet whispered, "So let's try really hard not to die. Just because sometimes, people can come back… I don't ever want to see if Astaroth's threats were real."

"You won't ever have to," a deep voice said, and Dash turned to see a tall tan-skinned figure standing right next to him. Even though Riku looked scary, Dash knew who this was who put a hand down and squeezed tightly on his shoulder. "I promise, I won't let him hurt you."

Dash's eyes so full of fear filled with something else, and the kid shut them tight before pressing his head into Riku's side. Usually, Riku would try teasing his younger friends if they looked afraid, but this was more terrified than he had ever seen Dash before. It felt a little awkward, but he put the hand on Dash's shoulder behind his back and held the kid there while he felt his side start to get wet. Riku then looked up and spoke in a low voice, "We're all tired. We don't need to figure out what we're going to do tonight. Let's all just, get some rest."

"Yeah," Ben agreed, standing up near the back of the saddle and walking forward to get to the front. "I'll take us to Pon-Gatso-"

"Already on it," Kirito said, and Ben stopped as he reached the back bench. Everyone looked towards the front and saw Kirito had a set of reins in his hands, and was already guiding the flying bison the direction they wanted to go. "You get some rest," Kirito added, "it sounds like you had a rough day. I'll get us to Pon-Gatso."

Ben opened his mouth to argue but closed it and nodded. "Alright," he accepted, and he fell back down to his butt, finding it hard to stand without any reason to. The floor of the saddle was tough, but Ben sighed and closed his eyes, _It's just for a little while. Once we get to Pon-Gatso, I can sleep in a real bed again._

 **Two Hours Later**

The black sky over Aebrith was illuminated not far to the east of the flying bison heading south over the landscape. The passengers on its back stared in silence towards the tree that stood miles high, the tallest tree in the world. The great tree Pon was engulfed in flames. The pirates and Riku did not know what to say as their comrades stared off their ride at the giant tree. The flying bison they were on was moaning, loud, sad moans that echoed through the not-so-dark night. There were gray clouds overhead, but those clouds were flickering red and yellow from the flames all over the tree.

A deafening crack filled the silent night, and one of the thick branches extending over a mile out from the trunk started to fall. The massive flaming branch fell out of the sky, slamming into other branches on its way down and making more of them break off. Flaming shards of wood and falling leaves covered in fire dropped from the tree's canopy, falling through the cloud layer below the treetop like rain. What looked like meteor showers descended from the mighty tree Pon, raining over the Scorched landscape to the north, and scorching even more of it to the south.

Natsu lay on his back, his eyes pointed straight up at the clouds high above. He could hear the crackling of flames tearing through leaves, and he knew what it was he was hearing without sitting up. In his mind he saw Sozin, after the Fire Lord had gathered up all the excess flares from the Supernova and condensed them into a giant fireball that he threw into the south. At the time he knew where the attack was headed, and despite his rage, a part of him had hoped that someone would have been able to stop it. The red sky overhead told him that no one was able to, and his heart ached at the sight of it, and at the sight of the boy lying still on his right side.

Kirito kept his hands on the reins, keeping the flying bison headed south instead of having it turn towards that flaming tree. _Maybe they got out in time. Sokka, you were leading evacuations south. Just because, you had faith that we would win, I hope you still made sure everyone was hurrying. How many people, were still inside when the tree went up?_

Ben leaned over the side of the saddle. Robin and Sanji looked at the kid's back with dejected ones of their own as they saw how despondent he looked. The flaming bed Ben had wanted to lay on was the farthest thing from his mind as he watched Pon burn. _Did they fix up enough vehicles to escape in time? Grif, you lazy idiot, you fixed up those Scarabs right? You got out of there before…_ Ben clenched his eyes shut, gripping his hands tightly on the railing of the saddle so angrily.

Dash sat on his knees on the center bench, leaning back in horror while Pon-Gatso blazed. _Jin, Sun, Ji Yeon,_ the thought of the nice family who treated him and Ben to a meal right when they arrived made Dash even more depressed. _Their home, even if they made it out of there, their home is burning. Please, you have to have made it out of there._

"Rrrggh," a groan broke the silence on the bison's back. Everyone turned and the grim mood of the night seemed to lift a little at the sight of Natsu on his hands and knees, groaning in pain as he struggled up to a foot, then a second so he was standing up. The Dragon Slayer stood on wobbly legs and looked out towards Pon-Gatso with a dark, but serious expression for a few moments. _Superboy,_ Natsu thought, and his bloody hands that had no skin on their knuckles clenched into fists, reopening a few wounds in the process. "Pon-Gatso was the farthest Resistance base in the north," Natsu muttered. "On the east and west are enemies, but straight to the south, we'll be able to find friends."

Natsu looked around the bison he was on, and his fists clenched even tighter at the sight of a few people missing. _What happened since I was knocked out? Damn it! I thought, we won._

* * *

 **Two Thousand Miles West of Pyraxas**

Night descended over Aebrith quickly, quicker for some than others. For those who fled Pyraxas and went straight to the west, the day took a little longer to end. Two figures on top of a hill near the western coast of Aebrith could still see a small piece of the last sun to set, the smaller of the two yellow suns, just over the horizon. Behind and above them though, the sky was already dark, and getting darker every minute. The girl behind the shorter boy was staring out into the east, the direction they came from, out over plains and hills and mountains to where she hoped she could see a faint glow of a city. Kairi could not see a thing however, nothing but darkness falling over the land.

"Everyone," Kairi whispered, putting her hands together in front of her chest. "Be safe," she said, hoping her words would travel through the sky all the way to her comrades thousands of miles away. Kairi's eyes opened back up, and she turned around with a strong expression on her face. "Noxagh," she began, and the boy facing the opposite way as she just was moved his head which indicated to Kairi that he heard her. He did not turn around, but Kairi said firmly as she walked towards his back, "Look at me."

Noxagh frowned at how austere her attitude sounded. He turned to glare at the girl and try to scare her, but as he turned, he was the one to lean backwards nervously as the girl was right behind him, hands on her hips, glaring down at his face. Kairi was not a tall girl, but she was taller than the boy in front of her who she looked down on like he was being a brat. "What's with that look?" Noxagh snapped, gaining a hold of himself and glaring back at the girl, leaning forward in a pissed-off way so that she would back off.

Kairi straightened up as his face pushed towards hers, but she did not step away. She continued to frown down at his face, and her eyes widened slowly as she noticed something. "You don't, recognize me?" Kairi questioned.

The black haired boy in front of her did not make a move. He stared back at her face in confusion, before thinking about what Xigbar told him back on the roof of the Royal Palace. "Why?" Noxagh asked. "Do you, know me?"

 _Just like Roxas,_ Kairi thought, her expression becoming more serious again as she got over her surprise. _He doesn't, remember- That's right! Riku said that he fought Roxas once, and when he did…_ An almost mischievous look spread across Kairi's face, as the corners of her lips curled up and she took a step towards the shorter boy again so the distance between them was only a foot. "It's okay to be shy Gohan," she said, while he leaned back because the teenage girl's chest was getting uncomfortably close to his face. Kairi leaned her head down while Noxagh's eyes opened wide, and she continued in a soft voice, "I always thought it was really cute that you were."

"What are you-" Noxagh began, leaning his head back more and looking up into Kairi's eyes in confusion. As he looked into her eyes, his own opened wider… **"Oh no! Gohan what happened? Wow! Another base, but all on your own? I know you can do it, but ask Riku or Sora to come with you next time, then you won't get so beat up-"**

"Hey kid, what're you doing?"

Noxagh's eyes snapped open. His breathing was fast and ragged, and he had a few beads of sweat on his face. He grabbed the side of his head with his right hand, and he rubbed it around while muttering under his breath, "Nothing." Noxagh lowered his hand and with both eyes looked up seriously at the one-eyed man in front of him. Xigbar had a hand down on Kairi's left shoulder, squeezing it there tightly as the girl struggled against his touch.

Xigbar looked at the kid's confused face, then back at the girl closer to him, and a smirk spread across the older Nobody's face. "So you figured it out huh? I was hoping this might jog something."

"How did you know?" Noxagh growled.

"Whoa there kid," Xigbar said, holding up a palm to get the shorter boy to calm down as his eyes looked furious for a second. "You were part of the same haul that a lot of others in your generation came from, and a lot of those guys had Somebodies in Pyraxas. Thought they'd probably recognize you." Xigbar chuckled a few times darkly while Noxagh's gaze shifted to the floor. "So did it jog anything? I was really hoping that you'd-"

"Gohan," Noxagh said. Xigbar stopped talking, for once, and he looked down at the boy in surprise as Noxagh started to lift his head. He heard Kairi tell him it a minute ago, but it was only when he heard it in his mind, in what he thought to be a memory, did he believe it to be true. "My name, was Gohan," he said. The boy with short and spiky black hair lifted his gaze and pointed it directly at Kairi who stopped struggling in Xigbar's grip when she saw it. He looked into her eyes and with a straight face said, "But I am not the boy you know. I am not, Gohan. I, am a Nobody. I am Noxagh!" A white aura flared around him, and he narrowed his eyebrows inwards while growling at Kairi, "I am the strongest of the Organization."

"Whoa whoa, let's not get ahead of ourselves," Xigbar interjected, and the wind stopped blowing around the top of the hill as intensely. Noxagh's aura faded a little, while the boy inside it shot Xigbar a glare. "Not warning about myself here, but don't get too big for your britches. You're still Rank LVII, whether or not you can blow up mountains." Noxagh's expression darkened, but his aura faded more as his eyes shadowed over. "Don't get all down on me kid," Xigbar laughed, throwing his hands up at his sides and letting go of Kairi for a moment. "This is your day! I'm sure Xemnas will be very happy that Naminé is getting her Somebody to merge with. Two in one week!" Xigbar finished loudly and laughed some more.

Xigbar walked away from Kairi, as there really was nowhere for her to go while they were alone up there, and he walked past Noxagh to the edge of the hill on the west. He lowered his hands so they were down at his sides, and he chuckled again before continuing, "Axel and Lea merging, and capturing Kairi. Heh, makes up for Vexen, and Zexion's failures."

Noxagh turned his head and stared at Xigbar's back with a narrowed gaze. _Did he forget to mention Saix, or was that intentional?_

"Xigbar," Kairi started, sounding mad from where she stood behind both of the Nobodies. Kairi stepped forward and lifted her hands, creating a Keyblade to point at her enemies. Noxagh looked over his shoulder and back at the pink weapon the girl was holding, his eyes narrowing as he felt a strange power coming from it. "Why did you kidnap me?" Kairi questioned, frowning deeply while she held her Keyblade in a protective stance in front of her body.

Xigbar kept facing west off the hill, but he turned towards Noxagh and nodded his head in Kairi's direction. Kairi looked confused for a second, before Noxagh vanished and her eyes opened wide. She started to turn, but a hand grabbed her by the right wrist first and twisted her whole arm behind her back. Kairi yelped in pain and dropped her Keyblade, while Noxagh reached around and grabbed her other wrist, pulling it behind her as well so he could hold both of her wrists with only one hand.

"Nice," Xigbar said, looking over his shoulder in amusement as Noxagh subdued Kairi. She struggled in his grasp but walked forward when the boy behind her did as he gave her small pushes that felt so rough to her. "Welcome," Xigbar said, while Kairi was pushed up on his right side. A look of pain spread across Kairi's face, but it slowly vanished as the girl saw over the hill at what Xigbar was already staring at. The one-eyed Nobody threw his arms out to the sides and laughed, "To Twilight Town!"

The coast town illuminated by the sun just peeking over the flat horizon line far over the ocean looked, familiar to the auburn-haired girl who found herself staring at the place so closely. Kairi gasped as she looked around though, and her eyes grew huge and started lifting up over the top of the bell tower in the middle of the town. Xigbar chuckled darkly on her left side as Kairi's gaze rose higher and higher. "That's right," Xigbar said in a smug voice. " _That's,_ the Organization's true Headquarters."

* * *

 **Capital**

Inside a dimly illuminated room at the top of the Command Quarter of the Capital, a figure standing in the center of the room had just received news from a few figures behind him. "Leave me," Meruem said. The Royal Guards at the door to his room bowed their heads and left without a word. The Ant King rose an arm in front of him and a screen appeared in thin air. He stared at the screen, and images popped up on it that made the corners of the Chimera Ant's lips curl up a small amount.

 _Them,_ he thought. The news about Pyraxas interested him, though he was not all that surprised. Even though Magneto's death spelled the end of a rebellion for some in the Fire Nation, Meruem believed that the seeds of revolution had been planted and Sozin would lose his kingdom before long. What surprised him though, was that it was not any of Sozin's Lords, nor his family who caused his downfall. He remembered the people from the pictures on the screen. Meruem recalled meeting them on Ha'gar's Peak, every one of the people he was seeing images of now.

Two images split the screen in front of the Ant King. On the left side he had a freeze-frame of surveillance footage from the Central Station of Pyraxas. On the right of the screen showed similar footage only of the southern entrance to Pyraxas where a different group as the one on the train platform stood. _Every one of them was on Ha'gar's Peak, but here they seem to have been separated. Did they plan to enter the city at the same time? They must have, except, the two groups were not together for the week prior to this._

Meruem moved around a few more images on his screen. _Straw Hat Luffy took down Saix at the Dread Fort, but this boy Ben Tennyson defeated Yunju and many other Chimera Ants a thousand miles away._ The Ant King hummed to himself, _And this boy, Killua, a child from my own world. How mysterious that I would face his comrade so soon after we met again._

Meruem moved around another image on the screen and zoomed in on that one. _Gray,_ he thought. _He bowed and called me King when his friends did not. They did not know though, I could sense that only he knew who I was. Not that I needed to._ Meruem frowned as he continued to stare at that young man, one he had met long before Ha'gar's Peak. _He knows Zoro, and Quon, all of these people, and in all likeliness, he knows Son Goku as well._

As Meruem continued to examine the screen in front of him, he lost his grin and started to frown. _Where has Son Goku gone? I had hoped to meet him again, yet instead I meet others who were traveling with him, I meet Krillin. It makes me think that soon I will face him again._ His gaze shifted back to Ben, and he looked at the boy who fixed time with an interested expression, but not too interested as his thoughts stayed mainly focused on Goku. His gaze finally stopped moving as a picture of a pink haired man, and a very large bounty beneath his name, appeared on the screen. _The one being credited with killing Sozin. Natsu Dragneel…_ Meruem's eyes opened wider, and he let out a single chuckle under his breath. _This group. How did they begin traveling together? What is their story?_

Meruem turned from the glowing screen and it vanished into thin air as he walked away. _They are new players. Not necessarily Resistance, but not entirely pirates. They did not seem strong enough to take down the Fire Nation, but just sixteen of them were able to do it._ He hummed to himself, _Where did the seventeenth go?_ Meruem paused, and he frowned deeper while thinking, _This group will play a large role in the end of this world._ His frown almost lifted up, but those thoughts that usually excited him only kept him frowning this time. _How long will it take for that day to arrive? Things have been slow in the Capital. Slow, and predictable. In the south, the gears of fate of already started to turn quickly. There is still so much to prepare, but I wonder…_

 _Is it time?_

* * *

 **A/N Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the final part of Chapter 10 of Pyraxas! I have six parts in the next chapter already written, but not the very first part, so it will be a little while then rapid fire updates for a week or so. Anyway, this chapter a whole lot happened: Sozin faced his demise as Natsu swallows the Supernova... and hears Igneel shout at him to expel it all. Zoro shows up in Pyraxas just in time to save his old captain from Ulquiorra, the Fourth Espada, who kills Black Canary, Foley, and Dunn just seconds after his introduction. Kirito uses the water he saved from the Lazarus Pit to bring Killua back, and most of the groups' members escape Pyraxas's increasingly chaotic situation on the back of a flying bison. Zabuza heads off the Germa army, Kairi is taken to the Organization's HQ, and Meruem gets interested about the group's actions. What is it time for? What is Meruem planning? Who will take over Pyraxas? Will our heroes make it to the Resistance in the south? Find out the answers to these questions next chapter on Nexus: Heroes Will Rise!**

joebob323 chapter 66 . Oct 17

Sooooo much internal strife! Soooo much character death! NOOOOOOOOO! Plz tell me this is just a bad day, and that Timmy and Killua (and maybe Kairi) aren't dead.

 **Well, Killua's alive at least, (and Kairi's not dead, though things aren't looking very good for her). Definitely more of a bad day than a good one for our heroes, but they made it through, as they always do! Thanks for the review!**

Darugus chapter 66 . Oct 17

Well killua is dead kinda of sad and timmy may be dead or unable to come to the heroes aid and kairi is kidnapped doesn't really look that good for the heroes hopefully luffy can atleast take done sozzin

 **Bam! Killua's alive! You said in your PM that you weren't surprised he died, but were you that he came back? Luffy's Gear Fourth runs out against Sozin, but Natsu eating the Supernova powers him up enough to take the Fire Lord out for good. Thanks for the review!**

Guest chapter 65 . Oct 17

WOW THE BEST LONGEST AND BEST CHAPTER EVER! the lazarus pit took effect on juvia, and I just like asking a lot of reviews, I just discovered that I can post reviews without signing in fanfiction 3 months ago, there was a lot of questions I wanted to ask.

me again and wow noxagh is gohan's nobody, I should of know that gohan has a nobody when he turned to a heartless, and now he has kairi, ansem has control of riku's body, and ansem saying that timmy is dead(which is really kidnapped by some figure) and the fire lord has come to full power, I cant wait to see what happens next.

 **Thanks! Glad you liked the chapter so much! Juvia's getting darker and angrier, but at least Riku got his body back. Noxagh takes Kairi back, and I'm glad you remembered Timmy is only kidnapped, (though there's no way for his friends to know that). Hope you enjoyed the ending to the chapter, and thanks for the reviews!**

Espada-001 chapter 66 . Oct 22

Well I'm a bit late to the reply again. I'm definitely sad to see Killua fall, and by his own attack to. Although to be honest I knew somebody was about to take the rebound the moment Killua used a lightning blast against Sozin. That's dgoing leave one pissed off Luffy, especially since Sozin just broke Luffy's vow. I do have to say though that I can seen Sozin as being able to use conqueror's haki. Also I don't understand why Natsu didn't just start devouring the miniature Nova. If anything he should be able to devour it faster than Sozin can draw energy from it. And as for the massive ball of fire he threw I'm pretty sure that he threw it at that giant tree where the rebels were since their in the south, but I could also be wrong. (hopefully) And Riku definitely messed up with allowing Ansem to take control like he did. And something's come up in your story that's setting off red lights in my head. Why was Astaroth so confident that the "good guy's" souls were going to end up in hell when they died? Is he implying that hell has control over the gates of judgment on Nexus!? Also you seem to be leaving hints that Ben has already tampered with time without realizing it or at least he doesn't remember using it. I also found it sad that Lu wasn't really following in his fathers foot steps to make the fire nation a good place. I know this topic is a little to the side but I was looking into information on Kingdom Hearts and I came across an entry that said that Sora discovered that Nobodies are able to grow their own hearts. And since Roxas was fused with him at the time shouldn't he also have been aware of this and told the other Nobodies? On a side note Nami isn't actually bad about distributing money its just that she's on a crew where usually only Robin could be trusted with actually using their money responsibly. The only exceptions are when Sanji is getting food supplies and Franky getting building supplies with Usopp. Well I'm sure I'm forgetting something again but as of right now this is all I can think of at the moment. So until next time have a good day and I look forward to the next chapter!

 **Thank you for the long review! Luffy's vow not to lose a comrade in the city really got to him at the end of this chapter as he thought about all the times he let down the people close to him when he was right there. At least Killua comes back with some magic-revivey-water! Nice call with Natsu eating the Supernova, though even he couldn't handle devouring a sun and had to expel it in a giant roar. Another nice call with the fireball heading towards Pon-Gatso. Astaroth's threat is still messing with Ben and Dash's minds as you could see at the end of this chapter, even if they still don't know whether or not the threat is real. Originally I had Lu Ten being a good guy, but as I thought about it more, I realized that he was killed during a Fire Nation campaign to conquer the world, and unlike Iroh he did not have a huge change of heart after it (since he was dead), so I decided to make him another power-hungry member of the Fire Nation's royal family. As for the Kingdom Hearts thing, Sora already showed that he thought Roxas had his own heart when he chased him down after Roxas's first appearance, but then we heard that their hearts were not complete without their Somebodies'. So, even if the Nobodies that don't have hearts, or don't think they had hearts, realized that they did, they still would not be whole without their Somebodies... it's as complicated in this as it is in KH2, but even if Roxas did want to tell other Nobodies, he probably wouldn't be allowed or Naminé would get it. I don't think Nami's very good with giving money out to anyone, but even if she is just used to being on a crew where the other members can't handle money responsibly, she's gotta learn that some people aren't okay with letting things go on the way they used to, or they might let out all their pent up aggression in a burst of anger (cough Kirito cough). XD Thanks again for the review, and thanks to everyone who read this story and keeps supporting it! Well, 'till next time!**


	68. Nexus HWR 11-0 Mine

**A/N Hey everyone! I'm back with the second longest chapter ever in Nexus which I started right after I posted the last chapter which is why it took so long (along with some stuff I'm up to that kept me busy). Anyway, after this chapter I have the next 6 chapters fully written already, so it's going to be a rapid-posting week leading up to Thanksgiving! Alright, hope you enjoy the chapter! WARNING: This chapter is why the rating is M.**

 **Disclaimer: I own none of the manga, anime, tv shows, movies, comics, and any other media you may recognize characters and settings in this story from. They are not mine.**

* * *

 **Nexus HWR 11.0 Mine:**

 **First Day on Nexus (FD + 0)**

In the middle of a desert, a young teenage girl sat on her butt in the sand. She sat a hundred feet away from the edge of a huge crater in the desert, and she kept a cactus between herself and that area so she would not have to see the bodies.

Mine was panting, and she looked up at the three suns straight above her in the sky. They were beating down on her, and her lack of thirst made it feel even hotter. The young teenager had her Imperial Arms, a sniper rifle named Pumpkin, strapped to her back, and some blood splattered on her clothing. Mine blinked, then snapped her eyes open as fast as she could. She had seen a lot in her life, but that gray monster's red eyes, its powers and strength, she could not get over it. She imagined the man in glasses who appeared behind the beast, and then reimagined Doomsday's fist going through Hiro's body and crushing his skull. The old wizards, the little green Jedi, their deaths were so fresh in her mind, and so brutal.

Mine shook her head to get rid of those images she kept seeing even after her eyes opened. The sixteen year old girl calmed herself down since she did not know how long she would be there under the sweltering sun. After hours of sitting on a shaking planet and contemplating her situation, Mine heard a noise on the other side of the cactus, and she peered around it to see what made the sound.

She did not know why she was still in this area when all the other humans who appeared near her were killed. Mine looked around the cactus, wondering if one of those corpses from before was not actually dead. There was a person ahead of her standing at the edge of the crater. Mine's eyes opened wide at the sight of a boy she recognized, as he had been the one to save her earlier with the help of an older man. His hair may have been blond back then, but she recognized what he was wearing and put two-and-two together.

The girl walked out behind the cactus and started towards him, but the younger boy's expression was grim. He was staring into the crater at one of the corpses, and Mine suddenly recalled how enraged the kid was at the monster over one of the deaths that occurred. "I'm sorry," she began, and the boy at the edge of the crater just nodded, already having felt her approach behind him. Mine looked closer at Gohan's battered body, then she spoke up, "So you took care of it then?"

Gohan hesitated, then nodded again. "Doomsday was completely destroyed."

Mine let out a sigh of relief. Until that moment she had not realized it, but she was still very afraid that the monster would return for her. The girl stared at the kid who walked down the crater and reached for the floor. She stepped closer to the crater and watched as he picked up part of a green alien's body. The kid looked mortified as he tried picking up all the pieces, and he wound up dropping them all and gaining a frustrated look on his face.

Gohan lifted his right hand and pointed it at Piccolo's mangled body. "Goodbye, Mr. Piccolo," he fired a blast of ki that incinerated his martial arts master's body. After a few moments, Gohan turned to the girl at the top of the crater and forced a smile her way. "Hi, I'm Gohan. What's your name?"

"Mine," the older girl replied. The boy looked semi-calm, so she quickly continued, "Do you know where we are?"

Gohan shook his head. "A strange new world," he began. "And it's not safe to stay here, especially not alone."

"I can take care of myself," Mine snapped at the twelve year old. Gohan's eyes widened in surprise and he held up his hands defensively as she reached for her rifle. He thought she was going to point it at him for a second, but Mine just held her weapon in front of herself and continued, "My rifle Pumpkin came back to me, and it can get me out of any pinch I'm in."

"Can it?" Gohan whispered, his voice soft. He did not want to sound mocking, but in his head he thought about the moment he first saw this girl, when Doomsday was about to bite down on her head and she was screaming. Mine seemed to understand what he was thinking about and her cheeks went red, then paled a little as she thought about that moment and the terror returned to mind. "So do you want to come with me?" Gohan asked.

Mine snapped her head up in surprise. Her eyes widened even more as she realized that the kid said that so fast to keep her from thinking about Doomsday and getting more scared. _What a kid,_ Mine thought, and she slung her rifle back on her back while starting to smile. "Actually I-"

Gohan's body tensed up and he spun to the right. Mentally he groaned, but out loud he said, "I have to go! I'll come back here if you stay and want to come!" Gohan shot off the ground engulfed in a veil of white, and he flew off at several hundred miles per hour. _Dad's body is destroyed from that Kaioken while a Super Saiyan, he can't protect mom and Goten from that,_ _ **thing,**_ _alone!_ Gohan did not know what he was sensing near his family, but he knew he had to get to them as fast as he could.

 _Not having Sensu beans or Dende is going to be rough. There are so many people who need help, and this world is too big to get to them all. I'll help as many of you as I can for as long as I can though,_ Gohan ground his teeth and his hair flickered blond, then snapped up spiky and he sped up three times as fast.

Mine watched as the white blur in the distance turned gold then vanished into the horizon. "Stay here?" She mumbled to herself. The sixteen year old girl looked around, then stopped when she was facing the west. The three suns were lowering in that direction, but below them on the vast sandy landscape something caught her eye. Mine's gaze dropped and she stared past the spiky cacti that were made up of four to five balls of spikes each, and each had faces on their top ball. She ignored the twenty foot long scorpion and the strange movement she spotted under the sand that made it look like there were moving sand dunes.

Mine looked past all of that, to a blurry sight in the distance that made her expression harden. It looked almost like a wave, and she knew that if she was in the ocean she would have to flee to avoid the tsunami coming for her. This was not a wave of water though, but a wall of sand, and the longer she stared at it, the more clear it became. _It's getting closer,_ she thought. Mine looked down and she stepped over to a bloody corpse near her.

The teenager did not hesitate a second to reach down and rip a bloody gray cloak off of an old man's body. "Sorry, but I need this more than you," she said. The girl shook the cloak once, but most of the blood on it had dried after sitting out in the suns all day. Mine wrapped the cloak around her head, covering up her pink hair and the bottom half of her face. She glanced back to the west as a shadow cast over her, as that approaching wall of sand had neared close enough that it was starting to block out the suns on the horizon.

Everything around Mine tinted red, and the girl turned her back to the sandstorm. "I don't need your help kid," she said under her breath. _Find water, then shelter from the storm. It'll be getting cold too once the suns go down._ Mine chuckled darkly under her breath as she settled into survival mode. _"A strange new world?" I've been through worse... An assassin is always prepared for death, but when it came, I was so afraid. Tatsumi, I hope you came to this world. I hope I am not alone here. Najenda, Leone, Sheele, Chelsea, Akame, I'd even be happy to see that pervy idiot Lubba. Well, maybe not Lubba._ Mine smiled, though one would not be able to tell behind the bloody mask she had wrapped around her face. The former assassin of Night Raid walked off alone as the sandstorm caught up to her, but she was no longer afraid. This new world was her second chance, one Mine never thought she would have.

* * *

 **FD + 94**

"Watch where you're going," Mine snapped, spinning around and glaring at the figure behind her. She had been walking down the street when this guy bumped into her shoulder, and he did not say a single word even as she stumbled to the side.

The teenager with black hair stopped walking, and he slowly turned his head to look back at her. "Sorry," he said, in the most unapologetic tone Mine had ever heard.

The look in the boy's eyes was dark. He looked around the same age as Mine, and she figured that whenever anyone took a look at those eyes of his, they let little stuff like this go. "'Sorry?' Is that all you have to say after bumping into a beautiful girl?" She lifted her head and looked down her nose at him, asking in a holier-than-thou tone, "What if I had dropped my things?"

The teenager with unkempt black hair lowered his gaze to her right hand where the older girl had two pink bags that looked full of clothing. He shifted his gaze to her body and noticed that her clothes looked very dirty. His eyes shifted to her feet, and by the look of the condition of her shoes, they were the ones she arrived to Nexus wearing. "Just get here?" He questioned the girl who was still frowning deeply at her, and was starting to get annoyed at how he was looking at her.

Mine's light red eyes opened a little wider as she realized why he had looked her all over. "You have a place to stay yet?" The younger teen questioned.

"I am not staying with you," the girl scoffed.

"Wasn't offering," the teen said without hesitation. While the older teen gained a flustered look at how composed he was, he pointed his hand down the road behind her, "When I first got here, they let me stay at that tall building down there." Mine turned and looked down the road to see what he was talking about. "It's a housing complex Naruto set up for people to use for free until they figure things out."

"What makes you think I don't have things 'figured out?'" Mine snapped at the boy, spinning back around to glare at him. He barely reacted other than leaning back a little, the same dark expression on his face.

He shrugged, then said, "I didn't think I was going to stay in Konoha either. It's nice here though, safer than wandering the land. Stay there until you leave, or find a place to stay if you find the place suitable for someone of your class." The girl gawked, and the younger teen in front of her almost cracked a smile. Staring at this beautiful girl, even if she was in dirty clothes, it reminded him too much of why he was so depressed though, and his eyes got even darker after the joke. He turned away from her before she could ask the question he saw she was thinking. "Sorry again about bumping you," he said, hoping the help he gave would be enough of a real apology.

Mine stopped thinking of a retort to that 'class' joke, as she was acting like she was better than him ever since he bumped into her. _Admittedly, I could have watched where I was going too. And he did help me out; a free place to spend a night or two sounds great._ "Hey," she called out, and the teenager stopped his walk away. He did not turn, but Mine called out anyway, "What's your name?"

The teenager tensed up for a second. _Kirigaya Kazuto is dead._ "My name's Kirito," he said. He took another step away, then stopped and let out a long sigh. "What's yours?" He called out, knowing the girl behind him was glaring at his back.

"Hmph," Mine humphed, crossing her arms in front of her chest. By the reluctant tone of his voice she could tell he was only doing it as a courtesy. She considered not even telling him, but then just sighed herself and turned her back to him. "Mine," she announced, then started walking for the housing complex Kirito recommended.

 _Mine,_ Kirito thought. He started walking the opposite direction as her, but glanced once over his shoulder as he did, _Wonder if she's going to stay?_

* * *

 **FD + 155**

 **BOOOM!** _ **CRASH!**_

Mine snapped up from her seat. The girl looked around her classroom full of children, but also some teens closer to her age, and even a few adults. Everyone was looking up from their test papers, and the teacher in the front of the room wearing a Hidden Leaf headband shot out of his seat like Mine and a couple of others had.

"Iruka Sensei, is something-" a child in the front row of seats began. **BOOOOM!** Another massive blast filled the students' ears, and the classroom actually started shaking this time.

 _What is going on?_ Iruka thought. The Hidden Leaf chunin looked around outside the window and he saw smoke rising from a distance in the village. The last explosion that went off was closer to the school though, and he had a terrible feeling in his gut. _Where is Naruto? Didn't he leave on a mission? Hopefully the other Kage can handle-_ **BA-** _ **DOOOM!**_ A flash of light shone bright not two blocks from the school building, then the sound came a second later, then the force from the blast shattered all the windows of the classroom.

"AHHH!"

"Eeeek!"

Mine leapt over her desk and over the front row of students who were getting under their desks. She landed on top of a bunch of shattered glass, but luckily she was wearing thick combat boots as usual. The girl had her Imperial Arms strapped to her back and wore a pink combat skirt to go with her short-sleeved shirt. She was prepared for anything, and while keeping her calm she landed next to Iruka and leaned down, helping her teacher back up to his feet. "What's the protocol for a situation like this?" She asked.

Iruka steadied on his feet, and he looked down at his arms that he crossed in front of his face when the windows shattered. He winced at the sight of two pretty big shards of glass jammed in him, one in each arm. The ninja quickly pulled the glass out though, then turned to Mine who asked him that question, then looked around the room at all the others he was supposed to be teaching. "Alright, I don't know what's going on out there, but I'm going to check it out." Iruka looked up to the top row after announcing it, and he called out, "You two with me!"

The two adults who Iruka knew were trained fighters but were in the class to learn ninja techniques nodded their heads at the ninja. Iruka turned to the shattered windows, but Mine grabbed him by the left wrist before he leapt outside. He turned to her in surprise at how tight her grip was. "What about me? You want them with you because they're men, and I'm just a girl?"

"No, I want you here to protect the other students, Mine," Iruka replied. Mine loosened her grip on the ninja's wrist, then Iruka turned to the other two who ran up behind her and shouted, "Let's go!" He snapped his head to the windows and leapt out with the other two right behind him.

Mine frowned that she was not being brought out there to help fight, but Iruka left her to protect the others and that was just as important she supposed. She drew Pumpkin and held the sniper rifle diagonally across the front of her body in a ready stance. "Everyone calm down," she shouted, and the panicking students behind her looked towards the line of windows. "Iruka-sensei and the others will figure out what's going on and come back to-"

More explosions went off outside that cut Mine off, and then as the girl opened her mouth to shout at the other students to get quiet again, something came flying through a window on her right at a hundred miles per hour. Mine's eyes bugged as unlike most of those inside the room, she was able to make out what just flew past her. She turned her head anyway though, and stared at the opposite wall where Iruka's body was imbedded. His face was stuck in a horrified expression, and there was a huge round hole shredded in the front of his chunin uniform that revealed his chest looked just as torn apart.

At this sight, most of the other students started running for the door. Mine did not even consider attempting to keep the peace after the sight of their teacher's corpse flew by her. She knew there was nothing she could say that would remove that image from the other students' minds. _What the Hell is going on out there? Is it the NEG? I knew they wanted Konoha to join them, but I never thought they would go this far._

A student threw open the door not far from where Iruka slammed into the wall. As the door opened in Mine's peripheral vision, she heard the panicked screams at the door turn to shouts of relief.

"Hokage!"

"Hokage-sama!"

 _Naruto's here? Why would he-_ Mine's thoughts cut short as a figure leapt towards the window. As soon as she saw it she started lifting her rifle and shouting, "Naru-" She stopped though, no longer feeling the need to call for help from the teenager she thought was at the door. Mine sighed a breath of relief as there was another Naruto in the window. _He must have clones through the city trying to get the situation under control._

As Mine was thinking, she saw the Naruto in the window looking straight across the room. She could see where his gaze was focused and the girl tssked under her breath. _Iruka-sensei did talk about Naruto a lot. Always telling us when we messed up how even the Hokage started off by failing his genin exam several times. Probably would have quit this class without that motivation..._ Mine saw Naruto's face in the window change. For a second she almost thought she could see water in the bottoms of his eyes, but when he turned his head to her there were no tears. Instead, the teen was smiling, and Mine snapped her sniper up right as Naruto started to say, "Exterminate the Hidden-"

 **BANG!** Mine fired her rifle and a thin beam of light narrowly missed Naruto who leapt up and backwards to avoid it. Someone behind Mine started to yell at her, and then they started to scream for a very different reason. _The other one!_ Mine thought, spinning around and grabbing the butt of her sniper with both hands as she figured this shot was going to be a powerful one considering the situation. After all, her Imperial Arms, Pumpkin, grew stronger based on how much danger the user was in. Mine spun, and her eyes grew three times in size at the sight of the bloodbath behind her.

Naruto was spinning around Kunai in his hands and tearing through all of the students: children and adults alike. He had no discrimination in his slashes, even as the students screamed at him in confusion, shouting 'why' as they were killed. "Get behind me!" Mine yelled, to anyone who could still run. _To save the others, I have to sacrifice them!_ She rationalized her decision, and screamed, "HAAAA!" The shaking sniper in her hand glowed bright yellow inside its barrel.

Others who were drawing weapons to attack Naruto with froze. They saw where Mine was aiming and though shocked, instead of shouting at her to stop, they all sprinted away from the door.

Mine pulled the trigger. The yellow burst of light that fired from her sniper blinded most everyone in the room. Yet when Mine fired Pumpkin, the sniper girl froze with a dropped jaw. Not only did the Naruto in the doorway form a Rasengan that he slammed into her attack, but out the corner of her eye she saw the other Naruto jump back into the window. While the Rasengan and her Pumpkin shot exploded against each other, Mine spun around. _**Clank!**_ "Ah!" She let out a yelp as the tip of her Imperial Arms' barrel clanked against something else metallic. Her eyes widened and followed the path of a Kunai that she accidentally knocked away with her weapon. _That was going to hit me in the neck! And I didn't knock it away, that was an accident! If I had tried doing that, Naruto would have aimed somewhere else, because he's just that much faster than me. I don't know why he's here or why he's killing everyone, but I can't stay here any longer!_

Mine ran towards the open window, and Naruto smiled at her as she charged him. "Exterminate the Hidden Leaf Village," he said. Mine kept a straight expression on her face despite Naruto's terrifying words. She pulled the trigger as soon as Naruto made a movement, because she knew she would not be able to survive another attack. She could hear the other students dying to Naruto's other clone behind her, but she ignored them and pulled the trigger without breaking stride. The Naruto closer to the window looked surprised as Mine fired, as the woman never rose the rifle she was running with, shooting while it was pointed straight down at the floor.

The beam of light that fired at the floor blasted straight through it, shattering enough of the ground that Mine fell right though. The teenage girl still snapped her head back, and she stared up in terror as a Kunai flew right over her face. Mine hit the floor below and dropped into a roll. She ran towards the windows on the side of the building she was already running towards, and she leapt at them while twisting her body. Mine smashed through the windows with her Pumpkin pointed straight up above her. As she thought, there was a Naruto dropping from the windowsill above her, and she screamed, "RAAA!" A larger beam of yellow light flew out of her sniper rifle, larger than all the others, pushing straight through the ninja dropping towards her with a Rasengan in his hand.

Mine let out a breath of relief as a puff of smoke indicated that Naruto's clone was defeated. Then, the woman let out a loud gasp of pain as her back slammed into the ground. Her classroom was on the third floor and she had already dropped to the second floor before jumping out the window, but she was not ready for the impact with the ground when she slammed into it, her speed increased by Pumpkin's shot straight up. Mine groaned for a few seconds, then as the sounds of more explosions filled her ears, she rushed back up to her feet.

The pink-haired sixteen year old jogged down the street towards the nearest edge of the village. The south side of the city was not far from the ninja school she was learning in, and she ran towards it with Pumpkin held in both hands in front of her body. There was no time to think, but the fact that it was Naruto causing all this damage made everything so much worse. It meant that their great leader was not going to come and save them from this disaster. _Why is he doing this?_ Mine thought, while out the corners of her eyes she spotted a figure covered in glowing gold energy leap over a building far to her east. _Oh shit! I need to be faster!_

Mine pushed down harder on her legs, running past people lying wounded on the street or staggering around in confusion as most people did not understand what was going on. The edge of the city was getting close, and Mine ignored all the people around her to just focus on sprinting straight ahead. The screams all blurred together in her mind, so the people around her screaming now sounded like her classmates. _Iruka told me to protect them,_ Mine thought, and she bit down hard as their screams echoed louder in her head. _Keep it together! This is not the time!_ The screams settled down to a dull roar, and Mine's thoughts and senses refocused on the environment around her.

The teenage girl grinned when she was only a hundred meters from a line of buildings at the edge of the city. Beyond them she could not see any other man-made structures, _I'm home free-_

"AHHH!"

"He's here!"

"Naruto wait! Don't- EEK!"

Mine froze. The hairs on the back of her neck stuck up, and she turned her head fast to the side. She looked back through pink eyes that matched her hair and clothing, eyes so full of fear as they spotted the glowing orangish-gold figure running down the street towards her. All the wounded, all the confused people she ran past without hesitation a minute ago, were screaming bloody murder as a glowing Naruto Shadow Clone tore through them at a hundred miles per hour. _I couldn't save them!_ Mine thought, while spinning around the rest of her body and bringing up her sniper rifle so the barrel of it was pointed towards Naruto.

The Hokage stopped slaughtering the villagers around him, and he looked towards Mine with a smile on his face that looked as friendly as it was when the boy first showed up at her door to welcome her to his village. _Even in that state, I can take one of…_ Mine's expression turned to one of fear, then horror as not one, but two other Shadow Clones wrapped in the Nine Tails Cloak appeared down the road at the first Naruto's sides.

Mine thought he would say something about how she took care of his Shadow Clone earlier, but instead, all three Narutos just said simultaneously, "Exterminate the Hidden Leaf Village." Behind them, Mine witnessed giant explosions ripple throughout all of Konoha, devastating the village worse than it already was. Flames rose high in the air and the sky was turning black from all the smoke. It sounded like there was a lot of fighting going on around her, but at the moment she was alone, facing three of the strongest ninja in the village.

Those three clones started creating a jutsu in front of the center one, and Mine panicked as she could see the energy start spinning around over the center Naruto's lifted right hand. _That's going to kill me! He's too fast to run away from it! I, I can only, believe in Pumpkin!_ The sniper rifle in her hands started to shake. If it was just another gun, Mine would have been full of hopeless despair, but this was not an ordinary rifle. This was her Imperial Arms. The end of the barrel lit up yellow, and Mine's arms ached in agony as her weapon was shaking so hard that her bones were rattling. If there was ever a pinch she needed her weapon to get her out of, this was it.

She knew it before her weapon even fired. A look of regret and sadness flashed across Mine's face as she passed the threshold. _Goodbye, Pumpkin._

"Rasenshuriken!" The center Naruto shouted while throwing his most powerful jutsu forward.

The spinning jutsu cut through buildings on either side of the street with the fast moving winds whipping around it. It crossed the distance between the Narutos and Mine in an instant, and then the girl's weapon fired. The beam of yellow that came out of Pumpkin immediately widened so large that the end of the barrel could not handle how wide it became, and the barrel ripped apart back towards the butt of it that was pressed firmly into Mine's chest. Her weapon's recoil was so hard in fact, that Mine got the wind knocked out of her, before the beam flying away from her pushed her backwards so hard that her feet came off the ground. Mine shot through the air backwards, while a widening beam of yellow light shot out of her shredding Imperial Arms that was shrinking with every second the beam continued to fly out of it.

A massive explosion erupted in the middle of the yellow beam, shaking the entire thing thanks to the Rasenshuriken that went off prematurely. The Naruto clones looked shocked, at least until they were hit by the blast and incinerated like everything, and everyone else on the street Mine just ran down. The girl flying the opposite direction thanks to the force of her rifle's blast screamed as she was approaching the line of buildings in the south she was heading towards before. With every last ounce of strength she had in her, she pointed her hands down a little, and the remainder of the beam flying out of the scraps of Pumpkin she had desperately gripped in her hands blasted her just high enough in elevation that she cleared the roof of the building she almost slammed into at two hundred miles per hour.

The rifle finally broke apart in Mine's hands. The girl's arms crossed in front of her as Pumpkin lost form and she had nothing to grab onto for dear life. The pressure against her chest faded as well without the butt of the sniper pushing into her lungs, and Mine started to descend past the line of southern buildings. She did a backflip as she fell, but still botched the landing badly when she finally hit the ground. Mine tried skidding backwards as her feet touched down, but instead she tripped and rolled head over heels half a dozen times, bruising and cutting herself up with every backwards somersault.

When Mine finally came to a stop, the girl let out a long moan of pain. After the single moan though, she pressed her palms down at her sides, as cut up as they were, and she pushed herself slowly up to her feet. "Good," she whispered, looking south away from the shaking city behind her she could still hear so many screams and explosions coming from. "I made it."

"Exterminate the Hidden Leaf Village."

Mine spun around, and at the top of the building she blasted right over thanks to the recoil of Pumpkin's very last shot ever, she saw the teenage Hokage wrapped in his cloak of aura. He was looking down at her with an impressed look on his face, and then he dropped so fast to halfway between her and that building that Mine could not move from all the fear she felt within her. Naruto smiled at her, "Just because you aren't inside the city anymore, doesn't mean I can-" **Poof!**

Mine stared straight ahead in absolute shock. The Naruto speaking to her vanished in a puff of smoke. She did not know what caused it, as she could still hear explosions going off inside Konoha, suggesting that Naruto was still alive somewhere in there. _If he had to release his Shadow Clones though, maybe he's losing. Maybe, I don't have to leave… What am I thinking?_ Mine turned and she started running. Deciding not to wait for another Naruto clone to show up, she sprinted south as fast as she could, ready to go for as long as she could after what Naruto just started telling her. _Even outside of Konoha, he'll still hunt me down. Pumpkin's gone. I can't control my chakra. I have no way of defending myself from him._

The girl kept running, and her eyes darted around as she got farther from Konoha and the sounds of the city in chaos became more distant. _Defending myself from him, and from everything else out here. I've had Pumpkin since the First Day. Nexus isn't a place I can just wander around defenseless. I need to save someone. I mean, I need to arm myself…_ Mine slowed down, her chest aching from more than just the exhaustion affecting her lungs. _I couldn't save anyone, but, but, I didn't really try._

* * *

 **FD + 159**

 _Don't do it._

"Snff, snff, mmm."

 _You're barely making it on your own, you can't start looking after a little kid._

Mine stood fifty feet away from the largest oak tree in the forest, where a small girl sat with her back up against the trunk. The child wore dirty clothes and had some dried blood on her face over some old scratches she received on the harsh world. The little girl with long blue hair had her arms held together in front of her knees, and she pressed her face in between her legs while hugging them tighter. "Carla," the small girl whispered.

"Hey," _Damn it! Why am I doing this?_ "Are you alright?" Mine questioned, walking towards the tree like she just got there and was not actually staring at the girl for the last five minutes deciding on what she wanted to do.

Wendy Marvell lifted her head from between her legs and wiped her eyes fast with her left arm. The sleeves of her shirt were long ripped off, just tatters around her shoulders now, while her small arms themselves were coked in dirt and some dry blood like her face. Mine frowned a the sight of the girl's body, _When was the last time she took a shower? It's not healthy to live like this._ "What are you doing? Why are you all alone out here?" Mine questioned harshly, looking down at the girl and hoping for a reply that she just got separated from some friends who were nearby.

Wendy sniffled, and she did not stand while she looked into the older girl's eyes. "Why?" Wendy whispered. She closed her eyes and coughed a few times, raising her hands to cough into. Her coughs sounded weak, but when she stopped, she spoke in a steady voice, "I'm just alone, that's all." She rose her brown eyes to look into Mine's, and she continued in as strong a voice as she could muster, "Don't worry about me, I can take care of myself. I have, for, so long now," Wendy's voice got quieter near the end of her speech that sounded less confident with every word.

 _She's been all by herself out here? Poor girl- Strong girl,_ Mine corrected herself, and a grin started spreading across her face. _If she can survive out here alone, then maybe it's not such a bad idea after all. Yeah, that's it, she's the one going to be helping me,_ Mine smirked and she walked closer to the trunk and the girl who looked up at her nervously at that smirk on Mine's face. "Come on, let's go find a place to get washed up," Mine said, and she reached down a hand in front of the smaller girl's face.

Wendy stared at the hand held out in front of her, and the girl's heart started racing super fast. "Wh-What?" Wendy asked, confused at what was going on.

"You didn't hear me? I don't like repeating myself," Mine snapped, though after she said it, a warmer smile came to her face. "I'm Mine," she said softly, then after a second continued in a loud voice again, "Well, are you going to take my hand or just sit there staring at it all day?"

Wendy reached her right arm up slowly, and with a hand that had dirt covering so much of it that it was under every one of her fingernails, the girl grabbed onto the older teen's. Mine yanked up hard and Wendy almost yelped in surprise as she was pulled to her feet. As Wendy's face got closer to hers, Mine leaned back as the smell hit her. The former assassin said while using the hand she was not holding Wendy's with to pinch her nose, "I wasn't kidding about getting washed up. The first thing we're doing is-" Mine stopped mid-sentence, as the small girl holding her hand let go of it, and instead stepped forward another step and threw both arms around Mine's back and held as tightly as she could.

"Thank you," Wendy whispered. Her voice came through clenched teeth, as she could not open her mouth in fear she would start sobbing at the top of her lungs. The corners of her lips were pulled so far up, and her clenched eyes had tears seeping through the cracks as she said it again, and again, "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Mine had never heard a more relieved voice in her life. The eleven year old girl holding her was trying so hard not to sob, but the tears of joy came out anyway and soaked into Mine's dirty clothes. And for the first time in days, the enormous guilt Mine felt weighing down on her soul lifted. The doubt in her mind vanished, and a genuine smile formed on Mine's face as she fought back her own tears. "What's your name?" Mine asked, grabbing her shoulders to pull the little girl out of the hug, though with difficulty like the child never wanted to stop hugging her.

"Sn, snn, I'm Wendy," the girl whispered in reply. She tried steadying her voice, despite the streaks of tears from her eyes down to her chin, and continued in a firmer tone, "I'm a mage of Fairy Tail." She turned sideways and showed off the light blue Fairy Tail emblem that was magically tattooed on her right shoulder.

 _This girl's a witch?!_ Mine thought, while keeping her external expression calm like she was not surprised at all by this. "Well it's nice to meet you Wendy," Mine said. She let go of the girl's shoulders and turned to start walking the direction she was heading before hearing the crying girl in the woods. She took a few steps, then looked over her shoulder expectantly at the girl staring at her back. Wendy's eyes opened wide, then the girl rushed up to Mine's side, and Mine kept walking. Mine stared forward and started talking about how they were going to go look for a lake or coastline to wash off in, but as she spoke, she saw through her peripheral vision the younger girl smiling up at her with so much optimism in her eyes.

 _I need to protect this girl._

* * *

 **FD + 246**

In Mine's mind flashed an image. It was an image she saw every day, and she reimagined it now while her head was bowed and her eyes were closed. She saw a small figure covered head to toe in darkness, looking towards her with a wide, glowing-white smile on her face. The rumbling that shook Mine's seat came to a sudden stop, and Mine's eyes opened up while her head lifted. The girl sat in a small enclosed space, shoulder to shoulder with other people like her, other slaves.

The teenager's hands were cuffed together behind her back. The cuffs were made of steel and had glowing red lights on them that showed they were locked. Mine had a steel anklet on as well, this one to hide her body's energy from anything nearby that might be able to sense her. Mine gazed around the inside of the wagon at the scared faces of those sitting around her. There were sixteen of them in all, in a compartment made to sit eight comfortably. The slavers did not care about their comfort however, as one could tell simply by looking at the condition most of the slaves were in. Mine herself had kept her struggling to a minimum, after she figured out that the handcuffs could zap her full of electricity at any moment if her captors so desired.

The dark figure sitting across the wagon from Mine looked much worse than her. Panther Lily sat with his left eye closed, while his right was covered in an eyepatch to cover up his recently-emptied eye socket. The right side of his muscular chest had some deep gashes in it, and around the area where his right arm used to stick out of his body there were some loosely wrapped bandages. When Lily's left eye opened though, the Exceed still looked strong mentally. His fortitude had not shaken, and he gazed around the wagon's back like Mine was doing. Their ride had come to a stop which meant they would be unloaded soon.

Lily looked straight forward at Mine who looked back into his good eye for a few moments. They each recalled what they overhead at the port they docked at before getting loaded into this wagon. _Leol sent Malko inland to sell us at a big city,_ Mine thought, while her ears perked up at the sound of things moving around outside of the wagon. There were voices, but they were muffled by the outside of the wagon, and overshadowed by the sound of other materials and supplies being dragged around. _It seems like we are not the only things being sold today. Makes sense considering how full the cargo hold was. At least Lily won't have to drag their shit around anymore, though chances are our next owners won't be much better. Hopefully they will be amateurs though, then we can break out of here._ Mine continued to look into Lily's eyes, almost like doing so would make it so the half-cat half-man would be able to hear her thoughts. _Even after they took your arm and eye, you stayed strong. They couldn't risk taking anything more though or it would lower your value. I know though, all you need is one good arm to swing a sword._

Mine heard a sniffle on her right side, and she looked past the burly man on her right, to a small boy sitting between that man and a gorgeous woman on his other side. The gorgeous woman was so beautiful that even Mine found her heart fluttering a little at every look at her, even after she had been roughed up by Leol's crew over the last few weeks since she was captured. Mine ignored the woman with long black hair for a moment though, instead looking at the child who was captured with her and Lily. They had been three of the first slaves captured by their slavers; only one other slave was captured before them. The boy seemed to know someone was looking at him, and Romeo Conbolt lifted his head to look back towards her.

 _Romeo,_ Mine thought. She wished she knew what to say to the boy at a time like this that must be so terrifying for him. _He was Wendy's friend much longer than I was. Both of them were,_ Mine thought, thinking about Lily who she could see out the corners of her eyes was also looking towards Romeo. No one in the back of the wagon was speaking. Speaking out of turn was cause for their captors to turn their torture cuffs on, after all. Mine looked at the boy who struggled to lift his shoulders, trying hard to bring his right up in front of his face just so he could wipe the tears out of his eyes.

On the seat next to Panther Lily, a ten-foot-tall humanoid cow whose arms, legs, and torso were ripped with muscles grunted as he shifted his right leg and caused pain to shoot up his body from the movement. Taurus had tried escaping, so his right leg was bashed by their slavers' captain, the lion Chimera Ant, Leol. It was only a few weeks ago, but their slavers threatened Taurus with much worse if he let his injury show today. They made the threat in front of the other slaves, so everyone had an idea of what was going to happen today, even if their captors did not explicitly explain it to them.

The back flaps of the wagon lifted up and all head turned to the light that shone in their wagon. The beautiful woman with long black hair lifted up her right arm to hold it in front of her eyes. She did not have her hands cuffed like many of the others, she only had a single cuff around her right wrist. The slavers only needed one steel bracelet to keep her in line though, as the bracelet was made of Kairoseki, or Sea Stone, the natural weakness of Devil Fruit eaters like Boa Hancock. "Get it moving," the seven foot tall, six hundred pound, dark-skinned slaver growled into the wagon. He reached forward and grabbed a small figure off the seat closest to the exit on Mine's side, then threw the small furry creature with only one bracelet on his right wrist like Hancock out of the wagon onto a sandy floor behind him.

Chopper hit the ground flat on his face, and the small creature skid forward a few feet getting sand in his eyes, nose, and mouth. Chopper lifted his head a little after a second, and he spat out some sand while lifting his left arm slowly and painfully to rub his eyes. Mine looked down with pity as she filed out of the wagon quickly with the rest of the slaves. They stepped down the two steps placed leading from the floor to the back of the wagon, and most of them just gathered around the floor in between many of their slavers who were standing around them. One of the slavers called out Lily, Taurus, and a few others' names and told them to come help move supplies.

 _The time is coming, but it is not now,_ Lily thought, while turning his body and walking obediently towards the slaver who shouted at him. A girl wearing a black maid's uniform on Lily's right followed after him. The maid with pink hair and blue eyes suddenly buffed up so that she looked more gorilla than person, though still with light skin instead of fur. Virgo walked away with her fellow Celestial Spirit Taurus and the four others to help their slavers unload some supplies from other wagons.

Mine did not watch Lily walk away with the other strong slaves. Instead, she stared at the small furry reindeer who looked so strange thanks to the Human-Human Fruit he ate. _He's been here longer than any of us, but I can see it in his eyes, he still has hope. He thinks, someone is going to save him._ Mine shook her head, then opened her eyes a little wider as a figure bent down in front of Chopper. Everyone else just stood around taking in their new environment, but the small boy with dirty, wavy black hair walked to the reindeer and leaned down in front of him. Chopper lifted his gaze some more to Romeo's back, where the boy's hands cuffed together behind his waist were opened up and reaching for him.

Chopper sniffled a few times, then blew out of his nose to get the sand out of it. The doctor then lifted his right hand, as much as it hurt him to do so with the Sea Stone cuff on its wrist, and he took one of Romeo's hands. Romeo lifted the pirate to his feet and then turned and nodded at the smaller creature. Romeo knew how it felt being the smallest and weakest well enough to not want anyone else there to have to feel that feeling. This creature was less than half his height though, and had been a slave longer than him, so along with knowing he had no right to complain to him, he also knew that things could be worse. "You okay?" Romeo whispered.

Mine's eyes darted around as she saw the younger boy start speaking. _Stupid kid,_ she thought, looking out for the slavers who she memorized had the controllers to their torture cuffs. _Malko doesn't seem to be here. Bastard's probably setting up an auction. I hope Leol's not satisfied with the amount you make on us, and he rips your lungs out through your throat._

Luckily, no one saw Romeo speak to Chopper, and the small furry creature gave the boy a nod in response as he did not want them to get in trouble. Romeo nodded back, then the kid started looking around to see where they were. The wagon was stopped on a sandy area behind a line of buildings that all seemed to face the other way considering there were no front doors on them. There were some back doors, and a few clusters of sketchy-looking people clustered around the back steps and alleyways. Romeo saw a couple of children in an alley between two one-story wooden buildings. Those kids were dressed in rags and looking towards them with scared gazes.

Mine's eyes lifted to the top of the tallest building, the one their wagon was parked right behind. The building was two stories tall, made of wood like the others, and although she was in back of it, she could kind of tell that it was a tavern of sorts. She tried listening in inside, but there was music drowning out any other noise she would rather hear. The back door of that building opened, and Mine spotted Malko inside it speaking to a man wearing a cowboy hat with the rim all around the outside and curved up at the sides. The lighter-skinned man did not seem happy, but Malko lifted a box that he opened the top of, and the other man stopped arguing, his eyes practically shining themselves at the sight of what was inside.

The lighter man looked outside, and Mine made eye-contact with him as soon as he looked towards them. She narrowed her eyes and wished she could hiss, because the man looking their way looked back at the box in Malko's hand, then stuck out his own hand to shake the slaver's. _This is it,_ Mine thought, preparing herself for what was about to come.

After Malko sealed the deal with whoever Mine saw through the doorway, he turned out to call to his subordinates to get the slaves ready. All of the slaves were brought together at the back of the large building that there was no longer any music coming from. Mine was lined up with the others, and she could see Romeo only two spots in front of her. She grabbed the beautiful woman in front of her and slid past Hancock, then when she made sure no one was watching again, she moved in front of Taurus who did not say a word about it. "Stay close to me," Mine whispered, then continued quickly, "don't turn around." Romeo's head that started to turn stopped, and the kid refocused on what was straight in front of him.

"What's happening?" Romeo whispered fearfully.

 _Damn, he hasn't figured it out yet._ "We're being sold," Mine explained in a soft voice. "Most likely there will be multiple buyers, but we're going to stick together, got it?"

Romeo nodded his head multiple times. The people in front of him started walking through the back door of the large building, but Romeo whispered before it was his turn to follow, "Don't leave me alone."

Mine's heart ached. _Make him a promise! He'll feel better. We both will! But if I make that promise…_ The boy in front of her started walking for the door, and Mine stared at his back with dread in her eyes. _I might break it._

* * *

"…Akari Yukimura," Malko finished introducing another of his slaves, but as he looked out into the crowd of around a hundred people and humanoid creatures standing in front of the stage, he did not see a single interested buyer. The bald, dark-skinned slaver ground his gold teeth against his gross yellow ones, but he kept smiling as he took another step down the line past the teenage girl with green hair who no one seemed to want to buy. "This here's a strong one! Not much of a talker though," Malko laughed, and he elbowed the muscular black man a foot taller than him in the chest. He made it look like a strong elbow, but the taller figure did not flinch from the blow.

Malko looked around, seeing if anyone would take some interest. He continued to smile despite the lack of it though and called out, "Thresh!" He walked past Thresh and on to the next slave, another teenager like the last two, only this one had six webbed-arms on his muscular body, and long silver hair that covered up his eyes while the green bandanna wrapped around his mouth covered up the other half of his face. "Mezo Shoji, another strong…"

Mine glanced down the line of slaves at the man getting closer to her every second. There were only four people to her right, and one of those was Romeo who came right after in the lineup. The stage they were on was in front of the large two-story building that, like Mine thought, turned out to be a tavern. At the same time though, the cowboy who Mine saw dealing with Malko worked as the town sheriff and had his office on the second floor of the town saloon.

At first Mine was confused, as she thought they were heading to a big city for the auction. When they were brought out front of the saloon however, Mine could see over the roofs of the line of buildings on the other side of the road. A few miles past those buildings, there was a much larger city in the middle of the desert they were in. The city had dozens of tall buildings with cranes on them, looking like they were all mid-construction. Mine originally thought that Malko brought them to this outer town because too many people in the bigger city would be against slavery and try to free them, but her hopes were ruined when Malko shouted out that these slaves were property of the King to start his auction, and no one spoke out against it.

 _I have been a slave for too long,_ Mine thought. _I do not fully understand the political leanings of this world, but the King is the only one Leol answers to. The Chimera Ant King. Leol is terrified of him. If people here know who that is, and they know his power, then Malko has given himself an assurance that his goods won't be taken. Who would dare risk retribution from such a powerful figure for people they do not even know?_

Malko glared around as he went through a few more names, and yet still no one rose a hand to make a claim. "What is this?" Malko snarled to the edge of the stage.

The cowboy-looking man standing there had a smug look on his face, and in a condescending tone asked, "What do you mean? Just because I let you hold your auction, doesn't mean the people here are going to start buying-"

"May I have a closer look at that last one?" a voice shouted. Malko's head lifted fast while a broad, gold-toothed smile spread on his face. The man in charge of the town spun in much more surprise, his eyes opening wide at the sound of that eccentric voice. The cowboy pushed some people out of the way as he marched back, then stared in even more surprise as he was correct in who he thought he heard shout.

A tall, lanky man with bright blue hair neatly combed to one side walked forward through the parting crowd. He had on a purple suit and darker purple pants along with a pair of nice black shoes. The man stood out from most of the other townsfolk who were dressed much more poorly, some even looked like they were wearing the same clothes they arrived to the world on. The sheriff looked towards this man and muttered, "Tsukiyama, what are, you doing?"

The nicely dressed, very handsome man, walked right past the sheriff and did a small hop up onto the stage. Tsukiyama Shuu looked down at the shorter auctioneer to his right, and Malko gave a wave of his hand telling the man to go right ahead and take his closer look. "Why thank you," Tsukiyama said, then turned back to face the slave Malko just introduced. He stepped forward so that his face was only a foot away from the tall, muscular black cat's. The Exceed with the face of a cat and torso of a man glared straight back into Tsukiyama's eyes with only his left. Tsukiyama glanced at the eyepatch on his right eye, then down to where Lily's right arm should have been.

"Disappointing," Tsukiyama began while scratching his chin. Malko grimaced in anger that the Exceed's injuries were going to cost him a sale, until Tsukiyama continued, "But not a deal-breaker. I would like this Panther Lily," Tsukiyama said.

The town sheriff looked at Tsukiyama's back in shock, as did many of the other townspeople around him. "In fact," Tsukiyama continued. "I have come into a large sum of money quite recently, and have been wondering where I should spend it. Who would have guessed that such amazing specimens would be brought right to this tranquil town I like to frequent?" He chuckled, then tilted his head back and laughed more heartily. "Good sir," he turned to Malko, "how much is it for each of these creatures?"

Mine watched the man with bright blue hair carefully. _What is he? Something's off about him, but, but the people here look surprised that he would want slaves. Is this an act to free us? We would only be so lucky. No, no something is very off about this guy._ Malko explained to Tsukiyama in a voice loud enough that everyone at the auction could hear that this was meant to be an open auction, but there were minimums for bidding, and he gave the minimum amounts for the three categories of slaves: workers- the stronger males, servants- the weaker males, and maids- the women. Oddly enough, the maids were just as expensive as the workers, and Boa Hancock was singled out by Malko as being especially expensive, with a higher minimum first bid than any of the other slaves. Most people there understood why.

"Hmm," Tsukiyama hummed to himself, looking to be doing some math in his head while he looked around at the slaves. "In that case, I will take him, and him, and those two there, and her," Tsukiyama pointed at just about every slave Malko had already gone over. Malko and his fellow slavers' eyes grew large and their mouths curled up into grins. "Now, what about these others?" Tsukiyama continued, turning to the end of the line where slaves that Malko had never introduced were standing.

The handsome man strut down the line before coming to a stop in front of a teenage girl with bright pink hair. "That's a nice look in your eyes," he said, turning to her and leaning down so his face was in front of Mine's. He pulled back and asked, "Is there anything special about you?"

"She's a fighter that one, had-" Malko froze mid-sentence as Tsukiyama held up his right palm.

"Please, let the girl answer for herself," Tsukiyama said, lowering his hand and continuing to stare at Mine awaiting an answer.

Malko frowned that he was interrupted, but then he looked past Tsukiyama and snapped, "Go on Mine, answer him."

Mine ground her teeth while her lips were still sealed so that the slavers would not see it, then she calmed herself and opened her mouth to speak. "I am sixteen years old. Blood type B…" Malko frowned from behind Tsukiyama as the girl seemed to be speaking sarcastically by saying such useless things. He reached for his torture device, when the girl continued and made his skin cover in sweat, "I killed my first man at age twelve. I can snipe a target from any distance. If you put a gun in my hand, I would be a deadly bodyguard."

When she finished, most of the slaves in the line with her had their heads turned inwards and were gawking at the teenage girl who they suddenly felt like they knew nothing about. Romeo was even looking up at the girl next to him a little nervously. Malko reminded himself that he was the one in control there with Mine's torture device controller only inches away, and he calmed himself down thanks to its protection.

 _Malko called us "maids," but he plans to sell us as sex slaves. Everyone can tell, but by calling us "maids," less people will stand against it, acting like they don't know what's going to happen to us. I won't be a sex slave though. If I'm to be sold, my value will be as a warrior, and it will make it all the easier to escape…_

"Oh ho ho," Tsukiyama laughed. "I will not be giving you a gun, but I applaud the attempt," he leaned in after speaking so that his head was on the right side of Mine's head. Tsukiyama whispered in her ear, "By the way, Mine is a _delicious_ name."

Chills ran down Mine's spine and made her entire body tense up. She no longer wanted to go with this man, which made it even worse that as soon as he leaned away from her, he said that he would be taking her as well. Tsukiyama looked down the line at the remaining few slaves who he had yet to buy, then turned to Malko and finished, "Add her and that cow there, and that will be all."

Taurus grunted in annoyance at his referral as "that cow," but many others in line were much more unnerved by what Tsukiyama just said. Panther Lily froze as he heard it, then spun his head right and looked down the line a few people, past Mine who already started turning that way, to the little boy who was looking back and forth between the two of them with such fear in his eyes. Lily spun his head back towards Malko and Tsukiyama, and he called out, "That boy there is actually very strong."

Tsukiyama turned away from Malko who was in the middle of counting up how much Tsukiyama would be owing him. He followed Lily's gaze over to the small boy who looked more muscular than normal boys his age, but not by much. "I, I can also use magic," Romeo shouted. He did not want to be left behind, stuck with the devils he knew and the other few remaining slaves. He knew he would just be sold to someone else soon, and he did not want to be alone when he got there. "I can create flames!" Romeo shouted, as Tsukiyama did not look very impressed.

Mine bit her bottom lip. She wanted to shout something about how Romeo could be valuable. She had already had a plan in place for how she could get him bought before the auction started, but now she was not so sure it was a good idea. Mine watched as that Tsukiyama man considered it, and she could hear his voice echoing in her ear as he did, _"Delicious." This guy, is he human?_ Mine hardened her expression and bowed her head a little so that her pink bangs shadowed over her eyes.

Romeo looked up at the woman next to him who told him they would stick together, but a look at her face at the moment made him fill with fear. "M-Mine?" He whispered. He thought she would try to help him, but the look on her face was of resignation, not hope.

A few other slaves started calling out to Tsukiyama that he should buy the others too, and the look of consideration on his face disappeared as he was not going to buy them all. Boa Hancock called out that he should buy Chopper, and another slave who was bought did not want to leave their sister behind, but Tsukiyama threw his arms out to the side and began loudly, "I am so sorry my new friends, but these are requests I can not perform! You see, I do have a large amount of money, but it is a finite amount. If I were to buy you all, I would not have the money to buy new outfits for those of you I already purchased, outfits that you are in great need of. I would not be able to feed you or give you drink on our way to your new home, nor would I be able to afford transportation back there. It is a shame, but this is where you will be parting ways."

The brother shouted out that he would not leave without his sister, and then his entire body started to spasm as the red light on his cuffs turned green. Tsukiyama sighed, while Malko lifted up the remote higher and glared around, daring another of his slaves to speak out again. He then whistled to the side and one of his fellow slavers jogged over with a new remote that he was working on. There were many different buttons on it, and the fatter slaver started explaining to Tsukiyama which slave was connected to which button.

"Please," Romeo begged in as quiet a voice he could muster. In the corners of his eyes he could still see the slave far to the end of the line opposite theirs convulsing on the ground, and he did not want Malko to zap him like he had many times before. "Please," he repeated, begging the girl next to him who would not even look down into his eyes. Panther Lily could not take it as he looked over, and he shouted again that Tsukiyama reconsider buying Romeo, only to be zapped by one of the slavers who started laughing as he struggled to keep standing, only to receive a higher voltage and collapse to his knees. "Lily!" Romeo shouted, both in fear for his friend, and terror for himself as his one beacon of hope could do nothing.

He turned back to Mine who was keeping her head pointed straight forward, keeping her eyes shadowed by her hair, avoiding his gaze completely. "Why won't you help me? Did I do something?" Romeo asked, tears welling up in his eyes. "I'm, so, scared," he whispered, his eyes darting around as he said it like he was terrified one of the slavers near them would see and start electrocuting him. "Mine, eh ah please, please don't leave me."

 _I swear I'll save you! Say it out loud! NO! You know from earlier, you were right not to promise him something you couldn't make sure of!_ Mine could hear him continue to beg even as Tsukiyama called his new property to follow him away. He had made his payments, shaken hands with Malko, and now most of the slaves would be going with him. _If I don't though,_ she thought, looking to her right and down at the boy whose sobbing she could hear, but who was no longer making out any words to her. His head was bowed, his tears were dropping and hitting the floor, and Mine watched as his fists unclenched at his sides and his arms went limp. Mine's eyes opened wide as the crying started to stop. _He'll lose all hope!_ "I'll save you," she whispered.

The other slaves around her had started marching forward, but Taurus looked back and at the girl who just said that. It was a baseless claim, and he pitied both the girl for making a promise she would never be able to keep, and the member of the Fairy Tail guild he considered himself kind of a part of. Romeo's head twitched as Mine said it, and he snapped his head up with eyes as wide as plates, tears brimming in the bottoms of them. Mine's hands were cuffed, so she leaned down and pressed her forehead into Romeo's. "It might take a long time, a really, really long time. But I'll come back for you. I'll save you, Romeo."

"Get moving over there!" Malko shouted, leaning away from the circle of men he was with who were all grinning and laughing about the money they just made. He waved around the remote in his hand, and most of the others still lagging behind on the stage got to moving.

Mine kept standing there though, looking straight into Romeo's eyes from inches away. She pressed her forehead into his harder and whispered, "You have to believe me, I will come for you. Wait for me." She stood up straight and turned away from Romeo.

Mine clenched her own eyes tightly shut once she turned from the boy, holding back tears she knew were about to form. Romeo stared at her back, his lip quivering, not knowing what he should say after she said all that. "Don't leave me," he finally said, but Mine was already taking steps away towards the rest of the boughten slaves. "Please don't leave me!" Romeo shouted, making all the slavers and townspeople nearby look his way. Even the sister whose brother was being carried off by a fellow slave who Tsukiyama sent to help had her mouth shut tight in fear that she would be zapped next. Romeo did not care about the physical pain as much though. Watching Mine walk away from him was a thousand times worse, "Don't leave me here! I don't, I don't want to be alone! PLE-AHHH!" Romeo screamed in agony as he was filled with electric shock.

"Shut up already!" Malko yelled over at the kid.

"Hey, he's just a-" some man in the crowd started shouting. Before his sentence was even finished he faded off, because all of the slavers near the stage turned his way and reached down to their waists where pistols and various weapons were resting.

"He's just," Malko began, taking a step between two of his largest men and glaring over at that villager who dared shout at him, "a slave."

Romeo kept screaming until his voice gave out, and the entire time, Mine walked straight away from him. The other slaves around her kept looking back over their shoulders, wincing, snarling in anger, but she walked straight ahead with a calm, serious look on her face. _At first I was saying it so he would not lose hope, but, but if he really does not lose hope, then he'll be waiting for me. For as long as it takes, he'll be waiting. So in that case, I'll have to find him. I won't forget about what I just said, Romeo. I promise this time. I'll never forget for as long as I live._

* * *

 **Present**

Mine stood on top of a hill twenty miles south of the Capital. The eighteen year old girl lowered the binoculars as she heard a voice in her ear. "Go ahead," she responded, putting a hand up to the ear that the small white communicator was in.

"Tatsumi is in," Lily's voice said. "They took the bait."

Mine grinned, but only for a second, then she regained a serious expression and nodded her head. "Roger that. Operation is a go." The communicator turned off and Mine took in a deep breath of air. She turned her head and stepped backwards on the hill, then looked down off the side farther from the Capital. The bright lights of the Capital illuminated the night sky behind Mine, giving her body a glowing veil to the thirty-plus soldiers looking up at her.

 **"What if they don't take the bait? What if we hand you over to them and they confiscate Incursio?!"**

 **"That's a risk, I am willing to take. Mine, lead the others. You're strong, stronger than me. This is going to work, and we are going to get them out of there."**

Mine clenched her teeth tight, then reached behind her back and pulled the sniper rifle she had strapped there out in front of her. _Our fake slaver gets Tatsumi in. His Incursio is what makes him worthwhile as a gladiator, but until he releases it they have no idea how strong the gladiator they're bringing in really is. Once he's in the cell block, the mission starts, and he's already on his way in. Lily's watching from inside the Capital. Maka is… well, hopefully she's in a cell somewhere we can find._ Mine grimaced more as her soldiers below her whipped out their weapons to follow her lead. _We were too late in planning to get Tatsumi in before the Battle Royale, but now that we lost contact with Maka, we've hit the point where it's now or never. The longer we're out of contact, the more of a chance she's been compromised. Tonight is the night where it all ends._

Mine held up her sniper. "This is what we've been aiming for for months!" She called out in a yell-whisper. The men and women following her did not cheer in agreement. They would not dare, being so close to the Capital. Mine could see a few of them praying, others wiped sweat from their faces as they were terrified of what was about to come. She could not blame them. This was arguably the most-guarded city in the world, and they were about to break every law it had. "It's time, to show the Cooperative that slavery will not be accepted anywhere. It's time to show that to the King, to Meruem." Mine said his name and her followers' eyes opened wide, but she did not look afraid. That look of confidence on her face spread to each of them, quelling their fears if just a little. "Now," she said, turning around again and facing the not-so-distant city full of light, "let us begin."

* * *

 **The Capital**

The Capital of the Cooperative, known throughout Aebrith solely as the Capital, was split into four Quarters of similar size. Each section of the city was constantly expanding, but at the moment each Quarter of the city was between a hundred and fifty to two hundred square miles large. The eastern Quarter was the second largest after the Residential Quarter in the west of the Capital. This second largest Quarter was known as the Embassy Quarter, where the presence of guards was much lower than in the southern Business, and western Residential quarters. The buildings in the Embassy quarter were also a lot nicer than most others in the city, though some company high-rises in the southern Quarter rivaled the grand hotels and accommodations for various countries' ambassadors.

The Embassy Quarter's elevation was higher than that of the Business Quarter, and much higher than the Residential Quarter that was the lowest in the city. The Quarter's raised elevation, accompanied by the heights of the tallest buildings in the Capital, meant the penthouses of many of these tallest buildings were inside or above the cloud layer. In one of the massive high-rises towards the southwestern side of the Embassy Quarter, three figures were shooting into the sky at ten floors a second. The fat pink alien Lord standing in front of two slaves was talking with someone over the communicator attached to his ear that doubled as a scouter as was obvious from the piece of transparent green glass that wrapped from the earpiece to over the front of Dodoria's face.

The slaves behind Dodoria were not looking at their Lord's back as he spoke to a different Lord over his scouter but were faced the other way. The back of the elevator they were looking at was made entirely of glass, giving the two a nice view over the Embassy Quarter and much of the rest of the city considering their elevation. After a few seconds of admiring the view, their visions were cut off by thin clouds that quickly became thicker as they shot even higher up into the cloud layer. The fairy Harlequin, better known as King, turned inwards and faced the girl next to him for a second. Elizabeth "Liz" Thompson turned as King did, and she made eye contact with the shorter fairy man. The fact that they were in the cloud layer meant that they would be nearing their destination soon, and neither of them were too eager to get there.

"Hohoho, haha, alright. Yeah yeah, I got it, I won't forget," Dodoria reached up and tapped a button on the side of his scouter. The call ended, then the heavyset alien covered in spikes that protruded out all over his body cracked his neck to either side. Dodoria wore stretchable armor that covered his entire body from his neck down to his feet, with brown spaulders that spiked out over his shoulders, and purple leggings that pulled tight to his skin and down inside his white boots. The front and back of the armor on his torso was purple too, but there were no sleeves on the armor, revealing his pink skin covered in spikes and his fists that were the size of his slaves' heads. _**Ding.**_ "Let's go," Dodoria said.

The Lord walked forward without looking back, but his slaves knew well enough than to lag far behind him. Liz and King sped-walked to follow after their Lord who was much larger than either of them, and despite his fat figure, took long strides with every step. Dodoria did not have to walk far though, as the elevator let them out right into the giant main room of the penthouse they were going for. Liz grimaced, as she had seen the room once before and did not have great memories of it. King also had a semi-nervous look on his face, though his was because the slave girl with him had told him what to expect before they left, when Dodoria had gone to the bathroom and left them alone for a minute.

"Dodoria! You have finally arrived!" Zarbon called over to his comrade. The taller alien was not as large as Dodoria, but he was in no means lanky as anyone could see. His arms were exposed, as like Dodoria he wore a set of armor that had no sleeves. Zarbon's skin was light blue and he had long dark green hair in a braid that fell in front of his right shoulder and down over the brown plating on his chest unlike Dodoria's purple. Zarbon held up his right hand and called out, "Get Lord Dodoria a drink!"

Dodoria chuckled as he walked into the room, then shouted over towards the bar along the wall forty meters to his left on the side of the room opposite the nice sitting area where his friends were, "Bring me some meat too!" He laughed then walked over towards the comfy couches and large televisions where four of the old Frieza army were sitting. It was always good to have allies on Nexus, and knowing people's backgrounds made them easier to work with, especially when one used to be the other's superiors. Dodoria and Zarbon had the loyalty of many of the old soldiers who followed their former universe's overlord, and it was not hard to obtain when they were letting their "old friends" reap the benefits of being at the top of the Cooperative in its most luxurious city.

The three others sitting around Zarbon's sitting room were all wearing armor and scouters like the two Lords with them, though their armor had blue plating and their scouters' were blue too. There was Appule, a purple alien with a long ovular head covered in yellow spots, Banan, a light-blue skinned man who looked pretty human only with tougher skin and a long mane of orange hair that included thick facial hair, and Sui, a darker purple-skinned alien than Appule with a fin on top of his head so that he looked like he was part fish. The three all greeted Dodoria semi-formally, though they were pretty casual about it as well as none of them stood up to greet him. Dodoria did not care though, he just turned and snapped at the girl bringing him his bucket of raw meat and bottle of whiskey to hurry it up.

Liz and King stood right behind Dodoria's back, but Liz's eyes drifted to her left to see who the slave Dodoria was yelling at was. Liz's eyes grew huge at the sight of the girl, as Liz had not seen her in weeks, and though back then Liz thought she looked broken, she now knew the meaning of broken was very different than what she thought. "Maka," Liz whispered, unable to hold in the whimper she made at the sight of the girl she once looked up to, even if she never said it. Maka's eyes looked lifeless before, but as she scampered towards Dodoria, while trying to make sure she did not spill any meat out of the bucket that was shaking in her trembling hand, Liz could not see a trace of the girl she once knew in there.

Dodoria had started talking to Zarbon, but as he heard what Liz said, he turned to the girl coming their way and he laughed as he grabbed the bucket and bottle from her shaking hands. "Haha! Magneto's little bitch huh? What'd you do to it?" Dodoria sat down in the middle of the comfiest couch where the other men made some room for him, though Zarbon was still standing as he was when Dodoria entered the room.

Zarbon stood in front of the three flat screen televisions on his wall, none of which were on at the moment, and he chuckled at the question. Liz looked her friend up and down, while King had to avert his gaze after a few seconds of staring at the girl's scarred-up arms and legs that were exposed considering the tattered clothes she had on could barely even be considered rags. Zarbon spoke while Liz gawked at Maka's appearance, "Heh, I found out this girl was messing with Magneto, that she was not completely broken like she was pretending to be, the moment I first saw her during our visit to the gladiator cell block for the Royale's early betting." Liz's eyes opened even wider as what Zarbon was saying sank in. _She was pretending? But, you, you still are right?_ Liz wanted to believe it. She was convinced last time that Maka was broken, so why would it be so hard for her to imagine that Maka could have tricked her new owner too?

Maka lifted her head though as Liz looked at her, and the two of them made eye contact. Maka looked terrified, and her eyes darted back and forth right after she made eye contact with Liz, then shot down to the floor, then lifted back up slowly with irises that shook in the middles of her eyes. She had a new scar under her right eye, so close that it looked like a blade was dragged right up the bottom of her eyelid before it stopped. "So considering how Magneto believed he had completely broken her, I began to wonder if she was truly unbreakable. The things he must have done to her, I was impressed at the will this half-breed of Meister and weapon possessed," Zarbon continued to speak to his comrades who ate and drank and listened to the strongest man in the room. Dodoria might have been a Lord just like Zarbon, but they knew it in their own universe and they knew it here who was the more powerful in the relationship.

Liz started to turn back towards Zarbon, such reckless abandon and fury in her gaze that King was getting nervous for his fellow slave, and a girl he had started to consider his only friend inside the Capital. As Zarbon continued, Banan noticed the girl's glare and his fuzzy orange eyebrows lifted up in amusement, but he was going to wait for Zarbon to finish speaking before mentioning the girl's rebellious look. "So," Zarbon continued, "after that day, I went back and took something from the cell block that I could use on her, for when the opportunity arose. And thanks to _Lord_ Magneto's early demise, I got the opportunity I desired, and I discovered that even _she_ could break." Liz's furious look started to become a little more confused, then Zarbon flashed her a smirk that sent every warning signal in her body off.

 _If he could tell that Maka was faking, of course he knows exactly how I feel right now. But, but what did he grab from the cell block?_ Zarbon walked to the side of the televisions on his wall, and he reached a keypad on the wall that he typed a password into. "Observe," he said, then stood aside and held out an arm as the wall opened up behind him. Dodoria figured it would be worth it and got off his seat to get a better look, and the other three walked behind him towards the hole in the wall. Dodoria's two slaves followed along, and Zarbon kept his gaze on Liz the entire time so that he could watch her reaction. As he stared at her though, he called out, "Come over here Maka, I told you that you have to look whenever the wall opens."

Maka bit down on her bottom lip so hard that she started to bleed, then she trailed after King and Liz so she could look through the wall into the open space behind it as well. When Liz saw Banan's interested expression fill with disgust for a second, almost like the disgusting man himself was going to puke, before he regained a cocky and evil expression to match his comrades, she knew what she was going to see was going to be terrible. When she walked past Dodoria though so that she could see into the hole in the wall, her heart skipped a beat and sweat covered her entire body. King did not even know the person inside the cell in the wall, but the fairy still gagged and felt like his heart was ripping out.

Liz stared through the opening in the wall, where there was a small ten foot wide by ten foot long space. She could tell that the tiny space's walls, ceiling, and floor were supposed to be white, but they were more red as it looked like the room had never been cleaned. In the center of the boxed-off room was a cross of wood covered completely in dried blood. No one was strapped to the cross, though there were bloody ropes dangling off the sides of it and lying on the floor in a small puddle at the base. None of those looking into the area could see the ropes on the floor though, as there was a figure in their way, naked and on his hands and knees in the puddle of blood that seemed to be his own. The boy had a muscular body and a light skin tone, though like everything else in the room, his skin was caked with blood.

"Come," Zarbon said, and the boy's head shot up so fast it looked like his neck might snap. His eyes were huge, and they were so bloodshot that there was no white to them. He had only a few stray strands of white hair on top of his head, and it did not look like the rest was cut, but ripped out as he had scabs all over his exposed scalp.

"What'd you do to him?" Sui asked, actually confused as to how Zarbon could make someone look like this.

"I am so glad you asked, as this has been a pet project of mine for a few weeks now," Zarbon said with glee in his voice, while the boy on the ground scampered towards him like a dog, running on all fours and stopping when he was right in front of Zarbon's legs.

Liz thought she mis-recognized him at first, but the more she stared in absolute horror, the more she understood that acting like she did not recognize him was a defense mechanism because she did not want to believe what she was seeing. On Liz's right, over King's head since he was over a head shorter than her, she could see Maka's face looking distraught, pain in her eyes like nothing Liz had ever seen before. _Am I, in Hell?_ Liz thought, turning her head slowly to look over at Maka, then turning back just as slowly to Soul Evans, one of her best friends, acting like a dog for an insane group of aliens.

"…After I ripped his hair out, he was bleeding so much from his head so I had to make sure he did not die. The doctor told me that he could even fix broken bones though, so that opened a whole new world of what I could do to him. After snapping his legs a few dozen times though, I realized that he was too strong for physical torture to really take a toll. Like Maka there, he had a very strong will." Zarbon's explanation was making Liz gag, but the girl's horrified expression was starting to calm down, as the words, _This is Hell. This is Hell. This is Hell,_ kept repeating in her mind. "I did not yet have Maka in my possession though to break him with, and I did not want her to see him with a strong spirit when I finally obtained her, so I had to break him in other ways. First there was the sleep deprivation: there are speakers in the ceiling and strobe lights in the walls to make sure he could not get a single blink of sleep during the torture process. Then I finally got to the psychological destruction of his soul. Heh heh," Zarbon giggled as he thought back on it, then continued in a nostalgic voice, "It took most of my other slaves' lives, but when they were being tortured and dying in front of him because I knew he had not given in yet, even while he was _screaming_ that he was done struggling, and I saw that look of absolute _despair_ on his face, its beauty was incomparable!"

Dodoria laughed as that sounded like something he would like to see, and the other three laughed along with him until the room was full of crazed laughter. Liz's vision was starting to get blurry, but through the blur she could see the inside of Soul's cell. She imagined people being brought in front of that cross while she was strapped to it, cut apart in front of her while being told it was all her fault, even just imagining it was tearing pieces out of her. _I didn't know. I didn't know, I couldn't know, things like this existed._

"Then when I got her," Zarbon said, shaking with excitement like this was the climax of his story. "The tipping point for both of them came at the same time! I got the girl from Magneto, and she kept pretending like she was actually broken even after I called her out on it! But when I got her back here, when I opened the door and she saw what was inside, the _scream_ she let out, and the looks on both their faces. Ohhh," Zarbon moaned like he was in ecstasy. "It was all worth it. All the lost property and time I spent, all of it was minuscule in comparison to the payoff of seeing the two of them break at the same time. Him, seeing that I had bought the girl he cared so deeply for to this place, I assume he imagined for an instant that she was about to go through everything he did, and I watched as the remnants of his sanity shattered before me. All resistance left him, even as she shouted at him to fight, to move, and when her suspicions were confirmed, when she learned that he was dead inside," Zarbon did not need to continue, he just looked over towards Maka, and the others turned as well, to see Maka looking towards Soul with dead eyes that streamed tears to her chin before they dripped off on the floor.

"Stop crying," Zarbon snapped, seeing those tears hitting his floor. "And clean that up." He sniffed a few times and waved a hand in front of his face, before laughing and looking down in front of his feet, "As for you Soul, I think it's about time you clean up your cell. The blood of all those people you got killed is not going to clean itself. Maka, get the mop and some cloths. Snap snap," he said so that his slaves would hurry to it.

Liz continued to stare in horror straight ahead, until something passed through her vision and she turned to follow Maka with her eyes as the other girl walked past her. Maka walked by Soul, skittering a few feet away from him as she walked past, while the boy on his hands and knees lifted his gaze and watched her, then turned back to his cell that he had to clean. He looked back at Zarbon as if asking if it was okay to go back to his cell, and Zarbon smiled like a proud owner as he nodded and waved a hand off for the cell. Dodoria chuckled a few times, then out the corner of his eye he saw Liz standing there looking mortified. "Oi!" He snapped at her, and Liz spun to look at him as did King on her other side. "The two of you help them. This place better be spotless or I might just try out some of Zarbon's tactics on you."

The look of sheer terror that flashed through his slaves' eyes made Dodoria start cracking up, and he bellowed loudly as he turned to walk with the others back to the sitting area, "Actually! I think I'll do it anyway! Hohohh!"

"I am glad my art inspired you so," Zarbon said, doing a little bow as he was truly impressed with himself.

King trembled in fear as he watched Dodoria go sit down with the others. The fairy who looked like a young boy barely over five feet tall shook where he stood, and he crossed his arms in front of his chest like he was shivering from the cold, even though the penthouse was heated. He looked to Liz to see what she thought about that threat of torture, but he did not receive a look back like he did on the elevator. _Oh no, Liz!_ His heart rate sped up, _I don't want to be alone here! Don't break down on me!_

Liz's eyes were glossy and unfocused, but they did stay pointed at the girl in rags with long dark blonde hair walking her way. Maka was walking towards Liz and King with some cloths in one hand that she was going to hand them. When Maka got to them, she handed King a cloth and also a spray bottle of cleaner from the bucket she was rolling along using the mop in her other hand. Liz lifted her right hand in a trance, then everyone in the room stopped what they were doing as a loud beeping sound echoed out from two scouters at once.

Zarbon and Dodoria shot out of the seats they just sat down in, Zarbon dropping the remote he had picked up so that he could reach for his communicator and press the answer-call button on the side of it. When he pressed the button, words appeared on the scouter in front of his eye, and both he and Dodoria opened their eyes wide at what they were reading. Dodoria spun to Zarbon in surprise, "A break out? How can this be?"

"It does not matter!" Zarbon shouted at his fellow Lord.

"Break out?" Appule asked, also standing now like the other two there. "What's going on?"

Dodoria turned to their three elite soldiers, "Some big commotion's going on at the gladiator cells beneath the Colosseum." Dodoria cracked his knuckles in front of his armor, then turned to Zarbon, "Figure we should get over there, huh?"

"Ahh," Zarbon sighed, calming himself down like Dodoria. "It is our job," he admitted. Zarbon turned to the other three with them, and Sui asked if he wanted them to come along. "No it's fine. The three of you watch my place while I am gone, and keep an eye on the slaves. Here," he reached down and took out a controller that he tossed to Appule. "You're in charge Appule. Don't burn the building down." Appule saluted him as did Banan and Sui, then Zarbon reached up and tapped a button a few times on his scouter, the display in front of his eyes changing each time, until he found the one that he wanted and held the button down. A loud clanking sound filled the room, then the glass windows covering the southern side of his penthouse dropped into the floor, flooding the room with cold air.

"Quickly," Zarbon said as he covered in a white aura and lifted off the ground. "I don't want the room to get too cold. I doubt this will take long," he finished and was already holding the button to close the windows again before he and Dodoria had even flown through the window.

The three comrades of the Lords laughed amongst themselves when the windows closed. "Turn up the heat in here," Banan called out, rubbing his arms as the room really did get pretty cold in a short amount of time.

They walked back towards the couches, and Sui said smugly, "This is the life boys. All the perks, none of the responsibilities." He hopped over the back of the couch and leaned back on it with his hands behind his fish-like purple head. "Does it get any better than this?"

"If only I lived in a place this nice," Appule said, looking around Zarbon's penthouse with envy. He glanced over towards the slaves who were looking their way, and he grit his teeth before yelling, "Get to it! I want this place spotless by the time Lord Dodoria and Lord Zarbon return!"

King quickly hurried into the cell that Soul was in, and all of them averted their gazes from the soldiers in the room. _That's better,_ Appule thought, a cocky look on his face. He felt mighty powerful with the remote in his hands that controlled their fates, and he was looking forward to using it if any of them slipped up.

Appule walked over to the couches and started talking with his other comrades, while King stared down at the boy next to him in confusion as Soul's eyes darted up from the bloody floor he was staring at. He was in an indent in the wall, so those sitting on the couches outside of it around the corner could not see him, and he looked straight over at the side of Liz's head. Liz had a look of fear, despair, worry, sadness, so many horrible emotions spread across her face. She held out her hand again to grab the cloth and bottle from Maka, ready to get to cleaning, and Maka handed the cloth to the girl in front of her. Liz flinched, and her eyes became less hazy, focusing straight ahead on the eyes of the girl straight in front of her. Maka looked right back into her eyes, and Liz's grew wider, tears brimming on the bottom of them, because Maka's eyes had life in them. She knew she was not imagining things too, because through the cloth Maka was handing her, Maka's hand had wrapped around her own and squeezed.

No words passed between them. The soldiers sitting on the couches nearby meant that they could not say a word. But a glance to her right and Liz could see Soul looking at her through his bloodshot eyes, eyes that had recognition in them, eyes that recognized her, that looked almost happy to see her. Soul only _almost_ looked happy to see Liz, because he still remembered what Dodoria just told her and the other slave boy who was standing next to him right now. _Liz! LIZ! AHH! DAMNIT!_ _You can't handle this! No one can handle this! IT'S GOING TO KILL YOU!_

* * *

 **Command Quarter, Capital**

The section that consisted of the northern fourth of the Capital, and was at a higher elevation than any other Quarter, the Command Quarter was made entirely of metal. The Command Quarter itself was like one giant personal fortress for the King. Over a hundred and fifty square miles large, made of metal more powerful than common steel, it was considered the most fortified place on Aebrith. Closer to the top of the Quarter, the giant fortress narrowed in a bit, but the top floors were still miles long and wide. On one of those top floors, Meruem turned to his doorway and said, "I already know."

Pouf froze with his mouth open, then closed it as he decided not to shout the report he had for the King if Meruem claimed to know what was going on already. Pouf calmed himself down a little, then began, "I sent Pitou to-"

"I know," Meruem repeated, and he walked towards the exit of his room with a straight expression on his face. Pouf felt his chest ache as he had the audacity to try and explain something that _of course_ the King already knew. He believed Meruem just meant the general situation, but why would the King not have known what his reactions to that information would be? "It's fine," Meruem said as he walked past his overly-emotional Royal Guard. "I am heading out myself," Meruem added.

Pouf spun with wide eyes. "Your Majesty!" He exclaimed. "Is the Capital 50 not enough for this task?"

"I am sure they are," Meruem replied calmly. He lifted off the ground and started flying faster down the dark hallway outside of his sleeping quarters. Pouf flapped his wings to lift off and quickly dart down the hallway after his King. Meruem continued while they flew off through his giant fortress, "But what fun would it be to stay here while this goes on? Nothing has interested me in days, and I grow more impatient every second." The King's long, thick, green-and-black-striped tail waved behind him and his eyes narrowed in annoyance, though after a second he allowed his lips to curl up a small amount. "Perhaps this will bring me slight entertainment."

"King!" Pouf exclaimed. "Let us go then! The first time a large scale escape has happened in the Capital! I am sure it will be interesting!" Pouf had a bead of sweat on the side of his face, as he hoped but was not sure that the King would be surprised by anything they saw outside tonight. _It is a strange feeling to hope that our enemies are stronger than our forces can handle, but if it is in order to please the King, any amount of death and destruction to the city will have been worth it!_

* * *

Underneath the Colosseum in the Business Quarter of the Capital, all of the cells for the gladiators forced to fight for the Cooperative's amusement were opening up. The inhabitants of those now-empty cells were running wild through the underground.

In a cell with ten people in it, loud clanking echoed down the hallway between the cell blocks and all of the cell's prisoners got up to their feet. An old man in the back with white hair that fell behind him all the way to his waist was slow to get up, and he sighed as he saw looks of hope on the younger gladiator's faces. Rob stepped forward to get closer to the bars, and since the cell was a little emptier than it usually was, there was space for him to squeeze between two larger gladiators. The man was not as old as he was when he died, but after years of slavery and mistreatment, his shirtless body looked as wrinkled and brittle as it did on the day of his death.

Rob and the others in his cell heard loud shouting coming from down the hall to their right where the clanking noises were coming from before. The large man on his right over twice his height pressed his face harder into the bars like it would give him a better look down the hall. The muscular man in a white shirt that looked much to small for him was one of the final competitors in the last Battle Royale, a former apprentice Holy Knight named Twigo who still had some healing gashes and bruises from his defeat at Jiraiya's hands. Twigo grumbled as he pressed his left temple into the bars, "What is going on down there?"

"Get over there!"

"Cell blocks E through H have been opened!"

The prisoners snapped their heads the other way and watched as a cluster of Chimera Ants came running their way. One of the ants growled as he glanced at the sides of the hall while he ran, seeing the prisoners all grabbing the bars and shouting about wanting to escape. Grizzly roared in a deep bellow, "I'm electrifying the bars!" He pulled out a remote and all the slaves released the bars and leaned away from them.

Twigo pulled back fast, as he did not want to get electrocuted. He frowned deeply when he pulled away though, grumbling under his breath, "That damn idiot isn't here this time to keep grabbing them anyway." _He was still in the infirmary when I was let out yesterday. After what Jiraiya did to him though, I'm surprised he was even alive._ Twigo's lips curled into a smirk as he stopped thinking about a small blue-haired warrior, because an explosion went off in the direction Grizzly and the other guards ran which resulted in a chorus of cheers to ring out throughout their cell block.

Rob frowned deeper as everyone around him started cheering. Even the usually skeptical gladiator on his left side who was even taller than Twigo, a tan-skinned brute named Spartan, grinned after that last explosion. _Do not get your hopes up young men,_ Rob thought pessimistically.

"What's going on out there?!"

"Something's coming!"

"Get us out of here!"

No one dared to get close enough to the bars to let them see down the hallway towards the source of the explosions, but all of a sudden some of the shouts coming from that direction turned into cheers. More cheers filled the cell block, getting louder every second, then right as Twigo opened his mouth to shout a question asking what was going on, a figure flew past their cage at a hundred miles per hour. He wore a full suit of silver armor including a helmet that covered up his face. The eye holes on his helmet glowed yellow, and he had a white caped that flapped behind him as he shot down the hall so fast that gusts of wind rushed into every cell he flew by.

Everyone in the cells spun the direction the armored man flew off, but a voice shouting right in front of them got Rob, Twigo, Spartan, and the others in their cell spinning right back forward again. In front of them was a figure none of them expected to see: a short teenage girl with long pink hair wearing a set of tight black clothing that pressed against her small chest, holding a sniper rifle and glaring into their cell at the lot of them with a harsh gaze.

"Get ready to escape!" Mine shouted into the cell at the men in front of her. Her eyes lingered on an old man with a white beard who did not look as optimistic and hopeful as the rest of them, staring at her with pity in his eyes for some reason. She tried to ignore him though and glanced out the corners of her eyes as ten men went running past her and shouted at prisoners in other cells. Some of the people running behind her were her own soldiers, but many of them the other gladiators recognized as their fellow prisoners from other cell blocks, bringing their hopes up even more that they were about to be freed.

The people in front of Mine were not cheering as loud as everyone else though, as she was darting her eyes around the inside of their cell with a deep grimace on her face. She turned her head a little and looked behind her, where a muscular figure covered in black fur stood across the cell block talking to the prisoners in the cell opposite Rob's. Panther Lily turned his head sideways, and he gave a small shake of his head no at Mine. _Damn it,_ Mine thought, spinning back and glaring into the cell in front of her, making all the slaves nervous as they wondered if she was thinking about not letting them out. They only thought that until the low buzzing they could hear coming from the bars ever since Grizzly ran past, vanished without a trace. Seconds after the bars of every cell in Cell Block D became un-electrified, they dropped down into the floor. And then, most amazing of all, the torture bracelets they had on unlocked and fell off of their bodies, dropping and clanking on the floor.

Cheers echoed through the prison louder than ever, and everyone in the cell in front of Mine ran out. She continued to frown deeply as she looked into the empty cell though, _These are the cells that Maka specified that her friends were in. But none of these men resemble the descriptions she gave._ "Excuse me," Rob began, not running out as fast as everyone else in the cell. Mine lifted her gaze to the old man with long white hair and a beard whose eyes were pitch black, though somehow friendly, even if they did look pessimistic. "Are you looking for someone? You appear disappointed."

Mine frowned deeper and almost shook her head, but she decided there was no point in not trying. "I'm looking for some people I heard were here." A few others looked back as the girl said this, wondering if they could help their savior in any way. "Soul, Black Star, Tsubaki, ever heard of them?" Mine questioned.

"Ahh," Rob sighed, nodding his head as he did. "Unfortunately, young Black Star is in the infirmary after the last Battle Royale, and that sweet weapon girl of his is with him. A few of our fellow prisoners are with them as well."

"But not Soul," a voice said behind Mine. She spun around and looked into the cell that Panther Lily had run in front of. Most of the people inside it had ran out already, but there were still two figures in there. One of them was walking out from the shadows in the back, a dark expression on his face that was hidden partially by his large orange pompadour sticking out in front of him. Kazuma Kuwabara lifted his head and most people around Mine, though not the girl herself, flinched at the sight of his enraged expression. Kuwabara continued in a deep voice, "Soul's been missing for longer than that. The day after Maka was brought through here."

"You know Maka?" Panther Lily questioned the muscular teenage boy in front of him.

Kuwabara turned and looked up at Lily's face, then looked over at Mine's that was also full of recognition. It took him a few seconds to figure out what was going on, but when he did his eyes opened wide. "She's your comrade? Wait, so she was faking it?" The teen shook his head after asking the question, a furious look still on his face, though now it looked a little relieved too. "Yeah I know her, she was Soul's Meister. The two of them got in a fight and she transferred squads, and a few days later her whole team went missing. He'd been looking for her ever since-"

"Everyone with me!" a voice shouted at the end of the cell block opposite where everyone came in from. Kuwabara stopped speaking for a second, and everyone around them looked the same direction, to see the armored man with glowing yellow eyes floating in the air in front of the wall at the end of the cell block. Mine smiled a little seeing Tatsumi equipped with Incuriso, leading hundreds of people, but she quickly brought her gaze back down to Kuwabara. It was not all that impressive anyway, since she had seen him do it in a few cell blocks already. "It's time to free the remaining cell blocks!" Tatsumi yelled, then he turned to the wall behind him and pulled a fist back far. Everyone in the cell block who was watching this for their first time dropped their jaws, as the figure punched forward and the giant stone wall blew to pieces. The debris from the wall flew out from his punch into the next cell block where a bunch of guards were already waiting, and screams filled the prison as they were slammed into by the rubble and then trampled by a horde of prisoners trying to escape.

"Let's go!" Panther Lily shouted, and he rose up a long red sword with his right arm that was made entirely of steel. The cyborg Exceed started running, and everyone around them ran with him.

Mine turned to Kuwabara before she started running, "When we freed her from the first slavers who caught her, Mine wanted to go back to the Resistance and make up with Soul. By that time though, you and your friends had already been captured. We almost got to you guys back in the Fire Nation, but Magneto sold you off to be gladiators at the Colosseum right before we got there. It seemed like that would be it, but Maka was determined not to give up, and said that with or without our help she was coming to get you. Tatsumi had always wanted to do this anyway though, and right there we started our plan. It was Maka's plan to attack Magneto's fortress and then let herself get captured after showing off so that he would want to keep her for himself, but it took longer than we had hoped for him to bring her to the Capital." Mine paused for a second and she turned her head as the back of the pack of freed gladiators were running by them now, and she could see her own comrades who were guarding behind the back of the pack of slaves approaching them. She tssked under her breath then turned fully to start chasing after Tatsumi, "Maka knew the risks, my only hope is that she and some of your other friends we came to save are in the remaining three cell blocks."

"Good luck with that," Kuwabara said. Mine stopped after running only a few steps, and she spun back around with a look of urgency on her face. She was ready to yell at Kuwabara to come with her, but the other teenager was walking in the other direction towards the backs of her comrades. Mine's comrades were walking backwards, aiming rifles behind them and firing occasionally at any guards who started charging from that direction, making the guards dive to the sides into cells to get some cover. Kuwabara continued as he walked between two of her friends, "But I can't leave this place. Not until I find that bastard."

Mine's fellow freedom fighters lowered their weapons a little as Kuwabara walked in front of them, but they snapped those weapons right back up as an entire squadron of guards in white uniforms came running over the rubble of the broken wall at the end of the cell block closer to Block E. They hesitated to fire though, and the guards running towards them slowed down as well, as Kuwabara did not stop walking in that direction. "The damn Lord who killed Yukina-chan," Kuwabara snarled, while holding his right arm out to the side. Lightning sparked around his right hand, and then a flash of orange light filled the cell block, followed by the formation of a long sword of spiritual energy. "REI-KEN!" Kuwabara roared, and he brought the hilt of his energy sword in front of his body to grab with both hands. "RAAA!" He charged at the guards facing him who rose up their rifles and started firing.

"Keep it moving!" Mine yelled at her fellow guards, some of whom she saw getting ready to charge after Kuwabara to help him. They spun to the woman leading them, and Mine had a deep frown on her face as she looked after Kuwabara who slashed his sword at the guards and made screams echo out from that way. She looked back at her fellow liberators and continued, "He's a fool, but he's giving us more time to free everyone else. Now get your asses moving!" She spun and started running without waiting to hear responses from her comrades. The second she spun, a dark look spread across Mine's face, _Damn it. I am sorry if this is another friend of yours Maka. He's about to get himself killed._

Mine started to run, but she froze for a second as she remembered something, something that unnerved her. _There was another person in his cell._ She took a step back and turned her head right, while all of her comrades taking up the rear guard came running by her, looking at her oddly as they did not see what she did. Mine looked into the cell where Kuwabara was imprisoned, but there was no man inside it like she thought. She almost turned away, but she knew for a fact that her eyes were not playing tricks on her. She decided to look up for some strange reason, and her pink eyes opened wide at the sight of a wide circular hole on the ceiling leading straight up to the surface. _Where the Hell did that guy go?_ Mine shook her head and turned towards Kuwabara again, but that side of the hall was too full of smoke and dust for her to even see the other teen. She turned and started running in the direction Tatsumi led everyone to, but she did spare the orange-haired teen one last thought. _Good luck._

* * *

 **Gladiators' Infirmary**

There was one building right next to the eastern side of the Colosseum, the only building within a half mile in any direction of the Colosseum's round outer walls. It was connected to the Colosseum by a small tunnel, and it was a small building itself, though with a giant entrance on the east side closer to the line of buildings a half mile away from it. That entrance had a staircase beneath it that seemed to lead straight into the floor beneath the solid ground clearing surrounding the Colosseum. That staircase was one of few that led below ground to the cells where the gladiators slept and spent most of their time, but above it was the hospital that the gladiators would be brought to after especially intense matches.

One of the guards stationed there was the Chimera Ant, Rhino. He was standing near the door of the room full of metal tables that the gladiators lay on while they were treated and after during their recuperation. Beds were too good for them after all, and only the ones who had fevers and chills from infections were given blankets. Rhino watched as the other guards with him ran off, then the Rhinoceros-human hybrid Chimera Ant stumbled to his left as the floor shook beneath him. "This is crazy," he muttered with a bead of sweat dripping down the side of his face. He had the head of a rhino with the horn and everything, but his eyes were closer together on the front of his face than a rhino's that would be farther to the sides like other herbivores. Rhino's eyes were near the center of his face on either side of the top of his large horn, marking him as a predator. The seven hundred pound creature stood on thick legs and had arms as wide at his sides. He wore a black muscle shirt over his torso that accentuated the muscles of a human that covered his gray body, and he had on a pair of white pants that matched the guard jacket he had on over his black undershirt.

Rhino shook his head to calm himself down, then he turned around and walked back into the infirmary behind him. _A break out in the gladiator cell blocks? What the Hell are the guards down there doing?!_

"What's going on?" Someone called over. The Chimera Ant turned to snap at the patient to be quiet, but when he looked over towards the metal table he thought the woman whose voice he heard would be lying on, he instead saw a young human woman standing ten feet in front of her table. He looked past her and saw others sitting up on their tables, and saw a few more pulling the IVs out of their arms.

"Stay in your beds," Rhino snarled. He lifted up a remote and everyone in the room froze.

A duck and a dog who had some nasty burns and bruises after the last Battle Royale and were on side-by-side beds stopped themselves from getting up. Donald frowned and his eyes narrowed, while Goofy gulped, and both of them had sweat on their faces at the sight of the remote that controlled their torture bracelets.

"Why?" A gladiator dared call out.

The gladiators in the infirmary were mostly ones from the previous Battle Royale which meant they were some of the strongest, and bravest. Rhino turned towards the brave man who shouted that though, and he pressed a button on his remote while pointing it at him. "AHH!" The man screamed in agony, falling back against the table he had stood up next to. He grabbed his chest in agony and slid down to the floor with his back against a corner to his medical table.

"Hey," a dark voice said behind Rhino's back. The Chimera Ant felt his spine tingle and his blood run cold. He knew the voice, and hearing that tone from a voice he could put a face to made his expression fill with fear. The gladiators in front of him would have looked smug and happy about that look on the usually cold-blooded, monstrous Chimera Ant, but they all heard the voice too and though not directed at them, it still scared the crap out of them. Rhino spun around fast and rose his remote, pressing the button on it as fast as he could.

"Ah hah, ah hah," Rhino panted in and out, and his mouth curled up into a victorious grin as he pressed the button before the person behind him attacked. The boy ten meters behind him was no longer on his operating table, and despite the wrappings all over his arms and legs, he stood on two feet with a pair of scythes in his hands. His dual scythes started shouting at him in his mind while Rhino chuckled darkly at the boy. "Too slow. Now you'll-"

"I'll what?" Black Star asked. Rhino froze with his mouth open. Black Star's head bowed when Rhino turned on the torture bracelet, but slowly he lifted it up and struck terror in Rhino's heart with his gaze. Black Star had small glowing red stars in the center of his pupils, and his smirk spread literally from ear to ear as he looked at the Chimera Ant in front of him. Tsubaki was not mentally yelling at her Meister because Rhino was torturing him, but because the look in his eyes was one she hated to see him with. **_Madness Takehold. Black Star, you know what this does to you._** Rhino lifted the remote and held down the button on it to torture Black Star with, but the kid in front of him did not even flinch. "You think I liked all that pain?" Black Star questioned, cocking his head to the side in an insane way, before slowly walking forward while twirling the scythes in his hands.

Rhino and everyone else in the room stared at the kid in fear as he continued to walk forward. Black Star uncocked his head from one side and snapped it to the other before continuing, "No, I'm not stupid. I wasn't getting you to torture me for the Hell of it, I did it, so that I could build up my tolerance to the pain." Black Star marched forward, even while his body filled with so much pain that when he first got the torture bracelet put on, it would knock him unconscious after only a few seconds of being turned on. Now though, he handled it without showing an ounce of feeling it on his face. "In fact, most of my screams the last few times you heard them, was just me putting on a show so that no one would be any wiser."

Black Star licked his lips and as he stepped forward again, the room shook and Rhino stumbled backwards. "So I would actually thank you for all that torture, but my friends who you tortured, and all the others," Black Star's grin curled up even more somehow, so the corners of his lips were even higher than the tops of his ears. "They demand that I do this! HAHA!" He charged forward, darting left and right so fast that Rhino could not even see the kid except for the moments when he changed directions. Black Star looked to be teleporting closer and closer, and then Rhino fully lost sight of him. He heard gasps behind him though, and the Chimera Ant turned his head to see Black Star standing behind him with his back to his own.

Rhino's breathing intensified. His vision turned red and he heard his heart pounding in his ears. "You, little BRAT!" He spun around while swinging an arm down, but as he finished his swing, Black Star was no longer there with his back to him, instead Black Star was back on his other side, both of his arms crossed in front of him, Tsubaki's dual scythe form suddenly bright red. Rhino appeared confused to the half of the room staring at him for a few seconds, and then he opened his mouth to scream only for blood to splash out, while two giant slashes cut through his white jacket and black undershirt and rough gray skin and all the muscles and organs underneath his thick hide.

As Rhino fell, Black star put both of Tsubaki's hilts in one hand and lifted up his other that was covered in Rhino's blood. He held it up and caught the falling remote, then pressed a button on it that made everyone in the room gasp. For a second they all thought that this insane kid was going to torture them all, and then the clicks echoed through the room all at once, and twenty torture bracelets fell off the wrists of the gladiators gathered there.

"We're free!" Donald exclaimed, jumping off his table and raising a hand up in the air. "Cure!" A wave of green light washed over him and Goofy, and the duck who could have healed them at any time grinned as he was suddenly back up to full strength. Donald then turned and looked towards the boy who freed him, and though hesitant about trusting him, the insane-looking kid did just free him. "Black Star!" Donald shouted, and he pointed his finger up to call down a wave of green healing light that fell over the blue-haired kid.

Black Star no longer felt the pain from the torture bracelet that fell off his wrist, but now all the pain from the burns and injuries he sustained against Jiraiya faded as well. "Thanks," Black Star said, his mouth shrinking back down to normal size while the stars in his eyes vanished. He sounded a lot more calm, and a lot less insane, than when he was intimidating Rhino. The ground beneath the gladiators' feet shook and many in the room standing up on shaky legs stumbled around or fell from the vibration. Donald started healing others around him who needed it the most, while some others who were quicker to take advantage of their situation were gathering near the door out of their infirmary room.

 **"Are you alright Black Star?"** Tsubaki asked her Meister. She was the one covered in Rhino's blood, but it was his decision to kill the Chimera Ant in cold blood and she wondered how he felt about it. Usually she could match her soul's wavelength perfectly to Black Star's, but in his Madness Takeover mode, she found it difficult to feel what he was feeling.

 **"Fine,"** he responded honestly. **"I'm glad that I got to kill him after making all those threats I thought were kind of empty."** He chuckled aloud and Tsubaki sighed at his immaturity. **"But really, what's going on? Probably should have interrogated that Rhino bastard before gutting him."**

 **"It sounds like the vibrations are coming from below us. In that case, I think there must be an escape going on in the cell blocks!"** Tsubaki sounded excited, and both she and her Meister grinned at the notion of that. **"Kuwabara?"** Tsubaki wondered to Black Star as he turned towards the door of the infirmary.

 **"No way,"** Black Star thought back, and Tsubaki frowned sadly as she knew she was being too hopeful. **"If he does get out, he's not running from this city. He's going to hunt down that creepy guy who killed his girlfriend, and I don't blame him. I know we won't be able to get him to come with us, and I don't plan and getting turned back into a slave now that I'm free. We're getting out of here, Tsubaki. You and me, me and you. Everyone else, they'll have to find their own ways out."**

Tsubaki felt bad from the way her Meister was wording it, but she was usually the one who had to think more practically while Black Star rushed head-first into things, and she knew he was actually being smart here. **"Hopefully Mario and Gon really did escape,"** Tsubaki mentioned as they stopped at the doorway where the others were all gathering. A few had gone ahead and scouted out the hallway, and Black Star could see down it those scouts calling the rest of them to move in. There was some blood on the scouts' hands, and Black Star grinned that he was not surrounded by weaklings and had a good chance of getting out of there. He nodded along with Tsubaki while heading out the door at the head of the main pack of formerly wounded gladiators. **"There was a lot of confusion that morning we woke up and Gon and Mario weren't in their cell, but we never did get an explanation from the guards."**

 **"Soul, Kiba and Akamaru, Mario, Gon, they all got taken or vanished from their cells. Wherever they are now, I just hope the breakout below has caused enough chaos near them as well that they can escape."** Black Star hummed to himself as he jogged down the hallway and turned the corner to see a few dead guards where the scouts must have encountered them. They all started running down that way while Black Star thought to himself, _Gray vanished, Rambo died, and Cloud escaped. Axel got taken by some other Nobody, Kiba and Akamaru by that creep who wanted dogs, Soul by one of those bastards who came to gamble on the fights, must have been a Lord. Kuwabara is still down there. It's only Mario and Gon who I have no idea what happened to. One night they're with us, struggling to keep going and wait for the time to escape, and then suddenly they're not!_ Black Star started frowning deeply, _I had talked to Gon earlier that day about fighting him in the Battle Royale. I was looking forward to it, but then he…_

"Door's right up ahead," a female gladiator said. She was one of the finalists in the Battle Royale the other day, the one who Black Star defeated right before going after Jiraiya, and Donald finally healed her. She was one of the scouts and took out the guards before the duck had even covered her in his healing magic, and she was the first one to call out Rhino when he entered the infirmary. Black Star watched her back as she jogged towards the doors, and he thought, _If there's anyone I should try escaping the city with it's her. She's got the second best chance of actually making it out of here after me._

The woman he was thinking about was the first one to the doors, and she pushed them open slowly and gazed around outside in the darkness to see if the coast was clear. She pushed them open more while saying aloud to the people encroaching her back, "I think we're good." She took one step out the door, then everyone froze where they were, because she was gone. Only a few, Black Star included, had eyes that were able to see what happened because of how fast it was, and he was snarling in rage after witnessing it.

In the instant after she stepped outside, the strong female gladiator was flattened into the floor by the female figure now crouching in her place. She dropped from above and planted her muscular legs down so hard on the gladiator's shoulders that her body could not withstand the pressure and was crushed. The woman crouching on those muscular legs wore a blue coat with six yellow buttons on it in two vertical rows of three. She had short, curly white hair that only fell down to her shoulders, and she had a pair of cat ears sticking out of the top of her hair. Her ears were white like the hands sticking out of her blue coat's sleeves, and like the long thin tail that waved around behind her body as she rose to stand in between the gladiators and their escape.

All of the gladiators knew who this was, and many of them turned and started running back into the infirmary to find a different exit at the sight of her. Neferpitou, or just Pitou, otherwise known as the King's Eyes, stood before them with eyes that glowed red in the darkness and the look of a carnivorous killer on her face. She bared her sharp teeth at the prisoners, and asked in a high-pitched tone, "Where did your bracelets go?"

Black Star glared straight into Pitou's eyes with none of the fear of his fellow gladiators. _I have never seen her fight before, and I know that she has watched all of my matches in the Colosseum. She's strong,_ he added to himself as he darted a glance below her to see what the gladiator woman he wanted to escape with looked like. He instantly regretted looking at the sloshy mess beneath Pitou, and he darted his gaze up with even more anger in it to glare at the Royal Guard with.

 **"Black Star, if you fight her, there is no way to win,"** Tsubaki warned. Black Star said nothing through their mental link in response, and Tsubaki started shouting, **"Even if you beat her, you will have incited the King's wrath! His Royal Guards are all that matter to him from what our intel says. The only thing to do is run! Move as fast as you can and try to outrun her! We can do it together!"** The idea of running left a terrible taste in Black Star's mouth, but a part of him had to admit that Tsubaki was right.

 _I will be the strongest, but, I am not right now. I can't take on the entire Capital on my own. I need to get back to the Resistance!_

 _He is fast,_ Pitou thought while examining the boy up and down. _Could he outrun me? Doubtful, but there is no need to take that risk. He fights based off his emotions after all._ Pitou smirked, and the five people behind Black Star still staring at her did not like the look on her face. Two more of them decided to run after the others, but the other three were still there when Pitou lifted her left hand and curled her fingers in. Out from the sky dropped a figure, Pitou's puppet that she controlled with her Nen.

This was her signature move, one that Black Star already knew about. There was a little information on each of the King's Royal Guards, and that information came from a friend of his who often talked about the enemies he had faced once on his world. _Gon said that he killed her, but that she was the strongest opponent he ever defeated. What new powers has she obtained since coming here that I don't know about?_ He frowned deeper and then his bottom lip dropped, because that muscular figure that dropped from the sky behind Pitou stepped up on her right side. As he got closer to the infirmary, the light from inside that was already illuminating Pitou started to shine on him too, and Black Star could see who it was that she had under her control. _It can't be,_ Black Star thought.

The man looked human, standing on two muscular legs, with two muscular arms flat down at his sides. He had on only a pair of purple sweatpants, revealing his scarred-up torso that looked like it was stitched up in a hundred different places. The scars lines his arms and shoulders, his neck and face, the top of his bald skull too. Black Star felt his heart rate speed up as he stared at this man, a man he recognized from the First Day on Nexus, and from a few times after that as well. It was a man known well on Nexus, one who he had not heard anything about for over a year, one who he had always wondered where he went. Black Star looked at this warrior covered in scars whose eyes looked so dead, all three of them.

"Tien," Black Star muttered.

Pitou smirked like a devil in front of the Meister and his Weapon. The others behind Black Star heard the boy speak the name, and even as the bravest gladiators remaining, they all ran. Black Star did not though. He just glared into Pitou's eyes and questioned in a snarky voice, "Where'd you find his body?" Pitou's smirk vanished and she bared her teeth instead, making Black Star smirk, though his face looked murderous as he did. "So I'm right. I knew it. There was no way you could take him on." Pitou's red eyes glared more furiously into his, and Black Star continued, "If I had to guess, I'd say he probably kicked your ass. He's the reason half your tail is made of metal, am I right?" Black Star asked.

That seemed to be a sore spot, and Pitou yelled out as she shot forward. Black Star was ready for her though, and he hopped up right as she pounced at the spot he had been standing in. He pressed his feet against the top of the entryway he was standing in, and he unbent his knees so fast that he shot over Pitou as she flew beneath him, and she missed slashing up with her claws when she processed what Black Star was doing. He passed her, but she twitched the fingers in the hand she did not use to swing at him, and the man below where Black Star was now zipping over jumped up to get in his way. "I don't think so," Black Star said. He would have grinned as he twisted his body in midair to do a barrel-roll to the right and dodge the puppet, but he was too angry about recognizing the man that he did not feel like smiling.

 _I always saw that shadow behind her in the King's booth, and I think a part of me recognized him, but I could not believe he was there. He was not the kind of guy to side with the King, and he isn't, not really._ **"Black Star, I know this is hard, but you need to focus!"** _I know,_ Black Star thought, while gravity took him and he dropped towards the floor ten feet past Tien's back. _As soon as I touch down I'm gone. I won't give her a second to catch me._

 _He's going to escape!_ A mischievous look spread across Pitou's face as she spun towards the boy about to touch down. "Don't you want to know what happened to your friends?"

Black Star's feet touched the ground. **"DON'T LISTEN TO HER!"** _What is she talking about?_ **"BLACK STAR LISTEN TO ME!"**

Pitou smirked at the kid's back as he stood there motionless in the clearing between the infirmary and the line of buildings to the east. Black Star knew where his friends were. He stared forward with his hands tightened so hard around Tsubaki that she would have said something if she did not suddenly feel chills down her own spine even as a set of dual scythes. _I know where all of them are, I do! Except- no! Gon, escaped with Mario!_ Despite how confident his mental shout was, Black Star found his head slowly turning, and he stared the distance to the infirmary doors where Pitou stood looking his way maliciously. The look in her eyes made his heart rate skyrocket, the smug smirk on her face, the lick of her lips that made Black Star tremble with rage.

"You can leave," she offered with a shrug. "But then, you'll never know what became of, _Gon._ "

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Black Star roared, spinning his body fully and raising his scythes in rage.

Pitou charged once Black Star was no longer facing the buildings on the outside of the clearing. As she reached her puppet, the three-eyed man shot off the ground and flew at her side towards the kid who was full of so much rage. "Wouldn't you like to know," she said while pulling back her claws. "You'll have to beat the truth out of me!"

Tsubaki did not even shout that Pitou was baiting them, because at the moment in the mental space she stood in, Tsubaki's usually sweet face had an unnatural look of anger on it. She screamed at the same time that Black Star did out loud, their wavelengths matching, as they roared, "PITOUUUUU!"

* * *

 _If only I could have seen outside of the truck on my way in._

 **CRASH!** A twenty story building leaned far to its side as all the supports on that side of its base vanished. Every window inside the building shattered as desks and furniture slid across the slanting floor and smashed through the windows. Glass and debris fell to the street below where screaming people ran and hovercars swerved out of the way. The building kept leaning, then the remaining supports on the base still holding it up snapped, and the entire building started to fall. It fell across the wide street, but the building was tall enough that the top of it fell over the smaller building across the road from it. Eight stories of building slammed down on top of an office building and the ensuing explosion caused smoke and dust to billow down every block for two miles in any direction.

As soon as the dust cover rose, a figure in the base of the taller building that had suddenly lost half its support silently departed into the night. Under the cover of smoke and fire, the man flew ten feet off the ground, a shadow in the city that never sleeps. People running and screaming through the burning ash shouted even louder as something fast whizzed by them and pieces of it cut them up. The figure flying through the air had something swirling around him, little particles of sand that spun fast enough to cut through the skin of citizens running for their lives.

The former pirate turned slave, Crocodile, slowed himself down as he neared the end of the cloud he created. _The Power Blocker should hide me once I make it out of the city, but they have ways of finding me while I'm still here._ Crocodile landed and he jogged out of the street without a sand tornado coming out of his body beneath the waist. He ran out of the thinnest part of his smoke cover into a crowd of people who were running the same direction. He heard an explosion behind him and a small grin came to his face, _As long as they focus on the larger group escaping, I'll be able to make it out of here just fine._ Crocodile slowed his jog and a more confident expression came to his face. There was a calmer appearance to his walk, and he strut forward in a pair of casual clothes he snagged as soon as he made it to the surface _._

Crocodile's eyes darted to the left as he started jogging again. The three Chimera Ant guards in white uniforms did not even glance his way though; he blended in too well with the crowd. He kept jogging down the road, thinking about which direction he should try to go to find an exit to the city. He did not dare to fly above the city skyline to search for the closest exit, as he knew flying that high would get him seen in an instant. The former pirate had to do it by ear, but he was getting confident that no one was going to notice him in a city full of people, aliens, and so many other strange humanoids that it was hard for him to stick out.

He was so confident already, that a store window on his right side made him stop jogging altogether. Crocodile turned and looked at the shop and the shop's owner who was standing outside looking towards the direction Crocodile just came from. Many of the others who were jogging the same way as him were stopping as well as they had outrun the dust cloud from the collapsed building, and with so many looking back and up at the rising cloud, no one noticed a lone figure slide inside a smoke shop on the side of the road. Crocodile had run to a less developed area of the Business Quarter, closer to the southern edge of the city that he did not yet know about. He ran that way because the other Quarters of the city were all higher up in elevation than the southern one, and he could see more straight past all the buildings to the south than he could in any other direction. His instinct was right, and he did not know but he was only three miles from the edges of the Business Quarter. That was not to say that there were not thousands of buildings outside of the Quarter, miles upon miles of houses and slums on the outskirts of the Capital's Business Quarter where most of the poor, lower-class citizens who could not even afford homes in the giant Residential Quarter went to work.

Crocodile stepped out of the smoke shop with a cigar in his mouth, and a pack of them tucked nicely into the suit pocket of the man his size he abducted on his way out of the Colosseum. After the torture bracelet came off of him, the bracelet infused with Kairoseki that was only taken off of him for his matches as a gladiator, Crocodile shot through the roof of his cell, turning all the stone and concrete into sand on his way up. The Sand Sand Fruit that Crocodile ate made him the living embodiment of sand, and with his power he turned the man wearing this suit into sand by draining the water out of him. Then he simply phased himself into the empty clothes and reformed his human body. The process took three seconds, quicker than it took the two people who were walking with the man to even turn around wondering where their friend had went, only to see a different man in similar clothes walking a different direction.

As soon as Crocodile stepped out, he lifted the steel lighter he grabbed inside the store and flipped the top of it open to release the flame. He lit his cigar and then turned and started walking inconspicuously towards the side of the city where there were less tall buildings, more open space, and a possible exit. _Not much moonlight tonight,_ Crocodile thought, a smug expression coming to his frowning face. He puffed out some smoke in front of his face, and he kept walking past people facing the way he was coming from. _Good for escape, but I'm standing out being the only one not watching the smoke. I should look more panicked._ He looked over his right shoulder towards the billowing smoke cloud that was now being illuminated by several spotlights from hovercars around it. He sped up after looking at it, pretending like he was just another citizen wanting to get away from it as fast as he could and get to the safety of his own home.

"That was uncalled for."

Crocodile was jogging down a sidewalk when the voice spoke from the alleyway on his right side. He immediately leapt the other way halfway into the middle of the road where he turned and glared into the darkness of the alley. Even in the darkness, the white coats of the Capital guards were always easy to spot. This coat in particular looked strange to Crocodile. It did not have the same design as the others, nor did the man wearing it have on a white cap to add to the uniform. Instead, the man stepping out of the shadows had on a black top hat, to match the black suit he wore under his jacket that looked very similar to Crocodiles, only with a black tie over the white undershirt he had on. The figure was slimmer than Crocodile too, though they were similar in height.

The man stepping out of the shadows had his hands in the pockets of his long black pants. He had on shiny black boots, his black hair fell long and curly behind his back to his shoulder-blades, and he had a black goatee that he had shaved so that the sides of it curled up below the corners of his lips. The man had a white pocket square in the chest pocket on the left side of his suit jacket to complete the fancy attire he wore, though his black sleeves were pulled up his lean arms to reveal his lightly-toned skin from his elbows down to his wrists, as his hands were still in his pockets. His arms were not through the sleeves of his white jacket, it was just draped over his shoulders in a fashion that Crocodile recognized well. Crocodile got a good look at this man and he bit down so hard that his cigar snapped. "Destroying two entire buildings just to mask your escape. Your punishment will be, severe." The figure smirked and his dark eyebrows narrowed in like his eyes.

"You," Crocodile snarled. His arms rose up at his sides, and anyone watching this strange interaction from nearby started running away as small tornadoes of sand appeared over Crocodile's palms. "I never would have guessed," he muttered, "but once a Government dog, always a dog. Isn't that right, Lucci?"

Rob Lucci frowned at the insult, and he glared into Crocodile's eyes more severely. "The prison break is causing chaos in this city, but do not think you will escape while it ensues. I will carry out justice." Rob Lucci turned his body side-face and lifted up his arms in a fighting stance.

"Justice?" Crocodile scoffed. He threw his right hand forward and then his left behind it, calling out as he did, "Sables!" The small tornadoes of sand grew exponentially into real sand tornadoes that tore up the street and then sidewalk on their way to Rob Lucci. Crocodile glared forward at the point his two Sables slammed into each other, right where Lucci was just standing. "What justice are you talking about? Even I know that enslaving people and making them fight for others' amusement is anything but justice."

Crocodile frowned into his fast-spinning Sables that he was losing control of as it grew more and more, making it grow out of control at the same time. He frowned because he saw a silhouette in the sand, walking towards him slowly. The shadow was growing, and Crocodile's frown deepened. _So he's a Zoan. It doesn't matter though. This is Rob Lucci. Don't underestimate him._

"You have been chained up for months Crocodile," Lucci said, and Crocodile grit his teeth at the sound of that. He watched as Lucci stepped out of the sand, his skin covered in yellow fur, his shoulders three times as broad, and claws extended from each of his furry fingers. The Cat Cat Fruit: Model Leopard, would not have been stronger in the hands of anyone else, and Crocodile knew that even as a Logia, he could not be too careful while facing this man. Crocodile's eyes opened wider though and his determined, defiant gaze became more defeated as both of Lucci's large paws covered in a pitch black veil.

A dark aura surrounded the Leopard-Man, and Crocodile growled as he faced him, "There's no way a man like you is just another guard of this Capital." Lucci started walking towards him, and Crocodile slammed both of his hands into the floor as fast as he could, yelling as he did, "Wasteland Cataclysm!" The pavement cracked beneath him. Everything started drying out, from the street to the sidewalk, to the buildings on either side of the road, to cars parked on the edges and people who were running for their lives. The floor directly beneath him could not hold his weight after a second of drying out, and then everything for a ten meter radius around him broke apart as well. Edges of the street lifted up, and the sidewalk beneath Lucci crumbled right before he was going to kick off of it.

Lucci did not fall with the road beneath him though. He kicked the air, "Geppou." He lifted up, then added, "Soru." Crocodile's eyes grew huge as Lucci appeared in front of him while he descended. _So fast!_ Lucci held his paws out in front of Crocodile's chest, his wrists pressed together while his fingers pointed up and down, his claws curved inwards towards Crocodile's chest. Crocodile started turning to sand, but Lucci's tail whipped around his body fast with a coating of Armament Haki forming around it. His tail wrapped around Crocodile's torso and kept him in human form, and then Lucci smirked ear to ear with a mouth full of sharp teeth, making Crocodile's face cover in sweat and heart fill with fear. "Rokuogon!"

The impact was invisible, but behind Crocodile's back a force emitted so powerfully that the building Crocodile had started to dry out but never finished was hit by the blast from Lucci's attack. The blow was so powerful that a twenty meter radius crater blasted into the wall, bending steel and ripping apart everything else in its path. Crocodile's eyes rolled back but he could not be thrown into the distance with Lucci's tail around him. His head snapped back with his mouth wide open, spit and blood coming out of it as he gasped out in agony. Lucci's tail finally unwrapped and dropped Crocodile to the ground, and he fell slowly while trying to hold some consciousness. "You were weakened by your time in the Colosseum, but even if you had been at your peak strength," Crocodile hit the ground hard, and Lucci stomped a furry foot down on the side of his skull, crushing the road beneath them even more, while finishing, "a man such as yourself stands no chance, against one of the Capital 50."

* * *

In the underground cell blocks for the Colosseum gladiators, only two blocks remained to be emptied out. Cell Block C was the hardest to push through of all the ones they had entered so far. The guards had gathered there to mount a defensive, and not enough of the gladiators who were freed had the proper weapons they needed to be at all effective against the guards with their superior firepower. After the battle, many of the weapons the guards brought were now in the hands of gladiators, but the bodies on the floor were not just of the guards they defeated.

An old man reached down and he grabbed a rifle off the ground next to a fallen gladiator he recognized. The young man must have picked up the weapon himself earlier during the escape, but seeing as half of his face was missing, Rob did not think the young man would mind if he took it. "You did well," Rob whispered, lifting his hand and shutting the boy's one remaining, wide-open, eye. He stood back up fully and lifted the rifle to hold in both hands. It was a heavy weapon, and most who looked at the old man would be surprised to see such a feeble figure carrying it, but there was a reason he was in the gladiator cells and not a slave for some rich owner somewhere else.

Rob gazed to his right and watched as the muscular Spartan walked side-by-side with the man leading their escape. Spartan had a massive sword in his right hand, currently resting on his shoulder as they took a few seconds' break. They knew they had to keep moving to prevent being swarmed by enemies, but after the intense battle they had in Cell Block C, they needed time to catch their breaths and regroup. The pink-haired girl and tall black Exceed were running around yelling at everyone to get ready, while Tatsumi marched towards the wall separating this block from the next one. The doors were locked and barricaded from the other side, but this worked well in their favor as it let them know their enemies were worried about them, were trying to hold them back on defense instead of assault them directly.

"How did you get that armor in here?" Spartan questioned the young man inside the armor who defeated the strongest guards in the cell block who had defeated many powerful gladiators Spartan knew himself. "It seems to me that armor would have been confiscated and taken away from you long before you reached the cell blocks."

"It is my Imperial Arms, Incursio," Tatsumi explained to the gladiator at his side. "And until I equip it, it looks just like any other sword. By the time they realized how strong the weapon I held was, it was too late for them to stop me." Spartan grinned, and at that moment Tatsumi leapt up in the air and hovered high in front of the next wall they would be going through. "Everyone!" He shouted.

Twigo stopped tearing the armor off of a guard around his size and turned his head to look towards the leader of their escape. The former Apprentice Holy Knight could see that it was time and he decided not to spend time taking off the armored pants of the guard he killed, instead just strapping on the chestplate and arm guards he already had. Twigo put on the helmet then picked up a new sword to replace the one he got from the first guard he killed, this one a bigger, sharper weapon with a better grip for him to hold onto.

Mine and Lily looked in from opposite sides of the second floor of the cell block where they were checking all the cells. Some prisoners were hesitant to run out with the rest, fearful that the guards would kill them even without their torture bracelets on to keep them in line, afraid that if they were caught trying to escape the punishment would be a lot worse than if they stayed. Some even considered that by staying in the cells they would gain favor with their captors who would let them out because of it. Mine and Lily tried their best to snap those slaves to reality by yelling that they would all be punished for this, so all they could do now was escape with the rest of them, or die here. The idea of dying alone and afraid in their jail cells while everyone else escaped made these slaves get moving, but Mine frowned as there was no time to go check the last twenty cells on this row to see if anyone else was left. She looked across the gap between the sides of the second floor of the block, between which she could see hundreds of figures pushing towards the wall Tatsumi hovered before.

Lily looked back into Mine's eyes, and he nodded his head at her in a serious way. The tall figure with the face of a scarred-up cat hopped up on the railing, and he drew his sword, while Mine pulled out her sniper and set it up on the railing, pointed right towards the wall behind Tatsumi. "They're going to be waiting for us on the other side!" Tatsumi yelled. "But so our more of our allies!"

"Raaaa!"

"Free your fellow slaves!" Tatsumi yelled.

"RAAAA!" The chorus of war cries was louder this time.

"Kill the guards!" The cheer was louder than ever, and Tatsumi grinned from behind the helmet of his armor. "AND TAKE BACK YOUR FREEDOM!" The following scream of approval and bloodthirstiness and anger and rage was so loud that he knew all the guards awaiting them on the other side of the wall could hear it. Many of the men and women, Chimera Ants and mutants, demonic beings and aliens wearing white uniforms and pointing rifles or swords at the wall to Cell Block C found themselves backing up in fear. The entire underground was shaking from all the screaming on the other side of the wall, and what made it worse was that all the slaves in Cell Block B where they were waiting started roaring along with the already-freed ones on the other side of the wall, and they only got louder as the entire wall splitting the cells shattered in a huge explosion.

A figure in full silver armor flew through the debris that was not flying into B Block nearly as fast as he was. The rubble flew in behind him, as Tatsumi pulled a fist back and slammed it forward into the twelve-foot, tallest Chimera Ant who stayed closest to the wall when everyone else in his guard squad backed away. Tatsumi's fist slammed into the polar bear, bat, man hybrid's chest, and the armored glove of Incursio's battle armor flew out the other side of his body coated in blood. Red splashed out of the Ant's back and into the air, mixing with the debris that finally caught up to Tatsumi and slammed into any other guard who was too close to the wall when it smashed apart.

Mine grinned as she saw through the wall Tatsumi kicking ass, but a voice shouting in pain in her ear made Mine wince and spin around. The communicator she had on was connected to all of her original soldiers' earpieces, and she put a hand to her ear while shouting, "What was that?"

The same woman's voice who screamed in agony yelled out over the line, "There's a massive force right behind us! They're pushing through the last cell blocks fast!" Mine hopped up on the railing, picking up her sniper, and she turned her head to look back the direction they came from. Her eyes opened wide as as soon as she looked back that way, a huge explosion went off only one cell block away, throwing the stragglers of their escape group aside or blowing them away inside the explosion. The scream of her comrade filled her ear until it was cut off, and Mine felt a deep pit of dread in her chest as she looked towards the huge explosion filling the last cell block. In the center of the raging red flames in the middle of the floor, Mine saw several silhouettes calmly walking through the fire.

 _Everyone behind us…_ Mine thought for a second, but she hardened her resolve and spun the other way again. "Hold them off!" Mine yelled aloud, leaping over the railing and falling down to the first floor of the block below.

Panther Lily dropped down a few feet in front of her right as she landed, and the Exceed called to her, "Get ahead to Tatsumi. I'll hold them-"

"You're coming with me!" Mine yelled, glaring into Lily's eyes while others around them turned and pointed their rifles to the rear. Mine stepped towards the Exceed who followed the others with his gaze, watching them run off to near certain death. Mine got close to him though and he turned and looked down at her. "We need you Lily, I need you. You've been with me from the start. You're not getting out of this that easily." She turned and started running after Tatsumi into the farther cells. Lily frowned at her back for a second, and then he glanced behind him towards the cell back there where he could see gladiators running back to hold off their approaching enemies.

"Tatsumi! We're out of time!" Mine yelled farther into Cell Block B right as she got inside it.

Tatsumi slammed a fist into his opponent's and a shockwave rippled away from them. "Not yet!" Tatsumi yelled, and he pushed harder into his punch, knocking his enemy's arm away. He jumped and spun, slamming an armored kick into the temple of the man in front of him and smashing him through cell bars that gladiators were still standing behind. Tatsumi spun and he flew over as fast as he could to the control booth at the end of the cell block closer to Cell Block A. "There's one block left!" Tatsumi screamed, right as he slammed his fist through the controls and released all the prisoners in Block B.

Lily had started running after Mine, but he heard a chorus of screams behind him and spun with wide eyes. All the allies he just saw run past him were now running back forward, except for the ones lying on the ground unconscious or dying. "There's no time!" Lily yelled, as the sight of the figures in the last cell block became visible to him.

Tatsumi ignored the shout of one of his top soldiers, and he smashed straight through the wall to Cell Block A before all of the gladiators were even out of the cells in Block B. "Get ready to escape!" Tatsumi shouted, then he froze as he entered the air of Cell Block A. He froze in midair, as the debris from the wall he broke down fell around him. He gawked from behind the mask of his armor, and looked around the cell block in horror for the split second he was allowed. In front of every single cell in the room there were four or five guards, each of them holding rifles that they were aiming into the bars. "NO!" Tatsumi yelled.

A single figure in the center of the cell block's floor smirked and he threw his arms up above his head. The muscular man with thick earlobes, a scraggly white beard, and a long ponytail posed in a flamboyant position and yelled, "Fire!" Tatsumi reached an arm out, but he was too late to stop the onslaught. The massacre of every gladiator in Cell Block A only took a few seconds. The torture bracelets were already turned on, making it so that none of the gladiators could even try to dodge as they were too busy rolling around in pain on the floor. Their screams filled the entire underground though. Everyone fighting in the previous cell block spun towards A as they heard the screams of hundreds of men and women dying. The sounds of all those screams seemed to invigorate the guards, who matched the war cries of their enemies with ones of their own.

Mine looked around Cell Block B and saw the gladiators they just freed running back into their cells. _Too many of us are unarmed. Too many were killed by those coming up behind us! We're boxed in on both sides!_

"Everyone gather on me!" Tatsumi yelled. The horde of gladiators at the edge of Cell Block A, filling Cell Block B, and the ones who were almost of of Cell Block C, looked towards the center of Block B where Tatsumi hovered above the ground again. "I have a way out of here! And we're leaving in ten seconds!" _This is bad. It almost can't get worse. The High Commander of the King's Army in front of us, several Lords of the Capital 50 to our rear._ "Ten! Nine!"

Anyone still planning on fighting, anyone too far away from Tatsumi, and a lot of the people who ran back into their cells in Block B started sprinting towards the leader of the escape as fast as they could. They did not know what he meant by a way out of there, but they did not take what he said lightly. He got many of them through several cell blocks, he broke them out of prison and freed them from lives of enslavement. They had to put their faith in someone with the situation looking as bad as it did, and this man sounded confident in what he was saying. Tatsumi reached down and he grabbed something off of his armor that he held up while he descended to just above the rest of the gladiators gathering in the middle of the room.

An old man dropped the rifle in his hands and he ran towards the middle of the room with his fellow former slaves. Rob had a small smile on his face and hope brewing inside him. _I never thought I would escape, just like the Tower of Heaven. Back then I never thought I would have the chance to escape either,_ Rob's smile grew more and he thought nostalgically, _I wonder if Erza ever escaped that place. I hope, she found Fairy Tail._

Lily grit his teeth and glanced over his shoulder one last time towards Block C. He stared at two evil men standing side by side, hands lifted in the air, firing beams of yellow light from their palms and disintegrating his allies with ease. The fat pink alien and taller alien with long green hair turned their attentions to Block B, while Lily heard Tatsumi yell, 'Seven!' _There's no point in dying here! It's time to go!_ He spun and ran with everyone else towards the growing pile of people clustered together right beneath Tatsumi.

Tatsumi lowered to the ground of the cell block, and the prisoners and his comrades made a hole for him. They gathered on his sides and behind him while he glared forward towards Cell Block A, and anyone in his way moved from it so that he would have a clear path towards the enemies who caused all that screaming from ahead of them. Most of them did not witness what happened in the next cell block, but they understood well enough and were ready to leave this place at once. Tatsumi shouted out 'Five' but his heart rate was skyrocketing as he looked at the hole in the wall to Block A yet did not see High Commander Ginyu or any of his guards coming through it. _What are they waiting for? Is it-_

Tatsumi held an orange cube in his hand that he was waiting to use until he finished counting. There were still others with them who had not reached him yet. They were fighting a battle, and just because he shouted that they only had ten seconds, it did not mean that everyone could just stop what they were doing and run to him immediately. Anyone still in a fight in the cell block froze though, both the gladiators and the guards. The Lords who just reached the hole in the wall between Blocks C and B stopped as well with eyes growing as wide as saucers. _This is the worst case scenario!_ Tatsumi thought in panic, and he threw down the orange teleportation cube without waiting a single instant. He did this because standing in the hole to Cell Block A was not High Commander Ginyu, but the one the High Commander reports to. Standing there in front of a room of escaping slaves and those who freed them, was the King himself.

* * *

 **Embassy Quarter**

"Maka," Liz whispered, leaning in towards the side of her friend's head as she did. She and Maka stood inside Soul's small cell, scrubbing the blood off one of the walls in silence. Liz could not take it any longer though, and she whispered, "Please, talk to me."

Maka kept scrubbing with her eyes pointed straight at the wall in front of her. "Be quiet Liz," she whispered in a hoarse voice. Liz's eyes widened at how scratchy her voice sounded, and her wide eyes watered up as Maka continued softly, "I don't, want them hearing us."

Liz gazed over her shoulder, and she looked at the other side of the small cell where Soul and King were scrubbing the wall on the other side of the bloody wooden cross in silence. Soul was standing up on two feet like a man now at least, but she saw him turn his head sideways and look her way with such fear in his eyes. That fear was not the same fake fear he had been showing Zarbon though, at least Liz thought it was fake. The fear she could see in his eyes was directed _for_ her. She re-thought about what Dodoria told her and King about what was in store for her, and a gaze around the bloody Hell she was currently scrubbing reminded her that she was in store for worse torture than she had imagined possible.

She turned back to the girl next to her who could see what Liz was thinking about from the expression on her face. Liz thought she would see a look of understanding and fear from Maka too, but there was no understanding in the girl with darker blonde hair's eyes. Maka looked like she pitied Liz so much, and Liz could not figure out why this was as she looked into Maka's eyes. _Wait a second,_ Liz thought, her eyes widening as she read Maka's expression deeper. She thought back on Zarbon's explanation of his torture of her friends. _He said that the minute he showed them to each other, they broke completely, but, what if they knew that was his desired effect? If they knew that he thought it would break them, and they've been pretending ever since then, then maybe the torture stopped. Maybe, he never even got to torturing Maka, at least, not in the same way he did to Soul._

Liz's gaze snapped back and forth between her friends, and Soul gave her a nod like he understood why she was looking around. _Soul knew that he had to act that way or Zarbon would hurt Maka. He had already seen countless slaves get murdered because he was too defiant, so even though it must have been degrading, he let go of all his pride and acted like a dog for Zarbon, to protect her!_ Liz's eyes got some water on the bottoms of them, _And Maka knew, or at least she knows now. He would have had to keep up the act for Zarbon for a while though, as long as he was with them. Hopefully Maka could tell, or she may have actually been broken before Soul was able to tell her, able to reveal what he was doing._ Water filled up Liz's eyes too much to stay resting on her bottom eyelids, and the tears started streaming down while her body shook in fear. _I wish, Kid or Patty were here with me._

 _That's terrible!_ She yelled internally at herself, but her fear won over and she crossed her arms in front of her chest to hold herself. _But I do! Even though it would mean, they would have to be in a place like this! I, I don't want to be alone! Maka and Soul had each other! It's not fair! I don't want to be tortured! I don't want to be all alone!_

"Liz," Maka whispered. Liz spun to her with wide eyes as that whisper was louder than the first time Liz heard her speak. Maka threw her arms around Liz's body though and pulled her into a tight hug, making Liz's arms that were crossed in front of her body press into Maka's chest. Maka put her mouth right up next to Liz's ear and whispered while she held her, "We're here with you. He might take you back tonight, but we aren't far. Black Star and Tsubaki too. We're, all going through our own tortures, but we have to hold on." Maka squeezed tighter, while Soul clenched his eyes in anger and regret behind them. He cursed under his breath for getting caught, for getting brought to this place, because he already knew what Maka was about to continue whispering.

"The break out at the Colosseum," Maka continued, and Liz's eyes opened huge, while King spun around from where he was scrubbing next to Soul. The short fairy looked behind him across the bloody cross in the ten foot wide cell that was too small for even a whisper like Maka's not to be heard. "My friends are going to free Black Star and Tsubaki, along with everyone else there. They're proving it to the King, to the entire Cooperative, that they won't tolerate slavery. They aren't even part of the Resistance, but what they're doing might be even more important." Maka pulled her head back a little so that her face was right in front of Liz's, their eyes only inches apart. "I want to tell you that they'll save us too, but I don't think they can. Not yet anyway. But they'll be back for me, and for all the slaves in the Capital."

Liz's watery eyes were so wet, but they were no longer letting out tears. Liz hesitated a few seconds, then she slowly nodded her head at Maka who was awaiting something from her. _I'll hold on. Kid, Patty, I know you're looking everywhere for me. I know you'll help these people Maka has so much faith in find me._

 _If only I had not been beaten that day,_ Soul thought, fists clenched in fury at his sides. _Maka escaped without my help, but she let herself get caught for me! She came to this Hell for me!_ Soul grabbed the rag from the bucket of water at his feet, and he reached up with it clenched in his hand, red water dripping from it as he got back to scrubbing the walls. Soul put his washcloth to the wall, and then all of the remaining strands of white hair on his head stuck straight up. The naked boy covered in his own dried blood snapped his head to the side and stared outside of the opening in the wall into the rest of Zarbon's suite. _NO!_

"Did I just hear you correctly?" a purple alien with yellow dots all over his head asked, his voice nasally and accusatory in tone. Everyone else in the cell turned, and Maka's expression turned to one of pure horror as she was still in the middle of giving Liz a reassuring look with her hands on the other girl's shoulders. Appule grinned at their terrified expressions, and he started laughing while the other two aliens in the suite called over to the hole in the wall asking what was going on. Banan and Sui could not hear them over the televisions, but Appule's race's sense of hearing was much greater than he let on to his comrades or even to his superiors who were not interested enough back in their own universe to know that fact.

"Please," Maka whispered. The realization that she was caught was hitting her and she took a step closer to the alien to try and appeal to him. "Don't. If Lord Zarbon finds out…"

Appule stopped laughing and frowned down at the girl, a bead of sweat rolling down the left side of his face. He thought about how excited Zarbon was while showing off his slaves, how proud he was of the torture he had put them through. Banan and Sui were walking over as Appule's laughter intrigued them more than the news going on on television, and the two of them looked into the cell to see all the slaves looking at Appule in fear. Before the two could ask anything, Appule said in a nasally, but nervous voice, "Zarbon's slaves aren't actually broken."

Soul's eyes narrowed at the alien, and his heart rate accelerated as the idea of more torture filled him. What was worse than the potentially more horrendous torture than he had already endured though, was the idea that Maka was here with him this time. Maka was thinking along the same lines and they both looked terrified as the other men looked in at them. Maka spotted a look of pity on Banan's face and she locked eyes with the most humanoid of the three alien creatures. "I'm begging you," Maka whispered in a hoarse voice, "don't tell Lord Zarbon. He'll be upset with you too."

The blue-skinned alien leaned back and gave the girl a disgusted look that made Maka's eyes grow wide as she thought she had seen a smidge of humanity. "Yeah he might be," Banan admitted. "But he'd be a lot more pissed if he finds out you aren't broken and that we already knew about it." Appule's face lit up like he had not even thought about that, and he wiped some sweat off his face as the decision became clearer, though he still looked annoyed as this situation still put him in a predicament.

"You're going to regret tricking Lord Zarbon," Appule snarled. He stomped forward and every slave inside the box backed up except for one.

Soul stood his ground and glared into Appule's eyes furiously. "How can you monsters do this? Do none of you think what Zarbon is doing is wrong?!"

"I despise humans!" Appule scowled down at the short, bloody boy in front of him. He lifted up the remote in his hand to dissuade Soul from trying anything, and he continued while the boy and his fellow slaves all looked fearfully at the remote he held up, "So I would not care at all if Zarbon tortured them, but you aren't even humans!" Appule started laughing, then he pointed at Soul, "You're just a weapon like that girl there," he nodded towards Liz, then continued, "and that bitch of yours is half weapon too. And then there's the fairy! You think we care at all what happens to you?!" Appule stepped forward again so he was inside the ten foot by ten foot indent in the wall, and Banan stepped up on his left while Sui stood on his right.

Banan and Sui each lifted up their right arms that had blasters on the wrists, and with cold expressions on their faces they pointed those weapons at Liz and King. "Neither of you move now," Sui hissed at them.

King pressed his back up against the wall that he had wet with a washcloth. Dried blood that was made wet again was getting all over the back of his clothes, and he could feel the cold steel of the wet wall through the cloth, pressing against his back and making him shiver. _What am I doing?!_ King thought, and his shaking stopped. _Am I going to sit here and let that guy torture them?_ Appule pointed the remote down, and Maka and Soul turned towards each other with horrified expressions on their faces. Liz looked like she was going to throw up from guilt, thinking that they had gotten caught because her friends had wanted to sooth her own fears, and King's fists clenched tightly at his sides.

"Don't do anything," Banan started to warn, but King did not listen.

"Raaa!" King ran forward, swinging his arms in circles at his sides. His eyes were closed, and he spun his arms faster and faster, and then Banan lowered his right hand and put it to the Fairy King's forehead. The soldier looked to his right at the other two aliens who looked at him with wide eyes, and then all three of them started cracking up. Soul, Maka, and Liz all stared at King's back with stunned expressions as he started slamming his fists in at Banan's wrist to try and pry his head free. Banan's hand was too large though, and his fingers curled around King's head and lifted him up off the ground so his legs dangled beneath him. The short fairy kicked his legs forward, to no avail, and Zarbon and Dodoria's subordinates laughed twice as hard.

Banan finished laughing before the other two, and he whipped his arm back behind him, throwing King back into Zarbon's suite so hard that he slammed into the bar on the other side of the room. "Watch it," Sui warned his comrade. "You don't want to damage Zarbon's place, or Dodoria's property," he added, referring to the fairy Banan just tossed across the room.

"King," Liz rasped out, looking past the aliens in front of her who were turned around looking back into Zarbon's suit. Soul snarled angrily, but his gaze darted to the torture bracelet on his wrist that did more than fill him with pain when his owners were annoyed. The bracelet also nullified his power, and he could barely find the strength to clench a fist, let alone throw a punch at his owners who he knew were much stronger than normal men.

Appule stepped out of the small box in the wall, and he smirked over towards King who was lying next to the bar, some splintered wood above his head below the counter, but no other damage to be seen for Zarbon's place. Appule could see some blood coming down King's forehead though which made him frown, then smirk and shrug his shoulders. "Couldn't be helped. I'm sure they'll understand, considering these slaves all tried to make a break for it." He turned and smirked towards Banan and Sui who looked confused for a second, then as they caught on they smirked as well, while the slaves behind them looked even more afraid. Appule continued, laughing between words, "They, were trying to fool Lord Zarbon, while the others haha, they did not want to be tortured by Lord Dodoria, so ha, haha we stopped them and got them under control!"

King staggered up to his feet and glared into Appule's back so hard that the two aliens on Appule's other side stopped chuckling along with him. Appule thought their situation was getting better, so he did not know why the other two were suddenly looking behind him with such shock. King kept snarling though even as the first two stared his way in shock, until Appule turned around too and dropped his jaw. "Wh-Who are you?!" Appule shouted. The alien snapped his arm up and pointed King's direction, but the hand was also pointed a little to the fairy's right side.

King had some blood in his right eye so that half of his vision was blurry, but he rubbed his eyes as he turned his head to look where Appule pointed. As soon as he turned, he felt like he needed to rub his eyes again, because there was a person standing next to him who was not there a second ago. The woman stood there almost a full foot taller than King who had his jaw dropped as he looked at her, but for a different reason than everyone else in the room. She turned her head and looked down at the fairy who kept gawking at her as she made eye contact with her dark yellow eyes. Her eyes were thin with long thick lashes on them, her face had a pale complexion that made her look like quite the beauty, and she wore very little on her body to conceal her, assets. On her torso she had on a purple jacket with nothing connecting the two sides, though they managed to stay over her breasts that still showed a lot of cleavage. Other than the jacket she had on two purple boots that pulled almost all the way up to her knees, and she wore a pair of purple underwear with a golden heart in the center like the ones embroidered on the left side of her jacket. She had on pink lipstick, and on the left side of her neck, barely uncovered by a parting of her long black hair, there was a red tattoo of some animal that Liz spotted from across the room.

Liz knew something was up when this woman appeared like everyone else, but the sight of that tattoo made her heart race. _Just like King!_ She thought, and the look of shock on King's face that everyone else thought was just because of this strange woman's sudden appearance suddenly looked a lot more like one of recognition to her. _That tattoo he has on his leg, I never asked, but, but is he in a gang or something?_

"Who are you?!" Banan yelled. He got over his shock and ran forward to the woman's left, while Sui ran forward to get on her right.

"It doesn't matter!" Appule shouted. The purple and yellow alien marched forward and lifted his right arm up with a glowing light coming out of the blaster on his wrist. "Take her out!"

"M-Merlin!" King shouted.

Merlin flashed King a smirk, then she turned her head and looked forward towards Appule. The two other aliens in front of her and on her sides were also pointing glowing blasters at her, and she continued to smirk menacingly as she lifted up her right hand. She pointed all her fingers up, then twisted her wrist in a single movement. An instant before the alien guards in the room fired at her, all three of them found themselves no longer standing in the same places. Banan was suddenly standing directly in front of Merlin, Sui was suddenly behind Banan, and Appule was behind Sui. Sui and Banan screamed in agony as blaster shots from their own comrades' weapons blasted through their chests, blood flying up in the air as all the slaves stared in shock.

"What the Hell just happened?" Soul muttered, stepping closer as if to get a better look. It happened so fast that he actually assumed it was teleportation, because one second the aliens were scattered around the room and the next they were shooting each other in the backs. Maka and Liz looked just as shocked, but King was starting to smile at the woman next to him as she kept her right hand lifted with her wrist twisted.

"Why, why you!" Appule started shouting. His two comrades fell to the ground in front of him, and he snapped his gaze from their bodies up to Merlin furiously. As he shouted at her though, his furious look turned to one of fear, as the blaster shots that he and his two comrades fired were hovering in the air above Merlin's head. Banan's shot that never went through his comrades, Sui's that only went through Banan's back, and Appule's that flew through both of his fellow soldiers, all three of the glowing white spheres of light hovered above the witch's head. "W-Wait!" Appule shouted, throwing his hands up in fear. As he threw his arms up, he remembered what he was holding in one of them and he held up the remote. "Stop!"

Merlin's eyes focused on the remote. Appule saw her smirk lower a little, and a crazed one spread on his own face. "With the press of one button, I'll kill them all! Lord Zarbon won't even care considering the circumstances! I'll-" Merlin curled in one of the fingers on her right hand, and Appule's remote-hand suddenly felt very empty. His jaw dropped, and his eyes snapped up to his lifted, remote-less, hand in terror. That terror only amplified as three balls of white light flew towards him. "Oh no, OH SHII-" The beams collided right on top of Appule and he screamed in agony inside the blinding blast that shattered the windows around the room.

The three slaves standing just outside of Soul's bloody cell in the wall gawked at the scene in front of them. Soul was the first to snap out of it though, and the nearly-bald weapon boy stepped forward, muttering, "Someone must have seen that, and even if they didn't, the King will know they're gone." He turned to Maka who shook her own head to get a hold of herself.

 _What do I do?! The breakout is still going on in the city. Should I, go join up with Tatsumi and the others? No, I'll only mess up whatever new plan they made after I stopped communication. The best course of action, is to find them after I escape._ Maka looked back at Liz, then next to her at Soul, both looking worse for the wear, like herself. _Can we really do it though?_

"Hello King," Merlin greeted the short figure at her side who was smiling up at her ever since he called out her name. She smirked at the short fairy who started to look a little confused, then she questioned calmly, "Would you like to get out of here?"

Merlin dropped the remote in her hand, and at the same time, all the torture bracelets that kept slaves in check fell from the slaves' wrists. Soul rubbed his wrist, as did Liz, neither of them having seen the chafed, red skin underneath for more than three months each. King also rubbed his own wrist, then said as he looked up with a smile, "Yes I would!" Merlin chuckled at how enthusiastic he looked, but as she started to lift up a hand, King held up both his hands and shouted, "Wait!"

Merlin looked at the fairy in slight confusion, wondering what he wanted her to wait for before teleporting them away. What Soul said was very true, and she was not keen on waiting for the King to arrive. King looked over his shoulder though, at the people behind him who were staring at his back. Liz's eyes grew huge, and King said while looking at her, "I want to take these three with us."

"It's too big a risk," Merlin said. She looked over King's head at the others but shook her head even after seeing the sorry state they were in.

King saw the dejected, fearful looks spread on the other slaves' faces, and his heart rate sped up. He gulped, but then turned back to Merlin and crossed his arms, "I won't leave without them."

"Okay." Merlin vanished by herself.

King stood there with a defiant look on his face for another second, and then his jaw dropped and his eyes bugged out of his head. The other three behind King who were about to tell him how much they appreciated it, especially Soul who had never even met him before today, dropped their jaws as the fairy's friend abandoned him. The four of them were alone in a penthouse in the middle of the Capital, surely with people who wanted to re-capture them on their way, and they were all on their own. This realization hit King who threw his arms up, waving them around and shouting, "Merlin! Come back! Merlin!" He started panting after the second shout of her name, but there was no reply. Several seconds passed, then suddenly the woman was standing in the room again, right in front of King whose eyes lit up at the sight of her.

Merlin sighed, then lifted up her right hand and snapped her fingers. This time, all five of the people in the room vanished. Then they reappeared, and the four who never even had time to close their eyes let out yelps or shouts of shock as they were all of a sudden somewhere completely different. The trip was instantaneous, and Liz clenched her eyes shut because it all felt so surreal that one second she stood inside a penthouse filling with cold air from outside, and the next second she was standing ankle-deep in snow on a sidewalk on the outskirt of some city that looked nothing like the Capital.

"Where are we?!" Maka exclaimed, spinning around and looking at the city getting covered in snow with huge eyes.

"A few thousand miles away," Merlin replied casually while lowering her arms down to her sides. The others looked towards the woman, and their eyes widened as she was suddenly wearing a long purple fur coat. It made sense considering how scantily clad she was in the Capital, but all these instant changes to the setting and everything were making those semi-grounded in reality nervous, as grateful as they were. Merlin continued while the others looked down at their own bodies now in shock as they realized that Merlin was not the only one wearing new, warm clothes. "We are inside a Power-Blocker zone of the Northern Continent, as well as a smaller zone surrounding this city that is ruled by a newly appointed Lord."

The slaves Merlin just freed were busy warming up while they listened to her. Soul appreciated the white beanie that covered up his scabby, disgusting scalp, and Maka appreciated the sleeves and pant legs to hide her scars. Liz rubbed her arms inside the yellow sleeves of her puffy coat, and she whispered in a raspy voice, "Thank you." She could barely find it in her to say. All the fear she had felt for the past ten minutes that Dodoria was about to torture her as badly as Zarbon did to Soul and Maka, it was fading from her mind, though slowly. She only realized as the fear was leaving how terrified she had been, and as much as it upset her that she allowed herself to reach that point, the memory of the fear was almost as bad as the fear itself and she could not blame her past self.

King wrapped his arms around Merlin's side, and she looked a little annoyed so he backed up fast, though he still looked very happy. After the hug of thanks, King gazed around, then turned his attention back to the witch ahead of him. "What about the Captain, and my sister? Are they-"

Merlin shook her head no. She explained though, "The Captain said they would try out the Northern Continent, so that's where we are."

King looked around nervously. "Why did you bring us so close to the Espada?" He turned his gaze into the city and gulped.

"It's fine," Merlin countered, waving off his concerns with her hand. "Besides, the new Lord of this city is not an Espada at all. He is a shinigami like the High Lord. His name, is Ichimaru Gin."

King sighed in relief, then he turned to the people behind him who still looked to be settling down to the idea that they were truly out of the Capital. He smiled at them, but as he received a smile in response from Liz, he saw a deeply troubled look on the boy's face next to her.

"What about," Soul mumbled. The others looked at the boy who lifted his feet out of the ankle-deep snow to see he had on some big black boots, as he had wondered how his feet were staying warm in all that snow. He lifted his head, and though he did not want to sound ungrateful, he still finished his question, "Black Star, and Tsubaki?"

Maka and Liz both looked saddened by the mention of those names, but as King opened his mouth to ask, Merlin answered without needing to, "We can't risk going back for every slave." She saw the teen open his mouth again, so she continued, " _I_ won't risk it again." Soul froze with his mouth open, and finally he closed it. He could not demand anything of this woman who just saved him, as much as it hurt him to think about how he was leaving his comrades behind. There were so many friends back in the Capital, but Black Star and Tsubaki, he had known them most of his life. _I'm sorry,_ he thought.

"They'll be alright," Maka said, a small smile on her face that was getting pink from the cold wind that just hit them. She looked out into the city full of tall gray buildings ahead of her, and she continued while her friends looked towards her, "Tatsumi will save them." They looked at her in more confusion, and Maka continued in a confident tone, "Tatsumi leads the group who freed me from my first owner when I got caught. We were so far in the north that I never expected to be freed, but he didn't care how far north we were. He did not care how fortified the fortress was, and right now, he's beneath the Colosseum freeing Black Star, Tsubaki, the rest of Delta Squad, and all the other gladiators."

Merlin sighed and shook her head, and Maka spun to the woman with a smile on her face. "You think it's impossible huh?" Maka asked. Merlin looked at her with a questioning gaze, and Maka continued, "Well you aren't the only one who can teleport. I know it," she said, and she looked back into the city ahead of her, imagining the faces of her friends in the slave-liberation group. "They'll succeed!"

* * *

 **The Capital**

"SEVEN!"

A figure floated through Cell Block A drawing the attention of every guard about to charge to the next block where all the escaped slaves were gathered. High Commander Ginyu lifted his gaze, then took a knee and bowed his head to the Ant King, floating through the room calmly, as if there was not an unprecedented prison break currently in process. Pouf flapped his wings to follow the King, though he kept a ten meter distance between them to stay out of the King's way.

"SIX!"

Mine ran through the crowd of gladiators and freedom fighters in Cell Block B. She could see Lily a few feet away pushing past others to head towards Tatsumi like she was doing. They were surrounded by people they had helped free, or people who had come with them to help in their mission. Mine followed Tatsumi's shouts all the way to the center of the crowd, and in front of him there was an empty path leading to the broken down wall separating this side of the room from Block A. "What's going on? Why are we leaving early?!"

"FIVE!"

Lily got up on Tatsumi's other side, and he looked at the boy in full silver armor in confusion as well, wondering why they were not going into the next room. He had hoped to free everyone, but the Exceed could already tell they were surrounded and did not speak up like Mine despite his anger. Behind them, Rob ran forward with Spartan on his right side, both ready to get as close to Tatsumi as possible as it seemed like he had a way out of there. To the far left of them, Rob watched as Twigo slammed a guard's head into the wall between two cells, then the armored man spun and started running towards the group where the rest of them already were gathering. _We're really going to make it out of here,_ the old, hopeful man thought.

Tatsumi opened his mouth to shout another number, but then someone landed in the hole in the wall he created, on top of the collapsed wall's rubble pile. The green Ant had such a calm gaze, it almost looked bored, and Tatsumi felt his entire body rush with trepidation. He knew this was bad, and he threw away the countdown altogether. Meruem watched the figure clearly in charge of this prison break raise a hand with an orange cube in its grasp. _Teleportation cube._ Meruem adapted to the situation.

Mine and Lily saw the look of sheer panic and dismay on Tatsumi's face and they started turning their heads towards Cell Block A. Silence fell so fast that every person there could hear their own pounding hearts in their ears. Then they couldn't. Tatsumi threw the orange teleportation cube down fast, and it shot towards the floor while Meruem continued to stand there staring at them all. For a second, Tatsumi thought he had made it. His mind could process fast enough though that he knew it was not so. The cube was still a foot over the ground, when Meruem flashed out of Tatsumi's vision, and then reappeared almost immediately, standing in the same place, only with his hands held in front of him.

The Ant King somehow still looked bored as he stood there, holding four dozen hearts in his palms. An orange light surrounded Tatsumi's vision and he vanished, the sight of the Ant King implanted in his mind. He disappeared from beneath the Capital, and appeared thousands of miles away on a field that had five thirty-wheeler trucks on it. On top of each of the trucks were metal towers with blinking red lights at the top, keeping everything inside the area the trucks were wrapped around off of anyone's radar. Tatsumi appeared there in the center of all those trucks, surrounded by fifty people.

Many of the gladiators still in the cell blocks had not made it close enough to Tatsumi to be enveloped by the teleportation cube's light, but those were the lucky ones. Mine and Lily were frozen where they stood, wondering if they really saw what they thought they thought they did in that final moment in the Capital. Tatsumi's body enveloped in light and his Incursio armor vanished from his body. He stayed standing in place, even while Mine and Lily spun around looking in horror at everyone around them.

They fell to their knees or staggered forward with confused and shocked looks on their faces. Every one of them grabbed at their chests, where only now did they start to realize why it was they could no longer hearing the thumping in their ears. _I'm, so cold,_ Rob thought, falling to his knees as his vision started to get hazy.

"Hey! Stay with me!" Mine yelled, dropping down to her knees next to a woman she remembered freeing before, who had thanked her for rescuing them. She grabbed the woman by her shoulders and shook her around, but the woman lifted her gaze and stared into Mine's eyes with such terror that Mine's heart broke. As her heart broke, she lowered her gaze to the woman's chest and confirmed what she thought she spotted in Meruem's hands in their final moment in the Capital. _WHY?!_ Mine thought, clenching her eyes shut and gripping the woman's shoulders so hard as the gladiator's eyes closed.

Lily did a full spin where he stood, and he watched as every person they had saved, and every person in their liberation group save three, collapsed to the ground. On the outskirts of the area where their truck drivers and a few others in their group were waiting, the ones who were not strong enough to take part in the raid but still wanted to help started walking forward with horrified looks on their faces. The sight of the group appearing scared a few of them because the amount of people who returned was only a little more than the amount of their comrades who had left. They started calling out the names of the liberators who did not return, who were not collapsing to the ground like the others, while others ran towards the ones who did collapse and shook them around with tears in their eyes.

 _I failed,_ Tatsumi thought. Tears formed in his eyes as through his peripheral vision he watched as so many friends died. _The King, he's- I couldn't even see his movements. A monster like that, he can do whatever he wants! He let us live, because, because it doesn't matter to him whether we live or die! He knows I can't do a… Oh._ Tatsumi had started to shake in anger and regret, but he stopped all of his movements, and his breath caught in his throat.

"AAHHH!" Mine screamed in frustration, grabbing at her hair and yelling at the top of her lungs. When she finished, Mine lifted her gaze to Tatsumi, tears in her eyes. "Tatsumi," she said, "we couldn't do, a single thing! We couldn't even get Maka out of there!"

 _Months of planning, it was all for nothing!_ Lily clenched his fists in rage and frustration, and he let out a yell similar to Mine's. _Our entire slave-freeing group! Everyone was killed_ , _and the ones who weren't will be enslaved to stay in the Capital, and we've proven we can't get them out of there! We're all that's left!_ Lily looked around as he thought it, but as he darted his gaze around in anger, his eyes slowly widened at the sight of Mine standing up with a very nervous look on her face.

"Tatsumi?" Mine whispered, as she stood up fully next to him.

She reached a hand out for his side, and Tatsumi whispered in a raspy voice, "Don't touch me." Mine pulled her hand back, feeling afraid to her core at the tone of Tatsumi's voice. She looked at his face, and Mine's body started shaking in fear as she saw the tears in the bottoms of Tatsumi's eyes. "I'm sorry Mine. I'm sorry."

He kept repeating it, and now everyone around them was looking in just as confusedly as Mine and Lily. "What? What is it?!" Mine shouted at him.

Tatsumi kept staring straight ahead, so Mine ran around him to look him straight in his eyes. Tatsumi was not moving a muscle. He stared straight ahead, and his eyes ever-so-slowly lowered to make eye contact with Mine. The despair in his eyes mixed with all the regret from their failed mission, it was already almost too much for her to take. "I'm sorry," Tatsumi whispered, then he bit his bottom lip and the tears started falling from his eyes. Everyone walked closer to their leader, fear in their eyes amplifying as he whispered in a hoarse voice, "I think he killed me."

At that moment, a drop of blood formed on the left side of Tatsumi's neck. Mine's eyes grew as wide as saucers, then she and everyone around Tatsumi watched in horror as a line of red formed around Tatsumi's whole neck. Tatsumi could feel the skin of his neck getting wet, and he knew he had moved too much. His hands lifted up and grabbed his neck on either side, trying to hold himself together, but just touching his head moved it, sliding it just enough that neither his cut trachea nor the slashed esophagus inside his neck remained on-line with each other. Blood splashed between Tatsumi's fingers, and his legs collapsed while his hands continued to hold the top of his neck in place for an extra second, making there a visible space between Tatsumi's torso and where his hands held his head.

He fell to pieces in front of the woman he loved whose body got covered in blood as the top of his decapitated body spurted blood pumping from his still-beating heart at her. Mine's entire vision became red and she could not tell if it was from Tatsumi's blood in her eyes or if it was just reality around her turning red. She reached a hand forward towards Tatsumi's head with his eyes still open, looking up at her, and when she saw her hand, covered in red, moving in time with when she tried to move it, she understood that this was truly reality. And she screamed. "EEEEAAAHHHHH!"

* * *

 **Embassy Quarter**

"What do you mean she just appeared?!" Zarbon screamed. He had Appule lifted by the front of his cracked armor, and he let out a furious yell before slamming his other clenched fist forward.

"Lord Zarbon! WAI-" Zarbon's fist went through Appule's burnt head and out the other side covered in purple blood.

Zarbon spun around and the pink alien at his side did the same, and the two Lords bent the knee to the figure behind them. "We're so sorry, King," Dodoria began with sweat all over his face. "We'll go retrieve them right away!"

"You wouldn't find them," Meruem said while looking Dodoria in the eyes. The fat, spiky, pink alien opened his mouth to argue, but decided against insinuating that the King was a liar. Zarbon almost sighed in relief that Dodoria was not so stupid as to do that, but he was still nervous that the King was about to kill them. Meruem looked away though and continued, "I am not upset with you. It is not your fault that your slaves escaped. After all, you were responding to orders to help quell the revolt, and you both did fine jobs."

The aliens sighed in relief and almost thanked the King, but he continued too quickly, "You are dismissed."

Zarbon and Dodoria closed their mouths. Zarbon looked around _his_ penthouse, but decided not to mention to the King that it was his own place he was being dismissed from. He and Dodoria just bowed their heads to the King again, then flew towards the glass-less windows on the north side of the suite. Zarbon grit his teeth in anger at whoever stole his slaves and smashed up his apartment, while Dodoria also growled at the loss of his two favorite slaves.

As the two of them flew out of the penthouse, two other figures came flying through the cloud layer up the side of the building. Zarbon and Dodoria glanced behind them, and Pouf and Youpi looked their way. The winged Royal Guards made eye contact with the flying Lords, and the Chimera Ants glared animalistic looks at the aliens. Instead of glaring back, the two Lords bowed their heads, then turned and flew off faster, more annoyed expressions on their faces than before.

Youpi and Pouf flew the rest of the way to Zarbon's penthouse, and they landed inside behind Meruem who was looking towards a bloody cross in an indent in the wall. "King," Pouf said, announcing his presence to the King who he already knew could sense him there. "What are your orders? Should we begin the hunt for them?!"

"No," Meruem responded. He examined the room with slight interest in his gaze, then continued, "I sense no trace of their trail. Whoever the teleporter was who I sensed from below the Colosseum, they were very good. They chose a moment where I would have had to decide between letting one group of slaves escape or the other." He turned and looked at the Royal Guards behind him, "We will have wanted posters made for them and distributed, but other than that I have little interest."

Pouf looked surprised, while Youpi appeared just confused. "Huh? But, the one who freed them, she broke laws inside the Capital?" He said it like it was absurd for them not to go after them right away. The laws in the Capital were established by the King himself. For someone to break such rules, it was blasphemy and should be dealt with with _extreme_ prejudice.

Meruem frowned at Youpi's question. Youpi leaned back as he did not mean to insult the King, but Meruem was not frowning because he was annoyed at Youpi for asking it. "Are such trivial matters truly what the King is meant to deal with?" Meruem growled. A dark aura exuded from his body and his Royal Guards leaned back more at how upset he looked in that moment. "Escaped slaves? I do not care about this at all. Such matters are only important to a King, who is in control of everything, everywhere, and I am not yet that King!"

As he shouted the end of his sentence, the last remaining Royal Guard floated up and through one of Zarbon's shattered windows. Pitou glanced around the room while she and the muscular puppet behind her hovered in, and the other three inside it looked her way. The dark aura around the King faded, and Pitou bowed her head to him while Pouf and Youpi looked at her in surprise. "The last of the revolters have been subdued," Pitou said with a fist over her chest, and she bowed her head to the King.

"What happened to you?" Youpi scoffed at the woman whose clothes were all slashed up and who had sparks coming out of the metallic part of her tail.

She looked up at him with red eyes and a hiss, then seethed through her teeth, "I do not know what you were doing, Youpi, but I just came from fighting Black Star." The other Royal Guards had been to enough Battle Royales and gladiator matches to understand that even one of their own might have some trouble with that fight, but by Pitou's being there they received an answer as to who won the fight. Although she looked a little damaged, the puppet behind her with an emotionless expression on his scarred face did not have a single wound to speak of, though there was blood on the corpse's fists.

As the Royal Guards had that short conversation, Meruem continued to think on what he just said in a dark tone. Pouf glanced back at the King nervously, then the other guards turned back to Meruem as well. The King stood there with a dark, serious look on his face, and then suddenly his mouth curled up into a smirk. The bloodthirsty, animalistic appearance to the King's face made each of the other Royal Guards smirk too, though Pouf still felt very nervous as he smiled with the King. "What is it, King?" Pitou asked, her eyes still red, though a wide sharp-toothed smile had spread across her face.

"I have become so bored," Meruem said, though he continued to smirk as he said it. "If a mystery like this is all the excitement I have to look forward to, if easily-foiled prison breaks are all my duties amount to as King, then I would rather die than spend one more second being King. This type of rule is not meant for _the_ King." The guards looking at him went wide-eyed, their smiles vanishing at the self-degradation the King was speaking. He only grinned more though, and he chuckled darkly while muttering, "I know now. Yes, it is time." He thought about news he received hours earlier, in the evening of what was becoming a very long night, and how he had wondered back then if it was finally time to begin.

"King! It is so soon!" Pitou exclaimed.

"What happened to waiting until after the final Battle Royale?" Youpi added.

"Are you sure we're ready?" Pitou asked.

"If we are not, then we will die," Meruem said. His grin only spread wider though, and an aura burst from his body so large that it encompassed the entire building he stood in and many of the others around it. The dark purplish-black aura felt so dark, so evil, so furious, and so confident that the nervous Royal Guards all found themselves smirking just like the King again. "But this is not yet my kingdom! It is finally time, to become the _true_ King! Because I _AM_ THE KING! Even if it is too early! Even if I may fall in my attempt!" Meruem's walked towards the shattered windows and his teeth shone in the light of the stars and faint crescent moons above. His eyes darted up, and he stared up as if he were looking straight into someone's eyes. "I _must_ do this," Meruem finished, "and it will satisfy my craving for stimulation, it will make me King, it will make me the strongest in this world!"

* * *

 **A/N Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, even if it was a dark one. A lot happened, but it was called Mine because of the flashbacks and because she was one of the main characters of the chapter in the present. We finally see what happened to her after that flashback in the first chapter where she, Romeo, and Lily were caught by slavers and Wendy got turned into a Heartless. If anyone else remembers back in chapter 5 I think, there was a short part in a chapter where the 7 Deadly Sins were introduced, and Merlin mentioned then that she was going to go after King which was why she was not with the Sins when they met up with the main group. She finally comes to save him and takes a few of King's friends with her. Others are left behind though, and even more are killed when Meruem and his forces put a stop to the slave revolt. Rob Lucci, Zarbon, Dodoria, a new group of enemies emerge, named the Capital 50. TATSUMI! Rob and Spartan? Appule?! So many sad deaths? XD Hope the descriptions of slavery and torture were not too much, and once again thanks everyone for reading. I'll put a list below since there were a ton of characters in this.**

 **7 Deadly Sins: Twigo, King, Merlin, Meliodas, Elaine, Holy Knight**

 **Fairy Tail: Gray, Erza, Rob, Wendy, Lily, Carla, Romeo, Virgo, Taurus**

 **Rambo: Rambo**

 **Final Fantasy: Cloud**

 **Naruto: Naruto, Iruka, Kiba, Akamaru, Konoha**

 **SAO: Kirito (Kirigaya Kazuto), Asuna**

 **Akame ga Kill: Akame, Najenda, Sheele, Chelsea, Leone, Mine, Tatsumi, Lubba, Pumpkin, Incursio, Imperial Arms**

 **DBZ: Gohan, Goten, ChiChi, Goku, Tien, Zarbon, Dodoria, Ginyu, Appule, Banan, Sui (Banan and Sui were the Frieza soldiers Gohan and Krillin killed right after landing on Namek).**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Gon, Meruem, Pitou, Pouf, Youpi, Chimera Ants, Leol, (though Rhino and Grizzly are some Chimera Ants I made up :p)**

 **Game of Thrones: Malko**

 **One Piece: Rob Lucci, Crocodile, Spartan, Boa Hancock, Chopper**

 **Soul Eater: Death the Kid, Patty, Liz, Soul, Maka, Black Star, Tsubaki**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Donald, Goofy, Heartless**

 **Yu Yu Hakusho: Kuwabara, Yukina**

 **Tokyo Ghoul: Tsukiyama Shuu**

 **Boku no Hero Academia: Mezo Shoji**

 **Assassination Classroom: Akari Yukimura**

 **Hunger Games: Thresh**

 **Bleach: Espada, Aizen, shinigami, Ichimaru Gin**

 **-And I think that's everyone, but if not let me know in a review and I'll tell you where I got the character from (since they don't belong to me).**

joebob323 chapter 67 . Oct 30

Oh no. I can already see the distrust brewing in the group. Kirito has trust issues, Luffy can't unite with his crew, Gray has lost an arm, Goku and Timmy are out of commission as of now, Usopp can't trust Riku, Riku feels guilty for letting Sora down and suffers from split personality disorder, Most of the rest of the crew is left behind, and Kairi is in the middle of the enemy base. Great! What did I miss? Oh right. Juvia and Killua will be having slight cravings for blood, not much of a problem right? _

 **Thanks for the review! Lots of trust issues with our heroes (who will be back next part of this chapter so don't worry!), and they have been separated, though at least half of them managed to stay together? At least one positive in all the chaos! Where are Goku and Timmy? Answers to this persisting question will arrive THIS CHAPTER on NEXUS: HEROES WILL RISE! XD**

Limit-Breaking chapter 67 . Oct 30

I have to say both of these stories are very good and i will admit it takes a long time to read them but it's so worth reading. Also Please bring in super saiyan 4 im just dying to see that transformation in this fanfic.

 **Always happy to have another reader! Glad you enjoyed the stories so far and we'll see about SSJ4... XD Thanks for the review!**

Guest chapter 67 . Oct 30

it's me and what a another awesome chapter, natsu takes down sozin, I think azula knows sozin died sense read she left the city and I wonder if well see her again, one more question for azula, is she married to yonji, and for killua glad he didn't die, but poor black canary, foly, and dunn, well at least superboy is still on his feet, I'm also surprised to see ulquiorra's first appearance, and zoro finally meet up with his captain. love this chapter see you later and have a good day.

 **Hey there Me! Thanks for another review! News of Sozin's death spread pretty fast so even if she did not know while she bailed on the train, she would have definitely found out fast. Azula is married to Yonji, tried to mention them saying "husband" and "wife" a couple times to make that clear. Dinah! Foley! Dunn! Don't know if you meant Ramirez is still alive, since he did vanish during the fight with Ulquiorra, but if you meant Superboy then I guess that's right too, though we did not see him last chapter. Glad you enjoyed the chapter and I hope you liked the new one! Thanks again to everyone who read, reviewed, faved, and followed this story! Well, 'til next time!**


	69. Nexus HWR 11-1 Spriggan 12

**A/N Finally back to some shorter chapters! 8k isn't necessarily that short, but def a lot less than the 20-40k parts of Chapter 10 (and the first part of this chapter that will be the longest one in all of 11). Hope you enjoy!**

 **Nexus HWR 11.1 Spriggan 12:**

Riding south on the back of a flying bison, ten people looked off the sides of their ride at the devastation all around them. Two boys sitting in the back of the saddle stared out to the north. They could still see the great tree, Pon, even from hundreds of miles away. And even from this distance, Ben and Dash could see the smoke rising from the tree. The plumes themselves the kids could not see, but considering the entire sky to the north was black, and blacker closer to the tree, it was not hard to figure out what they were looking at.

Ben looked away from the dark sky and down to his right at a motionless form on the saddle. He looked at the kid a little older than him, lying flat on his back with his eyes closed. His chest was not visibly heaving up and down, and he really wished Killua would just get up already. The sight of the fourteen year old's face so peaceful and still left a haunting mood in the air. Any time someone would start speaking, they would catch a glimpse of their half-dead comrade and fade out. They had been riding all night, but Killua had not made a single sound since Kirito saved him with the Lazarus Pit water he had stored in his pack.

Natsu was not far from Killua, also badly injured, but at least not on death's door. He sat with his back up against the side of the saddle. Nami was on her knees in front of him, wrapping up one of his wounded arms. He ignored her though and stared right past at Killua. He whispered in a quiet voice, "I, was so mad at him."

Nami continued to wrap up Natsu's arm but she did raise her gaze to his face. Natsu was staring over at Killua and she felt a pang of dread as she looked over in the corners of her eyes. He continued in that quiet voice, "All he did, was give me a small cut on my neck. And I, I pretty much told him he couldn't come with us south. Damn," Natsu winced in pain as Nami pulled a bandage tight, and also from his anger at himself. "The kid risked his neck for us, for me, even though I treated him like crap."

Luffy was sitting on the back bench of the saddle. There was a space behind him where the injured and the young boys all were. Luffy could hear what Natsu was saying and at the moment he did not even want to fight the annoying pink haired bastard. He did not turn around, but he imagined Killua's body lying there in his mind. _Why does this always happen? Why can't I protect my friends?_

Usopp sat on Luffy's right, and he was thinking along the same lines. He had his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. "Kairi," he whispered. "I'm so sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry about," the man on Luffy's other side said. He spoke in a deep tone and his voice was nerve-wracking even though they knew who it was really speaking. Usopp lifted his gaze and turned left to the other side of the bench where the tall man with long silver hair was sitting. He had tan skin and dark yellow eyes, and his fists were clenched over his legs. "I did not think Ansem would try to take control again. He let Gohan's Nobody take Kairi. There was nothing you could do."

"I was apologizing to Kairi," Usopp growled over, "because I didn't stop you from letting him do it."

Riku stayed quiet. He was still in Ansem's body. His form looked more menacing but Usopp would not care who was really inside it at the moment. Every time he had looked at him over the past months he saw Riku and Ansem seeming like more and more of one and the same person. And now, Riku looked more like him than ever, and he really did not know what the difference was anymore. "I should have never let you give him Kairi."

"I know," Riku growled back, getting angry now. He had first spoken up to ease Usopp's conscience, but now he was getting more annoyed at the long-nosed sharpshooter. "She was closer to me than anyone here, do not pretend like-"

"Like what? You voluntarily gave yourself in to the Heartless?" Usopp asked, and there was silence. Franky, Sanji, and Robin did not say anything from the row in front of them but all of their facial expressions changed. Usopp glared into Riku's eyes, "Oh wait, we all saw that memory of you accepting Ansem. So then why do you keep pretending like him taking over isn't your fault?!" Usopp was panting and he found that his fists were clenched too. He got up out of his seat and glared down at Riku, "I kept telling myself it was Ansem and not you, but you accepted the darkness. Who does that?"

"Usopp," Luffy snapped. He did not turn to either of the men on his sides, but he had had enough.

Usopp kept panting hard and glaring at Riku, but he closed his mouth and sat back down. He stared to his right off the side of the bison and looked into the distance of Aebrith. "Zoro didn't come with us," Usopp said in a soft voice. The others all felt pangs in their hearts, even Sanji who just clenched his teeth in anger at the mention of the shitty swordsman. "Juvia died, and her crazy zombie self is now missing. So is Gray, our only other reason for being here." Usopp sighed and whispered even softer so only those on his bench hear him, "Ansem was right. He said that he was staying down because he thought Timmy would kill him if he emerged, but Timmy didn't come. Timmy's gone. Goku's gone."

He fell silent for a few seconds and then whispered, "What are we gonna do now?"

Luffy heard him louder and turned a little to see Usopp was not looking off the bison but was staring at him. The question was not rhetorical. He really wanted to know what they were going to do in this situation.

"Where are we even headed?" Usopp whispered, looking around to see if anyone had a response for him.

Ben walked forward on the saddle and he squeezed in between Luffy and Riku. He leaned forward as he sat down and looked over at Usopp. "The people evacuating Pon-Gatso were heading south, so hopefully we run into some people we know."

"South is a big direction," Usopp mumbled. He did shut up though as a few people glared at him after that last comment. He decided to go back to just being quiet and sitting there in silence like everyone else.

The dozen people riding the bison kept flying south in relative silence. After a few more hours their ride started to dip down out of the clouds. They had ridden through an entire night and a good part of the day, and the bison seemed like it was getting tired. "Let's go find a river to get you some water big guy," Kirito whispered to the back of the animal's head. He was sitting up front holding the reins and he started to ease the creature down. He had carefully observed when Black Canary flew one of these on their way north and was definitely glad he did now.

The flying bison descended further and started to slow down. They had traveled over an entire Scorched landscape, past a few forests, and crossed a canyon that was almost as wide as it was deep. Considering they could not see the bottom of the dark canyon, it was pretty wide. At the moment they were flying over plains of red grass, and the flying bison spotted a lake in the distance. It dropped down to the ground just at the outside of the lake and then walked forward on its six furry legs to the edge.

Its riders hopped off, except for Killua who was still unconscious, and they went to the lake to wash off and get drinks as well. "We should filter this water before-" Sanji began, only to turn his head right and see half the boys with their faces over the edge of the lake plunged under the surface, already guzzling down buckets of water. He thought about yelling at them but sighed instead, wondering where they would get the means to filter the water around here anyway. Natsu could boil it, but they didn't have any pots to put the water in so that option was off the table. Sanji looked over at Franky and had an idea, but frowned as he remembered the cyborg's back was still human.

Franky turned around from where he was chugging a bottle of Cola and he felt a weird sensation to move away from Sanji.

The group took a break, one that was not all-that necessary considering all they had been doing all day was sitting around anyway. It was good for their bison friend though who went swimming into the middle of the lake and rolled around in the water playfully after they took Killua off his back.

"At least someone's having a good time," Dash mumbled jealously as he looked out into the lake. He wished he could go out there and enjoy himself, but the mood really did not call for that kind of horseplay right now.

"You should have left me behind," Natsu growled. The one he was talking to was in the middle of chugging some water, but the rubber pirate lifted up his head and then turned around to face Natsu as he stood up. The two of them were around the same height so they could glare into each other's eyes at an even level. "Did you hear me? You should have left me in Pyraxas."

"Why should I have?" Luffy questioned. He was frowning at the Dragon Slayer and did not know what Natsu was talking about all of a sudden.

"If you were going to leave behind Gray and Juvia, you should have left me there so I could look for them," Natsu growled. He was keeping his voice quiet as to not make a scene but he was getting his tone across anyway.

Luffy stuck a finger in his ear and twisted it around like he couldn't care less how serious Natsu was being. "Too bad. I didn't," Luffy stated.

Natsu clenched his teeth angrily. "Juvia always talked about you like you were the greatest guy, you know that?" Natsu asked him. Luffy took his finger out of his ear and his gaze turned darker as he glared at Natsu. "She would say, 'Luffy-san's a pirate, but not like the ones you've heard of. Luffy-san cares about his friends, and doesn't leave them behind.' Well I call bullshit. This is twice now you've left her behind."

Luffy ground his teeth angrily now and his fists balled at his sides. Natsu's fists were balled too though and smoke was coming off of them.

Nami looked over to tell her captain something when she saw the two with their heads only inches apart. "Idiots," she muttered and started walking towards them. She opened her mouth to say something, when a gust of wind hit her and she shivered. The navigator looked around in confusion that quickly became worry. Her job on the ship was to predict the weather so as to navigate her friends in safe waters, and she was even more of a master of weather creation and control with the weapons Usopp made for her. She knew every weather pattern known to man, yet at this moment, every part of her body was screaming that something was wrong.

"Hey guys," Nami called out in a nervous tone. The group scattered around the lakeside looked over at Nami and saw her expression get much more afraid in the next few seconds.

They followed her gaze up and to the east and each one of them dropped their jaws at the sight. Out of the clouds, dozens of airships were descending. The one at the front was the largest, had masts with sails, and looked like any other galleon ship, except it was flying through the air somehow. The ones around it did not have sails but looked more like zeppelins except sleeker and completely made of steel.

The group of people staring up at this fleet of airships started to feel something was wrong. The ships were heading directly towards them. There was no redirection, no change of flight path like the ships saw them and decided to come down and check it out. The ships came out of the air and their target was clear.

"What do you think they want?" Sanji questioned.

"Nothing good is my guess," Kirito replied and lifted a hand up to the black hilt over his right shoulder.

Natsu glared back at Luffy after looking at the ships, and Luffy did the same. The two glared at each other for another second before Natsu spun around with a whole new look of shock on his face. He took a step back and had sweat all over his face. "Holy-" Natsu muttered and he started to look really nervous.

If Luffy did not know him so well he would have taunted Natsu for being afraid without even seeing the enemies yet. But he did know Natsu, and for him to react like this, something bad was coming.

Another gust of wind flew in and hit the group but this one continued on for longer. "We should run," Usopp shouted as a suggestion.

"No way," Luffy said and punched a fist into his other open palm. "I'm done running."

"You guys don't feel that?" Natsu asked and glanced around. He gulped and looked back up at the front airship that had three big sails on it. "I felt a massive magical power, and then I felt two more of the same strength. They're mages with more power than any I've felt before."

"Yeah, well they haven't met us before," Ben called out. He lifted up his left hand with his Omnitrix on it and looked pretty smug as he did. "I'm on a roll. Whoever this is, I know I can take 'em."

All of the ships stopped sailing through the air at the same time. They were still about three miles out and really high up in the air. Despite the distance though, they all saw a single figure step up to the bow of the front galleon. He had crazy spiky hair and light black skin, and he held his arms out to the sides as he laughed. "Those are the ones the Emperor is so interested in?" Ajeel called out. "Let's see how they do!"

"What is he doing?" Nami wondered, taking a step back nervously.

"Maybe we should call back the bison and fly out of here," Kirito suggested.

"See! Great idea!" Usopp exclaimed in agreement.

The sniper turned his head right to call the bison back from the middle of the lake. When he turned though, his smile dropped and his tongue shot out of his mouth. "EeeyaaAAA!" Usopp screamed. His friends looked back, and Usopp yelled out in the shock that they were all feeling, "Where did the lake go?!"

The lake was gone. It was all dried up and the flying bison was standing confused at the bottom of the empty crater in the middle of the fields of red grass. The red grass all around them started wilting and the wind picked back up. Underneath the ships flying in the distance, a funnel of sand appeared. The funnel covered the sky from the bottom of the sailing airship all the way to the ground. And in the next three seconds the funnel expanded a hundred times.

Every member of the group next to the dried up lake backed up in fear. Everything in front of them was getting engulfed by the sandstorm, and the edge of it slammed into them and then covered them completely. They became surrounded by the sandstorm that was so thick it felt like they were getting hit by constant waves of sand.

The buffeting wind made it hard to hear anything, but one voice did carry over the wind. "How do you like it? My Sand World?!"

"Who are you?!" Kirito shouted. He lowered his arm from in front of his mouth to shout then rose it right back up to stop sand from getting in his nose and mouth.

"Heheh! I am Ajeel of the Spriggan 12! King of Sand!" His face appeared in the middle of the sandstorm up above them.

As the rest of his body appeared, Nico Robin crossed her arms and made more arms stick out of his upper body. Her hands grabbed onto him as if they were going to snap him back as was Robin's signature move, but it was Robin who screamed out in pain. Those who could see Ajeel through the sandstorm watched the man laugh as the arms sprouting out of his skin turned into sand.

"Anything that touches me turns to sand! Try it again! See how it works out for you," he offered, and smirked down at them insanely. "Inside this sandstorm, I am God! You will revere me-"

A fist slammed into Ajeel's face and the sandstorm faltered. Winds slowed down and sand fell to the ground making everything a lot more visible. Ajeel went flying backwards and hit the ground once, twice, three times before flipping and skidding back on his feet. He had a swollen right cheek and he glared at the enemies with furious eyes. "How did you do that?! Your fist should have turned to sand!" He shouted at the rubberman glaring across the field at him.

Luffy lifted up his right fist and grabbed his right bicep with his left hand. Ajeel stared across the sandy field at the man's fist, a fist covered entirely in Luffy's own blood. "You used your blood to harden my sand?!" Ajeel shouted like the idea had never occurred to him and seemed crazy.

"That was, really quick thinking Luffy," Ben said, more shocked than anything.

"His power is just like Crocodile's," Robin brought up.

"Luffy's already faced someone like him?" Dash asked in amazement.

"Well," Robin continued. She looked back and seemed a little nervous. "I believe Crocodile's power is not nearly as powerful."

"Now that you've done that though," Ajeel shouted over at Luffy. "Know that you will not leave here alive!" The sandstorm started back up more intense than ever. It became hard to see the person next to them and they all squinted their eyes, barely able to keep them open.

"Ahh!" Nami yelled as the sand was starting to cut up her skin at the speed it was moving.

"I can't see!" Usopp shouted.

"Luffy where are you?!" Ben shouted at the pirate he thought was right in front of him. He held out his arms but did not touch anyone and had to squint open his eyes a little more. When he did, his heart rate sped up as Ajeel was appearing right in front of him. The King of Sand lifted a hand and grabbed Ben around the throat.

"Hehehe! Try to escape, but it is futile. I will drain all the fluid from your body," Ajeel boasted and Ben's skin was starting to lose its color. He gasped for air as his mouth and throat dried out. The spiky haired man in front of him kept laughing, and screams came from all around as Ben's friends were hurt by the raging sandy winds.

Then, the sandstorm stopped spinning so fast. The sand suddenly became much darker. Ajeel's smile faded and he jumped backwards, letting go of Ben's throat as he did. He jumped just in time and a blade swung down where his arm was just extended. The sandstorm continued to rage only away from the group facing Ajeel.

Nami stopped screaming because of the sand, but she did not feel much better standing on top of a black floor that radiated evil and had black wisps seeping out of it. "Everyone get out of here!" Riku shouted. He floated at the front of their group in Ansem's body with a muscular black form sticking out of his back. He held a black and red curved sword in his right hand that he slashed in front of his body. Out of the ground around him rose an army of Neo Shadows that all glared across the field at Ajeel who looked back with widening eyes.

"Riku!" Ben shouted towards one of his best friends.

"I'm not going," Luffy shouted. "We can take them-"

"Luffy there are two more people as strong as this man on those ships," Riku shouted. "If you don't get Killua and get out of here, someone is going to die!"

Luffy froze and he snapped his head around. He looked to the edge of the dried-up lake where they put Killua before to let the flying bison go roll around in the water. The pirate looked around at the rest of his nervous-looking friends, then tssked as he turned to the flying bison that just climbed out of the empty lake. "Alright guys, let's-"

 _ **KA-BOOOM!**_

The flying bison Luffy was staring at got hit by a beam of blue light that created a massive explosion so hot that Luffy could feel his skin searing. Everyone stared at the spot their furry friend just was in shock and horror. When the blue explosion was gone, so was their friend, and Killua who was lying close to the explosion had been tossed backwards and his body was smoking having been burnt by the blast.

"Killua!" Dash shouted and was at the boy's side in a second.

At the airship with sails on it, a short man with crazy eyes and wavy black hair started laughing as he lowered the cannon from his arms. "Haha! Look at that expression on their faces. Right when they were about to run away too! Hahaha!" Wall Eehto laughed. He had bangs parted down the middle and going down over his left eye, and distinctive eyelashes on the sides of his eyes instead of on top and bottom.

"Did you see that Dimaria?" Wall asked excitedly to the taller blonde woman on his right. She was wearing only a black bra and a pair of long red pants with black stripes going down the sides of her pant legs vertically.

"Yes, it was an impressive shot from this distance," she complimented him.

"Ah, I coulda made that shot from ten times this distance!" Wall exclaimed. "The great Wall-sama never misses!"

Over with Luffy and the others, things were not looking good. The sandstorm was picking back up and a huge whirlpool of sand just opened up beneath Riku and his growing army of Heartless.

"Everyone run!" Riku shouted. At that moment a giant black hand shot up out of the swirling sand. A Darkside started pulling itself out of the ground as Riku delved father into the darkness. More black swirls shrouded him even as the sandstorm surrounded his whole area of darkness.

"Dash!" Ben shouted to his younger friend. Dash looked up from Killua's body that he was leaning over and looked to his taller friend. "Get Killua and run away! Go south!"

"What about you?!" Dash shouted back over the rising winds.

"We'll be fine! Just go somewhere safe, and come back later to look for us." Ben shouted. He could see his friend didn't like it so he added, "You have to protect Killua! Don't let anything happen to him!"

Dash started nodding his head and he did it faster as that set in. "Okay, I'll do it." Dash turned and picked up the older boy with spiky white hair. He got him up and then sprinted into the dried up lake, across it, up the other side, and away into the distance.

"Dimaria they're getting away," Wall said to the woman next to him. "I can't shoot anything that fast," he added.

"I'll handle it," she said.

Time froze.

Dimaria jumped off of the airship and fell about a mile to the ground. The sandstorm looked like a lot when the sand was all moving fast, but when it was frozen, the individual particles of sand were not really all that bothersome. She casually walked through the sandstorm to the edge of it and then kept going. She followed the trail of dust leading away from the edge of the lake and started jogging once she realized how far the kid had gotten in such a short amount of time.

The blonde woman finally spotted the kids in the middle of a cloud of dust. The shorter one was holding his older unconscious friend in his arms carefully. "The Emperor has ordered us to try and kill you. Nothing personal," she said, while lifting up her sword at her right side.

"You can say nothing personal all you want," someone said behind her, and Dimaria's eyes opened up wide. She froze in place, slowly turned around, and the brown-haired boy standing twenty feet behind her finished, "It doesn't mean we don't take this personally."

"You," the blonde woman began in a much angrier tone than she was just speaking in. "How are you moving? This is my time! There should be no way for you to-"

"Shut up!" Ben shouted at her. He felt a glowing warmth in his right pocket and the kid smirked wide. _It's the Eliacube, just like with Mephisto, it's letting me move around even though she froze time._ Ben chuckled as he stared at the woman's surprised and angry facial expression. "Unfreeze time so my friends can get away, and I _might_ not kick your butt," Ben threatened in a smug tone.

"Who do you think you are talking to?" The woman snarled. "I am Dimaria of the Spriggan Twelve. Known as the Valkryie because of the amount of battlefields I single-handedly devastated." She rose off the ground and started to glow white.

"And I'm Ben Tennyson!" Ben yelled at her. He rose off the ground as well and flew higher than she was. He formed a white aura around his body and glared at the woman who lost the white glow to her eyes that was replaced with shock as she stared at him. He held up his left hand and pointed the symbol of his watch at her, "And this, is the Omnitrix!" The top of his watch popped up with a black silhouette of a tall figure with two long legs and arms in the middle of the green hourglass symbol.

Ben slammed down on the top of his watch and his skin started to morph. His bones extended immensely fast and his entire body composition changed. Dimaria snapped her head up and gawked at the sight of the three hundred foot tall alien standing in front of her. "Now, I'm Way Big!" Ben yelled down. "And you're dead meat!" The giant white and red alien punched down his giant right fist towards the glowing woman below.

Dimaria's shocked look stayed on her face as he fist descended, and then gradually curved up into a smirk before his fist reached her. She held up her right hand and Way Big's fist stopped right in front of it. His hand did not even collide with her palm, it just froze there in midair. Ben's giant face started to sweat and his opponent's body covered in a bright white glow. "I am the chosen vessel of the God of Time: Chronos!" Dimaria yelled in a voice that got more booming by the second. Her eyes glowed white again and pulsed over and over as Ben stared down into them with his enormous green eyes.

Dimaria pushed Ben's arm back and then she flew up in the air. She flew past Ben's stomach and slashed her sword across him. Way Big arched back as a slash cut in his left side. "Raa!" He roared in a deep voice.

The woman stopped behind him and turned to look at his back. Ben turned his head first and glared at her, but she started speaking in a voice different from the one she used before. Her thunderous voice echoed around and it sounded like there was someone else talking over Dimaria. "Human child, you will not stop me! Emperor Spriggan commanded your deaths, they are absolute."

Ben crossed his arms in front of him and the point where they crossed started to glow. The blue light grew and Dimaria shot forwards with her glowing sword right as Ben fired the beam. A huge explosion ripped out from the middle of their attacks. Ben got lifted off the ground and tumbled backwards. The giant slammed a hand down into the ground as he slid and dragged a trench through the red grassy plains. He saw his opponent flying fast at him and he grabbed a fistful of earth and slammed up with it.

Dimaria swerved out of the way of his attack and Ben released the chunk of dirt up in the air. "You are too slow!" She yelled at him. Ben just smirked though and his giant eyes looked up above her. Dimaria snapped her gaze up and lowered her bottom lip at the sight of Ben's thrown debris smashing through several of their airships. Her body started to shake and she snapped her head back down, only to see a fist already coming at her too fast for her to lift up her arms to stop.

The fist taller than her body slammed into her at full force and Ben pushed into the punch as hard as he could. He followed through and sent his opponent flying into the distance so fast she looked like a blur of white. Ben stood up fully and glared after her, then started taking massive strides to give chase.

Over with the rest of Ben's friends, they could not tell a fight was going on. They all stood there in mid-panic, in the middle of turning around and running away now that their flying bison was dead. Time finally unfroze after an amount of time none of them knew, but what they did notice was a lack of Ben around them.

Sanji spun his head around as the kid who was right in front of him a second ago was now gone. He vanished completely and Sanji shouted, "Oi! Ben!"

"Where did he go?!" Usopp screamed.

"Run!" Luffy shouted. The sight of one of his friends vanishing before his eyes made him flash back to Sabaody Archipelago four years before. He remembered watching each one of his friends vanish before his eyes and the pain he felt after it. "Everyone let's go!"

Luffy ran ahead and made sure he kept looking around to see if all his friends were still there. "Keep going!" Riku yelled. "Ben's alright, he's just far away! Keep running and we'll catch up!"

Natsu was stepping backwards but he was not running like the rest of Luffy's crew. Unlike them, he actually felt one of the three massive magical powers vanish at the same time that Ben went away. _Wherever he is, he took one of them with him,_ Natsu thought. He started running forward and charged right through Riku's army of Heartless.

"Natsu where are you going?" Riku yelled up at him as Natsu charged ahead recklessly.

"I'll take the one on the ships!" Natsu yelled out. Ajeel started laughing and he taunted Natsu saying that he would never let him get past. As he shouted it though, the bottoms of Natsu's feet erupted in flames. His legs surrounded in swirling whips of fire and then out from the soles of his feet shot huge jets of flames. "Fire Dragon's LEAP!" Natsu shot up in the air and arced right over Ajeel and up above the top of his sandstorm. Some of the wind slammed into him but Natsu's flames were shooting out so fast that his trajectory barely changed at all.

"Hahaha! He's coming right for me!" Wall shouted. The short Machinas man jumped up on the front of the bow of the main airship and he lifted up his arms. Out of his mechanical body emerged a hundred rockets. They came out of his arms and out of his back, all different sizes. All at once they shot forward at Natsu while Wall cackled loudly behind them.

Natsu was flying straight at his opponent. The rockets flew at him, and then when they were only twenty yards away, Natsu did a flip in midair and pointed his legs down below him. He changed course and flew up in the air, then spun his right leg in a swipe down below and in front of him. He blasted out flames and engulfed the rockets that erupted in massive explosions all across the sky.

The explosions were so large that they covered up Natsu as well who had to cross his arms as they rose into him. Wall held out his arms and laughed loudly as Natsu disappeared in his explosions. "The mighty Wall-sama demolishes his enemy in one strike! Hahaha! Haha, ha-" Wall's eyes opened wide as the explosions in front of him started swirling around.

They all pulled into one giant funnel of flames that moved towards one point. That one point was right above Natsu's mouth, and the Dragon Slayer who started falling out of the air gulped them down. He grinned a toothy smirk after the flames were inside him, and then he grinned wider as his body erupted in flames. As he fell from the air, lowering to the level of the ships below him, his body started sparking lightning bolts and an aura of electricity mixed with his flames. He kept falling and in the next second a bright orange tint surrounded the already huge aura already around him. "LIGHTNING ARCOSIAN FIRE DRAGON'S-" Natsu began and pulled his upper body back. His mouth bubbled over with bright orange energy that made Wall lean back on his ship nervously. "ROOOAAARRR!" Natsu yelled.

The pirates running south stopped and spun around. Their eyes opened wide at the sight of a pillar of flames spiraling around and flying off to the east. The pillar was easily a hundred meters wide in diameter and it not only surrounded the head airship in front of Natsu, but most of the ones on its sides too. The Straw Hats looked back with a collection of varying degrees of dropped jaws.

"Should, should we go back?" Nami wondered. She stared back at the enormous pillar of flames that kept flying into the distance and the dome of darkness rising closer to them. "Riku and Natsu might need our help."

Luffy frowned and he nodded his head. _Why are we running? We can take-_ Luffy froze and his entire body tensed up in fear. He turned right and his body was shaking. He was farthest back out of his crew so they all looked at him with terrified expressions seeing how scared their captain looked. "What is that?" Luffy whispered, his whole body filling with warning signals telling him to run.

Riku and Ajeel backed away from each other and both snapped their heads to the southeast. Natsu finally dropped to the ground and he spun to the southeast as well, his heart racing faster than ever. All of the soldiers on the remaining ships up in the air started cheering and Ajeel's mouth curled up into a smirk. The King of Sand looked across the battlefield to Riku who was staring that way with a worried expression. "It's all over for you now! Emperor Spriggan himself is coming!"

Riku's yellow eyes widened as he stared into the distance. _Ben,_ he thought, his heart rate speeding up. Behind Riku rose up two giant Darksides and Riku snapped his gaze back to his enemy. "I have to help Ben, so I apologize for what I am about to do."

Ajeel smirked and opened his mouth to call out Riku's bluff, but froze when the ground on all sides of them darkened. The black ground beneath Riku's feet started to rise up and out of the darkness arose something red that Riku was standing on top of. He leaned back and his body started to morph with the giant red ship climbing out of the darkness. The front of the ship rose up in front of Ajeel and the King of Sand's eyes widened at the evil eyes that glowed white on the front of the ship, and its open mouth that rose up next, top and bottom jaws full of sharp teeth and a pitch darkness in its throat. Riku's body connected with the ship and he grew fifty feet taller. His body became darker and the black form on his back transformed. **"USING THIS MUCH POWER! DID YOU REALLY THINK I WOULD STAY DOWN?!"** Riku roared in a voice not his own. Everyone nearby snapped their gazes over in horror at the sound of the voice.

"YOU WILL STAY DOWN!" Riku screamed. He lifted up his right hand and pointed it to the front of his massive Heartless ship where Ajeel was backing away and soaring up in the air to the top of a sand tornado. Ajeel looked freaked out by Riku screaming at himself and by the giant dark figures in front of him. On either side of Riku's dark, red, _living_ Heartless ship rose hundred foot tall Darksides with swirling tentacles of black for hair and creepy yellow eyes that were directed straight at Riku's enemy.

"Alright," Nami whispered as she stared ahead into the crazy dark realm that started ten feet in front of her. "I take back what I said. I want to run away again."

"Luffy, what's wrong?" Robin asked her Captain who was still staring east, completely ignoring the battle in front of him.

Usopp was glaring at Riku who was using all of Ansem's dark powers and risking letting the man take over again. When he spotted his Captain's expression though, he turned back to Luffy and started sweating even worse. "L-Luffy?"

Luffy took a step back, and then the ground beneath them started to shake. His whole crew snapped their heads to the east and they stumbled backwards. Sanji backpedaled and almost tripped like half of the others. Nami, Usopp, and Franky all fell to the floor while their jaws dropped as far as possible. Every single one of them went blue in the face and they lost the ability to breath. There were only supposed to be three suns in the sky, so why was it they could see a fourth one out in the east? It was huge, a bright burning sun that gave off so much heat they could feel it from a hundred miles away.

"Go," Luffy whispered. "Go go go GO GO RUN!" He turned and started sprinting. As he did, pieces of the sun started ripping off. Little pieces of lights flew off of the sun and slammed down into the ground in the distance. When they hit the ground they could feel it from a hundred miles. They all ran northwest, the opposite direction as the massive rising sun.

While they ran, Luffy looked back over his shoulder and his eyes opened wide. He could see the bottom of the sun now, and flying directly underneath it was a massive, terrifying beast. It had a wingspan hundreds of feet wide and when it flapped those wings, hundreds of balls of yellow broke off of the sun and scattered in every direction.

"What the Hell is that thing?!" Nami screamed at the top of her lungs. She looked back and then turned forward and ran faster than ever.

Riku just shouted the same thing and his enemy who was backing away from him stopped and turned east. Ajeel chuckled and his nervousness went down a little. "Looks like the Emperor brought Bahamut with him."

"Bahamut?" Riku questioned and glanced forward at Ajeel.

The man laughed at Riku's look that showed he did not know what he was talking about. Ajeel stopped flying back and he shouted, "Ever heard of the Cataclysm?" Riku's eyes widened and Ajeel cackled, "Well who do you think it was that made such a scar in the land? Bahamut that's who!"

Riku snapped his head right, then glared forward furiously. He flew forward with his army around him and yelled out, "Even more reason to beat you now! I need to get to Ben!" The red ship Riku's body was sticking out of grew hundreds of dark cannons that fired white lights at their enemy. Ajeel flew backwards but the white lights honed in to him and all collided in the same spot. Riku started slashing the giant swords in his arms and slashes flew off of his weapons into the man who kept getting knocked farther and farther back. "Take THIS!" The front of Riku's ship opened its mouth wider and the black aura inside its throat shot out.

Ajeel was just recovering from the attacks when the darkness hit him. He screamed as he was pulled into an alternate dimension. He arrived and there was nothing to turn into sand around him, but there was plenty of darkness to create a hundred demons there holding long black swords. "Where am I?! Where did you go you bastard?!"

"You said you were the God inside your Sand World," Riku's voice echoed in the darkness. "Well in this world you have no power. Only darkness can reign here. And I have denied it for too long. The only way to make sure Ansem stays down is to accept who I am. As the one who controls this much power, is I, Riku, The Lord of Darkness!"

The hundred demons charged at Ajeel at the same time. Riku was not even there any longer though. He was speaking purely through his own mind to a dark realm he created, but he was already inside a different dark realm, courtesy of a portal he created. He was sprinting through the portal, and he gazed down at his arms with a satisfied look. His skin was lightening and he closed his eyes as he lifted his head to look back forwards. When he snapped them back open, they were no longer yellow but a bright green. _You will never rise again Ansem,_ Riku thought. _I do not even know if you have the strength to respond anymore. All of the darkness that makes you is mine. This body is mine. I am not sharing it any longer. You are my dark prisoner no longer. You are nothing._

He kept running and he rose up his hands in front of him. In his right hand formed a black Keyblade, the Keyblade of Heart. It had a sharp point at the end and a red hilt that curved around the bottom of the shaft. And in his left hand formed a different Keyblade, a new Keyblade. This had a white hilt and extending out from it was a thin silver shaft with two thinner parts on its sides. They were two inches apart at the hilt and then got closer near the tip of the blade, where there was a star-shape set of prongs spiking out in every direction from the tip of the lighter Keyblade. _I feel stronger than ever before,_ Riku thought to himself as he stared at his Keyblades. He kept running and lifted his head to look at the light at the end of the dark tunnel, _But even still, a creature that could create the Cataclysm is too much. I need to get Ben and get out of there as fast as I can._

Riku sprinted out of the portal and he appeared ten feet behind his close friend. He sprinted a few feet up and then came to a total stop. He was directly underneath that giant sun and the dragon Bahamut beneath it. The dragon roared and the sun exploded, chunks of it flying in every direction insanely fast, including straight down at them. There were four people below the giant dragon. One of them was Riku, and the next was his younger friend down on his knees in front of him. There was an unconscious blonde woman with bruises and cuts on her face lying thirty feet to Ben's right, but the final figure was one standing in front of Ben. He was a man with jet black hair and eyes of the same color. He stood there in a black cloak with a white sash draped over his left shoulder and wrapped around the lower half of his body.

Zeref lifted his head from Ben to look at the portal behind him and the silver haired teen who came running out of it. Riku had to keep running as explosive fragments of the sun above them were flying down fast. All around him he could see those lights exploding and ripping enormous chunks out of the landscape. The closest beams to the part of the ground they were on had almost collided and Riku created a portal right in front of Ben between him and the evil-looking man in front of the kid. He grabbed Ben by the collar of his shirt and dove into the black portal. Then, as the explosion happened outside, he closed it off and stopped the blasts from following them into his dark realm.

Riku collapsed on the ground and started panting heavily. They almost just died and if he had taken another minute fighting Ajeel, Ben would have been a goner. Riku got up to his butt and turned to the kid next to him, "Are you okay Ben?"

Ben was on his hands and knees with his face pointed at the ground. Riku could see Ben's face a little, and his green eyes widened at the sight of Ben's eyes clenched shut and tears pouring out of the cracks. The tears poured down and dropped off his chin like a faucet. "Ben, what's wrong?" Riku asked seriously. He leaned forward and put his hand on Ben's shoulder, lightly pushing him up. As Ben lifted, he opened his eyes and stared into Riku's with a look of despair on his face.

"It's okay Ben," Riku assured and gave his friend a little squeeze on his left shoulder. "You're alright. That guy can't follow us here."

Ben shook his head a few times. Riku didn't understand. Ben sniffled, and he lowered his gaze down to his hands he had pressing against the black floor below them. Riku followed his gaze down and the older boy's eyes turned into saucers. He let go of Ben's shoulder and stared down at his hands, specifically his left. He looked at Ben's left wrist, and the blackened, dead skin all around it. The dead skin spread to the back of his hand, and up his forearm a little, but it was mostly centered around his left wrist. The injury in itself did not look so bad, what made Riku open his eyes wide was something else.

The fact that he could see Ben's wrist meant one thing: Ben was no longer wearing a watch. The Omnitrix was gone.

* * *

 **A/N Oh nooo! The escape south is cut short by Emperor Spriggan (Zeref)'s elite soldiers, his giant dragon, and the High Lord himself. The flying bison explodes, Dash runs off with a still-comatose Killua, and Ben's Omnitrix is gone! Silver lining: Riku's back to normal, accepting his powers of darkness and overpowering Ansem. The bad guys in this chapter were all from the Fairy Tail manga who we mostly haven't seen before, though Bahamut is a little different... Hope you all enjoyed! Thanks for reading!**

Limit-Breaking chapter 68 . Nov 16

OMG maka and soul are broken that was so sad to see them like that, also zarbon and dodoria i love how you potrayed them i mean really i love dbz it's my favorite but it's amazing how good of a job you did with them. I mean i watch lots of other animes like soul eater for one, so seeing thoses characters become like that was crazy. Amazing job with zarbon and dodoria i always felt dbz didn't make them evil enough to be honest. I mean they erased planet civilizations and we never saw a story of how evil they can be. You my friend did and amzing job, an poor maka and soul. Either way it's a good thing they escaped. Besides that the character king just letting you know he actually have a power level of 39,000 in the manga or something like that but thats later on in the seven deadly sins story. so it makes sense that he is weaker than zarbon and dodoria if he is from season 1 anime and without his weapon. And yes if you want to see those power levels those are the latest chapters of the manga it actually shows us there power levels not kidding but still he didnt have his weapon so it makes sense and awesome job. Besides that it surprises me thats the way to spell dodoria name, I swear i remember it being spelled dedoria ehh whatever mandella affect probably. I also look forward to meruem and seeing how much stronger he is. Last but not least will goku ever use the fusion at some point in this story cause i remember him mentioning it in the previous story, Well i look forward to the next chapter and here's to hoping for ssj4 to come XD.

 **Sad to see them like that, but it makes it so much better to know they're out of it now. Glad you liked Zarbon and Dodoria, we'll see them around sometime. Haven't read the 7DS manga, though I have been tempted to recently, but I'm waiting for season 2 to come out in January. I'll probably decide when in their universe's timeline they got taken from after binging that season, but if King does get super strong even without his weapon then it'll have to be before then I guess. Wonder if the power level of the 7DS sins characters though matches DBZ characters? Are power levels universal? Multiversal? XD More Meruem coming, no spoilers on his strength or on Goku's upcoming stuff though! Thanks for the review! Hope you enjoyed the new chapter!**

joebob323 chapter 68 . 22h ago

Oh my god... Well, looks like the King is going for Goku's head from the way he is talking... And also, what the heck happened to Tien? They should know that this will only end in disaster... I still cannot gauge the King's strength, but other than that, I can't wait for the next chapter! Woohoo Goku and Timmy!

 **Thanks for the review! Who knows what the King's true plans are? Tien, what happened?! (Sure there'll be a flashback about that...) Hope you enjoyed the new chapter! And thanks again everyone for reading, favorited, following, and reviewing! 'Til next time!**


	70. Nexus HWR 11-2 Pits of Despair

**Nexus HWR 11.2 Pits of Despair:**

Darkness fell over the continent of Aebrith the night after Natsu Dragneel took down Fire Lord Sozin. All over the continent, word of the High Lord's defeat had spread. The resulting battles that took place throughout the Fire Nation's lands had already taken several thousand lives, and seen the downfalls of three Lords. Pyraxas got taken over by two different groups before a third, incredibly powerful force moved in and took the city.

The woman sitting on Sozin's throne leaned back in her magnificent chair. The roof of the building around her was rebuilding on its own. Walls were rising and the scarlet-haired woman sat on her chair with her cheek resting against her right hand in a calm manner while she waved around her left. Chairs lifted up on the sides of the room and pieces of broken wood formed tables. Her soldiers took seats around the tables, and the woman in charge lowered her hands as the throne room fully rebuilt itself.

Two of the soldiers walked right up to the bottom of the stairs and looked up at the woman on the throne. One of them wore a long black dress to her feet and had long dark hair to match, while the other looked like her twin only wearing a shorter white dress and had pigtails of light orange hair. "Lady Eileen," the one in white spoke and bowed her head a little. "Please command us, the elite of the Eileen Squad, to hunt down the ones Emperor Spriggan wants dead!"

"It would be our honor," the other spoke in a more quiet and composed tone than her bright comrade.

"Mmm," Eileen hummed. She leaned up straight in her chair and shook her head to move some of her thick dark red hair out of the way. She had on a black witch's hat with a sharp point at the top and a skimpy set of black clothing composed of a sash over her chest, one over her lower stomach, and a dark cloth falling down from her waist down between her legs to the bottom of her black stockings. She held up her left hand and a staff sitting against the wall behind her flew over to her hands, "So soon after taking the city, you wish to hunt down enemies who have eliminated two of the Spriggan 12? I am impressed my soldiers," she complimented and slammed her staff down on the ground.

Eileen stood up to her feet, "But I will not send you alone. I will come as well. I wish to meet these fighters who could defeat three members of Lord Spriggan's most elite force."

"Lady Eileen is coming?" the girl in white exclaimed excitedly. Juliet Sun put her hands together and hopped from one foot to the other with glee. "This will be so much fun."

"However," the dark haired kunoichi next to her twin spoke up. Heine Lunasea had her arms crossed in front of her chest and she frowned, "If we all go hunting them, chances are we may lose Pyraxas."

"Oh, I trust the rest of my soldiers to watch over the city in my absence," Eileen said calmly. The rest of the troops in the room sitting at tables cheered and waved mugs around or took chugs out of them. "Only you two will come with me, so the other members of the 12 in the city will also be here to-"

"Actually," a deep, dark voice spoke from the side of the room. He stepped out of the darkness and most people in the room shivered as they had not seen him come in. "I will also be going. Larcade can handle the city on his own."

Eileen hummed again and she nodded her head. "Very well, Bloodman. I do hope you spend at least a little time getting to know these fighters before you execute them. It is more enjoyable that way."

"I will only follow the orders Emperor Spriggan gave me," Bloodman said in his deep, scratchy voice. "But those orders do not say how quick His Majesty's enemies' deaths must be." His lips curled up into a smirk and Eileen chuckled.

"Very well. Larcade," she called out. "Please watch over the city while we are gone." Eileen tapped her staff down on the ground again, and a white light spread out from the bottom of it. The light spread to the walls and blinded everyone inside. Her soldiers groaned and rose up their arms, and when they lowered them, Eileen, her two most elite soldiers, and Bloodman had all disappeared.

A young man sitting on the roof of the building Eileen just fixed stared into the distant south. "I would have also liked to come with you Eileen. I am not too concerned that you will succeed however, as it is I who will be the one to kill Natsu Dragneel." The boy with spiky blond hair sat cross-legged on top of the roof in the darkness of night, only illuminated by the flames rising up from buildings all over Pyraxas. Screams rang out in the background but he ignored them completely as he stared south. He had narrowed eyes, a black tattoo on his left shoulder marking his place as one of the Spriggan 12, and a diamond earring in his left ear, as well as a tight black necklace around his neck with a white ring on the bottom of it. On his back was strapped a large golden cross with the points aimed diagonally up from his shoulders and out at the sides of his waist.

The young man closed his eyes and he brought up his hands in front of his body where he pressed his palms together. Larcade's eyes snapped open, black as the night, and he whispered in a dark voice, "Someday soon I will kill Zeref, but before then I will kill you, uncle."

* * *

"Oh crap!" Franky exclaimed and stumbled backwards. The large, brightly-colored cyborg made everyone else look over with his shout. They turned to the side of their campfire and saw a part of the ground much darker than the rest. A circle of darkness started swirling on the floor and out of it rose two figures. They were relieved to see them, the taller of whom was a sight for sore eyes, as the pirates around the fire had gotten tired of seeing Riku inside Ansem's body.

Riku stepped out of the portal as his teenage self, his silver hair spiky, wearing a yellow shirt with a black X in the center of it. Usopp looked over and frowned at the sight of Riku emerging from the darkness. _Don't be fooled by his appearance. Not again,_ the sharpshooter warned himself. After thinking it though, Usopp got distracted by the appearance of the other person who rose with Riku.

"Hey Ben, you alright?" Natsu asked. He stood up from his seat next to the fire. The Fire Dragon Slayer had scratches on his face and his already injured body looked worse than earlier, but he looked more concerned for Ben now.

The younger boy had his left arm down at his side and his right hand held across his body to grab himself by the wrist. His wrist ached with terrible pain and even a few blasts of Riku's magic did little to make the empty feeling there go away. He felt so naked, and as he lowered his right hand his friends could see why.

"Whoa," Nami whispered. She stood up fast and walked over to his side to look at the black skin all around Ben's wrist.

"What happened?" Luffy asked, eyes wide. "Your watch is…"

"There was this man in front of Ben, he seemed to be the one controlling the dragon," Riku explained to the others. Most of them shivered as they thought about the dragon that made them all run away. Luffy tssked and clenched his teeth in anger that he ran, but later that day when they got to some higher ground and looked around the landscape they ran from, everything had been torched and he knew it was a good decision. Riku continued, "He was also the one who took Ben's Omnitrix."

Ben clenched his teeth in anger and his eyes closed hard as he thought about something that man told him. He darted his eyes over to Natsu for a second, and his teeth clenched even more while his heart started racing. He looked down at his left wrist, and his hand beneath the black skin clenched hard. "I want it back," Ben growled.

"Hey little dude, we get what you're feeling, but-" Franky began.

"You don't understand," Ben snapped back. "That watch," Ben shook his head. "It was my responsibility. I promised Azmuth I would keep looking after it. I, ever since Castle Oblivion I've been training harder than ever with it. I don't want all that training to go to waste. I don't want to be weak-"

"That's not true," Riku said down to his friend. "You are strong even without-"

"I know I am," Ben said. "I was going to say 'weak- _er'_ because even without it I can still kick some bad guy butt." He lifted up his fists and they started to glow white, "Which is why we have to go after Zeref."

Most of the group there seemed nervous, but Luffy stood up and he punched a fist into his open palm. "Yosh! I'm with you Ben." The rest of his crew along with Kirito started getting up as well to agree, but Natsu had not spoken. Ben seemed to realize what he said and he spun to face Natsu with a nervous look.

"Ben, did you just say, Zeref?" Natsu asked.

Ben gulped and he nodded his head once, keeping a straight expression on his face. "Turns out, these Spriggan guys are under the command of High Lord Spriggan, and he and Zeref, are the same guy."

Natsu's hands clenched into fists. Robin turned to the pink haired man next to her and was surprised by the amount of anger on his face. "Do you know this Zeref, Natsu?"

"Yeah, I know the bastard," Natsu growled. _Jellal, Ultear, Hades, Grimoire Heart! They were all following damn Zeref._ He thought about the man he met on Tenroujima island, the one who made all life around him die. The forests, the animals, even his own soldiers. They all died just by getting close to him. "Let's go kick his ass." Natsu slammed his fists together in front of him and grinned a mouth full of glinting teeth.

"Yeah," Ben agreed, though his eyes lingered on Natsu for a second longer than they should have. "Anyway, I know it's a lot to ask, but could we go after him now? I don't like how he has my Omnitrix. If he were to do something to someone with it…"

"We understand Ben," Riku began. He put a hand down on Ben's shoulder though and glanced around at everyone who were about to agree with him. "But we need to rest." Ben spun to angrily look at his friend but Riku was not backing down. "We need to prepare too. The worst thing that could happen is we have to face that dragon, Bahamut. I was told by that King of Sand guy, that Bahamut is the one mainly responsible for the Cataclysm."

"No way," Sanji whispered.

"You've gotta be frickin' kidding me," Usopp gasped out. "That giant canyon we marched through for days, it really wasn't natural?!" There were always signs, but he tried to ignore them and imagine it was a natural phenomena anyway.

"No," Riku responded.

Natsu's eyes were dark and he thought about something. _In Dressrosa, Acnologia mentioned another dragon. The one that injured him so much is probably this Bahamut._ This thought actually made Natsu more nervous than the idea of the dragon ripping a multi-thousand mile long crack through the planet.

"So tomorrow morning," Riku continued, annoying Ben while he said it. "When we are well rested, we will go after Zeref and get Ben's Omnitrix back."

"And kick his ass," Luffy said, though his voice overlapped with someone else's. He turned and glared at Natsu who glared right back at him.

They opened their mouths to yell that they would be the one to do it, but Robin crossed her arms and said, "Quattro Fleur." Two arms stuck out of Luffy's head and two out of Natsu's. They covered up both men's mouths and everyone sighed in relief. Robin smiled a little and said in a calm voice, "Please save your strength for tomorrow. I have a feeling it will be quite a long day." She uncrossed her arms and her extra ones disappeared.

The two hot-headed powerhouses in the group glared at each other for a few more seconds, before humphing and turning away. Riku sighed at their actions, and then he popped a squat where he was currently standing. He noticed someone glaring down at him and opened up his eyes to look up at an angry-looking Ben. "Don't get mad at me Ben," Riku muttered up at him and he lowered back down his own gaze. "If I didn't have to create multiple portals at once to take out my enemy and save you at the same time, I would have the strength to go after this guy right now."

Ben's eyes opened wide and he clenched his teeth angrily, but he did look away. "Don't worry," Riku said, his voice less taunting now and a softer, more reassuring tone. Ben looked back but Riku was still not looking up at him. "I know how much your watch means to you. We'll get it back. You'll live without it for one day."

Ben sighed and he finally sat down next to Riku. "Yeah, you're right." He rubbed his own left wrist and muttered, "It just feels so strange. The Omnitrix has been on my wrist for over three whole years. I forgot what my arm actually looked like under it, haha," he chuckled to himself but stared at the black skin illuminated by their flickering fire in apprehension. "Though, Zeref really did mess up my arm. All he did was grab above the watch, and it felt like the life was slowly leaving my body." Ben thought he was speaking quietly but the others who were getting ready for bed around the fire all looked over towards him as he spoke. He whispered, "My soul felt like it was getting dragged out, and in my right hand the Keyblade appeared. I swung it at him and he backed off, but when he opened up his closed hand I saw he had taken the Omnitrix with him."

"How'd he grab onto your wrist in the first place?" Natsu asked. Ben looked over at his older friend and Natsu looked pretty interested, probably because he wanted to be the one to fight Zeref the next day.

"I-" Ben began. He tssked and looked away with a disappointed look, "My watch, went into the red. When I was fighting that chick who could stop time."

"So that's why you vanished?" Sanji brought up. Luffy sighed in relief as the reason for Ben's disappearance came to light, but he was also pretty interested in the woman who could control time. Sanji frowned, "But why were you able to fight her?"

"Yeah," Riku mumbled. He turned to the boy sitting next to him and looked confused as well, "How did you see through her time magic? You said you fought her for ten minutes while time was frozen, but you never explained how."

Ben looked away and he muttered under his breath, "Maybe it's because I've already traveled through time before. She couldn't stop me like everyone else." Riku kept frowning at him as he could tell Ben was keeping something from him, but the others all thought it was a reasonable explanation and just told Ben good job for beating her. Ben frowned at their praise though, "It's because she was too strong, that I didn't have the strength to face Zeref after. He moved too fast for me to follow…"

"Don't worry Ben," Riku said. He closed his eyes and leaned back to lay on the grass. Ben looked at his best friend and Riku continued with a smile, "Tomorrow, we'll take him on together. He won't be able to handle us all when we're ready for him."

Ben lifted his mouth up into a grin and he fell down to his back too. "Yeah, you're right. Guess I can get some sleep with that in mind," Ben admitted in a cocky tone.

Kirito chuckled and Franky grinned from a sleeping bag not far from him. Ben and Riku's confidence spread and the rest of the pirates all looked reassured at their chances for the next day, ignoring thoughts of the black wizard and the strength of his dragon. Natsu lay on his back though, staring up at the black sky full of stars in a more uneasy way. _Zeref. Looks like Gray was right. Just, what do you want? Why order us dead? What is the purpose?_ "Damn," Natsu rolled onto his side and whispered, "Gray, Juvia, where are you guys?"

* * *

 **The Next Morning**

"Alright, we'll split up into three groups," Riku began as he looked off to the east. He turned around to the rest of the group packing up their things in the early morning of the day following their fight with the Spriggan 12. The first sun rose behind him and his body had an odd yellow glow as the others looked at him. "We can cover more ground that way," Riku explained.

"Makes sense," Robin began. "But is it wise to split up when our enemies are so powerful?"

"That's why each group needs to have similar amounts of power. Myself, Luffy, and Kirito will each take a group." As Riku finished the sentence, he saw Natsu opening his mouth to argue, "Natsu will be coming with me and Ben. The three of us can handle whatever comes at us." Natsu realized that one of the groups was going to have more people so that meant their group was considered pretty strong if they only had three. He could accept that and he just crossed his arms and humphed in annoyance that he did not get his own group. Riku continued, "Luffy, you should take Nami and Franky. And Kirito, you take Sanji, Robin, and Usopp."

"Robin-chann!" Sanji exclaimed happily that he was put with her.

"Why should I only take Nami and Franky?" Luffy wondered to Riku.

"I think you'll get lost if Nami doesn't go with you," Riku began and Nami nodded her head stoically in agreement to that. "And you're taking Franky so that if something comes up that does turn out to be too much trouble for only three people, you can have him fire a beam into the sky. We should be able to see and hear it for miles around, so it makes for a good signal."

"I have an idea," Kirito spoke up. The others looked to him as he crossed his right hand over his left to make a small cross. "Shadow Clone Jutsu," he said, and another two Kiritos appeared next to him. He nodded at Riku who understood why he was doing this and nodded back. Kirito explained to the others though, "When my Shadow Clones get dismissed, my real body knows what they knew. So if any of us run into trouble, one of my clones will disappear and we'll head to your position."

The other two Kiritos nodded their heads in silent agreement with that plan. "Alright good, now each group has four people," Ben said and he clapped his hands together. "Let's get going. No time to waste!" He started jogging to the east and Natsu ran right there with him. Riku nodded to the rest of the group and then turned and gave chase, and Kirito nodded at one of his clones who nodded back and then ninja-jumped after the others and caught up fast.

The other groups looked at each other and there was a moment's hesitation. The six members of Straw Hat Luffy's crew did not want to separate from each other, not here, not again. They felt like they should have some sort of special goodbye, or for Luffy to tell them that they would all find each other after this, but the two Kirito clones started heading off and they called back for the others to get moving too.

Sanji reached down and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He tapped the bottom a few times and finally a cig came out, and it was the third to last one in the box. He lit the end of it and gave his captain a nod, "See you later Captain."

Robin gave the younger man a small wave and smiled at Nami after to show her friend it was alright. She started walking away with Usopp next to her. She wondered why the long-nosed pirate did not have a big goodbye with Luffy, but when she looked at him she saw him glaring out into the far distance. Robin followed the sniper's gaze out and she could still see the backs of the four who left before them. The Kirito leading them was heading southeast so they were not going the same exact direction, but for now Riku's back was still in eyesight, and Usopp was staring daggers into it.

The final group to go was Luffy's. He did not listen to the Kirito clone right away. Instead he looked out into the eastern horizon and watched the top of the red sun lift over the horizon line. In his mind flashed the sight of that dragon creating a sun above its body and he clenched his teeth hard. _How much training would I need to stop a monster like that? It is not even the strongest thing on this world, but I…_ The pirate's hands balled into fists and he shook his head of such thoughts. Luffy started running forward but Nami yelled at him.

"This way idiot," Nami yelled and pointed to the northeast. Luffy turned and saw Kirito, Nami, and Franky all heading left. He mumbled in annoyance that he did not get to lead the way, but they were doing this for Ben so he bucked up and ran after her. Nami continued in an annoyed tone, "Let's get Ben's watch back and continue south as soon as possible."

"What's the big rush little sis?!" Franky called out.

Nami frowned and she did not say anything. The Shadow Clone with them understood though. Kirito muttered in a deep voice, "Outside of Dressrosa, Timmy flew south." The others looked at him in surprise while Nami just stared down at the floor and clenched her fists. "She thinks we have a better chance of finding him if we go south."

"I _know_ we have a better chance," Nami snapped. She knew she was caught but she was not going to try and deny it. After what Usopp said about how Ansem came out because he thought Timmy was dead, she had felt a deep pit of dread inside her. She turned to look at Luffy as they kept walking, "Luffy please. You were there. You know what Wanda told me. She said I had to take care of him now. Please, we have to find him." Neither Kirito nor Franky knew what the woman was talking about but Luffy nodded his head at her like he understood.

"Alright," Luffy said. "After we find Ben's watch, we go after Timmy."

"Super!" Franky cheered, also in agreement with that plan.

"Sounds good," Kirito's clone added. "It'll be tough but I'm sure we'll find him."

* * *

"I can feel incredible magical energies up ahead," Natsu began to Ben and Riku as they ran together directly towards the rising suns. They had not stopped for a break once since leaving over an hour before, traveling dozens of miles in such a short amount of time.

"Do you want me to-" the Kirito clone following behind the three began.

"Not yet," Riku said. He glanced back at the clone as he took another leap off the ground and launched himself up through the air. "Make sure we actually need help before going off to get it."

Kirito nodded his head and he landed only to kick off the ground and jump forward like a ninja again. Natsu was sprinting forward at close to forty miles per hour, while Kirito kept up his ninja jumps to stay with him. Ben was lagging behind a little, but he ground his teeth and pressed his feet down hard with every step, digging in and keeping up his run. Ben was panting, and when Riku glanced back he slowed down, "Let's take a quick break," he suggested.

The others looked at him in surprise, but Riku continued, "We're almost there. Let's catch our breath before rushing in."

Kirito's shadow clone nodded at him and slowed to a jog, before coming to a complete stop altogether as Riku did. Natsu grumbled but he skid to a stop as well, lifting a bunch of black dust up with him. Ben kept running for a few more seconds until he caught up, then ran right past the other three before stopping as he heard them shout his name. He paused and kept looking to the east with a frustrated expression on his face. The boy panted heavily for a few seconds, before closing his mouth and breathing out his nose to mask his fatigue. "Ready?" He asked.

Riku looked at the kid's back closely. "You sure Ben?"

"I'm sure," Ben snapped right away.

"Natsu," Kirito's clone began. "How many of these strong magical powers are over there?" They were still on a black desert landscape, but Kirito motioned forwards towards a mountain range that they were heading towards. The area around them was getting hillier and he wondered if the enemies were in the mountains or even closer.

"I feel a few of them, but there could be more nearby," Natsu said. He started walking forward and glanced right at Ben as he got to his side. "You really ready?"

"Yes," Ben said, then started walking forward himself. Natsu nodded and walked with him, speeding up as Ben did so they were jogging together over the desert landscape. Riku and Kirito glanced at each other before jogging ahead themselves. They were getting closer and by the way Natsu's fists burst into flames, they could tell the enemies were about to be in sight.

They sprinted up a slanted section of black dirt and when they were only a few yards higher in elevation, they could see far enough away that the bases of the nearest mountains were in sight. Before those mountains though, there were several parked airships down on the edge of the black desert. Hundreds of soldiers stood around them, talking loudly and angrily to each other.

"We have to go after Lord Ajeel!"

"Where is the commander?"

"What do we do?"

Bakel, one of Ajeel's captains, marched through his troops towards a few women standing near one of their airships. Two of them turned towards him and stood in the way of him and the older woman with long scarlet braids falling in front and behind her. At the bottom of all four of her braids were black bows, though at the tops of the thick braids falling in front of her chest there were also golden ornaments holding them together. The man who marched towards her came to a stop in front of the two female guards who accompanied her. Bakel had a tattoo of an eye on the front of his exposed muscular chest, scars across the top and bottom of his lips that looked like sharp teeth pointing in the wrong directions, and a scarf that wrapped around his neck and up over his eyes and ears. The man grinned and looked past Juliet and Heine, right at the Shield of Spriggan behind them, "Lady Eileen. We are eager to go after Lord Ajeel. Please give us the order to hunt those fools he was fighting down."

Eileen Belserion turned her head and gazed at the muscular captain of the Ajeel Squad before her. Heine spoke up first, "You idiot. You really think you grunts will be able to stop fighters who took down three of the Spriggan?"

"Yeah," Juliet Sun agreed. The more bubbly girl with light orange pigtails pointed two fingers up at the side of her face. "Leave it to us! The Eileen squad is going to annihilate them! We might even get Lord Ajeel back for you, if you ask nicely," the girl said, narrowing her eyes at the figure in front of her.

Bakel frowned at the two shorter women but snapped his gaze up as the taller witch behind them started speaking. "Of course we will get Ajeel back. Lord Spriggan says that he is still alive after all." Eileen's words made Bakel grin wide and he thanked her before turning to go tell the rest of his army. Eileen's two subordinates glanced back at her wondering if she was serious with what she just told them. The two of them were with Eileen after all when she talked with Lord Spriggan the day before.

 **"It is good to see that Dimaria survived. Will you be returning to Vistarion?"**

 **"Yes. However, Dimaria is not the only one to have survived. Wall Eehto is gone, but Ajeel still lives."**

 **"Hmm, did the enemies capture him?"**

 **"…You may want to reconsider hunting these enemies down. Natsu is not the only one you need to worry about with them. There is a man with them who trapped Ajeel inside the Darkness. Black Magic can not stand up to the Darkness. Be careful, Eileen."**

Juliet and Heine tried to mask the worry on their faces, but Eileen could tell the two girls were nervous. "Do not worry," Eileen began. She lifted her gaze over the girls and stared out to the west, "I have a plan if things do go south. Now however, prepare yourselves. They are here."

Heine and Juliet spun around in shock. They were expecting to have to go hunting for their enemies, the idea that the fools would come looking for them seemed absurd. There they were though. Four figures running on the black hills to their west, sprinting their way haphazardly. The darker haired girl stepped forward first and she lifted her arms at her sides. Heine spoke softly, "I will go first."

"Wait a moment," Eileen commanded. Her subordinate stopped, and the two shorter girls looked back at the member of the Spriggan 12 behind them. Eileen rose up her right hand and said in a smug tone, "I wish to see what they can do for myself." Her hand started to glow and she shouted, "Enchant: Berserker!"

The four figures running towards the army slowed down as every single one of the soldiers turning their way suddenly froze. The army surrounded in white lights, and when the lights faded, the soldiers no longer looked like themselves. The armored men and women were all twice the size that they were a moment ago, their bodies larger and covered in bulking muscles, their teeth sharpened and their eyes glowing red. Kirito came to a complete stop while the others kept running, as he had a seriously bad feeling in his gut. "I'm going to disappear," he called to them. The clone vanished in a puff of smoke, and the two other Kiritos a few miles away to their north and south looked in towards the middle.

"Riku's group found the enemy," Kirito suddenly stated to the three pirates with him. Sanji, Robin, and Usopp all spun at the young man who turned from the direction they were heading and faced a mountain range instead. It was a lot farther forward than them as they were not the fastest group, and Kirito frowned at the long distance not just north but east too. "Come on!" He shouted and started running faster than before with his comrades chasing behind him.

The other Kirito clone let Luffy, Nami, and Franky know before running off to lead them to their comrades too. They were all heading to the same location, but the battle was starting without them.

Ben, Riku, and Natsu came face to face with an army of hundreds of Berserker soldiers. Juliet turned right to look at the leader with her, surprised that Eileen would enchant all the soldiers without first giving them the chance to prove themselves. Juliet looked back at the army, _They are now ten times stronger than usual, but that increased strain comes at a price._ She watched as the captain of the forces, Bakel, marched through his soldiers' ranks, three times taller than the rest of the men with him. He brought his fists up to his sides and snapped his head forward with razor sharp teeth, "RAAAARRRR!"

"What the Hell?" Ben muttered as he came to a complete stop in front of the soldiers.

"Attack!" Eileen shouted. The three boys who ran towards their group looked behind all these soldiers and Natsu gulped at the sight of her. She looked familiar for some reason, but her magical power was like nothing he had ever felt before. It was easily double any of the huge magical powers of the Spriggans from the day before, more likely close to triple or even more. He ground his teeth after gulping though and his fists burst even brighter into flames. Ben stared at the army full of monsters in front of him though and his eyes were darting around in panic at all of them.

 _Can I really fight all of these guys without my watch? The Omnitrix has always been there. Even when I didn't use it, I always had it there just in case._ "It will be alright," Riku said. Ben looked up at the silver haired teen on his left and Riku took a step forward in front of his two comrades. The army started racing towards them, and Riku spoke in a deep voice, "I have gained full control over the darkness inside. I am now even stronger than Ansem. As such, I can use all of his powers, and more." Riku lifted up both of his arms and the ground between them and the incoming army descended into darkness.

The three women standing behind the army opened their eyes wide at the sight of the black dirt dropping into an even blacker color. The ground lost its solid form and looked like a more liquid substance that swirled around and gave off a very dark feeling. That dark feeling only intensified as out from the square mile of darkness between their groups, hundreds of black creatures started rising out of the ground. The Berserker soldiers did not stop at the sight of the creepy Heartless monsters though. The Shadows, Large Bodies, and Invisibles raced forwards and intercepted Ajeel's remaining forces, slamming into the monstrous soldiers who swung swords back at them or used magic of their own.

Most of Zeref's soldiers and the Heartless looked evenly matched, but one man in the center of the army charged forward and slammed his fists straight through two Invisibles swinging their dark swords at him. The powerful Heartless exploded into dark bubbles, and Riku took a step forward while creating a Keyblade in his hand. "I've got this," a voice said on his right, and before he could charge at the enemy to attack with his Keyblade, Natsu shot by him in a blur of red flames. The Dragon Slayer brought back his fist at the same time as Bakel, and they roared at each other while colliding their fists.

A shockwave rippled out from the collision of their hands, and the ground beneath the dark coating Riku covered the ground in shattered. Chunks of rocks flew out of the darkness and some of Riku's dark ooze got pushed out to the sides by the bright light coming out of Natsu's body. Riku looked back for a second at Ben who had a more confident expression on his face after seeing his friends' powers stop the army of monstrous soldiers. The kid grinned at Riku, making the older boy nod before turning back around and racing into his army of Heartless soldiers.

Ben Tennyson clenched his fists and he ran straight ahead into the darkness too. He was not afraid though. This was Riku's darkness after all, something he had long since accepted as a part of his best friend.

"Here they come," Heine said, stepping forward herself. The black haired girl with a white bandanna around her forehead glanced to her side at Juliet. "Why don't we see who can kill more of the enemy?"

"Ooh! I love that game!" Juliet exclaimed excitedly.

"Sorry girls," Eileen said, stopping the two of her squad who were about to charge into battle with the others. Eileen was looking past them as they turned back to face her, watching as Natsu Dragneel faced off against a powered-up Bakel, and the short boy in the back was fighting Ajeel's other soldiers with the help of the Heartless. Her main focus was on the figure who summoned the army of Heartless though, and was smashing soldiers to the sides with every hit, not slowing down his charge towards her at all as he did. Eileen walked forward herself while continuing, "There are four enemies approaching fast from the northwest. Go head them off and stop them from assisting their comrades."

Heine and Juliet looked at each other and nodded. The two turned away and sprinted behind an airship near them, then kept running past the other side to the north around the edge of the closest mountain. Riku spotted them running off but he did not give chase, as he was now able to feel the immense power coming off the dangerous red haired woman in front of him as well. He lifted up his left hand and a Keyblade like the one in his right formed, only this one was a lighter color with blue markings on the end of it.

"Lord Zeref warned me about you," Eileen began. Riku narrowed his green eyes at her, and the woman lifted up the staff in her right hand. "I am Eileen Belserion."

"Riku," he introduced back to her. "Where is your boss?" He demanded, lifting up his Keyblades and standing in a stance with them. "He took something that belongs to my friend."

Eileen glanced behind Riku and saw that younger boy continuing to push through their forces to get to her as well. She smirked and looked back at Riku, "If Zeref decides to return, he will. For now though, I will be your opponent. Let me see the power of your darkness."

Riku glared harder at the woman and he took a step forward. As he did though, Eileen rose up her glowing hand and Riku came to a sudden stop as he saw the mountain directly behind Eileen, about a mile away, cover in the same white glow. He stared in shock as Eileen lifted her hand up, and the ground for miles around started to tremble. The mountain tore straight out of the ground, before shooting up in the sky like a rocket and soaring up in the clouds. As Riku looked up at the clouds, he also noticed that the clouds were getting darker and swirling around the sky directly above Eileen, leaving a hole in the middle of the swirling area that the mountain shot straight through.

"What are you doing?!" Riku yelled over at her.

Eileen smirked down at the young man in front of her. "I would enchant an asteroid in space to come crashing down on you, but unfortunately the barrier in the atmosphere keeps me from doing so. Instead," Riku looked back up in the air as he spotted something coming, and his eyes opened huge as did his nine friends in the miles nearby him. "I will use a mountain for the same purpose!" Eileen shouted, and Riku stared in shock at the mountain covered in a white aura as it dropped out of the sky like a meteor. It moved so fast the clouds it fell back through were pulled down with it and ripped apart.

Natsu flipped off a kick to Bakel's face and he skid across the black floor in between several of Riku's dark army. He was panting and he growled at the sight of Bakel turning back towards him with a crazed smile on his face and no sign of pain from the kick that just hit him in the face. "Alright," Natsu snarled. "You're pretty strong, I'll give you that." His body shone yellow for a second and bolts of lightning started zapping out of his red aura. He grinned and lifted up his fists as he prepared to finish this fight, but as he lifted his mouth into a smile, he spotted something in the top of his vision that had him dropping his jaw and looking straight up in the air in shock.

"Oh my God," Nami whispered from three miles away in the north and still a couple miles west of Natsu and the others. She came to a stop and lifted her hands to cover her mouth with a face covered in sweat. Franky dropped his metal jaw and his arms fell limp at his sides, while Luffy just snarled and ground his teeth at the sight of the mountain meteor falling from the sky. They had seen it go up and were pretty shocked, but the sight of it coming down was much worse.

"What are we going to do?" Franky asked, looking to Luffy who was still staring furiously at the mountain.

"We keep going," Luffy said. "I'll stop the mountain," he added. Nami, Franky, and Kirito's shadow clone looked at the captain and watched as he punched his right fist out to the side. His skin pumped and turned red, steam emitting from his body. He shot off without another word into the distance, and he bit down on his right thumb as he did. His fist turned huge and he let it fly behind him, turning it black as he did. _Jet Elephant Gun should be able to stop it, but-_ he realized it when he was still two miles out. _I'm not going to make it in time!_

Back directly beneath the mountain, Eileen was smirking at the man in front of her. "Can your darkness stop this?" She questioned, a smug look on her face as Riku still seemed shocked by the falling mountain.

Riku glared back down at her, then darted his gaze up to the mountain again. His shocked look faded and he clenched his hands tight on his Keyblades' hilts, his arm muscles bulging as he did. "My darkness?" He questioned, making Eileen's smirk fade fast. Riku's feet lifted off the ground and he flew up in the air as fast as the mountain was descending. He crossed his Keyblades above his head and roared, "I don't need the darkness, for something like this!" He slashed his Keyblades as he hit the falling mountain, and hundreds of people, including the Berserker soldiers who lost most sense of themselves, stared in shock at the four quarters of mountain falling out of the sky. He split it perfectly in half both ways, making four giant pieces of rock that kept falling out of the sky, but were easier to avoid, and falling slower towards the ground now.

One of the giant chunks was falling right towards the two armies still battling it out, and many of the soldiers sent into ravenous states roared in fury and fear at the sight of their approaching death. Bakel was not one of those shouting however, instead charging straight at Natsu with his right fist pulled back far. He twisted his body and then let his fist fly down at Natsu with a loud roar. Natsu was still zapping lightning and covered in a flaming aura, and he turned his head back to Bakel much faster than he had been moving previously. He moved his head to the right and Bakel's fist went past it to the left. A powerful force of air coming off the sides of Bakel's fist slammed into Natsu's face, but he pushed straight through without flinching and slammed a fist up into the bottom of the larger man's chin.

Bakel got sent flying up into the air by the uppercut, but he opened up his clenched eyes and glared down at the pink haired mage far below him. He did not feel pain in his Berserker state thanks to Eileen's enchant, and he roared down at the man who sent him flying. Natsu was not done though, and he lifted up his head and shouted, "Lightning Fire Dragon's Roar!" A pillar of flames surrounded in swirling bolts of lightning shot up into the sky fifty meters in diameter. It slammed directly into Bakel's chest, and sent the captain of the Ajeel Squad crashing straight into the bottom of the giant piece of mountain falling towards them. Bakel and the Roar's collision with the mountain sent cracks through the entire rock chunk, making it shatter violently into hundreds of pieces that flew out in every direction. One piece flew out so fast to the right that it slammed into another of the four main chunks and split that piece in two.

Giant chunks of rock fell all over the landscape, and Luffy came running in as the first pieces were falling. He shouted, "Jet Elephant Gun!" and sent his giant black fist slamming down into a cluster of Heartless and enemy soldiers as there was no point in wasting the attack he already prepared. Natsu saw Luffy arrive, but he just tssked and ignored the rubberman, turning instead to other enemies near him and sprinting towards them still in his Lightning Fire Dragon mode.

Eileen looked up in the air and kept a straight expression as she spotted the silver haired nineteen year old dropping from the sky with his Keyblades held back at his sides. He had a dark-bordered white aura around his body and dropped faster than all the rocks around him, directly towards her. She lifted up her staff and it glowed white, her lips curling up into a smirk as she prepared for his first attack.

Ben finally got through the ranks of soldiers he was fighting and he spotted the red haired woman looking up in the air at a dropping Riku. The two Neo-Shadows on Ben's sides ran off to continue fighting the soldiers Riku summoned them to attack, but the boy himself glared at this woman who would likely know where Zeref was. _And where he's keeping the Omnitrix,_ Ben thought, his fists clenching harder. He took a step forward, but something on the dark floor in front of him moved. At first he thought it was just another Heartless, but as the form came out of the darkness his eyes started widening more, his arms started trembling, his face covered in sweat, and he took two steps back.

"Wh-Who are you?" Ben asked.

The demonic figure that just came out of the ground had a dark yellow mask over his pure black face. His body was covered in a black and red tunic, with dark metal spaulders, and he had a long black cape all the way down to his feet with a hood that went over the top of his head. "Bloodman," the figure growled in a deep voice. "Of the Spriggan 12," he continued, while lifting up his steel-covered arms. Between the cracks in his armor, Ben could only see pure blackness as dark as the floor. "Tenchi Kaimei," Bloodman growled. The ground beneath the two of them started to get covered in black, but it was a black substance even more liquidy than Riku's darkness. It rose up and Ben snapped his eyes down to see his legs were getting covered in the black water, and as soon as it touched his body he felt his legs fill with pain and lose their strength.

"What, the Hell-" Ben tried stepping forward, but his legs came out from beneath him as the water got even higher up his body. Rocks fell from the sky and landed on the ground around them making a perfect circle of debris around the two. Ben dropped down to his hands and knees as the dark water came up over his stomach, and now it covered all of him except for his face that he pushed over the top of the black fluid substance. "Stop!" He shouted in a begging voice.

"You are so weak," Bloodman said, sounding disappointed in his opponent. "Yet, I still enjoy that look on your face." Ben looked up in horror at the smirking face behind the mask of his opponent.

 _Stay awake!_ He yelled in his mind as the black water came over the bottom of his face and he felt his eyelids drooping. _What the Hell is this stuff? It doesn't matter! Just get out of it, already,_ even his thoughts were slowing down, and he did not know what he could do. Ben slid his hands towards each other under the water, and he mouthed the words even though no sound came out. Bloodman stood beneath the rising black carbonic water that poisons his enemies, and he narrowed his eyes at the boy's face as the kid with closed eyes said something. Bubbles came out of his mouth, and then the area beneath his hands started to glow blue.

"HAAA!" Ben yelled under the water, his eyes snapping open and blue light shooting out of his hands. The Kamehameha Wave smashed through the ground and blasted the poisonous water out in every direction. Bloodman rose his arms and blocked the wind that slammed into him from the force of the boy's attack. Ben shot straight up in the air, blasting out of the top of the black water, and slamming straight into a giant rock falling from the sky towards him. "Ahh!" He yelled out and lost the blue beam coming out of his hands, letting it fade away as he spun around in the air in pain.

Ben crashed back down to the ground, but Bloodman's attack had dispersed as well. The monster standing ten yards away from Ben lowered his crossed arms from in front of his face as Ben lifted his own face from the floor. The kid looked at the enemy in front of him and went wide-eyed at the sight of the huge smirk behind the man's mask. "What do you want?" Ben asked, pushing down on his hands and getting back up to his feet. He glared at the enemy and added in a loud yell, "Also, if you're one of those Spriggan guys, then you know where Zeref-" Bloodman waved his right hand across the front of his body while Ben was mid-sentence.

The ground beneath Ben lit up and the boy only had a second to dart his eyes down before it exploded. He screamed and crossed his arms in front of his body, trying to put up a guard. The explosion was too powerful though, ripping through his clothes and burning his skin as he roared. He regained a sense of himself while still in the explosion and tried flying backwards. As he flew back however, a figure came flying right through the explosion and swiped his arms as he passed by Ben. Ben slammed his arms back at the man, trying to block his arms with his own. Bloodman's arms did not look the way they normally did though, and Ben only noticed it as the man's arms hit his own. They were as sharp as razors, and Ben felt his arms get slashed through straight to the bone.

Blood splashed out of Ben's arms and he screamed again as he spun out in the air and came crashing down in the field of darkness below. The darkness had climbed up over giant chunks of rocks that fell all over the landscape, so now there was a giant bumpy area of blackness covering miles of ground. Ben groaned on his back in the middle of this darkness and he opened up his eyes to stare straight up in the sky. As he looked up, his jaw dropped at the sight of something massive appearing directly beneath the black clouds all over the sky. It looked like a giant closed eye, but once he looked up at it, it opened up into a two hundred meter long eyeball with a red cross in the middle of its iris.

Ben heard a deep chuckling in front of him and he leaned up on his back a little. He looked forward and saw the dark figure coming out of the ground, his body made of black dust particles that formed into a body before him. "What, are you?" Ben asked, pushing his hands down on the ground and clenching his teeth in pain. He glanced at his arms and saw blood pouring down both of them from right below his elbows on his forearms where he got slashed, all the way down to his fingers where the red liquid dripped off. He attempted to ignore the pain, but he could not keep it off of his face and his enemy reacted in a very pleased way to his pained expression.

"What am I?" Bloodman questioned as he walked towards Ben. Heartless creatures in the area charged at him, but the dark figure swiped his arms in their direction and dozens of them exploded at the same time. "I am a demon. Known as the 'Grim Reaper' by my enemies, I possess all the curses of the Nine Demon Gates of Tartaros." He lifted his right hand up and the ground beneath Ben trembled. The boy on his hands and knees pushed up hard and barrel-rolled to the right at the same time. It was just in time too, as long vines covered in thorns shot out of the dark floor where Ben was just lying. The whips of thorns curved in midair though and slammed down towards a rolling away Ben.

"Raa!" Ben pushed up on the floor and leapt into the air. He surrounded himself with a white aura, but it was faint and he lost it after flying for only a few seconds. He avoided the thorns long enough though to rise into the sky away from Bloodman's reach. He glared down at his enemy and was panting loudly with blood dripping down his arms and burns all over his body. His shirt was gone and his face was partially black from the explosions that hit him before. _How do I fight him? He's so strong, I haven't landed a single hit! I need, I need help!_

"Are you afraid?" Bloodman asked, his voice sinister, evil. Ben shivered and he breathed out only to see his breath float in the air. He darted his eyes down to his legs and watched as his feet, legs, and lower body covered in pink ice in the matter of a second.

Ben panicked. He flew up higher, but the ice was not stopping encroaching. "NO!" He roared, and he flared his aura out as hard as he could, heating up his entire body with his energy. The pink ice stopped moving up, and then finally shattered all at once. As it shattered though, Ben's aura vanished and he started falling out of the air. _Not enough strength to fly anymore,_ he realized, and he turned his gaze to Bloodman who he was descending fast towards. _In that case, it's time to go all out!_ He put his hands together at his right side and a white light shimmered there. A green hilt appeared in his hand and a long silver hilt shot out of it with prongs sticking out of the side at the end. "HaaaAAA!"

Riku meanwhile, stood in front of Eileen, staring up at the giant eye she made appear in the air. "At the moment," she began to him. "My subordinates are finishing off your friends in the north. The others I have just spotted approaching from the south will not arrive in time to stop me from killing you."

 _The north?_ Riku thought. _Luffy should be there. There's no way those two she was with can take him-_ "Gum Gum Jet Gattling Gun!" Riku's eyes widened and he snapped his head left, looking back behind him and seeing flames and rubber fists both attacking the army in the field behind him. _What's Luffy doing here?! Are Nami and Franky really under attack? Nami…_ Riku's expression darkened and his eyes darted back to Eileen who saw something in them that made her hesitate.

A few miles south and still pretty far west, Kirito's eyes opened wide. He snapped his head a different direction than he was previously heading and the three pirates with him all looked at him confusedly. "What is it?" Usopp asked the teen.

"My other clone was just destroyed," Kirito said in a panicked voice. "Luffy went ahead to fight with the others, so Nami and Franky are fighting some powerful enemies on their own."

"Where?!" Sanji shouted in panic.

"Follow me!" Kirito shouted and started sprinting forward much faster than before. The fact that they were already rushing yet Kirito could put on this burst of speed definitely made them feel a sense of urgency. Sanji leapt up in the air and started kicking it to send himself flying forward, while Robin leapt up as well and crossed her arms, creating wings out of other arms that sprouted out of her back. Usopp watched as his friends shot off much faster than him and he dug his feet down, grinding his teeth and picking up the pace as well.

In the north, Franky tugged his right arm back, but Heine tugged towards herself at the same time. The black haired girl with a long thread-like magical band wrapped around Franky's right red wrist lifted the cyborg off the ground and swung him up in the air and then behind her. Heine slammed the robot down into the ground and the floor cracked all around his body, chunks lifting up in the air from the smash.

"Franky!" Nami yelled. She ran forward and four other Nami's around her did the same. She suddenly came to a stop though when she was still twenty yards away from her cyborg friend. Nami snapped her gaze down to the ground and saw her feet were stuck in some sort of goo coating the floor. She pulled at her leg trying to stand up, but the goo was too sticky and she was trapped in it, making her Mirages disappear from around her.

"Hehe! Got one too!" Nami snapped her gaze up and saw the girl with orange pigtails jogging towards her. The navigator opened her eyes in fright as the girl leapt twenty feet towards her, and she rose up her Clima Tact to try and block the kick Juliet Sun swung at her. She rose her blue staff, and the kick slammed into it. She held the staff there for less than a full second, before a loud _**Crack**_ sounded and Nami dropped her jaw as the middle section of her three part Clima Tact snapped in half. The kick kept going, barely slowed by her weather rod at all, and it slammed into Nami's side where more cracks were heard.

The woman with bigger breasts and longer orange hair screamed out in agony as the kick was so strong it ripped her from the goo holding her to the ground and sent her flying. Juliet landed down on the ground and the goo beneath her feet disappeared. She lifted up her hands and goo started dripping from her hands, "How do you like it?" Juliet called out to Nami's writhing form on the floor. "My mucus magic?"

"Nami!" Franky called out as he got back up to his feet. He looked past both of the small women who were attacking them and at the navigator lying on her stomach and grabbing at her left side. "Alright," the cyborg growled, glaring at the woman in front of him first. "I don't like this, but I won't let you hurt Nami-sis anymore!" He put his hands together in front of his body making only a small space in between his hands. "Franky, RADICAL BEAM!" A white light glowed from the inside of the gap in his hands, then shot forward so fast that Heine only had a millisecond to go wide-eyed before the beam of light slammed into the front of her body.

Juliet turned slowly with a dropped jaw at the sight of the huge white explosion where her partner was just standing. The white explosion faded and Heine lay there on the floor covered in burns and not moving. Franky saw the girl with lighter hair staring in shock at her partner and he called over, "Sorry 'bout that little lady! But you have to get out of here or I'm-" Franky stopped talking as the girl lifted up her gaze and glared at him rabidly. "Alright, guess not," he said, and got ready to attack the second girl. As he rose back up his arms though, he noticed something dripping off the sides of them. He darted his eyes to his arms and dropped his jaw at the sight of steam coming off his arms. He tried wiping the gooey substance off his arms, but as he wiped some off he saw the corroded metal beneath it.

 _What the Hell is this stuff?_ He thought, wiping more of it off as it seemed to appear out of nowhere. Juliet was just walking towards Franky and glaring furiously at him as his body covered fully in mucus. The cyborg felt his back, the only part of his body where he actually had skin, covering in the burning goo as well. He reached back and tried wiping it off, but it was burning through his skin already and he let out a pained scream. He narrowed his eyes forward as his face started melting and he lifted his arms back in front of his body. "I warned you!" He yelled, pulling back his right hand as he did. He punched it forward and yelled, "Strong Right!" His fist shot out of his body connected by a chain and Juliet widened her eyes at the sight of it flying towards her. She jumped to her right and the fist flew right past her though, and the girl smirked as she grabbed it by the chain. Franky dropped his jaw again as the girl grabbed his chain arm, then tugged towards herself so hard that he was lifted off the ground and tossed towards her.

Juliet sprinted forward and she stuck out her right elbow, grabbing her wrist with her other hand to steady her arm as she planted it right in Franky's gut. He smirked thinking that she was going to break her arm on his body, but the girl just winced and snapped her gaze up angrily at the cyborg who brought his left arm up to make a fist above her head. He slammed his left arm down while his right arm came retracting back to him, and he missed his left punch as Juliet did a backflip off the ground. His fist hit the floor and black dirt shot up around his arm, right as his right arm clicked back into place. He stood up fully and grabbed his left arm with his right hand, pointing it at the girl coming down and yelling, "Weapons Left!" His arm opened up and machine gun fire shot out at the girl who swerved back and forth dodging all the attacks. What she could not dodge though, was the rocket that shot out of the largest hole in Franky's arm though, blowing up on the floor right below her and sending her flying up in the air.

Juliet snarled and glared down at the cyborg, but Franky was smirking and looking over her head. The enemy snapped her head up in the air, and dropped her jaw at the sight of the black clouds gathering above her. She turned in midair and as she was able to see the other pirate behind her again, she saw Nami swing one of the two not-broken pieces of her weapon and yell, "Weather Egg!" An egg shot out of the small blue rod and up into the black clouds where it cracked and opened up. Juliet was coming back down slowly, covered in burns, and she opened her mouth to yell, but no sound came out as a dozen bolts of lightning rained down on her body and slammed her down into the ground.

The two pirates watched the girl hit the floor and seize around for a moment before they lifted their gazes back to each other and grinned. "That was Super teamwork!" Franky called out as he walked towards Nami. He passed Juliet's body and stuck a thumb up at Nami, though it did not look red anymore as most of the paint he put on had been corroded off. "Let's get going to-" the cyborg stopped as Nami's eyes popped open wide. He started to turn, but barely got halfway when the kick flying at him collided with his already burnt back. Franky heard a crack in his spine and he roared out in agony, right before he was lifted off the ground and sent flying straight at Nami.

She ducked just in time not to get slammed by the heavy robot with a lot of momentum behind him. "Franky!" She screamed and turned to see the cyborg flying off and bouncing on the ground with blood splashing out of his mouth every time he hit. She felt the ground vibrate and spun back around while lifting up the pieces of her Clima Tact that still worked, but she was much too slow to stop Juliet who was already within five feet of her. Juliet crouched and snapped her arm up as she dove at Nami, tackling the older woman off the ground by grabbing her by the throat. Juliet came down and slammed Nami's neck down hard, smashing the woman's head into the floor and making Nami try to scream.

Juliet clenched down on Nami's neck though, and no scream came out. She brought her other arm in and gripped Nami with both hands around the throat. Nami's mouth was open and she dropped her Clima Tact, reaching up with her arms instead and grabbing Juliet by the wrists in a feeble attempt to get the strong girl off of her. Juliet looked nuts though, her entire face and body burnt, her mouth twisted into a deranged smile. She was laughing and she clenched harder on Nami's throat and made the pirate woman's face go blue. Nami's eyes were getting red and she could not get a single breath out of her crushing windpipe. _Luffy! Franky! Someone! I'm going to, die!_ Tears came out of her red eyes and she could hear explosions in the distance where her friends were fighting, but no one was even close to her.

Kirito had a horrible feeling deep in his gut, and he and Sanji spotted a figure on the ground far in front of them. She was still over a half mile away, but both of them could see the position the figures fighting were in. Nami was on the ground, hands were around her neck, and the woman was not moving. Sanji's face took on an enraged expression, but he spotted who was strangling Nami and his sudden urge to shoot over there and kick the figure off became a conflicted one where he had no idea what to do. "Nami-san!" He shouted, racing faster towards them as he figured he could at least grab Nami and get her out from beneath the other woman who he would not be able to hit.

The teenager with Sanji realized the problem Sanji had and tssked as he knew he should have realized it right when his shadow clone disappeared. "She's going to kill her!" Kirito yelled at the man above him who was a little faster and shooting off ahead of him now. "Stop her!" Kirito yelled.

Sanji was still over a quarter mile away, but Nami was not moving under the other girl's hands. His heart was racing. _Nami-san. Nami-san!_ His face covered in sweat and he picked up the pace to go as fast as he could- Sanji came to a stop in midair. He almost fell out of the sky, and Kirito skid to a stop back behind him. The two of them stared with dropped jaws at Nami, because the woman strangling her was no longer on top of her. Juliet was flying to the left of Nami's body, a ball of black slamming straight into her side. The girl hit the ground and tumbled over and over before flipping onto her feet and skidding back across the black ground.

"Who dares-" she began, and then dropped her jaw just like Sanji and Kirito as she saw it. It descended from the sky, flapping its huge purple wings with white curves on the edges of them. The creature's wingspan was twenty feet wide, and it was over fifteen feet tall. It came out of the air right above Nami and turned its white and purple head in the direction it just sent Juliet flying. The creature had a round head with glowing red eyes on it and a small mouth curved up in a smile, with what looked like a curved protective crown over its head.

Nami opened up her eyes slowly as she lay on her back. Her vision was red and blurry, her breath coming out in short raspy bursts. She saw the creature above her and heard Juliet scream at it from the left of her motionless body. "Lunala?!" Juliet screamed. "What the Hell- why would-" the girl shook her head furiously and snapped her eyes back open in fury to start charging at the Legendary Pokemon and the girl it was protecting. "I don't care!" She screamed, and she jumped up towards Nami again with her leg lifted, "Get in my way, and I'll destroy you too!" She shouted at the Pokemon, daring it to get between her and Nami.

Lunala opened its small mouth and a white light glowed from inside it. Juliet's eyes widened while Kirito and Sanji started racing forward to save Nami again. All four of them dropped their jaws as the beam of white light shot out of Lunala's mouth. The Hyper Beam crashed into Juliet and she screamed as the beam carried her back into the distance and then out of sight in the horizon all in a few seconds. Kirito and Sanji kept heading towards Nami this time, not risking leaving her next to this powerful monster without any protection, even if it did just save her life.

"Nami-san!" Sanji shouted as he reached the woman. He got down on his knees next to her and looked at her red throat to see if she was badly hurt.

Nami ignored him for a second though and just sat up on her own, wincing at the feeling of her cracked left ribs. She looked up at the Pokemon above her as it gazed down with its red eyes. "Thank, you," Nami said slowly and in a hoarse voice. The beast nodded its head at her right as Kirito was showing up. Sanji helped Nami up to her feet and she used him as a crutch, him putting her arm above his shoulders and behind his neck. They all looked up at the creature and Nami questioned, "Why, did you, help me?" Her breath was still ragged but she needed to know.

The creature nodded its head down at the three, then looked up and flew into the sky. The black clouds that Eileen created extended this far away from the main battle, so Lunala looked to be about to disappear into them. Before it did however, the three humans down below spotted something else flying up there next to Lunala. It flew over and Lunala stopped in front of it. It was a small pink creature with a long thin tail and a cute face, and it did a few flips in the air and flew around Lunala happily a couple of times.

Sanji, Nami, and Kirito all stared in shock at the creature. They gawked at it because they all recognized the creature. The pink Pokemon waved a hand at Lunala as it flew up into the clouds, then it looked down at the figures down below it. "Mew," Kirito whispered. "Then, does that mean," he looked down and scanned the landscape in every direction of him. "Is Sora-"

"Hey wait!" Sanji called up. Kirito looked back in the air but the pink creature was gone. Sanji lowered the arm he raised and sighed as the Pokemon flew into the clouds and vanished. "Guess we have another thing to thank Sora for."

"Yeah," Nami whispered, still staring up in the sky. _Did Mew get another Pokemon to help me out? Or…_ Nami felt the ground beneath her start shaking and she lost her train of thought. The three of them turned, and a cyborg groaning on his back a half mile away lifted his head up. Franky stopped moaning and he became eerily quiet as did the entire landscape.

Luffy and Natsu stopped battling the small army of Berserkers who remained on the battlefield and they looked towards the source of the shaking at the same time. They stared over and saw Riku panting several yards away from Eileen, whose black witch's attire was ripped on the side of her chest and her black hat was gone. She was not panting, but she was looking at Riku hesitantly as the boy suddenly surrounded in a white glowing light. Riku's aura was not what made the entire landscape shake however.

"My army is defeated, and you are still holding back," Eileen stated as she rose up her staff. Her wooden staff covered in white light and she continued, "Emperor Spriggan was correct. I will retreat for now."

"I won't let you," Riku growled. His body was surrounded in a black coating and his white aura glowed even brighter. His green eyes glowed and he pointed both of his Keyblades at Eileen. "Not until you tell us where Zeref is. Where he took Ben's Omnitrix." Out the tips of his Keyblades formed spheres of black that combined when they got too big. There was a dark orange core in the center of them, but Riku started looking around as the landscape in every direction was shaking. _What is this?_ He thought, before focusing back on Eileen and making his attack even bigger so that all the debris around them started getting dragged into the darkness.

"You can not stop this magic," Eileen boasted. She rose up her staff higher and everything around them started glowing white. The black ground Natsu and Luffy were running across glowed, the mountains, the fields, the sky itself. Mew and Lunala stopped flying as everything around them glowed. Nami yelled out in panic as everything around her started to glow. Back with Eileen and Riku, the woman with long red hair laughed at Riku's expression as he looked around confusedly at everything. "World Reconstruction Magic," she called out. "It is a new form of magic that I created myself, one that I have never used before!" She slammed her staff down on the ground and the glowing landscape got even brighter so no one could see a thing. "Rearranging the entire region, thousands of miles, and everyone in it!"

Riku could hear her voice getting fainter, but louder than ever he heard her finish, "Universe One!" The sky flashed white and everyone for thousands of miles had to clench their eyes shut or squint from the brightness. The white light faded, and Riku stopped squinting to look ahead at his enemy. Eileen was not there though. Eileen was not the only thing missing though, as he was no longer able to hear the roars of Berserkers behind him, or see the mountain range that should have been behind Eileen. He slowly did a full three-sixty degree turn where he was standing, and his jaw could not have dropped lower as his aura completely vanished from around him. To his left a few hundred miles, he spotted some blurry mountains that he recognized as the same ones that were a mile in front of him only a moment before. He looked down and the ground was no longer black, but gray. He looked back up and continued to turn around to look at everything different around him. The suns in the sky were no longer still in the east, but more directly above his head now. _Did I move east? How far? The suns also look much farther north, so did I get sent south? What the Hell?_

The teenager with silver hair oriented himself first, before focusing on the imminent dangers. He did so because the imminent dangers were just as confused as he was. After looking at the ground and the suns though, he had to focus on the beings closest to him. _Damn Eileen,_ he thought, as he figured the woman who rearranged the region decided to mess with him. In every direction around him, for miles, there were monsters covering the landscape. Grimm, Aragami, Menos, zombies, giant wolves and bears, he spotted dragons flying above, and massive worms dragging trenches through the ground two miles to his right. The monsters started turning on each other as they were all put in the same vicinity, and within ten seconds of the Universe One's creation, the gray field Riku appeared on was covered in chaos. Evil-looking monsters were not the only ones to form, as there were some Pokemon battling Grimm, and a few flying monsters taking on some hundred-foot tall Hollows that emerged near him.

The monsters closest to Riku were not fighting each other like many on the field were. Instead, they all focused on one single figure. Riku spotted them all coming towards him at the same time, and he ground his teeth while clenching his Keyblades tight with both hands. _I used too much darkness again. I only have enough for one, maybe two portals. I need to find the others before I do anything risky._

As Riku faced off against a horde of monsters, his friends were scattered all over the place. None of them had any idea as to what just happened though. Natsu stood in the middle of an empty forest, looking around in total confusion as he had no idea as to where he was. He started sprinting forward to try and get a better look of the place, but screamed as when he ran past a few trees, he almost fell into a giant ravine that split the forest out of nowhere. On the other side of the ravine he could see more trees, but right past them were three mountains that looked way out of place. Up the side of one of those mountains were a bunch of buildings squished together and some people outside them shouting in panic.

Luffy scratched the side of his head as he was standing on black ground like what he was previously on, but none of his enemies or allies were around him anymore. He looked in every direction around him and he felt a deep pit of dread in his stomach. "Sanji?! Nami?! Franky?! Usopp?! Robin?!" He shouted for his crew who should have been close by, who should have been right behind him. None of them were there though. They were all, gone.

A few hundred miles to the east, Ichigo Kurosaki lowered his arms from in front of his face. He dropped his jaw as Remano was no longer in front of him. The capital of the Leam empire was gone, all except for one building on his right side that people started flooding out of and screaming. He looked ahead of him and saw a horde of zombies with glowing yellow hearts that showed through their skin turning his way. He spun and shouted at the people behind him to get back in the building, then turned towards the Kabane that started sprinting towards him.

Back in the west, and a few hundred miles north, Kirito spotted something moving thirty meters away from him and he started running towards it. He sighed a breath of relief as a figure sat up in the tall grass, a metal figure covered in burns and not looking so good. Franky was alive though, and he was in the vicinity, unlike the other two Kirito was just standing with.

Sanji stood on the edge of a field with his back to a small forest of about a dozen trees. He had not moved a muscle since reappearing in this strange place, and neither did the orange haired woman he was helping stand. The two of them were just staring forward completely silent, trying not to make a sound as there was a Tyrannosaurus-Rex directly in front of them… getting devoured by much scarier monsters that looked like giant lions with lightning sparking off of their heads. The powerful Aragami known as Vajra were tearing the dinosaur apart like it was made of paper, and the giant beast roared in agony before dying as one of the Vajra chomped straight through its neck.

Nami let out a small yelp at the sight of the huge amount of blood splashing out of the dinosaur's mouth, and instantly a half dozen scary monsters turned towards her and Sanji. The two of them went blue in the face, as the monsters directly in front of them were only the tip of the iceberg. They were not moving because behind those monsters were hundreds, maybe thousands of other scary monsters tearing each other to shreds on the gray field. Flames tore across the landscape as a squad of dragons made a bombing run, and they watched as two Grimm Nevermores dropped out of the sky and took out half of the dragons in seconds. An Alpha Dragon marched across the field though and it did not look happy about what the Grimm did, opening its mouth and releasing a beam of purple light so wide that it tore through the Nevermores and slammed into a hill that a giant worm just dug through with a mouth full of spinning sharp teeth.

The hill exploded in every direction, then through the explosion came hundreds of Aragami that looked like eyeballs with wings. They flew over monsters called Gohma whose bodies were lined with glowing red veins, and swerved in between fifteen meter tall Titans that were starting to head in the direction of the forest Nami and Sanji were in front of. The blond-haired man took a step back, and as he did, the Vajra in front of him started to charge. "Move!" Someone shouted behind them. The two looked back into the forest to see a familiar muscular man with long curly hair pointing a slingshot at them. The slingshot stopped shaking right as Usopp released the pulled-back elastic part, and a Pop Green flew right in between Sanji and Nami's heads, hitting the ground between them and the Vajra and making bamboo shoots come flying out of the ground and putting a wall in between them and the monsters.

The Aragami were strong though, and they started tearing through the bamboo thicket like it was nothing. Sanji was not going to wait for them to get through though, and he turned and started running through the forest, picking up Nami bridal style as he did since her ribs were cracked and she could not run on her own. "Come on come on!" Usopp shouted and then turned and ran with them as they reached him. They ran through the small forest and came out on a field that was split directly down the middle unnaturally. On one side was green grass ten feet tall, and on the other were black rocks separated by lava trails. Only a mile past these two areas the ground dropped off into a massive ravine, and on the other side was half of a mountain.

"What the Hell happened?!" Usopp screamed. He looked at the other two but neither Sanji nor Nami had an answer for him.

 **"Roooaaarrr!"** They heard the roars coming from the forest right behind them and the three pirates spun around to see trees falling left and right. The Vajra tore through so fast that there was no time for them to keep running. Sanji put Nami down and she struggled to stay standing, although she did not have her Clima Tact with her anymore and did not know how she would be able to help. Sanji and Usopp stepped in front of her and rose their right leg and slingshot respectively.

Monsters came charging out of the forest, and then a black portal opened up in front of Usopp and Sanji. The two of them opened their eyes wide, and the giant Vajra in the front of the pack of monsters charging at them stopped to turn to the portal instead. The black portal vanished, and on the other side of where it lifted up was a teenager in a torn yellow shirt, with blood dripping down his left arm and right leg. He had a Keyblade in only his right hand, and he was panting heavily with blood coming down the right corner of his mouth. "Get back," Riku snarled. His friends behind him did not know if he was talking to them or to the monsters that were still coming out of the forest in front of them but stopping at the sight of him.

"Riku," Usopp said, his whole body shaking. He clenched his teeth, but then shouted, "It's okay! Use the Heartless! It's the only way!"

"I can't," Riku growled. He saw some of the more daring beasts inching forwards and he knew they were going to attack at any second. He was out of fuel. He was tired. "I, have to use, my trump cards," he muttered. The others looked at his back confusedly as they had no idea what he was talking about. He opened his mouth to apologize, but he closed it and just ground his teeth together. _It wouldn't make a difference,_ he thought, and then he swiped his Keyblade down in front of him.

Riku cut a hole of darkness in the air, then stepped back slowly towards the others behind him. "I command you," Riku said, his voice low, his eyes shadowed over. "Come out, and destroy these monsters."

"What are you talking about?" Sanji asked. He kept his foot raised and got ready as one of the giant lion-like monsters came charging around the left side of the portal. It made it five feet, before a yellow beam shot out of the black portal and collided with the Vajra's face. The beam erupted into a massive dome explosion with a force that knocked Nami and Usopp off their feet and sent Riku and Sanji skidding backwards. Sanji had to put both feet on the ground and he crossed his arms in front of him as he was pushed back.

Nami and Usopp sat up and got back to their feet much farther from the black portal than they just were. Riku turned towards them and he started jogging away, "Come on! Let's get out of here!"

"Wait," Usopp mumbled. He stepped backwards himself, but kept staring over at that portal.

"Usopp, let's go!" Riku shouted.

Nami spun around and saw Riku running with his head down. She turned back towards the black portal as it was closing, and she spotted two figures standing on the other side of it. There was a man in full golden armor who rose up a sword and shot forward, making giant monsters fly up in the air as he ripped through them with a sword dripping dark ooze. There was another figure there though. He stood there, much taller than her or her friends. His body was dark, but his silhouette was one she recognized. He rose up his right hand and it glowed bright red, then he lifted his left, and it glowed bright yellow. Out from his back came a pillar of darkness that shot into the sky.

"It can't be," Sanji whispered, losing his breath at the sight of the figure.

"What, the, fuck?" Usopp muttered. He watched as the fat figure rose his right hand and punched it forward, sending a giant fist of magma flying into the forest in front of him and smashing through all the trees and Grimm that were running between them. He fired beams out of his left hand, and the pillar of black on top of his head flattened down to the ground and shot into the forest, catching all the creatures that were escaping and dragging them down into a Black Hole. The dark, fat figure, turned his head partially to the left to face a monster coming at him from that side, and when he was turned the three pirates got a glimpse of his face.

"Blackbeard," Nami whispered at the sight of the menacing pirate. The fat man was covered in a thin veil of darkness so she could still see his hairy chest behind it, but his eyes were not glowing white like normal Heartless. Instead, his eyes were black with gray irises in the middles of them.

"Guys!" Riku shouted behind him. The three pirates turned and saw the young man already halfway across the black rocky area. He stopped between two fast-moving streams of lava and yelled, "We need to go! The others could be in danger!"

Sanji thought about Robin and he hardened his expression, starting to jog towards Riku. Nami and Usopp did not make similar expressions though. Nami was shaking her head at Riku who saw her and turned away. Usopp though, his lips were twisting into an enraged look and he sprinted towards Riku faster than both Sanji and Nami. "What the fuck are you doing?!" He screamed.

Sanji looked at Usopp's back and usually when the younger man would yell at Riku he would feel the urge to tell him to calm down, but at the moment he did not. "Was that Blackbeard?!" Nami shouted up at him.

"How the Hell did you summon a dead Yonko?!" Usopp screamed at his back.

"Explain yourself Riku!" Nami yelled as Riku stopped again and clenched his fists at his sides.

"Orochimaru never released the Reanimation Jutsu!" Riku finally shouted at them all. They stared at him in confusion and shock as he spun around and continued, "When he died, the Reanimations that were not sealed never got called off. During the battle, Ansem trapped two of the undead soldiers inside a dark realm. I don't know how to return them to the grave, so I've been keeping them as trump cards in case something were to come up. And look, Blackbeard just saved our lives!" He looked behind the pirates and saw more explosions going off back in the direction of the field covered in horrifying monsters.

Usopp marched towards him furiously. "I don't care that you have Blackbeard trapped in the darkness! But what about that other guy?!" Riku turned his gaze away and he kept shouting. "That's what I thought! You have an innocent guy, trapped inside your darkness just like you trapped me, and Rin, and everyone else!"

"It's different. There's nowhere for them to go! They're already dead!" Riku clenched his fists harder and blood seeped through his fingers. "What am I supposed to do about it? Let Blackbeard go?"

"Even if you didn't, why didn't you let the other guy?!" Usopp yelled, stepping right up to Riku's chest now. He glared into the teenager the same age as him's eyes, "Answer me Riku!"

"What if I release him," Riku began darkly, "and he goes back to listening to the last orders Orochimaru gave him?" Usopp leaned back a little as Riku glared right back into Usopp's eyes. "Zaratras is strong. So strong, that I didn't trust myself, to be able to finish him off." He clenched his fists even tighter and spoke softly under his breath, "I didn't know, what to do. I didn't know what to do!" He yelled and glared back into the sniper's eyes. "So I kept them in the darkness! It was the safest option. And I figured, if it came to it I could use them to get me out of a tight spot."

Usopp took a step back, shaking his head at the silver haired teen in front of him. "That's, that's-"

"Despicable," Riku finished for him. "You think I don't know that?" He growled. "But it's over now. Those were the only two I had, so don't worry about it. Right now, we need to find Ben and the others." Riku turned around and continued walking towards the ravine on the other side of the lava fields. He walked over black rocks and heard the others whispering to each other behind him. He knew what they were talking about, and he ground his teeth knowing they were right to think he was scum.

Nami sped up a little to get out of the conversation with the other two. She got over to Riku and glanced back at the others, seeing Usopp glaring daggers into Riku's back, and Sanji frowning as well though not as deeply. She turned her head and saw the side of Riku's face, the frustrated, angry look on it. "Thank you," she whispered, hiding her voice from the others behind her. Riku turned towards her in surprise and he came to a stop. "You did save us," she added. "How you did it, I don't agree with. I know you didn't want- I," she stopped talking as Riku's surprised look turned even more shocked, but it was not her words that made him look that way. His jaw dropped and his eyes turned into saucers.

Riku stepped forward and bumped into Nami who stumbled out of the way. She frowned and opened her mouth to yell at the man she was just trying to console, but Riku started running and he leapt over a stream of lava to the next rock down. She followed him and heard Usopp behind her, "Now what the Hell is that bastard doing?" She darted Usopp a glare then looked back at Riku's back. She saw him running in a very specific direction, and she looked past him to a far away black rock surrounded by lava where something was sticking out of it.

"What is that?" Sanji muttered, spotting the form sticking out of the rock as well.

Nami peered closer and stepped to the edge of the black rocks so she was right next to the magma. It was hot, but she ignored it because of the horrifying feeling in her stomach. It was Usopp who lost his angry and confused look first, as his eyes were the best of any of them. "Oh my God," Usopp whispered. His friends looked at him and saw Usopp's entire body shaking. The sniper clenched his teeth hard but no longer looked angry at Riku at all. He ran forward and jumped across the gap of burning red liquid, chasing after Riku.

"Wait! What is it?" Nami called after him.

Sanji jogged to Nami's side, and he picked her up before leaping after Usopp. She did not thank him, though they both knew she would not be able to make these leaps with her broken ribs. The two of them chased after Usopp and Riku, and they spotted Riku stopping on the rock far ahead of them. When they saw what he stopped in front of, Sanji almost lost his footing on the landing as both he and Nami dropped their jaws. Nami lifted a hand to her mouth and covered it while staring ahead in horror, tears coming out of her eyes.

Riku stopped on the circular rock in the middle of the sea of lava and he stared in front of him with shaking hands. His eyes darted around as his mouth twisted in rage, but he did not see any enemies around him for miles. Even all the monsters were still busy with the two pawns he sent against them. That left him alone on the rock, alone with the figure strapped to a steel cross sticking out of the ground. He had nails through his wrists, and a single black spike sticking out of his stomach. Blood poured down his arms and dripped off like a faucet on the ground below him. "Ben," Riku whispered. His voice came out hoarse and he stumbled forward towards the cross Ben was strapped to. "Who- when-"

"Get him down from there!" Usopp shouted at Riku's back as he got close.

Riku shook his head around and snapped his gaze back up to the spikes sticking out of Ben. He whipped out his Keyblade fast and jumped up, smashing each of the spikes with his Keyblade and making Ben drop once the spikes of metal were all in pieces. He caught Ben as the boy fell, and lowered him down to the rock slowly right as Usopp got to them. "Ben!" Usopp shouted down at the kid on the floor. He thought about the first time he saw the boy, coming out of the woods at Riku's side fighting against a giant five-eyed blob monster together. He thought about how he and Luffy sprinted towards them and joined in the fight, and how amazed they were when Ben transformed into an alien.

"Ben," Riku whispered. He lowered his head down to Ben's chest above the spot where there was a hole leaking blood. The boy had no shirt on, nor any pants. He was bloody and burnt all over. Riku put his head down on Ben's chest and he listened. He held his breath, and then his eyes snapped open wide at the sound of thumping inside his friend. "Ben!" Riku shouted, snapping up fast and lifting his Keyblade. _I thought you were…_ "Curaga! Curaga! Curaga!" Riku blasted as much healing magic as he could into Ben, but he ran out after only two uses. He snarled and shook around his Keyblade a little, before yelling, "Cura!" This time he managed to get the green light to come out, though there was less of it than the first two times he yelled.

"Ben!" Sanji and Nami shouted as they arrived at the rock with the other two. "Put me down," Nami told Sanji and he complied. She winced but dropped down to her knees next to Ben right away. She saw his chest lifting up and down and the woman sighed a deep breath of relief, falling back on her butt and staring up at the sky. _Thank you,_ she thought, not knowing who she was even thinking it to.

"He's alive," Usopp whispered, his own heart rate slowing down as well.

"What kind of bastard," Sanji began, grinding his teeth in fury. He glared around and sensed out with his Haki, but he could not feel any humanoid presences within a mile of them. _If I find the shitty bastard who did this, I'm going to rip him apart._

Ben lay flat on his back, and his eyes opened up towards the sky. He opened his mouth to scream, but it was not Bloodman's face he saw above him, it was Riku's. He kept his mouth open in that position for a few seconds and his whole face twisted and distorted. He opened and closed his mouth, trying to say something, and then he just rose up his bloody right arm and put it in front of his eyes. He tried holding it in to no avail. "Ahh, ahhhh!" Sanji turned away and Usopp clenched his fists tight at his sides.

"Ben," Riku whispered, but Ben did not stop. The boy brought his other arm up and covered his face with them both. He tried covering his mouth and his eyes, but his tears seeped out to the sides and rolled down his face while his muffled sobs just got louder. Riku stood up in front of Ben and he turned around, his nails digging into his palms harder than ever. He winced in pain, but his heart hurt so much worse. _How could I let this happen? I thought, I believed Ben was strong. I trusted him to fight these monsters on his own! How could I be so stupid?! He's thirteen! He didn't have his Omnitrix, and I just let him, I let him,_ Riku clenched his eyes shut tight as he heard Ben's wails behind him.

Nami leaned back forward after falling to her butt in relief. She lost her relieved look from just Ben being alive, and her expression returned to a pained one as she put her arms around Ben and pulled him towards her. He pulled away but she pulled back towards her and he was too weak to fight it. "Oh Ben," she whispered as she rubbed the back of his head, pulling his head into her chest. "It's okay. It's going to be alright," she whispered to him.

Sanji turned around and saw Riku glaring out over the lava deep in thought. He looked back at Nami holding a crying Ben and turned to Usopp who was glaring at the ground, so angry at everything. The chef ran a hand through his hair and he pulled out his cigarettes, frowning as there were only two left. He lit one of the last two up anyway though, and took a puff before speaking. "Let's get moving," the others all looked back at him and he continued, "Luffy and the others could be anywhere. We should start looking for them."

Riku clenched his teeth together for a few more seconds, then let out a breath and unclenched his fists as well. "No," he said softly. He looked back at the pirates who all turned to him, and looked down at the back of Ben's head too. "We can't handle this continent on our own. I realized that these last few days."

"That's why we need to find Luffy and the others," Usopp snapped at him. Riku looked at Usopp and his expression was so exhausted, so drained and sad that Usopp could not keep glaring at him for more than another second.

Riku shook his head and continued, "If we just go wandering around looking for our friends, we're more likely going to run into more of Zeref's forces, or powerful monsters. We have no idea where we are, and we're low on supplies." He looked up at the sky and at the suns far in the distance to the north yet still high up in the sky. "We were moved pretty far south," Riku stated. He turned around and looked even farther to the south, "If we keep going this way, we're likely to run into some Resistance strongholds." _Hopefully,_ he added to himself as the chances of running into one anytime soon still seemed slim to him.

"What about Luffy-" Nami began.

"Everyone should have the same idea," Riku stated. He looked back at the orange haired woman, "We were heading south in the first place. Instead of walking in circles, everyone should be heading south again. It's what we all know to do. Hopefully the Resistance bases are in contact with each other, and if the others show up at any other settlements or bases, we can locate them. We need to find somewhere safe to rest though." As he spoke, Ben's sobbing had been getting quieter and he could no longer hear it. He thought the boy had calmed down some, but as Nami leaned Ben's face away from her chest, they all saw the boy's eyes were closed and he was out cold.

Ben was unconscious, and Riku was out of magic, so he still could not heal Nami whose ribs ached like crazy. Usopp and Sanji looked around at their weak, exhausted group, and the two of them realized Riku was right. Usopp looked back to the north though as he realized it. _Luffy… Wherever you are, I hope you know to head south. Knowing you, you probably don't even know where that is._ He sighed as he figured Luffy could handle himself though, and everyone else would likely come up with Riku's plan themselves and head south as well. "Alright," Usopp said, looking up into Riku's eyes. He lost a lot of the hatred from before, as it was pretty hard to direct his anger at someone who looked so distraught over Ben's condition. He knew there were much worse monsters than Riku they had to deal with. His hate was all directed at the monster who crucified Ben, and he kept that hate going so that he could deal with Riku right now. "Let's get moving," Usopp suggested, turning south himself. "We should find somewhere safe before nightfall."

Sanji nodded his head in agreement and took another puff of his cigarette. Riku stepped towards Nami and he took Ben off her hands, holding him up the same way Sanji was carrying Nami before. Sanji offered to pick her up again, but Nami shook her head, "I can do it," she said. The pain in her stomach suddenly felt small, as she was comparing it to the boy in Riku's arms'. Just thinking about the way he looked on that cross, and the sounds he made when they got him down, it had her wincing in pain again. Sanji thought it was from her cracked ribs, but Nami opened her eyes and he saw the water in them and knew.

"He'll be alright," Sanji said as the other three got ahead of them. She glanced at the chef and he put a hand on her shoulder, "Ben's a strong kid. He'll get past this."

Nami looked over at Riku's back and the kid's head sticking out past Riku's right side. "Yeah," she whispered. "I really hope so."

* * *

Thousands of miles north of Nami, Riku, and the others, a lone figure sat on top of a mountain that shot way above the clouds. The sky above him was dark because he was so high in the atmosphere, and he knew if he tried flying more than a few hundred meters up, he would hit the barrier surrounding Nexus. He sat there on a mountaintop covered in snow, wearing a furry coat, warm boots, and mittens over his hands. The air up there was thin and frigid, so much so that he could see his staggered breaths hanging in the air. The teen was still not used to the air pressure and lack of oxygen, but he definitely felt better than the day before.

He looked off the side of the mountain over the tops of other very tall mountains around him. Behind him was the very tallest mountain in the range, with many peaks sticking up around its sides, and a large flat section that was level with him. The flat section of the taller mountain connected to the peak of the mountain he was on by a long wooden bridge. There were buildings all over that flat section, and the side peaks and mountaintop both had no snow on them, so people were walking around the area casually talking and selling goods at the market. There was an entire town in the upper atmosphere on top of the tallest mountain in the world. The teenager sitting on the top of the second tallest mountain could hear them far behind him, but he was not focused on them at all.

The teenager wearing a red coat grinned as he finally spotted what he was looking for. It came flying up through the puffy white clouds far below him, looked around for a second, then spotted him and did a backflip before shooting up in the sky. Mew had a pink aura around it, but as it closed in on the spiky-brown-haired teen on the second tallest mountain's peak, it lost its pink aura and slowed down. "Hey Mew," Sora called to his friend as the Pokemon finally reached him. Mew flew right towards him and nuzzled into his face and Sora laughed while rubbing his arms around the cute pink Pokemon. "Haha, I know buddy, it's cold up here. So," he started and pulled back from the hug with his chilly Pokemon. "Did you find them?" He asked.

Mew nodded its head and made a bunch of mewing sounds at the boy in front of it. Far behind Sora across the wooden bridge, a few people spotted the creature in front of Sora and they shook their heads, wondering how he could understand the creature. Sora smiled as Mew finished talking and he chuckled to himself, "So they're still okay," he said in relief. "Alright," he clapped his hands together and rubbed them back and forth as they were still cold even inside the mittens. "Lugia and Charizard haven't checked back in yet, so do you mind looking for the others?" Mew shook its head 'no' at him and Sora smiled wider. "Thanks. Look for everyone who wasn't with Riku: Gray, Killua, Rin, Juvia, Dash, Kairi… and actually, look for Timmy too if you can."

Mew did another backflip in the air and then a full spin around Sora. "Take a break if you need to too!" Sora called down as his Legendary Pokemon turned and started flying away. He followed Mew's path all the way back down to the puffy white clouds below and then sighed a breath of relief. _Riku, I hope you're taking care of everyone. I'll be back soon. Someone's just being a little difficult-_

"Hey Sora!" a high-pitched voice called out. Sora smiled at the sound of it and he turned around to look across the wooden bridge back to the tallest mountain, Mount Vegeta. There was a small child with crazy black spiky hair going every direction over his head. The kid waved a hand towards him and called out, "We're starting up training! Come join!"

Sora chuckled and he put his hands behind his head as he started walking over. "Sure!" Sora called out. "Don't know if I'll be able to keep up with you Saiyans though." The teen chuckled as he got closer to his friend, and he looked over the kid's head at all the black haired figures walking around the top of the mountain. Most of them were wearing armor, and all of them had tails sticking out of their butts, wrapped around their waists unlike his friend's that was just sticking out behind him and waving around like he was excited. "You sure I'm allowed Goku?" Sora asked.

"Yeah," Goku replied excitedly. "I asked and he said it was okay!"

"Well then," Sora said. He pulled his hands down from behind his head and clapped them together in front of him. "Let's get started!"

* * *

 **A/N Goku! Sora! XD Thanks for reading! We get a glimpse of where two of our missing heroes are, surrounded by Saiyans at the top of Mount Vegeta. Meanwhile though, the rest of the group get in a fight with the Spriggans, including Eileen Belserion who not only took over Pyraxas but also rearranged an entire region of Aebrith (including part of the Leam Empire, at least its Capital Remano where we caught a glimpse of Ichigo too)! It looks like Ben bit off more than he could chew without his Omnitrix, though the Spriggans really are very powerful. Even their subordinates (like Bakel, Heine, and Juilet) were all able to hold their own in the Fairy Tail manga against pretty powerful Fairy Tail members. Riku reveals his "trump cards" and releases Zaratras and Blackbeard to give him and his friends a chance to escape while they're all exhausted and wounded. Ben... well, Bloodman is a crazy demon who likes to crucify people, as shown... How will this new separation effect the characters? Will they be able to find Resistance bases and regroup with each other? What about Goku and Sora? What about Timmy?! Find out in the upcoming chapters of Nexus: Heroes Will Rise!**

Limit-Breaking chapter 69 . 12h ago

Damn everybody is just mad with each other and they are just despairing about how bad it's going for then. Maybe Goku and Timmy shouldn't have gone with them on this journey cause by the looks of it they are relying on them way to much to come and help them. I mean it makes sense as to why but they should try to have more hope. As for Luffy he was so scared that it kinda made me laugh at how he changed from we fight we fight we fight to RUN RUN RUN AWAY. Also ussop is starting to hate Riku is getting more interesting and now ben lost his Omnitrix that fucking sucks he really relied on it. Also killua was in a coma and now everybody feels bad for treating him a little bad. Man so much drama, but hey I do have a some questions when it came down to meliodas why did he say he has some questions for that super Saiyan so mysteriously will we find out anytime soon . And just curious will Vegeta Make a appearance any time in this story or no. Also giving you a heads up the voice actor for Bulma on dragon Ball super has passed away for the subbed version so they will have to find a new voice actor and this may affect the series but we will KING IS OMNI-POTENT, JUST KIDDING at most I was comparing him to zarbon and dodoria power where they technically can destroy a planet but king had a similar power to them so it's hard to gauge if king can actually destroy one since he has shown no feats close to that. Also when it comes down to Kara why was she just typing away on her computer instead of trying to help the fighters escape from being slaves has she given up on being a hero, does she not know also is there two Kara's in this story cause at one point you said dc series: super man, kara  
Than you put her under super girl series: kara kinda confused there but besides that amazing job with all the suspense and drama everybody is just dying and losing hope and it continues to get better and better at this point they are going to need some senzu beans. Also I say the only people who should be traveling the world of Nexus are characters like goku, Gohan, Vegeta, and Timmy since they can handle it. But other people not so much even in groups they are having lot's of problems. I'll look forward to the next chapter.

 **Luckily, even if they can't rely on Goku and Timmy, Sora's always got their backs... most of the time. The sight of Bahamut def made the entire group bail as fast as they could, and Usopp hating Riku is only getting worse after what happened this chapter. You were totally right about Ben losing his Omnitrix, and without it he's shown he is just not as able to defeat one of the Spriggan 12 as he was... last chapter. Sad about that thing with Bulma's voice actress, and I wonder if they'll refer to it in the show at all or anything. King having close to Zarbon or Dodoria power seems a stretch to me with the planet-busting powers they have, but either way without his weapon he just isn't as strong (in this at least) (or from whenever he reappeared on Nexus from his timelines). As for Supergirl, I'm sure we'll see some of her in a bit (with Ichigo's reappearance this chapter making that even more pertinent), though I don't get what you're talking about with the "Dc series: superman, kara" thing her being two people. I've had a few characters that are from multiple DC universes in this and managed to merge them into the same (like robin, Batman, Superman, etc.) though I also had Trunks and Future Trunks so there is the possibility for multiple universe's people. (Not for Supergirl though, I guess spoiler). Everybody needs a senzu bean, and it would be tough to tell Natsu or Luffy not to go on an adventure cuz they're not strong enough. Anyway, thanks for the review, and thanks everyone for reading, favoriting, following, and reviewing. Well, 'til next time!**


	71. Nexus HWR 11-3 Summit

**A/N Two in one day?! XD Hope you enjoy the chapter. I'm on Thanksgiving break right now, and though I've got a bunch of study abroad application work to do (going to Tokyo in Spring Semester), I figured I had time to edit another chapter! Anyway, thanks so much everyone for over 200 reviews to this story so far! We're nearing the amount that all of Nexus had in total, and I bet this will reach a million words by the end of chapter 11. Woo! Well, here's the chapter:**

 **Disclaimer: As always, I do not own any of the media I received the characters and settings from this story from. They aren't mine.**

* * *

 **Nexus HWR 11.3 Summit:**

 **Awul**

Roy Mustang walked through a crowded grand hall in the direction of some stairs. The staircase led up to a set of double doors which would hopefully bring him somewhere quieter. The room was brightly illuminated by large chandeliers floating in midair all over the place. The tables and comfortable chairs on the sides of the room where some people were sitting were mostly also floating. This massive castle floating in central Awul over a city down below always got on Mustang's nerves.

 _Magnoshutatt,_ Roy thought as he crossed the room. _They pulled out of the RNG before I could even tell them our plans for the new government. And now, these pompous witches and warlocks demand that the Summit take place in their own country. We should not have accepted this. The Renewed Nexus Government still possesses the most land on Awul._ The Fuhrer walking towards the steps stopped as he spotted someone he recognized to his right, standing next to a fountain with a young woman at his side.

The two walking behind Mustang stopped as well and followed his gaze towards the fountain. Colonel Riza Hawkeye had on a blue uniform like that of the Fuhrer and General Alex Louis Armstrong who walked on her left side. "Let's greet them," Mustang said, sounding like he was only suggesting it because he felt obligated to.

The two blondes behind him nodded and followed after the leader of their State Military. The two Mustang was walking towards were talking with another couple who looked Mustang's way first and opened their eyes in a little surprise that the Fuhrer was coming over to them. The young woman with long silver-blonde hair and her husband with neck-length dirty blond, Queen Daenerys and King Alibaba, turned to the leaders of the State Military as they approached.

"Fuhrer Mustang," Alibaba greeted. "Good to see you decided to come. Heard you were trying to fight this venue," the young man chuckled as Roy frowned deeper. Ten feet behind Alibaba there was a quiet girl with pink hair standing in a white dress that had nothing on the magnificence of the Queen of Rhodar's long golden dress that shimmered as she moved.

"I was," Mustang said, not denying Alibaba's claim. "But it is done now. Nothing I can do but take part in this great accomplishment."

"Getting all of Awul's leaders together like this," Daenerys began, her expression discerning. She continued, "It would be a perfect opportunity for terrorists such as those Underlords to strike. I dislike this entire situation."

"I highly doubt there will be an attack, Your Majesty," Hawkeye began, making sure to bow her head a little once the younger woman turned towards her. Hawkeye stood back up in a respectful stance and continued, "Thousands of guards from several powerful countries are posted in and around the castle. The Underlords would be foolish to attack us today."

Daenerys hummed to herself and nodded. She looked at the older blonde woman carefully and tilted her head back. "What is your name?"

Hawkeye looked at the younger woman in surprise and confusion, but she answered, "Hawkeye, Riza Hawkeye."

Daenerys grinned and looked into Hawkeye's eyes as she did. "You seem like a strong soldier. If you ever get tired of following a man's orders," Roy's eyes widened as did his subordinates' while Alibaba chuckled nervously under his breath. Daenerys finished, "Come find me. I will find a position that better suits you."

Riza did not say anything for a few seconds, but Daenerys's friendly grin started to look more dangerous. "Th-Thank you, Your Grace," Riza said, bowing again and then glancing at Mustang who held his tongue in front of the Dragon Queen.

Alex Louis Armstrong chuckled himself once the interaction seemed to calm down a little, then he looked beyond the King of Rhodar and spotted the King's personal guard standing back behind him. The tall muscular man slowly opened his eyes wide, _Rhodari, small girl, pink hair..._ Morgiana noticed the man was staring at her and she made eye contact with him. Armstrong turned and saw Roy had started talking with Alibaba and his wife again, so he walked a few steps away from them while they were distracted and towards the girl behind Rhodar's King.

"Was it you?" Armstrong asked, at first confusing the young girl who said nothing in response. "Who destroyed the Briggs' Fortress on the RNG's southern border?" He specified. Morgiana's cheeks turned a little red but she turned away and then nodded. She did not know how the man wearing the same uniform as those she defeated that day would react, but he did not seem to particularly dislike her for what she said. Instead he had a thoughtful look on his face and he continued, "My older sister went on for hours about you."

Morgiana's eyes opened wide and she turned back to the man and looked at him closer. Alex continued while their bosses talked together, "She was upset of course about her base and her men, but I could tell her angry rants and insults towards you were out of respect for your strength. I am impressed as well, Olivier is very strong."

The young girl Alex was talking to nodded her head as she thought about the female General in charge of the Briggs' Fortress. "Thank you," she finally said, and Alex nodded down at her.

"If everyone could please come this way!" The voice that shouted filled the entire room but the direction it came from was clear. Everyone looked towards the stairs and the double doors at the top of them. There was a young woman in the doorway holding a long wooden staff. She had long aqua-blue hair falling to her waist in braids and on top of her head she had on a black witch's hat.

"So that's Magnoshutatt's new leader?" Mustang whispered to his left at Hawkeye, neither of them tearing their eyes off the young witch at the top of the stairs. "The one who would only send us a letter regarding their split from our government, and who forced us to come here instead of-"

"Yes that's her," Hawkeye interrupted her boss who was obviously more than a tad salty. She sighed and then gained a small smile on her face at the sight of another powerful woman here. "Yamraiha, Chancellor of Magnoshutatt. Twenty-seven years old."

"Heh, you sure know a lot about Yam-san," Alibaba chuckled as he walked past the other two. They looked at him oddly as the Rhodari King smirked and strode forward. _Bet they don't even know we're from the same world,_ Alibaba thought and chuckled some more.

As Alibaba, Mustang, and the others near them headed up the stairs, a group on the far side of the hall from the stairs glanced away at the exit behind them. Laxus turned back to the taller man next to him and Fleet Admiral Aokiji sighed as it could not be helped. Neither of them wanted to be there very much, but it was their jobs.

"Let's get in there," Mandy snapped. She turned and started walking after everyone else heading towards the other end of the room. She wore her black cloak and had her scythe in hand but Grim was not with her at the moment. Until recently she always had him at her side for protection, but she no longer felt the need for it. The short blonde girl would have liked to be one of the first people in the next room where they were actually meeting, but those she knew best were all right behind her now. She was heading into a room full of the leaders of their entire continent and she would make sure she was surrounded by people she could rely on. _By the end of today they will all know of Mandy,_ she thought with narrowed eyes and a deep frown on her face.

Najenda shook her head at the short girl's back and then started walking after her. Laxus grumbled but followed along as well, and Leonardo stepped forward on his left side. Aokiji was the only RNG leader back here with them other than Mandy, but there was one other person walking with them towards the steps. This man had a blue cat flying over his right shoulder, and though he was technically "walking" towards the steps, on every other step no foot would touch the ground.

Yamcha had a bead of sweat dripping down his face and the man mentally groaned for getting himself in this situation. _"Yamcha, you have to come along. Vegeta won't come and you're the only other Z fighter on the continent."_ _I would have rather you took Gohan, who cares that he's a kid?_ The muscular man had on his orange gi as he did not know what else he should have worn instead, but once he showed up he realized he was definitely underdressed. Military leaders were all in full uniforms and royalty were dressed up, even Aokiji had on a white Marine officer jacket draped over his shoulders with 'Justice' written in Kanji down the back of it. _This is going to be rough. I just hope they don't get me involved with anything important._

Over sixty people climbed up the steps to the double doors leading to their destination. The hallway on the other side of the doors was dark, but when the guests stepped through they were amazed to find the door's entrance was less of an opening and more a portal to someplace completely different. The dark air in the doorway shimmered when they stepped through the doors and they were instantly transported to an enormous circular room full of chairs. There was a stage that had a table with ten chairs around it in the center of the room, and then more rows of chairs surrounded the outside of the stage where some people were starting to sit down. Mustang sent Armstrong and Hawkeye to go take seats, but then he looked towards the table on the stage himself and wondered if he was supposed to just go up there if he was confident enough or wait for the Chancellor of this country to give him the 'okay.'

Yamraiha was currently the only one on the stage, having arrived there first after leading everyone else inside. The next man to step up on the stage had a knowing look on his face and he grinned towards Yamraiha who smiled back at him. Mustang stared at this man with long purple hair tied into a braid who he recognized from his negotiations after the Battle of Metropolis, but also from previous dealings in politics since arriving on Nexus. _King of Sindria, Sinbad,_ Mustang thought, keeping a frown on his face while he did.

Yamraiha looked Mustang's way and opened her mouth. The Fuhrer got ready to move towards the stage as he was called up, but froze as the blue haired witch called towards him, "Alibaba, Daenerys, come join us."

Alibaba glanced at Morgiana and flashed her a smile before turning back and heading to the stage with his wife. Daenerys' two personal guards and Morgiana walked over to some seats near the State Military soldiers, though they left one space open between their groups in case the short man standing in front of them needed to sit.

King Thrall did not wait to be invited, marching up the steps towards the stage as well. The green-skinned Orc had long black braids and a bad underbite with sharp white teeth sticking up out of it. The High-Commander of the Horde, King of the Orcs, and ruler of a small country with a capital in Orgrimmar, Thrall broke off from the RNG like Magnoshutatt once it became clear they would not be destroyed if they did.

Already four of the ten spots at the table were filled up, and Yamraiha was likely to take a seat at one of the last six once the other spots were filled. Laxus turned to Najenda and motioned with his head towards the table. She shook her head 'no' at him, but Leo nudged her with his elbow and the white haired woman looked at the ninja turtle in surprise. "You've been on the council longer than either of us," Leo mentioned.

"And I'm not doing it," Laxus muttered. He already had a hard enough time managing Fairy Tail, taking responsibility for Pao here would be too much for him especially since training himself and the Teen Titans still took up most of his time. "So get up there," he said, this time reaching out and grabbing Najenda by the shoulder and shoving her forward forcefully.

Najenda stumbled one step forward but stopped herself and darted Laxus a look she sometimes gave her targets before an assassination. The man's eyes widened and both he and Leo got sweat on their faces before Najenda turned back around and walked towards the stage on her own accord.

Many people in the room looking at this woman walking over did not recognize her. A couple pulled out electronic devices they put over their eyes but lowered them a second later and whispered to those near them in confusion anyway as the identifiers and scouters did not help them figure out who this was. Yamraiha also looked semi-confused as she stared at this woman, but Sinbad called out from his seat, "Pao's representative! How did I guess that the Mayor himself would not grace us with his presence?"

Najenda smiled calmly yet in an extremely dangerous way as she walked towards a seat on the more empty half of the table near where Thrall was sitting, leaving a space between them while now being entirely opposite Sinbad. "Goku had some business to attend to in Aebrith. I will be enough to speak for Pao Town," she put her hands over the table, her flesh and blood one and her one made of green steel. The woman with a black eyepatch over one eye leaned forward and had an intimidating expression on her face that made Leo and Laxus glad they picked her for this.

While Najenda was getting to the table, Mustang had been examining the crowd around him and saw there were a few others who had not taken seats. There were many small towns and even cities that broke off from RNG rule after the Battle of Metropolis, but other than Durotar- Thrall's country, Atlantis- who had no representatives there from what Roy could see, and Magnoshutatt, none of those settlements would be considered for a spot at the table.

Almost as soon as he figured it out, Yamraiha looked his way again, and with a smirk on her face like she knew how much it had been bugging him, she announced, "Would the three representatives from the Renewed Nexus Government please step up?"

Aokiji rubbed his forehead but he got up from his seat anyway and headed towards the stage. They left several of the council members back in Metropolis while three of them left for this Summit. He walked up there and Roy approached his back, while Mandy floated up in the air with her scythe in hand. The girl lowered straight down onto the empty chair in between Thrall and Najenda, the two most threatening-looking people at the table, at least until she got there with her Reaper's scythe and cloak on. Mustang sat next to Aokiji, but directly across from him there was a space between Najenda and Daenerys Targaryan-Saluja.

Yamraiha looked like she would take the seat right in front of her between Sinbad and Alibaba, but there was no one sitting in the tenth chair yet. There were still a few people standing out near their chairs, darting glares at each other as if daring someone else to try and take that seat before them. They were really just waiting to see who the Chancellor of Magnoshutatt thought was the next most important after those currently gathered at the table. All of them wanted to be included in that group, all except for one man who shrank back in his chair as Yamraiha looked his way. "And one of the Z-fighters who rid our continent of monsters," the scar-faced one-legged man groaned as she finished, "Yamcha."

He flew out of his seat and towards the stage to take his seat next to Najenda and... the martial artist gulped as the Queen of Rhodar turned to him. He remembered the day a few months back when Krillin decided to leave Awul and she confronted him for invading Rhodar, which he had no idea he was doing at the time. Daenerys watched Yamcha sit down next to her and she humphed at his nervous expression before turning away, not very interested in him.

All of the others who wanted seats at the table and were preparing to argue over whoever got called up next closed their mouths and sat down. The room was almost silent, as very few people here wanted to risk pissing off someone who could potentially declare war on them. Even the largest country among them was nervous after their military capabilities were shown to be vastly inferior to that of smaller nations who allowed their people to use magic and weapons for the past two years. It was the Rhodaris who were making noise, mainly Alibaba who said something to Sinbad and Yam on his left side and the two of his old friends laughed about it. He turned right next and whispered it to Dany but his Queen just rolled her eyes.

 _Morg would have gotten it,_ Alibaba thought and glanced back out into the seats surrounding the table. Morgiana was glaring at him and he got some sweat on his face, spinning back around and looking more serious like those around him.

Yamraiha had finally sat down and she looked around at the nine people on Awul who held the greatest amount of power. _The other RNG council members who did not come likely control less power,_ Yam thought as she smiled around at their ten person inner council. _These three came to represent their government, interesting. I would have thought the Arbiter would have come instead of that girl there._ Yamraiha was not the only one thinking this, as Sinbad and Daenerys were examining the same things.

"We getting this started or what?" Mandy snapped, her face in a permanent scowl that unnerved many around her. "Didn't come here to sit in a circle," she added, glaring over at the woman who she knew was just thinking about her.

Yamraiha got a bead of sweat on the left side of her face that she cursed herself for but smiled through nonetheless. "Very well," she said. The witch put her wooden staff down on the table in front of her and then lifted her hands opened up. "I hereby commence the first official Summit of Awul."

The young woman smiled as she clapped her hands together, and the lights in the room faded on the outsides of the stage while brightening in the middle of the room. The stage lifted up a few yards and then the empty spaces on the table in front of each of the people sitting around it glowed bright. Those parts of the table transformed from white marble to some sort of screen with a keyboard below it. They were both not physically there, but as Mandy tapped her finger down on one of the letters on her keyboard she saw it appear above the keyboard on the screen.

The young blonde girl looked up confusedly at what they needed computers for. She and the others around the table looked to Yamraiha who was typing fast, then reached her right hand to her screen and pressed in with her fingers like she was grabbing the screen itself. She threw her hand forward and opened up her grasp, and the window she just typed in flew onto each of their screens and to the center of the table where it floated as a holographic image.

"Itinerary?" Aokiji questioned. He read some of the list out in his head and leaned back on his chair with a sigh. "Day of the week? A calendar? International transportation system?" He scratched his stubbly black beard and glanced around the table to see what the others thought about this. Mandy had a scowl on her face, as did Thrall whose fists clenched over the table.

The Orc spoke up first, "I thought this was going to be an important meeting. You should have told us you were summoning our presences for this nonsense!" Thrall slammed a fist down on the table and his screen got all fuzzy.

"Read the first line again," Yamraiha said to the Orc who was getting ready to get up and leave.

The King of the Orcs calmed himself and reread the itinerary. "Important announcements," he muttered. He looked back up at the witch, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means," Yam began, "that I have something important that I need to announce, and if anyone else has something to say after-"

"What is your announcement?" Mandy asked. She interrupted Yamraiha mid-sentence and the ruler of the host country looked over at the young girl in surprise and some distaste as that was not professional or respectful. "I did not come to play games," Mandy snapped. "Get to it," she was tired of the look Yamraiha was giving her after only a couple of seconds and the witch started to see that this was a very impatient girl.

Mustang ground his teeth that the girl was embarrassing the RNG, but he had to admit that she was likely keeping many people who had thought that with the fall of Tetsuo and Trunks they had become weak fearful of their country. Yamraiha regained herself and smiled once more, as the news she had was good news. She turned right and the man next to her smirked and nodded his head, then she turned back and got ready for her announcement.

Yamraiha's small glance at Sinbad instantly put half the room on guard. Najenda lifted her eyebrows and Mandy stopped wondering whether or not she should just get up and leave. The way this woman looked at Sinbad, and the way he nodded back at her as if saying it was okay, it was suspicious to say the least. "The independent country of Magnoshutatt, and the Kingdom of Sindria have come to an agreement." Without pause or waiting for questions, she continued, "Magnoshutatt will for now on be a part of the Lower Awul alliance led by King Sinbad."

Murmurs filled the room as everyone in the darkened section turned to their neighbors and started whispering. Those at the table in the center of the room were mostly glaring at Sinbad. "I thought it strange," Daenerys began, her voice not accusatory but not friendly either. The young Queen continued while Yamraiha and Sinbad looked back at her, "That one of Sinbad's subordinates would take control of a country for herself. Now it makes sense why you came here and broke off from the RNG."

Sinbad's smile did not falter though Yamraiha looked a little nervous after that accusation. "I don't see what the issue is," Sinbad said with a smirk over at the silver haired Queen. "The witches and warlocks of this country chose Yamraiha to be their Chancellor, and she is one of the Eight Generals of Sindria, it is only natural that we _closely_ ally ourselves."

"Before those magicians chose you as their leader," Mandy started and Yamraiha looked the younger girl in her dark emotionless eyes. "Did you tell them you were going to submit to a foreign King? Or did you hold off on that fact?"

Yamraiha saw accusatory looks from all around the room, even in the dark where she could not really tell if they were looking at her or if she was just paranoid. She grinned after a moment though and said, "I promised them I would break off from the old New Earth Government. I kept my promise to be rid of that rotten regime."

"Yam," Sinbad started, and the girl who was staring competitively over into Mandy's eyes opened them in surprise as she realized she forgot where she was for a second. She was about to turn away from the child when Mandy's irises turned green and flared like flames. Yamraiha could hear high-pitched screams in her ears and inside the green flames in Mandy's eyes she saw a body enflamed. It was her own- "Yam," Sinbad repeated and the woman nearly jumped out of her seat. The witch turned to Sinbad in surprise and she had so much sweat on her face that Sinbad's confident smile that he had had since sitting down faltered for a second.

The King of Sindria looked towards Mandy himself and his lips were flat as he examined her. _Who is this girl? Where did she come from? Why does she have so much power, and why is she not afraid at all to use it in a place like this?_ His flat lips curved down a bit but he shook his head and a grin came back to his face. "Shall we continue?" Sinbad questioned and looked around. He focused on Aokiji and saw the Marine thinking hard on what Sinbad did, stealing their land in a democratic, "legal," way that yet seemed so underhanded to him.

"Do you have any other big announcements?" Mustang questioned, as this was already pretty disturbing to him and he did not know how he would like what came next.

"One more, yes," Sinbad replied. He reached down to his magical computer screen and started typing directly onto the windows. More windows kept showing up that he slid straight up onto the hologram in the center of the table. Most people in the room could not tell whether this was some sort of advanced technology, magic, or both. The fact that Sinbad knew how to use it this well meant that he was as involved with setting this Summit up as Yamraiha, and most of them were realizing he was probably pulling the strings the whole time.

 _I could leave right now, tell him I'm not playing his games. If I do though, he'll keep playing without me. I just need to beat this man,_ Mandy thought, her eyes narrowed into Sinbad's forehead the whole time.

Sinbad finally stopped typing and everyone stared at all the screens he had thrown up on the central blue hologram. There were pages full of numbers with the symbol for Credits, the currency used throughout all of Awul, next to them. There was a single map of the east coast of Awul from RNG lands in the north down to Rhodar's border, with Sindria's land smack dab in the middle of the coast. There were ports highlighted in Sindria and Rhodar, and red lines connecting those ports, across the Great Ocean on the map east of Awul, then past some more land until the red lines reached the large labeled country of Leam.

Alibaba smiled and leaned forward, getting a new vibe from what was happening. "Yes," he said excitedly. He looked towards Sinbad who had a semi-confused expression on his face as he was about to explain before being interrupted. "I knew we had to do something about the Emperor soon. I figured we would have to do it on our own, because the RNG and the others do not trade with Leam, but I'm sure if everyone helps out, King Titus will be happy to trade with all of Awul!"

"The Emperor? Leam? King Titus?" Aokiji questioned, looking carefully at the windows that were pulled up. There was very little about this place Leam up there except for numbers indicating profits from trade with them that seemed to be declining fast in recent months. The rest of the pages were showing more theoretical math equations, hypothetical situations, ones which showed much larger influxes of both Credits and natural resources.

Daenerys had realized this as well as she looked closer at one of the windows. "This window describes the benefits of trading with the Emperor." She turned and narrowed her eyes at Sinbad who continued to smile as he grabbed that window on his own screen and expanded it. Alibaba's excited smile faded as Daenerys spoke and he looked back at the enlarged window his wife expanded.

"The Emperor has been fighting a war with Leam for some time now," Sinbad began. "And while Leam has become less capable to protect our ships, less capable to pay for our support, the Emperor and his vast allies-" Sinbad minimized the window showing the increased profits by hypothetically trading with the Emperor. Then, he expanded the map and dragged Leam into the center of it on the hologram.

Everyone in the room stared at a map that depicted all of Aebrith. For many of them it was the first time seeing it, and their eyes opened wide as they wondered if it was to scale with the much smaller map of the continent of Awul. On the continent of Aebrith were many borders, but all of the lands inside those borders were currently gray. Sinbad tapped on the screen though and it filled in with color. As soon as he did this, his point got through to everyone in the room including Alibaba even if he did not want to admit it.

The bottom sixth of Aebrith, maybe more maybe less, was filled in pitch black. Above that section was a green circular area with rough borders and scattered green dots throughout the southern region around it, but no green areas touching the coasts. Everywhere else on the map was red: the coasts on either side of the green, above Leam all the way to the top of the continent and covering most of the large islands close to it.

"Titus is our ally," Alibaba said before anyone else could comment on the map. "We can not just start trading with his enemies. We don't betray our allies," he said this last part very seriously while looking into Sinbad's eyes.

"I agree," Sinbad said. "However, if we continue to support Leam, we may get more involved in their war than we can handle. A dozen countries make up most of this planet's landmass, and they are all allies." He let that sink in for a second. "I only suggest we do not make them our enemies, and that if it benefits our own nations and people, perhaps we begin trade with the Emperor's allies," he added that it was with the Emperor's allies and not the Emperor himself because of Alibaba's interruption, but this time the younger man did not jump out and say anything so he grinned and continued.

As Sinbad explained, Mandy examined the country that was filled-in green closer. _The border of the country itself is within the green boundary. There are other green areas outside of Leam, not many, but some. There's also the question as to whether Sinbad is exaggerating this information or using a fake map. None of us would be able to tell from a first look. These numbers could help the RNG, but I know for certain that they will help Sinbad more. He is already taking land from the RNG. He is my biggest concern right now._

"Those other green areas around Leam," Mandy began, interrupting Sinbad and the others who had started discussing possible trade partners already in such a short time after him proposing the idea. He had so much planned out beforehand, she imagined in under five minutes he would be telling them all about a great trade deal he had set up already that would make them all rich. The girl saw Sinbad's smirk as he looked her way and she knew he thought he already had this. "What are they? The border of Leam ends yet you marked areas outside their borders as green. Why would you do that?"

Sinbad held up his hands defensively over the table. "It only made sense," he began. "If I was going to put all of the Emperor's allies in red, I had to put Leam's as well." The fact that only those other green bumps and lumpy areas outside of Leam were also on Leam's side seemed to make everyone even more convinced that they had to hop on the winning side already. Mandy almost regretted asking, but she caught herself as she was about to become quiet, and it hit her and made her lips curl up just the slightest amount.

Most people at the table had never seen this girl smile before. Her lips curled up from a frown and moved instead to a flat lip, but the left corner of her mouth inched up and Sinbad twitched. "The green side and the red side," Mandy began, her voice smug, the girl sounding victorious even as Sinbad kept his own calm smile on his face as he believed he still had control over the situation. "Those two sides do not represent the war between Leam and their allies, and the Emperor and their allies at all, does it?" Mandy asked.

Sinbad lifted up his eyebrows and his smile lowered a little. He became somewhat confused, because this girl in front of him had a knowing look and her gaze was taking him out of the controlling position he had constantly been in since first coming up with the idea for this Summit. He had sent his Generals out to Aebrith to look for business partners and made sure Yamraiha became the Chancellor of Magnoshutatt all leading up to today. It could have continued going to the next big step, but he suddenly became very nervous.

"What do you mean?" Daenerys asked this girl who had been keeping Sinbad more on his toes than she had, even though that was her original goal since showing up.

Mandy knew she had him and now that he lost his victorious grin, she lost the rush of the heat of the moment and her own lips curled back down. "Those two sides do not represent Leam and the Emperor, but two larger forces: The King, and The Resistance."

"What are those?" Thrall growled, annoyed that he was this out of the loop.

"The King?" Alibaba questioned. He had heard from his contacts in Leam about the King before. "So all that red area is the Cooperative?" He looked back at the map and realized just how outmatched the Resistance his friends talked about were.

Sinbad's smile returned and he shook his head slowly. "I do not know what the big revelation is, unless you just wanted to share with everyone that you knew who was fighting who?" His attempt to belittle her would have worked a lot more if someone did not suddenly stand up from the table.

Those at the table and everyone watching around the room saw this white haired woman get out of her seat and stand straight up next to the table. She stared at the map, at the horrible odds, the red all around the small bit of green, and it reminded her exactly of the War Against the Underworld. She even chuckled as she thought about how they could never just be on the winning side for once, as this was exactly how it was on her own world too. "I apologize King Sinbad," Najenda said as she stood there, forcing all attention on her. "But I must inform you that if you attempt to provide aid to Pao's enemies in any way, we will consider Sindria our enemy."

Instantly the room was in an uproar. No one knew what was going on anymore and Sinbad's eyes were huge. Out the corner of his eyes he saw Mandy smirking at him but the girl dropped her lips back into a frown after a second in case anyone looked away from Najenda and saw her smiling. She was enjoying this very much.

Alibaba finally asked what everyone else was already thinking, "What are you talking about?"

Najenda looked to the King of Rhodar and with a less threatening tone than she used with Sinbad she began, "The Mayor is currently overseas fighting with the Resistance. He brought along with him many of Pao's respected citizens, heroes in the War Against the Underworld, heroes who saved Metropolis, including one Timmy Turner."

"Which also means that the RNG will have to _respectfully_ decline your offer to trade with our enemies," Mandy said to Sinbad in as disrespectful a tone as she could. Yamraiha was spinning from her King to the two women who just spoke against the plan and back again and she did not know what to do. Sinbad turned from Mandy to Aokiji and Mustang, the two men who were currently facing each other and speaking in hushed voices.

After a minute, Aokiji turned towards Sinbad and he stated, "I concur with Mandy. Timmy Turner saved Metropolis, and Son Goku saved all of Awul. The others who fought with them then and continue to do so now are our allies as well. And if Turner and Goku have made new allies, then they will be our allies as well."

"You would speak for all of the RNG?" Yamraiha questioned. She stared at the two men and continued harshly, "Millions of people are relying on you to make the right choice and you're picking the losing side of an unwinnable war for what?"

Sinbad did not stop her from speaking out, and what she said had many of the others at the table wondering what to do. Thrall scratched his green chin and he examined the map again, wondering what he should do himself for the benefit of the Horde. He knew the chiefs of the Tauren, Trolls, and other races who accompanied him here and were watching from the outer audience would want to discuss this with him further after the Summit.

When someone did respond to Yamraiha it was not either of the men she questioned, and the voice that echoed around the room made sweat cover some of the most powerful people on the continent's faces. "Do we speak for the people of the RNG?" Mandy questioned, her voice full of malice that sent shivers down the older witch's spine. Mandy's right hand clenched around her scythe's shaft, and since the black hood of her cloak was down, the witch looking at her could see the horns growing out of her already pointy blonde hair. Her horns twisted around and Mandy continued in a deeper voice, "You tricked this country into putting you in power so that you could get rid of one rotten controlling government and put it right into the hands of another. You do not speak for the people of Magnoshutatt. You sold them out to your _King_. In fact, if Magnoshutatt is no longer a country, just a pawn of Sindria, then why don't you go find somewhere else to sit? You no longer have a place at this table."

When Mandy stopped talking, a person could hear a pin drop in that room. Laxus sat back in his seat with an amused expression on his face, trying not to laugh while Leo sweat nervously next to him like everyone else in their row. "I believe things are getting out of hand," Sinbad stated suddenly. All eyes turned to the purple haired man who held up his arms in an open gesture towards Mandy who still had a very menacing look to her. "Yamraiha will still be in control of her own individual country, similar to how the King of the Cooperative," Sinbad motioned at the map, "allows those who ally with him to rule over themselves."

It sounded like he was still trying to advocate for joining the King for a second there, so Sinbad continued quickly to avoid confusion as he really was just making a comparison. "However, had I known beforehand that Son Goku was fighting with the Resistance, I never would have bet against him. Now that I know, I no longer believe the war in Aebrith is as one-sided as I once thought. I would like to continue examining our options for trade further, but first, I believe we would all appreciate a short break."

Mandy opened her mouth to chide at the King that he was the only one who needed time to regain his bearings, but before she could, Aokiji stood from his seat. "Good idea," he said and glanced towards Mandy who shot him a dirty look. He motioned with his head away from the table though and the girl began to wonder if there was something he actually needed to discuss now in private.

Most of the ten at the table got up, and Yamraiha picked up her staff. The flustered young woman who was starting to feel somewhat out of her league at this table kept a calm expression as she tapped her staff down on the ground and the stage lowered back to the normal floor level. Lights filled the entire room back up evenly and everyone else started getting up and stretching their legs. They were not in there for particularly long but the interactions between their world leaders were definitely intense. A few of the town leaders and village chiefs who were annoyed they did not get a seat at the table wiped sweat off their faces and were now glad they did not get caught in the middle of that exchange.

The room emptied out and Yamraiha announced that Magnoshutatt was open to all of them to freely roam only that she expected them to return from wherever they go to within thirty minutes so they could continue their Summit. Yamcha was leaning back in his chair for a while after everyone else left, hands behind his head as he stared straight up at the ceiling. _What am I doing here? God the number of times I've asked that question in the last two and a half years._ He shook his head and finally turned and floated out of his seat.

A small blue cat who stayed quietly sitting on a seat in the audience flew over to him, and Puar still had sweat all over its small body. "Yamcha!" It exclaimed in a high-pitched voice. "You did great up there!"

"Haha, thanks Puar. Didn't know not saying anything made me great," he pat his friend on the back though as she landed on his shoulder. The man who had become so adept at flying that it barely exerted him at all, thanks to his inability to walk correctly with a missing leg, floated out of the room and back towards the grand hall he was in before. As he left this time though, people gave him a much wider berth than on his way in and he sighed. "If I had known blowing up a bunch of monsters would have meant I gotta see these looks everywhere I go..." He began, but grinned by the time he faded off as he could not trick himself. He loved martial arts tournaments and baseball not just for the thrill of the sport, but because of the cheers and attention of the crowd as well.

 _Maybe I could get back into baseball,_ he thought as he floated down the steps. _Set up a league. It will be more fun than back on Earth where everyone else was so much weaker than me. Here there could be dozens of powerful guys who wanna join up and start an intramural league, maybe even a professional one._ The thought of standing at home plate with a baseball bat in hand again made the man in an orange gi smile.

Roy Mustang stood with two of his advisors and they watched as Yamcha floated past them only a few yards away but did not even glance their direction. He was looking straight ahead and grinning like he had this entire situation under his control. _This man is a Z fighter. He has not spoken yet but we can be sure he has great plans for this Summit,_ Roy thought as Yamcha floated by.

"So you really didn't have anything to say?" A girl's voice snapped, making Mustang and his advisors turn around to see Mandy frowning at Aokiji who shrugged his shoulders at the girl a third his height.

"Sinbad is not a man we wish to antagonize," Aokiji said, looking into Mandy's eyes as he did. Mandy frowned but the Ice Man continued, "The NEG attacked his nation first, he has good reason to retaliate, but does not because we have pushed for good relations with Sindria. You must understand that Sinbad is not King Alibaba, and although you got the upper hand on that man once, be wary that you have now made a powerful enemy."

"He's already our enemy," Mandy said, her voice less of the whisper Aokiji was using. She spoke without worry that those talking in small circles around them would hear. Mandy lifted off the ground with scythe in hand and floated until she was eye level with Kuzan, putting her feet around the tops of the State Military leaders' heads. "He plotted and succeeded in taking land from our country. You see that right?"

Aokiji nodded as that much was clear from the second Yamraiha made her first announcement. Mustang stepped forward and looked up at the others' faces, "Next time we will need to do a stronger check if those inside our nation choose to split off." He saw Aokiji opening his mouth to argue but Mandy nodded her head and agreed faster. Usually Mustang did not agree with this girl, but he was glad she backed him up right there. Aokiji started to frown deeper, so Mustang continued, "We will not prevent a legitimate secession from the RNG, but if it is being pushed by a foreign influence, like Sinbad, so that he may take control instead, we should take measures to prevent it."

As the Renewed Nexus Government's present council members discussed primarily the first half of the first meeting of the Summit, Yamcha arrived over at Pao's group who were much more laid back. Najenda and Laxus were discussing a mission Fairy Tail was requested for that many of its mages teamed up to accomplish. Erza was leading the mission off the north shore of Awul about fifty miles on a mostly unexplored, uninhabited island that was shrouded in mystery.

Leo cut into their conversation when there was a small pause, "You know, I wonder if Aang is doing alright running Pao without the rest of the council? I think it might be best if-"

"Uh-uh, Leo," Najenda said and shook her head. The teenage mutant ninja turtle grimaced as the woman turned fully to him. "You're sticking with us to the end of this Summit. You've got some big shoes to fill, don't forget that."

Leonardo opened his eyes in surprise, then slowly nodded his head at the woman who was on the old council with the deceased Master Splinter. Najenda turned to Yamcha next, "And you," she began in an accusatory tone that had Yamcha and Puar gaining sweat drops on the left sides of their faces. "I gave you a second to speak up once the Resistance was mentioned. Next time, you should be the one speaking on Goku's behalf, not myself."

"Oh I think you did a great job," Yamcha said and chuckled nervously. "Besides, I'm not all that important-"

"No you're not," Najenda agreed with a nod of her head, making Yamcha's bottom lip drop. She smirked and continued, "But they all think you are. We can use that."

The woman quieted down and she glanced left quickly. The others followed her gaze and watched as a group of five walked their way, a large green Orc in the middle and varying creatures walking on either side of him. "The benefits from the Cooperative are many, and these fools want to ignore them," a blue-skinned tall troll with spiky orange hair hissed on Thrall's left side.

"You want to go to war with Son Goku?" Thrall growled back, a growl that made all of the other Horde Chiefs frown at the idea of it. The Orc Chieftain continued, "We would not even have to worry about when he returns himself, the military might of Pao would crush us without him..." The creatures walked past the small group from Pao who were all facing each other as if they were not listening, and Najenda and Laxus smirked as they heard what the King of Durotar said.

"Think they're talking about Vegeta and Gohan?" Leo asked.

Laxus nodded but Najenda smirked and added, "Not to mention the Master of Fairy Tail." Laxus looked at her skeptically but Najenda kept smirking and she said, "I've heard some stories about you Laxus Dreyar, the Lightning Dragon Slayer, the man who defeated two of the Underworld's highest ranks." Laxus stared at her with widening eyes as he realized these were not her own words but things she had heard from someone else.

 _I've got a reputation on this world,_ Laxus thought. He crossed his muscular arms in front of his body and grinned. _It's about damn time._ He kept grinning as he glanced over at the creatures walking away, "That Thrall is not as stupid as he looks. I would have been down for a good fight though if they really did want to go to war."

Laxus smirked but Najenda lost her own. "As stupid as he looks?" She questioned, lifting her eyebrows at the muscular young man. Laxus became confused and he nodded but she continued, "Why would you say that? Because of his race?"

Laxus got a few beads of sweat on his face and looked pretty uncomfortable from that question. "No, just that-"

"No," Najenda interrupted. She looked him in the eyes, shaking her head.

"It was a joke," Laxus said in a deadpan voice, guessing she did not get it as he was not really talking about Orcs as a whole as much of just the appearance of this one.

The white haired woman shook her head at him though. "Do you wonder why all the Orcs flocked to Orgrimmar? Question why there are not more Trolls or Tauren in the big cities of Rhodar and the RNG, or even in Pao?" Najenda kept frowning as she continued, "It is because when you say something like that, it breeds a sense of superiority over their race. They look ugly and stupid to us, so we treat them as such. And maybe you don't," Najenda continued quickly as Laxus opened his mouth to retort. "Maybe you really are tolerant of their people, but imagine a five year old Orc just heard you call one of his people stupid solely because of what he looked like. You could imagine why that boy would want to stay with his own people, why he would grow to hate humans even."

None of the others around Najenda said anything for a few seconds. Then Laxus scratched the back of his head and muttered, "Never really thought about it that way."

"How do you know so much about this?" Leo questioned, as he himself had never even thought about those things although he could relate to what she was saying as his entire life he had been called a freak by humans who saw the way he looked.

Najenda lost her deep frown and smiled softly, "I spent some time with the Alliance when they fought the Horde before the last treaty. The hatred between their races had been compounded over decades of observable racial-based conflicts and events on their world. It was eye opening," she finished.

"On a less serious note," Yamcha spoke up, half wanting to make Laxus feel less awkward, and half because he was feeling weird during this conversation too. He never really understood what issue people had with other races, especially since on his own world he voted for a blue dog to be president. He chuckled and started, "How do you think Goku's doing over on Aebrith?" He did not ask about Krillin as he expected his short friend was having difficulty locating his missing wife.

"I think they're all doing well, at least I hope they are," Najenda said, making sure not to sound too confident. "Though even the Mayor has opponents he can not defeat. I hope he has not yet run into one of those while fighting this 'King' of Aebrith we have been hearing about recently."

"Used to be almost no information about what was going on in Aebrith reached us over here," Leo said and scratched the back of his green head, fixing the blue mask tied back there into a better position. "Now I feel like every week we're hearing something else about it."

"Aslan had a lot of information to share," Najenda said. "I only wish the Mayor and the others had waited around a little longer to hear it all."

"Heh," Laxus scoffed. "Those idiots were too excited to leave," he shook his head as he thought about the big goodbye they had for the crew that debarked from Awul on the Thousand Sunny. "They'll be alright though," he added confidently.

"Yeah," Yamcha said, smiling lightly but not in a very confident way himself. _Last time I went to Aebrith I almost got killed, by Satan. Not planning on heading back there anytime soon,_ he thought with a shiver, blue flames filling his memory.

* * *

The Summit started back up again and the group of ten at the main table worked together to discuss a calendar of twelve months, decide what day to start their dating system at: whether in the past, present, or future, and many other trivial things that had never been concretely defined on Awul before. A few guests invited to the meeting spoke up on occasion and it seemed to be allowed despite their positions around the outsides of the room, so more of them felt free to speak their minds and the Summit became a lot calmer and more open after the first rough patch they hit.

While they were in the middle of discussing a possible monorail system connecting the ten largest cities on Awul, Najenda felt her right arm vibrate. She darted her left purple eye down at the green steel of her arm as she lifted it above the table. A small panel opened up and revealed a screen below it that was black with a single white line horizontally through it.

Daenerys faded off from her sentence and glared over at the woman with whiter hair than her own, but Najenda had an extremely serious look on her face for a discussion about railways. "Is there a problem?" Queen Daenerys questioned.

Out from the arm Najenda was staring intensely at, a low voice obviously masked by some sort of voice distortion said two words. "Balbadd City." After those words were said, the white line that spiked during it flattened again and then the green steel arm's open panel re-shut.

"What about Balbadd City?" Alibaba asked, looking over at the woman with a steel green arm in confusion and a small bit of hostility though he was giving her the benefit of the doubt. Daenerys was glaring a lot more hostilely towards Najenda, and her two guards along with Morgiana all stood up from their seats nervously. Others around the room started whispering to each other and the entire Summit filled with noise.

Leo and Laxus looked at each other and both had grim expressions on their faces. They stood up and walked towards the stage where Najenda was already getting to her feet. She spun to Laxus who she knew was behind her and she nodded at him, "Go."

Laxus turned into a bolt of lightning that shot towards the exit of the room and vanished in a second. Alibaba jumped up now and he put his hand down on the hilt of his black sword. "What is the meaning of this? Is he going to our Capital?!"

"Representative of Pao, explain yourself!" Yamraiha shouted. Thrall slammed down his fists and roared out his agreement, and the whole room filled with angry shouts towards Najenda and Leo who was nervously standing behind her at the base of the stage.

Najenda ground her teeth as she regretted having to say this in front of so many people. _They can not all be trusted. One or more of them could be corrupt for all I know._ She was in a tight spot, but Alibaba's hand was clenching around the hilt of his sword and she grimaced. "That was an emergency channel one of my spies was only to use in an extreme circumstance." Everyone looked at this woman in confusion and many opened their eyes wide in surprise that she claimed to have spies.

"Do you have spies in Rhodar?" Daenerys growled. She stopped towards Najenda, "And what was that about Balbadd City? Are you planning-"

"My spy said 'Balbadd City,' which if he is risking breaking radio silence, and blowing his own cover to tell me, then whatever is going to happen there is going to be disastrous." Alibaba and Daenerys opened their mouths to shout, and Najenda ground her teeth again then snapped, "The Underlords." _Sorry Lubba, after this you must return to Pao. They will discover it was you. Do not be stupid._ "Return to your city," Najenda said, looking straight into the Queen and then the King's eyes. "Protect your people. If the Underlords were to attack, right now would be the best time while the two of you and Morgiana are out of the city. Balbadd is unprotected, which is why I sent Laxus ahead."

"You have a spy in the Underlords?" Sinbad questioned. Everyone at the main table were up on their feet now, and Sinbad scratched his chin as he stared thoughtfully at this woman. _A town of a few hundred, maybe a thousand, and they did what my entire country could not. All who tried infiltration were killed in the recruitment process._

"Why did he only say the city's name?" Alibaba questioned, though his hand had left the hilt of his weapon. "What about when the attack is coming, or how, or-"

"Think for a second, if every member of the Underlords is involved with this mission, they would all know the where. Depending on how much information he or she gave though, the Underlords trying to smoke out my spy could potentially find him or her easier." Everyone else around Najenda looked at her understandingly, and a few of them were getting increasingly nervous. They had never heard of the woman before, yet she was representing the town full of the most powerful people on Awul, and she sounded like an experienced war General or spymaster or something.

"Is everyone in Pao this nuts?" The Troll chieftain muttered to the Blood Elf next to him. He suddenly changed his mind about wanting to trade with Aebrith's Co-op countries.

"We need to get back," Alibaba said. He and Daenerys rushed for the exit and their guards ran after them.

"The Summit is over," a loud voice announced. Everyone spun towards the table and saw Mandy getting off her chair and walking away from the table. "There is no point in continuing without Rhodar. Let us continue this at a later date." She lifted her scythe and tapped the butt of the staff down on the ground. The floor in front of her ripped open and a green portal shot out of it. She stepped straight through it and her voice carried back into the room, "Let's go."

Aokiji sighed and got off his chair. _Making power moves until the very end,_ he shook his head but walked towards the portal and straight through it after the girl, giving a small wave over his shoulder as he did.

Hawkeye and Armstrong glanced at each other nervously and then up at Mustang whose fists were clenched over the table but knew he could not stay now that the other RNG leaders made it clear this Summit was over. He got up and walked towards the portal, and some sweat formed on his face as he had never gone through one of these green ones before. _If it's anything like that black one that silver haired teen made though, it should be fine,_ he thought to calm his nerves. "Colonel, General Armstrong, take back our ship," he said, and his two subordinates let out sighs of relief that they did not have to step into the scary swirling portal that the scary girl created.

Najenda walked away as Mustang stepped into the portal. Sinbad turned to Yamraiha and the two of them talked, while other representatives all around the room spoke loudly with each other about the surprising early end to the Summit. The former assassin who left the room was trailed by a one-legged martial artist and ninja turtle on either side of her. "An attack on Rhodar's capital," Najenda said, some sweat rolling down the right side of her face as she did. "These Underlords have either doomed themselves, or have become stronger than I already feared. One spy is no longer enough to combat this organization."

"What are you saying?" Yamcha asked her.

Najenda stared straight ahead and said in an icy voice, "It's time for another war."

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed! This chapter we jumped back over to Awul to see what's going on, so I hope y'all liked the Summit. Even though they're not greatly involved with the main plot line, I don't want to leave out all these characters from the first Saga of Nexus, especially since they, might, come back into the fold later on. It seems even more likely now that all the leaders of Awul learn about the war between the Resistance and the Cooperative, though not all of them are as inclined to help the Resistance as others. The Underlords make their move! Lubba sends Najenda a warning, and everyone rushes to Balbadd to protect it! What will happen?! Next part of this chapter we head back to Aebrith, but this is not over, not for a long shot. Thanks for reading. 'Till next time!**


	72. Nexus HWR 11-4 First Clue

**Nexus HWR 11.4 First Clue:**

 **Somewhere in Southern Aebrith**

"Hey Killua. Killua, Kil wake up," Dash urged the boy on his back. He was running with Killua's body draped over his back so the older boy's chin was resting on Dash's right shoulder. The speedster was holding onto Kil's legs to keep him up while sprinting at incredible speeds south. It had been a full day since he ran away from the monsters hurting him and his friends. He had been running south when he saw what looked like a sun appear behind him which made him pick up his speed even more. The sun separated him from his friends but he figured he needed to save Killua over getting back to them anyway.

When night fell it was too hard for him to find out where he was, so he tried to rest, but monsters came at him in the dark. He had to fight them but too many swarmed his position and he picked Kil up and ran away. Now he was sleep-deprived, hungry, thirsty, and he had no idea if his friends survived that giant sun and the dragon beneath it. The suns were up again so that was a positive, but he had no idea where he was in relation to anything. He was without a doubt, lost.

"Just keep running Dash," he mumbled to himself. "You gotta get Killua to a doctor." He looked at the head on his right shoulder but Killua's eyes were still closed. The white haired teen had been unresponsive for days now, and Dash was losing hope fast. Dash darted his eyes around looking for something that could help him find- As he was looking around he was still running over three hundred miles per hour. He thought he was fine doing it since he could process things pretty fast even if they came out of nowhere, but the thing that appeared in front of him shocked him way too much for him to come to a sudden stop.

Dash ran straight over a hill and down the other side, and while he was looking around he ran straight through an invisible forcefield. He did not even know he had until he reached the other side of it and a building previously hidden to him became visible. It was like the empty field he was running on suddenly had a building on it, actually several buildings all inside a long and tall steel wall that ran around the entire front and sides of the base. Dash slammed his feet on the ground hard to skid to a stop, but his feet dragged into the floor and he kept going for several yards until he reached the building's wall.

He was still moving too fast, so as soon as Dash hit the wall he shouted, "Going up!" He picked back up his feet and ran forward, picking back up speed again before jumping towards the wall, and then instantly running straight up once he touched down. The wall was only twenty meters high and Dash sprinted up it in seconds. At one point he ran past a line of windows and spotted people inside who screamed in shock at the blur racing up their wall. _Hope these people are friendly,_ Dash thought as he got up to the top of the wall. He landed on top of it and looked to his left and right, to see several men running towards him.

"Help!" Dash called out. The guys running his way with weapons raised heard his voice and saw his appearance and their threatening looks started to fade. Dash put Killua down and he looked towards the man who ran towards him the fastest of the guards. "Please, do you have a doctor?"

"How did you find this place?" the man in front of him asked.

"I, just, was running around," Dash said nervously. The guy did not look like he believed him but Dash continued, "Please, my friend. I think he's dying."

The guard and the others with him looked at the older boy with spiky white hair not moving on the ground. "Are you sure he's even alive?" One of them questioned grimly. "He doesn't look-"

"He's alive," Dash shouted. "I know he is." He looked back at the other boy on the ground and thought back to the day they separated. Killua put his nails up to Natsu's throat, and Dash grabbed his wrist to stop him. He did not trust Killua enough back then, and the first time he saw him in weeks, the older boy had just died after saving Natsu's life. _Please Killua, I'm sorry I didn't trust you. I'll make sure you get better._

"What's going on here?" someone asked in a deep voice behind some of the guards. They spun around in surprise not having heard the man approach and they moved apart at the sight of who it was standing there.

"Sir! This boy showed up out of nowhere. We saw a dot on the radar moving over three hundred miles per hour in our direction. We think it was him," the guard on Dash's left reported.

Dash looked at the dark-haired man wearing a ninja headband and he looked at him with pleading eyes. "I'm begging you. Help my friend. If you have a doctor, help him."

"Why should we? Who are you? Who are you loyal to?" The man who seemed to be in charge questioned.

"I'm," Dash looked a little nervous but he made himself look assured. He continued, "I'm an ally of the Resistance. My name is Dash. And you should help me because if you don't," he narrowed his eyes at the man in front of him, and rose up his right hand that a ball of white light formed in. "I'll destroy this place in a second." The ball of ki doubled in size and the others all around Dash backed away fast.

The ninja looking at Dash narrowed his eyes, then said in a calm voice, "Alright. If you are an ally of the Resistance, we'll help you." Dash's face lit up and the ball of energy in it disappeared. "Lancelot will bring you to our doctor," he continued, and motioned to the guard who ran fastest of the others up to Dash when he arrived.

Lancelot nodded at their leader who then vanished from sight a second later. The knight with long black hair and a sword on his back but also a beam rifle in his hands nodded down at Dash. "Follow me kid," he said and reached down for Killua. Before he could grab the unconscious kid, Dash picked up his own friend and looked at the guard cautiously. Lancelot held up his hands defensively. "Whoa there Dash," he said, using the boy's name to try and sound friendly. Dash looked at him with a hesitant gaze and the friendly guard continued, "We're all on the same side. No need to feel nervous here. You're safe now."

Dash nodded his head slowly and he started walking forward. His guide nodded back at him and then started walking as well to lead Dash over the wall. As they walked, Dash eased closer to the edge and he looked off at the inside of the wall. From the front of the base he could not see how long the side walls went back for, but from the inner part of the wall he could see it and the sight made him drop his jaw in awe.

"Pretty amazing huh?" Lancelot asked back to the boy he heard let out an audible gasp of amazement. "Stretches four miles south, but only two hundred meters wide."

"Why?" Dash questioned.

"Haha, actually it used to be a square base, but when someone wanted to make an addition they knocked down one wall and extended it north. Every time they've made an addition since, they knock down the newly rebuilt wall and push it farther," Lancelot explained. Dash looked at him like that was stupid and Lancelot laughed some more, "Hey kid, it's easier to knock down a two hundred meter wall than either of the longer ones, and it's not like we can go any farther south."

"Huh? Why's that?" Dash asked.

"Don't you know how far south you are kid?" Lancelot asked, actually stopping this time to turn and look at the boy. Dash shook his head no and the guard in front of him sighed. "Any farther south, and you get into the Wizard's territory. Everything south of here from east to west coast is all his. And the Wizard's land is just about the most dangerous place you can find on this planet."

"Is the Wizard that strong?" Dash wondered.

"He calls himself the Wizard King," Lancelot said. "Though it's not like he has any subjects. The entire south from here to the southern coast, ten thousand miles, is nothing but wasteland."

"What? Why?!" Dash shouted. "Did people used to live there?" He asked nervously.

"Yeah," Lancelot said, his voice darker. "All those who didn't escape north, didn't make it out at all."

Dash opened his eyes wide and he gulped. He found himself shaking and he understood why Gray was always so grim when talking about Aebrith. _Everyone for ten thousand miles? That's horrible. What could have killed them all?_ Dash's train of thought derailed as Lancelot reached a point on the wall that looked like a guard post. There were some other men over here, and it was a wider section of the wall than the rest. Lancelot walked right into the middle of the thicker area and Dash followed him. "Send us down," the guard announced, and one of the others near him tapped on a panel sticking out of the inner railing of the wall.

 **Chr-Clank!** Dash stumbled and almost fell as the floor beneath his feet jerked under him. The platform they were apparently on started to descend into the wall and Dash looked around amazed to find himself in some sort of elevator. "Where are we going?" Dash asked the man next to him.

"The Commander said to take you to the doctor," Lancelot replied. "So that's just what I'm going to do." The elevator clanked to a stop and Dash looked at a wall that had a crack in the middle of it. The vertical crack opened up and both sides of it pushed into the walls. Lancelot walked out so Dash followed behind. He heard a quiet moan and darted his eyes to his right shoulder, but Killua was not moving at all. _Did I imagine it?_ Dash thought.

The guard led him out of the elevator and into a hallway that must have gone through the bottom of the wall. They did not walk to the sides in the hall though, instead just walked across the hall from the elevator's opening and part of the inner wall opened up just like the elevator's doors. The door slid open and Dash walked out of the wall into the inside part of the fort. He shielded his eyes for a second from the bright suns, then looked around the inside of the fort with amazed eyes. From up on the high wall he did not get such a great look, but down here he could see that the inside of the fort looked more like a town than anything. It was a heavily fortified town, with everyone walking around in armor and armed to the teeth.

There were steel buildings close to the walls, most of which were not as tall as the walls around them. The buildings were all square or rectangle-shaped, so as to fit inside the walls of this long, thin fort. Lancelot led Dash down the main path in between the two sides of buildings pretty far. The guard explained how a hospital was one of the first buildings necessary in a base like this, so it was farther south. As they went south, Dash started to notice something and he lifted his gaze to look at it. "What is that?" Dash muttered as he saw the very end of the fort in the southern direction. There was a large building at the very southernmost point that was taller than the walls around most of the fort, but it was still only as tall as the southern wall was high.

Lancelot stopped for a second to let Dash take it all in. Dash stared at the tall southern wall and then turned his head left and right to follow the wall in both directions away from the fort. The wall did not just go horizontally against the back of the fort, but on the sides it seemed to curve around north as if to protect from anything that was coming from the south, southeast, or southwest. There were guards all over the walls normally, but that southern wall Dash could see twice the number of guards as the rest of the walls had.

"Again, you don't want to go south," the guard repeated. Lancelot motioned towards a building on the western side of the fort that had a red cross symbol on the front of it. "This is it," he said, and they turned down a smaller path off of the main one to head towards the hospital. The hospital was a long building, and it looked three stories tall. There were two medical tents outside the front of it, but Lancelot walked between them towards the front doors. "It doesn't look like your friend needs this simple type of treatment," Lancelot stated with a glance back at the unmoving boy on Dash's back. "I'll take you to our best doctor. He might know what to do."

"Are you sure?" Dash asked with wide eyes.

"I said 'might,' so don't get your hopes up too high kid," Lancelot warned him. The guard had long curly black hair and fair skin, a beard of light stubble on his cheeks and chin, and what looked like three claw marks down the left side of his face. The scars were partially hidden by his beard, but it looked like a tiger or some other ferocious animal had done it to him. Lancelot continued as he walked up to the front doors, "Dr. T's really great. Got mauled by an Ursa a couple months back, he patched me up good as new." As they entered the building, Lancelot lifted up his uniform around the waist a little and showed Dash his left side. Most of the skin there was scar tissue, but Lancelot smiled as Dash winced, "Didn't think I was going to survive it. No one did."

Although Lancelot told him not to get his hopes up, Dash was getting excited at how good of a doctor Lancelot was making this Dr. T out to be. "Hey Doc!" Lancelot called out. He looked left and right down the main hall of the first floor, and a female nurse came out of a door and looked over to them.

"The doctor is upstairs," she told them. She spotted the boy on Dash's back and her eyes widened, "Hurry, he's on the third floor."

"Alright!" Dash said. Lancelot turned to tell Dash to follow him, but by the time he had turned, Dash had sprinted towards the staircase and ran up to the second floor. He heard Lancelot call out to wait for him, but he was already on the third floor by that point. Dash spun back and forth as he reached the third floor's hall and he called out, "Dr. T! I need help!"

"Who is that?" a high-pitched voice called out. Dash thought Lancelot said the doctor was a 'he' but that voice did not sound like a man's. He ran towards it right as a figure was stepping out of a door and Dash skid to a stop. His eyes widened at the sight of the figure in front of him, an eight foot tall man with wide shoulders covered in dark brown fur. He was very muscular but his face looked young, even if it was covered in fur. He had on a light blue hat with a pink rim and a pink semi-circle on the front of it with a white 'X' in the middle. The furry man in front of him had huge abs, pecs, arms, and even his neck was surrounded in a thicker coat of fur that looked strong. He was wearing only a pair of orange shorts along with the hat he had on, but he did not really look like a man at all, despite his clothes and the fact that he was standing upright on two legs.

Before Dash could ask any questions, the huge guy jogged towards him. "What's wrong with him?" The big man asked in a strange voice that sounded manly but also young. Dash was blanking as he looked at this strange figure but the man looked at him and shouted, "Do you know?"

"Oh, uh," Dash shook his head around. He looked the furry guy in the eyes, "Are, are you the doctor?"

"I'm Doctor Tony, but everyone calls me Dr. T," the guy covered in fur replied. He reached down and plucked the older boy off of Dash's back and rested Killua in his comfortable-looking arms like a baby.

Dr. T started running off and Dash ran right behind him. The doctor asked what was wrong again and Dash replied, "This guy, um, the Fire Lord. He hit Kil with a bolt of lightning right in his chest. Killua could control lightning, but, Natsu said it was a condensed bolt or something."

Dr. Tony ran into an empty operating room and he put the boy with white spiky hair down on a table. He examined the wound on Killua's chest that had sealed somehow, but in a strange way he had never seen before. The placement of the wound too and how bad it looked, it made Dr. T shake his head in stunned amazement. "How, did he survive this?" The doctor asked.

"Is it bad?" Dash asked.

"Bad?" Dr. T repeated. He put on a stethoscope and put the end part on Kil's chest. "He's breathing, but, only barely. I need to operate immediately."

"What? What's wrong with him?" Dash asked, getting louder.

The furry doctor called for a nurse and Dash kept shouting questions at him. Dr. T finally snapped his head down, "Please, I'll help your friend. You need to leave the room though." Two nurses ran into the room and Lancelot came in behind them. The doctor put an i.v. into Killua's arm and a few seconds later a heart rate monitor started beeping. The beeps came every three seconds, and the nurses and the doctor shared a look that did not make Dash feel reassured.

"What's going to happen to him? You'll help him right?!"

"Please, I have to ask you to leave," one of the nurses, another animal creature though a female deer with a slimmer form, said.

Dr. T looked over the shorter woman's head. "I'll do everything I can," he said while making eye contact with the blond boy.

Lancelot ushered a reluctant Dash out of the room, and one of the nurses closed the door behind them. Dash raked his hands through his hair, _I knew it was bad, but they make it seem like, like he's really going to…_ "Why can't I watch what's going on?" Dash asked, turning to the guard who led him to the building who looked slightly out of breath.

"You can," Lancelot assured him. He motioned over towards a turn in the hallway and led Dash over to it. They walked around the operating room and Lancelot turned to look inside a window. Dash was too short but there was a bench across the hall from the window. He grabbed the bench, lifted it up with one hand, and put it closer to the operating room's window before getting up on it and looking through. "Sure are strong kid," Lancelot complimented him.

"Thanks," Dash mumbled, not really caring about the praise at the moment. He looked into the room and watched as the furry doctor got to work on the boy on the operating table. A few minutes in, the tall muscular doctor transformed into a tiny creature only a foot or two tall. Dash was surprised but he kept watching as the smaller creature had hooves for hands now, but his hands were smaller and he was able to stand on the operating table and have his head much closer to Killua's injury.

"Come on," Lancelot began once he saw the doctor pulling out a scalpel. "You don't need to see this." Dash made to keep watching but the guard put an arm in front of him and nudged the kid off the bench. "Let's go to the waiting room," Lancelot said. Dash looked up at him with complaining eyes but Lancelot kept a hand down on the boy's shoulder and led him away from the OR. "How did your friend get so hurt anyway?" Lancelot asked.

"Fighting the Fire Lord," Dash replied.

The guard stopped where he was and looked down at Dash in shock. "No way," the man muttered, but Dash nodded his head. He looked back at the room behind him, "So, he's the one who took down High Lord Sozin?"

"No," Dash said softly. "He failed, and my friends Natsu and Luffy took him down afterwards."

"That's still amazing though," Lancelot said. Dash looked at the older man confusedly and Lancelot continued, "Surviving a fight with a High Lord, I know I could never do that. Not in a million years. You must have some really powerful friends." Lancelot scratched his chin for a few seconds, "Though, you said you were _allies_ of the Resistance. Does that mean taking down the Fire Lord was not a Resistance mission?" Lancelot questioned. "Because I could have sworn-"

"It was," Dash began, "kind of." He started explaining how Hiei told them to try and take him down, but their own reasons for fighting Sozin came more from their own goals and the kind of people they were. The two of them were talking while walking around the hospital, as Lancelot led Dash down to the second floor and then down the hall to a door at the end. There was a bridge on the other side of the door leading to a thicker building across an open-air section inside the base. They walked across the steel bridge and into the next building down which was a lot more open. There were less rooms on the sides of the hall and more just large open areas.

Lancelot led Dash over to a section where there was a comfy couch, a television on the corner of the wall, and a few recliner chairs. He sat down on one of the chairs but Dash could not sit. He kept glancing behind him and pacing even though Lancelot continuously tried distracting him with conversation. At one point Lancelot ran out of conversation ideas, and it had been quite a while since they left Killua. Dash kept asking to go back but Lancelot told him that he would be notified if anything happened.

Dash grumbled in anxious anticipation and he kept pacing across the small section. On occasion people would walk by but he overall ignored them while he kept worrying about his friend's condition. The looks on those nurses and the doctor's faces when they saw Killua's wound snuck into his mind and he clenched his sweaty fists nervously. He stopped walking and thought about what he was going to do, but while his thoughts were pretty loud, he could still hear people in the outside world, and there were three men walking down the hall in his direction.

"So I told him, 'Hell no I'm not going in there!' Damn Echo Leader thinks all of us are as indestructible as he is!"

The others with him murmured in agreement, while the boy down the hall a little lost his train of thought completely. His face scrunched up and he looked confused. Lancelot had been watching him amusedly from a chair nearby, but this was a new expression Dash had not been showing for the past hour. It was recognition. Really confused recognition, but a recognizing look nonetheless. "What?" Dash mumbled under his breath, almost like he was asking himself why he was tensing up, why he was acting so weird.

He tried getting back to thinking about Killua, but he heard laughter down the hall the opposite direction as where he was waiting. "So how about it guys? Want to go check out this kid they brought into the infirmary? Word is he actually took down the Fire Lord."

"I heard he's the one who destroyed all of Pyraxas too," another man's voice added on.

"Come on guys," the same voice that Dash recognized spoke up again. "There's a kid in the hospital, let's save the rumors for when he gets out. Okay?" The voice was getting closer and Dash turned around to look at the hallway near their open area where footsteps were approaching. "For now, I wanna get me an evaluation from Nurse Joy." Some hoots and hollers sounded next to the man, and then he stepped through the opening into the wider area that he had to go through to get to the other end of the hall and the door leading to the hospital.

The tall, thin, black man who stepped into the room looked left as he spotted some people out the corner of his eye. There were white men walking on either side of him, both of whom were wearing costumes like him. One of the lighter-skinned guys had on a red suit of spandex with a red cape flapping behind him and a large yellow letter 'M' on the front of his suit. The other had on a dark blue spandex suit that was lighter blue on his boots, gloves, and around his neck area. The white guy wearing blue also had a tight black mask over the top of his head and a weird visor over his eyes. The visor was similar to the black man in the middle's, who had a tight white mask over the top of his head instead of black. Most of his spandex costume was teal blue, with only white highlights near the top of his torso, his gloves, and his boots.

The tall black man stopped in place as he glanced to his left. He looked back forward, then did a double-take to his left. The other two with him turned as well and looked at the young boy who the man between them was gawking at. The tallest of the three, the dark-skinned man, reached up to his visor and lifted it up above his eyes to show how huge they really were as he stared at the kid standing there. "Hey Lucius, what's up?" the guy with an 'M' on his costume asked.

"Mr. Best?" Dash muttered, still somewhat in shock at the sight of the man who just strolled down the hall.

"You know this kid?" the guy in a darker blue suit than Lucius Best asked.

"Y-Yeah," Lucius began. His eyes were still huge but his lips curled up into a smile. The hero better known by his alias, Frozone, grinned at the kid in front of him, and said, "This is Dash. He's Mr. Incredible's son."

The other two heroes next to Frozone looked shocked by that bit of knowledge. "Hey kid, me and your dad go way back," the guy with the 'M' on his super suit began. "He ever talk about me? Meta Man!" The guy flexed his arms and Dash's eyes went wide in shock.

"He did!" Dash exclaimed. "He said you were the strongest hero of your time."

"What about Gazerbeam?" the guy in blue asked and he flexed his arms too.

Dash stared at him for a few seconds and then shook his head 'no.' Gazerbeam bowed his head while the other two heroes laughed. Dash's face was lighting up and he sprinted away for a second and reappeared holding a cup of water that he got from somewhere close by. "Look out!" Dash shouted and he squeezed the cup, squirting all the water out.

Frozone grinned and he ran forward, sliding under the water and breathing at it. The water froze mid-flight and dropped to the ground as an icicle. "Haha! It is you!" Dash shouted. The man who got their long-time tradition right grinned as well that Dash remembered it after so long.

"Wow! Look how big you've gotten," Frozone said as he walked towards the boy. He looked down and laughed, "Well, maybe not that big."

"Hey!" Dash shouted.

The heroes all laughed, and then Meta Man spoke up, "So how are your parents doing kid?"

Dash smiled, "They're doing great. Unlike you the last I heard," Dash chided and the hero who passed away on their world looked surprised for a second before bursting into laughter with the others. They all remembered Meta Man's death via freak-cape-accident, and as sad as it was, it was also pretty funny now that they could laugh about it.

Frozone slowed down his laughter and he gained a more serious look on his face. Dash saw that look and he looked at Frozone confusedly. The hero with ice powers began, "Actually, there is something important I need to talk to your parents' about. They around Dash?"

Dash looked at his Godfather hesitantly, wondering why the man seemed all serious all of a sudden. "Why?"

"It's important," Frozone emphasized.

"Why? What is it?" Dash asked.

"Come on kid, is your dad here, or not?" Frozone asked, getting a little impatient.

"I'd guess he's not," the man who got up behind Dash began. The heroes looked towards the guard who they did not think was with Dash until now. Lancelot walked forward and motioned down at the kid, "He came running this way at a few hundred miles per hour. Had a kid on his back he was trying to save."

"You're the one who-" Meta Man began, but Dash interrupted them all.

"What do you need to tell my parents?" Dash snapped. Frozone looked hesitant and Dash added, "They're on the opposite side of the world. Not even on Aebrith." The other men looked surprised, especially that this meant that Dash had been around pretty much this entire world. "Whatever it is, you can tell me," Dash assured the older man.

Frozone hummed to himself for a few seconds before nodding. He looked at the other two heroes, "You guys go on ahead, I'll catch up in a few."

They nodded at him and told Dash it was nice to meet him and to tell his father they said 'hi' if he ran into them any time soon. As they walked off, Lancelot asked Frozone if he was okay taking Dash off his hands. Frozone accepted and Lancelot left to head back to his post on the wall, while Frozone turned the other way and told Dash to follow him. Dash was getting impatient again as the man still was not talking, but as he opened his mouth to complain, Lucius spoke first. "Your family? Are they all together? Your dad, mom, and Violet?" The superhuman questioned him.

Dash felt strange at the sound of that question, almost like Frozone worded it oddly. "Yeah, we were all together on Awul. Another huge continent like Aebrith, but smaller," Dash explained. "The only one who wasn't-"

"I know," Frozone said. He came to a sudden stop and looked down at Dash, "Your little brother right?"

Dash's eyes went wide, "How, did you know?"

"Because I found little JackJack," Frozone replied, and Dash almost jumped out of his shoes at that answer.

"What? Where? When? Where is he now?!"

"Whoa whoa, hold your horses little man," Frozone said. He knocked on a door twice and then pushed it open so he and Dash could go into the empty room. There were maps all over the walls of this room and a long rectangular table in the center of it. Frozone walked over to the table and continued talking to Dash, "As for where I found him, I have no idea. But the when, it was the First Day. Kid nearly fell on top of me after I showed up here." Frozone laughed a little and he said, "You know, your pops never told me how strong that baby was."

"Strong?" Dash wondered, distracted from all his other questions for a second.

"You didn't know?" Frozone asked. "Man, that baby's got more powers than I can count. Sure was a handful to handle."

"Where is he now?" Dash asked. "Is he here? In this base?" The blond boy was getting more excited by the second.

Frozone saw how excited Dash was and he sighed, "Sorry, but no."

"What? Why would you… oh no," Dash looked horrified but Frozone threw his hands up in front of him.

"Hold on there, stop what you're thinking," Lucius yelled at him. Dash's distraught look became more confused and Lucius continued, "I watched after him for a while, but I got caught up in this whole Resistance thing. I didn't want to drag my best friend's son into it too. I knew it was going to be dangerous going up against the King-"

"So you left him alone?!" Dash exclaimed.

"Will you let me finish child?!" Frozone snapped and Dash closed his mouth. The older hero from Dash's world took a deep breath and said, "Sorry. Didn't mean to yell like that. Just listen for a second though." Dash nodded his head at the man to continue so he did, "I left JackJack with some friends. Really nice people who I trusted a lot. And they're also in one of the only safe places on all of Aebrith, so your brother is as safe as he can be."

"Safe places, here?" Dash asked. From what he had seen so far, and all of what Gray and others had told him, there was nowhere safe on the entire continent. "How do you know?"

"This place," Frozone began. "It has no monsters, no wars, and the King himself can not go there."

Dash's eyes went wide as he imagined the terrifying King. _What could possibly stop something like that from going where it pleases?_ "Where is this place?" He asked.

Frozone stared at the boy, looked him up and down a few times wondering what to do. Dash looked back at him seriously and Frozone finally nodded his head. "Alright, com'ere," he motioned with his head to his side of the table. Dash ran around it and hopped up on a chair next to his dad's best friend. He looked down at the table and at a map on it that appeared to show all of Aebrith. Frozone pointed down at a red dot near the bottom of the map, and he said, "This is us." Dash looked at the dot and it was right on this black line that cut across the bottom of the map, splitting the rest of the continent south of it from everything above. There was only one other line similar and it was labeled, 'Cataclysm,' which was much further to the north. Dash was also surprised by how far to the west he still was even after heading east for so long after landing.

There were entire sections of the map blacked-out, other sections had red lines around them, some with green borders. There were a few large islands drawn on the map, one near the southeast corner that was as large as Australia. This island had a green outline on it like many other areas in the south, unlike the north that had no green to speak of. Scattering the south were also red-bordered countries, and there were actually more of those scattered around below the Cataclysm than the green ones. Dash examined this entire map in a little under a second with eyes that darted around insanely fast. Frozone kept talking, not knowing that Dash had already taken everything in, "There are very few safe zones," he said. Frozone dragged his finger up from their red dot to a point in the far east, close to the eastern coast and still south of the Cataclysm Line. That spot had an 'X' mark in black marker over it, and that was it. "This is one," Frozone explained, and then he started dragging his finger across the map to the northwest.

Dash followed his finger across the Cataclysm line and then a little farther to a few triangle shapes drawn on the western edge of the map. There was an 'X' drawn over the biggest triangle, and a small black circle going around the 'X' with it perfectly in the center. "What is that place?" Dash asked.

"That, is where I left your brother," Frozone replied. Dash's eyes widened and he kept staring at the map while his old family friend continued, "That mountain below the X, is commonly known as Mount Vegeta." Dash's face scrunched up in confusion and he lifted his eyes to Frozone with a look that said, 'Huh?' Frozone missed the look though as he was still staring at the point on the map carefully, "The Saiyan King declared that any towns within a hundred mile radius of the base of Mount Vegeta were under his protection. After he declared that, everyone for thousands of miles left for the Saiyan Mountains to set up residence."

"Saiyan Mountains, Mount Vegeta, Saiyan King?" Dash shook his head as he repeated all of this out loud.

"What is it?" Frozone asked the confused child.

 _Goku said he felt other Saiyans, is this what he meant? Are there a bunch of Saiyans up there, protecting people?_ "Wait, so if the King can't go to this place," Dash began as he realized something. "Does that mean the Saiyans are stronger than him?" His eyes were wide and he waited for an answer.

Frozone shook his head, "I wouldn't say 'Saiyans' plural, but the Saiyan King can definitely hold his own. I left JackJack in a town on the eastern side of the second biggest of the Saiyan Mountains."

"Where?" Dash asked, motioning at the map.

"Hey kid, you aren't planning on-" Lucius was cut off by a stern look from Dash.

"I'm going to find my brother," Dash said. "It's the whole reason I'm on this continent. I came here to find him, and to bring him back to my parents." Dash looked back at the map and his face stayed serious but he whispered, "If he's still there, I could get him, and bring him home in a few days. If I run as fast as I can, I know I can do it." Dash's fists clenched at his sides. _Mom, Dad, Violet, I'm bringing him back. I'm bringing my baby brother home._

"If you're sure about that," Frozone began, "then I won't try to stop you kid. Is the place the rest of your family is at safer than what I just described though?" Frozone questioned. "Maybe you should get them and bring them to him," he suggested.

"No," Dash said and shook his head. "Pao Town's as safe as anywhere on this planet. The mayor of the town is Son Goku."

"The Super Saiyan?" Frozone asked in surprise. "I would'a thought he lived on top of Mount Vegeta with the rest of 'em."

"That's where the rest of the Saiyans are?" Dash asked, looking back at the map. _That means, I could get JackJack and then find Goku too! Everyone's been looking for him, so leaving them all for a little to help my brother won't be so bad. Ben, Luffy, everyone, I'll come back. I promise._ Dash grabbed the map on the table in front of him and he crumpled it up before shoving it in his pocket.

"Hey! You can't do-"

"Thanks Mr. Best! I'll tell my parents you say 'hi,'" Dash shouted, already running for the door.

"Hold up!" Frozone waved his hand at the door to try and freeze it shut, but Dash saw it coming and picked up his speed before Frozone could stop him. He chuckled as he heard the man shouting behind him, but he stopped laughing after a second and steadied his expression. He ran out of the building and down the path in the middle of the fort. Lancelot was halfway back to his post when a blur raced by him and he almost fell to the ground at how fast the boy was moving. He snapped his head forward and watched as the blur leapt up in the air and cleared the northern wall in one single leap.

Dash landed outside of the fort and never once looked back. Even if he had, it would have become invisible after a few seconds. He ran up and down hills and across plains of blue grass, followed by green, followed by red. He never stopped. The men at the base who recorded him coming towards them dropped their jaws at how much faster he left than he approached. Every second until he disappeared from their radar their mouths continued to drop at his constantly increasing speed. _I'm going to do it! Out of everyone, I'm going to accomplish my goal first!_ The boy started smiling as he ran, and he jumped up in the air and fist-pumped just for the heck of it. _I can't wait to see the look on Violet's face when I bring back JackJack. Everyone's going to be so surprised._

Dash threw both arms up in the air and he ran up a hill and leapt over it, making him soar through the air like a rocket. The boy's face was getting pushed back by the wind but he did not care. He just opened up his flapping lips and let loose, "WOOHOOO!"

* * *

 **Capital**

"Your Majesty," Shaiapouf began, anxiety clear in his voice. "As your Royal Guard I feel it is my duty to tell you that this is a terrible idea!" The skinny, butterfly-winged Chimera Ant wearing a button down white shirt and long blue pants had sweat all over his face. Pouf ran in front of the marching King and walked backwards so as not to slow down Meruem's strides while being able to talk to him face to face. "In the last half year you have not absorbed the designated goal we made at the end of the Third War of the Gods. If you go now-"

"It is likely I will fail," Meruem said, though his lips curled up as he did. Pouf's expression only became more scared and the Ant King continued, "In that case, it is up to you, my Royal Guards, to ensure that I do not. I am putting more trust in you than ever before. Do not let me down, Shaiapouf," Meruem said, stopping for a second to look in his Royal Guard's eyes and show he really meant it.

Pouf almost fell down as he felt his heart thump so hard from those words. "King!" He exclaimed in pure ecstasy. Hearing the King had so much faith in him made even him, the most cautious of the three Royal Guards, believe that he would be able to protect Meruem in this upcoming mission.

"Even with all three of us guarding you," Menthuthuyoupi, or Youpi, began. The largest of the Royal Guards, Youpi was a ten foot tall monster covered in bulging reddish-purple muscles that were darker only around his waist and thighs. "There will be nothing we can do when he shows up."

Pitou sped up on the King's left side, opposite where Youpi was walking. The cat-like Chimera Ant had a small smile on her face but even she could not hide her anxiety at the aspect of this venture. "Last time, he spared our lives. But…"

"I remember," The King said, as there was no need to remind him of anything with his perfect memory. "He said that the next time I tried something, he would not hesitate to kill me." Meruem's purple irises shrank, his eyes narrowed, and his mouth curled up into a bloodthirsty smirk. "I am ready though. There can only be _one_ King."

The three Royal Guards of the Ant King all nodded their heads as this was something they one hundred percent agreed with their King on. Ever since arriving on this planet, the idea that there were beings stronger than their King has plagued them, but they never once faltered in their loyalty to Meruem. "It has been months since I last faced the Saiyan King, I know I will win now. I doubt he used his full power against me last time, but still, I have faith that this time I will defeat him."

The King swung his green-and-black-striped tail behind him, and a dark purple aura surrounded his body. The air around him started to distort a darker color that made the three Royal Guards smirk or grin along with him as his confidence spread into their bodies. His emotions flooded into them and their fears and anxieties over the King's possible defeat were alleviated. "The world has become complacent ever since the Third War of the Gods. I have grown bored," his mouth continued to curve up as he said these things despite what he was saying. "Countless tournaments and minor wars have been fought since then, but none have given me the entertainment I know the Saiyan King will provide." Meruem glared at the double doors at the end of the hall and they swung open so hard they ripped off their hinges.

Over four dozen figures stood or sat around a huge room on the other side of the doors. The doors were at the top of fifty stairs, leading down into an enormous room full of giant purple pillars that stretched hundreds of feet into the air before hitting the dark ceiling high above. Lights floated around in bubbles, and chairs with lights coming out the bottoms of them allowed those sitting on them to float around with ease. Those who were standing, some of whom were standing in midair as if the air they were on was a floor in itself, turned towards the door and knelt where they were. All of those in seats around the room got out of their chairs as fast as possible when they saw that dark purple aura seeping out of the double doors up above and into the room. They all knelt before the King of the Chimera Ants, the King of the Cooperative, of most of Aebrith. If anyone asked, every one of them would say that he was the King of the world, but Meruem knew that they would be lying if they said that. Even if they said it to his face, he would know that a part of them felt that it was not true, because the knowledge that he could not defeat the Saiyan King was well known, even if not one person would ever bring it up in fear for their lives.

As Meruem stepped into the huge hall that he could not see the end of from the double doors leading into his personal quarters, he was thinking about all of these things. His eyes quickly darted around to look at everyone in the room and he thought about how none of them would dare mention his defeat to the Saiyan leader over five months before. _Only two have been so daring. Satan, whom I know will still oppose me even if I am to succeed. And Zeref, the immortal. He has my respect more than the demon, but after I defeat the Saiyan King, I will no longer have to worry about either of them._ He hummed to himself, _Actually, that is not true. When I obtain that power, I will feel even more confident, but be sure to remember this moment. Remember all the moments after coming to this world and before where you were too confident. And remember him,_ he thought, and his gaze lowered to the center of his grand hall where a human figure with white hair tied back in a ponytail and a very muscular figure knelt before him. Meruem grinned at the body of Isaac Netero down below, even if he knew that the figure he was looking at was not the same as the man who killed him on his own world.

The King had not said anything for several seconds, and the people kneeling all over the air and floor of the room lifted up their heads to look at him. Standing on his left were Pouf and Pitou, and on his right taking up more space than the other two was Youpi. Isaac Netero, the man directly in front of the King at the bottom of the stairs, lifted his head and curled his lips up at the King. The body of the strongest human to live on Meruem's world smirked in a way that Netero never would have, and the alien in control of his body made eye contact with Meruem. "Ginyu," Meruem said, glad the figure made eye contact with him. "Would you accompany me as well?"

The rumors going around the room were confirmed by this one statement and everyone started looking around at each other. Some of them felt like whispering in hushed voices to their neighbors, but the King's dark purple aura suddenly expanded to cover the entire hall and no one said a word. No one, except for High Commander Ginyu who un-knelt and stood before the King. He slammed a fist into his chest so fast that most figures in the room could not see him move. "I would be honored Your Majesty!"

Meruem looked around the rest of the room and he called out, "Who else would risk their lives to subjugate the Saiyans?" In an instant, every figure in the room got up off their knees. The King could see hesitant and nervous looks on many faces, but not one stayed on their knees. He knew, that they knew, they could have stayed down as well. Each one of them knew the King would not have punished them for staying down, as he asked the question instead of just demanding their help. He did not do things for no reason, he did not ask questions solely to kill them because of a wrong answer. They were loyal, which was why they were in the Capital and not somewhere else on Aebrith serving some other High Lord with great ambitions and goals.

Pouf saw the King smirk, and the Royal Guard stepped forward. The fifty beings throughout the lower portion of the room: demons, aliens, humans, Chimera Ants, and all sorts of various creatures alike, stared up at the top of the stairs at one of the four beings at the top of the Cooperative. The King was in charge, and High Lords were supposedly the next step down, but an order from a Royal Guard would supersede that of a High Lord. A Royal Guard's order was the same thing as an order from the King, their words were the same as the King's words, he trusted them explicitly and they would never do anything against Meruem's interests so he never had to worry. They all looked up at Shaiapouf, who was known by the moniker- The King's Voice. "In that case," he called out, his voice higher pitched than the King's. "Gather only your most elite forces! Be ready at a moment's notice! The King has made his summons and you have responded! Follow him into battle and be prepared to give your life for our Majesty!"

Pitou and Youpi smirked at Pouf's back as he was always so dramatic with his speeches, though they had to admit he was the best at giving them. He had nothing on the King of course, but Meruem often had better things to do than address his people. Meruem continued to look around the room at all the incredibly powerful figures he had gathered around him. Pouf continued to shout out inspirational things for a few more moments until the powerful warriors around the room were feeling riled up.

Youpi glanced to his left at the King and asked, "How are we going to go about hitting the Saiyans?"

Pitou looked past the King at her comrade in the Royal Guards. "We have to get the Saiyan King's attention somehow. And I have a great idea for how to make him come out."

Meruem looked at the shorter woman on his left and he saw her smirk devilishly at him. He nodded his head as he could see what she was thinking and then looked back forward into his hall. He held up a hand and Pouf quieted down instantly. He stepped forward while Shaiapouf stepped back, and Meruem rose up his right hand that his entire aura condensed around at once. His eyes narrowed at his purple fist and he opened it up so that the aura burst out in every direction and spread past the outside walls of the hall so that it expanded to cover much of the city. Gladiators resealed in their cages below the Colosseum tensed up and shivered at the feeling going down their spines, and their guards covered in sweat as they wondered what the King was doing that he would need to expel so much aura. Organization members walking down the streets of the Capital stopped and turned towards the Northern/Command Quarter where the aura was originating from. Even a couple of robots and Androids to the southeast of the largest city in Aebrith looked that way and opened their mechanical eyes wide as their power sensors could not quantify the energy they sensed as it was too much for Meruem's Power Blocker to keep hidden.

The Ant King closed his hand back into a fist but his aura stayed expanded around his city. He wanted everyone to know that he was about to make his move, make them all afraid, nervous, because they were right to be. _I remember every single action you made in our previous battle. I know your patterns, and even if you are stronger, I will not lose to you a second time. You are going to regret showing me mercy, Saiyan King._

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed! Dash sprints nonstop south and stumbles upon a Resistance Base where he leaves Killua to receive treatment. He not only finds Frozone at the base, his Godfather, but he also discovers the whereabouts of his little brother. JackJack is somewhere near the Saiyan Mountains. Sora and Goku are at the top of Mount Vegeta. Meruem is mobilizing his armies, and his goal is to defeat the Saiyan King who beat him once already. The First Third of the Aebrith Saga is coming to its conclusion. Get ready...**

 **Merlin: Lancelot**

 **Incredibles: Dash, JackJack, Frozone, Meta Man, Gazerbeam, Mr. Incredible (Bob Parr), Elastigirl (Helen), Violet**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Killua, Pitou, Pouf, Youpi, Meruem**

 **Avatar the Last Airbender: Sozin**

 **DBZ: Saiyans, Ginyu**

 **Fairy Tail: Natsu**

 **Ben 10: Ben**

 **One Piece: Luffy... (and Dr. T if I didn't make that clear enough XD )**


	73. Nexus HWR 11-5 Sith, Slaves, and Spies

**Nexus HWR 11.5 Sith, Slaves, and Spies:**

 **Order of the Sith**

In the southwest of Aebrith, over a thousand miles south of the border with the Organization, yet still considered in the north of the Emperor's territory, the Order of the Sith resided. In between two natural rock formations that would be mountains if they were not so misshapen, the Sith Lords plotted and practiced their ancient arts under the rule of the Emperor. The temple of the Sith Order itself was built using the Force, utilizing the Dark Side to rearrange mountains and carve their buildings. One Sith alone could do no such feat, but hundreds of them could rearrange the entire landscape near their Order, and they did.

Inside one of the many temples, the largest of them all, a dozen of the most powerful Siths throughout all history in their universe were gathered. Three of those Siths were Force Ghosts, including the Sith Lord who stood, or floated, in the center of the chamber at that moment. The Emperor had his hood up as always, but not far on his right there was an old man whose skin was wrinkled and whose voice came out raspy when he spoke. Darth Sidious hissed, "And was it the same boy?"

Darth Bane's ghost gazed towards Sidious and it frowned. The recently-killed Sith Lord was in the middle of speaking to the Emperor, not to Sidious, but he did have to mind his tongue. There was only one Sith in the entire Order who none dare challenge, but even if he never accepted when he was alive that Sidious was stronger than him, he respected the Sith from his future. Everyone knew what Sidious had done; they all knew who it was who destroyed the Jedi Order, on their world at least.

"It was not," Bane responded. "The one who killed me, went by the name Gray Fullbuster."

Behind the Emperor, a small boy standing silently with his eyes pointed at the floor, did not move a muscle. This was Romeo Conbolt's first time seeing Darth Bane as a Force Ghost, and until a few seconds ago he had heard nothing about the Sith Lord's demise. _GRAY!_ Outwardly, Romeo made no movements. His feelings stayed hidden deep inside him, and he would not let them rise to the surface. "I saw him there," Bane continued, turning back to the Emperor as he continued, "but he was not the one to defeat Fire Lord Sozin. It was a comrade of his whom I believe is even more powerful."

Romeo's heart rate was speeding up, but he desperately tried slowing it down. He would not start breathing deeply to calm down, as that would draw attention, so instead he thought, _Deep. Breath… Deep. Breath…_

"News of Sozin's death by his hands is spreading all over the world. Natsu Dragneel," Bane said. He then paused, before adding, "Like Gray, he is a mage of Fairy Tail."

"Fairy Tail," the Emperor said. His head turned a little and he looked through the shadow of it at the boy behind him. Romeo's gaze slowly lifted up and he looked into the shadowed area surrounding the Emperor's face. All Romeo could see were the dark yellow eyes of the Sith Lord, and they bored into his own soul as he stared back. "Just like you," the Emperor said.

The others in the room gazed towards the silent boy behind the Emperor. He wore rags and had chains on his ankles. The kid kept glaring into the Emperor's eyes and said nothing in response. What the Emperor said was not a question though, he already knew that Romeo used to be in Fairy Tail. After all, the boy had told him on the day they met.

* * *

 **FD + 254**

On a main street in the poorer section of a large city in northeast Aebrith, a small stage was set up in an empty lot on the side of the road. Someone had initially cleared the area to build a house, but the surrounding neighborhood was so bad that they got robbed before even setting down a solid foundation. The ground was flat though, and it was as good a place as any for a slave auction.

Three slaves sat on the stage, their legs hanging off the front of it as they sat still and depressed. The auction for the day had not yet started, and the men selling them were just standing around and talking. There were four men on the right of the stage, two on the left, all of them with dark skin, pirate-y clothes, and jewelry. Unlike the slaves, most of them were in high spirits.

In front of the stage a lot more men were gathered. Many of these men had light skin, though two had red skin and horns, and one figure was a shorter man whose head was bald and whose skin looked as tough as a rhino's. Malko stood in a circle of these men, glaring forward in annoyance despite the good mood of his subordinates. "It's been three days," he began and gained the attention of his suddenly silent men. "I'm ready to get back to the ship."

"We still have three slaves left to sell," one of his men muttered.

"I know that," Malko growled at the man. "I can fucking see them," he nodded his head past the man he was growling at towards the stage where the slaves averted their gazes upon his nod.

One of the slaves, the boy in the center of the three, pointed his gaze right at his feet and the floor beneath them. _Mine, Lily,_ he thought, and he sniffled once to hold back any emotions. There had been enough zappings and beatings from Malko the last few days to know not to start crying again.

Malko frowned as he kept glaring at the three on stage. There was a middle-aged woman he did not find attractive, a scrawny teenage boy, and the even younger kid who was the youngest of their slaves in the first place. _Nobody wants a brat like that as a slave,_ Malko thought to himself. His eyes shifted between the three slaves, then he muttered under his breath, "I think it's time to return to Leol-sama."

His men looked around at each other with hesitant gazes. The short bald alien man spoke up, "Is it wise to return without selling all the product? He may be angry."

Malko frowned deeply again, then he smirked and whispered, "Unless we did sell them all." He gazed around and his men appeared confused, but a few nodded along as they started understanding. "That reindeer sold for five times as much as we thought he would the first day we auctioned here. Sold for even more than Hancock," he added that as extra since they all knew how much Hancock was worth.

"What's your point?" One of the more brutish men asked.

"My point," Malko grumbled, annoyed that some of his stupid men did not understand what he was implying. "Is that we already have enough to give Leol and play it off like we sold them all."

"You want to sell the other three and split the money between us?" One of the red-skinned men questioned.

"No," Malko said, glaring at the man for asking. "If Leol ever found out he's massacre us all." The others nodded in agreement with that. "But," Malko continued, "if it's between going back to Leol with product we failed to sell, or nothing at all, and the same amount of money," the others started nodding along with him, and he finished, "then I'd rather ditch the worthless goods and return looking successful."

Romeo's eyes were huge as he stared at the floor beneath his feet. _"Ditch the worthless goods?" Could he be letting us go? Is he merciful enough? ...No, he's going to kill us._

"We doing it right now?" One of the men asked Malko. Another whistled to the other slavers around the area and everyone started heading Malko's way.

Romeo held his breath at the question. His eyes were aimed straight down, but through his peripheral vision he could see the slaves on either side of him were not eavesdropping into their slavers' conversation like he was. _If they were, they'd be a lot more panicked right now._

Malko thought for a second, then responded, "Well we already have everything set up for today's auction. We'll make this the last one then head back. Now get out there and spread the word! Minimum biddings will be half today what they were yesterday." Malko frowned after he said it while his men all ran off. _If the buyers we found didn't want these three yesterday, they're probably not going to want them today, even for cheaper. We need a more constant supply of new slaves. Leol-sama should start hiring new ships at every port we hit. This is a rising business on Nexus, and we're going to be the Kings of it!_

Romeo watched as Malko had disgusting thoughts to himself. As he glared at the man through the tops of his eyes, Romeo felt so much anger towards him. _This bastard cares nothing for others' lives. How can a person live like that? How can a human be that much of a monster?!_ Romeo tried calming his breathing, and he focused on something else, _I need to be sold today. Whatever it takes. I need to get away from them._

* * *

"Not a single offer!" a slaver to the right of the stage shouted. "Is there something just wrong with those three?"

Romeo kept standing strong on the stage, flexing as hard as he could for everyone walking by. Most people walking on the street were not there for an auction though. Most of them just walked in small packs right past the stage. Some people walked by themselves, but they were always clearly armed and dangerous. Romeo could tell that the people walking around this area were afraid themselves, and many of them hurried by the slavers even if they were in groups of three people or more.

A couple people Romeo saw two days before at an auction came close to the stage, but one look at the only three slaves on display made them frown and turn away. Malko grimaced from his spot in front of the stage right on the side of the road. He glared at a few people walking by who did not stop for his auction, and those two people stopped and turned fully to him. They frowned and their eyes flashed black at the human who had snarled at them.

Malko gulped and took a step back, looking away from the creepy people who did not seem to care that he had a whole crew of heavily armed men behind him. His bad mood continued after they left though, and he spun to glare at the figures on the stage. "You worthless fucks," he snapped at them, then marched his way to the side of the stage and behind it out of their sights.

 _No! I can't not be sold!_ Romeo looked around the street, his eyes pleading with people to take him. Most of them thought he wanted them to free him, but he would have been fine with them buying him to be their slave. Anything was better than staying there at this point.

Time flew by faster than it ever had. The more that Romeo wanted the day to last, for the auction to keep going until someone arrived who wanted him, the faster the day progressed. The suns hit the tops of their arcs and dropped into the west so fast that Romeo found himself staring at them in shock for how fast the day was moving. _This is it,_ he thought, as the first sun dropped below the top of a thirty story building in the nicer part of the city a few miles away.

Romeo's eyes closed. The kid stopped flexing, his body tired from doing it constantly for hours. His arms fell limply at his sides, but after a few seconds, his fists clenched tightly. Even though his eyes were closed, he could see Mine in front of him. He saw himself giving up as she was taken, and the promise she made to find him someday. _I can't give up here. Mine will free herself someday, and she and Lily will come for me. They might get captured by Leol again, or worse, if I don't get free myself and go find them first._

Romeo's teeth bared and his fingernails cut into his palms as his fists clenched tighter. _If they're going to kill us, then I need to fight. I need to get the remote key to my cuffs, and I'll free myself and the other two to help me. I'll steal their weapons for the others, and I'll use my magic to bust us out of there. All I have to do is get that remote from Malko. I can't overpower him though, not with these cuffs draining my strength. I don't need strength or magic though... if I get my hands on his gun._

Romeo's breathing hiked, and all the sound around him fell away. _I'll shoot Malko with his own weapon and take the remote. He deserves it. He deserves to die. I pretended like I didn't know why Hancock was taken away those nights, but I know you had them bring her to you. You're a monster! I'll kill you and escape from here!_

Romeo's eyes snapped open, a look of pure determination on his face. As soon as his eyes opened though, his look changed to one of surprise at the sight of a man standing in front of him. The man stood on the street ten feet in front of the stage, but he was perfectly lined up with Romeo, and facing him as well. People walked on either side of him, in front and behind, ignoring the man in a gray hooded-cloak who just kept staring through the shadows of it at Romeo.

Romeo tried to make out what the man looked like, and he found himself staring straight into the darkness under the man's hood. The slaves on his sides darted their eyes in at him a few times wondering what he was doing. One of the slavers spotted the eye contact the two were making, and he ran off to let Malko know that there was a potential buyer.

 _Don't go with him!_ The thought was more subconscious then conscious, and Romeo felt his body cover in sweat as the cloaked figure started walking forward. As the man walked towards the stage on feet Romeo could not see under his cloak, darkness fell over the street and Romeo gulped. _If I don't get him to buy me though, they'll kill me. It's dark already, the auction is... It's dark? The suns were-_ Romeo lifted his gaze to the sky, and he started panting heavily at the sight of the gray clouds filling the sky. _It was sunny all day. Where did this come from?_

"Hello there!" A voice shouted from the side of the stage. Malko smirked a gold-toothed smile at the man examining his goods. He marched towards the figure who was around his height, only a few inches taller, and whose choice of clothes Malko tried not to let get to him. "Like what you see? This boy is only-"

"I will take him," the cloaked figure said in a deep voice.

Malko frowned at first that he was rudely interrupted, then he smirked. _Cut me off_ _huh?_ He kept grinning while speaking up again with Romeo's low price, though it was back up to what it was on previous days, not the half price he was about to mention to the man before being interrupted.

Romeo continued to stare into the shadows of this man's hood, getting more nervous by the second as he could now see the figure's dark yellow eyes. "You will give him to me for free," the figure said in a deep voice.

Romeo's eyes bugged at what this man was saying. _Is he trying to fight Malko? What's going-_

"I will give him to you for free," Malko agreed with a nod of his head. He turned towards Romeo who spun his way with a shocked look on his face. "Get down from there, you're going with, what's your name?" Malko turned back to the cloaked figure.

"You don't need to know my name," the figure said.

"I don't need to know your name," Malko agreed with a nod of his head. He turned back to the stage, and his forehead wrinkled up in anger at the sight of Romeo just standing there gawking like the other two slaves. Malko reached for his remote to control the slaves with, and he lifted it up while snapping, "Off the stage boy! He's taking you!"

Another of the dark-skinned slavers walked up to Malko. He was one of the few who sailed around with Malko back on their own universe, so the two were at least closer than many of the others in their group. He questioned Malko, "How much did you sell him for?"

Romeo heard the question, and his reaction was to hop forward off the stage. He acted like it was because Malko held up his remote, but really he just wanted to get out as fast as possible. He could see what was coming, and he did not know if this strange man would be able to convince all of the slavers to let him go free, for free. Romeo looked up at the taller man after he landed in front of him. The man looked through the darkness of his hood into Romeo's eyes from only two foot away. The kid wanted to say 'Thanks,' but he did not know what this man wanted. He did not know if he was going to be freed, or if the man would help him find his own comrades. All he knew was that the man scared the crap out of him.

"Wait a second!" Malko shouted, spinning around and glaring towards the cloaked man and his new slave. Others on the road who heard this shout looked their way, and Malko's two slaves along with the one he just gave away got very nervous at Malko's furious expression. "Where are you going?!"

The figure looking down at Romeo turned his head towards Malko. Malko's entire crew was gathered up behind and around him though. They were holding weapons and though looked confused, they also kept threatening auras around them. "I don't know what you just did to me," Malko snapped. Enough of his men convinced him that letting Romeo get taken for free did not make any sense that Malko himself realized he had nothing to back up his decision with in the first place. "But you don't just get to take our product for free!"

Malko lifted the remote and held his finger over a button. "You'll return that kid right now, or I'll kill him myself."

Romeo's breath hitched and his entire body tensed up. He looked down at his cuffs, wishing they were off so he could hold up fists to stop Malko. Then again, if the cuffs were off he would not need to stop him anyway. Romeo's eyes darted to the man with him, wondering what the figure was going to do about this predicament. As he looked up at the cloaked man's hood, he gulped because he could see the sky above them. The gray clouds before were so much darker now, almost black in color.

After Malko's demand, a rumbling sound of thunder filled the air, and Romeo spotted some sparking lightning up in the clouds. Some of the slavers around Malko were getting nervous as they looked up in the sky, then back at the strange cloaked man who never looked up once. "Last chance," Malko growled, ignoring the strange shift in weather around them.

The cloaked figure lifted his right hand and his long cloak sleeve moved with it to cover up what it looked like. Malko's finger pressed, and then he screamed, "AHHH!" Malko's shout of agony made everyone nearby look towards him in confusion. Their eyes opened huge in shock at the sight of Malko grabbing his right wrist with his left hand, blood spurting out of that wrist that his right hand was no longer connected to.

Romeo stared in as much shock as everyone else for a few seconds, then his body filled with dread as he saw blood dripping on the floor on his left. He turned his head slowly and lifted his gaze to his "savior"'s hand, which was holding another, darker hand covered in blood. The figure wrapped his hand around the remote in Malko's removed right hand, and he let Malko's hand drop to the floor.

The others in Malko's group who were trying to help him spun their heads back to look at the man facing them. Some of them rose weapons while others backed away, but everyone was afraid of him. The man crushed the remote in his right hand, an action Romeo figured he could have done easily without first removing Malko's hand. _Not that I feel bad for him though,_ Romeo thought, while looking down at his cuffs and trying to pull his hands apart. He felt twinges of pain in his wrists and grunted from it. _Damn, he crushed the remote before turning the cuffs off. Did he know what he was doing, or..._

 _ **Chssshh**_

All the men pointing weapons their direction, the two slaves sneaking off while no one was watching them, and all the bystanders brave enough to stay and watch this confrontation, stared in anxious fear at the red blade of light that extended from the left hand of the cloaked figure. As the lightsaber extended, two bolts of lightning sparked across the sky high above and behind him. The cloaked man lifted his lightsaber in his left hand, and the slavers unloaded their firearms at him.

Romeo winced and pulled his head back in fear. After a second though, none of those attacks had hit him. The man next to Romeo had his right hand lifted, and in front of his open palm were a dozen yellow beams and a multitude of bullets. Romeo gawked at the power, and then he leaned back and let out a yelp as the man slashed his lightsaber down at him. Romeo clenched his eyes shut, **Clank. Clank.**

Romeo's eyes snapped back open and darted to the ground at his feet. Sitting at his feet were his cuffs, slashed apart and smoking. His eyes lifted back to the man next to him full of hope and excitement, but the cloaked man was no longer there.

Romeo saw it through his peripheral vision a second before he heard the screams. He turned and looked towards Malko and his slavers, yelling in agony as all the bullets and beams they shot were redirected into them. The ones who the attacks did not kill were being cut to pieces by the man with the red lightsaber. _Who, is this guy?_ Romeo thought in fear. He took a step back, then froze in terror. He watched as one of the slavers, the short bald alien one, tried running away only to freeze in place.

The alien slaver lifted off the ground while screaming, and then his screams stopped. Even though he continued to writhe around in midair, he could no longer make any sound. He grabbed frantically at his throat like someone else was choking him, even though there were no hands on his neck besides his own.

Rain started to pour down on the city below, washing blood down the main road of the slums. The cloaked figure who freed Romeo stabbed his lightsaber down into Malko as the one-handed man tried crawling away through the bloody mess of bodies and limbs around him. Malko let out a gasp, then his head dropped limply to the road and the lightsaber was removed from his body.

The cloaked man turned around and looked towards the boy who did not dare try to run away. Romeo felt like lifting his hands to create flames to protect himself, but he had no idea how he could guard from attacks he could not even see. The man started walking towards the boy in the pouring rain.

 _Where did the others go?! I would have stayed and helped them!_ Romeo clenched his teeth from the cold rain covering his body, but also in fear and regret for not running earlier. _What do I do?! Run? Fight?! Or, I mean he did save me!_

"Come," the cloaked figure said as he reached Romeo. He did not break stride, and just kept walking past where the kid was standing. Romeo turned his head and watched the man confusedly. "You will follow me," the man said.

 _I should follow- NO! What if these aren't your thoughts?! He's doing that thing to trick my mind like he did Malko!_ "Where are, we going?" Romeo questioned.

The cloaked man stopped walking only a few feet past Romeo, but his lips curled up at the question. "I did not think that would work, or I had at least hoped." He turned his head more and looked back at the boy behind him, "As for where, I will decide as we go. No further questions," he finished as Romeo opened his mouth to ask something else. The kid froze with his mouth open, and the man in front of him spoke while gazing at him through the darkness of his hood, "I took you for free, but you are still mine."

Romeo's heart rate sped up along with his breathing. His fists clenched at his sides, but the man in front of him continued, "I am an emissary of darkness. I am a Sith Lord." His right hand rose and Romeo felt a loose grip of something around his neck. "You may think that you are free right now, but the restraints I have put on you are stronger than those cuffs you used to wear."

Romeo's heart ached. _I was free! For a minute there, I really felt, free!_

"Freedom is an overrated concept," the Sith said to the boy whose face covered in sweat at what he thought was mind-reading. The Sith turned away from the boy and started walking towards the part of the city with the tallest buildings. "What is the purpose of freedom without a cause? Such power inside you, yet you allow yourself to be traded from one owner to another. Like a weakling."

"I'm not weak," Romeo snapped. He lifted his hands and focused, and two balls of purple flames emerged over his palms. The kid grinned that even after months in captivity, he still had the strength to produce flames. In a confident tone he said, "I'm a mage of Fairy Tail." He turned his body sideways and stood in a fighting stance.

The Sith walking away from him did not turn around. He held his right hand to the side and clenched it into a fist, and the purple flames on Romeo's hands vanished. He then opened up that fist and flicked two fingers forward, pulling Romeo across the ground so fast that the kid fell to the floor. The Force Pull did not stop though, dragging Romeo down the street after the Sith who continued to walk at a casual pace.

Romeo bounced and slid across the wet street for five seconds before the mysterious pull on his body vanished. He coughed a few times in pain with his face pointed at the floor, then stopped coughing as he heard the cloaked man speak, "Get up or get dragged." Romeo got to his feet quickly. He was used to such threats from Malko and the others, but all those times he had his cuffs on and could use not having his powers as an excuse for why he was being submissive. This was a hundred times more frustrating.

"Raaa!" Romeo ran towards the man's back, raising his hands again to form more fire on them. Flames sputtered to life even in the rain, then they went out all at once. "RaaAAA!" Romeo created more, but he realized as they appeared on his hands that he was no closer to the Sith than when he started running. His right foot came down again, then it slid a foot back on the floor while he looked down at it.

"Follow from that distance," Romeo's new owner commanded.

Rage filled Romeo. He was free. There was nothing stopping him from running away, except for this single man. _I can beat him!_ Romeo yelled at himself. He threw both of his hands up above his head and started yelling aloud, "I don't know what you want with me, but I'm going home!" Flames appeared on both of his hands, and they grew larger and larger until they connected above his head in one large purple fireball.

"Let me go now, or I'll-ah!" Romeo yelped as he was yanked off his feet. He fell to the ground again and got dragged towards the Sith who had ignored his speech. Romeo tumbled head over heels, and his large attack exploded on the street and surrounded him. He screamed in pain but did not stop getting dragged forward until he was out of the explosion and stopped face-first on the wet street.

"I am a patient man," the cloaked Sith said while Romeo stared at the ground beneath his face. The water running all over his face made it easier for him, because he could pretend like he was not silently sobbing. "But I will show you the real power of the Dark Side if you do not stand up right now and follow me."

 _Why?!_ Romeo pressed his palms on the floor beneath him. His head rose with a blank expression on his wet face. _Why is this happening to me?! Why am I at the mercy of this man?! Why can't I do anything?!_

"It is because you are weak," the Sith said and continued to walk away from the boy. Romeo stood up and stared at the cloaked man's back as he walked away. The kid did not know if he really heard it aloud, or if his mind was playing tricks on him, but he swore he heard the Sith whisper, "for now." A loud crack of thunder happened right after the whisper though, and Romeo shook his head before walking forward himself.

 _This "Sith Lord" is too strong. I can't beat him. There is nothing I can do but follow... For now._

* * *

 **Present**

"Do you think they will come for you?"

Romeo's teeth clenched but his lips pressed tighter together so no one would be able to see how hard he was baring his teeth at them. The Emperor stared straight at the boy, both of them ignoring all the other Sith in the room. "You thought it before haven't you? None will come though. They never do." Romeo's fingers shook but he urged himself not to clench his hands into fists. _Don't, give him, the satisfaction!_ Romeo thought, trying harder every second to prevent himself from shaking in rage.

"They don't even know you're here," the Emperor said while turning away from the child. "Not that it would matter if they did."

"If Natsu knew where I was," Romeo growled. All the Sith looked back towards the boy whose eyes were pointed at the floor. Romeo's eyes lifted up slowly, his irises shaking as his lips curled up, "He would smash through everything you put against him. You wouldn't stand a cha-ack, ack-ag!" Romeo reached his hands up for his neck and grabbed it tightly. The skin around his throat tightened and air became impossible to pass through his trachea. Romeo's shaking eyes bulged and got bloodshot as the soles of his feet lifted off the ground.

"Believe that if you will," the Emperor said to the boy. "But what does it matter when he does not know where you are?" Romeo clenched his eyes in pain and anger. "No one knows you are here. No one even knows you are alive." The Emperor let go of his Force Choke and dropped Romeo to the ground. The kid fell to his hands and knees, coughing up bloody spit on the floor beneath him.

Romeo's bloodshot eyes snapped open, and his dirty palms that were pressed flat to the floor curled up. His fingernails scraped on the floor towards the center of his hands, and he bit down on his bottom lip in fury. _How long has it been? How many days? Weeks?! YEARS?!_

The Emperor re-faced Darth Bane's Force Ghost in front of him, then spoke while addressing everyone in the room. "The Fire Lord's demise has been a catalyst. Powerful forces are gathering in the Capital. The Ant King makes his move, but he is not the only one. Strong winds are moving in from the east, as High Lord Spriggan expands his territory on the back of that ancient evil. And below the surface dark machinations stir as Satan prepares once again to rise."

"Then is it time, my Lord?" Darth Sidious questioned.

"If the gears are in already motion," Bane continued, "then we must move quickly."

"Heh heh heh," the Emperor chuckled. Romeo's head lifted with fear all over his face. He had been in the service of the Emperor for a long time, but never had he heard the man laugh like that. "Not yet. The pieces are in place, but not everyone is playing yet. "We will watch from a distance and witness the outcome of this war. Whatever it may be."

* * *

 **The Organization**

"We will merge them tonight," Xemnas announced. "Jixsan," he lowered his gaze from the highest chair in their round room to one of the lowest ones.

"Sir?" The Nobody that looked a lot like Sanji replied.

"You were Vexen's assistant, you understand the process," the High Lord stated, not really a question as much as an order.

"I'll prepare the machines," Jixsan replied. He was about to form a dark portal to vanish into, but someone spoke up first.

"If I may," everyone turned to the voice and looked to one of the chairs close to the top of the tower, within the top ten tallest seats. "Is it really wise to merge Kairi and Naminé so soon?"

"What are you getting at?" Xigbar asked, leaning forward in his chair. The Nobody on the left side of Xemnas, his chair only a few yards down in height, looked down with his single yellow eye at their newest member. Xigbar had on the same black cloak as everyone else in the room, but he was also wore an eyepatch to cover up the lost eye from a fight years before.

"Kairi," Axel said and lifted his hands up in front of him. "We should use her instead of just letting Naminé have her. Do you really think giving her a heart will change her mind?"

"Axel!" Roxas shouted across the chamber at his best friend. Roxas stood up on his seat only a few meters lower than Axel's, directly across the room from his spiky-red-haired friend.

"Hey, it's the truth," Axel said, not sounding too apologetic.

"I do not see why you think this way," Xemnas began. "As you yourself claimed getting your heart was what changed your mind about our Organization."

Axel frowned and everyone looked back towards him. They had skeptical looks and Axel grumbled under his breath before calling out, "Sure, we could give Kairi's heart to Naminé, make her whole, and get another member. Maybe she'll be cooperative. But if she's not, then we just wasted the best chance we have, of getting Roxas his heart."

This confused most people in the room and Xemnas nodded his head, "Continue," he told Axel who grinned.

"Sora's gonna come for Kairi," Axel stated. "And I'm sure most people here remember what happened last time we fought him." More than half of the room's occupants looked around confusedly, only to be surprised as the majority of their veteran members had pained expressions on their faces. "Oh yeah, he destroyed all of us. I hear he's even stronger now."

"Axel, what are you-" Roxas started shouting at the man with spiky red hair, but Axel cut him off before he could finish.

"Let's use Kairi as a hostage," Axel suggested. "Bring Sora here, make him merge with Roxas, and then we could merge Kairi and Naminé anyway, no matter what promises we make with him beforehand."

"Oi bastard," Jixsan growled up at their newest member. "What is it exactly you're planning on doing to a woman?"

"Cool it," Axel said. "I'm just thinking logically how to get my friend his heart back."

"Damn it Axel! I told you I don't-"

"Roxas," Xemnas said, his voice malevolent and silencing the young man lashing out at Axel at once. They all looked up to their silver haired leader who had his eyes narrowed down to Axel, Rank VIII of the Organization. His eyes then shifted to Roxas, "You have been uncooperative from the start. Perhaps upon acquiring a heart, you will understand."

"You're considering this?" Xigbar asked the man above him.

"I have already decided," Xemnas replied. "Axel's plan is sound. Noxagh," he continued, and looked only a little farther down from Xigbar to where the teenager was sitting. Son Gohan's Nobody looked up at the man speaking to him. "As you have the most power of our members, you will be the one to search out young Sora. Avoid confrontation if possible, but if you do wind up fighting him and win, bring him back here alive."

Noxagh nodded at their leader. "Understood." He paused, and looked uncertain about whether or not he should continue. Noxagh's curiosity won over in the end though and he started, "I saw your Heartless in Pyraxas." Instantly, everyone in the room tensed up and looked towards Noxagh in surprise, then to the top of the room where Xemnas was staring back down into the boy's eyes. Xigbar sat on the second highest chair in the chamber, and the man with an eyepatch chuckled darkly which made Noxagh turn his attention from the boss to the second in command.

Xigbar looked up at Xemnas and muttered something quietly with a smirk on his face. Xemnas nodded, while the boy who brought up the topic in the first place was looking increasingly irritated.

"What?" Noxagh asked. Xemnas looked down into the boy's eyes, and Noxagh frowned at the gaze. He closed his mouth, hesitated, then snapped it back open, "Why do you not want us searching for your Somebody like the others?"

Almost everyone in the room lifted their gazes to their leader, intrigue in their eyes. Manix leaned back in her seat, surprised that the kid would speak out like that to their leader. Larxene bared her teeth at the short boy who sat a seat above her even though she had been in the Organization for much longer. Bronxi leaned forward in her tall white chair and put her elbows on her knees and hands together above them to rest her chin on thoughtfully. A few seats higher than Noxagh, and even higher than Axel, a figure with his hood up shadowing his face stayed silent and did not look away from Noxagh to their leader. Jixsan was looking up at Xemnas's face, but he caught a glimpse of Xoupps' shadowed over face and the dark frown on it that gave him chills. Jixsan then looked back to Xemnas, though in the corners of his eyes, like in the corners of Manix and Bronxi's, he kept Noxagh in sight.

"My Somebody," Xemnas began. His deep voice echoed around the chamber and everyone looked towards him. "Is not on this world," he continued. " _His_ Heartless, who goes by the moniker Ansem, does not share the Organization's values. That is all you need to know."

Noxagh frowned as Xemnas's response only rose more questions. He nodded at the leader of the Organization though and became quiet. The room started to clear out with Organization members disappearing into black portals one by one. Noxagh stayed where he was sitting for a little longer than most however. _That girl, Kairi, she said she recognized me. The others too, they all looked at me with recognition in their eyes. I knew some of them too, at least I know them from their Nobodies. Could they, know, who I am? "Gohan"… Who, was I?_

A spiky-haired man not much farther up in the room than Noxagh stood up and stretched his arms above his head. His eyes focused down on the black haired Nobody kid for a minute, but as Noxagh lifted his gaze Axel looked away pretending like he was never watching at all. Axel yawned, then snapped his fingers and created a portal from right beneath his feet that rose up above his head and enveloped him in darkness. Axel vanished and appeared in a dark void, a passageway to wherever he wished. At the moment though, all he wanted was to stay there.

Axel kept smirking just like he had when he suggested keeping Kairi as a bargaining chip to Xemnas. He had a menacing look on his face, and he chuckled darkly as a black portal rose out of the floor of his dark realm a few feet behind him. "Sold it pretty well didn't I?"

"Sold it?" Roxas muttered in a dark voice. "It sounded like you were serious again. Like back at the Dread Fort," Roxas sighed after speaking, then shook his head with a small smile growing on his face. "I don't know how you make it so believable."

"What are you talking about?" Axel said, spinning and grinning down at his slightly shorter best friend. "Your acting wasn't so bad yourself. Heh, could be better though," Axel added at the end, making an annoyed look come to Roxas's face.

Roxas opened his mouth to yell, 'What's that supposed to mean?!' but he stopped himself short. He froze, and his mouth closed as a dark expression came to his face. "I can't believe he let her get captured," Roxas said in a low growl. Axel looked at his friends eyes that were pointed straight at the black floor of this realm. "After I told him what they were making me do, after I told him how they were doing it! What is Sora doing?"

Axel sighed to himself, then hummed loudly before saying, "I didn't see Kairi with him back at the Dread Fort. My guess is Sora wasn't even with her when she got taken." Axel shrugged his shoulders, but Roxas just frowned deeper at that explanation.

"In that case, it's all the more important we stall for as long as possible," Roxas whispered. "Sora promised to help me. He promised to save Naminé. I can't let him down."

"Not to mention just saving her 'cause it's Kairi," Axel mentioned. "I did some pretty bad stuff to her back in the day, so I want to make up for that to her. Hope she forgives me." Axel chuckled darkly a few times, before muttering, "It's not going to be easy. Most of the members don't know Sora, they won't get why we're keeping Kairi alive instead of merging her. If they try anything-"

"We'll stop them," Roxas growled. He twisted his mouth into a menacing smirk like Axel had inside the chamber, and he continued, "Kairi's my chance to get Sora, and I'll make sure no one puts a hand on my chance, to become…" Axel crossed his arms and looked skeptically down at the boy with golden blond hair whose attempt at a menacing smirk dropped into an annoyed scowl.

"How about you leave the bad guy act up to me?" Axel suggested. "Just use the angle that you're protecting Kairi because you're a good guy, since that would be a lot more believable- Ey!" Axel jumped back as Roxas took a swing at him. The taller man started laughing and Roxas chased after him in the dark voice. Roxas lifted his right hand and a flash of light illuminated the darkness, and Axel who was facing away as he ran smirked at that flash of light. He felt the swing coming from his best friend, and he squatted fast to allow the blade to swipe right over his body. As he dropped, he slammed his own left arm out to the side so that it surrounded in light too, and then once Roxas's blade was fully past the top of his body, he twisted his feet and spun his body in a one-eighty degree turn to slam his fiery red Keyblade into his friend's stomach.

As Axel swiped though, a second flash of light illuminated in front of Roxas's free hand, and the spikier-haired taller man's attack was blocked. The two pressed against each other for a second, leaning in with competitive smirks on their faces. The Nobody Keybearers then pushed hard into each other and flew back ten feet each from where their weapons were just pressed together. They skid across the black floor, and when they stopped, their smirks disappeared. As competitive as the two were, they were not fighting for the fun of it. This was training. They were two men in an Organization of powerful fighters, some who were more powerful than the two of them combined. If they wanted to succeed, if they wanted to save anyone, they had to get stronger. So that is exactly what they planned to do.

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed! This chapter we jump around a little to see Romeo and a flashback of how he came to be a slave of the Emperor. We also get a look at Roxas and Axel saving Kairi at the Organization HQ. A lot is going on all over the world! What will happen next? Quick list then reviews:**

 **Star Wars: Sith, Jedi, The Emperor, Sidious, Bane, Dark Side, Force**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Roxas, Sora, Kairi, Riku, Axel, Naminé, Xigbar, Xemnas, Ansem, Heartless, Nobody, Vexen**

 **Fairy Tail: Romeo, Natsu, Lily, Gray, Spriggan (Zeref)**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Leol, Meruem**

 **Game of Thrones: Malko**

 **Akame ga Kill: Mine**

 **One Piece: Chopper, Hancock**

 **Avatar the Last Airbender: Sozin**

Limit-Breaking chapter 71 . Nov 20

I have to say this was a pretty enjoy chapter and i wonder how it will go with them declaring war. Also the way everybody was just talking about who gets the best seats was pretty enjoyable. And poor yamcha no matter what fanfic he is in he is always consider weak. When he actually can destroy a planet and is pretty powerful. If anything at the end of the cell games that is his strongest. Besides that poor tien i still find it hard to believe that he is dead. I mean if he is controlled by pitou than he is dead for sure, But still if anthing he was the stongest human in dbz. The guy train everyday mostly like goku and piccolo instead of getting softer over the years even akira toriyama said thats all he does so it's sad to see him become that. Hopefully something can be done to save him. Also please never bring the dragon balls into this story it will all go down hill if they existed in this world. If you bring them than make sure to have gohan or vegeta keeping watch over them. Also fuuny thing you did with laxus and najenda about looking down on others. The way you portrayed him was funny to be honest and interesting to see. Last but not least i look forward to the next chapter and heres to hoping for war and ssj4 or ultra instinct nahh to OP, just ssj4 XD

 **Mustang really wanted a seat at that table XD. Glad you liked the chapter! Yamcha is weak compared to the other DBZ characters, but most of the people at the Summit at least think he's a badass. Mustang thought he had some epic plans while really he was just thinking about baseball. Only the Pao people who know all of Yamcha's more impressive friends, and Daenerys who does not seem to like him, don't think he's amazing. TIEN! ;(, sure we'll see what happened to him later on. No mention of Dragon Balls yet, and no Namekians either, so I think you're safe... for now! (Who knows? No spoilers). Well, thanks for reviewing and I hope you enjoyed the latest chapters!**

joebob323 chapter 72 . Nov 20

Okay, You just HAD to leave it off on a cliffhanger, huh? All I can say is that I am anxiously waiting for the next chapter, for the Saiyan King's intro, the fight between Merum and Goku, and much more!

 **Left you on a cliffhanger, then derailed the plot with this chapter! Mwahaha! Those things you're waiting for are coming up fast, so thanks for reading and hope you're ready!**

cyber chapter 72 . 21h ago

Me again(you can call me cyber), and you where on fire these days, I see we have mine who was there during the first day on nexus, a prison break(which failed and cause the death a some main characters), I see zeref's first appreance along with spriggan 12, sora and goku heading to mount vegeta. We also get to see whats with the rng, I here that they have two wars with the underlords and the cooperative. I also see that dash discovered were jack jack is, finally meruem is ready to challenge the saiyan king, cant wait to see more, have a good day.

 **Thanks cyber! So much important stuff happening this chapter around the world, it's gotta be leading up to something big! Glad you're enjoying, and thanks for the reviews! Thanks again everyone for reading, faving, following, and reviewing this story! 'Till next time!**


	74. Nexus HWR 11-6 Silver

**Nexus HWR 11.6 Silver:**

"Finally made it," Rin said, and he collapsed down on the ground. He was panting and his tongue was sticking out of his mouth, but the corners of his lips were curled up. The black haired teen wearing a tattered suit stood up and turned to look over the giant crevice he just crossed. Rin stared off for miles and whistled a cat-call, "Second time crossing wasn't as tough I guess. Less stops without Luffy," Rin stretched his arms up in the air and then turned away from the Cataclysm. "How was it for you guys?" Rin asked as he started walking away.

The other two who also collapsed after making it up the Cataclysm's cliff wall lifted their heads and looked at the teenager's back. "It would have been easier," Gray muttered between breaths. He stood up while the teen in front of him stopped walking, and he finished, "If we weren't constantly under attack by demons."

"Juvia is just glad," the blue haired girl who stood up next to Gray began. "That she is now able to see such creatures."

Gray winced as he thought about why it was Juvia could see them now. He turned to her and gazed at the side of her face cautiously, but shook his head a few times of stray thoughts and looked back at Rin's back. "You want to tell me why those demons were all after you?"

"I told you," Rin muttered. He looked back and his smile did not match the voice he just used when facing away from them. In a lighter tone he continued, "It's because I kicked the Impure King's butt back in Pyraxas. Guess I'm the closest one…"

"But on the ship," Gray brought up and Rin tssked, hoping he had forgotten. Gray stepped closer to the teen who turned back forward and kept walking along the rocky edge of the cliff towards the rolling hills to their south. "Soon after we left Awul, there was that demon who knew who you were. Why was it so interested in you?"

Rin shrugged his shoulders and kept walking. Juvia looked at Gray and then spun to face Rin's back, saying, "We just want to know why we are being chased."

Rin frowned and he slowed down his steps. His face twisted in an unsure way and he thought, _It's unfair to them. I'm making it unsafe just by traveling with them._ "Maybe," Rin started hesitantly. He came to a full stop, and he spun to face the mages behind him. "Maybe you two should go on without me."

"Huh?" Gray asked.

"You're right," Rin admitted. "The demons are after _me._ I don't think they'd go after you if I wasn't with you two. So, maybe it's best if we just go our separate ways here."

"Juvia does not think that is necessary," Juvia said and stepped closer to the younger boy. "We have handled the demons so far. Let us continue doing so, but please tell us why it is they are chasing you."

 _If I told you, there's a good chance you would take back that offer,_ Rin thought with a grim expression on his face. "I, I told you. They're just mad that I-"

"STOP LYING TO US!" Juvia shouted at him, making Rin stumble backwards and Gray spin to his girlfriend in surprise. Juvia marched towards the younger boy who kept stepping back every step she took towards him. "Juvia's friends should not lie to Juvia's face. It is a bad idea."

Juvia felt a hand on her right shoulder and she spun that way. Staring at her in a stern way was Gray, who shook his head a few times and made her lower her stern expression. Before Juvia could feel guilty about it, Gray spoke up, "She's right though." He defended her, even though she acted a little crazy about it. He did not bring it up even though Rin was staring at her oddly like he wanted to know what _her_ secret was now. Gray continued, "We have a right to know." Rin opened his mouth to object but Gray stepped forward and held up a hand for him to stop. "But more than that, don't you just want to tell us?"

The younger boy's eyes widened and Juvia looked at Gray confusedly. "I've kept enough secrets," Gray continued as he took another step forward, "to know that keeping them from friends never makes any sense. We really could not care less about your past, and if whatever you did has all the demons hunting you down, I'm sure it can't be _that_ bad." Gray gave the kid a reassuring smile and he lowered his arms down to his sides to show that even if Rin did not say anything, he would be fine with that answer.

Rin frowned and he lowered his gaze from the two of them. "I suppose, neither of you ever gave me a reason not to trust you." As soon as he said it, Gray winced and he looked at his left shoulder disgustedly. Juvia also frowned and she clenched her eyes shut hard. Two Fire Nation guards from Pyraxas appeared in her mind, and then the look on Nami's face when she turned and saw that her best friend had seen what she had done to them. Rin continued though, as his eyes were pointed down and he did not see the looks of guilt on his comrades' faces. "So I'll tell you, and I know you're not going to like it."

The boy lifted up his head and looked into the eyes of his friends. "You know how I'm part demon?" He questioned, and both of them nodded their heads. "Well, the reason for that, is that I'm kind of," he scratched the side of his head. "Well, I'm a demon's son… no, that's not it," he turned his head and scratched the back of it a little more nervously. "Alright," he stopped scratching and looked back forward, "I'm _the_ demon's son." Both of them kept staring at him in confusion and Rin sighed exasperatedly. "Satan," he specified. "I'm the son, of Satan."

Juvia and Gray both stared at him blankly for a few seconds, and then their eyes slowly started widening more and more. Rin sighed and held out his arms, "Alright, let me hear it. Reactions?" He looked back and forth between the two of them, but neither really knew how to react to that little bomb drop.

"Satan?" Gray muttered. "As in the Devil? Lord of all Evil?"

"That's him," Rin muttered. "My universe's Satan is definitely evil," he agreed darkly.

"So wait," Gray shook his head a few times. "The Satan from your universe?" Gray specified, "So I guess there are Satans from all of them, that makes sense, but…"

"But the one here," Rin said. "The one whose demons have been chasing us. The one who's apparently a High Lord," Rin took a deep breath, "he's my father, at least, my biological one."

"Juvia is surprised," Juvia finally said. "Rin does not seem like the Satanic type," she whispered.

"Thanks," Rin said, actually taking that as a compliment.

Gray stayed quiet as he tried to process this information. The thought crossed his mind to use Rin as a bargaining chip against Satan, and he immediately cursed himself for the thought. He more than cursed himself, he clenched his own fingers into his palms so hard that he hoped they would bleed. _Stop it! He's your comrade! But if using him against Satan could work, your other comrades would be… I suck. I really suck._ Gray shook his head a few times to shake the disturbing thoughts out of it. His eyes widened as he just realized something, "Wait a second." The other two turned to the ice mage who continued, "If he's your father, then, why do the demons keep chasing us? I mean, shouldn't you be able to command them?"

"No," Rin stated plainly. He shook his head and stated in a firm voice, "I am an exorcist." Gray's eyes opened a little wider in surprise. "I hunt demons, and my ultimate goal, is to kill Satan."

"You want to kill your own father?" Gray questioned.

"He's not my real father," Rin growled. "The man who raised me, was Father Fujimoto, the best exorcist to ever live. When Satan possessed his body to try and come to Earth, my father sent him back down to Hell, killing himself in the process." Rin clenched his fist in front of him, "But Satan's not dead. And now, he has my younger brother. I don't know what he's doing with him, but I know that Yukio is alive. Astaroth told me he's in Hell right now. I have to find him before Satan does something." Rin thought back to what Astaroth and Mephisto told him and it made him clench his teeth in anger.

"You should have told us this earlier," Gray scolded.

"I," Rin quieted down and continued, "normally when people find out, they tend to change the way they act towards me."

"Juvia also thinks Rin should have told us," she said with a frown on her face.

"I don't see what the big deal is," Rin muttered. Neither of the two in front of him looked very happy and he looked down as he continued. "Everyone's got their secrets. I just, didn't want to burden you guys with mine."

"A secret is one thing," Gray said. "Not mentioning you were Satan's son, that's totally fine."

"But if Rin's brother is in danger," Juvia continued.

"Then why didn't you ask us for help?" Gray and Juvia asked at the same time.

The teenager in front of them opened his eyes wide. He opened his mouth but did not have anything to say to that question. Gray stepped up a few more feet and he put a hand on Rin's left shoulder. "I could have told you a while back where we could find Satan's strongholds." Rin's eyes opened wide and Gray continued, "If you had mentioned this before we split up- come on man, you know that I know things about this continent, I would have told you exactly where to find him."

"You know where Satan is?" Rin asked in shock.

"Of course," Gray replied. "Everyone knows where he is. We can't just go waltzing in like with the Fire Nation. No, Satan is a little different-"

"I can handle it," Rin countered, but Gray held up his hands defensively.

"Let me rephrase that," he requested. "Satan is different because the city he's in isn't on this world." The other two looked at Gray in shock and Gray continued, "Apparently, Satan can't use too much power up here, so he stays down in Hell for the most part. When he does come up, he has to possess very powerful hosts in order to keep his power from leaking out."

"How do you know this?" Rin asked.

"Juvia is also confused," she mentioned to let Gray know he was not explaining himself very well.

"Satan has possessed a lot of good people. Remember how Riku had to give himself completely into the darkness for Ansem to take over?" Gray asked and the others kind of remembered Riku doing that in those memories the Forever Knights made them watch. Gray continued, "Well Satan, he does not need a huge amount of darkness. If you've got a little bit inside you, he can make that grow out of control and use it to take over your body. A friend of mine, he went into a rage when one of our comrades got killed. It was a righteous rage, for all the right reasons, but that rage let Satan in, and he burned out my friend's body in a few minutes, while also burning an entire town to the ground with…" Gray's eyes opened wide and he whispered quieter, "blue flames. I should have realized."

"It's a big world," Rin admitted. "Blue flames aren't as much telling signs here as they were on my Earth."

"Yeah, I guess," Gray muttered, though not being able to put the pieces together before this did aggravate him.

"Juvia thinks we should continue," Juvia brought up. The others looked at her and she was facing south. "It is not safe here."

Gray and Rin thought she was saying they should continue so they could go regroup with their friends sooner, but when they looked the same way Juvia was, they saw five different creatures coming up over the top of the hill closest to them. Gray grimaced and he said in a quiet voice, "We should go." His friends looked at him in surprise but Gray continued in a dark tone, "Those are Vajra, A-class monsters." The five creatures became six as another climbed up the hill, and they looked over towards the three people who were heading south towards them. "Come on," Gray said, and he started jogging in the direction of the suns. "We'll head around them to the west and then go south, that way we're still-"

The six monsters lifted up their heads and roared. The teen and his older friends turned and looked over at the beasts standing on four legs. Each of the large dark legs were as tall and wide as the people near them. The huge tiger-like creatures were dark colored with orange spots on them and they had strange flat organs sticking out of their backs like capes. Those capes started to spark electricity, and after the monsters roared, a few more started coming over the hills.

"It's a whole pack of them," Gray whispered in panic, and he sped up his sprint. After only a few seconds, he came to an abrupt halt and his friends almost ran into his back. They were going to yell at him for it, but they saw the reason he stopped and looked west at the two Vajra who stepped out from behind a smaller hill, but one that still kept their presences hidden until now. "Damn," Gray cursed under his breath. "Vajra are Aragami, very hard to kill if you don't have the proper weapons, which we don't."

"What do we do?" Rin asked. He reached his hand up to his back to grab his sword, but before his hand was even on it the monsters started running forward.

"Looks like we have to fight," Gray said. "But listen, if we get the chance, we should…" Gray's voice faded off. His friends looked at him in a panic but Gray was no longer paying attention to the approaching monsters. He was solely staring at the visible breath of air that just left his mouth. The two behind him suddenly realized that they could see their own breath as well.

"What, is this?" Rin whispered and he started shivering. It looked like the monsters nearby were having similar qualms as they stopped charging to instead look around with their big scary brown faces. They had swirling horns sticking out the tops of their heads, and orange beards on the bottom of their ravenous-looking mouths.

"Juvia, is cold," she said, shivering with her arms crossed in front of her. "Is it not summer anymore?"

"That's not it," Gray said. Juvia perked up right after he said it and Gray nodded his head, "Something's coming. There's a strange presence that-" Gray froze with his mouth half open. He did not literally freeze, not like half of the landscape around him, but he did stop moving. Both of the others found it hard to breath as well. Every single Aragami standing on the hills around them was frozen, all of the hills too, it was all just… ice.

"What, the Hell," Rin whispered.

The strangely pink ice did not reach them, but it came close. And from the speed it covered anything and everything in its path, they knew that whoever just froze everything was not trying to freeze them. At least, they really hoped that whoever it was, was not there to kill them. Rin unsheathed his sword just in case. His friends glanced at him as his body burst into flames and he whispered, "No ice is going to freeze me while I'm on fire."

"I would beg to differ," a man's voice called over to them. They all turned and looked back at the hill to the west that they were originally running for. They were closer to it than most other hills, and the person who spoke to them was still not in sight. Still, just from the sound of his voice, Gray felt a weird prickling sensation on his skin. Gray took a step forward but froze again as a figure stepped out from behind the hill. The man walked out and past one of the Vajra, then turned towards them when he was between it and the one next to it. "Flames are not hard to freeze. Then again, I have not frozen demon's flames. Though I assume they have similar properties."

Gray still could not speak. He just stared ahead in shock at the muscular figure before him. The man had black hair slicked back and spiked up on all sides behind his head. He wore a suit of armor and on the left side of his silver chest-plate were the words 'ABSOLUTE ZERØ.' He had two earrings with silver crosses dangling off them, his shoulder plates were purple, and underneath his silver tunic was a green undershirt that was a lighter color than the darker green gloves and pants he was wearing.

The man had stubble on his chin and cheeks, but the most defining characteristic about his face was the long scar that went from his hairline on his forehead down over his left eye and to the side of his face where it got thinner and then ended completely. Rin and Juvia were also shocked to see this person though, as they had seen him before. Well, not him exactly, but they recognized his face from the instant they saw it. "Oi Gray," Rin began. "Why does this guy, look a lot like you?" The half-demon wrapped in blue flames sniffed a few times and then whispered, "Smells like you too."

"Who are you?" Gray asked, his voice darker than the other two had ever heard him speak. "I recognize your face, and your voice, but…"

"That's right, son," Silver Fullbuster said, smirking menacingly over at the young man and his friends. His tone of voice and his words did not match. However, Gray took a step towards him anyway with a growing smile, so Silver continued, "But, to say that I am really your father, would be misleading." He smirked as Gray stopped walking towards him and the sudden hopeful look that came to Gray's face vanished. "I am someone much more important, destined to fight you."

"What?" Gray became confused and he looked into the older man's black eyes cautiously. "Just, who are you?" He stared discerningly at him, "Now that I think about it, your appearance does not make sense. Neither do your powers." Gray shook his head a few times, "Even if my father did come back to life on Nexus, there is no way he could have-"

"On Nexus?" Silver questioned. He chuckled darkly and said, "No. After that day in our village, I spent seventeen years in this body, on our world."

"Impossible," Gray shouted. "I saw you die! Deliora killed you!"

Silver started to chuckle some more, and then he started straight out laughing. "'Deliora killed me?!'" Silver repeated questioningly, his voice like ice on Gray's spine, sending chills down it and down the spines of his friends. He stopped laughing and his eyes narrowed, the air dropping several degrees, and he said, "Just who, do you think I am?"

None of the other three could speak. This man's words had them frozen to the spots they were standing on. Gray's eyes were widening more and more and the man spoke, "That's right. I am not your father. No, I am the demon who murdered your father, your entire family. I forced your master Ur to sacrifice herself, and it was all for nothing!" Silver spat at him and Gray reeled back in horror. "Your master's sacrifice, it didn't stop me."

"You, you are," Gray began.

"Deliora," the man standing between two frozen monsters stated. He swung his arms out and the frozen Vajra on his sides shattered. They fell as hundreds of pink ice shards down to the frozen floor beneath them while Silver, or Deliora, stood there smirking menacingly back at his "son." As Gray stared at the man's evil face, he could see the shadow of a monster behind him, a giant monster with sharp teeth and red eyes. It made shivers run down his spine and his body to cover in a cold sweat. "And I have come," Silver continued, stepping towards Gray, "to finish what I started."

Gray took a step back, and then his eyes widened as two figures stepped in front of him. "Not a chance," Rin shouted. His blue flames burned brighter and he held his sword out in front of him while baring his teeth at the demon.

"Juvia will not let you hurt her dear Gray-sama," the girl proclaimed.

The man facing them grinned for a moment, and then he looked between the two of them at the older man standing behind them. "Are you going to let them fight for you, _little boy?_ " He chuckled and swung his right arm in front of him.

Rin slashed his sword down and a slash of blue flames flew at their enemy. They made it halfway, and then froze. The flames literally turned pink and froze solid, and then the gust of wind hit them a second later. Both him and Juvia thought they were done for, when a wall of normal-colored ice rose up in front of them. It blocked the pink ice and Gray panted heavily as he stood back up, having had to slam his hand on the floor to make that Ice Wall fast. "You two," Gray said in a stern voice. "Get out of here now. Go south, get to a-"

"Yeah, not gonna happen," Rin said. Gray spun to him angrily but Rin continued, "There's one of him, and three of us. He's pretty strong, but we can take him. Just you, not that I doubt you dude, you just don't have as good a chance."

"This is my battle to fight," Gray growled.

"I know, I heard what he said," Rin replied grimly. "But I let my brother get kidnapped, and taken by Satan, and you were just willing to come help me with that. That was _my_ problem. Just 'cause you've gotta fight him, doesn't mean you have to do it alone."

"Juvia will not let Gray-sama get killed by this monster," she promised, and rose up her hands into a fighting stance.

Gray looked back and forth between the two of them, and he finally nodded. "Alright," he said and turned back to the demon, while lifting his right hand and creating a longsword of ice in it. He stepped forward powerfully and shouted, "Then let's fight!"

* * *

 **Eight Thousand Miles Southeast of Gray's Group**

"Sorry again about this bro," Franky muttered, his voice hoarse. "My back's the only part of my body I can't work on."

Kirito had a giant heavy robot on his back and he struggled to keep walking south as he had been for two hours straight now without rest. The two of them were walking in mostly silence, or more precisely he was walking in silence while Franky stayed quiet because the boy beneath him kept grunting and did not sound like he would be able to hold a conversation. "It's not your fault," Kirito muttered. "My Shadow Clone got defeated by those two girls and I wound up not being able to help you or Nami. You both got hurt because I couldn't even stop one measly mage." He stumbled to his left but ground his teeth and pushed down hard on his feet to stay standing despite his shaky legs.

Franky thought about telling him to take another break, but he knew the teen would just shrug him off and say they had to keep moving south like he did the last three times Franky suggested it. Instead, the cyborg who could not feel his legs after getting hit in the spine by Juliet Sun during their battle quieted down again. He tilted his head right and looked out into the distance of the grassy plains they were walking down. He stared at a few large rat Pokemon, but something seemed to spook the Raticates and the scurried off. A few seconds later some large snakes came slithering through the brush and one of them caught a smaller purple mouse Pokemon, a Rattata that could not escape in time.

As the snake dug into the tiny Pokemon, the other snakes around it slithered away fast. The one too distracted by its meal did not notice the black bird dropping down towards it until it was too late. The Grimm with four legs like a lion, a Gryphon, grabbed the snake and mouse with its front claws and then soared back up in the air while digging into the creatures' flesh.

Kirito ignored the monsters as long as they were going to ignore him, and he kept trekking across the wild. "So Kirito-bro," Franky began after they had walked in silence for another hour. Kirito grunted to show he was listening, and Franky continued, "Just wondering, but why haven't you been using your wings recently?" Kirito frowned, but the cyborg on his back could not see the teenager's face, so he continued his question anyway, "Back when we fought those Spriggans, or even before it couldn't you have used them to search the-"

"I lost them," Kirito muttered. Franky stopped talking with his mouth open, and he groaned internally as he just shoved a foot in his mouth. "A man named Ra's al Ghul ripped them off."

"I'm sorry man," Franky said. "That sucks," he added, as he knew what it was like to lose a part of himself.

"Could have been worse. Ra's cut off Gray's arm, and he killed Juvia," Kirito continued quickly, "though we brought her back to life."

Franky's mouth that shot open in shock closed, and the cyborg calmed his heart rate that had skyrocketed. It took him a minute to process what Kirito said, and then he shivered and his teeth chattered. "Well I know one thing," he began, trying to keep their mood up despite the dark turn that conversation took, "I do not want to run into that guy."

"You won't," Kirito assured, actually chuckling in a dark voice as Franky succeeded in lifting his mood. "Because I killed him." Kirito smiled as he thought about how he avenged Juvia and his own wings, (though thought nothing about Gray's arm). Franky fell silent after Kirito said it though, deciding that maybe walking in silence was a good idea, solely to save his strength.

"How are you doing?" Kirito asked after they had walked for a while longer. The suns were going down in the west, and he had no idea how far east they were, though he assumed it was pretty far considering when that magical light flashed, the suns in the sky were suddenly a lot farther north and instead of in the east they were already in the west. He was just glad he appeared near at least one of his comrades, and since he did not know Franky too well it was not the worst thing to get some time to know the cyborg better. The two of them had talked early on in their journey to Aebrith about his inventions and repairs done to the ship over the long time the Thousand Sunny spent on Nexus, but other than that they had not had many one-on-one conversations. After they fought together in Pyraxas though, Kirito felt closer to the cyborg than ever, even if he did not know much about him.

The cyborg whose usually brightly colored body was mostly rusted silver now cracked a smile on his scary-looking face that did not have any of its beige paint on it either. His blue hair was all gone, even if it was mechanical, and the nose on his face that he could press in to change his hair-style was malfunctioning. He grinned though and rose up his arms that were still working at least, "Super… tired," he added, and yawned after shouting his catchphrase.

"Haha, ha," Kirito chuckled, though he did so between panting breaths as he too was feeling tired. "You can get some rest if you want," Kirito suggested. "I'm going to keep heading south and hopefully I'll find some people by tomorrow morning."

"You planning on walking all night?" Franky asked in surprise.

"If I need to," Kirito muttered.

Franky groaned and decided to suggest a break to Kirito again, but like he thought, the kid just denied him and said that they had to keep going. Franky did not feel like passing out though and leaving the teen alone to deal with whatever might show up, even if he did not know how much help he would be without the use of his legs. He tried to stay awake despite his exhaustion and they kept moving into the evening.

Right as Franky's eyes were finally starting to close on their own, he noticed something through his blurry vision and his eyes snapped back open. He blinked a few times and rubbed his face wondering if he was seeing this correctly. Kirito grumbled in annoyance since Franky was moving around and making his legs ache even more, but Franky spoke up quickly, "Yo Kirito. There's something behind us."

Kirito stopped and turned sideways so that he and Franky could both look to the north. They faced that way and Kirito opened his eyes in surprise as he was not expecting there to be something like this. He was expecting to see battling monsters or even monsters heading towards them that he would have to take on by himself. What he was not expecting to see were people, even less so people on motorcycles. He and Franky stared out into the distance where five clouds of dust were lifting up behind five motorcycles moving in a 'V' formation with the point closest to them.

"Think they're on our side?" Franky wondered.

"We are pretty far south," Kirito muttered. "I can only hope we're deep in Resistance land."

They watched as the motorcycles got closer to them. They were on a pretty open field and the grass was short so that they had nowhere to hide. Kirito and Franky were hoping they did not have to hide though, they were hoping that these bikers could actually help them. The bikes shot over the landscape fast and within a minute of the two seeing them, the motorcycles were almost at their feet. They slowed down and their engines dulled to a low roar. The bike at the front was painted bright red and had a sleek body, a curved windshield over the front of it, yellow racing stripes on the sides, and gorgeous rims on the tires. It was the nicest of the bikes, though Franky thought the coolest one of the bunch was the one that pulled up a few yards to the right, as it was dark red but covered in bright orange flame patterns. On the other side of the front bike was a deep purple one, with a black one next to it. And on the other far side of the group as the black one was an orange bike without any stripes or symbols on it, though it did have the word 'KAI' written across the front directly beneath the windshield.

Only one of the bikers was wearing a helmet, showing that the rest were either stupid or badass, or both. Kirito just examined each of them up and down, watching as the gang parked their bikes and got off their rides. The leader of the bike gang (at least Franky and Kirito guessed he was the leader since he was in the center) had on an orange leather jacket, and he had short black hair with bangs and a little bit of wind-blown messiness to it. He had a thin body but stood with a powerful stance as he walked towards the two in front of him. "Who are you?" The leader asked the teenager before him, looking no older than Kirito. "And what's up with that hunk of junk?"

"Who are you calling a hunk of junk?" Franky snapped down, his eyes darting down and glowing red at the teenager who took a step back in surprise.

"It's alive," a shorter boy, the one who got off the all orange bike with his name on it, exclaimed. Kai backed up but then walked forward and looked more carefully at the metal man on the strange teenager's back. "Though it doesn't look like it's doing very good."

"You know where any Resistance bases are around here?" Kirito asked, ignoring all formalities with the people in front of him. They all looked at the teen in surprise and Kirito's eyes were pretty dark. "We got separated from our friends. They're most likely heading to whatever Resistance base they can find south of here."

The teenager who seemed to lead the gang, the guy in the orange jacket and matching sweatpants, glanced left and right at the two members on either side of him. He looked back forward and shrugged his shoulders, "Guess we could lead you guys there. You part of the Resistance too?"

"Kind of," Kirito muttered back.

"What's that supposed to mean?" a muscular teen who got off of the black bike started in an annoyed tone. He sauntered forward leaning back and forth as he did, wearing a black vest, pants, and sunglasses, and a red shirt with the sleeves ripped off under the vest. His hair was longer than the gang's leader and much messier like the shorter boy's on the opposite side of their crew. "You're either one of us or you aren't. You gonna play sides to see which one comes out on top? Huh?" He got up in Kirito's face and glared down at the shorter teen.

"Don't I recognize you?" Kirito wondered, not looking at the larger teen in front of him who grew enraged by the shorter teen ignoring him.

"Yamagata back off," the teen straight ahead of Kirito said. He had a look of confusion and a small grin on his face as he saw where Kirito was looking. The teen was looking to his right side and the leader of the gang looked that way at the only woman of their group who got off of the deep purple bike. She had been frowning with a toothpick between her teeth the entire time and now she looked confused as the teen questioned her.

The young woman had blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, a black leather jacket over a blue tee, a full steel right arm, dark brown eyes, and a strange black tattoo on her upper left arm. She frowned at Kirito and opened her mouth, "Ehhh?" She asked, lifting up her eyebrows and tilting her head back to glare down her nose at the kid. "I've never seen you before brat."

"Oh," Kirito mumbled. He could have sworn he knew her from somewhere, but he shook his head as he guessed he must have imagined it. "Well, if you're going to take us somewhere, thanks," the teenager offered, hoping that these gruff and rowdy bikers did not decide to revoke their invitation.

"You still haven't answered my question," Yamagata growled at the teen with longer but straighter black hair than him, and whose black hair was partially covering and shadowing his eyes at the moment. "Are you with the Resistance or aren't you?"

"I am," Kirito said. He looked up into the more muscular teen's eyes, "I just haven't become an official member. But I killed the leader of the League of Assassins, Ra's al Ghul." The older teen took a step back and Kirito continued with dark eyes, "I fought the Fire Nation and beastmen and demons and the Spriggan 12. And I am tired," he said, sounding as exhausted as Franky looked. The cyborg was not even speaking as he realized he might actually be able to pass out now that they were being brought to the Resistance.

"Wow, you did all that huh?" The teen in the front of the group asked with a laugh. "Well then, guess I might as well introduce you to my gang. We're the Capsules. Over there is Kai," he motioned at the short boy near the orange bike, "and you've already met by buddy Yamagata there." The taller, more muscular teen humphed at Kirito and then shoved his hands into his pockets and walked back towards his black bike. "And my name's Kaneda, Shotaro Kaneda," he finished, pointing a thumb at himself. "The three of us came from the same world, but these two are from somewhere else," he motioned with his head at the bikes on either side of him.

"I'm Lucy," the girl standing on Kaneda's right began. She lost her hostile expression and a smirk came to her face instead, "Lucy Ashley."

"Lucy," Kirito muttered, now even more confused because he already recognized her face, but now hearing that name it sounded even more familiar. She did not like the way he was staring at her and she lost her smirk, frowning at him again. He tilted his head and asked, "Are you sure we have never met?"

"I'm sure," she replied.

As she answered, the guy on Kaneda's other side was walking forward. The guy who got off the motorcycle covered in cool flame patterns had a pair of goggles on under his helmet, covering up his eyes. His helmet covered most of the top and sides of his head, though there was a little bit of hair sticking out from beneath it. The color of the hair was strange, and even stranger was the fact that it oddly matched the bottom half of the face visible to Franky and Kirito.

Franky tensed up on Kirito's back and Kirito knew why as the young man in front of them reached up to his helmet. He had started speaking as he reached for his helmet and his voice was so familiar that they could not mistake it. "Do you guys like my bike? I have another seat on the back of it so one of you can ride with me." He lifted up his helmet and tucked it under his right armpit. Kirito and Franky's eyes opened huge as the guy in front of them shook his head around to get all his messy hair to go back into its usual spiky shape.

"What the Hell is going on?" Kirito muttered, a bead of sweat rolling down the left side of his face. The figure in front of him lifted the goggles off his eyes and slid them up his forehead, showing his confused eyes beneath them and his slightly blushing face as he was uneased by the stares Kirito and Franky were giving him.

"What, you recognize him too?" Kaneda asked skeptically.

"Yeah," Franky mumbled, though something was seriously wrong here. The young man in front of them had spiky pink hair, but was not as muscular as the spiky pink haired man they knew very well. He had on a red jacket with yellow cuffs at the end, tight black pants, and brown boots. He looked very nervous by the ways the two of them kept staring at him and he actually took a step back in his anxiousness, making him look even weirder to the two who thought they knew him.

"Do you recognize me?" the pink haired man asked. Both of the people in front of him nodded, and the biker tilted his head to the side. He looked at the others but they all shrugged at him while Lucy kept staring at the two who said they recognized her too in a confused way. They definitely looked like they recognized her friend a lot more than they did her. The man wearing goggles turned back forward and he scratched the back of his head sheepishly, smiling at the two and deciding to just introduce himself. "Well, sorry if I forgot about you. My name's Natsu Dragion."

"Natsu, Dragion?" Kirito muttered. _What the fuck is going on? Is this for real? Are there, alternate universes that I exist in? Is this just Natsu, from a different world? This is way too weird._

"Yeah, what's wrong?" Natsu asked.

"It's just," Franky started. The robot scratched the back of his head with one of his huge hands and he said in a confused voice, "We know a Natsu Dragneel. It's weird, you look just-"

"You know Earthland's Natsu?!" This version of Natsu exclaimed. Franky and Kirito looked at the man in even more surprise as it seemed this alternate version of Natsu apparently knew about his other self. The boy started laughing and he looked over at Lucy who was also grinning now at the sound of this. "That's great," the guy said. He looked at Kirito and Franky who looked absolutely confused and explained, "The Natsu you know comes from a world connected to our old one, two very similar worlds that had different rules in relation to the use of magic. Our world was called Edolas, so the people from Earthland, including the Natsu you know, called me Edo-Natsu, and Lucy over there Edo-Lucy."

Kirito looked back over at Lucy and he suddenly realized where he recognized her from. _The Forever Knights. The Perfect Day. We escaped during the memory that this girl was in, the memory that Natsu wanted nothing to do with. The memory where her "Earthland" version died._

"What's wrong?" Edo-Lucy asked him, wondering why he was still staring at her with such a serious look.

"Nothing," Kirito responded quickly. He turned back to Edo-Natsu for a second, then looked at Kaneda again and started, "If you could get us to a Resistance base that would be amazing. I'll find a way to repay you somehow, but Franky needs to do some repairs on his body."

"A lot of repairs," Franky muttered, wondering if he would even be able to do it all on his own without being able to work on his own back. _If I use some mirrors and advanced arms that curve around my body, maybe… but I should get a doctor to help me if I can._

"No need to repay us," Kaneda said and leaned back where he stood. "This is a crazy world. That white light sent us a thousand miles away from our last destination, so we've gotta figure out our own bearings before we do anything else anyway."

Kirito grimaced. _How far did that light spread? It was the battle we were in that caused it. How strong was that woman Riku was facing that she could rearrange the entire continent?_ "Thank you," the ninja finally said. He took a step forward and then collapsed under the weight of the cyborg now that his mind finally told his body that he would be able to take a break. He tried to convince himself he was not there yet, but he could not trick himself and just fell down to his other knee as well.

"Whoa there," Kaneda said, rushing forward and grabbing onto Franky to help Kirito out. As he grabbed the cyborg, he realized he would not be able to pick up the cyborg and would barely be able to help lessen the burden on Kirito's back. "Damn, guess I shouldn't be surprised if I'm to believe you took down Ra's al Ghul." Kaneda turned to his more muscular friend, "Yamagata, give me a hand with-"

"I've got it," Lucy muttered in an annoyed tone, walking over and grabbing the cyborg, lifting him up with a grunt and carrying him over to her own bike where there was room for him.

"Here, you can come with me," Edo-Natsu told Kirito as he helped the teen back up to his feet. Kirito staggered with him over to the bike covered in cool flames and Edo-Natsu smiled while he helped the teen. "I'm glad to have met you. I can't believe you really know Earthland's Natsu. Does that mean my counterpart is here somewhere?" He asked.

Kirito nodded his head and in a whisper added, "He's one of the ones I'm trying to find." This made Edo-Natsu's mouth curl up even more and the young man fist-pumped. As he started ranting about how he met the Natsu that Kirito already knew, the teen who sat down on the back of Edo-Natsu's bike found himself glancing over at Edo-Lucy who was strapping Franky onto her bike. _I'm sorry, not all of your counterparts are still here. And Natsu, I'm sorry. I know that bringing this girl to you is only going to bring up bad memories._ Edo-Lucy felt eyes boring into her and she snapped her gaze over at Kirito who she glared at, but the teen just stared at her sadly for a second before leaning back on the bike and closing his eyes. Within a few seconds, Kirito passed out just like Franky had thirty seconds earlier.

* * *

 **Somewhere in Awul**

 **Brmmmm-dr-dr-dr-dr-dr…** The path under the truck turned bumpy and the twenty figures in the back of it holding onto metal bars sticking out of the wall grabbed on tighter so as not to fall. Each of the figures looked ready for a full-blown war; they wore all black uniforms that were tight to their skin and showed that most of them had toned figures. They were carrying black rifles, swords, and hand-cannons, though the two closest to the back doors of the truck had nothing in their hands. Also, every single one of them wore a black ski mask that covered their entire faces except for their eyes.

One of the figures in the truck, one far towards the front, did not have the same physical stature as the rest of his comrades. He stood a little shorter than the rest, with no weapons in his hands, standing near an opening that led to the seats at the front of the truck where two men wearing delivery-service uniforms were sitting. The burly figures looked like delivery men, wearing white uniforms and blue hats with rims that covered their eyes. Standing behind them in between the short figure and the two men in the front seats was another man who looked smaller than most others in the truck. He was the only one other than the two in the front who did not have a ski mask on, letting his green hair remain visible, and on his wrists over the black sleeves of his uniform similar to all the men in the back's he had two golden devices full of strings, his Perfect Cross Tail.

The smaller, but older man standing farther back in the truck glanced around at everyone, then turned and inched his way towards the front of the vehicle. Lubba did not turn around, but in a quiet voice he hissed at the man behind him, "Get back to your position."

Takao gulped. "Lubba," he whispered. He got right behind the younger man and continued whispering straight in his ear, glad that the truck's engine and the bumpy ground they were driving on made enough noise to drown out his voice to the others. "This mission, it's insane. So many people are going to die." Lubba did not say a word and Takao glanced back to see if any of his fellow Underlord soldiers were looking his way. If they were, they must have turned away from him when he glanced back, so he turned to Lubba again and continued whispering, "So, how do we let Najenda know? Do you have a plan-"

"Najenda already knows," Lubba stated. Takao's eyes opened wide, and then he grimaced as he wished Lubbock would keep him in the loop on those things so he didn't feel like he was uselessly being a member of this criminal organization. "Now get ready," Lubba said as he continued to stare straight ahead and could see tall buildings coming close. Takao somewhat caught a glimpse out the window and he took a deep breath before walking back to his metal pole to grab onto.

 _Alright. If Najenda knows, then we can expect heavy resistance. I don't want Laxus or someone attacking me, so once I see them, it's time to take off my mask and turn on the Underlords. Today's the day we take them down!_ Takao started grinning behind his ski mask and although a bead of sweat dripped down the left side of his face, he looked smug to the man directly across from him in the vehicle. The truck was slowing down and the Underlords' men filling the truck readied themselves, clenching their weapons tighter and letting go of their metal poles to instead face the back of the truck. There were two large rectangular steel doors there that had handles only on the outside.

Lubba turned from the front of the truck and stepped into the back as their vehicle reached an even slower speed. He spotted a guard post outside their windshield and once he did, he stepped into the back and closed a door behind him to block everything in the back from sight. The other side of the door closer to the driver and passenger's seats would not look like a door, but part of the wall so anyone checking the front of the vehicle would not be able to tell there was a way to get into the back other than the back doors. Lubba stepped back through the aisle of his masked soldiers without a mask on himself, speaking the whole time, "Prepare yourselves. Turn on your radios. Listen to my orders every second of the mission." Others tapped buttons on devices in their ears and a few tapped the microphones at the top of their uniforms to check if they were all set.

Outside the vehicle they heard some loud voices. People were calling to each other, and they heard the driver of their vehicle start explaining what was in the back. Despite him saying all types of goods, one of the guards he was talking to must not have believed their disguises, as someone called out, "We're searching the backs of all these vehicles. It's just a precaution, should not take more than a few minutes."

The driver of their vehicle did not say anything back for a few seconds, then they heard him call out, "Understood." There was more noise outside, and Takao's body covered in sweat as he heard two knocks on the hidden door close to the front that was the signal that guards were coming around the back. Takao looked ahead at Lubba all the way in the back, right on their side of the thick steel doors. _He's gotten even more influence since I joined. A full-blown Underlord now, while actually a spy for Pao. He's so much better at this than I am. He already had a plan in action and I'm here at the city about to be attacked without anything ready. Well, maybe today I can finally help out._ The young man clenched his fists at his sides, _And Dawn, will have to forgive me. She just has to._

They heard clanks on the back door and everyone gripped their weapons tightly. The steel doors started to move, Lubba rose his arms, the doors pulled open, two guards smiling and talking to each other turned their heads to look inside, their faces took on expressions of shock, then two thick strings shot out of Lubba's wrist weapons and shot straight into those men's chests. Takao's heart skipped a beat, his eyes opened wide, his bottom lip dropped, and before the two men out the back of the truck could scream, Lubba clenched his hands into fists and the strings that wrapped around the men's hearts pulled taut, crushing their hearts into nothing.

The guards collapsed and Lubba's blood-soaked golden strings pulled out of their bodies and back into his weapons. Takao's jaw was still dropped, _This is too far! He's going way too far! If they're already here, waiting for us, then there was no need for that!_ Everyone in front of Takao started jogging towards the back of the vehicle and jumping out after Lubba who landed on one of the guards' corpses and wiped his feet off on the man's face. He turned and walked around the side of the vehicle and looked to the west while men and women in all black clothing flooded out of all the vehicles around him. Takao stepped out of the truck nervously and stared at Lubba's back while Lubba stared forward at a large city right on the water, a massive port, the biggest one on Awul's west coast. Lubba chuckled as he stared at the big city, "I always wanted to visit Port Maple."

* * *

 **Balbadd City**

Laxus floated above the Capital of Rhodar glaring around the city with a look of increasing frustration on his face. Across the sky, a white dot appeared and got bigger as it got closer. Laxus clenched his fists tight and they sparked, but he unclenched them a second later as he recognized whose ki he felt approaching. Yamcha flew up to him, and the martial artist looked around in confusion. "They still aren't here? What's happening?" The former desert bandit questioned.

"I don't know," Laxus snarled in response. Yamcha understood the anger in Laxus's voice, and he looked down at the city wondering what was going on. Laxus spoke what they were both thinking, "Lubba breaking radio silence meant it was worth risking losing him as our spy. He knew that! So what the Hell happened?!"

"Maybe they just haven't gotten here yet?" Yamcha suggested. "Or maybe they're hiding in the city using power blockers. They could be setting up-"

"I've looked all around the city," Laxus growled. "I didn't see any sign of anyone here. Lubba would have made sure to make himself known to us after sending that message." Laxus's face turned really dark and his eyebrows narrowed as he looked outside of the city. "Something's very wrong."

* * *

 **Port Maple**

"Somebody help us!"

"AHHH-"

"Oh God! Please! No! NO! Ack-ugh…"

"I have a family! Please stop- Eeeh!"

Takao stared around in horror as the entirety of the guards' forces outside of Port Maple were being shredded by the heavy firepower of the Underlords. Fifteen trucks lined up outside the city unloaded over two hundred men total who were tearing through Port Maple's forces without any trouble at all. The remaining twenty or so guards started retreating back to their guard post, but out of two of the Underlords' trucks rolled six Knightmares each. The mechs on long legs with wheels at the bottom rolled after the guards and gunned them down with the heavy machine guns attached to their right arms.

Lubba stood there behind dozens of his men who charged forward and joined with more and more of the Underlords' forces spreading out from their trucks. There were six other figures around their army not wearing masks, all walking forward either in front of or behind their troops. Wilson Fisc, otherwise known as Kingpin, a fat bald man in a nice suit, stepped forward and lifted up the cannon onto his right shoulder. He pointed it at a small hut near the outskirts of the city, seeing some citizens running inside it to get off the streets as it seemed they were under attack. The Kingpin smirked, then fired a rocket straight at the building and it exploded.

"Hehehe, now this is what I'm talking about!" A man with long spiky blond hair that looked like a mane around his head only it went far down his back too yelled. He had on a yellow coat jacket opened down the middle revealing his muscular torso and a pair of black pants with the legs rolled up above his knees. He held up two hands and black and purple flames exploded on his palms. The Flame God Slayer, Zancrow, threw one arm towards a high-rise skyscraper near the center of the city and he laughed madly as the ball of fire made a massive explosion on the twenty-second floor. A helicopter lifted off from somewhere inside the city and turned towards the east side, and Zancrow spotted it just before he threw his second fireball. The helicopter had miniguns on the sides of it and he smirked before leaping high in the air and throwing his second attack at the chopper.

The guards at the edge of the city spun around and watched as the helicopter they just called in from the police station burst into a explosion of purple flames. As the wreckage of the chopper fell from the air, they heard loud creaking behind it and watched in horror as the top stories of the building Zancrow attacked collapsed down on the flaming section that quickly burnt through the supports holding those floors up. Screams echoed through the whole city and as the massive skyscraper collapsed, smoke and dust billowed down every single street in the port. Boats took off from port and people sprinted to the sea to get on and out of there without even knowing what was happening on the other side of Port Maple.

"We have to give the citizens time to escape!" Vice Admiral Maynard yelled as he arrived at the edge of the city. He was not a part of the outer guards, having been in the center of the city leading an unrelated investigation with a small squad of elite Marines. He stepped out of the city, and the surviving guards in the area cheered seeing some Marines there to help them. Maynard and the six Marines around him got ready, and ten other soldiers, a few of them bloody, picked themselves back up or rose weapons towards the Underlords and their armies.

"Lubba, Lubba this is nuts," Takao hissed into Lubbock's ear. The green haired Underlord was at the back of his troops so no one noticed that one of the figures in their group had stopped and taken off his ski mask. Takao grabbed Lubba by the right shoulder and shook him a few times as Lubba stared straight at the flaming city. "Infiltrating any farther isn't worth is," Takao said, sweat covering the older man's face as he shook Lubba some more, trying to get him to stop smiling and break character as he could hear the screams of citizens burning alive all over the city. "Come on man, we have all the Underlords in front of us. We should take them down with those Marines, or get Najenda here sooner, or-"

Lubba turned his head to Takao and shook his head. "Najenda will have everyone going to Balbadd City. They have no idea Port Maple is under attack."

Takao's jaw dropped, and in a scared, desperate tone he whispered, "Why?"

"Lubbock was quite good at keeping his true thoughts hidden," a voice said behind Takao. The scrawny man with blond hair spun around and snapped his head down to look at the boy with a football-shaped head who was standing behind him with a dog at his side. The dog with white fur was not looking at any of them though, Brian Griffin was staring out at Port Maple in horror. Stewie continued talking to Takao as he walked right up on Lubba's side, even as Lubba did not look down at the kid and instead turned back to Port Maple with a calm grin. "He believed he could hide what his intentions were from me forever, but he was wrong. In fact, you helped bring his true thoughts to the surface, so thank you."

Takao's horrified look grew even more distressed, and he spun around as he heard louder screams start closer to him. He watched as the Underlords' forces swarmed the Marines and guards, and even with a Vice Admiral on their side, the battle did not look good. Another of the Underlords, a snow leopard with gray fur speckled in black, golden eyes, and wearing a purple gi, charged at Maynard and dodged the first punch the man threw at him. Tai Lung dodged left and right with his Observational Haki, then slashed forward and Maynard did not leap back fast enough, getting the front of his uniform ripped down the middle in three lines, blood splashing into the air.

Maynard went down and Takao heard Stewie speaking behind him, "You may wonder why I did not break Lubba's cover to the boss. It is simple, I wanted Lubba as my own pawn." Lubba said nothing while Stewie said this all within earshot of him. Takao turned back and looked at the kid in horror, and Stewie continued, "Now I have the voice of two Underlords. Soon I will take over the others' minds, but I am not the only telepath in the Underlords. I must make sure my mental ability is powerful enough first." He put a hand up to the side of his head fast and narrowed his eyes at the man in front of him.

Takao stumbled backwards and grabbed the side of his head in pain. "What's, happening-agh…" _Listen to Stewie. What the Hell?! Do what I say. AGGHHH! Destroy Port Maple!_

Ebon Evans turned around as he had been keeping an eye on what was going on behind him the whole time. The metahuman with the ability to control shadows narrowed his eyes at the struggle back there, but those eyes opened huge as the young blond man stumbling back shoved his arm to the right and out of nowhere, a portal appeared in thin air. Even Stewie's jaw dropped as this happened as Takao had not used his powers since joining the Underlords, getting in instead because of his experience as a spy. Stewie stopped trying to infiltrate Takao's mind and instead went for damage, but Takao jumped into his portal before Stewie could crush his mind.

"Damn," Stewie growled as the other man vanished. _How foolish of me. I have let a simpleton like him escape my clutches. No matter! He will not be able to get help for this city soon enough._

The kid and his dog stepped forward and Lubba walked with them, not once mentioning anything about Takao. They walked towards the city and stopped with the majority of Underlord forces right outside the guard post where almost all the guards and Marines who tried making a last stand lay dead around it. A couple barricaded themselves inside the guard building but not all those outside were dead. One man was still alive, but two burly men were tying up Vice Admiral Maynard as another strapped a power-nullifying collar around his neck to prevent him from fighting back any longer.

"Let me finish him off," Tai Lung snarled. The snow leopard brought a claw right up under Maynard's chin and his nails cut shallowly into the skin on his neck.

"Not yet my furry friend," a crazed voice said from the middle of the pack. Everyone in the main force turned towards the middle where one of the random soldiers wearing ski masks stepped forward. He was not very big compared to the others, but he sounded crazier than any of them, even the God Slayer who never returned to them and was rampaging around Port Maple causing huge purple and black explosions all over the place. This man who stepped forward in the crowd though, he stepped right up to Tai Lung and the men holding Maynard down, then walked past them. He had a flamethrower in one hand spewing flames unstably out of the end of the barrel. He reached up with his other hand and grabbed the bottom of his mask, pulling it up over his head and making most men behind him gawk at his appearance as he turned to face them.

His hair was long, curly, and green, and when he turned around they all saw his face was covered in pale white makeup except for the red smile of lipstick right over the scars he had carved into his face. The Joker held his arms up at his sides and waved his flamethrower around in the air on his right side, shooting some flames up in the air as he did. "Chaos, is a wonderful thing." Behind him, three of the tallest buildings in the city started to collapse and the Underlords roared cheers. Joker smiled madly and turned around, "Safety, is a lie governments tell these people to keep them docile. Buildings and guards cannot stand up to chaos. The most powerful thing we can control!" He brought his flamethrower down and they heard the screams from inside the guard post yelling at him not to, but the Joker fired his flamethrower anyway and the building engulfed in flames. "Hahahaha! HEEAHAHA!"

"AHHHH!"

"HELP US!"

A window smashed and a man on fire tried climbing through it, only to get cut up by the glass on his way out. He crawled away from the building, his flesh melting off his bones, his body torn up all over. A little kid with a misshapen head watching all this lost his smirk and his eyes opened wide as the man reached an arm out for Maynard, the Vice Admiral screaming at the Underlords around him to stop and let him go. All of them ignored him, and Maynard looked into the boiling eyes of his subordinate as the man finally died in front of him.

Joker frowned at his flamethrower as he had kept firing a pillar of flames until he was all out of fuel. He shook around the weapon a few times, then dropped it on the floor with a shrug. "Go, burn the city," he said, a wide smirk re-emerging on his face. "Leave some survivors. We want them to be able to spread the terror, the fear they feel today, to every city on this continent. We want them paranoid, we want them afraid, I want another war!" As Joker shouted, his army ran to either side of him, screaming and waving their weapons around before lowering them and firing at every person, vehicle, and car they passed on their way into the city. Knightmares rolled in and lifted their left arms now, firing rockets at buildings and blowing holes in any safe haven the citizens thought they had. Explosions and screams filled the air as much as smoke and dust. It truly was, pure chaos.

Thousands of miles away from Port Maple, near the southern border of the RNG, but just north of it, two figures were walking down a recently paved road in Pao Town. One was a panda with black and white fur, and the one next to the furry creature was an eighteen year old girl with bleach blonde straight hair going down her back all the way past her butt. Po and Yuri lived next door to each other, and the two were heading back to their homes from an emergency meeting at Fairy Tail's Guild Hall.

The blonde girl was about to respond to something the martial artist panda said, when a purple glowing circle appeared in midair right in front of them. Yuri's eyes popped open much larger than Po's, and she sprinted towards the portal before the older man even fell through it. "Takao!" She shouted.

Po jogged after the girl who ran over sixty miles per hour to reach her friend in a second. He looked down at the man and saw Takao grabbing the sides of his head and screaming the entire time. He was wearing all black and had a pistol in a holster on his right side, and all the veins in his forehead were pulsing like mad. He was in excruciating pain and it felt like his head was going to explode as he let out another bloodcurdling scream that made some other people leave their houses. "Takao, what's wrong?" Po asked the man on the ground who writhed around in agony.

"What's happening?!" Mirajane yelled as she came running down the road with her younger sister.

"Is he alright?" Gwen asked, coming to a stop on the other side of the street as she saw the man on the ground grabbing his head in pain and screaming bloody murder. _Takao,_ she thought, a frown coming to her face as she remembered he was the man who let Luthor know when the council was going to take place, who let Luthor know where her Grandpa would be, who let Luthor kill him. Still, seeing the man scream like this did not give her any pleasure, and everyone running over looked at Takao confusedly as he did this.

 _I need, to tell, them!_ Takao kept screaming for a few more seconds, but he clenched his teeth hard and snapped his eyes open. He reached up and grabbed Yuri by the collar of her shirt as she was leaning down over him with a concerned look in her eyes. "Port Maple," he growled in a raspy voice, before letting out another scream and biting his own tongue to stop and put pain somewhere else other than his mind. Stewie may not have been able to destroy his mind, but he definitely damaged it before Takao got out of there.

"What about Port Maple?" Yuri asked, not understanding one bit. The tall girl spotted someone else running over and she looked up a little to see Dawn slowing down and dropping her bottom lip at the sight of Takao squirming around. Dawn sprinted forward a few steps like she was going to run to Takao's side, then came to an abrupt halt and lost her worried look, an angry one spreading across her face instead.

"Takao!" Mira yelled at the man. She got close to them and yelled down, "What happened to you? Where have you been?"

"Port Maple," Takao repeated, his mind starting to blank. His eyes were blinking shut slower and slower, and his mind was shutting down. _No… no, stop it. No… NO!_ Takao's closed eyes snapped back open and the hand about to lose its grip on Yuri's collar gripped tighter. He pulled his head farther up and blood seeped out of the corners of his eyes while the veins on his forehead popped larger than ever. "Not, Balbadd," he rasped out. "Lubba, lied," he coughed and the others who were just discussing this at Fairy Tail's guild hall dropped their jaws at what he was saying. Seeing the looks of horror on their faces let him know that they understood, and a small smile came to his face. He let go of Yuri's shirt and fell back, but as the back of his head hit the ground, he mumbled one last time, "Port Maple."

Takao faded out of consciousness, but before he was fully gone he heard some shouts in his head.

"Port Maple?!"

"Gohan and Vegeta just left for Balbadd!"

"No one can get there fast enough!"

"What if he's lying?!"

"Didn't look like he was!"

"We have to let the RNG know!"

"It's too late! Everyone already sent their troops to Balbadd!"

"What do we do?!"

* * *

 **A/N Lubba noo! Twists left and right this chapter. Gray's dad shows up after Rin admits who his own father is, only it's not Silver but Deliora! Edolas versions of Natsu and Lucy appear with the biker gang that Tetsuo was a part of at the start of Akira. Stewie took over Lubba's mind and got him to redirect all the forces of Awul away from the Underlords' true target, and then he mind-blasted Takao who barely managed to get out his message, though it seems like it was already too late. Hope you all enjoyed!**

 **God Eater: Vajra, Aragami**

 **Fairy Tail: Gray, Natsu, Juvia, Silver Fullbuster, Deliora, Zancrow, Edo-Natsu, Edo-Lucy, Mirajane, Laxus**

 **Towa no Quon: Takao, Yuri**

 **Akame ga Kill: Najenda, Lubba**

 **Kung fu Panda: Po, Tai Lung**

 **DC Comics: Joker, Ra's al Ghul, Lex Luthor**

 **Marvel: Kingpin (Wilson Fisc)**

 **Family Guy: Stewie, Brian**

 **Akira: Kaneda, Yamagata, Kai**

 **One Piece: Franky, Nami, Luffy, Maynard**

 **Blue Exorcist: Rin, Satan, Yukio, Astaroth, Mephisto, Father Fujimoto**

 **DBZ: Gohan, Vegeta, Yamcha**

 **Pokemon: Dawn**

 **SAO: Kirito**

 **Ben 10: Gwen**

 **Static Shock: Ebon Evans**

 **Magi: Balbadd**

 **Code Geass: Knightmares**

Limit-Breaking chapter 73 . 16h ago

Poor romeo becoming a slave, well at least he was able to escape from the king. Besides that i just remember that goku mention the fusion when fighting with luthor so will that ever be used or no. I also can't wait to see more from everybody nobody, though i got to admit it's weird how they act sometimes. I figure they would have some personality of the people they are. Besides that i look forward to the next chapter and (cough.. cough.. ssj4) more story development XD.

 **Thanks for the review! Goku did mention fusion, but last time he brought it up was for an enemy that it seemed like none of them would be able to beat without it, so maybe if one of those shows up this time he'll bring it up again? Who knows? The Nobodies keep some of their Somebodies' personalities, like Nami and Manix loving money, or Bronxi and Robin being smart, or Sanji and Jixsan loving women, but they're also heart-less SOBs so... XD Thanks again everyone who read, faved, followed, and reviewed! 'Till next time!**


	75. Nexus HWR 11-7 Natsu vs Luffy

**Nexus HWR 11.7 Natsu vs Luffy:**

"Damn it," Natsu muttered. The Fire Dragon Slayer had been walking for a few days, but the sun was rising to its peak directly above him, and he had yet to find a single person he was looking for. None of his enemies from the battles earlier in the week, nor any of his comrades who he was separated from. He stopped and looked up at the bright sky above him for a moment. There were some dark clouds in the sky in front of him, some more on his left and right, but the sky was clear behind him. "That way's probably south," he muttered and looked back at the clearer section of sky.

He looked down from the sky and stared at the exact landscape he just walked over. Despite not wanting to walk into the cloudy area where he would no longer be able to see the sun and know which direction he was heading, going backwards would be the even more counterproductive. He groaned and looked back the way he was originally heading, "Alright, just keep heading straight and you won't get turned around." The Dragon Slayer shoved his hands into his pockets and started walking again.

He sped up after taking a drink and jogged over dark black fields for miles before looking around again and making sure he was not going in circles. All around him, the ground was black as the dark sky, and Natsu grimaced at the dead planet around him. "Even monsters don't want to come over here," he muttered as he kept walking. "So what the Hell am I doing here?"

Natsu wandered across the desolate wasteland into the long hours of the day, even after it started raining he kept up his trek. Once again, he saw no one for hours and even when he spotted a forest in the distance, he did not feel too excited. All he looked forward to was hopefully finding some food to eat in the woods. Natsu went in, found some low-hanging fruit he could grab, though most of the trees looked picked dry. He wound up eating some unripe fruit, then catching a rabbit that he cooked and chowed down on.

Once he was satisfied with his meal, he started walking again looking for something else to satisfy his hunger. He found it halfway through the forest as a bolt of lightning crashed down on a tree near him. Natsu waited as the flames on the tree spread and made more and more of the forest catch on fire. At first he just wanted to eat more flames, but the longer he watched the fire and waited the better this idea sounded to him. _If anyone I know sees this fire go out suddenly, they'll know I'm here._

Natsu thought it was the best plan ever, so when he swallowed up all the forest fire flames, and no one showed up, he started feeling pretty stupid. After waiting for over thirty minutes near the smoking trees, Natsu shoved his hands into his wet pockets and started walking again. "Well it was a good plan anyway," he mumbled to himself while his hair got soaked by the downpour and pressed his bangs down into his eyes. "More people probably would have saw the fire if it wasn't raining so hard."

Just as he was saying it, the rain started to let up. He kept walking and all of a sudden reached the edge of the forest. One second there were trees all around him, the next there was a large field of bluish-green grass with scattered trees around it. The trunks were short, only a little taller than the average human, with spherical canopies of green leaves at the tops of them. Natsu stepped out of the forest he was in and slid down a dirt slope next to the forest so he could hit the lower elevated field. "These changes in environments are too weird," he muttered and scratched the side of his head. The rain had stopped coming down as well and Natsu grumbled, "From the black desert to a rainforest to some blue plains all in a few hours. It's unnatural."

As Natsu was walking across the blue plains, he was looking around at the scattered trees and checking if they had any fruit on them he could pick for later. These trees looked even more bare than the ones in the forest though, and Natsu grumbled in annoyance as he kept getting let down. One of the trees he was looking up at looked like it had been recently picked, with fruit stems still handing off of branches like they had just had fruit on them. What he did see after looking down from that tree though, got him more excited than fruit ever could.

There was a person walking not a hundred yards in front of him. The person stepped out behind a tree and looked left and right. He was searching for something too by the looks of it. Natsu started sprinting towards him and he opened his mouth to yell, but instead lowered it at the sight of the man's face when he turned his way. Natsu's eyes bugged out and he kept running forward before skidding to a stop twenty yards away from the skinny man with black hair. He was shirtless, revealing the large X-shaped scar on his stomach, and he had some minor cuts and bruises just like Natsu. "Luffy!" Natsu exclaimed at the sight of the pirate whose straw hat flapped behind him in the wind by the string around his neck.

Luffy stared at the other man for a few seconds, then turned back forwards and said, "Oh, it's just you."

Natsu's eyes turned white and he shouted, "What kind of reaction is that?!" He started marching towards Luffy and he yelled, "I didn't want you to be the first one I found either! Deal with it!" His eyes went back to normal as he got ten yards away and he asked, "Have you seen anyone else since we all got moved around?"

"Since we what?" Luffy asked, his eyes going wide. "Do you know what happened to my crew?" Luffy demanded to know, marching towards Natsu.

"Calm down," Natsu growled at him. "They're fine. I heard from some guy I passed that the entire region we were in got shifted around. The entire landmass got randomly rearranged and so did everyone on it."

"Huh? How did that happen?" Luffy asked.

"I think it was one of Zeref's generals, that chick with the red hair," Natsu muttered. "So then, you haven't seen anyone else since that day?" Natsu asked him.

Luffy frowned deeply and he started walking again. "Where are you going?" Natsu asked from behind him.

"Find my crew," Luffy replied.

"And why do you think they're that way?" Natsu asked. He looked right and it did not look any better than the left. "Why don't we go this way?"

"Because this is the right way," Luffy stated baselessly.

Natsu's hands clenched into fists. "What makes you say that?"

"Instinct," Luffy answered. He stopped walking and looked back at Natsu, because his Haki just picked up on something. Natsu's clenched fists clenched harder at the look Luffy just gave him and instead of unclenching them, they started smoking.

"I'm getting real tired of your attitude," Natsu snarled. "You should look at someone when you're talking, got it?" Luffy stared blankly at him and Natsu shouted again, "Say something!" Luffy frowned at him and Natsu muttered loudly, "I was heading that way," he pointed straight ahead of him, not to the right like Luffy was going. "So that's the best direction to go. Best chance of finding Ben and everyone."

"This way's the right way," Luffy said. He pointed his hand the way he wanted to go and said, "It's the way we're going."

"Yeah, says who?" Natsu asked, narrowing his eyes.

"I did," Luffy said. "And I'm the Captain."

"You're not _my_ captain," Natsu growled back. "You're just a rubber idiot."

Luffy clenched his teeth and some veins appeared on his forehead. "Ehh?"

"You heard me," Natsu said with a smirk.

Luffy twisted a finger in his left ear and said, "No, I didn't. Your Fire Dragon Squeak was too quiet."

"It's ROAR!" Natsu roared at him, taking a step forward. When Natsu took his step towards Luffy though, Luffy did the exact same thing and took a step towards Natsu. They were only ten feet away from each other now. Not a person was around for miles. "Nami's not here to get you out of this now," Natsu taunted. "I've been waiting for this for too long."

Luffy's lips curled up and he stated, "I'm gonna kick your ass."

"I'm all fired up!" Natsu yelled. He charged at Luffy and pulled back his right fist. No flames even surrounded his fists and Luffy grinned as Natsu swung his right fist at him predictably. His Haki kicked in and he dodged simply by leaning a little to the right- **BAM!** A fist slammed into the right side of Luffy's face and he lifted off the ground. He did a flip in midair and landed on both feet that he skid back across the grass on.

Luffy reached up a hand and rubbed the corner of his lip to get some dirt off. Natsu smirked at him from thirty feet away and he laughed tauntingly, "Didn't think I remembered your Haki? That won't work!" Natsu kicked off the ground and shot the thirty foot distance in a second. Luffy stepped towards him though and this time did not attempt to dodge. He just brought forward his right fist hard as Natsu did the same. He slammed his fist into the other boy's, and the two of them held their arms outstretched for a second as they pushed into each other. Their faces were only a foot apart and the two of them ground their teeth as they glared into each other's eyes. Then, Luffy yelled out and slammed hard down, pushing Natsu's fist down into the floor. As Natsu's fist hit the ground, Luffy kicked up with his left leg and slammed the spikier-haired boy under the chin.

Natsu lifted up in the air but he snapped his head down while flying up. He spun his body and held his fists out to his sides. Both fists covered in flames, and balls of fire grew over them. He brought up his hands above his head and the flames merged together. "Blaze Dragon's," Natsu yelled, and the sphere of flames grew three times bigger than his own body. "Brilliant Flame!" He threw the sphere of fire down.

Luffy looked up at the falling ball of flames and he punched his right fist out to the side. "Gear, Second." His arm pumped at the forearm and his body covered in steam. The ball of fire slammed down into the ground and Natsu started to fall from the air with a smirk on his face. Luffy suddenly appeared on his left side though with his teeth grinding together, an open palm facing Natsu, and his right fist held up at his side. Natsu was only mid-turn when Luffy yelled, "Jet Pistol!" His fist flew out and slammed into the side of Natsu's face.

Natsu did a spin in midair and kept spinning until he hit the ground and started tumbling over it. He tumbled over the ground for three spins before flipping himself upright and dragging his hands on the ground to slow himself down. Natsu's fingers dragged trenches through the floor and he skid to a stop a hundred feet away from Luffy who landed back on the ground still steaming. "Had enough?" Luffy yelled over, grinning again.

Natsu's lips were curled up in a smirk too though, and he yelled back, "Not even close!" An aura of fire surrounded his body and then he snapped his arms down to the sides and lightning bolts filled up his aura. "Lightning Dragon Slayer Mode!"

"Lightning doesn't work on me," Luffy began in a smug tone, but his eyes opened a little wider as Natsu shot off the ground much faster than he was previously moving. The steaming pirate held up his right hand and caught Natsu's right fist as the Dragon Slayer slammed it into him, and he brought forward his own right fist to slam into Natsu's face. His fist connected and pushed into Natsu's cheek, but the pink haired mage pushed his face right into it and roared.

"Lightning Blaze Dragon's," Natsu shouted as he slammed his other hand forward that Luffy was not blocking. "IRON FIST!"

A fist covered in flames and lightning slammed full force into Luffy's face. His head leaned back, flames and lightning shooting out behind him, and Luffy lost his grip on Natsu's other hand. Natsu smirked and thought Luffy was about to go flying, but suddenly his left fist screamed out in pain and he glared at the other side of his bloody knuckles to see Luffy's entire face covered in black. As Natsu saw Luffy's face covered in Busoshoku Haki, the pirate's left fist covered in the same black aura. Luffy slammed his left fist forward and Natsu crossed his arms in front of his body fast, but Luffy still yelled out, "RED HAWK!"

The fist pushed Natsu's arms into his chest and flames shot out behind him. He could feel bruises instantly forming on his arms, and he got lifted off the ground and tossed several yards back before skidding farther on his feet. He slid back across the grass, tearing it up as he went, until he was sixty feet away from Luffy. His head was bowed and he was looking at the floor at his feet, and then he snapped his head up and glared at the man who just punched him. "Is that all you've got?" Natsu asked, and Luffy's eyes widened more in surprise that his Red Hawk only managed to leave bruises on Natsu's arms and did not seem to damage him that much.

Natsu shot forward again, and he swung his right fist at Luffy. Luffy blocked with his own arm but Natsu's fist was covered in flames so it hurt even though he was made of rubber. The next kick that Natsu swung at him, Luffy traded a blow with his own leg, but this time he covered it in Haki to protect himself from the flames. As Natsu's leg was about to collide though, Luffy heard with his Observational Haki that Natsu was coming in for an uppercut under his chin. He hardened the bottom of his chin, and then a leg slammed into his left temple.

Luffy went flying and tumbled across the ground for a few seconds before flipping up and skidding back on his feet this time. His steam went away as he came to a stop and Luffy rubbed his left lip where a trail of blood was coming down. "It doesn't matter if you can hear me!" Natsu yelled over at him. _Cobra, if I never fought you, Luffy would have been impossible to fight._ Natsu smirked thinking about his fight with the Poison Dragon Slayer of Oracion Seis. "You can't predict my moves!"

"I don't need to," Luffy growled back. "As long as I'm faster than you." He pumped down his legs again and ground his teeth in pain at using Gear Second twice this close together as it had just worn off. Luffy vanished, and appeared on Natsu's left side. The Dragon Slayer turned and rose his arms, but Luffy was suddenly behind him and the mage felt him there a second too late. He started to turn, but heard, "Gum Gum Jet Whip!" A long leg swinging across the battlefield slammed into Natsu's gut and he hunched over it, coughing up some blood as the leg was covered in Armament Haki too.

Natsu went flying but he snapped his eyes open that were closed from the pain because he felt something above him. He tried lifting his arms to block, but Luffy was too fast and he slammed both of his legs down together, "Jet Spear!" Natsu hit the ground and created a massive crater down below the pirate floating above him. Natsu was at the bottom of a crater and he put his hands down below him to get up, but he heard another shout above him and looked up through the clearing dust to see Luffy grinding his teeth and throwing his arms back. Both of his hands were huge, covered in black, clenched into fists, and his arms were still steaming. "JET ELEPHANT GATTLING GUN!"

Luffy slammed one giant black fist into the ground after another so fast that his arms were less than blurs, they were practically invisible. Each fist slammed into Natsu so hard that he gasped out and dropped farther and farther into the growing crater. More and more of the ground around the crater was getting torn up as cracks tore through the surrounding landscape. Whole sections of ground lifted up and for miles people could feel the ground shaking. Neither of the men fighting knew it, but there were a lot of people very close to them, and their fight was within their sight.

"Sir, what should we do?"

"They're going to draw too much attention!"

The dark haired young man standing on top of a wall glared out into the distance at the man slamming giant black fists into the ground. His eyes narrowed, and he stated in a cold voice, "I will take care of this." He reached down to his waist and grabbed the hilt of a sword that he slowly slid out of its sheath. "They can not be allowed to run wild any longer."

Meanwhile, Luffy finally stopped smashing his arms down into the ground and dropped to the uplifted earth beneath him. The steam all over his body faded and his arms went back to their normal sizes. He was panting slightly, but he frowned down into the dark hole in front of him full of dust. "You shouldn't have fought me Natsu. You knew you couldn't beat me." Luffy glared into the pit, and then his Observational Haki picked up on something. The feeling was dark, and a light glow grew from the bottom of the hole.

"I knew that did I?" Natsu asked, his voice dark, angry, reaching all the way up to the pirate who could hear but not yet see him. He walked up the slope of the crater he was in and got out of the dust with a faint red aura of flames around him. His right eye was swollen shut and his arms were bruised and bloody at his sides. Luffy almost felt bad, but he probably would have felt worse if Natsu was not glaring at him like this fight was far from over. Natsu glared deep into Luffy's eyes and he snarled, "You're the one who shouldn't have picked a fight you can't finish."

Natsu's flames erupted into a mass around him much larger than the crater itself. Luffy leaned back and then had to take steps away from the hole because the flames were too hot to handle. Flames shot out of the cracks and fissures leading away from the larger hole, and the grass and trees burst into flames. The planet itself around them was on fire, and Natsu stepped out of the crater up to Luffy's level with a heat around him that was melting the pant legs off of Luffy's body. Luffy panicked and reached for his hat, but suddenly his clothes stopped melting. Natsu frowned, and Luffy glared right back at him, but Luffy's hand lowered from his back where he was reaching for his hat. Neither of them said a word about it, and the moment ended as soon as it started. They both started glaring at each other again.

Luffy looked into the Dragon Slayer's eyes and he saw a fury in them directed straight at him. The aura around Natsu no longer felt like fire, but an energy that was still hot but more powerful than what he felt before. "This is the energy I got from fighting Cooler," Natsu growled, his voice barely escaping the massive aura around him. "My body could barely contain it at the time, but now," the aura spiked and Natsu grinned over at Luffy. "I can control it like nothing." He took a deep breath and roared, "Arcosian Dragon Mode!" The aura glowed bright orange and grew even larger.

 _Natsu,_ Luffy thought. He felt something for the Dragon Slayer he did not normally feel. Natsu angered and aggravated him to no end, but all those times he boasted about being stronger than Natsu, he never thought he was really boasting. He figured he was telling the truth, and he still thought he was, but Natsu was putting up more of a fight than he had imagined. _Jet Elephant Gattling Gun didn't work. Then, damn it,_ Luffy ground his teeth and he glared at the pink haired man.

"Yeah, I bet you didn't think you would have to use it," Natsu taunted over. "You never looked at me as your equal, but now you have to use that round form of yours, don't you?" Natsu asked. Luffy suddenly realized why Natsu was not charging at him. The Dragon Slayer was actually waiting for him to go Gear Fourth. He had a thought that Natsu was being stupid, but Natsu continued loudly, "If I don't beat you at your best, it wouldn't matter would it?!" He lifted up his fists and they glowed yellow inside the orange aura. "Now get to it, or do you not want to kick my ass anymore?" Natsu said and narrowed his eyes at the pirate.

There was no way Luffy could back down from that challenge. Natsu knew it, and the pirate captain knew that he knew it. Luffy snarled and his right arm turned black, "You asked for it, Natsu!" Luffy lifted up his arm and chomped down into the Armament Haki. Natsu had never seen Luffy turn into the form, only watched him while he used it, so he was confused at first as to why Luffy bit into himself. When Luffy chomped down though, the Haki spread to cover his arm rippling in muscles and then over his exposed chest where the black coloring dropped halfway down his torso before making swirling patterns. It ran across his other arm as his arms grew several notches in size. His legs stayed the same size, but they covered in a black coating as well, though the Armament Haki had a red tint to it as well while Luffy's entire body let off steam.

Luffy's eyes darkened and a darkness surrounded the outsides of them. His black hair spiked up and when he released a breath, steam came out of his mouth. "GEAR, FOUURRTHHUU!" The round rubberman yelled. "BOUNDMAN!" He dropped down on his feet and bounced up once, and then the bottoms of his feet covered in black darker than the dark red around the rest of his body. The next time he bounced and landed on the ground, he did not bounce back up. Luffy clenched his teeth in anger and he glared forward into Natsu's huge orange aura. "Get ready," Luffy growled.

"I always am," Natsu growled back. He kicked himself forward and his aura could barely keep up. Luffy lifted up his right arm though and his fist shot back into his own upper arm. His forearm and elbow curled back to make a large spring coiled up close to his shoulder looking like it had so much tension in it. Natsu spun around and tried kicking his opponent, but Luffy yelled, "Kong Gun!" His fist shot out of its coil and slammed into Natsu so fast the other man did not have time to put up a block.

 _So fast!_ Natsu thought, right before he was launched off of the fist and thrown into the distance. He broke though a burning tree that exploded in every direction and then he hit the ground and dragged through it, making a fissure that got wider the farther down he went. The already unsteady ground pushed apart in a long line that Natsu went pushing through, and every foot he got farther down hurt him more as the ground his body had to push through became harder and harder. When he finally stopped moving, he gasped out in pain and some blood splashed out of his mouth too. _I didn't know this form of his was so strong._ "Rgghh," Natsu growled, right before the walls caved in around him.

Luffy shot across the landscape to around the point he thought Natsu stopped plowing through the ground at. He stopped and bounced once, then came to a complete stop on the second time down. He glared at the ground below him that was lowered because of the collapsed walls that fell into the huge fissure. His eyes narrowed at it as the ground started to shake. All of the giant chunks of rubble and rocks started to glow and Luffy could feel the heat through the Haki on his feet. He vanished and appeared up in the air with a quick jump, and the ground below him melted a second later.

Beams of orange light shot up between cracks of melting rubble and shot up into the air. Luffy pulled his feet up into his thick thighs and he pumped his legs every few seconds to keep him flying. When beams of light flew at him, he turned his legs and shot out steam in the opposite direction as the one he wanted to dodge in. He dodged beam after beam, but then had to shoot up high in the sky as all the beams connected in one giant dome of orange light that spread wider to cover a square mile of ground.

Natsu flew up straight through the middle of the explosion and he brought his right fist far back behind him. His body was spinning and inside the orange explosion two snakes of fire wrapped around him like a double-helix of DNA. They rose up on his sides as he shot out of the top of the explosion and glared over at Luffy. Flames kept coming out of his feet and those two whips of flames shot up and kept spinning around him for a few seconds, before he grabbed onto them at the ends and snapped them forward with a crack. He whipped around the flames and as the explosion beneath him subsided, he swung them forward, "Arcosian Fire Dragon's Wing-"

Luffy appeared on his left side in an instant. Natsu shot more flames out of his feet and flew up as Luffy yelled, "Leo Bazooka!" Both of his fists flew right through the trails of flames beneath Natsu's feet, but the wind from the force of Luffy's attack was still enough to throw the dodging Dragon Slayer spinning across the sky.

Natsu swung his arms over at Luffy anyway and finished yelling, "ATTACK!" His wings of flames shot forward and wrapped around both of Luffy's arms. He pulled the pirate with him for a second, but Luffy pointed his legs at Natsu and shot out a puff of wind from his thighs that ripped Natsu's trails of flames apart and sent Luffy flying away from him. Neither of them fell to the ground, and they both shot back at each other in the air. They swerved around each other, one in a blur of orange, the other black but surrounded in a veil of the steam coming off of him.

The two of them crashed into each other in midair over and over. Shockwaves rippled off their collisions and their blurs smashed into each other harder with each hit. Natsu spun a kick and slammed it into Luffy's head, making the pirate do a backflip in midair. Luffy righted himself though and he swung a fist forward. Natsu dodged to the left, but Luffy's fist took a sharp turn and slammed into his side. Natsu brought up his guard just in time, and when Luffy's fist slammed into his left arm, Natsu focused all of his flames into that spot and the flames looked like they were alive for a second. Luffy's eyes widened as the face of a dragon surrounded his huge fist and raced up his long stretching arm, then chomped down its flaming jaws on him and made him yell out in pain. The force from his punch still sent Natsu flying even as Natsu's flames burnt him, and both men came crashing down into the ground a half mile apart from each other.

They stood at the bottom of a huge crater, staring a far distance at each other as they got back to their feet. Luffy's black pupils widened and small white circles appeared in the middle of them, encircling smaller black dots in the very center. Natsu's head was bowed and his face shadowed over, however through the darkness covering his face, Luffy could see glowing red eyes staring back at him. Natsu's arms started to cover in scales, and Natsu lifted up his head and shouted, "DRAGON FORCE!" The scales raced up his arms from his fists to his elbows, and both sides of his face covered in them as well. Natsu's body was still covered in an orange aura, but it suddenly pulsed bright yellow and Natsu screamed, "RAAAA!"

The scream was more in agony than anything else, but a few seconds later the orange aura pulsed bright yellow again and Natsu screamed once more. Luffy's eyes were widening, _What the Hell is he trying to do? Is he… serious?_ Luffy watched as Natsu's eyes glowed yellow and so did the inside of his mouth. The pirate opened his mouth to shout at the other man to stop, but he stopped himself from doing so. He wondered why he opened his mouth in the first place; this was a fight, he was trying to beat Natsu no matter how strong he got. _But, he's going to kill himself,_ Luffy thought, and he realized why he had opened his mouth in the first place. _What do I care if he does?_

Natsu's body started pulsing yellow in bursts closer together and Luffy could see Natsu was serious about trying this. If so, he knew he had to be completely serious too. Luffy rose up his right arm, his massive right arm, and he chomped into the side of his bicep. Even while filling himself with more energy than he thought he could take, Natsu saw what Luffy did and he stared through bright yellow eyes in shock at the pirate for a few seconds. Luffy's arm was getting even bigger, making him look even stronger than those last hits that were already making Natsu's body scream in pain. He was completely ignoring his own pain though at the moment. He was not even screaming as the yellow light pulsed through his body anymore, even as some of his skin on his torso and arms ripped off from pulses of light. "SUPERNOVA!" Natsu yelled, and he bent down his legs inside his aura. As soon as he bent his legs, the ground on either side of him and for half a mile back rose up in the air and disintegrated. _I never liked you Luffy, and now you're going to understand just which of us is really strongest._

Debris rose up into Natsu's aura and incinerated immediately. His eyes kept glowing yellow and he watched as Luffy filled up his other arm now, making both arms much, much bigger than his own body. Luffy threw both of his huge arms behind him and they stretched back, giant six meter thick arms that flew fifty meters behind him. He ground his teeth and his fists opened up into wide open palms that he pressed together at the wrists. "NATTSSUUUU!" Luffy yelled. _Bastard! I'll break every bone in your body!_

Natsu unbent his legs so fast that he flew out of his own massive aura, but it raced to catch up to him and did by the time he reached the point in between himself and Luffy. "DRAGON SLAYER SECRET ART-" _Treating me like crap! Acting like I have to do what you say…_

Luffy also flew at Natsu at the same time. He reached the middle point right in front of Natsu and was screaming at the same time. "MASS DESTRUCTION-" _Always questioning me in front of my crew! Pretending to be the captain on_ _ **my**_ _ship…_

Natsu brought his right fist back and his entire aura seemed to focus around a single point. "CRIMSON LOTUS-" _Arrogant, annoying, rubber…_

"LEOOOOO!" Luffy's arms thrown far behind him that had not yet started to follow his body began to fly forward. "BAAAZZOOOKAAAA!" He slammed both of his arms forward and they instantly shot in front of his body.

"PHOENIX CANNONNNN!" Natsu screamed and slammed his fist forward. All of the light around his hand pushed forward too and as the skin on his own fist shredded, the light erupted into the black hands that slammed against him.

A bright white light exploded from the collision of their attacks. From the outside, it was a dome of white light that spread out to cover a full mile out in every direction around them, then doubled in size and illuminated everything for a hundred miles in its white expanding glow. The two men could see each other inside the pure white light though, they made eye contact with their normal eyes. The purest light traveled up their arms and to their bodies, becoming so solid that they lost sight of each other inside it all. They could feel each other's hands inside the light still, even as it grew to insane proportions and the two inside lost most feeling except for pain. Despite the pain that filled each of their bodies though, a single thought passed through both of their minds at the same time.

 _… No matter what._

The enormous dome of white light collapsed in on itself. The ground beneath the dome shattered and burned, and the men inside it screamed. Natsu flew backwards so hard that he hit the ground and bounced, bounced again, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head as he started cartwheeling across the ground. Luffy tried covering as much of his body as he could in Haki, but even the black coating was not enough to protect him from the explosion surrounding him and he roared out as his blackened skin shredded.

For half a minute the white light remained. When it finally subsided, the landscape was unrecognizable. The forest that Natsu came out of in the northwest, the plains of blue grass and all the trees on them, they all looked the same as the black deserts around them. In fact, the ground here looked much worse than the previously Scorched deserts they had to trek through. There was no solid ground, only varying sizes of the chunk of earth one could stand on. Everything was cracked, and the elevation of the ground in the most damaged area was half a mile farther down than a half an hour before.

Natsu lay on his back, his skin smoking, his right arm broken at his side, along with most of his fingers. His eyes were open and staring straight up at the sky, and he was breathing in rapid breaths that were longer in than they were out. He could not finish deep breaths; he was at a loss for air and could barely breath out at all. Even when he coughed, his chest just hurt more and made it even harder for him to breath. He was bleeding out his chest, his stomach, and both of his arms had lost a lot of skin. The scales on his face started to fade like the ones on his left arm and his broken right.

Luffy lay face down on the ground, still in Gear Fourth. He never remembered being in so much pain while still in this form before. Akainu had burned him pretty bad in their fight in Metropolis, but the degree of burns this time were far beyond that. All the skin on his stomach had burned, along with his cheeks and forehead. The attack was directed straight into his hands, and they took the majority of the attack, but the front of his torso also took part of the brunt of it. His arms lost their black coating and were burnt bad, but his hands had completely lost their color and their skin altogether. His palms were bare, bleeding, and the back of his hands were black not from a Haki coating, but from blackened flesh.

The pirate lifted up his head a little and he kept panting, so that steam leaving his mouth filled up the air in front of his face. He took a few deep breaths to try and calm down his breathing, and the steam veil in front of him went down a little. When it faded, Luffy saw something that made him open up his eyes wide.

Natsu was staring straight up at the sky, but he also noticed the same thing Luffy just saw. He lifted up his head a little and looked in front of him. Ten feet past the soles of his feet, stood a man with straight black hair falling down to his shoulder blades. The man had a very sharp and thin sword in his right hand, and he was looking at Natsu's body in a manner that made the Dragon Slayer want to get up fast. He tried putting his arm down to help him up, except he unfortunately tried using his right arm and the broken arm filled him with agonizing pain. "RAAA!" He yelled in horrible agony.

"You two have drawn attention to this place," the man standing in front of Natsu said. He walked towards Natsu and lifted up the sword he was holding. "I do not know who you are, but you will not give us away any longer." The sword he held turned and the sharp blade gleamed in some sunlight from the western sky.

Natsu pushed his left hand on the ground and he sat up to his butt. As he got up that far though, the man in front of him pushed his blade ahead at Natsu's face so fast that Natsu feared for his life. The blade stopped though when it was right in between his eyes, the tip of the blade pressing against the spot at the top of the bridge of his nose. Blood dripped down Natsu's nose and some got in his only open eye that opened even wider at the sight that stopped the sword. A large black hand was wrapped around the silver blade, and the one grasping it winced as the blade cut into his defenseless hands now that his Haki was gone and so was his skin. His already open wounds got cut deeper by the sword he wrapped his hand around, but Luffy only grabbed tighter as he glared at the man on his left. "I don't know who you are," Luffy growled, "but stay out of our fight."

Luffy clenched down and shattered the blade in his hand. The man facing him jumped backwards from the feat of strength, and both Luffy and Natsu were surprised at how fast he moved. His speed topped theirs in their normal forms, and he had no aura or steam coming off of his body. Natsu continued pushing himself up and he glared at the man who just tried to kill him. He darted his eyes to Luffy next, and he growled, "What do you want to do?"

"Kick both of your asses," Luffy replied without hesitation.

"Good," Natsu said, his lips curling into a smirk, and he jumped backwards away from Luffy. He jumped to a point right in between Luffy and the other black haired man, but to the side of them, making a triangle of the three of them. "That's exactly what I was thinking."

"You two are insane," the figure before them said. His right eye had a black pupil in the middle, however they could not see his left as he had bangs over the other half of his face. He wore a light blue jacket, black pants, and he had a dark blue bandanna around his forehead.

"Who the Hell even are you?" Natsu growled over. "Why are you interrupting our fight, you bastard?" As Natsu asked it, he was catching his breath and darting his eyes back and forth between his opponents in case one of them tried charging him while he was attempting to recover.

The man facing them closed his eyes for a few seconds, and right as Natsu was going to ask what he was doing, the man snapped them back open. When he snapped open his eyes, his bangs also partially moved out of his face and they could see his left eye too. While his right eye's iris lost its black color and became red with a strange swirling black symbol in the middle of it, his left was entirely purple, even on the outsides where the other was white. There were black circles layering the purple eye of his and Luffy felt strange, like he had seen that eye before. The man in front of them glared at his two opponents and spoke in an angered tone, "My name, is Sasuke Uchiha."

* * *

 **A/N Bam! The title kinda gave away what was coming, but I bet before it no one saw this fight coming this chapter. I hope you all enjoyed the epic battle that continues next chapter in Nexus HWR 11.8 Natsu vs Luffy vs Sasuke Uchiha! Where has Sasuke been all this time? Last we saw of him was in the Madara flashback, so all the way back on the First Day! Anyway, thanks for reading! It was a the shortest part this chapter, but I should be able to get out part 8 tomorrow, if not within a couple of days!**

joebob323 chapter 74 . 7h ago

URGH! You can't trust anyone anymore! Screw all the telepaths! Freaking hell, there's just too much going on right now, and all the "Good Guys" aren't so good! Anyways, I was just wondering if Stewie would support Pao, as he must realize that Timmy is one of the strongest fricken telepaths on the planet, and also supports Pao.

 **Too many mind readers in the multiverse! XD Thanks for the review. Stewie is an Underlord as of now, so he's def Pao Town's enemy, especially with what he did to Lubba and Takao. As for knowing about Timmy, the Underlords also know that that whole group left, as we saw when Takao joined the Underlords and tried giving up some info about that, except Lubba already had. Might be another reason the Underlords are being so gutsy, knowing that two of the most powerful people on Awul are gone. Hope you enjoyed the new chapter! Thanks again everyone for reading, and as always, 'till next time!**


	76. Nexus HWR 11-8 Natsu vs Luffy vs Sasuke

**Nexus HWR 11.8 Natsu vs Luffy vs Sasuke Uchiha:**

"My name, is Sasuke Uchiha," the ninja forming one point of a triangle stated. He glared forward with strange eyes at the two battered men in front of him who looked to be struggling to stand. _All the earth around us is Scorched. The forest, the plain, everything. It's all destroyed just after terraforming. I don't care what you two are here for, your fight will needlessly draw attention here._

Luffy thought about the name and frowned because it sounded familiar to him somehow.

Natsu glared over at the man who cut into the bridge of his nose a few moments ago. The panting mage growled his way, "Should have stayed out of our fight, if you knew what was good for you."

Sasuke's red and purple eyes, his Sharingan and Rinnegan, narrowed at the mage on his left. "I could not do that, you two-" Sasuke began in a dark voice.

"Oi," Luffy growled at him. "Shut up. We aren't talking," Luffy's black pupils darted over at Natsu who turned back to him and glared angrily at the pirate who made him so damaged. The two of them were bloody, burnt, and broken, but neither looked ready to fall. Natsu covered in flames and Luffy was still in Gear Fourth even if his hands were crispy and covered in blood.

Sasuke's mouth flattened into a straight line. "Nevermind, it doesn't matter," he said, mainly to himself. He rose up his right hand and it covered in sparking blue electricity.

Natsu and Luffy were about to charge each other when they saw Sasuke's hand glow. They each started to turn his way right as a blue beam shot off Sasuke's fingertips and flew their way. The beam split halfway to them, but it was moving at the speed of lightning and neither of them could dodge fast enough in their battered states.

A bolt slammed into Luffy's fat chest and went out the other side. Luffy stood there and calmly took the attack, but he did shift his full attention to the ninja and get a much more furious look on his face. A dart of his eyes towards Natsu showed that his other opponent did not fare as well against the attack. Natsu was stumbling backwards, lifting a hand to his chest as electricity zapped around his body. Sasuke saw that Natsu was affected more and he attacked again, this time with several beams of lightning at once.

Luffy shot steam out of his fat legs and flew towards the fire mage to get in front of the lightning, but Natsu turned as he was approaching. Luffy's eyes went wide but he couldn't stop his momentum fast enough to not get flame-punched square in the jaw. Nastu hit him, and the pirate went spinning through the air, hitting the ground and rolling ten yards before managing to get to his feet where he skid another twenty feet back. Luffy snarled across the field at the Dragon Slayer whose life he was only trying to save, but his snarls died down as he saw Natsu, head leant back and all of the lightning around him swirling up in a funnel above his head.

The lightning came down into Natsu's mouth and he shook around in pain for a few seconds as it jolted him, but his body quickly adapted and his mouth curled into a venomous smirk. Natsu rose his head towards Sasuke and his eyes that were shadowed by his hair became visible, showing that they were glowing bright red. "Dragon Slayer Secret Art:" Natsu started to yell.

 _Dragon Slayer?_ Sasuke thought. His Sharingan saw the attack coming and he darted to the left fast as Natsu roared.

"Charged Flaming Vortex!" Natsu slammed his knuckles together while twisting his body sideways. A huge tornado of flames shot off of his hands and got bigger as it moved towards Sasuke. The ninja dodging away from it looked to his right and saw his own lightning bolts sparking off the funnel of flames. _What is this? The Dragon Slayer controls fire and lightning?_ Sasuke ninja-leapt away as the funnel grew bigger, and he turned to Natsu who he threw five shuriken at. _My ninjutsu will be ineffective against him. I need to-_ Sasuke stopped his train of thought since Natsu prepared to dodge his shuriken, and because of that the Dragon Slayer lost focus on his other opponent for a second.

"Kong Gun!" Luffy yelled. Natsu started to turn but was far too late to dodge or block the fist flying towards him. He roared in anger and then pain as the fist hit him in the left side, crushing his better arm into his side and pushing his ribs into his lungs. Natsu flew away so fast that Sasuke's eyes had a hard time following him, though he did see where the ground exploded upwards upon Natsu's collision with the floor three quarters of a mile away.

Sasuke turned back to Luffy and instantly had to jump backwards as the pirate wasted no time in coming after him. Luffy shot around the sky and Sasuke sprinted across the floor only ten feet beneath him. Luffy punched down over and over, but Sasuke was too fast and Luffy's Haki could not read his dodges as well as Sasuke's Sharingan could read his attacks. "Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" Sasuke put a hand around his mouth and shot fireballs up in the sky every direction that Luffy tried to dodge.

One of the fireballs came right into the spot he dodged and he could not get out of the way. It hurt to do, but Luffy covered his right fist with thicker Haki and the blood all over it blackened too. The fireball exploded and Sasuke looked up in the air to see what damage it did. The flames dispersed and behind them was the pirate, bouncing in midair with steam coming out of the bottoms of his thighs. Every time Luffy breathed out, a puff of steam came out of his mouth too, and Sasuke noticed there was more steam than when he first arrived. Luffy was panting hard, and the other fighter was nowhere in sight. "Time to end this," Sasuke said, and his Sharingan started to change. The black symbols inside his eye shifted around and his iris became brighter red, and Sasuke felt his head throb with pain. He ignored the pain though and just yelled out, "Amaterasu!"

Luffy wondered what his opponent was doing, as Sasuke did not look to be preparing an attack. At the last second he heard it with his Observational Haki and he darted his gaze down to his chest. He began covering himself with Busoshoku, but the black coating did little to stop the black flames that erupted all over his torso. They spread out and went down his arms and his legs while he screamed at the top of his lungs. "AHHHHHH!"

Luffy moved up his right hand while the flames were still moving down his elbow and up his neck. He lifted his hand and Sasuke thought he was going to try one last desperate attempt to hit him. The pirate did not punch that fist forward though, he reached up above his head that was gradually covering in black flames, and before the fire touched his hair or his hand, he grabbed his straw hat that he had been covering in Haki most of the fight and threw it to the side.

Sasuke stood there in utter confusion. He could see no purpose to what Luffy just did. While screaming in pain, instead of looking for a way to put out the fire, he saved his hat. _What insane people,_ Sasuke thought, right as Luffy opened his mouth wide and steam shot out more than ever. His body shot around the sky like a deflating balloon while he shrank back to normal size, still covered in black flames. He dropped out of Gear Fourth while flying around and screaming in pain the entire time.

The pirate slammed into the ground still screaming and Sasuke narrowed his eyes. _Such strength. Amaterasu should have completely burned through his skin already. He must still be focusing Haki even as he burns alive._ He growled, "Amaterasu," and more black flames surrounded Luffy that made him scream louder until his voice gave out. The ninja stepped towards his burning, and now silent, enemy, but he came to a full stop and stared at Luffy first in confusion, then in realization which made his gaze snap up. All of the black flames on the pirate on the ground were moving in a weird pattern. They shifted around and shot off of Luffy's body without Sasuke's intent, and the ninja looked across the field to see a pink haired ninja with blood covering most of his face, sucking in his Amaterasu from a half mile away.

The black flames filled Natsu's stomach and as he gulped, he roared, "AAOOGGHRRR!" His pain-filled scream echoed for miles and he dropped down to his knees. The flames were still burning inside him and he could feel his heart racing. Natsu curled his left hand into a fist and smashed it down on the floor. He tried to do the same with his right but other than his hand being too mangled, his entire right arm was broken now too and just trying to clench that fist put him in more pain than the Amaterasu burning his insides.

Sasuke watched from a distance as the mage got back up on one foot, then to his other. His shaking body calmed down, and his eyes snapped open and made eye contact with Sasuke's a half mile away. Sasuke was about to start genjutsu on him, but he froze as Natsu's fists started to burn. "Impossible," Sasuke whispered.

Natsu's fists, or his left fist and busted right hand, both burst into flames. The flames were not red or orange however, they were the same black flames Sasuke just used on Luffy. "Just what are you?" Sasuke growled. "Eating my Amaterasu, my lightning, no Dragon Slayer should be able to take in so many different forms of energy."

Natsu ignored everything he said. Mainly it was because he didn't care, but also because his ears were busted up a little and Sasuke's voice sounded like someone mumbling from this distance. When Natsu spoke though, his low voice echoed for miles, "What do you think, you're doing-" Natsu's entire body covered in black flames that covered the ground around him in a ten meter radius circle and rose up into a giant pillar high in the sky. Natsu screamed as his black flames rose, "TO MY NAKAMA?!"

Luffy lay face-up on the ground, his mind blurry, his entire body in pain. He wanted to scream, but he lost his voice and his throat had burned when the flames came into his screaming mouth. His burnt eyelids opened however, and he stared up at the sky with wide eyes. The rubberman felt vibrations on his right and he tilted his head just a bit, where he saw Natsu covered in black flames shooting around with the younger ninja who had a blade of lightning in hand.

Natsu slammed his left fist forward and Sasuke blocked with his right forearm. As he blocked, the black flames on Natsu's fist caught onto the ninja's sleeve. Sasuke's Sharingan focused on his flaming arm and the black flames vanished, but as he did that, Natsu spun around in front of him and kicked towards his chest. Sasuke rose both hands and stopped the kick, although it still skid him back fifty feet and burst his hands and lower arms into dark flames.

Sasuke growled in pain, but he lifted up Natsu's leg and then slammed the mage down hard into the ground. Natsu was not expecting the ninja's strength and he gasped out, blood splashing out of his mouth from previously-inflicted injuries. He smashed down into the floor so hard that it broke apart in giant pieces around him, while Sasuke pulled out a Kunai from his weapon's pouch at the same time that he made the black flames on his arms disappear with Kamui, another of the Sharingan's abilities.

He rose up the Kunai while glaring down at a wheezing Natsu, and he brought it down. His hand made it a foot before halting completely, and he spun to his right to see a hand wrapped around his wrist. He turned more and standing behind him was a skinny man without any clothes on, all of his visible skin covered in second and third degree burns. _Again?!_ "How are you moving?" Sasuke asked as Luffy held his wrist, keeping him from stabbing down on Natsu.

Luffy's blackened eyes shifted and focused on the mage in the crater past Sasuke. Words that came out of Natsu's mouth a minute ago echoed in his mind. "Get away," Luffy snarled. He clenched his fist around Sasuke's wrist harder and the ninja's eyes went wide at the vice grip the pirate had on him. "From my nakama!" Sasuke flipped back and twisted his wrist at the same time, trying to slice at Luffy's hand with his Kunai. Luffy's hand turned black though, and the Kunai shattered on his knuckles.

Sasuke finished his flip and looked back at Luffy still with wide eyes. It took him a second to narrow his Rinnegan and Sharingan at the pirate again. As he stared at the pirate, he spotted motion not far from him and turned his gaze to the crater where Natsu staggered up to his feet in. Neither Natsu nor Luffy looked at the other, but they did move apart so there was an equal distance between the two of them as there was between each of them and Sasuke. They recreated their triangle, and Sasuke looked ahead at his two enemies and his hands started shaking. "You two," Sasuke began, speaking through clenched teeth. "You're mad!"

Natsu's right eye was swollen shut, but his left eye full of blood narrowed at his opponent. Luffy blinked and even though moving his burnt eyelids hurt like crazy, he made no indication of it and just glared harder at his enemy. Luffy spat a glob of blood to his right, and the inside of his mouth hurt more than his eyes did thanks to his burnt tongue and inner cheeks.

"Why are the two of you fighting?" Sasuke growled. He rose up his hands as it looked like his enemies would attack at any second. _What are they? How can they even be standing with injuries like those?_ "Why do you want to kill each other?"

"Who said I wanted, him dead?" Natsu growled. He was panting between his guttural words, but his busted lips twisted up into a grin. "I'm just teaching the rubber bastard a lesson," he said.

Luffy spat again, but this time it was in Natsu's direction and the glob of blood hit the upturned earth between them. "Bring it birdie slayer," Luffy taunted, though he made sure to keep his gaze on the ninja in front of him who was ridiculously fast. He had to be ready with all of his senses, not just Haki.

"This guy, doesn't seem like he's going to let us finish," Natsu said. Smoke came off of his body all over and red flames emerged on his hands again.

"Guess I'll just have to, kick both your asses," Luffy snarled. He brought his hands down to his knees and pushed down. His legs pumped and his skin, burnt as it was, started to steam and turn red. As he unbent his knees, he muttered, "Gear Second." He brought his left hand up to his mouth and bit down on his thumb, "And, Gear Third!"

Natsu's flames covered his entire body and he growled out, "Lightning, Fire, Dragon Mode!" His tendons tensed and pulled apart and Natsu roared in pain, but his muscles bulked up anyway. Natsu's body buffed up more than ever and he ripped right through his shirt with his broadened shoulders and massive pecs. His pupils and irises vanished into the whites of his eyes and his aura turned more orange. "ARCOSIAN DRAGON-" The ground under his feet started shaking more every second.

Sasuke watched the two people in front of him in amazement. _They're on death's door. Are they going to fight until they die?_ He ground his teeth and shook his head. _If these two power up and go all out again, there's no telling what's going to get attracted here. The Resistance can't deal with this right now._ Sasuke glared at his opponents and he shouted, "This is the end!" His body started shimmering blue light and he rose up his hands in front of him as he yelled, "Susano'o!"

Luffy's left and right hands turned huge as he blew air into them. The pirate leaned his head back and he sucked in harder than ever before. His stomach inflated and his hands turned black as he puffed up. "Gum Gum Balloon! And..." Luffy's jaw unhinged and his teeth turned black like his giant arms that he held up in front of his face.

"SUPERNOVA! GOD! AMATERASU!" Natsu was screaming at the top of his lungs and all the different energies he had absorbed over the years swirled around him. His skin cracked down his arms and legs, and blood splashed out of the splits in his skin as his aura got enormous and bright before turning dark and having purple flames rip out of it. Blood rose inside his own aura and gave it a darker red tint.

Sasuke surrounded with a translucent purple aura that grew a hundred times around him. He rose up two giant purple arms, and two more huge arms ripped out of the sides of his body beneath them. Out of the back of his giant purple aura's torso sprouted two massive wings that created a hundred foot wingspan. He floated up through his aura but did not go all the way to the giant head with glowing white eyes. In all four of his glowing purple hands formed huge bolts of lightning that curved like swords.

Luffy chomped down with his black teeth right into the giant steaming fists in front of him. As his mouth came down he roared, "GEAR FIFTH!"

"HEY!"

All three of the massive powers facing each other snapped their heads up. Sasuke had just charged forward, Natsu slammed his hands forward, and Luffy's entire body was rippling and changing. They snapped their heads up and saw a teenager dropping down towards them with a long weapon in his hands that he held up above his head. "TRANSFORM!"

The tip of the silver weapon shimmered white and all three of the surprised figures below saw their bodies glow the same color. The glow got brighter until the figures inside them were no longer visible. Three miles away to the south, hundreds of people watching the fight dropped their jaws. They were already sweating and watching the fight nervously, but as the white lights surrounding the fighters disappeared, they could not stop themselves from going slack-jawed at the scene.

The spiky haired boy dropped down on the ground between Natsu, Luffy, and Sasuke. He had on a black jacket and a dark red shirt on beneath it with blue stripes near his shoulders. His weapon was three feet long and at the end of it were prongs like a key. Sora slashed his Keyblade in front of him and then slung it back to rest over his shoulders.

"I don't know what you guys were thinking, but I think you all need to calm down," Sora said. The teen said it seriously, but he could not stop the smile from spreading across his face a second later. He tried hard to hold in his laughter and he looked left, right, and straight ahead at the three people in front of him. Only, they were no longer "people," technically.

Sasuke blinked his eyes a few times in shock as he stared down at his hands. His arms were a lot whiter than he remembered his skin being, and he was no longer wearing any clothes. He was shorter than usual, just like Natsu and Luffy who looked down at their hands and feet in surprise.

Natsu stared at his toes and he lifted up his right foot to check if that really was his foot. He watched the three-toed pink foot lift up and when he tried to lower his foot he watched it lower too. Natsu rose up his head in anger and he glared at the spiky haired teen in front of him. "Sora!" Natsu yelled. He yelled it in fury, then blinked his eyes a few times and they shot open in shock. "Sora?!"

"Sora! What are you doing here?" Luffy exclaimed. His eyes narrowed and he waved a fist covered in feathers at Sora, "And why did you turn me into a chicken?!"

"Me too!" Natsu yelled. "Turn me back!"

"Who are you?" The third chicken growled. This chicken had longer, darker hair on top of his chicken head than the other two.

Sora walked towards the chicken with shorter black hair and he reached behind his back as he did. Sora pulled out a straw hat and Luffy looked at it in surprise. "Here, I think you dropped this," Sora put the hat down on top of the two foot tall chicken who nodded at the teen in front of him.

"Now turn me back," Luffy said, looking into Sora's eyes to show he meant it.

"Nope," Sora said. Luffy frowned deeper at him which only made Sora laugh considering his beak.

"Do you think this is funny?!" Natsu yelled at him.

"Wouldn't you?" Sora chided back, and he burst out laughing at the spiky-pink-haired chicken's expression.

Chicken-Sasuke marched forward on his skinny chicken legs, looking about as serious as a chicken could. He lifted up his feathery fists and some lightning sparked off them. _He turned me into a chicken, but I can still use jutsu. If I-_

"Can I just get you guys to cool off for a second?" Sora asked. "You have no idea what's going on right now. The King is making his move," the three around him looked at Sora in confusion. "Prepare yourselves, I think he might be coming to destroy the Resistance. Warn everyone!"

Sora spotted a few vehicles racing towards him from the south. There were people running in between the vehicles too and he spotted a few people he recognized. "I want to catch up with everyone, but not yet." He waved his Keyblade and it glowed white as did the chickens around him. "Don't kill each other, we'll all need each other's help when Meruem comes."

Sasuke, Natsu, and Luffy turned back into their human selves. None of them were in their powered up states though. Sora created a black portal behind him that he turned around and walked into. He lifted his Keyblade once more as he walked in and stated, "Cura." He did not use his strongest healing magic, but that was intentional. _Don't wanna heal you guys too much. You'll just start beating on each other again._

Green light shimmered down over Natsu and Luffy. Luffy's burns got a little less bad, while Natsu's split skin from his final powering up sealed back up. The two of them watched as the black portal faded and then they turned to each other. "What just-" Natsu muttered.

"Let's finish this," Luffy said. Natsu blinked a few times wondering if he heard Luffy right, and then he grinned and started laughing.

Natsu kept laughing as he stumbled towards Luffy. Sasuke stared at the two of them in shock and he could not believe what he was seeing. Natsu picked up his mangled right hand, and his entire body screamed in exhaustion and then pain as he managed to clench it into a fist. Luffy turned his way and tried lifting his arms to block, but the fatigue set in at the same time and he just wound up getting slugged by Natsu. Luffy stumbled backwards, before snapping his gaze forward and swinging an uppercut into Natsu's solar plexus.

The Dragon Slayer lifted off the ground a foot or two before coming down and staggering away. He ran forward a few steps and punched a right hook at Luffy, but the pirate ducked, then slammed a foot up that he caught Natsu under the jaw with. Natsu lifted up, but brought his hands together as he did into one fist. He came back down and slammed both fists down on top of Luffy's head as the pirate panted while facing the ground. Luffy's face slammed straight down into the floor, but because he was rubber he bounced back up and the back of his head slammed into Natsu's face.

The two of them stumbled away from each other. They glared back and both balled up their right fists at their sides. Natsu was not the only one grinning now, and the two of them stumble-sprinted towards each other and punched at the same time. Their fists went right past each other's and collided with the opposite person's face, right in their smug grins. They stood there with their fists in each other's faces for a few seconds, their cheeks smushed against their comrade's fists. And then, the two of them dropped down to their knees.

Natsu's arms fell limp at his sides and he lost all feeling in them. His right eye was completely closed shut with his swollen face around it, and his left eye was droopy, his eyelid barely able to stay open. Luffy was burnt head to toe from not only Natsu's fire, but Sasuke's as well. He had his straw hat on his head again, but it cast a shadow over his face that kept the others from seeing that both of his eyes were closed and that he had to open his mouth wide every time he took a breath.

Sasuke looked at the two of them and he had a thought to go over and kill them. The thought much more prominent on his mind however, was that of the spiky haired boy who showed up and spoke of the King. _What the Hell was that? Who the Hell- How do these two know him? I can't kill them, if they know that boy, then they might know what he was talking about._ Sasuke's mouth fell into a deep frown, _The King is making his move? The Resistance might be his target? This is very, very bad._

"Hey Sasuke," a high-pitched voice called to him. The ninja turned south and saw a line of vehicles almost at him. One of the figures flying in between two trucks shot away from the others much faster than she was previously going. The small girl in a blue and black striped outfit had blonde hair tied in pigtails. She smiled at the older boy she flew up to and said in her usual bubbly tone, "Who are these guys? Who was that other guy? What was it like being a chicken?"

That last question made a bead of sweat form on the side of Sasuke's head and he grit his teeth. "You saw, Bubbles?" He questioned darkly.

"Everyone saw!" She replied and held out her arms to exemplify just how many people. "That's why we all came out here! You were still a chicken when we started heading over." Bubbles explained.

"You idiots!"

Bubbles and Sasuke looked back at one of the trucks that got closest to them first. A woman standing on the front of it jumped down and she marched across the burned-up, devastated field. She stomped right up next to Natsu and Luffy's kneeling, panting forms, and she slammed fists down on top of their heads, smashing their faces into the floor. "Were you _trying_ to kill each other?!" Nami shouted at them.

Neither one responded and Nami started sweating bad at the sight of them. Luffy had nothing but his hat on and Natsu's clothes were not much better for the wear. Even worse than their clothing situation was the condition of their exposed bodies though. Now that she took a second to get a good look at them, she panicked and spun back to the vehicles, "Riku!"

"He didn't come with us," Usopp yelled down from the top of the truck Nami arrived on. The long-nosed man shouted, "He's back with Ben inside!"

Natsu and Luffy heard these voices while they stared at the black dirt beneath their faces. _Nami, Usopp, Riku, Ben,_ Luffy thought, his mind blanking of its anger and filling with relief instead.

The order in which Natsu thought their friends' names was reversed, but the anger left him as well. _They're alive. They're all okay._

"Oi, what was Sora doing here?" Sanji called down from the truck, and Luffy smiled more at the sound of his chef's voice. "He showed up out of nowhere!"

Sasuke looked back towards the truck that Sanji was on and his eyes widened. _These two,_ he looked back over at the men on their stomachs near him. _They're part of that group? Same one as that speedster from the other day... Then that teen, his weapon really was a Keyblade, just like Riku's._ Sasuke stared at Luffy and Natsu's backs and he muttered under his breath, "Who are you people?"

* * *

Nico Robin walked through a tall set of open doors into a giant room full of people. The building looked to be several stories tall from outside, but once inside, she saw that the ceiling of the first floor was oddly much higher than necessary. _Perhaps giants use this building,_ Robin thought, though when she looked around there were only normal-sized tables and furniture around the room.

She walked farther inside and took in her surroundings. The building did not look to serve some greater purpose as all anyone inside it was doing was sitting around. Groups of people stood in circles or sat on couches and chairs and discussed events with each other that Robin may have listened in to with ears that sprouted out from the sides of their furniture.

"Did you hear?"

"...another of _that_ group showed up."

"They beat the Commander-"

"It was three against one!"

Robin sighed to herself as she continued to walk and allowed her extra ears to vanish. _It seems the others have already arrived. I hope everyone has made it._

"Robin!"

The woman with long black hair turned her head right and looked across the room at a table on the side. Her lips curled up in a smile and she started walking over as the rest of the group at the table jumped up.

"When did you get here?" Usopp asked.

Nami, the one to shout her name in the first place, did not bother with a question first and gave her best friend a hug to start off. "Robin," Nami whispered. "I missed you."

"It was only a few days Nami," Robin said and patted her friend on the top of her head. Nami leaned back and Robin smiled at her, "Though I did miss you too." She walked by Nami and over to the table where Sanji pushed Usopp out of the way so there was more room for her.

"Oi!" Usopp yelled at him, then he dropped his bottom lip as Robin really did take the seat that Sanji pushed him away from. "Heyyy," Usopp groaned, and he started grumbling as he had to drag over a chair to sit on.

Robin looked around at the four at the table with her. Sanji sat down on her left on the table's bench, while Nami sat back down next to Riku across from her. Usopp pulled a soft chair up to the side of the table so that it looked like he was at the head of it. "Really Robin," Usopp said, trying to sound more serious this time. "When did you arrive?"

"Just now," Robin replied. She chuckled and continued, "When I told them my name they said I could come in. I believe I have you all to thank for that."

Usopp beamed at the good idea he had the night before to let the guards know their friends' names. It seemed important after the fiasco at sunset yesterday.

Robin took a deep breath as she was finally able to relax a little. Having Sanji and Riku at the table meant that she could lower her guard unlike she had in almost the whole last week. "So," she began. "Who else is here?" She did not ask 'Is anyone else here?' because she wanted to stay optimistic, and she turned out to be correct for doing so.

Riku answered her, "Ben, Luffy, and Natsu are in the medical bay." He shook his head a few times, "They're pretty messed up."

"What happened?" Robin asked.

The other three pirates looked down and had pissed off, annoyed expressions on their faces. Usopp started, "Natsu and Luffy tried to kill each other…"

"When we asked them why," Nami continued. "Neither of them could give us a reason. A good one at least…"

"Then the Commander of this base went out to stop them, and he almost killed them too…" Sanji kept it going.

Riku was the only one with a grin on his face, and he finished, "Then Sora showed up and turned them all into chickens."

Robin's eyebrows lifted up and she put her left hand in front of her face. Sanji swooned over how cute she was and Nami yelled at her for laughing at such a serious situation. "And Ben?" Robin finally asked, wondering what could have injured him considering the silly way her captain and Natsu were injured.

The others' looks all turned grim, especially Riku's as he knew Ben longest and felt guilty over what happened. Riku spoke darkly, "Ben was crucified." Robin gasped and Nami winced and clenched her eyes shut, thinking about the boy she recently visited in the medical bay who would not talk to her when she tried to comfort him. Riku continued, "One of Zeref's elites, a member of that Spriggan 12, ran into him and..." He faded off as there was no need for further explanation.

Robin looked down at the table and she thought about the young boy. _He has been through so much on this journey. I fear he will not come back from it._ She was not the only one thinking about it, as the others remembered the close call with the Self Destruct Mode on his watch. They thought about his trip through time and the horrors only he saw when fighting Nox. Then he lost his Omnitrix, and when trying to get it back he got tortured.

"How is he doing?" Robin whispered to the boy's close friend.

"He's holding up," Riku replied. "His injuries were the most treatable of the three," Riku spoke softer, "at least, the physical ones."

"Oh wait," Nami began, trying to get their minds off this for a moment. "We forgot to mention that Killua is here too," she said, and Robin smiled at the mention of the boy. She asked how he was and Nami shook her head, "He still hasn't woken up," she said to her older friend. "But we got news when we went to see him. Apparently, the boy who brought him in to the medical bay was a speedster with blond hair."

"Dash is here as well?" Robin questioned.

Nami shook her head. "No, we looked all over for him until we found a knight who apparently saw Dash when he got here a couple of days before us. Lancelot said that Dash went running back off north for some reason soon after he arrived."

"You think he's out there looking for us?" Usopp wondered.

"If he is, then that's not all that bad," Sanji said. The others looked at him and he shrugged his shoulders. "We've still got missing comrades out there. If Dash is looking, he'll find them all no matter where they are."

"Heh, guess you're right," Riku said, though he was still worried about his younger friend.

"Hey, you there." The group of five turned to look behind Usopp where a gruff man with a face covered in a black beard was looking at them. He was muscular and wearing a black tank top that showed off his big, and hairy, arms. His hair oddly spiked up on the sides in two distinct spikes above his forehead though the rest of his hair was gelled back. "We just got word, Beta Squad ran into three of your group on their way back from their mission."

"Who?" Nami asked, jumping out of her seat.

"And who are you?" Riku asked, wondering why the Commander of the base did not come to tell them himself.

The muscular man looked over at the silver haired teen first. "Logan," he replied. "But you can call me Wolverine."

"Why would we call you that?" Usopp asked in a deadpan tone.

Logan looked down at the man on the chair in front of him and he lifted his right hand. Three shiny steel claws shot out of his knuckles and came within inches of Usopp's face, making the pirate's skin turn blue and his bladder pressure to build up. Wolverine's claws retracted and he turned to Nami, "The names I got were Rin, Gray, and Juvia. They're on their way here now."

Every person at the table, bar Robin, sighed in relief. Nami thanked the man who nodded and walked away, and she sat back down with a relieved look on her face. Her expression of relief faltered after a second though, _Juvia. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to- to look at you like that._ Nami looked down shamefully at the table as she thought about what Kirito said to her inside the Fire Lord's Palace.

"So when they get here," Robin began. "All we will be missing will be Franky, and Kirito-san."

"Is that all?" Usopp muttered sarcastically. "Or is that just the ones we think are okay?" The others looked his way and he mumbled softer, "We'll still be missing Dash, even if these people say they saw him. Not to mention… Kairi." He bowed his head like Nami was a minute before and stared at the table angrily.

"We'll get her back." Usopp lifted his head to see Riku staring straight at him. The two of them had not seen eye-to-eye recently, but on this they could agree. "As soon as we get our strength back, Kairi will be our top priority."

"Agreed," Nami said, though she hesitated for a second. _Timmy._

Robin nodded her head and Sanji shouted in agreement as well. Usopp stared into Riku's eyes for a few moments longer as they both thought about the moment Kairi was taken. The pirate finally nodded his head back at Riku before turning the other way towards Robin. "How far away were you after the land got all messed up?"

"The land was 'messed up?'" Robin questioned. She thought about that bright light that surrounded her and how the area around her looked completely different when the light was gone. "I suppose that makes sense. I do not know though," she added. "I simply walked south in hopes that I would run into you all again."

"Commander!"

The group at the table turned hearing many people saying the same word and a few people got out of their seats as the ninja walked by. Sasuke Uchiha crossed the hall and walked over to the pirates' table, "What? Thought you were too busy to come talk to us yourself," Sanji chided at the younger man.

"I was," Sasuke said without looking over at the blond pirate. He focused on the silver haired teen and continued, "However, one of my guards, a man named Lancelot, overheard the names of those two who fought with each other yesterday."

"Natsu and Luffy?" Nami wondered.

"Yes," Sasuke said. He grimaced but continued, "Lancelot said that the speedster he led through our camp mentioned the two of them when he brought in that other injured boy. He said that when the injured boy with him failed, it was 'Natsu' and 'Luffy' who took down Fire Lord Sozin."

"That's right," Riku said, confirming what the ninja was really asking them by bringing it up. Sasuke got the verification he needed and he grimaced even more, thinking of how he tried to kill the two of them twenty-four hours earlier. "Told you we're your allies," Riku added, looking annoyed as he did. He muttered after, "Might consider trusting us now," and Sasuke knew why. The Hidden Leaf ninja pretended like he had no idea what Riku was talking about though, or that he had guards tailing the group members wherever they went inside the base.

"Sir!" Before Sasuke could continue talking to them, a guard ran into the room and everyone looked over towards the entrance. The figure was panting and he tried to regain his breath just enough to shout, "The monitors! The maps! All our readings are off the charts!"

"What?" Sasuke growled over. He vanished to the majority of people there and reappeared in front of the guard who did not jump in surprise as he was used to the Commander's speed. "What's going on?" Sasuke asked.

"Come see for yourself sir, it's-" the floor beneath their feet shook and the guard stopped talking. Everyone in the room looked around at the vibrating walls or up at the swinging lights and they could see furniture shaking around them.

"An earthquake?" Usopp whispered.

"You think it's a coincidence?" Sanji muttered, looking back over to the guard at the front of the room.

"I highly doubt it," Robin replied. She got out of her seat as the ground shook again and turned to her comrades, "We should leave this building."

"Let's go," Riku said, getting up as well and making for the door. The room trembled once more and a light fixture on the ceiling fell down. It hit the floor and shattered, sparks flying out of it along with glass. Things were not looking good, and Riku ran out of the door and looked around to see if anyone had an idea as to what was causing the shaking. Sasuke and the guard who reported to him were not far away, but they were no longer running to the building the guard originally came to bring him to. Instead, the two of them were facing north and staring up into the sky.

Riku slowly turned and he looked up as well. The pirates ran out behind him and he heard gasps escape their lips. Riku's heart was racing and he stared into the dark blue sky to the north that should not look like that considering only minutes before the sky was perfectly clear. It was the middle of the day, but darkness took over the world and dark purple wisps moved through the dark sky in the distance. In that dark sky, a golden light shone and the ground beneath them shook even more. The golden light got brighter and it pressed against the black and purple, and the two colors smushed against each other fighting for dominance.

"This, is not good," Sanji said. The chef pulled out a cigarette, and he noticed it was the last one in the box. If that was not an ominous sign, he did not know what would be. He lit it up anyway though, and for a second he thought his hand was shaking in fear as he used the lighter. He quickly realized that it was just the ground shaking so much that his own arm could not stay steady. Sanji got his cigarette lit and he took a drag as he stared into the northern sky. "Oi," he began in a quiet voice, so only the other four directly around him could hear. "What do you think the odds are Goku is there?"

Another bright flash of gold in the northern sky that was still nothing compared to the utter darkness in that direction made the group collectively frown. "Pretty high," Nami whispered. Riku nodded with her, though he was thinking of the chances of someone else being there at the moment.

"You think he's trying to stop the King from attacking the Resistance?" Usopp wondered. They heard from Sasuke the message Sora brought them the day before, and when the ground started shaking they thought that might be it. Usopp tried hard to keep his legs, and his voice, from shaking as he offered, "Goku could, beat the King."

"Maybe," Robin said. "Or he could-" She was going to say something dark, and scary, like she normally would. Unfortunately, she had a dark feeling in her gut that made her not want to say anything of the sort. The others looked to her waiting for her to finish the sentence, but Robin just stared north and kept her mouth shut. To them, that was even more unsettling than if she had said something ominous.

Inside a room a few buildings to the front of the group and on the right of camp, a boy walked to the window on the third floor of the building he was in. He had an I.V. stuck in his wrist, but it was attached to a machine that rolled with him if he wanted to walk somewhere, which for the last few days had mainly been the bathroom. Ben stepped to his window and stared outside into the northern sky. "Goku," he whispered. "Is that you?" He curled up his left fist and held it against the window in front of him.

"I want to come help you," Ben whispered, but his eyes gazed down at the dark skin of his wrist. His hand unclenched and he lowered it from the window. "But I can't," he whispered. Ben stepped back from the window and he sat down on the bed behind him. "I'm too weak," he said, and lay back down on the bed, ignoring the shaking of the floor below him.

Only twenty miles north of the Resistance base Ben was in, five motorcycles came to abrupt halts on a Scorched landscape. The Capsules turned their heads and looked the opposite direction as where they were heading. Two people who were not members of the biker gang also turned their heads. A cyborg on the back of the dark purple motorcycle got off the back and stared north in silent shock and awe. Franky had implanted a metal plate in his spine the day before at a Resistance outpost they stopped at, with the help of a doctor and a technician who together were able to help him temporarily stand, which would have to do until he had more time to undergo more extensive repairs. The plate had an electrical chip in it that Franky's mechanical eyes had to be adjusted to include its status on his visual display. The pirate felt more like a robot than ever, with even the skin over where they cut into him to do surgery being fake now. He did not mind though, as it was his back not being made of metal that took him out of commission in his last fight.

Another figure got off a bike close to Franky, and the teenager with messy black hair actually stepped a few feet to the north while staring at that sky in shock. Kirito looked the direction of the half-outpost they left earlier that day, only half of an outpost because it had been teleported to the edge of the affected zone of rearranged region. They had learned at that base that south of them the region still looked like it did before the white light, and they also heard about a battle that apparently went on a day earlier. After finding out the battle's location and some details about it, not only Kirito and Franky, but Edo-Lucy and Edo-Natsu were convinced of who was involved. They stopped heading in the direction they hoped to find Natsu in though, and they all just stared to the north, struck silent by the display of colors in the distant sky.

"What, is," Kai began whispering. His voice could be heard despite its low volume because everything was silent on the black ground where they stood. He never finished his sentence because like many of the others, he started holding his breath without even realizing it, making it all the more quiet. The only sounds they could hear were the rumbling noises as the ground beneath their feet shook.

Kaneda ran a hand through his hair while his shocked look lowered into one more of disbelief. _Geez, whatever that is, I wanna stay far away from it._ He looked back to the south and said, "We should get going." His gang looked in towards the center bike, and Kaneda continued in a steady and serious tone, "That's gonna be causing a lot of commotion, and we're probably getting a new mission because of it. Let's go find out what that is." He turned his bike back on and revved the engines, then turned his head and looked back at the two figures who got off the bikes and were not getting back on. "What? Never seen anything like that before?" Kaneda asked, acting like it was some totally casual thing even though it freaked him out too.

"No," Franky said with a shake of his head. "Just the opposite," the cyborg muttered.

Kirito stared at the blackish purple and the golden lights in that distant north sky. He felt the vibrations beneath his feet and could practically see pressure in the air that was making it hard to breath. Kirito could hear his own heart thumping, and he thought, _Goku. I wish I was there right now. I want to fight with you, but, I know that whatever it is you're facing, it's way too much for me._ Kirito's expression turned darker, his mouth curling down into a deep frown, _Sora. The others said you went to find Goku, so you're there too right? You're in the thick of it, like you always are._ The dark sky grew a whole notch darker and the ground shook hard as it did, as the sky lost the light in it and plunged the landscape deeper into the dark.

"We're leaving now!" Kaneda shouted back at the other two.

Franky gulped, but he turned and jogged back to the bike he had been sitting on. Kirito stayed for one last second. He stared in the direction that the two people on this world closest to him were likely in a fight for their lives. So much of him wanted to ignore his fear, ignore the parts of him saying he would only be getting in the way, and to lift off the ground and fly as fast as he could without his wings towards that battle. He knew he could not make it though, not at his level of flying using only his ki. _You two are my closest friends on this fucked up world. Please,_ Kirito thought as he turned to get back on Edo-Natsu's bike, _don't die._

* * *

 **A/N It's happening! "What?" you ask. You'll find out soon...ish! XD Hope you enjoyed the chapter! This was the last one I had mostly written out before I started posting all these chapters day by day, so despite 9 chapters in the last 8 days, might be a little before the next one. Anyway, Natsu and Luffy and Sasuke are stopped from killing each other by an intervention by Sora. Robin arrives to find many of her friends gathered in the same base, and many others are heading their way as well! Across the continent though, far in the north, something is going on that is shaking the world! What could it be? Hope you all enjoyed, and thanks for reading! 'Till next time!**


	77. Nexus HWR 11-9 SUBMIT!

**A/N 1,000,000 WORDS! ONE MILLION! Not even Nexus reached this many, so I really want to thank all you guys for reading this far. Those of you who review I really appreciate hearing from you guys and all the feedback. Final part of chapter 11 before the final chapter of all of the First Third of the Aebrith Saga. And I know I said that the daily chapter updates were done after the last one, which is why it took a few days for this one to come out, but I already have the next 3 after this one finished too! Anyway, hope everybody enjoys and once again, thanks y'all for all your support!**

 **Disclaimer: Still don't own any of the manga, comics, anime, movies, tv shows, etc. that you may recognize characters and/or settings from in my story!**

* * *

 **Nexus HWR 11.9 SUBMIT!:**

"Do you feel that Brandi?" A blonde woman with bandages around both her arms and her forehead asked. Despite her recent defeat at the hands of a child, she had a huge grin on her face and she was literally shaking with anticipation. Dimaria spun to her younger friend and looked at Brandish who continued walking straight towards the meeting hall with an uncaring look on her face. "It's in the air," Dimaria exclaimed, her excitement bubbling over.

"I feel it," Brandish replied calmly. "I figure it must have something to do with High Lord Spriggan's summons."

"Of course," Dimaria said, turning the same way as Brandish now and walking by her side towards the open doors at the end of the hall. They could see a large table through the doors and they grew more quiet as the people in that room were not making a lot of noise. The two girls walked through the doors and looked around to see the room was crowded. Spriggans and Tartaros demons filled up the chamber, and as they came in one side, a muscular man in shiny armor came in the opposite side of the room.

Brandish smiled at an elderly man near the door she just entered who nodded back at her and motioned at the chair on his left. Brandish walked over to the empty chair and Dimaria pouted as the seat on Brandish's other side was filled up too. She walked around the table to find another seat, while a demonic woman with a tight purple outfit on that revealed parts of her butt, chest, and most of her body smirked towards the opposite door as the Spriggans entered from. "Silver," Kyouka chided over, "I heard that you also failed to kill your chosen targets." She had a smug look on her face but the man with spiky black hair and a scar down his face ignored her as he walked towards the table.

He glanced her way after sitting down and smiled over in a relaxed manner, "It was unavoidable. Not even the Spriggan 12 managed to kill their targets," he added, and instantly Dimaria started glaring his direction. Silver did not show signs of being worried though.

Sitting on Silver's left side was a skeletal figure wearing a black-and-white-checkered cloak and a golden crown over the top of his skull. Keyes, The Black Archbishop, turned his head as he felt the presence behind him earlier than most others. "My Lord," he greeted, and everyone else in the room looked towards the door Silver came in a minute ago. Zeref, or High Lord Spriggan, stepped into the meeting room that had a large round table at it for his demons and trusted advisors to sit at. They were in the middle of the city of Vistarion, two thousand miles north of the Cataclysm line in the direct center of Aebrith.

"Thank you all for coming on such short notice," Zeref said. He looked around the room and smiled softly as he noticed a few of both the Tartaros demons and the Spriggan 12 were missing from their seats. "I am surprised so many managed to come," he admitted, not expecting such a big turnout.

"What is going on?" Invel questioned. The man with long white hair tied in a single braid that fell in front of his right shoulder had on a pair of spectacles and a black and white suit and tie that's colors were split down the middle. He held a book in one hand pressed against his chest and he pushed up his glasses with the other. Zeref's chief of staff and a member of the Spriggan 12, Invel Yura's red irises narrowed up at the black haired High Lord ahead of him. "I have received reports from all around the continent that Meruem's forces are mobilizing."

Zeref nodded his head, then motioned to the center of the table and said, "August, if you would." The old man sitting next to Brandish nodded his head and waved a hand in front of his body. In the center of the table, the air started to shimmer and an image appeared. As the image formed, the group gathered at the table felt the floor beneath their feet shake. A few of them looked around, but most of the others who wanted to know what was going on just looked closer at the image August was creating for them, assuming it had to do with whatever was causing the ground to shake.

The Black Wizard smirked as the ground started shaking harder beneath his feet. _It has begun sooner than I thought,_ he walked away from the round table towards some windows on the wall. He stepped to them and heard his advisors and demons gasping behind him while he stared out into the western distance. He looked at the black and purple sky and the glowing golden light that flared inside it. Bright white auras mixed with red, and dark blue pushed against those. The deep purple that covered most of the sky made Zeref's lips curl up in a smirk. _Once again he has leapt forward in power. That Ant is King, but can he keep his title? This day will mark a change on Aebrith one way or another._

"I thought he was going to exterminate the Resistance," Eileen mentioned and hummed to herself afterwards. "I find this much more enjoyable however."

"It will be more interesting," Tempest mentioned. The hairy demon with a serious expression on his fur-covered face stared at the image in the center of the table carefully. "To see which of the Kings comes out victorious."

"The Ant King or the King of the Saiyans," Zeref said, and his lips curled up even more. "What an interesting world we live in."

* * *

 **Pao Town**

Inside a house in Pao, Gwen Tennyson lifted her gaze from her studies and looked at the glass of water on her desk. The surface of the water vibrated with ripples over and over, and then the ground beneath her shook and the glass fell over and completely soaked her papers. "Ah!" She jumped out of her seat as the water spilled towards her, then she fell as the ground beneath her shook even worse than the one that knocked over her water. _An earthquake?!_

"W-wha-at i-ss hap-p-pen-ing?!" Goten shouted as the ground beneath him shook so badly he could barely stand. The boy running down a paved road of Pao with his best friend at his side could not tell where the shaking was coming from, but it was not letting up.

"I don't know!" Trunks yelled. His voice was not shaking like his friend's and Goten turned to see why. Five year old Trunks was floating a few feet off the ground and though Goten thought the older boy would be grinning at him and teasing him since he knew how to fly and Goten didn't, Trunks did not look in the joking mood. He looked afraid. He spun around and around but did not feel a thing with his ki-sensing. "This is really weird though!"

A few miles away from Pao, Gohan and Vegeta stood ten feet across from each other on a training field. Both of them looked worn out and were panting, but as their Super Saiyan auras faded, they spun around in confusion too. "These earthquakes," Gohan said in a dark tone. "They don't feel natural."

"Someone is powering up," Vegeta growled, "but we can't feel them."

Both the Saiyan and demi-Saiyan turned their heads in the same direction. They looked east and Gohan started, "You think it's my dad?"

"Kakarott could not make the ground shake like this. Not here. Not on this planet." Vegeta snarled as he wondered what that meant. _If the power is across that ocean, there should be no way for us to feel it here. Even during the most destructive battles in the past, those in Pao said they felt tremors, but nothing like this. And many of those battles were on the same continent no less._

Inside of the town Vegeta was thinking about, Laxus was standing in the doorway of Fairy Tail. "Get out of the building!" He yelled inside. The wooden guild hall was structurally sound, he knew it because he was the one to build the place, but this earthquake was making wooden beams on the ceiling fall down.

"Come on, keep moving," a girl farther back in the room was ushering people out as well from the side of the bar. She opened up the back door and her younger sister with shorter white hair, though down to below her shoulder-blades now, hurried out ushering an older man whose arm she had over her shoulder to help him walk. Mirajane saw her younger sister struggling to help the old man and she jogged to his other side to get under his other arm.

"Thanks girls," Macao said, before coughing up a storm. "I don't know what's gotten into me, but I'm sorry I'm such a burden."

"It's okay Macao," Lisanna promised the man, right before the ground shook again and she stumbled to the right and slammed her side into a table. "Ouch," she let go of Macao's arm and reached down to her side.

"Lis," Mira exclaimed. "Are you okay?" She and Macao turned and Lis got out of her hunched position to turn to them and give them an affirmative smile. When Lis turned though, her eyes grew huge and she opened her mouth to shout but it was much too late. Mira saw the shadow coming down when the wooden beam was just over her head. She had no time, but she was able to use the hand she had on Macao to push him.

"Mira!" Macao exclaimed as he fell away from her and the thick beam that was about to fall on their heads.

Mira clenched her eyes shut, and then nothing. She opened back up her eyes and there was a hand right in front of her eyes and a few inches up. The thirty foot long beam was sitting in the open hand of the man who rose it, and Laxus lowered his gaze down to her. She looked up into his eyes and Laxus grumbled, "Who's gonna fix this place back up if you're not here?"

Her surprised look lifted up into a happier one and she nodded her head at the muscular blond man. Mira turned and helped Macao up, and her little sister gave Laxus a big smile too before the two white haired girls helped the older man out of there. Laxus watched them leave and then looked around the empty guild hall covered in overturned chairs and tables. He gazed towards an empty bar shelf where all the liquor bottles had fallen and smashed behind the bar. He grimaced at the sight of the place, and in his mind he imagined an old man standing behind the bar, facing the wall with a hammer in his hand.

 **"No matter how many times those damn Saiyans get in battles that knock this place down, we'll always bring it back again. Fairy Tail isn't just a building."** Laxus saw Makarov's image turn around and flash him a smile and then the former Master faded from sight.

The Lightning Dragon Slayer chuckled once to himself then turned around. He started walking back for the doorway as more wooden beams fell down from the ceiling. Holes ripped in the roof and windows cracked under the pressure. _It's been too long since we've had to rebuild this place, old man. Too bad you won't be here this time to do it._

Across the continent of Awul, on the western edge and much farther north, a drunk woman stumbled out of a bar in Port Royal. The entire Cape of Veilthorn was shaking just as hard as Pao, and a sudden bigger shake made a shabby building down the road from the black haired woman start to crumble. Cana Alberona turned and sprinted down the boardwalk, shaking away some of her drunken stupor as she did.

The Fairy Tail mage on a job in the port ran up to the door of the crumbling building and she reached her hand down into her pocket. She could hear screaming from inside and she pulled out a few dozen playing cards that all started glowing. She swung them in front of her and then flipped them around. On some of the usually-empty faces of the cards were the faces of people with terrified expressions on their faces. Cana sighed in relief as the building in front of her completely collapsed with the next shake of the ground, but then she stumbled back on the wood of the boardwalk as the ground shook twice as badly as a second ago.

Cana turned and released the people who were screaming inside her cards. A few of them who were not terrified by what just happened turned and thanked her for saving them, before running off with the others towards the water. Cana nodded her head as she saw that was where most people were heading. _Guess it's safer without any buildings to fall on-_ She heard more screams coming from the water and turned her head, only for her eyes to grow huge.

The water was not choppy, it was not rough, it looked like someone had a massive invisible spoon and was stirring it too hard in a pot of water that was the ocean. Enormous waves were smashing into each other in the sea and making explosions of water that flew up a hundred feet in the air. A few of the waves were coming towards the port and the dozens of docks sticking off of the port were getting ripped apart. Some of the ships on the docks had untied and there were crews of people on board trying desperately to keep their ships from flipping over in the mysteriously-caused waves.

"What the Hell is happening?" Cana muttered and she scratched the side of her head. Someone screamed behind her and the mage sighed but turned around and ran back off into the terribly shaking port.

A few hundred miles to the east of Port Royal, and fifty miles to the north of Awul's northern coast, Erza and Wendy stared into the southeast as they stood on top of a hill overlooking a town. They looked down into the town below them and heard the bells ringing for people to leave their homes. Short green and blue people were crowding onto the streets and out of their buildings like they did occasionally for earthquake drills, except this was in no way a drill.

Max Alors ran out of a building with Droy, Jet, and Laki right behind him. The sand mage called out to some of the aliens they met on the exploratory mission on this island to get away from the buildings, then he stumbled forward himself as the ground beneath his feet shook. They were leading the green and blue people out of buildings like Erza told them to, while their mission leader left with Wendy to "find out what's going on."

Erza spotted their comrades who she led to this island in the town below, then she lifted her gaze back to the increasingly dark sky to the east. Wendy lifted her gaze that way again too, and she gulped at the dark feeling that made her shiver. Wendy turned nervously to her older friend and asked, "What's going on Erza-san?"

Erza had her head pointed to the darker part of the sky, and she narrowed her eyes in that direction. _Gray, Juvia, be careful. Natsu… don't do anything stupid._

* * *

 **Hell**

"Why did you call for me?" Yukio Okumura growled as he walked into a room of red walls filled with thick haze because of the intense heat in this layer of Hell. As he stepped in, the teenager's eyes opened up wide and he darted them around the room. The one he snapped at originally was in the center of the hall, but there were a half dozen other figures gathered around as well. He spotted a demon he recognized, a short man with green hair that spiked up once directly in the center of his scalp. _Amaimon,_ Yukio thought, and he looked around to see the others in the room all had tails sticking out of them as well, just like he had coming out behind his own flaming-blue waist.

Satan turned towards the door and his dark blue eyes glowed bright for a second in anger. Yukio tensed up but Satan's mouth twisted into a smirk as he gazed at his son. "Come here boy," Satan growled towards the door. The distance between them halved and Yukio felt like the entire room was distorting around them. The other Demon Kings were moving farther away from him, and he spotted some movement in the left corners of his eyes that made him look over. His jaw dropped at the sight of the purple haired figure with a demonic and terrifying appearance. _Mephisto! He's been here the whole time?!_

A hand grabbed around Yukio's face interrupting the boy's train of thought. Satan's seven-fingered hand of bumpy red flesh wrapped around his son's face, and he yanked it back towards him pulling Yukio another twenty feet so that the boy would be standing next to him. He let go and the boy gasped as Satan's hand had been wrapped around his mouth as well as his eyes. "Look," Satan snarled, and grabbed the back of Yukio's head this time, pushing him towards the altar in front of them. There was a bowl wider than the alter itself on top of it, full of what looked like blood. Yukio's face covered in sweat as Satan made him stare at a pool of blood, but as his eyes focused on it, it stopped looking like a bowl of red liquid and more like the red was filling his entire vision. Even his peripheral vision filled with the sight of the blood, and then the blood shimmered and images appeared in front of him. They were hazy at first, but became clearer as Satan pushed him closer, at least he thought the King of Hell must have, although Satan started smirking ear to ear as Yukio leaned in, because his hand was no longer on the back of the teen's head.

"The entire planet is shaking," a voice from inside the blood spoke. The liquid vibrated with the voice of the Demon King of Light's voice, and Lucifer continued from the surface world that he was currently on. "Meruem is taking on the Saiyan King. Watch carefully Yukio," Yukio's eyes widened as the person talking was speaking directly to him, not Satan like he thought. The visions he was looking at in the blood became clear and Yukio's face covered in even more sweat. The other Demon Kings around the room all stepped closer and gathered around the alter, looking in as did their father who watched it as well. Lucifer continued speaking to the teen even while they all watched the incredible battle going on through the red veil, "The winner of this battle will be the ultimate vessel for our father. He will rise and take his place in the most powerful body this world possesses."

 _They're going to try and take on one of them?_ Yukio thought with a face drenched in sweat as he watched the epic battle go on worlds away. _This is insanity!_ The entire vision filled with a bright white light and the demons, and half-demon, all reeled back from the alter as they were blinded. Lucifer, the Demon King of Light, did not look away as he watched from inside the surface city of Gehenna where he ruled in place of his father. His eyes did widen as he stared through that light though, and he stated in a surprised voice that reached the deepest parts of Hell, "Is that…"

* * *

North of the Cataclysm in central Aebrith, an airship flying east through the sky jolted hard making everyone inside stumble or fall over. The blimp-like airship had two long ovular inflatables sticking up over it with jets sticking out the backs of them. The body to the ship looked more like a boat, with most of the passengers above the lower decks exposed to the harsh winds whipping around.

The captain of the airship dragged himself back up to his feet by pulling up on the steering wheel at the bow. "This is crazy!" He shouted, though with a giant smile on his face. He spun the wheel to the right and started laughing as the ship rocked back and forth with giant gusts of wind.

Far ahead of their ship, the captain and the others on board could see past the pylons above them into the dark purple sky, a sky full of lightning. There was no rain anywhere around them, but lightning shot in every direction around them, filling the air with a static that had all their hair standing on end. A man standing with his back against the railing to the right of the captain looked back towards the stern of the ship and frowned. The lightning in the direction they were heading was intense, but behind them it dropped like rain out of the sky. _Something strong is stirring in the west._

"Ahh, that's an unusually serious look on your face Gintoki," the captain chided to his right at an old friend of his. Sakamoto Tatsuma smirked and almost started laughing, but before he could, he heard growling on his left that made his skin chill and his laughter to come out more like nervous chuckles.

"Turn us around," the low growl behind him started speaking words, and Tatsuma almost jumped out of his boots at how close the guy was to him. He turned, and in front of him stood a ninja with spiky black hair and a giant sword on his back as well as a katana at his waist. Usually the man was also wearing a white mask over the bottom half of his face, but after he spoke, he coughed, and the white mask turned even more red than it already was.

Blood dripped off Zabuza's mask, and the ship captain in front of him spun around and yelled, "Why are you traveling with so many scary people?!"

"Oi oi," Gin muttered back at Tatsuma. "Don't call him scary, you'll hurt his feelings."

Zabuza glared towards Gin, but Gin still had not taken his eyes off the distant west and the dark colors filling the sky in that direction. "We're not turning around," a woman's voice started, and Zabuza turned to glare towards the staircase on the starboard side of the airship that led down from the bow. Two women were walking up, and the girl in front with darker hair scolded with her arms crossed over her chest, "We just made it away from the old Fire Nation, we're not going through all that airspace just so you can go off and die." Lin Tohsaka did not even look at the ninja as she said it, she just strolled right up next to Tatsuma at the wheel. "Keep going," she said in a serious voice, "we need to get away from that."

Saber followed after her friend, but she continued glancing over her right shoulder every few steps when flashes of gold or purple filled her peripheral vision. Unlike Lin, she was not putting on a brave face, and she looked nervous as she could feel the pressure of the power in the air. "You're all too afraid," Zabuza growled. Saber turned to the ninja and looked him up and down, and he turned to her and did the same. Both of them had bandages wrapping their arms, though Saber's skin did not look nearly as pale as his did. "I'm sure Zoro agrees, we're turning around," Zabuza said, this time leaving no room for argument with the tone of his voice.

The woman in front of him with long blond hair styled in a single braid frowned and narrowed her eyes at her comrade. Saber reached down to her right side and put both hands on the hilt of her broadsword. Zabuza narrowed his eyes back at the woman, and Saber spoke, "We will not turn back." Lin heard the tone of her friend's voice and turned her head to the side, and when she did she caught both Zabuza and Saber in her gaze which made her face turn pale. The two reached for their weapons, Gin's eyes darted back in front of him, the captain of the ship let out a scream. _**CRASH!**_

Everyone on the bow stumbled around as the entire ship jolted again, this time much harder than a minute ago. Beeping noises sounded from behind the steering wheel where some mechanical devices were connected to it, and Lin shouted at the airship's captain, "What happened?!"

Tatsuma was holding onto the wheel of his ship for dear life. He turned his head to Lin with a shaky smile, then let go with one hand and pointed above her head. Lin spun and looked up, and she stared with a dropped jaw at the pylon over the port side of their ship that was letting out a thick plume of smoke. Flames raged above them from a stray lightning strike, and more bolts zipped around above them as they started to descend. "Doesn't look like we're going back or forward," Gin mentioned, a nervous smile on his face as he grabbed onto the railing behind him with both hands. Zabuza and Saber glared at each other for another second, then the two of them let go of their blades.

On the stern of the ship, Jewelry Bonney grabbed onto one of the supports holding up the starboard pylon for dear life as the ship turned on its side and dipped towards the bow. They were falling out of the air, and she shouted farther towards the stern right below the engines, "What do you plan to do?! We're thousands of miles away and that fight still might kill us!"

Zoro's teeth clenched and the swordsman shook where he stood. His body looked less beat up than most of his comrades' did, but he was not in peak condition. In fact, he felt worse than any of them. He was not thinking about Ulquiorra though, nor the Espada's second Resurreccion release that still had him in recovery, his thoughts were solely on the world-shaking battle going on not far from them. _I could make it. Others around the world probably think they are too far, think they would never make it in time to take part, but I could. This power though, pressing down on me from thousands of miles away like Ulquiorra's did from point blank. Is this the top? Is the top, still this far away?!_ Zoro's eyes burned with passion and rage, and the fists of his gigai clenched so hard that he cut into his own palms with his nails.

"We're going down," Zoro muttered, and he turned to look at the woman behind him. "Think you can survive a fall from this height?" Bonney looked at him in confusion, then shook her head slowly as she was currently concerned about that, though she had hoped the guys up front would figure out a way to steady the ship. She glanced over the railing next to her, wondering how much time they had, and her eyes bugged out of her head as the ground was approaching so fast it would not be ten seconds before they crashed. She spun back to Zoro, but he had already tapped the button on the side of his neck, capsulizing his gigai and bringing himself into his shinigami state.

Zoro's black hakama was still torn to shreds as his Reiatsu had not fully recovered, but he was easily fast enough to fly to Bonney, then to the other dozen people on the ship, long before it crashed into the ground. Zoro dropped to the floor a hundred meters away from where their ship would crash, far enough that it would not harm them but close enough that they could walk back in a minute to put out the flames when it crashed and gather their things from inside the wreckage. When he dropped all his confused comrades who figured out what had happened at various speeds though, his gaze was already back focused on the west. He narrowed his gaze as a blinding white light erupted in the distance and shook the ground beneath him, right as a dome of fire erupted behind him.

On the quaking ground under a dark sky, Hattori yelled at Zabuza to go use water jutsu on the burning ship before his comics burned up. Everyone started yelling at him to move when he ignored Hattori, not caring about the other ninja's magazines, as they all had things they wanted to save as well. The earthquakes stopped though while everyone was mid-scream, and their screams all caught in their throats. Zoro and Zabuza were both still just staring into the west, and those who were yelling at Zabuza watched as his eyes grew huge and sweat formed on the sides of his face. Even Zoro felt himself get cold, and he did not even have a physical body, as sweat formed on the side of his face. _No,_ Zoro thought, _the top, is so much higher than I thought._

* * *

In the middle of Resistance lands in south Aebrith, one of three trucks traveling fast across a landscape of red grass started swerving from the shaking of the planet. The driver could not hold the wheel straight and it spun to the side as a few of the wheels bounced up for a second and slammed down hard. The truck swerved left and almost hit the one next to it on that side, so the driver pulled as hard as he could the other way, and the truck swerved that direction instead so hard that he could not stop it from slamming into the truck on his right.

All three vehicles came to a stop, and most of the people in two of them were glad they had decided to wear their seatbelts considering how fast they were speeding across the region. Gray Fullbuster unbuckled as soon as the truck came to a full stop, and he ran to a man near him who was foolishly standing when the truck crashed. He grabbed the guy on the floor and rolled him over, then he pressed his right hand to the man's forehead where there was a small gash that was spewing a lot of blood. Gray froze the wound shut and hoped the unconscious man in front of him would survive until better medical treatment could be given.

"Gray-sama," a voice said behind him, and he turned to see Juvia getting out of her seat as well. "What is happ-en-" Juvia stumbled forward and Gray jumped up, steadying her before she fell from the massive tremor.

"What's going on?!"

"The world is shaking apart!"

Gray kept his hand on Juvia's shoulder, but he looked around the truck at all the panicking men and women around him. His teeth clenched hard, _Beta Squad's a mess without their leader. Dino, was this mission really worth losing your life over? After making it through so much…_ Gray's teeth ground against each other, then he opened his mouth and yelled, "Beta Squad get it under control!"

Rin spun from the back of the truck where he was lifting the handles to pop the steel doors open. He looked at Gray and grinned as the older man calmed down the truck and told them all to head outside. He opened up the doors and hopped out himself, and the black cat sticking its head out of his bag leapt out at his side. Kuro looked up at Rin and whispered telepathically once they were standing on the shaking earth, "Rin, what's happening?"

"I don't know," Rin whispered back, as he lifted his head and watched the blue sky darken shade after shade. Swirls of red and purple turned black after a few seconds, and occasional flashes of white or gold would illuminate the sky. Rin followed where the lights were all coming from, and he had to walk around the outsides of the smoking trucks that were unloading a few dozen Resistance members.

Only half of Beta Squad remained, which was the main reason they were returning to Resistance Headquarters when they spotted Gray, Rin, and Juvia trekking across the vast expanse of Resistance lands. Their leader had fallen in a mission to the northeast, and when they found Rin and the others, the temporary leader of Beta had mentioned that the other teams with them were trying to finish the mission even with the largest squad taken out.

Gray heard which squads were up north with Beta, and he wished he could have convinced them to take him to that forward base. _Omega and Lambda. That means that Gajeel and Levy are up there in dangerous territory with little backup._ Gray stepped out of the truck after ushering most of the people inside it out, then he and Juvia turned to their lefts as Rin called them over. The tone and shakiness of his shout unnerved the two mages more than they already were, and they jogged over with a few of the more composed Beta Squad members.

As Gray jogged over to Rin's side, he kept thinking about his friends farther to the north for a few seconds. The shaking was coming from the west, not the east, but it was also coming north of them where he knew many of his friends were. _If this is somehow related to Father's armies, I hope you can handle it Gajeel, you too Ren. With Omega's leader Asato Kido killed too, you're going to have to lead both squads. At least Omega stayed with you though, unlike Beta…_ Gray's thoughts were shaken and he became mentally speechless. All thoughts unrelated to the swirling dark sky in the northwest were removed from his mind. Anything unrelated to the shaking of the planet he stood on, it just faded from thought.

"What's going on Gray?" Rin muttered. "You've seen something like this before, right?" The half-demon hoped Gray had, since Gray had lived on Aebrith for a long time and spoke of it in such a way that something like this happening often could be believable. A look at Gray's neurotic, anxious expression had Rin's fears confirmed though.

"I've, never seen," the ground shook again and many of the people around Gray fell. He tried to focus some ice around his feet to keep him standing in place, but his ice shattered because his mind was too foggy to properly use magic. "The, last time the planet shook like this," Gray whispered, his skin paling and covering in sweat. "It was the day of the Cataclysm. Back then though, I was closer to where everything was going on. I could see it." Gray gulped and whispered in an even softer voice, "To feel it this bad, from this far away…"

He trailed off, but the message was clear. This was not a common occurrence. This was not something that happened often on Aebrith. Juvia and Rin had already suspected as much from everyone else's reactions, but they had held onto hope anyway. The sky lit up with a blinding white light that had every one of them pulling back and covering their eyes with their arms. When Gray lowered his arms and looked towards the source of the light, his breath caught in his throat. _Is that you, Goku?_

* * *

 **Organization HQ**

"Axel look out!" Roxas yelled behind him.

The taller, spiky red haired, Nobody only twenty yards from his friend looked towards Roxas, then snapped his head up where Roxas was pointing. The building he had been rushing people out of had cracked too much, and the clock tower that was the tallest building in the town had broken off. The huge tower was falling towards him, and thirty people on the road around him screamed in fear.

Roxas lifted his arms and two Keyblades formed in his hands. He pointed them up, while Axel brought his own arms up and created a Keyblade of his own. The two friends watched as their favorite place in all of Twilight Town fell towards them. "FIRE!" The Nobodies yelled, and while two huge fireballs shot from the tips of Roxas's Keyblades, a pillar of flames rose up from Axel's and engulfed the top of the tower that was falling lowest down.

The citizens of Twilight town stopped yelling, putting down their arms and looking up in awe as their clock tower broke into tiny pieces. Then they screamed again as those tiny flaming pieces fell out of the sky like rain around them, igniting every other building on the block. "Well, win some you lose some," Axel said, and then the loudest noise he had ever heard nearly shattered his eardrums. **BA-KRRRACCCKKK!** The ear-splitting noise sounded almost like an explosion, but like none anyone had ever heard before.

Roxas lowered his hands from his ears after screaming from the blast, and then before he could shout towards Axel to ask what that was, the ground below them got hit by an earthquake off of whatever scales humanity had invented for them. Axel's feet lifted off the ground and he was thrown ten feet up in the air. He opened his eyes wide and looked around to shout at everyone to brace themselves, but the citizens were in too much panic to listen. They hit the ground hard, slamming into pavement and screaming as bones broke from the falls.

"Cure!" Roxas shouted, then he shouted it again as he ran down the road. "Cure! Cure!" He swung his Keyblades at every person he saw, then spun to Axel when he got close and exclaimed, "What the Hell was that?!"

Axel was busy staring down the street where a fissure had opened up in the road. He watched as the fissure expanded to cross from one side of the road to the other, and then buildings on both sides started falling apart and collapsing into the new ravine in the center of town. "Those bastards are going to destroy the entire plan-"

"OH MY GOD!"

"The mountain!"

Axel and Roxas heard the shouting of the people around them, and they snapped their heads to the east. Twilight Town was only ten miles off the west coast of Aebrith, but another ten miles to the east of them, the elevation was the farthest thing from sea level a person could get on Nexus. The tallest mountain range in Aebrith rose out of Organization territory, and the area around the tallest mountain in that range was a different country that the Organization had no jurisdiction over. "Those Saiyans," Roxas muttered, trying to steady himself, "what are they-" he stopped talking as he finally saw what the people of the town were screaming about.

The closest mountain to Twilight Town was also one of the smallest in the mountain range. It was far enough away from the most giant mountains that rose into the upper atmosphere that it was not even within the fifty mile radius range of the Saiyan King's territory. That mountain had a giant crack down the middle of it leading all the way up towards the summit in the clouds. Closer inspection would tell anyone looking that there were not actually clouds in the sky up there though, despite the lightning bolts zipping through the sky, or the dark colors that one would not usually expect the sky to look like. No one was looking at the crazy sky though, not when the mountain was falling apart in front of them. It looked like the mountain was covered in snow and an avalanche was in the process of breaking apart the surface. Entire slabs of rocks slid down the mountain and broke apart as they fell, turning into massive boulders that rolled in every direction.

Several of these earth-shattering boulders were heading straight for Twilight Town, rolling faster every second. Roxas turned to Axel and shouted, "We have to get the rest of the Organization to help!"

Axel frowned and lifted his head to look straight above them. He stared above Twilight Town at the floating castle high over their heads. Even though it was not touching the ground, the air itself was shaking enough from the pressure of being so close to the epicenter of all this that the castle was trembling. _Even if it wasn't,_ Axel thought grimly, _those bastards wouldn't help us out. Hell, I'm risking blowing my own cover just by being down here, though I can say I'm only doing it for Roxas's sake. Still, a Nobody saving people? It's no surprise these people aren't thanking us. Well that, and the fact that we just set the street on fire._

"Come on," Axel called out and started running forward. Fire surrounded his body and the flame grew larger as he leapt up in the air towards the east. "We have to destroy as much as we can before it reaches the town!"

Roxas clenched the hilts of his Keyblades tightly. He knew as well as Axel that there was barely anyone in the Organization they could rely on here. As he leapt up to follow after Axel though, he spotted someone flying out of the sky like a missile from the castle above. He and Axel lifted their gazes to this man, blond-haired, kicking the air behind him to accelerate as fast as he could, shouting about how he would save all of the ladies of Twilight Town.

 _Jixsan huh,_ Axel thought, and he chuckled darkly. _I'm glad he never saw Sora back at the Dread Fort. Would have had to silence him like Malx Lewx. Could have done with Larxene seeing him though._ Axel stopped laughing and got serious again as he neared the mountain. There may have only been three of them there, but they were going to put their full effort into saving the town below.

Far above the three Organization members who were rushing to save Twilight Town, inside the floating castle of the Organization's Headquarters, a teenage girl standing in a cell held her hands together in front of her chest. Kairi was feeling the tremors like everyone else in the world, but she felt something else as she stood there with her eyes closed. _Sora,_ she thought. Somehow she knew that Sora, her reckless fiancé, was right in the middle of it all.

"You are right to be afraid for him," a deep voice spoke in front of her. Kairi's eyes opened calmly, and she did not jump or even flinch when the man spoke. She stared forward at the figure with long black hair styled in dreadlocks. His sharp eyebrows and sideburns that pointed in on his cheeks gave him an even more menacing vibe than his persona already did, but Kairi stared him down with no fear in her eyes. Xaldin continued to frown deeply and added in his dark voice, "Those Sora fights are not like the Organization. They do not deal in hearts and darkness and light." Xaldin stepped closer to the bars and looked down at the girl shorter than him. "They fight in battles of life and death. Kill or be killed. I am afraid, as are many in the Organization, that Sora will not-"

"He'll survive," Kairi declared. There was no hesitation in her voice, no doubt. She continued to stare Xaldin in the eyes, and she smiled as she added, "He promised after all. He'll be back."

Xaldin looked around in Kairi's eyes, searching for the shred of doubt he knew he would find. When he found nothing, he felt unnerved by the girl's calm stare in her situation. While the entire world shook and the strongest on it felt fear of what could cause such tremors, this girl smiled calmly and assuredly told him what she believed without fear that she could be wrong. _I should have expected nothing less, from a Princess of Heart._

Xaldin turned from the girl and walked away. As soon as he turned, he missed Kairi's smile vanish and her eyes close again. _I said that, but Sora, I know how reckless you are. Please don't get hurt, you stupid, stupidly brave man._

* * *

 **Resistance Southernmost Outpost**

"AHHHH!"

"Stop screaming already!" Nami slammed a fist down on Usopp's head and smashed the sniper's face into the dirt.

The shaking of the entire base had just intensified for a moment, but some people were getting used to the constant trembling. Even the sirens and alarms that got everyone to evacuate the buildings of the base had shut off after ten minutes of rumbling earth.

Everyone stayed gathered outside though, as it was dangerous to be inside during earthquakes like these. Many inside the base clustered together near the northern gate that was opened up and let these men and women step outside. Luffy and Natsu were out of the hospital, both still covered in bandages, both staring straight north, both completely silent. At first they had asked the same questions as everyone else: "What's going on?" "Why is everything shaking?" Etc. Now though, just like Sasuke, and Logan, and a dozen others, they stared in silence at the northern horizon. The sky was painted purple and yellow and red and black all swirling around with each other and making the air feel heavy. Despite not being able to see this distant fight that was beyond the horizon, the pressure from it made it difficult to breathe.

Luffy watched as a swirl of purple grew darker and flared to engulf all of the other colors around it. He had sweat all over his body, but as he gulped, his fists clenched hard at his sides. _Sora, is this what you were talking about? You should have taken me with you..._ No matter how many crazy and unbelievable things Luffy had seen his close friend do over the years, he could not help the following thought from creeping into his mind, _Don't die. Don't die Sora._

 _What is that power?! It's insane! I-I-I... I need to breathe!_ "Ahh-haaa," Natsu let the breath out slow to calm down but it did not help much. _They're so heavy. Those powers are weighing down on me. One of them's gotta be the Mayor, but if the other isn't Luthor, then who in the world could it be? Is it the King? Can that creepy Ant guy actually threaten Goku?_

Riku stood at the front of the group still inside the Resistance Base. They were closer to the gate now than when the shaking first started, but unlike Natsu and Luffy, they did not rush out of the base in a hurry. Riku glanced behind him when the ground shook again. He looked over the heads of the pirates behind him, in the direction of a three-story hospital one of his closest friends was in that he hoped was still standing. After staring towards Ben for a second, his gaze started to shift back, but it hesitated when it shifted over an orange-haired woman behind him. The look of fear on her face, her shaking legs, the sight of them steadied his own expression and made him even more certain that this was the place he needed to be right now.

 _Sora,_ Riku thought, looking back to the north with everyone else. _I want to be there, I just-_

"RESISTANCE!"

The shout of this word was accompanied by a tremor that shook all of Aebrith. The sky flashed white while everyone in the Resistance base looked up, and those who had left the northern gate turned to look behind them. The sky was not so bright that everyone who looked up could not see the silhouette of a man flying above them. "SUBMIT!" The man in the air above the Resistance outpost yelled.

Sasuke was the first back inside the base out of everyone outside, though Natsu and Luffy were running back towards their friends fast. Their friends inside the base were gathered up in the largest group of people there, directly underneath this man who was shadowed by the bright light that filled the sky. Sasuke ran back and yelled up at him while drawing his new katana, "Who are you?!"

"What's going on?!" Usopp shouted in panic. He pulled his slingshot out and held it as steady as he could while staring up at the eight foot tall muscular man in the air above them. The bright white light in the sky was fading and it was returning to its dark color from before.

"I am a messenger of the Wizard King!" the man above them yelled.

 _What the,_ Nami thought, her face twisting in confusion.

 _Wizard King?_ Luffy thought, his eyebrows lifting up.

 _Wizard King,_ Sasuke thought and grumbled under his breath. "We've told you before," Sasuke called up. "We won't let you take over Leam, or any Resistance lands-"

"You will submit!" the man above them yelled. The figure was shouting very loudly because he floated so much higher above the people below that his voice needed to reach. He started floating down though, crossing his arms in front of his chest and flexing so that he looked even more jacked.

Sanji wished that he had not just smoked his last cigarette. Even Robin's eyes grew huge as the man floated down above them. He wore an all black body-suit pressed tightly to his body to accentuate his muscles. The man had long brown hair falling behind his head and halfway down his back. "Wait a second," Usopp muttered as he stared at the man. A few people around their group started looking at him in confusion, while each one of the pirates and their friends dropped their jaws and grew wide-eyed.

"Everyone's making power moves, it's my turn too!" Although this person said at first that he was a messenger for the Wizard King, he was using the first person so much that most people there were thinking that this was the actual Wizard King talking to them. "You can't stop me, not anymore. Not that you could before! But now…"

The man above them uncrossed his arms and lifted his right palm facing-up in front of his body. Over his palm formed a small ball of white light, around the size of a golf ball. Sasuke eyed the ball hesitantly, but while he looked at it, he also felt strange sensations from the two men behind him on either side. He almost turned to look at them to see what was up, when he caught a glimpse of one of the others in their group standing below the Wizard King's emissary. _What are they-_

"If you do not submit, I will destroy this entire base!" The man above them yelled. Sasuke's thoughts were derailed while everyone else started staring in shock and horror at the man in the sky. "And if you think I'm bluffing, observe." The man in the sky smirked in a way that made those staring at him in shock question even further whether or not they were seeing things. The muscular flying man lifted his right hand some more, then he flicked his thumb up and sent the ball of white energy flying high into the sky behind him. It arced like it was a real golf ball, lifting up high in the sky and then dropping so far to the south that it easily cleared the long wall that stretched the back of the Resistance base and for an unknown number of miles in either direction on its sides.

For a split second after the sphere of light dipped below the distant wall, nothing happened. Then, the flash of white light erupted and nearly blinded them all. A half-second after that, **BOOOOOOM!** The sound of the blast hit them, and then the wind and the sounds of shattering windows around them followed. "Wooo!" The man in the air shouted. "Did you see that?! I mean, that is my power! I can use it to destroy-"

Nami had been shaking long before any of her friends around her. Before any of them got a good glimpse of the man, she felt all of her hairs stand on end and her breathing became ragged. The shock turned into disbelief at the first sight of his figure, and the disbelief persisted even as she recognized him more and more every second. "Ti-" Nami stopped herself. She could not finish the shout while the man above them had such a menacing look on his face.

"We will not submit," Sasuke said. His voice was deep and everyone near them heard how serious it was. Many started to run, others pulled out weapons, while the man in the sky looked down with a more annoyed expression on his face again. "Now!" Sasuke yelled right as the man opened his mouth to shout something back at him.

Meta Man flew through the sky at a hundred miles per hour with his right fist pulled back. The hero with a large yellow letter 'M' in the center of his super suit flew forward and punched his right fist at the man threatening their base.

"Wait!" Usopp shouted into the air.

Natsu spun to his left at the ninja in charge of the base, "Tell him to stop!"

Sasuke ignored the Dragon Slayer. As much as he wanted to know why these people did not want him stopping this threat, watching Meta Man's fist slam into the other figure's face only for their strongest fighter's attack to do absolutely nothing, it put him into fight mode. "Amaterasu," Sasuke said, and an instant later, the figure above them who just smacked Meta Man into the dirt with a wave of his hand burst into black flames.

"S-STOP!" Sanji yelled. He spun towards Sasuke angrily and glared like some of the others did at the commander of the base.

"What is it to you?" Wolverine growled at the pirate, getting in between him and the commander who was about to ask the same thing.

"Hahaha, HAHAHA! What is this?" The laughter came from inside the black flames above, and Sasuke grimaced deeply at how little effect his attack seemed to have. The black flames of the Amaterasu died on their own, making Sasuke sweat as those flames were supposed to burn forever. The figure inside them did not have a scratch on him, nor a burn, and he just grinned down at the people below who could do nothing to stop him. "You're all afraid! So why don't you just give up already? I let you live above my realm and kept all the dangers of it behind my walls. Now, it is time for you all to repay the favor, and bow down to ME!"

As the man was shouting, his gaze was shifting from one person to another on the ground below. He was looking at each one and reading their minds, and then he stopped when he looked straight down at a woman with long orange hair. _What the? What is- hey!_

Nami watched as the man's eyes stopped gazing around at everyone. They stopped on her, and she looked right back into them. She watched as the man's head twitched, almost like he was trying to pull away to look at the next person but for some reason couldn't. Nami's face covered in sweat and her disbelief vanished. Tears formed in her eyes and she screamed, "TIMMY!" The muscular form of Timmy Turner floated in the air above her, looking down into her eyes with a frown on his face that started baring teeth after his name was called.

 _Crap! Not good!_ "The Wizard King will give you three days to decide whether you want to die, or join him!"

"TIMMY!" Nami screamed into the sky again. "WHO- WHO'S DOING THIS TO YOU?!"

Sasuke looked down at the pirate woman in shock, then started looking around even more surprised as a half dozen others started shouting into the air with her. "Where is this Wizard King?" A voice asked on his right. Sasuke turned and saw a bandaged-up man with spiky pink hair glaring up into the sky furiously, even though he only spoke loud enough for those right next to him to hear.

Luffy snapped his head down and looked towards Natsu, then he turned towards Sasuke himself with his shocked look turning into one more full of unbridled fury. _I let him die once. I have to save him this time!_ "Tell us."

"Who is that man to you?" Sasuke questioned the men on his sides.

"He's my nakama," Luffy growled.

"He saved all our lives," Natsu added.

 _Shut up!_ "Submit or face my wrath!"

"Give us Timmy back!" Usopp yelled up in the air.

"Shitty bastard! What are you doing to him?!" Sanji roared.

"Timmy!"

"TIMMY!"

Sasuke looked at either of the men next to him, then he looked up at the man in the sky who was still making eye contact with the orange-haired pirate woman below. Nami stopped yelling the boy's name and fell silent as she looked back into his eyes. The ground shook beneath her and the sky swirled with strange colors above him, and Nami and Timmy stared silently into each other's eyes. "You, will," Timmy began, his tone still deep, in a strange voice not his own. Then, at a booming volume, he roared, "SUBMIT!"

"As many times as you say it," Sasuke said to the man who finally turned back towards him. The flying man's mouth was twisting in strange ways and his fists kept clenching and unclenching while he floated there. Sasuke frowned and finished, "We will never submit to you."

 _Shit! I'm losing it! Need to bring him back now!_ Timmy opened his mouth as he started floating higher up in the air, and he bellowed in a voice that echoed around the Resistance outpost, "You will respect the Wizard King's fucking authoritah!"

 _No. Fucking. Way._ A boy watching from outside of a building a quarter mile south dropped his jaw from under his brown cloak's hood.

Timmy spun after he finished shouting, and he flew south so fast that a visible shockwave rippled through the air and the wind from it knocked dozens of people off their feet.

After she hit the ground, Nami sat there frozen for a few seconds with her eyes opened wide. _There's no mistake._ She knew what she saw, _Timmy!_ Nami shot up on her feet and spun around fast. "Luffy!" She yelled. _We have to save him!_ "We have to go after him!" Everyone else was standing up around Nami, and she saw Usopp opening his mouth out of the corner of her eye, but before he could say a word she screamed, "RIGHT NOW! WE HAVE TO FOLLOW HIM!"

"Nami, calm down," Luffy began, seeing how panicked Nami looked as she shouted that last bit. "We're going after him-"

"No Luffy, I won't calm down!" Nami yelled at him. Sanji turned to Nami and his eyes grew wide, and the others who were part of their group or just members of the Resistance stared at her in shock, as tears spilled out of her eyes. "Did you see his eyes?!" Nami yelled. She looked from Luffy to each of her other friends: Natsu, then Robin, Sanji, Riku, and Usopp. She clenched her teeth as her heart filled with pain, then she exclaimed, "He looked like he was asking for help!"

Luffy's eyes grew huge, because he saw something in Timmy's eyes that he had not been able to place at the time. None of them understood it until Nami shouted, and each of them felt their own heart rates speeding up fast as she continued, "He was shouting, even if he couldn't out loud! He was screaming for help! I couldn't hear it, but I felt it! I saw his eyes, and he wanted to yell our names with all his heart, and he couldn't do it! Can you imagine how he feels right now?! After threatening us? After not being able to tell us why it was?!" Nami shook her head and tears splashed off to either side of her. "Luffy! Everyone! Please! I'm going after him right now!"

The way she said it made it sound like whether or not they were with her, she was leaving at that very second. This made the decision not a decision at all. Luffy reached up and grabbed his hat dangling on his back by a string tied around his neck. Sasuke stared at the pirate in shock as the thin rubberman lifted his hat and slammed it down on top of his messy black hair. Luffy then reached his right hand to his left arm, and he ripped all the bandages off in one hard tear. Natsu's right arm burst into flames and the cast ignited before turning to ash after only a few seconds and falling off of his still half-shattered right arm.

"You people are crazy," Wolverine growled and stepped towards the group who most other people were backing away from. Bubbles and two small girls who looked like her floating over Sasuke's head, whispering to each other in shock at what the people in front of them were talking about. "The Wizard King is so far south past the Great Wall, you'd never make it to him, let alone survive the Wizard himself," Wolverine snapped at the group of strange people. "And whoever that powerful man was, he's under the Wizard's control now. He'll kill you-"

"Timmy's not a man," Nami snapped at the mutant. "He's a twelve year old boy, and I'm not leaving him in the clutches of this Wizard! I made a promise! I'm going to save him!"

Riku looked towards Nami in confusion, wondering what type of promise she made. _Who could she have told that she'd protect him? She could have promised Timmy that she would, but, it also makes sense, if she promised Wanda…_

"And Timmy wouldn't kill us," Natsu said, a grin spreading across his face despite the pain he was in as he started moving around his right arm. "That Wizard guy speaking through him said he would destroy you if you didn't submit at first, but look. We're not destroyed, are we?"

Sasuke's frown started to lift, as that did not actually sound stupid to him at all. Nico Robin spotted the shift in Sasuke's demeanor, and the woman with long black hair took a step towards him. "Commander-san, Timmy Turner is the strongest member of our group other than Son Goku." As she said it, the sky flashed white again and the ground trembled, while most of the Resistance members around her gawked or gasped in shock.

Sasuke stared into her eyes to check if she was lying, but she nodded her head at him with a small smile on her face that made Sasuke reevaluate his life choices. _These people are friends with the Super Saiyan?_

"If you give us the means of transportation to cross the land south of the Great Wall, I am sure that Timmy Turner, with his great power, would be happy to repay the Resistance with his help. In fact, it was one of the reasons he came to Aebrith in the first place, before the Wizard King must have caught him," as Robin finished her sentence, a thought came to mind that unnerved her. _Why did Timmy get caught? He said after we left Dressrosa that he felt a fairy. What could have happened to him? With all his strength, to have been captured by this man must mean that he is very strong. Without Son Goku, or Sora, this is not a battle we want to fight._

"Sasuke, let's help them," one of the three girls floating above Sasuke's head began. She floated in the middle of the three, with long orange hair and a red bow in her hair. Blossom had on a pink skirt that matched her big pink eyes, and the girl floated down in front of Sasuke's face before stating firmly, "They want to help their friend. We need to help them."

Usopp looked over at that little girl in surprise, then spun around as he heard someone shout behind him. "Give them a vehicle!" The man yelled, and he gave Usopp an affirmative nod when the sniper looked at him in shock.

Robin gazed around as more and more people started agreeing with them. _This is… Ah, I see. I never really understood this Resistance at all. The single group facing the Cooperative. Not much land, fighting a losing battle, and yet they still resist. This is why Gray needed to return. Because the Resistance is not just one side of a war, they are also the forces of good. Fighting slavery and injustice, even at the risk of their own lives, the Resistance must be full of kind-hearted people like these. Good, honest people._ Robin started smiling and she turned to Luffy who was staring intensely at Sasuke, awaiting a response to what she herself suggested a minute before. _Once again we are less like pirates, and more like heroes, not that you would want to hear that, Luffy._

Sasuke saw Luffy's look, and everyone else was awaiting his response as well. _They, did beat the Fire Lord._ "I'll get a truck set up for you," Sasuke spoke up and it was exactly what Robin's friends wanted to hear.

"Commander?" Wolverine questioned, turning to the younger man in surprise and angry confusion. "It's not only a waste of resources, but we're sending them straight to their deaths."

Sasuke nodded his head, and he continued in a loud voice, "But, you cannot leave immediately. If we send you beyond the Great Wall with no knowledge of what awaits you, you'll be killed before you get the chance to save this Timmy Turner." He turned to Robin and looked her in the eyes, "And I will hold you to what you said."

"Timmy will help," Robin assured.

"How long 'til you can get us that truck?" Natsu asked the ninja who was easier to convince than he thought it would be.

The sky flashed white and immediately following, an earthquake caused half of the people standing around to fall. One of the buildings farther south in the Resistance base shook too hard that its foundations were broken, and an explosion sounded that the group could hear from the gate. "Might be a while," Sasuke muttered, then he started running south and shouting, "Everyone make sure these buildings are evacuated! We still don't know what's going on to the north."

Three little girls flew off over the heads of the pirates and their friends, and Wolverine growled but ran after his comrades after a few seconds. Riku watched as the Resistance ran off, and he saw his friends gathering in a circle to discuss what they just saw. He turned to the north again though, towards the source of all the earthquakes shaking their world. The colors swirling in the sky in that direction made Riku's skin crawl. In his head he saw Sora's memory of their world falling apart, the purplish-black sky full of lightning, with black spheres that had dark red and orange burning cores. He had not been there for it like his best friend, having accepted the darkness already that brought him to another world.

Riku stepped towards the north a step and imagined his best friend's face. He could see Sora smiling at him, and he shivered at the thought of that spiky-haired friend of his being at the epicenter of this event. _I wish you were here to help us go after Timmy, and to save Kairi. But I know, you're where you need to be. Whatever it is you're doing, I know it must be important._

Riku believed that Sora was doing something important, but he had no idea how massive the event Sora was taking part in would be. After this day, Nexus would never be the same again. When innocents and Kings and Gods fall all the same, when Hell rises and Heaven descends, all the people of the world could feel the quakes of change.

* * *

 **A/N The world is shaking! Well, the world shaking was most of this chapter, and we got a glimpse of what various groups around the world think about all this trembling. Zeref, Satan, Yukio, Zoro, Kairi, Laxus, Erza, Vegeta, Gohan, Gray, Juvia, Rin, Roxas, Axel, everyone can feel this planet-shaking event that will be the center of focus of the next chapter! But right as there is a fated battle that shakes the world, Timmy reappears! The last time we saw him someone was trying to break into his mind and Timmy was holding him off, but that no longer seems to be the case. If you figured out who the Wizard King is let me know in a review, (I left a pretty big hint XD ), and if you have any predictions for the next chapter all about the event in the north, or for the Wizard King arc after it, let me know! Thanks everyone for reading my million-word-record-shattering chapter! Nexus in total is about to reach two million words! I think that's awesome and I know I've said it a bunch, but that's just 'cause I'm excited. XD Anyway, here's a quick list then reviews:**

 **Fairy Tail: Brandish, Dimaria, August, Silver, Kyouka, Keyes, Invel, Zeref, Eileen, Tempest, Gray, Juvia, Natsu, Erza, Wendy, Max, Jet, Droy, Laki, Laxus, Macao, Mirajane, Lisanna, Makarov, Cana, Gajeel, Levy.**

 **Blue Exorcist: Yukio, Satan, Amaimon, Mephisto, Rin, Kuro, Lucifer**

 **DBZ: Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Trunks, Saiyan, Goten**

 **Powerpuff Girls: Blossom, Bubbles**

 **X-Men: Wolverine (Logan)**

 **Naruto: Sasuke, Zabuza**

 **One Piece: Luffy, Sanji, Nami, Usopp, Robin, Zoro, Jewelry Bonney,**

 **Fairly Oddparents: Wanda, Timmy**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Riku, Sora, Kairi, Xaldin, Roxas, Axel, Nobodies, Organization, Twilight Town, Larxene**

 **Fate Stay/Night: Saber, Lin**

 **Gintama: Gintoki, Hattori, Sakamoto Tatsuma**

 **Bleach: Ulquiorra, Resurreccion**

 **Yu Yu Hakusho: Asato Kido**

 **Avatar the Last Airbender: Fire Nation, Fire Lord**

 **Hitman Reborn: Dino**

 **RWBY: Lie Ren**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Meruem**

Limit-Breaking chapter 76 . Nov 26

Wow a natsu chicken, a luffy chicken, and a emo sasuke chicken. I was just dying of the thought of seeing luffy and natsu as chickens but than i thought of a emo sasuke chicken giving you a glare than i strated going crazy from laughing to much. Aslo goku vs the king i can't wait to see that and if i had to guess i would say he is using ssj2 but will be forced to use ssj3 but goku will also use the kaioken with ssj3 to finish off the king or maybe not the kaioken part maybe that's a little to much to be honest. Also hopefully everybody can return safely and also i have a question how do you write so much material in such a short amount of time i mean seriously it's crazy. Last but not least will goku achieve ultra instinct super saiyan god super saiyan 4 kaioken times 20, Or will he just beat the king as a super saiyan 4 who knows. Find out next time on Nexus Heroes Will Rise. XD

 **Haha glad you liked it! When I originally came up with the plan for how the battle would go I started laughing really hard because I thought of it as a joke at first, then realized that it totally worked and fit it in there XD ! Nothing to say about the rest of that stuff, though this is still Goku only 4 years after Cell you gotta remember, so ultra instinct is probably not going to show up anytime soon (although that is the most epic transformation ever!). Thanks for the review!**

cyber chapter 76 . Nov 24

I like how this is going, underlords make their move, but poor takao. natsu and luffy fight each other, then sosuke come in, sora come in and breaks the fight turning them to chicken so funny, and warns them of meruems move. I see new characters have arrived to, thank you see you later and have a good day.

 **Thanks! Wonder what the Underlords think of all this shaking? Eh, probably just makes the Joker happy for more chaos! Glad you thought the chicken thing was funny too and enjoy the new characters. We'll see what Meruem's move is next chapter! Thanks for the review and I hope you have a great day too! And thanks one more time everyone for all the support in this story that has reached it's first million word marker! Can't wait to hit the next one ;)... 'til next time!**


	78. Nexus HWR 12-0 Since He Left

**Nexus HWR 12.0 Since He Left:**

 **One Month Ago…**

At the base of a frozen mountain, in between the crumbling natural formation and the hundreds of new craters lining the landscape on the other side of him, was a small boy with spiky hair. Pieces of robots lay on the ground all around and the men in front of him were covered in their own blood. The boy had just flown in to save these three men from the robots that had cornered them, but they did not look too appreciative of the boy who recently told them their name.

"Where are you going?" Goku asked.

"You are coming with us," Apragus told him. Goku frowned that he was not asked, but he lifted up his eyebrows and started smiling after the next sentence the Saiyan told him. "We are returning to see the King."

These were the last words the man with long spiky black hair said to Goku before lifting off and flying away. His comrades followed behind him, one of them carrying the other who was too weak because of his missing arm and blood loss as a result of it. "The King huh?" Goku asked as he shot after these men. His hair was no longer gold but even black it stayed spiky, even if there were more spikes now all going different directions. "I heard he's a really strong guy!" The boy shouted over the wind.

Apragus ground his teeth as he continued flying forward. One of the other two men though, the one with vertical scars over his paling face, Dobaka, turned his head towards the kid flying on his right side. The bald man coughed up some blood that got on Bora's shoulder, the man who was carrying him, then called out, "You haven't met the, King, before?" He coughed some more and tried to reach up his left arm to wipe his mouth, only to grimace as nothing happened because he was missing that arm.

"No," Goku replied. The little kid's face turned somewhat serious, "But I heard from my friend that he's a really bad guy. I want to fight him."

"You would fight, your own… King?" Apragus shouted, spinning around and glaring at the kid at first, then stopping himself and calming down by the end of his sentence. "Nevermind," he muttered turning back forward and continuing to fly at full speed.

"He's not my King," Goku called out in response the the man whose long hair reminded him a lot of someone he once fought, long ago yet when he was a dozen years older.

Dobaka chuckled and his laughter caused him to cough some more which got more blood on Bora's right shoulder. "If you're going to die, do it already," Bora snapped, giving his comrade an elbow in the side that made the one-armed man wince but grind his teeth together instead of opening his mouth to let more blood splash out. "And clean my armor when we get back if you live that long," the man with short hair growled.

Goku frowned at the chubby, mean Saiyan, but the man on his shoulder just grinned a bloody white smile as he continued laughing in his throat. As if ignoring his comrade, he spoke to Goku, "If you are a Saiyan, then the Saiyan King is your King, isn't he, Kakarott?" Dobaka started laughing and he wound up coughing more blood up.

Goku came to a complete stop out of nowhere. Apragus did not notice at first because the boy's energy was masked by his Power Blocker, but Bora shouted up at him to stop and the long haired man turned to see the boy had stopped flying. "What is it?" Apragus snapped.

"The King," Goku mumbled slowly. "He's a Saiyan?" His eyes opened up wide as he wondered if the evil King was actually a Super Saiyan like him. _Or even an ascended Super Saiyan, or a Super Saiyan 3?!_

The kid started shaking in anticipation but he stopped when Bora growled towards him, "Yeah, our King, the _Saiyan_ King, is a Saiyan. Who did you think we were bringing you to? That fucking Ant?" The spiky haired boy tilted his head in confusion, and the man carrying his bloody comrade growled gutturally as it seemed Goku was still confused. "We're Saiyans," Bora began again, motioning at himself with one arm while holding onto Dobaka's with the other.

"The Saiyan King is different from the other King?" Goku asked, and he felt a huge feeling of relief rush over him before he even knew it. "That's great," he said in a more relaxed tone. "Though I still want to fight him," he mentioned and a smirk came back to his face as he continued to fly.

Apragus shook his head and he flew forward to continue leading the group. _This is turning out to be a weird day. At least I'm still alive,_ he glanced back as they flew hundreds of miles per hour and frowned deeply. _You never told me Kakarott was just a kid. I'm disappointed in you._

* * *

"Wait out here," Apragus growled down at the small Saiyan boy who flew to the top of the tallest mountain with him and his fellow two Saiyans. He looked to his comrades next and growled at Bora, "Take Dobaka to the hospital. Don't want to get his blood in the King's house."

Goku did not look at the other two men who left for a larger building at the top of the mountain. Apragus glanced back at the child for another second to see Goku looking past him at the house on his other side. As soon as they arrived on top of the mountain, the men told Goku he could take off his Power Blocker and telling from the other people he had felt up there, Goku realized they must have passed through a barrier that blocked all ki's that were inside from being felt outside. Apparently the three Saiyans he was with had taken theirs off somewhere but had had to leave without getting them back on, so they only told Goku he could take his off after they got on the mountain. Now that he was on top of the mountain, he could feel Saiyans all around him, yet the most powerful Saiyans on the entire mountain were the two he felt inside the building directly in front of him.

 _This King guy is really strong. I wonder if he's a Super Saiyan?_ Goku looked to his left towards a busy street that only started a hundred feet away from the front door of the two-story building he was standing before. There was a market down it a ways, and houses on both sides of the road that was made of dirt and unpaved. All of the Saiyans he could see felt strong, and he wondered, _Are any others Super Saiyans? They could all be masking their energies, but Vegeta always made it seem like a really rare thing to happen..._

"Stay," Apragus repeated to the kid who did not look focused at all. He sighed as the boy only turned to him and smiled, then the Saiyan with long spiky hair knocked on the door in front of him twice. He waited a few seconds, then they heard a gruff voice come from inside. It was a voice Goku had never heard before, but it sounded familiar somehow. Apragus opened the door and walked inside, closing it behind him.

Goku sensed the man's energy as he got farther away, and he himself grinned that he had not taken off his PB-6 like they told him he could. He waited until the man felt like he had walked into a different room from how far away he was, then the boy who was masking his own energy on top of wearing a Power Blocker stepped towards the door and twisted the bronze knob slowly.

The front door of the house creaked open, and Goku winced at the noise and froze. He listened around, but heard loud talking around a half-wall in the living room on his right where he could see a part of what looked like a kitchen. Apragus's back was partially visible, but the man was faced away from him talking to someone out of sight. Goku snuck forward and he looked around the first two rooms of the house. There was a staircase on his left at the far edge of a common room that was small and had a bunch of chairs on a rug in it and nothing else. He wondered what was upstairs for a second, but got more interested in the King whose voice he could hear and turned the other way. He looked to the far right of the living room to his right that had a couch in it and a television near the windows. Goku was surprised at the sight of a tv, as ever since coming to Nexus he could not remember a time he had seen one in a house as a commonplace item. There were big screens in Metropolis for advertisements, but he did not recall ever seeing a flatscreen like the one the King of the Saiyans had in his living room. _That must be what 'living like a King' means,_ Goku thought as he tiptoed through the living room.

Goku got closer to the edge of the dividing wall between the two halves of the first floor. He could make out a dining room table, and more of Apragus's nervous expression as the middle-aged Saiyan warrior reported about his mission. "...The meeting with the Frost Giants started out shaky, as expected. Ymir himself didn't show up, guess he figured you wouldn't be there either-"

"What happened to Dobaka?" Apragus stayed silent as the other voice of the man Goku could not yet see spoke up. The other voice continued angrily, "I could sense his flickering power. What happened to you out there? It's been days!" A loud crash made Apragus wince and Goku looked at the Saiyan who was the strongest of the three he met in surprise that the man looked nervous here.

The long haired Saiyan calmed himself down a bit and started, "One of the Frost Giants, right when the meeting started looking up, he stood up and his eyes glowed red. Turns out, Terminus snuck into the fucking meeting. Bastard self-destructed, killed most of the Frost Giants, and then a whole fucking army of Terminators showed up."

"And you defeated this army?" The King asked, sounding semi-surprised.

"Actually..."

"Who are you?"

Goku jumped, having been too focused on listening to this King talk that he forgot to pay attention directly behind him. The power he initially felt upstairs was downstairs now, and Goku could see a shadow looming over him. He slowly turned around while opening his mouth to respond, and was getting even more nervous as the other two voices had stopped talking as they had definitely heard whoever was behind Goku. "Umm, I-" Goku began, but that was all he managed to say before dropping his jaw the rest of the way at the sight of the figure behind him.

The muscular man had on a long-sleeved black muscle shirt that accentuated his toned figure that was broadest at the shoulders. His hair was as long as Apragus's, even longer actually so it was as long as Goku's in his Super Saiyan 3 form. Goku looked the man up and down and stopped on the figure's face, while the menacing-looking man himself glared at Goku's face, though his eyes examined the kid's hair closely as well. Normally he would have attacked a stranger in his home on sight, but the short child's hair had him faltering from his first glance of the kid's head. He looked into the boy's eyes again, black eyes of a Saiyan that matched the brown furry tail sticking out behind him unlike the man's own tail that was wrapped around his waist like every other Saiyan Goku had seen in the last few hours.

"I'll ask you again," the older man growled down at the kid while two others stepped out of the kitchen behind him. The man who Goku recognized very well crossed his arms and took a step towards him, glaring even harder at the boy as he did. "Who, are, you?"

"Raditz?" Goku asked. His eyebrows narrowed, but they un-narrowed after a second as the older man's eyes turned into saucers. The boy scratched the back of his head and he said, "It's me, Goku."

"Kakarott?" a voice muttered behind the boy. The voice was so recognizable, but Goku still could not place where he had heard it before.

Goku slowly turned around while an annoyed Apragus continued to the man next to him, "Terminus almost had us, until Kakarott showed up and destroyed them. He wrecked over a hundred Terminators in seconds."

"Of course he did," the man next to Apragus replied as Goku kept turning towards him, getting a first glimpse at the older man's face and the scars on it. The man had a vertical scar over his right eye, and an x-shaped one on his left cheek. He had on a baggy blue t-shirt with a tighter white undershirt on beneath it, and black pants just like Raditz was wearing. Goku turned fully away from his older brother, and lifted his gaze to the man whose hair looked exactly the same as his own. The man had a deep frown on his face, his arms were crossed, and he looked somewhat confused at the appearance of the kid in front of him. This angry man's frown lifted up a little though so he almost looked like he was smirking as he said, "I'd expect nothing less, from my son."

* * *

 **A/N Huhhh? The Saiyan King appears, as does Raditz! I swear someone predicted it earlier on so good on you. Short chapter this time, didn't realize how short 'til I uploaded it and saw it barely broke two thousand words. Good way to start up chapter 12 though, and for anyone who thought we were jumping straight into that world-shaking battle, well you've gotta wait a little longer. For now, we get Saiyans! Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading!**

asdf chapter 77 . 13h ago

"Someone is powering up... but we can't feel them." Th only thing I can think this indicates is someone with God ki. Have the gods, not self proclaimed gods like Luthor but real divine beings finally made their move? Will there be a Battle of Gods? Will Beerus have to slap a bitch? The only way to know is check in on the next chapter of Nexus: Heroes Will Rise!

Have you read the Toriko manga? They become crazy fucking strong near the end of the manga! I know Toriko and Yu Yu Hakusho characters are on Nexus so I can't wait for our favorite Spirit Detective and Bishokuya to appear!

 **God ki... or maybe a Power Blocker, or those buoys that surround all of Aebrith so Gohan and Vegeta wouldn't be able to feel them. XD You'll see whether it's God ki or Gods or Beerus or whatever later on this chapter! As for Toriko, I've only seen him during those crossover specials with One Piece and DBZ, which is why I only added that Komatsu guy to the Port Royal celebration thing after the Castle Oblivion arc. Might wind up reading it or watching the show sooner or later, but as for Yu Yu Hakusho... we'll see if Hiei and Kuwabara are the only ones around ;). Thanks for the reviews!**

cyber chapter 77 . 1h ago

MASSIVE EARTHQUAKE ALL AROUND NEXUS!, the battle is about to begin I cant wait for the next one, AND TIMMY HAS ARRIVED, but this wizard king has him under his control, cant wait to see what is next.

 **What's going on!? We hop back a month this chapter so we won't find out just yet. We'll see what happens with Timmy and the Wizard King when we return to the present, but for now, hope you enjoyed! Thanks for the review! And thanks to everyone who read this far! 'Till next time!**


	79. Nexus HWR 12-1 Father vs Son

**Nexus HWR 12.1 Father vs Son:**

 **Mount Vegeta**

 **One month ago…**

"'Son?'" Goku repeated. He tilted his head to the right and said in a confused voice, "I don't have a dad."

"Of course you do," Raditz snapped at Goku's back. "Just look at his hair, idiot," the older brother who was still more than a little bitter about Goku's part in his previous life's death growled at the young kid's back. He recognized him from the second the kid looked in his eyes, but once Goku said his name he truly believed who this was in front of him.

Goku frowned with his bottom lip stuck out and he closely examined the man in front of him's hair. "I don't know," Goku said. "I've seen other people with hair like mine. Like my son Goten, or that space pirate!"

The two Saiyan men in front of Goku shared surprised looks at Goku's mention of a space pirate. "Are you talking about Turles?" Apragus questioned.

Goku shrugged without turning away from the man who shared his unique hairstyle. "Are you really, my dad?" Goku asked. He thought about how Raditz was standing behind him, and how he already believed that man was his older brother. _So if Raditz thinks this is my dad, that means he's his dad too. Raditz would know our dad, right?_

"Yes Kakarott," the man replied. He uncrossed his arms down to his sides and looked at the boy closely. He frowned again as he was confused and had to ask, "Why do you appear to be a child? You should be a grown man from what your brother, and legends of your deeds, have told me."

"I am a grown man," Goku replied. "But I'm also a kid," he said and started smiling. "A Marine girl with a weird Devil Fruit power made me age backwards," he said, sounding pretty confused himself as he did.

"Why didn't you kill her then?" Raditz asked. Goku turned and frowned at his older brother who only glared harder at Goku after receiving the kid's look. "If you had killed her, you could have returned to your normal age."

"Who says I wanted to go back?" Goku asked, giving his older brother a pout as he did. "And she wasn't a bad person, so I didn't want to kill her."

"No, it's because you're weak," Raditz growled at the kid. His fists clenched, and Goku's did too, and then right next to Raditz appeared their father. Goku's eyes widened as the man appeared faster than he could follow with his naked eyes, making him smile ear to ear as he thought about it.

"Quiet Raditz, is that any way to speak to your brother?" The man snapped.

"He got me killed!" Raditz yelled.

"Hmm," the older man hummed. "That is in the past. You will make amends with your younger brother, and you with Raditz," the man turned to Goku and said, while the kid just smiled back at him in an odd way that had the older man leaning back. "Well," the guy began, scratching the back of his head and looking at Goku with a bead of sweat coming down the left side of his face. "I guess I should introduce myself, Kakarott-"

"It's Goku," the child said.

"Not on this mountain it isn't," the man countered, narrowing his eyes at the kid and making Goku close his mouth. Goku wondered why he brought it up in the first place as he no longer felt the need to do so when he was with Vegeta. He questioned whether it was because he knew Vegeta better now, but thought different of it and figured it was rather because he wanted to keep a semi-hostile atmosphere around the room. The urge to fight the person in front of him calling himself his father made him excited beyond his own comprehension.

The older man sighed and he rubbed his forehead while Raditz walked around Goku's other side towards Apragus who also stepped aside into the living room. As those two started talking in hushed voices, the oldest figure there stepped towards Goku and looked into the boy's eyes closely. "My name is Bardock, and I am your father. I am also, the King of the Saiyans on Nexus..."

"You're the King?" Goku asked, not having pieced that together from what he had learned so far. He scratched the back of his small head, "I thought Vegeta's dad was going to be the King..."

"King Vegeta is long dead," Bardock said. He had a troubled look on his face now though after Goku spoke. "Yet you mention Prince Vegeta?"

"Yeah, he's back home training with Gohan," Goku said. He saw an unrecognizing look on his father's face and his eyes opened wide. "Oh! Gohan's my son, my other son," he specified as he already mentioned Goten a minute ago.

Bardock got some sweat on the sides of his face. _Didn't think I was that old. I've got grandkids? This kid, has children?_ He tried to remember that Goku mentioned getting turned younger, but it still felt really weird to him. "So," Bardock started, having forgotten what he was originally asking about. "You have sons, that's, interesting."

"Is it?" Goku asked.

The bead of sweat on the left side of Bardock's face rolled down it completely. _I need a drink,_ he thought and rubbed the side of his head, feeling a headache coming on.

"Hey Bardock," Goku began, and the man rubbing his head looked back down with lifted eyebrows, wondering what this kid was going to say next. The two longer-haired men near them in the living room looked back over as they saw something shimmer in Goku's eyes when he spoke. Goku grinned at his father and said confidently, "Let's fight!"

Bardock's eyebrows rose higher, while Raditz looked surprised for less time than his father. He smirked and stepped towards his younger brother, "You couldn't defeat father if you tried. On Earth you weren't even strong enough to stop me on your own-"

"Raditz," Apragus cut in, making Raditz frown deeply and spin to the man right at his side. The other long haired Saiyan whose hair was just down to his waist saw that not just Raditz, but the Saiyan King was looking his way too, and he breathed deeply before saying, "Kakarott is a Super Saiyan, but when I watched him fight the Terminators-" Apragus turned towards Goku who was grinning still at Bardock. The only Saiyan not part of this family finished, "I could tell he was holding back, a lot."

"Those robots were pretty strong though," Goku said to the other Saiyan. "You guys must be strong too to have beaten so many of them."

Apragus looked at the child weirdly as he said those encouraging words to him. "A Saiyan who compliments the weak," the man muttered, baffled at the sentiment. "Did you get dropped on your head as a baby or something?"

"Apragus," Bardock growled, looking at Goku and not the man he spoke to who instantly tensed up. "Watch how you refer to my son. If he is truly stronger than you, then he is better than you, that is our way."

Apragus bowed his head and responded quickly, "I understand, King Bardock."

Raditz looked over at his father's eyes and his own widened, "Father, you can't be considering-"

"Don't you want to know?" Bardock questioned, casting a quick glance towards his first born. The Saiyan King frowned a lot more than the smirking child in front of him, but Goku liked the look of him more than he did his own older brother or most other Saiyans he got first impressions of other than that Dobaka guy earlier. Bardock continued as he looked back at the kid, "Whether all those stories about the great Son Goku, the Super Saiyan, were truth, or just exaggerations?"

"I don't know what you've heard," Goku began. He continued to grin and the look on his face looked a lot less childish in the following moment. He had the expression of a true warrior on him, and he finished, "But I'm strong."

Bardock's frown lifted slightly and he humphed. "We'll see about that," he remarked. Bardock turned to his older son, "Raditz, you and your mate will let the rest of our people know. Tonight at the set of the Red Sun, I will fight my son for the title of King of the Saiyans."

Goku's eyes grew into saucers and his competitive look vanished. "King?" He asked in surprise. "I don't want to be King!"

Bardock turned back to the boy and began frowning again. "You don't?" He examined the boy closely but Kakarott did not look to be lying. Bardock scratched his chin, "Then why did you come here?"

"I don't know," Goku said, then regained his smile. "But I just want to fight to see who's stronger!" He clenched his right fist hard in front of his body and had the look of a pure-blooded Saiyan warrior in his eyes.

Bardock grinned more than he did before and actually let out a grunt that almost sounded like a laugh. "I like that look in your eyes. Very well, if not for the title of King, then we still fight for the title of the strongest Saiyan."

"Father!" Raditz exclaimed.

"Silence!" Bardock yelled back, and his eldest's mouth snapped shut. He did not turn to the younger man, but said, "If your brother defeats me, he claims the title. If he does not, that does not make him the second strongest Saiyan. You can challenge him tomorrow if you so wish."

Raditz calmed himself down as he realized he overreacted there. Apragus put a hand on Raditz's left shoulder and Raditz turned to the man who was a few inches shorter than his seven feet tall. "Let's go let everyone know," Apragus said, keeping his voice serious, but giving Raditz a small reassuring nod as he did.

"Hmph," Raditz muttered. He spun away from his family and Apragus patted him on the shoulder once before walking with him to the door. "That brat is not stronger than me," Raditz said in a hushed voice to the man next to him as they exited the house.

"I know, I never said he was," Apragus replied. "I only stopped you before because you didn't see what Kakarott could do. Not that I'm surprised," Apragus continued and he put an arm over Raditz shoulders, pulling the taller man closer to him as they walked, "He is your brother after all."

"Heh," Raditz scoffed, though his mouth did curve up into a grin. "You could have taken those robots without his help though."

"'Course I could have," Apragus replied. "Now, let's split up," the shorter man with slightly shorter hair suggested. "We've got a lot of Saiyans to round up for tonight's fight."

"Agreed," Raditz responded. Apragus dropped his arm from around Raditz and he lifted off the ground to fly to a different mountaintop. Raditz stopped walking as Apragus flew away, and the eldest son of the King sighed at the other man's back, _Glad you're still alive._

* * *

Goku stretched to his right, then his left, his arms held above his head. He bent down and touched his toes as he continued stretching, but he shot the occasional quick dart of his eyes in his father's direction. He was standing on top of a mountain's summit that was only fifty feet in diameter. It was a small arena that they chose for their battle, and Goku wondered at first where all the people coming to watch were going to do so. When the spectators arrived though, they either flew right up to the edge of the mountaintop or came over on floating platforms that had blue lights illuminating from the bottoms.

Most people there, all of the adults except for Goku actually, were wearing mostly brown and black Saiyan armor similar to the type Goku remembered the Saiyans who first invaded his planet wore. Some of the men and women had armor spikes sticking out near their shoulders, though most just looked like tank tops that dropped down to their sides, in front of their crotches, and back below their butts. The majority of the Saiyans had their tails wrapped around their waists, but Goku noticed that his father, the three around him, and his older brother Raditz were less intent on keeping their tails tightly wrapped around them. Raditz's waved behind him aimlessly as he floated next to the same man who Goku followed inside his family's house earlier.

Goku wondered why those five alone did not keep their tails wrapped like the other few hundred Saiyans who had gathered. Goku could see other kids who looked his age, some younger, some in their teens. The younger Saiyans wore brown rags instead of the armor that their parents had on. Most people there were looking at him closely and boisterously talking to each other without hiding their voices at all.

"That can't be Son Goku."

"I heard the Saiyan who went by that name got killed in the Third War of the Gods!"

"Bardock seems to think it's really his son though."

"How long do you think he lasts against the King?"

Goku stopped stretching and he looked off the edge of the mountain to the west. They were on one of the giant mountains in the range almost as tall as Mount Vegeta and the other five closest to it, but this one's peak was about a mile lower down. It was on the west side of the main mountains, so Goku had a clear look at the suns dropping over the horizon. He could not see below the clouds all the way to the west, and the sky above him and to the east was already very dark considering how high above the planet they were. He intently watched as the red sun dropped halfway below the clouds, then the kid turned his head back straight ahead towards his father.

The man he looked at wore almost all black armor except for the patch of green in the stomach area and on the thin straps that went above his muscular shoulders. Bardock looked so much like Goku did when he was an adult that it felt like he was looking in a mirror, only a much cockier mirror. Bardock was facing away from him while floating in a group of four, and all of them had looks of confidence and arrogance on their faces. Goku could tell they thought they were better than everyone else around them, and considering the rest of the Saiyans gave them a wide berth, he knew they were the strongest Saiyans around. Their tails waving behind them were proof of their strength, almost like they were showing off their race's weakness as a taunt to others that even if it was still a weakness for them, they would still be able to crush any challenger.

 _Those who feel stronger speak louder,_ Goku realized. _Almost like they're threatening others to speak louder than them. Do these Saiyans all want to fight each other?_ He looked left and saw a platform larger than most of the others set up where many of the children were sitting on the edge and looking his way interestedly. There was a long table set up on that platform covered in delicious food and although he ate right before jumping on the soon-to-be fighting stage, he licked his lips at the sight of the food.

Those Saiyans wondering if this kid was faking his Saiyan heritage lost their doubts at the sight of the kid's face when he looked towards the food. Over with Bardock, one of the members of his old elite squad back when they all worked for Frieza spotted his King's son's look as well and started laughing. He was the fattest of the four, had a bowl cut of black hair, the same color as the rest of the Saiyans, and although he was a chubby guy, his muscles were just as defined as the rest of the warrior race. Shugesh laughed loudly and then turned his head back straight at the man between him and Goku, "Kid's got your appetite as well as your ugly face."

"I still can't believe it," Fasha said, putting her hands behind her head and frowning. The most powerful Saiyan woman darted her eyes right from where she floated on Bardock's left and looked towards the kid whose eyes kept wandering all over the place. Her armor was more colorful than most Saiyan women's, with pink on the straps as well as underneath her armor where her undershirt and shorts showed through the cracks. "Why didn't you ever tell us that the one they called Son Goku and Kakarott were one and the same? I always thought the one masquerading around as the Super Saiyan was a fake."

"Raditz may have mentioned that Kakarott went by that name when he met him on Earth," Bardock said. He lifted up a drumstick and ripped a chunk out of it with his teeth, then washed it down with a chug of beer. "Ahh," he said after the beer and meat went down. "But the boy never searched me out before, so I decided to forget about it."

He made it sound unimportant to him, but his best friend on his right side could see right through the guise. Tora crossed his arms over his chest and scoffed. Bardock glared at his good friend with shorter spiky hair going straight up over his head only a few inches. As he glared at Tora though, he noticed Fasha frowning at him and Shugesh looking at him just as skeptically. "Meh, what do you know?" He grumbled at them, then turned around and faced his small son standing in the center of the arena mountain that's stone surface was entirely black unlike the gray color of the rest of the mountaintops.

Bardock floated towards the arena and he lowered to the edge of the perfectly circular ring. _Why didn't I search for my son? When I knew he was here? When I had visions of him defeating Frieza, something I myself failed to do?_ Bardock walked towards his son, Goku, Kakarott. He walked towards the boy who was not directly in the center of the ring, but slightly to his own side as if hoping Bardock would walk straight up to him with only that small gap in the center between them, and despite his Saiyan urge to stop where he was and show his dominance, show that he would not do things the way his opponent wanted them done, he kept walking. If it were any other opponent, even his eldest son, he would have stopped there and crossed his arms before taunting Raditz to get the younger man to attack him angrily, yet Bardock kept walking towards Goku slowly, closing the gap from thirty feet to twenty, ten, and then five as he finally stopped.

Neither Goku nor Bardock noticed since they were too busy staring into each other's eyes and drowning everything else out, but silence had fallen over the Saiyan Mountains. The Red Sun dipped beneath the clouds and only the third sun cast its light over the clouds, giving both men on the arena whose hair defied all logic and physics a golden glow that seemed to foreshadow their battle. None of the Saiyans spoke. Raditz could not help but clench his fists tightly at the look his father was giving his younger brother. _What did Kakarott do to deserve that look?! How can father look at him- the same way he looks at his crew?!_

Apragus glanced to his side and could see Raditz shaking in rage and hatred for his brother. Across the arena from the two of them, Bora had sweat covering his face and the other Saiyans he just told about Kakarott's feats earlier that day made them all quake with anticipation. Dobaka sat on a wooden platform with bandages wrapped around most of his body. He was missing an arm and he never had time for a shower so he was covered in his own dried blood, but his eyes shone with excitement and he only felt gratitude that he was still alive to witness this battle.

Bardock looked down into his son's eyes. The boy was a little over half his father's height, but his hair's tallest spike almost reached Bardock's chin. "This boy is my son," Bardock announced. Those who had already heard this from the rumors or even the message directly from Raditz or Apragus' mouths were still somewhat shocked to hear their King say this. "His name is Kakarott, my second son with Gine." Goku gained a confused look but before he could question about that name, Bardock continued, "On this world, he is known by the name Son Goku."

The majority of Saiyans there were not informed of this fact until right now. Only the three Goku met thousands of miles away, his own family, and Bardock's crew were already privy to that knowledge. Bardock continued while his people grew louder, and he called out in a proud tone, "And before we fight, I want everyone here to know one thing. Hundreds of Saiyans who live in these mountains lived and died under that bastard Frieza's rule."

Raditz looked over at his father confusedly, wondering why he was bringing that up now. Even Bardock's own crew looked at him oddly, but Bardock had questioned Goku about it when they were alone earlier and the truth that he had already seen was confirmed straight from the boy's mouth. "When Frieza destroyed Planet Vegeta, only a handful of Saiyans escaped the planet. Kakarott was one of those Saiyans. And he avenged the Saiyan race!"

"RAAA!"

"He defeated Frieza!" Bardock yelled.

The amount of Saiyans who roared doubled, "RAAAAA! RAAAHHH!" Bardock's crew lost their awed or confused looks and they threw fists in the air, cheering war cries with their fellow Saiyans.

Goku looked around in surprise at all the screaming Saiyans. He could see Raditz staring his way in utter shock, and many still in disbelief, but the vast majority screamed out cheers for him at the top of their lungs. They did not understand why he looked like a child, and had no idea that Frieza came back after Goku failed to finish him off, but those facts were irrelevant. He was a Saiyan, and he defeated the monster who killed them all. He restored the damaged pride of the Saiyan race, pride that even after being reborn on Nexus, most of them had never truly recovered until now.

Bardock looked back into his son's eyes and his mouth flattened, his face turning deadly serious. "The rest of our race may be happy with just that, but I will not be pleased until you prove yourself to me. Right here! Right now!" Bardock yelled.

Goku watched his father get into a fighting stance and felt emotions he had never felt before in his life. He shot into his stance in record time and his breathing sped up. Normally he was so composed before a fight, but his heart was beating a thousand times a minute and felt like it was going to jump out of his chest. The Saiyan boy had never in his entire life anticipated a fight more than this one right now. Several times in his life he spent three years or more training for specific battles, but at this very moment, it was like the world disappeared from around him. Everything got blurry except for the arena he was standing on and the air above it. All he could hear was his own breathing, the slower breathing of his father, and his heart beat echoing in his ears.

Goku himself did not know why, but proving himself mattered more than it ever had before. The other Saiyans were already cheering, but the man in front of him was asking him to give him a challenge. He could not let him down. The looks the other Saiyans had on their faces all around him made so much sense now. There, on the top of a mountain, the air around him thin, surrounded by his own people for the first time in his life, Son Goku was a hundred percent Saiyan.

"What are you waiting for?" Bardock questioned.

And just like that, Goku's arms shifted in his impenetrable stance that his fellow warriors could not help but admire. At least, they admired it for as long as they could before losing sight of the boy who even in his base form started off so fast that close to a third of his race lost sight of him. The children sitting on the wide platform leaned back as the wind hit them, then they heard the smack, and only when their eyes opened back up because of the wind that hit them and forced them to blink did they see where Goku went.

The boy was midway up his father's torso with a fist punched forward, straight into Bardock's open palm. Bardock closed his hand around Goku's fist and he lifted up, yanking the boy who tried to continue with a leg but couldn't finish the kick with his new position above his father's head. Bardock made like he was going to swing Goku all the way over him and down on the other side, but as Goku got ready to lower his free hand and catch himself, Bardock tugged the other way instead and slammed Goku right back down on the floor in front of him.

Goku hit the ground on his face and stomach and frowned deeper than he had all day. His teeth bared and he slammed his hands down into the ground hard. What Goku did not know prior to the fight that all other Saiyans there knew already, was that just like how the farther into the planet one traveled, the stone that made up Nexus became stronger, it worked the same in the opposite direction. The reality of Nexus's ground was not that it was harder farther into the planet at all, but that the farther away from sea level one went, the stronger the material Nexus was made out of.

Being so high towards the atmospheric boundary, the mountain Goku tried to stick his fingers into did not budge and his hands just smacked against stone harder than diamonds. Goku did not understand why the mountain was so hard, but he adapted his strategy fast and instead of trying to do a front flip, he flattened his palms against the ground and then pushed back hard.

Bardock sidestepped left as Goku tried double-kicking him in the green part of his armor right in the stomach. He rose up his left arm and grabbed his bicep with his right hand before bringing the left elbow down at Goku's stomach. So far he was not impressed by the boy's moves, at least until his elbow was about to connect only to hit Goku's left hand that was waiting for the elbow he predicted. His father's eyes widened, and then did so more as Goku's right hand pushed up from behind his horizontal body and had a ball of white light on it.

Bardock leaned away from the ball that shot off Goku's palm and flew inches from his face. He lifted his left leg, but Goku's right foot pushed it aside before he could start up momentum for a kick, and then Goku's face was right in front of his own. Goku punched but Bardock leapt back first and the front spike of hair going partially over his forehead was the only part of him to get touched. He saw a strand of hair falling out of the air, until Goku flew straight through it and started a flurry of punches and kicks so fast that to almost half of the Saiyans watching, he was but a blur.

"He just keeps, speeding up," Bora muttered, mainly to himself as his friends around him were watching too carefully, or at least trying to, to come up with a response. The chubby man with short black hair shook his head as he watched Bardock continue to block all of the boy's attacks, though the King was taking steps back from the floating boy pushing against him.

Bardock was not panting, but he could see his son was not either. "I've had enough of the warm up," he said while Goku was mid-punch. Bardock's spiky black hair shot straight up and golden and an aura of the same color surrounded him. The transformation happened effortlessly, instantly, and as it did, Bardock caught Goku's fist again. Goku punched his other fist forward to try and get his right out of his father's hold, but Bardock caught this one too and then crossed Goku's arms over each other so he was in a very awkward position while being held off the ground.

 _Crapbas-_ Goku thought, before being smashed down on Bardock's left side by both arms, then smashed on his right side again into the hard ground of the mountain's top. Bardock lifted Goku up after the second smash and did not expect to be able to get the boy a third time, so instead he let go, while flying up and raising his right knee. Goku was still lifting and he had been preparing to stop the third slam, then switched to trying to return to the attack, and now all in the same millisecond he had to come up with a counter for the knee coming up to his stomach. There was no time to block, but there was enough time to realize he had no time to block, and that was all the time Goku needed.

Bardock's Super Saiyan powered knee to the stomach made Goku's entire body bend over his leg. A few people winced, others cheered, and Goku's mouth opened as spit splashed out. His mouth closed as fast as it opened though, and being ready for the pain was enough to make him able to counter right after the hit. He pointed his right palm at his father's chest and though his arm did not have enough reach for him to punch from that position bent over Bardock's knee, he did not need to be touching his father to hit him.

A huge kiai, the most powerful one Goku could muster in his base state while in sudden pain, slammed into Bardock so hard that the Super Saiyan did a backflip away from his son. Bardock's eyes opened wide while he was halfway through his flip, _Not even a Super Saiyan and so strong..._ His thoughts cut off as they were no longer applicable to the glowing golden child floating before him.

"I was hoping you would be a Super Saiyan," Goku said, his teal eyes sparkling with the shine of battle. "Can you step it up to the next level too?" Goku asked, and Bardock's eyes opened huge as did most of his people.

"You know about that?" Bardock asked in shock.

"Super Saiyan 2? Sure," Goku said, even more excited as it sounded like they knew about this as well. Bardock looked less shocked now though, and a quick glance around showed Goku he was not the only one, though most others besides his father seemed confused more than anything.

"Super Saiyan 2 huh?" Bardock muttered. "Seems like a childish name for the next level of our race's legend."

"Vegeta calls it an Ascended Super Saiyan," Goku remarked, a statement which made most people watching start asking each other if they heard him right. Bardock grimaced as he was dreading Kakarott mentioning Vegeta, but he shook his head and decided to leave that for later.

Bardock shot towards Goku, and the boy stopped talking and flew towards his father as well. The two of them met right fists in the air, creating a shockwave of air with the two of them in the middle. The sight of the two of them pushing their fists into each other was the last part of the battle all but a dozen or so Saiyans witnessed for the next few minutes.

"You're still following this, right?" Apragus questioned the third member of the insanely powerful family who floated next to him.

Raditz did not reply, but his coal black eyes darted back and forth all around the sky. Shockwaves rippled out all over the place, and others who were not as strong as the dozen top level Saiyans occasionally caught glimpses of arms and legs colliding with each other before vanishing again.

Bardock appeared a hundred meters above the arena with Goku's fist slammed under his chin. They reappeared a quarter mile to the west with Bardock bringing both fists down as one towards Goku's head. Goku flew between his father's legs, then Bardock kicked his left leg back and hit Goku before the kid could even turn around to try his planned attack. Goku shot away like a missile, and when he righted himself he did not see Bardock in front of him. He slammed his right fist up and back over his shoulder and nailed Bardock straight in the face, but Bardock pushed through the punch anyway and he dropped his left elbow down on Goku's skull.

Goku flew out of the air and hit the side of the arena's mountain. He bounced off it doing cartwheels in midair. When he righted himself, he pointed both hands up and formed medium-sized balls of white ki. He shot the first one at Bardock who was flying down towards him fast. Bardock dodged and the second one was right behind it, making the father smirk as he had used an attack similar to this once before. _And I would have fallen for it if I didn't know the move,_ he started thinking while forming a yellow ball of ki on his own hand. He slammed the yellow ball into his son's white one and smashed through the attack to slam it into Goku who was hiding on the other side trying to make Bardock dodge him so that he could get the drop from behind.

Goku was half expecting his father to be able to sense his energy though. So when Bardock smashed his energy into Goku's and flew through it, the taller Saiyan was shocked to see a third ball of white energy in the same hand that Goku threw his first one. Goku slammed this ball of energy, bigger than the other two, directly into the front of his father's armor and he yelled out as he made contact. "HAAAA!"

The white ball shot off Goku's hand and a beam followed behind it as he flooded his energy into the attack. Bardock got pushed all the way back above the arena, before sliding himself off the end of the attack. He paused for a moment and looked up as the beam of energy flew all the way that last small stretch to the atmospheric barrier where it collapsed in on itself, then erupted in a dome with a mile radius.

Goku was flying back up in the air, but his father was not paying attention and considering how well the man was fighting, he knew Bardock was not letting down his guard, he was telling Goku to wait a second. Goku flew twenty feet in front of his father and he was panting lightly, but after a few moments rest he calmed his breathing completely. He steadied his golden aura that flared when he shot excitedly after his father so it fell back to a solid veil that gave off no unnecessary energy at all.

"Your aura Kakarott," Bardock began. He lowered his gaze from the fading explosion on the barrier that illuminated purple to his youngest son. "You are not wasting any energy."

Goku smiled. He had been grinning through most of the fight, but this smile was for a different reason than the thrill of the fight. _That year me and Gohan spent in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber I may have focused more on Gohan's training than my own, but I did master controlling my Super Saiyan state._ The boy nodded at his father who did not really ask him a question at all.

 _Incredible!_ Bardock thought while his face stayed stoic as he nodded back at the boy. _I want to see his full power!_ Bardock thought. He brought his elbows in to his sides and the clouds in every direction below him started pushing away from Bardock. "AaaaAAAAHHHHH!" He screamed. Ripples shot off of his body like circular waves that pushed the clouds away even faster. The mountains shook and villages and towns dozens of miles below trembled from the Saiyan King's might.

Goku watched as his father who he never knew existed powered into a Super Saiyan 2 before his very eyes. Bardock's hair waved around instead of staying in its single spike, and bolts of lightning sparked off of him as his muscles bulked up. "My turn," Goku said before Bardock had even stopped yelling.

The kid clenched his teeth hard, and then without making a sound, his hair shot up even spikier and waved around inside his aura. Bolts of lightning shot away from Goku and his aura grew in size but had none of the flashy effects that Bardock's did.

This time Bardock could not keep the shock from his face. _So effortlessly he moves into the next state. He has the highest potential for it than anyone I have seen before, more so than myself when I was presented the opportunity._ The thoughtful look on Bardock's face was not what Goku wanted to see, and he wiped that expression off the Saiyan King's mug a second later. The Saiyans gasped as Goku suddenly appeared before his father with his right fist imbedded in Bardock's cheek. The kid was grinning that he caught his father off guard, but Bardock did not get sent flying into the distance like he had attempted.

Bardock slammed his left fist up into Goku's solar plexus. "Don't get cocky," Bardock growled, opening up that fist and shooting a beam of yellow light point blank into his son. The beam widened larger than Goku's body and shot miles into the distance.

The four Saiyans who were still managing to follow the fight gasped as it looked like Bardock just disintegrated Kakarott. Even Raditz had a bead of sweat rolling down the right side of his face as he believed his brother to be dead. Tora scratched the back of his head, but Bardock's second-in-command was the first to check for ki's and notice the second massive energy in front of them. "Going a little overboard," the spiky haired Saiyan elite said, before chuckling as he spotted the look of exhilaration on Bardock's face as he flew towards his fading beam where a boy was flying the other way towards him.

The display of attacks that followed left the Saiyan race speechless. They tried following the exploding yellow shockwaves in the sky, but they seemed to be going off in far away places at the same time. Their minds could not process the difference between the moment Goku slammed the top of his head into his father's chin, or the move three after that where Bardock caught Goku's left leg mid-roundhouse-kick and tugged the boy towards him while slamming his other fist into Goku's stomach.

The third sun dropped below the clouds that only started appearing tens of miles away from the Saiyan Mountains now because of the battle happening there. Although the fight was hard to see, the constant explosions and occasional movements that were slow enough to witness kept hundreds on their toes. Then, a ripple of purple shot across the sky from a point directly above Mount Vegeta to their east. Everyone looked up there, then snapped their gazes back down as the white blur they saw up there flew their way and smashed down on the arena.

Dust faded and so did the golden aura around the small child on his hands and knees there. His hair stayed golden, but he was panting heavily and had a lot of blood on his aching left arm. His orange gi no longer had a left sleeve to it and his blue undershirt was pretty ripped up as well towards the middle of his chest on his left side. Goku panted in and out and he lifted up his head to look in the sky where he saw a figure descending towards him.

"Never doubted him for a second," Fasha said, though she had to wipe some sweat from her forehead as she did. Shugesh noticed and would have mentioned something about it to her, if his jaw was not hanging open like an idiot. He wanted to remark about how cool and strong Bardock was, but the kid on the arena balled his hands into fists and punched them down on the ground below him.

"Well," Tora began. He chuckled once darkly, "We can say for sure now, this is definitely Bardock's kid." The other two nodded their heads in agreement.

Goku staggered up to his feet, stumbled a step or two back, and planted himself hard on the ground while shaking his head to regain his composure. His vision got less blurry and his legs less wobbly. _I have to do it,_ Goku thought, staring straight up at his father who stopped descending and was now crossing his arms in wait for Goku to fly up to him again. _I can't feel his energy rising, but every so often he has this power!_ It was a burst of power unlike anything he knew of. It came without a spike of ki and made Bardock's blows so powerful that Goku could barely comprehend them. The one that just knocked him from the edge of the planet's atmosphere to this mountaintop was one of those blows.

"Hey dad," Goku began loudly towards the man floating above him. "You ever see a Super Saiyan 3?"

Although Goku did not really think about how he started his sentence, Bardock was still thinking about the word 'dad.' _Only a few hours since we've met and he's already called me 'dad?' Yet, I feel like I've known him for so much longer... Wait- Super Saiyan Thr-_ Bardock's eyes turned into saucers as did the rest of the Saiyans as everything around them jolted. It felt like the planet itself came to a sudden stop, but it was not Nexus that caused all of them to shake in place.

"Ahhhhh! AHHHHHH! RRRAAAHHHH!" Goku screamed so loud it sounded like he was going to rip out his high-pitched vocal cords. The mountain he was on shook harder and harder while those in villages and towns for miles from the base of the mountains ran outside to avoid getting caught in collapsing houses. The edge of the clouds in every direction started a dozen miles away from the arena the boy stood on, yet those clouds started circling him and moving in. "AHHHH! AHHHHHHH!" Goku screamed, the pain so intense he could not think. His small body's muscles rippled and shook, and his hair shone bright gold over and over again.

"Kakarott, enough," Bardock said, his voice somehow reaching the boy despite his screams. Goku opened his clenched eyes and looked up to see Bardock had lowered so he was only twenty feet above and in front of him now.

"I can transform again!" Goku shouted, his body still shaking as he did not want to stop powering up now. "I can, AHH! Do THIS!"

"Have you done it since you were turned back into a child?" Bardock questioned.

Goku clenched his teeth and groaned out of this throat. "It, doesn't, matter," his voice was guttural and agonized.

"Even if you reached this new transformation," Bardock said to the child. "You still would not reach the level I am on. You can not beat me."

This challenge was too much for Goku. He opened his mouth wide and roared, "RAAAA-" Bardock flew forward, grabbed the top of Goku's head and the bottom of his jaw and snapped his mouth shut. He held the boy's teeth together and then rose up a knee into Goku's face, and again, and again.

"Cooool!" A Saiyan twelve year old exclaimed and leaned forward off the platform he was kneeling on. Blood splattered from Goku's face and Saiyan men and women cheered. Little kids laughed and when Bardock brought back his right fist the cheers got louder than ever. He smashed his fist down into the bruised and battered kid's face so hard that Goku slammed into the rock surface, bounced off, then smashed down so much harder that the edge of the arena got a small crack in it and some pebbles rolled down the mountainside.

Goku lay on the ground on his stomach, his face pointed to the right while blood poured down his nostrils and out of his mouth. _How, do I beat him? He's so strong. I, I might not..._ Goku stopped those thoughts dead and his face hardened. Bardock was looking down at his son but he turned to Tora and gave his best friend a shrug that showed he could not think of any other way to end it. Tora's stunned expression was not what Bardock was expecting though, and he turned around slowly to see the boy behind him, standing there with a spike of golden hair above his head, a swollen left eye almost shut like his right that just looked droopy.

Goku's left arm still ached and was cut in several places, but the boy looking at Bardock thought, _Right punch, left kick, feign right roundhouse, uppercut..._ Goku was on autopilot now, and his arms rose up into his stance as his legs spread apart. "So Super Saiyan 3 won't work," he said. "I'll find another way, to beat you," he completed, and his droopy, swollen eyes opened wider so that his father could see just how serious he was.

 _I never told him that he proved himself to me. Is that it? Or is he just crazy? Raditz did say he was, over, and over again,_ the Super Saiyan man's golden hair turned black and he lost his aura.

"It's not over!" Goku shouted. He could accept defeat, he had against Cell, he knew there were times he could not win. This time though, the thought of giving up never crossed his mind. Anything other than being taken out of commission did not seem like a feasible end to this battle.

"It is over," Bardock said, and then he showed Goku something that made the boy lose his train of thought, lose his anger over not being able to continue against this man.

Goku watched as the normal black spikes to Bardock's hair changed color. Bardock's aura reappeared but looked less like a glow now and more a raging orange and yellow fire that engulfed his entire body. "What, is," Goku began, but he could not even understand what he was seeing. Bardock's hair was styled the same way as before, but he had definitely transformed, as it was now a bright red color like the edge of his flaming aura. Neither of them were wearing Power Blockers for the fight, but for some reason Goku could no longer gauge what his father's strength was. Bardock floated down to the arena where he landed and frowned at his youngest. Goku blinked a few times and he looked his father's body up and down.

None of the other Saiyans were looking at their King as shocked as Goku was, but they were all still in awe. "This form, is known as a Super Saiyan God." Bardock said to the kid whose expression showed he had never heard of it before. He stepped towards his son and lowered an arm out of his burning aura that faded while he did. His hair turned back to black and Goku's did too as Bardock put a hand on his shoulder. "You fought well, son," he said.

Goku looked into Bardock's black irises with ones of his own and he did not recognize the look the man was giving him. _What is that?_ He thought, not thinking about that crazy new transformation for a second as he tried to pinpoint what Bardock was feeling. _Oh,_ he realized, and his disappointed, angry expression over losing their sparring match started to fade. It faded because Goku realized it may not have been a look he had ever received himself, but it was one he must have had on his face when he watched Gohan do so many amazing things over the years. The look of pride, for someone other than one's self.

"Super Saiyan, God?" Goku questioned slowly.

Bardock patted his son on the shoulder he had squeezed and then turned his back to the boy. "There will be time to tell you all about it, but for now," he looked up and shouted loud enough for the hundreds of Saiyans to hear, "My son has returned! Start the celebration!"

It was as if someone had put a top on a boiling pot of water and suddenly Bardock pulled it off. Twenty children jumped off a platform and flew towards Goku as fast as they could and started yelling questions at the Super Saiyan. The kids called him Kakarott and Goku opened his mouth to correct them, then closed his mouth and forgot about it for now. He decided that maybe if he had won the fight he would have said something. All of the adults watching the fight also started shouting, yelling, and getting in fights because of the rush they felt after watching that fight. Those who did not fight broke out drinks and a whole lot of food.

Bardock flew towards his old team from his days as one of Frieza's soldiers. "Kid's tough," Fasha said as the King came to a stop in front of them.

"Little bastard's got more power than any Saiyan his age," Shugesh muttered.

"Like I said," Bardock muttered. "He's a grown man. He just looks like a kid, for now."

"He's got a lot of his father in him," Tora mentioned, to which Bardock just grunted.

"Whatever," Bardock muttered. He cracked his neck both ways and glanced back towards the arena where his son was looking his way in awe. Goku's vision was blocked by a fat teenager who got in between him and his father, but Bardock kept looking that way while Goku had to answer the children's questions.

Tora could see how carefully Bardock was examining that area and the muscular man who had light blue platings on his spiked-out shoulder armor looked towards Goku as well. "If he really is a grown man, then it should-"

"We'll see," Bardock said. He said it so plainly that it seemed the conversation was over before it began. _There will be loads of time to think on that. I would rather spend this night eating and drinking. The rest comes later._ He smirked and listened in to an argument between Shugesh and Fasha that made him laugh obnoxiously along with Tora. He stopped laughing short though as something occurred to him, _Where the Hell is Kakarott going to sleep?_

* * *

 **A/N Super Saiyan God! Epic showdown between father and son this chapter, and I hope you all enjoyed! We see some more Saiyans show up, three of Bardock's old crew from the first of his movie specials. Everything I'm considering as canon from Bardock, is from those two movies. Someone PMed me about Xenoverse and I know he shows up in it, but I've never played the game so if you have sorry, but that stuff won't come into play here. Unless it does, in which case I'm def not copying it from Xenoverse but I'll say I don't own it anyway XD. I'd put a list of where all the characters are from below, but that list would only consist of DBZ so I'm just gonna list them out here: Bardock, Raditz, Fasha, Shugesh, Taro, Frieza, Cell, Goku, Vegeta, King Vegeta, Gohan, Goten, and the others are just Saiyans I made up. Got bored and didn't want to do my work, so I decided to post this chapter even though it's the second one today. After this there will only be one or two more for a while since next week I have finals and then it's a long trip home, but I've got a couple more almost finished ones I can probably get out by this weekend!**

Limit-Breaking chapter 78 . 2h ago

This was a very enteresting chapter and congrats on over a million words man this story just keeps getting better and better. Especially with a war coming soon, also lol on having people behave so funny when the they felt the shaking of the planet. Also still curious as to how you make so many chapters so quickly. Im still shocked that the fight between goku and the ant king is on hold but i am interested in seeing more of how goku meets his father and the other saiyans. Also will gohan see his grandpa, will vegeta become the king of saiyans, will timmy turner be saved from being crazy, will goku ever beat jiren... Probably, Find Out Next Time On Nexus Heroes Will

 **Thanks! Glad the content's been improving and that you're liking it. As to how I make so many chapters: I don't always write a chapter after I've written the last one. Like these last two, I had them written months ago, long before I finished Pyraxas, or even the Ra's al Ghul fight. Sometimes chapters come easier to me than others, and instead of waiting for the ideas and details that are fresh in my mind to fade and then try to remember them later and put them down, I write them right when I have those ideas (sometimes prolonging the breaks I take from posting the chapter y'all are waiting for). As long as I know what is going to happen before it, generally speaking, I can write a chapter far into the future. So even though I am posting this chapter right now, I have the next two mostly written with only a little to add before I edit and post. Well, hope that long-winded response explains it XD ! So many questions at the end, so few answers you'll receive from me, but Goku's totally gonna kick Jiren's butt by the end of the Universe Survival Arc ;). Anyway, thanks for the review! And thanks everyone for reading another chapter of Nexus: Heroes Will Rise! 'Till next time!**


	80. Nexus HWR 12-2 Super Saiyan God

**Nexus HWR 12.2 Super Saiyan God:**

 **Mount Vegeta**

 **One month ago…**

Bardock slid into his combat boots on the inside of the front door to his house. He turned around and walked into his living room where he looked down at his couch and the form lying peacefully on it. Bardock rose up his right hand and a ball of white light formed on it. "Wake up," he said, and he fired the blast in his hand at the boy lying there.

Goku's eyes snapped open and his right arm rose fast, catching the ball of light right before it hit him in his bruised face. Only one of his eyes managed to open as the swelling from his fight last night completely covered his left eye now with a bump. He looked surprised by the energy ball he had to catch with one hand, and he crushed it as he curled his hand into a fist, dissipating the energy without causing any damage to Bardock's house which was a better result than the Saiyan King was expecting.

"Hey! Why'd you do that?" Goku shouted.

"Get up," Bardock told the boy who was standing on the couch cushions now. The taller man with spikes of black hair going above and to the sides of his head motioned towards the door by nodding. "It's time to train," Bardock said, then walked towards the door without another word.

"Train?" Goku wondered. The kid said it confusedly, but as he processed what Bardock was offering his eyes lit up and he hopped off the couch. He looked down at his gi that was torn and ripped up from the day before and frowned thinking about how much work Nami put into making his new clothes, most of which he left with his friends when he left them outside of Dressrosa. _I wonder how they're doing right now,_ he thought, before noticing something on the coffee table near the couch that made his eyes turn huge.

Goku walked towards the table and he reached down to it. The kid grabbed the strong yet elastic armor that he had worn before only on one occasion. It looked just his size and the kid's mouth curled up as he put it back down then began to strip and put his new armor on. It did not have the shoulder spikes that Goku saw on some Saiyans' armor, but there were straps going up the shoulders similar to the green ones on Bardock's. After Goku got dressed in attire more befitting of a Saiyan, he left the house and turned right to look towards the market. As he looked over, the kid opened his eyes in surprise again as he saw a couple of small planes lowering down behind some large buildings. Saiyans hopped out of the vehicles carrying crates full of food and supplies, and others walking by jogged over to see what they got.

One man Goku did not recognize but was twice the size of everyone else around him and had a tail three times as thick reached down into a box and pulled out a rifle that looked futuristic and glowed bright purple every few seconds. He tossed it to a teenager who looked around sixteen but was bigger than most of the adults around him and looked like he may be related to the huge man. The teen caught the rifle and turned it back and forth in his hands, examining it in awe while his father pulled out something else from the box. The huge man pressed a button on the side of the shaft of the thin silver weapon he picked up, and both sides of the small shaft shot out, extending four feet in both directions and morphing as it did to create a Gravity Hammer that he slapped the long shaft into his other open hand a few times to test out its weight. The big man rested his new weapon over his shoulders with a smug look on his face and then tossed the box to the heavyset woman who got out of the plane with him and walked towards their shop with it.

Goku wanted to go check that stuff out, but he suddenly remembered what his father told him when he woke up and searched out Bardock's power instead. The boy spun left and floated off the ground to fly towards the location of his father's ki. He dropped off the side of Mount Vegeta and flew around the western side. There were six mountains in total in the range that had heights that surpassed all other mountains in the world. Goku flew over one of these mountains, the third tallest where many other Saiyan homes were built. Although this was the mountain he was flying past, his head was turned around and looking back towards the north side of Mount Vegeta.

The tallest mountain had one long wooden bridge coming off of it that led to another mountain that had a peak not much shorter. The second tallest peak did not have a lot of area on the top of it as the sides were so steep, so Mount Gine did not have any buildings on its snowy sides. Goku heard the name of the mountain and it reminded him of something Bardock said the night before, and that he wanted to bring up with his father later. He gazed back forward as he flew completely past the third tallest peak. His eyes focused on the sixth tallest of these mountains, but also the one with the widest area on top of it. Apparently the mountain was already rounded and wide at the top, but Bardock managed to destroy rocks even this high in altitude to flatten the entire mountaintop.

Goku felt many powers on this mountain he was approaching, all of them higher than the Saiyans on the other mountains. He understood why when he got closer and saw white blurs zipping around the sky, or fighting down on the ground but still with auras around them to show they were powered-up. There were currently close to three dozen of them on and around the Training Mountain. Goku watched them all, sparring with each other while wearing armor similar to the set he had on, only the colors of the stomach area and the straps were all different colors. Goku examined his blue plating, and he wondered if he could request to switch it to orange.

The Saiyan boy flew over the side of the mountain and over to his father who stood all the way on the western edge of it. "Alright," Goku said excitedly. "I'm ready for some-"

"I've been waiting," Bardock said in annoyance. He glared at the boy, "Next time I tell you to get up, be here within ten seconds." Goku opened his eyes in surprise as this was more intense than he was expecting. "Now," Bardock continued, and he stood with his arms crossed. His hair shot up golden, and he said, "Come at me with everything you've got, without leaving your base form." Goku's initial smile at the start of that sentence vanished and he looked into Bardock's eyes confusedly.

"You're so much stronger than me though," Goku said, wondering why he was not allowed to even out the playing field by going Super Saiyan like his father did.

"I want to test your martial arts," Bardock said. He was pleasantly surprised during their fight the day before, as when he turned Super Saiyan, Goku took several seconds to match him when he thought it would be instantaneous. _I want to see how long you can last,_ he admitted in his mind. "Now you are up against a stronger opponent, so you will need to rely on your skills instead of your strength."

"I rely on both equally," Goku said, but he got into a fighting stance as he did. _He wants me to show him my tactics? See how I fight? This will last longer than yesterday's spar, since that was more of a challenge on my part._

"I told you to come!" Bardock shouted, and Goku kicked off the ground immediately. Bardock leaned left, and Goku frowned as he continued with that punch. He had tried putting over a dozen feints into his first move to get the drop on his father, but the increase in speed and power that came with Super Saiyan form also increased the speed of mental processing. Bardock could see Goku's eleventh fake uppercut would be a feint before the boy even started his tenth.

Goku's arm was caught by Bardock's hand, but his leg started coming around fast on the older man's left side. Bardock pulled Goku's arm inward to his own chest, making Goku's body continue to turn so his leg passed Bardock's body. Bardock wrapped an arm around Goku's side and he squeezed the boy trapped between his arms. "You have not been in this child form for long, I can tell," Bardock said, right before forming a ball of blue light in the hand he had squeezing around Goku's chest.

"Ahh!" Goku yelled out in pain. Bardock dropped the smoking boy, then kicked out and nailed him in the side. Goku had just opened back up his eyes only for them to almost pop out of their sockets as the leg imbedded itself in his gut.

Bardock frowned as he followed through and kicked Goku off the west side of the mountain. Goku hit the snowy slope hard and bounced, bounced again, and then started rolling down the mountain. A ball of snow surrounded him and kept getting larger as it rolled, then the giant snowball exploded out in every direction as a white aura flared around Goku. He shot back to the ledge of the mountain and glared towards Bardock who hit him too hard and in too dangerous an area for sparring. He opened his mouth to say something, but Bardock just stared back into his eyes with a frowning, disappointed look on his face. "HAA!" A red aura shot around Goku and he flew forwards like a missile, his speed ten times what it was a minute ago.

"What the Hell is that?!" Bardock asked with wide eyes as both of his hands were outstretched holding Goku by the feet.

Goku did a sit-up in midair where he was being held horizontally, and the two hands he had above his head he slammed down in front of him. "HAA!" He yelled out. A yellow beam of light flew forwards and Bardock's reaction to dodge put him right in the path of a punch Goku was already making through the beam he fired. The yellow beam exploded while Goku's right fist curved through it and blasted energy shards into Bardock's face, right before the fist covered in a red aura itself slammed into his cheek. Bardock's face snapped to the side with the punch, then he snapped it right back and rose a hand to Goku's neck faster than the boy whose momentum was still pushing him forward could dodge.

Bardock lifted off the floor the slightest amount with that punch in his face, so as he grabbed Goku's neck, he threw his own lifting legs up behind him and brought his hand down hard, slamming Goku into the floor and cracking the ground all around his back. The boy yelled out in pain at the ridiculously hard slam that had everyone on the mountain looking their way. "Mind your own business!" Bardock yelled, and they all looked back at each other and continued their own training like they were doing before, and continued pretending not to watch the King and his son fight. He brought Goku back off the ground and kneed him in the chest, then threw the kid at the floor again hard enough to crack it and make Goku yell out. "I'm disappointed in your pain tolerance Kakarott," Bardock said to the boy groaning on the ground.

Goku lifted up his head and had trails of blood coming down from both corners of his lips. "Never let out a scream of pain during a fight. You show your enemy weakness! Hold it in, grunt, growl, and yell in fury, but not in pain," Bardock scolded.

Goku staggered back up to his feet, his left leg aching in pain as he put weight down on it. He took all the weight off without making it noticeable that he was favoring one leg. Then, the boy staring into his father's eyes said without hesitation in his voice, "Pain is good. It tells me I can still improve. It tells me when I have made a mistake."

"Good!" Bardock yelled back at him. "But don't let your opponent hear it! You don't want them knowing you've made a mistake. In a fight, you never make a mistake. Every hit you receive you must lean back into, yell as you counter like you accepted the hit just to get them close." Goku's eyes widened as Bardock stomped towards him and yelled, "Break their confidence as fighters. Even when you feel pain, even when they can inflict it, do not let them know they can hurt you." At first Goku thought the older man was saying it as a matter of Saiyan pride, but that actually made sense in a fight, and Goku's mouth spread into a huge smirk as he lifted his arms back into a fighting stance.

Bardock watched the boy smirk and continued to frown. In his head though, he thought, _The boy's catching on. His brother tells me he acts like a human, but he will fight like a Saiyan._ "Now come at me! Use that move that increased your strength, use beam attacks and punches and kicks! Try to break through my defenses while dodging my attacks!" Goku flew at him, roaring 'Kaioken times fifty' and multiplying his speed by that amount. Bardock flew forward though using Goku's increase in speed to his advantage by giving Goku less time to dodge his open right hand that he clenched around Goku's face. "HAAA!" A beam of blue flew out of Bardock's palm straight into Goku's face, but he did not let go of the kid's head while he fired it.

Goku screamed, but only for a split second, before clenching his teeth hard inside his Super Saiyan father's beam. He clenched his hands into fists and punched them up into the bottom of Bardock's arm, knocking it up off of his face. Bardock started to smirk that his son was catching on, when his eyes darted down and his eyes opened wide in shock that Goku did not just punch his arm away but had also planned a follow-up move even while in the pain he stopped screaming about. Goku's feet had lifted up as Goku fell back from his rising arm, and the soles of his feet were glowing bright blue. "KAME-HAMEE-" The blue glowing on the soles of Goku's feet erupted into a brilliant light that had everyone on the mountain looking their way again. "HAAAA!" Goku screamed, and the beam of light flew out of his feet so fast that he was shot the other direction at a hundred miles per hour. The beam was also flying fast though, and though Bardock had enough time to dodge, he reached out instead and grabbed the front of the blue beam with his hands.

Bardock's feet skid back a few feet, then he planted them down twice as hard with a smirk on his face. He steadied his shaking arms and yelled through his glowing golden aura at the boy who stopped flying away from him and was struggling to stay in place in midair with his feet pointed Bardock's direction, "Is this all you have?!" Bardock smirked more as he saw the look of determination and grit harden on his son's face, along with some anger at the taunt.

"KAIOKEN!" Goku started to scream, while his muscles twitched and tightened. He could feel them start ripping as his red aura flared around him, but Goku ignored all the pain he felt and screamed anyway, "TIMES TWO HUNDRED!" The red aura widened so wide that for a second the entire sky flashed red, and then the blue beam flying out of Goku's legs quadrupled in size, shocking Bardock whose arms were pushed to the sides so that the beam slammed straight into his chest.

 _OH SHIT!_ Bardock got engulfed by the beam and only just brought up a guard of aura around himself, though he still grit his teeth in pain as his skin burned. When the beam faded, many of the people on the mountain who were staring towards their King in shock lost their astonished looks at the sight of him standing there with his arms crossed in front of his chest. They calmed down as it turned out their King was not destroyed by that explosion that made all of them fly a safe distance away from the Training Mountain. Bardock kept frowning after he could finally see in front of him again, but as he was about to call something to Kakarott about how he was not expecting that from him in his base state, his bottom lip lowered and his eyes widened. "Kakarott!" He called out, and everyone looking at their King turned to the son who was just as impressive for making that beam as they thought their King was for surviving it. Their eyes all widened as well at the sight of Kakarott's bloody body.

"Guess, two hundred, was a little, much," Goku mumbled to himself, while looking down at his own arms, and then at his legs that looked even worse. He thought he could handle it, but his childlike muscles were ripped all over his body. The technique went as far as ripping straight through his skin, and now he was covered in his own blood, and covering with more every second. "This, isn't good," he mumbled, while reaching up an arm to rub his eyes with. His entire body coursed with pain, but he did not make a sound as he rubbed the blood out of his eyes and then looked back towards his father. "I can keep-" Goku's eyes rolled back and he fell out of the air.

* * *

Goku slowly opened his eyes, and then he tried to sit up. As soon as he tried to move though, his body screamed in agony and he had to bite down to prevent his mouth from doing the same. His eyes opened, both of them this time which he felt was strange considering that morning his left eye was too swollen to open right when he woke up. He looked to his right and saw his father standing on the side of the couch he lay on with a disapproving look on his face.

"Do you always destroy your body so much when you fight?" Bardock questioned.

Goku frowned as he had opened his mouth to ask how he got there, but Bardock's question seemed to explain it. "Only sometimes," Goku said, while forcing himself to at least sit up so he was not in such a strange position to talk to his father in. He sat on the couch with his small legs hanging off the side of it but not touching the floor, and then he continued, "Like when I fought Piccolo, or Vegeta."

Bardock was about to lecture his son, but he paused for a second after hearing that. "You fought, Prince Vegeta?"

"Ha, ow, ha, yeah," Goku replied. "Vegeta tried to destroy the Earth, the planet I'm from, so my friends, and my son, and I, we stopped him." Bardock frowned at his son for a few seconds after Goku responded, and thinking that his father disapproved of the actions, Goku continued for some reason, "We're friends now though. Vegeta's changed, and even helped us save the Earth."

"This Earth," Bardock said, and Goku stopped talking as he felt like he misunderstood Bardock's frown a minute ago. "Is not where you are from," Bardock continued. "You may have grown up there, but your homeworld was Planet Vegeta."

Goku got an excited look on his face and opened his mouth to ask about Planet Vegeta, but Bardock glared at him and Goku stopped with his mouth open. Bardock continued and Goku closed his mouth instead of interrupting his father. "Your training this morning was too reckless. Many in my inner circle have deemed you ready, but I disagree." Bardock frowned deeper, while Goku just looked confused at what he was saying. Bardock sighed, then continued sternly, "Until you can reach that Super Saiyan 3 state you spoke of, _without_ destroying your body like you did today, I will not allow you to reach God form." Bardock emphasized the part about not ripping apart his body, and Goku frowned as he was ready to try turning SSJ3 again and believed he could do it if he really put his mind to it, but even if he put his mind to it he did not know if his body would agree. After what happened earlier with his body denying him and ripping apart from his techniques... Goku glanced down at his arms and got confused at what happened to the external injuries that he could no longer see, but he decided to ignore that for now and focus on what Bardock told him.

Goku could understand his father's issues with what he did, but the boy was defiant and said, "I'll just do it on my own then. You don't need to let me-"

"I do," Bardock said brusquely. "It is a rule that I choose who may become a God, after what happened with the Rogue…" Goku's eyebrows lifted up as that was another mystery he now wanted to hear about, but before he could ask, Bardock continued quickly, "However I also say it because the transformation can rip your body apart." Goku's eyes widened, and the frown of disgust and regret that flashed over Bardock's face a second later showed he was not kidding or over-exaggerating. "Many more Saiyans have tried and failed to transform than have succeeded. Those who failed, were torn to shreds by the process. I had no idea that the transformation would have that effect on some people, when I first introduced our race to it."

"You did?" Goku questioned, surprised, but not that much

"I did," Bardock confirmed. "Would you like to learn how I obtained this transformation?" Goku nodded and forced himself not to wince in pain even though the nod really, really hurt. "Fine," Bardock said. He reached behind him and grabbed a chair that was sitting near to the couch Goku had been unconscious on for some reason. He pulled it closer to the couch and sat on it, "Then I will tell you, about the day of my death."

* * *

 **FD - 500,000,000 Years**

 **Planet Plant**

On the homeworld of the Saiyans, what would one day be renamed as Planet Vegeta, a single Saiyan stood. His race had not evolved yet, so there was not a single other Saiyan like him in the entire universe. He stood there on a planet that would one day be colonized by his people after they fled Planet Salad. He knew about this future history because the lone Saiyan living on the future Planet Vegeta was not of this time. Bardock stood still atop a tall rock pillar close to a village full of purple creatures who named him their savior. He deserved the title too, for he had killed Chilled, the tyrant who came to the planet and ravaged it only two years before.

Bardock lifted his arms and looked down at his palms. His skin was rough, and he clenched his hands into fists as he contemplated again his purpose for being brought so far into the past from his own time. Frieza should have killed him, but instead of the release of death, the Death Ball that Frieza used to destroy Planet Vegeta sent him hundreds of millions of years into the past. He had had a lot of time to think about the events that occurred after he came back, and after he clenched his fists, his hair shot up into a golden spike above his head, his eyes flashing from black to blue. _Was it only my destiny to create the legend of the Super Saiyan? Then why am I still here? If I could get back to the future, to the day before Frieza destroyed Vegeta, I can stop him this time._

Bardock closed his eyes, and he hummed to himself while the golden glow flared around him. Not far away, a few villagers stopped what they were doing and turned to look into the distance where their usually dark pink sky gained a yellow tint. Bardock hummed louder and he clenched his fists tighter. _There!_ The darkness in his mind faded, but he bit down hard in anger as the future had not changed. The "gift" of future sight that the last remaining warrior of Planet Kanassa, thanks to his own team's devastation of their world, gave him was still present in his mind, but the future had not changed. He could see Frieza laughing as Vegeta exploded beneath him, along with all of the Saiyans on it. He watched as King Vegeta was murdered by the tyrant, he watched as he himself was there screaming at Frieza exactly as he had in his past, or the world's future. Nothing had changed, for his son as well.

The Super Saiyan watched as his son Kakarott stood before Frieza. The vision replayed in his mind every time he tried looking on the future. He watched an amazing battle between his son from the future and the ruler who killed them all, and then he watched as his son who resembled him much more than his eldest, turned into a Super Saiyan. Bardock grinned and his eyes opened. "The future might be pretty bleak, but at least my son will avenge our people. I, can live with that."

With thoughts of satisfaction and resignation on his mind, Bardock lived in peace on Planet Plant. His peace did not last long. Days after the final time Bardock decided to look into the future, the Saiyan meditating on his usual perch felt his entire body tense up. He felt something he had not felt since he thought he was dying in vain: he felt fear. The Saiyan with black hair that had several large spikes sticking out to the sides and above his head turned around and lifted his gaze to the sky. He had on his armor that he wore every day, despite the damage done to it by Chilled that resulted in a missing left shoulder strap. He had on a pair of tight black pants that looked better than his armor did, undamaged even since the natives of Plant, who he nicknamed Plants, were able to patch a pair of pants even if they could not repair his futuristic armor.

Bardock stared up at the atmosphere with a look of fear plastered on his face. "What the Hell is that thing?!" Bardock exclaimed, taking a step backwards nervously. The Saiyan stopped after one step though, and his gaze dropped from the direction he was looking, to the town directly beneath that power he felt. _Berry, Ipana, everyone._ In Bardock's mind flashed the fate of Vegeta, the fate of his entire team on Planet Meat, his closest friends, and a woman with long spiky hair flashed in his mind at the end that made his teeth bare harder than ever. "Not again," he snarled. "Never again." Bardock clenched his fists so tight that even his rough skin broke and blood came out of his palms. He had on a red bandanna wrapped around his forehead that reminded him every day of the mistakes he made in the past, as the bandanna was only red because it had been soaked with the blood of his best friend Tora after his team's crushing defeat to an elite team of Frieza's soldiers led by Dodoria.

The Saiyan warrior flew towards the village of Plants and stopped when he hovered a hundred feet above the center of it. "Bardock!" a voice he recognized called up to him. Bardock ground his teeth and darted a gaze below him to see Berry standing below him with some of the other villagers. The round-faced kid who called up to him looked concerned, but not nearly as much as Bardock knew they should be if they could feel what he felt descending towards him.

"Get inside!" Bardock yelled down. His voice was serious enough that none of the Plants argued. They all ran as fast as they could to let everyone else know and get indoors. Berry ran to his father's doctor's office, and he and Ipana ran inside before looking up out the window to see what Bardock sounded so concerned about. Bardock watched them get inside, then he floated back towards a wide stone pillar and landed on it. Bardock calmed his breathing and lifted his head to see two dots lowering from the atmosphere towards him rapidly.

 _Strange, I only sensed one of them, but even now the ki I feel is strange. I, can't get a good reading on it, and that's what's bugging me the most._ Bardock tried keeping a composed expression on his face as the two figures descended to his level. They dropped until their feet were at the same level his were at, so that he stood face to face with the strange one whose energy he felt a disturbing presence from. The other figure, a taller, blue-skinned man with white hair that stuck up in a point in the center but fell flat on either side, held a blue staff in his right hand that had a gold extension at the top that ended with a bright blue circular halo wrapped around a small black sphere. The halo on his staff was similar to the larger blue loop he had floating around his neck, and he also wore a dark red robe covered by an ornamental black sash that spiked out at his shoulders and draped the front and back of his body.

Bardock glanced at the taller figure for a second, but his eyes were drawn back to the figure who gave off a much more menacing vibe. "What do you want?" Bardock questioned. His eyes examined the creature up and down, and he grimaced as the being actually looked similar to Frieza and Chilled. The difference though was that this figure around his height had a much sleeker body. His head was smooth and rounded, his skin white except for the red bulbs on top of his skull, on his shoulders, in the center of his chest, and for the red skin on his upper thighs. His body was lean but muscular, and he had a long white tail sticking out behind his humanoid body that reminded him even more of the dreaded Arcosians.

The figure Bardock questioned gained a tick mark on his head as soon as Bardock asked. He wore golden bands on his wrists and around his biceps, he had a black cloth wrapped around his waist with a similar sash as his taller associate's dropping down below the front of his waist between his legs. He also had a circular black cloth ornament resting on his shoulders that draped down over his chest and behind his back, and like the sash he and his comrade were wearing, it had orange diamonds and yellow lines decorating it. "Is this him Whis?" The figure questioned, staring straight at Bardock as he said it, even if the words were not directed at him.

"Yes Lord Blizzard," Whis, the tall attendant to the Arcosian-looking figure replied.

"Hmm," Blizzard hummed, floating forward towards the spiky-haired man before him. Bardock rose his arms into a fighting stance, and the so-called Lord floating towards him came to a stop. He examined Bardock's face and hummed to himself again. "So it really was you who killed Chilled?" Blizzard chuckled to himself after asking the question, then as his laughter died down he tilted his head back and let out a loud yawn. He reached up a hand and patted in front of his mouth a few times, before shaking his head to get rid of the sleepiness, or at least that's what Bardock thought he appeared to be doing. "That is surprising," Blizzard continued, "I did not think there were any in the universe who could stand against him. He was doing my job for me while I slept, but when I heard that no planets were destroyed in the last two years since I last started to sleep, I was forced to get up again."

"Who," Bardock started but gulped before he could finish the question. Blizzard's mouth curled up into a smirk, and Bardock got increasingly sweaty as he questioned, "Who are you?"

"I am the God of Destruction, Lord Blizzard," the figure introduced himself. Bardock's eyes opened huge and his heart rate sped up. _I heard rumors, stories, but they were myths! I never thought,_ Bardock gulped again and Blizzard chuckled. "So I suppose you have heard of me then."

"God of Destruction," Bardock muttered, keeping his voice steady as well as he could manage. "Thought you were just a legend to scare children," he admitted to the Godly figure in front of him.

Blizzard frowned and his forehead scrunched in annoyance. "Oh ho ho, what an honest man," the taller figure at his side laughed.

"And who are you supposed to be? Another God?" Bardock asked, glancing towards the other man.

"Whis is my attendant," Blizzard growled. "But what's with that casual tone? Do you want to be destroyed?"

Bardock looked back towards the God of Destruction, and he hesitated before responding. _He does not feel stronger than me. Why am I pausing?_ "Get off my world," Bardock growled.

Blizzard's eyes narrowed and his white tail waved behind him. A dark purple aura surrounded the God of Destruction, and in the same moment, Bardock's hair shot up into a single golden spike. A gold aura flared around the Saiyan like a flame, but the God before him did not even look surprised. "This is the Super Saiyan form you mentioned?" Blizzard questioned.

Bardock was confused as he did not remember mentioning it at all, but then his eyes darted to the God's side again as his attendant responded, "Yes, Lord Blizzard. This is the form Bardock used to destroy Chilled."

"And if you don't get off my planet, I'll destroy you too, God of Destruction," Bardock threatened. He rose his power to its peak, feeling that anything less would be insufficient despite being unable to feel this God's power. Without scouters, he had taught himself to search out energy with his own power, so that if another enemy like Chilled was on its way to this planet, he would sense it coming beforehand. Bardock brought his elbows in to his sides and yelled, "AaaaAAAHHH!" His golden energy flared more and the pillar beneath them cracked and started to collapse.

As it fell though, the men on top of it did not fall with their footing. All three stayed at their same elevation, only now they were hovering without anything beneath them. The pillar of stone beneath Bardock, as well as dozens of smaller other ones close to him, cracked and started to collapse beneath the Super Saiyan's pressure. "Destroy me, huh?" Blizzard questioned. The God of Destruction lifted his right hand to his mouth and patted it a few times as he let out a yawn twice as long as any of his others. "That is good to hear," he added.

Bardock's eyebrows narrowed in at how not-serious this man seemed to be taking him. "Raaa!" He flew forward and pulled a fist back, then threw his arm forward in a powerful punch. As he punched though, the real power was in his right leg that was swinging around in a roundhouse kick. Blizzard stopped yawning and casually moved his right hand over a few inches. Bardock's eyes grew wide while his kick kept flying, as despite how fast he was moving, he could see how calmly the God was moving as if to him he was moving in slow-motion. Blizzard lowered all the fingers of his right hand except for the pointer, and Bardock's kick slammed into that single finger at full power. Bardock was not planning on using everything he had at the start of the kick, but Blizzard only using one finger to block him forced him to go all out, because he had to know for sure.

Blizzard's finger did not budge an inch. Bardock's Super Saiyan kick did nothing to break through the God's defenses, and Bardock leaned back in shock after it. "It can't be," he muttered, dropping his leg down and floating backwards.

"Is that all?" Blizzard questioned. He patted his mouth again and let out a giant yawn, then he turned to Whis. "Hmm, it seems I was mistaken. Let's go." Blizzard turned around and lifted his gaze to the sky. The God of Destruction floated ten feet up, then stopped and snapped his fingers next to him. "Oh that's right," he said, shaking his head and smiling. He turned his head and looked down with a dangerous smirk at Bardock that made the glowing Super Saiyan fill with dread. "I almost forgot to destroy this planet."

"Wh-What!? You can't!" Bardock yelled.

Blizzard frowned at the man below him, and he lifted up the same index finger he used to block Bardock's kick. "And who will stop me?" A ball of purple light smaller that the tip of Blizzard's finger appeared above it. The ball of light somehow darkened the sky around it, turning everything black while lightning bolts shot out and zipped around the sky.

 _This can't be!_ Bardock thought, his mind filling with panic. He clenched his eyes shut and shook his head, _It doesn't make any sense! This_ _ **is**_ _Planet Vegeta! It will be!_ He snapped his eyes back open and his golden eyebrows narrowed in towards the center of his face. _This is the world where I am born! Where I will grow up! Where my kids will be born! Kakarott, if you are ever to face Frieza, if you are ever to exist at all, I can't let this world be destroyed!_ His hands stopped shaking at his sides, and his entire body stopped trembling as a more calm aura descended around him.

"Bardock!"

"Bardock!"

Bardock darted his gaze behind him towards the village below. All the hiding villagers had come outside, and all the Plants were yelling his name. He could see Berry, and Ipana, and his fists tightened even harder at his sides. "I have destroyed more races than I can count," Bardock growled, turning his head back towards Blizzard though his eyes shadowed over while he spoke. Lightning coming out of the small sphere of destruction over Blizzard's hand intensified, but Blizzard's eyes focused more on the lightning that started sparking out of Bardock's body all over the place. "I have committed genocide, and I have watched the genocide of my own people," Bardock's body trembled and then his arms bulked up, followed by his legs, and his torso as well. His blond hair spiked up harder while the planet beneath him started shaking, all the rock pillars and buildings for miles breaking apart and collapsing, while the ground far below him started to crush down into a massive crater. "AND I WON'T LET IT HAPPEN TO ANYONE ELSE!"

"That is a nice speech, and as much as I would like to know what these atrocities you mention are, I am very tired," Blizzard flicked his finger down, and the tiny ball of purple shot below him towards the planet.

"RAA!" Bardock flew towards the attack and he slammed his right palm into it. His palm was surrounded in golden energy, and as he screamed, that energy overflowed from his body out of his palm in a fifty meter wide beam that enveloped the planet-destroying ball and shot it out into space.

Blizzard snapped his gaze to the side to follow the beam's path, and he watched as his own attack exploded out in space in a magnificent blast of purple and red. "How did you-" he began while turning back, but Bardock was already in front of him with both hands held together at his sides. Bardock spun his body in a three-sixty degree punch and slammed his combined fists into Blizzard's left cheek so hard that the God's head snapped to the side. Bardock brought his left knee up after hitting the God in the face, and Blizzard spun back furiously and slammed an elbow down on Bardock's knee as it raised. "Enough!" Blizzard yelled. His elbow knocked Bardock's leg away, then he brought his tail around his body to wrap around Bardock's torso.

The God of Destruction smirked as his white tail wrapped around Bardock and started to squeeze. Bardock's teeth clenched and his body roared in pain, then his eyes snapped open, and his bright teal orbs glared into Blizzard's. Bardock slammed his head forward while looking Blizzard in the eyes, smashing their foreheads together and making the God wince and loosen the grip around Bardock's waist. Bardock brought his hands up to the end of Blizzard's tail and flew out of the loosened loop around him while ripping as hard as he could backwards with both of his arms. He arced Blizzard up over his head, catching a glimpse of the God's attendant higher up in the air calmly watching them fight it out, then Bardock slammed Blizzard down on his other side so hard that the smooth white God shot out of the air towards the planet below.

 _He's still too strong,_ Bardock thought while he flew after the God. _I need to finish this in one blow!_ Bardock clenched his right fist, and the soles of his feet started glowing bright red as he shot down through the air. "Get off," Bardock started to yell, and two beams of red shot out of his feet before exponentially multiplying in size until they combined into one massive beam flying into space, propelling him so much faster after Blizzard than he sent the God flying in the first place. "MY PLANET!" Bardock roared, and he slammed forward his fist into Blizzard's stomach. The body of the God bent over his hand, and the beams coming out of his feet doubled in size once more to speed Bardock up even more into the punch, making the God gasp and spit fly out of his mouth.

Bardock thought he had it and was about to fly over the planet with Blizzard at the end of his fist. Then, Blizzard lifted his right hand and grabbed Bardock's right wrist, and he pulled it to the side while their momentum stopped completely in midair. The beams stopped coming out of Bardock's feet from pure shock, as Blizzard stared into his eyes from inches away, not an ounce of pain on his expression. Blizzard rose up his left hand and put it to Bardock's neck too fast for Bardock to even lean away. _I gave everything I had, and more, but he's still just, too strong._ Bardock's eyes closed as the hand curved around his throat, then after a second he opened them up because he should not have had that long to live.

The God in front of him stared at his face for a few seconds while Bardock stared back, then Blizzard lowered his left hand and he released Bardock with his right. "Whis," Blizzard called out, sounding more serious than he had since arriving on the world. He no longer seemed as tired to Bardock, and Bardock became confused while the God's attendant shot across miles of landscape in an instant to catch up to where Bardock's final attack had taken them.

"What is it Lord Blizzard?" Whis questioned.

"I've changed my mind. He seems like a good choice," Lord Blizzard turned towards Bardock and let out a long, five second yawn that Bardock frowned at as it seemed like the God was mocking him. "I am very tired, Bardock. Myself, and the current Supreme Kai, are very old. It is time for a new, awwwnnn, God of Destruction."

Bardock stared at the God in front of him in confusion and a lot of surprise as he was not expecting this. _What happened to destroying the world?_ Bardock thought. Out loud though, Bardock said, "Alright, give me the powers of a God then. I'll do your job for you." Bardock's hair continued waving around and lightning kept sparking off his body, but the new transformation he reached was not enough to defeat his enemy. _I don't even know what I'm saying, but if he makes me stronger, I can protect this world better._

Blizzard and Whis looked at Bardock carefully, while he smirked and clenched his fists in front of him. "If you are offering more power, then I will take it, gladly," Bardock told the two before him.

Bardock watched as the two started speaking to each other without including him in their conversation. "Are you sure Lord Blizzard?" Whis questioned.

The God who looked a lot like Frieza to Bardock nodded his head. Blizzard turned back to Bardock and said, "This Super Saiyan form of yours is impressive, for a mortal. I will enhance it now, give you some of my energy. If your race is suited for it, and if your body can handle it, it will adapt to control my power, the power of a God. You will not just be a Super Saiyan, but a Super Saiyan God."

 _"If my body can handle it?"_ Bardock thought, but he abandoned that train of thought far in the back of his mind. _I have to. I will!_ "Give it to me," Bardock said.

Blizzard frowned at the tone of voice, but he nodded his head at the Super Saiyan before him. Bardock watched as the two in front of him seemed to be preparing for something, Whis using the strange staff he lifted in his hands, and the God of Destruction expelling energy out from his own body. Bardock was confused at what was happening, and a bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face as both of the others turned to him at the same time. "Hold on, what's-" Bardock got interrupted as his body got surrounded by a dark energy, blackish purple, then dark red, then a much brighter red that illuminated the pink sky above him.

Miles away, in the village Bardock had mostly destroyed with his earlier powering-up, all the villagers who had left their homes to cheer him on looked into the distance where the sky trembled and filled with strange colors. "Bardock," Berry whispered, stepping towards the direction of their world's savior.

Bardock surrounded with God ki, and the Super Saiyan lifted his gaze to his hair to see it was changing colors from gold to red, shifting through every color in between. His hair was currently getting darker orange, and he examined his body next. He did not look as buffed-out as he did after his previous transformation, but there was no doubt in his mind that he was stronger. "Now Bardock," Blizzard began to the man in front of him. "Before I relinquish my position, and grant you the powers of a God of Destruction," Blizzard narrowed his gaze at the Saiyan before him who frowned at him darkly.

 _What does he mean? Did he only give me some power? It doesn't matter, I will become the God of Destruction in a moment and get the rest of his strength-_

"You must destroy your home planet," Blizzard finished. Bardock's eyes grew wide, and his bottom lip lowered, while Blizzard pointed a finger down below him at Planet Plant. "This world," Blizzard finished.

Bardock's newly-reddened eyes narrowed in at the God before him. His dark red eyebrows narrowed, and his hair swayed with dark purple bubbles coming off of a veil surrounding it. His entire body had a thin dark purple aura around it that started to lighten up, getting brighter purple as he stood there glaring at the God of Destruction. "Not a chance," Bardock growled.

Blizzard's eyes opened wide, and he questioned in a deep, angered voice, "Do you have any inkling to what you have just obtained?" Blizzard frowned deeper and said, "You are now imbued with the power of a God. This is not up for debate. You _will_ destroy this world, then you will go with Whis to your new-"

"You don't get to tell me what to do," Bardock growled. "Just because you're too tired to keep doing your own job," he added snidely. Bardock smirked and he rose up his fists again. "And now, you've made me as powerful as you."

The God before Bardock glared at him in fury for a few more seconds. Then, his mouth curled up and his tail snapped to the side behind him. "Ha, hahaha!" Blizzard laughed, and a huge blackish-purple aura surrounded his body that made the world below them shake. "Are you so sure of that?" Blizzard questioned. Whis lifted up into the sky away from the God of Destruction, and Bardock got a bad feeling as Blizzard's eyes bore into his own. "I was not facing you with one percent of my power before. If you truly think you can beat me, then I would like to see you try!"

Bardock flew at Blizzard and the two collided in midair. The blur of bright purple and dark purple whipped around the sky in trails of light. Explosions and shockwaves ripped off of them, and the planet below was taking a toll from it. Each punch made mountains crack, and ravines split in the land. New bruises and cuts appeared on Bardock's body with every collision, and yet he pushed back every time. _This is my last chance!_ Bardock leaned his head to the side to dodge a punch, then he punched up himself into Blizzard's chest, only for Blizzard's tail to swing around and slam him in his unprotected left side. _I'll never be stronger than this, never get another chance to save this world!_

"RAAAA!" Bardock yelled, slamming his arms out to the sides and creating hundreds of balls of red light in the air. He swung his arms inwards in front of him, and then he flew after them towards the God who was swerving in and out of his attacks with ease. Bardock flew out from behind a ball of energy and extended both of his legs for a kick into the back of Blizzard's head, but Blizzard saw him coming and turned, smacking one of Bardock's red spheres in Bardock's direction at the same time. Bardock surrounded in a huge red explosion, then he flew out the side closer to a smirking Blizzard, his right fist pulled back with a large ball of blue light on it. "Take this!" He fired the blue sphere, and Blizzard lifted his hands to catch it. Before the attack collided with Blizzard's hands though, Bardock curled in the fingers on his hands that were pressing on the back of the blue beam that followed his blue energy attack. All of the red spheres of light flying through the air flew in at the same time, and Blizzard's eyes grew huge an instant before he was slammed into by all those attacks.

 _HERE'S MY CHANCE!_ Bardock screamed at the top of his lungs, and the blue beam he was firing multiplied ten times in size. His muscles ripped and his space armor shredded from the power he put into the attack. Blood splashed out of cuts in his skin, and he screamed so hard that blood flew out of his mouth. All the collided red attacks made the God of Destruction's defenses break, and Bardock could hear him scream from inside the beam that he fired. He grit his teeth in anger at the sound of that scream, because it meant the God was still alive in there. _EVEN MORE!_ Bardock put even his entire life energy into it, he could feel his own strength draining as he emptied it all into the beam, and he yelled out in fury, forcing the widening beam out into space and through a planet not far from Planet Plant.

When Bardock finally stopped screaming, his red aura faded and his skin looked wrinkled up. Bardock gazed down at his arms and saw that they had lost most of the color to them, and they were getting covered in blood from the many deep gashes all over them. Bardock fell from the air, but he rose his gaze back into the air to look at where he just destroyed the God of Destruction. He smirked as he fell, because there was nothing there. He hit the ground and bounced up, then dropped back down, and he came to a stop with his eyes half open and his mouth in a small smile. Bardock looked up in the air and watched as a tall figure with white hair floated through the sky towards the spot right above him. Even though he felt like he could die at any moment, Bardock still found it in him to laugh. He called out in a raspy, weak voice, "So what, does a God's attendant do, when he has not God to attend to?"

Whis looked down at the man, and he chuckled with a hand covering his mouth. Bardock's smug, accomplished smile vanished, and he shifted his attention a little higher above Whis, towards a dark purple speck flying through the pink sky down towards him. "Oh shit," Bardock mumbled. He tried to move, but his body was broken, and no amount of spirit could get him up this time.

"You sure went far, Lord Blizzard," Whis remarked as Blizzard flew into the atmosphere and down to his elevation in a second. Blizzard was surrounded in an aura of all his power, black and purple colors swirling around him, and a general feeling of death fell over the planet below.

When Blizzard looked down at Bardock's body though, the furious look faded from his face and he let out a sigh. His flaring aura disappeared and Blizzard lowered his bruised arms down to his sides, a small look of agitation on his face. "I guess, I lose," Bardock said, his raspy voice carrying up to the Gods above who descended closer to him. "What are, you gonna do, now?" The scar-faced Saiyan asked.

Blizzard looked down into the man's coal black eyes, and he stated in a cold voice, "Destroy this world."

Bardock coughed a few times, and blood splashed over his face as he heard that. "Damn," Bardock muttered. He coughed a few more times, then his coughing started to sound more like something else. Whis looked down in surprise, while Blizzard just started lifting a hand to destroy the world with. "Well, I can, at least laugh," Bardock said, and his eyes shifted from the Gods above him to the sky even higher up. "Now that I think about it, I'm glad, I'll never have to grow up, looking at that, pink sky."

Blizzard's arm stopped lifting, and the God of Destruction stared down at the man on his back in confusion. "Oi Whis," he said, his voice low and serious. "What is he talking about?"

"I, am not sure," Whis admitted.

"Hey, Bardock," Blizzard growled down at the dying man. "What did you mean by that? Are you going insane from being on your deathbed?"

Bardock tried shaking his head, but he felt too much pain to move his neck. Instead, he just said in a quiet voice, "One day, I would have been born, on this world."

"You," Blizzard began in shock. "You are not from this time?"

Bardock did not reply, barely finding it in him anymore to even speak. "Lord Blizzard, you know what this means, don't you?" Whis questioned.

 _What does it mean?_ Bardock wondered. His half-closed eyes started closing some more, and he could hear a slowing heart beat in his head.

Everything above Bardock became blurry, but over the sound of his own heart thumping, he heard, "I know Whis. We risk splitting the universe with a paradox. If I were to destroy this world, there would be a paradox for sure. Grrr…"

 _Good,_ Bardock thought, his eyes closing the rest of the way. He no longer heard the Gods above him, but he no longer heard his own heart either. _They're not, going to…_

Blizzard stared down at the black-haired Saiyan who never got to finish his final thought. The Saiyan somehow continued taunting him even in death, as there was a smile across Bardock's face. Blizzard yawned and he lifted his gaze back to the stars. "Time to go Whis." Whis tapped his staff down on the air below him and a bubble surrounded the two. They shot into space inside this bubble, and Blizzard began after a minute, "Well the Super Saiyan was a bust, though I did enjoy my fight with the Super Saiyan God," the God of Destruction yawned and patted a hand over his mouth. "Alright, original plan then. Whis, take us to planet Anubis."

* * *

 **One Month Ago**

 **Mount Vegeta**

"… I didn't end up beating Blizzard, but at the least he didn't destroy Planet Vegeta before either of us got a chance to be born there," Bardock finished his recollection. He frowned as the kid in front of him had not stopped smiling for most of the story, and finally he relented, "What?"

"That Blizzard guy was even stronger than you? I hope I get a chance to fight-"

Bardock put his face in his hands and rubbed them around in circles a few times. All of a sudden he had the largest migraine. Bardock dragged his hands down his face, then interrupted the kid in front of him who was going on about wanting to fight that God of Destruction. "Anyway," Bardock started in a loud voice to signal to Goku to shut up. "Get one more rest inside a healing chamber, then we're going to train again. This time, I'm the only one allowed to hurt you, got it? Hurt your own body and I'll never let you turn into a Super Saiyan God."

"Healing Chamber?" Goku wondered. Bardock opened his mouth, but Goku's face lit up and he said, "Wait, I used one of those before! Before I fought Frieza, after fighting that Ginyu guy," Goku chuckled to himself as he thought of how he defeated Ginyu in the end.

Bardock chuckled to himself too, _Of course he beat the Ginyu's. I'll ask him about it some other time._ Bardock stood up from his seat next to the couch, and he started to turn to walk away, but he stopped when he was halfway and let out a sigh. "Kakarott," Goku looked up at Bardock and tilted his head wondering what the man had to say to him. "You are the strongest Saiyan I've ever known, much stronger than I was in my base form or as a Super Saiyan. But I'm so serious with you about not destroying your body, because like I said, the process is risky. My crew, used to have another member." Bardock frowned deeply and continued, "A friend of mine, Borgos, had a similar power to the rest of my crew. Unlike the rest of them though who all underwent the process successfully, like your brother, Borgos' body couldn't take it. Only a handful of Saiyans have taken to God ki, the others were all ripped apart."

"How did they become Gods?" Goku questioned. Bardock frowned over at his son as he was in the middle of a warning, but Goku was confused by what Bardock was telling him. "I thought only you got the power?"

"Yeah, but I learned a way to create more Super Saiyan Gods," Bardock growled at the kid. "Any more questions?" He asked, his tone hinting that he did not want to hear any. Goku didn't catch the hint though, and he nodded his head which made Bardock sigh at the boy. "What?" He questioned in exasperation.

"If you think I'm stronger than you in your base form, and as a Super Saiyan, then how did you beat me without turning into a Super Saiyan God?" Goku questioned.

Bardock frowned, then he grunted and mumbled, "Actually a good question." Bardock turned and walked for the door of his house, "After transforming into a God for the first time, every level of your strength will increase as your body naturally adapts to be stronger to handle the God ki. At least, that's how I interpreted the sudden rise in strength of all my forms." Bardock opened his door and got ready to head out, but he called inside one more time before he left, "Raditz! Show your brother where the hospital is!"

"When I've got time!" A voice shouted back from upstairs.

"You have time right now!" Bardock yelled, and he slammed the door behind him to show the conversation was over there.

Goku heard a loud infuriated growl come from upstairs, and the man in the body of his child self snickered to himself. Laughing hurt though with his injuries, and Goku leaned back on the couch to ease his pain for a moment. _Super Saiyan God, God of Destruction, a father, this place is amazing! There're so many strong people I can still fight! Are all of dad's crew as strong as him? Is Raditz still stronger than me? I didn't think he was, but dad said that he was a God too. I should challenge him, and I'll get stronger as I fight him, then I can get strong enough to face dad._ Goku smiled wide and he looked up at the ceiling of the living room he sat in. _My brother and dad huh? I should bring Gohan and Goten here to meet them. I just hope Raditz doesn't try to take Gohan again. Heh, Bardock wouldn't let him._

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading. Bardock's the first Super Saiyan God! (At least in this story, though I doubt DBS will ever give an explanation to how SSG came to be.) If you have questions or comments about that backstory, let me know in a review below. Same with predictions about the rest of this chapter! I have finals all of next week, but I also have one last chapter to post that unlike this one (which I shouldn't have spent 3 hours on today with my finals tom ;p ) it's already finished. Anyway, I'll get that one posted sometime soon. Review responses for now:**

Limit-Breaking chapter 79 . Nov 30

WHAT, HOW, WHEN, OMG THIS IS CRAZY I AM LOSING MY MIND. FUCK SUPER SAIYAN 4 IM ALL FOR SUPER SAIYAN GOD AND BARDOCK HAS THIS TRANSFORMATION. GOKU LOSING EVEN AS A SUPER SAIYAN THREE I MEAN OBVIOUSLY BUT...(Breaths heavily for a few seconds)...  
Ok i calm down from the hype that was given in this chapter and im gaining my sanity back after reading the most epic chapter I've ever read. Hell when it came down to the previous chapter where the world of nexus was shaking like ever before it was because of bardock and he is fighting the ant king, and holy shit how strong is the ant king, is he strong even stronger than goku. He must be since he was fighting in the previous chapters.  
My god im still in shock after seeing this chapter like how did this occur when oh my god, and what makes matters worse you probably not going to be telling us anytime soon. I want to cry from how awesome this was and now i have to wait for another chapter for who knows how long.(;_;). But im so hyped as well. *(o)* Please update soon i just got to see more from this story already. And again keep up the fantastic job that you are doing.

 **HYPE! Haha glad you liked the chapter. Though, Goku didn't lose as a SS3, since Bardock beat his ass before he could transform into it, since Goku's kid body was having a tough time transforming into it. Won't give anything away about Meruem, Bardock, or what caused the shaking that we'll see later this chapter. "How did this occur when..." I actually laughed cuz usually I leave questions hanging for dozens of chapters, and this time I kinda answered it right away XD. Thanks, and thanks for the review!**

asdf chapter 79 . Nov 30

I fuckin new it! A god!

 **So, many, GODS! Thanks for reviewing!**

Joebob323 chapter 79 . Nov 30

Ah, Thanks so much for the epic fight scene, I really enjoyed it! Now, the real question is, will Timmy get to regain his memories first or will Goku unlock Super saiyan BLUE, which may or may not be compatible with the kaio-ken on this world. Also, will we be informed on how the hell BARDOCK of all people got access to this form first? Not that I'm complaining about it though... he makes for a Badass super saiyan god.

 **Glad you liked the fight scene and hoped you enjoyed the ones this chapter as well. Timmy and Goku's missing storylines for the last 5 or so chapters are finally being revealed! XD glad I answered how Bardock got his powers when usually I don't have answers for your guys' questions! Thanks for reviewing, and thanks again to everyone who read, faved, followed, and reviewed this story! 'Til next time!**


	81. Nexus HWR 12-3 Climbing the Mountain

**Nexus HWR 12.3 Climbing the Mountain:**

 **Two Weeks Ago…**

Several miles above the ground, a single figure flew up a steep-slanted side of Mount Vegeta. He may have been several miles off the ground level, but the top of the mountain was still out of his view. He finally spotted a flat edge sticking out of the steep slope and he shot over to it before landing and instantly dropping to his butt. "Oh man," Sora said and he put his hands down on his knees, panting hard and taking some deep breaths to calm his heart rate.

"I have to practice flying more," he said, standing back up and turning to look at the slope of the mountain again. "Though, I seem oddly tired, even if I've been flying for a long time," he scratched the back of his head, then realized he was still panting even though he gave himself more than what should have been enough time to rest. "Oh!" He exclaimed. The kid opened his mouth wide and tried sucking in a huge amount of air, only to nod when he was done like he had it figured out. _Air up here is thinner. Makes sense that it's getting hard to breathe._ He lifted his gaze to the thick cloud layer covering the mountaintop above him and he frowned. _Have to keep going though._

Sora started walking from the flat edge up the slant. Flying would wear him out too fast and the slope was gentler here than below the flat edge. Though it may have been gentler, it was still hard to climb and he had to reach forward and use his hands to climb at several sections that it became too steep to just walk up. The teenager rose and rose and as he entered the clouds, everything becoming misty and damp around him. The higher he went though, the colder it became, and before long he found himself stepping in snow and grabbing at it with his hands.

Sora stopped going as he was shivering too much, and since he was in the cloud layer he could not really tell, but he was pretty sure the suns had all gone down as it was getting dark along with a lot colder. _Maybe I should sleep for a little,_ he thought, looking down at the snow that looked so soft. He was done talking out loud, breathing was hard enough as it was up there, he did not need any help losing his breath. Sora leaned down, then snapped up fast and shook his head around, _Come on! You're not even that tired._

He rose his hands and a Keyblade formed in them. He swung Oathkeeper around and dispersed some of the clouds around his face, then pointed the weapon down at the ground and shot a ball of fire at the floor. It quickly went out in the snow, but the heat helped him stop being so hazy and become alert again. He rose up his Keyblade and white magic surrounded him, and when it was gone he was no longer wearing shorts and a t-shirt, but a heavy yellow winter jacket and red snow pants. The boy's huge yellow shoes transformed into big black hiking boots that kept all water out of them, allowing Sora's cold damp feet to dry off and heat up.

"Alright," he mumbled under his breath, turning his head and finding the upwards slant so he knew which way to go. _Keep going,_ he thought, and the trek continued.

Sora rose and rose, hiking ever higher up Mount Vegeta. He had not seen any signs of life in over a day's time, having arrived at the base of the mountain late in the afternoon the day before so he slept close to the bottom that night. The teenager pulled his yellow coat's fur hood up above his head as at some point he did not recall, it began snowing and his brown spiky hair was getting covered in it. He crossed his arms as he continued to walk, rubbing his own arms that were starting to feel cold even inside his jacket.

He trekked out of the cloud layer, but it was so dark he could not tell, especially since it was the layer of clouds above the one he just climbed through that was dumping snow on the mountain. Sora looked up as the snowfall increased, each flake looking heavier and weighing him down as it collected on his clothing. _How much higher is the top?_ He thought, his body and mind exhausted. Sora lifted up his gaze but he could not see ten feet ahead of him, let alone the top of the mountain. _Alright, this time for real,_ he dropped down to his knees. _I am way too tired to make it today, I'll just take a quick nap, and climb the rest, tomorrow._ Sora's face was blue and he turned his body a little as he fell forward, making it so the side of his hood hit the snow instead of his face, giving him a soft pillow to lie on while snow continued to pile up on his body. _Just, for a minute,_ he thought, while the last visible parts of his red pants stopped showing and his boots got completely covered in snow.

 _Just, need to, find…_ Sora's eyes fluttered shut. He lay there, breathing in and out slowly as his body covered more and more with snow. Soon he would be completely under, but he did not mind. His mouth curled up into a smile at the rest he was finally getting, and he let out one deep breath that hung in the air in front of him for a few seconds before fading.

On the eastern slope of Mount Vegeta, a lone traveler got buried in snow. The blizzard was one of the worst the mountain had seen in recent months. Temperatures were dropping through the night to ten, twenty, thirty degrees below zero, not even counting the wind chill. It was truly a freezing wasteland.

A mile up the mountain, an indented section of the slope that had a large flat surface on it was almost silent. It was silent despite the smoke coming off of the flat surface, or the wooden barricades surrounding the area, or the huts and longhouses in the camp that had chimneys which the smoke was billowing out of. Even the two standing in front of the one opening in the pointy wooden fence that surrounded the camp were quiet as they guarded the place.

The two blond teenagers had weapons on them, as well as fur coats and a lot more layers on than a boy buried in the snow not far from them. The boy teenager whose blond hair was almost as long as his cousin's, flowing straight down to the top of his spine instead of halfway down it, wore a green jacket that matched the round green shield on his back. Around his neck was a pendant, but that pendant was actually a sword in disguise: Sumarbrander, the Sword of Summer, otherwise known as Jack. On the other side of the gate as the teenage boy, his cousin only a year older than him at nineteen had a sword made of bone strapped to the left side of her waist, and a glowing red pistol on the other.

Magnus and Annabeth Chase stood guard quietly, not because they had nothing to say, but because it was frigid, and because the falling snow was so thick they could barely see each other across the gate. The younger teen turned towards his cousin though, and he cupped his hands to his mouth. "Hey!"

Annabeth turned to him, "What?" She called over.

Magnus breathed in heavily then called out, "You ever wonder why we're-"

 **"Annabeth!"**

 **"Magnus!"**

"Mother?" Annabeth asked, snapping her head in the air.

"Father?" Magnus shouted at the same time.

The cousins looked back at each other, then in the air again as the voices who spoke to them continued. They could both hear each of the voices, and they were stunned to hear them in their minds. "What's going on?" Annabeth exclaimed. "Mother, I have not heard from you in years! What is-"

 **"There is no time Annabeth,"** Athena, the goddess of wisdom, spoke into her daughter's mind. **"Quickly! There is little time. Down the mountain there is a boy dying in the snow. If you do not save him, all is lost."**

Magnus's eyes snapped open wide as he heard something similar in his mind. He spun to look towards the edge of their flat area where there was a cliff's edge before the slope of the mountain got gentler again. "Someone's out there in this blizzard?!" He shouted, already starting to run away from the camp.

"Wait!" Annabeth called after him. She looked up and shouted, "How will we find him?!"

The voices stopped, and Annabeth clenched his fists angrily at her sides. "Answer me!" She yelled. "I want some answers!"

"Anna, come on," Magnus called back at his cousin. She turned and then gawked as she watched her cousin, a Son of Frey, hop right over the cliff.

The blonde girl growled in frustration and then sprinted towards the edge as well. She stopped and looked down, but the snowfall was too thick to see where her cousin landed. _When this is done, I will get some answers, mother._ Annabeth took a deep breath, then jumped off the cliff.

* * *

 _"I'll come back to you, I promise!"_

 _"I know you will!"_

Sora felt uncomfortably warm and he fidgeted around because of it. The heat did not stop though and his eyelids fluttered open slowly. He tilted his head right and saw a fireplace next to him only a few feet away, giving off a warm glow that filled the log cabin he was in. The room was tinted red and orange from the flames, and Sora smiled at the fire that although he felt annoyed at it, for some reason he felt grateful to see it.

"Hey look."

"He's awake."

Sora turned his head from the fire and looked the other way, which snapped him out of his calm, tired, and delusional state. He sat up and looked confusedly at the crowd of people all staring at him. "Um, hello," he greeted. Suddenly, them staring at him was the least of his focus, as he snapped his head down to see he was wrapped in several furry white blankets, and much more alarming, he was naked. He spun back to the people with a nervous look as they were all staring at the top half of his body that had no shirt on, and he pulled his blanket up a little to make sure nothing slipped into view. "Can, I help you?" He questioned.

"Are you an idiot?" a blonde girl snapped. She was standing at the front of the crowd and glaring harshly at the teen around her age who gained a surprised and confused look on his face.

"Annabeth," a taller, black haired teen next to her said softly. She humphed and crossed her arms, still looking pissed off since she got back with her cousin and the near-frozen mystery teen. The black haired teen turned towards Sora again and he stepped forward, "Hey there, my name's Percy, Percy Jackson."

"Sora," the boy greeted back. He pushed a hand down to sit up straighter, but his arm hurt when he tried and he felt too exhausted to really move well. "What the," he muttered. He looked back up as something hit him and he went, "Uhh, so, where am I? Last thing I remember, I was climbing Mount Vegeta. I decided to take a quick nap."

"Idiot," a tall, muscular girl with short blonde hair snapped at the teen. Sora turned his head left and saw this girl leaning against a wall with two guys her height and as muscular leaning at her sides. Clarisse La Rue had her arms crossed and she growled at Sora who looked over at her, "You were in a blizzard. You don't take a nap, in a blizzard. If you lie down, you die."

"Die?" Sora questioned skeptically. He chuckled and the girl frowned at him as did everyone else in the room. Sora spoke up though and questioned, "So then why am I alive?"

No one really had an answer for him. Magnus Chase stepped forward so he was at Percy's side, and the blond boy questioned, "You don't know?" Sora looked at him and shrugged, before yawning a long yawn and falling back down to his back.

Sora stared up at the wooden ceiling of the warm room and he nuzzled into his blankets again, appreciating them more now than before. Magnus turned to Percy and the son of Poseidon gave him a look that said, 'I have no idea.' "Well," Sora began and they all turned back to him. "Thanks for getting me out of the snow, I figure that's why I'm in here now. And if I really was about to die, then thanks for that too." His eyes were fluttering closed and he yawned again. "Sorry, I'm just, so tired. I have to get to the top of the mountain tomorrow, so I'm going to take another nap."

"Another nap?" Annabeth asked, throwing her arms up in the air. "You were almost frozen solid!"

"Frozen solid, napping, what's the difference?" Sora mumbled, fidgeting around as he tried to get in the most comfortable position to sleep in. "I just need to get to the top," he whispered.

"You can't," a harsh voice growled behind him, and Sora recognized it as the muscular girl, Clarisse, who sounded closer to him now than before. "Only Saiyans are allowed at the top of Mount Vegeta. Besides, you won't make it up there. The air is too thin for humans like you."

Sora mentally groaned but he had to open his eyes after hearing that. "Like me?" He questioned her wording. He tilted his head left and looked around at the people gathered there in the cabin. "Not, like us?"

Percy shook his head at Sora who opened his eyes a little wider as he did hear correctly. "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, Sora. Everyone in this room, is a demigod."

"Demigod huh?" Sora said, his wide eyes going back to normal. "Oh, I thought it was something out of the ordinary," he said, then chuckled at the gawking looks the other teens gave him. His eyes started closing and he whispered as they shut completely, "Hope that doesn't mean, Hades is hiding around here. I'd have to kick, his butt, again," Sora chuckled his way to sleep and the next thing out of his mouth was a quiet snore.

The demigods of Camp Half-Blood stared blankly at that teenager, wondering if they heard him right, or if they were just as delusional as he was.

* * *

 **The Next Morning**

Sora snapped up, breathing rapid and loud breaths that made a boy not far from him spin around in surprise. Magnus Chase stared in surprise at the spiky-haired teen his age, because unlike the night before when Sora roused, this was not a gentle awakening. Sora's body was covered in sweat from more than just being wrapped in half a dozen fur blankets that the demigods thought he needed to thaw him out fully. "You alright there?" Magnus asked, and Sora spun his head to the left fast as he was not expecting that voice. He was so lost in thoughts about the crazy dream he just had that the sudden voice disoriented him.

"Who are you?!" Sora shouted. He jumped up then snapped his head down and stared at his own naked body in panic. He brought his head back up while snapping his arms down to cover his privates, but the boy he looked towards had already spun away from him to face the counter he was originally facing before hearing Sora wake up. "Why am I-" Sora stopped shouting, as the brief moment of consciousness he had the night before came back to him. "Camp Half-Blood," Sora whispered, then shook his head to compose himself and stop standing so slack-jawed. "Sorry!" Sora exclaimed, as he realized he just flashed the teen in front of him who he remembered was one of the ones who said they saved him last night. Sora rose his right hand and a flash of light illuminated that Magnus caught out the corner of his eye.

Magnus dared turn around as he was not all that uncomfortable in the first place and really just turned away as a courtesy to Sora who he could tell forgot he was naked. When he turned, his eyes opened wide at the sight of Sora wearing a very similar outfit to him except Sora's furry coat was blue instead of green. Sora had on a long thick pair of pants and boots that came even higher up his shins this time. His black pant legs went over the tops of his boots to make sure that snow did not get in them, and Sora's hands covered in red gloves too to keep him extra warm. A green beanie was still in the process of appearing in a shimmer of golden light over his brown hair, and Sora reached up while Magnus watched to pull the hat down. Pulling his beanie down pressed some of his hair spikes to his head and two of those spikes stuck out the bottom of the beanie acting like bangs that stuck down over the front of his face, though leaving his bright blue eyes visible.

The blond-haired teen shook his head in a bit of amazement, before turning back to the counter behind him. "How do you like your coffee?" Sora looked over the teen's shoulders and saw some smoke rising up past him, so he suspected there was a coffee pot there with some brewing already.

Sora shrugged his shoulders though as he did not really drink coffee. "However you normally make it," Sora said, while walking forward towards the other boy. "And thanks, not just for the coffee."

"When I found you under all that snow, I was shocked to find you still had a pulse," Magnus admitted, while turning and holding out a mug for Sora to grab. He had a cup in his own hand, and after Sora grabbed his, Magnus pulled his cup up with both hands and blew on the steaming hot liquid a few times.

"So you were the one who actually found me?" Sora questioned, smiling and lifting up the coffee mug the other boy handed him. He lifted it to his lips, "Ouch!"

"Careful," Magnus warned with a short laugh. Sora licked his lips a few times then blew on his coffee to prevent getting burned again. "And yeah, my cousin Annabeth and I found you out there. You're lucky."

"Yeah, guess I am," Sora said, smiling to himself at his luck.

Magnus started to frown as Sora smiled like that though. He put his coffee down on the counter behind him, then spoke while crossing his arms in front of his chest, "I'm Magnus Chase." Sora looked up and was going to reintroduce himself as he felt like he only had to the black-haired teen whose name he could not recall at the moment. Before Sora could say his name though, Magnus continued, "My father is Frey, a Norse God from my universe. My cousin Annabeth, her mom's Athena, a Greek God like Hades who you mentioned while delusional." Sora's smile faded a little, then his mouth flattened as Magnus interrogated, "Now tell me Sora, why did both of our parents, Gods who neither of us have heard from since the early days after we got to this world, decide to break that over-two-year silence to tell us to save your life?"

"That's gotta suck," Sora mumbled.

"Huh?" Magnus asked, a look of confusion appearing on his face. _What is he talking about?_

"Sorry your parents weren't talking to you guys, it sounds like they could have gotten in contact any time they wanted. I can see why you'd be mad at me if I'm the only reason they decided to call in." Sora scratched the back of his head with a guilty look. "I can't say it's really my fault though, so I hope you're not too mad. I don't know myself why your God-parents told you to save me, or how they even knew I was lost in the blizzard for that matter." Sora sounded even more confused at the end of his sentence than at the start as he started to wonder how the Gods knew where he was.

Magnus did not really know what to say to this teen, but the semi-hostile atmosphere he had tried to create was gone. He realized it too, and he chuckled to himself while taking another sip of his coffee. _I've been completely disarmed. Who is this guy?_ "Come on," Magnus said, putting his coffee mug down on the counter and then motioning towards the door with his head. There was a brown wool coat at the door along with a warm pair of pants and boots, a full set of clothing that Sora noticed and opened his eyes wide at. "We got those ready for you, but we should'a guessed you could make your own after the wet clothes we got off of you last night vanished into thin air."

Sora blushed and chuckled a few times uncomfortably. "And uh, how many people were there when you did that?"

"Everyone," Magnus replied, and Sora's face turned even redder so he looked like a tomato. Magnus would have liked to keep messing with him, but the teen really did seem embarrassed, so he sighed and said, "But when we got you out of the clothes it was just me and Percy. He had the decency to tell everyone else to look away until we had you wrapped in those fur blankets."

Sora sighed a long breath of relief. The two of them walked towards the door and Sora thanked the other boy again for that. Magnus grunted in a response this time, before muttering, "Don't know why you would be embarrassed though."

"Did you say something?" Sora asked, turning to the blond boy.

"Nothing," Magnus replied, then he reached out and grabbed the handle to the door, pulling it open so Sora could step outside. While Sora stepped past him, Magnus looked down at Sora's feet and the size of his enormous boots. He glanced on the other side of the open door to the boots they had gotten for him to wear, and just shook his head at how Sora would have never fit into them. He then followed Sora outside and pulled the door shut behind him, before reaching up and grabbing the gray scarf he had wrapped around his neck and pulled it up so it covered the bottom half of his face. "Guess I should have warned you!" Magnus shouted, as anything less than a shout would not have been heard over the buffeting winds. Sora turned to the boy next to him who even from only a foot away was still blurry with the constant sideways-moving snow flying into and between them.

"The blizzard from yesterday?" Sora shouted.

"It's only gotten worse," Magnus yelled back. "Come on, you won't be going anywhere today!" He started trekking forward, and Sora looked down to see the snow got really thick just in front of them and he would have to push his legs through it all. He turned right before following Magnus, and he looked towards where he thought the slope of Mount Vegeta continued to rise. _I can't see a thing. I don't really need to see to go straight up though._ He lifted his gaze to the sky, _I could fly straight through those clouds and get, up, there,_ Sora stopped his thought process as he noticed he was already panting heavily, and the thought of rising any higher in elevation made his throat and lungs hurt. "Sora? SORA?!"

"I'm right here!" Sora yelled in front of him, and he could see a silhouette through the blizzard that was coming back towards him stop. He sighed before taking in a deep breath full of snow particles, then shouted, "Right behind you! Let's get moving!" Sora trudged forward through two feet deep snow. It was so deep that he could not lift his legs fully out of it before pushing them farther forward. "Where are we headed anyway?" Sora called out when he started walking side-by-side with Magnus.

"Most everyone else will be at the dining hall! On days like these we can't do much outside, so the only ones not there would be people who decided to stay in their homes, and the guards around the camp!" As Magnus finished shouting, Sora started to think the snow in front of them was getting darker. He realized after a few more steps though that it was another silhouette darkening the air behind the sideways-falling snow in front of him that was making everything darker. He looked left and right, and in both directions he could not see an end to that black shadow. Then again, they were only ten feet in front of it, and he could not see far in any direction so he wondered how long the building really was. The one he woke up in was the one he recognized from the night before, so this was a place he had never seen inside of. Magnus walked straight towards the doors, but Sora sped up a little right as they got there, and the spiky haired boy pressed his hands against them and shoved them in hard.

His eyes darted to the right at the sound of a loud grunt at the moment he entered, and he spotted the tall muscular girl who taunted him the night before sparring with the two muscular men who were with her. They did not seem to like the idea that they were stuck inside all day and were taking out that frustration by doing what they would have been doing outside, training. His eyes darted left at the flickering light he saw, and the boy felt relief at the sight of a giant hearth at the base of a chimney on the left wall that was filling the room with warmth. There were a lot of tables and chairs set up over by that hearth, while most of the huge dining hall that he could now see was over eighty meters long and thirty wide had nothing on the floor. It looked to him like all the tables that would normally be spread out all over the place were brought closer to the hearth, and a glance at the floor and sight of skid marks told him that assumption was correct. The back wall thirty meters from him had some openings in it so that he could see through to a kitchen on the other side, though currently he did not see anyone back there working on cooking, and the smell of breakfast lingered in the air, so he figured he had missed the first meal of the day and the second was not yet in the process of being made.

Sora smiled and his eyes darted back to the left while he turned that way. "Hey," Sora greeted the people who got up from their tables, chairs, or seats on the floor if they wanted to be especially close to the flaming hearth. "Thanks everyone," he said, and he bowed his head a little as he did not know their customs, but he did know that a lot of people on this world expected it as a part of a respectful or grateful gesture. "You saved my life."

Magnus slammed the doors shut behind him when he walked in after Sora, then he turned and looked at Sora's back oddly as the brown haired teen stood back up straight. _Really, what is up with this guy?_ "He woke up," Magnus called out, then started walking forward past Sora towards the area where all his friends were.

"It's about time," a girl's voice snapped.

Sora looked to the center of the group of sixty-five people to see a blonde girl who kind of reminded him of Magnus. He also recognized her from the night before, and putting two and two together he said, "Thanks especially to you Annabeth. Magnus told me that it was you two who found me in the snow."

Annabeth stopped storming towards Sora after only one step, and a look of surprise filled her face for a second. Realizing that she was getting completely disarmed, she quickly re-firmed her expression and kept marching towards him. "Annabeth, I'm sure he's still-"

"Percy, I want to know what he's doing here, and I know you do to," Annabeth snapped without turning back to the black-haired man behind her.

 _Percy! That's right, how could I forget an name like that? Percy, Magnus, Annabeth. Oh whoa Annabeth!_ Sora leaned back as the girl marching his way reached down and grabbed the short-sword made of bone on the left side of her waist. She drew it and stopped when she was five feet from Sora before extending her arm and pointing the tip of her blade at Sora. Sora rose his hands up next to his soldiers as a sign of surrender. "I don't want to fight," he said with a hesitant voice. "I really am grateful to you, to all of you." He leaned back more as Annabeth frowned deeper at the second apology and pushed her sword even closer to Sora's face like that was not the right response.

"I'm going to have to ask you to put that away though," Sora continued. What Sora said stopped Percy from opening his mouth as he was about to tell Annabeth to calm down. Instead, an intrigued look spread on his face, Magnus spun around from the girl he just walked over to, and the muscular children of Ares sparring on the opposite side of the room finally stopped their battle for a second. Annabeth herself lifted her eyebrows, but then instead of lowering her weapon, she just re-narrowed her eyebrows in and pushed her blade farther- **Clank!**

The eyes of all the demigods in the room opened wide at the sight of Annabeth's sword spinning up in the air. Her arm was still in the process of rising up, but Annabeth felt more shock than pain. In fact, she did not feel any pain at all, despite the strange weapon in Sora's hands who everyone else thought he just slashed her with. Magnus ripped the pendant from his arm, Percy leapt over a table, and Clarisse and the children of Ares spun with their swords lifted high and in battle stances now. "Wait!" Annabeth shouted. Everyone froze what they were doing. She stared in surprised silence straight ahead at the boy who never took his blue eyes off her own gray ones. Sora lifted his free left hand, and he caught her blade by the hilt with it. He tossed it up a couple of times like he was feeling out its weight and whether or not he liked it as a weapon, then he flipped it around and grabbed it by the blade. He lifted his right hand and rested his Kingdom Keyblade over his right shoulder so it pointed out to the left behind his neck, while holding the hilt of her Drakon Bone Sword out for her to take.

Annabeth reached out to grab it, all while looking into Sora's eyes that said to her, 'This isn't a toy.' The idea of threatening this person no longer seemed like a good idea to her, but she still grumbled as she grabbed her weapon back and re-sheathed it at her waist. "So that was unnecessarily tense," Sora said with a small chuckle, trying to laugh off the current situation of everyone glaring or staring nervously at him. "Sorry about that."

 _He, he's infuriating!_ Annabeth thought, because even though she was the one who was just embarrassed in front of all her friends, she suddenly had the urge to apologize and take fault for the awkward situation that arose. She rose her hands and rubbed her temples tog et rid of the emerging headache before it got too strong. "Can you tell me, any reason that the Gods would want us to save you?" Annabeth questioned. The tense atmosphere calmed down as Annabeth asked the question, confusing many people who did not understand why she was suddenly calm in front of that boy who disarmed her so easily.

"I, can _think_ of a few reasons," Sora admitted, but he specified the word 'think,' and that made a lot of people in the room including Annabeth to frown in aggravation. "I know it's not what you want to hear, but, I'm kind of not allowed to talk about it," Sora let go of his Keyblade and moved his right hand a little farther from his shoulder to the back of his head that he started scratching sheepishly. His Keyblade fell, but it never clattered on the floor, and everyone staring at the strange weapon watched it vanish into thousands of little golden lights that floated up and disappeared into thin air.

"Well," Percy began. Annabeth turned, and she and Sora both watched Percy Jackson as he walked towards them. "Whoever you are, the Gods wanted us to save you and we did. But what you were saying last night, about wanting to climb the rest of this mountain-"

"I have to get to the top," Sora interrupted.

"It's suicide," Annabeth said quickly. Sora turned back to her, and she shook her head at him before explaining, "The Saiyans have rules banning other races from the tops of the tallest mountains in this range. The Saiyan King protects every town, village, and city within fifty miles of Mount Vegeta, but even the people and other humanoid creatures in his own domain cannot go to Vegeta's peak."

"What about people bringing up food to them?" Sora questioned. If he knew Saiyans, and he did, he figured a bribe of some good food could get him in good with their people.

Annabeth and Percy shook their heads though. Percy countered his suggestion, "Saiyans go down the mountain to get food and supplies that they then bring back up. The rule is not broken by anyone. Even though the Super Saiyan Gods know some secrets of this world, like we do, they would still kill us if we climbed to the peak of this mountain."

"They're a race of selfish bastards," a voice said behind Sora. The feminine voice was gruff and he recognized it, but unlike the night before when she taunted him, he was not going to let her comment go this time.

"No they're not," Sora said, turning and glaring into Clarisse's eyes. Clarisse had marched up close behind the teen a little shorter than her, but as she got ready to retort, he continued, "My friend Goku is the second best person I know. His sons are also great, and Vegeta's not a bad guy, once you get to know him." Clarisse's eyes were huge as soon as Sora mentioned Goku, but they narrowed in anger as Sora finished, "You shouldn't generalize their entire race because of the actions of a few."

"I think you've got it backwards," Annabeth scoffed. "It's more like you're using a small few exceptions to argue…" She faded off as Sora turned to her with a disappointed look on his face because of the side she was arguing with. At the sight of it, Annabeth interrupted herself, "Not that I think they're all bad. Of course I know Son Goku isn't a bad person-"

"Saiyan," Sora corrected. "He isn't a bad Saiyan," he said, and he looked around the room to see if anyone agreed with him. He mostly got blank and confused looks, as what he was saying went right over a lot of their heads. Percy was watching him carefully though, and Sora turned to the boy who he got a feeling of leadership from. "Anyway, I think Goku's up there, and I need his help."

"Well at least think it over for today, you'd never make it up during a storm like this," Percy told the younger teen in front of him. Sora hesitated, then nodded as he had already accepted that fact himself. "If you do go up to the peak, I won't tell you the Saiyans won't be trying to kill you, but…" Most of Percy's friends looked at him in surprise that he thought there might be an alternative to that scenario. "If the Gods wanted you alive, then maybe the Super Saiyan Gods do as well."

"What's a Super Saiyan God?" Sora asked.

Annabeth shook her head at the teen in front of her who she deemed hopeless. _He's heading to the most dangerous place in the world and doesn't even know what Super Saiyan Gods are? What an idiot._ As much as she wanted to dislike him for that stupidity though, the boy in front of her became more likable with every little thing he said and did. She was about to respond, but she noticed Sora still wearing the heavy clothes he came in with, and the warmth inside the cabin was melting the snow all over him. "You should get out of those before you get soaked," Annabeth mentioned.

Sora looked down at himself, then a glance to the side showed him that Magnus had gotten out of his outermost layer. Magnus actually looked up and smirked at him after his cousin said it, as he was there when Sora dressed himself and knew that Sora had nothing on underneath what he was currently wearing. Sora saw the smirk, and he smirked right back as he rose his arm and formed his Keyblade in it. Magnus frowned as he realized the flaw in his smugness, while Sora showered himself in magic and got dressed in more comfortable clothes. He had on a pair of brown sweats and a black hoodie with the hood down, and a pair of moccasins to complete the relaxed look. "Thanks," Sora mentioned to Annabeth as he turned back to the girl.

She was shaking her head at him after the casual display of that strange magic. Sora rubbed his arms inside the sleeves of his sweatshirt and added, "Mind if I go sit by the fire? I think I could still thaw out some more from last night," he joked.

Annabeth frowned at him, but Percy walked forward and said, "Go ahead. I've got some things I want to ask you."

"Alright," Sora said. He started walking with Percy towards the hearth, and he said while they went, "I'll answer what I think I can, but after each question I answer, can I ask one of my own?"

Percy nodded and replied, "Sounds fair."

The teens walked towards the fireplace at the side of the room and sat down on a rug close to the fire. Sora noticed but pretended not to that the other demigods around the room, who were mostly teens or children, were all staring at him when he took his seat. He held his hands out with his palms towards the fire and let out a sigh. "So," he began, and he turned to his right where Percy sat cross-legged, "what's up?"

 _He said he couldn't tell us why he thinks the Gods saved him,_ Percy thought while nodding back at the younger teen. _But I could probably figure it out with the right questions._ "That weapon of yours," Percy began, "what is it? You can create it out of thin air and use it for magic, it's an amazing tool."

"It's a Keyblade," Sora replied to the demigod.

Percy hummed at the name, but he could not recall hearing of it before. "And what is it for?" Percy questioned.

"Uh uh," Sora said, and he shook his head. Percy looked at him confusedly, and Sora smiled and said, "It's my turn." Percy nodded, though Sora then added sheepishly, "Also, I don't think I can answer that one, just letting you know for your next question," Sora gave Percy a wink and the older boy almost laughed, and probably would have if he were not also annoyed that he had to think of a better way to word his second question. _Why is that? He can't tell us, which means someone told him not to. Was it the Gods?_

Percy's thoughts were interrupted by Sora's first question, "So why did you guys build a camp here?" Percy looked at the other boy in surprise, while Sora took off the green beanie that was the only part of his first outfit of the day that he had kept on when he changed. He shook his damp hair out and then leaned his head closer to the fire while letting the wet beanie vanish in a bunch of golden shards of light.

"That's your first question?" A thirteen year old boy muttered at Sora's back from the bench of the table he sat on behind the older teens.

Sora gave the kid a smirk with his head tilted sideways, and he replied, "It just seems strange to me that you'd set up so high in elevation. My lungs are still getting used to it up here, though I guess it's different for you demigods."

"No," Percy said, and Sora turned back to him. "It was rough for us too, when we first got up here," he admitted. "As to why: well I thought that the higher up we went, the closer to the Gods we'd be. On my world it was like that, I could only find the Gods at the top of the Empire State Building." Percy examined Sora's face as he said it, but Sora showed no recognition to the name of that building and he frowned. _So he's not from a world like mine…_

"Is everyone here from your world?" Sora questioned.

Percy shook his head. "A lot of us are, but Gods from other worlds sent the kids they had with mortals to find this camp." After Percy replied, he noticed Sora grinning in a devious way. "What?" Percy questioned.

"Oh nothing," Sora said and tried to stop grinning so much. "So the Gods talk to you guys-"

"Hey, that's the third question in a row," the same kid who commented at Sora before mentioned, and Sora's grin reappeared spreading across his face.

Percy realized why it was Sora was smiling and he felt like putting his face in his hands. _Might as well go at his pace,_ Percy thought. "He's right," Percy said, looking up and grinning at Sora like they had caught him. "Now I get two in a row."

"Haha, alright," Sora said, and he leaned back away from the fire as his hair was feeling drier now. He shook his head and got his hair spikes back to their normal crazy spikiness, then locked his hands behind his head and awaited Percy's questions.

"My father Poseidon told me that a war was coming," Percy began. "He said that we needed to prepare for it like we never had before, because the battle would not just decide the fate of Nexus." His tone was a lot more serious than his previous comment, and the mood of the cabin started to match it as Percy continued, "That was more than two years ago. Sora, do you know, what it is we're up against?"

Sora's spiky black hair shadowed his eyes as his head bowed a little. Percy's eyes widened, and all the kids and teens behind them leaned forward, then Sora's head snapped up with a big toothy smile on his face and the boy replied, "Not a clue." A few dozen people fell off their seats behind him and Sora started laughing.

Percy ground his teeth, but he sighed and couldn't find a reason to stay mad as he did not think the easygoing teen in front of him was lying. He tried thinking of a second question, as he really only said he got two in a row because Sora did, but he couldn't think of anything he wanted to ask that did not build off of a different response for that last question. "I've got a question," a voice started, and Sora and Percy looked up and behind them to see Annabeth marching forward. She frowned down at Sora and made a bead of sweat roll down the side of his face as he realized he could not get away with a joking response with her like he had been doing with Percy.

"My mother told me last night that if I didn't save you, 'all is lost,'" she put her hands up to make air quotations as she said it in a sarcastic tone. "Now why are you so important?" She snapped at the boy, and she expected a good response.

Once Annabeth said what her mother told her though, Sora's sweat doubled and the boy's face became troubled. _Holy crap what does that mean? I get that the Keyblade is important and all, but why does that sound so grim? "All is lost?" There'd still be Riku, and Kairi, and a bunch of others who could take my place! I'm not that important, am I? I mean, I guess I've saved the multiverse before,_ Sora started grinning, _and I'm probably going to do it again. Even the Gods think I'm going to do it huh? Guess I should take that as a confidence booster! Even if there is a lot of weight on my shoulders._ Sora's shoulders slumped, and he replied in a weighted-down voice, "I actually, don't know. I mean," he continued quickly as Annabeth opened her mouth to complain. "I know that, because of certain things that happened to me, and because of the weapon I wield, I'm now important. But as to 'why' those things happened, 'why' the Keyblade chose me," Sora shook his head and leaned it backwards with his hands still behind it. He leaned back so far that he fell all the way to lie flat on his back. Sora stared at the ceiling and his mouth was straight as he finished, "I never really figured it out."

* * *

 **The Next Day**

"Are you sure about going to the top of this mountain?" Percy asked. The blizzard had stopped and though Percy wanted Sora to stay behind for another day to let his body adjust better to the elevation, and to rethink his plans on climbing the mountain, the spiky haired boy refused.

Sora looked up and to his right where the slope continued to climb steeply towards some unknown peak high above. "I'm sure," he said. The spiky haired teen looked back down at his new friend. "So, if you guys are all demigods, that means your parents were Gods, right?"

"It means one of them was," Percy corrected.

Sora nodded his head as that made sense with what he knew about demi-Saiyans. "So a bunch of other Gods besides Hades are here huh?" Sora put his hands behind his head and leaned back. "What do they do?"

"Gods?" Percy asked, lifting one of his eyebrows. Sora looked like he really had no idea though so Percy sighed and decided to try explaining. "Well, they have lots of different powers and responsibilities. For example, my father Poseidon is the God of the sea. That's why I can control water."

"Just like Theseus," Sora remarked and Percy's eyes opened huge. "Haha, I guess that means he's your brother? I met him at the Dread Fort-"

"Half-brother," Percy corrected, and Sora could see the other teen did not want to continue talking on the subject from the tone of his voice.

Sora kept smiling, but he did switch the conversation back on track as he kept talking. "I never really heard much about the Gods before. Other than Hades, I don't think I've ever met one."

"Most people haven't," Percy said. "The Gods, at least the ones I know of, don't normally interact with humans. Why they told Annabeth and Magnus to save you still confuses me."

"Yeah, me too," Sora mumbled. _I wonder…_ he thought and he eyed Percy carefully. "Hey Percy," he began. The black haired teen turned to Sora while the younger boy stared straight up the mountain. Sora's mouth was flat and he asked in a serious tone, "Would the Gods know why the barriers between the worlds broke down? Would they know why they became connected on Nexus?"

 _Barriers between worlds?_ Percy nodded his head instead of asking the questions he wanted though. "They probably do," Percy replied. "My guess is that they are responsible for it."

"Really?" Sora asked, spinning to him in surprise. "Why do you say that?"

Percy shrugged and answered, "They are the only beings powerful enough to do something like that. They created the worlds after all."

"They did?!" Sora shouted. Percy nodded at him and Sora started scratching his chin thoughtfully.

 _I have to find one of these Gods and ask them what's going on. I don't know if King Mickey has done that yet, but I don't know where he is anyway and if they're strong enough to make worlds, maybe they could tell me where to find him._ Sora nodded his head and he turned to Percy, a demigod, son of one of these extremely powerful beings he was just learning about. "Percy, before you met me did you ever hear about the Keyblade?" The blank expression on the other boy's face told him he had nothing, and Sora sighed. "Nevermind."

Sora started walking towards the mountain's steep slope. A smile came to his face and he asked, "Hey Percy, do you know about Olympus?" Percy's eyes opened wide and Sora continued, "So do you know Hercules?"

"Hercules?" Percy repeated. "Of course I know of him. Everyone here knows about him."

"You know _of_ him?" Sora questioned, pausing where he was.

"Yeah," Percy said in a little confusion. "He was one of the greatest heroes ever. Why do you ask?"

"So he wasn't alive when you all came to Nexus?" Sora questioned.

Percy shook his head while staring blankly at Sora's back. "No, he's a legend, but from Ancient Greece."

"So you were from his future," Sora mumbled, mainly to himself but Percy heard him anyway. Sora smiled and looked into the sky, "Good for you Herc. You became a legend. Can't wait to tell you someday." He chuckled and then leapt off the ground and floated ten feet off the ground. "Thank you Percy, and tell those Gods thanks too for getting you all to save me." With that, Sora shot away from Camp Half-Blood while demigods all over the mountainside watched him fly off.

Magnus walked next to his cousin towards Percy and he said loudly, "So, who do you guys think that guy really was? There's no way our parents had us save some random dude."

Percy stared at the bottom of Sora's large boots as the teen flew away, and he had no response for Magnus. Annabeth looked less pissed than earlier but she still humphed as she reached her boyfriend and stood at his side. "Whoever he was is in the good graces of the Gods."

"He didn't even know anything about them," Percy mumbled. "Yet he said he fought Hades, and I'm pretty sure he knew Hercules."

"Hercules?" Magnus asked, wondering if he just heard his cousin's boyfriend correctly. Percy nodded, and both Magnus and Annabeth lowered their bottom lips.

"How could he have known Hercules?" Annabeth asked. "That would mean he's thousands of years old!"

"No," Percy said, turning around and looking at the blond teens behind him. "He said something about telling Hercules he becomes a legend."

"So, what?" Magnus asked. "You think he can go back in time?"

"I have no idea," Percy muttered. "But my guess," he turned back around and looked up, but no longer saw Sora's dot in the distance. He continued, "I think he was able to travel between worlds. I think he hopped into places in their timelines, and not specifically the times right before those worlds became connected."

"Alright alright, enough with your guesses," Annabeth smacked Percy on the back and he stumbled forward. "We'll find out for sure soon enough." Magnus and Percy looked at her, and Annabeth lifted her head to the sky, "Because I'm going to make my mother tell us what's really going on here."

* * *

 _This has to be the last cloud layer. I know it!_ Sora's optimism was partly because he really was getting tired again and did not want to keep flying for much longer. He sped up his ascent while keeping his breaths steady and calm. It seemed like spending a day at Camp Half-Blood allowed his body to adjust to the air this high up though, and he appreciated how it was not blizzarding today either.

The teenager saw the clouds thinning and his mouth curled into a huge grin. He could see three big circular lights shining on the top of the clouds and he sped up even more, then burst out of them like a dolphin splashing out of the water. He made it above and snapped his head left where he saw just the tip of a smaller mountain coming out of the clouds, and past that there was another one with a peak three hundred meters higher. He turned right and saw a mountain that must have went another mile or more into the sky from how wide it was down here, but when he looked straight up he was thrilled to see he could actually see the top of Mount Vegeta now too, though it hurt his eyes to look at it as the suns were directly above its peak.

Sora did a three-sixty degree spin to take it all in, but he paused when he was fully turned around to stare in awe at the massive mountain right behind him, only it was not a mountain. He knew, one- because it was floating above where he knew Mount Vegeta's base still extended out beneath below, and two- because he could see the bottom of this giant floating island in the sky. It was green and rocky and covered in vines and trees, and as he looked at it he heard roars and screeches of animals coming from inside its dense foliage.

He finished his turn and looked up Mount Vegeta, smiling ear to ear as he saw the top. Sora started flying up towards it, then came to a short stop as he saw three white blurs up there flying around. _Are those Saiyans? I should go say-_ All three blurs shot out of the sky at once and Sora's eyes opened wide as they were coming straight towards him.

Sora opened his mouth to call to them, but as they got closer he saw all of their fists clenched and his eyes opened wide as one of them created a ball of white ki on his hand. "Wait!" He shouted while creating a Keyblade in his hand. They did not wait, and the one with the ball of ki threw it down at Sora.

All three of the men flying towards him came to a stop as an explosion filled the air where Sora just was. "Intruder taken care of," the fattest of the three said. He turned to the more muscular man next to him with longer, spikier hair. "You'll have to be quicker than that to get the kill before me Raditz."

"Shut it Broco," Raditz snapped at the fat man who actually did shut his mouth at the furious look Raditz gave him. "Whatever," he said, annoyed he was going in for a punch instead of taking the boy out from afar. "Back to work then, let's-"

"You know," a voice called up from below them. All three Saiyans snapped their heads down and as the smoke faded, so did a light blue translucent sphere surrounding an unharmed teenager floating there. Sora's Power Blocker had kept them from noticing he was still alive. The teen chuckled and continued, "That wasn't really nice. Should have seen it coming though after Percy's warning."

At Percy Jackson's name the Saiyans hesitated. "So you passed through that camp of freaks on your way here?" Raditz scoffed down at Sora, making the teenager frown as he thought of many of those 'freaks' as his friends now. "And yet you still came here knowing what we do to humans-"

"I recognize you," Sora said, lifting a hand and pointing it at Raditz. The Saiyan frowned deeply as he was interrupted and his fists clenched harder at his sides. He did not go straight for Sora's throat though, as what the boy said intrigued him a bit. "Yeah, that's right," Sora frowned deeply and glared into Raditz's eyes. "You killed Goku, right?"

All three of the Saiyans went wide-eyed and Sora continued in a dark voice. "Goku said that he had to kill you because you were trying to kill everyone on Earth. And I remember watching you both get that hole blown through your chests." Sora smiled at the reaction on Raditz's face, and since none of them had attacked him again, Sora decided to continue with a question, "Did Goku come here? I'm looking for him, and-"

"He will never know you came here," Raditz snarled, lifting his hand and creating a ball of purple ki on it three times the size of his comrade's previous one.

Now it was Sora's turn to go wide-eyed, but before Raditz could blow the teen to smithereens, a high-pitched voice called from above, "Sora!" Raditz froze and his hand shook like he was on the fence for whether to attack or not. "Raditz, stop!" The same voice shouted only much closer to that man's back now.

"You do not give me orders," Raditz snarled.

"But I do," a deeper voice said right behind him and Raditz froze. The ki sphere on his hand vanished, and he lowered his arm as he moved to the side for his father and brother.

"Goku!" Sora exclaimed as Goku flew down in front of him. "Haha, still a kid I see. Guess that Devil Fruit power may never wear off."

Goku laughed along and agreed, before turning and saying, "Sora, that's my dad, Bardock."

"You have a dad?" Sora asked in surprise.

Raditz sweatdropped that this teen really looked just as surprised to hear that as Goku did when he first arrived. Bardock lowered towards his youngest son and he frowned at Goku, "Since this is your comrade, I will stop Raditz from killing him. However, there are rules against humans coming to the peak of Mount Vegeta."

Sora knew it was a shot in the dark, but figured it was worth a shot anyway. "Um, how about a Keybearer?" Bardock's eyes turned into saucers as did Raditz's, but the other two Saiyans there just looked confused at the King and his eldest son's reactions.

Bardock's eyes lowered down to Sora's right hand and the question he had for him no longer seemed necessary at the sight of the oddly shaped weapon he was holding. Bardock spun to Raditz and growled, "Did you just try to kill, the Keybearer?"

"I had no idea," Raditz began.

"He's holding a Keyblade!" Bardock yelled.

"Whoa, that worked better than expected," Sora said while he watched this in amusement, glad the guy who attacked him and got Goku killed was getting scolded in front of his comrades. "How do you know about the Keyblade?" Sora asked. "And, it's nice to meet you Bardock, I'm Sora."

"Sora," Bardock said and he scratched his chin thoughtfully. He turned to the men with Raditz and said sternly, "This boy is not to be harmed on our mountain."

"But sir, he's a-" the fat Saiyan named Broco began, only for Bardock to give him a glare that got him silent instantly.

"Whoa, seems like your dad's a big shot around here," Sora whispered to Goku.

"Yeah, he's the Saiyan King," Goku replied, making Sora's jaw drop.

"But isn't Vegeta the Prince?" Sora asked, and the Saiyans around him heard Sora which made the two Bardock just ordered look hesitant to comply with his orders.

Broco opened his mouth, then a voice growled behind him, "Do you have a problem with your King's orders?" Raditz was no longer where he used to be floating, now behind his comrade whose face covered in sweat. Broco shook his head back and forth and Raditz smirked menacingly, "Good. Now get to work damn it!"

"Alright!" Broco shouted and shot up in the air.

Bardock called after the fat man and the other who flew away with him. "Let our people know that this boy is not to be harmed. If they disobey, they will die."

Sora's eyes opened huge now and he stared at the Saiyan King nervously. "So, I'm guessing you know a little about this world." He wanted to catch up with Goku and talk about why he came, but there were very important things he had to do and if Bardock could help him out, then he wanted to know whatever the King did.

"I do," Bardock replied. "All of the Super Saiyan Gods are given a crash course in this world's fate and what we should do about it."

"'A crash course?'" Sora questioned.

"They summoned us," Raditz snapped. "The Originals. They told us a little about you Keybearers, about Nexus, but not much else." Raditz looked pissed like he did not get as clear of an explanation as he wanted.

"I could really use some of that information myself," Sora said. "Seeing as I'm supposed to fix all this, I think." He thought about Mickey's message to him that he left in Atlantis, and how confident he was back then that he would accomplish his mission. _But it's been a month and I'm still not any closer to finding the other Guardians, or King Mickey, or Donald, or Goofy, or the Keyhole!_

"We will discuss that later," Bardock said to the boy in front of him who he only now noticed was panting pretty hard. "Follow me, we will go to my home on the top of Mount Vegeta."

"All the way up there?" Sora groaned, glad he got a minute's reprieve but tired as soon as he looked up and saw he had well over a mile left to fly before reaching where he needed to go. The Saiyan men other than Goku frowned at him and he closed his mouth. "Yeah, I can do that," he said, then started flying up to prove it to them. _Crap, I totally underprepared myself for this. The Saiyans here are like Vegeta, worse even. I have to be careful._

As Sora flew up ahead of them and Goku flew by his side, Raditz and Bardock followed below. "Father, what are we doing? Why bring him up at all? He has no reason to be here." Raditz spoke while glaring at his younger brother and the supposed Keybearer's backs.

"You know as well as I that our roles here are insignificant compared to his," Bardock said, though he himself looked pissed as he did. "I dislike it as much as you, but we need to help him if we can. That boy is the best hope for the Saiyan race's survival." Bardock said 'that boy' while looking up at Sora, but his eyes drifted to the other boy flying at his side when he finished. _Both of them are._

* * *

 **A/N Sora's arrived with the Saiyans! A disaster almost takes our young hero's life, but luckily Sora's got some people* looking out for him. What do the Gods, and Super Saiyan Gods, want with Sora? What is the importance of the Keyblade? The demigods don't know, but it seems like Bardock and Raditz have a little more information. Two weeks have passed since the last chapter, where we're now at the point not just after Dressrosa where Goku split off from the group, but after the main group split in half, and then after that when Sora left after the Dread Fort to go find Goku. We're catching up to the present and the shaking world! What will happen next?!**

Limit-Breaking chapter 80 . 23h ago

Well it looks like I am going to lose my sanity, why. Because this story is making me lose my mind. Where do I even begin, first bardock vs blizzard god of destruction was so interesting and I love how the story was going with it. But it was sad to see bardock die in the end. Also he can just give this god power to other Saiyan's is crazy very very crazy this means that there are what 6 super Saiyan God's, I'm sorry but even I can't see the ant king and his army taking that on especially since pitou was damaged by tien if anything this will definitely be and interesting development to see. And raditz is a super Saiyan god, well poor Gohan is getting kidnapped again. But I wonder than since the super Saiyan god is a transformation for pure hearted Saiyan's does that mean bardock and his group are fully good people even raditz but they sorta have their pride like Vegeta does. Wow man first Timmy is mind controlled by the wizard king,than Zoro and his group trying to set sail towards the Saiyan's but fail I honestly can't wait to read more about that as welk than super Saiyan god appears, now they can give this transformation to anybody who can handle it. But than again bardock said to not give it away so easily since it can kill them but man it's basically a super Saiyan god bargain sale. OH YEAH I BEEN MEANING TO ASK BUT HOW BIG IS THE PLANET NEXUS, sorry for putting it in big caps but I just wanted to make sure you read that since I really don't remember if you mentioned it before. Besides that I look forward to reading more from this story and wish you luck on those finals.

 **Thanks! Really happy to hear it that you're liking the story! I originally had the plan to do a flashback for making Bardock a Super Saiyan God, but then it hit me that if that happened before the Saiyan race and far in the past with a God before Beerus, it had to be in a different way than in DBS. So far 6 SSGs, that you know of ;)... or maybe in all XD. How could the Ant King and his armies possibly stand up to those odds? Won't say anything on the good-heartedness, 'cause of the current vagueness of the transformation process, though Bardock said some Saiyans couldn't handle it (maybe cuz they were too evil?). As for how big Nexus is: I had given a few hints earlier on in Nexus, where I think I mentioned how Awul alone was as large as the surface area of the Earth one of the characters was from, or wait I think I had Mace Windu compare it to the size of Coruscant but had heard people compare it to Earth. Anyway, that's pretty big, and I think I've also mentioned that Aebrith is about 3x as large as Awul, not to mention all the water on the world, and any other possible continents and islands hanging around. So I'd say probably at least 10x as big as Earth, and probably no bigger than 20x. Thanks for the luck (hope I didn't bomb my test yesterday, or my one in 6 hours that I should be sleeping rn for instead of editing XD), and thanks again for the review!**

joebob323 chapter 80 . 4h ago

I had to re-read the entire middle part of the chapter, I had thought for some reason that Blizzard was Chilled's dad, and I was confused at why Whis was there too. :/ RIP instant super saiyan god... I guess that Goku will have to wait his turn, or unlock it through training like Vegeta in Canon.

 **Lol XD Blizzard there for revenge over Chilled! Nah, Blizzard was just God of Destruction before Beerus, looking for his successor. Bardock giving a hold on Goku for becoming a God makes sense to me cuz of the risks coming with it, since Bardock does seem to care about Goku and doesn't want to see him get torn apart like some other Saiyans have from the process. Wish I knew how Vegeta unlocked his, would make it easier to write canon ways of Saiyans getting God form! Thanks for the review!**

cyber chapter 80 . 21h ago

so I'm figuring there this god of destruction blizzard(which you made up) killed bardock, good plot and whis is with I don't know what that is all about but I'm liking whats going on, I cant wait to see what happens next.

 **Blizzard killed Bardock far in the past, don't know if you caught the FD - 5 million which meant (First Day on Nexus minus 5 million years), to show it was in the distant past. Blizzard was just the God of Destruction before Beerus (who I did make up). Don't know if you realized it was in the past or thought that was happening currently, but I'm glad you liked the chapter! XD Thanks for the reviews everyone, and thanks to everyone else who just ready too! 'Till next time!**


	82. Nexus HWR 12-4 Countdown

**Nexus HWR 12.4 Countdown:**

 **13 Days Ago…**

 **Mount Vegeta**

"What is a human doing on Mount Vegeta?!"

"This is against your own laws King Bardock!"

"What is the meaning of this?!"

Bardock stood in the sitting room of his house with a stern expression on his face. He had had his sons clear out the chairs in it and move them to the living room across the hall, but even his living room was filling with people like his kitchen. Behind him, standing on the staircase and leaning back on the wall behind the railing was his eldest son, a deep frown on his face like most other people in Bardock's house. His younger son was sitting on the railing in front of Raditz with a smile on his face like he was enjoying this situation. Bardock's crew were to his left, the three of them looking serious like Bardock but staring at the teenager on his left side like everyone else in the room.

"Alright, alright!" Bardock yelled, lifting his arms and waving them down in front of him to signal for the room to quiet down. In front of him were the oldest Saiyans, though most of them looked like they were middle-aged as every Saiyan who had died before was brought back to their youthful selves on Nexus. There were a few Saiyans from another universe who looked older, but all of them had in common that they were scowling and growling at the human to Bardock's left side.

Sora kept calm despite all the angry looks from the Saiyans. _They respect strength more than anything. I know how to act around Vegeta, and though I kinda forgot about that when I met Goku's brother, I can handle this._ Sora had his arms crossed in front of his chest and took calm deep breaths in and out through his nose quietly enough that no one could hear him.

"You can't kill this kid," Bardock began, "because the Gods told us the Keybearers are important for fixing the world order."

Sora's eyes widened and he darted them to Bardock who he felt probably wasn't supposed to be talking about this. The other Saiyans in the room all started shouting though, and one of them stepped forward from the front of the pack before Bardock, "These are the same Gods, who you claim brought us to this world? And the ones none of us have seen-"

"We've seen it," Shugesh snapped over in a deep growl. The older Saiyan man looked over, then backed off as Shugesh gave him a harsh glare, threatening him to continue.

Someone else was daring enough though, "Five Saiyans tell us this shit about religion," they began, and a few people moved out of the way so Bardock could see through the pack towards a beautiful, short woman with spiky black hair that shot a foot out of her head in every direction behind and above her. "And they all happen to either be the King's friends, the King's son," she narrowed her gaze, "or the King himself."

"Are you calling your King a liar?" Bardock growled back towards the woman.

"I wouldn't be," she growled right back, "if you would let me become a God, and see for myself!" She yelled at the end, and immediately following her shout, everyone else in the room started shouting along with her.

"Ignore her and at least turn me into a God!"

"I HAVE THE MOST POWER! GIVE IT TO-"

"STOP FUCKING SHOUTING IN MY HOUSE!" Bardock roared, his hair flashing gold and the room becoming silent in an instant. Goku grinned behind his father and almost chuckled, but the entire room was silent so he pursed his lips and held it in. Bardock's hair turned back to black and he glared around at each of the people who shouted about becoming Gods. "The last three Saiyans who tried were burned out by the process," Bardock snapped. "And they were stronger than any of you."

"I can take it," the woman with crazy spiky hair said. She stepped forward towards the King, and she added, "It shouldn't be up to you to decide."

Bardock vanished, and he appeared in the center of the room with his right hand wrapped around her neck, her body lifted off the floor a few feet. "And why is that?" Bardock questioned back, a smirk coming to his face. "I am your King."

"We all, ack, heard, what Kaka-rott, said," the woman gasped out, and her mouth curled up even as Bardock continued to hold her up by the throat. "Prince, Vegeta, is alive."

Bardock frowned up at the woman, and after a second he released her with a seemingly gentle toss that sent her skidding back across his floor into the living room. "Maybe," Bardock admitted. "But Okara, will we change our way because of this?" He looked around at the Saiyans in his house. "Will we alter our laws, so that our race is no longer ruled by the strongest?!" Bardock walked back towards where he was standing before, leaving his back vulnerable to anyone who would try to attack him. He turned around again when he got in front of his stairs, and he yelled, "If Vegeta wishes to become King, he can come challenge me! Kakarott tells me he is a Super Saiyan as well, a worthy challenger. And if Prince Vegeta asks, I will make him a God, _because_ he is strong enough to take it!"

Bardock glared into the eyes of individuals near him, seeing if any of them had a problem with the way he was handling this. A couple looked like they might, but after how strongly Bardock made his declaration, none of them were willing to say it aloud. An old man on Bardock's right, the oldest-looking figure in the room actually, spoke up after a few seconds. "What you told Okara was not entirely correct, my King. How the last three Saiyans you attempted to make Gods were killed by the transformation," he specified.

Goku looked at his father's back in confusion as Bardock's face took on a pissed expression to it. He realized that Bardock's friends over near the entrance to the kitchen, Raditz behind him, and a lot of others in the room too, all looked angry at the old man's reference. "Only the last two were killed, and the one four transformations ago, but you left _him_ out."

"Why should I have brought up that bastard?" Bardock snarled.

"Because even if the Rogue did betray us," the old man began, "the statistics become much better for the case of creating more Super Saiyan Gods, when you count Turles' successful transformation."

"Turles?" Goku questioned, making the people in the room look up to the boy behind his father's head. Raditz growled and was about to tell Goku to shut up, but he noticed their father smirk on Goku's other side, and he had a bad feeling in his gut that was confirmed in the next second. _They called that space pirate guy Turles,_ the Saiyan man in the body of a child thought. "But I killed him?" Goku said aloud in confusion.

Most people in the room looked at Goku in surprise, then Tora, Fasha, and Shugesh started laughing it up from the entry to the kitchen. "Kakarott, you killed him before coming to Nexus, right?" Bardock mentioned, mainly to specify it for his people who were wondering if Turles was dead.

"Oh, oh yeah," Goku said, realizing it himself that Turles probably came back to life like everyone else. "Wait, he's a Super Saiyan God too?" The boy questioned.

Bardock turned and looked his son in the eyes, surprising the others in the room as he took time out of the meeting to respond. "Yes, but instead of challenging me like a true Saiyan, he tried to stage a coup." Goku looked confused by that word, and Bardock explained, "He gathered up a small army and then tried to take my life while I slept. We repelled them," Bardock said, but he slid the shoulder strap away from his left shoulder as he did so Goku could see a thick scar directly over his left pectoral. "I tensed my muscles as soon as I awoke, stopping the dagger only after it had partially impaled me."

"Yet even with that wound, your father kicked the shit out of Turles," Fasha remarked towards Bardock's youngest. "It's only because of it that the bastard got off the mountain with his life."

Sora glanced at the man next to him in amazement as he thought about that. _He woke up with a knife already inside his chest and still managed to stop his attacker? That's crazy! And really cool!_

"Back to the matter at hand," Bardock said loudly, getting the attention off of him since he did not really like it. "The Keybearer is not to be harmed while on this mountain. You touch him, I'll rip your heart out through your throat. That understood?" He glared around to see if anyone still seemed against it after that threat. No one did. "Hmph," Bardock grunted.

"Kakarott," someone said, and everyone in the room looked towards the back of the sitting room where a giant man who Goku had met in town when he went to check out the guy's shop was standing. The man avoided his King's gaze, and spoke directly to the less intimidating kid, "You know where Prince Vegeta is?" Bardock's teeth clenched, and although the large man was not looking at his King, he caught a glimpse of him in his sight and continued while sweat appeared on his face. "Just saying, you should tell him to come take the challenge, for his rightful place as leader of the Saiyans."

 _Don't kill him. These guys were really into the monarchy. Besides, if Vegeta can kick my ass as a Super Saiyan God, I'll give him the throne. If I even had a throne,_ Bardock grinned, but to everyone else in the room it looked like he was not even concerned that Vegeta could pose a threat to his reign.

"Um, yeah," Goku replied, and he scratched the back of his head. "I'll let him know next time I'm home," he added though, showing he was in no hurry to leave Mount Vegeta. This made some of his fellow Saiyans frown, but it also made the single human in the room frown from the tone in Goku's voice.

 _He really likes it here,_ Sora thought, and he grimaced internally. _I get it, he found his dad and the rest of his people, but, Goku, what about our friends?_

* * *

 **12 Days Ago…**

 **Mount Gine**

At the top of the second tallest mountain in the Saiyan mountains, three flashes of red light illuminated the dim morning air. The mountaintop had only a small area to stand on, considering how steep the slopes on every side of the summit were. There was even less room considering the metal tower on Sora's right with a blinking red light at the top that he heard worked as one of four Power Blocker towers for all of the nearby mountaintops. It looked a little like a radio tower to Sora, and he remembered the tv in Bardock's house, making him wonder if there was a different tower with a blinking red light at the top for that.

Sora looked away from the tower next to him though and focused on the three creatures that appeared in front of him. He put the pokeballs back into the bottomless pack over his back, then clapped his gloved hands in front of him and rubbed them together for warmth. "Alright you guys, I've got a job for you if you're willing to help me out."

"Raa-aa," Charizard roared and nodded its head.

Sora could see Charizard's tail flame looked dimmer than usual, and he apologized quickly, "Sorry buddy, forgot about that. Here," Sora reached down into his bag, and he muttered, "Should have thought of this on my way up." He pulled out a silver armlet with blue gems on the side of it, and Sora motioned for Charizard to come closer to him. Charizard held out its right arm, and Sora put the bracelet on while saying, "It's a Blizzagun Armlet. It'll make it so you feel the effects of a blizzard less." A flash of bright blue light surrounded Charizard for a second, then the flame on Charizard's tail stopped waving with the wind this high in the atmosphere, and the Pokemon felt warmer in general.

Charizard roared out a thanks, then Sora looked at the other two Pokemon that emerged above the mountain with the fire type. "You guys too?"

 **"I would be happy to help you, Sora,"** Lugia said and nodded its head at the end of its long white neck.

Sora turned to the last and smallest of the three he released, and Mew nodded back at him before doing a backflip in the air. "That's great," Sora told them. He smiled and let out a breath of air that hung there for a few seconds thanks to the below freezing temperatures they were in. Mount Vegeta had more natural barriers around the outside of the summit and enough buildings on it to stop the wind, but on top of Mount Gine Sora had nothing to protect from the winds in the upper atmosphere. "So, I found Goku, but he said something when I said we needed to go help our friends that made me realize, I don't actually know where they are." Sora laughed and scratched the back of his head, "Half of them went south, and the other half were heading north, and if I want to meet up with them I have to know where they are first."

His Pokemon knew what he was asking and they all told him they would go look for the others. "You guys are the best," Sora said, and he waved them off as they turned and flew away from the mountains. _I say that but,_ Sora frowned and looked back the other way across the wooden rope bridge that hung precariously over a giant drop. The Saiyans almost never used it since they could just as easily fly over from Mount Vegeta, but Sora started walking across it back towards the summit of Mount Vegeta. _I feel like Goku just wanted an excuse to stay. It's true I wouldn't be able to find them, for a little, but I mean thinking about Natsu and Luffy, I know they'll make a lot of noise wherever they are. I could just follow the sounds of explosions._

The bridge Sora was on swayed and creaked like it was going to fall. Sora closed his eyes and got ready for it, but the bridge stayed sturdy beneath his feet. _Of course it did,_ Sora thought, and he frowned when his eyes opened. He looked up into the sky above him, _**"You don't know either? … No, as Super Saiyan Gods, we were just told that the Keybearers are important in order to fix the worlds. They gave us access to the top floor of the Tower of Babel, but they didn't give us much access to information. As to why this world exists, or the messed-up world order, I don't know enough to give you the answers you're looking for."**_ What Bardock told Sora while in the presence only of the other Super Saiyan Gods atop Mount Vegeta kept repeating in his mind.

 _Even certain Gods don't know. Do any of them? Percy seemed to think they do, but why wouldn't they have told the Super Saiyan Gods? And are they protecting me?_ Sora frowned deeper. _Would this bridge have broken if it was anyone else walking across it? That blizzard might have killed me, if it weren't for them, so I feel like I should thank them… but if they've been watching all this time, there are so many things they could have helped me with._ Sora pouted while staring at the sky, but he did not expect the skies to open up and give him an answer. He let out a sigh and continued walking towards Mount Vegeta with a less serious look on his face. "Well, until I find out where my friends are, might as well stay up here with Goku. It might be fun living with only Saiyans for a while."

* * *

 **7 Days Ago…**

"Whoa," Sora said.

Goku looked up like the boy next to him and they stared into the clear sky above them. Straight up, the sky was mostly black thanks to how high in the atmosphere they were, and because the suns were far to the western horizon. The sky was illuminating with faint purple ripples, and the two boys started looking around to try and find what was causing it. They could not see the cause in any direction they looked, but the eastern sky that was usually darker at sunset seemed oddly orange for some reason. Goku floated off the floor and Sora follwed him up into the air.

They were not the only ones flying up, and a bunch of other Saiyans on the mountain flew into the sky to look towards the east. When they reached a certain level above Mount Vegeta, the sight of the massive beam became visible. "That's great," Goku said, "Natsu got a lot stronger."

Sora heard this on his side and he spun in surprise, asking, "That's Natsu?" Goku nodded, and as Sora started believing him, the teenager had a thought and tilted his head to the side. "How do you know?"

Goku smiled and he pointed towards the beam in the distance. "See how there are flames around it?"

Sora put a hand to his forehead and peered closer, and he saw that there was a reason the distant sky was more orange than just pure white. The point where the end of the beam blasted against the atmospheric boundary also erupted in huge pillars of flames splashing out across the sky around it. The purple ripples kept spreading from that point in the distance. a point that looked lower than the Saiyans and Keybearer were flying. Sora was looking down while he floated, and it was only when he reached a certain height that he could even start seeing the beam, making him wonder at first if the forcefield around the planet was higher above the Saiyan Mountains because of how high up they were. It took him a few seconds to understand that he was looking over a round planet, and the upper barrier also likely curved like the world below.

For a few seconds, Sora became worried about his friends, but he shook his head and smiled after a single dark thought. He looked up at the sky that would occasionally ripple purple, gazed back at the beam in the distant east, and reminded himself how strong his friends were. _We're pretty far north, and Natsu's group went south, so maybe the two groups met back up with each other! That's great. Now when I go back with Goku, almost all of us will be together. Luffy, Natsu, Riku, protect our friends._

* * *

 **5 Days Ago…**

"Really?! Great! I'll go get him!" Goku spun around and sprinted out of the house he was in. The boy knew he needed to move fast, and he sprinted across the top of Mount Vegeta to the east side where there were two wooden posts holding up a wooden rope-bridge. Goku opened his mouth to shout something, but he stopped as the boy he felt was not alone like he was when Goku first sensed him out. Something had flown into the Saiyan mountains' airspace, and that small pink Pokemon was speaking with Sora over on top of Mount Gine.

Mew finally flew off, and Goku cupped his hands to his mouth. "Hey Sora!" He called out. The taller boy across the bridge looked back towards Mount Vegeta, and Goku waved a hand at him while shouting over, "We're starting up training! Come join!"

Sora chuckled and he put his hands behind his head as he started walking over. "Sure!" Sora called out. "Don't know if I'll be able to keep up with you Saiyans though." The teen chuckled as he got closer to his friend, and he looked over the kid's head at all the black haired figures walking around the top of the mountain. He could still picture some of the angry looks they gave him in Bardock's house the other day. "You sure I'm allowed Goku?" Sora asked.

"Yeah," Goku replied excitedly. "I asked and he said it was okay!"

"Well then," Sora said. He pulled his hands down from behind his head and clapped them together in front of him. "Let's get started!"

"Let's go to the Training Mountain," Goku said, and he flew off the ground before Sora even finished crossing the bridge. Sora laughed at Goku's enthusiasm, then he hopped over the side of the bridge and flew after his smaller, older friend.

Sora looked down at the third tallest mountain as they flew past it. There were hundreds of Saiyan homes on top and around the summit of Mount Salad. Sora smiled as he spotted a few children he met the day before, and he waved down at them as he flew by. The kids waved back at him, having opened up after only a few minutes of talking with the strange person like none they had ever been exposed to. One of the kid's parents saw her son waving, and Sora frowned as the woman started yelling at the boy for greeting him.

He knew there was nothing he could do, and he did not want to impose on the Saiyans more than he already had, but it upset him as he thought about that woman telling the children not to talk to him. _I can't be friends with everyone, but I at least wish she didn't raise her children to grow up to hate different people like she probably was._ Sora refocused on Goku as they dropped past the summit of the third tallest mountain and descended towards the sixth a few hundred meters below. There was a lot of space on that mountaintop, and there needed to be considering the fights going on there as the boys flew down.

Sora spotted the man who he figured Goku had asked if he could train with them. Bardock looked up towards them and made eye contact with the Keybearer. Sora held back a gulp and kept his lips flat as he flew towards the Saiyan King. He landed next to Goku twenty feet in front of Bardock, then he bowed his head and began, "Thanks for letting me train with-"

"Enough of the formalities," Bardock said before Sora could finish even one sentence. Sora lifted his head back up, and Bardock crossed his arms while looking at the boys ahead of him. Sora noticed some of the other fighters around the mountain who were sparring intensely were slowing down and many were looking his way. He tried to keep his eyes focused on Bardock's though, and the Saiyan King continued looking in his eyes as he said, "Kakarott, stay back for this."

Goku looked surprised and a little confused as he nodded his head. "I want to see what the Keybearer can do," Bardock mentioned, and the scar-faced Saiyan King smirked. _The Gods think this kid can save the worlds? Fix the universe? I'll decide whether I believe that right now._ "From what I've seen so far, you're not all that strong," Bardock taunted the teenager with spiky brown hair. "But prove me wrong. Take out your Keyblade and come at me with everything you've got!"

 _Oh man, I am so not ready for this._ Sora lifted his right hand in front of him and a flash of light turned into a Keyblade in his grip. He clasped his left hand forward to grab the hilt as well, then he took a deep breath to try and calm his rapid breathing. _Goku said his dad beat him, and I couldn't beat Goku in a million years!_ Sora started running forward, but as he did, the tip of his blue Keyblade with three sharp prongs at the end started to glow. _But the Saiyans have been looking down on me since I arrived. Some of the others are watching too. If I ever want them to take me seriously, if I ever want them to open up to people who aren't Saiyans, I need to bring it!_

The glowing tip to Sora's Keyblade turned black all of a sudden, and Bardock's eyes darted up to see a sphere of blackness larger than his own body appear above him. It dropped towards him, and Bardock was not going to stand there and allow whatever it was to touch him. The Saiyan King's eyes realized that the bottom of the dark ball was not directly over his head, giving him a clear choice of which direction he should dodge since it would be easier to move to his right. His eyes darted to Sora again and he saw the teen's eyes already showing which direction he would be moving, even though he looked to be moving in a straight sprint at the moment.

Bardock did not follow Sora's plan. Instead of dodging towards where Sora was about to pick up his speed and sprint to, Bardock kicked off the ground and appeared in front of Sora. He pulled back a fist as the Keybearer went wide-eyed. The ball of gravity magic Sora created dropped behind Bardock's back, hit the ground, flattened to it, and then Bardock snapped his head to the right to glare at Sora. For a full second he was frozen in place with his arm held back, and he glared towards the kid who leapt away during that second and was pointing his Keyblade down at him. To those who were watching, it seemed like the King just gave Sora a second to back up to avoid being punched, and some of them smirked and snickered about how their King was taking it easy on the "human."

Only Bardock, Sora, and Goku knew what really happened though. As the three thick jets of fire shot out of Sora's shaking Keyblade at Bardock, the Saiyan King was thinking about Sora's magic that stopped his movements. Goku was impressed in his friend and wished he had gotten a chance to spar with him before his father, since he realized he never had fought Sora before, though they had joked about it back on the Sunny. Sora was not impressed in himself though, thinking instead in panic as he hid behind his Firaga magic, _Stopundra only stalled him for a second! I didn't even have enough MP left to use Firandra. Alright, time to step this up a notch!_

Sora landed below the start of his fire magic, and he saw Bardock stomping through the flames like they were not even there. Sora lifted his Keyblade above his head, and he yelled out, "Master!" A flash of bright white light surrounded the Keybearer. When it vanished, Sora was inside the light holding up two Keyblades, one that was green and rugged with three sharp prongs at the end, and the other a fancier light-blue one with a large circular hilt with lots of spikes sticking out of it, and a double-edge to it with sharp points at the end of each one split by a thin hollow center line. His clothes had transformed so he was wearing all yellow, and the boy grinned as he let go of the Keyblade in his right hand. Sora's hands started to glow, and he waved around his right hand to make the green Keyblade in front of it start spinning around in circles in front of him for protection. He held the Keyblade in his left hand down at his waist, then he ran forward at Bardock who examined his transformation closely.

 _Speed increase,_ Bardock thought as Sora leapt off the ground while sprinting at his opponent, as his speed quintupled. He flew up and around Bardock's left side, but the Saiyan King was not going to just let him go by. Bardock jumped up in Sora's path and floated there with his hands out. His hands glowed gold, and he fired the attacks, while Sora was still processing the Saiyan King's appearance. Sora swiped his right hand in front of his body, and the floating Keyblade moving with him spun in front of Bardock's attacks. The Saiyan King smirked as he prepared to see how much those Keyblades could handle, but just by getting close to Sora's spinning Keyblade, a large translucent sphere surrounded the boy. What had been clear air until his attacks got close flashed to show there was a sphere of invisible energy protecting the teenager.

Light sparkled behind Sora, and he flipped himself in midair to switch directions to fly straight towards Bardock. He spun his body in a three-sixty to slash his Keyblades, and though Bardock pulled out of his reach, his weapons slashed farther than his blades extended and slammed into the Saiyan King. _That hurt,_ Bardock thought, and he immediately surrounded his body in a thin white aura. Sora slashed his Keyblades up next, then down, every time creating slashes of air that flew far off his Keyblades before disappearing in the air or absorbing into the hard ground below him. Bardock no longer felt like he was getting hurt from Sora's attacks, and he reached out his arms fast as Sora brought his weapons around again.

As Bardock's hands grabbed onto the shafts of Sora's weapons, the teenager let go of his Keyblades and flew backwards to avoid whatever attack Bardock was going to use next. _Damn, I didn't think he would be hurt much, but that barrier made it so I can't hurt him at all!_

"You leave your weapons behind? What kind of-"

Sora held his arms out to the sides and opened his hands. Flashes of light illuminated from Bardock's hands, and his fists clenched tightly. Bardock grimaced as his nails cut into his own palms, as he was clenching the Keyblades as hard as he could in his base state to try and break them. When the weapons disappeared, his fists clenched too fast for his own good. The Saiyan opened his clenched fists and looked down at his bloody hands, then he lifted his gaze to Sora with a big smirk on his face that unnerved the boy whose Keyblades were just appearing in his hands. Bardock's hair shot up golden, and Sora's anxiousness increased. He started flying backwards to try and increase the distance between himself and this stronger enemy more.

He pointed his Keyblades down to attack, but his magic would not lock on. Bardock was no longer in front of him, and it took him slamming into what felt like a steel wall to realize that the Saiyan was now behind him. "Thunder!" Sora shouted, and he clenched his own teeth in preparation. He did not think he had enough time to spin around, so he used thunder magic on the immovable force behind him, while changing the direction he was flying at the same moment. He turned his head and looked back to see Bardock frowning at him from inside the powerful lightning he called down thanks to his Master Form. _That hurt me more than him!_ Sora realized, still feeling the static from being so close when he called it down.

Bardock flew forward while Sora was flying away, and he slammed a fist down into Sora's back that made the teen's mind flush with agony. He slammed down into the Training Mountain so fast that the collision with Bardock's fist and the collision with the mountain felt simultaneous. Sora felt so much pain that he could hardly think. He lay flat on his stomach and face, and he heard laughter coming from his left side. He did not know where on the mountain he crashed down, but wherever it was, some of the nearby Saiyans were taunting him. As he lay there, a flash of white light surrounded him and he felt his Drive Form wear off.

Goku flew up and called out, "Sora! Are you okay?" He started flying to his friend's side, but Bardock shot him a glare that had the boy stop for a second. _I know Saiyans hate when people interrupt their fights- I sure do. But Sora isn't a Saiyan!_ Goku turned back and was going to ignore his father's look to rush over to Sora anyway, but when he looked towards Sora his eyes opened in surprise, and then he smiled while the other Saiyans on the mountain who were smiling started to just stare in surprise.

Sora slowly staggered up to his feet, and he was panting heavily as he faced away from Bardock. He rose his right arm, and a flash of light created a Keyblade in his grasp. "I can easily see you can no longer fight," Bardock said, frowning at the teen's back. Even though some of his people were impressed by the boy's ability to get up after that last hit, Bardock figured the boy was just unable to accept defeat. He lifted his right fist, but Sora turned his head and grinned at him over his shoulder.

"You'd be surprised," Sora began while panting, and the tip of his Kingdom Keyblade glowed green. The Keyblade with a yellow hilt shot the green magic over Sora in a dome of light. It shimmered down on him and the scratches on Sora's face that popped up when he slammed face-first into the harder-than-steel mountaintop faded away. Sora turned fully and looked at Bardock's surprised expression, then he rose his Keyblade in front of him and grabbed it with two hands again. "I've got a lot of stamina," Sora bragged, and he stopped panting to smirk at the Saiyan King instead.

The smirk on Sora's face made the other Saiyans watching the fight glance at each other to see what their comrades thought about it. A few of them shrugged and looked back with more interest, some others stopped grinning the way they were when they were taunting the kid, though Sora did not notice these looks changing. He was too in the zone. _All these Saiyans do is fight, but I'm not an amateur myself,_ Sora thought and clenched his Keyblade's hilt tighter. _I sparred with Riku, Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie from the time I was five or six years old. I took down genies, dragons, and demons!_ Sora started running towards Bardock, _Just because you're Saiyans, doesn't mean-_

The Super Saiyan in front of Sora vanished, and Sora slashed down. Bardock did not appear in front of him though, and the teenager finished his swipe down, then immediately planted his front foot down hard and did a one-eighty spin to hit anyone who might be appearing behind him. No one showed up in that spot, and fearing that Bardock was still coming from his original front, Sora did a backflip and slashed down at the spot below him. _Where'd he go?!_ Sora landed on his feet, and then he felt two other feet step on top of his head. He darted his eyes up and saw a golden light flaring above him, _When did he-_ Bardock's right foot moved forward, then the heel slammed back while the leg lowered a little, nailing Sora in the head so hard that he was thrown out from beneath Bardock, and right off the side of the Training Mountain forty meters away.

Goku turned to the side of the mountain Sora just went flying off, and he looked closely, hoping his friend would fly back over the edge in a few seconds. "Kakarott. Go get the Keybearer," Bardock called to his son, his Super Saiyan aura vanishing. Goku looked over, and Bardock finished, "I knocked him out."

Sora had been against taking his Power Blocker off ever since he got to the Saiyan Mountains, mentioning that he might have to leave at any moment and did not want to have to waste time putting it back on. Because of that, Goku could not feel that his friend's energy had dropped to a point at which he would have been able to tell Sora was unconscious. He believed his father though, and Goku flew off the mountain without responding to Bardock, flying down it and diving into a thick mound of snow. "Fwew," Goku said as he pulled Sora out of it. "I thought you would have been a giant snowball," he said and laughed to himself. Sora did not hear him, as the teenager with spiky brown hair was out cold, in multiple ways as he was now covered in snow.

Goku frowned as he looked at a gash on Sora's forehead that was bleeding a lot. "Don't worry," Goku told the unconscious teen. He flew up over the side of the mountain, but he did not look down at the Training Mountain as he kept flying towards the third tallest, where Raditz had brought him the first time he did not know where the Saiyans' healing chambers were. Bardock frowned up at his son who flew away without a word to him, and he knew exactly where Kakarott was going. _That boy's health is more important to you than respecting your father?_ Bardock frowned and growled, though it was a half-hearted one. _The strongest Saiyan ever, and you're so, human._

* * *

 **Still 5 days ago…**

Sora walked towards a large hall on the top of Mount Vegeta. Most of those who lived on the tallest mountain went to this grand hall to eat, and though Bardock said he would rather eat at home, as King he needed to be out in public to hear the concerns of his people. Sora thought that was a redeeming quality to the man who left a dent in his head earlier that day. After he left the healing chamber he did not remember getting into, he had gone back to the Training Mountain but held back from joining in any more training for the day.

The grand hall he headed towards was a one story building on the north side of the tallest mountain that was a hundred and fifty meters long. It had only one floor inside, but the top of the hall was high above the floor so the building was taller than most two or three story houses on Mount Vegeta. Sora walked down a dirt road between two lines of houses, and he sighed as he saw an old man sitting on his porch on Sora's right side give him a harsh glare. _I'm trying,_ Sora thought, turning away from the elderly man and refacing the hall he could see only a quarter mile away. He had gone back to the King's house after leaving the Training Mountain on his own, but neither the King nor his sons were there. _If they're not fighting, they're eating._

Sora slowed down as he neared the front doors of the hall. _I don't get these Saiyans,_ he thought, a frown crossing his face. _As the Keybearer, I'm what connects the worlds. I can speak to everyone, I'm supposed to understand, everyone. But the Saiyans, they're like no people I've ever met before. Why, are they so, bad? No, no don't think of it like that. Their culture is different… but that doesn't make it okay, does it? I'm not just supposed to accept their culture, if their culture involves killing everyone who isn't a Saiyan. I mean, they only do it when other races come to these mountains, so I guess I could call them sacred. I could understand, but the Saiyans don't treat these mountains like they're sacred. They just, don't like other races. Bardock protects the lands fifty miles in every direction of the base of Mount Vegeta, but would the other Saiyans if he was not around?_

The boy frowned deeper still as he got within a hundred meters of the grand hall. _Earlier, after I returned to the Training Mountain, I thought the Saiyans had a little more respect for me. When I healed that child though, bloody with a broken arm, the kid got so mad at me. The others made fun of him for getting help from a human, and they looked at me in disgust like getting help from me was worse than bleeding out. I just, don't understand Saiyans. Goku never talked bad about his own people, but I know he can see how different he is from most of them. Come on Sora, don't generalize them. I don't want to hit the point when if someone introduces themself as a Saiyan, I'm nervous around them. Keep an open mind! You're the Keybearer! Understanding all the people of all the worlds has to be a part of the job description! I mean, if anyone had ever told me, I'm sure it would have been!_

Sora walked up to the doors of the grand hall, and he entered while keeping a calm and serious look on his face. He entered and avoided the gazes of any Saiyans who turned to him, looking only for the Saiyan boy he would recognize best. The kid he was looking for also turned towards the door, so Sora made eye contact with Goku and was able to smile when Goku flashed him one of his own, with a bunch of meat between the kid's teeth. The teenager walked over to his friend's table and sat next to Goku who scooted in towards Tora on his left side to make room for Sora.

Although Bardock was eating in the grand hall to make an appearance as King, he did not have a special table at the front of the room, or a special chair to sit in. He sat close to the center of the room, and though his crew were in the seats next to him, there were many other Saiyans at their table and the tables connected to them on either side. There were wooden benches on the sides of the tables instead of chairs, and the table was packed with people constantly elbowing each other as they were pressed in close. It seemed to Sora that everyone wanted to be sitting at this table in the center of the room and were scooting as close to their King as they could to be a part of his conversation. After he sat almost directly across from the King, since Goku had been sitting there before scooting to make a little room for him, Sora noticed a lot of harsh glares aimed his way again.

The conversation had paused for a second when Sora entered, but Fasha continued after the Keybearer was sitting at their table. "You see Kakarott," she lifted up her right hand and above her palm formed a small sphere of white light. "To make the Power Ball you need to merge your own ki with the atmosphere of the planet. Nexus's is different from- don't look straight at it," she crushed her right hand and Goku shook his head as for a second there he had not been thinking. Fasha let out a sigh, then the woman with short black hair continued, "It takes a lot out of you, so we don't like using it unless we need to. But it's worth it to become the mighty Oozaru."

Goku nodded his head and took another bite of his food, "I remember that thing now," he said between chews. "Vegeta used it when we fought on Earth."

Everyone at the table looked towards Kakarott interestedly. Even Sora found himself looking at the kid next to him with intrigue in his eyes as he had never heard much about this fight. Raditz looked at his younger brother and frowned deeply. _If Vegeta had won, he would have revived me. You kept me from coming back, Kakarott,_ he growled at his younger brother, and a man with similarly long spiky black hair on Raditz's other side let out a sigh. Apragus looked past Raditz, three other Saiyans, and Shugesh, to see Bardock looking at his youngest with a grin on his face. "You're the stronger of the two of you now," Apragus mentioned. "Just ignore him," he suggested.

Raditz grumbled, but he could not ignore his brother as he was as interested as everyone else in what Kakarott was talking about. "I don't know if I can make one, though now that I have my tail back I hope I can. I would need to learn how to control that form though, since I could never remember a thing after I looked at the full moon as a kid. Apparently I used to just go berserk." Goku frowned and stopped eating for a second, but he shook thoughts of his Grandpa Gohan out of his head.

Sora could see Goku just thought of something bad, and the teenager turned to Fasha, asking, "How did you guys discover how to make one of those things anyway?"

It sounded like an impressive energy to him if it could make the Saiyans transform on its own. Fasha looked at the kid, and she smirked while saying, "Bardock isn't just the brute you think you're looking at, guy's got some brains on him too."

Goku and Sora turned to Bardock in surprise while the King kept focusing on his food and eating. Tora continued on Goku's left, "Your dad's actually a pretty smart scientist. He came up with the way to create the artificial Blutz Waves."

"With some help," Bardock mentioned. "Gine was always better at that stuff than I was. Wouldn't have had any success in those experiments if it weren't for her," he took another bite out of a drumstick.

"Who's Gine?" Goku questioned. Sora also wondered that, considering he had heard the name before in reference to the second tallest mountain in the range. The way Bardock just talked about her though, Sora already had a pretty good idea.

"You never told him?" Shugesh questioned with a mouth full of food.

Bardock shrugged his shoulders, but he stopped eating for a second and looked into his youngest's eyes. "She's your mother," he told the boy.

"I have a mom?" Goku questioned in surprise. Bardock chuckled as the kid sounded as surprised that he had a mom as he did when Bardock said he was his father. "Where is she now?"

Bardock grit his teeth, then he growled in a low voice, "She was killed, during the pointless war against the Kryptonians, the humans call it the First War of the Gods."

"It wasn't pointless-" a woman at their table began. Bardock glared past Shugesh towards her, but she was not going to let up. She clenched her fists over it, and she snarled, "How can you say such a thing about the war that took Gine's life? The one that took both my sons from me? They fought with honor!"

"For what?" Bardock growled at her. He sounded angry as well, though he did not sound mad at her specifically. "They fought the Kryptonians to find out which race was superior, and they died. So many died with them. So many sent to their deaths, and for a question that didn't matter, for a war King Vegeta started. We never even got an answer to the question they died for." Bardock grabbed a piece of meat from his plate, and he took a huge bite out of it while thinking, _I'm glad I ended it._

What Bardock said angered some other Saiyans at the table who started growling at each other because of it. Most of Bardock's crew were arguing his side, but Sora noticed Raditz was one of those arguing with someone next to him that the war was necessary. He heard the long-haired Saiyan brag about killing a bunch of those "dirty" Kryptonians, and Sora frowned deeper as he wondered why the Saiyans and Kryptonians needed to fight. _Was it really just to see who was stronger? Did they really kill each other over such a pointless reason?_

Goku was also looking around a little confused as everyone talked about this. "War against the Kryptonians?" Goku questioned. "Was that why I never saw any Saiyans fighting monsters before?" Many of those at the table who were close enough to Kakarott to hear him quieted down. They looked at the kid in confusion, and Bardock, who had gotten back to his food, also cocked his head to the side wondering what his son was talking about. Goku could see they all looked confused, and he continued, "On the early days after coming to Nexus, and well, until a month ago really, I didn't see any Saiyans fighting monsters, or beating up bad guys, or helping, people…" Goku saw some of those confused looks turning into more disgusted ones, and people were leaning back from their seats while starting to frown deeply at the Saiyan kid.

"Why would we go to the aid of weaklings?" Shugesh questioned the kid across the table from him. The fat Saiyan man looked confused like many of the others, though as he looked next to Goku at Tora, he saw the King's best friend shaking his head at him as if saying 'be quiet.'

Goku looked back into the man's eyes and responded, "Because it's the right thing to do."

Bardock frowned deeply at his son. _Damn it, Kakarott._

Fasha glanced in at the Saiyan man next to her, and Tora looked across the table at Bardock to see what their King was thinking. The other Saiyans around them were not as quiet though, and a man between Raditz and Shugesh growled over, "I could understand caring about one's family, but why others?"

Goku was getting confused by all these reactions, and he said, "I care about all life." He turned to his father, wondering what Bardock thought considering all the disapproving looks from the other Saiyans. Bardock's expression was hard to read while Goku looked in his eyes though, and Goku continued firmly to show these ideals were not flimsy, "I would risk my life to protect people."

Other Saiyans at the table found themselves holding their tongues. They were starting to glare at the boy, and finally one of them growled over, "I can't believe the Saiyan who killed Frieza is such a soft person. Where is your rage, your vengeful spirit that you used to defeat Frieza?"

"I didn't fight Frieza for revenge," Goku said.

The other Saiyans at the table dropped their jaws and even Bardock stared at his own son in shock. "You didn't?" Bardock asked, his eyebrows lifted high.

Goku shook his head. "I fought Frieza because he was a tyrant threatening the universe. He killed the Namekians, and Vegeta, and my friend Krillin. I fought him for justice though, not for revenge," Goku looked into his father's eyes as he said it, then he looked around the table at all the Saiyans staring at him in shock like that answer was ridiculous. He caught sight of his father shaking his head out the corners of his eyes while he was looking down the table, and Goku suddenly continued, "Until I turned into a Super Saiyan." He paused, wondering why he said that, but it was the truth and he continued, "After, Frieza killed my best friend, I turned into a Super Saiyan. And a piece of me did want revenge for Krillin's death," Goku looked back at his father, and Bardock could see the boy was telling the truth, which only made the father frown more.

 _The Saiyan spirit is inside him. I saw it when he fought me, and he used his rage to transform into a Super Saiyan. But there's something he's missing, something the rest of the Saiyans have that you sorely lack, Kakarott. Do you have no pride?_ Bardock frowned more at his son, but he could not bring himself to ask the question aloud, for he feared the answer.

Now that Goku had explained himself, showing that he knew what he was saying, the Saiyans who were trying to understand him stopped trying. They snarled and growled his way, and he heard them start muttering to each other. "This is what Kakarott really thinks?"

"What a waste of Saiyan blood."

"The Saiyan who killed Frieza cannot be this naive."

"It's all true," a voice said loudly, and everyone at the table looked down it to see Raditz glaring over at his younger brother. Goku made eye contact with the older man, and Raditz smirked internally at how Kakarott appeared to the other Saiyans. Then the older Saiyan snarled and continued aloud, "When I went to Earth to get Kakarott, I found the people of Earth all alive. When I said I would kill them all, Kakarott fought me and laid down his own life for those weak people."

Goku frowned back towards Raditz and said, "I'd do it again. You kidnapped my son!"

"He would have become a stronger Saiyan if I had raised him!" Raditz yelled over at his brother. "You and your weak ideals!" Many of the others around Raditz were nodding and growling in agreement with him.

"My son is a Super Saiyan, and he's stronger than I am," Goku retorted.

"I saw that strength on Earth," Raditz snapped before anyone got the idea that it was thanks to Goku that his son got so strong. "Your son's strength comes from his anger! When he was mad, your son got exponentially stronger! I bet instead of harnessing that anger, he still only uses it when he's actually pressed by his emotions." Goku closed his mouth and Raditz snarled deeper at him, "That's right. He had the potential to be the greatest Saiyan, even if he was a dirty half-breed."

Goku shot out of his seat and stood on the bench, glaring at Raditz with his teeth bared. The other Saiyans at the table who growled along with Raditz quieted down, but Raditz continued to the boy standing on his seat, "You actually mated with one of those humans you were sent to kill? Disgusting."

Goku's hair shot up golden, and Raditz rose out of his seat while Goku floated up. Sora looked at Goku nervously as the kid was looking really serious which was a rare occurrence. _ChiChi,_ Goku thought, his teal eyes digging into Raditz's. Goku's hands shook at his sides, and the sight of his wife in his arms after the bombing that happened at his house appeared in his mind. His crying sons at his sides, the blood all over her face, it fed Goku's anger, and Raditz's smirk finally fell. Raditz's hair turned red and a red aura surrounded him, flaring like crazy while he glared at his brother. The two of them looked an instant away from flying across the table and killing each other, and then Bardock slammed both of his hands down on the table and roared, "ENOUGH!"

His sons froze where they were, but Bardock did not fly up between them. The King stayed where he was sitting, while everyone else in the grand hall looked towards him and his sons. "Sit down Kakarott," Bardock growled at his son floating across from him. Goku darted his gaze towards his father, then back to Raditz angrily.

Raditz smirked as Bardock spoke, and he added, "Even father agrees that you screwed up your mission-"

"A mission Frieza gave you," Bardock snarled. Raditz lost his smirk, and everyone looked over to Bardock who turned to his eldest now. Bardock glared into Raditz's eyes, and he growled, "Whose orders were you following when you went to get your brother?" Raditz frowned deeper, and Bardock continued, "Are you mad that your brother did not follow those orders? Orders to empty a planet so that Frieza could sell it?" Bardock grabbed a chunk of meat off his plate and bit into it like there were not two figures making the building shake floating at his table. "You were following Frieza's orders at the time, like I did in life, like many of our people did." A lot of the other Saiyans around them who were shunning Kakarott, the hero Son Goku who they were just starting to understand, they looked away as they felt shunned themselves as their King spoke. Raditz started snarling, but he backed down to his seat, and Goku floated down himself, his golden aura vanishing while his hair turned back to black. Bardock took another large rip out of his meat, and he grumbled, "You died on a mission to Earth, where your brother got you both killed. But whose orders were it to get your brother?"

Bardock was ready to let the argument end there. He thought he had, and he lifted his food to take another tear of it. "Prince Vegeta's," Raditz replied. Bardock's question was rhetorical, and every person at the table knew it. Sora knew it, and the teen's face got sweaty as Raditz said that aloud. Bardock lowered his food to his plate, his hair shadowing over his eyes at what Raditz just said. Even the man sitting next to Raditz dropped his jaw at what his mate just said. Apragus's expression matched most of those at the table, though Bardock's crew were all glaring towards the King's eldest after he said that.

The whole room was silent, and Raditz held back any sweat from appearing on his face. He kept a serious expression, and he said, "Frieza had no idea I was going to Earth. Prince Vegeta sent me there to get Kakarott. Because even though most of our race were killed, he kept us together."

Raditz smirked when he finished speaking, and Bardock slowly turned his head and looked over into his son's eyes darkly. There had been a lot of discussion atop the mountain since Kakarott arrived about Prince Vegeta, and what Raditz just said made those who supported Vegeta a hundred times more legitimate. The Super Saiyan Gods were all assumed to have complete loyalty towards the King, as they consisted of his son and his crew, but all of a sudden that assumption seemed to be off. Everyone was quiet, and then Goku started, "You sound like you think Vegeta cared about you, but he didn't." Raditz spun to his brother and everyone in the room looked at Goku too. Goku continued, "When my friends talked about using the Dragon Balls to wish me back to life after we killed each other, Vegeta heard about it and came to Earth to use them himself." Raditz grinned as he already knew that would happen since his scouter had been on and sending information across the galaxy the whole time he was on Earth. Goku continued, "But he wasn't going to bring you back to life, he just wanted to become immortal. He couldn't care less about you."

As soon as Goku said it, Raditz's jaw dropped, and then half the Saiyans in the room started laughing. Goku looked around in confusion as to why everybody thought that was so funny, then he looked back towards Raditz to see Aprgaus holding his older brother in a full nelson to try and hold him back. Raditz was struggling to get out of his seat, while the man behind him was trying to calm him down. It probably wouldn't have been so bad, if Bardock and all the other Saiyans at the King's table besides Raditz and Apragus were not breaking out in laughter too.

Apragus said something that made Raditz calm down, and Sora noticed this while everyone around him was still laughing. Goku started smiling that the tension in the room dissolved, but Sora watched as Raditz started gazing around like his mate already had done. Sora noticed it as well; not everyone was laughing. Some were not calmed down by what Goku said, some people were not laughing at Raditz's expense, and they weren't staying quiet because of fear of Raditz. Many of them thought that Bardock brought up Raditz working under Frieza to remind everyone that Vegeta had as well. Raditz spoke up in Vegeta's defense though, Raditz claimed to take orders from Vegeta over those of Frieza, and even though Vegeta sounded like he did not care as much about Raditz, he was the Prince and it was not their place to judge his actions. Raditz looked around and saw that not everyone was laughing at him like he had thought when the loud laughter started.

Sora stopped looking around as one of those people giving Raditz a serious look instead of one of laughter turned his way and glared into his eyes. Sora looked down at the table in front of him, and he frowned deeply, _Saiyans… I don't understand them, but…_ Sora shivered. _I am afraid of them._

* * *

 **4 Days Ago…**

To the east of the base of Mount Gine, a boy stood facing the tall mountain range that he was already partially up. The mountains in the area mostly had bases high up in elevation, so he was already at a high altitude and standing on top of a bunch of snow. There were some shorter mountains behind him, a really tall one to his southwest, but directly to the west, where he was facing, stood the second tallest of the Saiyan Mountains. He could not actually tell from this low down that it was the second tallest, as the top of it and all the mountains around it was hidden inside the clouds, but he had asked around. There was a town behind him, a town on the east side of Mount Gine, a town he had been searching through for the past two hours.

 _It's so cold,_ Dash Parr thought. The boy rubbed his biceps with his hands while he stood there trembling. He had made it across the southern continent and over the Cataclysm line in less than a full day. He had run across a bridge and leapt over a train when it had come towards him, but he was running on very little steam. _I never slept after bringing Killua to the base, and I didn't get any sleep before that since I was too busy running away from monsters and bad guys._ Dash took a deep breath, then he glanced over his shoulder back at the town behind him. _He's not in there, and they said the next town is only a mile and a half up the slope, but Mr. Best wasn't very clear on where JackJack was exactly. Those people also said there are **hundreds** of towns and cities around these mountains. _

Dash yawned involuntarily and he turned back to the town behind him. _It makes sense, if the Saiyans really do protect everything around their mountains. Still, I wish I, could have found, JackJack today._ Dash let out another yawn as his mind told his body that it was over for the day. He legs felt heavy and he could hardly lift his arms anymore, and he chuckled to himself, _What was I even thinking, rushing up here as soon as I heard where he was? Mr. Best said he's safe, so there's no hurry._

The kid headed back into the town where he would spend the night. _It's going to be hard to search if I have to run through all that snow to get to every town. Hopefully there are some roads connecting the other towns and the bigger cities. Mr. Best didn't say JackJack was in a city- but then again the town he put JackJack in could have grown a lot since he left._ Dash sighed deeply and mumbled, "It's going to be a long day tomorrow."

* * *

 **3 Days Ago…**

 **Mount Vegeta**

Inside the Saiyan King's house, Sora sat next to Goku at an awkward lunch. It was awkward because the other two men at the table were not sitting on the other side as the two boys, but were sitting at opposite heads of the small table. Sora kept catching glimpses of Raditz looking at his father in a half nervous, half challenging way, while Bardock seemed to just be enjoying his lunch. _He never usually sits there though. Raditz sat down first,_ Sora thought, thinking about how he and Goku were already sitting there and talking in a much more pleasant mood until a few minutes ago. _So maybe Bardock felt he had to have a head of the table to himself? But I feel like a bigger power move would have been to just stay where he sat originally to show Raditz isn't a threat. Or does he think Raditz is one? Or maybe, he's doing this to show his son respect? Because if he didn't, it would be like spitting in the face of his son's challenge? I don't know._

Sora sighed and continued eating his food at a much slower pace than the ravenous Saiyan warriors around him. Although the mood between father and eldest son was tense, the mood was going right over Goku's head who kept talking to each of them like it was a normal day. Sora took a bite of his food and thought, _Well, at least they're eating together. I didn't see the two of them in the same room at all yesterday._

"…Then," Goku continued, before shoving another full loaf of bread in his mouth. He chewed once then swallowed most of it, before continuing while shoving more good food down his gullet, "Gohan did the biggest Kamehameha I've ever seen! I mean," Goku gulped, "I didn't technically see it, because I was dead again, but thanks to King Kai I was kind of there. In spirit!" At this point, hearing the kid who looked no older than ten talking about his own kids did not surprise the other men in his family anymore. He acted so much like the age he looked that it was easy to forget his actual age sometimes though. Goku kept talking while taking another bite, "And Gohan beat him! I couldn't even beat him!"

"You should bring this son of yours to Mount Vegeta," Bardock said without looking away from his food. He grabbed his glass and knocked back some water to wash down the dry fish he just chewed. Bardock continued, "From the way both of you have been talking about him, this grandson of mine is quite the warrior."

Raditz humphed, but then he muttered, "He was a crybaby when I met him." Goku frowned at his brother, but Raditz picked up a chunk of meat and shoved it in his mouth before continuing, "I'd li-ke, to see, what kind, of war-rior, you turned, him into, Kakarott," Raditz muttered, before swallowing his food that made it hard to understand him. To Sora, it almost seemed like Raditz was using food and incomprehensible words to mask what he was really saying.

"I bet Gohan would want to come see this place," Goku admitted, a smile coming to his face after what Raditz said. He grabbed another piece of meat and dipped it in the big gravy pot in the center of the table. Goku devoured that piece, then he continued, "But Gohan doesn't want to be a warrior." Both his father and his brother looked at him in surprise, and Goku continued, "His mother always wanted him to be a scholar, and he told me that once his business with Luthor is finished, he's going to follow her wishes."

"Luthor," Bardock murmured, while Raditz shook his head in annoyance. Goku's older brother got even more annoyed that their father did not say anything about Goku's son's future aspirations. Bardock continued, "That's the man you said killed your mate? And you were too weak to defeat him?"

Goku frowned deeply, grabbing another piece of meat and shoving it in his mouth instead of responding. "I 'onder 'f you- or, any Gods, could beat him," Goku said through a mouthful. The food seemed to cheer him up a bit and he continued, "I know Super Saiyan Gods are strong, but Luthor faced me as a Super Saiyan 3 after I had absorbed all the energy of millions of people, many of them strong fighters. He said he would be training to control his power too, because when he beat me, it was the first day he had obtained all that power. I'm sure he's even stronger now." Despite all of Goku's anger towards the man, the idea of facing a much stronger Lex Luthor the next time they met, it excited him enough to smile.

"Ha! We would destroy him!" Raditz boasted.

"I agree. This man may be strong, but you underestimate the power of a Super Saiyan God," Bardock told his youngest. "You have never seen the extent of our power."

"Then why don't you two have a go?" Sora suggested. The other three at the table looked in at him, and Sora suddenly felt small under the two powerful Super Saiyan Gods' gazes. He had already spoken though, so he decided to follow through, and Sora elaborated, "If the two of you fought, I'm sure Goku would get a better idea of how strong Super Saiyan Gods really are."

Raditz and Bardock turned to face each other. _What am I saying?! Tension was high enough already without me giving them a reason to beat each other up! Stupid stupid stupid!_ "What about it, son? Want to give it another go?" Bardock grinned at the longer-haired Saiyan across the table from him who said nothing for a few seconds, then slowly the corners of his mouth curved up too. Goku jumped up excitedly, saying that he wanted to see how strong Raditz had gotten too, since he had never beaten Raditz in a fight one-on-one himself.

"And you never will," Raditz snapped at the little boy on his right.

"Well I'm going to try turning into a Super Saiyan 3 after you two fight," Goku remarked right back. Raditz frowned as he had heard about the rule his father put on Kakarott before he could go through the next legendary transformation of their race. The younger Saiyan boy continued, "And when I become a God, I'll fight the loser of the fight first, before fighting dad." The way Goku worded the sentence made Sora grin and try to hold back his laughter, while Bardock let out a chortle and took another large bite of food to stop himself from laughing more.

Sora stopped himself from laughing which he felt was a great idea in hindsight from the harsh glare Raditz shot Goku. There was suddenly a knock at the door and the four at the table turned towards it. "Come in," Bardock called out, not wanting to get up and answer the door himself. The door opened up, and it was not a Saiyan Sora or Goku recognized. The woman had never been there before, and they had not seen her on top of Mount Vegeta in the two weeks, or month, since they had gotten there.

"Toufu, what are you doing back here?" Bardock questioned.

"I could not send this message, I had to deliver it myself," she said, and she walked towards the table. She looked at the younger boys at the table oddly but did not feel it necessary to question her King about them. Toufu had long spiky black hair like Raditz's, only it stopped a little more than halfway down her back. The woman looked young, Sora guessed probably somewhere in her early twenties. She had a slim figure like Fasha, and unlike most other Saiyans Goku and Sora had met atop the mountains so far.

Toufu walked to her King's side of the table, but Bardock said while leaning back from the table and swallowing his last bite for now, "Speak up girl. Whatever you can say to me you can say in front of them."

The woman looked even more confused, as it appeared to her that one of the people at Bardock's table was not a Saiyan. She did not argue though, and she started after Bardock finished, "There is word that the Ki- the Ant King, is mobilizing." Toufu had to correct herself, as anywhere other than the Saiyan Mountains, the phrase "The King" mostly applied to one creature. "There has been increased movement of the Capital 50's forces around Aebrith."

Sora perked up and gained a serious look on his face. Goku looked a little confused, but also interested as he heard about this Ant King once again. _Capital 50?_ The Saiyan boy thought.

Bardock waved his hand though and said, "It's of no concern to us what the Ant King does. Besides, you are getting worked up over movements like the King does not do these sorts of things often."

"I do not know, my King," Toufu said. "This seems different. The atmosphere over Aebrith is tense. Something is brewing."

"Hmph," Bardock grunted. "Keep an eye on things. Return to your post. If anything happens, bring it to me." He turned and looked her in the eyes, "Understood?"

"Y-Yes, King," she replied, and she bowed her head to the scar-faced Saiyan man.

The woman turned to leave, but Sora turned to Goku after hearing that conversation. "Goku, big things seem to be happening down in the rest of Aebrith. We should meet back up with everyone. They'll probably be getting involved in it, whatever it is."

"Your friends are foolish enough to make enemies of the Ant King?" Bardock questioned.

"Yep," Sora replied casually. "Goku's gonna beat him up, right?" Sora asked, and his friend next to him grinned and nodded.

"You wish," Raditz scoffed. Goku and Sora each looked to the Saiyan on their left, and Raditz looked down at them, "The only one to ever beat the Ant King is father. I could have done it too," he added, "but for a non Super Saiyan God, it would be impossible."

"He's that strong?" Goku asked in amazement. He shook with excitement, "Now I really have to turn into a Super Saiyan God soon."

"Only once I allow it," Bardock said. He stood up from his seat as he was done eating, and he glanced towards the door to see Toufu had just walked out after gawking at the conversation Sora and Goku had had for a few seconds. He turned back to his youngest, "If you reach that Super Saiyan 3 form you spoke of, I will consider telling you the way."

"'Consider?!' I thought if I- actually, nevermind," Goku stopped himself and started grinning instead of complaining. Raditz, Sora, and Bardock all became confused at the boy's second reaction, as they were each expecting how he originally started to react. Goku put another last piece of meat in his mouth, leaving his once heaping plate empty, then he got up and finished, "Even if you don't teach me how, I'll still become a Super Saiyan God."

"It doesn't work like that," Raditz began in a growl.

"I don't care," Goku said, and he grinned confidently like he knew exactly what he was talking about. "I'd still do it. If it's the only way to beat him, I'll find a way."

"Luckily, you won't have to," Bardock said, and he started for the door of his house. "Now let's go, or are you backing down now that your stomach's full?"

Raditz stood up and stomped a foot towards the door and his father, "This time for sure. I will defeat you!"

* * *

 **Two Days Ago…**

 **Mount Salad**

In the middle of the third tallest mountain's summit, hundreds of Saiyans were gathered around. Their King stood in the center of an empty plaza in the middle of the town atop Mount Salad, and his people were gathered all around him. The center of the square was elevated a few steps from the rest of it, and the square of elevated area in the center of the plaza was mostly empty while all the area around it was packed full of people. The square in the center had only a dozen people on top of it: the King in the center, Tora and Shugesh who stood behind Bardock facing the opposite half of the square as their King was facing, Fasha standing ten meters to Bardock's right and examining the crowd, and a cluster of other powerful-looking Saiyan warriors.

There were no barriers preventing others from approaching or standing on that center square, and two of the Saiyans on it were not close allies of Bardock like many of the others around him. Bardock's sons stood on his left, Kakarott only a few feet away from him, while Raditz stood just a little farther. The King's older son was sporting a black bruise below his left eye, and Raditz still felt sore even after two dips in the healing chamber from his fight against his father the day before. Goku also recognized Apragus and Bora as the Saiyans who brought him to Mount Vegeta a month ago. He looked around for the one-armed Dobaka who he liked more than the other two, but he did not see him around. He looked back at Apragus who he noticed was always around his older brother, even now as he stood only a little farther away from Bardock as Raditz did.

Sora also stood in the center square. He did not feel like he belonged up there, but then again he did not feel like he would fit in any better in the large crowd of Saiyans, and he thought it would be safer to stay at Goku's side. He stood a few feet behind Goku, trying not to get in anyone's way in the heated debate going on. _Debate is a rough wording,_ Sora thought to himself as he stared at the people in front of him. _Even 'argument,' seems a little mellow._

"We made you King because you were strongest, yes, but also because the royal bloodline was extinguished! Or so we had thought!" One of the two men before Bardock called out. Sora looked at them closer, and although he had heard that Saiyans age slower than humans, both of these men had wrinkles on their faces. The one who was not speaking even had gray hair, and Sora frowned deeply as he examined them. His eyes shifted past them, and he looked through the crowds around the square. _A lot of teenagers acting like adults, and a lot of older people, late middle-aged and elderly._ None of the Saiyan children were in the crowd, but Sora noticed that there was an odd discrepancy with the amount of middle-aged and young adults.

 _Bardock mentioned many of the strong Saiyans being killed by the Super Saiyan God transformation process Goku keeps talking about. I'm not too disappointed he failed turning into a Super Saiyan 3 yesterday. I don't want to watch Goku explode, or something, if the process fails. Still though, there aren't a lot of Saiyans who look like they're good in a fight. I mean, I bet most of them could beat me… but still._ Sora hummed to himself as he tried figuring it out on his own. _Could be that First War of the Gods Bardock mentioned. He seemed pretty upset about it, so maybe it was more than just about his wife. Maybe, it really depleted the Saiyan population, not that there aren't a lot of them left._

Sora had been drowning out the argument about Vegeta, but he refocused as Bardock shouted, "It is up to Prince Vegeta whether to try and take his place as King. I have not seen him come for it yet!"

"If he knew, he would come!"

"Send Kakarott to get him!"

"He shouldn't have to 'try' and take his place!"

"Are you telling me to relinquish my place?" Bardock questioned, and all the shouting stopped as Bardock was staring straight at the young man in the crowd who shouted it. "What are you? Eighteen years old?" Bardock stepped towards the teenager who took a step back but was trapped by all the Saiyans behind him in the crowd. He had sweat all over his face, and those who were not agreeing with him smirked or laughed, while those who agreed with him grumbled to themselves that the one who dared shout it was so easily pushed back.

"Prince Vegeta should not have to challenge you for the throne," the older of the two men up on the center square with Bardock began. The man with graying hair continued while looking up into Bardock's black eyes with his own, "If you step down, he would not have to overthrow you." The way he said it sounded like a suggestion, while at the same time had the connotations of a threat.

"As I have said," Bardock growled back at the older man. "Prince Vegeta has every right to take my position. Were he to rise to the mountain right now-"

"Would you step down?" The old man interrupted. Bardock frowned at him, but the man continued, "Would you give him his rightful place as King?"

Bardock frowned silently for a few moments, then he growled, "I would not." Some people started murmuring in the crowd, but most were silent and Bardock glared into the older man's eyes, "Is that what you were looking for?" Bardock looked around the crowd to see who else was a dissenter like the old man. "I will not follow someone weaker than myself! If Prince Vegeta comes, he will follow the laws I have put in place and that we have followed for two years now! No, it is not tradition! No! It is not the way things have always happened! But it is our way now! I am the strongest Saiyan alive!" Bardock glared around at anyone who dared still murmur while he spoke, and they all became silent instantly.

"If Prince Vegeta comes, I will let him have the same opportunity that any other Saiyan has. All can challenge me for their right to rule-" Bardock got cut off by a woman shouting from the crowd, the same who shouted at him at his house the other day.

Okara called out with her hands cupped to her mouth, "I can't challenge you if you won't let me become a God!"

Bardock sighed and rubbed his forehead in aggravation. Tora turned his head and spoke over his shoulder in a quiet voice, "Maybe you should just let her try already. She's got the will for it."

"Hmm," Bardock hummed. He looked Okara in the eyes, and he called back, "If it works for Vegeta, I'll let you try. Don't come crying to me if it kills you and leaves your children as orphans."

Okara frowned at the King's response, but then she smirked and nodded in agreement with his terms. "Prince Vegeta should not have to risk dying through that process," one of the wrinkly old men in front of Bardock began. "He is the rightful King, and you should not force him to risk death before he becomes our King!"

The dissenters were not giving up, and as Sora looked around in the crowds around them, he could see that it looked split fifty fifty. _The people siding with Bardock aren't as vocal, but they don't really have to be considering Bardock's doing a good job at this himself. Still, a split country could cause problems. What if they start fighting amongst themselves?_ As Sora thought it, someone else shouted about Vegeta, and the woman next to that man yelled back, "Just give it a rest already! King Bardock has given his decision!"

"It's not a decision I can get behind if it involves betraying Vegeta!"

"Vegeta is the former King's son! He is the rightful heir!"

"The strongest is the rightful King!"

Sora stepped up closer to Goku's back, and he looked around cautiously as he came between Goku and Bardock. Sora looked around as some of the people near him were getting quieter, and he questioned in a casual tone, "Why don't you have a vote?" Bardock turned to Sora, the two men in front of them looked at the Keybearer, and the other Saiyans all quieted down and looked up at him.

Sora wondered if they were all quiet because they were considering what he suggested, and then Bardock questioned, "What's that?"

Sora turned to the man and looked at him incredulously, but Bardock appeared serious. Sora glanced around and the entire crowd looked just as confused as Bardock did, especially since Sora was treating the word he just said like it was commonplace. He saw people looking at each other and shrugging, some of them murmuring to each other as if asking if their neighbors knew what the word meant. "Election," Sora said, and he looked around to keep seeing blank faces. He turned to Goku to see if his friend thought this was weird, only to see Goku cocking his head at him and staring in confusion like he did not know what it meant either. "Democracy?" Sora asked while looking at Goku.

Goku uncocked his head, and he asked, "Is that a food?"

"No, no a democracy is, well, people vote- they choose their own-"

"Hold your tongue." Sora spun and looked at the older of the two men right in front of him. The man with gray hair glared at the boy, and he said, "You might be a Keybearer, but you cannot meddle with Saiyan affairs."

Sora opened his mouth, but on his right Bardock spoke up, "He is right. Stay out of this, Sora."

Sora hesitated, then he nodded his head and backed up towards where he was standing in the first place. _I've heard that many times before. Not to meddle in the affairs of other worlds and their people. But, when I see something like this, a people who seem, barbaric to me, I want to help you. Maybe, if you tried voting, you would be taking a step in a more civilized direction. Maybe, I could convince you of other things. But you Saiyans are stubborn, can't say I've met one of you who isn't. Goku's usually the exception, but he's been fighting me on going back to our friends for a while now._

Sora frowned as he thought to himself, while Goku just watched as his father continued arguing with the two men before him who started losing ground in their argument. If Bardock had heard out Sora, the older man would have gained some ground with the rest of the Saiyans, but Bardock was just as fast to shut Sora up so his opponents did not even have that advantage against him. Goku thought that the plaza probably would have gotten pretty violent already if there were not a clear strongest person there, so the fact that everyone was staying pretty calm and non-violent made him think that his father's strength was even greater than what he witnessed against his older brother the day before.

"King Bardock!" someone shouted from above them. Everyone looked up, and Bardock frowned as this person was wearing a Power Blocker above the Saiyan Mountains. Toufu had just gotten back though and had not wasted time stopping at her house to take off the PB4 she was wearing. She flew down over the plaza and landed in front of the two men in the middle of arguing with their King. She dropped to her knee, then stood up as Bardock nodded at her that it was fine to interrupt this meeting. He was actually glad she did, and a few of those in the crowd could tell he was happy by the interruption, making them wonder if he planned it. Toufu stood up though and she spoke in a tired voice like she had just come from flying hundreds or thousands of miles away. "The Ant King's armies are mobilizing. His commanders have gathered strong fighters from countries all over Aebrith."

Everyone in the plaza started talking as they heard this information which was news to them. Toufu had already mentioned something of the sort the day before and Bardock started looking a little annoyed that she felt it was this important to bring up during the meeting, even if he did appreciate the break in all the arguing. Toufu continued as she could see her King's look of annoyance growing, "The Capital is in a frenzy. The King's Voice has been making radical speeches about a war. They've been pretty vague, but there are hundreds of warships gathering south of the Capital. I have heard rumors that they're planning an all-out invasion against the Resistance."

 _What is that Ant thinking?_ Bardock thought, scratching his chin while everyone started shouting their opinions at each other. Sora was disgusted by what some of the Saiyans started shouting, and Goku frowned deeply as well as he thought about the group he had come to Aebrith to help. Bardock frowned deeper, _He is an intelligent being. He knows what will happen if he moves on the Resistance. Does he expect it? After what happened last time, I can't believe he would try something so soon._

"This conversation will have to wait," Bardock announced. All the distracted Saiyans looked towards the center of the plaza to see Bardock floating off of it. His crew floated up behind him, and Bardock looked down at them, said something, then the four of them flew off.

Fash turned to Tora as they flew away and muttered, "What is that bastard up to this time?"

Tora shook his head, "Whatever it is, it won't be good."

The disgruntled Saiyans around the plaza still looked angry, but most people there dispersed once their King left. Hundreds of people flew off the ground and shot away in veils of white, while Sora walked in front of Goku and looked down at the spiky-haired, short Saiyan boy. "Goku, it's time we go," Sora said seriously. Goku frowned, and he started slowly nodding at Sora. "We have to get to everyone before the Ant King makes his move. There's going to be a big battle, and we need to be there to help our friends."

"I know," Goku said. He sounded serious too, which relieved Sora, but then Goku continued, "I can't go yet though."

"What? Why not?!" Sora exclaimed.

Goku looked the taller boy in his bright blue eyes, and he explained, "Bardock and Raditz made the Ant King out to be close to their own strengths. They said they could beat him, but I could tell they both thought he was very strong." Goku turned and followed the path his father flew off in, "If the Ant King attacks the Resistance, I don't know if I will be able to defeat him as I am now. I know there are enemies I can't beat, and this Ant King might be one of them. And I also know, that the Saiyans won't come to the Resistance's aid. I know because I have been to Aebrith a lot, and I've helped the Resistance before." Sora looked at Goku in surprise, but he suddenly realized why so many people on Aebrith knew Goku's name.

Goku looked to the east and into the far distance. "The Saiyans have so much power, power that could have saved so many people in the terrible wars that have happened here over the years. But they haven't. I don't like it," he added, and he shook his head with a deep frown on his face. "I don't like it one bit." Sora felt a little relieved, because he thought Goku was blending in with the Saiyans way too well since he had gotten there, but apparently Goku had noticed it as much as he had. Goku looked back at his younger, taller friend, and he continued, "So I have to stay here, Sora. I need to stay and try to get Bardock to teach me this Super Saiyan God technique. He's willing to teach it to Vegeta at only a Super Saiyan, but he tells me he won't let me try unless I'm a Super Saiyan 3. It doesn't make any sense, so there must be another reason he doesn't want to let me try. Whatever it is though, I can take it."

"Goku," Sora began. He stopped himself, then he let out a sigh and said, "Good luck." Goku looked at Sora in surprise, but Sora became very serious and stated firmly, "I need to go warn the Resistance, warn our friends. If the Ant King is preparing to attack, I want them to have a fighting chance even without you, or Timmy." Sora frowned after that last part, and Goku did as well since Sora had already told him about how Timmy also never returned to their group. Sora smiled again and continued, "But Goku, I think I know what you haven't been able to figure out yet. I know why Bardock won't teach you the Super Saiyan God even though he's willing to teach Vegeta, and even that woman Okara who's not even a Super Saiyan."

"Huh? You do?" Goku asked. Sora nodded at him, and Goku questioned, "What is it?"

Sora grinned knowingly, then he turned and rose his arms in front of him. He closed his eyes and focused, and his palms shrouded in darkness. Sora started taking deep breaths as he pictured a place in his mind, a place that Mew had given him a mental image of a few days earlier. On the ground in front of Sora, a pool of darkness appeared that had anyone still in the square looking over nervously. This Keybearer who many of them doubted had any real importance whatsoever, made them feel very wrong as he summoned a portal of darkness that rose ten feet into the air. Sora looked over his shoulder the shorter boy still awaiting an answer, and he replied, "I'll tell you when I come back." Sora stepped into the portal, and Goku had frowned at first at Sora's response but smiled when he rose a hand to wave him goodbye. "Oh, one last thing," Sora said when he was completely surrounded with darkness. "If you do get Bardock to let you become a Super Saiyan God while I'm gone," the portal started to close, but Sora finished, "try not to get blown up."

Goku laughed and promised the spot the portal just disappeared, "I'll try."

Sora reappeared over ten thousand miles south of where he just stood. "Huh," he muttered, looking around in confusion. He stood on a patch of grass, a circular green spot of grass in the middle of an ocean of lava. "This doesn't seem like what Mew described," Sora mumbled, and he wiped some sweat from his forehead. He had on a lot of warm clothing since he was at the top of a mountain a few seconds ago, but he could feel the lava's heat not far from him.

The ground shook beneath Sora and the confused kid stumbled to his right. "Whoa whoa whoa," he held his hands out for balance and stopped himself before falling towards the lava. The teen got a nervous look on his face, and he jumped up off the ground to avoid a situation like that from happening again. Sora hovered a few feet off the grassy ground, and he wiped some more sweat from his forehead as it was hotter higher up over the grass patch. The grass was brown closer to the edge of the lava, and Sora hovered as close as he could to the center and greenest part of the patch, but it did not help him hide from the heat.

The ground shook below him again, and Sora smiled that he had the foresight to lift off the ground. "What's causing this though?" He wondered, and he flew higher up in the air to figure it out. At first it got hotter, then he rose above the heat and cooled off, then got much cooler and he shivered. _Thought it wouldn't be so bad off the mountains, but it's really getting cold everywhere. Guess winter is com… what is that?!_ Sora stared to the south and watched as a giant flash of white light illuminated the sky. He stared in shock, then dropped his jaw as that flash vanished so that Sora could actually see the enormous white dome in the distance getting wider and wider. Around the white dome Sora could see flickering trails of orange breaking off of it.

"What is that?" Sora wondered. He started flying towards it, but after only a minute he came to a stop and started panting. Sora looked down at the lava fields below that were thinning out as he neared some hills that started oddly right after the edge of the lava. The closest hill was the strangest as it was split in half with all the dirt exposed to Sora's side. He decided not to think too hard about the strange environment around him, instead focusing back on the south. _Whatever it was, it might… "See how there are flames around it?"_ Sora's eyes opened wide and the teenager smiled wide. _Thanks Goku! I bet, no, I'm sure that was him! Wait-_ Sora's smiled faded and he looked south more anxiously, _Why would Natsu be making such powerful attacks this far south? Are we still in enemy territory?_

"I have to get there fast!" Sora said it, then he frowned deeply and clenched his hands at his sides. _I just made a portal though- What am I thinking?! My friends are in trouble!_ Sora lifted his fists in front of him and closed his eyes. _Focus, if I focus, I can use the darkness just fine._ _Riku says concentration is half of it. The other half,_ Sora took a deep, calm breath, and he thought, _is control._ A black portal appeared at the ends of Sora's arms and his eyes snapped open in surprise. _I did it so easily!_ "Fwew," he said in relief, and he flew forward into the portal with a grin on his face.

"Alright," he said to himself as he flew into the portal. "I know the vicinity of where they are. I wish I could have flown, if only I could just fly faster," Sora whispered the last part, as the portal had closed behind him. He was left alone in a dark void, and he grit his teeth as he started to feel the darkness around him. Sora closed his eyes, but very little changed as it was already nearly pitch black in the void. _Out out out out._ Sora's eyes snapped open and a portal appeared in front of him. He flew through it and took a deep breath of fresh air. "Alright I'm there-" he looked below him, then lifted his head from the burnt ground at his feet, lifted higher to look over the uplifted earth and destroyed trees, and then he saw them, a little over a mile away. "I'm close," he corrected himself with a bead of sweat on the side of his face.

Sora started flying, and he gulped at the sight of three distinct figures in the distance. One of them surrounded in a massive purple aura that turned him into a giant translucent samurai. Another's body was getting larger and larger as his skin rippled and turned black. The other flashed white, red, black, yellow, and Sora shook his head at the sight of the three of them. _Luffy and Natsu are really injured, wait a second. Why are they standing- No way,_ Sora's mouth curved up. _Luffy is covered in burns. And now that I think about it, we're so far south that this is probably a Resistance member they're fighting. What are those guys thinking?_ The entire planet seemed like it was shaking below Sora, and the teenager frowned as it did not feel like a great idea getting in the middle of this confrontation. _I need to stop them though, to tell them what's coming,_ he thought, and then his frown was replaced by a wide smile as he had a great idea that made him start laughing. _Won't make them any weaker, but it'll totally diffuse the situation! Alright, let's do it!_ Sora flew down towards the fighters who were seconds from attacking each other, and he formed his Keyblade, pointed it up above him, and yelled, "HEY!" Attention lifted up to him, and Sora yelled with a smile on his face, "TRANSFORM!"

Tens of thousands of miles away from Sora, across the Cataclysm, back up the mountains so tall they nearly scraped the planet's barrier, Goku flew to his father who was in the middle of a serious conversation with his crew and his oldest son. Goku flew over to them, and Raditz stopped talking to turn to the young boy with crazy spikes of black hair like his father. He glared at his younger brother, and Goku turned away from him as it seemed to him like just another of Raditz's usual glares. When he looked at his father's friends though, the other Saiyans had hesitant, frowning gazes as they looked his way.

"What?" Goku asked. He lost interest after a second and turned to his father and questioned, "How strong is this Ant King? If I become a Super Saiyan God will it be an easy fight, because then I might just want to take him on as I am now."

Tora cracked a smile at the kid's attitude, and Fasha and Shugesh each grunted and laughed once. Raditz frowned deeper at the reactions of the others. _We were talking about shit you can't hear, Kakarott. You're not a God, so I don't see why father allows you to interrupt us when we're discussing Godly matters. I couldn't when I had yet to become a God. Why are you different?_ Raditz growled at his younger brother, while Bardock just responded to Kakarott's question. "The Ant King, is a being of intelligence. His mind is the deadliest thing about him. I defeated him once before," Bardock was stopped by his eldest son who grunted in annoyance.

Bardock frowned at the interruption, while Goku just looked at his older brother confusedly as to why Raditz did that. The Saiyan with long spiky black hair falling below his own waist muttered in an aggravated voice, "And he foolishly gave the Ant King mercy."

Bardock glared back at his eldest, but Raditz kept eye contact when Bardock glared at him. The Saiyan King humphed after a second of holding the glare, then he turned back to Kakarott, "I did. However, I let the Ant King live for one reason. It was in order to preserve stability in this world." Goku looked confused, and Bardock explained, "If I had killed the King of the Cooperative, the High Lords would have started a massive war. By allowing him to live, I prevented a war that would have ravaged this already devastated continent." Bardock's eyebrows narrowed in and he growled, "But if I have to face the Ant again, I will not give him a third chance."

* * *

 **Still Two Days Ago…**

 **Azalea Town**

"Hello, my name is Dash Parr. I was just wondering if my little brother is here?"

"Hi, I'm Dash. Is there a little boy named JackJack staying here?"

"Afternoon. Can I just ask if…"

"Is my brother here? JackJack? Should be a three year…"

"Hi…"

"Hello there. Sorry to disturb you, but is there a kid named JackJack living here?"

The little boy who answered the door looked out at the boy who looked about his age, maybe a year younger. Unlike Dash, the kid a couple inches taller had white hair that was combed nicely to his left side. Dash's hair was a mess since he was sprinting from house to house every time someone turned him away, and a lot of people had turned him away in the past two days. Someone had given him a spare blue jacket, someone else gave him red gloves, and he was still wearing the red sweatpants and red sweatshirt that the family he stayed with his first night at the Saiyan Mountains gave him.

"Lincoln! Who is it?!" a female voice called from behind the boy in the doorway. Dash glanced over the kid's head and down the hall behind him. On one side of the hall not far from the door was an opening into a large living room where he could see two blonde girls sitting on a couch fighting over a remote. There was light flashing on the tv screen that must have been in front of them against the wall on the other side of the hall, and Dash wondered what they were watching on it. He glanced the other way towards what he thought was a kitchen from the white floor tiles, and he saw a beautiful teenage girl lean her head out and look towards the doorway. She had blonde hair down to her waist, wore a blue turtle-neck sweater, and she crossed her arms as she looked at the boys at the door. "Close the door, it's freezing outside."

"I won't be here long," Dash muttered. And he backed up away from the door to show he was not coming inside. "If you don't know who-"

"You said, JackJack?" Lincoln Loud questioned the kid in front of him. He asked it and Dash saw the older girl back down the hallway go wide-eyed. Dash's heart started racing and he nodded his head quickly, so quickly that he looked like a blur. Dash's blurry head surprised the people in the house looking at him, and then Lincoln nodded at the boy and asked, "How do you know him?"

Dash stepped forward, his heart pounding so loud that he could hear it in his head. As he got into the doorway, he spun to his right as there was a girl leaning up against the wall next to him who he did not see when the door first opened. The girl had long black hair with bangs that covered her eyes, and she spoke in a deep voice, "Who are you?"

Lincoln spun in surprise as he did not notice Lucy standing there until she spoke up either. When Dash spoke though, all of the kids in earshot opened their eyes wide, "JackJack's my little brother."

"Brother?" a bunch of people asked, including one person in the opening to the living room. Dash started to turn, and his eyes got watery as he saw the small figure who had been sitting up close to the television and walked over when he heard the talking at the door. The little boy had orange hair over his round head, and big blue eyes that were as wide as Dash's as they stared at each other. Then, the people looking at Dash in the doorway jumped in surprise as the boy vanished. Wind slammed into them, and they spun to look towards the living room where Dash had the little boy with big eyes lifted in his hands.

Dash held the kid over his head and a smile broke out across his face. It didn't matter that JackJack was only a one year old the last time he had seen his baby brother, he knew he would recognize him even if fifty years had passed. "Whoa! Who are you?!" One of the twin girls on the couch exclaimed, jumping up to her feet and pointing at the boy in their living room. The eight year old had on a pink dress unlike her sister next to her who was wearing a baseball hat on backwards, a t-shirt, and shorts.

The other twin hopped off the couch and shouted, "You're so fast! Where'd you even come from!"

Lincoln Loud closed the door in front of him as it really was getting cold in their house. He turned towards the living room with a frown on his face, while his oldest sister Lori walked down the hall to stand on one side of him, and Lucy pushed off the wall behind him to stand on his other side. Lori finally got over her shock and let out a small, nervous chuckle at the sight of Dash spinning around with the three year old in his hands. She already thought that the boy was either able to teleport or just really fast, and now she could see it was the latter by how fast he was spinning around JackJack. "Guess you can't really debate it after seeing that," she muttered, though she had a smile on her face as she said it.

Even the goth girl on Lincoln's left side cracked a small smile as Dash stopped spinning around and just held the smaller kid in front of his face. Dash looked into the younger boy's eyes, and the three year old reached a hand out and touched Dash's left cheek. In JackJack's mind, he could see a face that looked blurry hovering over his own. The boy was laughing, and he could hear himself laughing too, as the older boy tickled him silly somewhere. He saw the boy in front of him holding out a spoon with food on it, and he watched as he blew on the food and got it all over the older boy's face. JackJack started smiling wide and laughed loudly. The little kid clapped his hands together in front of him while laughing, and then he floated through Dash's hands and fell to the floor.

Dash stared at his empty hands for a few seconds, then he dropped his jaw and snapped his head down to look at the baby on the floor. "Mr. Best wasn't kidding!" Dash exclaimed. "You really do have powers!"

"What's with all the noise down here?" someone called out, and Dash turned to look towards a staircase on the side of the room. Two people were walking down it who were older than the rest who Dash had seen so far. Lynn Loud Senior and his wife Rita Loud reached the bottom of the steps and turned to the center of their living room where a boy dressed in warm clothing was standing. He had snow on his boots that he had brought into the house, though oddly there were no footsteps of snow leading from the door to where he was standing on their rug, just a lot of snow on the floor around him. "And who are you young man?" Lynn questioned the boy in his living room.

"Dad," Lori said while stepping into the living room. Dash glanced around and watched as another little girl wearing glasses poked her head out from the top of the stairs, and another wearing a jersey came through a different entrance to the living room that looked to go into the kitchen. The oldest daughter of the Loud family pointed down at the boy in front of her, and Lori announced, "This is JackJack's real older brother." Lincoln frowned from the hallway behind his older sister, and Lucy saw the frown of her older brother next to her. Lori continued in front of them, "His name is, um, what was your name?"

Dash looked up at the girl behind him, then he turned to the parents standing at the bottom of the stairs. He opened his mouth to respond, but his eyes were getting watery and he paused to rub them with his jacket sleeves. "Sorry," he said, his voice cracking as he did while he continued to rub his eyes. "I'm Dash- Parr, ah," he took a breath into his sleeve, then he lowered it from his face since there was no use in trying. He looked down at the confused little boy at his feet, playing with the snow that fell off of him and melting it with flames that popped up over his palms. Dash laughed a few times between choked breaths, then he looked back at the parents whose expressions were softening as tears fell out of Dash's eyes. "Thank you," he said in a hoarse whisper. Lincoln lost his harsh expression from the hallway, and he started staring in surprise like many of his sisters already were as the boy in their living room started crying. "Thank you so much, for looking after my brother all this time. Thank you!"

* * *

 **Twelve Hours Ago…**

Late into the day on top of the sixth tallest of the Saiyan Mountains, Son Goku stood in the center of the Training Mountain with his eyes closed. All of the other Saiyans had come and gone, but Goku was there from before the suns rose, and he was there until they were almost set. In the west, the three suns were just above the clouds, so the sky above Goku and most of it around him was already getting dark. Being so high in the atmosphere, the suns could still be up in one direction, yet space would be visible above them. The two moons far behind the boy facing the sunsets were all that was visible in the sky so far, as it was still too bright for the stars to come out.

The only other person on the Training Mountain with Goku was a boy with just as crazy spiky hair, only brown. Sora stared up at the sky above him, waiting to see the stars appear like he had on so many occasions before. _The worlds are still out there. I still need to save them._ Sora looked back towards Goku, the only Saiyan there as all the others had left to go eat. Sora expected that a few may be back after dinner, but no Saiyan in their right mind would miss a meal. _Yet here Goku is,_ Sora thought, amazed at his older but smaller friend. _At least he's taking this seriously. I don't know how much time we have left._

As if feeling Sora's restlessness, the boy whose back was to him began, "You can go on ahead Sora. I'll be there as soon as I can." Goku's eyes shot open, and a white veil surrounded his body. _I like being a kid, but maybe I should have got that girl to turn me back. It would have been hard to ask after what Killua did to her leader though. Wait, focus!_ Goku shook his head around, and he took a deep breath to steady himself. _Super Saiyan 3 was difficult in Otherworld even without a mortal body, nearly tore me apart when I had a strong body on Nexus, as a kid, I don't know if I can do it._

"Yeah, you say that," Sora said, and Goku frowned as he lost concentration again, though what he was concentrating on was already making him frown. Sora continued, "I'm here to make sure you come back, 'cause if I leave you here alone, you'll probably show up late when we need you."

Goku's frown lifted up and he turned to look at Sora. He laughed and began, "Actually, I do have a habit of doing that." The little boy scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

Sora grinned back at the boy and said, "Krillin may have told me a story or two." The two of them laughed some more, then Sora shook his head around as he was reminded of what Krillin said about how Goku was too late and most of their friends were killed. He did _not_ want that to happen this time, especially without the Dragon Balls Krillin had told him about. "So," Sora continued, trying to sound more serious as he did, "I'm staying here to make sure that when the time comes, I can teleport us both right to our friends. You don't know where they are, they're all wearing Power Blockers, and I have a feeling you're going to want to stay until you get that God transformation. But Goku, when I say we need to go, we _need_ to go, alright? I'll try not to do it before you can-"

"Alright," Goku agreed. Sora froze with his mouth open as he thought that was going to take more convincing. Goku smiled at the taller boy, "I trust you Sora. If you say we really need to leave, I'll believe you. I know that you know, if I was a Super Saiyan God we could protect our friends better, so you won't make us leave until it's necessary." Sora nodded his head slowly at Goku, as that was another main reason he was back on the Saiyan Mountains instead of with the other friends he found.

 _Goku knows what's at stake, and he knows he might be the only one strong enough to save our friends. I wish he could just convince Bardock to help us though,_ Sora thought with a sigh while Goku got back to intense meditation. _Someone who already beat the Ant King would be really useful in this next fight._ Sora's thoughts went astray, and his mind emptied, as the air around him changed colors. A strange tint came to it, and then all of the air pulled in to one point, and Sora followed it to Goku's body. The boy standing there with his eyes closed was taking heavy, deep breaths, and Sora felt a cold breeze rush by him. Cracks that had formed on the mountain during one of Goku's spars with Bardock trembled, and little rocks floated out of the cracks and into the air around Goku where there was no visible aura.

Goku's black hair started swaying in wind that rushed around him. Sora gulped as a pressure fell on him like nothing he had ever felt. _What is- it's Goku. But, this power!_ Sora took a step back, while Goku's head that was partially bowed lifted up then dropped back down. His head lifted again and his hair flashed gold. Little sparks of lightning shot off of Goku's body in four different directions. Two lightning bolts dragged across the ground on either side of Sora, leaving black marks in lines across the summit of the Training Mountain. Goku's hair flashed golden again, his head snapped back, and a bright golden aura surrounded Goku as he shot straight from his base form into a Super Saiyan 2. His forehead was covered in veins, his arms shook at his sides, and the mountain below them started to tremble. The air around Goku tinted yellow in a sphere that expanded to cover the top of the mountain and stretch across the sky. "Ahhhh- AAAHHHHH AAAAAAHHHH!" Goku started screaming, and the kid's muscles that were already bulging started to do so even more. Lightning sparked off of him like crazy, and he hunched his body over with his elbows pulled down into his sides. He screamed even louder while his face showed such excruciating pain on it that Sora wanted to stop him.

 _Can he do it? Is this, the feeling of a Super Saiyan 3 powering up from up close?_ Sora's face filled with such amazement, that when he saw something lift over the summit of the mountain on the other side of Goku, his face did not even change expressions. Sora was amazed, and he continued to be amazed at the sight of the person who rose over the summit. A look of confusion added to the amazement though, as the person he saw seemed very strange for some reason.

Goku kept yelling for a few seconds, and then at the top of his vision, he spotted the figure who just lifted over the edge of the mountain and was staring at him in awe. He knew he could not get distracted; a single distraction would destroy the focus he needed to rise to that next level. When he saw the young man who rose over the mountain though, he could not keep focus on his transformation and stopped screaming. He was not angry though, or even annoyed that he was distracted and lost the chance to transform. Goku lifted his head with wide eyes, his golden aura vanishing and his hair turning back to black, returning to its normal messy-spiky shape.

The boy who rose over the edge of the mountain had short spiky black hair and eyes as dark as coal to match. He floated down to the edge of the mountain and stood on it facing the two others. Sora ran up to Goku's side and he swung his right arm out, putting it in front of the short Saiyan whose face lit up excitedly all of a sudden. "Goku wait," Sora said, feeling very on edge as he stared at the way the person in front of them was dressed.

"Sora," the boy in front of them who looked like he was in his mid-teens began. He was shorter than Sora but taller than kid Goku, and he wore a cloak of black from his neck down below his feet. The cloak had a silver zipper on it vertically down the center of his cloak, and there was a silver chain around the bottom of the cloak's hood and in front of its collar. "I've been looking for you," the figure continued, keeping his mouth straight and eyes cold as he spoke.

"Gohan?" Goku questioned, tilting his head to the side confusedly at the way the boy was speaking. The dark figure on the edge of the mountain turned to the child next to Sora with wide-eyes for a second, then he returned to his cold gaze and looked straight into the black eyes of the short Saiyan.

Goku had a lot of questions, but Sora questioned first, "Who are you?"

Goku looked up at Sora in confusion as that seemed like a weird question to him, but Sora's nervous and on-guard expression confused him even more. Goku turned back to the boy who looked like his son, and that boy looked away from Goku and into Sora's blue eyes. The cloaked boy responded in a dark voice, "I have taken Kairi." Sora's eyes shot open huge, while Goku gained an even more confused expression on his face.

"Why would you do that, Gohan?" Goku asked.

"Stop calling me that!" The boy snapped, turning and glaring at the shorter Saiyan in an infuriated way.

"So then," Sora whispered, "you're his Nobody." Noxagh turned to Sora again, while Sora took a step towards him and said, "I know why you're dressed like that. You're, a member of the Organization. You're-"

"Noxagh," the Nobody finished for Sora. "And as I said, I'm here for you, Sora." Noxagh took a step forward and continued in a dark tone, "You'll be coming with me now, whether you want to or not."

Goku looked so confused, but he finally uncocked his head and stared straight at the boy in front of him. "Son, what are you talking about?" Noxagh lifted his fists, and Sora took a step back while lifting his own hands in front of his body. "What do you want with Sora, son?"

"Stop, calling me that," Noxagh snapped at the shortest figure on the mountain. "You're younger than me. I'm not your-"

"Goku is not younger than you," Sora interrupted. Noxagh and Goku both looked back to see Sora holding a Keyblade in front of his body. Sora's expression had become stern, and the teenager frowned deeply at Noxagh as he spoke, "Even if Goku was really only ten years old, he'd still be older than his son Gohan's Nobody who would have only started existing a few months ago."

Noxagh stared at Sora in shock. _Was he there? Does he know, about how I was created? Agh-_ Noxagh brought his right hand up to the side of his head and winced in pain. He clenched his eyes shut, but instead of darkness, he saw the same teenager who was in front of him now. He saw Sora on the back of a lion, holding up the same Keyblade in his hand right now and making the lion beneath him roar. Then, the image in his mind started to shift upwards, and he saw someone in the air with black spikes of hair so similar to the ones on the other boy on the mountain. The man's face was blurry, but he was looking straight down at Noxagh, and he smiled in a way that made Noxagh's head hurt even more.

The Nobody's eyes opened wide. He stared forward at the small boy in front of him, _Father?_ A troubled look spread across Noxagh's face and his hands twitched at his sides.

"What did you mean?" Sora asked, now that he had the Nobody off guard. "When you said you took Kairi? What do you mean? She's with my friends."

"Sora, why does this guy look like Gohan? He's not Gohan, right?" The person looked identical to Goku's son to the point he could not see a single difference between them.

"No Goku, he's not," Sora said. "I'll explain it to you later."

 _My mission,_ Noxagh remembered, shaking his head around to refocus on the task at hand. "You have to come with me, Sora," Noxagh growled. Something was off about him now, and Sora and Goku could each see that he was no longer as cool and collected as he was when he flew over the mountain's edge. _All these people know about the old me. It doesn't make any sense._ "Xemnas wants to have a word with you, and then you'll be getting merged with Roxas." _All the people in that group Xaldin warned us about who destroyed the Forever Kingdom, who demolished Dressrosa, took out Saix and Vexen and the others. They all know, me. Why? Why can't I remember any of them? The others remember their pasts, so why can't I? And if the others remember their pasts, then shouldn't they, remember me?_

Noxagh's eyes grew huge in shock, then he was snapped out of it by Sora yelling back at him, "Tell me where Kairi is!" _Riku, everyone, he's lying isn't he?_ "Did you really take her?!"

"Yes," Noxagh said, his eyes returning to their normal size, though his face stayed looking troubled. "Axel suggested we refrain from merging her with Naminé until you came to find her on your own, use her as bait and such. I will make that unnecessary, as I bring you back right now so we can merge you both." Noxagh's hands re-clenched into tight fists, he kicked off the floor, and he appeared in front of Sora in an instant. Sora's eyes shot open huge as Noxagh punched forward, then a huge gust of wind slammed into him and made him skid twenty feet backwards. Sora crossed an arm in front of his face and lifted his Keyblade with the other, then when he lowered his arms he stared in even more shock as Goku stood in front of where he just was, a hand risen to catch his son's Nobody's fist with.

"What the-" the taller of the black haired boys muttered. His eyes darted to his own right fist, caught in the hand of the smaller boy. Noxagh's face filled with shock and his eyes lifted to look at the boy behind the palm's face. Goku looked back at him, and then the kid with spikes out in every direction smirked. Noxagh's mouth twisted into a snarl, "Raaa!" He pulled back his left fist, then his left leg swung around towards Goku's side. Goku lifted his left arm and blocked Noxagh's leg with his elbow. Goku pushed Noxagh's other fist up, Noxagh followed his own right fist as it lifted up, then Goku closed the distance between them in a second.

Noxagh tensed up as he got ready for the uppercut he saw coming beneath his chin. He froze as the fist never collided though, and Goku's appearance in front of him faded away. He flinched and his face covered in sweat at the sight of a fist on the left side of his face. Goku stood behind Noxagh, arm extended right past the side of his son's Nobody's face. Noxagh could not turn around. He sweat more and more, then his head twitched slowly towards Goku's arm to look at it. "Wh-What? How?" He spun and jumped backwards, increasing the distance between them to twenty feet in an instant. Sora spun his head and lowered his bottom lip at the sight of the Nobody who to him had just vanished completely.

 _There's no way!_ Noxagh thought. _How_ _is he faster than me?! He can't be!_ "You can't be!" Noxagh yelled aloud. He clenched his fists tightly at his sides, and a white aura surrounded the boy's body, flaring out around him like a fire. "Who are you?! How did you do that?!"

"Who am I? It's me son, Goku," Goku pointed a thumb at himself. "You seem like you know how Gohan fights at least," Goku said aloud, scratching the back of his head in confusion. "And your energy feels like my son's," Goku turned towards Sora, "are you sure this isn't Gohan?"

"My name," Noxagh began, his head bowing, his face trembling in anger. He snapped his head up and roared, "IS NOXAGH!" He shot off the floor so fast that Sora just saw a shockwave ripple of the spot he was just standing. The wind hit Sora, then the second wind from the collision of Noxagh's fist with Goku's opened left palm. Goku backed up as Noxagh sent a flurry of punches at him as fast as his own son could in his base form. Goku's feet skid back with every punch, all the way to the edge of the Training Mountain. Noxagh saw they were at the edge and he pulled back extra far with his left fist, then let it fly towards the shorter boy's face.

Goku hopped up when the back of his right heel touched the edge of the mountain, and he tapped down on the front of Noxagh's left fist with his hand. Noxagh rose his right fist while Goku lifted over him, and the Nobody's face looked enraged as he snapped it open into a palm. Goku's eyes opened wide, and he surrounded in a white aura himself to pick up speed before flying high into the air. A ball of yellow light shot out of Noxagh's palm after Goku, but the small boy in the air did a backflip to get over it, pushing his hands down on it as he narrowly dodged.

Noxagh's furious gaze faded, transforming back into utter shock at the sight of the boy floating above him. _How is he doing that? This is just a child! Even if he isn't, even if he is my Somebody's father, how can he be this strong?! I am the strongest Nobody!_ Noxagh shook his head in confusion and disbelief, his eyes shut so hard that his forehead was scrunching up.

Goku looked down at the boy below him, and he frowned at the sight of how upset he appeared to be. _Is this as strong as Noxagh is? In that case, he's nowhere near as strong as Gohan is. But, ooh! I've got a great idea!_ Goku smiled brightly and called out, "Noxagh!" Noxagh and Sora both shot their gazes up, wondering why Goku sounded so, dangerous. Goku's body surrounded in a golden glow when they looked up, and both Sora and Noxagh felt their bodies start covering in sweat. "If that's all you can do, then you'll never be able to stand up to this next attack!" Goku's hands pulled over to his sides, and between his palms formed a blue glow that ignited the sky around them.

"Uhh Goku?! What are you doing?!" Sora called out, while simultaneously lifting off the ground and flying as far away from Noxagh as he could. "He says he took Kairi! I need to find out where he took her!"

 _Is that kid serious?_ Noxagh thought, taking a nervous step back and staring up in awe as Goku smiled down at him. In his mind flashed a smile that looked so similar on a blurry face flying above him inside a white void. He shook his head around and the image faded, only to hear Goku yell out, "I'm not holding back, so you better be able to handle it!" Goku took a deep breath, a serious look came to his face, and he shouted, "KAAAMEEE-"

 _He's really trying to kill me!_ Noxagh took another step back in fear. _NO! Xemnas is relying on me! Everyone is waiting for me to bring Sora back! I can't return with news that I found him, only to have run away!_ Noxagh's feet planted hard on the ground, and his face took on a hardened expression. His shaking lip steadied and his hands opened up into palms that he lifted above him. "Bring it on!" He shouted. "I can take anything you dish out!"

"HAAAMEEEE-" Goku continued to shout.

"Goku don't do it!" Sora shouted. The blue light at Goku's right side illuminated even more of the sky as it flashed brighter and brighter.

A few hundred meters away, the Saiyan King watched carefully. _Does Kakarott have a plan, or is he really trying to kill that boy? And why does that boy look so, familiar?_

Noxagh's feet planted harder on the floor beneath him, and a white aura surrounded his body that flared out wildly. "RaaaAAAAA!"

"HAAAAA!" Goku fired his Kamehameha Wave at the screaming boy below. Noxagh yelled louder until the second the attack was right above his head. Then, his eyes filled with shock and fear, and then the attack slammed into his palms.

Noxagh bent at the knees, his arms shaking violently as if the attack was going to break right through them at any second. The end of the blue sphere of Goku's attack seemed to become largest right as it collided, and it was larger than Noxagh's entire body as he tried to hold it above and in front of him. His legs bent even more, and he ground his teeth in agony as all this energy was impossible to hold onto. _I, can't, do it!_ Noxagh's eyes snapped open and he stared at the flashing blue attack in front of him. He could hear Goku's high-pitched screams behind the sphere and the beam connected to it, he could see blue light all around him, but the mountain and the sky around him were gone. Everything was white. _What is this?_ The white flashed away, and the imminent death in front of him was brought back to the front of his mind. "AHHH!" Noxagh pushed back with everything he had, and then he heard Goku raise his voice louder and the blue sphere followed suit by growing even more powerful. His arms bent backwards at the increased power, it felt like he was going to lose it- _NO! I've been letting people down my entire life!_ Noxagh's eyes snapped open wide and his face filled with shock at the thoughts he just had.

In his head he saw a green-skinned man jumping in front of a beam to save him. He saw a short bald man with six dots on his head, and a figure who looked similar to the boy attacking him now, saving him time and time again. _I've never met those people! So why did I think that?!_ Noxagh's arms bent back even more, and the confusion of his own memories mixed with the intense situation was making it hard to concentrate. He knew that even if he could concentrate though, this blast was too much for him to handle. _I should have run when I had the chance! Now I'm trapped! I can't do anything but push back until it breaks my defenses and kills me! I'm going to die!_ _ **"The power comes in response to a need. You need to create that need!"**_ Noxagh's eyes snapped open, his scared expression firmed, and his fingers curled into the blast as his arms started pushing back against it. "Arr, Aaghh, ARrraahh!" His arms and legs shook, he got pushed down even more, down to his right knee while his left leg struggled to stay standing. _If I don't stand back up, I'm dead! I need to do this!_ _**"The power comes in response to a need, not a desire."**_

Noxagh tried to push back, but it felt like his body ran out of energy at that moment and his arms got knocked backwards. The energy enveloped him completely, and the sphere of energy at the end of Goku's Kamehameha slammed into the top of the mountain. Sora spun to Goku as he heard the scream come from inside the blast, "Goku! You're killing him!"

Goku's face filled with surprise for a second, and then he listened closer to the scream, and his mouth curled back up into a grin. "AHHHH! AAAHHH! RRAAAAAAA!" The last scream made Sora, Bardock, and all the other Saiyans who were watching this from around the tops of the other Saiyan Mountains open their eyes wide. Inside of the blue sphere of energy appeared a bright golden light. "RRRAAAAAA!" Noxagh screamed, in anger, and pain, and fury. His arms that were thrown out to the sides pushed back in front of him in one strong movement, and he pushed Goku's attack off of the ground. His right foot stomped on the ground, shaking the Training Mountain and cracking the floor beneath it. His legs unbent, his arms stopped shaking, and he let out one last roar that sent the attack Goku created flying back up in the air.

Goku's grin could not get larger as he stared at the screaming glowing golden boy past his attack. He was about to move out of the way of where it was redirected to, but a single sensing-out behind him told him that he could not do that with all the other inhabited mountains around. So Goku held out his own hands and caught his attack, easier to catch for a Super Saiyan than it was for Noxagh a minute ago. Goku caught his attack, then shouted, "HA!" and he pushed it straight up towards the barrier in the sky. His attack exploded and sent purple ripples vibrating out around the sky above the Saiyan Mountains.

Goku looked back down where Sora was already staring in shock. The boy on top of the Training Mountain was hunched over, his black spiky hair shot up over his head and completely golden. His aura had become yellow and much larger than the white one from before, flaring out even more wildly like a fire that could consume the mountain's summit. He kept screaming, his body tensing and clenching up from the pain and intensity of the transformation. Sora stopped staring in shock, and started staring in horror as he processed what he was looking at. "Goku, why would you do that?" Sora whispered. Goku was too focused on the boy on the Training Mountain to even hear Sora's horrified whisper. _A Super Saiyan, working with the Organization. Kairi…_

"You did good surviving that," Goku said, and Noxagh's eyes snapped open. He stared in front of him and un-hunched his body a little to look at the boy before him. Goku had his arms crossed and was still a Super Saiyan as he looked into Noxagh's now-teal eyes. "I knew you could do it though," Goku added.

Noxagh frowned angrily at the boy before him, then he got a confused look on his face, then a frustrated one. _He tried to kill me! Wait, he was in that memory! Was he? That wasn't him, was it? Who were those other people? What happened to me? And, did it happen before?_ Noxagh lifted his arms, looking down at them surrounded in a golden glow. He quickly realized that it was not just his arms that were glowing, but his face had a golden veil around it too that tinted everything in his vision yellow. His eyes lifted back up from his arms, and as he stood there, panting from how intense this transformation's power was on his body, how much of a toll it took on him, he realized that the boy before him was not getting tired from it at all. _How large is the gap?_ Noxagh took a step back. _How strong is he?!_

Goku's face filled with surprise, and Sora stopped being so hesitant and started flying down fast. "Wait!" Sora yelled. A black circle of darkness formed on the ground behind Noxagh, and from it shot a black portal eight feet tall behind him.

Noxagh lifted his gaze to Sora, and he opened his mouth to say something. Before he could though, he caught sight of another man flying their way, glaring straight at him with an angry look in his eyes that scared the Nobody even more than Goku only a few feet in front of him. Noxagh stepped backwards into his portal and he let it shut behind him, right as Sora reached it and stuck his hand out to try and grab the boy before he escaped. "No!" Sora shouted, his hand clenching nothing but air as the darkness faded.

The man who was flying over quick slowed, and he floated down to land behind Sora and Goku who dropped down next to each other. Goku's hair turned black and returned to its normal spiky shape that matched his father's. Goku turned as he had felt his father approach, and Bardock questioned the boy, "Was that, my grandson?"

Goku hummed and said, "I think so, but-"

"It was Gohan's Nobody," Sora said, his voice low and serious.

Bardock growled, "I thought so." The other two looked to the taller man who muttered after receiving their looks, "I recognized the cloak, but when I saw that portal I knew it could not be a coincidence. The Saiyan Mountains, are smack in the middle of Xemnas' territory in the Cooperative. Damn Nobodies," he snarled.

Goku nodded, though he looked totally confused as to what the others were saying. Sora bowed his head and said, "Goku, what were you thinking?" The other two looked to the boy with brown hair, and Sora lifted his blue eyes to look into Goku's. "Why would you help him turn into a Super Saiyan?" Goku tilted his head in confusion, and Sora got an angrier look on his face. "He said he took Kairi! How am I supposed to save her now, with a Super Saiyan guarding her?!" He rose his voice and was visibly upset by this. Goku opened his mouth to respond, but Sora was too quick and continued, "I didn't think I could take him when he was just moving around in his base state! He looked so strong, and now he's even stronger! Why Goku?! There are already so many enemies I'll have to face, why did you help-" Sora stopped, because he realized he was shouting. He shot a glance down to his own hands, and he watched as little wisps of darkness faded away from the tips of his fingers.

Both Goku and Bardock were fast enough that as soon as Sora froze mid-sentence and looked down, they each were able to dart their gazes down and catch glimpses of the fading darkness as well. While this piqued Bardock's interests, Goku was more interested in what Sora was just saying. He lifted his gaze back to Sora's eyes, and he said, "I don't really know why I did it. But, that boy looked so much like Gohan, and I wanted to see if I could make him turn into a Super Saiyan the same way."

Bardock hummed to himself. _Even if he is a Nobody, that boy was able to turn into a Super Saiyan. Maybe I have misunderstood what it means to be a Nobody._

"Goku, that was, stupid," Sora said, though he did not sound as angry as before. "He has Kairi," Sora said while looking into the shorter boy's eyes. "You don't know what that means. They'll merge her with her Nobody, and she'll be gone forever," Sora grit his teeth and tried to hold in his emotions.

Goku looked surprised at first, then he became serious and replied, "I didn't know. Sora, I'll help get Kairi back," Goku promised.

 _I know you will,_ Sora thought, bucking up and smiling as he thought about his chances with Goku at his side. _It's not going to be easy, but nothing ever is._ "Let's go after her," Sora said. He turned to Bardock, "I want to go after Kairi. She's my fiancé, and she's been caught by the Organization."

"Alright, what does that have to do with-"

Sora cut off Bardock, "You said we were in the middle of Organization territory, right?" An annoyed Bardock nodded his head at the Keybearer. "Well," Sora continued expectantly, and he finished, "Do you know where they would be keeping her?"

"No," Bardock replied. Sora's bottom lip dropped, as he was sort of banking on that. "And I don't have time to speculate." Bardock turned his back to the children and looked in the direction of the taller mountains where many Saiyans were hovering above. "The armies of the north are on the move," Bardock said, and the boys behind him opened their eyes wide. "Toufu reports that there are huge masses of monsters swarming around those armies as negative energy builds up. They are heading south like we thought, heading straight for Resistance lands. It won't be long now, a day max until the war."

 _A day?_ Goku thought, his face becoming even more serious. _Can I do it in a day? If I could, would my body even be able to get used to the transformation by the time I am needed? It has to! I have to!_ The boy grimaced, _But I wasted energy with the first interrupted transformation, and then with my fight with Go- Noxagh. I can't do it right away._

 _What do I do? Should I go get Kairi now? Bring her to the Resistance, just so that she can get involved in a huge war? If me and Goku go after the Organization, will we even have the strength to face the Ant King and his armies afterwards? What if it takes too long and we can't get back to the others in time? After I told Goku that I'm here to make sure he's not late, I can't be late with him! I can't be the one who makes him late! What do I do?_ Sora's face looked hopeless as he shut his eyes, trying to think of an answer. _All of that, could happen if I go for Kairi right now. But if I don't… what was it Noxagh said? Oh yeah!_ Sora's hopeless look lifted a little and the corners of his mouth stopped drooping so much. _He said that Axel told everyone to hold off on merging Kairi until I came for her! They're keeping Kairi alive, to draw me out! If I went for her right now, they might just merge her right away before I can even get to her. But if the Organization knows I'll come for her, they'll keep her alive until I show. I should wait until I have all my friends with me, until after the battle tomorrow, until it's safer to try, until I have a plan!_ In Sora's mind, despite how hopeful he was making his thoughts, he saw the golden haired Nobody who just vanished from atop the mountain and it made him gulp.

He turned next to him to see Goku's face filling with the determination to become a Super Saiyan God by tomorrow. Bardock lifted off the mountain and flew away, and Goku turned to look at Sora to see what the teenager thought. Sora could see it in Goku's eyes that the Saiyan child so much older than him wanted to train and transform, but he could also see that Goku would follow him away if Sora asked him to. _I can't take you from this place Goku, not for my own selfish goal, not while the world rests in our hands._ Sora turned away from Goku and looked off the side of the mountain right through the empty spot that Noxagh once stood. _I'm sorry Kairi. I can't come for you right now. I know you would understand, but that doesn't make this any easier._ Sora's face hardened and he whispered, "Get to training Goku, we have a lot to do starting tomorrow."

"You sure Sora?" Goku asked in surprise.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Sora replied. Goku found himself staring at Sora's back in growing amazement. "Kairi's safe for now, but the rest of the world needs our help too." Goku nodded, realizing what it was that made him stare at Sora's back in awe for those few seconds, even though Sora was not showing off any amazing power. As Goku got to meditating and building up his power, Sora looked out into the west and examined the entire horizon. _Kairi, just hold on. I will find you, and I will save you. Until then, Roxas, Axel, I'm putting all of my trust in you. In order for me to do what I need to, I am trusting you to protect Kairi. Please, don't let anything happen to her._

* * *

 **Present**

 **Azalea Town**

On the eastern slope of Mount Gine, far down the mountain but not at the very base of it, Dash Parr sat at a long table set for eleven. He was inside the Loud family's house, sitting on the left side of his little brother JackJack who was sloppily eating his cereal. There were nine kids around the long sides of the table, while the parents who Dash had been calling Mr. Loud and Mrs. Loud sat at opposite heads of it. Dash grabbed another handful of bacon from the center of the table and shoveled it on his plate, then he started devouring it before taking a scoopful of his cereal and milk to wash it down.

"This bacon is really good," Dash said through another mouthful of it. He glanced around and saw most people there looking at him, so he slowed down a little and apologized, "Sorry, when I run I burn so many calories that I need to eat like, a lot of food." He took another piece of bacon and tried to eat it like a normal person, although he was so excited that he felt like he would burn it off even if he did not start running around. Dash put his food down for a second though while many of the family members around him laughed, and he looked down at either side of the table, "I can't begin to thank you enough. I want to a thousand more times, but I really should bring my brother home…"

"You have thanked us plenty," Mrs. Loud began. "Actually, more than plenty. Try hundreds of times, but- I know how thankful you are so I'll just say again, it was our pleasure."

"We never did find our youngest," Mr. Loud began, and many of the children at the table fell quieter. There were ten children in the Loud family total, but only seven at the table right now. Mr. Loud continued, "So I just hope that someone is looking after our Lily, as well as we've been taking care of JackJack."

"And Leni and Luna," Lori mentioned. Dash looked across the table to the oldest daughter of the family who looked sad for a second, but then shook her head as she saw Dash staring at her.

 _That stinks for them,_ Dash thought. _I've finally found JackJack, so that's everyone in my family. I even found Mr. Best!_ "Maybe, I could look around for them," Dash offered. Everyone in the family looked over towards Dash in surprise, and he continued, "I mean, I'm really fast, and I've been all around the world. If you guys told me what they look like, I could be sure to ask around at every city and town I go to for now on." Dash started getting excited as he talked about it. _This was my mission for coming to Aebrith! Now, after I bring JackJack home, I'll have a reason to come back here and keep going with everyone!_

"You, would do that for us?" Lincoln asked, leaning forward to look past JackJack at the boy on his other side. The other boy around his age looked back at Lincoln and nodded seriously at the stunned thirteen year old. He leaned back in his seat, and saw on his other side as JackJack his sister Lucy staring at him expectantly through her thick black bangs. Lincoln crossed his arms and frowned as he glanced out the corners of his eyes at JackJack's head. _It's hard not to like this guy, but, JackJack's been my brother, for longer than he has been yours!_

"But really," Dash said again, as he felt like he got distracted for the hundredth time. "I have to be going. My parents are going to be so happy when I show up with JackJack. I know my sister Violet's going to be jealous that I'm the one who found him."

The twins on Lori's left side laughed with Dash, but the parents of the Loud family looked all the way across the table into each other's eyes. "Dash, my boy," Mr. Loud started. "I know you say your family wants to see him, but shouldn't you bring them here?"

"It isn't safe away from the Saiyan Mountains," Mrs. Loud added. Dash looked the other way across the table to the blonde woman who looked so worried for him and his brother. He had the urge to thank them again, but for once he held it in. She continued, "We've been living here for over a year and a half, coming on two years now, and we have never had an incident. Can you say the same about the place you live?"

Dash opened his mouth, then he closed it and thought for a second. _There was the Bombing of Pao, but that happened before we moved there. Does that mean it's safer? During Metropolis, those Marines and Covenant invaded Pao and attacked us. They almost killed my family and tried to kill me. Yeah, but Goku wasn't there at the time! If he was… I mean, not that he's there now._ "Well," Dash began, and the whole family looked at him hopefully. "I'll have to ask my parents, and maybe they'll think it's a good idea," Dash said, saying it in a hopeful way for the family who he could tell cared so much about his brother's safety. _I am already having a hard time taking him with me. He connected with this new family, more than he ever had the chance to with us. If I bring him back here though, will he ever become a part of our family? I mean, he can be a part of both, right? Why keep him away from them if they really love him? I'm sure Mom and Dad will understand._

Lincoln leaned forward again, "I don't think it's a good idea. What if you get tired while running across the ocean? Wouldn't it be easier if you did it without carrying someone, then came back with your parents, instead of-"

"No," Dash said while shaking his head. "If I get back and tell my parents that I had JackJack and left him behind, they'll kill me!" He exclaimed.

The Loud parents laughed, and Mrs. Loud admitted, "I can understand that. Well, if you really have to go…"

Lincoln frowned deeply, hearing his parents give in to Dash. He looked around and saw no support from his sisters, and then Lucy tapped him on the shoulder. He turned left to his goth sister, and she shook her head at him. Lincoln opened his mouth to say something, then he bowed his head. He felt a smaller hand touch his other arm as the one Lucy tapped, and he turned to the small boy on his other side who looked up at him with big eyes and an even bigger smile. "Don't worry," Lincoln started saying to the three year old. "Even if you go far away…"

Dash stopped focusing on Mrs. Loud who was telling him some things she thought he should know about his journey and how she would pack him a bag with food for the trip, and his eyes shifted over to Lincoln who was saying a heartfelt goodbye to JackJack. _No that's not it,_ Dash thought, as there was something else bugging him. He thought it was the boy who treated JackJack like his own brother and almost sounded competitive the day before while they were all playing together, acting like he knew more about JackJack than his own, real brother. The bad feeling Dash had got worse and he knew for sure that it had nothing to do with some petty brotherly squabble he was having with Lincoln. _This is serious!_ Dash thought, and he pushed away from the table with a growing look of unease on his face.

Mrs. Loud stopped talking as Dash pushed back. His chair scraped on the wood floor, and the others all looked to him as he hopped off it. Dash looked up, staring at the ceiling, then he lifted a hand and grabbed the back of his neck as he felt all of the hairs on it stand on end. He shivered, chills going down his spine, and he spun around. _I have a bad feeling-_ Dash looked through the window that was behind his seat at the table, and he watched as the house across the snowy street from the Loud house blew apart. _**BOOOOM!**_ A fireball larger than the house itself erupted and sent wood shards and bricks from the chimney flying in every direction.

"What was that?!"

"Kids get under the table!"

"EEEEK!"

Dash's face covered in sweat as he watched the fireball in slow motion. He could see the fire rising higher, smoke lifting above it, and he spotted something fly through the air over that house. That something turned his direction, and Dash spun around to the family behind him who were all screaming. "EVERYONE GET-" He heard a crash behind him, and he was fast enough to lift his head and see the wood shards flying forward from the wall behind him and above the window that was now shattering inwards as well. Faster than all the wood shards and glass though, was the ball of white light that created the hole in the wall in the first place. Dash followed it with his eyes as it flew down from behind and above him, down to right above his chair while he ran to the side of it and reached up. His fingertips got close, and then the ball of light hit the table where his half-eaten breakfast still sat. The table started to rip apart, and it split while the ball kept pushing farther past Dash's fingers. He was stuck at the edge of the table but he lunged his upper body over the table and reached down through the hole the ball of energy tore.

His fingers touched the back of the ball of energy, and he curled the tips of them into it. _I got-_ The white ball flashed so bright that all the air around Dash looked the same color as the energy itself, and his fingers no longer had a grip on anything.

 _ **BOOOOM!**_

* * *

 **A/N Boom? Dash? Hey guys! Merry Christmas! Sorry for the long wait for this chapter. As I said previously, I don't have much of chapter 12 already written. This part had nothing in it when I posted the last one, and now it's 27 thousand long. So for everyone talking about how I'm on hiatus or taking a while for family and stuff, it's mainly just that I've got a lot to put in this chapter. Also got distracted writing some future chapters (so I can post fast when I get to them (and just cause they were on my mind)). Anyway, that's the reason for the long wait, and the reason the next couple of chapters will be long waits as well (though I'll try to get another one up this year) XD. This chapter we finally catch up to the present with the characters who were missing at the time of the shaking planet. Gine, the First War of the Gods, Bardock vs Sora, Noxagh vs Goku, the Loud family, a lot happened this chapter. Let me know what you thought of it all, questions, or predictions for upcoming chapters in a review below! This chapter featured characters from The Loud House which, along with all the others, I do not own! Alright, now that I got that over with, review responses:**

asdf chapter 81 . Dec 5

Is Raditz a Super Saiyan God? I'm not sure what I feel about multiple Super Saiyan Gods. I wouldn't have minded multiple Super Saiyans but it's your story, not mine. I suppose only one can attain Ultra Instinct though.

Is Bardock as Dragon Ball Super SSG Goku? Because then he's pretty op. Eat your heart out Meruem!

Also WHEN WILL GOKU RETURN TO BEING A MAN! I'm sorry for thinking such treasonous thoughts but THIS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY GT SUCKED COMLPLETE ASS! JK. This story is nothing like the shit storm that was GT. Thank god for Dragon Ball Super.

Imagine if it turns out that Zeno created Nexus because he was bored and he wanted to see something "cool".

Please update soon man... please update soon.

 **Thanks for, the very many reviews XD! Yes Raditz is a God as are a few of the others, but there are not many. Won't rank Bardock up against Goku from Super since we haven't seen the full capacity of Bardock's power yet. Will not say when Goku will become a man again, maybe it'll be never XD, jk, or am I? Lol at the Zeno thing. And lastly, here's the update! Sorry again it took so long, but it happens from time to time.**

Joebob323 chapter 81 . Dec 5

Yay Sora! Will we get to see timmy next, or will you continue with Sora's perspective?

 **More Sora, some Goku, and a little bit of Dash thrown in! Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and thanks for the review!**

Limit-Breaking chapter 81 . Dec 7

 **Not gonna post everything here since it'd really skew the amount of words this chapter has from how much you wrote in your reviews and PMs, but I'm happy you did. Glad you liked the chapter, and the idea of the Namekians being on Nexus is something probably in the back of every person's mind whose ever heard about the Dragon Balls. We'll cross that bridge if it comes to it :p... On the PM, I can tell you that there will be more flashback chapters coming up in the early parts of the next Third of Nexus, but don't hold your breath for all the answers at once. And finally, don't be sad about it ending, 'cause it's not ending. And since you only caught up recently you haven't seen it yet, but there are occasionally long gaps between my quick releasing, and this was not the longest gap. Def not abandoned.**

cyber chapter 81 . Dec 5

now sora has arrived, and what do the saiyans and gods wont with sora, cant wait to find out.

And I just wont to say one more thing, MERRY CHRISTMAS.

hey everybody it's ok, the author might be doing something busy, like school stuff, or is enjoying the holidays with his family, so just wait.

 **What will Sora's role in the upcoming battles be? Why do the Gods and SSGods care about him? Thanks for the backup on the long post break, and finally, Merry Christmas to you too! :) Thanks for the review and thanks everyone for the reviews, favorites, follows, or for just reading this story. As always, 'till next time!**


	83. Nexus HWR 12-5 The Rogue

**A/N Hey guys! Been a while, but I finally finished this chapter last night! I know a lot of you have been waiting a long time for this, so I hope you enjoy the most important chapter of Nexus so far!**

 **Disclaimer: I own none of the media you may recognize characters, settings, or other proper nouns from. Not mine.**

* * *

 **Nexus HWR 12.5 The Rogue:**

 **Mount Vegeta**

"Goku! What's happening?" Sora shouted as he flew after his shorter but older friend.

Goku shook his head without turning around. _Something's wrong,_ Goku thought, as the energy he could sense from all the Saiyans on the mountains was frantic. Saiyans were flying up from their houses, some came crashing straight through their roofs while Goku and Sora flew towards Mount Vegeta. They were coming from the Training Mountain, but Saiyans were lifting off of Mount Salad and all of the other tallest mountains in the range. Hundreds of Saiyans, maybe even over a thousand from what Sora could see, flew up towards the tallest summit in the world.

"EVERYONE LISTEN TO ME!" A voice roared. It echoed over the mountains and everyone flying towards Mount Vegeta froze where they were. A bright golden light flared above Mount Vegeta, and the light got brighter as the center of it flew high above the top of the tallest mountain. Everyone stared at the golden light and the single figure in Saiyan armor inside it, his hair spiked up in a single golden point above his head. Sora froze where he was when he saw the man inside that golden light. He could see the scars on his face and the green coloring on his armor that easily distinguished him as the Saiyan King, but it was his presence that made Sora's body coat in sweat.

Goku's eyes grew wide at the sight of his father's face. Bardock floated above Mount Vegeta looking the direction that most of his people were in. Most of the other tallest mountains were west of Mount Vegeta, so they were all looking to the east at their King who had three suns behind him, giving him an even brighter glow. Through all that glow though, the Saiyan race and the brown-haired Keybearer could all see Bardock's facial expression. He looked so mad that 'furious' or 'enraged' were not nearly enough to qualify his anger.

Bardock was beyond livid. His hair spiked harder and lightning sparked out of him, the mountain below him trembling from his might. "I CLAIMED THESE LANDS!" Bardock roared, while the entirety of the Saiyan race watched him. Bardock took a deep breath, then spoke calmer but with so much fury in his voice it was hard to imagine that he was anything but irate. "I claimed everything within fifty miles of this mountain, and I gave my word that the towns around Mount Vegeta were under my protection." Bardock looked around, and he let out a yell, "AND WHETHER OR NOT YOU AGREE WITH WHAT I SAID, THAT IS THE WORD OF THE SAIYAN KING!"

Bardock snapped his head to the left and roared at another portion of his people, "At this moment, men attack the towns I have put under my protection! Towns I have given my word that I will protect! THAT IS THE WORD OF THE SAIYAN KING! It must mean something to my people, as for someone to disobey the Saiyan King in his own lands, IS TO SPIT ON THE ENTIRE SAIYAN RACE!" Bardock's fists clenched so hard at his sides that blood trickled between his fingers and fell to the mountain below.

Sora heard growls and snarls coming from around him, and he darted his eyes around to see every Saiyan in the vicinity except for Goku had their teeth bared. They were snarling and their faces were twisting to look nothing like men and women. _They look like, animals,_ Sora thought, and he did not even scold himself afterwards for the thought, as he was genuinely afraid of these people at the moment. He rose his gaze back to Goku's father, and he gulped at the sight of a man who bared his teeth much scarier than the rest of his people.

"We are under attack by an army!" Bardock shouted. He snapped his head back and yelled, "KILL EVERYONE WHO DARES DEFY ME!"

"RAaaaaaa!" A few dozen Saiyans screamed after Bardock's yell.

"RIP THEM TO SHREDS!" Bardock roared, his teeth seeming sharper while his golden hair waved inside his aura.

"RAAAA!"

"BRING ME THEIR HEADS!" Bardock bellowed.

"RAAAAAAAA!"

"And if any Saiyan man or woman returns without blood on their hands," Bardock yelled, then snarled and screamed, "I'LL KILL YOU MYSELF!"

The scream that followed was earsplitting. Sora would have covered his ears, but it was only that loud for a second. A second after they started screaming, the scream became more faint, and Sora realized why as every Saiyan around him had flown off at full speed. They left trails of white behind them, most of them flying straight off the sides of the mountains and down the slopes to find the people their King claimed were attacking their lands.

A woman with long spikes of hair going above, behind, and to the sides of her head, flew down to the surface of Mount Vegeta and right to her house. She landed on her front porch and pressed a hand down on the forehead of the small girl who ran forward next to her. "Let me at 'em mom!" the girl yelled in anger, all riled-up from the King's speech. Another young girl stayed closer to the porch behind her sister, and Okara pushed the girl in front hard on her forehead to throw her back towards the younger girl. The girl who got pushed had huge spikes of hair similar to her mom's going out in every direction around her head, while her younger sister had spiky hair tied back into a ponytail. "Ouch," the older said as she fell from the push her mom gave her.

"You'll stay here," Okara ordered, no room for argument in her voice. "Caulifla," Okara started firmly when she saw the look of rebellion rising in her older daughter's face. "I'm trusting you to look after your little sister," Okara growled, still a look of animalistic fury hidden on her face behind the serious guise she was putting on until she could get to the battle herself.

"Rrg, but she's not even," Caulifa began, only to receive an even harsher glare from her mother. The young girl shied back from that look, and she muttered, "Alright alright, I'll stay."

Okara turned to the other girl, "Kale, make sure Caulifa doesn't run off."

"Mm," Kale hummed affirmatively, then backed off a little as Okara snapped her head away.

As soon as Kale hummed in response, Okara dropped her mask of self-control and snarled like a beast. "Now," she growled, "time to get some blood on my hands." She surrounded in a white aura that shook the ground beneath her, and she shot off of Mount Vegeta in an instant.

High above Mount Vegeta, Bardock growled something loudly to the men below him, and the last ten warriors still floating above the Saiyan Mountains flew off. Three of them surrounded in golden auras, their hair spiking up before they flew off, making Goku stare in awe as he had not expected that. He watched with wide eyes as his older brother Raditz was one of the three whose hair shot up gold, as the other day when he watched his older brother and father fight, they had both gone straight into Super Saiyan God form. Raditz yelled at the other warriors around him something furious that made their blood pump faster, and most of those people roared after he shouted it.

Bardock's crew were the ones who did not roar along with Raditz, though they did smirk to each other in bloodthirsty ways. "A thousand bucks says I kill more than Fasha," Shugesh bet the man in front of him.

Tora laughed, and then laughed harder as the woman behind Shugesh slammed an elbow into his back and knocked him into the side of the mountain they were flying down. "Not if I get a head-start," she shouted behind her, then her hair shot up golden like three of the others in front of her already were. She flew away inside her golden veil, and then a roar sounded behind her and a golden eruption blew apart a mound of snow near the summit. Shugesh flew down the missile surrounded in gold, shooting down past Tora and after the short haired woman on their team.

Back at the peak of Mount Vegeta, only Sora and Goku still floated before Bardock. Bardock seemed to be waiting for them since he had not flown off yet even after his rage-fueled speech. "Keybearer, I don't have time to waste protecting you, so just find yourself some armor and get somewhere safe-"

"I'm fighting too," Sora said without hesitation. "If people in the towns around your mountain are in trouble, I need to protect them." He rose his right hand and his Keyblade formed in it. "You may not think much of me as a fighter, but people think that these mountains are a safe haven. Millions of them gathered here, and I won't leave them."

"Me too," Goku told his father.

"Hmph," Bardock grunted. He looked back and forth between the boys in front of him, then he nodded and said, "Alright. Have it your way. Go find a town and protect it," Bardock commanded. He turned to the east himself and growled, "I'm going to head off the enemy. I don't know who it is. I don't know who would dare." _On the day the King was set to make his move on the Resistance. It is no coincidence._ Bardock continued to the boys, "But we received calls from over a dozen villages at the same time. Explosions, fires, chaos everywhere. Whoever is attacking coordinated this attack with the intention to destroy everything I swore to protect. They spit on my honor by breaking that promise, they tread on my pride!"

Bardock screamed, then he growled in such a guttural way that it was hard to think it was coming from the throat of the man in front of them. Bardock turned away, and he snarled, "Go. Tear apart your enemies. There is no prison on my mountains," Bardock finished, then he flew away in a trail of golden light that could barely keep up with him.

Goku watched as his father flew away, and he had a bad feeling inside him. He lifted a hand and opened his mouth, but he could not shout 'wait' like he wanted to. He closed that hand into a fist, and then he turned to Sora looking as serious as Sora had ever seen him. "Let's go," Goku said.

Goku flew to the right, and Sora called after him, "Follow me!" Goku looked over his shoulder as they flew over the mountain's edge, and Sora was staring straight down and to the south a little. He could feel a strong presence of darkness in that direction, while Goku could feel nothing after he flew off the edge except for other Saiyans around the mountain range. Many of the Saiyans including himself had been too riled-up by Bardock that they never took a moment to put their Power Blockers on before flying off the mountains.

The short Saiyan boy let Sora take the lead. He could not feel any Saiyans in the direction they were flying, but he believed that Sora was leading them to enemies. He also knew that if he could not feel any Saiyans, that most likely meant that no one was trying to protect the town they were heading towards. "It's up to us to save as many people as we can," Sora called out as he shot down the mountain faster than he had ever flown before. He picked up speed even more and the wind rushed by him so fast that it became visible, giving him a sort of aura as he pushed through the air. _What is going on? Is it the Ant King? I thought he was going after the Resistance. I thought we were going to have to rush to their aid in a few hours. Why is this happening?_ Sora sped up even more as the darkness he felt grew even more unsettling, _Or is it even the Ant King at all? Is he still going after the Resistance? If so, do I leave the Saiyans to protect their own lands to go help my friends instead?! Goku would never abandon his family and people, even if I asked…_

"Sora, we'll figure it out," Goku said, and Sora looked over his shoulder again to see Goku nod at him in a reassuring way. "This, our friends, Kairi, we can do this," Goku assured.

Sora nodded back, then he picked up his speed even faster than he knew he could. _I want to believe you Goku,_ Sora thought, yet an unsure look came to his face. _But we're in uncharted territory here. This is going to be crazy._

* * *

To the east of Mount Vegeta, floating above one of the smaller mountains at the edge of the fifty mile radius Bardock swore to protect, was a man who wore a suit of tight-fitting black armor that accentuated the muscles all over his body. He had no color to his outfit at all, except for the dark purple cape that he wore that doubled as a cloak pulled over his front to cover the left half of his body. He had a black scouter on his head, pitch black on the metallic part over his left ear, and a black-tinted glass lens over his left eye. He had a horizontal scar over the left side of his face beneath his scouter, and his mouth was curled up on the left side in a menacing smirk. His black armor had long sleeves, and his right arm that was uncovered by the open half of his cloak showed that his sleeve went all the way to his wrist under the metal glove and white wristguard he had on.

"It is good to be back," the man said, then he laughed darkly, his voice echoing in the ears of thousands in the mountain range ahead of him. The five right below him also heard his voice and lifted their heads to look at the man's back. He floated forward, and he lifted his right fist to clench in front of him. His hair was black, with three large spikes pointing up above it that dipped to the left, many more smaller spikes sticking off the right side of his head, and pitch black bangs that spiked down to cover his forehead. "Rogue Ravagers," he said, and the man unclenched his right fist to create a ball of red energy over his palm. "Destroy everything. Kill them first and sort out the bodies later. A thousand for every humanoid head. A hundred thousand for each Saiyan head. Do not stop until I give the order." The Rogue tossed his ball of red energy up, brought his right hand up to the side of his head, pressed a button to turn off his mic, then smacked his right hand forward into the red sphere dropping back in front of him.

The energy ball flew off of Turles' smack and shot straight into the top of another mountain near them that's peak was just a little lower than the one below him. The five below Turles followed the attack's trajectory and watched as it blew the top of the other mountain apart completely, including the small village that was on top of it. Turles waited a few seconds after, watching the red dome grow over five hundred meters in diameter before it started to vanish. Then, Turles' head snapped up, his mouth straightened, and in a deep voice he stated, "Go." The five below him vanished, shooting off the top of the small mountain so fast that it was like they disappeared.

Turles stared straight ahead, and then a figure appeared in front of him. The man who appeared had golden spiky hair, an x-shaped scar on the left side of his face, and held a red-skinned head with horns on it in his right hand. The head Bardock held was of one of the five who just shot off the mountain below Turles, making Turles lift his eyebrows up at the sight of one of his most powerful warriors already decapitated only seconds after he sent him out. He was only able to look at his former subordinate's head for another second though, as Bardock clenched his hand and crushed the dead man's skull into mush, blood splattering in every direction around his hand.

"Turles," Bardock growled as the blood dropped from in front of his face to give him a clear view of the man floating before him.

"Bardock," Turles replied, the left corner of his lip curling back up as he said it. "Why do you call me by that name? You yourself branded me as the Rogue."

"A brand you took as your own with pride," Bardock snarled. He floated forward, and then Turles' hair shot up into a single golden spike above his head that made Bardock stop and glare even more furiously at him. The transformation was effortless and Turles now had the same golden glow as the Saiyan King himself. Bardock growled as he floated in place across from the Rogue, "I have heard rumors about your little band of mercenaries since you fled these mountains."

"'Little band of mercenaries?'" Turles scoffed. "No, _your majesty,_ " Turles sneered in a sarcastic voice. "Ever since I was banished, my forces have grown exponentially. Every bounty hunter on Aebrith reports to me. I have an army at my beck and call." Bardock's eyes grew wide at this statement as Turles did not look to be lying, yet he had heard nothing about it. Turles knew what he was thinking, and the Rogue laughed before taunting in a threatening tone, "You have heard nothing about me since my last defeat. Nothing, _truthful,_ that is," Turles said, and he smirked menacingly as a figure floated up behind him. Bardock's blue eyes widened at the sight of the woman whose spiky black hair fell halfway down her back. He glared at her, but she did not appear nervous from the look. Instead, Toufu floated closer to Turles' back and the Rogue just smirked larger at Bardock's enraged expression. "Toufu is my lover," Turles remarked, and the woman behind him flew ever closer. She got right behind him and looked over his left shoulder with a malicious grin towards the Saiyan King. "Or should I say," Turles continued, and his smirk spread to both sides of his face, "she _was_ my lover."

Toufu's smug expression filled with confusion, and then shock and horror as a squelching sound echoed through the air. The woman lowered her shaking eyes slowly towards her own chest, and she coughed before she even caught sight of the arm sticking through her torso. Blood splattered out of her mouth and got all over the steel arm sticking out the back of Turles' purple cloak. His cloak was ripped off his body by that single punch, and Turles never turned around to see it float away or the woman on his arm gasp out his name. She held out her right hand in confusion for Turles' back, and Bardock could see inside her eyes that she still loved him, feeling that there must be some sort of mistake. Turles yanked his steel left arm out of Toufu's chest, and as the woman fell behind him, he spoke in an uncaring tone, "Now that I have made my move, I no longer need such an easy to manipulate spy. To think," Turles laughed, while the woman falling below him started closing her eyes, "she actually believed it when I told her I cared." Toufu hit the mountain below, dead on impact with no guard around her body.

Bardock looked down at the traitor, and he could see tears on the sides of her unmoving face. He lifted his gaze back to Turles, and spoke in a dark voice, "You have tarnished the name of the Saiyan Race. You're a pathetic excuse for a Saiyan, and I should have seen it before making you into a God." Bardock lifted his arms, and his hair shot from golden to red, returning to its usual spiky shape in the same moment. "Now, I am going to correct my mistake," Bardock stated, and he snapped his arms into positions of a fighting stance with no holes in it. His muscles looked leaner and less bulked than his powerful Super Saiyan form, yet even with the Power Blocker on, Turles could now feel that Godly energy so much more powerful than anything else on the Saiyan Mountains.

Turles took a deep breath, then he yelled out, "Haaa!" His own spiky golden hair turned red and returned to a shape identical to that of Bardock's. "I am stronger than the last time we fought," Turles claimed. He lifted his left arm through the bright red flaming aura around him, and he turned it over so Bardock could have a good look at it. "A Mythril-Adamantite-Vibranium hybrid," Turles claimed, "the strongest metal any scientist on Aebrith has been able to engineer as of yet." He clenched his left hand into a fist, and he snarled, "It's much better than the one you tore off. I should thank you for that." Despite what Turles said, his mouth dropped into a frown at the memory of the removal of his old arm, and his aura flared violently at the memory.

"You snuck into my room while I slept, and you plunged a dagger into my chest," Bardock snarled back. "You were lucky I was slow from the blood loss, or you would have lost a lot more than your arm."

"Perhaps," Turles replied. "But that was then, and this time will be different. Prepare yourself, Saiyan King," Turles growled, and he turned his body side-face, raising his own fists into a fighting stance of his own.

The two figures enwrapped in flaring red auras flew towards each other screaming. They punched their right fists forward. The clash of their fists lifted all the snow off the ground in a mile radius below them, making blizzards out of the swirling snow with how fast the wind pushed off of them. Cracks ripped through the ground and nearby mountains, and the entire planet started to shake…

* * *

All around the Saiyan Mountains, battles broke out between the region's guardians and those attacking it. Not all who were facing the invaders were Saiyans from atop the mountains. There were millions of people living in the safety of the region protected by the Saiyan King, and many of those people were fighters themselves. Many of the larger towns and the several larger cities in the mountain range had defensive systems. Even though they believed in the Saiyan King's protection, they knew that Aebrith was a scary and dangerous place that they may one day need to protect themselves from.

Above Cornelia, five airships flew over the summit the large city resided on, firing lasers and dropping bombs on the city below. Inside the castle in the center of the city, Queen Sarah stood on the tallest tower and yelled into a walkie talkie in her hand, "All forces, focus fire on the largest ship! If we take down their leader, we may route the enemy!"

Turrets all over Cornelia stopped firing at the other airships and all aimed inwards towards the largest ship with the biggest cannons on it. Inside the control room of that airship, Yondu slammed his hands on the bars of the metal cage he was trapped in. "Let me out of here you damn bastard! We don't stoop this low! We don't massacre civilians!" He punched his fists into the cage again, but the mutinous crew of his ship ignored him and continued firing down on the mountain below. Yondu's loyal crewmates lay scattered dead around the outside of his cage, as few of them as there were. "Damn it Taserface! Let me out of this damn cage!" The blue-skinned man roared.

The new captain of the Eclector, Taserface, spun around and laughed at his former captain. "This ship is mine now, Yondu! Each of those civilians is worth a thousand dollars. Think about how much we'll make destroying an entire city! You're too weak to realize-" _**BOOM!**_ An explosion ripped apart the hull at the front of the cockpit. The Eclector's systems failed and it started dipping out of the sky while the men inside screamed in their flaming ship, only for their screams to be cut off as they ship exploded.

"Good work!" Queen Sarah shouted into her walkie. "Now get rid of the others-" The base of the tower she stood on cracked from all the damage, and the entire tower started falling forward. The Queen toppled over the ledge and started falling down to her castle below, while her advisors who reached for her over the tower they were also on started falling as the entire stone tower crumbled. The Queen fell towards her city and watched as dozens of the turrets around it were blown apart by volleys from the ships she had taken their focus off of. Two more enemy ships got hit with devastating blows from her forces' turrets before she hit the top of her castle, so she at least knew that her final order had gotten through before she died.

As the two ships lost control of their engines and took dives towards the mountains below, many of the crew inside went for the smaller ships in the hangar bays to try and escape in. They fought over limited space with limited time to escape, and barely anyone made it out of the first ship that slammed right into the summit, destroying the rest of Cornelia's central castle with its crash landing. The next ship fell closer to the debris of the Eclector, down towards the snowy slope of a taller mountain to the east.

Running down the southern side of Mount Salad far beneath the wide mountain's atmospheric summit, was an entire pack of werewolves running on all fours. Jacob Black let out a howl after his eyes darted up to show him that there was more than sparse flaming debris falling towards them this time. The ship dropping into their pack was large and mostly intact. Their pack split down the middle with Jacob leading the part that ran to the left of where the ship was falling. The ship crashed down on the right side of the wolf over six foot tall, and he kept up his pace despite the snow rising up all around him and his pack making it harder to see. He did have to come to a full stop as he came out of the snow cloud though, as there were two wolves standing on two feet in front of him on a lower part of the mountainside.

The wolf on Jacob's left was hunched forward, had golden fur all over his body except on his muzzle and his chest, and he wore a pair of green suspenders. Lavender cackled while looking at the creatures coming out of the snow below the crashed and flaming ship. "Those aren't regular wolves. I'd go as far as to call them humanoids, I'm sure the boss will agree." He licked his lips and cracked his neck to either side.

The red wolf on Lavender's left side was a little thinner than his brother. Basil had on black gloves and a black cape flapping behind him with gold on the edges. His tail was much thicker than his older brother's, and he stood up straighter to show that he had a muscular set of pecs even if his arms were thinner than Lavender's. Basil the Kicker lifted up his right leg and bent it at the knee while glaring forward with a straight expression on his face.

Jacob Black stomped a step farther down the mountain and bared his teeth at the more humanoid-looking wolves. He could take either wolf form or human form, so he could not call to them and ask what they were doing, but from their appearances he could already assume. They were invaders. It was all he needed to know. He took another step forward, and then another wolf-man appeared. The muscular wolf with blue fur and his arms crossed appeared so fast between his younger two brothers that Jacob froze in place. His pack could sense his fear, but they were all afraid as well from the sight of the red all over Bergamo's hands that were not blue like the rest of his body. "You two haven't finished this half yet?" Bergamo the Crusher questioned, making Jacob's eyes grow wide as he wondered what Bergamo meant by 'this half.'

Bergamo lifted his right hand and opened it into a palm, while Lavender lifted his own right and replied, "No need to rush, brother. We're just killing time before the big fish arrive. This whole pack won't even be worth a single one of those Saiyans." In Lavender's palm formed a ball of dark purple light that terrified the werewolves ahead of him. Bergamo had a ball of red light growing in his right hand, and under Basil's right foot formed a pink sphere of energy that he kicked forward right as his brothers fired their own attacks.

"We'll get the bodies later," Bergamo said while the explosions tore apart their enemy's forces. "Focus on the Saiyans, I can feel them coming."

"Idiots didn't even put on Power Blockers," Lavender remarked while looking up the side of the mountain they stood on. "Against three of the strongest five Rogue Ravagers, they should have prepared better."

"Let's find a good spot to ambush them from," the youngest of the three began. Basil's older brothers looked back at him, and he continued, "The average Saiyan is weaker than us from what the Rogue said, but I do not want to meet a Super Saiyan God in battle unless we need to."

"Do not worry little brother," Bergamo scolded. "You are stronger than you think. Now prepare yourself, they come!" Bergamo's body surrounded in a red light and he let out a roar. His brothers howled as well, then they shot up in the air towards the cluster of white lights flying down at them.

"Those idiots are coming right for us!" A Saiyan teenager with long spiky hair yelled madly, a huge smirking snarl on his face. He rose up his right hand and created a ball of yellow energy on it, then slammed that hand forward and fired a beam of light at the wolf-man closest to him. The red wolf kicked his energy beam and redirected it up in the sky, then before the Saiyan could even drop his jaw, Basil followed up with a flurry of kicks into the man's chest.

Three Saiyans cornered Bergamo close to the ground, and all three of them slammed their fists into the blue wolf at the same time. Their punches were not enough to break through his rough skin, but the wolf did wince and the Saiyans smirked at the sound of his pain. The red aura around Bergamo suddenly doubled with the pain he felt though, and his body grew in size. Bergamo reached his hands out and clenched two of the shocked Saiyans by their faces. His claws were now large enough to wrap all the way around them, and he slammed their heads together towards the third one's. The third was smart enough to back up though while throwing his arms out to the sides and forming red energy blasts in each hand. He saw his comrades get their heads slammed together and start falling, and he yelled out in anger before slamming his hands together and firing towards the ten foot tall wolf.

Right as the red beam flew off the Saiyan's hands, an explosion of dark purple energy blew up on the man's back. He let out an agonized roar as his armor was broken through, and then he spun around to glare at the golden-furred wolf smirking its sharp teeth at him. The man with short spiky black hair felt himself getting weaker, and he darted his eyes down to see a few Saiyans moaning on the floor below with few injuries on him. "You coward," the Saiyan snarled. "What is this?"

"They call me, Poison Blow Lavender," Lavender replied, while the man in front of him went paler in the face, black circles forming around his eye sockets. "But don't worry, the poison won't kill you," Lavender assured his opponent. The Saiyan felt a little relieved, though still angry, but then Lavender continued, "I mean, it might if it had enough time, but your time is up."

The Saiyan looked confused, then he oofed as the wind was knocked out of him. He snapped his head down and his eyes grew wide at the side of a claw wrapped around his torso, squeezing his chest and lungs. He turned his head sideways and looked towards where his red beam slammed into Bergamo a few seconds ago, to see Bergamo standing in midair looking perfectly fine. The blue wolf was also a towering twenty five feet tall, and Bergamo laughed at the Saiyan's scared expression, right before he reached over with his free hand and grabbed the man who hurt him a minute ago by the head. Bergamo put the man's head between his thumb and index finger, then he curled his fingers in more so that his sharp claws cut through the screaming Saiyan's neck. Bergamo lifted the man's pale and bloody face, and the wolf wearing a red scarf that grew with his size, put the head into the right pocket of his brown pants that also grew in size. "And another hundred thousand," the oldest of the Trio De Dangers remarked in a cocky voice. "Easy money."

* * *

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" Edward Cullen screamed. He struggled to stand up, but the man standing on his back applied more pressure and the street beneath the vampires cracked in four directions.

The man standing on Edward's back pushed up on the bridge of his silver-rimmed glasses. He had long, straight blond hair, and wore a full white suit with a white overcoat draped over his shoulders. Luke Valentine pressed down harder on the other vampire's back, then he lifted his foot up a little, before slamming it down on Edward's skull and crushing it into the pavement. The entire time, the calm and casual expression on his face did not change. Luke turned to his younger brother and said, "Will you finish up already? This town has many others, and some are running away." Luke reached to his waist and pulled out a pistol that he pointed to his left side without turning. The three women who just charged out of hiding with guns and swords let out gasps of shock, right before their heads were blown off by a single shot from Luke's pistol each.

"Killing them so quickly is a waste," Jan Valentine called back to his brother. The dark haired younger vampire held his left hand around Bella's neck, pulling her close to his chest while he rested his head over her shoulder. "Though she got boring once you killed that one," he added, turning his head in and looking at the side of the crying woman's face with disinterest. "Eh, I'll still enjoy this," he started pulling her neck even farther back, her spine struggling to resist being snapped. She gasped in pain and made out sounds that sounded like cries for mercy, but she received none as Jan ripped her head right off. Her blood splashed up in the air and Jan licked it off his face as some got on him.

"Look brother, here they come," Luke remarked, while pointing his pistol up in the air at one of the white lights flying down towards them. Before the Saiyan woman in the air could reach them though, a figure inside a purple aura suddenly appeared next to the woman. The Valentine brothers looked up in surprise at the appearance of the man who floated in front of the Saiyan woman with his arms down at his sides. He had purple skin and no hair on top of his head, and his eyes were blood red. He wore a long grayish-purple coat with a turtle-neck that had indents for his muscles so that it fit him tightly, and he wore elbow-guards, wrist-guards, and boots of the same colors.

"Who are you?!" The Saiyan woman snapped at the assassin in front of her.

"A single strike to the front," Hit said, lifting his right fist.

"An invader huh?" The woman yelled, and she rose both of her arms above her. She froze, and the two Saiyans dropping from above her and the vampires watching from below all stared at them in confusion. Hit did not move, but there was suddenly an indent in the Saiyan's armor both on the front and back of it. She coughed, and then she dropped from the sky, lifeless.

Hit then rose his gaze to the Saiyans dropping towards him while screaming in rage. "Nothing personal," he said, suddenly floating behind both of them. They started turning to the assassin who had both of his arms raised already with his fists at their chest levels. "Just a job." Two more dead Saiyans fell from the sky.

Jan Valentine could not help from sweating profusely, and even his more composed older brother had to wipe some sweat from his forehead. "Damn," Jan said in his high-pitched voice, while wiping some sweat and blood from his face with a steel pistol. "These Ravager guys aren't half bad," the vampire remarked.

"No, they are not," Luke admitted, albeit reluctantly.

In a nearby town of Nibelheim, only one mountain away from the one the vampires were in the midst of ravaging, only one man from the town was still in it. All of the others had evacuated while he had faced off against the single invader who murdered a few of the townsfolk before his opponent had arrived. "Not even a Saiyan," the monster growled in a mechanical, deep voice. It stood almost twice as tall as its opponent, in a body made of what looked like silver steel that had glowing blue lines going through it to make it look like inside the silver casing there was pure energy inside. Even the monster's eyes glowed bright blue while it spoke, no mouth on its body moving as it did, "yet you manage to evade my attacks?! How?!"

The monster ran forward, and a portal appeared in front of it that it sprinted straight into. Dyspo's eyes darted every direction around him. The lean but muscular rabbit-like man had tall ears sticking off the top of his head. His purple ears twitched and his yellow eyes darted to the side where a portal appeared in the air. The speedster came out of the portal so fast that his fist was inches from Dyspo's face as soon as the portal opened, and then Dyspo's head ducked down and his right fist punched upwards. The rabbit-man wore a tight black outfit with white gloves and boots, and he slammed one of those gloved hands into the monster's chest and knocked it backwards.

"Your initial reaction time is impeccable," the steel beast began, while turning right and sprinting away with white lightning bolts coming off of his body. Dyspo gave chase, only for the figure he was chasing to disappear into another portal.

"You're not getting away this time!" Dyspo shouted, chasing the figure straight into the portal. Once he was inside, Dyspo's breath hitched and he found himself too awestruck by the swirling blue vortex to calm down and face his enemy.

"The Speed Force is overwhelming to those not used to it," the monster said, behind Dyspo before the fighter even realized it. Dyspo ducked, only for a foot to catch him in the side of the face and knock him up in the air. His opponent leapt up and slammed a fist down on Dyspo's stomach, making the purple-furred figured spit up in pain. "You dodge predictably," Dyspo's opponent said, then grabbed the rabbit-man by one of his legs. Without his speed, Dyspo was at a serious disadvantage, and his enemy knew it. The steel speedster dragged Dyspo out of the Speed Force and swung him to the right into a wall they appeared next to on the same mountain they vanished from.

A wall of the Town Hall of Nibelheim ripped apart with Dyspo's smash into it, but his opponent did not let go after bashing him with a building. He whipped the village's guardian up over his head and down on his other side, then did the same the other way, then back and forth ten more times before bringing Dyspo down again into his own knee. Dyspo's bruised and bloody body bent over the speedster's knee, and then he grabbed Dyspo by the back of his head and lifted the battered man so his face was in front of the glowing eyes of the monster. "I am the _God_ of Speed," the faster fighter proclaimed. "You never had a chance."

"And what about me?" a voice asked from above. The speedster dropped Dyspo fast and sped backwards to a safe distance as he had not seen this man approach. He looked up at the Saiyan who had short spiky black hair going straight up above his head, and who wore a set of black armor with blue highlights on the stomach, sides, and shoulder-pads. "Wait a second," Tora growled as his eyes grew wide at a closer sight of the figure who just proclaimed himself the 'God of Speed.' "I know you," he said, and the realization hit Tora like a ton of bricks. He looked up and saw another two Saiyans flying down towards him, then he surrounded in a gold aura and his hair turned golden at that same moment. His enemy who was about to attack while his opponent was distracted hesitated at the sight of that golden hair, and that hesitation gave Tora the time he needed to shout, "Tell the King!"

The other Saiyans looked confusedly down at Tora who they stopped flying towards when he first looked at them and turned Super Saiyan. Tora continued, "The Rogue isn't the only one here! That bastard down there, is Savitar!" Savitar's glowing blue eyes narrowed as the Super Saiyan knew him by name. Tora continued shouting, though he lowered his eyes back to his opponent as he did, "This bastard isn't one of the Rogue's men. He's one of five who lead the Capital 50. One of the 5 Guardians of the Capital." Tora's teeth bared, and then he shouted, "Let the King know, Meruem is here!"

"You refer to the _King_ in such a disrespectful manner," Savitar remarked up to the Super Saiyan. Tora lowered down right in front of Dyspo who was staggering back up to his feet. Savitar continued, "I will have to teach you your folly, Saiyan." Savitar sprinted forward, moving so fast without even making a portal that he was in front of Tora in an instant. As Tora punched forward, Savitar appeared behind him simultaneously, and he elbowed Tora in the back of the head.

Dyspo lifted back up his fists, and Savitar turned his head sideways to glare at the other figure who was going to get back into the fight. "He's mine," a voice growled on the other side of Savitar as Dyspo. Both looked over, and they saw Tora back on his feet, a grin on his face that looked bloodthirsty, and not a scratch on him. "Do not interfere, or I'll kill you too."

Dyspo backed up a step, then he nodded and turned to run. _I'll get the rest of the civilians out of the area. The Saiyans are scary, but at least that one saved me. I do not think they will be able to save everyone else without help though._ The fighter who prided himself on his speed winced as he ran away, and he grimaced at the pain he felt all over his body and especially in his right leg. _Even with this pain, I will still be faster than most enemies other than that 'God of Speed.' I need to find Kunshi and save as many people as possible._

While the protector of Nibelheim ran off, Tora glowered at his opponent who just hit him two more times before vanishing into a portal when Tora was about to make his counterattack. "You are so fast," Tora said, while turning his head and glaring towards the beast who he could not feel, but still sensed behind him as soon as he appeared. "But your punches feel like they come from a child-" Savitar chose that sentence to run forward into the Speed Force. He ran for miles, picking up speed the whole time he ran through that void, then came out right in front of Tora with a punch so hard that it was visible on the Super Saiyan's back, sending the spiky haired man flying so hard backwards that he smashed through a dozen walls of four houses and made each one collapse.

Tora found himself laying under a pile of debris with a screaming pain in his solar plexus. "Alright," he snarled, and the debris all around him started shaking. He shot out of it into the sky and dove for Savitar while screaming, "Now, I'm pissed!"

* * *

Two Saiyans shot around the side of a mountain that an avalanche was crashing down. Huge chunks of snow were bouncing off the steepest slopes and out in the air towards the men who swerved away from them inside of their white auras. One chunk was too huge too dodge, so the man with longer hair than his comrade flew straight through it and blasted the giant snowball into pieces. As the snow blasted away from him, three rockets flew straight towards the long-haired Saiyan who crossed his arms and put up a guard to protect himself.

Sixsix shot through the exploding snow after his rockets. The bounty hunter from the planet Sotoragg wore a suit of red armor over his entire body, with small cannons sticking out of his wrists, purple guards on all his joints and his sides, and a black mask over his face. On his rounded mask were four glowing red lines cutting in from each corner diagonally towards the center of his face but stopping before they would have met in the middle. On his back was a jetpack firing out streams of red flames that melted the snow behind him as he chased after a Saiyan.

The Saiyan who got hit by his rockets clenched his teeth inside the explosion that was much larger than he was expecting. He survived it though, and he shot out of the flames with his right fist pulled back. Sixsix doubled the amount of power in his jetpack, doubling his speed to raise him above the Saiyan's fist as the man punched it. The Saiyan was a smart martial-artist though, and as Sixsix flipped over his head, the Saiyan in burnt armor punched his other fist straight up above his head. He tore off the jetpack on Sixsix's back, then he opened up his fist into a palm and yelled, "Haa!" The kiai he fired was strong enough to shatter the armor on the back of the mutant to reveal its gross and bumpy yellowish-green skin.

Sixsix let out a bloodcurdling screech, then the bounty hunter spun around and rose both of his arms to point at the Saiyan. Bright yellow lights glowed inside the cannons on his wrists, but the Saiyan was much faster and shot forward in an instant, grabbing the assassin around the wrists and crushing his cannons straight into his arms. Blood splashed out from cracks in the armor, then the Saiyan snapped the bounty hunter's arms backwards, then pressed his feet against Sixsix's chest and pulled back. He ripped Sixsix's broke arms straight off of his body, then he spun around and slammed the mutant's arms so hard into its head that the force of the blow shattered Sixsix's mask and snapped his neck at the same time. As the bounty hunter fell from the air, the Saiyan snapped his head back up and started flying as fast as he could again.

He turned to the right while he was flying east, and he felt his comrade with shorter hair who had gone on ahead when he was intercepted by Sixsix. His fellow Saiyan was caught in another battle, and he ground his teeth but decided to ignore the battle. He reminded himself what Tora told him, and he flew towards the part of the sky that was dyed the deepest red. The pressure in the air increased, and the Saiyan did not want to get closer to the battle that was making the air so much heavier around him. He got as close as he would dare, then he yelled, "King! There are more men here than the Rogue could gather on his own!"

Bardock flew back from Turles for a second, though he did not take his eyes off the Rogue as he floated between his enemy and the young Saiyan man reporting to him. Turles smirked at Bardock, despite the bruise on his left cheek, and he remarked, "So, they have discovered my _borrowed_ soldiers."

The Saiyan King's eyes narrowed, and he heard the man behind him finish yelling, "The Capital 50 are here, including the 5 Guardians!"

 _Turles is not the real enemy,_ Bardock thought immediately after hearing that. _Meruem, you have made your move, and you used Toufu and Turles to do it._ The Saiyan King's teeth ground in anger, but he did not look as full of rage as he was a few seconds ago, and Turles started to feel a little nervous. Bardock's expression became calm after what he just heard, _Losing myself to my emotions is what the Ant King wants. His strength is in his intelligence. If I can see through his moves, his tricks, his traps, we can win this day. The fact that he is using these tactics means that he does not believe overpowering me is his best option. If I fall for this provocation and go after him without first taking care of the Rogue, I'll need to face them both at the same time. If I take the Rogue first though, he will attack me as I finish Turles. The time most fighters let down their guards is right as they finish their opponent… but he knows that I know that. And now that I know he's here, I can be sure that he will have a backup plan, and five others after that._

Bardock's lips curled up. The adrenaline rushed through him as he became full of excitement. The thrill of fighting an opponent like the Ant King was more satisfying than the anger he was fighting Turles in. The vengeance he sought-after was only a part of why he was so full of emotions that were bringing out his innate Saiyan nature. Because as much as Bardock pushed for peace, he was a warrior at heart, and Meruem was not the only one who had been bored in recent times. The Saiyan blood in him pumped harder and faster, his red eyes glistened with a rush of exhilaration. Turles snarled, his lips opposite Bardock's with how deep they were dipped down. "If this is not the final battle," Bardock began, and his aura started flaring out larger than ever, growing much bigger than Turles'. The Rogue stared at his King in shock, then Bardock finished from behind him, "Then I do not have time to waste with you, Rogue."

Turles started turning his head to see Bardock spinning his right leg towards his face. He was too slow to turn, too slow to even lift up his guard, yet Bardock accounted for the chance that he would be, and he changed his attack from a kick to a doubled fisted pound straight down on top of Turles' skull at the last moment. As Turles flew off of the attack, Bardock flew right after him and grabbed him by the left arm, pulling it backwards and planting both of his legs on Turles' back. "Oh no you don't!" Turles screamed as he felt the King trying to rip off his new mechanical arm. Turles' left fist opened up and a small hole opened in the center of his palm that was only a foot in front of Bardock's face as the Saiyan King pulled his who arm up.

Bardock snapped his head backwards to avoid the beam of red light that shot out of the hole in Turles' hand, then he let go of the man's arm with his hands and pointed them down instead at Turles as the Rogue was spinning himself around. As Turles finished spinning, Bardock saw that in his right hand that had still been below him, Turles had a small ball of purple energy clenched hard in his hand like it was so condensed that it was actually a very powerful attack. Both of Bardock's hands glowed bright blue, and he yelled out while firing a massive beam down at the man below him. The two of them screamed together, with Turles firing his sphere up into Bardock's beam, and then firing dozens of other purple spheres up into the back of the first one to fight against Bardock's attack.

The Rogue was sweating as he yelled out, firing over and over into the beam that seemed to get wider every second. The long-haired Saiyan watching from afar opened his eyes huge and backed away even farther at the sight of Bardock's face though. Unlike the panic in the Rogue's expression, Bardock started laughing as he pushed down harder into his own attack. "What's wrong Rogue?!" Bardock screamed, and his beam doubled in size, absorbing the purple spheres beneath it. Turles stopped trying to push back against it, and he flew away instead, but Bardock swung his arms up so the end of his beam chased after the Rogue. "YOU CAN'T ESCAPE ME THIS TIME!" Bardock screamed.

"I wasn't trying to run!" Turles shouted, spinning around and pointing his left hand at the beam he had gotten a little distance from. The hole in his left palm grew wider and Turles steadied his arm by grabbing its wrist with his flesh-and-blood hand. Bardock's attack slammed into the Rogue's open palm, and the attack started absorbing into it, getting smaller and smaller. Turles grinned as his energy absorption was working, then his eyes opened wide and his jaw lowered at the sight of the Saiyan King flying over the top of his beam. Bardock had released his attack, one of the reasons it was not as big as it was originally along with Turles' absorption powers. Turles still thought Bardock was on the other end of the attack though, so he was not expecting him to come flying over the far end of his beam with his right hand risen and a whitish-blue sphere of light on top of it that had a red tint like the aura all around him.

"RIOT JAVELIN!" Bardock roared, and he threw the sphere down at Turles so hard that it could not hold its round shape. It moved so fast that it stretched out and sharpened, slamming into the Rogue so hard that it tore through his armor and into his body. Turles brought his arms inwards and grabbed the attack to stop it from fully impaling him, but he still coughed up blood as it had gotten pretty far before he stopped it. "Hmph," Bardock grunted, slightly impressed that Turles managed to save himself. "But it's no use," Bardock said, and Turles realized it at the same time, snapping his head back up to see the beam he had not fully absorbed flying towards him at point blank range. He had no time to lift his hands back up to stop it, and all he could do was absorb the attack already in his chest, while swinging his other hand out at the beam. Bardock's attack engulfed his right hand instantly, and only then did Turles bring his left arm up and try to stop the rest of the already smaller attack.

"No, NO!" Turles screamed, as the energy around him tore at his body. "RRAAAAA!" His body surrounded in an even stronger red aura that shook the entire beam that he was starting to absorb with his left arm. The steel of his arm was not melting or ripping apart, but his skin was burning and he screamed in the searing agony. "BAARRRDOCCKKK!" Balls of purple and red light flew off of Turles body and smashed out of the edges of the blue beam around him, tearing dozens of holes in the attack. The Rogue's attacks scattered along the edge of the Saiyan Mountains, and Bardock fired blue spheres of his own after the attacks that were heading in the direction of the lands he swore to protect, blowing them up prematurely.

Bardock stopped grinning so madly at the beam in front of him as it completely blew apart. _Damn, he did not take the bait. Is he even watching?_ The Saiyan King who intentionally made it look like he had let his guard down, like he was toying with Turles, had to get serious again as the Rogue snapped a gaze up at him that looked so enraged that it would be foolish not to take him seriously. Turles lifted his left arm that he had absorbed so much energy in already, and the arm shook violently as it pointed at Bardock. Bardock thought about all of his own Godly energy that Turles had absorbed with that arm along with the Rogue's own power. _This is serious,_ Bardock thought, while flying high up in the air so that the suns were above him and giving him a shadowed appearance to the man looking straight up at him.

Turles squinted as he gazed towards the suns, but he grinned anyway even though much of his body was in pain. He had to grab his own left wrist again, because his arm was shaking so hard that he needed to steady it. _Not that I could miss with an attack like this,_ Turles thought, then roared, "VENGEANCE CANNON!" Blue, red, and purple energy combined inside Turles' arm to make the beam a dark purplish-black color as it flew out of the Rogue's body. It came out of his arm and grew wider than his own palm at an inch past the hole, and it widened like that continuously to create a giant cone of energy above Turles' body that shot towards Bardock.

The Rogue could see his enemy on the other side of the dark beam. _There's nowhere for you to go!_ He thought, his lips curling up as he pushed more energy into the attack. _This time, I WIN-_ Out the right corner of Turles' eyes, Bardock appeared out of thin air. Bardock's right arm snapped forward before Turles even had time to lower his arms from his current attack. Bardock grabbed Turles around the neck and clenched. "Ack- aggh," Turles grabbed up at the hand around his neck and tried to tear it off as Bardock was crushing his trachea. "Ka-ack-how?" Turles managed to gasp out.

It was time for Bardock's flat lip to curve up at the corners. "Spacial disruption. I mastered it like anyone does, through training. Recently, I've been trying to teach it to my son," Bardock grinned more and tightened his grip around Turles' neck. "Kakarott," he finished, and he saw Turles' eyes grow huge in shock, then his left eye got a different look in it and Bardock snapped his head to the right. A beam of red energy shot out of Turles' eye and gashed the left side of Bardock's face, blood splashing out away from him. Bardock snarled, but while he pulled away from Turles, the Rogue had lowered one of his hands from Bardock's that had loosened its grip on his throat. Turles had his open left palm hovering inches in front of Bardock's sternum, and the enraged Rogue yelled in a hoarse voice, "Aaahhhcck!" A purple coating surrounded his steel hand, then the light shot off of it into Bardock's chest and exploded in a blast so powerful that it pushed Bardock one way and Turles the other.

Turles flew out of the air, wincing in pain from his own blast that had caused him even more damage than he had already taken. The Rogue grabbed at his neck and breathed in fresh air after he steadied himself, only for his face to twist in pain. He coughed a few times, like his trachea had been permanently squished thinner so he could not take such deep breaths. "Damn you, ack ack, Bardock," Turles growled, looking up at the smoke from his explosion that he could see a silhouette in. When the smoke flew in every direction away from the Saiyan King, Turles' eyes grew wide at the sight of the red-haired Saiyan staring down at him with his arms crossed in front of his chest. He had no burns on his body like Turles did himself. _From point blank,_ the Rogue thought, backing up in the air a few inches, _he managed to put up a guard in that instant strong enough to avoid taking damage?! Impossible!_

"What's the problem?" Bardock questioned from behind his opponent. Turles stared forward in shock as the figure he was staring at in the air faded away. "Is that fear I smell on you, Rogue?"

Turles tried spinning around, but the punch he threw while he turned flew through empty space. His confusion as to where Bardock went was replaced by pain a second later when an elbow slammed him straight in the nose. _What is this speed?!_ Turles thought. He flew backwards off the elbow doing flips over himself through the air, then he snapped himself upright and swung a fist at the man flying straight towards him. His fist went through Bardock's body, and the visage of the Saiyan King faded around him as he flew into it. "We're both Gods," Turles snarled, "so how?!" He could feel the man standing on the air right behind him. The two were back to back with only inches of space between them.

"'How?'" Bardock repeated. Turles spun in that moment his King spoke, swinging his left arm around at the other man. Bardock snapped his own right arm out and grabbed Turles' left mid-swing, stopping it and all its momentum. A shockwave rippled through the air at the sudden jolted stop of the Rogue's blow, and Turles stared at his own arm in shock as he had put all his force into that blow. Bardock was grinning madly at him though, two trails of blood going down the left side of his face from the gash on his cheek, his red aura flaring three times the size of Turles. "You thought because you became a God, you were my equal?" Bardock yanked Turles arm towards him, pulling the Rogue's fist and forearm between his body and right armpit, then squeezing it tightly with his right arm.

"What are you doing?!" Turles shouted, punching forward with his other arm as Bardock trapped him in place. Bardock used his left hand to block the rest of the Rogue's punches, and he lifted his knees to block each one of Turles' knee attempts as well. They were too close for the Rogue to try a kick, and Bardock was watching his left eye closely for a sign of that laser attack possibly returning.

Bardock continued grinning, and ignoring what Turles asked, he shouted, "WE ARE NOT EQUALS!" Bardock squeezed Turles' left arm tighter between his right arm and body, and he lowered his right hand to Turles' left shoulder where he wrapped his fingers around the top of the Rogue's arm. Bardock clenched with his fingers, and Turles let out a scream of pain as steel crunched in his grasp. "I AM THE ORIGINAL SUPER SAIYAN!" Sparks flew out of the elbow joint, and a loud creaking echoed through the sky as the metal of Turles' left forearm started to get crushed between Bardock's arm and body. "WHO ARE YOU?!" Bardock clenched harder and steel crunched under his fingers. Turles shot his other hand over to try and pry Bardock's right hand off, but Bardock intercepted the Rogue's right hand with his left. Bardock caught Turles' hand in an awkward position, and before Turles could even shout 'Wait,' Bardock clenched with that hand as well and bent two of Turles' fingers back so far that they snapped. _**CRACK CRACK!**_

"AHHH!" Turles let out a scream, and he lifted his left knee in an attempt to get away from Bardock. This time when Bardock brought his own knee up to block, he brought it up so much faster that he hit Turles first, slamming his knee straight into the Rogue's gut and bending the other Saiyan over his leg. He kicked down with his right foot to knock down Turles' leg that already lost most of its force, then he pulled backwards with all his might on both arms he was still holding. He twisted Turles' right arm that he only had gripped by the hand, but pulling the man's left shoulder from the position Turles was in over his leg, it was too much for the Rogue's arm to take. The tearing sound of Turles' left arm from his body sounded more like flesh and bone than steel and wires. Bardock tugged one really hard time on the left and let himself fall away from Turles' body this time, as long as he took the left arm with him.

Blood splashed out of Turles' arm along with some black fluid substance. Bardock looked down at the arm he had gripped in his right hand, _This thing is tough. Stronger than the rocks at the top of Mount Vegeta._ His eyes lingered on the arm for a few more moments, and then Bardock's lips curled up into a devilish smirk. He lifted his gaze to Turles who was screaming in rage and grabbing at his left shoulder with his right mangled hand. "YOU BASTA-" Bardock flew forward and interrupted the Rogue's shout by swinging Turles' own left arm across his body and into Turles' face. The steel fist dented Turles' face in and made blood splash out his mouth in one direction, then the other as Bardock back-handed Turles with his own arm. He smacked him back and forth with his own crushed steel arm that Turles was regretting making so strong all of a sudden.

 _If only- my scouter- he didn't break-_ Turles' jumbled thoughts could not finish as Bardock finally dropped his arm to just put his hands together in one fist over the Rogue's head and bring it down harder than any of the previous attacks. Turles' eyes bulged, his teeth clenched forcefully, and he felt like his spine was getting bent. He flew out of the sky so fast that the air he flew through turned white and made a path down to his body to show the trail of air he displaced. Turles hit the side of a mountain and though high in elevation, he flew straight through rock for nearly a mile before coming to a stop. He coughed up blood at the bottom of the hole in the mountain, a hole that created a crack going up from the top of it and down from the bottom so that the mountain itself looked to be splitting. Turles could not turn left in the position he was in, but he did not need to look at his missing arm to understand the condition his body was in.

Turles lifted his mangled right hand and opened it up into a palm in a lot of pain. _Gotta, get, Hit._ A flashing red energy surrounded Turles' hand. _He won't dodge, unless,_ Turles grimaced, but he floated off his back and started moving up through the hole in the mountain. His body was bruised and bloody, but he grit his teeth and continued rising. _Beating him was never, the top priority,_ the Rogue sped up through the mountain, and he fired his attack ahead of himself.

Bardock watched as the flashing red light got closer and closer, but he saw Turles sneaking up right beneath his own attack. "You fool!" Bardock flew down and around the blast with little effort, slamming a knee into the face of the man who was hiding behind it. Before Turles could get thrown off the knee, Bardock snapped an arm down and grabbed the man by the black fabric of his armor. He pulled back towards him, and he leaned his head down to glare straight into Turles' eyes that were flickering colors. They could not stay red and shifted to black while only half-open and bloodshot. Bardock glared into the dark eyes of the Rogue, and he growled in a low voice, "You could have been such an asset to the Saiyan race." Turles' eyes grew a little, and Bardock clenched tighter on his armor. "Why?" Bardock whispered. In his head he saw all the Saiyans he tried to warn about Frieza laughing at him, minutes before they were all slaughtered. "Why are Saiyans, so foolish?" He hissed it, and then he glared deep into Turles' eyes. "You tricked me. You had a spy. You're one of the smarter ones amongst us, but you're working with the Ant King. That monster will betray you-"

"I know that, but I have-"

"Nothing you have planned he hasn't already thought of," Bardock snapped at the man he was holding up by the front of his shirt. Bardock's fist clenched with the black fabric of Turles' uniform in it, and he continued in a deep growl, "Every possibility. Every ' _idea_ ' you think you had, is something he either thought of and convinced you was your idea, or something he knew was beneficial to him."

"Mutually beneficial," Turles corrected, grinning with a mouth full of blood at the Saiyan King.

Bardock slammed his other fist into Turles' grinning face and knocked that smug look right off it. "You fucking fool," Bardock growled. "He feared me, he feared the Saiyans, and you gave him everything he needed to know about us. He watched you. He _used_ you. Not just for your help with this attack, he used you as a reference, and as much as I hate to admit it, you are the epitome of our race." Bardock leaned down and looked into Turles' confused eyes. "I was not surprised when you tried to kill me. You were the first person I did not trust who succeeded in becoming a God. I wanted to have faith in the Saiyans, because I had managed to make them keep peace since the War against the Kryptonians. They only keep that peace because of fear of me though, and once you got that power, you no longer feared me." Bardock let go of Turles' shirt, and he brought his hand up from Turles' chest to his throat, grabbing it again so tight that no air would escape this time. Turles had no strength to fight back with either, and Bardock just crushed the life out of him while looking into his eyes. "So few among us have the capability, to be more, on their own. I could never say it in front of our people, but my son, Kakarott, is what I wish Saiyans could be more like, what I wish I myself was more like."

Turles look of pain and suffocation mixed with fury now as Bardock brought up the last man who killed him while he was being killed again. Bardock continued in a whisper, "It's why I won't just accept Prince Vegeta as the King, because the Saiyans cannot go back to being the way we were. Changing an entire people is delicate work, and I do it without telling anyone what I'm doing. You though," Bardock hissed. "You make me think, that everything I am doing is for naught. You are the worst of Saiyan kind, and you brought out the worst in me." Bardock's mouth curled back up, and he continued in a bloodthirsty tone, "As much as I like to think I'm better, I'm not. I'm back to my old Frieza days right now. I feel like I could destroy an entire planet, just for shits and giggles!" Bardock's red hair waved around in a sudden gust of wind that seemed to stroke the flames of his aura and made it grow even larger. This made Bardock look terrifying to the choking man below him whose vision was getting blurry and thoughts were fading, replacing solely with the emotion of fear. "I AM THE STRONGEST IN THIS WORLD!" Bardock yelled, while the sky turned red around him and the mountain range shook below. The countryside around the mountains, the deep south and the continent to the north, the oceans on either side of Aebrith, and lands half a world away felt the trembling from Bardock's primal instincts taking hold.

Bardock had been ignoring the attack Turles shot towards him and missed a few seconds ago. He could see the flashing red light coming down from above him, but it was barely any brighter than his own raging red aura. One of Turles' last thoughts as his mind faded was wondering whether or not his signal could be seen, because the attack Bardock thought was meant for him was exactly where Turles planned it to be. Bardock realized this as Turles was torn from his grasp and he was slammed in the gut by a purple fist.

The "Legendary Assassin" Hit pulled the Rogue Saiyan away from the Saiyan King with his right hand and slammed his left fist forward into Bardock's gut using his signature Time-Skip attack. Bardock hunched over the fist, but his red eyes shot up to Hit's own eyes and his bloodthirsty expression vanished in an instant. "I was expecting Meruem," Bardock said, and his hands snapped in to grab onto Hit's forearm before the assassin could pull his arm back. Hit's eyes widened as no one had ever taken a punch like that from him before and only flinched like they were expecting it. His arm vanished from inside Bardock's grip though, the Saiyan King's arms crossing fast as he had been clenching the assassin's arm with all his might. Bardock let out a gasp and spit flew out of his mouth as another fist slammed him in the back. "You're pretty good though," Bardock said, closing his mouth and making sure he did not let out any more noise of pain. He turned his head sideways and glared back at the assassin behind him who floated back with Turles in his peripheral vision.

Hit stared at Turles' battered body and understood why the Rogue signaled him to come. He kept his eyes on Bardock while he examined Turles out the corners of them. Turles' eyes were mostly shut, he looked broken and on the verge of unconsciousness, but he still managed to mutter, "Run, idiot." Hit's chest snapped forward while his head and legs flew back, as Bardock slammed him so hard in the spine with an elbow that Hit could hear his own spin grinding. He flew forward and clenched harder on Turles as he had almost dropped the Rogue when he was hit. Hit flew through the visage of Bardock in front of him and it faded away instantly. He snapped his head around and glared at the man with his elbow extended who had appeared behind him in an instant, who smirked at him like the fight was under his control.

 _Can I beat this man?_ Hit thought, one of the few times he had ever had the thought in his life.

Bardock glared into his eyes, and he growled in a deep voice, "Give me that traitor." _The next time he hits me, I'll warp behind him in that same moment. I can only use it once more today, so this time I'll snap his fucking neck then strangle the Rogue until…_ Bardock's enemy vanished, but Hit did not appear in front of him. He prepared himself for a hit in the back, but no attack came. _Bastard listened to Turles and ran. Smart move._

* * *

Sora and Goku flew down the side of Mount Vegeta for miles before they reached the city Sora sensed a powerful darkness coming from. Goku did not feel any other Saiyans already in the town, but he knew that some had put their Power Blockers on first before flying off the mountaintops so there was still the possibility of allies in the city. When they flew right over the city, the two of them were able to sense all of the people inside it, and for a city the size of what they were heading towards, there were not nearly enough people inside it. Sora and Goku each knew what this meant, though from the amount of smoke and fire coming from the city as they approached, they already suspected as much.

"This is terrible," Sora said as he flew down over one of the tallest remaining skyscrapers in the city. There were several felled buildings littering the streets below, and flames engulfed almost the entire city. Goku sensed a few strong energies coming from the south, surrounded by thousands of weaker ones. That area had the most people in it of anywhere in the whole city. He thought about going around and saving the stragglers around the city, but in a single second, the strong people who he thought could protect those innocents disappeared. Their energies vanished and Goku's eyes grew wide as he knew what that meant.

Goku shot away in a white blur across the city without wasting even a second to shout to Sora. The Keybearer was surprised, but he chased after Goku's blur as fast as he could since he knew where the small Saiyan man would be going. Goku flew over a mile in an instant, and he dipped down between buildings to swerve around the city to a square in the south of it. The city was built on a flat plateau sticking out of the tallest mountain in Saiyan lands. They were low enough down that the slopes of other mountains near them made it look like the city was surrounded by walls on most sides, though the closest wall was the vertical slope of Mount Vegeta in the north since their city stuck out of its south side.

Goku flew to the area he sensed the most innocents, and he shot in front of a white energy blast headed straight for a crowd of over three thousand people. He flew in front of a group of children who huddled together and hugged each other in fear while the adults behind them screamed or backed up farther into the panicked crowd. Everyone stopped trampling each other, and a shocked silence fell over the entire crowd as the white blast coming towards them shot straight up into the sky and exploded above the city. The city was bathed in white light for a few seconds with everyone staring in awe, except for Sora who pulled back and yelled out a 'Protect' magic in fright.

 _Sorry Sora,_ Goku thought, though he knew Sora could handle the blast he sent up in the air anyway, or at least he hoped his younger friend could. Goku refocused and lowered his gaze from the sky to the figures floating before the crowd. The two of them floated above the square that was somehow clean despite every other open space in the city being covered in rubble. Even the flames around the square were smaller and more spread out than in the rest of the city, and Goku suspected the strong fighters who were here protecting the civilians were the ones to thank for that. _You gave them time,_ Goku thought, as he glared forward in a serious and angry way. _I'll make sure it means…_ Goku's fists unclenched and his expression took a turn.

One of the two figures in front of Son Goku was a Chimera Ant. She stared at the boy with spiky black hair that she was beginning to think was common for Saiyans to have. _Son Goku, The Rogue, the Saiyan King, and now this kid. All strong Saiyans too, since he deflected that blast with ease. Oooh?_ Neferpitou's lips curled up. The white-furred humanoid cat Chimera Ant with long white hair and a tail half made of metal had blood all over her fingers. The sharp end of her tail was soaked and dripping blood, and there was smeared blood on the fur around her mouth. She had on a tight black outfit of strong armor that had not been broken through once, as did the man in front of her who the boy was staring at so closely that Pitou knew what was happening. _Just like Black Star,_ she thought.

"Wh-What's- I don't-" Goku stared at the man in front of him in utter confusion, then he turned his head sideways and looked back at the horrified crowds of civilians. He turned back and tried to feel out the man in front of him, but the muscular man had on a Power Blocker on his left wrist that Goku could see since there was a lump under his black left sleeve. Goku sensed out with Haki, and he could feel a presence in front of him that seemed so familiar. He stared at the man's lips and watched as they shifted a small amount as if to breath out air. "Why?" Goku whispered, though he was having trouble wrapping his mind around this. "Why do you look, like Tien?" He asked, his heart rate speeding up faster every second.

"Be-ca-use," Tien's mouth opened and a raspy, strange voice escaped his lips. Goku's eyes grew even wider at the voice, and he gulped as the three-eyed man looked into his eyes. "It, is me," his voice sounded forced, unnatural, even as he said his own name, "Ti-ennn."

"Grrr," Goku growled, his eyebrows narrowing in and his fists clenching hard at his sides. "Did someone take you over? Where are they?! Tien! If you're being mind controlled, try and fight-"

"He's no longer with us," Pitou said, interrupting the child's frantic shouts. She floated forward and stopped on Tien's right side.

Goku turned her way, and something inside him made him feel even more confused. _She, looks familiar,_ Goku thought, but his eyes shifted back to Tien without thinking much on it. He looked closely at Tien's chest, then up at his mouth. "You're lying," Goku said. He looked straight into Tien's eyes and said, "He's breathing, his heart is still pumping-"

"Because I'm pumping it," Pitou responded, making Goku freeze with his mouth open. "I'm working his respiratory system, his circulatory system," she smirked, "I can even control his vocal cords." Goku's mouth slammed shut and his teeth ground across each other, his fists clenching even harder. _Yesss, get angry, get sloppy!_ Pitou's fingers were twitching and the muscular man in front of her tensed up. "He's just my puppet."

"Are you saying," Goku began, his voice low-pitched, cold, bone-chilling even. Pitou's fingers stopped moving, and Tien's body stopped preparing to attack. The hair on Pitou's neck stood on end, and every feline instinct inside her told her that she had made a mistake. "You killed him?" He snapped his head to her, an intense look of anger spread over his face.

A small creature the size of a fly attached to Pitou's right shoulder flew up into her ear. "Run Pitou!" Pouf shouted. One of Shaiapouf's abilities allowed him to split his body into hundreds of pieces, creating clones of himself that he had gathered all over the Saiyan Mountains. On the backs of every one of the King's subordinates, a small fly with Pouf's face on it was waiting to transfer the King's orders to his soldiers. This was not an order from the King though, but an order from Pouf himself. He could sense the emotions of their enemies thanks to small scales he dispersed in a special type of En, but even if he had not sent those scales at the boy as soon as he arrived, he could tell from the kid's face alone that Pitou needed to run. "Do not try to fight him!"

"Tien is strong," Pitou began, though she backed up as she said it.

Goku heard what she just said, and he did not know that there was a fly in her ear that she was speaking to. Instead, he treated it as if she said it to him directly, and he responded darkly, "Tien has not beaten me since I was a child." What the kid was saying despite his appearance confused Pitou and made her even more nervous. All of her hair was now standing on end, and then her eyes snapped open wide and Pouf screamed at her to run, as Goku's black hair shot up into a single golden spike, his body surrounded in a flaring golden aura, and his eyes turned an icy teal. "Tien, I don't know if she left any part of your brain still functioning, and I hope she hasn't, but if you're still in there, I'm sorry for what I'm about to do to you."

 _Even if he wasn't brain dead this kid would still kill him?!_ One of Pitou's only backup plans fell through, and the Chimera Ant turned her back to the boy. She surrounded in a white aura, and she shot off so fast that all the windows of buildings still close to her shattered at once. She flew fast between buildings, ducked under a tilting skyscraper that started falling right as she turned to flee, and flew through clouds of smoke to hide her presence. _Power Blocker isn't enough, but if I use Zetsu I'm undefended from attacks! I can't beat a Super Saiyan, but could I survive a hit from one? Not if I'm using Zetsu for sure, but maybe even if I am using it it would still kill me!_ Pitou used Zetsu while inside a cloud of smoke, all the while twitching the fingers of her hands and controlling her puppet through Nen strings that could extend as far as four miles away from her.

 _What is this child?! There aren't supposed to be any Super Saiyans we don't know about! Did Turles lie to us? Or did the spy of his really not know about this child? What he said about 'since I was a child,' it doesn't make sense. He must be older than his appearance suggests. A midget? I need to get to the King. As long as he is not a Super Saiyan God, he will not be a risk of tiring the King out before he faces Bardock. I must get to him, because if I die, it will cause the King pain! I will never let the King feel the heartache of losing me!_ She knew it as well as Pouf did, that they were the few things in this world that the King cared for. It was why Pouf was so urgent in Pitou getting out of there, because although he was close to the King's side in order to protect him from physical damage, there was little he could do to protect the King from mental anguish if Pitou were to fall.

 _Luckily I stayed close to the King anyway in case he needed my help,_ Pitou thought, as she flew out of the city and around the side of Mount Vegeta towards another giant mountain. She stayed close to the ground in hopes that her white fur and hair would camouflage her with the snow on the slope, but she grimaced after a glance at her black armor. Pitou dared a glance behind her, and in that moment she almost fell out of the air as she saw all the taut Nen strings she had extending behind her snap. The invisible lines waved through the air freely, and though Pitou wondered what had happened to her puppet soldier, she was filled with so much fear that her speed multiplied by three. Her thoughts vanished and instinct told her that she needed to get to the King's side at that very moment. Tien was not far behind her when her strings snapped, and she did not dare another look behind her the entire way. She kept using Zetsu, Pouf kept shouting into her ear 'faster,' and Pitou finally dove to the ground and into a snow drift she saw. _I can feel him!_ She thought in realization, snapping back to her senses. _He doesn't have a Power Blocker on,_ she was panting, but she slowed her breathing down and fell silent under the snow, leaving none of her body exposed at all as she hid herself.

When Pitou took her dive, Goku was still far enough away from her that she was not in his sights. He had been stalled by his three-eyed friend at the edge of the city on Mount Vegeta. When Pitou first fled, Goku realized that she would escape should he try to stay and fight Tien first. He chased her through the city, losing sight a few times, but ultimately following her all the way to the city's edge even though Tien tried to fight him the whole time. At the edge of the city though, Tien had prepared an energy blast, and if Goku had dodged he knew it would have flown into the city and hit innocent people. Instead, he redirected it straight back at the triclops, then he attacked Tien with the power of a Super Saiyan that the three-eyed man could not withstand. Tien did not feel pain however, and he was already technically dead so any fatal wound would not do the trick. Goku knew he needed to either completely destroy Tien, or cut Pitou's means of control over him. The Saiyan boy could see the thin nearly-invisible strings of Nen sticking out of Tien's back though, and once he saw those it only took him a matter of seconds to disable his old friend's body.

Goku searched the air between Mount Vegeta and Mount Gine. He could see below him the point where the two mountains connected before their steep slopes shot up on either side so that it felt like he was in the middle of a ravine. All over the ravine was white. The closest town was the one behind him, and he could see around the curve of the mountain some smoke rising up from it. He could not sense Sora, but the brown-haired boy was not chasing him, as he had flown into the flaming city that Pitou had abandoned and got to work on saving the people trapped inside. Goku gazed around the frozen landscape, _Did I lose her, or is she hiding around here? She cut off her presence completely in that smoke. It's Zetsu like Killua uses._

Goku's blue eyes darted over the snowy tundra. He searched for the cat-woman with every method he knew to use. _Tien, how did she defeat you? She is too afraid to fight me at my base state, as a child._ Goku began to realize it as he thought deeper on what he had seen, _It's unlikely she caught you off guard. She probably had help. If so, is she trying to run to the person she thinks can help her? Makes sense. I want to meet that person._ Out the corner of Goku's eyes he saw Sora flying towards his back. _Chance._ Goku dropped his Super Saiyan aura, turned around completely, and flew back towards Sora, _There!_ The snow moved behind him and Goku's head snapped left.

 _TRAP!_ Pitou thought in panic, and she flew out of the snow so fast with her pounce that Sora stopped flying to stare in shock at the woman. She shot out of a snow drift and flew at her top speed around the side of Mount Gine with Goku chasing right on her tail. Goku was getting closer, but he was not gaining on her as fast as he could be. Even staying in his base state, he could have caught up to her if he really tried. When she glanced behind her though, Goku sped up more so that she would not get the right idea. _KING!_ Pitou screamed in her mind.

"I've got you!" Someone shouted, flying up out of the snow right as Pitou flew overhead. Her eyes darted down at the sound of that recognizable voice, while Goku did a barrel-roll in midair to dodge the ant with black antennae sticking out of his blond hair. Pouf wore similar black armor to Pitou's, a black cape, and he had on a pair of gloves with sharp claws sticking out of the fingers. _Too fast,_ Pouf thought, but large multi-colored wings snapped off of his back out from under his black cape anyway. He changed directions in midair and shot towards where Goku was rolling to. Only a few meters after he started flying towards the Saiyan boy, Goku finished his roll to be facing Pouf, and he had a ball of blue light hidden against his chest with his right hand. When Goku saw the creature's eyes grow wide at the sight of his attack, he changed the direction he was moving and flew towards the ant flying towards him.

Pitou had stopped for a second to look back, but the small clone of Pouf in her ear yelled, "GO!" Her panic multiplied as the nearly full-sized Pouf clone got shredded by Goku's attack. What had looked like a small sphere of blue on the Saiyan boy's hand turned into a cone of light that tore right through him at point blank. As Pitou continued flying away, Pouf's fly-sized clone looked back in fear at the child chasing them. _His movements! I lay in wait for him and my ambush failed completely! What should I tell the King?! Is this really just a Super Saiyan, or is he something more?!_

* * *

 **Azalea Town**

In an area that used to be a town, only rubble remained where houses once stood. A fenced-in backyard near the center of the town had a large number of the town's residents inside. Only forty humanoid creatures, most of them humans, were gathered in that yard, but forty was a high number considering most of the town had been wiped out by the initial attack. The fenced-in yard was not a safe haven that the citizens of Azalea were hiding in, but the opposite. Two thin Chimera Ants that looked like a beetle and a spider-monkey mixed with humans marched over to the yard, and they tossed two humans each into the yard with the others.

"Why are you doing this?!"

"Let us leave!"

The Ants ignored the sounds of the cattle and turned to walk back into town. They would have enjoyed a good meal, but there was work to be done. They spotted others in their squad up ahead and started towards them, and the one that looked like a beetle hissed, "Where are you bringing that one? We're putting prisoners over there."

"Shut up," one of their three squad members hissed back in a whisper. She had red feathered wings on her back and pincers over the top of her red-haired head. She glanced back at the purple frog-human breed Chimera Ant and the most humanoid of their group who just had orange stripes over his dark-skinned body and a light coating of fur. The one with the fur was holding a small boy carefully in his arms, but after the girl hissed towards their comrades, the kid who had gotten calm suddenly turned into steel and fell straight to the ground.

"Damn it!" Froggy shouted, and he opened his mouth wide and spat a Nen-coated slime all over the ground around the kid. The toddler with hair only right on top of the center of his scalp slid across the floor that no longer had snow on it after the houses nearby all burnt down or exploded. The steel-coating left his body, and then as the orange-furred one leaned forward, the kid burst into flames and made the furry Ant scream in pain and pull back on fire.

"Geez, what a kid," Beetle muttered as he jogged over to help out.

"We bringing him to the King?" Spunky, the spider monkey, asked as he approached the others as well.

Froggy turned to his flaming comrade and spat some goo on him that put out the flames, then he spun and did the same to the kid to put out the flames surrounding him. They all let out sighs of relief after the kid got put out, then the winged girl leaned down and snapped her pincers at the child a few times. "Do that again, and you won't get another chance, brat," she scolded, and she made the final snap of her pincers right in front of the kid's face.

The boy sniffled a few times, then he looked over his shoulder at a nearby pile of rubble that made his eyes start watering.

"What's going on over here?"

The Chimera Ants about to try to pick up the boy again turned their heads in unison and got covered in sweat in unison. Two figures were walking towards them, and the one who asked had a discerning expression on his face. The tall slender Chimera Ant with antennae over his head had on black armor like almost all of the Ants, but the other Chimera Ant next to him wore no clothes at all. The hard skin of his torso was light green like it was on his face and long earlobes that turned into antennae, though his thighs and the hard casing over the top of his skull were a darker green. His arms were a dark shade of purple which also striped his lower legs with the same light green as his torso, and the tops of his feet were dark green like his thighs. The Chimera Ant King had a long thick tail swinging idly behind him striped green and a blackish green that also colored the King's pecs.

"King," the Ants said simultaneously when they saw the King approaching them. Then, the woman with red wings and pincers turned to Pouf, "This child, it has power, so we thought we should bring it-"

Meruem was facing the Ants in front of him, but the Ant King's mind was far from there. Only minutes earlier, he released thousands of Photons throughout the Saiyan Mountains. The microscopic particles made of his own Nen acted as a kind of En no range limit. The particles floated all over the mountains and attached to people atop them, and the King received information on all of them. He knew who was afraid, who was fighting and who was running, who thought they could escape him. He knew where thousands of people were at the same time, and he knew from the Photon he had attached to Turles that the Rogue was not faring well against the Saiyan King. _The Rogue will have his assassin aid him soon, which should weaken Bardock more. Pitou… watch yourself._ He felt his Royal Guard's fear increase and glanced next to him at Pouf who was acting normal and responding to the other soldiers, yet Meruem could see on Pouf's face that his other Royal Guard knew the situation and was working on it.

"Then, should we," Froggy began, seeing the King's uninterested look shifting all over except for why they had come to him. The frog-like Chimera Ant continued, "just take him to the rest to be turned into slav-"

The King's tail whipped in front of his body and took the head off of the purple frog-ant's body. The rest of Froggy's squad stared at him with huge eyes as their comrade no longer had a head. Meruem snapped his tail to the side and got some green blood off of it, then he questioned the falling body, "What use would a baby be as a slave?" Meruem glanced down at the child who was staring up at him with huge eyes and a confused look on its face.

Pouf glared at the other Ants in front of him who had terrified looks on their faces as each wondered if they were going to be the next one to slightly aggravate the King. Pouf began in a sharp voice, "All over these so-called 'Saiyan' mountains, people who fled the Cooperative and the rest of Aebrith to find sanctuary are being enslaved by the Capital 50 as we speak. Those foolish creatures tried to escape the King's jurisdiction, but the King's jurisdiction is the whole world!" Pouf exclaimed and threw his arms out to the sides.

The other Ants nodded along, though some of them became focused on Meruem as the Ant King cocked his head to the side while looking into the baby's eyes. The small child cocked his head to the side in the same fashion as if mimicking the King, and Meruem smiled. Then, Meruem's tail whipped down and sliced straight through the child's head and out the other side. Meruem's eyes grew wide, while the boy whose head he just slashed through started laughing at him. The other Chimera Ants stared at the kid in surprise, and the one with red wings whispered, "He did not use that ability before when we grabbed him." Meruem did not glance at her, but he did not tell her to be quiet so she continued, "He burst into flames, he threw a chunk of house at Froggy, and he tossed Jeff across the room after turning into a red-faced monster."

"He can turn into steel too," Jeff, the orange-striped furry man, added.

Everything they said intrigued the King who stared closer at the child in front of him who floated up in the air after Meruem's tail passed through him. _I was too focused on the events transpiring all around these mountains to see that something incredible was right in front of me. This is why I made my move!_ Meruem's lips curled up. _This surprise! Something happening that I was not prepared for! In this situation, how should I react? How do I deal with this child with incredible power?! He did not train to obtain it, it must have come natural considering his age. In that case, if it is genetic, then I have the potential to gain his abilities. Or I could just gain the power of one more_ _ **special**_ _human._ Meruem reached his hands forward and gently grabbed the child by his sides.

Meruem brought the boy close to his own face, and JackJack's eyes grew watery at the sight of the scary monster in front of him. Almost as if mimicking the King's scary face, JackJack's skin turned red and his body bulked up all muscular, making the other Ants and even Pouf stare at it in fear or surprise. Meruem just grinned more though, and the sharp-toothed monster burst into flames in fear. Meruem's hands did not get burned though, _To become intangible, would be an amazing power!_

"Don't!" The other Ants all turned around, and they looked back the direction they just brought JackJack from. At the same house the kid had thrown part of at Froggy, the others who were there at the time were surprised to see someone else dragging themself out from beneath some rubble. The boy with blond hair had blood all over the left side of his face, his left arm looked broken at his side, and he coughed a few times after shouting towards them. He reached his working arm forward and dragged himself farther out of the destroyed house and closer to the monsters in front of him despite his fear. "Stop it!" He could see a look on the green Chimera Ant's face while the figure was looking at JackJack that made him truly terrified.

"Another child," Pouf said, "though from its condition, I suppose it has no powers and won't be useful as a slave. Beetle," he commanded, then he turned his head to the right and looked that way with a hesitant look. He glanced back at the King, but he felt it would be rude to inform the King of something as if he did not already know it. _They are coming!_

Beetle understood Pouf's command without needing it explained to him. The beetle and human mix Chimera Ant marched towards the house and the boy who stopped dragging himself closer to them. "Stop," the boy whispered, tears streaking out of his eyes as the monster moved towards him. "Stay away, from my little brother!" He ignored the beast and crawled closer to JackJack, and then he reached his arm out to the boy who lost his flames and turned his head back towards the older blond boy. "PLEA-"

 _ **Crack**_

Dash Parr heard a bone-crushing noise that made his heart lurch. His eyes opened up and everything around him was darkness. His half-opened eyes snapped the rest of the way at the last thing he remembered. _An energy blast flew through the wall, I ran to try and stop it, and it exploded right on my fingertips. Everyone,_ he thought, imagining the whole family he was eating breakfast with. One of those people in particular came to mind, and Dash pushed his aching arms up above him to get the debris off of him. His skin had burns all over it, but the burns were not as bad as he thought they should be after taking that from point blank. _It's because of Timmy's wish. I'm strong, but JackJack has powers too. They told me being super strong is one of them,_ Dash felt the rubble above him moving, and he groaned but pushed harder to get it all off of him.

Two large chunks shifted and Dash pushed his way up through them to the light. He reached up to a sharp edge and grabbed onto it, and he yanked himself up over the piece of roof. He cut through his shirt as he lifted over it, and he winced as he was already not feeling well after getting knocked out by that blast. Dash plopped down on his stomach on top of a piece of roof, then he lifted his head up and looked ahead of him. Time slowed down for the speedster as what he saw caused him confusion. The sight in front of him was just that hard to wrap his mind around. On the road in front of what used to be the Loud house, Lincoln Loud's body lay on the floor, and a giant beetle monster stood on top of his crushed skull. Past this sight, stood four other strange monsters down the road that looked like combinations of animals, and another purple frog creature the size of a human lay decapitated as well on the floor.

In that instant he lifted his head, Dash focused on the final Chimera Ant though farther from all the others. Sound faded from his mind; he could not hear even his own breathing or heart beat. The edges of his vision became foggy, though right in the center his vision started to turn red. He recognized the figure standing in the center of the road twenty yards away from him. He had seen the green monster once before and been terrified, but all fear vanished from inside Dash in the moment. He stared at the hands of the Ant King that were holding a small child. The boy in Meruem's hands still had his head, but the top of the boy's skull was no longer there, exposing his brain to the world. Meruem's tail flicked to the side and some blood splashed off of it, while the ravenous beast himself chomped down, and then tore up a chunk of pink organ.

As Dash stared forward, his mind processing what he was looking at, his reddening vision started to shake. Everyone inside his vision started yelling, as it was not Dash's vision that was shaking, but the planet beneath the boy itself. There was a dam inside Dash's head, and a pressure inside him pushed against that wall so hard that cracks already lining it widened, and then the dam broke. The PB-4 on Dash's wrist shattered into a thousand pieces. Dash's eyes rolled back into his head, the mountain beneath him cracked, and the Ant King leapt up in the air away from the earth-shattering scream that erupted from the debris before him. _**"AAAAHHHHHH!"**_ The debris from the house beneath him shredded in the white aura that exploded off of his body, and the three slower Chimera Ants on the road were lifted up and thrown by the power of Dash's shout. Beetle was the closest to him, and when the Chimera Ant started turning its head to the source of the scream, it was hit so hard by the force expelling from Dash that the front of its armored chest cracked and purple blood splashed out, and then it was sent flying straight into a sharp piece of debris sticking out of a house two blocks down that impaled him, then got lifted up and tossed away itself. All the citizens of the town in a yard a block away screamed as gusts of wind flew into them and lifted many of them off their feet, throwing them over the fence and making more of them tumble away. The Chimera Ant guards near them did not run towards the scream but crossed their arms and stared towards he bright white light in fear.

 _What is that?!_ Meruem thought, no longer solely excited by the surprises. He looked into the white light, and his surprised look became even more so at the sight of who it was that was screaming with his eyes rolled back into his head. He had seen the child before, heard rumors about him after that, and watched a video of surveillance from inside Pyraxas that told him what the boy's power was. _He is not just a speedster though,_ Meruem thought, as the boy let out another bloodcurdling scream, and the shaking of the mountain beneath him doubled, the aura pulsing out of his body intensified, and cracks shot out all over the slope of Mount Gine, causing rock slides from much higher up the mountain that affected towns all over, not that they were not already being affected by the boy's immense power.

Right as the shaking started, Pitou finally had the ruins of Azalea Town in her sight. Pouf's clone shouted in her ear to wait, but whatever danger was in front of her, there was a much more imminent threat right behind her. Son Goku was closing fast, faster now that he had what he assumed to be their final destination in sight. He shot past Pitou, slamming a fist into her face as she turned in towards him in shock at how much faster he suddenly started moving. She realized it as the fist dented into her face, as did Pouf, _He wanted me to lead him here!_ Pouf spun his head right as he flew up next to the King, his arms crossed in front of his body to protect from the strong force exuding from the boy in front of him. "King," Pouf reminded, just in case the King was too fixated on the mystery screaming child to notice the other one coming.

 _That one is a human, but this one is Saiyan,_ Meruem thought with a glance towards the boy in Saiyan armor who came flying towards him. _He hurt Pitou, but she is still alive. Still, he must die… that hair again._

 _Weird, I feel like I recognize him too,_ Goku thought, while staring at the being that he knew to be the one his former opponent was heading towards. The feeling of power he got from that green figure even with the Power Blocker on made Goku itch to fight him. Goku's gaze shifted to the other figure though, the one he could sense a massive power from that appeared from out of nowhere a few seconds ago. _I've never felt- wait a second,_ Goku's eyes grew wide in recognition, recognition that Meruem caught with his eyes as he focused on both of them at once.

 _Does the Saiyan know that human boy?_ Meruem thought, and Pouf wondered it as well. "Pouf, get back," Meruem warned. Pouf would never disobey his King, and even though he was born to protect him, he fled back in knowledge that the monsters before him were ones he had no chance against. _Who is he? A Super Saiyan child? Where did he come from?_

Dash's body bulked up, and he snapped his head back and roared in what sounded like excruciating pain mixed with unadulterated hatred. He grew taller, his power flooded out of him so strong that it was no longer gusts of wind flying off of his body but busts of energy that destroyed whatever they touched. His pure white eyes shifted towards the Ant King, and a name he once heard Killua say was the only thing that he could think of, the only word filling his mind. **"MERRRUUEEMMMM!"**

 _Dash,_ Goku thought, his already serious expression hardening at the sound of all the emotions in that scream. He shifted his gaze from the boy to Meruem again, and then to Meruem's left hand where the Ant King still held something that he wanted to save for later. Goku's heart fell at the sight. He saw a small boy with the top of his head taken off, and he looked back towards Dash who sounded so sad and angry, then back at the boy again. _Oh no._

* * *

 **FD + 823**

"Daddy, there're people at the door," Goten shouted upstairs.

Son Goku looked towards the door to his bedroom and sensed out to check who was waiting for him in front of his house. He smiled and put his extra orange gis down on his bed, then he flew downstairs and landed inside his doorway. "Come in," he told the couple outside his house. "Go finish the dishes Goten," Goku told the small boy still standing near the door. "I know you didn't finish yet." Goten pouted but walked away to do the chore like his father said. Goku looked back to his doorway and explained, "We just finished breakfast, then Gohan rushed out to train with Vegeta. He's really getting in as much as possible, but I'm sure he'll be there to see us all off." Goku's eyes lit up, "Is that why you're here? Did you decide to come too?"

Bob Parr shook his head, but Goku's excited look only faded a little. "Actually Goku," Bob continued, using Goku's name even though the two were not very close to show he was serious. Usually people would call him Mr. Mayor, including the people in front of him, though after using his name Bob could see Goku did not catch the tone he was trying to get by at all. "We have something serious we need to discuss with you."

"If it's about Dash, I'll make sure he's alright," Goku assured them. The parents looked at the Saiyan in surprise, and Goku continued while scratching the back of his head, "I already told Gwen, but I'll tell you too. I'll treat them both like my own kids," Goku promised.

Helen let out a sigh of relief, then she smiled at Goku and shook her head like her husband did before her. "I'm happy to hear you say that Goku, but we never doubted you would. Dash has many friends with him who we're sure will protect him…" Helen stopped herself, but Bob put a hand on her shoulder and nodded when she looked at him, telling her to continue. Goku got a confused look on her face, then Helen looked back into the Saiyan's eyes, "My son, my, other son, his name is JackJack." Goku looked surprised, as like most people in Pao he had never heard of this boy before.

"You have another son?" He asked.

"Yes," Bob replied. "But we never found him since coming to this world," he added. Goku nodded at the man and gained a more serious look on his face to show them he understood what they were going through. And he did know that pain, as he had felt it for over a year after Krillin had vanished, and for years he had thought he never found Bulma, only to learn that she had died in front of him and that his memories were erased.

"Goku," Helen started again, a pleading look on her face. "All we're asking, is that you keep an eye out for him. Dash, well he's set on making this an adventure about discovering himself. I don't want to tell him to spend his whole journey looking for his little brother, when there's the chance that JackJack never even came to this world, or that he did, but, didn't-"

Bob squeezed harder on his wife's shoulder to get her to stop speaking like that. "He's fine," Bob said assuredly. "I'm sure of it," he added, giving Helen the extra confidence she needed to shake off the terrible feeling in her gut. "Anyway, he's a three year old now," Bob continued. "As to what he looks like, it's been a while-

"He has his father's eyes," Helen corrected. "He's adorable, and he'll still be cute when you see him, if, you see him," she corrected herself so as not to sound too optimistic. After all, they were reaching out on a limb here, but the group heading to Aebrith would be seeing a part of the world the two of them had never been to.

"Well, I can't make you a promise that I'll find him," Goku began once the parents were finished talking. Helen looked down, then Goku continued, "But I promise that if I do find him, the first thing I'll do is bring him straight here. That sound good?"

Bob grinned, and Helen lifted her head with wide eyes and a smile, water resting on her bottom eyelids. "Thank you," the two parents said as one.

* * *

 **Present**

 _I'm sorry, but I'm breaking my promise,_ Goku thought. There was no way he could bring that child to his parents now, even though he had technically "found" him.

Meruem watched as the Saiyan boy's eyes shifted from Dash to the dead boy in his arms. It did not take him half a second to put together that the two were family: it took him a tenth of a second to form the hypothesis and the rest of the half second re-examining Dash's face to see that the boy did share characteristics to the younger one he had just killed. The Saiyan's eyes shifted back to him, but they did not focus on the boy in his hand this time. Instead, the Saiyan boy looked into Meruem's purple eyes.

 _Those eyes,_ Meruem thought. It was strange. He knew that his own memory was impeccable, so there was no way that he had seen this child before and forgot about him, yet at the same time the boy looked at him and Meruem could have swore he saw recognition in the boy's eyes as well. There was a high chance that the boy recognized him as being the King, and the surprise in his eyes at that recognition was from running into the King atop this mountain, and that high chance kept Meruem from thinking too hard on it. He was about to ignore the troubling thought, when the boy's thick black strands of hair shot up in a gust of wind into one single spike. His hair turned golden, his body coated in a yellow veil of aura, and then lightning bolts sparked off of his aura without him letting out a sound. His hair swayed in the wind that surrounded him, and the ground fifty feet beneath him trembled more than it already was thanks to the screaming human boy.

Sora flew around the side of Mount Gine. Meruem spotted movement in his peripheral and shifted his vision towards Dash. The speedster's foot that stepped forward touched the floor. Meruem dropped the bloody corpse of a three year old boy, because when he shifted his vision even the slightest amount towards Dash, the Super Saiyan 2 child flew towards him as fast as the blond human was moving. Pouf stared from behind in fearful anticipation at such powerful enemies before Bardock had even appeared. Pitou groaned from under a bunch of snow that was tinting dark bluish-purple in front of her bloody face, and her eyes snapped open. Dash appeared in front of Meruem with his right fist punched forward in front of his bulked up right arm, an action that made every muscle in his body scream in pain that he ignored. Goku appeared two feet away, his left leg spinning for the side of Meruem's head, only Meruem could see through the dozen feints that came along with the kick, to see that the fist Goku was balling was actually just another fake to try and take the attention away from the momentum shifting in his left leg. Goku's leg changed directions of its kick, but Meruem's right hand lifted up in its path. He caught Goku's foot with one hand, and he caught Dash's fist with the other, and then the King decided to let out some of his power.

The sky above them turned purple with swirls of bloody red and dark blue inside it. The darkness that fell over the mountains instantaneously did not faze the two who had attacked him, but for billions of others around the Saiyan Mountains and the world, the dark aura of the Ant King brought fear to their very cores. Meruem yanked the foot and fist closer to him fast, making both the Saiyan and the human's heads come face-to-face with his animalistic grin. "Now then," he said, "it's time for my warm up."

* * *

 **A/N First off, I'm going to put a list of all the characters below as lots of new people from the multiverse appeared in the war this chapter.**

 **Dragon Ball Series: Dyspo, Hit, Trio de Dangers: Bergamo, Lavender, and Basil, Goku Kunshi, Bardock, Shugesh, Fasha, Tora, Bardock, Gine, Kale, Caulifla, Turles, Tien, Krillin, Bulma, Vegeta, Gohan, Goten.**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Chimera Ants, Pouf, Pitou, Meruem, Killua, Zetsu, Nen, En.**

 **Ben 10: Sixsix, Sotoragg, Gwen**

 **Incredibles: Dash, JackJack, Bob Parr, Helen Parr**

 **Loud House: Lincoln Loud**

 **Guardians of the Galaxy: Yondu, Taserface, Eclector**

 **Final Fantasy: Cornelia, Princess (Queen in this) Sarah, Nibelheim**

 **Twilight: Jacob Black, Edward Cullen, Bella**

 **Flash: Savitar**

 **Hellsing: Luke and Jan Valentine**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Sora, Kairi**

 **A/N Hope I got them all. Alright! The chapter finally comes out after a month break. Know I said I'd try to get it out before the New Year, so sorry about giving those high expectations on a chapter I hadn't started yet. As for this chapter, we get WAR! The Rogue appears in an alliance with the Ant King to attack his own people. Toufu fed Bardock false information making the Saiyans, Sora, and Goku all think that the King's armies were planning an attack on the Resistance, Turles arrives with his army of mercenaries and bounty hunters, some of whom are strong enough to take down Saiyans and even face the Super Saiyan Gods. Savitar appears as one of the King's 5 Guardians, the strongest of the Capital 50, and after beating Dyspo he faces off against Bardock's best friend Tora. The Twilight main characters get murdered by the Trio de Dangers and the Valentine brothers from Hellsing... and Bardock faces off against the Rogue in a battle that shook the world! I hope you all enjoyed the fights this chapter. Goku faces Pitou and Tien, but the Royal Guard can tell from the start she's no match and gets out of there! Meruem and Goku finally meet again after not seeing each other since the third day on Nexus, but neither of them recognizes the other yet. JackJack... ;(. Goku and an enraged Dash face the Ant King Meruem while war spreads across the Saiyan Mountains. What will happen next!? Thanks for reading! Happy New Year everyone! Time for review responses:**

Limit-Breaking chapter 82 . Dec 22, 2017

Wow goku teaching gohan's nobody to go super saiyan, also amazing job with the way the saiyans are acting towards bardock about letting vegeta become king. The main reason they want vegeta is probably them thinking vegeta becomes king not because he is the prince but they show there loyalty to him if he is king and he will be so happy that he will have them become a super saiyan god as well, seriously how gullible can they be. If anything vegeta will probably tell them to quit annoying him, Or even better you have goku tell vegeta about the saiyans but he says he doesn't care at all.  
As for the ant king the suspense is definetly building up now and I can't wait to see how this war is going to start, hell will it even be a war since the power of a super saiyan god vs ant king may be to much for anybody to even stand and fight especially with all that pressure hitting them.  
Also turles going rough is definetly interesting to see, for all we know he's probably taking over some other land and will become a king like how luthor tried himself or how the ant king rules his own land. He probably reached super saiyan blue after he left the island.  
Man so many questions and so many cliffhangers, what is going to happen next. Besides that I wonder what the gods have planned for sora since even he barely knows what to do. Either way another awesome job so far with this chapter and I look forward to the next one.

 **Noxagh going Super is going to be a wall to get over, sometime in the future. The war starts and I hope it lived up to the hype. Hope I surprised you guys with the Rogue showing up this chapter since it seemed like he would be a villain much later on, though he still might be with Hit rushing in and saving him from Bardock's wrath. Cliffhangers continuing on to this chapter, and we'll see if Sora's graces with the Gods can hold as he flies straight towards the Ant King! Thanks for the review, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!**

asdf chapter 82 . Dec 22, 2017

I never thought that I would ever have to say this but FRICKIN' SAIYANS AND THEIR POLITICS!

 **XD I laughed at this comment, and am laughing again as I write this review. Never thought Saiyan politics would come up in this story very much, and then it wound up being half a chapter. Happy New Year to you too, and I would never argue about DBZ character strength cause those feats you mention are so far past what most other characters in this can do. Thanks for the reviews!**

cyber chapter 82 . Dec 22, 2017

awesome chapter, cant wait to see more, and dash found jackjack with the loud family, then there was a explosion, what happened? will see.

HAPPY NEW YEARS!

 **Happy New Years to you too! Glad you liked the chapter and hope you enjoyed the new one. Dash is just not having a great day, though I guess JackJack and the Loud family are having a worse one... Thanks for the review!**

kg833998 chapter 1 . 13h ago

poor mine she is finally reunited with the one she loves and he is taken away from her one bad thing keeps happening first she loses pumpkin then she gets taken away from Wendy who became a heartless at the time and then she's tried to help States Revolt only to fail and get taught to be taken away from her again for good this time probably I really hope mine doesn't die please don't kill mine and let her reunite with Wendy please have them make it to not let them die please aside from that amazing story can't wait for the next chapter

also can you plese somehow put a bit of assanation classroom in this please

but please let them be with the rest of the civilians with the good guys please

 **Sensing a lot of love for Mine here, XD. She'll be back soon and we'll see what happens, but she is looking like she might survive after all she's been through. Surviving Konoha, slavery, and the slave revolt that got practically every person they were with killed. As for adding Assassination Classroom, I did? I don't know if you wrote it before you read chapter 9, but towards the end after the Ra's fight they appear, and Nagisa gets pretty important for a little. They'll be back, and though they're not civilians, they're good guys at least. Thanks for the reviews! Thanks again everyone for reading, favoriting, following, reviewing, and just sticking with this story up until now! 'Till next time!**


	84. Nexus HWR 12-6 War

**Nexus HWR 12.6 War:**

 **Saiyan Mountains**

"Oi Jeice," Burter called out, flying towards his red-skinned comrade floating above a crater in the side of a mountain.

The shorter alien with a long mane of white hair turned to his comrade and fellow direct subordinate of High Commander Ginyu. Jeice looked over his tall blue comrade's right shoulder where Burter was carrying a sack of something. A closer inspection showed Jeice that there was blood dripping off the bottom of the bag. "What are you doing?" Jeice asked his partner as Burter flew up to him. The two of them had on black sleeveless armor over their torsos that had large shoulder spikes sticking off to their sides. They each wore black pants but Jeice's stopped at his lower thighs to reveal his muscular red legs, they each had on white gloves and boots, and the scouters over their faces each had tinted green lenses over them.

Burter swung the sack from over his back in front of him. "Collecting Saiyan heads," he told Jeice as he pulled one out.

Jeice lifted one of his white eyebrows, "And why are you doing that?"

Burter snickered and said in a higher-pitched tone than his partner, "The Rogue is giving out a hundred thousand dollars for every Saiyan head."

"A hundred thousand?" Jeice asked, lowering his eyebrow. "Bloody hell mate, we're rich and powerful already. What do you need a few hundred thousand more for?"

"Heyyy," Burter hissed with a smile, "if I'm going to be killing them anyway, why not make a million bucks or two on the side while I'm at it?" He laughed and Jeice scratched his chin considering the idea himself. Burter kept chuckling while looking down at the crater in the middle of a highly populated mountain they were flying over. Ground soldiers that had on similar armor to theirs were ravaging the towns and cities below that were connected by a system of roads. It looked like an entire kingdom set up on the slope of one of the tallest mountains that was not one of the central six Saiyan Mountains, just beneath the cloud layer that was almost touching Jeice and Burter's heads.

The only difference between the armor of the soldiers below and the two members of the Capital 50 above was a yellow symbol on the right side of their armor. Jeice and Burter each had a yellow circular symbol on the right side of their chests, and inside that circle was the number '50' though with a shape in the background that only the two of them and one other in the army had. The other was the High Commander, and the symbol inside the yellow circle but behind the '50' was the old symbol for the Ginyu Force in their own universe.

Jeice looked down towards the destruction in the kingdom below, and he said with a growing grin, "Guess I could use the extra spending cash, don't know if I'll fancy any of the product we gather ourselves." The red-skinned soldier added, "But I'll be making a few million without going after any Saiyans, once I sell our plunder." Jeice spotted two of his soldiers down below pointing their gloved-hands up towards an area of clustered terrified people. There were over fifty of them there, and there was a strong citizen in front of them trying to protect them in the face of terrible odds. Jeice brought a hand up to his ear and ordered, "Don't execute those prisoners."

The two men about to do just that looked up as they wondered if Jeice was talking to them. As soon as they looked away, the swordsman in front of them charged and drew his sword from his sheath too fast for the soldiers to see. The aliens of Frieza's old army who spun back in fear that they were about to get cut opened their eyes wide, because the man they were looking for above had appeared in front of them with two fingers blocking the sword swipe that would have killed them. "What are you bloody idiots doing, taking your eyes off the enemy?" Jeice lifted his knee into the shocked swordsman's gut, then as the man collapsed unconscious, Jeice took the sword and examined it in his hands. "Whoa-hoa," he said, and he ran his finger along the blade to see that despite him stopping it with his fingers covered in a veil of invisible energy, the blade was very sharp. "I'll be taking this," he said, then he leaned down and grabbed the fascinating sheath off the unconscious man's waist.

As he started lifting the sheath, a hand snapped up and grabbed him by the wrist. The swordsman who Jeice could have sworn he hit hard enough to knock out lifted his head and glared into Jeice's eyes furiously. "Don't you dare-" the man began with a terrifying expression, and then Jeice stabbed his sword down into his back.

"Do what?" Jeice asked, wondering if the man was going to finish his sentence. The other captives who thought this man could save them broke down into tears as that last burst of energy the man showed gave them hope, only for it to be squashed a second later. Jeice wriggled the sword in the man's back, and the guy trying hard to keep speaking could only cough up a bucket of blood that filled his lungs instead of air. He collapsed back to the ground, dying, and Jeice ripped the sword back out of his body.

In a town one away from the one Jeice just landed in, a six hundred pound figure covered in rough orange skin with small spikes sticking out of his arms stepped out of a bank. He had large wings sticking off his back that looked like those of a bat, and the sides of them closer to the front of his body were a lighter orange shade than the darker orange of the rest of his body. He wore a dark blue tunic that looked to barely fit over his shoulders, had an orange sash around his waist, and wore dark red pants to cover his lower body. The Rogue Ravager, Wings, stomped out of a bank with a crate in one hand that was full of heads, and a dozen bags in his other hand full of bills. As stupid as the fat demonic monster looked, Wings got the idea of robbing a bank in the middle of a the war in order to make even more money than he already was just by killing people. It worked doubly in his favor as over twenty people were hiding in the bank's secure vault for safety.

After Wings stepped out of the building, a huge explosion rocked him and he stumbled forward as the bank behind him burst into flames. He snapped his head up and saw two figures floating above the building they just destroyed. Wings yelled up at them, "Oi! Watch what you're doing! Huh?" He tilted his head to the side as the figures floating above him became less shadowed as the bright red light that flashed in the sky above them faded a bit.

The two who just destroyed the bank turned their heads to the figure who was not with them. They each had remarks for the blundering oaf who almost got caught in their attacks, when both Angila and Medamatcha realized who it was they were looking at. "Dorodabo?" Angila questioned in surprise,

"Wings?" Medamatcha exclaimed at the same time, using the nickname for their old comrade. Medamatcha was only three feet tall and covered in bumpy green skin with a face that looked like that of a toad's. He and Wings looked more like demons than Angila who had light-blue fair skin, long blond hair, and a handsome more-humanoid appearance. The only thing the three of them shared in common were the two horns sticking up from each of their foreheads.

"Hahaha!" Wings bellowed in a voice much deeper than the other two. He flapped his wings and shot up in the air much faster than most would think someone his size could move. "What are you two doing here? Haven't seen you at all since coming to this world!"

"Wait a second," Angila began, crossing his arms as he realized why it was Wings was there. "Are you one of those Ravagers?"

"Yeah," Wings replied with a fat grin plastered on his face. "Wait," he got a confused and hesitant look on his own, "you guys don't live around here do ya? Don't wanna be stealin' from friends," he shook around the bags of money in his right hand and laughed some more.

"Nah," Medamatcha said while bouncing around in place in midair. "The two of us are Capital 50!"

"Just, the two of you?" Wings asked, sounding a little nervous as he did.

"Don't worry," Angila said, a smirk coming to the handsome demon's face. "The King killed Lord Slug a long time ago. We've been working for him ever since."

"Ohh, hahaha, that's great!" Wings shouted. "Then we're all working together again!"

"It appears so," Angila agreed with a nod. He glanced over at Medamatcha though, and the two shared a dark look. Angila looked back to Wings who started going on about how he got his gig as a member of the Rogue Ravagers, and he internally grimaced as he nodded along. _Unfortunately, there is a chance our orders will change, Wings. The King's plans are fluid, and at any time the Ravagers could become our enemies. Wings is too dumb to realize this possibility, though I am sure that is the reason we have barely seen any Ravagers around here. They attack their towns and we attack ours, but it would be foolish to get close to them when the Rogue could change his plans as well. I suppose it would be smart to stay with Wings though. The brute is strong but he would not be able to take myself and Medamatcha together, though he would try. If he tries, we get the upper hand of knowing the Ravagers have betrayed us, and if we get word to turn on them first, well at least I can make it quick for him._

"Come with us," Angila suggested to the fat demon before him. "We were just about to go 'ravage' a village down the slope a mile or two away."

"You know where the towns around here all are?" Wings asked in surprise.

"You don't?" Medamatcha asked. "We got reports days ago with the layout of these mountains in them. You didn't?"

"Oh, I remember something like that," Wings said, though from his tone the other two did not think that he did.

A few mountains away, the Legendary Assassin Hit floated above one of the taller mountains in the range, yet still far below the peaks of the six highest. "What a mess," he said, looking down the mountain towards a flattened out valley near the center of the range. The valley was surrounded on all sides by tall mountains which is why there could be such a dip so high up in elevation, but the valley looked gorgeous. As if the cold winds barely touched it, vegetation was vast and green. Snow covered the ground but not the roads connecting the dozen towns and cities inside. Those cities and towns had smoke coming off of them, but no more explosions were going off inside. Although there were no further attacks though, Hit could see the broken towers surrounding the valley that had been destroyed in the initial assault. "Even though they repelled your Ravagers, and your allies," Hit began, and the man he had lain down on the peak of the mountain behind him stared straight up while listening. "These people will not be spared."

Turles stared straight up with a flat lip and emotionless expression. He was missing his steel left arm, had red finger-marks on his neck, and was covered in his own blood. As he stared up at the sky, a sky that darkened into a deep purple as he watched it, he saw the creatures that came with that dark energy that filled the air. The creatures of Grimm descended from the sky, while Hit watched them rise over the bends of other mountains. "This is too much for them to take," Hit said, staring down and watching as the already exhausted warriors at the edges of their towns backed away from the hordes of beasts coming towards them. Giant black elephants with bone structures on the outsides of their bodies. Rock golems that stood fifty feet tall with white faces in the centers of them. Hit turned right and watched as the sky ripped open, revealing a black void through it. A beast with long gangly fingers tore the air apart to poke its own large white mask through. The giant black Hollows emerged, as dark blue and red swirls filled the bleak purple sky.

"What makes a man choose to bring this kind of despair on the world?" Hit questioned. He did not look back at the injured man laying behind him, but the question was directed at Turles. Hit looked to his left, down the slope of the mountain they were on, and he watched as Heartless appeared in small clusters near them. The small black Neo-Shadows stood on two feet, hunched over with their squiggly antennae sticking off their heads, their beady yellow eyes focused down on the closest town to the assassin.

"Who knows?" Turles replied, and he finally sat up. "RRghh," Turles ground his teeth, and he glanced down at his left side. Just turning his head to look at his side caused his neck to sear in pain though. He winced and reached up for it, and as he rubbed it he started coughing at a loss for breath. "But the battle," Turles continued, and Hit turned to see the Rogue lifting up to one knee, planting his right foot down hard on the snowy surface below him. "Is far, from over," Turles continued, and he brought himself up to his other foot. He stepped forward a few feet, so that he stood just below and to the right of where Hit floated. "Bardock's end approaches, and I will be the one to emerge victorious- ack- gah!" Turles clenched his right hand into a fist despite all the pain it put him in, and then the Rogue grinned.

"What are we going to do?" Hit questioned.

"I could pay you to kill Bardock," Turles said. Hit opened his mouth, but Turles muttered, "I'm joking." Hit froze, then he closed his mouth as Turles continued to grin while looking off the mountain. "I don't want to risk you, even if there's a chance that you my friend can take down the Saiyan King." Turles got a more serious look on his face, but a fire burned in his eyes as he said, "Save your strength in case Meruem turns on us after the he takes out Bardock." Turles started to frown, _Not that I'm sure Meruem will win anymore._

* * *

"The Gohma arrived at the base the mountain," Olga reported as she flew up to two others higher up the northern slope of Mount Salad. The curvy woman wore an ornate dress of golden armor, golden boots, and gold leg guards that extended from those boots up to her knees. She had long, straight white hair that fell down to her waist behind her. Olga bent her head in respect as she approached the older-looking of the two men she flew towards, "They have already begun ravaging the towns below, even the ones still hidden, as their army stretches miles wide."

"Right on schedule," Sergei said. The effeminate man next to the older one had long purple hair and a flamboyant gold and purple set of armor to match. He turned next to him to the older man with slicked back white hair and a white beard that spiked out twice on either of his cheeks.

All three of them were over twelve thousand years old, but the oldest of them had rougher and tanner skin. His face was more chiseled and square-shaped than Sergei's, and he wore his golden armor underneath a long white cloak that matched his pants and his shirt below the tunic. He had on golden gauntlets like Olga, but his had sharp claws at the ends of them, visible as he stood with his arms crossed in front of him and his hands on his elbows. This man did not look down the mountain towards the Gohma army full of monsters and animals covered in the red lines of infection. He turned his head to the right and watched as a white blur sped around a mountain and came towards him.

The light-skinned man wearing the powerful black armor that many in the Capital 50 were wearing flew up to the three of them. His armor was pressed tight to his skin to reveal his large muscles, he had long earlobes dipping down almost to his shoulders on the sides of his head, and he had a long white ponytail. He flew straight up to the oldest of the three floating next to Mount Salad, and when he stopped he threw his arms up in the air diagonally on either side of him in a pose that Sergei clapped at the beauty of. "The other Guardians are already wreaking havoc on the mountains," High Commander Ginyu began to a man he just flew up next to. "Do your duty, Deus."

Deus gazed next to him at Ginyu, then he lifted his right hand and a lightning bolt flew out of the end of it. Ginyu followed the bolt into the distance, and then he leaned back as the wind hit him from the explosion a good distance from them. A dome of white lifted off another mountain where a small town on high alert had been preparing for attack. "It is a waste of my power, and my time," Deus began, "to destroy towns of innocents like that."

The woman with Deus frowned back at Ginyu, but the High Commander of the King's armies ignored both Deus' tone and his subordinate's attitudes. "It is not a waste, because hopefully you will draw the attention of powerful fighters other than the Saiyan King. We do not wish for the other Super Saiyan Gods to interfere with our King's fight!" Ginyu posed in a different way, throwing both his arms to the right side and kicking a leg out that way too. "Now, there is work to be done! Begin your assault in full!"

Deus nodded his head, and he responded, "If the King commands it, it shall be done." The sides of Deus' face glowed orange, and his entire body surrounded in a veil of lightning. Olga and Sergei backed away from him, and they kept going until they were each over thirty meters away from him. Deus uncrossed his arms and rose them up at his sides, shaking and covered in electricity. Mount Salad started to shake below the Guardian, and lightning bolts fell out of the sky like rain all over the mountainside. Ginyu looked around and his eyes got wider as the lightning did not stop spreading at the end of the slope of Mount Salad. There were no clouds in the swirling purple sky, but lightning sparked out of the air rapidly and in all directions.

Towns and cities and homes burst into flames as they were slammed repeatedly by lightning. Floods washed through these flaming settlements as the heat from the rain of lightning melted the snow covering dozens of mountains. Ravagers and Capital 50 and Saiyans and protectors of the mountains alike flew up in the air to avoid the avalanches and rock slides and floods. Ginyu turned back to Deus who he stared at through the man's veil of electricity, _He is a force of nature. In the Capital 50, none are his equal. Even among the Guardians. The God of Speed is faster, and the General is the only one capable of protecting the Capital on his own while we are gone. But, Deus is the strongest of the immortals!_

"My Lord, should we locate the Super Saiyan Gods for you?" Olga called to Deus through the lightning. Deus lowered his arms a little and the constant rain of lightning bolts slowed. He nodded his head, then as he opened his mouth to respond, something made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

Olga and Sergei saw his nod though, and though it looked like he had something to say, he did not add anything on top of that. The two of them bowed to their leader, then they spun and flew off. Deus' eyes narrowed and darted to his left side. He reached his left hand up, all the lightning stopped coming down from the sky at once. At that moment, a flood was washing down the side of Mount Salad and picking up more and more water the entire time. A wave was washing towards Deus and he was not floating high enough above the slope that it would not hit him. Ginyu lifted up in the air and turned in confusion as to what Deus was doing, but the strongest of the Five Guardians did not stop his attack for no reason. Ginyu looked closer into Deus' left hand, and he spotted a cluster of orange strings of energy wrapped around it. At first he thought Deus had caught the strings on their way to him, but a closer look showed the High Commander of the King's armies that the orange strings had wrapped completely around Deus' left fist. "What is this?" Ginyu questioned, and he started turning his head more to follow the strings back.

"I, can't move," Olga gasped out, though her lungs were being squeezed and it was hard to even make that out.

Sergei twitched and struggled on her side, but he could not move either. All he could do was turn his head partially to the side and follow the strings wrapped around his body back in the direction they were coming from. He tugged as hard as he could forward with his arms, but the strings wrapping him would not budge. "What are these things made of?" He questioned, and he looked closer through the yellow glow surrounding the strings to see what was inside them. "Oh my," he whispered, "how beautiful."

Inside of the golden glows was nothing at all. The threads holding the demigods in place were made completely of energy, and yet that energy was too strong for them to break through. Deus began as he looked behind him, "Who are you?"

The figure standing on the slope of Mount Salad leapt up in the air to avoid the flood coming down towards him. He was a shorter man than the others floating above the mountainside, and his skin that only showed on his head was blue with some purple dots on top of his hairless skull. He had pointed ears and a toned body as was visible through his clothes. He wore a tight black uniform with white gloves and boots, and his hands were lifted up with orange Energy Threads coming out the tips of every finger. His right arm was shaking even though it was the one only with strings connecting it to Deus, while his left arm stayed steady despite holding two enemies back at once. Still, it was only shaking despite Deus pulling back on his own left arm, and Deus' arm was not moving the way he wanted it to at all.

"It does not matter who he is!" Ginyu shouted, and he flew down towards the short figure below.

"Now Dyspo!" The short fighter named Kunshi yelled.

Dyspo appeared in front of High Commander Ginyu mid-kick, and his leg slammed into the side of what was once Isaac Netero's head and sent the man with a white ponytail flying down into the oncoming flood. The High Commander slammed into the front of the wave, and some of that wave splashed up into the air and got on the strings connecting Kunshi to Deus, as well as on Kunshi himself as he had not lifted very high yet when Ginyu attacked. Deus was the lowest of all though, and the water washed over him knee deep, before he said in a deep voice, "That is a terrible place to be, Ginyu." Out of Deus' body erupted such a powerful force of electricity that Dyspo had to reel back from twenty feet away in the air above. The water touching Deus' legs electrocuted, electrocuting everything uphill on Mount Salad that was soaked by that same flood, and the man who just went underneath the water.

The electrocution also worked on a man connected to Deus by his Energy Threads which the lightning passed through with ease into the attack's user and the others attached to him. Sergei let out a squeal and Olga shrieked in pain as Deus discharged his electricity into them. His attack was not precise, but it did do its job. Kunshi was in too much pain and had to release the threads wrapped around Deus' left fist, but as his strings of energy loosened, Deus snagged them in his left hand and clenched them hard in his grasp. He intensified the amount of electricity he was discharging to a point that Kunshi could not even keep his other strings around Sergei and Olga anymore, and the two of them gasped out in relief as the electrocution finally stopped.

"KUNSHI!" Dyspo shouted, but Deus' attack was not spread out for no reason. Dyspo glared into Deus' eyes as the Guardian turned back towards him, because there were dozens of lightning bolts sparking out between them every second to keep Dyspo away. Dyspo could see Deus thought his attack was well-thought-out and impregnable, and the purple rabbit and martial artist smirked. His body started to vibrate, and then he leaned forward so fast that his body seemed to stretch out. He moved right as a lightning bolt vanished, in the instant another was sparking to life out of Deus' back. Dyspo reached before that lightning bolt got any farther than a millimeter out of Deus' back though, and he slammed a fist into the white cloak of the Guardian and into his back.

Deus flew off the punch and spun fully around to face his opponent. He lifted his arms suddenly holding his nunchaku, Sakra, that sparked even more electricity than he did himself. He held one in each hand, and he held them in front of him to block Dyspo's next attack. Dyspo moved too fast though, and the rabbit ducked his nunchucks and elbowed up into Deus' gut, cracking his armor and hitting flesh. Deus' eyes narrowed in and he headbutted forward, but Dyspo pulled back first and slammed his left fist into the side of Dyspo's face, then he kicked the Guardian in the back as Deus uppercut where he just was.

"He's too fast for Lord Deus," Sergei said in shock, though he was barely able to follow the fight between the two of them as they darted around the mountains. Shockwaves rippled off and dislodged rocks and made any snow left after the earlier rain of lightning roll down the wet slopes in avalanches.

Olga looked closer, and her eyes grew wide as she saw Deus gasp in pain. _All those hits are compiling! Lord Deus cannot be hurt by such weak attacks, but so many of them in rapid succession like this!_ "Your enemy is over here, villains," a low voice growled, and Olga and Sergei turned in almost as much shock at the sight of the blue-skinned ogre-looking man floating back up in front of them. He was covered in terrible burns dealt to him until Dyspo managed to find an opening on Deus, but although he was panting, Kunshi was up and ready to fight.

"There were not supposed to be fighters of this capability in these mountains other than the Super Saiyan Gods," Olga growled. The air around her became frigid, and snow formed from water droplets in the air near her. Kunshi felt the cold, but he showed no reaction to the temperature dropping several tens of degrees. Sergei shivered though, then he grinned sadistically and flew forward with a fist pulled back.

"Take this!" Kunshi yelled, and he lifted his hands again. Out from his gloved fingertips fired golden threads of energy, but Sergei was not going to let them catch him off guard this time. He spun around in midair, and he slashed at them and smacked them away with his hands. He curled his right hand into a fist as he neared Kunshi, then three more glowing strings shot towards him in between the two.

Sergei laughed at the attempt, and he slammed his fist straight into the strings in an attempt to push them away and hit the fighter behind them. As soon as Sergei's fist touched the threads however, his eyes grew wide and he whispered, "Wow," right before the strings exploded and blasted Sergei back with smoke coming off of him, blood splashing from his right elbow where an arm used to extend from.

"Sergei!" Olga yelled as he fell. "You idiot," she growled, then she rose up a sword she drew from her waist. Olga held her blade in her right hand, and with her left she pointed forward, creating fifty crystals of ice in the air above her. The ice crystals shot towards the smoke, and Kunshi flew up high to avoid the spears that ripped holes in his attack's smoke cloud at the speed they were going. Kunshi looked down as the ice spears passed beneath him, then he lifted his head and crossed his arms in front of his body, protecting himself from the woman he suddenly saw right in front of him. _He's fast, but he didn't expect me to come this way._ Olga thought, and she slammed her fist forward into the point where Kunshi's arms were crossed, then spun her sword around for the ogre's short chubby head.

"Evil will never prevail," Kunshi growled, and he snapped his head up to glare into Olga's eyes. "As long as there are those, who defend JUSTICE!" He uncrossed his arms in one fast motion, and ten strings he had readied in his clenched fists extended out and slashed the woman in front of him backwards.

Olga clenched her eyes shut in pain and intense fear as she expected to explode, but then her eyes shot open and she clenched her sword tighter. _He couldn't make them explode that close to himself after all the damage he took from Lord Deus._ Olga charged back at the short fighter again, _His attacks are all far-ranged, I can-_ Kunshi could see what she was thinking, and he flew straight towards her and met her left fist with his own, creating a powerful shockwave in the air. Olga snarled and pushed harder into the fighter's fist, but Kunshi roared back and pressed his fist even harder into hers. "Your assault on these peaceful lands will not go unpunished!"

Kunshi brought back his other fist, while Olga slashed down with her sword. The woman with long white hair screamed, "I am a deity! No one punishes me!" Her blade slashed down into Kunshi's right fist, and then the shorter fighter's fist broke through her blade that shattered in Olga's shock. Kunshi's fist kept going and slammed her in the face, then his left fist finally won the battle against hers and pushed it aside.

Olga was off-balanced, head snapped to the side, her arms spread out so that the center of her body was exposed. "This is the end!" Kunshi yelled. He slammed his right fist forward and hit Olga in the chest so hard that she flew fifty meters away from him, then his right hand opened up and five glowing strings shot off his fingers. Olga's eyes grew wide. She knew these would be the exploding kind, but she was still flying backwards from his attack and did not recover fast enough to fly away yet. Olga screamed, and then a white hand clenched on Kunshi's right wrist. The strings stopped moving only forty of the fifty meters to Olga, and Kunshi snapped his head to the right in shock to stare at the man who just appeared next to him.

The man was soaked, and his white ponytail was still dripping water. He had burns on his body worse than Kunshi's, but he was not panting like the fighter in front of him. Instead, he was grinning maliciously while looking into Kunshi's shaky eyes. "Deus made the right call, as much as it _pains_ me to say," Ginyu began. _**Crack!**_ He snapped Kunshi's wrist backwards, breaking the bone with a bloodcurdling crack.

"AHHH!" Kunshi screamed in agony, reeling backwards while grabbing his right wrist with his left hand.

"You are a fool to take your eyes off your enemy," Ginyu said, and Kunshi looked up from his wrist that he just darted his eyes down to. Ginyu's right palm was already inches in front of his face and glowing purple. "HAA!" Ginyu shouted, putting a large amount of power into the attack despite the close range and the surprise he caught his opponent in. _For him to defeat two of the Capital 50 was no small feat. Kunshi. I have defeated yet another worthy adversary! Now, to take on one even more worthy._ Ginyu's gaze lifted from the body of the man falling in front of him, to the sky where his leaner and purpler partner screamed his name.

Deus saw Dyspo take his eyes off him, and the Guardian chose that moment to raise both hands and fire a full-powered blast at him. Dyspo's gaze was down on Kunshi's body, and a low guttural growl escaped the creature that did not look capable of making that sound. The purple-furred rabbit man surrounded in a dark purple aura that did not look to go with his "fighting-for-justice" persona. His yellow eyes grew darker and his look more intense, and the point blank attack Deus fired at him missed as Dyspo moved. _So fast,_ Deus thought, as Dyspo vanished and only a trail of after-images showed Deus that the fighter had darted down towards Ginyu.

Ginyu himself saw this speed as Dyspo moved away from Deus' attack. _That speed can only be matched,_ Ginyu thought, and his arms lifted up in front of his body.

Dyspo approached Ginyu at his maximum speed, but the man fighting for justice and now vengeance gained a look of shock on his face as Ginyu's hands moved. He could follow their speed, but to even move close to the same speed that he was going was something that very few had ever managed to do. Ginyu's hands moved so fast that Dyspo had yet to reach him, and Ginyu's palms pressed together in front of his chest. _Super Maximum Light-Speed Mode cannot be beaten! How can his body move at this-_ Dyspo's thoughts were interrupted, and his dark yellow eyes widened at the sight of the the darkness that appeared behind Ginyu. _It looks like, space,_ Dyspo thought, only for that darkness full of small twinkling lights to get replaced by a bright golden glow an instant later. The entire course of actions the two fighters made and the thoughts they each had during their clash occurred within a fraction of a second, but to them it felt much longer. Dyspo's eyes grew ever wider as something appeared behind Ginyu's golden glowing body. The thing that appeared behind Ginyu was hard for the rabbit man to describe, as he had never seen anything quite like it. It was over a hundred feet tall and gave off a natural yellow glow off of its shiny golden body. It had a hundred arms sticking off of its sides and back, arms so long that they had two elbows each to allow for better movement.

 _Isaac Netero was the most powerful human I ever faced in battle. If I were not previously wounded, I would have killed him before I was able to witness his abilities. When I decided to take this body for my own, I knew that I would be choosing to_ _ **become**_ _human, but I did not need to become weak as well. In a strong body, in which I am knowledgable on the techniques, I can become the strongest in the world. In order to serve the King, I adapted to this powerful body and mastered its former master's techniques! King! Your greatness is unrivaled in all the multiverse! I swear, I will not allow this man to interfere with your plans!_ Ginyu chopped his right hand down, and one of the hundred hands of the giant golden statue behind his body slammed an open palm down as well.

Dyspo saw it coming, and the fighter dodged to the right as the hand was only meters above his head. _Impossible!_ Ginyu thought. Dyspo changed directions and came back at him, but Ginyu brought his hands together again too fast for Dyspo to reach in time. Ginyu pulled his left hand off of his clapped-together hands this time, and he swiped it across the front of his body, making a different hand of the statue behind him slap across the front of him this time. Dyspo rolled in midair, his body barely making it over the top of the arm, then he dodged to the right, then slammed his left leg down on Ginyu's head. Ginyu flew down through the air but spun as he was falling and brought his hands up again, then he pushed up with his left palm and slammed into Dyspo who thought he would fall out of the air for longer than he did. Dyspo dodged right, but part of the giant golden hand hit him in the side, and at the speed he was moving, the hit sent him spinning away at thousands of miles per hour.

Olga stared up in the air in shock as both fighters had completely vanished from her vision. Flashes of gold and purple filled her sight like a strobe, and then Dyspo went spinning up through the air and Ginyu came crashing down on Mount Salad's north face.

Ginyu made a crater in the side of the mountain, and the man indented into it stared up through the dust with an angered look on his face. _None but his Majesty and Savitar have ever dodged this attack. My power level mixed with this ability should be nigh unstoppable!_ He ground his teeth and the mountain beneath him trembled in his anger. Rocks lifted up from the crater and broke in the large golden aura surrounding him, and Ginyu floated off the slope and back into the air.

Dyspo stopped himself after spinning out, and he snapped his gaze back to Ginyu with a deep glare. _Kunshi, I won't let it be in vain._ "On my pride as a warrior for justice," Dyspo began, narrowing his darkened eyes even more into Ginyu-Netero's as the white-haired man lifted towards him. "I will defeat you!" Dyspo shouted, surrounding in a strong purple aura that grew larger as he let out a scream. He leaned forward and his body lagged behind him as he shifted through the air, while Ginyu rose his hands in a single movement faster than any other his body could make.

The fighters clashed in a flash of white and gold, and in the next five seconds they clashed two hundred more times. Ginyu's giant Nen creation smacked its hands into Dyspo as fast as the rabbit-man was moving, half the time. The other half, Dyspo was able to get around Ginyu's moves and slam him with powerful elbows, knees, kicks, and punches. Sergei staggered to his feet on the side of Mount Salad, grabbing under his right elbow with his left hand and physically sealing off his own wound where his right forearm used to be. He did not wince in pain, he barely noticed it at all as he stared up at the display of bright lights and powerful attacks in the sky. _So, beautiful,_ the pale-faced man thought, and he started floating up again.

Olga floated fifty meters above Sergei, but she was lowering down to escape from the powerful gusts of wind that were happening so close together that it felt like one continuous torrent pushing against her. She had her arms crossed in front of her face, but she moved them apart a few inches so that she could see through the gap up higher into the air where another man floated. _Lord Deus, what are you looking for?_ She wondered, as Deus was watching the fight closer than either her or Sergei could.

Ginyu's hands snapped up in front of his body, and then he smacked both hands down, making two of the long arms sticking out of the golden statue of Nen behind him to smack down as well. Dyspo sped up and up, even faster than what Ginyu had thought was his maximum speed. _Too fast!_ Ginyu thought, as Dyspo evaded his Nen statue's attacks by going past the ends of the hands smacking towards him, getting between the two long arms of the statue on a perfect line towards Ginyu. The purple fighter knew he had Ginyu, Ginyu knew that he had been had, and Dyspo pulled his fist back farther than any of the other times. Ginyu's face was bloody and bruised, Dyspo's as well, but Dyspo grinned as Ginyu's face filled with panic. In that fraction of an instant that Ginyu's eyes looked panicked though, Dyspo saw the right corner of Ginyu's mouth curve up the smallest amount. _Too late,_ Ginyu thought, and the rest of his mouth curled up. Dyspo did not have the time to wonder why Ginyu was smiling, because by the time he noticed Ginyu's lips curling up, he could already see the flash behind him.

The fighter with large purple rabbit ears was moving faster than the speed of light, so the flash behind him told him that something had already happened. He did not think that it was happening in that instant, but expected something to be traveling faster than that light. Dyspo's eyes darted to the sides, and that's when the corners of Ginyu's mouth finally lifted. _Very good, Deus,_ Ginyu thought, while Dyspo went wide-eyed at the sight of the speeding beam of light coming for his back.

 _I'm faster-_ he thought, but his attention snapped back in front of him as he remembered there was something in his way stopping him from evading that blast coming straight for him. Deus had a perfect line of sight on him, and Dyspo realized the fatal error as his eyes darted right and left. On either side of him were the long golden arms that he shot through purposely in order to get to Ginyu in the fastest manner possible. He was directly in between the two, and Dyspo chose to continue his momentum and go straight forward. _Hitting him will slow me down enough that I'll be hit in the back, but if I try to dodge I'll fail! The only thing I can do, is hit him and accept that we'll both be hit by the-_

Ginyu's smirking mouth opened. _He made sure to stay faster than the beam, but he slowed down without realizing when he started to think._ Ginyu's mouth opened to reveal that the inside of his throat was glowing white. He had started building it up as soon as Dyspo sped up beneath his Nen statue's hands, when Ginyu realized that Dyspo would get through them and attack him straight on. It was his original backup plan that he did not expect to work with Dyspo's speed boost, but with the loss of that extra burst of speed, Ginyu had the opportunity to open his mouth.

Dyspo was still too fast however, and he brought his fist forward while the light was still in the back of Ginyu's mouth. His fist slammed into Ginyu's face, right in his jaw. _Try opening your mouth now!_ Dyspo thought, then screamed, "AHH!" Ginyu was hit so hard that his body snapped backwards, and only part of Deus' light beam slammed into the front of his body as he fell, though the blood splashing from him was all coming from his mouth where a micro-explosion just went off inside after that devastating punch to his jaw. The beam that hit Dyspo got stronger after it hit the fighter, as Deus put more and more energy into the attack now that his enemy could not dodge.

 _The best chance of taking down this enemy effectively is to never let him move on his own again._ Deus continued his beam with this thought in mind, deciding never to stop his attack. Lightning flew off the beam in every direction, and the sky darkened above the end of Deus's beam as it got larger and larger and flew into the eastern distance. Dyspo continued to scream as the beam got stronger, as it started tearing apart the black armor he had on and searing through his purple fur and skin. He flew miles, dozens of miles, out of the mountain range and farther, and the sky darkened and dropped lightning wherever the beam crossed. A trail of destruction fifty, sixty miles long dragged away from Mount Salad, and then the beam got even larger. For thousands of miles in every direction, supercharged storms rained lightning out of the sky.

 _Lord Deus, this is a little much. You do not need to use so much power for a fight like this,_ Olga thought, though watching in awe as she did.

Ginyu turned to follow the end of the beam as it flew away. "Wonderful," Ginyu said. He grinned, and then the High Commander of the King's armies lifted his gaze to the sky above. The mountain range below them continued to shake, and he could tell it was not only from Deus' attack. Where Ginyu looked in the sky, it was hard to imagine it was the same sky as an hour earlier. It was swirling so many dark colors in many different directions, but Ginyu focused on an area in that dark purple aura where a golden light shone from inside. _Has it finally begun? My King, have you finally met the Saiyan King in battle?_

Deus lowered his arms and let the beam fly off of him fully. He watched the back of it as it flew into the eastern horizon, a satisfied look on his face despite the deep frown that seemed to be permanently plastered to it. He glanced over at Ginyu who was watching the sky with a gleeful expression, and he looked up as well at the strange colors of the sky that were different depending on which part of the sky he looked to. Deus heard a gasp below him, and he glanced down to see Olga staring not up like he and Ginyu, but straight ahead of her, to the east. Deus saw Sergei look down from the beautiful sky as well, and he saw his right hand man's eyes grow wide and a nervous look to appear on his face for a second. Deus turned, and Ginyu did as well as he had a bad feeling in his gut.

The two of them turned, and they stared at a figure floating thirty meters in front of them. He came out of nowhere, the black uniform below his knees shredded, rags of what remained on his upper body flying away in a gust of wind that rushed by as they looked at him, leaving only the tight black armor over his waist and thighs. His purple fur was near blackened. His right ear was ripped halfway through horizontally in the middle so that it somewhat dangled, and his left ear did not look much better. His face was as burnt as the rest of his body, and his mouth was open as he panted over and over again. His breaths were deep and ragged, and each exhale made more blood in his mouth drip out.

 _How did he get back here so fast?_ Deus thought, as he had sent his enemy over a hundred miles away with his beam before releasing it, and it should have sent him even farther as it kept going.

"A stubborn one you are," Ginyu said, though he frowned deeply as he stared at his enemy. Olga watched from below near Sergei, and she thought as she saw the High Commander's face, _Ginyu is angry. He must have thought the enemy was dead._ She could see a huge welt on the right side of Ginyu's face, and the High Commander and leader of the Five Guardians had blood dripping down both corners of his frowning mouth down to his chin after the final punch Dyspo hit him with before getting sent flying into the distance. Ginyu had some burns on his body too from Deus' attack that knocked him aside and the one earlier. The reason he was frowning so deep was not the reason Olga thought however.

 _This body is so damaged, and that Dyspo's is so fast. To dodge even my fastest attacks- I bet he could even match Savitar! If I had his speed…_ _What am I thinking?! This body is enough. This body is perfect! I have made this body my own, and I will not trade it so easily for a different model after spending so long mastering it!_ Ginyu ground his teeth and his lips curled apart to show how pissed he was. He narrowed his eyes at Dyspo, and this time the aura that surrounded him was a deep dark purple almost as dark as the sky above. Ginyu lifted his arms into a fighting stance, and the ground beneath him trembled under his power. "It is time for you to die," Ginyu said. "You are on your last legs already, my worthy opponent." Ginyu turned his body sideways, and then he released a powerful Ren from his body mixed with the blood-lust he now felt towards Dyspo. Isaac Netero's young body in its prime, his latent Nen powers, Ginyu's ability, and the blood-lust he felt in that moment, all of merged together to create a red core in his purple aura that extended in a single instant to cover everything for a mile around him.

Dyspo was exhausted. Even after escaping the end of Deus' attack with all his power, the thought to run never once entered his mind. He had flown back as fast as he could, with little regard for his own well-being. When Ginyu's bloodlust surrounded him though, and everything in his vision tinted red, he saw a demon appear around Ginyu's body that made every fiber of his body urge him to flee. Despite his instincts and body screaming at him though, Dyspo's mental fortitude held firm and his arms lifted in front of him, his burnt and bloody hands clenching into fists. This made Ginyu smile, but it only made the aura of bloodlust grow larger as he yelled, "Dyspo! I heard your comrade say your name! I will remember it, now remember mine as I send you to the afterlife! I am the High Commander of the King's armies, the leader of the Five Guardians and Capital 50, and an Honorary Royal Guard to the King himself…" Ginyu threw his arms up to either side of his head and opened his palms to the sky in one of his signature poses. "GINYU!" He shouted, then he brought his elbows down to his sides, curled his hands into fists, and yelled, "Now! DIE!"

Ginyu raced forward, made it three feet, and then he jolted to a stop and the huge aura he had built up vanished. All the hype and momentum he had built up with his speech vanished, and his eyes grew wide at the sight of the two people who suddenly floated between him and his prey. Dyspo's eyes grew wide, as though his vision was blurry, and that aura had his mind playing tricks on him, the movements of the people in front of him were so fast that he could not see it. _Where did they, come from?_ Dyspo thought, his mind processing slowly the events happening in front of him.

"We were gonna let this guy finish his fight, seeing how worked up he was…"

"But if you're really Ginyu…"

Fasha and Shugesh smirked canine-filled smiles and the direction of the bloodlust switched. Ginyu felt it all directed towards him now, but he stood firm in midair and crossed his arms while glaring at the spiky haired Saiyans ahead of him. The two of them let their tails wave behind them, tails covered in golden fur that matched the color of their spiky hair and flaring auras. "Then I'm not standing aside and letting someone else kill you," Fasha continued. "I'm going to tear you apart-"

"I'm going to rip him apart," Shugesh said, and he pushed Fasha to the side and flew forward himself.

"Hey! I saw him first!" Fasha yelled. The two Super Saiyans turned to each other and snarled at the other one to back down, but neither of them would. After a few seconds, Fasha kept a cooler head and turned away from the fat man in front of her. "There is no time for this. We can't figure out who'll fight him first, but it's not a one on one anyway. I saw the way that bastard cut in to their fight," she darted her blue eyes towards the older man straight in front of her, as Shugesh floated more on line with Ginyu. "This isn't a one on one, they're going to work together."

"Are you suggesting-" Shugesh started with a deep frown.

"No," Fasha replied, and she smirked while Shugesh looked surprised, then he smirked as well. "I don't plan on trying to coordinate attacks with an idiot like you without Bardock or Tora, it wouldn't work. Instead, we'll just kill them all. You watch my back, I'll watch yours."

"Hah, my back won't need to be watched," Shugesh said, his voice deep and growling.

Deus surrounded in an aura of violent lightning more powerful than anything he had created the entire day. "I recognize them," Deus said to the man on his left.

"They are two of the Super Saiyan Gods," Ginyu agreed. "But I also recognize them," he continued, and he got louder as he did so that the Saiyans would hear him. "I remember when they were nothing but low level weaklings in the ranks of-" Both Shugesh and Fasha turned their hair red, their bodies surrounded in flaming red auras, and Ginyu's eyes grew wide as the two of them never let him finish his sentence. They roared and flew forward with furious snarling grins on their faces, and the planet shook beneath their might. Deus let out a roar and both sides of his face glowed bright orange, his entire body flashing white and lightning striking all over the nearby mountains. Ginyu rose his hands in an instant and the giant golden statue appeared behind him, and he chopped his hands forward to make two of them cut down towards his enemy.

Peeking over the top of a nearby mountain, a fat man with sharp spikes sticking out of his large pink body ducked lower so that more of his body would stay hidden. As he watched, or tried to watch, the start of the fight between Ginyu, Deus, and the Super Saiyan Gods, Dodoria had sweat all over his body and felt a strong urge to run far away and never look back. _I didn't want to come,_ he thought, putting his hands on the sides of his head and shaking it around in fear. _Why did it have to be them?! I heard about the Super Saiyan Gods, but when I got their pictures, why did it have to be the Saiyans that_ _ **I**_ _killed?! Shugesh and Fasha were such weaklings when I massacred them! Oh please don't let them find me._

* * *

Out from the dark sky above two Saiyan Mountains descended a horde of Aragami. The disgusting monsters came in all different shapes and sizes. The Zygotes looked like white harpies that were half surrounded by a black monster on their backs. The monster form covered up half of their harpies' heads with its wide head covered in a single giant orange eye. Other Zygotes dropping from the sky were not white but red, yellow, or blue, with fire, lightning, and ice coming out of their mouths as they rushed down the mountainsides. Twelve foot tall Chi-Yous descended above the Zygotes, these ones larger and darker monsters with long arms connected by a series of blade-like appendages. Another Aragami lowered above the others, only one of its kind, yet it was the most deadly of all. The Aether had wide white wings that looked like a bird or an angel's, but speckled in bright pink spots. It looked angelic, but at the same time demonic with the two long steel legs of its body that ended in spikes, the eight red protrusions coming from the point where its wings connected, and from its head. The beast had silver protrusion out of its thin body that led into a round head made up of hundreds of thin silver wires sticking in every direction a foot or two. In the center of all those steel spikes was a single glowing pink circle with a black slit in the center. That eye glowed and the Aether's body covered in a white heavenly light, and then a pink beam of death shot down into a city below.

On top of a skyscraper in the city below the Aragami army, a man wearing black kevlar armor and a helmet with a clear visor over his face let out a groan at the sight of the beams shooting off of the Aether above. "Hey Spartan!" A voice called up from behind the black-clad man. John Diggle turned his head and saw a young Asian woman holding two rocket launchers in her hands. "Here!" Amy Wong shouted, tossing one of the RPGs to the hero.

"Good, now get yourself back inside," Spartan told the younger woman who helped him out on occasion, not that the safe Saiyan Mountains usually had any cause for him to adorn his superhero gear.

"No way!" Amy said, and she dropped down to a knee and steadied the weapon on her shoulder. A scope popped up on the top of the launcher and she said, "I wanna see what my babies can do." Amy fired, and John sighed but lifted his cannon as well and started firing green blasts up at the monsters. Amy grinned and yelled out in glee as the green blast hit a few of the monsters and disintegrated their whole bodies. "Normal weapons can't stop Aragami," Amy said, smirking even more at the idea of what her cannons could do.

"Well even these can't touch that big one," John snapped to the girl who was not focused enough. Amy looked back up, and she saw John focusing his attacks on the Aether at the top of the enemy army. Every attack that got close to it was stopped by a white forcefield that only appeared when those beams flew near it. Other forces around the city were firing beams up at the Aragami descending on them, with less effect than Amy's weapons were having, but no one was having any effect on the Aether. "We need a plan to- to-" John's voice faded off, and then a loud clank rang out over the rooftop as he had dropped his cannon to the floor.

"What?" Amy asked the man she had looked to when he started speaking. Through his visor, Amy could see John's dark-skinned face had gotten several shades whiter. She turned to look up as well, and she fell off her knee to her butt, dropping her weapon as well. "No," Amy said, shaking her head. "But that's, that's not fair," her voice was shaky and her eyes huge.

John took a step back in fear. All the beams stopped shooting up into the sky at the same moment. Something else was descending out of the dark-colored sky above. The reddish-blackish-purple haze that filled the sky was so thick that it acted like a cloud. Lightning came out of it all over the place, and this supercharged haze blocked the people below from seeing this beast until it was only a few hundred meters above them. Four of its front legs dropped first, each more than four hundred feet long, and its back four came down after that. "AArrGGRROOaaaaARRR," a bellowing roar came down from the sky, and then a wind slammed into everyone in the city, hardest into those on the tops of the roofs of skyscrapers that all the windows shattered on in the same instant.

"What, is that?" John whispered. Giant long appendages that looked neither like arms nor legs, maybe tentacles from what he could see, waved around in the air on the sides of the beast. Its wings lowered next, but even those John could not tell if what he was looking at were really wings. They looked covered in hair, not feathers, long giant hairs each as long as a ten-story tall building. Its face was less a face and more an open mouth on the end of a protrusion above the tops of the forward-most legs. Its body was hunched forward which was why the front legs came out of the sky first, so John and Amy could see up on its back where two massive spikes stuck out on either side so high into the haze that they lost sight of them. "Is that also, Aragami?" John asked.

 **BOOM!** The Aether that the two took their eyes off of fired a beam of death into their skyscraper, blowing them up as well as the floor beneath their feet, and five stories beneath that. An explosion blasted off the rooftop but the skyscraper below kept standing, at least for a few more seconds. The giant Aragami descending from the sky came to a stop, and a blue glow formed inside its open mouth. If anything like this had happened normally, even if the power blockers on the outside of the city had failed and the Aragami found them, the Saiyans would have come to save them. The mountains were in chaos though. No one was coming to help them. Families held their loved ones close. Warriors and soldiers bowed their heads, and the Leviathan fired a beam into the city below that shattered the floor beneath it and made every building inside start to collapse. Those falling buildings were then thrown in every direction away from where the beam slammed down, their walls melting and tearing apart in the blue light and following heat explosion.

The bright blue light from the explosion flashed in the sky above a bunch of mountains near the city that just exploded. It was followed by an even darker tone of red to the sky as the fires raged all over the land that city once stood. Inside the town of Nibelheim, what was now a flattened area covered in scattered piles of debris, two figures faced each other without looking up at the darkened red sky above them. Smoke covered the air around the indent in the mountain slope that they were standing on. The smell was thick, the air was full of the scent of smoke and blood, and these two men glared forward into each other's eyes. Tora's cold blue ones of his Super Saiyan form were narrowed and dark as he stared into the glowing ones on his enemy surrounded in strong steel armor.

Savitar looked like a machine with glowing blue lines in between the cracks of his armor that made it look like the inside of his body was just a glowing blue energy. Tora could sense his energy though, the energy of a human inside that armor. Tora shot forward leaving an image of himself behind, but Savitar was not tricked by the slow technique. The self-proclaimed God of Speed sped forward and left lightning bolts in his path where Tora punched through. Tora punched his right fist though a lightning bolt, then he spun and kicked towards Savitar's back as the speedster ran. His leg just missed the back of the man's armor, and he slammed that leg on the ground before spinning and lifting his other leg to kick after him. Savitar ran just ahead of Tora's kicks, and then a portal opened up in front of him and he ran into it, appearing behind Tora and slamming his outstretched arm into the back of the Super Saiyan's head.

Savitar had ran so far and fast inside the Speed Force that he planned on taking off Tora's head with the clothesline blow. He slammed his steel arm into the Saiyan's head, and Tora shot off his feet, head-first into the ground. Blood splashed up from beneath his golden hair, getting his hair red while he lay on the floor with his face in the dirt. It was not Savitar's intended effect, but the speedster was satisfied with the results anyway. _As long as he's dead, I did my-_ Savitar's thoughts froze and the speedster and Guardian of the Capital stared in silence at the man who curled his hands into the dirt at his sides. Tora's head snapped up, blood coming down his forehead and over his face, but a smile on that face that made him look like an animal. "What a hit," Tora said. Savitar could not tell from the tone whether the man meant as in the punch, or as in Tora felt like he was getting high from the powerful blow, like a 'hit' of some sort of drug. The look on his face made the speedster think it could go either way.

"You won't hit me again," Tora said, and he stood up before his enemy.

In a deep, mechanical voice, Savitar replied, "You are too slow, Super Saiyan." Savitar ran forward so fast that Tora would not be able to dodge, or at least Savitar thought the man would not be able to. Tora turned his body sideways and Savitar's fist flew right in front of the muscular man's face. As soon as Savitar moved, Tora reacted and was already dodging. Savitar looked left as he ran by, making sure not to slow down in order to avoid any counterattack. Tora did not strike back though, he just smirked as Savitar turned its head towards his own while running by.

Tora lifted his right hand as Savitar ran past, and he fired a yellow ball of energy at the speedster's back. Savitar ran to the left to avoid it, and another three balls of yellow light hit the ground at spots right behind his feet. Tora appeared in front of Savitar and the speedster came to a stop to change directions, and he was able to do so with the immense speed difference between the two. As soon as he stopped though, a yellow beam of light caught the corner of his vision and Savitar leaned its body backwards before the final attack Tora shot finally caught up to them. As Savitar leaned back, Tora flew forward. He flew right into the path of his own yellow beam, allowing himself to be hit by it. _What a fool, hit by his own-_ Tora came through the smoke looking unfazed, and he slammed his right fist forward and cracked the armored chest plate to the speedster before him, before sending the faster enemy flying across the destroyed town.

Savitar hit the ground and rolled for a hundred feet before crashing into a pile of rubble that stopped him. He gasped in pain, but he stood up and looked forward with his glowing blue eyes as Tora walked towards him. _That blast would have been strong enough to break through my armor, but he did not get a scratch from it. The difference in our speed is immeasurable, but this Saiyan…_

"There was a race of men who were faster than me once, like you," Tora began as he walked down the destroyed road towards his enemy. He was grinning, while blood dripped down from his forehead over his mouth to his chin in long thick lines. Tora glared into Savitar's blue eyes and continued, "I was on a solo mission, because the planet was supposed to be easy to conquer, but the planet had twenty or so fighters who if Frieza had known about, he would have sent a much stronger force to the planet than just myself." Savitar did not know how to respond, as he had not known much about the Saiyans except their power. He had no idea what kind of men they were at all except for their demeanors, but what Tora was saying was chilling him.

"I could not beat those strong fighters at first," Tora admitted without breaking stride. "Half fought me while the other half evacuated nearby towns and cities, and then they would switch when they were tired to keep me always fighting, to make me tired. I almost died," he said, and then he let out some low laughter. "As the Oozaru, they would run off and hide until I transformed back. I didn't know how to beat them, and then, I found a way." Savitar was starting to feel nervous at the confident look on the Saiyan's face, and that anxiety increased as Tora added, "I murdered all of them, and then I killed all the people they were fighting to protect. I annihilated their entire race," Tora's golden hair waved in a gust of wind, and then it turned red and a bright red aura surrounded his body as his eyes changed to the color as well. "Just like I'm going to annihilate you," Tora finished.

Savitar ran forward and into a portal of blue light that appeared in front of him. He sprinted for thirty miles inside the Speed Force to pick up speed, to make his next punch ten times more powerful than the last one so that this time, it would take off his enemy's head. The next portal appeared in front of him and he sprinted through it, and then Savitar's eyes opened huge and it leaned its body to the right. It was too late though, and the yellow beam flying his way slammed into Savitar's side. The beam kept going after hitting Savitar, not slowed at all by the speedster's body. Savitar flew off the attack on his left side, and he tumbled right across the ground before rolling up to his knees.

Tora lowered the hand he pointed in the spot he knew Savitar would appear from their previous clashes. He had found the pattern in the speedster's moves. He knew how long it would take Savitar to appear, where he would show up, and Tora grinned down at the man on his knees in front of him. Tora grinned because Savitar's left arm was torn off, as was all the armor on its left side and part of its face, revealing a scarred face beneath that was covered in new blood now. Blood spurted out of Savitar's left shoulder socket, and Tora started laughing down at his enemy. "Haha, HAHA! So there is a man under the armor!" Savitar got up on shaky legs, blood splashing from his side and a dark look spreading on the face that Tora could now see. "Now," Tora said, and he lifted his right palm again with a yellow light growing on it, "how will you try to kill me next? Appear behind me? Run straight forward, because I might not expect it? What about dropping in from above, now that's a new one," Tora laughed and the yellow light on his palm grew more.

Savitar's dark look faded, and a different one replaced it that made Tora snarl. "Don't you dare-" Tora began, and he fired towards Savitar. A portal appeared on Savitar's right side though and he sprinted into it, Tora's yellow beam flying behind him on the other side.

No more portals appeared on the mountain. Tora glared around but like he thought from that look of fear that spread across his enemy's face in the second before he vanished, this time it was for good. The Saiyan's blood boiled, his face twisted in rage. Tora snapped his head back and roared, "COWARD!"

* * *

"Goku," Sora whispered, watching the small Saiyan boy as he shook the mountain below with his transformation into a Super Saiyan 2. Sora thought that Goku's spiked up hair and flaring aura with bolts of lightning coming out of it would not be as impressive in his child form, but it was as intimidating now as it was normally with the look of anger on Goku's face. Meruem's power made the mountains shake as well, and it made the sky such a color that Sora felt pure dread form deep inside him. The worst of the three however, was the little boy screaming in such intense rage, in such a voice that Sora never would have imagined it come from his body. Dash's skin did not look like it could hold together the bulking from his muscles, his blond hair was getting longer and waving above his head, and Sora could only see pure white inside the kid's eyes. _What could make Dash look like,_ Sora caught a glimpse of something falling from the Ant King's hand.

Sora's fists clenched at his sides. A creature near him who was also looking towards the Ant King and his opponents caught a glimpse of the young man out the corners of his eyes. Shaiapouf kept watching the King, but his attention was drawn to this other figure for a moment. _He was with the Saiyan boy. This one does not appear to be as strong as the other two. King! If I cannot aid you in your warm-up against those pests, then I will kill this boy for you!_

Someone else already had the idea. Out from a snow drift on the side of the mountain next to him, Neferpitou flew into the air with both of her claws pulled back and a predator's look in her eyes. Pitou and Pouf made moves for the teenager with spiky brown hair at the same time. Pitou was injured from Goku's attack. He only brushed her aside, and yet it felt so powerful that she had almost been knocked out of the fight for good. The cat-like Chimera Ant with dark purple blood on its face started slashing, and Pouf pulled back a fist as he approached using bright colorful wings that extended from his back.

Sora turned his head, and it lagged slowly behind him leaving after-images in several directions that he turned. Pitou and Pouf were moving fast, but the boy's head turned towards them and both of them skid to complete stops at the look of Sora's glowing white eyes. The darkness spread out from the rings around his eyes to connect in the center of his face over his nose. _**"Rrrr,"**_ a deep, inhuman growl escaped the back of Sora's throat.

 _This boy!_ Pouf thought in anxious fear, pulling back and examining from afar. Pitou surrounded in a white aura and she changed her trajectory, flipping herself up and over Sora's head while pulling back her claws. Her heart was racing and all of her animal instincts were screaming at her not to attack.

"Who are you to have that power?" Pitou questioned as she stopped on Sora's other side. His head was still turned, but he turned it back to her now.

"We are in the middle of Organization territory," Pouf called over to his confused comrade. "There may be more to this place than we understand. This could be an agent for the Organization who-" Sora glanced over at the taller Chimera who was speaking, and then Sora shook his head around, and the blackness spreading on it stopped expanding. _What is he doing?_ Pouf thought.

 _Control! The key is concentration and control! Get control of yourself!_ Sora's eyes shifted back. They stopped glowing and his bright blue irises reappeared in them as all the darkness faded from his face. Sora took a deep breath, then he kept his focus on the monsters in front of him instead of looking over to the other fight that would make him lose control again. He ignored the dead child he saw dropping from Meruem's hand, and he said to Pouf, "I do not work for the Organization." Sora brought his hands together in front of his waist, and the shaft of a three-foot long weapon appeared in it. The shaft was golden and curved at the hilt wider farther towards the shaft and thinner at the back, making the hilt look like a heart shape with an orange line in the center that Sora was holding onto with both hands. The Three Wishes' golden blade extended and got a darker shade near the end before it curved off into a single prong with another spike sticking off of that prong.

Pitou's eyes narrowed at the weapon, and Pouf hummed to himself at the sight of it. _It's different from the one I have seen before,_ Pouf thought, _but there is no doubt. That, is a Keyblade._

Not far from the three of them, three much stronger warriors were in the middle of a battle going on almost too fast for them too see. Without looking closely like they weren't, they could only see blurs out the corners of their eyes. Meruem faced off against the Super Saiyan child in front of him, and he was surprised by how good of a martial artist the young boy was. _His stance, his moves,_ Meruem thought while he moved his hands around as fast as the boy was punching and kicking, blocking every single attack in the palms of his hands. _He seems like a master of this art._

Goku punched one more time, but this time his pattern changed in mid-swing. Even the feint that was coming was actually just another fake attack, keeping it looking like he was still using that fighting style until the second he opened both hands and formed bright white lights on them. "Haaa!" Goku fired the energy forward.

Meruem did not get caught off guard. He wondered why the child's hands opened up, but his mental processing was too fast, and the instant the white lights formed in the boy's hands, he started to dodge. Meruem lifted up and curved his body over the top of the boy whose hair was pointed up in a single golden spike pushed back over his head. _He looks so much like the Saiyan King,_ Meruem thought while he continued to fly over the boy. _It could be his son, but I know of Bardock's son. Raditz is a man and looks nothing like this boy. Even if Turles was hiding information from me, why would he hide this boy? Why not mention him?_ Finally the balls of white light shot off of Goku's hands, and Goku's eyes grew wide as his opponent was no longer in front of him where he just fired into. Goku snapped his head up and brought up an elbow to block a fist flying down at him, while lifting his other hand with a still-open palm and a growing sphere of blue light on it.

The Ant King finished punching down, and Goku's counterattack never fired as Meruem's punch broke right past Goku's defenses and nailed the child in his face. Goku flew out of the air down into the mountain below, creating a long crack in it above and below where he landed. Meruem would have watched the boy fall, but another boy appeared in front of his face in the next instant. Meruem punched his other arm forward, and the kid's head turned right, allowing Meruem's arm to pass right in front of it. Meruem punched his other arm, and the kid turned his head left and watched the fist go by again, looking at it with his pure white eyes.

The boy punched both of his arms forward, and Meruem flew backwards so that the ends of the boy's fists just missed him. The wind from his punches increased Meruem's speed in his backing up, and the Ant King frowned inside that wind. _His strength keeps increasing. I do not know what type of Power Blocker he was wearing to break through it like that, but whatever it was, it was not a good sign._ The enemy child shot towards Meruem and let out another scream of rage, but as he punched forward, Meruem brought up his hand from his side that was pointed backwards with a growing ball of purple energy on it. He pressed the sphere right into the child's gut, and then he fired it at point blank while increasing his strength a little. _Will that do it?_ Meruem wondered, while a smoking figure flew backwards and dropped out of the air. The boy's body flipped and flipped, and then he hit the ground on his feet and vanished.

Meruem's eyes darted back and forth, and then he saw a trail of snow flying up the mountain. He turned his head and followed the boy's path up to the point where he leapt off and flew towards Meruem, creating sonic booms through the air on his way and causing clouds to ripple out around him. _It's not his strength though. Despite this rage, what is most interesting about this boy is his speed. If his brother had all those powers, then is speed his specialty? The rest of his strength could be obtained through training, but his speed seems unnatural, or more likely- natural. In his genes,_ Meruem lifted a hand to block the boy's punch that was coming, but Dash opened his hand after Meruem raised his own block. Meruem had only lifted his arm to block at the last second, and yet between that last second and when Dash's hand would have hit his own, Dash opened his fist into a palm. The boy high-fived Meruem, and then a white light shone between the cracks of their hands as Dash collected energy there. Meruem slid his hand down Dash's hand then brought it forward, dragging it along Dash's arm so that he could feel every twitch of the boy's muscles. Dash pointed his palm down to fire the attack, but Meruem grabbed him by the throat first and clenched.

Even in his enraged state, Dash could not handle the choking and his hands came back to his own neck. He grabbed at Meruem's hand to try and yank it off of him, but the hand did not budge an inch. Dash's hair waved higher above his head and his aura of white grew even larger, with long black wisps inside of it that matched swirls forming in his empty eyes. Meruem had seen something like this before. _Gon Freecs,_ he thought, and he pushed forward with his strangling hand to get the child away from him. It was right in time too, as Dash's buffed-up right leg kicked forward and would have hit him in the chest. Just the force from the kick alone pushed Meruem back again, and the Ant King frowned at the child in front of him.

 _I do not plan on powering up until the Saiyan King appears before me. To do so now for this boy would be a mistake. He is too strong an enemy to be left alive, even if I did spare his life that time…_ Meruem thought about a certain mountain's peak that he floated in front of while looking down at a group of pirates, mages, and warriors. He recognized a boy in his peripheral vision from that day as well. _On that mountain, I could feel the latent power within this boy. He looked so afraid that I knew it was untapped, but I did not kill him because I owed that Ben Tennyson my thanks. Now he has come to become a nuisance in my plans, but I will not allow my own action to cause my defeat here today. This child's interference can last no longer._ Meruem's aura took on a shade of darker purple that showed the murderous intent coming into him.

Dash had snapped his head back and roared with both his hands on the sides of his head, screaming in what sounded like anger but was also full of pain.

A boy on the ground who got hit by an attack after Meruem spiked his power for an instant felt the change in Meruem's aura even if he could not feel the monster's ki. Goku lifted out of the crack in the mountain, he looked into the sky and watched as the boy, as fast as he was, could not keep up with the amount of feints that the Ant King was making. Meruem's fists collided with the boy's face. His legs lifted and kicked him in his sides, his knees raised and hit the kid in the chest. Dash stopped being able to defend himself. He could not find a moment to attack back with the constant onslaught, and his power stopped rising after a devastating punch into the side of his face that knocked two of his teeth out.

While Dash's head was still turning, blood and teeth flying out of his open mouth, Meruem put his right palm in front of the boy's bloody chest. His deformed body was too bulked up for his size, and now his larger muscles had dents in them and blood coming out of gashes all over them. Meruem did not say a word, there was no monologue, he just fired a blast meant to kill the child in front of him. Because the Ant King did not waste time talking, Goku _almost_ didn't fly up in time to get in the way of the blast.

 _So strong!_ Goku thought while the ball of purple light exploded into his crossed arms. He flew backwards into Dash who was about to fall out of the air himself, and even Goku slamming into Dash at this point instead of Meruem's energy ball was still dangerous for the child. They flew backwards, burns forming all over Goku's forearms, then Goku lifted both of his hands and caught the leg kicking down for the head of the boy his back was pressing into.

Meruem's eyes widened a bit at the sight of Goku's hands around his right leg. He whipped his tail down instead, but Goku leaned his head left and avoided the thin point of it, only getting nicked by the sharpest part on his left cheek that made a gash form there. Goku managed to even pull his head the rest of the way before the thicker part of Meruem's tail would have hit him in the head. He just leaned far enough away from the tail, then he saw it start curving the other way as if to wrap around Dash's neck. Goku did not release the Chimera Ant's leg with his two hands, as it was all that was keeping Meruem from kicking again or using his fists considering the position they were in. Goku was pulling one direction with Meruem's leg too, to keep the King's other leg out of range of Dash while also trying to attack by throwing the monster out of the sky.

The Ant King realized all of these actions had purpose and was impressed once again by the young boy who seemed much too talented for his age, even though the King himself was very young. He leaned his body up with energy attacks forming on both of his palms to fire at the boy swinging him down, and then Meruem's face twisted in anger, and pain, as Goku chomped down on the tail curving around Dash's neck. Meruem's tail stopped moving, and Goku grinned that he finally caught the King off guard. He let go of the Ant King's leg and brought both hands up to the tail that he let go of with his teeth since it was so hard that he felt like he almost broke them by doing that. Goku turned his head to the monster while gripping the tail on either side of where he just bit, and as Dash continued to fall behind him, Goku made sure to lower out of the air at the same pace to prevent any attacks on the boy without him there to protect him. Goku started to swing Meruem by the tail, and Meruem fired the beams off of its hands. Goku could not dodge, because Meruem fired them after leaning up at the perfect angle that if Goku moved, they would hit the boy behind him. At the same time, Meruem's right arm started to get bumpy and red, and it punched upwards while bright yellow lines glowed through the whole thing.

Goku saw Meruem doing something to his arm, but the primary danger were the two beams about to hit him. He could not dodge, and while thinking about how to avoid taking too much damage from them, he also had to plan ahead for Meruem's back-up plan in case the child did manage to stop them. Goku had to decide to take the blasts head on to protect Dash, but while he was hit he made sure that he would not be hit by the next attack too, letting go of Meruem's tail. He let go after swinging hard enough that it sent Meruem flying away from him so that the King missed the Rage Explosion he was punching his right arm forward with. Goku did not get enough speed into the spin to send Meruem crashing into the mountain below, and the red coloring of Meruem's arm faded so that it turned back to its normal green color. "I have decided to kill that boy behind you," Meruem said to the kid facing him as the smoke around his body shifted away, or more precisely, the boy lowered out of the cloud to stay in front of the kid still dropping behind them. "Once I have made that decision, very little can stop me from taking that life."

 _If he gets even a single moment, Dash is dead._ Goku made up his mind. _It's now or never._ Goku's arms pulled in to his sides, and he let out a scream that shook the entire mountain range below him. "HAAAAA!"

 _I should kill him now,_ Meruem thought while the boy's aura amplified, while wind shot off of his body so much more powerful than anything the enraged older brother was. Something stopped Meruem though, and the Ant King's heart rate sped up as he once again felt that confusion. _This is already an Ascended Super Saiyan,_ Meruem thought, while staring closely at the boy in front of him who kept screaming louder and louder, while lowering so that Dash was right behind him, even if the bloodier boy was getting pushed a little back now by the Saiyan's powering-up.

Goku's entire body filled with pain, but he was not going to let it stop him this time. All the times he had tried it atop the tallest Saiyan Mountains, none of those times mattered to him right now. None of those times were a matter of life or death for him and his friends. Goku screamed, and his spiked-up hair started to push backwards, more golden spikes forming out of it as it did. His muscles bulked up, and his eyebrows were replaced by muscles on his forehead. Muscles grew on muscles, and the young Saiyan was looking more like the human behind him every second, except his transformation was appearing more natural. His hair spiked without waving around in the air in his aura, and his aura, though even larger than Dash's, was more stable, even if it was shaking the entire continent beneath him.

 _I have seen this before!_ Meruem thought. It was the reason he did not rush forward. _I asked Turles about it, but the Rogue said there was no such thing as a level beyond an Ascended Super Saiyan that makes their hair long like that. I did not argue with him, because he truly did not know. I knew it was real though. I know because there was only one Saiyan who could have done it. He's the reason the Cooperative never went to Awul. Son Goku!_ Meruem watched as the child's hair got longer, longer, and his screams continued to get louder the whole time.

Sora looked down and the Royal Guards did too. All of them looked down at the form that they all recognized. Pitou and Pouf dropped their jaws and got sweat on their faces at the idea that that child was doing what they were seeing him do. Pitou was even sweatier than Pouf as she had faced him in battle earlier, and she no longer regretted running away at all. That regret started to come back though, as Pitou felt nervous at the lump of power that just added onto the boy's strength in a single second. _This is no longer just a warm-up,_ she thought in fear.

Meruem leaned backwards as the kid snapped his eyes open and screamed one last time as loud as he could, "HHAAAAAAA!" Ripples of white came off of the boy's body and pulsed through the air, his muscles bulking to their full possible size, his hair now stretching below the back of the boy's waist. Pitou and Pouf crossed their arms in front of their bodies as the boy wearing Saiyan armor pushed them backwards even from over two hundred feet away.

"Protect!" Sora yelled out, and a bubble appeared behind Dash as the boy was thrown farther from Goku and finally neared the mountain he was falling towards. Everything was happening in such a short amount of time that Sora was having trouble keeping up, but he knew that Goku could not protect Dash and stop this monster at the same time. The Ant King was too powerful for that, and Sora still felt nervous even after Goku had risen his power to this next level that he had been trying so hard to reach as a child. Dash hit the ground painlessly, and Sora lowered his Keyblade before looking down like the Royal Guards in front of him. As long as he kept them in his vision, he felt he was able to look down safely.

Meruem saw the boy's weapon when Sora cast that magic on Dash, and at any other time he would have shifted his gaze to look at the boy with the Keyblade. This was not any other time though. Meruem's eyes were wide as he stared at the golden glowing fighter in front of him, as he pieced things together one by one at a rapid speed. _The fast older brother and that Keybearer, they were together, and they both know this child. If this even is a child. If this is Son Goku's son, then it would make sense that he was traveling with them too. These people arrived on the continent recently, and their path indicates that they came from the west coast, most likely Dressrosa where Son Goku returned to the continent. Son Goku was not with them at any of the locations I knew them to be, but perhaps his son- except that his son was not with them either. No, the most likely options are that Son Goku arrived on the continent with this boy, and from Dressrosa they came to these mountains, or this boy, is Son Goku himself. Many things can change a man's appearance, but that transformation is something that only one man I know have has succeeded in attaining. His son could have had it too, but the resemblance between Son Goku and this child is even closer than that of father and son. I would have understood it if it was Bardock's son. This resemblance, is more uncanny. It looks like Son Goku in child form. Could it be him? Could this really be that man?_

* * *

 **FD + 800**

On a field in the middle of Aebrith, a dragon lowered to the ground with a few flaps of its giant wings. The massive black beast touched down and the floor beneath its claws turned black, all of the grass dying in a hundred meter radius around it. The black haired man standing on its back jumped off and landed in front of the giant dragon's head. A woman with long braids of red hair floated up in the air after him and lowered down behind him and to the right of where he stood. She had on a black witch's hat, a black sash over her stomach, breasts, and a long black cloth that fell in front of her thighs and in between her legs, tied around her waist by a thin black rope. Behind her flapped a black cape coming off of the back of the black sash over her breasts, the opposite as the white cloak of the man who floated up in the air not far from her and landed on the other side of their Lord's back. The old man with long white hair that fell so far down that the end of it was lost inside his hooded cloak landed and pressed his staff down on the floor beneath him. Eileen Belserion and August, Zeref's two strongest subordinates not including the dragon behind them, walked forward after their leader and High Lord. Zeref, or High Lord Spriggan walked forward towards a group of seven lowering to the field in front of him. The seven of them were flying when he arrived, but between them, the two of his Spriggan 12 behind him, and his dragon, only Zeref did not have the ability to freely float in midair like the rest of them did.

Those six figures lowered to the ground, three of them in front of Zeref and to his right, and the other four landing on his left. The three who landed on his right landed in a similar pattern that Zeref and his two Shield of Spriggans were walking in. Sousuke Aizen landed first, and the two other shinigami landed behind him. Zeref did not recognize the one with short white hair, a creepy smile, and thin eyes that were so squinted they looked closed. He did know the other man who had darker skin than his two fellow shinigami, long black dreadlocks, and who wore black wristbands that were visible thanks to his long white coat not having sleeves like the other two's did. The man Zeref did not recognize had sleeves so long that his hands did not stick out of them, and there was some dirt and soot on his white coat that made it look like he just came from somewhere interesting. Aizen himself had a thick strand of brown hair falling down over his face in its usual fashion with the rest of his hair pulled back. His brown eyes were sharp and his small grin hard to decipher. He greeted Zeref with a nod in the shorter man's direction, and Zeref merely smiled back before looking to the man on Aizen's back left. "A new ally?" Zeref asked.

"An old one," Gin replied with a small nod of his head towards the High Lord. "Ichimaru Gin," he greeted the High Lord, making sure to nod his head in a respectful manner. Ichimaru Gin had just introduced himself back in the sky to the third of the most powerful men now on this field, and he was still trying to hold back any sweat from forming on his face. _I thought it would be safer to leave Metropolis, but this is not much better._ Gin had greeted the Ant King, "Your Majesty," with a grin on his face when Aizen introduced him, only for the King to tell him to get dispose of that attitude. He had had the feeling that if he greeted the King in such a way again, it would be the last time he greeted anyone. He had nodded and bowed his head more with a serious look on his face when he had corrected himself.

The other four on the field were the Ant King and his Royal Guards. Meruem stood in front of the three who landed in a straight line behind him. He stepped forward after landing, then Aizen did the same, and Zeref kept walking until he was right in front of the other two with very little space between them. Ichimaru walked up behind Aizen's back, and Meruem did not look towards him but Gin felt like the King's eyes were daring him to keep coming. He spoke while he walked forward though, "I have brought news from Awul."

Aizen nodded to the men in front of him, and then he moved aside a little so that Gin could walk up into their circle. The Royal Guards sent glares towards the others who the leaders had left behind them. Kaname Tousen could not see them, as the man with long dreadlocks also had a white sash over his blind eyes. Eileen ignored them, while the dragon behind her turned its head their direction and bared its teeth, making the three Royal Guards stop what they were doing and look back towards the center. Eileen held a staff similar to August's, only the end of hers branched out like the horns of a buck unlike the round black end of August's staff. She made a motion to move, but August was already walking forward ahead of her so she held back.

"What news?" Zeref questioned. _It must be important for Aizen to have called us here._

As soon as Zeref asked it, the ground beneath their feet trembled. None of them were big on coincidences, and the tremor made each of them more interested in what Ichimaru Gin was about to say. "In Metropolis, the largest city on Awul, a battle is currently taking place that will determine the ruler of the continent. If Lex Luthor wins, his plans do not stop with the coasts of Awul. He plans to take over the world."

"Can he do it?" Meruem questioned.

Gin hesitated, then he responded while making eye contact with the King, "I do not know. His power is…" The ground shook again, and then the sky high above them got a purple tint to it. A few of the Chimera Ants, shinigami, and others on the field glanced up at the ripple of purple that could be seen despite the events they were talking about occurring on the other side of the world. "Well," Gin said after they had glanced up at the glowing sky, "you get the idea."

"Why don't we see for ourselves?" Zeref questioned. He shifted to the side this time, and August continued walking forward from where he had stopped right behind his ruler. August stepped forward, and the old man with a long white beard tapped the bottom of his staff down on the blackened ground beneath him. The old man did not need to say an incantation, his magic just acted via his thoughts. Out from the top of his rounded staff appeared an image that grew less blurry in the air above their heads and between them. Ichimaru looked up in surprise as he saw what looked like a giant pile of rubble.

 _It's in even worse condition than when I left,_ Gin thought in amusement as he examined the city he had lived in for more than a year.

The magical image they were looking at focused on a single man. He was a hulking figure, much taller than any of them with muscles much bigger. He was bald, and he had scars over parts of his body that the High Lords and King looked at closely, realizing that those scars were in places that could have been because of surgical enhancements to his body. There were humans that large, but because they were uncommon, this thought came naturally to the men watching. "That is Lex Luthor," Gin said. "It seems that he will win." Around Luthor were the scattered forms of so many who Gin recognized. He saw both Ichigo Kurosaki and the young man Riku who faced him below the island of Metropolis before its fall. He saw a young boy whose poof-ball hat was split in half by his very blade in the same slash he used to kill that boy's master. He saw Mustang, the Arbiter, Tsuru and Momonga, and so many others from the government that he was a part of until earlier that day, lying unconscious or close to it on the ground around Luthor. Although it looked like Luthor had won, something was strange. _None of them have the strength to move,_ Gin realized. He spotted one figure who had just moved lift their arm up, and then that arm dropped to the ground and they looked like all of the others.

The vision that August was showing them zoomed out, and everyone there was able to another man. Sound started to come out of the vision as it lost all blurriness to it, and the bald man they were looking at was laughing loudly. His laughter came out of the vision, while a red haired woman in cracked silver armor collapsed to the ground nearby. A green haired man wearing gold gloves fell flat on his face, and then a one-eyed woman with white hair fell on top of his body, both of them with their arms held out like the red-haired girl did. Those watching on a field on the opposite side of the world saw those people collapse, but they were not focusing on them. They were not even focusing on the man who started shouting at the top of his lungs at the one they were staring at, the one who was flashing gold light and tinting the entire vision in it. The man's golden aura was getting brighter as his eyes glowed pure white. His face was serious and his teeth clenched, while his muscles bulged all over his already huge figure. His hair was long, spiky, and blond, like nothing those watching had ever seen before.

 **"You think this will be enough to defeat me?! You think you can stop me now?! I am a** _ **GOD!**_ **"** Luthor roared. A dome of white energy came out of his body and expanded so fast that it encompassed everything in the vision in the next second. The images August was creating for them shook, then the ground beneath their feet shook while in the vision, a brighter aura of white appeared inside that first aura and disintegrated anything and everything that it touched. The sky above them turned purple again, this time more clearly since the ripples were stronger. Those ripples continued to get thicker still, and the ground beneath them vibrated even more, as the white aura that Luthor created pressed into the golden one of the man in front of him.

"Who is that?" Aizen questioned the white haired man next to him, the younger-looking one since August's hair was the same color as Gin's.

Ichimaru Gin looked closer and his slits of eyes opened a little to reveal the icy blue orbs inside. "I believe," Gin began. The two figures screaming at each other and pressing their auras together shot forward and met fists in the middle of the vision, shaking it again. Gin got cut off as he had to steady himself, because not only the vision, but the entire world shook from that punch. They could see why too, as the ground beneath the punch dropped down into a massive crater. What remained of some buildings far in the background started collapsing, and giant fissures cut across swaths of the land those two men floated above while punching each other's fists. "If I had to guess," Ichimaru started again. "Then there is one man who comes to mind. He looks a little different, but if anyone was facing Luthor as his final opponent, it would be him."

All of the others in the small circle with Gin opened their eyes wide. Gin did not understand why they all did that, thinking that it was something they saw in the vision. Gin could hardly even follow what was going on in the vision anymore though, as the two men inside it had vanished and were colliding with each other several times a second in the sky. Their shockwaves were causing occasional ripples in the atmospheric boundary, they made the ground tremble beneath the leaders of the Cooperative's feet. It did not seem like something to be shocked at though, Gin did not think the men in front of him would be at least. He realized that it must have been what he said then, and he finished while watching for their reactions, "That man, is probably Son Goku."

"He is angry," Aizen said. He looked closer as the two stopped for a second, their legs collided together in the air and pushed against each other for a moment fighting for superiority. Aizen could see Goku's face, and he repeated, "That man is angry."

 _Aizen knows Goku? Is that the real reason he had me on Awul all this time? I reported on occasion about him, but Aizen did not act more interested at those times. He was hiding the true reason he stationed me there. Aizen, fears Son Goku._ Aizen did not show the expression on his face, but the smile Aizen had was different from his usual one as he watched Son Goku's angered expression.

"Can that man defeat him?" Zeref questioned aloud. It was rhetorical since he knew none of them had the answer while watching a fight that looked so close.

Once again Gin was surprised by the tone of the High Lord's voice. _He doesn't seem to think that it was possible. Do all of them,_ Gin gazed around, and the Ant King was looking in the most intensely of all. _They all know Son Goku?_

"There is only one reason the Cooperative never went to Awul," Aizen said to the shinigami next to him who was giving away his thoughts through his expression. Aizen did not tear his eyes away from the vision above, but he continued, "That is because of Son Goku."

Gin glanced around, but the other two seemed to be in agreement considering neither of them said anything. Meruem knew first hand how powerful Goku was after witnessing his abilities on the third day on Nexus. His life had never been the same after that day, after he saw for the first time a being who surpassed him completely. Right now, as Meruem watched Goku again, he could see that the Super Saiyan was so much stronger than the last time he watched him fight. Inside the vision, the Saiyan was losing ground against his opponent. _That is him,_ Meruem thought, even though Goku was losing to the enemy before him. Even though Goku was clearly losing, he started lifting up in the air, power drawing from out of nowhere and making his aura larger than ever. Lex Luthor matched Goku's aura, and the two of them flew across from each other in the air with a small gap between them where their auras pushed into each other.

Luthor yelled as their auras fought for dominance, **"How can you not see it? How do you not see the gaps in our powers? There are reserves of Tetsuo's energy that I have not dared to dip into yet."** Zeref's eyebrows lifted up and August glanced next to him at his Lord who seemed interested in that last statement. Luthor continued shouting, his face twisting in rage, **"No matter how strong you get, my power is limitless! Why don't you get it?! Why won't you just stay down like you're told?!"**

 **"You're the one who doesn't get it Luthor!"** The other man in the image shouted back, in a voice that sounded like Son Goku's despite his appearance not matching what any of the others had seen before. **"You aren't used to your energy, and because of that you can't utilize it correctly."** Meruem was certain now. They all were. _Is this Son Goku's peak? Is this how strong Goku has become in the past two years? I suspect he is stronger than when we first met, but the gap between us is not as wide anymore._ **"What do you think that energy flaring around you is? That's your own strength leaking out, and because it's leaking that means you can't use it! You might have more energy than me, but it won't mean a thing if you can't use it!"**

The two started fighting again, and now that everyone was sure of who they were watching, they watched with different perspectives. Aizen watched closely, his sharpened eyes solely focusing on the Super Saiyan in the vision. _The only man who has ever defeated me, as impossible as I thought it to be. He even found a way to defeat my perfect hypnosis. A truly terrifying man he is. Son Goku, and his mercy._

Zeref glanced behind him towards the giant dragon he had under his control. _Without Goku's assistance, the Day of the Cataclysm may have gone very differently. This newfound strength is much greater than the last time we met. What has it been, three months now?_ Zeref looked back at the man with long golden hair, and he smiled as Goku landed a heavy blow into the face of his enemy.

 **"This will be our final battle, Son Goku,"** Luthor declared. His enormous but wild aura shrank down in a more controlled way, going against what Goku had called out earlier. Those watching began to think that Goku's enemy would become too hard to beat now, but Goku's power chose that moment to rise even higher and flash around him.

"If Luthor wins," Aizen began, "what are his plans for-"

Meruem smirked, and he looked down from the vision. Aizen wondered what Meruem was doing, and the others looked towards the Ant King as well. "Luthor has already lost," Meruem claimed.

 **"LUTHOR!"**

 **"GOKU!"**

The ground shook worse than it had the entire time they were there, but Meruem turned from the vision at what seemed like the climax of the fight. Meruem could not sense those powers across the world thanks to the buoys that fully surrounded Aebrith. It was partially thanks to his own efforts that those buoys existed, but it was fully thanks to the existence of one of the men whose power was causing purple ripples to shoot across the sky that those buoys existed at all. The buoys existed in order to hide Aebrith from Son Goku. The Royal Guards turned as Meruem reached them, and they lifted up into the air with their King. "Let us resume our hunt," Meruem said, flying forward with his Royal Guards behind him, all three grinning like their leader whose face had a bloodthirsty expression on it. "That power is no longer beyond my reach. It will not be long now. Only a little further, and I will take my place. I will become the true, undisputed, incontestable, all-powerful King!"

* * *

 **Present**

"I have only seen one Saiyan ever achieve that form," Meruem said, while looking closer at the boy in front of him. _Is it his son? Or…_ "His name is Son Goku."

"That's me," Goku replied, though now he was wondering where this monster had seen him transform before, as a part of him still felt like it recognized Meruem. He did not remember seeing Meruem in Metropolis though, and the one other time he had heard that he had transformed on Nexus was a day that he had lost his memories of. The Super Saiyan 3 child wanted to know, but more importantly, he wanted to fight. Goku's fists rose in front of his body and he got into a fighting stance. "You've got some great technique," Goku said, while narrowing his intense eyes at the monster in front of him. "It's a shame you've chosen to use them for evil."

"I am evil?" The being in front of Goku questioned. "That is your opinion, but you are wrong," Meruem replied.

Goku's demeanor did not change. "Do you really believe what you are doing here is right?" Goku questioned. "What you just did, to JackJack," the boy continued, and his expression became even more serious. "That is something I cannot forgive."

"Then it is not a matter of good and evil," the Ant King responded. "You had a personal connection with that child, and now you wish for revenge." Goku did not respond for a few seconds, then the Ant King continued, "Do you not remember me, Son Goku?" Goku frowned at the question and looked closer at the monster in front of him with Dash's little brother's blood still on its hands, as well as its lips. It was clearly a monster to him, and yet at the same time so different.

"No," Goku replied simply. "Have we met?"

"Yes," Meruem answered. "In fact, you saved my life." Goku frowned deeper and glanced over towards where Dash's little brother's body lay, half-buried in snow on the slope of Mount Gine behind him. "Do not blame yourself for that," Meruem continued after seeing the glance of Goku's eyes. "There is no way to know how that boy may have lived if you had not saved me on the First Day. I, who brought stability and control to this turbulent continent, may have been responsible for that child living so long."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Goku said. "But you killed him. You didn't save him." Goku kept frowning while the figure in front of him smiled in a creepy way. _His tail, his body, everything about him reminds me of those two._ The two worst enemies Goku had ever fought in his own universe came to mind. _Frieza, Cell, they were both monsters, but like this being they were smart. He brought control to this continent? In that case, this really is…_ "So you're the King?" Goku questioned.

"Yes." The Ant King replied. "But," he continued, and he grinned more. "I will allow you to call me by name, Meruem."

"Okay then, Meruem," Goku said, and his aura flared around his body. "I'm going to start fighting now."

"I suppose it is time for that fight you offered me," Meruem said, and Goku hesitated as something came to his mind when the King said that. _**"If you train really hard, I'd really like to face you in the future!"**_ Meruem kept speaking while recognition filled Goku's face. "However, I will not be able to follow through on what I said that day." Goku looked confused like he could not remember that part as much, and Meruem repeated for him, "'I will look forward to the day when we can fight on equal terms.'" Meruem crossed his arms in front of his body, and he frowned as he went on, "Unfortunately, in my preparation to face the Saiyan King, I have long surpassed your power. What I sense from you now," Meruem said, and then the Power Blocker he was wearing shattered like Dash's had before him. Goku's head leaned back as the force him him, and the sky dropped five notches darker purple. Meruem's face twisted and his lips curled farther out to reveal a terrifying expression on his face, "It is nothing compared to the power of the King!"

Goku was getting pushed back by Meruem's aura. After a second he realized that it was not Meruem's ki itself, but an intense bloodlust taking the form of an aura. Even with that realization, sweat dripped down the sides of Goku's face, and his eyes were huge at the feeling of strength and malevolence from the being in front of him. _This, is the King?_ As Goku lowered his crossed arms from in front of his face where he was blocking the pressure from Meruem's aura, Meruem spotted the boy's mouth curl up at the corners.

 _There it is,_ Meruem thought. _The reason I have never before devoured the brain of a Saiyan. It was a hypothesis at first, but it has tested true twice in experiments now. In this situation, he must feel how much stronger than him I am. I am showing Son Goku my power, as I have always wanted to do, but he does not flee. In a hopeless scenario, he stands there, and he smiles. He enjoys this. Saiyans, thirst for battle like others thirst for compassion or love. Their competitive nature, their urge to fight an enemy at their strongest, it is something I never wished to become engrained in my DNA. As I am already, my curiosity and my endless search for more knowledge on powers and techniques hinder my capabilities as a fighter. I am able to ignore them in life-or-death situations, after I was careless in my previous life. If I devour a Saiyan's mind though, I do not know what effect it will have on me. When I take the Saiyan King's life, I will be making the decision that could make me indisputably the strongest being on this world, but it will also be a decision that could one day cost me my life._

 _He's stronger than me. He was preparing to fight dad again, but is this enough power to beat him? It does not feel like it. He could be holding some back since he's already high above me._ The idea that someone was facing him at Super Saiyan 3 and still holding back made Goku frustrated, but at the same time it excited him and his lips curled up even more. _I want to see him go all out!_ Goku shot forward, the ground beneath him shattering an instant later as it could not handle the take-off speed of the young-looking Saiyan man.

Meruem lifted his right hand and blocked the fist that flew forward from his opponent. Goku made no feints, and Meruem noticed this as the boy flew straight at him. _After showing that I am stronger than him, he thinks I will not dodge in order to prove that it is unnecessary._ Meruem's palm held in place until Goku's fist was about to slam into it, and then the Ant King bent that arm and stepped forward hard and to the left of Goku's out-stretching arm. Meruem's elbow lifted right in front of Goku's eyes, eyes that were wide in surprise as Goku thought Meruem was about to try and catch his fist that he put all of his power behind. Goku opened his fist while his face slammed into Meruem's elbow, but the child who was going to try and fire a ki blast was not expecting Meruem to start flying forward as soon as his face collided. Meruem lifted off the floor and flew forward, then down and implanted Goku into the floor with his elbow, before flying straight up to dodge the ki blast Goku had almost formed on his hand.

Goku clenched the forming blast into his fist, deciding against throwing it up at the King. _He already has a counter for it,_ Goku thought, realizing it just by looking up into Meruem's eyes. "You're a great fighter," Goku began as he lifted back onto his feet. He looked into Meruem's light purple eyes, and the Super Saiyan 3 asked, "Why did you kill that child?"

Meruem stared straight down at the Saiyan below. _Questioning my actions?_ _What insolence. This is Son Goku though, I wish to know more about this anomaly. A Saiyan hero._ "The boy had genetic traits that I found desirable," Meruem said plainly. Goku looked confused, and Meruem continued, "When I devour the brains of those with special powers, or those with large kis or who have unlocked their Nens, I get stronger. On occasion, their DNA will merge with my own and give me the special ability that I desire. That boy you called JackJack had powers I desired."

"So you killed him for them?" Goku asked, a disgusted look spreading across his face. "How could you do-"

"I am the King," Meruem cut Goku off. "That boy's life is insignificant in comparison to my own." Goku glowered harder at the Ant King, and Meruem continued, "All lives are insignificant compared to mine."

"Quite a God complex," Sora called down.

Pitou and Pouf dropped their jaws, and then the two of them charged at Sora screaming at him for his disrespect towards the King. "Uh oh," Sora said, snapping his head up and then raising another hand, forming another Keyblade on it to block both enemies at once. Pitou and Pouf leaned forward over the Keyblades that Sora blocked them with, and all three of their heads came close together over Sora's arms. Sora smirked as the two leaned closer, and then a bright white light enveloped his body and the two Royal Guards parried off in caution of what was coming.

When the light faded, Sora floated in the same place only his clothes were all white. He had a black Keyblade and a white one floating over his head. The two above were crossed, and he had another two Keyblades in his hands that he spun around a few times while his entire body shimmered sparkling lights. The Royal Guards could not let Sora's disrespect go, but Sora could see they were eying his weapons closer than most people would. "So, you know about these?" Sora questioned the creatures in front of him.

"It seems you are the one with a God complex," Meruem said without lifting his gaze. Sora heard the Ant King's words and darted his gaze down, and Meruem added, "Do you think yourself special because of those weapons? I have seen others with the Keyblades, but I am the only true King. There is only one of me, and that is not a God complex, that is the truth." Sora looked down at the top of Meruem's head, while Goku's fists clenched tighter at his sides. "You think the Keyblades can save Nexus? No, only the King can do that."

Sora's eyes grew wide, and the Royal Guards in front of him took his distraction to charge. Sora snapped his head up, and the two Keyblades above his head moved on their own to block the Chimera Ants. They each smacked their hands across their bodies though and parried Sora's Keyblades aside, so Sora had to lift his other two to block their follow up claw and punch. As he blocked those two though, Pouf and Pitou brought back forward the hands they had used to knock away his weapons the first time. Pouf hit Sora in the jaw, and Pitou slashed across the front of his chest. Sora flipped backwards over himself, and then the white Keyblade that had gotten knocked away flew by him and waved around, a green light coming off of it in a large sphere that surrounded his body.

Sora finished flipping, and the gashes across his chest had vanished along with any blood on him. The black Keyblade never flew back towards him though, and Sora called out, "Thunder!" All over the sky above his enemies, yellow lightning bolts dropped down and slammed into them. Sora rushed them when they got hit, and then a being flew up between him and them.

Goku's eyes grew huge from down below, because Meruem moved so fast that he could barely follow his movements. He shot his gaze up from the fading image of where Meruem just stood, and he started flying up after the Ant King, while yelling, "Sora!"

"PROTENDRA!" Sora yelled, right before Meruem punched forward.

Final Form Sora's strongest protect magic surrounded him in a semi-transparent dome. Meruem's fist slammed into it and the entire dome shattered. Sora reeled backwards in shock, and he waved his Keyblades forward sending slashes at the monster in front of him. Meruem took both slashes without flinching, then he leaned his body sideways and a boy punching up at him flew up in front of his body. Goku looked like his momentum would take him right past, but Goku had prepared for Meruem to dodge and did a front-flip, bringing his right heel down at the top of Meruem's head. As Meruem dodged his head and started flying towards Sora, his eyes darted down and he spotted a ball of blue light on Goku's connected hands after he had flipped. The boy had flipped so that his long golden hair was to the Ant King, and he twisted his body only after he had collected the energy he needed, revealing to Meruem the blue sphere of ki in his hands. "HAAA!" Goku yelled, pushing his hands forward and creating a beam of blue energy so powerful that Meruem's eyes snapped open wide.

Meruem's eyes opening wide was just his means of using telekinesis though, and Pitou and Pouf were sent flying out of the range of the attack. "KING!" The two yelled as he pushed them to safety.

Meruem turned and put both of his hands on the end of the beam that had already reached him. He caught Goku's Super Saiyan 3 Kamehameha, and he flew backwards through the air as it pressed into his palms. Meruem's back slammed into Mount Gine, and then the Ant King pressed his feet down on the solid ground behind him. He pushed back off the mountain, his purple aura growing around him. "Gravity!" Sora yelled from the opposite side of the beam as Meruem's Royal Guards. Goku was upset with Sora interfering, but he was not the only one. Goku's black sphere of intense gravity stopped Meruem from pushing back against the beam for a second, and Meruem turned to Sora and snapped his eyes open wide to glare at the boy.

Sora felt his entire body cover in sweat. He felt exhausted from the single harsh look, and then he was thrown backwards while the Final Form clothing and extra Keyblades vanished from him. Sora spun away at a hundred miles per hour, and Goku let out a yell and pushed his arms forward harder, a massive blue beam filling the sky between him and Meruem. _He's holding it back, with only his hands!_ Goku did not see a beam firing from Meruem's hands against his Kamehameha Wave. The Ant King's hands were directly pressing against his energy wave, and as huge as it got, Meruem's dark purple aura just grew larger and the Ant King continued to hold it back.

 _King,_ Pouf thought as he saw their ruler's mouth curved into a smile. _He's enjoying this too much. It is understandable considering the last time we saw Son Goku, their positions were flipped. The King knows that he is stronger now, but to hold such a blast back for so long. King, do not allow yourself to get worn out by the Super Saiyan when the Saiyan King has not yet arrived._

Pitou was not as concerned about her King's actions. She smiled at his smile, and then she flew up high into the air and shot over the beam Goku was hitting their King with. Her eyes glowed red and a bloodthirsty aura mixed with the King's and filled the sky. _Where did you go?!_ Pitou thought, her claws sharpening and her eyes darting back and forth in search for the boy with spiky brown hair.

Meruem frowned inside his enormous aura. The blue beam pressing against him stopped getting larger. _So this is his maximum without the aid of others. He was stronger in Metropolis._ Meruem pushed his arms up and the end of the Kamehameha shot above the top of his head and into the sky. The beam flew so high up that it slammed into the barrier surrounding the planet, and as huge purple ripples shot out from the Saiyan Mountains to all corners of the world, Meruem raced towards his opponent.

Goku was breathing heavy pants after his Kamehameha was redirected. _He's too powerful,_ Goku thought, right before Meruem appeared in front of his face. His arms had not even lowered and the beam was still flying up above him, and Goku's eyes opened wide at Meruem's appearance. He snapped his head right, and the tip of Meruem's tail narrowly missed his left eye. Goku already had a gash on the left side of his face from earlier, but this time the tail sliced off a chunk of Goku's spiky yellow hair. Goku eased back as Meruem followed up his tail swipe with a kick from the left. As he eased back though, Meruem's right hand lifted and the entire skin of the Ant King's arm was bubbling. It shifted from green to purple, and a hole opened at the end of it that showed red light glowing from inside his body.

A red beam fired out of Meruem's hand as Goku's small body just got far enough from the Ant King's passing foot. Goku tried leaning his body back, but the beam shot too low and scraped across his chest, tearing off the armor in front of it and burning through his skin. Goku let out a yell of pain, then he clenched his mouth shut hard as something his father told him came rushing back to his mind. Goku's head snapped up with a pissed-off glare, and he reached both hands up to catch Meruem's right elbow as the Ant King tried to capitalize on his energy blast. Goku could not use only one hand to stop the King's powerful blow, and even using two he almost got thrown out of the air by it. Goku held firm though, and then he spun his body around the Ant King's arm as Meruem extended it to try and punch Goku. As Goku spun around it, Meruem's other fist punched the direction he was lifting and nailed Goku in the right temple.

Goku let go of Meruem's elbow and was thrown so hard into the ground on the flat area where Azalea Town once stood that the floor of the indented section of mountain collapsed. Huge parts of the town started sliding down the rest of the slope, then as their speed increased, the chunks of ground bounced up and started rolling in a giant rock slide. Goku was in the middle of the avalanche/rock-slide, his mind boggled by that last punch. Meruem looked down into the sliding debris and could feel Goku's power still inside it. _He survived,_ Meruem thought, half-expecting his punch to shatter the man's skull. _He has a thick head._

The Super Saiyan 3 flew out of the snow with two beams of blue on his hands. He fired one up at Meruem, then he fired the second one. Meruem flew down and punched through the first beam, then he kicked through the second one and hit the man hiding on the other side of it. As his foot was lodged in Goku's chest though, the small child with blood coming down the left side of his face and down either corner of his mouth grinned. Goku brought up his right hand that he had fired the first blast with, to show he already had another beam in it. He lifted his left hand at the same time and grabbed onto Meruem's extended leg, preventing the Ant King from running as he jammed his other hand forward.

Meruem looked surprised as the beam flew towards his face, then his tail whipped around the side of his body and smacked down into the blast. The beam flew back into Goku's own surprised face, and the boy let go of Meruem's leg as he was thrown right back into the rock slide full of snow. Some chunks of houses had picked up so much snow that they were turning into huge snowballs that looked like they were racing each other down the mountain. Goku slammed into one of those giant snowballs and it exploded out in every direction- snow, wood, and stone. Meruem did not wait for Goku to re-arise this time though, and he felt out the Super Saiyan's ki and fired a ball of purple light down towards it.

Goku was rattled from his own blast. His face was covered in burns from it, and the snow around him made the injury even worse as switching from extreme heat to icy cold was a good way to send him into shock. Goku was used to sudden changes in temperature though thanks to his training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. He did not go into shock, but he did scream in pain as a ball of ki shredded through the debris above him and collided with his body. That attack was followed by three others, and even as Goku tried to fly under the snow, Meruem attacked exactly where he was flying to every time.

One of the purple blasts was about to hit Goku, but he shot straight up instead of continuing his path to where Meruem sent the next attack flying. "Hiiyaaa!" Goku waved his right hand forward and five beams of yellow light flew up at Meruem who dodged to the right and fired another two blasts of purple light down himself. Goku flew up and turned his body sideways to get between the attacks, then he kept spinning and rose his leg to nail Meruem in the face with. Meruem floated in place until the leg was inches from his face, and then he leaned his head back and Goku's foot went inches in front of it. The force that came off of Goku's leg was so strong that it tore all the snow behind Meruem on the slope of Mount Gine and a good portion of rock beneath it apart, but Meruem did not even float backwards in the air more than he wanted to.

Goku's eyes widened twice their size. Meruem's speed, his strength, it was beyond what he could imagine. _It's like fighting Luthor, except Meruem knows how to fight! He's keeping up with every move I make!_ Mereum was not just keeping up with Goku though. The faster fighter reached forward and grabbed Goku around the top of his skull, and he squeezed. Goku let out a scream and reached up to grab Meruem's arm that was crushing his skull, but as soon as his arms lifted up high enough that they could no longer block, Meruem slammed both of his knees up into Goku's gut and made the Super Saiyan 3 spit up with a look of agony on his face.

The child warrior kept lifting his arms, even as Meruem pulled his legs back and then kneed up again and again. Goku grabbed Meruem by the right wrist, and then Meruem jammed his tail forward and shoved the sharp end for Goku's neck. Goku saw it coming and his lifted arms squeezed in at the same time, catching the tip of Meruem's tail between his forearms. The end of the tip was already through Goku's arms though by the time he stopped it, and Meruem put enough force into the attack that his tail kept easing forward even with Goku trying to hold it back. He was pushing up on Meruem's wrist for the hand that was crushing his skull even stronger than before, but he could not put more strength into it and risk letting Meruem's tail impale him through the throat. Meruem continued kneeing up, and he kicked aside Goku's legs that the Saiyan was now trying to use to protect himself below as well.

 _How do I get out?!_ Goku was looking for an opening, looking for a flaw in Meruem's attack. The King was relentless though, and his form was flawless. Meruem's left hand was free at his side, and the Ant King was watching Goku's eyes to see what the Saiyan would try next.

Meruem saw a dozen ideas flash through Goku's eyes from their positioning along the two of their bodies. Every time Goku looked somewhere though, Meruem made a counter plan for it. "Experience only goes so far against a being of superior intellect," Meruem said, while releasing the top of Goku's head with his right hand. Goku's eyes shot open wide as he was not expecting Meruem to let go, as it allowed his arms to focus fully on Meruem's tail now and prevent it from impaling him. As soon as his hands moved down for the tail though, both of Meruem's hands snapped forward at the same time and hit Goku on opposite sides of his face. The black eyes were instantaneous, and the punches tore through skin as well making bad head wounds that bled all over his face.

The only positive was that Meruem hit Goku so hard that he flew out of range of Meruem's tail. Goku shot backwards with blood splashing from his face, his vision blurry from the punches that landed around his eye sockets. That positive would not last long though, and Goku knew he had to do something. He could not figure out what that something was though. _I can't use Kaioken,_ Goku thought as he righted himself and stared forward through bloody eyes and a swollen face around it that made the corners of his vision blurry and blacked-out. _Super Saiyan 3 almost tore apart this body. Kaioken on top of that would tear me apart, even a times two. The Spirit Bomb would take too long, and there's no one to hold him off while I charge it. I'm running out of time. Any less than this-_ Goku cut his own thoughts off, _even this, even this strong, it's too much._

It took Goku a few seconds to notice, and it took him seeing Meruem's gaze to realize it. _Oh, nevermind,_ he thought. Goku glanced to his own side, but his swollen face around his eyes made it difficult to see the sides of his head where his long blond hair was shrinking back. He ground his teeth and tried pushing out power to keep his most powerful state going, but there was nothing he could do.

"Two years and five months," Meruem said and started flying forward. "I have waited for this fight for a long time. If it were any other day, I would have fought more on your energy level. I would have liked to see how we matched up in a fair fight." Meruem's own giant aura shrank down, but it was still stronger than what Goku's was at now that his hair was in only a single blond spike over his head. "This is not the way I wanted our-" There was a look of lamentation on Meruem's face as his tail waved around his side. He looked displeased that this was the way their fight would end, and as soon as that look became visible, a figure appeared on the Ant King's left side with his arm extended forward. Meruem's head snapped to the other side and purple blood splashed out of his mouth, and then the Chimera Ant shot like a rocket out of the sky and into the ground half a mile below, causing the planet around him to shake from the collision.

"Rrgg," Bardock growled. He glared at the end of his right fist, _It didn't take his head off. He is stronger now._ The Super Saiyan God's red hair turned back to blond and shot up in a single spike over his head. Bardock had a gash on his left cheek similar to his son's, but other than that the Saiyan King looked much better for the wear than Goku did. Bardock snarled as he stared down towards the hole in the mountains where his enemy had vanished into the planet. _At the last second his eyes darted over. Did he tense? Did he protect himself? If I had chose another moment, I could have finished him. If I had waited for his guard to be down even more, for the moment he killed…_ Bardock ground his teeth, _There is no point thinking on hypotheticals. The ant must die for what he has done. That is the only outcome today._

"Fa-ther," Goku said, staring at the back of the glowing gold Saiyan King in surprise.

Meruem flew out of the ground down below with a welt on the left side of his face, some purple blood dripping down the left corner of his mouth, and an expression of cold fury. He did not look enraged, he did not look to snap. Meruem stared up at Bardock with the eyes of a monster. Bardock could see it in the Ant King's gaze. _He wants me dead. His entire aura is screaming it, he can't hide it._

"I never expected you to-" Meruem began, then cursed to himself and ground his own teeth in anger, making him look like even more of a monster with the ravenous look on his face now including bared-teeth to top off the look. "Attacking me while I'm distracted, what of your Saiyan pride?" Meruem mocked, though in his voice was the questioning tone that showed he was as curious as he was furious about it.

Bardock's teeth clenched harder. If any of his people had seen what he just did, it would have discredited him as their King. The right corner of his lip curled up after a second though. "Something even you failed to see coming?" Bardock asked sarcastically. "The mighty King, caught off guard. Aren't you embarrassed to say that aloud? What would your pathetic little peons think?" Bardock smirked even more as he mentioned them, and Meruem's eyes darted to his side. "Don't worry, Tora will take good care of your Royal Guards."

As soon as Bardock mentioned his best friend's name, he shot forward. Meruem's mental processing was beyond anything Bardock had seen before, so he knew that as soon as he mentioned Tora's name, Meruem would react to it. He figured that Turles would have told Meruem who the Super Saiyan Gods were, and he knew that the only thing Meruem truly cared for other than himself were the three Royal Guards of his who Bardock first saw him with. Meruem thought about his Royal Guards going up against Tora, and Bardock rushed him with his right fist pulled back. Meruem was fast though and blocked the punch, but the hit only had half of Bardock's strength in it. His left leg that was flying around had more, and Meruem's tail lifted up to block when the Ant King saw it coming out his peripheral vision.

Bardock followed up with a knee up towards Meruem's chest when the Ant King blocked his first two moves. He was nonstop, his moves continuous. Bardock pushed forward and Meruem got pushed back. Even after Bardock caught Meruem by surprise, Meruem could not tell if Bardock said those things solely to catch him off guard, or if they were true and Bardock was just using them to his advantage. Either way, Meruem had the feeling in the back of his mind that his Royal Guards were in a great deal of danger, a fact just distracting enough that he did not catch the third feint of Bardock's right fist to realize that the left fist he had pushed away at first was coming back at him. The left hand had never re-clenched so Meruem thought it was just coming back to block his kick at first, but Bardock had lifted his left leg to block Meruem's kick, and his open left hand came more at their head-levels, smacking Meruem so hard across the right side of his face that another welt appeared on it, though not as large as the one from Bardock's initial surprise attack.

The smack was still hard enough to make Meruem's head snap to the side though, and Bardock followed up by spinning and slamming a kick into the Ant King's right side. Meruem's body bent over the leg, and then Bardock followed through and shot Meruem into the distance like a rocket.

Goku watched his father in awe the entire interaction. It occurred in only a few seconds, and Goku could not have lowered his bottom lip further. _He's just a regular Super Saiyan, but he's faster than I was at Super Saiyan 3. He looks like he just came from a fight, but he does not look tired at all. Is he? Is he just pretending to be alright? Is he doing that thing where he does not let his opponent know that he's injured, or tired at all? Is he mixing his God ki into his regular Super Saiyan form to make him that strong? Or did he really distract Meruem that much with what he said that the King's reactions were not as fast?_ "Wow," Goku just whispered after a few seconds.

"Kakarott," Bardock began without turning back to his son. He would not make a mistake during this fight. He _could_ not if he intended to survive. "Get Sora and go to a different part of the mountains."

"Kakarott?" Meruem questioned, appearing back in front of Bardock too fast for Goku to follow. Bardock did not seem surprised though, having kept his eyes pointed forward the entire time so that he could see his opponent coming. Meruem looked straight into Bardock's eyes, and he continued, "That boy is Son Goku."

"Not on these mountains he's not," Bardock replied.

Meruem saw something in Bardock's eyes as the man said it. The annoyance at Meruem's statement, the intonation in his voice like he had had to make the correction before and was repeating himself, Meruem also saw something else. It was hidden deeper in Bardock's eyes, and Meruem said, "Your son?"

"Kakarott is my Saiyan name," Goku shouted over at his opponent.

 _Why does he not go by his Saiyan name normally? Does it have to do with why he is the only Saiyan who this world sees as a hero?_ Meruem pondered this while the boy on his mind moved.

Goku flew forward, but Bardock snapped, "I said to leave, Kakarott!"

"No," Goku responded. Bardock's eyes widened, and then a flash of bright light surrounded Goku's body that made both Bardock and the Ant King look his way.

* * *

Hundreds of miles away from Mount Vegeta and the surrounding mountain range and villages, on the Great Ocean only five miles off of Aebrith's west coast, a war was going on. The battle on the ocean had started before the planet started shaking and continued despite the rough waves below. The war was not huge, the amount of ships involved was limited to five, and one of those was already sinking into the sea. Another ship, the biggest of the remaining four, was surrounded in green vines that were whipping around and smacking into soldiers shooting and slashing at a crazy-fast, tall, flowery Neo-Marine named Binz.

The Devil Fruit eater slid down one of his vines then leapt off it to another as the blonde woman he was going after sniped his vine and it ripped in half. "Ooo-yaaayayaya!" Binz pulled out a dozen shuriken and threw them down at the woman who did a backflip to avoid them. As she flipped back though, a vine shot through the roof of her cabin and smacked her down into the ground.

She hit hard and let out a yelp of pain. Binz dropped down in front of her and twenty vines a hundred feet tall broke from the deck behind him and waved around in the air. "This is all the Pirate Queen can do?! Haha! No matter! This will regain the glory of the Neo-Marines! Z-sensei! Watch as I honor your name, ooohh hyaa!" He charged at Elizabeth Turner who rose up a sword in one hand and whipped out a ray pistol in the other.

She fired but he yelled, "Soru!" The beam went to the left of his head and he was in front of Elizabeth before she had time to raise her sword. He unsheathed his sword and yelled out as he swung it down, but right before the blade connected with Elizabeth's left shoulder, the Pirate Queen vanished.

Binz eyes opened wide and he spun left and right looking for her. He checked his Haki and searched around all their remaining Neo Marines and the crews they were fighting for the woman. When he was spinning back to his left after looking right though, his eyes turned into saucers at the sight of a man standing right in front of him who he did not sense until that second. Binz leapt backwards while William Turner glared furiously at him, "What do you think you're doing, attacking my wife?"

"The Pirate Queen has a husband?!" Binz exclaimed, then calmed himself down and thought fast. "Oii-yaa, how did you get there so fast?" The strange man wearing a pink outfit covered in bright green and purple flower designs stood in a fighting stance as he got the feeling this was the most dangerous man on all four of the ships.

Ain looked to her right and saw Binz nervously facing off against a totally calm man whose presence felt more monstrous than the monsters she was currently fighting on a ghost ship. She spun back as she felt a presence vanish and saw a fish-like man who had attributes of a hammerhead shark stabbing one of her men through the gut. "Stay in formation!" she yelled. "Soru!" She shot forward and that shark guy only made it halfway turned before her hand touched him and she yelled, "Modo Modo!" The shark man gasped and stumbled backwards as barnacles vanished from his skin that turned less decomposed and more, human.

Will Turner turned as he felt a strange sensation in his gut of one of his men escaping from their contracts that bound them to the Flying Dutchman. His former pirate dropped his sword and looked at his human hands in shock, then as his mouth curled up into a happy expression, a pistol went off and the man's head snapped back with blood coming out of it.

"He's actually dead!" One of Ain's men yelled. He was standing in a square of his comrades with his beam rifle raised and all of the Neo Marines became excited. "Ain-sama's power makes them mortal!"

"We can defeat the Pirate Queen!"

"We can sink the Flying Dutchman!"

"Raaa!" The Neo Marines scattered on their own remaining ship and all over Elizabeth's and Will's cheered.

The fourth ship in the battle was relatively empty compared to the others. A small crew of ten stood on the starboard side of it and watched as dead men and Marines and the Pirate Queen's crew all fought each other with advanced guns, melee weapons, and even their own fists, or claws and teeth for the monsters. The captain of this fourth ship turned his head to a pudgy man next to him. "Mr. Gibbs," the pirate captain began. He was wearing a captain's hat, a red bandanna underneath, and had long dreadlocks beneath that.

The pudgy man next to him turned to his Captain who had on a lot of expensive rings and necklaces unlike the rest of his raggedy-looking crew. Mr. Gibbs had on a gray vest over a white shirt, both covered in dirt. He answered, "Aye Captain?"

"I do believe we are being ignored," the man with long dreads said. Captain Jack Sparrow turned right and looked down the line at the nine pirates with him. "Is the Black Pearl a ship to be ignored?"

"No Cap'n!"

"We deserve to be boarded too!"

"Aye Cap'n!"

"Mr. Gibbs!"

"Aye Cap'n?!" Joshamee Gibbs shouted.

"Shoot someone!" Jack ordered.

Gibbs's mouth curled into a grin. "Aye Captain." He pulled out a pistol, pointed it towards the Flying Dutchman, aimed closely, then fired. **BANG!**

One of the Flying Dutchman's immortal crewmates stumbled forward. The saw-shark pirate turned and glared over at the Black Pearl's deck.

Jack and everyone on his ship turned to Gibbs who lowered his pistol and gave the scary monster a small, nervous wave. "Mr. Gibbs," Jack started.

"Aye Cap'n?"

"I meant one of the Marines," Jack said.

"Aye," Gibbs muttered.

"Shooting a monster that can't die and that's constantly sailing with us may have been a bad idea," a dark-skinned woman down the line from Jack and Gibbs stated. "I'd watch your back for now on."

"Watch your back! Watch your back!" A green parrot sitting on one of the other pirate's shoulders repeated a few times.

"Actually, I don't think that will be necessary," the captain said. The others all looked at Jack confusedly, then followed his gaze to the Flying Dutchman where the sawfish guy was falling forward with two swords sticking through his front and his skin turning black as he became more human.

Over on the Pirate Queen's ship, Binz saw Will Turner snap his head back towards his own ship, and he took that moment to attack. Binz swung his arms forward and twenty long vines shot towards the captain of the Flying Dutchman. Thorns came out of them and Binz grinned victoriously as he thought he won.

One of the Neo-Marines got slashed on his left shoulder closer to the stern on Elizabeth's ship than Binz. She stumbled to the port side and put her hands down on the railing to steady herself. The woman's left arm drenched with blood and she coughed as she stared down at the choppy water. As she looked at the sea, the urge to turn and get back to the battle left her completely. "Oh God," the woman whispered.

Binz's vines were about to hit Will Turner, when the Captain turned and glared at the Neo Marine with the cold eyes of a dead man. "Get off my ship," Will said.

All of a sudden, two pink tentacles twenty feet wide each shot out of the water on both sides of the Pirate Queen's ship. Binz's vines froze as fear took over, then the tip of one of those monster's tentacles shot down and wrapped around him. It pulled up and Binz used his powers to send his vines flying up after him to try and free himself from the pink monster. The beast threw him high in the air and his vines flew even higher so he could flip around and land on one. As he landed though, another tentacle slammed into all his vines and ripped them apart, making him lose balance in midair.

Binz fell and he rose up a hand to grab a weapon, but before he got anything in his hand, his entire vision filled with pink suction cups. "Ahh-" the tentacle slammed into him and he went flying. The Marine hit the water a quarter mile away, bounced, bounced, and bounced again.

Ain was going around the Flying Dutchman taking out monster after monster with her powers, aging these doomed men back to a time where they were not cursed so that they could die. Some of them she could swear ran straight towards her without trying to kill her, in hopes that maybe this woman could kill them. Ain stopped though and spun her head as the presence of her closest friend and comrade went flying. "Binz!"

Her men were all screaming in horror as the Kraken's tentacles whipped around, smacking them off the ships, grabbing them and pulling them down into the sea. She spun around and knew she was the only one still fighting. She could no longer see any chance for victory. "Everyone!" Ain yelled out. "Get-"

 **BANG!**

Ain stopped shouting and she brought her hands up to her stomach. She looked down and moved her hands aside a little, and she looked down to see them soaked in red. The short woman lifted her head up and looked across the deck over at the ship they barely even took into account before attacking. Standing on the deck with one foot up on the railing and a pistol pointed her way, was none other than Captain Jack Sparrow.

The captain with long black dreads lowered his pistol, "And that, Mr. Gibbs, is what I meant."

"Fantastic shot Captain," Mr. Gibbs congratulated.

"Ain-samaaAAHHHH!" A man originally yelling at her in worry starting screaming in terror as a tentacle that just shot up over the side of the Pirate Queen's ship grabbed him around the waist. Ain turned her head and watched as her men got torn apart by monsters in every direction. She tried stepping towards them, but fell down to a knee, coughed, and blood splattered out of her mouth. Ain collapsed forward and only got her left elbow down to stop her face from hitting the wooden deck.

"I pity you," a female voice said above her. Ain slowly lifted her gaze and saw a woman with long blonde hair and a black pirate's hat standing above her. There were five scary fish monsters behind her, and the Kraken's tentacles waved Ain's men in the air on the sides of the ship above them all. Elizabeth Turner lifted up her ray pistol, and she reloaded a fresh magazine of ray bullets into it. It clicked to show the magazine was locked, and Ain raised a hand up at the beautiful Pirate Queen, shaking her head 'no.'

Elizabeth frowned but she lowered the pistol so the end of the barrel pressed against Ain's head. "A clean death, worthy of a fighter of your caliber. You die with honor, Neo-Marine." Elizabeth pulled the trigger. The pirate watched the smaller woman collapse, and did not flinch as she thought, _But inside my ship my son is hiding. None who attack us can be allowed to live._

* * *

Son Goku's body suddenly grew three times in size. His muscles bulked, his legs and arms extended, and his shoulders broadened. Bardock gawked at his son, wondering if he could have done that at any time. Meruem looked confused though, because Goku lifted his own hands and gazed down at them in surprise. The Saiyan kept his injuries through his process of aging forward, but he also felt something else as he became a man again. Goku clenched his fists, he lifted his gaze, and his golden tail waved around behind him. "This is my fight," Goku said, looking Meruem straight in the eyes while his golden spiky hair waved above him in its single spike.

The older man whose hair was in the same style on Goku's left shook off his surprise at Goku's sudden aging. "You will only get in my way. Besides, this is a fight between Meruem's armies and my own. It's none of your business."

"It's not just between Saiyans and those attacking," Goku argued back, neither man looking away from Meruem as they spoke to each other. "You protect all the people in the towns and cities around these mountains."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Bardock said. His expression darkened, and he continued, "I only let them live there so that the Saiyans have people to lord over, to look down on as their lower subjects. I made it, so that if an attack ever came, there would be enough fodder in the way that I would have good warning before the enemies ever arrived at Mount Vegeta." Bardock's dark expression started to smirk towards Meruem who Bardock caught a change in his expression after that last statement. "After today's events, I believe I was right."

Goku frowned angrily, and in his chest he felt a sharp pain. Bardock continued, "You have the wrong opinion of me boy. We are different in every way. I am nothing like you." Bardock said it, and this time it was Meruem's turn to see something strange in the Saiyan King's dark expression. _Kakarott, you are the hero of the Saiyan race. To hear that from me, you must be disappointed. Now leave, get out of-_

"When I was on my way here," Goku began. His fists clenched and rose up into a fighting stance. "I thought I was going to have to fight the Saiyan King because he was evil," Goku said. Meruem looked at the tall Saiyan man who after aging he was now sure beyond a shred of a doubt that this was Son Goku. "Most of the Saiyans I knew were," Goku continued, then he grinned and added, "but you changed the Saiyans. The Saiyans here aren't bad guys. I know, I fight bad guys all the time." Goku smiled even wider and said, "Instead of facing the Saiyan King to save people, I got to meet and fight my father. I got to train with him, and though it did not last, for the first time in my life I was surrounded by Saiyans and truly felt at home." Bardock's eyes were huge at the words the younger man next to him was saying.

Goku's determined expression hardened and his aura flared around his body. "So I won't leave," Goku said, ignoring the injuries all over his body and the huge gap in strength between him and the other two. Goku's eyes narrowed in and he finished in a shout, "Because these are my people too, because my dad is the Saiyan King!"

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading. Lots of stuff happens this time. We get a flashback where Meruem sees Super Saiyan 3 Goku fight Luthor thanks to magic of Zeref's subordinates and the news brought back by Ichimaru Gin. Goku manages to go Super Saiyan 3 against Meruem in order to protect Dash, but it isn't enough to defeat the monstrous Ant King. Bardock arrives to save his son but his surprise attack fails to kill Meruem, and he claims Tora is fighting the Royal Guards, but is he? Or is Sora on his own against those monsters who are hunting him down? The Neo Marines are taken down by the Pirate Queen and her allies, Elizabeth putting Ain down herself and bringing Goku back to his proper age. Now, can Bardock defeat Meruem? Will Goku be able to assist his father and save his people? The war on the Saiyan Mountains is raging, and no one knows how it is going to turn out! Here's a list below for all the characters I introduced (that are not mine, like none that I use are):**

 **DBZ: Jeice, Burter, Dodoria, Frieza, Angila, Wings, and Medamatcha (those three are the minions from the Lord Slug movie), Lord Slug, Fasha, Shugesh, Tora, Bardock, Goku (Kakarott), Raditz, Vegeta, Hit, Turles, Dyspo, Kunshi, Ginyu**

 **Asura's Wrath: Deus, Olga, Gohma, Sergei**

 **RWBY: Grimm**

 **God Eater: Aragami, Zygotes, Aether, Chi-You, Leviathan (nickname I gave to the giant Aragami seen in episode 3 of the show and never again after that)**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Organization, Sora, Heartless**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Meruem, Pitou, Pouf, Isaac Netero, Gon Freecs**

 **Futurama: Amy Wong**

 **Arrow: John Diggle (Spartan)**

 **Flash: Savitar**

 **Fairy Tail: Zeref, August, Eileen**

 **Bleach: Aizen, Tousen, Gin Ichimaru**

 **DC Comics: Lex Luthor**

 **Incredibles: Dash, JackJack**

 **Pokemon: Azalea Town**

 **-That was a lot, don't know if it's all of them though. If I missed some, you can ask where they're from in a comment, but either way, I don't own any of the characters. Anyway, review responses:**

Limit-Breaking chapter 83 . Jan 17

Prepare yourself for the longest review ever.  
Man you really like to toy with people and give them hope, i honestly believed that tien was alive some how for a second there or maybe he is. Though im probably giving myself false hope but pitou did say she was keeping him alive in a way by having control of his organs still functioning so maybe he is still alive and was just not conscience. Also goku only cut the strings controlling him but i still have hope. (Nicely done with that part)  
But really man you just loving killing characters off all i saw was death everywhere. Also you definetly surprised me with turles showing up and the way bardock gave his speech about how he wish the saiyans were more like goku was really well done. I was just laughing when bardock said you make me want to blow up planets again for shits and giggles. XD  
Now for the slightly serious stuff (HIT, DYSPO) WHEN, WHERE, AND HOW. YOU ARE NOT MAKING US WAIT A MILLION CHAPTERS TO HEAR HOW THEY ARRIVED ONTO THIS PLANET, I WANT THE FULL DETAILS. OR GOD HELP ME I WILL SPAM LIKE NO TOMMORROW WITH NEW CREATED ACCOUNTS AND SENEDING PM MESSAGES ASKING HOW THEY ARE HERE...  
Ok the hype overload capacity has returned to normal levels and don't worry I won't really be spamming you... I SHOULD... But I won't cause you give us an awesome chapters each and everytime and i know this is just how you are so im kinda use to it.  
But that does make me wonder why nobody hired hit to just assininate the ant king, maybe they don't know how deadly he really is. Just one hit and there we go no ant king, really people it's a simple as that.  
Also it was so sad seeing jackjack die and dash is ready to avenge his brother, This will definetly build up his character latter down the line. And the way meruem decided to eat jackjack surprised me since orignially he said that those who have potential would be aloud to live but i guess he really wanted jackjack power. Though he said that from the show not in this story.  
LASTLY THE MOST SERIOUS QUESTION OF ALL TIME WHERE, IS, JIREN. I know he is in this story and the thought of him showing up is just horrifying the dude is to OP.  
But besides all that, Awesome job with this chapter and the way you portryed bardock to the saiyans was awesome it makes me hope we get to see this kind of thing in the new dragon all movie coming this year. I look forward to the fight between dash, goku and the ant king.  
Keep up the amazing

 **What a review! Almost didn't copy and paste it all cuz it was going to increase the word count for this chapter so much, but I didn't want to hop back and forth between tabs anyway soo... Alright, thanks for the review! Haven't heard more about Tien since his strings were cut, but we'll see how that ends up. This chapter was called "War" because like the last chapter, a lot of the chapter is going around showing how large this war is spreading, and it's killing off a lot of people! Kunshi drops this time, as does John Diggle from Arrow and Amy Wong from Futurama, (and countless unnamed people in all those destroyed cities and towns). We may have also seen what crashes Zoro's ship in the far distance as Deus brings down lightning everywhere. Glad you liked Bardock's speech to Goku about the Saiyans, but it doesn't seem like Goku agrees with Bardock's calling himself not as good a Saiyan. I do have a flashback with Hit in it planned in the future, but now that Shugesh and Fasha have arrived to save Dyspo (not that that's really their intention), maybe he'll be getting one too. As for no one hiring Hit, in his universe he had been around for a long time so everyone probably knew about him, or heard rumors at least. In this one, I can't really see Hit going around advertising himself, so it might take a little longer for people to realize how powerful he is, though it seems like Turles for one understands his strength. Meruem allowing those who have potential to live made sense on his world where he felt like he was stronger than everyone, but on this one he has seen that he is not the strongest there is, so I think he would be more concerned about first becoming the King before deciding on what to do with all the others. Then again, lots about the Ant King is unknown and yet to be revealed, so there could be other reasons too... ;) . And for the final question, Jiren. I normally like to add characters only once I know a lot about them to work off of, hence why I added Dyspo right after he was eliminated from the tournament so that I knew his max power. That's a big reason I don't want to add Jiren right now, because I might downplay, or overestimate, his overall strength. On top of that, I already have/had most of Aebrith Saga worked out in my head and on a notes page on my computer before Jiren was introduced. For such an important/strong character, it'll be tough to just find a spot to throw him in, but I'm sure sooner or later I'll find a good place. Fwew, alright so I matched the longest review with the longest response. Once again thanks for reviewing, and I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter!**

kg833998 chapter 57 . Jan 17

did you have to kill koro sensei please tell me bitch sensei and Kayano I still alive besides that your last chapter was amazing I had to stop reading for a second cuz I had to cry my eyes out after hearing you killed koro sensei

also since Mario is at this does that mean Sonic and hopefully Shadow are going to be in this and does that mean the chaos emeralds play some part in story also one last thing is a certain time traveling demon and her creation going to be in this you don't remember going to tell you about then I'll give you a hint Xenoverse thank you I want to ask you something else but I'll ask you in the next chapter

I I have a feeling I know what you're planning for Goku you're probably going to do a GT did cuz he's a kid and he has his tail a few into the store you kept mentioning he has his tail you think you're sneaky but I know you're going to do it what happened with baby is going to happen here Super Saiyan 4 I or something close to tell me if I'm closing up please

 **Koro sensei noo! Sorry if he was your favorite, but we will see him later on (in a flashback at least). As for the two teachers, there was no mention of them dying... so who knows? XD As for Sonic and the others, I have played around with the idea of adding them for a while. Back in first Saga of Nexus I thought about it too, and I haven't found a good spot for them- yet. Not going to say they aren't coming, but no plans at the moment. Also, I have not played Xenoverse, so most of what you said there at the end went over my head. I've seen a few cutscenes from the games, but I never watched them all and didn't use them as canon, (since I heard Bardock was in it a lot and I changed his background a whole bunch).** **Goku ages up again but still has his tail, no spoilers on what's going to happen t him from there though... Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter, thanks for the reviews, and let me know what that other question was!**

asdf chapter 83 . Jan 17

I think Hit is most likely going to defeat Bardock considering what he did to SSJ Blue Vegeta. When you made mention of Dyspo, I thought any moment Jiren was gonna appear. Then there would be too many op bald characters: Luthor, Jiren, Saitama.

It seems I have forgotten one other overpowered bald man. That bald man being Toppo... a newly born God Of Destruction as shown by the latest episode of Dragon Ball Super.  
*Takes deep breaths to calm heart from the influx of hype*  
If Jiren and/or Toppo appear in this story, it will be too much for my poor heart.

 **Turles has other plans for Hit as we see early on in this chapter, saving him for his trump card for later. Toppo, Jiren, Luthor, Saitama, so many bald people just happen to be strong too (not to mention Meruem and Hit are both bald too) XD. Getting excited for this Toppo fight next weekend too (more so than the Super Bowl)! Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and thanks for the reviews!**

Guest chapter 83 . Jan 18

WOW MY HEART WAS BEATING FAST, NEW CHARACTERS, will some died :(, BUT WOW SO AWESOME:), CANT WAIT TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

cyber

the guest is me

 **GLAD YOU'RE EXCITED! THANKS FOR REVIEWING! XD Hope you enjoyed the new chapter and that it's keeping you in suspense!**

Zalgatoth chapter 83 . Jan 18

Holy crap you brought in hellsing. (Hellsing spoilers)I can only imagine the potentially massive amount of power alucard has gathered by now. What's worse is his ability to use others lives as a shield is universal. No matter that power level people attack him he can take millions of hits. Not to mention if your including him after schrodinger. Of course this is only speculation. You could have had him brought in right after anderson and die off or still stuck in imaginary number coma. But at any other point he can easily survive and mooch off the blood of millions who have died with or without powers. Unless one of the incredible amount of stories in your head has curve ball which can be thrown.(which I'm sure it does)  
P.S. I want to apologize for not reviewing before. I kinda worked up an anxiety about writing a review and accidently offending someone. You're one of my favourite writers and the sheer quality, creativity, and skill that goes into your writing astounds me. Not to mention the sheer amount you write in such short spans of time. I want to thank your for writing and introducing me to some of my favourite series. I look forward to the future. :)

 **Valentine brothers show up as Capital 50 for the first Hellsing appearance! (I didn't even realize it was the first until you mentioned it XD ). Haven't seen Alucard yet, but who knows when/if he's going to show up... ;). I am really glad you finally reviewed, and thanks a lot! I'm happy you think my work is really good, makes the millions of words of this really feel worth it. Haha, seriously though, hope you review again, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks for reviewing!**

joebob323 chapter 83 . Jan 19

Hmm, I'm almost expecting Goku to pull a DBS and go Ultra Instinct on Meruem... I mean, you did introduce the Trio de Dangers and Hit, so it wouldn't be too far off. Great story, except i'm a little concerned about the death of JackJack, Does this mean Meruem gets much stronger?

 **Lots of DBS showing up this chapter. Dragon Ball took up the mantle as the main series crossing over this chapter, (Hell, I even changed the story settings from Kingdom Hearts and X-overs, to DBZ and X-overs). Goku doesn't make it up that strong, but he's saved this time by his father just in time. Who knows, maybe Goku will get it next chapter... or maybe not. XD We'll see how he handles this situation next chapter. Meruem eating JackJack got interrupted at the start, so he may not have gotten the power-up from it yet (considering he first flew off from Dash while still holding JackJack to eat later, and only dropped him when Dash and Goku attacked at the same time). He could always go back for that snack later though! Thanks again for reviewing joebob! Been years since you started reading Nexus and I'm glad you still are! Thanks to everyone who reviewed too, and those of you who faved, followed, or just read this story! Well, as always, 'til next time!**


	85. Nexus HWR 12-7 Meruem vs Bardock

**A/N Sorry for the long wait. Hope you enjoy this long chapter at over 36k words. The war between the Saiyans and the alliance between the Capital 50 and the Rogue Ravagers reaches it's climax as the Ant King and Saiyan King meet in battle.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own any of the media that the characters and settings you may recognize in this story are from.**

* * *

 **Nexus HWR 12.7 Meruem vs Bardock:**

 **"This is Royal Guard Shaiapouf to the Capital 50!"** Thirty-seven communications' devices around the Saiyan Mountains beeped and this message came over them. Some of the Capital 50 had been killed, others like High Commander Ginyu and Zarbon had broken their scouters during battles past. Only Savitar had fled, but the right side of his battle suit where his comms were linked had remained intact. He heard from all the way back at the Capital, while the others in the Capital 50 who could hear the message received it around the Saiyan Mountains. Pouf continued to those who could hear him, **"Come to my coordinates! The King has begun his battle with the Saiyan King, but another Super Saiyan God intends to get in the way of that! Come! Assist your King!"**

Monsters, men, vampires, demigods, aliens, and demons looked at their scouters or various comms' devices and saw the coordinates that Pouf sent them. Many of them turned and shot off in flashes of white light, others sprinted back to vehicles and lifted off to fly away. Some just turned and sprinted up the nearest slope to them, like Rob Lucci, transforming into his more slender, quicker form as he did. The Leopard Man reached the top of the slope and did not stop, leaping high up in the air off of it. Lucci shot up, and then he kicked the air behind him without even calling out "Geppou." He made shockwaves in the air with every kick, and he sped faster and faster towards the location he was given. Lucci had on a scouter with a red lens to it, and he focused near the area that Pouf had given him the coordinates to. Numbers raced up on the scouter, until a point that the numbers covered the entire top of it with 9's. The scouter had reached its limit, but luckily it did not explode thanks to certain editions made to it by the Capital's scientists.

 _Their power is immeasurable, by our standards. The King can beat those Saiyans though, as he is another of those beings whose power I cannot measure._ Lucci's claws extended, as he rose up higher towards a mountain much too large for him to go over. He decided to go to the south of it instead in order to get around to where the fight was taking place. His breathing sped up as lightning dropped from the sky around him, as a dark reddish purple haze filled the air and bright golden and red flashes ignited on the other side of the mountain he flew towards.

Two miles away, Jeice shouted down at a group of his soldiers surrounding a cluster of over four hundred humans they had gathered up. There were no fences keeping them in, but those who had dared stray from the group after being brought over were met with swift, brutal retributions. The people were staying quiet since speaking out or crying were also met with some pretty messed up punishments. Jeice yelled down at his men surrounding those quiet prisoners, "We're heading to the King's position! Everyone on me, we'll come back for them later."

The people in the huge group, pressed together and short on breath, dropped their jaws at the sound of Jeice's command. One of his own men looked at the prisoners next to him in confusion, like he wondered how they were going to get all these people back after leaving. Many of them figured the prisoners would flee right away, only for the man who yelled down at them to prove them wrong. Jeice pointed both of his hands down and fired ten red blasts of ki from his hands. The energy blasts hit around the people who screamed and backed away from them, pushing even closer together and squishing each other inwards. Jeice's soldiers flew up, and they realized what he was doing as they looked down to see thirty foot steep drops on all sides of the prisoner cluster they had created.

"Let's go," Jeice said without any more hesitation. He turned and shot off in a white aura, and twenty four of his men turned and flew off after him. _Even if they do find a way down, by the time they start lowering each other, we'll be back… hopefully._ Jeice gazed towards the direction Pouf sent him the coordinates of, and he grimaced at the 9's at the top of his scouter. "Damn thing must be broken," he mumbled, even though he himself did not believe what he said. _Just gotta keep the weaker ones off the King, 'cept the King's Voice said there's a Super Saiyan God trying to barge in. Doesn't seem like Saiyan style._ "Heh," Jeice scoffed, though a bead of sweat was rolling down the left side of his face and flew off in the fast wind he was flying through. _Bastard's probably facing off against one himself, calling in the cavalry to save him. Makes more sense than one of them trying to team up with Bardock against the King._

Shaiapouf stood twenty feet in front of Tora. The Super Saiyan God's hair was spiked up and red inside his giant flaming aura. He turned his head left and looked at Pitou who eased back but could not move her legs. He turned back to Pouf who tried to keep a steady expression despite the intense fear he was feeling. "You think, I would interrupt Bardock's fight?" Tora questioned.

 _I doubt it!_ Pouf thought in a panic. _But if you kill myself or Pitou, the King would be in just as much harm! Foolish Saiyan, you do not understand how much we mean to him!_ Pouf could not say any of this aloud though and risk giving Tora valuable information on the King. Instead, Pouf began, "To protect your King, would you not?"

"If I wanted to be the next one on Bardock's kill list, I'd interrupt that fight. For any other reason, I'm leaving him alone," Tora cracked his neck to either side and then smirked in a menacing way. Both of the Royal Guards in front of him felt chills down their spines at the bloody smirk Tora gave them. He had some bad wounds on him, especially on his head where a lot of blood had washed down over his face. It still looked wet, and Tora could feel Savitar's attacks still eating away at him. The wound on his head was open, closing, but still leaking blood and not healing very fast thanks to him moving around so much. "As for you two though," Tora said, and his aura flared more wildly.

 **THUD** A shadow fell over Tora's face. He felt the vibration on the ground and could see darkness in the corners of his eyes. The red-haired Saiyan turned his head sideways and looked behind him, then lifted his gaze up to the face of the giant monster behind him. It was getting bigger by the second. It was covered head to feet in red skin that was getting bumpier, and its human-like face was distorting and looking more monstrous every second. "RAAAA-" Youpi's roar got cut off as Tora's right hand wrapped around the front of his face and covered his entire mouth.

"Shut up," Tora said, squeezing tighter and pressing Youpi's face in at the center. The Royal Guard's eyes were bulging out the front of his head, and then Tora's hair stood on end and he darted his eyes to the right. In the corners of them he saw Pitou soaring at him. He spun while still gripping the largest Royal Guard around the face, and he spun so fast that he swung Menthuthuyoupi's legs straight into Pitou's face as she was approaching him. He batted Pitou away in the perfect direction that she slammed into Pouf who had just flown off the ground.

Pitou and Pouf went flying before Pouf flapped his brightly colored wings out behind him to stop their momentum. He grabbed Pitou by the arms, and he leaned his head in towards the side of her head and started whispering. Tora did not like the surprised look on Pitou's face as he looked up at them, so he formed a ball of blue ki on his right hand, right against Youpi's face. Youpi screamed into his hand, then he screamed into the energy as Tora sent it and him flying up towards the other guards.

"Shit!" Pouf shouted, ceasing his talk with Pitou. He threw her straight up as hard as she could, and she looked down in shock right before Youpi exploded into him in a giant sphere of blue.

"Pouf! Youpi!" Pitou shouted down to her comrades. She spun her head towards Tora who was grinning at her and running towards where she was arcing down to. _Right before I touch where he expects, I'll start flying. Pouf, if you're still alive, work fast._

Pitou kept dropping until she was right above where Tora started punching, then an aura surrounded her body and she stopped moving all at once. The fist flew beneath her, but before Pitou could counter like she had planned on, the force from the punch slammed into her much harder than she was expecting. The force surrounded Tora's punch alone slammed into her and took the wind out of her, pressing her skin in and throwing her through the air and out of her aura. She spun around in the air and tried returning the aura to her body, but a leg slammed into her stomach while she was in mid-spin, her aura only halfway returned around her. Dark bluish-purple blood splashed from Pirou's mouth, and she went flying at three hundred miles per hour straight into the side of Mount Gine near them.

"RAA!" Tora turned and saw the giant red Royal Guard dropping towards him with both hands held together as one large fist over his head. Tora punched up at Youpi's chest while the Royal Guard slammed his arms down, and then Youpi's arms froze in place as the fist imbedded deep into his body. His eyes bulged again, bloodshot, and he could feel Tora's fist tearing through his muscly flesh. "RAGE EXPLO-" His body started glowing, and Tora spun his right leg around into Youpi's side. He sent the Royal Guard flying off a second before he exploded in a giant mushroom cloud that rose up into the sky. Tora had to cross his arms and he let out a whistle as the heat of force of the blast slammed into him. _That one's got a kick. He's not going down easy, and that blast was pretty nice._ Tora shook his head around and wiped some blood out of his eyes. He narrowed his gaze into the explosion, _I'll finish him off first._

Tora felt something behind him and he spun around. He wanted to take on Youpi first, but he spun to see Pouf floating not far behind him. Shaiapouf was grinning at him, grinning in an animalistic, and victorious fashion. "I changed my mind," Tora snarled, as he did not like the look on Pouf's face one bit. "I'm killing you first." Something was off about Pouf other than his facial expression, and Tora finally put his finger on it as he spotted something in the corner of his eye.

Pitou coughed up some more blood and leaned her head up from where she lay in the snow on Mount Gine. Youpi came out of his explosion, panting heavily and looking towards Tora and Pouf in confusion. Tora glared at the small object he saw in the corner of his eye, then he darted his gaze back to Pouf. _He's shorter._ Tora shot across the air to the spot where the tiny object was moving, and he clenched his fist around it, making Pouf's eyes widen in surprise as he did not think Tora saw that. Tora opened his clenched fist and the tiny clone of Pouf the size of a fly that he had grabbed was crushed and turning to dust as it fell from his hand. "What were you trying to do with that?"

"Oh, oh ho ho," Pouf started laughing, his voice getting higher-pitched and sounding even more cocky. "I have a certain technique, called Beelzebub, which allows me to break my body into many smaller versions of myself. I used to only be able to create enough that the smallest were the size of insects, like the one you just crushed."

 _Used to?_ Tora thought, having a bad feeling as his eyes started darting around. Right as he started looking around, he got a searing pain in the back of his head and smacked his right hand back on it. He winced in pain as he smacked right over the still-open wound that Savitar gave him.

"You're much too late," Pouf began, and his fellow Royal Guards started smirking as they realized what was going on. Tora started feeling strange, feeling itchy all over his head. He grabbed at his temples, as Pouf continued, "I have advanced my power to a point that I can make my clones the size of grains of sand, dust, and several dozen of my clones have already entered your bloodstream." Pouf chuckled darkly, then said while Tora looked his way with eyes filling with blood, "At any time I can make them merge back together into a larger clone."

Tora's face started twitching and his whole body trembled. His mouth twisted in rage and he opened it to shout, but nothing came out. Blood started seeping out of his ears and out his nostrils. His red aura vanished and his hair turned black again. A huge bump protruded from the left side of Tora's head, and then a tiny hand punched through the Saiyan's skull. A tiny version of Pouf the size of a small bird dug its way out of the Saiyan's head, leaving mashed brains behind him. Tora fell from the air as Pouf's miniature clone flew back towards the original, and re-absorbed straight into Pouf's body, making him a little bit taller again.

Pitou's head fell back on the snow behind her. She was exhausted, and her body felt so broken after all these fights with Saiyans more powerful than her. She had some broken bones and blood dripping out the corners of her mouth. Youpi flew over to Pouf using large red wings that had spread out of his back, and he and Pouf looked over towards Pitou who was not doing so hot. Youpi opened his mouth to say something, and then he and Pouf snapped their heads up and their eyes opened wide.

"Oh no," Pouf whispered, suddenly remembering the new orders he gave out a minute ago. _I didn't expect him to fall for that. Either his injuries dulled him, or he was a brute who relied on strength. Either way, I fucked up._ A tiny version of Pouf flew out of his back and shot towards the second tallest mountain in the range. The little Pouf clone flew right up to Pitou's face while the cat Chimera Ant tried sitting up. "Stay here, you'll be killed in seconds out there." The tiny clone said in a higher-pitched voice than the original. The little Pouf then flew up and punched the snow right above the indent that Pitou was lying in, and the snow fell down and covered her body up.

 _Damn you, Pouf,_ Pitou thought, while getting covered in a mini avalanche.

Youpi and Pouf's main body just stared up in the air as Pouf's clone tried helping Pitou. Pouf thought about sending out new orders, but it was too late. He was going to say that the Super Saiyan God was dead and no one needed to come anymore, but the sight of Ginyu and Deus flying around the side of the mountain was immediately followed by two red glowing Gods chasing them around the slope of Mount Gine. There were some other Capital 50 members with the High Commander and his fellow Guardian, and Pouf shouted up at them, "The Super Saiyan God is dead! Focus on your fights!"

Deus and Ginyu spun back towards their original opponents right away. They re-charged at Fasha and Shugesh, while the two Super Saiyan Gods were staring down in shock at the body below Pouf lying face-down in the snow. "Tora," Fasha whispered. Her head snapped back up and her red eyes turned a darker shade as she glared at Deus. Her teeth sharpened, and she let out a scream that turned into a roar halfway through. Fasha shot at Deus twice as fast as before, punching at his face with her right hand. Deus leaned away to dodge it, but Fasha just kept flying forward and smashed her face straight into his. With her forehead pressed against his, she screamed, "RRAAAAA _EEEEE!"_ The air around them quivered, and then Fasha leaned forward and bit down on Deus' nose.

He reeled back in pain, then both of Fasha's arms came in at the same time and clapped him on opposite temples. She double-kicked with both legs into his chest, then she did a barrel-roll in the air and dodged a speak of ice and a huge red energy blast fired from other members of the Capital 50. She turned her head and snarled, lifting hands to point at them. Lightning bolts flew at her in a giant beam, and Fasha was thrown backwards before she could attack the other powerful enemies.

Deus looked angry. Both sides of his face covered in orange energy, and his entire body sparked lightning violently in every direction. He had blood dripping down the center of his face from the gash on the bridge of his nose, and he was still bruised up from fighting Dyspo earlier. Fasha stopped flying backwards and she glowered back at him, but her eyes darted cautiously to her sides. She was like an animal, keeping her eyes on every opponent in front of her and snarling like a beast to keep them all back. Deus could not actually tell if the woman was thinking coherent thoughts, but then he saw the corners of her lips curl up and he had a bad feeling in his gut.

Eight beams of yellow light shot towards Fasha's back, passed her on her sides, and flew towards the other allies Deus had around him. Deus looked behind the woman, while Ginyu snapped his head that way as Shugesh started chuckling darkly through his snarling teeth as well. Pouf thought for a second that maybe he was wrong to dread the fact that more battles had been brought here, but Ginyu and Deus' fight was not the only one. All at once it seemed, a hundred Saiyans and a hundred of their own allies came flying around both sides of Mount Gine's slope. Beams and flames flew in every direction. Explosions rippled through the sky, on the slopes and peaks of smaller mountains around them, and the ground started shaking worse than ever. The war compressed, finally focusing in on a single battleground.

* * *

"Where the Hell do you think was he off to in such a hurry?" Rutabega asked the man on his right side.

"Doesn't really matter now, does it?" Another Super Saiyan floating past the man next to Rutabega replied. Dirru had much longer blond hair that spiked out behind him instead of straight up above his head and to the sides like Rutabega.

The man in the center had the longest and spikiest blond hair. He clenched his right hand into a fist and fully crushed the throat of the man he had already choked the life out of. "No," Raditz said, as the man's body and head fell in different directions. "Guess it doesn't."

Four Saiyans were flying towards the three Super Saiyans hovering above the northern slope of the Training Mountain. They were pretty far down the mountains, but not as far as Raditz would have liked. He glanced up as the other Saiyans approached him, then back down and to the southeast. His eyes narrowed in that direction where so many different colors were swirling, _The fucker I just killed was heading that way too. Strange, to have come this far up only to turn around, he must have new orders to go that way._

"All the enemies on the south slope are dead or fleeing," Apragus called out as he neared the group of three Super Saiyans. Raditz looked forward and nodded at the Saiyan whose hair was a similar length but a pitch black.

"Sure they're fleeing?" Rutabega asked. "Or were they heading that way?" He motioned with his head in the same direction Raditz was just looking, having had the same idea that their leader did.

The other two men and the woman behind Apragus glanced at each other with frowns. They were all bloody and bruised, unlike the three Super Saiyans who did not look to have an injury on them. As they thought about it, the four of them realized that the enemies were not running away, only regrouping. "We'll go after them," Raditz said. He stopped himself though, and he gazed back up where he spotted something. His eyes narrowed, and the other six looked up as well to see a group of over fifteen figures flying down towards them. None of those figures had forgotten to put on their Power Blockers like many of the seven floating there did, but Raditz noticed them anyway.

An older Saiyan man was descending with a cluster of Saiyans young and old behind him. None of them looked all too damaged despite a war going on around them, and the Saiyans who were taking part in the battles all over the place got annoyed or angered looks on their faces at the sight of them. "Edamamu," Dirru growled up. His golden hair waved around behind his head and he growled in a deeper voice, "What do you want? Can't find any enemies?"

"Raditz," Edamamu greeted as he lowered down. He dropped down straight in front of Raditz, surprising the others with his actions. Apragus glanced up, but the fifteen still above him all had serious and intense looks on their faces just like the older man. It was strange though, despite their intensity, none of them had the sheer looks of bloodthirstiness as the rest of their race. They looked almost, calm.

"What?" Raditz asked, lifting his left eyebrow to show he would hear the old man out.

"This is the moment we have been waiting for," Edamamu began. "This war, it's the chance we needed. The chance you've been looking for." The two Super Saiyans at Raditz's sides glanced in at each other with a knowing look. Apragus got a dark look on his face, but the three behind Apragus looked up to see their comrades nodding down at them with serious expressions.

"Now is the time to get Prince Vegeta," Edamamu continued. The others behind Apragus went wide-eyed, and the two men looked in at each other. One of them nodded at the other who grinned wide and nodded once back. The woman glanced to her right at the two of them, an uneasy feeling stirring in her chest. She looked back forward to see what Raditz thought, while Edamamu continued to the younger Saiyan, "You know the procedure. If you get Prince Vegeta now, you can turn him into a Super Saiyan God."

Raditz's frown grew deeper, but Edamamu was not finished. "We have all seen you quarreling with Bardock. You spoke against him in favor of Prince Vegeta. This is the best moment, while he is distracted by this war. You have all of our support, and when Vegeta becomes King he will reward our services, yours most of all."

Raditz looked up at the group above Edamamu. "You all feel this way?" Rutabega wondered as he looked up at them too. All of them kept their steady looks, some of them grinned, most nodded to Raditz.

"We're with you too," one of the men behind Apragus said.

"Let's go get Vegeta," the other said.

Apragus darted his eyes to the side. "Sukuwashi, Gourudu," he muttered with a shake of his head.

Raditz looked back down and into Edamamu's eyes. "Did I just hear you correctly?" The old man had lifted the left corner of his mouth up a small amount, looking more smug than the rest of the Saiyans around. He was one of the two elders who Raditz always saw contending his father at meetings, at gatherings, every time he turned his head. Edamamu looked confused at the younger man, and Raditz floated forward, floated closer to him and closer until there was a small two foot gap between their bodies. Edamamu leaned his head back a small amount, not wanting to float backwards and show how afraid he was. Raditz looked down with crystal blue eyes and asked, "Do you plan on taking my father's life?"

Edamamu's mouth shot open, but Raditz spoke first, "Because to me, this seems like a coup. It seems like you are taking advantage of a crisis where all Saiyans should be working together, to try and overthrow my father." Raditz's mouth twisted into a snarl and he roared, "Do you think so little of me that I would turn on my own father?!" His fist shot forward and through the chest of the old man in front of him. The Saiyans above got confused and terrified looks on their faces, and that terror only intensified as Raditz snapped his head up with is arm still imbedded in Edamamu's chest. Half of them let out screams as Raditz's blue eyes turned red.

Their screams did not last long.

Eighteen bodies fell out of the sky over the northern slope of the Training Mountain. Raditz's hair turned from red back to gold, but the Saiyan whose arms and entire body were covered in the blood of his own race kept panting with his teeth bared. Apragus shook his head again as he looked down at the two men falling below him, while the woman behind him had her eyes opened huge and was trembling where she floated. She could not even think coherently enough to thank the gods that she was not stupid enough to join with the others.

"Would say it's a shame we lost so many fighters in the midst of a battle, but those fuckers weren't doing shit anyway," Rutabega said and chortled.

Raditz spat down towards the bodies falling beneath him. "Traitors, the whole lot of them."

"Looks like the movement to make Vegeta the King just lost a lot of steam," Apragus mentioned as he floated forward towards his mate. Raditz nodded, a slightly annoyed look on his face. "Whatever, we'll deal with that later," Apragus said, getting everyone to refocus on what was really important. The air around them got thicker and lightning dropped all at once from a hundred different places in the air around them.

"Later," Raditz agreed.

"For now," Rutabega said, and he turned as did the other four Saiyans towards the darkest purple any of them had seen before. "Guess it's time to get over there."

* * *

Son Goku had two black eyes. He had a shallow gash on his left cheek that matched his father's face. The cuts on Goku's forehead and the sides of his eyes were bleeding a lot, and some of the blood was getting in his eyes even as he blinked his eyes fast to try and keep it out. The Super Saiyan floated next to his father, both of them around six feet tall, and both over a head taller than the Ant King who floated before them.

"Kakarott," Bardock began. _"I won't leave…" This boy- no, this man. "Because these are my people too, because my dad is the Saiyan King!" Kakarott, you,_ the corners of Bardock's lips started to curl back up. "Look behind us," Bardock said to his son, while keeping his own eyes on Meruem. Goku took his eyes off his enemy, but Meruem did not take that moment to fly forward and attack. Bardock's stance told him that he was ready for Meruem to try just that, and Meruem would rather take the lead in the rhythm of the fight instead of doing what Bardock wanted him to. Bardock continued while he kept his eyes on Meruem, looking for the smallest movement, "The war is coming this way. The only way the Ant King beats me is with assistance. It's why he allied with the Rogue."

Goku got a confused look on his face and spun back to his father. "Turles is here?"

"Listen to me Kakarott," Bardock snapped. "Get back there and help our people." The way Bardock worded it made Goku happy considering a minute ago Bardock told him that this fight had nothing to do with him. _"Our,"_ Goku thought, but he did not grin, because what his father said went against what he wanted to do.

"I want to stay," Goku countered. He stayed in his fighting stance even while looking behind him, and he stared back over at Meruem's face. "I want to help you," he said.

"You can't help me defeat Meruem, but you can keep those pests off my back. Give me my fight without intrusions, Kakarott. It is the best thing you can do to help me." Goku ground his teeth after hearing his father's words, but he knew what Bardock said was true. Goku nodded once with a serious expression on his face and Bardock grinned at the sight through his peripheral vision. Goku started floating backwards, and Bardock's grin lowered down into a flat lip. His fists clenched harder in front of him, and just clenching them created shockwaves in the air. "And Kakarott," he said, before the other man could fly off. Even though one was son and the other father, Bardock looked no older than the man at his side. He did not turn to the man next to him and back a few meters, but Goku looked back towards the back of his father's head.

"I'm proud of you," Bardock said. Goku's eyes shot open huge, and a deep feeling of dread filled his body as the other man finished, "My son."

Goku's mouth could not have dipped lower. What his father told him were words that he should have been so happy to hear, as he had been trying to impress his father since he arrived on the Saiyan Mountains yet kept falling short. He could not beat Bardock in their fight, he could not turn Super Saiyan 3 when his father asked him to, even now he could not take part in the fight against Meruem because of his smaller power. Despite all that, Bardock was saying that he was proud, and Goku could hear it in the man's voice that he was telling the truth. As much as it should have made him happy though, Goku could not help but feel dread eating away at him. _**"I'm proud of you, my son."**_ _I, said those words once._

In his head, Goku saw Cell's body getting fatter and fatter. He saw the monster about to self-destruct, and recalled teleporting in front of it and saying those same words to his own son. Right before he died. _He can win!_ Goku shouted at himself in his head. He turned away and shot towards Mount Gine in an aura of gold light. He flew towards the hundreds of powers and presences he felt coming around the slopes and the extremely powerful ones already in front of him. _He thinks he can win, Meruem is cautious around him, more so than he was with me! I fought both of them, and I felt like, no- I know! Bardock's power is stronger! So then why? Why do I feel so… afraid?_ Goku looked back over his shoulder, but Meruem and Bardock had vanished from sight. He darted his eyes around, and he caught a glimpse of something fast moving high in the sky above him, but by the time he focused in on it, a shockwave ripped through the air much farther down.

As much as he hated it, Goku turned from the fight that would determine the course of the war, and he shifted his gaze back towards Mount Gine. He pushed the annoyance from his mind, an intensity replacing it on his face. His father gave him a task, but even if Bardock did not ask it of him, the Saiyan Mountains were under attack. Goku had no idea how many people had died so far in the battles around the mountain range, but he knew the number was high. His golden hair spiked up harder and lightning bolts broke off of his body, and he shot across the sky in a blur of golden light.

At the eastern slope of Mount Gine, several beings turned their heads as they felt Goku's power approaching. The ki was speeding towards them fast and not being blocked since Goku no longer wore a PB-6. Three of the Capital 50 floated in the air behind forty of their lower soldiers in the middle of one-on-one fights with Saiyan grunts. The blue-skinned woman in the center of the three had long orange hair and three small red dots glowing on her forehead in a triangle. Indigo snapped her head up from the fights below, and the Jeice and Burter looked up as well from her sides. "What is that?" She questioned, her eyes narrowing before shooting open wide as a man shot through the air like a rocket and appeared right in front of her. She rose up a guard, but Goku's fist towards her chest was a feint, and the man's right leg slammed the woman in the side of her head and sent her crashing back into Mount Gine.

Jeice and Burter were still in the middle of turning inwards, and both of them opened their eyes huge as they saw the person floating there. "Bloody Hell! It's Son-" Goku's right fist flew out and slammed Jeice right in the middle of his face, sending the red-skinned man spinning back through the air, thinking, _He broke my fucking nose!_

"Jeice!" Burter shouted.

 _I know these guys,_ Goku thought, while he kneed up into Burter's stomach so hard that his knee was visible on the blue alien's back. He pointed his right hand towards Mount Gine where he saw the woman he hit first who he felt was the strongest of the three getting back up. Goku fired twenty yellow beams of light at her in rapid succession, while Burter fell from the air in front of him with his eyes rolled back into his head.

Jeice righted himself in midair, blood pouring down his face from his shattered nose. _What the Hell?! We weren't prepared for this! No one said anything about Goku being-_ Goku's gaze shifted back to Jeice, and the alien with long white hair spun around to flee. Goku was already in front of him by the time he was fully turned, and then Goku chopped both of his hands on the sides of Jeice's neck, dropping him from the sky unconscious.

Jeice and Burter's men looked back in horror as their leaders were dropping unconscious from the sky, one after the other. The Saiyans fighting these grunts got their chances and powered through the nervous enemies, while Goku shifted his gaze down to the actual slope of Mount Gine farther towards the base. Two fighter jets were flying towards the mountain from the north, and they fired two lines of heavy caliber bullets across the slope where several men and women were charging up. Half of the figures took the bullets straight on, most of them without even flinching at the strong blows. The other half swerved and weaved between every single bullet, and then one man pointed his arm up in the air and fired a blue beam.

One of the two fighter jets pulled off from the other, but the blue beam followed after it. It started doing tricks in the air, and it finally shook off the energy beam, only for a Saiyan to fly up to the ship in midair and rip the pilot from the cockpit, then rip him in half. The ship started spinning out in the air and crashed down right on top of two men who had just clashed fists in between them with snow pushing away from their collision. A huge explosion blew up around them, and then the two came flying up out of the top of the fireball, kicking and punching each other with blood splashing from either of their bodies.

Standing near the bodies of two Saiyan women, a man of almost seventeen feet tall stared up at a single glowing light in the sky. He did not focus on the two Super Saiyan Gods in the middle of fights against the Capital's strongest fighters, but on the Super Saiyan man who made his eyes open huge and sweat form all over his face. The muscular man had three vertical red lines tattooed down his chest and stomach, a red skull tattooed on his left arm, short and spiky crimson red hair, and he wore a white fur coat over his black special armor made by the Capital's best scientists. Charlotte Katakuri, otherwise known as Dogtooth, shouted, "Everyone focus on that man!"

A half dozen other members of the Capital 50 on the slope behind their ground forces facing off against Saiyans followed Dogtooth's point up into the air. The man he pointed at finally chose where he was going though, and as far ahead as Dogtooth could see with his Observational Haki, he knew they were far from ready to face this man. "He's coming!" Dogtooth shouted. His fists turned black with Armament Haki, and his skin started to goop with the power of his Mochi Mochi Fruit.

Seeing how serious Dogtooth was getting before the man had even gotten to them, Gorilla Grodd sent out a message with his telepathy. **"The golden one. Focus on him."** Eight gorillas in heavy plated armor ahead of Grodd lifted their heads, and then wings shot to the sides of the backs of their armor, and jets fired out of them shooting them up into the sky. The gorillas soared at Goku, and Goku swerved between each and every one of them without throwing a single punch.

A wall of sand twenty meters thick rose up between Grodd and Goku, while the telepathic gorilla in command of the others jumped backwards. Flint Marko emerged from the top of his giant sand wall, his body fifty feet taller than the top of the wall below, but just as thick. He rose a giant hand made of sand, but Goku started flying again. He had stopped when the sand rose out of nowhere, but Goku sped up and shot straight through the Sandman's chest. He found the sand got denser towards the middle and harder to push through, but a simple yell expelled enough force from his body that Flint screamed and his giant sand body pulled apart, his real form falling away from this.

Dogtooth spun around and shouted, "Back us up!" The two he shouted at were easing backwards themselves though.

Angila and Medamatcha had left Wings behind when they received their new orders. They had come to the battlefield and were bloody from fighting some Saiyan grunts, but the sight of the person flying towards them made both demons feel fear so intense they could do nothing but back away. "I-I-It's him!" Angila screamed.

Medamatcha turned and flew away as fast as he could, the sight of the man who had killed him in his previous life too much to handle. Angila gulped as he thought about punishment for running away, but then he watched as Goku landed between two of the other Capital 50 members on the slope of the mountain, and dispatched of them with ease. He spun and flew away after Medamatcha, but the smaller toad-like alien ahead of him was too scared to think straight. Angila saw it before his comrade, and he shouted, "Medamatcha! Above you!"

The smaller demon lifted his shaky gaze, and he let out half of a scream before the stray ball of ki slammed into his body. The alien crossed his arms inside the explosion, but he was too late to prevent his entire body from being covered in burns. He kept screaming in pain, but Angila shouted, "Move!" The taller demon flew forward and tackled Medamatcha through the air as a red ball of ki flew towards them that was no larger than the last one, but felt much more powerful. The stray ki passed them and Angila kept flying, before letting out a yell himself as the explosion from that blast was a hundred times larger than the last one. Shugesh did not even notice that he almost blew up some of the Capital 50 below, he was too focused on Ginyu's strange attacks that were faster than he could keep up with. The Super Saiyan God sported a single bloody cut on the right side of his lips, and he had bloody knuckles on his left hand, but he was not too damaged from Ginyu's Nen attacks.

Shugesh darted a glance into the distance where he knew Bardock was facing the Ant King. _That Meruem has a lot more power than the last time Bardock beat him. Don't know what he did to get that strong, but it won't be enough to beat the boss._

Bardock and Meruem were clashing more than thirty times a second across the sky above the Saiyan Mountains. Bardock's moves were faster, but somehow every move he made, the Ant King had been preparing for long enough to be ready to block or evade it. Meruem's counterattacks came from different angles every time, and his pattern never stayed the same for more than a second or two. If the pattern lasted any longer, Bardock knew Meruem was just luring him into getting accustomed to that rhythm so that the ant could catch him unawares. Each time Meruem tried it though, Bardock was prepared and did not flinch or miss a beat with the change in pattern.

Meruem's three right kicks in a row while spinning his body changed right at the third kick, when his leg was about to slam Bardock in the open palm he actually got up this time instead of leaning his head back. Right as the foot was about to hit him in the hand, Meruem's tail lashed up at his palm. Bardock grabbed the tip of the tail and pushed forward right into Meruem's foot that was going to slam into his own tail and try to push forward into Bardock's face. Bardock slammed both his tail and foot back, and Meruem did a backflip, his head easing out of the way of the red beam of light Bardock tried firing at him with his other hand. As Meruem dodged the beam though, Bardock's right leg kicked forward towards his chest.

Meruem was already flipping backwards, so the force of the blow was lowered thanks to his momentum. The kick was still a kick from a Super Saiyan God though, and the Ant King went flying over a hundred meters backwards before spinning around and crossing his arms, blocking the punch from the red-haired Saiyan who appeared behind him. Bardock growled as Meruem blocked his next punch, and his growl got even deeper as despite pushing into it, Meruem was pushing so hard forward that he did not go flying away. The Ant King's tail snapped around the side of his body towards the left side of Bardock's face. Bardock had punched forward with his left hand, and he just started making a ball of red ki in his right hand. It looked like Meruem caught him, as Bardock started easing his head to the side but would not get it far enough to dodge the thicker part of Meruem's tail. The thin part passed Bardock's face, and then the tail stopped short and Meruem's eyes opened wide for an instant.

Bardock's own red-furred tail had whipped around the side of his body and wrapped around the end of Meruem's tail. It was not enough to stop the force of the Ant King's attack all at once, but he was able to push Meruem's tail even further to his left so that even the thick part missed hitting him in the face. Bardock's tail pulled back using Meruem's momentum against him, pulling the Ant King forward in that instant that his eyes opened a little wider. Bardock still had the glowing ball of red light on his right hand, and he was faster than Meruem who could not make a single mistake in his fight, and he knew it. Meruem did not let his shock get the best of him, and in the same second that Bardock's tail that had always been unimportant during their previous fight and this one redirected his attack, Meruem recovered and kneed upwards towards Bardock's stomach to keep some distance between them.

The Saiyan King lowered his left hand that he punched with originally from Meruem's still-crossed arms, and he pushed Meruem's knee to the side while the Ant King started lifting his freed arms to try and block the blast now. Bardock's red energy grew bigger as Meruem lifted his arms to stop it though, _Too powerful,_ Meruem realized. He leaned his head away, but Bardock's arm curved to follow his dodge. Meruem's arms kept raising, but he could not just put them in front of his face as he knew the blast would go right through them and into his head. Bardock grinned while looking into Meruem's purple eyes, and he yelled, "DIE!" The red ball of ki on his hand turned into a beam of light that shot away from him right at Meruem's face.

The Ant King had no other option. He reached straight into the beam with his left hand, found Bardock's open palm, and pushed it to the side just enough that the edge of the beam only grazed the side of his face. Only a graze of such a powerful attack still ripped off a chunk of the dark green crown attached to the top of his head, his left ear and long earlobe, as well as his entire left arm that he pushed the beam away with right before it incinerated in the blast. Meruem went flying away from Bardock but off the side of his beam out of the air. Bardock lost his grin after shouting 'Die' at his opponent, thinking about how he felt Meruem's hand push his own away right at the start of the attack. _Did he evade it enough?_ Bardock thought, while looking over and watching purple blood come out of the Chimera Ant falling from the air.

Meruem stopped falling after a few seconds, and from a position twenty meters below Bardock and twice that in front of him, the Ant King started floating straight up again. Meruem was panting, and his eyes darted to his left side to see the extent of the damage. A chunk of his left shoulder was gone along with the entire arm off of it, but the left side of his torso had remained mostly unscathed. The worst damage was to his head though, and Meruem was panting less because of the pain, but because of how close the beam was to going straight through his head.

"Haha, hahaha," Bardock chuckled, as he lowered down the twenty meters to get back on level with the Ant King. The two of them had stopped not far from Mount Gine, and a few dozen Saiyans and their enemies flying around in the sky nearby came to stops and looked over. The sight of the Ant King in such a state made the members of the Capital 50 and their subordinates drop their jaws. They filled with fear, while Saiyans started laughing and hollering insults in the Ant King's direction. "Focus on your own opponents," Bardock snarled in a deep voice. He was not necessarily close to any of the other Saiyans, and he did not speak very loud, but every one of them heard him and stopped laughing. They spun back to their terrified enemies who were losing morale at the sight of their injured King. Bardock stared straight forward with his red eyes and growled at Meruem, "I'm finishing this. Your last move saved you a few seconds, but you can't win now."

"I wonder about that," Meruem said, and he clenched his right hand into a fist, a massive dark bluish-purple aura erupting from his body and filling the sky. Black wisps came off of his body, and Bardock growled but clenched his own right fist and prepared to charge at the Ant King. "This is the end," Meruem growled, staring into Bardock's eyes in a bloodthirsty way. He shot forward, and Bardock flew forward as well.

The Saiyans and their enemies were going to attack each other again, but they saw their leaders shooting towards each other and everyone held their breaths as it seemed like a final attack. Meruem let out a yell and punched his right fist forward, and Bardock pulled his head to the side in a quick movement right before he punched his own right fist forward. As Bardock was punching his right fist though, his eyes darted to Meruem's left side and his eyes shot open huge. The Ant King's skin all around his destroyed shoulder was rippling, and then out of his destroyed tissue shot a green arm, fully grown, with a ball of dark purple energy at the end of it. The arm regrew so fast right over Bardock's arm that kept punching beneath it. Meruem saw Bardock's shock though, and he was planning on it which was why he acted so rashly like he was preparing a final charge. His body turned sideways, and Bardock's fist passed in front of it, while Meruem fired the purple beam of energy from his palm straight into Bardock's face. It looked more like Meruem just slammed the attack into Bardock's head, but he pulled away a nanosecond early in order to save his arm from being re-destroyed only seconds after it had regrown.

Meruem flew backwards, but he was still hit by the huge dark purple explosion that sent him flying on the edge of a giant sphere of light through the sky. The spectators watching the fight from nearby switched expressions. The King's men started cheering and spinning back to their Saiyan opponents with renewed intensity, while the Saiyans had nervous looks on the faces at the sight of such a powerful explosion. It was so massive that many of them had to fly backwards just to get away from even being close to the edge, as bolts of dark lightning were shooting out of it and hitting everything in sight. Meruem's arm had regrown, and as the Ant King stopped moving backwards, those who looked his way could see the left side of his head start reforming as well. Meruem did not need to regrow it as fast as it was not pertinent at the time, but he needed his left ear back, and he regenerated his entire body before gaining a small grin as he looked towards the explosion.

"The King did it!"

"King!"

Meruem did not say a word to the subordinates behind and above him. A weird, dark aura came out of his back and surrounded some of them though, and those men filled with fear. They spun to the Saiyans, rage-filled looks of fear spreading across their faces. They charged at the Saiyans who did not know what became of their own King, and they pushed the Saiyan warriors back.

Goku glanced into the sky in the distance where the huge explosion was settling down. The light was fading, and Goku nodded as he saw a shadow inside it becoming more visible. He turned back to the man in front of him whose white fur coat was stained in blood. Goku did not know how he felt about the man who was so much taller than him, almost three times his height, but the man was fighting Saiyans and he was on the Saiyans' side right now. "Son Goku," the man began, and he lifted up his blackened arms into a fighting stance. "I never saw this coming, that I would face you in battle today."

Dogtooth narrowed his gaze and in his head saw a scenario play out with his Observational Haki. His Kenbunshoku Haki was better than anyone else he had ever heard of, so good in fact that he not only saw opponents' moves coming, but could see entire scenarios play out in his head before fights. It was as if he was looking into the future, and he did not like the future he saw when he lifted his fists. In his head, he turned his skin into mochi with his Devil Fruit power, but Goku's fists turned black a moment before they collided with his face, and he was unconscious in a single move if he tried fighting that way. Charlotte Katakuri lifted his right arm, and Goku shot forward in that moment.

 _Dad's going all out up there. He didn't use this much power when fighting Raditz, and dad said that he had to go all out against him._ Goku punched forward, but right as his arm was about to go over Dogtooth's lifted forearm for the man's face, a blue shield appeared out of a gadget on Dogtooth's wrist. Goku slammed his fist into the blue shield anyway, and Dogtooth lifted off the ground and was thrown a hundred feet backwards. He hit the ground and dug through the snow, then kept skidding up the mountain before losing his footing and starting to roll. The entire time, he kept his shield risen and made sure that it did not touch the ground. Finally, Dogtooth flipped up and landed on his feet, only to skid another thirty feet backwards.

The Super Saiyan down below on the mountain looked up in semi-surprise that the shield held on through his punch. Dogtooth felt his entire right arm trembling after that blow, his bones shaking at the force of it. He started running back down the mountain though, a different scenario playing out in his mind now. Goku lifted off the ground and flew up towards the man above who did not seem all that fazed from his last attack. A grin tugged at Goku's face at the idea of it, _Twice the strength this time! The shield won't be able to hold._ Goku slammed his right fist forward while Dogtooth leapt towards him and pushed the shield out.

After punching the man so strong that he was sent flying, Goku knew something was up for the man to leap at him shield-first like that. He wanted to test the light shield's strength though, so despite knowing that something was up, Goku slammed his fist forward. Instant regret. All the force of Goku's fist punch was redirected straight at him, sending him flying the opposite direction as his opponent while flinching. Dogtooth's eyes opened wide though as Goku's head snapped back towards him in under a second, a more intense look in his eyes. _That's it,_ the former pirate thought. _He was holding back so as not to kill me with his first punch, so an attack with only that much force would hardly faze a man like him. Damn,_ Dogtooth had planned on following up on the redirected blow right away, but instead he flew backwards and landed back up the slope of the mountain they were on.

Goku landed in front of him, and he opened his mouth to say something about the man's attack, when he felt a pinch in his head. _**"Son Goku. You will listen to- AHH!"**_ Down the slope and to Goku's left, a gorilla in strong armor fell backwards while gripping at his own head in pain. Goku did not take his eyes off of Dogtooth while he interrupted Grodd's attack, but it did keep him from speaking for a few seconds. "That shield is pretty great," Goku said to the Capital 50 member in front of him. "You seem really strong too. It's a shame you fight for a monster."

"You fight for the Saiyans," Dogtooth replied in a serious tone, an intense look on his face as he prepared for Goku to attack at any second. "Their war with the Kryptonians devastated Aebrith. Meruem put a stop to that pointless war." Goku's eyebrows lifted up, and Dogtooth finished, "Who is it who fights for monsters?"

"I fought Meruem because he was eating a child," Goku said, not backing down from what he said before. The Super Saiyan man with black eyes and a gash on his left cheek continued, "I do not fight 'for' the Saiyans. I fight for what I think is right. And whether or not the Ant King has done good in the past, what he is doing today is evil. If you are going to help him, then I am going to stop you."

"Hmph," Dogtooth's body started turning into mochi again, and he punched his fists forward so fast that it looked like he had dozens of them.

Farther towards the base of Mount Gine than Goku and his opponent, Sora trekked up through the snow with a bloody boy on his back. Even after all the cure magic he could muster, Dash's body looked weak, his skin stretched, his hair was longer and a mess all around his face. He had broken bones, but some must have been shattered because Sora's magic did little to help him. He could hear quiet, pained moans of the unconscious boy he was carrying, and Sora could not tell if they were from his own physical pain, or from what the boy saw earlier that he was having nightmares about while unconscious.

 _This battle, it's out of my hands,_ Sora thought. He gazed up the slope of the mountain, and in a few seconds he saw over twenty explosions, a few of which started rock slides that he was going to have to avoid. Sora was panting, but he lifted off the floor and floated up to avoid the rocks and the snow sliding down with them. _I might not be able to help Goku very much up there, but I can help Dash at least._ Sora looked to his right and around the slope a little where an earlier rock slide had carried away an entire destroyed town. _Dash's brother's body should-_

As Sora looked that way, a stray ball of red light from the most intense fight high up in the sky fell where he was looking. Sora reached a hand forward, fearing what was about to happen, and then he snapped backwards with his head pushed away, his whole body bathed in red light from the enormous red dome coming out of that side of the mountain. He lowered his hand while the dome kept growing in size, and Sora clenched his teeth in anger and regret. He glanced up to his right shoulder where Dash's chin, covered in dried blood, rested. "Sorry Dash," he whispered.

Meruem looked down as one of Bardock's attacks flew towards the remnants of Azalea Town. The King frowned as a snack he wanted for later was likely incinerated with a chunk of the base of Mount Gine, and then Meruem's eyes popped open wide as a knee imbedded up into his chest. His head snapped back up and he punched a fist forward, but Bardock did a spin to dodge it. Bardock put both of his fists together halfway through the spin, and when he finished coming around, he slammed both of them together into the side of Meruem's head and sent the Ant King flying across the sky.

Bardock smirked as the Ant King went flying. He smirked, a mouth full of bloody teeth. He had two trails of blood coming out of his nostrils, and there were some bad burns over a lot of his face from Meruem's attack right when he regenerated his arm. Bardock's power did not take a dip though despite the powerful blast that he took straight to the face, and he was even angrier than he was before. He smirked and laughed in a more taunting way than earlier on in his fight, "Is that all you can do?! What use is that regenerative power if you're so weak?!"

Meruem steadied himself in the air, and he wiped an arm across his lip to get some purple blood on the left corner of it off. "Over my time spent on Nexus, I devoured the brains of many regenerative species and humans who could heal themselves, but nothing seemed to work." Meruem cracked his neck to either side, then smirked right back at Bardock, though Bardock's smirk did not leave his face after that happened. Meruem continued while looking into Bardock's bright red eyes, "Recently, there was this green creature with antennae though, a Namekian. It was the first step, and the second was science. With enough knowledge in science, and magic, anyone could gain this ability. Even you, _Saiyan_."

The way Meruem referred to him made Bardock's smirk go away and a snarl to escape his lips. "I will never be hurt by the same move a second time," Meruem stated, and Bardock knew this to be true from their previous encounters. "Your godly energy is depleting," Meruem claimed. "Are you tired, Bardock? What could have happened to make you so worn out?"

Bardock stopped his panting already, but he was breathing heavily out of his nose and his breath was hanging in the air because of the cold. He snarled more, ignoring the pain in his face and the fatigue from fighting Turles right before this, and one of Turles' powerful subordinates for a few seconds after that. The Ant King was wearing him down too, but he was still raring to go. Bardock shot forward, and Meruem flew back, making Bardock fly twice the distance to reach him. Meruem took the defensive, watching Bardock's every twitch and movement of his eyes, seeing exactly where Bardock was going to attack every single punch and kick. He dodged and blocked masterfully, to the point that Bardock could not even tell that he was faster than the Chimera Ant anymore.

Bardock changed up his attack tactic, but Meruem changed up his own tactic just as fast, and then changed it a second time before Bardock could adapt to the first one. Meruem fired fifty green beams at Bardock, then he flew through them with a fist pulled back before any of the attacks hit, then he stopped flying at Bardock and dove down below the Saiyan King while spinning around with both of his hands pushed in front of his chest with purple light growing on them. Bardock focused on the purple light, but he forgot about all the green beams and got slammed by a few of them before flying up to avoid the rest. As the rest were passing through where he just floated, a purple beam of light bigger than any of the small blasts flew straight up and engulfed all the smaller ones, then collided with Bardock's front right in his crossed arms.

 _He's getting better. He knows my moves, knows how long it takes me to change up patterns. I hate to think it, but he's a better fighter thanks to that mind of his. Time to pull out the trump card,_ Bardock flew backwards off of Meruem's beam, then spun and kicked at the Ant King who appeared behind him. Meruem lifted his right arm to block, but Bardock's kick was too strong and pushed his arm back, then slammed into the Ant King's head that almost pulled far enough back. The nick was still enough to shatter Meruem's nose though, and then as the Ant King reeled backwards, Bardock vanished from where he floated entirely. He did not just start moving faster, he completely disappeared from sight.

At the same time, Shugesh was not far from the fight between Bardock and Meruem. His own fight had just shot across the sky after one of Ginyu's giant golden hands from the statue that kept appearing behind him smacked Shugesh away. Ginyu flew over and stood in midair in front of Shugesh only thirty meters away, a smug look on his face as Shugesh was not fast enough to dodge his attacks. The alien who looked like a young Isaac Netero crossed his arms and said, "Is this all the power of a god?"

The fat Super Saiyan God snarled, then he opened his mouth to shout something derogatory at Ginyu. When he tried to say something though, nothing came out of his mouth. Shugesh could not find any breath to speak with, and he reached his hands up and grabbed at his throat. _What the Hell is this?!_ Shugesh thought, glaring forward through squinted eyes at Ginyu as he thought the man must be doing something. Ginyu was standing still with a look of surprise on his face, but then the High Commander of Meruem's forces started smirking again which Shugesh could see now only through blurry vision.

At the same time, Deus was flying forward at Fasha who was knocked off guard by his last massive burst of lightning. He whipped around his nunchaku and a bright light glowed at the end of them, and then Fasha's wincing face snapped forward and she opened up her mouth so wide it looked unnatural. Her jaw unhinged and inside her huge mouth formed a red light that grew larger and fired from her mouth as a giant beam. Deus tried swinging his weapons forward, but the woman's beam was too strong and slammed into him.

"Lord Deus!" Wyzen shouted from down on the mountain's slope where he was fighting a group of three Saiyans. He watched his Lord get thrown into the distance by the beam of light, then he himself got slammed by a foot in the side of the head and sent him rolling down the slope.

The Saiyan woman who kicked him scoffed that he took his eyes off of them for even a second. Okara looked up at the giant red beam of light and smirked at the most powerful Saiyan woman high above her. Fasha was not admiring her own powerful beam though, her eyes had darted to the right where Shugesh was struggling against seemingly nothing. Her gaze shifted more, and she spotted a figure floating in the air far behind Shugesh, his arms lifted up towards Shugesh, and a cloud of pink gas around him.

"Shurorororo!" The man with pale white skin and brown horns was laughing his head off as the Super Saiyan God choked without any oxygen around his head. Fasha shot across the sky in an instant and appeared in front of Caesar Clown, making the laughter catch in the man's throat. He eased backwards, then he let out a cackle as Fasha's leg swiped through his body with no effect. He reached down and lifted up a strange circular device that's top half was blue and bottom half was red. Caesar opened it up and yelled "Gasta-" Fasha swiped forward and pulled the weapon out of Caesar's hand before he could clamp it shut and create a massive explosion.

Caesar pinched his fingers anyway, then his eyes looked over to his own hand in confusion as his weapon was no longer in it. Fasha crushed the gastanets in her hand, then she chuckled, "A Logia? You're pathetic," her fists turned black, and Caesar's body covered in sweat. His face started to get wrinkled, as the woman in front of him appeared fifty times larger than she really was. The look of murderous intent in her eyes, the smirk with some blood on her lips, her aura alone made Caesar feel like curling into a ball and crying. Instead though, he did the only rational thing that came to mind, and he exploded in every different direction as a giant cloud of pink smoke.

Fasha would have attacked that huge cloud of dispersed enemy, but she heard a roar to her right that sounded too familiar. It was not a good sign, and Shugesh, who was recently released from the mysterious choking, spun his head around too. Ginyu would have attacked his distracted enemy, but he smirked as well and turned towards the sound of the scream. Goku froze over the wounded, bloody, and broken Charlotte Katakuri. He was panting just a little, with eight other powerful enemies either moaning or unconscious on the ground around him, and four others still standing and ready to keep fighting. The sound of that pained roar made Goku freeze though.

 _"_ _Never let out a scream of pain during a fight."_ Goku turned his head towards the sound of the agonized roar. _"Don't let your opponent hear it! You don't want them knowing you've made a mistake. In a fight, you never make a mistake. Every hit you receive you must lean back into, yell as you counter like you accepted the hit just to get them close."_ _Father,_ Goku thought, his face full of panic because he recognized the voice behind that loud scream of pain. Goku knew Bardock would not have let out a yell like that easily, not without being pushed to a point that meant the fight was no longer in his favor. Goku looked up, and his eyes shot open wide, his heart rate speeding up.

 **Five Seconds Ago**

Bardock vanished from in front of Meruem after the Ant King reeled back from the previous blow. Meruem's lips curled up as the Saiyan King vanished without moving too fast. Bardock simply, disappeared. _He fell for it._

Meruem's right hand formed a ball of red ki in it, and his wrist twisted around so his palm was pointed behind him. He did this in an instant, and when Bardock appeared behind him with his left fist punching forward, the Super Saiyan God's face filled with shock at the sight of a huge ball of red ki forming in that same moment. It was pointed at his gut, and Bardock redirected his punch down towards the beam to push it away. In the corner of Bardock's eye as he punched down for Meruem's ball of energy, he saw the side of the Ant King's face, a smirk rising on it and his eyes darted backwards like he knew Bardock would be there for some time. _HOW?!_ Bardock thought, right before the ball of energy he was about to punch shot off of Meruem's hand.

The ball of ki did not fly at Bardock's stomach like the Saiyan thought though, instead it flew straight up as a beam into his fist coming down at it. Bardock let out a roar as the energy surrounding him was too strong. Even his red aura could do nothing to stop it, and Bardock flew backwards to escape the red beam, pulling his left arm with him. As he pulled back, screaming and grabbing right above his left elbow, blood was splashing out of his burnt forearm as most of his arm from his elbow down had been shredded away in the light.

Bardock flew backwards fifty feet to widen the distance between him and Meruem. He kept grabbing at his own arm right above where the blood was spurting out, but he stopped screaming and focused his squinted eyes towards the Ant King. "'How?'" Meruem asked, saying it as if repeating a question that Bardock was asking him solely with his gaze. "I had Pouf attach one of his microscopic clones to Turles before your fight. I understood your spacial disruption from a single description." Bardock's teeth clenched in anger, and he crushed in with his right hand to seal his bloody right arm. It was painful to do, but he knew he could not risk losing much more blood. Meruem continued while Bardock sealed his left arm, the same arm that Bardock had blown off of Meruem's body earlier, something that was not lost on either of the fighters. "It is an impressive technique," Meruem admired, "and I would have been caught off guard if you could suddenly teleport. Even knowing your ability, it would still be troublesome, _if_ you could continue using it."

Bardock's eyes narrowed more and his right fist clenched in front of his body. _How does he know?_

"Because," Meruem started, making it seem like he was reading Bardock's mind simply because of how easy it was to read the man's expression just then. "If you could have used it more, then you would have used it right away a second time against Hit. You were cautiously preparing your second attack, and in doing so you allowed the Rogue to escape. I knew you would only let this happen if there was a limit to the number of times you could teleport."

Bardock's expression darkened. His eyes did not fill with rage, or regret, but he looked much more serious all of a sudden. Meruem felt confident, he felt like he had just dealt a devastating blow, but he did not like the look that appeared on Bardock's face. Behind the Super Saiyan God, Meruem could see Isaac Netero floating among his other soldiers and enemies. The sensation he felt from Bardock was similar to when he fought that man on his own world, which made him hesitant considering how that fight ended for him. This feeling was different from the time he faced Netero in battle though, as Bardock did not have the same feigned confidence or cocky attitude and remarks that the human did. Bardock just glared into Meruem's eyes in a way that told Meruem the fight was far from over.

Bardock lifted up his right fist and it opened into a palm. His bright red eyes darkened, and above his palm formed a ball of white light that Meruem stared closely at. _What is he-_ Meruem's eyes shot open huge as the black pupils in the centers of Bardock's eyes disappeared.

Shugesh started chuckling in a deep, dark way that made Ginyu turn back to the Super Saiyan God in front of him. "So Bardock, it's time to get serious?" Shugesh lifted his own right hand and opened it into a palm, and Fasha did the same not that far from him.

Fasha did not hold the ball of light on her hand though. The strongest Saiyan woman pulled her hand back, then she threw the ball of white light up into the red and purple sky above. The light flashed and stayed in midair as a strange glowing ball of white.

Bardock was the first to look at the energy though, the strange energy in front of him created with the planet's atmosphere as well as Blutz Waves. In the palm of his hand, he created an artificial moon that he had stared straight at. Bardock's purely dark red eyes stared over at Meruem, and he smirked in a way that looked unnatural. The corners of his lips spread all the way to his ears, and several of his teeth started to sharpen much longer than the rest, turning into giant canines. His mouth started stretching outwards, and Bardock yelled, "DO YOU THINK YOU'VE WON?!" His elongated jaw opened up wide as he shouted it, and fur started appearing all over his body as he started getting larger.

Meruem lifted his right and left hands, and two balls of bright purple light formed in them. The spheres of energy grew twice their size, then quadrupled from that larger size to a point they were pressing against each other. Bardock's body was doubled its original size now, and Meruem decided not to wait any longer after creating a ball of energy as large as his own body.

Everyone could feel Meruem's attack. Most of the Saiyans had not started staring at the artificial moon Fasha threw into the sky yet, but all of them, even the ones who had, started flying away as fast as they could.

Goku saw the strange balls of energy and remembered Vegeta using one back during their fight on Earth. He darted his eyes away from it though, thinking about the tail sticking out of his waist, and remembering how he was the one who crushed his Grandpa Gohan long ago. _Most Saiyans though, Saiyans like Vegeta, and my dad, they can control it!_ Goku looked up again towards his father, and then his eyes popped open wide and he flared his golden aura while crossing his arms and putting up a powerful guard.

The sphere of bright purple energy slammed into Bardock, and the entire planet below shook from the blast. The man in mid-transformation inside the sphere of purple let out a roar that sounded half-human, and half-beast. The momentum that was growing for the Saiyans with the introduction of this new attack, it stopped in an instant as a ball of bright purple light changed the color of the sky around them, tinting everything purplish-pink for a thousand miles in every direction. The explosion was a hundred meters in radius, and then all of a sudden it shrank down to a ball only ten meters in diameter total. For a second it looked like the explosion had vanished, and then it finally erupted in every direction in a blast so strong that hundreds of Saiyans and other warriors lost their control while flying and were thrown into the distance. They slammed into mountains or crashed into the ground and tumbled away. Men and women unconscious or dead on the ground were picked up by the force of the blast and thrown aside, and some who were not thrown far enough were caught in the edge of the explosion that tore apart their bodies at a molecular level.

Goku pushed forward into the force of the explosion trying to throw him away. He fought against winds so powerful it was like someone pushing him in the face. He struggled against the heat of the explosion even from outside of its blast radius, and then he inched his eyelids apart to try and look forward into the attack. The blast was massive, the top of it pushing up towards the sky in a huge pillar of purple light. Goku looked straight at it, but in the corners of his eyes he could see so many powerful warriors around him. There were another dozen Saiyans nearby who managed not to get tossed aside by the blast force, and he spotted his father's friends high above, looking towards their King and leader with shocked expressions as he was caught off-guard in mid-transformation.

Meruem had a green bubble forcefield around his body to protect from his own explosion, but he was still pushed back all the way to the edge of it over a mile away from the epicenter. He was staring with wide intense eyes into the edge of his blast, unable to feel anything inside of it because of how powerful the explosion itself was. _Where is he?_ Meruem thought, his eyes darting back and forth over the purple explosion. _Dead? Alive? Badly wounded, or still ready to keep going?_

The giant explosion started to settle down. The light got less and less bright, and hundreds of people stared into the center of the explosion to see what had become of the Saiyan King. There was a lot of smoke around the light, and a pillar of it went high into the sky in the same path as much of the explosion traveled, all the way into the dark purple and red swirling colors above that were getting darker now than ever. The sky had no clouds in it, yet the strange colors filling it started swirling in a circle as if a hurricane was forming above them.

Shugesh and Fasha smirked. Meruem narrowed his gaze further, and his arms started moving in a way that made them look to be lagging behind themselves. His body surrounded in a clear aura, his muscles tensed as he clenched his fists and turned into a fighting stance. Goku stared in absolute shock into the center of the explosion where a monster floated so massive that it looked twice or even three times the size of any Oozaru that Goku had seen before.

 **"RRAAAAAAAAA!"** Bardock's mouth snapped open wide and his roar pushed all the smoke near him away so fast that the force alone pushed Meruem, his fellow Super Saiyan Gods, and everyone else still in the vicinity away. Some of the Saiyans and Capital 50 who managed not to get tossed away by Meruem's explosion could not hold on after that roar, being torn from their holds and thrown back towards the others who had been on their way back to the battle only to be sent flying again. A hole opened in the sky above him showing bright blue in the center, the real sky hidden behind all of the monstrous energies swirling around up there. That blue started to shift colors though, turning a bright, very bright red in all the dark purple around it.

The huge monster had red fur surrounding its entire body. The same dark red irises that Bardock had at the start of the transformation now filled the entire eyes of the beast, each one twice as tall as a man. The Oozaru stood three times the size of any other Goku had seen before, and he floated backwards in awe of the creature before him that closed its roaring mouth and turned its body to face Meruem. It still wore Bardock's green-plated Saiyan armor that stretched to his new size. Its face was black while the rest of its body had bright red fur, and clouds of steam came out of the Oozaru's muzzle as it breathed out into the cold air of the Saiyan Mountains. "Meruem," Bardock growled. "This is the first time I have ever taken this form."

Bardock's massive body matched his voice, and his words echoed around the nearby mountains where his warriors and their enemies had been scattered. Everyone could see Bardock's body over a hundred meters tall, possibly closer to a hundred and fifty. He continued in a booming voice for all to hear, "The Great Ape transformation of the Saiyan race, mixed with the power of a Super Saiyan God. I am the Oozaru God!" His shout caused ripples in the sky around him, the atmosphere actually trembling from his shout. Cracks formed in the ground around his huge feet, cracks formed in mountains all over the range.

Cracks formed hundreds of miles from the Saiyan Mountains. A hundred and fifty miles away to the east of Bardock's location, six bears came running out of a forest. "Keep running Koha!" Kenai shouted. The grizzly reached to his right and grabbed the smaller bear by the scruff of his neck, tossing him forward to give his adopted younger brother more of a lead.

"Ah!" Lusa shouted, curving to her right as two of the giant trees at the edge of the forest they just ran out of fell to her left side. They slammed into the ground, and then the crack that ran under them that caused them to fall shot out of the forest and towards them as well. Lusa outran the widening crack, then the black bear leapt up towards a ledge as the ground beneath her started lowering.

"Lusa here," Kallik said, the polar bear reaching a paw down and grabbing her friend's arm with it. She tugged Lusa up on the higher section of earth, but when she turned on all four paws, she saw the four grizzly bears ahead of her had all stopped running. The ground they were on may have been higher than the ground to their left, but there were walls to their east and south.

Toklo, the largest grizzly bear in the group, turned his head and saw the forest behind them crashing down. Even the trees that were not toppling over were still falling as the ground beneath them collapsed into the planet. He spun back to the east and saw the wall in front of them getting even higher up to a point they no longer had any chance of climbing. It was not that the earth in front of them was rising, but the ground beneath them was sinking down. A crack shot through even their lifted platform, and Lusa and Kallik had to run forward and leap over it to get to the others. Toklo and Kenai reached out and grabbed them both near the ledge, pulling them the rest of the way to safety.

The half they all stood on was unstable, and Lusa spun to Ujurak, a grizzly bear only a little larger than Koha. "You have to transform into a bird!"

"I won't leave you all here!" Ujurak shouted back.

"Then don't," Toklo snapped at his best friend. He looked into the shapeshifter's eyes and said, "Remember that dragon we ran from a few weeks ago?" Ujurak nodded quickly, while the walls around them started crumbing, and the ground beneath them cracked some more. "Picture it!" Toklo shouted. "And get us out of here!"

"Kenai, I'm scared!" Koha shouted.

"Just hold on," Kenai shouted back, as he scampered up the tilting ground to get closer to the others. They were all huddling together on a single chunk of earth now as everything around them collapsed. Ujurak's fur started to ripple right as a giant crack shot through their footholds, and all the bears let out screams as they fell into the crumbling earth below.

An entire square mile of planet crumbled around them, with new mountains pushing out of the ground and ravines just as deep as the mountains were tall forming at their sides. Out of one of those newly formed ravines, a black dragon flew up into the air with five bears riding on its back, digging their claws in for dear life to try and hold on. The dragon let out a roar, and it flapped its massive wings while flying away to the east. Even over a hundred miles away from the battle to determine the fate of Aebrith, and maybe all of Nexus, the ground ruptured and the entire geography shifted around.

Three quarters of the way up the slope of Mount Vegeta, the demigods of Camp Half-Blood watched from the main path cutting through their camp as the last of their cabins collapsed. They were so high up in the atmosphere that the mountain they were on had never come close to cracking before. The ground there was so hard that it seemed unlikely anything would ever cause damage to it, but that was not to say anything on top of the mountains was as protected. The snow covering the slopes was coming down in avalanches, and it was taking most of the demigods to prevent their camp from crumbling and falling down the mountain as well.

Percy Jackson stopped using his powers for a second as he needed to catch a breath, and a dozen others ran forward to take his place. His powers as a son of Poseidon made him one of the strongest demigods there, able to redirect the snow much better than his comrades could. He needed to stop and take a breath though, and he turned his head to the east where the sky was filling with such a bright color red that the air around them was now dyed the color. Everything was tinted red, so much so that it felt like his vision was the problem and he wound up rubbing his eyes a few times to see if he could get his vision back to normal.

Annabeth glanced backwards from where she stood ordering around the others. As a daughter of Athena, she was a great strategist and yelling at the sons and daughters of certain Gods and Goddesses what their jobs should be to protect them all. She looked back though as the ground shook so hard beneath her that she actually saw a small crack form on the dirt path she stood on. _Nexus won't hold up at this pace._

Bardock's giant eyes narrowed in at Meruem. "What's wrong, _King_?" Bardock asked in a thundering voice. "Is that fear I see on your face?"

"RAAAA!" Shugesh roared, his body covering in fur and getting larger every second. Ginyu snapped his hands up and smacked Shugesh out of the air with a giant golden hand, but the Super Saiyan God did not even hit the floor before stopping himself and snapping his gaze up to the man who hit him. Shugesh looked more beast than man, and he grew a hundred times his size while screaming up at Ginyu who backed away through the air with a fearful look in his eyes.

Fasha yelled at the top of her lungs, "FOLLOW YOUR KING!" The woman looked at the glowing fake moon above, and her body started changing at a rapid pace.

 _ **"I know you have seen the transformation before, but not like this. A Super Saiyan God as an Oozaru, it will be too much for even you to handle."**_ Turles' warning echoed in Meruem's head, and he knew now that the Saiyan's words were not merely out of his pride. _If he was not this strong though,_ Meruem thought, a purple aura re-surrounding him with a much darker shade to it. His power grew more and more, to a point beyond his strongest earlier that made Bardock's Oozaru eyes widen in surprise that the Ant King had anything hidden in reserves. Meruem powered up to the full extent of his abilities. _Photon,_ he thought, and a large orb of clear Nen flew forward and into Bardock's chest.

Bardock glanced down as the energy entered his body, but he felt no change at all from it. Meruem's eyes snapped open though and he grinned, a bloodthirsty and ravenous expression spread across his face. The long range En technique was less of an attack and more a support move to help Meruem. It told him the size and quantity and shape of objects it collided with, but other information as well such as emotions. "Which of us, is the fearful one?" Meruem asked in a knowing voice, only for Bardock to roar at him and shoot forward in an instant.

One would think that such a massive beast would be slower than a Saiyan in their humanoid form. One would be wrong in that assumption. Bardock's massive furry fist flew at Meruem, and though the Ant King tried dodging to his left, the fist was just too giant to escape fully. The last of Bardock's fingers collided with Meruem and the force was the same as if Meruem had been hit straight on in the center by the punch. Meruem shot backwards so fast that he hit a distant mountain two miles away, and he tore a hole straight through that mountain and out the other side. Bardock lifted off the ground and flew after the Ant King, and then a green figure dropped out of the sky with both legs extended and slammed straight into Bardock's back.

Meruem was above him, Bardock's giant body arcing up on either side of Meruem's legs. The Ant King tried to break the beast's spine, but there was too much flesh and fur and muscle and fat between the outside of Bardock's back and his bones. Meruem pointed a hand down to blast into him, but Bardock shot away from beneath him, then back-handed his right arm through the air. Meruem lifted over the arm fast, and he knew that if Bardock still had his left arm, another fist would have been flying right over his fist punch to slam into him. Instead, a giant red tail was whipping around and snapped down at him, nailing him out of the sky and into the ground a mile below. Meruem hit the ground on his feet and bounced back up in the sky, rolling to dodge the kick Bardock sent at it.

Even without his regenerative powers, Meruem had impressive durability to the point that even powerful attacks like Oozaru God Bardock's could not faze him for more than a few seconds. He shot back up in the air with a small tear in his left knee and right shoulder, and by the time he punched towards Bardock's face, his small wounds were already sealing up. Bardock opened his mouth, and for a moment Meruem considered flying straight inside and blasting his way out from where Bardock could not attack him. He was wrong to think this though and knew it the second he saw the white light glowing in the back of Bardock's throat.

Meruem shot straight up, and an enormous beam larger than any attack so far during the war shot out of Bardock's mouth and up into the sky right below Meruem's legs. The end of the Ant King's tail curled up at the last second to prevent being shredded away, and then the beam that passed him flew all the way into the atmosphere and caused ripples of purple to vibrate around the planet. The end of Bardock's beam pressed so hard against the barrier in fact, that instead of ripples, for a few seconds the entire atmospheric boundary above the Saiyan Mountains just glowed purple. It stayed a bright purple color that was thicker right at the point that the beam pressed against it, getting thicker every second until Bardock's beam stopped pushing as hard and the ripples could start again.

As Bardock and Meruem started flying around in a fight that shook the whole world, Sora sprinted up the slope of Mount Gine with a serious look on his face. He pushed the fear to the back of his mind, and he ran through a war zone with a small unconscious boy tied to his back. Sora had taken off his shirt and ripped it into pieces. He used those shreds of cloth to tie Dash around his waist and shoulders so the boy would not fall, and so his hands could be free to wield Keyblades as he ran through a battlefield of warriors who all wanted him dead.

"Die!" A Saiyan shouted, pointing his right hand forward and firing a beam of blue light at Sora. There were two members of Meruem's army to Sora's left, and the alien who fired the beam was on Sora's right, but Sora knew the blast was not headed at those aliens. He could see the Saiyan looking straight at him, and he could also see the look of recognition on the hateful Saiyan's face. The man knew who Sora was, recognized him from the top of the Saiyan Mountains where Sora had been staying, but he was using the battle as an excuse to say that he was killing all non-Saiyan warriors in the battle. Sora understood the excuse, and he expected that he was not safe from either side as he sprinted up the slope.

First, Sora leapt up in the air in a front flip, allowing the beam to pass beneath him and hit the two charging aliens on his other side. One of the aliens grabbed his comrade and threw him forward to intercept the blast, and only one alien exploded in a bright white light. Meanwhile, Sora twisted his flipping body and threw the Keyblade in his left hand at the surprised Saiyan who did not think the human boy would be able to dodge his attack from that close. Sora did not have his shirt on, but if he did it would have been yellow considering he went into Master Form before starting his charge up the mountain. While one Keybade hit the Saiyan in the face and knocked him backwards, the alien with a furry brown tail stunned that a blunt weapon had so much power behind it, Sora twisted his wrist and held his other Keyblade sideways at his side to block the claw from the less humanoid-looking alien.

Although Sora blocked the claw, the force from the attack while he was in midair with no hold on anything sent him flying. He shot over the stunned Saiyan who lifted his gaze to watch Sora, and then the Saiyan gasped in even more shock, mixed with pain this time though. There was a blue fist going straight through his chest and out his back, the claws on the end of it soaked in blood. As the member of Meruem's army swung his arm to the side and discarded the dying Saiyan's body from it, his face took on a look of shock as a boy was flying straight towards him with two Keyblades crossed in front of his body. Sora stopped on the alien's other side, his Keyblades extended to either side of him after uncrossing them in a slash. Sora's bloody yellow pants turned back to normal, but he kept dual-wielding Keyblades while turning and sprinting up the slope, an alien collapsing to the ground behind him with its eyes rolled back into its head.

Sora was sprinting up a stone slope, as all the snow had long since slid away or melted. The stones below him were darkened from being wet and because the suns were all hidden behind the strange sky, but when they got darker Sora knew a shadow had cast over him. He dove to his right and rolled, and he bounced up while apologizing in his head to the boy on his back who he just had to roll over. It was the better option to the giant brown foot stomping where he was just running though. Sora kept sprinting up the mountain, while giant furry gorillas were dropping down all around him. A massive golden one dropped down straight in front of Sora and let out a roar, "WHO DARES?!"

The challenge was immediately accepted by five flying figures who dropped out of the sky and tried tackling the golden Oozaru. They made it skid backwards, and Sora had to sprint forward and leap up right in between the giant's legs. The Oozaru's feet never left the ground, and it clapped in front of its body, catching one of the slower fighters who was not able to dodge him in time. He flattened the fighter like a pancake, then let out a roar of pain as a swordsman slashed his right Achilles' heel, taking him down to one knee. The Oozaru created a red ball of energy in his right hand, and Sora glanced behind him only to pick up his speed and start flying as fast as he could up the mountain's slope.

The swordsman who cut the Oozaru's leg jumped backwards as the Super Oozaru punched his energy attack down. Even though the swordsman dodged though, as soon as the giant red sphere touched the ground, a dome of red light a quarter mile in radius just as high blew up the ground. Sora let out a scream of panic as the force of the blast hit him, and he sped up even faster while swerving back and forth to dodge Oozarus that lifted off the ground and were flying through the sky around him. "GOKU!" Sora shouted.

Son Goku turned his head at the sound of a shout not far from him. He looked back and saw Sora flying up the mountain with explosions going off all around him. The teenage boy with spiky brown hair did a barrel-roll in midair and dodged two swordsmen flying towards each other and slashing at him. One sword passed over the top of his body, the other passing beneath him, both only missing by inches. The sword that passed beneath him almost cut Dash, and Sora spun in anger and threw one of his Keyblades at the man. The figure turned his sword, and Sora's weapon slid down the side of it before the man twisted his hilt and parried the weapon off into the air. Sora rose his hand though and the Keyblade flew back to his right hand, and he turned it sideways to block the swordsman who tried to counter when Sora had released his weapon. He intended to make Sora block with the other Keyblade, opening him up from behind. Sora was able to block with the same Keyblade he threw though, while swinging the opposite direction and smashing straight through the other person's sword and slamming the man in his chest. Sora then pulled back his first Keyblade, smashed it down, smashed it again, and every time it felt like he was closer to breaking through the first opponent's blade and hitting him. Sora did not notice, but the first man whose sword he broke did not fall after the single hit to his chest by the Keyblade, but instead had pulled out a dagger and was bringing it in towards the side of Sora's throat.

The teenager caught a glimpse of it at the last second, and fear filled him as the blade glinted with the red light of some nearby explosion. A hand wrapped around the dagger when it was an inch from Sora's neck, and then Goku punched his other fist into the surprised swordsman's face and knocked him out of the air. Goku pointed the hand he had wrapped around the dagger at the other man who tried composing himself when Sora was distracted by his comrade, and a kiai hit the man so strong that he hit the floor in under a second. "Sora, are you okay?" Goku asked the panting teenager who lifted a free hand and rubbed the side of his neck where he felt the wind of the approaching dagger when Goku suddenly stopped it. _That would have killed me,_ Sora thought, fear filling his body. _Now that I think about it, I've been in so many life-threatening situations since coming to Nexus. The Gods can't save me! Maybe they want to, but, but that's why they had Magnus and the other demigods save me from that blizzard, because they can't just do it themselves! I'm not invincible! I can die at any moment!_

"Sora?" Goku asked the boy who did not respond to him. He had stuff he wanted to get to right now, but he could not leave Sora and Dash if he did not feel like Sora would be able to protect them. "Stay near me," Goku began. He looked to his left where he spotted some members of the Capital 50 gathering for some reason. "I'll-"

"Goku," Sora said, coming to his senses as the man started talking to him. "I'm getting out of here." Goku spun back to Sora in surprise, thinking back on how Sora wanted to protect the Saiyan Mountains with him earlier. Sora had had enough though. "Everyone here is trying to kill me. I don't know why I'm in this battle. I-I want to think that the Saiyans are in the right, but I can't see them as good guys here. Everyone's just, they're all slaughtering each other! If I don't get out of here, me and Dash are gonna die too. And if we do, I can't even come up with a good reason of what it would be for!" Sora yelled. "We're not strong enough to do anything, and Goku, neither are you."

Goku stared at Sora in surprise, and his eyes narrowed a little at what the boy just said. "I'm sorry," Sora said, and his voice showed he really meant it. Goku was his friend, his strongest friend, but that's why he felt like he needed to tell him this. "You know it's true though. I have never seen a fight like this. It's, out of your league. And if Meruem wins," Sora continued, and Goku frowned even more at the idea of it. That look that appeared on Goku's face when Sora said it though, that scared Sora more than anything happening around him. "If he wins you can't go try to avenge your father!" Sora shouted. Goku looked into Sora's eyes and saw so much fear, all directed _for_ him. "At the power he's at now, he'll destroy you in an instant! You're going to let your emotions get the best of you though, I know you will Goku! You'll charge him, but this power we feel from Meruem, it's so much more than he faced you with earlier, and he was crushing you back then!"

"I know that!" Goku finally snapped. He felt so angry all of a sudden as Sora shouted this at him. He had been pushing it from his mind, because all these other fights he was getting in, he was the stronger fighter. He was ignoring his pain, and fighting with all his strength for his own people, but Sora's shout reminded him that he was not important in this war at all. There were a half dozen stronger beings within a two mile radius of him, possibly more. "But, I can't leave, Sora," Goku told his friend. "This is my fight. I'm a Saiyan, these are my people," he made the declaration without hesitation and Sora could tell that Goku really meant it. As much as he saw Goku frowning at the Saiyans and the ways they acted at the peaks of the mountains over the past few weeks, Goku still thought of them all as his people.

"Go on and get out of here," Goku said, while turning back to the enemies he had faced originally. "Save Dash. Find our friends. And save Kairi." Goku powered up and a much larger golden aura surrounded him.

 _How could I leave you here, when you're talking like that?_ Sora thought. _"Save Kairi?" You promised to help me with that. If you're telling me it like you won't be there, then you don't expect to be there to help me. I don't know if you expect to die here, but I know only one way to make sure that you don't._ "If you're staying, I'm staying to help you," Sora said, swallowing his fear and lifted up both hands to return Keyblades to them. Goku's eyes widened in surprise, and he became confused as Sora's declaration after reaching him was that he and Dash were getting out of there. _I have to put my life on the line. Goku, you can't die. Not while me and Dash are here. I know you wouldn't leave us here. I know you'll act smarter, take less chances, if you have something you need to protect._ Sora's teeth clenched to keep from chattering, as he was about to throw himself into the middle of a tornado full of razorblades for his friend. _I'll stay here for you to protect me, so that I can protect you. Because Goku, I don't trust your father, or the other Super Saiyan Gods. Meruem, Luthor, they're monsters. This world can't go on without you. If we don't have you to save it, everyone's going to die. That's what I feel… but even if the world didn't rest on your shoulders. Even if you dying here didn't mean a damn thing for the rest of the world, I still couldn't do it. I can't leave you here to die Goku, because you're one of my best friends._

"CURAGA!" Sora shouted, waving both of his Keyblades in the air.

A dome of green light surrounded Goku. His black eyes vanished, and the open gashes and cuts all over his body scabbed up. There was too much damage for it all to vanish in an instant, but Sora's magic did stop the bleeding at least. Goku lifted a hand and brushed it across his left cheek to feel the dried blood and the pain from touching the recently-sealed wound beneath. "Sora, I don't-" Goku began..

"Let's do it!" Sora shouted, and he flew forward towards the enemies he saw Goku looking at. Goku's eyes filled with surprise, but he shot after Sora and powered up as much as he could which was actually a little stronger now that Sora healed him.

Grodd got up from where he lay dizzy on the ground. The gorilla twice the size of normal gorillas looked up at the giant Oozarus all over the place, then he put both hands to the sides of his head and send out telepathic communication only to Meruem's own soldiers. **"The Saiyans have used their trump card. Now, activate the new editions to your suits."** Grodd reached his right hand over to his left wrist and tapped a button on a wristguard he had attached there. _Hank Pym's inventions will even the tide of this war._

Rob Lucci jumped backwards from two Saiyan women who had yet to take the time to look up at the artificial moon. After Meruem's preemptive attack on Bardock during his transformation, the smartest of Meruem's soldiers were all following his lead and keeping up constant attacks to prevent more Oozarus from emerging. At the sound of Grodd's telepathic message though, Lucci paused his attack and backed away. He was in his muscular Leopard form, covered in yellow fur speckled with black dots.

His opponents wondered what he was doing as he floated away from them and then stopped moving completely. Lucci had two bloody gashes going vertically over his left eye and down his face, and his left arm was limp at his side. _Finally,_ he thought. Lucci's right fist clenched, and then he struggled to do so but clenched his left fist as well despite the pain. Lucci bared his teeth, and the armor he had on started bulging out as if something was trying to burst out of it. The Saiyan women were not going to wait any longer, and they looked up into the sky at the artificial moon. Lucci did not attack them though, the transformation he was undergoing was too intense for that.

"GAAAA!" He yelled in pain, a pained scream that turned into an animalistic roar as Lucci's Devil Fruit reached its most powerful form. Lucci's body grew and grew, while the women in front of him covered in brown fur and started growing as well. Lucci's claws extended, the teeth in his mouth sharpened more, and his eyes looked more animalistic than ever. His shoulders got even more broad as he doubled, tripled in height. Lucci grew to a form over eighty feet tall, making him just about as tall as the shorter of the two Saiyan women once they transformed into Oozarus.

Angila and Medamatcha had fled when faced with Son Goku, but they heard Grodd's message and nodded at each other from where they stood on the slope of Mount Gine. "Don't know why we waited so long for this," Medamatcha said, an annoyed look on his burnt face as he pressed a button on his armor. A ring popped out of the wrist on his left sleeve, and that ring flashed blue on the inside on Medamatcha's wrist.

"If we had all started turning into giants, the Saiyans would have transformed into Great Apes earlier," Angila countered, while he himself started getting much taller like his shorter demonic comrade next to him. "And unlike us, they get a power boost with their enlargement disproportional to the increase in size."

Sora and Goku stopped charging at the group of five enemies in front of them, as all five of the humans, aliens, and demons they were charging started to grow. Sora did a slow three-sixty where he floated, and the boy gulped in fear as every single fighter near him turned into a giant. There were only about sixty or seventy of them within his eyesight, but many more were appearing on the slopes of neighboring mountains as well as the slopes of Mount Gine that Sora could not see from the east side. The forces had been scattered to make the battlefield much larger during Bardock's transformation, but the battlefield felt smaller as every fighter took up a hundred times more space.

Giant soldiers wearing similar armor to the Saiyans charged forward as a massive Isaac Netero pointed his arm and yelled, "Attack!" High Commander Ginyu then leapt up in the air towards Shugesh who was diving towards him, and he lifted his hands in front of his body while curling a leg in. He curled his thumb and index fingers on both hands into circles while lifting up the other three fingers, then he slammed one hand forward while yelled, "Ninety-Ninth Hand!" The giant golden statue appeared behind him again, but this time, instead of one of the hands behind him slapping forward at his opponent, every single one of the giant Nen statue's hands started pushing forward. The statue had grown in proportion to Ginyu's size, so considering it was already a hundred times taller than him, it now stretched so high up that its head was lost in the dark colors of the sky above.

Shugesh slammed his fists forward rapidly into the palms of the statue as they flew at him. Ginyu's eyes opened wide, and he let out a roar while pushing forward harder. As a regular Super Saiyan God, Ginyu's attacks could still knock Shugesh backwards. As he was now though, Shugesh's punches were knocking the golden statue's arms back, something that had never happened to Ginyu before. Since taking over this body, not a single person had ever been able to stop the hands of his Nen statue's attacks. They had been able to dodge on rare occasions, but to punch one of his attacks away was unheard of. Shugesh charged forward right through all the smacking hands of Ginyu's attack, and he punched forward a giant furry hand of his own. Ginyu-Netero lifted up his hands again in front of his chest, a motion too fast for Shugesh's fist to hit him first, and then Ginyu punched his right fist out from that position in front of his chest. He collided his fist with Shugesh's, and they each roared as they pushed into the attacks. Shugesh stopped roaring after a second though, a smirk spreading across his face. "Just kidding," he growled in a deep voice, and then he fully extended his arm and bent Ginyu's back the wrong way with a loud snap. Ginyu screamed in pain, and then Shugesh's fist slammed into his gut and sent the High Commander of Meruem's forces flying.

Giant gorillas with black fur charged at giant alien gorillas with brown fur. They leapt up at each other and the brown ones mainly tackled the black ones, though one of the black ones larger than all the others lifted his hands and stopped three charging Oozarus in their paths. Grodd slammed his hands forward and telepathically threw the three Oozarus high into the sky where they disappeared in the swirling bluish-purple sky. A red flash illuminated that dark sky, and then a purple swirl dropped out of it and cut a new ravine through the top of a smaller mountain's peak three miles from Mount Gine.

Flint Marko staggered up to his feet, blood covering the left side of his face. The super-villain once known as Sandman looked around, and he nodded as he saw the giants in every direction of him. When Son Goku flew towards him, he had started turning into a giant himself to try and fight the Legendary Super Saiyan, but he never reached even closer to the maximum size he could hit. Flint's body turned to sand and he grew larger. The ground beneath his feet dried up and lifted up into his legs, rising up to his torso and his huge beige-colored head. He rose out of the ground right behind two Oozarus facing the other direction, and one of them noticed something rising out the corner of its eyes. It started to turn, then it lifted its head with widening eyes as the Sandman grew twice as tall as he was before punching forward a huge fist made of hardened sand.

Fasha gazed around from where she floated a hundred and fifty meters up in the sky. She was about a hundred meters tall herself, and she was looking down as the shorter Oozarus started fighting their growing enemies. _Damn Turles, he prepared them for this. Then again, it is that fucking Ant King we're facing. He would have had countermeasures like this with or without the Rogue's help._ Fasha turned her head and watched as a man not even up to her shins lifted up towards her.

Deus stared straight up into Fasha's eyes, and he did not look afraid of the Oozaru God in front of him. "Wyzen," he commanded in a voice that echoed down to the ground below.

Fasha wondered what her opponent was doing and why he was not turning huge like everyone else on the mountain range was doing. She was about to attack anyway, when she spotted something down below Deus that made her stare in surprise and then utter shock as her head snapped up.

Wyzen chuckled as Deus gave him the command. The fat man had large arm muscles, though his right arm was hidden underneath a giant golden armored guard that stretched from his shoulder to his hand. This guard extended along with the rest of his body as he grew. Fifteen Oozarus near him turned their heads, and almost as many of Meruem's soldiers looked that way as well. Every one of them, even Wyzen's own comrades who had never seen this before, dropped their giant mouths and backed up. Fasha flew backwards in the air and snapped her head up, her eyes following the head of the huge man as he rose up so high he neared the dark colors of the sky above. "Don't want to get any higher," Wyzen said, his voice so loud that the mountain below shook under it. He was over a thousand meters tall, and half of that wide. He chortled in a guttural way that made the ground shake below him, then he lifted up his right foot into the air.

Three Oozarus saw Wyzen's eyes dart to them and his mouth curl into a menacing smirk. They started to run, but Wyzen stomped down with a foot too large for them to dodge, crushing them into the base of Mount Gine where he left a massive footprint. Fasha snarled as her comrades were crushed, and she charged forward towards Wyzen's fat stomach. She pulled back a huge fist covered in red aura, and she slammed it straight into the giant's gut. Ripples shot around Wyzen's stomach as Fasha's fist pushed in, and the giant oofed and skid backwards over two of his own comrades. Fasha pulled back her other fist and slammed an uppercut for the same spot on Wyzen's gut that was now a much redder color than the dark gray of his normal skin tone. Right before her fist was going to hit, Fasha saw a spark in front of her eyes. They started to widen, and then she let out a scream of agony as a pillar of lightning larger than her own body engulfed her.

"HAHAHA!" Wyzen laughed as Deus surrounded his opponent in lightning. Wyzen pulled back a fist that was two hundred by two hundred meters large, and he punched it down through the pillar of lightning into the woman frozen inside it. Fasha had her eyes clenched when she was hit by the lightning, but she heard the attack coming with her Haki and tried to fly away. Just like the other Oozarus before her, Wyzen's attack was too large to dodge and she was slammed by a fist so large that the force behind it made even the Oozaru God gasp and blood to splash out of her mouth.

"Fasha," Shugesh growled, turning from a very injured Ginyu who was struggling to stay standing on the slope of Mount Gine. He looked towards her and in his head heard what she said when they first faced off against Ginyu and Deus. _"You watch my back, I'll watch yours." Hah, like I thought, I didn't need her watching mine._ Though Shugesh laughed in his head, externally he snarled and shot the opposite direction as his opponent. It would have annoyed him more, and he probably would not have stepped in normally, but this was not a one-on-one fight. He figured Fasha could take either of these enemies on her own, but teaming up on his comrade, he was not going to let that happen.

"Lord Deus!" Wyzen shouted down, and Deus turned to see a massive Oozaru larger than Fasha, maybe even larger than Bardock's form, flying straight at him.

"YOU'RE MINE!" Shugesh roared. Then, he opened his mouth huge and fired a blue beam out of the back of his throat. Deus shot high into the air to dodge it, and Wyzen went from shouting for his lord's safety, to screaming in pain as the beam passed where Deus was just flying and hit him in his giant gut instead. Wyzen's massive form was hit so hard that he actually lifted off the ground, and as he lifted up into the air, everyone behind him started sprinting or flying as fast as they could away from where he could possibly come crashing down.

Wyzen fell on top of a mountain directly next to Mount Gine, as well as on top of thirty fighters still duking it out on top of it. After two seconds of him laying there, eight beams shot into Wyzen's back and threw him back the other way where he landed on his stomach this time instead of his back that was now covered in burns. About half of the fighters Wyzen landed on were crushed immediately, half of the other half were moaning with bones crushed and bodies unable to continue fighting. Six Saiyans were still standing though, and two of Wyzen's comrades also contributed to helping throw him off. They were not concerned with hurting the beast, as much as they just wanted to survive. As soon as Wyzen was off of them though, the other Oozarus charged at their two remaining opponents and overwhelmed them.

The King's three Royal Guards stood high up Mount Gine right below the darkened sky. One of Pouf's clones had brought Pitou up to a safer location when the fight below got too wild, but now Pouf's main body as well as Youpi were meeting up there. Youpi growled as he watched a group of Oozarus take down a squad of their giant fighters, and he snarled, "I'm going."

"Good luck," Pitou said in a weak voice, sitting up with bloody wounds all over herself. She looked down at her right arm and a gash on it that she had been using as a reference to check her injuries. _Still not good enough. The formula to give the King his regenerative powers did not work as well on us as it did for Meruem-sama._ Pitou could see her wound was no longer bleeding, but she was not recovering as fast as she had hoped she would.

"Where is Savitar?" Pouf muttered, while examining the battle down below. He was watching carefully and keeping an eye on every aspect of the war he could follow. His eyes darted up towards the Ant King every second or two, but he was unable to see where Meruem was the majority of the time anyway.

Pitou dragged herself to a kneeling position and leaned forward over a sharp slope of the mountain. She shook her head and whispered, "I don't know, but looks like the last Guardian has arrived. Wonder where he's been all this time?" _Probably ignored Pouf's summons, knowing it wasn't the King he was called to assist._ Pitou watched the man's flight pattern, and her eyes opened wider as he soared right between Saiyans and their own allies. "Where is he…" She began, and then she saw the two he was flying straight towards.

Pouf stared at the two far below who their final Guardian was heading towards. "He knows one of them," Pouf said, reading the expression of their ally as he flew towards the spiky haired men who just finished taking out another group of their allies.

"On to the next ones, Sora," Goku said, looking up from the unconscious monster he just defeated. He looked behind him to a panting boy who lifted his Keyblades and covered himself in some more healing magic after that last fight. While Goku took on the majority of their opponents, Sora fought one of them and defeated the giant in the same amount of time it took Goku to defeat all the others.

 _Can't we take a break?_ Sora thought, but he stopped panting and nodded at Goku to show he was alright to keep going. He took a step towards the older man, and then Sora felt a pit in his chest and his entire body coated in sweat. "Goku," Sora said in a serious voice, while spinning to the left and lifting up both Keyblades in a fighting stance. "Stop," Sora said. Goku thought Sora was telling it to him to keep him from flying off, but as Sora said it, a figure flying through the sky stopped twenty feet in front of Sora, appearing there in an instant so fast that Goku's blue eyes opened wide.

The man who floated in front of the two had a black coat covering most of his body. It was open down the middle only connected in front of his chest, and the back of it was loose around him so that it flapped in the wind. He had black gloves and boots on, and at the top of his coat over his shoulders was a set of silver pauldrons. In his left hand was the hilt of a katana that looked longer than the man was tall, and he was over six feet tall. He held the seven-foot-long katana at his left side with the end pointed behind him.

"Goku," Sora said. His breathing had fastened, and he clenched his Keyblades tightly in his hands. Goku looked at Sora out the corners of his eyes, and Sora continued in a quiet voice, "Before I faced Luthor, I have never fought a stronger opponent, than him."

The man standing in midair in front of them lifted his right arm, and a black-feathered wing pressed against his back flapped out to the side. His silver bangs waved in a gust of wind, and his long hair falling far behind his back and even below his waist waved out to his right side in front of his wing. His eyes were thin with small green irises in them, and he was staring straight into Sora's eyes with them. "Sora," he greeted.

Sora took a deep breath, then strengthened his fighting stance and replied in a harsh tone, "Sephiroth."

"I am surprised to see you here, Keybearer," Sephiroth said. "What of the cosmos? You risk all existence by coming here." Goku got a confused expression on his face, wondering why people were always so interested in Sora's Keyblade.

"I wouldn't need to be here," Sora retorted. "If people like you weren't invading countries and slaughtering the people in them." _How much does Sephiroth know? He and Cloud were always fighting, but he never really helped out Ansem or Xemnas. When we fought in the Coliseum, I thought he was unstoppable. The time when he heard my weapon was called a Keyblade, he only fought me to see if it might choose him as its wielder. Both times the fights didn't have much on the line, and even when I won, he never looked injured after them._ "Last I saw of you," Sora started in a low tone, "you and Cloud vanished to go somewhere else and continue your fight. What happened to him?"

"Why should I tell you that?" Sephiroth asked. He slashed his sword in front of him and a dark purple veil of light surrounded his body.

Sora shot forward and rose up his Keyblade, then slammed it down so strong that he did a full front flip and the slash off of his Keyblade created a yellow circle around his body. Sephiroth slashed his sword into the slash of Sora's, then he brought it back around the right side. Sora leaned back and the flat edge of the Masamune passed over his horizontal body. Sephiroth spotted a man flying towards him from next to where Sora was just standing, and he rose his right hand while slashing again at Sora.

Goku did not care what the man was doing, but Sora was going all-out against him and still looked to need some help. He would not have cut in usually, but he could not sense the man's energy and Sora had Dash tied around his back, there was no time for watching it play out. As Goku charged though, the Super Saiyan's eyes opened wide as out of nowhere in the air behind Sephiroth, meteors started flying down towards him. "Where did these come from?" Goku wondered aloud while dodging in and out of the falling flaming rocks. There were too many of them to dodge, and Goku punched a fist forward into one of the rocks just a little larger than his own body. He smashed a fist into it and the meteor exploded out in every direction, and Sephiroth finally looked closer at the man fighting with Sora.

"Who are you?" Sephiroth questioned. He did not recognize the man from any of the reports before the battle.

"Son Goku," the Saiyan replied, standing in a fighting stance twenty feet in front of Sephiroth, while Sora backed up in the air to get closer to Goku. He eyed the front of the unconscious boy's head behind his right shoulder, and he shifted the kid's weight on his back to reposition him.

"You are the Legendary Super Saiyan?" Sephiroth questioned. "In that case," the aura around his body grew darker and more defined, making Sora's eyes pop open huge. Fire started rising from the ground in four thick pillars on his sides, and blue lightning sparked off of his body as the wind picked up speed around them.

Goku could not help it. A grin came to the Super Saiyan's face at the appearance of what looked like such a strong opponent. He let out a yell and forced out some more of his golden aura, but Sora noticed something as he glanced next to him at his older friend. Goku's mouth stayed open after his shout, and there were short breaths coming out of it. He would not have noticed if not for the cold air making Goku's breath hang for a second, and it almost did not catch his gaze as the air was already so thick with steam from explosions going off all around them.

Sora looked around after noticing that Goku was feeling the effects of the battle as much as he was, and he examined the battleground in a quick second. It was all he had before he had to spin back to Sephiroth and Goku who shot towards each other and created a massive explosion in front of him. In that second though, Sora saw what looked like wrestling matches all over the Saiyan Mountains. The giant fighters on both sides were beating each other senseless, and all the fighters that he saw at least, were covered in blood both their own and of their enemies. The war had been going on for so long, but Sora still could not see a side with a clear advantage. Sora had no time to think on the war though, as he was in the middle of a battle of his own he had to charge straight back into.

Down the slope of Mount Gine and around it more on its northern side than its eastern edge, a man with long black hair and a goatee stood alone in front of three Oozarus. They had been thrown by Meruem's explosion and Bardock's power-up, and they transformed far from where they were originally. On their way back though, they spotted this man who did not look Saiyan on the side of their mountain. The man had on a black jacket but with golden cuff-links and a golden collar, and in his right hand he held a tall golden staff with a glorious bird carved at the top of it.

"You have chosen your opponent poorly," Vandal Savage said, while the Oozarus all opened their mouths with glowing lights coming from the backs of their throats. All three of the brown giant gorillas started laughing while charging their attacks, as the man in front of them had not even transformed into a giant like so many of his comrades. A member of the Capital 50, a member of the Light- the leaders of the Umbrella Corporation, Vandal Savage rose the Staff of Horus and grinned up at the transformed Saiyans before him. They fired their beams, and Savage slammed the butt of his staff down on the ground. A blue dome of light surrounded Savage that all three of the huge white beams of light pressed into.

The dome around Savage stopped expanding for a second, and then the Oozarus who fired their attacks gained confused looks on their faces as all three of their attacks exploded. They could not see past the ends of their attacks, but it did not look like their beams had traveled all the way to the slope. Their beams vanished, and then the blue dome of light kept expanding from Vandal Savage's body in every direction, hitting the monsters and making them roar out in agony. They reeled backwards, but the hair and flesh was melting from their bodies, and they incinerated in the explosion that kept going for miles away from Savage, killing everything in its path. The immortal man just kept smirking as he transformed the landscape around him into a wasteland.

Fasha flew backwards through the air, and she took a few deep breaths in through her giant mouth. _He's so big, but this bastard's not as good as Deus._ Fasha darted her eyes from the giant Wyzen who was more than ten times taller than her even in her Oozaru God form. She shifted her gaze to Deus, then she shot through the air to intercept Ginyu as he tried to catch Shugesh off guard. Shugesh was facing Deus straight-on, but it was not a fair fight as another of Deus' subordinates had shown up. That sixth man in their battle slammed a fist into Fasha's furry back as she charged at Ginyu, and when he hit her, Ginyu got a powerful blow on Shugesh who thought he saw Fasha coming to handle that.

Augus laughed loudly as he slammed Oozaru God Fasha through the air. "Now this is living!" He roared, before bellowing out with more laughter. The man was around eight feet tall and covered in dark reddish-brown skin with brighter red markings all over it. Like Deus he had not transformed into a giant as Ginyu and Wyzen had. His eyes were pure white, matching his spiky white hair, gloves, and the white pants he was wearing. Fasha snapped her head up and roared at the man, and Augus shouted right back down, "Come! FIGHT ME!" He reached down to his waist and pulled off the sheathed sword he had resting there. "I have not enjoyed a war this much in all my time on Nexus!"

Augus lifted up Wailing Dark in front of his body horizontally, and Deus glanced over out the corners of his eyes at the man. _He is drawing his sword. It cannot be helped against a Super Saiyan God._ He refocused on Shugesh and charged at him as the man spun towards Ginyu in fury for that last attack. As Deus attacked him with Wyzen and Ginyu, Augus drew his sword and pointed it up in the sky above him. "HAHAHA! Fight me, you beautiful Saiyan woman! Fight me to the death!" Fire shot out of Augus' body in every direction, but it focused up around his sword and into the sky in a giant pillar above him.

Fasha snarled up and started rising to her opponent, then something entered her head and she grabbed either temple at the feeling of a pounding in it. Gorilla Grodd also had his hands to his temples from where he floated three hundred meters away from the battle, focusing his mental powers on the female Oozaru who let out a scream at the attack. Augus charged at her as she screamed, and he pointed his sword forward and slammed it straight into her chest. Fasha let out a roar, and she brought one of her hands down to grab the sword pressing against her body without breaking through it. The sword slammed her out of the air and into the ground, extending into her body as Augus laughed and pushed down on her.

She could not find the focus to snap Augus' blade nor to find the one attacking her mind. Too much was happening around her, and the assault inside her head was taking its toll on Fasha's thought process. _Gotta, fight, someone,_ her eyes snapped open and darted up from Augus to other beings floating around the sky, looking for the one trying to bust open her head from the inside. As Fasha's eyes shifted around the slope of Mount Gine though, her body filled with dread and then screamed out in pain as Augus' blade broke through her skin. She punched a fist into the side of his blade and knocked it aside, though dragging it across the left side of her chest and causing buckets of blood to splash out of her. Augus kept laughing as his sword was pushed away, then he grunted in pain as a massive red fist slammed into his body and sent him into the atmosphere where he collided with the barrier.

Wyzen glanced up, thinking, _Was that Augus?_ The man flew by him so fast that it was hard to tell. When Wyzen looked back down though, he spotted what Fasha had seen which made her step into overdrive and push past her own limits. Fasha let out a scream so powerful that the air around her vibrated, and she glared up around the slope of Mount Gine where she spotted a man with hair very similar to her King's.

Turles floated side-by-side with Hit, and as he saw Fasha look at him and roar, he smirked. "Bergamo, Lavender, Basil, go."

The Trio De Dangers nodded from behind Bardock, and then the three shot forward in blurs of blue, golden brown, and red lights. The three brothers shot at Fasha and started attacking with beams that shook the mountainside below them. Turles chuckled at the sight of the female Super Saiyan God falling backwards, then he added, "The rest of you, move."

Shugesh glanced over as Fasha became swarmed by enemies. Not only the three wolves, but dozens of other Rogue Ravagers started flying around the north side of Mount Gine. They flooded over, swarming the Oozarus in the middle of fights with other giants on the Ant King's side.

Wings flew over towards Angila and Medamatcha, yelling out in confusion, "How did you two get so big?!" They looked back towards their old comrade who used to be the biggest of the three, and the five Oozarus facing off against the two of them gained nervous expressions as the tides suddenly shifted. Behind Wings were twenty other Rogue Ravagers, all flying their ways and charging beams in hands.

Turles looked around from close to the haze line on Mount Gine where any higher he would not be able to witness the war below. Not far from him he could see two of the Royal Guards of the King watching him from the slope, but he did not look their way. _So Meruem found a way to counter the Great Ape, as he said he would._

Fasha was panting, blood coming out of her nostrils and ears. Grodd's attack on her mind stopped as an Oozaru comrade of hers attacked the weird giant black gorilla just floating in the air. The wolf-men surrounding her in a triangle formation were so much more powerful than most of the enemies she had been facing today, and she cursed in her head. _Damn Turles, where did he get, allies like these?_ Fasha growled, and a dark red aura surrounded her giant body and flared like fire.

"The military might of the Capital 50 and the Rogue Ravagers," Ginyu said, crossing his arms and smirking his giant mouth wide. He chuckled in a low voice that thundered over the mountains, then narrowed his eyes at Shugesh who he was around the same height as even though Shugesh was one of the tallest Oozarus. "What hope do you have?"

"You're the one without any hope, GINYU!" A voice roared from the southern side of the second tallest Saiyan Mountain. All the battles around the warzone that had just become one-sided paused, and everyone spun their attentions to the southern slope of Mount Gine, where the eldest son of the woman the mountain was named after floated. He had long spiky hair that was tinted red like his bright red flaming aura. Raditz glared straight over at the giant High Commander of the King's forces, and he yelled, "Against the might of the Saiyan race…" As Raditz shouted it, two Super Saiyans shot around the edge of the mountain, trailed by fifty, a hundred, nearing two hundred Saiyan warriors fresh from other battles all around the range. Raditz charged forward and as a giant gorilla with black fur was turning its head towards him, Raditz punched forward straight into Grodd's chest. The black gorilla's back pushed outwards, and then Raditz flew straight out of Grodd's exploding back while finishing in a bellowing roar, "…THERE IS NO HOPE!"

Some of the newly arrived Saiyans looked at the artificial moons floating around them, and they started transforming and dropping down into the battles. Others just flew straight at the Rogue Ravagers who had not transformed into giants, and those Ravagers left the battles they had entered to make them one-sided, deciding to instead fight their fresh new arrivals. The sky's colors swirled darker, and all new colors mixed in as strange fighters powered up all over the place. Their swirling green and blue auras mixed with red and purple ones, golden lights occasionally mixed in as a Super Saiyan shot through the sky, but mainly the sky was a dark purple only really shifting colors with a dark red.

The war picked up again, this time more intense than ever before. All the fighters scattered across the Saiyan Mountains had gathered. The Rogue Ravagers, the Saiyans, and the Capital 50 were all meeting on a single battlefield. The battlefield stretched for several miles in every direction, and dozens of explosions went off in the air and on the ground every second. Super Saiyan Gods, the Guardians of the Capital, monsters who alone had the power to take control of entire nations faced off at full power.

Even with all those powerful beings fighting each other though, the sky was mainly just a dark swirling purple with some dark red lines cutting through it. Bardock and Meruem were fighting higher up than most of their soldiers. They were above the haze, inside the swirling dark auras high in the atmosphere. Despite the dark colors swirling around them that made it feel like they were not even flying through the same dimension any longer, the two Kings were focused straight in on each other. Oozaru God Bardock shot forward and spun his left leg around. Meruem had to dodge hard and fast to be able to dodge. He just lifted over the top of Bardock's leg, then he slammed his own right fist forward to punch into Bardock's right fist flying at him. The two of them pressed their fists into each other's for half a second, then Meruem's arm bent back and he was thrown away into the distance.

Bardock chased after him, while Meruem thought, _Dodging his attacks when he was a man took peak concentration. His moves have only gotten faster, and though I can still see through his moves, his body is so much larger that it is no longer viable to continue dodging every attack._ Each one of Bardock's strikes took so much more to dodge when the Saiyan King was himself a giant. _Counter attacks do so much less now as well. Breaking through his thick skin will be nearly impossible without a long charged attack, and he will never give me that time to prepare. I can feel my peak energy wavering, it will start to decrease soon. He looked fatigued before, but he has not slowed down at all._

Meruem finally snapped out of his horizontal position that he was flying through the air in, flipping up and swinging his tail down at the top of Bardock's right fist. Bardock's fist pushed down, and the Saiyan King's momentum took him farther forward so that Meruem who flew over his arm was right in front of his face. Bardock started opening his mouth to fire a beam at Meruem from point blank, but Meruem flew up and rose both of his hands. Bardock thought a beam attack was coming, but Meruem just opened his hands into palms and they glowed bright white. They flashed so bright that Bardock reeled backwards, slamming his eyes shut in pain. "Grrr," he growled aloud instead out yelling in blinding pain. He snapped his jaw wide open and fired a beam of white light blindly in front of him where he thought the King would be capitalizing on that last attack.

He did not hear the King get hit or feel his beam slow down at all, and Bardock started spinning around, searching for the Ant King who suddenly vanished from in front of him. All signs of the Ant King's presence were gone, and Bardock started squinting his eyes open to get a better look. _Where is he…_

Meruem was a few hundred meters below Bardock, just out of the bottom of the haze. He was taking a risk dropping his aura to hide inside a Zetsu for a few seconds. Inside this stealth state, any attack would damage him much more than if he was just blindsided or unprepared. He had put down his own subconscious guard so that he could escape from Bardock for a short time. _When Turles explained the Saiyans' transformations to me, I could see he was hiding something about the Great Ape. I knew it immediately, there is a weakness. Turles would not have hidden it unless it was such a powerful weakness that he feared it being used against him once he took control._

The Ant King's eyes scanned the entire war below him. He panned over Saiyans fighting his men, Saiyans fighting the Ravagers, and he even spotted a few strange figures who were not Saiyans involved with the fight also fighting his and the Rogue's men. He knew beforehand that many would try to stand against their invasion, but he did not expect there to be many of those fighters still around this late in the war. His gaze passed over Son Goku and Sora facing off against Sephiroth. _Son Goku has not transformed into an Oozaru. Is there a reason for this? What could it be?_ Meruem's gaze continued shifting around, darting so fast that everything below him seemed to be moving in slow motion.

 _THERE._ Meruem's eyes locked on to one of the Saiyans in particular. It was a young man with short spiky black hair going straight up above his head. He was muscular, and covered in the blood of his enemies. He looked very strong for a Saiyan in his base state, but he had not transformed and was facing off against two giants on Meruem's side. There was an artificial moon not far above his head, and Meruem could see the angle of the man's eyes as he fought the giants in front of him who he was at chest-level with. _He can see the fake moon, yet he does not transform._ Meruem's eyes shifted to the man's back, then to his waist where something the other Saiyans who had not transformed all had something wrapped. _His tail._ Meruem's eyes darted around once more in an instant, _Every Oozaru has one. That man does not, and he does not transform when looking at the fake moon._

Meruem's eyes shot open wide, and he got out of his Zetsu fast and covered his body in as much protective aura as he could. _KEN GOU-_ "Agh-" Meruem was only half-turned, his body surrounding with a defensive coating of Nen, when Bardock's giant fist came out of the air above and slammed into him. Meruem did not even have time to think about how Bardock found him, as he slammed into the ground and broke through it for a hundred meters. A giant monster slammed down on the floor at the surface of the hole he was in, and the entire ground between the bottom of the hole and the top exploded upwards. All that debris lifted up, while a giant red ape stomped forward towards an ant covered in purple blood, partially stuck in some rocks that had not lifted up yet.

Meruem ripped his right arm up through the floor, then his left, then he got up and started walking straight towards Bardock. His wounds started healing, but he did not wait for them to finish. He shot off the ground straight at the Saiyan King, and Bardock punched at Meruem, knocking him back into the floor. _I've never been hit so hard,_ Meruem thought, while getting back up and bouncing to the right to avoid the stomp from Bardock's left foot. He landed then kicked himself forward towards Bardock's right leg that just started lifting.

 _What is he doing?_ Bardock thought, while stomping down twice as fast with his right foot and planting Meruem into the dirt. He pressed down harder on his right leg, then started focusing energy down there on the being he felt below him. _Meruem is too smart to die like that. He is plotting something. Does he see a flaw in my attack pattern?_ Bardock shot straight up into the air while pointing his right hand down at the ground where he was just standing. "Die, King of the Ants!" A huge red sphere formed on Bardock's right hand.

Meruem looked up at the red ball of ki, and then he shot straight up towards it before Bardock could fire.

 _WHAT?!_ Bardock thought, as Meruem approached his attack even faster. _This would kill him, but he's flying straight at it?!_ Bardock clenched his right hand into a fist, then slammed that fist down at the Ant King and planted him back in the planet's surface at a few thousand miles per hour. Four giant cracks shot off from the hole Meruem made in the floor this time, and one of those cracks stretched three miles into the distance where it split the earth between Sephiroth and his opponents.

Sora stumbled backwards as a crevice opened up in front of him. He spun his head to the right, as did most people around him. Sephiroth and Goku stopped fighting as well, and so did so many who were in the middle of fighting nearby. The Oozaru having only one arm was an easy way for everyone there to know who it was, though Raditz' eyes opened wide as he spotted his father missing an arm. Ginyu tried getting the drop on his new opponent when everyone turned towards Bardock, but Raditz turned his head sideways and let out a low snarl at the giant man flying his way. "If you want to die before your King, be my guest-" Raditz froze with his mouth open at the end of that threat, staring past Ginyu at something else while most of the other Saiyans started watching their King.

Meruem flew up at Bardock again, and Bardock kicked him back into the planet. Meruem flew up again, this time slower, and Bardock flew down and body-slammed him into the ground. All of Meruem's soldiers stopped fighting at the sight of their King getting smashed into the floor like that. Bardock's massive body got lifted up in the air, then Meruem tossed straight up. Bardock shot fifty feet up in a quick burst, but he stopped himself just as fast and then dropped back down again. Meruem flew out from beneath Bardock to his right side, looking exhausted with blood coming out of gashes and cuts all over his body.

"King!" Pouf shouted in horror as he got the first good look at the Ant King for a while.

A giant Youpi stared down with shaking eyes, and he started running forward while ignoring all the Oozarus around him.

"Meruem-sama?" Ginyu wondered aloud, ignoring the fact that Raditz flew towards and straight past him for some reason.

Pitou stumbled down the slope of Mount Gine, unable to find the energy to fly away like Pouf had to rush to their King's side.

"This is the end for you, Ant King," Bardock said, while staring down into Meruem's eyes with his giant glowing red ones. He brought back his right fist, and he started forming a ball of red light at the end of it.

Goku stared forward with huge eyes. Like everyone else there, it looked to him like Bardock had the Ant King trapped. Bardock's moves were faster than Meruem's, and the Ant King was too tired to try to move as Bardock charged an attack that would be too massive to survive. "Stay back!" Meruem yelled, and three figures flying towards him came to short sudden stops with wide eyes.

Pouf trembled, his entire body shook with the urge to charge to Meruem's side. Youpi skid to a stop and his bottom lip lowered a little. Pitou stopped stumbling down Mount Gine, a terrified look in her eyes. _King!_ They all thought in fear. His shout was in concern for them, they could hear the tone in his voice that meant it was so. It actually sounded like he was accepting the blast would be too large to survive, and he did not want to get them caught in it as well.

"Meruem," Deus whispered, staring over carefully at the Ant King.

Sephiroth stayed silent, but his eyes narrowed and his left hand clenched harder on the hilt of his Masamune.

Sora kept staring at Bardock and Meruem, but in the corner of his left eye he spotted Raditz fly down not far from him. He glanced over, and his eyes shot open even wider at the sight of the man at Raditz' feet. _That's…_

The sphere of red light on Bardock's right hand doubled in size, and many of the Saiyans and their opponents backed away. Turles and Hit stared down from higher than anyone else. The Rogue stared at Bardock's right hand, _How much energy is that? Enough to kill the Ant King for sure, but enough to tire him out? Is this where we lose? If Bardock can still fight after this, there is no chance for us._

Goku's eyes snapped open huge. His breath caught in his throat. All sound around him dimmed to nothing. _What if he knows?_ Goku thought. The thought was so simple, yet it only came to him because of Goku's intense desire to face his own father in a battle of this caliber. He watched as Meruem stood before Bardock with seemingly no chance of victory, and subconsciously his mind decided to think up a way to defeat Bardock. As soon as he thought it though, fear filled his mind, because he had faced the Ant King in battle and knew how smart the creature was. While every other alien, Chimera Ant, demon, gorilla, Saiyan, and human on the mountain looked on expecting this to be the final blow from Bardock, only Goku felt the greatest sense of dread for Bardock.

Bardock started punching his right arm forward. The wounds all over Meruem's body healed in an instant. Bardock saw those wounds heal and his eyes started to widen. Meruem's injuries had been healing slower and slower over the last period of their fight, but it was shown to be a bluff in that single second as Meruem healed his wounds as fast as he made his left arm reappear earlier. Bardock's right hand kept punching forward, but he fired the beam from it early. Meruem was fast though, much faster than he had been for the past minute or so. It was not just his healed injuries. The purple aura that expanded from Meruem in that moment was more monstrous and powerful than any he had shown through the entire fight. It still was not as strong as Bardock, but it showed the Saiyan King that the entire time, Meruem was saving a burst of power for a trump card. Even when Meruem was getting tired and sluggish, he did not dip into this extra reserve, saving it for exactly such a moment.

Part of the reserves of energy Meruem released as Bardock started punching forward, extended from the tip of Meruem's tail in a long, thin, bright purple beam of light. Meruem flew forward, and the beam firing at him passed right over his head, so close that the top of his dark green crown started to sear off. He was making it without any time to spare. Timing was everything, and if he had gone even a fraction of a second later, it would have been his entire head that melted off instead of just the top of his skull. Meruem ignored the pain and kept flying as fast as he could, because it was not just about not leaving too late, but too early as well. He chose the exact moment where Bardock was most vulnerable. Bardock released his attack early in order to try and hit Meruem, but Meruem planned on that. He had hoped that Bardock would not just abandon his attack, and considering how much energy the Saiyan King put into it, Meruem knew the man would not be eager to waste it all. By not wasting it though, he took the moment to fire the beam instead of just punching his fist straight into Meruem's path. The right hand that Bardock fired his attack from early was moving into Meruem's path, but it was too slow. The end of it neared where Meruem was flying, but the Ant King passed right below it.

Meruem shot towards Bardock's gut, and Bardock expected a powerful blow about to slam into him. He did not expect to get out of this one without any damage, but when he tensed up to try and put up a guard, Meruem stopped and did not fly straight into him. Instead, the Ant King changed his trajectory just a little to aim down below Bardock's stomach, and right between Bardock's massive thighs. The Saiyan King realized it as soon as Meruem changed his path, and he started squeezing his legs together while curling the end of his tail around. _Turles wouldn't have, which means he figured it out on his own,_ the end of Bardock's tail shot back towards the point on Bardock's lower back that it was sticking out of, and Meruem saw the tail shooting straight towards him. He was not going to change his plan to protect himself from it though, and he just swung his own tail in a circle as soon as he passed Bardock. The thin beam of purple light extending from the tip of Meruem's tail flashed bright right before it touched Bardock's furry red tail, Meruem flooding the beam with his immense power to make the blade of energy as strong as possible.

The end of Bardock's tail slammed into Meruem with such force that the Ant King was thrown back between Bardock's legs that had never closed since Bardock realized that Meruem would make it through them before he could. The Ant King shot like a rocket down into the ground on the eastern slope of Mount Gine, and he bounced once, twice, and kept hitting the ground on a destructive path down the mountain. As Meruem bounced away, dozens of miles away a red explosion erupted from the ground where Bardock's missed attack landed and incinerated everything for a four mile radius. Although for a second, Meruem's forces thought that their King was bluffing all of them and really had this under control, they all re-became panicked at the sight of their fearless leader bouncing away. Then they saw something else that made every single person in the war stare in utter shock.

A giant red tail, the same one that just slammed Meruem through the air, was falling out of the sky away from the giant Oozaru God it belonged to. "Fuck," Bardock said, instead of screaming in the incredible pain of losing his tail. _First my arm, then my tail,_ Bardock thought, while his body started to shrink. His enormous form shrank to half its size, a quarter, and it kept decreasing in height and width until he had finally returned to his normal size.

"The King did it," Deus said with a nod of approval.

"That Ant King, cut off Bardock's tail," Lavender said. The wolf-man with golden brown fur turned to his brothers on his right, "Hahaha! Basil, Bergamo, we just-"

Everyone watching Bardock stared in shock as the Saiyan King vanished. Basil and Bergamo had not yet looked away from Bardock to turn to their brother who started speaking, but the sound of his voice cutting off like that terrified each of them. The two Rogue Ravagers turned and stared in horror at Lavender who was himself staring down in horror at the hand coming out of the front of his chest. Bardock ripped his hand back out of the mercenary's body, and then he roared at the top of his lungs, "It is not over! Keep fighting until-"

Meruem appeared back in front of Bardock in the middle of a front-flip, slamming his left leg down at the top of Bardock's head. Bardock leaned backwards, and Meruem's tail whipped around and crashed into Bardock's right side. "It is over," Meruem said. His tone was not just confident, it was assured. The King was speaking as a matter of fact, and he flew down towards where he just sent Bardock flying. No one could move as Meruem shot through the air in an aura of purple. Bardock roared and surrounded in a veil of red, but when the two clashed, it was the red blur that was sent flying from the other and down into the ground.

Meruem pointed both hands down and fired, he fired so many consecutive red blasts of energy that the ground covered in red domes of light that kept compounding on top of each other and spreading farther and farther out. The Ant King stopped firing all of a sudden, then he dropped down and reached up, grabbing Bardock's right leg that was kicking where his head just was. Anyone able to follow the fight could only see this much, as they were not able to see Bardock flying up through the explosions with his body covered in burns, nor could they see where he went a second later as Meruem chucked him sideways into the slope of Mount Gine again. This time, Meruem flew straight after him, and he grabbed Bardock by the front of his armor as soon as the Saiyan King stopped in the side of the mountain. He pulled Bardock out of the mountain while Bardock was still in the middle of gasping in pain, flew backwards a hundred feet so he was in plain view of everyone, and then his tail shot forward and pierced the front of Bardock's armor, the skin behind it, and shot out of his back.

Silence fell over the mountains.

Goku stared up with eyes that started shaking. Sora spun from the horrific sight in the air, to the man next to him, and then back to Goku's older brother not far from him. He looked back at Goku, then to his shoulder where he caught a glimpse of Dash's unconscious and wrinkled face. _We are so screwed,_ Sora thought, panic filling his entire body, his heart rate skyrocketing.

Raditz lifted his eyes slowly to the sky and stared at the tip of Meruem's tail, dripping blood on the other side of his father's back. Raditz looked back down, and he lowered down to his right knee next to the dead body of a Saiyan with spiky black hair almost as long as his own. That hair was shorter than his than it usually was, as from midway down his back down, it had all been cut off by the same thing that cut halfway through the man's body, leaving a giant slash going through his armor and his body beneath. Apragus lay on his stomach with his face sideways, looking at Raditz with half-opened eyes that were glossy and unmoving. Raditz kept staring straight at his mate for another second, then he stood up and stared back into the sky with such a dark expression on his face that the air around him got colder, darker, and made some of the people nearby remember that they were still in the middle of a warzone.

Raditz lifted his right hand and pointed it at the floor in front of him, and he fired a red ball of ki that incinerated the body in front of him without even casting a glance at it. His teeth bared as he glared up at the two floating in the sky on display for everyone to see. A growl escaped Raditz' lips. _Apragus. Father._ "Grrr," a menacing look spread over Raditz' face, his body started shaking from it, and then it just stopped. The growls simmered, and Raditz stood up straighter, an even darker look appearing on his face than before which did not seem possible to those close enough to see him before it happened. The dark look changed though this time, as Raditz no longer looked angry at all. The corners of his lips curled up, a truly evil appearance arising.

"Dad," Goku whispered, the shock of what he was seeing disappearing. He took a step forward, his eyes as wide as plates. One second the fight looked so even, and suddenly Meruem's tail had his father impaled right through the chest. The end of the Ant King's tail was not very thick, but Bardock was not moving at all, a clear sign that something vital had been hit. That, and the blood spilling out of the corners of Bardock's mouth and pouring off his chin like a faucet as he floated there in front of Meruem, still holding himself up instead of being limp of the tail. The tail pushed farther into his body, and Bardock coughed up some blood all over the thicker part of Meruem's tail. Goku took another step, and Sora reached forward and grabbed the Saiyan man by the right wrist.

"You never should have shown me mercy, Bardock," Meruem said, refusing to call him the Saiyan King. At this point, there was no longer a doubt in his mind, there was no longer any debate. "I am _the_ King. Did you really think you could keep living on this world, calling yourself the _King_ of the Saiyans?" Meruem leaned forward, putting his face closer to Bardock's while looking straight into the man's flickering red eyes. Bardock's eyes shifted back to black, his aura vanishing, his hair keeping its strange spiky shape but turning black as well.

Goku's breath sped up at the sight of his father's godly aura vanishing. "Goku," Sora hissed. "We need to go!" He said it in a whisper-yell, his eyes darting up to Meruem and back every second.

"You will not be going anywhere," Meruem said, his voice loud enough that everyone could hear. Sora's face turned blue as the King spoke to him without taking his eyes off of Bardock. "You are next, after all," Meruem said, and finally he turned and looked straight down at Sora and Goku. He was smirking, the moment of victory at hand. Meruem turned back to Bardock and could see the look of despair on the _former_ Saiyan King's face as he saw where Meruem just looked to. "Yes, that is right. I have not forgotten about Son Goku, nor the other two with him who I have decided to kill."

Bardock stared down at his youngest son. He was glad he said what he needed to to the man before he started his fight with Meruem, but it seemed now like it would not matter. His son would never be able to live on and recall on those words down the line in life. Bardock thought this way for a moment, and then something strange appeared in front of his eyes. He blinked and once again he was looking down towards his son, with Meruem blocking up most of his vision straight in front of him. Then, the two he could see most clearly moved. Oddly enough, he could still feel Meruem's tail impaling him, but he was no longer floating above the Saiyan Mountains. Meruem kept speaking, but Bardock was seeing something as the King did. He saw his son, floating in front of Meruem, challenging him. He saw his son reach something he had never seen before. "Ha, hack-ack," Bardock coughed up some blood, but Meruem stopped speaking, because to him it did not sound like coughing at all.

Meruem stared forward, and his eyes grew wide at the sight of Bardock's bloody lips curling up. Meruem's moment of victory, the triumphant feeling filling him at the moment, it was all replaced by confusion. The shock of seeing this _again_ made Meruem want to pull away right then and there. He recalled the moment that his fate was sealed in his previous life, when Isaac Netero was on the verge of death, and started laughing. _The smile on Bardock's face is not a smile of resignation, it's not a smile that should be on this dying man's face!_ Meruem was already panting, but his breathing sped up as Bardock started smiling. Everyone watching started to get confused too, as Bardock chuckled some more and more blood spattered from his mouth.

 _HE'S GOING TO KILL ME!_ Meruem thought, and then he heard Bardock's heart stop. Meruem released a breath he did not realize he had started holding. _What was that?_ Meruem thought, examining Bardock's face closely. Bardock's eyes closed though. He was being held straight up, and his eyelids had nothing holding them up anymore, slowly closing and shutting the smiling Saiyan King's eyes one last time. "Now then," Meruem said, ignoring the unnerving feeling that he got from the end of Bardock's life.

As soon as Meruem said it, Pouf, Youpi, Ginyu, Deus, and Sephiroth flew towards Meruem and spun so that their backs were to him. They faced away from the Ant King in every direction, though Ginyu, Deus, and Sephiroth were the three closer to the majority of the armies who were gathered to the east of where Meruem floated over the slope. Pouf floated on the King's left side facing everyone to his south, while a massive Youpi who was already on the King's north side moved closer to the King and faced anyone to the north as well as to the west in case anyone was trying to get the drop from the west, though he figured Pitou could probably handle it. She was too wounded to get there in an instant, but she was not far above the King any longer, keeping guard in every direction around her. Her epithet, The King's Eyes, was not for nothing. An aura of En radiated from her body and stretched for a two and a half square mile radius, enveloping everything in its bloodthirsty feeling.

The King's Voice slammed a fist to his chest and proclaimed at the top of his lungs, "No one is to move, as the King devours the brains of the Saiyan, Bardock."

The three Guardians eyed around, checking to see if anyone was going to try and make a move after Pouf's shout. This was one moment of the war they had been prepared for from the start. Ginyu darted his gaze over the mountains, _Still no sign of Savitar. Was he killed? The God of Speed should be here to stop any attempts on the King while he feasts!_

 _"Devours…"_ Goku's eyes opened wide, and then a pissed-off look formed on his face. He watched as Meruem's tail pulled out of his father's chest, and Meruem grabbed him by the shoulders to hold him up while his tail lifted to slice open the former Saiyan King's skull.

"Goku," Sora pleaded, pulling back on Goku's arm harder as he felt the resistance against him. "You heard him, he's coming after us next," Sora did not care about whispering, since it seemed like the Ant King could hear them no matter how quiet he tried to be. The King was distracted though. Meruem was going to eat Bardock's brains, then he was going after them, and Sora did not want to be around when that happened. "We need to leave, while we still have the chance."

"The war isn't over yet," Goku said seriously.

Fasha and Shugesh thought the same thing. The two of them shot through the sky, enraged expressions across their Oozaru faces. The giant red gorillas flew forward, and Ginyu lifted his giant arms, creating a massive golden statue of Nen behind him between him and the Ant King.

Two Super Saiyans moved forward from where they stood not far from Raditz, but Raditz held up his right hand in an open palm. Rutabega and Dirru looked at Raditz' back in confusion, because the way he held up his hand was a clear motion for them to stop moving. Although they were confused, and angry, they listened to Raditz' command and stayed where they were.

Ginyu smacked his giant golden hands forward, and Fasha and Shugesh pushed straight into them as hard as they could. The giant body of Isaac Netero started to skid up the mountain slope, then Deus and Youpi shot forward on the sides of Ginyu's Nen statue. They punched inwards, and between their punches created a massive explosion confined between the three of them. Youpi's entire right arm glowed dark red before exploding, while Deus fired a concentrated beam of lightning that hit Youpi's explosion right on the end of Ginyu's golden hands.

Other Oozarus charged forward, only for long horizontal and vertical slashes to tear through them as Sephiroth vanished from where he had floated near the King. Only Pouf stayed where he was, sticking closest to Meruem and making sure that no one got close to the Ant King while he started ripping away at Bardock's brain with his teeth.

"Goku please," Sora begged, tears coming to his eyes. He had one hand on Goku's wrist, and he held a Keyblade in the other that he put right up to the side of Goku's head. "Don't! Don't do it Goku!" His Keyblade was shaking, and Goku did not believe that Sora would try attacking him. The Saiyan man pulled his arm hard forward, tugging it out of Sora's grip. Sora's hand clenched into a fist the air, grasping at nothing. "Please," Sora whispered again.

"He killed my father," Goku said in a low growl.

Raditz looked over as he spotted Goku walking forward. "Kakarott," he said in a low voice. His teeth bared again, but then he just scoffed and lifted his head so he could look down his nose towards his younger brother walking away. "Your pride is impressive, but you're a fool. Get yourself killed for nothing for all I care," he said, though his eyes did narrow and his fists clenched at his sides, not matching the calm smirk that stayed plastered on his face.

Other Saiyans nearby Raditz spotted the eldest son of Bardock standing still while the other two Super Saiyan Gods were fighting all out against Meruem's guards. As one of the Oozarus looked towards Raditz in confusion, a giant Medamatcha spotted him being off guard and smirked. The demon was short originally, but he had risen almost to the same height of all the other giants in the Capital 50. "Go my Medas!" He called out, the green demon spreading his arms to the sides. Three smaller versions of himself tore out of his chest and dove forward towards the Oozaru three times taller than any of them. The Saiyan started turning back with widening eyes, and then a man with long red hair appeared in front of him. The three small Medas, clones of Medamatacha, opened their eyes in horror right before they were incinerated in a flash of red light from a single flare of Raditz's aura.

"What?!" Medamatcha exclaimed, and then he tried flying backwards. He was far too slow though to avoid the giant beam of white light that Raditz fired from his left palm. "AhhEE _EEE_!" He screamed as the beam shredded away his green skin and the flesh underneath. The toad-like demon died in agony, and Raditz lowered his arm before darting a glare around in the sky at all the fighters near him. All the members of the Capital 50, all the Rogue Ravagers, anyone still floating in the same place they had been when Meruem killed the Saiyan King, they lost their confidence that the war had just ended in their favor. Their bodies filled with fear, and confusion, and they did not know what to do. Raditz was not protecting himself right there, he saved just an average Saiyan warrior. That meant that if any of them tried fighting, they would be fighting a Super Saiyan God. Whatever Saiyan was closest to them no longer mattered, because Raditz would get to them before their first attack could even connect.

Turles looked away from where Meruem was ripping Bardock's brains out with his teeth. He shifted his gaze to Raditz who was keeping the rest of the war on pause while a small group of Saiyans, getting smaller every second, tried to save the former Saiyan King's body. _Damn him,_ Turles thought, a dark look coming to his face and his eyes narrowing in at Bardock's eldest. _If he would just charge in with Fasha and Shugesh, the strongest in the Saiyans and the strongest in the Capital's forces would all be weakened before my final move. Is he anticipating this? Or does he have something else in mind? His father was just killed in front of him, but that man, he's… smiling._

Raditz kept a calm, evil smirk on his face while looking around into the eyes of every enemy around him. His glare told them that he was going to kill them if they moved a single muscle. The only ones who his glare would not work against were all protecting the Ant King at the moment.

Bergamo and Basil stood on the slope of Mount Gine, their middle brother laying lifeless between them. Bergamo looked up first, the eldest of the Trio De Dangers glowing a dark blue with a carnivorous look in his eyes. The sight of Bardock's eldest son, the son of the man who killed his younger brother, it made him furious, but he was not an animal despite his appearance. His gaze moved over towards Meruem, the creature who immediately avenged his younger brother's life, and who likely saved him and his youngest brother from death only a minute ago. "Basil," Bergamo said in a deep voice. Basil looked up with watery eyes, and Bergamo snarled, "Mourn later. We owe a debt to the Ant King. Let's go settle it." He shot up in the air straight at Shugesh's back while the Oozaru God was punching towards Deus faster than the Guardian could dodge. Bergamo flew right into the path of Shugesh's fist and took the blow head-on, getting smashed through the air and into the slope of Mount Gine.

Everyone who saw this stared in shock that Bergamo would do such a thing. _Do I know him?_ Deus wondered, not understanding why the wolf-man would sacrifice himself. His confusion was replaced with surprise, as was Shugesh's and everyone else's, as a dark red glow came from the hole in the base of Mount Gine where Bergamo was punched into. Something blue started growing out of the hole, breaking the earth around it as it got too big for the hole to contain. Bergamo's body grew with the amount of damage he took, and that single blow was enough to make him grow over twenty times his original size at once. Bergamo rose out of the ground, a bloodthirsty and vengeful expression on his face. He charged at Shugesh and dove at the Oozaru God who punched at him again, only for Bergamo to dodge the fist by turning his body sideways, and then uppercutting straight under Shugesh's jaw, breaking some of his teeth and snapping the Oozaru God up into the air.

While most people stared in shock at this, Basil the Kicker followed his brother's lead and flew up after Shugesh. He created red balls of energy at the tips of his feet and bounced them up, before spinning and kicking them at full force towards the lifting Super Saiyan God.

As massive red explosions filled the sky, some others were not watching the two remaining Trio De Dangers as they started fighting Shugesh. They did not look towards them, because the man who was keeping them all in place had not moved. Even more confusion filled the faces of so many of the warriors on the mountains as Raditz stayed where he was. Some considered that he did not attack the Trio De Dangers because he knew that they were incredibly powerful, but that did not give those people any consolation.

 _Why us, and not them?_ Flint Marko thought, while staying absolutely still in his giant sand form.

 _What is Raditz thinking?_ Rutabega thought. The Saiyan with spiky blond hair going straight up above his head and out to the sides glanced to his left. He looked towards the Saiyans trying to take on Meruem, and he saw a couple of Oozarus get close to him. He tssked and shook his head as Sephiroth appeared behind those Saiyans, and their tails started dropping from the air. The Oozarus roared in agony and started un-transforming, and then Youpi ran over while they were halfway back to their original size, and out from the front of his body shot fifty red spikes of his own flesh that pierced the Saiyans who were unprepared from the pain filling their minds.

"Damn," Dirru muttered as he spotted the same thing his fellow Super Saiyan just did. "Raditz, what are we doing? Let's-"

"Shut up, Dirru," Raditz snarled. It did not sound like Raditz was saying it to him as a suggestion, but as an order, or even a threat. It made sweat form on the sides of Dirru's face, because the tone of Raditz's voice made it sound like his comrade would kill him if a single other word left his lips. Anyone looking towards Raditz who saw him shut up that Super Saiyan and make fear fill his face, made all of them even more intent to just stay where they were. Even the Saiyans now who thought Raditz was helping them, realized that they were being held just as much hostage as their enemies. The man who Raditz first saved was considering turning and rushing to Bardock's side since Raditz saved him, but a look down at Raditz's face told him that that was not what the Saiyan King's son wanted him to do, so he stayed put instead, thinking that Raditz had a plan of some kind.

Goku was not one of those who stayed in place. He flew up towards Meruem, finding a path right as Deus shot off to keep fighting Fasha with Ginyu, and Youpi lifted up to help Bergamo and Basil fight a still-kicking and furious Shugesh. He made a bee-line towards the Ant King, and when Sephiroth appeared in front of him, Goku spun to his right while bringing his hands down to his sides. "Kamehame," he said, while the Masamune slashed behind his back, so close that it cut through the back of his Saiyan armor. Goku finished spinning and Sephiroth turned towards him with widened eyes, right as Goku yelled, "HAAAA!" He pushed his hands forward, and a huge beam of blue light shot out of them and at the swordsman who pulled his sword back and held it against the end of Goku's beam. The beam kept pushing into him, and though Sephiroth stopped it from enveloping his body, he was taken by the Kamehameha Wave and sent flying into the far distance.

Pouf's eyes opened huge as Sephiroth was shot into the distance, and he backed up even closer to Meruem while Goku flew towards him. Goku stopped when he was twenty feet in front of Pouf. "Meruem," he said in an angry, passionate voice. "Stop what you're doing. Put down my father's body now, and fight-"

"YOU INSOLENT SAIYAN!" Pouf screamed at the spiky haired Super Saiyan in front of him. He could not hold it in the way Goku was speaking to the King. Goku looked surprised at the outburst, and Pouf kept screaming, "This is the King! He is destined to lead the world, the universe, everything! For all time! You dare to give orders to such a superior being like that?!" Pouf trembled in rage, veins popping all over his very humanoid body. His eyes were red and his fists clenched furiously at his sides.

Meruem reached his right hand from Bardock's shoulder into the open skull in front of him. He reached down and grabbed the last bit of brain still left in there, and he pulled it back and stared at it closely. Pitou stopped running down the mountain where she was, and she looked carefully and fearfully at the King as he stared at the last bit of brain in his hand. "Don't do it, Meruem-sama," she whispered. He either did not hear her, or ignored her, because he lifted his hand and took the final bite of the Saiyan King's mind. Pitou clenched her eyes shut and then shook her head around to rid herself of the fear. _Believe in the King. He says he will not let it control him, so it will not!_

"I am already finished," Meruem said, and he dropped Bardock's body from his hands. This only made Goku angrier though as the casual way in which Meruem dropped his father's body. The thought of rushing down and catching him vanished from Goku's mind though, as did all other comprehensible thoughts, as Meruem clenched his fists in front of him. Every single being for a thousand miles in every direction felt the pressure on their bodies. The sky darkened to a deep dark purple darker than anything else had been the entire day. A power beyond anything Goku had ever felt appeared in front of him at this moment. Pouf floated backwards and out of the path between Meruem and Goku, while staring at the King with sparkling eyes of awe and wonder.

The entire Saiyan Mountain range, all of Aebrith, and all of Nexus shook from the feeling of Meruem's new power. "The strength of a Super Saiyan God," Meruem said, a grin on his face as the power he obtained shook everything. The barrier above the planet started rippling purple, the earth trembled down beneath him, and he knew that his power could be felt on all corners of the globe. "As well as the DNA of a Saiyan," he added, and Pitou lost her gleeful smile at the King's power-up as he mentioned it. Meruem turned his head and looked at Goku, and then his gaze shifted a little to Goku's side.

Goku saw it out the corners of his eyes, and he turned with a shocked look on his face. "Sora!" Goku exclaimed. "What are you doing?!" Goku shouted. When he tugged his arm away from Sora, he intended to leave Sora behind while he went to face the King alone. Meruem released his new power and every single fighter in the war stopped in place, with only one person daring to move. Sora was shaking, sweat covered his body, but he flew right past Super Saiyan Gods and Guardians of the Capital to get to Goku's side. Goku's eyes darted from Sora to the younger boy on Sora's back, and regret and anger filled Goku even more that Sora was here with him. He refocused back on Meruem, _Sora was right, there's nothing we can do to beat him. Not now. There's no chance. This is just like back then,_ Goku realized, and he clenched his teeth in more anger as he figured out what happened on the third day he was on Nexus. _After I left the fight with Boros, Meruem's power rose. I remember looking back, because his power suddenly got a boost higher than what it used to be, closer to what Boros' had been._

The idea that Meruem had even more power, after easily handling him earlier, after defeating his father, it told Goku that no matter what he tried, he would not win. _Sora, why did you come here? Why didn't you run? Why, didn't I listen to you?_

Sora rose his shaking hands, and he steadied them while slapping them together in front of his stomach. A flash of white light appeared in midair, and all the Saiyan warriors who had for weeks now despised the idea of a human on their mountain realized why Bardock was allowing him to stay. Sora no longer cared about the respect of the Saiyans though. He did not care about how they looked at him, or whether or not he would be allowed back on top of Mount Vegeta without Bardock there to ensure his safety. All Sora cared about in the moment, was surviving. A thousand thoughts raced through Sora's mind as they had been since he arrived on this crazy battlefield, but he was still at a loss for an escape route. Meruem's huge aura more powerful than anything any of them had ever felt pressed against him and made it hard to breath. His skin was paling as Meruem's eyes bored into his own.

"That looks like a Keyblade," Meruem said to the younger man in front of him. Goku's eyes opened a little wider as Meruem knew what Sora was holding, but Sora was not surprised that the Ant King knew. The look on Sora's face did confirm what the King said though, and he nodded while examining the human in front of him. "Disappointing, if you had not stood in my way earlier, I would have let you live." Meruem's tail swung behind his back, some blood splashing off the tip. Goku's eyes followed the drips of blood as they flew from Meruem's tail, and then his gaze shot back to Meruem as the Ant King was half the distance what he just was. Neither Goku nor Sora could move with the knowledge that Meruem was fast enough to end both of their lives before they even knew what had happened.

Despite all the other emotions Goku was feeling: anger, hate, despair, regret, guilt, those were all pushed to the side as fear finally hit him. He rushed at the King without being afraid, but an emotion Goku felt so rarely hit him stronger than he had ever felt it before. His other deaths had meant something. His sacrifice had saved the world not once, but twice, but here- here his death would mean nothing. He had rushed in without a plan, and he was now faced with imminent death. What made it so much worse was that Sora and Dash were with him, and if it were not for him, he knew they would have been far away already. It was the most frustrating feeling, and he was terrified that he was going to die with that being the last thing he felt, with actions that resulted in the deaths of his friends being his final ones.

"I was not surprised to hear that the legendary Son Goku was the son of the Saiyan King Bardock," Meruem said while looking into Goku's teal blue eyes. "It was in part thanks to you that I survived this long. If you had not saved my life on the third day, today's war never would have happened." Goku's frustration increased even more, and it showed on his face while Meruem kept talking, "I believe that given the opportunity, you would easily surpass your father in time. You will not have that opportunity. I wished to speak with both of you longer, but there are more pressing matters. This is a bad time, so you must all die here at my hand. You, the Keybearer, and the older brother…"

Sora knew it was coming. When Meruem started speaking to Goku, he knew that these were the last words the King was choosing to say to Goku. The tone of the King's words, the expression he could see on the side of Goku's face closer to him, he knew he had seconds to live. His mind was not fast enough to think up solutions with this much time to live. All his thoughts were jumbled as every idea tried pushing itself to the surface all at once. None of those ideas came out coherently, but instead Sora's subconscious, his instincts, and his reflexes were working together instead. A million options flew through Sora's mind in an instant as Meruem neared the end of his sentence listing those he was about to kill, finishing on Dash. Every single option Sora considered also came with the same result: his death, and the death of his two friends. The idea to fight was long since discarded, but he considered it again with his fingers twitching on the hilt of his Ultima Weapon. He held the most powerful of his Keyblades, a long sword-like weapon with a strange web of yellow lines going over the blade and curving out off of it in the same direction as the prongs, with a golden heart at the end with three spikes sticking off as the actual key part. Even with the Ultima Weapon in hand though, Sora knew he was too slow to even get a chance to dodge or parry the King's next attack. That idea vanished as soon as it came, Sora's twitching fingers getting sweatier and loosening around the weapon's hilt. Running was another idea that he had to discard because of being too slow. He also knew that if he even showed an inkling of wanting to run, Meruem would kill him on the spot. He would not be able to get back far enough to maybe have the Super Saiyan Gods help him, they were too close to the King at this point. Talking his way out sounded like a great option in his head, but he instinctually knew from the feeling of Meruem's aura, what he was saying, and his general expression, that Meruem was done listening and would not be convinced to let him live no matter what he said. Sora considered bargaining with information about the universe, just to give himself more time, but the King already knew about the Keyblade and Sora had no idea if the King was already so knowledgable that nothing he could say would matter. What made that option even less feasible was the fact that Sora himself did not really know any of those huge secrets, despite being the one who needed to know them the most. Time was running out, Meruem finished his sentence and was going to kill them. Goku knew it was coming, Sora could see regret taking over every other emotion on Goku's face as the Saiyan's eyes shifted once more in his direction. The idea to create a portal and get out of there once again came to Sora's mind, but Meruem was allied with the Organization. Meruem knew Xemnas and the Nobodies, Sora had no doubt that the second he tried to make a portal, Meruem would kill him. He was not great at making them in the first place, so it would definitely take more than a second to make, much longer than the fraction of a second it would take the King to kill him.

Fear flooded through Sora. He had to do something. Anything! All these ideas pulsed through his mind and more. Unlike Goku, he did not think last thoughts of regret, did not consider all he was losing, or how the Pokemon he had with him would be left without a master if he died. If he started thinking like that, it would mean that he had given up hope, and Sora never gave up. He had stood at the end of the multiverse, watching as countless worlds crumbled around him, with the knowledge that he might never escape that place, and he kept fighting until he had saved everything, every world. He opened his mouth. Sora's mouth opened, he pulled in a deep breath, he could see the King about to rush forward and murder them. The King saw his mouth open though, and Sora had the instinctual feeling that Meruem would let him start speaking. Although he felt that Meruem would ignore whatever he said, that the King would kill him anyway, he had a good enough read on the King that he figured Meruem might at least start listening to what he said. The Ant King knew what a Keybearer was, so Sora hoped that the King thought he was going to shout a secret to try and save himself, or some wise last words of a Keyblade Master. The idea he had prolonged his life another second, but Sora still had nothing to shout, and he was just about finished taking in his huge breath. Goku wondered what Sora was about to say, the final thing he was going to hear before they died. Everyone stared at the Keybearer, anticipating his final words as the King gave him a moment to speak.

Sora once again remembered that the Gods could not save him. He thought back to when he was on the bridge between Mount Gine and Mount Vegeta, when he considered that he was invincible because the Gods wanted him alive. The major flaw in that which he realized earlier was that the Gods sent their demigod children to save him. They did not just whisk him away to safety, they sent mortals to rush to his side and save him from the blizzard. This subconscious thought told Sora there was no point in shouting for help in the hope that the Gods might save him. He could not fight, could not run, could not disappear into a portal, could not rely on the Gods, could not bargain… there was nothing he could do. His mouth had started letting out noise as the start of the call for help, as he had considered it right at the end of taking his breath it, and for a moment a part of Sora considered just screaming, make his death unsightly. The sound coming out of his mouth started to take form as a word though, while Sora's eyes grew enormous and an idea came to his head so unique, so out of the blue, that he appeared shocked to the people looking at him. Meruem and Goku were confused at why Sora suddenly looked so shocked as he started shouting, and every single being around him had no idea what he was doing as he shouted only a single word, a word that made no sense to any of them there.

"CASTIEL!" Sora screamed at the top of his lungs.

The dark purple sky filled with a white flash of light. It was so bright and blinding that almost everyone had to close their eyes, excluding only Raditz, Shugesh, Fasha, Turles, and Sora. For everyone else, keeping their eyes open burned and they had to put their hands over their ears as a loud screeching sound started piercing their eardrums. Only those who could look on the true body of the angel were able to see it as the entire sky filled with his brilliant bright white light. Meruem forced open his eyes anyway, an enraged expression on his face as he stared forward at the beast that started burning at his eyes. _What is that?_

Goku put his hands to his ears, and he clenched his eyes shut in pain from the flash worse than any Solar Flare he had ever seen. He stayed still, wincing from the sudden flash and screech, but for some reason he felt the bottom of his feet touching down on something soft. He was no longer floating, but standing straight up on a piece of ground. As he stood there, he felt something touch his forehead that felt so familiar. He had felt it once before, not long after his fight against Luthor. He had been dying and nothing his friends could do could save him. The small amounts of healing magic Sora and his friends had hit him with were not good enough, and he could feel the life draining from him. He felt that touch though, that warm touch on his forehead that woke him up, to see that his stomach had sealed up completely. There was not even a scar left to remind him of what had happened. _This feeling, is the same as back then,_ Goku thought, as all the pain from wounds covering his body faded.

Sora stared straight forward at the figure in front of him whose celestial body started to take a more human form. All the fear that had filled Sora was replaced by immense relief, and his body took on the most relaxed posture he had ever had in his life as all that pressure lifted from him. He dropped down to his butt with Dash still limp on his back, then smiled up at the human vessel appearing in front of him. The screeching that people who could not see his type of angel heard when close to him disappeared, and Goku lowered his hands from his ears. The Saiyan man started opening his eyes, but everything was pure white and blurry in his vision and he had to rub his eyes for a while as it hurt too much to open them. Sora just kept smiling up at the man in a trench coat standing before him, and he finally whispered in a soft voice, "Thank you, Castiel."

In the moment before what would have been his death, Sora recalled an interaction he had had on a field outside of the ruins of Metropolis only a couple of days after the battle that destroyed the city.

 **"I have been trying to repay my debts while still on this world. I have been having particular trouble helping you though."**

 **"What debt do you owe me?"**

 **"Lelouch. I was controlled under that human's power for over a year's time." The guy in the trench coat continued walking around Sora, and he scratched his stubbly chin a little. "You see, I have already repaid Kirito, by saving him from one of Orochimaru's reanimations, and returning that poor soul to the grave. Goku and Timmy, the other two who also helped you save me, I restored to health when they would have died otherwise. But I do not know how to help the one who released me-"**

 **"You're the one who saved Goku and Timmy?!" Sora asked in amazement. The man talking to him leaned back in surprise that Sora suddenly interrupted him so loudly, then nodded his head a few times. "Wow, thank you. I don't know how to repay you."**

 **"Repay me?" the person questioned him. He shook his head, and said, "I have yet to help you."**

 **"That's not true," Sora said. The teen smiled at the older man in front of him and continued, "By helping my friends, you've already helped me."**

 **The guy in the trench coat stood there in silence for a few seconds. Finally he nodded his head and smiled, "I see why the Keyblade chose you."**

 **Sora finally lost his smile and gained a more confused look. "Who are you?" Sora asked, tilting his head to the side.**

 **"I am an angel of the Lord. My name, is Castiel," the man calling himself an angel saw Sora smile at him like he was skeptical of that claim. Castiel rose up his arms and clouds rolled in above him from out of nowhere. A shadow fell over them as the suns were blocked out by the darkening clouds. Sora's eyes were already wide, but now that they were in the shadows Sora could see why Castiel rose his arms, as lightning struck behind him and large dark wings illuminated in the flashes.**

 **"Wow!" Sora exclaimed. "That's, pretty cool."**

 **Just like that, the clouds started to disperse and the angel in front of Sora lowered his arms. "Sora, you may say my debt is fulfilled, but I still believe I should help you in some way." Castiel rose up his right hand and extended his index and middle fingers together towards the young boy's forehead. Sora rose his eyes to follow the fingers as they started to glow at the ends. "We will meet again," Castiel said, pressing his fingers to Sora's head and making the teenager himself glow bright white. Sora had to close his eyes as he was glowing too bright, and when he opened them back up the angel in front of him was gone.**

 **He looked left, and right, then lifted his gaze up to the sky above. "Then, 'till next time, I guess."**

Sora had already considered asking the Gods to help him, but he did not think that would work considering his history with them. An angel of the Lord however, the memory of Castiel offering Sora his help flooded Sora's mind with possibility. In that moment he recalled the storm clouds rolling in, the way in which Castiel appeared and disappeared. He thought of how Castiel healed wounds perfectly that his own healing magic had such little effect on. The angel said that they would meet again, but Sora did not want that meeting to be after he had died. He had figured that Castiel would consider his debt unpaid if he died before the angel ever got to save him. All of this attributed to why Sora chose 'Castiel' as his possible final word, and to how he somehow survived what had seemed like an unsurvivable situation. Castiel nodded once at Sora, then he vanished without a word.

Sora lifted his right hand, opening his mouth to tell the angel to wait because of all the questions he had. "Hold on," he started, but then he lowered his arm as there was nothing in front of him. Castiel was gone, and Sora got up to his feet to figure out where he was. He stood on the white ground, and he looked down at it with a confused expression since he could not make out where the floor started and the air stopped. Everything above him was pure white, as was the ground beneath his feet making it difficult to tell where he was. If Goku was not standing on level ground with him, it would have felt so much weirder, so he had at least one consolation as he steadied himself on the strange ground.

 _Where are we?_ Sora wondered. Then, he spun to his right as he felt something approaching.

At that same time, Goku was finally starting to be able to see around him, though he wondered if he was still blinded by the light considering how white everything around him was. The pain in his eyes had subsided like the rest of his physical pain though, and since he could see Sora just fine, he knew his vision was working. The idea of all his injuries vanishing made Goku's eyes suddenly open wide. Goku reached up to his face and brushed a hand over his left cheek, but the scabbed gash on it was gone along with every other injury on his body. In his head appeared his father's face with the same mark on it that had vanished from his own, and it made Goku frown for some reason that the wound was gone. He looked around him and for the first time he realized that he recognized the place they were in. _It looks just like…_ Goku thought with widening eyes, then he glanced up above the top of his head as if to check something.

As Goku looked above his head and gained a confused expression at what he saw, or the lack of something that he thought should be there, someone was walking towards the group standing in the white void. "Who are you?" Sora questioned the man who stopped in front of them.

The armored man had long blond hair and a viking helmet on. He wore a long red cape, and he looked into Sora's blue eyes with blue ones of his own. "My name is Thor. Welcome…" he greeted. Thor stood sideways and held one arm up to his side to reveal the huge expanse of white behind him. Far behind him there were some puffy clouds filling the void, and in the distance near those clouds Sora could see giant golden gates leading somewhere else. The people in front of Thor looked forward with wide eyes, and Thor finished, "To the world of the Gods."

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed. Thanks for reading. Just edited this giant chapter for 4 hours, then lost all my editions and had to start over :( so I've been editing this for about 6 hours now. Anyway, the war finally hits its climax and Meruem reaches a new peak to his power that shakes the world. Even with this new power though, his next prey escapes him. Goku and Sora (with Dash on his back) travel to the world of the Gods. Chapter 12 is not yet over with two more giant chapters to finish off the first Third of Heroes Will Rise. I had the Aebrith Saga of Nexus split into Thirds in my notes to separate the clusters of arcs between giant events like this, and the next two chapters finish off the first Third with a bang. What awaits our heroes in the world of the Gods? How will the War of the Saiyan Mountains end? What is Raditz thinking? Will Turles make his move? All of these questions and more will be answered in the next parts, starting with the next one: Nexus HWR 12.8 How It All Began. XD Hope you're ready. Here's a quick list before review responses:**

 **DBZ: Goku, Bardock, Raditz, Fasha, Shugesh, Tora, Grandpa Gohan, Dyspo, Medamatcha, Angila, Wings, Turles, Hit, Bergamo, Lavender, Basil, Trio De Dangers, Oozaru, Vegeta, Gine, Jeice, Burter, Ginyu, and a bunch of Saiyans whose names I made up (and all kinda sound like vegetables)**

 **One Piece: Charlotte Katakuri (Dogtooth), Caesar Clown, Rob Lucci**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Meruem, Pitou, Pouf, Youpi, Isaac Netero**

 **Asura's Wrath: Deus, Wyzen, Augus**

 **Final Fantasy: Sephiroth, Cloud**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Sora, Kairi, Keyblade, Ansem, Xemnas**

 **Incredibles: Dash**

 **Marvel: Thor, Flint Marko (Sandman)**

 **Supergirl: Indigo**

 **Flash: Savitar, Grodd**

 **Seekers: Toklo, Lusa, Kallik, Ujurak (a book series I read when I was younger about some bears)**

 **Brother Bear: Koha, Kenai**

 **Supernatural: Castiel**

 **SAO: Kirito**

 **Fairly Oddparents: Timmy**

 **DC Comics: Kryptonians, Luthor**

 **Also starring technology from Black Panther (Dogtooth's shield) and Ant Man (Hank Pym's size-altering devices)**

 **Percy Jackson Universe (Rick Riordan books): Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Magnus Chase, Athena**

 **-Might be some more in there, so let me know if you're wondering where a character's from in the comments below! Review time:**

Limit-Breaking chapter 84 . Feb 2

Man I just have so many things I want to say but I don't know what i should say first, ok I will start with goku vs meruem. I honestly thought goku was going to be killed off by meruem in this chapter, no lies from me, I legit thought that was it for goku. But bardock saved him so thank god that happen. Also wow when you said goku was well known in this world you weren't kidding and i never thought goku took part in the cataclysm.  
Just curious though after reaching this point so far in the story, from nexus to this story, i just want to know is there any characters you regret killing off after getting this far. Also will you actually be ending this story and continue it with a third volume or will just continue on with nexus heroes will rise like so on.  
Also are you aiming for the longest fanficion story ever or no cause i say you should since the longest fanfic is a smash fanic which is probaly 4 million words. Adding both of your stories you are at 2 million words.  
Also im just going to say it, goku what can you do at this point. I respect your words but you don't stand a chance against the ant king at this point just let your father bardock take care of the rest.  
Also interesting fight with the other saiyans it was pretty damn interesting to see their fights and the way dyspo was handling his fight was badass in my opinion. But i still say ginyu will probably use change now on the super saiyan gods even if he trained netero body and he doesn't want to switch it ,a saiyan god is still way above that.  
Also sorry for another long review but i just have so many things to say, Like shugesh and fasha showing up and dodoria actually being there just had me laughing so hard cause dodoria knows he fucked if he get's caught.  
Either way calm down with the hype we can only take in so much hype all at once, But either way awesome job with this chapter you really are doing an amazing job with this story and im just getting more invested to it at this point and I look forward to the next chapter.

 **Goku escapes death once again when it looks like he might just be at his end! Thanks for the review. The Cataclysm flashback will come one of these days, and since I've really been hyping it up with all the references it'll for sure be a good one. Anyway, I think it would be awesome if Nexus became the longest Fanfic out there, kinda disappointed now that I did not just keep it continuous from the first one, but hey, what are you gonna do? The way Nexus is planned out, it would def reach over 4 million words if I continued it all the way to the end, which at this point I still plan to do. Bardock agreed with you and sent Goku away so that he could have his fight with Meruem in peace. Glad you enjoyed the chapter and I hope this one didn't have too much hype for you to handle. XD**

chapter 84 . Feb 2

Please make goku ssj4

 **I wonder... Thanks for the review!**

joebob323 chapter 84 . Feb 2

Hahaha, more thanks should go to you for cranking out such long chapters so fast. Your stories are the longest I've ever read on fanfiction, so kudos to you! Do you haaaave to leave us off on such a cliffhanger though?! Also, if Jiren is introduced, what would his powerscale be? Over Bardock? As always though, I cannot wait for the next chapter!

 **A quick month break between these last two chapters... haha I'll try to get some more out at my usual quicker pace these next couple of weeks, but I just got a new job and I've got school stuff to do too, so no promises. Hope the month long cliffhanger wasn't too bad! As for Jiren, I'd try to power scale him at what he would be at, but I don't yet know his age so I don't know. That's something I always focus on, considering where I took characters from in their universes' timelines. I originally had planned for Hit to not have his Time Skip perfected during this arc, but when I took a better look at his character I saw that he was 1000 years old or something, so it being 10 years before DBS would not really cause that big a difference on his power. Anyway, gotta find a part to add him in on before we can find the answer to that XD. Thanks for the review!**

asdf chapter 84 . Feb 2

Fuck yeah! Adult Goku is back baby!  
On another note: I don't think you should make Jiren show up yet. He is way too op! So are any God of Destructions with the whole hakai shit and stuff.  
Deus appeared in this chapter, so does that mean Asura, the man with more anger than the Saiyans and the Hulk combined, show up? Seriously though that guy gets way too angry.  
It's a shame that Frieza died so early in this story especially after seeing him now in the Tournament of Power. Toppo may be a God of Destruction but Frieza is the one true God of Sass. Maybe Majin Buu will show up sometime. Hmm...  
If there is anyone I'd like to see appear again, it would be Saitama. I love how you've added stronger enemies to make us forget about him. But you and I both know that he's been training a lot harder since he met Goku. When he does show up, I know he's gonna show everyone just how to throw a punch.  
Sorry if my review was too scatterbrained, I was just typing everything and anything that came up in my mind. Anyways, it is good to see you updating again because this story is amazing. Keep up the great work!

 **Goku returning to normal was the first scene I wrote in all of Chapter 12. I think I had it written before I even started posting chapter 6 or something. I had the idea of the Pirate Queen's crew and allies fighting against the Neo Navy to return Goku back to normal, and I wrote that scene many many months ago, and only a while after that I decided where I was going to put it. Anyway, Asura's Wrath is coming out in full force this chapter with Wyzen and Augus showing up too. They were better fighters than Sergei and Olga in the game, and it showed here as they take on the Super Saiyan Gods with the Guardians. Hope to see Asura soon too... ;). As for Saitama, who knows when he'll appear? Same with Majin Buu? So many great characters hidden away on Nexus with great potential, but we'll see... As for the second review, won't post it above, but yeah Toppo kind of disappointed me too. Thanks for the reviews!**

kg833998 chapter 83 . Feb 7

my question was are you planning to add my hero academia and or salior moon too this and also is there gonna be any pokemon from kalos and unova and alola because so far you have only shown the first 4 and only lunala and because lunala is in nexas does that mean lille is on nexas somewhere too ?

 **Yes, no, maybe, I don't know. Yes Hero Academia. No Sailor Moon (as I have never watched nor plan to). I might add more from Kalos and Unova, if I get into those games or the show any time soon. I don't know who Lillie is, but if I play those Pokemon games/ watch the new show, I might find out.**

kg833998 chapter 27 . Feb 13

amazing chapter as usual also WHERE IS MY GIRL AKAME YOU DONT HAVE TO SAY WHERE SHE IS JUST THAT SHE IS ALIVE PLEASE

does sora have all the keyblades that you could get in kh2 including the Ultima weapon

you can hold off the part where grey meets gajeel and Levy again cuz I really don't want to see Levy hear about Lucy cuz we know it's going to be an amazing scene it's also going to be a really heartbreaking scene also can you point out when for miraculous happened during Nexus is it before the ending or is it after the ending also in my last review i said i hope bitch sensei and kayno were sill alive when i said kayno i meant the green haired candy loving girl not a teacher

 **Thanks for all these reviews. Akame _might_ be alive *smirks evilly*. As for your second question, I believe that was answered this chapter XD. Haven't seen much of Gajeel and Levy for a while, wonder how long it will be before they finally meet up with their fellow Fairy Tail buddies? As for Bitch sensei and Kayano... also not going to tell you. No spoilers! Sorry for all the vague or negative responses, but I hope you enjoyed the chapter anyway!**

Jokering chapter 84 . Feb 14

Finally caught up with this story, took me a while. Gotta say, i really enjoy what you've been doing, this is without a doubt THE best crossover story i've ever read; the character interactions, the dialogue, all of that feels loyal to the source material, and when it doesnt I can see it as result of living trapped in a wild and unpredictable world where you have to adapt to survive. My favorite aspect is the pacing, you really take your time setting the plot lines, heck the most of the current plot for this was set and touched upon countless times in Nexus. I really love the over the top fight scenes that are properly described as if they came straight from an anime.

 **Thank you so much. It's great to hear something like this, as you touched on stuff I focus on when writing every chapter. I tried to make them like themselves from their sources, and if they're not, it's because of living on Nexus for so long. Really, everything you said just made me smile, so thanks again. As for Ginyu vs Dyspo, I agree that it is a bit of a stretch to put Netero's level on Dyspo's, but it was because Netero was from the HxH world and had that speed, that I felt Ginyu taking his body would make the fastest move in all of HxH so much faster. Anyway, don't worry about taking up too much space in here and comment away if you wish, 'cause I'll sometimes just paraphrase it like this^. Thanks one last time, because you really did make my day when I read that comment. Hope you enjoyed the new chapter!**

cyber chapter 84 . Feb 13

cool chapter and I knew the some of the seven deities will appear, I wonder where asura is, but mostly I like the chapter, and I'm glad to see captain jack sparrow, cant wait to see whats next.

not trying to spoil anything but if natsu is trying to find igneel, it would be cool if deathwing was involved

i forgot to say happy valentines

 **Glad more people than I thought have seen/played Asura's Wrath. (I really just watched all the cutscenes one day on YouTube). Asura still hasn't shown, but even more of the 7 deities appear this chapter. Jack comes back and brings Goku back to adult form. And don't worry, I've finished the Fairy Tail manga so no spoilers for me there. Deathwing could be a cool addition and I have added WoW characters before so who knows? Happy Valentines Day to you too, and thanks for the reviews! Thanks again to everyone who reviewed, favorited, followed, or just read this chapter. Big things are happening on Nexus, hope you're ready... and 'til next time!**


	86. Nexus HWR 12-8 How It All Began

**Nexus HWR 12.8 How It All Began:**

Thor walked in front of Sora and Goku as they treaded across the white floor of this strange place. All around them was bright white nothing. In the sky high above, the white light surrounding them grew brighter, and although the place originally looked empty, there were big fluffy white clouds in the horizon. The God of Thunder walking ahead of them in the direction of those clouds spoke in a deep tone to the men behind him. "It is time, Keybearer, Super Saiyan, that you learn how this all came to be."

Goku had Dash under his right armpit and he heard a moan and looked down at the kid, but Dash's eyes were closed and it looked like he was having a nightmare. Sora glanced to his left side and looked at Dash as well, then turned to Thor and in an angry voice snapped, "Tell me!" Thor turned, somewhat surprised at the tone of the teen's voice. Sora was just thinking of what Dash's screams earlier sounded like though, and the sight of his friend's little brother's body. "Why? Why did such a world need to exist? What was the point?!"

Thor sighed as he looked at the boy, then turned to the man next to him, "Normally, this would wait until one of your people becomes a Super Saiyan God, however, even those who came before you have not been told as much as what I am going to tell you now." Thor looked back at Sora, "For you need to understand the gravity of this situation, if you are to save us."

"Then tell me," Sora said, crossing his arms over his chest. He darted his gaze around but did not see Castiel anywhere around him anymore, not that it was the most pertinent thing on his mind.

Thor nodded and they did not look like they were going to continue walking. He took a deep breath and began, "A long time ago, there was but one world. On this world was an abundant amount of light, so much so that everyone was happy. They all loved this light, but some loved it too much. They began hoarding it for themselves, fighting over it, and darkness was born in their hearts."

Sora winced and he grabbed the side of his head. "Ughh," he groaned and stumbled to his right side. A memory flashed in his mind of long ago, only it was a memory he had no recollection of. "I've, heard this, before," Sora muttered, opening back up his eyes and looking back at Thor. The God seemed surprised, but he got even more so as Sora continued for him, "'The darkness spread, swallowing the light and many people's hearts.' Right?"

Thor nodded his head and continued anyway as it seemed that what Sora heard was only a tale passed down through time. "Yes, the darkness spread from those who became greedy and coveted the light, to cover the entire world. It was encompassed by darkness, and the world disappeared." Thor paused then looked towards an unconscious Dash, "But there were fragments of light that remained, surviving in that darkness. Those lights survived, in the hearts of children." Goku lifted up his eyebrows and looked towards Sora wondering if this was all making sense to him but saw Sora nodding so he shrugged and just stayed quiet for now.

"The children of this lost world gathered together and with their lights, they made a new world; a new, universe, some might say." Thor turned around and he continued in a darker voice, "However, when all that light was in a single place, it brought the darkness to it again. The children of this new world had just created a new universe together, but as the darkness reappeared on their world, they realized that something had to change. For when their old world fell, all those who fell with it made _it_ even stronger."

"What is _it_?" Sora questioned with narrowed eyes.

" _It_ , _is_ the Darkness. The children of old and those on the original world believed themselves to be the first creations in all existence. That is why they did not see the Darkness coming, they had no idea of its existence. When their world fell, the Darkness absorbed all of the light inside it, in all the people who were corrupted by the darkness that slipped through the cracks. The Darkness was stronger than those children, so when it came for them in their new world, they did what they could to preserve themselves. They scattered. All of their light in a single place drew the Darkness to them in thousands of years, a short time for the children."

"Wait wait," Sora shook his head confusedly. "They were still children, after thousands of years?"

Thor nodded and answered, "Time in the way you imagine it was created by those children." Sora gained a confused expression on his face matching the one Goku had for the last several minutes. "I'll explain," Thor promised him and he looked the teenager in the eyes. "These children I speak of, are what we call, the Originals. They are Gods, however greater than that, they are the first Gods. They created everything, they created the cosmos, the multiverse, the vast number of realities that you already know exist from your time on Nexus. The Originals split apart from each other to keep their lights hidden from the Darkness that would not be able to locate each of them so easily. If it took thousands of years for the Darkness to find a world with the light of all the countless children on it, they believed it would be an eternity before it could find a single one of them again."

That seemed to make sense so Sora nodded his head, but he was still confused and full of questions. Before he could ask however, Thor continued his story, "The Originals found themselves in new universes, bored and alone without any of their comrades with them. They had the power to create universes, something that on their own world was so common that it was like a human building sandcastles on a beach. They would create, and destroy worlds, but it used to be only a part of their lives. Once separated from the other Originals however, the creation of universes became more complex. These Gods were tired of infinite boredom, living in eons in isolation, so they created the laws of physics, and made planets that resembled their original world, and created beings that looked like themselves to resolve them of their eternity alone."

Thor bowed his head a little and continued, "Other Gods were created, most of whom had no knowledge of the truth behind their universe. The Original of my own universe never took part in the happenings of our worlds. She created a hierarchy and let things take their own course. I only learned of the Darkness, and the Originals' eternal struggle against it once I was brought to this world, to watch over Nexus with all the other worlds' Gods."

"And that brings us back to- Why Are We Here?" Sora sounded serious and he understood enough of what Thor said so far that he now believed he was ready to hear whatever Thor had to tell him.

Thor nodded and continued to the boy, "The Originals did not know it, but the worlds they created, however small in their scheme of things, were more important than they knew. By creating beings in their own images, they created more light. Before this, they had no idea that light could be created. It was abundant in their original world, and since then they had only seen it grow dimmer. Even in themselves they could feel the light that they had in them slowly disappearing after millions, billions, and trillions of years. But on these worlds, worlds that they created, light formed inside the bodies of individual life forms. These humans and other beings of light were not as powerful as the Originals, and thus the light did not shine as bright. It was so dim in comparison, that most of the Originals did not see the need to destroy their creations."

"Destroy?" Sora questioned harshly. "You're talking about them annihilating entire worlds?" Thor nodded his head, and Sora shouted, "How could they even think of doing something like that?!"

"Because," Thor responded without hesitation, "by not doing so, they led the Darkness straight to them." Sora's eyes widened and Thor continued darkly, "The Darkness that had been searching for them, located one of the children of old after another. The Darkness existed before their original world, and its sole purpose seemed to be returning all of existence back to that nothingness. It was everything, and nothing, and everywhere, and nowhere, all at the same time, and at no time at all." Sora tried to imagine all of that but he found it impossible. The blond God in front of him could see the frustration on Sora's face, and he added, "I understand. I myself was angered when I first heard this story. It frustrated me to learn that my existence was no more important than…"

"That's not it," Sora said and he lifted his darkened gaze back to Thor's. "Your existence is as important as any. I'm mad that these 'Original' Gods you're talking about seem to think they have the right to destroy people and worlds in order to escape from the Darkness. Sure, it sounds scary, but that doesn't mean they should kill people so that their lights go out!"

"You don't understand," Thor said with a shake of his head. "With each world the Darkness discovered, it grew stronger, and stronger. The majority of Gods would not destroy their creations, even though they were full of light and leading the Darkness straight to them. They tried fighting the Darkness, but more and more of it always slipped through the cracks. It would start off small, a manifestation of Darkness appearing and dragging others into it, or Heartless, emerging on the surface of the world. The Heartless killed people and dragged others into the Darkness, which created more darkness as beings of light saw loved ones killed in front of them and bore hatred and resentment towards the ones who did it. Once the Gods saw their creations being taken by the Darkness, many tried to escape as there was nothing they could do against it. They attempted to flee, but the walls between universes were made to be incredibly strong so as to prevent the Darkness from getting in. The Originals needed to make those walls stronger than themselves, since admittedly, the Darkness was stronger than them and they knew it from the start. So trillions of trillions of years after universes were created, the Originals who had themselves become weaker over their time idly watching over their universes, could not escape the boundaries of their own domains. Many fell to the Darkness, making it even stronger, strong enough to break down universal walls and seep into each and every world. And it was not hard for it to take hold in those worlds, as with the light that was born in the worlds the Originals created, darkness formed in the people of those worlds as well. The Darkness used the dark hearts of people on these worlds to make them greedier, more lustful, more full of rage and hatred."

The God took a pause and he shook his head around, "Which brings me to you, Keybearer." Sora tilted his head in confusion as he did not see how that brought them to him at all. "The Gods themselves could not destroy the Darkness, nor any of its creations. However, when the Keyblade cuts through the darkness, it releases the souls, and the light, of those taken by it. You may have seen beings on this world who you thought had fallen to the darkness," above Thor's head appeared images of people Sora fought on other worlds, _Maleficent, Clayton…_ "But they were freed by the Keyblade. The Keyblade is the only weapon able to face the Darkness, and why that is, not even the Original Gods know. I was told that the Keyblade warriors existed even on their original world, that it was they who fought the Darkness and saved the children full of light from their falling world. Every generation for eons Keybearers have been chosen. They existed through all of eternity, warriors who could wield the Keyblade and fight the Darkness. Warriors chosen by the light, to be its Guardians."

"The Guardians of Light," Sora whispered.

"Exactly," Thor responded.

"So you're telling me," Sora began slowly, with a bead of sweat dripping down the left side of his face, with a twitching lip and shaking hands. "It's my job, to stop the Darkness? After trillions of generations of Keybearers before me failed? And the Darkness has been growing stronger that entire time, right? And something even worse must have happened if- Wait," Sora shook his head around, "You never explained why Nexus was created."

"Hmm," Thor hummed while nodding. He turned and started walking which made Sora and Goku follow behind him as there was nothing else to do in this empty white world. "Honestly, I do not believe I was told the whole truth. The Originals I have met so far are secretive, they keep amongst each other which I can understand after eternities apart. I met the Original Thor, who my universe's Original based me off of. That was common through the universes, to make Gods above their other creations, and make those Gods look like specific friends of theirs from the Originals' world. It seems my brother Loki was quite popular on the original world as many universes had a version of-"

"What. Is. Nexus?" Sora asked, stopping Thor's rant and making the God of Thunder sigh again. Goku lifted his eyebrows as he heard mention of Loki, but he did not bring up how he had met a God with that name in Skypiea after Sora snapped.

The God spoke quietly as they neared the big puffy clouds that seemed so much farther away a minute ago. "Many of the Originals saw their walls breaking. Universes were falling one after another. As a Keybearer, you were supposed to be the one of only ones able to travel between universes. Even the Gods themselves could not escape their own domains, many built several universes in their own realm to be able to jump between different ones, but they were never able to escape their own boundaries that they set when they first separated themselves from the other Originals. However, more and more people began learning how to travel between universes, it was an ominous sign to the Gods when mortals could hop through universes utilizing the power of darkness. Most Gods had separated themselves from their worlds though, setting arbitrary rules declaring that they would not take part in mortal affairs. I myself broke these rules and went down to fight with humans against many of their enemies, but then, soon before Nexus was created, a being appeared on my world's Earth, a being who could use powers I had never imagined before. Maleficent," Thor said in a hateful tone, and Sora nodded in recognition, "she appeared on our world, plotting to bring darkness to it. She does not understand what she was doing, as all she wants is power, but her thirst for power grows stronger with the Darkness's influence, subconsciously telling her to travel across the cosmos, bringing it along with her everywhere, weakening the walls of each world when she does, searching for the Keyholes that exist in every world, Keyholes that are created as soon as beings of light come to be on those worlds."

"Thor, just get to-" Sora began.

"It was because the worlds grew so weak," Thor continued over Sora, as he was just about at the point already. "That Nexus was made," he finished. They were now at the edge of the big puffy clouds, and Thor turned to the two behind him. Behind the God was a tall golden gate that stretched between two paths between the clouds, and those gates started opening out towards them as Thor stood there. "I will now take you to the Originals, who wish to tell you not only why Nexus was made the way it was, but also what your role is in saving it, and in saving the rest of the multiverse."

"And what's my role in that?" Goku asked. "Because I just really want to fight the King."

"Hahaha," Thor laughed. "You will have the chance for that Son Goku, I do believe that."

Thor turned back around and he led them towards the gates into a big puffy world of clouds. There were soft white clouds on their sides, some of those clouds had white doorways on them with nameplates over the doors. Sora looked up high and saw smaller clouds above, some with waterfalls on them, and he saw a few children jumping off a cloud and sliding down the waterfall. "What is this place?" Sora questioned.

"This is the entrance, of Heaven," Thor replied.

As Thor mentioned it, a little boy in the crook of Goku's arm was opening his eyes. Dash's vision was blurry as he stared at the floor beneath his face. He heard what Thor just said, and though confused at what was happening, his head lifted and he stared forward with giant eyes. _Heaven?_ Dash thought.

Goku looked down at the boy in his arm. "Dash," Goku said, and the other two looked down at Goku's hand as well as the Saiyan started lowering the boy. On their sides, the gates clanked to a stop after fully opening, and then they started closing behind them. As soon as Goku lowered Dash's feet to the ground, the small boy with blond hair sped off of the Saiyan's hand. Sora leaned back in surprise as well as from being hit by a strong wind from how fast Dash started sprinting, and even Thor who tried to reach for the boy found his hand gripping at nothing.

"Well," Thor said, turning his head and following a trail of white through the gate of Heaven and far inside. "That may be a problem," he said and scratched the back of his head.

"I know where he's going, or what he's looking for at least," Sora said and took a step farther past the closing gates. He glanced up in the sky where he saw the children playing around on clouds before, but the ones he saw earlier were no longer near the waterfalls he could see. _Wonder if Dash saw those kids up there? It would be a good place to start looking for him…_

"Actually," Thor began, and the other two looked back at the muscular blond God. "Dash would not have been allowed to hear what the Originals intend to tell you. Do not worry, however," Thor began in a reassuring tone. "We are in Heaven. Nothing can happen to him up here except getting in trouble. Heaven has innumerous guards. It is well protected."

"What happens if Dash gets in trouble?" Goku asked.

"The angels or other guards will bring him to us. Everyone knows you are here so they are sure to catch him soon," Thor chuckled to himself.

Goku and Sora looked at each other, wondering what Thor meant by that last part. The God kept leading them forward, but he lifted off the ground all of a sudden and started lifting up into the air. Sora glanced the direction Dash ran off to one more time, then he lifted his gaze and followed Goku up through the air after Thor. They flew up and up, past huge puffy clouds with scattered people on them, or beings with big white wings. In one direction Sora spotted what looked like a wall, until he saw it lift up. His jaw dropped as he spotted a foot take a step away from him, moving so far with a single step that whatever giant God it belonged to was gone from his sight, and the wall that was actually the God's leg was replaced by more white nothingness.

Thor lifted and lifted, then he lowered down onto a cloud platform so high up that everything above them was almost too blinding to look at. It felt like it should have been impossible to stare straight at because of its brightness, but Sora and Goku kept lifting their gazes and staring into the brightness that did not hurt their eyes at all. Goku felt something strange in front of him after looking up, and he lowered his eyes down to Thor's back. He leaned to the left to look around the blond God in his way, and Goku's eyes shot open huge at the sight of the figure standing ten yards in front of Thor. The man had on a purple gi, he had green skin, and two antennae stuck off the top of his head. "Piccolo!" Goku shouted, running around Thor and towards the Namekian he had not seen in years.

"Goku," Piccolo greeted back, though he just nodded while keeping his arms crossed. He did not seem as shocked or excited as Goku did, but he did smile when Goku ran up to him. "It is good to see you," Piccolo said.

"You too," Goku replied. His eyes then lifted above Piccolo, and he sighed but kept smiling as he saw a ring floating above his head.

The sight of the halo surprised Sora though as the younger man walked up to them. "Are you…" Sora began, but he did not know if it was rude to finish that question.

"Dead? Yeah," Piccolo replied. Piccolo kept staring at the teenager for a few seconds, then he turned back to Goku and said, "After I died though, I became one of heaven's guardians." Goku's eyebrows lifted up in some confusion, and Piccolo explained, "Along with the lower Gods and the angels, there are countless warriors protecting this world of the Gods. Heaven's host protects all of those who have passed on and come here."

As Piccolo mentioned it, he was looking into Goku's eyes trying to get the man to catch his hint. Thor was standing to the side, not saying anything though he did glance up at the brightest sky above hesitantly. Goku kept nodding for a few seconds, gears slowly turning in his head. Sora started thinking about all those people he knew who had died, but then he spun to Goku as he realized why Goku's old friend was bringing it up. Goku's eyes popped open wide and he smiled, asking, "Is ChiChi here?"

Piccolo nodded his head. Goku got a hesitant look on his face like there was something else he wanted to ask, but did not know if he could. He frowned, and Piccolo decided to just add something without being asked, "She and your third child are-"

"I have another-" Goku started excitedly, then cut himself off with a confused look.

"The soul of your child had not been fully formed yet, but after her death, ChiChi nurtured that incomplete soul. She is happy, they both are." Piccolo told Goku with a small smile on his face.

Goku smiled back, and the bad mood he had been in for a little while now shifted. "Where is she?" Goku asked. Piccolo's smile faded, and Goku gained a quizzical expression, "What? Can't I see her?"

Thor spoke up this time, "Your wife does not currently have a physical form like Piccolo. The majority of souls in heaven are in ethereal states. They can become more solid, and move around to travel the heavens if they so wish, but most of the time they are intangible. On our way here, we passed several doors on the sides of clouds." Sora and Goku nodded as they each remembered that. "Behind each door you would not see anything, but the soul inside would take shape before you as they were once again connected to this world." Sora tilted his head to the side in confusion. Goku did the same. Thor rubbed his forehead and tried to think of a better way to explain it, but then his eyes darted back up to the sky above them that seemed even brighter now.

"The truth is, Son Goku," Thor began, looking Goku back in the eyes again. "You can see your wife and child right now, but if you choose to do so, you will not be allowed to return to the world of the living. Your presence here in heaven is already causing strife amongst the Gods. If you stay any longer than what they deem necessary, they will not let you leave with Sora."

"What about Dash?" Sora brought up, a nervous tone in his voice. "He's running around right now, so won't he-"

"As I said before, Dash would not be allowed to hear to what you and Goku are about to be told. The Originals instructed me to keep him away from here, but he ran off before I could have my comrades take him off your hands," Thor explained.

 _Wait a second, how did they have all the time for this?_ Sora thought with a confused expression on his face. _He already got orders about taking us to the Originals, and what to do with Dash, before he came to talk to us? That was like, five seconds after Castiel brought us here! Unless, did they know I would call for Castiel's help?_ As Sora opened his mouth to snap something at Thor, four beams of white light surrounded the four of them standing there. Piccolo looked down at his hands in surprise, then over at Thor who was looking at him in some surprise as well.

"It looks like you will be coming along with us Piccolo," Thor said.

 _I'm meeting the Originals?_ Piccolo thought, lifting his gaze to stare straight up through the white beam of light surrounding him.

"'Coming with us?'" Sora repeated in confusion as he looked around at the strange light all around him. "Where are we- ah!" Sora's feet lifted off the ground and he started shooting up into the sky in the beam, flailing around a little as he tried to get control over his body. Goku looked up in the direction he was flying, and he tried flying up through the beam but could not speed up from the already fast pace the beam was lifting him at. Although it did not feel like anything was touching him, he tried moving in all directions but could only move his limbs, not use them or his ki to ease away from the center of the light column.

"We will be there in a few seconds," Thor said while looking towards the beams Sora and Goku were in. "Remember to be respectful before them. The Originals created everything, but just as easily they can use their powers to destroy. Don't forget…" The light pillars brought them so high up that they entered the brightest part of the sky where they could no longer see even the other tubes of light around them. They lost sight of each other, and then the four of them popped up on top of a flat white surface that stretched in every direction endlessly, but above that white ground nothing else was white anymore. The air around them was not dark, but it had no bright light in it either. Colors just filled the air, creating a sky of bright reds and yellows, blues and greens, pinks, purples, and all the colors in between. Those colors lit up every once in a while, and sound came out of random areas in the air where small spheres of light floated, or shimmers emerged that faded just as fast as they appeared.

Two swirls of color lowered down from the air. "Originals," Sora whispered, as those swirls turned into human-looking beings a hundred meters in front of them. Sora looked down where they were descending to, and his eyes opened wide at the sight of a familiar angel in a trench coat. He opened his mouth to shout over, but Thor held up a palm for Sora to stay quiet. Goku wondered who the figure in the trench coat over there was, but he was more focused on those two beings who appeared right in front of Castiel.

 _I wonder if they're strong,_ Goku thought, eying the beings whose kis he could not feel unlike Thor and Piccolo who did have noticeable, and powerful, energies.

"Good work Castiel," the man who appeared in front of the angel said. He patted a hand down on Castiel's left shoulder and nodded at him with a small smile on his face. Then the figure looked beyond Castiel where the other man who appeared was already looking. "You may leave us now," he added, and Castiel nodded his head before vanishing in an instant.

Goku's eyes darted around as he did not see where the angel moved to. Sora's eyes stayed focused straight ahead though towards the two figures looking back at him. The Original next to the one who thanked Castiel said in a scolding tone, "You should not let your creations overstep their bounds. We gave no command."

"We also gave no command _not_ to save the Keybearer, and his friends," the other Original countered. The one who seemed in a better mood lifted a hand and motioned towards himself, "Come, Sora, we need to have a talk."

Sora started walking forward. Goku walked towards the Gods as well on Sora's left side, and Piccolo and Thor followed behind more cautiously like they were anticipating an order to go somewhere else. Sora stared at the God who beckoned him with a curious gaze, thinking on the conversation he had with the other Original. _He's Castiel's creator?_ "So you know my name, what's yours?" Sora began as he drew close to the man. The guy looked like a normal human in his mid-forties, a scruffy dirty-blond goatee on his face and some short curly hair of the same color.

As the God opened his mouth to respond, voices shouted down from above. **"How disrespectful!"**

 **"Thor! Why did you not explain to the Keybearer how to address us?"**

Another, calmer voice spoke from a different part of the sky where a blue swirl of light flashed, **"This is a Keybearer, after all, should we not be the ones acting more respectful in his presence?"**

 **"If it were any other human, I'd smite-"**

 **"That's your answer for everything, Mars."**

 **"You cannot smite the Keybearer! He is the only one who can save us!"**

"Excuse me!" Sora shouted, and the voices echoing loudly all around them simmered down. Thor and Piccolo gawked at Sora's back, and the other Original standing next to Castiel's creator lifted his dark eyebrows up a little. He had jet black hair smooth and long falling behind his head, and he wore a black leather jacket and dark pants to match unlike the friendlier God's green jacket and khakis.

Sora looked back at the smiling God who chuckled at how Sora shouted at all his brethren. The man saw that Sora was still waiting for him to answer, and finally he was able to respond, "My name, is Chuck."

"Chuck?" Sora asked, wondering if that was really his name. The God nodded back at him, and Sora took a deep breath before taking one more step forward and stopping. He stared straight into Chuck's eyes and said, "Well Chuck, I've got a whole lot of questions. And I feel like you've got the answers." Chuck nodded to show Sora that he was not wrong in that feeling. Sora smiled a little, feeling waves of relief wash over him as Chuck gave him an affirmative nod. All his time on Nexus, the cryptic messages from King Mickey, from Saix right before his death, he had so much he wanted to know but no one ever had enough answers for him. "Great," Sora began. "Then tell me, how do I save the world?"

* * *

Dash sprinted through an empty white nothingness for minutes before seeing something other than puffy clouds. Up ahead of the boy he could see what looked like tall palm trees sticking out of the white ground. A closer look at the ground told him that it was getting less white though, turning into a more beige color, and the flat ground had started to get coarser like he was running over sand. Then he spotted the people, and the bright blue ocean, and the distant clouds floating above the ocean that people were jumping off of. Everyone was smiling. Everyone he could see was happy.

 _It's paradise,_ Dash thought, slowing down a little as he took everything in. He was still far back on the beach, but he came to a stop near a palm tree and looked out around it towards the water's edge where he saw some children playing around. The kids had halos over their heads, they were making sandcastles and having cloud-ball fights which Dash thought was super cool. He watched as a kid reached up to a puffy cloud floating near him, and though the cloud was too high above his head to reach, a piece of the cloud just floated down to his hand without the kid saying anything. He kept calling out to his other dead friends, while morphing the cloud into a ball like someone would snow, then he threw it at his friend who got hit by the ball and stumbled back laughing at the feeling of a cloud bursting into him.

Dash walked out from behind the tree and took a step forward, and then the distance between him and those children doubled. The blond boy's eyes widened and he started running forward, but as he halved the distance to the kids, the length between them doubled again. He sped up more, getting closer to the kids this time, but the amount of distance suddenly put between them got larger this time, then another increment happened even faster. "What's going-" Dash began as he pushed harder into his run, then he skid to a stop as hard as he could as two figures dropped down in front of him.

"Man you are hard to catch," one of the men said as he looked down at the kid before him. The guy had on red and silver armor covering his legs, fists, shoulders, and most of his torso, as well as a silver helmet on his head with golden ears sticking up on the sides of it similar to the gold spikes sticking out behind his silver boots. The Pegasus Saint, Seiya, took a step forward towards the boy and said, "Now let's go kid. You can't be over here."

Dash darted his eyes from the man in front of him to the other. The other man had longer and darker hair than his brown-haired comrade, and he wore light blue armor the color of diamonds that covered his entire body. He also had on a helmet, but his had the appearance of a dragon's head with glowing red eyes pointed down at him. Shiryu, the Dragon Saint, looked down at the boy with some pity in his eyes. "We know why you are here, Dash Parr," he said.

"Then let me pass!" Dash shouted, before the guy could continue with the 'but' that Dash heard coming. Dash sprinted to his left, but the two men ran right to block him off. Dash was surprised by how fast the two were, and he sped up even more before curving to run forward again.

Seiya grit his teeth and thought about what they were told about the kid. _I get his pain, but he can't be up here. If we let him get past, they're going to keep him here forever._ He sped up and shouted, "Pegasus Flying Kick!" He leapt up in the air and extended his right leg, and he shot forward and slammed his right foot into Dash's side right as the kid was about to sprint past him. Dash felt the heavy steel boot imbed in his side and he gasped in pain, flying off the kid and shooting far away into the white void. He shot so far off that the ground below him turned white again, and everything in every direction was pure white once more with only scattered clouds to give him any sense of direction.

Dash yelled in frustration as he started spinning around after standing up. His side did not hurt as much as his chest did, and he spun the direction of the two Saints running towards him. "I want to see my brother!" Dash yelled towards the two men. He did not know who they were, but the one with brown hair kicked him much harder than he was expecting. "I have to know if he's here!"

Seiya glanced left at Shiryu, but the Dragon Saint shook his head 'no.' "What?!" Dash yelled towards them. "Tell me!"

"Those who are still alive have no right to go into heaven," Shiryu said in an unwavering tone as he approached the child. "You can choose to die right here, right now, and then you can search Heaven all you wish for your brother. Then again, that is only if you stay in Heaven once you die."

Dash's eyes opened wide. "Why?" He asked. "Is there somewhere else I would go? Is there somewhere else my brother could be?" Neither of the men in front of him responded, though Seiya looked to be holding his tongue at the desperate look on Dash's face. "Tell me! I'd come to Heaven right?! My brother was just a little kid, so he's here, right?! TELL ME!" Dash screamed, and an aura of energy pulsed out of his body so strong that all the nearby clouds pushed away. The two Saints felt the huge power push into them and they had to cross their arms at the strength of it. Dash started panting after he screamed, because while he shouted at them, something else was creeping into his mind.

 _"_ _I will rot the flesh from your bones and feast on your eyeballs! And once you are dead, I will find you in Hell, and the torture will never stop!"_ Dash started trembling as he thought about what Astaroth threatened him with back in Pyraxas. _"That's right! You think losing here means death? Means it's the end?! NO! You don't get to die just once, you get to die forever! I'll enjoy killing you in every way you have ever imagined, and thousands of even more terrible ways your mortal minds can not comprehend! HEEEEHEHEHE!"_ Dash shook even more, a look of fear and panic spreading across his face. _Astaroth seemed so sure that I would be going to Hell. He said that once he killed us, he would get to keep killing us forever! Why did he say that? His threats sounded so real._ "What decides," Dash began in a soft voice, lifting his gaze to the men in front of him. He continued in a quiet voice, "Who gets to come to Heaven?"

Shiryu stayed quiet for a few seconds, and then he said in a low voice, "I do not know."

"You don't know?" Dash whispered. "You don't… you," Dash clenched his eyes shut and felt his heart pounding so hard it felt like he would die. He thought about the offer the Dragon Saint made him that he could die right now and search Heaven, an option he had seriously considered until all the doubt filled his mind. _What if I die, and I don't get to come to this place? Why wouldn't I though? I'm a hero! I help people… but I've done bad stuff before too. Am I good enough? Was, JackJack?_ Tears filled Dash's eyes, and he said in a hoarse voice, "I just, want to see my little brother again."

"Ch," Seiya looked away from the crying boy in front of him, a frustrated look on his own face.

Shiryu stayed more composed, and he just said, "I'm sorry. You cannot."

* * *

"'Defeat the Darkness?' How am I supposed to do that?" Sora asked. The man who told him what he needed to do stayed silent after Sora asked, and the teenage boy sweatdropped as he thought about it himself. "Oh yeah, no one's ever done it before, so you wouldn't know the answer to that question." Sora looked down and stared at the palms of his hands. "Why me?" He whispered.

"No one knows the answer to that question either," Chuck responded to the boy. Sora's gaze lifted back up, and Chuck continued while making eye contact with him, "Just as there is the Darkness, we believe that there must also be the Light."

"What even are those?" Sora snapped. "What _is_ the Darkness?" He questioned.

Chuck sighed at the question, as understandable as it was. He looked next to the boy at Son Goku, then back at Thor and Piccolo who were both watching him closely as both wanted to learn more about this as well. "The Darkness is nothing like anything else in existence. The Originals like myself created worlds, but we also created concepts like time, space, senses, dimensions, the laws of physics. How you perceive the world was determined by us, and everything you see is that way because of our designs. However, the Darkness was not created by us Originals, so it does not follow the same rules and laws that everything else obeys."

"It's why you can move freely between different places in space by using the darkness," the other Original next to Chuck said. The man with longer black hair looked into Sora's eyes with his black irises and continued, "Darkness does not need to obey any rules. We cannot put restrictions on it, and our barriers do little to stop it. Beings using the power of darkness could travel freely between worlds despite the barriers we put up that those like Son Goku would never be able to break through." He looked at Goku who seemed confused by the comparison. "Physical strength means nothing against this cosmic entity. Some of us think it has sentience, that it chooses to destroy, while others think it has no will and is just a force of nature, existing solely to destroy."

Chuck continued where his fellow Original left off, "Although the Darkness could not break through our barriers itself, it can corrupt and use our creations to pass through our boundaries. It has other methods as well though," Chuck added, and his fellow God looked to him in some surprise at what Chuck was about to tell them. Chuck gained a serious expression on his face, and he started in a low but serious voice, "In the universal boundary I was stuck inside for eons, a sliver of the Darkness had made it in before the barrier was completed." Chuck shook his head and continued darkly, "That piece of Darkness became _something_ else. It turned into a being, a woman with sentience and the sole desire to destroy everything I created. I would build universes, and she would destroy them. We played at that for millions of years before I had forgotten what she was. I knew the truth, somewhere deep inside, that she was the very thing I had run from, that I was still hiding from, but she was the yin to my yang. She had called me 'brother' since the first day she appeared, and at some point I had started calling her my sister."

Chuck clenched his eyes shut, while Sora stared at this God with huge eyes at the story. "A tiny, tiny piece of the Darkness," Chuck continued. "She was nothing but a sliver of that evil force that made it into my universe. After millions, billions of years, I finally defeated her with the help of my archangels. I created beings so powerful that they were able to fight her alongside me. I could not destroy her however. As much as I tried, there was no killing that which was pure darkness. Nothing I could create had that power, and none in my universe showed the ability to wield a Keyblade. All I could do was trap her inside a mark, a mark that became a curse." Chuck's voice got darker, and he continued, "I gave the mark first to my strongest creation, Lucifer."

"Named after our older brother," the God next to Chuck started. The others looked to him as he interrupted Chuck with this. "While we were fleeing from our original world, the Keybearers of that world were the ones who saved the children still full of light while everyone else had been corrupted. The oldest among us who remained fought alongside the Keybearers, but the oldest of us were also the ones closest to falling to the darkness like all the adults of that world had. Lucifer was the strongest of our comrades who stayed behind to fight, and he was the first to turn against us and kill one of the Keybearers who thought him a friend. In the thousands of universes I created since separating from the others, I always created a being of immense power who I named Lucifer. As many times as I tried though, his nature always turned dark. I do not know if while creating him I had the subconscious thought deep in my mind that he would betray me, and that led to his fall later on, or if the name itself is forever destined to lead to the corruption of that being."

"Just as my Lucifer did," Chuck said in a sad voice. "I want to believe that he would not have turned though, had it not been for the mark I left under his responsibility. You see, even after I had trapped Amara-" Chuck froze with his mouth open, and he shook his head before continuing softly, "Even after I had trapped the sliver of Darkness that had entered my universe, its power continued to grow and fester."

Sora realized as Chuck mentioned that name, that something inside the God he was talking to still thought of the piece of Darkness as his sister. _The Darkness, is terrifying,_ Sora thought, and he only became more in fear of it as Chuck continued.

"The Darkness corrupted Lucifer and made him jealous of my other creations. I was forced to cast out Lucifer, but he passed the mark off to one of my other creations: Cain. That man became so dark that he turned into a demon. Still, my mark held. I found a way to keep that piece of Darkness trapped indefinitely, but when I received the message that the other worlds were falling one by one to the Darkness, I knew it was the end of everything. I could already feel the mark weakening, the dark power inside it growing stronger to a point that I knew very soon, the mark would start to expel its darkness out into the world I had created and watched over for millennia."

Sora gulped and tried to keep his hands from shaking to no avail. "And that, wasn't even a fraction of the Darkness?" Sora questioned in a raspy voice. He coughed a few times to try and get his voice more steady, but when he continued his words came out shaky, "The rest of it, what if it finds us? What if it finds Nexus?"

 **"You'll have to fight it!"** A voice shouted down from above.

 **"Why are you asking us? We already told you that it is the Keybearer's duty."**

 **"The answer must come from inside you."**

"I'm nowhere near as strong as half of my friends!" Sora shouted up at the swirling colors yelling down at him. "And you are the most powerful beings in all existence! Why are you leaving it up to me? And why," he shouted even louder, "haven't you told me this already?!" Sora looked around in the air, then he looked back down at Chuck and the other God who were not answering him. "Well? Why couldn't you just tell me? Tell everyone about the Darkness? If everyone on Nexus knew about it, maybe they'd stop fighting each other and start preparing to face it! If you had told me years ago what was going on, I would have had so much more time to prepare!"

"Well," Chuck began, "we decided not to get involved on Nexus."

Sora's eyes shot open wide. He looked from Chuck to the other Original, then up in the sky where all the floating cosmic entities were. "Why not?" Sora asked. "You're the most powerful beings. You could have stopped so much evil from happening. So many things happened that-"

"Although we do wish for light to triumph over darkness on Nexus, there is nothing we can do to interfere with the world below," the God next to Chuck said.

He said it firmly and without room for argument, but Sora was not going to just accept it and he shouted, "Why?!"

"Sora," Chuck said. He spoke in a tone that showed he wanted Sora to understand, though Sora was so angry that he did not want to understand and started grinding his teeth at the sound of that tone. "If we had stepped in even once, we would be destroying the concept of free will." Sora looked confused, but a little less angry like he was willing to let the God continue. "We have so much power, that if we decide to step in when we feel it necessary, our choice equals the result that we hope for. We can make things go exactly the way we will them to, but then what does that make you? Would you prefer it if every choice you have ever made was not a choice at all, but an order that we gave you?" Sora started shaking his head as that sounded terrible to him.

"But," Sora started. "How could you just let such terrible people, like Luthor, or Meruem… how could you just let them do what they wish?"

"If we step in to destroy beings full of darkness, to assist ones full of light, you would become reliant on us," Chuck explained. "You would not think your decisions meant as much anymore, if you knew that all results of them would be okay because the Gods will fix it if it goes wrong."

"Take Son Goku and Meruem for a minute," the other Original next to Chuck began. Goku looked at the God in confusion, and then the man in a black leather jacket continued while looking into Goku's eyes, "You chose to save Meruem on the third day after you arrived on Nexus." The Original stepped closer to Goku whose face filled with many different emotions at the mention of that. "You chose to do this because you are a good man, but you do not always think of the consequences of your actions. Now if we had gone down and erased Meruem from existence before he could go on to take over most of Aebrith, your decision to save his life would not have been a decision at all. Decisions must have consequences and differing results depending on the choice. If you had chosen to kill Meruem, or chosen to let him live, only for him to have died either way, it would erase free will from existence."

"We love our creations," Chuck said, his voice containing some pity as he shook his head at Sora. Sora could see what Chuck was thinking about as he looked at him, and Sora thought back on a certain day many months ago that the look of pity on Chuck's face reminded him of. "We love them so much that we won't just control them with our omnipotence. We will not reduce humanity and all the other creations we have made to nothing more than playthings. That is why we stay here, isolated even from Heaven."

"Every single Original, except for one," the black-haired God began. "Has remained in this realm above Heaven since arriving on Nexus. It had been so long since we last saw each other, and you do not know what it feels like to all be reunited after such a long time apart."

"It's already been two years though," Sora said in a soft voice, yet he did not sound as angry anymore after that explanation. He was actually appreciative of the Originals for not involving themselves once he thought about what that would really mean. The teen continued, "Couldn't you have told me this earlier?"

"Already two years?" Chuck questioned. "Time here passes differently from anywhere else. We have spent thousands of what you conceive as years in this realm, and it still feels like we have only just reunited with each other."

Sora and Goku's eyes shot open wide at the idea of that amount of time. "Wait!" Sora shouted, realizing something as he pieced that together. "Does that mean time on Nexus is moving at only a fraction the speed it is up here then?"

"Not exactly," Chuck replied. "We control time in this place, but only time as we perceive it. Time here is in constant fluctuation. In the few seconds you perceived after you first arrived, a day passed on Nexus in that same period. At the same time, we had five days to prepare. We told the other Gods we created, many of whom do partake in human affairs on our behalf, to prepare for your entrance into Heaven. I was chosen by my kin to answer your questions, as one who has fought the Darkness for longer than anyone else, and survived to tell about it."

"And I just wanted to look upon you with my own eyes," the Original in the black jacket said, while narrowing his dark eyes and gazing upon both Sora and Goku with interested looks.

"Why are you the only ones who look human though?" Sora questioned.

"We all have our Original bodies," Chuck replied. "However, most prefer to stay in forms that are easier to communicate with each other in. As the forms you see above, we are able to speak without making words. We can see memories and feel what each other feel. We can feel what our kin felt during those memories. In those forms we can recreate those exact moments and then insert ourselves into that new universe to live it in a new way."

Sora tried to imagine it, but he started shaking his head as it was all too much. _Are they just memories, or are the Gods up there creating universes just to enjoy a memory? If it's the latter, what do they do with those universes afterwards? Or do they involve themselves in those worlds so much that the people in them don't actually have free will? Does that make them less of people though?_ He stopped thinking about that as it got too confusing and caught on to something Chuck just mentioned. _"We all have our Original bodies," was he talking about himself? The body he's in right now is his original one? That's right, Thor said the Gods created people in their image, so I guess it makes sense that we'd look alike._

"So," Sora began, glancing next to him at Goku who just shrugged like he did not know what to say. Goku was so lost by everything going on around him that he just decided to start thinking on the Darkness and ways he might be able to fight it. He had never faced anything that sounded like the Darkness before though, yet the idea of its power made him grin. Sora looked into Chuck's eyes and continued, "I don't really know how I can defeat the Darkness, but I guess I have to try. If I'm stuck here on Nexus with everyone else though, how are we supposed to fight the Darkness?"

 **"You cannot fight the Darkness,"** a voice scolded down in a high-pitched, all-knowing voice. The Original who sounded like a female called down, **"Why do you think we have hidden here?"**

 **"If this generation of Keybearers was a little more reliable, then perhaps we would come up with a plan."**

 **"To do so now with what we have, it would be a waste of time."**

Sora was gawking as he looked around at the illuminating colors in the sky. "What are you talking about? We're great Keybearers!"

 **"Yet what of the darkness in your heart?"** An Original asked, sounding annoyed, and also a bit hesitant as he brought it up.

Sora's face scrunched up and he narrowed his eyes at the color that just lit up, only for it to dim and fade away quickly. **"This is why we shouldn't have brought him here. What if his darkness infects us?"**

 **"I saw it take Hades, and Sekhmet when he tried to stay to help him."**

"Who are they?!" Sora shouted up, though the mention of Hades reminded him of a certain blue-skinned demon.

 **"Other kin of ours who fell when the Darkness chased us into the void. They could not last seconds against the corrupting powers of the Darkness, turning on their own kind and then growing so dark that they became a part of** _ **it**_ **before long."** The female God's voice got quieter and finished, **"Yet you use the darkness freely and without worry of its consequences."**

"I am worried!" Sora shouted back at whoever was speaking to him. "If you've been watching me, you know I'm afraid of what will happen if my darkness gets out of control!"

 **"Yet you still use it!"**

 **"And Riku is even darker than you!"**

 **"His darkness threatens this world. He has grown stronger than the Heartless known as Ansem ever was."**

 **"And to top it off, one of the Guardians is a Nobody now. Axel wields the Keyblade, and though Lea's heart is now his, how are we supposed to trust a Nobody to save the multiverse?"**

Sora's hands were shaking at his side with everything the Gods shouted down at him. "Axel's my friend!" Sora shouted in an angry voice, silencing all of the Originals at once. Thor stared at the back of Sora's head with wide eyes at the kid's angry shout, and his right hand tightened around the shaft of a hammer he was holding. "And Riku can control his darkness better than I can!" Sora clenched his fists at his sides, then swiped an arm in front of him and yelled, "If you aren't going to help us, then don't start criticizing the people you want to save you! Don't insult my friends!" Sora took a few deep breaths, then he lowered his arms and glared up in the sky where an unknown number of all-powerful beings were looking back at him.

"I might not be all that strong, but I'm a Guardian of Light, and I'm going to beat the Darkness whether or not you believe in me. I can do it too, because as afraid as I am, I'm not alone!" Sora spun in a circle and looked all around the strange sky above him. "I have friends who will help me. And my friends are my real power! So even though I'm afraid, I know I can do it. We can do it, together." Sora smiled thinking of all his friends back on Nexus. He had more than he could count, and even though they were not all Keybearers or Guardians, he knew every one of them would help him if he asked for it.

Goku looked at the back of Sora's head while the teen was turned away from him for the direction he was looking up. All his confusion from what the Gods were talking about this whole time, it wiped from his face and replaced with a confident smile like Sora's. "I'll help you out Sora," Goku said, and Sora spun to look at the man with spiky black hair. Goku was smiling at him, the Saiyan man only an inch taller than the teen whose eyes he was looking into. "I can't wait to fight the Darkness too. I wonder how we can even fight something like that?" Goku knew from what the Originals said that the Darkness was not a physical being he could just beat up, but that only made him more excited at the thought of a new kind of enemy.

 **"Your confidence is encouraging."** A deep voice boomed from the sky, one the others had not heard before. Lightning crackled around the bright blue part of the sky that flashed when the man spoke.

 **"I will gladly put my faith in you."** A female's voice spoke in a smooth tone. She continued and her voice seemed to wrap around Sora and Goku and made them feel warm. **"I doubted that we would be able to survive for long. I believed that we were simply prolonging our existences and those of our creations. But if you are an example of the Keybearers I must believe in, then I can find faith again."**

 **"GO!"** Another God's voice shouted, full of determination and manliness. He was shouting so loud that Sora flinched at the bellowing voice in his ears. **"PROVE YOUR WORDS ARE TRUE! GATHER THE GUARDIANS AND GO!"**

 **"If you find the King, he will have means for you to leave this world without disrupting its barrier."** The smooth woman's voice spoke again.

"King Mickey?" Sora asked, as mention of the "King" made him think of Meruem instead now.

"Yes," Chuck replied. They looked back at the curly haired God who added, "He was the first to come to us. The King has been preparing ever since then for the fight against the Darkness, but he is taking too long. It is why we had to tell you how grave the threat is. So that you could understand the gravity of this situation. Sora, it is time. You must go out and stop the Darkness."

 **"RIGHT NOW!"** The bellowing voice yelled, the sky flashing red because of it.

Sora gazed around at the colors filling the sky. He looked back down at Chuck. Sora glanced next to him at Goku, then back at Thor and Piccolo who had stayed mostly quiet since they arrived. Then Sora turned back and looked at Chuck with a smile on his face. "No."

Chuck lifted his eyebrows up, and the Original in a leather jacket next to him gave Sora a strange look as well. **"WHAT?!"** The God who just shouted at Sora yelled, this time louder than ever which made Sora actually wince from the yell.

 **"What do you mean, 'no?'"** The woman Original's voice asked, and the air around Sora got colder this time.

 **"You must!"**

 **"It is your duty!"**

"Sora," Thor began, taking a step towards the younger man's back. He hesitated as he felt like the eyes of all the Originals shifted to him, even though he could only see two pairs of them. Sora turned to him though and awaited him to continue, so Thor did. "What of all I told you? The worlds being are being consumed by the Darkness. The Originals have given you an order."

"Once I am reunited with my friends," Sora began. "And I help Roxas, save Kairi, stop Meruem, and find King Mickey, Donald, _and_ Goofy, then I'll be ready to leave this world."

 **"Stop Meruem?!"** One of the Originals shouted. **"An impossible task for you."**

 **"What does your Nobody matter in the grand scheme of things?"**

 **"An unwise decision to make, young Keybearer."**

"Sora," Chuck started and took a step towards the boy. "You don't understand **-"**

 **"You must go!"**

 **"It is your responsibility as a Guardian of Light!"**

"Alright so first of all!" Sora shouted, cupping his hands next to his mouth to be able to shout over all the Gods speaking over each other. "I don't take orders from you!" He called out, and the Originals fell silent. Thor dropped his jaw at the disrespectful and arrogant tone Sora was taking, and Piccolo sweatdropped as the boy shouted that at the most powerful beings he had even seen before. Sora himself looked a little sheepish after a few seconds of standing there in silence, but he still managed to continue before he could face the wrath of the Originals. "And second of all," the corners of his lips lifted up a little. "It's _because_ I'm a Guardian of Light that I have to do those things first. I wouldn't deserve the title otherwise."

Chuck's eyes opened wide, but the Original next to him humphed and crossed his arms, a satisfied look coming to his face at the sound of that response. All of a sudden though, Sora's body surrounded in bright yellow light. "Umm," Sora began, as he feared the Originals were about to smite him for that outburst. The yellow light surrounded Goku, Thor, and Piccolo as well. Goku looked down at his hands and clenched them into fists as he thought he might be being attacked. Piccolo and Thor just dropped their jaws and went wide-eyed, and then all four of them fell.

They fell straight through the floor, but they did not move at the normal speed of gravity. It was like they were in an elevator of yellow light, and it was expelling them from the Originals' realm so much faster than they arrived in. "Ahhhh!" Sora yelled as he fell so fast through the air that he could not recall a time he had ever moved faster.

After only three seconds, the four of them slammed down on a floor of puffy clouds that finally slowed them down, though all of them fell on their backs after bouncing off the clouds. Sora's eyes were clenched shut during the fast fall, but he opened them up after bouncing and landing on his bum. When his eyes opened he was about to let out a sigh of relief that he was not smitten by the Gods. He opened his mouth to breath out, but he froze at the sight of the people in front of him. He slowly closed his mouth and got up to his feet, while looking around with wide eyes at all the beings surrounding him and the other three who fell.

An old man with long white hair and an eyepatch over his right eye reached down over Thor and grabbed the blond man by one of his hands. "My son," Odin said while he lifted Thor to his feet. "How did your meeting with the creators go?"

Thor gazed around at all the hundreds of Gods gathered around them. Mixed in with them were angels, saints, and other heavenly guardians similar to Piccolo who had halos over their heads, and some who did not. Thor turned back towards Sora and hummed before saying, "I do not know." A small smile cracked on his face despite what he said as he watched the Keybearer. _But perhaps there is hope for us yet._

"Goku!" a voice shouted on Goku's left side. He turned and looked at a side of the circle full of beings that were tall, short, red, blue, all shapes and sizes. He did not know what they all were, but he did recognize the voice that shouted towards him and it made his eyes open huge. Piccolo turned with Goku and they both watched a pudgy blue-skinned God who looked a little like a catfish running up to them.

"King Kai!" Goku exclaimed with a smile.

Thor and Sora looked over to see Goku start talking to the short pudgy God. Thor walked his way, but Sora froze and turned his head the other way as he spotted something flying towards him. A small smile formed on his face and he took a few steps forward, and all the Gods and angels in front of Sora moved to the sides as the Keybearer stepped towards them. Some of them had arrogant expressions as they looked down at him, others looks of wonder, while some had looks on their faces like they were all too wise and all-knowing for such emotions.

The two figures Sora was watching lowered down to the white floor in front of Sora and one of them put down the small blond boy in his arms. Sora was still relieved to see how Dash's body was no longer covered in wrinkles, and the boy actually looked alright. "Dash," Sora said as the boy started walking towards him. "Did you find-"

Dash frowned deeper and shook his head with an angry look in his eyes. Sora frowned too and lifted his gaze to the men who just put Dash down. "You didn't let him see his brother?" He questioned harshly.

The brown haired Saint in front of Sora looked surprised, then he started to grin. Shiryu started though, "He does not have permission to search heaven to-"

"He just wants to find his brother," Sora argued, and Dash looked up at his friend with wide eyes as Sora spoke on his behalf. He spun back to the Saints hopefully, and Shiryu had a hesitant look on his face like he did not know what to say.

"Come on Shiryu," Seiya said, grinning at the more mature man next to him who was trying to come up with something. "If the Keybearer says it's alright, then we should-"

"Silence!" a voice thundered and a bolt of lightning hit the ground between the Saints and the two boys trying to reason with them. Sora spun to the right and watched as a tall muscular god in a long white toga marched to the front of the other Gods he had been standing silently behind. "That is enough of this nonsense."

"Lord Zeus," Shiryu said and bowed his head. Seiya bowed too, but he grimaced as he did like he was hoping them could have helped the kid out.

"It's not nonsense," Sora started, and Dash spun again to his teenage friend in surprise that Sora was this willing to stand up for him. This was _the_ 'Zeus' after all, or at least that's what Dash thought as he stared at the Greek God with long white hair and holding a giant lightning bolt in his right hand. "It's a simple request-" Sora tried to continue.

"Keybearer!" Zeus shouted and thunder cracked around him. "You know not to meddle in the affairs of other worlds."

"This isn't another world though," Sora argued. "I've lived on this world for years now, which makes it-"

"You have lived in heaven for that long?" Zeus questioned.

Sora froze with his mouth open, and he muttered, "No, but Nexus is-"

"Then you would come to heaven, and use your position as Keybearer to have our guards alter the rules for you? You would have them change our ways to better suit your desires?" Zeus yelled this at the boy who started shying back at what he was saying.

"I-" Sora began, but he did not have anything to counter what Zeus was saying. He looked down at Dash's hopeful look that was turning into one of desperation, and he winced but had to shake his head at the kid. "I'm sorry, Dash," he whispered, unable to think of a way he could fix this without meddling like Zeus said.

Dash looked crestfallen, and he bowed his head sadly to look at the ground. As Sora put a hand on the boy's shoulder and tried to comfort him, Goku was still talking to King Kai who he had not seen in what felt like ages.

"…At least you're alive again," Goku mentioned to the halo-less God who was dead the last time he saw him.

"No thanks to you," King Kai snapped, and Goku laughed and scratched the back of his head sheepishly as he recalled why King Kai had been dead in the first place.

"I said sorry," Goku reminded, only to get another earful from King Kai.

Someone cleared their throat behind King Kai as he was snapping at Goku, and the God froze up with some sweat on his face. He started dabbing at that sweat with a handkerchief, and then he walked forward fast and leaned up to whisper in Goku's ear. "You better show some respect or I'll be the one who gets it! Remember!" King Kai backed up and then stepped to the side so that the three people behind him could walk forward. Goku gazed at the three of them with an odd look, as each of them had as weird an appearance as King Kai.

The first figure who stepped up was to Goku's right. He was a short figure with a mohawk of white hair that spiked up high over his head with the front spike dipping down a little to act like bangs. He had light purple skin and wore a pair of golden earrings. "Goku, this is the Supreme Kai of our old universe," King Kai introduced.

"Hello, Son Goku," the short figure said. His voice was high-pitched, and his eyes were narrowed giving him an ominous and powerful presence. He had on light blue pants and an undershirt of the same color that puffed out at the shoulders, and a darker blue sleeveless cloak that he wore over his clothes with an orange belt around his waist. "It is good to finally meet you, face to face."

"I thought Grand Kai was as high as the Kais got?" Goku mentioned while looking back at King Kai.

"Nope. The Supreme Kai is," King Kai corrected him. "Then again…" he started, but stopped as Shin looked towards him, and he decided to let the Supreme Kai continue instead.

"Goku, this is Lord Beerus," he motioned at the figure next to him who had large ears sticking off the top of his head that made him look like some sort of dog or cat, along with the fact that his body was covered in dark purple fur. He had a longer tail than Goku's brown one, a slender purple tail that narrowed at the end into a point. He had on some strange black ornamental clothing on over his baggy blue pants, and he had golden wristbands and a gold necklace tight around his neck. "The God of Destruction of our universe and my counterpart."

"Enough with the introductions," Beerus said, and he marched forward towards Goku who looked down at the slightly shorter figure. He smiled at the God who looked back up in his eyes and glared harshly at him. "A Saiyan huh? Pff," he scoffed and then started glaring at Goku while a dark purple aura surrounded him. "You are no Super Saiyan God. I wanted to see one," he said it in a harsh way like it was Goku's fault that he had gotten his hopes up and was about to pay for it.

"Ooh hoo hoo," the third figure who King Kai revealed to Goku started laughing while covering his mouth with one hand. "I did not expect to see you here, father," as soon as he said it, the God of Destruction in front of Goku tensed up and sweat formed on his face. His dark purple aura disappeared and he turned his head sideways to see that next to the tall angel behind him who had light blue skin and a single point of white hair over his head, there was a shorter angel standing there staring straight at him.

"Whis, let's go," Beerus said, quickly turning and walking away while the Grand Priest watched him. Goku saw the attendant who Beerus called 'Whis' nod and respond respectfully to his God, yet at the same time he looked towards Goku and smiled in a knowing way.

 _Sure are a lot of Gods from my universe_ , Goku thought while cracking a bigger smile again. He turned towards the short figure who wore a blue baggy outfit with an upside-down orange triangle in the center of his chest. He had on a red belt too with a golden buckle in the center that had the symbol for 'Great' designed in it. As the Supreme Kai and King Kai saw this man, they had as strong as reactions as Beerus did. Instead of running off though, the two said, "Great Preist," and bowed their heads to the short blue-skinned figure who appeared before them. He was a small man who like Whis had a glowing blue halo floating behind the back of his head, a strange position for it, or at least Goku thought it was from what he knew of when he had his own halo. The short Great Priest had white hair pulled back over the top of his head and had a soft expression on his face as he looked Goku up and down.

"So," Goku began, looking back at Supreme Kai who had bowed to him, then to the Great Priest again. "Are you like, Super-Duper Kai?" He questioned, and the two Kais to his right spun towards him with dropped jaws at his disrespectful tone, though King Kai smacked himself in the forehead a second later as he knew he should have expected something like that.

Great Priest just chuckled though, and then said, "No, I am not the highest God of your universe. I am not a God at all." He took a step towards Goku and continued, "Your universe was one of many that a single Original created. Zeno-sama was responsible for the creation of your universe, and the Supreme Kai was the one who was in charge of it." He added the last part to show the purpose of the God next to King Kai. Both King Kai and the Supreme Kai were looking at the Great Priest with wide eyes though at what he was saying.

"So he created all of you?" Goku asked, looking surprised and excited by the idea of this 'Zeno,' wondering if it was one of the voices he heard while in that upper realm a few minutes ago.

The Great Priest shook his head no and Goku re-became confused, as did the other two Gods still with them. "When the children fled the original world, some children were much younger than others. The older children knew that they could not stay with their younger brothers and sisters, but they also did not want to leave them alone. So though they were forced to separate, some Originals left beings such as myself to watch after other Originals. I was created to protect and follow Zeno-sama by a different Original soon before the walls between worlds were made."

Goku nodded along though hardly following that, while the other Gods stared in awe at all this lore they were learning. "So," Goku began. "Who created you?"

The Great Priest chuckled again and said, "Mortals like yourself would not be able to pronounce, let alone hear this Original's name. But you may call him Larry." The Great Priest looked up and smiled at the sky in a mischievous way, and the others near him felt like they were missing out on some kind of inside joke.

Sora stood before a group of Gods, but the one he was speaking to was a beautiful woman with long curly black hair. "I don't know if it's against the rules or what, but Annabeth really wants to talk to you. You should at least give her a few minutes of your time, if you're not too busy doing… whatever it is you're doing up here," Sora told the Goddess before him.

Athena smiled down at the teen who was three feet shorter than her. "My daughter is not yet ready to learn what you just have." Sora nodded at her while she said it, but in his head he was wondering if she even knew what the Originals had told him considering Thor had treated it like his first time hearing that stuff. Athena continued to Sora, "However, I will take it into consideration, Keybearer," The goddess of wisdom assured him. "Anyway, I do believe it is time you return to Nexus," she continued to the boy.

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing," Sora said back, and he started looking around him like he was searching for an exit. _Oh, I've got an idea._

On either side of the Highfather, the archangels Michael and Gabriel stepped forward to speak to Son Goku, but Goku turned to Odin instead as the one-eyed old God began, "You will become a Super Saiyan God sooner or later, and we will welcome you back here after you do. Your father and the other Super Saiyan Gods all made the trip before."

Goku nodded, and he said, "I'm going to find a way to transform on my own."

He hesitated and opened his mouth to ask something, but Odin continued first, "I cannot tell you what happened in the war between Bardock and Meruem after you left. I apologize."

Goku shook his head and smiled at the old man, "It's okay. I'll find out for myself."

He turned his head as he saw Sora out the corner of his eye motioning for him to come over. Sora had walked back to where Dash was standing still with his head pointed down, ignoring all the Gods around him. This would have been such a cool moment if it were not for the fact that no one was telling him about his brother. He was so deep in thought about JackJack that he did not even notice Sora and Goku walking back to him until they started speaking at his sides and he lifted his head.

"Alright," Sora said once the three of them were together. He looked the other two over and nodded as their injuries were all still gone. _I don't even feel tired anymore. We can go back to Nexus and be safe, as long we don't run into Meruem right after we get back._ "Hey Thor," Sora said to the God holding a war hammer in front of him. Thor nodded at Sora, and the spiky haired teen questioned, "Will we ever see you again?" Thor was expecting many questions, but not that one.

He chuckled after a second of surprise that Sora would ask him something like that. "Most Gods chose to stay in Heaven and watch over creation below as they did on their own universes. However, many have always interacted with the world below and chose to stay below. It is not easy to travel back and forth, and so most Gods do not have the ability, or the privilege to travel back and forth between the realms of God and man." Thor started smiling as Sora began frowning though, and he continued, "I am one of the very select few like Chuck's angels, and a handful of other lower Gods like myself, who can make the journey." Sora smiled and Thor finished, "So perhaps we will meet again."

Sora nodded, and then he started looking around at all the Gods, angels, and Saints around him. "The Gods who stayed down on Nexus," he started, and he turned back to Thor to ask what he had on his mind. "If they chose to stay there in order to involve themselves in human affairs, they might be more willing to help me out than you guys, right?" Sora asked. Many of the Gods around him got angry or annoyed looks on their face, but Thor just nodded at Sora's question. "Do you know where I could find them?" Sora asked.

Thor glanced over at his father, but Odin did not make any movement to tell his son what to do. It was up to Thor as the sole being from his universe who had the right to travel between worlds, as one of very few from all the universes brought to Nexus, whether or not to respond to Sora's question. "The Tower of Babel," Thor finally said, and some other Gods around the circle gave Thor harsh looks at what he said. "If you go there, I believe you will find what you are looking for."

"Do not waste your time traveling there!" A God called out from the crowd.

"You have a mission, Keybearer-"

"Find the Keyhole!"

"Stop the Darkness!"

"Save our worlds!"

All the Gods started shouting at the same time as it felt like Sora was about to leave. Dash stared at Sora with huge eyes as all the Gods started shouting these things at him. He already knew a little about how Sora had traveled to different worlds because of his time traveling with Riku, but all the Gods were looking at Sora like he was going to be their savior. _Sora, if the Gods all think you can save them, then why didn't you save…_ Dash clenched his eyes shut as his heart filled with pain.

"Alright, you two ready to go?" Sora asked, while ignoring all the Gods shouting at him. He focused on Goku and then Dash who his expression saddened at the pained look on the boy's face. Dash opened his eyes though and nodded at Sora who put a hand on his shoulder again and clenched it tightly. There was not much he could think of to say to Dash in this situation, but he hoped the squeeze could convey everything he wanted it to.

Dash nodded again at Sora, and Sora opened his mouth to shout something, but Goku's eyes widened and he called out, "Wait!" Sora looked at him in confusion and hesitated, and Goku spun to Thor who was still the closest God to them. "Do you know why my Instant Transmission isn't working anymore?" Goku asked.

Thor nodded at Goku and began, "The Gods decided that the barrier around Nexus was incomplete if teleporters' powers were still intact-"

"But since I've gotten to Nexus, I've fought people who could teleport," Goku countered. He thought Thor would correct himself, but the God of Thunder froze with his mouth open and looked like he was trying to come up with something. Goku got a confused look on his face, while Sora narrowed his eyes at the blond God before him.

Thor could see that Sora just caught him, and he frowned as his lie was seen through. He looked back into Goku's coal-black eyes and said, "I am not permitted to tell Son Goku that, yet," he said, adding 'yet' at the end to keep the Saiyan hopeful. "When you return as a Super Saiyan God, as all in heaven hope that you will, the truth behind the Gods' plans for you will be revealed."

"For me?" Goku asked, sounding confused as since he got there, the Gods only seemed to be interested in Sora. Thor nodded, and Goku cocked his head to the side before just shrugging and smiling like it did not really matter all that much to him.

"You good?" Sora asked, and Goku turned and nodded at him that he got all he wanted. "Okay," Sora said. He cupped both hands to his mouth and called out, "Castiel!"

Most of the Gods and angels around them quieted down, though Michael and Lucifer looked the most surprised as a figure appeared in front of Sora. "Brother?" Michael questioned, an interested look in his eyes as he did not know how Castiel knew the Keybearer.

Castiel glanced back at his older brothers, then turned to Sora and said, "What do you need?"

"Well, I don't know how to get back to Nexus," Sora said. "And I'd rather not use the darkness to get there, considering what I just learned about it," he added, and Castiel lifted up his eyebrows like he was interested in that subject. Sora cupped his hands to his mouth again and added in a whisper, "I'll tell you all about it later."

"Please don't," Castiel said with a dart of his eyes up, as he was sure the Gods above heard Sora say that.

"Haha," Sora laughed. "So can you help us out? If you could send us down south to where most of our friends are, that'd be great."

"'Down south?'" Castiel asked, as that was a very vague direction while inside a different realm than the one Sora was referencing.

"Oh, um," Sora started. "They're at this Resistance base really far south. Luffy, Natsu, and a bunch of the others are probably with them… oh! There was this ninja there who could make this giant purple aura thing-"

"They are not at the base you are describing," Castiel said, and Sora stopped speaking as he wondered how Castiel knew what base he was speaking of. He was just about to say that he was still being too vague and laugh about it, but now he furrowed his brow and scrunched his forehead as he wondered where they could have went.

"Could you look around for them?" Sora asked.

Castiel nodded at the teen in front of him. A few seconds went by while everyone around them stayed quiet, then Castiel opened up his closed eyes and said, "I located them." He did not sound very happy about that, but then again his expression always looked emotionless to Sora. For some reason though, the tone of Castiel's voice there made him hesitant. Castiel continued, explaining his tone, "However, they are inside the Wizard King's domain."

Sora started looking around in confusion as many of the nearby Gods started murmuring in annoyance. "I don't get it. Who's the Wizard King?"

"Another strong guy?" Goku asked excitedly.

Dash got a nervous look on his face though after he heard what Castiel said. _The Wizard King? That's the guy Lancelot told me about._ _ **"Any farther south, and you get into the Wizard's territory. Everything south of here from east to west coast is all his. And the Wizard's land is just about the most dangerous place you can find on this planet."**_ _Why did they all have to go there? Wait… wait wait wait, are even the Gods afraid of him?_ Dash started looking around with wide eyes as he saw the Gods looking annoyed and upset at the mention of the Wizard King. _Does that mean..._

"What's so bad about this guy?" Sora questioned Thor.

"The Wizard King put a divine block over his lands. We sent angels there before, but he… well he defeated them," Thor said, and a bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face afterwards. _Defeated, and humiliated them,_ he thought to himself. "Just, be careful Sora," Thor told the teen who did not look deterred by the Gods' feelings towards the Wizard King.

"I will be," Sora replied. He then looked from Thor over to Athena, and then the Gods from Goku's universe. He gazed around at all the different Godly beings protecting heaven, and although they were not helping with matters on Nexus, Sora smiled at the idea of all of them staying there. It made him less sad about those he had lost, knowing how well guarded they were in the afterlife. He finally turned back to Castiel and nodded his head at the angel. "Send us down, Cass."

A flash of light surrounded the three mortals in heaven, and they returned to the land of the living.

* * *

 **A/N The Darkness! The reason Nexus was created! After more than 2 million words some answers are finally revealed about this world. So much lore packed into one chapter. I hope you enjoyed the penultimate part of this chapter where we get a look at heaven for the first time. In the next part the chapter ends, as we return to the moment that Castiel whisked Sora and his friends away from the war on the Saiyan Mountains. Thanks for reading, I'll put a short list below of characters before the review responses:**

 **DBS: Goku, Piccolo, ChiChi, King Kai, Supreme Kai, Grand Kai, Beerus, Whis, Great Priest, Zeno**

 **Supernatural: Castiel, Chuck, Amara, Michael, Lucifer, Cain, Gabriel**

 **Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Athena, Annabeth, Zeus? (maybe, could have been another Zeus XD )**

 **Marvel: Thor, Odin**

 **Saint Seiya: Seiya, Shiryu**

 **Incredibles: Dash, JackJack**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Sora, Kairi, Roxas, Axel, Lea, Saix, King Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Riku**

Limit-Breaking chapter 85 . Feb 23

Beep...Beep...Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep... Clear...Beeeeeeee... Clear...Beeeeeeeeeeeee... Nurse:Doctor the shocks aren't working,

Doctor: God dammit Who Dies From So much Hype. He shouldn't have read this entire chapter in one go i warned him not to.

So far there is nexus and Nexus-Heroes-Will-Rise, no third heroes will rise?  
So if you can explain it, that will really help cause i have no idea what you mean by that.  
Either way i had a feeling bardock was going to die, something about the way goku talked about bardock like that helped me realize that. Though i am surprised and i wonder what type of gods are in the world of gods.

Though it's time to say it, BARDOCK NO WHY NOT KRILLEN OR GOHAN OR VEGETA OR ALL OF THE SAIYANS EXCEPT FOR BARDOCK. HE HAD SO MUCH TO LIVE FOR HE NEVER EVEN GOT TO REALLY MEET GOHAN. ALL I ASK FOR IS TO GIVE GOKU MERUEM DEATH IN ANYWAY I DON'T EVEN CARE IF YOU HAVE TO SACRIFICE GOKU LIFE TO DO IT, BY ALL MEANS PLEASE AS LONG AS HE KILLS MERUEM.  
Though i am curious did bardock predict or saw a vision when he saw goku cause he did smile and bardock may still have the abilities to see in the future. Also the scene where bardock was dying felt to relatable to the time he either died by frieza or if anybody believes he survived and went back in time. What im trying to say is he saw the future where goku fought frieza, so did he see the same thing here but with goku vs meruem. Also Meruem also had that same feeling of death creep up on him while bardocked smiled.  
Seeing goku experience fear was so sad at this point he needs to fight and train and surpass meruem otherwise all hope is lost for nexus. But still it was good development for his character.  
Also poor sora the dude was just shitting himself to the point where he was crying and felt actual fear where he was constantly telling goku let's run. I never really thought i would see it to this extent. Though only way i see goku beating the ant king is with the fusion technique and he combine bodies with vegeta.  
Though i do wonder what they will do know that the ant king will most likey attack his enemies as well as raditz, i mean raditz is he really going to side with the ant king or what or does he have super saiyan blue and that is why he is so confident right now.  
And now meruem has saiyan dna so everytime he gets injured and heals with the regenerative ablities he gets stronger as well.  
The only hope left is for yamcha to come in and take care of the rest. Only he can take out the ant king. But i am curious will we being seeing the god of destruction beerus and blizzard and even more charcters as well such as the twelve gods of destructions, the percy jackson gods and so many more.  
 **Crazy long review! Thanks for it, tried not to remove that much before writing this. I laughed at how much hype that hype got you with. As for the "thirds" I've been mentioning, I don't mean as in a whole other story like Nexus and Heroes Will Rise. What I mean was that in my plans for Nexus Heroes Will Rise I split the plans into three "Thirds" each full of several arcs and ending in a big event like the war on the Saiyan Mountains this time. Hope that clears it up a little. Glad I got you to like Bardock enough that you woulda preferred all those others to die instead of him, though then again sorry I killed him off then... Bardock caught a glimpse of the future at the moment of his death, though we didn't catch much of what he saw. If only Yamcha was there to save him... XD We'll see what the Ant King does in the next chapter as we continue on with the war, and who knows, maybe Hit will go off on them all! Meruem getting Saiyan DNA was a big issue for Pitou and a main point of Meruem eating Bardock's brains, who knows what kind of consequences** **it will have? Thanks for the long review, again, and I hope you enjoyed the new chapter!**

chapter 85 . Feb 23

Please make goku ssj4 and ssjgod and ssjgodssj

 **Okay. Maybe. Thanks for reviewing!**

Jokering chapter 85 . Feb 23

Wow, that escalated quickly, i knew meruem wouldnt just die here since you have been mentioning on notes just how big the story is and that there is still a lot to tell, that and it would be a bit lack luster because you could pretty much end the Aebrith Saga there since there was no build up or hinting of someone above Meruem and worth of taking the spot as current main villain, yet. I was hoping Bardock would survive this but the dialogue he had with Goku killed that hope. Its nice that you also took this arc as a chance to introduce Meruem's private army as well as the strongests among them, like final boss unless you get S rank on five or more chapters ( Deus) or one of the most known characters of a popular jrpg ( Sephiroth) or worst villain of a certain quality declining tv show ( Savitar, although my opinion on him is completly biased and season 4 of The Flash hasnt really sound appealing to me), but in the end its a good way to give the reader what to expect when the story reaches the Capital.  
And since its your story if you decide to take SS4 as power up then thats fine, it will take a while to swallow it up since i am not a fan of this form but its okay, however if you want to take the God ki as power up then i suggest you read the DBS manga, as of now its only 33 chapter long and it doesnt waste time telling the story so you can read it in about a day but the main reason i suggest it is because it does a great job at explaining power levels and the drawbacks that Goku and Vegeta have with the new stage they have reached with SSB. But hey its your choice.  
I've gotta say, you really are going all out taking multiple pieces of fiction here, there are some here that have never even heard about. Did you search for some of those or did just take every single one you could possibly remember and just did a quick recap to have an idea of how play things out with the them? Overall, this was a great chapter and with that description i am looking forward to the next one. Btw you welcome about that review, i tried to focus on what i liked the most and not fanboy too much ( but if i could i would definetly take an entire review page breaking down Nexus and Nexus HWR)

 **Thanks for the review! Glad you like the way I set up these chapters and you're totally right with the way I'm using the 5 Guardians and Meruem's army to build up later-on wars. I don't really know how I feel about this season of the Flash too (by the way). Was never too much a fan of GT either, then again I did like it just not as much as DB or DBZ (on the fence about Super, though Goku Black arc was epic). May read the DBS manga later on to study up on the God forms once, if, Goku obtains those forms. Every tv show/movie/comic/manga/anime/book/game I've used I myself have watched or read or played, mostly. In a couple of scenes back in Metropolis I looked up some doctors from tv shows, as I have never seen Grey's Anatomy but I think I used some from there, and I used some cops from maybe CSI or some other cop shows I knew of but hadn't seen so I had to look up. Other than those though, most are just the ones I myself remember. Hope you enjoyed the new chapter, and if you've got more you want to ask about Nexus/Heroes Will Rise, you can always shoot me a PM if it's gonna be too long to put in the reviews. Thanks again!**

Espada-001 chapter 85 . Feb 24

Guess who's back! I'm sorry that I haven't made a review in forever but for some reason I just haven't been able to get myself to make one. Anyway since I'm so behind I'll mainly focus on the more recent chapters information. First off the battle between Bardock and Meruem was awesome! Although the entire time that this war was going on I was wondering why Bardock's future sight didn't even show him a glimpse of what was going to happen beforehand since while the events of the future don't change it still showed the user major turning points for the future, atleast that's what I got from seeing his movie anyway. Anyway moving on another thing I've been confused on is why hasn't Sora tried calling on Arceus to get more information about the gods, or even try to call for some serious backup once everyone around him started reaching levels of power far exceeding his own? I'm mean not only are Arceus powers broken due to being practically immune to all forms of combat he's also pretty much the level a primordial god of the pokemon universe. From this point on its going to just be random questions and thoughts from the last few chapters and I'm probably going to be forgetting something. How could you get my hopes up for Jack Jack only for him to get his head chomped on like one chapter later! I was actually really sad at that point T-T. When you cut back to Jack and crew fighting the Neo Marines I thought that was pretty cool to, although I'm pretty sure that a lot of the crew members on Will's ship have cursed to serve on it for at least a few decades so I'm not entirely sure how many of them would actually be released from their contracts by being touched by Ain only once or twice. Also now that I think about it if Sora ever wanted to sneak past the gates of hell I'm pretty sure that Will would be able to do it given that he ferries people to the afterlife so long as they die at sea.

On another side note I was wandering if you planned on adding Digimon to the Nexus verse. I mean if you do you get a whole new line up for powerful characters plus if the Digital world was brought over then that could give the characters two things if they were to use it. One is for Kirito, since if someplace like the Digital world existed there'd be a good chance for Yui to be brought over to finally end the depression he's in. And second depending on who finds it they could end up using it like the hyperbolic time chamber since time in the digital world is a lot faster than the mortal world. Well it's about 3:30 in the morning here and I'm getting tired so I'll be ending this review here for now, but I just know that I'm forgetting something. Well anyway like always I meant no disrespect with any questions and I truly enjoyed this, so until next time have a good day and I look forward to the next chapter as well as your comment to my review!

 **Glad you're back! What is up with all the long reviews this chapter? XD Bardock's future sight always seems to be too little too late, but like when Frieza was destroying him (or sending him back in time) he caught the glimpse of the future at the last moment. As for Sora calling on Arceus, I don't know if you remember but right after Castle Oblivion, Sora and Arceus had a talk where Arceus said that he did not want to be under someone else's command after all that time for Giovanni. Sora asked to summon him though, and when Arceus asked why, Sora said to help his friends. Arceus said that was a noble reason, so I think Sora might feel a little awkward summoning a God just so that he could ask him a couple questions. As for JackJack, I had been building up his arrival for a while and then bam! Sorry ;(, I'm sure after Incredibles 2 comes out I'm gonna be even more ;( that he's gone, considering they're gonna focus on his powers a lot from what I've seen in the trailers. Lots of cool stuff about Neo Marines, and yeah there are guys there who have been on the crew for decades, but Will may have added some to his crew after arriving on Nexus as well. Either way, I think all of them would have been happy for Ain to get them out of their contracts, though it looks like she won't be doing that anymore... The digital world, Yui, lots of ideas for what I could do for a virtual world but no spoilers as to whether or not there will be one. Hope you enjoyed the new chapter, and this comment! Thanks for reviewing!**

cyber chapter 85 . Feb 23

another great story, sad bardock died, and I bet goku is going to get serious on him, and I see new villians like sephiroth, sandman, monkey guy grodd, and vandal savage and other members of the seven deites, and now sora has made it to the city of the gods, wonder what type of gods are out there cant wait to see the next chapter

oh and I'm glad to see sora greeted by thor.

 **Thanks! Bardock noo! Goku's intent on fighting the Ant King now, though he knows he needs to be stronger before he can face him again. Lots of new villains appear, and though Raditz punched a hole through Grodd's chest, the King has a lot of other powerful allies surrounding him. Hope you liked Thor's role in this chapter, and as one of the few who can travel between heaven and Nexus, he is one of the most important Gods we've seen so far, so he'll continue to have a big role in this... Anyway, thanks for the reviews!**

Limit-Breaking chapter 8 . Mar 2

i just had to put this  
If you want to see this picture copy and paste it to the top of the page.  
This picture reminds me of the newest chapter and i thought it was kinda ironic and

 **XD Nice pic. Don't know if you got cut off there or just finished on 'and' but thanks for the review!**

asdf chapter 85 . Mar 1

Are any more Game Of Thrones/ A Song Of Ice And Fire characters gonna appear? Because I can remember Drogo and Daenerys appearing. It would be fun to see someone like Joffrey or Cersei's reactions to being dragged into Nexus and realizing that they are not as powerful as they originally thought and going from riches to rags in some way. Or a flashback of Melisandre trying to seduce Goku into following the Lord of Light and failing horribly or just a chapter from the viewpoint of Tyrion (that's always gonna be funny). I know that there's not much point in showing regular humans but it would be really fun to see them anyway.

Again after seeing Mereum's action, I really want to see Beerus appear and kick his ass. He'd probably say some shit like "I'm going to put you in your place like than ant you are." But that wouldn't be good from a story telling stand point if the Gods just appeared and solved your problems for you... DON"T UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF NINGENS!

Just watched the start of Goku vs Jiren. Fucking complete Ultra Instinct. Definite improvement from Vegeta vs Toppo. Lets see what just might be the peak of Goku's power that will ever be shown... Until the movie maybe... And that's only if this the actual end to the Dragon Ball Series. Most likely not but we'll see.

 **I'm breezing through the list of GoT characters I've got already. Daenerys and her dragons, Khal Drogo and the Dothraki, The Night's King and the White Walkers (same chapter as Dothraki, Ben fought them as Heatblast), Jon Snow (he was the Commander at Pon-Gatso before Sokka, before the League of Assassins...), Malko (the slaver who sold Tyrion and Jorah, and who also sold Mine and Lily before getting fucked up by the Sith who took Romeo), Grey Worm and Ser Barriston (both were with Daenerys in Metropolis). So I've def been using them scattered throughout the story, from back in the first chapters of Nexus to parts in chapter 11 of HWR. Anyway, I'll just say that there is another GoT character coming up within the next 3 _full_ chapters that I know of off the top of my head... but no way I'm telling you who it is :P, you could always predict it though. As for Beerus, or any God for that matter, stepping in to put down Meruem, the Originals have rules that seem arbitrary at first glance but have their reasons behind it for why they won't step in on Nexus. Beerus finally makes his appearance this chapter, though he's only there for a moment as a non-SSG Goku doesn't interest him much, and Great Priest gives him the chills XD. Liking the new fight, hoping next episode we get an epic conclusion to Jiren v Goku. And I doubt this is the end, not when there're still 4 more universes full of fighters even stronger than Jiren for Goku to fight, or someone else who has Ultra Instinct since there have been beings before who have it, and I can't wait to see an Ultra Instinct Goku vs Ultra Instinct Anybody-Else. Thanks for the (several) reviews!**

kg833998 chapter 85 . Mar 6

i am with Espada-001 please add the digital world to these so we can see yui but if you do just do the first 3 series because they would be easy to put in also BARDOCK NOOOOOOO so sad to see him go but we all know what he saw he saw the future just like with freiza also please when goku fights meruem put in to listen to the dbs ost ultamite battle i fell like it would fit

 **Lots of people looking forward to the digital world! Can't tell you guys whether or not I'm going to do it yet... but a whole lot of ideas for it when/if it comes. Knew a lot of people saw Bardock's death coming, but at least in his last moments he was able to smile. Maybe he was Bardock D. Something, dying with a smile on his face and all XD. Listening to that ost while I write this, and I feel like this comment should be much more epic than it is. Lol anyway I hope you enjoyed the new chapter, and thanks for reviewing! Thanks again to everyone who read, faved, followed, and reviewed! As always guys... 'Till next time!**


	87. Nexus HWR 12-9 The King of the Saiyans

**A/N And here it is! Final part of the final chapter in the first Third of Nexus: Heroes Will Rise. I hope you enjoy! Previously, Meruem devoured the brains of the Saiyan King Bardock and his power skyrocketed. His attention turned to Goku, Sora, and Dash, but the three were saved by Castiel before he could kill them. Although the three of them vanished however, Meruem, the Capital 50, and the Rogue Ravagers remained at the Saiyan Mountains...**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own any of the media that characters, settings, or other proper noun things you may recognize in this story come from.**

* * *

 **Nexus HWR 12.9 The King of the Saiyans:**

 **FD + 104**

At the summit of a mountain in what would one day be a part of the Saiyan Mountains, close to twenty figures stood around the peak that had been flattened for their meeting. There were mountains on the sides of them that went much higher up into the atmosphere, but the one they were gathered on was still above the lowest cloud layer that covered the sky below them. In the sky above their heads, a giant black dragon was circling the mountain over and over.

At the center of the peak, the five men who were part of this meeting stood face to face with each other. Their small pentagon was made up of what people would one day think of as some of the strongest people in the world. As it was now though, only two of them had any land that they claimed as their own. Zeref, who came riding in on the black dragon that now flew overhead, was one of those two. Behind him stood four of his subordinates who he had discovered on this world, or who had searched him out themselves. Eileen Belserion, Invel Yura, and August, three of Zeref's Shield of Spriggans stood next to one other figure, the leader of the demons of Tartaros. The Underworld King, Mard Geer Tartaros, stood among Zeref's subordinates holding a book in his right hand clenched tightly to his chest.

The other member of the group of five who had already claimed land was the Ant King, Meruem. He had his three Royal Guards behind him, as well as two other Chimera Ants from his world: Alligator and Cheetu. The two former Squadron Leader Chimeras stood behind the Royal Guards, though they were looking between the shoulders of the more powerful Chimera Ants in front of them to watch the meeting of powerhouses at the summit. Meruem was the one who called everyone there, and he continued going over his plan to the men before him who had varying levels of interest on their faces. The man who arrived there last looked the least interested, though he also had a look of begrudging respect on his face for the Ant who had such a detailed and thought out plan. "…If it is anyone other than a Saiyan who defeats the Kryptonian King, or anyone other than a Kryptonian who defeats the Saiyan King, the war would continue. It cannot be close either. It must be a crushing defeat for all of either race to see. You assured me this is possible?" Meruem mentioned, while looking across the circle to either side of Zeref where two taller men stood.

One of the two men had short black hair and a black goatee. He wore a heavy suit of armor over his body made of thinner material over the joints to allow for easy movement of his whole body. Zodd turned his head inward and looked towards the other man Meruem was referring to, the man who arrived late and did not look too interested in the meeting. The man with black hair that spiked in all directions turned his head and looked into Zodd's eyes, then turned back to Meruem and said, "It won't be a problem. You sure you can kill King Vegeta though?" Bardock added with a smirk, looking over towards Zodd again. "You don't look like you can."

Zodd stepped towards Bardock. Zeref backed up a few steps, while everyone else on the mountain stared at the Kryptonian and Saiyan with widening eyes. "I could kill you too, if you'd like?" Zodd offered.

"That would be counterproductive to why we're here," Bardock began, "but, if you really want to test your luck…" Bardock's hair shot up into a golden spike and his body surrounded in a flaring golden aura as he kept grinning at Zodd. His eyes turned from black to teal, and most of the beings on the mountain tensed up. Bardock felt their apprehensions, and he gazed around to see that this was not the first time most of them were seeing this.

Meruem's Royal Guards were staring in shock at a man who looked shockingly similar to another man they had met once before, but never knew until now that he was a Saiyan. That man did not have the signature brown tail that all the Saiyans they met had had, and none of the Saiyans they had ever seen before could turn their hair blond either. The mountain beneath Bardock's feet quaked, but Zodd clenched his fists anyway and said, "Do you think I am impressed by a simple Super Saiyan? You are not the first I have faced." Zodd's eyes started to glow red, and though Bardock was surprised by that declaration, he started grinning even more as the thought of Zodd actually being a challenge came to his mind.

The final man in the circle lifted his head up and looked down his nose while saying, "Did you two not claim to be the ones who wish to end this pointless war between Saiyans and Kryptonians?" Aizen shook his head and said in a dark voice, "I see now why this war is never-ending. Your people are both too stubborn."

Bardock clenched his teeth in annoyance, but he finally pulled back, surprising Zodd who did not expect the Saiyan to be able to hold himself back from the fight. "The war will end," Bardock said. His expression turned more serious, and he added, "I promise the Saiyans will start no more quarrels with his people, as long as he can promise the same. If solely to prevent the extinctions of our peoples, like so many other powerful races who got caught up in stupid wars like this." Bardock shook his head thinking of all he had seen during his time on Nexus.

Zodd stayed quiet for a few moments, then he nodded at Bardock who was watching him out the corners of his eyes. "I do not wish for the pointless death of my people to continue. I can accept one more death in this war though, as long as you can-"

"I can," Bardock interrupted, not going to wait for Zodd to make a similar remark to the one he made about King Vegeta earlier. "I am the strongest man in this world, after all," Bardock claimed.

"Then it is settled," Meruem said. "Bardock will kill your King, and Zodd, you will kill his. The two of you will then return to your own people and take power as the one who killed the enemy King. You will be able to end the war without protest from your people, after what occurs at the next battle."

Zodd scoffed and chuckled to himself. Meruem looked his way, and Zodd looked back to see the Ant King staring straight into his eyes as if demanding an explanation for his laughter. "You really think you lot stand a chance getting between an army of Saiyans and Kryptonians? They're going to rip you apart," he said in a threatening voice.

"If it does not go that way, should I expect retaliation from the new regime that follows?" Meruem questioned, and Zodd's eyes lifted up as he was not expecting that sort of remark to what he just said. Meruem was not saying that Zodd was wrong, he was just mentioning the alternative and asking to see what the consequences of that alternative would be. He was asking that if he was the one to rip apart the Kryptonians and not the other way around, would the new Kryptonian King be intent on getting revenge for his people?

After a few seconds, Zodd started, "If you win your battle, I doubt my people will be looking for revenge, as much as they'll be demanding peace."

"Can a man like you know peace?" Zeref asked, and Zodd turned to see that the shorter man looked genuinely intrigued as to whether or not Zodd was telling the truth.

"On this world," Zodd started, and his eyes did a pass over the top of the mountain he stood on. His eyes then looked up and he stared at the red sun between the two yellow ones in the sky. "I might have to," he finished.

Zodd lifted off the floor, and Bardock floated up as well as it seemed like there was nothing left to discuss. "Wait until the next battle," Meruem said while they lifted up. "We will go for the next battlefield, and when we do, that's when you two must go for the Kings."

Bardock grunted, then shot off in a trail of gold across the sky. Zodd watched the Super Saiyan fly off, and he frowned thinking of how similar he looked to the last Saiyan he had faced in battle, less than a week earlier. _Son Goku was a different breed of Saiyan though. This Bardock is just a little more refined than the rest, but that small difference will allow us to end the war. As long, as he keeps his word._ Zodd turned the other way and called down, "There will be another battle today. Do not dawdle here for long." With that, Zodd shot off leaving a shockwave behind him in the air that caused wind to slam down into the group atop the mountain.

Aizen did not turn to watch Zodd leave as did many of the others. He kept staring in the direction of Bardock's fading golden trail, then said in a low voice, "Those powerhouses are likely to betray us."

"Then we must show them we are not to be betrayed," Meruem said. Aizen turned back to the Chimera Ant who invited him to this meeting a day ago. The land that Meruem had claimed as his new country was the location of one of the most recent skirmishes between Saiyans and Kryptonians. The fight had been taken away from his land after only a few minutes, but tens of miles of his domain were torn apart during it. Meruem did not care about the peace between the two races, but he would not have a repeat of that devastation.

The triangle of powerful beings who brought with them several subordinates each faced each other with interested and analyzing looks. They were quiet as they did this, and the subordinates gathered around the mountain were getting nervous as to what was going on. Zeref was smiling with the corners of his lips pulled up a small amount, and his dark eyes shifted from the shinigami on his left to the Chimera Ant on his right. _This world is amazing,_ Zeref thought. _To think that I am the human in this alliance. Strange beings from so many worlds were brought here. Meruem, Aizen, Bardock, and Zodd, none of them are human, but I believe I prefer them to humans. They are less, predictable. After five hundred years, I had grown bored. Nexus has so much to offer. I wonder if Meruem's plan will work? If so, I would like to see what the Ant King goes on to accomplish on this world…_

"August is currently watching both the Saiyan and Kryptonian camps," Zeref said aloud while other thoughts mulled through his mind. As an immortal being who did not believe that he could die, the consequences of their alliance's plans did not weight as heavily on him as it did the others. "We will know as soon as they move. Invel will determine the position around which they will clash in, then Eileen will teleport us there."

"Are you only bringing the Ants you have gathered?" Aizen questioned Meruem. "There will be a much larger number of those beasts than there will be us."

"Actually," Meruem said. "Only my Royal Guards will accompany me. Alligator," he said, and the white-skinned alligator Chimera Ant ran forward as the Royal Guards moved aside to let him pass. "Watch over the Capital while we are gone." Meruem finished his sentence and his subordinate awaited more, but after a second of not hearing anything else, he nodded furiously and spun to run back to Cheetu.

"Yes, King," Alligator said before running off. He reached Cheetu and said something to the other Ant who did not know whether or not Meruem meant for him to go with Alligator or not. Seeing as Meruem said he was only taking the Royal Guards with him to the battle though, Cheetu agreed with Alligator and put one of his hands on the larger Ant's right shoulder. In a flash the two of them disappeared.

Aizen hummed as he wondered whether the Ant King was being overly confident, or if it was perhaps stronger than he was giving it credit for. Behind the shinigami stood a group of Arrancar along with one other Shinigami- Kaname Tousen. In a line going from the left of Aizen to his right stood Tousen followed by the first Espada, Coyote Starrk with his counterpart Lilynette Gingerbuck standing in front of his legs. Next down was the third Espada, Tier Harribel, followed by the 5th Espada Nnoitra Gilga, then the 8th, Szayelaporro Granz. At the end of the line on the right end stood two more figures, the larger and darker-skinned Yammy Llargo, and the albino green-eyed Ulquiorra Cifer. More than half of the Espada were again under Aizen's command, along with one of his former shinigami allies. _I have yet to locate Gin. I have no doubt that he was brought to this world as well. It is too large to search thoroughly, but I know_ _ **he**_ _will find me sooner or later._

"The Second Espada was killed by a Saiyan on the other side of the world," Aizen said to the men before him. The two looked his way and wondered if he had more invested in this fight than they had originally thought. He did not look upset over the death of his old subordinate though, and they did not think him as one to try and avenge his underlings. "He was killed by another man named Vegeta, though this Vegeta was a Super Saiyan like the others with him."

"Super Saiyan," Meruem repeated. He turned to Zeref, and then said, "So we have all met them before." Zeref lifted his eyebrows a little and the corners of his lips lifted more at how easily his expression was read by the Ant King's for him to deduce that.

"That Prince Vegeta was with a different group of Saiyans who I do not believe are taking part in the war," Aizen continued.

"Do either of you," Zeref began, and his allies looked in at him. "Know of Son Goku?"

Meruem's eyes opened a little wider, but Aizen just narrowed his own and frowned deeply at the sound of that name. The others looked to him at his strange reaction, and Aizen opened his mouth to explain. He froze with his mouth open, then closed it and twisted his lip in an even more annoyed, and conflicted way. The Espada behind Aizen who could partially see his face were shocked at the moment of uncertainty that Aizen showed which he never usually expressed. Those of them who were at the fight with the Saiyans who they were defeated by were not surprised by his reaction though. Ulquiorra frowned himself and thought deeply on that day, while Coyote Starrk scratched the back of his head and then shook it after recalling that day's events.

"He is the reason, I dislike Saiyans," Aizen finally said, though he did not go into further explanation than that.

"For me it's the opposite," Zeref said, and Aizen turned to the man who brought up Goku in the first place. Both Meruem and Aizen looked to Zeref who in turn lifted his gaze up to the dragon still circling the sky above their heads. "Son Goku helped me in acquiring Bahamut, without as much as asking why I wanted to tame the beast. Once I told him I could stop its mindless destruction, he smiled and offered me his help. I never would have thought him a Saiyan had Bardock not shown us that transformation a few minutes ago."

"He may be a one-of-a-kind Saiyan," Meruem said without waiting a second from the end of Zeref's sentence. Some might have thought it was rude to speak that quickly as it seemed almost as if he was interrupting Zeref, but Meruem knew Zeref was finished speaking with that last sentence. Zeref turned to the Ant King with lifted eyebrows again, but this time his small smile was matched with a look of respect on Zeref's face for the Ant King who waited for him to finish speaking before saying what was on his mind. _Even though he clearly thinks himself as the King of everything, he has the disposition to match the arrogance. I do not think I would mind, following this being's lead._

"But if not for Son Goku," Meruem continued, "I never would have asked Bardock to assist in ending the war." The others looked at him with interest, and he continued, "I heard others with Son Goku call his transformation the Legendary Super Saiyan, and he looked similar to Bardock when his hair was not golden. He was the strongest fighter I have seen on this world, but also he showed a gentle side unbecoming of a warrior."

 _Like how he showed me mercy,_ Aizen thought darkly. _**"Everyone deserves a second chance." "I hope we meet again!"**_ A conflicted look reappeared on Aizen's face and he frowned even deeper at the thought of Son Goku's kind words.

"The Saiyans and Kryptonians think they are fighting a war over the strongest race on Nexus," Meruem said, as he spotted August's face twitch from back where he stood behind Zeref with his eyes closed. "It is time for them to understand just how big this new world is."

* * *

 **Present**

Meruem stared down at the body of the man whose brains he emptied out into his stomach. He stared at the body of Bardock that lay flat without a scalp or anything inside his skull. Despite just accomplishing something that he had long since decided on, from the moment Bardock declared himself the 'strongest' before him, Meruem could not find it in him to smile. He stared down at the blood-soaked face of the former Saiyan King, and in his mind flashed the moment of Bardock's death when he thought for sure that Bardock had some trick up his sleeve. The grin on Bardock's face as he took his last breath was already haunting the Ant King.

"You bastard!"

Meruem lifted his gaze as for the first time since he started eating Bardock's brains, one of the Super Saiyan Gods trying to stop him broke through the outer defenses. The giant High Commander Ginyu was still in midair after being punched in the center of his chest by Shugesh a second ago, and he could not recover fast enough to stop the giant Oozaru God from approaching his King. Shugesh roared and while his mouth was open, he revealed that his gums were cut up and bloody, and many of his teeth were cracked from the uppercut Bergamo hit him with a minute ago. The giant blue wolf-man was grappling with Fasha at the moment, but the female Oozaru God was too strong for him and pushed him back, then opened her mouth and roared a beam of white light into his chest that sent him flying at a recovering Ginyu in midair. The two collided and kept flying into the side of Mount Gine, while Shugesh punched forward his giant fist towards the Ant King.

Meruem flew straight up and over the top of Shugesh's fist. He stopped once he was only a foot over the top of the Oozaru's fist, not feeling the need to dodge any further than necessary. Shugesh tried to swing his arm up, but Meruem tapped his feet down right as Shugesh's arm changed directions, and his tap sent the Oozaru's fist slamming into the mountain behind him and ripping a giant crater in it a mile in diameter. _What was that light?_ Meruem thought, an annoyed look on his face as well as a lingering burning sensation in his eyes from when he stared straight at it. _I underestimated the Keybearer. After defeating Bardock it should be expected that I was overconfident, but I must focus now on the task at hand. Locating and killing those three can wait._

The Ant King flew forward so fast that Shugesh spun his head to the left to try and follow Meruem's movements, only for the Ant King to already have stopped moving behind him in the middle of more of his subordinates. Sephiroth and Deus looked inwards towards each other where Meruem was suddenly floating. Meruem took in the entire battlefield to the east of Mount Gine with calm inspection. All eyes were on him. Everyone wanted to see what he would do next.

Higher up the slope of Mount Gine than where Shugesh just created a huge crater, and higher than where Ginyu and Bergamo were staggering back up to their feet, Turles and Hit stared down at the battlefield as well. Turles had a furious look in his eyes though that Hit did not understand considering Meruem had just killed Bardock like the Rogue had been hoping for. "Son, Goku," Turles snarled. "He was here," he said, and his remaining fist clenched hard at his side. "He's not even a Super Saiyan God. I could have easily…" Turles faded off, and he tssked before shifting his glare to the sky above him. "It's his luck he'd have a Keybearer as an ally. Using an angel like that, he should be embarrassed."

"Is that really what you should be focusing on?" Hit questioned, while he kept his eyes honed-in on the Ant King. The intimidating power emanating from the Ant King ever since he finished eating Bardock's brains was getting to even the legendary assassin.

"No, you're right," Turles said, and he refocused on Meruem as well. The effects of his fight with Bardock earlier were sticking with him, but he was not losing any more blood from his left shoulder where his steel arm had been ripped off of. He had stopped panting, but the battle damage on him was clear, and he could not deny that he was still tired from getting the life choked out of him by Bardock. He focused down on Meruem who floated still, about to say something. _This is the moment. What he does now will mean a shift in the war. Does he betray me? If so, Hit will take him on, fresh as he has yet to face anyone other than Bardock, and even that was only for a few moments. Basil and Bergamo are still going strong too, they can handle the Guardians who the other Super Saiyan Gods are not fighting…_

"This new power of mine," Meruem said, lifting his right hand and looking closer at it. He turned around and rose that hand towards Shugesh, only it was not Shugesh he was aiming at. The Oozaru God opened his mouth to roar something at Meruem, when an aura of dark purple energy came out of Meruem's body and dyed the world its color. It was like a sphere of purple erupted from Meruem's body and spread in every direction indefinitely, leaving everything for hundreds of miles coated in it.

Shugesh floated backwards a few feet before realizing what he was doing. He shook his head around with clenched eyes. _What am I doing?! He killed Bardock!_ Shugesh's red eyes snapped open, and then opened much wide as Meruem's right hand surrounded in a veil of hot pink light. Shugesh felt a power unlike anything he had felt before emanating off of that hand, and he flew to the left as fast as he could. Meruem's hand did not follow his path, and Shugesh looked towards Meruem while flying backwards even faster. "What are you-"

Meruem let out a deep breath, and his new massive power condensed. It surrounded his right hand so much brighter than a second ago, and then he fired it.

Turles and Hit flew away from the slope of Mount Gine, and Ginyu and Bergamo crossed their arms in front of their bodies while backing away as well. The beam of light that Meruem fired from his hand collided with the slope of Mount Gine, but it did not explode like everyone thought it would. Instead, Meruem just held his right palm out for a few more seconds, then he clenched it into a fist. The hole in the mountain that the ki flew through flashed and out of that hole erupted a bright pink light that changed every shade between it and a dark, dark red in a single moment. As soon as that light turned reddish-black, a thousand giant cracks appeared across Mount Gine's surface. The red light pushed out through those cracks making them even bigger, making thousands more of them, and then the top of Mount Gine blew off. All of the walls exploded outwards in every direction, and everyone for miles had to fly around and sprint away from giant chunks of rock falling out of the sky, smoking and flaming and crashing down like meteors.

They were close to the base of Mount Gine, but the entire mountain exploded from Meruem's one attack that took only a moment to charge. Not all of the debris that came off of the mountain crashed nearby, as some of the mountain's slope that exploded was miles above the ground and had a much farther distance to travel, especially while moving outwards as well as down. Hundreds of miles away in the east, people in towns that were destroyed by all the shaking of the day pointed up in the sky above them as a meteor shower flew over their heads. One of those meteors was not as high as all the others though, and the townspeople started screaming as it flew right over the tops of where their houses used to stand. When it crashed down just outside of their town, the ground exploded upwards and a wall of heat and smoke and ash slammed into them as they tried to run.

Not a single person on the entire battlefield where Meruem just destroyed Mount Gine moved. The Saiyans stared in shock and horror as the second largest of their mountains was destroyed. The Ant King's men stared at their leader with wide eyes at how insanely powerful he was, as well as because he just destroyed the mountain and risked all of their lives with the debris that came off of it. Those who had survived this long into the war were not going down easily though, but as exhausted as they were, it was hard to dodge all of that massive debris.

Meruem stared forward with large eyes, not eyes of surprise or shock, just large eyes that were examining the emptiness that replaced Mount Gine. He turned his hand back and stared at it, then said in a voice that echoed over the battlefield, "Effortless."

Raditz closed his jaw and stared towards the Ant King with a dark look in his eyes. His smile was gone, and his eyes darted from that seemingly all-powerful being to the other players still on the battlefield.

Fasha stared forward and was panting heavily with blood all over her giant red-furred body. She had blood pouring out the left side of her chest from where Augus' sword dragged through her flesh. She saw Shugesh on the other side of the Ant King as her and a little to her right, and then she looked down towards where Bardock's body had been laying before Meruem destroyed Mount Gine on a whim. He was gone, and Fasha started shaking in anger, rage, and then unadulterated hatred towards the being in front of her. A massive red flaring aura surrounded the Oozaru God, and another aura of even greater size surrounded Shugesh who was an even larger Oozaru God.

The two of them roared, and Saiyans all over the mountain prepared to keep fighting. As long as they still had the Super Saiyan Gods on their side, it felt like the war was not over yet... even if Meruem's strength had all of them scared out of their wits. Many of the Capital 50 and Rogue Ravagers turned to the Saiyans around them and got ready to attack, but those same fighters darted their eyes over to another red light in the air with them. No one wanted to be the first to attack, because they did not know if Raditz's threat from earlier remained after what their King just did.

… _No, even then, Turles would still make his move. There is only one play that will save us. One move to survive, and flourish._ Raditz's smirk returned to his face, and Meruem caught it out the corner of his eyes right as Fasha and Shugesh charged at him at simultaneously.

Two Oozaru Gods at once was nothing to be laughed at, even if he had obtained a new level of strength beyond his projections. _I am nowhere near as fatigued as they are,_ Meruem thought to himself as he flew away to one side to avoid the punches coming from two other directions going to smash him between them. He would rather not test his strength out by reaching out both arms to try and stop both fists in their paths, even though he was curious to see if he could have done it. He would not leave such a thing up to chance though, even if it was a small chance. He flew off and easily evaded their fists, then shot towards Fasha's chest when the two Oozarus changed directions to follow him. He slammed a fist right into where her wound was deepest, where Augus' sword first penetrated her flesh, and Fasha let out an ungodly roar of agony and rage.

Meruem spun to Shugesh while Fasha went flying off from his punch, and he smacked his tail around the side of his body, impaling the end of it through Shugesh's right middle finger as the largest Oozaru punched at him. Shugesh bit down hard instead of roaring out, and he kept pushing into his punch and bent the Ant King's tail back so that his fist almost hit Meruem's body. Right before it did though, Meruem lifted both arms and grabbed his other giant fingers, stopping Shugesh's fist and then slamming down hard, making the tip of his tail drag upwards through Shugesh's middle finger all the way up to his knuckle before finally removing from his flesh. Blood splashed out all over Meruem, but the Ant King surrounded in a bright veil of purple that evaporated the blood off of his body.

"Fasha. Shugesh. That's enough," Raditz called across the sky.

All the Saiyans who were about to charge their enemies froze. The start of the fight between Meruem and the Oozaru Gods had occurred so fast that most of the others were barely following it, but some decided to stop trying to and just get to their own fights already. The Saiyans were tired, but they were always ready to keep fighting and looked as bloodthirsty as ever. When they looked towards Raditz though, most of them stopped what they were doing. Rutabega and Dirru looked at Raditz's back in confusion but said nothing to him. Every Saiyan and enemy around Raditz felt nervous apprehension at the tone of the Super Saiyan God's voice. The fact that even the Super Saiyans behind Raditz looked anxious about the son of Bardock's actions made them all even more nervous.

Shugesh spun his head towards Raditz after being knocked back by Meruem again, and he roared towards him, "What are you talking about, brat?! Stop standing around and-" Meruem was not going to wait for him, and the Ant King appeared in front of Shugesh's chest with his right palm extended right in front of it. A flash of white light erupted from Meruem's hand and completely surrounded Shugesh before sending him flying into the distance where an explosion filled the sky with a giant white sphere of searing energy. Shugesh's red fur burned and the Super Saiyan God roared in agony, then he powered-up even more while surrounding himself in a guard to protect himself.

Fasha yelled without taking her eyes off of her enemy, "ALL OF YOU, THIS IS NOT OVER!"

Shugesh made Meruem's explosion disperse and he started flying back through it, while around Fasha the red aura she had flamed wildly. "'Brat?"' Raditz questioned in a voice that reverberated through the air around him. Every Saiyan and all of Raditz's enemies felt chills at the sound of his voice, and then Raditz vanished from all of their sights. Meruem had just attacked Fasha after she roared to the other Saiyans to fight, but when he turned to Shugesh as he saw the largest Oozaru heading back his way, his eyes narrowed at the sight of a man with long spiky red hair inside a matching red aura floating in front of Shugesh. The giant Oozaru slowed down as Raditz appeared in front of him, moving incredibly fast thanks to not having been in a difficult fight the entire day. "Is that any way to talk to your King?" Raditz questioned, while a smirk spread back across his face.

Shugesh's glowing red eyes opened wide. Meruem's narrowed eyes examined the situation closely, and they darted up in the sky after a second with a thoughtful look in them. Turles stared down with bulging eyes though. "What is he doing?" The Rogue snarled, then spun towards Meruem to see what the Ant King was going to do about Raditz's declaration. Turles was surprised though as Meruem was looking right back up at him in a way that made him hesitant to even think about his next move. _What is Raditz doing? His father was just killed in front of him! Why isn't he…_

"What are you doing?!" Fasha yelled up from where she was getting to her feet on a part of the ground never before stood on. She got up on a piece of stone under where Mount Gine once stood, and roared at the younger man high above her, "Help us kill the bastard who murdered your father!"

"I'm avenging Bardock," Shugesh snarled. "He was the Saiyan King! And-"

"My father was too weak," Raditz said, his lip flattening back out as he said it. "As was my mate," Raditz added. Shugesh's eyes grew wider once again at the sound of that, while Fasha just gained a nervous expression on her Great Ape's face.

 _Shit. He's fucking lost it. Or, maybe he's just not holding back anymore now that Bardock's gone. I always knew there was something off about him!_ She snarled and started flying back up towards the men flying in the sky.

"I will rule the Saiyans now," Raditz said. "And I told you, that is enough." Raditz said this while staring straight into Shugesh's eyes, and the threat was not veiled in the slightest.

Shugesh started snarling and he growled, "You fucking brat-" Raditz appeared in front of Shugesh's face with his fist punching towards his right eye. Shugesh closed his eyes, but the punch never hit him on the eyelid. Raditz had stopped before punching that fist forward, and he flew behind Shugesh where he promptly cut off the giant Oozaru God's tail. "AAHHH!" Shugesh roared, his eyes snapping open and his head spinning to see Raditz behind him with a sword of red energy sticking out of his right hand. Raditz then spun towards his lower back above the tail he just sliced off, and before Shugesh even started shrinking down, Raditz slashed deep into his flesh.

 _This, this could be better than expected,_ Turles thought, calming down from his initial reaction to how Raditz was acting. _The remaining Super Saiyan Gods except for me will kill each other, or tire each other out even more at least…_ Turles' hopeful look started going back to the one he had initially, and his eyes like so many other Saiyans around the mountains bulged as Raditz started swinging Fasha by her tail. He swung the tired, bloody, Oozaru God over his head so fast that she looked like a blur to most people, and then he released down towards where Shugesh had almost shrunk to a tenth of his Oozaru God's size as he fell. Fasha's massive body slammed into Shugesh so hard that the fat man's lungs crushed in and blood splashed out of his mouth all over his squad-mate's back.

Shugesh and Fasha hit the ground where the base of Mount Gine used to be. Raditz floated out of the air towards them diagonally, and he dropped down onto the flattened black earth beneath what used to be a mountain named after his mother. His mother was dead though. His father too, and the person closest to him in the world, Apragus, was gone as well. Raditz walked forward while lifting his hands at his sides, red spheres of energy forming on them while the Super Saiyan God chuckled in a dark tone. He threw the sphere in his right hand forward as Fasha was standing back up, and she swung a giant fist up into the bottom of the sphere as it was about to reach her. She redirected it into the sky, but as her arm was lifting in front of her face, Raditz came up underneath her elbow with the other ball in hand, and he smashed it forward straight under Fasha's chin.

The ball of light Raditz smashed into Fasha's head erupted upwards as a cone of energy so powerful that the woman's Oozaru face started shredding. All her fur melted in a second, but before she could pull her face back, her chin had melted as well and all the skin over her face seared away. Fasha let out a pained shriek that cut off only a second into it, and then her giant Oozaru body fell backwards and started shrinking down right as it hit the ground.

As Raditz brutally murdered Fasha, Meruem floated down from the sky to the east and landed a hundred feet behind where Raditz lowered back to the floor. Raditz looked over his shoulder towards Meruem, then he lifted his right hand and a sphere of red energy appeared on it again. He fired the ball of energy and it flew over Meruem's head and out into his eastern sky where an opportunistic Wings saw his chance with a Saiyan who had been kicking his ass earlier but had dropped his jaw after Raditz killed Fasha. Wings only floated a few feet when he realized everyone around him was flying away, and he spun back towards the direction they were all watching, just in time to see the red ball of energy that incinerated him before he could let out a scream. The ball of light did not even slow down on his body, passing straight through the air where he just was and then continuing into the distance several dozen miles before hitting the ground and making a pillar of red light rise into the sky.

Raditz lowered his right hand, then while still looking at Meruem, he pointed his left hand behind him and caught the fat fist that Shugesh punched at him after diving forward from where he lay in semi-consciousness. "You, fucking, traitor," Shugesh gasped at Raditz's back.

"I am no traitor," Raditz said. "I simply see the best way I can keep _most_ of our warriors alive." He yanked up hard with the arm he had just caught Shugesh's fist with, swinging the fat man up over his head and then down in front of him. As Shugesh was dropping in front of Raditz, the fat man's red hair turned back to black as he was completely out of energy. Raditz was far from empty though, and a red aura surrounded his body as he kneed upwards at the middle of Shugesh's body. Raditz tore the fat Saiyan in half, and then he threw Shugesh's top half that he was still holding by one arm off to the side to his right. Shugesh's head and torso rolled for thirty meters leaving a trail of blood all the way to where it finally stopped, his eyes still open while he lay with his face turned in towards Raditz. The only remaining Super Saiyan God on the side of the Saiyans kicked Shugesh's fat ass the other way as the top half of his body, then he turned and looked Meruem in the eyes.

Everyone around the eastern side of where Mount Gine once stood was silent. No one attacked each other. The Saiyans were shocked by Raditz's act of brutality towards his fellow Super Saiyan Gods. The Super Saiyan Gods were always together at the top of the Saiyan Mountains, like a select club that only those Bardock deemed worthy could join. He was always with them. He knew them for years and spent so much time with them. And he brutally massacred them while smirking. "All Saiyans who disobey me, can expect the same fate," Raditz said while looking into Meruem's eyes. Raditz's enemies were not moving in fear that they would be destroyed like Wings, but his allies were not moving either. "And I said," Raditz continued, his smile lowering down and his fists unclenching. "That, is, enough."

Meruem stared into Raditz's red eyes without making a sound. _He does not look winded from killing the two of them. They were tired, and he was likely killing them so quickly to make me think he can effortlessly kill other Super Saiyan Gods. Even if they were tired though, he eliminated them with ease. He is fresh, but I doubt I would be able to test my new power on him. He could not have defeated Bardock, and as I am now I have Bardock's power added to my own. Not all of the strength of the former Saiyan King is mine, but I have never felt such a boost in my own strength than I just received. Perhaps, Raditz is right. That this_ _ **is**_ _enough._ "Come to me, Capital 50," Meruem said.

He said it casually, but in a tone that made it clear it was a direct order to be obeyed. Most of the Capital 50 including the Guardians moved at once, though some hesitated until they saw Raditz not blow their comrades to smithereens as soon as they started moving. "Saiyans, to me," Raditz said. A few of the Saiyans hesitated this time as well, but most of them were heading towards Raditz as fast as they could. The others followed quickly as they did not want to be left surrounded by Rogue Ravagers, especially since the man who was protecting them from attack probably would not help them if they were still floating there after being ordered to his side.

Men, women, and creatures of all kinds landed behind Meruem. Pitou, Pouf, and Youpi dropped down closest to Meruem, coming even though they were not a part of the Capital 50. They lowered down on his sides instead of behind him like the others. Pouf and Pitou looked terrible, and after landing on his left, Pitou's legs could not hold her up and she collapsed to her knees. Youpi was also panting where he stood on Meruem's left after such trying fights with Super Saiyan Gods beat him down. Sephiroth stood behind Meruem on his left, looking the least tired of the Guardians and Royal Guards as he was not even panting, though he did sport a bruise on the right side of his face and a cut on the back of his left hand that still held his long katana Masamune in it. Deus stood behind the Ant King on Meruem's right, a good distance away from Sephiroth considering the size of the man who landed between them.

Ginyu looked the most exhausted of the Guardians, though Deus was pretty badly beaten as well. The giant body of the man once known as Isaac Netero had deep cuts and bad bruising all over it, and his skin was starting to look a little pale thanks to all of his injuries and blood loss. Ginyu tried to get his breathing under control though, since as the High Commander of the King's Army, he needed to be steadfast in front of his men who were all landing behind him. Many of the Capital 50 landing behind Ginyu were giants, though close to half of the warriors were still at their normal heights. It looked like more were giants though considering all the space they took up on the flattened black ground.

Behind Raditz landed two Super Saiyans, one on either side of his back, neither of them near his sides like the Royal Guards were for Meruem. They landed a good ten feet behind Raditz, and since Raditz did not say or do anything about it, they figured that was a good move on their parts. After those two Super Saiyans though, almost all of the Saiyans who dropped down behind Raditz were in their Great Ape forms. Dozens of Oozarus with brown fur landed all over the ground behind Raditz, more and more every second. The army behind the Ant King did not realize how many Saiyans were still around, as they had all been excited by Meruem's defeat of the Saiyan King that it felt like they were crushing this war. More and more Oozarus fell though, to a point that there were clearly more Saiyans there than there were members of the Capital 50 and their subordinates. The majority of fighters who the Capital 50 brought with them as subordinates were killed, as well as many of the Capital 50 themselves. Considering many of the actual Capital 50 were killed, it was more surprising that there were actually a few lower subordinates who still remained in Meruem's ranks.

More Saiyans descended, an occasional humanoid dropping down amongst the Oozarus and floating to the front of the army and down behind the Super Saiyans. After they had all landed, there were only around fifteen Saiyans who still had not transformed, while there were over a hundred and twenty Oozarus with varying degrees of injuries filling the space behind Raditz. They filled up six times as much space as Meruem's half army of giantized warriors, but after the quick deaths of two Super Saiyan Gods, both the Saiyans and the Capital 50 were not too quick to judge their fighting powers.

Raditz stared straight ahead with a stoic expression on his face. No one could tell what he was thinking, as he masked the fury inside him and bit down hard to prevent from roaring in rage. He looked into the Ant King's small purple irises, and then the Super Saiyan God bowed his head. His right knee bent to the floor as hundreds watched. Raditz swallowed his pride though, while his race stared at his back with growing looks of enragement. "King," Raditz said while lifting his bowed head to look into Meruem's eyes again. The Ant King did not change his expression at all from when it seemed like Raditz could be preparing an attack on him to the point that Raditz knelt before him, but at the sound of that one word, the corners of his mouth lifted up the slightest bit. Then they immediately lowered back down as a man landed on his left side between him and Raditz, making a triangle of the three of them.

Turles had a smirk plastered across his face. The man with red spiky hair that looked so similar to the former Saiyan King's marched forward while almost a hundred figures dropped down behind him. The purple-skinned assassin Hit landed in front of most of the men, though on his left side landed the red-furred wolf-man Basil and his older brother Bergamo. Bergamo was still a giant thanks to all the damage he received during the battle, as he grew larger every time he was hit. He was larger than most of the Oozarus, though not by much, but other than Bergamo there were none in the Ravagers who came close to the size of the Great Apes of the Saiyan army, who were still standing despite Raditz kneeling before them.

The Rogue stepped forward and then came to a stop when he was almost right between Raditz and Meruem, putting him in the center of all three armies. He turned his head sideways to look towards Raditz who was on his knees, and he smirked even more at the sight of the proud man prostrating himself. "Then the war is over," Turles said, as the only Saiyan who could stand up to him now was on his knees. He chuckled darkly and then, while smirking dangerously towards the Saiyan army, he said, "The mountains are mine."

Raditz got back to his feet in an instant, and a red aura flared around his body like a giant fire. Turles' eyes opened wide, as Raditz glared at him like an animal with his teeth bared and his fists clenched. "Try and fucking take them." Raditz snarled threateningly at Turles, all the rage he felt from prostrating himself bubbling over after the Rogue's declaration. "I'll rip you in half!" Raditz roared, and the ground beneath his feet where the base of Mount Gine used to be cracked in five different directions, at least one crack going under each of the armies.

Pouf turned his head right to the King while Pitou lifted her gaze from where she sat on the floor next to him. They checked for what they should do, but Meruem stood still. Turles had turned to face Raditz completely when the longer-haired man snapped at him, so he could not see what Meruem was doing, but he did not hear the Ant King say anything about what Raditz was saying. He bit down and ground his teeth over each other, and his red spiky hair waved around in a gust of wind that rushed over him. His own flaming red aura arose, and he snarled back at Raditz, but Raditz just looked even angrier and more raring to go after Turles did that. The Rogue stopped snarling and thought about his missing left arm, about his exhaustion from fighting Bardock which he had yet to fully recover his stamina from.

"I am the new Saiyan King," Turles growled at Raditz.

"You are no King!" Raditz yelled. "My people will never bend the knee for you, _Rogue_ ," Raditz hissed Turles' title with disgust in his voice. The Saiyans who were furious with Raditz only a few seconds ago were staring at his back with wider eyes now. Their fury was fading, even as Raditz continued, "I accept the King's strength, and so the Saiyans will kneel for him, but you are not one of us. A backstabbing cutthroat leading a horde of mercenaries, you do not hold the loyalty of a _single_ Saiyan warrior. Whereas _my_ people…" Raditz stopped talking, and then behind him Rutabega lowered down to his right knee. Dirru looked at the man next to him in some confusion, then it hit him that the other Super Saiyan was doing exactly what Raditz wanted him to do. Dirru nodded his head in understanding, then dropped down to a knee as well.

Hit looked over as the mighty Oozarus started kneeling one by one. His gaze shifted back to Turles though while the rest of the Ravagers were watching the Saiyans in confusion, many not understanding what was going on at the moment. _What will you do now?_ Hit thought as he saw Turles' eyes darting back and forth across the Saiyans who were all dropping to a knee with their heads bowed. Prideful Saiyans, savage warriors, calmed themselves and pushed their pride aside as they took to their knees behind their leader.

Only a few seconds after Raditz trailed off, the entire Saiyan army was kneeling behind him. He continued where he left off, "They know who their King is." Raditz said it, then snapped his head to the side and looked back towards Meruem whose eyes had narrowed a bit at that statement. "And _I,_ kneel only to Meruem." He said it and many of his people ground their giant teeth in frustration, but they all stayed in their positions behind him.

Meruem stared into Raditz's eyes after the Saiyan finished. _He could prove more troublesome than the Rogue. Turles has not yet bent the knee however. To reward loyalty or assistance._ _Which to choose?_

Turles snarled, a deep guttural sound coming out of his throat at the sight of the Saiyan warriors kneeling behind Raditz. "You think you can defeat us?" Turles growled. "Four Super Saiyan Gods have died today by our hands. You and anyone else who stands against us will die too." Turles said it, and then he snarled more as Raditz did not budge from his stance, nor did he turn to look at Turles. The Rogue turned towards Meruem too, and his eyes opened wide at the sight of Meruem's soldiers. Their arms were lowering to their sides, their weapons were being sheathed or put into holsters, and Ginyu smirked down at him before pressing a button on a device on his wrist. Turles eyes grew even wider as Ginyu started shrinking down, and the rest of Meruem's giantized soldiers started following his example.

Turles took a step towards Meruem, while the Ravagers behind him were getting increasingly nervous about what was going on. Basil darted his eyes back and forth between the Capital 50 and the Saiyans. Bergamo snarled, thinking, _All of a sudden, it feels like we're the ones at a disadvantage._ The King's men were standing down, and Turles was shaking in anger as he walked closer to Meruem.

The Royal Guards glared at Turles with threatening gazes as the Rogue moved towards them. Pitou got up and bared her teeth, her eyes glowing red and the hair over her body all standing on end. Meruem stood still as Turles came towards him though, and the Saiyan stopped when he was still twenty feet away. "You told me if I helped you kill Bardock, I could have his throne," Turles said, reminding the King whose men were shrinking down and relaxing behind him.

Meruem looked into Turles' red eyes and said, "It's yours for the taking." Meruem nodded past Turles towards the man standing in front of the kneeling Saiyans. Turles looked back himself and saw Raditz shift his gaze from Meruem to him now.

Turles realized Meruem was not going to help him do this. _I could challenge him for the throne. One on one against him, I can see that's what Raditz wants me to do. He's got both arms. I could take him, but he did, just kill two Super Saiyan Gods, and he doesn't look winded from it._ Turles started panting and his eyes darted to his left shoulder that had stopped bleeding a while ago when he sealed it up. He had sweat on his paler-than-usual face though, and he knew he had lost a lot of blood in his fight against Bardock. His neck still hurt and panting made his throat ache from when Bardock strangled him, crushing his windpipes. The Rogue bit back a cough, and his entire body shook in anger as he stared at the son of Bardock.

The Rogue Ravagers were getting very nervous by the situation. The Saiyans were massive monsters, and they no longer had an army of giants to assist them against the Great Apes. They had Bergamo, but even Bergamo felt hesitant against so many enemies. Usually by the time he got as large as he was now, he was much bigger than his opponents. His eyes darted to look on his youngest brother, his _only_ brother now that Bardock had killed Lavender. His attention turned back to Raditz, the son of the man who murdered his brother, but even the anger he felt could not ease his nerves at the look of confidence on Raditz's face.

 _I could have Hit kill him._ Turles thought as he turned back to his own army, awaiting his orders with hesitant and nervous looks on their faces. There were less of them than the Saiyans, and most of them were smaller, making it so all of the Ravagers were gathered in the same amount of space three or four Oozarus took up. The odds did not look good. _Meruem's men are standing down, because the Saiyans are kneeling to him. They aren't kneeling to me though! If I pit the Ravagers against them, even if I win, I'll never by accepted by my people after that. Taking over with an army of non Saiyans- they're treating me like a foreign invader._ _ **"…you are not one of us."**_

Turles took a step forward, baring his teeth and raising his Godly energy higher. The Saiyans lifted their heads. All of the Saiyans lifted their heads and looked at Turles. Turles froze at the glares of over a hundred Oozarus, a couple of teal-eyed Super Saiyans, and the red-eyed stare of the true, new Saiyan King. "Rrrrrr…" Turles growled. His feet lifted off the floor, and his aura shrank around his body to become no more than a thin veil. "Rogue Ravagers," Turles growled in a low tone. "On me," he said, and then he shot up into the sky. _I'll be back,_ he thought, trying not to let the bitterness of defeat tear at him, though already he was seething in rage. He was absolutely livid, as it felt to him like Meruem had gotten what he wanted, and likely Raditz did as well. It felt like he was the only loser of the war, and even the recollection that Bardock had died could not ease that rage.

The thought to dart a pissed-off look in Meruem's direction crossed Turles' mind, but he thought better of it. The Ravagers flew up in the air after their leader, and the Rogue turned his head towards Mount Vegeta's wide slope that covered his whole vision to the west of him. His look of longing lasted for half a second, then he spat towards the mountain and turned north again. The Rogue shot off through the sky, leaving a trail of red behind him that his men flew after. Many of the Ravagers held their comrades under the armpits as several of their remaining warriors could not fly, and no one wanted to be left behind with the Saiyans.

"Raditz," Meruem said, and Raditz lowered his gaze from the retreating Ravagers to the King before him. Meruem walked forward and Raditz's guard shot up, an untrusting look on his face. Meruem only walked forward a few steps though, removing himself from his army the same distance that Raditz was already in front of his own. The Saiyans focused their gazes on Meruem who had a serious expression on his face, though he always looked serious to those around him. Most of the Saiyans could not tell whether the Ant was going to kill them or reward them.

Raditz kept his guard up, but he did nod at Meruem to continue. Meruem waited another second, a dark look in his eyes, and Raditz corrected his nod with, "Yes, King?" The words tasted bad on his tongue, but he had already chosen this path. The fact that the Ravagers were gone made the situation a little better for him, especially because Turles and Meruem ended on bad terms. He did not want to risk his good fortune though by antagonizing the King. Even if his forces were greater in number, he had seen Mount Gine blown apart like it was nothing to the Ant King. His father who he never once defeated in combat, killed and his power taken. _On his own, he could probably wipe the Saiyans from existence. I won't give him a reason to do so._

"That was a good move," Meruem said, and the three Royal Guards behind him as well as Ginyu stared at their King in surprise. Raditz's eyes opened wider, as the Ant King lifted the corners of his lips a little. Meruem continued in the same tone, "The land around these mountains is no longer yours. This territory belongs to me, and High Lord Xemnas is in direct control of it. Henceforth, you are Lord Raditz. Call yourself the King of the Saiyans if you like, but you are a Lord of the Cooperative now."

"I understand," Raditz said. None of the Saiyans said a word against what Meruem was saying. They all knew they were dead if a single word escaped their lips, as likely from the Ant King's wrath as it was from Raditz's.

"You are not to kill emissaries from allied nations who step foot on your mountains. You Saiyans killed all who trespassed before, but there are rules in the Cooperative. Do not break them." The final sentence was as threatening as if Meruem had spiked his power and roared that he was going to murder them all should they break the rules.

Raditz nodded once more, and Meruem's eyes narrowed down again, his right hand tightening into a fist. Usually he would not give second chances, and Raditz could see he would not get a third as he corrected with, "I understand." A simple nod was not the amount of respect Meruem demanded from his subjects.

Meruem nodded back at him once Raditz told him that, then he just turned around. Meruem looked back at his army and said, "Good work." He grinned, and the Capital 50 were shocked to see that Meruem outwardly appeared to be, happy. He was in a good mood after all, and the end of the war after eating Bardock's brains only rose his mood even higher. He did not have to share the victory with Turles, his power had grown double what it previously was, and the Saiyans were subjugated. All in all, it was an optimal outcome, one of millions he had foreseen the day's events possibly transpiring to. "Return to the Capital at your leisure. You deserve a vacation," he said it with his voice lifting up in tone at the end like he had just thought of it on the spot. Meruem started walking forward and right between his Royal Guards who looked in at him in shock at what he was saying.

"King?" Pouf questioned, as he started speed-walking after Meruem. Pitou followed behind, as much as it hurt her to move, and Youpi moved alongside her. The rest of the Capital 50 and their few remaining subordinates wondered where the King was off to, but they apparently were not needed to be with him for it.

Sephiroth flapped his black wing and shot into the sky so high that he vanished in the dark colors that still swirled above, though they did look to be getting a little lighter like the sky would return to normal, sooner or later. Deus lifted up next and flew away, though he headed towards some piles of debris where he saw one of his subordinates get buried under. _I wonder if he is still-_ Deus started thinking, then his thoughts cut off as by the time he reached the massive rock, it was already shaking. The hundred-thousand ton boulder rolled to the right and revealed Augus standing up while rubbing the back of his pained head.

In a different area two miles away, in a similar situation to Augus,' Dogtooth finally reformed his mochi body into a solid form after oozing his way up through the cracks of the giant rocks that he had awoken buried under. He reformed on top of the rocks and looked around in confusion, then his eyes opened huge as he realized that it was not that he had been transported away from Mount Gine, but that the mountain itself was no longer there. Dogtooth saw the Capital 50 start dispersing, and he was thankful he woke up before they had all gone, as he doubted the kneeling Saiyans would let him live if the rest of Meruem's army was not there. _Meruem must have killed the Saiyan King, but where did the Rogue go? Questions for later._ He reminded himself, and covered in a white aura before flying up in the air to go ask one of the Capital 50 what their current orders were.

Meruem lifted off the floor after passing the rear ranks of his forces who had yet to leave the vicinity. The Royal Guards followed him up in the air as he flew off to the east without explaining why. Pitou glanced over her shoulder and did not like that they were leaving the Saiyan Mountains so soon. _I need to retrieve what I left behind,_ she thought, but her gaze refocused on Meruem's face and the odd smile on it. "King, are you feeling alright?" Pitou questioned.

He was acting strangely, but Meruem knew that she meant the question in multiple ways. "I do not feel any effects of the Saiyan DNA," Meruem said. "Other than Bardock's power, I did not gain anything else from him- from eating him," Meruem corrected himself, as there were many things he gained through his experiences with Bardock. Meruem correcting himself made Pouf wince though and a look of horror to appear on his face as Meruem was admitting his words were not true by going back and changing them. "Relax Pouf," Meruem said without looking back. "It is not yet the time for you to be worried."

As Meruem said it, he felt something inside him and his body twitched. He dropped out of the sky in an instant and stood on a field that was torn apart by the battles that had occurred dozens of miles away that day. The ground was cracked with ravines so deep that the bottoms were impossible to see through the dark, and each section of land on the sides of the crevices had risen or lowered from the level it used to be at. There was a huge trench dragged through a forest to their south with a giant boulder from the destroyed Mount Gine resting at the end of the trench. The Saiyan Mountains were still visible in the west, covering the entire horizon from the ground to the sky so that it was almost like there was a wall in that direction. "King!" Pouf shouted as he flew down and landed in front of Meruem whose head bowed after landing.

 **"Stay back,"** Meruem snarled, his voice sounding deep, scratchy, and like something was seriously wrong with him.

Pouf's look of horror only intensified, and Youpi and Pitou did not look much calmer. "What's going on?!" Youpi shouted, looking around and searching for whoever was doing this to the King. Meruem's body was trembling and his fists were clenched so hard at his sides that his nails were digging into his palms.

"What did you mean?" Pitou questioned nervously. She thought about what he just told Pouf, _"It is not yet the time for you to be worried."_ "You knew this would happen. Why didn't you tell us? Tell us what's happening to you, King!"

Meruem stopped shaking. An eerie silence fell over the field as each of the Royal Guards held their breaths. They felt a terrifying power come from Meruem's hunched-over body, but it was not the Ant King's power they were feeling. Their eyes started widening in horror, and then Meruem's body erupted in an explosion of blue flames. "KING!" The three of them shouted, while reeling back from the heat that slammed into them from that explosion. They lowered the arms they crossed in front of themselves, and they stared forward in utter horror at the sight of the Ant King inside the fire, his body straightening out. Meruem turned towards them inside the flames, and the fire became more translucent to the point that they could see his face and his closed eyes. Meruem's eyes snapped open, revealing blue orbs flaming so much brighter than the fire around him.

Sheer panic filled the Royal Guards. They all knew what the flames meant, and Pitou screamed, "MERUEM!"

"KING!" Pouf exclaimed, tears filling his eyes as rage bubbled inside him. He took a step forward, but a large red arm swiped in front of him and blocked his path. "Youpi, what are-"

"The King said to stay back," Youpi growled. Pouf stared at his muscular red comrade in surprise, then turned back with sweat all over his face towards the King. Youpi lowered his arm, and he said while looking towards the fire, "Meruem-sama knew this was coming-"

 **"Do you think it matters?"** A hiss escaped the flames, and Youpi's eyes bulged at the sound of it. The sharp voice sent shivers down the Royal Guards' spines. **"Hahahaha, HAHAHAHA!"** Meruem's head snapped back and his mouth opened wider than what looked possible as he cackled, sharp teeth filling his mouth and blue flames ripping out of his eyes. Horns of intense blue fire grew on top of his head, while his bright blue aura grew wider.

"Satan!" Pitou screamed at the being in the flames. "You bastard! Stop hurting the King!"

 **"Your King is no more,"** Satan hissed, and Meruem's head turned to Pitou. The Chimera Ant with curly white hair and red eyes took a step back in terror at that statement. **"When he killed Bardock, he sealed his fate as my new vessel. The strongest vessel…"** The sky above them dyed a bright blue as an aura so massive erupted from Satan's fiery body that it surrounded the Royal Guards and the entire plain they were on. The ground started breaking apart and falling down into the ravines, filling them up and lowering the surface level. Meruem-Satan floated off the falling ground and the Royal Guards leapt up in the air to stay level with him as he cackled madly.

The flaming blue aura around Satan grew brighter and the Royal Guards pulled back as it was about to burn them. Pouf planned on flying straight at Meruem to try and rouse him, but he sturdied himself thinking on Youpi's words. _King! Please!_

"Meruem," Pitou whispered in a hoarse voice, her eyes starting to water like Pouf's already were.

 **"This world is now under MY control!"** Satan roared. **"No vessel has ever been able to withstand my power, but this one will last! I will bring this world to its knees!"** Satan yelled it, then started cackling, **"HAHAHAHAHA-"** The bright blue sky darkened, and the flaming aura around Satan flickered. The Royal Guards eyes full of horror widened and hope filled them. **"What?!"** Satan bellowed, his face, and thus Meruem's face, covering in…

 _Is that,_ Pitou thought with bulging eyes. _Fear?_ She had so rarely seen it on the King's face that it was hard to tell if that was really what the expression Satan was showing was.

The bright blue aura shrank down, and then the sky around them got even darker, to a pitch black that encompassed an even larger area than the blue light just had. Satan's flaming horns vanished, and his flaming eyes started to go out and return to their usual color. **"You- I don't- AHH!"** Satan's voice yelled out in pain, and all of the blue flames and aura around Meruem ripped off of his body. The flames did not go out right away though, instead pulling away from Meruem's body ten feet and then stopping in a single flaring mass only a few feet large.

Meruem's eyes that had returned to normal narrowed down at the flaming mass in front of him, and the Ant King was panting as he stared into the two denser parts of the fire that looked a little like eyes. Meruem stopped panting after a few seconds though, and the pitch black aura that had surrounded everything around them faded away, as Meruem smirked in a menacing manner that filled the sky with a bright purple light instead. _**"How, how did you…"**_ Satan began, his voice coming from the cloud of flames and blue smoke around it.

"I am simply too strong," Meruem said. "I can push you back with my own power."

 _ **"That's not what that was,"**_ Satan hissed, and Meruem just kept smirking while looking into his eyes.

Meruem's smirk lowered down into just a small grin, and he started while his Royal Guards stared at him in amazement, "There were many reasons I never wiped out the Resistance completely. One of them, was that I did not want you taking my body if you thought I was too strong, like if I controlled all of Aebrith," Meruem said it while looking down on the blue wispy demon before him. "I knew I had to reach a point where I was stronger than you could take over, after all, you are the one I have always been most wary of. We only spoke together the once. Never acting directly with me, sending Lucifer to speak for you and act as a High Lord on the surface, I knew someday it would come to this." A deep growl came out of Satan's blue cloud, but at the same time the Royal Guards still heard some anxiety in that growl. Meruem continued, "You never allowed me into Hell, and you taunted me over not knowing anything about the world like you did. But it has been a long time since you and I last spoke. I know much more now than you think." Meruem smirked again in a ravenous, bloodthirsty manner, as Satan's small blue form started to fade away into wisps. "Find a stronger body to take me on in…" Meruem dared, his voice echoing through the air. Meruem looked into the dark blue eyes that were about to vanish as the rest of the cloud around them dimmed and vanished.

"Don't let me down… _Original."_

Satan's blue eyes shot open wide in the instant before they vanished for good. Meruem stared at the spot in the air where Satan just vanished from, then he turned to his Royal Guards. "I have much I wish to tell you. Knowing that Satan was watching me, I had to keep things from you. I never intended to-"

Before the King could finish his sentence, Pouf exclaimed, "It is fine your Majesty!" He had a worried tone in his voice, because he felt like the King was about to apologize to them, and he could not let that happen. "We understand the reasons! We are happy you kept us in the dark, if it meant that you were able to push back that demon!"

"We are just happy that you are alright, King," Pitou said, and she wiped under her eyes as the King looked to her, not wanting to show that she had streaks of tears going down her face.

"I knew you would be," Youpi said, acting like he was confident in the King the entire time, even though Satan had him as scared as the others a minute ago.

Meruem smiled softly and said, "Your loyalty and devotion is appreciated." He floated forwards to close the gap between them, "Now, let me finally tell you, my plans for this world…"

* * *

 **11,560 Miles South of Aebrith**

Far below of the lowest dipping point of the southern coast of Aebrith, there was an island only a few square miles large. On the island was a tower so wide that it covered the majority of the island it was on. The trees that had once stood on the island were gone, leaving the land mostly covered in grass with some sand on the beaches that surrounded the perfectly round spit of land. The building on the island had overhangs sticking out of every floor that dipped down and dipped farthest at the corners, giving it a traditional Japanese feeling. After ten floors, the levels of the buildings started to shrink in size steadily, every few floors cutting in on every side to a smaller square-sized floor.

The tower was in the center of the island. It was built so that the top floor, only a hundred meters wide by a hundred meters long, was smack in the center of the land as well. From the flat roof there was a perfect view in every direction over the ocean. There were other islands to the west, a long and thin landmass in the east so far that it almost blended with the horizon line, but nothing to the north or south. The continent of Aebrith was so far away that those on the roof could not see the southern coast of it, but they could see the darkened sky in that direction. They had felt the shaking even on their remote island, and the three figures on the roof of the tower had been watching with interest as the world trembled and the sky filled with ominous colors.

"Not time yet," the man in the center of the three said. He was wearing a black tank top that showed off his large arm muscles and revealed his skin was lined with scars at the joints. He stood twelve feet tall and had no hair on top of his head, bald like the other two at his sides. Lex Luthor turned once more away from the sky to the north that he had been watching on and off through the day. A few moments ago something occurred in the northern sky that made them all interested in what was going on again, even though for a while they thought it was over. This time though, he had a feeling that it was done for good.

As Luthor turned, the man he turned towards shrugged and turned back towards him too. The smaller man less than half of Luthor's height was wearing a white tank top that showed off he was pretty muscular as well, but he was also a lean man, not too broad at the shoulders. "If you say so," Saitama said, and he twisted a finger in his left ear in a manner that showed he really did not care either way.

"Let's get back to it then," Luthor said, and the shorter man next to him agreed with a nod of his head. Luthor vanished and reappeared across the roof, moving so fast that it occurred in an instant. Both of the other bald figures on the roof followed him though, and he saw their eyes darted in the path he moved in to get across the roof, as he did not move in a straight line. He grinned when he stopped ninety meters away from the two of them, and he rose his hands up into a fighting stance. From the south side of the building, he could still see over his training partners' heads into the distant northern sky. _I wonder,_ he thought. _I have mastered my new energy, more than Tetsuo was ever able to handle, or myself for that matter when I obtained it. All the perks that come with it though, telepathy, telekinesis, all of Tetsuo's various powers, I have yet to master them. As a martial artist, I have only been training for a few months. For a mind like my own, that must be the equivalent of a hundred years of experience for normal men, however the ones I train to one day face are not_ _ **normal**_ _men._

Saitama lifted his arms into a fighting stance as well while facing Luthor, a smile forming on his face again despite the bruises on both of his cheeks and the deep gash on his left arm from their last spar. The steel floor of the roof was dented in a few areas, but part of Luthor's training was getting his power under control, and in order to train that, he was careful not to damage the building they trained above. Making their training area on the roof risked the lives of all those inside if they were to mess up and use too much power. He was not the only one who needed help controlling and focusing his power though. Saitama was hardly able to fight before without destroying most of his opponents in a single punch, but now even against weaker opponents he was able to avoid ending the fight too quickly.

The third member of their sparring match walked forward in a strange way, his legs swinging out to his sides with each step. He was too fat to walk straight, even though his legs were thin and disproportional to his round body. The pink-skinned bald fighter wore a purple cape tied around the front of his neck in a knot, wore a black tank top open down the middle that was much too small on him, had on big baggy white pants, and wore yellow boots over his pink feet. He had on a belt with the letter 'M' in the middle of it, he had a bunch of small pores in a circle around his scalp, and on top of the center of his head there was a long antennae-like appendage sticking off of him. Unlike Saitama, he did not have any damage visible on his body thanks to his regenerative abilities. "Buu want candy!" He called out with a smile as he got up next to Saitama and lifted his fists.

"Then come fight me, Buu," Luthor said, smiling back at the pink blob monster. "You can have all the candy you want after, but I'll get you a chocolate cake too if you can manage to land a hit on me."

Buu grinned more and his squinting eyes opened up a little, showing the whites of them as they narrowed down. His fists lifted inside the yellow gloves he was wearing. "Buu hungry! Buu want candy _and_ cake!"

Majin Buu shot forward, and Saitama picked that moment to sprint forward and curve around Luthor's left side at the perfect speed that he and Buu would collide with Luthor at the same time. Luthor lifted his arms and blocked both punches with different forearms, smirking as he did. He expelled some power both with his ki and telekinetically, throwing his opponents backwards though both immediately flew back at him again. He was focused on the fight, but the northern sky was still dark and spooky, and a part of his mind wandered to it once more. _I am stronger than ever. I have never lost a fight since killing Tetsuo. The King gets stronger with every battle though, so if I thought I was close to being ready to face him before, I must work twice as hard now to ensure I exceed the King's new strength._

Luthor spun and grabbed the top of Buu's antennae, then he swung his fatter sparring partner around so fast that he slammed into Saitama who was mid-punch. Saitama tried to stop himself, but he still blew a hole straight through Majin Buu's chest right before the blob man crashed into him and sent them both flying off the roof. They flew so far from the single swing, and Luthor clenched the hand he just released Buu with into a fist in front of him and stared at it. _Soon though. Very soon._

* * *

 **A/N Thanks for reading! The Saiyans have a new King, Meruem holds off Satan's attempted possession, and Luthor, Saitama, and Majin Buu are all hanging out. A lot happened this chapter, even though it is the shortest of the last several. I hope you guys enjoyed the flashback and the end of the War of the Saiyan Mountains. Let me know what you think in a review below, questions you may have and predictions for future chapters too!**

 **EDIT: Thanks for those of you who let me know I posted this to Nexus and not Nexus: Heroes Will Rise. Changed it soon as I woke up.**

chapter 86 . Mar 8

Please make goku ssj4 ssjgod ssjblue kaioken please

 **Maybe.**

Jokering chapter 86 . Mar 8

I said i wasnt going to fanboy... this chapter made me go back on my word. OH MY GOD( Read that in Unshō Ishizuka's voice) Oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god. So far this may have been my favorite chapter so far, even if it was just exposition. You not only introduced characters i've been waiting to see for a while, there were also others i didnt even expect and still made me genuinely happy.  
So starting with the DB characters, after reading the last chapter i kinda stopped and thought a little about it and then realized this was the perfect opportunity to indroduce their gods, it was nice to see not only Beruus and Whis but also King Kai as well as Supreme Kai and the Grand Priest. I hope they play important roles in the future, mostly because its always nice to see any of them properly portrayed in any sort of media. Still i am not sure if Goku can achieve SSG on his own, it took a fight with a God of Destruction and months of training with Whis just to understand God Ki and achieve SSB, but i will wait and see how that plays out.  
Skipping to one of my favorite moments of this chapter, Saint Seiya HELL YEAH, that anime was my childhood. Hopefully there will be more Saints going forward into the story, kinda willing to bet Ikki is in hell but he is too OP and might make the Satan arc of this saga look like a cake walk.  
So the background is basically taking the one of the main plots of KH and portraying the children that survived the darkness as the most powerful beings of individual universes or collection of few, neat. Its an interesting background that doesnt completly dismiss the story of each source material.  
The hype for Goku vs Meruem rematch keeps building up with each chapter. Hope Meruem takes a huge Vegeta-ish L. It doesnt help that the first image i found when googling Ultraman vs Superman completly sums up how the fight would go if Goku attained God Ki. Its interesting that the Gods seem to need Goku's help when they have warriors who are already more powerful than him.  
I will say that with the current main plot being centered on Aebrith it puzzles me what you will do with the story occuring in Awul, there have been a few strings between the two but not enough to fully connect them, not sure if you are going to give the while Underlords substory its own arc or make a separate story for that.  
And with all that out of the way there is nothing left to do but congratulate you for another great chapter and keep waiting for more.

 **XD Really glad you liked the chapter so much. I only started watching Saint Seiya again recently, I tried once before but got stuck on the second episode. I'm only about fifteen in right now, but it's still open on one of my other tabs as I write this, so I'll probs keep going with it for a while. By the time heaven's warriors start getting in fights, I'm sure I'll have a better grasp on their powers, I just thought while I was watching the first dozen episodes of it "I should totally put them in heaven as its guardians." Goku vs Meruem rematch is gonna come, especially with both of them thinking about it: Meruem wanting to catch the ones who escaped, and Goku, well, obvious reasons. What could the Gods want with Goku? Mysteries and such ;). As for Underlord substory, it's going to keep showing up. Really I had planned on not forgetting about any of the Awul characters while I focused on the group that went to Aebrith, and I wrote out all these awesome chapters for them which I have scattered through Nexus Heroes Will Rise. Writing them is easy though because I have time gaps between everything where boring stuff can happen, and not that boring stuff happens on Aebrith, but I'm following them on a more day-to-day basis, so I can't have an Awul chapter in every full-length chapter. It has been a little while since I wrote the Summit chapter though, so I guess it's about time I throw another one in... coming soon! Haha, thanks for the review!**

Limit-Breaking chapter 86 . Mar 8

Sorry for the spoiler below but hey i gave lot's of warnings so don't get mad at me.

 **;( Lol I tried not to read but the urge to do so took over. Stopped myself after a single second though and went "shit."**

NOW ONTO THE REST OF THE REVIEW. Holy shit i was not expecting the originals and a backstory of who they were and man was that alot to take in.  
Poor dash he just wanted to see his brother again and he doesn't want to go to hell man why are you so evil doing this to him. Yes YOU tmb1112 how could you, you couldn't even give him that and he was in heaven, now that is just fucked up. But still very good story telling though, but is still cruel but damn well told.  
Not only that but man is sora well loved he just wants to be with his friends but people keep giving him problems. Honestly i would just say do it yourself you assholes don't put the responsiblity on others. Originals you call yourselfs powerful yet rely on a child how pathetic i expected more from you all. You know what do it yourselves you don't deserve to be saved. Especially for making dash suffer so much.  
Now i kinda wish sora just told them to eat a dick and just walk out to be honest. But man i feel like this story is being rushed to the point that the main villains that you have built up are kinda meaningless at this point. Since the real threat is the darkness and all. I prefer not seeing the darkness until 3 million more words have been given to us. Also seeing development towards more characters to build up the story even more, that is the good route. Than the darkness can show up for a little and only a little.  
If i had to be honest i prefer seeing more of this story than the ending anytime soon, Hell do what one piece does say ten more years everytime and just keep going and going. Since really nobody does a fanfic this good with so many characters if im being honest. They would most likely run into writers block to often.  
But you my friend are basically leonardo di fiction, you make amazing chapters with so much content and i just want to see more to be honest. Either way Awesome chapter and i look forward to the next

 **Too bad Dash, the Gods are dicks. It almost seemed like Dash was going to get a moment with his brother, an emotional scene and such, but nah- All three of them got it rough. Sora's got the weight of the world thrown at him, Goku's realizing how weak he is, and Dash lost his brother. Tough chapter for the heroes. At first I had planned on only referencing the Darkness once in a while as some spooky foreshadowing for much later, but to me that seemed more like I was making it out to be an epic evil villain so much worse than all the ones they're facing now. By bringing up the Darkness in detail this early, as well as Nexus' purpose, I felt like it makes the other threats more threatening as there are secrets they can learn, or already know. And considering there are Gods and angels on Nexus, having villains and heroes who know about that kind of stuff can let them overtake the Gods in terms of importance and such. And who knows? The Darkness isn't the only thing growing stronger all the time. Meruem, Luthor, other villains throughout Nexus, who's to say who matters more? I'm never gonna rush this story just for the purpose of rushing, considering there are at least 6 or 7 millions words left to it if it runs to the point I have it planned on ending on. So yeah, ten more years XD. Thanks for the review and the analogy to Leo, hope you enjoyed the new chapter!**

asdf chapter 86 . Mar 8

Question: Did the Originals create Zeno?

 **Nope. Zeno was an Original too. The Great Priest went into how not all the children were mature when they had to flee their world, like young Zeno, so one of Zeno's older Original siblings "Larry" created the Great Priest to look after Zeno in the universe he put his barriers around. Thanks for the review!**

Espada-001 chapter 86 . Mar 10

Well it looks like Sora's starting to realize just how big of a roll he has to fill. The Darkness seems to have a pretty good hold on Nexus already due to all the Grimm and Heartless running around. It was nice to see Piccolo again especially since he died moments after arriving. I wonder if Arceus was taunted by the other gods after getting captured by a mortal so soon after getting to Nexu, although that does make me wonder just how Giovanni caught him in the first place. I honestly don't have much to say about this chapter aside from the added background knowledge was pretty good and seeing all the gods was interesting. But with all the gods being shown and after hearing about the darkness I'm wondering what you did with the fictional cosmic giants like Galactus and Phoenix (MARVEL). Are they acting as the bouncers for this universe or are they not here at all? That last question isn't necessarily for you to answer just me spitballing my thoughts. Any way I kind of got bored the other day and went back to reread the battle of Metropolis and I started thinking about all the reanimations still there and then I remembered that Orihime is there. With her abilities she should be more than capable of returning the reanimated fighters back to normal since we've already seen in the anime that she can resurrect the dead and since their souls are already back on the mortal plane she wouldn't actually have to bring them back from the great beyond making it even easier. Heck she probably could have brought back a few others if she found their corpses before they were completely destroyed. And while I'm talking about Bleach characters I'm kind of hoping to see Ichigo gain his hell king mode in your hell arc. On a side note after watching Rick and Morty I think that Ricks probably pretty pissed about getting knocked out in the battle.  
Here's just a few characters and series I'm hoping to see: Crazy Hand/Master Hand, Digimon, Zelda characters, and Historys Strongest Disciple Kenichi. Also It looks like I have an ally for Digimon lol.  
I especially want Goku to meet Hayato Fūrinji from Historys Strongest Disciple Kenichi so he'd be able to learn Hayato's Ryūsui Seikūken which is the closest thing I've seen to Ultra Instinct aside from Tsuna's Hyper Dying Will mode, although he wouldn't be able to teach that skill since he does it naturally. I figured that this would be a good way for Goku to get an early start on learning Ultra Instinct since I don't think Whis will be able to teach him this time around. I guess you could have him just take a dying will pill or Reborn could come out of the wood works to shoot him with a dying will bullet.  
Well that's all I have for now so until next time I look forward to the next chapter and your thoughts on my ideas. So until next time have a good day and keep up the great work!

 **Sora v the Darkness in a battle to determine the cosmos' fate! Who Will Win?! As for Phoenix, she was with Magneto last we saw of her, but when Jiraiya killed her Lord, I wonder what she's doing now?... As for Battle of Metropolis, Inoue could have probs used her stuff to turn back time for that area which is how she brings back the dead, but that would just take back out the reanimation kunai that Orochimaru stuck in the heads of other corpses. So it might bring back Akainu who had just died and then got reanimated into Blackbeard, but the others who were reanimations for long times probably had long dead corpses inside them that were rotting, or just random weak characters that wouldn't really matter much if they came back. Either way, the reanimations other than the two Ansem trapped were all sealed back in the ruined city. As for Rick and Morty, I kinda just thought about the first scene I added them in and wrote it out, then was like "guess I'll add it to the chapter," and then I had them show back up later on to tie in what had happened to them. Thought up some more cool scenes with them, but there is just so much Rick could know/do that if I focus more on him, he's probably been hopping through dimensions and knows all about the Darkness, though it could be fun to see him interact with the Gods he's always denying then praying to XD. Don't know the History's Strongest Disciple, nor am I too familiar with those others you mentions, though I know of them and might add them in somewhere. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter and thanks for the review!**

joebob323 chapter 86 . Mar 10

...Wow...  
I...  
No words for what I want to say...  
Just...  
Wow.  
I loved this chapter so much, amazing job creating an original story-line! I had been wondering how you would tie together all these elements, but this was a great answer. Can't wait for Sora, Goku, and Dash to punch stuff, poor Goku was so confused when the gods were explaining stuff, and Dash/Sora need to work out their stress. I hope Dash doesn't fall to the darkness though, he seems awfully close from the way he was thinking about Sora... Oh, and I can't wait to see Timmy again, I wonder how he's been doing! (Hopefully as well as someone who is brainwashed can be _)

 **Thanks! I kept imagining Goku just nodding his head the whole time the Gods were speaking, a blank look on his face as he wondered what was going on, or thought about food or fighting Meruem. Dash is in a dark place rn, but maybe getting back with his friends will help him out with that. Next chapter the group heads after Timmy! So many villains in this chapter we might be forgetting the worst of all... the Wizard King! XD**

kg833998 chapter 86 . 1h ago

Jesus when you said there was going to be stuff about how Nexus was created you weren't kidding I never thought of chapter that don't have any actual be so amazing like they're going to fuga charges that didn't have any action but this one was just amazing but for some reason why I couldn't get the Dragon Ball Heroes theme out of my head for some odd reason anyway Poor Dash he just wanted to see his brother right after he got it taken away from him most of me loves how you do the story hooked up 5% hates how you do character death I I'm not saying you're doing it bad you're doing it too well you're going to give us a break my heart was already when koro sensei. jiriya and Tatsumi and dash but now bardook you're going to have to give us a break from character death but beside that amzing chapter I also noticed that 1 dende wasn't in the realm of the Gods so that must mean Lookout is somewhere else which means that the room all spirit and time is somewhere which also means the dragonballs could be on the lookout you never know but anyways that's why I wanted to say great chapter can't wait to see how Goku Sora and dash reunite with the others

 **Thanks for the review! Glad you liked the last chapter, I really did go all out throwing the backstory at you guys. Dash gets his little side quest, and fails ;(. Man it's like every character you like kicks the bucket right after they're introduced, (earlier for Korosensei). I was actually worried I didn't have _enough_ character death in Heroes Will Rise since I kept reviving the main group members who kicked it, but I'm glad to see it's at just the perfect level of love/hate for the deaths in this story. No sign of Dende last chapter, and still no mention of Dragon Balls, though we haven't seen any living Namekians on Nexus since the First Day. Meruem mentioned killing one though not too long ago, which means they do exist... Next time on Nexus: Heroes Will Rise, it's chapter 13.0 When Going South. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and 'till next time!**


	88. Nexus HWR 13-0 When Going South

**Nexus HWR 13.0 When Going South:**

 **Southernmost Resistance Outpost**

At a point along the Great Wall in southern Aebrith where the wall dipped farther south than anywhere else along it, there stood a Resistance base. The base used to be over a mile north of the Great Wall, which led the Resistance to realize that the Wizard King was magically encroaching his wall little by little. They pretended not to notice since they did not want to start a confrontation with him while already fighting a war on their three other sides. Yet even though they most often used a strategy of appeasement on the Wizard King, Sasuke Uchiha stood in a room with five people who he was explaining the dangers of the south to, because they were going to be heading after the Wizard King in only an hour.

Robin and Sanji were listening closely to Sasuke's explanation, but the others were less focused. Usopp kept snapping his head to the side to look at a window when the ground shook. There were only occasional aftershocks now, smaller tremors than the constant world-shaking events that transpired earlier, but since there was still no information on what was causing all these earthquakes, the sniper could not shake off his anxiety that easily. He felt like something could still be coming. The fourth person and last member of the Straw Hats in front of Sasuke could not stand still. Nami kept pacing while Sasuke talked about the distance it would take them to reach the Wizard King's palace that they knew the location of over ten thousand miles away. "Is the truck ready to go yet?" Nami asked, interrupting Sasuke mid-sentence about the erratic weather conditions that often occurred in the south without warning.

Sasuke glared at the woman through his right eye only as his left was covered by his long black hair. "No," he said. Before Nami could complain, he continued, "My people are working as fast as they can. The Great Wall has no gates. It was not meant to be gone through." He explained in a condescending tone to the woman who did not understand what she was asking for. "The Wizard King made it appear one day from coast to coast. It's a hundred meters thick and eighty meters tall. Not only do we have to get a vehicle capable of traversing the Southern Wastes to this base, we have to get it up the wall, _and_ we need to set up a ramp so that you can drive the truck off the wall and into the wastelands of the south."

"Couldn't you just lower us over the other side the same way you get us up the wall?" The fifth person in the room asked. He had been distracted for a while like Usopp, thinking too hard on the tremors. The black haired teen who only recently arrived at this base and heard what was going on, was still lost in thought about his closest friends. The occasional tremors were not making it easy to distract himself with this task. Kirito shook the pessimistic thoughts about Goku and Sora out of his head though, and he focused on the task at hand.

Sasuke shook his head and looked less annoyed by Kirito's question than Nami's, though it was hard for them to read his expression. Sasuke's lip was flat and he did not look happy about this, but he did not look upset about it either. Since he ok-ed the mission the group thought he would be a little more energetic or optimistic, but Sasuke was dealing with too much at the moment to be focused on this single mission alone. _Villages all around here were damaged by those earthquakes, and I don't have enough men here to go to them all and help this strange group prepare to go after the Wizard. I sent the Capsules out west as soon as they got back, despite the complaints of a few of them._ He thought about the member of that gang who looked oddly similar to someone else at this base, then rid his head of the thought as it did not matter at the moment. _Their motorcycles mean they can get all around, but I'll have the remnants of Beta go out to hit the towns in the east when they arrive with the last of these people._

"Lowering you on the other side of the wall," Sasuke began to respond to Kirito's question. "Would be the same as lowering a piece of meat into a river full of piranhas." The image that appeared in their heads was not a pleasant one, and Kirito grimaced as he wondered what that meant about the other side of the Great Wall. He did not have to wonder for long though, as Sasuke continued, "The Great Wall has powerful magic imbued in it that stops monsters of all kinds from coming over to this side. Because of that though, and because no one lives on the other side for thousands of miles, no one ever kills the monsters to the south. Monsters still plague almost all of Aebrith with their scattered presence, but in the south, the monsters have long since won. Right on the other side of the Great Wall, there are thousands of powerful monsters gathered."

Sanji grimaced, Robin hummed in a bit of hesitation, Usopp shook his head 'no,' and even Kirito frowned and shook his head as this was not sounding like a good idea to him. "It doesn't matter," the others all looked to Nami as she spoke. "We'll crush thousands of them, tens of thousands, we'll crush millions if we need to! We are getting Timmy back. No matter what." When she said those last three words, she looked around at the others with her to see if they were still hesitant after that. They all remembered the pact they made, and though Timmy was not there at the time, Nami had claimed that she spoke for Timmy as his guardian and that he was a part of it as well. They all agreed to go to each other's aid when the time came, and Nami was calling the rest of them to action right now. She was pulling the 'No Matter What' card, and the others all nodded at her to show that despite their reluctance, they would not back down.

* * *

Inside the hospital of the Resistance outpost, in one of the rooms on the third floor, Riku stood at the side of a bed that Ben was sitting on. Ben still had an i.v. in his arm, keeping himself attached to a metal post next to his bed with a bag of liquid antibiotics on it. They were meant to fight off infection that could have come from his injuries, even though Ben's wounds had long healed. In fact, the i.v. drip had been turned off without the boy's knowledge, as his persistence to keeping the i.v. connected was accepted by his doctors.

Riku was the only one who knew about the condition of the boy in front of him other than the doctors. He told his friends that most of Ben's physical injuries were healed, but he told the doctors not to tell anyone else what they told him as the one who brought Ben in in the first place.

"You saw, right?" Riku asked.

Ben did not reply to the silver-haired man in front of him. The young boy with brown hair hunched his body forward and looked down off the side of his bed as he spoke. He stared between his legs and said, "The Doctor T. who they said got called to an emergency situation in the east is not back yet." It was not an answer to what Riku said, but Ben continued, "They said to wait until he came back to properly check up on-"

"Are you coming?" Riku asked. Ben's eyes grew wide but he kept staring straight down at the floor below his feet. Ben did not answer, and Riku asked, "You know what I'm talking about?"

"I saw Timmy out the window," Ben answered. He lifted his head a little and looked up into Riku's bright green ones with his own that seemed darker than Riku could remember seeing them before.

"We're going south to find him," Riku said. Ben had to look away from Riku's eyes when his older friend said it. "That Wizard King brainwashed Timmy." Ben clenched his eyes shut but kept facing away at a wall near him.

Riku felt like telling Ben to get over it. He was always tough on him, and on Dash, but he could not find it in him to tell Ben to just shake it off this time. _He's at his breaking point,_ Riku thought. Ben did not seem to care about his pride. He did not look at all embarrassed that he was acting this way in front of Riku. Riku could see Ben wanted to answer differently, but the boy's lips pursed and his eyes clenched even harder. Ben lifted a hand to his own stomach where he felt phantom pain, but even clenching his hand over the spot in his stomach caused pain in that hand where a spike had gone through as well.

"Out there," Ben whispered, "I'll just be dead weight." His eyes opened because with them closed, the darkness of the backs of his eyelids reminded him of Bloodman's face. He could hear the Spriggan's deep voice as it crucified him, and it made him shiver.

Riku could see the goosebumps all over Ben's arms, and the older boy took a step forward. "It's better," Ben said, "if you just go without me."

Riku sat down on the bed next to Ben, and Ben spun the other way from where he was looking to see Riku on his side. The taller man sat there in a yellow tank top with a black 'X' over the front of it. He had on jeans, and he had left a yellow sweatshirt hanging over a chair near the door after he had walked in. Riku's arms had much larger muscles than Ben, and the boy who looked his way felt even more like he would just be getting in the way considering how small he felt in the moment and how big Riku looked to him.

Ben clenched his eyes shut painfully. He felt so much regret, so much frustration from what he was saying. Riku could see this, and the older boy took a deep breath. "What happened sucked," Riku started. He leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. "Facing off against a High Lord all on your own. I know it's not what you want to hear, but you're lucky you lost only your Omnitrix, and not your life." Riku looked back down and saw Ben staring at the floor again. "As for Bloodman, he was a monster. For your first fight after losing your main weapon, it wasn't fair that you had to go up against some- _thing_ like that."

"I couldn't touch him," Ben gasped out. "None of my other attacks. The Keyblade, the Kamehameha Wave, nothing worked. I lost completely."

"It's not your fault Ben," Riku said. "It was too much for you to handle alone. We should have been watching your back. I, should have been watching your back. You're only thirteen, but I-"

"Fourteen," Ben said. Riku paused mid-sentence, and he looked at Ben in confusion. "I'm not thirteen," Ben whispered. He turned to look Riku in the eyes, "I turned fourteen a few weeks ago. I just, never told anyone."

Riku was confused. He kept looking at Ben with lifted eyebrows, and after a few seconds of silence Riku asked, "Why?"

Ben's eyes clenched shut. "What's the point? It's not like I really knew when my birthday was anyway. The first year here, my Grandpa threw me and Gwen a surprise party. Our birthdays are on the same day. All I could think about though, was how he knocked me out, and let you get taken." Riku's eyes darkened as Ben shook his head with his eyes still clenched. "I know it wasn't his fault, but even a year later, in Pao when he threw us another one, all the memories of the birthday before reminded me how angry I was at him. I stormed out again."

"But this time," Riku began. "Now that you know it wasn't your Grandpa's fault. Ben, you're surrounded by your friends. We would have celebrated-"

"I didn't want to celebrate," Ben whispered, his voice hoarse, "after I had just left everyone die." Riku's eyes grew huge, and Ben looked him in the eyes with teary ones of his own. "You all tried to make me feel better, and I did. I wasn't as depressed, I didn't see your dead bodies every time I looked at you, but, how could I celebrate my birthday after that? After only days before, I watched every single one of my friends die in front of me, and I couldn't stop it. I didn't want to celebrate then, because there was nothing to celebrate. And now, I let my Omnitrix get taken. I let myself get, crucified. I'm not, good enough…"

Riku put an arm around Ben's shoulder. Ben's head lifted up and he sniffled a few times as Riku gave him a half hug, less even. The two had been friends for years, but they did not normally get emotional. The occasional moment, but it would feel awkward between the two proud boys to act too sentimental. Riku gave Ben a tight squeeze on the opposite shoulder as the one he was sitting next to, and he looked ahead while Ben did at the wall in front of them. "I'll watch out for you this time," Riku said, his voice soft but firm. "I won't let you go through that again, but I want you to come with us." Ben's teeth clenched and he shut his eyes hard again, his best method to prevent them from getting too watery. "You might not think so Ben, but I _know_ that you'll be able to help us on our trip. You'll be able to help Timmy."

Ben's eyes snapped open and stared straight ahead again wider-eyed than before. _Timmy,_ Ben thought.

"He's saved our lives, all of our lives, a hundred times over," Riku continued. He let go of the arm around Ben's back, as Ben turned his head and looked up at Riku's face. Ben had a determined gaze on his face, and Riku finished, "It's time for us to repay the favor."

The two kept eye contact, and Ben nodded up once at his older friend. He then reached to his left elbow with his right hand, and he pulled the needle in his arm out. Ben pressed his hands down on the mattress below him, and he hopped off the bed and landed on both feet. He balanced himself, and he took a deep breath as he readied his mind for what was coming. _Timmy. Riku's right. You've saved me so many times. So I'm going to save you, but don't think that means I'll forgive you._ Ben's serious expression was what Riku was looking for after giving Ben that pep talk, but he did not know the details of what Ben was thinking as the boy's face got dark once again. _I let everyone die, but you let them die too. You and Goku left us by choice. Even if you are under his control now, the Wizard King did not make you do that. You two were my greatest heroes. But you aren't the heroes I thought you were, just like I'm not the hero I thought I was._

Two floors down from Ben and Riku, in a long examination room with dozens of beds in it, two doctors were examining patients not far from each other separated only by a curtain that was drawn for some privacy. Closer to the door out into the hallway where the front doors of the hospital were, there was one more bed with a patient currently occupying it. Not far from him, a pink haired man sat on the side of his bed with an annoyed look on his face.

"Just sit there for a few more seconds," Doctor Dorian told Natsu. John Dorian, or J.D., stood next to Natsu's bed while the nurse in front of Natsu bent down and unwrapped up his right hand that still had bandages around it. Natsu felt pain but kept himself from wincing or even showing that he had felt it at all. The nurse who unwrapped Natsu's hand looked at it with some unease though as she got the white bandages off. The woman wore white scrubs like the doctor's, but unlike the white man behind her, she was shorter and covered in brown fur.

The woman was of the Mink tribe, a tribe of animals with human properties. She looked very much like a squirrel with long light blue hair, though her tall stature and large breasts showed she was more humanoid than small rodent. Tristan fully took off Natsu's bandages, and then she said, "As we thought." She stood up straight while Natsu looked down at his hand.

While Natsu curled his fingers in a few times, J.D. began to the more muscular man, "Although most of your wounds have healed up nicely, the bones in your right hand were shattered in your fight. Your Phalanges, Metacarpals, your Trapezoid was like dust. As much as your friend's healing magic is amazing, and it really is- I've never seen anything like it." J.D. shook his head and got back to the point, "There is going to be some pain when you curl your fists now. If you're not going to give it time to heal properly, you're going to have big problems down the line."

"But right now, it'll hold together?" Natsu asked. He opened his right hand up and looked at the back of it. He looked at the lines all over it that were not there before, across his knuckles, fingers, and the back of his hand.

"Yes, thanks to your strength. If you have your friend heal you a few times a day, I'm hoping the magic and your body will work together to fix the remaining pain you are feeling." Natsu frowned at the doctor's words as apparently he was not able to hide the pain from him. "As for those scars," J.D. continued. He hesitated, then he said, "Because of the surgeries to re-set your bones between your friend's healing magic, it seems we kept certain wounds open too long. After closing them, the lines remained." Natsu stared closer at the scars, and J.D. finished, "You'll have those for the rest of your life."

Down the room a few beds, past a curtain and a couple of beds after it, Luffy stood next to a mattress while the doctor did her final check-up on him too. They had called the two back inside after hearing that they would be leaving, ordering them to undergo another physical before they left. Luffy and Natsu would have argued, but Sasuke agreed with the doctors and said that they had time anyway, (considering he doubted they would listen to his explanations about the south and needed something for them to do during that time). In front of Luffy stood a woman around his height with long blonde hair that got curly near the bottom below her shoulders. Doctor Elliot Dorian, formerly Elliot Reid, examined Luffy's body and hummed in satisfaction while she did.

"It seems like all your wounds have fully healed," Elliot told him. Luffy lifted his hands and looked at his palms. Elliot hummed and continued while Luffy stared at them, "That's not going to heal, but it's not like anything's wrong with it." She waved a hand in the air while trying to come up with the right words. Luffy's palms did not have scars on them, but the skin was darker than the skin on the rest of his arms and even the backs of his hands. "There is a procedure we could do," Elliot mentioned, "where we change the skin coloration. It would not be that hard to do-"

Luffy shook his head. His hands clenched into fists and he said, "It's fine." Elliot nodded at him, not going to argue with the patient's decision.

The pirate turned to walk away, and Elliot began as she walked after him, "You really should stay until Dr. T comes back. The magic that man Riku hit you with is powerful, but Dr. T is the best doctor we have. He catches things we don't see sometimes. I'd feel terrible if you rushed off to another fight and an injury catches up with you." Elliot frowned as Luffy just kept walking, "Your body's composition is like nothing I've seen before. I don't even know how to treat a man whose bones are made of rubber."

"Shishi, I'm all better already," Luffy said, laughing to himself. He curled his hands into fists a few times, and he cracked his neck to either side, somehow making cracking noises despite what Elliot just mentioned about his bones. As Luffy walked past the curtain in the center of the room, Natsu had just stood up as well. The two of them glanced towards each other, and they thought about what the doctors just told them. Then Luffy turned back for the door and kept walking, and Natsu walked over and headed that way as well. They each stopped as they got in front of the bed nearest to the door where one other patient lay unconscious. His heart rate monitor next to him was steady, but his heart rate was slow, or at least the doctors kept telling them it was.

Natsu frowned as he looked at the younger boy lying on the bed with his eyes closed. _I'm sorry,_ Natsu thought. In his head he saw the kid with spiky white hair pressing his fingernails up against his own neck, drawing blood. He remembered leaving the Boar's Hat bar, saying goodbye to _almost_ all of his friends. Then he remembered the boy lunging towards him with his arms outstretched. He saw himself flying off of Killua's hands moments before the kid got hit with an attack meant for him.

"Tell that Doctor T. guy thanks for saving Killua," Luffy said while turning right, grinning again. The doctors and nurse in the room with them nodded back at Luffy, then the pirate turned and headed for the door.

Natsu stayed behind for a few more seconds. "We'll be back," he told the kid. "You better be awake by then. I don't like, not being able to thank you." Natsu turned his head and took a step towards the doors, then he stopped. He clenched his teeth, then said without turning back, "Your our nakama Kil. Survive this."

J.D. watched as Natsu walked out the door into the hallway. _Those two beat the Fire Lord? It's hard to imagine that they were stupid enough to almost kill each other. Now they're heading south of the Great Wall, and they don't look afraid at all. I wonder what it's like to live like they do?_ As the doctor started to daydream, his wife hummed to herself and watched their patients leave. She was sad to see them leave, but at the same time Elliot knew. She glanced over at Killua, and she knew they would be back soon.

Out in the hallway, Natsu turned from the doors to the large room they came from to the front doors, but Luffy was standing inside of them instead of walking out. Natsu felt strange, since Luffy had stopped and turned back towards him instead of leaving. What was worse was that the pirate was smiling ear to ear at him. "What?" Natsu asked.

"YOW!" A voice yelled behind the Dragon Slayer, making Natsu jump and spin towards the staircase. He realized now why Luffy was smiling, as a robot ten feet tall stood behind him with its huge blue forearms slammed together above its head. He glistened after posing with a fresh new paint job, and he had on a new black Hawaiian shirt that Natsu wondered how he got it over his giant round red shoulders. Franky smiled wide at Luffy who yelled his name out, and Franky pushed up on the center of his sunglasses with a big red finger, "How's it going Captain?"

"When'd you get here?" Natsu asked the cyborg shipwright.

Franky looked down at the mage closer to him than Luffy. He stared into Natsu's eyes and lost his grin, and both of the others caught a weird shift in Franky's expression. _This is the Natsu I know all right. No goggles, bigger muscles, but man they look Super alike!_ Franky opened his mouth, and then both Natsu and Luffy looked behind him with wide eyes again.

Luffy had been so focused on his shipwright's appearance that he had stopped focusing on Haki which was the reason he knew Franky was coming down the stairs in the first place. Without it, he was as surprised as Natsu by the two people heading down the stairs towards them. Franky turned, and he smiled wide at the two who stopped on the stairs at his appearance. "SUPER! Ben and Riku are here too!"

"Franky?" Ben wondered aloud. "When did you get here?"

"Just now!" Franky exclaimed.

Down the hall, a doctor popped their head out of the door and glared towards the men near the front door. "Yow," Franky called over in a whisper, "sorry about that."

"Let's go outside," Riku said. Although he was on the steps and did not see who Franky said that to, he could figure out the reason for it.

Riku walked down the rest of the stairs and headed for the front doors. Franky turned to follow him, walking past Natsu who waited for Ben then started walking next to the younger boy. Natsu had gotten there late, like Luffy, and neither of them had seen Ben since they had arrived even though they found out he was in the same infirmary they had spent most of their time in. Luffy glanced behind him as Franky walked up to him, but as Franky was going to ask why Luffy glanced back, Riku turned to the cyborg and said, "Do you know the situation, Franky?"

"I heard some weird stuff after I got back with Kirito-bro," Franky said, and Luffy and Riku smiled to hear that Kirito was there as well. "The doc and mechanic I met upstairs had some more information for me. Is that guy they talked about-"

"It's Timmy," Riku said, confirming the cyborg's thoughts.

Franky grimaced. He turned to Luffy who walked up on his right while Riku walked on his left. "How's Nami-sis doing?" He asked.

"Nami will feel better after we save Timmy," Luffy replied, mentioning how his navigator was feeling in an optimistic tone despite the undertones that at the moment she was not doing well.

Franky glanced over his shoulder where he could see Natsu and Ben had fallen back a little while the pink haired mage was talking to the younger boy. What they were discussing looked serious, and Ben winced after Natsu mentioned something. He shifted his gaze back to Luffy, and he saw his Captain losing the optimistic look on his face that he kept even mentioning how Nami was sad. Franky looked the other way and saw Riku staring forward with a determined expression. Riku began when he saw Franky's gaze shift to him, speaking in a whisper without turning his head so that it did not look like he was talking at all from behind, "Ben lost bad against one of the Spriggan 12. The monster crucified him. Don't look," Riku continued quickly as Franky almost turned back in surprise. Franky turned his head forward as he realized why Riku was speaking like that. Riku continued, "We've got to look after him better. He's not as strong as he was with the Omnitrix, we can't pretend that he is. I need you guys to help me."

Franky hummed to himself, and he felt like rubbing his forehead but did not want to give away anything to the boy not walking far behind them, even though Ben was talking about the same thing with Natsu right now. "How can we do that?" Franky asked. He was the one who always called Dash and Ben the cabin boys on their ship. At first it was as a joke, but the two really felt like members of the crew to him. They had sailed on the Thousand Sunny he built, and they were always so amazed by all the inventions he showed them. _Little bro,_ Franky thought, wishing he could go give the kid a hug right now without making it obvious that they had been talking about him.

"Make him laugh," Riku said. "You're a giant robot, and Ben's always thought you were hilarious, Luffy." Riku smiled softly, "It's one of the reasons, he suggested we start traveling with you and Usopp, all those years ago."

Franky glanced next to him in surprise at the silver haired teen. He had heard a few things about the start of his Captain's journey on Nexus, but Luffy never talked about his past. Usually someone else would bring it up, like just then. Riku added, "He told me that it was because you were strong and it would be smart, but that's just what he told me so that I'd go along with it."

 _Ben was the one? I don't really remember, why we started traveling together,_ Luffy thought.

"And you're a robot, so I mean," Riku added, as if that carried the same weight as what he just told Luffy.

The five of them were heading south towards the tallest wall of the Resistance fort. Eighty meters tall sounded shorter than it was, and the wall got more daunting the closer they got to it. "I'm fine, Natsu," Ben repeated to the man next to him. He sped up to get closer to the backs of the men in front of him so that Natsu would stop with the questions already. Natsu frowned at the back of Ben's head, wishing the kid would talk to him. Ben could not do it though. _Natsu, I can't- You can't-_ Ben's eyes clenched in frustration, and Natsu's fists curled behind him as the Dragon Slayer thought he knew what Ben was thinking about. Natsu had no idea what was really on Ben's mind though. _Zeref, he told me. When he took my watch, he told me the truth. I don't think he expected Riku to save me, I didn't even expect Riku to save me. Now I know though, now I have to keep this secret, because I don't want you to know._

"I bet that's our vehicle over there," Riku said, and Natsu and Ben lifted their gazes to see that Riku had stopped. He was pointing to the left side of the base from the direction they were walking, which meant to the east. They all looked over the smaller walls on the side of the base, down the much taller one where they could now see some pulley systems at the top of it. Those metal machines were extended off of the inner part of the wall, and they were raising up the long thick cables that came off of them. Far down those cables was a vehicle with wheels so massive they were as tall as some buildings around them. The bottom of the truck itself was over fifty feet up from the bottom of the tires.

Ben's eyes opened wide at the look of the truck. _Monster truck,_ he thought, finding it hard to stop the smile from forming on his face. The vehicle looked like a monster truck with its four giant wheels, only its body was much larger than any monster truck Ben had seen before. The top of it curved like the cabin of other cars and trucks, but considering the size of the vehicle, that curve looked like it was the size of a whole extra floor in the vehicle.

Franky let out a whistle at the sight of a vehicle even he was impressed with. "Looks like it's got three floors," he said, spotting a few windows scattered on the sides, camouflaged well with the outside of the vehicle but not well enough that he did not spot the glass panes.

"Hey guys!" The group of five boys turned around at the sound of Nami's voice calling from behind them. Their eyes opened wide and smiles spread on all of their faces as Nami stepped to the side with a smirk on her own face. "Look who we found," she said, and the others started running back at the sight of the three walking in the middle of Nami's group. Nami, Kirito, Sanji, Usopp, and Robin were joined by three others who smiled back at their friends who called their names as they ran over.

"Gray!" Natsu called out in surprise.

"Juvia!" Ben yelled with a smile. After losing her once, he could not take it happening a second time, a third if he counted the time with Nox. Part of his depression was over the fact that so many of their friends were missing and he had no idea what was happening to them.

"Rin!" Luffy exclaimed excitedly. Rin lifted his eyebrows up in a little surprise at Luffy's excited shout to see him, but then he just smiled too at the rubberman and gave him a little wave.

Kuro's head popped out of Rin's bag, and Franky laughed and called out, "Kuro too!" He thought maybe the cat was feeling left out that no one called out its name, and telling by the big smile that appeared on the cat's face after Franky shouted, he figured he was right.

Riku let out a sigh as his friends ran ahead of him to greet the others. He lifted his gaze over them all to the distant north where the sky was still so full of dark swirling colors. _Though it does seem like whatever was going on is over now. I haven't felt anything for a while, and…_ The sky in the distance flashed bright blue and Riku's thoughts stopped short. The others were too focused on each other that they did not notice the flash, but Riku got a bad feeling in his gut at the sight of its color. _It looks, a little like…_ His thoughts once again stopped short as the sky lost its blue color, turning instead to a pitch black which made Riku's entire body tense up. As soon as the black filled the sky, it was replaced by a dark purple that matched much closer to what the color of that northern sky was. _Did I imagine it?_ Riku thought, though his heart beat was speeding so fast that he found it hard to imagine he had not really seen that. _What was that, darkness? It was so powerful, like nothing I've ever felt before._

"Riku?" The tall, silver-haired teen lowered his nervous gaze to the woman in front of him almost a head shorter than he was. Most of the group was still behind her, but Nami spotted Riku's sweaty face and worried expression and decided to talk to him. She was terrified for Timmy, but with the arrivals of not only Kirito and Franky, but Gray, Juvia, and Rin too, she was optimistic about their odds. Riku did not seem to share the sentiment though. "Are you alright?" She asked him.

"Did you see-" Riku began, but then he shook his head as he knew the answer to that question. _If she had, she would not be this calm._ Riku looked past Nami's head and spotted two of the group there who were facing the north since they were circled up. He wondered if they saw it, but Ben was looking left at Juvia and speaking in a happier tone than Riku expected to hear from him anytime soon. Luffy on the other hand though, was staring above Rin's head while the half-demon talked about their arrival at the base. _Luffy might have seen it. He looks oddly serious for a moment like this._ After Riku thought it, he sighed as Luffy's serious expression reverted and he just started smiling and talking with Rin and Franky again.

"If you're worried about Sora," Nami began, and Riku looked down into her bright brown eyes to see a soft look to them. "Don't be," she said. "He said he was looking for Goku after all. I'm sure they'll protect each other."

"Yeah," Riku said and nodded, trying to make it look like that made him feel better. Nami smiled that she got through to him, but Riku started thinking on those tremors and violent quakes they had felt the entire day. _Goku's strong, Sora too, but to make the world shake like that, do you know how strong they would have had to be? No Nami, I'm not sure even they could protect each other from that. If those are the enemies we'll come to face on this continent, then, it's a good thing we're going to get Timmy back right now._

"We're heading south of Great Wall?" Gray questioned in a low voice. He and the other two with him were just caught up on what was going on, and he looked up the wall and to the east a little where he saw a vehicle being brought up on top of it. "Looks like we made it just in time," he added, though his tone was dark and his eyes darker.

"Timmy is-" Usopp began.

"I get it, and we have to save him," Gray said, showing he agreed with them even though he seemed to know what lay beyond that wall he mentioned. "But to go south… it's something I never wanted to do twice." Gray clenched his only fist at his side, then continued in a soft voice to the others around him. "From the wall south, we won't find towns or anything like that." He paused and then added, "Everything we see beneath the wall we should kill on sight."

Usopp gulped, suddenly no longer feeling like defending their idiotic plan of action. "You lot," a voice said behind the sniper, and Usopp almost jumped at how close it sounded. Those farthest north spun around to see Sasuke standing right behind them, almost like he appeared out of thin air. "The truck will be ready in a couple of minutes. Time to get up the wall." After he said it, he noticed a man who turned to face him with widening eyes. He had been in the middle of a call with other Resistance commanders, and after that he had to give out orders to Beta Squad when their remnants showed up in front of him, but he finally got a look at the man in front of him and muttered, "Gray?"

"Sasuke," Gray said, and then he nodded respectfully at the base commander. "It's been a long time," he said.

"I heard you disappeared," Sasuke said.

"I did," Gray replied, even though Sasuke did not really ask a question. "But I'm back now, and I brought friends," he said it and Sasuke glanced around at the others with him.

 _It's procedure that I should take him in for questioning, find out more about his disappearance. If he brought these people to us though, looking over his absence isn't very unreasonable._ "Are you going south with them?" Sasuke asked. Gray nodded. Sasuke frowned as this still seemed like a bad idea to him, but the thought of the Timmy Turner they mentioned joining the Resistance's side was too compelling an opportunity to pass up. "Alright then, let's go," Sasuke said, and he moved forward so fast that he was at Riku's side in a moment. Although the others all had to spin around to the south with wide eyes at how fast he moved, Sasuke's eyes darted to his right as the silver haired teen next to him had turned his head with Sasuke's movements.

 _Another Keybearer,_ Sasuke thought, reminding himself that he should not be surprised by Riku's ability to track him. Thinking about him being a Keybearer only annoyed him more though, as he thought about the teen with spiky brown hair who turned him into a chicken at their first meeting. He started walking south as he thought about that, and Riku walked next to him farthest in front of their group. Nami followed behind Riku, though she glanced over her shoulder and called out that Timmy was waiting, making the rest of them pick up their feet too and head after the Resistance commander.

"So why were you guys in Pyraxas anyway?" Sanji asked the man next to him as they walked south. He never got to the question back in the city or while they were escaping from it, and so much had been happening the past few days that he forgot he still did not really know why the other group had come back north after heading south. "What made you decide to take on the Fire Lord?"

Gray hummed while looking forward at Natsu's back. The Dragon Slayer was smiling and talkative, excited thanks to most of their friends gathering together again. "A Resistance commander at Pon-Gatso, Hiei, when he found out what Natsu could do," Gray trailed off as it was not necessary to finish the sentence. Sanji nodded as he understood that, and it seemed like the commander's plans worked out considering Sozin's demise at their Dragon Slayer's hands.

They were nearing the wall, but Gray continued to the man next to him and the dark haired woman on Sanji's left who was also listening to what he said. "We did go south with the intention of going much farther, but, after Juvia was killed," he lowered his voice as he said that, not wanting the blue-haired girl on Natsu's right to hear what he said. Although Natsu was smiling and talking to her excitedly, Juvia's lips were flat and she kept darting her eyes around at the others with her that she did not look as happy to see as Natsu did. Gray continued while Sanji fumed in anger and Robin looked at Juvia's back sadly too, "We decided to stay and help out against the Fire Nation, League of Assassins, and the Sith. It felt like we were winning, and Sokka even mentioned setting up a base farther north than Pon-Gatso, but by the time we reached the tree after the war, it was already-"

"Excuse me, Gray-san," Robin interrupted. Sanji had a confused look on his face, his swirly eyebrow lifted up and his lip twisted like he was trying to put his finger on something. Robin had more of a look of recognition on her face though, and she said, "Did you just say, Sokka?"

Sanji's eyes bulged as he realized why he felt so strange after what Gray just said. Franky was walking behind them and had not been listening to most of the conversation, but when he heard Robin's question he leaned forward. "Sokka? Isn't that the guy Toph said to-"

"Ah!" Sanji exclaimed in revelation. The others looked to him as they wondered what was so shocking, since his eyes bulging already made it seem like he remembered. "If I'm the one to tell Toph, she'll fall in love with me!" Sanji called out, doing a spin as he thought about the good news he wanted to break to her the next time they saw her. _And she'll let me call her Toph-chan!_ Sanji thought as his eyes turned into hearts.

"Tell Toph what?" Natsu asked while looking back.

Gray looked pretty confused as well, and Robin explained to them and the others who did not know what the pirates were talking about, "Toph asked us to look out for friends of hers on our travels. Sokka was one of them, and I believe he was the one she wanted us to locate the most."

"Huh," Natsu muttered. "You know, he was from the fire benders' world, and Aang and the others are elemental benders too."

"Guess it makes sense they're all from the same world then," Ben added.

"Not only that," Robin said, and she smiled in a soft way. "But I do believe she said that this Sokka is Katara-san's brother."

"Aha!" Natsu snapped his fingers then started laughing. "I thought the guy looked familiar, and he totally does look like Katara."

"They do bear a resemblance," Juvia whispered.

Robin turned to the younger woman who just spoke up, and she smiled at Juvia. The blue-haired girl looked away after Robin smiled though, and Robin's smile lowered down in a confused way at the look Juvia just gave her. _Juvia?_ Robin thought, and a sad look started to form on the older woman's face. _Are you, angry?_

At the wall was an elevator-kind-of contraption that looked similar to the pulley system outside of the base that was used to bring their vehicle to the top. The truck was fully on top of the wall now so they were not able to see it as they rose up the side, but the trip in the flat platform with thin railings on the sides was a quick one. They reached the top of the wall and looked left to see their truck rolling slowly across the stone surface. The wall was a hundred meters thick, and the truck was moving to the other side of it where several soldiers were gathered and aiming weapons down over the other side. There was another truck in front of their huge one, but this one was just extending a long ramp down towards the floor to the south.

They were unable to see off the other side of the wall well from where they were standing, but they could see a mountain range to the southwest. They walked forward and a river far in the distance that cut north and south, just a little to the east of them, came into view. A closer look at the river made those who saw it feel their stomachs turn over. The water, or whatever the liquid in the river was, was a blackish red color. On both sides of the river, and the ground in every direction that they could see was black. The entire landscape was black, bleak, even though the sky over it was bright blue the farther south they looked.

The group headed farther south, until they neared the guards at the edge of the wall who were staring over with nervous looks, spinning their rifles around to aim all over the place. It looked like they could not decide one single spot to keep their weapons focused on. Luffy ran ahead of his friends to get a look over the side first, but unlike outside of Dressrosa when he did the same thing, the pirate did not start smiling at the landscape he saw to the south. Luffy's eyes grew wide, and his bottom lip lowered. "Whoa," he whispered.

At the base of the wall there were thousands of zombies pushing into each other and scratching at the wall. There were so many rotting corpses that they were piling up on top of each other, but they were not getting as high as the giant spiders that were climbing up the walls only to run into some sort of strange forcefield that knocked them off. The spiders fell far, but they did not splat on the ground considering there were just too many monsters to land on first. They fell on top of Kabane, and Stone Men, slow and fast zombies, skeletons and wights. In the sky to the distant southeast, a pack of fifty or so dragons shot over the landscape only a few hundred feet off the ground. Behind them were just as many Grimm Nevermores and Griffons. Wyverns, dragon-like creatures that had more reptilian-like bodies and only two legs with claws on the end were fighting other Wyverns that looked so similar but had black wisps coming out of their bodies and the beady yellow eyes of the Heartless.

Giant trolls stomped towards the wall with clubs in hand and dumb looks on their faces. As one of them stepped over a patch of lighter-than-black ground, the floor beneath it crumbled and the beast fell inside. Blood splashed out of the pit a second later as whatever was inside shredded the troll in moments. Titans wandered aimlessly around in the far distance, but a few of the fifteen meter ones turned towards the wall right as most of the group was getting there after Luffy. Those fleshy beasts that looked like humans without skin started walking their way, though one of them dropped onto all fours and started sprinting towards them like a dog. It sprinted straight into and then through a small house on the outskirts of what looked like it was once a town twenty miles south of them.

"I thought, there were no settlements, south of here," Ben whispered, as he realized that town was not the only cluster of buildings he saw. He spotted a tower much farther away, and a knocked down windmill near it that looked overgrown with black vines. There were ruins of a castle on the closest mountain he could see, and he shook his head before whispering, "Is the entire south, like this?"

Gray turned his head left and saw their truck rolling up close. It came to a stop and he saw Sasuke turn to him and nod his head. The base commander was a busy man, but he wanted to see this through. Gray nodded back then turned to his friends who were taking in the horrors to the south with wide eyes. There were more monsters than they could count, and right off of the wall were so many that the floor became impossible to see. The ramps that extended from the top of the wall to the south reached out a half a mile from the base of the wall before touching the ground, but as soon as it touched, monsters started climbing up on it and marching up the path towards the wall. The soldiers around them started firing their beam rifles at the monsters getting in the path of the truck, and someone called out from the top of their truck, "It won't take long for them to fill your path! You're not going to have a smooth trip over them, it's gonna be bumpy for sure, but this baby goes fast enough that it'll smash through even fifteen-meter-class Titans with ease." The man who drove the truck to the base dropped down over a hundred feet from on top of it, and he nodded towards the group and said, "I left the keys in the ignition. Try not to scratch it up too badly."

Gray looked back at his friends as they were thanking the man for bringing it for them. "Guys," he said, his most serious voice possible. They all turned to him, and Gray continued after a deep breath, "We're going to go save Timmy, but there's one thing you all need to know." Gray turned his head and looked out past the wall again, and he said in a deeper tone, "No matter what, if I yell 'Flood!' We need to run as fast as we can."

"What's so bad about a flood?" Luffy asked.

After he said it, the guards all around them looked in like he was an idiot. Nami decided not to ask a similar question after seeing all their looks. Gray's expression just got darker though, and he whispered, "Not _a_ flood, the Flood. It's what took out all the towns that used to be past here. Entire countries," he finished softly, and his friends turned back to look south again with more nervous expressions. "Just, trust me on this one. We can handle anything else the far south throws at us, but if I yell 'Flood…'"

"We'll run," Ben finished for him. Gray nodded down at the boy in a serious way, wondering if Ben was trying to be sarcastic as he did not think Ben would be the first one to say that. As he looked down at Ben though, Gray's eyes opened huge at the sight of his left wrist. Ben put his other hand over his naked wrist when Gray looked at it, and the kid turned away wincing. Gray turned away as well as he felt like everyone else started glaring at him for that. _I'll ask someone about it later,_ he told himself.

"Yosh!" Luffy called out, as it seemed like there was nothing left to discuss. "Let's get going!" He turned to the truck and lifted a fist that he was going to throw up to the top to get himself up there, even though a rope ladder was hanging off of the ship for them to climb up. Luffy froze with his right bicep in his hand though, and he lowered his right fist while turning his head around. A few of the others turned around too, and then the rest of them spun at the looks on their comrades' faces.

Sasuke moved around the side of the group and they all looked west down the wall thirty feet where a figure was standing. He had on a brown cloak over his whole body and was short, shorter than anyone else on the wall. "I would like to join you," the figure said, lifting his head a little so only the top half of his light-skinned face was shadowed by his hood.

"Huh?" Luffy wondered, and his guard lowered a bit. He did not know why it went up when he felt the presence behind him, especially from a kid like this. Kirito eyed the boy suspiciously as he had felt something similar to Luffy, as did Sanji who lifted his swirly eyebrow at the boy.

"Who are you?" Nami asked the child. His voice was high-pitched so she did not think he was just a short man or something, and she kept her tone soft because of that.

"You don't know him?" Sasuke muttered, looking at the group next to him in a confused way. He thought this was someone else from their strange group who was just making his appearance at the last second. He turned to the kid and frowned more as the boy was not there when they arrived, yet the elevator was still at the top where he left it and it had not gone back down yet to pick anyone else up. "Who are you?" Sasuke asked, keeping a threatening tone to his voice to let the boy know he did not belong there.

The kid reached his hands up and grabbed the sides of his hood. He pulled his hood back and revealed his face. Some of them thought him taking his hood off would be a revelation to someone else, but they looked around and just saw confused looks on all their comrades' faces. No one recognized the strange boy wearing a blue hat that had half of a red poof-ball sticking off the top of it. He had a vertical scar going over his right eye, over his eyelid and above and below the socket. Other than the scar though, he looked like a normal boy of twelve years old. "I think, I can help you save Timmy Turner," he told the people in front of him who opened their eyes wide at what he was saying.

"How?" Kirito asked in surprise.

"You can?!" Nami exclaimed. She sounded more than willing to let the boy come along from those words alone.

"And who are you?" Sanji repeated the question already asked a few times.

The kid took a deep breath and then said with a flat lip, "My name is, Stan." Stan Marsh then turned from Sanji to Kirito, and he continued, "And I think I can help you save Timmy Turner, because I know the Wizard King. I know who, he really is."

* * *

 **A/N Stan?! Haven't seen him since he arrived on Aebrith on Leol's slave ship, and he killed Leol and his whole crew. But before that, last we saw he was in Metropolis after the battle, saying goodbye to Mysterion and Bart as he had a mission he had to get to. Anyway, hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Starting off the second Third with the reintroduction of a main character who's been missing for a while. What has Stan been up to? Find out next chapter in 13.1 Stan, which I'm going to try to get up tomorrow. 3 parts in 3 days?! What is this, chapter 11? XD I quit my job the other day since I'm going to be studying abroad soon and won't be able to keep making smoothies while in Tokyo, but that means the next 5 days are all for getting ready to leave... and writing Nexus! I've got a lot written out in the next chapter already, just as I did with this one (only had to write 1 or 2 thousand words before editing today), so after finishing up the next chapter I'll get it right out for you guys. The team's finally back together... mostly! Killua's still in a coma, and Goku, Sora, and Dash have yet to reappear thanks to the weird time distortion in heaven and the realm of the Gods, oh yeah, and Kairi's still kidnapped, but other than that, the team's back together! 13 is the Wizard King chapter, will this unlucky number spell doom for our heroes, or are superstitions bullshit? Find out soon!**

Limit-Breaking chapter 101 . 14h ago

I for sure say meruem vs goku rematch should happen but meruem should fight goku black he probably won't be able to tell the difference at first. Also It would be pretty damn awesome seeing him in this story and meruem getting even more confused about goku would also be enjoyable. Though my question about goku vs meruem is would it be soon or much much later.  
Since it's pretty much a very bad ending with meruem winning and aebirth slavery still continues. Also am i the only one who kept thinking that raditz had super saiyan blue up his sleave or something. The dude seemed to overconfident.  
Also don't worry hit just train yourself for a minute and you won't be worried about meruem for long, Hopefully. Also where was jiren when luthor and saitama and majin buu were training he would have made that scene perfect. Though i am starting to wonder if you are going to the summit as well since that left off in a big cliffhanger.  
Also you may have posted this chapter onto the wrong story, though i do wonder if you are just going to have goku go blue through training and anger. Besides that i still have more to say but i will leave it off here incase you repost this onto the other story.

 **Goku Black would be fun to add, but not much room for Zamasu to work his plan into action on a single world, in a single universe, with the Originals watching everyone's every move. Raditz looked like he had a master plan... which just turned out to be giving up, though he does get to be the King this way. With Jiren it woulda been Strong Bald Guy Mania! All they would of needed was Krillin to finish the picture XD. I totally did post on the wrong story, worked a little late into the night and tired me flopped. Thanks for posting this quick though, 'cause as soon as I woke up I switched it over to Heroes Will Rise. So thanks double for the review this time! And I hope you enjoyed the chapter!**

joebob323 chapter 87 . 6h ago

Okay. This chapter threw in way to many game changers... First, Buu is alive?! Next, Saitama is too?! And finally, WTF IS LEX LUTHOR DOING?! Is he going to become one of the good guys?

 **XD Lol I actually named the chapter Game Changer** **then changed it at the last moment to The King of the Saiyans 'cause of the flashback. I was laughing a few chapters back because someone reviewed that they really wanted to see Majin Buu, and Saitama, and I was like "oh man, they're coming very soon!" though I couldn't actually comment that to the review :/ Anyway, Luthor's training up, but we'll see what his plans are... sooner or later, once he's got his powers mastered and reminds the world he's there. Thanks for the review!**

Jokering chapter 87 . 5h ago

An epilogue chapter, well i suppose its nice to know what happened after the fight. So radish bent the knee, kinda unexpected but it WILL have consequences since he is now Meruem's new lap dog and its pretty clear that the Lords and High Lords are just waiting to jump on each other's throats . To bad that prologue bit lasted only a short while. would be nice to see Bardock vs King Vegeta and Zodd vs the Kryptonian King ( whose identity i am curious about). After seeing gameplay from Hokuto ga Gotoku i am wondering if you might add Fist of the North Star characters, although some of them are very difficult to balance power wise, there are a lot of great characters in there.  
So i stopped and thought, and thought, and thought, and then it hit me. This is just to confirm it so i'll keep it vague, but is the Wizard King that fat ass that some people love and others love to see suffer? If so, then thats actually a nice counter to Timmy. And dont worry, Saint Seiya is hard to get into, specially if you are marathoning, i suggest you watch two or three eps at best per day if you find yourself struggling with it. Just keep in mind that the power excaling is mostly centered around dialogue than action, so if someone says they can casually fight at the speed of light and have a power that can equal the Big Bang, dont take it with a grain of salt just because thats not properly shown, some characters over hype themselves but their statements about themselves IS cannon.  
Well i wasnt expecting another chapter this soon but did help with keeping the hype in check, so where are only one third into story? Nice.

 **Raditz runs the Saiyans now, though he has bent the knee to Meruem. I almost decided to make the prologue longer, but it would have included the fight between Meruem and his allies against the Saiyans and Kryptonians instead. I figured the explanations they gave during that meeting of what was going to happen with the Kings of the other races gave away how those things were going to end up, considering the plan worked in the end since we knew Bardock became the Saiyan King. We may see more flashbacks of that time later on, as well as other important flashbacks that are on their way in this second third. And yes, we're only 1/3 into Heroes Will Rise, so we've still got a long ways to go! Thanks for the review! And thanks again everyone for reviewing, reading, faving, and following! 'Till next time!**


	89. Nexus HWR 13-1 Stan

**Nexus HWR 13.1 Stan:**

 **FD + 803**

 **Ruins of Metropolis**

Two miles south of the former edge of the capital of the NEG, Metropolis, there was one tent larger than all the others set up to give people shelter while reconstruction took place. This tent had a flag sticking out the top of it, half red and half blue, with a three-headed dragon symbol in the center of it and an eight-pointed golden star inside a circle in the background. The flag of Rhodar displayed proudly over the tent showed that the man inside was not afraid of anyone knowing where he was, despite being so close to the NEG's capital when only a week before he had been planning all out war with them.

It was late, the suns had set in the west, the King and Queen and their advisors had eaten their dinner, and Alibaba was currently alone in his tent. He had taken a nap since he was up the entire night previous to help keep order inside the Ruins of Metropolis where a group of looters had taken advantage of the dark to try and steal more rations, medicine, and rob the houses that were still standing in the north of the city. The King of Rhodar was putting back on his Kingly clothes, going to head back out into the city to look for his Queen, or for Morgiana. Alibaba bent down and slid his right boot on, then the left, then as he started tying the laces tight, he heard rustling outside the flaps on the front of his tent.

Alibaba Saluja stood up and put his hand down on the hilt of the shortsword at his waist. The flaps of his tent opened up, and two men marched in who made Alibaba lower his hand from his sword. "What is it?" Alibaba questioned the strong guards in Rhodari armor standing there. The men in gold armor with helmets on, glowing spears in hand, and shields on their backs nodded at their King.

The one on the right began, "We caught someone sneaking around outside your tent. He says he works for you, but he had no identification nor any clearance codes."

Alibaba gained a confused expression on his face, but he nodded at the guards and put his hand back on his sword hilt before saying, "Bring him in."

The guards nodded at their leader. They turned and lifted the flaps back up, telling another two guards standing outside the entrance to bring the prisoner inside. They walked in, each one holding an arm of a boy between them who looked infuriated. "If you don't put me down right now," the boy began, seething it through his teeth. He was wearing a brown cloak that covered most of his body except for his head, and on top of his head there was a blue hat with a red poof-ball on top of it. The poof-ball was cut horizontally so it was only a hemisphere with the flat half facing up. The boy's hair was brown beneath it and pushed down by his hat, and he had a dark look in his eyes as he turned to the man farther in the tent, "Tell them to let go of me, or this is going to get ugly."

"Stan?" Alibaba questioned. He let go of his sword and made a little motion with his hand to get his guards to let go of the kid. Alibaba's guards half-expected the kid to be lying, so they were surprised to hear their King say the boy's name. "Where's Anakin?" Alibaba asked after the kid got put down.

Stan brushed his arms off and shot the guards around him glares, but they knew that they were just doing their jobs and ignored the kid who did not have the proper information. Stan himself grumbled under his breath, thinking, _This wouldn't have happened if I had just walked right up to the tent like a normal person. Why'd I have to appear behind him all spooky-like anyway? That was stupid!_ Stan calmed himself with a few deep breaths, then he lifted his gaze to Alibaba with a serious expression on his twelve year old face. "Alone."

Alibaba looked at the boy confusedly, then he lifted his eyes to his guards and gave them a small nod to show it was okay. One of them opened his mouth to argue, then he closed it and looked down at the kid instead. "I'll be right outside," he said, more of a warning to the kid than an assurance to his King.

Stan frowned up at the man who still did not trust him despite their King's orders. He waited for the guards to leave, then Stan walked forward so he was away from the edge of the tent and prying ears for what he was going to say. Stan looked up into Alibaba's golden eyes, and he said in a dark voice, "Anakin's dead." Alibaba's eyes opened wide in surprise, then the King of Rhodar's fists clenched and he ground his teeth in anger.

Alibaba cursed under his breath. _Anakin, I told you to get back! We were planning on invading- couldn't you have just waited for us? Why did you have to join in that crazy battle?!_ "The Underworld?" Alibaba questioned the boy before him.

"Ichimaru Gin," Stan said, his voice coming out as a hiss. Alibaba could hear the sheer hatred behind Stan's words, and he did not like to hear that kind of tone come from anyone, let alone a child. Stan continued, "He was one of the High Council."

"I know of him," Alibaba began. "So he was in on that alliance I have heard so much about?" He mused to himself, and the King frowned deeper. "So many of their government were in on it, that I find it hard to trust the words of Mustang and the Arbiter." Alibaba looked back into Stan's eyes, and he said in a serious voice, "I trusted Anakin. He was a good friend, and I'm sure he was a good mentor." Alibaba took a step towards the young boy with so much anger and hatred on his face. "I know we only met the few times, but Anakin trusted you, and I will too."

Stan looked up at the King of Rhodar in surprise, and Alibaba smiled down at the boy. "Help me, Stan," Alibaba began. "In this tumultuous time, when the lines separating friend and foe and thin and hard to see, I need people I can trust around me. The information you and your Master supplied us with during your time in the Underworld, and with Metropolis's rebels, was invaluable to the Rhodari people. Stan, with your help we can continue to do good not just for Rhodar, but for all-"

"Stop calling me that," Stan growled. His head bowed and the brown hair sticking out below the front of his hair shadowed over his eyes. Stan lifted his head a little and glared between his bangs into Alibaba's eyes, "My name, is Darth Marsh." Stan's fists clenched at his sides, and wind rushed around him that made Alibaba sweatdrop. His plan to motivate Stan, give him something to look towards, calm him of his hate, it was not working.

"Sta- Darth Marsh," Alibaba corrected himself as he doubted calling the kid by his name against his wishes was going to help him at this point. "It's not your fault, Anakin died," Alibaba said, his voice soft and understanding. Stan's eyes opened wide, and the King continued, "I sent you to Metropolis, and he made the decision himself to follow my orders. I'm sure if there was anything you could have done, you would have done it too. You can't blame yourself. Sometimes, people just-"

"I don't blame myself," Stan interrupted. Suddenly, Alibaba could see that all of that hate in Stan's eyes was not misplaced. The boy was not just angry, not just mad at the world. All of Stan's anger was directed at something, "I blame Ichimaru. That shinigami killed my Master for no reason," Stan snarled. His fists clenched and unclenched at his sides, and the wind around him picked up a little. The guards outside of Alibaba's tent looked behind them as the outside of it started ruffling around, but they waited for their King before making a move. Stan continued looking into Alibaba's eyes, and though his throat clenched up he rasped out, "I am going to _kill_ him!"

The visible anger around Stan was making Alibaba's eyes grow wide. The King of Rhodar looked at Stan to see his hands trembling, his eyes shaking, and his throat twitching like he was trying hard to keep any other emotions except anger from rising to the surface. "It's okay, to mourn," Alibaba whispered.

Stan's eyes grew wide again, and the wind rushing around him stopped. Stan calmed himself down and he lowered his gaze to the floor. "Not yet it isn't," Stan whispered back. "I promised myself I would kill him. And I know where he is." Alibaba shook his head in amazement. Stan had become calm, but his calm voice was so full of anger that it was astonishing that Stan could keep a straight face. "Aebrith," Stan said, and he lifted a clenched right fist in front of him. "I'm going, to avenge my Master."

Alibaba looked at the kid's fist, and he watched as Stan lowered it down to his side. Stan turned his back to the King of Rhodar, and he finished, "I only came to let you know what happened to Anakin, and to tell you that I'm not working for Rhodar anymore." He started walking for the exit, "I only was because my Master chose to. With him gone, I have no reason to stay."

Stan reached the exit, but before he could push the flaps and leave, he heard Alibaba behind him, "Stan." The kid's teeth clenched in annoyance as he had told the King not to call him that. Alibaba knew what he said though, and he continued, "You can't, be angry, all the time. Anakin wouldn't want it that way. He wouldn't want you to walk that path." Stan hesitated in the entrance of the tent like he had when his close friend Kenny told him to stay in Metropolis. Kenny told him to stay behind with him and his friends, and Stan had seen how carefree and childish those children were. He wanted at the time to listen to his friend, just like he wanted to listen to the Rhodari King right now.

 _I'm just, so angry,_ Stan thought. _He can see it, Kenny could see it, even I can see it. It's not healthy._ Stan's expression darkened and he muttered, "If only not being angry, was easy." The kid looked over his shoulder, "But I'll try to keep that in mind, King Alibaba." Alibaba could not see if the boy really meant it, and Stan did not know himself whether he meant what he said. Stan turned back to the exit though and pushed through it. _I'll meditate on the way to Aebrith. Calm down my soul a little. But I told Anakin, like I told those kids, that I am a Sith. He left it up to me to choose my path, and I am too angry to ever be a Jedi. Too angry, to let all this anger hold me back. Instead I'll use it, to make me stronger!_

As Stan marched away from the King's tent, Alibaba sent one of his guards away. A minute later, a woman walked inside his tent, and Alibaba turned to the ninja. The woman had blonde hair, a Village Hidden in the Sand headband that looked too big for her head since it was just resting over her shoulders around her neck, and she wore all black for another day straight. "What is it?" Temari questioned, her voice low but serious. Alibaba smiled softly at the woman who recently learned about Shikamaru's fate from a boy who knew him in the ruined NEG capital.

"I have a mission for you," Alibaba began. "A boy just left my tent. He can't have gone far. He's wearing a brown cloak and has on a red poof-ball hat. Can you follow him and report where he's going?"

Temari looked a little confused, but she nodded her head at the King in front of her. Temari turned and ran back out of the tent, and Alibaba lost his smile and let out a sigh. _Maybe I can kill two birds with one stone._

* * *

 **FD + 808**

 **Los Santos**

Stan Marsh walked off the end of a street at the eastern edge of Los Santos onto a boardwalk. He was on the eastern seaboard of Rhodari territory, in a port city not far from the nation's northern border with the NEG. Down the boardwalk to his left, the wooden walkway became more commercial with a lot of other people walking around, eating at the concession stands set up. There were steps going down on the side of the boardwalk opposite the city and the road he just walked off of, and those steps led down to the beach below where there were a lot of people laying out in the sun or playing in the water.

The kid turned the other way and walked away from the more populated area of the boardwalk. He was heading towards the industrial area, and after walking a few minutes he reached a fence blocking it off. Stan jumped up in the air and used the Force while he did to get himself high enough to clear the barbed wire on top. He landed on the other side and looked around at all the huge rectangular crates lined up around the area. He started walking towards the docks he could see that had large ships on the end of them. _I only need the smallest one. As long as it can get me across the ocean that is. Sorry Alibaba, but I'm not asking._ Stan saw two men walking his direction, and he acted like nothing was weird about him being there and just kept walking forward.

"Huh? Who's this kid?" One of the two burly men questioned.

Stan frowned and lifted his left hand. "You don't need to know who-"

"Ah, you must be the boy we heard about," the other man mentioned, and he nodded as he looked the boy up and down. Stan stopped what he was saying, and the man who last spoke could see he looked confused, so he chuckled to himself. "You didn't know? Well whatever, come on." He waved his hand and turned the other way, while the other burly fellow looked Stan up and down a couple more times.

"This don't seem like a good idea to me Paulie," the guy following his partner began. "He's just a kid. I don't know what he's doing, but the rations they had us stock it with…" The man could see out the corners of his eyes Stan glaring at him, so he turned to continue straight to the kid, "Hey, you're not planning on crossing the whole ocean alone, are you?"

Stan said nothing, still wracking his mind over what was going on. _They knew I was coming? Wait, "rations?" Has someone-_ Stan spun around in mid-step, and he glared towards the top of a storage container a hundred meters away from him. He had turned so suddenly that the woman watching to make sure the sketchy kid did not attack the workers did not duck away in time to avoid the kid catching a glimpse of her. _Alibaba,_ Stan thought, letting out a low growl as he turned and continued to follow the two dock workers. _You had someone follow me? Damn, how didn't I notice them?! I didn't say I needed, your, help…_ Stan reached the dock the two men started walking down, and Stan looked down it with widening eyes.

Temari frowned as she poked her head out and looked towards the kid's back not far from her. She looked past him at the single boat at the end of the dock that was obviously meant for the boy. On either side of the dock were large shipping freighters with large turrets on the sides of them and giant towers sticking out the tops. The sailboat the kid was given had motors on the back to let him go faster, but the ship was small in comparison to most sea-faring vessels. It was either meant for close-to-shore boating, or if it was for a long-distance travel, it could only support one person. Stan smiled as he thought about there being food inside, new clothes, probably a lot of extra gasoline so he would not have to make many stops to fill up the motors.

The kid frowned after he caught himself smiling, but he thought begrudgingly, _Thanks, Alibaba. I'll try to bring it back, someday. If I survive that is._ Stan's expression hardened, and the two men who turned to see why the boy was not following them backed away to either side of the dock as he came marching forward. Stan reached back and grabbed the hood bunched up on his neck, and he lifted it over the top of his head, shadowing his entire face over and making the two men in front of him very nervous. _Master, Levi, Mikasa, Armin, Fry, Leela. Bender and Eren too. Ichimaru Gin, I blame you for all of them. I know Luthor killed most of them, but you killed my Master. You killed the one man on this world who always protected me. He made me stronger, so that I can now survive on my own in this shitty world. Anakin was like, a father to me. More than my real father ever was._

Stan leapt up in the air and landed in the back of his new boat. He waved his left hand as he landed, and the men still watching him nervously started backing away more. They were afraid as they watched the ropes tied to cleats on the dock untie themselves. The ropes pulled onto Stan's boat, and then the ship pushed away from the dock without the boy ever saying a word of thanks to them, not that they were going to mention it to him. Stan turned his gaze to the east and frowned as he set off on his journey, _Master, whether or not you want me to, I am going to avenge you. I_ _ **need**_ _to kill Ichimaru Gin. He taunted me after he killed you. He murdered you for no reason at all! But he made one mistake. He told me where he was going. He is going to regret that._

* * *

 **FD + 819**

 _Finally, not a cloud in sight. Maybe it'll be a calm day for once._ Stan set the motor at full throttle, locked the turning mechanism to keep him on a heading due east, then he walked up from the stern of his ship. Stan climbed on the seats on the side of the stern area, and he stepped over the top of the door leading down into the boat's cabin. Stan took a seat on top of his boat's cabin, and the top of his head was just a few inches below the bottom of the sail's boom. It was not very windy anyway so Stan did not have to worry about the boom swinging back and forth and potentially slamming him in the head. Stan sat cross-legged in the center of his ship, and he located his own center with his eyes closed.

The kid hummed, and without opening his eyes, objects underneath him on the inside of his ship's cabin started moving around. Stan had left the cabin a mess when he left it earlier to get started on another day of travel, and now he was reorganizing it. His ship had electricity, and that meant he had a fridge for much of his rations, and for fish he caught with the fishing rods and lures provided for him with the boat. The door to the fridge opened, a chair slid out from the table next to it, and two water bottles on the seat of the chair lifted up and moved towards the fridge. Stan placed the water bottles down in the door and let out a deep breath. _Alright, level two._ The mattress to his bed that he pulled off its stand and left laying sideways against his bathroom door started to shake. The mattress lifted up, and at the same time, the just-add-water rations on his couch and kitchen counter lifted up.

Stan grunted and lifted his hands at his sides, finding it difficult to use this much Force without assistance. _Come on, come on,_ he thought. His mattress turned sideways, pressing up against the walls on either side of his hallway and becoming harder to move with his mind. The rations shook as he shifted them closer to the cabinet, and the cabinet doors that he planned on closing after he put the rations inside started shaking too. He was focusing too much on the next steps and he knew it. _I can't just force the mattress through a space it won't fit in, and I have to wait until one task is finished before I can start the next! Keep imagining the room, focus!_

For a second, all of the items Stan was holding stopped shaking. The mattress popped out of its strange position and a part of it hovered over Stan's bed-stand in the small room next to his bathroom. His rations floated slowly towards the cabinets, made it through the door, then Stan dropped them. He dropped them when they were only halfway through, but the heavier halves were sticking out of the cabinet and they dropped down to the counter. Simultaneously, the mattress dropped and got stuck half in Stan's doorway, though none of it got on top of his bed. Stan did not look annoyed as these things dropped though. The kid's eyes opened and darted up in the air, and they narrowed in at a figure high above him.

 _A bug?_ Stan thought, seeing what looked like dragonfly wings sticking off the back of the creature. _No, that's way too big. It just looks small because it's far away. It's bigger than I am, and it's watching me._

 **"Leol-sama, it appears there is only one human aboard the ship."** Flutter, a Chimera Ant, used his telepathic powers to communicate with his boss. **"I believe it is safe to drop cloaking and attack."**

 **"Good work."**

Stan re-closed his eyes. _There are more of them. Coming from the south. We're far out in the Great Ocean, I doubt it's a Rhodari ship._ He heard the splashing from a distance, but it was getting louder every second. _The ship is much bigger than mine, but not freighter size. They have… ill-intentions. What could they be? Pirates? Are they here to take my stuff? Depending on the pirates, I can probably take them. I won't know if I can handle them though from first look, probably best to avoid a fight._

"Hey you there," a voice called down to Stan's ship. The boy opened his eyes and put his hands down at his sides to push himself up, then his eyes shot open wide and he pushed himself backwards to avoid the figure dropping down to his ship. The man hit down and the entire ship rocked knocking Stan onto his butt. Stan stood back up and glared at the man in front of him. He was wearing his usual brown cloak and damaged hat, while the man in front of him was a lot more vibrant with his clothing. The figure had on bright purple pants, a black shirt with a gray skull in the center of it, and he had golden rings on most of his fingers. The skull design on his shirt matched the real one that looked like it used to belong to a human that dangled from the bottom of a necklace the man was wearing. The man himself intrigued Stan, as his skin was reddish brown with darker brown stripes on his exposed, thick arms. What interested Stan the most though, was how the man standing on two legs looked like he was a lion with a long white mane. "What are you doing all alone out here? With such a nice little ship too?" The lion Chimera Ant questioned.

Stan examined the man in front of him closely. _He's confident enough to jump right up to me. Is he overly cocky, or just very strong?_ "I'm heading to Aebrith," Stan replied. "Who are you?" He questioned the figure, and he narrowed his eyes to try and look a little threatening himself.

"Heading to Aebrith huh? What a coincidence, so are we!" He swung his arms out to the sides, and Stan looked past the figure to the ship he came on. The edge of the ship was taller than the top of Stan's sailboat's mast, and Stan wondered what the wooden ship was being used for. He did not see any black flags above it, but this creature sure seemed like a pirate to him. Humans and other strange creatures lined the edge of the ship when Leol swung his arms to the sides, and Stan's eyes narrowed at them all. "Call me Leol-sama. Want to come with me?" Leol asked the boy.

 _Come with him? What is he offering?_ Stan's eyes shifted around the different figures on top of the ship. _There are a lot of them, and they're all armed. I don't know if any of them have powers either. What happens if I deny him? Does he take me anyway… Is that what this is? Is he here, to kidnap me? But why? Unless, no. Yeah, probably. They aren't pirates at all._ "Sure," Stan finally responded to the figure in front of him. The lion-human hybrid looked a little confused at the response, but Stan grinned and put his hands behind his head as he looked into the Chimera Ant's eyes. "I'll come with you. Your ship looks nicer than mine after all."

"Hahaha! Alright then, come aboard! But first," Leol reached behind his back, and he grabbed a collar off of his waist that he brought in front of him.

 _As I thought,_ Stan stared at the bracelet with fear across his face. _So these guys are slavers? I didn't think slavery was a thing here, but Awul isn't all of Nexus. And Nexus is not Earth. This is not a "civilized" world._ Stan took a step back, _How do I play this? Kill them all right now? No, there's still a good chance they're stronger than I can handle. If I reveal that I'm more than just a kid right now, they'll take measures to restrain me. Act like a normal kid. Put up a fight like any kid would._ Stan lifted his fists and yelled at the lion in front of him who started laughing at the kid's reaction.

Stan turned and ran for the stern of his ship, but Leol dropped down in front of him and grabbed the top of the kid's head with his right paw. He gripped Stan's skull and lifted him up with it, _He's strong. This guy's probably the leader of their group, considering the rest are just standing by while he deals with me. If they're his subordinates, he's probably the strongest of them._ _I should test his strength now- no, no that would be a bad idea. A single boy slave, I'm probably not worth much. If I start fighting him and actually make him mad, he might just kill me to remind his men how brutal he is._ Stan stopped struggling, and he whispered, "I'm sorry. Please, don't do, whatever you're going to do to me."

"Haha! You haven't figured it out yet kid? You don't have any idea what the place you were heading towards is like? Aebrith's full of sickos who get off on little kids like you." The lion Chimera Ant started laughing loudly, and many of his crew laughed along. Stan saw the flying Chimera Ant lower down to the edge of Leol's ship next to a female Ant with blonde hair and a pink hat on. "If you're lucky," Leol continued and Stan's shaky eyes shifted back to the Chimera Ant he was tricking, "maybe some schmuck will buy you to just be a servant or something. Now, say goodbye to your ship," Leo finished. Stan became confused as to why the Chimera Ant said that, but what happened next actually had Stan surprised and breathing faster in panic.

Leol snapped the boy's collar on around his neck, then he threw the kid by his skull up at his own ship. "Take him to the hold with the others!" Leol called after while Stan flew off in a panic. He wanted so much to use the Force to flip himself upright instead of spinning around, and he had to remind himself that the slavers did not want him dead or they would not be capturing him alive in the first place. Stan was caught by someone, and he heard Leol off the side of the bigger ship, "Empty out this toy and then send it to Davy Jones' Locker."

Stan calmed himself as he was being carried away by a ten foot tall human-tiger Chimera Ant that seemed to have a lot to prove as it kept taunting him with promises of torture at the hands of his future owners. _Alright, gotta play this smart now._ The Ant brought Stan below deck, and Stan looked around confidently as he did not see any slavers around. _They're all above deck right now._ "You should put me down," Stan suddenly said, interrupting the Chimera Ant.

The slaver frowned and lowered Stan to the floor in front of him. "You will turn around and look behind you for twenty seconds," Stan looked straight into the Chimera Ant's eyes as he said it, and the Ant with the face of a tiger turned around. Stan hurried away into a room they were about to pass that looked like some kind of storage room. _Should have searched me Leol-chan._ Stan opened a barrel in the back of the storage area full almost to the top with rice. _Don't know how long they've been on the sea for, but if they've had this that whole time, then they must barely use it._ Stan rose his right hand over the barrel and used the Force on the rice below his palm, pushing it all to the sides to the point where it almost overflowed. He dug as deep down as he could, then he reached under his cloak with his other hand and dropped his lightsaber into the barrel. _Good, the collar isn't a power nullifier. I bet they have them though, so I need to keep my power hidden._

Stan rushed back behind the tiger Chimera Ant who shook his head in confusion, then snapped his gaze down to the boy looking back at him in fear. Stan turned and started running away, but the Chimera Ant yelled, "Hey!" He ran after Stan much faster and grabbed the boy around his sides with paws that had claws on the ends of them. The Ant looked infuriated, but he calmed himself as he did not want to damage the product. For a second he thought about mentioning to Leol that the boy tried to run, but that would mean that he had to admit he gave the boy the chance. "Don't fucking do that again," the Ant snarled, bringing Stan's face up in front of his own.

"S-Sorry," Stan apologized.

"Alright," the Chimera Ant whose head felt funny muttered. He continued walking the direction he was going originally, and he brought Stan down to the bottom deck. Stan's eyes grew huge as he looked around and saw dozens of people in cells around the dark deck level. There were buckets in the cells for using the bathroom, chains on people's ankles, and each of them were wearing only brown rags. "Get out of those," the Chimera Ant told stand as he dropped the kid to the floor. Stan made sure not to land on his feet, and the kid sitting on his butt looked up at the Chimera Ant in nervous confusion. "A nice cloak like that, and maybe even that shitty hat too, bet I could sell them for something when we next stop to sell."

The Chimera Ant walked over to some barrels near the door, and he pulled out some rags for Stan to wear that looked dirty to the kid. Then, the slaver grabbed something out of a barrel next to it and looked at Stan darkly. "And I don't know if you were planning on getting one after you got there, or if you just didn't know about this, but you gotta wear a Power Blocker if you're gonna be coming with us. Now, didn't I tell you to strip!" The Ant reached down and grabbed Stan by the right ankle, hoisting the boy up upside-down and forcefully clipping the anklet on him. Stan winced in pain as the bracelet caught some of his skin and ripped it when it locked shut, and he darted a look at the Ant who was holding him that made the Ant's smirk vanish and his fur stand on end.

 _CALM DOWN!_ Stan lost his scary look and returned to appearing afraid for his captor. The Chimera Ant looked enraged that he felt fear for a second from a measly human, and Stan got thrown into some cell bars, making the people behind them call out for Stan to stop resisting. They did not say anything to their slaver, and Stan frowned while facing the floor his face was pressing against. _These people are terrified. You monsters enslaved them, tortured them! When we reach Aebrith, I'm going to kill you all!_

* * *

 **FD + 858**

 **Somewhere in East-Central Aebrith**

A few days after Stan massacred the crew of the slaver ship he was on for much longer than he had hoped, the boy fell backwards with blood all over him, panting heavy breaths and coughing every few seconds. Around him were four bodies, bodies of Chimera Ants who were prepared for him unlike the ones he slaughtered on Leol's ship along with the captain himself. _Hunters,_ Stan thought, sitting up and moving towards the body of the final Ant he killed. He leaned his back up against the half-horse, half-man, half-eagle Chimera Ant hybrid he had the most trouble defeating. _They said, they were sent to hunt me down. That means, they knew it was me. That means, one of the slaves I released gave me up. Dicks._

Stan pushed down on the body of the purple-furred creature behind him, and his hands got even more wet as he pressed down into a spot he had cut through with his lightsaber. _It's some good training at least,_ he thought to himself, while limping away from the creature with a pissed-off look on his face. _Who am I kidding? I got hurt facing a few Chimera Ant grunts, and I want to go after a powerful shinigami? I need to be much stronger before I try anything. I found out that Ichimaru Gin is in the north, a new Lord up there or some shit, but the Resistance is in the south. If I want to avoid these Hunters, escape the stronger ones that are sure to come after me now that I killed these, I need to get south into safe territory._

Stan turned to the south and started walking that way, but he stopped and turned around. The kid looked towards one of the flying speeder bikes the Chimera Ants descended from the sky on, the only one undamaged from the fight as its rider was quick to get off to get close to Stan, to be the one to capture him. He was also the first to die. Stan got on the bike and started testing it out, and as he figured out how it worked the kid started smirking. _This is so cool,_ Stan thought. He sped up closer and closer to full throttle, the wind hitting him harder and harder with every mph he increased. _I can't wait to tell Kenny about this. Maybe I can take one back to Metropolis next time I…_ Stan frowned deeply. _What am I thinking about at a time like this? Keep going._

The young boy in a brown cloak with a red lightsaber at his side raced across the landscape of Northern Aebrith. Traveling by vehicle was much better than by foot, and much more effective now that he had a clear destination in mind too. _Those people I saved, they're dicks! How could one of them give me up after I freed them?! How could, they? Unless- I mean, they couldn't have helped it, if they had been captured and forced to explain it. If that's the case, I hope they cracked quickly. I mean, they're dicks if they did, but I don't want anyone to get tortured because of me. I freed them so they wouldn't be tortured! Yeah, I freed them in the middle of Cooperative territory. That means, they're still technically slaves if anyone else catches them… I couldn't have taken them all with me! We would have been caught in minutes!_

Stan tried to meditate, but these thoughts were plaguing him. _I gave them a chance. I gave all of them chances to escape! It's not my fault not all of them were able to use their freedom to get to a safe place. It's not my fault, some of them are slaves again. They all looked so hopeful when I freed them. They were so grateful. They thanked me over and over, but I don't deserve their thanks. No._ Stan's eyes darkened and the sky happened to be darkening above him at the same time. As it got darker out, Stan's expression darkened as well, _I don't want their thanks. I only freed them because I wanted to get free. I freed them because with more slaves escaping in every direction, they wouldn't be able to focus all attention on a single one of them. What I did was the best course of action, for me! And I'm not heading south to find safety! I'm not going south to get to Resistance lands! The Resistance is not the only thing south of me. If I want to get stronger…_

 _I need to join the Sith._

* * *

 **One Week Ago**

"You say you're a Jedi?" Sokka questioned the short kid in front of him. The tan-skinned young Resistance leader scratched some black stubble on his chin. "I guess you can come with us. We've still got a few thousand miles to the refuge cities in the south." He glanced over his left shoulder and shivered while looking back at the miles of tents and parked vehicles behind him. Sokka wore the ratty brown cloth he had over his shoulders as the only extra protection from the cold, and it had just begun to snow in their region of southwest Aebrith. He looked back in front of him at the kid who looked warmer with some heavy pelts on him. "Got any more of those?" Sokka asked the boy.

"Are we really letting him join us?" Jericho asked in annoyance. She and Guila were standing on either side of the jeep Sokka was sitting on the hood of. The vehicle was a compact four-wheeler that had a soft beige cover over it and a military-style appearance. Jericho stepped forward on its left side and looked down her nose at the kid, "He's just-"

Stan looked over his shoulder, and he reached back into a pack on it to pull out a hat he made with the fur of a monster that had been hunting him. The dead beast was all over his body at the moment, but he preferred his own hat to the one he made, and he got too hot wearing it on top of his blue and red one. "Here," Stan said, holding out the green fur hat.

"No," Sokka said, waving a hand at the kid in front of him. Stan looked confused, and Sokka smiled down at him and said, "Go back there. Find someone who you think could use it."

Stan's eyes widened as the cold man in front of him said that. Sokka crossed his arms and rubbed his hands over his biceps, and when he breathed out his breath hung in the air, but he smiled at the boy in front of him anyway. "When Pon-Gatso burned down, we had to get everyone out of there in a hurry. Most people lost everything they owned. All their possessions, gone in an instant. It's why we're heading to the refuge cities, because there's nothing left for these people in the rest of Leam. Anyone who could go somewhere else has already broken off from our group." Stan looked back there again and only now realized just how bad off all these people were. He started to feel bad about lying to Sokka just so he could travel with them, which would hopefully be safer than traveling alone with a target on his back.

 _I must have crossed into Resistance lands at some point, but that last hunter followed me so close to here. Maybe because it was a single monster it got through the cracks, just like me._ "Sure," Stan finally replied to the older man in front of him. "I'll go, do that," he said, and he started walking away through the light snowfall to look for someone colder than he was. As he entered the camp of hundreds of thousands who had set up camp for the night, Stan looked down at his own coat and pants and gloves and even fur-lined boots that he spent the afternoon before creating out of his dead enemy's body. He looked back up at some of the nearby people gathered outside of a cluster of tents. They had set a fire up on the ground, and all of them were huddled around it for warmth that they desperately needed considering none of them looked ready for snow. Two were actually wearing shorts, and they kept reaching down and rubbing their legs before stepping closer to the fire.

Stan lifted back up his gaze and stared out ahead of him into the distance. He could not see over the tents because of his small stature, but from a distance he recalled how far back everything stretched. All the tallest vehicles were on the outsides of the horde of civilians, and that was where the guards were. He wondered why Sokka did not put him with the guard detail, but he was reminded of how those two women with Sokka looked at him and figured they had problems trusting random people. _Even kids,_ he thought. _Not that they're wrong to distrust me. I told them I'm a Jedi, when in actuality, I'm a Sith. I'm going to head south and figure out the quickest way to enter the Emperor's ranks._ As Stan thought it, he was sliding his arms out of the sleeves of his fur coat, and walking towards the group of cold people near him.

* * *

 **Five Days Ago.**

"There they go," a middle-aged man said to the short boy standing on his side. "Are you sure about leaving them?"

"I was never really a part of their group anyway," Stan replied. "I just met up with them on my way here." He turned away from the window on the western wall of the Resistance fort they were in. The base around them was a mess, with all the furniture and food and supplies cleared out. The people in it had given everything they had to the refuges from Pon-Gatso, and it still was nowhere near as much as those people needed. Stan looked back towards the window and to his right this time where a different massive force of people was moving. The new group of people was much smaller than the fleeing people of Pon-Gatso, but they looked much more threatening with their rolling tanks, giant army formations, even giants walking in between battalions of armored soldiers. "What's up with them?" Stan questioned.

"Leam's retaliation," the older man said down to the boy. "The enemies following the Resistance's retreat have crossed into Leam's borders. There had been other Resistance areas between Pon-Gatso and Leam, but all of those agreed to merge into Leam within the last few days." The man hummed and scratched the furry light blond beard on his chin. "The recent territorial shift caused a short panic through northern Resistance lands. The maps were updated quickly, but in the chaos many accepted Leam's control in order to ensure protection. Even this Resistance base would not have been inside Leam territory as of two days ago."

Stan frowned to himself as that sounded very similar to something he had heard before. _Leam's policies sounds a lot like the NEG's._ "Would Leam's army not help out if these areas weren't in their territory? Aren't they part of the Resistance?" Stan wondered.

"Not exactly," the man replied, while looking down oddly at the boy in a half-poof-ball hat. He had a question on his mind, but he chose to answer Stan's first before asking it. "The Resistance must request aid from Leam, and often Leam agrees to help in joint efforts. However, although Leam is one of the member nations of the Resistance, the Resistance is not itself a country. It's an army composed of many nations combined. Leam assists the Resistance, and the Resistance assists Leam, but the two are not one and the same." Stan nodded along as he was starting to understand the demographics of the region a little better. "You do not seem very knowledgable about these parts, for such a curious boy," the man mentioned, and Stan turned to look up into the guy's eyes.

The way the man said it was implying something. If Stan was this curious, he should have known about these types of things already. Stan looked up with his small black irises and responded, "I'm from far away."

The boy thought that the man would not be satisfied with his short response, but the older man just nodded and said, "It is a large world." He turned and started walking across the empty room with just some scattered trash in it and nothing else. The man wore a long brown cloak with a white gi on underneath, and he tossed his brown cloak to the side before turning back to the boy behind him. He reached down and pulled off a lightsaber from the right side of his waist. "Shall we begin your training?"

"I've already been trained," Stan said in a cold voice, while lifting up his left arm. He had a vertical scar going down his face from just above his right eye to just below it. The left arm he rose was made of steel despite the fake skin over it that looked so real, just like the flesh and bones in his legs hid the fact that they had been cybernetically enhanced. The first few days on Nexus were harder for some than others, and Stan still carried so many scars from back then. The hilt on Stan's side pushed his cloak up as it flew into Stan's left hand, and then the boy brought his right up as well to grasp the hilt in front of his chest. He held the hilt right in front of his neck, and a red blade extended straight up in front of his face and above him.

The man Stan was facing extended his lightsaber at the same time, though he had brought both of his hands in front of his right shoulder with the blade pointing straight up. He paused after seeing Stan's blade extend. "A red lightsaber," he began.

"Sorry I couldn't find any of the crystals to make one," Stan snapped in annoyance. "My old master killed a Sith, and I got the guy's old lightsaber. That's it." It was not the true reason he used a red lightsaber, but he felt it was better to lie in this situation. He hoped he could get away with it even saying it to a Jedi, and it seemed to appease the man in front of him. Stan sighed in relief in his head, and he was glad he was able to at least partially use the truth or he doubted he would have been able to fool the Jedi master before him. _I did get the lightsaber from a Sith Anakin killed, but that's not the reason I still use one. I've had plenty of opportunities to switch._ Stan lowered his blade from in front of his face to his right side, then his left side as he started walking to the right, circling towards his opponent who began to circle the other direction.

"I recognize your stance," the Jedi master said, and Stan narrowed his eyes wondering if the man knew something. "You really were trained by a Jedi from my world," he added, and Stan felt more relief that the man was convinced by his movements.

 _Anakin did say he was a Jedi before he became a Sith. Wonder if all the Jedi learn the same techniques?_ The man stopped circling and Stan stopped as well as he felt the man before him get more serious. "Are you ready to begin, young man?"

"I am, Master Qui-Gon," Stan replied, and then he charged forward at the Jedi before him. He leapt up in the air with his powerful enhanced legs, and he did a flip over the older Jedi, slashing down at him as he rose above the man's head. Qui-Gon Jinn lifted his green lightsaber and blocked the boy's slash, but he had to push hard into the child's blade to keep it off of him. He pressed out to knock the boy's blade away, but Stan just kept up his momentum from his flip and spun his blade back around towards the Jedi's back. Qui-Gon spun and held his lightsaber sideways, blocking Stan's blade again. Then, while Stan's blade had no movement in it, Qui-Gon slashed his own lightsaber around Stan's other side. Stan twisted his arms to point his lightsaber down on that side, and the green and red clashed. Stan was holding his weapon at a weird angle, and the man had more strength behind his push, making their lightsabers move closer and closer to Stan's body every second.

Stan was sweating, and his weapon was getting pushed so far back that Qui-Gon's lightsaber was nearing his left side. Stan lifted two of his fingers on his left hand and used the Force to push back against Qui-Gon's slash as well, then he let go with his other hand. Letting go with one hand without using the Force with the other would have let the master swipe right through his defenses and into his side. With the Force and one hand pushing against him, it felt just as hard as when he had two hands on the hilt, but with the other hand free, Stan was able to Force Push the man straight in the stomach and make him skid back ten feet over the floor.

Qui-Gon released one hand from his lightsaber and faced his palm behind him, stopping his skidding in a moment. He had not gotten too far from Stan, and the two with a ten foot distance between them put their lightsabers back in both hands at their right sides. Stan was panting, and he had an annoyed look on his face as he saw that his opponent did not look as tired as he had gotten in that one clash.

"There is much I can teach you," Qui-Gon Jinn said, a smile on his face as he looked the boy up and down. "When you sought me out and asked for advice on getting stronger, I was skeptical that you knew what you were asking for. After all, not many Jedi seek the path of strength over all else." Stan narrowed his eyes more as he wondered again if the man was hinting at something more with his words. "I must ask you something though, Stan. What is it you desire power for? What is your reason for asking me for assistance?"

Stan looked straight into Qui-Gon Jinn's eyes and responded, "I want to help people." _Revenge._ "I want to get stronger because the bad guys here are stronger than I can keep handling at my current strength." _Ichimaru Gin._ "Will you help me?"

Qui-Gon looked back into Stan's eyes and saw so much conflict in them. He could not tell whether or not the boy's words were true, and because of that it seemed to him that there was some truth in them, as much as the boy was hiding. "I understand," Qui-Gon replied aloud, keeping his concerns and thoughts to himself. His green light blade retracted back into its hilt and Stan became confused as they had only just started training. "We will continue this on our journey."

"'Journey?' Where are we going?" Stan asked. _He didn't catch me. Good. I'd rather train with a Jedi than risk going to the Sith and getting murdered by those bastards. I don't know what their organization is like, but they sound too dangerous to go to with a heart like mine. I know I'm not as evil as they are, and if they find that out too, they might just slit my throat. A Jedi on the other hand,_ Stan felt confident that he had made the right choice, which was why he accepted that they were leaving without hesitating.

"This base is being abandoned," Qui-Gon replied. "It has no strategic importance at this position, and we have no idea if the land will ever change back to what it was. We are not waiting for things to normalize, so I have been called to a southern Resistance base by a Commander I am acquainted with. He has a new base location to position me at back on the border with the Emperor." Mention of the Emperor made Stan's ears perk up, and Qui-Gon paused as he saw an interested look appear on the boy's face. "Help me break down this base, and then we will begin our journey." Qui-Gon turned and started walking away, while Stan got a really confused look on his face and put away his own lightsaber.

 _We're destroying the base? Why would we do that? Leam's army just marched north of us, so it's not like the enemy are going to be taking over this base anytime soon. Is there important information stored on the computers here? This doesn't make sense. Or is he expecting Leam's army to break and the Co-op forces to push south? In that case, they wouldn't want the enemy to be able to use this base._ Stan was full of questions, but it already felt like he had asked too much that most people already knew, making him seem oblivious to his new Master. He did not want Qui-Gon thinking he was a fool, so instead of simply asking, he came up with a hundred theories in his head, only to sweatdrop as Qui-Gon and the other remaining Resistance members unloaded the few vehicles they had been left with from the garage, then pressed a button hidden inside a wall and capsulized the entire fort-like base. _Guess that makes sense,_ Stan thought, though he felt like a fool now for all the false theories in his head.

"Good health to you, my friends," Qui-Gon said, nodding his head towards the others from the base who were all piling into other vehicles. He had a tan land-speeder behind him with two seats in it and large glowing blue engines on the back. The others at the base said their farewells to the Jedi Master, then he turned to tell Stan to get in.

The kid was already halfway climbed up the side of the speeder though, and he turned as he got over the edge, "Can I drive?"

Qui-Gon smiled at the child as the kid asked the question. Stan took it as an affirmative and grinned back as he had never driven one of these vehicles before. As Qui-Gon watched a young boy climb behind the wheel of a speeder though, the appearance of another boy getting behind a similar vehicle flashed through his mind. The nostalgic memory made Qui-Gon chuckle to himself, then he jogged over as the kid started the engines and looked so excited that he might just drive off without him. As soon as Qui-Gon got into his seat, Stan pushed the thrusters on full and his head snapped back, a wide smile on his face as the wind pushed into it.

"Whoa," Stan said, as he spotted how fast they were going on the speedometer. His attention refocused on the landscape in front of him, and the smirking kid said in a quiet voice, "I like."

* * *

 **One Hour Ago…**

"You are leaving with them?" Qui-Gon asked his new apprentice.

"That kid- that man," Stan said, changing his words because Qui-Gon did not know who the figure who had appeared over the Resistance base really was. "He saved my life. I told you that I want to help people, that I want to become strong to help others, right? Well, if I can't help the kid who saved my life, how can I save anyone?" When Stan answered the Jedi's question on what he planned to do with his power, Qui-Gon had been skeptical of his response. At the moment however, Qui-Gon could see that Stan meant every word of what he said.

Stan thought back on the man who appeared above the Resistance base. He recognized him. He remembered what he looked like as he had seen the man before, many times actually. _Timmy Turner has saved my life so many times. After Luthor beat him in Metropolis, when I saw his body all wrinkled up and dying, I thought I would never get the chance to repay him. He survived though. Then I found out he was twelve, like me. Timmy Turner is so strong for a twelve year old. He has the power to beat Ichimaru Gin, and if he can get that strength at only twelve, so can I. Maybe, if I can save him, he'll tell me how he did it. I'll be able to do it too, as long as the fatass hasn't completely lost it._

 **"You will respect the Wizard King's fucking authoritah!"**

 _ **No. Fucking. Way.**_

Stan had calmed down a little from his reaction from hearing Timmy's last shout before the boy flew off earlier. _No one else says it like that. I mean, the multiverse is huge, but no one else is that much of an asshole._

"So soon after we arrived," Qui-Gon began, but he started smiling as he did. "I understand, Stan. If you wish to continue your training, seek me out after your journey to the Wizard King's domain. I will not be hard to locate, as long as you continue to stay on the side of the Resistance." As the Jedi Master said it, Stan's eyes narrowed and his heart rate sped up as he wondered what the man was implying with that. Qui-Gon Jinn bowed to the boy after saying it though, not elaborating on his implications as the boy hoped he would.

 _Does he think I won't? I did plan on joining the Sith originally, but he's good enough that I though- Or is he talking about the Sith at all?_ Stan wondered this while his new Master bowed, and he continued to as he bowed back respectfully. _The old man just said the "side of the Resistance," which could mean a lot of things. I don't necessarily have to join the Sith to grow stronger, but staying in the Resistance might do more harm than good if I've got as good a grasp on the situation as I think I do._ Stan lifted his head back up and stared once more into his Master's eyes, then he turned towards the southern wall and started walking towards it. _Those are all questions for after I save Timmy Turner._

 _Now,_ Stan thought, changing the subject in his mind while he looked towards the wall. _I need to prepare better for this than when I tried to appear behind Alibaba. I was sloppy and got caught that time, but this time…_

* * *

 **Present**

 _Flawless,_ Stan thought, as he climbed up the ladder towards the opening in the side of the truck above him. _Not one of them saw me coming. Like a boss._ The mysterious kid who appeared in front of the group heading to save Timmy Turner grinned, though by the time he reached the hole in the wall where people might be able to see him again, a stoic expression had returned to his face.

* * *

 **A/N Stan the Sith. Stan the Jedi. Stan the twelve year old boy. Stan's a pretty conflicted kid. He's got the lessons of his old Master, advice from Alibaba, and new lessons from his new Master to think on, but the overwhelming feeling of wanting revenge against Ichimaru Gin is driving him across the world. Those good influences, and just the fact that Stan Marsh is a pretty good kid, keep showing up though through Stan's thoughts and actions since he departed from Awul. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the chapter! No review responses today, 'bout to fall asleep when I remembered I forgot to post this after finishing it. I will put a quick list below as I added some new characters this time, and brought back a lot of old ones.**

 **Avatar TLA: Sokka**

 **7DS: Guila, Jericho**

 **GTA V: Los Santos**

 **Naruto: Shikamaru, Temari**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Flutter, Leol, Chimera Ants**

 **Bleach: Ichimaru Gin**

 **Star Wars: Anakin, Qui-Gon Jinn, Jedi, Sith**

 **South Park: Kenny, Stan**

 **-And I think that's it. As I said, short Author's Note today. Thanks for reading, and 'till next time!**


	90. Nexus HWR 13-2 Promise

**A/N Hey guys. Just want to say that updates might be taking a little longer for now on. I'm in Tokyo studying abroad for the semester starting in a week, and I haven't had all that much time for writing between orientations and the wild Japanese parties XD. Anyway, just wanted to let you know the reason. Good news is though, I already have the next chapter after this one finished so I'll be able to get that one out to you pretty soon. Without further delay: here's the chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: okay maybe a little delay, but I'm just reminding everyone that I own none of the characters in this story. All credit to their original creators.**

* * *

 **Nexus HWR 13.2 Promise:**

"You saw Zoro?" Gray asked.

"Yeah," Nami replied, nodding at the one-armed man in front of her.

Gray stood in the cockpit of the giant tank-truck that had all of the Straw Hats in it. Kirito was sitting in front of their group, behind a computer that he was typing into while looking up over it and through the glass windshield at the front of the ship. The truck was so large that it had an entire room just for driving, and yet that room was not a third of the length of the full third floor of the vehicle. The room curved up from the front towards the back and the windshield stopped halfway up the ceiling when it started to flatten out, turning to steel instead. There were some empty seats around Kirito with computers in front of them as well, but at their current speed they did not need to utilize their weapons systems, nor did they need anyone at the communications computer since they just left the Resistance Base under an hour earlier.

The black-haired Fairy Tail mage stood on one side of a circle that was mostly wrapped around him, making it look like a semicircle with Gray in the middle. Gray did not like the looks on the Straw Hats' faces, but he did not expect much different reactions from them after hearing what they said. "Did you, mention me?" Gray asked hopefully.

Luffy frowned, and he shook his head. Gray tssked and clenched his right fist at his side. "Damn it," Gray whispered.

"Zoro-san is looking for you, correct?" Robin asked the man.

"I think so," Gray replied to the woman on his right.

Luffy's frown lifted back into a straight line, and he looked more angry at himself now. _I should have said Gray's name, then maybe Zoro would have,_ Luffy shook his head around, then he said, "Why is-" He stopped himself, and he frowned again. He wanted to ask why Zoro was looking for Gray so hard, but it made him upset thinking about what that answer might be. He spent over half of a year with Zoro on his crew, then some more time after they met back up two years later, but Gray- Gray had traveled with him for as long if not longer from what Luffy understood.

"Some other guy had Zoro's blades," Sanji said. Gray turned to the chef, and Sanji continued, "He told me that Zoro died. You know anything about that?"

The other Straw Hats and Kirito all waited for an answer. Gray glanced around at them, and then he sighed and said, "Yes. I knew. Zoro died only a few months after we got to Aebrith. He was the, shinigami friend I mentioned." The others went wide-eyed as they recalled what Gray talked about right after they left Dressrosa. "Sorry for not mentioning it sooner, but it would be hard to believe if you hadn't already seen him for yourselves."

"So Zoro's, wait wait wait," Luffy shook around his head in confusion. Back when Sanji mentioned Zoro dying, he thought it was similar to what must have happened to Juvia or Killua.

"I don't understand," Nami began hesitantly.

"Are you saying, Zoro, is still dead?" Franky asked. He was too freaked out by that to speak in a loud tone or yell 'Super' or anything.

Gray nodded his head slowly. He looked into Luffy's eyes, and he said to the shocked captain, "Zoro does not have his real physical body anymore. It's why Takeshi usually carries his swords for him, or at least two of them. Zabuza carries Zoro's cursed blade since Takeshi did not like Sandai Kitetsu's bloodlust." Gray faded off at the annoyed look growing on Luffy's face.

"Why didn't Zoro come with us?" Luffy asked. He clenched his fists at his sides, hating that he had to ask someone else this question. The idea that Gray would have the answer to why Zoro was acting that way made him feel even less connected to his nakama than before. "It doesn't make sense that Zoro wouldn't join us. After he helped us escape, he should have been right behind…" Luffy grit his teeth, and his crewmates looked at him in surprise. They did not know it, but the entire trip south after they had left Pyraxas, Luffy had been hoping that Zoro would come find them. It had been a week now though, and there was no sign of his old friend following him.

"It's because," Gray whispered. He stopped himself, then he continued, "It's the same reason, I think, that when I joined the Resistance, Zoro would not come with me. He was my closest friend on Nexus," Gray added, looking away as he did. He felt strange saying it to people who thought they were closer to Zoro than he was, and he did not like the looks they kept giving him. Then again, he knew he had never explained himself well enough to the pirates in order to avoid this same situation, so he blamed himself for getting in this mess in the first place. Gray rubbed his forehead with his right hand, then he looked forward with a darker look on his face. "The Zoro you know, he's still in there, somewhere. Zoro's not the same man you knew though before coming to this world, or even after for a short time."

"Dying wouldn't-" Luffy began.

"I'm not just talking about how he's a shinigami now," Gray added quickly. He frowned and clenched his teeth shut hard, and his eyes had to clench as well. Clenching his eyes while his face scrunched up made him look like he was in pain, but as the others wondered what had just hurt him, they realized as his eyes opened back up that it was not a physical injury. Gray's eyes could not hide the sadness that he tried to clench out of them a second ago so that he could continue. "Becoming the strongest is the most important thing to Zoro now," Gray said. "He is absorbed, obsessed might be a better word for it."

"Zoro's always wanted to become the strongest swordsman," Luffy argued.

"Not this badly," Gray whispered. "Those first few months, and even after he died, it was a different kind of goal than what it is now. He was training all that time, but he was also looking for you. He, still wanted to find you, to help you become the Pirate King." Luffy's eyes grew wide that Gray was saying all of this in the past tense. The other Straw Hats did not like what Gray was getting at either, and Kirito glanced behind him to the others, also wondering what had happened to the green-haired man he had seen once before. "Soon before I joined the Resistance though, something happened that changed him. Zoro is obsessed now by his goal, his _need_ to become stronger, because he wasn't strong enough, when it mattered most."

* * *

 **FD + 145**

Roronoa Zoro slid two of his swords down into the sheath at his waist. Then he reached up and grabbed the white hilt out of his mouth before sliding his third sword back into its sheath as well. All around the hillside a mile east from a small town, black bodies of creatures of Grimm with their bone structures on the outsides were dissolving into black dust and fading away. Zoro glanced right and saw Gray ease his head left as a ten foot tall minotaur tried punching him in the back. _Good,_ Zoro thought at the movement, nodding his head with a small grin.

Gray saw the fist go by the side of his head and let out a deep breath. _That was close, but I saw it coming. More like, I heard it,_ Gray spun with a grin, and he slashed the sword he created with his Ice-Make magic. He cut into the side of the monster almost twice his height, then he ducked another swing of the beast's massive claw. As he ducked, he stuck out his left hand and light shimmered along his fingers. He started swinging up while yelling, "Ice-Make: Dual Wield!" A second sword formed in his left hand and he slashed from the tall black minotaur's stomach all the way up to its shoulder. The beast stumbled back, and Gray pulled both swords out to his sides before sprinting forward. He slashed them across the front of his body and ended up on the other side of the monster, while Zoro watched with his green eyebrows lifted up.

 _That looks like,_ Zoro thought, and then he cracked a larger smile at the sight of an 'X' of blood splashing out of the minotaur's chest. It took a second after Gray had passed the monster's body, and Zoro chuckled at a move he recognized very well, as it was one of his own.

 _Onigiri,_ Gray thought, smirking to himself without turning back towards the pirate he had learned the technique from watching. Instead, he turned left and watched as another young man only a couple of years younger than him doing backflips away from a large enemy. The Vajra was scarier than the minotaur Gray just fought, and the electricity zapping off of the huge lion Aragami's face gave it an even more threatening appearance. Yamamoto Takeshi was panting as he flipped one more time harder off the palms of his hands so that he lifted into the air. As he rose into the air, he drew a sword out of a brown sheath at his side and slashed it down with his right hand, while holding a sword made of what looked like bamboo in his left. A flying slash came off of his actual steel sword and slammed into the monster chasing him, but the Aragami's hard flesh let it push straight through and keep charging him.

Takeshi was landing right in the path of the charging monster, and another man nearby who just finished off the last of his enemies looked over. The ninja wore a headband with a line slashed horizontally through the middle of its silver part, he had a white mask over the bottom of his face, and his sword was much larger than any of the others' ones. Zabuza slashed Kubikiribouchou down and let go so the sword imbedded in the ground next to him, then he made half a dozen hand signs in front of his face in only a few seconds. Takeshi hit the ground and he crossed his swords in front of him to protect from the Vajra. Before the monster hit though, a wave of water slammed into the side of the beast and knocked it off the ground. The wave crashed over the Vajra, then its rough water pushed and pulled the Aragami beneath the waves without letting it get out. The water started to boil after a few seconds of this, and three of the men around watched wide-eyed as the skin of the creature inside the water started to bubble as well.

The water turned red fast. It became impossible to see the creature inside the water, but those watching wondered whether it was because of all the blood in the way, or if the monster's body had already broken down. Either way, a few seconds later Zabuza's ninjutsu dropped into the ground and left nothing but wet grass in its place. That grass was more red than when their fight started though, almost as red as some of the plains of red grass they had traveled on before. Takeshi turned his head towards the ninja twenty yards from him and gave the older man a grin, "Thanks for the save."

"Hmph," Zabuza grumbled. He put his sword back on his back, and the man with spiky black hair turned and started walking away. "That was pathetic," he said, and Takeshi frowned at the man's cold words.

Gray watched as Zabuza walked off. _At least he helped Takeshi. Still, he's so much colder than before. Seeing the person closest to you die really messes with a person._ Gray thought back on the village they were attacked in over a month ago, nearing two months now, by the Espada Zommari Rureaux. _Haku wasn't the only one he killed,_ Gray shifted his gaze to a man with green hair near him who was looking his way. Gray wiped the grim look on his face at the confused one Zoro was giving him. "Let's head into that town now," Zoro said, pointing a thumb over his shoulder at the nearby town that Zabuza was already walking towards.

"Alright," Takeshi agreed, putting his swords away at his side and walking towards them. He scratched the side of his head as he got up to Gray's side, the two of them walking fifteen feet behind Zoro. "Guess I kind of screwed up, again. Sorry about that."

Gray waved him off like he was worried about nothing. "We're a team," Gray said. "That big one was just stronger than most of the others."

"Heh, you got that right," Takeshi said, and he leaned forward stretching his back out. He let out an 'oof' as he cracked his back, seemingly from the exchange he had with the Vajra before Zabuza helped him out. "Still," he began again as he straightened back out. "I feel a little out of place around you guys. You're all so strong."

"You're pretty strong too," Gray said, and he chuckled afterwards. "But I know the feeling. Why do you think I've started using swords so much recently?"

Takeshi looked at him in surprise, then the younger man started laughing as he had not noticed. It was easier for Zabuza and Zoro to notice since they had been with Gray for more than twice as long, and Gray had already started using ice swords often in fights by the time Takeshi joined up with them. In the past month though, it had been every fight that Gray would put swords in his hands to start it off.

The group headed into town and caught up to Zabuza who stood in the center of a dirt path that cut between two lines of buildings. The path was not very clear, there was grass growing around it, and the buildings on either side were not much larger than the houses around the outskirts, but it was pretty clearly the main road of the town. "Anyone see an inn?" Takeshi asked, glancing around with a disappointed look on his face.

Zabuza turned left and walked towards a place with small swinging wooden doors in the entrance. It looked like a bar or tavern, and the ninja just pushed through the doors and inside the place some music was coming out of. The music cut off after Zabuza entered, but the three still outside heard it come back a few seconds later. "Maybe, there's a spare room above the bar?" Takeshi offered.

"Sure that's why he went in," Gray muttered in response.

"Over there," Zoro said. The two behind him looked forward to see Zoro pointing down the road where there was another wooden building that did not look much different that the rest of them. The building looked a little more traditional than most, and as the group walked towards it, Gray saw that the door on one side was made of paper. The roof was slanted on either side, unlike many of the flat roofs on the sides of the main street. This building was down the road from them but not on either side of the street, instead on the far side of a path that the main one ended on.

They reached the intersection of the main road with the connecting one, and Takeshi lifted his eyebrows with a look of recognition growing on his face. "This is a dojo," the teenage swordsman said.

Gray looked back and forth between the other two, and then he asked, "Why'd we come over here?"

"I'll challenge the guy who runs this place," Zoro said, cracking a grin as he did. "I'll make a bet that if I beat him, we get to spend the night in the dojo. If he wins, well," Zoro grinned some more and he flicked the white hilt on his side up so that the sun glinted off the small bit of steel he let show. "He won't win," Zoro finished.

Takeshi smiled and Gray chuckled a few times, and the two followed after Zoro as he headed for the paper door at the front of the dojo. The two of them reached the door and Zoro slid it to the side without pausing. It felt a little awkward to the other two that he did not at least knock first, and it felt more awkward considering there were over a dozen people kneeling around the thin walls of the room they entered into. The floors were padded and every person kneeling on the soft floor was wearing a white gi and had a training sword lain horizontally over their knees. Many of those people looked towards the doors as the three walked in, but the two in the center of the room did not look away from each other despite the entrance of the others.

Zoro held his tongue before calling out his challenge. He would have said something right away, but they had entered right in the middle of a match between some pretty good swordsmen. The shorter of the figures was wearing a kendo helmet called a Bougu with a white mask on the front covered in thin slits that allowed for the fighter to see and breath freely. The shorter swordsman was also the one on the defensive, as the only figure in the room who did not have on a white gi was slashing back and forth with the wooden sword in his hand. The man had a piece of wheat sticking out of his closed lips and a calm demeanor about him even as he blocked and swiped powerful blows with every movement of his sword. He had a pale complexion, long light-blond hair, and wore a white t-shirt and a pair of green baggy pants.

 _He's good,_ Zoro thought, while the man swiping at the younger figure darted his eyes over to him. The two of them made eye contact for a second, and the dojo's master lifted his right hand that he caught the wooden sword of the shorter figure in when the swordsman tried to catch him off guard. Even after he caught the blade though, the short fighter was not finished and let go with one hand, stomping forward and punching at the master swordsman's gut. The swordsman smacked his own wood sword in while pushing his student's blade to the side, slamming the shorter one's arm on the wrist and making a yelp of pain escape their lips. Zoro's gaze shifted from the swordsman who also brought his attention away to the shorter one he was fighting.

The sound of the yelp also got Gray and Takeshi's attentions, as they were surprised to hear the pitch of it was high. _A girl?_ Gray wondered.

"Who are you?" The master swordsman asked, while turning away from his student to show that their spar had ended for the moment. The girl fumed but turned as well to whoever her master was speaking to. She had been so focused on the match and she would not dare look away during it considering the gap that already existed between her and her master's levels.

"Mifune-sensei, would you like us to remove them?" One of the students near the door asked, standing up and reaching down for his training sword.

"Remove us?" Zoro questioned, while flicking one of his swords out of its sheath a little to show the sharp steel inside. "Would you like to draw that weapon of yours?" He questioned, darting his eyes over with a small smirk that had the student stumbling backwards and backing himself right into a wall. His fellow students who were inspired by their comrade's bravery dropped their jaws as he backed away with nothing but a mean look from the mysterious visitor. Zoro noticed Gray roll his eyes at him and Takeshi looking at him expectantly, and he decided to stop messing with that guy and turned back to the sensei. "Mifune was it?" Zoro began. The blond man nodded, a difficult to read expression on his blank face that did not show whether or not he was upset about Zoro threatening his student. Zoro stepped another foot into the room, without taking off his shoes which meant he was standing on the padded floor with his dirty shoes, this time something that made the dojo's master narrow his eyebrows. "I'm here to challenge you. If I win, my comrades and I get to stay at this dojo for the night."

"There's no way," a quiet voice whispered from Mifune's left side and a little behind him. "You couldn't beat Mifune-sensei in a million years." The short figure stepped forward, and Zoro stared back down at the younger fighter with a confused expression on his face. He did not know why the kid was speaking to him, but her high pitched voice sounded familiar even though Zoro could not place where he had heard it before. "After all," the girl said, while reaching up and grabbing either side of her Bougu. She started lifting it up and dark blue hair fell out from under the sides, falling just below her shoulders on the sides and right above her eyes on her bangs. "You couldn't even beat me once." Zoro's eyes both shot open huge and his jaw dropped. Gray and Takeshi looked in at their comrade in confusion, while the preteen girl just started laughing to herself at the expression on the man in the middle's face.

The shock had hit the girl's face first, but thanks to her training gear no one had seen everything that flashed over her face in the seconds after she saw his face. The shock, the confusion, the realization, the smile, and then the smug look before she started speaking that stayed on her face after she removed her helmet. Zoro was stuck on the shock though, while everyone else was still on confusion as they did not understand what was going on. Mifune seemed to understand it though, looking down at his pupil and then back at the challenger at his door. "You know this man," he stated.

"K-" Zoro started, but he stopped himself because there was no way what he was thinking could be right. _Where am I?_ He thought. A thought passed through his mind that this could not be happening because the girl in front of him was dead, but this was no world he had ever seen before. _Did I die, and this is the next world down? What's going on? Is this really…_ "Kuina?" Zoro asked.

 _Kuina?_ Gray thought, wondering if he had ever heard Zoro mention the name before. He could not recall it though, and just continued to watch with the others as the girl smirked some more and gave him a single nod in reply. "Look who's back from the dead," she said, still with that sly smirk on her face.

Gray and Takeshi's eyes popped open wide and they spun to Zoro. Takeshi looked back at her fast, and asked, "How did you know he's dead?"

Kuina's face filled with shock, and she snapped her attention back to Zoro's eyes to find out what they were talking about. Zoro was still just staring at her in shock though, not understanding the situation he was in at all. "I wasn't talking about him," she said in a low voice, making Gray and Takeshi, as well as everyone in the dojo other than her sensei go even more wide-eyed that she was talking about herself. "You let yourself die?" She asked, an annoyed tone in her voice as the question came out.

Zoro's shocked expression finally went away, replaced with disbelief at the sound of her tone. "What?" He snapped.

"Oh nothing," she said and rolled her eyes. She shook her head a little and chuckled like she should not have been surprised, and then said out loud in a sarcastic voice, "It's just, seeing that you're already an adult, I figured you would have been a little stronger than that."

Zoro dropped his bottom lip again, then he snapped back, "Let's see if you're still saying that, after I crush your master." Zoro looked back at Mifune but gone was the cocky challenging expression he had on his face when he entered the room.

Mifune took one look at the man raring to draw all three swords from the sheaths on his bellyband, and he put his own wooden sword back at his waist. "I deny your challenge. Stay wherever you like. This is not my dojo," he said simply, then turned and walked to a sliding paper door on the other side of the room and opened it up, walked out, and closed it behind him. As soon as Mifune was gone, all the students afraid of Zoro became a lot less confident that they were safe where they were, and many of them rushed after their master.

"What does he mean by that?" Takeshi wondered. "This isn't his dojo? It sure seemed like he was the teacher here."

"We built this dojo as a place to train," Kuina said while walking forward towards the three at the door, looking away from Zoro who went back to staring at her like he was looking at a ghost. She continued to Takeshi, "But when Mifune showed up, we saw how strong he was and asked him to teach us in the way of the sword. He's stronger than my father ever was," Kuina mentioned, looking towards Zoro and smirking again that she had a stronger teacher now.

"Your father?" Gray asked.

"He taught both of us," Kuina replied to Zoro's other dark-haired companion. "Anyway," she began, turning back to Zoro and looking straight up in his eyes while putting her hands on her hips. "How's it going? Been a while."

"Has it?" Zoro wondered, and by the tone of his voice he was actually too confused to know the answer. The last time he had seen Kuina was over a decade ago, but she did not look to have aged a day.

"Seeing that you're already an old man, I'd guess it has been, idiot," Kuina remarked, scoffing again at how slow he was.

Zoro opened his mouth, but he did not have a reply for her. Gray and Takeshi were just getting more and more astonished by what they were seeing every second. Neither of them had ever seen Zoro speechless before, especially not because of some little girl who seemed to be messing with him. "This is weird," Gray whispered, "even for this world."

The green haired man stopped gawking and closed his mouth, thought for a second, then grinned and mentioned, "What was that fight you just had? He was toying with you the entire-"

"Ehhh?" Kuina leaned back and lifted her eyebrows as Zoro spoke like he was better than her. She scoffed as he closed his mouth, and then she said, "Don't even think about getting the idea that I would want your help training. I'm perfectly fine becoming the strongest without a weakling's help."

"I'm not a weak-"

"Says the dead man," Kuina interrupted. "You'd still be alive if you were stronger than the guy who finished you." As she was saying it, she was wondering herself about what his friend had mentioned earlier. She wanted to ask about it, but at the same time she had momentum going right now and was loving it.

Gray could not stare in more shock at how unbelievable the conversation they were having was. Not only was Zoro flustered like Gray had never seen him before, but this was a girl barely in double digits taunting a powerful ghost pirate swordsman. _This world is just, it's just too much._

* * *

 **Present**

"She was Zoro's childhood friend," Gray explained to the Straw Hats in front of him who had asked who the girl Gray brought up at the dojo was. "Apparently she had died when they were still kids, but telling from the way they acted around each other, it felt like they had been really close. And when Zoro found out she was alive, it was like a switch had flipped inside him. He was, I don't know," Gray shook his head, and he smiled softly, nostalgically at the memory. "He was happier," Gray said.

"Zoro was best friends, with a girl?" Sanji asked, his face turning red and steam coming out of his nose at the idea.

Gray nodded his head, and then he started in a quiet voice, "I didn't realize at first just how much of Zoro's life had been sculpted by their friendship, but Kuina once brought up a promise they made in the past. She said that they had agreed that one of them would become the strongest, and she still wasn't giving up, even after Zoro showed just how much stronger he was than her now. She just taunted him, making fun of him for only being as strong as he was even though he got to grow up to be a man." Gray chuckled a little, but his laughs were dark, hollow. Sanji stopped fuming, and the others who were smiling at the idea of Zoro finding his long-lost friend lost those smiles at the look on Gray's face.

"She acted like his older sister, even though she was younger than him. Hell, she acted like all of our older sister, once she started traveling with us," Gray rubbed his right palm over his eyes and then lowered it and continued, "We only stayed at that town for a couple of nights before heading off again, two new members in our group. A little after that, Mystogan joined us after, after Edolas," Gray paused for a second, looking away like he was thinking about something else. He shook his head and refocused, "Our group was getting bigger all the time, and Zoro was the leader of it. Even though we never really decided it aloud, he was the strongest of us, so even though his sense of direction is terrible, he was leading us."

* * *

 **FD + 189**

"Run away!"

"We have to get out of here!"

"Retreat!"

"You cowards!"

"Lord Azulon! Look out!"

"GENERAL!"

"Yeah! Take that!" Yamamoto Takeshi called out. He waved his sword around in the air above him while standing in the side door of a helicopter flying after the retreating Fire Nation army. A few of the more elite soldiers in the army who were helping their injured General get away spun around at Takeshi's taunt. The young man sweatdropped as he wondered if they did that because they heard him, and considering they punched their fists up at his helicopter, he guessed they did. "Don't pull away!" He called to the pilot who seemed about to pull the sticks away. Takeshi took a deep breath and held his sword straight up above the top of his head so that the tip of it was almost touching the spinning rotors above the chopper. "Shigure Soen Sixteenth Form: Falling Rain!" He slashed his sword down and blue slashes came off of the weapon in thin lines that cut straight through the fireballs flying up at him.

The slashes cut down into the ground all around the Fire Nation soldiers and hit a few of them, slashing straight through their heavy armor. The men stumbled backwards as their attacks were destroyed with ease, then they turned and shouted at the others to get Lord Azulon out of there faster.

A half mile south of Takeshi and on what used to be the grassy plain just east of a medium-sized city, and what was now almost completely on fire, Gray charged forward and jumped up in the air. He slammed his right fist into his open left palm, then slammed his arms out to the sides and yelled, "Ice Transformation: Frozen Dragon!" Large ice wings covered his arms and spread out to his sides, spikes of ice shot out of his back in a line down his spine, and a long ice tail extended off of him below the final spike on his back. Gray flapped his wings once and found it hard to stay up, but they stayed together and kept him in the air, and a big grin spread across the ice mage's face. _It worked._ He flapped a few times, then he dove down while the mouth of the Frozen Dragon form was still extending off the front of his face. A bright blue light formed in between the jaws of the icy dragon's face, and Gray yelled, "Get out of here!"

The beam of light blue that came out of Gray's mouth covered the fighters running away from him in ice. He flapped again and zipped around fireballs flying up at him, then he stopped short and avoided a yellow beam that would have hit him in the head. He snapped his Frozen Dragon's head towards the man with the rifle in the distance who just tried to shoot him, and Gray roared an actual roar to go along with the transformation he made it look like he underwent. _I can see why Natsu enjoyed this so much,_ Gray thought, as he charged at the man who threw his gun to the side and started running along with most of the army with him.

A man a few hundred feet away lowered his katana as the few warriors left around him started running at the sound of Gray's draconic roar. Mifune had a piece of wheat in his mouth that did not fall out the entire fight, and he just grunted and turned away as his remaining enemies fled. The swordsman did not put his weapon away as he looked back at the place they were protecting. _Your turn._

On the other side of the city, a much larger army was not fleeing from their enemies, even if the defenses of the city were more concentrated on that side. Only a few of the hired guns were to the east with the helicopters, tanks, and all those who had gathered as a militia for the city. On the west side, even though there were fewer men and women protecting the city, the quality of the warriors on that side was much higher. The five thousand strong army standing outside the city in large military formations, flying inside hovering jets and helicopters, and sitting inside trucks and tanks, were holding still as their two commanders floated a few hundred feet in front of their front lines.

"No really! I get what you're saying and all!" a short, blond-haired man standing on the front of a giant green boar's head called out. Meliodas stood on the left side of a man twice as tall as him who had green hair and wore a black kimono over his spiritual body. Zoro did not take his eyes off the enemies who were staring straight down into Meliodas' eyes as the short man yelled to them. "But the city's governor hired us to protect this city from you guys for at least the next week! If you want to come back after that, it's fine with me!" Meliodas cupped a hand to his mouth and said quieter to his friends, "That way, they'll have to pay us for another week of protection."

Zoro rolled his eyes at how lightly the man next to him was treating this situation. His right hand was twitching on the black katana hilt on his side, itching to pull it out and attack their enemies. Meliodas did not want to fight with him when they met this time, even though Zoro had been looking forward to it since the first time they met where he was defeated by the shorter man. They decided to team up for the upcoming battle after hearing that the Ren Empire had allied with the Fire Nation. Apparently the Rens had learned that the city was hiring outside help and wanted to ensure their victory despite it.

Kouen Ren did not look amused by Meliodas' shouts up to him. He flew in the air surrounded in his perfected Djinn Equip, which meant that his orange hair was long and waving behind him with the appearance of snakes. He held a white sword in his left hand that was surrounded in flames, he had no shirt on which showed a black tattoo on his stomach and scales like a snake's on his arms, and his pants were black and frayed at the bottom. "Your confidence to face my army in battle, just the six of you, is impressive," Kouen admitted to the men before him standing on the back of Mama Hawk. "However, if you do not stand aside…" Out from Kouen's sword emitted blue flames that started expelling around his entire body. His younger brother Koumei at his side lifted his arms at the same time and bright lights emitted off of his fingers, making stars form in midair in a strange constellation that looked like an octagon. That octagon turned black between all the stars, then the constellation shot off into the distance and engulfed a hill behind them inside of it. Koumei pointed his left hand up above Mama Hawk and waved it around, creating another constellation where the tip of a hill poked out of. Kouen finished after these threatening actions, and after all of his soldiers behind him rose up their weapons simultaneously, "We will push straight through you and take the-"

"Excuse me?!" An annoyed voice shouted up from the back of Mama Hawk.

Meliodas lifted his eyebrows in surprise and looked behind him, while Zoro got a bead of sweat on the side of his face and grumbled in annoyance, though he started smirking as he did not turn around. Kouen stopped talking with his mouth open as that high-pitched voice shouted at him, and he looked behind the six men at the front of the green boar's back where a small girl with dark blue hair was glaring straight up in his eyes. "Did you really just say 'six?' There are eight of us up here! Don't ignore Elaine and King, just because they're fairies!"

King's jaw dropped even further after the girl shouted that, as he thought it was obvious that Kouen only was not counting the girls on Mama Hawk's back. Zabuza chuckled darkly at the girl's shout, and Ban started cracking up while pointing at King, "Hahaha! They didn't think you were worth counting!"

"Huh? What?!" King shouted, looking around and wondering if he was the only one who thought Kouen had counted him. He looked towards Mystogan who kept a stoic look on his face for a second, then turned away like he did not know what to say to the small fairy man sitting on a floating pillow. King spun to look up at Kouen and yelled, "Were you talking about me, or-"

Koumei dropped the hill through the constellation. Everyone on Mama Hawk's back snapped their heads up as the hill started falling towards them. King frowned as he was ignored, and he floated off of his pillow while it illuminated in a flash of white light. Koumei turned his head after dropping the hill and shouted back to his men to prepare to fire, then he saw thousands of his soldiers drop their jaws or gasp. He spun back and his own eyes bulged at the sight of two of the small fairy man's fingers lifted up, and a thousand small kunai-like spears floated above his head aimed in the direction of the Ren army. "Chastiefol Form Five: Increase." King said in a calm voice.

At the same time, Zoro slashed his sword up, smirking as he was finally able to draw it. His slash up in the air was swift, quick, and so powerful that the hill falling towards Mama Hawk split in half. The hill did not just split though, it split so violently that the two halves of it flew apart from each other, both landing safely hundreds of meters from Mama Hawk's sides. Koumei shouted at his men to fire, at the same time that King flicked his fingers forward. Beams and bullets and flames shot towards Mama Hawk, but every single one of those attacks was intercepted midway by King's increased Chastiefol.

Zabuza leapt forward off the head of the giant boar, and he started making hand signs as he dropped towards the ground. "Ninja Art:" he called out, sticking two fingers up in front of his white mask while lifting his other arm straight up in the air. His feet touched down on the ground, and he finished in a quieter voice, "Hidden Mist Jutsu." Around him formed a cloud of mist, and within three seconds, that mist had covered everything from the front of Mama Hawk's body to the back of the enemy's army. Kouen and Koumei were facing the enemies in front of them, but they started hearing the screams echoing through the mist at their backs.

"It seems the scouts were correct," Kouen said, a dark look forming on his face, but a grin also spreading across it. The fire around him grew hotter and brighter, and he shot down towards the powerful enemies with his sword pulled to the side. Koumei flew after his older brother and Emperor, and he waved his hands around creating more teleportation constellations in front of him and behind his enemies.

Zoro floated off of Mama Hawk's back, and he pulled his sword down to the side getting ready to charge right at Kouen. A high-pitched voice shouted behind him, "Don't screw this up! We got paid in advance!"

Kuina's shout made Zoro lose a shred of concentration, in which moment Kouen yelled, "Extreme Magic- Astor Inqerad!" A massive blue flaming dragon shot out of a golden eight-pointed start that appeared in front of Kouen's soaring body. The dragon was long and so bright that the sky around it was tinted bright blue.

Kuina's eyes shot open wide as the dragon appeared, and she realized that the enemy she had intentionally distracted Zoro from was much stronger than she had guessed. At the same time, another enemy came flying out of a portal behind her, and Mystogan ran past her left side while jumping up with a staff in hand, and Ban ran by on her right with his nunchucks at the ready. Kuina shook her head around as everyone else started fighting, and she put her hand down on the hilt at her side. _What am I thinking?_ She thought and scoffed at herself while running forward on Mama Hawk's back. She ran over the head of the boar and leapt off while Meliodas watched her go by, arms still crossed over his chest as he wondered if he would have to do anything at all here. Kuina was chuckling as she leapt off of the boar's head, _Like an attack like that would kill him, again,_ when she added "again" in her head, she started laughing harder.

Even though Kuina never felt the need to look back up towards the flaming dragon, Zoro was having a difficult time pushing back against the flaming beast with his Zanpakuto as it tried biting down on him. He finally slashed his sword forward through the front of the beast, only for Kouen to come flying through the middle of the snake-like dragon, his sword slashing across the front of his body at the man who just slashed his own weapon and was completely opened up. Zoro heard him coming with his Haki though, and his body was already leaning left as Kouen appeared in front of him, making Kouen's sword slash diagonally down the side of his body and miss by inches. As Kouen's blade missed, his body kept going down and his head turned to the man next to him leaning away, their faces only a foot away from each other at the closest pass. It was only for a moment, but it felt like so much longer as the two powerful men looked into each other's eyes.

Zoro flipped his hilt around. Kouen stopped his slash and curved his blade. The two swung towards each other- _**CLANK!**_

* * *

 **The Next Day**

"Damn, it," Zoro gasped, on his hands and knees with blood all over his face. He reached his hand to the right, but a foot stepped down on his hilt before he could get his hand around it. He lifted his head up and looked at the short man next to him who was grinning and shaking his head.

"Give it up. You did better than last time at least," Meliodas said. He leaned down and reached his right hand out, and Zoro grimaced deeper as Meliodas no longer even had his shortsword drawn. A glance down showed the shinigami that most of his black hakama was shredded, an indicator that his spiritual energy was depleted.

Zoro ground his teeth a few times, then he lifted the hand he was reaching to his sword with and grabbed Meliodas' hand with it. _I swore to never lose again, and here I am losing twice to the same guy in two months._ Zoro ignored the annoyed anger and allowed Meliodas to lift him to his feet, though as soon as he was up he almost fell again. He fought to the point of exhaustion and then far beyond that, but he still had yet to best Meliodas in a fight.

"Let's get to the bar," Meliodas said. He would have offered to help anyone else that injured get there, but the man behind him would not want his assistance after that loss and he knew it. "I'll meet you in there, when you finally make it," the barkeep taunted at the end as Zoro was going to get there much slower than him because of that pride of his. Zoro ground his teeth in aggravation at the taunt, but there was nothing he could say after losing, and considering he did not want Meliodas to walk slower for him anyway.

Meliodas leapt up in the air and soared a thousand feet to Mama Hawk's back, which at the moment just looked like a normal green hill since she had dropped down into the ground for the day. The city they had saved the day before was just to their east, while to the west of them were the wreckages of several planes, helicopters, tanks, and trucks that the enemy army had left behind when they fled. Meliodas glanced that way as he leapt towards his bar, the Boar's Hat, which he landed right in front of the front door of. He looked back after landing there, and then opened up the door for the girl with dark blue hair who was a little taller than him, and frowning deeply after watching that fight from the outside of the bar.

Kuina stormed inside and Gray looked towards the door wondering what had her so upset. He saw Meliodas walk in next, barely a scratch on him, and Gray shook his head in disbelief as once again Meliodas' power astonished him. He figured he would hardly be able to witness the fight between the two of them so he just stayed inside with most of the others. Mifune and Mystogan were sitting and talking over at a table behind him to his right, but Gray was at the bar talking with Takeshi, King, and Ban when the owner of the bar entered.

"He lost again?" Takeshi asked in shock, then he smiled and looked towards Kuina who kept walking right through the bar to the stars heading up. "Guess that makes sense," he said in a soft tone. Ban and King looked to him wondering why that was, and Takeshi continued in a whisper, "Seeing the top is even higher than Zoro, it's gotta be frustrating."

"She and Zoro have this bet," Gray said, while taking another sip of the ale he held in his right hand. "One of them has to become the strongest swordsman, or swords-woman, I guess," he muttered at the end as he trailed off. "Zoro's already so strong, so seeing Meliodas sweep the floor with him has to be like a punch to the gut."

"Hmph, she'll get over it," Ban said, leaning back on his stool behind the counter and grinning as he thought about the girl who made fun of King so smoothly during the battle yesterday. Ban was smiling in a wide, toothy way, and he turned his head right as the door behind the bar opened up. A small girl with blonde hair floated out and over to his stool where she floated only a few inches from his side as she joined their conversation.

It was Gray and Takeshi's first time meeting Elaine, but they were surprised by how close she and Ban seemed to be since King introduced her as 'his sister Elaine.' Gray looked over at King to see what the other fairy thought about their closeness, but King did not seem to mind and was just smiling wide too. _Makes sense he's happy. He found someone he loves on this world,_ Gray thought it, then tipped back his mug again.

"Hey Ban, I noticed you guys are missing that girl who was with you last time," Takeshi mentioned.

Elaine smiled and Takeshi turned to her as it seemed like she knew what he was talking about, which meant that the other girl was still around when Elaine joined the Sins. "She's fine," Elaine assured the teen in case he was worried about what happened to her. "Komugi's friend came to get her. She was very happy to see him."

"You should have seen this guy," Ban said while leaning over the counter, some red tint to his cheeks. "If you think your buddy and the Captain are strong, you shoulda seen the fight Komugi's friend had with the Cap'n, it was nuts! The guy actually beat the Cap'n too!"

As Ban exclaimed this, another man had just entered the bar and closed the door behind him. Zoro's one open eye widened, (his other was swollen shut). "That true?" he asked, turning to the table Meliodas sat at with Mifune and Mystogan.

Meliodas chuckled and scratched the back of his head. "'Fraid so," Meliodas replied. "First loss in a one-on-on since I got here, but I could barely touch this guy!"

"Hmm," Zoro hummed, and he walked over and sat next to Meliodas at the table. A few seconds later, Elaine had flown over next to him and placed a mug of ale down in front of him at the table with both of her small hands. "Thanks," Zoro mumbled, as he definitely needed that ale and was actually grateful the girl brought it to him without asking. Before he picked it up though, he turned to Meliodas and asked, "You catch the guy's name?"

"Yeah," Meliodas said in his usual carefree tone. "Komugi called him 'Supreme Leader' at first, but he told her to call him 'Meruem' after he arrived. Told the rest of us to call him 'King,' but I told him that would be confusing thanks to King over there." Meliodas chuckled in a lower tone, then added, "That actually got me in the fight with him. Think he probably would have killed me if we hadn't been looking after Komugi. He really did not like that I landed some hits on him."

 _Only "Some hits?" This guy sounds pretty strong. Meruem. I'll add him to the list. Meliodas, Meruem, Tien…_

"Oi Zoro, you look like shit," Zabuza said as he walked into the room after coming downstairs. He had bandages wrapping his arms and legs, but he was finally up after sleeping almost the entire day since fighting an army of thousands head-on the day before. Most of the wreckage to the west of the hill was thanks to the rampage of the Demon of the Hidden Mist before he was finally taken down. Zoro looked over towards Zabuza and was going to retort something, but the other swordsman looked to Takeshi like he was waiting for him to do something.

"Oh yeah!" Takeshi exclaimed. He jumped off his stool and reached into his pocket for something. There was nothing in his left pocket so he checked the other side, then he pulled out a small capsule that he tossed in Zoro's direction. "Urahara-san did say you would recover your spiritual energy quicker while in this gigai."

Zoro lifted his right arm, as much as it pained him to do so, and caught the capsule with his fake body in it. Meliodas smiled more as Zoro caught the capsule though, and he asked, "How's the body been treating you? I know it's not the real thing, but-"

"It's damn near close," Zoro responded. "Thanks for introducing us," he mentioned off-handedly, while popping open the capsule next to his seat and making another Roronoa Zoro appear at his side. This Zoro had on a green bellyband though, black pants and a white long-sleeved shirt, unlike the rags of a black hakama that shinigami Zoro had on. Zoro pulled his gigai on top of himself and slid into it, making Mifune grimace and Mystogan look away, neither of them used to the strangeness of that yet. Zoro's body absorbed into his body, and his body no longer looked damaged at all. He continued out of his gigai's mouth, "Didn't think this meat suit Urahara made would actually work, but I can even fight in it almost as well as I could in my old body."

Zoro clenched his fists a few times in front of him as if working in the body he just entered. "Though Mouretsuna Akumu doesn't like it when I do. I can feel it hiss at me when I use my old swords. Speaking of which," he continued and looked towards the counter again.

"You want to hold them?" Takeshi asked, getting up again to bring Zoro over one of his swords.

"Might as well hold onto them while I can," Zoro said with a sigh, his eyes starting to droop as he mentioned it.

Meliodas chuckled as Zoro's head started dipping down slowly as if he were nodding off. _Might be able to cover up those wounds, but they're still there Zoro. Slipping into that gigai doesn't get rid of your fatigue either._

"Zoro?" Takeshi asked, holding a sword he held for the man out for him. Zoro's eyes snapped back open as he realized that he had just closed them for much longer than a normal blink, and he nodded while grabbing Shuusui back from him.

The green-haired swordsman turned the other way for his other sword, but Zabuza was just frowning towards him. "I left it upstairs," he said. He looked into Zoro's eyes, and Zoro stared back for a few seconds, before shaking his head and half-waving a hand like it did not matter. It felt weird to the pirate that he did not mind not getting his second sword back, but it also would have felt weird to ask for it from the man who had actually been using it in battles recently. _It's more his sword than it is my own at this point. I'm sure Kitetsu feels the same way. He uses the cursed blade in the way it always wanted me to use it anyway. It's still my weapon, but I'll have to be careful_. _If it gets too used to cutting everything it touches while in Zabuza's grasp, it'll try disobeying me, next time, I…_ With thoughts of cursed swords and future fights on his mind, Zoro's head dropped down and he dropped unconscious, one of his swords resting across his lap as he nodded off. He never once thought about the third sword he had owned since childhood. That sword was back with its true owner who was training with it a floor above him.

* * *

 **FD + 227**

"It's so dark in here, can't you make that thing any brighter?" Kuina looked over her shoulder back at an older teenage girl who had a hand lifted up covered in red light. The older girl had long black wavy hair that was styled into twin-tails with black ribbons at the top to hold them together.

"Oh I'm sorry," Lin Tohsaka began. "Is my magic too dim for you to see? I'll fix that right away. Are you thirsty too? I think I have an extra canteen if you need some water, little girl," Lin smirked, and Kuina frowned deeply at the older girl, especially since Lin did not actually brighten the red light on her hand at all. Getting a little more serious, Lin added, "The light would already be brighter if I could make it so, but I'm not wasting a lot of magic power just so we have a better flashlight."

"That is more than enough," a man at the front of their group said back to her. He turned his head and looked back through the golden visor over his eyes. He wore a helmet of gold that matched the armor he was wearing, and the helmet spiked up on either side of his head to give him the appearance of a hawk. Hawkman, or Carter Hall, continued to the teenage girl, "It is smart to save your energy. You must not take Vandal Savage lightly."

The group walking through the cave consisted of seven people. Hawkman was accompanied by Hawkgirl, or Kendra Saunders, his soul mate for the past several thousand years throughout all of their many reincarnations. Along with Lin and Kuina, three others were in the group heading through the cave, all of them with swords at their sides. Zoro walked in his spiritual body, his Mouretsuna Akumu at his side and his right hand resting on the hilt. Mifune walked on his left, two yellow straps going over the front of his chest that held two large rectangular sheaths on his back, each one full of dozens of swords. And on Mifune's other side walked a blonde woman whose hair was tied back in a ponytail and who wore a suit of knight's armor including a blue steel dress that widened out around her feet.

Saber froze and snapped her head to the right where she stared at a rock wall with narrowing eyes. "What?" Zoro asked the woman, his hand clenching tighter on his hilt even though he had yet to feel anything with his Haki or sense any nearby Reiatsu. The inside of the cave was tinted red and they could see either of the walls on their sides, but the direction ahead of them and where they came from got dark after a couple dozen feet away from Lin's light. Lin moved her hand to the right to shine more on the wall Saber looked at, but none of them saw anything wrong with it.

"I sense," Saber whispered. She shook her head a little, then she drew her sword Excalibur from its scabbard Avalon in a single movement. She held it in both hands and spun her head left to look back the direction they were previously heading, then looked more left and at the opposite wall she spun to originally. "Dark forces are coming from many directions."

"Could this Savage not be the only one seeking out the Staff?" Lin wondered.

"More likely," Kendra began. Hawkgirl looked back while lifting up her mace and grabbing its shaft tightly with both hands. "The forces Saber's feeling are working for Savage."

"Or under his control," Hawkman added, a dark look spreading on his face as he recalled a time Vandal Savage once brainwashed him. "Let's move quickly," he said, shaking away the dark look and getting a more determined one on it. He looked back at the people following behind him and Hawkgirl, and he said, "If Savage gets his hands on the Staff of Horus, all hope for us is lost. He will kill the two of us, then he will begin his reign on this world."

"Well then let's stop standing around here!" Lin called out, and she started jogging forward. "Missouri said the Staff is somewhere in this cave system. I want to find it before he does!"

"Still don't know why we listened to her," Kuina muttered while jogging forward after the girl who held the light their group was using, which meant it was a bad idea to let her get too far away. "All that psychic mumbo-jumbo sounded pretty far-fetched to me. _Even_ for this world," she added, to remind everyone that she was not just being close-minded considering the world they were on.

"Just 'cause you haven't seen one doesn't mean they're not real," Zoro said and rolled his eyes as he jogged forward too. "I've seen-"

"I'm sure you have," Kuina said, only half-sarcastically though she made the tone sound more than it was. "But until I see the staff myself, I'm not buying it."

"And the things I'm sensing?" Saber asked the girl who just jogged up to her side as she said that. "What do you think they are?"

"It could be a million things other than this Vandal Savage. And if it _is_ him, then that's probably just 'cause he can track the hawk-people he's trying to kill. Right?" Kuina asked, looking towards Kendra who was jogging ahead of her only a few feet.

"Yes, he has tracked us through the millennia," Hawkgirl said. "However we have only seen him the once on Nexus, and he was more interested in acquiring power then than in killing us, or seducing me." Kuina lifted her eyebrows at that last part, and the others besides Hawkman looked in in surprise as well as she had yet to mention that before.

Hawkman had an angry look on his face after his soul mate mentioned that, and he said in a stern voice, "Savage will never get his hands on you, my love." He looked at Hawkgirl as he said it, then to Lin who was the farthest up with them and was looking at them in confusion. "Savage has been jealous of our love for thousands of years. He will never rest until Chay-Ara is either his, or dead."

"Unless we take him down first," Hawkgirl added, an optimistic tone in her voice to show she was not planning on either of those options happening this time around.

The group agreed with Hawkgirl, but as they continued to jog, the entire cave system they were in started to rumble. The shaking started off mild, but it grew more intense after a few seconds and caused pebbles and even some larger rocks to start falling off the ceiling. Lin looked around with wide eyes, then shouted, "Run!"

"What's going on?!" Kuina yelled as the cave around them shook madly.

"I'd guess we're not the first ones here," Mifune said in a low voice as he sprinted ahead, one sword of the dozens in his sheaths drawn in his right hand.

Zoro felt something right as Mifune said it, and his eyes narrowed in while a broad smirk spread over his face. "I can sense him," Zoro said, an evil glint in his eyes.

Lin turned to the man to see why he sounded so excited, and then she stumbled away as Zoro vanished from next to her. "Wh-Where did he-"

"He ran ahead," Kuina yelled at the mage who thought Zoro had teleported. She pulled out her Wado Ichimonji and started sprinting even faster than she already was. "I'm not letting him hog all the action this time!" She yelled. A few large rocks started falling off the ceiling in front of her and Saber shouted up at the girl who just ran ahead of her to dodge. Kuina saw the rocks though out the top of her vision, and the girl did not stop sprinting. Kuina ran a little to the right though and sprinted up the side of the wall so she passed the falling rocks without having to slow down.

The others had to pause for a few seconds though waiting for the cave to stop its suddenly more violent shaking. Kuina ran down the tunnel and was getting less and less light every second as Lin fell farther behind her. _I'm not letting him finish this! I was the one who said I'd help Hawkgirl, that idiot can't do it on his own, again!_ Kuina spotted a dim light up ahead of her, and her frustrated look got more intense as she heard shouting coming from that direction.

Kuina sprinted down the last bit of the tunnel and right out through the opening into a room full of dim blue light. Her eyes bulged wide for a second at the sight of the chamber she just entered. _This, was here the whole time? There's no way someone, made this place._ Kuina looked around the room in front of her that dropped off from the ledge she ran out on into a giant black abyss that fell what looked like forever. In the center of the black pit of nothing was a tall stone pillar twenty meters in diameter, only thirty meters in front of the ledge she was on but also a dozen meters above her. It was level enough though that she was able to see the massive golden warrior who looked more like a statue than a man, holding a long staff in his right hand that he kept jabbing down at the pillar's surface below him. The golden statue-man had no left hand- it looked like it was cut off cleanly at his wrist, he had a long straight beard over his chiseled chin, and he was extremely muscular as could be seen since he wore nothing except for a cloth around his golden waist and a gladiator helmet over his head.

As the giant man's spear slammed into the pillar, the whole cave system around them shook and Kuina had to steady herself to avoid stumbling forward and off into the abyss. She stared up at the golden man's face, but her gaze snapped down as when the man's spear hit, something else lifted up like it jumped over where the spear slammed down. The human-looking man who leapt up pulled a fist back, and he slammed it forward towards the statue guy's chest. The golden man brought back his spear hand quick though and punched it against the smaller man's fist with his spear still in his grasp. The two of their fists pushing against each other made the cave system around them tremble even more.

"You are a powerful challenger!" The golden giant called out while leaning his head forward towards the man he was in the middle of punching. "What is your name?"

"Vandal Savage," the light-skinned man with a dark goatee said, right before pushing off of the golden fist and flipping back through the air. He landed down right at the edge of the pillar, and then he turned his head to the side and looked over with a smirk on his face and a malicious glint in his eyes. His gaze met with Kuina's and the girl felt herself shiver at the look, but it was not her that he was looking towards in that bloodthirsty way. Some others were coming running out of the tunnel behind Kuina, and Vandal Savage whispered in a husky tone, "Chay-Ara."

Hawkgirl froze as she locked eyes with Savage, then she clenched her mace tighter and her wings snapped out to the side. Hawkman's did the same at that moment and they shot into the air, but another man already flying above them lowered down and got in their ways before they could charge at Savage. "Hold on," Zoro said while the two tried to fly by him. Vandal Savage looked to Zoro and lost his smile, then he turned around again and looked back towards the giant golden man who took a step towards him and shook the cave once more. "Don't interrupt them," Zoro said.

"Savage is a monster," Hawkgirl began.

Zoro frowned deeper and darted a glare at the woman next to him who sealed her lips instantly at the look. _If anyone is going to take him on, I got here first so that makes it my fight. I would have been fighting him already, if these two weren't dueling it out._

"Well Vandal Savage," the golden man called down. He slammed the butt of his spear down on the floor in front of him and proclaimed, "I am Horror the Ancient. I am the guardian of many powerful treasures, including my own left hand."

"Your left hand?" Savage questioned, a hint of interest in his voice.

"This is stupid, we should just," Carter began, but Zoro did not even dart him a glare this time. The shinigami at Hawkman's side just frowned deeper and the winged man next to him shut up at the expression on Zoro's face.

Horror the Ancient continued, "The Left Hand of Horror. Once, long ago, I was a very fearful man. So I channeled all of my fears into my left hand, and I cut it off so that I would become forever brave." Everyone in the cave gawked at the giant golden figure, wondering how he came to that logical decision. Zoro just grunted, Kuina wondered how that worked, but Savage nodded at Horror to continue. "The Left Hand of Horror, otherwise known as Horror's Hand, is capable of making anyone's worst nightmares come true. The illusions it can cast are more powerful than any spear."

Vandal Savage smirked and hummed to himself at the sound of that. After a second though, he shrugged and said, "That does sound intriguing, but I am here for a much greater prize. One of those treasures you protect, is the Staff of Horus."

"You'll never get your hands on that weapon!" Hawkgirl shouted down.

"Why are we just standing here?" Lin muttered at the people around her on the ledge outside of the middle pillar. She lifted her hand and it started to glow brighter red as she pointed it at the pillar beneath where the two men were fighting. "If I just destroy that pillar, then they'll fall into that abyss and never-"

"Don't even think about it," Kuina said without looking back at the older woman behind her.

Lin looked down at the back of the shorter girl's head. "Excuse me? Why not?"

"He might be our enemy, but if you interrupt a duel between warriors like that," Kuina turned her head partially sideways and glared back at Lin. The girl smirked and the steel of her sword glistened as she finished in a chilling tone, "Then you'll be _my_ enemy."

Lin's jaw dropped as she saw the girl was being completely serious. Lin lowered her hand and nodded at the girl who started creeping her out, then she turned to Saber to see if she thought that was as weird as she did. Saber was just staring up at the top of the pillar with an intense and close eye, but as Lin watched her, she noticed her blonde friend's eyes darting all around the walls above the pillar. "What?" Lin whispered. "Do you still feel-"

"Everywhere," Saber whispered back. She lifted up her long steel sword that she grabbed in both hands and started glowing blue. "They're everywhere," Saber repeated, "just past the walls."

Mifune's eyes darted around and he was starting to have a bad feeling about this place. Lin re-rose her hand that glowed as bright as when she threatened to destroy the pillar, and even Kuina took her eyes off the pillar where Savage and Horror faced off to check out what Saber was saying. Zoro kept watching the two men in front of him, but he could hear them in all directions of him. _They're waiting,_ Zoro thought, and his eyes focused in on Savage's back. _Is he commanding them?_

Vandal Savage stared up into Horror's large glowing white eyes, and the man questioned, "You say if I defeat you I will have my choice from your collection. However, I do not see this collection you speak of."

"Everything I protect is below," Horror said. He lifted up his left arm that ended at his wrist and the flat end where his hand was cut off started glowing. Out from the abyss behind him floated up an object surrounded in yellow light: a golden staff with a hawk at the top of it that had glowing blue eyes. "This is the item you seek. Defeat me, and it is yours." Horror lifted back up his spear and stomped one foot forward, getting into a fighting stance with his spear lifted over his head with the point aimed down at Savage. "Then again, you will not defeat me."

Vandal Savage wore a black jacket that matched his black pants and boots. He had long black hair that became wavy at the bottoms just past his shoulders. The bearded immortal held his arms out to the sides, making the sides of the front of his jacket move out as well as they were not buttoned together. He reached his open right hand back into his jacket and to his side where he grabbed something. Horror the Ancient planned on striking right away, but he was armed, he only felt it honorable to allow his opponent to draw a weapon of his own.

As Savage pulled his weapon of choice out of his jacket though, everyone watching opened their eyes wide. Zoro narrowed them again the fastest, but his look of interest for the fight was gone. _That tablet,_ Zoro thought, his hand moving down to the black hilt of his Zanpakuto.

He was not the only one who recognized it, though the two on his sides became confused at the expressions from their comrades. "What is that?" Hawkman asked the green haired shinigami next to him.

Zoro grunted, then responded as Vandal Savage lifted the golden plaque in front of him. "It's what we were looking for when we met you guys. It's what the guys are out looking for right now."

"What are those four idiots doing?" Kuina snapped at the same time Zoro was explaining this to the two next to him. "Didn't Gray say he got a clue as to where it would be?"

"Well, looks like we found the tablet, and the staff," Lin said, though she did not sound very happy about it. "Vandal Savage already has his hands on one, and if he beats that Horror guy-"

"Even if he does, we do not let him take the staff," Saber said firmly. She looked around at the walls again, then continued, "Now I think I know what all these presences I am feeling are. He has already used the tablet!"

While Horror questioned Vandal Savage what kind of weapon that was, Zoro continued to the winged people next to him, "We heard the tablet can bring the inanimate to life. Stuffed beasts, statues, even… dead bodies."

"Oh, it can do so much more than that," Vandal Savage said. Zoro was not speaking particularly loud, but he was not whispering either. Savage turned and looked Zoro in the eyes, then he looked over at Saber who kept staring around the walls of the chamber that were faintly lit by blue light that seemed to be coming from nowhere at all. "You see, the Tablet of Ahkmenrah has another purpose. Reviving the dead, bringing inanimate objects to life, they are both wonderful powers." Savage turned and looked up into Horror's eyes while the giant stared at the object, wondering if he should add it to his collection.

Everyone else in the cave, including Zoro and his friends who already knew about the tablet, looked confused or nervous as those were the only powers they knew the artifact had. Savage smirked and finished while pressing in on the buttons on the tablet in a specific pattern. There were three columns of three square buttons each on the plaque, and as Savage pressed these buttons he called out, "But the tablet's true power resides in its ability to open a gateway." He finished pressing the buttons and held up the tablet that started flashing bright gold light.

"I am really not liking this," Lin said, taking a step back from the ledge as the entire cave started to shake. Her eyes popped open huge as a red light started to glow from the abyss around the pillar in the middle of the chamber, and her face covered in sweat at the heat that started rising from the pit.

"The tablet of Ahkmenrah is a portable gateway to the Underworld! And with it in my possession…" the walls of the cave on all sides of the central stone pillar ripped open. Around the ceiling and on level with the platform holes blasted through and bug-like demons flew into the chamber and swarmed Horror who spun around in shock at all these monsters that he did not see coming. Savage pulled the tablet back down with his right hand and pressed it against his chest while finishing, "All those that are released via the tablet," he turned his head and looked up towards his nemeses, and finished, "are under my control."

Hawkman felt like Savage was looking straight into his eyes when he mentioned "control," and it infuriated him. He dove down while raising up his mace, and Chay-Ara followed right down after him.

"What are you doing?!" Lin shouted towards the middle of the chamber. The entire cave was trembling around them worse than it had during Savage and Horror's initial fight. There were demons flying in through holes all over the chamber's walls that were making the room look even more unstable. And worst of all, the black pit around the pillar had turned red like Savage's claim to be connected to the Underworld was no mere bluff. "We have to go!" She shouted towards Hawkman and Hawkgirl.

"Damn it," Kuina snapped. For once, she agreed with Lin and felt like getting out of there was the smartest move, if just to leave the cave and get in a more stable area before fighting the enemies. She would not turn her back though. The youngest girl in their group sprinted forward and leapt from the ledge, right in between Saber and Mifune who had their swords drawn but were hesitating over what to do. Saber reached out a hand as Kuina flew by her, but Mifune did not even look surprised, lifting the corners of his lips a bit before leaping after his student.

Saber looked over her shoulder and motioned for the middle of the room, then she leapt after the others. "Really?" Lin asked while a bead of sweat dripped down her face. "Ah!" She stumbled forwards as the ceiling in the tunnel just behind her collapsed down a few tons of rocks. She looked back and saw barely any way back through there, and she gulped before shaking her head like this was inevitable. Lin marched back to the ledge and looked around the ceiling at all the holes the demons had busted through, some of which had moonlight pouring into them like their tunnels connected to the outside. _Looks like that's our new way out,_ Lin thought while bending her knees down far. She gulped at the sight of the glowing red light coming from the pit, and she planted her hands down on her knees and enchanted her legs, just to make sure.

Lin shot up into the air with a powerful magical jump, then she pointed her right hand down and grabbed her wrist with her other hand to steady her shot. Red beams of light fired from her right palm and slammed into a pair of flying demons coming up towards her, then Rin fell through the smoke cloud and landed in a forward roll. She popped up and spun on one knee to point at a bulky twelve foot tall demon marching her way with an axe in its hand. Lin fired a red burst of magic into its chest that made it stumble backwards, then the top half of the monster lifted up while its legs fell forward. Saber did not stop running after slicing the taller demon in half, running straight to the ledge where a snake-like demon was spitting acid at Horror's legs and making the giant scream in pain. Horror was too busy swiping at the bug demons flying around his face to focus on his legs, and there were too many demons in the air around his body for him to see what was causing that burning sensation anyway.

One of the two snake heads of the demon bent down and curved up and around Saber's slashing arm before tightening. The other snake head curved around Saber's back while she punched her free gauntlet into the first one's face, and the one around her back opened its mouth to sink its fangs into her. A katana flew through the snake's head and then changed directions and pierced the other head as well before hitting the floor and pinning them to it. Saber ripped the necks of the two-headed snake demon off of her body, then turned and looked back the yellow caution tape running from the katana slammed in the ground next to her back to the long-haired man who threw it. Mifune was not looking her direction though, but instead zipping back and forth and using each of the swords stuck in the ground around him to cut apart the demons. He had so many of them that any time he let go of a blade there were another two in his hands by the time a demon tried to get the upper hand on him.

Kuina raced by her teacher's side and slashed the Wado Ichimonji up at a demon dive-bombing him. She cut deep into the beast's stomach as it tried pulling up to escape her, then as it screamed and flew up, something heavy dropped on its back and the demon with the head of a fly turned its head back and stared in terror at the dark-blue-haired girl holding her katana up with both hands above its head. She brought the katana down and pierced through the demon's head and out the bottom, then she ripped forward out the front of its face so that she could leap towards another flying demon swerving around Horror's side to try and get at his neck. She missed landing on the demon's back, so she swung her sword after the beast and her sword nicked its wings. Even though the weapon only nicked the beast though, the slash that came off of her blade cut the wings fully off and Kuina smirked as she kept dropping from the air. The girl hit the ground at Horror's feet and spun her head towards the man holding the Tablet of Ahkmenrah. _Agh! Too late!_ She thought in frustration, then had to roll to the left to dodge three demons swooping down at her.

Zoro stood fifteen feet in front of Vandal Savage with his black katana drawn and a dark look in his eyes. "You're pathetic," Zoro said as the bearded man opened his mouth to say something. "Calling for help during a fight like that."

"I could not defeat Horror without assistance, however I do not see things as you do, shinigami." Vandal Savage smirked and narrowed his eyes at the green-haired man. "What is 'fair' in battle? Honor only holds men back from greatness."

Hawkman wanted to yell at Savage that he had no "honor," but it seemed like Savage would not care about that from his last sentence. "Greatness?" Carter questioned, finding a different word in Savage's statements to work off of. He floated on Savage's right, while Kendra flapped her wings on his left. "When have you ever been great? You stood at the sides of monsters and dictators for thousands of years, but you never held onto that power."

"I managed to kill you quite a few times though," Savage said without turning, and he chuckled as Hawkman's furious look intensified. He did not look away from Zoro as he said it, and he continued like he had not broken off conversation with the shinigami in the first place, "Your honor would prevent you from fighting me at a disadvantage. I have known many men like you. Many a time, they are stronger than I," he admitted. "But the ones who are, always face me alone. I on the other hand, have no qualms about bringing in some, _assistance._ "

As Savage said it, cracks formed all over the ceiling of the cave right above them. The red light in the pit around the pillar grew brighter, and then the entire cave roof broke apart. "Everyone take cover!" Lin shouted, while running towards Mifune and Saber who stood back to back while swiping every demon that came at them. Lin called out a spell as she dove towards the two of them, as the demons diving their way were hit by rocks and crushed into the pillar or dropped into the pit. Right before the rocks would have hit Mifune and Saber, who were ready to start cutting them apart if they did, a bright red forcefield surrounded the three of them and protected them from all falling debris.

"What is that?" Saber wondered, unable to place what she was feeling outside of the cave. It did not feel like the other demons at all, but she saw Savage's confident look right before the roof broke and knew that it could not be good.

Hawkman and Hawkgirl flew around dodging rubble as it fell towards them, swinging their maces at any pieces too large to dodge to break them apart. They were hit by a few rocks and knocked aside, but unlike most of the weaker demons in the air they were not defeated for good. Dozens of demons were crushed by the thousands of pounds of rocks falling in the cave, and more kept collapsing every second. The pillar was getting unstable as all these rocks slammed down, and Horror stumbled backwards and wobbled on the ledge of his pillar as it shook beneath him. The walls of the cave on the outside of the pillar started to crack too, and chunks fell off and down into the pit below.

Vandal Savage looked up with a grin, but Zoro did not take his eyes off the man who was easing back and forth to avoid any debris. "I don't know what kind of 'assistance' you were hoping for," Zoro began, and Savage's eyes started to widen while a shocked look spread on his face. "But I'm doubting they're it."

"Whoa! You guys are here too?" Takeshi called down from the edge of the ceiling. Then he hopped forward and dropped down like the two who had shattered the roof. Gray and Zabuza were already dropping with two swords in their hands each: Zabuza had his wide and longer one and Zoro's cursed blade, and Gray had a pair of ice broadswords in his grips. Gray was also surrounded in his Ice Make: Gladiator armor that covered most of his body other than his joints and included a helmet over his head with a darker visor over his eyes.

Mystogan floated down after the three falling with gravity, and five staves floating down with him suddenly shot down fast to hit the floor at the same time that Zabuza and Gray's feet did. The cave filled with a bright light for all the demons still flying around, blinding them while five huge purple magic circles each as wide as the pillar itself appeared above Mystogan's head. He held one arm up at the circles and pointed the other down at the pillar below, and then a beam of purple dropped down and engulfed everything below. The pillar spread out to be as wide as the middle circle above him which was wider than the pillar and actually filled up the entire pit and some of the walls around it.

Everything inside the pillar was tinted dark purple, and Zoro marched forward inside this dark purple towards his enemy who took a step back towards the ledge behind him. Hawkgirl and Hawkman were gawking around them as Gray, Zabuza, Takeshi, and the others who were already there, started cutting apart the strongest demons who had been able to survive the cave dropping on top of them. "That giant one outside was much stronger than any of these," Gray said while cutting his two swords to the side and ripping straight through a purple demon trying to bite him. Something slashed across his back and broke off one of the ice spikes sticking out of his armor, only for Gray to grin as the spike re-formed and then shot out and impaled the black demon through its chest.

To Vandal Savage, it looked like the strongest demons he had summoned from the other side were moving in slow motion inside the purple hue. He glared at Zoro, then darted his eyes up and to the side where the Staff of Horus was floating. "Get me the staff!" Savage shouted, while spinning back towards Zoro and pulling out a pair of knives from his jacket.

The demons flying around and fighting their opponents turned. Kendra snapped her head over to the staff with wide eyes, then she shot forward and swung her mace to the right into a black flying demon that thought it could out-fly her. It realized it was not faster and turned sideways to let her mace pass over it, then it changed directions and tackled her backwards. "Chay-Ara!" Hawkman called down as she fell.

"The staff!" Hawkgirl yelled back up to him. She pushed the demon off her and slammed it with her mace so hard that it crashed into the side of the pillar they had been falling past. A crack already on the pillar widened, and Hawkgirl lifted her gaze from the thick part of the crack in front of her to the top of the pillar where it widened much more. Other cracks broke off of the really wide one and branched across the whole side of the pillar she was flapping her wings on. _This isn't good,_ she thought, and she flew up fast while Hawkman shot towards the Staff of Horus to stop the demons that were getting close to it. "Everyone! The pillar is collapsing. We need to get out of here now!"

Kuina stumbled backwards as the floor beneath her feet cracked, then she lifted her blade and had to put a hand behind the steel to push back on the five blades of the orange demon in front of her that had six muscular arms. The final arm that did not swipe down curved around as the beast laughed in a deep voice. She was unable to move her sword and risk the other five blades cutting down into her, and she was still off-balanced near the edge of the pillar from the last tremor. _I'm gonna get cut!_ Right before the sixth sword was going to cut into her side, a huge golden spear slammed into the demon and kept going through tens of meters of the pillar. The pillar split in half from the stab from Horror, and Kuina and the others near her looked up in shock at the golden giant who looked pretty terrible at the moment.

"Thank you, brave warriors, for coming to my aid," Horror let go of his spear imbedded far into the pillar, but the spear started wobbling like it was not in there very tight, or like the crack it was in was widening more and could not hold it. He lowered his good hand and scooped up Kuina who did not realize what was happening quick enough. His grasp was loose and gentle though, and he swept his hand across the top of the pillar and grabbed other fighters who were staggering or wobbling on their feet. The pillar and the cave around it was collapsing completely, falling into the pit that was no longer glowing red as there was too much debris in the way to see anything that far down. "Now leave," Horror said, while reaching up for the broken roof above. The floor beneath his feet cracked and the level on his left side dipped down a few meters, but Horror stretched his better arm farther up so that they could still reach the edge of the not-broken roof if they jumped.

"What about you?" Takeshi asked. He was a little late to the party, but this guy seemed nice and his tone made it sound like this was goodbye.

"I was tasked with protecting this place and guarding the treasures housed within it. I must stay." Horror bent his elbow a little then pushed up hard and made the fighters on top of his palm lift up off of it and arc to the edge of the roof.

Kuina hit the edge then scrambled back on her hands and knees and looked down towards the collapsing room below. The roof they were on was unstable as well, and she heard Saber call out for everyone to move away from the ledge, but she would not move yet.

Inside the cave chamber, while Horror was picking up the fighters and raising them to the roof, Hawkgirl shot towards the demon bringing the Staff of Horus to Savage. The purple beam that had filled the room was gone now, and the man who had called it down was facing off against five flying demons high above the top of the hole in the cave roof. Kendra saw Hawkman trying to make his way back to the staff, but he was blocked by several enemies who did not seem to care that the cave around them was breaking apart. She got hit by a rock while she looked towards her soul mate, and even as blood started pouring down the left side of her head, she pushed forward and let out a screech as she pulled her mace back far. The demon had almost reached Vandal Savage so it let its guard down, then both Savage and the demon looked towards Hawkgirl in shock as she crashed straight down into it so hard that the two smashed down into the collapsing pillar below.

"Rrrgh, the staff will be mine!" Vandal Savage threw another knife that he slid out of his sleeve at Zoro and started running. The shinigami turned his katana and the knife slid back the blade, then Zoro whipped his Zanpakuto around and sent the dagger flying off of the tip of Mouretsuna Akumu. The blade cut across the front of Savage's coat and made the man stop short where he was running. Zoro's eyes were narrowed and his teeth clenched hard as he glanced over towards the giant man who had just said to his comrades that he would not be leaving this place, even as it collapsed. The giant was honorable, it had waited for Savage to pull out the Tablet for a reason that Zoro understood and respected, and now it was going to be buried in this cave because of Savage's disgraceful fighting.

Zoro's black katana started glowing, but glowing a black light almost impossible to see in the dark cave. Zoro did not notice it either, but he did feel the surge of strength that matched his bloodlust towards the man in front of him. Savage turned towards Zoro as the knives inside his coat fell to the floor- the knife Zoro flicked back at him having cut through what held them on his body. He snarled and yelled, "The Staff will never obey you! It only obeys my commands-"

"I am the guardian of the Staff of Horus!" Horror yelled out from behind Zoro. The part of the pillar he was standing on had fallen much farther down now, and as his head passed the level that the other two were on, he grinned Savage's way and shouted, "And you are not the staff's new master." Horror's head dropped below the level that Savage could see, but then someone stood up behind Zoro on a more lifted section of ground between him and a falling Horror, the one Horror was really looking at as he fell. Hawkgirl stood up with the Staff of Horus in her hands, and she turned her head to glare at Savage who stared at her in shock for holding the staff so calmly without its energy field taking a toll on her.

"I will protect the Staff of Horus from the likes of you, Savage," Hawkgirl said. Her eyes shifted away for a second, then she flapped her wings and shot up in the air where Hawkman was calling down at her. As soon as she lifted off, the ground beneath where her feet had been cracked in five different ways and the pillar started to crumble completely.

Vandal Savage snarled and then let out a roar of anger. His eyes darted for an exit, but they stopped on the man in front of him who was not fleeing like the rest of his friends. Zoro started walking forward when Savage made eye contact with him, and the man took a step back which made the ground beneath where he stepped crumble. He stepped back forward, but that direction was no better with the shinigami walking towards him. "Listen, I could make-"

"I hear you're an immortal," Zoro said, and a smirk spread across his face that unnerved Savage. "Let's put that name to a test." Zoro shot forward and slashed across the front of the man's body. The guy looked like a human, but Zoro had heard differently. Yet as Zoro's sword cut through flesh, the man sure bled like he was human. Zoro spun and slashed again as he heard Savage spinning towards him with a fist punching forward, and suddenly that fist was rising up into the air, only to be hit by a large chunk of wall that was falling in at them from the side of the chamber. All the walls of the chamber were falling in towards the pillar that was crumbling outwards. Zoro leapt from where he stood to another falling rock, and Savage dove a different direction right before a huge rock would have smashed down on him. He landed on a different platform and slid across it, then he screamed as the giant chunk of pillar above flattened against the one he had slid onto.

"Guess he wasn't," Zoro said. He looked back up after saying it, and he no longer saw a sky above. All that was above him was more falling rubble getting closer to his rock that started bumping on other stuff that had already fallen. Zoro glanced down once more and gazed back and forth, but he spotted no gold giant in sight and frowned.

"Where is he?" Gray wondered, scratching the back of his head in his black hair now that his ice helmet had vanished.

"Sure is taking a long, time…" Kuina faded off as the rest of the cave they were staring at from outside collapsed. They stood in front of a giant dead demon's stomach that had been ripped open, watching as an entire cave system started imploding. The rock walls and ceilings and even the ground around the cave started caving inwards. It looked like a giant sinkhole was forming under the cave and sucking everything around it down. "What the?" Kuina muttered, while taking steps back as the grass in front of her started getting pulled forward.

White light started shining through the cracks of falling walls, and then it all flashed out at once. Everything stopped moving. The group who leaned back at the light started walking forward and looking around with interest. The strange cave formation that had been in the middle of the grassy field was gone, sucked into the planet where there was now a wide funnel-like hole in the ground. The funnel had dragged grass in from the outsides of the cave system, so the ground inside the funnel all the way to the center was grassy, no rocks to show that there had been a cave there. "This is, really, really weird," Lin whispered, sweat all over her face as she tried to make sense of it.

"Where's Zoro?" Hawkman asked, landing down next to the others with Mystogan and Hawkgirl who had been floating just above the cave-in with him. "I never saw him get out of there."

Kendra took a nervous step forward with the golden Staff of Horus held in her right hand. "I should have grabbed him. He looked like he wanted to fight Savage still, so I just, left him there-"

"That was the right call," Gray assured the woman on his right. Kuina darted a look over to Gray, lifting her eyebrows in surprise. Even she was starting to get a little nervous, but Gray was just standing there waiting for something. Kuina scoffed at herself and put her sword back in her sheath, shaking her head at how stupid that bit of worry she felt was.

Saber glanced around, then she turned to Zabuza on her left and asked, "What makes you so confident he's okay? Whatever just happened here, it's nothing like I've ever seen."

"Me either," Zabuza said. He looked around the funnel, confused and somewhat intrigued by it. The ninja with a white mask over the bottom of his face and a rogue Hidden Mist headband around his forehead added without turning Saber's way, "But you really think he'd let himself get killed by that?"

"Probably not," Lin said, though she did not sound as sure as the others. She tried making light of her doubt though and added, "Unless he can't remember which way is up and gets lost in there." She smiled as she said it and was about to start laughing afterwards, but no one else laughed along and her jaw dropped as what she just said echoed in her head. Hawkgirl and Hawkman looked around in confusion and then their jaws dropped too at how worried all of them looked all of a sudden.

"Ice Make: Excavator!" Gray shouted while leaping forward. He punched his right fist into his left hand, and a huge construction vehicle made of ice appeared below him that he fell into the control seat of.

"Well that's, a useful power," Lin muttered with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her face, staring at the hundred foot tall machine of ice that just formed out of thin air.

As the front of the excavator dipped down to dig out some of the ground in the center of the funnel, a hole ripped through it first and a green-haired man in a black hakama flew up through it. Zoro flew up and then stopped so he was standing right in front of the seat Gray was on. Gray let out a breath of relief, then when he opened his eyes he saw Zoro frowning at him. "What? Thought you might have gotten lost," Gray said, and Zoro lost his look to instead get a sweatdrop on the side of his face and scrunch his forehead in annoyance at the accusation. "Did you?" Gray wondered.

"No," Zoro snapped. He was annoyed at first that Gray thought he needed help being dug out of there, but he could not tell if he was annoyed more that Gray _did_ have faith in his abilities, just not in his sense of direction. Zoro lifted up his right hand that was at his side and held something up in front of him, and while Gray and the others gawked, Zoro said, "One of us had to remember why we came." He tossed the golden Tablet of Ahkmenrah forward and Gray held out his hands to catch it. The giant ice construction vehicle vanished beneath Gray and he dropped down to the slant of the funnel as Zoro lowered next to him.

"Alright," Gray said in an accomplished tone. He showed off the tablet to the others who walked over, and he said, "Let's go get our reward."

"We sure worked hard enough for it," Lin agreed in an exhausted tone.

Hawkgirl and Hawkman were looking towards the center of the funnel of grass leading to a hole that seemed very ominous to them. Saber saw where they were looking, and she asked them, "What about you? What do you plan to do now?"

Hawkman turned towards Saber first and said, "Savage will be back." Zoro frowned and looked at the man skeptically, then over at the hole where he was sure he watched Savage die.

"We must get the Staff of Horus somewhere safe and prepare for his return," Hawkgirl added.

"Why don't you guys stick with us?" Takeshi asked. The others looked towards him, and the people dressed as Hawks gave him wondering looks to see if he was serious. "I mean, you're both pretty strong fighters, and there's no place safer to keep that staff than with strong friends, right?"

"Sounds good to me," Gray admitted. "What do you think, Zoro?" He asked while turning to the man next to him. Zoro still had not torn his eyes off the hole back into that funnel in the ground though, and Gray turned more to the green-haired shinigami while the others started talking about how they were fine with the two joining their group for real. "What is it?" Gray asked, and Zoro hummed like he heard him but did not have a response yet. Gray looked towards the hole and figured he knew what Zoro was thinking of. "From up here it looked pretty crazy, and I mean, look at this." Gray gazed around at the strange funnel of earth where the cave used to be. "What happened in there?"

When Hawkman mentioned Savage coming back, Zoro considered going in to find Savage's body to show that the man was really dead. There was a major flaw in that idea though. _That light, it messed with the insides. The falling rocks, the empty space, it was all just solid. How far did he fall, before that happened? Is he still falling, and it's only the top that sealed up like this?_ He had seen the golden tablet on one of the falling rocks when he was about to head up, but he frowned as he looked at it in Gray's hands. _If I didn't get far enough up with the Tablet before that light, would I have been able to get back up here? What made that light? Is that why Horror was fine with falling? Protecting his collection… is he still doing that? What just happened here?_ Zoro cracked his neck to either side and then turned to Gray and shrugged to respond to the man's question, as he really did not know what happened at all. "Doesn't really matter," Zoro said. "We got the staff, we got the tablet, the rest isn't important."

"Huh," Gray muttered while Zoro turned back to the main group. Hawkgirl and Hawkman had agreed with the others, and they turned to Zoro to see if he was okay with it too since he seemed like he was the leader of the group. He shrugged like it was fine with him, and then he started telling them about the tablet since they never really explained their reason for going after it to the two they wound up helping on their mission. Gray watched for a second, then he shrugged his own shoulders. Whatever just happened with the cave system, whatever that white light was, it had nothing to do with them. _Guess, it's really not important,_ Gray thought, and he looked back down at the tablet in his hand. "Hey, should we really be giving this to a buyer we barely know?" Gray asked as he re-entered the conversation. "A gateway into the underworld seems like a really powerful object that I don't see being used in good ways…"

* * *

 **Present**

"And like that we had eleven," Gray said. "It was the biggest our group ever got before I left. We never, recovered to that size, after-" Gray stopped himself and rubbed the right side of his forehead. He sighed and then clenched his teeth hard with his eyes closed. "We kept on like that for a while. The closest I've seen to what we were like, was you pirates." The Straw Hats listening to Gray looked surprised as he mentioned that, and he smiled softly as his eyes opened back up again. "The way you live and run your ship, Luffy," Gray began, and he started chuckling as it made sense to him comparing the two who had been pirates together. "It's kind of how Zoro had us doing things. It was, really nice. Even though most of us were not finding the people we cared for, we were free. We lived freely, taking jobs we thought would be fun, or helping out people just for the sake of doing it."

"What happened to change that?" Nami asked. She could see Gray was smiling in nostalgia, like that was all about to change. "What made Zoro-" she wanted to finish, but at the same time she could already guess. "'…He wasn't strong enough, when it mattered most.' What did you mean by that?" Nami asked.

Gray winced and found it hard to explain. He wanted to, it's what he had decided on when he started telling all this to the Straw Hats, but now that it came down to it, the words got stuck in his mouth. Kirito glanced back over his shoulder and frowned at how broken up Gray was getting just recalling this event. He turned back forward to the computer he was sitting behind, narrowing his gaze at it and wondering how a guy like that could have ever tried to kill him.

"It had to, do with Kuina, right?" Usopp asked.

"We took too long," Gray whispered in response. "We weren't even there," he added, looking into Usopp's eyes. Usopp saw so much regret in Gray's eyes as he brought it up, but Gray continued despite what he was feeling. "Our mission took us far out of the town, but we had argued on what mission to take. Half of us went one way, the other half took a different mission. Kuina's mission- she was the one who argued the most with Zoro about it, finished up before ours did, or maybe they just got back to town quicker. By the time we got there though," screams rang out in Gray's head and his eyes narrowed, a dark look and a snarl spreading across his face that made even Luffy stare wide-eyed at him. " _They_ had already set the place ablaze."

"Who were they?" Sanji asked while leaning forward with huge eyes.

"A Legion of Hell," Gray whispered. "We didn't even know those existed until then. Tens of thousands of demons, led by powerful officers who were strong, and intelligent, and cruel beyond reason." Nami and Usopp's faces were blue. Franky had sweat all over his steel face, and Sanji gulped at the image of what Gray just described. "It was before everyone on Aebrith knew about Satan, before everyone knew that there were giant Hell gates scattered across Nexus. We had fought demons, Hollows, and other monsters like them before, but not on a scale like this. It wasn't something I thought we could fight. All I thought we could do, was run…"

* * *

 **FD + 249**

It was supposed to be night, but the sky in the direction Gray was running was red instead of black. He, Takeshi, Mystogan, Saber, and Lin ran down the slope of the mountain to the west of the town in flames. None of them could speak. They were running the wrong direction after all, so all they wanted to yell was 'run away,' but they were all doing the opposite of that. Zoro had flown ahead of them so they had to get in there and back him up. Even with his shinigami powers, none of them were confident that he was safe in there, in the literal Hell they were running into.

It was impossible to see many of the buildings; they were so covered in demons that the walls looked to be shifting around. Flames rose from every roof but the demons moved around inside the inferno like it did not bother them. Although the sky above the town was red from the mountainside they came over, as they got lower down it became harder and harder to see that smoky red sky as demons filled the air above them. They were circling like vultures over the destroyed town, but as the group of five ran closer the demons seemed more like birds of prey considering screams were still echoing out through the large town.

"What is this?" Lin asked in horror as she stopped at the edge of the town, looking right towards some black dogs with two heads each. They were fighting over something in their mouths which had four lips that curled back to reveal razor-sharp teeth in rows going far back into them. One of them tore back harder from the other and made the thing they were fighting over lift up into the air. Lin's eyes followed the object up, and she made out the shape of a human leg, but a very small leg. Lin gagged and tried looking away, but before she could, the demon dogs turned towards her and started barking. Only a second after the barks left their mouths, twenty plus demons came charging around the corner of the house the dogs were just past and turning to change directions towards her.

The demons came in all different shapes and sizes, but Lin only stepped backwards when they stopped running. If they were monsters that wanted to kill or devour her, she could understand that, but why were they all smiling their horrifying grins at her?! Some of them started laughing, others hissed at the terrified look on her face. An eight foot tall muscular figure who looked very humanoid stepped forward with a smaller smile on his face than the others. He was wearing a black shirt and shorts, and he tilted his head while looking down towards Lin with softer eyes despite the red glow of the irises in the middles of them. "What's wrong, girl?" He questioned in a soothing, calming voice. When he spoke though, his mouth had to open and reveal the giant, sharp, dripping-with-blood teeth filling his jaw. "Are you _lost?_ " He rose his arms and walls of fire lifted behind Lin and on both sides of her.

"AHHH!" Lin screamed in terror. The demons around the red one had started sprinting forward and she had never been more afraid. She lifted her shaky hands while screaming and tried firing her magic, but she was too frantic and panicked to think straight and gather her energy. _Why did I come down here?!_ She thought while tears splashed out of her clenched-shut eyes. _Daddy!_

"Focus Lin!" a female voice shouted in front of her. Lin's eyes snapped open and she saw the blonde knight in front of her with her sword slashed out to the side. After Lin's eyes opened, the slash Saber made finally ripped all of the demons right in front of them in half and made the top halves of their bodies rise up. The red demon behind them lifted his black eyebrows to match his long black hair, then he put two of his fingers with long sharp nails in his mouth, and he whistled loudly.

The two demonic dogs behind him were joined by others jumping out of flaming windows of nearby houses, leaping over the roofs of those buildings or just sprinting down the roads. The pack of them growled and stepped towards Saber and Lin while baring their thousands of sharp teeth. "Two beautiful women chose the wrong time to come to this town," a high-pitched man's voice said from behind Lin and Saber. Lin spun around to see four black demons with large muscles all marching towards her behind a slim, six-foot tall blue-scaled man with a long tail and just as long a tongue sticking out of his mouth. The look in his eyes was sadistic, and the blood all over his hands made Lin tremble in fear. "I remember a long time ago, when I was still a man, I would have killed to take beauties like you by force. Ha, hahaha, HAHA! I think I did a few times!" His body bulked up and wings ripped from his back so forcefully that black blood splashed out of him, but he just moaned with the pain of it.

"Saber, I'm afraid," Lin said. She did not care how it sounded. She did not care that she was letting her enemies know. Tohsaka Lin trembled in fear while she lifted up her arms, wishing she had worn something other than her usual skirt and leggings today, wishing she had never come back to this town at all.

"We all rushed down here even after seeing what awaited us," Saber said in a calm but stern voice. She turned back to the red demon and then pressed her back up against Lin's, making Lin go wide-eyed as Saber was leaving her back to her to protect. "Recall that conviction and fight with me now." Saber's longsword that she used to slice apart the first demons surrounded in blue light and brightened to a point that the steel inside the light became impossible to see. The red demon's smirk at the women he was about to send his pack of hell-dogs at vanished, and he ordered in a scarier, more intense voice for them to attack. Hundreds of terrifying growls and barks sounded behind Lin, but she did not feel afraid of them with Saber at her back. Saber moved her hands down to the right side of her chest with her long blue sword pointed straight up above her, she bent her knees and took a deep breath, and she yelled out, "RAAAA!"

Lin clenched her teeth down hard, then she swung both of her arms up in front of her and turned into a battle stance. Her hands started glowing red and she yelled out, matching Saber's scream with her own, "RAAAA!"

Farther into the town, Takeshi and Gray stopped with their heads up. "Mystogan!" Takeshi called out as he saw three giant demons in the sky swoop down and knock the blue-haired man around between them.

"He'll be fine," Gray yelled at Takeshi, and the younger man turned to Gray. Gray was looking up nervously towards Mystogan despite what he shouted, but he snapped his gaze back down and yelled, "We have to find the others! If they've been fighting this- whatever this is, for a while, they'd be tired and need our help!"

Takeshi glanced back up towards Mystogan, but he saw the three demons that attacked their friend falling out of the air. Even though he could not see Mystogan anymore, the sight of those demons falling without controlling themselves made him more confident like Gray was in the mage's abilities.

"This way," Takeshi said and pointed to their left. Gray looked the direction he pointed, then turned back forward and nodded as he understood why Takeshi wanted them to turn. A wave of demons pushed down a street a corner away from them so thick that the monsters looked more like a solid river taller than the houses at their sides that they were smashing straight through. They cut left down a path with less demons on it, but the street had a lot more human corpses. Some demons were still eating, others were setting fire to the buildings around them, all of them were laughing.

The two young men charged down the street and cut apart or froze every demon that turned their way. "Oh my God," Takeshi said with a gasp as they hit the next corner. Gray turned to see what he saw that made him say that, and he stared down the street to their right where there were three crosses in the middle of the road. They recognized the two on the crosses on the sides as the innkeeper and his wife whose establishment they had been staying in. They were crucified and their heads were limp, but the figure in the center did not even have a head to go limp anymore. She had been decapitated before she was crucified, which meant the demons just put her like that for no reason. She had broken golden armor around her body, and her wings were nailed to the boards of the cross right through her arms by metal spikes.

"Is that," Gray began in a quiet voice, taking a step forward to see for himself. He walked closer and his bulging eyes started to tear up as there was no mistaking who the figure was. They knew it was a woman from her exposed breasts covered in blood, and the armor told them who they were looking at. "Kendra," Gray whispered, then he felt his foot kick something when he took another step. His eyes had been glued onto the woman on the cross so he did not look where he was stepping. Gray looked down and saw a head rolling away from his foot, and as it rolled around so that the face pointed towards him for a second, he got a good look at Hawkman's head, only his eye sockets were empty.

Takeshi gagged and hunched over, then Gray leapt over his back and slammed a fist into the demon that leapt down through the fire on the roof to their right. It had tried to take their shock to its advantage, and it would have worked on Takeshi, but Gray heard it coming with his Observational Haki at the last second. His fist dented in so far into the demon's face, while Gray snarled and then let out a scream as he extended his arm forward and threw the demon into the flaming building which exploded on the impact. Flames burst out from the exploding house and fell all around the two men. Takeshi stood up fully and then stared around at everything around him with such a horrified, disgusted look. "What is, this place?" Takeshi whispered. Gray turned to the man just a little younger than him, and Yamamoto Takeshi looked back into his eyes before asking, "Why?"

"There's no time for that," Gray yelled at him over the sounds of people's screams and demon's cackles. The flames surrounding them were burning higher every second, so Gray did not have time to humor Takeshi's question. He did not need to ask what Takeshi was questioning him about though, because he had the same question only he kept it in his head instead of saying it aloud. All he thought of was "why," but there was so much he meant with that one word that he doubted anyone could ever explain the reasons to him.

"We have to find the others!" Gray yelled, grabbing Takeshi by the shoulders and shaking him a few times. "Are you still with me?" Gray yelled at the teen barely able to speak.

Takeshi's far-off look came back to earth and he nodded his head in a more focused way at Gray. The two started running off again, using all their strength and powers against every demon they came across. The innkeeper and his wife had been crucified just outside where they were staying, but they did not see anyone other than Hawkman and Hawkgirl nearby. Neither voiced the possibility that nothing remained of their bodies, instead shouting that they had to check elsewhere.

They ran through the town fighting with all their strength. The demons were strong though, some of them at least, and Gray received a deep gash on his left arm while Takeshi was hit in the back with a surprise fireball. The younger man had to roll around on the floor to put out the flames, but he was now running shirtless like Gray who had taken his off before they even got into the town.

The two were getting tired, but they showed no outward signs of it as their adrenaline was pumping faster than ever. They ran around another flaming corner and then froze at the sight before them. Their eyes filled with sheer terror as they spotted Zabuza pinned down on the floor by a thousand pound fat demon that looked like a massive sumo-wrestler only his skin was a puke-green color. Him being held down was not the horrifying part though, it was the female human-looking demons over Zabuza's face who had slit their wrists and were letting their black blood pour into his mouth while it was forcibly held open by others. There were strange cloaked figures who had red eyes glowing from inside the hoods of the cloaks around Zabuza, chanting in a strange language while the man convulsed under the fat demon.

"What the, fuck?" Gray said, his voice getting higher pitched towards the end as he half-gasped half-laughed. A smile twisted on his face as the flames all around danced, and then the man convulsing on the ground let out an unearthly scream that made Gray take a step back. It sounded more like a roar than anything, and it did not sound human, and the demons all started chanting louder or laughing madly.

"Zabuza!" Takeshi yelled and started running forward. Gray looked at the younger man's back with wide eyes, and then as the demons all turned towards him Gray finally realized what he was doing. He clenched his hands into fists so hard that he drew blood from his palms, bringing himself back to reality and screaming at himself aloud to help his friend. He knew he had lost it for a second there, but seeing Takeshi charging in on his own reminded him that this was all actually happening.

Gray and Takeshi had a hard time killing the big one, and the ones in cloaks all vanished during the short fight, but they managed to kill them all in only a minute. Then they ran over to Zabuza who kept seizing on the ground, his whole body arching, black blood spilling out of his mouth. A girl's scream echoed out from around the corner, and Gray spun that way with a determined expression on his face. He had decided he would not let himself lose it again, and he turned back to Takeshi and said in his most serious voice that he could manage without it cracking, "Stay with Zabuza. I'm going to check it out."

Takeshi nodded his head and then dropped to his knees on Zabuza's side. He shook the man around trying to get him to calm down, but only with one hand as he had the other held tightly around Shuusui to ensure that he could protect them while Gray was gone.

Gray ran down the street and had to jump up as the wall of the flaming house on his right started collapsing towards him. As he lifted over it, the whole falling wall blasted apart outwards beneath him. Gray stared down in horror as a monster emerged from the house, rising up so that it was bigger than the building itself as it charged out of the flames. It looked like it had smashed through the back of the house too, and it kept sprinting across the road beneath Gray and through the next house too. Gray and Takeshi were each relieved that the beast did not try fighting them, because its size and speed were daunting to the warriors who had not seen any of its kind around the town so far.

The ice mage landed on the other side of where the demon just sprinted through, then he cut to the right early as the intersection ahead of him was full of monstrous beings. He leapt up for a roof at his side and froze the top of it, putting out the flames and freezing the demons hiding inside them. He leapt from that rooftop over five others to land on the connecting street where there were so many demons he had a hard time finding a safe landing spot. All over the road full of demons were demon corpses, as well as discarded swords stuck in the monsters, stuck in the floor and walls of nearby buildings too. The yellow tape that connected the swords was trampled into the ground or blowing around in the wind, and Gray stared to his left in horror at the top half of a man stuck inside a twelve foot tall monster's mouth. His legs were being fought over by some demonic dogs behind him, but the monster chewing on the man's top half had started from the waist up, revealing Mifune's face to Gray for a few moments before it slurped up and swallowed the swordsman.

 _Mifune was so strong,_ Gray thought while taking a step back. He turned and ran. The ground beneath his feet turned into ice behind him, giving any demons that tried to give chase a hard time. As he started running though, Gray felt something else with his Haki that made his heart start racing. _I recognize them,_ Gray thought, and he spun towards one of the buildings back on that road. He looked towards it and saw a hole in the roof of it, and a monster's corpse blocking up the doorway.

Gray ran back the way he came and started throwing ice spikes at the demons who had slipped chasing him. His ice spikes hit them and immediately exploded into a crystal that spiked out in twenty different directions. The crystals impaled every demon Gray threw them at, but when he threw it at the large one that had been eating Mifune, the demon shot to its left in a quick movement that made Gray's ice spike miss and keep flying off. The monster charged forward and its feet smashed right through the ice beneath it to leave footprints in the ground. It got bigger as it charged at Gray, its eyes burning a bright purple color and long black hair waving off of his arms and legs. It had six eyes and five arms, and it brought all of its fists back as Gray slammed his fist and hand together in front of his body.

The two clashed, and all the other nearby demons converged at the same time. A minute later, Gray stood alone in the center of the road. He was covered head to toe in blood, and he turned towards the building next to him while panting deep, ragged breaths. Gray started walking towards the house. He had a grim, afraid look on his face as he reached the door and pulled the demon leaning against it back. He tossed the corpse behind him, wincing as it hurt his cut-up arm to do. He was covered in wounds, but when he looked through the open doorway a whole new pain filled him. Right in the middle of the room he saw Zoro on his knees. In front of the kneeling man was Kuina lying flat on her back. He had one of her hands held in his own above her flat, unmoving body. His head was bowed forward pressed against the hand he was holding so tightly, and all Gray heard him say, was, "…I promise." Then, Zoro's eyes shot open and Gray swore he saw a tear fall from his left eye as he let go of Kuina's hand. The hand dropped from his grasp without any resistance, and her arm made a thud on the floor at her side.

Gray recalled that he had felt two presences with his Haki a minute ago, and his heart fell as he only felt one now. _Kuina,_ he thought. Then, his eyes grew wider as that single presence he felt in the room in front of him started to feel less and less like a human, or shinigami. His heart rate skyrocketed and his body covered in sweat. The room in front of him descended into a pitch black darkness in a single moment. Gray stumbled back out the door, but the entire world around him was dark, silent. And then the world flashed red, and the screams started.

* * *

 **Present**

"When I found Zoro, in the room we found Kuina…" Gray faded off and the others all assumed what that meant. Gray could barely talk, too choked up over the memory. He opened his mouth, but he flinched and his attempted words just came out as a gasp. He closed his mouth, and they could see him thinking about it because of the wetness of his eyes. He clenched them shut, then opened them again and whispered, "She was just a kid, but they, the things they…" Gray could not finish the sentence. He took a deep breath to calm himself down and then shivered as he thought about what happened next. "That's when we learned, about Zoro's true power."

"What do you mean?" Sanji asked. He needed anything to distract him from the thought of Kuina's death, as that made him want to roar in fury right now. "What power?" He asked. Gray clenched his teeth hard and as afraid as he looked while recalling the demons and the events of that day, he looked more hesitant as he thought about what happened after that.

"It was the first time Zoro released his Zanpakuto," Gray started. "He didn't know how to use it, so the rest of us got sucked into his power. We _saw_ his bloodlust. We, _felt,_ his rage, and his fury, his hatred... and his sadness. The demons didn't stand a chance. They had killed many of our strong friends, but Zoro cut them apart like they were nothing. We always knew Zoro was stronger than the rest of us, but each one of us realized then: Zoro is in a whole other league."

The Straw Hats stared at Gray in shock. They were silent, none could come up with anything to say about what he just said. Gray whispered when no one else continued, "I'd put him closer to Timmy or Goku's strength, than to my own."

"That strong?" Nami gasped out.

"When he's really mad," Gray offered, and he looked away while adding, "and he often is."

"So," Luffy began quietly. Gray turned to the rubberman who was looking at the ground, and Luffy lifted his gaze to Gray with a semi-confused look, mostly just sad though. He knew the pain Zoro felt that day very well, but he still had to ask, "That's, why he doesn't want to come back, anymore?" The others looked at Luffy, then back to Gray as they awaited his answer. The pirate captain's question was soft, and understanding, but Luffy sounded like he also wanted to know, "why?"

"It's just," Gray whispered. He understood why Luffy wanted to know. He felt bad for the pirate, and for the rest of his crew. "Zoro, he's, he changed on that day. We weren't relaxed after that. We weren't, just enjoying life anymore. Always getting stronger, always pushing limits, always moving, searching. Zoro, wants the destruction of Nexus." The others stared at him with widening eyes, and Gray continued, "The others don't like the world either, some hate it like he does. They're looking for reasons for why it came to be and how to make things right." Gray looked away, and he thought, _That's why I had to leave them._

"Why would Zoro possibly do that?" Nami snapped in confusion, bringing Gray's attention back to those in front of him.

"That, doesn't sound right," Usopp murmured in agreement with her.

Gray hummed to himself, then he whispered, "Truthfully, I never really knew. I _still,_ just don't know."

* * *

 **FD +249**

Zoro lifted up Kuina but the girl moaned so loudly when he did that he froze in place. He was on his knees at her side, and the walls around him were painted in red. Most of it was from the demons he had found when he entered the room, but a lot of it was Kuina's. Her legs were flattened, twisted, pulled different directions and looking like they were barely attached to her mashed-up waist. Her stomach had a bloody hole in it larger than two of Zoro's fists, and the man holding her was looking up and down all these injuries with panicked eyes. _I need to get her, get her somewhere where- who can help?!_

Kuina coughed a few times, then she opened back up her eyes and saw Zoro sitting there staring at her with such worried and panicked eyes. At her look though, he calmed down his panicked gaze and started, "You're a mess."

"Took you, long," Kuina could not finish the snide remark, losing the smile that was growing on her face as she started coughing. She saw the blood splash out of her mouth, and she felt her insides aching in pain. The girl tried her hardest to sit up, but her lower body was not moving at all, and her upper body barely was. Her snarky comeback to what Zoro said never finished, and she lifted her eyes up before gasping out in realization.

"Damn it! Damn it, damn it damn it damn it damn it," Kuina clenched her eyes shut and shook her head but she couldn't keep the tears from flowing. "I'm so, frustrated," she seethed, before coughing up more blood and gasping for air.

"You're going to be alright, stop acting like-" Zoro was shouting at the girl he was holding. He had his hands held so gently under the top of her back and the back of her head like he was afraid to move her, and his twitching eyes were focused on the giant hole in her stomach.

Kuina's sob cut Zoro off, because he had never seen her act like that before. Even in her most pathetic moments, she never would have let him see this. "Damn it," she yelled after letting out the sob. "Stop looking at, damn damn damn," Kuina's voice got higher-pitched and was cracking as she shouted. "Why do I have to die like this? Why'd I have to come back, just to, ahh! It's not- ack, it's- it's not fair!" Blood came out the corners of her mouth and she lifted an arm as hard as she could, wiping the blood away and then wiping her eyes back and forth, covering them in her own blood.

"If you're moving around like that, you're going to be fine," Zoro growled down at her. "So stop acting like a kid-"

"But I am a kid," Kuina said, opening her teary eyes and looking up into Zoro's so sadly. "I never got to grow up, again," she looked up and then around at the room around her. She snapped her gaze back to Zoro when she saw him opening his mouth out her peripheral vision. "Shut up, just shut up shut up SHUT UP-ACK-" she spat out blood and it got all over Zoro's chest, then she grabbed him by his bloody hakama and yelled, "I died before- You died before! You know what I mean then, when I say I _know_ I'm dying. I can fucking feel it," she pushed her hand back out to move away from him, but she could only lean her head back a little because of the way he was holding her. Zoro's eyes had bulged at what she shouted at him though, because she was right, and he did know that feeling of dying.

"This sucks," Kuina whispered in a hoarse voice, more blood trickling from the corners of her mouth. Zoro thought she would wipe it away, but her arms were not moving from her sides this time. Grabbing him then pushing him away seemed to be the last of her strength, and he started shaking his head as he thought of other reasons for it. He tried to think of something he could do, but he was no doctor. They did not have a doctor in their group, and even if they did, Zoro did not know who was still alive out there. Even if someone could close up her stomach though, he had found them with hands _inside_ of her, reaching through that wound in her stomach. He had no idea what they messed up inside of her, how bad the internal injuries and damage to her organs was. "I can't, take this, I can't," Kuina whispered. "But even though, I say that," she bit down on her bottom lip and wanted to scream but knew she would only get a second of it out before spitting blood up everywhere. "There's nothing I can do, to- ah ah hah," she rose her right arm with as much power as she could muster and just covered her eyes with it to at least try and hide her sobs. "This- is so- frustrating!"

Zoro's hands started to shake on Kuina's back. He could not come up with anything to say. He could not think of anything to do. As helpless as she felt, he felt it just as badly and for one of the only times in his life, Zoro felt his eyes start to get wet. _Why?_ He thought as he stared at the girl crying in his arms. _Why is this, what could have, how could I have… why?_ Zoro clenched his teeth so angrily. He could feel Kuina's heartbeat through her back. He could feel it slowing down. "Why?" He whispered aloud, and Kuina's half-closed eyes opened a little more, then much wider as a drop fell down on her face. "Why are you, doing this, again?" Zoro bit down after he said it, hating that he just said those words aloud yet unable to hold them back. He stared down into Kuina's shocked eyes with ones that were so angry, but ones that had tears dropping out of them, "You were supposed, to catch up to me. I wanted, to fight you one day," he whispered it and held his hands tighter on her back and the back of her head. "Again," he added so softly.

As Kuina stared at the man above him, the sight of the adult, the shinigami, it faded away. In her mind she saw the boy a year younger than her trying so hard to catch her, and getting so frustrated every time when he failed. "It's not fair for you?" Zoro asked. "You died, so selfishly, one day after we made our promise." He closed his eyes as he said it because he could not look into Kuina's eyes anymore. "You don't get to do that again. So you have to live. What's the point of the promise, if I don't have you to compete with?"

Zoro's eyes popped open wide as he felt a soft hand on his cheek. He stared down in shock that he just said all that aloud, and even more at the sad look of the girl below him who started frowning deeper each second. The hand on his cheek moved away a little, then tapped in as if smacking him, as weakly as she could move at the moment. "You don't, get to, do that," Kuina whispered at him, using the same words he just used against him. "You don't get to, make this, about you," her hand smacked in on him again, then it squeezed his cheek and she looked so desperately up into his eyes. "You _have_ to fulfill it. Take my sword, like you did, last time," she begged, her eyes looking over to where the sword lay discarded next to a wall nearby. "I, failed," she whispered as she looked at the weapon she had been unable to protect herself with. "I failed, I failed, ah ah I ah, I failed ahh."

Zoro reached his left hand up and put it over Kuina's smaller one on his face. _What am I doing?_ He thought, hardening his expression as he put his hand over hers. "You didn't fail," Zoro said sternly down at her.

"I did though," Kuina gasped at him. "I made, so many promises to myself. I told myself, I would live a full life this time. I swore, I would become the best swordswoman ever, then the best swordsman in general once I beat you! I, I wanted to fight you someday too," she said it and for a second Zoro's eyes opened wide.

Then, he felt the hand against his face get lighter as if she could no longer hold it there. "Wait," Zoro yelled at the girl whose eyes were closing. "Don't you- not yet!" Zoro pressed her hand tighter against his face, as he lowered her back to the floor. He drew his Zanpakuto with his freed hand and rose it in front of him. "If I stab you with this, I could, you could," Zoro stopped himself because he had no idea what he was talking about. He did not understand how Ashido Kanou gave him his shinigami powers. When he stabbed things with his Zanpakuto, usually they just died.

"Just stop," Kuina whispered at him. "Let me go," she gasped out. He felt her presence vanishing. Every way he knew how to sense a person told him that the one he could feel in front of him was dying. She looked so frustrated though, so sad, so angry at the world.

Zoro's expression matched hers, and he pressed her hand tighter against his face. Then, Zoro pulled her hand off of his face and held it above her body where she was lying on her back. Kuina's eyes opened up a small amount while she lay there still, and she saw Zoro bring his Zanpakuto up and cut himself on the hand he had been holding hers with. Then, he cut her hand, and she felt a small pinch on her palm. He clasped his bloody palm against hers while continuing to bare his teeth in his sad, angry, frustrated way. "This world," Zoro said, while leaning down over her to make sure the girl would hear him. "I'm going to find whoever is responsible for bringing you back here, on this cursed world. I never believed in Gods, but I know they're real now. Those evil fucking bastards," Zoro's hand shook while he clenched Kuina's tighter with it, because he saw her eyes closing. She was unable to respond to what he was telling her, and it made him even more frustrated to the point that he slammed his head forward into their hands and clenched his eyes shut. "You hear me? Whoever brought you here, just to die like this, they won't get away with it! I promise! I'm going to destroy the ones who brought you here! I, promise," Zoro's eyes snapped open as the presence vanished. His left hand opened up and her right arm fell limp to her side. He stared in shock down at her face, her eyes almost shut but partially open and not focused on anything. Her mouth was twisted into a hateful frown, and she had streaks of tears all over her face including fresh ones falling to the sides of her eyes that had just fell while his eyes were closed. It did not matter what he said to her at the end, he could not change what she was feeling when she took her last breath. She died with that look on her face, and over Zoro's grief, the rage that had been simmering and then boiling over inside him, exploded all at once, and his Zanpakuto bathed the world in darkness.

* * *

 **A/N ;( Thanks for reading. I'm going to put a list below of the characters featured in this chapter. Alright, so, I guess I hope you enjoyed the chapter, or maybe I hope it kicked you in the gut. Someone must have been cutting onions while I was writing it at least. Another Zoro flashback chapter out of nowhere! Bam! I had an idea for this chapter for a while, and realized that it worked best right after Gray met up with the Straw Hats to tell Luffy about it. Doubt anyone thought they'd be seeing Kuina this chapter, though once you did see her, you had to know things were not going to end well. Anyway, I'll put the list below.**

 **Soul Eater: Mifune**

 **One Piece: Zoro, Kuina, Luffy, Usopp, Nami, Sanji, Franky, Robin**

 **Bleach: Zommari Rureaux, Urahara, Ashido Kanou, Zanpakuto**

 **Supernatural: Missouri (the psychic)**

 **Naruto: Zabuza**

 **Magi: Kouen, Koumei**

 **Avatar TLA: Azulon**

 **Seven Deadly Sins: Meliodas, King, Elaine, Ban, Mama Hawk**

 **Fairy Tail: Natsu, Juvia, Gray, Mystogan, Edolas**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Meruem, Komugi, Killua**

 **DC Arrowverse: Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Vandal Savage, Staff of Horus**

 **Night at the Museum: Tablet of Ahkmenrah**

 **Fate Stay/Night: Tohsaka Lin, Saber**

 **SAO: Kirito**

 **DBZ: Goku, Tien**

 **Fairly Oddparents: Timmy**

 **Hitman Reborn: Yamamoto Takeshi**

 **Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy: Horror (Remembered the movie Horror's Hand and got the idea for that section of the chapter).**

 **-Always a lot of characters in the Zoro chapters. Hope I got them all, if you see someone you didn't recognize you can ask in the comments if I left it out above. Alright, time for review responses:**

TheHeroOfDark71F chapter 89 . Mar 15

Wooo! Cool Chapter, yet i hope in next chapter we get to see Donald and Goofy this time! Oh, and well...  
All of the sudden, i was murdered by a strange being with a crescent moon on her forehead, not realizing the multiuniversal's barriers have been grew weak so much that any Video Game character can come and kill me.  
"Hehe...Good night, Trovian. Now, let's see if i can take over every single world in my possession."  
"Darknik, is your Dreadnaught fully upgraded yet?"  
A silent chuckle fills the silence in the darkness shrouded moon, as machinery noises starts to fill the silence.  
"Yes, i've upgraded it to the point that it's easily powerful, it can wipe out not only Trovians, but to the whole multiverse full of worlds to rule ours. Since i have discovered this near-infinite of worlds thanks to the dark, yet heart-stealing beings called the Heartless, we have more things to rule over and to potentially rule this whole reality if our plans went as expected..."  
Darknik paused before he starts up his Dreadnaught MK9. He continued with a twisted grin.  
"As expected as the starts blinking out. Hundreds...to Billions."  
(Sorry, i got into a bit of story telling on my review, besides, we're nearing the end of this story, right? Also, sorry if i am absent for a really long time. Things like playing Trove has inspiring me to do that little bit.)

 **Thanks! Like the idea of fanfiction off my fanfiction, even if I don't play Trove or get what you were talking about XD. Glad to see you back, but no we are not near the end. We're only 1/3 of the way into the Aebrith Saga, still a long ways to go. Thanks for the review!**

asdf chapter 87 . Mar 14

Let's just hope that Buu isn't pissed off enough into becoming Super Buu, that's basically Armageddon.

Holy Shit Cartman?!

If the whole South Park Crew is here, where is the new kid?!

Darth Marsh or Stan Marshwalker? The Dark Side and the Light for control.

You've shown Katakuri so does that mean we'll see the Vinsmokes?

Poor Temari

 **Thanks for the very, very many reviews XD We'll see what Buu's role will be, but seeing as he's with Luthor you can be sure he'll come into the mix, along with the Caped Baldy. Cartman?! Possibly ;), (have been dropping a few hints around). The new kid from the games I don't know if he'll appear since I never played, but it's a possibility. Stan's got such a struggle going on trying to pick his side, love the second name. Too bad for Temari, I almost forgot about Shikamaru kicking the bucket all the way back in the first couple of chapters. I have shown Katakuri, but I have also shown the Vinsmokes. Yonji (married to Azula), Judge (watching Colosseum matches with his kids), Niji went with an army to Pyraxas to take control (and failed considering Eileen took it). They're all over the place, though I'll admit they haven't had huge roles... so far. Thanks again for reviewing!**

Limit-Breaking chapter 89 . Mar 16

Man you love killing off alot of characters, what did anakin ever do to you, what did bardock and those pokemon back in nexus did to you. How did they hurt you and make you so cruel. Either way great chapter though im curious, will jojo bizarre adventure characters become main characters that can join in on this story with all of the main characters we read about in this story. Like joining luffy ship to help the resistance. Besides that i look forward to the next chapter.

 **If you thought I was cruel before... Oof. Surprised you still remember those Pokemon that died in Metropolis. They had it coming though, (they were dicks) XD Glad you liked the last chapter! I don't know whether or not Jojo will ever show up, since I only saw a few episodes of it a long time ago. I might start watching at some point, in which case they'd definitely pop up, but as of now probably not. Thanks for the review!**

cyber chapter 88 . Mar 15

another cool chapter sorry I didn't post anything I just wonted to see everyone else review, first in the land of the gods, I'm glad to see my favorite characters, and now LEX LUTHOR with saitama and majon buu, and now where back to the wizard king, I'm not going to saying anything but I hink I know who the wizard king his, I guesse will see next time

another great chapter and I'm glad to see stan marsh here, sorry I didn't post anything I just wonted to see other review, and I think know who the wizard king not going to say anything I could be wrong, another thing i read the god city chapter and I saw my favorite characters, now sora and goku are of to fight the wizard king, and I see qui-gon jinn, and I see a flashback with zodd in it and bardock offering peace by killing there leaders, now with this chapter this I how stan got to the group, and last I see los santos I'm wonder where trevor phillips and his gang maybe doing something crazy.

im guesting everyone knows that dbs has ended, hey at least there is a movie coming

 **Thanks also for the very many reviews! Luthor and Saitama and Buu are the power squad the world needed XD. Wonder if you've got the Wizard King right? Have tried to make it pretty clear. Qui-Gon shows up! Zodd and Bardock! Lots happening, maybe the GTA V characters will show up too now that I threw Los Santos in. We'll see... Looking forward to the DBS movie though, hope it's a good one. Loved the final fight against Jiren so I'm hyped for it. Thanks again!**

kg833998 chapter 89 . Mar 19

Great chapter as usual cant wait for the next one. have you considered adding kill la kill to these cuz I kind of want to see what'll happen when mako meets someone like nastu or god forbid luffy two people who are not very smart but love to eat

I'm just going to say a few shows animes or cartoons that I think would work well with the story Generator Rex, jojo Bizarre Adventure( even though I barely seen this anime) yu gi oh arc v, evangelion, static shock, little witch academia, danny phantom medaka box, and elfin lied

 **Thanks, glad you liked it! I do plan on adding Kill la Kill... though I won't say when/where/who. Haven't seen a few of those, but Static Shock I have which is where I got Ebon Evans (the shadow guy) from who I put in the Underlords the same time Bart and Takao were joining. I added a diclonius from Elfen Lied too back at the League of Assassins' headquarters, and I just watched Evangelion not long ago and added some of their characters into a chapter in the future. Anyway, thanks for the reviews, and thanks to everyone who read, faved, followed, and reviewed this story! Well, 'till next time!**


	91. Nexus HWR 13-3 Sabotage

**Nexus HWR 13.3 Sabatoge:**

"How much farther south is this place?" Natsu groaned as he was too bored to find anything productive to do. He slouched inside the cockpit of their vehicle and moaned even louder as Gray told him it would be a few more days.

"This is ridiculous," Natsu muttered. He turned and walked out of the cockpit, _It has to be this big to keep us safe he says. If we went any faster we would draw too much attention he says. Doesn't he get that we're too badass to need to be worried?_

Natsu walked down a hall of the huge vehicle and two boys running the other direction as him moved to the sides to go around the mage. The twelve and fourteen year olds were in the middle of a conversation and barely paid Natsu any mind as they ran by. Natsu turned and watched as Ben and Stan ran towards the cockpit but turned into a room right before it instead. As he looked back at them, the truck hit a bump and Natsu felt his stomach turn. _Ugh, the new pills are wearing off already._ He shook off the nausea and thought about something else to distract from it.

Natsu looked ahead again and kept walking through the tank. He turned left and looked through an open door to see Franky kneeling down with his face behind a mask and a blowtorch in his hands. Usopp was behind the cyborg, sitting at a table with a pen, paper, and a protractor looking like he was drawing out designs.

He passed them and kept going towards the end of the hall where there was a staircase down to the floor below. He could not feel the rumbling of the vehicle treading across the Southern Wastes of Aebrith. To him, it felt more like he was in a building than anything, and only the windows he passed on occasion made it clear that they were still moving, as slow as it was.

Natsu reached the end of the hall and walked down the steps to the floor below. He smelled great scents coming from the end of this floor, but he knew Sanji would not want to be disturbed at the moment, and he did not want to risk pissing off the man making his food. Natsu kept descending and he went to the lowest floor of the giant truck, which was still over fifty feet off the ground thanks to its giant wheels.

He exited the stairwell and walked down the hall where he could feel the shaking a little more being so close to the wheels, making him grimace as his stomach rumbled again. Ignoring his growing motion sickness, Natsu looked into each open room and saw other members of their group sitting around or trying to pass the time in various ways. There was one door he saw that was closed and he wanted to take a peak into it. When he got close to it though, he stopped and his eyes went wide.

Natsu backed away from the door and he turned away fast. He sped-walked away from the door and pretended like he had no idea what was going on inside. _Act like you didn't hear a thing._

Inside the room, Nami sat on her bed leaning back with huge eyes. Robin stood near the door leaning back against the wall, and the third girl in the room was spinning back and forth between the two of them as she yelled. "Robin-san left Juvia too!" Juvia yelled at the woman next to the door. "Robin and Nami said we would travel together longer, but then you left me!" She used the pronoun 'me' that had both of the older women glancing at each other questioningly.

"Juvia, are you alright?" Robin asked the girl.

"NO!" Juvia screamed, and she took a step towards Robin angrily and made the woman with darker hair ease back against the wall. Robin tried to stay calm and understanding, but she did feel a bit nervous from what Nami told her happened in Pyraxas. "Juvia is- I am not alright!" She corrected herself. She was angry, angrier than the other two ever remembered seeing her. Normally Juvia would get sad; in the hardest of times she would get depressed, or angry in a way that did not seem so hateful because it was mainly from jealousy over Gray.

"We're here for you," Nami began to the girl.

Juvia spun towards Nami though and she yelled, "No you aren't! You weren't," Juvia added, and she clenched her eyes closed as her eyes started to water up. Nami got out of her seat and Juvia yelled, "Go away!" Nami did not listen though, and she walked closer while Robin moved away from the wall. Robin gazed at her best friend carefully as Juvia was acting sporadically.

"Juvia," Nami whispered, and she put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "I'm," Nami gulped and Juvia opened her eyes to see Nami's eyes wetter than her own, and tears started to seep out of the orange haired woman's eyes. "I'm so, so, so sorry," Nami whispered. She clenched Juvia's shoulder tight, and when Juvia's eyes opened wide, Nami caught the younger girl off guard by reaching her other hand forward and pulling Juvia into a tight hug.

When the two saw each other back at the Resistance base, it was awkward between them as Juvia tried avoiding her. They were in the same room again though, and what Nami did when they were in the Fire Lord's palace came to her mind. Nami sobbed and said, "I didn't mean- you aren't a monster Juvia. I'm sorry for the way I looked at… I just," Nami shook her head and she hugged Juvia tighter. "I'm sorry."

Robin walked closer as well and she bowed her own head a little. "I also apologize," Robin started softly. "We should not have split up."

"Yeah," Juvia said, looking away and rubbing her eyes with her right arm. She pushed Nami back with her other and then glared into Robin's eyes, "You shouldn't have left. Juvia needed you. Juvia needed her friends."

Nami clenched her teeth tighter in regret and looked away, but Robin kept looking the younger woman in the eyes. Juvia stepped towards her and asked, "Do you know what happened to me?" She was switching back and forth between the first and third person but her friends understood her anyway. Robin nodded her head after a few seconds and Juvia's eyes watered up more. "Juvia, died," she said, though it was hard to say the words as she got choked up.

"You're okay now though," Nami said. She spun the blue haired girl around and looked her in the eyes. "And we aren't leaving again. I promise you. Whatever happens, we'll convince Luffy and Gray to stay together. They'll-"

"I don't care anymore," Juvia said, but her tears did not stop coming down. "Nami-san and Robin-san can do what they want. I do not, I don't," Juvia shook her head and her heart was hurting so much. "I don't care anymore," Juvia said, and she stumbled back and fell so she was sitting on the edge of the bed Nami was on a minute ago. She lifted her hands to her face and put them in front of her eyes. "Juvia, has not been with Gray since, since I came back," she whispered.

Nami scratched the back of her neck as that was a little personal, but the way Juvia said it also made her confused and she walked towards her friend. She sat down next to Juvia as Robin walked in front of her, and Nami questioned, "Why?"

Juvia shook her head with her face still in her hands. "I can't," she began, her voice sounding so pained, so agonized, so tortured.

"It is okay Juvia," Robin began. The younger girl lifted her head a little and Robin gave her a soft, reassuring smile. "Whatever you tell us, is solely between us girls. Please, tell us what is troubling you."

"We just want to help," Nami assured.

Juvia shook her head some more and she clenched her eyes shut. "I don't, want to talk about it," she said, though as she said it the others knew it was all that was on her mind. The fact that she brought it up in the first place said differently, and Nami and Robin pressed the question. Juvia gulped, for the first time seeming nervous since the other two saw her. Angry, upset Juvia, that was the new norm, but nervous?

"Juvia has a secret," she whispered, and a tear came out of her left eye and rolled down her face. "When Juvia died," she started, and she turned her head to her left and stared Nami right in the eyes. "I was… I knew I was…" She got choked up and stopped again to sniffle. "For weeks, Juvia had known, but, she wanted to be absolutely, one hundred percent, sure, and she was afraid of how to tell Gray-sama." Juvia clenched her teeth and her face scrunched up. Her eyes blinked hard and tears were pushed out as her friends stared at her with widening eyes. "I," she continued, gasping for breath and hardly able to say it out loud, as she never had before. "I was, I- Juvia was, I," she shook her head and finally whispered in a hoarse voice under her breath, "I was pregnant."

Nami gasped and leaned away from the girl who could not stop the tears from flowing freely now. Robin thought she would have something to say to the girl, but that was something she did not expect to hear. Juvia cried softly and the girl continued whispering quickly, "I didn't want to tell Gray-sama because I knew he would want me to go somewhere safe, but, but that would have been better. When Juvia, came back," she shook her head and whispered, "Gray-sama's baby was no longer…" her lips started quivering and she couldn't stop more tears from coming out of her eyes.

The girl sitting next to her on the bed did not know what to say. She had nothing she could think of, so she did what felt natural and wrapped both arms around Juvia's side. She pulled the girl's head into her shoulder and Juvia cried there for over a minute uninterrupted. Finally, Nami thought she knew what to say and she started, "It's alright. It's going to be okay-"

"No it's not!" Juvia snapped, pushing away from the hug hard and jumping up to her feet. Nami's eyes widened as that was apparently not the right thing to say as Juvia was glaring daggers into her now.

"It will be okay," Robin said, making Juvia turn angrily to her now. Robin did not back off though, standing only a foot in front of the younger girl. She continued, "Even if Gray-san was to know, he would not blame you."

"You don't know that!" Juvia exclaimed, not using Robin's name which she realized was maybe the first time that happened in the years they knew each other. Juvia seemed to notice it too though and the blue haired girl stumbled backwards. She bumped into the bed and did a three-sixty to make sure she did not touch Nami or anything. She backed towards the wall and Nami got up to look at her nervously. "Juvia, Juvia," the girl kept saying her name because she knew it was what she was supposed to do, but she was going through the motions, nothing more. "I don't know, what happened to me," she said, her voice sounding horrified as she backed into the wall. She held out her arms to make sure the older women kept their distance and she said sternly, "You two should stay away from me though."

"Juvia, stop," Nami started.

She stepped towards the girl but Juvia swung an arm at her and yelled, "I said stay back!" Water slashed across the air and Nami jumped back to dodge to whip of water. The water kept going and hit the wall on Juvia's left, and the Rain Woman herself looked over to see it cut through the steel an inch or two. Juvia's mouth opened and she shook her head in self-loathing. "Get away," she whispered.

Robin walked towards Juvia while Nami held back for a moment. "Juvia," Robin started. She got close to the girl who closed her eyes tight. "Whatever you believe is wrong with you, you're wrong." Juvia's eyes snapped open wide and Robin's face was only inches away from her own. "You are a sweet, beautiful girl, and my friend," Robin said. "Nami's too. We aren't going to just leave you alone, so you can stop trying to make us."

Juvia's eyes welled up and Robin smiled at the girl's face that turned red in the cheeks. "Now," Robin continued, "tell us, what else is bothering you?"

Nami looked confused, but Robin could see there was more Juvia had not told them yet. The way Juvia was acting, it was not the way someone without secrets acts. She would know. Juvia nodded her head at Robin, and her back slid down the wall until she was sitting on the floor. Robin sat right down in front of her, cross-legged, and Nami walked over as well to sit next to Robin. Juvia sat in front and between them, and the girl with blue hair started, "I do not want to be with Gray anymore," she said, a sentence that shocked her friends as he was all she talked about their entire times together early on in Nexus, and then after they met up too.

"Why not?" Nami asked. "Is it, because of the, um…"

"Bloodlust," Juvia whispered. She nodded her head but continued while looking down, "I did not mean it in that way though. I mean, I don't want to lay with Gray anymore." Nami recalled what Juvia said about not being with him since she came back and she and Robin both nodded at Juvia to continue. Juvia lifted back up her head and she whispered, "If, if I have a child, I feel like- I _know,_ it's not going to be okay."

"How?" Nami wondered.

"I just know," Juvia said, not able to explain it herself. "Juvia's unborn child died, before she went into the Lazarus Pit. I think, I think now, now that I'm the way that I am," she said it in such a self-hating voice that her friends felt pain themselves. "My child will be, _evil._ "

"That's silly," Nami assured her. "No child is born evil."

"I agree," Robin said. "Children can grow up however you raise them to be."

"But, but Juvia needs to kill people," Juvia whispered. Her friends said nothing to that and Juvia looked them each in the eyes, "You don't think, that maybe, Juvia's offspring may also have that problem?" Nami wanted to tell the girl no, but Robin was not saying a word and when Nami looked at her, Robin only frowned as she mulled it over. "It is in my body after all," Juvia whispered. "The Pit brought me back to life, but, I'm not the same anymore."

"You are to us," Nami said, and she gave the girl a smile to try and show it.

"I know Nami-san," Juvia replied to her. "But listen to me, look at me," Juvia looked into Nami's eyes and the older woman stared straight back. She looked deep into Juvia's eyes and Nami's face started to sweat. She stared into the dark eyes, deep into them and she saw… nothing. "I feel _empty,_ " the blue-haired girl said. "Juvia knows- I know, that if I have a child, something will be wrong with it."

Juvia lifted up her right arm and put it in front of her eyes to stop the next round of tears that were coming. "All Juvia wanted," she started in a choked-up voice. "All she ever wanted, was to have a family with Gray-sama. She wanted him to be happy," as Juvia talked about herself, her friends realized she was not talking in the third person because it felt natural, but more like she was talking about Juvia as an entirely different person, as if this was in the past tense. "I can't give him, a family anymore," Juvia gasped out. "I can't, be with him anymore. I don't know what to do anymore. If I can't be with Gray-sama, if I can't be with the man I love," she bowed her head and whispered, "I might as well be-"

"No!" Nami yelled.

Juvia's head stayed bowed but Nami reached forward and grabbed her friend's chin, lifting her head up forcefully. Looking up at Nami she saw more determined looks on Nami and Robin's faces than she had ever seen before. "Don't talk like that," Nami said, and Juvia's eyes widened at the water in Nami's eyes that spilled over as well, and even more shocking was the tear dripping out of Robin's left eye and rolling down her face.

"You should never think like that," Robin said, in a loving, but scolding tone. "Don't ever say something like that again," Robin said. The woman with long black hair reached forward as well but she used her hand to wipe a tear from Juvia's right cheek. "We will help you."

"You can't," Juvia started in a whisper.

"How do you know that?" Nami snapped. Juvia spun to her in surprise and Nami held her hands up at her sides, "Are you an expert on coming back from the dead?" Juvia shook her head and Nami continued, "How about the Lazarus Pit?" Juvia shook again and Nami sighed, "Then don't say that you can't be with Gray anymore, because you don't know that for sure."

Juvia shook her head a few more times and she wiped her face. She knew Nami and Robin were only trying to make her feel better, and she whispered, "Thank you, but-"

"Nami is serious," Robin said, and Juvia looked back forward to see both of her friends looking at her determinedly. They were not lying or just saying things to make her feel better. They were speaking from their hearts. The archaeologist continued, "There are survivors of this League of Assassins. I am sure some of them must know about the Pit and its side effects."

"And even if we can't find them," Nami continued, "there's Sora, and Goku, and Timmy, we haven't talked to any of them about this yet. Don't you think we should ask some of the strongest people we know if they can help you before we jump to any conclusions?"

Juvia's eyes widened the more her friends spoke. Every time they said something her heart sped up a little bit more. Robin added that Sora's Esuna magic was meant to heal status effects, and it had healed insanity before which could be related to what Juvia felt she was going through. Nami added that if it was inside her body, then medicine could also work and there are doctors all over the world who could help her.

"You really think," Juvia began, "there could be a way, to fix Juvia?"

"Not that we think there's anything wrong with you," Nami reminded, "but yes. If you want to get rid of this bloodlust, we'll do everything we can to help you."

"And we will succeed," Robin assured. "That's all there is to it. We don't need to tell the boys if you don't want to, but I know every one of them would say the same thing. And that is including Gray-san."

The Fairy Tail mage with the ability to control water started tearing up again but it was for a different reason than before. Juvia rubbed her eyes but she could not hold in her sobs any longer. They had been building up for weeks, ever since she came back and felt that a piece of her was missing. She hid it well when she was with her friends, but it made her so angry that no one knew what she was going through. And now that she let it all out, she was given the one thing she never expected to find again. She was given hope.

"Nami-sannn! Robin-sannn!" Juvia yelled. She leaned forward and dove on the women in front of her. They each wrapped their arms around the girl in between them and Juvia sobbed loudly on them. "I'm so happy," she said, because Juvia truly believed in her friends enough to trust what they were telling her. "Juvia can be saved. Juvia, Juvia loves you!"

"We love you too Juvia," Nami said. She held the girl tighter while staring at the wall behind her. _Now we just need to find a way to save you._

 **Ca-CHUNK! BRRrrrr…** A loud thud shook the entire vehicle and the three girls wrapped in a hug fell on the floor. They listened to the sounds of the wheels slowing down and the engines getting quieter to a dull roar and then cut off completely.

"What was that?" Nami asked, pulling herself back up to her feet. She reached down and Juvia looked at her hand, before smiling and wiping her eyes with one arm and grabbing Nami's hand with the other. The three women got up and headed for the door, stepping out and seeing a lot of others gathering in the hall as well. Natsu looked down the hall at the women for a second but looked away when Robin glanced in his direction. He turned away and Robin realized something, wiping the left side of her face and disposing of the tear still on it. Nami and Juvia's faces were more obvious, and as Luffy came out of a room he looked over in surprise and opened his mouth to ask something.

Before Luffy could ask a question that would make everything very awkward, a voice sounded over the loudspeakers of the vehicle. **"Something's wrong,"** Gray said, his voice filling up the entire vehicle. **"One of the tires popped. We have extras, but we'll have to go down to replace it…"** He hesitated for a moment and the other could hear the reluctance in his voice to continue. Gray finally kept going, **"Those tires are meant to be able to drive over steel spikes, be careful out there."** He did not say anything else and the speakers cut off, but everyone felt a little more on guard after hearing that last part.

"What do you think happened?" Natsu muttered as he walked forwards. There was a steel door at the end of the hall with a red wheel on it and the word 'EXIT' above on the wall. The staircase was next to it and the other boys of the Straw Hat crew came down it with nervous and anxious expressions. Sanji was already smoking a cigarette, and when Usopp came out of the stairwell, two boys came down behind him followed by Gray.

Robin hummed at Natsu's question and she scratched her chin. _The south beyond the Great Wall is supposedly full of monsters. We were told this vehicle would not be stopped by them though. Are there people out there? If so, to have stopped our vehicle they are likely our enemies. Hopefully, it was only a mechanical failure that caused the break down._

Gray walked between his friends to the steel door and twisted the wheel on it. They heard loud clanks with every turn of the wheel and the group prepared themselves. None of them lifted weapons or powered up, but they all had expressions that showed they would not be surprised if they had to get battle-ready in an instant. Ben glanced fearfully around at all his comrades and the boy calmed down a bit. _Even Luffy looks prepared for the worst. This is good. Back when Nox attacked, no one looked this ready. They've finally accepted that Aebrith is not a place we can just casually stroll through._ The kid got a small grin on his face as a strong feeling of relief washed over him.

That relief was quashed when the door opened and Ben's intense look returned. Gray tossed down a rope ladder that was rolled up under a small platform at the edge of the door, but then the ice mage just jumped down a hundred feet to the ground anyway. Nami got on the ladder and started climbing down, but the rest of the group followed Gray's example and leapt off, even Usopp. The sniper bent his legs upon landing to try and lessen the blow, only to wince and clench his teeth hard as to not let out any noise of embarrassing pain around all the stronger guys, including boys several years younger than him.

The group gathered at the bottom of the tank and they continued to stay on guard in this unknown, supposedly dangerous terrain. "I knew it," Gray muttered with sweat on his face as he checked out the front right tire of their tank. As he muttered it, Luffy's head lifted up and he spun around with a serious expression on his face. Gray stood up fully and whispered with widening eyes, "The ship was sabotaged."

"Nami get down," Luffy shouted. Nami had just hopped off the bottom of the ladder and she turned to her captain in surprise, but he was already sprinting towards her. Luffy was at Nami's side in an instant and tackled her down next to the back right wheel of their vehicle. She was going to shout at him when a loud gunshot went off and something whizzed through the air above Luffy and Nami's heads. It slammed into the flat wheel behind them and ripped a huge hole straight through it.

Luffy jumped back up and glared the direction the red beam bullet just came from. "I know you're there!" Luffy yelled out, feeling multiple presences close to him yet he was unable to see anything.

"What the Hell was that?!" Nami shouted and cupped the top of her head in fear that another shot was coming.

"Who shot at my dear Nami-san?!" Sanji yelled.

The group spun the direction Luffy was looking, and out on the dark landscape a hundred feet away three forms shimmered out of nowhere. Their bodies were invisible up until a second ago but their cloaking devices were not the only impressive gadgetry on them. They had gross tentacle hair and wide mouths of sharp teeth that were hidden well on the two in the back that had on metal masks over their faces matching the armor on the rest of their bodies. The scariest and most muscular monster that appeared at the front of the three had a cannon sticking out of its right shoulder with three glowing red lights on it in a triangle formation. Its mouth flaps opened up to the sides revealing two sharp fangs on its top jaw and a row of sharpened teeth beneath it, while the mouth flaps that moved to the sides themselves had sharp spikes on the tops and bottoms. The creature's facial skin was a mix of light green and dark brown color, and when it opened up its mouth flaps it let out a loud growl that made the other two roar as well.

"Predators," Gray snarled loudly. He stepped towards them and said in a deep voice, "Monstrous hunters that usually move in packs."

"You think they're the ones who sabotaged our ship?" Natsu asked.

"Can't be," Gray said and shook his head. "We were moving too fast." His friends looked at him skeptically and he shook his head, "I don't mean we were going too fast for them to hit us, they could have done that, but Predators are professional hunters. They follow their prey before hitting them… which means," Gray looked back at the front wheel of the ship he originally saw was sabotaged. "Whatever they're hunting is around here."

"Well, what do these things hunt?" Usopp asked as he held up his slingshot and pointed it at them.

"They hunt the strong," Gray responded. "I would suggest not pointing a weapon at them."

"Usopp move!" Luffy shouted.

The sniper was confused why Luffy shouted at him, and then Usopp's own eyes opened wide and he could see a beam of red light flying across the dark field. He watched it go right through his chest and out the back of his body, and then his eyes snapped open wider as he realized where he was. Usopp dove to the left as Luffy was about to push him out of the way, and both Luffy and Sanji noticed how Usopp saw it coming before the beam was even fired.

 _What was that?_ Usopp thought as he hit the ground. He looked up and saw a red beam going through the spot he was just standing in. _Whatever it was, it saved me._

"If they weren't hunting us, then it just turned out that we got stuck in the middle of their hunting grounds," Kirito said, keeping his head on a swivel. "What were they hunting?" he whispered, and kept looking around to see if he could locate them.

"Up there," Sanji said to the teen on his left. The teen followed Sanji's gaze up the metal leg of the deflated wheel to the truck's body where there was a hole in the bottom.

"They're in our tank?" Juvia questioned in surprise.

"But what are they?" Rin asked.

As the black haired teen in a white button down asked the question, he saw something move behind the back left tire. They were pretty far away from it considering the truck's long width, but Rin was sure he saw movement back there. He was not the only one to notice it, but as soon as the creature found out that its presence had been noticed, it sprung from behind the tire. The thing was fast, sprinting on its muscular legs and using its thin sharp claws to dig into the ground and push itself farther faster. It had a long tail sticking out of its back with a sharp point on it and two arms with razor-like fingers on its hands. The creature was as black as the ground but shinier, and it had a round head with grooves on the sides and top but a smooth surface on the front of its face where it should have had eyes. The fact that it did not have eyes did not stop it from charging straight towards its target though, a muscular man on his butt who was still staring over at the Predators.

"What the Hell is that thing?!" Rin shouted, taking a step back at the sight of the monster sprinting their way. After he took his step back, he saw where the monster was going and changed which direction he was going. Luffy saw which way the monster was going too and he punched a fist forward, but before his rubber hand hit the monster it sidestepped and kept running straight ahead. Luffy's eyes widened at the sight of its speed, and then the creature dodged as a red beam shot right towards it from the lead Predator's cannon.

Gray turned as he saw the beam go past him and he dropped his jaw at the sight of the monster diving towards Usopp. "Xenomorphs!" The fact that he used plural was because he spotted two more of them, one dropping from the hole on the bottom of the tank and the other climbing down the metal leg of the flattened wheel.

"Ahh!" Usopp shouted at the creature dove at him. It slashed its arms down, but Usopp pushed his slingshot up and they both pressed the shaft back and forth between them. The alien creature pushed its face down and Usopp pushed up as hard as he could to keep a good distance between them. It was amazing how much strength he was pulling out of nowhere in this adrenaline-filled situation, but his fear intensified as the Xenomorph opened up its mouth of sharp teeth and a tongue shot out that looked like a smaller head inside of the alien's mouth. The smaller head shot out with a long neck that really looked like a tongue, but at the end of the tongue was an open mouth that bit down on Usopp's long nose. The sniper screamed, and then a black rubber fist covered in steam slammed into the alien's head and knocked it right off of Usopp.

Both the Aliens and Predators all turned to Luffy now. One of the Xenomorphs had flames coming out of its head and it tumbled across the ground for a few seconds from Luffy's Red Hawk, then out of nowhere it sprung back up to its feet and snapped its head back in Luffy's direction. The group of fourteen suddenly felt very nervous. Most of them could not come close to Luffy's Red Hawk in power, and there were three of these powerful aliens around them. What made it worse, was the idea that the Predators could take them down, which meant that those hunters were as strong, if not stronger than the Xenomorphs. "Only six of them," Gray started, sweat rolling down both sides of his face but a hint of optimism in his voice. "Guys," he said loudly. "Fight together and call for help if you-" Gray dove to his right, just in time as a red beam shot his way. He did a forward-roll and then leapt to the left, and left again as the Xenomorph that charged him stabbed its tail at the spot he dodged to.

Gray spun and slashed his swords down at the alien, but the Xenomorph slashed at his icy blades and ripped shards of ice off of them. The field of black turned to madness in seconds. Red beams shot overhead and in between the humans, blue flames flew around alongside rubber fists and flaming kicks, while speedy aliens with sharp teeth charged at them and tried ripping them to pieces. Two of the Xenomorphs started sprinting across the field towards the Predators, but while the one in front kept firing its cannons, the two Predators in the back charged forward and pulled out smaller pistols for one hand and long sabers for the other.

Gray pressed his only remaining, weakening blade into the front of the alien in front of him and held it back long enough for Sanji to finish the front flip he was doing on the other side of the beast. He just came dropping out of the sky to increase his momentum and with a flaming leg he smashed the alien's round skull down hard enough that even its armored skin pressed in and its legs collapsed from beneath it. A red beam shot towards them and the two men were not ready, but luckily the beam flew harmlessly ten yards to their right. They spun wondering why that happened and saw a bunch of green vines wrapped around the leader of the three Predators, a giant green plant head full of teeth writhing around over it. The two of them turned in surprise to see Usopp holding his slingshot triumphantly despite the blood all over his long nose.

The Xenomorphs and Predators were still fighting each other very close to them, and red beams were flying close, occasionally missing and hitting their truck behind them. "We need to stop them before they damage the ship any further!" Nami shouted.

"Don't worry little-sis!" Franky shouted. He posed with his arms over his head and the others all turned around only to drop their jaws in shock as the deflated wheel was already removed and Franky was carrying the backup towards the empty side of the axel. "I'll have it SUPER fixed in no time!" Franky boasted.

"Great, we'll keep the ship from getting more damaged while you do that," Sanji told him, then started heading towards the monsters. He took out his cigarette that only had a stub left and dropped it on the black ground beneath his feet. He was not the only one heading towards the fighting monsters, and it looked like the monsters themselves decided that fighting each other was no longer in their best interests as these humans were taking them down. One of the Predators sprinted forward, but he did not charge them, instead slashing up Usopp's Devil Midori Boshi with a katana and releasing the third Predator to even out the odds a little. Sanji walked forward with Luffy, Natsu, Ben, Stan, and Usopp (even if he was a few yards back from the rest). Rin stayed back near Franky, and the three girls were in between the two groups of boys. Riku and Kirito had not moved to follow the others yet though, as the two of them noticed something that the others did not. They saw the one man in their group who knew about Aebrith, who had information none of them had, who they usually watched to see how he reacted before reacting themselves, they saw Gray Fullbuster's face turn blue.

Gray had seen Sanji drop his cigarette and his eyes subconsciously followed the smoke down to the floor before lifting up. When they looked down though, he spotted the cigarette fall right through the ground, and his eyes moved back down to show him that he had missed a crack in the ground. It was not a very wide crack, and he did not notice it before because the ground was all pitch black and looked the same, even if some parts did dip down a little farther than others. He would have thought nothing of it too, except that smoke stopped coming from the cigarette, and Sanji never stepped on the stub. He looked at the crack and could not see the cigarette anymore, implying the butt of it fell far, like that crack was not just a dip in the ground, but a crack that led much farther down. _Even if it went much farther though, the smoke would come out of there. It would have to. It would have to escape somewhere. The butt must have went out, but why? Was it from the fall? Instantly? Something down below us could have stepped on it, or…_ Gray's heart rate was speeding up and up and then he spotted the movement in the crack that he realized he had been praying he would not see as soon as he thought 'or.'

"No," Gray whispered, his eyes turning as wide as saucers. The sheer panic on Gray's face made both Kirito and Riku's eyes go wide and the two of them to get instantly incredibly nervous. Gray turned and looked forward towards his friends who were about to charge at the Predators and Xenomorphs, then back at the others behind him, allowing the girls and Rin who were all looking their direction to see his absolutely terrified face. The four of them gained similar panicked expressions as Riku and Kirito, expressions that only got more nervous as Gray screamed at the top of his lungs, "EVERYONE RUN AWAY!" The ice mage turned and started sprinting straight left, while those in front of him turned and saw him running, and those behind him just started running after him, Rin shouting at Franky to come too.

"What's happening?" Franky asked in confusion, though he dropped the wheel and started running after seeing that look on Rin's face.

"Where are you going?" Luffy yelled back in annoyance. He glared back forward and leaned his head to the left casually to dodge a red beam flying at him that he felt coming with his Haki. He glared at the Predator that did it and shot a blast of Conqueror's Haki out, only to be slightly impressed as none of the Xenomorphs or Predators flinched at the blast. The Predators did start backing up a second later, and then they turned towards each other, grunted a few times, turned away and vanished in thin air.

Natsu got a bead of sweat on his face and he muttered, "Did they just run away?"

"I SAID RUN!" Gray screamed, stopping and yelling back at the other guys who turned back to their enemies as they were feeling confident despite Gray's yells. The boys all looked towards Gray and the others running away from the tank towards him, and the mage whose face was covered in sheer terror yelled out two words that had pits forming in the stomachs of every person there. "THE FLOOD!"

As he said it, Usopp spotted something in his peripheral vision and darted his eyes over towards a crack in the ground where he saw a small grayish-orange bud stick out of a crack for a second. He took a step back, then spun his head left as he saw one of the Xenomorphs charging at him.

"Usopp!" Stan shouted. The kid running towards the sniper did not think he was going to make it so he rose his left hand, a frown on his face as he had to show off his powers. He used a Force Push and slammed the Xenomorph's tail, making it miss the jab it tried to impale Usopp with. "You okay?" Stan asked as he finally ran in between Usopp and the hesitant alien.

Usopp nodded his head a few times nervously, then Stan jumped forward and pushed both hands at the Xenomorph. Usopp stared in surprise as Stan pushing his arms like that made the Xenomorph lift off its feet and roll backwards.

"The Flood?" Luffy muttered, turning around and looking back towards where Gray was standing before. His eyes examined the area around him, but he did not see anything.

"Luffy, we should go," Sanji said, his voice full of urgency. "Right now," Sanji added.

Natsu turned towards Gray and the others and he started jogging, though he was not sweating as much as most of them. _The Flood? Gray said if we saw them to run as fast as we could away, so it looks like that's what we're doing. But,_ he looked around at the empty black landscape all around, _where are they?!_ He slowed down and came to a stop, while Usopp, Sanji, and the younger boys kept running ahead.

Luffy slowed down too and turned to the spiky haired mage next to him. Natsu gave him a quizzical look and then turned back around and looked towards where they just were. All three of the injured Xenomorphs were getting back up, even the one Sanji smashed in the head with his leg that apparently did not die from the earlier attack. "You see any Flood?" Natsu asked, keeping his eyes back on their three alien enemies.

"Nope," Luffy stated, also just staring back at those Xenomorphs.

Natsu grinned. "Wanna finish them off before we keep going?" He asked.

Luffy glanced out the corner of his eyes at the man on his right, then looked back forward and lifted his fists, cracking his knuckles in front of himself. "I'll take the two on the left."

"Screw that, I'll take the two on the right," Natsu said. There were only three enemies, so it looked like whoever got the one in the middle along with their own was going to be the winner. The two of them got ready, turning their fists black with Haki or red with flames.

Getting farther away from them were the rest of their friends, one of whom looked back then spun his head forward and yelled, "Gray!" The ice mage looked back to see Ben had come to a stop and had a very nervous look on his face. The kid pointed behind himself and Gray looked way back, almost a mile away now. He looked and an instant feeling of dread filled his entire being. The others who saw the look spun and started yelling at the top of their lungs.

"NATSU!"

"LUFFY!"

"RUNNN!"

The two stubborn powerhouses ignored their friends though, taking steps in the wrong direction instead. And then the two of them came to a stop. They stopped because out of a crack in the ground in between them and the Xenomorphs, a tiny yellow creature that looked soft and bumpy came crawling. It had half a dozen thin legs that looked similar to a spider's, and three thin appendages sticking out of the thing's two foot tall body. At the end of those thin arm-tentacles were red brushes that waved around in seemingly random patterns.

The others at varying distances away from Luffy and Natsu looked all the way back and a few of them were able to see the creature that just emerged from the ground. Riku turned his head right to check something, and by the look on Gray's face it was confirmed. _That's the Flood? Doesn't look like much._

He was not the only one thinking it. Natsu burst out laughing after a few seconds and he shouted, "Yo Gray! Is this really, what you, were…" he faded off as he spotted movement in the corners of his eyes. He only now realized what Gray realized before, that the ground was covered in cracks that were hard to see because of the black dirt ground that covered everything. Natsu saw in the left and right side of his vision movement where he saw no movement before. From the crack the first Infection Form Flood came out of, four more emerged, and more were crawling out every second.

Natsu stopped yelling to Gray, but he burnt his fists brighter and kept a small grin on his face. _Is this really it? This is the "scary" Flood?_ Luffy had a more serious look on his face and he rose up his blackened right fist, but that was because of the three large creatures that started sprinting at them and ignoring the tiny beings on the floor like they were insignificant. Luffy already knew the Xenomorphs' strength for himself though, so he would take them seriously. He stomped his right foot down on the ground, prepared his right fist, and then he and Natsu froze, as did the two Xenomorphs on the side of the one in the middle who the two men were going to fight over who got to kill it. They stopped because all of the Infection Form Flood already out of the ground, and about two dozen more that emerged at that exact moment, charged straight at that center alien.

"What the fu-" Natsu stopped himself and his eyes just got wider as he watched the center alien swing around its tail and smash some of the Flood to pieces, clawing others apart as it did, but then, one of the Flood dug its brushes into a crack in the Xenomorph's hard armor that was created when a Predator slashed it earlier. The Xenomorph stopped clawing at the Flood outside of its body, and it started clawing at the gash in its own side that the Parasite did not just widen with its arms, but it climbed inside of completely. Natsu took a step back as the alien tried ripping its own body apart, and he figured out why a second later as the black armor of the alien started getting lighter in color. Gross bumps started forming on its skin and a few of its fingers fell off as the being looked to rot within seconds. Its head covered in large bumps on top of bumps, and the rest of the tiny Infection Flood parasites around the creature stopped attacking.

The Flood stopped attacking, because the creature they were fighting was no longer a Xenomorph. It turned around and faced the Xenomorph on the left of it, one that was backing up, and then the Flood that had taken over its kin's body charged it. The bumpy orangish Xenomorph tackled the other to the ground and started viciously attacking it with its tail and claws, and while the one beneath focused on the one pinning it down, another Infection Parasite got into the crack on the top of its head that Sanji's kick opened up earlier and was already bleeding profusely. The Xenomorph underneath its transformed comrade started clawing at its own head but stopped within seconds of when its body started writhing around.

"Alright," Natsu muttered as he watched the third one start running, only for a Flood that caught a ride on its back to tear through it and make the alien trip and then start to transform as well. He looked around himself and saw more and more of these creatures appearing all over the vicinity, and fast. "Luffy," Natsu said, his voice incredibly serious for him. "Let's get out of here."

Luffy wanted to disagree, but he was just thinking about how the aliens were pretty strong and this was going to be a good fight. All three of them got slaughtered by the horde of Flood in seconds, and he found himself backing up before Natsu even said it. He was still right on the Dragon Slayer's side though, as he was not the only one backing away. He nodded his head and turned, only to see more Flood emerging from the ground ahead of him. _I felt weak presences beneath the ground, but they were minuscule, like insects. The Xenomorph-guys too, their presences vanished when the Flood's took over, meaning it's the little parasite thing that's really in control of the body now._ The pirate frowned and he looked all around, and then straight at the ground beneath him where he felt a lot more of these creatures.

"Oi Luffy," Natsu started, as he seemed to realize that they were surrounded. He looked into the distance where their friends had stopped running because of them being so far back. "Use your Gear Second and catch up to the others."

"Don't tell me what to do-"

"Can your punches destroy all of them at the same time?" Natsu asked, interrupting the rubberman. Luffy did not respond. Natsu nodded his head without looking at the pirate next to him. "Go quick. Gray was right, these things are going to kill us if I don't do this. Quickly, go!" Natsu saw all of the Flood start crawling across the ground fast towards them, and the Flood-Xenomorphs were charging in twice as fast.

Natsu saw steam rising up next to him, and a second later Luffy was no longer there. The Dragon Slayer had a serious expression on his face, but for a second he smiled. He lifted up the corners of his mouth and did a full spin to look at all the monsters charging straight towards him. "Alright," Natsu said, his fists bursting into flames brighter than a second ago.

Luffy appeared over in between Ben and Stan, both of whom looked pretty nervous. The two were farthest back and ready to go help Luffy, but now Usopp lowered his slingshot and the kids looked at the steaming pirate captain in surprise as well as he left Natsu alone back there to fight all the monsters on his own. "Run!" Luffy shouted, and not one of them argued with him from how intense he looked.

"Are the Flood really that bad?" Stan asked as he ran after Luffy who started getting ahead of him.

Luffy looked back and his eyes opened wider. He threw his arms out to the sides and as he was still steaming they extended really far in under a second. His arms wrapped around Ben, Stan, and Usopp, and he yelled, "The Flood?! We're getting away from Natsu!" He used his Gear Second speed to shoot off the ground and they went flying over the landscape. Sanji saw Luffy go flying by him and heard what Luffy shouted before it. He looked back and watched as Natsu shot up high in the air, while beneath the Dragon Slayer, it looked like the Flood had increased exponentially in the last few minutes and the entire black landscape near their vehicle was now covered in them. Sanji looked away from the Flood and back up to Natsu though, and his eyes widened so much that he jumped off the ground and started kicking the air behind himself to send himself forward as fast as he could.

Sanji made it up to the ladies and Gray as Luffy got there with a panting Ben, Stan, and Usopp. His captain did not waste a second after appearing and yelled, "Gray! Make a wall!"

Gray turned back again, and the dreading look on his face intensified as he spotted Natsu all the way back near the vehicle. In between them and the vehicle were hundreds of tiny Flood now, and many of them were sprinting their way instead of directly beneath Natsu's body. "A wall Gray!" Riku shouted at the man next to him who was hesitating for too long.

Gray shook his head of his stupor and he ground his teeth in frustration. "Damn it," he yelled. He ran back the way he came until he was past everyone behind him, then slammed his right hand into the ground. "Ice Make: Great Ice Wall!" The ground for a hundred feet in either direction of his hand froze and a wall shot out of that frozen ground ten meters thick and twenty meters tall.

"Everyone get close!" Luffy shouted, running towards the wall himself and putting his back against the freezing cold thing.

Nami ran up to the wall and put her back up against it right next to her captain's. She turned and looked at Luffy as he stared straight ahead, staring over the black landscape in front of them instead of turning his head sideways and looking through the translucent wall like the rest of them. Because they all had their heads to the sides to look through the wall, Luffy did not realize that Nami was actually looking at him and not back at the Flood and their other friend. _Ever since the two of you fought,_ Nami thought, before getting distracted by a brilliant orange light on the other side of the Great Ice Wall.

The group looked back and could somewhat see what Natsu was doing up in the air. The Dragon Slayer jumped pretty high up to prepare the attack he thought he needed. He was coming down and he had his hands down at his right side with his wrists together in a stance he remembered very well. The mage smirked as his hands glowed bright orange with Cooler's energy, and he screamed at the top of his lungs, "DRAGON SLAYER SECRET ART:" An orange orb of light formed in the point in front of his palms, with a deep red core that looked like a sun and bolts of lightning rippling around it. "ARCOSIAN FIRE DRAGON'S-" the ball of light tripled in size, then tripled again so it was thrice as big as Natsu's body himself. The Dragon Slayer roared and slammed his hands in front of his body, yelling, "INCINERATION WAVE!"

The giant sphere of light shot off of Natsu's hands towards the ground, but unlike his Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame, it was not just the sphere of fire. Behind the ball of sparking orange light with a core of a red sun, was a bright orange beam half as wide as the ball of energy at the end of it. The larger Flood monsters beneath Natsu had smaller ones crawling on top of them like they were trying to make a tower up to the man dropping towards them so they could reach him faster. The beam had not even hit the ground yet, but the others behind the ice wall could see water pouring down the other side of it and felt the ground shaking beneath their feet. The beam incinerated the Flood directly beneath Natsu, but it tore through more than that, ripping straight through the blackened earth beneath them as well and then finally exploding in one of the giant tunnels beneath the landscape.

As the blast exploded, half the group with their backs against the wall lost their footing and fell to the ground. All around them cracks formed on the black surface much wider than any back where they just were, these ones actually visible to the naked eye on a first glance. Cracks also lined the ice wall, but it held long enough that when the heat wave from the explosion shot across the landscape, the only creatures on the surface it incinerated were the Flood racing towards the ice wall. There were some parasites only ten yards away from the wall when the heat hit and shredded them, and then the ten meter thick wall shrank down half its height and width in seconds.

The light from the explosion that started underground but did not stay there filled the sky beyond the wall. Orange light illuminated everything for miles in every direction. The light also filled up tunnels underneath the entire area, right before flames from the exploding core in the center of Natsu's attack shot down those tunnels and incinerated all of the Flood making their ways up to the surface. As the Flood were getting torn to shreds, the tunnels they were in were violently shaking apart as well and collapsing down on the parasitic creatures' ashes.

Gray stared through his melting wall with eyes as big as saucers. He watched the shadowed figure drop through the brightly illuminated sky past the ice and finally land down on the ground that's elevation was several meters lower than a minute ago. _I knew fire was effective against the Flood, but Natsu, he really annihilated them. I- I guess I shouldn't be surprised, and yet…_

"Whoa," Franky mumbled, scratching the back of his head as he looked over the shrinking wall that was lower than his eye level now. He stared out at Natsu and said, "That was, impressive."

"Impressive?" Nami asked, her fists clenching at her sides. A dark aura surrounded her and her teeth sharpened as she stared a little to the right of where Natsu landed. She threw her hands up in the air and screamed at the top of her lungs, "HE JUST DESTROYED THE TRUCK!" Everyone else who was looking her way spun back towards the area Natsu was on, and all they could see remaining from the vehicle they traveled down on was smoking rubble and steel scrap.

Natsu heard Nami's scream and the smug Fairy Tail mage's smirk wiped from his face. He turned towards where their ship had stopped, their ship that had all their clothes, money, and belongings on it. The pink haired wizard gulped and turned south towards the rest of his friends who he was expecting to praise him until a second ago, and from the scary looks on all their faces he could tell he was thinking way too optimistically.

* * *

Two thousand miles south of the group of comrades looking for a long-lost friend, the Wizard King rose his head. He was sitting in a great hall, a feast spread out on the table in front of him. The short wizard in a pointy blue hat covered in white stars stood up and grabbed a steak to walk away with. When he got out of his seat, he stood only four feet tall, with a body almost as wide. The wizard wrapped in a purple cloak took one last huge bite out of his steak then threw it to the side and wiped his hand on his shirt before grabbing his staff from where it leaned next to his chair.

The boy with brown hair started walking forward and waved a hand in front of his face. He continued to walk while a shimmering image appeared before him in a magical circle that moved with him so it was always three feet in front of his face. His eyes narrowed and he stopped at the huge double doors to his great hall that were wide open at the moment. "Professor, meet me at the tower at once," he ordered. He spoke without facing anyone, not that there was anyone around who he could look to. Then, he rose up the wooden staff in his left hand and tapped the bottom of it down on the floor.

The Wizard King vanished and reappeared a few hundred feet above where he previously was. He stood inside a stone tower, right in the giant open window facing north over the landscape of the Southern Wastes. As he stood there, someone approached from outside the castle. They flew up over the main section, then a half mile south to reach the tall tower that scraped the clouds, before shooting straight up and stopping outside the highest window with his arms crossed.

The man was ten feet tall, had humongous muscles all over his body, and blond hair spiked up over his head. He wore a green tunic that covered his torso but left his light-skinned muscular arms revealed, and the tunic stretched down into a black kilt that matched his boots. He had a long green cape a darker shade than his tunic, attached at the shoulder straps of his tunic by steel circular clasps, and on his head was a helmet made of steel as well. The helmet was open over his hair but wrapped completely around his forehead and the back of his head, then down the sides of his face before stopping on either side of his mouth, and in the center of the steel that wrapped around his forehead there was a glowing red circle with a yellow dot in the middle. "Professor Chaos, reporting for duty," the muscular man greeted.

The Wizard King swung his right hand in front of him and an image appeared in the air. "I keep the Flood from going past the wall, and this is how they repay me?" The Wizard King asked sarcastically. "Go. Take care of our intruders. Teach them what it means to trespass in the Wizard King's domain."

"Professor Chaos will make sure they get the message," the man punched his fists together and lightning bolts sparked around his entire body. He turned around and stared north with his back to the window the Wizard King stood in. "Can I take the army?" He questioned, a grin spreading across his face that the Wizard King could see on the side of it.

"Very well," the shorter figure replied back. "I've wanted to see what the new upgrades can do for a while now."

"Mwhahaha," Professor Chaos laughed. He rose both arms up at his sides and lightning rose off of his palms and shot up into the sky. The air grew darker and clouds started spinning around directly above the Wizard King's castle. All over the roof of the castle, holes started to appear that figures were flying out of. The figures shot up in the air all around Professor Chaos, figures that had arms, legs, and heads, but were made entirely of steel. A dozen robots gathered in the southern sky of Aebrith, and all of their eyes glowed bright red. The menacing Professor Chaos pointed his right hand forward and yelled, "With me!" He turned his body parallel to the ground and flew away like a missile into the distance.

The robots flew after him just as fast, while behind them the Wizard King smirked and turned his head, staring at the floating image on his side. He watched the people inside the moving image start marching south again and his eyebrows furrowed. _I will teach you to respect, my fucking, authoritah!_

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Alien vs Predator vs Our Heroes was a possible thought for the name of the chapter, but seemed a little long to me. Natsu wrecks the Flood, and the landscape, and their ship... so now the gang's on foot. Bad news coming their way though, as the Wizard King sends Professor Chaos and an army of robots to go "take care of" the intruders. Scene with Juvia and the girls at the beginning was a little mushy, and sad, but I'm getting out of the depressing rut for the last bunch of chapters, promise! It'll be more fun for a while (for those of you mentioning how dark and sad this is that everyone's been losing). Gotta happen early on in the story though, to build up for the climaxes later on where all these baddies who keep winning can (hopefully) get their comeuppance! Anyway, thanks for reading! (The Flood are from Halo in case anyone didn't know, and Alien and Predator are from Alien and Predator movies (aliens are Xenomorphs)).**

Limit-Breaking chapter 90 . 22h ago

You know i can understand why zoro hates nexus now, but at the same time it isn't that bad, they just had a really REALLY REALLY SHITTY luck. I mean seriously aebirth is a place of shit to be honest. The ant king is a horrible king to be honest, a king should be someone who helps the people that is the main reason to the idea of creating the concept of kings, They are their to give their life for the people. But nooooo they want to be dictators and make excuses. I swear i don't even care if goku doens't kill him just somebody kill the ant king at this point.  
your are truly evil, but really good at it, really the characters just keep on suffereing more and more and build up to the point where you can feel their struggles. I really liked this chapter and i look forward to the next one. Also sorry for this really long review.  
Also will we be seeing goku look for tien's body before he meets up with everyboy else, besides that i look forward to the next

 **So I cut a lot out of that review, considering it might have been the longest review of the story (or any story I've written XD ), but I get what you're saying with all the bad stuff happening lately (hence the mention in the A/N). Don't worry though, good times are coming! I mean, as good as things can get on Aebrith *smirks evilly* Glad you liked the chapter and thanks for taking so much timeout to write such a long review on it. No response for that final question, though I will say I left a hint regarding that- actually nevermind I'll just hold off. No spoilers after all ;)**

joebob323 chapter 90 . 16h ago

So, there seems to be a reason for Zoro's power hungriness. I assume that we will see more involving backstories in the coming chapters then. I liked the chapter, hope to see more soon!

 **Thanks for the review! Zoro's one of my favorite characters, ever. When I had him vanish at the start of Nexus I kind of regretted it for a while because I couldn't write him into the story while he was on Aebrith. I had a lot of time to come up with all kind of ideas around him though since the time Kuma smacked him, Gray, and Zabuza away together. The Ashido plot of turning him into a shinigami, Kuina, and- well you'll have to wait until his next chapters to see. XD Glad you enjoyed! Thanks again everyone for reading, reviewing, faving, and following! 'Till next time!**


	92. Nexus HWR 13-4 Professor Chaos

**Nexus HWR 13.4 Professor Chaos:**

 **Southern Wastes, Aebrith**

On a trek across a barren, empty landscape, fourteen people and a two-tailed cat marched south towards their destination. They had been on foot for only fifteen minutes, but already the reality of their situation was setting in. "I can't believe you destroyed everything," Gray mumbled under his breath.

The pink haired mage walking next to him snapped his head to the side in annoyance. When Natsu turned though, he saw not only Gray, but every person behind him all glaring at him as well. "I took care of them didn't I?" He asked, folding his arms and turning back forward. The Dragon Slayer grumbled under his breath then added, "You were right, the Flood were powerful, but it's not like it would have been any better if I had run away too. Then we would have been on foot _and_ on the run from the Flood."

"All my clothes," Nami snarled from the far opposite side of the group, as she knew if she was any closer to Natsu she would be trying to strangle him. "Not to mention," her teeth ground together and her fists clenched in fury. "My money," she snarled and her red eyes darted to Natsu who picked up his pace a little.

"Natsu's right though," Kirito admitted, making Natsu turn left and see the black haired teen speeding up. "If it's between being on foot and being chased, or just being on foot, this is the better option." Kirito had on a black sweatshirt, but even with it on he shivered and glanced up at the sky. There was a layer of gray clouds above him that got darker the farther south he looked. "Timmy is still south of us, but we don't know how much danger we'll come across between here and him. I'll scout ahead." A thin white veil surrounded Kirito and he floated off the ground slowly. He took a deep breath to steady himself, then shot a hundred feet up in the air.

"Going a little slow there," Sanji mentioned as he looked up towards the teen. "Wonder why he didn't take out his wings."

Gray grimaced on the left side of the chef, and Franky shook his head as he thought about what Kirito told him. The ice mage looked up as he continued to walk, and he said, "Kirito's wings were ripped off by Ra's al Ghul." The others looked his way, more specifically at his left arm, or lack thereof.

"Sounds like that Ra's was one tough baddie," Usopp mentioned as Gray grabbed his left shoulder with his free hand.

"He was," Juvia whispered from behind him. Sanji turned his head and saw the blue haired girl behind him looking down at the floor. Juvia rose a hand to her neck and she trembled as she touched her skin where his blade cut through. Sanji's eyes opened huge and he opened his mouth to say something, but Robin darted him a look that said, 'Drop it.'

"Ugh!" Nami exclaimed, throwing her arms up in the air, and getting everyone's minds off of Ra's al Ghul. "I just realized we don't have any food now too!"

"And I was just about finished with lunch," Sanji added. He glared over at Natsu who destroyed the kitchen he spent the morning slaving away in, and the Dragon Slayer looked away and started whistling. After the pirates mentioned it though, Natsu's mind wandered and his stomach let out an involuntary, and very loud growl. He went a shade paler in the face and whistled louder to mask the sound of the growl.

Their entire group had gathered together right after Natsu destroyed the Flood and their ship, and they discussed what they wanted to do from there. It was a unanimous decision to keep heading south to search for the Wizard King and their friend who they believed was being held captive by him. They did not realize at first what they were signing up for by agreeing to keep moving on foot, but now they were starting to get a rough idea. Everything for dozens of miles around them was black. The ground, the hills, even the bleak sky that seemed to be getting darker and darker. There was no vegetation anywhere, and without any walls around them, the nice cool breezes they felt after getting out of the truck were feeling more like painfully frigid winds every minute.

Nami crossed her arms and shivered, wishing she had prepared for something like this and grabbed her coat on her way off the truck earlier. An idea hit the pirate woman though and she turned to the taller man walking on her right side. Before she asked him her question, she examined his face and saw him looking so far-away. He was not just looking into the distance, or at the horizon, he was somewhere completely different at the moment. _Sora, what happened? I know you were at the source of all that shaking. That battle looked intense, but I know you must have survived it. Now get back here soon, because we need to find her. I, I let you get taken. Kairi,_ Riku's face shadowed over. "Hey Riku," a voice said on his left, snapping him out of his dark state and making him turn to the woman next to him who was pretending she did not notice anything and had a hopeful look on her face.

"What is it Nami?" He questioned her.

"Couldn't you, you know?" She began, and he lifted his eyebrows as he did not get where she was going with this. She cupped a hand to her mouth and whispered, "You know, make a portal?"

Riku looked around at everyone walking with them. He turned back to the woman on his side and began softly, "Normally, I need to be able to visualize where I'm going. I knew what Metropolis looked like so I could get us all there. And other times when I used the darkness to get us out of a tight spot, I was never too sure on where I was going to come out. So," he continued while looking south, "I don't want to risk making a portal and jumping straight into an area full of monsters. I could probably avoid them if I can feel their darkness, but those Flood Natsu destroyed, I didn't feel a thing coming from them. They weren't dark, or evil, they were just… parasites."

Nami shivered thinking about those monsters. She nodded at Riku's explanation, though she really wished they would not have to walk all the way to Timmy. Half because she did not like walking, but also half because she wanted to reach Timmy as soon as possible, and walking was not cutting it.

"Yo Gray," Natsu began, turning to his friend who was thinking about where they were right now. The ice mage frowned but turned to Natsu who continued, "Were those things really the worst monsters down here?" The others looked in towards them, and though some thought that the Flood looked plenty scary, a few others agreed with Natsu that they did not seem so bad.

The top half of Gray's face shadowed over and he looked straight ahead again. "Over a year ago, I first heard about the Flood. It was after I joined the Resistance, so when we heard about them, I joined up with a few thousand others heading south to help evacuations." Gray turned his head right, then left, looking all around the bleak, black landscape. "All of this land used to be so rich. Grassy fields covered in Pokemon, towns and cities everywhere, it was beautiful." Gray could imagine it all. He could see how the place looked when he first headed this far south, and then how it currently looked filled his vision again and his small smile faded. "The Flood were unstoppable. We would crush them in one area, just to learn that they appeared in a city farther north that we had been evacuating people to. They were less monsters, and more a disease. And there was no cure. Millions of people died, and then, the Wizard King showed up."

His friends already looking at him all gained looks of confusion on their faces. Rin tilted his head to the side and spoke up, "I thought this Wizard King was a bad guy."

"He is," Nami added quickly. "He's forcing Timmy to do his bidding. I know it." She thought about what Timmy said, how he did not even react when they shouted his name back at the Resistance base, how he stared at her.

"I never said he wasn't," Gray said. "He stopped the Flood, but because he did, he felt like he deserved to rule over everyone. He constantly threatened to release the Flood on the world if we didn't do what he said. At first, the Resistance thought they could work together with the Wizard King. But his demands were unreasonable, his actions were not those of someone trustworthy, and though I have never met him myself." Gray's eyebrows narrowed in and he finished, "I've heard he's a total prick."

"Yeah, he is," Stan mentioned, making Gray turn to the kid walking behind him. The young boy in a brown cloak saw everyone look his way, and he grimaced before mentioning, "I'll be able to get Timmy Turner back for you all though. I promise." The twelve year old glared into the southern distance and his thoughts were dark. _Are you treating this like a fucking game? Where do you think we are?_

In the distant sky, two bolts of lightning dropped out of the black clouds. "Well," Rin began with a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his face. "This doesn't look fun."

They were stuck outside without any shelter and a thunderstorm on its way. Riku frowned and reconsidered using the darkness to get them somewhere else, though to where he did not know. Kuro turned its head towards Rin and the half-demon bent down and scooped his familiar up. Rin put the cat up in the hood of his sweatshirt and apologized that he forgot his bag inside the truck. Nami frowned deeply as she considered trying to change the weather, but with the clouds stretching as far as they were in every direction, she knew it would be futile.

"Let's keep going!" Luffy shouted, as he noticed all of his friends slowing down. "Timmy's just up ahead!"

The pirate captain started running forward and with that reminder on all their minds, his friends found it in them to speed up straight into the oncoming storm. "We're coming Timmy!" Nami shouted over a huge gust of wind that suddenly slammed into them.

"We're on our way little bro!" Franky exclaimed.

Usopp opened his mouth to yell out something encouraging too, but froze as five bolts of lightning dropped out of the sky only fifty meters in front of Luffy. The pirate captain himself skid to a stop at how close those bolts were, and he lifted his head to the sky to stare at the strangely moving black clouds. When he looked up, Luffy's jaw dropped and his eyes grew as wide as saucers. Something was falling from the clouds, a trail of smoke coming off his body while he spun around and around, his black sweatshirt torn to tatters and falling off him as he dropped.

"Kirito?" Juvia whispered through a gasp.

Ben's eyes opened huge, _There's no way he just got struck by lightning. It had to be something else._ "Something's up there!" Ben yelled, his chest clenching up. Fear started to well inside him and he balled his fists hard to try and soothe himself. Clenching his fists only made it worse though, as he imagined spikes being nailed through those very same hands only days before.

Usopp lowered his goggles over his eyes and peered carefully through them at the clouds. His jaw started lowering, getting lower, lower, until he stood there slack-jawed and unable to make out words. It was not long after he saw them that the rest of the group could however, and they stared up together in various levels of shock and fear. Floating out of the clouds was a muscular man ten feet tall who was surrounded by lightning bolts in a sphere that kept pulsing with electricity.

The man in the sky was terrifying, as lightning came off his body and flew up into the clouds, only to drop back down again even stronger as real lightning bolts crashing into the ground just ahead of the group. What was just as bad however, were the dozen robots that descended from the sky with him. Each one was a different color: silver, red, green, light blue, navy, purple, orange, brown, black, yellow, white, and gold. They were each close to ten feet tall, each had two arms and two legs, but there was variation in each robot, like how the yellow one only had a single glowing red eye on its round face, while most of the others had two. The black one had eight eyes all around its head, not just on the front where its face was. The purple one had a long smooth tail sticking out behind it, and the brown one was four feet taller than the second tallest robot.

The thirteen figures in the sky descended, while Riku sprinted towards where Kirito crashed down. He swung a Keyblade that appeared in his hand and a wave of green light fell over him, making the black burns all over Kirito's skin fade. The teenager lying on his back taking ragged, staggered breaths, calmed himself down and opened his closed eyes. "Thanks," he muttered, grabbing Riku's outstretched hand and letting the older teen help him up.

"Puny humans!" The muscular figure surrounded in lightning boomed. He rose his arms at his sides and spheres of electricity sparked to life over his palms. The spheres grew the size of bowling balls, then twice that, and then the man slammed his hands together in the air above him. "I am Professor Chaos!" Both spheres of electricity combined and he held one massive ball of lightning over his head.

"No way," Stan mumbled under his breath, lifting his gaze and focusing it on the man in the sky. _There is no fucking way._

"Whoever you are," Natsu growled, his fists clenching at his sides. "You don't expect us to let you get away with that, do you?"

Luffy cracked his knuckles in front of his chest and glared straight up into the Professor's eyes. "What are you doing, attacking my nakama?" He snarled, his eyes focusing on the man and then darting around to look at the robots with him. Kirito glanced over towards Luffy and lifted his eyebrows up, but Luffy was staring up at the man in the sky and after a second Kirito looked back as well.

Riku turned after picking up Kirito, then the older teenager with long spiky silver hair held up his Keyblade. He rose up his other hand and a bright light shone around it, before revealing another Keyblade in his grasp that had a light blue hilt and long white shaft. He glared at the figure in the sky who was looking right back at him, then to Luffy, then to Natsu.

Professor Chaos got a bead of sweat on the side of his face at all the angry, scary gazes directed at him. The man pointed his right hand down and yelled out, "You people are trespassing in the Wizard King's domain! Umm," he backed up a little more in the sky as five people stepped towards him. One of them took a sword off his back and unsheathed it, wrapping himself in blue flames. The next one, who he sent flying out of the air a minute ago, drew a pair of swords himself and turned both of them black with Haki. Rin and Kirito were joined by Riku, Natsu, and Luffy, all of them looking angry and ready to fight.

"You destroyed the Flood!" Professor Chaos called down. He gulped and continued, "Which is against the Wizard King's rules, 'cause, um, he's keeping them away from the Resistance with the magic he enchanted the wall with!"

"Where is Timmy?!" Luffy shouted, throwing his arms up and snapping his head forward as he did.

"T-Timmy?" Chaos questioned, his voice losing its deep tone and sounding confused and nervous for a moment. He shook his head around and then looked back down and yelled, "As the General of the Wizard King's armies, I demand that-"

"Raaa!" Natsu leapt up in the air. He shot towards the annoying guy shouting at them, and he whipped his arms out to the sides as he did. Flames rose like wings on either side of him, but Natsu grimaced as his stomach rumbled. _I used a lot of power to destroy all those Flood. Gotta make this count._ "Fire Dragon's-" he whipped his arms forward to send the wings of flames he made at the evil professor.

The red robot flew forward, stopping only once it was between Professor Chaos and the Dragon Slayer. "Wing Attack!" Natsu finished with a roar, slamming his flames at his enemy. The red robot stood there on the air in his way, then it flew straight forward while Natsu's attack was still coming. The flames hit the ten foot tall robot, and then all the flames dispersed at once in every direction. The man who made the attack only had a second to go wide-eyed, before a steel fist covered in fire slammed him in the right cheek and sent him plummeting back to the ground.

"Not good," Sanji muttered, his eyes darting to his left and then back to the sky where there were a lot of those robots waiting.

"Gear Second," Luffy punched a fist out to the side and surrounded himself in steam.

The pirate disappeared and reappeared up in the air near the red robot. He punched his right fist out, yelling, "Jet Pistol!" As his fist was about to collide, the silver robot flew in the way and took Luffy's attack straight to its face. Luffy pushed in hard, only to clench his teeth in pain and pull back his arm while wincing. _But I'm rubber,_ he thought in confusion, before refocusing as the silver robot flew after him, and the red one shot his way right behind it.

"Luffy!" Rin called up. He was about to jump up to help, but the white, yellow, and green robots all chose that second to drop out of the air behind Professor Chaos. They descended and pointed their arms at the three fighters still at the front of the human pack. Rin growled at the yellow robot and he slashed his sword down, sending a slash of blue flames at the machine. Right before his flames collided though, the yellow robot vanished, leaving a small trail of yellow lightning behind that Rin followed straight above his head, to where he could see a yellow leg swinging down at him.

"Rin!" Kirito yelled, but he was too slow to stop the steel leg from slamming into his friend's head and smashing him into the floor. Kirito leapt at the yellow robot and slashed his swords, but the green one flew right over the yellow one's back and brought its hands together in front of Kirito's chest. They glowed green for a second, and Kirito slammed his hands forward as fast as he could to throw himself back and away from the poison gas that shot out of the holes in the robot's hands an instant later.

As Kirito backflipped in the air, he thought, _Alright, so green really was poison. That makes sense considering red and yellow._ As he thought about red, he saw a pillar of flames shoot through the sky and he could still feel Natsu down on the ground to his left. The teen grew nervous and lifted his head to see if Luffy was fine, but the pirate seemed to have avoided the fire attack and was dropping down to the ground now. Luffy was about to touch down, when the silver robot shot out of the sky after him and brought a fist back far.

Luffy's feet touched the ground, and he pulled a steaming fist back, covering it in Armament Haki as he did. "HaaaAAA!" Luffy slammed his fist up right as the silver one was directly overhead bringing its own down. Their fists collided and a shockwave rippled through the air between their fists. Luffy continued to scream as he pushed harder and harder into his punch, but his arm was moving down, and the ground beneath his feet was breaking. Luffy knew he had to move, and he pushed down hard on the front of his feet to leap backwards out from under the punch. He just barely made it, and the silver fist slammed into the ground below where his feet just were.

As soon as the silver robot's fist hit the ground that was already lowered beneath Luffy's feet, the entire landscape around them shattered. It was a testament to Luffy's strength that he managed to hold it off for a few seconds, because everyone else still on the ground felt their feet rise as huge sections of the ground shattered. Cubes of earth flew in every direction out from the collision and debris slammed into almost everyone.

Riku found himself lifting up with the rubble, but he did not scream or panic like most everyone else. He stood still and looked through the debris at a robot flying straight towards him. The robot was white from head to toe, and Riku's eyes narrowed as he wondered what it could do. He saw its hands start glowing white, and Riku bent his knees down far as it got within fifteen feet of him. He shot off the lifting section of ground he was on and his Keyblades glowed right before he hit the robot. He slammed his weapons into it, while it punched its fists at him. Riku parried one fist with his Keyblade, then did a three-sixty spin and sent flying slashes off his blades so powerful that the front of the white robot in front of him ripped open, its sparking insides showing from the gash.

The silver haired young man did not stop after one slash though, giving chase after the robot through the sky. Below him, three Kiritos charged at the yellow and green robots, only for a half dozen other Kiritos to leap out of the ground behind the distracted robots and trap them. The yellow one was too fast even when trapped though, and lightning shot out of its hands and destroyed two shadow clones in under a second. Luffy faced off against the silver robot and he had his right forearm turned completely black, deciding that he needed to step it up a notch to fight this robot. Another robot descended towards Luffy from the sky, but the captain never looked up, instead letting the blond chef behind him to fly up and kick the purple robot right in its glowing face. Gray came running forward, but the light blue robot shot down as soon as Gray made a single Ice Make, and when it touched his ice hammer, the entire weapon shattered like glass.

Professor Chaos looked down from in between several of his robots still in the sky with him. His eyes were wide and he whispered, "Oooh," as he saw Kirito create a stone golem to take one of his robot's punches. Despite the cool powers of his opponents though, the robots were putting a number on them. Sanji got knocked out of the sky, and a recently-recovered Natsu charged back in, only for the red robot to focus on him and knock him right back down into the dirt.

"What are we going to do?" Ben asked, looking around at the others with him in a small circle. "How are we going to get to Timmy if we can't even get past these robots?"

Robin was thinking along the same lines, feeling very doubtful about their chances here.

"Butters!" The group turned all at once to a boy in the middle, one who had been staring straight up at their adversary the whole time with a look of confusion and awe. Professor Chaos lifted his gaze from the men fighting his robots, back to the others who were with them in the group behind. One figure in that group had on a brown cloak, a cloak that had a raised hood because of the cold that he only now removed. He lowered his hood and his gaze met with the man's in the sky. The man looking down dropped his jaw, and Stan took a step forward before yelling out again, "Is that, really you? Butters?!"

"Stan?!" Professor Chaos shouted, his voice sounding high-pitched and nothing like the menacing tone he used before. He rose up his right hand, and all of the robots down below stopped what they were doing. They shot back up in the air, all except for the white one which was now a pile of scrap at Riku's feet. The muscular man in the sky flew down without hesitation, flying straight down to the group of people he was just attacking, but he did not look at any of them while he did. He stared straight at the boy in the brown cloak, the boy in a blue hat with half of a red poof-ball on top of it. "It really is you!" Professor Chaos exclaimed, his voice not matching his body at all anymore.

"Butters, you look so, old," Stan said, looking Butters up and down once. Stan had so many questions, but he narrowed his eyes and said first, "Where is Timmy?"

 **"Timmy?"** a voice asked, echoing in the minds of all those present. Many of the group were marching towards Professor Chaos, ready to kick his ass even if he did seem to know Stan. This voice made all of them freeze however. They stopped what they were doing and looked around, their eyes growing wide, their stomachs hurting and their visions getting blurry. **"It's been so long Stan, I would have thought you would be coming to see me!"**

"What's happening?!" Nami shouted, covering her eyes with one hand and grabbing her stomach with the other. She hunched over as it felt like her stomach turned upside-down.

"Ughh, I think I'm gonna be sick," Natsu moaned, his cheeks puffing out.

Luffy stumbled to his right side and grabbed his head in pain. Everyone was in pain, and then all at once, the pain was gone. The group opened up their eyes, and every one of them lowered their jaws in shock. They were no longer on a black, destroyed landscape. There were no longer any robots around them, and even Professor Chaos was gone. They now stood at the base of a staircase forty steps high, leading to a massive entryway over a hundred feet tall. On either side of the marble steps were pillars, and above the giant entryway with two closed wooden doors, the group could see a castle that stretched miles to the sides, and so far back that they could not see the end to it. Behind them was a giant courtyard with pillars on either side of a golden pathway that widened out a hundred feet back for a tall fountain covered in gorgeous statues. Around the sides of the courtyard and the castle was a grassy landscape that was so serene and tranquil, a huge reversal from the landscape they had been walking on.

While everyone took in the amazing stone castle in front of them, Stan heard a voice in his head, **"Sorry Stan."** _Butters? What's going on?!_

 **"Intruders!"** A voice boomed, sounding like it was coming from inside the castle yet they could all hear it directly in their minds. It was the same voice as the person who spoke before and apparently teleported them all to this place. **"I have read your minds, and I know why you are here!"**

"Cartman!" Stan yelled, stepping towards the steps and bellowing it at the closed doors ahead of him. "What the Hell are you doing?!"

 **"Whatever I want, Stan,"** the voice snapped back, sounding a little peeved, and like it was a twelve year old speaking. The Wizard King continued, **"And in my domain, whatever I say goes, so you better start listening to me!"** Eric Cartman calmed himself down then smirked again from inside the tower at the top of his castle. He was looking at the open window in front of him, but instead of looking outside, the window showed a real-time video of the front of the castle and the people gathered there. **"If you want to find Timmy, you'll have to make it through my castle. I warn you though, I have set up a bunch of traps."**

Butters turned to the boy next to him who he was now also the same size as. The blond kid wearing aluminum foil around his head and on his back as a cape looked excited and he started, "This is going to be awesome! We finally get to use all those cool mazes and traps that you wished for!" Butters started giggling like mad.

"Shut up Butters," Cartman snapped.

Butters did, for a few seconds. The kid looked at the image again and focused on a boy in the middle of the group. "Hey, we're not really going to hurt Stan, are we?" He asked, looking a tad nervous as he faced the fat boy next to him.

Cartman scoffed smugly and said, "That depends on if Stan and his friends can survive the mazes." He froze when he finished his sentence. Cartman looked to his right where a purple pitbull was glaring at him, and the boy waved his hand at it, "Alright alright, I'll try not to kill them. Fine."

The purple pitbull vanished in a puff of white smoke, and in the air next to Eric Cartman, a tiny person with wings appeared. The fairy had tan skin, purple irises, and jet black hair that was slicked back and tied into a ponytail. He wore a white shirt that his large muscles pushed into and made them more defined, and when he appeared in fairy form he flexed and his shirt ripped off, only to reappear an instant later. Juandissimo Magnifico looked down at his Godchild and said, "Don't make me regret wishing up those mazes full of walking great-white-sharks with lasers on their heads, or the pitfalls into spiky spiders traps."

"Landsharks and spikers!" Cartman exclaimed a correction at the fairy, then he took a deep breath to calm himself down. "Don't worry, don't worry," he waved off Juandissimo's concerns with his hand. "It's all in good fun. Now come!" He lifted his right hand, and Juandissimo sighed before snapping his fingers. The fairy vanished in another puff of white smoke, and in Eric Cartman's hand appeared a wooden purple staff with eyes on it.

 _Alright, come on Stan,_ Cartman looked into the magical image showing the front steps of his castle, and he focused on the boy in a brown cloak at the bottom who wore his same-old red and blue poof-ball hat, only with the top half of the poof-ball missing like it was sliced horizontally. _I can't believe you're still alive,_ Eric Cartman, or the infamous Wizard King, thought.

* * *

 **A/N Cartman is the Wizard King?! XD alright pretty sure most of you who know the show had already figured that one out, so not a huge surprise. But Juandissimo is Cartman's fairy? What do Cartman, Butters, and Juandissimo have in store for our heroes? Hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Thanks for reading! I don't have much of the next few chapters written out so it may be a while before I post them, just a heads up. Anyway, review responses:**

Limit-Breaking chapter 91 . 20h ago

WHAT, There is no hint what are you talking about i read those scenes of tien very carefully what kind of hint was there. Great now im going to be paranoid, i mean i remember goku cutting of the strings that were attach to tien body and that was the last of tien. But before that happen he was still being kept alived by pitou in a certain way by having his organs still work as well as his breathing so he could still use his ki. But there was no hint of him being conscious, but than again you can't be dead and having your organs working and can't possibly allow you to use your powers unless he was alive. If you catch my drift there, uhhhhh i need more explanations on how it works to get a better understanding about tien so that i can tell if he is alive or not.  
But i swear if goku goes to look for his body and it's not even there than i am going to go insane, like seriously give tien a break he has done nothing wrong. But if he is alive i will feel really bad for him since he would be very dissapointed with himself, And that would just be depressing.  
But if he is dead than that is a really sad way to die , especially since he was getting to a really strong level. Besides even zoro wants to fight tien and i really wanted to see that fight to be honest.  
ehhhh if the hint isn't anything that i mentioned so far than i am at for a loss of words at this point, Please give one more hint i don't want to wait in suspense, while you are in tokyo having the time of your life, and im here trying to find out the truth about tien, hell i like his character a bit more than bardock if im being honest.  
Show some compassion and look deep into your heart there has to be a shred of kindness in there, DON"T BE A FRIEZA.  
Besides all that the chaper was really good and the scene where juvia was starting to cry was nicely done. Sorry for not discussing more about the chapter, it's just the last thing you said is bugging me and want to see tien alive and well.  
Either way great job and i look forward to the next  
Oh and if you can answer my pm question that would be appeciated and how long will you be in tokyo for the summer or less cause we need more awesome chapters like these, well until the next

 **Final hint: the hint was in 10.9 . Guess you'll have to live with the suspense for now if you can't recall it XD! Tokyo is admittedly a blast, having the time of my life for sure. Surprised you like Tien more than Bardock here, since I have only shown him in a few flashbacks, though I actually really like Tien too. I feel like he's gotten the short straw in DB series since early DBZ, so to make him cooler I did the same thing with Zoro who I also really like and saved them to have their own full stories in Aebrith. The more I workshopped his plot though, the more I knew what had to happen, since if he was still around and fighting on Aebrith all this time, things wouldn't be so bad. Being a Frieza seems a little more like a compliment after how epic he was in the final episode of DBS ;) but we'll see if I can manage a little more kindness than him. Thanks for the review and I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter! Won't be back in the States until August :/, but I'll keep trying to write while I'm here! Hope you enjoyed the new chapter!**

joebob323 chapter 91 . 5h ago

Ugh... Flood are a freaking pain to deal with... I want to know though, is the party traveling to the Wizard King's place the entirety of them? Not including Kairi, Goku, Timmy, or Dash though...

 **The Flood wiped out the Southern Wastes, though they probably weren't called that before the Flood... Almost everyone! You almost had the whole missing group, only leaving out Killua back at that Resistance base (comatose). Thanks for reviewing!**

Espada-001 chapter 91 . 1h ago

Well I figured out who the wizard king was a while ago so I'm looking forward to seeing his old friend call him a fat ass as soon as the heroes get to his base. And dammit, why did you have to kill Kuina off! As for the tablet used in the last chapter I thought that it could only be used at night? I know that I saw this in somebody else's review asking about what happened to all the revive items and where did they go but I can't remember what you said about that. As for seeing Professor Chaos, I'm looking forward to Stan meeting him. Also after seeing Sephiroth arrive I'm wondering if he's trying to fuse with this planets life force because if he does that he'd be way stronger than ever before given just the size of the planet alone, not to mention the numerous forms of energy that is used on it. Well that's about all I have for now so until next time have a good day and I look forward to the next chapter!

 **Cartman it was! Didn't think I'd surprise many people after all the hints, so it wasn't really meant to be though I think it's funny most of you never mentioned him in reviews, like you were helping me prevent spoilers XD So thanks! I never really thought about the Tablet thing only being able to be used at night while I was writing it, so I went back- and like I thought it was night time during that flashback anyway as the setting. I didn't mention it in relation to the Tablet because I had forgot, but it matched up well so fwew. Stan couldn't believe what he was seeing at the sight of Butters (in the episode Good Times with Weapons there're parts where the kids all turn into action-anime forms in their heads, and that's what Butters actually looked like here, Let's Fighting Love XD). Sephiroth's appearance as a Guardian labels him as a major bad guy for this story, but not much else is known about him so far. Thanks for the review and I hope you enjoyed the new chapter! Thanks again to everyone for reading, and 'till next time!**


	93. Nexus HWR 13-5 It's a Trap

**Nexus HWR 13.5: It's A Trap!**

A group of fifteen walked up the wide white steps of the Wizard King's castle. The closer they got to the giant building, the harder it was to see the sides of the front wall they were walking up towards. Sanji looked to his right as they walked up, staring at the marble pillars rising high above them before ending in white archways that curved over the stairs to connect with the pillars on the opposite side. As the chef was looking at a pillar, he saw past it and out onto the grassy landscape beyond that looked so much different from the black wastelands they had been traveling over up until a minute ago.

"How did we get here?" Natsu wondered as they walked up the steps, heading for the giant ornate wooden doors at the top of the staircase. The doors looked to be made for giants with the huge golden knockers they had on either side of the doors' centers a hundred feet above them. "And what's up with this place? Is the Wizard King some kind of giant?"

"Oh yeah, he's a giant alright," Stan muttered, and he smirked towards the castle as he hoped Cartman was still listening to them.

 **"If you are speaking of my power, then yes! I am a giant!"** The Wizard King's voice blasted through the doors in front of them and made the stairs below them vibrate.

"Some ego he's got," Sanji said and lit himself up a cigarette. As the pirate was about to take a puff out of it, the cigarette flew out of his mouth and floated in the air in front of him. Sanji stared at it in surprise for a second, then he leaned back just a little too slow. _**Tsss-**_ "Ah!" Sanji jumped backwards and smacked his right hand across the front of his face, knocking away the cigarette that just burnt his left cheek.

 **"Hahaha!"** The Wizard King laughed. He dropped the cigarette and kept laughing while Sanji seethed with anger farther down the steps than his friends.

"What happened?" Gray asked, turning to the chef who he did not see why he jumped back.

"The shitty bastard burnt me," Sanji growled, rubbing his cheek where there was a small circular burn mark on it. _Weird, it shouldn't have been that hot. My body can take-_ _ **"I heated it up too."**_ Sanji heard the voice in his head responding to his thoughts, and he darted his gaze around in surprise as none of his friends seemed to be able to hear that. _Who the Hell are you?_

 **"As I've told you, I am the Wizard King!"** The voice boomed once more. **"Enter my castle if you dare, but know that if you do, I have the authoritah to kill you all!"**

"Bullshit!" Stan yelled at the giant doors. He ran towards them and stopped right in front of the crack down the middle, then shouted while looking up, "I don't know why you took Timmy Turner, but we're not letting you enslave him any longer!"

"That's right!" Nami yelled, running up next to Stan. She looked down at the cloaked boy next to her, then back at the door which she spoke at in a softer voice, "Kid, listen to me. Timmy's like, family to me. You have to let him…"

 **"'Kid?' Who do you think you're talking to, you bitch?!"**

Nami's jaw dropped. Luffy bared his teeth, but Sanji was beyond that, soaring over the heads of those in front of him and igniting his leg in flames on his way towards the door. "We gave you a chance!" Sanji shouted, though after that remark at Nami, he was glad to be able to do this. As Sanji flew at the doors though, his body started to slow down. For a second he thought it was the Wizard King using his mind again, but then he saw the swirling purple circle in the center of the door in front of him. The huge wooden doorway was twisting in his vision, and everything else around him was trembling as an enormous pressure pushed down on him. His skin started to stretch and the air around him altered in color.

Everyone ran up the stairs to the spot right in front of the doors as Sanji crashed down. The chef was wide-eyed and looked like he was seeing things, but he shook his head around once he hit the ground and saw his friends all leaning over him. "What just, happened?" He asked, looking down at his hands and flinching as he saw them looking exactly as they should.

"Are you okay?" Usopp asked, leaning down and grabbing Sanji by a hand to help him up. "You just stopped flying all of a sudden," Usopp said, and Sanji blinked a few times in confusion.

"How long…" Sanji began, as time felt different for him a moment ago. It felt like days could have passed, maybe, and that he was flying that entire time, or falling. He turned and stared at the doors behind him, then lifted his gaze up and stared at a warped circle of swirling purple that the others all looked up at and only noticed now that they were close. "What are these doors?" Sanji whispered.

 **"Those doors,"** The Wizard King began in a smug and thunderous tone. **"Are made from the strongest trees on this world. Mahogany!"**

"Mahogany?" Franky asked skeptically, as he knew a dozen kinds of wood stronger than Mahogany.

 **"Not just any Mahogany, but Mahogany from the world of Malchior 7. The trees there are three hundred feet tall and breathe fire! From those trees my doors were forged using the most powerful magic known in the multiverse! That means that my doors are not only nigh indestructible, but they can bend the fabric of the universe itself!"** The Wizard King started laughing after shouting all that, while the figures in front of the doors stared at them with much wider eyes than before.

"How do we open them?" Gray wondered. He saw what happened when Sanji got close, and he did not know if he wanted to try moving any closer and risk going through what the chef just did.

"We don't need to," Riku said. He lifted his right palm and the Wizard King's annoying voice cut off. Riku's right hand covered in a pitch black darkness that oozed off his fingers and dripped to the floor below. A black portal rose out of the ground in front of him, and Riku put his hand down before walking through it unobstructed.

 **"What? You can't do that- Hey! Stop it!"** One after another, the group walked after Riku into his black portal.

Rin glanced around nervously as he stepped towards it, but hearing the upset shouts of the man in charge, he smiled and walked through the portal with Kuro walking in right behind him. Gray and Juvia headed in after them, but Usopp stood still staring at their backs as they walked ahead inside the darkness. _How can he use that, still?! After all that happened!_

"Usopp, you coming?" Sanji asked, looking back at the sniper. He looked a little confused at Usopp's dark look, then sighed as he realized what it was that had Usopp so hesitant. "Get over it for now, it's our best way in," he told the long-nosed man. Usopp looked surprised for a second that Sanji knew what he was thinking about, then he nodded with a more hardened expression and walked forward into the dark portal. He had traveled through one before, but never had he felt so angry while doing so.

Inside the dark portal, Usopp found himself all alone. He was the last one inside, but he no longer saw any of his comrades who entered before him. The man looked over his shoulder and could not see the entrance he came in from. _Don't get turned around,_ he thought nervously. He refocused on what was in front of him, even though everything looked the same. Usopp started walking, his breath hiked and his teeth chattering. After a few seconds, his teeth stopped chattering to instead stay clenched together with his lips pulled apart. His eyebrows narrowed down and his fists clenched hard at his sides. Then, Usopp stepped out of the darkness and into a brightly lit grand entrance hall.

Usopp walked out onto a red carpet that cut right down the middle of the symmetrical room to the curving stairs up ahead. The stairs at the end of the carpet curved up in either direction then met back up again on the second level of the room. At the top of those stairs was a second floor that was only wide enough to be considered like a balcony for all the doors wrapping around the second level of the room. There were red doors lining the walls of the second floor and the first, and there was a wide and long hallway cutting straight ahead at the top of the stairs as well, leading to another section of the castle.

Sanji was looking behind him instead of around at the big room like most everyone else. Usopp had taken a little longer than he thought the man would since he thought he saw Usopp walking in right behind him. The look on Usopp's face as he exited the darkness though, it made the chef get a bad feeling in his chest. Usopp saw the look Sanji was giving him and stopped baring his teeth, unclenched his fists, and shook his head around in confusion at why he was so angry. _It's because of the darkness,_ he reminded himself, and even when he stopped shaking his head, the dark look was still in his eyes.

The other person looking back was at the front of the group, but he turned away before Usopp could get him in his eyesight. "We got past your doors," Riku called out. "Now bring us Timmy, or else."

 **"You weren't supposed to get inside like that!"** The Wizard King snapped in an annoyed voice. **"I had a little game set up for you in the courtyard-"**

"We're not here to play games," Natsu growled. His head bowed a little and the top half of his face shadowed over. "We came for our nakama."

"Give Timmy back!" Nami shouted.

 **"SHUT UP!"** Cartman bellowed, making the entire castle around them shake as he did. They heard panting like the evil kid was fuming with anger, then Cartman sneered down at them, **"Each of the doors you see around you could be the door that Timmy Turner is behind."** The group started looking around at the doors more carefully, but the doors all looked identical to each other, and there were dozens of them. **"Be careful though, I've set traps all over my castle. Opening the wrong door, might mean death."**

"Stop messing around!" Stan shouted, waving a hand in front of his body and stepping forward. "Cartman, why are you doing this?"

 **"Because I want to!"** Cartman screamed down. **"You must face the consequences for what you've done."** Lights illuminated right over every single door in the room and down the hallway jutting out on the second floor balcony. The ceiling of the grand hall was high above them, though not as tall as the doors had looked from the outside. Looking back at them now, the doors seemed smaller from the inside.

"I don't like this place," Kirito said, gazing around with a serious expression at how strange their environment was. _We're in his domain now. Everything around us was created by this crazy child. When the laws of physics are determined by a maniac, reality as I know it no longer exists in the same state._

"Cartman! Cartman?!" Stan shouted, but there was no response. "Answer me you asshole!"

"Stan, that's enough," Riku said back to the short boy behind him. "We'll find Timmy. If he wants to be our enemy, then we'll fight him. You okay with that?"

"Yeah," Stan replied with a nod. "But do you really think we can beat him?"

"Yes," Riku said without hesitating. He looked up at the ceiling and continued in a dark voice, "We won't play by his rules."

Luffy threw his hands forward and grabbed onto some railings near the top of the stairs. He rocketed himself up to the next hallway, then called out, "It's a dead end with more doors on it." The pirate hummed to himself and then lifted his right thumb that he bit into. "Gear Third: Bone Balloon." Luffy's right fist expanded so it was more than three times as large as his own body, then it shimmered and turned black as the pirate captain added, "Armament Hardening." He clenched his fist hard and then threw it forward down the hallway in front of him, "Elephant Gun!"

His giant fist almost filled up the entire hallway. It shot down the hall and set off a pitfall trap halfway down it, then shattered through a sheet of bulletproof glass on the other side that someone would have crashed into had they tried jumping over the pitfall, making them fall into it anyway. Luffy's fist kept going and slammed into the wall at the end of that hallway where there were three more red doors. His fist slammed into the wall and stopped moving, and Luffy ground his teeth but could not push any harder into the attack. The wall did not budge, and neither did the doors.

"Welp," Luffy said as his arm snapped back to him. "That didn't work." He looked back and shrugged at his friends who sighed in disappointment.

"Maybe I should try it," Natsu said, jumping up for the second floor himself only on his right side where he thought the wall looked weakest. Luffy frowned back his way and opened his mouth to shout there was no point, but his eyes focused on the part of the wall Natsu was jumping at.

 _What is that?_ Riku thought, noticing some small cracks around the part of the wall Natsu was heading towards. _It's way too obvious._ "Natsu, don't! It's a tr-"

"AHAHAHAHA!" A jack-in-the-box clown shot out of the wall laughing like a maniac while chunks of wall flew out around its laughing face. Natsu flipped over in midair from shock and then got slammed in the back by the laughing clown, sending him crashing back into the floor while a few of his friends let out screams or shouts of panic. The clown pulled itself back into the wall a second later, and all the chunks of wall that flew out when it burst from its seams repaired themselves in a few instants.

Riku frowned as he had taken a step to try and get through the wall where the trap had sprung from. _He planned for that,_ the silver-haired teen thought in an annoyed way after the wall repaired itself.

"You bastard!" Natsu shouted as he jumped to his feet. He heard Luffy laughing madly at the top of the stairs where he fell on his back and was rolling around, and steam started coming off of the Dragon Slayer's body. "I'm all fired up! You hear me?!"

"Cartman?!" Stan yelled. Their host was unresponsive. He had given them their rules, and now they realized that they really only did have one way forward. Even if Riku wanted to use portals to get them farther into the castle, there was as likely a chance of him popping them into a room full of traps as there was of them walking into one through a red door.

"Why isn't he responding?" Usopp asked. His eyes darted around at the doors on the second floor wrapping around the entrance hall, and then he looked towards the hallway in front of them just up the stairs where there were dozens more doors. "Timmy's only in one of these rooms, so if opening the wrong one means we die… we can't open any of them!" He shouted.

"Usopp's right, it's too risky," Kirito agreed. He sounded annoyed as he said it, and he added, "That kid's treating this like a game, but not a very good one. Usually the players, us, would have at least a small chance of winning."

"This does seem impossible," Robin mentioned. "We also do not know if he is telling us the truth."

"He's probably not," Stan muttered.

Ben turned to the younger boy next to him. "You said you could get him to give us Timmy," Ben said. Stan frowned deeper in frustration, and Ben continued, "Isn't there anything you could do? Why is he acting like this? He's your friend, right?"

"He _was,_ a long time ago," Stan said while glaring up, hoping that Cartman was watching and listening right now. "But even then, he was still a terrible person."

"He's your age?" Nami asked, as that was what she was getting from the conversations the boys had had. Stan nodded, and Nami frowned herself so angrily, but she could not keep up all the hate she had built for the one who had kidnapped Timmy. "Then, he can't be that bad," Nami continued. Stan turned towards her and started shaking his head like she did not understand. "No child is evil," Nami said, something she truly believed. "So I'm sure, we can get him to give up Timmy if we-"

"You're wrong," Stan told her. He said it in a matter-of-fact tone, and he shook his head as she looked down at him in a pitying way like he was the wrong one for doubting his old friend. Stan looked around and saw that more than a few people did not think this was as intense a situation any longer because of the Wizard King's identity. "This one time," Stan said, turning to look Nami back in the eyes as he did. "Some high schooler named Scott Tenorman tricked Cartman into buying his pubes for ten dollars." The others stared at Stan in confusion why he was bringing this up, but Stan continued, "So to get revenge, Cartman had Scott's parents murdered, then he chopped up their bodies and cooked them into a chili which he then tricked Scott into eating."

The thirteen people and cat around Stan dropped their jaws. It was an abridged version of the story, but Stan figured it got the point across.

"Th-that's fucked," Ben whispered.

"You're sure, he's human?" Kuro asked, as it sounded more like a demon to the cat.

"Y-Y-You didn't think of warning us before?" Usopp snapped rapidly at the kid.

Stan turned and looked a little surprised, and he asked, "Would you not have come if I did?" Usopp's scared eyes widened, and the others all looked in at Stan who continued, "Timmy Turner's a hero, and he's saved, so many people's lives. We can't leave him here," Stan was getting a little worked up, but the people in front of him regained their determined looks. They looked as serious as they did before learning the Wizard King's identity, even more so after what Stan just told them.

"Of course we're not leaving him here," Riku said. He stepped forward in front of the group towards the stairs up, then he stopped and mentioned, "But a warning would have been nice."

"I mean, I knew he was messed up," Stan started to explain. "But all these things he's doing, the things he's capable of, he could never do any of it back on our world."

Kirito hummed to himself. _Gaining all this power solely through his time on Nexus? I can believe it._

"There's nothing we can do about it," Nami said. She started walking to her right with confidence in her step. "Does anyone feel anything behind the doors?" She asked while heading towards one of her own. "Haki, or ki, or anything?" She stopped at a door and looked down at the round brass knob on it. Nami froze and looked left, then she took a few sidesteps that way and stood in front of a different door. As soon as she got in front of that one, she looked back at the one she had walked to so confidently at first. Gut feeling was failing her, but she heard her strong friends behind her call out that they could not feel anything at all inside this place, not even each other's Haki presences. If gut feeling and her friends could not do it, then reckless abandon it was. Nami reached forward without hesitating and twisted the doorknob in front of her.

As Nami's hand twisted the doorknob, loud clicking noises filled the entrance hall that made everyone turn her way and stare at her back with wide eyes. Nami pulled outwards in a strong tug, ignoring the shouts of the others behind her, and she stared forward into a wide and empty room. The room looked to be a box made of cement, but there was a huge metal sink faucet on the wall opposite the door she just opened. Above that faucet was a large sign painted in bold red letters that looked to be dripping down in a terrifying way. "'YOU LOSE,'" Nami read in a whisper.

"Get down!" Riku tackled Nami away from the door back in front of the one she had originally chosen. As soon as Nami's feet were lifted off the floor, a powerful jet of water shot through where she was just standing. The jet of water was thicker than a watermelon and shooting out so fast that it slammed straight into the red door on the opposite side of the hall. The others who were farther into the middle of the room dove forwards or leapt back to avoid the jet, and then they spun towards the wall the jet of water crashed into where waves of water were flying up in the air and in all directions.

Robin crossed her arms as she leapt backwards and created wings on her back that she used to fly high up in the air. She looked down where she was just standing and did not like how the floor was already covered in a coating of water. She darted her gaze around while everyone was still getting back up or helping their friends to their feet in the shallow water. _The doors must be air-tight, or at least water-tight. A jet that powerful,_ she had to flap away in the air because of the trajectory of some huge splashes of water. She glanced up and recalled how the high ceiling was not as high as it should have been. _I thought that did not make sense. The boy who rules here has a large ego, and his abode displays that in every sense. So why would he make this room smaller than it should be, unless to work with one of his traps._

"Everyone," Robin called out. Her friends who had just gotten back up and were stumbling around in the rising water lifted their gazes to the woman flying high above. "The water will continue to rise until the room is full to the roof."

Riku and Nami spun away from the powerful jet flying out of the room next to them, looking up in the air in surprise at what Robin just said. Riku looked around fast and realized that what she was saying made sense, since in only a few seconds the floor was already covered in a few inches of water. It was only up above his ankles at this point, but he could see it start rising up his own shins. "Riku, I'm sorry," he lifted his head and saw the woman next to him who was still using his arm to balance herself looking terrified. "I just- I wanted to get Timmy. I, I needed-"

"Nami, calm down," Riku said softly, in an understanding voice. He put his arm on her back and gave her a small smile, "We had to try one of the doors. If you didn't do it, we'd probably all still be standing around talking about what to do next." She stared at him in shock at how calm he was, then Riku pulled his arm off of her back and turned his whole body to face her. "Now when you looked in that room, what did you see?" Nami had been blocking his view of the room when he had run towards her to save her from the trap he knew was coming, and he did not care much about what was inside before.

"What did I…" Nami shook her head to regain control of herself. The others were all shouting about what they should do, and most of them were trying to get to higher ground now. They rushed up the stairs, helping each other as they went if anyone got swept up by the strong currents waving around. The water was up past their knees already, and it seemed like it was rising faster every second. Nami started nodding at the man in front of her as she felt the water touch the bottoms of her thighs. "There was a sign, a big painted note above the faucet. He was taunting me; it said 'YOU LOSE' in all caps."

"What else?" Riku asked. "What did the faucet look like? Was there a wheel to turn it off? A lever?"

"I- I don't-" Nami paused and got a confused look on her face.

"What is it?" Riku asked, his voice hurried as he was feeling a little rushed here.

"A drain!" Nami shouted. "But, it was right in the middle of the floor. It- why isn't it draining the water?" Nami sounded so confused.

"It must be like one in a bathtub, there's something blocking it right now that we need to remove," Riku nodded to himself as it made sense while he explained it. _This is a game after all. He wasn't just going to kill us without giving us a chance. It's like Kirito said, the players have to have the ability to win._

"Gum Gum-" Luffy shouted.

Nami and Riku turned and tried looking through the thick jet of water where they could somewhat see Luffy. He was standing in thigh-deep water, but he had another giant black fist thrown back behind him, aimed at the red door being pushed open by the jet of water. "ELEPHANT GUN!" Luffy punched it forward and slammed it into the door so hard that the door pushed into the jet of water, redirecting it at the shocked two on the other side who were not expecting the jet to suddenly explode outwards in every direction.

Sanji had been kicking his way down towards the door, and Natsu was running over as well, but neither of them were expecting the water to suddenly change its splash pattern. The two of them, and Riku and Nami were slammed by the powerful explosion of water as the door got pushed into the jet stream's path. Luffy panicked as he saw Nami and Riku go flying backwards on the other side of his punch, then he ground his teeth and pushed harder into the door that he almost lost a hold of with his panic. He leaned forward and pushed the red door farther and farther in, making the water explode straight upwards into the roof where it then splashed out in all different directions. Robin got soaked and moaned but could not hold together her wings, falling out of the air only for a recovered Sanji to catch her.

"Almost, got, it-" Luffy groaned as he pushed harder into the door, but he was finding it harder to put any more power in. He moaned and pushed harder, but his arm felt weaker and the door started pushing back out. The water was up to his waist already, rising up his stomach, and so much was splashing on him from the wavy water and the unpredictable splash patterns off the roof and walls. Luffy fell down to his knees, soaking the rest of his body, and making his arm snap back to him as he lost his strength.

The door flew open, and the full force of the jet slammed back into the opposite wall again. The whole room shook as the water jet crashed into the other side's door, and then a scream rang out from that side of the room. Everyone looked over and saw Juvia on her hands and knees in the water, barely keeping her head over the surface as she panting in pain and exhaustion. She had tried moving her body through the water on the floor all the way into that room, but when Luffy lost his hold on the door, she got swept up and into the jet of water. She had then attempted moving through the jet, but her body was too slow and the water she moved through was across the room and crashing into the opposite wall in under a second.

"Juvia!" Gray called down from the second floor balcony right above her. He was scoping out the room and trying to find a way out, but the best option seemed to be taking another red door. He jumped off the balcony and down into the shallow water near where the jet was hitting the wall, and he winced as the ricochet from the wall into his back felt just as hard as he imagined it did getting hit by the full power of the jet itself. Natsu fell down on his back a few yards in front of Gray while he was helping Juvia up to her feet, and the ice mage stared at the man with pink hair in confusion, wondering when Natsu even got hit. He looked back at Juvia and asked, "Are you alright?"

"I, tried," she whispered.

"I know you did," Gray said. "Now get out of the water. You too Natsu!" He shouted as the Dragon Slayer lifted his head up. The others trying to stop the water on the first level looked over at Gray who lifted his one arm above his head and yelled, "I'm going to freeze everything! Get out of the water!"

"The water's touching everything!" Ben yelled down from the top of the stairs where many of them were gathered together. Water droplets were hitting him or raining down on him even as he shouted it, and he called out, "You'll freeze all of us!" He had to shout to be heard over the thunderous noise of the water jet crashing into the wall.

"Riku! Get us out of-" Franky started shouting across the room.

"We aren't leaving without Timmy!" Riku shouted back before the cyborg could finish.

Franky froze with his mouth open, then he closed it and hardened his expression. He just wanted to get out of there for a moment and come back in, but they would be coming into a room full of water. Escaping did not fix their problems. He turned and looked at a door just on the right of the extending hallway near the stairs. "If we can't leave," Franky said and an ominous grin spread on his face. "Then we may as well try the other doors."

Sanji leapt up to the second level with Luffy in his arms who he dropped unceremoniously on the ground. The rubberman started coughing up buckets of water, while Natsu and Juvia landed down next to him. Riku flew up in the air on the other side of the room with Nami in his arms. The bruised ribs she got from the jet of water crashing into her were healed, and Riku had just promised her to never tell Luffy how hurt she got by his attempt to close the door. Franky paused before going into another door and risking setting off another trap, looking back instead like everyone else at the one-armed man in the middle of the first floor.

The water was up to Gray's chest already. He had his right arm held high, and he yelled out, "Ice Make: INSTA-FREEZE!" He brought his right palm down and slammed it against the surface of the water. Waves froze in mid-splash. Water rising up the steps froze and made the one that just got covered turn slippery. Droplets that had just risen off of the water turned to ice and dropped back down with little clinks. Gray's body became frozen in ice from the middle of his chest down, and the entire first floor of the room froze. The jet of water froze too, as the bottom of it had already touched the water rising in the room. The top of the jet was visible out of the water though, as the top was over seven feet off of the ground. The whole jet was frozen, all the way back through the wide open door, all the way to the faucet that Gray saw for the first time.

The faucet looked like a sink's, only twenty times as large and without any knobs to control it on the sides. It was also pointed straight out instead of down, but all the way into its hole was frozen. He stared around the side of the jet next to him all the way into that room, barely able to see inside considering how thick the jet was. "I think," Gray began, a relaxed look appearing on his face. His friends all smiled, and then a loud crack echoed through the room.

The single crack was followed by the entire jet of ice shattering, and water exploding outwards in every direction from it. The jet came back thicker and more forcefully than ever. It widened to a point that the edge of it slammed into Gray and tore through his shirt, making the man scream as it started ripping at his body next. Gray had to dispel his own last attack in order to escape from the ice, and that returned the entire room to water in a couple of seconds. The ice mage reeled backwards away from the thicker jet of water that had reached a power so strong he could swear it would break through the door it was slamming into. The water around him was getting red, but a green light surrounded him and he felt the wound on his left side heal up.

Gray lifted his head up and saw Riku nod down at him. Riku had his black Keyblade in his right hand, and Nami held up around the waist in his other. His eyes were darting around the room quickly. He was checking everything he saw, and he called out, "Don't do it Franky." The others spun around and saw their cyborg about to reach for another doorknob. As they all started arguing with each other about that, Riku went back to trying to find a different way out of this situation. He did not notice the woman he was holding in one arm open her mouth to say something, then stop as she saw how deep in thought he was about everything else.

Nami felt strange being stuck in this position unable to move, she felt bad that they were in this situation because she had picked the wrong door, but really she just felt nervous with Riku's hand around her waist. She was glad she was on the other side of the room and high above her friends, because she hoped none of them would notice how red her cheeks were. Nami shook her head around and scolded herself, _This is_ _ **not**_ _the time!_

"I have an idea," Riku said. Nami spun to his face in surprise, but he was really just saying it aloud and not really to anyone in particular. He saw her turn towards him though, and he looked back and said in a low voice, "Come on." He shot across the room and lowered down to the top of the stairs where the water had just came up over and was now spreading out around the balcony and the hallway ahead of them.

"Hey Riku," Gray began as he had just gotten back there himself. "Maybe you should just try using a portal. Get us out of this room at least."

"I have a better idea," Riku said. He glanced down at his soaked shoes as he felt more water start filling them again. The young man kicked his shoes off then reached down and grabbed the hem of his shirt, lifting that up and taking it off too.

"What? Stripping is your idea?" Usopp asked in a deadpan tone.

Gray took his partially ripped shirt off and threw it aside. "Already ahead of you," he said and nodded at Riku to show he was fully with the plan.

Riku sweatdropped, then said, "It's okay. You can all keep your clothes on." Riku ripped a piece of cloth off of the hem of his shirt, and he tied it around his head, blindfolding himself. "Just, stay here." He walked forward and down the steps into the water.

"Riku!" Nami called after him. "What are you doing?"

"Trust me," Riku said without slowing down. He walked a few steps farther, and then the top of his head went under the wavy water. The water was too rough to see beneath it, though they were able to follow his shadow for a few more seconds. Then he was gone, and all of them were silent.

The water rose higher so that it was above their shins, hitting their knees, and none of them saw where Riku had gone. "Well, there goes our one escape route," Usopp muttered after ten seconds of nothing happening and the water continuing to rise.

"We're not trying to escape," Nami whispered. Usopp turned left and a bunch of others looked at Nami too. She had a serious look on her face, and she was staring into the water ahead of her in a confident way. "That kid wrote 'YOU LOSE' on the wall above the faucet that's doing this," Nami said. She grinned a small grin and continued, "Don't you think he's claiming victory a little too soon?"

"But, how is Riku going to stop the water from rising?" Juvia asked.

"And considering how high the water is now, it will have reached the roof of the smaller room," Robin added. "He will not have any air to breath." She felt bad right after saying it and looked to Nami to add that she did not actually know how high the roof was in there, but Nami still had the same confident look on her face.

 _Come on Riku, prove me right,_ Nami thought. _Letting Ansem take you over, letting Kairi get taken, what you did with Blackbeard and that man- Zaratras you called him, I know the others don't all trust you anymore. It's mainly Usopp, but everyone else too, they don't believe in you. But I do._ Nami took another step closer to the steps that she could barely see through the rising water anymore. She heard Luffy mention something about feeling weak behind her, and Robin and Kirito both flew up into the air to get out of the water. _Do it!_

Riku swam straight into the jet stream. He had hoped that the jet being completely underwater would have slowed it down a little, but no luck there. He kicked harder than he ever had before, slashing his Keyblade in front of him in the water and creating forcefields to deflect the jet away from him. His body was surrounded in a white glow, and even when his forcefields were not in front of him, he did not feel pain from the force of the jet slamming into him. His invulnerability would not last, but he could not rise from the water now. _If I pop up, after telling them to trust me…_ Riku ground his teeth and pushed harder forward, his body glowing brighter white, and a dark veil emerging beneath that white glow to give him an extra burst of strength. _Everyone, Timmy, I, I need to do this! Calm down._ Riku's eyes opened back up under the cloth he had wrapped around his face to protect his eyes from the fast moving water. He stared into the dark wet cloth in front of his face, and thanks to the veils around him he did not even feel the force of it pressing into his face at the moment.

 _Where am I? I'm moving through the jet, but I'm also getting pushed back. I have not passed through the doorway yet, but I don't need to. Visualize the inside of the room, just a few feet away from the jet's edge. The room was bigger inside than the entryway, so the sides of the jet must be calmer water._ Riku kept swimming, then he stopped kicking his legs as furiously hard as he entered calm water. He reached up and lifted the blindfold off his eyes to just rest over his forehead like a headband. He stared at the faucet spewing water like crazy, and it looked like an underwater current to him more than it did a faucet. The current was almost pure white right after leaving the metal nozzle from how fast it was moving. The rest of the water in the small room was shaking around and moving fast too, but nothing he could not handle. He was feeling low on breath, and he looked down to try and find the drain Nami mentioned.

 _Drain, drain, there. What?_ Riku leaned his head closer to it, but it was hard to see considering it was right beneath the powerful jet that was strongest right outside of the faucet where the drain was. _Where's the plug? There has to be something. Where are you?!_ Riku's cheeks puffed out, and he was really wishing he had asked Sora about teaching him some better transformation magic at this point. He spun his head around, and then he snapped it back towards the entrance to the door where on the left side where he was swimming, there was a tiny red button labeled 'FLUSH' in small letters above it. From outside of the room, there would be no way to see the button looking in. _Fucking kid,_ Riku thought, while swimming over and slamming his right palm against the button.

As Riku pressed it, he knew he had messed up. The water started heating up, and the label over the button suddenly fell off to reveal a different label that had apparently been beneath it the entire time. _"_ _BOIL?!"_ Riku thought, right before the water around him started bubbling. _Oh shit that's hot!_ Riku started spinning around and squinting his eyes inside the water. He was losing breath, the water was boiling around him, and he could feel his skin searing as he had lost his invulnerability when he traveled through a portal with his eyes blindfolded. He returned the veil to his body, but although it protected from most physical pain, he could still feel the heat around him and felt his skin getting redder and closer to searing off every second. He could barely keep his eyes open anymore, squinting them to a point they were barely open, and his mind was getting cloudy as he was completely out of breath. _FUCK IT!_

Two Keyblades appeared in Riku's hands, and he slashed them down hard in front of his body. He ripped a hole into darkness that the water around him flooded into. He fell into the portal himself and jumped up while taking a massive breath of dark air around him. Boiling water flooded around the dark realm he was in, but Riku knew this was a short term solution. _I have to close this sooner or later, and more water keeps pouring in while I stall with this. The water level might not rise for a few seconds, but it's not going to go down like this. Back into boiling water? I saw that other button through blurry vision, but he just put it there. These traps are being made on the fly. He turned that flush button into a boil button, unless it really was another trap from the start. Either way, the new button could just be another trap._

Riku had to close the first portal, and he took a few more deep breaths while still in his dark world. He felt something deep down inside him try pushing up to the surface, and Riku started chuckling to himself. Even if Ansem was screaming at him, he could not even hear the monster's shouts anymore. It was trapped so deep down inside him that he barely even noticed the Heartless was there. "This is my world now," Riku said, his chuckles ending and a smirk spreading wide across his face. "This realm of darkness, I am its Lord. Heh, just like…" Riku's smirk lowered down and he realized something. _Just like that brat controls his domain. Everything in that castle is his to control. To him, his castle is just like this realm of darkness. Just as none of my friends have any control over this place, none of us have any control over his castle. We really do have to play by his rules._

The silver-haired teen started nodding his head in understanding. _The kid likes being in control. He never would have let us defeat his trap easily. Even what I just did, it was too easy for him I guess. Once he made the water boil though, he understood that he had made his trap_ _ **almost**_ _impossible to beat. He won't make it harder again. If he does, then he'll be cheating. His own rules allow for him to cheat, but if he made it harder at this point, it would be the same as just killing us. I'm not positive, but I have to bank everything on this._ Riku reopened a portal and leapt straight through into boiling water. He slammed his hand forward through the bubbling water and smashed it into a button that had a label above it reading, 'THE REAL FLUSH BUTTON.'

After pressing the button, the faucet next to him turned off and the drain on the ground widened to cover the entire room. _One final trap,_ Riku thought. The crossing metal lines of the drain meant normally to stop solid objects from getting through had widened with the outer circumference of the drain, wide enough for a person to drain right through. Riku got pulled through the cracks of the drain and washed down with the boiling water into a dark narrow drain.

Up on the second level of the main entrance hall, the group struggling to stay over the surface of the boiling water finally dropped back to the second floor's actual floor. Ben breathed out a long breath of relief as he dropped Franky, Luffy, and Stan back to the floor. "Thanks little bro," Franky said and posed with his arms over his head for the brown haired boy. They had had to act quickly when the water suddenly heated up and started boiling. Ben and Kirito each picked up a couple of their friends each, while Robin lifted up Nami (to Sanji's dismay). Sanji got stuck lifting Natsu since Juvia was fine in the boiling water, and Gray leapt onto a wall that he froze his feet up against. The chef was glad to finally drop Natsu back down, and Natsu was happy to be put down as his stomach was not agreeing with the bumpy way in which Sanji had stayed floating by kicking the air beneath them.

Robin lowered down with her wings to the second floor and let go of Nami who ran down the stairs without waiting. The water level had dropped fast, sucking back towards the trap door that Nami opened up a few minutes ago. In only two to three minutes, the water had risen higher than twenty feet off the first floor. All that water drained away much faster though, and Nami only had to impatiently tap her foot on the steps for a second or two before being able to run across the damp floor. The room was still steaming, but Nami ignored the heat beneath her shoes for the moment as she ran for the open red door. "Riku!" She called out, but her smile and excited expression vanished as she saw into the room and the huge drain on the floor. She opened her mouth to shout again, but the door slammed to a shut first. A locking sound clicked loudly and echoed through the room.

"Hey," Ben muttered. "Hey!" He started running down the stairs too as he realized what just happened. A couple of others ran down too, while many of them stayed at the top of the stairs looking over with wide eyes at the closed door.

"Cartman!" Stan shouted up at the ceiling. "What did you do with Riku?!"

 **"He flushed himself,"** Cartman's voice responded. In a mock-sympathetic tone, he added with a fake sniffle, **"A truly, noble, sacrifice."**

"Riku!" Nami tried twisting the doorknob but the door would not budge. She lifted her arms and slammed her fists against the door.

"Nami move!" Ben called out. The woman turned and saw Ben standing ten feet behind her. The kid put his hands down at his right side pressed together at the wrists. "Kaaameeee…"

Nami nodded at the boy and shuffled back from the door what she thought was a safe distance.

"Let's do it Ben," Natsu said as he stepped up to Ben's right side after running there after him. He leaned his body back, "Fire Dragon's…" The pink-haired man took in a deep breath of air and his chest puffed out.

 **"There's no use,"** the Wizard King called out.

"HaaaMEEEE!" A blue sphere of light appeared in front of Ben's palms.

"Let me join in on this," Franky stood behind the younger, shorter men, and he put his big metal hands together just above their heads. "FRANKY RADICAL-"

 _ **"It's not going to work,"**_ the Wizard King sang.

Nami stood aside watching with hopeful eyes as the three of them prepared attacks. Ben's blue sphere widened, the flames became visible in the back of Natsu's mouth, and a white light appeared between Franky's hands. Then, right before they fired their attacks, Nami saw something at the top of her vision and snapped her head up. A gasp escaped her lips, followed by a long sigh of relief that was interrupted by three simultaneous screams.

"BEAM!"

"ROARRR!"

"HAAAAAAA!"

Nami jumped when the three boys in front of her let out their screams, and she just shook her head and chuckled as the explosions went off in the corner of her vision. She did not look towards the amazing explosion of those three connected attacks though, not with the wide black portal floating in midair above them. The round portal parallel to the ground dropped something through it that Nami was looking for, but her eyes bugged out at the sight of the man dropping towards her. "Riku!" She shouted, running forward towards the base of the stairs where Riku was dropping upside-down towards.

"Huh?" Natsu, Ben, and Franky all said at the same time while turning their heads to follow Nami. Their eyes widened too as they saw the man dropping towards the ground, and they wondered where he just came from considering the door they just blasted did not have a scratch on it.

Sanji was about to leap off the top of the stairs and catch Riku, but instead a surprised look came to his face and he leaned back where he stood. Riku's body flipped over while he fell, and he landed at the bottom of the stairs on his feet. Nami skid to a stop before reaching him. She stood ten feet from the man whose side she thought she was going to have to run to when he crashed down. Riku was taking deep, heavy breaths. His shirtless torso, his arms, his legs and feet, and even his face was covered in burns. Most of the burns were just reddened skin, but on a few parts of him the skin had clearly seared off. He was bleeding out a few of those mushy third and second-degree burns, and moving made every fiber of his being feel pain. _When did I become, so weak?_ Riku thought.

"Oi Riku," Luffy said as he walked towards the silver-haired man. He tilted his head to the side to try and get a better look at his eyes under his bangs that were no longer covered by the blindfold he had put over them. Luffy's bottom lip dropped before he could continue his question, because of the streaks he saw coming down Riku's face from under the shadow of his bangs. The streaks were not tears though, but streaks of red coming out of his eyes. "Hey! Are you okay?!"

"Fine," Riku said, his voice raspy as it came out. He lifted his right arm slowly, blood dripping off it. _Geez, using the darkness so much for so many little things. I couldn't even get out of that damn drain, without dipping in again. I really have to, save it. Now I'm feeling strained by the darkness, and I'm about to be out of Magic Power too._ "Cure." Riku said. The Keyblade appeared in his right hand, making him wince as part of the hilt touched the back of his hand where a very sensitive burn was. "Cure," he muttered a second time, and he slowly opened up his blurry eyes. The skin on his eyelids was so thin that even clenching them closed in that boiling water was not enough to protect his eyes. "Cure," he said again, and the blurry face in front of him came into focus. "Cure," Riku said this in his most normal voice yet, no longer raspy or full of masked pain. He dropped his Keyblade after using that last Cure, and his Keyblade shattered into light particles before hitting the ground.

Riku took a deep breath, then he grinned at the rubberman in front of him. "I'm fine," he repeated, and this time he looked the part too. Luffy smiled back at him and started laughing, glad that Riku was alright. "I am wet though. Natsu," he turned and called out the Dragon Slayer's name as Natsu was walking towards him. The others on the first floor were all gathered on one side of him, and the ones at the top of the stairs had all started walking down towards him too. Most everyone was smiling, though Usopp looked away acting unimpressed by Riku's victory over the trap.

Natsu looked confused at first as to what Riku meant, then he grinned and his body surrounded in a red glow. A few seconds later, the entire entrance hall felt ten degrees hotter, then twenty. The air got a strange red tint to it, and most of the group started sweating at the sudden heat wave. "Dry clothes, coming right at you!" Natsu yelled, right before exploding into flames for a second. The fire around him went away, the room returned to its usual tint, and everyone who clenched their eyes during that burst of heat gazed down to see that their clothes were for the most part dry.

Rin patted his shirt down with an amazed look on his face. "I can kind of control what my flames burn, but no way I could do that without burning someone's clothes."

 **"Ahem,"** a voice cleared its throat above them and everyone standing around on the first floor grimaced as they remembered they were not alone with friends.

"Thanks for getting us out of that, Riku," Gray said to the tall teenager. "But I don't want to test our luck again. We don't know if that was one of the harder traps, it could have been the easiest one."

"Well we survived it," Nami said, regaining some of her lost confidence considering their current situation. None of them were injured. All of them except for Riku still had all their clothes, and dry clothes at that!

 **"You did well to survive the** _ **first**_ **trap. Now pick another door and-"** Before the Wizard King could keep making his thunderous declaration, a boy in a red poof-ball hat cut him off.

"Cartman! Enough!" Stan yelled. "Why are you doing all this?!"

 **"Why?! Who do you think you're talking to, Stan?"** The voice thundered through the castle. **"And it's 'Wizard King' now! Don't forget it!"**

"This isn't a game fatass!" Stan yelled up at the ceiling.

 **"HEY! Don't call me fat you buttfucking son of a bitch!"**

The group of people standing around Stan collectively sweatdropped. "Some mouths on these kids," Sanji muttered.

"Where is Timmy?!" Nami shouted at the ceiling. At the moment she did not care whether their opponent was a child or not, there was only one thing she cared about. "What did you do to him?!"

 **"He trespassed in my domain! So I can do what I please with-"**

"You're not a wizard and you're not a King!" Stan yelled, interrupting the ominous yet childish voice. "I don't know where you got the power to subdue someone like Timmy Turner, but you're not using it responsibly! Not that I'm surprised," Stan finished darkly. His tone shifted and everyone heard it. The kid in a brown cloak stepped forward and lifted his left arm that was made of steel with fake skin over it.

The Wizard King and his General standing side by side in front of a row of monitors displaying their castle opened their eyes wide. As Stan opened up his right hand in front of him, a metal hilt of a weapon flew up into his grip. The others behind Stan looked at him with widening eyes as well as they had not seen the child use a weapon as of yet. "If you want to treat this like a game though, then so be it. If you won't give up Timmy Turner, then that makes you my enemy, Cartman."

Stan's hood lifted on its own and shadowed over his face. His face was only shrouded in darkness for a second though, before a red tint came over it as the metal hilt in his right hand extended a blade of red light.

"A lightsaber?" Usopp whispered in surprise.

"A _red_ lightsaber," Sanji corrected. He thought about the two cloaked men who came to their first Anti-NEG meeting at Port Royal. He recalled meeting one again at an Underworld base and knew what it meant when the lightsaber was red. Gray's shocked expression vanished after a second and his fist clenched while a dark expression appeared on his face. Kirito noticed his dark expression, and he grimaced too as he thought about the Sith who convinced Gray to try and kill him.

 **"What the fuck Stan?! Why do you have that?!"** The boy's voice they could all hear booming through the castle sounded higher-pitched as it filled with surprise. The Wizard King continued yelling, **"Only Sith Lords have red lightsabers! What do you think you're doing with-"**

"Be quiet," Stan snarled. He lifted his head more so that more of it was visibly tinted red by his weapon. Butters gulped while he looked at his old classmate on the monitor, while Cartman's right hand clenched harder around his purple wizard staff. "And don't call me Stan like we're friends," Stan growled. "To you, my name is Darth Marsh."

The group behind Stan were opening their eyes wide, and many of them dropped their jaws as the child yelled, "And I _am_ a Sith Lord!"

 _This child is a Sith?_ Robin thought, and she closed her slightly agape mouth.

Luffy thought about the Underworld base where he fought Count Dooku. _That kid's like that strong guy? Huh,_ Luffy did not think much of the boy until now, but he decided he may have judged too quickly.

"Well Stan!" The Wizard King shouted, getting over his shock and calling Stan by his real name despite what the other boy just told him. Stan frowned deeper, but Cartman continued yelling, "Sith or not, you're not getting Turner!"

Nami's eyes grew wide at the shout, while her friends' narrowed and their fists clenched. "He's too powerful a weapon to give up, especially now when the Saiyan King has been killed." The group who were baring their teeth after Timmy got called a 'weapon,' widened their eyes again at that statement. "With Bardock dead, all that stands between the Ant King and world domination are myself, and Zodd. But that Kryptonian has nothing on me and my army! Heh heh heh, you should be thanking me for-"

"SHUT UP!" A dozen people shouted together.

 **"Fine. I was going to give you a hint as to which side of the room Timmy's on, but if you really don't want me to…"**

"Hey guys," Riku began, and all his friends looked to him while ignoring the Wizard King. "Timmy's not behind any of these doors. The Wizard King has full control of everything in here. I'm sure that whatever door we go behind, we'll see exactly what he wants us to see."

 **"That's not true!"** Cartman shouted.

"As such, the only thing we can do is play by his rules, for now," Riku added the 'for now' at the end with a serious look on his face. "But he will let his guard down. He will slip up. There are four-fifteen of us, he doesn't stand a chance." Riku caught himself as he remembered the small black cat standing next to Rin's left foot. He could swear he saw Kuro start smiling when he corrected himself like the animal knew that it was the reason Riku recounted.

The Wizard King's growl could be heard through the castle, and then he called out in a smug tone, **"I know what you're doing. It's not going to work! You won't make me angry!"**

"Except I am, but you can't do anything about it or you'd be showing everyone how much I'm really getting under your skin," Riku said it in such a confident and taunting tone that made Cartman shake in anger from where he was watching.

 _He's good,_ Robin thought with a small smile as Riku taunted their tormentor.

"And if I'm getting under your skin, that would mean that this situation isn't completely under your control, wouldn't it?" Riku smirked and rubbed his nose with his finger in a smug way. He knew that he had Cartman trapped, and he knew that the Wizard King knew what he was thinking. At this point though, whatever Cartman did was a win for him. Riku knew he was right in saying Cartman was angry, even if Cartman did not have an outburst. Cartman could pretend like he was not angry by not doing anything, but Riku also knew Cartman was listening to his thoughts and knew that Riku was a hundred percent sure that he had angered the kid. Even if Cartman did not act out, the boy would have to know that it would not change Riku's mind on how much he was aggravating him. It could sway the others' opinions though, and Riku's thoughts were smug at the idea of Cartman not hitting him right now to keep up an act that he had seen through. It was his total victory.

 _ **"What's that, deep in your head? Is that someone else I see?"**_ Cartman's voice in his head made Riku's sense of victory fade. The others watching him in amusement gained confused looks at the sudden dark expression that flashed over Riku's face. _**"Oh, you poor, poor, tortured soul. You have a Heartless living in your head. You think I'm crazy, but isn't that a little hypocritical of you."**_ Riku's dark look remained, but his smirk returned as he said, "Got you."

"What's going on?" Ben asked his older friend.

"I have him stuck in my head," Riku said.

 _ **"What? What are you- hey, HEY! Do you know who you're messing with?!"**_ _SCRREEEECCCCHHH_ Riku grabbed his ears and stumbled backwards at the shrillest shriek he had ever heard blasting in his eardrums so loud he thought he would go deaf. His ears popped, and the prisoner escaped his head. Riku was used to having something trapped in his head, so he thought he knew all the tricks.

"Want to explain what that was all about?" Usopp asked, eyebrows lifted and arms crossed. To him it looked like Riku was just stumbling around for no reason, even if the flash of pain on his face did look pretty real.

Riku took a few ragged breaths, still feeling tired from his fight against the water trap. He wondered if maybe that trap was the reason he did not have the strength to keep the Wizard King held back. "I, had his mind, in my mind for a few seconds. I felt him in there, not just reading my thoughts, but searching through my memories. So I trapped him, but he got out."

"Of course he did," Usopp mumbled.

"He was in such a rush to get out though," Riku continued, and the dashed hope on some of his friends' faces started to return. "That he didn't hide which direction he was heading to get back to his own body." Riku nodded up the stairs straight towards the long hallway beyond it.

Luffy smiled wide and shouted, "I knew it!" He ran up the stairs and looked down the hall towards the doors he punched his Elephant Gun into right at the start.

"You didn't _know_ anything," Natsu remarked skeptically while jogging up the stairs behind him.

"Should have guessed he was this way considering how big the castle is," Sanji said, wondering why he did not think of it sooner. He reached for a cigarette, but the pack inside his jacket pocket was still wet. He frowned for a second, then looked ahead and called out, "Oi Natsu." The pink-haired mage turned and then lifted a hand quick to catch the pack of cigarettes just tossed to him. "You mind?" Sanji asked.

Natsu's hand heated up for a second, then he tossed the dry pack back to the surprised chef at how quick that was. Sanji lifted the top off, and his eyes widened even more at the sight of a single one of the cigarettes lit already. "Hmph, show off," Sanji said, though he was smiling as he said it and pulled out the pre-lit cig.

"I don't think it was so obvious," Robin remarked after thinking on Sanji's comment for a few moments. He turned left to the black-haired woman who was looking around in a thoughtful way. "If you think about it, we only saw the _width_ of the castle from in front of it. The castle could have been remarkably thin, but we knew for a fact that it was very wide."

"So the doors on the sides of the entrance hall or balconies would have been better options," Kirito agreed from behind the two of them. He glanced over his shoulder and added, "If we didn't have this nice hint."

Riku nodded up at him after he said it, then when Kirito turned back forward, Riku let the small smile form on his face. It felt good to feel appreciated.

"Careful of the drop," Luffy called out before hopping over the hole in the hallway that stretched from wall to wall. He smashed his fist forward as he reached the other side of the hole, but the strong glass barrier had not magically reappeared in the time since he shattered it.

Gray jogged up ahead of the others walking down the hall, and he pressed a palm down on the closer side of the pitfall. An ice bridge covered the entire gap, and as he walked across he called out, "Careful, it's a little slippery."

"Better than falling," Usopp said, as he held his arms out for balance on either side of him and wobbled his way across.

Ben watched as the others walked across the ice bridge. He had been frowning since before the flooding trap went off back in the last room, only breaking it for a second to smile when he saw Riku was alright. _No one seems to care,_ he thought as he glanced around at his friends. _I didn't- I couldn't do a thing. If I had the Omnitrix, I could have used Ripjaws and maybe fought the current. I have a Keyblade too, but I didn't do anything while Riku did all the work. Everyone tried their ideas, but, I wasn't the only one who didn't do anything._ His eyes shifted towards Robin, then Franky, and then Rin and Kuro. All of them were smiling and looked confident, determined, not at all like he suspected his own facial expression appeared right now.

 _It, doesn't bother them,_ Ben realized with widening eyes. _Because they know they couldn't do anything, and everything still worked out. Sometimes it's okay to just rely on your friends._ A smile started to return to Ben's face. _We can do this! All of us, working together, there's nothing we can't do. Even if I couldn't help last time, there's stuff even I can do without my Omnitrix. Guess it was stupid to waste energy on that Kamehameha, but I still feel plenty strong. Timmy, I'm coming to save you!_

Ben ran forward and jumped at the start of the ice bridge. He landed with his feet sideways and slid on the soles of his shoes across the entire bridge before stumbling off the other side while laughing. Natsu looked back and his eyes widened a little at the sight of Ben laughing, while Luffy just called back from farther past Natsu, "I want to try that!"

"Luffy, later," Robin said as her Captain was about to run by her. Luffy looked at the older woman, and he saw Robin dart her eyes over towards Nami who was frowning even while the rest of them were smiling. They were all determined and confident, but even if Nami felt the same way, she was too worried to keep a smile on her face for long. The seemingly all-powerful child was playing with their lives, using Timmy as a puppet, and if he could beat Timmy, then what could she do to stop him? It was something no one was bringing up, but Timmy was stronger than all of them and still lost. Luffy could see what his navigator was thinking about, and he turned back to the center door at the end of the hall. There was no need to give her a pep talk or heartwarming speech; he would let his actions do the talking, like saving Timmy.

"The middle door, huh?" Natsu said as he walked towards where a few others had already reached. "In the only hallway sticking off the main hall, it seems almost like… This was the door we should have went through the whole time!"

Robin had nodded along with him for most of that but stopped at the end. _I would say it seems like a trap. Then again, every door in that room and this hall is a trap. At least this trap will take us closer to Timmy._

"I'm opening it," Luffy announced while reaching out for the doorknob.

"Hey," Natsu said and stepped up next to the pirate. "I want to open it. What if it's a fire trap?"

Luffy frowned at the man next to him, and he grabbed the doorknob quicker and twisted it fast. "What if it's a giant hammer?" Luffy retorted while yanking the door open, hoping a giant blunt object would slam into him and prove that he was right to be the first one inside. As soon as Luffy pulled the door towards him though, Natsu smirked and slid through the opening door, making Luffy's eyes go wide. "Hey! No fair!" The pirate yelled while throwing the door the rest of the way open and chasing Natsu inside.

Natsu had stopped only a few yards past the door though, and he threw his arms out to the sides as he heard Luffy running towards his back. "Stop!" Natsu shouted, really hoping Luffy would not sprint straight into him. Luffy skid to a stop right before bumping into Natsu, then he leaned his head right to see why Natsu stopped short all of a sudden. Luffy's mouth opened into an 'o' shape at the sight of the room in front of them. "I think, this counts as me being right," Natsu said while they stared at the room in front of them that was tinted a dark red color. The others entered the room behind them and started spreading out on the concrete platform five meters long and twenty wide. It was not even wide enough to touch the outer walls, leaving gaps between the walls and the slab where the surface of the room dropped down an inch, and became lava.

On all sides of the rectangular concrete platform they stepped out on, lava bubbled and boiled and filled the air with steam. They could not see the roof of this room as everything above them was a white veil of steam and smoke. "Well, I guess I should have expected something like this," Riku said as he walked into the room. "But I still think this is a lot." He stepped on Ben's left at the very left edge of the front of the concrete slab they all walked up to. As soon as the last of them walked through the door, the red door slammed shut behind them.

The group turned their heads back and stared at a blank white wall that no longer had a door on it. **"Second trap time!"** The Wizard King called out, back in his usual excited and cocky tone like he had forgotten about how they annoyed him before. With his intruders in such a perilous situation though, it made their comments earlier seem so petty to him. Cartman still felt in complete control. **"Ever heard of the game: The Floor is Lava?"** Cartman started laughing while the others just stared across the room full of lava at the slab all the way across the narrow room. The room was only about thirty yards wide in total, but it stretched what looked like a quarter mile before the next wall where there was a black door in the middle of an identical white wall as the one behind them.

"You can't be serious, Cartman," Stan said in a deadpan tone. "How are we supposed-"

 **"The rules are simple, Stan,"** Cartman announced. Out from the lava a few feet in front of the right corner of the platform where Stan was standing, a two foot long by two foot wide rock popped out of the lava and rose to just high enough to be even level with the surface they were currently standing on. Luckily the lava was pretty calm, a flat surface without any waves that would splash up on the rocks that arose one after the other past the first one. At first they extended straight out past the first one, each one only a couple of feet away from the previous. Then, they started moving left and right in the lava path, still with the same distance between them though. About a quarter way across the room though, the distance between the rocks started to change up. Sometimes there would be a wider gap but a second rock that they could choose closer in a new direction. There were different diverging paths, some with rocks that got smaller only to get to much bigger and longer ones if they could get over the small ones first. By the middle of the room, there was no clear "right" path to take to get across the room, and the best minds of the group started wracking their minds to come up with ideas.

The Wizard King continued after the rocks had all risen from below the lava, **"Get from your side of the room to the other. The black door is the correct door, only in one of the many rooms you could have chosen. I commend you for finding it so soon."** Riku rolled his eyes as obviously as he could, showing the boy talking to them that he did not believe a word of that. Cartman continued in the same tone like he had not seen Riku, (though he did), **"There are only two rules. One: no flying. You can't actually break this rule, since you're inside a no-flight zone."**

"What are you talking about?" Ben asked. He surrounded himself in a white veil and tried lifting off the floor. A confused look formed on his face, and Ben tried harder to use his ki to lift himself. He stared down at his hands in utter confusion as the ki was still surrounding his arms, but he could not use it to fly.

"This doesn't make sense," Kirito said while shaking his head. "Then again, I guess it doesn't have to," he added.

"But- how is he making ki just, not work like it should?" Ben asked in such a confused voice while looking right past a couple people to Kirito who had just attempted flying as well.

Robin hummed to herself, and then she said, "I believe it is more than just ki. Even if I were to grow wings right now, I would assume that they would not be able to lift me off of the ground. Sanji, would you like to try Skywalking?"

"Huh?" Sanji muttered. "I mean, of course Robin-chan!" He shouted as she looked his way. He wondered why she asked him, until he jumped up in the air and tried to do it again. His eyes shot open wide as he just dropped back down to the floor instead. "That doesn't make sense-"

"The laws of physics don't matter," Kirito said. "Not in here. In here, he determines how things appear, how they work." The others all looked in at him, and Kirito had a dark look on his face as he continued, "If he wanted to, he could erase gravity. He could turn us all into cartoons, make us unable to speak, or limit our abilities. There's no limit to what he can do."

"What are you talking about?" Nami asked the man on her left side in a confused tone.

"You all haven't figured it out yet?" Kirito wondered. "Timmy told us why he was coming south, remember?" Many of them dropped their jaws, a few of them gasped, while some like Luffy and Natsu retained their confused expressions. "The Wizard King, has a Fairy Godparent."

"Huh?" Luffy asked, perking up at the sound of that. "Like, Wanda?"

"Yeah," Kirito replied. "Like Wanda. Timmy used to be able to make whatever he wished for come true. If that kid wished that no one could fly in this particular room, then no matter how you do it, if it counts as flight, it's restricted in here."

"Never really considered Skywalk as flying," Sanji muttered in annoyance, while he sparked his lighter over and over trying to ignite a new cigarette from the pack he got right before leaving the last Resistance base. The idea of an all-powerful fairy at their enemy's command made each of them a lot more nervous.

 _Timmy Turner had, a Fairy Godparent?_ Stan thought in confusion, though he did not say anything aloud since the rest of them already seemed in the loop about it.

 _ **"Rin, what are they talking about?"**_ Kuro asked the half-demon telepathically.

Rin had been nodding along the whole time, but he sweatdropped at his familiar's question. _**"I've heard them talk about Wanda before. Never met her myself,"**_ _Though I wish I had,_ Rin added on to himself. He had heard about how Timmy wished all the people out of Metropolis, and he would have liked to meet the woman who saved so many people, especially with the way the others talked about her.

 **"Nice job figuring it out, though you all should have realized it sooner,"** Cartman called out.

"What's the second rule?" Ben called back. He was not in the mood to be insulted, but he also felt like it would be smart to know the second rule if the Wizard King's rules were absolutes.

 **"No walking on lava, or running,"** the Wizard King replied. **"Just think of it this way- if you touch the lava you lose, and you really don't want to lose. Haha, have fun!"**

The group hated how they were being toyed with, but this seemed to them as a necessary step to save Timmy. "You're sure you felt him go that way?" Usopp asked and gulped.

"Yeah," Riku replied. "Though admittedly, he could wish to rearrange this place at any time."

"So what's the point of going over there?" Rin wondered.

"What's the point of staying here?" Natsu countered him.

"Well for starters, we don't risk falling in lava," Rin replied, and Natsu shrugged and nodded once like that actually made sense to him.

 **"Also if you stay on that platform for too long, it'll crumble into the lava!"** Cartman called off, then his voice cut off again.

"Of course it will," half of the group muttered at the same time.

"He just made that rule up right now," Stan said.

"Kind of figured that," Gray said with a nod of agreement. "Alright, let me see if I've got this," Gray took a step back and slammed his right hand down on the edge of the platform. He was still feeling pretty fresh even after using a lot of ice magic back in the last room. He created a magical staircase that went up a few steps before jutting out over the lava as a long bridge with railings on either side to hold onto while they went across. The bridge made it about fifty yards before the steps right at the start melted through and the rest of it collapsed down into the lava. Gray let out a deep breath like he had been holding it while trying to make the bridge, "It's, too far. Even if I made another, stronger one, we wouldn't all make it across before it melted."

"Can't use chakra to run across it," Kirito said. "I was going to try, but now I'm sure I'd just fall right in." He said this while watching the steam rise more in the thick line where Gray's ice bridge had fallen in. His gaze lifted to follow the steam, and he frowned more as he looked up in the air. He wondered if Gray had already thought about making the staircase much higher up and starting farther back on the platform, but Kirito figured that they would not likely be able to breath in the hot air up there.

"Guys, it's his rules," Nami started. "Even if we come up with a loophole, he'll just call out that he made a new rule. So, let's just take the rocks."

"That's what he wants us to do though," Usopp said, then he yelped and jumped back as the edge right beneath his toes crumbled a little into the lava. "Alright! Alright! We're taking the path!" Usopp shouted at the hazy sky since he thought Cartman did that on purpose, reminding them that they had no other option but to do things his way.

"For now, this is all we can do," Riku said while walking behind the line of people on the edge to the other side of the platform. "While we play his games, let's try and think of ways we can get Timmy back with the information we currently have." Luffy saw where Riku was walking to and got out of the line first to run over there before Riku reached it. "Be careful, Luffy," Riku said without trying to race him to the corner. Stan moved out of the way to let the pirate be first, as he did not want to go first anyway.

"Hey, I wanted to go-" Natsu began, but Luffy jumped forward and landed on the first rock.

Natsu bent his knees to jump up ahead to the third rock, but Gray slammed a hand down on his left shoulder strongly. "Can you just control yourself, for like five seconds? This is a serious situation."

"You control yourself," Natsu snapped back, leaning his forehead forward into Gray's.

"I'm _in_ control," Gray retorted and pushed his own forehead harder into Natsu's.

"Gray-sama, Natsu, cool off," Juvia said, and a few gallons of water that magically appeared above their heads dropped down and soaked them. The two men spun and gawked at the girl behind them who had her arms crossed and was looking at them in a scolding way. "I don't want to have to get angry with you," she warned. Juvia had been trying out looking like Erza to scare the other two straight, but she felt like if she got like that now, she actually would scare the two in front of her. They both knew about the Lazarus Pit, and she was a little afraid of how they would look at her if she got too scary an expression on her face. Just dousing them in water seemed to be enough to cool them down though, and Juvia sighed in relief as Natsu ran over to the right corner of the platform, yelling ahead at Riku, Franky, and Stan that he had wanted to be second.

"Nice one Juvia," Gray complimented his girlfriend. He took a step towards her and smiled at her from a foot away, "Forgot where I was for a second there. Good thing you're here."

Juvia's cheeks turned red from more than the heat of the room. She looked away shyly instead of her normal fawning over Gray. Robin saw Juvia's reaction out the corner of her eyes and smiled softly at the sight of it. Even if Juvia told them that she had been distancing herself from Gray, she could not hide how much she was in love with him after just hearing a few sentences from him.

At the corner of the platform, Ben was feeling nervous about jumping onto the first rock in front of him. As long as he kept on the same path as the others in front of him though, he figured this would be easy. _That means all of us are going to just follow what Luffy does then? I'm not sure he's going to pick the easiest path._

Luffy was five people ahead of Ben, hopping one rock to the next while still on the easiest part of the path. He had to start hopping left and right, then he stopped as he reached the first decision to make. He could try jumping one and a half times the distance as the usual gaps, still an easy jump for him, or he could cut right and take a different path where the rocks stayed closer together for another ten rocks or so. Luffy hummed to himself, glanced over his shoulder, then he did a side-jump to the rock closest to him.

Riku's eyebrows lifted up as he saw the decision Luffy made. _That was pretty mature of him, but I'd rather he had taken the other path. This one gets harder after the next ten easy rocks. The kid's just luring you in._ Riku stopped for a second and wondered if it was possible for him to glide. Before he ever learned how to fly, he discovered gliding, or falling with style. He shook his head and decided against it, as there was no point in attempting something that could possibly get him killed. He decided to follow Luffy's path, and Franky turned to follow him that way as well.

When Natsu reached the decision point though, he grinned and hopped forward with a little more power in it than the last one. He judged the distance perfectly, and he turned and grinned thirty feet away to the other path that curved around closer to the wall on the right side. "Natsu," Gray called up after just starting on the path himself. "Stay with the group."

"This way is totally better," Natsu called back, then he started doing some more of the slightly longer jumps to the left before cutting back in when the path split in two again.

Riku looked over to the left as Natsu made a steady pace forward until he was right on track with Luffy only closer to the center of the room. _He's keeping good pace, and he's on the path I would have chose. I don't think he actually thought ahead, he just wants to compete with Luffy._ "Don't speed up you guys," Riku scolded loudly as he saw Luffy take a quicker hop to the next rock after Natsu caught up to him. "This is about Timmy, remember? Don't make it a competition."

Luffy nodded and calmed himself down while judging the next rock that was suddenly more than twice the distance as the last one he hopped. "It's not a competition," Natsu called back over to Riku like he was being worried over nothing. Natsu then added in a quieter voice, "Because it's obvious whose going to win." Luffy was the closest person to him, and the only one who heard what Natsu just added at the end.

"Guys!" Usopp called up from the back of the pack. Only Nami and Kirito were behind him, Kirito having offered to take up the rear so that he could catch either of them if they missed a jump. They were surprised by the offer, but both were actually glad to hear him say it since everyone else was treating this like an easy game as long as they chose the right path. Even if they picked the right path though, Nami and Usopp were worried they were going to reach a point where they could not make the same jump as the rest of their friends.

"Stop racing!" Nami yelled up angrily.

Luffy and Natsu had started jogging ahead at a steadily increasing pace. Riku sighed since he thought they were actually slowing down for a second after he scolded them. He tried watching the path Luffy took, but he shook his head after a few seconds as Luffy stopped taking the most obvious path. He did not think that Luffy taking a different path would actually speed the pirate up that much, but he felt like Luffy was taking a harder path as if to goad Natsu on to take a harder one himself.

Natsu and Luffy both jumped for the same wide rock almost at the middle of the room when they were pretty far ahead of their friends. They took a few breaths and glanced across the wide rock at each other before scanning the five rocks on the lava in front of them. "This is where is gets interesting," Natsu said with a grin, looking around at the rocks that were all more than twelve feet away from theirs. The closest one was the smallest, but it also had another rock right after it that was close to the left wall. There was not much of a path after that, meaning they would have to cut back in, but Natsu grinned and leapt over, tapping his foot on the small rock and then leaping to the next one. He turned back to see what Luffy would do next.

The rubberman turned right and looked at the rock farthest from the large one he was standing on. It had to be a harder one to reach than Natsu's, so he picked the hardest one. It was twenty feet away, and even though it was a normal-sized one, there were no other rocks in front of it for thirty feet meaning that his next jump would be even farther. Natsu frowned as he saw where Luffy was attempting to go, and he cupped his hands to his mouth and called out, "Don't try it! You'll definitely fall in!"

The taunt only made Luffy need to do it more. He bent his knees, and he leapt over for the rock with the perfect force so his feet were coming down right on top of it.

Back a hundred feet, Stan muttered, "Those idiots are going to get themselves killed."

Luffy's feet came down on top of the rock, and they went straight through it. Natsu's frown at how Luffy easily made the jump dropped into a shocked gasp. The rock beneath Luffy turned into a hologram as soon as Luffy's feet touched it, crackling to show that it was not actually a real rock despite how real it appeared to be. The seven people closest to Luffy and Natsu who could see them from various rocks on the paths cutting through the lava froze and dropped their jaws just as Natsu did, because Luffy hit the lava.

"AHH!" Luffy screamed. All the others who did not see what happened snapped their heads up and tried looking at the pirate captain whose voice sounded so full of pain.

Luffy had been turning his head towards Natsu. He knew that he had the perfect force to land on the rock, but when his feet did not touch it he snapped his head back down in shock. By the time he realized what had happened, his feet had touched the lava. Luffy screamed in pain but spun his head looking for something to grab onto. There were no rocks in the immediate vicinity though, and he could not throw an arm around one anyway with how barely above the lava they were sticking out. "Take my hand!" Natsu screamed, holding an arm out towards Luffy.

The pirate started spinning his head back towards Natsu, but his body did not stop after his feet touched the lava. It was not a solid magma he landed on, but a liquid that his body sank through almost as fast as water. His feet went through and he screamed, but by the time Natsu yelled to take his hand, Luffy's legs had already sank in. "AHH! AGGH-" Luffy reached an arm out for Natsu, but his body leaned too far forward and his stomach got covered in lava that burned through his skin in under a second.

A dark portal started opening up in the air behind Luffy. Riku's right hand shoved through it and reached down for the pirate who leaned back when his stomach got burnt.

 _If only I still had XLR8!_ Ben thought in horror, but then he remembered that he would not even be able to run on the surface of the lava anyway to get to Luffy and save him.

"Luffy!" Sanji yelled, leaping up and trying to kick the air beneath him again. He dropped down and made sure to land on one of the stepping stones, but he almost fell off on his landing as he had not been preparing for failure. "Damn it!" Sanji yelled and just started making big jumps instead to get farther down the path quicker.

"Captain!" Franky shouted.

"Luffy!"

"Luffy!"

When Luffy leaned backwards, his straw hat dangling on his back hit the lava below him and burst into flames. His face filled with horror and he lifted an arm to try and reach behind him and grab his hat, to save it from burning up. As he lifted his arm though, he saw out the corners of his eyes all the lava dripping off of it, taking his flesh with it as it dropped back into the pool around him. Riku's hand grasped down at Luffy's head and he pulled up, but some lava splashed up when he yanked up and got on his arm. "GAH!" Riku's hand unclenched on reflex as his skin melted through, and he tried grasping again only to get air as Luffy's head had dropped back into the lava already. "LUFFY!" Riku screamed, and then he froze and just stared ahead into the lava in silence at Luffy's unmoving body.

 _No. No. I- I won't… I said only when, but the Wizard King. He has a fairy. And Timmy's here too! I, I can't let him die!_ Ben shoved his right hand into his pocket and clenched a small glowing blue cube that had started filling him with warmth a few seconds ago. _He said that he's the only thing standing between the Ant King and world domination, and whether he's telling the truth or not, I'm risking everything on this!_ Ben clenched his eyes shut as he heard the agonized screams of his friends around him. _ELIACUBE! LISTEN TO ME!_

All of the screams cut off. Ben slowly opened his eyes, to see the whole room frozen. He gazed down at the lava on the side of the rock he stood on, but it was not moving at all. He looked ahead towards where he just saw some black hair remaining above the surface of the water. He saw a look of pain, and regret, and guilt, strewn over Natsu's face from the rock farthest forward of anyone in their group. He saw Riku grabbing at his own bloody arm while staring over in furious frustration at the spot Luffy went down. Ben did not want to look back and see more of those looks on his friends' faces. He knew they were crying, and he wondered if any of them had fallen in in their rush to get to Luffy's side. All those screams of pain he had assumed were of grief over Luffy, but he started to wonder if Luffy was the only one he was saving here. Ben's body surrounded in a blue glow, and he pulled the Eliacube out of his pocket.

Ben lifted the cube and held it in front of him, and it grew in size back to the original block shape he had first seen it in. "Why did it get small enough to fit in my pocket?" Ben wondered aloud. His breathing had calmed down, and so did he. This was the calmest place on Nexus, the most relaxing place he could ever be. "Wizard King?" Ben called out. He looked up and awaited a response, then smiled more as he heard nothing from the annoying kid holding them there. "He's not _all_ -powerful then. Riku's darkness, and the Eliacube. It's not much, but we'll beat him with just this."

In Ben's mind appeared a vision of the Ant King. He saw the Ant King asking about who traveled from the future, and he recalled every word that he told that terrifying being. _I never told him about the Eliacube. I was too afraid, too confused, too tired to even think about bringing it up. If he finds out I did this though, he'll kill me! Shit, he'll kill everyone!_ A brighter blue light surrounded Ben as he filled with doubt, and with that light came a warmth that washed Ben's worries away. _Thanks,_ Ben thought, then got a confused look on his face like he did not know who he was thanking. He stared down at the Eliacube hesitantly, then he got a more determined expression on his face and nodded. _One minute. Maybe he won't notice such a short jump back._

Time started to reverse. He watched as Luffy reemerged from the lava, and Ben's stomach turned over at the sight of his body pulling un-melting. Ben started hopping back after his own body while glancing over his shoulder every second or two, which was the same amount of time backwards. He looked up towards Luffy and Natsu who were getting closer and closer in front of him each second. They were at their farthest distance from him when Luffy fell in, and Ben turned back time until he thought they were at a point before they started running ahead. Luffy was at the spot he was at when Riku scolded him, and although it had been more than a minute, Ben sighed in relief when he reached this point. _Oh crap,_ Ben thought as he looked at his own body, midway through a jump. He turned time back another second, then two, while spinning his head around to make sure that his friends were still in safe positions. _Even if I unfreeze and they're in midair though, they'll be fine since they'll still have their momentum. Wouldn't I be too though? Yeah, but I'd have to get into my old body's position, and that would be hard in midair. Hopefully a few extra seconds doesn't make a difference to Meruem._

Ben took a step towards his body while lowering the Eliacube that shrank as Ben thought at it to. He slid the magical time-traveling cube into his pocket and took another step so that he was inside his own body. The blue light surrounding him faded as he took his hand off the cube in his pocket, and time started to move again. Ben sighed in relief, then his eyes bugged out and he snapped his head forward with a panicked look in his eyes. _AH! I never thought of what I was going to say-_ Natsu said something to Luffy that made the pirate spin to him, and then turn forward and take the biggest leap yet to get back ahead of Natsu. Natsu was not going to give up after taking that long to tie with Luffy, and he started speeding up his hops to catch up again. "Hey! HEY!" Ben shouted.

"Guys, come on!" Stan called up.

"No really!" Ben yelled, jumping forward himself, then again so he was only one rock behind Stan. "Natsu! Luffy! STOP!"

"Ben, just let them go," Rin said with a laugh from behind him. "There's no point with those-"

"GUYS!" Ben screamed at the top of his lungs. "STOP MOVING RIGHT FUCKING NOW!"

Natsu and Luffy froze on the rocks they were currently standing on. They turned their heads and looked back, and Natsu had an annoyed look on his face because Luffy was still just a little bit ahead of him. He made to take another hop to even it out before listening to Ben, but Ben screamed his way, "I mean it Natsu! Don't you fucking move!"

"Ben!" Nami called up. "Watch your language!"

"NO!" Ben yelled. "They're about to-" Ben started. He clenched his teeth, bared them so hard that his friends who could see his face leaned back at the sight. Stan looked at the older boy behind him and had an utterly confused look on his face at why Ben was so angry all of a sudden. It was not just anger that he saw on Ben's face though, and Riku could see it as well as he jumped a rock back closer to Ben.

"Ben, what's wrong?" Riku asked.

"Just," Ben started. He looked past Riku towards Natsu and Luffy, wondering what he could tell them to convince them. The thought to mention that he turned back time crossed over his mind, but he could not think of a good way to explain the Eliacube, and he was afraid of what the others would do if they knew about something so powerful. Ben's eyes bulged as he realized that the Wizard King was probably reading his mind right now and learning about what he just did, and Ben tried to blank that completely from his head. After a few seconds though, Ben lifted his head and glanced up into the white steam above in confusion as the Wizard King was not saying anything. _Why isn't he? Did he really not notice? Did he not read my mind when I started shouting? Or…_

"Just," Ben lowered his head back down and looked towards Natsu and Luffy in as serious a way as possible. "Slow down," Ben said. "Some of the rocks in here might not be real. They might, I don't know, break apart under our feet, or sink into the lava. Hell, they might even be holograms." Ben narrowed his brown eyebrows down and glared at the two farthest in front of their group. "What do you think you can do if you fall into the lava? You think you can pull yourselves out? You think someone could fly or run over and get you, 'cause we can't. If you fall in, you'll melt in _seconds_. Your flesh, your bones, everything will just dissolve away." Ben's face darkened so much that Natsu could not believe this was the same kid who slid across the ice in the last hallway with a smile on his face, laughing even.

"Ben, are you okay?" Rin asked the kid whose back was to him. "That's pretty dark. I'm sure we're all going to be fine."

"Ben's right," Riku called out, turning towards the two who he had given up on scolding. _What just happened?_ Riku thought, while continuing aloud, "This is a very dangerous room, and the Wizard King could have a lot more dangerous twists in store for us before we get across. A single mishap and any of us could die. So take it slow. For once, you guys, just act a little mature."

Luffy frowned at the way Riku worded that, but Natsu just humphed and crossed his arms like he did not care. He turned back forward and thought about continuing the competition with Luffy, but the look on Ben's face made his arms uncross and lower back down at his sides. Luffy turned to see if Natsu still wanted to keep going, but the Dragon Slayer did not seem to be into it anymore. _For you,_ Ben, Natsu thought. _Just because, you've got that look in your eyes again._

Luffy extended his right arm out and pressed a hand down on the next rock in front of him. It did not slide under the lava, and it felt pretty sturdy. He nodded and jumped to the next one. Natsu grimaced, but waited for Luffy to do that again and go ahead before jumping to the last rock Luffy was on. It was not fun, but it was definitely safer than what they had been doing. Ben let out a huge sigh of relief and almost fell down to his butt then and there. _Tragedy averted,_ Ben thought with a small chuckle, but it felt dry to him and his body was shaking too much to convince himself that everything was alright. _But at what cost?_ He wondered. Ben shook his head around, and he jumped to the next rock to follow after Stan and the others. As he waited at the next rock for a second though, Ben lifted his gaze back up to the air above him. _Maybe it's nothing._

Above the top of the castle, the Wizard King floated over his tallest tower with a purple wooden staff in his right hand. The staff had purple eyes with big pupils and a mouth of perfect shiny teeth. Floating behind the Wizard King, in front of him, and on both of his sides, were hundreds of silver robots. There were multicolored ones scattered amongst the rest, as well as some giant ones standing all over the roof over a hundred meters tall each and with cannons all over their bodies. Eric Cartman stared ahead with an angry look as he knew what was coming. He saw it with his foresight, and he checked his crystal ball to see that the figure he had had a vision of was flying full speed in his direction. The sky to the north started to darken, a weird dark purple haze filling the sky and dying everything in its color. The air above the Wizard King's castle stayed bright blue though, and it stayed blue for over a few hundred miles north of him too. He spotted the purple sky clash with the blue in the distance, and though the massive sky-changing color stopped coming, what was flying beneath it that had caused the sky to change that color for tens of thousands of miles did not stop moving.

"I wish for Enhanced Mode," Cartman said in a calm voice. The staff in his right hand lifted an arm of its own that seemed to appear out of nowhere, and it waved a golden wand. The Wizard King's body did not change, but the stars on his cloak and hat started to twinkle golden light. Juandissimo looked as confident as his Godchild, grinning and showing all his pearly whites while staring out to the north. His child's "Enhanced Mode" was not unlike the Forms that Timmy Turner used to use with his own Godparents. It took too much magic for Juandissimo to wish Cartman power after power when his Godchild had requested them. The kid came up with a better idea though, wishing instead for powers to be used only at certain times to then be taken back away after the fact. Wishing for a power that would last forever was just a little difficult, so wishing for one that would only last a few hours, or a day, took no effort for the Fairy. Even with the amount of God-like powers that Cartman had put on his Enhanced Mode list, Juandissimo was able to do it with no more than a wave of his wand, and the purple staff retained its full color. "Alright, let's test it," Cartman said, and he snapped his fingers in front of him.

The monster flying towards him at full speed stopped short. He stared ahead and then lifted his head and glared over at the three suns in the western sky. They were on the wrong side of him, as was the bright blue sky that was suddenly behind him. The Ant King, Meruem, slowly turned his head to reface the south with an animalistic glare of fury. His En expanded south past the Great Wall, pushing through the blue sky that Cartman had kept that way, encroaching his bloodthirsty feeling close enough for the Wizard King to feel.

"He sure is angry," Cartman said. He lowered the left corner of his lip and in a confused tone whispered, "What is he doing, coming here now?" Juandissimo glanced up at his Godson and opened his mouth, but he closed it after a second and just looked back to the north where the massive power was flying towards them again.

The Wizard King slammed the butt of his staff down on the air on level with his feet. The staff touched the invisible floor there, and the entire sky around him and for a few hundred miles in every direction started to vibrate. Ripples of sound flooded the air and pulsed hardest directly to the north. Meruem did not care and kept flying south with his teeth bared, but a short fat boy appeared a hundred meters to Meruem's left, then as the King stopped and turned his way, another Wizard King appeared on the King's right. Four of them appeared to Meruem's south, north, east, and west, each a hundred meters away from him.

"You are trespassing in my domain!" The four Wizard Kings called out at the same time. He tapped his staff down again, and the robot army above his castle teleported to the sky around him. Even the giant ones that had been standing on the roof were removed and teleported to the ground far below the Ant King, though with all their rockets aimed up at him. "Do you think you are exempt from my rules, Ant King?" The boys' eyes all narrowed at the Chimera Ant in the center of them.

Meruem's eyes darted around him and took in everything in the vicinity. He calmed down his bloodlust that did not seem to be working on the boy already so close to him. _What am I doing here without my Royal Guards? Why did I not prepare an attack? No matter, his day would have come soon anyway._ Meruem's aura erupted around him, expanding a thousand miles in every direction, then condensing around him to only a hundred feet diameter sphere of dark purple energy.

"Oooh?" Cartman said in a mock amazed tone. "Did someone get a little power-up after killing the Saiyan King?" Cartman asked in a voice like he was talking to a little kid. He scoffed, then the one right in front of Meruem to the south said in a lower voice, "Yeah right? I thought it would take you a little more time to muster the courage to come after me, but looks like you've gotten cocky."

Meruem shot towards the Cartman to the south of him and shoved his tail through the kid's chest. Cartman started laughing at him while the thickest part of the tail impaled right through his fat body. The boy leaned his body farther forward while grabbing onto both sides of Meruem's tail, then he exploded in a blinding white light. The other three Cartmans and the robot army beneath them teleported a couple of miles south, considering the explosion sphere was a half mile in diameter. The three remaining Cartmans put their hands to their foreheads and leaned forward while whistling in an impressed way at the size of the explosion. The Cartman on the left started, "Nice one…"

"Me," the one on the right of center finished.

"Not enough to kill him," the one in the center added.

"But definitely enough to piss him off," all three said before laughing together. The boy might have been in multiple bodies, but they were of one mind. The three Cartmans looked towards their explosion and narrowed their eyes as they no longer sensed a power coming from inside it. The Ant King had not been able to mask his enormous power before, so for a moment the boy wondered if his explosion actually killed the most feared monster on Aebrith and likely all of Nexus.

A hand went through the back of the center Cartman's neck. The two on the sides started turning inwards, while Meruem clenched up on the bottom of Cartman's skull and ripped upwards. He pointed his feet out at the same time and fired two purple spheres of energy at the Cartmans in the processs of turning to him. Cartman smacked his staves into the energy spheres and sent them flying right back at Meruem who narrowed his eyes at the boy's speed and recovery time from being surprised by Meruem's appearance. Meruem put his hands out though and caught his own blasts, then flicked them to the sides to be able to catch Cartman's hands that he tried punching into the spheres to make them explode in Meruem's palms. Meruem caught Cartman's hands perfectly to curl his fingers and interlock with those on either of Cartman's hands, then he swung in front of himself and smashed the two Cartmans into each other.

He tried smashing them together hard enough to break them, but the two just bounced off before spinning and punching their other hands towards Meruem's chest. The Ant King's tail snapped around his body and impaled the Wizard King on the right, while Meruem smacked the other Wizard King's arm away with his left hand. The left Wizard King's momentum had him keep going forward, and Meruem started bringing up his left knee to smash into the kid's gut. As the Wizard King leaned towards him though, the boy opened his mouth wide and Meruem shot backwards instead of continuing the knee. A beam of white light shot out of the Wizard King's mouth and flew right beneath the bottom of Meruem's feet. The kid lifted his gaze to the monster who jumped over his attack, and Meruem had both hands pressed together in front of his body, firing a beam of red light down into the boy's still-open mouth that had just finished shooting out that beam.

The red light filled Cartman's body and he lowered his head to look down at himself as his body glowed red. His body ripped apart violently, and Meruem floated in midair while looking down at the three falling remains of his enemy. _That was too easy,_ Meruem thought, even though he did not consider that as all that easy.

"You don't think you've won, do you?" A voice called up from below. Meruem looked down, and he stared at one of the hundred and fifty meter tall robots below him. That robot's body started to morph, and a humongous Wizard King took shape where it was standing instead. The massive Wizard King smirked up at the Ant King, then he teleported into the sky so that his head was much higher than the Ant's. He looked down towards Meruem and bellowed, "All of my creations, are me!" Dozens, hundreds of robots below Meruem started to change shape. Excluding the multicolored ones that just flew up in the air to make a wide circle around the Ant King, all of the silver ones floating around or standing as giants turned into larger versions of Eric Cartman. "You can't beat me," Cartman laughed out with a huge smirk. "I am the mother-fucking Wizard King! And you will respect my authoritah!" Cartman slammed his giant staff down for Meruem, but the Ant King lifted his arms and slammed his palms into the weapon as it smashed down on him.

Cartman pushed harder, his teeth baring as he put more strength into it. His giant form's eyes widened the side of houses as Meruem pushed his hands up and made Cartman's staff and arms lift high above him, leaving his whole body open for attack. Meruem did not attack yet though. All the other Wizard Kings and his robots were flying up or in at him, and he flew up towards the highest giant one's face. Meruem floated in front of Cartman's eyes while the boy's fat arms continued to rise at his sides. Meruem looked into Cartman's eyes, a look of calm fury in his own that matched his demeanor. "You hold no authority over me," Meruem said.

The Ant King flew backwards and avoided the giant beam of lightning dropping out of the sky. His tail whipped behind his body and sliced vertically through the ten-foot tall Wizard King who appeared behind him. He rose his right hand and caught a ball of white light that then almost exploded prematurely, only for a purple beam of Meruem's own energy to push it a hundred meters into the distance before it exploded. He shot down away from the widening blast and punched, kicked, and swung his tail into all the Wizard Kings he flew by while evading the explosion. He did a three-sixty spin and lifted his arms away from his sides just a bit to dodge five beams fired at him from different directions, then he smashed straight through a green robot without slowing down.

A green gaseous substance surrounded Meruem, but his body surrounded in a white veil right before he smashed through the robot and he was already holding his breath. Two Wizard Kings flew at his sides when he was about to hit the ground, and they each swung their staves in at the Ant King's body. Meruem got hit in the front and the back, then his hands snapped out and grabbed each Wizard King by the face. He slammed down to the ground on both feet, blowing the earth below him apart while also slamming the heads of the two Wizard Kings he caught into the floor at the same time. The earthquake caused the landscape around him to crack, while the wave of earth that pulsed out around his landing point grew taller and taller as it pushed away from him. The wave knocked a few of the giant Wizard Kings off balance, but they flew up in the air to get off the shaking ground. Those giant Cartmans, the smaller ones (that were still taller than Meruem), and the robots still around the Ant King all started flying down towards Meruem at once.

Meruem's body glowed red, and his skin bubbled out on his arms, back, chest, and even on the top of his head. Meruem crossed his bubbling arms that started pulsing energy. "Rage, Eruption," Meruem uncrossed his arms right as the closest Cartman was about to slice at him with a black sword sticking out the end of his purple staff. Meruem exploded. Out from Meruem's body shot hundreds of bright pink energy blasts. The Wizard Kings flying down at him stopped and tried changing directions, but the beams were too fast. Even the ones who were able to change course and fly away were chased by the pink blasts and blown apart within a second. The ground beneath Meruem dipped down a few hundred meters, while the ground blew apart at his sides and flew in every direction as a giant cloud of black ash moving so fast that it devastated the grassy landscape for ten miles around him. More explosions flew out of him than there were enemies, and the blasts that had no targets just landed far from the King and smashed into the ground where they blew apart like miniature nuclear bombs.

Sixty miles to the south, Cartman stared ahead with wide eyes as his army was annihilated and his kingdom's lush landscape demolished. _Even in Enhanced Mode,_ Cartman thought darkly. _How much energy does the Ant King have? I always thought Bardock was the strongest of the three of them, so now Meruem has his own power and most of Bardock's it seems. Is his power limitless? Mine isn't, but I assumed I had more than him. I assumed I was better, because, well I'm me! Of course I'm better!_ "Alright, Juandissimo," Cartman said, glancing down at his staff's nervous eyes. "I wish for Reality Trap A."

"Good idea," Juandissimo said in a relieved voice. He swung his wand in front of him, then the staff smiled and let his arm and wand disappear. The two of them looked out to the north where Meruem was lifting out of the smoke of his explosion. The Ant King looked undamaged, and despite the distance, Cartman could see him perfectly from where he floated. The boy and his Fairy Godparent stared ahead as Meruem flew towards them so fast that he was traveling several miles per second. Meruem was speeding up too, getting closer to his enemy faster each second.

Meruem's body surrounded in a white veil from moving too fast through the air, and he stared straight ahead with a grin while glaring into the Wizard King's eyes. The Wizard King stared with a blank expression back at him, and then the boy smirked. The short, fat kid started laughing, and Meruem sped even faster to get to him. He raced towards the boy who he was only a few miles away from now, but the kid just laughed harder as Meruem sped up more. _I should have reached him already,_ Meruem thought, while speeding up even more and urging his body to reach the boy. He was not frozen still; he could feel his body still racing through the sky. He felt the air pushing past his body and saw the clouds and earth flying by above and below him. _What is this!?_

"You can't reach me," Cartman said. His voice reached Meruem even though he was not speaking that much louder than he usually did. Meruem kept flying, an angered and bloodthirsty expression on his face as he continued glaring into the Wizard King's eyes. "If you were running towards me," the boy continued, "the ground beneath your feet would slide backwards equal distance to each step you took. There is no limit too. You could run all you like, or fly in this case, and it won't make a difference. The ground will only slide backwards up until a certain point south of the wall where it is pressed up against unmoving earth. Those two sections pushing against each other will create a new mountain range from the east coast to the west. And don't think that I'll run out of land down here the more that slides north, because more land is constantly appearing between the two of us, an equal amount to that which you slide back by flying forward."

Meruem realized why the ground was moving beneath him, yet he was not getting any closer to the Wizard King. He looked far ahead to where Cartman was floating, then below at the ground behind the kid while he continued to fly forward. The ground beneath Cartman was not moving no matter how fast he flew, and Meruem started to doubt that speed was the problem. He pointed his right hand forward and fired a beam of red light while continuing to soar incredibly fast. Cartman chuckled and smacked the beam of light back at Meruem who dodged it then started slowing down, because the distance between him and Cartman had not changed for over ten seconds. _The continent itself shifts to his whims,_ Meruem thought, while watching the ground slow down its expansion at the same pace as his declining speed.

Meruem stopped flying and glared back towards Cartman while snarling furiously at him. "You see, Meruem," Cartman said in a disrespectful tone. "It doesn't matter how strong you get, because the rules don't apply to me. Hahaha!" Cartman started laughing and he swung his staff in front of him. When he swung the staff, distance and time condensed and expanded. Grass grew rapidly over recently formed earth, and the boy zoomed much closer to Meruem only to double the distance from him again. He tapped the top rounded part of the staff in the air and visible vibrations of sound rippled off of it towards Meruem who heard a ringing noise that got exponentially louder by the second to the point of pain. "This will never be _your_ world," Cartman taunted. "The only reason you control so much land," Cartman's eyes narrowed and he said with a menacing smirk, "is because I let you."

That was the last straw. Meruem's power exploded out from him so hard that the ripples of sound in the air coming from Cartman's staff started trembling between them. Cartman's condensed space between him and Meruem that was so hard for the Ant King to push through, cracked. The air itself split open in five different cracks that had strange swirling pink lights on the other side of them. Meruem leaned forward even as purple blood came out of his ears, and he smirked back at Cartman in a much more terrifying way than the kid just did. Cartman thought that he had been pretty terrifying with that display of power, but as Meruem stared forward with animalistic fury in his gaze, the Ant King was a thousand times more frightening.

Meruem floated forward and Cartman smacked his staff down at the King, sending such a powerful slash of wind at him that Meruem had to stop leaning forward to dodge left instead. Meruem was fast though, and Cartman had to snap his head to follow the Ant's movements. "I wish he was gone!" Cartman shouted as Meruem lifted up a hand covered in purple energy. Just like that, Meruem disappeared.

"Geez that guy is annoying," Cartman said and laughed. He then turned and whispered down at the purple staff in his right hand, "Where _did_ you send him?"

Juandissimo replied, "The other side of the world- uh-oh," Cartman saw his purple staff's eyes open wide and he spun to look back behind him in the southeast. Something was flying their way from the distance, and it did not slow down even as it neared him. The dot appeared in an instant and Meruem slashed his right hand down at the kid's head, but Cartman lifted his staff and blocked Meruem's arm with it. All the force that Meruem put into the strike was reflected back at him when his arm hit the staff, but Juandissimo still clenched his teeth in pain. His eyes bulged at the feeling of that pain, while Cartman grabbed his right arm with his left hand and groaned in pain too at how much his bones were vibrating.

"What happened?" Cartman snapped. Meruem was bouncing backwards with blood splashing out of cracks all over his arm, the force of that last strike too much for even his powerful body to take when reflected back at him. It felt to Meruem like the attack had increased in power too on the reflection, but as he fell away from Cartman, he saw the Wizard King's teeth clench and the boy grab his blocking arm in pain. Cartman spun when Meruem recovered, and the fat kid stopped panting, but he did not start smiling this time. _Even all-powerful, has it's limits,_ Cartman thought, glancing down at his staff and wondering how much Juandissimo could take.

"Alright, Ant King," Cartman began while Meruem floated back up only twenty feet in front of him. "Are we doing this, right now? You versus me. Fight to the death?" The way Cartman worded it made it sound like that was what he was ready for, and the kid smirked as he awaited a response from the Chimera Ant before him.

 _Take the challenge,_ Meruem thought, but he frowned at the idea. _Why would I do something so reckless? Out of the four on this continent who I believed could threaten me, he has always been the most dangerous. I had decided to save him for last. Why would I change my plans now, just for a fight against him?_ He already knew the answer. _The Saiyan DNA. Seeing his strength, seeing this boy break the laws of physics, if I could beat him._ A smirk tried pulling at Meruem's lips, but he was still against the idea and almost growled at himself for ignoring his counter-thoughts while explaining his reasons to himself. _I have not yet gained control over my own altered DNA. My mind is more powerful than my body though, and I will never let that change._

"What did you do to time?" Meruem questioned. Cartman's face filled with confusion, but Meruem spotted the eyes of the staff Cartman was holding open wide in surprise. Meruem never changed his gaze from Cartman to the staff, but he did continue, "Nevermind." Cartman's eyes bugged out in confusion. While continuing to block out Cartman's mind reading powers, Meruem thought, _The staff he wields is the source of his power. It has sentience, and it knows about the time displacement as well. What is that being? It knows more than he does at least. It could even be controlling the Wizard King, though that is unlikely. A being of that power allowing this boy to act as he wishes, does it not concern itself of the mortal world? Is it an amoral force? Or does the Wizard King have to follow certain rules? He has never truly conquered anything, despite claims that he would. If the reason for this is that staff, or whatever being is taking the form of that staff, then he has an easily exploitable weakness. And so, my fight with the Wizard King will reconvene soon, once I have made_ _ **proper**_ _plans._ Meruem thought all this in a matter of a second, a second and a half. At the end of his thought process though, he noticed himself getting angrier at the idea of not finishing the fight and had to scold himself with his own thoughts.

"Hey!" Cartman shouted as Meruem sounded like he was ending this right now. "You can't just fly into my lands and fight me, then leave like nothing happened!"

"So will you try to stop me from leaving?" Meruem asked, and his enormous purple aura surrounded him. The sky darkened and the ground quaked, cracking in different locations and causing rock slides and avalanches. A few volcanoes in the Wizard King's domain even erupted thanks to all the rumbling.

 _I could beat him,_ Cartman thought. **"Do not try it. I am not so sure."** Cartman looked down at his staff who just communicated telepathically with him, then he turned back to Meruem with a deep frown. "If you come south of my wall again, it will be the last time you do."

"I agree," Meruem said. The Ant King turned and flew back towards his Capital, leaving Cartman to ponder what the King was implying by agreeing with him there.

As Meruem flew off, he frowned while thinking of his nearly limitless power. _All this strength, but the cost is great. In order to uphold my laws on time, I dared confront the Wizard King with no preparation. I would not have done this before killing Bardock. It is not just the increase in power that has me this confident though, because it was not confidence I felt while considering my fight with that boy. It is a drawback I had been avoiding for years in caution of its possible effects on my mind._

 _I need time to better understand how my nature has been altered. I wanted to see what else he could do. I wanted to see everything he could throw at me! And that's, that's not a bad thing._ Meruem's lips curled up. _Why accept that I would not not be able to witness all there is to see without putting myself in harm's way? I am the King. If I want to see everything he has, I will. If I find something is not to my liking, I will destroy it, whatever it may be. This world is_ _ **mine.**_ _All of its inhabitants are beneath me. That boy has the gall to challenge me. He disrespected his King. The punishment for that is death. Death will come for you, Wizard King. I will come for you soon._

* * *

 **A/N Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the latest chapter! The chapter started off pretty normal, casual, and then Luffy died, the Eliacube returned, Wizard King vs Meruem happened! Ben saves his friend's life, and the gambit pays off as Cartman is able to beat back Meruem with his reality-altering powers. It's a trap! I never actually got to say that line (fully) in this chapter, so I had to add it there. XD Anyway, let me know what you thought of the chapter, predictions for the upcoming ones, or questions you may have. Just wanted to mention where I got the wood that Cartman's front doors were made out of-** **TFS DBZ Abridged: Mahogany from Malchior 7 (the stuff King Yemma's desk was made out of). Alright, review responses!**

Limit-Breaking chapter 92 . Mar 29

Welp i read the chapter about tien, The hint Is HE is Dead 100% dead, there isn't even a chance for being alive at all, I mean you called him a corpse and in a review you said will see what happen to him, Not only that but tien had dead eyes and many stitches over his body AND YOU CALLED HIM A CORPSE.

Anyway Nice chapter i look forward to next

You know i just felt like posting this question cause it just came to me, But when it comes down to pitou, can gohan be the person who wants revenge for tien. Weird thing to ask but it feels kinda of similar to the events of gon and kite since both gon and gohan are kinda similar when it comes down to there personalities. It also feels kinda ironic that pitou pissed off another kid like gohan since both gon and gohan have shown how brutal they can be when they want revenge.  
I also wonder if killua is going to be able to hold in his killing intent since he is a professional at it. But hey there is a cure to the pit of lazarus, and yes i watched the show it's really good, though i am a bit behind. But i do know it can be healed with magic and that strange guy oliver knew.

 **;( Tien! Sorry about killing off one of your fav characters, he was always one of mine too. That's the main reason I didn't just throw him in on Awul as just another Z fighter like when Yamcha showed up at the end for the final battle, why I actually built him up with wanting to go try to get stronger. The more interesting I made him though in my plans, the more he _had_ to die on Aebrith considering what the place is still like. ****Anyway, as for Pitou, she's def up there as one of the main villains for the arc, but no hints as to who will be fighting her (though I will say the plans are already set for her future). That was a good point with Killua holding back his killing intent which I hadn't thought of and will probably come up later if he's being compared to Juvia (if he ever wakes up that is...). Glad you're watching Arrow, and that guy is John Constantine who I'm pretty sure has his own tv show on the same channel actually, since I've seen him guest starring in other shows like Arrow a couple of times now. Thanks for the reviews!**

Jokering chapter 92 . Mar 29

So, instead of reviewing chapter by chapter, I decided to let them build up so i could give an overall review.  
I like that you added Stan to the party, it makes for some interesting expectations about this arc, not sure if he will stay for the whole story or just this part of the adventure, but its a neat addition either way. The little bit of background on Zoro was nice, dont think it should have taken a whole chapter but it was still nice. If i am not mistaken,there are at least 6 High Lords, the capital 50, Meruem himself, Super Luthor 2.0, the Underlords and the Darkness to deal with, lack of content doesnt to be something to worry about. I am still wondering how you'll do the fight against the Darkness, hope it wont be a Fantastic Four 2 scenario with what they did to Galactus. But one question, are Awul and Aebrith all that Enxus has or will you be exploring other unknown regions of the place?  
Also a little something that i forgot to add in my first review and thats the threat build up. In the beginning you showed Goku dealing with the bigger threats, but with his and Timmy's absence, the team had to fight the bigger baddies themselves. It was a good way increasing the feeling of danger, but now that things are moving up and stronger villains are showing up, there is no choice but to bring them back.  
This arc started off a little slow but already seems to be progressing on a nice pace, good work. Also, now that his dlc is out, i can finally pay my respects: Farewell Bardock, you may be officially dead both in this fanfic and in the original story, but you shall live on as my main in Dragon Ball Fighterz. Speaking of Dragon Ball, WHOLE SHIT WAS THAT FINALE AMAZING, what makes it even greater is that it was the director's debut and she absolutely nailed it. With Toei opening a department focused mostly on Dragon Ball, the younger animation crew having taken cues from the veterans of the series and Toryama having appointed Toyotaro as his successor to the manga, its safe to say that series is in good hands.  
And now that i am done with the review and my fanboying of DB, i congratulate you for another great chapter and hope you enjoy your time in Japan. Until the next chapter.

 **First off, just want to agree about how awesome that final DBS episode was. Coolest fight in the show by far, when 17 fired those three blasts and Frieza and Goku shot towards Jiren, I mean XD XD XD! Lol hope we see more fights like that in the future or the movie. Okay, back to the actual story. Glad you liked Stan's addition to the group. I knew he would be joining them since I wrote him getting to Aebrith, but I was surprised by how long it took me to reach the base before the Wizard King where I planned on having him join up (went a few 100,000 words more than I thought it would). There are AT LEAST 6 High Lords (as you said), the _remaining_ Capital 50, all those others you mentioned, and don't forget about the three criminal Organizations on Aebrith we met back in Dressrosa: The Monster Association, the Umbrella Corporation, and Al Tharmen. Shima talked about how there's a group called the Light running the Umbrella Corp. too... Anyway yeah, def a lot of villains. And the villains we've seen recently are definitely getting stronger, but luckily it seems like the squad's getting back together, or at least they hope they are. I'm happy you liked the way I did that though. I really didn't think it would be interesting to have Timmy and Goku trump-carding their way through Aebrith while the rest of the group just took on the more minor villains, so I put them up against ones even they couldn't beat from the start. Thanks for another awesome review!**

joebob323 chapter 92 . Mar 30

Whoo! That chapter was great, but I want to know, why does Juandissimo allow Cartman to mind control Timmy? Cause fairies can hold power over their god children, and Timmy and Juandissimo are acquainted as well...

 **Thanks! What is Juandissimo's deal? Find out this chapter (13) on Nexus: Heroes Will Rise! There's gonna be a flashback in a chapter coming up, so we'll see... and I'll see, since I still need to write it XD!**

cyber chapter 92 . Mar 30

first of all I was so hyped when I saw the aliens vs predators, I'm glad to see there appearance and for the wizard king I was thinking it was cartman, but juandissimo is his fairy god parent? what happen to remy, but also great chapter cant wait to see more.

 **Haha glad I added it then. I literally just had the idea one day to make them fight Aliens and Predators, probably after watching Alien vs Predator or something, so I started writing it and used their trip down south as the location. Then I remembered how the Flood were supposed to be there too and added them in, but I had that chapter written for months, way before I even started the War of the Saiyan Mountains. Glad I caught you off guard with Juandissimo, and we'll learn more about him coming up in the next chapters. Thanks for the review!**

asdf chapter 92 . Mar 30

Are you gonna give Luffy his future sight Observational Haki? I fell that's the only way, he's gonna stand a chance against Zoro. I mean obviously it's gonna be Luffy who fights Zoro, what is a captain without his First Mate after all?  
I originally wanted it to be Kenpachi instead of Gray who got transported to the island with Zabuza and Zoro. They're all swordsmen and bloodthirsty after all. I guess it wouldn't have worked since they wouldn't be able to see him (Kenpachi).  
Have you finished watching Yu Yu Hakusho? I would love to see Yusuke kick ass and take names. I mean, you've already got Hunter X Hunter, why not Yoshihiro Togashi's other work?

I honestly don't mind Zoro being so strong. All of the characters can't stay in the Z fighters and Timmy's shadows forever, they have to at the least become planet level. Zoro himself desires to World's Greatest Swordsman so I expect him to surpass Trunks.  
Speaking of One Piece, I can't remember but have you shown Makino? Because she has a child who may or not be Shanks'. And we aren't even going into who Luffy's mother and grandmother are. Nor have we seen Garp or Dragon... Dragon especially (that guy's so god damn mysterious). I'd like to see Whitebeard again (who doesn't?)  
Some more characters, I'd like to see are the 8 Kings from Toriko. They're all super strong and scary. One of them is the Derous the Dragon King (I'd like to see Natsu's reaction to this fact) who can fire a god damn gigantic laser and I won't spoil anymore. All I am gonna say is that Derous is a hell of a lot stronger than Acnologia.

Oi don't get any ideas about killing Makino's child just because I reminded you about him you baby killer!

... Chuck... Chuck as in... Chuck Norris?

Luthor's Group: The Buu, The Bad And The Baldy  
Though I suppose that they're all bald.

 **Thanks for the 5 reviews! XD Wondering if you went back and reread those chapters before posting all of those? Guess I'll start at the first, or oldest, and say that I don't know how to give Luffy that. I recently read that chapter, and it seemed to me like he needs to be in a fight with someone who can see the future for him to get it. Like when it was showing his flashbacks to training with Rayleigh, that seemed to be what he decided, like "I have to see it to find out how it works," so I guess if Luffy runs into Dogtooth in the future, then it's def possible. Probably with some other villains too. I think having Kenpachi with Zoro that early on would have been tough too, considering FD Zoro was nowhere near Kenpachi level, while at Present he survived a fight with Ulquiorra. Glad you like Zoro being so strong. I wanted to keep him in the story, but I knew that having Zoro be on a world where there were countless people stronger than him would make him need to get much stronger because of the kind of guy he is. We have yet to see Makino or a lot of other One Piece characters, but I'll let you know that in the next chapter there's a part where a whole lot of new... Gonna end it there ;). Have yet to watch Toriko so I won't be adding them (unless I watch it soon and can add them before the story is set up in too fixed a way). Forgot Makino had a kid, but mwhahahaha- no lol, he/she's probably safe, or not even on Nexus or something. Chuck is the God of the Supernatural tv show world, but hey Chuck Norris is kind of like a God too, so he's probably up there hanging with other Chuck. And finally, nice name for the trio of baldies! XD Thanks again for reviewing!**

kg833998 chapter 92 . Apr 8

as usual an amazing chapter can't wait to see what happens when the purple fairy (can't spell his namelearns what happened to Wanda maybe he already knows . also do you think that when one piece endseven though I don't want that day to comethat luffy will be as strong as naruto

also is a certain jinchuriki still I will give you a hint who it is. fool ya fool

also will people from other worlds join the straw hat?

and one last thing WHERE ARE THE REST OF THE YONKO blackbeard is dead shanks is somewhere and whitebeard is with the resistance so where is kaido and big mom we saw mochi mochi guy already so maybe she is dead or maybe the whole big mom famliy just got separated ?

 **Juandissimo! What will happen to him? How will he react? Or has he already reacted to learning about Wanda? One Piece will never end. Oda will die long before ever finishing the manga. I doubt Luffy would get that strong though, because I'd put Naruto above even Whitebeard who was the strongest man in the OP world. Luffy might be able to reach _that_ level one day, but to a level high above it, I doubt.** **As for the jinchuriki I totally get who you're talking about, we have yet to see him... but that's probably a good thing since the majority of the ninja shown on Nexus were killed back in Konoha. Will others join the Straw Hats... you'll just have to wait and see ;). We'll def learn some more about the Big Mom pirates soon when Dogtooth returns, and who knows about Kaido? (I certainly don't XD, but maybe he'll show up one day). Thanks for the reviews! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks again everyone for reading, faving, following, and reviewing! 'Till next time!**


	94. Nexus HWR 13-6 Reunited at Last

**Nexus HWR 13.6 Reunited at Last:**

Inside the Wizard King's castle, in the very middle of the giant building was a control room with walls lined in big computer screens. A small boy with blond hair had been spinning from computer to computer, trying to watch everything at the same time. The Wizard King had left Butters behind to keep an eye on their intruders, but Butters had spent most of the time Cartman was gone watching the screens that showed him what was happening outside.

The Wizard King returned to his control room looking a little winded, and Butters hopped off his chair and ran over to where Cartman floated down through the solid ceiling. "Hey Eric, are you okay?" Butters asked.

"I'm fine, Butters," Cartman snapped back, a little annoyed the other boy did not call him by his title. He had other things on his mind to concern himself with other than that though, but he shook those thoughts away and smiled while turning to the computer screens. "How are our _guests_ doing?"

"Oh, well um," Butters said and started twiddling his thumbs in front of him. "They just finished your trap."

"What?" Cartman snapped. He ran over and looked at the screens showing the inside of the lava room. The group was standing on the opposite side that they came in on, recovering for a few minutes since many of them were exhausted and they did not know what was behind the next door.

"Eric," the staff in Cartman's right hand popped to life in the air above the two kids. They looked up and saw the muscular tan Fairy frowning down at Cartman. He did not flex to show off his muscles this time, he just said in a serious voice, "Perhaps that was enough punishment." Cartman frowned at his fairy, but Juanidissimo continued, "What more must you make them go through? Yes they trespassed, and destroyed the Flood, but you have made them make up for it with _two_ traps now. A trap per infraction is plenty fair."

"That makes sense," Butters said with a shrug of his shoulders, then glanced at Cartman nervously to see if the fatter boy agreed with them.

Cartman started nodding his head and smiled. The others smiled in relief, and Cartman said, "That does sound fair. Too bad they have another infraction," Cartman said, and he turned to glare at the giant monitors behind him while smirking. "They disrespected me in my own castle. Stan, Riku, that woman with orange hair, they showed me no respect." He chuckled and finished, "Until they learn to respect my authoritah, they will keep facing my traps! Besides, you don't want all those wishes I made going to waste, do you?" Cartman asked.

"At this point, I would rather that," Juandissimo said. Cartman glanced over his shoulder and saw the Fairy shaking his head down at him disappointedly.

"Geez, don't get all worked up," Cartman said, waving a hand at the floating man in a white t-shirt pulled tight against his muscles. "It's not like anyone will _actually_ get hurt." Juandissimo hummed at him like he was deciding what to do, but Cartman lifted a hand and pointed at a screen, calling out, "Look. They're going in!" He rubbed his hands together and grinned, "I'm gonna enjoy this one."

"Everyone good?" Gray asked. He stood in front of the black door in the center of the wall across the lava pit they all just traveled over. The final jumps in the path were the hardest ones, but luckily Luffy tested each rock with his stretching arm and found all of the holograms. A few people had told Ben that he had quick thinking earlier when he shouted at them about the holograms, but the boy seemed oddly nervous and thanked them too quickly when they mentioned it. Ben still looked anxious, but those who noticed put the reason on the fact that they were about to enter another trap room in all likelihood.

"Let's do it," Natsu said with a nod at his oldest friend there.

"Yosh! I wonder what's next!" Luffy threw his arms up and started laughing after he called it out.

"Knowing Cartman, it'll only get worse from here," Stan said darkly.

"We'll handle it," Riku assured the kid next to him.

 _Is Meruem not coming? I'm freaking out here! Maybe he did come, and the Wizard King really is strong enough to push him back. Yeah, yeah that must be it! I forgot how strong a Fairy Godparent's magic can be! It made Timmy into a legend. I had heard of his feats for years, and he told me he used to just be a normal kid! It was all the magic._ Ben started breathing calmer, and he wiped his forehead that was sweating from more than just the heat of the lava pool behind him.

"Alright," Gray turned to the door and grabbed its brass knob with his right hand. He twisted and the room echoed with clanking noises as he pulled the door open. After he opened the door, the clanking noises continued only they were coming from up ahead of them in the pitch black room Gray had opened the door to. "Um," Gray began while poking his head into the room. The light of the lava room flooded into the dark room just enough for Gray to know there was definitely a floor in front of him. **Clank-clank-clank-clank-clank…** The sound of clanking steel continued going in short intervals like gears being turned.

"I don't like this room already," Usopp said while looking around the side of one of his comrades into the darkness ahead of them.

"I got it," Natsu said, smirking as he walked forward and past Gray into the dark room. Luffy walked in right behind him and then stepped on Natsu's side while the Fairy Tail mage erupted in flames. Luffy leaned away a little, but Natsu's fiery aura shortened to a thin veil around his body. Despite his flames getting closer to him though, his body glowed brighter than it did with normal flames. His aura turned a lightish orange color, and he let out a deep breath before that aura turned even brighter and got an even lighter shade of orange. The orange was getting very close to white, but Natsu gasped and started breathing heavier after it lightened some more. _Can't do it, that easily,_ he thought to himself, before relaxing and letting the color get a little darker, though the aura was still bright enough to cover a hundred and fifty feet in all directions of the fiery mage.

"It's like we have our own personal flashlight," Sanji remarked as he walked into the room between some others. Natsu turned his head and frowned back at the chef who held up his hands like he didn't mean anything by it.

The others all walked into the room, and just like the one before it the doors slammed shut once the last of them was inside. The slamming door would not have been as bad, if the constant clanking sound did not cut off the moment the door shut. The room fell silent, and Natsu's bright aura did little to ease their nerves. His aura cast light on the wall on the sides of where the door should have been, (though it had vanished), but that wall was as black as the rest of the room. The floor was dark, and Natsu's aura did not flood all the way to wherever the walls were on their sides, or wherever the opposite side of the room was.

"Guess we should, start moving forward?" Rin started, breaking the eerie silence that had filled the room.

Natsu started moving, and that was the sign for everyone else to move too. Luffy walked on his left side, but the rest of the group was following behind the Dragon Slayer. His aura was bright enough that they did not need to huddle, but everyone was staying close to avoid getting lost in the darkness. There was no instant threat. No rising water, no lava, but this was the worst trap so far. The unknown was messing with their heads. They walked far enough that the wall behind them no longer had any light cast on it, so they would be surrounded on all sides by darkness if Natsu was not illuminating the room.

"What do you do when someone doesn't have a light?" Stan shouted up, breaking another silence that had formed. "Do you just make them walk through the dark until they find an exit?!"

Cartman frowned deeper while looking at the huge flat-screen showing his old friend Stan on it. _No one else has used these traps, smartass,_ Cartman thought in annoyance. He still grinned even though he decided against calling that insult down at Stan. _My voice would be a relief to them right now._ He could see fear on their faces, and that fear of the unknown made him not want to say a thing, to leave them getting more anxious.

Sanji bit down and decided against pulling out his cigarettes. _I've been chain-smoking all day. I'm going to run out before we get back at this pace._ His hand tapped on the lump in his pocket, then he moved it away to avoid the temptation.

 _This is bad,_ Riku thought. _We have no idea where we're going. I can't see far enough in any direction to know what this trap really is. I could use the Heartless. Send some out, actually, I could make them appear all over this castle. Scouts could tell me where Timmy really is, but,_ Riku turned his head and gazed over at his friends all walking forward on his right side. He looked at Usopp, then at Sanji who he felt like he just redeemed himself to back in the first trap. _Going back to using the Heartless now, in front of them… wait, no. I don't care, about what other people think. What if they're right though? They_ _ **are**_ _right, and I_ _ **shouldn't**_ _use the Heartless. It should only be a last case scenario, not the way I've been using them up until now- whenever it's convenient. Right now, we aren't in any real danger. I won't be that impatient._

"What was that?" Luffy said suddenly, pointing his finger to the left of where he was walking.

Natsu turned that way, and he tried brightening up a little bit. He managed to shed some more light in the direction Luffy was pointing, but there was nothing there. Natsu let out a deep breath, then turned to Luffy and grumbled, "You're seeing things."

"Hey Natsu," Gray began from behind the two of them. "You mind brightening back up?"

Natsu glanced back, and he saw all his friends getting closer to him. He glanced to the sides and saw that the radius of his illuminated area had shrunk in a little. "Maybe it's not me, but this room," Natsu said. "Maybe it's got like, light-draining properties or something."

"Or maybe the flashlight's batteries are dying," Stan said, making a tick mark form on Natsu's forehead, though Sanji had to turn away to hide his smirk.

"Natsu, it's okay if you're tired," Riku said. "We don't need that much light if we just stick closer together."

"But we won't be able to see as far away either," Usopp said nervously. "So something might get close to us…"

"Let's keep walking then," Nami said, and she hurried up on the right side of the pack to Natsu's other side as Luffy. "Before Natsu runs out of fire, let's find the next door." Nami turned left as she said that, then she looked back forward and continued walking. The rest of the group took a couple steps to follow her, then Nami stopped cold while facing ahead. Her head slowly turned to the right, and she whispered in the silent room, "Did anyone see that?"

"What was it?" Riku asked, lifting his hands and forming Keyblades in both of them.

Natsu shone some light that way, but there was nothing there again. This time though, he did not say anything to the person who thought they saw something. Instead, he started to feel like Luffy might have actually seen something the first time.

"It looked like," Nami began softly, turning back to her friends while taking short breaths. "It looked like a leg."

"A human leg?" Usopp asked hopefully.

Nami shook her head. "It was long, and black, and it was a thin, single appendage. I thought I saw it, but it pulled away farther into the darkness just out of my peripheral vision."

"That sounds like a spider leg," Kuro said in his high-pitched voice. The cat gulped, then added, "Are you sure, it looked like that?" The others all looked inwards towards the center of the group. Rin glanced down at his familiar in confusion as to why the cat sounded so hesitant as it asked that question. Nami nodded at the small black cat, and Kuro transformed into his much larger form so it was now the largest member in their group. Stan stumbled backwards as the cat transformed, then he froze and his surprised face became serious as the cat whispered in its same voice that no longer matched its body, "Because I thought I saw a tentacle."

"Huh?" Rin's eyebrows lifted up. "Why didn't you say-"

"I blinked and it was gone, so I thought…" Kuro whispered, but he did not finish.

"So let's assume there really are things in here," Gray said in a quiet voice. "They haven't attacked us yet, so maybe they aren't, trying to kill us?" He did not know where he was going with the start of his sentence, but he did not sound very sure of himself by the end of it.

"Is everyone ready?" Riku asked. The others looked towards the man who lifted up his Keyblades to point above him. "Because here we go," he said, and the tips of his Keyblades lit up with yellow light.

Stan lifted his lightsaber and the red blade extended out of it. He held it on the right side of his body in both hands with the light blade sticking straight up. Sanji heated up a leg and lifted it, Franky rose his left arm and twisted his hand off to reveal the cannon he was ready to fire. Nami wished she still had her Clima Tact, but the weapon had been broken and lost during the fight with the Spriggans. All she could do was stand as close to the center of her group of friends as possible so as not to be a burden to them in the fight. Usopp lifted his slingshot and aimed in front of him where he heard a scraping noise across the black concrete floor they were all standing on. Something moved ahead of him, a shadow shifting in the shadows. His slingshot lowered down a little because when he caught a glimpse of that movement, he saw movement from the floor to all the way at the top of his vision.

"Oh crap," Gray muttered, and he took a step back right as Riku fired the two spheres of white light into the air above and in front of them. The flares of light filled the room brighter than Natsu's aura did on their arc up in the air, and that light illuminated a creature standing right in front of them, just outside of what had been their field of vision. Every member of the group stepped back except for Luffy who just bit down hard and punched his right fist to the side, turning his skin red and making steam come off of it.

The monster in front of them stood over sixty feet tall, and more than half that wide at the shoulders. It had a disgusting face with a huge mouth full of sharp teeth that were twisted and had gaps between them. On its right side was a huge and muscular arm covered in brown fur, while on the other side there was a three-pronged talon sticking out of a longer, thinner arm. There was a giant white feathered-wing sticking out the left side of its back, and a black one that looked more like a bat's than an angel's sticking out the other side. It had a long sharp horn sticking out of its forehead, sparkling and shiny which did not match the gross bumpy skin at its base. The group staring at this monstrous hybrid glanced to their sides too as Riku's flares illuminated more of this monster curving around them. Out of the beast's back were long pink tentacles that looked like those of a giant squid, while on the sides of its muscular hairy legs, there were ten long black legs like a spider's bent out and tensing on the ground pointed backwards as if it were ready to charge. A long green tail stuck out the back of the beast and split halfway down, one part getting much thinner and extending longer, while the other changed color to white and furry and stopped shortly after the split.

 **"Meet Fluffy,"** Cartman's voice finally said while the people in his trap gawked at the monster in front of them. The Wizard King did not laugh after saying it, and even the people who thought it was a ridiculous name could not find it in them to crack smiles. **"Fluffy,"** Cartman continued, speaking directly to the monster now. **"Cancel Horror Movie Mode, enact Murder Protocol."**

Fluffy's three big eyes started glowing dark red, right as Riku's flares started falling out of the air. The light in the room dimmed, as all the tentacles curling around their sides cut in, and the spider legs ran forward, and the monster opened its mouth and shot out a long slimy tongue that Riku jumped up and smacked away with a Keyblade when he saw who it was going for. He knocked the tongue away, only for one of the tentacles to swing in and slam into his side, sending him far off into the darkness of the room. He flipped after hitting the ground once, but as he was about to stop his own momentum, he slammed back-first into the wall that he did not see coming. Riku grit his teeth and glared back towards the part of the room where he could see his friends fighting against the monster. The light around them was dim, as Natsu had to focus more on attacking and defending himself than on keeping the area lit up.

Riku was running back towards the group, when the monster's long green tail wrapped around Natsu's stomach and threw the Dragon Slayer into the distance. _Not good,_ Riku thought, as he had to look closer now to see where the others were. Franky's shots, Sanji's leg, and Stan's lightsaber were all he really had to find them. Then again though, their shouts and screams were easy enough to follow.

"Cartman!" Stan yelled as he swung left and sliced a tentacle curving towards him. He flipped backwards to avoid the big furry foot slamming down for him, and he sliced across the front of his body to cut across the similarly hairy hand punching his way. Stan had his eyes closed, relying on the Force for guidance as he could not rely on his eyes in the dim fight. "What is this thing?! Why are you making us fight it?"

 **"Fluffy is awesome, Stan,"** the Wizard King replied. **"I wished for a mix of a bunch of different powerful things. Mega-Croc, Giant Octopus, King Kong, Unicorn, Alpha Dragon, this giant wolf thing I saw once, Decepticon, Rancor…"**

Luffy's eyes snapped open. He had been relying on sound with his eyes closed. It was tough to sense anything coming without use of his Haki, but he was fast enough with Gear Second to be able to avoid every attack as long as he knew it was coming. When Cartman said that last word though, Luffy realized why the monster's face looked familiar to him. "Rancor?" Luffy asked loudly, interrupting Cartman as he was about to continue his list. Luffy jumped up and started punching his fists forward fast, covering them in Haki to use a Hawk Gattling Gun. As he pushed his strength into every punch into the giant monster's chest, stomach, and face, he yelled out, "Timmy and I fought a monster that he called a Rancor in one of the Underworld bases we attacked together!"

The others panicking and screaming behind the pirate captain spun back with wide eyes at Luffy's shout. The monster Luffy was punching was sliding back across the floor with each hit Luffy smashed into it, but it was barely budging. Franky's expression hardened and cleared of fear, and he rose his hands together in front of him and made a glowing light form between his fingers that he fired at the monster's face for a huge white explosion that illuminated the room again. Riku flew in with that blinding light, and he slammed into the monster's chest right as Luffy was falling back down and stopping his attack. The teenager with silver hair spun around and around, hitting the monster over and over with his Keyblades and making it skid even farther back than when Luffy was doing it.

 **"It's no use! The dragon scales under Fluffy's skin are too much for you to damage!"** Cartman called out in a taunting voice.

"Then it's a good thing, I'm a Dragon Slayer!" Natsu roared, while flying off the ground in a stream of flames. He snapped his arms down to his sides and pushed his head forward while flying like a rocket at the monster's body where Riku was dropping from, "Fire Dragon's… SWORD HORN!" Natsu headbutted the beast and heard cracking sounds all around where his head smashed into. His own skull did not feel in that much pain, so he grinned knowing it was Fluffy's body that was cracking. Natsu pushed off backwards to avoid the talons that Fluffy swiped in at him, but then the green tail that tossed him away before whipped down over him and slammed him into the floor near his friends.

"Stay lit Natsu," Nami told the man whose light was fading in front of her. "We have to finish it off now."

"Giant Rasengan!" Kirito called out from behind the monster's back. He leapt up and slammed the attack of swirling blue chakra down, but the tip of Fluffy's horn shone bright and Kirito lost control of the chakra he was holding. The powerful attack exploded prematurely and Kirito screamed out in pain as it enveloped his arm and then his whole body. "Kirito!" Riku swung his Keyblades to surround the burning younger man in green light, but two black legs curled in and pincered Riku by his chest. The spider legs lifted him off the ground, then the bat wing swept in front of Fluffy's body and smacked Riku into the distance. It would have used a hand, but both of its arms were occupied swinging in front of its body to block the slash of blue flames that came at it.

"Thanks Rin!" Natsu shouted as he rose over the arms occupied by blocking the half-demon's attack. He brought his right fist back and covered it in even more flames and lightning as well this time as he prepared to attack the same spot he hit last time. "Lightning Fire Dragon's-" Natsu's flaming fist illuminated the part of Fluffy's body that he headbutted before, and Natsu's eyes bugged out as he watched the cracked scales sticking through the thin outer layer of fur suddenly pull back together and harden with a steel outer coating.

The steel coating spread from that point to surround the entire monster's body in a matter of a single second, and Cartman remarked as they all stared at it in shock, **"I did say it was part Decepticon. Guess Fluffy, deceived you?"** The pun was so bad it made some of them cringe, though Natsu actually yelled out because of the big metal tentacle that slammed into his side before he reached the monster's chest. Out of the glowing red eyes on Fluffy's head that had been covered by a steel casing as well, three red beams shot down into the floor and started carving around after the fighters who fled or dodged in panic.

"Riku! Robin's been hit!"

"Gray-sama needs help too!"

"I'm all out of healing magic!" Riku yelled over as he helped Kirito up to his feet after another burst. "Ben, do you-"

"AGH-" Ben flew through the air over Riku's head and into the darkness far away from the monster.

"Ben!" Riku called after him. He would have gone for his younger friend, but all the screams of the others still facing the monster made Riku spin his head back to it with anger strewn all over his face. _This is no time to hold back!_ Riku's body surrounded in darkness, and Kirito turned to the man next to him before stepping back as monsters started rising from the floor around him. Two large black hands reached out of the floor behind Fluffy, grabbing it by one of its tentacles and by its tail. The monster turned its head sideways, and the red beams coming out of its eyes cut across the rising Darkside's wrists, slicing them off in a single go. Riku's eyes shot open wide, then Fluffy opened its mouth while looking down at the head of the rising monster.

A bright purple light formed in the back of the monster's throat, and it fired out a beam between its sharp and messed-up teeth. A dome of purple light erupted on the ground behind Fluffy so powerful that Riku and Kirito were lifted off the ground and thrown backwards, while the Heartless creations Riku was trying to make were ripped apart.

Luffy spun from one injured comrade to another, and he bit down hard but spun back to Fluffy with a pissed-off look in his eyes. _I was saving this for when we finally met up with the bastard who took Timmy._ Fluffy's red eyes darted to Luffy right as his left forearm turned pitch black. Luffy's eyes widened as the monster seemed to foresee what he was about to do, and he leapt backwards to avoid it, only for a tentacle already curved behind him to snap up and grab him around the neck. It squeezed, and Luffy had to bring his arms up to the tentacle instead to try and rip it off him.

"It's too strong!" Kuro yelled out, right before getting hit by a steel tentacle and thrown across the floor.

"Kuro!" Rin called out, and the distraction was all the beast needed to aim another explosive attack at the boy covered in blue flames. "Ahh!" Rin yelled out from inside the purple dome of energy.

"Almost out of cola!"

"Out of mana!"

"Riku! Ben! Anyone have healing magic?!"

"Luffy!" Nami screamed up for her captain whose face was turning white after already going blue and then purple.

"Natsu!" Gray called forward as he stumbled towards his best friend, blood drenching his back from a previous attack never healed. Juvia was yelling for others to come help Gray, but Riku and Ben were far in the darkness behind Fluffy.

"ANYONE!"

A flash of golden light filled the room. The walls on either side became visible at the same time for the first time since they entered. The wall all the way back where they entered from, as well as the giant steel gate that was risen on the opposite wall that Fluffy had been caged inside of.

 _Another power?_ Robin thought, squinting and putting an arm in front of her eyes to try and lessen the brightness. Her eyes squinted hard and then they started to widen as she saw a silhouette floating in the air before her. The figure was in the center of the bright golden light, in between her and the monster that had broken her leg with a swing of its tentacle a minute ago. She had all her weight pressing on her other leg as she sat on the ground, trying to keep her arms crossed to help out her other injured friends who needed to get away from Fluffy. Nico Robin's arms lowered down to her sides though as she stared forward in shock, at the sight of the man whose visage became clearer the longer she stared into the golden light. _It can't be-_

Natsu groaned on his stomach, then lifted his head slowly and looked straight up above him at the source of the golden light enveloping him. The shadowed figure inside the golden light looked down towards him, and Natsu's eyes bulged at the shape of the shadow's head, and the all-too-recognizable spike sticking off the top of it. The man lifted his head back up after looking at Natsu, and he turned his body sideways and clenched his right fist hard at his side.

 _What's going on?!_ Cartman thought in panic, leaning closer to the video screens that were showing his usually dark trap room so full of light. Juandissimo and Butters leaned in on his sides, their eyes as wide as the Wizard King's.

Ben staggered forward in the suddenly illuminated end of the room so far from Fluffy's back. He looked towards that glowing gold light but could not see the source of it as the one inside it was floating in front of Fluffy's chest. A flash of green surrounded Ben and the boy stopped limping, looking down at his body with growing eyes as he saw his wounds fading. He lifted his eyes back up, but Riku was between him and the monster that had leaned back when the bright golden light appeared before it. Riku had his hands lifted and was staring at them in shock. _If not Riku,_ Ben thought, trying to wrap his mind around what was happening, _then, who?_

Luffy gasped for air as the tentacle around his neck unwrapped and pulled away. Luffy's clenched eyes squinted open as he gasped out a breath, and he saw someone in the air right next to him, shadowed over by the golden light behind him. The figure had his arms extended to either side, weapons in both hands, weapons with an all too unique design. The shape of his spiky hair, the weapons in his hands, Luffy's gasp in of breath got even bigger and his jaw continued dropping.

Robin turned to her right leg and gasped out a breath of disbelief as she tried putting some weight on it. _There's no pain,_ she thought.

Green light washed over every person in the room in the same moment that the man in the center of the golden light flew forward. "You hurt my friends," the man said as he punched forward. His voice echoed through the room, and every person there recognized it. Fluffy swung its arms, its wings, and curled all of its tentacles in towards the spot the man was flying. He spun around five tentacles right through the one space they had left open, then he rose just the smallest amount over the furry arm that had come inches from slamming into him. His fist punched forward, sliding across the top of the furry arm passing beneath him before slamming into the steel-coated chest of the monster.

The metal coating around Fluffy's chest shattered, and the fist pushed through the skin and flesh beneath like butter. The fist paused against the hard dragon scales beneath, and the man punching into it yelled out, "HAA!" He finished punching into the monster and curled his fist up once he did, punching upwards and tearing through the front of its body while it lifted off the ground and started falling backwards, its tongue sticking out of its mouth while letting out a strangled yelp.

Fluffy fell backwards and landed with a loud metallic clank against the ground, (as its back was still covered in steel). The glowing golden man who took down the beast stopped glowing as bright, or the others' eyes had just had enough time to adjust to it now. Such a bright, warm light appearing in their room full of darkness caused every one of them to get blinded for a few seconds. At this point though, all of the group members were back on their feet without any injuries, and they all stared up into the center of the room where a man with a spike of golden hair floated before them.

As the golden glow started to get smaller from the man descending to the ground level, a figure landed before him and pointed his two weapons up in the air. Dozens of small white lights shot out of the Keyblades into the air above them, covering the roof of the room and floating around the air in every direction. The golden glow around the older, and more muscular, warrior faded away. His hair turned to black and returned to a different spiky style that made every person there smile. He smiled as he landed next to the brown haired teen who just illuminated the room so he no longer had to, and he lifted a hand that he did a little wave with. "Hey. We're back."

"Goku!" Ben shouted. His lip quivered after he yelled it, and the tall muscular Saiyan man turned his way. Goku looked down at the boy running towards him around the side of Fluffy's body, and he smiled at the kid whose lips and eyes were trembling. Ben opened his mouth to yell something. He wanted to shout at Goku for leaving them, for not being there for Nox, or Pyraxas, or when they faced the Spriggan 12. Those words would not come out of his mouth though. _He's, alive,_ Ben thought with watery eyes.

He had been so angry at Goku since Nox, and he had added to that anger with every little thing that went wrong. Juvia's death, Kairi's kidnapping, him losing his Omnitrix and being crucified, every time he thought about why Goku was not there to save them. Every time, he told himself that Goku was being selfish and letting these bad things happen, but in the back of Ben's mind he was always terrified that there was a different reason. He thought Goku would always save them, so he was scared that Goku had died long ago, but never let himself think too hard on it, always just getting angry when he thought of the man instead. It was easier to think he abandoned them, than imagining anything worse. Ben came to a stop right in front of the man who looked down at him in surprise at the look of frustrated relief on his face and the tears in his eyes.

"GOKU! SORA!" All the others getting over their shock started running in towards the two. More of them opened their eyes in shock as they got closer, because there was another person there who they did not see before while they were all looking up and at the two who suddenly saved them. "DASH?!" The little blond boy looked around and the corners of his lips lifted just a small amount at the sight of his friends running towards him.

"Sora," Riku began, and the spiky-haired teen who just appeared turned to the taller boy with longer silver hair falling down his back. Riku approached Sora in a hesitant manner, but he knew this had to be done immediately. Sora frowned at the look Riku was showing him, and he reached a hand forward and put it on his best friend's shoulder before Riku could say another word.

Riku snapped his bowed head up in surprise, to see Sora staring straight into his eyes with flat lips and a serious expression. All the others who were shouting their friends names excitedly and about to reunite with them froze at that look. Sora could see all their expressions, not just Riku's. "I know," Sora said, and he squeezed tighter on Riku's shoulder. "And though you shouldn't have let her get taken, we're going to get her back."

"How, did you know?" Riku asked.

Dash looked up at the brown-haired Keybearer next to him in a confused way just like Riku. "I saw Gohan's Nobody at the Saiyan Mountains," Sora replied. "He told me how he had taken Kairi, to try and lure me into a trap set by the Organization."

"So you knew?" Dash whispered, as he had not had the time to bring it up to Sora yet. He had thought of it after waking up in Heaven, but he couldn't bring himself to telling Sora about what had happened.

"Yeah," Sora said, looking down at the boy whose expression seemed so sad.

"Dash," Riku started, looking down at his young friend next to him. "Where did you run off to? We were all at that Resistance base you brought Killua-"

"Did he wake up?" Dash asked, and he looked around with his sad eyes at the people gathering around him. "No," he realized as Killua was not one of those around him.

Ben walked over to the kid who sounded so sad with that 'no.' "It's okay Dash, he's going to get up," Ben assured him. He smiled wide at the kid who he was glad to see again after so long. He had so much he needed to tell Dash about since their first encounter with the Spriggan 12.

Dash nodded at Ben's sentiment and looked back into his eyes with such a soft look that confused Ben considering the boy's smile. "Hey, is everything-"

 **"Son Goku!"** A voice shouted that echoed through the castle and interrupted the people reuniting with their friends. **"And, Sora?!"**

"Is that you, Wizard King?" Sora asked, a slight smile coming to his face.

The others all looked at Sora in confusion after he asked that. "Sora, the Wizard King kidnapped Timmy," Nami explained the situation him.

Sora spun to her in surprise, then Stan added, "It's true. He's using Timmy for…" When Sora and Goku turned towards Stan, he froze at the looks of the two of them. "I'm Stan, by the way," he mentioned in a quieter voice.

"Nice lightsaber," Sora said, while looking up and down the red weapon in a little confusion.

Goku was staring at the weapon in surprise, but then he smiled at Stan too and introduced himself.

Sora would have done the same, but he snapped his head up instead and called out, "Wizard King, you can't do this!" Sora lifted his arms above his head and a flash of gold light made his Kingdom Keyblade appear in his grasp. "Although you once helped me, Timmy is a friend of mine. You can't just do with him what you please!"

 **"I, I can do anything,"** the Wizard King's voice got cut off for some reason on the other side of the magical intercom.

They waited a few seconds, but he was not continuing his hesitant shout down at them. Luffy turned to Sora and asked while they were waiting, "How'd he help you?"

Sora smiled again as he thought back on it. "We helped him out, so he teleported me and Kairi across the world. I asked to get to Riku, but he said I was not 'respectful' enough in my request and had to ask again. I tried again and he still didn't like it, but when Kairi asked he finally said okay. Then he told us that because it took three tries he was going to teleport us 'close,' which somehow meant probably a hundred miles or something away from you guys."

"By the time we found you, you two had built an entire town," Usopp said in surprise.

"Yeah, but we had only gotten to Awul a week or so before that," Sora explained.

Ben lowered his bottom lip, Luffy nodded like that sounded about right, and Riku sighed wondering why he had never asked about that. Gray stepped towards Sora though with a confused look on his face, "Wait, so you were in Aebrith before? For how long?"

"Just a couple months, not even," Sora said with a shrug of his shoulders. "I didn't recognize any of the stuff you were talking about whenever you brought it up; it wasn't even called Aebrith back then, so I figured the place must have changed a lot since I was here last. And it really has," he added.

"Hold on!" Rin exclaimed. The others all looked towards the half demon with messy black hair, wondering what he was so frantic about with that shout. "Is this okay? I mean, is no one else like…" he glanced around, then back at the three in the middle of the group. "How did you get here?! Where did you come from?!"

The most obvious questions seemed to have gone right over the rest of their heads, and they all spun back to Goku, Sora, and Dash as those questions suddenly made them realize how confusing this was. Sora began, "Well, we just escaped from the war in the north, at the Saiyan Mountains."

"I knew you were there," Riku said, shaking his head at his own disbelief. He had tried convincing himself that Sora had not been there, but of course he would be. "Wait a second, that was two days ago," Riku said.

"Was it?" Sora asked in surprise.

Dash and Goku both opened their eyes wider too at the sound of that. The others looked at them in confusion, and then Sora said, "Time passes differently in Heaven, so-"

"What?" Sanji asked in a deadpan voice, his swirly eyebrow lifting up like he figured he was hearing things.

"Uh, nevermind," Sora said with a laugh, waving Sanji off and shaking his head. It would have been more reassuring to any of them if Sora had just given a different explanation or said it was a joke, but by dodging it like that, he only made all of them want to hear that much more about it.

"And where were you, Dash?" Ben asked his younger best friend.

Dash turned to Ben with a dark look flashing over his face, his body shivering as his mouth twisted into a frown. The others who could see Dash's face when he turned to Ben stared at the boy in shock at that look on his face. It was an expression none of them had seen on the boy's face before. "Dash," Sora began in a quiet voice.

"I was in the War too," Dash said. He turned to Sora and Goku who looked at the boy as if asking, 'Are you sure?' The look in Dash's eyes told them not to say anything though, and then Dash turned back to Ben and said, "It was horrible."

Sora nodded along. He did not know how much Dash remembered. The boy was either in an enraged state or unconscious for most of the war that Sora saw him in. He wondered if Dash recalled what was happening when he took on Meruem in that enraged state, then he imagined what the kid saw before it that could have made him get that way. Sora remembered what he saw in the war though. He recalled sprinting up the side of a mountain, fighters battling on all sides of him, killing each other. He saw Great Apes falling out of the air in his path, Saiyans and their enemies all turning on him while he was low on strength. Sora thought about staring into the Ant King's eyes when he told them he was going to kill them.

"The whole world was shaking," Franky said while looking at Sora with an uneasy look. Sora was always smiling. He was the most cheerful person who traveled with them to Aebrith, besides Kairi maybe. The look on his face though, it was full of intensity, fear, shock. For Sora, it had only been a few hours since one of the most exhausting and terrifying days of his life. Heaven was a relaxing break, but they really only spent an hour up there before returning to the surface of Nexus, even if it was much longer for everyone on the planet.

"Sora, are you alright?" Luffy asked.

Sora snapped out of his intense state and shook his head around like he just remembered where he was. _I'm not there anymore,_ Sora reminded himself. "Oh yeah, I'm fine," Sora said and smiled at Luffy to show he meant it. "Now let's get Timmy back. How exactly is the Wizard King using him?"

"He brainwashed him!" Nami exclaimed, not liking how calmly Sora just asked that question, with a smile on his face no less. "Timmy came to the Resistance base we were at and threatened to destroy it, but it wasn't him talking!"

"Hmm," Sora hummed, while Goku lifted his eyebrows in surprise that someone had brainwashed Timmy.

"This could be fun," Goku said. Nami spun to him with an angry look, but Goku kept smiling, oblivious to her feelings. He turned to Sora and Kirito who were on the same side of him, and he said, "Remember when we attacked Lelouch's base? I got brainwashed there and had to fight Timmy, so this is like the other way around. Haha," he laughed at the turnaround, while Kirito sweatdropped at his carefree attitude. Kirito cracked a smile after a second though when he saw Sora smiling already. _Everything's so serious when they're not around. With them here, I don't feel like there's a reason to worry anymore._

Nami was trying to stay angry with Goku for treating this like a funny turn of events, but she was feeling the same way as Kirito. "Goku," Nami began in a quiet voice. He turned towards her and saw the woman walking his way. She walked right up in front of him, then looked up seriously into his eyes and said, "Save Timmy. He, he's trapped."

"Of course I will Nami," Goku replied. He looked up and called out, "Wizard King?" He heard the others call the deep voice which had called out his name earlier by that name. "You want to fight?" Goku asked.

"Hold on Goku," Sora said, putting a hand on the larger man's right shoulder and giving him a smirk when the older man looked at him. "I have a better idea."

Sora cleared his throat and coughed into his hand a few times, then he clasped his hands together in front of his chest and called up to the ceiling, "Oh mighty Wizard King!" Sora's friends mostly gawked at him, though Robin lifted her eyebrows in an interested way. _The current approach does not seem to be working,_ Robin thought, realizing it was worth it to give this a shot. Sora interlocked his fingers and shouted, "Could I humbly request an audience of you, oh mighty one?"

 **"You already called me mighty,"** the Wizard King's voice snapped back.

"Because that's how mighty you are!" Sora exclaimed without hesitating. "Only saying it once would not do you justice!" _Come on Cartman, doesn't this get you out of this situation? Do this, and you can make fun of them all you like. Imagine the looks on their faces when all they had to do was ask nicely._

"Sora, what are you doing?" Luffy asked his friend in a confused voice.

"Yeah, that's never going to work," Natsu agreed.

"The kid's too selfish for that-" Nami started to add on, and then a white flash surrounded the entire group. "Oh you have to be kidding-" Nami got cut off as the flash got really bright then vanished all at once. She opened her eyes up, and she stared forward with a dropped jaw at the throne up ahead of her where a short fat kid was sitting. He had a golden crown on his head, a purple fur coat over his body, and he held a golden rod in his right hand with a giant ruby on the top of it that made Nami's jaw drop even farther.

"Since you _requested_ an audience so humbly, I suppose I may be willing to hear you out," the Wizard King said.

On the left side of his throne was a small boy wearing an aluminum foil helmet around his head and a similarly made cape on his back. His outfit looked oddly similar to someone they had seen before, and Stan muttered, "What happened to your body, Butters?"

Kirito's eyes narrowed at the kid next to the throne who he suddenly realized was the same one who attacked him in the sky north of the Wizard King's castle. "Oh," Butters said, "well I only need Professor Chaos's powers when there are intruders! The rest of the time its same old me!" The little boy's big smile and cheerful tone made some of the others forget about how he attacked them earlier that day. "And hey Sora!" Butters said and waved at the teenager who smiled and waved back at him. "Long time no-"

"Quiet Butters!" Cartman snapped, and Butters shut his mouth fast as he realized he was talking too much. The Wizard King had a tick mark on the side of his face, but he regained his Kingly disposition and leaned backwards in his throne. "Now, I shall hear out your- oh you have to be kidding me. Really?" Cartman asked as Natsu and Luffy started marching forwards. "I really will kill you," Cartman warned, and he lifted up his right hand that he pointed their way with his fingers in the shape of a gun. "Wouldn't even be hard," he added, lifting his pitch as if suggesting they try it.

"Cartman!" Stan shouted.

The fat boy sitting on the throne turned to Stan and saw his old friend shaking a head at him in such an angry way. "Geez Stan," Cartman said, lowering his finger at the sight of the other kid's look. "It's not like anything could actually kill you for real in here." Natsu and Luffy froze, though both had already hesitated when Cartman pointed that finger at them. Everyone got confused looks on their faces, and Cartman looked semi-annoyed that he had to explain at all. "There's an anti-death-field throughout my castle. If any of you had died, you would have just popped up in the Respawn Point." He waved his right arm and the wall on the right side of the long throne room opened up. Behind the wall was a giant cage made of steel bars, and the Wizard King continued while they looked at it, "I had this whole game set up. Every time someone died, the traps would get harder and harder. If you died, you'd be stuck in the cage, unbreakable by the way, until the end of the game- though I was going to let you all keep watching like we were!" The Wizard King sighed, then finished while shrugging his shoulders, "I was even going to offer the winner a free wish, as long as it was reasonable."

"Why the Hell would you do all that?" Ben asked while shaking his head at the kid ahead of him. "And, why didn't you tell us to start with?!" Ben shouted.

"I thought it would be more fun this way," Cartman said with a smirk back at the older boy.

"But if you had told- I-" Ben bit down hard, and he shook his head around like he could not believe this.

Cartman stared at Ben for a few seconds, and his eyes widened before going back to their normal size right away. He darted his gaze to the right where a purple curtain next to his chair looked back at him and nodded its eyebrows. "Sooo," Sora began, while staring right at the purple curtain next to Cartman that had very obvious big purple eyes in the middle of it. "Are we supposed to be pretending like we don't see him?" Sora asked.

The Wizard King rolled his eyes, _Not like it matters anymore._ "Juandissimo," he said, and the purple curtain vanished in a puff of smoke. Luffy and Goku spun towards it in surprise, and the others all shook their heads at them for not noticing it sooner or understanding what Sora was talking about.

A buff Fairy appeared in the air in a tight white muscle shirt that ripped as he flexed his arms behind his head with a big grin on his face. Juandissimo's skin was dark tan, and while his shirt was ripped in the second before it reappeared, he showed off that his arms were not the only crazy muscular part on his body. He had a black pointy goatee and a long ponytail behind his head while the rest of his hair was pulled back towards it. He had on tight black pants and had the same white wings and golden crown that so many in the group before them recognized. "My name, is Juandissimo Magnifico!" He flexed in five more positions, each time destroying his shirt only for it to reform, and the entire time with salsa music filling the air of the throne room.

Everyone had questions. They all wanted answers for what the Wizard King just put them through. Some wanted to yell at the Fairy asking why he was helping such a terrible kid. Nami did not care enough about any of that though, and she shouted before anyone else had the chance to speak, "Where is Timmy?!"

Juandissimo's big smile disappeared and he frowned at the woman who just shouted at them. Nami got confused by that look on his face, and she looked into the Fairy's purple eyes to see so much anger in them. "How could you let your Godchild abuse him like he is?" Nami asked, her eyes soft and confused as she looked at a being that looked much more unnerving without that big smile on his face. The people in the room suddenly remembered that these little beings were some of the most powerful things in the world, and Goku smiled as he wondered if he would get a chance to fight a Fairy Godparent today.

Cartman stared at Juandissimo's back, and the Wizard King's smile lowered down a bit as well. Stan looked at Cartman in surprise at the look on his face. _Is that, is Cartman, pitying him?_

"He allowed the woman of my dreams," Juandissimo began, then cut himself off and clenched his teeth hard. "The only woman I have ever truly loved! The beauty, the angel, mi amor- Wanda!" He called out her name and snapped his head back with a look of grief on his face.

Nami's jaw dropped. Luffy's eyes narrowed as he thought back on a day a few months ago. Usopp got a confused look on his face though, and he said, "I thought Wanda's husband was named Cosmo-"

"But with her husband gone, we would have gotten back together!" Juandissimo shouted, looking down at the man with the long nose and nodding his head like that made sense.

"' _Back_ together?'" Nami asked slowly. "Wait a second…" At first she thought this guy had just been in love with Wanda, maybe an admirer or something, but her eyes popped open wide and she exclaimed, "Wanda was your ex?!"

"Yes! She broke my heart, but even after thousands of years, my burning passion for her never faded," Juandissimo said in a sultry voice, a rose appearing in his mouth. Then he seemed to remember Wanda was gone, even if they were talking about her, and the rose dropped out of his mouth. He put his hands over his eyes and called out, "Wanda!"

"This is, uncomfortable to watch," Ben muttered down to his right where Dash was standing. The boy next to him nodded once but did not turn to look at his friend who furrowed his brow at Dash's minimal reaction.

"Forget admirer, he sounds obsessed," Usopp whispered to Sanji. "Thousands of years he never got over her, stalker much?"

Sanji's eyes were full of fire when Usopp finally leaned forward to see his face. "Such a fighter," Sanji said in a pained voice, like he totally understood Juandissimo's relentless passion.

"I'm sorry," Nami began, "for your loss, but it's not Timmy's fault!" Juandissimo lowered his hands from his face, and Cartman got a hesitant look on his own as he watched his Fairy Godfather's back.

"He allowed her to die," Juandissimo said in a dark voice again, his comical persona fading off as he frowned at the busty woman. "He _said_ he let Lex Luthor kill her."

Nami stepped forward and yelled, "Timmy tried as hard as he could to save her! I was there!" Nami's eyes started to water up as she thought of that day, of what she saw happen in the sky above Metropolis. The others who had not been there looked over at the woman. They knew Nami had always been close to Timmy, and they all knew that Wanda had died during the Battle of Metropolis, but almost none of them knew what she was talking about. Luffy and Goku were the only other two who were there that day, who saw what really happened. "Timmy didn't let Luthor kill her! It was the exact opposite." Nami shook her head with tears coming out the corners of them, "He gave his-" she froze with her mouth open, "he gave his all, trying to save her," Nami finished.

 _He gave his life,_ Nami thought, her heart sinking at the thought of the boy with Luthor's huge fist sticking his small body.

Nami did not notice because her eyes were clenched so tightly, but the Wizard King's eyes opened wide as he heard her think that. _Timmy Turner doesn't know that. All he remembers is waking up, and that woman telling him that Wanda was dead._ Cartman did not just hear what Nami thought, but he saw what she was imagining as well. He leaned back in his throne and rubbed the side of his head, his lip twisting and a subconscious sigh escaping his lips. _She cared that much about him? That must have taken place the same time as the second anomaly. Saving his life drained Juandissimo's strength, could have put me in a dangerous position if… But it didn't,_ Cartman could not even anger himself with hypotheticals now that Juandissimo's magic had already fully recovered.

"It wasn't Timmy's fault," Luffy agreed, and the others near him spun to see the pirate looked assured of it, not like he was just saying it to help Timmy. "Wanda," Luffy froze and frowned. _**"Please, never let Timmy know I did this. He would never forgive himself."**_ Luffy frowned at the amount of people who were in the room right now. He did not feel right revealing the secret Wanda asked them to keep with her very last words. He knew Timmy could read minds and was glad the boy had not read his in a long time, but he did not know if Timmy would ever read someone else in the room's minds in the future. His eyes focused over on the three who he was pretty sure he considered as enemies, and he definitely did not trust that Timmy would not try to read their minds. He did not even know if Timmy would need to read their minds, as the bad guys might just tell Timmy to make him hurt.

 _He's such a powerful weapon though!_ Cartman frowned in an angrier way. _If Meruem had come with some of his forces, Turner would have been my strongest ally in the fight! He could probably fight on par with the Guardians, or other High Lords if Meruem goes as far to involve them._

"Hey Wizard King," Sora said, making the boy who Sora could see was thinking hard about something turn to him. "We could negotiate if you want? You don't need to just _give_ us Timmy." Sora suggested it with a smile on his face. He knew the kid was too prideful to just give in to their demands, especially when the others were arguing with him instead of begging to have Timmy back. Sora could not find it in him to ask the others to bow and beg though, not with the type of people he knew were in the group around him. "What do you want?" Sora asked, as if it were that simple.

"Pshh," Cartman laughed at the teenager whose smile lowered a bit. "You think _you_ have something I want? What about _Fairy Godparent_ don't you understand?" Cartman taunted with a shake of his head. "Do you really think that anything you come up with, I couldn't just wish for on my own?"

"Why do you need to use Timmy then?" Kirito asked. Cartman turned to the teen who tried not to smile. Kirito had been deciding between taunting the kid and trying to reason with him respectfully. He still did not know what he was going with, but he did not want Cartman to think he was poking holes in his logic. The question strained not to sound sarcastic though.

"I don't _need_ him," Cartman snapped. "But it can't hurt to have another powerful fighter at my disposal for the next time the Ant King comes knocking. He was just here a little while ago," the Wizard King added, while shifting his gaze over to a fourteen year old boy whose eyes widened as Cartman made eye contact with him.

 _He definitely knows it was me. Wait! Does that mean he actually was strong enough to stop the King-_ _ **"We will talk later,"**_ Ben heard a telepathic voice in his head, but he saw that none of the others around him heard the voice. _**"In private,"**_ the Wizard King's voice added in a low, threatening tone.

Cartman continued aloud while having a mental conversation at the same time, "Don't believe me? This was twenty minutes ago," Cartman waved his hand and a giant television screen appeared above his head. "I wish we had replay of the fight," he said. Juandissimo lifted his wand as apparently this was not as simple a hand wave and needed an actual wish, unlike making giant televisions appear that could float in midair. The group in front of the Wizard King who doubted what he had said as an excuse for needing Timmy, dropped their jaws at the sight of four Wizard Kings fighting Meruem, then hundreds of robots turning into more of the boy and all attacking the King together. Cartman cut off the replay with a wave of his hand that made the television disappear, right before Meruem would have used the attack that decimated his army in a single stroke.

"Did you kill him?" Sora asked in surprise, leaning forward with big eyes and a hopeful look on his face.

Riku turned to his best friend in surprise, then his silver eyebrows lifted higher at the sight of the sweat all over Sora's face from watching that small clip. "Did you win?" Sora asked.

"I did," Cartman replied. He continued quickly though while Sora was mid-sigh of relief, "But I did not kill him. I just sent him running home with his tail between his legs." Cartman laughed harder, though this time he did not make a television appear to show the others he was telling the truth, so many of them doubted that was how it actually went down.

Goku had a wide-eyed look on his face as he stared at the child in front of him. At first he was shocked that the kid said he faced the Ant King, then when he actually witnessed the fight, Goku realized that the Wizard King was more powerful than him. _The world is so big,_ Goku thought. _So many strong people,_ the smile tugged at his face, especially with the knowledge that Cartman had not killed Meruem. As strange as it seemed to him, he was glad Cartman did not kill the Ant King. He did not think too much on it, but he knew: he had to be the one who defeated Meruem. Unbeknownst to Goku, a small boy with blond hair was thinking about that very thing only a few feet away from him.

 _JackJack, I swear I'm getting revenge for you. I'm going to kill the Ant King and send him straight to Hell! Can you hear me? Are you in Heaven right now, watching me? Is that how it works?_ Dash's expression was darker than ever. Unlike Goku, the relief of Meruem not being dead yet did not actually make Dash's emotions change at all. He stared forward without focusing on the Wizard King, his fairy, or anything else around him. _Two years. Two years, and almost another half year on top of that! It took me so long to find you!_ Dash could feel tears coming to his eyes, so he shook his head and regained an angry and dark expression, stopping himself from crying using whatever it took.

Sora looked disappointed by Cartman's description of his victory, but then he shook his head and returned to the task at hand. "You're so powerful, that you don't really need…" Sora shook his head and sighed. "I get that Timmy's strong, and Meruem has a lot of strong followers. Is that what you want him for?" Sora asked. Cartman's eyes widened a little as Sora asked, and the teen continued before the boy could admit or deny it. "I've seen what the Capital 50 can do, what Meruem's Royal Guards and his Guardians are capable of…"

Gray's jaw dropped lower and lower with every word out of Sora's mouth. _Just what in the Hell happened? This war at the Saiyan Mountains, it sounds crazy. Did Meruem bring his entire army there? Then, if Meruem's still alive, that means he subdued the Saiyans, or wiped them out… Is that why Sora said they "escaped" from the war? Are Meruem's forces that overwhelming? The Saiyans were a stronghold against him farther north than any. So many people dared trek across Co-op land just to escape into the territory of the Saiyan Mountains. All those people who fled there, what happened to them? The slaves freed in the north who wouldn't risk going all the way south to Resistance lands. Anyone living under the Saiyan King's rule- there must have been millions, no! Tens of millions of them, maybe hundreds!_

"…But Wizard King, just because you're-" Sora caught himself before saying 'afraid,' as he was staying respectful and cautious with every word out of his mouth. "Careful," Sora continued after that second's pause. "Just because you want to be ready for everything he tries throwing at you, doesn't mean you can brainwash people into helping you. Timmy's a good person, and he doesn't deserve to be used like that."

Nami looked left at Sora, her face filling with hope since she had been watching the Wizard King's expression carefully the entire time Sora spoke, and she just saw a shift in it. "And I know there are limits to Fairy magic," Sora continued. He lifted his right hand and formed his Kingdom Keyblade in it. Sora rose the original Keyblade that appeared in his hands while on his home island, first coming to him in his dreams on the nights leading up to his world's destruction. "But this is a Keyblade, you remember?"

"Yes, and I've also heard of how legendary those things are," Cartman added. "But I also know," he continued, "that if you give me that weapon, it will just pop back into your hands!"

"I'm not trying to trick you," Sora said, holding up one hand defensively and pointing his Keyblade straight up too to show he meant no harm. "I was just going to say, that as a Keybearer, there might be things only _I_ can help you with. Certain things that Riku and I, and maybe Ben," Sora added with a glance over at the younger brown-haired boy. "We could do to help you? I mean, you just said that you can't wield a Keyblade right? So there's something right there!"

The Wizard King hummed to himself, wondering about what Sora was saying. "Are you offering, to help me out if the Ant King attacks?" Cartman asked.

Sora gulped at the memory of Meruem staring into his eyes when he was about to kill him. The Wizard King frowned at Sora's look, because he read Sora's mind and saw what the older teen was thinking of. But then, to Cartman and Sora's friends' surprise, Sora nodded his head with a serious look on his face. "Really?" Cartman asked in shock. After reading Sora's mind, seeing how afraid the teen was of that monster, he did not think Sora would come to his aid.

He expected Sora was lying to him, but Sora nodded his head again. "I promise," Sora said. "You, aren't my enemy, Wizard King," Sora said. He shook his head slowly, then continued, "In this world, there are so many who are full of darkness. They destroy, and enslave, and conquer." The memories of the recent war reappeared in Sora's head. "Entire armies of evil. Monsters who I know there is no way of avoiding a fight with, sooner or later. High Lords, and Guardians, and Chimera Ants, and Spriggans. The beastmen, Bahamut, and, the Darkness." Sora said that last one softly with his spiky brown bangs shadowing over his eyes.

The way Sora referred to it as an enemy, the fact that he put a "the" in front of "darkness," it sent shivers down the spines of every person in the room except for Goku. Even Riku looked at Sora with wide eyes, wondering what he was talking about with that. Sora glanced his way with a look that told the taller teen that Sora had a lot he needed to talk to him about, later in private. Sora turned back to the Wizard King who was staring at Sora with wide eyes, then leaned back in his seat in shocked fear which told Sora his mind had been read. Sora nodded at the child and took a step closer to him so he was in front of most of his friends other than Natsu and Luffy who were looking back at him in stunned silence at Sora's speech. "But Wizard King, you aren't one of those enemies. I know I can avoid fighting you, and I know, you really don't want to fight me."

 _And risk the end of the multiverse?! I live in the multiverse!_ Cartman thought with beads of sweat dripping down the sides of his face. _The top Gods think Sora's this important? Then, then,_ "You really do promise? You'll come if Meruem attacks?" The Wizard King asked without letting his voice get hoarse or sound anxious at all despite what his words made it sound like he was feeling.

"I do," Sora said and nodded his head back at the boy leaning forward on his throne.

"No matter what?" Cartman asked.

"Ohhh," Franky said and winced noticeably.

"Yeah, can you not say that, Sora?" Natsu asked. Sora looked around at his friends who all seemed grossed out by the idea of Sora saying those words to Cartman. Stan did not get what they were all reacting for, and he felt a little left out as he seemed to be the only one, but he felt a little better when he noticed neither Goku nor Sora understood it either.

Robin gained a dark look on her face, and she said in a flat tone, "Choose other words."

"Uhh," Sora did not really get it, but he shrugged and turned back to the Wizard King. "Then, I give you my word. That good enough?" He asked, while glancing around out the corners of his eyes to see if his friends had a problem with that phrasing. Instead he saw sighs of relief and spotted Robin give him a stoic nod as if saying, 'That'll do.'

"Hmph," Cartman grunted, and he looked away after Sora asked. He glanced up at Juandissimo who had kept frowning the whole time they discussed, too deep in thought about what they told him to focus on the ongoing conversation very closely. Juandissimo looked down into the kid's eyes, and after a few seconds, Juandissimo nodded his head a couple of times. _Guess I have no choice,_ Cartman thought, though he knew he was just using that nod as a scapegoat, an easy way to make this feel like he had no say in the matter, even though it was ultimately his decision. "I suppose, I can make that deal," Cartman said. _I'm losing Turner, and I'm just getting a promise of help for the future? I don't even know if… no, he will come. And if he can do that portal-teleport-y thing that his friend can do, then he really will show up even if I don't wish him here myself._

"Are you serious?" Nami asked, stepping forward with giant eyes and her heart racing a thousand beats a minute. "You'll really, release him?"

"Without a fight?" Goku added, as if suggesting that maybe the Wizard King think about it again for a second. Goku saw the Wizard King's techniques in that video, and while everyone else was talking about Timmy and worldly or universal problems, Goku spent the whole time thinking about ways that he could beat the Wizard King in a fight. He was ready to test some of them out.

"Goku," Juvia snapped at the man. Goku turned to the blue-haired mage in surprise who stepped towards him and said in an angry tone, "He is giving us Timmy. Don't make him change his mind, idiot." She muttered the last part, while Goku stared at the girl in utter confusion.

His head tilted to the side while she looked in his eyes, and Juvia opened her mouth to snap something else at the way he was staring at her. "Juvia, did I do something wrong?" Goku asked.

Juvia's open mouth opened more as she gawked at him. A lot of the others had looked at Juvia in confusion at what she just said to Goku. It was so out of character for her, and it made some of them concerned. Goku's question though, it snapped most of their gazes away from the Rain Woman and to the Saiyan man who glanced around at his friends who all started frowning at him. "What?" Goku asked.

"You abandoned us outside of Dressrosa!" Usopp exclaimed.

"You never came back," Ben added in an angry tone.

"So much bad stuff happened, because you weren't there to help out," Dash agreed, and Goku turned to the boy who had not said anything about this to him since they met up.

Even Kirito added in, "You told me to come to Aebrith so we could help the Resistance together. I've been helping them," he looked at the man expectantly, awaiting an explanation.

Goku's surprised look faded, but instead of an apologetic one, Goku's friends were all met with a disapproving frown. Usopp leaned back, and asked in a hesitant voice, "What?"

"I didn't know you all relied on me," Goku said. Usually that sentence would be a heartfelt, moving moment, but Goku just looked annoyed and even upset at himself.

Ben looked at the muscular man who used to be the mayor of his town in such a confused way. "We do rely on you though," Ben said.

"That's not good," Goku replied and looked down into Ben's eyes. He smiled a gentle smile at the boy and said, "I won't always be there. One day, I'll die, and you'll need to be able to handle problems and powerful enemies without me." Goku's friends dropped their jaws. Not necessarily because they had realizations, but just because Goku sounded like he was actually making sense and even, being wise? They always thought of him a lot more like the kid version who had left them outside of Dressrosa, and thinking about that made a few of them realize they had yet to ask how Goku turned back to his old self. "And even before I'm dead, there are still going to be a lot of times where you have to take care of yourselves without me. I can't be in multiple places at once, and I can't do everything. I don't want to," he added with a light laugh.

While Goku was talking to the friends around him, Sora and Nami had walked closer to the throne and were discussing something with the Wizard King. The others all wanted to get Timmy back too, but this argument had drawn all of them in, and they were all watching even more closely now with what Goku was saying. Sanji nodded his head after Goku said that last sentence. Oddly enough, he found himself going back on his own feelings on the matter, agreeing with Goku. _We forget it because he's so strong, but Goku's still just a man. It wasn't selfish of him to go off on our own, it was selfish of us to expect him to get us out of tough situations whenever we needed him. Shit,_ Sanji pulled a cigarette out and lit it.

"But, but," Ben started quietly. "What if we needed you? What if, we were all dying?" Ben asked.

"You guys wouldn't all die on me," Goku said with a laugh. Ben did not laugh with him, and Goku sighed before saying, "I haven't seen Killua, is he okay?"

Natsu opened his mouth to tell Goku that he was not. He opened it to tell the man he still thought of as "The Mayor" that Killua had died. "He's in a coma," Natsu said. He could not tell Goku something like that just to counter Goku's points, because as annoyed as he was with Goku, he accepted that Goku was making sense too. _It's not like the rest of the group stayed together anyway, so Goku would have had to pick a side at some point and abandon the other half of us._ "Doctors say he'll probably be alright though," Natsu added as Goku looked towards him with a worried expression.

"Oh, that's good," Goku said.

Juvia bit down so hard behind pursed lips. "Not everyone, is alright," Juvia said, and Goku turned to the girl who was glaring so angrily at him.

"I'm sorry, Juvia," Goku said, for the first time apologizing since the others confronted him. "Sometimes though, fights are hard. It's the hardest battles that mean the most though. Those are the fights that stick with you the longest." Goku looked away from the girl staring at him in confusion and anger like that did not satisfy why she was mad at him. "Those fights sometimes come with loss," Goku thought about the first time he became a Super Saiyan. Then he thought of the fights against Raditz, and Cell, against Vegeta, and King Piccolo. Most of the time he had lost friends, sometimes he died himself. "But when I'm gone, I'll be leaving this world in the hands of the people I trust, including a bunch of the people in this room." Goku's friends stared at him in shock, and he finished, "But how could I feel comfortable doing that, if I had to save you every time there's trouble?"

"So what you're saying is, we needed to prove ourselves?" Ben asked, lifting his eyebrows in realization.

"Um, sure," Goku said. The half-hearted way in which he said it made every person there sweatdrop and wonder if he came up with all that on the spot. Goku had not really thought any of that through before, but he meant every word of what he said. If his friends had died, he would have been upset, and he would have gone after whoever killed them, but it would not change the way he felt. Goku made friends everywhere he went, but he never stayed in one place for too long. It just wasn't his thing, to stick around.

Goku's friends knew the kind of man he was, or at least they thought they did after all the time they spent traveling with him. Juvia opened her mouth. She wanted to tell Goku what had happened to her and get a more sincere apology than what she got. She knew Goku well though, and she knew that he had died not once, but twice before. She bit down again as it would seem like there was nothing to complain about to a man like that then, but she felt the strongest urge to yell it at him anyway. Juvia felt a hand press softly on her back, and she turned to see not Gray who she expected, but Kirito standing in the spot next to her that he had been in while talking to Goku. He could see her face, unlike the man farther away who was confused at why Kirito just did that, though he realized when Juvia turned her head sideways and Gray saw just how angry she looked.

Kirito had been upset with Goku too, but when he saw how Juvia was snarling, he knew her anger was being misplaced. Kirito agreed a little with what Goku was saying, but he did not think it excused the man's actions. _But for Juvia,_ Kirito thought, and he nodded at Juvia with a look on his face that told her Kirito did not think Goku was in the wrong. Juvia clenched her teeth harder for a few seconds, then she let out a gasp of air and started breathing hard as she contained an outburst that had almost erupted.

Gray stopped walking over and stared at Juvia's face in surprise as Kirito got her to calm down. _Thanks,_ Gray thought, but then Kirito darted his eyes to the right with a dark look in Gray's direction. Gray saw that look, and it clearly told him that Kirito was did not do that for his sake. Gray looked away when Juvia looked back up, but Kirito also refocused his gaze so that Juvia would not see where he had glared off to. "Thanks, Kir-"

"Timmy!" Nami shouted, and everyone spun towards the throne where Juandissimo had just swung his wand above. Sora and Cartman had come to some final arrangements concerning the deal Sora was making with him. As Nami listened, she had sweatdropped because the two were making it sound like Sora was giving Cartman a whole bunch more than Cartman was giving them, and she felt like she was watching them both stroke Cartman's ego for over a minute. She imagined that Cartman had stopped reading Sora's mind to make it seem even more genuine, and then imagined that he had probably stopped reading hers as well because she was obviously thinking about it. She had checked by cursing the fat kid out in her head, and she smiled smugly when he did not react.

Finally Cartman had wished Juandissimo to bring Timmy to them, and out from a cloud of white smoke, Timmy appeared. He stood there, a short twelve year old boy in the middle of the red carpet in front of the Wizard King's throne. After shouting his name, Nami sprinted up to him and dropped down on her knees in front of him. The others started running over behind her, but Nami's face filled with fear at the blank one on Timmy's face. She snapped her head to the side and looked past Timmy's body at the fat boy who she yelled at, "What did you do to him?!"

"Relax," Cartman said with a roll of his eyes. He put his hands on the sides of his head and closed his eyes. "I trapped his consciousness in a cage in his head."

"What?" Nami asked angrily.

"I'm not repeating myself," Cartman growled. Nami glared towards him in an even angrier way, but then the boy's eyes opened back up.

"Nami?" Nami heard a voice whisper right in front of her. She turned her head back and saw Timmy's formerly blank eyes staring straight back into hers when she looked his way. "You're here," Timmy gasped out in amazement.

Nami put her hands firmly down on Timmy's shoulders and she leaned her face close to his. "What were you thinking?" She scolded, making Timmy's eyes open wide. The others who had run up behind Nami looked at her in surprise too. After all she had worried about him, after how anxious she had seemed for so long, they were shocked that these were her first words to him. "I should have called for you to wait, but you told me you would be right back. You promised!"

"I know I did and I really was going to come back right away after I told the fairy I was looking for where Fairy World was but then I got in a fight and I didn't realize how strong and I-" Timmy was rambling so fast that it was hard to catch it all.

"I called for you, Timmy," Nami interrupted him. Timmy's eyes opened huge, and a few of the others looked at Nami's back with hesitant looks like they felt she was being too harsh. "I called for you, and you didn't come."

"I know," Timmy whispered, tears forming in his eyes. "I knew, every time. I couldn't get to you though, even though I knew you were in trouble," the tears started spilling from Timmy's eyes. "Every time you said my name, I knew, but I was chained up. I was shackled to a wall-"

"What?" Nami asked, leaning back with a surprised and serious look on her face. Timmy stopped crying and opened his eyes to see Nami's expression, and she asked once he made eye contact with her, "How long was that for?"

"I don't know," Timmy whispered, looking back down with a look of guilt strewn across his face. "Weeks, maybe? There were no windows, and it was so dark in there-"

"Change of plans!" Nami shouted and shot up to her feet. She looked down over the top of Timmy's head at the short, fat, Wizard King who stared back at her with growing eyes. "We're beating this kid up!" Words that Nami never thought would leave her mouth escaped without any hesitation.

"Really?" Goku asked excitedly.

Cartman smirked and was going to taunt the woman, but he froze as every person behind Nami turned their attentions to him and started getting ready for a fight. "Whoa whoa," Cartman shouted. "I just gave you Turner-" he spun to Sora and shouted, "You said we had a deal!"

"Okay," Sora said, then he frowned at the kid in front of him. Gone was the smile he had while complimenting the Wizard King and offering him his future services. "Is the Ant King attacking you?" Sora asked. Cartman's eyes widened, and Butters took a nervous step back on the other side of the throne as Sora. Sora lifted his eyebrows, and asked, "No? Then I don't see why I'd help you out here. Timmy's my friend too."

"Guys, don't," Timmy said, looking around at all his angry friends who were willing to fight the Wizard King for him. "He's too strong. And with Juandissimo, there's nothing we can do."

"Don't be so pathetic, Timmy," Luffy said, turning and looking down at the boy who stared up into Luffy's eyes in surprise at that insult. "Maybe on your own you couldn't beat him, but now we're here."

"If he thought you were strong enough to capture and brainwash, then you must have done some damage, yeah?" Sanji remarked.

"If you all attack me and lose," Cartman called out, "then I will keep Turner locked up here, forever."

Timmy's eyes opened wide, and he turned to look at the fat kid who just shouted that. The Wizard King had gotten past his exhausted mental defenses, defeating him both physically and mentally. Back when he threatened the Resistance, Timmy had been able to take back the smallest amount of control in his facial expression, but since then Cartman had gotten even more intense with pushing his own thoughts farther down in his own head. Timmy had felt helpless inside his mind that no longer felt like his own, and he was still getting used to control over his body. After what Cartman just said though, Timmy's shaking hands tightened and he glared at the fat boy staring back at him. "You'll _never_ , do that to me again."

Nami had such a furious look on her face, but she just growled in frustration and dropped back to her knees behind Timmy. She was not going to risk his life when there was no need, even if she wanted to punch that smug brat right in his fat face. Timmy turned away from the Wizard King again and back to the woman behind him, and then Nami's arms wrapped around him and pulled his head into her shoulder. Her huge breasts were pressed hard into Timmy's chest as she held him as tight as she could, one hand on his back and the other on the back of his head, holding it on her shoulder but with her head pressed to the side into his head as well. "And you, never do that to me again," Nami whispered while their heads were pressed together at their right temples. "Okay?" She asked.

"Mm," Timmy made a noise into her shoulder that sounded like an affirmative. After another second, Nami pulled back from Timmy and smiled at his face.

Timmy smiled back at her, then he looked around at all the others looking in at him. "Guys," Timmy said, his smile widening more at the sight of all of them. "You all came, to save me?" Timmy questioned.

"Of course we did," Ben said, though after saying it he instantly felt bad because he had actually hesitated back in the Resistance base.

"Nami seems to care for you, for some reason," Sanji said and took a puff from his cig. "So we had to," he finished, and Timmy looked his way. The kid with messy brown hair that extended out in front of his head in a point looked at Sanji's face, and he smiled more as he saw that the reason Sanji gave was not the only reason the man had come.

"You're our little bro!" Franky called out and posed by throwing his arms up together diagonally over his head.

"And while you, Goku, and Sora weren't there, we made a pact," Gray said. Sora and Goku looked over at the ice mage who continued, "No matter what, if one of us is in trouble, we all agreed to come to each other's aid."

 _Not that you can talk,_ Kirito thought, glaring at Gray for bringing that up. He shook his head and tried to let it go, tried thinking about how Gray lost that arm, or how he had apologized so many times. Kirito turned back to Timmy to get his mind off it, annoyed that he could not change his feelings on the matter by pure willpower.

"So if you're all done here," Cartman called out in a booming voice that sounded more like the one they had been hearing around the castle. The boy using his more Kingly voice bellowed, "Then get out of my castle! Unless there's something else you want?" He asked when they all turned and glared at him. He asked it sarcastically, but also smirked as he said it as if suggesting something to them.

"What else could we want from you?" Nami snapped over at the kid who had made it clear she would not be able to get her revenge on. If she was not getting that, she did not know what else there was to do here.

"'What else?'" The Wizard King repeated like he was talking to an idiot. "What else do you want?" He said, lifting his pitch at the end while looking towards the floating fairy who smiled his perfect smile when everyone looked his way. Nami's eyes bugged as she finally caught on to what the kid was telling them.

"You can't be serious," Sanji said. "Why would you offer anything to us?"

"He's not," Stan said. He looked towards Cartman and said, "You just want someone to ask, right? That way you can tell them 'no,' and then you'll laugh about it."

"ERRR! Wrong!" A loud buzzer beeped in the room as Cartman made the sound with his mouth. The Wizard King leaned back in his throne, and he said, "I told you, I was planning on giving someone what they wanted if they were able to make it here. It was only supposed to be one winner, but since Sora showed up and threw a wrench in my plans…" Cartman darted a look at Sora who shrugged back at him. "You all made it here. So what do you want? Not many people make it all the way south, and few ever get in here for an audience with the King!" He pointed at himself with a thumb as he said it.

"Why would you do this?" Stan asked, as he was starting to believe his old friend.

Cartman opened his mouth with a planned response, then he sighed since it was Stan he was talking to. "I'm trying to get a reputation for granting favors," Cartman said, his lips curling up. "You know, like a people come down here and have to face a series of tests, and if they pass they can get their heart's desires sort of thing." Most of the people in front of him stared blankly after he explained it, and the Wizard King snapped, "It's boring here! And since I can't go take over more land by force," he darted Juandissimo an annoyed look as he said that, but the fairy pretended not to notice. "There's not much to do," the boy finished.

"In that case, I wish I had a dog," Natsu said. "I've always wanted one, since I was a little kid," Natsu said in his most sincere voice. The others looked at him skeptically, but Natsu started smirking mentally at the short fat kid on the throne. _And time for him to yell "got you" and laugh… any second now…_

"Alright," Cartman said and shrugged his shoulders. He called out in his deep voice that echoed through the room, "A dog you wish for, a dog you shall have!" _**"I wish he had a dog, a**_ _ **stuffed**_ _ **dog,"**_ The Wizard King smirked as he telepathically sent his wish to Juandissimo. There was another part to the reputation he wanted to get out there. _Be careful what you wish for,_ he thought in a smug way.

Timmy stared in shock at the spot in the air above Natsu. _How did he do that without saying 'I wish?'_ Timmy thought in amazement. A large stuffed animal dropped out of the air on top of Natsu who could barely hold it in his hands because of its size. The stuffed dalmatian looked Natsu in the eyes, and he stared right back at it for a few seconds, before dropping it and looking over at Cartman with a confused look. The younger boy grinned back at him and then bellowed in his loud deep voice, "You did not say what _kind_ of dog you wanted! Next person," he turned while Natsu dropped his jaw.

The Dragon Slayer looked down at the stuffed animal in front of him, and he sweatdropped at the thing's cute face. _Good thing he didn't give me an actual dog. That would have been bad._ _I don't know how to raise a pet._ In Natsu's head appeared a small blue face of a kitten with white wings on its back. Natsu shook the thought out of his mind, because although he hatched Happy from an egg, he was not Natsu's pet but his best friend for years. "Hold on," Natsu realized something and his eyes went wide, "wait! That wasn't my real wish, I want-" **Poof!**

Natsu disappeared in a puff of smoke as Cartman pointed his golden staff at him. The Dragon Slayer clenched his eyes shut, then he snapped them back open and dropped his jaw at the sight of the giant wooden doors in front of him. "You have to be kidding me!" He looked around to see he was standing at the top of the marble staircase in front of the Wizard King's castle. "Oh come on!"

"Hey, what'd you do with Natsu?!" Timmy shouted and gave the Wizard King an angry glare.

"I sent him outside where the dogs belong," Cartman said, in an attempt to be witty in regards to Natsu's last wish. Most of the people in front of him saw the effort to try and make that work though, and the Wizard King frowned at the ones who made it too obvious on their faces. _Their wishes are definitely getting messed with,_ he thought smugly. "Alright, anyone else?" Cartman asked.

"Are you just going to mess with all of us?" Gray asked, wondering if it was even worth it to try.

"Why don't you find out?" Cartman asked.

Gray sighed, then thought, _As long as it won't kill me, I guess I could try something._ "I wish for the Resistance's victory over the Cooperative."

"Ah, the good soldier," the Wizard King remarked. "Alright, your wish has been granted!"

"Huh?" Gray asked in confusion. He turned to Juandissimo, then back to the kid sitting on his throne, "What are you talking about? You didn't even make a wish."

"No, I did," the Wizard King replied. "Don't worry, I'm sure in at least one of the next ten battles, the Resistance will get a victory over the Cooperative."

Cartman smirked, and Gray dropped his bottom lip. He knew it was going to happen, but he still felt like he got duped anyway. "You little-" **Poof!** Just like that, Gray vanished and appeared outside next to a slowed-in-space Natsu who had tried running into the doors, forgetting about the strange protective field they had around them. "Smartass," Gray finished in annoyance, before moving forward to help Natsu out of his predicament.

"These are all going to be dumb," Stan said. "Let's just go now."

"I don't know," Sora said, a smile coming to his face as he looked over at Stan. "I think we just need to be more specific."

Timmy looked over at the kid who just spoke up, and he felt a little hesitant since he had been away for so long. _When did he join up with everyone? Was it outside of Dressrosa? Should I read his mind and find out? If the others trust him though, I don't think I need to-_ "Timmy, this is Stan," Nami said as she saw where Timmy was looking. Stan looked over towards where they were in the middle of the room's red carpet and made eye contact with the other twelve year old. "He knows the Wizard King from his world, so he offered to come help us save you."

"Oh, wow," Timmy stepped towards Stan and smiled at the other kid. "Thank you, for that."

Stan shook his head like it was no problem at all, then he turned back to Sora who had a thoughtful look on his face. He made it look like he was pondering Sora's suggestion to be more specific, while thinking, _You don't owe me anything. Now, we're even… kind of._

"Okay," Sora said, rubbing his hands together like he had it. His expression got more serious even with the smile still on it, and he looked deep into the fat boy's eyes. "Wizard King, I wish for you to bring my fiancé to me. Could you bring Kairi here?" Everyone looked at Sora in sudden surprise, then most of them spun back to the Wizard King to see if he would do it.

"First you want me to teleport the two of you away, now you want me to bring Kairi here," Cartman said. "You're not very original with these."

Sora chuckled a couple of times, only to respect the Wizard King by laughing at his joke. "No, I guess I'm not," Sora said, agreeing with a nod of his head. "So, can you?" Sora asked.

"Of course I can!" Cartman said. He cleared his throat then began in his bellowing voice, "I wish, for Sora's fiancé Kairi to join us here!" Cartman did not mask his voice or go through the routine that he would normally go through with people who did not know Juandissimo was there, which he hoped would be a higher number once word of his actions here got around. All the wishes could not be joke wishes if he wanted his reputation to really get out, and he felt like Sora was the most likely to spread it about him than the others anyway.

Juandissimo waved his wand in front of his body this time instead of behind his back where his hands had looked to be held together behind his waist. Juandissimo waved it, then his eyes widened and he looked at the back of his wand in surprise. He turned to Cartman who was watching him expectantly, and he said to the boy, "It exceeds the magic limit you wished for for other people's wishes."

"Please," Sora said, spinning from Juandissimo back to Cartman after hearing that. Sora's face looked more desperate this time, and he put his hands together in front of his body. Sora dropped down to his knees even, tossing aside his pride as he asked again, "Take off the limiter. I know it will be a lot of magic, but I'll make another deal with you."

"No can do," the Wizard King said. "If Juandissimo gets low on magic, it doesn't matter how much you promise to help me out, I'll be unprotected."

"I'm confused," Timmy began while watching this go on. "Why can't you teleport Kairi here? It should be simple, right?" He asked while looking at Juandissimo.

"Yes, it should be," the buff fairy said while glaring back at Timmy Turner. Timmy eased back a little at the fairy's glare, and then the muscular man softened his own look as he thought about how the others defended Timmy, saying that he tried to save the woman Juandissimo loved. "I do not know why I cannot bring her here easily."

"Kairi," Nami whispered softly.

Timmy looked up at her, then around at his other friends. A scared look formed on his face and he whispered, "Nami?" She looked down at him and a sad expression remained on her face as she started to tell Timmy what had happened to their auburn-haired friend.

"If you can't bring her to me," Sora began, but he grimaced as he could not come up with something better on the spot. _I want to say send me to her, but they'll be expecting me. The whole might of the Organization, including Super Saiyan Noxagh. I'd even have to fight Roxas and Axel. Roxas needs to keep his cover in the Organization, they both do, but it's more than that with Roxas. If I go there, he either fights me or loses Naminé. I know which he would choose, because I know what I would choose._ "Then, could you just take my wish, that you were actually going to fulfill, and could you be that serious with Timmy?"

Timmy's eyes opened wide, and the rest of Sora's friends stared at his back in confusion or awe. Even Cartman looked ahead at the teen standing in front of his throne, huge eyes as Sora had somehow known that Cartman was treating Sora's wish a lot more seriously than any of the others. "I guess, if that's your wish," Cartman said.

"Why me though?" Timmy asked, and Sora turned and started walking back to the others. Most of the group were gathered a good ten meters away from the throne, where everyone had run to after Timmy had appeared.

Sora smiled at the kid he walked back to, and he said, "The Wizard King made you go through a lot, so you deserve to get something back from him more than anyone."

 _Geez,_ Kirito thought while shaking his head at Sora. _Does it come naturally, or are you constantly trying to be the best person in the room? It almost gets annoying._

Timmy started walking forward past the rest of the group. He walked closer and closer to the Wizard King who frowned at the boy who was recently his prisoner. "I'm not going to forgive you," Timmy said in a quiet voice when he was only a few feet in front of the fatter kid's throne. "You invaded my mind, and trapped me here," he turned and frowned up at the Fairy Godparent floating next to the throne just a little above and to Cartman's right, and he finished, "you both did." Timmy saw Juandissimo look away like he might feel a bit of shame from that look Timmy gave him, but Timmy turned back and saw Cartman looking at him with a skeptical gaze and lifted eyebrows, waiting for Timmy to get to a point. "But, if you do this, I'll forgive you for at least, a little of it."

"As long as it's within Juandissimo's set parameters," Cartman began, "it's yours."

"When you finally got control of my mind, you remember what you did?" Timmy asked. He had a harsh and upset look in his eyes, and Cartman's eyes widened as he knew exactly what Timmy was talking about. "I had kept it with me even after losing our fight. I wouldn't let it go, and then you- with my own hands, you-" Timmy's face scrunched up, while his friends behind him looked at him in such confusion as they had no idea what he was talking about. "I want it back. _Please,_ " Timmy added, and Cartman stared into his eyes to see that this meant a lot to the kid in front of him.

"Alright," Cartman said and turned to his fairy.

Before he could say anything, Timmy started to Juandissimo, "And it wasn't the same one from my own world. It was new, so, the same one okay? The same exact one."

The Wizard King spoke telepathically to his Fairy Godfather, and Juandissimo nodded before shaking his wand held behind his back again. Timmy had figured out what they were doing after thinking about it for a few seconds, glad the intelligence Wanda gave him long ago allowed him to deduce their method of making wishes fairly quickly. A puff of white smoke appeared around Timmy, and the group staring at him stared in confusion, or for Nami, complete shock, as they saw what Timmy wished for.

Timmy lifted his hands and gently placed them on top of his head, on top of the pink hat that once again rested there. He brought his gaze down from the rim just above his eyes back to Cartman's face. "Thanks," he said, smiling with his buck teeth sticking out over his bottom lip.

"Yeah yeah," Cartman said. He then used telepathy and added into Timmy's head, _**"You stay behind after too for a minute."**_ A hesitant look formed on Timmy's face, and Cartman rolled his eyes, _**"I'm not going to trap you again. Okay?"**_

Timmy nodded, though he did not know if he should trust the words of his kidnapper. He decided it was worth it to hear him out at least, a decision not in a small way affected by the fact that he could see his pink hat at the top of his vision. Timmy turned back, and he saw Nami staring over at him with watery eyes which made Timmy's face fill with panic for a second, wondering if he had done something wrong. Nami shook her head like that was not it, then she smacked her cheeks a couple of times to get control of herself.

 _He wasted that wish, the serious wish that Sora gave him, on the hat I made for him? Timmy you, you!_ Nami struggled to keep it together externally, even as inside she was breaking down emotionally in mental tears. Timmy walked up to her and looked into her eyes in semi-confusion, then he started to explain, "I tried to hold onto it-"

Nami put a hand down on the top of Timmy's head, pushing the rim of his hat into his hair and his hair over his eyes, blocking his vision for a second though he smiled while Nami ruffled his hair like that. "I'm just glad you got it back," she said, while lifting her free and and quickly rubbing her eyes back and forth.

Robin could not help but think, _Aww._ She was not the only one, but Sanji's heart-shaped eyes at how beautiful Nami was when she cared for someone turned into fiery ones when he realized she would never care for him in the same way she did Timmy. He bit down and curled his fists in jealousy of the kid, then he had an idea and ran forward to be the next to get his wish. As soon as Sanji ran up, Nami, Robin, and Juvia all stared at the blond man's back anxiously as they feared the words about to come out of his mouth.

"I wish all the women in the world-" Sanji began his yell. Robin and Juvia started raising their arms to try and stop him, while Nami lifted her hand off of Timmy's head and reached it out while a look of panic filled her face. "Loved me forever!" Sanji finished exclaiming.

Robin froze right after her arms crossed. Juvia sighed and her arms fell back to her sides, and Nami lost her look of panic, instead rolling her eyes at the chef's back.

Kirito watched this all in slight amusement. _Guess they all thought he was going to wish all their clothes away. I kind of thought that's how he was ending that sentence too. Imagine, if every woman in the world suddenly lost all their clothes._ He could not help but crack a smile, before quickly lowering it and telling himself that it wouldn't have been funny. He saw Sora chuckling on his right side though, and Kirito grinned again as he imagined Sora had the same idea as him.

"ERRR!" Cartman crossed his arms and called out, making a buzzer go off at the same time. "Can't do that. Making people fall in love, it's too much. Even just one single person would be against Da Rules."

Dash's frown deepened when he heard the Wizard King say that. _It's going to be against Da Rules, isn't it?_

"Oh," Sanji said, a dejected and disappointed look forming on his face. "Backup wish it is then," he looked up with a devious glint in his eyes. "I wish-" Two arms sprouted from the sides of Sanji's head and covered his mouth. Sanji's eyes bulged and he mumbled into the hands, but Nico Robin walked forward so that she was on Sanij's right.

He turned to her and started shaking his head fast as she was ruining his wish, but Robin knew for sure what Sanji's wish was going to be this time when she saw that perverted look in his eyes. "I wish that Sanji does not get a wish," Robin said calmly, and Sanji's face covered in despair.

"Done," the Wizard King said with a laugh, then he swung his golden rod their way and made them both disappear. **Poof Poof!**

"Might as well go next," Kirito said, and he started walking forward with a straight expression on his face. He had no idea what to expect. So far a few of the wishes had actually been carried out without problem, while others were just tricks by the kid in front of him. He decided not to take it too seriously, as he felt he would only get annoyed more by the ending. That took away the most obvious wish that he did not even want to trick himself into considering might be possible: bringing back his dead wife. He thought for a few seconds, and then he nodded his head as he had the perfect idea in mind.

"I wish, I had my wings back," Kirito said.

Timmy looked over at him in surprise, "What happened to the ones I-" He stopped calling it out when he saw the look of pain flash over Kirito's face. "Oh… oh!" Timmy shouted it the second time. The first 'oh' was in realization that they were gone, while the second was him realizing that someone must have ripped them off.

"The same wings that you had before?" The Wizard King asked. Kirito's eyes widened hopefully, and he nodded his head as those were the optimal ones he could imagine. He had gotten so used to them since Timmy and Wanda gave them to him, and he still had not readapted to life without them. He still sat down carefully, keeping his back off of back-rests, and when he went to bed he always lifted up a little if he was gong to roll over onto his other side. Flight was much slower and more taxing when he had to use ki to do it, and a small smile crept up on his face at the idea of getting them back. "Okay then," the Wizard King said, his voice getting lower while he pointed his golden staff forward. "Wings you had before, you shall have again!"

A puff of white smoke surrounded Kirito, and then everyone staring at him lowered their bottom lips and a few gagged. Kirito stood there with his arms outstretched, black dragonfly-looking wings resting over his arms with skin on the base of them where they should have been connected to his back. "You said the _same_ wings," the Wizard King said. "So these are those wings, good as new-" Kirito dropped his wings on the ground and glared at the kid who gotten his hopes up. "Get out," Cartman said when he saw that look, and he slammed the butt of his golden rod down on the ground next to his throne. **Poof!**

"Brat," Kirito said, but he frowned deeper as he was already outside. He held on to a faint hope that somehow the kid had heard him.

"Well I want to go," Goku said, walking forward and then looking up at Juandissimo. "I used to make wishes all the time."

"You did?" Cartman asked.

"You did?" Most of Goku's friends behind him asked at the same time too.

"Yep," Goku said. "We had these things called Dragon Balls. There were seven of them, and if you gathered them together, you could make any wish you wanted! That's how I got brought back to life the first time I died," he said, "and how we brought back Krillin every time he died too."

"How many times has Krillin died?" Ben muttered to himself with a bead of sweat dripping down his face.

"So, can you bring back my wife, ChiChi?" Goku asked. Juandissimo's eyes widened, as did most everyone's in the room, especially Dash's. The kid's heart started racing as he awaited the response from the Wizard King and his fairy. "She's in Heaven right now, but could you bring her back here… no?" Goku asked, a slightly disappointed look on his face.

"Sorry," Juandissimo said to the man in front of him.

"It's okay," Goku said, smiling at the fairy to show him he was not too disheartened by it. "Shenron, our dragon, sometimes had things he couldn't do either. Well in that case, could you make me a Super Saiyan God?" Goku asked.

Cartman's eyes widened, but not for the same reason that the rest of Goku's friends did. "You aren't already one?" Cartman asked in surprise. "I would have thought- actually, nevermind," he said and shook his head around. He hesitated while looking at the friendly man before him who he had seen before, who almost everyone in the world had heard of. Then he thought about how Goku said he wanted to fight him earlier. _Giving this guy even more power is too risky._ "Can't do it," the Wizard King said and shook his head. "It's too much power."

Juandissimo glanced in at his Godchild, but he said nothing and just nodded in agreement. If Cartman was not going to wish for it, then it was not his place to try anything. He was not supposed to tell his Godkid what to wish for and what not to. "Hmm," Goku hummed after he was denied a second time. "Then, how about sending me back to my own world?" Goku asked. This time, all of Goku's friends actually dropped their jaws. "But just for a day or so," Goku elaborated. "I want to see how the Earth is doing without me or the other strongest fighters there."

"Goku, you don't want to go back to your world," a quiet voice said in the center of the room. Everyone looked over towards the center of the room, and even Nami stared down in shock at the boy standing right in front of her. Timmy lifted his gaze and looked Luffy in the eyes, "Trust me, it's better you don't see it."

"Timmy, you," Nami began, and the boy in front of her turned to look up into her eyes.

Timmy spun back though as the Wizard King said, "You too?" Timmy looked into the fatter boy's eyes with wide ones of his own, and Stan walked forward now after hearing what Cartman just said.

"Cartman, you went back?" Stan asked.

"Yeah," the Wizard King replied, not bothering with correcting Stan at this point. While Stan asked and Eric answered, Sora had a confused expression on his face. Something was bugging him and getting more and more upsetting each second he stood there listening to this line of conversation. The Wizard King continued to his old friend, "Trust me Stan, there's no point in going back."

"Why not?" Stan asked.

Timmy turned right and replied to the kid next to him, "Because the worlds fell apart." He looked to Cartman to see if that happened with his too, and the Wizard King nodded at the memory of it. Timmy continued, "It was crazy. I found out that a third of the people in my world disappeared all at once. The biggest problem though, was that it took away the best of society, and the worst," Stan added in a lower voice the final part. "I found out that doctors had vanished all over the place, as well as most of the world's biggest militaries. All the world leaders too, even the mayor of my town was gone. My parents weren't there, and neither were any of my friends. I walked down my street, and it was completely deserted. My school was covered in graffiti, and I checked the news to see war all over the world. Asia had been irradiated, and Antarctica melted because of the nukes."

"You're kidding," Dash whispered as he looked towards Timmy. "That's what happened, to the worlds we left?"

Sora's expression darkened and he lifted his gaze angrily to the ceiling. As he thought angry thoughts at the Gods for their plan, for the way they were messing with people's lives, Sora's jaw dropped as the thing that was bugging him suddenly popped to the front of his mind. "Wait a second," Sora said, spinning to Juandissimo and staring at the tiny creature in shock. "Even the Gods have trouble traveling between universes. The Originals at that," Sora said, shaking his head in shock. "How can you-"

Juandissimo looked shocked at the stuff Sora was saying, and the Wizard King had his eyebrows lifted up as well. Behind and around Sora though, every person there was staring at Sora nervously and in shocked silence. Even Butters, on the left side of the throne Cartman was sitting on, leaned over to the fat boy with a gold crown on his head and asked, "What's he talking about, Eric?"

"Don't worry about it Butters," Cartman retorted, only a little more composed than the others because he had read Sora's mind and been shocked by it already.

"Yes, the magic of Fairy Godparents is mucho, mucho strong!" Juandissimo claimed and flexed, making his shirt rip and reappear again.

"So you really can, jump between worlds?" Sora wondered in amazement.

"And that's just normal poofing magic," Timmy said. "You should see what the most powerful Fairy magic can do." Juandissimo looked Timmy's way and his eyes started growing wide, and then they bugged out as Timmy finished, "This ninja, Madara, probably would have taken over the world on the First Day if it weren't for Cosmo." Timmy looked the other fairy's way when he said that, about to keep explaining what Cosmo did, but Juandissimo was sure of it now after hearing that.

"The First Day, that was Cosmo?" Juandissimo asked, his whole body shaking. He flexed so hard that his shirt ripped _and_ it didn't reappear around his torso this time. "You don't understand how powerful that is, Timmy Turner!" Juandissimo exclaimed at the boy.

"I do," Timmy started.

"No, you really don't," Juandissimo said, shaking his head. When he stopped shaking it, the look of anger was off of his face, instead replaced by fear. Timmy leaned back at that look, and Juandissimo floated back a few feet subconsciously while saying, "Your friend just told you how hard it should be just to travel to different worlds, that even most of the Gods cannot do so, but us Fairies can do that easily. So if we can do that with simple poofing magic, can you imagine the power of a Fairy's Sacrifice which I have never once witnessed myself?" Timmy slowly shook his head at the Fairy, thinking about how strong that magic must really have been then. Juandissimo continued, "Our kind is unlike other fairies. Fairy World was in its own separate dimension in a different part of the cosmos as your world. The version you entered was in your own dimension, but Fairy World existed on several planes at the same point, which is why you were still able to use the bridge to get back to your own world."

Timmy nodded along, even though he was finding this hard to follow. It was tougher considering Juandissimo had a thick Spanish accent and kept flexing his muscles in a distracting way. "This is because Fairy Godparents were not limited to your world. There were always limited Fairies, but we try to go to children in need in every universe. Your universe was not even the worst, not close to it, so there were universes with many more Fairies in them than your own."

"Hold on," Nami started and waved her hands in front of her. Her childhood flashed in her mind, and in an angry tone she snapped, "How can you say that? I can think of more than a few kids who could have used your help!"

Juandissimo sighed at the woman and then flexed in her direction and spoke while ripping through a fresh shirt, "Fairies are not invincible. In fact, most have fragile bodies, unlike my own!" He flexed again to show what he was saying to be true. Then he continued, "Because there are limited Fairies, there is too much of a risk to the balance of the cosmos if Fairies were to go to worlds where they would constantly be risking their lives fighting evil. That is why Da Rules bans us from going to worlds beyond a certain Danger Level."

"That's not fair," Nami started. "Aren't you supposed to help the kids in the most need?"

"It is fair, and it was a good rule," Juandissimo snapped at the woman, leaning forward with an angry look appearing on his face. "This world has a Danger Level high above anything Da Rules would have accepted, and look at the Fairies now! We are wiped out! Our entire race!" Juandissimo put an arm against his forehead and dramatically turned away. "I have not seen another Fairy on this world in years! All communication with my superiors was cut off-"

"That's what I came here to tell you!" Timmy yelled. Juandissimo turned back to Turner in some confusion, and Timmy continued in an annoyed voice, "But before I could start, you asked me about Wanda- and then you freaked out on me!"

"Your Fairies being gone only confirmed my suspicions that I was all that remained," Juandissimo said, frowning at the boy who just snapped at him.

 _ **"You're wrong,"**_ Timmy said telepathically. Juandissimo looked at the kid oddly, and Timmy continued, _**"I have to pass this on in my mind, because I promised Rocket not to tell anyone the location other than other Fairies."**_

 _ **"Rocket? I know him!"**_ Juandissimo thought with a shocked look on his face, and tears appearing in his eyes. _**"So Fairy World really is here? Why have I not heard anything from them? The Fairies in charge have not communicated with me in-"**_

 _ **"They're all dead,"**_ Timmy thought at the Fairy. Everyone else in the room was staring at the two of them oddly as they stopped talking to instead speak telepathically. It was a little awkward since none of them wanted to interrupt the conversation they figured was going on. Timmy explained the day he found Fairy World to Juandissimo, and ended with, _**"…There are only a few who remain. I'm sorry."**_

Timmy finished explaining, and Juandissimo's look darkened as he glared at Timmy, _**"If Cosmo had not used that forbidden magic, Fairy World would have had the power to protect itself."**_ Timmy bowed his head, as he had had that same thought a thousand times before. _**"But-"**_ Timmy's head flinched and he lifted his gaze up a little more, _**"You did save a few Fairies. And you told me where Fairy World is, told me that I'm not alone, even though I let my Godchild do what he wanted with you…"**_

 _ **"Then, let's call it even?"**_ Timmy wondered at him. The Fairy's eyes opened wide at the offer, and Sora thought to him, _**"Please?"**_ Juandissimo could see that as guilty as he felt about letting Cartman mess with Timmy how he liked over the past month, Timmy felt a thousand times as guilty about what happened to Fairy World.

 _ **"Sure thing, Timmy Turner,"**_ Juandissimo said and nodded at the kid.

 _ **"You two done?"**_ Cartman asked in the mental connection, making the other two realize that he had been listening in silently for a while. Juandissimo frowned at his own Godson, but Cartman shrugged like his Fairy Godfather should have expected it from him, which Juandissimo sighed realizing he totally should have. "Alright," Cartman said, turning away from the two who also seemed to finish their conversation at the same time. The others wondered if Cartman had taken part in it, but neither of the others had looked at him until the very end before he spoke aloud.

"Who's next? This is taking too long," Cartman waved his hand like he wanted it to go a little faster.

"Um, I still haven't gotten a wish," Goku said.

"You going to make one that I can actually do this time?" Cartman asked. "Or do you really want to go back? If I send you there though, I'm not making another wish to bring you back here."

"Oh, that's disappointing," Goku said with a sigh. The next thing any of them knew, Goku disappeared in a puff of smoke. **Poof!**

"In that case you get nothing, next person," Cartman said, sounding impatient at the lack of respect he was receiving.

As Usopp and Franky nodded at each other and started walking forward, Nami looked down at Timmy and began, "When did you go back to your own world?"

"Soon after, New Tokyo," Timmy whispered in response. "I had, had enough of Nexus," he continued softly. "After Fairy World, and Konoha, and then that terrible day…" he trailed off and shook his head sadly. "But Wanda's magic depleted fast on my world. She was too far away from Fairy World to receive the magic. The boundaries of Nexus blocked her from getting any more, so if we had stayed there for any longer than a few hours, Wanda said she would not have enough magic to wish us back to Nexus."

"And was the world really, that bad?" Nami whispered. "I always wondered, what happened to my home."

"Don't worry," Timmy said and shook his head at her. "You told me all about your village, and I think it would be okay even if a bunch of people suddenly disappeared from it, right?" Nami slowly nodded at him, and Timmy continued, "On your world covered in islands separated by ocean, I bet all those islands are just a lot more isolated from each other now. Considering all the Marines we've seen on Nexus, I doubt the Government's still functioning back there to tie everything together."

"That might even be a good thing," Nami admitted to the kid who smiled at that optimistic outlook on it. He turned back to the front of the room, and once his face was aimed away from Nami, he allowed the guilty look to appear on his face. Timmy and Nami looked over at the Wizard King who awaited his next requests.

"If we wish together, does that give us more of a chance that you actually make the wish happen?" Usopp asked as he and Franky stopped in front of the fat kid's throne.

"Of course," the Wizard King said, using a congratulatory tone like they were smart for figuring that out, even if he did just decide it on the spot. Everyone was paying too much attention to his Fairy that he needed to remind them who was the real impressive one in the room right now. "Wish it and it shall be yours, pirates!" He bellowed in his booming voice.

Franky grinned a big smile and Usopp called out, "Yosh! You see, we were working on this awesome invention when our truck got attacked north of here. We'd come up with the idea for it a while ago, and we finally had the right materials to put it together!"

"Then Natsu destroyed the Flood that attacked us, and he blew up the entire ship with his attack, including everything inside it," Franky said in an annoyed tone.

"So, would you mind bringing it back for us?" Usopp asked. "Oh Wizard King the great and powerful?" Usopp added on top with hopes that the kid would find his request humble enough.

"Very well," the kid called out in his booming voice. "That which was destroyed shall be returned to you!"

Juandissimo waved his wand behind his back, a perfect smile forming on his face again. Usopp and Franky celebrated and looked around, then they groaned as they realized they were being messed with too and that their wish did not come true. "What is it?" Usopp asked, awaiting to hear the twist from the Wizard King.

Cartman grinned and pointed his golden rod forward at Usopp. "You asked to bring ' _it_ ' back, and you," he snapped the rod to point at Franky, "said that Natsu destroyed your ship." Cartman slammed the butt of his golden rod on the ground while the others looked at him in rising shock, "So, your ship is restored and parked in front of my castle next to the entrance path. Enjoy."

"Thank you so much oh powerful Wiz-" **Poof!** Usopp's praise cut off and Cartman let out a long sigh. _It is nice to lull them into a false sense of security with the occasional act of benevolence._

"Did you really, bring back the truck?" Stan asked Cartman in surprise, wondering what caused the sudden change in heart.

"There was no 'change in heart,'" Cartman said with a shake of his head at his old friend. "You don't seem to get it Stan." Cartman leaned forward and said with a smirk on his face, "Our world is in chaos, and this new one is even crazier! You're a Sith Lord, Butters can control lightning when I let him, and I'm the God damn most powerful thing on the planet! You shouldn't treat this like the old world anymore, Stan. The game has changed! So when I tell you to respect my fucking authoritah!" The Wizard King's eyes narrowed, and he finished, "Then you better fucking respect it. If you don't, I might just stick you in a series of deadly traps. It's all I want, Stan. It's all I demand," he corrected in the end with a more menacing look.

Stan eased backwards, and then after a few seconds, he nodded his head. _You got, exactly what you always wanted,_ Stan thought. Cartman read his mind, but when Stan thought it he expected a smug smirk to appear on Cartman's face. Instead, a sad one came to it for a second before he shifted his gaze to someone else who was walking towards him. As Cartman called out in a booming voice asking what the pirate captain walking towards him wanted, Stan thought, _That's right. Fairy Godparents only come to kids that are miserable. That's what they said, at least. What made them decide to give one to you?_

Luffy stood in front of the Wizard King after the kid shouted at him asking what he wanted. "I want to punch you, really hard in the face," Luffy said, but he furrowed his brow as he had thought this over and did not think it would hurt the kid at all. "But, I wish that you let Timmy do it," Luffy said before Cartman could respond.

"Yeah, not gonna happen," Cartman said. Luffy started spinning back to the kid after turning to smile at Timmy, and then he vanished when he was only half-spun back. **Poof!** "Another waste of a great opportunity," Cartman said while looking back to see if anyone else would waste their wish like that.

"Hey, that wasn't very fair," Sora remarked.

"And didn't you already get your wish?" Cartman asked with a tilt of his head to the side like he was having trouble remembering. "Oh yeah," he said, and then he swung his golden rod Sora's way and made the sighing teen disappear in a puff of smoke. **Poof!** "Not many of you left," Cartman said while glancing around. There was a single pirate, a single Fairy Tail mage, one Keybearer, a half-demon and his cat, and four boys around Cartman's age.

Timmy had also already had his wish, and Nami thought about it for a second but decided it did not mean anything since Cartman had forgotten about Sora too. Timmy thought about that when the Wizard King sent Sora away too though, _Cartman still wants to talk to me. What did he mean by "too?"_ He thought about the way Cartman telepathically told him to hold back after everyone was gone, and he started to wonder who else in the room the Wizard King might have said that too.

"I guess I'll go," Rin said, deciding he had hesitated long enough. He took a deep breath as he walked forward with Kuro at his side, and he asked straight out, "Could you bring my brother here?" He was not too optimistic about this after what happened when Sora requested the same thing for Kairi. "His name is Yukio Okumura. He's my twin, younger brother," Rin specified, hoping it would help.

"Where is he?" Cartman asked, wondering if maybe that was the reason he failed at helping Sora earlier.

Rin hesitated, and Ben, Kuro, Juvia, and Dash all looked at him with pity. The teen replied after a moment's pause, "Hell."

Timmy, Riku, and Nami spun to Rin in surprise, and Stan stared at the teen confusedly. _Why would he think his own brother went to Hell?_ Stan thought.

"You already know I can't bring back the dead," Cartman began.

"He's not dead," Rin countered. Cartman stared at him with lifted eyebrows, and Riku spotted Ben and Dash on Rin's other side as him looking down with scared looks at what Rin just said. They were each thinking on what Astaroth told them back in their fight against the monster, the tortures he had prepared for them when they arrived there. "Satan took him," Rin said, "and I want my brother back." He said it while staring into Cartman's eyes, but for once, the group in front of Cartman saw fear form on his face.

Cartman had opened his mouth to ask Rin what Satan would possibly want with his brother, but he froze when he read the teen's mind. What Rin was thinking about at this moment was how he had just censored what he was going to say because not everyone behind him knew who he really was. In fact, only Kuro and Juvia knew out of everyone who remained. _There's no way,_ Cartman thought. _Even if I could do it, I'm not, stealing one of_ _ **Satan's**_ _sons away from him. I'm not crazy!_ "Can't do it," Cartman said with a shake of his head. "Moving things between Heaven and Hell, it's too much magic," he explained while coming up with that on the spot.

"Oh, okay then," Rin said, and he started thinking of something else. He tried not to sound too disappointed after what happened to Goku when his wishes were not possible. Even if he could not get Yukio back, he did not want to just give up like that. "Um, I guess, could I have a million- ten million dollars?" Rin asked.

The switch between such a heartfelt serious wish and the one he just made had half of his friends sweatdropping behind him. Riku nodded his head though, thinking, _Solid wish._ He had yet to come up with what he wanted, still annoyed that Kairi would not be retrieved that easily.

The Wizard King's voice dropped into its low pitch, and he called out, "The greedy are never rewarded." Rin cursed at himself for cutting back and adding another nine million on top. _I should have stuck with a million! That still would have been awesome!_ "But in rare instances, they do get consolation prizes," the Wizard King continued. He pointed his golden rod at Rin and a single one-hundred-dollar bill appeared in the air in front of Rin's face.

The half-demon shrugged. _Guess I'll take it._ He reached forward, **Poof!** The hundred dollars floated down to the ground and landed where Rin's feet just disappeared. "This, is not one of those rare instances," Cartman said, and as much as the people in front of him were annoyed at him, some of them could not help but crack grins at what Cartman just did. Stan quickly wiped the grin from his face, annoyed at himself for still finding Cartman funny. He always knew Cartman was an asshole though, and yet his entire life he hung around the fat kid and never really knew why. He stopped thinking about it fast as that train of thought annoyed him more than just rolling with it and laughing.

Kuro stared at the spot Rin disappeared, then it turned to Cartman and asked in a high-pitched voice, "Could I have just one fish?"

"Sure," Cartman told the cat. It seemed like Kuro wanted to follow after Rin fast so it just came up with a quick wish, but Cartman smiled as he made the wish in his head. _**"I wish he had the fish, but make it the tastiest fish he could ever have."**_ A fish appeared in the air falling in front of Kuro, and the cat made sure to catch it in its mouth quickly. Kuro's eyes instantly popped open wide, and then tears started coming out of them at how delicious the fish was. "Your wish has been granted," Cartman said in his booming voice, then, **Poof!**

"Who's left?" Cartman asked. He looked up at Dash and read his mind, then he actually winced and leaned backwards at the sight of Meruem devouring a tiny kid's brains. He almost told him telepathically that it would not work, but he decided against letting the kid know that he had just seen that. "How about you, Stan? What do you want?"

"Power," Stan replied without hesitation.

"Uh," Cartman let out without thinking. He was not expecting that. He thought maybe Stan would want a better lightsaber, or something else that Cartman could turn into a trick. "What do you mean? What kind of power?"

"The power to kill a shinigami," Stan said, taking a step forward while the others around Stan all stared at him in confused silence. "A powerful one," Stan specified.

 _Who_ _ **is**_ _this guy?_ Ben thought as he stared at the kid he had started making friends with back on the ship on their trip down south. Right before they were attacked by Xenomorphs and Predators, he and Stan were talking about their similar homeworlds. Ben was glad to meet someone else from America for the first time in a while. Without Timmy or Dash with him at the time, the closest he had was Rin and Kirito, but they were from Japan which still felt pretty far away to the American kid. _He's a Sith Lord, he's trying to kill a powerful shinigami, is he really from a world like mine?_

"Hey," Nami began hesitantly. "You wouldn't happen to be talking about, Roronoa Zoro, would you?" She asked in a nervous tone.

Juvia spun to Nami and then back to Stan in surprise. Timmy looked confusedly up at Nami, and she muttered when she saw his look, "I'll tell you later."

"No, it's not," Stan said without even glancing at her. "So, can you do it?" Stan asked. "We're friends, aren't we, Cartman? I'm asking you this as your friend, give me the power I need to kill my enemy."

"No," Cartman said. Stan's eyes darkened, and Cartman just shook his head at him, "The power you'd need to get that strong, it's more than I'm willing to give you for an indefinite amount of time. If it was something simple you needed it for then maybe, but this is, it's crazy, Stan. You can't take on a shinigami, let alone one of the stronger ones."

"That's not for you to decide," Stan said in a dark tone. "Alright fatass, send me away, I'm _disappointed_ by the results. I'll be sure to tell everyone about how the Wizard King doesn't grant any requests!"

"Don't be an asshole Stan, there's gotta be something else you want. Something else you care about?" Cartman asked.

"There's nothing," Stan growled. "Killing him, is all that matters to me," Stan said, his eyes so full of fury as the words spat from his mouth.

"Well, in that case," Cartman said. He glanced up at Juandissimo and thought a wish to him. "I don't know if it'll help, but I wished your lightsaber to be much stronger than normal ones. It could probably cut through a Zanpakuto even, though if the shinigami's strong enough, you won't be able to cut through. It'll definitely cut through the guy's body though." Stan's eyes widened, and Cartman snorted, "Didn't even consider that getting the drop on him still might not have worked, huh? Good thing you came to the Wizard King then, isn't it?" Cartman asked in a threatening tone, lifting his golden rod as if saying he could take back his lightsaber's upgrade with a simple movement.

"You're right," Stan said, nodding at the kid in front of him. He relaxed a little, and he looked down at his right hand where he made his lightsaber slide into. The hilt itself looked different now, more unique and interesting with the patterns wrapping around it. Stan extended the blade, and he felt a little recoil in his hand that he reminded himself to account for the next time. He weaved the blade of light in front of his body, watching it move while its red light cast over his face making Cartman get a little nervous at the red-tinted smirk on Stan's face. Stan started moving the blade faster, and then he started spinning it around in fancy movements, before slamming down into the floor at his feet. Stan cut through the floor, and he grinned at how easily it cut through.

"Hey!" Cartman snapped.

"Sorry," Stan said, pulling the lightsaber out of the ground fast and then retracting it and putting it away. "Just wanted to check the sharpness, and I figured the floors of this place are made as strong as those walls in the entrance hall."

"Oh yeah, that lightsaber could cut through those doors with ease," Cartman said, and Stan smirked more as he remembered how Luffy's attacks did nothing to dent the doors or walls downstairs, and neither did the powerful jet of water in that first room. The Wizard King waved his hand and his floor sealed up, as he decided not to make a big deal out of it. "Now what do you say when people are talking about the Wizard King?" Cartman asked.

"That he grants favors, as long as you pass his tests," Stan replied with a nod at his old friend. Their relationship had changed. Stan realized that he had been treating Cartman too much like they were on their old world. As soon as he heard Cartman's shout back at the Resistance base, he had been reminded that he was not the only person from his world who came here. It reminded him of a world long gone, but the way Cartman treated this world reminded Stan a lot more of the world he had been living on. It reminded him of his real mission, and he was glad Cartman helped him with that. "Thanks," Stan finally said, after considering it for a few seconds.

"Hmph," Cartman turned from him to the next person without first making Stan disappear. He looked at Ben, then passed right over him to Dash, "You come up with your wish yet?"

Dash shook his head back at Cartman, not knowing what to ask if bringing his brother back to life was impossible. "Well I have," another voice said, and the group turned to see Riku walking forward with a small grin.

"Ooh?" Nami said, raising her eyebrows at him. "And what would that be?" She asked, and Riku turned and smirked at her before turning back to Cartman. She was about to find out anyway, and Nami just chuckled as she got ready to hear the wish that seemed like it would be a good one from Riku's quick glance at her. Timmy watched Nami's face wondering what she was smiling about, then he turned to Riku to see what his wish would be too.

"Um, yeah, you don't get a wish," Cartman said, shaking his head with a laugh like that should have been obvious. Riku froze with his mouth open, and Cartman continued while tilting his head and letting out a laugh of disbelief. "You, who disrespected me so much downstairs. Trying to get under my skin, trying to trap me in your head, teleporting in and out of my traps and breaking my rules." Cartman lifted off a few of the grievances, then he pointed his rod forward so the red jewel at the top was aimed right at him. "Bye bye," he said. **Poof!**

"Why didn't you tell him that earlier?" Ben asked after Riku had vanished.

"Because I wanted him to see what he was missing first," Cartman replied before laughing. "Oh come on, he spent that whole time thinking up a great wish, and it really was a great one. You can't tell me that's not funny!"

No one in front of Cartman was laughing, but this time he did not really care. "Alright, how about you two?" Cartman asked, looking over at the girls standing side by side.

Nami turned to see Juvia standing behind her to one side, and Nami turned back to the Wizard King with a serious look in her eyes. She hesitated after taking a step, then she asked in a humble voice, "Could you possibly make it so the boys can't hear my wish?" Nami cupped a hand to her mouth and whispered, "Girl stuff."

The younger boys all made grossed-out noises and looked away like they did not want to hear anything about that anyway. Cartman had been reading their minds though, and he nodded and thought a wish to Juandissimo to block sound from behind an invisible wall that appeared right where Nami and Juvia just stepped through on their way towards him. Nami was walking ahead of the girl behind her whose expression was dark and was still staring at the floor in an upset way thinking about the way in which everything was happening today. "Can they hear us?" Nami asked, and she turned her head sideways only to see the boys behind them talking without their voices reaching her. "Guess not," she said, and the boys looked at her in surprise this time as they saw her mouth move but did not hear anything. Timmy took a step forward, but Nami held a hand up for him to stop, and the kid nodded at her as he figured this was what she wanted anyway.

"Are you ready?" The Wizard King asked in a booming voice.

"Yes," Nami said, though she had to clench her teeth hard after saying it in as respectful a tone she could manage.

Nami took a deep breath, then she steadied her gaze and said, "Juvia died recently." The girl behind Nami lifted her head and stared at Nami's back in slight confusion. "When she was brought back, she had something inside her that's making her need to kill people. Can you free her from that?"

Juvia's lips started trembling, then she spun from Nami and asked, "Could you make that a double wish? Like Usopp and Franky's?" They saw how Cartman went above and beyond to help the two who had asked him together, and Juvia felt hope flooding through her.

"Think you could do that?" Cartman asked his Fairy Godfather. Juvia looked away from the kid to the muscular Fairy with so much hope in her eyes, her hands clenching together in front of her chest while her lips quivered.

Juandissimo hummed as he looked the young woman up and down. He flexed his arms and his shirt ripped off, but he waved a muscular arm up and put it against his forehead with a regretful look on his face. "It would be too much magic! Healing such an ailment, is more difficult than bringing someone back from the brink of death!"

Nami's eyes widened as she thought about how Wanda looked after saving Timmy's life back on the first day. She remembered how Wanda had lost all the color to her body, how her hair turned gray and her wand dimmed. She glanced to her side and watched as all the hope in Juvia's eyes vanished. She bowed her head and a look darker than any formed on her face. Receiving that hope only to have it dashed so quickly, it caused an instant depression to set in. That depression quickly turned to anger thanks to the ailment Juandissimo was refusing to help with, and Cartman watched with amused eyes as the girl's expression flipped through every emotional color of the rainbow in a few seconds.

Nami smacked her hands down on Juvia's shoulders and made the younger girl with a snarl on her face snap her head up. Nami had a serious look in her eyes, but she spoke in a soft tone to try and calm her friend down, "Cheer up. Think about it for a second. This is the first day." Nami smiled at the girl who looked back so angrily at her, and Nami continued, "Could you imagine it? If on the same day Robin and I promised to help you, we actually got it done? That would have been crazy, and yet we still came close! In a single day, not even, we came closer than anything you've found since coming back, right?"

Juvia's furious look started to calm down a bit. Her back was to the boys in their group watching them, and Nami was leaning down in front of Juvia's face so hers was hard to see too except from the sides. None of them really knew what they were talking about, but Ben and Dash had a few guesses.

Nami continued to the girl in front of her whose face was lightening up, hope returning to it at what Nami was saying. "If on the first day we managed to get this close, then it's only a matter of time before we find a real wizard who can help us." Juvia nodded a few times back at Nami, and then the blue-haired mage's eyes opened wide and focused on something behind her friend. Nami spun around, and she stumbled backwards at the sight of the Wizard King floating in front of his chair, only a few feet behind her back, an enraged expression on his face.

"Cartman!" Stan ran through the invisible barrier and his voice was heard by the others in there. Timmy raced forward and got in front of Nami before the fat kid could get any closer, but Cartman was done flying forward anyway. He had his golden rod clenched tightly in his right hand, and both Butters and Juandissimo were looking at his back with nervous looks that unnerved the group in front of Cartman even more.

"I decided to let you have a wish, even though _you_ were such a bitch!" Cartman shouted. "Disrespecting me in my own home. Demanding things from me without offering anything in exchange. I let those things slide through my unending mercy. Yet you! You have the audacity, to call me a fake wizard?!"

Ben and Dash gawked while spinning to Nami. _Why would you do that?!_ They both thought at the woman.

"I-I, I didn't mean it like- I just meant a real wizard could- wait!" Nami exclaimed as in her panicked explanation she accidentally said the same thing again.

"Stay back Wizard King," Timmy growled, a powerful aura surrounding his body as Cartman's face twisted even angrier.

Cartman bared his teeth, but then he smirked and said, "Oh, she _will_ pay." **Poof!** Nami vanished.

Timmy shot forward to grab Cartman by the front of his cloak. "What did you do with her?!" Timmy shouted.

"I sent her outside, with the others," Cartman said. Timmy opened his eyes wide in surprise, then he leaned back while letting go of Cartman's cloak at the look the kid gave him.

"Nami-" Juvia started, only to vanish in a puff of smoke too. **Poof!**

"I'm done with my generosity," the Wizard King said. He turned to Dash next and froze before swinging his rod in the blond kid's direction. "Ever come up with a wish?" He asked. Dash hesitated and opened his mouth, then he just shook his head slowly with a sad look on his face. "Alright, then that sucks, but nothing for you either." Cartman lifted his rod, then he paused before swinging it down. "Might as well tell you now. These three won't be joining you for a while." Dash looked up in confusion, and the other three boys still in there with him looked in at the fat boy in confusion. "I have things I need to further discuss with them. Tell your friends, and go find something to do for a few hours." Dash's mouth opened on his confused face, and that was the last thing the others saw before he vanished as well. **Poof!**

"What do you still need with us?" Timmy asked the kid in front of him.

"Eh, different things for each of you," Cartman lowered to the floor, and he dropped his golden rod before lifting that hand back up expectantly. Juandissimo disappeared in a puff of smoke and reappeared as a purple staff that Cartman grabbed by the middle just below the staff's mouth and eyes. "We're gonna have a feast and talk. Let's go Butters," Cartman added, and the kid still back by the throne ran over to Cartman's side. He tapped the butt of the purple staff down on the ground below him, and the five boys disappeared.

Outside of the castle, Nami walked down the front steps with Juvia towards the giant ship parked off the side of the long marble path in front of them. Riku stood below the truck next to the rope ladder that was already tossed down so Nami did not have to worry about how to get up there. The girls stopped their conversation, as Juvia was asking about how they were going to find a wizard strong enough to heal her if even a Fairy could not do it, but Nami said before they got too close to Riku. "Don't worry. It'll work out, I promise." Juvia smiled softly, then Nami called out in an annoyed voice to the man they were walking towards, "No wishes for us either."

"Me neither," a voice said between the girls who spun in and saw a small kid with blond hair suddenly standing between them. The wind rushed into them a second later from Dash sprinting their way and stopping short. "He also told me to tell everyone that he's keeping Timmy, Ben, and Stan for a little longer. He didn't tell me why before poofing me away."

Riku looked over Dash's head back to the castle they just left. He frowned deeply and took a step forward, but Nami spun back to him and held up her hands. "Relax, relax, I don't think he's going to try anything."

"Yeah," Dash said in a quiet voice. "I agree. He sounded like he needed to talk to them, but he said they'd be out in a couple of hours."

Riku rubbed his forehead and thought about what he should do. Nami took another step so she was right in front of him, and Riku looked down to see a reassuring look on her face, "I really pissed him off, and he just sent me out here. Same with you," she added with a laugh. "So I think he'll be okay." She said, referring to Ben who she figured Riku was the most worried about. Riku sighed but nodded at her with a small smile to show he agreed. Nami glanced over her shoulder back at the castle, _And I know Timmy won't get caught again, not after that scolding…_ Nami sniffed and turned away from the castle to walk to the ladder, and Dash and Juvia followed after her while pretending like they did not see that sad look on her face a second ago. _I can't be nice to him all the time. He needed some tough love too, but that might have been too harsh,_ Nami's expression softened. _I'll make it up to him,_ she thought as she finally climbed up into the truck's open door.

As soon as she got through the door, she smelled something delicious coming from up the stairs next to her. Sanji's voice called out over the intercom, "Food's almost ready! Can't believe that kid put the kitchen exactly the way it was when the ship blew up. All the food too," Sanji's voice cut off the intercom as he was mainly talking to himself at that point while looking around his kitchen in amazement.

Nami smiled and started walking down the hall after hearing Sanji's announcement. As she walked though, she got a nervous look on her face, because Nico Robin stood outside their bedroom door with an anxious expression on her own face. Robin spotted Nami walking her way and the archaeologist turned before wincing and glancing back in their room apologetically. "Huh? Hey Robin, what's with that look?" Nami asked, her voice cracking as she sped up. Juvia has just climbed into the truck too, and she started running over as it seemed like there was something wrong with their room.

Nami reached the door first and ran inside, and Juvia reached next and looked through the entrance to see that everything looked fine. She could see her bed from the entrance and saw her bag at the foot of it and some clothes hanging up on hangers in her open closet door. "AHH!" Nami yelled in fury, and Juvia ran through the door and spun towards Nami. The orange-haired woman was standing there with a horrified look on her face. Her part of the room was empty: no bed, no bags, no clothes, no jewels or gold or money. "I don't- I don't get-" _"Oh, she_ _ **will**_ _pay." He couldn't mean…_ "No no no," Nami whispered, falling to her knees and letting out a hoarse sob. "All my, everything," she whispered.

"Nami?" Juvia asked from behind her.

Robin just walked over to her side and put a comforting hand down on Nami's shoulder. "I'll let you borrow some clothes," she offered.

"And Nami can share my bed tonight," Juvia added, making Nami turn back with a quivering lip but a grateful look on her face.

Nami calmed herself down and then turned back to her empty part of the room. Her initial depression over all the loss started to transfer to something else. Nami could imagine the short fat kid laughing at her right now, and she snarled, "Fucking brat."

* * *

 **A/N Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! I almost changed the title 'cause I thought it would spoil the chapter, but then I thought maybe people might think I was just talking about Timmy, plus I thought gave some hope for getting Kairi back too... even if that hope was false XD. Anyway, Cartman grants a few wishes like returning the ship to normal, giving Timmy his hat back, a stuffed dog, etc. Goku, Dash, Sora, and Timmy all rejoin the group, though Cartman has a few things he needs to talk about with Timmy, Ben, and Stan before he says he can let them leave. This chapter's winding down, only two parts left actually, and the final one isn't even really in the same arc. The Wizard King's flashbacks will come next chapter along with some other stuff. I hope everyone liked the parts in this chapter about Nexus' lore and some new information on Fairies. I tried to make sure each character in the part got their own moments, even though there are a lot of them which is probably why the chapter wound up being so long. Now that the whole group is pretty much back together though, what will their next moves be? What does Cartman want to talk about with the other boys? Find out next time on Nexus Heroes Will Rise Chapter 13-7 The Wizard King!**

Limit-Breaking chapter 93 . Apr 9

I never thought i would see the day where ben would be acting like the grown up and telling natsu and luffy to stop messing around. Also you would think luffy may realize that he no longer lives in a world where oda is in control of him and that he can actually die because nexus is way different than his own world.  
I still can't take cartman or the story chapters to seriously though, it feels kinda weird to be honest and doesn't really feel like a true and serious chapter since it's cartman and he is a joke character. Which just makes it harder and more weird to feel any sort of dread, I say this because he has always been that charcter where you can never really take seriously.  
Yes he has have people killed before, but it's from south park, so it feels pretty weird to read this if im being honest. Im not saying your writing is bad it's just i can't really take the scenes seriously cause it's cartman.  
As for meruem i found it kind of awkward to be honest, it was enjoyable seeing how strong he is but at the same time he was going up against cartman and that kinda made it feel unreal and ridiculous. Again im not saying your doing a bad job or anything like that if anything your writing is still on point, it's mainly me not being able to take this chapter and feel the same thing i felt in the previous chapters of this story. For example Gray and the group had split up and juvia was killed and they fought the league of assassin's that felt sad and really good to read.  
It felt more serious, as well as the dread of them dying became fully possible and than it leads up to some crazy stuff that i was not expecting.  
On the bright side i am glad to see meruem saiyan side coming out now, that will definetly make him a more interesting charcter in my opinion, since i always felt meruem in this story more as a heartless computer who always had no emotion, except for anger. But now we see him changing and having more emotions, him smiling more and wanting the urge to fight and test himself at least feels like he is developing like a charcter should.  
Besides that i thought you were already in tokyo taking your classes or are you already there and are able to post more chapters from there. Besides that i hope to see another chapter soon, so we may get out of this part of the story, so that the group can finally start doing what they came to do and that's fight the ant king and help the resistance more.  
Until next

 **Right when Ben was starting to act like a kid again too, he snaps back to his more mature/dark self. Admittedly, you're totally right with the Cartman thing. I made the stakes seem high in this chapter at first, but even this time we saw that Cartman was never really going to kill them, or maybe Juandissimo was never going to _let_ him kill them. It's been nonstop serious chapters for so long with character deaths and betrayals and huge overhauls in the world structure, I figured it was about time to show that not everything's going to be that intense all the time. (Though when I thought back on it, I realized I hadn't had a calmer chapter like this one in all of Nexus from the very beginning, so I guess it would seem a little unusual). Cartman is tough to take seriously, because he really wasn't taking this very seriously either. He wasn't even all that mad at them, considering he went and offered them wishes at the end (even if it was just to mess with most of them). Meruem devouring a Saiyan mind was something Pitou was worried about, and Meruem was shown to know that what he did will have consequences, but we'll see if he's able to control his new Saiyan urges in the future... I am in Tokyo already and taking classes, but they're not as hard and time-consuming as I thought they would be so I've still had some time to write. And since I have wifi in my room, I can post from here XD. As for the DBS villain you mentioned in the second review, it will really come down to after I watch the movie. I've got no idea what the villain is right now, but there's a chance it could appear in Nexus. Then again, with the strength Goku is right now, that movie villain is going to be so strong it'd be impossible to just add as another side villain. We'll see. Thanks for reviewing!**

joebob323 chapter 93 . Apr 10

I think my favorite part was the MAHOGANY! Was that real as an explanation or just some B.S.? It would be cool if it were real, cause that means DBZ Abridged Mr. Popo has the possibility making a cameo, we haven't seen him yet. Anyways, can't wait for the flashback!

 **XD Glad you liked that! I had had it in my notes for so long to add that into the story, probably since watching the after credits of that TFS episode. TFS is totally, kind of, canon. I have had the DBZ characters say Crapbaskets before, and I think the people around them might have actually started saying it after hearing them, (though I don't remember the last time I had anyone say it). Mr. Popo would def be awesome, especially since Super pretty much confirmed the TFS version of him with one of my favorite scenes in the show. No flashback for Cartman/Juandissimo/(maybe Butters?) this chapter, but we do get some more info on them, and the flashback will come in the next one! Thanks for the review!**

asdf chapter 93 . Apr 11

Well at least Cartman didn't die. He needs to stay alive so he can piss off more people.  
I almost forgot Rick is in this world somewhere probably cooking up plans and shit. And Meruem thought he was a God with prep time.  
Hyping up Zodd huh? Is he gonna be like Sun Dipped or something?  
Meruem seems to have the power of 2 Super Saiyan Gods from himself and Bardock. Which means that if they did fight Hit should be able to take him without much difficulty only because Mereum is SSG level and SSB level. It's not like they're gonna fight soon anyway, Turles would have to pay Hit a heft sum of money for that assassination.  
Argh man I like Meruem! But he's so evil! You better give us a chapter with Komugi to make up for this!  
Chuck Norris is not just a mere God. Hell each of the originals were probably formed from his chest hairs.

Man I wanna see Gohan again because we all know that he has the potential to far surpass Goku and Vegeta, hell his Mystic Form (without God Ki) was enough to match SSB level characters.  
Jiren is probably somewhere meditating, he doesn't feel the need to involve himself in the squabbling of those weaker than him. Fucking arrogant prick.  
I noticed this before but I forgot to mention it, is the Satan from Blue Exorcist an Original? He seems to be the only one who wants to intefere with the happenings in Nexus.  
Another thing I just realised is that Toppo is a God of Destruction candidate but does that mean he's in the realm of Gods and not allowed to interfere on Nexus?  
I wonder where Mihawk is or if he's ready for Shinigami Zoro.

 **Cartman- the most OP little asshole on Nexus XD Rick, Jiren, Zodd, Komugi, lots of characters I can still do a lot with. We've only heard of Komugi a couple of times in this story, but she was confirmed back earlier this chapter so we'll see when she shows up... Gohan's been out of the story for a while, but we'll see if he makes a comeback in this upcoming Second Third of the Aebrith Saga, because admittedly some other characters who have been gone for quite a while... eh, no spoilers ;). As for Satan being an Original, Meruem did call him that after Satan failed to take him over, and the Originals did claim that one of their kind did not stay in that Heaven realm with the rest of them... Toppo, Mihawk, other characters with the possibilities of appearing soon, but I won't confirm (or deny) anything. Thanks for the reviews, and hope you enjoyed the chapter!**

kg833998 chapter 93 . Apr 13

good chapter as usual hey if Brook was still alive do you think his power would have worked on the reanimations in Metropolis the brook from one piece WHO YOU KILLED also I've notice we haven't seen a few characters from Hunter Hunter bisky hisoka ilumi I wonder we're they are oh and I'm pretty sure hisoka is gonna be out for blood for ant king blood

oh and also WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM WITH SOUL EATER CHARACTERS MOSTLY ALL THE MAIN CHARACTERS HAVE SUFFERD EXCEPT LIZ AND KID AND PLEASE TELL ME KID AND LIZ ARE STILL ALIVE

 **I don't really know what you're asking with the reanimations thing. I don't know if Brook has any powers that can pull souls out of other people's bodies, that seems like more of Big Mom's thing, while his is just removing his own soul from his body. A lot of possible HxH characters can still be added, and there are many more who will be showing up in this story. We saw one of the Spider Troupe in Dressrosa, freed from being a toy, and Leorio was back on Awul since we saw him trying to help Leonardo before the Battle of Metropolis. Won't say where any of those you mentioned are... Soul Eater is pretty awesome, but it's tough to be on Nexus and not have suffered at this point (though it does seem like they're getting it pretty bad). Liz was actually the slave with King, Maka, and Soul, all of whom escaped with Merlin when she came to get King, so I mean there's some good for a lot of the Soul Eater folks. Won't say where the others are though... if they're even still... lol jk, maybe XD. Thanks for the reviews!**

flo463 chapter 93 . 15h ago

happy to see Kirito (my favorite Sao character) is back!  
having chakra is good but seen the king's powers, it remains drastically inadequate.  
Kirito and the others are going to need a seriousness power-up!

 **Kirito almost gets a power-up with the return of his wings this chapter... too bad Cartman didn't connect them to him, just dropped them in his hands :(. Seems like most of the characters are seriously outmatched in this new world. We'll see what they do about that... Thanks for the review!**


	95. Nexus HWR 13-7 The Wizard King

**Nexus HWR 13.7 The Wizard King:**

"I really don't know," Goku said while talking to Luffy and Natsu in the cockpit of their huge truck. "One second I was a kid, and then I was suddenly back to my adult self. It was right in the middle of the War too."

"Yeah, the War," Natsu said, "I had been meaning to get to that. What happened?"

Goku's smile while he was talking about how he turned back into a man dropped down. _Father,_ Goku thought for a second, before thinking of something else that made his flat lips dip farther down. _Tien,_ he imagined his old friend, being used like a puppet by Meruem's Royal Guard. Luffy and Natsu stared at Goku in shock. Earlier, when Sora and Dash had similar reactions while talking about the war they had been in, Goku had not thought back too much on it so they never saw this expression on his face since he returned. Goku then imagined the baby who he knew was Dash's little brother, his skull opened up. _JackJack. How could I let so many people down?_ The man looked down and lifted his hands in front of his body which he then clenched into fists. "I was too weak," Goku said aloud. "I need to train."

"Huh? Oh," Natsu said, and he leaned back when Goku looked him in the eyes after his initial 'huh?' "Well um, there's actually a training room on the second floor. On the other side of the kitchen-"

"Okay, that's great," Goku said, then he turned and started walking away.

Luffy scratched the back of his head confusedly at that interaction. The two watched as Goku reached the door, the same time as a man who moved to the side to let the Saiyan past. Gray looked sideways as Goku walked by him, wondering why the Saiyan had such a thoughtful look on his face. Then he turned and walked towards Natsu and Luffy, and said, "I've got an idea."

Downstairs two floors, Usopp walked over to an open door and gently knocked it a couple of times. The three women inside turned towards him, and Usopp got a panicked look on his face at the angry scowl Nami shot him while she put down the clothes she had been holding up in front of her body. Her friends had each offered her some outfits, and Nami wanted not to take a lot, but also needed to make sure she would still look stunning in what she picked out. "What?" Nami asked the man who lowered his knocking hand while keeping his other hand behind his back.

"So, was going to wait a little for this, but I figured you could use some good news right about now," Usopp said, before pulling his other arm out from behind his back. Nami stared at him in confusion, and more specifically at the strange orange rod Usopp was holding in his hand. The long-nosed man came in to cheer Nami up, and Robin smiled as Nami ran over and grabbed the strange weapon before eying it closely in amazement. "I know I called the last one 'Perfect,' but this Clima Baton is far superior! I added the Pop Green's growth capabilities, and Franky helped out with the surface treatment. It's the greatest invention I've ever made!"

Nami turned the weapon over in her hands while staring at it in awe and wondering how to use it. She clenched down on the middle of the rod, and both of the round balls at the end extended out. One end slammed into Usopp and the door and smashed him against the other side of the hallway, and the other flew backwards and made Robin duck just before it would have hit her in the chest. "That was a close one," Robin said in relief.

"Agh- too close," Usopp muttered while sliding down the wall, seeing stars.

"It's too long!" Nami called out the door at the man, while quickly retracting the weapon.

A little dizzy, Usopp staggered up to his feet and stumbled to the door that he cautiously poked his head through while hiding most of his body around the frame in the hallway. "No, you just don't have the practice! You extended it too far, but you can choose how big it gets with slight variations in pressure!"

Nami's eyes could not have gotten wider as she stared at the weapon. She clenched again but softer this time, creating a staff closer to the size she would prefer while fighting. "Hehe, hahaha," Nami started spinning it around, and then she got ready to try out some of the weather functions.

Usopp saw what she was doing though and swung his arms out in front of him. "Wait! Try it later, when we're outside and can get away from you!" Nami hesitated with a pout on her face, but she smiled again a second later and kept swirling around the weapon excitedly.

Something suddenly hit Nami, and she spun to Usopp with big eyes before asking, "This was the wish you two made?"

Usopp scratched the back of his head and laughed, then said, "We'd worked so hard on it, and well, Franky felt bad that your old one got broken when you were fighting the Spriggans' minion who took him down." Nami smiled brightly at the sniper/inventor, and then Usopp chuckled and said, "I was actually going to charge you," his gaze lingered on her side of the room, "but you know what, you can have it for free." He popped his head back out of the door at the sight of a glint in Nami's eyes and ran off.

Nami frowned at what Usopp just said, thinking about all her money and jewels that the Wizard King had never wished back for her. She wondered if he had brought them back originally, and then wished for them to disappear after she insinuated that he was a fake wizard. Nami looked back at the weapon in her hands though and smiled in a bright way at it once again. She felt helpless back when the aliens and Predators attacked them on the way south, and in the fight against Fluffy all she could do was hide behind her friends. Sometimes she was hiding behind children, and the feeling was not one she enjoyed.

She was still upset at losing all of her things, but the feeling of getting just one material possession back made her smile. "Whoa," Nami stumbled back as the floor beneath her shook. They were on the first floor closest to the tires, and all three woman in their room felt as the tires started rolling over the ground. "Hey!" Nami called out. "The others aren't out yet!"

As if to respond to her, Gray's voice came over the intercom right after she finished and said, "Hey guys, I'm going to take us over to a town near here. It's real close-by, so we'll be able to come back here quick if the Wizard King doesn't just teleport the others to us." The truck started speeding up, and Gray's voice came back on to add in a lower voice, "This is the only town in all of the south. We can buy some supplies while we're here, or, clothes," he added, and Nami's forehead scrunched up. _How did everyone find out so fast?_ She thought in annoyance. Gray's voice finished speaking with one more sentence that had everyone in the truck staring up at the intercoms hesitantly, "Um, just be careful when we get there."

Natsu and Luffy looked at Gray's back confusedly as he drove their truck across the grassy plains of the far south. _Be careful?_ Luffy thought, cocking his head to the side as that seemed like a strange thing to add without giving a reason for it.

Gray's dark look vanished as he stared out of the cockpit. He turned on the autopilot with the nearby town's exact location plugged in, then he got up from the pilot's chair and walked over to the right side of the farthest forward room on the third floor of their truck. He got closer to the slanted-down part of the room where everything was made of glass, and he looked outside to the west with wide and amazed eyes. "This is, paradise," Gray whispered.

"What is?" Natsu asked as he neared his friend's back. He looked outside and did not see what was so impressive about the place, though it did have its appeal. "Everyone thinks the south is an uninhabitable wasteland," Gray said while staring out at the long grassy fields covered in creatures. The creatures that were most prominent and covered the entire landscape, were Pokemon. There was a pack of Tauros charging the same direction of them, and a herd of deer-like Pokemon running out to the west to get out of the charging bulls' way. The Stantler, as well as flaming horse-Pokemon called Ponyta and Rapidash, and yellow Girafarig with long necks and pink spikes down their backs, all ran together on the perfectly grassy plains. Gray looked behind the charging Tauros and could not see any damage to the floor behind them, or more precisely, he watched as the grass directly behind regrew and repaired itself to match the length of the grass on the rest of the field.

Gray's eyes rose to the sky, where a flock of Altaria and Swablu just flew high above the cockpit's glass top. "Hey look!" The two Fairy Tail mages spun to see Luffy pressing his face up against the glass on the other side of the cockpit. They ran over and looked out where Luffy had his finger pointed, pressing into the glass next to his face. "Volcanoes," Luffy said with a wide smile.

On the lower part of the brown mountains leading up to smoky peaks, they could see Rhyhorns and Rhydons marching around, as well as several Geodude, Gravelers, and Golem. Closer to the peak were some creatures that looked to be made of fire themselves, Magmar and Magmortar. There were turtle-like fire Pokemon around them, Numel and Torkoal, as well as a few slugs and snails that looked to be made of magma, Slugma and Magcargo.

At the base of the closest volcano to them was a strange sight, because unlike the rest of the landscape it looked far from natural. Instead, there was a steel playground kind of place covered in electric Pokemon. Magnemite, Magneton, and even a few Magnezone floated around over there, along with pokeball-looking creatures called Voltorb and Electrode. There were even a few Pikachus and Raichus running around and using the steel slides while sparking electricity from their cheeks and tails. A big scary-looking yellow Pokemon on two legs ran on a treadmill on the edge of the steel area, and the creature whose fur was covered in black lightning bolt markings was powering the treadmill on its own. Electabuzz turned its head towards the ship driving past in the distance, but it just sped up while the three standing in the cockpit looked his way.

"Well you were right," Natsu said, and Gray turned left to his friend only to then feel the truck beneath him start slowing down. He turned the same way that Natsu was looking, and he grimaced at the sight of the town they were approaching that looked pretty normal from first glance. "We did get here fast," Natsu added, then turned back to Gray only to see that look on his friend's face again.

"Let's go," Gray said, though his voice was full of hesitation. Luffy headed for the exit as they were coming to a stop and Gray turned to follow.

"I don't get it Gray," Natsu said as he walked next to the ice mage. They started heading down the stairs following Luffy to the first floor so they could disembark the vehicle. "You're the one who said we should come here in the first place!" Gray nodded, and Natsu snapped, "So stop making a face like you're standing in dog crap!"

Gray spun and snapped, "I don't look like-" He cut himself off and grunted, deciding not to get in a fight while they were on the stairs. "This town we're at, it's not rumored to be a very great place."

"You've never been there," Natsu said, hinting that maybe it would be better than Gray suspected.

"Sure, but other people have. Word spread about this town, the Wizard's Town," Gray said the name with an un-eager look on his face. "It's called that, because only people the Wizard King likes can stay there."

Natsu's lips curled down, and Luffy stopped walking for a second as he turned his head to look up at Gray. "And considering the type of person the Wizard King is," Gray continued while slowing his voice.

"A town full of people like that?" Natsu said, his eyebrows lifted like he could not imagine it. He thought about a hundred short fat kids laughing at him obnoxiously. A tick mark popped up on the left side of Natsu's forehead, and he growled, "If they're not as strong as that kid, they won't get away with the same crap."

"I agree too," Gray began hesitantly as he saw not only Natsu but Luffy also looked annoyed. "But try not to get into a fight you two," he warned. They looked back at him, and Gray said, "With a snap of his fingers that kid could have you back in his castle stuck in another trap. You might not be able to really die in there, but you can still feel death if he says there's a respawn point."

The pirate and Dragon Slayer growled or grumbled in anger that they were still at the Wizard King's mercy even this far from his castle. "So just, be cautious," Gray warned, and all three of them started walking again.

Already outside the ship and flying towards the center of the town they parked outside of, Kirito had a deep frown on his face. _I should have wished for him to fix my blue sword. He wouldn't have been able to trick me with that one. I should have worded the wish differently! Damn it, it doesn't really matter as long as I keep practicing flying. They were a liability anyway, and relying on them too much takes away time training ki control. It's time to give up on getting them back, and just focus all my efforts on my own strength._

Kirito descended into the center of the town and looked around at the people near him. Two women looked at each other and started whispering, then smirked and laughed in Kirito's direction. He turned the other way and saw three people glancing at him with looks of disdain, before turning back to each other and continuing their conversation. One of them said something and he and the man next to him started laughing at the third, then the third man punched him in the nuts and he collapsed to his knees. The other guy just laughed harder and started pointing with the third guy at the one writhing around in pain.

 _The fuck is wrong with these people?_ Kirito wondered and started walking one direction down a road. He looked into a store and saw the guy behind the counter smiling out at him with a mouth full of golden teeth that made Kirito pull back and turn away. There were a couple of teens sitting on a building's roof across the road pointing at him and laughing, both of them heavyset boys around his age who were probably at least three times his height. A teenage girl walked up behind them and they both said something to her. She looked down at Kirito, then she hummed which did not seem to be the reaction the guys wanted. She cupped her hands to her mouth and called down to him, "Eight out of ten!"

Kirito's bottom lip dropped, then he spun away fast as the girl who rated him started laughing. _This town sucks more than the lawless ones,_ Kirito thought assuredly as he rushed away. He turned a corner and then slowed as he walked down a more empty side road. _Sage mode is not impossible. I don't have the teachers that Naruto had, but he told me that he taught me everything I need to know. I just need to put those teachings into action. Other than that, there's not much I can do to increase my chakra reserves. Maybe Sasuke could help... I heard that name when we got to the base, but I could barely look at him in that short time before we left. Naruto talked about him, but I never thought I'd meet him. Not here._

Kirito shook those thoughts from his head and refocused, _Training up my Haki would be a good start. Strengthening my Borg too, though Sphintus said that really depends more on latent magical ability than practice._ He frowned more as he thought about his white-haired magic teacher. _Didn't last a few weeks in Magnoshutatt before the NEG came in and took over there too. Those months after Konoha, when Tetsuo was quickly expanding across the continent, I thought there was going to be nowhere left where I could still train. That is, until I found the Underworld..._

Kirito's expression darkened more. _With Goku back, I should work on my martial arts with him as much as possible. He defeated Akuma and he's the best fighter I've ever seen. Plus, there's no telling when he'll run off again, so I need to get anything I want to learn from him out of the way now._ Kirito almost chuckled at that thought, but he shook his head instead and thought about what Goku told them in the Wizard King's castle. _That was just an excuse. As good a reason as it may be, he just abandoned us to go do something else. Even though he came to me and told me to come to Aebrith with him, he left me. Left me with people like Gray, and Nami,_ in Kirito's head he saw Nami on her knees hugging Timmy with all her might. He paused, then he scowled and thought of the same woman shouting at him for letting Juvia die. _When I was the only one who actually did anything for her,_ Kirito thought angrily, clenching his fists as he recalled how Nami yelled at him in Pyraxas.

The teen glanced to his left as he spotted some people coming towards him, and while one snickered and whispered something to the other, the other just stared at Kirito with a confused look as to why someone so serious-looking was in their town. The two kept walking, and Kirito lifted his gaze to the sky and released his fists. He let out a sigh, and bags formed under his eyes as a tired expression spread across his face. _What am I doing here?_

His question was not solely in reference to the town he was in. _With these people, most of whom I don't even like, I'm traveling back and forth across the world and nothing's changing. What are, we going to do next? Will it really matter?_ Kirito looked down and lifted his hands in front of him once more. _Even Goku can't stand up to the likes of the Ant King or Wizard King. How could I, ever get strong enough to be on his level, let alone theirs?_

"Hey Kirito," a voice called out behind him. He turned and spotted Sanji and Franky walking his way. "We're going to check out the beach, you coming?"

Kirito recalled seeing a beach while he was flying into the town. The ocean was still too far south of them to see, but a giant unnatural lake sat just south of the town. He nodded their way and started walking towards them, though lost deep in thought on what he was just pondering.

"Lookin' tired there little bro," Franky said to the teen who reached them and kept walking. He hummed in some sort of agreeing noise and then kept going without pause.

"It has been a long day," Sanji said as he started walking with Franky after the kid. Sanji did have an annoyed look on his face though that that was all the reaction they got out of Kirito after coming over here to ask him. The pirate chef rolled his neck then kicked a leg out a few times to stretch it. He thought about the Xenomorphs he fought earlier, how hard their skin felt even when he slammed one with a powerful flaming kick. He recalled watching the one he thought he killed get back up too, only to be devoured and changed by the Flood.

Franky thought about the robots that attacked them with Professor Chaos. He considered himself a pretty powerful robot, but he thought about how he heard his own strong steel creaking when he had tried punching one of them. Then he thought about how Riku tore one to shreds with his Keyblades, and if their armor was harder than his... he shivered at the idea of going up against those weapons. _Oof, guess it has been a long one,_ he thought as that shiver was not common for him, and he decided to blame it on his exhaustion.

"Hey you guys," Kirito said while he continued walking in front of them. The two tired men behind him looked up at the kid's back, and Kirito asked without breaking stride, "If Zoro doesn't want to join up with you, what are you still doing here?" Franky and Sanji came to sudden stops. Kirito just kept going though.

The two wanted to call at him. They wanted to snap some retort or come up with a quick answer, but neither had what they were looking for. _If he doesn't want to come back,_ Sanji thought, then shook his head as that seemed absurd to him from the time he spent with Zoro.

 _If he doesn't want to join us,_ Franky thought. _Then we should head back to the Sunny, I guess. We're pirates, we're still, pirates._

The group of three walked in thoughtful silence towards the beach. Only a couple of their other comrades were there, but they were not playing around in the water or talking rambunctiously. Instead, the few on the beach already looked as deep in thought as the three heading their ways. Okumura Rin sat on his butt in the sand, and his small black cat lay flat on its stomach at his side, bathing in the sun. Kuro looked more relaxed than the half-demon staring out over the lake though.

Rin was staring straight out over the water, but his eyes were not focused on the five teenagers playing bumper-jet-skis out on the lake. _Yukio,_ Rin thought, imagining his brother's face in his mind.

The Wizard King offered them all wishes, but on top of not fulfilling most of their desires, he reminded each of them what it was they really wanted in their journey. Rin could only think about Yukio once he was reminded that his brother was his sole purpose for coming here. Up ahead of him, standing with just his feet in the water, Dash stared out with a sadder look which he kept trying to make look determined. The fact that even Fairy Godparents could not bring people back to life disheartened him though.

 _JackJack, I'll, I'll find a way,_ Dash thought, but then he clenched his eyes shut and thought about what Goku told him not long ago. _Even without your body, I'll, I'll find a different way as Juvia and Killua. I just have to,_ his eyes filled with even more sadness and he had to lift an arm and rub them fast as he knew how many of his friends sat or stood on the beach behind him.

Sora stood side by side with Riku on the edge of the beach a dozen meters off from the road's entrance where three of their comrades just entered from. The two of them stood there staring out over the water in silence. The moment reminded them of something: their final moments before coming to Nexus. They looked at the bright blue water, just the two of them, and they thought about everything that had happened since then which led them to this point, what felt like a full circle. Once again, the two were alone in a world full of darkness. No Kairi, no King Mickey, no Donald or Goofy.

Riku opened his mouth to say something encouraging about how strong Kairi was, that she would be fine, or something. He closed it after a second though as it felt like he would be making excuses for himself as if saying that it was not such a terrible thing that he let her get kidnapped.

"Riku, remember how I told you about the Guardians?" Sora asked.

"Those powerful people you mentioned at the War-"

"Not them," Sora said and shook his head. "The ones King Neptune told me about. The ones the King mentioned in his letter," he specified, and Riku nodded as he recalled Sora telling him and Kairi all about that after they left Atlantis. "We are the Guardians of Light," Sora said, and Riku looked at the side of his slightly shorter friend's head, wondering what Sora was talking about. "We went to Heaven, Riku," Sora said, turning to look his best friend back in his eyes.

"Why?"

"It's complicated, but what I heard when I got there," Sora shook his head at the memory of what he was told only hours earlier. "I learned the origins of the multiverse. I know why we're here. And Riku, we have an enemy that's too powerful, absurdly, ridiculously powerful. The capital 'D' Darkness. Everyone's born afraid of the dark, but it's not for no reason. That entity is out there, searching for this world. At least now I know that some of the worlds are still out there: Timmy's, and Stan and Car- the Wizard King's." Sora reminded himself that he was still in Cartman's territory and not to risk annoying the boy who could be watching him at all times. Sora turned and looked Riku back in his eyes, but Riku was looking over the lake with such a serious and dark look.

The taller teen lifted a hand and stared at his palm, and he made black wisps seep off of it. "The Darkness, huh?" Riku wondered.

"Yeah," Sora said, turning again to look back over the water himself. "It's going to be a hard one. The hardest one yet," he whispered.

The black wisps stopped coming off of Riku's palm, and he clenched that hand into a fist. Sora's fists clenched at his sides at the same time, and he said, "But we're going to do it. We have to. For the sakes of everyone on Nexus and across all the other worlds. They're relying on us, even if they don't know it."

"We'll save them," Riku said. He lowered his fist down to his side and his other hand tightened into one as well. "We'll save everyone." _And put the worlds back the way they should be._

* * *

Stan, Timmy, and Ben sat on either side and the head of a long table covered in dozens of platters of some of the most delicious food any of them could imagine. Despite this, only the fat boy at the other head of the table as Timmy was chowing down. Cartman had sent Butters away right after they arrived in the fancy dining hall, and Juandissimo had turned into a purple pitbull that sat on the right side of Cartman's chair. "So Stan," Cartman started. "How've you been since you got here?" Stan glared at the boy who turned his head left a little while chewing on some fried chicken skin. Cartman nodded at Stan's left arm that was over the table, and he said, "I noticed your arm's not real. Your legs neither."

Timmy and Ben turned from Cartman to look at Stan in surprise. He had fake skin over his left arm so neither of them noticed before, but Stan lowering his arm back to his side and hiding it in his cloak told the others that Cartman was right. "My legs are still mine," Stan said in an annoyed voice.

"You've got steel plates and rods all over inside them though," Cartman said.

"You using X-ray vision on me, you a homo now?" Stan asked.

"Shut the fuck up!" Cartman snapped.

"It is pretty gay though," Stan said, not deterred by Cartman's voice raising.

The Wizard King rose a hand, and all three of the people at the table with him tensed up. He froze with it lifted though, and he put it back down with a sigh a second later. "Kyle's dead," Cartman said. Stan looked at Cartman with widening eyes, the scar over his left eye aching like his metal arm and enhanced legs that started hurting at the same time. "You already knew," Cartman said, his eyebrows lifting up in realization.

" _I_ saw him," Stan said. He was really annoyed all of a sudden, but as he stared at Cartman's face, he calmed himself down. He wondered why it took Cartman so long to bring it up to him, and he could not think of many reasons except that the fat kid did not know how to break it to him. Stan frowned at the slight show of humanity from his old friend, then he continued since Cartman was looking forward so intently "He, got turned into a zombie. It was the second day after we got here, to this world…" Ben Tennyson's eyes started to widen, his jaw lowering, his heart rate speeding up as he stared at the kid across the table from him. "My group got attacked on all sides, but the zombies were the worst. They, they devoured people in front of me, then Kyle came out of the fog. He tried to _eat_ me," Stan hissed. "Then, this fiery creature thing flew out of nowhere and-"

"Oh my God," Ben whispered. His lip started quivering, and the others turned towards him as he leaned forward over the table. "How are- you survived? I mean- I didn't think anyone-"

"Ben, what are you talking about?" Timmy asked in confusion.

"I was there!" Ben shouted while spinning to Timmy. "That flaming alien he was speaking- you were talking about," he spun back to Stan and continued while the kid gawked at Ben. "That was me," Ben pointed at himself with a shocked look on his face. As Ben said it, he realized something that made his eyes open huge. He spun to Cartman and exclaimed, "I never got a wish, but I know what mine is now! Could you give me my Omnitrix back?" He spun to a still-shocked Stan and in an excited voice said, "It's a watch I used to turn into aliens, like Heatblast!"

"You already got your wish!" Cartman shouted at the brown-haired kid spinning around to all of them in an excited way, who turned away from him right after requesting a wish. Cartman glared at the boy whose smile faded at the sight of Cartman's gaze. _**"When I saved your life from the King who came looking for you!"**_ The Wizard King shouted in Ben's head, and the boy leaned back in his chair nervously while nodding fast at him.

As much as this confused Timmy, Stan finally got over his shock and leaned forward, "That was really you?" Ben turned and nodded at him, still sweating from Cartman's glare and telepathic message though. "You survived?" Stan asked, a confused tone in his voice now.

"That's what I want to ask you," Ben said, looking just as confused as Stan did. He thought about what Cartman said about Stan's body, and his eyes shifted down from Stan's face. "Those injuries, did you-"

"That day," Stan replied with a dark nod. "But you, you came out of it fine?" Stan asked.

Ben started to feel bad, and he looked back into Stan's eyes and nodded. "What, happened to you?" Ben asked. "We thought- Dash, Riku, and I," he specified, and Stan shook his head some more as he heard those two were there as well. As he thought about it, he pieced something together that had been bugging him since the first trap in the Wizard King's castle. He recalled Riku wrapping a piece of his shirt around his eyes as a blindfold, and he recalled a silver-haired man who once had a blindfold just like that. He had never spoken to the man, but he remembered him in a hazy memory following behind the pack of people Stan had traveled with for the first two days. Ben continued while Stan thought on that, "We thought we were the only ones who survived. There were bodies everywhere, and limbs, and, and we didn't know," Ben whispered the last part. "If we had known, if we had just checked each body," he whispered quieter, thinking about how they had avoided all the corpses instead of doing anything about them.

"I was lying among those bodies, barely clinging to life," Stan said. Ben clenched his eyes shut, filling with self-hatred over what Stan was saying. Stan could see that look on Ben's face and for a moment thought it was well-deserved. Then, a face appeared in Stan's mind with a scar on his face similar to the one on Stan's, even over the same eye. "I'm glad you didn't find me," Stan said, and Ben's eyes snapped open in surprise. "If you had, I never would have met my Master. He never would have been able to make me my new arm, and fix my legs so I could walk again. I would never have learned how to use the Force either," Stan said. He sighed and then leaned back in his seat and said, "If you had saved me, I never would have gained the strength to protect myself, and I probably would have wound up dying anyway."

Ben's eyes could not get any wider. _He's, not mad?_ Ben thought. In shock, he whispered, "But, we left you there-"

"I mean it, I prefer things this way," Stan said. _If they had checked. If they had done things just a little differently… There's no point in imagining how my life could have went. Anakin, I'm glad I met you._ "Even with Riku's healing magic, he wouldn't have been able to fix the injuries I had. He wouldn't have been able to regrow my arm, right?" Stan asked, and Ben shook his head which made Stan nod, checking off another reason why it was better this way.

"How have you guys never mentioned this to each other before?" Cartman wondered.

Stan turned back to him, "I only just started traveling with them. When I heard the message you said through Timmy Turner's mouth, I knew it was you." Stan paused for a moment, then he said, "Cartman, how did you know about Kyle?"

The fat kid's face darkened, and the purple pit bull on his side moved closer to his chair. He thought back, and a sad look formed on his face as he leaned back in his seat.

* * *

 **FD + 3**

 _Remy,_ Juandissimo thought sadly, floating forward a hundred feet above a field of gray ash. The field stretched seemingly endlessly in all directions. The line of sight on the field did not extend too far though, as there was a light fog in the air just above Juandissimo that made the ground look even grayer than it was. _It takes more than two days to get over something like this. Stupid orders. Juandissimo Magnifico needs time to mourn!_ He leaned his head back and let tears slip through his clenched-shut eyes.

 _I don't even have the magic to help another child right now. Don't they understand?!_ Juandissimo opened his eyes and lifted a hand, creating a small mirror in his grasp that he used to look at himself. "I am too sexy to have gray hair already," he said while looking at his beard that had more than a touch of gray to it. It was not even silver, a color that Juandissimo believed he could pull off well. _I'm exhausted, and it's because of that intense magic on the First Day. It wiped me right after Remy…_ Juandissimo bit down harder and lowered his gaze to the gray earth below him. _How could I have let my Godchild down?_

The Fairy Godparent without a kid flew aimlessly over the landscape. He looked around, then muttered to himself, "Nope, no kids here." He was not looking very hard. It was too soon after losing a child to go off looking for a new one. _Fairy World got brought here. How is that even possible? Why send me out to look for miserable children, when I should be protecting Fairy World with my abs!_ He flexed and his white shirt ripped apart, _My pecs!_ His shirt shredded again, then Juandissimo gasped and stopped before thinking of another muscle and flexing again. _I shouldn't waste magic,_ he thought, though the thought tasted bad in his mind. Magic was second nature to a Fairy, as simple as breathing, and though he did not _need_ to use magic, he still felt strange telling himself to save what was supposed to be a limitless source.

"Mom."

Juandissimo turned himself invisible. He heard a voice much too close for his liking, and he realized he had been too unfocused to realize that there were people on the gray earth below him. He looked down and stared at a kid, standing on the ground thirty yards below him and a little to his right. Juandissimo floated farther up to get into the fog and escape, but he stopped as he looked around the child. Despite what Juandissimo thought he heard, the child was on his own.

He wore a jacket that had lost its buttons and was opened up down the middle now. It was so covered in gray ash that Juandissimo could barely tell it was supposed to be red. He had a dirty yellow glove on his right hand, and his exposed left hand was all bloody and curled into a fist as he walked forward, saying in a quiet voice again, "Mom." Juandissimo looked at the boy's eyes, half-open and with large black bags beneath them. He had messy brown hair that was speckled in gray too, and his face was covered in dirt. The short, fat boy had on brown pants that were ripped up below the knees, and above the knees they were in tatters too. The worst thing Juandissimo saw was the boy's feet though. At first he did not notice because the tops of them were covered in the same gray ash that covered the landscape, but when he looked in the path of footprints the boy left behind, Juandissimo saw the blood left in those marks.

Juandissimo hesitated. He looked up and stared at the fog above him, wondering if he could get away, then questioning whether he _should._ He shook his head and floated up a few feet, _There's too much going on. This place is absurd, and I am too sexy for this! I am too sexy, too, too sexy, to be… Choosing a Godchild, I have to be ready to protect him this time! This world has a high Danger Level, higher than anything I have seen in my sexy life._

"HOLA!"

Eric Cartman stumbled backwards and stared in front of him with jaw dropped as an explosion of smoke filled the air. Out from the ground on either side of the smoke pillar emerged giant roses twenty feet tall each. They curled up and then off of their leaves sprouted other, smaller roses. A hand reached out of the smoke and plucked one of those roses, and then as the smoke started to clear, a muscular tan-skinned Fairy flew forward with the rose in his mouth. "My name, is Juandissimo Magnifico! And I," he did a small dance while salsa music went off around him, making the stunned kid looked around in confusion as to where it was coming from. "Will be _your_ Fairy Godparent for now on!"

"The fuck is that?" Cartman asked. Juandissimo's eyebrows rose at the kid's curse, then the boy pointed a finger at him and yelled, "And who the fuck are you?"

Juandissimo opened his mouth, but he just said who he was and gave his introduction so he decided against doing it again. He flew down using the tiny wings on his back, the little golden crown floating above him keeping up the whole time which confused Cartman even more. "Any wish you desire," Juandissimo said while coming up on Cartman's right side, putting an arm around his side and waving his other one in front of him while smiling wide. A rainbow came off of his hand as he waved it across the air in front of him, but Cartman rolled his eyes as he heard that.

 _Sounds like a scam,_ he thought, though he did wonder how this small creature was doing the things it was doing. "Any wish?" Cartman asked. Juandissimo hesitated, but before he could open his mouth to explain to specifics, the kid next to him said, "In that case, I wish for one _million_ dollars."

"One million dollars, coming right up!" Juandissimo let go of the kid and waved his wand in front of him. Cartman stared at the wand with a dim golden star on it as it brightened for a moment. Then, it rained money. Cartman's jaw dropped and he held his hands out, catching a few bills as they landed in his hands. He looked up and around at the hundred dollar bills falling on all sides of him. "See, it is as I told you! As your sexy Fairy Godparent," he flexed and made his shirt rip then reappear over his muscular form, "I will help you in-"

"Bring my mom back to life!" Cartman shouted up. He called it out then froze with his eyes snapping open even wider than when the money fell. _I don't need that bitch telling me what to do anymore! Why would I say that?!_

Juandissimo froze with his mouth open. "Oh," he said, and his mouth closed while a hesitant look appeared on his face. _Haven't had a kid ask me that in centuries. Usually, they're miserable because of other things…_

"What's with that look?" Cartman snapped. "You're my Fairy now right? That means you have to do it!" He did not know why he was trying so hard, but he bit down on his bottom lip as the Fairy started shaking his head down at him. His sad look quickly switched with anger, and he snapped, "What happened to whatever I desire? I knew it, you're a fucking hack!"

"It is against Da Rules," Juandissimo said, and he waved his wand to make a giant purple book appear out of thin air. Cartman stared at the book labeled in yellow letters as 'Da Rules' in a funky font. "The guidelines that every Fairy and their Godchildren have to adhere to."

"You have a rulebook?" Cartman asked. "And in that book, there's a clause saying that I can't bring my mom back to life?" He questioned in an even more skeptical, annoyed, hateful voice.

Juandissimo hesitated, then replied, "Si. I cannot return anyone to life whose time has come."

"But it wasn't her time!" Cartman shouted, and Juandissimo leaned back at the teary-eyed look on the angry kids face. "It wasn't fair! Bring her back!"

"I'm sorry," Juandissimo said, the only thing he could think of in response.

"Then kill yourself," Cartman said, a dark look replacing the sad one on his face.

Juandissimo's face filled with panic, and he shook his head fast at the kid down below him. "Please do not ask that of me," he said in a desperate voice. _Is it against Da Rules?! I've never seen a clause like that! No one even considered that might happen!_

"I mean it, do it," Cartman said, a smirk spreading on his face at the terrified one on the Fairy's.

"It's not my fault I can't bring her back," Juandissimo said. "Just- I'm here, to make your life better," he said, a pleading look in his purple eyes as he stared down at the kid. He saw Cartman calm down a little, as if thinking about what the Fairy said more closely.

The boy looked towards Da Rules book which was still floating next to Juandissimo, and he said, "Give me that."

Juandissimo hesitated, then he whispered, "You must start your wishes, with 'I wish.' It is one of Da Rules, and I cannot assist you without you saying it." Juandissimo thought about just sending the book down to the kid, but he was terrified of what the kid just asked him to do. If the boy read that part of Da Rules on his own before Juandissimo said anything about it, the Fairy was afraid that the boy would try it out with the same wish he tried making a minute ago.

"Ohh?" Cartman asked, lifting his eyebrows. Juandissimo's face filled with fear as it seemed like the kid had the same thought as he did. Cartman froze though after making that threat with his smirk, and he stopped before calling out something he might regret. "I wish… I could read through Da Rules."

Juandissimo let out a deep sigh of relief, then he sent the book down to float in front of the boy. The book opened on its own, and the child covered in dirt stared closely at the first page. _Is he, going to read all of it?_ Juandissimo wondered, and he floated down on the other side of the book to stare at the hard cover while Cartman read through the book. _Never had a kid do that before. I don't even know all of the rules in there._ "By the way, what is your name?" Juandissimo asked. Usually he would know beforehand, but the higher-ups were too busy to give him a specific child to go help, instead leaving it up to his discretion which miserable kid to pick. He was already starting to wonder if he had chosen wrong, but he reminded himself that it was not about the child's personality, but their level of misery.

"Eric, Cartman," the kid said, though his voice sounded annoyed as he said it. He grunted after introducing himself, then pulled the rule book down a little to look over the top of it. "Can't use wishes to win competitions. Can't wish to steal, or falsify documents, or hurt anyone!" He shook his head at the Fairy who had a nervous look on his face at the grievances the kid was having with Da Rules, making him wonder about the boy's personality again. _Actually,_ Cartman thought as he reread the most recent rule about how Fairies could not "kill, main, or injure living beings," he focused on the start of the sentence instead. _"Fairies cannot_ _ **directly**_ _kill,"_ Cartman thought with a growing smirk. _There are loopholes. This isn't such a bad, this isn't bad at all. Oh man, is this for real?! Anything I want with a few exceptions?!_

A giant grin plastered itself to Cartman's face, then he wiped it from his face and made sure not to get too excited too quickly. He pushed the book to the side, deciding to read the rest of it later. "It's pretty lame that you have all those rules," Cartman said to the Fairy who nodded along with his Godchild, if just to appease him. "Well then, why don't I test the limits of this power?" Cartman wondered, and his smirk re-spread across his face while Juandissimo gained a grim one on his own.

The kid either missed the look on his Fairy's face, or he just ignored it completely. "I wish for a roller coaster!" Cartman called out. Juandissimo smiled again and waved his arm. His wand flashed gold and then the Fairy started panting, but Cartman did not notice as he was too busy staring behind him at the massive roller coaster that looked like the main attraction of an amusement park. _And no lines,_ Cartman thought in amazement. "I wish for the rest of an amusement park too! Call it, Cartmanland!"

Juandissimo took a deep breath, then he flexed his muscles and waved his wand again. The magical creature gasped out after creating the rest of an amusement park around the roller coaster. The park appeared around them, and Cartman took it all in with teary eyes. He stood on top of a pile of hundred dollar bills, food stands and theme park rides all around him. There was a giant ferris wheel, bumper cars, even a sign not far from him with a map on it showing where everything in the place was. On the sign above that map, Cartman let out an audible gasp and whimper combined at the sight of 'CARTMANLAND' written in all capital letters.

 _It's perfect,_ Cartman thought, then had a thought and spun around shouting, "None of these rides will break down, right? And no one else can come in?!"

Juandissimo thought those were some weird things to ask, but he just nodded his head at the boy slowly. Cartman's smile reappeared and he spun, then ran off into the park to try out his roller coaster first. Juandissimo frowned for a moment. _His mother just died. Then again, he now has a Fairy Godparent. He's not as miserable now, but if I were to leave like this, he would become miserable again. He does not have lasting happiness in a park like this._

* * *

 **FD + 6**

 _Maybe he could find happiness staying here forever,_ Juandissimo wondered as he looked down on the amusement park from above. The fog had been wished clear two days earlier, and there was now a lake surrounding the amusement park. The edges of the park almost touched the water, and Cartman had named the island the park was now on, 'Cartman-Island.' Cartmanland on Cartman-Island seemed like a place the kid could live forever happily, and Juandissimo wondered if his job was done.

 _I could wish him up food that lasts forever when he needs to refill the refreshment stands. If I make enough of it with that wish, food that will never spoil, I could leave it here and be finished. I know there are other children who need Juandissimo Magnifico's helping hands!_ The fairy chuckled a few times, then he looked to his right shoulder where his ponytail was draped over. He stared at the grayish-black color and frowned. Every time he thought it was starting to get closer to its original hue, it seemed to go gray again. He had called into Fairy World to report that he had found a Godchild and to ask when the Big Wand would be fully recharged, but he was not given an answer and was told not to waste their time.

As much as not having infinite magic bothered him though, Juandissimo had yet to run into a problem with the boy who had finished reading through Da Rules in their entirety. Cartman had asked him about how he was able to create so much money for him, since there was a rule in there against it. However, Juandissimo explained that the rule was because wishing for money would be the same as counterfeiting, except that on this world where that money held no value, it did not apply. When he responded like that to the boy though, the kid had grinned instead of getting upset like Juandissimo thought he would. The Fairy staring down into Cartmanland watched as the boy drove around in the bumper car arena for his hundredth time, and he wondered what the boy was thinking as he was no longer yelling with glee as he rode the rides anymore.

"Hey Juandissimo!" Cartman called out.

The Fairy vanished and reappeared in front of the boy who called his name. Cartman had wished that whenever he called his Fairy's name, his Fairy would hear it and come to him. "At your service," Juandissimo said with a small dramatic bow.

Cartman hopped off the bumper car he had slowed to a stop, and he walked out of the arena with his buff Fairy Godfather floating behind him. "Why did I get brought here?" Cartman asked. He turned to the Fairy, and Juandissimo realized that this was not a wish the kid was asking for. "Or wait, I wish you'd tell me-"

"There's no need," Juandissimo assured the boy who thought he might need to wish it for the Fairy to explain. "I can safely assure you, that I have no idea," Juandissimo said, starting his sentence strong and then slouching at the end.

"I wish you'd tell me why I'm here," Cartman said, narrowing his eyes at the Fairy who looked at him confusedly.

"I just told you, I don't know," Juandissimo replied.

Cartman nodded at him and hummed, before turning away and going, "Okay then."

"Did you not believe me when I first told you?" Juandissimo asked, sounding a bit hurt.

"It's not like you've been telling me everything," Cartman countered. He turned to the Fairy and looked at his goatee, then his hair, then his crown and wand. "Something like you, I couldn't put my finger on why you looked so worn out. There are parts of Da Rules book that talk about it though," Cartman said, and Juandissimo tensed up as he realized he really should have read that book fully once or twice in the past few thousand years. "These wishes you've been denying me, they're not actually impossible, are they?" Cartman asked.

Juandissimo's eyes widened, and the kid smirked at the reaction. "Thought so. A few of the rules referenced the toll on your magic stores, using that as a reason for why they are not possible," Cartman's smirk lowered down a little after he finished saying it. Juandissimo got ready for an argument, expecting the boy to start wishing for things against Da Rules. Cartman frowned and after a few seconds said, "In the state you're in now though, you're probably having trouble even do these easy wishes. How long does it usually take you to recover?"

 _What is he…_ "I wish for you to tell me," Cartman said with a roll of his eyes as his Fairy was taking too long to answer.

"I have never been through something like this for this long," Juandissimo replied, then he frowned deeply and narrowed his eyes at the boy in front of him. Cartman eased back at that look, and Juandissimo said in a firm voice, "We are not slaves." Cartman's heart started speeding up, and he regretted making that last hasty wish. The way he had been treating Juandissimo was much like a tool, something to make his life better, but ordering the Fairy to speak to him faster when Juandissimo was gong to reply anyway, that was apparently the line to cross. "And this you did not see in Da Rules, but I came to you of my own volition. No one is forcing me to stay, and you cannot wish me to."

Cartman opened his mouth, then he closed it just as fast. He regretted that eye roll and snapping at the Fairy, and he gulped as he realized that despite his luck, he had not yet fully grasped what it was he had received. _A pass to whatever I desire, but I have to go through this medium. He's not a person, but they're actually better than people. All those rules. They're designed for someone good. Rules against crimes, against cheating, there's even a rule that I could loan my Fairy out but only to someone twice as miserable!_ Cartman calmed himself down a little, and he said, "Sorry," trying to really sound authentic as he did. _There are other rules in there too though, strange ones. I can't wish away fatal diseases, Fairy magic doesn't work on cockroaches or armadillos. They seem mostly arbitrary, so there are probably only a few that really drain Fairy magic at a much harsher level than the rest. Just what are, Fairies?_

"I forgive you," Juandissimo said after a few seconds of studying the thoughtful boy's face. "But remember that I can quit at any time, and I will not accept evil behavior."

"What do you consider as evil?" Cartman asked. Juandissimo gave him a harsher look, and the boy waved his arms in front of him and called out, "Kidding kidding…"

* * *

 **FD + 11**

"What happened?" Juandissimo asked as he floated in front of the boy at the start of the line for the roller coaster.

"I don't know," Cartman said with a shake of his head. "I don't think it's the rides. They're just as fun as ever." He looked up at the giant roller coaster and frowned, "I always hated amusement parks but only because of the really long lines. Having a park to myself is great," Cartman's frown lifted up as he knew what the problem was. "It's not that I want to share the park with people, it's that I need people to see how much fun I'm having!" The realization made his Fairy sweatdrop and stare at him oddly, wondering why the boy would get enjoyment out of that. "Alright, I wish that asshole Butters was here!"

Juandissimo figured if the boy was an "asshole," maybe it would not be so bad to have the kid just watch as his Godchild enjoyed the amusement park. The Fairy waved his wand, and at the same time that a puff of white smoke appeared in front of Cartman, a small purple cat also appeared where Juandissimo was just floating. Cartman looked at the cat in confusion for a second, before remembering the rules in Da Rules which referred to what happened if anyone figured out he had a Fairy Godparent. He let out a breath of relief that he had not broken that rule, but he grimaced as he realized he could not brag about as much to Butters now.

"Holy guacamole! Where am I?" Butters appeared facing the opposite direction as Cartman. He looked around the ashy area and stared at all the stands and rides, and he asked in a confused voice, "Did I go to another world again?"

"Hey Butters," a voice said behind him that the little boy with blond hair recognized well. He spun around and his eyes bulged at the sight of a fat kid standing behind him wearing a red t-shirt he got from one of the booths that had 'CARTMANLAND' written across the front of it. Cartman threw his arms out to the sides and Butters slowly lifted his gaze up the theme park's biggest roller coaster. "I have my own amusement park and you don't! Nananana-naaa!" Cartman taunted and started laughing.

"Eric!" Butters exclaimed, bringing his gaze back to the laughing boy in front of him. He opened his mouth to shout asking how he got there, but something came before that, and Butters ran forward and threw his arms around the fat kid in front of him who froze with his mouth wide open. "I'm so glad you're alright!"

"Hey, get off me, asshole," Cartman pushed the kid off and Butters stumbled back, but the thinner boy was smiling wide and had tears in his eyes. "If you start crying, I'm kicking you out," Cartman warned.

Butters wiped his eyes quickly, then the kid said, "Wow Eric, is this the world you got brought to?"

"World?" Cartman questioned the kid, while a small purple cat walked up to Butters' side and looked up at him.

"Aww, Eric you have a cat?" Butters asked while reaching down and petting under the furry creature's chin.

 _I would say I should have found this child, but he does not seem miserable at all!_ Juandissimo thought, while smiling and purring as his chin was scratched.

"What's up with the little crown on its head?" Butters asked and moved his hand for the crown. Juandissimo pulled back, and Butters stared in confusion at the creature, as he noticed that the crown was not exactly touching the cat's head but floating over it. "Whoa, cool!" Butters exclaimed.

"What's cooler, is Cartmanland!" Cartman shouted, and Butters started looking around again in amazement at everything around him.

"This is amazing!" Butters shouted. "How'd you make this place? Where are we?"

"We're on Cartman-Island," Eric replied. "In the middle of Lake Cartman."

"Do you have this whole world to yourself?" Butters asked in surprise.

"Why do you keep saying that?" Cartman asked.

Butters looked confused, and the skinnier pale-faced boy scratched the back of his head. Only now that Cartman looked closely did he notice that Butters' clothes were dirty and he looked tired. "Yeah, I got brought to this really scary place after everyone disappeared from class. I thought I was going to be left behind, because everyone else disappeared before me!"

"Others in our class, are here?" Cartman wondered, looking down at the cat which shrugged its small shoulders at him.

"Oh yeah, you vanished first!" Butters exclaimed like he just remembered it. "Yeah, everyone disappeared one by one after you."

 _What did I think this world was? I thought maybe, it was Hell. Then I got a Fairy Godparent to grant my every wish, so I thought, what did I think? Where am I?_ Cartman started looking around as the reality of the situation was getting to him. _Is this all real then? Magic, and those monsters that killed… That really happened then. That really, definitely happened._ Cartman looked away as Butters was staring straight into his eyes and he felt something coming over him.

"So where are we now?" Butters asked.

"How should I know?" Cartman snapped, spinning back to Butters and giving the other boy an annoyed look. "I don't think you were on another world though, probably just on a different part of this one!"

"Really?" Butters asked.

"Yeah, and you know what else?" Cartman asked. "I have this amusement park all to myself. There are no lines, the rides never malfunction, it's paradise."

"Wow, really?!" Butters asked in awe. "How'd you manage all of this in under a couple of weeks?"

"Don't worry about that," Cartman said, and Butters shrugged as he supposed there was no reason asking again.

"Let's go on some rides then," Butters suggested with a wide smile.

 _Good, he needed some company,_ Juandissimo thought. Then the Fairy was reminded of why Cartman asked to wish his friend here in the first place.

"You can't," Cartman said. "You get to watch me use them though," Cartman said, before turning and running off for his roller coaster.

"Huh? Hey!" Butters called out and chased after the fat boy. Cartman got on the ride though and he pressed a button on a control console right before he did, so the ride started going as soon as he took his seat. He started laughing and looked over his shoulder to see Butters calling after him.

"Oh geez," Butters said, and he shook his head while lowering the arm he had reached after Cartman. "Well, I'm hungry anyway," Butters said to himself. He turned and started walking away while whistling a happy-go-lucky tune. "This place sure is amazing though. I wonder how Eric did all this. I bet we really are on a different world than that last one though. There were way too many monsters there for a place like this to exist."

At the top of the roller coaster, Cartman looked down towards a concession stand where he saw Butters go behind the counter and start making himself some food. "That asshole," Cartman snapped. "I didn't tell him he could eat anything! Juandissimo!" He called out. The cat still at the bottom of the ride vanished and reappeared in the seat next to Cartman on the ride. "I wish all the food in that concession stand was gone."

Juandissimo waved his wand, then he said once the food vanished, "Why did you invite that boy here? It cannot be to just watch you enjoy the things I wished for you."

 _It can't?_ Cartman thought. Aloud, he said, "Of course not. But he has to ask me before going around _my_ park and doing whatever he wants."

"Oh, that's reasonable," Juandissimo agreed and smiled at the excuse.

 _It is now, is it?_ Cartman thought while trying not to let the smirk show on his face. _To find the limits of what he'll accept. Treat the bad ones as jokes depending on his expressions. I'm going to milk him for everything he has!_

* * *

 **FD + 16**

"Ugh," Cartman groaned. He walked down the main path of his park from the front entrance that immediately dropped off the island's edge, leading straight up to the roller coaster in the center. As he headed towards the ride, he muttered, "Stupid Butters. He's enjoying this too much. Someone else needs to see how much fun I'm having," he said it, then smirked as he thought about the perfect person. _I didn't want to jinx a good thing by bringing him here, but now I'm sure it's going to hold, so it's time!_

"Juandissimo," Cartman called out. The Fairy appeared next to him, and Cartman noticed that his hair looked darker than usual. His complexion was darker too, closer to the usual dark tan color it should be instead of the more white shade it had taken with the draining of his magic. "I wish Kyle was here."

"Another child, coming right up," the Fairy announced. Juandissimo swung his wand, bringing forth the Kyle that his Godchild was requesting. The two of them stared at the puff of white smoke, Juandissimo turning himself back into a cat as he did. Turning into a cat turned out to be unnecessary though, as there was no one inside that white smoke. Cartman's eyes lowered down at the same time as Juandissimo's, and they each stared at the pile of ash on the ground. Cartman had long wished the ground to be regular dirt instead of the ash that got all over his legs while he walked around, but at first glance of the ash Cartman wondered if Juandissimo had missed a spot.

Then, a gust of wind flew by and blew some of the ash away, half-revealing a skull inside that pile of ash. Juandissimo turned back into a Fairy right away and said, "Wish it away."

"Is that," Cartman began, his voice shaky as he took a step towards the pile. "No way," he whispered, a thousand memories flying through his head. "This can't be," he whispered. _He's dead. That fucking jew bastard died!_ The corners of Cartman's lips curled up, and Juandissimo thought the boy had snapped. Cartman started laughing. He put a hand to his stomach and started cracking up as hard as he could. Cartman started walking away, and he saw himself giving the red-haired kid CPR to resuscitate him. He thought about entering a city on the brink of destruction with Butters helping him, and how he had dragged Kyle out of there with his family. Between those two memories were hundreds of others though, of the two of them fighting, arguing, shouting at each other. Cartman ignored certain memories and focused on the times Kyle kicked his ass.

The fat kid walked away from his guilty-looking Fairy Godparent. Juandissimo still had only recently met his Godchild, and he did not know what to say to the boy laughing so hard to hide the tears in his eyes. After that day, Juandissimo never heard the boy mention his old friend Kyle again, but Cartman never wished another person from his past to be brought to him.

* * *

 **Present**

"I wanted to show…" Cartman began, but he stopped himself a few words in. He shook his head and muttered back to Stan who asked how he knew about Kyle, "It doesn't matter."

Ben looked back and forth between the two kids. It was the first time he really felt like he understood the Wizard King, seeing him share the same expression as Stan like they were feeling the same things. "I know, it won't make much of a difference," Ben started, and the two of them looked back over his way. "But I destroyed all the zombies that day. So, maybe Kyle's at rest now," he offered. It was what he always told himself when he thought about that day. When he thought about the burning flesh of people, how he had burned them all to ash, he told himself that the leader of the white walkers was the one controlling them. He told himself that he was freeing all of them from that monster when he took it down, and while he was burning the zombie horde.

"Maybe," Stan began.

"Well good riddance, that dirty Jew-" Cartman started, regaining his cocky and annoying persona right when Ben thought he might look a little human.

Stan waved an arm at Cartman and flipped the fat kid's plates at him with the Force. At the same time, Juandissimo appeared in the air next to Cartman's chair and scolded, "This is not a joking matter."

"Everything's a joking matter," Cartman snapped back, and he surrounded in a white veil for a second that pulsed off of him and sent all the food that hit him flying away. The pulse also skid the table away from him and knocked dozens of other plates off it with them shattering on the floor afterwards and food getting everywhere. "If you can't laugh at something, you're taking it too seriously."

"You've always been an asshole Cartman, but he was your friend," Stan snapped. _He's just being an ass for appearance sake. Just think about that look on his face and calm down._ Stan was getting too annoyed, and he took a deep breath. _That is not the way of the Jedi, and Sith aren't supposed to get flustered either. Use rage, and hatred, to fuel my power, not mild annoyances._ He let out his deep breath and muttered, "Whatever, is that all you wanted from me?"

Cartman froze as he was about to make a retort to his old friend. He really did just keep Stan behind to tell him about Kyle, but now he did not know what he wanted to say to the kid in front of him. "Yeah, whatever," Cartman muttered. He glared into Stan's eyes, and he said, "You're gonna die going after a shinigami, retard." He waved his hand at Stan and the kid vanished from his sight.

 _He's so powerful,_ Timmy thought as he stared over at Cartman. He had been tirelessly working to put up mental blocks and barriers up since Cartman released him, and he was still constructing them while he thought, _That's what people always think about me when they first meet me. But he, he was more creative than me. I never really wanted, to become a superhero on this world. It's not like I set out to do that. I fought Madara because he just happened to be near me, and, and in Fairy World I was just so angry. Then I killed Naruto, because he was my friend! I had to kill him, I had to fight that day, because he was trying to kill me and everyone else too! New Tokyo was when I realized that as someone with a Fairy Godparent, if I have the power to do something, it's my responsibility to do it. But even with Wanda's help, even with all my effort, I still failed!_ _ **Then**_ _I started wishing for all those extra powers, but it was still just to become_ _ **stronger**_ _. I never thought that I needed to be the_ _ **strongest**_ _. Not like him, he's proud of that title. He thinks he's the strongest thing in this world. If I had taken things more seriously, could I have earned that title? Could I have already stopped Meruem, and Satan, if I had just tried to be a hero?!_

* * *

 **FD + 34**

"Butters!" Cartman shouted from the top of his roller coaster where he was standing on the tracks. There were a dozen giant wolves running around the park down below, and two of them were cornering a boy who was on his butt, scooting back right into the wall of a refreshment stand. Cartman spun to the Fairy floating behind him, "I wish, I wish," he spun back, thinking about rules against Fairies causing harm to living creatures. He saw the wolves pounce, and he yelled out, "I wish Butters' skin was as hard as steel!"

A wolf bit down on Butters' head as the boy screamed in terror, while the other bit him right in his left leg. Butters stopped screaming at the feeling of tiny pinches on different parts of his body. He opened his eyes and saw teeth shattering in the darkness of a wolf's mouth, until it brightened when the wolf pulled its head back, whimpering in pain as it just lost all its teeth. Butters looked down at his left leg and saw his pants were bitten right through, but his skin on the inside was undamaged. "Neat," he said, jumping back up to his feet and staring at the wolves in front of him with an angry look. "Your teeth must be really weak!"

One of the wolves pounced on the kid, tackling him to the ground where Butters' head bounced off the floor and he gasped out in pain. The wolf started clawing up Butters' chest, but all it managed to do was shred the kid's shirt and make Butters stare down in confusion as his skin did not tear either from the claws that looked really sharp to him. The wolf grabbed Butters' head by closing its mouth on top of him, an idea coming to its mind.

"That idiot," Cartman growled, then the ride he was on shook. He snapped his head down and spotted wolves smacking their claws into the wooden pillars which supported the roller coaster.

"Eric look at Butters," Juandissimo said in a rushed voice. Cartman had bigger, more important things on his mind as he saw two of the wolves stop trying to take down the ride and instead start running up the tracks so they could get to him. He did glance towards the other boy though, only to drop his jaw as the wolf tilted its head back and swallowed the kid in one bite.

"Damn it," Cartman yelled. "I wish Butters was over here," Cartman exclaimed.

"-AHHH!" Butters came out of thin air mid-scream. Juandissimo quickly turned into a cat and dropped down onto Cartman's left shoulder, on the other side as Butters so that the other kid would not see if he needed to raise his wand. Butters stopped screaming as he felt himself fall onto solid ground. He snapped his eyes open and saw Cartman glancing down at him out the corners of his eyes. "What's happening?" Butters asked, but Cartman spun his head Butters' way fully now and looked over the boy's head with a look of fear on his face.

Butters saw the mysterious purple cat with the crown on its head on Cartman's shoulder, but he ignored it and spun around to look at what Cartman just panicked at the sight of. In the seconds he spent looking towards Butters and wishing him over, the wolves running up the tracks had sped up and were just down the steep drop past where they were standing. Their claws were strong though, and each one of their steps brought them closer with no sign that the steepness of the tracks were slowing them down.

"Butters! Distract them!" Cartman shouted, and he grabbed Butters by the back of the shirt.

"Huh? Hey!" Butters shouted in panic as Cartman pushed Butters towards the drop-off. Butters started screaming as the wolves leapt up in front of him, different wolves from the others who did not know about Butters' abnormally strong body.

As the wolves tried and failed to bite into Butters, the kid screaming loudly and the wolves snarling and growling at him, Cartman made a wish while hoping that Butters could not hear him. "I wish I had super strength." His own mouth curled up madly as the words came out of his mouth. _Why did I never wish for this before?_ Juandissimo waved his wand and Cartman felt his arms, his legs, his chest and abs, they all started to tighten up. He looked the same size, but when he glanced at his right arm he did not see flab anymore. He flexed and his muscle ripped through his t-shirt's sleeve.

 _He really pushed Butters into the wolves' mouths,_ Juandissimo thought in disbelief. _The other boy may not be getting hurt, but he's terrified right now._

"Hey bastards," Cartman called out, and he started charging forward down the tracks. "This is for messing with Cartmanland!" The wolves lifted their heads off of the boy lying on his back on the breaking tracks and trying to push the wolves away with his small hands. Butters opened his clenched-shut eyes, and he stared in awe as Cartman leapt right over him, slamming his right fist into the face of a wolf. The wolf's head snapped to the side with blood splattering from its face, and Cartman then opened his fist up and grabbed around the wolf's broken muzzle as it opened its mouth up to howl or whimper. He spun in midair, his eyes filling with more glee, as he slammed the head of the wolf into the other one's claw that it tried swiping at him. Cartman dropped down and bent his knees as the two wolves went flying off the front of the roller coaster. Adrenaline coursed through his body at the thrill, and he unbent his legs and shot off towards the wolves while extending a leg, kicking straight through the side of one and ripping through both of them in midair.

Cartman started to fall, but he looked down with a mad grin at the wolves down at the bottom of the ride. A few of them were still trying to destroy the roller coaster, but at this point he did not care if they tore it down. "Hey hey hey, who's next!" He slammed down into the ground with a fist extended, and then Cartman winced and he felt his bones start creaking all over his body. The ground crumpled in, and a crater blasted off of his fist. He destroyed the foundation for most of the roller coaster's wooden beams holding the ride up, while blasting away the wolves around him with chunks of earth that he ripped out of the ground with his punch. _What's going on? I had all the power to blow everything away, so why does it hurt so much?_ Cartman's whole arm vibrated so badly that his shoulder and then his head trembled. His teeth chattered and he felt it through his body.

A cat dropped down to the ground in front of him. There was still dust and debris rising everywhere from Cartman's punch, so Juandissimo appeared in front of him in his usual form. "Super strength does not equal durability. Your body can't take those kind of blows!"

Cartman had not realized it because of the adrenaline, but as soon as Juandissimo said that, he felt a sharp pain in his right hand. The boy lifted his arm and stared at his fist, only to see his knuckles busted up and bleeding, his fingers all broken, and a bone sticking out of his wrist. The absolute rush of having a super power. The power that he had always truly wanted but never dared to imagine. It was real authority. Not just the power to deny someone access into his theme park, or the minor power of telling a Fairy to grant him wishes. This was real power. _His_ power. The idea made it impossible for him to think rationally for a few seconds, and the only reason he snapped out of it was because he could not continue moving his body to go on with the attack while every bone in his body trembled from the vibration of the punch.

"SHIT! AHHH!" Cartman screamed as he saw the blood sticking out of his messed up arm. He dropped down and fell on his butt while lifting up his hand and screaming at the sight of his fingers that just waved and flopped around without him having any control over them.

"Calm down and think!" Juandissimo exclaimed at the boy in front of him. He looked around and saw dark shadows in the rising dust surrounding them. Cartman was yelling too loudly though, and in Juandissimo's mind appeared a crying boy in front of his eyes. _"Remy! Remy think of a wish to save yourself! Remy it's right there! Quickly! Remy! REMY!" Not again. I won't let it happen again!_ "Wish for more powers," Juandissimo shouted at the kid whose eyes opened wide at how loud he just was. The dust and ash around them was settling too, but Juandissimo did not care. "Just do it! Right now, even if it hurts, wish for the same thing you gave Butters at least!"

"I-" Cartman started, seeing the wolves around him. His body filled with pain after getting out a single word, and he screamed, "AHHHGCCKK!" He tried scooting back, only to find that every muscle and bone in his body wanted to disagree with him. Nothing was listening to him, and even speaking hurt his jaw.

A wolf pounced through the last of the falling ash. Juandissimo turned his head to the left, staring in shock as this wolf flew out and right past his body. His shaking right hand started lifting up his wand, but his Godchild had not made a wish and the wand was not glowing. _I can't!_ Juandissimo thought, scrunching his face up in regret and horror as the ten foot tall wolf came down with its sharp claws outstretched. _**DONG!**_ Something dropped out of the air and slammed down on top of the wolf. Cartman's eyes darted up as did Juandissimo's, and the two of them stared at the falling roller coaster collapsing down on top of them. "Eric!" A voice shouted from close-by, and the two who had snapped their gazes up to see if anything else was falling, shot their eyes back down to the wolf that was slammed into the floor. A boy on top of the wolf's back ran over and jumped on top of Cartman while pushing him down to the ground. "Get out of here," Butters called out while looking over at the flying creature near them.

"Uhh," Juandissimo did not know how to react. He floated backwards though to avoid the falling roller coaster, while Butters snapped his head back down to look at Cartman again.

"Butters, you asshole, what are you AHH," Cartman tried to hold it back, but as things started falling around him, the pain filling his body became too much and he let out a scream again.

"I don't really know what's going on," Butters started. He felt something slam down on top of his back, and he winced but put his arms down on either side of Cartman's body. "Oof," Butters groaned as something else fell on top of him. He opened his clenched eyes and looked at the boy he was desperately trying to stay pushing above instead of falling down on. "But, this doesn't really hurt, at all," he said, while groaning as the weight of the debris on top of him increased even more. "I figured, if you could, jump off, then why can't, I?" Butters collapsed down on top of Eric, but Cartman's left hand snapped up on Butters' right side and pushed up on the debris crushing them.

Cartman bit down hard as the weight of Butters and all that debris started crushing him. He bit down hard enough not to let out a scream as he put all his effort into raising his arm and pushing the debris above them away. He pushed so hard that the wooden board he pushed on ripped apart, while everything above it just blasted upwards. _That wasn't power,_ Cartman thought, while letting his arm drop back to his side. He took deep breaths, and Butters rolled off of him while saying something in amazement at how Cartman did that. _I got strong, but that didn't give me any authoritah. I was still beaten even with what I thought was_ _ **real**_ _power._ The kid aching all over turned his left palm over and pushed down on the ground, easing himself up slowly. _I need more than brute strength. I need, I need!_ Cartman rose to his knees and grabbed his arm that was screaming in pain with his other hand. _I need everything!_

He saw the wolves around the fallen roller coaster. They still had not given up on this meal, no matter how difficult the food was being. "I wish I had super durability," Cartman muttered, while stepping forward and letting go of his right arm with his left hand. He stomped up on top of a wooden pillar that had snapped and had bite marks all over the part his foot came down on. "I wish, I could fly." Cartman's feet lifted off of the ground and he focused on how he wanted to keep moving forward, and his new ability gave him this possibility. "I wish my injuries were healed," he said. He waited a few seconds, then he snarled and muttered, "Of course not."

 _Screw it!_ Juandissimo swung his wand and it glowed bright gold. His black hair lightened in color, and he dropped out of the air as his crown's gold faded as well.

Cartman froze as he felt his body healing. He looked down at his right hand and watched as a white light surrounded his fingers. The light sizzled away as smoke a second later and surrounded his arm, but in that brief moment he was sure that he saw the magic _working_ to heal him. That was not how his Fairy's magic worked. It happened instantaneously, every time. Cartman spun and looked over towards where Juandissimo backed up when Butters told him too, and Cartman ignored the two wolves that just leapt up at him. He saw a different wolf, one moving away from both him and Butters with its front paws pushed down far and its teeth bared and snarling at a creature in front of it.

 _I didn't think, it would require that much. For such an injury, do I really need this much of a punishment?_ Juandissimo rose his arms in front of his face. "I'm too sexy to die like this!" He called out in panic, right before he imagined his sexy body would be shredded by wolf claws. Liquid splashed all over him, and Juandissimo opened his eyes and saw that the wolf's head was gone. The front of his body from head to toe was soaked in blood, as was the front of the fat kid standing in front of him.

"You can't die on me," Cartman said. Juandissimo's eyes opened wide, and then they went back to normal just as fast as Cartman turned around and continued, "I'm not nearly powerful enough yet."

"Well," Juandissimo said, and his voice sounded more hoarse than it did when he called out what he considered might be his final words. "I cannot make you more powerful right now at all."

"That's alright," Cartman said. "Your hair's gray, I realized that already." Cartman clenched both fists in front of him, both dripping with wolf blood. "But you've already done enough today," the boy said, and this time Juandissimo's eyes widened and stayed that way as he stared at the kid's back. "You can have the rest of the day off," Cartman finished, then he shot forwards leaving a wake of deep footprints because of how hard he stomped down with every step.

Butters and Juandissimo watched as Cartman massacred the giant-wolf pack. He leapt up in the air and came down hard, blasting apart his rides and concession stands with unnecessary attacks that flaunted his new power. He threw wolves back and forth across Cartman-Island, before smashing them into the ground or killing them in new ways. He lifted up two bumper cars and flew up to where he tossed one wolf before sandwiching it between them with a mighty clap that caused blood to rain down. He then threw each of the crushed bumper cars at wolves that were trying to run away, and their whimpers and howls echoed through the park. Juandissimo wondered as he watched this transpire, _What have I created? Is this a good thing, or a bad thing? I could be stripped of my status as a Fairy Godparent for giving a child like this the power to rule the world! In that case… I must stay here. To ensure that he does not overstep with these new powers. Even if he does become happy, I cannot leave him alone without guidance in this fragile world. He is my Godchild, and a boy without real parents. That means, I am the one left to watch over his growth for now on._

* * *

 **Present**

"It's not about, being a hero, Timmy Turner," Cartman said. Timmy's eyes opened wide, and he started repairing all his mental blocks immediately as he wondered how Cartman read his mind. Just because the Wizard King let Timmy go from his mental control though, did not mean that certain wishes he had made were not still in effect. Like the wish that allowed Cartman to take full control in the first place, when he wished to always be able to read Timmy's mind despite whatever blocks he had. Such a specific wish made it easier for his Fairy. That power made it so simple to find where Timmy was putting up his blocks, when he was the least on-guard, when he was vulnerable to mind control. Of course, there was no need to tell Timmy that he had done that.

Cartman smirked at the boy who was trying to repair what wasn't broken in such a panicked way. "My power doesn't come from the same reason as yours. I didn't become strong because I had a purpose. I didn't keep adding more and more powers to myself just to help others, or take over the world, or any specific reason. I just want power. That's all there is too it. Because with power, no one can ever tell me what to do again."

Juandissimo stared down at his Godchild with a hesitant look on his face. Ben and Timmy saw that expression on the buff Fairy's face, and the two of them realized that not even the Wizard King's Fairy Godparent had a leash on him, not really.

"Juandissimo, right?" Ben began. The other three in the room with Ben looked his way, and he stared into the Fairy's purple eyes and started, "Do you know why, do you understand, why we're all here on this world?"

Juandissimo frowned at the kid's question. Timmy started shaking his head, and Ben turned his way as the kid spoke behind him. Timmy had slid his chair away from the head of the table when Cartman pulsed his energy and knocked it away to prevent it from crashing into him. He sat on the same side of the table as Ben now, just farther towards the opposite head as the Wizard King. "The Fairies don't know. I asked Cosmo and Wanda right when we got here, but they were as confused as I was."

"Certain Fairies did know," Juandissimo said, and Timmy spun towards him with a shocked expression. "I believe the Fairy Council knew. And Jorgen too, probably," Juandissimo said.

Timmy thought back on the fight with Madara. He remembered how he had revealed his Fairy Godparents' existences during the crazy battle and how Jorgen had appeared. Even on this crazy world, Jorgen showed up to strip him of his Fairy Godparents for breaking the most sacred rule. After two and a half years though, that rule no longer seemed to matter. Juandissimo had shown himself to everyone in their party, and Timmy had revealed Wanda to all of his old friends he made during the War Against the Underworld too. No one was stopping them anymore. No one was enforcing that rule.

"Juandissimo," Timmy began. "How can Fairies not know?" The muscular floating creature turned towards him, and Timmy looked so confused as he looked up at him. "Sora said, that it's difficult to travel between worlds."

"Impossible for the most part," Juandissimo corrected. "The Gods cannot do so themselves. But someone as _sexxxyyy_ as me," he vanished in a puff of smoke, then reappeared holding a box of chocolates and a bouquet of roses. He sniffed the bouquet then tossed it up in the air so the roses rained down around him, then said as the flowers fell on his sides and in front of his face, "I got those from your universe, Timmy Turner."

"Waste of some magic," Cartman muttered, but he refrained from telling his Fairy not to do it again. He wanted to, but he knew how Juandissimo felt about making wishes directed _at_ him.

 _Fairy magic is so powerful. Gods can't do it he says. These are the same Gods I'm guessing brought everyone to this world. Goku can't break through the barrier, let alone hop to another universe. Wait wait wait wait… Sora, what was he talking about?_ Timmy's eyes started to widen while sweat formed all over his face. _I knew it. Back when I still read the minds of people I met for the first time, I heard some things in Sora and Riku's heads, things that didn't make any sense. Then I wished for a Keyblade when Wanda was all better after Castle Oblivion. I wanted to have one for when we invaded Metropolis, but she waved her wand and it never came. We scoured Da Rules, but there was nothing in there about Keyblades._ "Do you, know what a Keyblade is?" Timmy asked.

Cartman grinned as Timmy asked the question, even as Juandissimo shook his head. "I do," Cartman said. _Well, not really. All I know is what Sora was thinking about, but what I heard was enough._ "Those Keyblades are going to decide the fate of this world!"

 _What?_ Ben thought in panic, looking down at his right hand and questioning whether or not he should form his Keyblade.

 _He has a Keyblade too?!_ Cartman thought with wide eyes as he stared at the kid on the side of the table. _In that case… maybe I shouldn't, take that cube._ As soon as Cartman thought it, Ben's eyes snapped up to him and instantly narrowed down. Cartman felt a strange sensation in him like he was looking at an animal being backed into a corner. _What the Hell was that?!_ Cartman thought. _It's all he's thinking about now! It had crossed his mind once when I let him know that I knew about him turning back time, but it had never touched his thoughts again. It's like he was intentionally not thinking about it in order to prevent me from discovering its existence. Wait no, not intentional._ Cartman continued reading Ben's mind, and he realized with widening eyes, _He had no idea what he was doing. Then, then why wasn't he thinking about it? Why wasn't he worried that I would take it before, and only now…_ Cartman's eyes lowered to the boy's pants where one hand immediately dropped down over his pocket and covered up the lump inside his pants. _I don't even want that thing anymore,_ Cartman thought anxiously, taking his eyes off of it and looking back towards Timmy so that the kid closer to him would stop staring like such a beast in his direction.

Ben let out a deep, low breath. He heard it in front of him after it came out of his mouth, and he narrowed his eyes harder at Cartman as the fat boy looked back at Timmy and mentioned something about the Gods again. Ben's left hand clenched harder over his pocket. The cube inside glowed and Ben knew it was glowing, because his body was filling with warmth like it did whenever the cube glowed. The warmth only came after Cartman looked away, replacing the terrified feeling that Ben had that the fat boy was going to try and take it. _The Eliacube is mine. No one else would use it responsibly. I'm the only one! I especially can't let someone like the Wizard King have it._

"How do you know the Gods really exist?" Timmy asked. "I mean, I believe Sora, but you seem like you already know so much." He narrowed his eyes at the Wizard King, being careful not to be too disrespectful as there were dangerously few people remaining here with them. He did not want to be left alone with Cartman and Juandissimo, and his chair had gotten closer to Ben some time in the past minute.

"They sent someone after us," Cartman said. He chuckled and added, "Little over a year ago, this weirdo angel…"

* * *

 **FD + 448**

Cartman sat on a giant throne in the location of what would one day be his castle. The huge white chair had the boy sitting in it at a proportional size, hundreds of meters tall with his arms resting on the arm rests. His left elbow was bent in though and his chin was propped up in one hand, an annoyed look on his face as he idly tapped two fingers against his cheek over and over again. "What is taking them so long?" Cartman muttered. His voice came out as a thunderous low tone that made the ground shake below his feet, and Butters looked back from the small pond he was sitting cross-legged on the edge of to ask the giant what was wrong. Juandissimo sat on a lily-pad in the middle of a small pond, a strange purple frog with a crown floating over his head.

"What's up Eric?" Butters called out, and even though the boy was far down, Cartman's enhanced hearing let him catch what the boy's high-pitched-sounding voice called to him.

"I stopped the Flood," Cartman shouted, and the ground really shook this time as he rose his voice. Butters' feet bounced off the floor a few times and he wobbled his arms around at his sides to try and keep his balance, only to fall back on his butt anyway. "Where are they?"

"Who?" Butters asked.

"Everyone!" Cartman yelled. His thunderous voice caused the clouds above to change which direction they were floating. It cast ripples in the pond that made frog-Juandissimo have to spread his legs to try and keep the lily-pad from flipping over. "You would think they would be more grateful! You would think, I would receive more praise for creating the Great Wall! Don't they know how taxing that was on me making something so big?"

Juandissimo frog hopped off the lily-pad and landed on the side of the pond right next to Butters. The little blond boy looked at the frog after Cartman shouted that, and he could see the frown on the frog's face that was a grayer-than-usual color. Butters did not remember a time in the past several months when Juandissimo's color had started to fade again.

 _It was taxing, but not because of the wall's length, or width, or height. The magic I enhanced the wall with to meet your wish's specifics is what drained my strength. Magic that repels monsters. Anti-monster properties are not impossible to produce, but I have to make them for all different types of monsters since the same kind will not work on Grimm and Flood, Aragami and Heartless._

"But noooo, they're as ungrateful as ever. I don't know why I even try getting on their good sides," Cartman took his hand off his chin and narrowed his eyes. He zoomed in his vision into the distance, staring at the small dot he saw flying towards him from hundreds of miles off. _Did I speak too soon?_ He wondered. Aloud, he shouted, "Finally!"

Juandissimo and Butters spun to follow Cartman's giant gaze to the north. They stared for a few seconds, and then they each saw the man flying their way at eye level with the massive boy sitting on his throne. "Good! You have come!" Cartman bellowed. He lifted his right hand, and in his head he thought, _**"Hey, I wish I had that staff, only proportional to my size."**_ Juandissimo swung his wand still as a frog, and Butters glanced down before snapping his head up to see what it was Cartman wished for.

A huge golden staff appeared in Cartman's right hand, and he slammed the butt of the staff down on the opposite side of the throne as where Butters and Juandissimo were. The slam of the staff into the floor still lifted Butters off his butt again so he fell down hard. He did not wince though, as Cartman never removed that wish to make his body as hard as steel. He thought Cartman might at some point, but Cartman's super strength made it so that when he hit Butters because he was being annoying, the blond boy still felt it, so there was no need.

The flying figure got closer and Cartman started giving it a closer examination. _Those little white wings, they're angelic._ The white wings were not the only off-putting thing about the figure flying his way though. The lean, short man had on a white toga and wore a crown of leaves around his forehead over the long straight blue hair he had that fell just below his shoulders. A few strands of that blue hair fell in front of his face, but his sharp facial expressions were all still visible, as well as the red circular burn mark surrounding his right eye. The angelic appearance the figure had sharply contrasted the giant scythe he held in his right hand. The weapon was longer than the man was tall, and the ominous blade that curved off of the shaft was almost as long.

"Who are you?" Cartman asked when the figure stopped flying. The being stood in midair before him a hundred yards away from his face, a small but confident smile on it while he stared at the giant child.

Without saying a word to Cartman, his gaze shifted down and he turned to the right a little. "I have come for you," the creature started, "little Fairy." The man's grin grew more as the purple frog staring at it poofed to life as a Fairy with a nervous expression strewn across his face.

Cartman snapped up to his feet in front of his throne. _No one's ever known what Juandissimo is before. This is bad!_ "I asked for your name!" Cartman bellowed, his deep voice and quick rise causing everything to shake around him. He lifted up the golden rod in his right hand and the blue-haired figure turned back to him as it saw the kid was not one to accept being ignored.

"You are quite the impatient human," he said, then he flapped his wings and shot high up above Cartman's head so that he was looking down on them all. "I am the Angel, Sariel! And you, human boy, must relinquish your Fairy Godparent."

"What's going on?" Butters asked the Fairy floating near him.

 _I have no idea,_ Juandissimo thought, and he shot up in the sky. Cartman's eyes darted over as he saw Juandissimo rising up his body, and the boy swung his arm out and put it between Juandissimo's path and the angel. "Don't go," Cartman said, his voice not as deep and with a more panicked tone to it.

"I'm not," Juandissimo said, poofing to the other side of Cartman's arm and then rising to the boy's eye level. Juandissimo stopped once he was level with Cartman though, and Cartman relaxed a little as it looked like Juandissimo really was going to stay. "But I also want to ask this angel some questions," Juandissimo said, flexing and making his shirt rip off as he gained a serious look on his face.

"Oh look at you," Sariel said and shook his head while covering his mouth with an open palm. "Is this how your Godchild treats you? Your skin is pale, your hair graying." Sariel smirked and continued, "For such a _sexy_ Fairy, you look quite old."

"It is not my place to deny wishes within Da Rules, as long as I have the magic to do so," Juandissimo replied without hesitating to think on the angel's words. This made Sariel's lips curl down a little, and then the angel gained a more serious and stern expression on its face.

"I am here to take you away," Sariel stated.

"Not happening," Cartman interrupted.

Sariel lifted his right hand, his scythe was in his left. He curled in his index finger, and then he flicked it forward. Juandissimo's head snapped to the right at the condensed wind pressure that shot by him and slammed into the center of Cartman's forehead. The fat giant stumbled backwards and fell back into his throne, cracking the mighty stone chair with his weight as he fell on it. The back of the chair crumbled and Cartman fell backwards over it and to the ground with a thud that caused an earthquake. Butters was running away from the falling debris of the throne, but he had to leap to the right as a fissure ripped in the ground right between his legs causing him to pick a side.

Sariel never took his eyes off of Juandissimo as he flicked at the giant Godchild with him. He continued as if uninterrupted, "The few Fairies who remain should be lending their powers to the Gods." He held his left arm out and smiled in a friendly, inviting way. "Before you all go extinct, and your magnificent power goes to waste before the real war even begins," Sariel added, and Juandissimo froze with his mouth open for a retort.

 _The real war?_ Juandissimo thought nervously. The angel floated forward, but Juandissimo lifted up his wand and held it defensively in front of himself. "Please," Sariel said, rolling his eyes and then shaking his head at the Fairy who did not put the wand down. "Do you think I am afraid of such a weapon? After all the Fairies I have witnessed being slaughtered while holding up those same defenses." Sariel's body turned into white light and vanished, and his body pulled back together looking like hundreds of white feathers forming into one being on Juandissimo's right side. "Come with me peacefully, or I will have to get rough with you, little Fairy. We both know that your true strength is not in a fight-"

"Juandissimo," Cartman called out, while he pulled himself up by the broken throne in front of him. Sariel sighed and turned his head towards where the boy was rising back up. "I wish for Enhanced Mode." The booming voice of the giant disappeared at the same time as his massive body. He transformed into a fat kid even shorter than the angel who was a foot or two shorter than the average man. Cartman floated in place of where the giant's head just was, and then he shot up in the air like a rocket to come up behind the angel whose gaze was still pointed forward. _I'm too fast for-_ Cartman's thoughts cut off as he swung his arm around, because the side of the angel's face that he could still see smirked in that instant before his arm would have collided.

Six green balls of energy appeared behind Sariel's body on all sides of the boy in mid-strike. Cartman's arm changed directions, pulling away from the angel and smacking the first of the attacks he saw coming at him. Unfortunately, they all shot at him at pretty much the same time. He managed to redirect one attack into another and cause them both to explode, only for the other four to collide with his body and create an enormous explosion. Cartman yelled out in pain and fell backwards, and Juandissimo called out to the boy. He flew forward, and then he froze and stared forward in terror at the sharp blade of a scythe resting in front of his eyes, curved inches around his face. The angel he thought he still saw above where Cartman was falling disappeared a second later, and then the scythe in front of Juandissimo's face lowered down to stop in front of his neck. "Oh, I'm so sorry, but this is not a request I am making. It is time for you Fairies to pull your weight where it counts, not wasting your time down here trying to help individual children."

 _Wasting, my time?_ Juandissimo thought. _That's not true. For Fairy Godparents, granting miserable children's wishes is our greatest honor. Helping these "Gods" win a war? If angels like these are on the Gods' side, then I don't wish to be on their side. One who would force another to do his bidding against their will, is not an angel._ Juandissimo tossed his wand up in the air and reached up in front of his neck, grabbing the scythe by the blade and pushing up hard while snapping his head back to avoid the blade as it rose in front of him. The Fairy's muscles bulged as he tossed the scythe up, and the surprised angel leaned back as Juandissimo flew forward and grabbed his wand before spinning and swiping it in front of him.

"Foolish Fairy," Sariel said, slicing his scythe down into the beam of yellow light that shot off of Juandissimo's wand. As soon as the magic touched the scythe, the weapon turned into a bouquet of flowers that Sariel was holding by the stems. The angel looked down at his weapon, then he dropped the flowers and watched as they fell. He shook his head while lifting up his gaze to the muscular Fairy, "As I said," he lifted his left hand and a white light shone there, his scythe reappearing in his grasp while Juandissimo panted and backed up. "Foolish." Sariel flew around Juandissimo with speed the Fairy could barely follow. Juandissimo's head was in mid-turn when the base of Sariel's shaft slammed into his back and shot him forward through the air, then a fist slammed into his gut as he flew off and smashed him down towards the planet below.

"Hold on hold on," Sariel opened up that right fist and Juandissimo slowed down right before hitting the floor. "Can't have you dying on me. My mission is to retrieve you, alive." He licked his lips and tilted his head back while laughing, "But they never said you had to be undamaged!"

"Hey, hey Juandissimo," Cartman shook around his Fairy he sprinted over to, burn marks over a lot of his body. "I had an idea, come on get up," Cartman shook him some more, and Juandissimo opened his eyes to see the fat kid leaning over him. "You ever play RPGs?" Eric Cartman asked his Fairy Godfather.

Surprisingly, Juandissimo nodded his head at him. "Oh, wow," Cartman said. "Thought I was going to have to explain something."

"Are you still moving?" Sariel questioned. His wings flapped as he descended towards the ground where the boy was kneeling next to his Fairy. "That is just a further testament to the reason why we need your Fairy magic in Heaven. To make a human capable of surviving multiple attacks from an angel such as myself. Truly impressive." Despite what he said, Sariel had a look in his eyes that told both of them that he did not like how Cartman was still able to move. "We are not supposed to meddle in the affairs of this world, but without your Fairy, you will no longer have a role to play in this world's destiny anyway." Sariel rose his right hand and a bright green light shone on his palm.

Cartman had whispered something to Juandissimo while Sariel spoke to them, explaining why he was about to disintegrate Cartman just in case any of his superiors were watching him. "You are in my way," Sariel said, and he fired the beam from his hand towards the boy.

"I wish for Divine Protection," Cartman said, turning and looking towards the angel who stared in confusion at Cartman's face. The kid looked way too smug for a kid about to get blasted by angelic magic. Cartman lifted up his right hand while his body surrounded in a thin white veil, and he smacked his palm into the beam of light coming at him. All at once, the beam completely dispersed into shards of green light that floated up and vanished between Sariel and his targets.

"What?!" Sariel shouted, flying backwards in surprise. He calmed himself a little and narrowed his eyes at the two below him, "Stop wasting magic on such a child. You are now a soldier of the Heavens, stop this foolishness and accept that fate has-"

"Man you are long-winded," Cartman snapped, and he shot up in the air and twenty feet in front of the angel before stopping.

"Human brat, you are not a part of this any longer," Sariel started, and Cartman's face twisted in anger. The angel threw his arms out to the sides and smirked. "Your Fairy Godparent has been called upon by the great Gods in Heaven. They sent me through the gateway, to retrieve that which was once yours. None can deny their demand. They hold the greatest authority in all the-"

"I am the WIZARD KING!" Cartman screamed. Sariel froze with his mouth open, and Cartman continued, "Not some ' _human brat,'_ but the Wizard, fucking, King." Cartman tilted his head back now and looked down his nose towards the figure in front of him. "Juandissimo is not _mine,_ " Cartman said in a smug, all-mighty kind of way. "He's here because he wants to be here. He grants my wishes, because he offered to, not because anyone _ordered_ him to."

Juandissimo looked over, his hair grayer than before after that wish which took up just as much magic as he thought it would. _Power to protect against divine powers. It's pretty specific, but the power of angels and Gods must be enormous for it to take this much of a toll on me. Hopefully, this wish is enough._ His gaze focused in on the boy and his mind shifted off of thinking about the wish, and his mouth curled up at the corners while he lay on his stomach at what the kid was saying.

"That is no longer an option-" Sariel began.

"What happened to free will, God?!" Cartman yelled out. Sariel's eyes bugged out at what Cartman just shouted while snapping his head to the sky. "You think you have the power to take that away from me, away from us?!" Cartman shouted. "You think you have the AUTHORITY?!" Cartman's mouth twisted into a crazed smirk that made Juandissimo a little less cocky with his own. "NO ONE HAS AUTHORITY OVER ME!" The ground shook beneath Cartman, his Enhanced Mode still on and granting him the powers he never got to show off before when he was caught off guard by the angel.

"You dare to challenge the Gods?" Sariel yelled, and he shot forward while swiping his scythe in front of him.

Cartman held out his left hand, and the scythe slammed into his open palm without budging Cartman's arm an inch. A shockwave of wind rippled off of the collision, and Sariel's face covered in sweat as the kid's palm curled in to grab his scythe's blade. "Divine Protection," Cartman started. "When Juandissimo's got some more strength, I'll add some perks to it too. I'm sure there's more to the Gods who rule over this world, more that I'll have to prepare myself for. But for a fucking scrub like you," Cartman yanked the scythe forward and then reached forward his other hand and grabbed Sariel around the bottom of his face. His fat hand was so big that it covered up Sariel's mouth and nose, and he started flying straight forward while clenching harder on the angel's face.

Muffled screams pushed into Cartman's hand, but the fat kid with burns on his body just yelled, "I can't hear you!" Right before he slammed Sariel into the base of his throne the the angel had the audacity to break. "This is _MY_ land!" Cartman screamed, and he tossed the angel up before grabbing him by his right leg and whipping him back down into a huge chunk of the chair that just broke off. He bashed Sariel into his throne over and over, then he did a seven-twenty spin and threw the angel down into the ground to his south with one final spin. The angel hit the ground and dragged a trench for miles.

 _What's going on?! How is he doing this?! I am an angel! Chosen for-_ Sariel's face filled with panic as he saw something flying towards him as he dragged across the earth. He flipped backwards and his white wings glowed, his face filling with rage, his hair waving around in a sudden gust of wind. "I spent all of last night bathing in the light of the moons. I am strongest when bathed in their light!"

"Too bad it's the middle of the fucking day!" Cartman yelled from behind the angel whose wings suddenly grew three times their normal size. Sariel spun around and slammed a fist for the Wizard King's face, but Cartman leaned his head to the left just in time for the fist to barely graze him. As the fist touched Cartman's skin though, white shards of light shredded off of the boy instead of skin, Juandissimo's magic preventing even a fist from a divine creature to hit him. "Your attacks won't work!" Cartman yelled with his head inches away from Sariel's. Then, Cartman slammed his face forward while reaching around and grabbing both of the angel's arms. He pulled his head back, then headbutted forward again, and again. He smashed Sariel's nose, blackened his eyes, and bashed his head back so many times that the angel was starting to look like a bobble-head.

Cartman winced after bashing his head into the enemy's a few dozen times in a row. _Guess Divine Protection doesn't protect against self-inflicted damage. His body's still just as hard as it would be, and my head's not strong enough to handle that. Or maybe head-banging back and forth this many times in a few seconds would give me a headache anyway._ Cartman let go of Sariel's arms, then he reached in and grabbed the angel by the neck. Blood was coming down from under Sariel's hairline, out from cuts around his eyes, from his bashed nose, and his mouth full of broken teeth. "That wall I put up," Cartman said. He pulled the angel closer to his face and snarled, "Don't come past it again. Tell the other angels, tell the Gods, that if I fucking see or feel any of them come down here, I won't stop with beating them half-to-death." Cartman slammed his right knee up into Sariel's gut, and such a look of satisfaction came to his face as the angel who was so smug earlier coughed up blood and looked at him in a pathetic way.

 _No one can stop me!_ Cartman thought, and he brought the knee back up into Sariel's gut again. Then he pushed the angel hard by the right shoulder so it spun around, before he slammed a foot up into the angel's ass so hard that he sent him flying off into the northern distance. "Now get the fuck out of my property!" He yelled, before starting laughing like a madman at the sight of Sariel speeding away with his bloody wings flapping their hardest behind him. "And if anyone ever comes trying to take Juandissimo again," Cartman shouted with a hand cupped to his mouth, looking over towards his Fairy and flashing him a grin. "Tell them we'll kill their families!"

The Fairy who had grinned back at Cartman was wondering if the boy was being serious or just trying to make sure he stayed on Juandissimo's good side. _Definitely serious,_ Juandissimo thought, as he figured Cartman knew by now that he did not like such kinds of threats. Even though he did not normally appreciate them though, his grin just lowered a little as he had suspected something else at the end of the threat. He sighed and dropped his head to the side while closing his eyes, a tired look on his face.

 _Pretty sure he thinks that was genuine,_ Cartman thought while looking over at the Fairy who finally started to relax. The eleven year old winced as he floated that way, and he looked down at his arms that he used to protect his face and torso during the earlier explosion. _Damn, how strong was that to damage me in Enhanced Mode? And that was just a grunt, a lackey sent by the big shots. I talked a big game about this all being mine, now I've gotta prove it._ He looked towards Juandissimo and saw the Fairy panting heavily while he lay there with his eyes closed. _Guess I'll have to do with just Divine Protection for a while though. He needs a break- I need him to recharge his magic power._ Cartman corrected his own thoughts, then frowned and turned away from the small Fairy after he realized he had been watching with a concerned look for too long. He decided to focus on something else, and he spun with an annoyed look on his face and yelled, "Butters! You asshole, where did you go?!"

"I'm over here," Butters called out, popping up behind a boulder.

"You were hiding?!" Cartman yelled, lifting a hand and throwing the boulder away from Butters who stumbled forward as he was partially leaning on the big rock.

"Well you never wished me my powers!" Butters called out. "What was I supposed to do?"

"If you weren't hiding, I would have remembered to give them to you!" Cartman shouted. "You asshole, for now on, you fight first and then I come in." _I'll know everything the enemies can do after giving Butters a go at them._ "This way, I'll never forget to include you," Cartman said, and Butters gulped as Cartman sounded like he had ulterior motives for this.

The other kid thought about the thing that just attacked them, and Butters called out, "Could I not fight angels? I- I don't want to go to Hell or anything like that."

"Dumbass, fighting angels won't make you go to Hell," Cartman said, speaking out of his ass. "I could easily make a wish sending you to Hell, or I could make one sending you to Heaven…"

"Why not just make it so we're immortal…"

* * *

 **Present**

"…He came trying to take Juandissimo, but I kicked-" Cartman paused, then he continued, "We kicked his ass. I wished for some Divine Protection, which is now Divine-Plus Protection," he added while lifting a finger, thinking of how he supplanted his old protection with a better version that he worked out specifics with with Juandissimo once his Fairy had returned to full strength. Once Juandissimo was better and they were not in a crunch for time, he had more time to consider what he needed his protection to actually protect from.

"An angel tried taking your Fairy?" Timmy asked in surprise.

"They never tried taking yours?" Cartman asked, mild annoyance in his tone. He frowned, but in his head his annoyance simmered after a moment. He was glad he had the experience to be able to wish for these things in advance. It made him more prepared for when random powerful beings attacked him out of nowhere. Timmy shook his head, and Cartman muttered, "They might have been able to find me easier. Fairy magic is probably the only thing that could have built the Great Wall, so if they aren't constantly watching everyone on Nexus…" He was muttering mainly to himself, but he lifted his gaze after a second and looked over at Timmy. "Alright, do you have something you want to tell Juandissimo before you go, Timmy Turner?" Cartman asked.

Timmy felt immediate relief followed directly by concern. He had been worried that he would be the last one in the dining hall with Cartman, but then he became concerned as apparently Ben was going to be left alone here. He almost spoke out against it, but Ben gave him a quick nod that told Timmy that Ben knew why Cartman wanted him to stay behind. Part of Timmy wanted to read Ben's mind and figure out why, but after the older boy had just traveled all the way here to save him, he felt bad about thinking about invading Ben's privacy like that.

The kid in a pink hat looked over at Juandissimo, thinking on why Cartman asked him that. "Juandissimo," Timmy began. He hesitated, then he sighed and said, "I already told you, I'm sorry about Wanda. I loved her as much as you did though, probably more. And I know she would be furious at you for what you did to me." He glared into the sweating Fairy's eyes, and he continued, "You were always an annoyance, but you're toeing the line of good and evil here." Timmy's expression got softer, and he just finished with, "Be careful. I don't know what would happen to Fairy World if a Fairy turned bad. Maybe you wouldn't receive the Big Wand's magic, or maybe you would taint the Big Wand itself. If that happens," Timmy's brown hair shadowed over the top half of his face, thinking of the past month as a prisoner, imagining the torture he endured trapped inside his own mind for the past week. In a dark voice, Timmy growled, "Then as the protector of Fairy World, I'll be back for-"

Cartman made Timmy vanish. He wanted to make a joke, or taunt, or just poke fun at how serious Timmy had gotten there for a minute. He had wished to be able to read Timmy's mind though. In those seconds while Timmy was giving his threat, Cartman saw everything he had put the kid through, and he could see the tangible hate in Timmy's mind directed at the two of them. The boy meant everything he said too. Despite how afraid he was of the Wizard King, of getting caught again, Timmy meant what he said. _He'll be back, depending on our actions,_ Cartman thought hesitantly. _It doesn't matter. I have bigger threats to concern myself with than Turner. He doesn't even know…_

"So," Ben started, and Cartman and Juandissimo looked towards the fourteen year old who stood up out of his seat. Ben took a step towards Cartman, and he bowed his head and closed his eyes. "Thank you very much!" Ben called out.

"You think you can get away with just that?" Cartman snapped.

"I'm very grateful," Ben added, lifting his head and looking at Cartman again. "And I'm sorry," Ben added.

"Just be glad I was never in any real danger," Cartman said, scoffing at any reason why Ben should be apologetic. "All I require is your gratitude."

 _That's all?_ Ben thought to himself in relief. He sighed aloud, and Cartman narrowed his eyes at the kid in front of him. "That cube," he began, and Ben's sigh caught in his throat. Ben looked at Cartman hesitantly, and the Wizard King continued, "I only don't want it, because it'd mess with my head." Ben's eyes opened wide, thinking about Nox, how insane he was as he slaughtered his friends.

Cartman watched as all the people he had seen come in with Ben got massacred in the boy's mind. He saw the man who Ben was thinking about too, and the sight of Nox only made his decision not to take the Eliacube for himself more final. Ben looked down at his pocket, but he felt the same as he did since he got the Eliacube. Cartman saw where the older boy was looking and said, "You should get rid of it. It's controlling you."

"'Controlling me?'" Ben asked, anger welling up inside him and his eyes lifting up to glare into Cartman's. "Like you're one to talk," Ben growled. "No, what you did to Timmy, _that's_ controlling someone." Ben had no fear on his face, and he took a step towards Cartman while still looking angry, "You know what? Why am I thanking you?" Ben frowned and said, "You won't even give me a wish."

"I told you," Cartman growled back at him. "Your wish was not to die when Meruem came after you-"

"He only came after me because I had to save Luffy!" Ben shouted.

"The pirate was never _in_ danger!" Cartman yelled back.

"AND HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT?!" Ben roared. "You purposely did not tell us, so how are you going to punish me for something that was one hundred percent your fault?" Ben asked, an annoyed look on his face as he started looking down his nose at the shorter kid who had gotten up from his seat and was standing in front of him.

Cartman's hands were shaking. He trembled there, fury spread across his face. Juandissimo looked down at the two of them nervously, a worried look on his face as Cartman looked dangerously close to snapping. "What do you want?" Cartman asked.

"Are you going to give me it?" Ben asked, not wanting to play his stupid games.

"Yeah," Cartman said. "Just name it," he added.

Ben started to look confused. He wondered if the boy in front of him was messing with him, or if he what he said got through to the kid and made him see reason. "I wish," Ben started. The Omnitrix came to mind, but then something else filled his vision. The monster that hunted him whenever he used the Eliacube. The King who everyone on the continent was afraid of appeared in Ben's mind. "To know, how to defeat the Ant King," Ben finished. His face filled with shock after the words left his mouth, and he cursed himself as he wished he had asked for the Omnitrix instead. As much as he wanted to take back the wish though, he furrowed his brow and closed his mouth. _This is the more mature wish. The Omnitrix is my problem alone, but Meruem threatens everyone in the world. Gwen, all of my friends, no one is safe as long as this monster rules the world._

"Really?" Cartman asked, wondering where that wish came from. He already had plans on how to mess with Ben's possible wishes, but he did not have a plan for this one. He wanted to do something devious and clever and Wizard-King-worthy before sending the boy off. Cartman frowned but closed his eyes, _Precognition powers. Let's see what the future holds…_ Cartman tried imagining the Ant King's defeat. _As expected, there's no way for this kid to make a difference. I should just tell him something creepy… wait…_

Cartman's closed eyes started twitching, and Ben looked over to Juandissimo and then back to him only to see Cartman's bottom lip had dropped a few inches. The Wizard King's eyes opened back up and he stared at the boy in front of him in surprise for a few seconds, before closing his mouth and smirking in a menacing way at him. "As I thought, there's no way that you could defeat the Ant King," Cartman began.

Ben narrowed his eyes and snapped, "What about you?" Cartman had his mouth open, ready to keep on saying something, but he frowned at the boy's angry shout. Ben continued despite the look growing on Cartman's face, "You say you could defeat the Ant King, then why don't you? Save the world already."

"I don't give a fuck about the world-" Cartman started.

"Then what about the King coming down here and attacking you?" Ben asked quickly, and Cartman's smirk dropped back down again. "That must break one of your rules, right? Go punish him-"

Cartman looked furious at what Ben just said, poking holes in his logic. He interrupted Ben with a yell, "I'm not worried about the damn Ants! If you idiots want to go try to kill that _thing,_ you can go right ahead. I'm going to stay in this little paradise I made for myself." Juandissimo stared at Cartman's back and as much as what Cartman was saying sounded self-centered, he knew more than Ben did, that the fat boy was hiding fear behind his angry expression.

"You're being selfish," Ben said.

Cartman's face twitched in anger, and his smile lifted up at the corners and unnerved Ben. "The future is uncertain, but you know, maybe there is a way you could beat the Ant King," Cartman said. Ben's eyes opened wide, and Cartman walked towards him, getting close before leaning forwards so their faces were only a few feet away. "All you have to do, is kill everyone you care about." Cartman's big grin spread open to show his teeth, and he started laughing at the dumbstruck look on Ben's face.

Ben leaned back away from the crazy kid in front of him. "Should have guessed you wouldn't take this seriously. Whatever," Ben turned and grumbled under his breath, "Just send me out of here. I'll figure out a way to beat Meruem on my own."

Cartman stopped laughing and rose up his right hand. Out the corner of his eyes though, the fat boy in a blue wizard's hat spotted Juandissimo frowning down at him. The Fairy had an expectant look on his face, and Cartman looked at him skeptically for a moment, before turning back to Ben and seeing the determined look on his face. He read Ben's mind and saw Sora, Dash, and Goku's faces since they had reunited, when they looked their darkest at the mentions of the war they had had with Meruem. These were people who Ben believed in, who he thought were strong, and they all thought Meruem was a monster too powerful for them.

 _There's no way I'm risking my life going up against the King on his home turf,_ Cartman thought. "I don't necessarily care what happens to you or your friends, but there is one other person you might consider asking for help." Ben turned back to Cartman with a confused look, wondering if the fat kid was actually being serious like his voice sounded. "I doubt it will do you much good asking him for help, might even get you killed, but if you're looking for a way to beat the Ant King, go right ahead and try it."

"Who?" Ben asked, apparently undeterred by the warnings the Wizard King gave him.

The Wizard King's eyes narrowed in at the boy. He rose his arm to point an open palm straight at Ben, and he said, "Zodd."

* * *

Ben appeared on a grassy field just outside of a town. He looked towards the town and saw the vehicle that got destroyed on their way south, parked and ready to go at a moment's notice right at the edge of it. Then he looked the other way, and he saw a bunch of his friends pointing over his way and making the others turn his direction. Ben started walking towards them, his expression dark, but he grabbed onto the one bit of hope he got through his whole conversation with the Wizard King. _Zodd,_ Ben thought, his fists tightening at his sides.

The look on Ben's face might have concerned his friends, but unfortunately, most of them had that same look on their faces at some point in the past hour. A few wanted to ask what the Wizard King wanted to talk to him about, but when they thought of their own reasons for how upset they were with the results of their talks with the Wizard King, most of them figured it was better not to. Ben looked around the group heading his way, and his look lightened up at what had many of his friends actually loosening up a bit for the past ten minutes.

Sora had released all of his Pokemon onto the field north of town. He had seventeen of them in total, and they were playing around on the grass, flying around in the sky, and hanging out with the native Pokemon who had started gathering around the spiky-haired Keybearer. All of the nearby Pokemon were amazed to see the ancient Mew, as well as Celebi and Lugia, all in the same place. Sora was running around and letting go a little as he talked and played with all the Pokemon who were surprised he could communicate with them. He told himself before he released all of the Pokemon not to try and catch any while he was here, but he was making such good friends already that he was starting to get the urge to ask if any wanted to come with him.

Sora looked over to a part of the field where Azumarill, Scyther, Bronzor, Registeel, and Togepi were more clustered together than the rest. Sora's Aipom was running around with Pikachu, but the other Pokemon Sora received on the same island as the small purple creature were sticking together. _All of Professor Oak's Pokemon,_ Sora thought, and he flew over towards them, bringing with him the crowd of Pokemon who had solely been following after him. He reached into his bag as he neared them, his bag which had an almost infinite amount of space inside it thanks to the magic it was made with. Sora pulled out food for his Pokemon and some bowls, and he said as he started pouring some out, "We're probably going to be heading out soon."

The boy paused after he said it. He looked at the Pokemon and then around him at the landscape they were on. It was Pokemon paradise. He looked back at the creatures who Professor Oak had left him, and he bowed his head for a second, before lifting it up with a small smile on his face. "If any of you would like," Sora began. The creatures that just started eating shifted their gazes back to him, and Sora continued, "I know, Professor Oak wanted me to take you guys with me. But, that means you never really had the choice if you wanted to follow me. You must have felt obligated, so, if you want to stay here, in this amazing place, I'll understand-"

"I would like to continue following you," Registeel said, with a single deep state of its name. Sora looked up at the tall Pokemon in the center of Oak's old ones, and the gray creature continued, "There is no time to stay here and relax." The other Pokemon behind Sora and gathered around him looked in at Registeel in confusion. Sora had always been able to talk to his Pokemon though. They were the ones he could talk to when he was supposed to be keeping secrets from everyone else, because who would they tell? Registeel continued, "Your mission is now my mission. I will follow and help you as long as I can."

"Reg-Reg-Registeel. Registeel."

Rin and Kuro looked over at the big Pokemon near Sora with confused looks, and Rin glanced down at his familiar. "You get what it's saying?"

"Yeah," Kuro replied. Not understanding was not the reason Kuro looked so confused. It was what Registeel was saying that had Kuro looking hesitant and nervous.

"Me too," Scyther said with a state of its name. Sora nodded his way, then Azumarill nodded and Bronzor said something in agreement.

Togepi smiled up at Sora, "Toge-pii!" Sora laughed and bent down in front of the little creature.

"You just want to stay because you like me? Well I like you too Togepi," Sora put a hand down on top of Togepi's head and rubbed it around, making the creature close its eyes and say its name happily a few times. Sora looked over towards where he saw his Charmeleon with the scar on its back talking to some others of its kind. He decided to head over and give his newest Pokemon the same choice he gave the others, and the one he had given to Giovanni's Pokemon right after Castle Oblivion.

Ben looked around once the whole group on the field had gotten over to him except for Sora, Rin, and Kuro. "Are we leaving?" Ben asked, a serious tone in his voice again as he looked away from Sora.

"Yeah," Riku said. "Guess we should go get Gray and Kirito."

"Where are they?" Timmy asked, as he had only arrived a little before Ben and did not know where they were yet.

"Gray challenged Kirito to a Pokemon battle," Natsu replied. He frowned and looked back towards the town, "They went back to the lake since Kirito only has that Gyarados."

"Gray has one too?" Stan wondered. _Maybe I should get one. There are so many different types around here._

"Yeah," Natsu said, thinking about the giant light-blue Pokemon bird that Gray took out on occasion. He kept staring towards the town though, thinking about how Gray had asked Kirito for the battle but then told Natsu not to watch when he mentioned spectating. Gray had given an excuse, but Natsu had seen the way the two had been acting around each other since they brought Juvia back to life. It was the main reason he accepted instead of ignoring Gray and going to watch anyway. _What's up with those two?_

"Hey guys!" a high-pitched voice called out.

Riku just lifted off the ground to fly over to the lake, but he looked towards Sora's direction as he heard a voice that made him grimace. Stan moved between some of the annoyed members of the group with him, and he spotted a boy wearing an aluminum cape and helmet running over towards them. "Butters?" Stan asked.

Butters was panting as he finally stopped just a little in front of them. Luffy was still annoyed at the guy and wanted to punch him, but the sight of the child who looked exhausted just from running their way did not remind him at all of the man who attacked them in the north. Butters opened his mouth, then he had to ease his head away and went, "Hey, hey stop," he complained between laughter as a Lickitung's tongue flew over and started licking his face. "Okay, wait a second," Butters reached down to his waist and lifted up his shirt a little to show he had a belt of six pokeballs on it.

Sora looked over with interest after being told again that his Pokemon wanted to stay with him, and he smiled with interest at the sight of Butters' pokeballs. "You have six?" Stan asked in surprise at his old friend.

"Yeah, check 'em out," Butters said. He unclipped all the balls and tossed them up in the air, releasing six red lights out in front of him. The entire group watching the small boy sweatdropped, and Sora's interested look turned into one of amusement though he tried stifling his laughter. In front of Butters appeared a Munchlax, a Wobbuffet, and four Slowpokes. The four pink Pokemon with tails that were white on the end of them just lay flat on the floor in front of Butters without moving.

"Oh," Stan said as he looked at Butters' Pokemon. The Munchlax started slowly walking away aimlessly towards some food that Sora had left out. The other five did not move though, and Stan just said while looking at them, "That's, cool."

"I know, right?" Butters said.

"So kid," Sanji said. Butters looked up at the older blond man who kept frowning down at him. "What was up with attacking us earlier?" Sanji's swirly eyebrow narrowed down over his visible eye, as the other half of his face was covered in his flip of blond hair.

"Well Eric asked me to," Butters said.

"Do you just do everything Cartman says?" Stan asked in annoyance.

"Not everything," Butters said defensively. "But I do like having super powers, and since I can only get them when Cartman gives me Fight Mode, I don't really want to annoy him."

"You? Not annoy Cartman?" Stan asked in disbelief.

"Oh Stan, you should see it!" Butters said excitedly. "As the Wizard King's General, I get to choose three powers. I normally go with shapeshifting, super strength, and lightning powers!" Butters swung his arm out to the side and made his cape flap around behind him, though nothing happened when he swung his arm.

"Shapeshifting?" Robin wondered, looking at the boy with interest as that sounded like the most impressive of the three powers to her.

Butters nodded up at her with a smile that made it hard for Robin to still be mad at him. "I get to make my body big and muscular, and I can even change the shape of other things too." He looked back at Stan and said, "Remember those guinea pigs that almost took over the world?" Everyone behind Stan gawked at the kid who just said that, but Stan just nodded at him to show he definitely remembered that. "Well I have a guinea pig army now! And when I'm in Fight Mode, I can make them all into giants like those ones! I couldn't find any Guinea-bees or Guinea-saurus-rexes though…"

"What did he just say?" Ben muttered to himself.

"So Butters, what are you going to do now?" Stan asked the boy in front of him.

"What do you mean?" the other kid from South Park asked his old classmate.

"The world's in chaos. There's slavery all over the place. What are-" Stan got cut off as Butters grabbed the side of his aluminum foil cloak and pulled it in front of his body.

"If the world is already in chaos, then there is no need for Professor Chaos to make his appearance," Butters called out in as menacing a voice he could manage despite looking like a silly child with his cheap costume. "I am Professor Chaos, bringer of evil and destroyer of worlds!" He pulled his cape back out to the side and threw his other arm out the other way as he did in a dramatic fashion.

"Butters, I'm serious," Stan said in a monotone voice.

Butters froze about to continue on with his speech, then the blond boy shrugged and said, "Me too Stan." Everyone around him stared in surprise at the kid who smiled so innocently. "I like it here. I'm going to stay with Eric, we've been having a lot of fun."

Stan stared into Butters' eyes and could see the boy meant what he was saying. "Hmph, why'd you even come out here then?" Stan muttered.

"Well 'cause you're my friend too, so I wanted to say goodbye before you left to go do the stuff you want to do," Butters said. Stan's eyes widened in surprise, and Butters continued, "But if you ever find looking for power and revenge to get boring, you can always come back here and play!"

 _Play?_ Stan thought while looking closer at the kid in front of him. _That's what he's doing. He's, constantly playing. No parents, Cartman letting him do what he wants with no consequences other than those Cartman gives him. He really considers himself Professor Chaos, because there's no reason for him to ever stop playing the role, as long as it's fun. Why does Cartman let him have this? Cartman hates Butters… Doesn't he?_

"Hey assholes," a voice called out and the group turned to see a group of people coming out of the town south of them. Flying over that group's head was a teen with black hair and two swords on his back, an annoyed and hateful expression on his face that his comrades just looked away from as it was starting to get common around there. The one who shouted at them was a guy at the front of the group of people, and he lifted up a capsule that he threw forward once he passed by their vehicle. "If you want in, get in your fucking truck."

As soon as the man's capsule hit the ground, a giant monster truck twice the size of the vehicle the group had used to get south appeared around them. The bottom of it was directly above their heads, the wheels on their sides, some appearing so close that the people the man threw the capsule towards had to dive out of the way. "Hey!" Timmy shouted over, then he leaned back and spun in surprise as a bunch of the others threw capsules around the area north of the town.

"Monster Truck Derby Day!" Butters called out happily as the monster trucks appeared everywhere. The Pokemon on the field started scattering quickly to get away from the giant destructive vehicles popping up on their field.

Sora frowned back towards the people of this town who just did whatever they wanted without worrying about consequences. Luffy stomped towards the guy who threw the capsule at them, and he had had enough. Luffy punched his right fist forward and it extended out towards the guy who leaned back in surprise, only for a barrier to bounce Luffy's fist away from him. "What are you doing, dumbass?" The guy asked, before clicking his feet together and turning on jets on the bottoms of them. He flew up to get into his giant monster truck, while Luffy's fist snapped back to him and a more annoyed look than ever spread on his face.

"Outsiders can't hurt the people who live here," Butters mentioned to the pirate who turned and snarled at him. "Um, well, see you Stan," he said while recalling his Pokemon. Butters spun to the kid closest to him and waved a hand at him. "Be careful out there. It's not safe north of the Wall."

Most of the people in front of Butters sweatdropped, as that was the opposite of what they thought. Butters lifted off the floor and turned around with one more wave at Stan, then he shot off in a blur to go tell Eric that there was a monster truck battle about to start.

"Get the fuck out of here you damn immigrants!" someone shouted behind the group. "You're getting in the way!"

"Get back on your side of the wall," another man taunted, and he threw a tomato he seemed to have brought for solely this purpose at them. They dodged the tomato, but the message was clear.

"Let's get back on the truck," Nami said, grinding her teeth in annoyance that there was nothing they could do to these people.

"Agreed," half of her friends said at the same time. They started heading to their truck where they saw Kirito had reached and already flown back inside the open hatch on the bottom that the ladder was sticking out of. Gray came jogging out of the town south of them and Juvia called him over, while Riku flew over just in front of him and reached the ladder just as some others started climbing up.

Stan stared off in the direction Butters flew off for a few seconds. _You're watching me, aren't you?_ Stan thought. No one responded, but Stan continued anyway, _In that case, listen closely Cartman. You can keep messing around and enjoying your paradise all you want, but sooner or later this world will catch up to you. You can't expect to be the strongest forever, and there are probably already other things stronger than you out there._ Stan turned and started walking towards the truck after hearing Ben call back to him.

 _I don't expect you to turn around and start being a great person,_ Stan continued to think, ninety percent sure that Cartman was listening to him at the moment. _But I've witnessed the slavery on this continent. I endured it. I've seen the power of Chimera Ants, Sith, all types of monsters. You could do something about it but you won't. So I'll give you a warning, Cartman. I know you're watching me._ Stan's expression got darker and he snarled in his head, _Be careful about choosing to be a bad guy on this world, because evil rarely wins over good, in the end._

The group piled into their vehicle, and Kirito was already upstairs after getting in to go start the ship back up. They were almost all together again, but none of them were smiling and happy about it. Most of them were still standing in the hallway right near the door that Stan started locking by turning the wheel after he finally got inside. "This place sucks," Natsu muttered.

Everyone around him nodded in agreement. "Meliodas-san did give us a warning," Robin said, and the others looked in towards her, wondering what she was talking about. "The night we met him, he and Gray both referenced their distaste for the far south."

"Oh yeah," Riku muttered, somewhat recalling hearing about that before.

"There was no avoiding it," Gray muttered. He had tried not to let it show that much on his face on the way south to prevent the mood from being dampened, only warning of the monster dangers at first. From what he had heard when people said they had gone south though, not one of them enjoyed the trip even if they got past the thousands of miles of monsters. "We saved Timmy though, and that's what matters."

Everyone around him nodded or said something in agreement to that, and Timmy's smile could not have gotten wider. He looked around at them all, seeing their annoyed expressions lifting up at the thought of rescuing him, and he had to keep himself from letting tears spill out again after crying in front of them all earlier. It was hard though with what he was thinking. _They all care that- they're all, my family. It's not just Nami. I have a real family. Everyone here. I don't want to leave them again. Not now. Not ever._

* * *

 **A/N Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Wizard King arc ends on some falling action and build up for the future, as well as some flashbacks for our Wizard King and his Fairy, and I guess Butters too. Was going to put a list below, but I think I'll just re-mention that Cartman, Butters, Stan, and Kyle are all from South Park, and Sariel (the angel guy) was from The Devil is a Part Timer, the main villain at the end of the season. Anyway, I don't own any of those characters, nor any of the characters in Nexus or the shows that they come from. Just a reminder. Support the official releases and whatnot. The group heads north again, but with the Wizard King arc done, it's time for the real introduction to the Second Third. Gonna hop around a little starting with the next part and end of the chapter: HWR 13.9 The Spire! That chapter is actually completely finished already unlike this one which had nothing in it when I started writing on Monday. So I'll probably have it up for you tomorrow! Alright, review responses time:**

joebob323 chapter 94 . Apr 16

"And risk the end of the multiverse? I live in the multiverse!"  
That line really got me laughing! I guess Cartman isn't such a jerk either, huh. I do wonder how all these problems will play out, now that the party is back together...

 **XD Glad you liked the line! The flashbacks this chapter show Cartman's got at least a little humanity in him, though he's pretty fucking insane most of the time...**

Limit-Breaking chapter 94 . Apr 16

Hmm im quite surprise i thought this would have gone on alot more longer, but either way at least mostly everybody is back together. Also they all realize how weak they are Goku can't go god unless ben joined in to help make a super saiyan god but he needs his omni trix to do so. Also they would need to know how the ritual would begin as well. I think goku passed up on two good wishes but cartman may have joked around with one of his wishes if he asked where the nemakians were. That way if he got everybody to agree on trying to look for the nemakians dragon balls they could have looked for porunga to bring back their dead love ones.

 **Never really planned on making Cartman a big time baddy, but he wound up getting a full chapter devoted him when I realized how much had to happen in the short span of time they were going to spend in the Wizard King's domain. Anyway, yeah they're all realizing how much they need to train, starting with Goku right at the beginning of the chapter going to start up his training to catch up to Meruem already. Hit, Toppo Jiren, you wrote a lot about all these guys in the reviews, but as of now we only really know that Hit is here for sure. We'll find out about those others later, possibly... but Hit will have a chapter later on, I'll admit that I do have stuff planned out for him. As for Bardock v. Hit, Turles didn't hire Hit to take out Bardock or the fight probably would have been longer and we'd have seen more of it. Turles needed Hit to be there for after the war, but then with Meruem ending the war in a peaceful way with both his side and the Saiyans still having so much power, it was less of a sure thing to just send Hit in and expect victory at that point, especially when having an assassin kill the new Saiyan King in front of him never would have gotten his race to follow him. Kirito and Gray have a talk at the end of this chapter with the pretense of a Pokemon battle, and although I didn't show it, by the look on Kirito's face when he returned to the ship, it doesn't look good... As for everyone off of Nexus being dead, that's not true, yet. Timmy said that a large portion of the population vanished, and that sent his world into chaos, but not everyone was killed. Telling from Cartman's reaction, he had a similar experience. I promise I'll try not to die anytime soon! So Nexus will keep going, for a long long time. And Namekians! Still haven't seen anyone except for Piccolo, but maybe if another DBZ character was there it might have been the first thing on their mind. Goku even mentioned Shenron, only to completely ignore the possibility of the Dragon being on Nexus and just asking Juandissimo for wishes. Anyway, there was a whole lot you mentioned and I hope I touched base on most of it. I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter, and thanks for reviewing!**

kg833998 chapter 94 . Apr 16

great chapter about brook in the big mom when brook was fighting some of her soldiers who were just should in chess warrior's he used his soul king powers and pulled the souls out of the chess soldiers also thanks I was just putting my brain back together from the last few chapter but thanks to this it's everywhere now

but just wow so fairies can jump past the wall around nexas wait if Timmy said everyone was gone that means a certain evil babysitter and crazy teacher are somewhere on nexas

 **Thanks for the reviews! I do kind of remember that with Brook and Big Mom, but I haven't seen him use it on living people yet so Idk... actually, you know I probably would have counted that- if Brook had still been alive during chapter 16 of Nexus, ;(. Fairy magic is strange. The poofing powers alone let them bypass universal borders, alter time and space and reality. Even the Gods seem interested as they sent an angel to come get Juandissimo from Cartman, though he was able to use Juandissimo's magic in order to repel one of Heaven's warriors. As for that crazy babysitter and teacher, I didn't have Timmy mention any of the specifics of who's gone and who's not, but he did say I think that only 1/3 of the population vanished at once (though that's still a crazy amount of people, and who knows if that's the average or more/less than most worlds). Who knows though? Vicky and Crocker could appear at any time... Hope you enjoyed!**

flo463 chapter 94 . Apr 16

in fact by power-up, I thought more about:  
_ a boost in strength  
_ other ninjas techniques  
_ the sharingan?  
_ dragon slayer magic via lacrima  
_ learning ki but apparently he already knows the Ki (without mastering it?)  
_ or probably Kirito in super saiyan (but I must have too much imagination ')  
I wonder how Kirito will do to attach his wings to the rest of his body

 **Kirito has some thoughts on how to train up this chapter. He has some mastery of ki, enough to fly at least, though with the minimal training that Goku has given him, he hasn't yet utilized it in crazy Z fighter type fashions. He thought about some ninja stuff, some magic stuff, though he has given up on his wings when Cartman just handed them to him instead of attaching. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks for reviewing, and thanks everyone for reading this story! 'Till next time!**


	96. Nexus HWR 13-9 The Spire

**Nexus HWR 13.9 The Spire:**

 **Two Miles Beneath Metropolis**

In a deep dark tunnel a boy walked on his own. There were no artificial lights around him, only his flashlight guiding his way down the path. He was shivering, as even in his puffy orange jacket, it was cold in the tunnels without any heating. The kid walking down the tunnel was looking at the floor, watching every step he took, and he had to slow down and maneuver around a pile of rocks in front of him.

The boy pointed his flashlight at the wall on his right and saw a large crater in it with cracks going from the edges of the hole all the way up into the ceiling. He pointed his light up and followed the crack around the ceiling as it branched around. As he was looking up, a few pebbles fell through the cracks and he could swear he saw the cracks widening. Imagining the roof coming down on top of him made the boy point his flashlight down and pick up his pace. He had short spiky hair the same color as his bright yellow skin, but his hair was covered by a black beanie at the moment as an attempt to try and keep warm.

 _It's still snowing up there,_ he thought as he shivered again. He lifted his light seeing a wall up ahead and there was a left turn and a right he could make. _What was it again? Two lefts and then a right? So, this way… or,_ he looked the other way down the intersection and no longer had to wonder which way to go. He shone the light in his hand at the collapsed tunnel on his left. There was a twelve foot tall pile of rubble there, large boulders and rocks, shattered glass of what could have been the old artificial lights down here. He looked below the rocks and pointed his light down as he saw the shadow of something strange, and he gulped at the silhouette of a hand sticking out from beneath the closest boulder.

His look of anxiety faded though once he got a better look at the hand. It glistened in his light even covered in the dirt it was. _A steel hand. A robot hand._ He turned away with a look of disgust on his face and started walking the other way down the hallway. Bart Simpson shivered and he crossed his arms in front of his body, rubbing his hands along his opposite arms' biceps over the coat. He steeled his face as he heard a voice down the tunnel, and despite how serious he looked, he could not help but gulp again as he walked. _You have to do this._

He got closer and a light shone his direction as someone must have seen his flashlight. He turned off the flashlight, then turned it on, off, and on again before he kept walking. The light pointed at him turned back off, and Bart approached without anyone bothering him. He walked past a man as tall as the twelve foot ceiling and ignored the heavyset man's gaze. As he got closer to his destination, he heard hushed voices coming from around the final bend. "…still don't like it. Being so close. We should be far from here."

"Coordinating an attack from that far would be impossible. Besides, we're deep enough. If they didn't find this place already, they never will."

Bart walked around the corner and a high-pitched voice called over to him, "Bart, come here." The boy frowning deeply marched down the dark path towards the figures ahead of him. "Here, take this and turn off your light." Bart grabbed the goggles the short figure in front of him held out and he put them on over his head. His vision became tinted green, but he was suddenly able to see all around the tunnel and the people in front of him distinctively.

There were others far in front of him and a few more that he had walked past at the last intersection, but there were only four in front of him at the moment. He looked around at the four of them, the two taller men who were just talking, the small boy who handed him the goggles, and the white dog leaning against the wall on his left. The dog had no clothes on, using only his fur to stay warm like one of the taller figures of the group who wore a pair of purple pants but nothing else over his gray fur. The dog looked at Bart through the one eye not covered by an eyepatch and asked, "How was home?"

Bart ignored him. All of them were wearing silver bracelets on their wrists to mask their energies from the surface world. Bart wished they did not work at the moment. _Three Underlords in the same place,_ Bart thought nervously, but tried not to let it show on his face. "Hey Stewie," Bart began, looking down at the boy with the football-shaped head in front of him. The four year old looked up into Bart's eyes through his own goggles and could see an incredibly serious look on his older friend's face.

"What's up?" Stewie questioned, tilting his head to the side.

Bart ground his teeth and his eyes darted to the older men behind the kid. "Can we talk in private?" Bart asked him.

"Whatever you have to say," a deep voice growled and all of Bart's hair stood on end. He looked up at the snow leopard that bared its sharp teeth at him. Tai Lung finished, "You can say in front of me as well."

Stewie frowned but did not say anything against that and he had a bead of sweat coming down the side of his face. _We have the same rank, but he's been here longer. Damn martial artists and telepathic-blocking. Why are you being secretive Bart?_ Stewie nodded at Bart and said, "Go ahead. We're listening."

Bart clenched his teeth hard and he did not know what to do. He looked into Stewie's eyes, then to his left at Brian who had goggles on as well, though through both of their goggles he could see the eyepatches on their right eyes. The dog's scarred face did not mask that it was not as hardened as it appeared, at least to Bart it couldn't. The torn left ear, the missing fur and scar across his nose and right cheek, it all just made Bart think the animal looked more, sad.

The kid darted his gaze behind him where the closest people to his back were out of earshot, then past Tai Lung and the other man to see the people behind them were also decently far away. "Stewie," Bart began, looking down at the kid as he spoke. "That's enough."

Two full miles over Bart's head, the surface of the world of Nexus was getting coated in snow. It fell slowly, but it was cold enough and the snowflakes were heavy so it was really piling up. In the last two hours since the snowfall began, the snow had already accumulated three inches high.

A car speeding down a road had its windshield wipers on to keep snow out of the driver's sight, but besides that, the snow had little effect on driving conditions. The roads below were being heated and grates on the sides where the roads dipped down allowed for water to drain off the streets. The cars did not even drive on the roads anyway, hovering several inches to feet off the ground as they moved. It was the middle of the week, officially a Tuesday now that a calendar had been created. People had been using days of the week the entire time they were there, but it was never agreed on universally what day it was. Now, all of Awul had the same calendar, the same dating system, many things had become standardized in the recent weeks.

The world was stable. Despite certain events on Awul and around the world, there was very little to complain about in the city of Metropolis. School had just gotten out and students were walking around the city, heading home or to the outskirts of the city to play in the snow.

"Come on Zushi!" Chester called back towards the sidewalk directly in front of the middle school. "We're having a snowball fight with the fifth graders! Those little twerps are going down!"

Zushi turned his head and looked towards a few of his friends who were all heading the same direction. Two of them stopped, the blond boy in a green coat calling to him and a bald boy behind him in a dark blue one. "Um, not today Chester. You and A.J. go, I'll, talk to you guys tomorrow!"

He looked a little nervous, but Chester didn't pick up on it and just shrugged his shoulders back towards his friend. He turned and started running after the rest of the group of sixth graders, while A.J. watched Zushi for a few more seconds in confusion. Then, the short sixth grader with a shaved head looked towards the school and spotted someone walking out that made him grin and snicker under his breath. A.J. turned away and chased after his other guy friends, while Zushi turned towards the school and his face lit up at the person walking out with two of her friends.

His cheeks were already red from the cold, but they got redder at the sight of the girl who walked out with a friend on either side of her. The blonde girl noticed her friend next to her with long dreadlocks smirk, then Libby nudged her with an elbow and motioned towards the sidewalk. "Have fun girl," Libby said, and Cindy turned to see the boy in a puffy red coat and matching beanie waiting for her awkwardly at the edge of the path.

Cindy's cheeks matched his, and she grumbled in annoyance as she moved fast away from her giggling friends. "Hey Zushi," she said as she reached the end of the path. The girl's annoyed look went away and she gave him a small smile as she asked, "You ready?"

"Y-Yeah," he replied.

"Then let's go," she said.

The two started walking the opposite direction as most of the other students. Libby and Cindy's other friend, Chimney, watched as their friends walked away. Chimney had two green pigtails that seemed to stay perpetually sticking up and out to her sides. The girls wore jackets like everyone else though Libby had a dark purple one on and Chimney's was bright green like her hair. They watched Cindy and Zushi walk away, side by side, with Zushi's hand that was closer to Cindy twitching nervously. Finally, Cindy's hand moved over and she put it in his and both kids kept walking and smiling without mentioning it, though Cindy's friends snickered some more behind her before turning themselves and running down the sidewalk after the boys of their class.

The two sixth graders holding hands walked across the street and started heading towards the center of the city. In the center of Metropolis, there was one building taller than all of the others by a good thirty stories. Many large buildings were under construction around it, but this tallest building was completed first and for good reason. At the top of the tall, thin building, was a wider round section with windows all around the outside and a point sticking off the top. The Spire of the Renewed Nexus Government, the tallest building in Metropolis, it stood over a hundred stories tall right in the center of the RNG's capital. It truly was a centralized government.

At the base of this huge building, a man came to a stop and looked straight up. He had tan skin, and much of it was visible through the rips and tears in his shirt. There was a white Marine officer's jacket draped over his shoulders, though it was too long and the bottom of it dragged on the snow behind him. The reason the coat was too long was because it was not his own, but the tall young man's on his left. The cold figure in torn clothes had fresh wounds on his face, bloody and infected by the looks of it. He did not shiver though as his cold breath lingered in the air over his face, he just stared up at the protruding section of the building.

"Vice Admiral Maynard," the young coat-less man on his left began softly. Maynard lowered his gaze to the boy with long scraggly pink hair pushed back over his head by a pair of green-tinted goggles he had resting up at the top of his forehead. Coby looked into the man's tired eyes and continued, "We must get inside. Aokiji Gensei is waiting."

The older Vice Admiral said nothing in response and his teeth clenched hard. The other eighteen year old on his other side as Coby looked down at the man shorter than both him and his best friend. Helmeppo had a black visor over his eyes, and his blond hair was slicked back behind him and tied into a ponytail. He wore a white Marine's coat like Coby's only without the shoulder pads, and had two sword hilts sticking out of sheaths at his right side unlike Coby who had no weapons. There were three people around the ragged man at the base of the tower, and the tallest and most muscular of them pushed on Maynard's back as the older Vice Admiral hesitated.

"Get moving," Basque Grand growled at the shorter man's back. Maynard darted a glare behind him, but the taller man by a few feet who had a menacing, thick, black handlebar mustache on his face did not get deterred by the glare. "The Fuhrer is waiting to hear your report."

Coby grimaced and glared towards the older man behind his fellow Marine, wearing a heavy blue coat that showed his was an officer in the State Military. "Captain Grand," Coby began, his grimace raising a little as he saw the frustrated flinch of the older officer. "I get that you want to regain favor with the Fuhrer, since Mustang demoted you after you disobeyed him in the Battle of Metropolis. But don't overstep your current position, Vice Admiral Maynard outranks you."

Basque Grand's face was red with anger but all he could do was clench his teeth in fury and try hard to stop himself from speaking against his superior officer. "Well," Grand began and the corners of his lips curled up a small bit to show his grinding teeth that he was seething through. "I doubt he will be keeping that position, seeing as he let Port Maple get burned to ash, and doesn't seem like he tried stopping it too hard."

Maynard glared into Basque Grand's eyes with a hateful fury like he wanted the larger man dead. "I fought to the last breath-"

"Doesn't look like it," Grand snapped back, lowering his face down and glaring as hard back into Maynard's eyes.

"Enough," Coby snapped at the men behind him. They looked forward at the young Vice Admiral who turned away from them and started for the doors of the Spire, "Follow me. There is a council meeting going on at this moment, but they will want to hear what you have to report." Coby glanced out the corner of his eyes as he walked and continued, "I do not know why what you have to say can only be reported directly to the council, but I assume it has to do with the Underlords?"

Maynard said nothing in response and the top half of his face darkened. They entered the building and a few men and women in white and blue uniforms walking around the lobby turned their direction. The sight of Maynard's cut-up face made even those who were not shocked to see the missing Vice Admiral lower their bottom lips. Coby continued as they moved forward, "I do not know about Captain Grand, but you can trust Rear Admiral Helmeppo and myself. If this report is-"

"He can trust me as well," Basque Grand snapped, the impetuous man not letting that remark slide even if it was from his superior. _Brat,_ Grand thought, unable to say that out loud and expect to still be able to bring up the Vice Admiral. _I was the first to arrive when he was reported at the gates. You kids have no right to take him to the council!_

"See?" Coby questioned and looked back at the man behind him with a friendly look.

Maynard stared into Coby's eyes and he hesitated, his face losing its hardened look. He opened his mouth, then shut it and shook his head, "I need to report directly to the council." He clenched his teeth and finished, "I'm sorry."

"It's fine," Coby replied.

They reached the elevators across the lobby from the front entrance, and Coby pressed a button with an up-arrow on it. As he did, the injured man next to him lifted an arm and started coughing violently into it. Once he did, a look of pain spread across his face and he reached up and scratched his side. Coby looked down at the man's side he was scratching, and a piece of his black shirt was ripped off right there, letting Coby see a long jagged scar that looked infected like many of his other injuries.

"After you make your report," Coby said while the elevator came down to them. Maynard turned to the boy and saw where he was looking, making the older man lower his arm to show it was nothing. Coby looked into his eyes and continued, "Get yourself over to the military hospital."

"Yeah, you look like you've been through Hell," Helmeppo agreed with his friend. Helmeppo said it and saw the older man's face wince so he closed his mouth. _Whatever happened to him in Port Maple and afterwards, he must have some details we don't know already. Where has he been? Where did he get all those scars?_

At the top of the Spire, two dozen people gathered around the round table where the RNG made decisions as a democracy. Only ten people had seats at this table, but many of the representatives at the table had subordinates with them at the meeting. General Alex Louis Armstrong and Colonel Hawkeye stood behind the Fuhrer, the Grim Reaper stood behind Mandy, and Griamore, the Holy Knight with only one arm thanks to the Battle of Metropolis, stood behind his father Dreyfus. Tsuna's old friend and a newly-promoted Colonel of the Marines, Kyoya Hibari, stood on his left side right up next to the table instead of standing behind him like most other advisors.

Another figure who had advisors with him, was the man currently speaking, the Arbiter of the Covenant, who had two tall figures standing behind him. One was the white-plated Special Operations Commander of the Covenant forces, the best fighter the Covenant had other than their leader in the Arbiter's opinion. The other figure was one who had never been in the council tower before, and was a different species of alien than the two Sangheili Elites, being a Jiralhanae, more commonly known as the Brutes. The Arbiter continued speaking to the council as he had their complete attention, "The dissent in the Covenant forces has been resolved with this upheaval of our military. With this however, the majority of my men are still highly against merging the Covenant army with that of the Marines and State Military."

"They don't like humans?" Mustang questioned the purple-plated Elite across the table from him.

The Arbiter narrowed his eyes over at the short man, "They don't _trust_ humans," he corrected the Fuhrer.

The two men continued to glare into each other's eyes for a few moments, until a woman with white hair in between them on Roy's right and the Arbiter's left began, "Boys." They turned to the old woman in a white coat, an Admiral of the Marines, sitting in a chair next to the Fleet Admiral. Tsuru continued, "The need to merge the militaries is not urgent, and it will not be a quick matter. However, at the moment the council has little control over RNG forces, and until we successfully break down the barriers between our armies, another mess like Metropolis may happen again." The leaders of the old New Earth Government in the room grimaced thinking about the Battle of Metropolis. When they looked back on how they handled that day, how Marines fought State Alchemists fighting Covenant aliens in the streets of Metropolis, they all realized how jumbled it all was. Even with the crooked leaders of the old government, there needed to be checks and balances, and as it was, the Arbiter controlled a giant force of aliens who would not listen to other leaders if he were to rebel.

Tsuru's calm attitude lowered the tension of the room a little, and Mustang and the Arbiter broke eye contact. Roy had already reluctantly agreed to making one centralized military, and Fleet Admiral Aokiji had proposed it in the first place. Even Great Holy Knight Dreyfus did not take long to agree to enter the Holy Knights into a centralized military, but the Covenant were taking a while. The Arbiter began again and looked around the room as he spoke, "My people may have the same rights as everyone else in this city, but many humans are still afraid of us. We have separate schools set up for Covenant children, and-"

"Your children are allowed at the same schools all the other kids go to," Dreyfus interrupted. "It is your own people's choices to segregate themselves. You build separate communities and send your kids to separate schools-"

"Would you want to live with people who look at you like you're monsters?" The Arbiter growled over. Dreyfus looked back and saw all three of the scary aliens snarling his way with sharp teeth and faces that would make normal men afraid, not to mention children. Arbiter continued, "Integration is not a fast process. I thought on Nexus, things might go smoother because of how strange this world is, but I was wrong to think the people of the multiverse were any different than the ones from my own."

No one said anything for a few seconds, then a quiet voice spoke up and everyone looked across the table from the Gensei of the Marines, to a young man with spiky brown hair who immediately looked like he regretted speaking when everyone looked his way. The Elites and Brute who turned his way were still frowning deeply and looked pretty menacing, but Tsuna did not look away when they growled towards him. "I think," he repeated, then continued this time, "it's not just up to us, to humans, to have to learn to get used to your people." Everyone looked at the boy confusedly and he continued with a more steady voice, "King Thrall, of Durotar, made it so that only orcs, and trolls, and other creatures like them could live in his capital- Orgrimmar. I heard that he said at the Summit that it was because of humans, and how we are intolerant, that he did it, but that's not fixing the problem. Now, his people won't be able to interact with humans, and humans won't see his people and get used to them, like I have with Sangheilis, and Jiralhanae." He gulped after saying it as he was looking straight into the Arbiter's eyes, and though he was not afraid because the man was a scary-looking alien, he was intimidated by the man being the leader of a military and a known hero of his own universe.

"Well said," Aokiji mentioned. The boy looked directly across the table at the tallest amongst them who gave the boy a small smile. "I have to agree with Tsunayoshi Sawada. It is a two way street Arbiter," he looked towards the purple-plated alien. "We made the first step, opening up human schools to your people. Now it's your people's turn to send your children there. Children don't have the same prejudices as their parents, and if we start at the schools, they'll never grow up to be as wary of people who don't look like them. It's difficult for us who lived entire lives before arriving on this world," Aokiji admitted. "I know that in my world, creatures that looked like you, Arbiter, would have been considered monsters, so I have no right to pretend that I was not wary when we first met." The Covenant officers glared at him, and Aokiji finished, "But it doesn't need to be the same for our children. They've lived two years of their short lives in close vicinity of each other, and by keeping them apart they're going to start thinking that there is something very different between our peoples, when there really isn't."

The Brute behind the Arbiter opened his mouth, but the Arbiter could see his remark coming and clenched a fist over the table. His subordinate closed his mouth but grumbled something racist against humans under his breath anyway. The Arbiter sighed deeply and thought about what they were saying for a few moments. "You may be right," he began. "I will speak to my people, tell them it is our responsibility to integrate, as much as it is yours to support it. I believe this will work out."

"Let's move on," Mandy stated out of nowhere. Everyone looked towards the blonde-haired girl whose hair was spiked up on either side of her forehead to look like horns. She had a pink jacket on over her black cloak that she constantly kept on no matter where she was, and her scythe rested over the table in front of her. Mandy did not want to dwell on the subject any longer and as it seemed they might have reached a resolution, she moved them to their next topic, "Sinbad." She said the word and the look of distaste on her face was clear. "He is making moves on lands between Magnoshutatt and Sindria. He has been talking to mayors of cities in that area, telling them the benefits of allowing trade between Sindria and his other holdings, telling them that it would benefit them even more if they would join him so they could receive taxes from their traded goods…"

 _Ding!_

Far below the base of the Spire, and a few miles away from the center of Metropolis, Bart Simpson looked into the left eye of his old friend. Stewie's eye opened huge and he questioned, "What's enough? What do you mean?"

The top half of Bart's face was dark, shadowed over even though they could see it well with the night-vision goggles they had on. "That's enough, Stewie." He lifted his gaze and stared straight into the younger kid's eyes. "I never meant to be a real member of the Underlords."

"Bart stop-" Brian began.

Bart continued as if he were uninterrupted, "I wanted to break it apart from the inside."

"I know that, obviously," Stewie said, his voice higher pitched than usual. The kid's eyes darted behind him for a second and then back to Bart. "You knew I knew that though. I-"

"I wanted to make you change your mind," Bart said, his face looking so angry as he spoke, keeping his voice low so that the ones in front of him would still be the only ones to hear him. "Brian tried too, and he was right. Stewie," Bart shook his head, so many emotions rushing over it. He clenched his eyes shut for a few seconds, then opened them and whispered, "I'm sorry, about what happened to your family."

"Enough of this," Tai Lung growled.

The snow leopard took a step forward, but a currently-shocked Stewie turned to him and said, "Wait."

"I don't take orders from you, baby," Tai Lung snarled at him, baring his teeth at the toddler. He stepped forward another step, then reached up both hands to his neck and grabbed it in pain. He dropped to his knees while Bart stared forward in shock. "Ack, ugh," Tai Lung darted his eyes to the side and saw a shadow looming over him. The green haired teenager standing behind him pulled his hands that were crossed over each other higher up, tightening the thin golden strings wrapped around Tai Lung's neck.

Stewie turned to the leopard whose face was turning red as it struggled for air. "But he does," Stewie said with a sadistic smirk, right before the Underlord in front of him's eyes rolled into his head. Bart looked past Stewie at the green haired man who did not say a word as he choked out another Underlord.

Bart stepped towards the younger boy who turned back to him again. "Stewie, let's destroy this organization," Bart told the younger boy.

"Why would I want to do such a thing?" Stewie questioned back. He noticed some people jogging their way from down the hall and he glared their way. The men stopped, thoughts entering their heads telling them to turn around and forget what they just saw, then Stewie turned and did the same thing to the men coming at him from the other direction. The young boy started panting deeply as sending out that many commands to several people was tiring on his mind. He smirked again though and lifted his gaze to Bart's, "I helped make this what it is. I am an Underlord."

"I know," Bart snapped. "I know," he repeated, shaking his head and catching his breath as he was panting hard too. "I know what happened to your family sucked," Bart said, and Stewie's eye opened wider at the older boy. "I know because it happened to mine that same day. Our families died with each other, and I have no right to tell you that what you're doing is bad, because I channeled my anger the same way! I, for years now, I graffitied all over Metropolis. I got in fights at school. I stole, just to feel the thrill, the rush, of being alive!"

Bart's fists clenched hard at his sides. "And when they came to me telling me to join them against the NEG, to be a rebel with them, I didn't do it to rescue Eren from prison, or to free Bender, or to get off Killua's nullifier! I did it because it was against the law, because I would get a thrill from it. At least, at first… Then, all of them died." His voice cracked at the end as he said it. "And I realized, that it was happening, _again._ Just like when my dad, and mom, and sisters, all died that first day. The people I came to care for all died again. That pain, is the worst thing imaginable, and I know you feel it." Bart reached forward and grabbed Stewie by a shoulder, "And what you've done- no, what _we've_ done, is put so many people through that same pain."

"I don't know what you're talking about-"

"Did you see Port Maple?" Bart asked, tears in the corners of his eyes. Stewie looked away and Bart continued, "I know you did, because I saw you that day. I saw you at the edge of the city, and you looked just like me, horrified. All those people who died, all the kids, who became orphans just like us because of what _we_ did to them!"

Stewie's head bowed and the young boy stared at the floor. Bart clenched his shoulder tighter and continued in a quiet whisper, "I know, it was hard on you. But I wish, you didn't run away. Astrid and Hiccup were good to me, no matter how many times I screwed up, no matter how many times I broke the law. They would have been good to you and Brian too. They still can be."

Stewie looked up into Bart's eyes and snapped, "I am an Underlord. I run a criminal organization. Don't think that-"

"Stewie," a voice said on his right. He turned his head and saw Brian standing there, head bowed, water in his eyes. "Please, listen to him," the boy's best friend, the dog with white fur, begged the four year old.

"You," Stewie began, then turned his head to Bart, "you both, want to go back?" Brian nodded his head, but Bart shook his 'no.' Stewie's one good eye opened wide, and he turned to the man next to him, confusing Bart who knew Stewie just read his mind. Stewie opened his mouth, then froze and shut it fast. He spun to the yellow-skinned boy next to him, opened his mouth to say something, then froze as the image of Port Maple filled his mind. He did not know if it was he himself thinking about it, or either of the two next to him whose minds he was reading, but the emotions in the memory he was feeling were ones that all three of them had: regret, anger, guilt.

The younger boy sighed and he turned to Lubbock again. "Just like you," Stewie began, "this man came here to destroy the Underlords." Bart looked at Lubba in surprise, and Stewie continued, "I turned him against those he was spying for right before the attack on Port Maple. I put constraints on his mind so now he only thinks what I want him to."

"Loosen those constraints," Bart said. Stewie spun to the older boy, and Bart continued softly, "I didn't know what I was doing. Port Maple happened and I couldn't do a thing. Him though, he's got other people who can help us right?" Stewie frowned as that was true, and Bart let go of Stewie's shoulder to step towards Lubba instead, the slightly older man looking down at him with a blank look. "We need to move fast," Bart whispered.

Stewie looked to Bart, then Lubba, then the boy sighed and whispered under his breath, "Even if we were to do something, it is already too late." Bart's eyes snapped open wide and he spun back to the younger kid who even Brian was looking at confusedly now. Stewie continued softly, "The Joker's plan will work without fail."

Two miles up and a little to the east, two kids sat at a table drinking frozen lemonades at an outdoor dining area. They had an umbrella over their table to keep the snow out, and most of the other tables around them had people sitting at them. Those people were mostly older than the two twelve year olds, though the majority were high schoolers who got out of school around the same time. This was a more grown-up hang-out spot, but neither Zushi nor Cindy cared.

The spot was close to the center of Metropolis, so close in fact that on the same road, only two intersections down on the street next to the table the sixth graders were eating at, stood the Spire that touched the clouds. "So," Cindy began. She lowered her glass after taking another sip from her straw, then looked at the nervous boy in front of her in the eyes, "What do you want to do after this?"

 _After this?! I didn't think that far ahead! I didn't even think she was going to say yes when I asked her to come. Oh man,_ Zushi's face stayed only semi-nervous even while his mind raced in anxiety. "Umm," he paused and took another sip from his lemonade slushy to give himself a few more seconds. "We could always-" Zushi stopped mid-sentence as Cindy's eyes popped open the size of saucers. He turned his head around fast, then let out a sigh of relief at the sight of a group of four penguins waddling down the road, talking to each other by the looks of it.

"So cute," Cindy whispered, looking at the adorable little creatures with starry eyes as they waddled their way.

At the top of the Spire only two blocks away from the hip hang-out spot for teenagers, the elevator doors of the council room opened up with a _Ding_. Mandy stopped talking about Sinbad and gained an even angrier look on her face as she was interrupted. Everyone in the room turned towards the elevators and watched as a man with dark tan skin stepped in. Aokiji's eyes opened wide as did Tsuru's, and Smoker and Momonga's, both of whom stood behind the Fleet Admiral and veteran female Admiral.

"Vice Admiral Maynard," Aokiji called from across the room, leaving his seat as he did. "You are alive," he sounded surprised as he made the statement.

Basque Grand stepped out of the elevator and looked towards Mustang who frowned back at him, though with slight confusion in his gaze. "I found him at the western entrance. I told him to tell me what happened in Port Maple but he said he would only speak to the council."

Mustang tried to hold in his apprehension against the officer in front of him. _Grand's trying to make a move for his old position. Idiot can't take the hint already._ "Very good, _Captain,_ " he said, emphasizing his subordinate's low rank. He thought about sending Grand away, but something more pertinent was on his mind and he turned to Maynard, "Vice Admiral Maynard, you were in Port Maple the day of the attack, were you not?" Mustang looked up and down the man's body and it sure appeared like he was in an attack.

Tsuna turned right to Mustang in surprise, then spun back around to the man who just got out of the elevator so he was standing closest to Tsuna's seat. "You were in Port Maple? What happened?"

"Where have you been?" Tsuru questioned, narrowing her eyes as this seemed to be the most important question at the moment. _Why is he here now? If he survived, he should have returned immediately. Even if he was on foot, it should not have taken this long._

Mandy was thinking along similar lines and she eyed the Marine warily. Maynard stepped forward while Coby and Helmeppo walked in on his left side, as Basque Grand took up all the space on Maynard's right. The three of them all looked in towards Maynard as well though, as they were anticipating what he was going to say for a while now. Maynard looked around at all of them, and he clenched his teeth hard before opening his mouth, "I have a message, that I am supposed to deliver."

"A message?" Dreyfus questioned. "From whom?"

Maynard looked towards the Great Holy Knight, and he replied darkly, "The Joker." Everyone in the room opened their eyes wide, but before any of them could shout questions at him, Maynard continued loudly, "I am an agent of chaos." The room became quiet as Maynard sounded like he was reading off a script, as he stood there shaking in rage. "You think, you can rebuild a system so broken, without starting from scratch? Your great city will burn again."

Aokiji stared at this Vice Admiral, a Marine more proud than most men he knew, and he had no idea how the Joker could have gotten this man to say this out loud in such a manner. _Unless, he's being forced to. Maynard's family lived in Port Maple with him. What if, are they making him say this?_ Aokiji's eyes narrowed as he looked straight into Maynard's eyes. _How would they know though? Unless, they have cameras in this very room?_ Aokiji's eyes darted around to all corners of the room but he did not see anything. He looked back towards Maynard, looked closer, right into Maynard's eyes, _Are those-_

 _Contact lenses._ Tsuru thought, a bead of sweat rolling down the left side of her face. _That Joker is watching us right now. Using Vegapunk's technology no doubt._ Tsuru's eyes lowered from Maynard's eyes, the eyes with contacts in them that showed the entire room in front of him to some very nasty people. Her eyes lowered to his left side, to his arm that was against his side, to his left index finger that was tapping on his cloak. _Is that, Morse code?_

"Chaos will take over in place of 'the plan.' Port Maple was just the beginning," Maynard stopped, he hesitated for a moment, gulped, and then turned sideways. He reached down his right hand towards the hem of his shirt, everyone tensed up, some people got out of their seats, and those with Observational Haki glared at Maynard as they felt very nervous all of a sudden. He lifted up the hem of his shirt though, a shirt that everyone could see his muscles on the other side of, that they could see his skin through because it was already so torn up.

Coby looked at the man next to him closely, nervously, and he looked down at the side that Maynard was scratching before as it became fully revealed from under the shirt. Maynard continued tapping his finger on his side, and the very few people in the room who were watching him tap opened their eyes huge. Maynard clenched his eyes shut as everyone stared at the massive gash on his side, and he shouted, "You wanna know, how I got these scars?!" _**Click.**_ A red light flashed on the inside of Maynard's skin.

 _ **BOOOOOOOOOM**_

Outside of the Spire, on the streets of Metropolis, a couple of kids who just left the slushy-shop and were walking down the road snapped their heads up in fear as a massive explosion occurred directly above them. A hundred stories up above Zushi and Cindy, flames billowed out every shattering window of the Spire's top floor. The thin part of the building right below the larger round part had a chunk blown out of it, and as soon as the initial explosion's sound faded, loud creaking replaced it.

Everyone in the city who turned towards the Spire in horror at the sound and feeling of an explosion, dropped their jaws even more as the explosion caused the top of the Spire to start tilting to the north. Loud cracks echoed through the city, and then one extra loud one preceded the toppling of the tower. The round section fell off the hundredth story, then skid down the side of the building smashing every window on its way down.

"Oh my G-" Cindy was interrupted by Zushi grabbing her by the arm and running as fast as he could the way they came. Cindy's eyes snapped open wide and she yelped in pain as the jolt on her arm was so strong.

Zushi slowed for a second, turned and lifted Cindy to put her on his back, then turned again and sprinted even faster away from the Spire. He had sweat all over his face as he sprinted seventy miles per hour away from the falling building. "Zushi slow down!" Cindy yelled at the boy carrying her.

He slowed, looked over his shoulder to see if it was safe, then stopped completely. Cindy gasped and then started taking deep breaths as she barely could breathe at all while being carried so fast. She turned herself and shouted, "What is going on?!" All the people on the street running away like them, slowed and came to stops as well as they all looked back towards the Spire.

Everyone stared at the wide top section of the tower, the round section that skid down ten stories of the building, before stopping out of nowhere. The entire top part of the Spire had suddenly jolted to a stop right on the edge of the building it was skidding down, as a thick coating of ice surrounded the bottom of their floor as well as the wall of the building behind it.

"It's the Fleet Admiral's power!" Someone shouted on the side of the road.

Zushi let out a sigh of relief and he lowered Cindy to the ground next to him. He quickly realized that his relief was coming way too soon and his eyes started darting around with a dangerous, distrusting look to them. Cindy turned to the boy next to her, "Thanks Zu-" she stopped as she saw him, looking around at everyone on the road individually, examining them, narrowing his eyes and frowning deeply at a few of them. Then, his eyes darted hard to the left and Cindy followed his gaze down the street they were both standing on.

There were several vehicles stopped on the street, their drivers and passengers all getting out to look towards the Spire. Then, there was a black van, twenty cars away from them, facing the other way, and driving. Zushi glanced to his left at the girl next to him, "Cindy, stay here."

"What?" She questioned, then her eyes snapped open huge as he started sprinting down the road. He hopped up on the hood of a hovercar then started leaping one car to the next down the road. "Zushi! Where are you going?!"

Behind Cindy, up the side of the Spire and inside the top section that was no longer falling, moans and screams filled the room with a destroyed round table in it. Coby opened up his eyes and everything above him was red and blurry. He lifted an arm and wiped some of the red off of his face, only to wince in pain from moving his bloody arm, and wince in disgust as the red over his eyes felt mushy, like guts. He wiped it away anyway though and put his hand down below him on the floor, only to feel cold and look down to see he was sitting on ice.

Coby stared at the floor, only it was not the floor he was looking at. He was sitting on the side of the room he was just in, right in a window that all the glass had shattered out of and now had a pane of ice replacing it. Coby looked straight up from the wall he was sitting on, and across the floor that was now at an eighty-degree angle, he saw Fleet Admiral Aokiji sitting down, panting, with one hand jammed in the floor so hard that it ripped right through steel, and the other hand lifted up forming more ice around the room to encase flames, to make the building more sturdy, and to hold falling people in place.

Aokiji looked down at his own right leg that had a deep gash on the thigh. There was a lot of blood coming out of his leg, and he grimaced thinking about why it took him so long to freeze the building in place. As soon as the explosion went off he had tried to use his powers, but the pain he felt in his thigh was very real, and it kept him from making any ice at all until he ripped out the shrapnel from inside him. He had to drop it fast, as just touching the Sea Stone with his fingers made him even weaker.

Now that the building was no longer falling, Aokiji could get a good look around to check the damage. He looked straight down into Coby's shocked eyes, then next to the boy before frowning deeply in anger, and in pity. Coby saw that look of pity directed his way, and he turned his head to the side in confusion, and his shell-shock doubled at the sight of the face staring at him, half of it melted off, the other half wide-eyed and staring at him in horror. "H-H-Hel-Helme-"

Roy Mustang opened his eyes and everything was foggy. His ears were ringing and he heard muffled coughing, only to realize it was his own. He tried leaning forward, but he was on almost a straight slant, and his back was frozen to the ground. He was still able to move his head and arms though, and he turned to the side to look at a woman next to him, bleeding badly, leaning partially over him so she was looking down at his face. Blood dripped off her chin and down on his face, and she mouthed words that looked like she was saying, 'Thank goodness you're alright.' There were loud yells of pain coming from Roy's other side, and he turned his head slowly to look at the Strong Arm Alchemist.

Alex Louis Armstrong was grabbing his left elbow with his right hand, screaming in agony as he lost one of his Strong Arms. Blood splashed out of the wound violently, until suddenly his entire left arm from where his lower arm was ripped off, halfway up his muscular bicep, froze solid. Armstrong was still in excruciating pain, but he stopped losing so much blood as his ripped blood vessels, veins, and arteries all froze shut.

Mustang looked the direction of the final member of the State Military who was in the room during the explosion, but he saw no remains of the Iron Blood Alchemist anywhere. _Grand was a bastard, but he didn't deserve to go out like that. Not again._

Great Holy Knight Dreyfus lowered the arm he rose to cover his face. He lowered it and looked at his red armor on the side closer to the elevators when the explosion went off. He did not even have any burns, but he could thank the near-invisible purple barrier in front of him for that. _We were foolish to let our guards down here. As soon as that man arrived, I knew something was wrong with him. To think though, he would be a suicide bomber!_ "Rrgg, Griamore."

His son standing behind him had his arm raised to keep up the purple bubble forcefield he only managed to get around himself and his father during the explosion. Griamore looked down at his father who got up to his feet so they were both standing on an almost straight angle now. Their feet were pressed down hard into the ground and they had enough leg muscle strength to hold themselves and their heavy armor up like that. "Yes father?" Griamore questioned.

"They will pay for this," Dreyfus snarled. He turned to his son, then looked back with wide eyes as he saw Aokiji leaning down next to an older woman next to him.

"Tsuru-san," Aokiji said, his voice deep and apologetic. "Let me get you to the hospital-"

Tsuru lifted an open palm and Aokiji's eyes widened at the clear indication of the motion. Smoker and Momonga were grabbing onto the ground just above Aokiji and Tsuru, and the two of their faces darkened at the look of resignation on Tsuru's face, and the thick shard of wood sticking out of the left side of her chest. The hand she had open as a palm though, she curled the fingers in to motion for Aokiji to come closer.

The Fleet Admiral leaned in, ignoring the shouts and cries and moans around him. He leaned down so his left ear, the one that was ringing the less of his two, was right over her mouth. Her voice was raspy and gargled, but Aokiji could still make out what she said. He leaned back and looked down to tell her he understood, but stopped with his mouth open as he saw the woman's eyes, still open, but no longer looking at anything in particular.

Aokiji stood up, and he looked around the room. He spotted the Arbiter's second-in-command trying to patch up his leader's bloody leg, while the Brute they brought with them to the meeting lay dead and covered in burns halfway down the slant where Aokiji had froze him. He had still felt a presence with his Haki when he first froze the Brute there, but now he no longer felt it and figured the alien must have succumbed to his wounds. He looked straight across the table, and saw a man he promoted himself after seeing him fight against Luthor with everything he had, shaking around another young man the same age who was not responding to him.

Hibari shook Tsuna violently, but the other boy was not opening up his eyes. Hibari could feel his heartbeat though, he could feel his presence with his Haki. Hibari lifted up and ripped Tsuna out of the ice, then turned sideways to look at the wall on his left which was actually the ceiling. Hibari leapt at the ceiling and his right fist turned black with Armament Haki that he used to punch a hole straight through it. Anyone who could move just stared up in shock as Hibari leapt out of the building at the ninetieth story they were stuck to, not because he was leaping out at such a high height, but because of all the blood coming off of Hibari's own body as he did this. The jet-black-haired man had huge gashes on his back that those he was leaving behind watched splash blood all over the edge of the hole Hibari leapt out of.

Once Hibari was gone with Tsuna, Aokiji announced loudly, "Maynard tapped a message in Morse Code that Tsuru-san caught. He only said, 'Short-range.' I can assume he meant the range of the trigger for the bomb they put inside him." Aokiji's face was full of rage that none in the room had ever seen him have before. His face darkened and he continued darkly, "That means that whoever forced Maynard to do this, is nearby. I do not know if they have Maynard's family with them, but if they do, saving his wife and daughters is a priority. Other than them, anyone else is fair game."

Everyone listening to Aokiji became confused at what he was saying that for, then they heard the growls coming from one side of the table. The injured leaders of the government looked over and watched as a form floated up in the air, holding a scythe in her right hand, snarling furiously as blood came down her head from the gash in her forehead and on her left cheek. A dark green aura surrounded the girl, then two black wings shot out of her back and spread to have a twenty foot wingspan.

Mandy ignored Grim's skull on the floor that complained at her to put him together first before leaving. Mandy shot towards the ceiling and before she even touched it, the steel was melting and pushing out away from her. She left a much larger hole in the vertical ceiling than Hibari did, and everyone in the city looking up towards the Spire dropped their jaws at the sight of the girl flying out. Mandy had twisting black horns over her long flowing blonde hair, her teeth sharpened and she darted her glowing green eyes around furiously. _They put Kairoseki shards in the bomb to kill Aokiji. They almost killed me! If I didn't raise my arms- if I didn't have this cloak you made me Timmy- I- I am going to DESTROY them!_

The girl dipped out of the sky, then flew back up and roared at the top of her lungs. "This is Mandy, representative of Timmy Turner on the council of the Renewed Nexus Government." Her voice seemed to lag behind itself, sounding twice as if there was an echo. It was deep, and dark, and two men in a hover-van driving away at high speeds heard the voice in their very souls, making them shiver in terror. Mandy continued bellowing, "I hereby declare a state of emergency. Return to your homes. I am locking down Metropolis until I find the bombers." Mandy rose the scythe in her right hand, eyed it with a deep snarl, then slammed the shaft down on midair in front of her below where her feet were. The tap from her shaft on the air sent dark dark ripples around the sky.

A bunch of little kids running towards the city from the outskirts of Metropolis stopped running to lift up their gazes to the ripples in the sky. Chester pointed and all his friends looked, then they screamed and spun around at the sight of massive green flames rising up behind them. A wall of green fire flew up out of the ground from beneath the snow, a wall that stretched from behind them, to as far as they could see in either direction before curving inwards to wrap around the city. The hover-van reaching close to the edge of the city screeched to a stop as the driver dropped his jaw and slammed his foot on the brakes. A huge wall of green fire was blocking the exit, and the guards at the exit heard the voice echoing around the city and tried to keep calm, turning away from the fire and instead stepping into the entranceway with weapons raised.

"A lockdown?!" one of the men in the van shouted. He turned to the driver and yelled, "We weren't told anything about this!"

The thinner man in the driver's seat was trying to keep calm and think of a way out of this. "Listen," he began. "If we can find a way below the city inside the flames, we can make our way back to the staging area. Phase two-" **Clank.** The two men broke eye-contact and snapped their gazes to the hood of their van through the windshield. Standing there was a four and a half foot tall twelve year old, a boy with short brown hair who glared at the men inside the vehicle angrily.

"Underlords?" The kid questioned, and the two people inside panicked, reaching down for their weapons. The kid standing in a puffy red jacket on top of the van frowned even deeper at their reactions. Zushi clenched his right fist, then he slammed it down between his feet into the hood of the black van. The entire front of the vehicle crumpled and the back of it snapped up in the air.

Guards at the nearby guard post started running down the street shouting, as smoke came out of the broken engine inside the vehicle. The van's hover-capabilities failed and it dropped down on the pavement below. The men whose heads slammed into the dashboard when their vehicle jolted, slowly lifted back up their heads to look out the cracked windshield at the boy. Zushi reached forward and grabbed the glass though, his hand that he grabbed it with covered in a thin white veil. Zushi ripped out the windshield and tossed it aside, but when he looked back inside, his eyes opened huge and he leapt backwards. It was just in time too, as the man in the passenger seat holding a pistol with a very wide barrel pulled the trigger.

A fat round shot out of the barrel, missing Zushi, but hitting a car behind him that exploded in a ball of flames. Zushi landed back near the guards who were running his way, and the boy dove to the side behind another vehicle to give him some cover as the driver stood up in his seat, blood covering his face, but lifted up an assault rifle anyway and started firing yellow beams all over the street in front of him.

The passenger who fired the explosive round started loading another round into his gun, while at the same time lifting up a radio and twisting the knob on it a few times. "Hey! We've got a problem up here! The city's boxed in and-" The man stopped shouting as he suddenly felt very light. Him and his partner froze, and they stared out the windshield at the city getting progressively farther below them.

The van finally stopped moving, and the two men lifted their heads slowly to the ceiling where they could feel heat radiating down on them. Staring down at them was a terrifying monster, one that reached down with a hand that had sharp nails at the end of her fingers, and she used that hand to grab the driver's face and lift him out of the car. She looked back at the man in the passenger seat, one hand wrapped around his partner, the other holding the scythe that was jammed into the roof farther back in the van and allowed her to keep hovering while holding it. "Tell me," Mandy said, and the two men almost pissed themselves at the sound of the same voice as the one they heard in their souls a minute ago. "Where are the people that you are trying to contact?"

Said people stared at the radio in Lubba's hand with huge eyes at the sound of such a menacing voice. The green-haired assassin who was shaking in rage, turned his head to Stewie and spat out, "It's Mandy." The four of them stared at the radio Lubba was holding, until the man crushed it in his hand and dropped the remains on the floor. Lubba glowered furiously at Stewie and took a step towards the kid, but Bart stepped in between them.

"Listen, I know you're mad," Bart began to the older teen.

"I betrayed everyone," Lubba snarled. The nineteen year old assassin could not hold in how mad he was. "I told them, Balbadd City, and then stood by and watched as we massacred Port Maple. I helped…" He glared into Stewie's eyes, "And you made me."

"And now I've released you," Stewie said, shrugging his shoulders. "Looks like we're even."

Lubba twitched his hands, but Stewie glared right back at him and said, "I could put you back under my control at any time. Do you really want to fight me? When I just let you go?" The toddler Underlord with a British accent asked incredulously.

"Stewie stop," Bart growled at the younger kid. "And you," he turned back to Lubbock. "Lubba right? I convinced Stewie to switch sides, so-"

"I heard you," Lubba snarled. "I could hear everything, while I was under his control." He shook in even more rage and he growled, "I have friends on that council. Comrades." _Mandy's still alive, but Kuzan, and that Tsuna kid seemed great. God damn it!_

Two men were running down the hall towards the four of them, and Stewie looked behind Lubba to mentally tell them to turn around. Before he could however, Lubba's fists opened up and strings shot out of his Perfect Cross-Tail. The Imperial Arms released so much golden wire that the other three next to Lubba, looking over at those men through their night-vision goggles, watched wide-eyed as those men became completely surrounded in gold in an instant, before Lubba clenched his fists again and his strings pulled so taut that the bodies inside were shredded. The strings pulled back inside his weapon, no longer gold but a deep red.

Bart winced at the action, Brian looked away, but Stewie managed to keep full composure as he looked up into Lubba's eyes again. "The four of us," Lubba growled, his eyes shadowed over. He thought about Takao, _I told him that I told Najenda we were going to Balbadd City. He teleported away, but help never came. I don't know what happened to him, but since help didn't come for the port, I really did betray everyone. They won't trust me anymore._ "No outside help," Lubba continued, looking away from Stewie to Bart instead. _This kid was part of the rebels in Metropolis, a very small group that took on an entire government. He's the one who saved me here, so he's even more impressive than I thought._ "We can do this, if," he continued and glared back at Stewie, "if you really are on our side now. You aren't going to betray us? Like you're betraying them right now?"

"Hey," Bart snapped, making Lubba look back to the twelve year old. "Lay off him. Stewie's my friend," Stewie looked at Bart with a wide eye that the older boy would say that considering what he had done. The little boy's left eye opened even wider as Bart continued, "But he's more than that. Stewie is, family." He turned to the four year old and looked into the boy's eyes, "Our families are gone, so we'll be family now. You're my brother." Stewie's eyes were getting a little watery, and Bart saw this so he pointed a thumb at himself and in a less serious tone stated, "And as the older brother, that means you have to do what I say."

Stewie's bottom lip dropped. The kid started complaining in a logical way about how he has more powers and was in the Underlords longer, while the glare Lubba was giving him was fading. _This kid really is four years old. He's smart, he's a psychopath, but he's just four._ His hands that were still twitching like he was going to wrap the kid up in strings and squeeze him to death stopped moving and came to rest at his sides.

"Well," Brian began, getting the three others to look to the dog who had a very small smile on his face for the first time since he stood outside Port Maple, watching it burn. "Should we start with this base here?"

Bart thought it was a good idea, but Stewie shook his head and began, "No Brian, we cannot just destroy our own base if we intend to keep our positions as Underlords."

 _That's right, I'm an Underlord now. At least the brat did something good._ Lubba saw Stewie shoot him a glare, and Lubba growled deeply, "If we're going to do this, then you have to get out of my fucking head." He glared into Stewie's eyes, and the kid looking back took a few seconds then finally conceded and stopped reading Lubba's mind. Lubba thought something that he knew would get a reaction out of the kid, then humphed as it seemed like Stewie really wasn't reading his mind anymore.

Stewie started back up, "If we plan on taking out this base, which is an important strategic outpost for the Underlords and imperative for the second stage of our current plans, we need someone to put the fall on."

"That's not an issue," Lubba said, though his voice was dark as he said it. The others looked at him confusedly, then they heard the screams. The other three with Lubba spun around, while the man was already looking the direction the screams were coming from. People started running down the tunnel towards them, but Lubba lifted up his hands and out from his Cross Tails flew a web of strings that filled up the entire hallway in front of him. The men running away found themselves all getting caught in strings, and then they screamed in fear as the air behind them ripped open with a huge circular green portal.

Demonic hands reached out of the portal and grabbed men of the Underlords, dragging them back into the portal. _I thought it wouldn't take long, but damn she's fast. Faster than me,_ Lubba thought, admiring how quickly the girl found out their location from hardened criminals specifically picked for the mission because they were supposed to be able to hold out during torture.

The portal closed, but green flames rose on the floor and burned the walls, filling the hallway with a green glow. The three boys and dog took off their night-vision goggles, and Bart did not need to pick back up his flashlight that he was using to check out the tunnel system earlier. They stared forward at a figure moving through the dimly-lit hallway, black wings behind her back, every footstep echoing around the halls as the cries of her burning victims died down. Brian stepped back and Bart gulped, and even Stewie had beads of sweat coming down the sides of his face.

"Mandy," Lubba began as the girl's face came within eyesight.

"You," Mandy snarled, her teeth baring at the older man. She looked like a true demon in front of them with her horns, sharp claws and teeth, menacing wings, and flaming green aura. "You tried to kill me."

"No," Lubba started. "I wasn't-"

She did not want to hear his explanation. Mandy's eyes glowed dark green with black swirls moving around inside them, "You were _my_ spy in the Underlords. _I_ suggested it to Najenda, and the two of us worked to put you there. We only told one other, the Batman. Everyone else thought you were just going to look for them, but you became a member. Your secret was so well-kept, that I knew you were still alive. I knew, you had betrayed me!" Flames rose all around Mandy at that final roar.

"I didn't betray you," Lubba said, shaking his head as he did. "Didn't Takao tell anyone? What happened to him?"

"He's in a coma," Mandy replied. "His brain got friend." Lubba turned and glared down at the kid next to him who shrugged his shoulders like it was no big deal. Mandy saw the dart of Lubba's eyes, but she continued glaring straight at him, not the children and dog in front of him. "He did say some things before he collapsed though. I heard that he told the people of Pao, 'Port Maple, not Balbadd.' And he also said, 'Lubba lied.'"

Lubba's teeth clenched hard and he could only imagine how that looked to every person he knew and became friends with over the last two years. "He didn't lie," a voice started on his right. Mandy looked down at the kid who looked even younger than her, and she glared into his eyes with her demonic ones. Stewie Griffin looked right back in her eyes and said, "I took over his mind and made him report that we would be attacking Balbadd City." Mandy's eyes narrowed and she looked back at Lubba, to see the man snarling down at the kid with his fists clenched tightly as he tried to keep himself from killing the boy.

"Yet, he is not under your control anymore?" Mandy mentioned, lifting her pitch at the end of the sentence to show she wanted an explanation.

Bart stepped forward now, and though scared, he began, "We're all on the same side now."

"Who are you?" Mandy snapped at the kid who leaned back a little in surprise at how scary and mean she looked.

He gulped but replied, "I'm Bart Simpson. I live in Metropolis, and I joined the Underlords so I could destroy it from within." He tried to make himself look as serious as he could while he spoke, but his face still looked mostly just afraid. She glared at him without saying a word in response, but Bart continued anyway, "I, got Stewie to chill, and now we're going to take on the rest of the Underlords."

"Why don't," Mandy began, "I just kill you all right here? After I learn where the other Underlord bases are of course." She turned to Stewie with eyes that showed she intended to torture him.

"The Underlords are not the Underworld," Lubba started in a deep voice. "They don't want what happened to the Underworld to happen to them, so the forces are constantly moving, creating new bases, leaving old ones behind. Even this place here, we just had twenty soldiers to make this plan work, and none of them know where we're heading next. Myself, Stewie there, and one other know where we were supposed to go next, but you won't find other Underlords there. There's a very good system in place to keep us from all getting caught. The Joker got a lot of good ideas through his time with Vegapunk."

Mandy started growling and she did not know what she wanted to do. She rose an arm and rubbed her forearm over her eyes, getting some of the blood coming down from her forehead out of the way. "So what then?" She snapped. "I'm supposed to just accept that you attacked the council? Killed members of the government? You want me to go back empty-handed? So that you can what? Go to another base, plan another attack, and carry it out, only to say afterwards that you're good guys now and want to take down the organization on your own?"

Bart sweatdropped as that was exactly what this sounded like now that he thought about it. Lubba grimaced deeply, and Brian looked away ashamed that it was already too late. Mandy glared back at Stewie, because the kid was the only one still looking calm. Stewie had a plan though. His oval-shaped head pulsed and Mandy could swear she saw his brain through his skull. "You will not go back empty-handed. You will leave here with an Underlord in your possession." Lubba and the others turned to him in surprise, then all turned their heads to the wall next to them where an unconscious snow-leopard was lying. Mandy looked at the creature in the darkness, then her eyes opened wider and she created more flames around him to make sure.

Stewie continued as it seemed the girl in front of him recognized who this was already and did not need an introduction. "Take him. We need him out of the way if we are to continue the infiltration as he may now know of our intentions. I have searched the surrounding area, and it seems you and Lubba have taken down all of our men." Mandy darted her gaze behind them to where she saw some limbs, chunks of bone, and a lot of blood splattered around on the walls which she realized must have been Lubba's doing. Stewie finished, "So us four will be able to fabricate our own story and have each other back it up, while you can return to the city with your prize. However, do not let other Government leaders speak to him. If he tells them anything about us, the information will reach our enemies."

Mandy waited a few seconds, then nodded her head and looked back into Lubba's eyes. "I don't trust him," she said. Her voice started echoing again and it was deep and dark as she spoke. "I'll accept, that he used you to trick us. You are free from guilt there, but now that you know he can turn you, do _not_ let it happen again. It will be your fault next time." She glared back at Stewie who opened his mouth to protest what she was saying, and suddenly her darkness took on a whole new meaning. A green portal opened up behind Mandy, but it did not just open on this side. Inside the portal was not just a green void with monsters swirling around inside of it. All four of those in front of her stared into the portal and looked deeper to where they saw another hole, another portal leading out somewhere else. That other portal was getting larger almost like the other side was getting closer to theirs, and the four looking towards that other portal behind Mandy's back felt themselves tense up in fear and shivers go down their spines.

Through the portal on the other side of Mandy's portal, they could see a realm of red, full of pits of flaming lava, of islands covered in skulls, pools of blood with demons inside them, ripping apart every person they found and adding their blood to the mix. There was a castle in the far distance of the lava fields, and the screams that got louder as that portal approached were heart-wrenching. "I will accept your help destroying the Underlords, and since you four won't be able to do anything personally to destroy your bases without being discovered, you!" She pointed at Stewie who found it hard to tear his eyes off the portals behind her. "Create a telepathic connection with me. Let me know locations, let me know how many people are there, how strong they are, how well fortified the base is. Be smart about it, and the five of us will destroy the Underlords on our own."

Lubba nodded his head as this seemed like a better idea than just the four of them without Mandy like he suggested earlier. Mandy was not finished yet though, as Stewie who started nodding his head was about to find out. "But if you _**ever**_ ," she continued, glaring into Stewie's eyes, into his soul. "If you _**EVER**_ try taking me over, I _will_ know. And I will have demons rip your eyes out, and devour you, and then I will have them drag your soul to the deepest pits of Hell." Her wings flapped behind her and fanned the green flames all around. Her body seemed to triple in height and she towered over them, glaring down with eyes that were pure green but with small flaming red pupils in the centers. Even the threat about bringing his soul to Hell seemed so real while she held up a massive Grim Reaper's scythe, while a portal behind her that she created showed the exact place she was speaking of.

Stewie started nodding quickly, for the first time, in a very long time, feeling very afraid. He connected a mental link to Mandy, **"This is it. I'll tell you how it works-"**

 **"I know how it works,"** Mandy snapped back at him through the mental link. _I had enough conversations with Timmy through one of these._

 _This girl knows Timmy Turner? She is his representative in the council, I should have known she would be crazy strong like this. I could still take over her mind though…_ he stopped thinking along those lines in the off chance that she could also read his mind, and he tried his hardest to think about anything else. His mind wandered back though and he thought, _But she could be like Tai Lung and have mental protection. He was a martial artist though… and she's a bat-shit crazy demon lady. Don't try it. Don't, go to that place._ He looked back through the portal, but the green portal suddenly closed and Mandy dropped back down to her normal height.

The five of them stood in a dark hallway as the green flames flickered smaller and smaller. "It's up to us then," Bart said to the comrades around him. "Let's do it. Let's take down the Underlords."

"Alright," Mandy replied. She took a step to her left and rose up her scythe. Three of the others opened their eyes wide, while Lubba just watched calmly, already expecting this. Mandy rose her scythe, and brought it down on the still-unconscious snow leopard he choked out not long ago.

High above the tunnel and two miles away near the western gates of Metropolis, a boy sitting on the side of the road surrounded by Marines turned left as he heard his name called. He looked over and saw some friends jogging towards him, but frowned disappointedly as Cindy was not one of them. "Whoa Zushi! What's going on man?!" Chester shouted as he neared his friend.

Zushi stood up and he looked at the Marine Captain next to him. The man in an officer's coat frowned, but he nodded his head away, "I got your statement. You're free to go." Zushi started jogging away, but the man called after him, "Next time, don't be so rash. You could have been killed."

The young kid gulped but nodded his head back at the man. He turned and jogged over to Chester and A.J., Kenny, Libby, Chimney, and a half dozen others who were with them outside the city near the flames when they all rose up. The kids all looked spooked, and Zushi asked, "Are you guys alright?"

"Yeah, we're fine," A.J. replied.

Kenny walked up in front of all his other friends, and though wearing an orange parka that made it hard for some people to understand him, Zushi nodded along as the boy asked, "What happened here? What's wrong with that van?"

Kenny McCormick was frowning deeply, not that any of his friends could tell when his mouth was hidden behind the bottom of his orange hood. _I shouldn't have went snowball-fighting after school. The city needs me. Batman's away, and Mysterion is the only hero left the roam the streets._ As Zushi started talking, Kenny's eyes opened wide and he thought, _Or maybe not._

"You caught the bombers?!" Chester exclaimed in shock.

"Well, I just stopped their van," Zushi repeated what he just said. "That girl on the council, Mandy, was the one who came and…" Zushi faded off as he thought about what he saw when he looked up in the sky. He glanced back at the van behind him, the van that was mostly melted, with entire chunks torn off of it leaving behind teeth marks. He shivered imagining what became of the two men who the council member threw in the portal full of demons when she was done with them.

All of the Marines near Zushi were also talking about what they saw in hushed, terrified voices. They only stopped, when a voice echoed around the city and everyone snapped their gazes up again. The Marines, the children, all the citizens of the city, and the council members in their destroyed council room, looked out into the sky above the center of Metropolis where a green portal emerged. The portal was not large, but when the voice spoke, everyone looked up, so they all saw it appear.

"People of Metropolis," Mandy began. She floated out of the portal, no longer looking like a demon. This time she was sitting atop her scythe with the hood down, revealing her human-like face with yellow hair pointed up on either side of her forehead. Those who saw her before had a hard time picturing the two as the same person. They only couldn't picture it for a few seconds though, until the girl who looked like a human did a completely demonic thing, by lifting up her right hand and raising a head in the air in front of her.

Roy Mustang had just climbed through a hole in the ceiling thanks to a set of ice stairs Aokiji made for the council members who were able to walk, and the Fuhrer stared out into the sky with wide eyes at a sight to behold. The others who could see what this girl was holding dropped their jaws or gasped, but many people also recognized the head in her hands. "This, is Tai Lung!" Mandy shouted. Blood dripped out the bottom of Lung's decapitated head as she held it there in the air. "He was a prisoner here before the Battle of Metropolis, when he broke free and became an Underlord!" Everyone staring up in the sky gasped, while Mandy held his head even higher. "He was not one of the pawns. He was not just a soldier. He was one of the leaders of this _despicable_ organization. To all those killed in Port Maple, and here today in the Spire, I promise you this. His head will not be the last. My name, is Mandy. I will protect the people of the RNG. And I will destroy the Underlords with my own two hands."

She threw Tai Lung's head up in the air, then pointed her scythe at it and a red beam shot out of the end and incinerated the head. A huge red explosion filled the air, and then, the city filled with noise. Cheers, war cries, roars, howls, applause, whistles, shouts of her name, and Roy Mustang looked around with huge eyes as he saw this happening. In the very building whose roof he was standing on, he could hear the cheers coming inside from Marines, and State Military, and even Covenant aliens who heard what she had to say.

The Fuhrer looked back into the sky and up at the girl floating there on her scythe. He thought about her at the Summit, how she challenged Sinbad, how she took so much power at council meetings using the name of Timmy Turner. This time though, she was not using Timmy's name, but her own. _She's amassing power. This, girl, is ruthless, and smart, and she might just hold the most power in Metropolis. Which would mean she holds the most power in the entire RNG, no. All of Awul._ Roy Mustang gulped and he clenched his hands to find that his palms were sweaty. _Why do I have a terrible feeling about this?_ Mustang stared nervously at the girl in the sky, the girl whose face was smeared with blood, the girl who was always frowning, the girl who turned his way, and smirked.

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed. I'm going to put a list below of all the characters in case anyone forgot who they were or where they came from (it has been a few chapters since we've seen anything from Awul). The Underlords attack the Spire using a bomb they planted inside of Vice Admiral Maynard. Mandy takes down Tai Lung, and now the insurgence into the Underlords is greater than ever as it seems Stewie may have switched sides. Mandy takes more power, some of the council are killed or injured, a lot of characters died. What will this attack mean for the people of Awul, and how will they respond? Thanks for reading!**

 **Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy: Mandy, Grim**

 **World of Warcraft: Thrall, Ogrimmar**

 **Halo: Arbiter, Covenant, Elites, Brutes**

 **Fullmetal Alchemist (Brotherhood): Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye, Alex Louis Armstrong, Basque Grand.**

 **One Piece: Tsuru, Helmeppo, Coby, Maynard, Aokiji, Chimney, Smoker, Momonga, Vegapunk.**

 **Fairly Oddparents: Timmy Turner, Chester, A.J.**

 **DC Comics: Joker, Luthor, Metropolis, Batman**

 **Kung Fu Panda: Tai Lung**

 **Family Guy: Stewie, Brian**

 **The Simpsons: Bart**

 **Akame ga Kill: Najenda, Lubba**

 **Magi: Balbadd (City), Magnoshutatt, Sindria, Sinbad**

 **Towa no Quon: Takao**

 **Katekyo Hitman Reborn: Tsuna, Hibari**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Zushi**

 **Jimmy Neutron: Cindy, Libby**

 **South Park: Kenny (Mysterion)**

 **7 Deadly Sins: Dreyfus, Griamore**

 **How to Train Your Dragon: Hiccup, Astrid**

 **-Whew that was a whole lot of them. (Let me know if I missed any who you wanted to know where they were from). Alright, review responses:**

Limit-Breaking chapter 95 . 13h ago

Well the only question you didn't answer i think is goku getting blue or god, you probably won't answer it, but i felt like asking that cause vegeta got blue first as far as we know, Also not that i don't care about goku, timmy and the rest but can we see how other charcters are doing now especially with this declared war and stewie attacking pao i guess in a way. I really want to see how that is going.

Answer this if you can

(Also did i hit the nail on the wall for the reason goku can't use instant transmission, was i close or no.)  
Also im kinda curious why update your other stories after like two years i got the notice for that and i was like What's this.  
Either wayNice chapter i look forward to the next one.

 **Lot of stuff about future DB characters/questions which I'm not going to answer rn, as you probably thought ;). Won't confirm the I.T. theory either, since it will come up again in the story so no spoilers. Bam! Right as you ask about Stewie and the Awul stuff we get a chapter full of it! Lol glad that worked out the way it did. I know it wasn't your fav chapter in total, but hope you enjoyed the way I finished it. As for updating other stories, really Nexus isn't my only project, it's just the one I'm most dedicated too. Broken Log Pose, LOST, any of my unfinished works can always be updated if I reread them and find that I've got some new ideas fresh in my head, or find old chapters that had almost been finished when I lost interest so I finish those up with hopes I might continue it more some day. Thanks for the review, hope you enjoyed the chapter!**

joebob323 chapter 95 . 5h ago

Nice, we finally get to see some flashbacks. I wonder, would Cartman be able to overpower Juandissimo if he truly wanted to take away all the wishes Cartman made? Cause i'm pretty sure there was an episode of FairyGodParents where Timmy got his wishes undone, without having to wish for it first...

 **Glad you enjoyed! You made an interesting point with Cartman and Juandissimo that got to me as I thought on it. Fairies probably can wish all the wishes undone, but I don't know if that would be the case with Cartman. I think it might take too much for Juandissimo to undo everything he's done, since Cartman has made him use his power to the point of exhaustion so many times, just to wait for his power to recharge and use even more of it. If getting rid of those wishes is as hard as making them in the first place, Juandissimo might have a hard time with it at this point. Anyway, thanks for the review!**

asdf chapter 95 . 2h ago

I guess Sariel isn't as powerful as angels like Whis because I would have been confused if Cartman could defeat opponents on Whis' level because not even Complete Ultra Instinct Goku can do that.

You know wishing for money is against Da Rules as well right?

 **Haha no way Sariel is anywhere close. The angels from Supernatural, DBS, and Devil is a Part Timer are very different power-wise. Shingeki no Bahamut too, though I haven't watched in a while and I forget whether they were Gods or angels that took up a big portion of the beginning of the first episode. And I do know about that rule, don't worry I did my research. That's why soon after Cartman makes the wish, in think in the next flashback he asked Juandissimo how he was able to make it considering he read the full Da Rules book and saw a rule against wishing for it. Juandissimo then told him that on this world where money did not count for anything (back in the first weeks), that the money Cartman wished for had no value. So Cartman was pretty much wishing for useless pieces of paper, and the rule was meant against counterfeiting so he was in the clear for it. Alright, hope you enjoyed the chapter, and thanks for reviewing! Thanks again to everyone for reading and reviewing, faving and following! 'Till next time!**


	97. Nexus HWR 14-0 A Harsh Blow

**Nexus HWR 14.0 A Harsh Blow:**

 **Resistance Outpost Charlie-01**

In the far east of Resistance lands, only a hundred miles from the border, sat a small Resistance compound which served as a command post for all Resistance bases on the lower eastern border. It was smaller than many of the more fortified bases closer to the border, and inside the square walls enclosing the outpost were more tactical buildings than anything. There were no barracks; the main command building served as the housing for the few staff who worked there full time and for any high-ranking officers who were in charge at the time. There was one hospital for bases to send their wounded soldiers to if it was too dangerous to keep them at their forward positions. The largest building there however, was the communications' building with its giant radio tower sticking off the top, the satellite dishes all over, and the drone ports and helicopter pads. The helipads also had thin lines splitting them down the middle, as they could open up and release the mech suits hidden underneath in case of emergencies.

Outpost Charlie-Zero-One was no more crowded than usual, other than a group of five dignitaries from a foreign nation who had just arrived. One of the men in the group had stayed behind with their ship on a helipad, and although it was not a helicopter, it had the ability to rise and lower without needing a landing strip so it managed to land on the landing pad without problem. The pilot sat back in his chair with his cap pulled down over his eyes and his legs up on the dashboard, the big headphones he had on while flying still over his ears, only playing music now instead of listening for communications.

The other four dignitaries had already left the landing pad and been escorted to the command building. The two guards who followed the real ambassadors of the foreign nation stayed outside the doors of the main briefing room where the base's current acting Commander had been waiting. The two dignitaries were standing in the room on one side of a rectangular table while the base Commander and a comrade of his stood on the other side facing them with much angrier looks on their faces. The ambassadors were calm though, and the man standing a step in front and to the right of the woman next to him repeated, "This is not up for negotiation. I have come here solely to relay our decision."

"How can it not be up for negotiation?" Hiroomi Nase asked harshly, leaning back and crossing his arms while glaring at the man who just said that. "You are the Chief Advisor of Lagann Island, Rossiu. If you say so, Simon could change his-"

"I would not attempt to change President Simon's mind," Rossiu said. The twenty-three year old man wore a white military uniform with golden stripes on the shoulders, and stars and medals pinned to his chest. He had a long black ponytail and no bangs which exposed his large forehead. Rossiu Adai continued in his calm tone, "As I am the one who convinced him of this necessity."

The Resistance Commander in front of Rossiu slammed his hands down on the table and yelled, "What?!" He wore a pair of green pants and a green shirt with a black jacket on over it. The man had slicked-back thick black hair, and even through his heavy clothes they could see he was very muscular and broad at the shoulders for a teenager. The eighteen year old reached over the table and grabbed Rossiu by the front of his uniform, surprising the ambassador and making the woman next to him open her eyes in panic and rush forward. "You want to give me a good reason I shouldn't sock you in the face?" Yusuke Urameshi snapped, lifting up his other fist and holding it in front of Rossiu.

"Let go of-" Kinon Bachika started shouting, but Rossiu held up an open palm signaling for her to calm down. The woman with short brown hair falling just to her shoulders had a tight black uniform on and wore a pair of glasses that slid down her nose when she rushed forward to Rossiu's side. At his signal to control herself, Kinon stood back up straight with a composed demeanor and pushed her glasses back up in front of her eyes, though she did start glaring through them at the young men on the other side of the table.

Hiroomi did not say a thing as Yusuke grabbed the foreign emissary. He had on a black Resistance uniform but with a blue jacket that was open down the middle on over it, and he had a black-and-red-striped scarf wrapped around his neck. Hiroomi glanced in at Yusuke, then back at the man in front of Yusuke who was not responding while the younger man had him half-pulled over the table. Yusuke bit down hard and ground his teeth, then he let go of Rossiu and the older man straightened up. Rossiu smacked his hands down his uniform a few times, then he looked back up in a serious but controlled manner while saying, "There was no other option. Kouen Ren, Arachne, and Terminus threatened to attack us at the same time. Without the Resistance's support, we would not have been able to fend them all off."

"We would give you support," Hiroomi said, and Rossiu looked towards the older of the two teens. The nineteen year old with straighter black hair than Yusuke stared seriously into Rossiu's eyes and said, "How could you think we wouldn't?"

"You wouldn't be able to," Kinon cut in. "Not on the scale that we need."

"The Resistance no longer has any ports," Rossiu continued after her. "With the last of your western coastal holdings fallen, there is no longer a navy that you can send around the southern coast of Aebrith to come support us. Yet Simon still resisted, because he and most of our people do agree with the Resistance's stance."

"And you don't?" Yusuke snapped.

"I believe it is a stance that has long since become implausible. The Resistance is not fighting a losing battle, but a lost battle," Rossiu claimed. "The support you have given us since the fall of the final east coast base was half of what we received before it. Then, with the fall of your west coast, those statistics dropped to a small fraction of what it once was."

"We sent ships-" Yusuke started.

"And they were shot down over the Deadlands," Rossiu retorted just as fast. "The effort to send us support is not the same as supporting us. Good intentions only go so far," Rossiu shook his head and then returned his sharp gaze looking less sympathetic than he started to a moment ago. "We cannot risk Team Dai Gurren, or any of our Ganmen or soldiers, to continue helping you in your lost cause. If Ren, Arachne, and Terminus decide to go back on the deal they offered us, and invade our island together, we will need all of our current forces to have a chance of pushing them back. If we- if _I_ had the confidence that when we were attacked, the Resistance would be able to offer meaningful support, then I would not have had to take these measures. You have not instilled that confidence in me, with the constant loss of land pushing you farther and farther from the coast you promised to retake months ago."

"You also promised to help us take that coast back," Hiroomi countered, his voice low and dark at what Rossiu was saying. "Yet you're putting all the blame on us?"

"We made the attempt several times," Rossiu replied. "And Arachne sends her Kishin, and our Ganmen pilots lose their minds. We have lost too many good people to keep trying, when all the signs point to one undeniable future." Rossiu paused, then finished in a harsh, low voice, "A world without the Resistance."

The room was silent for a few moments. The Resistance members in front of the emissaries could see that Rossiu's mind would not be changed. "So what now?" Yusuke asked. "Is Simon a Lord under Arachne?" Yusuke's fists clenched again and Rossiu saw them on the sides of the base Commander.

"Yes," Rossiu said.

"That makes you our enemies," Hiroomi said without hesitation after Rossiu's response.

A bead of sweat rolled down the left side of Kinon's face, but Rossiu turned towards Hiroomi and began in a threatening but calm tone, "Just because we will not longer help you, doesn't mean we're declaring war on the Resistance. Our deal with those Cooperative nations is to cease all involvement in the wars of Aebrith. Simon becoming a Lord of Arachne is solely because she was the most willing of the three to allow us not to join in the wars, and her country is closest to ours to prevent attack from others. We do not intend to join her fight with the Resistance." Rossu's eyes narrowed in and shifted back to Yusuke, and he said, "Don't make us change that."

Rossiu stepped back from the table and he turned his back to the men on the other side. There was no apology, no sugar-coating it, Rossiu said what he came to say and was now going back to his home country. _Simon would not have been able to go through with it had he come. It may not be what is best for this world, but we cannot stick our necks out for them anymore._ Kinon followed behind Rossiu, and the two of them walked out of the room while Yusuke's hands clenched tighter on the desk with every step they took.

The doors opened back up and closed behind the dignitaries. As soon as the door slammed shut, Yusuke's eyes widened and his hands lost their grip on the table. The realization of what had just happened started to settle in, and Hiroomi muttered on his left, "With the loss of Simon the Digger and them, that's a fifth of our remaining forces." Hiroomi scratched the back of his head, but he did not get a carefree look on his face as he was trying to make. He wanted to sigh and say that they would figure something out, but the blow was harsh, and it was a long time coming. "He stayed longer than I would have," Hiroomi said quietly. Yusuke turned to the teen at his side who was less than a year older than him.

Hiroomi turned and looked the other boy in the eyes. They were friends, and they each knew that the other was from a world similar to their own. "An island the size of Australia, a little bigger even. They've been protecting it practically on their own while still helping us for months." Hiroomi finally sighed and then mentioned optimistically, "Hopefully some of their soldiers decide not to pull back. They've sent our armies a lot to bolster with, but those soldiers have seen what our enemies are like. Maybe a few of them will stay for ideological reasons."

"You're being too optimistic," Yusuke muttered. He ran a hand up through his hair, and he said, "Their leader is giving them an out from this war, no normal grunt is going to say no to that." Yusuke slammed the hand from his head down onto the table in front of him in a fist. "Damn it!" He shouted.

Hiroomi frowned, then he mentioned with a small grin, "That girl who was here was pretty hot. Think that's Rossiu's wife?" Yusuke glanced at him confusedly, and Hiroomi continued with a slightly larger smirk, "When he made that threat at the end there, I swear it looked like someone had dumped a bucket of water on her that's how wet she-"

"I get it," Yusuke interrupted, rubbing his forehead in annoyance at his friend while they were going through something serious here. His expression darkened even more than it had before, and Hiroomi lost his smirk and started frowning at the look he recognized all too well on Yusuke's face.

"It's been well over a year," Hiroomi said, and Yusuke's eyes widened as somehow the boy next to him knew what he was thinking. That sudden surprise replaced with anger a second later and he turned his gaze to Hiroomi with a harsh glare. His friend did not back off though, and Hiroomi continued, "You're young, you're a, somewhat good-looking guy." Hiroomi got a more frustrated and annoyed look out of Yusuke that he was hoping for, then he went in while Yusuke's expression was not as dark, "You've gotta move on."

Yusuke froze with his mouth open to retort about that "somewhat good-looking" comment. His eyes darkened again, but they did not look as angry as they just shadowed over when his head bowed a little.

 _"Urameshi! Calm down!" "Get a hold of yourself!" "She's gone, Yusuke. Yusuke listen to me! Keiko, she… she was still in Camelot when the bombs hit." "Where are you going?! You won't find anything there!"_

"The Second War of the Gods was a long time ago," Hiroomi said.

"I have a report to make," Yusuke said, lifting his head and ignoring what his friend was telling him. Hiroomi just sighed and nodded as Yusuke turned and walked towards the side of the room where there was a door to the hall to his room. In order to get his thoughts off of Keiko, Yusuke put his full focus back on what he had just been told. _I have to tell the others. If they've cut off any chance of support from the east coast, Arachne is no longer pincered between enemies. Instead, she can focus her full efforts in front of her._ Yusuke marched towards his room and shoved his hands in his pockets, _At least she's on bad terms with the Emperor. Chances they coordinate anything are slim, and with Sozin down, the ally they both had to our northwest, the chances get even slimmer._

He hummed to himself as he reached his room's door. _That guy who beat the Fire Lord, wonder what his deal is. Never heard of him before. Natsu Dragneel, right?_ Yusuke entered his room and walked towards the giant screen going across his sitting room. The quarters for the base Commander was split into four parts: the bedroom off to the side with its own attached bathroom, the kitchen on his right when he entered that had a counter at it where he usually ate his meals, the dining/meeting room he was walking through that extended to his left as well where there was a long table for meetings that would occur over a meal or would last a long time and needed a bigger room. The final part of the room was the living room where there was a small couch and a giant television screen, only it was more the entire wall itself was a screen that had a wall over it until Yusuke walked in and cut off the lights. When the lights were off, the wall opened up to the sides splitting from the middle, and then the screen behind it turned on.

Yusuke rose his hand and a holographic panel appeared in the air in front of him that he used to control the screen and send out a call to a dozen people at the same time. Two rows of six squares each appeared across the screen with blank blue backgrounds that were one by one filled up by the faces of other Resistance Commanders. Yusuke grimaced as their faces all appeared in front of him, and he thought, _This is not going to be fun._

* * *

 **Tortuga, Land of the Chimeras**

Northern Aebrith was split into several very large countries. Aebrith north of the Cataclysm Line was almost twice as large as the land south of it, if one included Aizen's territory as a part of Aebrith. His lands consisted of everything on the Northern Continent and nothing more. However, the Northern Continent was only separated from Aebrith by a channel of water a few hundred miles wide at its largest gap, a few miles wide at its closest, so most people considered it an extension of Aebrith, even if it was called a "continent."

The reason people called Aizen's land a continent, was because the High Lord never came up with a name for his lands. Similarly, the Land of the Chimeras was what people called the country directly in the center of the northern half, (close to two-thirds), of Aebrith. Technically, the High Lord Alligator had given it a proper name: Queenland, but it did not catch on as well as he had hoped it would.

Inside the Land of the Chimeras was a body of water larger than any other inside of a landmass on all of Nexus. There were several different rivers coming off of the body of water, which in some worlds would have been considered its own ocean from its size. One of the rivers, the River Thirteen, cut west out of the body of water and ran long and wide all the way to the Great Ocean. Because the water body was connected to the ocean, it was not considered a lake but a sea, ironically named the Lake Sea.

In the Lake Sea there were many islands, but none as violent and dangerous as Tortuga. The entire island was a port, but there was not a single dock on the island where someone would feel safe tying their ship. Even the docks that were the most well-kept were likely set ups by swindlers who wanted to trick anyone stupid enough to land there and not leave a guard behind, or only leave one or two. Off a part of the island where the docks had been run down and barely functioning earlier that day, twenty ships of different sizes were moored or anchored, and a few smaller boats were tied to the docks. The docks themselves looked restored and had new supports beneath them as well as new wood to replace rotting planks.

The island of Tortuga close to those docks was as run-down and dangerous as the rest of the island, but it was a little less crowded because of the few number of people who usually stopped at that side. Most people would not want to go too far from their ships even if they did pay for protection or leave crew members behind, so only the most risky or confident would cross the island instead of just leaving their boats closer to where they were intending to go. Inside a large bar, but one that was usually empty, right inside a cliff wall on the southeast side of the island near where the ships were anchored, a few dozen people had gathered for a meeting. The entire cliff face was covered in buildings built straight into the wall as well as jutting out of it, with pathways either carved into the wall or ones made of wood and rope sticking out of it.

Outside the door of the bar that looked small from the tiny wooden shack exterior sticking out of the cliff, two guards from each group at the meeting stood. Whenever someone would arrive, the guards would look over at each other to motion whether the person was someone they knew or not. A few people had tried going into the bar seeing that a large group was going in, but the intended partiers were denied by the groups' outside guards, even if they argued that they were just going in to get a drink. "Private function," a guard with light green skin, large muscles, and long curly white hair said. The fishman with gills around his neck pushed a webbed-hand out and sent an arguing man stumbling back into a rope railing at the edge of the wooden pathway in front of the bar. The man grabbed onto the rope for dear life as he almost fell off, then he turned and muttered a curse before rushing out of there.

Hack watched the man go, then he turned back forward and crossed his arms over his chest. _It should begin shortly,_ he thought, a small bead of sweat forming on the side of the fishman's face.

Inside the bar, most of the tables had been cleared to the sides. The owner of the bar had accepted a large sum to leave these people alone in his establishment, as they intended for no one outside of the two groups to learn what goes on at the meeting today. There was one person there though who felt very out of place considering she heard people mentioning how no one outside of their groups should be there, and she did not consider herself a member of either. The girl with light purple hair falling just past her shoulders took out the lollipop in her mouth and reached for the beer glass in front of her. Mizore Shirayuki paused after lifting the glass, staring at it closely with a hesitant expression. _If I get drunk in a place like this,_ she glanced around at all the intimidating men around her, then she glanced to her left before calmly lifting her glass the rest of the way and tilting it back.

Portgas D. Ace watched the girl on his right take her drink, then she lowered the glass and breathed out a more relaxed breath. Her breath appeared out of her mouth visibly, and it caused the top of the glass to freeze over and ice to form down the inside of it. Mizore lifted up her lollipop while lowering her glass in her other hand, sticking it back in her mouth as it helped her maintain her body temperature. Ace spotted the person on his other side look a little nervous and he turned to the huge man five times as big as him with a surprised smirk. He glanced at Jozu's right side which was closest to him since the man was on his left, and then he chuckled and said, "You afraid of ice there, Jozu?"

Mizore looked to her left and watched as the large man strongly denied it with a single, 'I don't know what you're talking about.' Ace grinned though and left it at that, deciding not to poke fun if the man really was thinking back on losing his right arm. _He did lose it trying to save me after all,_ Ace thought, though he could not lose his smile even while thinking of all his put his family through back on their own world. He looked past Jozu to one head of the table where his father sat. The giant man with a big white mustache was not his biological father, but the man Ace chose.

Edward Newgate sat cross-legged at the head of the side of the table meant for the Whitebeard Pirates. He had a four-foot tall glass for beer in front of him that he was drinking as well as enjoying the good food out in front of him. "Gurarararara!" Whitebeard laughed at something a few of his sons on the opposite side of the table as Ace said.

"Isn't that right Ace?" Thatch called over. The man with a brownish-orange pompadour sticking out over his forehead laughed and reached over the table with his glass, clanking it with his old, and recently-returned, crewmate.

Ace was only just meeting up with his old crew after a long time apart from them. He would have went straight to them after arriving on Aebrith, but right when he arrived he bumped into a man who currently sat two people away from him, on Mizore's right side. Meeting up with his brother who actually knew how he could find his old crew was the best luck Ace could have hoped for, even if the blond man in a black top hat did ask for a favor. Ace was more than happy to help Sabo out though, and after the two went to the Capital to find Emporio Ivankov, they managed to finally set up this meeting.

Ace was surprised, when they arrived in the Capital during a Battle Royale, that Sabo's own comrades were so surprised to see him. He looked over at the blond man sitting on Mizore's right who was leaning left towards the Yuki-Onna, or Snow Woman, trying to get away from the girl on his other side who had leaned towards him with a frustrated look on her face. The young woman Sabo and Ace's age named Koala had bright orange hair in a bob around her head, and she leaned farther towards Sabo and snapped at him, "So you knew all that time and never came to find us?!"

"I had important things I needed to do," Sabo said, scratching the scarred side of his face farther from Koala nervously and looking away.

"Like what?" Koala asked, putting her hands down on her hips.

"I was fighting some wars over on Silvior," Sabo said, and Koala lifted an eyebrow up under the rim of her maroon cap that had a pair of bright blue goggles on it.

"Silvior?" Koala asked.

"It's another continent, over in the Open Ocean," Sabo said while waving a hand in front of him like it was not important. "Much smaller compared to this one, but there were some crazy fights I got in over there." Sabo chuckled and then added, "Besides, I just said I knew Ivankov was a Lord here from half a year ago, I never heard anything about Dragon until a month and a half ago."

"Oi! Sabo-boy!" Ivankov shouted from farther towards the head of the table on the opposite side. He leaned his huge rectangular head with curly purple hair in an afro around it forward and yelled, "What was that? What did I just hear?"

"Nothing Iva-chan," Sabo said with a wave of his hand towards the strange figure. He/she/it wore her purple leotard revealing her hairy masculine chest and he had stubble all over the bottom half of his face around his huge lips that were covered in purple lipstick.

As Ivankov shouted over the table at Sabo for not coming to visit sooner, Jozu looked over and gave the Okama Queen a harsh look. "I don't like it Ace," Jozu said to the man next to him who looked up at his taller nakama and saw where Jozu was looking. "Ivankov's a Lord, and if you didn't know, we've been helping the Resistance lately."

"Sabo told me," Ace assured his comrade. "And it's okay, because I trust Sabo and Sabo trusts him-her," Ace ended less confident than when he started, but not because he was less sure that they could trust the purple-haired okama.

Sabo leaned forward and looked towards Jozu who was not being very quiet with that voice of concern, but Sabo smiled despite the man's distrust and said, "Having a Lord as a friend could be one Hell of a resource, don't you think? Especially for people trying to help the Resistance?" Sabo added while lifting up his eyebrows, smirking at the pirate who hummed and shrugged his shoulders. Jozu grinned after a moment and thought, _Ace has some good brothers._

Whitebeard put down his glass as he noticed the gaze of the man across the table lift towards him. "Dragon," Whitebeard called over, and the table settled down instantly. "What do you want?"

Monkey D. Dragon sat across the long table from Whitebeard. Their highest ranked members or crewmates who had been in their organizations the longest sat around the table, all of them cross-legged with food and drink in front of them. It looked like a party, but this was much more than that. The leader of the Revolutionary Army from his home world had long black hair that fell behind him down into his green cloak but spiked out backwards from what people could see. The left side of his face was covered in red tattoos crossing over each other in a helix from his forehead down to his chin, going right over his eye. "It is not I who came up with the idea for this meet-up," Dragon said, and everyone on Whitebeard's side of the table except for one man lifted eyebrows or gained confused expressions.

Whitebeard looked over towards Ace who flashed him a smirk. Ace had gone to the Revolutionaries first because Sabo knew where they were, but also because having the Revolutionaries tell Whitebeard they had one of his sons was an easier way to have the pirate show up than just trying to work out a meeting under normal pretenses. Ace looked to his right at Sabo who looked back at him and nodded.

Mizore slouched down where she sat as everyone in the room looked towards their side of the middle of the table, so she felt like a few dozen sets of eyes were on her. Many of those men she could tell were powerful from their auras alone, and Mizore frowned as she wondered what she got herself into. _I should have left the minute these two started plotting…_

 **"You think he'll buy it?"**

 **"He went up against the entire Marines to get me last time, and we're not even going to tell him it's a trade or anything, just offer me up to him."**

 **"Ivankov's not going to like it."**

 **"He'll- or she'll know where Dragon is. You said it yourself, now stop doubting it!"**

 **"Ow, geez, alright alright. Okay, so what do we say when they're finally together? How do we convince them to go along with our plan?"**

 **"The Old Man's stubborn, but he'll see it's a good idea if we explain what's going on."**

 **"You're an idiot…"**

 **"Hahaha, she's right Ace, that's not a plan at all!"**

 **"It'll work! We have time to think up the details later."**

 **"Well I'm not as sure about Dragon… he can be a little, too focused. What if what we're suggesting isn't his current goal?"**

 **"You said the whole purpose of the Revolutionary Army was making the world a better place right? Well then there's no way he can ignore this, so it's going to be easier to convince him than the Old Man-"**

 **"You just said it would be easy!"**

 **"Only if we explain it well enough, in a way that the strongest pirate in the world would think is good."**

 **"… Like I said…"**

 _You're such an idiot,_ Mizore thought while staring at the side of Ace's head, as he stared towards Whitebeard with an open mouth, looking like he had no idea what he was about to say. _Such, such an idiot,_ Mizore thought. _But what's even more idiotic is following a guy like that in here._ She wanted to face-palm but did not want anyone's attentions switching to her.

"I guess I'll explain," Sabo said, leaning forward and looking towards Whitebeard who Ace had introduced him to as soon as the pirate captain had arrived. "What do you know about Relative Quantum Thermonuclear Physics?" Not a person in the room made a sound, but Sabo kept from sweating at all the gazes focused in on him, and he even chuckled and said, "Didn't think so. Well, neither did I, but I met a scientist over on Silvior who taught me a few things before I came here. I originally came because he had created all these sensors and radars and methods to track certain types of energy." Sabo turned towards Dragon and admitted, "I actually didn't hear about you being here until I was on my ship for Aebrith."

"Kid, what are you getting at?" Whitebeard asked impatiently after Sabo looked away.

"Sorry," Sabo spun back and said fast with a small apologetic bow of his head. When he lifted his head back up though, there was a much more serious look on his face. "I had to come here, because a certain type of radiation that Dr. Nefario was looking out for." Sabo's intense expression matched the one that formed on Ace's face as Sabo brought it up, getting straight to the main point instead of going through all the different details and reasons for calling them together. Ace realized that this was probably the best way to do it anyway, as explanations could come after. Mizore gained a more calm but serious look on her face too at what Sabo was saying, the reason she felt she had continued following Ace around even after arriving on Aebrith. Sabo's voice was serious and his face hardened as he said, "All of Aebrith is in danger."

"That what you called us here for?" Jozu asked, his voice deep and his face starting to look annoyed. "This place is constantly at war, covered in monsters…"

"Let me rephrase that then," Sabo said. He narrowed his eyes and repeated, "All of Aebrith is in danger, of nuclear armageddon."

* * *

 **A/N Lagann Island breaking off of the Resistance. Sabo brings bad news to Aebrith, but what is the plan he and Ace concocted to avoid this "nuclear armageddon?" A lot of characters making first appearances this chapter, as un-epic as they may be. Yusuke, Whitebeard, and Dragon are all seen around Aebrith. Things aren't looking good for the Resistance as they lose a chunk of their forces and an island the size of Australia. Short chapter, but there are going to be a few of those this chapter (14). Another bouncing around the continent chapter after that Awul part, and we'll see what comes next in Nexus HWR 14.2 The Truth! Quick list, then review responses:**

 **Kyoukai no Kanata: Hiroomi Nase (first character taken from this anime btw)**

 **Yu Yu Hakusho: Yusuke Urameshi, Keiko**

 **Gurren Lagann: Rossiu, Kinon, Simon, Ganmen**

 **Despicable Me: Dr. Nefario (also I think a first)**

 **One Piece: Whitebeard, Dragon, Ace, Sabo, Jozu, Thatch, Ivankov, Koala, Hack**

 **Rosario + Vampire: Mizore**

 **Soul Eater: Arachne, Kishin**

 **Magi: Kouen Ren**

 **Avatar the Last Airbender: Sozin**

Limit-Breaking chapter 96 . Apr 22

Hey this was a pretty good chapter, It definetly has helped my mood since yesterday, later on in the day my father had a stroke and was dying, they were doing everything the could to help. So far they done the best that they can and it's not looking so good he is in real critical condition.

So far i was just depressed afterwards and to be honest this chapter took my mind of it and i just want to say thanks for that.

 **Hey man, sorry to hear about that. My dad suddenly passed away a couple of years back so I know how tough it can be. Hope yours pulls through, and I'm glad I was able to raise your spirits at least a little.**

kg833998 chapter 96 . 19h ago

ok I am at the part were armsrtong lost his arm now I hope people don't forget there's someone in Metropolis that can regrow limbs cough orhime cough and there goes our break from character deaths I don't know why but whenever a one piece character dies my heart clenches maybe because it's one of my favorite animes good chapter it may be shorter than your other ones but it's still a good chapter

looks like Mandy is gaining more power for the better or the worst we will just have to see

also like how you put chimney in this chapter where's her cat/bunny

 **Thanks for the review! Bam, character deaths everywhere. If you thought that one was short at 15k, I'm guessing you're a quick reader, and you def raced through this one too. Then again, I wrote this one start to finish between yesterday afternoon and today, so it wasn't going to be much higher than 6k. As for Orihime, well we haven't seen her use her hair piece in action yet, not that I'm saying she doesn't have it. Luckily they've probably got some great medicine with the medical knowledge of so many different worlds pooled together, so hopefully our injured council members can pull through! Sad for Tsuru, and Hel-Hel-Helmeppo! And I guess Maynard too... Mandy makes a power play right after getting some sweet revenge. And similar to Inoue, we haven't seen Chimney's cat/bunny yet so maybe there's a flashback in store where it gets brutally murdered... or maybe she just left it at home because you can't bring pets to school? XD Who knows?**

 **-Well, not many reviews this time, though I am updating fast so I guess that's to be expected. Next chapter's going to be a little longer and my weekend just ended, so it's going to be a few days. So until then, thanks everyone for reading, hope you enjoyed the chapter! And as always, 'till next time!**


	98. Nexus HWR 14-2 The Truth

**Disclaimer: Haven't done one in a while, but you know, I still do not own any of shows, books, movies, comics, or games you might recognize characters from in this story. None of the characters are mine, nor are the original media they come from. K, enjoy!**

 **Nexus HWR 14.2 The Truth:**

 **8,500 Miles East, 2,000 Miles South of Pyraxas**

"I can't believe you made it here," Liliruca Arde said, after running forward to a woman with long red hair tied in a ponytail that fell below her butt and a very curvaceous figure. "Are you alright?" Lili asked after hugging the older girl and leaning back to get a better look at her friend.

"I'm fine Lili," Yoko Littner said, reaching down and giving the girl a tight squeeze on her shoulder. Yoko had a long sniper rifle strapped on her back, wore a black bikini top with a bright red jacket on over it that was open down the middle, and she had on a pair of shorts so short that her entire thighs were exposed, though she was wearing leggings going down into her boots because of the cold. She had ammo mags strapped to both sides of her waist as well as tucked into the pockets of her jacket, each one packed full of heavy rounds for her sniper.

Standing next to Yoko was a tall man with messy blue hair and a pair of red-tinted sunglasses over his face that spiked up to the sides of his head. He had one arm held up over his right shoulder with a katana hilt in it that rested over the top of his back and extended out from his left side in its black sheath. Kamina had on a red jacket similar to Yoko's only his arms were not through the sleeves and it was much longer, acting more like a cloak or cape for him. He did not have a shirt on under it, but the right side of his torso and right shoulder were wrapped in white bandages that were reddest closer to his side just below his right armpit. He had on a pair of baggy black pants and wore boots similar to Yoko's, and he was grinning from ear to ear as he looked around the room. "This is what I'm working with? Looks good to me," Kamina said.

Lie Ren walked forward towards the man who just spoke. "You in charge here?" Kamina asked before the younger man could open his mouth.

Ren nodded and asked, "You're our reinforcements?"

"Reinforcements?" Kamina asked, lifting up an eyebrow then laughing. The twenty people already in the room when Kamina and Yoko arrived did not feel very reassured by the sound of that laughter. "We heard you needed some help up here, so we decided to come by," Kamina grinned and looked around some more. "You don't need more reinforcements anymore."

Ed Elric leaned back on the wall behind him and dragged a hand down his face. His younger, and taller brother at his right side glanced in at him in a more nervous than exasperated way. Al did not feel as light-hearted as the man who was acting like everything was alright now.

Yoko looked around the room after Kamina made his declaration, and she got a slightly confused look on her face. She turned to the black-haired man in front of them who had a grim look on his face, and she asked, "Where are the rest of you? I heard that there were four Squads up here who needed support."

Ren's expression stayed grim, but he responded in a serious and calm voice, "I am Lie Ren, leader of Lambda Squad. Those three," he nodded to his right where two men and an older woman were sitting at a table looking towards the new arrivals. "Are the only members of Beta Squad who made it here," Lie continued, and Yoko's eyes widened as she looked at them before snapping her gaze back to Ren to check if he was being serious. "The rest of the people here are either in my squad, or members of Omega who just like Beta, have lost their leader." Kamina lost his smile and stared at Ren in a more serious way as the nineteen year old continued, "Beta Squad's leader Dino, and Omega's Asato Kido are two of the many casualties we've taken."

Yoko almost did not want to ask, but she spoke up softly, "The fourth Squad?"

"Cloud's the one who let you in, he's on guard duty," Ed called over.

"He's the only member of Delta," Ren added in case the two in front did not catch what Ed was implying.

 _He's the only one left?_ Yoko thought sadly. _Of all of Delta?_

 _Delta Squad. I didn't remember that guy being in it, so maybe it changed up since I last saw them. There's no way, all those guys…_ Kamina frowned deeper as a few faces appeared in his mind.

"Are you actually members of the Resistance, or just freelancers?" A girl standing a few feet behind Ren asked. She walked up on Lambda's leader's side, and frowned at the two in front of her. She was the former second-in-command of Omega, and she had been helping Ren lead their combined forces since Kido's death. Kallen Kozuki was shorter than Ren and had dark maroon hair that pointed up after falling to her shoulders. She continued to the people in front of them, "We don't have a lot of money here-"

"We didn't come for money," Yoko said in a defensive tone. "We just came to help."

Kallen humphed as that implied they were not members of the Resistance either. "Well, the more the merrier," she said after a few seconds, before turning and walking to some of her Squad-mates who looked frustrated by this situation.

"It's been a long few weeks," Ren said and got the two in front of him to return their gazes to him instead of the girl who annoyed them by her attitude. "Everyone's a little high-strung at this point. Lili seems to know you though," Ren said while looking to Yoko, then back down at the short girl with pointed furry ears sticking out of her brown hair. Lili nodded at him a few times, and Ren looked back with a friendlier smile. "So I'll trust that you're really here to help. I'll show you around, and then you can tell me what you can do to help us."

Ren turned and called out, "Everyone back to work. Ed, Al, you make those parts we need to repair our tanks yet?"

"Um," Ed began, scratching the side of his face.

"Finished this morning," Al said before his older brother could give some sort of excuse. Ed spun to his younger brother who had a shorter cut of blond hair over his head, unlike Ed's long blond braid that fell in front of his right shoulder. Al rolled his eyes at him before calling out, "We just need help removing and replacing all the old broken parts now."

"Omega, Beta, help them out. We need those vehicles done yesterday, they're the only ones we have," Ren said. The members of Beta stood from their table, and Kallen called out in a firmer tone to her Omega squadmates who did not seem very motivated after Ren's orders.

Yoko and Kamina could tell from the first glance around that morale was low, which was why Kamina attempted to rise it as soon as he entered. After hearing why the base was so grisly though, he knew a few short words of encouragement from a stranger, as convincing and uplifting as he could be, were not going to fix the problem that quickly. Kamina and Yoko started following after Ren, but Ren stopped before he left the room and turned towards the members of his own squad. "You guys, if you're just standing around, why don't you help out Cloud on guard duty. The base isn't big, but he doesn't need to patrol the walls if there are four of you up there."

Wave, Gajeel, and Levy glanced around at each other, realizing they were the only three who Ren was speaking to. Ed and Al were heading off with the members of Beta and Omega, and Lili was following Ren so she could catch up with her old friend Yoko. "Let's go," Gajeel said, and he turned and started walking off with Levy running to his side then walking with him. Wave followed behind them, but he could see expressions on Gajeel and Levy's faces that made him feel anxious.

When they exited the base and entered the small area between the walls and the single building they had set up, Wave saw that Gajeel and Levy were not walking to the sides to go up the side walls, but straight ahead towards the front entrance where they spotted a spiky-haired blond standing above the gates. "I'll go guard the back," Wave said, and Levy turned and nodded at him before he jogged off. The black-haired man in a blue-jacket wore a red scarf around his neck with an anchor design at the bottom of it. He had a black short-sword at his waist that he lowered his right hand to. Wave held the hilt of his Teigu, or Imperial Arms, Grand Chariot, focusing on guard duty and distracting himself from whatever he thought the other two members of Lambda were about to get into.

"Hey Cloud," Levy called out as she got up on the front wall with Gajeel. The spiky-haired man with a wide bandaged-up Buster Sword on his back looked her way, and Levy gulped but kept the serious expression on her face as she marched forward with Gajeel.

"What?" Cloud asked.

Gajeel leaned forward as he marched up to Cloud. He had on a fur coat open down the middle exposing his large muscles, his black hair was long down past his waist and spiking out behind him the whole way. He had piercings all over his face, and a pissed-off expression on it. "We're going into another fight tomorrow. One of Father's Homunculi- Pride and his army." Gajeel glared at the man once he stopped in front of him, just a little taller than Cloud so he could glare down into the older man's eyes. "Before we go though, you're gonna tell us what we want to know."

"I already told you," Cloud said while looking right back into Gajeel's eyes unwaveringly. He glanced towards the base on his right and mentioned after brushing off Gajeel, "We're surrounded on all sides. I'm either impressed those two got in, or we should be interrogating them to see if they were _let_ in for a-"

"Cloud!" Levy shouted. Gajeel was surprised and glanced to his left at the short girl who marched up next to him and glared at the spikier-haired man before them. It was a good thing Levy shouted at that moment anyway though, as Gajeel was just about ready to punch Cloud in the face. "We want to know. You can't avoid it anymore," Levy said, making Cloud turn and look the short girl straight in her eyes. "What you said about Gray, we can't give up because of it. You said he disappeared, right? Not that he was killed?"

"Yeah," Cloud replied in a low voice. He had a red cape flapping behind his back, and the cape was wrapped around the front of his face covering up his mouth so the people in front of him did not see it move. He had on steel shoulder pads sticking out from beneath that red cape, as well as sharp metal armlets on his wrists and brown fingerless gloves on too. "I told Gajeel, he just vanished. That all?" Cloud asked.

"No," Levy said, shaking her head at him. Levy McGarden was usually a cheerful and easy-going person, but the blunette was not going to let it slide that easily this time. "Because what you're saying doesn't make any sense!" Levy shouted at the older man who frowned down at her, but even though his eyes showed the frustrated feeling he had (since she could not see his frown), Levy continued staring at him in a firm way.

"Something about how everything went down really rubs me the wrong way," Gajeel said, leaning closer to Cloud and putting his face right up in Cloud's. "You get out of there, and the rest of Delta gets captured. Doesn't sound right to me," Gajeel remarked, and Levy glanced up at him hesitantly like she disagreed or felt he was being too harsh there. Cloud's face scrunched up as Gajeel said that too, but Gajeel reached forward anyway and grabbed him by the front of his red cloak in front of his neck. "You gonna stop dodging this now? I'm telling you I want to know what happened out there!"

"I told you," Cloud started growling back at him.

"What you told me isn't good enough," Gajeel snapped, tightening his fist into the red fabric of Cloud's cape. "We've been losing a lot of people in these fights, and if you've still got information that I want when you die, I'll be the one fucked for it."

"Gajeel," Levy said in a scolding tone.

Cloud's eyes got darker at what Gajeel was saying, and then the Iron Dragon Slayer snapped, "I want to know exactly how this weakling made it out when Black Star, Kiba, and Gray couldn't."

That pushed Cloud over the edge. He reached forward with both arms fast and grabbed Gajeel by the front of his jacket, then he shoved the mage backwards with a hard push. "You want to know what happened?!" Cloud shouted, stomping forward and glaring furiously at Gajeel. "You really want to know what happened to me?! They knew! They knew exactly where we were!" Cloud shouted. "How? How'd they know? It wasn't like we were sent with orders of where to go out that day. Axel just had us out searching for food so that we could hunt some monsters together and work on our team dynamic with him as the new leader. So how did they fucking know?!"

Levy stared at Cloud with wide eyes at the outburst from the usually stoic man. She had been trying to push him to open up, but the anger he had held back was much more than she was expecting. "What are you talking about?" Gajeel snapped as he took a step back towards Cloud, an angry look on his own face after that forceful shove. "What does this have to do with-"

"I don't know!" Cloud yelled. He breathed heavily a few times, then repeated in a more normal voice, "I don't know. Nothing made any sense that day. They knew _exactly_ where we were. Their reinforcements showed up in minutes, seconds even. They knew _I_ was there, or else he never would have come."

"What are you talking about?" Levy asked, and Cloud's gaze dropped to the wall beneath his feet. "Just tell us Cloud. We're on the same team now, and we need to trust you in the battles that are coming up. How can we do that when you're hiding the truth from us?"

"Alright," Cloud said, lifting his eyes to Levy's. "Makes sense. I'll tell you what happened. That whole, fucking mess of a day," Cloud said, shaking his head as he went back to the moment when things started going wrong. "The day I lost my closest friends…" Cloud muttered.

* * *

 **5 Months Ago**

 _Something's coming,_ John Rambo thought, lifting up his assault rifles and darting his gaze across the horizon. His eyes came to a stop as they shifted over some small black dots in the distance.

"What are those?!" Soul shouted.

Black Star stepped forward next to Soul and put a hand up horizontally to his head. "Uh oh," he whispered, though his smirk rose and replaced the serious frown he had gained for a moment. "We've got trouble, and lots of it," Black Star grinned with a glint in his eyes, and he lifted up his twin scythes. Tsubaki told Black Star to be cautious, her voice echoing in her Meister's mind. _I know,_ he thought back at her, but his grin only rose higher as he saw even more dots appearing in the distance.

Axel stared around at his comrades, then back at the distance figures heading their direction. _The Plains are too open, there's nowhere we can run. We'll have to fight._

"Mama Mia!" Mario called out. He jumped forward into a triple front flip and landed with both of his white-gloved fists risen in a fighting stance.

The group started to get ready, then they looked closer behind the dark dots in the distance that were getting larger every second. More and more dots were appearing above and below the figures at the edge of their lines of sight. Kiba grimaced and took a step back, Akamaru growling from next to him. Akamaru had been leaning up against Kiba's back as they walked with its head on top of Kiba's, but when the two snapped their heads the same direction from what they smelled at the same time, both had gotten into more ready-to-fight stances. _So many,_ Kiba thought, though he kept his breathing calm and matched Akamaru's breathing pattern.

"There's hundreds of them," Cloud muttered as he watched the distant objects getting closer. The plains of red grass stretched almost all the way to those distant figures which were starting to become more clear. Those things had just passed over the edge of a sparse forest to the north of them, and as Soul and Gon started talking about how the creatures were Chimera Ants, Cloud's eyes narrowed and darted around the enemies flying in a pack towards them. _There's no hesitation in their flight pattern. Axel's noticed it too, they're heading straight for us. We're pretty far south of the Cataclysm too, still in Resistance territory, even if it's disputed around here. But how did they find us?_ Cloud's eyes darted around the comrades with him then back to the enemies. _No one here would have betrayed us. Everyone looks genuinely surprised. So what is this, feeling of dread?_

"Axel," Gray started, looking to the older man.

Axel did not look as nervous as Gray felt though- that impeding sense that something wrong was coming that Gray felt earlier being proved as more than just paranoia. Axel had a serious look on his face as he rose up his arms, "Stay together guys, don't go running off on your own." In his hands that he held out to the sides formed two circular chakrams covered in flames. The spiky weapons were designed to look like flames with their red and yellow patterns, but real flames ripped out of the sharp edges of the chakrams while he leaned forward with a glare towards the approaching Chimera Ants.

"You think they knew where we were?" Cloud asked, turning his head towards Axel who had a tone in his voice that matched Cloud's dark thought path.

"Considering they're flying straight towards us," Gray began, and he reached down to the hem of his shirt. "I'd say-" The mage's words cut off there, and his preparing comrades spun towards him, or they all spun towards where he was supposed to be.

Axel looked at his side with a dropped jaw and huge eyes. He darted them back and forth to the sides of the white puff of smoke, but Gray Fullbuster was nowhere to be seen. "Gray?" Axel whispered, staring back at the cloud as it faded away to show nothing inside except for a shirt that fell to the floor. The shirt fell on the red grass where there were two clear footprints where Gray's feet just stood. _What?_ Axel thought as he stared blankly at it.

"Where did he go?!" Kuwabara shouted. His panicked yell was matched by the rest of his comrades who started calling out Gray's name and spinning around looking for him.

As everyone spun around though, Axel's gaze shot up in front of them at the sounds of screams and shouts coming their way. The Chimera Ants were descending from the sky, hundreds of them. On the backs of many of the ones that were flying were other Ants without wings that were holding weapons, raising their fists, and screaming down in animalistic and ferocious ways. "We'll figure it out later," Axel yelled as he heard Kiba shout asking where Gray had gone. "Right now," Axel's chakrams erupted in flames and the ground behind him flared up as well. "Attack!"

Gon had already spun back to the enemies like Axel, and he brought his hands down to his right side and hunched his body over as he collected energy. "Rockkk… Paperrrr…." A bright yellow light glowed inside of Gon's connected hands and all his comrades in front of him ran out to the sides while shouting at him to be careful. The ground shook beneath Gon as he collected more, and all the Chimera Ants diving towards them swerved out to the sides from where the kid covered in glowing yellow light was aiming. Gon snapped up and brought his hands out in front of him, but he did not punch a fist, instead shouting, "MACHINE GUN!" Little bursts of yellow light ripped out from the large condensed sphere of golden light in front of his palms that he had his fingers curled in around to hold it there.

The little shreds of light ripping off of Gon's attack flew up into the air and missed most of the Chimeras that had pulled to the sides. As soon as Gon started firing though, he dragged his extended arms in front of his body to the left, firing dozens of thin yellow beams out of the glowing energy ball and shredding through the wings of just as many Chimera Ants. The flying Ants started crashing down, while the ones riding on top of them either yelled at their rides to stay up or leapt off towards their enemies. Once they were off of the flying Ants though, Gon focused his attacks on them as they had no mobility in midair. He suddenly snapped his arms to the right though as the flying Ants that had cut the other way from the middle were much closer, and there were just as many of them on that side since they had been flying with the center of their pack aimed straight towards them.

"Save some for the main character!" Black Star shouted as he had just started sprinting towards the other half of the Chimera army, only for Gon's attack to start ripping through them as well. They had gotten much closer though, and many of the Ants on the backs of the flying ones were already jumping off down towards the boy who had just sprinted beneath them. Two Ants leapt off right before passing the kid who was running full-sprint below them. They led him completely, falling so that he had just sprinted by when they would have reached the top of his vision otherwise, then one slashed the scythe in his hands down while the other whipped a barbed tail at the kid's back.

Black Star did a little jump and three-sixty spin while in the air. He slashed his dual scythes behind him, cutting the bear Chimera Ant's scythe by the center of its steel shaft, and cutting the other one's barbed tail at the base where it stuck off the creature's back. One of them screamed while the other just went wide-eyed at how fast Black Star moved, though that one was also reaching down to its side where there was a blue pistol with a glowing orange light on the top of it. As his hand touched the gun, the pistol fell into three pieces and the Chimera realized that Black Star had sliced it twice before even cutting his scythe. Black Star finished spinning, but the chain between his two scythes wrapped around the heads of the Chimeras behind him, and when he kept sprinting away he moved too fast that he snapped the heads of the creatures that just landed straight into the floor.

After taking them down, Black Star spun back as he realized he had sprinted too fast and was about to sprint right by the back of the Chimera Ant pack that had flown above him. Other flying Chimeras were crashing down behind him, though most of them landed on their feet despite the pain they were in from small beams of light cutting through their wings. "All of you Ants picked the wrong…" Black Star stopped shouting and stood there frozen with his mouth wide open.

 **"Black Star,"** Tsubaki whispered inside his head. **"What's going on?"** The scythes in his hands asked.

Black Star and Tsubaki stared back past all of the Chimera Ants that had landed between him and the rest of his friends who he had sprinted away from. Flames rose up on the field from Axel's flashy attacks, and Rambo's gunfire slammed into the Chimera Ants that he had picked out seeing their skin looked thinnest, after even his armor-piercing bullets failed to rip through the flesh of some of the harder ones. Yells of his comrades and screams of pain and warcries echoed from the enemies. Black Star looked beyond even his friends though, to a distant part of the sky in the opposite direction of the Chimera Ants, a direction they had not look in in a few minutes. _No one felt or saw them coming. When we noticed the Ants coming from so far away, we should have realized._ "CHECK YOUR SIXES!" Black Star yelled out at the top of his lungs, needing to make sure he was heard over all the other screaming and fighting on the field

Anyone not in the middle of a clash with an enemy darted a glance behind them at Black Star's shout. The boy with spiky blue hair himself started sprinting back through the Chimera Ants, but a couple of them with thinner and more muscular legs sprinted in his way quickly, making him skid to a stop still-separated from his team.

Axel glanced back as he had just finished off the three Ants in front of him with a big fiery explosion. He looked behind him and filled with a much stronger dread than before. They had been faring well so far against the Chimera Ants, but he did not like the look of the flags and sails on the airships that were sailing towards them at a low elevation. The red sails had black circles in the middle of them. Those circles were filled in red too, except there was also a symbol of a black flame with three spikes in the center of each of them. _What's the Fire Nation doing here?_ Axel thought. _Actually, how did they come so fast? Did this Chimera army call for backup? Or is this a planned strike?_

The airships descended and landed a few hundred meters behind the team of Resistance fighters who did not see them until they had almost started descending. "Everyone stay focused ahead," Axel called out as he spun to his left and slammed a flaming chakram into the face of a snake-like Chimera Ant who tried diving through the smoke leftover from his last fire attack. He pierced the Chimera by the chest, then its neck extended and wrapped around Axel's arm. It opened its mouth to show two fangs covered in purple liquid, then Axel's chakram that had pierced its rough skin burst into flames, and the entire snake-creature ignited as well letting out a shrieking hiss. Axel swung his arm and threw the snake-Ant back towards his other comrades, then he turned and started running for the airships where he spotted a large number of enemies exiting from.

"You said to focus ahead!" Soul shouted over his shoulder without looking back, as he had seen Axel spin through his peripheral vision. The white-haired teen with his right arm transformed into a long red scythe-blade slashed it to his right and a splash of green blood flew up, then he called out, "So what are you doing?"

"Someone needs to take the other enemies," Axel called back. He stopped jogging and started walking slower towards the enemies behind them. They had five airships in total, and he saw over a hundred figures exit them so far. As he slowed his walk though, the ones who were running his way slowed down too. The dark purple teardrop-shaped tattoos beneath his bright green eyes, the slender and tall stature that had him looking down at most of them, and the black cloak he wore with matching gloves and boots all added to the intimidating presence he was making them feel. Even the strongest enemies who had continued moving forward at first started to slow down as they got a better look at the man with huge spiky red hair sticking out in all directions above, behind, and to the sides of his head.

Axel narrowed his eyes at the looks some of those powerful mutants were giving him. _I wear a black cloak over the one that hides my location from the Organization, but these guys must be around the others often if this gives off the same vibe._ Axel darted his gaze around them but smirked as he did not see any black-cloaked figures among them. Despite that grin though, his dark look remained, _How did they find us then?_

A man ran up on Axel's left side and came to a stop with his hands out in front of his waist on the hilt of his giant, bandaged sword. "Thought I said to stay over there," Axel said while Cloud stood at his side with his Buster Sword extended in front of him. The giant sword had some blood on the white bandages wrapping it, but Cloud was not panting as he stopped at Axel's side.

"Gon and Black Star can handle it," Cloud said. "We don't know the power these guys have yet."

"So we're helping you out," Kiba added as he leapt over to Axel's side, appearing there fast with a ninja jump.

"Ruff," Akamaru agreed, appearing at Kiba's other side in a doggy-ninja jump of its own.

"It's the Fire Nation," Axel began. "I can handle the heat on my…" Axel faded off as he looked closer at the men and women who were walking forward from the airships again. The strongest ones who had moved to the front of the pack had kept moving forward the entire time, and most of their men were following behind them, but Axel was noticing that not many of them had on red and black armor that the normal Fire Nation soldiers usually wore. Even the most powerful enemies from what Axel could tell stopped walking his way though as someone called out from farther back towards the airships, and the enemies made a path as she started walking forward.

"I recognize that guy," Kiba growled as he looked towards one of the strong-looking men at the front of the pack ahead of them. "He's a mutant, name's Avalanche," Kiba said. He narrowed his eyes at the man in the silver helmet with steel plating around almost his entire body with some tight black armor fabric between the thicker sections, giving him better movement of his joints in those places, as well as targets for his enemies. Kiba's eyes darted around after looking at that man, and they started growing larger as he muttered, "Are all of them, mutants?"

"I don't see Magneto," Cloud said. "So there's one plus side," he clenched his sword's hilt tighter, imagining their situation had the leader of the mutants arrived. He would have lost his sword, Axel his chakrams, and he wondered if Tsubaki and Soul would have been affected by the man's powers. Kiba glanced up at the ninja headband on his forehead and grimaced as he imagined Magneta dragging him across the field, pulling all his ninja weapons out of his pouch and stabbing him with them.

Their relief at not seeing Magneto with the enemy army vanished as the woman walking through the army came into view. "Oh shit," Axel muttered, taking a step back with a bead of sweat rolling down his face. He kept a smile on his face despite his sweating, and he said with a laugh, "You just had to mention a plus side."

Cloud was not in the joking mood anymore. He rarely was, but the sight of that woman with long orange hair and a tight-black spandex costume around her body made him much darker than usual. "Axel, she's here," Cloud said. The woman looking towards them had a smile on her face, but her eyes were glowing pure white and her orange hair was waving around behind her head as if there was a constant gust of wind pushing against her.

"Is that," Kiba began, already feeling the sensation that the other two expressed, even though unlike them he had never seen this woman before. Kiba had heard stories though, and as Akamaru took two paw-steps back at his side, Kiba finished, "The Phoenix?"

 _ **"You can call me just Phoenix, boys,"**_ a devilish voice echoed into the minds of the three men facing her and even the large white dog that whimpered at her voice in its head.

"Oh," Kiba muttered aloud, not realizing that the 'The' was not necessary. "Okay then," he continued, while his mouth start lifting into a grin again. "What are we waiting for?" Kiba asked, leaning forward and putting his hands together in front of his chest. "Akamaru," he said, and the dog that had stepped back ran to him and put its paws up on his shoulders. "Shadow Clone Jutsu," Kiba said once he had his hands crossed over each other in front of him. Behind Kiba appeared three more Kibas, all three of which ran forward and jumped on top of Akamaru's back one by one, making the real Kiba hunch farther and farther down. "Combination Transformation Jutsu:" Kiba started shouting and a puff of white smoke surrounded him for an instant.

Phoenix lifted her gaze as did all the mutants behind her as the giant appeared before them. Instead of a weird-looking ninja with a dog and a few copies of himself on his back, Kiba had transformed into something that terrified most of the mutants. "FIVE-HEADED WOLF!" The giant white dog creature with five huge heads each baring sharp teeth roared out its center head. Each of the four muscular legs sticking out the bottom of the huge dog's body started bending down and tightening more, its claws digging through the grass and dirt beneath it while it bent its heads down and snarled at the mutants ahead of him.

"Keep the mutants off me," Axel said, then he sprinted forward before either of the two behind him could say a word.

 _ **"Coming at me on your own? I'm surprised, you don't seem like the suicidal ty-"**_ Phoenix's mental connection with the man in front of her cut off as in the path directly between them, a black portal opened up that the man running her way sprinted straight into. Another black portal opened up behind Phoenix and she started turning as she heard all the thoughts of the mutants behind her who saw this man appeared. As she turned her head only sideways though, she saw Axel's body leaning out of the portal, his arms stretched out to the sides with flames bursting out of the chakrams already, though it still looked like he was just charging.

"Let's turn up the heat!" Axel shouted, slamming his chakrams together in front of his body and creating an explosion of flames twenty meters in radius around him that blasted dozens of mutants away.

One of the mutants close to him did not get sent flying though, instead raising his arms and gathering up the flames that just exploded towards him into a huge fireball in front of him. Axel started turning towards one side of the flames around him when he noticed them all pulling away, and the light was nearly blinding in that direction as the mutant with pyrokinesis smirked through the flames at him. Pyro rose up his arms and the fireball in front of him rose up too while getting even larger. "Whoa, whoa, whoa," Axel jumped backwards, then it turned out he did not need to as a figure appeared behind Pyro with an amazing feat of speed.

Axel stared over as the man who appeared behind Pyro had the butt of his Buster Sword slammed hard into the mutant's side, a blow that Axel figured probably crushed some ribs from how fast Cloud was moving. The man with spiky blond hair sent Pyro flying, his giant fireball following him off until he hit the floor near one of the airships. A second later, that giant fireball slammed into the parked airship and created a massive explosion that shook the entire field. The sky filled with black smoke and ash while flames and debris shot in all directions. At the same moment back near the Chimera Ants, Gon had just gotten to a climactic clash with the Chimera Ant commander who had capable Nen abilities, and the two clashed with Gon using his signature Jajanken: Rock. The enemy was not expecting the amount of force to be in the explosion, getting blown away by the dome of red-tinted yellow light that erupted on that side of the field.

Avalanche slammed his steel gloves into the floor and they started vibrating. Powerful seismic waves exited his hands straight into the ground, cracking it in a dozen different directions, though completely crumbling it in a path in front of him where the grass and dirt shot upwards in chunks. A trench tore out of the ground towards the charging five-headed dog, only for Kiba to leap up right before the quake could hit him. "Fang Spiral Fang!" Kiba started spinning as he came back down towards Avalanche. He spun faster and faster until his body looked like a spiraling white blur of fur shooting down towards the mutant who rose up his arms. Avalanche planted his feet down hard in the ground in his metal boots and slammed his hands inwards on the front of the spiraling giant creature as it hit him.

For an instant it looked like he had caught the ninja, and then Kiba's body spun twice as fast as it already was and twisted Avalanche's hands right off of him, before Kiba slammed into the man and knocked him out of his placement in the ground and sent him flying into another airship that he smashed through the bottom right side of, making it start tilting that way before falling right into one of the other parked airships. The masts on those ships started to fall with the red sails catching fire from the explosion of the first ship. Kiba landed and his five wolf heads let out a few deep breaths, before all of them smirked mouths full of sharp teeth. A long tongue wrapped around Kiba's fore-left paw, and Mortimer Toynbee, or Toad, yanked Kiba's leg out from under him. The wolf was too front-heavy with all his giant heads, even if his body was very large to match it proportionately, but all that weight on his front left side without a leg to hold him up made the giant creature collapse down onto two of its faces, while the other three spun towards the one who had just taken him down.

Toad leapt up in the air and pulled his green-skinned head back, before snapping it forward. Kiba expected a long sticky tongue to snap out again, but this time it was a green liquid coming straight for the center wolf-head's eyes. Kiba turned his middle head to the side fast, then he let out a loud roar as the liquid turned out to be an acid that melted through his fur and started burning his flesh in seconds. Toad smirked as Kiba let out his roar, then the giant creature stomped its front left paw hard onto the already-cracked ground below it. All five of its heads turned their furious, snarling gazes on the ugly mutant whose eyes bulged out of his head at the sight of the terrifying creature. Toad had backup though, and a few dozen mutants all started charging at Kiba from various sides at the same time.

Kiba leapt in the air to dodge some ice and spikes flying towards him and his body started to spin in front-flips fast until he was spinning again only this time like a wheel. "Tail-Chasing Fang, Fang Rotating Fang!" Kiba slammed back on the ground and instantly shredded through it with his fast-moving body. He spun forward and mutants had to dive to the side or risk getting run over by the spinning giant furball that shot straight at Toad. The fleeing mutant turned back right as the ninja was about to hit him, letting out one last croak before Kiba hit him at full speed and knocked him off the ground and flying into the sky.

In the center of all the mutants running around and fighting their powerful enemies, Axel returned to facing the point in the center of the explosion he created. He had looked away when Pyro tried attacking him, but he did not risk looking away to find another fight again. He stared towards where the most concentrated area of his explosion was, and he grimaced as he saw the woman rising up out of the still-burning flames. Axel saw through his peripherals that the rest of his flames from the attack had already lowered down after burning up all the grass, and then he realized what the flames in front of him really were as the shadow inside them turned towards him and her bright white eyes glowed inside those flames.

The ground beneath Phoenix lifted up into the cosmic flames rippling around her, shredding apart and leaving not even ash behind as they completely burnt away. She pointed her hand at Axel and he lifted a guard to try and protect from those flames, but she never fired them at him, instead using telekinesis to lift him twenty feet off the ground in a single tug. "Gah-" Axel reached up for his throat as he felt it crushing once he was floating on Phoenix's level.

Phoenix flew forward with her cosmic flames surrounding her. "Slow!" Cloud yelled as Phoenix reached an arm forward, her powerful flames morphing into massive wings behind her. Her arm reaching out of the flames towards Axel slowed down, her eyes started shifting left towards the blond man who spun his sword around his head after calling out that spell. "Limit Break: METEORAIN!" Cloud slammed his glowing blue Buster Sword into the ground, and then Phoenix's slow-moving eyes shifted upwards as the sky above her opened up.

Time started moving again for the powerful mutant woman, right as ten meteors summoned out of the sky crashed into her and slammed her down into the ground below. Cloud took a few panting breaths, then he spun left and lifted his sword to block a slash from an enemy whose arms were as sharp as blades. Three women charged at his back who all looked like the same person, and Cloud spun around with his sword outstretched, parrying back his opponent with sword arms and slashing back the three copies of another mutant. As he turned again while feeling something coming, his eyes opened wide at the sight of a furious woman with flaming orange hair shooting towards him, the ground beneath her shredding apart as she smirked his way. Cloud tried leaping backwards, but as soon as his feet left the floor he was pulled the other way and Phoenix grabbed him by the front of his black cloak.

His clothes were made of some of the strongest material he could get from the Resistance, making his cloak more like armor than clothing. It shredded in under a second, and Cloud screamed as his skin started pulling off into the cosmic flames that were not even touching him yet but caused so much damage just being in the same vicinity. Phoenix smirked and her flames started to push towards Cloud, then she pulled her arm back fast, releasing Cloud and letting him drop to the floor below where he bounced backwards to create some distance again. Cloud looked up and saw the chakram that flew through the space where Phoenix just had her arm outstretched. The round weapon curved around the woman in the air and flew back to Axel's left hand which he caught it in before snapping it down to his side like his right already was.

"Alright, Phoenix," Axel called out, his entire body shaking intensely. Cloud lost sight of the two of them, as he and all of the mutants near them had to move back from the giant ring of flames that rose out of the ground while the air around them darkened. Through the flames, Cloud saw the red-haired man start running forwards, pillars of flames rising up from the ground all over the place inside there.

 _Axel's strong, but against the strongest mutant…_ Cloud lost his ability to worry about his comrades, as he had to spin and dive to the side in order to avoid an attack from the cloning mutant again who now had over a dozen copies all charging at him at once. He slashed them back and forth, but he saw the one in the back standing there smugly as more and more of herself ripped from her body and started charging his way. Cloud sprinted forward, slashing his glowing blue sword to the sides back and forth to knock all the clones away. He reached the girl who was stepping backwards in fear at how quickly all of her copies were defeated, and she let out a shriek as Cloud slammed the back of his sword into her side so hard that she bent over it, before flying off and tumbling across the ground a few dozen times.

As soon as Cloud hit her, he spun to the next mutant near him who he thought was about to attack. He froze though when he was only half-turned that way, the black wing sticking off his left side twitching as his entire body filled with dread.

Axel tried his best to match up to Phoenix, but it was not long before he was flying backwards, coughing up spit with a strong pain in his chest where he was just slammed by a giant invisible force. He flipped right before hitting the ground and landed on the soles of his black boots, but he still skid back several yards before dropping down to his knees. He snapped his gaze up fast as he expected the woman to come flying at him through their fiery battleground, but Phoenix stopped where she was and just started smirking towards him. _What is she,_ Axel started thinking, then his thoughts froze and the flames encircling him dropped down. Walking towards Axel in the middle of the enemy forces below Phoenix, was a man in a black cloak with the hood up shadowing his face. While most of the mutants focused on fighting Kiba, this figure started sprinting at Axel and lifted up both hands at his sides.

The red haired man went even wider-eyed at the sight of a pair of Keyblades forming in the hands of the Nobody charging his direction. _No way,_ Axel thought, then he had to lift his chakrams fast to block as the person in front of him slammed both Keyblades down hard and crossed them against Axel's weapons that he pushed right back. The Nobody who attacked him pushed down into Axel's chakrams, leaning his face forward towards his crossed Keyblades so that Axel could see up under that hood to the face that became less shadowed. Axel stared at that frustrated, furious expression, with the golden blond hair sticking down over his eyes and shadowing them even more. "Roxas!" Axel shouted. He almost sounded glad, but he was in way too much of a panicked situation right now to rejoice over seeing his old best friend attacking him. "You're with them?" Axel snapped, pushing back against the Keyblades and knocking the boy backwards.

Phoenix watched from where she floated in the air, her white eyes glowing and her smirk rising as she watched the men below. Roxas slammed his Keyblades out to the sides then brought them up in a stance, before snapping at Axel, "You're an enemy of the Organization."

"Don't mention seeing me to anyone!" Axel called out, swinging his right chakram to the side and stepping towards the shorter Nobody ahead of him. "I don't want to put Lea in danger-"

"That'll be the least of your worries when you see who just showed up," Roxas said, looking over Axel's head. Axel would not have been as unnerved by that statement if the smirking powerful mutant woman floating in the air behind Roxas did not suddenly back up while looking over them as well.

Axel spun around, staring back across the battlefield towards where the Chimera Ants had attacked them from. Most of those Ants were defeated now, but there was a new enemy standing where that fallen army lay. Cloud was twenty meters in front of Axel, having just frozen still as he saw the man who dropped out of the sky, a giant dark-bluish black wing sticking out of his right side that looked so familiar to the members of Delta Squad. As Axel stared that way, Roxas charged at him. Axel started turning back right before Roxas slammed into him. A portal appeared behind where Ace was just hit, and the shorter Nobody tackled them into a dark portal that vanished just as quickly.

Cloud saw this out the corners of his eyes as Axel was not directly behind him but a little to his right side. He did not turn back though, as he was frozen still at the sight of the tall man with long silver hair, a single dark wing matching his own, and a katana longer than he was tall in his left hand. "Get away," Cloud muttered, taking a step forward. "Get away. Get back! Guys!" Cloud shouted, a more panicked look coming to his face as the comrades between him and that figure started talking about this being a new enemy.

"If he's here with all of them, then he's my enemy!" Black Star shouted, a ravenous look on his face that was already splattered with many different colors of blood. He lifted up Tsubaki and she glowed bright before transforming into a katana, though one shorter than the man before him's. Black Star took a deep breath, then he started sprinting forward while zig-zagging across the burnt plain speckled in craters, leaving after-images of himself behind.

Mario had taken a step back when he first saw this man. Gon felt the same way, having felt every warning signal in his body go off, but Mario recognized the man's face on top of that. "Black Star, wait!" Mario shouted. "You don't-"

Black Star ignored his comrade as well as Cloud's shouts from farther back. He leapt up in the air and then appeared behind the figure using his amazing speed. As soon as Black Star's friends saw him appear behind the tall silver-haired man, Black Star's feet lifted off the ground again, his body arching backwards, blood splattering out of a huge gash going up his torso.

"Black Star!" Soul shouted, sprinting forward.

"Rei-ken!" Kuwabara yelled, lifting up his arms and reforming a huge sword of orange energy in his hands.

"Don't do it!" Cloud shouted as he kept running towards them.

Mario did not shout something similar, because he knew there was no other option. "We-a have to try something," the Italian man said in a heavy accent. Then he gulped and added, "Even if this is, Sephiroth, one of the Five Guardians of the Capital."

Rambo bit down hard and he reached to his side for a grenade he had yet to use. "Of all the bad luck in the last five minutes, this is the worst."

"We can take him if we work…" Gon faded off as Soul and Kuwabara both slashed down together at the Guardian whose bloody katana was held out to the side.

Sephiroth flew straight forward, looking past his other enemies and all the way to Cloud who was now sprinting towards him. Cloud had just reached in between Gon and Mario, and he was already bringing his Buster Sword around while the two started turning their heads inwards. As they turned their heads in, they caught out the corners of their vision where they were just watching: Soul falling backwards with his eyes rolling back in his head, and Kuwabara's Reiken splitting into five different pieces while gashes opened up around his body as well.

Cloud's sword glowed blue and Sephiroth's glowed a dark red, and the two of them clashed blades in midair. "Hello Cloud," Sephiroth greeted with an unnerving smile, while their clashed blades produced such power that Mario started skidding backwards, and John Rambo lifted off his feet and flew back a few meters before doing a backwards tumble into a one-kneed position that he slid back on, an arm in front of his face trying to protect himself from the wind. He had only skid backwards using one hand to dig in the ground, making sure to keep his crossed arm with the grenade in it lifted as best as he could. _Just the swings of their arms are too much, they'll knock the grenade right off course. In that case,_ Rambo turned and saw Kiba being overwhelmed by mutants behind him, and he reached to his sidearm with his free hand that had blood coming out from under the fingernails now, and he started running that way while shooting mutants in the heads one by one.

The mutants spun, and then ten of them screamed out in terror. **BOOM!** An advanced grenade blasted a hole in the ground and sent shrapnel flying into all the enemies around it, while the explosion itself that was the most advanced part of the grenade exploded in a sphere with a ten meter radius. Rambo made sure that one of the first mutants he fired on was one who was holding a gun of his own, as Rambo's main weapons were discarded as soon as he ran out of all his extra ammo for them. He ran forward and did a forward roll, reaching out as he rolled and picking up the beam rifle of the mutant who was reaching for it on the ground. Rambo lifted the gun while crossing his sidearm across the front of his body, and as he stood up and rose his new rifle, he fired into the head of the mutant on the ground without even looking at him. Rambo dropped the pistol that he just fired the last shot out of, then he fired from across a forty meter gap to hit a woman up in the air with long claws sticking out of her hands that she was about to dig into Kiba's back. Blood splattered out the side of her head, then Kiba swung his left back paw out and hit two other mutants just about to punch him in the back of the knee to try and make his Five-Headed Wolf collapse.

 _Running low on chakra here. How many more mutants do they have? How many Chimera Ants are still back there that no one's coming to help me but for Rambo?_ A force of wind slammed into Kiba's side and his paws started skidding across the floor, while mutants around him were lifted up and tossed through the air. _WHAT?!_ Kiba snapped his heads all to the right, where Cloud and Sephiroth were suddenly in midair with blades clashed only a few meters away from him. They slashed again and again, then Cloud appeared behind Sephiroth and slashed through his body, only for Sephiroth to appear behind Cloud and hit him in the back with the Masamune so hard that Kiba was afraid it would rip right through Cloud's body. Cloud was sent flying into the distance, then he saw a shockwave in the sky close to a half mile away, followed by a half dozen others, followed by a rain of meteors that Kiba felt were bigger than the ones Cloud usually called, and there were more of them than usual. The sky darkened in that direction, and Kiba was getting a bad feeling as his chakra reserves were running on empty.

"Mario, give the others some potions," Gon said to the man next to him while he spun and watched Cloud and the new enemy's path into the distance. "I'm going to help Kiba and John." Rambo was getting charged by a few mutants who the beam rifle he was shooting was having zero effect on, and Gon sprinted towards him first while yelling at Rambo to keep focus on protecting Kiba's back.

Gon made it to Rambo in time and punched back both of the enemies who were shocked by the kid's power. Gon turned to sprint towards the woman he had a terrible feeling was about to start getting serious, but that woman had her head turned a different direction than where Cloud and Sephiroth just flew off to. Gon spun while thinking, _What now?_ Whatever it was that Gon thought Phoenix was looking towards, it was definitely not what he set his gaze on coming towards him from the northeast.

Most of the others stopped what they were doing as well. Soul had just sat up as Mario gave him some healing medicine, but the two of them froze where they were while looking the same direction as Gon and Phoenix. Kiba turned his heads and all five of his jaws dropped, right before his chakra ran too low to support the transformation any longer. He had upped his chakra supply over the past two years and could withstand three Shadow Clones at once now for his most powerful jutsu, but making that many heads and making his wolf that large took a harsh toll on his energy, and he was spent. Kiba appeared next to Akamaru who was also panting heavily with its tongue sticking out, but they were both sweating just as much from their exhaustion as they were from the sight in the northeast that was easily one of the worst things they could have imagined to be coming to their battlefield.

Inside of a dark realm separated from the field yet not necessarily in a different location, Axel swung his arms out to the sides and stepped towards Roxas. "What do you mean?! You don't _have_ to do anything! Why are we on opposite sides of this thing? It's like we flipped!"

"I have no choice Axel," Roxas said in a dark voice. "You have to find a better place to hide. I was with Phoenix so I'm the only one who knows, but if I found you this easily, they'll find you for sure."

"Even if they find me," Axel said darkly. The conversation was much more serious than Axel wanted to have with his long-lost best friend. "They won't find Lea. How do they do it?" Axel asked, stepping forward and glaring at Roxas who frowned deeper at that question. "I've been keeping an eye on them, and I know the Organization are merging us with our Somebodies. How is that possible?" Axel snapped.

"It's, Xemnas he compl-," Roxas cut himself off and bit down hard. "I can't tell you anything," Roxas growled. "Right now, you're my enemy. That's all there is to it, and neither of us have any choice in the matter!" Roxas yelled. He lifted his Keyblades, then as he glared towards Axel, the taller man just lowered his arms down to his sides and frowned at the shorter Nobody. Roxas opened his mouth to shout, but the words would not come out as Axel stared at him like that. Slowly, Roxas lowered his twin Keyblades.

Roxas reached back and pulled up his hood that had fallen off in their fight. "You _need_ to run," Roxas said, giving one last warning before he turned around.

"And leave my friends behind?" Axel asked as the other boy walked off. Roxas grimaced but kept walking, his teeth clenched in so much frustration as Axel continued, "I don't give up on my friends." Roxas froze where he was, even as Axel turned his back to him and opened a swirling black portal in their shared dark realm. "Got it memorized?" Axel asked. Roxas spun around, but the tall red-haired man was gone, his portal vanishing from the darkness.

Axel stepped onto a field covered in dead burnt grass, cracks cutting deep into the planet's crust, and rising flames from the mutants' destroyed ships. "Alright guys!" Axel called out right after he stepped through the portal. He had a lot to think on concerning Roxas and how he was going to help him after what he just told the younger boy, but there were pressing matters at the moment. "Let's…" Axel could not continue his call as he turned to his right and then lifted his eyes up to the massive black beast that just shot towards them so fast that a huge gust of wind almost threw him off his feet. _Oh fuck me,_ Axel thought with sweat covering his whole face.

Above the battlefield, a giant black dragon flapped its wings and lowered its legs down to the ground. It dropped down and its claws dug straight through solid earth like it was made of butter. It had an eight hundred yard long wingspan that cast shade over everything for a few moments. Then its wings pulled in to its body, folding in on its back at its sides while it lifted its neck and pushed out its scaly chest. The giant beast looked down and all the Resistance fighters and their enemies stared up at its giant face. It had horns sticking out of the top of its head, dark glowing yellowish-red eyes, and its entire body covered in a bright orange glow as it leaned the front of its body up. It lifted its head and opened its mouth, firing a red beam of flames into the sky and then pulling its head back and forth to spray those flames everywhere, covering the sky in fire.

On the back of this dragon, a man stood and looked down off the left side towards a section of the battlefield. He held up his hand and a black glow surrounded it that caused the beast to stop spraying flames in the air, lowering its head down while bending its front legs to give the man on its back a lower drop to the floor.

"We are so screwed," Soul Evans muttered, lifting up to his feet despite the pain and exhaustion he was feeling. The potion Mario gave him sealed up his wound, but he had lost a lot of blood and was feeling pretty light-headed. Mario could see the teen's skin color getting closer to matching his hair at how pale it was, and the short Italian plumber darted his gaze around to see that Soul was not the only one on his last legs. _Mama mia…_ Mario thought, as they had enemies in all directions.

Gon darted his eyes around too, realizing the same as Mario. _We're in a triangle. Cloud's back there, these two are in front of us, but they stopped while leaving Phoenix and the other mutants in our way if we try to avoid either of them. A Guardian, a High Lord, and the most powerful mutant. How can we win this?!_

"Bahamut," Sephiroth said while glancing over his shoulder. "Similar, yet not the same as the creature we could summon from our world," he looked back into Cloud's eyes with a knowing look, and Cloud grit his teeth in an even angrier fashion at his enemy.

Cloud dared a longer glance in that direction and stared at the beast, as well as the man on that creature's back. As soon as Cloud looked at the dark figure, that man's eyes glowed red and a sphere of black energy surrounded him. "No," Cloud whispered, and he started sprinting forward right as that sphere of darkness expanded from Zeref's body. Cloud made it a few steps before he saw the man out the corner of his right eye. He spun and lifted his Buster Sword to block, but Sephiroth was already slashing at Cloud's back, moving so fast that it looked like he teleported. Sephiroth slashed Masamune into Cloud's back three times, and then Cloud let out a yell of pain as he felt himself get slashed over thirty times. "Reaper," Sephiroth said, then he shot over where Cloud just started flying off and added, "Surging Sky!" He slashed down four times into Cloud in a combo that he tried blocking, only to be slammed into the floor so hard that the ground exploded and Cloud kept pushing down through it for over fifty meters.

Cloud stopped himself after crashing far through the earth, and his eyes darted around at the falling debris around him since the ground had split open where he fell through. Another cut in the earth split it perpendicular to the location he was currently standing, but he slashed up and parried the invisible slash that split a mile of the ground in both directions of the blond. Cloud shot up through the surface and came up behind Sephiroth, shouting, "Omnislash!"

Sephiroth turned fast and said in a calm voice, "Octaslash." The two of them clashed blades over and over in midair with slashes flying off of them so fast that they cut apart the ground beneath them and sliced it up all around. Cloud yelled out and pushed harder into one of his slashes than any of the others, and he pushed Masamune away for a second which made Sephiroth's eyebrows lift and his smirk reappear, right before Cloud's sword hit him and he was sent flying out of the air and into the planet below. Cloud flapped his demonic wing behind him and shot towards the part of the field where he saw his friends all laying on the ground moaning in pain. He saw Kiba curled up with Akamaru in his arms, but the mutants who were kicking him while he was down started backing off except for the two who began dragging him towards Bahamut and the man standing in front of the giant dragon's risen neck.

 _Everyone,_ Cloud thought, watching as Axel held up his hands and walked over towards the others, none of whom could fight anymore. Axel started talking to the High Lord, but Cloud was not able to hear what they were saying from this distance, or hear them at all. He flew closer to them, and he swore he saw Axel glance over his shoulder as if giving Cloud a signal that he was ready to keep fighting once they were together. Cloud put his sword at his side, then a shadow cast over him and he felt a slash in his back, one that cut through his skin this time from how unprepared he was. As he shot towards the ground he flipped over in midair, seeing the man who he thought would be out for the count or at least far enough behind him to give him time to regroup with his friends. "Sephi-" Cloud hit the ground and a crater blasted beneath him, then it tripled in size as the ground dented in farther to cushion his fall.

"As I said," Zeref told the man in front of him whose face filled with dread. The short black-haired High Lord knew what Axel was waiting for, and he grinned after seeing what Sephiroth did to that man. "I was led to believe that a member of Fairy Tail was here. One, Gray Fullbuster to be exact," he looked around at the prisoners gathered before him.

He saw their confused faces as they looked his way, and Soul muttered from his knees, "Don't pretend like you don't know, bastard-ahh!" He tried getting to his feet but the mutant who dragged him over kicked him in the back and he fell flat on his face next to an unconscious Black Star.

"Hey hey, we give up," Axel told the guy in front of him. "High Lord Spriggan, we know there's nothing we can do against you."

Cloud landed hard on his back, but he sat up and started staggering to his feet after only a second. He looked behind him over to where Axel was still standing despite the rest of his comrades looking drained on their knees or lying unconscious on their faces. Phoenix floated nearby, eying the dragon nervously as Bahamut looked straight at her instead of any of the other figures around the battlefield. Her smile was gone and she stared straight into the dragon's glowing eyes, drowning out all other sound around her at the sight of them. Cloud wanted to run towards them, but Sephiroth landed to his right and he had to turn that way instead.

"You think I did something to Gray," Zeref pondered aloud, not really paying attention to Axel who sweatdropped and then turned his head both ways as he saw mutants walking up to his back. He just said he gave up, but as they grabbed him by the arms he shrugged them off with harsh glares aimed at them. One woman rose her arms and vines came out of them, wrapping around the man, while the other stomped his right foot down and turned the ground beneath Axel into quick-sinking mud that he dropped to below his knees in. Zeref looked at Soul while this happened, and after a few seconds he leaned back and scratched his chin. "So, whatever happened to him must have just happened. Accusing me just tells me that you don't know what happened though," Zeref added in a disappointed tone, while at the same time humming to himself as it was an interesting mystery.

"Yeah, get off me," Axel said, snapping his arms out from his sides where they were being held tight. The vines around him burnt away and the female mutant stumbled backwards while screaming in pain. Axel yanked his legs up one at a time next then glared back at the mutant behind him, only for that mutant to stare forward with the most horror Axel could imagine being in a man's eyes. Unfortunately, his eyes were aimed above Axel's head and not into Axel's own eyes when he faced the man. " _Huuffff_ , _rrrff,_ " Axel heard the deep heavy breathing then felt the hot breath on the back of his neck and through his entire body. He started turning and saw Rambo and Gon looking at him with wide eyes, and even Kiba and Akamaru who were just thrown down near them were not wheezing in pain anymore but frozen still while looking towards Axel.

Axel turned around and stared at the face of the dragon in front of him. It was several times larger that his entire body, many times as tall and much more than that wide. Its features from far away were terrifying, but its scales and spikes and the evil look in its eyes was made all the worse by its close proximity. Axel stared with a sudden inability of breathe at the beast in front of him, right as High Lord Spriggan walked up to the left side of its face and stared at Axel as well. "It is your complete defeat," the High Lord said, immediately followed by the loud sounds of gunshots. **BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG click-click.**

Zeref had his left hand lifted up, and he slowly turned towards it and looked past at the muscular man standing despite his shaky legs and pointing a small gun at him. Rambo used the last of his ammo, and Axel looked out the corners of his eyes towards him in a panicked way, though there was no way he could actually turn his head with Bahamut still staring straight at him. Zeref opened up his palm and dropped all of Rambo's heavy bullets meant to pierce armor, all of them crushed like they were made of plastic. "Even if I wasn't immortal," Zeref said. Bringing his immortality up seemed to make him more annoyed, his red eyes glowing brighter and a black aura surrounding him. "Pathetic attacks like that would do nothing." The black aura around Zeref rose up and formed the shape of a hand. Rambo's eyes lifted and he took a step back, but the black hand was too fast and shot right over the other kneeling figures straight to him. It swiped across his body, also hitting two mutants behind him who had run his way to knock him back down.

The black hand of aura passed straight through the three figures and then disappeared just as quickly as it began. Axel, Gon, Mario, Soul, Kiba, Akamaru, and Cloud stared in shock as the man's eyes rolled into his head. His breath was gone, his heartbeat stopped, just like the two mutants who fell first behind him. His legs wobbled for a few seconds longer, his friends pushing themselves up or running towards him, and then John Rambo fell backwards and hit the ground with a thud. Mutants re-pinned Soul, Kiba and Akamaru, and Mario to the ground quickly. Gon was harder, finding a new source of energy that he used to blast the fat mutant that leapt on his back straight back into the sky with a hole in his gut.

Axel was furious though. His very first mission as the Delta Squad leader, and he had already lost someone. _Damn it! DAMN IT!_ Axel spun towards Zeref after running only a few steps to Rambo, since he realized the man was dead before he even hit the ground. Axel glared furiously into the High Lord's eyes, and then a mutant girl younger than most of the others walked up behind the man solely focused on one thing, put her hands to the sides of his head, and Axel's eyelids closed as he passed out and collapsed.

Cloud kept sprinting though, for another second until Sephiroth appeared on his side. This time though, he was expecting it and rose to block on the other side where Sephiroth teleported to a second later with his incredible speeds. He slashed at Cloud, but even though the blond was prepared for it, it did not stop the blade from sending Cloud skidding back across the ground for twenty meters. Cloud turned to get better footing so he would not be hit so far the next time, then the sky opened up and meteors started falling. He rose his sword up a little to block the summoned meteors and slash them apart, and that's when he saw his fatal error. Sephiroth was right in front of him, bent down a bit with his sword already in mid-slash, while Cloud's was still rising up to slash at the first of the meteors. "Let's get somewhere more private, Cloud," Sephiroth said. The Masamune slammed into Cloud's chest, lifting him off the ground as he gasped, and then Sephiroth started sprinting forward so fast that the landscape around them was a blur. Sephiroth spoke as he ran Cloud to a more secluded location, "Have you come to accept it, Cloud? The darkness in your heart." Sephiroth slashed fully forward as he stopped, sending Cloud flying and tumbling over the green grassy ground once he hit down. "What I really am, and who you are?"

Cloud did not know where he was, but the fact that the geography looked so much different meant that Sephiroth had taken them far. He knew the direction they came from though and glared at the man in the way of him and getting back there. "I'm a member of the Resistance!" Cloud yelled, slashing his Buster Sword out to the side. "What I really am, is just that! You don't affect me anymore. I've given up on the darkness and chosen the light! I cast you out!"

"You can't get rid of me that easily, Cloud," Sephiroth said, lifting back up Masamune and holding it to his left side while a dark aura surrounded him. His long black wing stretched out one way, and Cloud's did on his opposite side as he lifted up his Buster Sword. "Not on this world. Not when our fight, is the very fight this world was made for."

"Shut, UP!" Cloud roared, shooting towards Sephiroth and slamming down with his Buster Sword.

Sephiroth rose his katana and blocked Cloud though. As the blond-haired teen leaned down towards his sword and pushed harder with both hands, Sephiroth just stared calmly up into his furious eyes, and he asked, "Which of us is the real darkness, Cloud?"

* * *

 **Present**

"Spriggan and his dragon ended the last hope we had," Cloud muttered to the two in front of him. "With Phoenix, Spriggan, and Sephiroth all attacking at once, there was nothing we could do."

Levy had heard that Rambo had died during the failed mission, but having it described to her like that made it much worse. She held back the water in her eyes though and just said, "And Gray? Did Zeref know anything about him?"

"I don't know," Cloud replied. "I was too far to hear what they were talking about…" He turned to Gajeel whose face was still scrunched in what seemed to Cloud like a permanent scowl. "That's all I know," he told the mage. "Believe it or don't, I don't care which."

"I believe you, this time," Gajeel muttered, though his voice was still full of anger. _But that doesn't give me any closure at all. Where the Hell did Gray go?! And, and how did something like that happen? Not just Gray vanishing, but that whole thing sounds funky._

"Maybe Gray disappearing was a good thing," Levy whispered, and Gajeel looked down at her in confusion before his gaze softened for the first time in over an hour. "Even if he was there," Levy continued softly. "Against those odds…"

"It wouldn't have made a difference," Cloud finished for her. Gajeel and Levy looked back at the man who just turned and gazed out past their walls and over the half-Scorched landscape around them. "That's what I tell myself at least, hoping that at least one of us made it out of there." The two Fairy Tail mages stared at Cloud with hesitant and softer looks at that statement, as he was not counting himself as getting out of that battle. Cloud stared into the distance though, wondering if at any second the enemy would come at them in full force. _Because they know where we are,_ Cloud thought as he wondered why he was so paranoid. His fists clenched at his sides and he frowned even deeper, _They_ _ **always**_ _know._

* * *

 **A/N Back in chapter 6 (of original Nexus) we saw the very beginning of this, but the flashback ended right after Gray teleported to Port Royal in the middle of the fight. Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter, and I'll put a list of the characters below since it's a lot of new ones or ones who have not shown themselves often in the First Third. Anyway, this chapter was originally going to be this part about Cloud and friends and another part that also had to do with "The Truth," but the next part would have been a lot more to add so I'm going to just add a 14.3, (since I had planned on skipping a few decimals this chapter of skipping around, didn't need a full 10 parts for it). But next time will be Nexus HWR 14.3 Fear, so I'm going to start working on that tomorrow with the first day of my Spring Break here in Tokyo!**

 **Gurren Lagann: Kamina, Yoko**

 **Danmachi: Liliruca Arde**

 **RWBY: Lie Ren**

 **Akame ga Kill: Wave**

 **Fairy Tail: Gray, Gajeel, Levy, Zeref**

 **FF/Kingdom Hearts: Cloud, Sephiroth**

 **X-Men: Magneto, Phoenix, Toad, Avalanche, Pyro**

 **Hunter x Hunter: King, Chimera Ants**

 **Rambo: Rambo**

 **Nintendo: Mario**

 **Yu Yu Hakusho: Asato Kido, Kuwabara**

 **Hitman Reborn: Dino**

 **Code Geass: Kallen Kozuki**

 **Fullmetal Alchemist (Brotherhood): Ed Elric, Alphonse**

 **-As well as any others I may have missed, check the disclaimer^ and review asking where they're from if you don't know and I didn't write it here. Alright, time for review responses:**

Limit-Breaking chapter 97 . Apr 24

Hey so I will ask a simple question can we get more seven deadly sins characters in this story to be one of the main characters. I just love the story of meliodas and he honestly has personality to his character and is so we'll written that I just want to see more of him in this story. The story is getting better and better and I think they can make the story more interesting.

 **We'll definitely be getting more of the 7DS throughout this story. It's one of my favorite shows right now too, and I've got some flashbacks/future plots with them in mind, so look forward to it! Thanks for the compliment and review in general, and for reading! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!**

Jokering chapter 97 . Apr 24

So the Wizard King Saga is over i like the way it was resolved since it was obvious from the Meruem v Wizard King fight that it would be pointless to go for a brawl, and i like that it opened up new plot points for the future. One of them makes me question: are Garp and Fujitora and Ryokugyu still in the One Piece world? Because they havent even been mentioned yet, it makes sense to not use the latter in the story since he hasnt even been officially introduced to One Piece's story yet but i am curious about the other two. I am still curious why Cartman didnt just tell Goku he could reach SSG with the help of 5 other saiyans but maybe he didnt know about it.  
Finally a story about Awul, feels like its been ages since the last time we last saw them, and it had Mandy as one of the main characters for that chapter, love it. Also, you clever little sneak, you are taking your sweet time introducing what devil fruit power Mandy has arent you? I can only think of three that would combo well with her, and two have already been introduced as well as having their owners killed, but hey maybe you'll give her something i completly did not expect, i am only 65% sure of that.  
But jeez things are going from bad to worse for the Resistance, hope it will change soon for the best, and from the pacing this is going the story mays as well have at least 130-150 more chapters. Great work

 **Glad to hear from you again, and that you spotted some of the plot points I was setting up in the arc. Not gonna mention anything about which characters are still on their worlds or not, but so far most main characters have shown up. I feel like people without a lot of light or darkness wouldn't be important characters if out of everyone on their worlds, they were the ones who got tv shows. Don't really know if that explains what I'm saying, but like in an anime where it's a war and there's a team of heroes, all of those heroes would likely show up even if they're not the MC, because they're still more impressive than at least like 60-99% of the other people in their worlds. Then again, not gonna say anything about characters who have not appeared, no spoilers after all. Would def wait until Ryokugyu appeared in the anime/manga first though, as I want Nexus to hold up to time and not have super plot holes like why Ryokugyu's got a dif Devil Fruit or looks dif or something. Happy you liked the Awul chapter, as I have had that one written for a long time and had tweaked it over the past half year or so while I caught up the rest of Nexus to where I planned on posting it. Mandy's Devil Fruit remains a mystery! XD, I mean with those actual Devil powers of hers, we've yet to see her use her Devil Fruit, but it will not stay a secret forever... Resistance shown to have it pretty rough again this chapter, but at least Kamina and Yoko are there to give some support! Thanks for the review, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter (and the next few).**

joebob323 chapter 97 . Apr 24

Okay sloooow down... Doctor Nefario? Mizore? So many new characters, and all it's doing is making me think of the rest of the cast from those shows! I do think this is crazy though, recently it's been a huge mash-up of a power-scale. Ant-King beats Bardock, gets wrecked by Cartman, who brings up TFS(Mr. Popo), now there's Whitebeard and Nukes?! Man this is just a barrage of curveballs!

 **Characters everywhere! It is Nexus after all, a whole lot of people here. Awul was said to be the surface area of Earths, (I don't remember which characters said it to relate that continent's size to, but I think most fictional worlds from this are around Earth size even if they're not Earth). So if Awul's that big, then Aebrith's like 3 times the size of that, so there're gonna be a whole bunch of new characters showing up this Third of the Aebrith Saga, as we've hardly dipped into the giant landmass even 1.4 million words in XD. Mizore had shown up before in the other chapters where Ace and Sabo have shown up, (only two other scenes in all of Heroes Will Rise admittedly though). Whitebeard and Nukes, almost like the same things huh? What can it all mean? Thanks for the review! Hope you enjoyed!**

asdf chapter 97 . Apr 24

I suppose this means you've finished Yu Yu Hakusho now. Did you watch the anime or read the manga? What did you think of it overall? Yu Yu Hakusho is one of the few anime where I find the dub to be better than the sub. What did you think of the Yusuke vs Sensui fight? They were just moving everywhere destroying mountains and altering weather patterns, it was so awesome! Last question: is Yusuke as strong as Raizen now?  
I am gonna be a bit hopeful about Keiko considering that her death was not actually shown.  
I suppose now I'll be patient until you finish reading Toriko (trust me they get a lot stronger than in the anime).

 **Unfortunately... still haven't finished. Only watched anime, not read manga. Yusuke vs Sensui was pretty cool, one of the last things I watched I think, then kinda faded off at the start of the next arc as he met the old Spirit detective chick. *sweatdrops* also haven't really _started_ Toriko, let alone finish it. Sorry to disappoint, but Yu Yu Hakusho will continue being a big part of this despite having yet to finish it. I never finished Hitman Reborn either but Tsuna had a big role to play in Metropolis, and he's continuing to be so, though we'll have to see how he is after the Spire... Anyway, thanks for the review, sorry 'bout the lack of Toriko characters going to be showing up, but I hope you enjoyed the chapter otherwise!**

flo463 chapter 97 . 3h ago

I wonder what kind of training Kirito will he choose first? personally I would say all for more versatility  
_ To train in martial arts and develop his ki with Goku in first is the most logical choice (with the possibility of becoming a saiyan?)  
_ Ninja arts with Sasuke (and obtain the Sharingan or better the...Rinnegan?)  
_ Magic  
_ Haki  
Gurren Lagann is out (for the moment?), Mandy has the power that goes to her head and Aebrith is under the threat of nuclear armageddon, the situation isn't very brilliant for the rebels  
I am curious to know which entity threatens all worlds?

 **Simon backs out of Resistance (under Rossiu's suggestion), but at least Kamina and Yoko are wandering around helping the good guys out on their own! Kirito's efforts to get stronger will arise as soon as the story refocuses a bit on the main group, as it was what he was thinking about at the end of the last chapter. The Darkness that threatens all the worlds, is something that I've kind of created on my own. Then again, there are like a thousand different places where the Darkness is something like what I made. I even used the Supernatural version of the Darkness and incorporated it in as being only a small part of the entity that's the villain in this destroying the worlds. Anyway, didn't feel like that was a spoiler since Sora had that chapter with the Gods, and they explained about the Darkness back there at the end of chapter 12. Thanks for the review, and we'll see which (if any ;) ) of your predictions for Kirito's training come through... Thanks again everyone for reading, faving, following, and reviewing. 'Till next time!**


	99. Nexus HWR 14-3 Fear

**A/N Short chapter right here. It was originally supposed to be a part of the last one, but it took me a little longer to write this one than the last one even though the last was longer. Either way, I have 14.4 finished already and I'm going to post that later today, but I just got back from the Club at 6am in Tokyo, (the trains don't run from midnight to 6 so if you're at the club after midnight you kinda gotta stay all night), but I had this chapter ready and figured I'd post it before I finally went to bed. When I get up I'll start editing the next chapter, and I'll try to get that up within the next 12 hours. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter!**

 **-Disclaimer: I still don't own any of the media I received my characters and occasionally settings from. None are mine, so don't sue me. 3**

* * *

 **Nexus HWR 14.3 Fear:**

 **3rd Level of Hell**

In the Third Level of Hell, that is the third layer down from the surface, a young man with black hair and a face full of freckles walked down a bumpy rocky path splitting some lava fields. Yukio Okumura has his arms at his sides and kept his expression straight as he walked, though his eyes were not covered by glasses and were burning bright blue.

 _Stay calm,_ Yukio thought as he continued to move straight forward. He saw the pentagram he was walking towards just ahead, and he spotted a group of five demons standing in the area flash white for a second before vanishing to another level of Hell. _Two more layers. I have to take the paths farther from center, so only one at a time, but there would be too many eyes on me over there. Even here,_ Yukio's bright blue eyes darted to the sides to check for prying demons' eyes. All the demon robots he glared at though spun back around and lifted up their pitchforks to keep stabbing evil robots in the lava fields, acting like they were not just watching the son of Satan walking by them.

The Third Level of Hell was also known as Robot Hell, packed with sentient robots that had to go somewhere when they died. Yukio kept marching forward without looking distressed, though he was getting more worried with every demon that looked his way. _How long do I have? Do I start running? What if they already know but are letting me keep this up because I'm not acting suspicious? I couldn't make it through the next two levels by sprinting, then out through the exact gate I need to escape into to have a chance on the surface. Not with demons chasing me the entire time._

Yukio reached a longer and wider section of red rocky ground covered in bumps and spiky stalagmites. He looked to his left and stopped walking for a second, staring at a large robot man whose arms and legs were chained out to the sides attached to rock pillars. Its head was bowed, while demons on its sides stabbed at it with pitchforks that ripped through its steel body, as the chains pulled apart and started ripping the robot at the joints. _Weird, I didn't think the Pacifista would be down here. Did they start creating some that had sentience?_ Yukio stared at the tortured form of Bartholomew Kuma in mild confusion but refocused when he spotted two figures walking towards him, directly in his path between him and the portal-elevator.

"Pleeaaaseee! Please please please please!"

"Shut up!" The Robot Devil yelled, flames rising around him. The red-steel demonic robot with horns sticking off the top of his head darted a glare at the silver robot next to him. "You are here to be punished Bender, not to punish others!"

"But I know I would be a great robot demon," Bender argued in a pleading voice. "Pleeaseee? Please please please pleaaassseee!"

The Robot Devil snarled, then had a thought, _He's already torturing me. The Robot Devil! How good of a demon could he become…_ The red robot froze in place while staring forward with widening eyes. The gears in his head skipped a notch at the sight of the blue-eyed boy only ten yards in front of them and closing.

Yukio kept a straight expression as he thought, _Move move move! The son of Satan wouldn't go around other beings. It would look too strange to move aside for them!_ He kept walking and the Robot Devil stepped aside, bowing its head a bit. Yukio felt a little relieved, then he bit down hard in frustration as the silver robot just turned and looked at him funny. "And who are you supposed to be?" Bender asked.

"Bender!" Robot Devil shouted. "Move aside for the Prince of Hell!"

"This guy's a prince?" Bender asked while Yukio stopped in front of him. "That means you've got some valuables right? I mean, you want to be friends?" Bender ran up on Yukio's side and stretched an arm around his back to rest on the opposite shoulder. "You should bring me back to your palace to hang out best buddy."

"Get your hand off me," Yukio said in a dark voice. He turned his head and glared into Bender's white eyes with his own the flared brighter blue than ever. "You piece of scrap metal," Yukio spat at him, his teeth sharpened when his lips pulled apart to speak.

"Ooh scary," Bender let go and eased back but his voice sounded sarcastic.

Bender moved to the side after saying it, but Yukio froze where he was instead of moving past him. _He moved! Go!_ Yukio's head turned towards the robot who moved to the opposite side as the Robot Devil. Yukio's lips curled down and his teeth bared harder at that sarcastic tone he heard in Bender's voice. _What am I doing?!_ Yukio screamed at himself, his eyes opening wide and his head snapping back straight forward. He started taking quick steps, turning into a jog while the robots behind him looked after him in confusion.

"What's up his butt?" Bender asked.

The Robot Devil hummed and then called out, "Wait!" Yukio froze where he was in mid-jog. "If I may inquire," the Robot Devil began as he walked towards Yukio's frozen form. "What you are doing up here, Demon King of Nexus, Okumura Yukio? Don't you have duties torturing tormented souls right now?"

 _I shouldn't have moved any faster. I should have left earlier!_ Yukio bit down hard and closed his eyes. _They stopped guarding me weeks ago. I figured they were still watching me at all times, but no matter how far I went they still never said anything. Yet I didn't run,_ Yukio started turning back and glared at the robots behind him with shaky eyes, eyes that opened much wider as he stared right between the two of them. Yukio took a step backwards, his mouth opening and sweat forming on the sides of his face. He spun back to the pentagrams behind him and stared closely at them, _How long would it take to run there? He'd be right behind me! Damn it! I need to leave. I need to get out of this place._

"Brother," a voice said behind him, and the two robots turned their heads to see a figure standing right behind them. He walked in between the two, and this time Bender did not make a remark as he saw and recognized who this figure was. All of the other demons nearby got to torturing as hard as they could, and even the tortured robots started screaming in worse agony to prove that they were being tortured in the worst ways imaginable and could not get it any worse.

"Lord Lucifer," the Robot Devil said with a bow of his head. "You grace me with your presence here in Robot Hell."

Lucifer ignored the red robot with horns and kept walking for a few more steps before stopping and speaking to Yukio's back. "What are you doing?" Lucifer asked.

"No one was guarding me," Yukio said. The two robots nearest to him who were within earshot looked at the young man in surprise, and their eyes widened more as Yukio continued, "Of course I would try to escape."

"He was fleeing?" The Robot Devil asked. "It is a good thing I stopped him then-"

"I was watching him," Lucifer said, "do not give yourself any credit." The Robot Devil closed his mouth fast and eased away from the Demon King of Light, the strongest of the Demon Kings, second in command of all of Hell, and the High Lord on the surface of Nexus.

Bender looked over at the guy he had gotten in the way of and thought about what the teen said to him. _He didn't seem very demonic to me,_ Bender thought, realizing why that was as the teen started turning back with shaking blue eyes.

"I thought you were watching me," Yukio said.

"Did you?" Lucifer asked. "But you fled because no one was guarding you, did you not?"

"It was worth a shot," Yukio said, still without turning anything other than his head like at any second he might start sprinting for the portal. His knees started to bend, but then Lucifer asked something that made his breath catch in his throat and his body tense up.

"We have not been guarding you for twenty days now," Lucifer said. "At any time, you could have attempted to run. But for twenty days, you continued your duties as a Demon King."

Yukio's face twitched, and his knees unbent as he thought of what he did for those twenty days straight. "I," Yukio whispered. "I caught myself, smiling," Yukio said, turning his body now to face Lucifer while glaring furiously at him. "As I tortured another soul, I was smirking. That's why I decided I needed to get out. It's this place! It's doing things to me!"

"Is it?" Lucifer asked, and Yukio took a step back at the innocent question from the other demon. "You've been running for a long time, brother," Lucifer said. "But what are you running from? Myself? Father? Look deep within yourself and tell me your answer."

* * *

 **FD + 178**

 _I have to keep going. It's not far enough,_ Yukio flew across the sky in a jet for one with the thrusters on full. He flew as fast as the sleek plane would allow, and he was breathing so fast that his breath even started fogging up the glass of the jet's cockpit. He reached up and wiped away the foggy glass quickly, then he checked his navigation and saw the dot he had plugged in getting closer to him. _This is the other side of the world. Not even Aebrith, it's not even like it's on the same planet considering how big this place is. I've traveled the circumference of the Earth three times already, and I'm almost there._

Yukio Okumura spotted something that made his eyes go wide under his glasses, and he tapped the fuel gauge above his instruments. It had just started flashing red, and the arrow was shaking over the bottom line with an 'E' for empty next to it. _Damn, I can't make it to the other side of the world on this remaining fuel. I'll have to fill up again, but I'm all out of extra. Need a city or something. Check the radar._ Yukio started searching out large energy signatures which would give him a notion as to where nearby settlements would be. He did this because of the necessity for more fuel, but also because he needed anything to distract him from his thoughts.

 _They keep finding me. They find me no matter where I go. I can't hide, I can't run like this anymore!_ Yukio panicked and he was not seeing any large energy signatures within a few hundred miles of his plane on his map. He grimaced and looked around outside the glass, then he spun to the right and his eyes opened wide at something he had almost flown right past. _What the…_ He looked back at his instruments but he did not see any energy signature coming from over there. He turned his plane towards it anyway though and slowed down as he decreased altitude. Yukio flew down to a leveled field for over fifty miles leading towards the outskirts of that city in the distance. _My tech is advanced, very advanced, but it can't detect that city at all. Is there a barrier? Is the person who made that barrier smart enough to block out my instruments? If so, then could he keep out demons as well… but if he can, would I, even be able to…_

Yukio landed his plane outside of the city still a good dozen miles outside of it. He looked around and spotted two roads coming out from the west side where he had approached from, as well as the southern side where there was also a line of vehicles and people trying to go in. As Yukio came to a stop, he noticed between those two roads there was a rounded wall that was so translucent it was almost transparent. From a distance he thought he could see straight through, but there was a thin barrier that he could see with the naked eye. _In there. It might not be the opposite side of the world exactly, but maybe they would have expected that anyway and are waiting for me there already. I won't walk into another trap of the Illuminati. I won't let Lucifer catch me. "There is nowhere to run, little brother. You, and Rin, will join us sooner or later." "Father won the War of the Satans, and now all of Hell follows his command. If he wants you to join him, there is nowhere in the physical realm you can hide…"_

Yukio opened the cockpit of his jet and climbed up on the front of it. He lifted a pair of binoculars and looked into the distance at the city, checking out the inside of it with interest. He rose the binoculars and focused on the giant floating island above all the buildings. As he looked beneath the island, he spotted people hanging from it by ropes. At first he imagined the worst, then he peered closer and saw those people were hanging there around the waists, using chisels and hammers to carve beautiful designs into the rocky bottom. _What a city. There are more buildings above it too, but that looked more like a government area than a normal city. There were barracks, old-fashioned ancient-type buildings with marble pillars, nothing like the modern skyscrapers they've got down here._ Yukio let out an amazed whistle as he refocused on the city below. _Not even half a year, and this place looks amazing!_

 **Five Hours Later**

"Welcome new citizens, to the safest haven in the world, Metropolis." Yukio sat in a huge theater that was packed to the brim of all the people who were allowed into the city as new residents today. There was a powerpoint presentation going on at the bottom of the theater that had several thousand seats in it, and there was a woman in a Marine uniform on stage with an earpiece and microphone on her face. She spoke into the mic and her voice came out through the room silencing all the talking new residents, and making a teenage boy who recently turned sixteen years old focus intently on her. "Here in Metropolis there are a variety of jobs open for new residents to apply for. Although this is a place you can come to be safe from the monsters and horrors of the outside world of Nexus, it is still the capital city of an advanced nation, the New Earth Government, or NEG for short."

 _NEG? I've never heard of it over on Aebrith, but this world is huge. Maybe it will spread there one day. Depends on how strong they are._ Yukio hummed as the slide changed and he spotted a huge list of jobs that went down the screen in two columns. The Marine woman in an officer's coat pointed a red laser-pointer at the screen and started listing off some of the jobs and how to apply for them. _Demon-hunter. Makes sense that they'd need people in that field. Not everyone can see many of the supernatural things of this world. There's an asterisk next to it, so I'll have to figure out what that means, but there are also three of those symbols for Credits next to it instead of one or two like most of the others._

"As residents here, most of you will have your own choice of whether you would like to live in apartments or in your own houses. You may think that of course you'd rather live in your own house, but I've heard many people enjoy living closer to the center of the city where the tallest apartment high-rises are. A shorter commute to work doesn't hurt anyone, and if you do apply for your own house, there will be a waiting period where you'll have to stay in an apartment anyway while the new houses are built." The Marine woman flipped the slide and a lot of people started laughing, and she chuckled as well. The middle-aged woman with long blonde hair tied into a ponytail said while the room read the screen, "Of course, it won't take long for your houses to be built with the combined construction technology of thousands of worlds, giving us equipment that can have your house built in hours, and an entire neighborhood finished in only a couple of days."

Yukio started thinking to himself whether he wanted to go with an apartment or a house, and he listened in to the conversations of a few families around him who were having quiet discussions with each other. _This place sounds amazing,_ Yukio thought, then he frowned as the next screen popped up and many people in the room started murmuring. "Now, I now this may upset some of you, but this is not the outside world anymore. You don't need your weapons, and you don't need powers. Those of you who were marked at the gate as enhanced-powered have already been told this, but you will not have access to your powers while inside Metropolis unless you enlist in one of the armed forces of the NEG."

"What do you mean by that?" Someone called out.

"How can you restrict my powers?" Another man yelled out.

"After this information session, those of you who were marked at the gate must make your decision. If you do not believe you can handle not having your powers, but you also do not wish to join our military, then you will be required to leave Metropolis tonight." The Marine woman had no room in her voice for argument, saying that firmly and then glaring over at the man who called that second question to her. "If you accept the loss of your powers however, the NEG's great scientist, Dr. Vegapunk, has created a device that will be a limiter on your abilities. You will have all the rights of your fellow citizens, but you must wear this limiter in order for us to keep control of our city and to make those without powers feel safe in a city where they are surrounded by their peers."

Most of the room started calling out in agreement with this, and Yukio looked around in surprise at their calls and shouts. He spotted some other people glancing around in amazement as well, and he spotted a group of ninjas get out of their seats over on his right and start making for the exit. The female Marine watched them leave without saying a word, then she continued to everyone who remained in the theater. Yukio hummed to himself as the room settled down again. _Everyone in here is alright with this? Most of them don't care because it doesn't affect them, but though I was not marked, I do not like the idea that only the government will have power while the citizens remain defenseless below. On this world though, perhaps that is unavoidable. Hmm, but if I show my abilities while working as a demon-hunter, will they require me to wear one as well if I don't join their military? I don't like it, but perhaps that asterisk next to the job means that I won't have to wear whatever that limiter thing is._

The next screen popped up while Yukio was deep in thought, and he had only half-heard what the Marine giving the presentation had just said. The slide had a title at the top though for people who had not been listening closely, and Yukio's entire body tensed up as he stared at it. "The High Council of the NEG. The leaders of this nation live on the Upper City on the island above us right now. They are the ones who built this city and who will protect you all from the dangers of the outside world."

"Superman!"

"Tetsuo!"

Yukio heard a bunch of cheers as people called out heroes who had saved them before on Nexus. He had had experiences just like many of them, where a powerful figure would fly in out of nowhere and save them from the monsters rampaging over Nexus. Yukio even recognized the one who had 'Superman' written beneath his picture, but he did not smile at the sight of a hero who had saved him once before. Instead, Yukio stared at a picture lower down than many of the others. While the Marine started talking about Tetsuo and how he created the island above as well as his reasons for starting the city of Metropolis, Yukio could not stop staring at the picture of a figure with green hair that was darker on the outsides and got brighter green and spiked up in the middle. _I need to get out of here,_ Yukio thought in panic.

He did not shoot out of his seat after having the thought. _If I get up after seeing those faces, I'll raise suspicion about me. What if the Marines think I'm getting up because of that Fleet Admiral Akainu guy? They might want to question why I wouldn't want to stay after seeing their leaders, and they could report what I tell them to Amaimon. Amaimon must be looking for me, as well… No, no no, wait,_ Yukio stared at the screen closer and started thinking harder about what he was looking at. _How would he have risen that far through the government in such a short time? A High Council member, he must have been here for a while. Before the end of the War of the Satans? Maybe, but maybe not. Maybe Satan sent him out here after his victory… or maybe Amaimon never took part in the war at all._

 _It's too much of a coincidence,_ Yukio thought with a shake of his head. _Unless, unless!_ His eyes opened huge behind his glasses. _Unless Amaimon's thinking the same thing I am. Unless, he thinks that behind this barrier Satan will never find him! Is that it? Is he hiding here from Satan, just like me? Just like…_ Yukio's eyes returned to their normal size and he stared at the screen ahead of him with a blank stare. _Am I going to stay in this place? Hiding from Satan?_ Yukio's lips curled down at the corners. _If Amaimon can hide here, if that's really what he's doing, then they probably won't find me._ Yukio's lips dipped even farther down. _Lucifer won't come after me any longer? And I, won't learn anything else, about why my eyes… why they burn blue? I don't need to know! I don't. I don't want to. I'm not a demon. Rin was always, Father Fujimoto knew it too, that's why he made me into an exorcist, because unlike Rin I'm not! But, but my eyes… If I really am a demon, if I am really becoming Satan's son, maybe Hell is-_ Yukio's eyes opened huge and he started shaking in his seat. _What am I thinking? Wh-what- This is the place to hide!_ He shouted it firmly in his head and then grabbed his thighs tightly with his hands, his nails digging into his skin as he stared forward at the screen in fear. _I need a different job though. Being a demon-hunter might get Amaimon to find me, and what if he really is working with Satan and not hiding? I should just lay low. Pick a new job. I was already a teacher, so I don't need school anymore. I should help people even if I'm not a demon-hunter, but I doubt the cops will give a fifteen year old a job. Lawyer? Who's going to want to hire me? Well, I guess if I start my own firm and win a few cases, word of mouth will spread. Besides, I look older than I am. I can do this. I can, hide here. I can avoid the Illuminati, and Lucifer, and Satan. I have to! If Lucifer finds me again… I'm afraid, I won't know what…_

* * *

 **Present**

"What am I running from?" Yukio asked the Demon King of Light in front of him. Yukio could feel the heat in his eyes, and the blue flames in his eyes got brighter as he asked the question which made his entire vision tint blue. "I'm, running," Yukio breathed out the words, then he took in a deep breath and released, "from myself."

"Why?" Lucifer questioned.

"Because I like it," Yukio whispered, then his eyes bugged out and he took a step backwards. Lucifer did not look at him in a horrified way though like the expression that just formed on Yukio's face. Instead, Lucifer nodded at him in an understanding way. Yukio started shivering and he took another step backwards from Lucifer.

"Why are you afraid?" Lucifer asked.

"'Afraid?' No, no I'm terrified. I'm terrified of myself," Yukio whispered, but his voice started getting louder as his eyes that had darted to the floor started raising back up and burning bright. "Because the truth is, I'm starting to like it..." The corners of Yukio's lips curled up even as he shook there in fear. "I was torturing a soul, and I realized I was smiling! But, I didn't _just_ start smiling with that soul and realized it as soon as I was doing it. I had been smiling for hours! I had been laughing, chuckling to myself as they screamed!" Yukio started taking hard, panting breaths, but Lucifer did not say anything against what he just said. "If I had told anyone else that, they would call me a psychopath. They'd call me crazy, and they'd call me crazier because I don't feel bad about it. I'm terrified that I don't feel bad about it, but no one scolds me or tells me what I'm doing is wrong."

"That's because what you're doing is not wrong," Lucifer said. "You are a demon. You have always been, a demon." Yukio stared into Lucifer's eyes as the demon took a step towards his younger brother who was the same height as him, and they had similar body sizes. Lucifer's face was pretty bland-looking, light-skinned and normal with a few freckles just like Yukio. He had longer hair, but his was blond instead of dark brown like Yukio's. "Torturing the souls of the damned is a task that Father gave you because he knew it would help you to realize your true nature."

"I'm not a demon," Yukio snapped. "I'm a human!" The robots behind Lucifer looked surprised at that shout, and Yukio just bit down harder as their reactions meant that he did not even look human anymore. He did not notice the two flaming blue horns sticking out of his hair, or the fact that his lips had curled farther out than normal humans' mouths could, so the corners of them were close to his ears when he had been smirking. "And I shouldn't be torturing anyone! I can't do it!" Yukio yelled, but the tone of his shout told everyone that he was screaming that solely at himself.

"You're the son of Satan, brother," Lucifer said. "You can do whatever you like."

Yukio's eyes opened wide again and he stood there frozen still for a few moments. _Whatever, I like?_ Yukio thought. He turned his head to Lucifer's left and a smirk spread from ear to ear. The silver robot who mocked him sarcastically earlier gulped, while Yukio lifted a finger and pointed at his chest. "I want to torture that robot next. Have it brought to my castle."

The Robot Devil turned to Bender then back to the Princes of Hell. "Bender, is a robot," he began. "And in the Third Level where he-"

"That one too," Yukio said with a nod towards the red robot that stopped speaking mid-sentence.

"Huh?" Robot Devil asked, leaning back and wondering if he heard correctly.

"Whatever you desire," Lucifer replied when Yukio looked at him expectantly as if asking if what he just said was not possible. Yukio looked surprised by that response, then he grinned even more as the Demon King of Light turned around. Lucifer turned to the Robot Devil and Bender who were both backing up now, and he lifted his left hand. His palm flashed white and the robots screamed, then as the flash went away Yukio could not see either of them anymore. "They are in your castle. Please return there at once, brother."

Yukio looked over his shoulder towards the portal he could use to go farther up in Hell. Then he looked at Lucifer who just teleported some souls down more than half of Hell without using any of the conventional methods. "Alright," Yukio replied, accepting the inevitability that he had to go back. Once he had accepted that though, he thought of what he was going to do next, and that made him grin wide again. His sharp teeth bared and his fists clenched at his sides while the corners of his lips pulled farther up. His body covered fully in blue flames, as he thought, _I've got some robots to torture._

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed. Short chapter this time, with some more Yukio in it who we've only seen a few times so far in Heroes Will Rise. We saw him waking up in Hell as the new Demon King of Nexus, and we saw him during the point when the entire planet was shaking and Satan had him watch the turning point, and probably watched as Satan tried taking over Meruem's body too... But now we see that Yukio is not as much the prisoner Rin thinks he is, as Yukio's time in Hell has been affecting him. We'll see if he's able to shake the demonic hold on him, or if he gets even worse... later on Nexus! As for now, review responses: (Also, the Robot Devil and Bender are both from Futurama. I don't own any of those other characters either too).**

Limit-Breaking chapter 98 . Apr 29

Wow poor cloud he has gone through some shit, i never really played his game but i do plan on playing the remastered version of it when it comes out. Also the entire time i was wondering who the hell is rambo and after reading the chapter and searching him up i died of laughter thinking of a person like that working together with mario, gon and the others. I guess that's because they all look so different so i can't really tell if they all look realistic in the world of nexus or their normal selves.

Also just curious but when can we see android 17 cause you kinda made it weird saying he is a high lord, so does he work for the king, does he own a certain land. Show us a chapter about android 17 already, i want to know what exactly he is doing especially if he is helping the resistance or is against them.

 **Cloud's got it rough, as a lot of characters here on Aebrith do. I'm surprised you had never heard of Rambo before, as I feel like that's just such a classic movie. I loved all of the Rambo movies, and I feel like he's such a badass that even without powers, on a team with those others he still kicked some major ass! Still no sign of Android 17, but we know he's here somewhere. Won't spoil when he'll show up or what he's up too, but I will tell you that he's showing up within the next (3) Full chapters (15-17). Thanks for the review!**

flo463 chapter 98 . May 1

Kamina and Yoko are back! It remains to be seen whether they will succeed in changing Simon's state of mind, given the memorable defeat they have suffered and unless there is a miracle to reverse the situation, I doubt it.  
this battle was truly epic ! the rebels being totally outclassed by the power of the organization  
Danmachi ! I love this universe (I'm French and I buy all the novels of their release )  
I hope that we shall see Bell, Hestia and the others even if I think that their capacities are not very useful during the battles, the gods even less!  
Deeply that we return to the main group, to see if my theories on Kirito are confirmed

 **No clues yet as to how Yoko and Kamina are connected to Lagann Island and Simon's crew, though there's def going to be a connection there. Glad you enjoyed the battle and could see that it was outmatched despite how strong Delta Squad was. Danmachi is awesome, though I'm surprised you've read it as not many people have. Cool that you caught it though, as Lili had shown up once before with Gajeel's second appearance in Heroes Will Rise, but she's the only one so far. Then again, in regular Nexus I had some Danmachi characters show up in Metropolis like Bete Loga and Tiona, as well as Finn and Tione. We'll see if any others show up in the next chapters of Nexus, Heroes Will Rise! The main group will become the focus once again as chapter 15 starts, so still a few more parts before we get to see what Kirito's plans for training will be. Thanks for reviewing, thanks everyone for reading, and I hope you all enjoyed! 'Till next time!**


	100. Nexus HWR 14-4 Kong

**Nexus HWR 14.4 Kong:**

In a city in the former Fire Lord's territory, a tall man walked up a flight of stairs with his arms crossed in front of his body each held inside the opposite arm's sleeve of his cream-colored robe. He had long gray hair that was tied up in a bun and hidden under a tall pointy red hat he was wearing. The hat had a yellow sun in the center of it with a white seagull going across it, and over his cream robe he had a purple sash around his waist, as well as a long fan that was attached to the sash and doubled as the man's weapon.

The "Genius Tactician" of the Sun Marines, Admiral Komei, marched to the top of the stairs and then continued down a hallway that had bulky Marines on either side who saluted him as he walked by. The Admiral did not salute them back, he just continued to walk with a straight expression on his face, ignoring the pain in his left arm and especially his left leg as he marched forward. Komei hid the pain well, but after he walked by his soldiers, they turned their heads and watched his back with beads of sweat rolling down their faces. They pretended like they did not notice how the three scars that used to be so prominent on the left side of Komei's face were gone. They tried not to stare at the horrible burn scars covering the left side of his head, disfiguring him to a point that he looked quite terrifying. His left eye had survived the incident that caused the loss of half of his face, but with most of the skin around it dark red or black with fleshy parts, and his teeth showing through skin on his cheek that had been worn too thin by the flames, his eye just looked creepier being in the middle of all that mess. Komei had shaved the right half of his mustache to match how his left had been burned away, and he no longer had a beard either. He had managed to salvage his hair, though he had shaved the right side of his head to make himself as symmetrical, and presentable, as he could.

Komei pretended not to notice the gazes of his men who he could tell were trying hard not to stare. _Skin grafts and surgeries will never make it look the same, but I need something, anything at this point._ Komei sighed internally as he kept walking towards the big brown doors at the end of the hall that had seagulls and suns carved into each of them. As he neared the doors, his gaze shifted to one of the Marines who was not as muscular and bulky yet had a greater aura of power around him than the others. He wore a Marine officer's coat draped over his shoulders with more prominent pads on them than Komei normally saw on the man, or maybe he thought the young man was just standing a little straighter up than usual. It was underneath the man's coat that had Komei's eyes widening, though they quickly returned to normal size. He did not bring them back to normal quickly because he got over his surprise, but because the left side of his face hurt opening his left eye wider like that. _A suit and tie. On Grount?_ Komei's eyes lifted to the man's spiky dyed-red hair in the middle of his black hair that was styled the same way as usual. _So it's not a style change, he's wearing that for a reason. The only reason I can think of…_

Komei stopped outside of the doors and he turned face to Grount who turned back while lowering the salute he gave the Admiral as he approached. "Captain Grount," Komei began.

As if sensing the question that was coming, Grount responded by correcting his superior officer, "Actually, Admiral." Grount could not help but crack a grin and Komei felt dread at the cocky look on the young Marine's face. "That's Vice Admiral Grount, now." Grount only grinned wider, because Komei dropped his bottom lip in surprise. Grount stopped grinning as much as Komei winced and re-closed his mouth and returned his eyes to normal size. Even when Komei started speaking a few seconds ago, he had barely opened his lips and had moved them farthest apart on the right side of his face. He had denied painkillers from the Marine doctors, telling them that they would dull his mind and senses, even though they had told him he would have to deal with this pain on a daily basis.

 _I thought he may have been promoted, but all the way to Vice Admiral?_ Komei started opening his mouth to make a comment on it, then he stopped himself. In his head he recalled a memory. His eyes were opening up while the floor below him on his left side melted. The entire hallway around him was in flames and collapsing, and he could not see anything or anyone around him. The pain hit him and he realized that his body was lying on its left side right on the melting floor. He tried pushing himself up but his left arm was not responding to him, and he had screamed out in pain as part of the ceiling collapsed down on him. He was pinned in a weird position and could not move. _"Komei! Komei Taishou! Hang in there!"_ Komei remembered how Grount had dug him out of there and gotten them both away from the flaming Royal Palace of the Fire Lord, despite the injuries and exhaustion the younger man had sustained himself earlier that day.

"Hmph," Komei turned to the doors in front of him. "I must be going," Komei said. He stepped to the doors and brushed his robe down once to make sure he was as presentable as could be while in this condition, then he said while lifting his hands to the door, "Good work."

Grount turned back to Komei after facing straight ahead down the hall when Komei seemingly dismissed him without comment. He grinned at the side of the Admiral's head who almost regretted saying anything after receiving that look, then Komei knocked on the door on the right in front of him. Grount looked back forward down the hall in preparation for the door to open, but he thought while suppressing that grin. _Guess that's the closest to a thanks the Admiral's got in him._ Grount sported a burn mark on his right cheek and had bandages wrapping both of his hands, but he barely thought at all on his own injuries when Komei was a constant reminder of how much worse the burns could have been.

"Come in," a deep voice boomed from the other side of the doors. Komei grabbed the handle of the door on the right and he pushed it forward. The Sun Marine Admiral walked through the doorway and closed it behind him, then he marched forward into the center of the room where he stopped in the middle of the circular seal painted on the floor of the office. There was a wall of glass on Komei's right, a single window pane that showed out over the giant city of Neo Marineford outside, down below the top floor of the Sun Marine's Headquarters they were currently in. On Komei's left side was another wall of glass, but behind that one was a tank full of water that stretched farther out until the real outer wall. The tank was full of aquatic creatures, as well as a few fake sunken pirate ships, with a bunch of fake pirate skeletons scattered at the bottom of the tank with them for the fish to chew on if they so pleased. Behind the desk in front of where Komei had stopped, there was a wall with two more square windows on it and a giant rectangular portrait of the man sitting behind the desk hung in between them. "Komei, your wounds have healed, nicely," the man behind the desk said, hesitating for a brief moment as what he planned to say was harder to get out when he was faced with the disfigured man directly.

"They have," Komei agreed, ignoring the hesitation in Kong's voice like he did not hear it. "I am ready to get back to work," he said, and he slammed his left fist up against his chest to show he meant it. He did this without flinching, even though Kong could see when his arm came out of his sleeve that it was wrapped completely in bandages.

"Good," Kong said. The man at the chair stood up from his seat and uncrossed his very large tan arms that were rippling with veins from how muscular they were. He wore a red shirt that was cut off at the shoulders as sleeves could not fit over his arms, and he had a large Sun Marine officer's coat draped over his back. He stood before Komei who was confused at why the Fleet Admiral would get up for him, then Komei could not help but widen his eyes in shock as Kong said, "Because I am promoting you to Fleet Admiral of the Sun Marines."

Despite the pain, Komei barely noticed it because of the shock he was feeling at the moment. "I have declared myself as a Lord of the Cooperative as of this morning," Kong continued. "My responsibilities now cover much more than just the Sun Marines, and I need someone capable to head the military as I take my leave. You've proven yourself as a capable commander and tactician. Now, onto business. I have declared Lordship over a great deal of land, and though we are here in Neo Marineford at what was the northern limits of the Fire Nation's reaches, I have sent our forces as far as the cities south of the Cataclysm to the east of Sin City-"

"Sir," Komei said, bowing his head as he regretted to interrupt but could not let this continue any longer. "I am not fit for this position," Komei said, biting down hard after the words came out. It was everything he ever wanted, to take control of the Marines and lead it the way he wanted to, but he could not accept it like this. "I- I was tasked with the protection of Pyraxas. I failed to protect the Fire Lord who the Sun Marines had served as our High Lord. I, I cannot accept a reward for such a humiliating defeat!"

"I'm not rewarding you for that," Kong said in a deep voice. Komei lifted his head and saw Kong staring down at him harshly, making Komei snap his posture straight up again. "It's as you say. You had some failures. It must feel dishonorable for me to reward you after that." Komei winced but nodded as that was exactly how he felt. "However!" Kong called out in a more booming voice. "In spite of the wounds you received inside the Royal Palace, I know of your actions following the Fire Lord's defeat."

Komei stared straight into his leader's eyes and stayed silent as Kong continued. "While mortally wounded, you took command of the city-"

"I lost the city," Komei said just as quickly.

"Do not interrupt me," Kong said, and Komei shut his mouth quickly. Kong continued once Komei was quiet and he knew there would be no further interruptions. "Your actions that day consisted of failures, yes, but your successes outweigh your defeats. Humility is a good trait, but if you do not take credit where it is due, you will never rise in the world. Remember that Komei." Kong snapped, and Komei nodded his head once in understanding. "The majority of the Fire Nation army is under my control thanks to your quick decisions after Sozin's death. You successfully took command of the majority of the Fire Nation's armies which returned to Pyraxas, despite two claims on the throne. You prevented those soldiers from turning brigands and sacking the cities they were meant to protect, a very plausible possibility that could have came to pass had you not acted as you did."

Kong sat back down in his chair and crossed his arms in front of his chest. He continued in a stern tone, "Your friendship with General Bujing was vital in keeping the Fire Nation's army together. The 'claimed Prince' Lu Ten had a strong following after Sozin's death and Princess Azula's flight from the city. He most likely accepted your challenge because of the state you were in, but you knew you could defeat him even in that condition. Lu Ten had his soldiers turning on each other, telling his followers to kill any who did not accept him as the new Fire Lord immediately. This alienated even more of his men than the few who would not follow right away, who likely only denied him in fear that the Princess was still around and would punish them for betraying her."

 _That is why I had to defeat him,_ Komei thought. _Having a new sovereign right away would have been the best option, but the boy was no ruler. He was a powerful fighter though, and he worsened my burns._ Komei's expression hardened as he thought on his duel with the young Prince.

"With your victory, you took command of all Fire Nation soldiers without claiming to be their new leader, just a commander for the time being. Then with Bujing's arrival with the army that was intended for an invasion south, you successfully evacuated a large portion of the population while the other Lords and their armies were mostly fighting outside of the city." Kong grinned big and added, "Because of this, 80% of the Fire Nation army is now a part of my army. They are not Sun Marines, as they have not all undergone the same training that our men have. However, they are an organized, and large, military force that has brought half of the Fire Nation's former territory under control, following my orders."

 _Half?_ Komei wondered.

As if he heard what Komei just thought, Kong continued, "There are rivals in the Fire Nation's old territory. Just two days ago, Judge Vinsmoke and the Germa 66 took down another rival Lord. After Judge's son Niji killed the Warlord Katarou, his army was stopped outside of Pyraxas during your evacuation. We do not know who stopped him, but his army was decimated and he was forced to retreat. Lord Judge returned to his kingdom and rallied his forces while you were in recovery. He now holds almost thirty percent of Sozin's former lands, that is, he would if he is still aligned with his son Yonji."

Komei gained a confused expression, and then he realized it and said, "The Princess?"

"Exactly," Kong replied. "Princess Azula, as well as the 20% of the Fire Nation army that you were not able to rally, have taken up in the Dread Fort. Yonji killed the Lord who had taken control after Saix's defeat, and now the two of them rule the Dread Fort together."

"Together?" Komei repeated.

Kong nodded his head, "So I've heard. That makes it difficult to discern whether or not they are on Judge's side. If Azula was clearly in charge, we could assume that she would make an attempt to regain control over the Fire Nation. The Princess was always a deranged one though, she was weak, and Sozin knew it. He never named her his successor, instead siring more children who the Princess has reportedly taken with her."

Komei's expression grew darker, but he said anyway, "Would it not have been in her best interest to have them killed instead?"

"In a political standpoint, perhaps," Kong admitted. "However if she kills her own kin, she may lose the twenty percent of her forces who rallied to her side under Commander Zhao, or General Zhao as he is being called now."

"Zhao," Komei muttered in anger. He had wondered where the man was when the Fire Nation armies had _mostly_ returned to Pyraxas. _Azula probably contacted him before he could arrive and had him divert his forces to her with promises of rewards._

"Azula also has a great deal of wealth with her," Kong said, and although Komei was just thinking about how she must have rewarded Zhao, this confused him as he had heard that the Princess had fled the city in the midst of the battle. "We believe she emptied the Royal Palace's treasury before her departure," Kong explained, and Komei grimaced as he knew exactly how much wealth was in there. "With money like that, the two of them might not be thinking about pledging allegiance to the Germa. They have land, an army, and they have enough money to hire some powerful special forces."

Komei nodded in agreement. _Special forces, another term for hired guns. Mercenaries on Aebrith can make the difference between absolute victory and utter defeat in a war however. If she really does have all that gold, all those jewels, she could even request a job from the Rogue Ravagers._ The thought of the most powerful mercenary force on the continent coming for them made Komei nervous, but he kept control of himself and remained composed in front of his new Lord. As he thought about keeping composure in front of the _Lord,_ he realized something. _I've accepted it. I, am the new Fleet Admiral. I don't deserve- Kong, Lord Kong believes that I deserve the position. I should trust his judgement._

"I believe," Komei began, "Azula and Yonji will ally with the other Vinsmokes. They have too many rivals in the region to fight among family. There will be a strange power dynamic between them, especially because Judge will want Azula's army, but her army will not follow anyone but her, and maybe her husband. We can possibly use this to our advantage if they come to be our enemies."

"They are our enemies," Kong said, and Komei lifted his right eyebrow, (he did not have a left one to lift as it was burned completely off). "An army led by Ichiji Vinsmoke assaulted our farthest west city close to the border with the Organization. I sent the Elite who rushed over and repelled their army, but the Germa 66 had always kept their scientific mastery under close watch. Even under the same High Lord, we were unable to acquire any of their Raid Suits, and we were unable to find flaws in the designs during our time as allies. Even the Elite had trouble against them, though Kaku succeeded at pushing him back after a long fought battle."

"Hmm, as expected of him," Komei said, though he sounded distracted.

"It would have been an easier fight, had the King not summoned Rob Lucci to the Capital to be one of his Capital 50," Kong said. Komei looked at Kong oddly, wondering why the Lord was bringing that up now. Kong looked like he had something more to say on the issue, but he shook his head after a moment. _The War between the Saiyans and the Capital 50 can wait until later. That is not what I need Komei focusing on._ "We had to keep that city, as it is our only holding on the border with the Organization."

"Have we allied with the Organization?" Komei asked.

His voice was dark implying that he would not approve if they had, but Kong responded, "Yes. Talks with the Organization as well as Phoenix have gone over well, though our new alliance with the mutants is shaky as I am concerned about that woman. She was a powerful asset before, but with Magneto's foolish demise at the Battle Royale, she seems…" Kong faded off, and he lifted a hand and scratched his white beard as he thought about how to describe the mutant woman. Kong's white beard pointed down in three small spikes, and above his head he had a single white spike of hair almost as tall as his head itself was. "Anyway, it is a good thing we have her as our ally, as there is one other Lord in the Fire Nation who has become increasingly aggressive since Sozin's demise."

Komei frowned deeply as Kong moved on to the next subject without letting him voice his qualms with their alliance with the Organization. _While we were trying to evacuate Pyraxas, most of the battles were kept outside of the city. The only thing the Marines and Fire Nation soldiers had to fight to protect the citizens from, was the army of Nobodies that flooded the city. If not for those strong people who kept showing up all over the place… including Jewelry Bonney. What was that pirate woman doing with those people?_

"Komei, are you listening?" Kong asked in an annoyed and louder tone than he had been using.

"Of course sir," Komei said, making sure he looked as focused as he was before, instead of just half-listening while thinking on his own. "You said that Father is expanding farther than we had expected."

"He's not just attacking the Resistance anymore," Kong said. "The Resistance is in the middle of a war with him, but the Elite tracked one of his Homunculi to an attack in the Alvarez Empire. I am considering passing this information on to High Lord Spriggan in order to get his help when the time comes to get Father in line, or take him down."

Komei hummed, then he shook his head in disagreement. "If we ally ourselves with High Lord Spriggan, we lose any chance of regaining control over Pyraxas. I would suggest taking back control of all cities around Pyraxas and then requesting that Spriggan recall his Shield of Spriggans and their army. We must have things that he would be willing to trade with us in exchange for a city he does not need in the middle of our territory."

Kong nodded at Komei as he spoke, then he hummed and thought on the new Fleet Admiral's words. "I'll give it more thought," Kong said after a few moments, as it was a big decision to make in a moment. He had already been thinking hard on it which was why he was only "considering" giving Spriggan the info that they had acquired. "Right there though," Kong said, and the right corner of his lips lifted up a small amount. "That is why I chose you over the other Admirals. Prodi has the experience but none of the drive or intuition. Vergo has the power, but he's easily set off, doesn't have the cool head one needs to run the Marines."

 _Sun Marines,_ Komei corrected in his head subconsciously. _"Aokiji is leading the Marines back on Awul, a smaller continent across the Great Ocean. We allied with him!" Cat Burglar Nami, if what you say is true, then I cannot ally with Kuzan. A Marine who would ally himself with you pirates… Not that the Germa are any better. And I know Meruem has pirates in his Capital 50. How does Lucci work with them?_

"Komei," Kong said, and Komei fully refocused as Kong stared at him with a serious gaze. The tone shifted to a more formal setting than the conversation the two were just having, and Komei stood more at attention as Kong put his hands together over his desk. "I will make an announcement later today to be broadcasted to all of the cities, towns, and lands which we have brought control to thus far. I will declare that the Sun Marines will make the citizens of the region feel safe again in this tumultuous time. To ensure that what I tell these people is the truth, I have something for the new Fleet Admiral."

Komei got a confused look on his face, and then Kong called out, "Bring it in."

The door that Komei entered earlier opened back up. Komei looked back and saw a lower Marine officer entering the room with a thick metal case in her hands. Komei reasoned that Kong had told this woman to arrive a few minutes after he had told Komei to show up and that the woman had been waiting outside during their conversation. His eyes focused on the steel case though, and the officer who entered walked right up to Kong's desk and placed the box down before typing in an eight-digit combination in between the latches. The Marine wearing a red and white hat with the words 'Sun Marines' written above the red rim lifted up the top of the case and then stepped aside and saluted Komei. "For you, Komei Gensei."

The new Fleet Admiral of the Marines stepped forward and looked down into the metal box. Sitting in the center of the box was a round fruit of a light blue color covered in darker blue lines that squiggled across the fruit. "Eat it," Kong ordered.

Komei stared down at the fruit for a few seconds, then he brought up his gaze to the man in front of him. "Sir." He hardened his expression and said firmly, "One of the reasons I became a Marine was to prove that even people who lacked the powers of a Devil Fruit could rise through the Marines and make a difference in the world, using intellect and tactical superiority alone."

"No one doubts your intellect or tactical genius," Kong said. "It's why they call you the 'Genius Tactician,' and it's why I named you the Fleet Admiral. Now eat the damn fruit Komei," Kong finished. He narrowed his eyes and added, "You would not have lost your war in Pyraxas if you had been stronger." Komei's face scrunched up, painfully. "As noble as you feel your ideal is, don't let it be the reason that you fail to uphold justice. That fruit will increase your power, and you need it to become the indisputably strongest in the Sun Marines. You need it in order to lead the Sun Marines from the front of the battlefield, and not from behind the back lines where you make your strategies. Make those strategies back there, and then use that power to lead your men."

Komei gulped and lowered his gaze back down to the fruit. He had spent his life chastising comrades who complained about the unfairness of competing against comrades or fighting enemies who had the advantages of Devil Fruits. He told them that they did not need them in order to complete their goals and move up in the world. _If I eat this, I lose part of what makes me, me._ Komei reached forward and he grabbed the fruit out of the case, lifting it up in front of him over Kong's desk. The other two watched as Komei eyed the fruit carefully, wondering what he was going to do.

Kong watched as the determined look that had faltered from Komei's face came back stronger than ever. It did not come back for him to deny Kong again though, it came back as Komei reminded himself his most important reason for joining the Marines. It was not to prove that those without Devil Fruits could succeed, but to protect the innocent and weak who could not protect themselves. "There you go," Kong said as he saw that determination to do it in Komei's eyes.

"What power does this Devil Fruit I am being graciously presented hold?" Komei questioned.

Kong shook his head and replied, "I do not know." The other Marine watched with interest as Komei turned the fruit in his hands as if trying to get a hint from the design on it. Kong continued while looking closer at the fruit himself, leaning forward in his chair, "It could be a Paramecia, a Logia, it could even be a Mythical Zoan like the Buddha."

Komei froze as he had just started opening his mouth, getting ready to eat solid food which he knew would be painful. Moving his mouth hurt, but unlike speaking which he could do pretty well with only the use of the right half of his face, he could not chew without moving his entire jaw. He pulled the fruit away and looked at Kong while saying, "Doesn't Sengoku have that fruit?"

Kong lifted his gaze with a semi-surprised look on it. He stared into Komei's eyes, and the female Marine still standing on Kong's left and Komei's right also looked at the new Fleet Admiral as if surprised by that question. "Hmm, so you never knew," Kong said after examining the expression on Komei's face. He leaned back in his seat and said, "Then while you eat that fruit, I will tell you a story."

"Were you there sir?" The woman with short black hair questioned.

"I was not," Kong said. Although he was initially annoyed at the woman speaking up, he thought on the tone she used and turned his gaze to her after having kept looking at Komei when he responded. "You were?" He asked. Komei turned to the woman as well, and he watched as the woman nodded. "I am surprised to hear that, Commodore Tashigi. So then, you've seen him?" Tashigi hesitated, but she knew who Kong was talking about and nodded her head. Kong turned to Komei who looked confused by the interaction, and Kong said, "Little over a month after we arrived on this world, I was shocked to discover that the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, had been resurrected…"

* * *

 **FD + 35**

"Rogerrr!" Monkey D. Garp roared down a several-mile-wide sandy coastline. He marched forward closer to the large group just ahead of them, and he yelled out, "I knew you'd be here!"

"GARP!" Roger called back, a huge smile on his face as he looked towards the source of the voice he recognized. The crew around Gol D. Roger moved with the Captain as he started marching the other way down the beach towards where men and women were running towards them in white and blue uniforms. Their clothes were dirty and many of them no longer had their uniforms that they mostly arrived in, like Garp who stood tall with a tight green tank top over his muscular body. Roger started stepping faster in Garp's direction and he reached down to his waist, drawing the sword he had there and lifting it above him. He slashed the sword down forward and as the men and women and different creatures behind Roger ran past him on his sides, Roger yelled, "You've gotten old on me! HAHAHAHA!"

Garp started sprinting forward down the beach, each step lifting up huge chunks of sand that flew in the air behind him and made the other Marines have to lean out of the way or cross their arms in front of their faces for protection. Garp reached the front of Roger's pirate crew, but they kept running forward on the sides of Garp as he sprinted past, charging straight at Roger who kept laughing before his mouth lowered into a grin and he sprinted back at Garp. As Garp clenched his right hand into a fist, his mouth widened into a giant smile and he leapt off the ground. "Your second execution comes today!" Garp yelled.

Garp slammed his fist down and Roger blocked with his sword. An aura expelled out of their bodies and widened to cover half a square mile of beach around them, lifting up sand and creating a tornado of it around their bodies which separated them from everyone else. Lightning sparked out of the sides of the spinning funnel and the sky around the tornado trembled as the clash intensified. Roger leaned his head up over the top of his sword and the punch while Garp pressed harder into it, and the Pirate King said with his large grin on his face, "We'll see." He cut outwards and Garp's arm got pushed to the side, but Garp's left fist was already coming down. Roger's sword was still swiping to the side where it pushed Garp's right hand, but Roger lifted up his hilt and Garp's fist slammed right into the butt of the weapon.

A shockwave rippled off of the second punch and caused the still-swirling tornado of sand around them to explode outwards. Garp bounced backwards as Roger pushed forward on the hilt of his sword, then Garp bent his knees and both of his fists covered in a powerful black aura of Armament Haki. The old man covered in gray hair and facial hair clenched his blackened fists harder and the muscles all over his torso flexed and tightened so hard that he ripped right through his green tank top. "For an old man, you've still got some fight in you," Roger chided, then he raced forward with his sword slashing across the front of his body. Garp lifted his left arm and blocked Roger's sword with his fist, then he pushed to the side and opened up Roger's body completely for a punch with his right hand that flew forward and jammed straight in the center of Roger's gut.

The Pirate King lifted off his feet with a fist pushing against his back, but after he coughed up spit, his mouth curled up and he said, "That's the strength of Garp the Fist's fist now?" Garp's eyes widened, but Roger never flew off of his punch, instead slashing his sword back down at the man who lifted him with that punch. Garp leaned his head hard to one side and the sword just slashed through his hair, then he brought his left fist over fast and punched through the flintlock pistol that Roger rose from his side with his free hand. The gun exploded on impact, but Roger was falling from his right arm already and brought his sword back around at Garp's side. Garp could not just lean away from this one so he leapt back, but Roger's sword was too fast and too long to avoid after just going on the attack to smash the man's pistol. The end of Roger's sword sliced a shallow wound on Garp's left side as he jumped backwards, but as soon as Garp landed, he charged back forward and yelled out with a flurry of punches that Roger met blow for blow with his sword, swiping back whenever he saw the opportunity.

"Damn it Garp," Sengoku said as he looked down the beach towards where Garp sprinted haphazardly and with no backup. "Men!" Sengoku shouted, and the six hundred Marines behind and around him all focused in on the man at the front of their pack, and the oldest man in the battle. He had a white afro and a long braided white beard falling below his chin, a thin white mustache on his upper lip, and wrinkles all over his face. Sengoku looked forward at the pirates coming towards them who they stopped charging back at when Garp sprinted forward and knocked all that sand into their faces. Sengoku's gaze shifted around all of them, _Roger. It seems we were not the only ones regrouping our old strength._ "Attack," Sengoku shouted, then his body started to glow gold as he focused on one man who cut off the sides to fill in the gap that they had left for Garp to run through.

"Dark King, Rayleigh," Sengoku said while his body started to grow. His soldiers ran on the sides of him and Rayleigh's past him as well, meeting each other in the middle and clashing swords and other weapons. Gunshots went off around them and explosions blasted craters in the beach. "It seems this world did not see it fit to bring all of us to our primes," Sengoku said, as he faced another man with white hair who had on eyeglasses like his. Sengoku's body grew and grew, getting rounder as he expanded several dozen times his original size. A look of pain flashed over Sengoku's face as he continued to rise. _I cannot stop early. This is Roger's crew. The Dark King will be one of the strongest adversaries I have faced on this world, though one that perhaps I can actually defeat. Madara, the Arcosian, too many battles I have come out the loser. Who would have thought two years of retirement would have made my body so weak?_

"Some more than others it seems," Silvers Rayleigh responded as Sengoku stopped growing. "Weren't you a little bigger the last time we met?" Rayleigh lifted up his sword and shrugged off the white coat he had draped over his shoulders. Rayleigh had a white beard like Sengoku's only scruffier and just sticking down below his chin, and on top of his head his white hair fell longer and straighter down his back and over his orange t-shirt. He looked leaner than Sengoku did even before the Marine transformed into a giant golden Buddha statue using his Devil Fruit power, but even leaner than Sengoku he was still a broad-shouldered and muscular man whose arms tightened as he rose his sword. Rayleigh's silver blade was long and thin but double-sided unlike Roger's weapon that curved at the end and was black on the back where it was not sharp. Rayleigh lifted it and said, "Though since I am up against a former Fleet Admiral, I think I'll have to use my sword."

Rayleigh shot forward towards Sengoku like a missile shooting through the air. He extended his leg beneath the arm that Sengoku started swinging down at him, and he slammed Sengoku straight in his giant round stomach with a kick that caused shockwaves to destroy the sand beneath them and created a ravine in the beach that spread out into the water. The cut in the water caused water on both sides to start falling in like waterfalls for a few seconds before the ocean finally collapsed back into itself, though by that point Sengoku was already skidding far back along the beach the direction they came from.

"Sengoku-san!" John Giant called behind him, the giant looking over his shoulder as he saw Sengoku start skidding back. He looked ahead towards where Garp and Roger were fighting, then back down at the enemies in front of him who were much smaller.

The giant almost decided to break from the main portion of the Marines and pirates to go help out the former Fleet Admiral, but a woman on the pirates' side who had long curly orange hair called up to him before he could. "You're a big man," she bellowed, and John Giant looked down to see the woman wearing cheetah-fur around her waist and breasts. As he looked down at her, the giant's eyes opened wide and all the nearby Marines aiming or charging at her took steps back as she started growing in size. She grew, and grew, and she reached halfway up John's waist, then as tall as some smaller giants of his race, before reaching his height. Then, the woman grew more, until she was standing more than half of John Giant's height taller than him, one and a half times the size of the tallest Marine giant and first to ever enlist in the Marines. The giant in a red Marine's hat and long white coat lifted his gaze to the woman but his expression stayed firm and discerning. She looked down into his eyes and grinned as he rose up a sword while facing her, "Now how about you deal with a big woman!" Giganta shouted, before jumping towards her fellow giant and slamming a fist down towards his face.

"Halt! Roger Pirates!" Tashigi shouted. She lifted up her sword, Shigure, by its green handle, and she turned it sideways in front of her body as she bent down. Tashigi shot off her feet and slashed towards the large cat creature that just swung a paw and knocked five Marines up in the air.

Nekomamushi turned its head left and looked at the woman while grinning wide. He had sharp teeth and long flowing blond hair in a mane around his lion-like face that fell back behind his large body close to ten times as large as Tashigi was herself. Although the Mink grinned at her, Tashigi did not see him making a move to stop her. _**Ching!**_ Tashigi's sword clashed against another that appeared in front of her slash before she even noticed. Her eyes started to lower from the tall cat Mink's face to the man standing in front and below her since she had jumped. She could not see his face thanks to the straw kasa hat he had on, a hat pointed up in the center that declined on all sides at a gradual slope around his head. The samurai had a sword lifted up with one hand and was not struggling to hold back Tashigi's blade even as she pushed forward full force with both hands.

Kozuki Oden lifted his head and the front part of his kasa's rim rose enough for him to see whose blade he just stopped. Tashigi stared down with sweat all over her face at the stern serious expression of the samurai. He stared up into her eyes for a few moments, then the light-skinned man's face reddened at the cheeks as his eyes dropped from her eyes to her large bosom. Tashigi followed the direction of his gaze and her face brightened red as well. "You fiend!" She yelled at the pirate, pulling her sword back and then swiping it down again as she dropped to her feet.

Oden stepped to the left and dodged the swipe down at him, and he took a step towards the beautiful young woman and said, "My humblest apologies." He leaned backwards and the edge of her blade just passed in front of his chest, barely missing the man's striped hakama. "If I had known you were a woman, I never would have crossed blades with you. I am ashamed, yet let me apologize to you. Perhaps you would like to punish-"

"Do not hold back because I am a woman!" Tashigi yelled, charging forward to close the distance before she slashed again. It was a foolish move to get so close when he was ready for a swing, but she did not think he would slash at this point and needed to be close enough that he would not be able to dodge even with his superior speed. Oden hesitated too long because he would not slash at the woman, and he stepped backwards nervously as Tashigi started slashing.

Nekomamushi turned and said, "Kozuki-dono, you-"

"My Lord," Inuarashi called out from a different part of the beach.

"Father!" a young boy shouted behind the man Tashigi was slashing at. Now it was her turn to hesitate, as she spotted a small boy with a shaved head except for the black bun sticking up from the middle running their way. Her hesitation gave the man in front of her enough time to leap straight up, and by the time Tashigi realized he was bending his knees to get the hop, she was too late to keep her swipe going fast enough to hit him beforehand. Her sword passed beneath his rising sandals that he flicked down and knocked her Meitou, or named sword, straight into the sand.

"Ah, damn," Tashigi tugged at her weapon that slashed deep into the ground from the man's redirection. _They called him Lord Kozuki,_ Tashigi thought as she yanked out her sword and refaced the man who landed in front of the boy heading their way. He said something in a harsh, concise voice to the boy behind him, and the kid frowned in a frustrated way before turning and running towards the shoreline. Tashigi's eyes followed the boy for a second, wondering what his purpose of heading that way was, but then her attention snapped back to the samurai in front of her who she began talking to. "Lord Kozuki, as in Kozuki from the samurai kingdom of Wano?" Tashigi questioned.

"Oh you know of my clan," Oden said, a big smile forming on his face.

"Your clan," Tashigi repeated. "Then you are Kozuki Oden. Why have you joined Gold Roger's crew?"

The battle raged on around them, and Tashigi was ready to charge back into the fight despite knowing how much stronger this opponent was than her. "Roger's an old friend. On a world like this it is better to travel with friends, wouldn't you agree, Marine woman?"

"There is no need to specify that I am a woman," Tashigi said, lifting back up Shigure and gripping its green hilt tightly with both hands. She put the hilt in front of her waist and had the blade extending out and up towards Oden's face. "You treating me like a less worthy fighter because of my gender is a far worse insult than crossing swords in a serious fight." Oden's mouth started to flatten out at what Tashigi said, and she rose her sword before charging forward fast. "Fighting a swordsman of your caliber would not be meaningful if you treat me-"

"I understand your resolve, Marine," Oden said. His voice was lower, but the fact that he did not say 'woman' after 'Marine' did not make Tashigi feel relieved or respected. Instead, all she felt was fear as that voice had come from behind her, and the samurai she thought she was still charging at started disappearing from in front of her eyes. Her head started to turn, and she saw Oden bent down behind her with his sword pulled out to one side, crouched and ready to pounce towards her while slashing his weapon. Tashigi saw it in her mind with Observational Haki, she watched as Oden appeared on her other side and blood splashed from a large gash on her chest and stomach as soon as she finished twisting her body to face him. _He's waiting for me to turn around!_ Tashigi thought, yet she could not stop herself from turning just from that knowledge. She ground her teeth in frustration and anger that she could not allow herself to stop, could not risk him slashing across her back even though it seemed he was waiting for a moment not to have to do that.

Tashigi turned and the man leapt at her, and then two men dropped down in front of her at the same time. _**CLINK-shhHHH!**_ Momonga slammed his sword against Oden's and the two slid their blades against each other until they were pressed together at the steel just off of their hilts, their faces pushed in close to each other. Oden focused more on the swordsman than the other man who dropped down with him, making the initial assumption that the man who had a white veil over the bottom half of his face and a large round white Marine's hat on over his head was only there to get the female Marine back. After Shu pushed Tashigi backwards though, the Rear Admiral spun his attention back to Kozuki Oden who did not like the look in his eyes.

Momonga reached out with his free hand and grabbed Oden's blade around the steel part, covering his hand in Haki to protect it from the pirate's blade. Oden tugged away, but Momonga held on just long enough for Shu to put his hands on both the weapon and the arm of the man grabbing it. Oden's eyes opened wide as he tried tugging his weapon back faster, lifting his free hand up and smacking Momonga's hand away. By the time he had hit Momonga's hand away though, what he saw coming came to pass, and Shu's Rust-Rust Devil Fruit powers deteriorated Oden's sword to a point that it crumbled into brown ash. Momonga sliced forward as Oden darted Shu a furious look, and then he leapt backwards right before Momonga's blade could hit him.

Momonga prepared to give chase, but a giant dog creature from the Mink tribe landed in front of him in a suit of armor and big blue jacket. Inuarashi slammed a fist down at Momonga who tried blocking with his sword, only for his feet to skid back over the floor several meters from the force behind the creature's blow. Then, Momonga saw something falling down at him in his mind and he shot to the right, saying, "Soru."

Nekomamushi landed down where Momonga was just standing and made a new crater in the beach, before snapping his head with a furious look towards where the Vice Admiral just dodged to. "Lord Kozuki's katana," Nekomamushi growled, and he and Inuarashi both looked pissed at Momonga who refocused on these new enemies. Unfortunately, Momonga realized he was not the only one who refocused on them and he darted his gaze to Shu before yelling at him to look out.

Shu turned while Momonga had to look back at his new enemies and get on the defensive, and Tashigi was already running towards him which he saw as he glanced over her while turning to the enemy whose shadow had just cast over him. Kozuki Oden put his hands together in front of his chest as he got up close to Shu, and then he slashed both hands down and smashed them into the top of Shu's head, pushing down on his round hat and making the Rear Admiral's eyes bulge in pain. Shu's knees collapsed and he smashed straight into the ground with Oden landing on top of him. "Rear Admiral!" Tashigi shouted and kept charging at the pirate now standing on a fellow officer. Other soldiers around them pointed their rifles inwards furiously at the man who just crushed their superior officer, but other gunshots went off when their old enemies saw that they had taken their eyes off of them.

Those men who fired at the Marines when they aimed at Kozuki Oden started yelling in panic and many of them leapt off the ground. Many others though, were caught by the wave of ice that shot across the beach and froze half of the battlefield. "Admiral Aokiji," Tashigi said in surprise as the man came out of a misty fog on her left. She looked towards the ten foot tall figure in a long dark green cloak wearing a pair of sunglasses who had ice sticking to a lot of his body.

"Oi oi, how many times do I have to say it? It's Kuzan now," the _former_ Admiral Aokiji said towards the woman who leaned back as he suddenly focused on her in the middle of the battle just because she called him by his old name. Aokiji lifted his right arm and a long blade of ice formed on it that he spun to the left and slashed as he felt someone coming through the fog he had created with that sudden wave of ice. The man he slashed at swung an axe at him though, and the force of that axe swing knocked Kuzan stumbling a few feet backwards where he had to more properly plant his feet and block again, this time putting his other hand up against the back of the ice blade to hold the man off.

The figure came into better view as Kuzan started focusing on him, smoke and mist around them clearing up a bit. "Arara, looks like I might be in some trouble," Kuzan said. Although it was a light phrase to say in the middle of the fight, he did have a bead of sweat rolling down the left side of his face. "Scopper Gaban, eh?" Kuzan asked.

"Kuzan," the muscular man pushing his axe down on Aokiji's blade said. He had slicked back black hair tied into a ponytail with a hint of gray in it, though he still looked very youthful. He had a muscular chest sticking out of his blue button down that had the top four buttons undone, and his sleeves were rolled up for the fight. The man pulled his axe up then flipped forward as Aokiji tried slashing under him. He slashed his axe down at the Ice Man's head, and Aokiji had to pull his body to the side fast as even just dodging his head he saw his shoulder get cut through in a brief moment of Observational Haki. The axe still cut through Kuzan's green cloak as he pulled to the side, and the former Marine had to spin back fast as this was not an opponent he could take it easy on. _The Pirate King's crew is as strong as one would expect,_ Kuzan thought, catching through his peripheral vision some of the men he froze before getting out of their confines, while others on the crew helped their frozen members get unstuck from the ground and started dragging them away towards the water.

Kuzan started turning his head that way, only for the speed of the man in front of him to surprise him even more as he appeared right in front of Kuzan with his axe slashing up. "You Marines must be very confident in yourselves to come charging at us, without even keeping focus. What are we going to do?" Blood splashed from Kuzan's chest and left shoulder as he did not pull back fast enough, then Scopper Gaban leapt high up into the air as Aokiji's left foot stomped down behind him and made a giant spike of ice shoot out of the ground where they had just been standing. That spike of ice rose after the man rising into the air, and then another giant spike shot off of that one towards the guy who started arcing back down.

As the point of the ice reached Scopper, the man started slashing back and forth with his axe that covered in a pitch black coating with a dark purple aura around it. Ice shards flew out in every direction, but the ice was too fast and slammed past his axe, hitting him and then slamming him down into the ground. After the end of the spike hit him into the floor, an explosion of ice crystals blasted up from the collision point leaving a few dozen giant spikes of ice sticking out of the beach. "Ice Flower," Kuzan said, as he leaned back forward and put his right hand up to his shoulder where the slash was deepest and his ice powers did the littlest to protect him. _His Haki is strong,_ Kuzan thought as he stared towards his giant explosion of ice. _The question is if it's strong enough for him to get out of…_ **Ch-CRASH!** Cracks formed all around the ice shard closest to Kuzan, then it shattered with Scopper flying out of it with a grin on his face, and frostbite on his hands. Even with frostbite though, Scopper's right hand had pretty much frozen around his axe handle so he was not letting go of it yet, and the heat of the battlefield as well as his pumping adrenaline was already warming him back up.

Scopper and Kuzan clashed, then Tashigi spun back to Kozuki Oden who she saw pick up a discarded katana from next to a Marine unmoving on the ground. "Put that man's weapon back you scoundrel," she called out and started charging the man. Oden turned towards her with a dark look though, the same look he had had on his face since Shu destroyed his katana with his Rust-Rust powers.

Vice Admiral Doberman sprinted forward as Nekomamushi came down for Momonga's back while the latter was mid-clash with Inuarashi. Doberman put his sword in the way of the giant cat's claws, and he and Momonga went back to back before slashing out at the same times and knocking their enemies back. Cat Viper and Dogstorm narrowed their eyes at the Vice Admirals after landing though, and then the two leaders of the Mink Tribe from their own world charged back at the Marines.

Coby slammed a fist into a powerful pirate's chest and knocked the man flying backwards into two others who did not see him coming and were both sent tumbling away by the collision. Coby then spun and jumped up, before coming down with a kick in the face of a pirate who just tried slashing on his best friend's back. Helmeppo saw his chance when the pirate he was currently pushing both of his fat curved blades into looked up with wide eyes at his powerful comrade being kicked away by a pink-haired teenager. Helmeppo slashed his blades and then extended his own leg into the pirate's chest and made him skid back a few meters before he dragged his feet in the sand and came to a stop. The pirate pulled out a pistol and fired twice at the young man with a blond ponytail, but Helmeppo leaned his head left and then right, dodging the bullets with his Haki instead of his eyes that were hidden under the black visor over his face.

"Kids these days," the pirate said while lowering his gun, lifting back up his sword as Coby stepped to Helmeppo's side.

The boys faced the older man together, but Coby's eyes darted to the right and he said, "The Vice Admirals need our assistance. Those two creatures are relentless. They have amazing stamina," Coby explained, having noticed how they had not slowed down at all since the start of the fight and were as powerful with every blow as they were the one before it. Neither were panting, unlike the Vice Admirals who were trying to block dozens of heavy blows from these Minks.

"Then let's finish this guy off fast…" Helmeppo faded off as the man in front of them started growing fur. His body started to cover in dark red fur and his muscles bulged, his body growing in size at the same time. The Zoan Devil Fruit user charged at them while in mid-transformation, and the young Marines lost any hopes of rushing off to join a different fight with the sight of their enemy's true power rising to the surface.

Sengoku darted his eyes around from behind the giant glasses that had grown when his body turned into a massive Buddha statue. _With just one more Admiral, this would be a drastically different fight. We look even so far, but if Kizaru were here, I would feel much more confident._ Sengoku brought his gaze back to the old man ahead of him standing with his long double-sided silver sword in hand. _The Dark King feels as powerful as he was in his prime, unlike myself. Kizaru had fought him before… But he disappeared after that first week of helping me gather up Marines. I have to make do with what we have now!_ Sengoku lifted his right hand and a giant sphere of golden light surrounded the glowing fist. The sphere of light pulsed over and over again, flashing the entire battlefield in its light as he charged it. An even bigger translucent white aura surrounded the sphere of golden light, and Rayleigh let out a whistle as he looked up at it.

Silvers Rayleigh shot forward and zipped between the legs of the giant Buddha statue right as Sengoku brought his fist down. The beach below the fist exploded, cracks shooting out of it all the way up the coast to the small rocky cliffs and out the other direction into the water. The rocky cliffs crumbled and ravines split through the grassy plains and hills beyond them for a few hundred meters, though the destruction on the beach was much more disastrous. Cracks split the sand and Marines leapt away to the sides, while pirates stumbled backwards with nervous or amazed expressions at Sengoku's power. Rayleigh rose up Sengoku's back though after the man punched a massive hole in the ground, and the Dark King spun in a three-sixty while facing Sengoku's back. When he came back around in that full spin, he slammed a full-powered kick into Sengoku's round golden back, knocking forward the man pulling his fist out of the ground and turning his head. Sengoku stepped forward from the kick in his back, only he stepped right into the huge hole he just blasted, making him trip towards his soldiers who just cheered out his name for the powerful display of power.

"Ahh!"

"Sengoku-san!"

Sengoku's giant body hitting the beach was another earthquake in itself, sending more waves of sand blasting in every direction and getting in the way of fighters all around. Pirates and Marines leapt through the blasting sand though, slashing and shooting at each other with blood flying up in the air as fast as sand and smoke.

Sengoku lifted his head after hitting the ground, and he watched as two men on broomsticks rose up over the battlefield and magical grimoires floated next to their heads. They summoned magic that they called down on the Marines, and then Sengoku spotted a woman running forward from higher up the beach. She had a metal headband on like many Sengoku had seen since coming to this world, only hers had a horizontal line slashed through the middle of its symbol indicating her ninja village. The rogue ninja was making hand signs, and then she finished and called something else before swinging her arms forward and cracking whips of flames at some Marines running her way. _Roger's adapted to this new world,_ Sengoku thought as he put his hands down at his sides. _He's embraced it, and he's recruited more than just his old crewmates. As expected of the Pirate King,_ Sengoku lifted his gaze over the battlefield as he pushed himself high enough to see over everyone towards the fight he knew was farthest away. Sengoku knew he had to spin around and face Rayleigh who he sensed was still behind him, but the sight across the battlefield made Sengoku freeze halfway up, his eyes opening huge behind his glasses.

Farther north on the beach than any of the other fights, Gol D. Roger stood facing his greatest enemy. He was grinning at the man in front of him who was covered in over a dozen different slashes. All of those slashes had been meant to be deeper, but Garp was not going down easily. Then again, Roger himself only had a bruise on his right cheek, a small trail of blood coming out the left corner of his mouth, and he felt some sore spots emerging on his body from where Garp's punches had hit. To the side of them closer to the water, Momonosuke piled the last of the crates on the beach into a rowboat and then started trying his hardest to shove the boat down the sand and into the ocean.

"You running away, again?" Garp asked, narrowing his eyes at the man in front of him who had evaded him for so long back on their own world. "I've got to pay you back, for leaving that brat with me."

Roger grinned at Garp and narrowed his eyes at the older man in front of him. Garp did not smile back though, and he said in an angry tone, "Ace suffered because of you."

"And you let him die," Roger said. Garp's eyes opened wide at Roger's statement, but the Pirate King just continued with that grin on his face, "I will meet him here though, one day." Roger grinned wider and threw his right arm out to the sides. He pointed his sword forward at Garp as the older man panted and glared at him for that comment, though something Roger said had the gears in his mind turning. "That's right Garp, if I can come back to life on this world, then he will have as well."

Roger shot forward and he slammed his sword forward in his left hand. Garp punched towards it, but Roger's blade covered in Haki that cut through Garp's fist. Garp swung his arm out to the side, and Roger slammed his right fist forward and punched Garp in the face. The older man leaned back from the blow, then Garp coughed and winced in pain. He stopped falling backwards and lowered his head, looking in front of him where Roger had his left arm extended forward again. Roger's expression was straighter though still with the corners of his lips curled up a small amount. The pirate in a red coat and red pirate hat left his sword imbedded in Garp's chest while the old man looked down at it. "You really did get old," Roger said. "If only you had died on our world, then you could have started here fresh and hunted me to the corners of this giant world."

"Ha, ha-ack," Garp coughed up some blood, but even though trails of red came out the corners of his lips, those corners rose up anyway. "That would, have been an adventure," Garp said, and he chuckled again to which Roger joined in. "Ace is alive, huh?" Garp wondered, his eyes losing focus on the man in front of him who started pulling his sword back. "10,000 Beri, says he punches you," Garp said, then he fell to his back as Roger's sword pulled out of him completely. He looked straight up into the blue sky above that was clearest above them in the area a little separated from the main battle. The old man kept grinning, until the moment his heart pumped its last beat.

"GAAARP!" Sengoku shouted across all of the men and women on the battlefield towards his oldest friend. Rayleigh looked that way as he realized what it was that had Sengoku so distracted from their fight. He lowered his grin a bit hearing that pained scream from his opponent. _Garp,_ Rayleigh thought. _Wonder what being a part of Roger's crew will feel like, without your relentless pursuit._

Vice Admiral Prodi snapped his head the direction he saw Sengoku shouting towards, and his eyes opened wide in horror at what he spotted between several of his enemies. "Damn you! ROGER!" Prodi yelled. He lifted up his bazooka and fired a cannonball, but one of the pirates between him and Roger got in the way and sliced the attack in half before it was even halfway. Prodi roared and a dozen Marines around him yelled out as well while charging the enemies together.

Half of the battlefield froze. A wall of ice shot out of the ground at the end of where it would no longer freeze the ground because of the five men who stabbed swords down full of Haki and blocked the wave of ice from getting any farther. Kuzan smashed out of the wall of ice and yelled, "Partisan!" Five tridents of ice formed in the air behind him and shot down at the pirates who pulled out their swords and were about to leap up to block him. The tridents cut through their weapons and slashed them up, while Kuzan dropped towards Roger and Garp with a look of rage on his face.

"Roger!" Kuzan yelled furiously. Three figures leapt up in the air in Kuzan's way. Nekomamushi, Inuarashi, and Oden Kozuki all got strong hits in on Kuzan sending him flying back into his ice wall that completely shattered this time.

 _Never thought he'd be caught off guard like that,_ Inuarashi thought as he landed and looked over towards the pile of collapsed ice.

"This world!" Roger called out, his voice echoing over the entire beach. "Is an amazing place," Roger slashed his sword to the side to get the blood off of it. "There are endless possibilities of what we can encounter, and I want to face it all! Come and chase me if you want, I'll be waiting ready to fight when you find me again. Remember this, Marines," Gol D. Roger grinned and slashed his sword forward to point at all the people looking his way. "I am the Pirate King! You gave me the name, now try and take it from me! You can hunt us all you want. Hunt me around the world! I welcome all challengers!"

Sengoku spotted a ship out in the water sailing close to the shore. There was a rowboat being pulled up on it by a man with a headdress of purple petals over the top of his balding head, and long white hair sticking out the back of his skull and off the bottom of his chin. "I will not let you get away," Sengoku said, standing back up fully and glaring down the beach towards Roger. The battle continued through and intensified after Roger's speech, all of the Marines and pirates charging at each other with renewed vigor.

"Sengoku," Rayleigh said, and the former Fleet Admiral spun around at the sound of the Dark King's voice right behind him. He turned and looked down at the man standing at his giant golden feet. Rayleigh lifted his sword and the silver turned black, a dark purple aura surrounding it as well as Rayleigh's entire body. "How many times have we had this fight?" Rayleigh asked. "I can see you're not up to keep it going though, while I, I feel like a young man again." Rayleigh grinned and he put his sword to the side while narrowing his eyebrows in, his eyes getting sharper at the same time. "Goodbye, my old enemy," Rayleigh said, then he shot at Sengoku's body with such force that the entire beach below where he was just standing crumpled down into a crater, then shattered in a hundred different places with water flooding in from the cracks that spread all the way into the sea.

Sengoku punched towards Rayleigh as the man shot at him. His fist did not cover in the same golden glow that he created before, as that one attack took much more out of him than he had expected. Rayleigh's head came within inches of the front of Sengoku's fist, then the Dark King spun around it and kept shooting straight up Sengoku's arm, bringing his sword up diagonally from where he stuck it out at his right side. Rayleigh crossed over the front of Sengoku's body and passed over his right shoulder, never even turning his head in to look at Sengoku's face while the former Fleet Admiral started leaning backwards.

The Marines in front of Sengoku spun around as the giant golden man's right knee hit the ground. His body was leaning back farther, blood splashing up from the front of his huge round body while the Dark King Rayleigh landed behind him. Sengoku's body started to shrink, while the panicked Marines shouted out in fear looking back at their leader. _It's past, my time,_ Sengoku thought, his head bowing as his body kept shrinking rapidly. _I retired, because I was done with all this._ His other knee hit the ground, but it did not make as big a quake as last time. _I'm tired._ He lost his golden hue and his skin turned back to its white tone, as did his afro and beard.

"Yosh!" Gol D. Roger shouted. He pointed his sword out towards the ship out on the ocean just off shore. "Everyone back to the Oro Jackson! It's time to set sail!"

Rayleigh turned his head to look out on the water. _We have a crew, we're stocked on supplies, our maiden voyage on this new world starts now._ Rayleigh turned some more and looked behind him at the man on his knees with his head bowed. _A brand new world,_ Rayleigh thought, and his gaze shifted to the water once again.

"Sengoku-san!"

"Fleet Admiral!"

"What do we do?!"

"Keep fighting men!" Doberman shouted, right before a fist slammed into the back of his head and sent him tumbling across the sand. The Vice Admiral flipped up right as he felt the man who punched him diving for the spot he was in mid-roll, then he slashed down at the guy who missed his punch. Doberman sliced across his back, then he spun and slashed again, this time making a far-ranged slash that hit another pirate who was still twenty yards away.

Kuzan rose up out of his ice and glanced over his shoulder at the sound of all the calls of the former Fleet Admiral's name. "Damn it," Kuzan muttered, then he turned back and glared towards where Roger had been earlier. As he looked over though, Roger and a half dozen of his crewmates were paddling out from shore on a small rowboat. "Whoa whoa, where do you think you're going?" Kuzan asked darkly. His eyes glared over his cracked sunglasses and his green coat was ripped up around him. Kuzan let out a visible breath of air and then put his hand on the floor in front of him, "Ice, Time-"

"I don't think so," a voice said behind Kuzan, appearing there in a second as the man who said it had just arrived across the beach. Kuzan recognized the voice as the man he was fighting earlier, and he quickly turned his body into ice, right before Scopper's axe smashed into his side. Scopper thought he had the Ice Man, but Kuzan exploded into chunks of ice instead of getting cut like he did last time. "Hmm, nice save," Scopper said, then he ran towards the water and leapt up in the air.

Kuzan reformed and stomped towards where Scopper just leapt, **Bang!** Kuzan leaned his body sideways and his head snapped the direction of the main battle where he saw a sniper from Roger's crew looking between a dozen other fights. He spotted the man through the small hole the man used to fire on him, and the sniper scooted back in fear. Unfortunately for Kuzan, the bullet he thought he dodged had other plans. The bullet curved after Kuzan had leaned awat, and the Ice Man's eyes darted from the enemy who scooted back in the distance to the bullet about to hit him in the chest. He was fast enough to move again though, and he pulled to the side so the bullet only hit him in the left arm. As soon as it hit though, Kuzan knew he had made a terrible mistake. _Kairoseki,_ he thought, infuriated. Even if the bullet was Haki-infused, from a man who would fall on his butt just from a look across the battlefield like that, Kuzan doubted the Haki would be strong enough to damage him. _So it is on this world,_ Kuzan thought while stumbling backwards. He grabbed at his arm but winced and looked towards it when he felt how wet it was. _Shit, artery…_

John Giant looked around, seeing panic spreading over the battlefield. Although Roger had called his men away, the fight was continuing, and they were losing. Garp and Sengoku were down, and he had lost sight of Kuzan somewhere in the midst of the fight. A furious look spread on his face as he gripped his sword by the hilt much tighter. In front of him lay the massive body of Giganta, a shallow gash on the left side of her stomach and a much deeper one cutting her from the right side of her waist all the way up to her left shoulder. John Giant felt like he could continue fighting, but he could also see that the Marines still around him were being devastated by Roger's crew.

"Marines!" John Giant called out. "Pull back!" The giant who called it out ran forward despite his own yell. He slashed his sword down into the beach below him, cutting a new ravine through it and then standing on the side farther from the water while he slashed around at the pirates still fighting there.

Rayleigh looked over at the giant, and he grinned at the sight of that line in the beachhead. "So that's how you want to do this, John Giant?" Rayleigh asked, though not in a voice that the giant would be able to hear. He turned towards the Oro Jackson out on the water and leapt that direction. Other pirates started walking backwards towards the water with their rifles and pistols still in hand, firing back farther up the beach at their enemies who kept firing their way too. Although the shots continued, the fighters started moving farther and farther away from each other. Pirates who got on the side of the line closer to the water started running to the north towards the rowboats waiting for them, and John Giant resisted the urge to grab one of the larger boulders that had broken off the cliff behind him to throw over at those rowboats.

 _The Dark King left, but he would come back if I stranded his men here._ John Giant stopped slashing down as any pirate close enough to him to be hit had run off or been struck down trying to face him. He glared up and out towards the Oro Jackson where a man who had leapt into the water dove out of it as if diving into the air was that simple. Silvers Rayleigh landed on the ship at his much younger Captain's side, as Roger had returned to Nexus as a man in his prime. Standing at the helm before them was Scopper, and Nekomamushi and Inuarashi stood on either side of Kozuki Oden behind them. A few magicians flew over on broomsticks and dropped to the bow, while rowboats paddled fast after their ship where other crewmates tossed off lines to their returning nakama.

Not far from the last rowboat that started pushing out in the water, while many of Roger's other crewmates just swam out through the water around it, Prodi stood a few meters away from where Garp lay flat on his back. He glanced to his left as he saw Kuzan stumbling their way only to wall on his knees. Kuzan had his right hand covered in burn scars digging into his left arm for some reason, but there was blood getting everywhere. Kuzan stared at Garp as he dug inside his arm trying to rip out the piece of Sea Stone jammed inside him. Prodi turned back to Garp and his fists clenched as he heard John Giant shout at the other Marines on the beach to head inland as the ones who tried to keep fighting starting getting fired on by the Oro Jackson's cannons. _Damn that giant, telling everyone to let Garp's killer go._ Prodi's hands clenched hard around the grip of his bazooka and he glared out over the water towards the Pirate King's ship.

Coby limped inland but he glanced back over his shoulder at the pirate ship with huge red sails and black Jolly Rogers hanging off the masts. He had his left arm around Helmeppo's back while pulling the blond teen's right arm with his other hand over his own shoulders. Helmeppo's head was bowed, he was unconscious with blood all over him, but Coby had checked and made sure that his friend was alright. Coby had a deep gash on his left leg that he knew would leave a scar, and he glared out over the water at the crew that gave him that wound. _Gold Roger, the Pirate King. One day, I'm going to be the one to capture you._ Then his gaze shifted over towards a part of the beach where the man who had trained him and taken him under his wing lay on his back. _Garp-san, I swear it._ Tears formed in Coby's arms. _I swear…_

* * *

 **Present**

"…After the battle was over, I heard that most of the men went with Vice Admiral John Giant," Kong continued to Komei who had just listened to a very detailed story. While Komei had listened, he had chowed down on the fruit that tasted as disgusting as he had heard one would taste. Kong turned to Tashigi and asked, "Why is it that you did not choose to follow him?"

"I did, for a little," Tashigi replied. "But soon after that battle, we found Akainu. He joined the men he had gathered already with ours and started leading…" Tashigi droned off, getting quieter towards the end. After a few seconds of hesitation, she stated firmly, "I did not believe in Akainu's sense of justice. I did not believe in him," she added. _I became disillusioned by Akainu's Absolute Justice. If that was what all Marines had to stand for, if following him meant killing everyone Akainu deemed as an enemy, I knew I had to leave. And now I'm here, a soldier for a Lord of the Cooperative._ Tashigi bit down hard as there was so much she wanted to say to her superior at the moment, but she was not in the position to do so. She knew what his response would be anyway, so she held her tongue.

Kong nodded at the woman's response, deciding not to say anything further on it at the sight of the expression on her face. He turned back to Komei who had been shocked through the description of the battle that he was surprised Prodi never mentioned to him before. _He and Garp were old friends,_ Komei reminded himself. _It is likely not a day Admiral Prodi likes to think on._

"So, are you feeling anything?" Kong questioned.

Komei's astonishment over the story he was just told switched to a newfound anxious anticipation. _If I could get a power as amazing as the Hito Hito no mi, Model: Buddha…_ Komei lifted his hands and tried turning into a massive golden Buddha statue. "I don't," Komei said after a few seconds. It had been a minute or two since he finished the last of the fruit, and he started wondering what it was he had to do next to activate it.

"You might not find out what it is for a while, or you could see the effects right after eating it," Kong said. "The results vary, but I discovered my power only a minute after eating mine."

Tashigi looked over at their new Lord out the corners of her eyes while still facing Komei. _I have never seen Kong's Devil Fruit. I did not even know he had one!_ She kept staring at Komei and did not see the same reaction on his face, though some reaction formed on it while she stared at him.

"Hold on," Komei said. "There it is, a tingling sensation in my stomach. I can feel it rising, through my entire body," Komei's voice was getting more excited, though Kong stared at him oddly as he recalled nothing of the sort. Komei's eyes lit up and he started grinning madly even though it caused him pain with the burns on the left side of his face. "I can feel it!" Komei shouted, lifting up his hands as his felt it coursing through his entire body.

"Calm down Komei, it's not-"

"It's amazing!" Komei shouted, interrupting Kong who leaned back at Komei's shout. "I, I'm exhilarated. I'm," his whole body started shaking, twitching as he rose his arms up in front of his body. Komei looked down at his fingers and the other two leaned forward with widening eyes as they watched the blue sparks dance off of Komei's fingers. "I'm, electrified," Komei said with a gasp, though he felt the sparks flooding his body. His whole being was sparking electricity and he was energetic like he had never been before. For such a normally composed and calm man, Komei started pacing around fast while speaking at a hundred miles per hour. "Oh my, this fruit is, it's-"

"The Rumble-Rumble Fruit," Kong said.

"One of the 'invincibles!'" Komei shouted to finish his own sentence himself. He spun back to Kong with an excited look in his eyes, eyes that flashed bright blue for a second, right before Komei vanished and reappeared ten feet forward where he was about to pace over to. Komei stumbled forward after appearing there, then he held out his arms to the side to regain his balance. Sticking his arms out caused sparks to fly in either direction of him, and a bolt of lightning even dropped from his right finger down into the floor next to Kong's desk.

"Get a hold of yourself," Kong ordered.

"Um, yes sir," Komei said, turning to the Lord with a confused expression on his face. "As soon, as I figure out how to do that," he added, while sparks danced off of his body in all directions. "But sir, do you know what this means?" He asked, his excited tone returning.

"You could become like a God with that power," Kong replied with a nod of his head. "It could make the Sun Marines into a force matching that of the High Lords."

Komei saluted the man behind the desk and declared in a loud and determined voice, "I would be happy to make you into a High Lord if we could bring justice to all those inside our region!"

Kong chuckled at the new Fleet Admiral and leaned back in his seat while crossing his muscular arms again. "Good, now… get out of my office and calm down!" Kong shouted, as during Komei's excited declaration his body had carved lightning bolts across his floor, ceiling, and desk that Tashigi was now ducked down behind one side of. There were black lines all over the room, and Komei glanced around and realized what he had just done.

"Yes sir!" Komei shouted in a panicked, apologetic voice. He turned to the door, and he crashed into it a half second later after turning into lightning and flying over. He bounced off and muttered an apology before opening the door and vanishing down the hallway in a flash of lightning that shocked every Marine he flew by. Komei shot down the stairs and flew down hallways so fast, but he did not feel like slowing down at all. He only moved faster, urging his body to move at speeds that he had never imagined moving at. He shot out the building's exit and then cut straight up into the sky where he shot by the windows of Kong's office and made the two who just watched him leave spin that way and watch the bolt of lightning fly the wrong way into the clouds. Komei stopped and dropped back out of the sky in an instant, reappearing in human form down on the ground out on a grass field outside of Neo Marineford. He lifted his trembling hands and stared at them in awe at all the power he felt rushing through his body. It felt like it was about to explode, so that's exactly what he let happen. "HAAA!" Komei yelled, and a beam of blue light surrounded him and expanded dozens of meters in every direction while rising into the sky and carving a hole through the clouds. _THIS IS MY POWER NOW!_ "HAAAA!"

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed! This chapter we get a first glimpse of Kong who has declared himself as a Lord and is in control of half of the old Fire Nation's holdings, as well as most of their army. Big flashback that I've been thinking about doing for years now (Really, years. Hell, Roger was mentioned all the way back in the first chapter of Nexus, and there's been mention of him scattered through the story by Kuzan, other pirates, Ace...) Anyway, we finally see some Garp after 2.4 million words, only for him to kick it in his first scene ;(. Also see the loss of Sengoku which means his Devil Fruit is out there somewhere, while Komei gets the Rumble Rumble fruit, which Enel lost back in the first chapters of Nexus. We hear a little more about Father who Gajeel's group from two parts ago were in the middle of fighting, as well as hear what Phoenix is up to. The Germa, mutants, Azula, Father, and the Sun Marines are all powerful forces in the old Fire Nation lands. We'll see how the power dynamic affects Aebrith in the coming arcs of Nexus Heroes Will Rise! Alright... time for... review responses:**

Limit-Breaking chapter 99 . 12h ago

I have one request and i know you probably won't ever do it, But there's this fanfic that has luthor in it and it gave him a really funny nickname, can you PLEASE have a charcter call him this name just once as an insult since he is evil and all, again it all depends on you.  
Here goes, the Name is (SEXY LEXY) Or just (Lexy) for short, You may be thinking WTF but i just find it so damn funny how they gave him that name it still cracks me up even now, It's a crossover of different characters from different worlds, joining different teams to get a wish granted and it has no limits.  
It's really good, Anyway Please have somebody insult him by giving him this name when he reappears in the story.  
Either way great chapter man, WAIT- Smirks evily_ Let me rephrase that Great Chapter Sexy Lexy. Yes this is the nickname i shall give you for now on anyway later Sexy

 **... Well ... um yeah, so I'm glad you liked, the chapter... Maybe, that name could come up, possibly? (Don't get your hopes up though XD) Anyway, thanks for the reviews, and the PM, it was a strange set to read when I first woke up. Haha, alright thanks everyone for reading, reviewing, etc. 'Till next time!**


	101. Nexus HWR 14-6 Too Little Too Late

**A/N Alright, so this story is rated M. Just gonna say it now though, once again, it's rated M.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own any of the original media that I receive characters/settings/occasional quotes/etc. from in this story. None of them are mine, don't sue me. And once more, this is rated M...**

* * *

 **Nexus HWR 14.6 Too Little Too Late:**

 **Central Aebrith**

"Mine," Lily said in a stern voice, standing behind the young woman who sat on a stool at the counter of a bar. The pink haired girl reached forward and grabbed a shot glass that she brought up to her lips and downed in a second, then she spun on the stool and looked at Lily with a blank, emotionless expression. "Where have you been? I've been looking around in this town trying to recruit new-"

"It's over," Mine said, staring into the anthropomorphic cat's eyes as she did. The Exceed who had a lot of cybernetic enhancements narrowed his good eye and his mechanical one at the woman in front of him.

 _I gave her time,_ he thought, and he hardened his expression. "We can't give up on our mission," he said. His voice was deep and serious, and he stepped up to Mine's left side between her stool and the one next to it. He looked straight down at the girl's face as she looked right back up, but her expression did not shift at his words.

"There is no mission without Tatsumi," Mine said. She blinked and then turned back to the bar, continuing in a soft voice, "Maka's plan failed. Most of the others were killed, or enslaved, like she still is." Mine reached forward for the bottle she bought and started pouring herself another shot, "The others who stayed behind for the mission left when they saw we were the only two left. If Tatsumi had survived, he would have been able to get them to stay."

Panther Lily frowned deeper as he thought about their other comrades who abandoned them. They were the weaker ones anyway which was why they stayed behind during the mission in the Capital, but he did not think they would all give up so easily. _After everyone else was killed though, they did not want to be next._ Lily reached forward his real hand and put it on Mine's shoulder, opening his mouth to say something inspirational, but Mine spoke right as his hand touched her shoulder, "All of our fighters save two were killed." She turned to look back into his eyes, "Why were we spared? Why only us?"

Lily stayed silent for a few seconds, then said, "It doesn't matter the King's reasons." The response just told Mine that Lily did not know the reason any better than she did. Lily continued in a more stern voice, "But I can't give up, and you can't either." Her eyes lowered, but he strengthened his grip on her shoulder and she brought her soft eyes back up to his. "I know you remember the promise you made Romeo-"

Mine snapped out of her seat and yelled, "Romeo is DEAD!" Mine was shorter than the Exceed who was in his muscular humanoid form, but she had her head lifted up and was only inches away from his face. Lily's expression turned dark, but Mine snarled at him anyway, "We went to Rakushou to check the slave registry, all the slaves bought and sold ever since they started keeping records of it." She paused and then growled, "Romeo wasn't on it. He wasn't anywhere."

"Maybe his owners didn't register-"

"Everyone who owns slaves is supposed to register them, and it only helps them to do so. If a registered slave escapes, anyone in the Cooperative can find them and bring them back for a rewards. There's no reason for his owner not to have recorded him." She fell backwards and onto her butt on the stool again, her head bowing. "And what about Leol?" She added, making Lily's expression even darker. "We fought his crew, and though he escaped with some of them, we interrogated that bastard ox ant who had been on the crew back when they caught us. We interrogated him, and he said that Malko never returned after heading off to sell us." Mine chuckled at the thought of the terrible things that had happened to the man, but her laughs were dry at what else that implied. "We went to the city where he was going after selling us-"

"I remember, I was there-"

"And we found that Malko and his entire crew had died in the city," Mine finished. "We never did get a clear answer as to what happened to the slaves who were with him. Some might have been sold, some might have escaped, some were probably killed by the same thing that killed the rest of them." Mine leaned forward on the bar and put her chin down on her crossed forearms. "No leads. No hope. No reason to keep fighting for this lost cause." Mine's expression returned to its blank look, all the emotion draining from it as she was giving up.

Lily could see the fight had left her. He turned away, a dark and angry look on his face. "I'm going to keep fighting," he said in a somber tone. "As hard as I can, for as long as I can." Mine clenched her eyes shut at the tone of his voice. This was goodbye. The two of them had been together through thick and thin, but his back was to her and she was not getting out of her seat. After years of traveling together, they could both tell that this was it. Lily had a disappointed look on his face as he glanced back, but then he stared forward and kept walking for the door. As angry as he was though, he slowed down and a softer look appeared on his scarred, half-metal face. "Where will you go?" He asked.

Mine stared at the shot glass in front of her full to the top, waiting to be downed in a single gulp. She kept staring at it but saw Lily's reflection on a glass bottle behind the counter, paused at the exit of the bar. "I'll head to Resistance lands," she muttered. "For as long as they last," she tacked on at the end, one more pessimistic thought to top off everything else. She reached forward and grabbed the shot glass off the counter, then heard the door close as Lily walked out. _Goodbye,_ Mine thought, for the first time since Lily entered the bar, for the first time all day, some sadness showing on her face. Her eyes watered up a little, but then they dried without a single tear falling, and she knocked back the shot in her hand. _Tatsumi, I know you'd want me to keep fighting, but I can't. There aren't enough of us to make a difference anymore. So fuck fighting. Fuck dying. Fuck this world._

* * *

 **FD + 265**

 **CLANK!** The door to a pitch black room swung open and slammed against the metal wall next to it from opening too fast. A dozen figures chained to the walls of the room lifted their gazes to the entrance and watched as two men marched in, one of them dragging a woman behind him. The man who was not dragging the woman flicked the switch on the wall and the room lit up.

Mine clenched her eyes shut at the sudden bright flash filling the room. She squinted her eyes open, then opened them more and more while her body started trembling. On her left side, Panther Lily sat up from where he was sitting with his back against the wall, then he pushed his left arm down on the floor at his side to get up to his feet. He was missing his right arm, and he did not have a right eye either, though he no longer had an eyepatch covering up the scar tissue on the side of his face that had very little black fur on it compared to the rest of his body. Neither Lily nor Mine were dressed in any clothes, and they were both chained to the wall behind them by their wrists and ankles.

Others in the room started getting to their feet, as to stay seated would be disrespectful to their masters who had just entered with one of their fellow slaves. The man who walked in after the first yanked his right arm forward and tossed the woman he was dragging in front of him. She hit the floor and the other slaves all stared with wide eyes at how bloody and cut up she was. Mine let out a gasp at the sight of the woman more beautiful than any she had ever seen before. "This bitch," one of the two men began, "bit down on Jimmy's cock." The guy reached down and grabbed Boa Hancock by her hair before tugging her off the floor again. He reached his left hand to his waist and drew a pistol that he put to the side of her head.

"Hold on!" Lily shouted.

"Wait!" Mine yelled.

"Stop it!" Taurus called out from the right side wall from where Mine was chained. The cow Celestial Spirit was missing its right leg after it had shown off a limp it had gained back when Leol punished him for an escape attempt before he was sold. "Hancock-sama!" Taurus yelled to the woman whose head was bowed and could not say anything with the way her mouth and jaw were busted up. She parted her lips but blood just dropped out from the gap.

 **BANG!**

Blood and brains splattered out to the right side of Hancock's head, getting all over the people to the left of where Mine was chained. Mine stared straight ahead with a horrified gaze as Hancock's body fell to the side, as the other two girls on the wall to her left let out screams, as the young muscular black man in between those girls fell to his knees. "Hey you," the other guard snapped as he saw one of the slaves fall to his knees. "Get the fuck back on your feet."

He started marching over, but Thresh was staring at the floor in front of his knees and could not hear a word. He just heard a humming and sharp ringing sound in his ears, as he watched the puddle of blood that had splashed towards him grow wider and start to soak his bare wet knees. "You aren't as strong as the others anyway," the scar-faced guard in front of Thresh said.

"Not a good idea, Lord Tsukiyama wouldn't like it," the other who just shot Hancock said. Unlike his light-skinned comrade, his was pitch black and bald instead of a blond with long straight hair.

"We'll get him some more before he returns from his trip," the blond man in front of Thresh said. "Look, he's broken already."

"He's fine!" a teenager two spots away from Thresh shouted. Mezo Shoji leaned forward and all six of his webbed arms struggled against the chains behind him. "Get up Thresh!" He yelled at his best friend since arriving on Nexus. "They're going to-" **BANG!** Shoji's words caught in his throat as the bullet lodged in the top of Thresh's head and smashed his face down into the floor.

"Ahh," the guard in the middle of the room sighed and rubbed the side of his head. "Alright, fuck it." He turned and looked around at the other slaves in there who were staring at their recently killed fellow slaves in horror. "Well, I think Jimmy's gonna need a treat when they get him fixed up. Bitch really screwed him," he kicked the body of Hancock that was in front of him, then he lifted his head and stared straight forward at the pink haired girl in front of him. Mine leaned backwards, while Lily looked in at her. The other side of Mine was empty, chains that were unlocked and waiting for their slave to be returned to them, though with Hancock's death it seemed they would stay vacant for now on. "You there," the man said while looking at Mine. "You can be docile, right?"

He walked towards her, and he barely glanced at Lily who started baring his teeth and snarling ferociously at him. Taurus roared in fury from the other wall, and Virgo looked a few down past Lily to the other girl. "I can be of service," Virgo offered. Mine's eyes darted to the side in shock, and the bald master walking towards Mine stopped and looked over as well. The Celestial Spirit with similar pink hair as Mine only a little brighter and shorter was wearing a maid outfit even though everyone else in the room was naked.

"Think Jimmy's into maids?" The bald guy in front of Mine called to his right.

"He might," the other man who just killed Thresh said. The scar-faced man started walking over and smirked as he walked past the one who dragged Hancock in, "But I like 'em more. Take that whore to Jimmy, I'm taking this one for a go," he reached Virgo and slammed a fist in her gut, then as she hunched over, he pressed a button on a remote in his hand and dragged her away when her cuffs opened up.

"How about it, ready for another round?" The guard asked Mine who stared at him with terrified eyes. Then she started nodding at him, biting down on her bottom lip and then letting the corners of them curl up while gazing over towards Hancock's motionless form in front of her.

Mine's cuffs came off and she walked forward without having to be told. The guard then opened up the cuffs of another strong male slave in the room who was not screaming in fury like many of the others were. "Get Hancock to the basement. Knock on the third door down then get back here."

The slave wanted to ask what was going to happen to the woman's body, but he just gulped and nodded. He gazed over to another body and then asked in a soft voice, "And Thresh?"

"Leave him," the master said without even looking back, just walking towards Mine who was waiting for him a few feet away. He put a hand on her bare back and pushed her forward, "Let's get you a shower, then head to the infirmary. Jimmy's gonna get a kick out of this…"

* * *

 **FD + 274**

"You all must be wondering why you're here," one of the masters running the mansion called out to the line of slaves chained up along a wall of the huge auditorium they were in. There was a stage behind the dark-skinned guard who had a dozen other masters around him. There were guards around the edges of the room holding guns or swords, and on the stage there were two huge troll monsters before the red curtains. The bald master who had a microphone on his head threw his arms out to the sides and shouted, "Well here it is!"

The red curtains started opening up, and the slaves across the room stared forward in utter horror. Most of them were not entirely shocked, but they could not stop themselves from wincing or looking away. Lily tugged against his chains and groaned as they pulled back on his body, tightening with every movement he made. "Caimie," Lily hissed, his left eye focusing on the green-haired mermaid with a pink tail dangling from a rope over a huge tub of water. She was reaching down for the water like she desperately needed it, and the slaves were starting to think that their masters were going to force them to watch as the girl dried out up there.

Unfortunately for all of them, that was the least their masters had in mind. "Enjoy the show," the master in the center of the line before the stage began. He lifted a hand and pressed a button, and Caimie started descending to the water. Her face filled with hope as the rope lowered her down. Not one of the other slaves felt reassured though, instead they all felt pits of dread and horror in their chests. The master could see them all looking so afraid for Caimie, and the bald man licked his lips before pressing another button on his remote.

Caimie stared down through the water in confusion as the floor of the glass tub was opening up. Her face turned from confusion, to disbelief, the absolute desperation and panic in a matter of three seconds. Caimie reached up and grabbed the rope around her waist, tugging on it to try and pull herself back up. The other slaves staring towards the stage started screaming, as five sharks swam up through the watery cage beneath the stage and into the pit where they were being fed another meal. They snapped at the surface of the water, right as Caimie stopped lowering towards it only a few feet up. She was using all her strength to pull herself a small bit up the rope, but the sharks were jumping out of the water and biting at her as she slipped farther and farther down.

"Please," Caimie begged.

"Stop it!"

"You bastards!"

"What's wrong with you?!"

"Why are you doing this?!"

"Let her go!"

The master in the middle smirked after hearing that last shout, and he replied while all the slaves went wide-eyed. "Alright." He pressed a button and the rope fell all the way, dropping Caimie into the water in an instant. A shark had just jumped out and bumped into the girl at an earlier point than it should have, so she got pushed off course and hit the side of the tub. She reached for the edge to pull herself over, but a shark grabbed onto the base of her tail and ripped her down into the water behind her. The water splashed around and out of the tub, and muffled screams came from beneath the surface though what was happening inside became impossible for anyone to see anymore, as the entire tub filled with the color red.

Right as everyone thought it was over, a hand slammed against the glass closest to the rest of the slaves, and Caimie's face slammed against it next with a look of agony on it. Then a flash of gray flew by the edge of the tank and the shark's mouth opened up only to chomp down on Caimie's face. Then the tub dyed a darker color of red, and a few of the masters started laughing amongst themselves.

"One of you asked why," a strange-looking alien with purple skin and webbed ears sticking off the sides of his head called out. "Why we did this was very simple. It's an example."

"An example of what?" Shoji called out, his voice cracking as he searched for a meaning in what seemed like such a pointlessly brutal act.

"An example of what will happen if you disobey us," another one of the masters replied.

 _Did she even disobey?_ Mine thought while some of the other slaves shouted out the same things from around her. _Does that even matter? They just choose who to kill, based on… based on what? I don't know. I don't understand these people. These, these are not men. Where did that Tsukiyama Shuu guy go? Why did he bring us here to these people just to leave? Why do we have to live like this?_

"You're animals!"

"I don't want to hear that from someone wearing what they were born in," a master called back at a slave while laughing at the naked figure. "You're the ones who look more like animals."

"And like good animals, you're only good for our amusement."

"For our pleasure."

"For our hunger," one of the trolls mentioned from the stage, and the masters grinned at the horrified looks on the slaves faces.

"That's right, that's where your 'missing' fellow slaves have gone," another of the masters called out with a cackle. "The trolls like 'em alive," the blond man said while nodding back at the trolls on the stage. "Like to feel them wriggle around in their stomachs or something."

"Ha ha ha ha," the trolls laughed, and the masters started laughing, and even the guards around the room started laughing along too.

Mine just stared straight at the tub full of red water. She could see them all laughing out the corners of her eyes. _What is this?_ Mine thought. She glanced to her right at the struggling Exceed choking himself as he pushed against his bonds. She saw the looks of fear, and of resignation on her comrades' faces. _I've seen slavery before. I killed slavers on my world, killed the worst of people, but these… people, they're different. Are they? Or is it because this time, I'm the one enduring the tortures? I'm the one submitting to their whims. Anyone who resists them is killed. This is, this is, just the worst._

* * *

 **FD + 278**

 _ **CRASH!**_

The slaves chained in a dark room lifted their heads. Some of them staggered up to their feet in preparation for whatever was closing in on their door.

Panther Lily's eye narrowed across the room at the door he knew to be there despite the pitch blackness around him. _What was that noise?_

Mine stayed on her knees for a few seconds, then she slowly stood up like the others had. There was a new beautiful girl on her left side who stayed on her knees, crying as she heard those noises approaching. A piece of Mine wanted her to tell the girl to get up, but Mine did not have the drive to do so. She glanced to her right and could not see anything, but she imagined the limp figure three chains down from her. She thought about the last time the lights were on and one of the masters shoved an axe deep into Virgo's stomach. _She stopped making any sound last night. Virgo, was so strong._ Mine turned back towards the door across the room from her as it started to open. She stood up straight and pushed her chest out, attempting not to look weak or undesirable.

"I'm checking in here!"

 _ **BOOM!**_

The door to the room opened more, and a young man with wavy black hair took a step into the room. His body was shadowed over because the lights were all behind him, and he looked around in a confused way as he did not know where he was or what the shapes he saw in the room were. The man turned to his right and rubbed his hand on the wall until he found a light switch, and he flicked the switch up before turning again to look into the room.

Gray Fullbuster froze in place and his heart skipped a beat. His breath sped up five times what it was already panting at because of the fight he was in the middle of. The mage had a blade of ice in his left hand, a suit of ice armor around his body, and a beam pistol at his right side that he had holstered in order to open the door. Gray stared inside the room he had opened that filled with light, and he saw all the figures around him squinting their eyes and wincing at the sudden light filling the place. He saw them all, naked, bloody, dirty, missing limbs, and he would have gagged but could not process it all in a single moment. He stared straight ahead of him at a black creature missing its right arm and eye. The right side of his chest had large scars on it where his fur was not growing back, and his black fur all over his body was patchy and rugged. Gray shifted his gaze a little to the left and stared at the naked girl with long pink hair who finally opened her eyes and stared into his.

 _Who's this?_ Mine thought. _Why does he…_ Mine spotted blood dripping off of the ice blade in his left hand, and her heart-rate skyrocketed. "Who-" Her voice was scratchy and did not come out very loud, so she swallowed some spit and tried again. "Who, are you?" She asked.

"Don't talk," the girl next to Mine whispered while still staring down at the floor, though she had scrambled to her feet already. "It's a trick. They're just, trying to get you," the younger girl's face filled with fear as she lifted her eyes a small amount to Gray, only to dart them back down and start shaking in terror. "I'm sorry," she whispered as she had met the man's gaze for a second. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry…"

Gray felt a piece of himself die inside at the look in that teenage girl's eyes when she met his gaze. His ice blade started shaking, and he bit down on his bottom lip so hard that blood trickled out of it. _This, this can't be the real world,_ Gray thought. _First, Edolas, and all those people. Then Kuina, and Mifune, Hawkman and Hawkgirl. Even Zabuza..._ Tears built up in Gray's eyes, and he stared straight ahead at the Exceed who opened its one good eye and looked at him in utter shock. "Lily," Gray whispered, his voice cracking as the words came out of his mouth. "This is… Let me-" Gray's words caught in his throat, and he couldn't say anything else. He took a deep breath, then he steadied his expression and wiped his eyes with an arm in a swift movement. _This is not time for that! Not when these people,_ Gray bit down hard, and he slammed his fist and hand together in front of his body. "Everyone hold on," Gray said, then he slammed his palms down into the floor at his feet.

Ice shot from Gray's hands all the way to the walls and the chains connecting each of the people to them. The chains froze all along the edges of the room, and then they shattered and each of the ten slaves alive in that room stumbled or fell off of the wall. Mine staggered forward and took a few deep breaths in confusion. She lifted her hands that still had metal braces around her wrists, and the chains dangling off of them rattled on the floor at her feet. She turned to the right and saw Virgo still leaning forward from where she was standing in front of the wall when she was axed, and Gray had not broken her chains as there was no need, considering her eyes were half-open and her skin was pale to a point of no return.

Gray looked towards Virgo and then a still-living Taurus who went to shut Virgo's eyes. He stared at them in some confusion, before thinking, _Must be like the rest of us. Appearing all over this world, without any reason. Just random. I wonder if Lucy's keys still summon them to her. She's going to be devastated._ Gray's eyes focused on Virgo and he had to tear his eyes away to prevent from letting any more tears slip out. "Hey," a voice said in front of him. Gray looked forward and saw the girl with pink hair walking towards him. Behind her was Lily who also had his mouth open but stopped and stared at Mine's back instead. Gray averted his gaze at the sight of the naked girl's torso, but she walked straight up to him and then reached down to his waist and pulled his gun out of the holster while pushing on his right shoulder first. Gray focused on his shoulder and then felt his gun get lifted off of him, only for Mine to shove harder with the hand on his shoulder and push him out of the way.

"Where are you going?" Gray asked as the woman walked by him. She lifted the gun up to her neck and fired without stopping her strides, and the collar around her throat ripped off. She fired too close and wound up breaking through her skin, but she ignored the fact that she stared bleeding on the right side of her neck and just kept walking. She pointed the gun at the anklets and bracelets of steel chains that were still on her, trading the gun to her other hand at one point to shoot her right steel cuff off, giving herself some more shallow wounds in the process.

"Gray," Gray turned to see Lily right behind him again. "What are you doing here?" Lily questioned.

Gray looked around the room where the former slaves were all looking at him so hesitantly. He saw Taurus with his one leg, and he saw a boy younger than him by a few years who had six arms that were webbed between them. There was a slumped over black teen on his right whose body had half-deteriorated, decomposing right there on the wall next to the six-armed teen who could finally kneel in front of him and say goodbye. Gray looked away from Shoji and Thresh and back to Lily, and he stared into Lily's good eye and said, "We heard, the guys who ran this place were terrorizing nearby villages, stealing women, and…" Gray did not know how to finish his sentence. "We thought, I thought we should… My friends and I…"

"I'm glad you're here," Lily said, lifting his left hand and placing it firmly on Gray's shoulder. Just then, Lily transformed into a small cat and let out a deep breath, before bowing his head and dropping to his knees. Gray leaned down quick and caught Lily before he could fall on his face, and Lily lifted his head a little and said with his eye partially open, "There are, other slaves. Save them." Lily had not slept the night before sine he had spent the whole time talking to Virgo. He had tried to get her to keep talking to him, to listen to his words to hold on until morning, to just hold on one more day. As much as he was distraught over the loss of another comrade though, Lily thought as he dropped into unconsciousness, _I knew it. I knew someday, Fairy Tail would come for us. Thank you, Gray._

Gray picked Lily up, then he looked around at the rest of the figures in the room. "Don't worry about helping us free you," Gray said as he saw some of them getting angry and vengeful looks on their faces. The teen with six arms turned to him furiously but lowered that gaze after Gray's words while the mage was focusing on him. "My friends are strong. This whole place is going to be wiped out. Those monsters can't hurt any of you anymore- umm…"

"Hey Gray, you find anything in-" Tohsaka Lin froze outside of the door that she looked in to see Gray surrounded by people. She first got a sweatdrop rolling down the left side of her face as all these people were naked, and they were all hugging the man she saw through the doorway. Then her sweatdrop disappeared, because she saw the chains rattling on the ground below their arms and behind their feet. She saw the dried blood and dirt all over them, and Lin turned with a furious gaze before marching off and lifting her left hand again, red magic energy forming on it and firing into a wall at the end of the hallway.

"Thank you."

"Thank you."

"I love you."

"Thank you."

Gray eased backwards, trying hard not to get caught up in the moment as he knew he would start crying with these people. He finally pushed away and held his arms up to keep them from hugging him anymore, after one of the guys had started kissing him on the cheeks and sobbing directly into his face. "Taurus," Gray whispered, because if he tried to raise his voice any higher it would have cracked. Taurus walked over towards him around the others he had let move in to thank Gray, and Gray looked into the tall cow monster's eyes. Taurus looked back at him reluctantly like he had something to say, but he decided against it and just nodded at Gray to continue. "What is this place? Those things we're fighting, what are they? Possessed? Demons? Monsters disguising themselves?"

Taurus shook its head at him. Gray's lips pursed as Taurus spoke, "Men." Gray winced and pulled back, while Taurus continued, "Most of them, are just, human."

Gray looked around at the group in front of him, then he clenched his eyes shut. _It's not just Chimera Ants, or demons, shinigami, and monsters. It's humans. It's humanity. It's life! Are we cursed to just live on a world where evil rules?_ Gray handed Lily out, and Taurus grabbed the unconscious small black cat that while the ice mage turned his back to the people he saved before the tears pushed through his eyelids. He opened his wet eyes and glared out through the door behind him. He rose up his hands and blades of ice that were very sharp formed in them. _What a man can do to his fellow man, it's more than I was ready for. But if they're going to be like that, if this whole world is going to be like this, then what's holding me back?_ Gray started walking for the door and Taurus did not like the look on the Fairy Tail mage's face. _This is it then. It's time, to destroy this world._

* * *

"The enemy has reinforcements coming back here right now!" Lin called out, running down a hallway towards where she knew her comrades were.

Saber came out of a different hall, sprinting down the intersection with a cut on her left cheek but blood all over her sword she held at her right side. The blonde knight ran up to Lin's side and then said in a low voice, "Have you seen them?"

"Yeah," Lin replied curtly. "I have."

"This is the worst thing I have seen in any of my lives," Saber said. "Show no mercy to these _people._ "

"I haven't been," Lin said. "I'm all out of mercy."

Saber nodded and the two kept running. They sprinted down the hall towards an open set of double doors at the end. Through those doors they saw two of their comrades. "Guys! There are more on their…" They sprinted up to Gray and Takeshi and right between the two who were standing on the edge of the balcony sticking off of the hallway.

Lin glanced to her right at the teen next to her whose eyes were hazy, looking almost glossed-over from what he had seen in the building so far. _Takeshi,_ Lin thought, her chest clenching up at the sight of his face. He was the most upbeat of their group, the happiest and easiest to talk to person. _He can always be so optimistic,_ Lin thought, and she opened her mouth to say something to him as she could see none of that optimism in him right now. She saw nothing on his face at all, just a blank look like he had completely broken at what he was seeing.

Past the two girls on Yamamoto Takeshi's left, Gray stared down off the balcony with wide eyes and his mouth breathing out heavy panting breaths. On opposite sides of the floor down there, he could see both Zoro and Mystogan ready with weapons in hand just like he was with his ice blades. All three of them had come into the room ready to keep fighting, but the auditorium-type room in front of them was already empty except for a single person.

The floor did not have a single dry spot on it. It, like the walls, like the curtains on the stage, was drenched in blood, just like the young woman herself who stood there covered in it from head to toe. Her entire body was soaking red, and she was just standing there with Gray's beam pistol in one hand, and a rifle in her other that she had obtained from one of the murdered masters. Their bodies were everywhere. They were slouched against the walls, in pieces on the stage and scattered around the room. Some did not have weapons in their hands and had fallen towards the exits, making it look like they had been running when they were gunned down. The girl with hair that was dripping blood and no longer looked pink at all, lifted her eyes up to the balcony where she made eye contact with the girl who had long black hair tied in twin tails. "You said there were more coming?" Mine questioned.

 _Tsukiyama Shuu is not here, but maybe he's with those returning right now. He may have made a connection with Malko in order to purchase more slaves. If I find Malko, I can find who he sold Romeo to._ The naked girl drenched in blood was thinking as hard as she could on the future, but the present started coming back to her as those people around her just stared in silence at what she had turned the room into. Lin could not even open her mouth to respond to the girl after hearing that question, and Mine's eyes started shaking at the sight of the look in the other girl's eyes. _Romeo, couldn't have survived this,_ Mine thought. She stumbled backwards and her entire body started trembling as she looked around the room again. _I did this? They all deserved it._ In Mine's mind she saw Virgo's form slouched forward in the cell. She saw Hancock's head snapping to the side. She watched as Caimie's face slammed up against the glass and then the tank filled with a darker red color.

Mine had been stuck living in survival mode for months. Especially the last month though, she could not think of much else other than what she could do in order to keep herself alive. She used Romeo as a motivator, reminding herself that she could not die and leave him after promising to find him one day, but that was as much a survival instinct as anything else. Without that push, that drive to keep on living, she did not know if she would have made it this long when so many others had fallen. As that survival instinct was leaving her, since she was surrounded by powerful people who she could tell were there to help her and not keep her enslaved, Mine found herself slipping. Her weapons dropped from her hands that were shaking too much to hold onto them any longer, and she reached slowly down after them but they hit the floor before she had even bent a foot. Mine froze and stared down at her hands that were shaking back and forth below her, then she unbent and lifted those arms in front of her in slight confusion as to why they were blood red instead of her normal light skin color. She brought those hands up to the sides of her head that she felt were so wet, and she grabbed her temples and curled her fingers through her bloody hair.

Roronoa Zoro stared at this girl with a more emotionless expression than any of the others in the room. Their group had less people in it than it had had in over a third of a year. It was only the six of them in the auditorium, along with this girl who suddenly let out a scream of rage and despair. Mystogan stared at the woman and recognized the sound of that scream well. The masked man with blue hair turned away and looked up to the balcony where their other members were standing. "How far away are they?" Mystogan asked.

"I just heard, they're coming," Lin replied softly, lowering her voice after the start of her sentence because Mine's scream cut off. "I didn't hear, how far away," Lin added, while looking back towards the girl whose head had bowed and was pointed straight at the floor now while her body stopped moving entirely.

"We should get ready for them," Mystogan said, floating off the floor and lifting to the level of the balcony while still floating above the main section of the room. "Maybe they are bringing others back here."

Gray finally lifted his head from the girl to look at Mystogan as he said that. _More slaves,_ Gray thought. _Everywhere. As many as I've helped, more and more just keep… There's no end to it._

 _Trolls,_ Mine thought while staring straight at the floor at her feet. _Tell them, about the trolls. Tell them!_ "The trolls weren't here, their weak points are behind their knees and in their armpits, as well as their eyes-"

"Let's go lay a trap at the front entrance," Saber suggested.

"We left the place such a mess," Lin said at the suggestion. "They're going to know we're inside."

"Then you're saying we should not try an ambush?" Saber questioned. "In that case, let us go straight at them."

"Shouldn't we," Takeshi started softly. Not one of them had heard Mine who was whispering so softly that her voice barely made it out of her bloody lips. The teenager with jet black hair gulped after starting, then he continued, "Get the slaves out, first? They shouldn't, be in this place," he said, his voice getting quieter through his sentence. "Not one more second," he finished.

"We can focus on that when their reinforcements are finished," Lin replied.

"And what if they send more after them?" Takeshi whispered. "There are slave owners everywhere for ten thousand miles of here. If they want to protect themselves, they might send…" Takeshi faded off, then he gasped out his breath that he was trying to use to talk of plans. "Do those others have places like this?" He asked in a hoarse voice. "How many?" He whispered after a second of no one saying anything. They all knew that it was not everywhere, but that this was the only place where stuff like this happened to slaves seemed just as unlikely to them.

 _Why can't I, say anything?_ Mine thought. Her head was bowed so the others could not see her mouth moving like she was attempting to say something. _I hate this. I hate this world! Is there nothing good in it? Nothing good that won't be taken away from me?_ She thought of the only good things she had seen so far on this world, the best people she had met, and her mind filled with so many horrors that she could not handle them all. _Doomsday killed all those people, and Naruto slaughtered everyone… and Wendy, those dark things- and Romeo! Before I was even here, this world was already so terrible. How much worse can it get? There was nothing worse than saying goodbye to Romeo, that's what I thought when I left him! But there's always something worse! I, I can't stand to gain this freedom, just to lose it again. I can't handle making more friends just for them all to die or worse, right in front of me!_

Gray's fists were clenched in rage as his comrades discussed what to do about the upcoming fight. He could see Zoro still standing down on the main floor. He saw the shinigami in his black hakama, his Zanpakuto in hand, an emotionless and dark expression on his face at what he was seeing. Gray looked right at the three people next to him who were facing Mystogan floating just off the balcony now, talking about their next move. _I fucking hate this._ Gray's fists clenched harder. _I was so determined to pull everyone out of the darkness after what happened. After Kuina and everyone were massacred, I thought it was going to be difficult for me to drag them out of it, but I was wrong. It's not them who have changed for the worse, I have just yet to change as needed! I haven't adapted to my surroundings yet! I wasn't even killing the guards when I first got here. It's time I realize, this is not a world where my old ideals are acceptable. Not anymore. I, I need to throw away everything-_

Zoro turned around quickly and he lifted his Zanpakuto. Saber leapt off of the balcony and her sword glowed bright blue, and Mystogan spun and flew down to land right next to Zoro. The green-haired swordsman slashed his Zanpakuto down at the wall behind him. Not just the hallway that Zoro came through, but the entire wall around that hallway blasted into pieces and flew outwards. The hallway collapsed, but the walls were wider than the hall itself and gave them a good view of the outside world. It was an overcast day with gray clouds all over the sky, though they did not look dark enough that it was about to rain.

Mine lifted her head a bit but barely turned it towards the wall that had just shattered with a single swing of that man's sword. The pieces of the wall kept flying outwards from it, while the three who got to the wall first jumped out through it and landed on the roof of the hallway just past where it had stopped collapsing from Zoro's slash, then they hopped from there up to the higher roof of a different part of the mansion that Mine had never seen the outside of. In fact, she had not seen anything other than the interior of this building for over a month. _Outside,_ Mine thought, and she stepped backwards into a deeper part of the red puddle below her. _Outside, there are just more opportunities to feel pain, to lose more._

Gray, Lin, and Takeshi leapt down to the main level after their faster comrades had already shot outside. Gray froze when he landed and almost slipped in the blood coating the floor. He looked back at the naked girl soaked in blood, but there was nothing he could think of to say to her, not with what he was feeling right now. _The ones coming back here for you, I'll kill them all,_ Gray assured her in his head. Then he turned with such dark eyes that Takeshi saw as he was also turning from the girl he had been facing. When Gray's eyes shifted past Takeshi's though, he saw the younger man just give him a serious nod and clench his hand around his two swords tighter. _He knows it too,_ Gray thought as they turned and ran for the part of the mansion the others were on.

The two of them leapt up onto the hallway's roof where Lin had already jumped. They stopped though before jumping to the next level, because Lin had stopped and was staring to the right out over the fields to their south. Then she turned her head left and Gray and Takeshi followed. They looked left and their eyes followed the huge plumes of black smoke down to the remains of several large charred vehicles. They spotted people out there fighting, a large number of people fighting in a huge firefight. They saw trolls reaching down and grabbing people, lifting them up and biting down on them. They saw three fighter jets fly over their heads from behind them to the south where they had originally looked.

"What's," Gray whispered. He turned his head around again and looked back to the south at the line of trucks and tents and small collapsable buildings he had seen lining the entire field for as far as he could see to the east and west. He looked that way and watched as some of the trucks lifted up the missiles they had on the backs of them that were inside these rectangular firing mechanisms. Dozens of rockets fired from the anti-aircraft trucks at the same time, and those missiles shot into the air but avoided the jets that were swerving around up there. Instead, the missiles just curved back down and slammed into the other vehicles in the north where there were men on turrets firing at the groups facing off against the trolls and their allies. As those trucks exploded in massive balls of fire, swordsmen slashed up the backs of some of the trolls knees, bringing them down while a much stronger fighter ran up to them and punched them in the chests so hard that their bodies cracked or crumbled.

"Are you all alright?" A voice called down from above the group. Even the three higher on the mansion were looking around in a confused way to either side of the building they were on. They lifted their heads and saw a figure floating above them in a full suit of armor with a long spear in one hand that ended in a sharp red point.

"Who are you?" Saber called out in a hostile tone. She still had her sword glowing blue in her hands, and she narrowed her eyes at the figure whose eyes were glowing white in the middle of his steel face.

"What are you doing here?" Mystogan added in a harsh tone.

Zoro's eyes lowered from the figure above him back to the north. _Those are the reinforcements,_ he thought while looking around the settling battlefield. He saw people cheering, raising their weapons, and he saw some people cornering a group who had lowered their weapons. He watched as people dragged injured away and called in for trucks that started driving up from the south, yet the south that was still north of the mansion and just back a little from the battleground. Zoro stared at the group who started tying up their enemies, and Zoro bit down hard at the thought of what he had seen inside the building behind him.

"We intercepted a distress call from the people here," the armored figure announced down to the six who all looked straight at him darkly as he started that. "As we heard that there was a slave revolt, and they were calling their allies to help them. We couldn't let that opportunity pass us by." The armored figure lowered down to the roof that the others were on, then his armor disappeared. He let out a deep breath as he relaxed himself and put the small sword that his Imperial Arms reverted back on his waist. "I'm Tatsumi," he greeted the people in front of him including the three who just leapt up to the mansion's roof now. "A General of the Resistance," he added.

"The Resistance?" Takeshi asked. "I thought you guys were just a small group in the far south."

"Who told you that?" Tatsumi asked.

"It's just what we've heard up around here," Lin muttered. She did not sound too sure of herself though as she glanced back to the south, "Though I thought you were much farther south than this."

"We don't have borders," Tatsumi said. The others looked at him in confusion, and he continued, "The Resistance is not a country. We're an ideal." Gray's breath hitched and he darted his eyes to the right, then the left, then back to the young man with brown hair and green eyes who kept going. "No borders can stop us. We move where injustice is at its worst."

"This world is too terrible for-"

"It won't be for long," Tatsumi cut Lin off. The girl's eyes opened huge at the determined and righteous look on the young man's face. "We've gathered enough strength. Skirmishes have already begun all across Aebrith. If anyone pushes back against us, we will crush them and force them to surrender. This world has been ravaged by savagery for too long…"

Tatsumi looked past Lin as he was speaking, and he looked towards the giant broken wall and into the building behind it. "How bad was it here?" He questioned as he saw how bloody the room past that wall looked. He spotted a figure in that room covered head to toe in blood to the point that she was almost unrecognizable. Her head was bowed, her skin was coated in blood, and there should have been no way to know who it was. Tatsumi stumbled forward though, because he was the one person in the world who would recognize who the person he was looking at was. "Mine," he whispered the name of the woman he had been looking for since the First Day. "Mine!" Tatsumi shouted.

The bloody girl's head lifted up slowly, and she stared out to the hallway and above where a man just landed on it while sprinting towards her. Her half-open eyes widened, and she took a step back with trembling lips at the sight of him. _What if, I lose…_ "Tatsumi," Mine whispered in a hoarse voice, leaning backwards as he sprinted at her. He threw his arms around her though as soon as he reached her, and he pulled her so close that Mine's feeble pushing backwards did nothing. "Tatsumi," she whispered again, her head being held against his shoulder so her voice was right in his ear. "Tatsumi," she said, her voice louder. She could not remember a time when someone had held her like this. Not since she had gotten to Nexus at least.

Tatsumi pulled Mine closer to him than was seemingly possible. He pulled her into his body and whispered, "I found you. I'll never let go. You're safe now. You're safe. It's okay Mine. It's okay." Mine's eyes started to water up, because for the first time in a long time, she no longer felt that she had to protect herself at all. "I love you," his voice whispered in her ear.

"Ahhh ah ah ahhhh!" Mine sobbed and buried her face into Tatsumi's chest while throwing her arms around him too.

"Whoa," Lin whispered while looking back into the room they just came out of. "Talk about, coincidence, huh?" She said, though she smiled softly as she watched them.

Tatsumi pulled back from Mine for a second and he lifted his gaze up to the balcony of the room where some bloody people had filled onto once Gray, Takeshi, Lin, and Saber had leapt down. He kept an arm around her and let her keep crying into his chest, but he reached up and tapped a communicator in his right ear. "Everyone move into the mansion. All hostiles have been taken down. There are several people here in need of medical assistance, facing various injuries as well as severe trauma."

Mine lifted her gaze up while Tatsumi was looking down at the top of her head, so she rose her gaze straight into his. He continued while keeping eye contact with her in a reassuring way, "Let's have them transported south as soon as possible behind the farthest retreat line. Call in Battalion 8C to replace our tired and wounded, and the rest of you get these people to safety and get some rest. General Tatsumi out."

"Roger." He heard a few of his lower officers respond into his ears, before they started calling out their orders to the rest of the Resistance army with them.

On top of the mansion, Gray stared out at the approaching convoy with huge eyes. At his side, he heard Mystogan say, "It seems the rumors of the Resistance were under-exaggerated."

"Think they're like the rumors say?" Lin wondered.

Saber countered, "The rumors called them foolish idealists. I thought that was a good description, but it seems they may be able to truly make a difference."

"You really think so?" Takeshi asked hopefully.

"I don't see why not," Saber replied, and for the first time in over an hour, Takeshi smiled.

 _Hope,_ Gray thought while watching trucks race towards them, people on the vehicles calling out to each other in hurried tones. There were no more enemies to fight, but these people looked as rushed to help the people inside as they would be to go fight a battle. He saw trucks with red crosses on the sides of them, and doctors who had on white helmets with those same red cross symbols in the centers. _Hope isn't, lost,_ Gray thought, and his felt his shoulders get lighter. His chest heaved out and Gray let out a deep gasping breath. He stared down at the floor with huge eyes while Takeshi and Lin looked in at him in confusion, and Zoro frowned from across the circle as he could see what Gray was thinking.

 _That was it,_ Gray thought while staring in shock at the floor. _True, despair. I didn't even realize it, but I was done! There's still hope, for this world!_ Gray lifted his head and he froze when he met Zoro's gaze. They stared into each other's eyes, and Gray's heart started racing. _He doesn't think so though. He doesn't believe that it could be._ "Zoro," Gray began.

"Oi Gray!" a voice shouted from Gray's right. He turned his head fast and then his eyes bulged open once again as a man came leaping straight up onto the roof he was near the edge of. The man with long spiky black hair was laughing, and the corners of Gray's lips curled up at the sight of him dropping down. He had an intimidating appearance with all the silver piercings through his face, but on his left shoulder that was visible thanks to his black tank top, everyone could see the black tattoo of Fairy Tail that they recognized from traveling with Gray for so long.

"Gajeel!" Gray shouted, then his happy look disappeared in an instant right as Gajeel landed in front of him. The Iron Dragon Slayer opened his mouth to start talking to Gray asking about how he got there and if he was the one who forced the damn masters here to send out their distress call. "Gajeel," Gray started in a more serious voice. Gajeel froze with his mouth open, then Gray continued, "Panther Lily's inside."

Gajeel frowned and narrowed his eyes. "Lily?" He asked, and Gray looked confused at the reaction. "He's traveling with you now, huh?" Gajeel asked, a dark and annoyed tone in his voice.

Gray shook his head at the man in front of him who became confused at that head shake. Gray stopped and opened his mouth, but the sight of the black Exceed he saw when he opened the door to a slaves' room reappeared in his mind. The look that flashed over Gray's face at that memory made Gajeel's breath start speeding up like his heart rate. He spun towards the opening in the wall on his left, but he froze after a single step as he saw a tall black creature with the face of a cat standing in front of a group of naked people. The Exceed was missing an arm, an eye, and he looked exhausted but was standing in front of Tatsumi's comrades who were flooding into the room.

Lily looked up and to the side as he saw someone staring his way. He froze and made eye contact with the man with long spiky black hair, and then he finally lowered his muscular arm and moved aside for the people in front of him to help his comrades. He heard them whimpering and shouting in panic as the doctors tried assisting them, as too many of them were afraid of any physical contact at this point. Lily looked into Gajeel's eyes and the Dragon Slayer back into his, then Gajeel leapt off the roof and dropped down into the main auditorium that was coated in blood on all sides.

 _We haven't seen each other, since the first days,_ Gajeel thought while looking the Exceed up and down a few times. Lily frowned and looked salty, and Gajeel thought, _Of course he'd still be holding a grudge. I am too, but, for now…_ "We'll get you out of here."

Gray dropped into the room and walked up to the other two members of Fairy Tail. Gajeel glanced at Gray, then back at the Exceed in front of him who Gray noticed was out of his small form again. "Oi Gray," Gajeel turned to the ice mage and started. "What're you doing here? You're not a part of the Resistance, right?"

"You are?" Gray asked in surprise. Gajeel nodded but gave Gray a strange look like he suspected Gray would have been a part of it too. "I guess I, just haven't heard much about it," Gray said. "I've been fighting against the Co-op a lot though, if that's what you're all doing."

"It's not just about that, not anymore…"

Mine stood twenty feet away from the reunited Fairy Tail members. She had stopped crying, and now she was standing still as Tatsumi used a washcloth to wipe down her body. He was getting off layers after layers of blood and dirt, and he had draped a blanket over her shoulders to make her feel more human with something covering her up. _Mine, they aren't going to get away with this. We're pushing through the entire continent and ending this soon!_

 _I thought things were only going to keep getting worse, but maybe that's not true. Good things, really do happen. Tatsumi, you came for me._ Mine watched as the boy in front of her stood back straight up and called for someone to bring him another towel. One of the doctors ran over and handed a clean one off to him while taking the one saturated in blood. Her eyes glanced around the room and she saw all these people, good people, many of whom were having hard times masking their emotions of sadness and anger while they helped the slaves. _If good things do happen, then, then there could still be a way to save Romeo. Tatsumi, thank you. I had given up, but thanks to you, I can keep going._

* * *

 **Present**

 **Northern Continent**

"Thanks Merlin, it's much warmer now," King said to the woman walking on his left side. The small fairy man was floating forward on Merlin's right side and to the left of the others walking and having their own conversation a little behind them. They were walking across a landscape covered in snow, with more falling from the sky above them, but a translucent bubble of yellow had surrounded the group and was keeping it a nice warm temperature inside. Instead of a snowy tundra, it felt more like spring to the point that some of them were considering taking off their warm jackets, gloves, and hats that Merlin had magic-ed up for them too.

"Don't get used to it," Merlin said, a sly smile on her face as per usual. The tall woman with long black hair glanced to her right at the teenagers who looked her way as she said that. "I will be conserving my magic power for when we get close to Yaminoshi. This is temporary to warm everyone up, it will start to fade in a few seconds."

"Thank you for it anyway," Liz mentioned to the older woman. She, Soul, and Maka were catching up as they walked forward through the light snowfall. None of the snowflakes had been hitting them for a while, but the yellow bubble of heat around them was fading and the snowflakes began falling on them again. Soul put his furry hood back up over the top of his white hair that was still messy and had different lengths on all sides of his head. His head got coldest fastest because of the bald spots on it from when Zarbon tore his hair out with his bare hands.

The weapon boy did not say a word, but he nodded at Merlin too while he was putting his hood up. The motion was meant to tell her that he appreciated it, or that it was fine for her to lower the bubble. Really, nodding was just what he felt like doing at the moment. He was in a warm outfit of a red jacket with a furry hood, black pants, brown boots, and a pair of black gloves. They had already been to two cities on the Northern Continent searching for the friends who King and Merlin were looking for, and they just stopped at a town between the last city they were at and the large Yaminoshi that they were heading towards now. _Still no news on their comrades, but I'm not complaining._ Soul did not feel like arguing with them, or even saying something that might cause an argument with these people he owed so much to. _I won't ask them to take us to the Resistance while they're still looking for their own friends. They didn't need to take us out of the Capital with them, and they don't need to let us travel with them either. I don't think we could make it back on our own though. Me, Maka, and Liz couldn't cross two thirds of Aebrith on our own._

 _"Don't worry, I have a healer under my command. As many times as you are whipped, the scars will never show on your body young hybrid girl."_ Maka shivered as she walked forward, and Soul turned to the girl next to him as he could feel she was shaking not just from the cold. They had linked their souls too many times for her to hide it from him, and without saying a word, Soul's left hand wrapped around Maka's shoulders and he pulled her in to his side. She spun her head to him in surprise, her thoughts getting off of the past, and Soul just said, "It's cold," as if that were the reason he was holding her close to him while they walked.

King shivered at the same time that Maka did, though his shiver really was just because of the cold air around them. He lifted up his yellow hood and put it back over his head, then he turned to the south where he stared for a few seconds while continuing to float forward. "Still don't know what caused all that shaking the other day," he said, and the others all looked towards him. "I hope the Captain wasn't anywhere near it," he added. _Elaine too,_ he thought, the one he was really concerned about when he brought it up.

They had speculated on what could have caused all the tremors, but Merlin was against teleporting anywhere near it when she used a spell to check the powers in the direction the world's shaking had been originating at. Her spell had exploded back in their faces which she said had never happened before, because the powers that were in that direction were more powerful than even her magic could quantify.

The group continued on across the Northern Continent where Merlin said the Captain of the Seven Deadly Sins had told her he would be heading. More than an hour and a half after Merlin dropped her heat bubble, as well as two fights with angry yetis later, the towering skyscrapers of Yaminoshi came into view. "Be careful here guys," King warned the three other than Merlin. "Unlike the last two cities, this one is under direct control of a Lord. It's much bigger too, so if there's a fight the regular forces are going to be greater as well."

"Let's try not getting in fights then," Liz mentioned. She glanced towards Soul as if giving him a look that said she was directing that statement his way, but he just nodded along with King and kept walking. Liz kept walking too, feeling worse after what she just said. _Usually we'd be directing that at him and Black Star, but with Black Star not here… We left him behind in the Capital. How many times did Dodoria bring me to the Colosseum and make me watch him? He looked to be enjoying it, but to be caged like that and forced to fight for others' enjoyment, Black Star must hate it deep down._

Inside the city of Yaminoshi, a group of men stood at the top of a tower taller than anything else for a hundred miles. The walls were made of glass though tinted black on the outside so no one could see in, and the room itself was square-shaped. The largest man in the room was chowing down on the food covering the table in the center of the tower, while the guest visitor stood on the other side, trying hard to hide his disgust for the Espada before him. The dark-skinned, heavyset, Yammy Llargo sat with his white Espada jacket open down the middle which revealed the large hole in the center of his chest. The hole and the white jawbone sticking out of his chin were the two things that remained from his time as a Hollow, but the figure looked more humanoid than Hollow now.

"So, mnch, rrnch," Yammy kept shoveling food in his mouth, then he leaned back and let out a burp. "What is it, you came for?" Yammy snapped at the cyborg before him.

"Well, your Lordship," Ambassador Tao began. "When I came here last, I was assured that should Pyraxas fall, you would take care of its acquisition. Instead, High Lord Spriggan conquered Pyraxas. I don't know what I'm supposed to make of this unfortunate event." The cyborg had broad shoulders under his pink kimono, wore a black undershirt beneath it, and his arms were folded in front of his chest through his loose sleeves. The top half of his face had steel eyes protruding from it that glowed red, and he had a long braid of black hair resting over his right shoulder.

"Nothing to be done," Yammy said with a shake of a drumstick in front of him. He leaned back in his chair and kept smiling but spoke with a more threatening undertone, "We tried. Everybody tried. It's just too far away from home for us to do much." Yammy laughed and took a bite of his meat, then he added, "Y'all are too far from it to care anyway. You got the Rens, Term'nus, Spriggan, and 'Gator between you's and that city."

"It is a matter of principle," Tao said, and Yammy frowned that the cyborg just ignored most of what he had just said. "I assured my superiors that our _allies_ on this Northern Continent would take control of the city, and thus we would still have a large presence in the region. The Androids are not to be made fools of," Tao added at the end, and Yammy narrowed his eyes at the Ambassador.

Yammy got up from his seat and he grabbed his table with one hand, throwing it to the side so hard that it slammed into one of his subordinates and smashed that Arrancar into a wall. All the walls were made of glass, so Yammy's hard throw smashed the man and table straight through the window that shattered and caused the room to fill with cold air considering the heavy snowfall outside. "What's that supposed to mean?" Yammy growled while stepping forward into the spot where his table had been in the way a second ago.

"It means, you should watch how you throw your word around," Tao replied, his eyes zooming out of his head and then back in, twisting around a little as they examined the man in front of him for weak points. "If High Lord Aizen's Espada say that they are going to do something, and then they fail to do said things, what do you think public opinion of your master will become?"

"Are you threatening Aizen-sama?!" Yammy roared furiously.

"I am simply stating a fact," Tao replied. "We are allies, and I have no intention of making Aizen my enemy nor the enemy of the people I represent. But you would do well to remember this, Espada. Android 17 is not a forgiving being, and if an ally of his makes false promises-"

"My Lord!" A woman called out as she ran through the doors behind Tao.

Tao froze mid-threat, and he turned his head sideways with a furious glare at the female Arrancar behind him who pulled back with a scared look on her face. "Do your servants know no manners?" Tao snapped while glaring at the girl.

"I'm about to teach them some," Yammy snarled. He was pissed, but he knew he could not just attack a foreign emissary and was trying hard to hold back. All of his subordinates around him got nervous and afraid looks on their faces though at that, and all of them started glaring at the blonde Arrancar woman.

She leaned back as every person in the room glared at her, then she called out before anyone could kill her, "The escaped Capital slaves!" Yammy froze after stomping towards her, and Tao's red eyes pulled back into his head while an intrigued look formed on his face. "Facial recognition in our street cameras caught them entering the city! The four known escapees, the only ones who got out during that riot," the blonde woman was panting hard, but she was trying to steady herself at the interested looks of the others. "Should we attempt to capture them?" She asked.

Yammy shot across the floor faster than any of his Arrancar were able to see, and faster than Tao thought the fat Espada would be able to move. He wrapped his right hand around the woman's neck before she could lean back, and he smirked at the terrified look on her face as he leaned towards it. "Why haven't you already?" Yammy asked, his lips curling farther up as a smug look came to his face. _This will be big!_

"It's just," the woman gasped out, struggling to get the words out while her neck was being squeezed. "If they, managed, to get out, of the Capital," the pressure around her neck loosened as Yammy actually understood what she was getting at.

"Then these are no normal escapees," Tao said. He flicked his head to flip his braid to rest over the other shoulder, then he turned and started walking for the opening in the room now that one of the walls had shattered. Yammy turned towards Tao and dropped the Arrancar as he lost any interest in her, which the woman was grateful for as she had thought for sure she was about to be killed.

The Espada walked up to Tao and stopped on the man's side. "Don't worry princess," Yammy said, and he cracked his knuckles in front of them. "The big bad slaves won't be able to hurt you."

"When _I_ return those slaves to the Capital," Tao began, and Yammy spun to the cyborg in a pink kimono he was trying to insult and stared in shock at him. "I will be sure to forget all about how you failed to take Pyraxas."

"What?! Those slaves are mine! They're in my city, Yammy's city!" Yammy stomped towards the open window, then Tao sprinted forward and leapt out before him, firing a jet out the bottoms of his feet that merged together into one rocket. Yammy rose his arms as the heat came out the back of the rocket, then he snarled and spun his head around, "Bastard doesn't even know where he's going! Get me their location right now! And get everyone fucking there!"

Yammy leapt out of his window and glared after Tao who was zipping around the sky over his giant gray skyscrapers. The cyborg's sensors were examining all over the ground of the city, searching through the walls of buildings with their X-rays, and he hummed to himself as he located the files of the missing slaves and put their faces up on the front of his vision's display. "Where are you?" He wondered aloud.

At the eastern edge of Yaminoshi, King walked towards the end of the street where a strange-looking hill was sticking out of the ground. The hill had snow on it like everything else past the city, even though the roads inside the city did not. Those asphalt streets were heated, which seemed unnecessary considering all the cars in the city were flying around or hovering at least several feet off the street. King stared at this hill though, and his eyes started watering up because of the building he saw on top of it.

"That hill," Maka wondered. "It has less snow on it than everything else," she observed.

"She must not have gotten here too long ago then," Merlin responded to the younger girl who just gained a confused look at that statement.

"'She?'" Liz muttered aloud. She glanced in at the others but Soul just shrugged and walked after King, while Maka hummed to herself hesitantly before walking forward as well.

King started running though as he neared the hill, an excited look spread across his face. "What is this?" Soul muttered as they got close enough for him to examine the building before them. "It looks like a bar," the teenager said, turning towards the taller woman who was farther back than King like the rest of them.

"Yes, this is the Boar Hat bar," Merlin said. "Our comrades are inside." She said it then turned her head and looked up.

Liz caught a glimpse of King's face as he ran up the hill, and it made the blonde smile. _After everything,_ Liz thought. She imagined the day Dodoria brought him back, how the fat pink alien had dressed him like a fool and made him dance for his party. She imagined the beatings, and she looked at his face now and could not tell that he had endured all of that at all. _I'm glad,_ Liz thought. _He found his comrades. They came for him, and he made it home._

King threw the door to the Boar Hat open and ran right inside. "I'm back!" He called out.

Weiss almost fell backwards out of her chair near the door at the sudden slam and shout. Elaine spun from facing the counter where she could only see Ban's dropped jaw and shocked expression. Gowther lifted his head from behind the book he was reading at a table near the door. Hawk ran through the kitchen door, and Meliodas walked out behind the pig who started oinking loudly at the sight of the small man in the entrance. "Oh King," Meliodas said as he looked over. "Welcome back," Meliodas gave him a small wave then walked over behind the counter where Ban turned to him and asked about the barrel of ale in his hands. King's bottom lip lowered, and a bead of sweat formed on his face as Gowther rose his book back up, and Weiss fixed her chair's position before getting back to reading the map that was in front of her.

"Brother!" Elaine called out and flew across the room. King held out his arms and let his sister give him a hug, saying, "Welcome home." She pulled back after a second and scolded, "You're an idiot! How could you let yourself get caught like that?" Then she frowned and just pulled him in for a hug again, "I'm glad you're okay."

He would have liked to enjoy the hug, but he was too confused to get into it and pulled back quickly. "Elaine, what's going on?" King asked. He looked around and called out, "I'm here!"

"We saw you," Weiss said from his left. "Glad to see you're still in one piece," she added, though she did not look back up at him again.

"Where are your friends?" Meliodas called over as he started setting up the barrel of ale under the counter with Ban, attaching it to some keg spouts for the rush tonight. He tested out the spigots over the keg, then he looked over towards the door and said, "Oh, there they are."

King glanced back and saw the three others he escaped the Capital with standing right outside the doorway. "Come on in," Elaine told them while flying around King towards those people. "Oh my, I didn't know you were so young," Elaine said in a more sad tone. She shook her head and then rushed closer and ushered them in, waving her small arms forward to motion for them to enter. All three of them stared up at the strange fairy girl in a white dress floating next to them as they entered the bar, then they all spun around nervously as the door shut behind them.

"It's cold in here!" Hawk shouted up at the teens after kicking the door shut with his hooves. The teens looking at the door all stared down at the talking pig with lowered jaws. "What?" Hawk asked.

"Talking bacon," Soul muttered.

"Talking pork," Maka added in succession

"Talking ham," Liz whispered.

Hawk's face covered in sweat, then it oinked like crazy and spun, running off while shouting that it was not food.

"Why aren't any of you surprised to see me?" King asked as he looked around the room.

"Well, a News Coo delivered wanted posters for the four of you a few days back," Meliodas replied. "So we knew Merlin must have gotten you out of there."

"Speaking of which," Weiss began, and she looked around. "Where is Merlin?"

"She was right behind," King started and looked back.

The three behind him shook their heads, and Maka said, "Right before we walked up, she said she felt something and decided to go check it out."

"'Felt something?'" Meliodas asked, walking around the bar and wiping his hands of some beer on a cloth. He tossed the cloth aside onto a table, then he cracked his neck to either side and kept walking for the door. "Weird, I just felt something too," he said with a small laugh. He put his hands behind his head and nonchalantly walked towards the door, but the three teens he was about to walk past all had nervous and panicked expressions on their faces as they realized what was going on.

"Someone's here for us?" Soul muttered as he turned to Meliodas while the barkeep walked by him.

"I bet," Meliodas said.

"If you don't give us up..." Maka began quietly. "What if we ran out the back?!" She asked frantically, lifting her head and looking at the blond man's back. Meliodas stopped at the door and looked back with a confused expression, and Maka stepped towards him and though there was a terrified look on her face, she stammered, "If we ran from here, they wouldn't have a reason to attack you. Just, if you could, stall them?" Maka asked, albeit hesitantly.

"Guys, hold on," King started, holding his hands up to the teens who turned back towards him. "You don't have to go anywhere." Maka opened her mouth to argue, but King continued too fast, "First of all, I'm not leaving, so there's going to be an escaped slave here anyway." Maka slowly closed her mouth and then pursed her lips.

She had a desperate look on her face and both Soul and Liz could see it as they looked in towards her. _I, chose to become a slave again. After Tatsumi and everyone freed me, I chose to go back in order to save Soul. I can't do it again though! I can't do it anymore! I can't take one more minute!_ The girl with a fresh scar under her right eye darted her eyes around the room as if looking for somewhere to hide or run, and the other members of the Seven Deadly Sins around the room all started moving towards the door where Meliodas was already standing.

"Maka," King started, stepping towards the girl in front of him and giving her a reassuring look. "Whoever's coming, we can handle it. Everyone here is very strong." The fairy in a yellow coat started walking for the door like everyone else, but he stopped and looked at the teens around him. "Come on. Don't be afraid," he said it in a reassuring tone, but the others still had hesitant looks on their faces. Despite their hesitation though, they followed after King out the Boar Hat and onto the green wooden planks that surrounded the base of the bar at the top of the hill.

King got a bead of sweat on the side of his face and stopped right after walking outside. _Umm, wasn't expecting this much of a turnout,_ he thought, and he darted a glance back to see the others who had followed him reverting back to terrified expressions. On the street at the edge of the city just at the base of the hill, as well as floating in the air all around that road, and standing on speeders that hovered around the floating figures, were hundreds of soldiers in white coats. There was a big man marching up the hill through the footsteps left behind from those who came up a minute ago, but the large dark-skinned Espada's feet were three times larger than any of the footprints he was stomping through.

"Oh!" Meliodas called out as he stood just at the edge of his bar's porch. "Lord Yammy is here. We should break out the good ale, huh?" The short man with blond hair who looked like a child had a friendly and welcoming expression on his face, but Yammy came to a stop only halfway up the hill.

Yammy stared at the group in front of that building, and his eyes shifted around each one of them. He had a strange feeling in his gut but shook it off and called out in a bellowing voice, "You've got some escaped slaves with you!"

"Do I?" Meliodas questioned in surprise. He looked behind him and saw King standing there with a nervous look on his face. "Huh, looks like I do," the Captain of the Seven Deadly Sins said with a chuckle. He turned back to Yammy and lifted his blond eyebrows, "So?"

"Hand them over, or die," Yammy demanded, a pissed-off tone in his voice as he was not liking this short man's attitude one bit. He lifted his right fist and the ground beneath him started shaking under his Spiritual Pressure. The air around them trembled, and Yammy smirked at the girl with white hair and the blonde fairy girl next to her who each backed up at his strength. Weiss cursed under her breath and steadied herself after taking that subconscious step back, while Elaine just flew over towards Ban and got behind him a little for protection from the intense Reiatsu.

"Don't worry," King assured the others behind him as he heard Maka let out a whimper at the feeling of that power. "I promise, we can handle this."

Ban looked over his shoulder at Elaine, then farther at King. "' _We?'_ I bet you're even weaker than usual after all that time as a slave," Ban taunted.

King frowned up at Ban and had a retort for him, but Meliodas snapped his fingers at that moment and turned his head sideways. "That reminds me, King," he started. "We went into Black City and got your spear back. It's inside the bar," Meliodas mentioned, and King's wide-eyed expression calmed down before he started walking forward like the others had before.

"In that case, please stay back," King said. He looked up at Ban and said as he walked past him and his own sister, "I'll show you just how wrong you are." King's look became more serious and he faced forward while walking past Meliodas who just put his hands back behind his head again with a relaxed and interested look on his face.

"H-Hey," Liz said softly. She staggered forward and rose a hand after him, then she clenched it into a shaking fist and pulled it back into her chest. Weiss looked right at the girl who darted her own gaze around in confusion and fear. Soul and Maka had shocked looks on their faces as well, because all three of them remembered how King stood up to Zarbon and Dodoria's subordinates back in the Capital.

 _He got tossed around like a ragdoll by some small-fry,_ Soul thought, while glancing past King at the monster the short fairy was walking towards. _He won't stand a chance!_ Soul's legs steadied and he stomped a foot forward, though Maka looked at him in a scared way and could not take the step up herself. Soul glanced at her to say that they should fight together, but the sheer terror in Maka's eyes let him know that she would not be able to fight. _We wouldn't even be able to match wavelengths right now,_ he thought.

King lifted up his right hand, and a crash sounded from inside the Boar Hat. A second later, his spear Chastiefol flew out of the bar and right up to his side. The short, orange-haired fairy floated off the ground, holding his index and middle fingers of his right hand up with a calm and straight expression on his face. His confidence did not spread to everyone behind him though, especially the girl who had been enslaved to the same master as him in the Capital.

"Someone help him," Liz said, looking around at the people with her like they were crazy. Elaine looked down at the tall girl with long straight blonde hair who had such a worried look on her face. "He's your brother, isn't he?" Liz asked the small fairy girl. "Please," she said in a quieter voice as Elaine's face softened up.

Elaine's softer expression had a big smile on it though which was not what Liz wanted. "I'm glad," Elaine said while smiling at the long-haired girl. "That my brother was not alone all that time in the Capital. He had good friends there with him." Liz's eyes shot open wide, then she spun back towards her new friend who had started speaking.

"I will not go back to being a slave. None of us will," King gave the Espada a threatening look that just made Yammy smirk at the sight of the tiny fairy trying to be intimidating. Elaine smiled as she watched King's back, and Ban bent down next to Meliodas and made a bet with the Captain. Liz, Soul, and Maka did not get all the relaxed and unafraid looks on the others' faces though, and all three of them panicked as Yammy lifted off the ground and flew towards King.

Yammy moved so fast that the snow beneath him shot up in the air behind him in a huge trail that left a trench all the way to green ground below the snow. Many of the Arrancar and soldiers watching Yammy fly forward gained confused expressions at the green earth beneath the snow, as there was no grass around Yaminoshi even when snow was not falling. Yammy did not notice since the snow only rose up behind him, and he just pulled back a fist while yelling, "I bet I could return a broken slave for half the-"

Yammy's voice cut off and his eyes darted to the left at the head of the spear, right before it slammed down into his left temple and sent him flying off to the side straight into a tall twenty-story building a hundred meters away from where he was just in mid-flight. King pulled his hand back to where it was, then as all the more powerful Arrancar started yelling at the rest of the soldiers to charge, King pointed his fingers up again. "Spirit Spear Chastiefol, Form Five: Increase." He said it calmly, and his spear glowed white before separating into an array of what looked like hundreds of kunai-shaped smaller spears floating in the air in front of King.

Liz, Maka, and Soul had their jaws dropped as far as possible as they stared at the scene in front of him. Monsters of varying sizes, some ten times larger than King or more, were charging at him. Men and women in white cloaks and coats were firing beam rifles his way, and grenades were rising through the air in his direction. A few of the faster enemies were racing up the hill already, but none of them would reach him. Every single beam, bullet, grenade, any weapon, and any fighter coming towards him, was met by one of Chastiefol's Increased smaller spears.

Roars and screams rang out on the road in front of them where snow started lifting up off of fast filling the whole area in a smog of white. A lot of that white was getting red though, while the screams from inside only seemed to get louder. A fast Arrancar shot out of the red rising snow, but King moved out of the way and pulled his hand back, reverting his spear into its Form One so it was a single long spear again. He slammed it down on the turning Arrancar's body so hard that the four-legged creature with half a white mask over its face hit the edge of the hill and smashed a hole straight through it. King wiped some sweat off his forehead as he had almost smashed straight down, but he remembered at the last second what the hill beneath him really was and did not want to hurt Mama Hawk while she was sleeping.

 _There's my chance!_ Tao thought from high above the bar. He saw the teens in front of the bar drop their guards a little while King was showing off his incredible power, and he saw King wiping sweat from his brow while all the others were not too focused. Tao's rocket boosters shot him faster than ever down towards the escaped slaves. _I won't be able to get all four, but three is good enough for-_ Tao came to a sudden stop and yelled out, "AHH!" He skid down through the air another few feet and the front of his pink kimono dipped into the lava pit that had suddenly appeared directly beneath him. Tao shot back up into the air by curving his legs and pointing his jets down into the lava that almost touched them and would have melted them off if his reaction time a second slower. Tao spun around in a three-sixty and screamed at the top of his lungs in the middle of a cloud of steam above an unknown lava field, "WHERE AM I?!"

Back in Yaminoshi, Meliodas turned his head to the left and said, "Oh, Merlin. Where'd you come from?"

The tall woman who just appeared and made everyone else around her jump at the sudden teleportation, other than Gowther, smiled down at her Captain and responded, "There was a troublesome man I was watching in the sky. I wanted to see what he would do, but he bored me."

"In the sky?" Soul muttered, and he looked up only to see dozens of tiny spears fly straight into a group of Arrancar trying to swerve around for King's back.

"He's," Maka whispered in amazement.

"So strong," Liz finished for her, while watching as King's weapon returned to one spear again in order to come back and protect him from the Lord of the city. Yammy had appeared in an instant, and all the snow around the collision with his fist and the spear was blasted away. Chastiefol pushed back and King started sweating while easing backwards himself.

"Ehh?" Ban hummed, looking forward while grinning. "You're gonna owe me fifty bucks Cappy," Ban said smugly down at the man next to him who was scratching his chin.

"I am sure he's the Tenth Espada," Meliodas said while frowning. "Either he has a higher physical strength than most of the others… or maybe you're right and King really did get weaker!" Meliodas cupped his hands to his mouth while calling that out, making King wince and bite down hard at the Captain's harsh words.

"That's not very nice," Weiss muttered towards Meliodas. "Do your best King," she called out.

Chastiefol parried Yammy's fist and King twisted his wrist, making the spear whip back to hit at the Espada again. Yammy punched his other fist forward though and knocked the spear away completely this time, then he charged forward and rose a knee that he planted straight in King's gut. Yammy started smirking and everyone outside of the Boar Hat leaned forward in surprise as King's body bent over Yammy's leg and blood splashed out of his mouth. King grimaced, then he rose up his arms that had flailed to the sides when he got hit. He pointed them forward at Yammy and got a dark look on his face that made the Espada back up in an instant.

Yammy stopped after flying twenty feet back, but he brought his right hand up to his chest and was grabbing around the hole in the center of it while panting heavily. "What was that?!" Yammy shouted at King who lowered his arms as he had lost his target from Yammy's intense speed.

"King's already using his magic," Ban said, sounding surprised himself at this.

"Maybe we should step in," Liz said, walking forward and between Ban and Meliodas who looked in at her. "I get that he's strong now. But, if you guys are a team, then why let him get any more hurt than he already is? If we fight together…"

"My brother will be fine," Elaine told the girl next to her. She floated down from Ban's shoulder a foot and stopped right next to Liz's head while they both stared forward at King's back. King wiped his mouth of some blood and re-lifted his right hand to make his Spirit Spear fly back next to him. "You don't understand how strong he really is," Elaine assured the nervous girl. Maka and Soul walked up behind Liz and Elaine, and they all stared forward as Yammy shouted in fury at King. Yammy opened his mouth after the shout and the back of his throat glowed a bright red color that had Merlin throwing her arms up in an instant and creating a large translucent barrier in front of the Boar Hat, but not in front of King. The barrier went straight up in front of them as well as wrapping around the entire hilltop, but King was floating above the barrier and right in front of Yammy.

"Form Four: Sunflower," King said while watching Yammy prepare a Cero in the back of his throat.

Yammy snarled angrily that his opponent still did not look afraid as he charged this attack. _I don't need to release my Resurreccion for scum like this!_ Yammy's eyes started widening more and he lifted them up above King's body. His mouth opened wider as the red light glowed brighter inside it, but at the same time, the giant golden sunflower rising up behind King started glowing bright yellow on its petals. Yammy's roared and released his Cero forward, and King fired his Sunflower at the same time. The beam of red light was wide, but the golden beam was almost twice the size as it collided with Yammy's Cero. The two pushed against each other for a second, then King yelled out, "RaaaAAAA!" His beam pushed against the Cero and shoved it all the way back to the Espada who let out a roar of agony right before the massive explosion on his body of the beams erupting on each other.

All of the remaining soldiers nearby could not stay close after the blast, getting thrown aside and tossed into the air by the force of the blast. King stood there, with an explosion in front of him that gave his body a golden glow for those looking from behind, and Elaine spoke to the new friends who King had made. They stared forward in shock at King's back while his sister began, "For seven hundred years on our world, the human kingdoms were at peace with the forest of the fairy King. It was a sign of friendship, but also an agreement not to interfere with each other's kingdoms. What was respected above all else however… what repelled every invasion and struck fear into those who tried…" As she spoke, Yammy came flying out of the smoke of the explosion and punched a fist at King in a furious swing. King shot forward at that moment with his spear reverting next to him and already slashing. Elaine finished while Yammy fell behind King, the Espada's body slicing in half vertically while a confused expression plastered on the halves of the brute's face, "Was the power of the Lord of the fairies, King. His real name: Fairy King, Harlequin."

* * *

 **A/N King! 7DS back in force here at the end, and I'll just mention that they're the focus of the next chapter as well for those fans of theirs who might think this is gonna be their only scene for a while, good news! So hey everyone! Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and as I said I made this story rated M for a reason. When I was writing the very first chapter and it revolved around slavery, that's what really made me up the rating from T that Nexus was at (which even then was a Hard T), though admittedly this has given me a little more freedom with what I've written so I like it. Alright, now that the small rant is over, we finally see Mine's time spent as a slave after being sold by Malko (from Leol's crew), until the point where Gray rescued her. We also get some hints of the start of Gray's transition from part of Zoro's group to a member of the Resistance, though he was almost lost there for a second before Tatsumi arrived. Tatsumi also turns out to be a former Resistance General, before he started up his slave-freeing crusade all around Aebrith. Panther Lily and Mine go their separate ways in the present, while King and Merlin reunite with the rest of the Sins, along with their Soul Eater friends. As I mentioned already, the next chapter is going to keep following this group for a bit, and we'll see what they do now that they've gone and attacked a Lord on the Northern Continent... Get ready for the next chapter: Nexus HWR 14.7 Betrayal! Quick list before review responses:**

 **Fairy Tail: Panther Lily, Gajeel, Gray, Lucy, Taurus, Virgo, Romeo, Zeref (Spriggan), Edolas, Mystogan**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Meruem, Leol, Alligator, Chimera Ants**

 **Game of Thrones: Malko**

 **Tokyo Ghoul: Tsukiyama Shuu**

 **One Piece: Caimie, Boa Hancock, Zoro, Kuina**

 **DC Comics: Hawkman, Hawkgirl**

 **Hunger Games: Thresh**

 **Boku no Hero: Mezo Shoji**

 **Akame ga Kill: Tatsumi, Mine**

 **Magi: Ren Empire, Rakushou**

 **Bleach: Ulquiorra, Yammy, Aizen, Espada, Arrancar, Hollow, shinigami**

 **7 Deadly Sins: Meliodas, King (Harlequin), Elaine, Chastiefol, Ban, Gowther, Hawk, Mama Hawk, Merlin**

 **RWBY: Weiss**

 **Soul Eater: Soul, Maka, Liz, Black Star, Mifune**

 **Naruto: Zabuza**

 **DBZ: Mercenary Tao, Dodoria, Zarbon**

 **Fate Stay/Night: Tohsaka Lin, Saber**

 **Hitman Reborn: Yamamoto Takeshi**

Limit-Breaking chapter 100 . May 3

I'm surprised that Roger appeard I thought he died a while ago also who is komei. Besides that two more chapters til 17 shows up hopefully it's a long chapter

 **Thanks for the review. Roger has been mentioned a few times in the story so far. Back in the Akainu and Aokiji fight I think he was mentioned, then Ace mentioned having seen him before as well. He had told Luffy he was gonna go look for his father, and Luffy asked about Roger, then Ace said he had already met Roger and gave him a piece of his mind but he wants to go find his _real_ dad, Whitebeard. Then the Pirate Queen's group mentioned him again... but you know what he might be dead anyway. We haven't seen him in the present yet, and that was a flashback to pretty early on Nexus. So who knows? Komei is a One Piece villain from one of the movies: Adventure of Nebulandia, and he was the leader of the Sun Marines back in Pyraxas. We'll see when 17 arrives, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter... ;)**

joebob323 chapter 100 . May 4

KONG HAS A FRUIT?!

 **YES! Though as to which one, the world may never know!**

flo463 chapter 100 . May 5

Yes, as I said, I buy all the volumes of Damanchi as soon as they come out.  
I would see the organization trying to control the dungeon (according to the light novel, the dungeon is a living being, I think we can compare it to the Tartar from Greek mythology)  
the dungeon hates the gods of danmachi, surely because they are (Zeus in particular) who probably locked him up  
Hate to see what training Kirito will follow (more than 6 chapters: D)  
Roger is resurrected? surprising! I wonder who resurrected him, how and why?  
it'll be a big shock to Luffy when he learns (and to others too I guess, everyone wanting to know WHO has resurrected Roger, and if it is possible to resurrect other people too, ex for Kirito: Asuna, Suguha , ...)  
Now that Roger (and soon Ace too I guess?) I would see Luffy face his idol to compare his strength especially now Luffy has an additional reason to face him: revenge his grandfather!  
ps: congratulations on reaching 100 chapters!

 **THANKS! I totally forgot to mention anything about it last chapter I think, but this is now the longest story, chapter-wise, that I have ever written. I already passed my total words back when I hit a million since Nexus ended with just less than that, but I'm way beyond that now XD. Anyway, we'll see about the mechanics of the Danmachi world and whether it has been incorporated into Nexus at all, though with the increased presence/mentioning of Gods in recent chapters, it would not be a stretch to think Danmachi could start playing a bigger role... How will Kirito train?! Chapter 14's almost done, then back to the main group where we'll see what he's up to again. As for Roger coming back, I'm surprised that so many people are surprised by this. A lot of people came back to life on Nexus, like Goku, Frieza, Madara, Netero, I could go on forever. I've also mentioned before that people who came back were brought back in their primes if they had died while old (which is also why there were like no really old Saiyans from Goku's universe at least, since all those Saiyans were wiped out and would have returned in primes no matter what age). As for Asuna coming back though, she was already brought to Nexus and then died... though we haven't seen Suguha yet? So consolation there! No spoilers as to when/whether Luffy and Roger will ever meet up though! Hope you enjoyed the chapter and thanks for reviewing!**

cyber chapter 100 . May 3

HI THERE sorry I didn't posted anything in a while, I was sick that time, I read chapters I didn't review, and I know whats going on, cant wait for more.

 **Well glad you're better and to see you back! Hope you enjoyed!**

Espada-001 chapter 100 . May 6

Well once again I'm a tad late on the reviews, sorry about that but for some reason my computer won't log onto so I'm typing this on my phone. Anyway watching the Spire get bombed was definitely a bit of a surprise not that I didn't see it coming, (because that was really telegraphed) no what surprised me was the lack of security checks. Even if he was a Vice-Admiral their still should have been at least one or two security checks before you can actually meet with the capitals head counsel. Also Tsune really needs to learn how activate his powers without the dying will pills because in Dying Will Mode he would have detected the danger the moment a bomb came anywhere near the building. I'm hoping to seeing Orihime make an appearance soon to help out because it just seems like a waste to sideline somebody with her abilities. Heck her rejection ability would be able to fix Juvia if they ever met, might even be able to bring the baby back but I not to sure about that second one. Also that's one of the things I've been meaning to ask about, why did you use Bleach characters from before the battle at Hueco Mundo? Was that part not finished when you started this series? Although if you had Aizen would have killed Goku in thier confrontation. Also why was Ra's al Ghul able to become so strong on Nexus yet Batman and Slade are still only capable of slightly higher than peak human capabilities? Both of them should've been able to have adapted to the same level or even more so since both of them have defeated Ra back on earth, heck Slades even killed him in combat before. Anyway moving on the whole flashback battle was pretty good, and it was sad to see Rambo die. But I'm also curious as to weather or not anyone has seen Sephiroth's final form get used? It was also nice to get a flashback with Gol D. Roger, even if it did involve Garp's death. The "poor" old man just couldn't swing it like he used to. But seeing Aokiji there made me wonder how he got separated from the Marines if he was traveling with them in the first place? Well sorry if this seems more like a questionair rather than a review but I just have so many questions! Well like always thanks for the chapters and I look forward to your next one! Until next time have a good day!

 **Glad to hear from you again! Lots of chapter reviews all packed into one here, so I'll do the best I can. As for security checks in the council room, there're sure going to be some stricter ones for now on! I think it would have been weird for Marines to be checking each other on the way up though, especially since Maynard probably had a weapon on him anyway, while his ripped up clothes showed he didn't really have anything on his person. Only thing I can think of would have been a metal detector maybe, but then again these are some of the strongest people in the city who probably aren't expecting an attack like this to happen to them. Tsuna does need to do that... if he's alright that is... ;) still left it up in the air what happened to some of the people at that bombing. We have not seen Orihime use her powers yet in this story, though perhaps that's what has happened since the last time we saw Metropolis and she's been healing people, or maybe she doesn't have her hairpiece anymore for some unexplained reason. I started Bleach at Hueco Mundo because that's where I was in the anime at the time of starting Nexus, I wanted to include Ichigo, and I didn't want to spoil Bleach by looking ahead on Wikipedia pages or reading the manga or binging super fast when I didn't have the time (or the want) to do so. That's really the only reason. Same thing happens with a lot of the other shows, though most of them I do choose points in the timeline for specific reasons. Ra's managed to get really strong just like Kirito did, but not everyone has been through the same things as them. I never went into the background on how Ra's got all his powers, and I said it back then that I never planned on doing a background chapter for him, but the fact that he was up against Kirito who managed to get so strong as well through his time on Nexus I thought was enough. Kirito trained with ninja, martial artists, Devil Fruit masters, Goku, etc... Batman on the other hand, instead of training for two years straight, was likely trying to keep up being a hero like he was on his own world. Unlike Kirito who we first see inside a training base, Batman shows up at the Anti-NEG League to help take on the corrupt government. Maybe Batman has trained in some new tactics/techniques since arriving, but unless someone spends their entire times doing that like Kirito, and like Ra's probably did, they wouldn't improve that much. As for Slade, I mean, Vegeta took out Slade after Slade summoned an army of demon warriors to fight with him, and Vegeta told the Teen Titans that all of them would have been crushed by Slade, so I wouldn't say Slade stayed much weaker on Nexus. Rambo nooo! Lol onto the next chapter, but as for Safer-Sephiroth showing up, that came under some pretty specific circumstances on the FF world and with the Lifestream, and I've been pretty much following the Sephiroth and Cloud plotline from Kingdom Hearts (mainly because I never played FF, and since KH changes up the FF characters' backgrounds a bit, it's been difficult to merge the canons). Good to see Roger arrive, sad to see Garp go. Aokiji did mention to Tashigi that it's "Kuzan," so it seems he wasn't intent on joining up with them, (at the time) as much as he was probably there to fight Roger. Then again he could also have separated for the same reason Tashigi said she did: Akainu taking control. Don't worry about asking a bunch of questions, I actually like it more this way (especially because this time I was actually able to answer questions as they weren't all related to immediate spoilers). Anyway, thanks for the review and I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks again everyone for reading, and if you have questions, comments, or predictions leave them below in a review! 'Till next time!**


	102. Nexus HWR 14-7 Betrayal

**Nexus HWR 14.7 Betrayal:**

 **Boar Hat**

The Seven Deadly Sins and some guests were in their traveling bar moving south through a forest on the Northern Continent. They were in the middle of a snowstorm that was even thicker than it was a few hours ago when they left Yaminoshi. King was upstairs getting some rest after using more strength than he thought he was going to need with Chastiefol in his possession again.

Two of the other slaves who had started traveling with the Sins just recently were sitting across from each other at the side of the main bar room. They sat at a small table, both Soul and Liz looking out the window next to it at the snowy landscape rushing by. Mama Hawk was moving fast away from Yaminoshi, but Liz could not help but feel nervous as she looked behind her. Even though she was not able to see far in the snow, she was afraid she would spot some powerful figures coming towards them any second now.

Soul was looking more the direction they were heading though as he stared out the window, because he was focused on the conversation between his Meister and a teenage girl a few years older than her. _Black Star, Tsubaki,_ Soul thought, a deep sense of dread filling him.

"We were, the only four?" Maka asked, falling back in her seat that she had snapped out of.

Weiss grimaced but sat down across from Maka and put the papers she had in her hand onto the table. "Wanted posters for the four of you," Weiss began. "And a newspaper from the day after," she added and put a copy of the Aebrith Daily next to the fliers.

"How could no one else…" Maka whispered. She looked at the paper, and she froze mid-question at the picture right below the headline. Maka's hands lifted up and she covered her mouth at the sight of the image on it. The newspapers that circulated all of Aebrith did not care about how old the viewers who saw their graphic papers would be. "Big News" Morgans had a virtual monopoly over the newspaper business, and his headquarters was in the Capital, so the paper had no sympathy for the "terrorists" who broke into the Capital and tried to "steal" the gladiators from below the Colosseum.

 _I don't see Tatsumi,_ Maka thought while staring at the horrifying "exclusive" photo of the gladiator cell blocks. _But, everyone…_ Maka bit her bottom lip as she recognized more and more of the figures in the picture of Cell Block B which had a caption below it briefly describing what she was looking at. Maka flipped the page with a shaking hand, and she started reading the article from the day after they escaped. On the right page after she opened up the paper so there were two pages in front of her, were the four pictures from the wanted posters she had the Aebrith Daily over right now, only those pictures were in black and white and had some information about them written below other than just a reward for bringing them back. On the left side of the pages was a full written article with a few more smaller pictures mixed into it. One picture showed a line of the cells in Cell Block A, along with High Commander Ginyu posing proudly in front of the cells full of gunned-down gladiators. The picture closer to the bottom was taken from higher up in Cell Block A, but pointed towards Block B so that it showed the line of broken down walls and all the bodies that littered the mess of the gladiator cell blocks.

Maka gasped, and tears fell from her eyes, and she curled her fingers in to the edges of the paper. _All of them,_ Maka thought. _Even if I don't see Tatsumi, or Mine…_ Maka kept reading and she came across a quote from a Chimera Ant guard who was in there during the attempted escape. _"The King arrived just in time. The terrorists tried teleporting out with some sort of device, but before they even had the time to use it, BAM! The King ripped all their hearts out! It's only a shame their bodies still teleported away, I would've like to see them hanging from…"_ Maka threw the paper down and leaned back in her seat. "It failed," Maka whispered. "Tatsumi, and all the others."

"Tatsumi?" Meliodas asked from the bar that he stood behind, cleaning out a glass with a washcloth. He frowned as Maka looked towards him and nodded, then he rubbed his forehead and shook his head a few times. "That's too bad," Meliodas said, looking down at the counter in front of him with a small smile. _"I mean it Meliodas. Things can change!"_ Meliodas' small smile lowered down to a flat lip. He was having a nostalgic memory of that man sitting at his counter, but the memory itself made Meliodas frown. He shook his head again then smiled once more, _No matter how much everyone else gave up, you didn't care about the change of the world. Charging into the Capital? Some people would say you were doing a suicide mission, or you were desperate, but I know you thought you could really win. And maybe, your riot gave Merlin the chance to get King out of there._

Meliodas stopped cleaning his glass at that thought, and he reached behind him and grabbed another glass. He reached under the bar and filled up both of the glasses, then clinked them together. _This one's for you, buddy,_ he thought, making a little toast without saying anything aloud. He downed his own glass first, then he poured out Tatsumi's right into the sink behind the counter.

Maka had looked back down after Meliodas spoke, and she reread the article over and over again. She flipped past the page with their photos on it, and then she flipped back again since different news continued on after the front page story. The newspaper covered events all over Aebrith, but seeing that the mostly failed escape only took up a few pages of the paper made it feel all the more terrible to the girl whose hands started shaking over the table. _They saved me. They saved me when I knew I was too far north for the Resistance to get to me! I had, given up hope. "Never give up hope. Never again, okay?" Tatsumi, I took those words to heart. Even for someone who quit the Resistance, you were still the biggest hero I've ever known._

"Hey," Soul spoke suddenly, and Maka snapped her head up. Soul had seen the girl before she looked up, staring at her lap and crying with a look of hopeless despair on her face. Soul said 'hey' to her, but he turned his head to the bar next and continued, "You mind taking us to Resistance lands? We're already heading south now, and the whole Cooperative's gonna be on the lookout for you guys now too."

Meliodas chuckled in a way that confused Soul, because the man was laughing like the idea of the whole Cooperative considering him an enemy did not bother him much at all. "I agree we can't stay on the Northern Continent," Meliodas admitted after getting that chuckle out of his system. He scratched his chin and continued, "We would definitely rather not have to go up against Aizen, that'd be pretty difficult."

"I've already plotted out an exact course, Captain," Weiss said, humphing and sitting up straight like there was no need to worry about this.

"Have you now?" Meliodas questioned in some surprise, his eyebrows raising. "You do remember-"

"I did," Weiss cut him off before he could say what she knew he was going to say. "Luckily, if we continue moving at this bearing to the south-southeast, we can cut through the northern portion of the Capital's lands while staying inside for as short a period as possible."

"Wait," Liz started, and she stood up and stepped towards the girl with long white hair tied in a ponytail. "You're seriously bringing us into the Capital's lands?" Weiss turned to her and frowned that the girl was questioning her path. "How can you think about getting that close to the King?! He'll come after us for sure!"

"It's not my idea," Weiss said, keeping calm because it was a reasonable thing the girl was saying to her. "But the city of Colossus that we need to check before starting our real journey south is in northeast of the Capital's surrounding territory. After we make a quick check of the city, we'll cut straight east until we reach the Androids' lands, then head south from in there."

"That doesn't sound much better," Soul mumbled from behind Liz, still at his seat near the window.

Weiss rolled her eyes and then snapped at him, "Three choices: south through the Capital, south through Lucifer's lands, or south through the Androids' territory. Now I personally hate demons, and as you've all said, we can't get close to the Capital."

Soul grunted but did not say anything else. He turned towards his window again and looked out at the snow falling past them.

"If we're heading through 17's territory," Merlin said while walking into the room, though she was acting like she had been there the entire time from the start of her sentence. "I will be heading on ahead to the Library."

Meliodas looked over towards her and waved a hand, "Alright then! We'll be there in a few days!"

"H-Hold on," Liz called out, looking towards the powerful witch who looked towards her to see what the girl had to say. Liz hesitated after speaking up, then she said, "What if we're attacked while you're gone? What if Aizen comes for us?!"

"As King already told you," Merlin began. "Everyone here is plenty strong. You'll last without me," Merlin flashed the girl a smirk, then she snapped her fingers and vanished leaving nothing behind where she was just standing. Liz had her mouth open to call out how Merlin could teleport them all away if they could not win the fight, but instead she had to bite down hard as the woman was already gone.

"She never stays for very long," Weiss told the teenage girl on her left. Weiss held out a palm and said in an exasperated voice, "With a power like teleportation, where you are at the moment doesn't really limit your options." Weiss sounded annoyed by that, and she grumbled as that was a power she wished she had as well.

Maka finally calmed her nerves a little from that look Soul gave her a minute ago. She wiped her eyes then lifted her gaze back to Weiss who she asked, "Why are we going to Colossus?"

"One of the other Seven Deadly Sins," Meliodas explained while hopping over the counter. He walked over and pulled a chair up to an empty side of the table Weiss and Maka were at. He sat on it backwards with his arms crossed over the top of the back and his chin resting down on them, and he continued, "Is a giant named Diane. On our way up to the Northern Continent, I heard from some of our bar patrons who had recently been there that the population's really been going up. Since only giants can live in Colossus, I'm hoping she's made her way there. We checked once eight months ago or so, but if the population's been steadily rising, there's a chance I can find her."

"You haven't seen her since you've gotten here though?" Maka asked the man in some confusion.

Meliodas shook his head, but then with a more serious look on his face he said, "That doesn't matter though. She's an important friend, so I'm going to keep looking," he smiled again towards the end, and he finished, "Don't worry. We won't spend too long there if we don't find her. One night, two at most if the city's really gotten to a size too hard to search in a day. Promise," he said with a big smile that made Maka feel at ease for some reason.

"You're not, a kid, are you?" Maka mumbled.

"Nope," Meliodas said, before getting back up and heading for the bar again. "Hey Ban!" He called out towards the kitchen door. "Food almost ready?"

"Don't rush perfection Cappy!" Ban yelled back. "Give me ten minutes," he added, and Meliodas grinned as that was closer than he thought from the first response.

Maka saw the smirking Captain head around the counter then start arguing with the pink pig that ran up and yelled at him for something. As Hawk and Meliodas argued, Maka frowned at how much he really looked like just some kid, despite that sword hilt sticking out over his shoulder. "Who is he?" She whispered, turning and looking at Weiss who had pulled out a map and was looking closely at one section of it. Weiss looked up at her, then turned to Meliodas, then back at Maka who she sighed at.

"He's the Captain of the Seven Deadly Sins, and he's certainly no kid. I think he's like hundreds of years old or something, but maybe even older than King," Weiss said.

Liz had just turned to walk back to her seat at the window with Soul, as she had stayed closer to the table Meliodas sat at for a moment to listen to their plans. She froze though when she heard what Weiss just said, and she looked back before asking, "How old is King?"

Weiss looked to Liz and hummed for a few seconds, then said with a shrug, "At least a thousand." Liz dropped her bottom lip, then she thought about what Elaine talked about earlier while King was facing Yammy. _She wasn't saying that the Fairy King protected their forest for that long, but King- Harlequin, specifically. I thought, I don't know, maybe it was passed down. He's that old?! He looks like a kid; he looks younger than me!_

Right at that moment, King came down the stairs floating with his arms wrapped around a green pillow covered in small black circles. He patted his mouth in a tired way but he had none of the bruises or cuts that he got in the earlier fight. Elaine floated down behind her brother who smiled at her gratefully. She smiled back at him then flew off for the kitchen where Ban was, while King turned and floated towards Liz who was staring at him with some big eyes.

"Hey," he greeted as he flew towards her. "You guys doing alright?" He dropped to the chair Meliodas had brought up before to Maka and Weiss's table. Liz finally went back to sitting across from Soul but she nodded in King's direction.

"Yeah, we're fine," Soul said as he looked back over too. "Didn't think you were that strong, man," he added.

King scratched the back of his head and his cheeks turned a little red. "Oh I'm not that strong," King said, though he was smiling like he enjoyed the praise. "It had been so long, I was actually worried I was going to embarrass myself out there when I saw how strong that guy was."

"Speaking of it being a long time," Meliodas said as he leaned forward over the counter. King looked back towards him, and Meliodas said with a smile, "You won't believe who we ran into a month back."

"Who?" King asked. "Liz? Escanor?"

Meliodas shook his head. King grimaced as he figured he should not have brought up Elizabeth if they really did not find her, and he should have known that if they did find her, she would have been there with them. Meliodas did not lose his grin though, and he just continued, "We saw Gray."

King's eyes opened wide in surprise, while at a table against the wall, Soul's head twitched as he stared out the window with eyes growing much larger than King's did. "Gray," he muttered under his breath, and Liz turned to Soul in confusion as she heard his whisper.

"Really? I thought he died," King said in surprise.

"Nope," Meliodas countered. "Apparently he was just across the world over on Awul."

"That other continent?" King asked.

"Yep! We've been talking about heading over there to check the place out. Gray made it out to be pretty amazing, said there were no monsters, or slavery." King's eyes widened again at the sound of that, and Meliodas nodded to show he was serious and that this was a real place he was describing.

"What was he doing there?" Soul muttered, his voice louder this time. He turned and glared over at Meliodas who turned to him in surprise, and Soul said in a serious voice, "Gray, Fullbuster?" Meliodas' smile vanished as Soul's fists clenched over the table.

"You were-" Meliodas began. "One of Gray's comrades that day," he said in realization. Meliodas frowned, then he said to the boy with white hair, "He didn't tell me all the details, just that he got brought over to Awul and got caught in the middle of a fight over there. He's back though and trying to find his old team," Meliodas added.

Soul stared blankly at Meliodas for a few seconds, then his eyes darted down and he stared at his fists that were clenching so hard in front of him. _Gray, what the Hell? How did you, why did… You're fine? You were, in a nice place? This whole time?_ Soul bit down and then growled, "He's too late."

* * *

 **Colossus**

Mama Hawk marched on the city of Colossus, a city so massive that its tallest buildings stretched straight through the clouds. "This place is…" Liz started from the front porch of the Boar Hat bar.

"I guess if it's a city of giants, it has to be proportional to the size of its inhabitants," Maka reasoned from next to her friend. "I'd heard of it before, but I didn't think the giant population was that big."

"It isn't," Weiss said from the left sides of the two other girls. "But even a thousand giants living in one place would be bigger than most cities on this continent. This is the biggest and most modern of any of the giant settlements though, so of course it's going to be huge."

"Make it out like you've been to all those settlements," Liz muttered.

"We check every giant town in Aebrith," Weiss replied curtly. "Every region we enter, we check the places where giants are known to be to search for this Diane giant."

The way Weiss worded that confused the girls next to her. "Hold on," Liz began. "You don't know her?"

Weiss shook her head. "It's also my first time in Colossus," she added before the others could ask her all the questions her last answer arose. "As I'm not an original member of the Sins, as in I'm not from their world. The rest of them came from the same place, just like the three of you," she mentioned. Weiss grinned internally at the surprised looks the other girls gave her since they had never told her they were from the same world as each other, but Liz still saw that smug look in Weiss's eyes and grunted while turning away to show she was not impressed.

The group headed into the city and Meliodas had them split up to ask about Diane. He gave the three new members who did not know what she looked like descriptions as well, then told them they could go check out the city too. Maka, Soul, and Liz were all hesitant to leave the Boar Hat. The giant green boar they had been riding on ran up the outer stone steps on one of the massive towers climbing into the sky, and after rising a hundred stories or so, Mama Hawk stepped out onto a thick platform that connected five of the towers. The huge platform in the sky had giants all over it who looked down at the green boar in amusement, though some had to look up, while others were at eye level with it.

"What counts as a giant?" Soul wondered while looking off the left side of the boar from the porch outside the Boar Hat. A group of teenagers were running towards them, all just about as tall as Mama Hawk was herself. There was one other with the group though who looked a few years younger than the others, despite being three times their heights.

"This is a bar," Weiss scolded from the edge of Mama Hawk's back. She had her arms crossed and her head tilted back far so she could still look down her nose even at the tallest of those teenagers. "No children allowed."

"My mom lets me drink all the time!"

"Y-Yeah, mine too too!" A booming voice called down from the tallest giant.

"Weiss," Elaine began. The girl with a white ponytail at the edge of the boar was getting an annoyed look on her face at these teens all younger than her talking back. She was nineteen years old and did not think any of those giants were even within two years of her age. She turned to Elaine who was floating over to her, and the smaller girl held out her hand, "Here you go."

"Thank you," Weiss said, then turned back to the teens while promptly putting the pill in her mouth. She hopped off the side of Mama Hawk and the giants leaned back, then they stumbled or fell backwards as the girl falling off of Mama Hawk grew in size. Weiss was already not wearing her usual white combat skirt, but a tight black material with orange stripes on her sides from under her armpits all the way down to her ankles, as well as down her arms. Her different outfit stretched while her body grew, keeping its position around her even as she grew to around five times her original height. She was still only as tall as the shortest of the giant teens in front of her, just below the top of Mama Hawk's back, however her extra height gave the younger teenagers less confidence about talking back when she returned her sharp gaze to them. "If your parents are fine with you drinking, then go get them to come here. If they want to buy you drinks that would be fine."

"I didn't even want to drink anyway," one of the teens said while turning away. "I just wanted to see what it was."

"Yeah," one of the others who had complained a minute ago about not being allowed to drink agreed. "Let's go back to the cloud fort."

"Yeah let's go!" The young teens started running off, and Weiss sighed as she watched them go.

A giant Ban dropped down on the opposite side of Mama Hawk as Weiss did. Then two fairies floated up to his sides, and though both King and Elaine had taken the pill as well, they were still only about twice as tall as normal humans as they floated around Ban's tall broad shoulders. "It's alright you guys," King called over his shoulder when his new friends yelled towards him. "Colossus is known to be pretty anti-Cooperative, anti-slavery."

Meliodas walked up behind the surprised teens who had run off the porch and were close to the edge of Mama Hawk's back. "That's right," he said, and they looked back to see the Captain grinning at them. He held out his right fist, then opened it into a palm facing-up. "When we get back to the Resistance, you'll reimburse me for these, alright?" He asked. Then before waiting for an answer, he tossed a red pill up to each of the three teens in front of him.

The three of them caught the pills and then watched as the short blond Captain of the Seven Deadly Sins jumped off Mama Hawk's back. He did not transform like the rest of them however, and he just started jogging across the thick stone platform in the sky. Mama Hawk sat down on the ground, unable to morph into it because of its hardness, but her head bowed like she was going to take a nap anyway. There was heavy cloud cover at the moment and it was windy and chilly so high up that it felt nice to the giant pig who did not like sleeping out in the sun when it did not have to.

Maka and Liz looked at each other and then back down at the pills in their hands. Soul glanced behind him though and stared at the Boar Hat where there was a single figure in the doorway. _Are they really leaving_ _ **that**_ _guy here alone?_ Gowther stared back at Soul, then he cocked his head to the side and put two fingers in a 'V' up against his right cheek like he was posing. Soul just got weirded out by that strange action and turned from the purple-haired man.

"Let's go," Liz said. She scratched the back of her head then added, "We should help them look for their comrade, since they are helping us out."

"And the more area we search, the quicker we can keep moving," Soul added, as he did not want to be this far north any longer than they had to be. _King says it's anti Co-op, but it's in Co-op territory isn't it? Don't think there're many places outside of Resistance lands the King doesn't own at this point. Now that the Saiyans are gone,_ he thought about the newspaper they had read the day before after getting out of a snowstorm and seeing a News Coo close to the Northern Channel. It was before they crossed from the Northern Continent onto the main part of Aebrith, while they were still moving along the coast to find a sturdy bridge for Mama Hawk to get across, as the Channel was too full of sea monsters to ask it to swim. _Meruem's the strongest. There's no doubt about it,_ Soul thought while popping his pill into his mouth. He started feeling the effects immediately and had to jump off to prevent from turning into a giant on Mama Hawk's back. _Whoa this is weird,_ Soul thought, his mind getting off of more worldly matters to focus on what he had just done to himself.

Soul turned into a giant in midair and he stumbled forward and fell on his face once he landed. "Ugghh," he groaned, not at all used to his legs being that long. His body grew proportionately so he thought it would be easier, but he just was not prepared for landing when his eyes were still so far off the ground. Soul pushed himself up and then saw a bunch of giants looking his way with disapproving looks, and he spotted a mother cover her child's eyes with a hand. Soul realized it and he spun his head around to see Liz with her back to him from the side of Mama Hawk, while Maka was just shaking her head at the boy who was now no longer willing to get up off his stomach, since all of his new clothes had been ripped off.

 _Damn it King, Merlin,_ Soul thought while dropping his head back to the floor. _Couldn't one of you have made stretching clothes?_ The magic clothes Merlin made for him first, then the ones King had woven for his friends as presents that morning, Soul had been wearing a piece from either, yet both had ripped apart when he enlarged to a man twenty-five feet tall.

"I have your suits here," Gowther said to Liz and Maka who spun around to the figure behind them. Gowther looked down through his glasses towards Soul's back, and he remarked, "It is a good thing you have so many scars, or I believe the giants would be accosting you." Soul's expression darkened while he was looking at the ground, and he lifted his head to see those same giants who had looked at him disapprovingly at first turning away when he re-rose his head their ways. All the scars on his back, his disheveled and patchy hair that was only long on a single part of his head, everyone could see what Zarbon had done to him.

Liz looked up and gave the man in front of her a harsh look, but Gowther just tilted his head to the side in confusion at why she would be doing that. "Though it will be hard to get into it now. It is supposed to stretch while your body expands," Gowther looked at the suit thoughtfully, then he hummed and said that he would be right back. Gowther went inside and returned a few seconds later dragging a suit similar to the others that he handed to Maka and Liz, only this one was made for a giant. "The Captain ordered one for Diane," Gowther said while tossing the suit off Mama Hawk's back at Soul who had curled his knees up and put his back up against Mama Hawk's side. He reached a hand up and grabbed the suit as it fell to him, then he shoved his legs into them fast to cover up his lower body.

"Let's search for her far, far from here," Soul said while standing and turning to Mama Hawk's back. Neither of the girls were there, and Soul frowned. _If I have to change outside…_ The girls came back out of the bar a minute later and then they enlarged in their suits as they dropped down next to Soul. Both of them were taller than the boy between them who finally got up on his feet, with Liz being a little taller than Maka too.

Soul grimaced as despite having clothes on now, he knew his hair and the top of his head still looked a mess. _Where's my stretching beanie?_ He thought in annoyance, averting his gaze from giants he saw staring at him. He turned his head to the right and looked up as a pair walked out of one of the towers near them, and he gulped as despite growing in size, he was still only up to those giants' shins.

"Come on," Maka said, and Liz and Soul turned to see her motioning to their left in a direction she had not seen any of the Sins head in. Maka was on-edge as she started walking towards the tower while wearing her tight, black, stretchy suit that had red lines on the sides unlike Weiss's that had orange. Soul's had purple lines and Liz's suit had bright green ones, giving slight differentiation between their outfits, though not much.

The three of them headed off to go explore Colossus and search for Diane. They only had a description of her, and Soul muttered as they walked, "Anyone ask how long those pills are going to last for?"

Both of the girls sweatdropped as they had not asked. Everything had happened so fast. "I feel like they really don't stop and plan things ahead," Maka mumbled. "I don't know how they survive in this world acting like that," she added.

"Well, what if King's really one of the weaker ones among them?" Soul asked. "He looks it," he added.

"Hah, I bet he could kick your ass any day of the week," Liz scoffed at the boy on her left.

Soul wanted to retort, but the memory of King's fight against the Espada came to his mind and all he could do was grumble back at her.

 _I wish you had come with us, King,_ Liz thought while glancing over her shoulder in the direction King went with Ban and Elaine. _Until I get back to Kid and Patty, I want to stay where I know I won't get caught. Then again,_ Liz glanced to her left and watched the two at her side who had quieted down as they walked. _I haven't seen them fight since we got back together, as Merlin handled all the monsters we came across on the Northern Continent on her own. But you two were so strong together. I bet if you weren't separated at the time, like I was from Kid, you wouldn't have been captured either._

The three of them headed into one of the towers only to find that it was as strange-looking inside as it looked on the outside. The center of the building was hollow, and each of the floors that did exist every few hundred feet had a large gap in the center of them, leaving one large opening from the ground level to higher than the teens knew. As they started descending the stairs that wrapped around the big hollow floor level they were on, a figure dropped down from the hole above them. They spun and watched as the giant three times as tall as any of them dropped down the room with her arms crossed in front of her chest, keeping in a straight line as she dropped straight through the next floor's gap as well.

"Dropping, pretty fast there," Maka mentioned.

"Giants are known to be strong," Liz said. "Maybe they don't need elevators, or maybe at the bottom there's a gravity alteration zone."

"If so, let's just drop down ourselves," Soul suggested.

"And if not, you really think you can land? You can't land a twenty foot drop, let alone two thousand," Liz scoffed at him. Soul frowned as she brought back up him falling next to Mama Hawk, though Liz started laughing after saying it, and Soul noticed Maka on his other side cracking a smile too.

"Whatever, then we walk," Soul said. "But if we turn back small when we're down there, we're finding a different way back up. No way we can take these stairs," he said, while looking down with the others at the steps that would have been at their neck levels or higher if they were still human-sized. Imagining climbing up all these tall steps to get back made them hesitate, then a giant behind them on the steps snapped down for them to keep moving, and the teens regrettably had to keep on going or turn back now.

They kept walking and then they sped up into a jog as they really were getting paranoid about how much time they would have. They wanted to look around and then head back up to the level they left the Boar Hat within two hours, which they agreed on was a safe amount of time to assume the pill would _at least_ last for. They reached the ground floor of the tower before long and found what looked to be some kind of restaurant, considering there were people eating everywhere, though most everyone was standing and talking as they ate too which seemed strange for an eating establishment. The giants were loud and boisterous, and there were giant animals walking around the room with the giants as well.

As the three left the tower and headed back onto one of the streets between tall stone buildings around them, Maka mentioned, "It's an interesting culture. All these giants from different worlds coming together; they must have integrated parts of each other's home worlds into this place." Maka and the others stayed to one side as a pair of huge oxen dragged a cart covered in dead animals back towards the tower they had just left, a giant twice any of their heights marching next to the oxen that were also taller than them.

"It's a brand new culture then," Liz agreed. "Not that I care," she added, before turning and putting her hands behind her head. "A group of giants this large could really make a difference down south. Imagine an army full of them."

"My thoughts exactly," Soul muttered, having been thinking of that as soon as they arrived.

"It's not like there aren't any giants in the south," Maka began. "But here must feel so much more natural for them. All the doors, all the buildings, everything is their size. Some Resistance bases try to accommodate, but with the few giants we have in our ranks, not everywhere sees the need to make giant-friendly buildings. It'd be a waste of time making buildings so large that we'd all have to walk for minutes through them just to get to the other side, for the off chance that a giant would one day need to enter the building."

"Yeah, I guess," Soul agreed. "I'm sure they don't see it that way though," he added, getting the reason he was looking for yet not feeling any better about it.

The three of them jogged down a road that was so long that they got nervous going only one block away from where they started. Luckily the building they exited was one of the tallest around, and the streets had signs on them too so they knew they would be able to make it back to an intersection where they could easily see that building from. They did not know what they would do if they suddenly shrunk down, but Maka theorized that even if they did start to shrink, it would happen slowly or in intervals, so they would have some warning time in which they would be able to run back. It was not a sure thing, but it made enough sense that they were able to relax a little.

They only relaxed for a few minutes though, because the three of them saw something that made them all tense up and hide back behind the corner of the building they had just walked past. They did not know what part of the city they were in, as to them most of the stone buildings looked the same other than their heights. There was a shop across the road from them where a man behind a counter was cooking up some meat on a metal spike, and next to that was a taller building touching the clouds. Around the next corner though, the buildings all got smaller to a point where looking straight ahead they could see a far distance, which also led them to believe they were somewhere close to the edge of the city.

"You think they saw us?" Soul asked in a hushed voice, his back up against the corner of the building behind him. The girls on his left did not say anything, and he frowned but had to check. If the one they were worried about was coming, he needed to know. He looked back around the corner and down the road several hundred feet to the position he saw the figure before. They were in the same spot which he was relieved by, talking to three giants who were actually facing Soul's direction. None of them had looked down the road towards him though, even though he was sure one would have noticed the three of them stepping out only to duck back in fear of the figure the giants were speaking to. Two of those giants were huge in comparison to most Soul had seen so far, while the one in the middle was only ten feet taller than the teens around the corner, much closer to the height of the figure in a black cloak standing thirty-two feet tall in front of him.

 _A Nobody giant,_ Soul thought. He stared at the hooded figure's back and then at the figure's muscular arms that were at its sides. The cloak had its sleeves ripped off at the shoulders, tatters sticking out of the shoulder holes just above the giant's very large biceps. He pulled his head back behind the corner before the Nobody would have the chance to turn and catch a glimpse of him. Soul turned to the girls at his side awaiting news, and he shook his head at them and motioned back the way they came. _I hate Nobodies. That bitch who visited Zarbon… well, not all of them I guess._ Soul remembered something as they started walking off that made him frown even more, _Why did Axel lie? Is it because we think all Nobodies suck? I mean, if he had just told us… everyone probably would have thought he was a spy actually. Which he wasn't,_ Soul added, making sure he did not give himself a wrong idea as he thought about it.

"Thought this place was anti Co-op," Liz muttered.

"Maybe it is but-" _**CRASH**_ Maka's voice caught in her throat. The three teens stopped in place and they spun around, staring back at the intersection they had turned away from in fear of being seen by the Nobody.

Skidding back into that intersection on her butt, with her hands at her sides digging into the floor to slow herself down, was a giant woman with long brown hair and a pained expression on her face. She stopped skidding right after hitting the intersection, and she climbed to her feet fast while lifting up the giant war hammer in her hands. The woman's brown hair fell straight behind her back halfway to her waist, she had purple eyes, and she wore an orange outfit that was tight to her body and consisted of a long-sleeved shirt and a skirt along with matching orange boots. Over her hands were black fingerless gloves that grew thicker at her wrists into rounded black gauntlets with little silver spikes sticking out of them. The giant woman got up and stared down the road she just came skidding down in the same direction that Soul looked when peeking out around the corner a minute ago.

"Not good," Soul said, taking a step back as he looked towards that intersection.

The giant in front of them had her body turned so they could only see her right side, but Liz was staring closely at the woman's upper left leg, trying to get a glimpse of the other side of it. _This giant, she's,_ Liz opened her mouth, then she shut it just as fast as she heard thunderous around the corner _. What am I thinking on a hunch?! There are giants fighting and I want to get in the middle of that?_ Liz was not as tall as the giant she was facing, but she was not all that much shorter either. She forgot about that though as the giant girl holding the war hammer slammed the butt of it down and yelled down the other street, "Who are you?! You're not Matrona!"

"Oh man," Maka whispered. She just realized what was happening, and she was even more keen on getting out of there right now considering it. "Guys, let's get back," she suggested, while other giants were leaving buildings around them to see what the commotion was about. Maka stumbled back closer to the intersection after turning around, as three giants dropped down behind her and then gave her harsh looks for almost walking in their path. Maka lifted her head and her jaw dropped as she saw giants leaning out of windows to see what was going on, and a few of them were climbing straight out and leaping into the air over the street.

"Guys," Liz started while her friends were trying to come up with a good way to get back without having giants rain down on top of them. "I think, that might be," Liz wished she could see the side of the giant girl's legs farther away from them. _The left side of her left thigh,_ Liz thought, leaning to the right to try and look around the girl, though it was not working out very well.

Soul and Maka looked back and their eyes widened as they noticed the similarities between the giant and the one they were supposed to be looking for. "How do we know for sure?" Maka wondered.

The giant woman brought her war hammer up and held it in both hands with an angry look on her face. From the direction down the street she was glaring towards, a voice spoke in a low but feminine, and menacing voice, "My name is Troxamna. You are mistaken, giant girl."

"I'm not!" The woman in all orange yelled. "You recognize me! I see it-"

"Are you Diane?" Soul called down the road towards the intersection.

The giant with long brown hair turned her head and stared at the strange giant a head smaller than her. She looked at the weird patch of white hair over his mostly bald and scabbed-over head, then she looked at the two girls next to him who had spun to the white-haired boy with dropped jaws. The woman turned her head the other way, then she looked back towards those teenagers, then frowned and muttered, "I don't know who you are. But when they said my name, you reacted, Matrona!" Diane yelled down the road at the giant woman in a black cloak who let out a sigh and started raising her muscular arms.

Troxamna reached up and grabbed her hood, then she pulled it down and revealed her face to the giant girl whose eyes re-widened. Just a glimpse before and she thought she knew who it was, but seeing her face, her purple eyes a shade brighter than Diane's herself, and her long blonde hair tied into a ponytail, Diane was shocked by how identical the appearance was since she was now unsure if it was the same person. Diane noticed as she was about to continue, that the three giants the woman who looked a lot like Matrona had been talking to were all giving the cloaked giant darker looks after she had hit Diane.

"Your kind are not welcome here," one of the massive giants growled down at the woman. "Because you are a giant we heard you out, now get out of here."

Troxamna started to turn her back to the brown-haired giant girl and look at the men behind her, but she froze when two voices roared over each other from even farther back than Diane. Diane spun around, the teenagers who had jogged up to the intersection to try and talk to her spun to the left, and everyone around watched as two giant women forty feet tall each started charging down the road. They had on yellow and black furs over their breasts and waists, and they were screaming war cries while raising weapons. "YOU!" One of them screamed down the road towards the blonde giant in the black cloak.

They sprinted straight past Diane towards the giant who turned fully back their way and started walking towards them. The other of the most massive giants behind the Nobody lifted an arm, calling out to the women to hold on for a minute. Neither of them listened though. The giant with long purple hair held a massive wooden club, she had bandages wrapped around her forehead, her entire right arm, and both of her legs where the wounds must have opened up from her sprint as those bandages were turning red. The other woman had on white bandages covering the right side of her face as well as wrapping around her stomach all the way up under the fur covering her breasts, and unlike her comrade she held up a giant steel axe.

"H-Hey!" Diane called out to the two who looked to be charging her old mentor.

"Diane!" Liz called out, and Diane turned again to see those same people from before had gotten much closer to her. "Listen, we're here with-"

 _ **Squelch**_ Everyone spun back towards the women who had been charging at Troxamna, and all of their eyes opened huge at the sight of the purple-haired woman lifting up into the air, blood splashing up all over the cloaked woman in front of her whose expression stayed straight the entire time. Troxamna now held a giant two-handed sword in her hands though, a sword that had appeared out of nowhere for all the people who had been staring at her. Troxamna ducked as the other woman spun her axe, and then she slashed down diagonally herself across the woman's entire body, cutting through the pelt over her breasts as well as all the bandages on her stomach. Then, right as she finished her slash, she spun around while still crouched and lifted her sword up behind her, blocking the club swing from one of the giant leaders who was over five times as tall as her.

Troxamna's arms shook as she held off the club, but the fact that she was holding it back at all had giants all over the place gasping in shock and muttering about how that was one of the leaders of the Giant Clan she was facing. "Your response displeases me," Troxamna said, then she slashed upwards with her sword in a powerful movement that knocked the huge giant's club up. She then stood straight and created a portal on her side that she turned towards. She spoke in a low, bone-chilling voice as she took a step for the black portal rising thirty-five feet high in the air, "If either of them survive, you should ask why they were so angry. By then though, it will be too late to regret your decision," She stepped another foot forward, into the portal this time, but her eyes darted to her left before her head went in. She stared over at Diane in the final moment before entering the portal, but Diane met her gaze and knew.

 _That is Matrona!_ Diane thought while stepping forward, reaching an arm out for the portal. The giant in the black cloak stepped fully into it though before Diane could say a word, then the portal disappeared into fading black wisps behind her. Half a second later, a massive club slammed into the road where the portal just was and blasted a huge crater in it that threw huge rocks in every direction. Giants crossed their arms in front of them to protect from debris, and all of them were even more amazed that the Nobody had held it off before.

Diane stared straight at the spot where the woman just vanished, moving her war hammer, Gideon, small amounts in front of her to deflect any of the rocks flying her way. As everyone started settling down, Diane turned from the spot and stared back at those strange smaller giants who had known her name. "So, who are-"

"Yo, Diane." The three teens and Diane all looked down and towards the middle of the road behind the giantess holding a war hammer. Standing there at only five feet tall was a blond-haired man who lifted a hand and waved at the giant girl standing before him. "Long time no see."

Soul, Liz, and Maka all felt a warm feeling inside them as Diane's face shifted emotions from shocked, to realization, to teary-eyed. "CAPTAIN!" The warm looks on the teens' faces turned into slack-jawed shock themselves as the giant had sprinted forward so fast they were barely able to see her, and now she had Meliodas gripped in both of her hands pulling him into her giant cleavage so powerfully that they were afraid she would crush him. Despite how hard the giant was squeezing though, Meliodas did not look to feel anything more than mild discomfort, though he smiled despite it.

"That's so," Maka began, then she froze and her eyes snapped to the floor behind Diane where the war hammer she had thrown up in the air finally crashed back down. A crater blasted in the street almost as large as the one from the Giant Clan leader's club swing, and Maka gawked while imagining how heavy that weapon be. "Scary," Maka finished.

"Lucky us," Soul began, and the girls on his sides looked in at him. "Guess this means we can leave earlier than we thought."

He thought the girls would agree with him, but both just stared blankly at him after he said it. He looked at Liz first, then to Maka who gulped while looking down at her shorter partner. "Weren't you a little taller a minute ago?" She asked.

Soul thought Maka looked a little too much taller than him, but right after she asked him, the girl shrank down a foot before stopping. Liz shrank down at the same time, and she shrank such a small amount that she thought if she was not already focusing on how Soul had shrunk, she never would have noticed. "You just had to say something," Liz muttered at Soul for bringing up luck at a time like this. "Let's get back!" Liz shouted, getting more worried as she saw Soul shrink a little more while they were talking about it.

The idea of walking all the way up to the sky platform they had left the bar, on tiny legs, made each of them start running. Diane watched as they ran off, then she pulled the Captain from her chest and asked, "Who were they?"

"Hehe, come on," Meliodas said, and he jumped out of Diane's hands and motioned after them with a nod of his head. "Everyone's going to be happy to see you."

Diane stared at Meliodas' back after he said that, and her heart started racing while her eyes opened wide. _Everyone? Does he mean…_

* * *

After everyone had returned to the Boar Hat and returned to their original sizes, not exactly in that order, they all stood out on Mama Hawk's back and greeted the giant girl who was elated to see them all. Some of the reunions, (King and Diane), were warmer than others, (Diane and Ban), but everyone was happy to see her.

"Elizabeth is here too?" Diane asked in surprise, her happy look getting a notch even happier as she spun around in glee.

Meliodas frowned though as she said it, and Liz Thompson remembered how King had brought that name up before too. _Is my being here bringing up bad memories for them? They knew an Elizabeth too? I mean, it's a common name though…_

"No, Diane," King began to the woman whose head he was floating in front of. He pointed over at the blonde girl who gave the giant a small wave. "This is Liz. She's my friend," King continued. Liz thought that maybe the giant would look more friendly after King said that, but Diane just frowned more at that sentence and looked discerningly at Liz.

"Your _friend?_ " Diane asked, leaning her head down towards the girl. "Hmm," she hummed loudly, then turned her head and looked back at King who had a confused look on his own face.

 _Oh geez,_ Liz thought as she recognized that expression on the giant's face. _Is this chick, jealous? They look close too, a giant and a fairy… What is up with this group? Hey hey, don't be judgy._ "I'm Liz Thompson," she introduced before the giant could give her any more strange looks. "I'm a Demon Weapon," she added. It was the first time she had properly introduced herself to anyone in this group, which she realized as every member of the Sins around her all spun to her in surprise. She lifted up her right arm and pointed it forward, and then that arm transformed into the barrel of a gun. She turned it back into her regular arm after a second though, and King flew down towards her and said that he didn't know she could do that.

Liz became more hesitant as King started talking to her again, but what King said about not knowing her power made Diane lean back as it seemed the two were not as close as she first assumed. Diane still frowned as she kept looking down though, _Why didn't I get to spend time with King here? I looked for him. It's not fair._

"So Diane, we're heading south," Meliodas called up to the giant girl still reacquainting with her old comrades. "You coming with?"

"Of course!" Diane shouted, standing back up straight with a look on her face saying that should have been obvious. She got a little confused though, and she asked, "Why were you in Colossus anyway?"

King flew up in front of Diane's face, and he said to the giant girl, "We were looking for you."

Diane bit down on her bottom lip, her eyes filled with water, and then she smiled wide. "You were?" She asked. "I was looking for you too!"

"Ehh?" Ban said, looking up with his hands shoved in the pockets of his shiny red pants. "Looking for us in a city of giants, were you?"

Diane frowned down at the man with spiky white hair, and she snapped, "I only just got here! I asked around and some of the giants said I should try looking in this place called 'Capital,' since it's really populated."

 _"'This place called "Capital?"' Does she mean, wait a second._ "Diane," King began to the girl in front of him. "Where have you been all this time?"

"I showed up on a different part of the world," Diane replied to the fairy she went back to smiling at. "I was on this big island for a while, then I got on a boat to a nearby continent. I checked the whole continent from almost the north pole all the way past the south pole! Then when I got to the bottom I went back the other way to check again in case I missed the Captain! That was how I spent the first couple of years," Diane said and scratched her chin.

 _In case she missed the Captain, huh?_ King thought, lowering his gaze a bit though he kept smiling.

"…Then I heard that Silvior was actually really small compared to the rest of the world. It's thin, so even though I traveled the height of the world, twice, it was mostly a straight trip both ways." Diane smiled brighter again and she said, "So I just got here, not to Colossus but this land, a week ago! I can't believe I found you so soon!"

"Pretty sure we found you," Weiss remarked. After she said it, Diane stared down at the girl with her white hair tied back in a ponytail. She then looked back over at King's friend Liz and the two with her, and then she looked over to Meliodas and asked, "Hey Captain, who are these people?"

"Well those three are King's friends he made while he was a slave," Meliodas started, then he turned towards Weiss to continue, but Diane shouted too loudly for him to do so. She grabbed King and started shouting questions at him with a worried look on her face that made King blush and look away, especially because of how close Diane had pulled him towards her while asking.

"Oi!" A booming voice called out. Meliodas turned around and lifted his gaze to see two men who were ten feet taller than Diane each. Both were only wearing loose rags around their waists, and if those giants were just a little taller it would have been a very precarious place for them to be standing. The same man who called out and got Meliodas' attention continued, "You're that traveling bar right? I heard you had some good ale last time you were here!" The man did not have a tone like he was trying to speak extra loudly, but for the people much smaller than him, his normal voice was bellowing.

"Hey Gowther, break out the giant glasses!" Meliodas called over his shoulder. He then looked back up at the giants and shouted to their heads, "We have the best ale in all of Nexus! Different brews from all over!"

"Tell your friends!" Diane shouted at the men across the Boar Hat from her, putting her biggest cutesy smile on her face and acting as a poster girl.

"Ooh, that might actually work here," Meliodas said while scratching his chin thoughtfully. _I gave her that job just because she couldn't work as a waitress inside. But here she could be both!_ Meliodas rubbed his hands together with a smirk on his face, then he started shouting out to the rest of the Sins to prepare the bar for the night.

"Guess we're not leaving as soon as I thought," Soul muttered, as it was starting to look like they would be there until at least tomorrow.

"Maka, Liz," a sweet little voice spoke behind the girls standing outside the bar. They turned and then their jaws dropped at the sight of Elaine holding up two pink uniforms with small black skirts, while the fairy girl herself was already wearing one. Ban was throwing on a white apron as he headed back inside, and Meliodas walked up while Elaine held the outfits, a slight pink blush on her face.

"I hope you don't think I'm putting that on," Liz said to the shorter man who walked up in front of her.

"It's to work off your debt," Meliodas said, and Liz's jaw dropped even further again. "If we're going to be giving you a ride all the way back to the Resistance, you could at least earn your keep."

Maka's bottom lip was lowered, then she heard a resigned voice from her side, "It seems there's nothing we can do but accept." Liz and Maka turned to Soul with darkening expressions, and they could see Soul was trying very hard not to start laughing as he pursed his lips together.

As Maka started scolding Soul for going along with this so easily, Liz lost her annoyed look and found a small smile forming on her face. Not a week earlier, she had believed for a few short minutes that she was truly in Hell. When Zarbon opened up the secret panel in his wall and revealed all he had done to Soul, when she had seen the way the two in front of her had acted that night they escaped, she had lost all hope. _Even Soul, can still smile,_ Liz thought. She turned back to Elaine and with a reluctant look on her face she rose her right hand. Maka spun to her in shock, then continued in a defiant tone to the barkeep who was smirking more as one of the two accepted without much resistance. Liz's mind was already far from the outfit she was about to change out of her giantizing-suit into. _Patty, Kid, I'm on my way back to you. I think I can handle being a waitress for a little while, as long as we can see each other again._ Her eyes glanced back over the uniform she had grabbed and she grimaced, _As degrading as it might be._ Then a thought came to mind and Liz chuckled darkly to herself while walking towards the bar, _And look at this, that experience as a slave is actually going to come in handy._ Thinking about all the parties she had worked at for Dodoria, refilling drinks and bringing around food, Liz could not help but smile at the outfit that was less revealing than anything she had been forced to wear for a long time.

It was already mid-afternoon when the first patrons arrived, but word spread about the Boar Hat's location in Colossus quickly, and the more satisfied customers they had, the more giants showed up. Soul was working back behind the kitchen, helping Elaine who was using her magic to create the ingredients needed to brew so much beer. The fairy's power of Nature Manipulation made it easy, but the other steps involved required the use of different materials that they did not have an unlimited supply of, most importantly the rapid-aging-spice. One sprinkle of the spice in would age the beer a week, another sprinkle aged it to perfection. The first few times Soul tried it, Meliodas scolded him for wasting batches that he would not sell to the giants and risk his bar's reputation.

Maka had relented to her job after Liz asked her what the big deal was, and the two of them came back outside right away ready to work as waitresses. They were confused as to how they were going to do so though considering all of the patrons coming around were so massive that they doubted they would be able to lift up the glasses that Gowther brought out. He had brought out a capsule case from inside and tossed a single capsule out next to Mama Hawk which opened up into a table with over a hundred giant glass beer mugs on it.

Even those hundred did not seem like they would be enough, so Diane, wearing a giant-sized waitress uniform that she could not be happier that her friends had already made for her, used her Creation magic on the floor beneath them. Out from the ground emerged hundreds of stone mugs that giants grabbed. '7DS' was carved into each of them, and Diane shouted that they would be complementary mugs, as in each of the giants could take one home with them. Not all giants had the same Creation magic that giants from the Seven Deadly Sins' world were inherently born with, so they were grateful and the mood rose even higher as the suns were going down.

Meliodas brought Liz and Maka more giantizing pills, though this time he did not say anything about the Resistance reimbursing him for them when they got there. Since he was having them work for him, they figured he was giving them these ones for free. While Diane and the two recently-giantized girls worked as waitresses, Liz stopped next to Maka for a short break as no giants were shouting out for more beer at the moment. "So, how come Princess over there doesn't have work like the rest of us?"

Maka looked back towards the bar and spotted a the older teen with long white hair in the middle of a spar, with herself. Weiss was sliding across the green back of Mama Hawk, and then all of a sudden her body split into three separate people. Each of the Weisses all looked to have the same movements as they shot towards the fourth Weiss standing in front of them. The single Weiss had her thin silver rapier lifted straight up in the center of her body while the others were all pointing their weapons out at her, then she slashed down to her right while flipping up in the air. The Weiss sliding on the right pulled up short and blocked flipping Weiss's blade, while the other two spun around and pointed their weapons up. A beam of yellow and a jet of flames shot out the tips of those two Weisses' blades, then the one above them slashed her sword down after getting it parried by the third.

Five hawks made of ice came out of the flipping Weiss's rapier, and they pushed straight through the beam of yellow and jet of flames. She landed as her hawks hit the girls behind those initial attacks, knocking them backwards where they hit the ground and skid back, only for white magic circles to appear beneath them and curve their direction back towards the one who hit them. The third was already sprinting forward while the others rose up behind her, then the single Weiss facing off against the rest lowered her readied weapon and tapped a button on a bracelet on her left wrist. A red light flashed and the other three Weisses all sucked into her body, and Weiss took in a deep breath of air as the final one absorbed into her.

"What is she doing?" Liz muttered to the girl next to her. After she said it, she looked behind the girl who was now much shorter than them, over to the door of the Boar Hat where Meliodas was holding up a waitress uniform similar to the ones they were wearing. Maka had tried to argue about taking off the uniforms when Meliodas offered them the size-altering pills, but he told her "not to worry" because the uniforms were made of the same expanding material as the stretchy suits. The girls could see the look of disdain on Weiss's face, and then they watched as the girl with a white ponytail pointed her rapier at Meliodas and called out a challenge at the bar owner who chuckled as he seemed to be expecting it.

Before they could keep watching, they heard giants call out from different parts of the area around the bar for more drinks and had to go run off. Diane had also used her Creation magic to make tables and chairs all over the platform around the Boar Hat as well, so the entire platform was starting to look like a bar, which made Maka start to wonder if anyone was going to have a problem with their set up.

Over in front of the Boar Hat, Weiss's eyes narrowed at the bar's owner. "This time, it's going to be different," Weiss said to the man who had laughed at her challenge like he always did. Weiss glanced back at the new tech she had on her wrist just below her PB-4.

"I bet," Meliodas said, and he tossed the waitress uniform back where it landed hanging over the doorway. He walked out onto Mama Hawk's back and crossed his arms while grinning at the serious girl in front of her.

Diane looked over towards the bar to call something to Meliodas, but when she looked over she spotted the girl with the white ponytail facing off against the Captain. She turned to the girl with blonde hair tied in long pigtails on her right, and she said, "What's your friend doing? Why's she trying to fight the Captain?"

Maka turned back and then shrugged her shoulders at Diane. "She's not with us. Weiss was already traveling with your friends when we joined a couple of days ago."

Diane started walking back to the Boar Hat, while Weiss steadied her breathing in front of Meliodas. Gowther stuck his head out the bar's entrance and said, "This will be Weiss's two hundred and fifteenth loss in-"

Weiss did not snap at him to shut up, but the girl instead shot forward in that exact moment when she usually barked at Gowther to be quiet. The past eight times he had appeared out of nowhere to remind them of their statistics, she had made sure to always interrupt him around the same moment with an angry reply. "Soru," she appeared in front of Meliodas slashing her sword across the front of her body, but Meliodas snapped his body back and avoided the blade that passed right over him. A white magic circle appeared beneath both Weiss and Meliodas's feet in that moment, and when Meliodas leaned back forward to knock Weiss down, the magic circle separated in opposite directions, dragging both fighters over ten feet away from each other.

As Weiss slid back across the floor, she rose her rapier and spun it around as it started to glow. She put her left hand behind the flat of the blade while holding it in front of her, and behind her arose a fifteen foot tall knight made of ice holding a broadsword wider than Weiss's body. Weiss turned her body side-face and rose her sword, and the ice giant behind her did the same while lifting its much larger one. Meliodas pointed his right hand up at the ice knight and right as Weiss started running forward, the entire statue shattered, only it did not break apart into hundreds of ice shards. Meliodas did not expect it to, as Weiss had used her semblance like this before only for him to cancel it out with his magic: Counter Vanish. As the ice knight vanished this time though, a boulder replaced it falling out of the air.

Meliodas started turning around to where the white circle that had dragged him backwards had continued moving. He thought it would just disappear behind him, so the fact that he could still see it meant that Weiss was using it for something. The girl slashed her rapier at the same moment that he started turning away from her, creating a dozen spikes of ice that flew towards the Captain's side. "Too slow," Meliodas said, and Weiss's eyes opened wide as the voice came from behind her. The ice knight that was only a quarter of the way out of the magic circle behind where Meliodas had been standing started to shatter, while the ice shards Weiss shot at him had moved slow enough for Meliodas to just weave in and out of on his way behind her. Weiss grit her teeth and started spinning, and the man behind her who gave her the chance to give up sighed as she chose the hard way, again.

A second later Weiss was upside-down with her weapon laying twenty feet away from her. She blinked a few times in confusion, then she bit down hard at the recognition of the position she was in. "Damn it," she whispered. "Damn it damn it," she bit down before saying it again and flipped herself back onto her feet. _I'm still not strong enough!_ _"Well, I'm pretty sure I could take them all on by myself…"_ _If I can just beat Meliodas once! I'll be as strong as I need-_

"Here you go." Weiss turned and then rose her arms fast to catch the uniform Meliodas tossed to her. She grimaced while looking at the outfit, but she nodded her head at the man who added, "Still not going to give it up?"

"I will beat you," Weiss said matter-of-factly, shutting down any idea he had that she would give up soon. He shrugged and then chuckled at the girl before turning to go back into the bar.

Weiss started to follow him back in to get changed into the waitress uniform that she thought of as her punishment for losing; she knew the embarrassment she would feel wearing it would be another incentive for her to win the next time. "Hey you," Weiss stopped as that voice sounded directed at her. She turned and saw Diane standing right next to the Boar Hat, staring down with the left corner of her lips curled down. "Who are you?"

"My name's Weiss," the girl replied curtly. "It's nice to finally meet you, after all I've heard."

"Hmmm," Diane hummed. Weiss frowned back up at her at the tone of that hum, then Diane asked, "What are you doing here?"

Weiss crossed her arms in front of her chest and replied, "I'm a member of the Seven Deadly Sins."

"No you're not," Diane said.

Weiss's forehead scrunched up but she kept a calm air around herself. In a steady tone she began again, "Maybe not on your world, but I've been on this team-"

"You're wrong. You can't just be one of the Sins because you've been traveling with the Captain." Diane crossed her arms now over her huge bust pushing against the pink uniform she was wearing, not budging from her position on the matter.

"That's not the only reason," Weiss said, and the bangs of her long white hair shadowed over her eyes. The platform was covered in lights and the Boar Hat had more on the roof to keep their bar area lit up, but Weiss's head bowed and her hair covered the top half of her face with a shadow. "You're right," Weiss said. "For someone to be a part of the Seven Deadly Sins, they need a sin…"

 **FD + 758**

 **Deadlands, Southeast Aebrith**

"Don't slow down," Yang Xiao Long yelled at the girl running on her right side who was panting much too hard. The two of them had on long-sleeved shirts and pants covered in horizontal stripes of black and white. "We're still far from the coast!"

"We lost everyone," Weiss said, then she panted a few times before biting down hard and digging her heels into the black ground to push harder. She pushed to keep up with her older friend at her side who had long, thick blonde hair.

"We got separated, but that doesn't mean they were all sent back to the camp," Yang snapped. "I bet when we make it back to Lagann, a ton of them are going to be there." Yang smiled as she said it, and Weiss looked in to see an optimistic look really on her face.

 _This isn't how the escape was supposed to go though!_ Weiss Schnee thought worriedly. _Unlike you, I can't just roll with improvising. My plan, all the POWs we were supposed to escape with last night, they were supposed to come with us after we pushed through the work camp's guards. But then the mechs, and the Scourge, did they really all just get scattered?_ Weiss could not shake the intense feeling of dread filling her. _How many miles away is the camp from the coast? How many hundreds of miles?_ Weiss bit her lip and darted her eyes to the left and right over the empty landscape. There were no geographical landmarks, no water sources that she could really use right about now, but there were no monsters either. Everything around them was just empty, and if it were not for the suns in the sky, the girls would have no idea which direction they were actually running.

Yang and Weiss ran across the flat, empty Deadlands for hours with nothing but the two of them and the suns moving slowly across the sky. They slowed down and started having to take more and more breaks, and the lack of water was getting unbearable. At another of the breaks, Weiss said, "I can't, take it!" She calmed down her breathing and then stood straight up and clapped her hands in front of her.

"Wait," Yang started. "We don't know, when you might, need your magic."

"Well we'll die out here if we don't get something to drink," Weiss snapped, then she started panting again. She calmed down and focused her magic power that she had recovered since their last fight after escaping the compound they had been prisoners in. A white magic circle appeared on the floor in front of Weiss. Out from the center of it arose a single pole of ice that split after rising seven feet up in the air. It split off then arced down to either side, one of those sides curving down just above Weiss's head.

Yang sighed and walked over to stand under the other curved point. They stood there with their mouths open, allowing the sun to melt Weiss's ice creation so it could melt into their mouths. Weiss took off her shirt while this went on, as somehow standing in place under the hot sun, even with cold water dripping down for her, was even hotter than running over the black wasteland. She held her striped shirt up to her side to block the sun's rays, but her arms started getting tired holding it there while also keeping her head tilted back so she could keep drinking. She lowered it, then she stepped back and tied her shirt around her head leaving a space for her face. It was a good way to give her face some shade, but Yang mentioned while leaning her head away from the dripping water that had just increased its rate into a small stream on her side, "Careful there. Someone as pale as you's gonna cook out here without anything covering you up."

"My face is already red as a tomato," Weiss said. She no longer had the hairband she had in when she was caught, so her long white hair was covering up much of her back, but she lifted her hands and draped some more of it over her shoulders for some extra protection. "But thanks."

"Thanks for the water," Yang replied, then they both leaned back under the ice that was quickly depleting. When they finally ran out of dripping water, neither of them felt very satisfied from the short water break. Weiss did not make a new ice creation though and Yang did not complain. The two just made eye contact, Weiss's light blue eyes and Yang's lilac-colored ones. Then they turned the direction they had been running earlier, though they had to make sure for a moment since the suns were straight above them now.

Then they kept running. They ran from their break spot, picking up speed closer to what they were running at over an hour ago. Even just a small water break gave them the strength they felt they needed to make it all the way to the coast. They were still thirsty, and hungrier than ever, but they were deep in enemy territory and had no idea how long it would take for someone to come after them. Little did they know, someone was already watching their every move.

The girls were caught off guard. The had been sprinting in a straight line, so the trap they ran into sprung up from all sides of them at once. Yang spun to her left and Weiss to her right so their backs were to each other, then they each kept spinning with wide eyes while dark spheres appeared out of thin air all around them. Out of those dark spheres formed small creatures in suits of armor. They had black wisps seeping out of their helmets and beady glowing white eyes in the center of their dark faces. The Heartless Soldiers emerged and surrounded them, twenty of them in total.

Yang smirked after a second, though she was still panting as she had felt more exhausted than ever right before the monsters appeared. "What? They're just Heartless?" Yang asked, then took a few deep breaths and chuckled to herself.

"Why are they, surrounding us?" Weiss asked, also panting like Yang though feeling more nervous about it since she had used some of her magic power recently.

"They're monsters," Yang said, lifting up her fists and then stepping into a strong stance. Her blonde hair waved behind her as Yang called out, "Ha!" Then she clenched her fists tighter and bent down her knees. "We can't slow down here. Let's take them down fast and keep moving." She kicked off the ground fast and punched forward straight into one's face.

Weiss calmed herself and nodded a few times. "You're right." Weiss flipped backwards to avoid the first Heartless that lunged at her, then she twisted in midair to dodge another that leapt up towards her. Weiss kicked out as she flipped, nailing the second Heartless on the bottom of its head. The creature got knocked backwards but landed on its feet near the others, then the other ones that had not attacked Weiss yet ran forward and tried slashing at her as well.

Yang punched her fists into the Heartless every time one came at her, dodging and weaving around as the creatures tried attacking her. She caught a glimpse of two of them in the air on her left, swiping their right arms forward. The Heartless Soldiers had four red claws at the end of their dark blue arms, and they slashed them down at the blonde who ducked down and rose her arms to block either of the Heartless' swipes down at their wrists to avoid being cut. After their arms hit hers though, they dragged them backwards and the first of their sharp nails cut into her skin. Yang's right leg was spinning around as soon as the first of the claws nicked her though, and she slammed one leg into the Heartless on her right, before plowing that one straight into the other. They flew back and tumbled away, then both of them hopped back up on their feet.

Yang did not relent, sprinting forward and leaping up in the air, then slamming down a fist into the top of one of those Heartless' heads. She smashed it into the floor where it cracked the black ground, then broke apart into black bubbles that disappeared as they floated up. Yang smirked, then she saw the other creatures leaping up behind her and she spun with another spinning kick. She hit one, then planted that leg and slammed her other leg up, kicking it three times into the other Heartless lunging at her. Yang winced as she got slashed on the leg she had planted down, she she darted her gaze back to see the second of the ones she knocked backwards a minute ago had just swiped at her and now had red dripping off its already red claws.

"Rrrg," Yang stumbled forward after getting slashed, then she planted both feet down hard and punched her feet down in front of her. She spun faster, nailing that Heartless that hit her in the face so hard that it flew backwards almost into another one charging her way. Before it even collided with the other though, it was already breaking apart. Then Yang jumped up twice the speed she had been moving before, and she flipped backwards over the Heartless slashing at her. She landed behind them and when they started turning, she rapidly punched forward into their chests right in the middle of the black and red Heartless symbols imprinted in each of them.

"Ah!" A yell of pain drew Yang's attention and she spun, only to go wide-eyed at the sight of creatures very different to the Heartless Soldiers she had been facing attacking her friend. The Darkballs were floating purple spheres much faster than the Soldiers Weiss had already been having difficulty with, and these fast and stronger Heartless were bouncing around and nailing the white-haired girl on every side with strong blows that made her wince or yelp in pain as she tried spinning to them and dodging the attacks. She stumbled back and forth, and then two of the Soldiers that she had stopped focusing on to pay more attention to the stronger Darkballs leapt up and tackled her to the floor.

"Weiss!" Yang shouted.

"Ahh! Get off me!" Weiss struggled and swung her arms out to the sides, trying to push herself off the ground.

Yang started running towards her, but a Soldier on her right side leapt in and slashed at her right leg, the force of which made the blonde trip and skid across the black ground. Yang flipped herself over after skidding on her stomach, and her eyes opened wide at the sight of the Heartless Soldiers dropping down at her with their claws slashing. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and felt them get slashed back and forth, and her teeth bared while she heard Weiss yelling out in pain not far from her. "Get. Off. Of. ME!" Yang uncrossed her arms and a gust of wind expelled from her. She kicked her legs up and threw her body up on her feet while spinning towards Weiss, then her eyes opened huge at the sight of the pile of Heartless surrounding a darkened figure on the ground. Yang's eyes turned bright red and she screamed, "HAAA!"

 _Sinking… falling… descending, into darkness._ Weiss felt herself sinking. Her eyes were wide open but all she saw in every direction of her was an eternal blackness like nothing she had ever seen before. She was falling as if through the air via gravity, but she was moving slower as if sinking through water. The space around her did not feel like air or water, liquid or gas, she was just enveloped in- darkness. Weiss's panic started fading, all of her pain, and her fear. Then, she found herself staring at the black ground, and she could see dark arms on either side of her head pressing down. _I'm here. I'm, where? That feeling._ She started lifting her head, and she felt something inside her that resembled hunger. _What is that?_ She turned a bit and then turned her head the other way. _Where is, that light?_

"…iss! …eiss! Weiss!"

 _Weiss?_ The girl looking around for the light lowered her gaze back to the dark arms below her, and then she felt a strong jolt and snapped her head up. Someone was in front of her, someone whose body had a white veil around it that made her want to grab at it. That face looked so familiar though, and she stared closer at it. Her hands started tightening while the person in front of her screamed something, then right as she started leaning forward, a hand smacked across her face and she felt a sharp jolt of pain through her body. Her mind that had been dazed, hazy, it focused all of a sudden as the person before her yelled, "WEISS!"

"What was that for, Yang?!" Weiss yelled right back at the feeling of the intense pain on the left side of her face.

Yang stared forward in shock as the glowing white eyes in front of her lost their glow and regained blue irises. As soon as the girl shouted back at Yang, her eyes returned to normal, then the blackness around her eyes shred off of her face as wisps that rose into the air. Weiss could see those wisps rising in front of her eyes, and she lowered her shocked gaze down to the floor where she could still see dark arms with claws digging into the dirt. She watched as the darkness surrounding those arms shredded away, and Weiss regained a hot feeling to them. She could feel the black dirt underneath her fingernails that clenched in that dirt, and though the darkness stopped covering her arms, goosebumps did instead. Weiss realized that she was on all fours as she looked back up at Yang who was on her knees in front of her. Weiss could see the tremendous relief in Yang's eyes, but she did not share that feeling at all.

"What, was that? What, was I?" Weiss's lips trembled, and her arms shook in terror, barely able to hold her up anymore. She felt drained. She was wheezing out breaths of air, and she could not tell whether if it was from exhaustion or if she was having a panic attack and needed to breathe.

Yang's eyes were still blaring a furious red, but the enraged girl with long blonde hair reached forward and put her arms around Weiss's head, pulling the trembling girl into her chest. "I got you. We're-"

"A very impressive show," a high-pitched, but bone-chilling voice said behind where Yang was kneeling. Weiss pulled her head back from Yang's chest and stared behind her friend at a tall figure standing not ten feet behind the blonde girl. Yang turned her head to the side and glared at this woman whose smirk was so evil that there was no point in asking what the woman's motives were. She had palish-green skin, two large black horns curving up over her head and dark fins pointing up and out to the sides where she should have had ears. Her narrow, light yellow eyes had small black pupils in the centers of them, her sharpened fingernails were painted red like her lips, and she held a staff in her right hand that had a green orb at the top of it full of swirling dark colors. "To return from that deep in the darkness, the bond you share must be a strong one, as the girl herself does not look strong enough to manage it."

"Whoever you are," Yang started, standing up and turning towards Maleficent with her eyes flaring a blazing fiery red. "You don't know who you're messing with!"

"I don't?" The woman questioned incredulously. "Do _you_ know who you are talking to?" She called out, her voice getting some anger in it at the insolence of the teenage girl before her. Five Invisibles appeared behind her. They were tall, muscular Heartless that looked like demons with blood-red horns sticking out the tops of their dark heads, bat-like wings sticking out of their backs, and each one held a thick broadsword that they only needed one muscular black arm to hold up. A dozen more armored Heartless Soldiers emerged out of the ground in front of her and to the sides of the girls she was speaking to, which made Weiss fall back on her butt in terror, especially as a half dozen more Darkballs appeared at the same time. Three Darkballs floated on either side of the witch who smirked while yelling at the blonde who had been so defiant towards her, "You dare insinuate that you are stronger than me? Maleficent?! The mistress of all EVIL?!" She slammed her staff on the ground and green flames rose up in a wall behind her over twenty feet tall.

Weiss let out a terrified 'eep,' and she started pushing her hands down on the ground at her sides, skidding herself backwards on her butt. She spun around and started running, creating a magic circle beneath her that increased her speed five times and shot her away from there like a rocket sliding across the ground. "Weiss!" Yang shouted back, before spinning again to the enemies in front of her who all started moving at once.

Weiss turned her head, and she yelled, "Let's go!"

"There's no way we'll escape from her!" Yang yelled right back. "We have to fight!"

Weiss's eyes rose over Yang's head and she stared at the monstrous dark creatures flying at Yang all at once. The girl with long white hair took a step back, her entire body shaking. The feeling she had after being swarmed by the Heartless returned to her. She remembered that empty, cold feeling. She remembered how it felt to look upon Yang's face like that, unable to even recognize her friend. She thought about how she had almost attacked the blonde-haired girl, and she took another step back while chills ran down her whole spine. "We need to run," Weiss called out, her voice cracking and preventing her from shouting it any louder. She focused on the floor below Yang and tried to make a magic circle like the one she made for herself. On top of feeling too much exhaustion to create another one however, Yang leapt up in the air and punched right as one of the Invisibles slashed at her with its sword. The two of them pushed against each other for a second, then Yang spun in the air and kicked at its slashing arm with her right leg. She then spun and punched to her right side with her left arm, but the other Invisible that was about to reach her disappeared into a cloud of black wisps that started swirling around the girl.

The Invisibles dropped their swords that lodged into the ground below them, and clouds of black ash surrounded Yang, followed by the blonde screaming out in pain as they all condensed on her at once. "Weiss!" Yang called out, and the terrified girl a dozen yards away froze in place. Her blue eyes opened huge as the Invisibles reformed in their normal bodies on all sides of Yang. _What am I doing?_ Weiss thought in terror. _I don't have my weapon. I don't have any Dust… what am I doing?!_ She screamed at herself in her head. Yang was on her hands and knees, panting with her head pointed down, but she turned her head in Weiss's direction.

Weiss could see the need for help in Yang's fiery red eyes, and she saw the Aura that Yang usually had her body covered in drop, opening her body up to actual life-threatening attacks from the enemies. Weiss already had lost her Aura however though, back when she was being beaten back and forth by the Darkballs. She bit down though despite her own vulnerability, and she started running forward while yelling, "Yang!"

Weiss saw the green spark on the floor in front of her and tried to stop short, but she still let out a yell of pain as the huge green flames rose from just in front of her feet. She crossed her arms but the outsides of them got burned and she had to back up, only to stare through the flames in helpless horror as Maleficent walked towards Yang. A dark circle had formed beneath Yang's body, while the Darkballs bounced down and slammed into her before retreating too fast for the girl to punch up and hit them. Yang swung and missed at Heartless she could not even see anymore as the darkness surrounded her. She flailed out in different directions, screaming as she felt the tendrils of darkness wrapping around her legs, her arms, her throat.

"Yang!" Weiss yelled through the flames. "Hold on!"

Maleficent stood next to Yang who pulled her arms in while curling up on the ground. She let out a scream, an agonized scream, but one that transformed midway through. "AAAHHHHhhoooOO _ **OAAARRR**_!" Her voice got darker, it turned into something that sounded inhuman, and Weiss once again backed away.

"Yang," Weiss let out a strangled gasp of her friend's name. She lifted an arm up while the flames in front of her were dropping down, and she clenched her right hand into a fist as she saw that pitch black form on the ground. In between her and that form though, were a dozen Invisibles, Heartless Soldiers, and Darkballs, not to mention the witch standing at Yang's side. "Yang," Weiss repeated, and the figure on the ground turned its head her way. Then the long-haired figure covered head to toe in darkness started standing at Maleficent's side. "Come back," Weiss whispered. "Come back!" She yelled louder. "If I can do it, so can you!" Weiss yelled it, but when she took a step forward, all of the Heartless in front of her also stepped or floated the same distance towards her.

Sweat covered Weiss's entire body. _Yang. Yang. Yang! I need to, I need to help her! Why didn't I stay there with her?! Why am I such a coward?!_ "Yang!" Weiss called out, her tone desperate.

"What an odd ability," Maleficent remarked while lowering one hand onto the far shoulder of the Heartless girl next to her, standing very close to Weiss's friend who did not react to the touch. "The more she was hurt, the more she damaged the Heartless. Defeating my creations in single blows even, amazing. She will be a magnificent first pawn, for my new plans here in the Deadlands." Maleficent grinned and her eyes narrowed at the terrified girl who stared back in her eyes with shaking ones of her own. "And you, will make a nice second…" Maleficent stopped and her eyes darted to her right. She did not turn her body, but she frowned at the sensation she felt coming from the north.

 _At my current power, it is too dangerous to stay here._ "Finish her off," Maleficent said, and Weiss's eyes opened huge as she thought Maleficent was going to capture her or make her evil or something. At that command though, the Heartless in front of her started moving forward. All of them, except for Yang that is. Weiss stared forward in shock as Maleficent tapped her staff down on the ground and created a dark portal behind her. "Yang? Yang!" Weiss shouted, and she tried running forward as the dark figure turned its back to her. "Please! Don't do this! Don't go! I'm going to help you, like you helped me!"

"It is too late for that," Maleficent said, while turning and walking into her dark portal alongside her new minion. Weiss reached forward, then the dark portal closed, and then the Heartless attacked. The shock was too much to handle, and though Weiss turned sideways and dodged the first Invisible's slash down, a Darkball slammed into her left side and sent her sprawling over the dirt. She skid on her side but spun onto her back and looked forward in fear of her life as the monsters all charged at her again. "No," Weiss whispered, and she scrambled up to her feet and spun around. She focused as hard as she could, the feeling of life and death weighing over her, and she created a single magic circle beneath her feet that sent her shooting across the ground for ten yards before fading and releasing her. As soon as she was thrown from her magic she stumbled forward, then kept running through the stumble, breaking out into an all-out sprint while panting and wheezing.

Weiss dared a look behind her and saw the Heartless giving chase, but they were no faster than she was. She was tired though, and getting more exhausted every second. Whereas the Heartless did not seem to ever get tired, they never felt fatigue, and Weiss had tears coming out of her eyes as she felt her legs slowing down. "Yang," she whispered, tears coming out of her eyes and sliding across her face as she ran. She clenched her eyes shut but saw herself scrambling up to her feet and sliding away without a second thought, she saw herself backing up while Yang looked towards her with that desperate expression, and Weiss bit down in so much regret.

Her feet were dragging as she tried to keep running, and she had no idea how long it had been. The Heartless were even closer to her now, she was beyond wheezing to the point of coughing up every breath she tried to take, though she kept running despite it. Her run was slow now though, her legs wobbly, and as she tried picking her right leg up again, her toes got caught behind her left calf and she tripped forward. Skidding on her knees, she ripped up her already dirty and damaged prison fatigues. The pant legs tore off, and they tripped her up even more as she tried scrambling back to her feet. Tripping again while already down made her arms fall from beneath her too, so her face fell into the dirt on its right side and scraped her cheek.

Dirt got on Weiss's tear-streaked face and stained it, and Weiss pushed down as hard as she could while trying to hold back any more tears. She heard the growls and footsteps of the approaching Heartless, and she gasped in the black ashy ground beneath her while lying with her hurt cheek pressed hard against the floor. "I don't want to die here," she whispered.

The footsteps she heard behind her stopped, as did all the growling. Weiss felt a strange sensation form inside her, and she started turning her body to see a short man with blond hair with his back to her. None of the Heartless were there, and Weiss's ragged breathing caught in her throat. The short man turned his head to the girl covered in dirt and her own blood, and he flashed her a smile, "Then why don't you get back up?"

* * *

 **Present**

"You're wrong. You can't just be one of the Sins because you've been traveling with the Captain." Diane crossed her arms defiantly, not budging from her position on the matter.

"That's not the only reason," Weiss said, and the bangs of her long white hair shadowed over her eyes. "You're right," Weiss said. "For someone to be a part of the Seven Deadly Sins, they need a sin…" She lifted her dark gaze into Diane's eyes and said, "My sin is Betrayal." She spun around after saying it, and her white ponytail shifted from one side to the other. While it rose up, for that brief moment, Diane was able to see a red tattoo of a rat on the back of Weiss's neck.

Diane did not know what the girl's past was, or what her reason for being there was, but she humphed as she lowered her crossed arms. In a low voice she mumbled, "That's still not one of the seven deadly sins."

Weiss had just walked into the entrance of the bar, but she heard Diane and a big tick mark grew on the right side of her forehead. Meliodas laughed on her side though as he was just inside the entrance too, and he admitted when Weiss looked towards him, "Well she does have a point." Weiss grumbled to herself and turned away, heading to the bathroom to put on the uniform she was still holding.

Meliodas had just gone back into the bar, but he didn't go into the kitchen like he was originally planning on. He stood there and watched as Weiss walked off, _Business got much better once I got her as a waitress._ A smirk spread on his face, _Since Merlin wouldn't work and Elaine… well not many people besides Ban are into that sort of thing. Her just working as a waitress was the original deal, but when that blonde Nobody…_ Meliodas stopped staring after Weiss and he turned his head. Soul had just come out of the kitchen and was going to ask the bar owner something, but Ban and Gowther each flanked him right as he got there and a confused look spread across the teen's face.

Soul spun back towards the main room as he was pushed in by Ban, and he and the three Sins in the room all stared at the black circle that just formed on the floor. Meliodas got a dark look in his eyes as he stared at it because of something he was just thinking about, but then a confused and interested look replaced that as the dark circle did not have the feeling he thought it should have. Instead, the dark circle on the ground swirled around like a strange gooey liquid. A mass of black ooze started to rise up, and Soul stared in fear as the entire main bar room around them darkened a few notches. Red glowing orbs formed at the top of the growing ooze, and a hissing voice filled the room, _**"Meliodas. I have a proposition for you."**_

* * *

 **A/N Diane returns to the Sins, Weiss gets some background, and we see the first sign of Maleficent for a few millions words. The last we saw she was fleeing Castle Oblivion with Pete. This flashback at FD + 749 would have been soon after that since the original story of Nexus started two years after the First Day on Nexus (FD + 0). Yang saves Weiss from the darkness, but Weiss fails to do the same when Yang is taken. The Rat sin of Betrayal, Weiss declares herself a member of the Seven Deadly Sins, desperately trying to get stronger. And at the end a dark figure appears with an offer for Meliodas. This chapter of bouncing around the continent continues next part, but that dark figure _will_ be revealed. Prepare for Nexus Heroes Will Rise 14.8: The Root of All Evil. Hope you all enjoyed! Thanks for reading! This chapter took longer than I thought it would to finish, but in the time it took me to write it, I finished up writing two of the next 4 chapters. The other two of those were already finished, so a chapter a day all week! Okay, time for review responses:**

Limit-Breaking chapter 101 . May 9

Hmm and here i thought you like one piece charcters, boa and camie death were very cruel but so damn shocking that i had to keep reading, These types of chapters has my full attention especially since you make the characters quite evil in the story. Also if you say you do love one piece charcters i won't believe it, why because of all the suffereing you make them go through.  
It's basically your revenge against one piece for making you watch over 800 episodes, granted you probably enjoyed them but it must have gotten taxing and a bit tiresome to catchup.  
Also can i just say Amazing job with the slaves story you do an amazing job when it comess down to it, but it does make me wonder what type of person you are sometimes. i wonder if mine will just leave aebirth at this point or will she meet up with gray and the rest.  
Also can you please answer me this question you brought in kale and caulifla into this story, How exactly does that work they are from universe 6 and they come from a world of good saiyans. Also was there a civil war between the evil saiyans of universe 7 against universe 6 saiyans or are these two versions of kale and caulifla the universe 7 versions.  
Are the good saiyans even in this world of nexus.  
Also can't wait to read more about the seven deadly sins charcters, they are awesome to read, also have you caghut up in the manga, Cause there power levels keep getting higher and higher, and i kid you not king power level in the manga is around 40,000, Yeah yeah i know king vs zarbon and dodoria who are planet busters is retarded. But it's true it's literally in the manga as king power level im not exaggerating at all, but then again their power levels can mean two different things comparing it to z, Since in DBZ all it takes to blow up a planet is a power level of 10,000, but for seven deadly sins it may take alot more power in there version of the series, since they show no feats capable to destroy planets. Also if you are wondering about the 10,000 power level planet busting requirements it's from the guides for the show and kazenshuu a website dedeicated to dragon ball and has connections to akira toriyama.  
But i got off topic there, I really enjoyed the chapter for what it's worth and i can't wait to see 17, though i feel like you portrayed him as something evil in this chapter and i hope im wrong on that. Either way krillin get's to finally see android 18 again unless you killed her off as well, i wonder how 16 is doing and 21 from db fighterz... ok maybe not 21 since she is from a video game but it would be cool to see her.  
Either way i look forward to the next chapter and the mvp android

 **Whew, that was a long chapter, (though not the longest you posted this week XD). Alright, for everyone saying this, because you were not the only one, I love One Piece. Might be my favorite show of all time. Nexus could even be considered a One Piece x Misc Crossovers story if I wanted. More OP characters were in our main group than any other source, and arguably the most important non-main-group MC (Zoro), is also OP. Anyway, One Piece has just so many great characters in it with fleshed-out backstories, as well as hundreds of background characters too. I bet if someone ever marked down all the characters from all the different media in the Nexus stories, they would find more One Piece characters than anyone else. However, OP also gives me a large batch of supporting characters to pick from then. As for punishment for having to watch 800 episodes +... you might be onto something there. Def a little frustrated at the current pace of the anime compared to when I binged 700 episodes straight a few years back, so much so that I wound up reading the manga (though I've just stopped and am going to let the show catch back up, so no more spoilers manga readers). Alright next part, Saiyans! Admittedly, I don't think all the Saiyans from Universe 6 are good Saiyans. I think the Saiyan King in Universe 6 is probably a better King that from Universe 7, and the line of Kings before him led the people on the right path just as Bardock was trying to do. However as we see with Caulifla and her gang, they can be very similar to the Saiyans of Universe 7 too. There probably were good Saiyans, maybe a lot of them showed up even, since I did mention how there were Saiyans from other universes there. However when Bardock talked about Frieza and how Goku beat him, since most of the Saiyans burst out cheering, it should be pretty clear that the majority are from U7. Maybe the good ones got in fights trying to protect people early on and were killed, maybe not many of them showed up on Nexus, of maybe you were right and there was a civil war, or maybe they died in the war against the Kryptonians. I did not think very much on that, though it could come up as a later plot point now that I am thinking of it. I believe you with King's power in the manga, and we're already seeing in the anime him being pretty badass, though I'm betting in the next few weeks he's gonna get stronger, maybe getting his wings and fighting that first Fairy King Ten Commandments guy. Haven't played DB fightersZ so not gonna include any characters from that just like what I said about Xenoverse (sorry), but the Androids will be making their appearances soon, and we heard mention of them again this chapter. Fwew *wipes sweat from forehead* that was a long response, but I got out what I think I needed. As for your PM, the chapter sizes vary and most of the time I just end it where it seems like a nice place. Sometimes however, I have to add more scenes because of the way I've formatted the story. Each of the decimal points for a single Full chapter have to be related to the others. Like Pyraxas was all of chapter 10, with maybe one or two cut in scenes from around the world, but the major point was the same. Chapter 9 was Gray's group's travels after they split, and 8 was Luffy's. Chapter 12 was the Saiyan Mountains, and 13 the Wizard King. In the Saiyan Mountains one though, the war started halfway through the chapter so I had a lot, A LOT, to fit into a short few parts, as I did not want to expand into another chapter while the plot was remaining focused on the Chapter 12 point. Anyway, that's just my reasoning behind it. Thanks for the reviews and PMs, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!**

kg833998 chapter 101 . May 9

all right finally got over that whole thanos snapping his fingers thing oh look 3 new chapter's of nexas time to read ... HANCOCK CAMIE GARP VIRGO NOOOOOOOO oh and sengoku BUT NOOOOOOOOO don't have much to say I am in too sad but I have one question are six stones that could possibly reverse this on nexas beside that great amazing 3 chapter's as usual can't wait for the next one

 **Thanos! Haha, glad someone mentioned it, because I mean damnmnnn! I watched it twice, and both times I watched that scene I'm just like jaw lowered, staring at everyone I love disintegrate before my eyes. Drax and Starlord were my saddest though, (but I mean Spidey too ;( ), for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, it's been over a week so Spoiler warning be damned. XD That was probably my favorite movie moment ever, even if it did make me walk out of the theater depressed. Haha, the characters are dropping all over the place ahh! No comment as to the infinity stones, nor the purple monster who used them. Thanks for the review, glad you liked those chapters! And hope you enjoyed the new one!**

joebob323 chapter 101 . May 10

Okay, so it appears that the 7 sins are pretty much reunited, with some notable exceptions. I do want to know where Escanor is, especially since his power is pretty broken. Also, I get the feeling that you're laying into the One Piece Universe pretty harshly recently with all this character death, with Garp, Sengoku, Camie, Hancock, Knia, and more...You might want to lay off them for a few chapters?

 **Haha, now they're _really_ pretty much reunited. Escanor, where you at man? And Merlin breaks off once again to head to the Library... As for One Piece universe, check above responses^^. Too many characters to sift through, can't make all of them into MCs, can't even have all of them survive two years on Nexus. Think it would have been weirder to have almost all of the OP characters showing up in the present, so I think having them with scattered deaths back in the first week (Kizaru), just after the first month (Garp and Sengoku), near the end of one year (Kuina, Hancock, and Camie), as well as all those who died in the Battle of Metropolis, and now the Spire too... Okay, maybe there've been a lot recently XD. Can't promise I'll lay off, but I might run out of OP characters at this point if I don't! Thanks for the review!**

Espada-001 chapter 101 . May 11

:( The fewer words I use for the first half of the chapter will be better for everybody. Lets just say it took longer than it should have for me to read through this one. So I'm just going to skip to Kings part, which was pretty good. Sorry Yammy but if King can get hit by an attack that can split the base of a mountain at a distance then your base form just wont cut it for this fight. Honestly I'm way behind in the Seven Deadly Sin's series, I'm only at the part where King just beat the giant Demon Golem. And now I'm going to back track in the story a bit back to the Spire. I'm pretty sure that Gokudera is going to be pissed when he finds out what happened to Tsuna. Honestly looking back I'm surprised that he wasn't the one behind Tsuna at the meeting to bad too since he's far more used to dealing with close range explosives, although I guess he's guarding the girls for Tsuna although those are just my thoughts for his location since we haven't seen him since the battle of Metropolis. I know that it's unlikely but do you think you could add the future Vongola family or maybe even just add Reborn himself without the curse on him since it's no longer necessary for the planets protection? Also hoping to see Batman make one of his power suits so he isn't left behind later on in the series when all the final big shots show up. Well I can't say I'm happy with this chapter but like always have a good day and I look forward to the next one! Have a good day!

 **;( ;( Sad times but it's gotta be shown. Can't just have something like slavery mentioned scattered through the story without really showing the terrors of it here on Aebrith, and it really does make the heroes' side seem more righteous. Yammy underestimates King, doesn't use his Resurreccion, gets cut in half for it :P. 7DS new episode just came out, and I'm personally enjoying it, def suggest catching up soon. In the Spire were almost exclusively military personnel if they weren't part of the Council, which is just the reason I thought of when you mentioned Gokudera's not being there. The extra people in there were part of the Covenant forces, other Marines, other State Alchemists (or Hawkeye who is still Mustang's number 2), Griamore is a Holy Knight, and even Grim could probably be considered a military force in the city alongside Mandy. Hibari being there might have been because Gokudera's a citizen and couldn't go to the meeting, so Tsuna brought a Vongola member who he could have at the meeting: the Marine- Hibari. I won't say it's impossible for the future Vongolas to show up, as I have brought alternate timelines(Mirai Trunks)/universes(Mystogan, Edo-Natsu and Lucy) before, but won't say if it'll ever happen either. Another semi-depressing chapter here at the end, but also the reunion of Diane with the Sins, so... heh, hope you enjoyed the chapter, and thanks for the review!**

flo463 chapter 101 . May 11

You're welcome  
Sorry but I've been reading chapters for a long time ', I read many of fanfictions at present so hard to remember what takes place in the previous chapters  
If Asuna and Suguha have the possibility to resurrect, who from the rest of Kirito's harem? (I love Sao and Kirito, the Kirito's harems fics: The Prince of Swords, Sao The Eroge, Stand Together And Smile, How the Littlest Change Makes the Biggest Difference are part of my favorite ) Argo, Libeth, Sinon, Silica? Yukki and Saichi eventually  
it's been a while since I asked myself the question but I see you add Tokyo Ghoul. do you intend to add other universes (Highschool Dxd, Higschool Of The Dead? Gundam?, ...)  
and I see you add Tyrant Tatsumi from Akame Ga Kill  
Tatsumi is my character of Akame favorite Ga Kill and I had appreciated the fact that the use of Incursio is not without consequences and that he is transformed into Tyrant. With his capacities of adaptation, Tatsumi risks to be a formidable opponent!  
Happy to see Tatsumi and Mine finally gathered! They are cute together

 **Yeah I totally get that. After 2 and a half million words it's gotta be tough recalling everything. I've admittedly reread Nexus a few times to make sure I don't start writing in huge plot holes by forgetting earlier character deaths or something. Saying that though... this entire review... ... Alright, so, Suguha isn't dead yet, or at least we haven't seen her die. Sachi, Lisbeth, and Silica were all seen in Metropolis after the battle (and during it when Kirito was fighting Blackbeard in front of the school). I do plan on adding some of those universes, but I won't say which ones ;). As for Tatsumi... now, it was mentioned again in this chapter, as well as the last one, but I feel like you must have forgotten. Remember the prison break a couple chapters back? Black Star broke out of the infirmary and fought Pitou, and Merlin showed up to save King, Soul, Maka, and Liz from Zarbon's penthouse while Zarbon and Dodoria were at the Colosseum gladiator cells. They were at those cells, because Tatsumi broke in with Incursio, leading the entire slave-freeing force with Mine and Lily, and then Meruem showed up and wiped them out. Tatsumi threw the teleportation cube down, but Meruem ripped everyone's hearts out except for him, Mine, and Lily. Then, Tatsumi went "I think he killed me," ... because Meruem had sliced through his neck, decapitating him. That scene of Mine and Tatsumi together was in a flashback, while the first part of the chapter that showed Mine giving up in a bar was because Tatsumi was no longer there. Sooo, sorry about that if he's one of your favorites. Anyway, we'll get back to Kirito and the rest of the group after two more parts in this chapter. Thanks for the review, and hope you enjoyed!**

cyber chapter 101 . May 13

another cool chapter, I'm glad to see mine again, and I'm glad to see zoro's team cant wait to see more.

 **Thanks! Zoro's team will return again by the end of chapter 14, so look forward to some more of them within the next few days! Thanks for the review! Anyway guys, as I said I've got the next chapters done and ready to edit and post already, so I'll be getting those out every day this week, finishing up chapter 14 and going right into 15. Thanks for reading, faving, following, and reviewing, and as always, 'Till next time!**


	103. Nexus HWR 14-8 The Root of All Evil

**Nexus HWR 14.8 The Root of All Evil:**

 **The Capital**

Underneath the Colosseum in the center of the southern Business Quarter of the Cooperative's Capital, Black Star roused from his sleep and sat up with his back against the steel wall behind him. His cell was very empty, only three prisoners inside it other than himself, one of whom woke up the same time that he did. Black Star sat up and stared into the middle of the cell with a dark look on his face at how empty the room was. _This place is dead,_ he thought, a bored look replacing the dark one on his face.

Black Star leaned back his head too and closed his eyes. He put his hands behind his head and interlocked his fingers in his blue spiky hair, then let out a small, relaxed sigh. _At least not everyone got killed down here._ He frowned thinking about that night again, thinking on how he faced Pitou and lost to the woman and the puppet she used against him. When he awoke inside his cell the next day, he learned all about the prison break that went on while he started one of his own in the infirmary. _Some must have gotten out,_ he thought, though he had been to the Colosseum since that night. He had seen the bodies that lined the walls of the arena, dozens of fighters he had faced over the past few months here, so many who he wondered what had happened to them, only to have to fight a match while they stared at him. Many of their eyes were still open while they rotted out in the sun, so it felt like they had been watching his last matches. By his most recent match however, the eyes of the former gladiators who had failed to escape, and of the ones who had tried to free them, had all been devoured by crows and insects.

Once again Black Star's dark look lifted though, and he shook his head around before smiling with a small chuckle. _**"We know you know where they went! You were brought here with him!"**_ _That prick Zarbon lost Soul and Maka. He really thought I knew where they went, but even if I did, I never would have cracked._ Black Star opened his eyes and stared into the center of the cell, a dark look reappearing on his face again. _Wonder how they managed to get out of the city though. I don't see a way out. Even if I get out again, if it's not Pitou, who I could totally beat the next time we fight, it could be any number of these assholes who fill the Capital. Pitou…_ _ **"You can leave… But then, you'll never know what became of, Gon."**_ _She was messing with me! She played me and I fell into her trap, that's all it was!_ He screamed this in his head, but doubt filled him.

"Black Star, you need to sleep," Tsubaki said to her Meister. She had stayed lying down after she awoke, but she felt him getting more and more restless as he sat next to her, and she finally sat up next to him. She spoke in a quiet whisper so as not to wake their cellmates, "We have another match tomorrow."

"I know," he muttered darkly. Though he said it like he would try to go to sleep again, his mind continued to wander. _Gray, where the fuck did you go? Where did those bastards take Axel? He's gotta be at the Organization HQ now, right? He was a Nobody that whole time! Why didn't he tell me?! It's not like I would have cared._ Black Star started glaring forward harsher. _Kiba, where did they…_ _ **"…you'll never know what became of, Gon."**_

 _Gon, what happened to you? Did, did they catch you trying to escape? What about Mario? Was he with you?_ Black Star ground his teeth in frustration. _Why do you guys, keep trying to escape, without telling me?_ He shook his head of the thought, as he knew when he last tried to flee too that he could not waste time looking around for the others, or he would be recaptured for sure. _All that matters is you made it. You all made it, right?! Gon, you got out of here, and Pitou was just messing with me, RIGHT?! And Zarbon wasn't just fucking with me was he? Soul and Maka really got out_ , _didn't they? Or is this some new form of torture? Are they just trying to fuck with me?! ARE THEY?! I'LL KILL THEM!_

Tsubaki looked at the side of her Meister's face with a worried gaze. _He is so angry. Every day it's like this now. Before, even after we were captured, as long as we were all together, he was holding it together. It's just us now though. We haven't seen anyone, for so long._ Tsubaki clenched her eyes shut, _How long, until even the two of us are separated?_ She had to hold back tears at the thought which was why she shut her eyes so hard. _Kid lost Liz, and Soul and Maka were separated, and, and I don't know how much longer-_

"Tsubaki," Black Star growled, his voice so low it was barely audible. Her eyes snapped open and she spun to the boy on her right whose eyes were shadowed over by his spiky bangs and who did not turn her way while he spoke. "I will never let them take you," he said. Their souls had been connected long enough that he could feel what she was thinking, just as she was stuck awake because of him. " _Ever,_ " he hissed, and Tsubaki felt afraid even as she felt reassured by his words. She felt afraid because the way he said that told her that he would do unspeakable things to anyone who tried to make him break that vow.

"Black Star," Tsubaki whispered. "I-"

 _ **"Sooo, would the two of you like to escape?"**_ Both Meister and weapon froze and their eyes started growing wide at the sound of that voice. It came from inside their heads, yet also from all around them. They thought that maybe they had imagined it. Even if both of them had heard it, they could pass that off as their soul connection making tricks of the mind mess with both of them. That idea went out the window though, as the floor in front of Black Star's feet started shifting and he pulled his legs back fast and jumped to his feet. He opened his mouth to shout something, but the voice spoke first, _**"Shhh… wouldn't want to make a scene now, would you?"**_

The first thing the spooky voice that came precisely from the middle of the cell this time said echoed in the two of their minds. "Escape?" Black Star whispered, while the middle of his cell's floor turned into something that was not steel. It got darker so that it looked like a weird black ooze, and then that ooze started lifting up into a solid form. Two red eyes appeared at the top of the ooze when it reached six feet tall, but other than that and a creepy dark smile that morphed under the eyes, the sludge just stayed in a weird form. It did not grow arms or legs, it just stayed as a tall lump of ooze that rounded at the top and had a scary face.

"What are you?" Tsubaki whispered as she got to her feet next to Black Star. She glanced over at their cellmates, but neither seemed to be roused by the dark figure that appeared before them.

 _ **"I have many names. I am the Lord of the Flies, the Demon King of Insects…"**_ Black Star and Tsubaki looked at him with wide eyes as he mentioned being a Demon King. The sludgy form finished with the corners of its mouth curling up higher to the sides of its oozing head. _**"However you may call me, Beelzebub."**_ A cold wind rushed through the cell and gave the two in front of the demon chills.

"And you, want to help us escape?" Tsubaki whispered to the demon. She did not like how this was going, and she kept darting her eyes towards the bars in fear that guards would show up any second.

 _ **"Not without a price,"**_ Beelzebub replied. His voice echoed in the minds of the two in front of him, making them wonder if he was actually speaking aloud at all, even though his mouth was moving.

"Make a deal with the devil, for a price?" Tsubaki asked while narrowing her eyebrows. The tall woman next to Black Star gave the demon a harsh look, and she snapped in a hiss, "Do you think we are fools?"

 _ **"I do not want your souls,"**_ Beelzebub claimed, as that seemed to be what Tsubaki was implying. _**"I am but a messenger. I was told to bring you to Hell, where Satan has a deal to offer you."**_

The mention of Satan made Tsubaki's face cover in sweat, and she really did not like this conversation at all. She turned to Black Star to tell him that they should deny him already, but Black Star had a much sterner, more thoughtful look on his face. "Black Star?" Tsubaki questioned. "You can't be, considering this?"

"We've been here for months," Black Star whispered back. His fists were clenched at his sides, but the corners of his lips curled up as he stared into the red eyes of the demonic form in front of him. "But if this fucker thinks that's enough to make me get in bed with Satan, he's the real fool."

 _ **"Why are you so against it?"**_ Beelzebub questioned. _**"I would think that someone of your, background, would willingly accept freedom in exchange for something so trivial as a meeting with my Lord."**_ Black Star's expression darkened even as his eyes widened in confusion. _**"What? Did you not think we knew? Why else would I be here, if not for the Star Clan blood running through your veins?"**_ Black Star's eyes darkened even more and he glared forward in a furious way at the demon that just smirked more at his look. _**"Why deny it? Your father has long since accepted Satan's offer…"**_

Black Star froze and his dark expression vanished, shock covering his face instead. _My, father?_ He thought.

 _ **"White Star,"**_ Beelzebub hissed. _**"You could meet him. You could join him. You could kill him."**_ Beelzebub offered all the options he thought the teen might be considering, and Black Star's fists clenched at his sides while a more thoughtful expression filled his face. _**"Do you really want to spend the rest of your life here? Wasting away in a cage? I offer you freedom… think about it."**_ Beelzebub's form started slinking back into the floor.

Tsubaki opened her mouth to say that they did not need to think on it to know their answer, but she froze as she thought again about Soul and Maka, Kid and Liz, Kiba and Akamaru. She darted her gaze over to Black Star with fear in her eyes of being separated from him. Black Star's head was bowed though, the top half of his face shadowed over by his blue hair. Beelzebub disappeared into the floor and left no trace that he was ever there at all, but still Black Star did not lift his gaze. _Freedom. The Star Clan. My father. That isn't the path I chose, but I also didn't_ _ **choose**_ _to get trapped in this prison. No one's coming to save me. I've gotta find a way out of here on my own, but like this? It doesn't sit right._ "Go to sleep Tsubaki," Black Star said, then he front-flipped and landed on his left index finger. "I'm going to train until morning." _There's no way I'm sleeping tonight._

* * *

 **22,000 Miles East and 36,000 Miles South of the Capital**

"Ughhh," Sakamoto Tatsuma threw up over the side of the vehicle rolling across the hot desert in the middle of the Alvarez Empire. The Saharabian Desert stretched for hundreds of miles in every direction of the land rover rolling up and down dunes on a pair of thick treads.

"How are you even worse on this vehicle than you were on your own airship?" Lin Tohsaka asked the man behind her, only glancing back for a second before spinning away as Sakamoto gagged and lost more of his stomach off the side of the ship. "You know," she called out while facing straight forward, "they do have pills for that sort of thing." Lin had a sun hat on with the rim going around her whole head, and since the suns were straight up in the sky she had a shadow cast over her body. She was still sweating in the harsh climate of the desert, mumbling to herself after calling to Sakamoto, "Isn't it supposed to be winter already?"

"It is," Asuka said. Asuka Kudou stood in front of Lin, wearing a low cut tee on that exposed her stomach, a pair of short-shorts, and sandals. It was a sharp contrast to the usual modest dress she wore, but Asuka did not seem to care as she stared off to the east off the vehicle they recently acquired from the traders they met at the edge of the desert the night before. The traders had tried robbing them when they saw how light the group was traveling. They did not have much on them after Sakamoto's airship he had picked them up from Pyraxas in crashed during, and thanks to, the War of the Saiyan Mountains. Every member of their group was glad the traders decided to try and rob them, because now they had the traders' land rover and all of the supplies those men had on them too.

Asuka continued to the girl behind her, "Tonight, this desert will reach temperatures of negative twenty or lower."

"Negative twenty?" Lin repeated in surprise. "I know deserts get cold at night, but still…"

"Last night we were still partially in a temperate zone," Asuka said. "The change will be drastic with the distance we've traveled today."

"Hmm," Lin hummed to herself. _**CHR-CLUNK!**_ Both girls stumbled forward and then regained their balance at the front of the rover. Sakamoto fell flat on his back a little behind them on the right side of the vehicle, and then he let out a deep sigh of elated relief as their vehicle skid to a stop.

"Damn it," Asuka said. She walked to the left side of the vehicle and looked down, then she looked back behind their vehicle and saw the tread that ripped off was discarded a few meters behind them. The brown-haired girl cupped her hands to her mouth and called out, "Check around for extra treads!"

Zabuza lifted his head from where he was sitting with it resting on the seat-back behind him. He lifted his arms up and winced, but he started rolling them around in his shoulders and then reached for the bandages and tore them off. "Mph," he grunted in a satisfied way at the sight of none of the wounds re-opening right away.

"Oh Zabuza," Takeshi said as he was walking by the seat Zabuza just got up from. "You doing alright?"

"Yeah," Zabuza muttered from behind the white mask over his face.

"I just found some extra treads. Help me replace them?" Takeshi asked, and Zabuza grunted in agreement. Takeshi turned back the way he just came from, and he asked while glancing over his shoulder, "I never asked, but who injured you so badly? Must've been one great fighter."

"It wasn't _one,_ man," Zabuza said in his deep voice while they started descending the stairs into the lower compartment of the vehicle that was mostly filled with supplies and trading goods. Takeshi pointed out the extra treads that were behind a great deal of supplies which was why he had to go get someone else to come help him with this, then he and Zabuza started moving things out of the way to get the treads out from back there. "Bastard sent all his minions at me."

"'Minions?'" Takeshi asked with a half-laugh, as it sounded like a weird choice of phrasing to him.

"Yeah, they were like clones or something," Zabuza muttered, and Takeshi lost his grin as he realized Zabuza chose that wording intentionally. "Anyway, that swirly-eyebrowed fuck would attack whenever I was off guard or too busy with ten of his guys. Took me a while, but I kicked his ass after pretending to drop my guard one of the times. Would have cut straight through him, but his armor electrocuted me right after I cut through its side. Made me lose all momentum." Zabuza lifted up a steel drum that was full of some sort of liquid, which he hoped was booze and not oil, and he placed it down behind him before pushing it into the pile of stuff on the other side to give them more room to take out the treads. "Anyway, after I fell back from getting shocked, his clones rushed in and got him out of there, then the rest swarmed me."

"You ever figure out who it was?" Takeshi asked.

"I knew who it was," Zabuza said. "One of the Germa Lords, Niji."

 _Swirly-eyebrowed fuck, huh?_ Zoro thought from the staircase he was standing on that he had stopped walking down while listening to the conversation below. He continued walking after Zabuza finished with the name, even though he had already known who Zabuza got in the fight with. _Didn't see the swirly cook there, but he was probably with Luffy too. Still, would have paid to see the two of them go at it._ Zoro imagined Zabuza and Sanji kicking the crap out of each other, and it made a small smile actually come to his face. _Hold on,_ that smile lowered back down and Zoro scrunched up his gigai's face. _What the Hell? Niji, Yonji, Ichiji. Swirly eyebrows… that almost seems like, a coincidence?_ Zoro shrugged his shoulders, not caring enough about it to think any harder on the matter.

"You got it?" Zoro asked while looking at the two who were trying to pull the treads off the hooks on the wall now that there was nothing in their way.

"Yeah we're good," Takeshi assured him. "If you want to hold up the rover though while we attach it, that'd be good."

Zoro nodded once then turned and started back up the stairs. He moved through the main room of the speeder and turned to the men sitting at a counter on his left with their heads down on it while snoring loudly. "Oi," he said. "It's the middle of the day. Stop being so lazy."

"Hughhh. Zzzz. Naps are important. Hughhh," Gintoki muttered rapidly between loud snores to pretend like he was still sleeping and avoid having to get up and do any work. The ninja next to him stayed much more silent as he also pretended to sleep, though Zoro was not convinced by him either.

Zoro noticed the other two coming up behind him and he turned and kept walking until he got out onto the outer section of the rover. As soon as he stepped out the door though, the poles holding up the stools Gin and Hattori Zenzou were fake-sleeping on sliced, and the two of them fell backwards with loud crashes. Zoro's Shuusui that had only an inch of steel showing clicked back into its sheath at the same moment, and Zoro smirked as he heard a shout behind him from the man with wavy white hair.

Some of the group got to fixing up the rover, while Asuka, Lin, and Jewelry Bonney went over to the old treads to see what might have made them come off. "Doesn't look like foul play," Lin said after examining it for a few seconds.

"Probably just a shoddy ride," Bonney said. She lifted a bag of potato chips she found in the 'shoddy ride' and shoved a few in her mouth, then she continued while crunching on them, "Those idiots wouldn't have tried robbing us if they had better shit on them."

"Maybe," Asuka agreed. She focused on the part of the treads that were cut through though, then she turned and looked a little farther back to where their rover started skidding. She glanced over her shoulder, then she sighed and said, "Well it doesn't seem like there are any monsters here." The fact that none of the strongest members in the group had worried or on-guard looks made the girls feel like this really was just an accident.

Saber, Mystogan, and Raiden came over to them when they saw they were not needed over at the rover, and they grabbed the damaged treads to bring back and put on board. "Don't know how long we're going to be stuck with this thing," Saber said as she started walking side-by-side with Lin, though the blonde was the only one holding the heavy treads. Saber was wearing a black top without any sleeves that did not cover up any of her stomach, and she had on a pair of tight black shorts as well, as even she could not take the heat and had gotten out of her usual knight's armor. "So we should try to fix up the extra parts. Takeshi said they only had one back-up for the treads."

"Good thinking," Lin said. "The damage doesn't seem that severe. Though if it's not that bad but fell anyway, it might have more to do with the rover's-"

Saber's eyes opened wide and Lin froze mid-sentence at the sight of Saber's expression. She dropped her side of the treads and stepped forward while raising both of her arms. Over Saber's body formed her heavy silver and blue armor dress, woven by her magical energy. It covered her from her neck to her feet in steel protection, and in her hands that she rose up shimmered an invisible sword that she held just on her right side with the blade pointed straight up.

Zoro lowered the rover they had just gotten the treads on, and he said while still facing the vehicle he was putting down, "Thanks for waiting until we finished."

The dark form rising out of the ground twenty feet behind Zoro froze midway out of the sand. _Did he know I was here?_

"But if you don't leave right now," Zoro continued, and he turned his head sideways. His glare into the red eyes of the black ooze that had risen out of the ground would have terrified most men. "You're going to get cut," Zoro finished.

 _ **"No need to be so hostile. I promise I had nothing to do with your ride breaking down. I would have just appeared inside, but those men really did not take care of their things."**_ The sludge grew to six feet tall and focused only on Zoro, though everyone was on the sand now staring at it. Gintoki, Sakamoto, and Zenzou had fallen off the other side of the rover after they had been leaning over the edge asking if the others had fixed the rover yet, only for Zoro to suddenly lift it up fast and throw them off the far side. They had come around the back of the rover and were now standing just at the rear while facing the sludge with serious, or seriously grossed-out looks.

The group formed a line with a few of them standing several meters behind the ride, some standing just behind it, and the others standing just on its left side. The sludge figure stared straight at Roronoa Zoro with its glowing red eyes, and it continued, _**"It was difficult to find you, but those men were very willing to give you up."**_

"What do you want?" Lin snapped over at the strange being that was giving her seriously bad vibes.

"Why were you looking for us?" Asuka added in a harsh tone.

Bonney slowly lifted a hand up and bit down on a potato chip, though she kept her chewing as silent as possible.

 _ **"Lord Satan is collecting the nastiest, scariest demon-types in the world,"**_ Beelzebub said, and its dark indent of a mouth beneath its glowing red eyes rose up at the corners in a more twisted way. _**"How could I not come here? Heh heh heh,"**_ the demon's laughter chilled a few of those staring at him. After mentioning Satan there was no doubt in their minds any longer as to what this thing before them was. What it was talking about unnerved them even more though. _**"You fall into that category,"**_ he said while facing Zoro. _**"You too, if you'd like,"**_ Beelzebub continued and glanced to his left towards the woman with the invisible sword that she clenched tighter at his words.

Beelzebub looked straight forward once again, but as his eyes passed over a man with wavy white hair, his smirk rose up even more. Gin's expression lost the grossed-out expression that matched Sakamoto's, turning much more serious. Beelzebub looked at the man directly on Zoro's left, _**"And you could return to Hell as well, since you are already a real demon."**_

Zabuza snarled at the demon and then growled out, "I have no more demon blood in my system."

 _ **"It's fine. You can have more if you want,"**_ the demon smirked, and that smirk rose more at the wide-eyed look on Zabuza's face. The ninja swordsman leaned forward, while a few of the people in the group who were confused at what was going on looked at him in fear, and others had nervous expressions at that hungry look on his face. Zabuza realized what he was doing before his foot left the ground, though he had felt the weight lifting off it like he was going to step forward. He cursed internally at the addiction his body craved, and Beelzebub snickered at his frustrated look before turning away.

Beelzebub continued while re-facing Zoro, _**"I came specifically for you, however… you can bring all of your friends. I'm sure Lord-"**_ Zoro suddenly vanished from in front of the demon whose red eyes opened huge and then started twitching.

Standing on Beelzebub's right side, just a little farther past him so he could only see the back of the man's head, Zoro started, "I said get lost." The sword he had curved around Beelzebub's neck pulled closer, cutting through the black ooze just as Zoro promised. The demon's black face covered in sweat, and then a darker circle spread on the ground and neared Zoro's feet, making the swordsman back away. Beelzebub sank into the ground and let the dark ooze close over him, then the demon started panting before snarling furiously.

"Rrrr," Beelzebub's snarl died down and he just grimaced to himself. The black ooze beneath the sand shot under the desert for miles before rising up and out from below the surface. It rose up into the air no longer as a mass of dark ooze, but a swarm of locusts a few hundred feet wide and tall, a terrifying sight for anyone unlucky enough to witness it. Thinking of that look in Zoro's eyes, how fast he was to get the sword up against the throat of even just a piece of the Demon King's body, it made Beelzebub grimace in regret. He grumbled in a low voice while flying as a swarm of insects, "He would have been a great applicant."

Beelzebub flew for hundreds of miles before descending towards a town just past the edge of the desert, in an area with low grass and chaparral. Tumbleweeds rolled across the empty streets of the town as the swarm of locusts flew down. It flew down the street and Beelzebub's voice came out of it, "One last stop." The swarm hit the center of town and flew through the gateway, and a few seconds later it emerged from another door twenty thousand miles away.

The swarm shot out of the new gateway and rose up in the sky while people in the city below pointed at it and many yelled out in fear. He would have enjoyed it, (and he did), but he could not enjoy it more as there were matters to attend to. He flew even farther west than he just teleported, rising up the edge of a mountain until he hit its peak and could look down. His scattered locusts all pulled together as he stood on the edge of a small mountain, facing the west and a town in the valley ahead of him. On his right to the north were much taller mountains that stretched so high into the clouds that he could not see any sky beyond them. He stayed focused on the town to his front though, ignoring what floated above it, to focus on the clock tower in the center.

Beelzebub's eyes narrowed towards that clock tower where he spotted three people sitting. Then his eyes lowered down the clock tower and he scanned the town below. When his insects had pulled together to form one human-like body of locusts, not all of them had done so. Several of the locusts had gone off on their own into the town below, though none of them flew above. _Too risky to send any into their Headquarters, but if I'm lucky._ Beelzebub smirked as one of the locusts, a part of his own body, landed on the wall of a building on the other side of Twilight Town. That insect could see two figures in black cloaks walking down the road in front of it, both of them with their hoods down as they talked.

The Nobody he focused on had messy black hair and looked like a boy in his teens. Beelzebub smirked as his bugs on the mountain's edge started to scatter. _We may not be able to get to you, Okumura Rin. But I have the next best thing right here._

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed. What are Beelzebub, and Satan's, plans for the most demonic types around? Will any of them take his offer? One final part of chapter 14 coming at you tomorrow! Thanks for reading! Short list below then a couple of review responses:**

 **Blue Exorcist: Okumura Rin, Beelzebub, Satan**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Organization, Axel, Nobodies, Twilight Town**

 **Naruto: Kiba, Akamaru, Zabuza**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Meruem, Pitou, Gon**

 **Soul Eater: Soul, Maka, Liz, Patty, Kid, Tsubaki, Black Star, White Star**

 **Gintama: Gintoki, Hattori Zenzou, Sakamoto Tatsuma**

 **Fate Stay/Night: Lin Tohsaka, Saber**

 **Problem Children are Coming from Another World: Asuka Kudou**

 **One Piece: Niji, Ichiji, Yonji, Sanji, Germa, Zoro, Jewelry Bonney, Luffy**

 **Hitman Reborn: Yamamoto Takeshi**

 **Metal Gear: Raiden**

 **Nintendo: Mario**

 **Fairy Tail: Gray, Mystogan**

joebob323 chapter 102 . 8h ago

Is it Satan?

 **Close! Beelzebub's carrying out Satan's bidding at least. Thanks for the review!**

Limit-Breaking chapter 102 . 12h ago

Hey great chapter again you really are good at this kind of thing, bsides that i don't really have much to say except three things.  
is Turles being the leader of every bounty hunter really that impressive in the land of aebirth and how exactly does that work.  
Third thing is when can we get more flashbacks about the events in the two year time skip, like the third war or what happened during those times and how did the countries get established and stuff.

Also i just felt like getting this out their cause i just found this out right now  
From 2017 april to 2018 of march dragon ball rake in nearly 98,000,000,000, yen convert that USD You find that Dragon Ball's Ip Sold about about $888,256,418 which is nothing to sneeze at.

 **Thanks! No sneak peaks, and no spoilers, but I will say that there are more _big_ flashbacks coming up in upcoming chapters that have more of the big moments from the past in them. We have not seen the last of Turles so those questions will be answered (as well as Luthor predictions), but not here, not now. I'm pretty impressed by those stats, and it surprises me then that they would end Super so soon. Does give me hope that it will return pretty quickly though, especially with all the unexplored plot they have capable. Universes fighting each other in things other than tournaments (hopefully Universe 12 with that strongest God of Destruction fish guy), as well as the Great/Grand Priest who seems even stronger than Zeno possibly (ex: back when Zeno couldn't see Dyspo's moves). Anyway, I'm hoping it comes back too, and making that much money it's sure to soon. Can't wait for the movie (even if it will render my Bardock backstory probably super un-canon...) XD Thanks for the reviews. Once again I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter. Thank you all for reading. And 'till next time!**


	104. Nexus HWR 14-9 The Old Boss

**A/N Short part coming at you for the end of chapter 14! Hope you enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I still own none of the media that my characters and various other proper nouns originate from. Support all those official releases!**

* * *

 **Nexus** **HWR 14.9 The Old Boss:**

 **Somewhere in Central Aebrith**

"I said back off," a deep voice growled from inside a thick steel suit. The suit of gray armor had glowing red light in a circle in the center of its plated chest. It was ten feet tall and over four broad at the shoulders. Iron Monger stomped forward towards the figure in front of him and the visor on his helmet glowed red like the light on his chest. "Unless you want to take a rocket to that ugly face of yours?" He rose up his right arm and a missile popped out on an opening on it.

The figure in front of Iron Monger did not flinch at the sight of the missile now targeting him. He was a tall, light skinned man with a thick protruding chin down in front of his neck. He wore a heavy black jacket and long pants of the same color. He reached down to his right side with his right hand and grabbed the red hilt of his long katana sticking out behind him. The sheath itself was white closer to the hilt but became speckled with red dots halfway down it before becoming completely red at the end. The man grabbing his sword took a puff of his cigar and then spoke calmly, "I have a problem with the way your Lord is running things."

"Are you stupid?" The armored man scoffed in a loud, taunting voice. Laughter came from both sides of the swordsman as four smaller armored figures around him starting laughing with their boss. The mask on Iron Monger's face lifted up on its own and the bald man inside glared forward with a smug smirk on his face. "Anything you have to say to Lord Porla you can say to his right hand man." Obadiah Stane, or Iron Monger, stepped closer to the swordsman so there was only a ten foot gap between them. The others backed away as they did not want to get caught in the blast that seemed imminent now as the swordsman flicked his hilt with a finger and made the steel visible. "Try anything, and you're dead," Stane snarled, his metal mask dropping back down over his face. "Actually, scratch that, I'm going to-"

The swordsman leaned forward and he started sliding his sword out of his sheath while the other man was mid-threat. Iron Monger did not stop talking because his opponent moved though, as he only took one step, and the swordsman did not stop moving because Iron Monger attacked, as the rocket never fired. The two of them froze, because the ceiling of the room they were in suddenly turned pitch black. The two men and the four other armored soldiers looked up and stared at that blackness seeping off the ceiling, and they listened nervously to the voice that came with it.

"...hahaha..." The swordsman who heard this laugh slid his sword back into his sheath but his eyes were still huge. He followed the darkness on the ceiling to the one wall that it also covered, then looked down that wall behind Iron Monger, making the large armored figure risk turning around. The darkness covering the wall on that side of the room spread from the closed doorway up to the ceiling and was slowly moving across the floor towards them.

Suddenly, the doors blasted out towards them and darkness swept into the room fast. It covered the entire floor and all four walls so that the six of them were completely surrounded by black.

"What the Hell is happening?!"

"Who is there?" Iron Monger shouted, raising his armed rocket to point at the open doorway that led into a pitch black room even darker than theirs somehow. "Make yourself known! I am the second in command to the Lord of Phant-"

"Zehahahaha," the deep voice laughed from the darkness, much louder than before and this time echoing around the other room. Iron Monger gulped and closed his mouth, then his face covered in sweat behind his mask and he took a step back. A figure even taller than Obadiah's armored suit was walking through the darkness, becoming more visible with every step. He was over ten feet tall but his weight was what was truly set him apart, looking like he weighed more than five hundred pounds easily.

His stature was not what made Iron Monger and his men step back though. Neither did the dark power filling the room have anything to do with it. It was the figure he had in his closed right hand, his fingers wrapped around the man's torso, the man himself dripping red liquid into the dark ooze below. "If you're talking about this Lord," the loud voice that stopped laughing boomed. He swung his right hand forward and threw said Lord across the room so he slammed into Iron Monger's chest.

Iron Monger lifted an arm a little and caught the Lord before he fell completely off his dented chest. He turned the thin man with dark black hair full of blood around in his hand and looked at the front of his body, and despite his own love for violence, he almost gagged at the way Lord Porla looked. The color from his Lord's skin was pale in some areas but burnt black in others and he had over a dozen holes in his body.

Iron Monger dropped the body on the ground and it sank into the dark within seconds. Every person in that room turned their attentions back to the Lord's supposed killer. The fat man's hairy chest was visible because the shirt he had on was unbuttoned, and his chin was covered in thicker dark black hair. He walked closer to them and narrowed his eyes as he did, laughing the whole time, "Zehahahahaha! ZEHAHAHA! Lord Jose Porla, I heard he owned a nice piece of land up here!" The man threw his arms up on his sides and bellowed out even more laughter.

When he stopped laughing he lowered his arms and looked past Iron Monger. "Shiliew! I finally found you!"

"Teach," Shiliew said. He stepped forward and right past Iron Monger, "What are you doing here?" The two of them had not seen each other in over two years, but Shiliew got over his surprise fast.

"Zehahaha! I'm making a new crew! You gonna join up?" Blackbeard boomed. Marshall D. Teach looked straight into Shiliew's eyes as he asked.

Shiliew stared right back and he noticed something off about Blackbeard's eyes. They were pitch black with small gray irises in the middles. The swordsman frowned as he looked at the pirate he once called 'Captain.' "I've gotten much stronger since I left," Shiliew said. "Two Devil Fruits doesn't-"

Blackbeard rose his right hand and his palm filled with a swirling darkness. All the black in the room condensed on that hand and flared up towards the ceiling. Blackbeard's left hand rose and on it formed a ball of yellow light. His entire body little by little turned into yellow light particles that reformed closer to his old comrade. "I was there when we killed Kizaru, but two Logias-" he stopped mid-sentence. Shiliew's mouth froze open and his eyes opened wide at what the fat man showed him next.

Blackbeard smirked ear to ear as his face started to distort. His face grew and turned dark red, becoming bumpy as the magma replacing his skin bubbled. Blackbeard shot forward at the speed of light and reappeared right in front of Shiliew with darkness and magma swirling around on his hands. "Who said anything about two Logias?" Blackbeard asked. He saw Shiliew not making a retort this time and started laughing again, "Good! So you'll join?! Zehahaha! In that case, I'll let you in on a secret!"

"One second," Shiliew replied. He turned his head sideways a bit and Iron Monger flinched at the look of bloodlust on Shiliew's face. He tried raising up his arm, but before his arm was even halfway raised, Shiliew was standing behind all five enemies. None of them could move, and then the armor sliced off all of their bodies, no matter how thick it was.

Obadiah fell out of his suit and dropped to the floor on his hands and knees. He snapped his head up and stared at Shiliew, and on the sides of the swordsman he saw limbs falling with his men's armor. Iron Monger no longer had his suit, it was sliced to pieces around him, but he started cracking up as he looked into Shiliew's eyes. "Ha, haha, hahahaha!" Obadiah stumbled up to his feet and yelled, "HA! You couldn't cut through my steel armor and me at the same-"

Shiliew appeared directly in front of Obadiah and his sword was already shoved forward. The bald man gasped and blood splattered out of his mouth. "I could have," Shiliew said, and he did not sound to be lying. "I chose not to, so that I could enjoy this." He twisted his sword, then yanked to the side while watching Obadiah's expressions the whole time.

Finally Shiliew turned back to Blackbeard while sliding his bloody sword back into its sheath. He looked at Blackbeard and the fatter pirate could see Shiliew looking at his eyes for a reason other than just making eye contact. "That's the secret," Blackbeard said, and chuckled darkly under his breath. "You missed it Shiliew, I died."

Shiliew looked pretty surprised, but not as shocked as Blackbeard thought he would be. The hairier pirate chuckled and continued, "I was brought back by a ninja bastard who died before releasing the jutsu, and I was never fully sealed." He smirked more at his new, old comrade, and went on, "That's not all though. This body," he rose up his left arm, then rose his right and grabbed his left forearm with it. Blackbeard crushed down on his forearm then yanked to the side, ripping his left hand right off. He purposely did not use any of his Logia powers, and Shiliew saw the hand he was holding start falling apart into little gray rectangles. Near Blackbeard's elbow his skin lost coloring and turned gray like his removed hand that now completely fell apart.

Blackbeard liked Shiliew's confused expression and while he had the swordsman's undivided attention on his left arm, he made yellow light and red magma come out of that elbow and reform an arm in his old one's place. Shiliew watched as the arm reformed then turned back to its normal color and all of Blackbeard's powers faded away. "Don't you get it?" Blackbeard questioned. Shiliew did not answer so Blackbeard held that left hand up and clenched it into a fist. "Even if there is a way to kill a man with the powers of three Logias, it is still not a threat to me! I have reached it Shiliew." The swordsman's eyes were growing wide in realization and Blackbeard threw his head back and started laughing at the top of his lungs. "ZEHAHAHAHAHA! I HAVE BECOME IMMORTAL!"

* * *

 **Somewhere in Northeast Aebrith**

Inside a giant white room that stretched over a hundred meters wide by a hundred long, two men faced off against each other with sweat all over their bodies. Both had on powerful armor, but the man with long pink hair held a longsword while the man with a short blonde cut held a lance. Gilthunder was charging his opponent, but Howzer pointed his lance straight at his fast opponent covered in a veil of electricity, and he shouted, "Plowing Tornado!"

As fast as Gilthunder was, the sand tornado stretched half the width of the room. The point of it was coming straight towards him, and Gil slashed his sword down while covering it in a brighter, thicker aura of electricity. "Lightning Slice!" His sword slammed into the point of the tornado and he ground his teeth before yelling out, "Haa!" He cut the rest of the way down and split the tornado down the middle, sending a huge slash of lightning through the splitting magic. Howzer had leapt up in the air as soon as Gil yelled out, knowing his magic was about to get cut through and allowing it instead of pushing more magic to make his tornado of sand stronger. He had his lance out to his right side, but he had to spin in midair as the lightning slash Gil cut rose almost to the ceiling.

Howzer passed by the slash, but as he finished his spin, he saw Gilthunder already three quarters of the way up to him. **Clink! Dink-dink-clink-** _ **CLASH!**_ The two of them slashed their weapons into each other's over and over and then did it one more time only with their magic spilling out. Sand pushed against lightning, and the two of them roared at each other while pushing harder into their attacks. Grains of the fast moving sand pelted Gil in the face, while Howzer could feel his entire body getting charged and zapped by the lightning pushing past his sand. The two of them slashed hard forward and parried away from each other, landing and skidding away while trying hard to stay up on their feet.

Right as they stopped skidding, Gil dropped down to one knee and started panting. He used his sword as a balance on his right side, and Howzer smirked victoriously. "Haha! I-" Howzer lost his balance and fell straight back, landing hard on his spine. "Oof," he grunted, and his armor did little to help him there. He stared up at the ceiling, then sat up with a groan and looked towards Gil who let out a small chuckle at his friend's expense. "I'll call it a tie," Howzer said, though he then twitched as a spark of remaining electricity pulsed through him.

"Sirs!" a voice shouted from the only entrance into the room. They looked towards the hallway and spotted a thin man who looked pretty nervous as he stood there. "Someone's here to see you, but there's something…" the messenger saw the two he was speaking to shoot up to their feet and look behind him, and the man let out an afraid yelp before spinning to see the figure standing there. He moved to the side, and the man in a suit of golden armor kept walking forward until he entered the giant white room.

Howzer and Gil had felt the tremendous power from in front of them which made them shoot to their feet, but the sight of this man had both of them staring with dropped jaws. The man had long silver hair falling behind his back as well as over his shoulders and even a strand crossing in front of his face under his left eye. He wore a cape clasped to the top of his armor by a golden heart. The cape was a dark blue, as Gilthunder expected the man's eyes to look, but for some strange reason his eyes were the only part of him that Gil did not recognize. When that man smiled though while looking into Gil's stunned eyes, the younger man knew who it was he was staring at.

"Father?" Gil whispered.

"Great Holy Knight, Zaratras," Howzer whispered in shock.

"That's me," Zaratras replied, a wider smile spreading across his face. "It's so great to see you, my son." The messenger who had been scared out of his wits by the man's sudden appearance started slinking away. If the two he was bringing this to thought it was okay, he was not going to argue. Zaratras walked farther into the room while the other man ran off, and a slightly confused look came to his face as the shocked ones would not leave the younger men.

"Great Holy Knight, Zaratras," Howzer repeated, his voice even quieter as he stared blankly at the man. _What is… going on?_

"Howzer," Zaratras said, a big smile returning to his face as he spun to the other Holy Knight not his son. "I'm so glad to see you survived. You were on death's door the last time I saw you."

Howzer nodded dumbly at the man, while Gilthunder spun from his father towards his best friend with a furious look on his face. "Howzer! You told me my father was dead!"

Zaratras started chuckling, and both Gil and Howzer had strange feelings fill their guts as they turned back to him. The silver-haired man scratched the back of his head and closed his eyes while his sheepish laughter settled down. "Well, about that…"

* * *

 **A/N The Old Boss returns! I had written out the Blackbeard part a long time ago, probably right after I wrote the scene where Riku released Blackbeard from the darkness to help them escape. Blackbeard and Zaratras return to the world as nigh immortal beings, and Blackbeard still has Akainu's Devil Fruit power that he was reanimated with as well. Another terrifying villain emerges on Aebrith, but a powerful possible ally appears as well... Hope you enjoyed! Start of the next chapter we get Nexus HWR 15.0 The New Boss (see what I did there? ;) ). For anyone wondering what Zaratras and Howzer were referring to (it has been a while), there was a flashback during the later parts of the Battle of Metropolis for the day Lucy was killed by Kamishiro. Both of the Holy Knights were at the battle, where Zaratras was killed and last we saw of Howzer he was gravely wounded. Hadn't decided at the time whether or not he was going to survive, but I really like his character so he made it! XD Alright, I'm going to put a short list below since there are a lot of characters who never showed up before in this chapter. Anyway, thanks for reading everyone! Leave a review, comment, question, or predictions in the comment section below!**

 **7DS: Gilthunder, Howzer, Zaratras**

 **One Piece: Shiliew, Blackbeard, Kizaru**

 **Naruto: Orochimaru**

 **Fairy Tail: Jose Porla (Guild Master of Phantom Lord)**

 **Iron Man: Iron Monger/Obadiah Stane (he was the main bad guy of the first movie and a comic book villain)**

Limit-Breaking chapter 103 . 23h ago

Really i always felt like the Clown god of destructin was the strongest one especially the way they portaryed him in the manga.

 **Huh. I was just basing it off the anime when the 4 Gods of Destruction whose universes weren't participating in tournament of power were asked if they wanted to fight, and the fish guy said that it was clear who the victor would be and just sat it out. Maybe it was just overconfidence though. Anyway, I wouldn't really know since I don't read the manga. Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks for reviewing, and thanks to everyone for reading! 'Til next time!**


	105. Nexus HWR 15-0 The New Boss

**Nexus HWR 15.0 The New Boss:**

In the farthest reaches to the south in Aebrith, a large four-wheel vehicle trudged across the Dead Wastes. The truck's wheels were over fifty feet tall and had spikes coming out of them that left a long upturned trail in the already desolate landscape. The black truck the wheels were carrying was four times as tall as the wheels were. It looked like a truck from the outside, but inside it was a three story house where the inhabitants could barely tell they were inside a vehicle.

The front of the truck had a huge tinted windshield across it. A cockpit stood in place of the normal front seats. The captain's chair, along with the rest of the seats in the cockpit, was empty at the moment. The vehicle Cartman returned to them had a few more upgrades than they initially thought, (which Usopp and Franky took credit for considering they made the wish). The higher-tech, magically-created vehicle Cartman gave them was equipped with enhanced auto-pilot which kept it moving and navigating despite the absence of a crew.

The usual driver, along with the rest of the truck's inhabitants, were gathered inside on the first floor right above the spinning wheels. The bedrooms were scattered around all three floors, but the first also had a luxury living room with a nice fireplace, fancy couches and chairs, soft fur rugs, and a chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

Dinner had finished and everyone met in the living room after. Unlike the normal party-atmosphere they had during their feasts, dinner was pretty quiet. They still ate a lot, of course, but the sound of chewing was all to be heard in the dining room during the meal. Now they were sitting in a circle around in the living room with a similar silence.

Most of the original crew who got off the Thousand Sunny onto Aebrith were there. Ben sat on a recliner chair in the corner of the room near the fireplace. Leaning against the wall to Ben's left side was Riku, then Sora, and Luffy leaning next to him. Then there was a couch crossing a different corner with Juvia, Nami, and Robin on it. Sanji stood next to it, tapping his foot anxiously on the ground since he couldn't smoke in there without pissing everyone off. The chef stood in front of the door leading into the hallway, and past him the circle curved around the other half of the living room. Usopp and Franky were sitting on chairs in the opposite corner of the room as Ben. There was another couch next to them that Dash, Timmy, and Stan were on. Kirito, Natsu, and Gray leaned on the wall opposite Luffy, Sora, and Riku, while Rin nervously shifted his weight from one foot to the other next to the fireplace on the side opposite Ben, thinking about how he'd rather be resting in his room like Kuro.

"Where's Goku?" Nami whispered to her left.

Robin leaned in a little and whispered, "I believe he is training."

Nami frowned a little. They all agreed to have this meeting after dinner, though now that she thought back she realized that Goku never spoke up. _Something happened after he left us. He, has a purpose now._

"So," Kirito started up since everyone was being quiet. "What do we do now?"

No one spoke up right away. They each thought on their own what they thought they wanted to do. For many of them, they did not know what it was. "We found Zoro," Nami started. "Now that we know where he is, we could go get him."

"He's on the opposite side of the continent," Usopp countered with a deep frown. "It would take weeks at the speed we're going-"

"We could go faster," Timmy mentioned. The twelve year old lifted his head a little, "I could fly the truck where we need to go."

"How long would that take you?" Nami asked.

"Without breaks," Timmy began. He thought about his max speed, the weight of the truck, and most importantly: the distance. "Maybe two days," he offered. "I could go without sleep or food and..."

"You don't need to do that," Nami assured the boy. "But if you are feeling all better, then flying could be good."

"Cartman's a bastard," Stan muttered loudly. He glanced to the other twelve year old next to him. "I'm sorry about him."

"Don't be," Timmy replied. "His actions were his own. I just hope what we said gets through to him."

"Does everyone think we should go get Zoro?" Kirito asked, bringing the conversation back on task.

"No," Gray stated. He frowned deeply and continued, "I also found out where my friends are. We never made it past Pyraxas, but our original intention for heading north was to reach the Capital of the Cooperative. I heard that except for Cloud who escaped, my squad was enslaved and sent to the Colosseum."

"You said Cloud?" Sora asked. Gray turned towards Sora who started smiling as he saw Gray nod. "So he's here too huh? I'm glad he's okay." The spiky haired teen mentioned with a nostalgic smile on his face. "We're talking about the same Cloud right? Spiky blond hair. Giant sword-"

"Yea, that's him," Gray responded, still staring at Sora in semi-shock that the other teen recognized his comrade.

"Juvia would like to save Gray-sama's friends and find Zoro-san," the blue haired girl brought up out of nowhere. A lot of the others looked at Juvia and she added at the end, "If Zoro-san really wants to be found."

"He should," Sanji stated, putting his foot down hard. "That bastard's dedicated to this crew. To Luffy," he looked over at the rubberman, "more than anyone."

The others in the Straw Hat crew were stunned to hear Sanji hear that, other than Robin. She recalled Thriller Bark when she heard that Zoro tried to take Luffy's place when Kuma came to kill him. She knew that Sanji tried as well, but Zoro knocked him out and took all of Luffy's pain, an action that almost cost him his life. Sanji was thinking on that moment himself when he spoke up.

"Zoro still thinks I'm dead, I think," Gray stated. Everyone looked to the ice mage who was frowning deeply still. "He's putting the team in danger if he's fighting based off that. Zabuza, Yamamoto, Mystogan..." Gray shook his head and grimaced. "If they get hurt on a vengeance mission for me, I wouldn't be able to live with it."

"Didn't you say yourself," Timmy began. "Zoro is one of the strongest people you know? Can't he handle it?"

Gray shook his head and whispered, "I don't know. I just, don't know."

"What about Goku?" Natsu started. The pink haired Dragon Slayer leaned forward and kept going, "What does he want to do?"

"Goku," Sora began strongly, but faded off as he didn't really know what to say. He continued in a softer voice, "Goku's father was killed by the King. It happened right in front of us." Everyone gasped and stared at Sora in shock. Sora glanced over at Dash but the younger kid shook his head fast at him. Sora nodded his head, understanding Dash's head shake. The teen continued in a whisper, "Bardock was easily one of the strongest people in this world, and Meruem defeated him."

"Bardock," Gray whispered. He thought he may have heard the name before, but other than an off-handed mention by the Wizard King, it didn't ring any bells.

"Both of them were much stronger than Goku," Sora added as this was why he brought it up in the first place. "So Goku is training so that he can fight Meruem."

"Training doesn't seem like such a bad idea," Natsu muttered, agreeing with the Mayor's style. His pink bangs shadowed his eyes for a moment and the usually proud Dragon Slayer admitted straight out, "We need to get stronger."

"Yeah, we do," Ben agreed, thinking back to when they all got slaughtered before his eyes. _Everyone on this continent is too much. The Underworld were weaklings in comparison._

"There's no time to get stronger," Rin mumbled while staring down at his feet. He looked up a little and stated, "I need to find my brother, Yukio, before it's too late."

"Do you know where he is?" Sora asked the younger teenager. Half of the group looked to Rin with knowing gazes, some of them nervous and scared as they wondered what he was going to suggest.

Okumura Rin looked at the brown-haired teen and said, "I already know where he is. He's in the lowest layer of Hell. I questioned Astaroth about it, and I know how to get there now." He looked over at Gray who nodded at the teen he told a little about the Hell gates. Rin had tried to avoid this altogether when Cartman offered him a wish, but he was back to his original plan now. Most people were wondering what Rin was planning, and a few did not like the way he was speaking only in the singular.

Dash nodded his head aimlessly while looking at Rin. "And what about you Dash?" Timmy asked the kid next to him. Dash turned towards Timmy and looked confused. Timmy specified, "Aren't you going to look for your brother? JackJack?"

Dash stared at Timmy for a few seconds and he forced a smile to his face. "Yeah, but I still don't-" he faded off and looked back at Rin. "I'll help Rin find his, since we at least know, where his brother is."

Timmy felt like Dash was acting strange, but most people around him were acting a lot different from when he left them outside of Dressrosa. "And with your speed," Stan started to the blond kid next to him. "Searching all of Hell shouldn't be too hard," he joked.

"And what are you doing Stan?" Robin asked the young boy who was the newest addition to their group. "I believe you too have a purpose for being here?"

Stan Marsh looked around at the group of people whose powers he had gotten a close look at over the past few days. "If it's alright, I'll stay with you, for now." He gazed down at his hands, "I need to be stronger if I am to face Ichimaru Gin."

Robin's eyebrows lifted and she questioned, "The former New Earth Government leader?"

The rest of them looked at Robin in surprise, then Usopp's eyes popped wide. "Wait a second! That's one of the guys that Ansem said was in league with the Underworld!"

"How did you meet him?" Nami asked the kid in surprise, and also some hesitation in her voice as she remembered how intense Stan was when he mentioned his revenge to the Wizard King.

Stan grimaced as he had not mentioned much about himself to these people yet. He took a deep breath, then looked up and around at everyone. "You were all amazing in Metropolis." They looked at him in shock, and Stan continued, "I was there with my Master, and we helped the rebels inside the city."

A few of the others in the living room looked around at each other with even larger eyes than the rest of them. "It looked like we had succeeded, until the Underworld attacked. Half of the team were killed, including my Master."

"Why does this sound super familiar?" Franky asked. The cyborg scratched the side of his metallic head confusedly.

"Baka," Nami scolded over at him. She looked back at Stan and asked, "Do you, happen to know Killua?"

Now it was Stan's turn to go wide-eyed. When Goku had brought up Killua before, Stan had not been listening as Goku's friends had been arguing with him for leaving them, and he did not care much about that conversation. He had been more focused on getting Timmy back from Cartman with Sora and Nami which had happened at the same time. "Y-Yeah," the boy said in surprise, before regaining his composure and lowering his voice. "How do you know him?"

"He's our nakama," Luffy stated, not hesitating for a second before saying it.

Natsu continued, "He got badly injured a week back. We left him at that Resistance base where you joined us."

"He'll be alright," Gray assured.

Stan nodded his head and let out a breath of relief. "I thought he had died like the others when I didn't see him after the battle."

Usopp and Franky glanced at each other nervously. The two of them were thinking about how Killua told them why he wasn't there. They remembered how he admitted to being Luthor's spy. Neither of them really felt like sharing Killua's secret with Stan at the moment though.

"So what are we doing?" Kirito asked again, bringing the conversation in full circle. "We need a destination."

"Well, we should go get Killua first," Nami began. "Hopefully he'll be awake already."

"Then what?" Kirito asked. He looked around and saw a bunch of indecisive faces. He frowned and ground his teeth together, visibly angry. "Alright, enough is enough."

The group looked up at Kirito and watched him walk into the middle of the room. "I'm tired," he called out, looking around at his friends. "I am tired of wandering around this continent. We've been here barely a month, and already I'm tired."

"What? You want to go home?" Natsu asked him snidely.

"Maybe," Kirito replied. He turned and looked at Natsu, "Don't you?" The pink haired mage did not respond as Kirito stared at him. "You have a girlfriend right? And family and friends? Why wouldn't you want to go back home?"

"Because," Natsu finally replied, looking Kirito straight in the eyes. "We still haven't completed our mission."

"We haven't accomplished anything!" Kirito yelled. "Completed it? We haven't even started! We're farther from our goal than ever."

"But we know where everyone is now," Nami offered, trying to calm down the angered teen. "See, that's more than we've had-"

"So who are we going to go to first?" Kirito asked. He spun to Luffy and continued, "And please don't suggest splitting up. It didn't go well last time."

Luffy frowned at the teen, but didn't say anything. He glanced to his left where Juvia was sitting on the couch. _Juvia,_ he thought, remembering how he was told she had died not long ago.

"Anyone?" Kirito asked. No one was saying anything. None of them said it as bluntly as Kirito, but they were exhausted as well. Traveling north, south, and all around while fighting nonstop was becoming tiresome. "Alright," Kirito calmed down a little and spoke in his normal voice. "Then I'm going to make a suggestion." He paused and took a deep breath, then said, "We should choose a leader."

The group looked at Kirito strangely, then looked around the room they were in. The pirates looked at Luffy, their captain, then looked across the room at Gray who led the other group away. Nami and some of the others glanced over at Timmy, but the boy himself was looking back over at Nami.

"Why do we need a leader?" Natsu asked. He was a little annoyed, but was at least willing to listen to what Kirito had to say.

Kirito turned back to the fire mage, and stated, "Because we need to come to decisions together. If one person makes the final decision, we won't be split arguing about what to do for hours on end."

"What if we don't like the decision?" Luffy asked, his arms crossed in front of his body.

"You'll just have to live with it," Kirito told the pirate in a pleading voice. Luffy frowned at him while Kirito continued, "This isn't the ocean Luffy. This isn't your world. Sometimes you have to try things different ways when the old ones aren't working."

Luffy continued to frown at him but didn't speak up again so that Kirito could continue. Kirito was mainly finished making his point however. "I don't expect it to be unanimous, but someone needs to take charge."

"And you want to be it?" Gray asked the teenager. The two of them made eye contact for a second, then Gray looked away shamefully.

"A former Underworld member," Ben began, though regretted it as soon as he did. Kirito looked his way with a hurt look on his face, and Ben looked down while he continued. "Just saying you haven't made the best decisions in the past."

Kirito would argue with him, except that the boy was a hundred percent right. "That's true. I worked for the same people who killed Naruto, who enslaved my friend Angel. I shouldn't lead." He walked back and leaned against the wall, the shame of what he'd done coming back to him as he closed his eyes.

Ben shook his head while looking at his feet. "I want to be in charge," he said loudly. "But, but I wouldn't make the right decision either. Right there, I spoke without thinking. Sorry Kirito," he mumbled at the end, leaning back in his recliner with an upset look on his face.

"Shouldn't Timmy Turner be the leader?" Stan mentioned in a semi-confused voice. "I mean, he is the strongest one here right?"

Timmy opened his mouth, but Nami spoke up first. "Timmy's still a kid." The boy looked at her in surprise, but she shook her head at him. "He already has enough responsibility without taking charge of our lives."

"It's okay Nami," Timmy assured. "If everyone wants me to, I could-"

"No," Ben stated. Timmy looked over at Ben and Ben glared over at him. "You ditched us as soon as we left Dressrosa."

Timmy's eyes saddened as it really looked like Ben looked up to him less now. The older boy didn't even apologize after like he did with Kirito. "Also," Sanji began, "I don't know if I'm fine with following a twelve year old."

"Aww," Dash groaned in a fake disappointed tone to try and lighten the mood. It actually wound up working and some others started throwing out suggestions. Dash himself just leaned back on the couch and put a calm smile on his face. _Just deal with it Dash. Don't think about it for now. If you go with Rin to Hell, maybe Satan can bring him back. Juvia died, and she came back. Just don't think about JackJack for now._

"Well, I pick Luffy as my captain," Usopp started loudly. "He always will be."

"He'll be mine too," Nami started while looking at the sniper. "But, maybe," she started getting quieter and looked over at Luffy. "Maybe someone else could, just... I don't know," she faded out. She owed Luffy her life, and cared for her captain a lot, so she didn't really know what to say here.

Luffy was looking back at her, but he didn't have a hurt look on his face from what she was suggesting. Instead, he was thinking about Kirito's suggestion much deeper than anyone else. _If I don't like the decision, I won't want to stay. I always like my decisions. Who else's decisions would I trust?_

"I know who should be in charge," Kirito started again, raising his voice to quiet everyone else down. "It's pretty simple in my opinion."

The others all looked at each other confusedly, since this had been the biggest problem with their group since back on the Thousand Sunny. "Who?" Ben asked, lifting up his eyebrows at the teen.

Kirito turned to the left side of the room. He stared the person straight in the eyes and said, "Sora."

The rest of them looked over at Sora who also looked a little surprised. Sora tilted his head while looking at his friend, "Thanks Kirito, but-"

"We split apart in under a day without Sora there," Kirito argued his choice. "He found all of us again though, even Goku. And when we went after Timmy, who convinced the Wizard King to give him back?"

Sora closed his mouth after getting an elbow from his right. He turned and saw Riku look at him seriously, then flash him a small grin.

"So if we're really doing this," Kirito continued, "and each of us get one vote." The black haired ninja pointed a finger at Sora, "Then my vote is for Sora."

The eighteen year old ninja leaned back against the wall again. It stayed quiet for a few seconds, then a mature woman's voice spoke up. "So that is one vote for Sora," Robin began. She crossed her arms in front of her and stated, "Quattro Fleur." Out from the floor in between them all, four hands rose up and a finger lifted on one of the hands.

Dash looked at Kirito for a second, then over at Sora. "Remember in Port Royal?" Dash began, making Sora look his way. The little blond boy continued, "My whole family got taken right in front of me. I lost all hope." Dash smiled softly and shook his head, "But when I lifted my head, you were standing there holding out your hand. You said you were going to get them back, and you did. I'll vote for Sora too."

Another finger lifted up on Robin's hand that was closest to Sora. "Dash," Sora whispered, staring at the boy while hiding his own confusion that Dash's smile appeared to be genuine.

"Well I vote for Luffy!" Usopp exclaimed, seeing how this trend was going.

"And a vote for Luffy," Robin said calmly. A finger popped up on the hand closest to the rubberman.

"Luffy," Sanji agreed. He really wanted to light up a cigarette now, and he turned to go do that somewhere else while the rest of them continued.

"You're my captain," Franky admitted with a shrug of his huge metal shoulders. "I've gotta pick Luffy," he said.

"Juvia picks Gray-sama!" Juvia shouted.

Robin kept up with everyone. "That's two votes for Sora, three for Luffy, and one for Gray-san."

Nami looked from her captain, over to Timmy who looked a little dejected after they rejected his offer to be leader. She turned back to the couch she was on and at Robin. "What about you?" She questioned her black haired best friend.

Robin kept a straight face for a few moments. Then, in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear her, she stated, "I will follow my captain's decision."

Though she said it, a few of them noticed that her hand with three fingers did not go up another one. Luffy saw this too and looked at Robin. She stared back at him and he thought, _Whoever I choose, she'll choose too. I could pick myself,_ Luffy thought. The pirate captain looked to his right. He looked at the teen on his side with spiky brown hair.

"I want to be in charge," Luffy stated out loud. The others all looked at Luffy and saw him staring right at Sora. "Sora would be good too," he added, surprising Usopp, Franky, and pretty much everyone in the room.

"Are you serious Luffy?" Usopp asked in shock.

"You really think so Luffy?" Sora asked the older man next to him.

"Wouldn't say it if I didn't," Luffy stated plainly. The rubberman thought back and added, "Sora always helped me out. When Usopp got taken, Sora helped me, and when Brook died," he quieted down a little and the rest of his crew looked saddened. He continued, "Sora helped me again. And he could always find the best meat! And he found my crew! Oh, and he saved them from Castle Octavion!"

"Oblivion," Nami corrected her captain with a roll of her eyes. "And I guess I do owe him for that too," she admitted. She looked over at Timmy and Ben, "Not that he was alone."

"No," Timmy started. "You're right. It was Sora who ended the battle. He stopped Ansem."

"And just in time too," Ben added with a small chuckle. "You were about to tear Riku in half, Timmy."

Riku chuckled a little at that but had a sweat drop rolling down the side of his face.

"Are you really fine with this though Luffy?" Sora whispered at his close friend next to him. "Zoro-"

"We'll find Zoro," Luffy said confidently. "And you're planning on getting to Zoro right?" He asked.

"I mean, yeah," Sora replied. "If that's what you want to do."

"And that's why I'm fine with following you, for now," Luffy stated while crossing his arms again and leaning back.

"First time I met you Sora, you convinced Maleficent to tell you where Ansem was hiding. It was amazing, especially after all the trouble it took me to take her down," Natsu stated. "But I want to be in charge!" He shouted.

"God you're immature," Gray muttered at the other mage next to him. Before he and Natsu could butt heads, he continued loudly, "I'll vote for Sora then. I don't need any more reason than what we saw on the Thousand Sunny."

Everyone thought back to that moment, while Robin called out, "With that vote, Sora wins a majority. Now we have a leader. So Sora, what are we to do now?" Now that they were all thinking about the memory they saw on the ship, many of them felt ashamed that it wasn't brought up once in their plans.

Sora stepped away from the wall and walked over in front of the fireplace so he could look at them all at the same time. "Xemnas has Kairi, and he's going to try and merge her with her Nobody Naminé." Sora continued in a firm voice, "If that were to happen, Kairi would be gone."

"So we're going to save Kairi-chan!" Sanji shouted, as he had just arrived back in the room when Robin came to the final conclusion of the vote.

Sora took a deep breath in, then answered, "No." The entire room stared at him in confusion. Even Riku looked at his best friend with a look that showed he thought Sora was going to say 'Yes.' The brown haired teen continued softly, "I would like nothing more than to run off to save Kairi right now, but I saw Meruem defeat Bardock. I saw a monster like none I've never seen before. And, I don't think Goku can win on his own."

"What about Kairi?" Riku asked angrily, turning in towards Sora. "What are we doing about her?!"

"Riku, it's being handled," Sora replied.

The room of people looked around at each other in confusion. "What do you mean, 'it's being handled?' Who could be..." Riku's eyes widened and he stopped talking. "You mean it? You're leaving it to him?"

"Them," Sora replied with a smile. "Roxas alone might not be able to save Kairi and Naminé. But with Axel's help, the two of them should be able to come up with a plan."

A few of the others: Ben, Kirito, Juvia, Natsu, Dash, all looked over towards Gray upon hearing Sora speak. Gray was blinking over and over and he shook his head a few times. "Hey Sora," Gray began, making Sora look over towards him. "Did you say Axel?"

"Yep," Sora replied with a smile on his face. "Wow! Do you know him too? You really get around Gray."

"Me?" Gray asked in shock. "Two of my squad members who didn't know each other, who have told me about their _different_ universes before... How did you know them?!"

Sora chuckled and scratched the back of his head. He saw Ben, Riku, Dash, Luffy, Kirito, many of his friends looking at him knowingly. He frowned a little as he looked back at Gray, then smiled again. "I've got a lot of friends," he said simply. This time though, his vague answer didn't get him off so easily.

"Like those pirates off the coast?" Natsu asked.

"And that lion, Simba?" Gray asked skeptically.

"And Genie," Timmy added.

"And the gorgeous mermaid princess Ariel, and the Pirate Queen," Sanji muttered, jealousy lacing his voice.

"Heh heh, yeah," Sora said, sounding a little sheepish. A few of the others opened their mouths to speak, but Sora cut them off by saying, "I want to tell you guys, but-"

"Tell us what?"

"You're our leader now, no lying to us."

"It's just," Sora began. He thought about what Donald would say, what the King would think. He opened his mouth, but felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Riku staring at him.

The older teen was still frowning deeply that Sora would trust Roxas and Axel to save Kairi. It was his fault that she got taken in the first place, and now Sora wasn't even giving him the chance to save her. With this anger, he turned and glared around at everyone, "Enough with the questions. Sora made a promise, just leave it at that."

Sora looked at Riku in surprise. He remembered no such promise, but because of Riku's statement, most people in the room silenced themselves. _Thanks Riku,_ Sora thought at his friend. The spiky haired teen turned from Riku and back to the rest of his new team. "Alright, so first we'll go and get Killua. Then, we get much stronger in as short a time as we can. Finally, we'll head back north, and re-find Zoro, we'll save Yukio, Gray's friends, and Kairi. And we'll defeat Zeref, Ichimaru Gin, Xemnas, and Satan, and Meruem and all his High Lords. And we will do all of this, together."

* * *

 **A/N Chapter 15 begins with our heroes planning out their missions onward. A lot has happened since they arrived on Aebrith, and despite being closer to their goals, they've acknowledged their enemies' strengths as well. Sora gets voted as their leader, but what will this entail? He listed a lot of goals at the end of the chapter, and we'll see how much of that our heroes will be able to accomplish... if any of it at all. XD Thanks for reading everyone! Let me know what you think in a review below. No review responses today, just 'cause it's two in the morning here in Tokyo and I've got a test in 7 hours. :P So, til' next time!**


	106. Nexus HWR 15-2 Guilt

**A/N Hey guys! Little longer chapter this time than the last 2, but not by much. Admittedly I had originally planned on chapters 14 and 15 being a mix of stories of the main group and the ones all around Aebrith, but there wound up being way more of those Around The World chapters than I thought so I broke it into two. So not going to be a lot of decimal points splitting up 15, but I digress XD. Enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

 **Nexus HWR 15.2 Guilt:**

The group traveling north across the bleak landscape south of the Great Wall ate a rowdy breakfast, one of the noisiest and most cheerful they had had since getting off the Thousand Sunny in Dressrosa. It was in sharp contrast to their quiet dinner the night before, but now that they had a plan again, everyone's moods were lifted. Timmy and Goku were both back, and though a few were missing, the crew felt like they were finally getting back to how things were before they split apart.

"You say the guy looked like your dad?" Natsu asked, putting down his fork and looking at his comrade in surprise. Gray nodded, then Rin continued telling the story of their run in and subsequent fight with Silver, or the demon that called itself Deliora.

Down the table from the Fairy Tail mages and half-demon, Timmy was talking to the kid next to him, and the boy in a pink hat asked in surprise, "You were in New Tokyo?"

Stan nodded his head, and then added, "So thanks. If not for what you did, my master and I would have likely died there." Timmy chuckled and told him not to mention it, while Stan lifted his gaze over Timmy's head and looked farther down the table towards a boy with spiky brown hair. _Thanks to both of you, we made it through that day._

Sora was at the head of the table, which was left open for him when he got to breakfast a little late, and he wondered if it was because they all chose him to be their leader the day before. He was one of the least talkative at the table, even with Luffy and Kirito on his sides, good friends of his who kept trying to include him in their conversations. Sora had continued making plans the night before and told some friends them every time he had an idea to make sure they were okay with it, and so far everyone thought he was doing a good job.

He was not too sure of himself though. _Kairi, I, I said I trust Roxas and Axel, and I really want to, but I'm so nervous._

Halfway across the long rectangular table as Sora, Natsu was frowning as he heard the story about the demon who killed Gray's parents, but he grinned when they told him how he fled after their fight. "Another win," he said, and punched his fists together over the table. Rin gave a half smile back to him and nodded as they did survive the attack from a powerful opponent, but Gray did not smile as he thought back on that encounter. A couple of others at Natsu's sides looked at him when he punched his fists together, and listened as he continued, "We were kicking butt separated. Now that we're back together, nothing's going to stop us."

"I don't know about that," Sanji said towards him from two seats to his left and across the table. "There are still a lot of enemies we can't face. Some of us can't even see demons or those Espada guys," he reminded.

"But I can," Natsu replied back, "and so can Goku, and a bunch of us, and sooner or later everyone will be able to easily." Sanji nodded as that seemed to be true, and Natsu continued with his smug look, "As long as we stick together this time, it'll be just more victories from here out-"

"'More victories?'" A voice asked from his left, and Natsu turned all the way to the head of the table where Sora had been watching him. Natsu was going to respond in his same cocky manner, but he noticed Sora's hands on top of the table, clenched into fists. The look on Sora's face was not one they usually saw too, and the table quieted down at how harshly Sora was looking at Natsu. "When have we started winning?" He questioned, lifting his eyebrows at the mage. Natsu looked confused for a second, but before he could respond, Sora continued quickly, "What? Because Luffy took down a Lord, and you took down a High Lord, you think we won?"

Sora looked around the table and saw a lot of confused looks. He opened up his fists as he realized he was being too angry, and was probably just upset because of the stress he was feeling as the new leader. _Wait, no!_ His fists that were unclenching, he slapped down on the table and got out of his seat fast. This surprised his friends who leaned back in their seats, and even Goku stopped eating to look over in surprise. "I'm going to get real with everyone for a minute, so I'm sorry if I hurt anyone's feelings, but everyone needs to hear this. What do you guys think happened after Luffy beat Saix? After he took down the Lord of the Dread Fort?" He looked around, then continued quickly so no one could answer his rhetorical question, "Nothing! He took down one Lord, and the Organization probably sent another Nobody to the city to take his place. We didn't succeed at getting rid of slavery in the area, didn't remove the Organization from power, we didn't do anything! And taking out Sozin?" He asked, raising his voice louder and more skeptically, "How can we consider that a victory?"

"He was one of our biggest enemies," Gray said, as he felt Sora was making light of something he thought was really amazing.

"And damn powerful," Natsu added, while smirking as that only made him look better for being the one who took him down.

"I would at least call that a victory," Kirito mentioned, looking at his friend next to him and shrugging as he thought they succeeded at their intended mission.

"Victory?" Sora asked. "You think we can keep going around having victories like that?" He looked around, then dug his fingers into the table and yelled, "Kairi got kidnapped!" Everyone was silent. Sora was shaking, and he yelled, "All of you were there! You were all in the city with her, and she got taken right from under you!" He started panting, taking deep breaths to calm himself down, because almost everyone at the table looked ashamed of themselves now. He spun to Natsu who did not look as ashamed, and he asked, "What? Because you were fighting Sozin when it happened, you think it's not your fault? Well what about Killua?" Natsu's eyes widened and his lower lip dropped, and Sora continued in his same angry voice, "He almost died! His heart stopped, because _you_ were too slow! Is that a victory you can deal with? Are these just acceptable losses because you guys managed to take down Sozin, an action that destabilized an entire region, probably ruined millions of innocent lives?!"

"The Fire Nation had slave-" Natsu began, sounding angry as he started speaking because of what Sora just said to him. He already felt guilty enough about Killua without it being shoved down his throat like that.

"Did you get rid of slavery?!" Sora yelled back at him, interrupting the angry Dragon Slayer who was halfway through getting out of his seat. Natsu froze, and Sora spun and glared at the others who were at Pyraxas with him, "The ones who came to Pyraxas after you and started fighting each other for power were all other Lords, or other High Lords' armies! They all practice slavery, and because of the power struggle you caused, because of the wars for power that took place all over that region and are probably still going on, how many cities were sacked and their citizens turned into Prisoners of War? How many innocent lives were enslaved? You destroyed the power structure, and then ran away and left the region in chaos! When we took down the NEG, we stayed and protected the city when it was at its weakest! I stopped the Rhodari army's advance, and convinced the Kings of Sindria and Rhodar not to destroy the weakened country! We went back to Pao and brought the people of Metropolis the supplies and stability they needed so that our actions did not result in the ruining of millions of lives! You didn't do any of that for the people of Pyraxas, or the hundreds of other Fire Nation cities affected by your actions!"

Sora stopped his rant and started panting even heavier than before. His friends were staring at him in shock, and many of them were clenching their fists or teeth in newfound anger, frustration, and shame. "We _can't_ do that," Sora said, looking at his friends individually, staring into their eyes as he spoke. "We _need_ to be heroes. This continent _needs_ us, to be better! The Resistance might be fine with causing a power struggle in a region of the Cooperative, but that _can't_ be us. This continent is already so, so full of darkness. We have to be the light." He paused and then asked, "If we aren't, who will be?"

He stood there looking around at his friends for a few more seconds. The teen knew he could not just sit back down after that, but it did not matter, he no longer had an appetite anyway. Sora turned his back to the table and walked away, leaving his friends to think about what they had been doing since they got to Aebrith. All of their victories, they all felt meaningless after one single rant.

After a minute of silence, Gray spoke up, "As much as everything Sora said was true, all of our victor-" he stopped himself, then corrected with, "The fights we won, they were not for nothing. Kirito destroyed the League of Assassins," he began, and Kirito turned to the one-armed man with a slightly annoyed look at him bringing that up, especially because of what happened between them on that mission. Gray continued though, "The League had been killing Resistance leaders since long before I left Aebrith. And Sozin, taking him down did mean something," Gray said, assuring the pink haired mage who lifted his dark gaze to Gray. "Sora wants to stabilize places after we take out the old leaders, and I get that, but it won't always work. We were far into enemy territory already which meant enemies coming in on all sides. There were not the same circumstances as Metropolis, and there won't always be such perfect circumstances to allow for us to rebuild a city afterwards."

The others all looked towards Gray who started smiling despite all their darkened looks. "But because Sozin is down, and Saix and Astaroth to his south, there's actually a good chance that the Resistance could push back. We took down all three of them, _us,_ and because of all those wars the Lords fought in the old Fire Nation territory, they weakened each other. While they're fighting each other, it could give the Resistance more time to focus on their east and west flanks. Instead of pushing up into those ravaged territories, it might just be smarter to leave that area as it is, and to take action against either the Emperor or the Black Witch now. Unlike the Fire Nation, they have the ocean to one side, the Resistance to the other, and the Wizard King in the south. Fights against them will be fights that we can actually be in control of the results of." Gray's optimistic attitude was spreading to the others. Even though most of them could not really follow any of the strategy he was going over as a long-time member of the Resistance, it was hard not to feel optimistic when a man who had recently lost one of his arms was the most excited of all of them.

* * *

On the second floor of the ship, Sora walked past the kitchen and towards the training room. He walked in and lifted his right hand to create a Keyblade and start practicing his magic. As he stood there though, he saw a girl's face in his mind. She had long auburn hair and a beautiful smile, and Sora clenched his teeth hard at the mental sight of her. _Kairi,_ Sora thought. _I know I'm not strong enough, but I want to ignore it so much and go after you._ Sora ran forward and slashed his Keyblade down, then he spun to the left and did a three-sixty with his weapon, a flying slash coming off of it in a full rotation around him so that it crashed into every wall. Sora jumped up in the air and pointed his Keyblade down, and the tip of it vibrated right before bright yellow lights shot out like fireworks.

The yellow lights shot all around the room in rapid fire from Sora's Keyblade, but instead of exploding in brilliant shows of light, each burst of the light he fired transformed into a humanoid shape. Sora landed and he darted at the first being that started moving but did not move fast enough to avoid being slashed right through the middle and exploding in a shower of yellow shards. Sora spun and called out, "Gravity!" A ball of blackness appeared above two dancing golden figures, crushing them to the floor and putting out their light. "Thundara!" Sora shouted, slamming his Keyblade down and bringing lightning out of every foot of the ceiling.

The lightning rained down all over the room and Sora took a few deep breaths, then he shut his mouth and turned his head. Standing behind him a few feet away was one more light person, only this one was more defined than the others. It had long white lights flowing off of its head like hair, and the smile on its mostly empty face, the smile of light, reminded him so much of the girl he was doing this for. _That's not her though,_ Sora told himself, before snapping his left arm out and creating his all golden Three Wishes Keyblade in it. He lifted Oathkeeper and Three Wishes above his head, and he shouted, "FIRANDRA!" He brought both Keyblades down right as a sphere of fire surrounded him. Jets of flames shot out of that dome and crashed into all the walls, right before the dome of fire itself expanded all the way to the edges of the room.

Sora started panting, his magic feeling pretty drained after that powerful magic burst. "Where's Merlin, when you need him?" Sora said, putting his hands down on his knees while still grasping the Keyblades in them.

"Who's Merlin?"

Sora spun around in surprise, and he relaxed when he saw Goku walking into the training room through the open door. Sora did not hear it open over his own panting and muttering, so Goku surprised him as if coming out of nowhere. Sora remembered the question after getting over his surprise, and he said, "Merlin was an old wizard friend of mine. He used to help me train my magic, because he could create a zone with special properties where my Magic Power never went down."

"Ooh, that sounds nice for training," Goku mentioned. He scratched his chin then added, "But wouldn't that give you a false sense of how long it would take for you to really get tired?"

"Yes, but it was more for the usage than the amplification," Sora replied. Goku walked towards him and looked a little confused by that, and Sora explained, "When I trained there I was more learning how better to utilize my magic, combos and combat training. It wasn't meant to bring up my MP gauge at all, the gauge being the amount of magic I can use before having to recharge."

"Hmm," Goku hummed, as that sounded like a strange fighting style to him. He shrugged after a moment since there were enough different kinds of people in the world that he knew not everyone had the same ways of training and getting stronger. "Say Sora," Goku said, while walking to a different part of the room and starting some stretches. Sora looked over while still waiting for his MP to recover some more, and his eyes widened as Goku said, "You were pretty mean to our friends before. That's unlike you."

Sora's open mouth closed after a few seconds and he looked away. "Yeah," Sora said, "I know." He sighed and then looked back towards Goku who started punching and kicking in front of him. As Sora spoke, Goku continued his workout since he liked the distraction. He would not have silence in a real battle so it would have been weird to ask Sora to stop talking while he trained for concentration's sake. "I meant what I said," Sora began, "though I could have said it better. They have all been trying their bests, and I'm sure that my not appreciating any of it must have hurt." Sora took a deep breath then lifted back up his Keyblades and started swinging them around in his best combos without using any magic, which was a good way to bring back up his MP anyway as well as train his technique. "It's just-" he stopped himself, then he sped up his swipes and called out while trying to keep his breathing steady, "I can't believe they let Kairi get taken!"

Sora sprinted forward and leapt up, swinging in the air and then swinging again and again, spinning his body with so much force that he rose higher with every swing. He was not flying, but he did several spins and flips while slashing before ever starting to come down. He landed hard and while slashing out to either side, creating a force off of his body that flew every direction hard and actually made Goku look over as he wondered what Sora was doing. Sora did not seem to notice that he had hit Goku with a piece of that though, and Goku stopped moving as he saw a look of anger on Sora's face where he was now standing. "No, that's not it," Sora said, shaking his head at what he just said. "I, I let Kairi get kidnapped," Sora whispered.

The younger man turned towards Goku who he noticed was not moving in his peripheral vision. Sora shook his head and then said, "I left her. I promised that I would get back to her, but I still made the choice to leave her." Sora ran his hand up through his spiky brown hair then said in an amazed way to Goku, "How did you do it?"

"Do what?" Goku asked.

"Marriage," Sora replied. "I'm supposed to protect Kairi, but I also have the entire world and all of my friends to worry about. And _you_ know, there's even more on top of that which I need to do." Goku nodded slowly at Sora, thinking about what the Gods had told them. Even though he did not really understand most of the specifics, Goku caught the urgency and how much the multiverse was relying on the boy in front of him.

"Well, I was never the best husband," Goku said, and he turned back and got back to fighting the air in front of him.

Sora stared at Goku in surprise, but Goku did not seem like he was being modest with that statement. Instead, to Sora, it seemed like the man sounded a bit regretful. "You weren't?" Sora asked.

Goku shook his head and then he started backflipping quickly before flipping one more time and launching himself to the wall that the exit door was on. He pounced off of that wall hard, testing the wall's strength, but it did not creak let alone dent beneath him. He grinned as he shot across the room and flipped to land on the other side, bending his knees on impact to immediately shoot back down behind the specter he had imagined chasing him and causing his dodges. Goku stopped after landing, and his hair shot up into a single golden spike above his head. He turned back to Sora with blue eyes that matched the younger man's, and Goku said with an intense look on his face, "I left her for the sake of the world, several times. I died for the sake of the Earth a few times, but to your wife- well, to my wife that didn't matter. She just wanted me to be with her," Goku said. He scratched the back of his head with a small smile coming back to it again. "She came out and told me all that after we had been living on Nexus for a while, told me how she didn't want me to die again after I came back from an especially hard battle. It's why I started staying at home, because Chi' told me that I wasn't being a good husband or father. She said I was looking for a way to die again."

The Saiyan turned away and started punching and kicking much faster than he had been before, almost too fast for Sora's eyes to follow at all. Goku shot over to one side of the room, then he appeared on the other and Sora's eyes widened and darted back as he saw a blue ball flying towards Goku from where he had just appeared for a moment. Goku had appeared and fired the ball at where he would be an instant later too fast for Sora to see any of the individual steps, but he could see Goku catch his own attack in his hands and start squishing it between his palms with some effort. Goku pulled the explosion into his chest when it was about to go off in his hands, containing the explosion that he had tried to dissipate completely beforehand, which made him frown at the failure. So he did it again, firing back across the room and sprinting over there to try and shatter his own ki blast without letting an explosion go off.

 _Is that to prevent ricochet?_ Sora wondered. _That way he could slice through or crush a blast headed towards him instead of knocking it away, prevent any collateral damage if he's fighting in a populated area._ Goku succeeded on the second attempt, but though he smiled for a second, he repeated the technique and shot to the other side to practice. Sora's mind shifted off of Goku's training though, to what the man was saying about his family life and his wife in particular.

"But Kairi," Sora began, then he paused and waited for Goku to disperse another energy blast without causing an explosion. Goku got right on to the next one, and Sora just continued as it seemed Goku did not want to stand still and listen to him. "She's going to be saving the world with me. That's the difference, I think," Sora said, though he did not sound confident. He had never been married before, and he still technically was not. He thought he would get some good advice from a man who had been married and had kids, but he was starting to think that Goku would not be the best person for advice after all. "When you used to go off without her, did you feel guilty?" Sora asked.

"I didn't," Goku said, while raising his power up a notch and trying to keep his aura just a thin golden veil around his body. The ship below him started to shake and he lowered his power, not wanting to mess with their driving just so he could do some different training. He could keep going just as a powered-up Super Saiyan alone. Goku continued while punching and kicking in front of him again, "I never knew that's how she felt, didn't even really know what a wedding was at first. I thought it was a food," Goku admitted with a laugh, while Sora sweatdropped at him. "I do now though," Goku said, and he stopped laughing, his smile flattening out while he lifted his gaze to the ceiling.

"If I had just, noticed the scent sooner," Goku said, his voice getting quieter as he mentioned it. He shook his head after a second and then turned to Sora. "There's no point beating yourself up over it. If you want to do something about it, then do it."

"If only it was that simple," Sora said.

"Can't it be?" Goku asked.

"What about Noxagh?" Sora replied. He looked into Goku's eyes, and he said, "Every time I think about going after Kairi, I think about Gohan's Nobody. I think about how _you-_ " Sora froze and removed the accusatory tone in his voice, not wanting to shift the blame anywhere. "You got him to awaken his Super Saiyan state," Sora continued, and Goku smiled as he remembered it. Sora shook his head like he couldn't believe how Goku was not putting it together that that was not a good thing. "And I can't beat that," Sora said, making Goku stop smiling as much to hear the defeated tone in Sora's voice. "They have other hostages too: Roxas, and Naminé. If I go there and save any of them, they can hold the others against me. I know Xemnas, and he'll have a plan to beat me. He's already setting a trap for me right now, Noxagh told me all about it before you made him retreat."

Sora frowned and stared into Goku's eyes, "So all I can do, is stay away. If I get close, I feel like I'll be putting them all in danger." Goku started nodding at him, but Sora stepped towards him and called out, "But what if they're already not safe? What if Xemnas decides I've taken too long and merges her just to punish me? What if he thinks I'll be quicker to charge him out of revenge than to save Kairi?!"

The door to the training room opened up after Sora's last shout, and the spiky-haired men spun to it as a teenager with black hair stepped through. Kirito froze and stared at the panicked look on Sora's face, the uneasy one on Goku's, and he froze in the doorway. "Bad time?" He muttered, his foot lifting back up to step out.

"Kirito!" Sora exclaimed, a smile re-emerging on his face. Kirito was confused at why Sora would suddenly flip his emotions like that, but Sora looked relieved to see him. "I need another opinion," Sora said. "You and Goku are the only ones here who have ever been married, so you're the only ones I can ask." Kirito nodded slowly at him, wondering what Sora was talking about while trying not to get upset over Sora bringing up his marriage so casually. If anyone but Goku had been in there, he would have been a little more annoyed. The two of them were the only ones who knew. _Oh wait,_ Kirito thought, a darker look appearing on his face. _Gray knows too. In those first days when we met I had told him I was looking for my wife._

Sora eased back with an apologetic look on his face, and Kirito noticed it and wiped the dark look away. "Sorry, thinking of something else," Kirito said. Sora did not believe him, but Kirito really had gotten a darker look in his eyes thinking of Gray than he did about Asuna, which he started thinking about more deeply after apologizing. "Really, what is it?" Kirito asked.

"Um, okay," Sora said. He turned his gaze back to Goku, then he looked at Kirito again, trying to think of how to word his concerns. Finally, Sora just began, "If right now, your wife was in the hands of the enemy-"

"I'd go save her," Kirito replied before Sora could finish.

"Even if you know it's a trap to draw you in-"

"I'd go," Kirito said.

"Even if it might be more dangerous for her and everyone you care about?" Sora asked, biting down on his bottom lip after the words came out.

Kirito opened his mouth as fast as he did the other times, but he froze and started thinking about it. Then, he nodded his head and said, "I'd go."

"You would?" Sora asked.

"I would have to," Kirito said. "If it's between doing nothing and leaving her in danger, or trying something, anything, even if there's a small chance of success, I would have to take it." Kirito looked deeper into Sora's eyes and continued, "Because if I don't go, then there's a zero percent chance I save her. If I do, then the chance is at least there."

Sora stared at Kirito in silence for a few moments after he stopped speaking, and then Kirito's eyes started to widen as he realized all he just said. Sora leaned back though and he put his hands behind his head and interlocked them. "Never thought about it like that," Sora said.

Kirito was glad he could help, but he had come in here for a reason and he re-hardened his expression. Kirito walked towards the opposite side of the room as Goku, putting Sora between them before drawing his swords out of their sheaths. Sora kept humming about what Kirito had said, then he turned and looked at the teen near him who had pulled out his blue and black swords. At the sight of Kirito's thinner, damaged blue sword, Sora got distracted by his deep thoughts and said, "What happened?"

Kirito turned and saw where Sora was looking, then he said, "Same thing that happened to my wings: Ra's al Ghul." Kirito lifted his swords into a fighting stance and was about to get to working on his combos like Sora had earlier.

"Ra's al Ghul?" Goku repeated, and Kirito and Sora turned his way to see the Super Saiyan looking over interestedly. "You fought him?" Goku asked.

Kirito frowned at the older man, and he replied, "I killed him."

Goku's eyes widened in surprise. Sora tilted his head at the Saiyan and asked, "You've heard of him?"

"I fought him once myself," Goku said.

As soon as the words came out of Goku's mouth, Kirito's expression darkened even more. Goku looked confusedly at the teen, and Kirito snapped his gaze up and began angrily, "You let him live too?" Kirito bit down hard, then he snapped, "He led a group of assassins who were killing Resistance leaders! He killed-" Kirito could not finish the sentence. "He killed so many people," Kirito finished in a hiss. _I can't tell him about Juvia, that would be pretty shitty of me._

"Sorry about that," Goku said and scratched the back of his head, a look of regret actually crossing his face for a moment. "I'm surprised to hear you beat him though. That's pretty impressive," Goku complimented. "You weren't near as strong as Ra's when we first met."

"I still wasn't stronger than him," Kirito countered Goku's attempted compliment.

"You won," Goku said, suggesting that strength was not all that important in that aspect.

"It wasn't on my own," Kirito said. His expression grew even more annoyed as he begrudgingly mentioned, "Gray helped me out. I would have lost on my own."

Goku hummed and nodded while thinking of Gray's missing arm. Then, he said, "Although I enjoy fighting battles one-on-one, that doesn't take away from the ones I've won with my friends." Kirito looked at him oddly, and Goku continued, "Some of my hardest battles were group efforts. Even the ones I fought on my own, one of my strongest attacks is the Spirit Bomb. The Spirit Bomb is the culmination of power of so many different people that I can't claim to have beaten those enemies on my own. That doesn't mean it wasn't a victory though, and if Ra's really was as bad as you say, then it's okay to take credit for the role you had to play in it."

Kirito's eyes widened a little, then Goku turned more towards him so he was fully facing the teen. His golden hair returned to its natural black color, dropped down to its crazy spiky shape, and Goku grinned at the teen who eased back at that look. "It's been a while since we've fought," Goku said. "I want to see how you've improved."

Kirito nodded back at the man. As much as there were parts of Goku he did not like, he was still one of the closest people to Kirito in this world. _Before Goku leaves again,_ Kirito thought in annoyance, then he discarded that feeling and replaced it with hot-blooded determination. _I need to learn from him whatever I can. Ki control opens up thousands of possibilities, but beyond that, Goku's just a natural-born fighter. His fighting instincts are what I really need to pick up. Something only he can teach. If I had Goku's skill in a fight with my natural reflexes and the abilities I've gained over the years, I could take on High Lords too. I could make a difference in this terrible world._

Sora watched as Goku and Kirito squared off, and he backed up towards the door where he was going to watch from. The two started fighting at a fast speed yet one Sora was able to follow, and his eyes darted back and forth around the room to keep track of them. Despite his interest in the intense sparring session though, his mind wandered away again. _Kairi, I don't know what to do. I really, really just don't. So I'm going to do whatever feels right, because that's what you'd_ do.

* * *

 **A/N As I said, not much longer than the last few. Not much to say here, except that the whole group's got a lot to think about moving forward. Alright, reviews:**

Limit-Breaking chapter 105 . 16h ago

Well im not commenting about this chapter til you answer my review.  
:( sad face.

 **K. Well, Dragon Ball Heroes anime could be cool. I'll be looking forward to it, and I have been keeping up to date on that stuff too. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the new chapter.**

asdf chapter 104 . 22h ago

You should read the manga chapter where the Gods of Destruction have a battle royale. #BeerusisstrongerthanChampaconfirmed

 **I went and read it, and yeah haha Beerus is a beast. Even teaming up on him those Gods didn't stand a chance. Universe 7 ftw! Thanks for the review and hope you enjoyed the chapters.**

flo463 chapter 105 . 13h ago

I can not wait to see Suguha find his Onii-Chan! and the rest of the harem find Kirito: D  
And Saichi is...alive? OO  
I thought she was dead in Sao as in the novel?  
Regarding the chapter, I was surprised because I thought that Kirito was going to propose himself as a leader, as he intended at the beginning.  
It remains to be seen if Sora will have the strength and charisma to lead the group and if he will be able to make the right decisions.  
if he makes bad decisions, Rin and Kirito too probably may leave the group.  
ps: Good luck for your exams

 **Sachi is! And yes, she died in SAO, ;(. However, since this is Nexus where anyone who's ever died had the possibility of coming back to life on the First Day, (Whitebeard, Ace, Goku, Frieza, Jiraiya, Cell, Meruem... etc), she's back! It did seem like Kirito would have been fine with leader, but Ben's reminder kind of made him too depressed to try and run. Sora's first day as leader... not going too great. XD He starts off their morning with a huge scolding and guilt trip, but maybe it can only get better from here? And finally :( God damn it, I totally f***ed up my test this morning. Thought my class started at 10:50 instead of 10:40, and it was a 10 minute test that I showed up 3 minutes early for. She gave me the test paper (without telling me I was late), and I started leisurely working on the questions since I thought I was starting before class had even started. Then she walked over and grabbed the paper from me while I was on question 3. Fucking THREE! Rrrggh, alright, had to get that rant out since it was 2.5% of my total grade and I probably got a 12 on the test. Anyway, thanks for the review, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks again to everyone for reading! 'Til next time!**


	107. Nexus HWR 15-5 My Brother My Burden

**Nexus HWR 15.5 My Brother My Burden:**

 **Southern Wastes**

"What?!" Gray shouted at Nami.

She nodded quickly at him, and Gray sprinted past her and into the hall beyond the orange-haired navigator. _What is he thinking?!_ He ran down the hall, barged into his room that was on the third floor not far from the cockpit he was just in, and he sprinted to the side of his bed. Gray tossed a capsule from his backpack onto the floor, then he rummaged around his belongings and grabbed a metal bracelet. He sprinted back out of his room and down the hall, then down the stairs, before sprinting into the kitchen where Goku was sitting on the counter in the middle of the room eating a snack Sanji had made for him.

It was still morning, but Goku had worked up a post-breakfast appetite after training for the past two hours straight. Sanji had only just started up on making lunch for their group of almost twenty, but he had taken a pause to make the Saiyan with an insatiable appetite a snack. Goku looked at Gray in confusion at why he was panting and glaring at him, and the Saiyan man asked, "What?"

Gray held up a silver bracelet, and he snapped as he stopped panting, "Why aren't you wearing one of these?"

Sanji turned from the stove where he had gotten back to cooking lunch, and he looked at Goku's wrists to see that neither had one of the silver bracelets that he himself was wearing under his right sleeve. Goku was in the middle of chewing, and Gray continued before he could finish, "Did you break through yours?"

Goku started shaking his head, then his swallowed his food with a big gulp. "No," he finally responded. "I just left it behind on Mount Vegeta."

Gray rubbed his forehead, grumbling in annoyance at how calm the Saiyan was as he was in the middle of panicking. _At least it seems like Cartman equipped the ship with Power Blocking technology, because we would have been attacked already if it wasn't._ "Here," Gray said, deciding not to scold the Saiyan for taking his off. "It's an extra I brought along in case Timmy didn't have his when we found him."

Cartman had kept Timmy's PB-6 on the entire time he was a prisoner, so Gray did not need to give the boy the extra he had brought along. Goku remembered something though as he clipped on the bracelet (mainly because he thought Gray would stay mad at him if he didn't), and he brought it up before taking the next bite of his snack. "Dash needs a new one too."

Gray sighed and rubbed his forehead some more. _Luckily I did bring more PB-4's just in case…_

"He broke through his, so he probably needs a stronger one," Goku added, then he continued eating.

Sanji froze after he had gotten back to cooking, his eyes opening wide. _That kid…_ Sanji turned to his left, and telling from the shocked expression on Gray's face, he was not wrong to be stunned himself at what he had just heard. "Oi Goku," Sanji started, looking over his shoulder. "Dash, did he run too fast or something?"

Goku shook his head, then a frown formed on his face even though he was in the middle of chewing delicious food. Goku recalled why Dash's Power Blocker broke, and he recalled the scream of anguish coming from the boy whose body distorted because of that rage. The shake of Goku's head followed by that look made both Gray and Sanji go wide-eyed, but Goku did not notice. He put the empty plate down on the counter next to him and said, "Thank you," then he turned and started back for the training room on the same level.

 _I need to get Dash an extra,_ Gray thought, and he turned as well only the other way as Goku. He ran off though with less urgency than before, calming himself with the knowledge that nothing had attacked them so far. As he headed back up the stairs at a light jogging pace, he thought about how the trip up north was taking longer that the journey south. It had been almost twice as long already, but the Wizard King really had teleported them a long distance on their initial travels across the Southern Wastes. The Wizard King did not give them the same boost this time, so they had to drive the full twelve thousand miles back to the Great Wall.

Timmy had offered flying earlier that morning after waking up. However, they were already moving at the top speed the truck would allow. Any faster than that, they quickly realized, was a very uncomfortable journey for anyone inside. The truck was so large and heavy, but driving at such a fast speed despite it anyway, that Timmy really did not increase their speed enough to make it worth the bumpy ride. Nami had called out Timmy's name to get him to stop, and they continued driving the old fashioned way.

Gray got the Power Blocker he needed and then headed back down the stairs only all the way to the first floor this time. He walked down a hall towards the room he knew the youngest boys were sharing, and the door was opened up a crack. He reached it and was about to knock when he heard Sora's voice on the other side. What Sora had said the morning before had gotten to a lot of them, but Gray had tried staying optimistic. Sora had apologized for his rant at lunch, and though most of them told him not to worry about it and that he was right, Gray was happy he retracted it. They had beaten the Fire Lord, saved Timmy, reunited with Goku and Sora, and now they were all on their way towards the Resistance. As much as everyone else was having problems, he thought things were going pretty well for them at the moment.

When he heard Sora's voice though he paused, then he knocked twice at the low and serious tone he heard behind the door. He did not want to stand there and intrude into the conversation, and telling from the way their voices cut short at his knock, he knew that was the right move. Gray pushed the door in and looked over to see Sora stand up next to Dash's bed that he was sitting on the side of, and the little blond boy rub his eyes only to look towards Gray with a smile. "What's up?" Dash asked.

Sora was in front of Dash so the younger boy could not see his expression, but Gray saw Sora wince at that cheery greeting. "Um, I've got a new PB-4 for you," Gray said. He lifted the bracelet, and Dash got a confused look on his face before slowly lowering his eyes down to his wrist. He stared at his naked wrist for a few seconds, a distant look in his eyes as he imagined a blurry vision of that bracelet shredding into pieces in an aura that exploded off of his body. Sora ground his teeth as he thought about that moment as well, but Gray pretended not to notice any of this while thinking of how Goku had reacted in a similar way. Dash's reaction unnerved him the most- the fact that the boy did not even seem to know what Gray was talking about when he brought it up.

"Oh," Dash said, his voice quieter than a moment ago. "Yeah, thanks," he said, looking back up and then holding his hands out like he was ready for a toss.

Gray passed the Power Blocker over, then he said as Dash caught it, "When we get back to the Resistance outpost, we'll get you a stronger one. PB-5, or PB-6 even," Gray added while looking to Sora to see if it was needed. Sora nodded back at him, and Gray felt even more amazed as he looked towards Dash again. _Those bracelets aren't supposed to break, I doubt I would bust out of a PB-2 using my strongest magic. It's just a precaution going higher, but I mean, damn…_ "Okay," Gray said, turning around and heading back for the hall.

Down the hall that Gray was about to walk out into, in the huge living room where they had decided who their group's new leader would be two nights ago, Ben stood at a window on the starboard side of their truck/ship. He was staring out at the landscape blurring by at their side, but when he looked farther out it looked to be moving slower to a point that he was actually able to focus on some creatures. Ben stared straight at some giant dark mammoths that had bone structures on the outsides of their bodies and glowing red eyes in the center of their boney skulls. One of the Grimm Goliaths turned its head towards their ship, and Ben stared at its long, sharp tusks that looked to be capable of cutting straight through flesh.

 _Grimm,_ he recognized, having seen the creatures a few times before in his early days on Nexus, as well as more recently after they had traveled east from Dressrosa.

"Hey Ben," Luffy said, and Ben spun his head to see Luffy standing only ten feet away from him. The pirate did not try to sneak up, Ben was just so focused out the window that he had not seen the pirate's approach. Luffy stared out a different window at the Grimm in the far distance, then he looked even farther past them and saw monsters he had never seen before. They were beings that he realized he was only just able to see, ones that Ben still had trouble noticing if he was not focusing closely. The giant Gillians, or Menos Grande, traveled in a pack of eight and rose high in the sky with their massive black bodies before their white masks even started. Luffy could see a pack of flying Aragami much closer to them, flying the other direction that they were rolling so that they passed by much quicker than the others in the distance.

"Yeah?" Ben said.

"Remember what you said, about destroying all the monsters?" Luffy asked. Ben's eyes opened wide as Luffy brought it up. It had happened right before they crested Ha'gar's Peak, right before Ben faced Nox, right before he saw all his friends die in front of him. When he had returned from that future, he had forgotten about that completely, but Luffy didn't. Luffy had been impressed in that minute after Ben said that, right before the boy broke down in tears as his body ripped apart out of nowhere. Luffy turned to Ben and continued, "After we beat the King, you could come back here to start. Looks like a good place for it," Luffy said, and he smiled at the kid who turned back to the window and stared back over the landscape.

 _It would be,_ Ben thought while staring out at the Goliaths, and then at the Menos Grande that he saw behind them. For some reason he did not feel like they just appeared out of nowhere, only they had been in his peripheral vision the entire time but were only now in focus. Doubt filled his mind, and he watched as Nox killed all of his friends again. He glanced down at his left wrist, imagining the Omnitrix he had lost, his strongest weapon. _Without it though,_ Ben thought while glancing back towards Luffy who had turned back to the window himself while still smiling. _I saved Luffy. I can't use the Eliacube anymore, and maybe Luffy wouldn't have died anyways, but if Cartman was just a little more sadistic… Luffy would have melted._

Ben refaced the distant sky and watched as some pitch black Grimm descended from the gray sky, only to rise back into the clouds that sparked lightning as they re-entered. Ben nodded his head and Luffy grinned more as he saw it out the corner of his eyes. "I do want to clear this area of the world," Ben admitted, confidence in his voice as he said it. He turned to look up at Luffy and added, "But maybe after we clear some parts where there are actually people living too." He cracked a small smile, and Luffy laughed.

"Shishishi, that makes sense. Not 'we' though, you've gotta-"

"I know I know, you've got your own stuff to do once we're all done here," Ben said, waving the pirate off. "I meant we as in me and Gohan, and Timmy, Goku too if he wants." He added Goku's name hesitantly since he could never really tell what Goku was going to do.

Luffy grinned that Ben had not been including him in that, then he looked back out the window again. _Once I find Zoro, or he finds me, and I get him to come back, then we'll still have to find Chopper. I can't become the Pirate King without them._ A determined look replaced the smile on the pirate's face, a look more matching the one Ben had as he imagined what he would be doing once this was all over too.

 _But before we can start getting rid of the monsters,_ Ben thought, his expression darkening as he watched lightning fall in the distance. _First we need to stop the King._

* * *

At lunch everyone was being loud and the meal turned into a party (as it often did). Stan found it hard to keep up his dark, Sith-like demeanor when Luffy and Usopp had chopsticks up their noses and pushing down on their bottom lips while singing. Kirito and Goku showed up late for the meal, and then both of them left within ten minutes. Goku looked to be enjoying the atmosphere like the rest of them, but he was just as quick as Kirito to get back to training.

While Goku was at the table though, Natsu brought back up the demon of Zeref that had transformed to look like Gray's dad. While he was angrily talking about going after Zeref, Nami had lifted her gaze straight across the table to the spiky-haired Saiyan who had stopped eating his food for a moment. Nami locked eyes with him and then looked away, only to turn back as she knew he had seen her make eye contact. She had a guilty look on her face, then she said in a soft voice to the man across from her, "I'm sorry to hear about your father, Goku."

Natsu was still speaking too loud for most others to hear her, but Goku smiled at the woman across from him. He had already been thinking about it, and he just said, "Thank you Nami." He guessed that Sora must have said something about it to her, and then he realized he must have said it to everyone as the others on Nami's sides and his own had all looked towards him with similar looks.

"You never mentioned him before," Ben said to the man on his right side. Dash looked next to him at Ben, then over at Goku as he realized what they were talking about. He did not remember Goku's dad dying, but he did not remember all that much from that day anyway.

Goku kept shoveling food into his mouth while Ben asked, and he mumbled back with his mouth full, "I didn't even know I had a dad until I got there." Dash frowned at the sound of that, having thought for a moment that he and Goku might have been in the same situation. Ben nodded at Goku though and felt better knowing that Goku did not go through the loss of someone really close to him.

A few of the others felt a little better too, and Nami murmured in relief. Nami's relieved look disappeared as Robin nudged her thigh with her own leg from Nami's left side. Nami glanced at Robin, then back at Goku who despite the food in his mouth, despite his tone of voice, had a sad look in his eyes that Nami had never seen the Saiyan have before. Right as she noticed it though, Goku lifted up his plate and dumped the rest of his food in his mouth, then he hopped up on his feet just as Kirito did the same from a few seats down on his right.

Natsu grumbled after they ran off that they should give others a turn in the training room as well. Cartman had made it powerful enough to withstand Goku's training which all of them were amazed at, especially since they could not even feel the shaking of the training Super Saiyan while on the same vehicle. Luffy told Natsu that he could go join them at any time, only for Ben to cut in saying that he had tried going in that morning for a little, but the wind crashing into him from Goku training alone made it impossible for him to focus on his own practice. Natsu argued back that if Kirito could handle it in there, then he could as well. Gray cut in though before Natsu could rush off just to prove it to everyone, and he stood up to get everyone at the table's eyes on him.

"Alright, so we have our plan now, but with this time we're taking to train, I feel like there's a lot you guys should know-" Gray got cut off as Sora suddenly spoke up.

"A month." Everyone looked towards him and saw Sora looking around at each of them in the eyes. "From the minute we get there, we're going to take thirty days exactly and then continue on."

"A whole month?" Ben whispered.

"That's a long time," Usopp added a little louder.

"We're not going to get any stronger in a shorter period than that," Sora argued right back.

A few of them hummed in disapproval, but Luffy shrugged his shoulders and got back to eating. Natsu spotted this across the table and sighed himself, _Guess that's why we picked a leader._ Now they did not have to have a drawn-out argument about this, and Natsu just started thinking about how he was going to spend his time training.

"Alright," Gray continued, though still wrapping his own mind around that length of time Sora gave them. "As I was saying, there are a lot of training methods we can use, and there's a lot you can train in as well. I know everyone here already has their specialties. You know what you're good at, and that's fine. But there are a lot, and I mean a _lot_ , of different powers and weapons at the Resistance's disposal. Powers you never thought were real on your own worlds, might not be as hard to learn as you think they are. You guys all know Kirito had no powers when he got to Nexus, right?"

Many of the people in the room stared at Gray in shock, and Gray nodded his head at them. "I met Kirito in the first days here, and he was powerless. Now, he's stronger than I am."

Natsu looked over in surprise as Gray said that, and then he frowned deeper and stared back at his food. _What the fuck happened between them? Gray lost an arm and Kirito's still fucking pissed at him. They won't tell me, and it's getting on my fu-, it's getting on my nerves._ Natsu was cursing too much in his own thoughts, and he shook his head of the irritating annoyance he felt at Gray keeping this secret from him.

"What powers are you talking about, Gray-san?" Robin questioned.

Juvia looked at her boyfriend on her right side in some confusion, while Usopp had an interested look and pulled a notepad out and a pen as he prepared to write down easy-to-acquire powers. "As starters, there are Haki trainers, along with Nen experts who can tell you what aura types you are." Gray pointed a thumb at himself and said, "I'm an Emitter, but I never learned how to use Hatsu- I never created my own Nen ability," he specified as he knew most of them would not know what Hatsu was. "I only learned how to use two of the four major principles of Nen: Ten, and Zetsu for stealth, though I had tried using Ren as well but could never get it. I think if I had focused more on it I may have been able to, but focusing on Haki was hard enough. I have better Observational Haki than Armament, but I can even make a visible Armament Haki around my weapons if the situation is intense enough."

Robin nodded along with what Gray was saying, but she thought to herself, _I asked Killua all about Nen on the Sunny-Go after he explained Zetsu to us. My attempts at any practical training of those teachings have not gone well._

"There's stronger and more complicated magic," he began while looking to his left and Juvia and Natsu past her. "But also easy magic," he added while looking back around at some of the pirates and kids.

Timmy even looked interested by that, and when Gray looked at him in surprise, Timmy said, "I wished for all of my powers. I never knew there were other simple ways to do it."

"It's not as simple as you think," Gray said, hesitating as he thought he may have made it sound too easy. "But within a month," he continued. He nodded his head while looking back around, "Mastering some simple spells, as long as you have the natural skill for it, should not be tough at all. Magic covers this entire world, and even if it wasn't on yours," he added while looking to his right at Robin and Nami, "you might be surprised at the abilities you can master here. I doubt Haki existed on my own world- the power of will itself. Ki, Reiatsu, chakra," he shook his head and then got back on topic. "Anyway, I can introduce you to some teachers at the bases we go to, but you can also just join in any classes already going on. There are tons of members in the Resistance who would be happy to help you get stronger. We- they always want more people willing to fight the Cooperative to be better fit to do so. There are sword masters, beast tamers, etcetera."

"Beast tamers?" Ben asked.

"Sure," Gray replied. He grinned at the interested look on Ben's face, then explained in more detail, "Fight alongside bears, or direwolves, or giant scorpions. Tame eagles or dragons, gryphons or windriders. You could have your own flying mount even if you don't know how to fly."

"You ever do that?" Natsu asked his friend in surprise.

Gray shook his head, but then said with a grin, "However when I caught Articuno, I taught it how to use Fly."

"Really?" Sora asked in surprise. Gray looked over and Sora added, "A few of my Pokemon know Fly too."

Gray thought about Lugia and the times he had seen Sora riding on that massive Pokemon's back. "Really?" He asked though, pretending like he did not remember to the teen who had mentioned it like Gray didn't already know.

"I barely ever see you use that Pokemon of yours," Natsu mentioned over to his fellow Fairy Tail mage. "You brought it out that day you showed up in Port Royal, but you never used it once in the Underworld bases or even in Metropolis."

"Pokemon aren't weapons to 'use,'" Sora said to the pink-haired man on his right who spun back in surprise at how stern Sora sounded right there. Sora smiled after Natsu spun though, and he continued, "If you catch any you'll know. Pokemon, don't like fighting people."

"That's exactly it," Gray said, and Natsu turned back to him now. "Articuno was pretty territorial and would fight people back when she was in the wild, but after I caught her," Gray smiled softly. "I realized the first time I asked her to fight against my enemies that she was not into the fight. And against monsters, well Pokemon aren't exactly master fighters on their own." Gray sat back down as he was finished with his little speech, but he continued as he took his seat, "If you send out your Pokemon and then focus on your own fight, they won't always know what moves are best to use. You really have to focus on their fights, fight as a team with them, to protect them, and Articuno and I just aren't at that level for intense battles. Only Pokemon Masters really fight in battles and big wars with their Pokemon at their sides, and those Pokemon have usually been specifically trained in warfare too."

Sora frowned at the sound of that. _Pokemon weren't meant for war. I mean, I know there were Pokemon wars in the distant past. Those stories Mew told me, the Great Pokemon War at the end of the Cretaceous Period. The calamities that wiped out entire species of Pokemon, leaving only fossils behind._

Luffy reached an arm down over the table and grabbed a serving plate that he brought back over to his side where the food was more scarce. Sanji got up to go grab more from the kitchen where there was a lot still left under a heat lamp, while his Captain devoured the new pile of meat on his plate. As he chewed, his eyes narrowed at the teen on his right side who had a cat on the table next to him. He stared at Rin while thinking about something Natsu just mentioned. "Rin," Luffy said, then he gulped while the half demon turned towards him. "Weren't you in Castle Oblivion?"

Nami opened her mouth to correct Luffy, but he got the name right for once and she just let out the breath she took in for the correction. She stared at her Captain confusedly though, as did most of them since they all knew Rin had been there (except for Stan who just pretended not to be confused since no one else was).

"Yea-aahh," Rin replied slowly. "Why?" He asked, as this was kind of out of nowhere.

The feast Luffy had in front of him though, the mention of Port Royal, and of the Underworld bases that followed, it confused the pirate who asked, "Where did you go afterwards?"

Timmy leaned forward in his chair and looked over interestedly as well. He was the one who Rin came to a few months ago to ask for assistance in getting to Aebrith, after apparently being told by Mandy to ask for his help. Timmy had suggested then that Rin come with them in their journey if Mandy thought he was a good guy, but he did not really remember Rin all that much from before then. He thought he had seen him before, but back in Castle Oblivion he had been stopped on the floor below the one Rin was left guarding. Then, he had wished his way up through the castle without really stopping on the other floors, and Luffy was right, Rin did kind of disappear after that battle.

"Oh," Rin started at Luffy's question. He looked around the table while avoiding the gaze of the boy directly on his right, as well as the one at the opposite head of the table. Out of everyone else at the table, only the two at the heads did not have intrigued expressions on their faces. "Well, about that…" his gaze reached the far end of the table to his left, and he looked past Stan at the tall man at the head who locked eyes with him.

* * *

 **FD + 752**

 _This is so weird,_ Rin thought as he walked down a dock of Port Royal. Two pirates he recognized on his right lifted up their mugs as he was walking by, and Rin lifted his own and grinned back at them. They all knocked their drinks back, then the older pirates started laughing as the teenager coughed after chugging his beer. Rin wiped his mouth and laughed along with Shanks' crew before continuing on his way, not really having any set location he was heading to.

 _They're telling me it's been two years here already? That's wild! I look the same I did back then._ Rin turned on the dock he was on that connected all of the extending ones. He faced a store window near him and looked at himself in the glass. He could see his reflection thanks to the bright lights illuminating the lower part of the port where all the citizens and their heroes, as well as all the recently freed people in Castle Oblivion, were having a massive celebration. He had come to the port with the Red Hair crew, but the party only started in full swing when the second group returned on Straw Hat Luffy's ship. Rin stared at the window that flashed brightly as someone set off a firework in the sky behind him. _I still look sixteen, but, but I…_ Rin lowered his gaze down to his hands. He opened up the one not holding a mug in it, and he stared at his open left palm, images flashing through his mind. _I remember, the last year and a half. It was like one long bad dream. Unlike my usual dreams though, these memories aren't fading. They're blurry, but if all of them are real… how many people did I hurt?_

Rin turned and continued walking down the boardwalk. _Forget about it. That wasn't you. Those things, those half-memories, they were all Ansem's doing._ He was walking past another building when he spotted some people in the alley to his right. The alleyway was darker than the rest of the lower port, and Rin turned that way to see what was going on. The seventeen year old, who looked younger than that, was drinking for his first time. It was part of his mentality of missing out on a year and a half of life. Since he recalled that time and knew it had passed, he believed he was older than his body showed. He did not know whether or not he would have been drinking by that point in his life had he not been transformed into a Heartless, so when the pirates broke out the ale and offered him some, he just went with the flow and accepted. That was why, in Rin's best half-drunken judgement, the sight of people talking in an alley in secret made him grin sneakily. _I should go check it out,_ he thought, and immediately pulled back so the people talking down the alley would not see him.

He peeked his head around the corner, then he scurried over to some large wooden crates with garbage cans next to them. They were leaning up against a building, so Rin pushed himself up into the corner of a four-foot-tall wooden crate and the building on his right. His breathing picked up, an excited look came to his face, and he took another sip out of his beer that he knew was contributing to the fun he was having. In the port, Rin had no friends. He knew not one person, and he felt strange drinking alone as most of the others who were freed seemed to have comrades at the party who had come to save them. _No one I know came,_ Rin thought while crouched behind the box. He forgot why he had gone there for a moment, as his breathing calmed down and he stared across the alleyway at the wall of the building he was not leaning on. _Still don't know if anyone else from my world is here._

Rin slouched back against the wall and slid onto his butt. He put his mug down next to him, deciding against finishing the rest of it as a more serious look came to his face. This was the first time he had been alone since he woke back up from that long, terrible dream. He was alone in a darker area than he had been in since the darkness shredded off his body in Castle Oblivion. The pirates, the Anti-NEG League, their allies, the people of Port Royal, none of them were around him anymore. _What do I do now?_ He thought, staring at the wall across the alley with a blank look on his face. _I guess, I should start by looking for… What are they talking about?_ Rin Okumura blinked a few times, then he turned his head right to the wooden crate at his side. He suddenly remembered the people he had seen farther in the darkness of the alley, and he got sweat on the sides of his face as he leaned forward and peeked around the side of the crate.

The teen's eyes rose up past the crate and he stared at the figure fifteen feet past the other side of the clumped garbage and crates. That spiky-haired boy was staring at the wall and a taller man leaning against it who had much longer hair that fell down his back. "…two years. Two years Riku. Don't talk about going away anymore. I'm sure your friend Ben would say the same thing." Sora grinned at him and then added in a more intrigued tone, "So, Ben has a Keyblade, huh?"

The older teen leaning against the wall in front of Sora looked back and then humphed at the look in Sora's eyes. "Don't try changing the subject," Riku began. "It's not safe for me to stay around."

"I won't let him resurface," Sora said. He reached forward and put a hand on Riku's shoulder, "He won't come back for a while, not as long as Timmy's around. And by the next time Ansem makes his move, you'll be strong enough to push him back down on your own." Riku's brow furrowed and he bit down hard at Sora's unfounded faith in him. Rin meanwhile, was staring forward with widening eyes, wondering if alcohol was actually a hallucinogenic and no one had told him. Sora got a more serious look on his face at the sight of Riku's uncertain, hesitant expression. "I promise, Riku," Sora said. "I'll make sure Ansem will never take control of you again. So don't go anywhere, okay?"

Riku stared back into Sora's eyes, and he finally nodded once without a word. Sora smiled so widely at that nod that Riku could not even keep his straight expression and cracked a small grin too. Sora lowered his arm, then Riku crossed his in front of his chest and leaned his head back on the wall behind him. "You find anything out these past two years?" Riku asked.

 _Is that Ansem?! His, real body? They weren't talking like he was possessed like one of us. "Push him back down?" Oh man, what am I…_ The sweat already covering Rin's face intensified, and his heart started pounding so much harder.

"Kairi and I spent the whole time after you were taken over trying to find you and get you back. A lot happened, but we haven't come any closer to discovering the secrets of this world." Sora paused and looked up. "We never talked about what happened. When we found you, everything happened so fast. And today too… but that's why I'm talking to you now, just the two of us," he specified. His face had a darker look to it, and Riku nodded back at him so Sora continued, "At the edge of the Realm of Darkness, we were at the end of the line. I never thought we would get out of there."

"Me neither," Riku said. "But then, that light… and that, man."

"Was it a man?" Sora whispered. "I saw the silhouette, and then when I tried calling out to him, you vanished."

"So you were still in there?" Riku asked. "How long?"

"Just a few seconds," Sora said, but he got a hesitant look on his face as he said it. "But when I appeared here, it felt like… I was the last one." Riku's eyes widened as he stared at his friend, and Sora continued, "The suns were already going down, and the people I came across right after arriving were talking about things that had happened hours earlier. You, didn't feel that way?"

"Just a few seconds," Riku muttered, shaking his head in amazement. "Time here could move faster than the rest of the cosmos."

"Why were all the worlds connected like this?" Sora asked. Riku shook his head, not knowing how to answer Sora's question. "We stopped Xemnas, so I thought the worlds would return to the way they were before. This world, doesn't feel right. I'm not just talking about all the monsters, all the terrible things that have happened and are still going on. Riku, in my heart I know this world is _wrong._ We have to find a way to fix the world order."

"I agree," Riku said. "After everything Ansem did, that _I_ let him do, saving the multiverse is the only thing I can do now. But Sora, there are things on this world that are too powerful. I might need to use the darkness to stop them, it's the only thing strong enough-"

Rin fell.

Riku and Sora spun their heads at the sound of a garbage can falling over. They stared back through the alley, both of them shocked that they had not noticed the figure now sprawled out among garbage while still staring at them with eyes as wide as saucers. They were so caught up in their conversation, and they each were relaxed having finally defeated Ansem, their goal for almost two full years. They stared at the younger teenager with messy black hair who scrambled back up to his feet and took a step back as the two stepped towards him.

"Whoa, hey hold on," Sora said as he saw the look in the darker-haired teen's eyes. He realized that the teen must have heard something considering that look on his face, and Sora started chuckling before adding, "Just how much did you hear?"

"Rin," Riku muttered, the name somewhere in his mind rising to the surface in recognition of the figure before him.

Rin started stumbling backwards. He stared into Riku's eyes, behind him at his long spiky, _silver,_ hair, and then he spun and started running.

"H-Hey! Wait!" Sora called out.

Rin rounded the corner though, and he was gone. He sprinted as fast as he could down that boardwalk, panting heavily and moving as fast as his legs would take him. He cut into the port and ran up different streets, ducked through alleys, then exited out the eastern side of the port.

He did not stop running until morning.

* * *

 **Present**

"Well, about that…" Rin looked into Riku's green eyes, then he grinned which surprised the older man. Rin turned back to Luffy and said, "I started looking around for my friend who I was traveling with before I got turned into a Heartless. It had been a long time so I had little luck finding him. It was pure chance that I was in Metropolis the same time everybody decided to make their moves!" He laughed, while the others stared at him in surprise that something like that could happen.

"I do not think it is that unexpected," Robin said, making the surprised group members turn her way. "After all, Metropolis has a very large population. If one was to search for a friend…"

"That's what I was thinking," Rin said. "Found a census after the Battle of Metropolis though, and he wasn't there." _Luckily,_ Rin added to himself, as he would have been more nervous if his friend _had_ been in Metropolis back then. "Even though at that point I was already pretty much solely focused on getting Yukio back, I've got my other goals too. Kicking Satan's ass and finding Sam are both things I need to do."

"'Kicking Satan's ass,' huh?" Nami said, a bead of sweat on the side of her face. Something she had heard not long ago made her entire body get goosebumps. And she could not even laugh it off like she initially planned on doing. The others made jokes though, while Rin stared at Nami confusedly at the reaction she had, one that Usopp shared not far from her.

Lunch finished up not long after and everyone split up to go do their own things around the ship. Rin was walking down the hall towards his room, when he heard a voice call out from behind him, "Hey Rin, wait up." He froze and grimaced, but then turned around to see Sora jogging towards him with Riku not far behind. Kuro glanced to his left at Rin's head from where he sat on the teen's right shoulder, and the cat got a confused look on its black furry face at the look of apprehension on Rin's.

"Can we talk?" Sora asked as they stopped in front of Rin. "That night," Sora began as Rin nodded at him.

"I thought you forgot about it," Rin admitted, glancing back and forth at the two who did not seem to recognize him back when he got on the Thousand Sunny.

"I'm sorry," Riku began. Rin turned to him in some confusion, and Riku lowered his gaze before lifting it and looking straight in Rin's eyes. "I've told Usopp a hundred times, but, really Rin, I'm sorry for what I did to you-"

"Don't be," Rin said, shaking his head and smiling at the silver-haired older teen. "I didn't run off back then because of you being Ansem. And I know it was Ansem who did that stuff to me, so forget about it, okay?" Rin asked. Riku looked hesitant, but even if he would not forget about it that easily, he wanted to put Rin at ease so he smiled and nodded at him.

"If it wasn't because of that though," Sora began in confusion. "Then why'd you run off like that? You looked really spooked."

Sora had a genuinely interested look on his face, and although Riku was glad it was not because of him, he also wanted to know the real reason now. Rin sighed and he glanced at Kuro who was confused by this whole conversation. "I'll explain it to you later Kuro," he said, then he motioned his head back and Kuro became more surprised. His familiar nodded back at him though, and then it turned and hopped off his shoulder before running back to their room. Rin looked back ahead and then around the Keybearers towards the end of the hall where he saw Sanji and Usopp walking, but the two of them were just crossing an intersection and did not pay the three of them any mind.

"Okay," Rin started. "The truth is," he paused, and he tried to keep a steady look on his face but failed and actually got a little nervous as he brought it back up. "When I heard you talking about that other stuff, the secrets of the worlds…" Riku and Sora grimaced that they were that careless to let someone they did not know at the time hear all of that. "It terrified me," Rin admitted. "When I found out that it wasn't magic, or science, or even demonic stuff that took me over, but something even more powerful! Something way beyond my comprehension," he shook his head and then put both of his hands behind it and leaned back against them to stare at the ceiling. He took a deep breath and continued in a steadier voice, "I'm more okay with it now, after traveling with you guys for a while. If you can handle it all with such confident smiles, I feel like I shouldn't be as worried as I was. But back then," he lowered his head and stared back in the Keybearers eyes. "The idea that I had fallen to a power that had something to do with why the universes had all connected, why Nexus existed, it made me shake so hard that I fell out of my hiding place and alerted you to my presence."

"And why were you hiding?" Sora wondered.

"I don't know," Rin said with a shake of his head and a laugh. "It was the first, and only time, I drank alcohol. Kind of a traumatizer," he added. Rin paused as the other two chuckled along with him, then he continued, "I did go look for my friend like I told the others, but that wasn't the reason I left that night, the very minute I stumbled away and fled Port Royal. I left because I was afraid of you Keybearers. Satan, I can handle. But what you guys are up against," he paused and the other two lowered their smiles a little at the nervous look that came back to Rin's face. "I can't even- I can't find the words…" Rin whispered. He stared at the two in front of him who all of a sudden looked so serious, who he could tell were hiding these massive secrets from him that would scare him even more. _I don't even want to ask them about it. If I ask, and I learn about the missions that mean so much to this world, how will I be able to focus on my own goals that I'm still so far from? I just, want my brother back, and to kick that bastard Satan's ass while I'm at it!_

"Anyway," Rin began again to the two in front of him. "I'm sorry I ran off like I did back then. And if you do need help in, your missions," he added hesitantly, then he hardened his gaze and took a deep breath before smiling wide at them. "You know you can count on me. I might be afraid, but hell, who wouldn't be?"

Sora laughed and scratched the side of his head. "I know I am," he agreed with Rin. Rin thought he would not feel better knowing that the one he expected to save the universe was afraid too, but it actually made him smile knowing that they were just as human as the rest of them. "Alright Rin, sorry we freaked you out so much back then." Sora said. He turned to Riku and motioned back the other way, and Riku nodded at him.

Riku paused while looking at Rin still even after Sora had turned, and Rin's face got a more serious look to it. The younger teenager who had spent a long time as a pawn to Ansem's darkness stared into Riku's eyes, and he nodded his head with a serious look on it that made Riku feel much better. The nod said all it needed to, much more than the friendly tone Rin had earlier when talking about it. Riku nodded back at Rin with a thankful expression on his face, then he turned and followed Sora away. Rin turned away and started walking back towards his room, but his lips only curled farther down. _I keep saying all this stuff about fighting Satan and getting you back, but I haven't done anything about it, Yukio._

* * *

"Alright guys, we're only six hours out," Gray's voice came over the truck's speakers. "I know that puts our arrival at a kind of weird time, but not much we can do about it."

It was already pretty late in the night, but not too late that everyone was thinking about going to sleep yet. Robin lowered her book and glanced down at a watch she had started wearing recently. She frowned as she had planned on going to sleep in two more hours, but that would give her very little time to rest before she woke up in the morning. Usually she was fine with little sleep, but she had a feeling that they were going to have a long day tomorrow. She tapped a few buttons on her watch to give her a notice when an hour had passed, as she would try and get an extra hour of sleep in. As she moved her left hand away from the watch on her right wrist though, she kept staring at it for a few seconds. _Strange that a day here is the same length of time as on our worlds. Three suns instead of one, yet still a twenty-four hour day. Perhaps it has to do with the size of Nexus, or maybe the Gods just decided it that way. Gods…_ Robin shook her head and refocused on the book in her hands.

 _Very few things have been published on this world to my knowledge._ _The Art of Warcraft: A Guide to the Combat Forms of the Multiverse_ _, it is beautifully written. The author goes by a clear Pseudonym though, Wordsmith Letterman._ Robin smiled as she looked at the title page of the book again while keeping two fingers inside it on her current page. _Along with what Gray has told us, I believe reading this book can help me greatly._

"Hey Robin," Nami began, and Robin looked to her left to see Nami standing up from the bed she and Juvia had been whispering to each other on. Juvia looked hesitant behind Nami, but Nami looked assured and had a serious expression on her face as she started walking over. Nami looked back towards Juvia, then to Robin again and she said, "I have something I need to tell you."

In the hallway outside the girls' room, Dash and Ben were walking back towards their room. They had also planned on staying up later, but when even Natsu thought it was a good idea to get some rest, the two of them decided to head back. They entered the room and stared over at Timmy and Stan who were hovering off the floor in front of each other with their eyes closed. Their legs were crossed and they looked to be meditating, or something. Ben and Dash glanced at each other, then they spun back around as objects started lifting off the ground all over the room.

"Hey guys, mind not touching my stuff?" Ben asked, as he saw his backpack was one of the things lifting up next to his bed. His mattress started lifting up after he asked it, and he saw Stan grin a little, though the boy with the red poof-ball hat was sweating as he lifting the mattress along with everything else he was already holding. Ben saw that sweat on Stan's face, and he smirked before running towards his bed and leaping up. He landed on the bed and the extra weight made Stan open his eyes in surprise, then drop half the things he was holding while throwing the rest harder up in the air at the loss of balance in the Force.

Timmy grinned and opened back up his eyes, while Ben was laughing on his bed, and Stan started glaring over at the older boy. "I win," Timmy claimed.

Timmy looked over towards the door where Dash was still standing, a far-off look in his eyes. He would have thought the blond boy would be laughing along with Ben, but Dash was distracted for some reason. _He always looks like that recently,_ Timmy thought. _More than the others,_ he added to himself sadly, as he had missed so much while he was gone. _Except maybe Juvia. I can't believe, I let her die. Killua too. I can't do that. I can't leave them again. My mission is important to me, but not as much as my friends' lives._

Upstairs one floor, Goku was panting heavily while standing in a fighting stance. He had used the multi-form technique, and there was a single other Goku in front of him who was staring back at him with just as intense a look. The other Goku flew towards him and they merged, then Goku frowned in a deep way and turned towards the door. _I do need to rest,_ he thought, but he kept frowning after having the thought. _As much as I train, it's going to take a lot more than this to catch up._

 _"_ _ **Kakarott,"**_ Goku slowed down as he neared the door of the training room. He grabbed the handle and pulled the door open, while that voice continued in his head, _**"I'm proud of you…"**_ Goku bit down hard as he stepped outside the room, then he stared down at the floor and heard that voice finish, _**"My son."**_

 _Are the Dragon Balls on Nexus?_ Goku wondered. It had not been the first time he had ever thought about it. When his wife died, when Krillin disappeared, there were several times that Goku had had the urge to search for the Dragon Balls. _But without Bulma,_ he thought, the same argument and realization he had with himself every time he thought about them. This time though, he did not even have the hope that he would one day run into Bulma and be able to ask her for a Dragon Radar. _Bulma's gone. I don't know if anyone else could do it. And, I don't know if Dende is on Nexus. Yet, even without the Dragon Balls, they said they brought Juvia back to life, and Killua too._

Goku lifted his gaze and stared at the wall across the hallway from him. _Would Bardock even want to come back though? I didn't, last time I died. This time too… I thought. I thought if I died again, I would accept it and that would be it, but if Meruem had killed me that day, if Sora hadn't gotten us out of there, I would have hated it so much. I need to beat Meruem before I die. If I don't, then I hope my friends bring me back to life._ Goku turned to the right and started walking down the hall, _Because if not, then I'll never be able to face my father._

 _At my current power though- and Meruem's technique too, it's all too great. I need a power up, I need-_ "Hey Goku," a voice called from ahead of him, and Goku stopped and focused his gaze. He was so distracted that he did not even notice the boy with spiky brown hair standing ahead of him with his back leaning against the wall. "Got a minute?" Sora asked. He had seen Goku's various expressions since he left the training room, and Sora pushed off the wall to go walk right in front of his older friend.

"What's up Sora?" Goku asked.

"You remember what we talked about back on the Mount Salad, two days before the war?" Sora began. Goku shook his head no and Sora chuckled as he did not expect Goku had. He decided to jog Goku's memory, and he said, "I was about to go warn the Resistance, but I told you that I knew why Bardock wouldn't let you try transforming into a Super Saiyan God." Goku's eyes widened and he nodded his head as he did remember that. "Even though he would have taught it to Vegeta at just a Super Saiyan or Super Saiyan 2, he wouldn't let you try until you were a Super Saiyan 3. He even considered teaching that Saiyan woman Okara, right?"

Goku nodded again, and he looked as confused as ever as Sora talked about it. "Was there a reason?" Goku asked. "Could I not do it unless-"

"That wasn't it," Sora said. "You probably could have," Sora said, then he laughed at Goku's confused expression. "I told you that I'd tell you the reason when I got back," he added.

"I forgot," Goku said, and Sora laughed some more. "What is it?" Goku asked, getting a bit of an annoyed look that Sora was taking too long to tell him.

"It was pretty obvious to me," Sora began. "Why Bardock wouldn't let you try it, when he would let the others. I hoped maybe he would just tell you himself, but, well he can't anymore, so I'll say it. Goku, Bardock cared about you." Sora smiled wide while looking into Goku's confused eyes. "Even though you were one of the strongest Saiyans, he wouldn't let you try transforming because of the risk that existed. Even though there was a good chance of you succeeding, he wanted to make sure that there was a Zero percent chance that it would go wrong, and kill his son." Goku's eyes started getting wider, and Sora finished, "Rather than risk the transformation killing you, he told you to transform into a Super Saiyan 3 first. Because if your body could handle that transformation, he would have been reassured that you could handle the Super Saiyan God."

"You really think so?" Goku asked. He was shocked as he had never even considered that idea. It had confused him to no end why Bardock would not let him try it, but this reason never once crossed his mind.

"I know so," Sora replied. He scratched the back of his head then turned around. "Anyway, just thought I'd tell you that-"

"Thanks Sora," Goku said. Sora had just started walking away, but the teen smiled at the genuinely grateful tone of Goku's voice. "That, really helps me out with something," he added.

Sora got confused at what that meant, but he just shrugged and waved a hand over his shoulder. "Always happy to help," he said.

Above Sora and Goku, on the third floor of the ship, Usopp was speaking in a hushed and nervous tone to the large cyborg in front of him. "...I can't get the image out of my head. It doesn't surprise me that Zoro's so different now. Not after- did you hear some of those things Gray described?"

"I heard," Franky replied. His voice was grim and just as low as Usopp's. He normally wanted to just laugh at his crewmate for being a scaredy-cat, but in this instance he could not do it. Sanji was laying back on his bed not far from them, his hands behind his head while staring up at the ceiling with a dark look in his eyes, and a bead of sweat rolling down his face.

Usopp gulped, then he continued, "Gray talked about his group like they were so strong, but they got… so many of them died to just, just one Legion of Hell. Those demons he described, they were like nothing we've seen so far. The hellhounds, and the ones he said wore those cloaks and were doing weird chants. Like, what even is that?"

"Usopp, stop thinking about it," Sanji said from where he was laying down.

"I can't," Usopp hissed over. "I've tried ignoring it, but I keep having nightmares about them. It wouldn't be so bad, if I didn't know that we are going to _have_ to face them sooner or later. Those things, they're the demons we always imagined on our world as being myths. They live in Hell, and they torture souls, and they massacre innocent people- strong and weak alike. We can't take on devils, literal demons. We're just pirates."

"I know what you mean," Franky said. He rubbed the back of his metal head and muttered, "That look in Gray's eyes when he was talking about it, that was some real PTSD there. He wasn't even focused on us anymore, and when he talked about them pouring their own black blood in that Zabuza guy's mouth…" Franky shivered and then finished after a few seconds' pause, "It scares me too man."

"There isn't a sane person on this world who wouldn't be scared of stuff like that," Sanji said in a low voice from where he was laying. "But that doesn't change the fact that we _need_ to be ready to face them when the time comes. Even if Satan wasn't a High Lord, we'd still be going after the bastard." Sanji said it then wished he could go smoke a cigarette. _No time, gotta sleep,_ he reminded himself. "Alright, shut off the lights. Just think about how Goku and Timmy are with us, and you probably won't have nightmares."

"Think so?" Usopp asked. "I don't know. Even with them, I still don't know."

Rin stood outside the door of the room he shared with some of the other guys in their group. He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes, then opened them and stared straight up at the ceiling. _The demons on this world are too much to ask my friends to go after,_ Rin thought. He thought about all his friends on the ship with him, and his heart started racing faster and faster at the idea of them all going up against those same demons Usopp was just talking about. _I won't, risk your lives. I care too much about each of you. When we get back north, I have to go after Satan on my own. It's my brother, my burden._

Rin turned and started walking down the hallway. He reached a room closer to the cockpit on the third floor, and as he was nearing it, a man leaving the cockpit was heading back to his nearby room to get the sleep he just suggested everyone else to get. "Oh, Gray," Rin said, continuing to walk instead of stopping at the door like he had planned at first. "Can we talk?" Rin asked.

"Yeah?" Gray asked, wondering about the serious look on his younger friend's face.

Rin took a deep breath, then he started, "Remember when I told you I was Satan's son, you told me you knew how to get to Satan."

"I said it was complicated," Gray began.

"Could you explain it to me? Exactly how it works this time?" Rin asked.

Gray frowned and questioned, "Why? You're not thinking of-"

"'Course not," Rin said and shook his head convincingly. "But I want to know how to save my brother. There's no telling if we'll all manage to stay together, and in case we get separated again I want to know whatever you do about Satan and the demons of this world."

Gray hummed to himself for a few seconds. "Alright, but don't do anything stupid with this information. We can handle any problem as long as we stick together, okay?"

"Yeah, I got it," Rin said, though he found it hard to force his smile while lying to his friend's face. "So how do I get there?" Rin asked. "How do I get to Hell?"

* * *

 **A/N Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Get some past for Rin here, though more questions about his early days on Nexus arise from what we saw too. A lot of setup this chapter for the ones coming up. Only one more part of Chapter 15 (it's shorter than I initially thought it was going to be). Anyway, took me a while to write this one, and I still have most of 15.9 to write too, but then I have a few of the following chapters already finished to post in a row. Okay review responses:**

Limit-Breaking chapter 106 . May 18

Well im glad sora finally said it, i always wondered if there fights and taking out a bunch of high lords made any difference. I love how sora became captain and the following chapter he already mad and realizing how bad it really is.  
To be honest i never liked the philosophy if you can really call it that but im not sure how to word it. It's mainly the thing goofy and donald told him to always smile i always felt that was never something he should do. There are going to be points were sora needs to make everybody understand that everything bad that happens shouldn't be ignored they should accept them and try to see how they can make a difference.  
Even the enemies like luthor, zod realize how much they failed at what they aimed for, and accepted that so they decided to train or find ways for something that stands in their way and overcome it. It's easier said than done at some points but it's really the only choice in my opinion otherwise they will end up dreading and wondering about the what if to much.  
Hell gohan, vegeta, meruem realized this as well both gohan and vegeta lost to luthor so they decided to find their own ways of not letting the same events repeat itself. Meruem truly accomplished that by killing bardock he lost to him the first time but he still found ways to improve himself and make better choices so that he can accomplish his goals.  
I say there are times when people needs somebody who can smile and bring there mood up, but the one thing that always got to me is when people tried to make jokes and tried to change the subject, to me i always felt that way of handling things is just people trying to ignore the truth of a situation and not really trying to face up to the problems.  
I say accepting it and trying to make a difference for the now is the best option that way you can better yourslef and break the obstacles that stand before you.  
Either way enough of that, i must say i like the developments for the charcters that you are building up. It's really good and im glad you are making the story a more serious plot it feels just right and i can't wait for the next chapter.

 **Kingdom Hearts definitely got a bit more serious than a children's game in this, though I have tried to give Sora reasons for why he isn't just acting as carefree as he did with Donald and Goofy too. I liked the philosophy in Kingdom Hearts (cuz well I was a kid and wouldn't like an angsty video game), but it couldn't work in this world and Sora knows it. Then again, Sora seems to have made up with everyone already, having apologized to them for his outburst. And all those characters you mentioned have been getting stronger and stronger. Each time they've survived, they realized how much stronger they could be and had to keep pushing towards it. Meruem's pretty much the** **epitome** **of this, though he and Luthor have both come such far ways from what they were at initially. Anyway, glad you're liking the character developments, and they're all building up to the next few chapters... so get ready! Thanks for the review!**

flo463 chapter 106 . May 18

Saichi is resurrected, but Kirito does not seem to know.  
If he is not, how will he react when he hears that Saichi (who was his first love just before Asuna) came back?  
What will be the impact on her relationship with Asuna?  
I am curious to know who or what resuscitates the deceased? For what purpose?  
Kirito always equal to himself when it comes to saving Asuna.  
his propensity to go headlong without worrying about the danger risks playing tricks on him in the future. what would happen if he fell upon an enemy stronger, more cunning, or more intelligent than himself?  
a lot of pressure and weariness for our heroes. after Kirito, it's Sora's turn to snapped and reminds his friends that each of their actions has consequences (quite the opposite of Fairy Tail XD). Once Merurem defeated, I would see The Rebellion evolving into the Future World Government.  
Sorry to hear that your test went wrong, your teacher could have left you more time.

 **Ah it's alright (the test thing), I got over it already haha. It's a few points on the average, but I'm pretty good at memorizing Kanji so shouldn't be too hard to boost the average. Alright, rest of the review (since I started at the end XD ). Kirito does know Sachi is there, as I'm pretty sure she's the first one in Metropolis who called out his name when he was fighting Blackbeard. He was with his friends in the days after Battle of Metropolis too, but while he was with them Ace came over and told him some things that Reanimated Marco told him about, including how Kirito's Underworld martial arts master Akuma was the one who killed his friend Marco. This reminded Kirito of all the terrible things he had done, which made him decide that he couldn't just stay with those friends from SAO and he ran off to keep training (where Goku found him and told him to come to Aebrith). Kirito continues his training this chapter, though it didn't focus much on him. Anyway, some interesting predictions there at the end, hope you enjoyed the chapter, and thanks for the review!**

Jokering chapter 106 . May 19

Couldnt read the recent chapters thanks to college ( and indirectly to Infinity War ) but after making enough time to read this i've got to say: i am still enjoying it even now, that surprises me since most giant fanfics fall off by chapter 100, you are technically two times ahead of that and still going strong.  
Lots of set ups about whats going to happen: What Satan is planning, the aftermath of Pyraxas, the 7 sins reunited and helping out Maka and Soul and Liz, Blackbeard is back, Sephiroth and Cloud are still tsundere for each other (jk), and Sora is now team leader, neat.  
I had the feeling it would go typical anime/rpg route, with the characters going on a route and defeating the enemies on the way, but i it seems like the other sub plots might not make it as simple as that, even if it is that way I wouldn't mind, i kinda biased towards the rpg style journey.  
Random Dragon Ball trivia for the review: Did you see those new character designs for Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Beerus and Whis? They finally went back to og style DB, no more banana SSJ hair as some people call it, no more characters looking like plastic toys, and since Piccolo was one of the first revealed maybe he will do stuff in the movie instead of being fodder ( my personal hope, i miss Piccolo being bad ass, ToP didnt do as much for him and Tien and Krillin as it for everybody else). Btw how are you doing with Saint Seiya? Hope you are liking it, its a really old anime so they dont go as wild with their fights as recent ones do, but its still a pretty cool series.  
As typical of my reviews i compliment your work and keep rooting for your story: Well done and keep up the great job you are doing.

 **Infinity War was distracting... haha, and college too I guess. Glad you're still liking the story 205+ chapters through. A whole lot of setups for the Second Third of Heroes Will Rise which is really still just starting up. RPG, subplots, war, adventure, romance, lot of different ways I could write up this story from this point, but you'll see soon how it goes. I have seen the new designs, and I really like them, also really looking forward to DB: Heroes. Piccolo in the movie... I can see saving Gohan, and that's about it. XD It's his iconic movie role, so I'm really looking forward to it. Thanks for the review!**

Guest chapter 106 . May 21

now sora is leading the great!, I also some people are alive again and that's blackbeard who else could be back

 **Sora takes charge. Blackbeard and Zaratras return, but that's because the two of them were Reanimations Orochimaru brought back to life in Metropolis. They were sealed by Ansem/Riku who used the darkness to suck them into a dark realm, but in order to save himself and the others when they were cornered by monsters after fighting the Spriggans, Riku released them back into the world. Thanks for the review!**

cyber chapter 106 . May 22

cant wait for the kingdom hearts 3 game

 **Me either. The hype is real. XD Thanks for the review, and thanks to everyone for reading! 'Till next time!**


	108. Nexus HWR 15-9 Welcome to the Resistance

**Nexus HWR 15.9 Welcome to the Resistance:**

"Alright come on guys," Gray said while looking into the room with their youngest members in it. "Hurry it up."

"Yeah, yeah we're coming," Ben muttered tiredly. He picked up his bag and shoved the last of his stuff in it, then he grabbed his capsule case and checked to make sure his four capsules were in it before putting that in the frontmost pocket of his bag.

Stan let out a yawn as he picked up his cloak with his steel left arm covered in fake skin. He put the cloak on and then started rolling up his sleeping bag on top of his bed. Once it was rolled up and tied tight with its straps, Stan pressed a button on one of the straps that capsulized it into a small pill-sized, lighter object. He did not really get the physics of it, but he just shoved the capsule into his own rucksack that was tan and smaller than the others' bags. His was more like a drawstring bag only it had side pouches too. He patted down his side under his cloak where his lightsaber rested, then he double-checked his sleeping area before nodding once as it looked like he had all his things.

The boys left their room and walked down the hall to where most of the others were already gathered. More of them than ever were using the ladder outside the door to climb down, and Dash, Ben, and Stan all waited for their turns to use it too. Robin glanced at her watch as everyone waited to go down the ladder one by one. _3:30 a.m. Too early for anyone to want to work up a sweat it seems._ She had gotten up as soon as Gray made the announcement that they were ten minutes away though, so while her friends were all laying down and trying to sleep for ten minutes more, she had gone to drink some coffee along with Sanji and Kirito.

Luffy walked right through the door with both eyes closed, and he did three flips past the people climbing down the ladder behind him. Luffy hit the ground on the side of the truck flat on his face and stomach, then he just lay where he landed with a snot bubble sticking out of his nose. The Resistance guards who were gathered at the base of the vehicle were surprised and worried when they saw him crash down so un-gracefully, but Sasuke Uchiha just shook his head at the pirate who was somehow still asleep.

Goku let out a loud yawn as he reached the door, then he floated outside like Timmy did right behind him. The Saiyan floated down to the top of the wall first, and when Goku landed he turned to a man with long black hair that covered one of his eyes. "Sasuke," Goku greeted with a smile.

"Son Goku," Sasuke greeted right back. He did not look surprised, and he continued, "Gray called ahead, and he mentioned that you had joined them."

Goku smiled and nodded back, then he stretched his arms up in the air and yawned again. "Why did you come back here?" Sasuke questioned. Goku lowered his arms and gave the ninja a confused look. Others were reaching the wall behind Goku, and there was a small boy floating down next to a woman with long orange hair climbing down who Sasuke Uchiha stared closely at for a moment. He looked back at Goku though and continued, "Is there a specific reason?"

Goku shook his head, then responded, "I came to help the Resistance, and fight the King."

Sasuke stared blankly at Goku for a few seconds, then he asked, "Why now?"

Goku shrugged his shoulders, then he glanced behind him and said, "Gray was talking about it and it sounded interesting."

 _Son Goku, you…_ Sasuke frowned, then he looked at the small boy floating down next to Nami who finally reached ground level and landed at her side. Considering how intent that woman was on rescuing Timmy Turner from the south, Sasuke felt like the person he was seeing with her should have been the same one who threatened the Resistance to "Submit" a few days ago. The child in the pink hat he was looking at though looked nothing like the muscular man who had almost killed them all. "Are you Timmy Turner?" Sasuke asked.

Timmy turned his head from Nami to the ninja, and the second their eyes met Sasuke's expression filled with shock. The two of them stared into each other's eyes, remembering something from so, so long ago.

 _ **"Idiots. What can you do that we couldn't?"**_

 _ **"Everything. I wish I had two huge wings…"**_

"You were," Sasuke muttered, taking a step towards the boy in the pink hat that he realized now should have given it away instantly. "That day, you fought Madara."

Nami's jaw suddenly dropped as she noticed the similarities between the man in front of her and one she had seen before. Timmy had wished all the people nearby to safety on the treehouse that had appeared out of nowhere above a bunch of very tall trees, and he was one of those people who lay on the floor of that treehouse. She remembered he had blood coming out of his eyes, and that he had seemed like one of the stronger people there. His hair was shorter back then and did not cover one half of his face like it did now, but once she noticed the resemblance, it was impossible to think of anything else. Sasuke turned to her too, and he somewhat remembered seeing a woman next to that boy who had shocked him so much, right before he had wished them all to safety so much farther than he had the first time.

"You were there too?" Goku asked Sasuke in surprise.

Sasuke turned to Goku just as surprised, and he asked the legendary Super Saiyan, "Did you defeat him?"

Goku shook his head, then he looked back towards Timmy. Sasuke's eyes widened in even more shock and he spun to the boy who was frowning all of a sudden. "It was Cosmo," Timmy said, "not me, who beat Madara."

 _Cosmo, that must have been one of those strange creatures that appeared next to him. The one with green hair most likely. I could ask what happened to them,_ Sasuke recognized the look on Timmy's face though well, and he decided against it. Still, seeing that those beings were not there, ones that could grant wishes, it made him grimace. He wiped that disappointed look from his face quickly though, recalling the power that Timmy had shown off in a different transformed state not long ago. _He is powerful even without them. It was a good bet letting them go after him._

"Sasuke," Gray said as he walked up on Goku's side. He glanced over his shoulder at Timmy, then looked back and grinned as he said, "Mission complete."

"Good," Sasuke replied. "I passed on your messages to HQ, and you're group's been summoned."

"'Summoned?'" Luffy asked, wondering what that meant while frowning at the sound of it.

Sasuke did not like the tone of the pirate's voice, but a slightly taller boy walked up on Luffy's side and patted him on the shoulder which made Luffy turn his way then frown and ease back. Sasuke was also frowning at the figure who kept walking towards him, and he was confused as Gray moved a little to the side for him. "Hey there," Sora said as he reached Sasuke. "Sorry, about before, you know," Sora continued, and he scratched the back of his head with his right hand. "Turning you into a chicken, I mean," he specified in case Sasuke did not know what he was saying it for.

Half the people behind Sora pursed their lips and tried not to laugh. A few others who had heard about the story during one of the boisterous meals they had had over the last few days only got even bigger grins on their faces as they saw Sasuke's reaction. Sora lowered his hand and put it in front of him, "Anyway, I know we got off on the wrong foot, but I'm looking forward to helping out the Resistance and fighting with you. We all are."

Sasuke stared at Sora's hand with a narrowed right eye, then he darted his gaze around at all the others gathered behind him on the dark surface of the Great Wall. There were only a few lights set up around them, and the guards on the wall also had flashlights with different brightness settings that were aimed around the group at the moment, (the ones who were not watching off the south side of the wall at least). Sasuke grabbed Sora's hand and shook it, but he kept it brief then dropped his right arm back to his side. "There are shuttles waiting for you down the wall just over there," Sasuke motioned behind the group and past the tall truck they had parked on the wall.

A few of them had already noticed the lights down there which seemed out of place since they were outside of the lower walls of the Resistance base below. "Actually, Sasuke," a man began and started walking towards Sasuke from behind where the people who just arrived thought were only guards to the base. He walked forward and was set apart from the other guards by his tall height and broad shoulders. He had a head of dark red hair as well as long red sideburns that spiked out of his cheeks but stopped before connecting down at his chin. He had on a pair of glasses almost covered by his long red bangs, and he had an overbite with two sharp teeth sticking up past his top lip. "The Commanders would like for you to return as well," he said to the ninja who looked his way then frowned and turned to the right to look over the base again.

"What about here?" Sasuke questioned

"My subordinate Zapp will take control of Resistance Outpost Z-345," he turned more towards Son Goku and specified, "or Zulu base in Sector 345."

Natsu, Kirito, and a few of the others remembered how Gray and Black Canary had talked about Sectors and bases when they first met up with the Resistance back up north. Sasuke frowned, not appreciating having this thrown on him in the moment. He nodded after a few seconds though, then he said, "I'll be right back then." He disappeared to most of the people standing on the wall, moving incredible fast as he leapt off the wall down for the base where he had to get his things and leave behind some notes for the person coming to take charge of his base.

As Sasuke shot off, Dash noticed one of the guards up on the wall looking his way. Dash looked back at the man and saw Lancelot looking back towards him. He ran over to Lancelot as the guard gave him a small wave, and he asked, "Is Mister- is Frozone still here?"

Lancelot shook his head to the boy and spoke in a whisper since the red-haired man continued speaking to the rest of the group of new arrivals. "Frozone and the other heroes he was with are out on a mission on the border with the Emperor, few hundred miles west of here and to the north."

Dash frowned, then he frowned deeper and thought, _Why did I even ask? I can't talk to him about this. Even if he does know a way, if I tell him and he doesn't, what if he goes and tells my parents? What if he tells them, what I let happen?_

Dash's eyes filled with sadness, and Lancelot continued, "He'll be back here though when his mission is done."

"Nevermind," Dash said. Then he added, "Actually, don't tell him I came back here, even when he does return." Lancelot looked at the boy in a whole lot of confusion as he seemed to have changed his mind on the spot, but the guard just nodded his head at the kid who gave him a desperate look after the knight's hesitation.

"Yeah, you got it kid," Lancelot assured him.

"My name is Klaus Von Reinherz," the red-haired man formally introduced to the group in front of him. "I am a Resistance Commander like Sasuke, and I came here to take you all to meet with the other Resistance leaders at Headquarters."

"Headquarters?" Ben asked.

Before Klaus could explain, Sora cut in, "Does Resistance Headquarters have good training areas?"

Gray turned to Sora and gave the teen a nod, and Klaus replied as Sora saw that, "Headquarters has the best training equipment and grounds of any base in the Resistance."

The others behind Sora started smiling and a few of them laughed while looking at each other. Sora grinned and leaned back, putting his hands behind his head with a relieved look on his face. _Man, this is great! I didn't have to do anything and we're already heading somewhere where everyone could train and get stronger._

"Anyhow, I can see that many of you are still exhausted from your journey and could use some more rest," Klaus said as he looked around the group. "Let us head over to the shuttles, there are two we will be taking to Headquarters. The flight will take three hours, so you can go back to sleep on the way."

Luffy threw his arms up in the air, relaxing again as he was told he was going to be able to sleep some more. Just the knowledge alone made his eyes start closing, and he felt like turning right there and then and heading to his next sleeping spot. He paused though before turning around, and then he said, "Let's go grab Killua."

Right as Luffy said it, a few of the guards around them on the wall got hesitant looks on their faces, and they looked around at each other and started murmuring.

Stan looked around with wide eyes as he saw those looks on the guards' faces. "Hey, hey what happened?" Stan snapped at the guard closest to him who had just started frowning.

Dash turned and looked up at Lancelot with wide eyes. Lancelot remembered how scared the kid was when he arrived at the base with his friend, how desperate he was for someone to save him. "Don't worry," Lancelot told the kid whose scared face turned into one of more confusion.

"Hey, someone tell us what's up?" Natsu snapped in an angry voice. "I'm going to go get Killua," he said, and he started marching forward, ignoring all the looks and murmurs of the men and women around him.

"He's not here," Sasuke said, reappearing on the wall to Natsu's right.

Natsu turned and frowned at the ninja who said that. "What do you mean, 'he's not here?'" Natsu asked, his voice seething through his teeth.

"He woke up," Sasuke replied. His tone was steady and the others could not tell if he was telling them good or bad news from the sound of it. "Not long after you all left, he awoke. We had him in physical therapy recovering for a day, and we told him that you would all be back once you saved Turner, who he said he wished he was awake to help out with." Timmy smiled at the sound of that, then Sasuke continued, "However on the second day after he woke up, he left the base."

"Why?" Natsu growled.

"Where did he go?" Usopp asked.

"I don't know," Sasuke replied. "But, we do know where he was last before he left. He snuck into the command quarters, and I confronted him as he was hacking into Resistance servers." The others all got confused and nervous looks on their faces at what Sasuke was saying. "He was angry, and he looked at me with killing intent," the ninja paused, then he continued, "but I let him leave."

"Thanks," Sora told the man in front of him. He did not know if Sasuke was stronger, or if Killua would have won, but he did not want to have come back to learn that Killua had been killed by their new ally. That was Sasuke's same reasoning for not attacking the boy and questioning him. Sasuke continued, "However, after he left I checked the computers he had been searching through. He went into the Resistance's member files, and he searched a single name before leaving."

"Killua's friend," Ben said, nodding as he remembered Killua talking about him once or twice before.

Gray had a bad feeling in his gut as Sasuke turned towards him. "What was the name?" Gray asked.

Sasuke's right eye widened again just a small amount, then he muttered in a low voice, "You didn't know?" Everyone else around Gray started getting hesitant looks on their faces, and they looked back and forth between Sasuke and Gray wondering what was so serious all of a sudden. "The name he searched- his friend's name," Sasuke corrected. He felt better after hearing Ben say it, though after seeing the history of what Killua had looked up on the computer he already did not feel any harm had been done. Sasuke's eye locked on Gray's though, and he finished, "Was Gon Freecs."

Gray took a step back and his eyes were as wide as they could be. _No, no no no. This is too crazy. Sora knew Axel and Cloud. Killua's dad being at the Lazarus Pit._ "Your fellow member of Delta Squad."

"No way, really?" Natsu whispered, looking back towards Gray with huge eyes. He shook his head and muttered, "If Kil was a little more open with us from the beginning, and just told us about his friend," shook his head and just trailed off in a grumble, though really he was just frustrated in general.

"Gon?" Luffy mumbled, thinking about that name himself.

Robin recognized it too, as did the half of the others who had gone with Luffy north. _**"…But in the end Netero died, he had to sacrifice himself. And Gon… My best friend was on death's door. He almost died, lost a limb…"**_ _Outside of the Dread Fort, he mentioned that name when he was trying to keep us from sneaking in._ _Has he finally found… oh, oh no._ Robin looked towards Gray and she asked, "Is Gon, one of the ones-"

"He was enslaved," Gray said before she could finish the question. "He's a gladiator in the Capital, at least that's what I got from what Hiei told me." Gray's expression got darker, and he whispered, "Did Killua…"

"He wouldn't have," Sanji began. "That kid more than any of us knows not to do anything as stupid as that." The other pirates around Sanji nodded in agreement, and Stan nodded too as he thought about all of Killua's carefully made plans back in Metropolis.

"Yeah, and Killua hasn't done anything stupid for his friends before," Natsu muttered from in front of Sanji.

Sanji stared at Natsu's back, and he felt less sure of himself at the sarcastic tone in the Fire Dragon Slayer's voice. "You've, got a point there," the chef mumbled.

 _Killua,_ Stan thought, a deeper frown forming on his face. _Knowing you were with them, I thought maybe you could help me. I wanted to know what happened to you in Metropolis. I wanted your help, getting stronger. Can I get stronger just by going to Resistance Headquarters? What is there for me?_

"Alright then," Sasuke said. He started walking in the direction of the shuttles down the wall. "There's no time to waste." He had on a longer black coat now than the jacket he had on before, but he did not have any bags with him. He did have a single capsule case in his coat's right pocket though that contained everything he needed to take with him. _Why am I being called back to HQ? Is something going to happen on the western front soon? Or are they changing leadership here? Which Commander will take over against the Emperor?_

* * *

Sanji sat on the left side of one of the shuttles flying through the sky to the east over Aebrith. Since they were flying east, the suns were rising faster than usual, and Sanji expected it would be midday at their destination while still feeling like breakfast time to their group. _That's going to make cooking for everyone difficult today. Have to adjust for the time zones._ He was staring out the left window towards the north, but he was not staring at the shuttle flying a couple dozen meters away from them at a slightly higher elevation. He was looking below that shuttle, farther into the distance north.

He looked over thousands of miles of landscape, green grass and black wasteland, rivers and valleys, and forests and mountains. _Flying huh? Airships are pretty common I guess, like those zeppelins outside of Pyraxas. But sitting in a ship like this,_ Sanji wanted to light up a smoke. _It's claustrophobic._ His eyes narrowed more as he stared out into the distant northern sky that was filled with a low orange light. _On that zeppelin, I heard that bastard Niji's voice. They're here. The Germa 66…_

"You thinking about that guy too?" Usopp asked.

Sanji glanced to his left and frowned with his bottom lip sticking out at the sight of Usopp's face right next to him. _Why am I stuck with long-nose?_ Sanji thought in annoyance. The shuttle had two columns of seats going six rows back, and on either side of the wide aisle in the middle of the vehicle were two seats on each side. Sanji was closer to the window, but Usopp leaned in from his seat at the aisle so he could look out as well. "He looked kind of scary," Usopp added while staring up at the green-plated shuttle not far from them.

 _Why did the ladies all go on that shuttle? Why are all these extras coming with us? We don't need guards taking up the seats near Robin-chan and Nami-swan and Juvia-chwan!_ Sanji bit down hard and Usopp nodded his head stoically in misunderstanding agreement. "I know. Despite his friendly attitude, I could tell he was strong. I don't like leaving the others with him without knowing much about him."

Sanji's face lit up with an idea. "You're right," he said, spinning to Usopp with a huge smile on his face that confused the sniper into leaning back. Sanji grabbed Usopp by the shoulders and shook him around while saying, "I should go check on the ladies right? To make sure they're safe, right? Right? Right?!" Sanji stood up without waiting for a reply and made to push past Usopp. He froze though at a glare through one eye of the younger man up one row and across the aisle from him. That man had no one sitting on his side in the aisle seat, and Sasuke stared straight into Sanji's eye with his own black one, as both of them had the other eye blocked by their hair.

"What?" Sanji asked.

"Klaus V Reinherz," Sasuke said in a low voice. He stayed quiet in case not everyone who tried getting more sleep was awoken by the perverted chef. "Is a hero of the Second War of the Gods," Sasuke's voice had respect in it, and also a different tone hidden inside it that was telling Sanji not to leave the shuttle, not to doubt Klaus's intentions.

Sanji frowned at the ninja he could tell was threatening him, but before he could retort, Goku yawned and put his hands up over his head as he woke up again. "We're getting close right? I'm pretty hungry."

Sanji turned from Goku back to Sasuke, then he glanced back down at the side window next to him. He sighed and reached into his pocket, grabbing out a capsule case that had more capsules in it than anyone else in his group. "I'll start up on breakfast."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at Sanji and started, "We're almost there-"

"Thanks Sanji," Goku said, getting up and stretching a bit where he stood in the aisle. "What are you making?"

"Pancakes!" Luffy shouted. They all spun towards his seat near the front, only to see Luffy half leaning out of it into the aisle, his head tilted back and a snot bubble sticking out of his nose. One of his eyes opened up while the bubble was still there, and his head tilted even farther back to a point that it was creepy and only possible because of his rubber neck. "Sanji! Pancakes!" He called out.

"Yosh yosh," Sanji said, shoving past Usopp who muttered 'Oi' at him as the chef did not ask him to move or anything. "Twenty pounds of pancakes coming right up," he said while walking back on the shuttle to the open space behind the rows of seats. There were doors on either side of the open area for loading and unloading, as well as for jumping off mid-flight as Sanji could tell by the hooks hanging from poles on the ceiling next to the doors and the boxes with parachutes in them nailed down to the floor. He tossed a capsule in front of him and a stove appeared in the ship, making it rock at the sudden increase in weight at the back.

"Hey! Watch it back there!" The pilot called out while looking over his shoulder behind him. He gawked and his co-pilot looked back too, and they both stopped focusing on flying for over ten seconds as their passengers all started getting up and getting loud as they made their way over to start eating breakfast. Sanji started yelling at them all to be patient, then Luffy started fighting with Goku from behind the Saiyan's back as he tried to get in front of Goku to be the first in line for pancakes. Without ever turning around, Goku was blocking every one of Luffy's attempts at getting past him.

 _It's like he can see the future,_ Luffy thought as he watched Goku's blocking movements coming from even before he started trying. _Like Rayleigh said, there are people who can use Haki to see in the future. I don't think Goku's doing that, but I need to be able to get past stuff like this! Goku's not the strongest one out there!_ Luffy used his Haki and saw where Goku was blocking, and he bent his arms and legs to try and swerve around his guards. Goku grinned as he saw Luffy's right arm raise over his right fist that he just snapped up to block, but then he spun his arm in five rapid circles and wrapped Luffy's arm up around it like cotton candy.

As Luffy's arm started unraveling, his right leg was moving between Goku's legs. Goku expected it though, and his right foot moved in fast and caught a piece of Luffy's leg under it. Goku added some Haki into his stomp, and Luffy winced in a small pain of the block. The others around them who were also trying to get their pancakes started staring and getting quieter as Luffy's left fist punched forward at Goku's back. All five of his fingers opened up right before his fist collided, curving around Goku's body at several different points right as his right arm was finishing unraveling. Goku's right arm he had used to wrap up Luffy's in the first place moved so fast in every direction that all five of Luffy's left hand's fingers were deflected back in the other direction. "Pancakes!" Luffy yelled, his left leg curling around Goku's side while he had been busy with Luffy's left fingers. At the same moment, Luffy punched his right fist around Goku's right side, but Goku grinned and lifted his foot a little from Luffy's still stretched right leg, making it snap back to him with momentum that slowed all of Luffy's other movements.

"First come first serve," Goku said. He snapped both arms down and caught Luffy's left leg and right arm, pressing them against his sides with his elbows. The parts of his appendages that were already past Goku started stretching for Sanji's back as the chef flipped pancakes without focusing on the two right behind him, but Goku's bent arms snapped forward and he curled his hands around Luffy's left foot and right hand. He clapped them together while focusing some more Haki, then Luffy curled his whole body forward only to see Goku lifting his foot and hand to block him over his spiky-hair. _If he knows I'm coming from here,_ Luffy thought, then he focused on reaching his left arm around the left side of Goku's head. Once he thought that though, he followed up by emptying his mind of every thought and let his instincts take over which move to actually make, while Goku still moved his head to the left to block Luffy's hand.

 _What is this idiotically intense battle?_ Sasuke thought with a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his face as he looked over the top of his seat. His head was only half-poked over, and he only sweatdropped more as the two of them both yelled something pancake-related, while the rubber pirate was clearly getting closer to some amazing new power. _Both of them can predict more than I could with a normal Sharingan,_ Sasuke thought as he watched them. _But as much as the pirate gets better, he will never reach Son Goku's level. I know that more than well enough._

"Sir," the co-pilot said to Sasuke, while the pilot had gone back to focusing on flying. "Can you stop them? If Son Goku starts fighting on this ship."

"Don't worry," Sasuke said, turning back and sitting in his seat with a disinterested look on his face. He closed his eyes and decided to get some extra rest himself since he was up awaiting the group's arrival from the south for most of the night. "That's not fighting," he said with his eyes closed.

The co-pilot looked back and watched as Luffy pumped his arm to the side to go into Gear Second, and the movements of the two battling over the front spot in the pancake line became something impossible for him to follow. He sweatdropped and muttered to himself, "It sure looks like a battle to me."

Luffy and Goku's battle ended uneventfully and as all their friends imagined it would, with Goku getting the first plate of pancakes as he always did whenever they ate a meal together. Sanji served everyone their firsts, but as Goku and Luffy came up for seconds, Sanji opened the side door to the shuttle and leapt out while holding stacks of pancakes. He did not realize how fast they were going and had to Skywalk much faster than usual to catch up to the other shuttle, and it took them a while to open the door for the man knocking on it with his foot. Sanji served the ladies (and the rest of them) some breakfast, and he received a strong compliment from Klaus who claimed he had never eaten a more delicious breakfast. Sanji chuckled after receiving it, and when Klaus asked he said it was nothing while thinking of how he had almost rushed over to "check on" Klaus not long ago.

Sanji returned to his original shuttle before long though, and he made up seconds, thirds, and a whole lot of extra batches for the ones who needed all that food in order to be satisfied. By the end of breakfast, even though Sanji had re-capsulized all of his cooking supplies, the shuttle was back-heavy from Goku and Luffy's bloated bodies as they lay back in their seats across the aisle from each other. "One of these days, urp," Luffy began, then burped. "I'm getting my food first," he said, a determined expression replacing the super-satisfied and full one.

"Can't wait," Goku replied, always happy to have a challenger when no one usually tried challenging him. "Makes it so I can't let my guard down even while I'm eating," he added while smiling wide.

"Huh?" Luffy turned his head and gave the Saiyan a confused look.

Goku just laughed though and said, "Nothing."

"We're coming up on Resistance Headquarters," the pilot's voice announced through the ship. "Don't bother coming up here," he continued as he saw some people getting out of their seats so they could run to the cockpit and look out. A television screen dropped down from the ceiling just behind the cockpit, and the blank black screen shimmered to life with a current view out the cockpit's windshield. The ten guys in the group on the shuttle who had never seen this place before stared with wide eyes at it.

Ben had imagined a lot of things in his head, and his imagination came pretty close to what he was seeing, but that did not make it any less impressive. They were a little to the north of the Resistance HQ, but the shuttles were turning towards the front of it so they could come in from the front. They were descending too, but before they had started lowering they all had seen the roof at the top of the base which had a single massive cannon on it. Ben looked behind him (since he was sitting on the front row of seats), then he frowned and looked to his left instead. He stared past Dash who was still staring up at the tv screen, and he looked to the other shuttle, _Wish Gray was here to explain some of this stuff. I bet he's going on about it to everyone over there. I could ask that Sasuke guy,_ Ben thought, but he shivered and decided not to turn and look towards him. _He doesn't seem like the real friendly type. Plus I think he's sleeping, though he could just have his eyes closed. How does he know Goku? How does everyone on this whole continent, seem to know Goku?_

On the other shuttle, as Ben thought it, Gray responded to Nami who just asked about the giant cannon, "It has no range. As in, there is no limit to how far it can shoot. It does take some time to charge though between each blast."

"And it's power?" Robin wondered.

"I've been in a pinch before in the middle of a battle, only for a shot from the MPC to shift the momentum of the fight." He smiled nostalgically as he thought about it, while a few of his friends sweatdropped that he used an acronym after just calling it the Mega Pulse Cannon when he answered Nami's initial question.

 _Is MPC really that much faster to say?_ Natsu thought from behind the seats Gray and Juvia were sitting in.

Their shuttles started descending though to a point where they were below the cannon, yet still several hundred yards off the ground. The cannon was atop the highest floor on the front section of the base, and as they were still descending down the seventh floor before reaching the elevation level of the sixth, Robin questioned, "Has the Resistance Headquarters ever been breached by your enemies?"

"Not this one," one of the guards who she had sat next to sat. The woman was younger than Robin and had a pair of glasses on as well as a green helmet that matched her military uniform's color. "But over a year ago, the Resistance HQ was somewhere else. It got invaded a bunch of times though since it was so far north, past the northern border of Leam even."

"Which is practically enemy territory at this point," another guard in the seat behind the girl next to Robin said.

"That's not true," Gray argued back at them. "If anything it's disputed, but they're fighting hard up there to keep the Co-op out."

"Leam's army had to be called up north not ten days ago though," the guard countered right back at the ice mage. "The evacuations from Pon-Gatso south were followed by Co-op forces, and Leam's army had to go beyond Leam's old borders to push them back." Gray's eyes widened as the guard said that, and the man continued as he saw Gray was not informed of this yet. "After Leam pushed back a decent amount, they stopped and let the Resistance counterattack push farther. They probably want us to regain some more land as a buffer zone between what they're required to guard and the closest Co-op lands."

Gray grimaced at the sound of that. Klaus spoke up, "Leam is helping us out as much as they can." He was speaking on their behalf, and though Gray knew the man needed to, he and the others on the ship were not convinced by the Commander's words. Klaus continued though, "Although they do use that buffer strategy often, they have not used it on their western border with the Emperor since he started pushing east. Their entire army is focused on preventing him from moving any farther, and we are more or less support in the southwest at this point. We cannot criticize them for not wanting another border dispute while in the middle of a war."

Gray hummed and nodded along with the Commander. _It's tough enough for the Resistance to be surrounded on all sides, and I'm sure Leam's feeling that pressure as well. But for now at least, they want to keep the illusion of a one-front war._

"Oh man," Nami whispered, running a hand back through her long orange hair as she stared at the television screen in front of her. "The closer we get to this place, the more daunting it gets," she said in amazement, since the front walls of just the first two floors of the Resistance Headquarters were almost taking up the entire screen at this point, that is everything that could be seen out the cockpit's windshield.

"Although this is quite an amazing fortress," Robin began. Nami turned to look at her friend across the aisle in some surprise, while Robin continued, "I was expecting, more."

"There's also the basement," the male guard behind Robin on her left said. She did not think a basement would add that much, but in the corners of her eyes she saw the young female guard next to her trying hard to suppress a snicker at what her comrade just said. She turned towards Klaus next, and even the Resistance Commander was grinning like the guard had just made some inside joke. So Robin turned to Gray next, and sure enough he was grinning along with the rest of them while Juvia looked at him oddly and in a confused way.

"Really?" Nami asked the guy who said it, not catching on since the man she looked at who spoke up and the guy sitting with him were the only two who kept from letting their expressions give themselves away. The guard looked her way and nodded, and Nami sweatdropped that the man was serious about that. _Still, I don't know what Robin's talking about. This is the biggest building I've ever seen. It's amazing!_

The screens lifted back into the ceilings of the shuttles before they had landed, disappointing a few of them who still wanted to see the building from up close. Then again, that just made them more excited to get out of the lowering vehicles. It was only another minute before their vehicles reached the ground with soft clunks. When they touched down, it was impossible to keep some of the passengers from throwing the doors open and sprinting out onto the short-cut grass on the field just north of the massive gateway.

There were several roads coming off of the main gate, but they had parked the shuttles off the side of the main road going north from the castle. There was also a huge paved area just in front of the gates as well that stretched to the sides around the castle's outer walls. There was only one person outside of the castle, and Robin guessed that thanks to its size, anything and everything could be inside it so no one had to be outside of the protective walls at any times. She wondered if behind those giant walls in front of her there was actually a sort of town with smaller buildings that she knew would be able to fit inside considering how tall the first floor alone was.

The one man who stood outside the Resistance Headquarters to greet the group smiled wide as a group of three got out of a shuttle. Natsu started lifting his head to stare at the castle from close up, but he froze and snapped his head back down with a dropped jaw at the sight of the bald man standing there. Juvia also opened her eyes wide in surprise, while Gray smiled at the sight of the man he had not seen in over five months now. Natsu started running forward towards the man smiling at them, shouting, "Jura?!"

Jura Neekis chuckled at the surprise in Natsu's voice, and he glanced behind Natsu to the ice mage who chuckled and scratched the back of his head. "I see Gray did not inform you of my presence here," Jura said. His arms were crossed over his chest, slid into the opposite sleeves of his black robe that covered his body. It fell almost down to his feet but just above to reveal he was wearing a pair of brown sandals, and he had red trimming at the bottom of his kimono-style robe, complete with a red belt in the middle. His black beard had gotten even longer than the last time Natsu saw it, almost to his waist now, but he smiled in his same friendly way the fire mage who stopped in front of him remembered.

"Who is that?" Nami asked the people to her left as Juvia said something in surprise to Gray about his appearance there. "Another member of Fairy Tail?" She wondered.

"No," Gray replied. "Jura was a member of Lamia Scale back on our world, a different magic guild," he said. "He was also, one of the Ten Wizard Saints."

"The ten strongest wizards in Ishgar," Juvia said in a whisper to Nami since she would not have understood that.

 _Well how big was Ishgar?_ Nami thought, though she got a good-enough read of the guy's strength by the way the Fairy Tail mages were treating him. _Well, except for Natsu,_ she thought with a sweatdrop rolling down her face as Natsu shouted out a challenge to Jura.

"Perhaps later," Jura told the fiery mage, a sweatdrop on his own face along with a smile as he was half-expecting that.

Natsu frowned, then he grumbled while turning back to Gray who was almost behind him now. He had run up first, while the others were all taking their time walking to the paved area just in front of the massive gateway into the Resistance HQ. Natsu turned back to Jura and said, "Before anyone else pops up, are there other people from our world here?"

"Several," Jura replied with a surprised laugh that that was even a question.

"Anyone I know?" Natsu wondered.

"The Blue Pegasus Guild Hall is inside Headquarters," Jura responded. He glanced over Natsu's head and saw most of the others were almost on him, as well as Sasuke and Klaus who he did not want to keep waiting. "Not all of Blue Pegasus's members are here, but Ren, Eve, and Hibiki who you know well are. And I do not know if Gray told you of the other Fairy Tail members in the Resistance, but Gajeel and Levy are both here."

"Yeah, I knew that," Natsu said and frowned, as he was hoping for more than The Trimens of Blue Pegasus when he asked Jura about it.

"Hmm," Jura hummed, "I also saw Panther Lily recently, as I have on occasion."

"You saw Lily?" Gray asked, stepping forward interestedly.

Natsu turned to Gray in confusion, then back to Jura with that odd look on his face. Juvia had a confused look as well, and Gray frowned as he saw their expressions. "Lily's in the Resistance?" Natsu asked in surprise since Gray had not mentioned it back when he told Natsu that Gajeel and Levy were members.

"No, he is not," Jura said, confusing Natsu and Juvia even more. Luffy had been about to cut in and shout about going inside, but a solemn look on Jura's face had him hesitating for a moment.

"Why isn't he with Gajeel?" Natsu asked in a low voice as he figured out what that meant.

Jura shook his head and sighed, saying quietly, "I do not know." Jura took a step back after saying that and regained a strong but friendly demeanor as he faced the large group in front of him. "Hello there. My name is Jura Neekis, a Commander here." He turned sideways and loud clanking came out of the huge doors to his right which everyone started looking back at.

"I'm here to welcome you, to the Headquarters of the Resistance," Jura said. The group in front of him was staring forward with varying gases of amazement, awe, or neither as some were not impressed or had seen it before. For most of them though, awe and amazement filled their eyes at the sight of the magnificent castle that stretched a few hundred meters up in front of them, just for the first floor.

The building looked like a fortress that could withstand any attack. There were dozens of tall towers sticking out of the walls and corners of the fort. The walls had turrets every ten feet it seemed like as well as guards patrolling the defenses looking heavily armed, or not at all which in their experience was even more reassuring. The second story to the building was as tall as the first but did not start for a couple hundred feet after the top of the first floor cut in with a roof that was impossible to see from in front of the gates. In fact, it was harder to see the rest of the the Headquarters from closer up than it was from miles away, though some of them had gotten good looks out their windows during the descent. The gates of the first floor entrance were almost as massive as the first floor itself, but as they started opening, it was only the small doors on the bottom of the huge gateway that were opening up. Small, normal-sized double doors, opened outwards at the bottom of the giant gateway not in the center between the two halves of the gate, but a little offset to the right of center.

Jura walked towards the opening doors and everyone followed behind him to get a look inside this amazing fortress. A few of them noticed thin cracks to the sides of the double doors a few meters and up some more too. Robin spotted these and realized that although these doors were being opened for them instead of the massive gates, there were other sizes between giant and regular human for those who needed more than a nine-foot tall door. Jura smiled while looking over his shoulder at the man closest behind him. "It is a pleasure to see you again, Natsu. I had heard from a comrade of mine that Gray had returned to the continent, but I was very surprised to hear that you were with him. And taking down Sozin," Jura continued, and Natsu smirked and beamed while his friends all rolled their eyes knowing that Natsu would let that go to his head.

"It was no big deal," Natsu began. "I just-"

"But even more surprising was word that you were with them," Jura said, while turning and smiling at he man with black hair that spiked in every direction. "Son Goku," he finished, and Natsu frowned as his moment of praise did not last very long. Jura continued from just in front of the doors while Goku smiled at him, "I do not know if you remember me, but not so long ago you saved my life."

"I think I remember you," Goku said as he thought that he recognized the man from the moment he spotted him near the gateway. "Oh yeah! You made a mountain!"

Jura started laughing though there was a bead of sweat rolling down the left side of his face. "It was not very effective at stopping Zeref. When you showed up though, and faced him and his dragon-"

"Goku did what?" Nami asked, her face pale as she thought about the monster they saw on their journey south from Pyraxas.

"Goku," Gray began, turning to the muscular Saiyan in the middle of their group. "Why didn't you ever mention that?" He asked. "We've brought up Zeref before."

"Zeref?" Goku wondered, and he scratched the back of his head. He looked back to Jura and said, "I fought Spriggan..."

Gray sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Nevermind," he muttered.

"Actually, we met once before that too," Jura said. This time Goku looked confused as he did not recall recognizing Jura the last time he saw him.

"We did?" Goku asked.

"On the First Day," Jura continued. "I tried to assist in stalling Doomsday, but I only managed to buy you a few seconds."

"Doomsday?" Kirito asked the older man next to him.

"He was really strong," Goku said to Kirito, then smiled at Jura and added, "Thanks then! That was a really close fight, so everyone who helped was responsible for beating it. None of us could have done it alone."

"You couldn't beat him on your own?" Natsu asked skeptically, wondering if Goku was just being modest.

"Uh-uh," Goku said with a shake of his head. "Doomsday killed Piccolo who was one of the strongest fighters I ever knew. It took Gohan, myself, Vegeta, Superman, and a bunch of others all working together to stop it. Haha, I went a little overboard during it and could barely move the whole second day!" Goku laughed as he said it and scratched his head again.

Ben sweatdropped as Goku mentioned that. _I know a lot of people who could have used your help the second day. It's not funny... though I guess it couldn't be helped if you were too beat up from the day before._ Ben frowned. He thought back to the second day when it took Krillin too long to save him and his friends, allowing so many to die first. _They couldn't be everywhere at once. And as powerful as they are, they're human too... or, Saiyan I guess, some of them at least. But still, everyone needs to sleep and rest and eat. I always thought they had just not gotten there fast enough, but maybe sometimes they just weren't able to help._

"Well anyway, thank you," Jura said, bowing his head a little to Goku. "I am very glad you decided to come back."

Goku nodded at him with a smile on his face, while all the guards and other Commanders behind Goku stared at the man with spiky black hair. Kirito glanced around as he saw where they were all looking, and his expression darkened as he knew what their looks were for. _They're wondering why he left in the first place. I don't blame them. If they've been at war this whole time, of course they'd want Goku to stay and help them. Maybe this time though, he'll finish the job. Ra's… He did kill Doflamingo after all, and the Sea Clan King, but it's not enou- Damn, I can't really complain about Goku not giving people mercy. Not when, that mercy saved my life._

"Let's go inside," Jura said, and he turned and led the group inside the Resistance HQ.

Natsu ran in behind him and then past Jura before doing a spin and taking in the whole building around him. "Huh," he said, his voice disappointed. His smile dropped and he let out a sigh while looking all around the huge open floor that stretched almost as wide as the walls outside made it look like the floor would. Natsu was half expecting a sort-of city layout inside the base though, and instead he could only see different doors on the side walls far off into some different shops. He saw windows lining the side walls, and he realized there must have actually been rooms covering the sides of the first floor, but the majority of the floor was empty.

Juvia walked in and she felt similarly underwhelmed by the inside of the base. The far wall from the entrance was not all the way at the other side of HQ from what she could tell, since it was only a couple of miles away whereas she could not see the back of the base from above when they were approaching. The far wall was beyond where she thought the second floor would have started above them though, and Juvia hummed while gazing around the place. She looked high up on the wall to her left and her eyes opened in a bit of surprise at what looked like a food stand window, only it was a hundred times bigger than normal ones. It was also way higher up than she would be able to reach.

"As you may be confused," Jura began as the group entering around him looked around. "This _is_ the Headquarters of the Resistance, and thus it has to be able to satisfy height requirements of any who may enter. The other half of Headquarters has a few hundred more floors thanks to this," he explained.

"So giants can only use this half of Headquarters?" Ben wondered.

"As well as the basement," Jura added.

Ben sweatdropped and glanced at the mage to see if he was serious, but Jura turned around and tossed something in front of them. **Pop!** The capsule Jura tossed turned into a land speeder that started hovering off the floor as soon as it appeared. "If your group would not mind, the other Commanders and myself would like to speak with you."

Goku frowned at the sound of this, and Luffy got a pout on his face as he was just about to go run off towards a sixty-foot tall guy he saw all the way to his right near a store at that wall. A few of the giant's companions who Luffy had spotted with him had just gone into the shop, but he was just ten or so feet too high over the height limit. This floor of the Headquarters was not very crowded, but there were people scattered around it, though most of them were walking close to the walls at the sides as there was little reason to be walking through the middle of the room. Coming towards them from the far wall were two speeders similar to the one Jura just dropped, so some of them started to think the middle of the floor was for vehicles only.

"Hey Klaus," Goku began. Goku turned to the red-haired man who was just behind him. Klaus V Reinherz was in the middle of telling the other guards who came to Headquarters with them what to do now that they would be separating from the Commanders and rest of the group, but he stopped to turn to the Saiyan, as did everyone else. "Where are those training areas you mentioned?"

"Goku," Gray began. "Shouldn't we-"

"I don't want to do boring stuff!" Luffy shouted. He looked over his shoulder and said, "I'm gonna go explore this place!" Rather than go through a long and boring tour as he expected was about to happen, Luffy decided to run off.

Jura sweatdropped as he watched this. _I did say it as a request, but, well-_

"Y-Yeah, let's do it Luffy," Usopp said, running over to Luffy's side. Sanji looked over at the sniper in some surprise that he was bold enough to try this, while Usopp was just thinking about how he was not mentally prepared to meet a bunch of the strongest people in the world.

"Oi, do you have a place where a SUPER shipwright like me could go work?" Franky asked the ninja at his side who was about half his height. Sasuke looked up at him with one eye to see if the cyborg was seriously asking him this, but Franky was grinning down as he lifted up his right hand. His fingers all popped open on that hand and various tools came out of them, and he said, "I heard you guys make some Super robots yourselves, I want to check out what I'm working with."

Gray looked around at the group behind him as they were all already planning on going off and doing their own things. He opened his mouth, but Sora cupped his hands to his mouth and called out, "Everyone!" The whole group looked towards Sora, wondering if he was going to try and get them to stick together or something. Instead, Sora just grinned and called out, "Meet back here at this spot, thirty days from right now!"

Jura and Gray's jaws dropped. Goku started laughing and turned to Klaus who could see Goku still wanted him to show him the way, and Klaus finally nodded to the legendary Son Goku and said he would show Goku the way to the training area. Luffy laughed too and spun to Usopp, "Nihihi, let's go!" Luffy started running towards the giant who was still sitting outside of a store, and when Usopp saw where Luffy was heading, his eyes lit up excitedly. _Giants!_ Usopp thought with a huge smile.

Sasuke stepped towards Gray and Sora and began to the two standing next to each other, "What are you doing?" Gray sweatdropped nervously and scratched the back of his head with one arm, trying to figure out a way to say this.

"We decided to spend a month getting stronger before we go back north to fight the Cooperative again," Sora replied to the dark-haired ninja. Sasuke glanced around at the rest of the group to see what they thought about that, then he refocused as Sora continued, "Well, I decided it. So, if your Commanders want to talk or something, you guys can all talk to me. Because I'm the leader," Sora said it and put his hands behind his head with a cocky look on his face.

Nami rolled her eyes at him then turned to Juvia and Robin who were on her left side. They both looked back at her and smiled softly after a few seconds, then Nami nodded and said, "Alright, let's go check the place out." She smirked and looked back towards the spiky-haired "leader" of their group, "Let's just let Sora take care of all the boring stuff."

Sora's smirk lowered down, then the rest of the group who had been rolling their eyes or frowning at Sora for playing the leader card started laughing as well. The more they thought about it, the more they realized that none of them really wanted to go meet with Resistance Commanders.

"It's not like we're joining the Resistance," Franky said with a shrug to the ninja who was looking at them all in confusion as to how they could care so little about the summons.

"You're not?" Jura questioned in surprise.

 _I am,_ Kirito thought. He glanced towards Gray, then he turned his head and floated off the ground. _I'll figure out how to do it on my own though. If I say that now, it'll just be the two of us as actual members here._ "Kirito," Goku called over before Kirito had flown too far. He looked back and saw Goku flying behind him, while Klaus ran across the huge white floor beneath and a little in front of the Saiyan. "I'm going to check out the training equipment," Goku said as he neared the teen who Klaus ran beneath. "Coming?"

Kirito nodded his head. He flew after Goku while thinking, _I'll do it later._

Riku frowned and looked back at the doors that had closed behind him. _A whole month? Is that_ _ **on**_ _the thirtieth day we return here, or after thirty days we come back to this spot? So thirty nights too? Kairi…_

"Alright? Can we go?" Sora asked the bald mage who he turned back to after half of his friends had scattered or just started to walk off.

 _This is not protocol,_ Jura thought hesitantly, but then he sighed and smiled again as he motioned for the speeder. Sora jumped up and landed on it, and a few of the others seemed to be sticking with them too. _Nothing we can say to the group who brought us Son Goku though. It is not worth it to start arguments over things so trivial._

Sasuke was thinking along similar lines, though he frowned as he looked around and saw these people scattering off through Headquarters. _Can we trust all of them? Are they a tight-knit group, or are there members who the others think they know but don't really? Like him,_ Sasuke focused on one of the shortest members there who had on a blue hat with half a red poof-ball on top of it. _He said he could help get them Timmy Turner, did he? Even if he did, it could have just been his method of gaining their trust._

Stan Marsh snapped his head to the right and glared at the ninja already staring at him. Sasuke did not look away or pretend like he was not staring; he let Stan know he was watching him. Stan looked away after a second and grimaced while he walked towards the speeder a bunch of the others were getting on. _What am I doing here? Thirty days meet back up? Is that it? Yep. That's what my decision to stay with these people amounts to. Training on my own, again. God damn it._

Stan got on the speeder and Sasuke followed him up, then Jura started it forward fast towards the far wall. As they sped across the floor, they passed Natsu who had shouted about doing his own, separate, exploring as Luffy a minute ago. Natsu gawked as they sped by him, then he started sprinting much faster in order to catch up. "Would you like to get on Natsu?" Jura questioned.

"No, I'm fine," Natsu said while running next to the speeder. _That shuttle landing almost made me throw up Sanji's pancakes. I've gotta get even stronger meds, or maybe magic this time again. Stupid motion-sickness._ Natsu played off the reason though and just called out, "I bet I get to… where are we going?" He was going to say he'd get there faster, but he did not know what they were doing yet.

"The four hundredth floor," Jura replied. "First we have to go to the south side of the fortress."

"The middle of the base is open," Gray said off-handedly to Ben who looked confused. Ben glanced up, but Gray was staring off the back of the speeder even as he said it, looking far back towards Juvia and the girls who he could still see. He relaxed himself after a second, _We're in the safest place on Aebrith. The one place I don't have to worry about her, hopefully._ Gray thought about earlier that morning when he had gotten Juvia alone for a minute. _She didn't want to talk about it. Maybe, she's all good now._

"What, like a courtyard?" Stan asked from the right of the ice mage.

Gray refocused and chuckled as he turned from Ben to the kid on his right. The speeder was approaching the far wall of the huge first floor of Resistance HQ, and Jura pressed a button on his speeder that made the huge wall start opening up at the middle. A huge crack that no one had been able to see before appeared and the two halves of the wall started pulling apart to the sides. Natsu slowed down as the speeder did the same, but he ran up ahead and stopped farther than the speeder was parking. Still, from on top of the speeder, the opening on the other side of the wall became visible and Gray let out a laugh at the shocked looks on his comrades' faces. "Yeah, kind of like a courtyard."

Past the giant walls still pulling apart, was a massive open space with walls on all sides of it, all eight sides of the perfect octagonal hole that dropped straight into the surface. There was no floor on the other side of the opening walls, instead just a hole so wide that planes actually flew straight up out of it and much higher until they were out of sight of those looking at the hole from the first floor. Natsu leaned off the ledge a little and looked up to follow a pair of jets that just shot up, and he watched as the ceiling was higher up opened for them and then closed once they were outside. A much lower hole opened up on a side of the wall a few hundred meters above him, and Natsu watched as three helicopters flew into the base from up there. Those choppers flew into the center of the huge hollow gap in the center of the fortress, and then their rotors slowed down to stops. They started dropping, but dropping in a controlled way where they were moving straight down. Natsu stared closer and could swear he saw some sort of translucent energy lowering the helicopters until they had hit his level, and then dropped them much farther until they were in the dark hole in the ground.

"The basement?" Ben wondered.

Gray chuckled and decided to finally just say it, "The basement, is the actual Headquarters. It's about, a hundred times bigger down there than the surface HQ."

Ben, Stan, Dash, Rin, and even Kuro dropped their jaws at the sound of that. The black cat sticking its head out of Rin's back whispered, "That's big."

"And I thought the surface base alone could hold a city inside it," Franky said and let out a whistle of amazement. "Who built this place?" He asked.

"It's constantly being expanded," Jura replied while turning to the cyborg who was the only one there larger in size than him. "In fact Gray's estimate is pretty low compared to the actual size. And if you include the mines as well, the area of the 'basement' is well over two hundred times the size of our surface defenses."

Gray turned to Jura in some surprise, then he looked back and thought, _It_ _ **has**_ _been a long time._

"If it's that big, is there a city in there?" Ben asked.

Jura turned to the boy and nodded, while the wall across the gap from them was starting to open up. They suddenly remembered that Jura said they were going to the four hundredth floor, and Ben looked disappointed that they would not be going downstairs. Then he smiled and laughed to himself, "I'm gonna go check it out then." Ben floated off the speeder and flew towards the hole, while Jura and Sasuke both stared in surprise at the kid who neither expected would know how to fly.

"If the rest of you would also like to go down," Jura began. He pointed off the side of the speeder far to the right where the wall had finished opening up. On the outside near where the wall had slid into, they could see elevator shafts, and Jura explained to them that there were doors to get into the elevators just on the inside over there if they went down a nearby hallway.

Riku sighed and he turned to Dash as he walked for the side of the speeder, "You coming?" He asked the kid. He had been planning on going with Sora to the meeting with the Commanders, but the rest of the group were all getting off after Ben. The idea of such a large underground city was too enticing for them to pass up seeing, and even Sora was disappointed he had to go do other stuff first before checking it out with the rest of them. Dash nodded at Riku and jumped off the side of the speeder to head over to the elevators with some others, and Sora sighed as he watched them go.

"Let's get on our way then," Jura said and the speeder lifted back up as the wall across from them opened up just wide enough for their speeder to get through. On the other side of the next opening, Sora could see the ceiling was only twenty or so feet tall, but it looked like they would be taking the speeder for a little farther at least. Jura glanced down as they flew over the hole, "I hope Klaus is able to make it after showing Son Goku the way."

Meanwhile inside of one of the training rooms that Klaus had led Goku and Kirito to, Kirito watched with an impressed expression as Klaus staggered back up on his feet in front of Goku. "You are strong!" Goku said excitedly as the guy got back on his feet. The Saiyan whose hair was still black and spiked out to all sides stood in his martial arts' stance and cracked his knuckles as he curled his fingers and grinned at his opponent.

Klaus was sweating and panting, and he thought as he got ready for the Saiyan to charge him again, _I am supposed to be somewhere._ Goku flew towards him and Klaus shot back forwards himself in the hundred foot wide by hundred foot long by hundred foot tall white training room. Their fists collided and Kirito examined the red-haired Commander closely as the man tried trading blows with Goku. _How strong is he? I heard Sasuke took on Natsu and Luffy together, though they were weakened at the time. And Goku holds that Jura guy in high regard. Are there many of these level fighters in the Resistance? Are there a lot of people here, who could train me?_

Descending through an elevator shaft, a small group looked around in awe as the shaft turned completely to glass once they had dropped far enough that they were below the surface. There were artificial lights everywhere, but it still looked like they had just dropped into a cave. The walls were made of rocks and dirt on most sides, though there were steel walls too as well as the metal ceiling holding up the surface. Far below them but not exactly where the elevator was lowering them towards, there was a huge dome covered in hexagonal panels that seemed to be made of glass. The dome itself was many times larger than the fort they saw from the air, and the group gawked at the fields inside, the lines of trees, the crops, the houses and mills and even a river with a power plant on it using water energy.

Beyond that huge agricultural dome, there was a massive hole in the wall where stalagmites and stalactites blocked off the other side like the wall had huge teeth. On the other side of the rocky hole in the wall there was movement though, and Franky's eyes opened wide as he spotted a giant yellow robot walking around over there. He knew it had to be a giant, because although it looked tiny from the elevator, the fact that he could see it at all across the huge cave was an amazing thing. They soon lowered too far though that the top of the dome blocked off that hole in the wall and whatever lay beyond it. The group turned from the dome and looked past it to what they thought was the east, where there was a giant white pyramid sticking out of a wall, terraced levels sticking out with each level getting smaller higher up. It looked like only half of the pyramid was sticking out of the wall, a wall which had steel reinforcements all around it for a few miles before turning back into rock.

Natsu turned the opposite way as the agricultural dome which he thought was to the south, and he looked back the direction they came from on the surface. "Doesn't really, look like a city," he said while staring down at the huge black floor that covered up the majority of the cave basement down below. On top of the black floor that Natsu guessed was metal, there were planes, helicopters, soldiers all over the place. There were trucks driving around and tents set up all over the place. There were watch towers inside of what seemed to be mock battlefields, and Natsu turned to Dash after looking that way. "Looks a little like that Fire Nation camp we attacked, right?"

Dash stared at the x-shaped metal spikes sticking out of the ground, the watchtowers at the sides, and he nodded his head with a small smile at what Natsu asked. Natsu frowned at Dash's unenthusiastic reaction, then he continued while looking back over, "The practice one looks tougher than what we faced though. So much barbed wire, and are those- yeah they've got turrets too."

"Guess they'd need to be prepared for the worst," Riku began.

"When did you guys attack a place like that?" Kuro asked, and Natsu and Dash looked back to see the cat on Rin's shoulder looking at them interestedly.

Natsu smirked and said, "Back when we first went south, I pushed back a Fire Nation army."

"We did-" Dast started exclaiming, but he caught himself and furrowed his brow. _Like it matters who gets the credit,_ he thought darkly, turning back away. He thought back on that though as Natsu frowned at the kid he almost got a normal reaction out of for a second. "That was fun," Dash said in a soft voice after a few seconds. His mouth curled up at the corners and he said, "We got to use squirrel-suits, flying down into the enemy base. That was…" Dash thought about the bullets and beams flying everywhere. He imagined Azula's scary face and the powerful flames that burned his legs. He thought about the poison that got Natsu and the different strong enemies they had to face. "Oh! Hey San-" Dash spun, then he glanced around but did not see Sanji anywhere. "Thought Sanji came with us," he said.

Rin sweatdropped and said, "I think he snuck off to follow the girls around."

"That sounds about right," Riku said. Their elevator was getting close to the edge of the huge black floor that covered more than half of the cave's floor, but they were not slowing down as they reached it. The elevator descended through the floor without stopping, making most of them gasp as they expected to slam right into it. They shot down through the thick black ground for a few seconds, and then the elevator doors opened up and they looked out into a hallway that had a few people in it waiting to use their elevator.

"You going to get out?" A girl asked them as they were still just standing in there. She reached her arm out to stop the door from closing, and the group inside hurried out to make room for the others trying to go up.

"Where are we?" Dash wondered as the elevator doors closed behind them. He looked hesitantly to either side but did not see that many other people, and those people looked like they had things to do and places to be. They were rushing about, and Dash lifted his gaze to the ceiling above in the normal hallway they were in. _Ben,_ he thought, wondering how his friend who had just flown through the hole instead of using the elevator was going to meet up with them now. The ceiling he stared at had some long lights on it, as well as panels that looked able to be taken off and replaced if they were damaged. There were vents on the sides of the wall close to the ceiling, as well as speakers every dozen panels or so in between the lights.

"This must be," Riku began. He started walking and the others followed after him as he seemed to have some idea as to where they were. He hummed to himself as he headed down one hall while trying to make sure he was still heading north. "I think, this is the real base. The Resistance Headquarters," he continued, while stepping out of a hall onto a balcony that people were walking around and up and down the stairs on the sides of it. The others walked up to his sides and stared out over an area that dropped down several dozen meters from where they were standing before extending for tens of miles ahead of them. There were some large white buildings with curved roofs that looked like barracks, tall buildings that touched up to the ceiling, as well as other elevators like the one they used before only smaller. Riku did not remember seeing huge elevators sticking out of the long black floor above the base, so he figured those elevators must have just been for getting to the roof of the main Headquarters.

"Why down here?" Dash wondered.

"Not as many attacks, I guess," Natsu wondered, scratching his head while not really caring. He looked a mile away to his left towards a wall, and he saw a huge building with a brightly colored sign outside. There was a second floor deck area over there, and he spotted a party going on between some very strong looking people who all had weapons with them as well as different kinds of armor. He turned his head right from that cool hall, and he watched as a group of five people riding on broomsticks flew over some barracks and headed for what looked to him like a school in the distance to his right. On top of one of the barracks that the magicians flew over, there was a man sitting down with computers surrounding him. It seemed like a strange place to set up to Natsu, but he ignored it and just kept looking around the giant base. "Is this, the city?"

"It's gotta be," Riku said, and from where he was standing he could not see the walls all the way across the place. _Even if I could see a wall, from above it stretched so far that I would know there was even more behind it._ "This is probably where people can evacuate to." The others looked in at him, and Riku continued his observation, "Maybe if towns and cities are destroyed, Resistance HQ can take them all in. Tens of thousands of people could be situated here for a while, maybe even a lot more than that. The base makes its own food too, and… wow," Riku shook his head and just stared around the huge Headquarters ahead of them. "This is, on a place like Aebrith, this is just-"

"Wow," Rin said in surprise at the silver-haired man next to him. "Don't think I've ever seen you stumble over your words like this. I think this place, is pretty amazing too though," Rin said, looking back and over everything with a huge smile on his face. _After everything Gray said about how much Aebrith sucked, I was prepared for it when we got here. Dressrosa was terrible, the uninhabited expanses of the continent were pretty rough too, and the cities to the north were the worst of all. Then Zeref's minions, and the Southern Wastes, the Wizard King… everything here was so bad, that I didn't think places like this could exist on Aebrith._ Rin smiled even more as he remembered how they said this Headquarters had never been breached by their enemies. It was the first time, in a long time, that he imagined they were in an actual safe place.

His smile dipped down after a few seconds but he still looked satisfied as his gaze shifted back to his friends around him. _I don't feel guilty, leaving you in a place like this._

"What do we do now?" Natsu asked, getting bored quickest of everyone staring out over the huge Resistance base/city.

Riku hummed and then said, "Well, we should go check out the training facilities. See what's in store for us."

"Follow me," Gray said, and the group turned to the ice mage who was smiling wider than the rest of them. "This place, is pretty much home," he added, a nostalgic look on his face. He had been watching their expressions and chuckled recalling the first time he saw this place when it was fully completed. _After all that hard work building it, this place really is awesome._ He turned right and started for the stairs down, and he opened his mouth to say something about what the place looked like back when it was first built. He subconsciously reached for the railing on his left as he started down the stairs, but his hand never touched the railing and he glanced at his side.

The ice mage froze as he remembered he no longer had a left arm to grab the railing with. The phantom feeling he felt while lifting it disappeared, and Gray lost his bright smile as he watched Ra's al Ghul slicing through his shoulder and lopping his entire arm off. He kept walking while turning his head back forwards, and then his expression darkened more, _If I had to guess, Kirito's going to be at the training facilities. That's where he and Goku flew off to in such a hurry. Damn it, Kirito, I'm sorry._

* * *

"Hey Kirito, where are you going?" Sora asked, stopping at the entrance to a huge training facility as his dark-haired friend just reached it heading the other way.

"On a walk," Kirito said.

Sora could tell his friend was thinking something dark by the look in his eyes, but Kirito marched straight past without giving him a chance to ask what it was about. Sora turned after him and called out before he could get too far, "Meet up at five in the cafeteria okay?"

Kirito stopped and looked back. "Cafeteria?" He questioned.

Sora chuckled at the confused look and replied, "Yeah, seems strange for a place this big, but the cafeteria's huge as well."

Kirito nodded and then turned around again. "See you there," he said as he could tell Sora was still watching his back.

The spiky-brown-haired teen frowned after the swordsman, then he sighed and turned to head into the training building. It was the most high-tech, biggest one in the Resistance HQ, and Sora knew his friends would be inside it somewhere. _With Kirito looking like that, I bet Gray's here with some others. Wonder why Kirito wouldn't tell me about it when I asked on the way back north from Cartman's castle?_ Sora shook his head and then walked down a corridor to his right. He walked towards a tv screen outside of the door on the wall and tapped a button beneath it, giving him a view inside the room. He saw a lot of smoke and explosions coming from the other side, and when he turned on the screen sound started coming from it too, showing the people on the other side screaming at each other as they sparred. "Whoa," he said, surprised at how loud the blasts and shouts were when he could not hear a thing from just on the other side of the wall.

He did not recognize the people in there though, so he just kept walking down the hall and tapped on a screen across from the other room. The training rooms were huge, and they all seemed full considering the doors were closed with red markings above them matching the room he had just checked on. Sora walked down a hallway in the training building and wondered how many other types of rooms there were other than the kind he was seeing. _They look like they can handle a lot, but is that all? Are there rooms where you won't get damaged or killed? How about rooms with magic replenishing? I should check this place out… a little…_ Sora shook his head with a more serious look on his face while checking the next room. _Nice,_ he thought.

Sora opened up the door and headed inside, to see a half dozen of his friends cheering and laughing, while Goku helped Natsu back on his feet. Natsu groaned while Klaus V Reinherz staggered up behind him. _Even with two of us, Goku didn't have to try at all it seems like._ Natsu wanted to complain that he never got into his strongest modes, but even spending a few seconds trying to get into Arcosian Fire Dragon Slayer Mode was too long for Goku to wait, nailing him with a knee in the chest while lecturing him about how some fighters won't let him power up in fights. Natsu did not get it while Goku told him, since he always thought Goku liked fighting people at their strongests.

When Goku had seen Natsu start yelling to power up, he had imagined the moment his father threw the artificial moon into the sky while facing Meruem. Just as his transformation started, Meruem attacked, and then it was the same for all the other Oozarus and Oozaru Gods. They were attacked while transforming, and the idea that Natsu would just start slowly transforming in the middle of a fight without worrying about being attacked, it made Goku want to warn him. Especially since, he could see Natsu going after Meruem one day, even if he told the Dragon Slayer not to.

"Hey Sora, done already?" Riku asked, looking over at his friend who walked in when he was about to go challenge Goku next.

Klaus looked exhausted, but he looked over towards Sora in some surprise to see the teen standing there. "That was fast," Klaus said.

"I think they wanted to talk to Goku more than me," Sora admitted with a shrug of his shoulders.

Gray was walking towards Natsu who had his hands on his knees and bruises all over his body, but he glanced over his shoulder at Sora who looked his way and frowned for a second. _Sora must have saw Kirito. Did he- no, Kirito's not the kind of guy who would go around telling everyone what I did, but he can see something's up._ Gray sighed then turned to Natsu, only to be surprised as green light surrounded his friend and Natsu's wounds disappeared.

Klaus spun to Natsu in surprise, then he looked down at his own cuts and bruises that Goku had inflicted on him through their training sessions. He even felt some of his fatigue go away, and he looked back towards Sora who had pulled out his Keyblade and healed them. Riku did not want to patronize the losing fighters by healing them right after their loss, but he just turned away after watching them heal to look back at his best friend since he was a kid. "You meet the top Resistance people?"

Sora nodded his head, then looked back towards Klaus, "I was surprised, Commander is the top rank in the Resistance."

The others, besides Gray, spun back to Klaus just as shocked. Even though they had seen some of his strength, they were surprised to hear that he was among the highest ranking officers in the Resistance. Natsu looked doubly surprised, thinking, _Does that mean Jura, and Sasuke, are also… If they're the top in the Resistance,_ Natsu frowned and looked towards Goku again. _I forgot about it, because he told us how he lost to Meruem, and Sora said how much stronger Goku's dad was than him, but… Goku's strong. I thought Aebrith might have been a different league, but the Resistance might not have anyone on his level. No, there must be someone, or else wouldn't the King destroy this place?_

Dash was thinking something similar, and he asked Sora, "Is there anyone stronger than the King with them?"

Sora scratched the back of his head and said, "I asked the same thing, but the Commanders I met with all said they weren't. I only met half of the thirteen of them though, seven in all including Klaus," he added while looking back to the red-haired man who had huge arm muscles that were showing now since his shirt's sleeves had been ripped off during the sparring.

"So many are missing," Gray said in surprise. His friends looked his way wondering why he would be surprised about that, and he continued, "I just thought with the return of Son Goku, more of them would have shown up," he explained.

"Well, they didn't seem very confident that Goku was going to stay," Sora began hesitantly, looking back towards Goku who stared at him in confusion. "I tried telling them he would this time, but…"

"We thought he would stay before," Klaus said. Everyone spun to him, and Goku looked in the man's eyes to see them harder than they were before. "And it has been a long time since his last visit." Goku started opening his mouth, but Klaus continued quickly, "Yet, not one person in the Resistance would ever speak ill of you, Son Goku. We do not know why you left, but we are just happy you have returned."

Dash spun back to Goku with wide eyes. _No one's mad at him? Just what did Goku do that everyone here thinks he's this awesome hero? And if he was such a hero, then why didn't he-_ Goku looked towards Dash and his face softened and got a sad look to it at the hurt and angry look on the child's face.

 _If the Dragon Balls do exist here, what if I can only bring one person back at a time?_ Goku thought while staring at the boy. _Dad, ChiChi… no, Piccolo says she's in Heaven, even with our child. I don't know how it works, I don't know… but, if the Dragon Balls exist, I'll bring back your brother, Dash._

"Alright so guys," Sora began again, just as people were starting to notice where Goku was staring. He tried taking everyone's minds off that stare quickly, and he continued, "I think I may have told everyone to run off a little too quick earlier. So at five o'clock, let's all meet up at the cafeteria. I heard some things from the Commanders, and I want to tell everyone before you get too settled in here."

"Going to be difficult to tell everyone by five," Riku said. "This place is huge."

"I think if we find Timmy, he should be able to use telepathy to reach us all, maybe," Sora said.

"Where's the cafeteria?" Natsu wondered. "And is there just-"

"This is a Resistance base Natsu," Gray began, and Natsu turned to his friend who continued, "It's not like there are restaurants and grocery stores here. It's a training base, a military base, and a rendezvous point for evacuations before relocations can take place. No unnecessary buildings, no space taken up needlessly."

"Anyway," Sora called out. "If you guys could split up and help me tell everyone, it'd really be a big help. Riku's right, this place is huge. And I really want to tell everyone what I can, while I still can." A few of them looked at Sora oddly, and he continued, "Since this place is so big, it'd be strange if we all wound up eating at the same times, sleeping in rooms close to each other's, we may not see as much of each other for a while now."

His explanation got nods out of some of his comrades, though Stan stared closely at Sora's back and thought, _He's right. Not for those reasons though. If this is what I have to look forward to for a month, just training the skills I already have, then I'll never be able to surpass Ichimaru Gin. I needed to come here, to get a look at least,_ the boy leaning back against the white wall near the door leaned off it, and thought, _but this type of training isn't what I need. I need something more. Something, the Resistance will not be able to give me._

"I'm going to keep training here," Goku said, and Sora looked over to the Saiyan whose hair shot up golden in an instant. "I need to get some high level training in now." He turned to Klaus who nodded at him again, as he had already answered Goku's question earlier and told him that no matter how high Goku brought his energy, the training room would be able to handle it.

Natsu grunted in annoyance. _Because I'm so low level,_ he thought. He started for the door, and said "I'll help you out, boss." It sounded sarcastic, but Sora nodded thankfully at him.

"Me too," Riku agreed. He opened a black portal in front of him and stepped into it.

Dash called out he would go as well and ran into Riku's portal, going to break off from wherever Riku brought them first. Riku and Dash reappeared back on the main floor for Resistance giants at the top of the basement hole, and then Dash waved Riku off and sped away to go try and find some of the others. As soon as he was out of Riku's sight, his face dipped down into anger again after he had tried masking it from Goku and Sora when Goku had looked at him so apologetically. _It's not their faults,_ Dash thought, getting sadder instead of angrier. _They weren't there, they showed up after it had happened, but I… I was right next to him!_ Tears spilled out of Dash's eyes, so he kept running too fast for anyone to be able to see his face.

* * *

"Oh, excuse me," an old man rolling down the hall in a wheelchair said to the group who had moved to the side for him. He was bald and smiled at the ladies and small boy in a pink hat as he was rolling past, but he stopped for a moment and turned to them on his right side. "You have just arrived with Son Goku. It is a pleasure to meet you," he said.

"Um, yeah you too," Nami said to the old man. Someone had been walking behind him who Nami and Robin recognized, and they glanced up at the scruffy man with a stubble beard and spikes in his hair going up to either side. _Like Mandy,_ Robin thought, cracking a smile at the resemblance.

"Hello Logan-san," Robin greeted the man they had met back at the Zulu base in Sector 345. _I wonder how he got here? He must have left before us, as I did not see him on the shuttles. Strange he would leave a Sector so close to the borders to come here when he seems to be very strong. I wonder what Sector we're in right-_

"We are in Sector 501," the man in the wheelchair said to Robin whose eyes widened at the man.

"You can read minds?" Robin said, less of a question and more an observation.

"Yes, just like young Mr. Turner," he said, turning to the child who frowned at him for reading Robin's mind. _**"There is no need to be alarmed. I am a friend,"**_ Charles Xavier told the child in their heads.

"Who are you?" Timmy asked, saying it out loud unlike the man who spoke to him telepathically.

Wolverine narrowed his eyes at the kid's tone, while at the same time thinking about how the Professor had called him 'Turner.' _This is the same guy that was threatening to blow up the outpost? Doesn't look like him._

"My name is Charles Xavier," the man in the wheelchair said. Charles looked around at the four and said, "I am a Professor at a school for gifted children here. It is nice to make your acquaintances, and I thank you for your recent assistance to the Resistance up north."

"Oh, well, you're welcome," Nami said.

"If I did not have a class to teach in ten minutes, I would have liked to speak with you some more. Perhaps while you are here… or maybe some other time," the Professor told them, chuckling to himself and then starting to roll off.

The girls and Timmy all turned to watch him, then Wolverine following after stopped next to them. "The Professor's a great…"

 _ **"Sectors in the Resistance are based on geographic location,"**_ Xavier spoke to Robin right as Wolverine started speaking to the group aloud. She had asked him a question about it with her thoughts, and Charles smiled as he rolled away and explained it to her. _**"They are not solely in Resistance territory however. All of Aebrith is separated into Sectors. However, Sector 345 where you were earlier is the third lowest number of a Resistance-controlled Sector. All numbers lower than that have designations farther in the west and south."**_ Robin swore she heard a sigh in her head just as Logan continued following the Professor, though the sigh was not because of the defensive way in which the other mutant backed him up to the kid who had used a disrespectful tone towards him. Instead, the sigh was because of what he continued telling Robin, _**"The Resistance used to control Sectors from 1 to much higher than 1000."**_

 _If 345 is the third lowest, then the Resistance has from 343, to what number now?_ Robin wondered. _How high does it go?_ She did not hear a response in her head for a few seconds and wondered if she had left the telepath's range, but he finished in a soft tone back into her mind, _**"Not 1000."**_ It was not a clear answer, but Robin could hear the tone of it and felt that despite his answer, the true highest Sector was far, far below 1000.

"Hey guys," the group of four spun from the mutants heading the other way, towards a silver-haired teen behind them. Riku looked past towards Wolverine's back that he recognized, then refaced the girls and Timmy. "We're meeting up at…"

* * *

"Where did the ladies go?" Sanji mumbled, a dark aura of sadness around him as he moped his way down some hallways in the surface base. He was on the half not built with giants in mind, walking down hallway after hallway before heading up a floor at a time to check the next ones. There was so much base for him to check out, but when he finally reached the level that lined up with the second floor on the other half of the building, he decided to go have a look.

Sanji walked around the building thinking about how from outside he was able to see a huge extension between the front wall of the Resistance HQ and the wall behind it that stretched higher up in the sky almost as tall. _In that half of the building, are even the upper floors meant for giants too?_ Sanji got his answer as he headed into a floor almost as tall as the room they first entered, only the entire northern wall was pretty much made of glass. He could see through it from the other side of the room where he entered from, and outside he could see swimming pools, sports fields, some rock-climbing walls, as well as huge turrets lining the wall on the edge of the second floor's outer extension. His eyes barely focused on any of that though, as his jaw dropped and his hearts popped out as hearts at the sight of five female giants walking away from him. Their hips swayed to the sides, their legs were long and barely covered up, as were their midriffs and arms.

Blood poured out of Sanji's nose and his head got knocked back by the force of it. He was about to start running forward, when he spotted someone to his left and looked over with sweat forming on his face. Not far from him stood a figure wearing a black cloak that covered his entire body. He was mumbling something under his breath while the dark wisps of his cloak swung around behind his back. His dark cloak was not even the spookiest thing about him though, as he seemed to be wearing a skull mask over his face. _What kind of skull is that though?_ Sanji thought with a sweatdrop, upon closer inspection of the cartoonish skull that did not seem all that threatening.

"…uncentered. Why aren't they walking down the middle? This is ridiculous. The doors are in the middle of the room anyway, they're just making more work for themselves by not doing it. And what's with that weapons' shop across from the training armory? The weapons to buy and rent should match outside of each building, and the signs, one of them it higher up than the other." The man in a black cloak pulled out a pistol and pointed it straight down the huge room. His gun shook while Sanji dropped his jaw at the Grim Reaper-looking person.

 _Grim's not this creepy though,_ Sanji thought, before holding up a hand and starting, "Oi, what are-"

The gun the masked figure was holding lit up with white light, then Sanji's jaw dropped again and he had to throw a hand over his nose as a cute girl appeared in front of the cloaked man. The girl had a bob of blond hair and wore a very small red top that her big breasts pushed out against, bouncing as she fully appeared and making blood spill between Sanji's fingers. Patty Thompson put her fists down on her hips and leaned towards her Meister, giving him a pout while pushing out her cheeks that had red blushes on them and made Sanji start swooning at how cute she was. "Kid, we're gonna be late if you keep stopping every time we see-"

"OHHHH!" Sanji started spinning around on one leg over to the two who snapped their heads towards him. "Mademoiselle!" Sanji stopped and dropped to a knee next to the girl who cocked her head to the side and stared down at him confusedly. "Such beauty can only be described-"

"Sanji," Death the Kid said, stopping the man's rant right as it started. Sanji turned to the figure who reached up for his mask, making Sanji wonder if he had seen him before when the guy's mask was off. Kid pulled his mask up to the side though so he could stare down at Sanji, while the blond pirate stood up and gave the younger man a confused look. _What's up with his hair?_ Sanji thought. He stared at the three white lines on his black hair but only around the left side of his head, which seemed extra strange to him considering what the guy had been muttering about symmetry a minute ago.

"We met?" Sanji asked, confused since he felt like he would remember meeting a guy who looked like this before.

"No," Death the Kid replied. "I know everyone in your 'group' though. You received rank orange by the Cooperative's standards. You are a pirate. And that flip of hair on your face is an eyesore. Change it."

"Kid!" Patty exclaimed, spinning back to the boy who frowned at her tone of voice then turned away from the man he was having trouble looking at for too long.

 _What a weirdo,_ Sanji thought. He spun to the girl, as he did not really care about this Kid person enough to keep thinking about him. "And what's your name, cutie?" She smiled at the question and Sanji gasped at how cute it was, almost knocking him back off his feet again.

"I'm Patty," she said. "Patty Thompson." She lifted a hand and made a gun with her fingers, then winked at Sanji and snapped her hand back while saying, "Bang!" Sanji felt like he got shot in the heart with love and he grabbed at his chest while staggering back, which made the girl laugh and only made Sanji freak out more.

"Commander Kid!" A voice shouted loudly, and Sanji turned his head to see a soldier jogging towards them. The man came to a stop when he was directly in front of Kid, and he looked nervous as he put his feet together and shifted them so he was perfectly centered with the Commander. "The battlements are ready for your inspection. Everything is exactly as it should be."

Death the Kid nodded and started walking forward. "Let's go Patty," he said. The guard spun around while still straight in front of Kid, and he started walking back across the huge room straight down a black line that Sanji noticed someone had taped to the floor. The pirate chef sweatdropped as the guard marched down that line with a bead of sweat on his face, Kid following behind right on top of it. Patty just smiled at him and gave him a wave before skipping back after Kid, not at all caring that she was off the line several feet to the right of it.

"Ahhh," Sanji let out a long breath of joy. "I could get used to this place," he said with a big smile on his face.

As Kid walked away, he turned his head a bit and glanced towards the blond man out the corner of his eyes. _Sanji. He is related to the Germa. Seeing him just now though, he has a different feel to him. Figuring out the relation between them is a task for later however, and it may not be necessary…_ Kid's eyes narrowed while staring out through the north wall's glass that were all darkly tinted on the outside so no one could see in. In a dark tone he asked, "What is that guard doing?"

The man in front of him opened his eyes wide and scanned the walls between the turrets, trying to find who was out of position when they knew that Kid was coming by for an inspection. _You fool!_

Sanji was about to turn and go see what other beautiful women he could find through the base, or if he could find Nami, Robin, and Juvia, when a blur flew by in front of him. The blur shot past and down a different hallway, then it came flying back and reached him before doing spins around him so fast that he was getting caught in a wind funnel. "Dash?" Sanji asked, lifting a hand to his face to push his blowing hair out of his left eye.

"We're meeting up at five o'clock in the cafeteria," Dash said before speeding off again.

"Huh? Wait! What cafeteria?" He shouted, and a second later a blur shot by him again. A piece of paper flew up in the air and Sanji grabbed it as it started to fall after the blur had vanished. He looked at the slip of paper and read aloud, "It's in the basement. Not hard to find." He lowered his hand and the paper and looked in the direction he was pretty sure the boy ran off to, "Could have just said that," he muttered.

Dash rubbed his eyes as he ran off, but he knew they were still red. _Geez, get a grip already. What if someone sees you? Things are going to work out. They did for Juvia, and Killua, and they'll work out for me too. For JackJack. So just, stop crying about it already!_ Dash rubbed his eyes again and stopped himself in a secluded area. _If anyone saw this, they'd start treating you like a kid again. So buck up! And just deal with it already!_

* * *

"Kakashi," Sasuke said, and the white haired ninja in front of him spun around to see his old student standing right behind him.

"Sasuke, you're back?" Kakashi wondered. He turned and looked over his shoulder, nodding at some of the aides who were in front of him. They started shouting at the soldiers and trainees around the black floor of the HQ's basement, above the main base, and all those soldiers rushed off onto the mock battlefield where they had already been split up into teams. "Are you here to observe the mock battle?"

Sasuke shook his head, then Kakashi asked, "What about the western front?" The older ninja wore a mask covering most of his face from his nose down as well as his left eye, and he wore the same headband that Sasuke had on. While Sasuke's headband over his forehead was hidden mostly under his dark hair, Kakashi's went diagonally over the top left side of his face and crossed over his face-mask, while also going over his hair. Kakashi Hatake also wore a green jacket over his black uniform, and he had a hat on his head with stars above the rim.

"There's been a new development concerning the Emperor," Sasuke began. "You have time to talk?"

"General, everyone's set," one of Kakashi's aides who ran back towards them said. The guy looked to Sasuke when Sasuke turned his way, and the lower officer saluted and said, "Commander."

Sasuke just nodded at the guy who lowered his salute and spun back to Kakashi. "Take command of the exercise," Kakashi said while scratching the back of his head, wondering if this was alright. Then again, his former student was a higher rank than him here, so he figured it was probably fine.

"Yes sir," the Captain called out, then he turned and ran back to get the training underway.

Not far from the ninja who started walking away from the training grounds together, Ben was floating a few dozen feet off the ground and looking at the battlefield that closely resembled one he had fought on before. He was not there to hear the conversation Dash and Natsu had, so he thought about flying off to tell them about this place. He had already checked out the agricultural dome and learned a bit about the food situation in the Headquarters, and he had ran into Franky not long ago inside a hole in the wall where a bunch of inventors and scientists were working with Artificial Intelligence, robots, and some awesome alien species of robots Ben heard were called Autobots.

While Ben was floating there, watching as the two sides wearing protective armor and loading up on non-lethal rounds prepared for mock battle, two figures were flying above him and he shifted his gaze up. At the sight of their kimonos, their black hakamas and the swords they had on them, Ben recognized what they were. _Just like Zoro, and, and I saw one before too._ Ben tried thinking back on it, but he was having trouble recalling it. He remembered seeing Zoro back when the Espada attacked them in the Fire Lord's palace, but he could not remember where he had seen one before, even though the outfit Zoro had been wearing seemed so familiar to him.

Ben flew up towards the men who were about to pass him by. They looked down at the kid, and one of the two, a bald guy whose hakama's sleeves were ripped off and who had red markings on the outsides of his eyes, said, "What do you want kid?" His voice was brunt and he looked down his nose while narrowing his gaze at the boy who stopped flying at them.

 _Oh crap, what do I want?_ Ben hesitated, then he just said, "I'm Ben Tennyson. I just got here."

The other of the two shinigamis looked Ben up and down. He had long black hair that fell straight around his head to his shoulders, except for a single braid dropping over the right side of his face. He also had two green feathers sticking out the sides of his hair, and he wore an orange turtleneck under his hakama with a collar that completely covered his neck. He lifted his eyebrows at the boy's boldness, then greeted in polite response, "I am Yumichika Ayasegawa, the 3rd seat of the Gotei 13's 11th Division."

Ikkaku Madarame glanced at the man next to him in annoyance, which only made Yumichika grin more as he mentioned his squad and seat intentionally to annoy his friend. "And this is Ikkaku," Yumichika continued, "the 3rd Division Captain."

 _Gotei 13? Captains and seat numbers?_ "I didn't know shinigamis, were so organized," Ben said.

"What do you want kid?" Ikkaku snapped. "I'm a busy guy, got things to do."

"Are there a lot of shinigamis in the Resistance?" Ben asked, wondering if this question was the reason he flew up to them in the first place. _It's a good one,_ he thought, _at least,_ he added to himself with a sweatdrop as he really did not know what he was doing here.

"There are a few," Yumichika replied. "But as it seems that you do not know, the shinigami squads exist in all parts of the world. We do not take part in the world's wars though."

"You just able to see shinigamis now?" Ikkaku wondered, confused at why everything they were saying was making this kid look so surprised. "Even if that were it, you should have known this stuff. You been living under a rock?"

"No!" Ben said defensively. "I just, I came here from across the world. Over on Awul."

"Ohh?" Yumichika said, then he chuckled and continued, "But the Gotei 13 exist there as well. Captain Hitsugaya is stationed in Rhodar, is he not?" He turned to Ikkaku and asked, and the bald man just rolled his eyes as Yumichika knew the answer and was just messing with the kid at this point.

"Yeah, whatever, let's go," Ikkaku said, turning and floating up again. Ben opened his mouth, but he could not come up with a reason for the shinigami to talk to him for any longer.

The man with long black hair chuckled while facing Ben again. _He has an interesting aura,_ Yumichika thought. "Goodbye, Ben Tennyson," he said, then turned and flew up after Ikkaku. _A beautiful aura indeed. Though his outer appearance could use some work._ He got to his friend's side and continued the conversation they were having before that kid interrupted them, "Ikkaku, if he really did come here, don't you think he would have come to the tower?"

"Maybe he doesn't know," Ikkaku replied. He grinned and continued, "But I heard Byakuya saw him in Leam. He popped up to help out after the continent shifted around."

"What a strange time to make an appearance," Yumichika said, scratching his chin as he thought about it. "Well, as much as I would like to go look for Ichigo, the Hollow outbreak to the west requires our attention."

"Yeah yeah," Ikkaku muttered, an annoyed look on his face. He frowned even more thinking about that conversation they just had, _Just had to bring up that you're the 3rd seat now. Stupid Captain-Commander, all I want is to fight with Captain Kenpachi!_

* * *

 _I know them,_ Kirito thought, staring down a wide street cutting between all the Resistance barracks, armories, training rooms, and maintenance shops off the main path of the Headquarters. There was a black roof on the ceiling brightly lit so it felt like it was daytime in the base, and it felt even more like they were outside because of a flock of Pokemon birds that just flew over Kirito's head as he noticed a couple people walking towards him on the street. He stopped walking and watched them, and one of the three he looked towards was already facing him. Kirito was not looking back at him though, but at the strangest of the three who finally looked towards him when she noticed where one of her friends was looking.

In the middle of the three, was not a person but a floating computer cube with a screen on it. Its screen showed a girl on it who had long lilac hair and light blue eyes, and she wore a tight black Resistance uniform pressing to her teenage body. The two boys at her sides were wearing more casual clothes, though with their black armor underneath from what Kirito could see sticking out of their sleeves and out their collars. The one on the left of the group and largest one there, a muscular boy with dyed-blond hair only on the sides of his head and brown in the middle, turned towards Kirito and his eyes opened wide at the sight of the older teen. "That Kirito?" Terasaka said. Ryouma Terasaka ran over to the black haired teen who did not look as surprised to see him, though mainly just because he had seen them first.

"Hey-" Kirito began.

"Where's Nagisa?" Terasaka asked in a harsh, threatening voice as he reached in front of the teen. He was younger than Kirito, but he was the tallest out of his comrades, most muscular too. He was a few inches taller than Kirito and bulkier than him too. He glared down into the teen's eyes as Kirito did not respond, and he snapped, "What? Where is he?"

"Terasaka," a girl's voice started softly behind him in a calming tone.

Kirito looked behind the bulky boy at the computer screen. _This is weird,_ he thought as he stared at the girl on the screen who looked right back into his eyes. _She's probably just calling from somewhere else._ Kirito turned more to his right where a red-haired teen was standing and looking at him with a flat lip.

Akabane Karma narrowed his eyes at Kirito, then said, "Could you answer his question? We would all like to know."

"So would I," Kirito replied, a slight apologetic tone in his voice. "But we separated soon after our mission started. I have no idea where he is."

Karma sighed while the other two frowned, Terasaka more angrily and the girl on the screen in a sadder way. Karma smiled after letting out his sigh though, and he said to the older teen who was looking at the hovering computer near his head in confusion, "This is Ritsu." The sad girl lifted her gaze back to Kirito and shook her head around before smiling at him and waving a hand next to her face that was the only thing showing on the monitor. "She's also a member of Class 3-E," Karma said.

"Is she, are you guys in a call?" Kirito wondered.

Ritsu giggled on the screen and Kirito felt a bead of sweat roll down his face. Terasaka put a hand on top of the computer floating at his shoulder level and the girl on the screen lowered her head down like his hand had just pushed on top of her hair. "Nah, Ritsu here's a super smart AI."

"Thanks Ryouma," Ritsu said, lifting her gaze to the right side of her screen where the larger boy was laughing at Kirito's shocked reaction.

 _AI? It exists here?_ "Did she come from your world?" Kirito asked in a frantic voice. The others all looked at him confusedly. "Can AI travel between worlds?" He asked again, his eyes still huge as he stared straight at Ritsu.

Ritsu stared back into Kirito's eyes and a flash of sadness came across her face. "Yes," she replied. She lifted her head fast and frowned towards Karma, turning her floating computer to him as she did. "And I keep telling you, I'm not in Class 3-E anymore. Stop introducing me like that. He probably thinks I'm a robot assassin now."

"You could be," Karma suggested with a grin. "You'd be the best robot assassin out there."

Kirito watched nervously as an interested look came across the AI girl's face, then she shook her head and spun back to him with a more serious but still friendly look. "I'm not doing that. Not anymore."

Terasaka continued to Kirito after seeing the girl's indignant look, "Ritsu got assigned a different job after an upgrade to her AI system helped her fight off the Terminus invasion."

 _"Terminus invasion?" What's that?_ "What job?" Kirito asked the girl who smiled brightly again at his interest.

The screen on the computer zoomed out a little to show the girl in her black uniform posing with both arms over her head. A bunch of fireworks went off in the white void she was standing in, and the girl introduced herself while bright lights exploded above her, "I am the Resistance central computer! Running Resistance systems all over the alliance, I am an integral part of supporting the Resistance's cause!" The screen zoomed back in on the girl's face who looked excited at the expression of surprise on Kirito's face.

"What kind of things does she-" he paused as he had turned to Karma, then he spun back to the girl and said, "What kind of things do you do for the Resistance?"

Terasaka humphed and crossed his arms, though he thought in a satisfied way, _Most people aren't as quick to treat her like a normal person. Knowing she's a computer, a lot of people here got hard feelings._

"Hmmm, I don't know if I should tell you," Ritsu said. Kirito leaned back in some surprise, then a picture of Kirito's face appeared next to hers. There was not a lot of space on the box computer's screen, but as Kirito noticed how they barely both fit inside, three other cubes flew in from out of nowhere and attached to the top and left sides, and the top left corner of Ritsu's computer cube. As soon as all the computers had connected, all the screens connected too and Ritsu's head became much bigger, but not four times larger. Instead the connected image of all the screens that barely had lines separating each box showed Ritsu there with Kirito's picture at her side. "You've been designated as non-Resistance personnel. Although I am supposed to give you access-"

"Could you switch me to Resistance personnel?" Kirito wondered. The others looked at him in semi-surprise, and Kirito said, "Or change my status?"

"You're joining the Resistance?" Karma questioned. Kirito looked to him wondering why that was such an odd thing to do, and Karma looked him up and down to see if Kirito was serious. He smiled at the older teen after a few seconds and began, "Actually, I just came down here to give an in-person report, but we need to return to our current mission in a bit. While I was just giving my report on our mission's status though, I asked about your group and heard that you weren't joining the Resistance."

"Not all of us," Kirito said. "Just me. It's what I came here to do."

Ritsu smiled at the boy in front of her, "In that case, I'll put in a request to have your current status changed. Anyway," she continued, rushing past that last part and sounding excited as she went on, "I am connected to all the Resistance's servers. I can locate hacks at any time, like when I told Commander Sasuke that your friend Killua was hacking into computers at Z-345…" she trailed off after saying it, then she continued in a more carefree tone as she had lost it for a second there. "If any Commander needs to speak to the others, I can report to everyone at the same time. Send messages. And I create the codes for bases to signal each other…"

Kirito thought back to when they were approaching Pon-Gatso, and he remembered the Scarab Tank using a special code so that it was able to approach without being shot at. As he thought about that and Ritsu was continuing on, Karma interrupted with a loud, "Well! We really do need to be going." The others looked in at him, and Ritsu nodded after frowning his way in a worried way. "We'll be back," he said, lifting a hand and waving it while he continued on past Kirito, Terasaka walking on the older teen's other side.

Ritsu looked like she wanted to keep floating after them, but then she just called out, "Come back soon."

Kirito watched the two of them leave for a few seconds, then he turned back to the girl next to him and said, "Were you allowed to tell me all that, if I haven't been confirmed as a Resistance member yet?"

"I heard what you did for my friends," she said, the four computer screens turning as one towards him. The girl whose showing-top half looked more the size of a normal person now as she floated in front of Kirito gave him a bright smile, and then she bowed her head which made Kirito lean back feeling strange at the gesture, especially since even the computer boxes did a bow towards him.

"I didn't, really do much," Kirito began.

"No, you did," she said, standing back up straight and giving him such a grateful expression. "That mission, the best outcomes I had come up with, using all the algorithms and ideas I could process, still resulted in the deaths of several of my friends. I was so scared, but they would not back down after Pon-Gatso's council was killed. Nagisa said that they would have to accept casualties, but then, then you killed Ra's al Ghul before they could go through with their plan. I knew sending stronger fighters would result in the League's spy network reporting and giving Ra's the time to flee or bring in other strong allies, but he either did not know you were coming, or thought he could kill you on his own."

Kirito stared silently at this girl, thinking about that long, long night. His head bowed after a few seconds, and he said in a low voice, "But, still-" he hesitated. Kirito frowned while staring at the floor, and when he lifted his gaze he could see the girl looking sadly back at him. "I'm sorry," he said.

"Okajima was a friend," Ritsu said softly. "He didn't deserve that. My friends told me it was quick, but I couldn't help myself and opened the official mission report in the database. But!" She exclaimed, smiling at Kirito again even as he saw water in the AI's eyes. _She's so real, just like-_ "You saved all the others! Not just from Ra's, but they reported that you pushed back the Diclonius to give them all the time to escape. Even Maehara," Kirito's eyes widened and he leaned forward, and Ritsu continued, "He's doing fine. His surgeries went great, and Winry Rockbell, a girl I'm pretty sure you know, fitted him with brand new automail arms."

 _Winry? Oh, that was the blonde girl who… who Kairi made friends with._ Kirito's expression darkened, but he could see the computer girl in front of him looking confused so he shook his head around and gave her a half-smile. "That's great. I'm glad." He glanced behind him again but could no longer see Karma or Terasaka. "Say, what is their mission?" Kirito asked. He turned back to Ritsu and added, "If you can tell me?"

Ritsu hummed like she was mulling it over, then she smiled and put a hand up to her mouth while a quieter voice came out of the computer screens. "I'm not supposed to tell anyone- so keep it a secret okay?" She grinned, and Kirito chuckled to himself. _No way of proving AI exists my ass. Computers couldn't just go against stuff like this. Though, she should really be more careful._

"I promise," Kirito assured her.

The computer box turned to the left, then right, checking if there were other people watching. At first Kirito thought she only wanted to tell him, but the look on her face made him wonder if she thought her superiors might see her doing this and she was acting like a kid trying not to get caught. The bubbly girl with lilac hair then pulled closer to Kirito who did not back off from the computers despite how close the face on them was to his own. "My old class is focusing on keeping the old Fire Nation lands in a state of as much chaos as possible," Ritsu said, and Kirito lifted his eyebrows up in surprise at the sound of that. "I shouldn't tell you any specifics, but Komei and Azula are on bad terms, and so are Kong and Judge." She grinned more and finished, "So it's looking good."

 _Should figure out who all these players are. I know about many of the High Lords, but I didn't understand half of that._ Kirito started frowning even more, _Is this really a good thing?_ In his head he saw him and his friends sitting down at a table on their way north from the Wizard King's castle. _Sora, was probably right. It sounds chaotic enough up there because of what we did in Pyraxas, without the Resistance helping keep it unstable. I know Gray said that from the Resistance's viewpoint, they can now focus on their flanks without worrying as much about the north… but I don't know. Sora said, we needed to be better. And I think, I agree with him. I have so much I regret during my time here on Nexus. Sometimes I thought I was doing the good thing, and it wound up being terrible. So I can't just join up with some assassins thinking that my judgement has changed and I'm really making the right choice this time. If I do something, it has to be for the right reasons, and has to be the right methods too. I can't keep, accepting that I'm the darkness. If I ever want to make a change, I need to be a part of the Resistance that isn't hidden in the shadows like Class 3-E. They might be a necessary evil in the long run, but not everyone can be a part of that. Not when…_

"Um, excuse me?" Ritsu asked. Kirito's eyes snapped open wide as he realized he was staring straight at Ritsu, while his mind had wandered far, far off.

"Sorry," Kirito muttered, while thinking about how he shouldn't be having philosophical debates with himself in the middle of conversations. "So you guys haven't heard anything about Nagisa since he left with us?" Kirito asked, changing the subject from the one he was hesitant about speaking on when he did not know his own feelings on the matter. This new train of conversation may have just been more awkward though, and Kirito sweatdropped at the sad look he made appear on the AI's face.

The left two screens on Ritsu broke off and then separated from each other. Kirito saw her face appear smaller on each one, while numbers appeared next to her head on one and the other flashed red for some reason. Those two computers flew off, while the girl who appeared as a thinner version of herself on the two screens still in front of him began, "No. We haven't heard from him. I was hoping you would have known something," she faded off, then she continued with a more optimistic look on her face, "He said he was going all the way to the Capital. Nagisa doesn't say stuff like that unless he means it, so he probably went all the way there and can't risk reporting back and having his communications' intercepted while deep in enemy territory."

Kirito opened his mouth to mention how Nagisa got separated from them farther south that their group made it, but he decided against it with the optimistic look he saw on her face. _And she knows him better anyway, who am I to say it's unlikely?_

The bottom of the two computers suddenly broke off and cut Ritsu's body so only her face was showing again, and that computer flew off to go do something else while Ritsu's face appeared on it too. "You seem busy," Kirito said.

"Always," Ritsu replied with a sigh he could tell was only mock exhaustion. "But you're right, I've got some things I need to focus attention on right now. Anyway, it was nice meeting you Kirito… and it's almost five o'clock by the way." She winked at him while he opened his eyes at her wide in surprise, then the computer turned and flew off before he could ask how she knew.

 _She's in all the computers around here, maybe she saw it on a surveillance camera or something,_ Kirito reasoned while putting his hands down in his pockets. _I forgot to thank her. Becoming a full member of the Resistance, after seeing just a small bit of what the rest of Aebrith looks like, I know this is the right move. I'll train, and I'll fight for them. To stop slavery. To stop the King. To change this world._

* * *

"Well, I'm surprised everyone's here," Sora said as he looked around the big square table his friends were all sitting at. "Thought at least someone might not have come," he glanced towards Goku, but the Saiyan was devouring his food too fast to notice. Goku stood up and walked off towards the counters at the walls that had buttons to press that would produce all kinds of different foods out of a panel in the wall below them. Goku grabbed a dozen trays and started walking back, but two of those trays full of food were empty by the time he sat down again. _Though that's why I wanted to do this in the cafeteria near dinner time,_ Sora thought, feeling a bit of self-satisfaction that it worked out as he thought it would.

"So what's up?" Ben asked, looking to his right towards Sora's side of the table. There were a lot of other people in the cafeteria, a huge room larger than any mess hall Ben had ever seen before, but it was still pretty early in the day for dinner so they had managed to grab a table without a lot of prying eyes around them.

"That meeting I had with the Commanders, I heard something interesting that's gonna help us out," Sora replied. "I know I said, a month once we step inside, but that's kind of confusing me now that I think about it." Riku nodded his head, glad Sora picked up on it as he was annoyed about that all day. Sora continued while sitting back down, as he had stood up when he started talking like he was going to bring up the important stuff, because he did not want a big formal atmosphere around the table or anything. He just sat and continued talking casually, "I heard there was a summit over on Awul today with all the leaders of the different countries there at it."

"Really?" Nami asked in surprise. _Didn't think the Rhodaris were chummy enough with the RNG for something like that. Guess they've gotta start sometime though._

"It actually wasn't the first one," Sora continued, surprising Nami and a few others even more. "But this time, one of the Resistance leaders, General Organa, apparently went with a representative of Leam to try and convince Awul's leaders to help them."

"That's-" Gray began, his face lighting up excitedly as he had not heard anything about this.

Sora continued before Gray could say something optimistic, " _But_ , then some Cooperative representatives apparently showed up too, _and_ it turned into a huge mess." Sora chuckled and leaned back in his chair while a few others sighed, groaned, or looked worried about that. Gray looked more worried than most, and Sora decided to keep going instead of leaving him to imagine all sorts of worst case scenarios. "Luckily the escalation only lasted for a bit before Mandy stopped it."

Luffy's cheeks puffed out as he was in the middle of chewing but tried to shout something, and he started pounding himself in the chest to try and speak. "Mandy did?" Franky asked with big eyes.

"Was it really her?" Nami wondered. She glanced next to her at Timmy and saw him smiling more than anyone else at the table was, though his smile looked strange to her.

Sora chuckled and nodded his head a few times, "It wasn't like they described who did it to me, they called her by name."

"Ehh?" Luffy finally managed to swallow and got out his amazed/shocked reaction.

"Resistance Commanders know who Mandy is?" Dash muttered quietly, some sweat forming on the sides of his face.

Not far from Dash, Timmy scratched the side of his head then wiped sweat off his face. _I didn't actually think, you'd get close to world domination… She's actually starting to scare me a little. But, she'll do the right thing, I think._ Timmy was not very sure about his thoughts at all, but at least what Sora said she did seemed to be in everyone's best interests. "So, how did it go?" Timmy asked, trying to get his mind off something he had created.

"Well, talks will continue, but they didn't seem very happy by the results of the summit," Sora said, looking disappointed himself as it came out. "But," he said, bringing his tone back up again and smiling around at the others. "They talked about more there than just what's going on over here on Aebrith. And one of the things they decided on, was a dating system."

"Dating?" Goku asked, looking to Sora in confusion.

Sora did not think he was going to have to explain it in _that_ much detail, and he sweatdropped at the question Goku asked. "Like, the date? You know, like what year, month, and day it is?"

Goku hummed while still chewing, and he cocked his head to the side while everyone looked towards him, wondering if he truly was an idiot. "Anyway," Sora said as he could see a bunch of people gawking at Goku's unrecognizing look. "Leam and the Resistance accepted it apparently, probably trying to show the governments on Awul that they want to work closely with them or something," Sora trailed off at the end then shook his head and continued more on pace, "So today, is day 0!"

"Day zero?" Kirito asked confusedly.

"Yeah," Sora replied. "They couldn't decide on what day to start the new dating system on, whether to jump back to an old important event or a new one, but then someone said that the summit itself was important enough to make this day 0. Everything after it with be one, two, x days C.E., or Common Era." A few of the people at the table lifted their eyebrows or breathed in fast as they recognized that system. The ones who breathed in fast let it out just as fast, realizing it was less of a crazy coincidence and more likely that someone from their universe or a similar one had suggested the idea. Sora cracked a grin and said, "Someone suggested that the days, months, and years before 0, should be labeled as Before Summit." He kept grinning and said, "But that would have been abbreviated as B.S. so they thought better of it."

A bunch of the people at the table started laughing, and Sora grinned wide while thinking, _Awesome joke Sora!_

"What does B.S. mean?" Dash asked. Ben glanced at his younger friend and smirked that Dash did not know it, going to hold it over his head later.

Goku had his head tilted to the side again, Luffy had a puzzled look on his face, and Timmy also looked confused which Nami saw and started frowning at the boy who made the joke. Sora sweatdropped as he forgot how many of them would not have been able to catch on, and how old some of them were, but he was happy he made a few of them laugh, especially since he got Stan and Kirito to crack smiles too. "But they decided on B.C.E., so Before Common Era. Anyway, this makes when we have to be ready to leave again easier." His friends started nodding at him and getting serious expressions to their faces. "The same spot where I said we'd meet up, right inside those front doors, on Day 30. The night of Day 30, 5 o'clock, sound good to everyone?"

The pirates looked around at each other. Rin nodded towards Sora, and Kuro nodded its small head after seeing Rin give the nod. Kirito nodded when his closest friend looked his way. Gray looked at Natsu next to him who frowned but then nodded his head showing he was alright with a month break starting now. Gray looked the other way and saw Juvia looking towards the pirate girls, but she turned back and looked him in the eyes. He smiled at her and put his hand over hers on the table, and she smiled back though he could see hesitation in her eyes.

Stan stared over at Sora and bowed his head for a few seconds. _What is my decision? Do I stay with them? Do I ever come back? That's, not a decision I need to make right now._ His head nodded while he kept staring down at his hands, _If I can't return, I can't return. But if I do need a place to come back to, then why not leave this option open? Better with them than staying with the Resistance. But a whole month of doing nothing, while Ichimaru Gin runs part of a country, while he traipses around as a Lord of this continent… I can't do that._

"Seems like it's decided," Riku said. He stared at Sora who stared back into his eyes with a guilty look. Riku sighed and then said in a low voice, "I know you're doing what you think is right, and I'll try to be patient." Sora just got an even more guilty look on his face, but he nodded at Riku in a thankful way for that.

"Hey, you know with them making a dating system and all," Nami began, interrupting the serious mood with her smirk and tone. "Hopefully we can predict next year's Day of Fire."

That thought did not cross most of their minds and they all started talking about it. A few of them mentioned how they could finally start marking down their birthdays, and then Rin complained since he said he was ready to celebrate his eighteenth soon, but if he goes back and checks using actual dates he was probably still not even seventeen and a half.

"Speaking of the Day of Fire," Natsu began. "You guys think Yugo ever made it here?" He smirked and clenched his fists tightly over the table, "I'm gonna get a rematch with him on land, and go all out this time."

"He'll still beat you," Sanji said while lifting some more food to his mouth. Natsu jumped out of his chair and yelled at Sanji to try something, and then Luffy's hand flew over the table and grabbed a chunk of meat off of Natsu's plate when he was distracted. Natsu in turn started breathing fire, and Nami started yelling which made Sanji just get more into it to try and back her up, though she just started yelling at him too for escalating it more.

Sora sighed happily as they started a meal more like their usual ones. _Wonder how long, until something like this comes up again? How long, until I can eat a meal with all of them like this?_ Sora's smile lowered down into a flat lip as he watched them eating and yelling and laughing together. _But we're not_ _ **all**_ _together right now. I'll have to find Killua and let him know this plan, get him back here safely to be with all of us. And, I need you Kairi. Even if we had meals like this every night, it'd never feel right. Just like how the meals on the way north through the Southern Wastes, I couldn't get into the feasts, couldn't get into the usual attitude. It wasn't the same as the Thousand Sunny, or even that short time after Timmy and Goku had gone. Without you at my side, it doesn't feel like, home._

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed! Hey guys, so I know it took a while to get this one out, admittedly it was probably the toughest chapter to write ever, just some major writer's block when it came to how to introduce the Resistance. Anyway, chapter 15 ends with the beginning of a big month for the group. I'd like to see some predictions for the upcoming chapters. Also hit me with any questions about the recent developments or comments you have about Nexus leading up to now. Going to put a list below since I have added some new characters this chapter. Also want to say that I've got the next few chapters down already too, so those will be up soon. Recently binged Charlotte, Full Metal Panic, and some of Sousei no Onmyouji, and I also caught up with the Dragon Ball Multiverse fan comic as well as the God of Highschool (not all the way finished, but almost 2/3 I think). Anyway, got a lot of new ideas, (also started a new fanfic about Charlotte which I really enjoyed), and maybe those characters might show up in here, at some point. Alright, list then review responses:**

 **Bleach: Ichigo, Ikkaku, Byakuya, Yumichika, Kenpachi, Hollow, Gotei 13, Espada**

 **Ben 10: Ben**

 **The Incredibles: Dash, JackJack, Frozone**

 **Naruto: Sasuke, Kakashi**

 **Avatar the Last Airbender: Azula, Sozin**

 **One Piece: Komei, Judge Vinsmoke, Kong, Luffy, Robin, Nami, Sanji, Franky, Usopp, Zoro, Germa**

 **Fairy Tail: Jura, Natsu, Gray, Juvia, Hibiki, Eve, Ren, Blue Pegasus, Panther Lily, Gajeel, Levy, Zeref, Ishgar, Ten Wizard Saints**

 **Kekkai Sensen: Klaus Von Reinherz (first character from this show!), Zapp (Klaus mentioned him too)**

 **Star Wars: General Organa (Leia if anyone figured that out)**

 **Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy: Mandy**

 **Fairly Oddparents: Timmy Turner**

 **Soul Eater: Death the Kid, Patty**

 **Yu Yu Hakusho: Hiei**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Gon, Killua, Meruem**

 **SAO: Kirito**

 **DBZ: Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, Piccolo, ChiChi, Dragon Balls**

 **DC Comics: Doomsday, Superman, Ra's al Ghul, Black Canary**

 **Assassination Classroom: Ritsu, Karma, Nagisa, Terasaka, Okajima, Maehara**

 **Kingdom Hearts: Riku, Sora, Kairi**

 **Wakfu: Yugo**

 **South Park: Stan Marsh, Wizard King (Eric Cartman)**

 **Transformers: Autobots**

 **Elfen Lied: Diclonius**

 **Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood: Winry**

Espada-001 chapter 107 . May 28

Hello again, it's been a while. Well first off, Dammit Yang! Why did you throw yourself at the horde of heartless! You should've just listened to Weiss when she said to retreat! And Weiss isn't much better off since she should have just grabbed Yang and speed Glyphed the hell out of there when she still had aura! Also where's Ruby and her darkness slaying eyes when you need her. Speaking of which, by the lore you've created for this series at least one of the Gods decided to contribute in making something else to fight counter the darkness. You just had to go and make another negative chapter about Malifasent right after I watched "Malifasent". Well I'm curious as to what Malifasent is up to know after she surrendered to Sora and even more so at where she's hiding her new private army. Here something that I've been meaning to bring up for the longest time now. With all the characters that have arrived from the RWBY universe shouldn't there be a lot more people in the resistance with their Aura's literally unlocked? I'm sure in the RWBY universe that there are probably some laws saying that you can't just go around unlocking any random civilians Aura otherwise there would be a crap ton of random people running around with super powers. But on Nexus I'm sure that huntsman and huntresses would see the need to bolster their numbers to better defend the masses. Also having Aura users would greatly reduce the number of allies that can be killed by a lucky shot if they're a strong person that relies on either skill or abilities rather than power. As for this chapter I'm excited to see that there's going to be a training arc. To bad you haven't shown any MAR characters on Nexus otherwise I'm sure Gray would just have the use a training gate a few times to get stronger in a ridiculously short amount of time. Well I don't have much to say about this chapter aside from noting that Rin is about to pull a stupid card so that's great. Well as usual, until next time have a good day and I'll look forward to the next chapter!

 **The RWBY world certainly has a lot of interesting aspects I could add in to Nexus. When Gray was talking about all the different ways they could train, I left out Aura, but maybe it was one of the things he was mentioning they could possibly learn during their break. Then again, I feel like RWBY tier is not very high compared to a lot of the universes brought to Nexus, and yet the people who reach the strongest RWBY tiers we've seen have been training with Aura and Dust, etc, for a while. While I think unlocking auras and finding out semblances could def help, they're not the strongest powers, plus they'd have to be learnt from scratch... anyway just some pondering on my part, though they could come into play. What could Maleficent be doing here on Aebrith? She's creating her own dark army now, so we'll see her again, someday... XD Have not seen MAR, surprised two of you brought it up though after the same chapter since I had never even heard of that anime before. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thanks for the review!**

kg833998 chapter 107 . May 29

well looks like yang has been a heartless for a while I agree with Espada-001 Weiss should have grabbed yang and run and I can guess that it's time for the training arc knew It was coming a since goku and sora met the gods great chapter as usual and decided to read this the day before finals so wish me luck

 **Yang nooo! Weiss was pretty low on power, plus she had just been dragged into darkness (whatever that must have felt like), but she agrees that she done screwed up there, as she considers her sin is 'Betrayal.' Glad you liked the chapter, hope you did well on your finals, and thanks for the review!**

Limit-Breaking chapter 107 . May 30

You know the charcters from MAR would be really helpful at his point in time, it's an anime that aired around the same time as naruto timeslot on toonami or maybe even earlier. I don't really remember to be sure but the story was truly amazing to read, the powers were interesting and the characters journey and development was really nicely done.

Anyway besides that rant there a certain character from MAR basically has the power to help you enter a training area, one day passes in the world they are from but three months passes in there. Basically like a time chamber but the the major problem is the person who opens it up has to stay awake if not they will be trapped in there. Im not sure if it's forever or something else again it's been a while.  
Besides that i hope we can see vegeta soon i really want to see what he is up to at this point in the story.

 **Again, really surprised 2 of you brought up this MAR show on the same chapter when I have never heard _anything_ about it before. That does seem like a cool training power/ability/device, but I'll have to check out the show myself before adding anything from it in here so I stay true to the source material. Butchering those characters just to toss them in here and give myself a plot device wouldn't make fans of the show happy I'd bet :P, but there's a chance I start watching it after hearing so much about this show out of nowhere. Vegeta, where you at? We'll see, soon, probably... Thanks for the review! **

flo463 chapter 107 . Jun 3

I read a crossover Kamen Rider/Sao or an enemy resurrects Saichi, Kirito betrays his friends just to hope to see her again!  
if an enemy (eg Poh Lauffing Coffin Leader, him or an other) learned about Saichi's old relationship with Kirito, would not he be tempted to capture her? Kirito scared of losing her a second time would be forced to betray his companions  
although having no console, Kingdom Hearts 3 really tempts me  
I can't wait for the game to come out!

 **Sounds like a cool fic! Won't say if anything will come of it here though. And I lol-ed at your KH3 comment, because I felt the same way a few years back. I suddenly remembered on the bus home one day how awesome Kingdom Hearts was back when I played as a kid, so I went on Ebay to buy it and a PS2, and I found out that KH3 existed too. I though 'Awesome!' and I bought a PS2 and both of them. I was shocked that the Tarzan world was not the final world when I started playing again and actually managed to beat Clayton and his invisible chameleon monster. XD Anyway, I'm stoked for Kingdom Hearts 3 too, as much hype as Infinity War- no more! Thanks for the review! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks again everyone for reading, faving, following, and reviewing! 'Till next time!**


	109. Nexus HWR 16-0 The Chosen One

**Nexus HWR 16.0 The Chosen One:**

 **Day 1**

"Guys!"

Natsu and Luffy were panting hard but the two of them turned to the entrance of the large white room together. Usopp was standing there with his arms out on the sides of the entrance and he was panting almost as hard as the other two covered in scratches and bruises in the empty training room. The muscular man with a long nose yelled into the room, "Have you seen Sora?"

The two fighters were somewhat annoyed that their first sparring match since their big fight a week earlier had been interrupted was interrupted again. They glanced at each other then turned back to Usopp and Natsu called over, "What do you mean?"

"He's missing!" Usopp shouted back. Now, Natsu and Luffy both started jogging his way and behind Usopp they caught a glimpse of Riku sprinting down the hallway.

"Missing?" Luffy mumbled to himself. "Do you mean he left?" The pirate questioned.

"Left?" Natsu asked and turned to the pirate who wore a red tank top open down the middle that displayed the huge X-shaped scar on his torso.

"Yeah," Luffy said like it was a casual thing to do. Usopp and Natsu both stared blankly at him and they all stopped moving. Luffy looked from Natsu to Usopp and he said, "Sora said he was going to look for Kairi when I saw him this morning-"

"WHAT?!" Natsu and Usopp shouted together.

A few others running down the halls checking individual rooms heard the shouts and came running their direction. "What is it?" Gray asked the others in the entrance of one of the training rooms. Riku turned around at the other end of the hall and was jogging back over too, while Franky stepped out around the corner behind Gray.

Usopp turned to Gray and Franky and muttered in a deadpan voice, "Sora told Luffy he was leaving to look for Kairi."

"What?!" Riku yelled at Usopp's back. Usopp turned and he made eye contact with Riku and the two of them closed their mouths. Usopp was about to repeat himself and Riku was going to go on a rant, but the eye contact they made caused both of them to freeze. Riku closed his mouth as Usopp's eyebrows narrowed down, and then Usopp turned away from him. Riku looked to his right at Luffy and Natsu in the doorway though and he said to the pirate captain, "Why didn't you tell us?"

Luffy tilted his head to the side confusedly, "He didn't tell you?" the pirate asked. Riku's eyes widened and he opened his mouth to respond, then closed it as he saw Luffy's questioning look. The fact that Sora told Luffy and not Riku confused some of them, but Riku clenched his fists at his sides. _He knew I would tell him I was coming. Damn it Sora, you tricked me. You said we were going to let Roxas and Axel handle it!_

"What happened to his whole, let's train for a month, thing?" Natsu muttered in annoyance. "Becomes leader and the first thing he does is run off," he scoffed. "I would have been a much better-"

"Where do you think Sora-bro is going to look?" Franky asked.

"He must have some idea," Gray began, while Natsu sweatdropped that everyone ignored him. "He wouldn't have just wandered off without a plan…"

"Gray Fullbuster," a voice called behind Gray and Franky. The two of them turned and everyone else in the hall looked behind them to the other corner where a man none but Natsu and Gray recognized.

Natsu's eyes widened a little and Riku turned to him, "Someone you know?"

"That's Hiei," Natsu muttered back without looking away from the short figure at the end of the hall with big spiky black hair. "He's the one who sent us after the Fire Lord. A big Resistance player," he narrowed his eyes at the short man with a sheath on his side, "and I don't like him one bit," Natsu finished.

"Follow me," Hiei ordered Gray who took a step towards him. "You have new orders."

"Just him?" Usopp called over.

The shorter man looked Usopp's direction and the sniper instantly regretted asking from the look in that man's eyes. "Yes," Hiei stated a one word response. He turned and started walking away so Gray had to jog to catch up.

Usopp called after Gray's back, "What about Sora?"

Gray looked over his shoulder and shouted, "It's Sora we're talking about. He probably has a plan and will be back before we know it."

sc

 **Alvarez Empire**

Inside a tavern just north of the Cataclysm line, three thousand miles east of Pyraxas, only a few people were sitting around drinking at midday. The wooden double doors of the bar opened up but only the barkeep wiping down the counter looked over. The others were too distracted by the drinks in their hands and the thoughts on their minds.

The swinging doors that did not touch the floor or the ceiling of the doorway swung back out and then in until they slowed down their swinging and came to a stop. The figure who just walked in tipped up the brown cowboy hat on his head and looked around the room. He had on a black leather jacket open down the middle revealing a red shirt with black highlights on it. He had on a pair of dark blue pants with a single chain on his right hip looping down over his pocket.

"Hmm, less people in here than I'd hoped," the teenager mumbled. He walked through the bar and around a railing, walking up to the bartender and talking to him for a moment. As they were talking, a man sitting at a small square table against the wall on the opposite side of the room lowered the shot glass in his hand and lifted his gaze to the bar. He had three empty shot glasses in front of him and one more still with some clear liquor in it.

The man at the table had short dark-blond hair that was almost brown, unkempt over his head and looking like he had not washed it in a while. He wore a leather jacket like the one the teen had on only all black, but he was almost twice the eighteen year old's age. He furrowed his brow at the back of the kid's head, wondering how he got his hair to stick up in such perfect spikes without hair gel as it did not look like he had product in. The teen suddenly turned around and the man's eyes darted back down to his drink. He had a deep frown on his face and he reached forward, picked up his fourth shot glass, and tilted his head back to down it. As he lifted the glass and knocked his head back, he fumbled the glass because his eyes passed over a figure standing directly in front of his table. Most of his liquor spilled and he just barely caught his shot glass so it did not drop to the floor.

He slowly put his small glass down while wiping his face with his other arm's sleeve. He snapped his cold gaze up at the teen in front of him, "What do you want?" His voice was not friendly, and he was pretty pissed off that the kid's sudden appearance in front of his table made him spill his drink.

The boy with spiky brown hair looked down at the sitting man and asked, "Do you know about the Nobodies?"

The figure grumbled and glared into the kid's blue eyes. "What do you want to know?" He asked in annoyance.

Sora did not take this as an annoyed voice though, but the first shred of hope he had found all day. "So you do know about them," Sora said excitedly. He reached forward and pulled the chair across the table from the man out, while the guy looked at him in surprise and then even more annoyance as Sora sat down in the chair and smiled stupidly at him. "What do I want to know?" He repeated the man's question, then smirked and said, "Everything."

The guy nodded his head and he leaned over the table, ushering the teenager to do the same. Sora anxiously leaned in, and the man growled at him, "Screw you." He leaned back and looked at the kid's face to see his reaction. The teen did not lose the strange grin on his face though and just leaned back himself with a thoughtful expression.

"What if I go buy you a drink?" Sora offered.

The muscular man wearing a tight black shirt under his jacket looked Sora straight in the boy's blue eyes. His eyes were cold and green and he tried intimidating Sora by narrowing them. "Screw you," he repeated, this time curling his mouth on the 'you' and making the kid stop smiling. He figured he finally got the boy to leave him alone as the teen had a frustrated look on his face now. _Let me just drink in peace,_ the man thought and mentally groaned as the kid still did not get up after a few seconds.

Sora was frowning though, and he did not get up because the man did not tell him that he did not know anything about Nobodies, he just did not seem to be in the mood for talking about it. Yet, this man's mood could not deter him from getting the information he needed. He looked back into the figure's eyes and leaned forward over the table, "The Organization kidnapped my fiancé," he said. The man's eyes opened wide and Sora continued in a serious tone, "So if you know anything about them, please tell me. I have to save her."

For a long time the man sat there. He closed his eyes and slouched in his seat, groaning out loud this time. "Whatever," he conceded. "But you're still buying the drinks," he added.

Sora smiled again and his hopeful look returned. He reached up a hand and the bartender looked his way, "Can I get another one of these." Sora had one of the shot glasses in his hand which confused the man across from him who never saw him pick it up.

The guy ignored that for a second though, and he said to Sora, "Make it two." Sora looked back at him with a semi-confused look and the man continued, "I'm not gonna be the only one drinking. Get yourself one."

Sora held up his other hand in front of him. "It's fine. I'm not legal age."

The man scoffed, "On what world?" Sora opened his mouth to respond, but the guy did seem like he was willing to help him find Kairi. Although he usually got away with it on the Thousand Sunny using that excuse, he decided he could accept it if it was for Kairi's sake. He sighed and rose the shot glass again, calling to the barkeep to give him two more of the drinks.

The bartender walked over with a couple of drinks for them and put them down on the table. The teen thanked him while the other man just grunted. The boy figured it was time to introduce himself, and he stuck a hand out over the table. "My name's Sora," he greeted.

The guy with dark blond hair looked at the hand for a second, then nodded down at the drinks with his head. Sora watched as the man picked up his shot glass, so he did the same. The figure clanked his glass against Sora's, then knocked it back and downed it in one gulp. Sora looked at his drink hesitantly, but he shrugged his shoulders and tilted his head back before taking the shot. He scrunched up his face after and ground his teeth, making the other man chuckle a little. Sora saw him laughing and the kid regained his smile, though he still had a bad taste in his mouth and a burning sensation in his throat.

"Dean," the man said. Sora smiled more that the man finally told him his name, and the guy just stared at him like he was a very weird person. _What is up with this kid? Why is he smiling so much? Didn't he say his wife got taken or something?_ Dean Winchester grumbled to himself then held up two more fingers in the air. Sora looked at him in surprise and was about to argue that one was enough for him, but Dean started speaking first, "Alright, what do you want to know about the Nobodies? I lived in one of their cities for a while."

Sora lost his surprised look and became more serious again, looking like he did when he first brought up his fiancé. "If you know where their cities are, that would alone be a big help. Mainly, the location of their capital. That will be where Xemnas has Kairi."

"Xemnas?" Dean muttered. He was about to reach for his new drink, but he stopped himself and looked at the kid in confusion first. "You think the High Lord himself has your girl?"

"Probably," Sora replied. "I have friends in the Organization who are probably protecting her, but her Nobody is there too, and I don't know if she's safe in their clutches."

Dean looked a little more interested, and he reached forward for his glass and motioned for Sora to do the same. The frowning boy took his glass and knocked it back with Dean, and the man started speaking before Sora was done scrunching up his face again. "You seem like you know all about the Organization. I thought you were the one who wanted answers, but I don't understand half the stuff you're talking about." Sora asked him to just say what he knows, so Dean sighed but started telling the kid where the cities he had been to under their control were.

"Northwest?" Sora asked during the explanation. "Huh, I thought since Saix ruled the Dread Fort… but I thought that was a Fire Nation city he was in charge of 'cause they were such good allies. Their land goes past the Cataclysm up here?"

Dean nodded and continued explaining the locations of their territories. He explained how the Organization's land was the longest of any region, stretching from south of the Cataclysm line to over fifty thousand miles north of it, covering most of the west coast of Aebrith. Then he got into talking about the capital which he had never been to, "…Around Mount Vegeta outside of the Saiyans' territory."

"The old Saiyans' territory," Sora interrupted with a grim look on his face. Dean looked at him confused and the kid lifted back up his gaze from the table. He looked into Dean's confused eyes and said, "King Bardock got killed by the Ant King. Saiyans are probably under his control now."

"You're serious?" Dean asked, seeing no hesitation on the boy's face. "How do you know this?"

Sora grimaced and muttered, "I saw it."

The grim expression on Sora's face was not what Dean was looking for during a day of drinking. He lifted his hand with two fingers, then put them down and just called out. "Bring out a tray." The bartender chuckled and shook his head, but started filling up a dozen shot glasses that he put on a circular metal tray and just brought out to their table to leave it there. He was happier to do this than having to walk back and forth the whole time anyway.

The two continued talking to each other, and Dean smirked as he noticed Sora reach forward and grab a drink without first him motioning to do so. "Lexaeus?" Sora asked as Dean explained about the Lord of the city he used to live in. Sora scratched the back of his head and looked up at the ceiling while humming out loud. "You know, I don't remember that guy. He may have been someone Riku beat-"

"What are you talking about?" Dean asked. Sora looked back down at the man who was staring at Sora stupidly, wondering if he was imagining what he just heard. "How do you know so much about these Organization guys- wait a second," Dean started frowning. "You aren't one of those Resistance are you? If so, you guys must really be in trouble if you're getting your information from random shotty bars."

"I'm definitely a friend of the Resistance," Sora said. "I don't know if there's a special process to get in, but…" He faded off and then snapped his fingers as he remembered what Dean asked first. "Oh, I fought the Organization before, but before Nexus. Those guys have always been on my ass. This isn't the first time they caught Kairi either," he added with a frustrated look.

"You should keep a closer eye on your woman," Dean said. "Letting her get kidnapped twice. Doesn't seem-"

"Shut it," Sora snapped. The man looked surprised as this was an emotion he had not seen the boy with before. The kid looked pissed and his hands were clenched into fists over the table. "Sorry," Sora mumbled after a few seconds. "I just," he shook his head, "this world is so difficult sometimes. It's so big, so much bigger than my own world, and-" he stopped himself and shook his head again as he remembered to keep some things quiet. "I can't always be by her side," he whispered.

Dean nodded his head and he took another drink himself. "Yeah," he muttered, somewhat regretting messing with him. That next drink went down smoothly and he gasped out a nice breath of relief, before shaking his head around fast and grinning. He looked back into the younger man's eyes and went, "You're telling me!" Sora looked up in a little surprise at the man's demeanor that seemed to switch a little. "This world is hard for you? I'm sitting here in a bar getting drunk at one in the afternoon."

"Hey, so am I," Sora argued with a grin.

"Yeah, but only 'cause I dragged you into it," Dean countered. He frowned again and leaned back in his chair, the drunkenness hitting him hard only after he took that last drink, so it still had not fully set in yet. He really only started drinking ten to fifteen minutes before Sora entered the bar, so even though he had a couple more drinks than the kid, they were close to each other in terms of how much they'd drunk. That actually meant it was worse for Sora though, as the smaller boy himself had never gotten drunk before and had no tolerance for the drinks he was downing at the same pace as the man before him. Dean chuckled at the sight of the boy's expression as he spilled a bit of vodka down his chin on the last shot he took.

"So," Sora mumbled, leaning back in his seat like Dean was doing. "This Nowhere City, you said it's floating? How do I get there?"

"Don't know," Dean muttered in response. "Never been there myself, only heard rumors. The place is dark though, that's one thing that everyone who's been there talks about. They say the city never gets any sunlight."

"Not surprising," Sora said. He did not seem too interested which made the man in front of him aggravated. Sora looked down at Dean's face and he figured he got most of what he wanted to know from the man. Still, he was not having the worst time ever, and without any of his friends around, this was the first fun interaction he had had since he left. "So Dean," Sora began, leaning forwards again. "Why _are_ you drinking in the middle of the day?" Dean frowned and looked over to his left at a wall. Sora continued, "Because, you know, there's other stuff to do here."

"Like what?" Dean mumbled, not in the mood to answer personal questions right now. He was feeling pretty drunk though and this kid did not look like he was going to leave him alone now even though he had answered his questions about the Nobodies.

"Well, you could catch Pokemon," Sora suggested. He motioned at the wall behind Dean and the man turned around in his chair. He looked at the window Sora pointed at on that wall and his eyes widened at the sight of creatures outside of the bar walking around on the dirt. He could only see a few of them from his chair, but a flying green fairy thing flew outside the window while he was looking back there and he rubbed his eyes wondering if he really saw it.

Dean spun back to the grinning teen in front of him. "You caught those?" He asked in surprise.

Sora looked back out the window himself and watched as Azumarill walked by next to Scyther. Blaziken was behind them, punching and kicking in the air as it trained, and Celebi did another dip down out of the sky as it flew around. The kid's eyes got darker and he said softly, "No. I only caught one of them. Most of the rest, I got from dying friends who wanted me to watch after them. But some," his voice got even darker and the surprised man leaned back at the boy's grim demeanor. "I had to take from a monster," Sora continued harshly, "so he couldn't hurt them anymore."

He stayed staring down at the table for a few seconds before drunkenly shaking his head clear of all those dark thoughts and looking back up at the man in front of him. "Like I said, it's a hard world out there. Still, you have to keep going, right?"

The guy saw what Sora was doing and he grunted, looking away as he did. "You say it like it's so easy. This world though," Dean shook his head and spoke softer, "I've got no purpose being in it."

"Ah that's not true," Sora told him. Dean looked at the kid with an exhausted look but Sora continued, "Really! You helped me out, and your help is going to help Kairi. Not to mention everyone else I'll save by stopping the Organization…"

"Stopping the Organization?" Dean asked, making Sora freeze again and realize what he just said. To shut his mouth, he put another drink in it and swallowed, which was only contributing to the problem going on. Dean started laughing after a few seconds, "You did mention fighting them before. You saying they're from your own world?"

"Eh, kinda," Sora replied. "But hey," he grumbled and pointed at the older man across from him. "Stop changing the subject! I'm trying to talk about you. What are you doing just moping around in a bar on such a nice day."

"Such a nice day?" Dean muttered. "Are you on the same world I am? This world has no 'nice days.' Every day people get eaten and murdered and enslaved and-"

"And other people catch Pokemon, and go swimming, and spar with each other just for fun," Sora countered. Dean frowned at him but Sora smiled, "Really. I've seen thousands of people who enjoy life on this world. Millions even. Sure, it may not be perfect, and there may be a lot of problems with it, but no world is perfect. They all have their flaws, their own forms of darkness. I bet even your own world had its own problems."

Sora was hinting hard there, and a drunk Dean sighed but obliged. "Yeah," he admitted. With a look of nostalgia on his face he said, "There were monsters all over the place. Most people didn't know they existed, but I used to fight them with my brother."

"See!" Sora exclaimed and smacked a hand down on the table. "That's what you should be doing on a day like today!" Dean stared at the kid like he was stupid and Sora started looking a little confused, "Well, if you were fighting monsters, you must be pretty strong, right?" Sora asked.

Dean opened his mouth to snap at him, but he closed it after a second and picked up another shot. "No," he said and downed the drink. "I'm not strong at all."

"Huh," Sora mumbled defeatedly. He thought he was getting somewhere with him for a second and he started grumbling under his own breath. "What kind of monsters did you fight?" Sora asked.

"Vamps, werewolves, djinn, ghosts, demons," the man listed off some monsters he fought regularly back on his own world. Dean looked tired as he mentioned demons though, and after he did he finished with, "Angels."

This had Sora scrunching up his face and the boy looked at Dean funny. "Angels aren't monsters," he said like it was obvious.

"Yeah, well these ones were dicks," Dean said.

This made Sora frown and he spoke up, "They were 'dicks?' Did you kill them for that?"

Dean looked at the teen in surprise and he felt something for the first time since the boy sat down. He felt nervous. The teen mentioned taking on the Organization and he just brushed it off as the younger man being annoying, but now that he thought about some of what the kid had been saying, he started looking at him differently. _Is this kid, strong?_ The boy was not very muscular, but he was not too thin either. Dean saw the kid still waiting for a response, but he realized he totally forgot what the question was. "What?" he asked.

"Did you kill angels?" Sora asked him harshly.

Dean thought about Zachariah, an angel he stabbed in the head with an angel blade. He saw the blade go up through the bottom of the angel's chin, and up through the top of his skull. "Yeah, I've killed an angel-"

"Why?!" Sora exclaimed. He slammed his hands down on the table and looked at Dean with an upset look on his face. "I thought you were a good guy. You looked like, a good guy to me," Sora mumbled. Dean was surprised by the kid's choice of words and watched as Sora leaned back with a depressed look on his face. "So why would you kill an angel?"

The man sighed and he figured the lightweight in front of him was drunk enough that he would not think this was too insane anyway. "Because," Dean began. "They were trying to start the apocalypse." Sora's eyes bugged, opening wide and his bottom lip lowered.

"Really?" Sora asked.

This time it was Dean's turn to lower his bottom lip, then he started laughing at the kid's expression that showed he really believed him. "Yeah, really," Dean said with a chuckle. "Michael and Lucifer, bastards wanted to use me and my brother's bodies as vessels to fight each other, which would have destroyed most of the Earth in the process. We wouldn't let them." The man sighed and he rubbed his forehead, "I thought we were so important. I hated it. I hated that all the time everyone kept telling us we either had to accept or had to deny them because the fate of the world was in our hands," he looked back into the kid's eyes and saw Sora looking at him intently, not disbelieving a single word which made him shake his head at how gullible the kid was. He could imagine if anyone else told him a story like this, he would have laughed right in their face.

"But then," Dean continued. "Right when we thought the world was over, right when Lucifer got a hold of my brother's body, I see a bright white light."

Sora nodded his head in understanding and finished for him, "And then you were here."

"And then I was here," Dean repeated with a shake of his head. "On this world where instead of having the fate of the world in my hands, I became so unimportant that I can sit in a bar all day, or go out there and try to fight, and either way I won't be able to make a difference. The monsters here are much stronger than the ones I used to fight. Grimm and Aragami tear through werewolves and vampires like paper. Then there are the Heartless."

Sora grimaced and he took another shot. "I hear you there," he said and slammed his glass back down on the table. Dean glanced down and his eyes opened wide in surprise as the tray was almost empty, and he was sure he only had three or four of the twelve shots that were there originally. "But I mean, isn't it a good thing you got to get out of that situation?" Sora asked, bringing Dean's attention back to the drunk teen's face.

"Sure," Dean said. "At first I was relieved. But I slowly realized that my entire life, angels and demons had been pushing me and my brother towards that moment. All our lives we were pushed forward by _destiny._ And then right when that _destiny_ was about to finish, POOF! I'm gone and thrown into a field covered in people fighting each other with beam lasers and swords that eat giant monsters!"

Sora started laughing as he imagined how crazy that would be to some people he met on worlds without any advanced technology. He smiled at the man in front of him who did not seem to be in the laughing mood. "I think it's good that you didn't have to stay in that situation though," Sora told him. He reached forward and patted the man on the shoulder a few times, "There must have been a lot of pressure on you, so it's a good thing you weren't responsible for all those people's lives anymore. I know it's a tough burden to have." Sora put his hands back behind his head, "So maybe you do deserve a break. Hanging out in bars and drinking all the time doesn't seem so bad now that I have partaken," he joked and was amazed by how great these drinks were making him feel. "I wish I could just relax at a bar and have fun sometimes."

"Well, once you get your girl back from those Nobodies, you can," Dean replied.

Sora shook his head though with a small frown on his face. "If only it was that simple."

Dean finished off another drink and he lowered it down to the table, but missed the side and dropped it. His eyes darted down to the glass and he clenched his teeth waiting for the sound of it shattering. His eyes opened wide though as a foot lashed forward, stopping right under his glass. Sora held his big yellow shoe under the glass and Dean was almost as surprised that the teen caught his glass with his foot as he was by the size of the boy's shoe. "Watch this," Sora said, and he kicked the glass up with a flick of his foot.

Dean lifted his gaze as the glass spun around in the air, and then the spiky haired teen in front of him lifted up his right hand and pointed a finger at the glass up in the air. "Gravira!" A large black sphere formed in the air above them, surrounding the shot glass and making it drop down fast, but right before it hit the table Sora swung his right hand forward and snatched it, using his momentum to stop it from cracking. He finished swiping across his body and flicked his fingers up at the end of his swipe, making the glass fly behind him all the way over to the bar where it landed on the counter in front of the shocked bartender. The other few people around the room were all looking over in shock too, and then they all looked towards the counter as they heard the sound of a glass shattering, as the shot glass Sora landed there slid off the wet counter that the man was washing down and broke apart on the floor behind it.

Sora's eyes bugged out and he jumped out of his seat so fast that his chair fell over. "Oh shi-" he stopped himself and covered his mouth. He looked down at the chair then back at the bartender, and he called out, "Sorry! I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine," the barkeep said, scratching the back of his bald head as he did. "I'll just, add a dollar or two to your tab, okay?"

Sora smiled at the lenient punishment and he fist-pumped in the air. "Thanks! That's fine. Sorry again," he turned back to Dean and started snickering, having to cover his mouth as he finally showed how funny he really thought that was. Dean was staring at the kid with mouth agape, but he finally closed it and started chuckling to himself.

"Guess you really are strong," Dean muttered as the boy picked up his chair and burped while sitting back down in it.

"Oh yeah," Sora responded with a smirk. "I kick major butt," the boy bragged.

Dean laughed and the two of them kept talking to each other. They ran out of drinks but as Sora got ready to call for some more, Dean told him to slow down a little. They were downing these way too fast for just casual day drinking. Sora called him a 'chicken' though, so they wound up getting a lot more rounds on their table. The bartender asked them not to break anything else though or he would cut them off, to which Sora started cracking up, making the barkeep groan.

While they were talking, Dean thought about something the boy said earlier, and he was feeling drunk enough to pry at this point. "You know, when I told you you could just relax at bars after you got your fiancé back, you acted like you couldn't do it. But why not? She wouldn't let you?"

"Not her," Sora said like that was a silly question. "The world wouldn't let me," he said. Dean stared at him wondering if the boy knew how dumb that sounded to him. Sora saw that look and he pointed at Dean, "Hey, I believed you when you told me you were the 'chosen vessel,' why you gotta, like, look at me like that?" Dean held up a hand defensively and told Sora to go on then, and the kid smirked and he did just that. "I can't stop fighting, I can't because _I_ am the real 'chosen one.' So no matter what happens, or what world I'm on, I can't ever stop fighting the monsters that cover the multiverse. I defeat one baddie and another guy shows up right behind him, and I beat him, and I get sent to Nexus, where I have to beat even more baddies! And now!" he shouted, his face getting scrunched up and looking all annoyed. "Now I find out that there's an even bigger baddie outside of Nexus who I'm going to wind up having to fight. And the Gods, and the angels, and everyone on this planet is waiting for me to do something about it! Do they not get the weight on my shoulders? Don't they realize that I really can't do this, again?!"

Dean just sat there nodding his head over and over as the kid ranted. He looked around and saw the others in the bar all looking his way confusedly and he turned back to the kid. "Just calm down Sora. Don't worry about all that other stuff." He shook his head wondering where the teen got all these absurd ideas from. "After you get your fiancé, just go to a bar and relax. Marry this Kairi girl, and live like a normal guy. I'll admit you're pretty strong, but don't go putting everything on your own shoulders."

"No can do," Sora muttered. He took another drink from the table and downed it in a second. "Not until the worlds are all back to normal," he said. This sentence made Dean's eyes turn huge as the earlier rant was spoken so fast and slurred that it was hard to even understand what the kid said. This time though, he knew exactly what Sora said, and he was confused as the teen seemed like he was totally serious.

"What are you-" Dean began.

As soon as he started, he stopped, and he dropped his jaw as the others in the bar shouted and started running away. Even the barkeeper ran out from behind his counter and left the building. Sora noticed the shadow fall over him and he turned left to the spot that Dean, who jumped out of his chair, was staring in shock at. Sora looked at the tall figure standing there in a trench coat and he opened his eyes wide at the man's sudden appearance, which was a light reaction compared to everyone else.

"Cass?!" Dean exclaimed in total shock.

"Castiel?" Sora muttered.

"You know him?" Dean asked, spinning back to Sora, and then looking at Castiel again. After hearing what this teen just said, he looked back at Castiel with huge eyes. "What's up with this kid?"

"Hello Dean," Castiel said. He looked down at the boy on the chair next to him and said, "He is a Keybearer." He left Dean standing there confusedly while looking Sora in the eyes and saying, "I have been looking for this world's Keyhole as you requested. I have found it in the deepest floor of the Dungeon. I could bring you there-"

Sora lifted his right hand and pointed at Castiel, shouting, "NO!"

Castiel looked in Sora's eyes then turned to Dean and glared at the man, "What were you thinking getting the Keybearer drunk?"

"What does that even mean?" Dean asked. He shook his head and was going to shout at Cass for something else, but Sora cut in first.

"It means," the boy said, raising his right hand in front of himself. He summoned his Keyblade and swiped it around a bunch of times really fast. "That I'm a super-awesome-badass Keyblade warrior!" The teen then spun to Castiel and pointed the tip of his Keyblade at the angel that backed up from the weapon, surprising Dean as it looked like Castiel was actually a little afraid of the blade. "And you! You are not helping!"

"What?" Castiel asked. "I found the Keyhole like you asked."

"All I want to do is find Kairi now!" Sora yelled at him.

Castiel became confused and he looked around. Dean had huge eyes and just shrugged at him, so Cass looked back and asked, "Where are the other Keybearers?"

"Riku's back with the Resistance, but Kairi's gone! The Nobodies captured her!"

"Ah, so she is in Castle Oblivion," Castiel said and he scratched his chin.

Sora stopped ranting and he lowered down his Keyblade. "W-Wait, Castle Oblivion? I thought we got rid of Castle Oblivion back on Awul."

"It arose inside the Organization's territory, and Xemnas used it to recreate Kingdom Hearts," Castiel told the teen who finally lowered his weapon completely as this was something he actually cared about. "It's how the Nobodies are now able to regain their hearts."

"Hey Cass," Dean interrupted the other two. The angel looked at the man and saw Dean's pissed off look. "Where have you been?" Dean questioned. Sora looked at his new drinking buddy with a look of confusion as Dean continued, "I prayed. I actually prayed for you to come help me. Where were you man?"

Castiel saw the sad, abandoned look on Dean's face and he turned away. "I-"

"Hey, it's not his fault," Sora shouted, jumping in between the two. Dean looked at the teen in surprise and Sora pointed behind him while still looking at the man, "Cass got brainwashed by some evil criminal mastermind. That's the only reason he didn't come answer your prayers. Right Castiel?" He turned to the angel who looked surprised by Sora's sudden interjection, but had to frown again anyway. Sora backed up and his own eyes widened as he thought that Lelouch's takeover of the angel's mind was the sole reason Castiel couldn't help Dean.

"I am sorry Dean," Castiel started. Dean stared at Cass in shock and the angel looked back into his eyes, "When we were taken off our world, the angels were as shocked as everyone else. One minute we were on the verge of the apocalypse, and the next we're thrown onto a strange world where we were no longer the strongest beings on the planet. There were wars to fight, battles to win, I, I couldn't take time away to answer every prayer."

"You didn't need to answer every prayer," Dean whispered. "Just one. We were friends Cass. How could you just," Dean stopped himself and he closed his mouth. "Nevermind," he turned for the door and took a step, but Sora was suddenly standing in his way.

"Hold on Dean," Sora began. Dean frowned at the teen, but Sora smiled at him. "You helped me, and buying you drinks is not nearly enough to repay you, so let me help you out. Plus, if I help you, Castiel has to help 'cause he's my angel."

" _Your_ angel?" Castiel and Dean both asked simultaneously.

"Yeah," Sora replied. "And the two of us are going to save the world together! But if we can't even save you, our friend, then how could we save the world? No! The universe?!" He held a hand up above him and pointed to the sky as he shouted the last part. Then, Sora's cheeks puffed out and he hunched over next to the table, "Aarrghhhahaahhggg," he hurled all over the floor and Dean and Castiel winced at the sight. Dean got a bead of sweat on the side of his head as he thought about the motivational speech this teen just said and what he looked like right now. They did not match up very well.

"Here," Castiel said. The angel put a hand on Sora's back and it glowed lightly. The boy throwing up on the floor calmed down and he stood back up with a surprised look on his face. Sora looked at his hands that had some puke on them and he disgustedly wiped them on his pants. He looked at the puddle on the floor in embarrassment and started looking around for the bartender to apologize.

Dean turned to the angel, "Cass, really?" He questioned. "You made him sober? Not cool."

Cass stepped forward and put a finger on Dean's forehead too, and before Dean could back up he completely lost all the effects of being drunk. The man groaned, but no longer drunk he had a much clearer perspective on what he had been hearing in the last hour or so. "Hey Cass," Dean said quietly, while Sora pulled out his Keyblade and started doing some magic to clean up the floor on his own. The angel glanced at the man next to him and Dean whispered, "Just how strong is this guy?"

"Strong?" Castiel questioned. "In comparison to many on this world, not very. But," the angel continued. "He may be the most important."

Dean's eyes grew huge and he and Cass looked back at the teen. "Wow," Sora said as he turned towards them, "I didn't know that getting drunk meant that I would be so, um, drunk," he laughed and scratched the back of his head. "Sorry about that stuff I said Castiel," Sora continued. "And thanks a lot for finding the Keyhole." The teen let his Keyblade vanish and he rubbed his hands together as he turned directly to Dean. "Now, for you," he began.

"What?" Dean said, confused just like Castiel.

Sora grinned, "I meant what I said. Just because I was drunk, doesn't mean I was lying. How can I save the world if I can't even help my friend? So," he said to the man with slowly widening eyes, "let's see what I can do."

sc

 **The Next Day**

"Come on Cass," Sora urged the reluctant angel standing on his left side and down ten feet. Sora was sitting on top of a giant white beast, behind its long neck on the Pokemon's back. Lugia's neck was flat on the ground with its head pointed forward, making it low to the floor so it was easier for the people to climb up on it. The angel to Sora's side still looked hesitant but Sora started petting Lugia's back and he added, "I know you can get around some other way, but I'd rather have company while I fly." Lugia looked back at him and Sora held up a hand with a small laugh, "More company," he corrected himself.

Castiel sighed but he did walk forward and climb up on the Pokemon's back. He was finding it hard to get a grip, but he saw a hand reaching down in front of him and looked up at Sora who extended his arm for him to take. Castiel took the teen's hand and Sora hoisted him up the rest of the way onto the Guardian of the Sea's back. "Alright," Sora called out, as Lugia stood up fully and spread its wings. He looked off the side of the majestic creature and waved a hand at the other three standing behind where Cass was originally. "Thanks again for your help with that information, Dean," Sora called to the man.

Dean stood there with an arm around a woman on his right, and his other hand down in front of him on top of a boy's shoulder. He glanced at Lisa, and then at her son Ben, and then he lifted his gaze back to Sora with a huge smile on his face. "Hey Sora," Dean called to Lugia's back. He shook his head once as the boy looked at him questioningly. "I have never met someone like you before. You're amazing kid, and I hope you win."

"Thanks," Sora called back down to him. "And I hope if I need your help sometime in the future, I can count on you! Then I'll definitely win," he grinned down at the man who looked surprised, but then started smiling again as he did not know what to say.

"Sure, count on it," Dean replied, and he squeezed the hands on Lisa and Ben a little tighter.

"Let's go Lugia!" Sora called out.

The giant Legendary Pokemon lifted off the ground and flew up in the air. As it did, the mother and son down below shouted after them, "Thank you!" Dean just watched as the beast flew away with Sora and Castiel on its back, but he thought the same thing.

Sora turned to Castiel as they flew off. "Alright," Sora began. "There are a few places I need to go. I heard something from a friend in the Resistance that I need to check out. He told me about how they lost a large portion of their fighting power, and I told him I might be able to help out with that. So though I did get sidetracked these last few days, we have to head to Lagann Island."

"Lagann Island?" Castiel questioned. He turned his head and looked behind him, realizing now why they were heading southeast, and frowning as he did. He faced forward at Sora's back again, "That is in the opposite direction as Xemnas." Sora grimaced but he did not shout at Lugia to change directions. Castiel got louder and he called out, "Why are you wasting time with this while not only another Guardian of Light is captured, _and_ we know where she is, but also the entire world's fate is in the balance?"

"My mission is to save people," Sora explained loudly over the wind rushing by them. "So how can I not help the Resistance when I can?" He questioned. Sora kept staring forward though, as there was not much conviction behind his words. _Roxas, Axel, please keep Kairi safe a little longer. I know that Xemnas is waiting for me to show up there looking for her, and with the entire Organization, with Gohan's Nobody there, I don't know if I can save her yet._ The troubled teenager who finally found his girlfriend now had the hard decision of what to do with this information, so as he put it off to think more on it, he needed something to distract himself with.

"I have a question for you now, Castiel," Sora called out. He turned his head right and looked out the corners of his eyes at the angel in a trench coat with his legs on either side of Lugia's back like himself. Sora continued but in a normal voice now that he was facing the man, "I know you feel like you owe me for what happened at Lelouch's base, but it feels like you're spending too much time with me. I mean, not that that's a bad thing, it's great actually, it's just you helped Goku, Timmy, and Kirito too, but you're really going out of your way to help me. Why is that?"

Castiel spoke in his usual bland monotone though it did sound a little farther off than normal, "I admit I have taken special interest in you. Not solely because you are a Keybearer either," he added. Castiel looked down into Sora's eyes, "As long as my superiors do not call me away, I would like to continue helping you."

"Sounds good to me," Sora shouted back over the wind. "You've got a lot of cool powers that will really come in handy. Wait!" Sora shouted, and Lugia thought it was being shouted at so the beast even slowed down in the sky and turned its head. Castiel looked at Sora confusedly and so did Lugia as Sora jumped up on its back. "You can teleport, so, why not just teleport us right to Kairi?! We could save her right now!"

Castiel did not share the same excited look Sora had on his face and the boy lowered his huge smile. "I'm afraid, I can not teleport into Castle Oblivion," Castiel admitted. "As I am sure you know, the castle itself is not just a building. Every floor…"

"Is a passage, to a different universe," Sora mumbled to finish for him.

"I would have to go in the front and then look around for Kairi," Castiel explained.

"No, no," Sora said with a shake of his head. "Xemnas could wind up getting you, and then there would be an angel Nobody." He sat back down and Lugia continued flying as it realized Sora was not calling to it in the first place. He hummed in annoyance to himself at getting his hopes up when he had already accepted it would take some time to free her. "Alright then, so that means Lagann Island it is. Pick up your speed Lug'!" Sora shouted.

Lugia flapped its wings harder and huge visible gusts of wind shot out from the tips of them.

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Kinda a weird place to end the chapter, but I always end it with someone thinking something special or some cliffhanger and I really just did not have anything for this one XD. Anyway Sora gets blasted at a random bar with Dean from Supernatural, and Castiel shows up with news on the Keyhole as well as information about where the Organization is keeping Kairi. Sora still indecisive though over how to save her without falling into Xemnas' trap, and he heads off on a detour to Lagann Island... The month has started. Thanks for reading!**

Limit-Breaking chapter 108 . 6h ago

You want to see some predictions huh, well then prepare yourself...  
That is my prediction... ok that was just me writing gibberish nonsense, to be honset i don't really have much to say for a prediction except maybe seeing chapters dedicated soley to about one one or two characters per chapter.  
Besides that it was a really cool chapter to read and an interesting one at that, especially since you portay the resistance as a bunch of people that mainly loses all the time. Still im starting to wonder what the hell goku did to become so well known on aebirth at this point...  
Hopefully dash can get over hid brother death soon, also kinda find it ironic how you let the kids ben and dash who were both happy children have the worst outcome for them yet, it could have been anybody else but they were specifically chosen for thses kinds of roles.  
Besides all that it was a really good chapter and i can't wait for the next one. Hoped you enjoyed the

 **Thanks for the review! Cut a little off since it was so long (though it looks like some already got cut off at the end there lol). I'm kind of pissed off though, since I have to change the entire story now since you predicted everything and I don't want it to look like I was just copying your review... ;) As for Goku, I think it's similar to how Sora yelled at the Gods when he got to Heaven, asking why they haven't helped out all the time. People who see them help out sometimes will get mad when they don't help out the other times they could have, so all those people in Aebrith living in war and slavery are probably thinking to themselves "where the Hell did Goku go?" But yeah, that's pretty selfish of them which it seems like they realize which is probably why no one's brought it up to him yet. How did Goku get so famous though? ...answers for another time XD. Nice call on the chapters focusing more on individual characters now, as it seems like a few more of them besides Sora are planning on their own solo trips... And Dash and Ben, so excited those first few chapters, they have just had the _worst_ times, but they're holding on, for now... Anyway, glad you liked that chapter, and thanks again!**

Smlluffy67 chapter 108 . 5h ago

WHOOOO KID AND PATTY ARE ALIVE WHOOO RISTU IS ALIVE WHOOO NOT A DEPRSSING CHAPTER so the group is meet up the resistance not going to lie I thought Jura was dead but it looks like him in the blue Pegasus Trio are alive doesn't look like ichiya is with the blue Pegasus Trio though don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing but hey on the bright side all the main characters from Soul Eater are alive and relatively well except black star and Tsubaki I really don't have any big predictions except that one of the characters are going to learn something really big to add to their Arsenal maybe the appearance of a Super Saiyan 4 Goku or maybe you Natsu will learn how to use the power he used against zeref in the last Ark a fairy tail well great chapter as usual and if you're wondering my finals went pretty good it looks like I will get to enjoy summer but there's just a little problem and that problems name is summer school

also does anyone know how to change you username

 **Finally a chapter where we get some living people, and not just news on how everyone is dead! Haha, glad you liked all the introductions, we'll see about some of the others now being thought about after these ones have appeared. I really liked Soul Eater and the style of the show, think I'm probably going to read the manga sometime soon too, but yeah now we have confirmation on all 7 of the MCs still being alive. Nice predictions, won't confirm or deny anything, but we'll see soon... Glad you're finals went well, and that you seemed to have figured out how to switch your username too! XD Thanks for the review! And thanks everyone for reading Nexus up til now, over 2.5 million words down in total! As always guys, 'till next time!**


	110. Nexus HWR 16-1 General

**Disclaimer: I still own none of the characters in this story. No proper nouns, except maybe the continents and planet's name... but most of the cities I don't own! Enjoy the chapter!**

 **Nexus HWR 16.1 General:**

 **Day 1**

 **Resistance HQ**

Two fifteen meter tall doors slid outwards into the hallway where a small group of people were gathered about. Riku turned his head as he leaned on the wall and then pushed off of it. Usopp and Franky were talking to each other on the other side of the hall and they both turned too, and Natsu was closest to the doors pacing back and forth in annoyance for the past hour. They all looked towards the opening doors and the man with wavy black hair stepping through them. Natsu opened his mouth to shout about how long it took, when he froze and looked at the man in front of him in confusion. Everyone looked at the one-armed man the same way, because between the time he entered the huge room to receive his orders and now he had underwent a wardrobe change.

Gray Fullbuster walked out of the room at the end of the hall, and the huge doors started to close again. Riku was not as focused on the way Gray was dressed as the others, and he looked over Gray's shoulders and into the room even taller than the massive doorway implied. He looked straight ahead from the doors to a large round table and six people gathered around it who were all watching Gray leave. He saw Hiei, the one who summoned Gray in the first place when they were all looking for Sora, standing on the right side of the table with his arms crossed and only looking out the corners of his eyes towards the doors so he was not facing them. There were two women in there and four men, though Riku could see that there were many empty spaces around that round table.

The doors clanked to a shut and Gray stopped walking in front of four of his friends who had followed him and Hiei. Luffy was with them at the time Hiei summoned him, but the pirate said he had better things to do and went back to training, even though his training partner followed his best friend. Natsu stepped up to Gray so they were a couple of feet away from each other, "What was that all about?" The Fire Dragon Slayer asked his fellow Fairy Tail mage. Natsu looked him up and down, and he added, "And what's up with the cape?"

Gray looked down at the cloak he was given while inside the war room. He lifted his right hand that was already holding something and grabbed the long cape of the cloak with two fingers, holding it out to the side and looking at the navy-blue fabric closer. The cloak did not cover all of his front, but it covered most of his left side and fell all the way down to his ankles. There was a golden circular clasp that held the cloak around him on his front up near his neck where the material covering the front left side of his body was connected to the part of the cloak that wrapped around his other side. Over the front left side of Gray's chest, there were two strange-looking pins on the cloak, and on his shoulders there were golden lines of a different material. Gray looked down and let go of his cape, while lifting up the second thing he had in his right hand, "I'm," he began, while turning the hat in his hand and looking at the stars on the front part of it right above the rim. The hat had a flat top and looked pretty official, and Gray lifted it up and put it down on top of his head. "I was, promoted," he continued softly.

"Ehh?" Natsu exclaimed. "That's what took an hour?! They were giving you a promotion?"

"What else?" Riku questioned, as he could see Gray still had something else to say. Natsu glanced back at Riku, then to Gray as Riku continued, "Hiei said you had new orders."

"They, promoted me, because of our recent victories," Gray continued. He looked around at the four who gathered right in front of him and spoke more confidently, "Doflamingo, Saix, and the Fire Lord were part of it, which I argued had little to do with me, but, the League of Assassins too, and Darth Bane specifically…" Gray faded off and he scratched his head, which made him frown as he realized it was difficult to do so with his hat on. He looked up more seriously, and kept going, "They promoted me a lot, I skipped ranks. They made me a General, and, and I'm to take down the Emperor."

The four in front of Gray opened their eyes wide as he said that. Gray lowered his arm back down to his side and continued, "That's what took most of the hour we were in there. We went over the plan for our counterattack in the west, they gave me all the information that someone at my old rank wouldn't have had. I know where their forces are, what weapons they'll use, and how I _can_ fight back against them, but… They gave me ultimate control over the mission."

"What does that mean?" Franky questioned the younger man.

"It means, I have to come up with when we attack, how we do it, and most importantly, who I take with me," he explained. "I was told to raise an army and get the job done," he finished and started walking forward. His mouth was flat, twitching up and down at the corners like he could not decide whether to smile or frown. He felt strange, because although he knew he should be feeling grim at the idea of having so much responsibility, of having other people's lives in his hands, he could not help but feel optimistic. _We are doing this! I, I brought my friends here to help, but, but they did more than that. They gave everyone hope again. Not just regular soldiers, but the leaders believed that I could do this. Everyone, I won't let you down. It isn't about surviving anymore! We can finally push back against them!_

"Where are you going?" Natsu snapped after his friend who was suddenly acting like he had somewhere important to be.

Gray did not look back but he started, "I was told that files for potential candidates to take on the assault would be in my room when I returned to it. I figure there are probably hundreds of files to go through, and I'm getting started right away." The dark cloak flapped behind him as Gray turned right at the corner and his friends back in the hallway stared at the spot he just disappeared from for a few seconds.

"Looks like he's right at home here," Usopp mumbled.

"Oi wait!" Natsu called out and started running down the hall. He reached the intersection and turned but Gray was gone and he groaned. "They better have put my file in Gray's room… wait, do I have a file? What did they put on my file?" His eyes widened and he hummed to himself wondering what would be on it before turning around and walking the other direction.

"H-Hey," Usopp called through the hall that he now started jogging down too. Natsu turned to him and Usopp had a look of panic on his face as he called out, "What are we going to do?" The Dragon Slayer became confused and Usopp threw his arms up while looking behind him then forward at Natsu again. When he looked back he only made eye contact with Franky and not the other teen behind him who tried to catch his gaze. Usopp continued, "Sora's still missing, and now we're heading somewhere else? We're going to join a war right now without him? And what if…"

"When the month is over, as long as we're all back together," Riku began from behind Usopp several yards to keep his distance. Usopp frowned deeply at Riku's voice but the other teen kept going, "It will be fine. Sora will return here with Kairi, and whatever happens in between, happens."

Usopp ground his teeth, then started walking forwards right past Natsu and down the next hall. Riku watched him go and both Natsu and Franky looked his way after to see his reaction. Riku sighed and he looked down at the floor. "Keep trying little bro," a voice said on his right. Riku turned and Franky gave him a hard pat on the pack that made him stumble a step forward. "Usopp will forgive you, sooner or later."

Riku clenched his teeth hard and he thought about the last few months he spent around Usopp. He shook his head and muttered, "You don't know that."

"Yeah I do," Franky countered right back. Natsu was about to walk away after Usopp, but he froze and turned while Riku looked back up at the cyborg in a little confusion. Franky laughed again, though it was a less genuine laugh this time and he scratched the back of his head after he did it. "When I met Usopp, I had my boys beat him to a bloody pulp and steal a bunch of money from him. Then I laughed in his face and kicked him around a little, taunting him about how weak he was." Riku and Natsu lowered their bottom lips at the cyborg who was frowning as he said this, but when he continued he started to grin, "He got over it though. When I joined the crew, I thought he might hold a grudge or something, but now we're the best of buddies. Haha!"

"Why'd you beat him up?" Natsu asked and Franky turned to see the pink haired mage still standing there twenty feet away, listening the whole time. He already noticed him, but Natsu was now taking part in what he was trying to say to Riku solely to cheer him up.

"Ah, it's all in the past now," Franky said and waved him off with a big red hand.

"Well, that makes our two situations different then," Riku said. Franky gained a confused look as he stared at the shorter man and Riku continued darkly, "Because what happened between you guys is in the past, but what I made Usopp do, it will never get behind him." The other two stared at Riku with widening eyes and the teen looked down at his right hand that he clenched in front of his body angrily, "I remember it sometimes, only when Usopp gives me the harshest looks. I'll remember exactly what I made him do. I was under Ansem's control, but it was these hands pulling the strings, and my own mouth giving the orders, and these two eyes that watched him execute people." Riku turned and his green eyes looked straight into Franky's shocked ones, "You think he can forgive something like that?"

* * *

Natsu walked through the halls of the Resistance headquarters all on his own. He was tired from earlier training, annoyed at Gray who told him to go back to training when he went to check what Gray was doing with his battle plans, and he was groaning because not only could he not find his way back to the cafeteria in this massive fortress, he only just realized he was completely lost. "RAA! Damn it!"

"Hey there, need some help?" a young girl's voice asked behind him. He turned and was going to shout what his problem was, before freezing and staring at the girl's face that was at eye-level with him. She had orange hair tied back into a ponytail, wore a pink and white striped shirt and white pants, and had a cute pink bow in her hair that matched her big pink eyes. She looked only seven or eight years old and Natsu blinked a few times more in case he really was just seeing things as this tiny girl was just _floating_ in the air behind him.

"I'm lost," Natsu muttered.

The girl who asked if he needed help was looking at his back when he shouted angrily up at the ceiling, but now that she was looking at his face her big eyes grew even larger. "What?" Natsu questioned her.

"You're _him_ ," she whispered. The girl had backed up a few feet, then stopped herself and flew back forward fast which almost made Natsu fall off his feet in surprise. "My name's Blossom," she greeted and stuck out a hand. "Leader of Gamma Squad," she continued, "it is nice to properly make your acquaintance, Natsu." Blossom recalled seeing the man before when she was farther south close to the Great Wall, but she did not know what he had done at that time.

"You know my name?" Natsu questioned as he shook her hand back hesitantly.

She nodded and a bright smile came to the little girl's face. "Of course I do. Everyone here knows your name. You _are_ the man who took down the Fire Lord, after all."

Natsu nodded and a big smirk spread across his face, "I am aren't I?" He puffed his chest out and the look of smugness was not missed by the small girl in front of him.

Blossom giggled and then flew by his side while giving him a wave. "Well thanks for coming. We're all really excited to have you here."

Natsu watched the child fly off then he turned back forward with a confident grin on his face. The things he was worried about only a minute ago were far from his mind now. _Everyone knows who I am. Ha! I gotta go tell the rubber idiot to rub it in his face._ Natsu took another step then froze and his eyes opened wide, "Wait!" He spun around but Blossom was no longer in the hallway with him. "I still don't know where I am!"

The fire mage sighed and started walking aimlessly down the hall again. He put his hands behind his head and looked up at the ceiling, "At least I'll get to kick some Sith butt when Gray puts me on that awesome team he's making."

* * *

Late into the night of the first full day since the group reached the Resistance Headquarters, Gray was still sitting at the desk in his room looking down at papers in between folders stacked high on either side of him. He had a desk lamp curved over the wooden table and three pieces of paper out in front of him in the moment. The people on each of the pages had their pictures in the top left corner, names, ages, and sizes on the right of those pictures, and then the entire page below that were character evaluations, physical abilities, skill sets, magic, weapons, etc. The pile of folders on his left were ones he had already gone through, and the one on his right the ones he still needed to go over, both stacks were around the same height ten feet above his head.

In front of him past the three pages he had out at the moment, was a much smaller pile of folders that he eyed and wondered if he should go through them and double-check the contents again to make sure they were suitable. He shook his head as that would take too much time considering all he had left to do, but when he looked at the three men in front of him again, he groaned and closed the folders right over their profiles. "No, no, no," he closed one at a time then stood up and stacked them on top of the tall pile of profiles that he had already gone through and rejected. Gray dropped down to his seat and leaned back on it with his eyes closed for a few seconds. _Don't fall asleep,_ he thought to himself and opened back up his eyes to make sure he wouldn't.

"This is taking hours," he muttered in annoyance. _I wish I could at least bring Natsu along, but the Resistance commanders were right. The Emperor's forces don't use fire weapons, and keeping Natsu as a trump card for situations we need him makes sense. Then there's the huge amount of landscape we have to cross to reach the Order of the Sith, which will be done on ships, ships we'll have to be constantly defending or working on. Natsu's motion sickness acting up would make him useless in a long-distance assault where we'll constantly be moving._ Gray rubbed the side of his head and he took off the General's hat and dropped it down on his desk.

Gray spun his chair around and looked back at the queen-sized bed behind him. He stared at how nicely-made it was, remembering how Juvia made it as soon as they woke up, but he frowned thinking about the night before. _Something's been up with her for a while. Last night, she wouldn't, kiss me._ He frowned deeper and leaned back in his seat again, _Now that I think about it, I haven't seen her all day too. I should go look for her…_ He turned sideways and caught a glimpse of the huge piles on his desk. Gray sighed out a long breath before turning back to his desk, _No, no she's probably with the other girls. I'll look for her tomorrow. I'm going to be doing this all night, she'll probably be here before morning anyway._

* * *

 **Day 2, 1:00 AM**

"You hear something?"

"Probably just the wind."

"That's a good mindset to have, probably going to get us all killed."

"Dude, don't worry so much. There's no one out here."

A teenager with black hair stopped crawling across the ground and he tried keeping his breathing as quiet as possible. The dirt road on the side of the tall grass he was crawling through had a small two-man patrol walking down it, but they were so close to the giant castle of Resistance HQ now that they were not too worried about anyone jumping out at them. The teenager lying on the ground in a black hoodie and black sweatpants and boots could not help but shiver as another gust of wind hit him. Even in some heavy clothes, winter was here, and it felt like it was coming hard this year.

He waited long enough that he could no longer hear the guards, then turned his head and looked around to see if anyone was around. "Alright," he said in a quiet voice. He turned right and the creature pressed down on its stomach at his side nodded at him, though he could barely see it move since it blended in so well with the night. "Come on Kuro," he said and nodded his head away from the fort. "Let's do this fast so we can start moving normally."

Kuro nodded back at Okumura Rin and the two got out of their flat positions. The two crawled through the grass around the Resistance Headquarters as fast as they could while still being stealthy. The fort had great sensors to pick up people coming towards them, but two people moving away from the base Rin hoped would not alert too many people, especially at the speeds they were going. _I should have had a better plan for this,_ he thought as he ducked down and a spotlight flashed right over his head.

The escape took over thirty minutes, but finally Rin reached a place far enough away and with enough natural obstacles in the way between him and the fort that he thought he could stand. He glanced behind him, then sighed as he could not even see the fortress behind the dirt mound he had crawled behind. He looked back forward and stared at the huge mountains that came out of the ground not ten miles ahead of him. He was shivering and he rubbed his hands together again while Kuro rubbed against his right leg for warmth. "Thanks Gray," Rin whispered as he stared out into the northern distance, "for telling me how I can get to Hell."

Kuro glanced up at Rin and the cat nodded slowly as it knew what they were getting into and was feeling pretty nervous itself. The familiar purred softly and then asked in its high-pitched voice, "Rin, are we going to be okay?"

Rin did not respond for several seconds. Then, he whispered, "I don't know. But this is what I came here to do." His eyes narrowed and he reached up and grabbed the hilt of his sword sticking out from below his sweatshirt that he put on over it. "Yukio, I'm coming."

Rin and Kuro both took a step forward, then both of them froze as their ears twitched, and they slowly turned around together. Standing right behind them was a man wearing a lot less-warm clothing than they had on, a red tank top with middle of it open revealing his bare chest that had a large x-shaped scar on it. The pirate wore a pair of blue jeans with the pant legs rolled up to his knees, and he had a straw hat on his head as he smiled at the two in front of him. "You're going to Hell?" Luffy asked the two shocked figures before him. "Sounds cool! I'm coming too."

"Wh-What?" Rin asked with huge eyes. "You can't. It's too dangerous. I don't want to drag any of you-"

"I'm coming," Luffy repeated, ignoring whatever Rin had to say. "I already decided to leave."

"But," Rin continued and he glanced around. "What about the Resistance? They're going to look for us you know? And your crew! Are you going to leave everyone-"

"They'll all be fine," Luffy said confidently. "I don't wanna sit around for a month anyway. And it'll be fine since Sora, Nami, Robin, Timmy, and Juvia already left."

Rin hummed to himself and nodded, then his eyes snapped open wide and he exclaimed, "WHAT?!"

* * *

 **Day 2, 2:00 AM**

Nami stood at the front of a speeder shooting a hundred miles per hour over the flat black landscape of Resistance lands in southern Aebrith. They were heading east, which she could only tell thanks to the compass in her hand. She looked up at the sky where normally there would be stars that she had mapped out over the years to help her navigate in the dark, however the sky was pitch black tonight. The only things illuminated in her sight were the top of the speeder as there were a few lights on the vehicle, and directly in front of their speeder for a half mile as that was as far as their headlights reached.

The orange-haired pirate woman crossed her arms in front of her chest and rubbed her hands up and down her own arms a couple times as it was chilly even inside the puffy orange coat she was wearing. Nami shivered and she glanced up at the cloud covered sky one more time, before saying out loud, "It's going to start snowing soon."

"First snowfall of the year," Robin said from where she sat behind a steering wheel in the center console of the speeder. She let out a deep breath and watched it float in the air in front of her, getting slightly pushed back by the wind that made it over the glass wind-shields at the front of the speeder.

"What's our heading?" Nami questioned softly and she leaned down near Robin and looked at a bunch of dials on the dashboard. "Good, keep us going east at seventy degrees." She smiled and stood back up fully before looking ahead off the speeder where they could see the ground start looking less black and more gray, a good change of pace she supposed.

On the right side of the navigator sat a girl leaning on the edge and looking back the way they came from. The girl with long blue hair had a sad expression on her face and she whispered, "Juvia thinks maybe Juvia should have told Gray-sama after all."

"Too late to turn back now," Nami announced loudly. Juvia turned to her friend and Nami smiled back at her, "So there's no point in worrying about it." Juvia nodded and to get her mind off it, Nami continued, "The info I got form Resistance HQ said that the best magician in all the Resistance is in their far east sector: 552. The guy is in some 'Library of Magic,' and he supposedly had so many _thousands_ of spells memorized before arriving on Nexus that everyone wants to learn from him, and he was able to pass on a lot of those spells to weaker Resistance members to give them some power."

"How is this going to help Juvia's bloodlust?" Juvia whispered.

"Think about it," Nami told her and went to sit next to her best friend. "With all the spells the guy has memorized there must be some that cure people in your situation."

"I don't know," Juvia said in a deep voice. "It doesn't sound like much to go on."

Nami ignored Juvia using the first-person to refer to herself and she put a hand on Juvia's back. "I promise, this is going to work out. And if it doesn't we'll find something else." Nami squeezed her hand on Juvia's back and the younger woman looked up into Nami's eyes and nodded with a small smile growing on her face.

Robin smiled from behind the center console just behind her two friends, then she looked right and watched the fourth figure on the speeder with them walk past her from the stern. The little boy yawned with his hand over his mouth as he reached the two girls up front who looked down at him. Timmy looked up at Juvia for a second and then to Nami, "I'm going to head to bed. Wake me up if you need me."

"Alright, we'll try to keep it down," Nami told the kid. Timmy smiled at her before turning and walking back on the speeder towards the comfy seat he was just sitting in when he realized he was so relaxed he was about to pass out. Nami watched him walk away, and she whispered under her breath, "I'm glad you came with us."

Timmy was already far back on the speeder and the wind around them was pretty loud, but his hearing was better than most and he stopped for a second right at the edge of his seat. He looked over his shoulder after a few seconds and whispered straight to the woman looking in his eyes, "Me too." She could not hear him but she read his lips well enough and Nami's expression showed it.

The kid got in his seat to get ready for a nap, and Nami turned back to Juvia to keep talking. The other girl had a small frown on her face though, a small frown getting deeper by the second. "Juvia?" Nami whispered.

Juvia's eyes darted to Nami's, and then she looked down and unclenched her fists at her sides. "Sorry," she whispered. "I just, seeing Nami-san and Timmy, made me think of a mother and child. You're so good with him, but I, I won't be able to…"

"I promised you Juvia, didn't I?" Nami asked. Juvia suddenly realized her fists had clenched again and she was getting even madder describing why she was mad to Nami. She looked nervously into her best friend's eyes and Nami gently pulled her friend's head down to her shoulder and held her there. "This month break Sora wants us to take, to train and prepare for the next battles, by the time it's over, we're going to fix you."

Juvia would argue, but allowing herself to believe Nami was so much easier, and it made her feel so much better. "Mm," she hummed affirmatively and nodded into Nami's shoulder. "Thank you Nami-san. Thank you Robin-san. Thank you Timmy," Juvia whispered as her eyes closed and she nuzzled into Nami's shoulder more comfortably. "I'll believe in you, since everyone believes in me."

* * *

 **A/N And the quests begin! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Gray gets a new mission to take on the Emperor? That's a big goal for the new General to have, and we'll see how he deals with this responsibility and the pressures of being a big shot in the Resistance. Rin and Kuro leave for Hell with an exact plan in mind of how they're going to get there, but Luffy follows them and decides to tag along. And the girls and Timmy head off the this 'Library' which we've heard about once before (Merlin said she was going to go ahead there last time we saw the Seven Deadly Sins). Still in the first days of the month of what should have been training, but already over a third of the group has separated. What are the others going to do at HQ while they're gone? Will anyone else decide to head off on their own missions? Find out next time on Nexus: Heroes Will Rise!**

asdf chapter 109 . 12h ago

Alright Hiei!  
Will Natsu be able to eat his Darkness Flames?

 **Perhaps. He has eaten similar flames before (Amaterasu or Zancrow's God Flames). He'd have to either be in a fight with Hiei or fighting alongside him though before he gets the chance for something like that though, so we'll see... Thanks for the review!**

Limit-Breaking chapter 109 . 14h ago

Hmm you still teased us with hiei saying you have new orders gray and just leaving it off like that so really you still kinda left us off on cliffhanger in a way.  
Also i would have sora burping like rick does when sora was talking to castiel, as well as sora saying stuff like.  
Sora: You don't know me you can't just decide, you can't just decide im sora burps loudly, the king bearer the one who is going to save you angel butt from the darkness.  
Then sora vomits onto th floor and looks at castiel and say's who are you again and what's a kairi then he lose counciousness. Then the events would take place like they should.  
Though i am curious exactly how you are going to be doing each chapter as in two chapters for sora and certain amount of days pass by.  
But you may go back a day ago to see what nami was doing for example, So my question is how do you plan on doing these chapters, a better way to ask this is basically how long do you plan to write this entire month for all the charcters, will it be over 20 something chapters or not that much to begin with.  
Either way funny chapter and i look forward to the next one.

 **Guess I can count that as a cliffhanger when it was the very first thing answered this chapter. Gray's victory over Darth Bane, the third in command of the Sith, has given him mad props with the Resistance command. That along with his bringing Goku to them, and the whole Pyraxas thing, it looks like the Resistance has a lot of faith in his ability. Sora going full on Rick Sanchez woulda been pretty funny too, and I'm glad you liked the chapter! As for how these next chapters are going to run, it'll start being more spread out. As in, I'm not going to go Day 4: one group, Day 4: the other group... etc. Ultimately you'll have to wait and see, but there will be arcs that follow certain people for a few chapters in a row. Won't say how long this month will take though... no spoilers after all XD Thanks for the review! And thanks again everyone for reading. 'Till next time!**


	111. Nexus HWR 16-2 Let's Go

**Nexus HWR 16.2 Let's Go:**

 **Day 2, 8:15 AM**

"Your identification has you marked as green," the soldier in a brown uniform standing in front of a teenager on a line of twenty people remarked. He handed the kid his I.D. back and frowned before looking back up and down the line, "You're all less useful than a single manned turret until you can prove it to me otherwise!" The man was taller than most people on the line, his head was bald, he had dark tan skin, and his eyes were so far back in his eye sockets it looked like someone had pushed them in with their thumbs.

Keith Shadis started marching down the line and glaring at each of the men and women from ages twelve to sixty standing at the ready for him. Some held machine guns in their arms, others had pistols in holsters on their sides or melee weapons strapped to their backs like the teen whose I.D. he just checked who had two swords on his back. Kirito's eyes followed the man as he walked off, then when the drill sergeant spun around and glared back to see if anyone was not staring straight ahead like he told them to, he made eye contact with the teen. "You!" He shouted and marched right back to lean over the teen and glare down into his eyes. "What in God's green earth do you think you're doing?! Did I say look at me?!"

"I was told to come here if I intended on joining the Resistance as a legitimate member, not where to go for basic training," Kirito began to the man who leaned back in a little surprise but kept glaring as furiously at the teen as before. "I now realize that the person I asked about this sent me to the wrong place."

"Oh, is that right?!" Shadis yelled. "You think you're in the wrong place huh? Are you sad that I called you a worthless steaming sack of SHIT?! Well too bad sissy mcpussyface!"

Kirito grit his teeth and he stepped off the line towards the man, closing the distance to a single foot. He looked up in the drill sergeant's eyes and showed no fear at all while everyone else on the line looked at Kirito like he was a madman. A couple of people watching from a one-way window on the opposite side of the room smirked, and a new figure who just walked up alongside the rest of them looked out there to see what they were looking at.

"You should see this, one of the new guys is about to get his head ripped off by the sarge," a man said to the darker-haired figure who stopped next to him. The man who just arrived at the window looked out and narrowed his eyes as he recognized the person standing there in front of the drill sergeant. He said nothing though as he watched the teenager lift up his right hand.

Keith Shadis clenched his fists and got ready to beat the kid senseless for raising a hand at him, when his sucked-in eyes opened wide and he darted them to the teen's right side. He stared at the teen's hand as it started glowing blue, and energy formed on top of his palm. He brought his left hand over and started hitting his palm at rapid speeds making chakra spin around and around until there was a spiraling blue sphere on his palm that he held out in front of him and made the older man take a step back to avoid it. Kirito turned to the man's right side and he did a single leap, a leap that took him thirty feet away in a single second, and then he slammed that ball of energy into the ground.

 _ **BOOM!**_ Kirito's attack created a large crater in the floor and caused dust to rise up all around it. He stood up fully and looked back towards the drill sergeant who was staring blankly at him, then asked in as calm a voice he could, "Where do I go to actually join?"

Keith Shadis opened his mouth to shout at the teen, when a different voice spoke up first and everyone in the room spun the direction of the one-way windows on one wall of the room. A door at the side of them had opened up and a man had walked out into the large training room, and he looked towards the teen who faced him with a look of recognition. The ninja with black hair shot across the room in an instant and appeared in front of Kirito who barely saw him move. "Where did you learn that technique?" Sasuke questioned while looking with the one eye not covered by his dark hair into Kirito's eyes.

"Sasuke," Kirito muttered. He glanced right towards the rest of the people in the room, then back at the ninja in front of him. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you when we first met, but I recognized your name. Naruto used to talk about you all the time."

"Where is he now?" Sasuke asked.

Kirito's expression darkened and he said softly, "Come on, I'll go tell you somewhere else." He motioned for the door Sasuke came out of and the other ninja from the Hidden Leaf Village nodded and they headed that way. Kirito spoke quietly as they left the training room, "Naruto taught me almost everything I know. I'm sorry, he was a great friend…"

* * *

In the mega-cafeteria of the Resistance HQ's basement, Kirito grabbed his tray of food and headed towards a table where some people he recognized were sitting. Natsu, Gray, Riku, and the men of the Straw Hat crew minus their captain were all sitting there eating already. Kirito walked over, and Riku and Natsu scooted to the sides a little to make room for him on their side of the table.

"Hey, congratulations on your 'official' entry into the Resistance," Sanji told the teen across from him.

"You're a full member now?" Gray asked, looking left past Natsu at the teen sitting there.

Kirito looked back his way and nodded once before looking down and starting to eat his food.

Gray grimaced at the cold shoulder treatment Kirito gave him and he looked back down at his own food. _Damn, I want to take Kirito with me, but my soldiers need to be able to trust me. I can't expect to give Kirito orders without him wondering if I'm really valuing his life. Worse, if someone else on the mission sees the way Kirito's acting towards me and finds out about what happened, I'll lose the faith of my entire army._

"You look like you got no sleep at all Gray," Franky remarked to the man across from him who snapped his head up in surprise, then nodded as he really didn't.

"I was up all night deciding on who to bring, but I gave up early this morning and switched to planning the attack instead. Once I know what I want to do to take out the Emperor, I can work out personnel around that, figure out who's the best to bring along for certain aspects."

"I would be the best person for one of those aspects," Natsu muttered angrily and pushed some of his food around with a fork.

Gray groaned as he had been arguing with Natsu about this all morning. He was about to say something about it, when Riku spoke up first to Kirito and got all their attention back on the teen, "Did something else happen?" Now that Riku mentioned it, Kirito had a seriously dark look on his face, darker than usual which was tough considering he always looked like that.

Kirito looked around and saw everyone staring at him, and he gazed back down at his food before beginning, "That Resistance commander, Sasuke, he didn't know what happened to the Konoha on Awul." A few of the people who recognized the ninja headband the man was wearing nodded their heads in understanding. "Naruto always used to talk about his good friend Sasuke, and when Sasuke saw me use one of Naruto's techniques, I had to tell him all about how Naruto killed everyone in Konoha."

"Naruto did?" Usopp whispered from the other side of the table. "Why?"

"You didn't hear about that?" Sanji questioned the man next to him.

Riku spoke quietly, "Sora said that it was the Underworld leader, Lelouch, who brainwashed Naruto into doing all those things."

"And Timmy had to kill Naruto because of it," Kirito finished. He put down his fork and whispered, "That was really hard on him. I think, he was closer to Naruto than I first realized."

Everyone nodded in silence, but Usopp broke it after a few seconds, "Speaking of Timmy… where the heck is he?!"

"And Juvia?" Gray mentioned, looking around at the rest of the huge cafeteria, or at least what he could see on the first level of it. "I haven't seen her since yesterday afternoon."

"Same with Nami-san and Robin-chan," Sanji added.

"Haven't seen Stan since we got here either," Riku muttered.

"Luffy's gone missing too," Franky threw on top. The rest of them spun to him in surprise as he was with most of them yesterday to tell them all how Sora went looking for Kairi. Franky shook his head and continued to his surprised comrades, "I was looking for him this morning to show him an invention I finally got the time to work on yesterday, but his room was empty. It was pretty early, but I thought maybe he was training with Natsu."

"Haven't seen him all morning," Natsu muttered, then he growled in annoyance and slammed his hands down on the table. "Let's go!"

"Huh?" The rest of his friends said almost at the same time while looking his way.

"That bastard runs off on his own 'cause he doesn't want to be the last one here, well neither do I!" The others mostly looked at Natsu like he was stupid, but he stood up and leaned over the table. "Come on, almost everyone's gone already! They're all running off on different adventures and we're just sitting around here, what? Training?!"

"Well, that's what Sora said to do," Kirito mentioned.

"And he was the first one to run off," Natsu countered back, which made Kirito shrug as he had to admit that was true.

Everyone got deep in thought for a few seconds, then another figure came walking over to the table and the pirates made some room for him on their side. The kid with blond hair sat down with his tray, but he did not pick up his utensils to start eating. He looked up with that dark look his friends had seen on his face occasionally over the past week since they met back up with him for the first time since Eileen's continent-altering magic messed everything up. "Hey guys," Dash began.

They all looked to him wondering if he was about to tell them what had been bothering him all this time, only for most of them to lower their bottom lips as Dash continued, "Have any of you seen Ben? I didn't-"

"Damn it," Riku muttered and curled a fist over the table.

Dash looked at him in confusion, and Natsu exclaimed towards Riku, "Did Ben leave too?"

"I actually looked around for him this morning," Riku admitted. "I didn't want to mention him before because I wanted to think he was still here, but when I told him about the others last night, he looked ready to head out right after them. I told him not to do it on his own though, and he told me he understood," Riku got an even more frustrated look on his face and he slammed his clenched fist down on the table.

Kirito glanced back down the table towards Dash who was looking down with a depressed expression. _It's probably just because Ben is gone though,_ Kirito thought, trying to comfort himself as much as anything since he had no idea what would have Dash looking like that. _Did something happen while you were gone?_ Dash looked up and his eyes caught Kirito's. It took a couple more seconds, but Dash finally managed to bring his lips up into a smile that was as convincing as any and he got to digging into his food.

"So, what do you guys think?" Natsu asked. He looked around at the others again and they all seemed hesitant. "Come on," he urged. "Sora said we should be ready in a month, so let's go find a job to do during that month time."

Franky looked to his side at Usopp who shrugged back at him. They both turned Sanji's direction and the chef looked like he was thinking on it too. "Why not?" The others all turned towards the source of the voice and saw Riku unclenching his fists over the table. He took a deep breath to calm himself, then continued, "We'll be more use to everyone if we do something during this month instead of sitting around here. We can train while doing whatever mission we decide on. But we should stick together from now on."

"Good luck with that." The group turned back to Kirito who continued eating without looking up. "I'm going to keep training here. I could be stronger." The teen thought about how fast Sasuke moved that morning and how he could barely follow the other teen around his own age move.

"And I can't go either," Gray added, reminding them of his mission in the west. "But Riku's right, you guys would be of a lot of help wherever you go. Just, be careful, alright?" _Juvia, did you really leave?_

Sanji clenched his fists at his sides and grumbled under his breath, "I want to be with the ladies, not you idiots." He sighed and leaned back on the bench and added though, "Well I'm in. The rubber idiot didn't say anything before he ran off, but he'll be back by the end of the month."

"They all will," Riku agreed.

Usopp frowned at the silver-haired teen whose gaze he had been avoiding the entire conversation. _A mission with only the people here? I'm stuck with Riku and just a few others, and it's going to be awkward._ He knew it, but could not come up with a good reason for why he could not come along. "Guess I'll go too," he said, and finally Riku turned his way.

"Super!" Franky shouted and put his hands up above his head.

"So that's myself," Riku began, "Natsu, Usopp, Sanji, Franky, and-"

"I think," a small voice began, and Riku stopped talking to turn to the end of the table where the kid who spoke stood up. Dash looked towards one of his closest friends but broke eye contact with Riku pretty fast. He kept smiling though as he looked at the floor, "I'm just going to stay here and train too. Flash tried teaching me a lot about my speed, but at the time I wasn't taking what he said seriously enough. I think, I could probably master some techniques, if I spend the whole month working on them." He looked up and around the table and frowned as he could tell only half of the people there actually believed the reason he just gave.

"Dash, are you-" Riku began.

"I'm actually gonna go get started on it now," Dash said, interrupting his friend and turning away fast. "See ya guys later," he sprinted away too fast for any of them to see, making a gust of wind slam into a few people at other tables who had no idea what just went zipping by them.

Riku frowned deeply as he wondered what was on Dash's mind that the boy did not want to talk about with him. Natsu spoke up though and distracted Riku and the others who were thinking about that as well, "So the five of us then?" He looked around, and the male pirates at the table and Riku all looked each other in the eyes. Natsu smirked and punched a hand into an open palm, "Let's get to it then!"

* * *

 **500 Miles North of Resistance HQ**

 _Again?_ Ben Tennyson thought, as the white aura around his body flickered. He was already panting, but now his breaths were coming out more ragged and he felt drained of all energy. _I never realized how much just flying takes it out of me,_ he slowly descended towards the ground, until his aura faded completely and he found it hard to control his ki anymore. His descent quickened, but luckily he was close enough to the ground that he put one fist and a knee down and managed to make a hard but painless landing, unlike the previous two.

"Must not, have gotten, all my strength, back," he whispered while still down on a knee. _That trip seemed shorter than the last two. Trying to do three flights in one day might have been too optimistic._ He had left early that morning, but even with some rest in between flights, he was exhausted by mid-afternoon. Ben stood up after a minute of heavy breathing and looked around. _Should find some high ground._ He started trekking towards the tallest hill near him, but after only a few steps he noticed something about the hill that made him slow down.

"Smoke?" he questioned under his breath. There was a small trail of smoke lifting off the hill he was heading towards. _Does that mean there's a fire? Is there a house there, or did someone else have the idea to rest up there and it's some other travelers?_ He hesitated and stopped walking altogether. _What if they aren't friendly? Did I fly far enough that I'm out of Resistance lands? Can I beat them without the Omnitrix?_ A dark face appeared in his mind, a malevolent voice echoed in his ears, and his wrists and stomach started to ache in phantom pain. The boy shivered and found his legs frozen in place.

"No," he whispered. His face hardened and he clenched his fists at his sides before forcing his feet forward. "I won't let that happen again. Never again." He shook his head of all those dark, scary thoughts, and trekked to the bottom of the hill with the smoke at the top. He did not hesitate as he reached the base, but the closer to the top he got, the more nervous he became. Despite his bravado, he knew he was fooling himself by pretending not to be at least a little afraid. The kid could not stop now though, not after how determined he was at the bottom of the hill.

Ben got to the top curve of the hill where it started to flatten out, and towards the center of the hill there was a little campsite set up. He saw a few wooden sticks holding up a horizontal one that had some fish hanging on it, and another wooden thing set up next to it with clothes put out to dry. There was a single log in front of a small green tent, a log that had two people sitting on it, talking and looking at their fire.

The man at the fire spun his head to the side and looked back thirty feet straight into the eyes of the fourteen year old at the edge of the hill. The woman next to him turned next, reaching for the pistol at her side with lightning fast reflexes at how alert the man next to her became. Both of them calmed down at the sight of the figure standing there looking at them anxiously at how hostile they were being. _They're just being cautious,_ Ben assured himself. He gazed at the man who noticed his presence first. Both figures looked to be in their mid-twenties, but he had short curly blond hair unlike the woman's straight black hair that fell down to her shoulders. The man wore a green jacket and black sweatpants, while the woman next to him was wearing all black and her pants were tighter to her body.

"Hey there," the guy began, getting to his feet as he did. He kept eye contact with the boy and saw the kid looked as on guard as he was when he first sensed something behind him. "Don't worry, we're friends," he said, and gave the kid a reassuring smile to try and prove it.

"Yeah, sure," Ben said. He started walking closer to them and tried to look less on guard, but he was still nervous about the two of them. The man's ability to sense him from a distance and the woman's reflexes and weapon made him unsure whether he should relax. "I'm Ben," he began. _Are we still in Resistance territory? Do I ask? What if we're not though?_

"I'm Danny, Danny Rand," the curly haired man replied to the boy's introduction. The woman behind him stood up and he motioned at her with a nod of his head, "And this is-"

"Alex," she finished for him as she stepped up to his side. Ben stopped walking when he was ten feet in front of them and he looked at the woman who finally gained a more friendly look like her partner had on his face, in part so the kid in front of her would relax. "Alex Danvers," she said, and held out a hand for the kid to grab. Ben frowned as this meant he had to get closer, within striking distance, but he took a deep breath through his nose and walked forward anyway.

 _It's okay to trust people._ He smiled faintly and extended his hand to shake Alex's when he got close enough. "Nice to meet you," he said, then shook Danny's hand too. The man gave him a tight squeeze during the handshake and Ben could feel how powerful his hand was which made him a little nervous again, but instead of letting it show on his face, he just squeezed back to show he was no weakling either.

Danny smirked at the kid's reaction to his squeeze, and he let go with that grin plastered on his face. "So, what are you doing out here Ben?" He questioned, while motioning towards their fire. Danny turned around and walked back towards it himself, and Alex sat down on the log where she used to be as well.

Ben watched them sit, while thinking, _Guess I could sit with them, I don't have the strength to keep… What was I thinking coming up here? I have like no energy right now. That was stupid! What if they were enemies?! What if they still are?_ He thought that last part, but then noticed the other two look back towards him wondering why he wasn't going to the fire they clearly motioned him to sit by. He held back his gulp and walked forward casually, though to the other side of the fire that he crouched down next to.

Ben held out his cold hands next to the flames and let out a breath from his mouth. The breath lingered in the air in front of him for a second before some wind blew in and made it fade away. "I'm going somewhere," he responded to the question Danny asked him ten seconds ago. He let out another breath, then continued, "I just wanted to take a break for a little." _"Wanted," not "needed," in case either of you were thinking of trying anything._

"Are you part of the Resistance?" Alex questioned, and Ben's eyes snapped over the flames and to the woman nervously. "Because we are," she added, and just like that, a huge weight lifted off of Ben's shoulders. He stopped crouching and dropped down to sit criss-cross style on his butt. He nodded at her and she and Danny both chuckled at the relaxed look on his face.

"If you're saying that, we must still be in Resistance territory huh?" Ben questioned.

"Haha, yeah," Danny replied. "Very deep inside it. I don't know how far you've traveled, but we're only a few hundred miles from Resistance Headquarters."

Ben groaned and leaned back with his hands behind his head. "Really?" He muttered, looking up at the gray sky full of clouds. "I thought I got farther." He dropped his gaze back to the adults in front of him and asked, "Could you two help me with something?" Both of the others looked hesitant to respond, so Ben elaborated quickly, "It's nothing big. I just need some information if you have it."

Danny turned to Alex and she looked back at him. Both thought the same thing, but neither wanted to say it out loud. "It depends, on what you ask," Alex began, turning back to Ben with a more discerning look.

"Oh," Ben said, realizing something. "I guess I really didn't give you any reason to believe I'm part of the Resistance, so that makes sense." He wondered what they thought he was going to ask them, then wondered what sensitive information they knew that they were not allowed to tell him since they already mentioned how far Resistance HQ was. "It's nothing big, I just want to know if you guys know where I can find the Kryptonians?"

Alex tensed up, and Danny's eyes opened wide in surprise before turning to the woman next to him. "What?" Ben asked, as those seemed like strange reactions to have for that question.

"You just happened to bump into us?" Alex asked, her voice colder and more serious than before. Ben looked nervous as he nodded at her, and she examined his face closely wondering if he was telling the truth. "Hmm," she hummed, then questioned, "Why do you want to know?"

Ben looked back and forth between the two people in front of him who looked more on guard than before. He then gazed down at his left wrist, the skin still darker there than the rest of that arm or any skin on the rest of his body. _I wish I could get some Kryptonian DNA for the Omnitrix, but I can't do that without getting the watch back from Zeref first…_ Bloodman's face appeared in Ben's mind again and he shivered. The kid looked back into the eyes of the woman who asked him, and he replied with the truth. "I want to find the King of the Kryptonians, Zodd, and see if he can beat Meruem."

Danny and Alex went wide-eyed, but the boy did not flinch and looked completely serious as they stared at him. "Meruem, the Ant King?" Danny whispered. He shook his head as of course that was the Meruem Ben was talking about, then questioned, "Why do you think he'll listen to you?"

"First of all," Alex interrupted before Ben could answer. "Why do you think this is a good idea at all? What makes you think you can even get into Zodd in the first place?" Ben looked at her confusedly and she sighed but explained, "Zodd named the capital city of the Kryptonian land after himself."

"Sounds like a prick," Ben said, and this time Alex cracked a smile and laughed before catching herself.

She shook her head and tried to look serious again. "He is, but he's still one of the most powerful men in the world, and he doesn't like humans. A lot of the Kryptonians have hate for humans, and if you go there, they're not going to be very happy to see you, let alone grant you an audience with their King. He doesn't even meet with Resistance leaders to discuss the Cooperative. The Kryptonians are very isolated from the rest of the world."

"Seem to know a lot about them," Ben mentioned, and he lifted his eyebrows hoping she would elaborate on why that was.

"Yeah, I do," Alex said, but was not going to let the conversation shift to her that easily. "And you don't," she continued. "So why don't you just go back wherever you came from? Where are you coming from anyway?"

"HQ," Ben replied casually.

"This is a mission?" Danny asked the kid.

Ben opened his mouth, but Alex cut him off again, "Of course it's not. There's no way they would send a kid to make this request, and there's no way the Resistance would make this request of Zodd anyway." She frowned and started glaring at the kid who she wondered if he was lying about being a Resistance member. "Who are you?" Alex questioned.

The boy knew she wanted a more detailed answer, and he sighed that this became inevitable. "You guys hear about the Fire Lord?" Ben questioned. The other two nodded, confused at what that had to do with anything. "Well I'm in that group, the guys who took them down are my friends." The two in front of him looked surprised, but as he did not really want to elaborate any further on this, he continued quickly, "So, are you going to tell me where Zodd is or not? Because I'm going, not for the Resistance, but for myself." His face hardened and he looked into Alex's eyes with dark ones of his own, "Meruem killed the Saiyan King, Bardock, and the Wizard King won't help, so now there might be only two people in the world who can face him, one of whom I would never ask for help in a million years."

Ben's eyes were dark as he talked about that other figure, but Danny was too intrigued by that to let it slide. "Who else do you think could beat him? I just heard about Bardock myself and thought for sure there was no one who could stand up to the King now."

Ben glared at the fire, seeing a face inside the flames that made his blood boil. "Luthor," Ben snarled, and Alex Danvers dropped her jaw.

"Lex Luthor?" She questioned, and Ben snapped up his gaze in surprise that she knew who that was.

"Yeah," he replied. He leaned back and whispered, "Oh yeah, Superman was from his universe, and since you know so much about the Kryptonians, were you from their universe too?"

Alex nodded fast, but she quickly questioned, "How could Luthor beat the Ant King? He's just a normal human."

"Maybe at one time," Ben said, agreeing with her, "but nothing about him is human anymore. He beat Goku and the other Super Saiyans easily, and even when all the strongest fighters of Awul gave Goku our energy, at best all he could do was take one of Luthor's arms." Alex leaned back in her seat and put her hand through her hair, thinking about how crazy this all was to her. "Bastard might be the strongest person on the planet, but I would never ask a favor of him. He killed my friends, my grandpa, my heroes." Ben fell silent for a moment, then looked back into Alex's eyes, "So without Luthor, and with the Saiyan King dead, Zodd's the only one left who could stop him. Please, I heard that he's in the northeast, but the last person I was talking to about this did not want me going and would not give me specific directions."

Danny Rand scratched his chin and gazed out the corners of his eyes at the woman next to him. "What do you think?"

Alex kept staring into Ben's eyes even while her partner asked her that question. He never broke eye contact and she finally let out a deep breath, "You don't seem like you're going to back down. I guess I'll tell you, we're on our way back from Zodd right now." Ben's eyes opened wide in surprise, understanding now why they seemed suspicious of him after he brought up the subject. The boy opened his mouth to ask something, but Alex continued first, "I know I said they don't just let humans in, but my sister lives in the city. She's a Kryptonian. I don't think I can talk you out of going, but if you have to, search out Kara Zor-el. She'll help you."

 _Her sister's a Kryptonian? How does that make sense? Well whatever, this was a nice break._ Ben smiled and nodded, "Thanks. Now, how do I get there?"

* * *

 **3 Days Later**

Ben descended from the sky and dropped down on a plain of black dirt. There were no trees for miles around him, no grass or shrubbery either. The ground was flat, so flat that it looked unnatural to the boy who looked around in every direction. He then turned straight to the east again at the massive yellow wall straight in front of him. Ben's gaze lifted up the yellow wall that curved away from him the higher up he stared.

The wall in front of him was not solid but translucent and looked to be made of some sort of energy. He followed it around the edges and saw it curved miles to the north and miles to the south of him. _It's a giant dome,_ he thought, _kind of like Metropolis._ Ben lowered his gaze to the part of the wall straight in front of him. _They could kill me just by my walking in there. How could Kryptonians be so different from Superman?_ He started walking towards the dome and took a deep breath as he neared the barrier surrounding the city. Through the barrier he could see a couple of nearby buildings over five stories tall, though none of the buildings looked like any he had seen before. There were domed roofs and tall pillars and strange curvy sections of buildings that he could not tell if they were make of glass or just some type of reflective material. _Zodd. The strongest Kryptonian. I need him to be able to do this._

 _"All you have to do, is kill everyone close to you." What did Cartman mean by that? Can he really see a future like that? Where I kill my friends and that somehow lets me beat the King? Even if that future exists, what would be the point of killing him if everyone I cared about was dead? If everyone I loved was dead, I, wouldn't want to be alive either._ He hesitated a little as he thought it, but a world where all of his friends and family were gone- it was too hard for him to even think about. _Focus,_ he thought as he got even closer to the giant yellow wall.

Ben stopped when he was thirty meters outside of the wall, even though tall buildings did not even start for a couple hundred meters past that. Through the translucent barrier he could see some small buildings with a lot of open space around them that Ben considered might be used for crops. At this close a distance, Ben could not see the top of the yellow wall, nor the sides, but when he was farther away and still flying he got a good look at the entire barrier. He knew that it was a massive dome rising three miles into the sky, and wrapping dozens of miles around Zodd. Ben got closer to the yellow wall in front of him, but he winced and pulled back as from that close, the wall got really hot and stopped him from moving through it. _What is that made of?_ Ben thought, examining the yellow wall closer. He was still over twenty meters away, and he grit his teeth as he took another step. _I can't go through the main entrance. They might turn me away, especially with the reason I've come with._

"Alright Ben, you can do this," he muttered to himself. Ben took a few deep breaths, then he brought his elbows down at his sides and yelled, "AAHHH!" A white aura flared around him, and Ben kicked off the floor so hard that he broke through it. He clenched his eyes shut as the barrier got much brighter the closer he got, and even with his white protective aura around him, Ben could feel the heat getting more intense as he flew towards the barrier. _I know it's cold out and all, but this kind of heating is ridiculous!_ Ben let out a yell as his skin started to sear, and then he let out a gasp as the heat was gone. Ben snapped his eyes open, and he could not see any yellow except in his peripheral vision, telling him the barrier was behind him. He lifted his head and looked above him to see the wall at his back curved over his head, and he followed that curve towards the center of the dome. Ben looked down once he focused on the center of the dome, and he saw a building towering into the sky in the center of the city in that direction, a building taller than all of those around it by at least fifty stories, and much wider than any of them. It had glass windows covering every single floor, and at the top was a huge domed section that was three times wider than the thick building already was.

"Alright Ben, I'll give you three guesses as to where I can find Zodd," he smirked as he kept staring at that tallest building, then the kid noticed his hands were shaking at his sides. _Get a grip Ben. You decided you were going to do this, alone. You didn't want anyone else here, in case this goes south…_ Ben calmed his breathing, and he looked around to see where he was. Like he thought but could not confirm from past the semi-translucent barrier, he was floating above a field of crops, and he suddenly spotted a man in the middle of the field.

The man in the field turned his head, and Ben found himself staring straight into the man's eyes. The guy lifted a hand, Ben got ready, and then the kid watched in mild confusion as the farmer waved at him. The man had black hair, and he turned back to his crops a second later and continued tending to them. _Oh shit,_ Ben realized, and he looked down. _Unlike Saiyans, there's not much to distinguish between humans and Kryptonians. No tails, no weird spiky hair. I wonder if brown is a natural Kryptonian hair color? The farmer doesn't seem to think I stand out, and I'm flying so that might be a reason too. Hope no one asks me to use heat vision or anything to prove myself. Damn, if I had the Omnitrix this would be so much easier. I could have really become a Kryptonian and then blend in when I need to._

Ben started flying forward towards the city before him, _Well, if I can blend in, I might as well take some time to look around. Find out where Zodd is exactly so I can talk to him… yeah, yeah! That'll work!_ Ben wiped his forehead of some sweat and chuckled nervously to himself. _Just gotta blend in._

* * *

 **A/N Zodd! Ben arrives in the city of the Kryptonians, named after their leader who the Wizard King told Ben about a few chapters back. Ben's on his own mission to figure out a way to stop the Ant King! With Ben gone, the number of people still at the Resistance HQ has diminished even more, and finally Natsu decides he wants out too. Usopp, Franky, Sanji, and Riku decide to go with him as they choose to go on a mission. Kirito starts up his training and becomes an "official" member of the Resistance, Gray continues planning out his assault on the Emperor, though he knows he can't bring Kirito along, and Dash says he's going to stay and work on his speed powers too. Stan is missing along with everyone else, but where did he go? Just finished up the next chapter before I started editing this one, so I'll be able to get it up tomorrow after my Kanji test, hopefully... Thanks for reading! Oh, and I don't want to do a list of all the characters again, (all the ones I don't own btw), but I will mention a few. Keith Shadis is from Attack on Titan, the drill instructor (and I took his personality more from the abridged series, though he's kind of like that in the actual show too XD). Then I added Danny Rand (from Marvel's Iron Fist), and Alex Danvers (from Supergirl, Kara's adoptive human sister). So a few new characters, some new plans for our heroes, and it's still the first few days of the month! Hope you enjoyed!**

cyber chapter 110 . 9h ago

cant wait to see what happens next with fighting the sith

 **It's coming... and if you're that interested, bet you'll look forward to the next chapter- Nexus Heroes Will Rise 16.4 Sith! XD Thanks for the review! 'Till next time everyone!**


	112. Nexus HWR 16-4 Sith

**Nexus HWR 16.4 Sith:**

 **Day 1**

 **Resistance HQ**

Stan Marsh stood outside on the second floor of the north side of the Resistance Headquarters. The suns were rising to his right, and although it was pretty early in the morning, there was a lot of noise around him. People were going for early-morning swims in the swimming pools as large as ones Stan had seen used in the Olympics back on his world. Some people were using the rock-climbing walls, and others were just going for jogs around the second floor's exterior, as it was miles long in length and had a beautiful view out over some of the most pristine land Stan had seen in Aebrith so far.

The boy wore a brown cloak, but he had on a black hoodie underneath it too as it was chilly up on the battlements. He stood right up on the ledge of the second story for the half of the building made with giants in mind, likely in part built _by_ giants too Stan assumed considering how massive the place was. He took in a deep breath of the fresh air around him, then he turned his head to the left. Stan looked towards the dimmer part of the sky, a direction that had some storm clouds in it too. Stan stared that way, then he turned his head and looked at the building behind him again.

 _To do something like this, with little conviction, would be suicidal. I need to steady my mind._ The young boy closed his eyes and emptied himself of troubling thoughts. His mind cleared, and he focused. A couple of men standing near a turret to Stan's left looked towards the boy and stared oddly at him. He was standing in a place with a great view, but his eyes were closed and it unnerved them a bit as he stood right on the ledge. It almost looked like he was going to jump off, but his face was too stern and empty to be someone on the verge of killing themself. Still, they stared at the left side of his face closely, at the vertical scar over his left eye and his hand that only the fingers stuck out of his cloak's brown sleeve.

Stan took in a deep breath, then let it out and opened back up his eyes. _No more hesitation. No more jumping back and forth between plans. This was the plan all along, or it should have been at least._ Stan's hands clenched and he took another deep breath before turning to the left again. He ignored the men looking his way, staring in front of them and past the walls of the Resistance HQ to the west. _After all, a Sith belongs with his own._

The boy turned and walked back towards the building behind him. It was a long distance to the nearest elevator down, which meant another long walk back to the front doors, but the drop off the second story was too much for him. He frowned as he started the trip back for the front doors. _It wouldn't be too much for me, if I was strong enough to take on Ichimaru Gin. He can fly. He could take this drop without batting an eye._ Stan got an angrier look on his face, his fists clenching even harder at his sides. He had a drawstring bag over his back but under his cloak, a bag with everything in it he thought he would need for a journey. As much as he had still been indecisive, he knew what answer he was going to come to. He had known it for a long time.

A few people Stan walked past on his way towards the elevator glanced at the kid with uneasy expressions, and they got more nervous as the brown hood of Stan's cloak lifted up over the top of his head and shadowed over his face. He headed down to the first floor of the surface section of the Resistance HQ, and he started making his way back for the main entrance that he was going to leave through. As he walked, he had the urge to turn around for a second. _Ben, Timmy, everyone,_ Stan thought about some friends he had made recently, but he did not slow down his strides or even turn back as the thoughts crossed his mind.

What did cause Stan to slow down though, was the group of people coming through the front doors of the Resistance HQ. The doors had opened up wider than they had for his group the day before, twice as tall and a lot wider to cover almost the width of the full west door. Stan had wondered how often the doors ever had to be fully opened, if someone that size really did show up at the Resistance often. When he looked towards the opened doors, Stan saw a group about twice the size of his own from yesterday entering the HQ. Someone was there to greet them, and a girl with long orange hair who Stan thought looked shorter than him flew up to the soldier greeting them and saluted the man.

 _Who's that?_ Stan thought as he looked at the girl with a red bow in her hair and a pink and black striped outfit on. _Doesn't matter,_ he reminded himself with a shake of his head. He continued towards the door, slowly though as he hoped the people would be out of the way by the time he got there so he could walk out easier. _Wonder if they'll just let me leave without explaining where I'm going?_ Stan thought hesitantly, then he started thinking up a believable fib to tell if necessary.

The kid's thoughts cut short though as he stopped walking towards the doors altogether. Stan froze right as the girl turned and called something to the group, which made them start dispersing and walking farther into the base. That should have left the exit clear, but a man continued to stand near the doors while looking right back over towards Stan. Sure, Stan knew that a lot of people were looking at him funny because of the way he was dressed and acting, but those people mostly looked away after a few seconds of it. This man kept staring at him, and Stan finally started walking towards the middle-aged man with long brown hair and a furry beard.

Stan did not remove his hood, but he lifted his head as he approached the figure which shed enough light on his face for the man to see him clearly. Stan stopped in front of the taller man and said while nodding his head at him, "Master Qui-Gon."

"Stan," Qui-Gon Jinn began, a smile on his face as he had not expected to see the boy so soon. "Your trip south, was it successful?"

Stan Marsh stared up into Qui-Gon's eyes for a few seconds. He lowered his head and stared behind Qui-Gon at the doors that were closing behind him. "It was," Stan said and he started walking for the doors again. Qui-Gon looked at the boy oddly as he reached the older man's side, and Stan thought while keeping a steady look on his face. _It's just another distraction. A temptation. I just decided what my path will be, and I will not be swayed from my conviction that easily._

"Are you leaving?" Qui-Gon questioned the boy.

Stan froze before reaching the doors behind Qui-Gon, staring outside and clenching his jaw hard. He moved straight past the man who had spent some time teaching him this past month, because he wanted to get outside before the doors closed and he had to speak to someone about opening them. He still had time though, time enough not to need to walk outside just yet without answering. Stan also thought that if he walked out like that, Qui-Gon might just follow him, and he could not have that. "I am," Stan said. "What are you doing here?"

"I am not following you, if that is what you are asking," Qui-Gon assured the boy. "The Resistance has recalled a large portion of its forces from the western border. Leam's forces are taking full command of the area I had been moved to, yet I believe the Resistance pulled us back in order to take a larger role." Stan gained a confused look on his face as those two things seemed contradictory to him, but then it was Qui-Gon's turn to ask a question. "Where are you going?"

Stan looked straight into Qui-Gon's eyes for a few moments, then he thought about the training sessions they had had together. _It's not enough. None of it is enough. I need power, and I need it fast! In a way the Resistance can't offer me!_ "I will not be returning this time," Stan said, his voice low and not really an answer to Qui-Gon's question. "The way of the Jedi you had been trying to teach me, is not the way I know." His eyes narrowed, but Qui-Gon narrowed his own this time as he recalled the color of the boy's lightsaber.

"I could feel the turmoil inside you," Qui-Gon started. "But it is not too late to change your path. Walk the light side of the Force-"

The doors were getting closer to closing, and Stan interrupted the man, "I can't." He said it in a harsh, but also somewhat apologetic voice. His voice got darker as he continued though, "My goal, my _single_ goal on this world, is revenge. Can the light side give me power for such a goal? I don't think so." Stan shook his head and started walking forward so he was in the doorway, and he finished, "I lied to you. My Master was not a Jedi on your world. The way he taught me consisted of teachings from both sides of the Force, but those of the Sith are the ones I chose to follow. Your way, was not the way I learned from my master, Darth Vader."

The doors were getting closer to closing now, and Stan looked back in towards Qui-Gon while they were getting close. The doors suddenly stopped moving though, and Stan's right hand moved closer to his side, a grimace on his face. _Why'd I say that?_ He thought, angry at himself for mentioning the Sith when he had initially started off the conversation vaguely. He suspected Qui-Gon was going to try and stop him now, the way he was talking was against the Resistance after all. "I never heard you say your old master's name before," Qui-Gon said while holding a hand up which had frozen the doors in place. He lowered his hand and a more sad look came to his face as one thing Stan had said about his old Master was that he was killed. "I will allow you to leave," Qui-Gon said, lowering his arm fully so the doors could keep closing.

Stan got a confused look on his face at why the man would do that, then his eyes opened huge as Qui-Gon continued, "I wish I could have lived longer in my previous life, so that I could have taught Anakin the ways of the Force. Perhaps then, maybe Anakin would not have turned to the Sith." He had an expression of regret, and he looked into Stan's eyes as he finished, "It is your life, and your decision. But do not be reckless with your life young man. You do not want to die with regret."

"I thought-" Stan began. He stepped back towards the doors but they closed far enough that he could not keep eye contact with Qui-Gon anymore unless he sprinted back inside. He hesitated, then he called out through the crack, "I thought, Obi-Wan Kenobi was-"

"Another of my former pupils, who trained Anakin after I had passed," Qui-Gon replied. Stan's eyes grew even wider, and he thought about one of the nights before the Battle of Metropolis. He had pretended to be asleep, but the Force Ghost who had visited his Master had woken him up during their conversation. He recalled Anakin and Obi-Wan's talk, and he closed his eyes as he thought about how Anakin had told his old Master how he would find revenge for the Jedi during the Battle of Metropolis. Lost in thought, before Stan knew it, the doors had closed in front of him and he was on the outside of HQ.

He lifted his gaze up the massive walls, then he turned and stared out over the area to the north of the fortress. He spotted a group of guards out on a road up ahead, checking out a caravan that was coming south towards the HQ. _Revenge. It's why I hunted Medusa, for the experiments she did on those girls in Rhodar. It's why we went to Metropolis, for the sake of the Jedi who Tetsuo massacred with the Underworld's help. It's why I'm here on Aebrith. The methods I use to get my revenge… I will need to remove all restraints. My Master guided me since the second day on this world, and using his teachings I think we did some good together. Saving Timmy Turner, that was a good thing I helped out with. But as much good as Anakin and I did, which I have continued trying to do, we steeped ourselves in dirt and blood just as often._

Stan reached into his pants' pocket and grabbed the one capsule he did not keep in his bag. He tossed it in front of him and it popped open, revealing a fast speeder bike similar to one he had used earlier that month. _Using Goku's name to get this was fairly easy._ He walked towards the bike and climbed on, and it started hovering off the ground as he turned it on and grabbed both handles in front of him. He turned to the west and stared out with a dark look in his eyes, one that he intentionally made even darker while looking out into the approaching storm. _Before, I had called myself a Sith because of the ideals my Master told me they followed. I figured I was closer to them, than the pure, stuck-up Jedi. He allowed me to go by Darth Marsh, even when we did good things. After this though, there is no going back. After this, I really will be, a Sith Lord._

* * *

 **Several Days Later**

 **Order of the Sith**

"Begin."

The dark room became lit with the lights of five lightsabers. Two women stood not far from each other, a lightsaber in each hand, the red glows of the blades tinting their faces the color. They stared ahead at the boy in a brown cloak who had not taken off his hood since they saw him. With the room as dark as it was, his face was pitch black under the hood. When his red lightsaber turned on though and the women saw his face, both of them hesitated instead of charging at the boy.

One look at his left eye, at the scar over it, it made both of the Sith women pause. Barriss Offee, the Mirialan with pale green skin and black freckles covering the center of her face, growled after initially pausing at the side of that scar. It brought up bad memories for her, as well as for the bald-headed woman next to her who did not have a hood up like Barriss did. Asajj Ventress lifted her lightsabers into her stance and her sharp eyes narrowed down while her lips curled into a deep snarl.

Stan looked back and forth between the two women who stared at him instead of charging. He had expected them to sprint his way as soon as the match began, but this was his test after all, and he ran straight forward. He brought his lightsaber down to his right side as he ran, and he dragged it against the floor. The lightsaber sliced through the ground and sparks flew up as he charged across the center of the round room. Right as he was about to reach the women, he rose his left arm and swung it at the bald woman on his left who rose her lightsabers up together to slash down at him. Asajj skid only a few feet backwards, but out of lightsaber range at least while Stan slashed at the other woman.

Barris stepped to the side as Stan's lightsaber arced up from the ground in front of her. The sparks flew out the edges of his blade, and there was a deep gash cutting across the room from where his lightsaber carved. Stan brought his lightsaber back and blocked as Barriss slashed one of hers down, then he leaned away as she slashed her other under where their weapons were parrying. Ventress ran back over and slashed both at Stan's side, but Stan pushed back against Barriss' first swipe and pulled his lightsaber to the left to block all three of the others at the same time.

His feet skid back across the floor a few feet, and the women stepped towards him while pushing harder as he did. His teeth ground over each other. There was no time to be distracted, no time to consider what he had gotten himself into or think on it. As soon as Stan heard the words, _**"First, you must pass a test,"**_ his mind had been solely focused on combat. The two facing him were masters with the lightsabers though, and Stan clenched down hard as he pushed his cybernetic legs as hard as he could while leaning back forward. He pressed the balls of his feet down and stopped his backward momentum even with both of them pushing on him, then he slashed out while yelling, "RA!" He parried their blades away, but Barriss was already bringing her other weapon back down.

Stan saw the smirk on her face. He could see in her red-tinted eyes that she believed she had him. He knew he could not get out of it unscathed. Stan twisted his body to continue with his swipe, while leaning his body to the side so that Barriss's slash was aimed farther on his left. His lightsaber was in his right hand anyway, and Stan slashed in what seemed like a pointless movement to all the Sith circled around the room watching the test. Then, as Barriss's lightsaber collided with him first, Stan's left arm was sliced off close to his shoulder. He felt the pain but did not slow down his slash to the right with his own lightsaber. Barriss's eyes opened huge, as did Asajj's, as did the man who commanded them to fight in the first place.

Darth Sidious stared at the wires sticking out of Stan's left shoulder, and Barriss tried recovering from her shock by steadying her other lightsaber back in front of Stan's that was still mid-swipe. It was the main reason most of the Sith thought the child had failed the test, because even if he did survive Barriss's attack, she was in a position to block Stan's follow-up attack that he had started far too late. Barriss got her lightsaber up in time, Stan's blade connected, then Ventress came to a complete stop and her eyes opened huge in shock. Barriss was starting to raise her other lightsaber again to slash down at the boy after his lightsaber hit hers, but the instant Stan's blade connected with Barriss's, his lightsaber cut through hers.

The Sith around the room stared with wide eyes or for many, calm expressions but interested gazes, as Stan continued his slash and cut Barriss in half at the waist. She let out an agonized scream, then Stan slashed back the other way across the front of his body, removing her head from on top of her shoulders as well as slashing her legs in half behind where the front of her body fell. In a second, Stan had cut Barriss into a dozen pieces. Her arms, legs, split torso, and head, lay in a messy heap in front of him. Stan stared down at the woman for a second, then he turned his head to the left so Ventress could see his dark face barely lit by his lightsaber, darker now since two of the five lightsabers in there had turned off.

 _Thank you, Cartman,_ Stan thought, as he turned his body to fully face Asajj Ventress and took a step towards her. She kept darting her gaze to his left side, then to his left eye. Stan took another step and Ventress rose her blades in a more cautious way. Stan glared at her but got cautious at the intense expression on her face. _She knows my blade can cut through hers now. But it's one on one. I can take her._ Stan brought his blade up and held it on his right side, grabbing it by the hilt with both hands in a more experienced stance than the haphazard way he charged in at first.

"That is enough," a voice said from the shadows on Stan's left.

Stan did not lower his blade right away, because Darth Sidious stood on his right in a position closer in the circle than the other Sith around the room he had been brought to. He had assumed Sidious was in charge here, but when that other voice spoke from the edge of the room, Ventress retracted her lightsabers and stepped back. Sidious stayed quiet too, and Stan turned his head to see a figure in a black cloak with the loose hood up over his head stepping out into the center of the room. Stan lowered his lightsaber down, then he let it slide back into the hilt as well. The room had still been mostly dark for that fight, but all of their eyes had adjusted to the darkness well by now.

Stan stared at this cloaked figure whose face he could not make out under the hood. He wondered if the man could see his at the moment, but he knew the figure had seen it already. "I recognize your fighting style," the cloaked man in front of Stan began. Stan spotted a figure behind the cloaked man but paid the boy just a little taller than him no mind. He just stared into the darkness of the menacing figure's hood, trying to keep his expression as hardened and Sith-like as possible. "More than the physical similarities, I see a true resemblance."

 _My arm. My_ scar. The boy knew what he was talking about. Stan spoke in an intentionally deep voice to the person in front of him, "I was the student, of Darth Vader."

Sidious glared at the child and he said in a low, scratchy voice, "My _old_ apprentice." Stan darted his eyes over, thinking about how he had heard that one before. The man with the wrinkled face took a step towards him though and in an angry tone continued hissing, "Who killed me." Sidious looked at the child and got a look on his face, the corners of his lips curling up.

"Sidious, you killed your own Master on our world as well," the figure in front of Stan said, and Sidious's mouth dipped back down into a frown. His hand that was about to start lifting froze an inch past his side, and Stan tried not to show a look of relief on his face as he felt the murderous intent coming from Sidious simmer. Stan refaced the man before him completely, and that man said in a low voice, "You may stay. What do you call yourself?"

"Darth Marsh," Stan replied without hesitation.

Darth Sidious glared harder at the kid, but the man in front of Stan just gave him a single small nod. "I am the Emperor," he said, and Stan did not let his facial expression shift as he had half expected to hear that already. Still, hearing those words come from the shadows of the hooded figure's face gave Stan chills. "Why did you come to us?" The Emperor questioned.

Stan bowed his head, then he lowered down to his left knee. He bowed his head to his right knee that was sticking up in front of him, and he said, "I have come here, to obtain power." Stan paused, then lowered his lightsaber down in front of his foot and said, "Please, train me in the ways of the Sith."

Sidious stopped glaring at Stan in such a way as he was before, humming and leaning back while staring closely at the boy in a new light. The Emperor just spoke in the same tone as before though, "And what would you use this power for?"

"Revenge," Stan said, lifting his head and looking back into the darkness where he knew the Emperor's face to be. Stan's voice had all of his conviction in it. He was telling the truth. He meant every word that came out of his mouth, and he hoped the Sith Lords saw that.

The room was silent for a few moments, then the Emperor said, "Rise." Stan started lifting to his feet. "Rise, Darth Marsh, to the ranks of the Sith."

All at once around the boy rising to his feet, voices started speaking in low tones that echoed through the room. " _Peace is a lie. There is only Passion._ " Stan started looking around at the sound of all these voices. He had thought there were less people in the room than the individual voices he could hear now proved there to be. They all continued reciting their dark creed, " _Through Passion I gain Strength. Through Strength I gain Power. Through Power I gain Victory._ " Stan's expression re-hardened at the sound of that. He clenched his fists at his sides, as the code they were reciting was exactly what he needed to hear. They were not finished though, but they did with two more lines, " _Through Victory my chains are Broken. The Force shall free me._ "

Behind the Emperor, a boy standing there stared down at the floor with so much anger in his eyes. _That stupid code. Talking about chains and freedom, while I'm…_

"You will learn the Sith Code, and you will live by it," The Emperor said. "And you will obey my orders as the Dark Lord of the Sith."

Stan nodded his head. "I will."

The room had started emptying out without Stan noticing, but he spotted Ventress shifting back into the shadows, which made him realize that Darth Sidious was no longer on his right side either. The Emperor turned as well after Stan gave his last reply, but he said as he started to walk off, "Romeo, clean up in here."

The cut-up body of Barriss Offee was still lying in the middle of the room, a large puddle of blood around her as it had drained out of all her chunks. Stan was even standing in some of that blood himself, not that he had made any indication that he had noticed it. Stan turned his head and thought to follow after the Emperor, or maybe just go walk around the Order of the Sith that he had not seen much of as he had been led straight to this room earlier. He paused though before following the Emperor, his eyes shifting to his right and watching as the figure who had been behind the Emperor walked forward. Stan's eyes stayed normal sized, but he could not stop his heart from speeding up faster at the sight of the boy with messy dark hair who stepped forward.

Chains connected his feet, clanking behind him out from beneath the bottom of the brown rags he was wearing. Stan did not turn fully to him, but the boy did look towards Stan who had stopped moving, and Romeo looked into Stan's eyes that he saw darted his way. The two of them locked eyes, then Romeo turned away after a second and walked for the corpse he was going to have to dispose of. Stan continued walking towards the exit, while trying hard to keep his breathing under control and slow down his heart rate.

 _ **"…We still haven't heard anything about him."**_

 _ **"I wasted my wish. If I knew there was a chance he would have taken them seriously, I would have wished Romeo to us, or at least to know where he is."**_

 _ **"I wasted mine too Natsu. I should have known victory over the Cooperative was not something he could have just given me, if I just had time to think it… you know what? Nevermind. He probably would have just fucked with us some more, so we shouldn't beat ourselves up over it… But if we did miss our chance, if Romeo is a slave right now and we-"**_

 _ **"Hey! What did you just say?"**_

 _ **"Yeah, yeah you're right."**_

Stan walked out the door of the dark round room full of stone pillars, and he turned left in the hallway outside. Once again he spotted the boy in his peripheral vision, and he could not help but clench his teeth at the sight of the child who looked around his age despite being taller than him. He thought back to the meal when he overheard that conversation, a conversation that likely would have faded from his mind given enough time, but had not yet since it happened only a little over a week ago. _If that's the kid Gray and Natsu were talking about. I, I should- No, NO! That's not my mission. And if I lose the conviction to follow through, I'll lose my life here. Even if I wanted to, I've already made my decision. I'm a real Sith now. I obey the Emperor now. He is my new Master. And that means, the Resistance is my enemy. And so, are its allies._

* * *

 **A/N Stan... Starts a new journey. As a member of the Order of the Sith, Darth Marsh! Few things I'll put here for reference- back in Stan's flashback chapter at the start of 13 he had a few scenes with Qui-Gon. His wish to Cartman was making his lightsaber stronger, hopefully strong enough to slash through a Zanpakuto and Ichimaru Gin's body, which was why he thanked Cartman after cutting up Barriss. Barriss Offee was the Jedi in Star Wars the Clone Wars series who turned traitor, and Ventress was in it too as a more common villain they faced all the time. Also the Sith Code is a real thing I found and thought to throw in. Anyway, thanks for reading the chapter, and I hope you enjoyed!**

Limit-Breaking chapter 111 . 13h ago

There is only one way we can get zodd to fight meruem and that is by using the cube in ben pocket. Only use it if zodd refuses just turn back time for a couple of seconds. And meruem will come flying in there very soon leaving zodd no choice but to fight him. But hey meruem will come no matter what and the kryptonians can launch a attack on him when he recklessly enters the land. But is Ben willing to put them in danger that much, knowing Ben's bad luck you would probably make that happen just so Ben suffers a bit more and the events will be on his mind and he would be blaming himself for it.  
Either way nice chapter I look forward to what Ben plans to do now.

 **Hmm, solid prediction. Seems possible. We'll see what comes of it though... Thanks for the review!**

Smlluffy67 chapter 111 . 9h ago

I meant to say if someone else reads my review then they might get the idea to do it

 **I don't think I'd mind if that happened, since it'd just be a fanfiction of a fanfiction. I wouldn't consider it canon... 'cause even if they do switch something early on and diverge from there, with the aspect of time travel in this, there's the possibility of something like that happening down the line too. Anyway, those ideas would make a vastly different story from what I've written, there are just so many possibilities for Nexus. It got me thinking about how the world would look though- but anyhow, hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thanks for the reviews!**

cyber chapter 111 . 2h ago

i cant wait for sith, and for ben adventure to find zodd, have you ever saw the tv show krypton, if you did will you add some of them

 **Hope you enjoyed Sith! Ben reaches Zodd and we'll see his adventures in the city of Kryptonians later on. I have not seen Krypton, but as I started up writing the chapters around Zodd I did some research into Superman comics as well as some Krypton lore and stuff. So a few characters you may recognize could show up! Thanks for reviewing! And thanks everyone for reading this story so far. 'Til next time!**


	113. Nexus HWR 16-5 Let the Training Begin

**A/N Hey guys. Sorry it's been such a long time. Got really stuck trying to write this chapter. Wound up starting a different fanfic... then writing 650,000 words for that other one while still procrastinating here. Anyway here we go, hope you enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own any of the movies, anime, books, comics, video games, tv shows, etc. that the characters from Nexus come from.**

* * *

 **Nexus HWR 16.5 Let the Training Begin:**

 _"Help me!"_

 _"Get over there! Karin needs your help!"_

 _"Sasuke!"_

 _"Retreat is the only option."_

 _"Itachi?!"_

 _"We're your friends, right?"_

 _"It's obvious, isn't it?"_

 _"It's because…"_

 _"I'm your friend."_

 **Beep-beep-beep-beep-bee-** Sasuke Uchiha tapped a button on the alarm clock on his left wrist. He looked down at his all-purpose watch and checked the time, then he rose his gaze up his forearm to the PB-6 resting there. He reached over and adjusted it a little, but the Power Blockers were made to be comfortable so he never had to do much. Knowing that he could be called into action or an incident could occur at any time, he kept his PB on even while he slept at the Power-Blocked HQ so as not to waste even a moment in an emergency when he would have to leave the base. He sat up and put his legs off the side of his full-size bed, but he sat there for longer than usual instead of getting right up. He had a sink to his left at the foot of his bed, and a small bathroom next to it that even included a shower despite how small his room was. He preferred it small though, despite having been offered a larger room when he arrived at the base.

 _Naruto,_ Sasuke thought. He rose his right hand and stared down at his palm, then he put it up against his forehead and closed his eyes for a few seconds. _Killing everyone in Konoha? That's too, way too sad._ Sasuke pulled his hand from his face and shook his head around. His long black hair covered up most of the left side of his face, and though his right eye was its normal black color, his left with the Rinnegan in it was hidden behind his long hair. He stood up and started getting ready.

It was early in the morning, but as a Commander of the Resistance he had responsibilities. He stared in the mirror after putting some clothes on. _Sleep evaded me until late last night. Getting more would only tire me out though, those dreams were too restless._

Sasuke headed out into the base. He often did a patrol before breakfast, and he kept a close eye on those he saw awake at as early hours as him. The Resistance sent out enough spies that he knew how to spot them himself, and sneaking around in early hours when there were few people around would be a good opportunity for them. Sasuke Uchiha walked down hallways, marched through open hangars, checked on groups of engineers doing maintenance on mechs and vehicles. He went down to the Vibranium mine, an area he had to get past several security measures just to check on. He had to go through all those checks though because of the high risk of it being a target, but a quick walk-through of the mine and he felt satisfied that their security was working.

 _The Vibranium is sparse,_ he thought on his way back up the elevator. _Only two mines in Resistance territory, and this is definitely the one with less in it. The other's too close to the border though, and the raids there are much more frequent. If it were less of a target, more Vibranium could have been sent around the Resistance instead of being used to fortify the mining city… Sakura._ Sasuke's expression darkened at his distracted thoughts, and he lifted a hand to rub his forehead. _If the ones responsible for that, are the reason Gray stayed behind on Awul, then I accept that excuse for why he didn't return. Kirito told me that Sora killed the one responsible too, so I should thank him for that when he returns… damn it._

Sasuke left the mine and headed to the top floor of the Resistance Headquarters. He walked outside it and checked on the outer defenses on the top of the castle, then he jumped off the wall down a few hundred feet to some training grounds extending out of the north side of the fortress. He walked around, glancing at the turrets at the edge of the wide training fields that were set up right at the drops to the next level down. He glanced at soldiers training themselves in weapons and combat while out in the sun in one of the few nice days they felt they had left, and it was still chilly despite it.

He went back inside and made for the main cafeteria to get breakfast. On his way walking towards the central gap in the HQ where he could drop from his high elevation all the way into the basement with ease, he walked past a shorter man with just as dark black hair. The other man's hair spiked up in a single spike over his head though, and the two walked past each other without saying a word. Both Hiei and Sasuke had swords at their sides, dark cloaks over their bodies, and they were both Commanders of the Resistance. They continued on their ways without speaking to each other.

Sasuke dropped into the gap in the center of the fortress and landed on top of the black roof of the main part of Headquarters. The main base's roof extended for dozens of miles to his north, less than that to either side of him, and the huge agricultural dome was to his back. He walked forward on the black base and was going to walk straight to a nearby elevator that only connected to the top of this base and not all the way to the surface. He had to go below the largest first basement floor of the Headquarters below him in order to reach the cafeteria. The mega-cafeteria of the HQ's "basement" took up too much space to be put on the same floor as so many of the barracks, various types of guild halls, and armories on the floor just below him. It also did not need to be as tall, (there was a different place for giants to eat), but it did need to be an enormous place for the instances where all the lower basements would be filled with evacuated citizens, as well as just for the normal personnel of HQ.

 _How much longer will I be here?_ Sasuke thought as he made his way for the elevator. _I understand wanting to lower our presence on the western border, in order to gain an element of surprise when Gray does hit in full force. Yet, I do not like how I will not be going with him. "If there are spies- and we know there are, then we cannot have it known when Commanders are not going to be in the interior." Our defenses are weak enough as it is. We can't hold off assaults, which is why our borders keep shrinking. Not being willing to risk defense in exchange for a stronger offense, can we really succeed using this strategy? It's the strategy they're… that they're crediting **him** for using the best._

Sasuke slowed down as he saw a younger man walking towards him who made the ninja frown. _Naruto, Sakura,_ he thought, then he grimaced again as he was reminded of things he did not want to think on. It was impossible not to think on it though, as the teen who told him that horrible truth only the day before stood before him now. "Kirito," Sasuke said to the teen who looked like he had something he wanted to say to him. _He defeated Ra's al Ghul. It was confirmed by Class 3-E's report. And he joined the Resistance, unlike any of the others. Attacking the League just him and Gray, it was stupid and reckless, but a small force that does not bring cause for alarm, it's what they've been doing successfully since they arrived. If any of the Lords or enemies they've faced so far had called in reinforcements for a group of their size, smaller for most of their victories except Dressrosa, then their allies would have seen them as weak. It's another reason the assault on the Emperor is not going to be led by a Commander, in order to prevent them from calling in foreign support._

"Sasuke," Kirito began. Sasuke stared at the teen oddly as the thing that looked to be on his own mind also seemed to be stressing Kirito out, but the teen's conflicted look finally vanished in place of resolve. Kirito bowed and Sasuke lifted his eyebrows, then his eyes widened as Kirito said, "Please, train me."

 _Is he…_ "I don't have the time-" Sasuke began.

"As much as you can spare," Kirito continued, keeping himself prostrated though while clenching his teeth at how strange this felt to him. He knew what he wanted to do though, he knew who he wanted to help him, but asking for it was coming very hard to him. _Naruto trained me so I wouldn't let what happened to Asuna happen again. Marco and Sting and the others in Konoha, either Naruto asked them to do it, or they just offered their help on their own. And Akuma, he trained everyone at our base… Asking Goku was not hard either, but, after what I told Sasuke. After seeing what he's fighting against, and learning that he's one of the ones in charge of making sure they win, to still ask him his help even knowing all that!_ "Please," Kirito said, and he lifted up his head before adding, "My chakra has a strong affinity for Fire nature." Sasuke looked at the teen right in his eyes as Kirito said that. "I can also use Earth Release techniques," he added.

Sasuke examined Kirito closely, _Fire and Earth. Fire's weak against Water, but Earth makes up for that weakness. He can use Naruto's Rasengan too._ "Meet me in training room number ten in an hour."

Kirito's eyes opened wide, then Sasuke continued while walking forward towards the elevator, "I did not agree to train you. As a Commander of the Resistance, and your superior now that you've joined us, I need to assess your skills in order to utilize your presence most effectively."

 _Long winded, but I get it._ "I'll see you there then," Kirito said to the Commander's back. _It's time to see how strong Resistance Commanders really…_

* * *

Kirito lay on his back in a large amount of pain. His swords lay past the tips of his fingers at his sides where his arms were outstretched, and he had burns and cuts all over his body, while the Commander he had just fought against did not have a scratch on him. Then again, Kirito could barely consider what they just did as fighting. _Too fast. Too strong. Too, skilled._ Kirito's teeth clenched to stop from panting and because of the frustration at how impossible it was for him to even damage the other ninja.

 _That's a crazy gap, between Gray's strength as a General and Sasuke's as a Commander. Are all the Commanders that strong? I didn't feel like the Klaus guy who fought Goku was this, this strong,_ Kirito struggled to press his palms down on the floor at his sides.

 _He's trying to get up after that?_ Sasuke thought. He watched as Kirito bent his arms, then struggled forward before rolling over onto his stomach to make it easier to get to his knees. He curled up, then lifted his back and let out a gasp at how much just that exhausted him. "You did not have powers before arriving on this world?" Sasuke questioned.

Kirito looked at Sasuke oddly as he kept panting while on his knees. He closed his mouth and took a deep breath through his nose, then he replied, "No."

 _He was using too many of Naruto's jutsu, and he doesn't seem to be from my world. Those other things, they're all half-strengths. Poor magic, I won't say weak Haki, but…_ Sasuke's eyes lowered back to the swords on Kirito's sides. _His biggest strength would be those._ "I won't train you," Sasuke said, turning his back to the younger man on his knees.

Sasuke walked for the door to the white training room, then he heard a groan behind him and came to a stop. He turned his head and looked back, to see Kirito back on both feet staring towards him with an intense expression. "Look for Lexa," Sasuke said. Kirito froze with his mouth partially open, ready to tell Sasuke he could keep going to try and impress him and get him to stay. The ninja who wore a Hidden Leaf headband looked at the younger man who was trying hard not to show his exhaustion despite the way his body looked. Sasuke continued to him while turning away and walking for the door, "I will ask her if she will spare time to train you."

Kirito watched as Sasuke walked right out the door, then he collapsed backwards and flat on his back again. He winced in pain from hitting the back of his head, but his whole body was already in pain anyway. "Damn it," he muttered, as his plan to get Sasuke to train him had completely failed. _Lexa? Who is that?_ He lifted an arm and put it over his forehead while staring up at the pure white ceiling. In the room with 100 by 100 by 100 foot dimensions, Kirito lay close to the center and stared straight up at the glowing panel in the center of the ceiling that gave off the same amount of light as every other square panel. It was as if the color of the panels was not white but a glowing white, since there did not look to be any artificial lights in the room, yet it was still very bright. Kirito squinted at the center panel as if to look through at whatever could be behind it that was making the glow, then he sighed and dragged his arm down over his face, wincing in pain as he did. _If Sasuke suggested it, it's probably because she's compatible with me. Her powers, or techniques. He wouldn't just send me off for no reason. I think I showed him I'm enough of a resource not to do that._

"Well," Kirito grunted, leaning back up again and pushing himself to his feet. "No time to sit around," he muttered. _Three days in, and I still haven't learned a thing. Still haven't gotten any stronger. A tenth of the- no, don't do that. Just get as much as you can in, while you can._ He grabbed his swords and started slowly for the door. _I've never had a female teacher,_ he thought. _Not really, I guess. Though Sakura, and Hinata, and I know Asuna taught me so many…_ He shook his head around and tried to push sentimental thoughts out of his head. _I'm here to train. To get stronger. To help the Resistance. To free slaves. To stop the Cooperative. All of this, to make up for what I've done. Angel, Naruto, Konohamaru, Marco, and so many others… I need to make things right._ Kirito clenched his fists at his sides, ignoring the pain it caused and regaining his determined expression. _Who knows. Maybe this Lexa, is even stronger than Sasuke._

* * *

 _ **"I'm winning!"**_

 _ **"We don't need any more lone wolves. There are enough of them already."**_

 _ **"They killed my-"**_

 _ **"Everyone, has lost people. Do you think you're any different from them? This war isn't about you."**_

 _ **"I never said it was. I'm going though. To crush them all."**_

 _ **"Sasuke, I know you're upset. Jugo, Karin, I know it's hard. Just the other day, Shisui…"**_

 _ **"Itachi…"**_

 _ **"But this world is different from ours, little brother. Do you not think it's strange that I am the one telling you not to be a lone wolf, after all you know I did? It's because this world, it doesn't need more people putting themselves on the dark path, going off alone for the sake of others. You know what it needs? It needs leaders. Strong people, who will lead. Which is why, I've become a Commander of the Resistance."**_

 _ **"What?"**_

 _ **"And Sasuke, you should too…"**_

Sasuke opened his eyes as he sat at a table in the center of the Resistance HQ main cafeteria. The cafeteria that took up an entire floor of the main headquarters in the basement, it was packed full of people at midday. Thousands of people and Resistance members were sitting around eating, talking to their comrades, or going up to get more food. Headquarters never had less than five thousand personnel on hand at any time, but the majority of the time there were between twelve and twenty thousand people stationed there. Sasuke's table was empty except for him, even though it was a large round table in the center of the room with many empty seats around it.

That table was only empty for a few more seconds though, as the reason Sasuke opened his eyes just walked towards him. He had been thinking deeply on Konoha, the Hidden Leaf, and other things from his past all morning, even during his light spar with Kirito (at least that's what their fight felt like to him). Sasuke Uchiha stared forward at the man with big spikes of black hair sticking out of his head and curving a bit to the right at the top, and more spikes farther back that extended left but lower down his head. The man wore an orange gi with a blue belt, blue wristguards, a blue undershirt, and black boots. Son Goku sat down on the seat right next to Sasuke's while mumbling with a mouth full of food, "Iths thiths stheat open?" Goku swallowed his food before dropping the trays in his hands, and then reaching up and quickly taking off all the other trays he had stacked on top to place them around the table. It was a good thing the table was mostly empty, as his trays spread out into where everyone else would have been sitting.

Sasuke looked to his left where Goku just sat. The ninja did not want to say anything about it, but it felt weird to him that Goku would choose there out of all the empty seats at the table. "Hey Sasuke," Goku began while he chowed down. He stopped for a second while swallowing, then he turned to his right with a glint in his coal black eyes, and Goku said, "You want to go a round after lunch?"

"You're serious?" Sasuke questioned. At the expression on Goku's face though, he could tell the Saiyan was. Sasuke's plate was almost empty anyway, and the Resistance Commander was about to leave to go continue on with his self-given duties for the afternoon. _Fight, Son Goku? That's, not something I thought I would be doing today when I woke up this morning._ "What is the reason for this?" Sasuke asked.

"I want to see how strong you've gotten," Goku replied. Sasuke looked at him closer, wondering if there was some hidden meaning behind Goku's words. The man's voice sounded sincere though, and his competitive grin gave him a more child-like demeanor than Sasuke expected or wanted to see on the Legendary Super Saiyan's face.

"Alright then," Sasuke finally replied.

 **30 Minutes Later**

"You take too long to eat," Sasuke muttered while he and Goku stood in an elevator dropping through the Resistance HQ.

They had already been in the basement, but they were still going far down into the ground and Goku was surprised as he saw the numbers dropping higher and higher in the negative numbers. It had taken him a couple of days to figure out how those numbers worked, but he stared at them in surprise again as they reached over -200. "Why aren't we going to the training rooms?" Goku wondered, since Sasuke had just told him to follow, yet the ninja was not bringing him to the same place he fought against Klaus the other day.

"We are," Sasuke replied. "But those rooms are not big enough, or powerful enough, to hold in certain fights." The elevator finally came to a stop, and Sasuke said as the doors started opening, "This room is an entire floor made for a single spar. Sometimes we have mock battles in here, and the white panels around the room can create any environment." Goku looked around in amazement, but Sasuke continued as they headed in, "We'll just fight with the room as is."

Goku frowned, as he wanted to see some of the cool places this room could transform into. He shrugged though and smiled again as the thought of fighting Sasuke right now made him too excited. Goku leapt up in the air and across the room in a few dozen front flips. He landed and spun around, then he started bouncing on one foot and then the other, doing some arm stretches over his head. "Alright," Goku said, grinning and coming to a stop. His hair shot up into a golden spike and his teal eyes narrowed down at the dark-haired younger man who looked surprised as Goku went Super Saiyan from the start.

 _I have never fought this man,_ Sasuke thought while staring coldly over into Goku's eyes. _But there is no holding back. I will use everything I have, and determine whether or not he is what people claim he is. The Resistance's trump card._ Sasuke's right iris turned red with a strange black pattern in the middle of it, while his black hair moved out of the way of his face and revealed his Rinnegan to the man facing him.

"Let's do it," Goku said. He kicked off the ground and shot towards Sasuke.

"Amaterasu," Sasuke said, his right eye widening. Black flames surrounded Son Goku's body, then Sasuke's eyes both widened as the golden aura surrounding Goku fell behind him with all the black flames surrounding it. As Goku flew right out of the falling black flames, an entirely new golden aura surrounded his body. He flew at Sasuke too fast for the surprised ninja who pulled his sword out in front of him to try and block, but the leg he saw swinging at him passed straight through his body. Sasuke's eyes darted to the side as he saw Goku's body going past his back, then they darted back as Goku was right in front of him punching forward, slamming Sasuke in the face.

Sasuke had been turning back, and the fist hit him in the left cheek and lifted him off the ground while his head snapped to the side. He spun out while flying off the ground, then he made a dozen hand signs and put his hands to his mouth as he was finishing one of his spins. A massive fireball shot at Goku and the Super Saiyan once again flew straight through the flames, but this time as he reached the other side, his head snapped to the left in an instant, dodging the sword covered in lightning chakra that was flying at the back of the fiery explosion.

Goku grinned as the sword passed by the side of his head, then he did a three-sixty spin in midair and grabbed the hilt of the sword before it got too far. He spun and threw the sword back at Sasuke so fast that the ninja snapped his body backwards and botched the landing he was about to make. Just as he started leaning up, Goku appeared on his left side while in mid-kick. Sasuke's right hand was already crossing over his leaning-up body though, and he blocked Goku's foot with it. The force from the kick was so strong however, that Sasuke's feet were lifted off the ground and the kick sent him flying a few hundred feet up into the ceiling. Sasuke landed on his feet on the ceiling though, and the white panels pushed in a little to cushion the blow on his legs. He barely felt it anyway though, and he continued standing upside-down on the ceiling while glaring down towards Goku who stared straight back up and into his eyes.

The Super Saiyan started flying up again, then as he punched towards Sasuke, the younger man he tried to hit disappeared into a flock of black crows. Goku got confused as the crows surrounding him completely in blackness, then he started spinning his head left and right while struggling, trying to move off of the cross he was suddenly pinned to. Sasuke appeared in front of him while the realm Goku was in tinted red and everything around him got covered in blood. Goku stopped struggling as much, turning back to Sasuke and giving him a small grin as the ninja walked towards him with his sword extended. "As soon as I feel you attack outside of the genjutsu," Goku began.

"Then I'll keep you in here," Sasuke replied. Goku frowned at that tactic, and he struggled a bit more against the cross, but he did not have his strength in this void.

"Hmm," Goku hummed as Sasuke neared him with his sword outstretched. Sasuke opened his mouth to say something, but Goku started frowning deeply at him and the ninja froze. "Naruto was brought back to life," Goku said. "By Orochimaru-" **BAM!** Sasuke got a fist in his face and he flew backwards across the room and into a wall.

 _Forgot to not make eye contact,_ Goku thought, lifting a hand and scratching the back of his head. He started frowning again as he looked back towards the wall that Sasuke had slammed so hard into Goku thought it might even crack, but once again he was amazed by how strong the Resistance made these rooms.

 _He disrupted my chakra flow so easily. Was he lying? No, no he wouldn't have known…_ Sasuke stood up and he glared towards Goku, but the Super Saiyan looked back towards him without making eye contact, doubting that would work a second time. "What you just said about Naruto-"

"He was sealed," Goku assured. "Let's continue," he added, as he only brought that up to break Sasuke's concentration and give him the opportunity he needed to shatter the genjutsu. He did not like the method, but he also did not like the use of genjutsu at all during a fight. Goku rose his hands into a fighting stance again, then he shot forward like a rocket towards Sasuke, raising his hands and forming balls of ki in them as he attacked.

Goku threw the energy balls, then a huge purple aura emerged from Sasuke's body. It started with a long purple arm that smacked one way and threw Goku's first attack to the side, then smacked the other way and redirected the blast right back towards Goku. Goku clapped his hands in front of his body as the energy sphere flew his way, and the energy dissipated without exploding. He continued flying without breaking his speed, and he ducked under the arm and started punching both fists over and over into the chest of the huge Susano'o that just appeared.

Huge wings shot out the back of the Susano'o that Sasuke floated in the center of. Sasuke glared out at Goku who continuously punched against his chest without letting up, his punches getting stronger every second. _He can't break it,_ Sasuke thought, while swinging his arms in and flapping his wings down. He slammed his fists together in front of his body where Goku was going in for another punch, then the ninja's eyes darted up and he slammed both pressed-together fists after the man who had escaped leaving an after-image behind. Goku was fast, but Sasuke's Sharingan saw through his movements. He punched towards Goku who eased his body to one side and dodged the arms pushing past the side of his body. He put his hands down at his right side as he moved closer to Sasuke, "Kaameee…"

Sasuke leapt backwards and flapped his wings to gain a huge distance between him and Goku. He shot a quarter of a mile away in an instant, then Goku landed down on the ground and started sprinting after him while yelling, "HaaaMEEEEE…"

Sasuke lifted his arms and created a bow out of glowing purple blue energy. A giant arrow of lightning chakra formed on the bow that he was pulling back, while his wings flapped the other way to stop his retreat. He pulled back even farther as Goku started sprinting twice the speed as before. The Super Saiyan jumped up and slammed both hands forward, letting out a yell of, "HAAAAA!" Sasuke released his arrow towards the end of the Kamehameha Wave. _**Bu-DOOOOOM!**_ A massive eruption blew apart in the center of their attacks between Goku and Sasuke. Sasuke leaned back from the bright light of the explosion, then his eyes opened wide and he crossed his arms as well as brought his wings in front of his body crossed for protection.

The end of the Kamehameha that had blown Sasuke's arrow apart kept flying, and it slammed into Susano'o while Sasuke focused all of his energy in front of his body for protection. His eyes darted to the right and he lifted his right arm on the inside of his aura, right as Goku broke a hole through the edge of Susano'o's glowing aura. Goku's eyes opened wide as the Rinnegan in Sasuke's left eye narrowed, and the Super Saiyan felt a huge force slam against him and throw him right back out of that aura and across the room. As Goku was dropping though, his eyes darted around as he noticed all the strings shooting after him and attempting to wrap around his body.

 _Just like Doflamingo,_ Goku thought, and he weaved through the wires as he dropped, before grinning as the wires were not very accurate anyway. Sasuke had to focus on the Kamehameha that slammed into his body anyway, breaking through his wings and the arms of his Susano'o after a bit of struggle. Sasuke rose both arms in front of him, right as the edge of the beam passed through the front of Susano'o's chest. The beam touched his hands, and then the end of the Kamehameha Wave started to shrink. Susano's side shattered as a sphere of yellow light crashed into it. Sasuke spun towards the smoke on his right and removed one hand from the energy wave, wincing as trying to suck it all in with only one hand was nearly impossible.

He stared towards the smoke with a hand lifting to stop Goku again, but two feet slammed into the back of his body and bent him over them. Sasuke flew down into the ground and bounced twice hard before slamming hard front-first into a wall. He started leaning off of it and turning his head, only for his face to be slammed by a fist. Or at least, he thought the fist was about to hit him in the face as he turned to it with eyes growing huge. Then, in the instant before the fist hit him, an elbow took its place and the momentum had changed directions. Sasuke was thrown high into the air where Goku already flew up faster, spinning around both of his arms with his hands held together. A Borg surrounded Sasuke and his back turned black with Haki, and then both of Goku's spinning arms slammed into the position where Sasuke's Haki was hardest, still making the ninja gasp out in pain before he was slammed into the ground so hard that the floor cracked out around him.

Goku lowered out of the air towards the younger man below. He was still smiling, but he did not look as intense as a minute ago, and Sasuke frowned at the idea that Son Goku already thought himself victorious. Sasuke stood up and glared towards Goku, and the Super Saiyan who just lowered to hover ten feet off the ground and twenty feet in front of Sasuke looked in surprise at Sasuke's face. He watched as a cut on the nineteen year old's face sealed up with some steam coming out as it closed. Sasuke then lifted his right hand and his katana appeared instantly into his grasp. Goku stared at the hilt of the weapon and knew for a fact that it did not just fly to Sasuke too fast for him to see.

Sasuke crossed his left hand over his right and Goku's blond eyebrows lifted up. Goku turned his head and looked around him as five Shadow Clones appeared in a circle with Sasuke around him. Then, all at the same time, the Shadow Clones created Susano'os. Their huge auras rose over sixty feet off the ground, but this time wings did not sprout from their backs. For a second Goku thought he was trying to conserve some chakra, then Goku's mouth curved back up more intensely as each of the Susano'os lifted up in the air with white auras flaring around them. Three of them rose up bows and created arrows of chakra in each of them, while two others charged forward while pulling their arms to the sides with giant purple swords held in them.

The final Susano'o that the original Sasuke was in lifted both arms up, and huge swords appeared in the hands he had lifted. Then, two more arms sprouted out of his sides beneath the lifted ones, and swords came out of those hands too. Sasuke charged forward as Goku did a spin to allow both of the slashing Susano'os to slash their swords at him, one just above his horizontal body and the other just below. Then Goku yelled out and his golden aura pulsed around him, slamming the sword passing over the top of his body straight up, while knocking the other one into the ground that it tore straight into. The yell was to pulse his aura against the arrows though, all of which were fired into the small gap that Goku had cornered himself in with his dodge. All of the arrows exploded prematurely with Goku caught in the middle of their explosion, then the Saiyan rose his arms in the smoke and caught two swords that slashed down at him.

The other two swords that Sasuke's Susano'o created slashed in from the sides towards Goku's body. Goku saw them cut through the smoke on his sides, and he released a breath as he held onto the first two. He could not let go or the first ones would slash down on him with all the pressure he felt Sasuke still putting into them. But he could not just let those other two massive chakra blades connect. At least, not as he was at the moment. Goku's blond hair shot up spikier and lightning flashed out of his golden aura that suddenly doubled in size, and then the two huge blades connected with his sides. Sasuke had blown all the smoke away when he slashed in, and his eyes opened huge at the sight of his Susano'o's blades shattering against Son Goku's sides. _Imposs-_ Goku twisted his hands that were still holding Sasuke's first attacks, and he shattered those blades as well.

Five Susano'os charged at Goku at once. He ignored every one of them. He flew towards the original Sasuke who did not do anything to hide himself among the others. Goku slammed his fist into the chest of the Susano'o, and eight huge cracks shot out around the collision. Sasuke tried putting it back together fast while flying backwards, the other Susano'os still flying at Goku's back. Goku chased him though, and he slammed another fist into the Susano'o and shattered it completely this time, even though Sasuke had finished repairing it. The aura shattered out to the sides, then Goku shed a golden aura that was starting to get covered in black flames. _Kamui!_ The air swirled around behind Sasuke and he flew right back into an alternate dimension, one that Goku was too fast not to follow him into. Sasuke tried closing the gate fast behind him, only for Goku to be right on top of him and slamming a fist down into Sasuke's chest.

 _Shit,_ Sasuke thought after hitting the hard ground. Four of his Shadow Clones on the outside world disappeared to return him a large portion of his chakra that he was now wasting with them all out of the fight. Goku looked around while floating in the air of the Kamui Dimension. He stared at all the huge gray cubes that made up the floor in this realm, and he looked into the darkness that made up the gaps between those blocks. "What a strange place," Goku said, before turning back to look down at Sasuke who was making this fight more interesting every second.

Unfortunately, even though Goku was getting more interested and having more fun, Sasuke was feeling his chakra drain fast. _I've been going all out from the start. As strong as I could be. I never have to- I haven't fought like this, in months. Actually, even in the Third War of the Gods, I never got in a fight against an opponent who could beat me._ Sasuke stood back up and he glared towards Goku again. _But before I could even confirm that…_ Sasuke glared at the glowing man, and he stopped his heavy breathing to instead take a deep breath in. _He is simple,_ Sasuke thought, right as the man above him started flying down.

Sasuke rose up his right hand, and Goku's eyes opened huge while they darted to his left side. Sasuke was shocked Goku's eyes had time to turn, but he was beyond stunned as the Saiyan even started to turn and cross his arms. The huge glowing blue arrow larger than any Sasuke's Susano'os had fired earlier appeared out of thin air in front of Goku. It exploded in that instant it appeared, but the Super Saiyan 2 was too fast and got his guard up, only being blown backwards and off course from Sasuke by his final clone's arrow. Sasuke's Rinnegan started to give him a headache, and a trail of blood came out of the outer corner of his purple eye. _Transporting objects through Space-Time is a strain, but teleporting that much chakra and into another dimension… only for him to dodge it._ Sasuke had to bite down hard and jump backwards, as the man blown back by his explosion did not say a word before correcting his course and flying at Sasuke again.

"Kamui," Sasuke said while Goku was still farther off. He vanished and reappeared out in the training room again, and this time he was quick enough to close the exit of that realm before Goku could follow. He saw Goku's hand reaching at the last second, but he was glad the Saiyan did not shove his arm through only to get it cut off. Sasuke stood there panting harder than ever during the fight. He stared at the air in front of him where he had closed off the Kamui Dimension. _What will he do now? If his only power is brute strength, and his martial arts, then he will not be able to escape from Kamui. If this was a battle, I just-_ Sasuke's bottom lip lowered and his eyes opened huge, while the air in front of him cracked.

"aaaaAAAAAAHHHHH! **AAAAAHHHHHHH!"** Sasuke took a step back, as the shouting through that crack got even louder and the air shattered more around it. Bright golden light shone through the cracks in the air, and Sasuke had to leap backwards at how powerful that energy was.

 _What is this?! It's impossible! He's, he's-_ _**"RRAAAAAAAAAAAA!" CHHHH**_ The air shattered like glass where the cracks were, and a huge swirling hole into the Kamui Dimension was left in its place. Sasuke could not stop himself from dropping his jaw, while the man on the other side stopped screaming and flew forward through that hole. It closed a few seconds after he made it through, while the man who got out of the realm took a few deep breaths and then narrowed his gaze at Sasuke.

Sasuke did not recognize the person in front of him. The man was wearing the same outfit that Son Goku had on, but his entire appearance was different. His eyebrows had vanished, the skin over his eyes made up of muscles instead now that had narrowed inwards at the ninja. His entire body had bulked up, pushing against even his loose orange gi like he might rip through it. The man's jaw structure had changed to be squarer, and his hair did not just spike up this time, but it got many times longer and thicker as it stretched down his entire back. Goku's aura was violent, huge and golden with lightning bolts sparking through the air around him. The ground shook as Goku took a step forward, but Sasuke realized it was not just the ground, but the entire floor around him. He wondered just how many floors in the basement felt that single step.

Then Goku stopped looking so intense, and his hair shrank back while he clenched his teeth in a bit of pain. His muscles lost some of their bulk, his golden hair spiked shorter above the top of his head, and he started panting heavily once he reverted back into a Super Saiyan 2. Goku took a deep breath this time though, then he opened his eyes and had a grin on his face as he said, "Thought that might work."

 _He didn't even know what he was doing?!_ Sasuke thought, though he managed to finally shut his mouth. _He just, broke through dimensional walls, with a shout. He's so, strong._ The ninja grimaced deeper, a look of anger on his face as he once again rose his arms. Goku appeared in front of him though, and Sasuke's eyes opened wide as neither of them were able to follow his movements. Goku slammed an elbow towards Sasuke's face, then the ninja felt a knee in his solar plexus that bent his body over it. The elbow connected as Sasuke's body started bending forward over the knee, snapping his body the other way, only for Goku to reach out and grab Sasuke by a leg before he could fly too far off. Goku started spinning around, and he released Sasuke towards a nearby wall.

Sasuke flew towards the wall while still reeling from the loss of breath from the initial knee, though the follow-up elbow made it impossible to try and breathe in a fresh breath. He still managed to prepared himself for slamming into the wall, but he never wound up doing that as Goku popped up behind him and slammed both hands down on top of Sasuke's skull. The breath he was trying to take in cut off short as his teeth were slammed together and his eyes rolled back, blood splashing between his teeth. Sasuke slammed into the ground so hard that he bounced off, then slammed back down again and broke apart the white tiles beneath him, leaving a crater in the steel below. People on the floor below them stared up at the ceiling with dropped jaws as the ceiling dented down towards them; they were especially shocked because they were in a training room just like the one above and they did not understand how it had just gotten damaged like that.

The Resistance Commander who just hit the ground was finally able to start breathing, but he was gasping for breath as he lay broken on his back. He tried to get up just as he had all the other times, but that combo was devastating and he felt several broken bones in different parts of his body. Goku dropped down in front of Sasuke's feet, and the Saiyan winced sympathetically before losing his golden aura and the single spike over his head. "Oops," Goku said, scratching the back of his spiky black hair as he stared at the bloody figure who did not look able to move. _I might have gotten a little carried away. I tried holding back. Super Saiyan 2 might have been too much though-_

Sasuke's eyes shot open and blood came out the corners of both as he glared towards Goku. Goku got yanked off his feet towards Sasuke, and a spike of black flames shot out of the ground and towards the Saiyan. Goku covered his right palm in white aura and smacked across the front of his body into the spike of Amaterasu, then as his swipe's wind blew all the flames after that aura that they had connected onto, Goku clenched his left fist and he came down towards Sasuke's face where his bleeding eyes opened even wider. He had pulled the Saiyan towards him himself using the Rinnegan, but Goku added his own speed on top of that and there was no time to start and defensive measures. **BANG!** Goku's fist slammed into the ground next to Sasuke's head, ripping a hole through the ground beneath the destroyed white panels this time, as his hair shot up golden in the last second and his eyes turned teal again.

Sasuke stared up with huge eyes into the icy teal ones of his opponent. Goku held his right fist over Sasuke's face, the wind from the half punch pushing the ninja's head harder into the ground below him. The sight of Goku's extended left arm that tore through the ground at his side was a clear indicator that if the man wanted to, he could have just crushed Sasuke's head instead. Goku did not need the other fist up in front of Sasuke's face, the younger man already knew. "I lose," Sasuke said. Goku's cold teal eyes turned black again, and he lifted up from where he was floating horizontally over Sasuke's body, preparing to slam his fist down to knock Sasuke unconscious if he would not be reasonable and try using another jutsu.

The Saiyan man landed next to where Sasuke was laying, and Sasuke grit his teeth as he saw Goku looking down at him. The irony was not lost on him, that this was the exact situation he was in with Kirito only a few hours before. And just like then, he did not see a scratch on Son Goku. _It must have been frustrating for him,_ Sasuke thought.

"You've gotten strong," Goku said, grinning down at the teenager who despite his injuries started to get up. He winced as he put weight on his right leg that Goku had grabbed hard before when he was about to fly off, the one Goku used to swing him towards the wall, and which felt like it may have been broken. "You're stronger than when you fought Naruto," Goku added, but then he continued, "But not by that much."

Sasuke started frowning deeply at the Saiyan in front of him who lost his smile to a straight lip instead. "Have you, been training?" Goku asked.

"Of course I have," Sasuke responded, more angered by that question than the defeat itself. He bared his teeth and then spat some blood to his side, before attempting to calm himself as he stated, "But I've also been fighting a war for a long time. And not all parts of a war involve just strength training and getting more powerful." _Like my Nen ability. I couldn't use it on you, but for the war…_ Sasuke lost track of that thought as Goku hummed at him and shrugged at that response. Sasuke's eyes narrowed down, and he could not hold it back. "Why did you not come back?" Sasuke asked. Goku looked into the younger man's eyes, his right black now as it had lost the Sharingan. "Why didn't you stay and help us fight?"

Goku could see a lot of anger on Sasuke's face, so he kept his lips flat and took the younger man seriously. "Did you hear about Awul and what happened there?"

"I know about the Underworld," Sasuke responded. "I heard things from Gray and Kirito about them. But that still doesn't explain where you were all that time before the fight started. Where Son Goku, the legendary hero, was while we have all been fighting this war."

Goku started frowning at Sasuke, then he lowered his gaze for a second, before lifting it and giving the other man a small smile. "I have a wife, and two sons," Goku started. Sasuke's eyes both opened wide, and Goku continued, "I became the Mayor of my town, and I still fought villains from time to time, but mainly I was training, and staying with my family. Things I loved doing." Goku's smile lowered back down and he continued, "Then a man, and his Underworld, took that away from me. He killed ChiChi, my wife, and he killed many of my friends too." Sasuke grimaced at this response, but his angry expression lifted a little when the older man continued. Goku had taken a pause, then he continued, "But, the ones who killed my wife and friends, did not care that they killed them. I learned later on in that war, that it was myself who was the target of the attack. And Vegeta, and Gohan," he added softly. "They tried to kill me, and instead they wound up killing my wife and the others close to me."

Sasuke's eyes grew wide, and he started staring at the man in front of him in shock. _"…and two sons."_ "Is that why," Sasuke began. "Is that why you came back to Aebrith? Why did you leave Awul in the first place?"

Goku's gaze was far off, looking at a far-off wall with a stern and distant expression. Sasuke stared closer, then Goku turned his gaze back to him and smiled. "I just came because it sounded like a fun adventure." Sasuke lost his shocked look and frowned again, though he also sweatdropped at the response. "Anyway, you should go get those injuries checked out," Goku suggested. His hair turned golden again, and he continued while looking around the giant empty floor, "I'm going to start training here."

 _Don't just make that decision on your own,_ Sasuke thought, though he kept it to himself. _These floors are not usually empty. I knew this one was right now, because I checked. But I'll have to move around some others who have this place scheduled for later._ "Do as you please," Sasuke said, turning away from the Saiyan and starting for the exit, albeit slowly despite his attempts at trying to hide his limp. _I'll have to do that before I get in a recovery tank. "I have a wife…"_ A face appeared in Sasuke's mind, a girl with shoulder-length pink hair whose eyes were closed and who was smiling at him with her head tilted a bit. _Is that really, what Son Goku chose?_ Sasuke thought, glancing behind him again towards the man who was rising his power higher and higher now that he found what seemed like the best area to train in so far. _He chose family, over a war. If I had made that choice, if I was in Konoha when Naruto…_ Sasuke ground his teeth and clenched his fists at his sides. _No. It's his choice that was selfish. He may have chosen to have a family, but so many others who wanted to make the same decision were forced to fight, because he wouldn't. He didn't even though he enjoys this, and people had to fight who hate it. …And yet, he is always there, when we need him the most. Right when it seemed like there was nothing to prevent us from losing this war, he returns._

* * *

 _This is bull,_ Kirito walked down a white hallway and he tapped on another computer next to an occupied training room door. _Couldn't Sasuke have been any more specific than to "look for" this Lexa person? This base is enormous. And finding out that she's training doesn't narrow it down much when this place has a thousand different training facilities, rooms, and entire floors. It's already been a few hours, though I guess that gave me some time to recover from Sasuke's beatdown. Though, not much,_ he added to himself and rolled his right shoulder a few times that still ached despite the health potion he took on his way past a recovery point near the directory he had to use to look up Lexa's location.

 _People have seen her around here at least,_ Kirito thought, while walking to the adjacent training room after seeing only one person, who was a guy, training in the last one. He tapped a button on the next computer and looked around the training room that had eight people in it. Though there were eight however, Kirito's eyes widened a bit as he saw smaller figures in the room floating at next to the helmets of the soldiers on one side of the room. _What are those things?_

"Church, run a simulation."

"Put your little guy away Carolina," Michael Creed said. The man in a white suit of armor wore a helmet with a yellow visor covering the entire thing. He lifted up a gun with a blade curving out the bottom of it, and he spoke in a deep voice while looking to the other side of the room and the one person not in any armor. "We don't need it."

"I agree with Mongol," Lavernius Tucker said. He stepped up on the left side of the bald man in a white suit of armor, in a suit that looked similar but was teal and had a darker red visor covering the whole helmet. He lifted his left hand and snapped it to the side with a hilt in it, and out from that hilt extended an Energy Sword that Kirito's eyes narrowed at from the other side of the wall, as he had seen one of its kind before.

 _The Covenant had those kinds of-_

"Hold on there, Sangheili," a man in purple armor said, and he lifted his left hand to make another tiny glowing figure appear in the air. His was small and glowed pinkish-purple, and the tiny translucent figure wore the same purple armor as the soldier who just made him appear there. "What do you think Theta? We have a chance?"

"I don't know, she's pretty scary," Theta said, turning his head and glancing across the room before spinning back quickly. "She's giving us a lot of time to plan. So she must be really confident."

"Theta is correct," a glowing green tiny figure floating near a man in dark yellow armor said. "If we only look at the numerical advantage, it is clear where York's money would lie. However the Commander is quite terrifying."

 _Are those things AI? Just like that Ritsu girl. How many worlds did AI's exist in? And if they can travel between worlds, then couldn't… wait, Commander?_ Kirito's gaze shifted to the other side of the screen he was looking at. _Her?!_ He looked at the woman who did not look much older than him. _Then again, neither is Sasuke,_ he thought, calming down a bit as he decided not to judge as quickly as he almost had. She was shorter than him, had long brown hair falling straight behind her though it got curlier farther down her back, she had on a black tank top pulled tight to her body, and a pair of tight black pants on as well. _Might not actually be her,_ he realized as he looked the girl in her early twenties up and down.

"Sure you want to do this Lexa?" Kirito frowned as his suspicions were confirmed at what the woman in cyan armor who had a floating white AI next to her head said. She walked forward between the ones with visors over most of their helmets, who Kirito had heard been called Mongol and Sangheili. Her armor was closer to the men in purple and gold armor, and he finally recognized where he had seen the design from before. _Grif wore armor like that. And that sword is from the Covenant, just like the name Sangheili. That's what the Elites were called, their real race name I think. Doubt one of those aliens could fit in that armor though._

"Um, Carolina," the AI next to the woman in the middle's head started. It was white which made it look more translucent than the others, and it had a somewhat nervous voice as it continued, "Are you sure _we_ want to do this?"

"Oh come on Church," the guy in teal on their left said. "We've got this. We got this, right?"

"Yeah, I'm not too sure about that," Church said. The AI lifted his own translucent rifle as he glanced to the right through his visor towards the patiently awaiting Commander. The young woman had her eyes closed, she had black face paint in two lines under each eye, and a small decorative circle between her eyebrows that seemed to have sentimental meaning to her. Lexa's eyes opened and she lifted both arms at her sides, pulling out a pair of curved blades she had in hilts at her waist. "Yeah I don't have a plan for this. Carolina, get ready. I think she's about to-"

"Everybody forward!" Carolina shouted. The woman in cyan armor lifted up both hands and pulled out a pair of plasma rifles she fired without hesitation, firing streams of almost constant glowing blue beams towards the younger woman who just started charging the indecisive soldiers.

"This is not going to go well," the guy in gold armor started. "D, give me a sit-rep. Any weak points you can find."

"As Epsilon is unable to deduce one, I am afraid none of us will be able to give you a course of action for a hundred percent victory. I give our current chances of victory, telling from the Commander's speed and position, sixteen percent."

"Oh, that's not so bad," the man said, pulling a pistol off his side and jogging forward, while the man in purple on his left lifted up his sniper rifle and was aiming down the scope towards where Lexa and Carolina just collided. The man in gold ran with his green AI, Delta, up behind Mongol and Sangheili, firing between them towards where Carolina leaned back and let his bullets fly past her towards where Lexa was slashing forwards. Lexa's blades looking to be aimed at Carolina's armor however, did not change directions at all, making the woman in cyan armor go wide-eyed from behind her visor as Lexa's blades sliced each of her comrade's bullets into pieces.

Tucker slammed on the breaks and leaned back with his energy sword as he saw that. "Oh man, that's fast," he said, and he reached down his free hand and grabbed a frag grenade from his side. He ripped the pin and tossed it forward, yelling, "Grenade!"

"Speed boost!" Carolina called out.

"Got it!" Church, or the AI- Epsilon, floating next to her head shouted in response. Carolina's legs bent down as she came out of a dodge-roll away from Lexa's follow-up slash to cutting the bullets. Her bent legs put on more pressure, then she shot forward so fast she left a trail behind her blurry body. She sprinted to the side wall and glanced to her side to see Lexa chasing right after her. Carolina hit the wall and did not slow down, sprinting straight up it while turning her body sideways and firing her plasma rifles at the chasing Commander.

 _She doesn't need to cut any of them,_ Kirito thought, as he watched Lexa keep up her speed while easily weaving left and right between all the glowing bullets. _That soldier is good too though. Carolina, she's keeping on the offensive even as she backs away from Lexa's chase-_ Kirito's eyes widened more as Lexa picked up the speed, but only picked it up as a fake since she slashed her right arm at the same time. A slash flew off of her sword and cut through the outside of Carolina's armor, throwing her off the wall letting out a yell. As Lexa finished her slash, she yanked her sword up, and a bullet trail passed under her blade millimeters from hitting it.

Across the room, the man in purple armor tssked, while Theta leaned forward over his left shoulder and their sniper barrel and exclaimed, "She dodged that?! So close!"

"I got you!" The man in golden armor ran beneath where Carolina was falling, only for the redhead in cyan to flip over and press the bottom of her heavy boots on her comrade's shoulders. She pressed down hard, and the Epsilon AI worked the armor enhancements both Church and Carolina were thinking of. She blasted back up in the air, pushing the man in gold into the floor and rolling backwards. Four more sniper bullet trails flew through the air on her sides, keeping Lexa boxed-in, or so Carolina and her comrade in purple had hoped. Lexa was suddenly on the ground though, an elbow slammed into the chest of the man in white armor who was pointing his Brute Shot up towards Lexa's now-fading image.

"Mongol!" Tucker shouted, spinning towards where the other man was bouncing. He spun back quickly though while slashing his blue sword out in front of his body. Lexa's eyes widened for a second, and Tucker smirked behind his dark red visor as he cut towards where she was appearing. "Sorry hot stuff, I don't get distracted that-" his Energy Sword was about to hit her in the side, and he was going to slow it down so he did not cut into her, but her eyebrows narrowed in while she lifted the left corner of her mouth into a smirk. Her pupils dilated and small white circles formed inside them, and a pulse of aura blasted out from her so hard that Tucker's glowing blue sword started shaking in his arm that stopped moving, and then the blade retracted. Tucker fell down to a knee, coughing and muttering, "What just-"

Lexa lifted a knee into the man's visor and smashed through it, red glass flying up in the air as he flew backwards. "Surprised you managed not to pass out, all of you," Lexa said, turning from the dark-skinned man with a bloodied face who fell flat on his back behind her now. Mongol was struggling back to his feet a few feet to the left of where Carolina landed, rubbing his left arm over his chest where there was a dent in his armor, but that dent buffed out and he snapped his left hand to the Brute Shot he lifted back up. He turned to Carolina and gave her a single nod and a grunt, and then the two of them started rushing at Lexa together, while the Commander slashed a sword to her side without looking that way and cut through a sniper round.

"Tucker! You alright?" A guy in gray armor with yellow highlights on the shoulders and knees who had been standing back with another soldier in all black called out. David started running forward, and the woman in black behind him watched him go for a second, before turning back and staring across the room towards Carolina who was on her own again as Mongol got thrown backwards. The brute in white armor was staggering back up again though, and he let out a loud growl before just pointing his Brute Shot forward and firing a half dozen rounds in succession. Each round exploded around the two women who were fighting from close range, Carolina occasionally using her guns to push away a sword slashing at her, and firing with it at the same time.

Lavernius Tucker stayed flat on his back for a few more seconds, then he leaned up right as his friend was getting to his side. "Here, I've got a healing unit," David said, dropping a small metal device on the floor that glowed green light and surrounded them in it.

"This fucking sucks," Tucker said, crouching next to the man who came to his aid. "Thanks Wash," he added after a second as he felt the pounding headache and busted nose feeling a bit better.

"Viken now, try and keep up," his teammate said before spinning back towards their Commander.

"York, I suggest we regroup with the others while Carolina holds off the Commander. She does not seem to need your immediate help," Delta said to the man in gold armor standing up next to him.

"Yeah, you got that right," he said, feeling pain in his shoulders after Carolina used him as a launching point to attack Lexa a minute ago. He started jogging back towards the soldier in black armor who the man in purple was backing up towards while firing off a few more sniper rounds in Carolina and Lexa's direction. The man in gold snapped his head back to the side before reaching though and he said, "Hey! How many times I have to tell you D? It's Mayan now. We got rid of those state names."

"It is strange. I updated your designation in my databanks, but I still just see you as York," the green AI said in an interested tone. "Perhaps if Carolina were to follow in the trend with the rest of you, it would stick better."

"You're just making excuses," Mayan, formerly the Freelancer Agent York, said. "Now, have you thought anything up yet?"

"I keep running simulations in my head, but our success rate is only declining the more of the Commander's abilities I see. At this point, our likelihood of success is below eight percent."

"Damn it D," an annoyed voice snapped from the black suit of armor in front of where Mayan was running. Next to the armor appeared a full sized soldier in silver armor holding a transparent assault rifle, and he snapped in the same voice as the Epsilon AI Carolina was using, "Why'd I even save your useless hide if you can't give us a decent strategy?"

"As I am only a fragment of yourself, Alpha, you should have been able to come up with the same best strategy that I-"

"It's Church!" Alpha snapped. "I'm the original. Stop calling Epsilon my name!"

"Technically Church, you're still just the first copy of the Director," a female voice came from the black armor the Alpha's body was being projected out of. She started walking forward, and she cracked her neck to one side and then the other, "Get ready, we're going out there."

"Really Cleo?" Mayan said in surprise. "Thought you'd give my girl more of a shot."

"She's about to lose," Cleo replied, while the Alpha AI's translucent body vanished and popped back into her helmet.

Carolina pulled the trigger on both of her weapons as she panted facing the Commander, to no response from the guns. She growled as they were out of fuel, then she snapped her arms to the sides and threw them away. She rose her fists up in a fighting stance, but Lexa noticed something behind Carolina that made her grin. "Deciding to step in now? Shouldn't have waited for half of your team to go down first," Lexa said.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Cleo began, lifting her hands and cracking her knuckles one fist at a time. "My team's in peak condition. Get up Mongol!" She called out after that, while Tucker was finishing up getting to his feet himself, shaking his head around and snapping his Energy Sword back out in front of him. Tucker's helmet was broken, but he rose his right arm and wiped under his nose, getting his blue armor a little red even as he gained a serious look on his face. Lexa darted her eyes over to the man in white armor who seemed down for the count for sure, but he curled up on the ground with his face pointed down through the yellow visor. He lifted both hands up and then slammed his fists down below him in a furious way, then his head snapped inwards towards the young Commander.

"I can do this!" Carolina shouted, snapping her head back forward after looking sideways and back to the woman in black armor.

"Move back Carolina," Cleo said. "I gave you a chance. We'll work on it together now."

Carolina bared her teeth, and Epsilon popped up next to her head and said, "Maybe we should go back. She's kind of kicking our-"

"Put everything into the speed booster Church," Carolina said.

"Oh!" Church exclaimed in panic, disappearing back into Carolina's helmet as her legs were bending and her entire body tensing up.

The Alpha popped back out of Cleo's armor and called forward, "Don't do it honey. Listen to your mother!"

Carolina bared her teeth even harder in her helmet, then a more furious look formed on her face at the laughter in her own head. "Sorry," Epsilon said as he laughed at the joke his own original program thought was funny enough to say. "Kuh kah, all ready," Church said, telling Carolina they were set for action.

"Roman," Cleo said, turning her head left and calling to the man in purple armor who had moved up but stayed behind her with his sniper risen. The former Freelancer agent North Dakota glanced towards their team leader, and she held up an open palm, then extended her arm with that palm pointed towards Tucker and Wash. In only their helmets, including Tucker's that the comms still worked in even with a shattered visor, Cleo's voice came through, "Don't fuck this up. Beta's officially disbanded, so this is our one shot at making it as an Elite Squad. Let's get it. Roman run up behind Viken and Sangheili. She can't dodge or cut a sniper round from point blank."

"Sounds good and all, but aren't we trying to use these shots just to make her stay on the defensive?" Roman asked as he jogged towards his other two comrades on Cleo's left. "Don't want to kill the little lady now do-"

Lexa started walking in a circle. Carolina was about to sprint at her full speed, but the redhead in cyan armor snapped her head back and forth as Lexa's started appearing all around her. They walked in a circle around her, the edge of the circle not far from where Mongol just got back up on his feet. The brute in white armor spun in anger towards one of the girls walking around Carolina with the same facial expression, and he swung a heavy fist at her. He stumbled forward as his punch went straight through her, then a hand grabbed him by the back of his armor. Lexa swung Mongol's body in to her right, directly in the path of Carolina who found the real body and shot off to it without hesitating.

"Oh shit!" Church shouted in Carolina's head, trying to slam on the breaks as his controller did. They still slammed into Mongol even if they managed to pull their punch, and Carolina and her comrade tumbled towards the wall. While Carolina was in mid-roll though, Lexa grabbed her by the helmet and lower down on the armor at the same time. She spun, lifting Carolina up, which made Roman yank his sniper up as he had almost pulled the trigger right there. As Lexa spun Carolina, she pulled down on the older woman's armor and up on her helmet, ripping one off of the other.

"Whoa! Hey what're you-" Church started shouting, only for Lexa to throw the armored soldier to the side as Carolina tried kicking backwards, then she dropped the helmet that Church's small translucent body came out of, and she punted it towards Tucker who was the closest person to reaching her now. "Look out!" Church shouted, and Tucker ducked right before his best friend would have hit him in his unprotected face. Tucker heard a grunt behind him and spun to see Wash's head snapping back with the helmet bouncing off of him.

Tucker, codename: Sangheili, felt a footstep right next to him and he started turning his head back while saying, "Shi-" Lexa's elbow hit him in the head and a tooth flew out while his eyes rolled back, and he got thrown into Wash, or Viken, right as he was lowering his head from getting hit by the helmet. Tucker hit Wash and they both flew back, and Roman dove forward while extending his sniper out in front of him. **Bang! Bang! Bang!** He fired three times as he was mid-dive, but Lexa backflipped, one of the bullets passing between her arms, another sliding right under her back, another just past her left side that she curved in. Roman landed on his stomach and pulled the trigger again. _**Click.**_ _Oh fuck-_ He suddenly no longer felt the need to be worried about the Commander, since said girl kicked him in the side of the helmet so hard that he barrel-rolled away before stopping flat on his stomach again, though this time his helmet was bowed too.

As Lexa's foot was still extended in the kick, her eyes darted back and forth spotting two people jumping at her from different sides. One was the man in golden armor, and the other was the woman in cyan who no longer had her helmet but looked a lot more pissed-off now. Carolina missed her punch down as Lexa spun to the side, but Carolina's left leg snapped back behind her and then kicked the direction Lexa dodged. Lexa lifted an arm and blocked with the hilt of her sword she just slid back out of her sheath, then she slid it right back down and brought that free hand to Carolina's foot before she could kick it again. Lexa ducked down under Mayan's punching fist, then she spun Carolina around and into her comrade so hard they both gasped.

Lexa spun around and lifted both arms, blocking the weapon slammed down at her. The invisible figure behind her shimmered into view in her black armor, as did the rifle she slammed down into Lexa's crossed arms. She planned on firing that rifle after it was blocked, if it was, but Lexa's arms where they crossed had turned black at the last second. She uncrossed her arms in a single movement and sliced the rifle in two, then she slammed a kick out only for the other woman in black to turn her body sideways fast enough that Lexa's foot passed by her front. "Activating all weapons' systems. You've got thirty seconds, Allison," Alpha said in the black helmet of the squad leader.

"Thanks Church," she replied, right before her body started glowing blue. She turned the other way and Lexa's other leg she just jumped and kicked out with passed by her other side, then she snapped her body back and let the extended leg spin around the top of her body. Right after it passed over her, Lexa froze still and Cleo moved fast. She snapped out of her bowed position and jumped up in the air, slamming a fist forward before the time distortion wore off, which happened right as her fist connected. Lexa's head snapped back while there was an armored fist in her face, but when she hit the ground on her back she instantly flipped up and slashed both swords out from the sheaths at her sides, creating large but precise flying slashes aimed straight for Cleo who was using the same speed boost as Carolina before to sprint towards her. The slashes both hit Cleo head-on, but each time they hit, Cleo's body seemed to split in two and the part of her that was hit faded away while the other one kept running forward.

Lexa landed and sprinted forward, slashing both swords faster than Cleo was moving in her fastest state. She tried blocking with her armored arms for a few seconds, and she drew a knife from her waist to block as well, but Lexa's swords were Haki-coated and cut through her armor fast despite its strength. As Lexa slashed forward again though, she let go of the sword in her right hand. It was just in time too, as a Bubble Shield emerged out of Cleo's body and expelled fast, hitting Lexa and pushing her back, but only a few feet before Lexa pushed through the outside of the barrier. Cleo leapt backwards out of the stationary Bubble Shield though, dropping two grenades behind her right as she left the yellow domed barrier. _**BAN-BANG!**_ The grenades went off and filled the dome with explosions, and everyone leaned forward hoping to see Lexa injured inside it.

The bubble shield fell while still full of smoke, and then the smoke pulled out in Cleo's direction. Cleo rose a sidearm and fired twice fast into the smoke pulling her way. Bullets flew through the smoke and hit nothing, and the woman in black armor lifted her head at the sight of Lexa flipping high above her. Lexa had both of her swords drawn, no damage at all on her body, and she landed behind Cleo who started spinning and slashing a knife in her free hand. Lexa ducked down under the knife while swinging both of her swords around her body at full speed.

Kirito leaned forward and dropped his jaw in shock. The other soldiers all in the room called out in panic too, as Lexa sliced both of her swords through the middle of Cleo's black armor and cut her in half at the waist. The swords were a little separated from each other where they hit the armored woman's body, so it really ripped apart the middle of her torso. The woman's top half lifting in the air gasped out in pain, and her voice came out as she fell, "Well shit-"

 _This is crazy! Did she just-_ Kirito froze and stared blankly towards the heap of armor on the ground. A figure stood up out of the armor looking a lot like the armored figure in black had, except translucent now. Next to her appeared a similar ghostly figure only in silver armor, and he started scratching the back of his head while looking down at their armor suit. _Is everyone here an AI?_ Kirito looked around but saw a bunch of the other _humans_ already had their visors smashed or helmets taken off. _She, must have known… right?_

"Tex!" Viken called out, helping Tucker up to his feet but looking over in panic as their team leader got cut apart. "Oh yeah," he said after shouting it in panic. "My bad, Cleo," the soldier formerly known as Wash said as the AI turned and glared his direction.

"Carolina," Cleo said, glancing towards the redhead in cyan armor who was the only one still standing to face Lexa. Carolina was all alone, but she had her helmet back on. A small white AI looking like the full-sized one next to Cleo popped up over Carolina's right shoulder. Cleo's ghostly AI body shook her head and said, "You can't."

"Don't tell me what I can't do," Carolina started, her fists clenching at her sides. "Church," Carolina started, and the Epsilon AI next to her head stepped back nervously in the air over her shoulder. "All power into the speed boost." Carolina bent her knees and she felt her muscles tensing up until the help of her AI gave her the support to run those armor systems. "More," she whispered, while pulling out a pair of knives from her waist and holding them up glaring towards the Commander.

"A team member who won't even listen to orders," Lexa stood straight up and slid her swords down into her sheaths. Carolina's eyes opened huge behind her visor as the Commander turned her back to her. Lexa turned towards Cleo and said, "Your request to become the new Beta Squad is denied, Cleo. Get your team in order. They're a mess," Lexa glanced around with a glare at certain members in the room who leaned back at that look. She glared hardest at Carolina who was shaking as she stood hunched in her ready-to-sprint position. "You lost."

"Stand down," Cleo said harshly. "Epsilon," she growled, and Carolina's AI 'eep'ed before cutting off his soldier's armor systems.

"Sorry Carolina," Epsilon whispered in the cyan helmet.

Carolina shook in anger as she stood back up straight, before turning and throwing the knife in her right hand at the wall behind her in fury. Her eyes shot open huge as she released the blade, only to stare forward wide-eyed as the man who was standing behind her rose his right hand and caught the knife by the blade. Lexa was already looking that way, but everyone else in the room looked over as Carolina stood back straight up and stared at the teenager who caught her knife.

The black haired teen tossed the blade up and caught it by the hilt, then he tossed it back towards Carolina before turning away from the armored woman. "Mind if I give it a go?" Kirito asked. He stood wearing all black training clothes, and he had his two sword hilts sticking out over the tops of his shoulders.

"You?" Lexa asked, lifting her eyebrows up as she faced the younger man. She started walking towards him, and she said, "Do you think because of that fight I may be winded, and you might have a chance to beat me?" Lexa sprinted forward, pulling both of her curved swords out of her sheaths and darting left and right faster than she had moved in her entire fight against the squad just fighting her. Kirito reached his hands up to his swords fast and slashed them down right as Lexa slashed up at him.

"Whoa! What's going on?" Sangheili shook his head around and shrugged off Viken's helping arm to stand on his own. He stared forward while running his tongue between his teeth where he no longer felt a tooth that should have been there, but that was not processing very well as he saw the guy who just came in start slashing swipe for swipe with the Commander. The boy was about to be slashed across the face, but when one of Lexa's blades was inches away, Kirito's eyes darted towards it and his head pulled millimeters out of the way.

"This kid," Cleo started, the AI realizing something. The Alpha next to her realized it simultaneously, as did the other AIs in the room who all searched their systems and found who they were staring at so they could tell the soldiers with them.

Kirito leapt back and Lexa sprinted towards where he was going to come down. "AHH!" Kirito yelled at her, and the air in front of his body rippled from the shout and stopped her in place. Then with the extra second he had as he landed, Kirito stomped down both feet onto the floor and cracked it straight towards Lexa who snapped her gaze down with widened eyes for the first time. The white floor of the Resistance training rooms could handle a lot thrown at it, so being cracked that easily made Lexa know it was some strange power causing it. She dodged by side-stepping to the left, then she sprinted straight at Kirito again and sliced across her body towards his.

Kirito rose his swords, but Lexa released hers right as they were about to hit his. She then extended her right arm between his blades he was blocking with, grabbed him by the front of his black shirt, and she yanked him forward and down towards the floor. She brought her knee up as his head passed down between his arms that were turning his blades, and as he stumbled back with his eyes closed, Lexa caught her two blades being knocked backwards. Kirito snapped his eyes open, but Lexa was gone. A sword wrapped around his neck and the sharp blade covered in Haki pressed into his throat.

Lexa stood behind him and said, "If you're going to interrupt, then you better make a better show of it than that. I expected more." The figure she was speaking to exploded in a puff of smoke. The door opened behind Lexa and she turned towards it again, and this time when she saw him enter, the right corner of her lip actually lifted up a bit. "The rest of you, out," Lexa said.

Kirito wondered how he was going to do as he walked farther into the room. _I only made one Shadow Clone. I meant to do better before coming in myself. She wasn't as interested as Ra's was in talking though._

"Yo! You took down Ra's al Ghul?" Sangheili wasn't far from where Kirito was walking in, and the teen glanced the older man's way as he called that out. "That's crazy! Nice job."

Cleo glanced over towards Lexa as Sangheili got Kirito's attention, and the AI frowned at the sight of the short Commander's expression. "Everyone. Let's get out of here. We can watch from outside and go over what went wrong."

"Need to get you a new body too," Viken mentioned while heading towards the door himself. He walked behind the teen who he glanced at closer when he was near him. _He's young._

"Think we'll finally get our new orders?" Alpha wondered as he started walking towards the door his translucent self.

Kirito was staying focused on Lexa as the team who had been fighting her gathered up their unconscious members and started leaving. He caught bits and pieces of what they were saying while he stared at his opponent who was looking straight back in his eyes now. _They just came back, from the southeast it sounds like. New orders from HQ…_ Kirito started frowning more but he steadied his expression and drew his swords from his sheaths when the room was almost empty.

Carolina walked out of the room slowly, but Mayan walked up at her side and said, "Don't take it too hard, C." The man in gold armor patted a hand onto her back and rubbed it up and down for a second. "I think you could'a taken her."

Delta popped up next to Mayan's helmet, and the small green AI said, "The probability of success for Carolina to defeat the Commander was actually ze-"

"Let's get this off," Mayan took his helmet off and tucked it down below his right arm, cutting off Delta mid-sentence too. The light-skinned man ran his other hand up through his brown hair to spike it up, and then he turned to the girl next to him as they headed through the door, "Cheer up. Not everything's a competition you know?"

Carolina growled at him without turning her head, and Mayan held up a hand defensively to show he meant nothing by it. "I'm looking forward to seeing this guy in action though," he said, changing the subject quickly while walking to the side of the door to the computer they'd be able to spectate from.

"Yeah me too," Sangheili said as Mayan walked up to him. The black man in teal armor had short even darker black hair over his head, and a lot of blood on his face as he looked at the screen.

"Tucker," Carolina said, turning her helmet to him a little. "Go sit in a recovery tank. You look like battered shit."

"No way am I missing this!" Tucker exclaimed back at her right as the last of their group came out of the room dragging an unconscious Roman with him. "It's gonna be- holy crap! Whoa!" Tucker leaned away from the screen and then started grinning after a second while the others who came out all turned to it as well. As soon as the door closed behind Mongol and Roman, the two thin figures inside the training room sprinted at each other.

"Could use a guy like that on my team," Cleo said, lifting a hand and scratching her translucent helmet's chin.

"Wonder what he's fighting the Commander for?" Mayan said thoughtfully, then his eyes widened huge as forty more of the dark-haired teenager just appeared all over that room.

 _Still tired from facing Sasuke, but that's why it was good she got in a fight already. Did Sasuke tell her about me yet?_ Kiritos sprinted in at Lexa from all sides, slashing at her with the dual-wielded swords that she was dodging seemingly with ease. _Faster still?_ Kirito thought when she sped up more than she had in her fight against those soldiers that she was going as fast as she could, but the girl in between three of his clones suddenly shot straight up to the ceiling faster than any of the Kiritos could follow.

"Cleo," a voice called down the hallway to the translucent female AI in black armor. The group staring closely at the television on the wall turned their heads, and the man walking their way gave the ghostly leader of the team an annoyed look, "Why aren't you in a body suit? I was told you had…" Gray Fullbuster trailed off as he glanced at the screen the others had been staring at. He stared at the screen while Cleo started responding to him with an apology for losing the armor, not mentioning that Lexa had destroyed it in her report.

Gray's eyes focused in on the screen, but he said while looking at it, "I'm calling a meeting with all the gathered team leaders. Twenty minutes in hangar bay C. All mission personnel are to meet in Auditorium A-01 at 20:00 for a briefing report."

"It's about time," Tucker said, turning towards Gray again since he had looked back at the screen right after the younger man called to them the first time.

Gray glanced around at the group in front of him, then back to Cleo and said, "Get yourself a new body, and the rest of you get healed up. We're moving out fast as soon as I give out the mission details. Don't expect to stay here tonight."

"Understood," the soldiers in front of him said, and finally they all got to jogging away. Some of them had more to do than others in the time they had until their mission briefing, while Cleo just glanced next to her at Church and nodded. The Alpha and Beta AIs disappeared into the television they had been watching and moved out through the base's system, saying 'hi' to Ritsu on their way up to get Cleo a new body, and Church argued he wanted one of his own too after losing his body on the last mission.

Gray stayed behind after the others had all run off. He stared at the screen and inside the training room where a Commander he did not know well was facing off against Kirito in a heated battle. _I know all your moves. We've fought together, and I know just how strong you are. Would you come if I asked?_ Gray stared closer at the teen who flipped backwards while making hand-signs, as the woman who had somehow located him through all his Shadow Clones was getting too close. Kirito blew a fireball at Lexa who sprinted fast to the right to dodge it after feigning dodging left, making Kirito miss by a long shot with a jutsu that cost him some chakra. One of the Shadow Clones he threw was the other direction in case it was a misdirection though, and that one crossed its hands and created two others who it threw ahead at the girl who stopped short.

Gray grinned and leaned closer with a growing look of excitement as Lexa slashed one of the clones apart, only to be tackled backwards by the second one whose main goal was to cover her eyes. As Lexa started countering Kirito's attempt though, Gray stopped smiling so much at the aspect of his comrade beating a Resistance Commander in combat. _**"You were going to kill me. Not six hours ago. You were going to kill me…"**_ Gray clenched his teeth hard while looking at the intense teen in the next room who was continuing on the assault even as his last two moves fell through with Lexa seeing through his strategies. _**"You are no longer my comrade."**_

Outside the training room, Gray turned from the screen and started marching off. His unsteady look got so frustrated at the thoughts he was having. The night they saved Juvia, right after they brought her back, he couldn't get what Kirito told him out of his mind. _**"I'll stay with you on our way back to Pon-Gatso, solely to protect Juvia. Once we are there, we're done."**_ _I can't call to him. I can't let the others see how little he trusts me._ Gray's look started to steady and get more serious. He lowered his head a bit and stared underneath the rim of the General's hat he was wearing, and he clenched his one fist under the navy-blue cloak he had been given. _I've already gathered my forces. Made my plan. There's no time to change it now._ Gray walked forward staring down the hall and much farther, _Now, is the time for action._

Back inside the room Gray just walked away from, Kirito hit the ground on his back and tried rolling to the side. He found it difficult though, as a knee pressed into his chest and a blade up against his throat. His eyes bulged and all the Shadow Clones running towards him froze where they were. There were only twelve of them left, but one had a Rasengan in hand and another was in the middle of doing hand signs for a different jutsu despite how depleted on chakra Kirito was. He still felt like he could keep going, but even if he was not completely exhausted yet, Lexa had beaten him.

She knelt harder into his lungs and pressed her blade across the real Kirito's throat harder, and he said as a drop of blood trickled down his neck, "How'd you know, which was me?" She had kept chasing the real one no matter how many times he split with more Shadow Clones or made sure he had left her sight.

"It wasn't a certain energy or anything," Lexa said while looking down into his eyes from only a foot up where her head was leaning. The slightly older woman glared into Kirito's gaze that was steady even as she held a sword to his neck. "You just gave it away yourself, which was the real you." Kirito's eyes widened a bit, as he thought there must have been some sort of trick or something. _She just, guessed? And she guessed right all those times? It wasn't like I was hiding my real body. How? Could I do-_

Lexa pulled her sword off of Kirito's neck and stood up at his side. She slid her swords down into her sheaths, then she extended a hand down to the boy whose eyes widened even more as he was not expecting this. He grabbed her hand while letting go of the sword in his right hand, and she pulled him up to his feet and said, "I'll train you." Kirito finally did not go wider-eyed this time, returning his gaze to normal instead at what she said to him. "Sasuke asked me to," she continued while releasing Kirito's hand and taking a step back. "But I wasn't going to do it. Not unless you came up to me yourself and asked. I like your way better though," she added, since Kirito had not technically asked her to train him at all.

 _He's not bad. The look in his eyes is not that of a warrior though._ Lexa's gaze got angrier at Kirito's look after what she just said to him, "Unless you have better things to do?"

"Oh, um, thank you," Kirito did not know what she had been waiting for from him, so he bowed his head a little bit as he said it. _What kind of world was she from? She just kicked the shit out of those super soldiers with AI enhancements and guns, and she just has swords. She didn't use any jutsu, didn't fly or use ki blasts. She's just, strong._ "Please, train me," Kirito requested.

"Hmph," Lexa grunted and glared at the top of his messy black hair. All of Kirito's Shadow Clones disappeared in puffs of smoke when he rose his head back up, and he leaned back a bit as she glared straight into his eyes as angrily as she was doing before. "Just one thing. Why? Why do you want to train here? What purpose do you have in getting stronger?"

Kirito stared straight back into Lexa's eyes and responded truthfully, "To help the Resistance. That's it."

Lexa glared harder at him at that answer. _That's not all,_ her eyes examined his for another second, then she turned and started for the exit of the room. Kirito watched her start going in some confusion and surprise as he thought their training would start right now. "Be in here by five tomorrow morning," she said. "That shouldn't be too hard for the boy who killed Ra's al Ghul, should it?"

Kirito glared at her back for a second, but he immediately lightened his expression when she turned and stared at him as if daring him to continue that glare. "Five's fine," Kirito replied. _Not like I'll be having a late night tonight anyway. I need to pass out right now._ He kept his eyes open their normal size though, at least until Lexa turned around again.

* * *

 **A/N Thanks for reading! Once again sorry about the long wait. A whole lot of battle scenes this chapter. Sasuke vs Goku was a really fun fight to write, and after I finished that is where I got caught in my couple month break. Anyway, the new Commander this chapter is Lexa from The 100 who I really liked in that show. She's pretty awesome and the show as a whole is one of my favorites right now. The people she was fighting are all from Red vs Blue, and I'll make it a little easier here to figure out who they were since I changed up their codenames (though I did mention it in the story too).**

 **Viken: Wash**

 **Sangheili: Tucker**

 **Cleo: Tex**

 **Mongol: Maine**

 **Roman: North Dakota**

 **Mayan: York**

 **-So that's a whole squad of RvB guys in there, as well as with a bunch of AIs. Kirito notices there are AIs all around again, we'll see if anything comes of that later... He starts his training with a Resistance Commander while Goku proves to Sasuke that he's the Resistance's trump card still. Gray prepares to set off on his invasion of the Sith. Everyone's got their missions. Everyone's starting their month breaks in full now. Couple more parts before the end of this chapter and the start of one of the many arcs for our separated heroes. Try guessing which group/individual gets HWR 17 in a review below! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!**

Espada-001 chapter 112 . Jun 8

Hello again! Man you really make it hard to make a review for each individual chapter since you release them back to back. Not complaining about the updates just maken it a bit hard for a person with limited computer access at times lol.

 **Well I guess I fixed that problem... by not updating for a few months... Yeah sorry about that. Your review's pretty long so just gonna respond to the rest of it here. Who could the magician be the girls and Timmy are searching out? How will Ben get Zodd to help him? Which will we see first? What about the other Kryptonians? What about the Sith?! So many questions, so many arcs set up now so the answers will come in time! With the RWBY world characters handling shotgun shells even if they haven't been trained very well, I'd say that shows there's likely something different about RWBY characters' bodies and those from other shows. Like everyone showing up on Nexus didn't instantly give everyone Quirks, or special powers when there are worlds where everyone has these things. So maybe unlocking Auras is possible, we haven't seen it yet, but we have seen people who've unlocked Nen so I won't say it can't happen. Anyway doubt these new Resistance members are giving any more hope towards someone who can take on Meruem, though there's some more mention of Kirito and AIs this chapter. Haven't seen MAR, but checked it out and maybe will watch sometime and add them in. Thanks for the long review, and I hope you're still into Nexus despite the hiatus!**

Limit-Breaking chapter 112 . Jun 10

Hey here is a question for you when will sebatian from black butler make an apperance in this story we need to see more of him and i really do hope he can play a cool role in this story. If you do not know black butler then you should be ashamed of not watching the show at all.

 **Have not seen Black Butler ;(. Sorry for such a long hiatus (and the disappointing response to a character you seem to be really into). Hope you liked the chapter though, and thanks for reviewing!**

Guest chapter 112 . Jun 12

and now stan has joined the dark side, cant wait to see what happens next, and did anyone else see that new kingdom hearts trailer it was cool.

 **Stan's going down a dark path... especially with Gray about to invade the Sith! And hell yeah I saw all the KH trailers, I'm really excited. Thanks for the review!**

Smlluffy67 chapter 112 . Jun 18

I really want to get to talk about the few chapters I read so let's just get this one thing out of the way right now AQUA NOOOOOOO and make new outfit oh and jump force all right the last few chapters have been good and it looks like the characters are doing anything else besides training except for Goku

 **Well Kirito's out there training too. I have a feeling Aqua's not as evil as the trailer gave away, or at least I hope... I pray! I never read Marvel comics myself, so it's mainly going to be MCU marvel characters though I do look them up and try using powers/backstories from comics too based on their wikipedias.**

flo463 chapter 112 . Jun 18

Kirito joins the rebellion. surprising because I thought he was pretty much the type to isolate himself from others after the acts he committed.  
the part about the ias was interesting,  
Kabaya's knowledge could prove useful since he created Yui and Strea (Strea is a character who only appears in Infinity Moment and Hollow Fragment games and is a mental-health program, similar to Yui, we can say that she is Yui's sister in a sense)  
Sora who runs away just to find Kairi knowing that he is probably heading into a trap, after the others have elected him leader of the group, not very glorious. I do not know how others will react because they tend to act egoistement, but if I were them I would hardly give my trust after that.  
I can see the Resistance High Command reacting badly if he learns that Sora has fled, I will not trust anyone who runs away from his responsibilities as leader.  
I thought that the group would start acting like a real group, each helping each other instead of acting and thinking first of all about themselves, this is unfortunately not the case, each acting according to his personal interests. it would be maybe time when somebody to talk some sense them and to teach them to act as a real group and not their own  
do you intend to add Highschool DXD by chance?

 **Kirito's seen some of the work the Resistance is doing by now, and really he pretty much went on this trip to Aebrith solely to join up with the Resistance and help them. It's what Goku asked him to do, and now he and Goku are pretty much the only ones there training at Resistance HQ, though I guess Gray's there too, for now. May add Yui and I've been hinting at more AI stuff now, but I never read the light novels so a probably not on the Strea. Sora heads out for love over duty, though he was pretty specific about everyone meeting up on Day 30, so hopefully he can make it back, the rest of them too in time to join back up together. And no I haven't seen DXD, tried getting into it a couple of times because I know there's some good action, but I just wasn't into the premise. Anyway, sorry for the couple month wait, but I hope you liked the new chapter! Thanks for the review!**

cyber chapter 112 . Aug 8

man I saw some awesome ass cinematics of Warcraft, well since you did add Warcraft, I wonder where sylvanas is

 **Haven't played WOW in a while now, but I'm def planning on adding some more WOW stuff into this considering that's just such a huge world and has a lot to offer. Don't know if Sylvanas will appear... no spoilers after all! Thanks for the review! And once again everyone, sorry for the long wait. I hope you all enjoyed! And as always, 'till next time!**


	114. Nexus HWR 16-6 The Art of Assassination

**Nexus HWR 16.6 The Art of Assassination:**

 **Bludhaven**

The city of Bludhaven in west-central Aebrith was a ghost town in consideration of the citizens of the city. Not one civilian was out on the streets, no civilian hovercars flying around, and most citizens were staying away from their windows. They were in former Fire Nation territory, but so far they had in a large way avoided any of the conflict that followed their nation's collapse. That was in no small part thanks to the immediate capture of the city by a neighboring Lord who executed the former Lord and flipped the military in the matter of an hour after news of Sozin's death reached the city. Some people had not even heard the news yet, when Lord Ichiji made his announcement and declared Bludhaven under Germa control.

The former Fire Nation soldiers in the city who did not stand by their fallen Lord were all given new uniforms, and the people hiding in the skyscrapers and apartment buildings all around Bludhaven's central most metropolitan area were praying those soldiers would protect them. Only half the citizens were able to see their own soldiers though, as the city was currently split in two. One side was full of their Germa soldiers, who wore black uniforms with white cloaks over them that had big red '66's in the centers of the white capes, had red handkerchiefs wrapped around their necks, and they all wore black sunglasses over the tight white masks that wrapped their entire heads except the bottoms of their faces. The other half of the city, the southern half, was full of soldiers wearing the uniforms of the Sun Marines. They were pointing their weapons up at the buildings on their sides and making the citizens inside cower, but they could not worry about the fear of the population when there could be Germa soldiers hiding around and using their home-field advantage.

Fleet Admiral Komei could not deny the request for a peace summit, and to show his strength he accepted Ichiji's request for it to take place in Bludhaven. The Sun Marines knew there was a high chance for ambush, but they were also planning on moving up to Bludhaven at some point anyway, so if Ichiji was going to betray them after inviting them into the city, they were going to take it. The citizens of Bludhaven were not stupid, and rumors of the plans and possibilities this meeting could entail had them too scared to leave their homes. Most workplaces were closed, but that did not include the largest building in the city right in the center. It was not the tallest building, but it was wider than the bases of all the skyscrapers around it combined. It was round and extended outwards from the base up a hundred feet before it started curving back in with a giant round dome. That round dome started pointing as it got closer to the center, and right in the middle of the building was a tall single point. Above that point was a huge sign that was flashing bright colors of the rainbow, a different color for each letter of 'CA$INO.'

The streets were packed on both the north and south sides of the casino in the center of the city. The Germa soldiers stood in giant battalion formations lining the roads from one side to the other and all the way down them. Every ten rows of soldiers there was a line of seven white mechs standing twelve feet tall with see-through glass cockpits, with one much larger mech over twice as tall standing in the middle of the seven with three smaller ones on either side. At the CA$INO, the Germa forces became more spread out closer to the rounded east and west sides of the building. Before they reached the side though, they stopped moving out and kept in defensive positions instead. Whereas the Sun Marines moved all the way to the line, the actual red line, that the Germa forces painted out from the sides of the casino directly in its east-west center.

The majority of Sun Marine artillery stayed outside of Bludhaven along with half of their army. The other eight thousand five hundred soldiers moved into the city in a much more packed formation through the southern streets of the city. They were not permitted access into the buildings, but they had drones with hovering capabilities flying just outside the windows of buildings all over the southern half of Bludhaven. The drones used thermal sensors through the walls of the buildings and marked the number of people on each floor before moving up higher and scanning again. Floors with inordinate amounts of heat signatures in them then had soldiers with jetpacks on flying up to those floors' windows. Every time so far though, it was just a floor where the citizens had gathered together in hopes that grouping up would make them safer, though they only felt a lot more afraid as the heavily armed soldiers flew up to the windows with their guns aimed inside.

The Sun Marines wore white uniforms pretty close to their usual design that the people of Bludhaven recognized, but they had made some alterations to the uniforms since Kong's self-declaration as a Lord. The hats the soldiers wore were red all around including the rims, only with the white 'SUN MARINES' letters written on the front just above the rims. Another change was the symbol that every soldier now wore over the left side of their chests, and for the officers they had it in the background of their jackets that had the Kanji for 'Justice' written down them vertically. Those symbols no longer consisted of the white seagull from the original Marines, instead replaced by a red seagull over a large dark yellow sun. The soldiers on the streets were moving alongside two lines of tanks, and each tank had several soldiers standing or sitting on its sides while aiming around heavy weapons they were using the tanks to help carry so they would not have to carry the heavy weapons for as long.

There were several entrances and exits to the CA$INO, but only two were currently open. The front doors in the north which was the main entrance, and the southern doors which entered into a night club that the Sun Marine delegation had to walk through in order to get to the main floor where the talks were going to take place. The negotiating party for the Sun Marines arrived at the table first, and Admiral Prodi glared around the room at the guests and staff of the casino all over the place. _Such a public venue,_ he thought in annoyance, though he tried masking it from showing on his face well. Prodi sat at the middle seat on his side of the round table that was set up in the perfect middle of the casino. The round table had an open section in the middle that one of the staff walked into once the delegation had taken their seats. The sides of the table had small wooden doors elevated off the ground but stopping just at the table's surface, so the man who walked up to them pushed the door inwards to step into the opening.

"Could I bring you men some drinks to start off with?" Gotoh questioned. The lanky man wore a black suit that was nothing fancy and had a red tie on that vanished beneath his black jacket leaving only a few inches of it visible. He reached down under the counter and lifted an expensive-looking bottle of brandy, to which Admiral Prodi lifted his eyebrows up at.

Prodi frowned after looking at the bottle with some interest, then he glared through the glasses the thin man was wearing and growled at him, "Where is Ichiji?"

"I would request that you use the proper title when referring to Lord Ichiji," Gotoh responded. Prodi's frown deepened and Gotoh could see him about to blow a fuse from the rising look of anger on his face. "Lord Ichiji is arriving at the northern entrance now," Gotoh added, and Prodi froze with his mouth open as he was about to yell something.

The Admiral paused, then he closed his mouth and glared around the room again. _What kind of place is this for peace talks? Does that bastard actually intend to make peace at all?_ Prodi looked towards a bar to his right that cut out of a side wall over thirty feet before curving around the room. There were dozens of seats at that bar, two televisions over each bartender's area, and five shelves of alcohol going across the entire thing. It looked to Prodi that business was not as packed as usual, as a few of the bartenders were standing still and not doing anything, which made sense since all the seats in their areas were empty. Still, Prodi could tell they were ordered to look presentable even when they were not doing anything, since unless they were straightening out their suits, they were standing still with their hands either put together in front of their waists with their arms outstretched or together behind their backs with their chests stuck out farther.

The large open doors on the north side of the main casino's floor became lined with staff who all wore the same black suits whether or not they were male or female. The only difference in the women's outfits was that theirs consisted of long black skirts instead of pants and they were not required to wear ties. A procession of Germa soldiers started walking through those doors, each one identical to the others at its sides. _Clones,_ Prodi thought as he looked over. _Let's see, he brought some speed-types, some strong's, and a bunch of balanced's. No need for concern though._ Prodi kept a stern and confident expression on his face, while he looked between the cloned soldiers towards the red hair he saw towards the back of the procession. Prodi glanced to his right after he caught a glimpse of Ichiji, and he saw the broad-shouldered bulky man a few seats down so he was closest to the other half of the table watching Ichiji's procession closely. _Not the strongest in the Elite, but his Devil Fruit power will help out greatly if this does turn out to be a trap._

Ichiji's soldiers moved out of his way as he walked forward with his hands at his sides. He was wearing his Raid Suit, but he kept a sharp gaze through his red-tinted sunglasses at the table in the center they were heading towards. _So he brought Blueno? Might be other Elite hiding around here,_ Ichiji's eyes did a once-over of the casino's main floor. _More crowded than I thought it would be, but that works in our favor. I made it public where the meeting would be days ago, as well as the time it would take place, for a reason._

Some of the people at the bar nudged each other and motioned towards the north side of the room that Ichiji entered from. Some brigands sitting at a blackjack table not far from the one Ichiji was walking towards looked the Lord up and down as he marched through the room. Their round table was within earshot of the table the meeting would be taking place around, and the dealer in the center gap stopped dealing his cards when he saw every one of the people he was dealing to look away. Even the two men not part of the brigands who sat across the table were looking over interestedly.

Ichiji looked past the table he was heading towards to the other half of the main casino floor. There were ten rows of slot machines going from the middle of the room on that half all the way to the west side where the walls started curving in. On the east side of the far half of the room from him though, was an area meant more for eating, drinking, and relaxing. There were comfortable chairs and couches around low tables. He saw a few of the couches closest to where the meeting was going to occur had people on them staring right towards the middle of the room. Two of them he spotted as journalists from Bludhaven, and he recognized an independent journalist whose articles often made it into the Aebrith Daily as well. The independent journalist who was more famous than the two mostly based in Bludhaven had a brown hat on with a short rim, a plaid black-and-white button down, and he had a camera around his neck and a laptop open on his legs. He had a lollipop in his mouth and was already typing as he darted his eyes up from the computer over to Ichiji who was not looking straight at him, but was staring at him through his sunglasses that hid where he was looking.

Ichiji was walking with his head pointed straight at Prodi, and he kept a deep frown on his face as he approached the table. He stopped behind his chair, and eight strong-class clones walked up to his sides. "Admiral Prodi," Ichiji began. "Komei disrespects me by sending you in his place."

"As it was yourself, and not your father who called this negotiation," Admiral Prodi began. " _Fleet Admiral_ Komei," he emphasized Komei's rank as Ichiji had left it out a moment ago, "decided that I would suffice."

"If my father, Lord Judge Vinsmoke, had called this meeting," Ichiji countered. "Then Lord Kong would have been expected to show up himself."

"Lord Kong is busy with international matters, and is currently in the Alvarez Empire," Prodi replied, casually name-dropping the country that neighbored both of theirs to the east, however one that the Sun Marines had a much longer border with.

Ichiji continued to frown at Prodi, but then he spoke while pulling his chair out, "As it is, I thank you for responding to the summons at all." Ichiji sat down at his chair, and only once he was sitting comfortably did all the clones move at once and take their seats in a strangely synchronized fashion that unnerved some of the Sun Marine officers sitting at Prodi's side, though Prodi and Blueno ignored it. After Ichiji took his seat, he turned his head and glared at one of the officers sitting across from him directly on Prodi's left side. "General Shinu," he greeted in a not-so-friendly tone, then turned back to Prodi without another word.

The Fire Nation general who had commanded Fire Lord Sozin's northern armies, and who pulled them all out of Germa territory after Sozin's defeat, did not say a word to Ichiji or change his facial expression after Ichiji's harsh greeting. The man had long, dark brown hair that was tied up in a bun over his head, and he had a large beard that spiked out in Fire Nation style from his jaw while also sharply cutting in towards his nose over his cheeks. Shinu's hands tightened into fists under the table, while he responded in a calm tone to the Lord who had already turned away from him, "It is Commander Shinu now."

Ichiji was annoyed he actually spoke up, but he grinned at the sound of that. Prodi cut in before Ichiji could make a taunt however, "Yet a Commander of the Sun Marines, is on level with a General of the former Fire Nation. Only General Bujing was granted a higher position, which is to be expected of the highest ranking General of Sozin's forces." Ichiji turned back to the Admiral and once again frowned at the older man with gray hair slicked back over his head and a sharp gray goatee. Prodi wore the common golden epaulettes of Sun Marine officers on his shoulders, but like all the others,' his had red plating in the centers unlike the blue he used to wear on his own world. He had on an orange suit jacket over a red button down, which along with his white jacket gave his uniform and Ichiji's a somewhat matching appearance.

The Raid Suit Ichiji had on was blood red like the color of his hair but with the numbers '66' on the center of his chest. He wore a white cloak that had the red number '1' on the left side of it so that with his arms down the 1 came around his left shoulder. As it was while he was sitting, the 1 was on his left side barely sticking out around him, and Ichiji crossed his arms while leaning back in his chair. He looked to Gotoh after Prodi defended Shinu, and he said to his direct subordinate pretending to be a member of the casino's staff, "Drinks."

"Lord Ichiji," Prodi began, cutting in before the tall, thin man could start pouring anything. "We came here in good faith, because _you_ requested an audience. Our goal is peace, so we could not decline, but if you treat this like a game I will leave-"

"It is not a game," Ichiji said, though he smiled while Gotoh filled up his glass then started filling the glasses of each of the cloned soldiers who all asked for the same thing one after the other. They were all wearing the same uniforms, all had the same heights and widths, and even their smiles when the drinks were poured were starting to creep Prodi out. "But do you think negotiations can go so quickly that you would not like a drink while we endure them? My father didn't want to come here himself, as it would damage his pride," Ichiji said, and each of the clones near him all turned to their Lord with wide eyes, as did some of Prodi's fellow officers who gawked at Ichiji after his said it. "But he doesn't want things to continue as they have been, so I told him I would take care of everything. Your boss really pisses me off," Ichiji said, turning his head and glaring suddenly at a man on his left who had black hair slicked back over his head and a thin dark beard over his face.

Blueno stared right back into Ichiji's sunglasses, while every one of the Germa soldiers sitting at Ichiji's side and standing in the single-file lines behind his chair leading back to the northern doors, also glared at the member of the Sun Marines' Elite unit. "Did he tell you about our fight before you came here?" Ichiji questioned. "It was close. How close are you to his power?" Ichiji was looking for a twitch, a flinch, even a drop of sweat to give him a good read of the strength of the man in front of him. _Kaku is the Elite's strongest, but his power was no joke. I know Blueno is weaker, but by how much? Could an assassination have worked? No point thinking on it now._

"We came here to discuss terms," Prodi said, making Ichiji turn back towards him. The Admiral frowned and kept himself from uttering the words, 'of surrender,' knowing that negotiations would break down before they started if he did, and Komei would not be pleased when he received that report. _That man's become arrogant since Kong gave him the title, even though he lost Pyraxas… Maybe it's not even the title though, with the power of a God thrust on him like that._ Prodi continued while refocusing his thoughts, "The conflict between the Sun Marines and Germa is taking priority in both of our groups' armies, would you agree?" He waited a second and Ichiji kept frowning at him silently, so Prodi growled before continuing louder and in a more frustrated voice, "While there are brigands, warlords, and former Lords who abandoned their cities with large portions of their armies when they saw either of our groups approaching. Those forces are spread throughout the former Fire Nation and they are causing constant chaos, which we cannot properly deal with while you Germa are attacking our cities."

"If we stop attacking to let you take care of your domestic affairs," Ichiji started. "Then as soon as you gain control over the interior, your next move will be to unite the former Fire Nation under one leader: Kong."

Prodi almost corrected Ichiji that he did not say "Lord" before Kong. However, Prodi recalled earlier when he had been watching out for it more that Ichiji _had_ referred to Kong that way, so he did not see it as much as a sign of disrespect this time. Instead, Prodi wondered if he only said "Kong" because if the former Fire Nation was united, then it would be under _High Lord_ Kong. Just the idea of that made Prodi grin in a more relaxed way, and he leaned back in his chair feeling that the negotiations were getting under way.

Ichiji gazed around from behind his sunglasses as Prodi started talking about the situation that he was already more than well informed about. Prodi discussed the previous battles, army sizes, which cities were under whose control, and the overall status of their conflict. Ichiji knew he was getting to a point, somewhere, but he shifted his attention on the casino floor that he had selected as a location for their meeting for good reason. _No low ceilings for anyone to ambush from above, and there isn't a basement to reach from below. All I.D.'s are scanned and carefully checked, and yet, I have a bad feeling. My instincts do not fail me often._ His eyes focused on some of the slot machines in the second row down yet close to the center aisle of the room that had a red carpet over it. He could only see three machines on that row, but two of the people sitting there with one older woman between them had on red hoodies, with the hoods up.

"…Your situation was clearly bad before, but Fleet Admiral Komei's Devil Fruit has made an even larger distinction. Two cities in a single day, as well as the capture of your younger brother Niji…"

 _Yes, the main reason I have to hold this farce._ Ichiji thought while scanning his eyes from the slot machines back to Prodi, and then father left to Prodi's right and the east side of the room where he focused on the couch area. His hidden eyes looked farther left than the journalists who were not hiding what they were doing, then past a few other onlookers standing behind a poker table and looking his way while pretending to watch the game in front of them. _Thought so,_ Ichiji thought, while staring at a few other figures wearing jackets very different from the hoodies the ones at the slot machines were wearing. There were also others wearing hoodies sitting on a couch closer to him that was facing the couch past their table and the other one's table where the three in jackets were sitting.

 **"He's getting suspicious. Maehara, do it."**

In the direction Ichiji was looking, one of the people in hoodies who was facing away from him turned towards the woman on his right. The young man's face was visible under his hood, and he said something to the girl in front of him while reaching his arms up and sliding them out of his sleeves. She nodded and started doing the same with her pink sweatshirt that had fur around the hood, but the other girl next to her shook her head and rubbed her arms instead, choosing to leave her extra layer on.

 _Is it cold in here. Strangely enough, it is,_ Ichiji thought. _It's colder outside so I did not notice, but the temperature in here is not as high as it should be. Is it a move by the CA$INO staff? Colder people may tend to buy more drinks, and thus gamble more, if they want the alcohol to warm them up. It's a possibility._ Ichiji focused on two pairs of guards standing on the left and right sides of the wraparound bar to his left past all the other card tables. _The Shinra Tribe, Peacock Queen claims they are bodyguards and bouncers, but I have seen them in combat._ The light-purple-skinned aliens had pointy ears sticking out from their heads below the white bandages that wrapped the top of their skulls and the bottoms to cover their mouths and necks completely. They wore gray cloaks covering their entire bodies other than their heads, and Ichiji had his soldiers on the lookout for them from the moment they entered the casino. _I wouldn't put it past that woman to ally with the Sun Marines to try and gain favor. Yonji tells me she's still in the Dread Fort though, so if anything happens here she'd be signing her own death warrant. That means it isn't her._

"My brother is a failure," Ichiji said, as soon as Prodi finished speaking even though his attention had been elsewhere. "He failed to take Pyraxas, and keeping his city was his next mission, which he also failed at." Ichiji paused, then he continued, "However, we need him back anyway."

"I am glad to hear you care enough that his return is a necessity," Prodi said. The Admiral smiled confidently and continued, "We are in the position to make demands, after all the current situation is in our favor, however Lord Kong is willing to return Niji." Prodi leaned in and continued, "In exchange, for the Germa submitting to his rule, that is."

"I am against that," Ichiji began. "From the tell of things here, I can see you have far too much confidence in the _current_ state of the war continuing at this pace. Did you know, _Admiral,_ that I too recently acquired a Devil Fruit ability?" Ichiji said it while narrowing his eyes and leaning farther forward over the table. Prodi got a bead of sweat on the side of his face, while Blueno's body tensed up and his eyes started darting around at all the clones behind Ichiji who were not reacting at all to their Lord's sudden killing intent. Blueno's eyes shot to the bartender in the middle of their table who turned straight towards him and started giving him as murderous a glare as Blueno could imagine the man could give through those glasses.

"I knew you would be planning something," Ichiji said. "Which is why I wore my Raid Suit to a 'peace' meeting." Then he smirked as Prodi's eyes opened wide in surprise.

Prodi stared straight at Ichiji with wide eyes, and he said, "What are you talking about?"

Ichiji's senses went wild. _He's actually surprised. He doesn't have any idea as to what I'm talking about?!_

 **"Abort."**

Ichiji's eyes started darting around the room, and he spotted the three people wearing jackets over at one of the couches get up to their feet. One of them looked at his watch and mentioned something, while the other two looked towards the middle of the room, then back at him and nodded at the guy. Their hoods were not so high up that Ichiji could not see their faces, and two of them definitely looked towards him in that second they stood up, though it was not all that surprising since everyone knew what was going on at the CA$INO that day.

At the same time though, Ichiji also spotted someone over at the slot machines slam his hand down in frustration on the machine, something common for people wasting their money at a casino. This person was one of the two he spotted before though, another figure with their hood up. "Lord Ichiji, what are you-"

The group of three who just got out of their seats in the relaxing area turned and started for the doors of the southern entrance closer to the night club. They made it two steps before a figure dropped out of the air right in front of them and they all jumped in surprise. The girl in the center of the three stared at Ichiji in shock, and she stuttered, "M-My Lord! W-W-What are you-"

 **"Cancel abort! Execute!"**

The girl stuttering to Ichiji sighed and reached up to her blue hood. She pulled it back while giving the man in front of her who was almost a foot taller a hesitant smile. "I'd rather we talk things through," Touka Yada began. The young girl had a large chest pushing against her jacket, and her hair was long, brown, and tied into a thick ponytail by a red hairpin. As she spoke and removed her hood, Ichiji's eyes could not stay focused on her for several reasons.

There were comebacks Ichiji was about to say, threats, questions, but his head snapped up and he spun around with eyes growing wider under his glasses. Both of the hooded figures over at the slot machines had stood up and spun around, while another two people in the row that was even closer to the middle of the room but who were not wearing hoods jumped up as well. From the couch to Ichiji's left that was facing the one where these three just got up, another three stood up: the two who had taken off their hoodies before and the girl still wearing her purple one. They all shot up fast, all while the brown-haired girl in front of Ichiji was speaking. The two who had taken off their sweatshirts consisted of a blond boy who had two arms made of steel beneath fake skin under his sleeves, and the girl who he had recently started dating whose brown hair was much shorter than his falling only a few inches off her head. Maehara and Okano lifted their removed sweatshirts in their hands as they got up, but they were holding their hands in strange positions under the clothing so that the clothes looked more like weapons to Ichiji. The reason Ichiji went wide-eyed though as he confronted the big-chested teenage girl however, were all the others in the room who started reacting at that very same moment.

The four Shinra guards on the sides of the bar started moving forward, when the bartenders on both ends of the bar spun towards them while pulling guns out from beneath the counters in front of them. One of the bartenders was a tall girl with long blonde hair falling straight behind her, and she was smiling wide as she blew her cover. The other behind the counter had orange hair and pulled out two pistols instead of one, she had almost as long hair that also fell straight back, but her look turned deadly serious as she broke her bartending guise. While two of the people sitting at the bar in front of her spun back her way, as they had been looking towards the middle of the room, and then fell off their seats, one of the bar patrons himself spun around while lifting his hands and showing he had a rifle in them.

 _The bartenders-_ Ichiji started to think, before his eyes started darting back towards his own table. His eyes shifted over a different poker table where the group that had all spun towards where he landed yelled out in panic as the dealer in the center of the table pulled an automatic pistol out of the inside of his jacket. At the same time, a waiter who was walking around the high-stakes tables farther towards the north side of the room stopped staring in complete shock like everyone else around him, instead lifting up the metal top to the platter he was carrying and revealing that he had a submachine gun on the dish. He dropped the dish and top while grabbing the machine gun, and at the same time reaching for his face.

At the southern entrance of the casino, the guards heard crashing and screaming come from the main hall and they spun around. The whole group of them started running, then one turned his head sideways and began, "Move it-" _**Click.**_ The younger bouncer behind him who had a head of combed-back black hair was pointing a pistol at the other man as he turned sideways, and the older bouncer got a dart stuck in the side of his neck. He fell forward while the other two bouncers were spinning back, _**Click Click.**_ The other two guards went down, then one of the two women behind the counter just past the southern entrance reached for the phone in front of her.

The woman picked up the phone and in a frantic voice started speaking into it, "The southern entrance has- hello?! Some-" the woman looked down and saw the wire that should have been connected to the phone's connector had been disconnected. She slowly turned her head farther to the side where the other receptionist was sitting, to see the woman there she had been working with for over five months spinning around the wire in her hand while smirking at her. The panicked woman started getting out of her seat, letting out a half-yelp half-scream at the look on the other woman's face. _**Click.**_ The smirking woman dropped the wire from one hand as she stood up, looking towards the security camera above her comrade's head and pointing her gun at it. "Bang," she said, while raising her other hand and grabbing underneath her chin. She dug her fingers under her skin, wincing as it had to be tight in order to trick anyone, then she ripped her face off and kept smirking at the camera as she dropped the perfect mask of one of the CA$INO's trusted employees who never really made it into work that morning. Kirara laughed darkly while grabbing the counter and throwing her legs over it to land on Terasaka's right side.

The burly bouncer reached up and rubbed his hair, while Kirara snickered at him. "It looks better this way," she said.

"Shut it, I'm dying it back as soon as we're gone," Ryoma Terasaka snapped back. _Alright guys, hurry it up in there._

Inside the main room, the black-haired dealer at a poker table pointed his machine pistol up in the air and started unloading with a smirk spreading over his face. Anyone who did not realize what was happening yet started getting up and running for the doors, only two of which were open at the moment thus crowding those exits despite the few people in the room to start with. Two of the journalists started running with everyone else, while the world-renowned one was typing faster than ever still in his seat.

The blonde bartender who fired at the Shinra guards next to the bar fell backwards as one of the two leapt over the counter and pulled a katana on her. She had hit one, but the other had moved fast enough to dodge her second bullet fired from her silenced pistol. Rio Nakamura let out a yelp, then the Shinra slamming his sword down at her snapped back with a hole in the center of the bandages on his forehead. Rio spun her head and saw Rinka pointing one of her pistols over towards her, while firing the other still over the counter she was staring over. Rio was amazed at the orange-haired girl's accuracy seemingly without even looking, and she thought, _That's the second best marksman in the class for you._

Rio jumped up to her feet and called out, "Thanks," before planting one hand on the counter and swinging her legs over while pointing and firing her pistol in her other hand. Rio hit the floor on the other side of the bar and rolled into a stance with one knee down, and she fired at two burly men getting up from their poker game and pulling pistols from their sides. _Don't know you guys, but can't let you get in our way trying to gain favor with the Lords._ The men screamed as they were shot in the legs and brought back down, dropping their weapons as they fell.

The waiter who had watched all the initial movement in shock, only to pull out his own submachine gun from the tray he was carrying, pulled the trigger and held it down as he dragged the weapon down the lines of clones on his right. He was only halfway through the line, when he saw all the people at the center table had either focused on something else or spun around towards the half of the room where all the commotion was going on. Haku's body started morphing while he dropped his gun, and the clones charging at him came to sudden stops. Their eyes opened wide as the teenager who looked younger than most of the others starting a panic through the room transformed.

The river spirit's body morphed into a long, white dragon's. He had a mane of bluish green hair going from above his head in between his stag horns all the way down his back almost to the end of his tail which was also covered in the same fur, leaving a small gap between it and the mane. His white body was long and slender, though with a thicker darker stomach and underside, and he had four thin legs which each had four sharp talons at the end of their claws. Haku transformed into a dragon in under two seconds, and he shot off the ground towards the table while one of the clones shouted towards the strong-class clones who had all stood up from their seats but could not see behind them.

The broad-shouldered clones started turning, but Haku flew to the right of them and around the table to the opposite side as the one figure in the Sun Marines' group who he thought could give him some trouble. As that figure started turning his way, quicker than the target Haku was almost upon, Blueno got thrown out of his seat and slammed into a different table nearby that fell over as he hit it. Haku brought his eyes away from the man he threw aside using telekinesis, and his long body curved around Prodi's side as the Admiral started spinning to Blueno. Prodi's eyes opened huge as the dragon curved around him, then Haku opened his mouth and revealed his sharp teeth as he brought his head for Prodi's neck.

Gotoh lifted his right hand and Haku's eyes darted over as he saw the dealer's weapons. _This guy,_ Haku thought, pulling his head away fast. Gotoh was not aiming at Haku's head however, as if Haku were to dodge as he did, then Gotoh's attack would have hit Admiral Prodi's neck. Instead he aimed farther down on the dragon's body before flicking his thumb up twice in rapid succession. Gotoh had a handful of golden coins curled in his fingers, and each flick of his thumb sent one flying at Haku so fast that his body snapped backwards and he winced, closing his mouth full of sharp teeth.

 _Shit, there goes plan B,_ Rio Nakamura thought while ducking behind a table as the member of the Elite who had been thrown her way just got to his feet. She did not expect him to come after her if his mission was to protect Prodi, but she did not want him to see her at all. She looked up while ducked behind an empty poker table with only the dealer at it who was crouched down in the center gap. Rio's eyes focused on a point in the ceiling and she thought, _Last chance. Come on Chiba!_

Ryunosuke Chiba, the best marksman in Class 3-E, lay flat on a metal bar just off the ceiling being used as a support. It was diagonal and connected from where the eastern wall stopped extending out to the point in the center of the roof. The exterior could not look as aesthetically pleasing as it did without these supports on the inside holding the roof up. He had been watching closely everything that went on below, and as soon as Haku was thrown from Prodi, some blood splashing off as Gotoh fired his coins faster than even the dragon's scales could protect from, Chiba dropped off the steel bar. He rolled off, and his body started falling down head-first. He fell, while his feet stayed up above him. He focused his chakra on the soles of his feet and took in a deep breath as he aimed his sniper rifle down at the casino floor. He inhaled, his finger rested on the trigger, and then he started exhaling the breath he would fire on.

Everything happened in the matter of a few seconds, but Ichiji turned back to the girl right in front of him after seeing the status of the room descending into chaos. "Who are you?" He asked the girl. His right fist clenched, his expression was dark, and his spiked-up red hair dipped down a bit to shadow over his forehead and top of his eyes.

The two behind Touka Yada pulled off their hoods with their right hands while keeping their pistols raised at Ichiji with their lefts. The once class representatives of Class 3-E introduced themselves, "Megu Kataoka."

"Yuuma Isogai," the boy next to her said. He had darker brown hair than Megu's, and his spiked down after falling straight to his shoulders and back of his neck, while Megu's lighter brown hair fell in a single braid behind her down into her jacket. "Though you already knew that Lord Ichiji," Isogai continued in a quieter voice. "I don't think anyone's watching, no need to keep up appearances for appearances' sake."

Although Isogai was right, and there was not anyone within earshot who was looking towards them other than the others in Class 3-E, there was one person sitting on the other side of the couch that Isogai's best friend Maehara just got up from. That man stopped typing into his laptop and opened his eyes huge without spinning his head around.

Ichiji narrowed his eyes at the dark-haired boy who just said that and then smirked at him. _They want it to look like I had Prodi killed. Doesn't seem like something the Sun Marines would do, it's not they're style. Plus they were winning and didn't need something like this to justify attacking us, they'd do it anyway._ Ichiji's right fist tightened harder and he punched it forward at the girl closest to him who had stuttered when he first landed there. The girl went wide-eyed, and as Ichiji's fist started connecting he thought, _Who benefits from our fighting? The warlords and other brigands maybe, but to organize something like-_ Ichiji's right fist lodged in the girl's chest and slowed down as it pushed farther into her bust.

Touka's shocked look turned into a more smug one while she stared down at Ichiji's arm, then she lifted her head and looked into his eyes, "Got ya." His arm started sucking farther into her chest that had turned brown and mushy. "Swamp Swamp Capture," she whispered in an even quieter voice than Isogai used a few seconds ago, telling Ichiji that Isogai had actually been speaking louder for a purpose. Ichiji recalled the location of the journalists and spotted one still out the corner of his eyes, past a few of his assailant's comrades.

At the poker table where the dealer had started shooting up in the air (while being cautious of where on the ceiling his bullets would ultimately connect with), the black-haired fake staff member tossed his gun aside after unloading it completely. He reached up and grabbed his mask, yanking it off from under his chin to his hair that he also pulled off since his mask covered his entire head unlike Kirara's at the front desk of the nightclub entrance. Once he pulled off his face and hair, Akabane Karma smirked and jumped up on the table in front of him. Karma had bright red hair the same shade as Ichiji's, his eyes were a light orange hue, and he tossed his black jacket to the side and yanked hard on the top of his white button down to rip the first two buttons off. He smirked while making handsigns in front of him, then he leapt forward while finishing the final one, _It's not going to work! So time for Plan D, improvise!_ The "plan" he made up on the spot, became necessary as the member of the Elite twitched and rose his head before anything fired from above. Karma knew the Elite had Observational Haki, but Plan C included knowledge of that and had Chiba only setting up for the shot if Plan B were to fail, and that he would need to take it right after setting himself. It also planned on any powerful guards being out of the way at that point, but Haku's telekinetic toss did not throw Blueno far enough away.

 _Damn that Karma,_ Rio thought while popping back out from behind her table, laying suppressing fire towards the clones who were all running towards the middle of the room from the north. Rinka fired from the bar behind her, not needing to get any closer to hit her targets with her silenced pistols, and the group across the room near the slot machines started laying down fire too. Most of their weapons were silenced so the cloned soldiers could not tell easily where their enemies were all firing from, but Rio ducked down and rolled to a different table when she needed to reload anyway. _I knew when Plan A failed he would still find a way to be the one to do it._

Karma had been wearing the face of the oldest, longest-employed, and most skilled dealer at this particular CA$INO. However when he arrived at "work" that morning, his persona had been informed that he would not actually be getting to serve at the table of the delegations today. Karma had argued, as he figured the guy he was disguised as would have as well expecting a large tip from the powerful parties he had intended to serve, but he stopped arguing when his _boss_ introduced him to who would be taking his place. He already recognized Gotoh but had pretended not to, and he accepted that their original plan had fallen through and moved on to the next one. Ichiji discovered them before Haku had reached the delegation's table though, and the distance the river spirit had to cross to reach Prodi's neck gave the reason for their first plan's failure enough time to ruin their second as well with his golden coins.

Chiba fired but Blueno yelled out, "Geppou!" and got in the way of the bullet. The sniper round pierced through the Elite member's armor, but Blueno's skin was not pierced which Chiba stared at with wide-eyes behind his long dark bangs. "Tekkai, Gou," Blueno said, turning his head and glaring up towards the ceiling and the sniper on it. Chiba spun and jumped towards a point in the roof above him. He slammed the butt of his sniper up into a pre-carved loop in the ceiling, hitting it hard enough to knock it out completely even though there was a small piece previously holding it together. He reached up and pulled himself through the roof, then he tapped a button on a watch on his wrist and turned invisible, so when the jets came out of his shoes and he started flying away, none of the soldiers on either side of the casino were able to see him.

Blueno would have gave chase to the sniper, but the dragon had not given up on Plan B yet. Haku mentally grabbed Gotoh by the arms and swung them to the sides as he moved back in which was easier than throwing a powerful, prepared person with a strong aura of Nen surrounding him from his position. Haku shot at Prodi who turned and glared at the dragon, but as Prodi's fists covered in Haki themselves, Blueno dropped in front of him and slashed his left leg forward. "Rankyaku," Blueno said, as the green slash came off his leg. Haku had to yank his whole body to the side, and the kick's slash still almost cut into one of the long white whiskers sticking off of his face. The slash cut through a large portion of the ground and a few other gambling tables, as well as hitting a few of the retreating people heading out the southern door.

The entryway above the doors broke apart and Terasaka and Kirara stared at it with wide eyes from the side of the crowd running past them in the night club. Kirara looked down at her watch, while Terasaka spun towards the back doors where some Sun Marines were starting to push back against the crowd or just move them to the sides in order to rush to their Admiral's aid. "Not good," Terasaka muttered, glancing behind him towards a table that had a longer-than-usual tablecloth over it in order to hide the unconscious bouncers he had dragged beneath before everyone started rushing out of the main room.

Ichiji pointed his free hand at Touka while she tried sucking him into her body, and all the Class 3-E students around them started firing at the same time. They ignored the fact that their classmate was still there and fired, but she could take each of their bullets in stride with her Logia powers. Unfortunately, Ichiji's Raid Suit was as durable and his head moved whenever bullets coming towards his one weak point got close. His left hand opened into a palm in front of Touka, and he shot out a blast of flames at her. "I don't know who any of you are," Ichiji said loudly, though he grimaced as he doubted that would help now that the journalist had heard the one called Isogai. _I'll have to kill him too,_ Ichiji thought off-handedly, white flames erupted out of his hand and filled the entire room in the direction he was aiming.

Maehara stumbled backwards and Okano rose her arms to protect her face next to him, both of them staring in fear towards all that fire where some of their friends just were. Next to them, Hinano Kurahashi looked around with her face still shadowed over by her hood. The girl with bright but short orange hair frowned and said to the two next to her, "Let's go."

They spun to Kurahashi who had a nervous look on her face but motioned for the door in as calm and serious way as she could manage. The other two glanced back at Ichiji, then they nodded fast at her and rushed for the southern exit while shoving their half-empty weapons back into their waistbands. Maehara and Okano threw back on their sweatshirts that had hems low enough to cover their waistbands and thick enough that even the bulges of the guns would not be seen. Kurahashi kept her gun out longer and backpedaled behind them as they ran for the doors, keeping her gun aiming around at anyone who might chase them.

"Drop it," Okano whispered as she spotted Sun Marines through the southern doors. Kurahashi spun while dropping the gun, putting her hands behind her head and screaming while they sprinted into the doorway. "They're shooting at us!" She screamed as two fast and strong-looking men in white uniforms sprinted past her. Maehara and Okano found it hard to keep up their panicked expressions while trying to hold back their laughter at how convincing Kurahashi was being, as one of the Sun Marines even told her not to worry since they had arrived.

Running up to the three of them as they moved through the nightclub were a bouncer and a receptionist, with the larger member of the staff ushering the other one and then yelling at the three of them to keep moving. Kirara looked at the three she joined up with and asked while turning her head over her shoulder, "What's going on?"

"Ichiji suddenly attacked the Sun Marines," Maehara replied in a shocked and afraid voice, right as other Sun Marines were running by his sides.

Terasaka pushed on Maehara's back, "Get out of their ways. Everyone out of the building."

"Hey," Maehara yelled, turning and frowning at the larger boy who actually did push him pretty hard there.

"We need to go," Terasaka said. "This is dangerous!"

"We're doing the best we can, but it's chaos in there," Maehara called back, while turning forward again and trying to push his way out the front doors. The Sun Marines all started moving through the same doors as they were crowding out, and the teens all grimaced internally as the lack of disorder made it easier for their enemies to figure out what was really going on. All five of them were outside and running off though before any sense could be made of what was happening inside.

More and more cloned soldiers and Sun Marines were bursting through the north and south entrances, but the room was still under the control of Class 3-E. Touka was exhausted when the flames went away, but her huge muddy body shrank back down and she smiled at Ichiji the whole time. "I know, you've gotta make it convincing," she said with a small laugh afterwards, "but wasn't that going a little far? Peacock Queen isn't going to like all this property-" Ichiji decided to ignore the girl's obvious taunts, and he shot to the left where a group of teens had just ran off from. He would have chased the other assailants, but he had felt the Hakis inside of his huge flaming explosion, and none of their presences had disappeared.

Ichiji shot towards the couch the reporter was sitting on and he snapped the man's neck 180 degrees while the guy was in the middle of typing a sentence that Ichiji suspected would not have been good for him. He stomped on the computer that fell where he was about to land, shattering it while the teen assassins behind him frowned at the brutality. _Sorry,_ Touka thought towards the journalist who she felt responsible for killing after what she had just been saying.

Touka fell to her knees after thinking an apology to the journalist, and Megu ran up to her side while Isogai aimed his pistol towards the southern doors and laid suppressing fire at some Sun Marines trying to figure out what was going on. Others in their class were firing from between the rows of slot machines, but the enemies' numbers were too much and Isogai knew there was no way they were getting out through either of the main entrances anymore. The female class representative behind her male counterpart helped Touka up to her feet, and Touka mumbled in a low voice, "I hate how gross that was." The feeling of Ichiji's hand shoved through her swampy chest gave her chills. She glanced to her side at Megu who just smiled back at her.

"I think it's cute when you do that," Megu told her.

Touka's eyes widened, then when Megu looked back towards the Sun Marines rushing into the room, Touka looked away with a blush on her face. _Cute? Swamp Swamp powers? You really think so?_ Touka looked back at Megu, then she leaned off of her friend's arm and steadied herself. "I can keep fighting," she said, raising her arms and causing them to drip mud as she walked up next to Isogai.

Over at the bar, Rinka frowned towards the center table while dropping the magazines out of both her pistols. _Damn it Karma,_ she slammed her weapons down to her sides at the perfect angle that two of her extra mags slid straight into her guns. _It's been too long. Too many seconds have passed. We're at the improv stage now, but…_ She snapped her arms up and started firing rapidly at the center table, trying to hit one of the targets so the mission would not be a failure.

The man Gotoh spun her way though and started flicking his thumbs at her, firing golden coins at the girl's bullets and intercepting each one in mid-flight. Rio Nakamura ducked down as bullets and coins slammed into each other all over the place around where she was crouched behind a tipped table, and the blonde girl looked down at her watch nervously as she knew too much time had passed too.

Gotoh was flicking coins at every bullet, but he finally saw one that was not at an angle to hit any of the people around him. Instead of flicking a coin as fast as a bullet to intercept that one, he decided to stop the bullets altogether and aimed one at the orange-haired fake bartender. His coin shot towards her, then his eyebrows rose as it was her turn to intercept one of his projectiles by shooting straight into the coin. Her bullet pressed against the center of the coin and dented it in, while her bullet also crunched and flattened out against the coin that was only gold on the outsides and much harder in the middle. Gotoh kept firing his coins at her, but now they were alternating who was the one protecting themselves and others and who was doing the attacking.

 _Karma, we have to go!_ Rinka thought, as she was running out of ammo and could not tell how many coins that man Gotoh still had on him.

Akabane Karma sprinted at Ichiji with a grin on his face. He slammed his right fist forward, while Ichiji grinned back at him and slammed his own fist forward. As his hand shot forward it sparked red around his glove, and when his fist collided with Karma's, a huge explosion of flames engulfed the teenager in front of him and blasted him backwards with lightning sparking all out of it.

Karma skid back on the ground while crossing his arms in front of his chest. He panted a few times while still grinning forward, _Those Raid Suits are as good as I've heard. I still need to get past it though._

 _He's strong,_ Ichiji thought, his eyes darting to his right arm that was still vibrating after that punch. He frowned and glared towards the boy who crossed his hands over each other in a hand sign, and he created Shadow Clones on either side of him. The boy in the middle started sprinting forward while the two who stayed behind did some hand signs and yelled, "Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" Fireballs shot out of their mouths that they cupped hands to, while the Karma sprinting between those fireballs lifted up a small black hilt that he pressed a button on. A long katana extended from the hilt and he jumped up in the air, slashing it down at the Germa Lord below.

Ichiji stood there as the fire jutsu exploded around him, then he punched an arm up and broke straight through the flying slash coming at him. The force from his punch alone knocked Karma flying backwards, but the teen flipped in midair and landed on a poker table. The table leaned backwards and started falling, but Karma bounced off it and to another behind him, then he shot off that one forward while slashing his sword three more times. As he slashed it the fourth time, he had to change the trajectory and cut a poker chip instead that was shooting at him.

Rinka Hayami had leapt over the bar counter as she finished off the last of her ammo, and now she was at Rio's side asking her blonde friend for the last of hers. Gotoh had run out of his special coins that he used as weapons, but at the table in the middle of the room there were hundreds of gambling chips that were the perfect size, even if they were not as powerful as the coins he had been using. Karma got pushed back and had to start slicing up the chips flying so fast at him that even small, covered in the Nen auras that he noticed around them, they were going to hurt. _They're spinning too, probably could still rip through my skin and burrow a hole right through me._

"Karma!" Rio shouted from behind the table her and Rinka were hiding at. She noticed Germa clones in her peripheral vision to her left, and Sun Marines to her right cornering some of their other friends including both class representatives. Touka fell backwards and Megu shouted something about Kairoseki bullets, then Haku shot over with a group from the other side of the room at the slot machines on his back. He got there to get the others on his back for an escape route, but three grenades flew at them as they tried getting Touka on Haku's back. The river spirit shook everyone off him while lifting his body and swinging his long snake-like form at the grenades. He hit them back, but they still exploded much too close to him, cutting up the middle of his body and piercing him with lots of shrapnel.

Karma saw this and lost his grin. He darted his gaze around, no longer solely focused on making sure the mission was completed. _Too many haven't gotten out yet,_ he thought, seeing a high chance for casualties among Class 3-E if this continued for even a few more seconds. Ichiji was charging at him, and Gotoh kept firing without letting up. Worst yet, the other targets he was attempting to reach still, were all escaping right out the middle of the room. _Damn that, Blueno,_ Karma thought in aggravation, as the man with black hair slicked back over his head had opened a magical door that the Sun Marine officers were escaping through. Prodi was gone, and Karma grimaced as taking down Ichiji was not in the plan. _Even if the Germa lost Ichiji, it would be worse for us. Yeah they wouldn't have peace, but they'd lose one of the only reasons the Germa can still stand up to the others._

 **"Pull back,"** Karma's voice filled everyone's minds.

"We're pinned down!" Isogai called over from the corner they were all backing into, some of them dragging Haku, Megu pulling Touka back, and only a few of them still firing and using the cover around them to attack the Sun Marines. The Sun Marines were using cover too now though, and the soldiers were no longer confused as to their situation. They knew that there was a group in the corner, they knew there were two others behind a turned-over table closer to the center of the room where the enemy's strongest member was backing off from Ichiji and Gotoh.

 _Shouting anything like how he doesn't need to go so hard against us now,_ Karma thought as he considered shouting something of the sort at Ichiji. _It would only convince the Sun Marines more that we aren't on his side. We need as little confrontation with him as possible while there are Sun Marine witnesses._ Karma gave Ichiji a small nod when he noticed a couple of Sun Marines looking his way, though he made sure not to look at any of them as he did. Then he leapt backwards while making some more hand signs, but Ichiji shot towards him much faster than he was rising up. _Shit!_

"Isogai!" Megu shouted forward as she saw the dark haired boy fall backwards with blood splashing out the back of his right shoulder.

Haku was staggering up to his legs, trying to get back up as he could see how bad the situation was. _If I could fly everyone through the hole, Chiba opened up, then I could…_ Haku could barely keep his eyes open, let alone carry people on his shrapnel-riddled back while flying away.

Ichiji punched his fist forward into Karma, sending him flying all the way into the wall above the bar in a giant explosion that caused him to cough up blood this time. He hit the wall, bounced off and fell out of the explosion, and hit the floor in front of the bar. A metal drink shaker from the counter behind him fell off and landed at his side with a dink right as Ichiji landed in front of him. _**Dink.**_ Karma's eyes opened huge as he stared at the ground beneath him, one foot up as he tried to stand before his enemy. His eyes getting that huge made Ichiji freeze and snap his head to the metal shaker that just made that noise, a noise that echoed out after coming out twice as loud, and filling the entire casino main floor. _**Dink dink dink Dink Dink DINK DINK! DINK!**_

The red haired man in front of Karma lifted his hands to the sides of his head and grabbed them in pain while clenching his teeth furiously. Gotoh dropped his gambling chips and grabbed his ears, as did all the clones and the Sun Marines, and all the teens in Class 3-E who were still able to do so. Isogai stopped yelling in pain, instead covering his left ear with his still-moving left arm, while ignoring the pain in his right to try and grab his other ear. Despite all that pain though, he started laughing and smiled as wide as the other teens who were grabbing at their heads in agony. A mist fell into the CA$INO, and Blueno's eyes darted around before he stepped into his own portal using the Door Door Fruit.

 _What is this now?_ Ichiji thought angrily, glaring back at the boy in front of him who stopped being so wide-eyed, and instead leapt up in the air to disappear into the mist.

As soon as the boy vanished into the mist, Ichiji lost all signs of his presence. He spun his head towards a different table near him where two girls had been ducked behind and had called out Karma's name around the same time that the metal clinking started echoing through the room, but the two of them vanished into the mist along with their presences too. Ichiji spun around while holding his ears even tighter, but he lost the feeling of any and all of the presences of the enemies' in the building.

Ichiji heard panicked and angry shouts coming from the Sun Marines, and his own soldiers were yelling in confusion too. His eyes darkened as he glared around the mist, _A_ _bunch of teenage assassins. I won't let them all get away._ He spun and shot towards the corner of the room that he knew it would be hardest for them all to escape from quickly.

Ichiji shot through the mist and reached that corner, only to fly farther than he thought the wall was. His eyes opened wide as he exited the mist, straight outside into the street of Bludhaven to the west of the CA$INO. He looked right and saw Sun Marines lying on the ground, then turned left and saw his own cloned soldiers' bodies littered about, then he turned forward and saw three holes on the walls of three different buildings in front of him. _Covered up his tracks. Did they make those before they knocked the wall down, or did whoever just did that manage all this in a few seconds?_ Ichiji lowered his hands from his ears as the eardrum-blasting noise from behind him slowly started quieting down. _I will have to have the science division come up with countermeasures for that in my Raid Suit. For now though, I need to find Prodi._

 **30 seconds ago**

Half a minute earlier in the corner of the casino, right as the mist dropped down in the room, all the members of Class 3-E who reached their hands to cover their ears pressed buttons on the earpieces hidden in them. They had to cover their ears while the enemies could still see them, but once they had vanished in the mist, they all pressed a special button built into their headsets that immediately drowned out the echoing around them. At that same moment, the boy with the Echo Echo Fruit, the sixteen year old with bright blue hair, and the leader of Class 3-E, dropped down in the middle of them and said, "Let's go." He turned and jumped at the wall, knocking it down with a heavy punch that was impossible to hear for anyone else in the room who could only hear the high-pitched clinking of metal that was causing their ears to bleed.

Nagisa Shiota got onto the street on the west side of the CA$INO, and instantly the scattered clones on his left and the dozens of Sun Marines around him much closer (since they were near the middle but farther on the south side of the building), all spun towards him and his injured friends escaping the building. "Do it," Nagisa said right as his friends panicked and started spinning to all the soldiers around them. _**BOOOM!**_ All the soldiers about to shoot at the teens or shout asking where they came from, spun towards the three buildings to the west that exploded on different low-level floors all at the same time. **BANG!** Right after the explosions, the Sun Marine officer leading the soldiers in the area flew to the side with blood splashing out a hole in his head that ripped a chunk of it off. The officer who was too surprised by the explosions in the building to notice the shot coming was screamed towards by his soldiers, ones who became panicked at their leader's death and were not able to organize in time before other sniper bullets along with fire from the ones who ran out of the casino started mowing them down.

"Get everyone through the right hole," Nagisa said, while throwing some shuriken to his left towards the Germa cloned soldiers. He made some hand signs and said, "Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu." A few shuriken turned into a few hundred, right as Rio and Rinka ran out the hole behind him, and then Karma sprinted out and turned to Nagisa who looked back at him.

"That everyone?" Karma asked.

Nagisa nodded while looking towards the hole in the wall behind Karma. "Ten seconds left," he said. "Move, he's coming," Nagisa said in a hurried voice. Nagisa and Karma ran forward.

Karma ducked down and grabbed Haku under the stomach from the three already carrying him, calling out, "Hurry."

Sniper shots took out the remaining Sun Marines who had not run off, and there were not many of them in that position to begin with considering so many had run to the southern entrance to go help Admiral Prodi. Nagisa checked his north but he hit all the Germa soldiers in the area, leaving another possible path they could have taken. He leapt up through the hole in the building on the right, farthest south of the three buildings that had holes blown in them. As soon as he made it through the hole he spun around and stared out it towards the hole in the CA$INO. Ichiji had just sprinted through that hole and was glaring around for the assassins. He looked both ways down the street, and then closely at all three holes in the buildings.

The others around Nagisa gasped or held their breaths as Ichiji looked towards them, but his eyes shifted to the next possible location just as fast. Karma turned his head and spotted a glowing blue device on the ceiling close to the hole in the wall, and he chuckled at Nagisa's thorough preparations.

"What do we do without you?" Karma said, grinning at the leader of their class who turned back towards him with a semi-relieved look. Nagisa checked that Karma was alright, then his smile disappeared and he frowned at the redhead before turning to check on the other classmates. Karma frowned at that look Nagisa gave him before turning, but whatever it meant could wait for now.

Nagisa put a hand to his head and said, "Meet you at the evac point. Bring the shuttle over, keep engines quiet."

 **"Roger,"** a voice replied over his headset hidden in his right ear.

"Let's go, we're not safe yet," Nagisa said.

Megu got up from next to where she lay Touka near Isogai, and she said in a confused but rushed voice, "Nagisa, where did you come from? What about your mission?"

"I'll tell you when we're safe," Nagisa said and looked at her harshly, showing he meant it as he rarely ever gave his classmates that look. "Rio, save it for when we're out of here."

Rio just wrapped her shirt around Isogai's shoulder faster, then she tied it quick and then yanked him up on his feet. "Let's move people," the blonde said, pushing Isogai farther into the building before reaching down and grabbing Touka who had passed out from the blood loss. "We have to get the bullet out of her."

 _Sea Stone,_ Nagisa realized. He grimaced and said to Rio, "There really is _no_ time. We need to move, _now!_ " The others who could still move nodded at him, and Nagisa picked up one of his wounded classmates and started moving. Megu picked up Touka to carry on her back, a worried look on her face over her best friend's safety.

Karma picked up Haku who had reverted to his human form right before passing out so that it would be easier for his friends to keep carrying him, but even as Karma thought he was unconscious, he heard the river spirit mutter, "I'm, sorry." Karma ground his teeth and started running after Nagisa who led the group through the room and then across a hallway into a room on the other side that had a rectangular-shaped hole cut cleanly in the wall. There were three ropes hanging down from the opposite building, but Nagisa leapt straight out and started running up the wall while focusing chakra on the bottom of his feet.

Megu and Karma both leapt out to the other building's wall and started running up it, while Isogai grimaced but jumped to the rope and started climbing up. The others who had to leap to the ropes were moving faster, but no one below him on the rope said a word as the boy who got shot through the right shoulder had to climb using his right arm. Isogai did not let out any noise in pain though, as they were outside and he did not know if anyone was watching them now.

They all rushed up to the roof and saw the entire roof's surface was empty. It did not look like an ideal spot for a landing, as there were air conditioning vents, a stairwell sticking out of the middle, and the roof was not even level across it all. That just made it all the better for an extraction though, as who would expect one from this roof? They all felt the wind pushing down on them from just above, even if they were not able to see the cloaked shuttle hovering there. "Karma," Nagisa began as the invisible shuttle lowered in front of them. They heard a door open and a man became visible there, as did the floor and walls on the inside of the vehicle, giving everyone a good view of where the door was. Karma turned to Nagisa as they each hopped up a few feet into the doorway, and Nagisa continued, "Where is your rendezvous?"

"The others are meeting up on the hospital helipad where our shuttles are cloaked," Karma replied.

Nagisa nodded at him, then turned to the older soldier ahead of him who nodded as he saw what Nagisa wanted him to do. "Everyone on fast," Nagisa called out the door in a quiet voice, then his eyes snapped up and a pissed-off look filled his face. "Damn it," he snapped, as he saw two helicopters rising up over the casino and turning their way. Isogai leapt up onto the shuttle, but Nagisa did not slam the door shut. He grabbed the sniper rifle leaning against the door to his right, and he aimed it at one of the two choppers that just turned to face him. _Right at the missile, there!_ Nagisa fired with a loud, **BANG!** Then he grabbed the door and slammed it shut while tossing the rifle to his side.

The shuttle became invisible again, right as the third helicopter was rising up not far from the first two. One of the first two lost a rocket on its left side though, hit by the sniper round and blasting in an explosion large enough that the helicopter got pushed to its other side. The rotors on top of the chopper collided with the spinning blades of the other heli it got pushed towards, and both of them fell out of the air before crashing down in even larger explosions as their other missiles blew up.

The shuttle flew off, slowly, and the conscious and least injured of Class 3-E's students stared out the starboard side's windows towards the other helicopters lifting up and facing their direction. Their hover-ship kept moving slow, almost like they were not in any rush at all, while really they just could not speed up and risk losing stealth mode. They would stay cloaked physically as long as the system was functioning, but if they moved any faster the ship would no longer be able to mask their heat signatures, or its own.

Megu lay Touka down across a few chairs on the port side farther towards the back of the shuttle, and Rio ran over to help her out with the Sea Stone bullet. A few of the guys who had been stationed near the slot machines took off their hoods that they had kept up through the fight, and one of them pulled a mask over his face off, right before they all started helping out Haku with the bad gashes on his back that stayed even as he transformed back into a person.

"Damn, even some of the shrapnel's still in there," Juzo Honenuki said. The boy who pulled his mask off had a very distinguishable face, considering he had no lips which gave him a creepy, skull-like appearance with all his teeth constantly showing. The teen had wavy beige hair that his mask did not cover up but that he had wet down that morning, and he ran a hand through it to mess it up before helping hold Haku down while one of the others pulled the shrapnel out.

"Where's the First Aid Kit on this shuttle?" Rio asked, spinning back to Nagisa as her own supplies that she had on her were not enough to deal with Touka's injury. The shuttle was not one she had ever seen before, and she figured its design was a Cooperative one from whatever country Nagisa must have stolen it.

"Here," Rinka tossed over a capsule on the floor next to where Megu and Rio were working on Touka. The capsule popped open to show there were five First Aid Kits inside, and a few of the others looked at Rinka in surprise that she had brought so many. She darted a look towards Karma as he was one of those surprised, and her look said, 'I thought we might need them.' His eyes narrowed back at hers, but Rinka turned to the window she had been staring out of again. _Chiba, get to the hospital fast. We need to get out of here._

Turrets on top of buildings all over the city, north and south side alike, were aiming around the sky where their shuttle was flying. Karma looked out the window again, and he chuckled before saying, "Sun Marines aren't going to like that. Only way the Germa have all those turrets working, is if they were already planning something. Or a contingency at least, but Prodi won't take it that way."

"So, you think the mission isn't a complete failure?" Rio asked across the shuttle.

"Nope," Karma replied, and Rio frowned but sighed as he sounded serious about that. She looked back to Touka who they had removed the bullet from and even stopped the bleeding already. _If it had hit anything vital, I would punch you in the face right now, idiot,_ she thought towards Karma, while too relieved to do it at the moment as Megu said something about how Touka was going to be okay.

"Ramirez! Bank left," Nagisa called out.

The ship pulled to the left and lowered down, then two fighter jets with Sun Marines' symbols on their wings shot through the air where they were just flying. The wind from those jets made their shuttle wobble in the air, and then Karma's grin spread much wider as one of the turrets behind them fired up at the jets. It stopped firing after only a few shots, but the others in Class 3-E who heard the shots or saw it happen started smiling and letting out relieved sighs as well.

Nagisa kept frowning after staring back towards those planes that curved up in the air and pulled back much higher in elevation. He looked at Karma who was facing away from him, and he bit down angrily at the back of his friend's head. _Not yet._ "Everyone stay focused, here we go." Their shuttle started lowering for the hospital's roof, a roof where two turrets had popped out of opposite corners of. Neither turret seemed to have noticed the invisible shuttles in the middle of the hospital's helipad yet, but some of the people in the new shuttle lowering down towards the other two spotted a group of three crouched down on the other side of a ledge of the hospital's roof.

 _Chiba,_ Rinka thought worriedly at the sight of the boy with long dark bangs who poked his head over the ledge for a second only to duck down and start talking to the other two.

"Someone's going to see them," Isogai said, looking around behind them and knowing that soon someone would spot the three who were not in a very hidden position.

"They must not have noticed the turrets until they got up there," Rio said as she ran up to see what was going on, leaving Megu behind to watch Touka. Most of the others moved up too, leaving one of the guys behind to strap Haku in to the seats they laid him on. Rio Nakamura looked around, but the top of the hospital was too open, too flat despite the one part sticking out where the stairwell extended onto the roof. "No way to reach the shuttle without being seen by the turrets."

"And no way to stay where they are without being spotted in a minute, less," Rinka added. "What do we do?"

"Take out the turrets Ramirez," Nagisa ordered.

"Bad idea," Ramirez said back. "Every turret in this place will spin towards us. We'll never make it out of here."

Nagisa grit his teeth and looked around. The hospital was close to the southeast edge of the city, but there were still many buildings around them with turrets that had popped up onto the roofs, more that he figured could be hidden inside tall buildings behind walls that looked normal for now. "What do you think then?" Nagisa asked. "Ten seconds or we've gotta go with blowing the turrets."

"No Manami, that's us," Karma said, and Nagisa turned to see Karma speaking into his headset. "Nagisa's here with another shuttle."

 _Manami must be flying one of the other… how does she notice us? No, it must be because we're hovering right over them or something. If stealth had failed, we'd be blown out of the sky already-_

"I've got a plan," Ramirez said as he walked back from the pilot's chair to the main area of the shuttle.

He grabbed a pack off the wall, and Nagisa stepped towards him with a worried look on his face, asking sternly, "What are you doing?"

"As you said," Ramirez replied. He lowered some green-tinted goggles from his helmet over his eyes, lifted his assault rifle that he switched to grenade launcher setting, then he repeated what Nagisa told him a few seconds ago, "Take out the turrets. If I use this ship, it loses stealth and they'll blast us in a second." He reached forward and opened up the door, "Good luck." He hopped out the side door of the shuttle and dropped, firing one of his grenades right before turning on the jetpack on his back to slow his descent.

As James Ramirez slowed himself, his feet hit the roof of an invisible vehicle below him. He was still moving fast since he was not expecting to hit the ground so soon, and he had not realized they were _directly_ over one of the other two shuttles on the helipad. One of the two turrets exploded, and the other spun towards him to see him doing a forward roll off of something invisible right in the middle of the hospital's roof. As he came out of his roll though, he fired on the turret and blew that one to pieces as well. Then, Ramirez started sprinting over the roof to the opposite side as where three teenagers were crouched behind a ledge, while all three of them looked over in shock.

"Move!" Nagisa shouted down at them. Chiba hopped over the ledge and sprinted for the shuttle in the middle that threw the side door open for him and the other two running behind him. Nagisa slammed the door shut on their shuttle and started sprinting for the front, biting down so hard and clenching his eyes for a second as he sat in the pilot's chair. "Ramirez," he whispered, right as Karma was sitting on his right side in the co-pilot's chair.

"Nagisa," Karma began.

"Don't," Nagisa said in a cold, angry voice, right before he started flying the shuttle at its max speed for stealth mode towards the edge of the city.

Karma hesitated, then he frowned and lifted a hand to his ear. "Go now. Everyone else is with us on a different shuttle."

"How do you know?" Chiba asked from the shuttle he just got inside where the third person in his group made it in. He shut the door and said in a fast voice to Karma, "We have to do a head count-"

"I said now!" Karma shouted. _He's right. Some others might not have made it yet, but they have to get away from the hospital right now. Even with that guy…_

In the back of the shuttle, Rio, Isogai, and Juzo stood closest to the far back window. They stared out it and let out amazed gasps as three more turrets exploded in balls of flames on the roofs of different buildings. Glass shattered on a skyscraper near where Ramirez flew towards, right as some fighter jets shot past the side of that building and slowed to start aiming around. Ramirez had fired machine gun ammo at different windows all over the building and the one next to it though, masking which window he had dove into.

"Think he has a chance of escaping?" Isogai asked, his tone hopeful at the sight of that soldier's skills.

"Doubtful," Rio said. The blonde girl looked behind her where Rinka stood with a relieved look on her face. Rio Nakamura frowned at that relieved look. _Were the others all already in the shuttles? Did the turrets take a while to pop up, so they all managed to get inside before it? Or are those three, the only three who…_

"Just got a head count from the other shuttles," Karma called back through the shuttle from up front. "No one was left behind." As soon as he shouted it to the others, he felt instant regret from the harsh glare Nagisa gave him. As the others in the back let out sighs and sat down with exhausted and thankful expressions, Karma asked, "Who was he?"

"He _is_ , a great soldier," Nagisa said, not going to use the past tense as he was not giving up on him that easily. "Corporal James Ramirez," Nagisa said, and he said it loudly so the others in the back would be able to hear him too. Their smiles lowered down as they had heard Nagisa call the guy who leapt out of the ship before 'Ramirez.' "A Resistance member. And a good man! And he _was_ left behind."

* * *

 **A/N Thanks for reading! Class 3-E returns with an assassination attempt to keep things destabilized in the north, which will help out with Gray's invasion west if it works out. Nagisa returns, and so does James Ramirez. If you guys forgot where we last saw them, quick recap here: Nagisa went with Gray's group up towards Pyraxas but broke off at Sin City to go try and stop the Fire Nation counterattack. James Ramirez was one of the undercover Resistance agents in the Fire Nation army, the only one to survive when Ulquiorra attacked the palace. Anyway I'll put a list below for all the characters added this chapter as there were a lot of them. I hope you enjoyed!**

 **Hunter x Hunter: Gotoh**

 **Boku no Hero Academia: Juzo Honenuki**

 **Assassination Classroom: Nagisa, Karma, Rio Nakamura, Terasaka, Kirara, Maehara, Okano, Chiba, Isogai, Touka, Rinka, Hinano Kurahashi**

 **One Piece: Komei, Kong, Ichiji, Judge Vinsmoke, Blueno, Niji, Yonji, Kaku**

 **Avatar TLA: Sozin, Fire Nation, Bujing, Shinu**

 **COD Modern Warfare 2: James Ramirez**

 **Spirited Away: Haku**

 **Gintama: Peacock Queen, Shinra**

 **DC Comics: Bludhaven**

 **-Think that's all of them. If you saw someone else you didn't hear mentioned here though, let me know in the review and I'll say where they're from. (Or, you know, just google it? XD)**

Limit-Breaking chapter 113 . 4h ago

Hey nice to see this story is back, either way i have to say it was an enjoyable chapter to read so far and was pretty interesting seeing sasuke perspective and thoughts on naruto and how he felt about the whole thing.  
Not much to say except the fight was really well written and was enjoyable to read. I was going to review this when i read it a couple of days ago but i got side tracked and forgot to do a review.  
Anyway im glad your back and i look forward to reading more chapters. I also need to get caught up to your other story Death, i wanted to wait til it was completed or far ahead to fully enjoy it.

 **Yeah definitely wanted to add Sasuke's thoughts in as a new main character and not just someone who's there at the Resistance HQ. Glad you liked the chapter and thanks for the review. And I hope you do read Death, it was a lot of fun to write and I kept getting more and more into it which is why it took me so long to get back into this at all. Hope you enjoyed the new chapter!**

cyber chapter 113 . Aug 22

I like the goku vs sasuke fight cant wait to see more

 **Thanks! Once I started going with it I realized it wasn't going to be as much of a shut-down fight as I'd initially intended, and it was a lot of fun writing them battle it out. Glad you liked it and hope you enjoyed the new one!** **Thanks everyone for reading, and 'til next time!**


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